Final Fantasy 4 - Final Thoughts

Here we are again...another month and another Final Fantasy finished!
Really hoping I can keep this effort up...ON TO THE REVIEW!

Final Fantasy 4 - Final Thoughts
Final Fantasy 4 Stats
Hours Played - 31 Hours
Final Party and Their Levels

• Cecil - Level 58 
• Rosa - Level 57
• Edge - Level 56
• Rydia - Level 55
• Kain - Level 58

Now..onto my final words for Final Fantasy 4!

     Overall, I can say that I greatly enjoyed this game. I had played a good portion of it before, but this time I actually finished it! I had a pretty good time, and the only reason I wanted to finish is in keeping with my schedule of beating one a month. This might get harder as the games get longer, but I think I'll manage it for at least two or three more titles in the series. The PSP version of this game looks REALLY good in HD and with the CG cutscenes (taken from the DS version...which is 3D). The music has been rearranged and made to sound like the original but more up-to-date. The PSP version has it all plus TWO extra games (FF4 Interlude and FF4 After Years), and although I have no want to play them now, I might eventually go back and give them a shot. Now...we'll start with the gameplay talk.

     Gameplay of Final Fantasy 4...nothing new here really. The system resembles lots of things done in Final Fantasy 3 (job stuff), but they eliminated the ability to change jobs (minus story stuffs) and took out the multi-hit physical attacks that was used ever since the first game. Battles kept the front and back row system allowing your mages to keep out of harms way. Most of this is generally the same as past games, and it's still a really good system of doing it. No real flaws here. If I had a complaint...it would be that some jobs lacked any real punch or pointless extra abilities. My best example would probably be Kain as a Dragoon. He was overall well rounded, but he never really had a lot of kick to him. Only ONE boss required the Jump ability, and after that battle, the Jump was generally a waste of time. It didn't do enough damage to be worth using over a regular attack, considering it took twice as much time. The Twins (Palom and Porom) had their Twincast ability that did a huuuge amount of damage for NO MP, but they took forever to cast it and seemed better off to not use it. Minus these meager complaints, I had fun with many of the battles. On top of that, they actually included many "story" battles that were set to look and play out like battles but had a very different point. They were fairly cool looking and fun to watch. There weren't any real puzzles outside of battles, and there was always plenty to look for. There was always plenty to do in-game, and with how each airship/vehicle worked, you easily gained new areas of exploration as the game moved on. The level-up system worked well enough, and I never really had to go out of my way to gain levels. I'm so glad for this part. I don't mind having to grind a few extra levels, but most games (I feel) should be easily played without having to do extra leveling. I mean more to the extreme of extra levels rather than just a few. Anyways, the gameplay gets a GREAT score, and now I'm going on to the story.

     Story...That's one thing Final Fantasy 4 actually gave you quite a bit of. They story had everything from romance and drama to even a little comedy here and there (very little but still there). It was an interesting direction to go how it all went down as well. The idea of constantly failing just to succeed in the end! There were deep plots and mysterious secrets. Had I not learned of Golbez's secret from alternative sources, I would have found it a great and crazy twist! The characters (unlike many previous titles) all felt different and unique. They each had different things to do and say. It also helped that many of them did little things in-game with their sprite animations (many of them jumping and spinning around a lot). Overall, each character actually had their own story and reason to be doing what they did. This is a big step up from basically all the previous Final Fantasy titles. I definitely enjoyed the Cid in this game...fo sho. Although I liked the look of Dark Knight Cecil over Paladin Cecil, it was still really cool seeing the transformation take place in story. The deaths of people in-game were also well done...by which I mean a decent number without going crazy. Final Fantasy 2 basically killed everybody you possibly knew or loved and MORE. There was also a cool number of SURPRISE NOT DEAD! moments. Overall, I liked the story and where it went. It's a huge leap up from basically all the previous titles. Final Fantasy 3 did well, but the characters weren't really that great. I had fun with it, and that's what matters.

     The gameplay and story are really great. It is sad to know that Final Fantasy 4 is a fairly underrated title in the series. It honestly deserves more attention than a lot of the newer ones like 7 or 13. I'd definitely recommend this one! It also is one of the shorter games in the series it seems...I've put more time in almost all of them except Final Fantasy 1, and that's even with a bunch of extra bosses that were pointless outside of the experience. Overall, Final Fantasy 4 is a must play in the series, and I'd say you should go play it right now!

Thanks for reading and get ready to Final Fantasy 5!

SIDE NOTE - I mentioned it partway, but Final Fantasy 4 actually has two extra side games that are continuations of the story. I would love to play them, but I'd almost rather move on right now. I figure I might come back and finish them at some point in the future, and if/when I do, I will make a small post about my overall opinion on it. The sucky part is that Interlude might be exclusive to the PSP release while The After Years is only available on the PSP or as Wiiware (I think...). 

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

Day 32

Game - Final Fantasy 4, Day 32
Hours Played/Hours Total - 12* hrs / 31 hrs *Was most definitely not played all at once!
Starting Point - Underworld nearby Sylph Cave
Current Goal - Prepare for the final dungeon. Beat the game. Save the world.

