Couldn't find the white cover that I have
So after III it was right over to IV and thank god it was on the DS so the lighting was superior. Doesn't hurt with some voice acting, improved sound quality and 3d graphics... well, 3d graphics have a tendency to be really weird at times, but it's alright for this game. I can see what they were going for compared to the original. Never played the SNES version (although I guess I have it on the Wii U virtual console), but like every other Final Fantasy game I got this one for PSOne, then GBA... and again for the DS. I never finished it at the PSOne, but once on the GBA and this is the second time on the DS. So of course I used the New Game + feature. It is rather weird though since it only works two times, then you have to restart... why? Well, I guess since part of the game is using abilities and transferering them across the players, more than three playthroughs breaks the game.
A pity the SFX in the movies take away the purity of the music, especially in the intro scene
The game starts with the Dark Knight Cecil returning home to Baron after raiding Mysidia for their water crystal on the orders of the king of Baron. Apparently spilling the blood of mysidians in an unjust way. This creates self-doubt in Cecil who confronts the king and is stripped of his command of the Red Wings, the airship brigade, and is tasked to deliver a package to the village of Mist. Joining him in his banishment is Kain Highwind, son of Rickard (a callback to Final Fantasy II I believe, but are they saying that the games exist in the same universe?). Travelling to the village they slay the Mist Dragon that guards the village, but as they enter the package is a Bomb Ring that burns the whole village. Cecil and Kain finds a girl named Rydia who mourns her mother that died as "her dragon was slain", implicating that Cecil murdered her. As this was the last straw he rebels and together with Kain and Rosa (Cecil's girlfriend back in Baron Castle) tries to fight the mad king. Unfortunately Rydia is a bit upset and as Kain pushes her to much to leave with them since the village is burned she summons Gaia that causes a landslide with Kain on one side and Cecil and Rydia on the other. Cecil takes the girl to the nearby desert town and is attacked in the night by Baron soldiers who he fights back. In the same village they find Rosa that escaped Baron but is caught with desert fever which you need a sand pearl from the antlions den that the royal family of Damicyian guards. So you set of and meet the sage Tellah that is looking for his daughter that ran away with a bard. As they near Damycian castle it is attacked by the Red Wings killing most inside it, including Tellah's daughter Anna. The bard appears to be the prince of Damycian Edward and Tellah sets out to kill Golbez, the new commander of the Red Wings. Edward joins Cecil, gets the pearl, get Rosa and travel to Fabul where another crystal is kept (the second one being in Damycian and the reason for the attack). On the way they meet Yang, the master monk that is ambushed by monsters that are an advanced troop of Golbez. Saving him they reach the castle of Fabul and fortify it against attacks. After several battles Cecil is cornered in the crystal room as Kain enters. Apparently out of it he attacks Cecil relentlessly and would have killed him if Rosa didn't intervene. This forces Golbez to appear, take the crystal and Rosa and disappear. Those left behind gets a ship to attack Baron by sea. En route they are attacked by Leviathan and everyone falls off. Cecil ends up back in Mysida and ask for forgiveness from the elders. They send him with two twin mages on quest to become a Paladin by climbing the Mountain of Ordeals where he meet Tellah again on his quest for Meteor and the first archfiend that serve Golbez. Defeating him you enter a chamber within the mountain and is ordained by some light to a Paladin and by fighting off the dark knight within you taking the battle against darkness.
