🐋 Final Fantasy 4 - Week 10

Japanese Language Book Clubs
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Cheevos

I didn’t feel any difference between 100% on this one and the previous ones. I just made sure to grab everything along the way. There were only 3 or 4 bestiary entries and summons I had to find with Alarms, and the level 70 thing that took maybe half an hour.

FFV has the series’s first true superbosses, and you have to beat them for achievements. That could make the next game harder, but otherwise the requirements are essentially the same, and the required level achievement is only 50. Well, I never beat those bosses on the SNES so I look forward to whooping them this time.

82

I haven’t read through all of the comments, but what the f*** is this final boss? I might not even bother beating it if I can’t within 2-3 more tries. I just can’t be bothered to watch an unskippable 10 minute cutscene so many times.

No wonder I didn’t beat him when I was a teenager


83

It’s definitely the hardest encounter so far in any of those games, and it’s not necessarily a very fair challenge


If you’re on the Pixel Remaster, you can turn the cheats on and grind for a little while to become overleveled.

84

It’s pretty ridiculous. This third attempt I decided to try the whole “use black magic after he shakes” thing. He countered and killed Rydia with flare, then did a big bang that was indeed weakened. Okay, great. Then he did shake, followed by big bang with no wait. I brought two characters back to life. Then he did shake, followed by big bang, followed by bio with no wait. I have literally no idea what I could have done to avoid that.

85

Now you feel Zeromus’ rage!

86

Alright, I beat it, but having to grind to do it was kinda lame. I leveled up like 20 levels using the x4 EXP setting. Took like an hour, but then I spent some more time getting some throwables, beating dark bahamut, and trying to get the pink tail (I tried 10 times and didn’t get one).

After leveling up that much the boss was no challenge at all, oh well. This is one reason I don’t love RPGs as much as I did when I was younger. They are often either too hard or too easy and it’s nearly impossible to get a good balance when leveling up can overpower you so quickly. In that way, I kind of like something like FF8 better, where the system is intrinsically broken. (We’ll see if I still feel that way when we get there.)

Hopefully I can reset my brain in the next two weeks, because right now I’m pretty burnt out on the old-school RPG style and Japanese dialogue. I’m very impressed by everyone who’s been going since the first game.

87

@simias Now that the club has gone through 4 games, it might be worth adding another option to the “how many games have you played in Japanese” poll. Otherwise, anyone who has followed along the whole time will pick the >3 option. Maybe add a >3 but <=10 option or something like that? Just a thought.

88

I might be a little late but my Fantasy 4 has now been Finalled

Week 10

Started off this week by going to get ăƒăƒăƒ ăƒŒăƒˆ because I didn’t for last week. Did have to exit the dungeon a few times to rest up. And even then it was mostly just letting ă‚«ă‚€ăƒł jump over the megaflares. Was great getting the summon for ăƒȘディケ though

Then it was time for the big final dungeon. I went out of my way to get all the sealed weapons, which also got me a few levels along the way and got good gear for the whole party. I also appreciated some more complicated dungeon design with the branching and teleports. The enemies weren’t too bad in here for the most part, at least until getting to the lower floors. I did really like the lunar core as the background on the lowest floors

ă‚Œăƒ­ăƒ ă‚č was a tricky final boss. I took 3 attempts to beat it, and I think it was mostly just getting the balance of healing (all the time) and also not bothering with ăƒȘディケ because she couldn’t withstand a single attack even at full health. Ultimately pulled through though with everyone in their mid 50s

Overall I enjoyed the game, though I can’t say I’m a huge fan of ATB. I much prefer traditional turn based or (given what I’ve heard) something like FFX’s. I don’t think the real-time aspect really added anything that I enjoyed particularly. That aside, the leaps and bounds in storytelling were greatly appreciated. I do wish ă‚Žăƒ«ăƒ™ăƒŒă‚¶ăƒŒ had actually remained as the ultimate villain (fine, you can have him transform into ă‚Œăƒ­ăƒ ă‚č as a phase shift if you must) and then we did the reconciliation stuff afterwards. Not getting a proper boss fight against the game’s best villain is such a shame. But besides some niggles like that it was a fun story. Not spectacular but given what we had previously it’s practically Shakespeare. I’ll be interested to see how FFV develops on what IV did (or how it differs)

Thanks to @simias for running the club again and being the filthiest of preplayers for our benefit. I know the job is getting harder as the games swell in complexity so the work you do is very appreciated

89

Took me a little over 3 months but I finally caught up to the group.

Week 10

Started the week off getting Bahamut. I exited the cave twice to heal, once after the first behemoth and again after the third. Overall, wasn’t too bad. Two reflected Megaflares plus a few attacks was enough to finish him off.

Went and got Odin next. I assume when he raises his sword, he’s about to use Zantetsuken but I beat him before he actually got it off. I really liked that the actual king of Baron came back to lend his aid to his adopted son but I kind of wish the scene went on a bit longer.