What Happened - Seeing how the game is going, I figure that I'm right on the doorstep of the end of it all. This might not be completely true, but I will see it through to the end in this post! Let's begin.
     I started off nearby Sylph Cave. I came here earlier on, but I found the enemies a bit too tough for my liking or survival. I come back now because I'm ready to fight them and able to beat them easily. From what I looked over in a guide, I had to cast Float on the entire party to avoid being hurt by the poison all around the ground. After that, I started my exploration. The enemies were still challenging, but they weren't nearly as hard as the first time. The biggest annoyance I found are the funnily-named Malboros. Their specialty (throughout the entirety of the series) is a move called Bad Breath. Bad Breath is able to cause almost all of the status effects possible at ONE time. Anyways, I fought my way through mostly annoying enemies and finally happened upon a random house with some fairies inside. They gave Rydia the Sylph summon, but that's all that seemed to be there. After that, I went though a nearby door which kicked me out of the cave. I guess I get to explore it all over again...yaaaay.
     Slyph Cave. Take two! Hopefully I find the ever famous and illusive feymarch that is supposed to be located in here. According to a guide, I have to defeat a few side bosses there to gain access to the rest of the summons. Round two of annoying, mildly difficult enemies went okay, but I'd rather not have to do it a whole lot more. I explored quite a bit and was turning up nothing. I decided to check the guide to figure out what I was doing wrong. Turns out...the Slyph Cave isn't the cave with the famous and illusive path to the feymarch place. Turns out it was just a huge waste of time for me.
     Trying to not be angry at myself, I left the cave immediately and made my way to the actual cave with the path to Feymarch. Just a little looking around in the Underworld and I finally located the actual cave that would take me there. Turns out it was incredibly obvious and straightforward....the Passage of the Eidolons (another name for summons). Just like the Slyph Cave, I was required to cast Float on all my party members to avoid damage from the ground. This time it was lava though. The enemies here didn't seem like much of a challenge as compared to the previous cave though. I was able to quickly make my way through the Passage and into the Feymarch area. Once there, I started talking to everybody and looking around. They were all exclaiming how Rydia had returned and such. Nothing too important was said really.
     During the look about, I located a library in the middle of it all. The books had some interesting in-game information inside them. Mostly just details of all the different Eidolons you could obtain. Continuing down through the library revealed the King and Queen Eidolon. I had to defeat the Queen to even be allowed to talk to the King. BOSS BATTLE TIME PART 1! The Queen turned out to be Asura (Indian war god I believe?). Thanks to a tip from the guide, I knew to cast Reflect on her as soon as the battle took off. This kept her from healing herself. It caused the spell to simply bounce off her onto my party! With this setup in place, I was able to defeat the queen with very little effort. Upon defeat, she gave Rydia the ability to summon her if necessary. Gained Asura Summon! Next up, after the queen, it was time to face the King of Eidolons, Leviathan. BOSS BATTLE TIME PART 2! Leviathan...we meet again. You may have thought yourself powerful in FF3, but you certainly didn't put up much of a challenge this time! He began our battle with a tidal wave move called Devulge, but apparently that was all he really had in him. After the initial attack, I threw all the lightning elemental attacks I had at him! Anyone who couldn't do that turned into physical attacks or support (Rosa...always support). He went down with a little time and lots of electricity. With the King Eidolon defeated, he granted Rosa the ability to summon him (Leviathan). Woo! Three more summons so far, and only...two more to gain! There are a small group of summons you can get from random enemies (Goblin, Bomb and a few others), but I'm not going to bother with them this late in the game.
     Next on my list is Odin. With guide in hand, I made my way back to the Overworld and onward to Baron. It seems that the late King of Baron has been brought back as an Eidolon and will grant us his strength and power if we prove ourselves to him (In battle of course). And so...we face yet another BOSS BATTLE TIME! This time, it is featuring the all powerful Odin! According to the guide, I had somewhere around 2-3 rounds to beat him before he unleashed the Zantetsuken super ability. Technically, that's the name of his sword, but it is also the one-hit kill move that the Odin summon does in every game. I did my best to scramble and beat him...and I did so. Turns out the extra levels I had from doing it later in the game rather than earlier made this fight fairly easy. Upon defeat, the King gave Rydia the ability to summon him (Odin), and then he left us yet again. With Odin at my side, I only had one more key summon to obtain....the big bad boy himself...Bahamut! Of course, I had to travel to the moon to obtain this great and powerful dragon's summon. I jumped on the Lunar Whale and went to the moon.
     Once on the moon, I remembered a cave I had attempted to enter on the first time to the moon. Turns out it was the cave with Bahamut inside it. Along the way, I fought many tough monsters that offered a challenge but generally no real threat. The cave also housed a full set of Genji equipment (Armor, Shield, Gauntlet, Helmet). I claimed them all up and threw them on Cecil because Kain came with a full set of Genji equipment on his person. I continued downward into this dangerous cave called the Lair of the Father. As if the monsters and the impending boss weren't bad enough, they decided you needed an extra challenge along the way. While trying to reach Bahamut, you are forced to fight 3 behemoths. Earlier on when I encountered the first one, he easily took me down without even trying. The behemoth's "strategy" is that he can and will always counter any attack that hits him. Otherwise his turns come around rather slowly with only a single attack. Turns out the way to beat them involves casting Blink on everybody which causes the monster to miss the blinked people every time. I had to constantly recast the spell since it works in an absurd way, but it kept the majority of the party alive and healthy. After the three behemoths were down, I teleported back outside, healed up, and made the trip again. Since I already defeated the behemoths, I didn't have to fight them again. I then approached the alter and challenged Bahamut to a fight. BOSS BATTLE TIME!
     Bahamut had only one move...Mega Flare. He constantly counts down from 6 (fairly fast too). In most cases, this would end in your party dying a swift and horrible death. However, thanks once again to Mr. Strategy Guide, I was already informed of this. I simply needed to cast Reflect on the entire party and let Bahamut kill himself. Problem with this was that I only had one character with Reflect...Rosa. On top of that, she's basically the second slowest character in the party. I had to quickly cast Reflect on everyone I could. I managed to get Cecil and Edge reflected, but the rest of the party was decimated. However, before dying, I had everybody attacking Bahamut with everything. They went down, but Bahamut was already partway defeated before that. I revived Rosa and tried to get the process restarted, but Bahamut got off another Mega Flare before I could do much more than cast Reflect on Rosa. Lucky for me, Bahamut died just a few turns after the second Mega Flare. With his defeat, Bahamut granted Rydia the ability to summon him. With the new summon in hand, I teleported out of the cave and made my way back to the Lunar Whale.
     Once on the Lunar Whale, I needed to go back to the Blue Planet oooone more time for a final group of side quest bosses. It turns out that the Mount of Ordeals was having strange things happening on it. Upon travelling there, a new path had opened up. With a little guide consultation, I found out that what had opened was the Cave of Trials. Inside the Cave of Trials was a huge lineup of powerful monsters that would be handing over powerful weapons for every single character. Of course, they would only appear if I had certain members in the party. I grabbed up three new members (replaced Rosa, Edge, and Kain with Cid, Palom, and Porom.) and proceeded to the Mount of Ordeals to enter the Cave of Trials.
     Inside the Cave of Trials, it was a agonizing trip downward into the deep depths. The point of the Cave of Trials is acquiring the best equipment for all the characters. Along the way were numerous treasure chests with all sorts of helmets and armor for the various characters. I was able to fully re-equip several of my characters (currently Cid, Palom, and Porom) with new and better equipment. The monsters inside were a large pile of re-used monsters from previous dungeons like Slyph Cave or Passage of the Eidolons. Meaning they weren't always super challenging, but they were generally super annoying. I went through 8 floors of annoyance before finally coming to the main chamber of the Cave of Trials. Inside it was a save point, a warp point to outside, and a large set of items on platforms. I saved, healed up, and started taking on the bosses!
