Final Fantasy IV: Batman's Dying Dream, the Prologue
Next Time: We’re still in Batman’s Dying Dream Nightmare because the next party members are annoying children. (I'll make a serious post next time, but the opportunity was too good to pass up. Much thanks to Ultratech.)
TAY: I finished Edge's Tale, so by all rights I should just move on to Edward's tale (why is Edge, short for Edward Geraldine, the only guy with a western name in Eblan? Everybody else is all Tsukinowa, Gekkou, Izayoi and Zangetsu.) but rather than be sensible, my insane FF4TAY madness kicked in so now I am grinding for cash so I can, basically, buy the Black Tail. I wouldn't waste my time, except that a Two Stars is a pretty solid sounding Accessory, and would be useful while spelunking in the final dungeon.
V: I just found out I missed Mana's Paean forever. Oh well, one song and likely one Blue Magic Spell aren't gonna kill me. I'm now making my way toward Mover's Heaven so I can grind out all the job classes. I'll probably finish the game this week, then spend next week trying to finish that Sealed Temple.
Also, I found this and thought it was proof that Amano was on crazy stuff:
Finished XIII a couple days ago. Farming Adamantoise is a bit mindless, but easier than I expected. Average about two minutes or so.
Went with the Stagger Lock weapon for Fang's ultimate. Haven't noticed the drawback, and the +900 magic is useful enough. Killed one Adamantoise as Rav/Rav before I could remember to switch. With 3000+ strength, seems like she kills anything once its staggered.
So ive been toiling through FFIII DS, and got burned twice on the fire dragon enemy thing blocking the fire crystal.
So i decided to watch a lets play of the NES version of the game, and man does it look better. Graphically the game looks pretty nice actually, better than i expected. And it plays so much faster, there aren't unecessary animations when you find a secret passage etc. Plus the characters dont look all chibi and stupid as well as bad DS 3D animation.
Ahaha, just wait until you get to the end. I had to put it down and have since played through the entirety of FF1 and FF2 plus a good chunk of FF4. (up to the Sealed Cave)
I don't mind DS 3D, but ugh those unskippable animations. Summons should ALWAYS be skippable. Unskippable cutscenes are BS too, but that may be a personal problem since I'm on attempt #6 of the endgame. :/
In some ways I think Final Fantasy 1 is the best of them all.... it's really boiled down to the basics but that's what makes it so good.... it's almost like "Here's how to play this new genre... we call it JRPG."
I played (and platinumed) XIII-2 and VI this summer.
I really enjoyed XIII and liked XIII-2 as well. I was a little disappointed that the characters from XIII didn't join your party but the battle system was improved. I think the Wounded status was a great idea and really made you want to be as efficient as possible. I normally hate games where you have to raise monsters (aside from Pokemon) but I really liked it in this game too.
I was a little disappointed by VI but maybe that's because I played it after years of hype. Most of the characters were great but I disliked how gimmicky some of them felt. I would have rather just selected skills with different charge times for Sabin and Cyan instead of a special input method. I know Gau is a top tier character but I couldn't be bothered to spend hours getting the best Rages. Relm, Setzer, Mog, and Strago just felt too gimmicky to me and I would have rather they excluded them and spent that time developing the better characters.
I felt the Esper system was one of the worst character-building systems I've used in an RPG. I'd rather they just learned new skills by level or story-related events. It was annoying having to fight the same monster over and over again just so you could have access to the best magic in your inventory, especially when you have 5 or so mages.
The final boss was still great though. And it has one of the best soundtracks in the series without a doubt.
Hahaha. Pretty much. I didn't like the first FF much. I liked DW1 and PS1 more, but that's moreso presentation-wise, and because I was exposed to FF1 a little later than DQ/DW1 and PS1.
Ultratech said:
Amazing.
That is pretty awesome you decided to take my idea and actually do a section on Moonside.
I did the Moonside pic since I was reading a LP of Earthbound at the time, but it wasn't until I after I made it that I realized the hilarity of it
with the Moon and all. lol
Though with defeating the Evil Mani Mani statue, does that mean Batman was in a dream within a dream?
Your spoiler bit is partially why I decided to do it, haha. It'd be a nice tie-in, I figured. So thanks for the idea. Batman's in a dream within a dream because he's dying and things stop making sense after a while. :lol
Speaking of, I ended up renaming Palom and Porom again and having to redo part of the Mysidia section again to keep things consistent... -_-
AHAHAHAHA DIE EX-DEATH DIE YOU RUINED MY CHILDHOOD YOUR HORRID SACK OF TWIGS DIE DIE DIE THIS IS FOR ALL THE PS1 CONTROLLERS YOU BROKE I WRECKED YOUR FACE IN FOUR TURNS!!!!!
Sorry about that. I uh, I just get emotional. Ex-Death was the bane of my childhood. I could never beat him because I didn't realize that Rapid-Fire-Dual-Wield-Spell-Blade and Mighty-Guard/Bahamut/Curaga was all I needed. In one day I managed to master all the classes I didn't have mastered, then I walked right up to Ex-Death and kicked his twiggy face in. I was in such a good mood that I let Krile live. I guess all that's left is Enuo/Omega V/Shinryu Verus then it's on to FF6!
And speaking of GREAT MILESTONES IN GRINDING! I got the Black Tail in Palom's Chapter! For those who don't know, this tail requires no RNG! It just requires approximately 200000 Gil to buy! And did I mention the most you're likely to gain in Palom's chapter is 500? And that's generous, you're average is 300 a fight. So now I have 2 of every Queen's item, the Member's Writ, the Member's Card and the VIP Card and the Black Tail!
Also, Troia, in addition to being a progressive democratic nation that requires eight women to run when every other kingdom gets by with just one man, has a serious prostitution problem. The second story of the King's Pub is already bad, but the B1 caters to some sick fetishes, and B2 and B3 just prove how far the men of the country will go to escape their female oppressors.
No, seriously, Troia is probably the most legitimately bizarre nation in FF4. Even Mysidia, which is possibly a cult to Cecil's father, isn't as wacky.
Edit: Started the big, stupid Sealed Temple. I don't know if I care enough to deal with this stupid dungeon enough to get the Necromancer, honestly. It's weird, I love V, and I love VI, and I'm crazy-neurotic about getting these damn RNG-tails in TAY, and I KNOW I'm gonna hike through that bonus dungeon at least once in VI, but I just am not feelin' it in this Sealed Temple.