The more dump on the moon was interesting but having yet another set of crystals is kinda funny. We’re up to 4 light crystals, 4 dark crystals, 8 moon crystals, 1 Lunar Whale crystal and there’s still another one you use in the final fight. They don’t seem as special when we have so many.

The final dungeon was alright. Having the Red Wings theme repurposed as a heroic “homecoming” song wasn’t a bad choice but I agree it went on for a bit too long. Not having a unique final dungeon theme after that was criminal. At least some of the enemies were amusing. I beat Plague with 8 left on my Doom counter. It was interesting that it used Haste on everyone to speed up the counters but in practice, it just let me kill it faster. I did give into my curiosity and cast Thunder on the goblin that uses Libra on itself. It laughed and then said something too quickly for me to catch and then cast Haste on itself and then died. I did end up missing Dark Bahamut despite trying to be thorough but I did learn that Megaflare pierces Reflect on normal enemies despite being able to be Reflected in the actual Bahamut fight.

I challenged Zeromus in the upper 50’s range and lost. Turned on the 4x exp boost and made sure everyone was at least 60 and won on my second attempt. Absolutely baffling fight design with how they tried to nerf Rydia. I rejected their feeble attempt and cleared the fight with everyone alive and got several Flares off. Thought I was gonna lose again at one point but managed to bring it back. Actually a pretty fun fight when I wasn’t cursing at the screen over his insane action speed. lol

Ending was nice. Kain really felt like Leonheart 2.0, ambiguous ending and all. I think my favorite part was Golbez thanking Cecil for accepting him as his brother.

Plot musings

I agree with everyone that IV is the best so far in terms of story but gameplay still goes to my GOAT II. Definitely a step up from the Famicom era, missteps and all.

The weakest element for me personally was the Lunarians. Zemus’s motivation was weak. He didn’t want to go down for his nap so he threw a tantrum and decided to kill everyone. I assume that they have some sort of Star Trek-esque non-intervention policy since it was mentioned they decided to go into stasis until the inhabitants of the blue planet got on the same evolutionary level. (Except for KluYa who was allowed to go down and clap some Earthling cheeks for some reason.) And I guess Zemus just didn’t want to wait for
reasons? Also KluYa set the groundwork for one of his sons to become a paladin just in case? Granted, I haven’t played the 3D version so I don’t know if they get expanded on but in the base game, it just seems a bit nonsensical.

If the Lunarians had previously tried to make contact with Earth but it was far in the past before proper civilization was born and the “savages” attacked the Lunarians, Zemus might be a bit more understandable. Especially if he had to wait eons and just watch the world continue its petty wars and come to believe it would be in the planet’s best interest for someone “enlightened” like him to take control. Instead, I assume the Lunarians showed up like 20 years ago or so since Cecil isn’t that old and Zemus doesn’t like waiting, even though he would be asleep so he wouldn’t even be aware of time passing.

And then the moon just leaves, also for reasons. I don’t think it was said outright in this game or if it doesn’t say until TAY but the second moon is a Lunarian craft that traveled from their original homeworld to the blue planet so I get how it was able to leave. I also know they try and explain why in TAY but that definitely wasn’t planned during the development of this game so it just seems confusing. FuSuYa has that line about maybe the Earthlings had surpassed the Lunarians so maybe that’s why. It just seems sudden after he and Golbez said they were going to sleep with the rest of their people.

My personal headcanon is that after seeing the turmoil caused by their people, the Lunarians decided not to meddle with planets that have sentient life already and instead set off to find a new planet where they could start over and reconnect with nature. Until they come back in TAY, I guess.

90

Congrats on catching up! One week to spare until we start FFV too.

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Thanks. Glad I made it in time.

Regarding the ending of IV, was there a specific part you wanted me to explain when you mentioned it in week 8? I tried my best to cover everything in my musings but if there was something else, let me know.

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ending

It’s not so much that I didn’t understanding and more that there’s a lot left unexplained, as you pointed out. Why are they leaving? What was Zemus actual motivation beyond “RAAAGE”? The entire lunarian plan feels very weird and it’s not clear why they do any of it etc.

Honestly I kind of like these clunky plots full of holes, it makes for fun discussions. Looking forward to unraveling the huge mess that’s FF8’s plot with all of you in a year or so.

93
Reply

I think there was some more Lunarian development in the 3D version but I haven’t played that one yet. Maybe I’ll play it after I replay III 3D which has to wait until after I finish my II replay and write my fanfic. lol

VIII will definitely be interesting. Personally I enjoy unraveling convoluted time travel plots. There’s also an interesting, though admittedly flimsy, fan theory where they posit Squall died after being captured by Edea at the end of disk 1 and the rest of the game is a fever dream brought about by his regret over not being able to complete his mission.

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Spoiler

I would spoiler the time travel plot mention for people who haven’t played it yet!

95

Good call.

96

Oh we’ll definitely bring up all the wacky fan theories. The Queen of Cards is the key to all of this and I can prove it!

97

Haha looking forward to it.