     BOSS BATTLE TIME! PARAGRAPH EDITION! Seeing as there are several bosses coming up, I figured I could bring it all together in a paragraph or two. At this point, I'm basically just looking off a guide for a lot of it. Although the way most of these extra bosses went down, I really didn't need the guide. First up was something known as "Death Machine" for Cid's ultimate weapon....Thor's Hammer! The Death Machine looked like a giant, severed robot head with O___O eyes. However, despite his ominous name and evil look, he went down fairly easily without a fight. The few attacks he did were damaging but generally pitiful compared to what I expected. It didn't help the matter that he was slow as all get out. Next up was the Flan Master for Palom's ultimate weapon...Triton's Dagger! The Flan Master looked like the "summoner" type monster, but all he seemed to summon were different kinds of Flan. The strategy for him (according to the guide) was simply cast Quake and summon Bahamut constantly. He did put up more of a fight than the Death Machine, but that wouldn't be very hard...I'm assuming the use of those two spells were because he immediately cast Reflect on himself (which kept any other spells off him). He also only cast spells off himself onto us as to negate any chance that we cast Reflect on ourselves. However, with the constant barrage of super spells plus a little physical attacking from Cid and Cecil, he eventually went down. I claimed Triton's Dagger and moved onto the next weapon. Third weapon in a lineup of five (one for all the before characters BUT none of the final 5) was Seraphim's Mace for Porom. The big guy guarding it was a zombie dinosaur Tyrannosaurus. The only things need to know on him...cast Float on the party beforehand and don't cast any elemental magic on him. Float protected me from Quake ,and apparently the elemental magics cause him to do a total party counterattack. With all that in hand...he was super easy. Knowledge is power! Now Palom has a fancy new staff that's actually a mace but also a staff. Anyways, I only had 3 of the 5 new people, so for me to continue, I had to return with the last two (Edward and Yang). I left the Cave of Trials to return shortly.
     I returned to Mysidia, switched up the party, and took the two guys around the world for an equipment upgrade. After getting them up to speed, I made my way back to the Cave of Trials. Of course, I also got the pleasure of traveling back through the entirety of the cave. It went a lot faster this time since I wasn't trying to get all the items. Fast forward...and I'm back at the bottom. Only two super weapons left to get. I leapt towards the God Hand for Yang and began my battle with the Storm Dragon! I figured it would be a cakewalk, but it almost wasn't! The biggest challenge about the Storm Dragon was its available special attacks like Whirlwind and Maelstrom. Whirlwind was capable of large amounts of damage, and Maelstrom was just a mean, party-wide Tornado (brings people to critical HP). I did lose a person here and there, but in the end, I managed to beat him! I claimed the God Hand for Yang, and then I moved on to the final item. For Edward, it was time to get the Apollo's Harp. Before it was mine, I had to face down the Gigas Worm. The Gigas Worm was much easier than the Storm Dragon. He had some good hits in him, but I easily put him down before any real damage was done. Edward claimed his new ultimate weapon, and I was officially done with the Cave of Trials. TAKE THAT CAVE! BOOYAH! With all these awesome items and equipment in my hands...I switched back to my final party (Cecil, Rosa, Edge, Rydia, and Kain) and made my way to the moon.
     On the moon, it was time for me to face the final dungeon and beat this game! Before going back to the crystal palace, I made a quick stop at the Hummingway Abode for a refill on items. Then it was time...for the Crystal Palace! That's the place where the group first met Fusoya, and it's also the site of the entrance to the final dungeon. I had to work my way around the Lunar Tunnels again, but it went fairly fast and problem free. I continued on into the Crystal Palace. Venturing further inside revealed a room behind where Fusoya was. Inside that room was a set of 8 crystals that were sealing in Zemus inside the core of the moon. I stepped onto the point in the middle, and the crystals warped me inside the moon. Before me was the long and perilous dungeon known as the Lunar Subterrane. I won't go into full detail over it, but I will say that this is most definitely the hardest final dungeon I've gone through so far. Only Final Fantasy 2 would remotely compare (difficulty-wise). Many of the enemies were fairly difficult and offered a huge challenge to my party. Along the way, I found a whole new set of armor for both Cecil and Kain (Dragon Armor for Kain and Crystal Armor for Cecil). I also obtained an ultimate weapon for Edge, Cecil, and Kain. I had to beat a White Dragon to obtain the Murasame for Edge. I had to beat Dark Bahamut (ridiculously tough) to get Ragnarok for Cecil. The final ultimate weapon was a Holy Lance for Kain. Had to defeat the Plague Horror in order to claim it. Despite his initial casting of Doom on the party (gave them a timer of 10...counts down to death), I was able to take him down quite quickly before death set in. One more extra room was available before the final floors. It contained a pair of lunar undead dinosaurs (named Lunasaurs) that were guarding a pair of Ribbons. They weren't too hard and went down quite fast. After slaying them, I claimed the Ribbons, hit the nearby saving point for healing plus a save, and decided to made my way down.
     The final floors of the Lunar Subterrane had a different look and different enemies. The enemies here were tough enough that they actually got boss music played for them rather than regular battle music. That's right...shit was getting pretty serious. The boss/enemy person wasn't too bad, but he had an annoying tactic. He cast Reflect on himself and Reflect on my party. This made it very hard to heal myself AND cast any real form of magic on him. The best part was getting to fight this boss/enemy like 5-6 times before finally making it to the bottom. And fun for me! There was one final ultimate weapon to get...the Masamune for Edge (his secondary weapon). The boss of choice here was Ogopogo (silly name yet difficult). His biggest deal was his use of hard hitting, party-wide abilities like Deluge and Frost Blast. Regardless, he slowly and surely went down for the count, and I picked up the awesome and powerful Masamune for Edge. A few floors down, and I was finally face-to-face with the final bad guy...Zemus!
     After entering the room, the first thing I'm treated to is a set of story battles with Golbez and Fusoya fighting Zemus. It goes through the normal motions of the two throwing everything they have at him. They even brought down a "Twin Meteor" which dealt a 9999 of damage, but he simply stated that "The body dies but the spirit lives on" Seems like an almost classic super evil line...ANYWAYS! The group celebrates around the seemingly dead body of Zemus, but we know the truth...that can't possibly be it. Of course, Zemus comes back to life as the group celebrates. Apparently his hatred brought him back to life as...ZEROMUS! He explodes with...hatred? And that knocks out everybody but Golbez and Fusoya who realize that they've somehow only made him stronger. They charge at him for yet another story battle! Golbez and Fusoya start the battle by both casting Meteor on Zeromus, but it is obvious that the same tactic won't work on the super ultimate boss! Fusoya tells Golbez to use the Crystal (eh?) and he does. Zeromus claims that Golbez has no power with the Crystal and counters with a Meteor to the both of them. They are finally down for the count. It seems that we have failed, but then...insert miracle time! The game flashes over to everybody currently in Mysidia. They can tell that Cecil and crew have fallen, and that they all need to pray with the planet, and send those prayers to Cecil. As with the usual way it goes, the miracle brings the group back to life for the FINAL BOSS BATTLE TIME EXTRAVAGANZA!!!
     The battle with Zeromus proved to be a long and furious battle. His main move was Big Bang. It had a long and drawn out animation...which automatically means it did a huge amount of damage. It nearly killed 2 of the 5 party members everytime, and I had to constantly cast Curaja with Rosa. Any form of group enhancement like Haste and Protect were also out of the picture as Zeromus would simply take it all away with his move Black Hole. Black Hole didn't do damage, but it did nullify any magical buffs I could use. Zeromus was definitely proving to be a difficult opponent. However, minus that, he wasn't really throwing anything at me. He basically just did a round of Big Bang followed by Black Hole ever so often. He did throw in a different spell like Flare, Bio, and Meteor before it was all said and done, but he generally offered little of a challenge. Yes, I did have to revive some of my party members, but all in all, Zeromus was tough yet easy.
     As Zeromus fell, he said something about Evil always living on in everybody despite his destruction. Then..he was gone. Golbez and Fusoya got up to congratulate the group and explain that although a little Evil exists in everybody, they also generally have a lot of good. As long as Evil exists, there will always be Good to rise up against it. Fusoya also claimed that the people of the Blue Planet may have already evolved beyond the Lunarians. The group was set to return, and Golbez asked Fusoya if he could stay with the Lunarians and learn more about his people. Fusoya realized that this would be okay and let Golbez stay. Golbez started talking with Cecil, but Cecil would never respond. Just as Fusoya and Golbez were walking out to sleep off the next hundred (or whatever) years, Golbez said his goodbye. At first Cecil didn't want to respond, but just as they were about gone...Cecil said farewell to his brother. (aaaaaaw) I'm then treated to a cutscene telling the Legend of Mysidia as well as an extra note. The Lunar Whale takes the group back to the planet, and the game proceeds in telling everybody's epilogue story. After going over everybody and one really long cutscene later, I'm finally treated to the game's ending credits.
     AAAAAAWWWW YEAAAAAH! I beat Final Fantasy 4! Take THAT! Time for a wrap-up post, and it's on to Final Fantasy 5!