Maybe it's because the place is ridiculously large and the encounter rate is beyond unfun.
So after all this time I've set out to do what mentioned in my initial post in this thread and I've started playing FF1 on PSP. I just passed the point I was originally on the NES version that kept whiping my saves, and I have to say this game is still as fun as I remember, plus the enhancements of the PSP version are nice.
I went with my typical team of
Fighter
Monk
Red Mage
Black Mage
and things have been going rather smoothly, but I didn't know how to remove stone status so I went a bit without the Monk until I googled it a bit ago. Red Mage is quite nice in this game, if only Red Mage could equip Great Swords in FFXI.
FFT - after grinding for a few hours I went back and beat Weigraf handily by abusing chameleon robes and tailwind, it was very satisfying. I'm now deep into chapter 4, just got my arse handed to me by undead Argath, it was a surprise to see him again.
I almost have my perfect team now, and I've just unlocked the arithmetician but I don't want to use him yet while I'm fighting hard battles since he doesn't have spells yet. More grinding to come! But for now I'm getting by on brute force with my pair of geomancers who are suprisingly strong with their status effects.
IV THE AFTER YEARS: Made it part way through Porom's Tale. It is my least favorite tale, because, I dunno, it's just one protracted flashback. It's kinda dull. Even the hilarity of playing a GBA game on my Wii doesn't help it.
V: Made it further into the stupid Sealed Cave. Bosses here are so cheap. I know I should be fighting to gain levels, but I just don't have the patience for it. You get attacked SO much in this place without Read Ahead. Almost to Enuo. After I beat him, I'll think about whether I care to do Neo Shinryu and Omega II and Omega V.
VI: Started this baby up. I'm on my way up Mt. Kolts now, so I'll be gettin' Sabin soon. I know I'm not gonna take the time to get all Gau's Rages, either. But it's nice playing this game again. It just feels so good coming back to it.
Type-0: Finished the Second Battle of Judecca and the Battle of the Big Bridge. What that means is
Caetuna summoned Alexander and blew a massive hole in the Great Wall of Milites, and Suzaku's forces are now full on invading Cid Aulstyne's homeland. I'd say it is safe to say his war has blown up spectacularly in his face now. Concordia is also suffering for siding with him, as Rubrum's troops have breached its outer walls and are now pouring into its country as well. Long story short: DON'T MESS WITH RUBRUM.
Ace is almost to level 99, at which point he gets to go on vacation with Trey, who has already been crashing Jack and Seven's honeymoon.
I did it! After playing for about 10 hours today, I finally completed FFT! It was a slog and the ending was busy work more than a challenge after the mad difficulty spike midway through the game, but overall I'm glad I played it. Tomorrow I'm resuming FF6, I'm hooked.
But now, sleep...
EDIT: oh shit that post-credits sequence. What the fuck??
I did it! After playing for about 10 hours today, I finally completed FFT! It was a slog and the ending was busy work more than a challenge after the mad difficulty spike midway through the game, but overall I'm glad I played it. Tomorrow I'm resuming FF6, I'm hooked.
But now, sleep...
EDIT: oh shit that post-credits sequence. What the fuck??
No, I used my own team of randoms in every battle from start to end. I was always worried about guests leaving my party and leavig my main dudes underleveled so I just slogged through with a couple of dual weild knights, some geomancers and a dnacer. It worked pretty well but it just too a little while to kill the last few bosses.
If/when I do another playthough I'll use the guests a lot more, there's so much in the game that I never touched.
Trying out FF5, already got past the big bridge, and Drakenvale, now wondering what the hell should I do. And man, does this game have lots and lots of grinding, thank god emulators have speed up processes via accelarating time.
I don't particulary enjoy the main cast, apart from Galuf. Ex-Death is also kinda generic so far. My current party Set Up is:
Bartz, Samurai, focus
Lenna, beastmaster, white (switching to white mage/time for boss battles)
Galuf, mystic knight, Red/Learning
Faris, Black Mage, Summon/Steal
Still trying to figure out how to run away from battles in the GBA version.
Last time on Final Fantasy IV: Batman’s Dying Dream, Batman got lost in Earthbound for a minute there. He had to fight Mani Mani statues and encounter weird shit like seeing his bones on display.
Today he’s going to wake up from his dream within a dream.
Because he died. For some reason there’s a sequel to all of this. I guess it’s to finally make Batman happy, and for Square to say that “he must not be forgotten”.
Mode 7 is the best mode ever.
Batman calls out his friends’ names one-by-one and realizes that he’s alone. He isn’t Squall Leonhart and doesn’t prefer being alone so now he’s all sad.
How did he wash ashore somewhere and is still alive given how heavy that armour might be?
I have to admit that this little part is sort of well-directed. Batman acknowledges that he’s alone with none of his party members to help him out. Using Cry in Sorrow on the world map helps to drive that point home somewhat. Music goes a long way.
But alas, we miraculously find a town nearby! Oh my, how convenient. We’ll just walk in, and ask people over there for help and…
Welcome back to Mysidia. We were introduced to this town at the very beginning of the game. Batman and his crew of slack-jawed yokels looted and pillaged the place looking for the crystal, took people prisoner, and killed a bunch of people.
Oh, I’m sure people have forgotten about that. This is a dream, right? Batman has full control here.
Is this Batman’s way of dreaming of redemption? Because this isn’t as fun as his Moonside dream. All we’re doing is being turned into toads randomly because mages think that’s a suitable punishment for killing, capturing, and looting villagers.
This music must be part of Batman’s dream too. Everyone here must be kooky as hell.
The best idea is not to talk to anyone, but let’s do that anyway. Mysidia NPC talk is the best kind of NPC talk.
Haaaaaahahahaha. The Black Mages go right for the jugular and the White Mages rely on making you feel all guilty. They’re not trying to avenge their fallen friends and villagers by taking Batman on in combat or trying to assassinate him with Flames of Destruction or Very Very Cold Temperatures, which is rather odd. You’d think they’d care more.
There was also a White Mage who seems shocked to see Batman and runs away every time we talked to him/her.
Oh, and in case you still don’t understand how to play Final Fantasy II US at this point, the developers decided to stick a training room in Mysidia. You know. Because they think you’re an idiot. Mystic Quest wasn’t this insulting.
Does this guy have a duncecap on or something, because Baron attacked you with airships. They didn’t come through the road because as another NPC in this town would tell us, it drains you of energy. And it would probably take a while to stage an assault from the Serpent Road. Therefore, an aerial attack is much better. No other area in the world has airships so Baron is at a huge tactical advantage here.