Back in Mysidia, sneak back to Baron, save a brainwashed Yang, fight another archfiend posing as the king and rescue Cid, the airship engineer that leads you to his newest ship, Enterprise. On the way you are about to be crushed by some walls (Star wars reference I presume) and the twin mages turns themselves to stone in order to stop the walls. Leaving on the airship another approaches, its Kain with demands for the fourth and final crystal in exchange for Rosa. Cecil and co travel and meet a bed ridden Edward that gives you a weed. Since the crystal have been stolen by the dark elf (who looks like the dark elf Astos from Final Fantasy I) who have hidden himself in a cave where metal paralyze you, so bring alternative weapons and armours. Fighting your way down the weed communicate with Edward who plays a song that makes the elf lose concentration on the spell that makes metal worthless and then you beat him up. Get the crystal, take it to the tower of Zot, fight your way to the top, and Tellah attacks Golbez with Meteor making Golbez release Kain from the spell while escaping, but ending Tellah's life. They save Rosa, fight another fiend and returns to Baron and are told there is a set of four other crystals that can be found under the surface that will help activate the tower of Babil. They find a way inside the core of the earth were they meet dwarves at war with Golbez. Cid stays behind working on the enterprise as it got shoot down. Apparently two crystals still remain, one behind the dwarf kings throne room, which Yang senses some evil from. Entering you fight some dolls, then Golbez appears killing of everyone except Cecil and then... Rydia appears helping you fight him off. He still steals the crystal. They attack the tower of Babil to get back the other crystals. On the way there Yang sacrifices himself by destroying the cannon room as it is about to destroy the dwarven army. The others leave and are dropped from the bridge and rescued by Cid as one of the Red Wings follow them. Cid jumps the ship and blows up the entrence to the core. They travel to Elban, the ninja kingdom that have been overrun by Golbez and search their diaspora and saves prince Edge. They end back up at the core and asked to get the last crystal. Before that I traveled to the world of Eidolons (summons) and then the Fairy cave where a comatosed Yang lies asleep tended to by the sylph. Then get the crystal, Kain falls back into the brainwash and takes the crystal. Returning to the dwarven castle Cid survived and installed a drill to return to the surface world. I saved Yang by meeting his wife and get a frying pan, went back and hit him over the head. He wakes, but have to rest so sylph becomes your new summon. And then you return to Mysida where they pray so much so that a giant space ship appears from the waters and you can travel to the moon.
On the moon (or rather one of the two moons around the planet) you meet Fusoya who tells you that Cecil is half-lunarian, son to his brother Kluya who was the light on the mountain of Ordeals. Golbez is being controlled by a lunarian named Zemus that intends to summon the giant of Babil to destroy the life on the planet and claim it for the lunarians. They return to the planet but are to late as the giant walks forward from the tower. All hope seems lost, then... the giant is attacked by the combined forces of the Red Wings and dwarven tanks. Everyone is here, Yang, Cid and Edward together with the forces from the free kingdoms. The giant stagger and Cecil gets a chance to enter it, destroying the CPU and confronting Golbez again. Fusoya banish the influence of Zemus and it is revealed that Golbez is Cecil brother... named Theodore in a new cutscene for this version explaining how it came that Golbez turned evil (or more likely being suggestive to evil) and Cecil ended up at Baron under the kings guard. Cured Fusoya and Golbez travels to the moon to fight Zemus. Kain is back and joins you again. You gather all weapons you can get, summons and armours. Then travel back t the moon where you enter the longest dungeon of the game, get the best weapons and armours, fight several bosses and finally reaches Zemus. And Golbez and Fusoya kills him with a twin Meteor. Thanks. It's not really the end since dying only pissed him of so you can fight him in two forms as Zeromus. Beat him and the game is over. Edge becomes king of Elban thinking of Rydia, Yang, King of Fabul, Edward king of Damycian, Rydia back in the land of Eidolons and Kain walking some mountain to atone for his weakness. Then to the coronation of Cecil and Rosa as the King and Queen of Baron with every one but Kain attending.
It was fun playing it again. And the DS is the superior version although it's fun to play the GBA version where you can switch back to the other characters than the five ordained by the game developers. Although the compromise of having their abilities are a nice trade of, but why diminish it with the only three new game +? It's definitely easier than the older games with save points within dungeons (if you exclude the GBA insta-save feature). I had to grind more than the other games in the beginning and then I tried grinding for tails for the ultimate equipment, but I got nil. Instead I reached level 90 so something good with that. I liked the story and playing it the first time I got emotionally invested in the characters that died and returning to life. Of course, the first playthrough I didn't know Yang survived until the giant of Babil segment (and I think it actually works better). The grinding is also much more fun and I would attribute it to the fact that I can see the progress bar after every encounter and can with just a glance guess how many battles I need to fight. And thank good for the bestiary function that shows every enemies data... all the time, in every battle. I don't have to memorise every enemy and I can gauge the attacks needed to off the monster. And they stay after every playthrough. Clearly superior version, but maybe I should put Final Fantasy on hold for a while since I'm getting RPG overdose after four games in a row.