Ending Point - End of the Game! I BEAT IT!
Current Party -

• Cecil - Level 58
• Rosa - Level 57
• Edge - Level 56
• Rydia - Level 55
• Kain - Level 58

Goals Accomplished - Made it through Slyph Cave and obtained the summon Slyph. Made it through the Passage of Eidolons and gained both the Asura and Leviathan summons. Defeated Odin in Baron Castle and obtained the Odin summon. Conquered the Lair of the Father and Bahamut, which in turn got me the Bahamut summon! Made it through the Cave of Trials and defeated a whole group of extra bosses for super weapons! Pushed my way through the Lunar Subterrane and obtained more super weapons and awesome armor. Defeated Zeromus and saved the world!
Next Goals - Start Final Fantasy 5!

SIDE NOTE - I considered doing the side games in the Complete Collection known as FF4 Interlude and FF4 The After Years, but I think I would be better off trying these on the side then focusing on them. I'm ready to move on to later Final Fantasy games!

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

Day 31

Game - Final Fantasy 4, Day 31
Hours Played/Hours Total - 3 hrs / 19 hrs
Starting Point - Underworld, right outside of the Sealed Cave.
Current Goal - Find a way to stop Golbez from using the moon somehow. Save the World.

What Happened - So...the last session left me with losing all the crystals and screwing over the world. I do believe the game has a fairly happy ending, so let's see how that goes! Also...
LOTS AND LOTS OF SPOILERS ARE COMING! STORY BREAKING SPOILERS!
     Since I was right outside of the cave, I figured...back to Dwarven Castle! I flew over, went inside, and reported to King Giott about the failure. It seemed as if the world was doomed, but the king mentioned something about a Lunar Whale and "Born of a dragon..." Cecil recognized this as being part of the Mysidian Legend and informed the king that Mysidia was quite real. After some talking back and forth, the king claimed we needed to get back to the surface. Of course, this is a problem since both our ways out are unavailable. (The big hole is sealed ,AND the Tower of Babil is unreachable.) Then a voice chimed in about digging to the surface instead. Who else but Cid? He comes into the Throne Room and says he can attach a drill to the front of the Falcon. Personally, I think it's a bit crazy to attach a drill to the front of an airship to drill a hole to the surface...but this is fantasy baby! Cid begins working on the airship again. A short dancing cutscene later, Cid collapses. Thankfully, he simply exhausted himself and was more or less okay. With the drill on ship, I jumped on the Falcon and made for the sealed entrance. One neat-ish CG scene later, I'm back on the surface and ready to move on.
     From there, I just needed to make my way to Mysidia. King Giott believed that the Mysidian Elder (who we said was last praying) was possibly trying to summon the Lunar Whale. Considering the size of the world map, it took me a bit to find Mysidia. After a long random flyabout, I came upon Mysidia, set down, and entered inside. Turns out that the elder was waiting for us, and he took us up to the tower so that they could finish praying. I was shortly shown a cool cutscene of a large space ship flying out from under the water. This kind of surprised me because I thought the ship might actually look like a whale, but this looked like a huge space ship. The elder stated that someone/something spoke to him and told him that we needed to head to the moon. Of course, the group questioned how they would possibly get to the moon. He informs us that the Lunar Whale (the huge space ship) came from the moon and could take us to it. So...time for me to go to the freakin' moon!
     I jumped on the Lunar Whale outside of town (it takes up like 2-3 spaces on the world map...) and took off. It immediately takes me up to the moon. I'm glad I saved beforehand, because quite a bit happened on my first attempt at the moon. I flew around until I spotted a cave. This cave turned out to be a dungeon that I was completely unprepared for. The enemies were incredibly tough, and many of them had the high tier of spells OR super powered abilities. I met a robot, a witch, a bone dragon, and finally a behemoth. I managed to get quite a ways into the dungeon before happening upon a boss battle (the behemoth) that killed me. Let's try this again. On my second attempt to the moon, I looked around until I found another cave. This one wasn't a dungeon, but it was instead the home of the weird rabbit creature (Namingway) and his clan of Moon rabbit people. I hadn't mentioned it before previously (because I didn't think it mattered) that the game contained a character known as Namingway. He's a strange, rabbit creature that allowed you to rename your characters. I thought it was simply an inserted character to allow renaming, but it seems he has a whole clan of Namingways called Hummingways located in Hummingway Abode on the moon...Crazy stuff here. The cave was mostly a pointless stop, but one of the Hummingways did have items for sale. I bought what I could, talked to them (got nothing from that), and finally left the Hummingway Abode AKA Pointless Cave.
     I got back on the Lunar Whale and started flying around the moon more. While getting in and out of the Lunar Whale, you are allowed to actually explore the inside. Inside the Lunar Whale was much like the The Invincible in FF3. It contained healing pods (futuristic beds) and a Fat Chocobo for easy item storage. There was also a control panel and a crystal. The control panel allowed flying of the Lunar Whale while the crystal was used for going back and forth between the moon and the planet. It was definitely a good thing I decided to explore inside because I was afraid that I was going to be stuck on the moon. Anyways, after some more moon exploration, I located a series of caves surrounding a large crystal formation. It was impossible to get to the base, so I landed where I could and aimed for the nearest accessible cave. This lead me on a path around the crystal formation through multiple caves. Eventually, I ended up right where I wanted to be. I entered the base of the crystal formation and came face to face with...plot stuff!
     Upon entering, I found myself in a nicely built structure that called itself the Crystal *. I walked forward and met an old man who called himself Fusoya. The group asked who he was, and he revealed his name as well as his duty, which is to protect the slumber of the Lunarians. This just brought up more questions... namely "Lunarians?!" Time for story stuff! Basically, there was a planet that was facing destruction and the species of that planet escaped to the Blue Planet (figure that's us) using a ship. However, they were still evolving so they created a moon where they'd sleep it off, for a loooong ass time. The sleeping people he talked about are the Lunarians. It seems that one of the Lunarians was rebellious and decided to not sleep though. Instead, he wanted to destroy everything on the Blue Planet and create a new home there. Lucky for us Blue Planet folk, Fusoya was able to seal that guy and force him to sleep. Of course, that wasn't enough to stop this evil doer. He channeled his evil to the planet to corrupt people there and forced them to gather the Crystals. Dun dun duuuuuuuun! Basically, Golbez isn't in control of his own actions. It seems the one in control is actually the sleeping evil doer known as Zemus.He plans to use the crystals to power something located inside the Giant of Babil. With that in hand, he'll be able to destroy everything on the planet. Minus Zemus, the Lunarians think they can come to an understanding with us. They're only sleeping because the Blue Planet species weren't evolved enough. The group asks about the Lunar Whale as well. Turns out it was built by Fusoya's brother, Kluya, many years ago. His brother traveled to the Blue Planet long ago because he was enamored with the planet. Turns out that he also showed the people how to create airships and even built the Devil's Road. And (SPOILER ALERT) he fell in love with someone there and had children. Turns out Cecil is one of these children! DUN DUN DUUUUUN! The Voice on the Mount of Ordeals was the soul of his father, and now everything falls together.
     Kluya did what he did on the Mount of Ordeals to give Cecil the power to fight Zemus. Fusoya instructed us to return to the Tower of Babil in Eblan. Edge points out that the Tower of Babil had a barrier around it, but Fusoya figures he could get around it. Fusoya then joined the group to help us stop the Giant of Babil from reaching the planet. LUNARIAN ACQUIRED! With Fusoya on hand, it was time to go back to the Blue Planet and get into the Tower of Babil. However, upon returning to the planet, it seemed that we were too late. The Giant of Babil had been summoned and began destroying everything! Thankfully (and stupid fastly) everybody gathered their forces and were attacking the giant. Everybody being pretty much everybody...Cid, Edward, Yang (somehow alive), Porom and Palom (cured by the Mysidian Elder), and even the dwarven king Giott were all there with airships and tanks to help fight the Giant. Fusoya told us that we had to enter the Giant and destroy it from the inside. So with a little help from Cid, the group entered the Giant of Babil. They flew into the mouth, and I slowly climbed down through the Giant to make it to his core. Along the way, I fought some impressively hard and annoying enemies. It seemed the game was determined that I was either 1. under leveled OR 2. going to be challenged. After many enemies, lots of healing, and reviving, I finally found a save spot. I healed up, saved, and moved forward to the core.
     Unfortunately for me, partway to the core, I encountered a familiar set of faces. It was the Elemental Archfiends! They said that Zemus used his power to give them all a second life, and they had all planned to use their new life to take down the group. It did not look good. Time for SUPER ULTIMATE BOSS BATTLE TIME! Basically, I got to fight all four elemental archfiends one after another. They were more powerful than their first time (of course), and they were ready to take us down. The first three (Scarmiglione, Rubicante, and Cagnazzo in that order) went down with relative ease. They each had a definite weakness to one of the three main offense spells. However, once I got to Barbariccia...things got quite a bit harder. She didn't have a definite weakness to any of the three elements. On top of that, she had an attack called Maelstrom that reduced everybody's health to around 4 HP each. This was not fun, and I had to constantly either heal people up OR revive the ones that fell sometime after. It was a constant drain on my resources. Despite her rediculous attack, I was finally able to put her down. And yet again...I defeated all 4 elemental archfiends. With them defeated, it was time to charge the core!
     BOSS BATTLE TIME! This time, I was face to face with the CPU of the Giant. Unfortunately, the CPU was not alone. The CPU had two nodes working with it: an attack node and a defense node. The attack mode was set to just laser the group every time its turn came up. The defense node simply healed the CPU constantly. My first several rounds against the CPU didn't go well. If you kill all the nodes, you are left with just the CPU, but then it starts using a lame move (Object 199 or something like that) which automatically kills a random party member. So then I have to waste time reviving them as it casts it at least one more time. After that, it revives both nodes and the process begins again. Unfortunately, I didn't think about the proper way to go about this until I killed the nodes one more time. After that, you simply need to kill one node while leaving the other alive. While only one node is alive, the CPU does nothing but cast Reflect on itself. You obviously can't leave the Defense Node since it heals 3000 HP a turn to the CPU, so I had to destroy the defense node and constantly heal while the Attack Node did it's laser spray. It took some time (and lotsa healing) but I managed to beat the CPU. With the CPU destroyed, the Giant should soon come down.
     Before the Giant goes down, more plot happens! Golbez comes in and is angry because we have destroyed the giant. Fusoya rushes at Golbez and says something about breaking him from the mind control. After a flash of light, Golbez seems to come to his senses. Fusoya asks Golbez who his father was...Golbez says the name Kluya! DUN DUN DUUUUUN! That's right! After all this time, it turns out that Golbez is Cecil's brother! Both of them are part Lunarian as well! Golbez finally is able to realize everything that he has done, and he takes this opportunity to take the fight to Zemus. Fusoya joins Golbez and the two go off to fight Zemus. Just as they get away, the Giant of Babil finally starts to crumble apart. The group seems to be stuck until Kain comes back in and points the way out. They're a bit skeptical, but it's really the only available choice at this point. So the group escapes the giant as I'm treated to a lovely CG scene of the Giant of Babil crumbling apart. The group returns to the Lunar Whale and start talking about their next step. Everybody is in agreement to go join Golbez and Fusoya in fighting Zemus on the moon.
     They all head to the moon, and now the game is turned over to me. I have the choice of exploring for side quests or finishing up the game. I figure it is finally time to get down and do some side quests. That and Rydia only has the starting summons that she came with. Time to find more of those! Also, now with all the past characters back in action, I'm able to fully customize my party with whoever I want! This also means getting new and better things with them. I'll probably stick with my current lineup, but I'll at least give some of the old characters a try. With everything gotten done here and not ready to start the final dungeon, I figured it was time to stop and save for the night. It seems as if the next post will hopefully be the last post for Final Fantasy 4....Look forward to it!

Ending Point - Underworld nearby Sylph Cave.
Current Party -

• Cecil - Level 44
• Rosa - Level 44
• Edge - Level 40
• Rydia - Level 42
• Kain - Level 44

Goals Accomplished - Attach a drill to the Falcon so we can reach the surface. Obtain the Lunar Whale. Flew to the moon and explored it. Found the Lunarian Fusoya and had everything explained to me. Gained Fusoya as a party member! Defeated the revived elemental archfiends. Stopped the Giant of Babil.
Next Goals - Prepare for the final dungeon. Beat the game. Save the world!

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

Day 30

Game - Final Fantasy 4, Day 30
Hours Played/Hours Total - 5-1/2 hrs / 16 hrs
Starting Point - Nearby the Tower of Babil in the Underworld.
Current Goal - Climb to Tower of Babil and retrieve the seven stolen crystals. Defeat Golbez. Save the world.