But I keep forgetting that this is Batman’s dream, so of course it wouldn’t make sense.
And we’ve all played Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, right? We know exactly how much of a disaster the Serpent Road/Devil’s Road is.
Oh, how adorable. They even have their own propaganda posters!
Batman must be worn out. Let’s get a drink. I could go for some Smirnoff’s right about now.
Asshole! I hope that was free! And just a little bit of poison? Man, how polite of you.
Maybe looking at a dancer would make us feel better.
So the dancer was really an old woman in disguise who acknowledges that Batman is a wretched pig and turns him into a pig. I wonder if this is what Batman truly thinks of himself as.
Make up your mind, game Batman’s Dream. Do you guys wish for things in here, or do you pray for things? Gaw…
How philosophical, a nature versus nurture debate. And a question of whether or not one should forgive another based on the gravity of his or her actions. Let’s play this game instead. But since the Elder forgives Batman, then maybe should talk to him!
This almost sounds like Batman never had a pair to begin with. At least the Elder seems like a patient guy who isn’t out for blood. But the entirety of Mysidia seems like that anyway.
Batman tells the Elder his sob story about how he’s fighting Golbez “who is the mastermind of Baron.”
A girl was captured. So we were on our way to Baron for her rescue but we were attacked by Leviatan… and…
Like we were when we were killing, capturing, and looting villagers? Really, Batman should have been punished and thrown into prison or something by now. These guys can wield magic. They could take a Batman without a Darkness attack on.
At first you must climb Mt. Ordeals and renounce this evil sword and gain the sword of sacredness. The one who can accept the holy light is called a Paladin. It is the sacred knight. Many went to Mt. Ordeals to be a Paladin, but none returned. Will you try?
Yes!
But it would be hard for you alone with your Dark Sword. Take Wizards with you.
Children? You’re giving me children? And they don’t seem as cool as Clair! Man, this is just like the time we got out Mist only our allies aren’t as cool.
This is going to be a complete disaster isn’t it.
Batman, this is a shitty dream, you know.
Well. Aren’t you a little courteous sugarplum fairy?
‘Sup, dawg?!
The Elder gave the man who invaded his town, stole the crystal, killed a bunch of people, looted a bunch of places, and captured some villagers two 5-year-old kids to tag along on his adventures.
For some reason, I think this might be adequate punishment.
Oh. Hey. Do you guys wanna see something cool? Here’s Palom and Porom’s Nintendo Power artwork.
Oh, and I like how everyone’s NPC dialogue changes after this scene.
Bahahahaha. You know what? Mysidia’s alright. At least they exhibit some form of logic in Batman’s dying dream. Look at how many fucks they give for Batman. This is some form of execution and I bet Palom and Porom have to report back in order to tell the Elder that Batman finally died.
You know, even though I make fun of Palom and Porom, what the Elder said is true: appearances can be deceiving. It’s too bad that both characters sort of got somewhat gimped in a Yang/Edward sort of way in that some abilities are missing. We’ll get into that later on.
Palom and Porom use staves and rods for physical attacks. This means we’re not going to let them physically attack. What’s good, though, is that we can use their weapons as items for MP-less attacks.
If we’re talking about black magic and white magic exclusively, I’m of the impression that Palom is definitely one of the better black mages (until you get to people who can counter spells). He has high intelligence, access to Bluff (which can stack), and higher HP than Rydia. Thus he is one of my staple characters to use in A/CC. Though to be fair, Rydia gets better stat growth post Level 70. Porom, on the other hand, gets easily outclassed by Rosa despite her access to Cry.
They also level up very very quickly, and learn spells faster than either Rosa or Rydia. I have this thing where I make absolutely sure that both of them are alive at the end of a fight so they can be at the same level with the same experience. These kids make Tellah look like the worst mage in the world. And Tellah is certainly the worst mage in the world. I personally like taking them around with me in FF4A/FF4CC.
I also have to mention that Palom is a member of the Super-Duper Left-Handers Association (I’m being as unbiased as possible, I promise ). Because of that, Palom is cool like Kain. Oh, and Golbez is evidently left-handed.
Mysidia’s shops are basically the best shops in the world right now. We get the mythical Cure2s and Cabins. We also get a bunch of good equipment for non-Dark Knight people, which means we’re going to upgrade Palom and Porom’s equipment pronto.
There isn’t any point in upgrading to a bow/arrow set for anyone because we’re just going to waste them. Buy Porom a Cure staff and we can cast Cure for free any time we want. Buy the FlameRod for Palom to complement the IceRod for free Fire/Ice casting.
We’re also going to purchase that Paladin armour set. Just in case we actually get to come back to Mysidia. Why the heck is it so expensive? Batman, you can control this.
Oh, and let’s change their names too. Something unoriginal.
When I bought my used copy of the game in my youth, the previous owner named them DINK and DUNK. Might as well follow the same trend. Kind of.
If you can’t slam with the best, you gotta jam with the rest.
Let’s go toughen them up a little bit. By the way, Palom (Slam) has green clothes and a red cape. Porom (Jam) has red clothes and a green cape.
Right, so Slam and Jam have Black Magic and White Magic respectively. Poor Slam, though. He got the short end of the stick in this version. He no longer has access to Bluff. Jam no longer has access to Cry.
Bluff was originally a skill that enhanced Intelligence, and thus you were able to power up spells with it. Bluff can stack, and therefore, he can cast potentially hard-hitting spells. In the DS version, Bluff only lasts for at the most two turns.
Cry was a skill in other versions that allowed the party to run away from battles and therefore it was useless. In the DS remake it’s more useful because it cut enemy defense by 50%. This is a better thing an allowed for an advantage. I hate running from battles, so this was the better move. In FFCC, Cry had a chance of letting you inflict confusion on enemies.
Jam starts off with more HP than her brother because she has a higher Vitality stat than him. But usually White Mages have a higher HP stat than Black Mages. It’s weird.
This is the Twin ability. Well, one of them anyway. I didn’t get the other to trigger but I might get it done next update. This is the Comet spell being triggered. It costs 20 MP, and it’s the stronger of the two. Er, actually, Comet should be the spell that’s encountered infrequently as it’s the one with the 25% of being cast. I must have gotten lucky or something. Comet also ignores spells like Reflect.