Playing this the first time it took me a real long time getting through the fight, shame on me.
Back in Mysidia, sneak back to Baron, save a brainwashed Yang, fight another archfiend posing as the king and rescue Cid, the airship engineer that leads you to his newest ship, Enterprise. On the way you are about to be crushed by some walls (Star wars reference I presume) and the twin mages turns themselves to stone in order to stop the walls. Leaving on the airship another approaches, its Kain with demands for the fourth and final crystal in exchange for Rosa. Cecil and co travel and meet a bed ridden Edward that gives you a weed. Since the crystal have been stolen by the dark elf (who looks like the dark elf Astos from Final Fantasy I) who have hidden himself in a cave where metal paralyze you, so bring alternative weapons and armours. Fighting your way down the weed communicate with Edward who plays a song that makes the elf lose concentration on the spell that makes metal worthless and then you beat him up. Get the crystal, take it to the tower of Zot, fight your way to the top, and Tellah attacks Golbez with Meteor making Golbez release Kain from the spell while escaping, but ending Tellah's life. They save Rosa, fight another fiend and returns to Baron and are told there is a set of four other crystals that can be found under the surface that will help activate the tower of Babil. They find a way inside the core of the earth were they meet dwarves at war with Golbez. Cid stays behind working on the enterprise as it got shoot down. Apparently two crystals still remain, one behind the dwarf kings throne room, which Yang senses some evil from. Entering you fight some dolls, then Golbez appears killing of everyone except Cecil and then... Rydia appears helping you fight him off. He still steals the crystal. They attack the tower of Babil to get back the other crystals. On the way there Yang sacrifices himself by destroying the cannon room as it is about to destroy the dwarven army. The others leave and are dropped from the bridge and rescued by Cid as one of the Red Wings follow them. Cid jumps the ship and blows up the entrence to the core. They travel to Elban, the ninja kingdom that have been overrun by Golbez and search their diaspora and saves prince Edge. They end back up at the core and asked to get the last crystal. Before that I traveled to the world of Eidolons (summons) and then the Fairy cave where a comatosed Yang lies asleep tended to by the sylph. Then get the crystal, Kain falls back into the brainwash and takes the crystal. Returning to the dwarven castle Cid survived and installed a drill to return to the surface world. I saved Yang by meeting his wife and get a frying pan, went back and hit him over the head. He wakes, but have to rest so sylph becomes your new summon. And then you return to Mysida where they pray so much so that a giant space ship appears from the waters and you can travel to the moon.
TOO THE MOON
It was fun playing it again. And the DS is the superior version although it's fun to play the GBA version where you can switch back to the other characters than the five ordained by the game developers. Although the compromise of having their abilities are a nice trade of, but why diminish it with the only three new game +? It's definitely easier than the older games with save points within dungeons (if you exclude the GBA insta-save feature). I had to grind more than the other games in the beginning and then I tried grinding for tails for the ultimate equipment, but I got nil. Instead I reached level 90 so something good with that. I liked the story and playing it the first time I got emotionally invested in the characters that died and returning to life. Of course, the first playthrough I didn't know Yang survived until the giant of Babil segment (and I think it actually works better). The grinding is also much more fun and I would attribute it to the fact that I can see the progress bar after every encounter and can with just a glance guess how many battles I need to fight. And thank good for the bestiary function that shows every enemies data... all the time, in every battle. I don't have to memorise every enemy and I can gauge the attacks needed to off the monster. And they stay after every playthrough. Clearly superior version, but maybe I should put Final Fantasy on hold for a while since I'm getting RPG overdose after four games in a row.
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