What Happened - Time to shift into high gear and kick some Final Fantasy butt! Also, Wooo! Day 30!
     I started off nearby the Tower of Babil, but I quickly made my way into it and started the climb. It was quite a ways up the tower. Floor after floor...and so many enemies. It seemed a lot like the Tower of Zot, but the enemies were mostly weak to ice. Of course, they started giving me piles of Ice-based equipment and weapons. It was awesome having a team of five again of course. A dedicated black and white mage are basically just the best way to go. Add summons on top for the Black Mage, and this is just a great group! It wasn't the easiest trip up, but I never really came close to dying. Some groups of enemies (namely the flan jerks) were decently annoying/challenging, but otherwise everything went fairly smoothly. It also helps that my mages have 200+ MP! Up until this point, none of them had much more than 100, if they even had that.
     Many floors and a couple of save areas later, I finally arrive to a cutscene between the last elemental archfiend and a mysterious old man (who looks kind of like Doctor Wily...). The man reveals himself to be Dr. Lugae. He claims to be the brains behind the entirety of Golbez's operation. He then attacks us with his great creation Barnabas for BOSS BATTLE TIME! But it turns out that it was mostly a joke fight, and I took Lugae and Barnabas down quite quickly. After losing, he said it was time for us to face his true power! Time for BOSS BATTLE TIME 2! FOR REAL THIS TIME! But it seems that I was in for yet another disappointing battle. It was just regular Lugae when I first entered, but then he transformed into some sort of skeleton-monster thing. All he did was use sleeping gas and poison to attack. A few rounds into it and he was already beaten. Upon defeat, he revealed that the Tower of Babil was already done and connected the Underworld to the Overworld. Also Rubicante, the remaining elemental archfiend of fire (assuming), had already taken all of the Crystals to the surface. His final word as he disappeared was that his cannons would destroy the dwarves! Realizing that the dwarves would be in trouble, the group moved forward in the tower to try and stop the cannons.
     With a new goal in mind, I began to look for a way to stop the cannons. Dr. Lugae dropped a key upon defeat, and I remembered a door a few floors down that was locked...So I put one and one together and realized the obvious choice of what I needed to do. After unlocking the door, I ran into a trio of monsters operating the cannons. They were just simple goblins, so I easily took them down in battle. Unfortunately, they did something drastic after their defeat and destroyed the cannon controls. The group started to panic, but then Yang stepped forward and threw the group out of the room. He locked the door behind him and said that he would stop the cannons. Sad time. Yang gave his parting words and then he was gone...
     I was unsure what to do, so I just started going down the tower. It wouldn't let me teleport out, so I figured there had to be SOMETHING left to do. I continued onward until the I finally hit a special event. As I was about to leave the tower, Golbez showed up! He started destroying the bridge from the tower to the Underworld. It didn't look good for the group...but then Cid flew in and rescued us! It seemed we weren't out of trouble yet though. Just as we were flying away, one of the Red Wings' ships started chasing us. Cid did his best to try and outrun it, but it was to no avail. Then Cid gave Cecil control of the ship. He planned to seal the entrance to the Underworld with a giant bomb. He was going to sacrifice himself to save the group. It's like this game just WANTS to kill off characters. The group flies up and out as Cid leaps into the hole to blow up the entrance. He has a last moment of parting words in the game, and then it blows up. I was treated to a small cutscene showing the ship flying above the smoking crater of what used to be the entrance to the Underworld.
     Before jumping out, Cid had instructed the group to return to Baron and talk with his crew. He said they would help us out. So I traveled to Baron and entered the castle. After a bit of looking around, I finally found Cid's crew. They installed a wench and hook on the airship so we could pick up the hovercraft (waaaay back from the beginning of the game). Cid's crew informed me of a cave I could enter nearby the Kingdom of Eblan. I figured that would be the best place to start. I flew around the map until I finally found Castle Eblan. I had previously explored the castle and taken some of the items, but I missed a few so I went back in for round 2 of castle exploration. After cleaning it out, I jumped on the hovercraft and made my way to the cave. The Cave of Eblan (such a complicated name!) seemed to be another typical water cave dungeon, but just a small ways into it, I found out that it was home to the remainder of Eblan. Early on in the made-up world's timeline, the Kingdom of Eblan was attacked and destroyed by Golbez and his troops (most likely one of the elemental archfiends as well). It seems that some people managed to survive this and evacuated to this cave. It had an item shop, weapon & armor shop, and even an inn! I bought what I could, healed up, and traveled further into the cave.
     Apparently the Prince of Eblan had continued further into the cave. The cave supposedly leads to the Tower of Babil, and he went further in to avenge his parents and the kingdom. With that in mind (and no other current goal), I decided to delve further inside and hopefully find my way to the Tower of Babil. Along the path, I ran into the Prince of Eblan going up against the fire archfiend, Rubicante. It went into a battle scene where Edge went down very quickly with little effort from Rubicante. After defeating him, Rubicante left the scene. The group approaches the severely hurt and down Prince (named Edge). He didn't want anybody to take Rubicante other than himself, but after some talking with the group (and healing from Rosa) he decided to join up. And the party goes back to five! Woo!
     A short time later, I found myself just outside the Tower of Babil. With a little help from Edge, the group was able to get inside ,and we started the climb up. It's cool to finally have a Ninja in the group! I didn't say it before, but Edge is a ninja. He's got Ninjitsu (slightly different magic) and a Throw ability (throws weapons and special items). Unfortunately, he's also not super powerful yet. He's got a decent attack but lacks in defense and HP. Going to hope that later Jitsus he gets are fairly powerful. Moving along...Now that I was inside the tower, I was starting to run into some decently annoying enemies. They were not horribly hard, but they generally dealt out enough damage to require healing almost every battle. Anyways, I continued upward and onward into the Tower. I found a few trinkets on the way up, but the only really good item I had found so far was an Ogrekiller Axe. It was nice for dealing with the damn ogres that took what seemed like FOREVER to kill. Everything was going well until strangely enough, we ran into the King and Queen of Eblan (Edge's parents). This was quite strange (and obviously a trap) because they were supposed to be dead! Edge goes to talk with them, but then they mention something about taking him to HELL...and begin BOSS BATTLE TIME!
     The enemies of this battle were demon-ized versions of the King and Queen of Elban. They were quite horrific looking, but of course, I soon found out that was a story battle and not a battle-battle. I kept fighting regardless...and eventually the King and Queen are able to come to their senses. However, they feel they aren't meant for this world anymore, and they say goodbye to Edge as they part from the battle and life. After the heartfelt scene, we are greeted by Rubicante. He seems quite shocked by the King and Queen's demonic appearance. He damns the dead Dr. Lugae and claims that he would have never done that. Apparently, Rubicante (despite being evil) is the most honorable of all the Archfiends. This is probably my favorite type of bad guy. The one that despite being evil, he upholds honor and generally is just looking for a challenge among his foes. I have nothing wrong with the general evil or SUPER evil, but these guys tend to stand out as being more than just evil. Basically...I love the idea of Lawful Evil. It means that he's a bad guy, but he has a bit of class about it. He might even be trying to take over the world, but it's probably to eliminate what he sees as a faulty system of justice and such. Anyways...end rant. Begin BOSS BATTLE TIME! (for realz this time).
     Rubicante immediately exclaims how his fire cloak is great and impenetrable...as he opens it up to fight. Basically, this was a fairly straightforward battle. He fights with fire spells and his super spell Inferno for one part, but then he jumps inside his cloak for the next part. The cloak seemed to absorb and heal him whenever a magic spell was used on it, so I had to fight physically for the most part. And even then, any physical attack that hits him seems to let him counterattack the entire party with Fira. Lucky for me, that didn't do a whole lot of damage. His most powerful attack/spell was Inferno, but he only cast that one time. It did kill Rydia, but I quickly revived her and continued the battle. My first idea (after seeing his initial spell action) was to cast Shell on the party. This greatly helped against the Fira counter. After that, I simply attacked and healed as necessary. I kept Kain set to Jump every turn he could. Edge (right before the battle) learned a Water Jitsu, so I kept him on that until he ran out of MP. Rydia was a mixture of Shiva summoning and Blizzara spells. He put up a decent fight, but outside of the Inferno spell, he never really got any great damage out. Upon defeat Rubicante congratulates our team effort in beating him, but then he simply leaves parts with us for the moment. Going to see him again most likely.
     As we defeated Rubicante, some of Edge's people came charging in and were ready to fight by his side to beat Rubicante...who was already beaten for the moment. After explaining to them that we already helped him, he asked who Golbez was. So the group then filled Edge in on Golbez's general plan. Edge realizes that this takes priority and decides to help the group out. His people try to convince him that the Kingdom needs him otherwise, but Edge simply says that the Kingdom will be okay and must wait. I'd agree...considering that Golbez's plan reeks of world destruction. So Edge's people leave, and then I'm allowed to continue on. Turns out the next room is the crystal room! Woo! But then the first panel I touch turns out to be a giant pitfall trap...damn it. The group is thrown down several floors, and now I'm left here to try and crawl back up the tower.
     I was thrown back down to the lower floors near the Underworld. It turns out that the portion of the rooms I could see but not get to before are now being gotten to...by me! I walked around a bit and finally came upon an enemy vessel. Edge saw this airship as a means to escape. Of course, the group was apprehensive about flying out with an enemy ship. Edge doesn't pay that much mind, names the ship Falcon, and takes the ship up and out. The first thing I notice is that we are back in the Underworld, but I kind of figured we'd be coming back here soon. And the sucky part for our group is that the ship, Falcon, is unable to fly over the lava ocean. I fly on back along the path, land at the Dwarven Castle, and proceed inside. It seems that was the correct thing to do, because when I reach the throne room, we are greeted by King Giott. He of course hopes we have reclaimed the crystals...which we have not. He informs us that Golbez is currently trying to force open the Sealed Cave with the last crystal. He appears to be close to succeeding so the King asks us to try and get the crystal before Golbez can. He gets a necklace from his daugher Luca and gives it to the group. He explains that it is the only key to the Sealed Cave, and that there is no way to enter without the necklace. With the necklace in hand, it's time to head to the Sealed Cave.
     Of course, that would be the plan, but I figure that the Sealed Cave is somewhere across the lava...which I can't pass with my current airship. Thankfully, some random NPC talk points to Cid being alive and currently in the castle infirmary. I ran around the castle until I finally happened upon the infirmary. Cid was simply sleeping away, and the group was quite delighted to find him alive. After some talk, Cid gladly offers to fix up the ship. Around a minute of jumping and moving sprites later...(To explain, this game really loves to move the character sprites around and have them jump and do stuff. Basically, many cutscenes are done with characters moving about and doing things. This particular one involved Cid jumping around the airship and getting it super-flight capable.) The group was back surrounding Cid in bed, and it started to make give a foreboding feeling...Until the group realized Cid was simply sleeping after working on the ship. With the ship ready to go, I jumped on the Falcon and took to finding the Sealed Cave.
     Before going to the Sealed Cave, I did a bit of exploring and located a few places. One was the home of a fabled blacksmith whose name I already forgot. The next stop was a mythical cave named Slyph Cave. It was rumored to lead to the fayrealm. I tried to go inside and make it somewhere, but I got my ass handed to me by everything in there, so I quickly made for the exit and didn't look back. After circling around, I managed to find another town. It was a small town of dwarves. They were surprised to see other visitors there. This is quite easy to see...considering they are both in a far off edge of the underworld AND separated by massive lava ocean from their castle brethren. Anyways, they had a new assortment of armor for my armored fellows (Cecil and Kain), so I bought all that I could in that capacity. I was a little short funded so I did miss out on a few items. After stocking up, I healed at the Inn and left the town.
     After the town visit, I decided to fly to the Sealed Cave and make good on the unsealing of it. I entered, used the necklace, and was given first dibs on all the contents inside. This was a fairly generic looking cave dungeon at first, but that all quickly changed with the first door...You see, it turns out that they should have called this the Monster Door cave, because that's basically all it has inside of it. Every door was just waiting to turn into a monster door. The first couple of doors weren't so bad, but then it just started getting annoying and unoriginal feeling. By the 6th door, it just felt stupid. The biggest annoyance with the Monster Doors was that they had a way to one-hit kill my party members. They generally only accomplished this once before I destroyed them, but it still remained an annoyance nonetheless. I didn't take a count, but I believe I fought at LEAST 15 of these door monsters, if not more. These stupid doors doubled if not tripled the time it took to get through this place. Many of these doors were extra doors that had nothing within them.
     Several, several monster doors later, I finally found myself in the crystal chamber. I grabbed the crystal inside and made a hasty retreat. However, it seems that the crystal had ONE more defense up its sleeve. The wall started to move, and I came face-to-face with BOSS BATTLE TIME! It was a demon wall that was slowly and surely moving towards the party. I'm not sure what would have happened if it had gotten close, but I didn't want to find out. It was pretty much just beat-it-to-death battle. I didn't really put any effort to strategize either...just threw what all I could at it. It went down. End of story. With the Demon Wall down, I continued upward to get out of the cave. Because yet again...it won't let me teleport out. That means I have some great surprise waiting for me near the top.
     Fast forward to the very last room (entrance) at the top and guess what happened? Plot happened. As I was just entering the room, the screen went a shade of blue, and then I hear Golbez speak. He tells Kain to take the Dark Crystal and bring it to him. Kain claims that he's all himself and that Golbez has no control over him. However, that is quickly seen as a lie when Kain stabs Cecil and takes the crystal. The group implores Kain to fight it, but that doesn't seem to work. Kain walks out with the Crystal, and now Golbez gets to make it to the moon. This does not bode well...
     Seeing as I have a lot of stuff done, I figured now was as good a time as any to sign off for the day. I saved my game outside the cave and called it good.