The other spell, Flare (or Pyro/Pyroblast in other versions) is weaker, costs 10 MP and it’s usually picked 75% of the time. Flare doesn’t ignore Reflect, so you have to be careful here.
The Twin command initiates whenever you select it for one twin, and the spell begins being cast when both twins aren’t busy (so it waits for a twin to finish his/her turn prior to starting). It will fail if a twin is knocked out, muted, petrified, or lacks MP. You risk some stuff in casting a twin spell. If you cannot use Twin at all, the command will be greyed out.
In the GBA version, you can equip the Twin Stars on them which will allow them to use Twin Meteor, which is a spell we’ll see later on in the game. It’s stronger than Comet and takes no MP to cast, but the cast time is rather long.
In the DS version, if you equipped the Twincast Augment on people, you can cast certain spells. For example: Bubble can be cast by Kain and Cecil/Rosa. Faith can be cast by Rydia and Cecil/Rosa. Ultima can be cast by Cecil and Rosa. Bravery can be cast by Edge and Cecil/Rosa. Therefore, it would be a good thing to try to get the Twincast augment on a lot of people.
Twincast also appears in The After Years, but it occurs as a Band Ability there. In the flashback, you can cast Comet or Pyro. In the final chapter, you can cast Twin Firaga, Twin Flare, Twin Meteor (very rarely), Twin Blizzaga, and Twin Thundaga.
By the way, did I mention that Batman’s Black sword has a chance of instakill instaswoon? Those enemies are swooning over Batman’s ability to strike at things with accuracy. It’s hot.
Next Time: Let’s go to Milon’s Secret Castle.
This is my first time seeing this thread, and even though I literally just beat FF4 DS a couple weeks ago, Dark Schala's posts have gotten me to subscribe.
Oh MAN, Dark Schala, I forgot how awful those old Nintendo Power Artworks were. Stuff belongs in Terada's ultra-dark Zelda comics, not in Final Fantasy.
Updates:
VI: Just told Banondorf that I don't care how many times he asks, unless he gives me the Genji Gloves, I don't want to join the resistance. Also, is Terra the most hyped protagonist or what? Seriously, Edgar flat out yells at Bannon for laying on thick when he says that Terra is the only hope the entire world has, but then again, Edgar tells Sabin that "a means" of resisting the Empire has presented itself. That means being Terra. She's so important to the Empire that they're willing to send Kefka to get her, and I think Gestahl knew only too well what Kefka would do to Figaro if they resisted. Then there's the constant reminders of the fact that, in a semi-comatose state, Terra murdered fifty men in under three minutes. Oh, and Strago saying she's "More than Magic" the fact that she breaks a seal that the Elder of the Espers claims cannot be created by any other than himself and cannot be broken from the outside by anyone.
Like, seriously, Terra has a LOT of hype surrounding a girl who has no idea what basic human emotions are.
Type-0: Queen, Nine, and Ace have come along to crash Seven and Jack's Level 99 Honeymoon, putting the tally at just under half the class maxed out. In the mean-time, Rubrum's forces have poured over Milites' fields and cities like grape juice over your mother's fancy white table cloth. I can only hope that the High Commander is really sweating in his city, because he sent out a goddamn giant crab magitek armor to stop my army, and ONE MAN WITH A BOW AND ARROW BLEW IT UP. You're out-classed and in over your head, Cid. GIVE. IT. UP.
I really like Cids as villains, by the way. For so long in the series they've been cast as kind, grandfatherly figures, that it is refreshing to have their genius bent to evil ends. Cid Aulstyne leading the Milites Empire, Dr. Cid Bunansa of Archades, and most of all Cid
Lufaine, striking a deal with Shinryu to use the souls of the heroes as a means of turning his son into an unstoppable killing machine to exact revenge on the Lufaine for ruining his life.
I mean, kindly old men are great and all, but nothing adds to a story like turning Doctors and Gods into absolute monsters.
This is my first time seeing this thread, and even though I literally just beat FF4 DS a couple weeks ago, Dark Schala's posts have gotten me to subscribe.
Oh MAN, Dark Schala, I forgot how awful those old Nintendo Power Artworks were. Stuff belongs in Terada's ultra-dark Zelda comics, not in Final Fantasy.
Like, seriously, Terra has a LOT of hype surrounding a girl who has no idea what basic human emotions are.
Well, at least she seems to matter for half of the game until Celes takes over...
Let's look at more Terada artwork. The final ones will make their debut in the next entry and maybe a few entries after when I introduce the relevant characters then! Welcome to hell, ladies and gentlemen. It looked cool and awesome for the Zelda stuff, but here it looks odd.
Rydia (Clair)
I don't know how Terada got this out of the original artwork.
Please, Celes matters for like, ten minutes in FF6. Freaking Terra is such a boss. Like in Dissidia, when she yells at Kefka and scares him. We're talking a guy who works for Chaos, who can and does single-handedly defeat all the Big Bads in the series, and just laughs the whole time. Then Terra yells at him and he is SCARED.
Also, I've had a couple of serious nightmare fuel moments in Porom's Tale.
1) Porom refers to Kluya as "The Father of Magic". The DS version also supports this, saying this man taught the people of the Blue Planet about Magic and Science.
So Mysidia exists as cult or religion of people who follow or revere Cecil's father. But that doesn't make sense chronologically, since Tellah and Elder were travelling the world as young men, and should have had magic then, and I thought Kluya was younger than that.
So basically, here's what REALLY happens in FF4's back-story:
A) Kluya descends from the Heavens to the Blue Planet and brings Science and Magic with him, advancing the otherwise benighted people of the Blue Planet. Airships, The Tower of Bab-il, and all the technology thereof are created at his behest. CECIL'S FATHER BUILT THE TOWER.
B) Mysidia is founded by Kluya's foremost magical disciples, Tellah and Elder, while his technological advancements are upheld by his disciple, Cid. Do you see where this is going? Because at some point, Kluya and his wife Cecilia flee Baron because King Odin fails to protect them from the movement which has sprung up against Kluya.
C) Troia's Epopts are excellent users of White Magic, judging from Palom's tale, so it's fair to say that they must also have learned from Kluya. So Mysidia, Baron, and Troia are vastly different kingdoms because of Kluya's coming.