Ending Point - Underworld, right outside of the Sealed Cave.
Current Party -

• Cecil - Level 41
• Rosa - Level 40
• Edge - Level 35*
• Rydia - Level 39

*The stupid jerk kept dying, and I kept killing enemies before I could get him revived. Thus he is 5 levels lower than everybody. =|

Goals Accomplished - Climbed the Tower of Babil. Defeated Dr. Lugae. Stopped the cannons from destroying the dwarves. Escaped the Red Wings and closed the hole to the Underworld. Got the Enterprise upgraded with a tow hook. Located and transported the hovercraft to the Kingdom of Eblan. Looted some goods from the remains of Castle Eblan. Used the hovercraft to gain access to the Cave of Eblan. Rescued Edge, the Prince of Eblan, and gained a new party member. Climbed the Tower of Babil (part 2) and sent Edge's parents' souls to rest. Defeated Rubicante, the elemental archfiend of fire. Almost got the crystals but then fell down a hole. Got a new airship, the Falcon. Got Cid to upgrade the Falcon so it was actually useful. Located Sylph Cave and immediately left. Found and unsealed the Sealed Cave. Fought like 2 dozen Monster Doors (actually called Trap Doors). Found and claimed the final Dark Crystal. Defeated the Demon Wall trap thing. Lost the Dark Crystal and Kain turned on everybody...happy days.
Next Goals - Find a way to stop Golbez from using the moon somehow. Save the World.

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

Day 29

Game - Final Fantasy 4, Day 29
Hours Played/Hours Total - 2-1/2 hrs / 10-1/2 hrs
Starting Point - Nearby the Kingdom of Troia.
Current Goal - Return the Earth Crystal to Troia. Trade the Earth Crystal for Rosa. Defeat Golbez. Save the World.