All of this makes sense, of course, since FuSoYa, who is the appointed guardian/leader of the Lunarians charged his brother with advancing the society of the Blue Planet so that the Lunarians could dwell among them. It DOES, however, cast Zemus in an entirely different light. I mean, think about it, it's all well and good that Kluya is frittering away the very knowledge which destroyed the Lunarians among the Humans, but he also shacked up with one of their women and, at some point, died and lost contact with them. Meanwhile, there's FuSoYa, sitting on his throne, doing NOTHING, and Zemus is awake and aware, but immobile in his little chamber. He knows that the men tasked with finding his people a new home have just failed them completely, totally, and utterly, and there is NOTHING he can do about it. Is it any wonder he grew to hate them?
So horrifying realization 1) is that Kluya is revered as a prophet/God on the Blue Planet and 2) is that Zemus had good reason, if not total justification, to do what he did. 3) is about Creator.
Look at Creator's sprite. Look familiar? HE'S A PUPU. The most powerful, intelligent, advanced being in the world of FF4, and the one who has waited with Lavosian, Jenovian hunger for the right day, is one of those cute little aliens from FF8.
Ahaha, just wait until you get to the end. I had to put it down and have since played through the entirety of FF1 and FF2 plus a good chunk of FF4. (up to the Sealed Cave)
I don't mind DS 3D, but ugh those unskippable animations. Summons should ALWAYS be skippable. Unskippable cutscenes are BS too, but that may be a personal problem since I'm on attempt #6 of the endgame. :/
Yeah I played through the ds game a couple years ago up to the last dungeon and gave up. I was pretty bored through the whole game anyway.
Remembering that I thought I tried it again. But the ds graphics look even worse now., and it's do slow.
Wish they'd make a nice 2d remake like they did for ff2 with snappy and fun game play. Just cuz the story is garbage doesn't mean it can't be fun. Prob is the ds version tries to make it more story passed but it just fails hard
Yeah, but this is Final Fantasy. Gunblades, Caius' ridiculous surfboard-sword, fishing-pole stick, bow-sword, whatever is going on with Noel's spear-sword. Impractical is this series.
Yeah, but this is Final Fantasy. Gunblades, Caius' ridiculous surfboard-sword, fishing-pole stick, bow-sword, whatever is going on with Noel's spear-sword. Impractical is this series.
Yeah, but this is Final Fantasy. Gunblades, Caius' ridiculous surfboard-sword, fishing-pole stick, bow-sword, whatever is going on with Noel's spear-sword. Impractical is this series.
So, all told, while big swords have ALWAYS been a thing in FF (Ragnarok in FFV is as big as Bartz). We have: Terra's lightsaber, Cloud's Buster Sword, Squall's Gunblade, Tidus' water-sword, Lightning's gunblade, the gunblades in Dirge of Cerberus, Machina's Drill Swords, Caius' laughable Surfsword, anything else? Oh, Sora's KEY SWORD.
And these are just the swords, mind you, nevermind the joke weapons, like Pizza, mops, ladles, bats, umbrellas, PURSES, and all.
For anyone else who plans to play Final Fantasy 1 in the future, be sure to stock up on potions when you start reeling in gil. Also, after you beat a boss, make sure you walk into the circle, I thought it was a background on the PSP version and I nearly went back to climb out of the second dungeon the long way.
Other than that, still enjoying myself. So many random battles, and it appears Monk (Black Belt) is rather low tier.
I quit FFV. I beat Ex-Death, but I don't have the patience for Enuo. Flipping, I'm slinging Elixirs every turn, spamming Quick Bahamut, and Flare-Sword and you STILL get to pull the immense bull-crap of killing me in a single turn by casting Meteor after you've already cast Gigaflare? Oh, no, I don't have the patience for that. I don't have any further interest in marching down there, fighting the goddamn Guardian again, just to do a fight that's basically Neo-Ex-Death all over again.
So here are my final stats for FFV. I may come back to it some day, but I'm done with it for now, and I consider my promise to fight the Super-Bosses upheld, since I DID tackle Omega and Shinryu.
Bartz: Level 47, Freelancer, all jobs except Necromancer mastered. HP3240/MP406. 111 Abilities, STR62,AG46,STM61,MAG66,ATK285,DEF46,EVA0%,MDF5. Attack/Spellblade/RapidFire
Lenna:Level 46, Mimic, All jobs except Necromancer mastered. HP3008/MP411. 111AB, STR51, AG44, STM51, MAG67, ATK196, DEF38, EVA0%, MDF10. Mimic/Dualcast/Time/Blue.
Krile/Galuf: Level 47, Mimic, All jobs sans Necromancer. HP3126/MP415. 111AB. STR51, AG51, STM50, MAG64, ATK165, DEF33, EVA0%, MDF23. Mimic/Dualcast/Summon/White.
Faris: Level 47, Freelancer, all sans Necro. HP3202/MP411. 111AB. STR65, AG51, STM57, MAG67, ATK268, DEF35, EVA0%, MDF4. Attack/Spellblade/RapidFire.
TAY I have enough Bronze tails to get a Gold tail. They're easy to get, but mind-numbingly boring to acquire, so I'm just getting the one Gold tail and moving on. Now Edward, Harley, and the three guards will do the stupid water dungeon for like, the fifth time this game, so I can reach Kaipo and get on with my life. Because, you know, seventeen years later, we don't have a hovercraft, or Cecil never bothered to bring it back from Eblan.
VI I'm in Sabin's scenario. Just got Shadow, so it'll be a little bit before the War in Narshe. But the other scenarios are done, so we just gotta make it through Sabin's.
1) Porom refers to Kluya as "The Father of Magic". The DS version also supports this, saying this man taught the people of the Blue Planet about Magic and Science.
So Mysidia exists as cult or religion of people who follow or revere Cecil's father. But that doesn't make sense chronologically, since Tellah and Elder were travelling the world as young men, and should have had magic then, and I thought Kluya was younger than that.
Wait, I think you're thinking about this too much with too much logic because I don't think they intended you to focus on it with logic. They make you take things at face value! You should do what I do: think of everything in TAY and some of FF4 DS as fanfiction. Because some of the additions are good, and some of the additions are out-of-place.
And aw, it's too bad you quit FFV. :/ I bet it's cuz you hate Krile!
Ugh, I was thinking of posting those to introduce the characters with when I started this playthrough, but then I realized that I just don't like the SD art much. I'll probably post the rest of them later on.
That's interesting, I didn't know that. Got a pic? I just assumed, what with the beads and the feathers and the flowing hair and tight fitting bodice, Caius just wanted to make sure that his weapon was fashionable too. ;-)
Somewhere, in some dark corner of the internet (Tumblr) someone has written crackfic involving the sword earrings and LightningxCaius and god knows what else...