What Happened - Really great game. It's challenging and interesting. I feel like it isn't going as fast as I'd like (mostly due to my goal of finishing before the year). Either way, I can't wait to have another check mark on the list of done! On to the WHAT HAPPENED!
     I picked up the game nearby Troia Castle. I went inside and "handed" over the Earth Crystal to its leaders. However, it seemed that Kain was ahead of the game. He knew not only that I was back, but that I also had the Earth Crystal in hand. He said to meet him outside. After checking on Edward (who was fine), I went outside and got in the Enterprise. Kain flies up and has us follow him to the Tower of Zot. There, we are told by Golbez that he will trade us Rosa for the Crystal...if we can make it up to him. It's always funny in a game where it's all "you best hurry fast!" but then you don't actually get a time limit...Anyways, I began my ascent of the Tower of Zot. The enemies here were fairly tough. It didn't help that I didn't restock on anything. As I got higher and higher in the floor numbers, it got really bad. I had to start using up items I wasn't keen on wasting yet, namely an Elixer. By the time I got to a Save Room, I already wasted several items I wasn't wanting to use. I healed up and moved forward...right into a BOSS BATTLE! It seems that the next elemental fiend sent a welcoming party composed of the Magus Sisters. They were an odd bunch, but they weren't much of a challenge for a boss battle. I just kept attacking until they were dead, and apparently I was doing enough damage to take them out before they did anything serious. After their defeat, I ran back, healed, saved, and then returned to continue onward.
     It turned out that the next area was the final area of the Tower of Zot. I met Golbez face to face and handed over the Earth Crystal. It turned out that Golbez was lying the entire time though. He didn't give back Rosa upon receiving the Earth Crystal. Tellah ran towards him in rage and STORY BOSS BATTLE! Tellah cast everything he had at Golbez with no real response. Finally, in a moment of rage, he cast the all powerful Meteor and finally took down Golbez...or so it seemed. The only thing Meteor accomplished was Golbez being severely weakened. He lost his control over Kain. As he was trying to leave, Cecil tried to go after him, and Golbez attacked him. As Cecil lay at Golbez's feet, he suddenly stopped, turned away, and left. He claimed he would finish him next time. Anyways, the group goes up to Tellah, but it is too late. Tellah used his life to power Meteor. Tellah asks that they avenge Anna for him, and Cecil promises to avenge them both. Sad time...Before moving on, I checked on the now free Kain. He leads the group to where Rosa is (the only door in the room...so hard to find). Cecil rescues Rosa, and a heartfelt moment is had between the two. The group goes to leave, but Kain feels wrong about everything he's done. They assure him that it wasn't his fault, but that they need him for what is to come. Kain finally agrees and the group goes to leave...
     Or so you'd think! Before I could make it out the door, I was assaulted by the wind fiend, Barbariccia. She was the one who sent the Magus Sisters after me, and now she sends herself to try and beat me! BOSS BATTLE TIME! Barbariccia (so tired of typing that) is a tricky little lady...or she should have been. Right before the battle, I gained two new party members (Rosa and Kain). With the addition of a White Mage and a Dragoon, this battle was no problem. Heck, the battle actually REQUIRES the use of Kain and his Jump ability. At certain points, she surrounds herself with her hair, and this makes her incredibly resistant to all attacks (except jump ones as it mentions). Surprise! Basically, you can just spend this battle lobbing all of your attacks at her while healing with Rosa. I sure do miss Tellah..and his Black Magic. After only a few rounds, Barbariccia goes down for the count. After the battle, she claims there is one fiend left out there and how we don't stand a chance against him. As the group goes to leave, she decides to bring the place down on us (with her wind and death energy I guess?). As the group starts to panic, Rosa makes use of her Teleport spell and takes the group back to Baron...to Cecil's room exactly.
     Once there, the group starts talking about the current position. It seems bad at first because they realize Golbez has all four elemental crystals. (Oh noes!) Kain informs the group that Golbez actually only has half of them...It turns out that there is a Underground world with 4 similar but dark crystals! The world above is the Light World, and the world below is the Dark World. Sound familiar? Basically, the group needs to find a way to get to the Underworld realm and stop Golbez there. Golbez told Kain something about using the crystals to make a path to the moon...Talk about some cocky foreshadowing! Kain hands over a strange item called the Magma Stone. He says it is a key to something, but I just don't know what. Anyways, dialogue ends and the group gets ready to continue onward to the next goal.
     With the Magma Stone in hand, I was fairly clueless what to do. However, limited choices told me I had only like one of two options to pick from. I looked towards Mythril and found nothing there I could do, so I head towards the small dwarf descendant village of Agart. Once there, I went to their magical well bottomless well and threw the Magma Stone in. I didn't look up a guide for this...but I figured that it was really the only thing I could do currently. After tossing the stone in, the nearby mountain erupted/exploded and revealed an entrance to the underworld. Aaaah yeah! Time to keep moving along. I jumped on the airship and flew down into the underworld. Once there, the ship went to auto-story-pilot and flew us right into the middle of a giant battle. The battle was between tanks and airships (the airships were identified as the Red Wings). Cid tries to fly the ship out of the battle but takes a hit in the process. The ship goes down and crash lands nearby a castle. With that being the only nearby location, I entered the castle.
     It turns out that the Castle was a dwarven castle of...dwarves. They just let me right in like I owned the place. I find that strange what with surface dwellers attacking them and all. Anyways, I looked around, found the shops, purchased some items, and then proceeded to talk with the king dwarf, King Giott. He was talking about their current effort at pushing back the airships that Golbez was sending. He wasn't sure about trusting the group, but he felt like they were different from Golbez. Unfortunately for me, Golbez had already obtained two of the Dark Crystals. King Giott assured us that the current crystal was hidden (behind the throne) and very safe. Cid offered his ship's assistance to the King who gladly accepted. However, Cid needed to repair the ship and add new armor to the ship for protection from all the magma nearby (we are underground after all). He needed to return to the surface to do this, so he leaves the group for now. The group is about to talk with the king more, but Yang feels a strange presence coming from behind the throne (where the Dwarf King hid their crystal). The group goes to investigate and finds a bunch of creepy marionette dolls. They attack the group for BOSS BATTLE TIME! It's just a group of three male dolls and three female dolls. I quickly dispatched three of them, but the rest merged to form Calcabrina. Despite its fearsome appearance, I quickly and easily dispatched of the giant, evil marionette doll monster.
     However, as the marionette dolls ran away, they mentioned Golbez's new knowledge of the crystal room there. He then appeared out of nowhere to take the crystal and inform us of his master plan. It turns out that he wants to use all 8 Crystals to to reactivate the Tower of Babil. The Tower of Babil leads to the moon, and legends say that the moon contains power beyond comprehension. With that crystal stolen, he only needs one more crystal to succeed. He then attacked me for BOSS BATTLE TIME! However, this was a set battle for me to fail and lose. None of my attacks hit, and he finally did stunned everybody in my party. After stunning everyone, he summoned a Shadow Dragon. The Shadow Dragon quickly killed every party member in one hit, leaving only Cecil. As he was about to kill Cecil, suddenly a mist came in ,and the Mist Dragon appeared! It attacked Golbez and killed his Shadow Dragon. With those gone, a mysterious yet familiar figure joined my ranks to help defeat Golbez. It was Rydia! She looked like a much older and mature Rydia, but for the most part, she brought a much needed advantage to our side! She came with a good set of summons (6!) and better black magic! I set about reviving my teammates while trying out the new summons on Golbez. He didn't make it easy on reviving people though...he kept taking down party members as I brought them up. Anyways, after a few summons, he went down for the count. After the battle ended, it appeared as if Golbez was finally defeated. Of course we all realize...that was too easy. Golbez says something about being undefeatable and melts into nothing but his arm. The arm then crawls over to the Crystal and teleports away with it. That's just lame and cheap. Rydia gives the group an update on her story. It turns out that Leviathan whisked her away to the Fey realm. They spell it differently, but I prefer my method. Time worked differently there, so she actually aged quite a bit before returning. With her back, she returned to the party to help fight with her now fully awakened Summoning abilities.
     The group proceeds back outside to inform King Giott that their crystal had been stolen. This is a bad deal because Golbez only needs ONE more crystal to enact his evil plan to do something with the moon. He informed us of the last crystal being located in a Sealed Cave to the southwest, and that Golbez was already heading that way. However, he let us know that there was no way of getting inside the cave without the key. He then proceeded to make a request of us...Turns out that the request isn't to get the key! He wants us to assault the Tower of Babil and retrieve the stolen seven crystals while their dwarven tanks distract Golbez's forces. He plans to execute his plan immediately so that it can be accomplished before Golbez returns from the Sealed Cave. The group thinks the plan might be risky, but they agree to do it in that this might be the only chance they get to attempt it.


Ending Point - Nearby the Tower of Babil in the Underworld.
Current Party - Woo! Party of Five!

• Cecil - Level 28
• Rosa - Level 29
• Yang - Level 28
• Rydia - Level 30
• Kain - Level 28

Goals Accomplished - Climbed the Tower of Zot. Defeated the Magus Sisters. Traded the Earth Crystal to Golbez for a lie! Tellah sacrificed himself to delay Golbez (Sad time...). Rescued Rosa and Kain from Golbez. Defeated the Wind Fiend, Barbariccia. Escaped the Tower of Zot. Found the way to the Underworld nearby Agart. Defeated Calcabrina, strange marionette monster. Defeated Golbez...for now.
Next Goals - Climb the Tower of Babil and retrieve the stolen seven crystals. Defeat Golbez. Save the World.

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

Day 28

Game - Final Fantasy 4, Day 28
Hours Played/Hours Total - 3 hrs / 8 hrs
Starting Point - Mysidia
Current Goal - Travel the Devil's Road to Baron. Obtain an airship to stop Golbez. Save the world.