That's interesting, I didn't know that. Got a pic? I just assumed, what with the beads and the feathers and the flowing hair and tight fitting bodice, Caius just wanted to make sure that his weapon was fashionable too. ;-)
Wait, I think you're thinking about this too much with too much logic because I don't think they intended you to focus on it with logic. They make you take things at face value! You should do what I do: think of everything in TAY and some of FF4 DS as fanfiction. Because some of the additions are good, and some of the additions are out-of-place.
And aw, it's too bad you quit FFV. :/ I bet it's cuz you hate Krile!
I thought I was over thinking it, but no, Harley confirmed my suspicions in a conversation with Edward aboard his boat. Kluya brought Science and Magic to the world of FF4. Every major civilization owes its advances in part to Cecil's father. Which makes everything about what Zemus did super awesome, but everything else super weird. Freaking Kluya's sons waged war on civilizations which Kluya himself BUILT.
Like, with Mysidia, it makes a terrifying amount of sense. Why would the mages be there, when there was nothing else on that continent? Why? Because that's where Kluya landed. Mysidia grew around Kluya's landing place, and was the mecca of the magic he began. Since Summoners are native to the Blue Planet, it can be assumed that magic was around there, but it did not become widespread until Kluya's day. Indeed, when you think about it, magic was very primitive until his coming. Summoners needed to make pacts with Eidolons to use magic, while Kluya's magic was clearly a well laid out science, with transcription of spells, magic organized into categories and classes and so on.
And then Troia likely was always a very spiritual place, but the Epopts, who have no shame in learning things from other states (since they had Leonora learn black magic) would have been eight of Kluya's followers. Elder and Tellah would have traveled the world, teaching the Gospel of Kluya, bringing people to see him in Mysidia, and sharing his magic and science with others as they went. The only reason this isn't right is because the Water Crystal was in Mysidia. But then again, it's possible that, like Troia, the Crystals were in other, more secluded places until Kluya gathered them.
Baron would also be a logical civilization founded by ANCIENT ALIENS, since it has mages and engineers who all practice his art, and Cecilia, Kluya's wife, was known personally to its King.
So Kluya lands on the Blue Planet, finds that Zemus is right, and that the children of the Blue Planet are all worthy to be destroyed, but instead he devotes his life to civilizing them. He builds Baron and Mysidia, and strengthens the likes of Troia. And he does all of this when Tellah and the Elder were young, as it must have been long enough ago that by the time Harley speaks of the origins of these things with Edward, they've fallen into myth and rumor.
How long do Lunarians live?
And I'm sad I had to quit FF5, too, but it was driving me nuts. That bonus dungeon is an exercise in tedium, and it isn't fun having to fight two superbosses back-to-back only for one to cheat to win. Like, Enuo used GIGAFLARE which ignores reflect et all, right after he'd used Almagest. So I thought for sure it was MY turn. So I told Krile to dualcast Arise and figured I could keep going from there.
NOPE. HE USED METEOR. Like, I mean, COME ON. He couldn't even use something that I could hope to survive?
My annoyance with Kain's spear in that pic is that it looks more like a tool than an actual weapon. Plus, it's not hard to draw a spear, so it confuses me why he drew that thing.
And I'm sad I had to quit FF5, too, but it was driving me nuts. That bonus dungeon is an exercise in tedium, and it isn't fun having to fight two superbosses back-to-back only for one to cheat to win. Like, Enuo used GIGAFLARE which ignores reflect et all, right after he'd used Almagest. So I thought for sure it was MY turn. So I told Krile to dualcast Arise and figured I could keep going from there.
NOPE. HE USED METEOR. Like, I mean, COME ON. He couldn't even use something that I could hope to survive?
Eh...he's not super horrible. Or maybe I was too good at FFVA.
Anywho, buffs, Quick-abuse, and not using Rapid Fire (he's got two dummy targets I think...guess what you hit most of the time using Rapid Fire?) will definitely help. Jump too with uber spears and whatnot. Blue Magic is also your friend.
Not to mention if you picked up any of the uber equips in the Bonus Dungeon, they help a LOT.
My annoyance with Kain's spear in that pic is that it looks more like a tool than an actual weapon. Plus, it's not hard to draw a spear, so it confuses me why he drew that thing.
Eh...he's not super horrible. Or maybe I was too good at FFVA.
Anywho, buffs, Quick-abuse, and not using Rapid Fire (he's got two dummy targets I think...guess what you hit most of the time using Rapid Fire?) will definitely help. Jump too with uber spears and whatnot. Blue Magic is also your friend.
Not to mention if you picked up any of the uber equips in the Bonus Dungeon, they help a LOT.
Maybe I'll march down there with a party of all Mimics and Quick-Bahamut his ass off, but physical attacks are so out. Busted my chops dying partway through the fight without getting the chance to save after Guardian.
EDIT: NOPE. Fucking bastard can use Almagest 3 times in a row. I'm sorry, but an attack that does 4000 damage should not be something you get to spam. Fuck Enuo, fuck this dungeon, fuck it. I beat FFV, I beat Omega and Shinryu, fuck modern day JRPG programers who think "challenging" means "fucking cheap spam shit."
I'm still plugging away at FF6, and I'm still amazed by it at every turn. I just finished the Magitek Research Facility and now have the badass airship under my command, so cool. I'm starting to dig Kefka as a villain, it's clear that his is actually insane, not even just misguided or driven or a demon, he's just a powerful nutbar. Kinda neat.
The story is keeping me interested more than the combat so far, it can get a little repetitive just spamming Fire Dance and Bolt at the baddies. But I do really like the way combat works, the secondary abilities are a cool addition that I've not seen in other games before, especially using the dpad movements for Blitz, that's really smart and make the combat feel much more active. But there's still a lot of it, and once you have a good strategy it's often just rinse/repeat. Still, the plot moves quickly enough and is varied enough to keep me interested. I need to know what happens next - Celes can't be a traitor.... can she?? Dun dun! (of course she's not...)
Today, we’re going to climb a mountain of zombies to get the Almighty Purple Hair.
Welcome to Mt. Ordeals. It looks boring, and really it’s a pretty short dungeon. But first let’s get the obstruction out of the way.
What the heck is up with the mountains in this game? The first one was blocked by ice, and this one’s blocked by … fire? Ok. If there were a third mountain, it would probably be blocked by an earthquake or a bolt of lightning and then we wouldn’t get very far, now would we?
Jam is just as much of a brat as her brother. Physically assaulting someone with a POW BLOCK just for being excited about accomplishing a task. And we thought she was supposed to be the level-headed one. Nope.
How the hell did I get myself into this? I bet we’ll be stuck here somehow. Man, I wish I had a brother to goof around with, or to push me around, or to push around when I was still alive. Oh well. I don’t have a big brother. If I did, he’d be thinking of me and what hardships I’d have to endure.
Hey look, it’s Golbez’s hideout. He’s in the Technodrome or something. He decided to restrain the Beer so that no one, except himself and Tommy, may have access to it when needed. And if things go awry, he’ll smash it with a giant bowling ball.
Oh, and he somehow manages to know what Batman’s doing at this precise moment in time.
Milon? Is this a Hudson game now? Oh, God, no.
Right, that’s Milon. We’re not going to play a crappy game. Yet.
Oh, yes, his name is Milon now because of a character limit. They could have called him “Scar”, but Milon is intended to be short for Scarmiglione, I guess (and if you’re not familiar with the term from Dante’s Inferno, it’s hard to spell). Scarmiglione means ‘troublemaker’, or if we were talking about Italian, I guess it’s derived from the verb scarmigliare (to dishevel, to ruffle, to scramble, to scratch, etc)? Oh, and uh, one of the theories of the origin of the word ‘scramble’ is that it originates from scarmigliare (though most of the literature I’ve read suggest that it comes more directly from German (schaben) and Old Norse/Proto-Germanic).
This is true. You’ll notice that whenever you attack Zombies and the like with any of Batman DKnight’s swords, you’ll only be able to inflict 1 damage to them. If you unequip Batman and have him fight barehanded, he’ll make out … not well, but just ok.
Golbez knows this all too well, and thus, like the mastermind that he is, he decides to throw Milon and his legion of the undead at him to make him die for good. Batman must be feeling at a very low point to make this part of his dream.
It’s become less interesting, actually. And it’s going to get even worse.
I get that you respect Batman, but fuck Batman. He’s a loser! You can do better without him!
Golbez
How dare Tommy be so insolent towards Lord Zedd! And Golbez is right—Tommy screwed up last time when he encountered Beer because he missed the alcohol too much. Tommy would have screwed up again if he were tasked with defeating Batman. Therefore, he’s been demoted and stripped of his rank. Guarding the precious sugar precious Beer is the best task for him.
And we’re back. Boy that took a long time, didn’t it. It’s almost as if Batman were waiting for that entire thing to finish because he was conscious of it.
While we scale the mountain, we run into goons that we ran into from the Watery Pass and Mt. Hobs. You know what that means: that sweet sword you have that can make enemies swoon in one hit? The undead don’t find it sexy enough, so they’ll only take 1 damage.
The Skeltons/Red Bones might be partially impressed by the blade and take normal damage.
Oh, this is the game’s way of making the story relevant to the gameplay, by the way. It’s trying to show you that the power of darkness is useless against some things.
You are lucky that you’re carrying around some pretty cool mages, though. Jam uses her Cure wand for a free heal every now and then, and Slam can slam into enemies with a fire spell. It makes things extraordinarily easy. The only guys you have to watch out for are the Spirits and Souls. They absorb fire, so if you find yourself in a group with them, use another spell.
I have also finally captured Flare, so there you go. Flare isn’t a bad spell, but it’s better to use on single enemies than multiple.
Oh yeah, and on our way up, we get to meet dead weight an old friend.
Apparently Abe is popular even though he doesn’t seem to deserve it at the moment. He’s what you’d call “washed-up” and the 5-year-old twins make him look like crap. Unless he’s famous for being absolutely terrible at his job…
Should’ve let your brother speak, Jam. Again with the damn POW blocks.
I also find it funny that before, Slam didn’t know who Batman was (the guy who came to loot, kill, and capture villagers to find their village’s beloved crystal), yet he knows exactly who this washed-up excuse for a mage is? Abe must be really famous.
Abe seems awfully unimpressed and unsurprised that Batman’s escorting children yet again through a dangerous area. And I guess he might be bitter that the little 5-year-old kids are better at magic than he is. Oops.
Batman then tells Abe his sob story about how he got here, and how he let a giant dinosaur eat Clair, how he let Bolton fall down really really hard that it hurt, and how he let a Karate drown. Also, he talks about how he misses Beer. A lot.
Upon mentioning Beer.
TEE HEE. BATMAN HAS COOTIES.
And I cannot defeat Golbez alone with my spells alone. I’ve been seeking the magic of legend, Meteo. I felt a strong power from this mountain.
I am showing this screenshot because Jam can be just as rude as her brother. (She isn’t as blunt in other versions, mind you.)
Additionally, Slam can learn Meteo. If we were being crazy, I’d max him out and have him learn it just to shove it in Abe’s face. Or, we could use Twincast and use the weaker version of Meteo, which is Comet.
Yes, I’m old. But no matter the price, I must avenge my daughter!
Wait, wait… aren’t you kids? Why are you here, then? (The dialogue makes it quite ambiguous to what they’re referring to, but I assume it’s Batman and Abe’s current predicament in their fight against Golbez.)
I came here to be a Paladin. My dark sword cannot defeat Golbez…
I’m now officially questioning Slam’s self-proclaiming that he’s a genius.
And I’m quite sure that Abe has simply gone mad at this point. Surely Golbez can’t be the source of all evil. He can’t be the reason for war, murders, famine, etc…
NO, DON’T! My precious EXP!
Abe, despite gaining a few levels, sucks even more now. Remember how I said his stats go down when he levels up?
Yeah, this is a shot of his stats from earlier in the thread. Look at how shitty his stats are at Level 25. And he still has 90 MP. Useless. Strip him of his gear too because he won’t need it.
This can’t be good.
Abe is the worst character in this game stat-wise. He was never good (arguably, he might have been good before in the Watery Pass depending on how you levelled Clair up, but we’d killed him off then too). Jam can heal us, Slam can cast Tier-2 magic spells. We had a Karate who could smack shit down, a Spoony Bard who could remove himself from battle (and in the GBA version, smack things around while he was in hiding if we cast Berserk on him), and Beer… well, she’s Beer.
Much better. We don’t have Abe eating up our EXP, and Slam can take things out in one Fire2. Perfect. Liliths are rare encounters, by the way. I’m surprised I got one when I wasn’t looking for it. She can inflict sleep, and she can counter with Slap which causes Mute.
Here’s Abe’s Nintendo Power and SD Art, btw.
I think the SD art looks better. WTF is up with that Terada art, though. It’s like he’s a statue. He has no colour. Just old and gre--hahahaha. I see it now.
I think Jam overreacts to things, to be honest with you.
Oh yeah, there’s a save point over here. You know, just in case you want to save and sleep there while the mountain’s crawling with the undead, and you’ve got a steep drop below you.
I heard that’s what the kids are into these days. Speaking of kids…
Haven’t levelled them up too much, but Slam’s on the verge of learning Virus. That’s cool!
IT MUST BE GOLBEZ, RIGHT ABE?!
I think the hissing might have been Milon getting his teleportation magic to work out. He doesn’t seem like he’s a snake or anything.
So you can probably tell that Milon isn’t as threatening as he seems. Batman can’t lay a finger on the Ghasts, but he can certainly hurt Milon. Let Slam take care of the Ghasts with a trusty Fire2, and he and Batman can take care of Milon himself with a physical attack and a Fire2.
It’s worth noting that Milon counters every attack with a Lit-1 aimed at random people, but it doesn’t do much damage anyway!
He complains about his body melting into purple goo at the end.
You know, that fight kind of ended anticlimactically. We should do some stuff for shits and giggles, like putting our weaker members in the front row. Oh, and not saving or healing up or anything. Let’s pretend we’re playing this for the first time, only with foreknowledge about one thing.
Aw man, that music just shows us that shit just got real.
It’s too bad that Milon Z is so easy at this point that I killed him in four hits and I barely got to hear it at all…
LOL. Well, uh, Milon Z gave me a lot of trouble when I was little, I can assure you. Why is he called Milon Z? I guess it’s like the second awakening or something? Whatever. Who cares.
Milon Z can now poison you with his attacks. I’d ignore it if it lands, though. It’s not difficult to take care of in this version, plus we have this under control. I wouldn’t use Twincast either, just because I think it’s a bit of a waste of MP from both twins.
Milon Z is weak against fire like every single undead enemy. Because Slam’s strong enough, he can kill off Milon Z in two casts of Fire + Batman's sword. Oh, and he’s a monster that doesn’t dissolve into purple goo.
No one saw us pushing him off the bridge, right? GRRR-BAAAAH.
Oh, and because I like to hoard shit I will never use, we’re going to strip Batman of his armour.
We also encounter an enemy. Bear in mind that I didn’t save, heal, equip anything on Batman… so… Slam’s outta magic. We need Jam to do all the heavy lifting now.
Also, the voice is telling Sailor Venus Batman that he needs to stop being such a wuss and crying about things and take his past by the horns to kick its ass.
He pushes his evil DKnight reflection into the mirror and the battle begins!
So, let’s go back in time to where I’m a little girl playing this game again, and completely not getting the point of this fight at all. My natural instinct is to hit him, right? That’s what I’ve been doing for the entire game, and I’m not gonna quit now.
If you do hit him, it’ll spout something about how you shouldn’t fight because you’re overcoming your darkness.
I had a one-track mind when I was little when it came to playing games, so I kept trying to hit him. I thought it was the hardest boss in the game and I had no idea how to beat him. I was so relieved that I finally beat him and becoming a Paladin felt like an achievement. I can attest that it is entirely possible to beat him legitimately with physical attacks because I’ve done it for a few playthroughs until I learned about the gimmick. It’s much easier to do it in the SNES version because his HP is lower.
Ok, let’s talk about how to beat this like a normal player.
You stand there and do nothing for two rounds. It will take longer to end if you chose to attack him like I did just now.
North American audiences of Final Fantasy IV SNES were faced with an attack that they’ve never ever seen before. It was taken out of this version, but those who’ve played other version of Final Fantasy IV will know that it’s DKnight Batman’s regular attacks called “Darkness”. Darkness / Dark allows the user to sacrifice a fraction of his/her own HP and attack either single or a group of enemies with a blast of dark energy.
One could argue that the Evil Knight is using up his HP to attack Batman, but I think the point of it is to teach Batman that violence is not always the answer. Blah blah blah.
This triggers the fight to end.
And Batman, the Dark Knight fades away, never to be seen again. Batman the Paladin now must taste the colours of the rainbow in the form of Skittles and lights just so…
In the name of the Moon, Sailor Batman will punish you!
Batman says that the voice sounds familiar to him. I wonder what that’s supposed to mean.
Also if that weren’t enough, Batman’s Class Change also allowed Abe to remember his spells because reasons.
Me… Meteo?! It’s not like he’s ever going to be able to use it considering his stats go down, and his MP isn’t even sufficient enough to cast it.
Well, they’re certainly well behaved now. I wonder what’s u--
This isn’t just about your revenge, you know! Selfish, useless… And I think he’s deaf because he couldn’t hear the twins bursting to tell us something super-important.
Next Time: Batman gained a level. Batman gained a level. Batman gained a level. Batman gained a level. Batman gained a level. And badly-translated legends.
Uh-oh, Schala's caught up with me because I put the game on the backburner, I lost my will to continue for the time being.
And I did totally get mugged by the boss on that bridge even if I was a bit suspicious of the ease of the previous fight.
I don't mind DS 3D, but ugh those unskippable animations. Summons should ALWAYS be skippable. Unskippable cutscenes are BS too, but that may be a personal problem since I'm on attempt #6 of the endgame. :/
Oh god, I'm guessing I'm exactly where you are, ragequit the fucking thing because I couldn't handle going through the 90 minute cutscene for the 15th time. Really want to go back to it for the same of completion, I'm guessing we're right at the end, managed to get through the crazy per-bosses a few times before getting completely destroyed by CoD.
Bleh so frustrating, not even sure where to grind, no save points between there and the outside where everything is super weak and gives little exp. Considering just mindlessly grinding them for an hour or so....
Uh-oh, Schala's caught up with me because I put the game on the backburner, I lost my will to continue for the time being.
And I did totally get mugged by the boss on that bridge even if I was a bit suspicious of the ease of the previous fight.
It happens to everyone. I never suspected it on my first playthrough of the game and got thoroughly creamed. Didn't switch any rows prior, didn't heal, was low on MP, and this was in an era where I still ran away from battles so I wasn't levelled up properly either.
Oh man, you stopped playing it a while ago, then. Of course you could totally stop playing the game and watch me play through it, even though we've gotten to the point of FFIV where I completely lose interest in it.