What Happened - This game just keeps on amping up...so let's continue! Also a warning of another super long post, courtesy of massive amounts of plot stuff happening!
     I started off by Mysidia, and it was time to take the Devil's Road to Baron. It turns out that the Devil's Road is actually some sort of magical teleportation device. I am treated to a scrolling map animation showing me go from one end of the planet to the other. Finally, I reappear back in good ol' Baron. It took me right into the town of Baron, and it seems that everyone there was complaining about the King. However, before moving on, I decided to check the Inn. It turns out that checking the Inn was not only a good choice, but it was also a necessary choice to getting further into Baron castle. At the bar in the Inn, I found an old friend hanging out. It was Yang! Cecil was about to greet Yang and ask him what happened, but it seems that Yang was not his old self. He and his soldier companions immediately attacked! I fought off the two soldiers fairly easily, but I was unsure about Yang. Had I not tried to just straight up beat him, he could have easily slaughtered my group. His silly powerful Kick ability allows him to attack everybody for moderate damage. Had I left it unchecked and the damage unhealed, I would have fallen fast. Thankfully, I struck fairly quickly with only a few setbacks. The setbacks was the Mini status on Palom and Porom as well as Cecil being turned into a Pig. Yeah, I had not mentioned it before, but apparently Final Fantasy 4 had a lovely new status known as "Pig" where the character is tranformed into a Pig. I don't know what the negatives are, but it sure does look stupid/silly for your character to be a pig.
     With Yang "defeated", he finally snapped out of whatever he was under. It seems that the accident with the boat gave him amnesia WHICH the King/whoever took advantage of. With Yang back on our side, it was time to assault Baron Castle! Or it would be if I could get in...Yang had a key for it, but the front entrance was definitely not going to happen. Thankfully, I did some exploring of the Town of Baron and located some locked rooms. One was the Weapon and Armor shop, and the other one was a staircase to an old waterway appropriately named Ancient Waterway. It was your  basic sewerish dungeon crawl with enemies plaguing the area. Most enemies didn't put up too much of a fight, but they were generally annoying, especially the giant Flood Worm. His only attack he had (or only attack he used) was an attack that hit the entire party for a moderate amount of damage. This was super annoying and made me have to constantly heal the entire party. So much for keeping in MP in reserve! As well as monster fights, it also contained a large number of "hidden" passage ways that lead to all sorts of treasure. None of it was necessarily beyond amazing, but it is nice to get some free items here and there.
     Upon exiting the waterway, I found myself right inside the moat of Castle Baron. I walked along the moat until I found an exit into the castle. Woo! Made it in the castle! I ran to Cecil's room and was able to rest and restore my party. From there, I entered the castle and made my way for the throne room. Along the way, I ran into an old friend/person Cecil knew. It was the King's aide, Baigan, that reported of Cecil's doubt in the King. He claimed that he held no ties to Golbez and that he was in full support of the King. He "joined" the party, and we continued forward. That was until Palom and Porom felt something was odd about the Baigan. They could tell that he wasn't human! He gave an evil laugh, said that Golbez gave him new power, and that he would show it off to us. BOSS BATTLE TIME! Baigan turned into a giant snake-esque man with snake arms. Each arm had its own health (and so it begins...), which basically means he gets three attacks rather than just one. It's a smart move to make bosses harder, but I feel it tends to either 1. be pointless OR 2. make them silly hard. Why is it pointless? If a boss has multiple parts that you can attack, why waste attacks on them when you can aim for the body OR head and kill it off then and there? Exactly. Moving along, the boss fight was tough but fair. With 3 mages at my disposal, I was able to put up Protect and Shell on everybody while supporting my attackers with Berserk and Haste. With everybody boosted as they were, I had very little trouble with the fight. Thanks to a tip from a guide, I knew that Baigan would cast Reflect on himself as soon as I used a single spell. With that in mind, I was able to specially pick and cast the best spell at my selection to maximize the damage. Many rounds of fighting and healing later, the big bad boss went down! Woo!
     With Baigan defeated, it was time to proceed to the Throne Room. I approached the King, talked to him, and then dialogue happened! I realize that is a lame way to put it, but I don't remember exactly what he said. He did greet Cecil and claim something about Paladins being worthless compared to Dark Knights. Cecil realized something wasn't right about the King. The King then turned into a giant turtle-like monster. The monster revealed himself as Cagnazzo. He said that Scarmiglione was weak and pathetic in comparison to him, and that I could say hi to him and the King when I went to hell! BOSS BATTLE TIME! Cagnazzo looks like a strange giant blue demon turtle. I began with a round up of buffing (Protect, Shell, etc) and then began the assault! The biggest move Cagnazzo had was a two step attack that called water all around him like a barrier and then shot it all at me as a huge wave (Tsunami!). This dealt a considerable amount of damage, but I soon found out that certain spells (Thunder) would actually cancel out the barrier before he could launch it. With this in mind, I having my mages cast Thunder/Thundara on Cagnazzo to keep him from using Tsunami anymore. And it turns out...I actually think I had an easier time with Cagnazzo than I did Scarmiglione...
     With Cagnazzo defeated, the group was ready to find an airship. However, the only person that could get the airship would have to be Cid...Thankfully, as the battle just finished up, Cid ran in the room exclaiming something about stopping the King. He saw the group there and was glad to see Cecil. However, he did wonder where Rosa had gone. The group informed Cid of everything that had happened as well as Rosa's current status as a captive of Golbez. With the current circumstances, Cid decided to join the crew and give us his top secret super airship! The group then proceeded to leave, but...tragedy strikes! As we are proceeding through the hallway from the throne room, the doors lock and the walls start to close in. I hear Cagnazzo in the background yelling that if he goes to hell, we are going with him! Oh noes! Actually, it was getting pretty serious. The walls kept getting closer and closer, but before it could close in....sad time happens. Palom and Porom use their magic to turn themselves into stone and hold back the walls. Tellah tried to cure them with Esuna, but he couldn't do it since they willingly turned themselves into stone. I actually felt kinda sad at this point....but the story must go on. With the sad parting from the twins, Cid lead the group to secret hiding spot of his master airship...the Enterprise!
     With my brand new, kick-ass airship in my hands, I began exploring the world. Before I could get anywhere though, I was approached by Kain in his airship. He came with demands from Golbez. Golbez demanded the Earth Crystal in exchange for Rosa's life. The group didn't want to do it, but eventually Cecil decided to give into his demands. Kain flies off, and the group decides to head for the Kingdom of Troia. Before making the journey though (although I'm clueless how to get there), I decided to make use of my new found toy/vehicle and look around the world. Along the way, I discovered two new villages! One of them was the village of Mythril where animal-people abound, and it is possible to buy Mythril weapons and armor! I was able to buy some of it, but I didn't quite get all of it. I also didn't have the patience to farm up the money to buy it all, so I departed from Mythril for now and made way for more exploration.
     The next village I found while randomly flying around (for quite a damn bit...) was the dwarven descendents village of Agart. All of the citizens located there claim to be ancestors of a race known as dwarves. There wasn't a whole lot to see or get in this town, so after looking around I quickly took my leave. I flew around for quite a while until I happened upon a heavily damaged castle in the...direction. I really wasn't paying attention to where I was going. Upon landing, I immediately faced enemies that were very much above my level. Without the use of Tellah's magic, I would have never killed any of them. I actually got several Game Overs while trying to explore the area around as well as the trapped treasure chests in the castle. I went through this about 3-4 times before I finally knew which chests to avoid. On the plus side, I gained several levels from the entire side adventure! After dying more than enough times doing that, I decided it was time to continue. So, I flew around until I finally found a place that was probably the place I was supposed to be heading. I forgot what it was called...
     Thankfully, I quickly learned that the name of the place was Troia. The Kingdom of Troia was a fertile land with plenty of green, flowing waters, and healthy people. It was basically a super hippy village. Although I did find one funny thing about this village. One of the buildings was a "hotel" of sorts. They had lots of ladies, and there was even a secret area that required a pass to enter. I decided to check it out and coughed up the 10,000 gil to enter. Turns out...Final Fantasy 4 (and previous ones) have this huge thing about having these ladies dance for you. Seriously, every town in Final Fantasy 4 has a lady that will dance for you. Anyways, the secret area of the hotel had a huge dancing room where a huge lineup of ladies will dance for you. They even got Cecil involved who was getting very nervous being in the middle. It was kinda funny though. Moving along, I entered Castle Troia and learned many a things. The first thing I learned was that Troia was actually ran by women instead of men/a man. Very interesting but mostly pointless. Next up, it turns out that Edward (Prince of Damcyan, the bard) had washed up here and was very much alive. He was in critical condition, but the group updated him on the current status of everything. Edward said that the group would be unable to obtain the Earth Crystal here because the Dark Elf had it. He handed over the mysterious item Whisperweed and went back to sleep. From there, I proceeded to the throne room (?) of Castle Troia where I met the leaders of Troia. It was a group of ladies who revealed to me all sorts of information regarding the crystal's location as well as details about it. Apparently, the Dark Elf had a great weakness to metal and had magnetized the entire cave. An interesting yet silly strategy...with the new information at hand, I made way to the Dark Elf's cavern.
     As I traveled North-Eastward, I quickly found out that there was no way to directly walk OR fly to the cavern. It was separated from me by a thin line of water. Damn you thin lines of water! I started looking around the area for a Chocobo Forest. Why? Because I found out at one point that Black Chocobo's can fly. Putting two and two together, it was very obvious that I needed a black chocobo to get anywhere. After a bit of exploring and plenty of monster battles, I finally found the Chocobo Forest. Inside, I quickly grabbed the nearest black chocobo and took off. I made my way towards the cavern and landed nearby. I then entered the terrible Lodestone Cavern. Inside, the characters immediately described how all their metal objects caused them to be immobile. I found out in my first battle how bad their being immobile was. It gave them a permanent stunned status with no way to cure it. After that battle, I quickly looked over my characters and unequipped anything and everything that could be considered metal. It turns out that everything Cecil had on his person was...metal. I had to swap out everything on him for a crossbow I had plus some arrows. That sure is a great way to take my best character and make him into the worst character. With a highly nerfed Cecil, I continued downward into the bowels of this crazy cavern. The enemies weren't too much trouble (thanks to some extra leveling I did). This cave was long enough (kinda?) that it had two different safe rooms in it. I eventually happened upon a strangely placed crystal chamber where I found the Dark Elf. The only thing I question here is how he managed to make this perfect replication of a crystal chamber. Anyways, it was time to face the Dark Elf!...with a crazy nerfed team.
     BOSS BATTLE TIME! Or so I would say, but it turns out the battle was a timed and set thing where the Dark Elf gets to win no matter what. The team is quickly defeated, but there is a faint chance yet! Edward feels the fate of the team and manages to clamber to his instrument. He begins playing music that transfers to the group through the mysterious Whisperweed. It seems that his music keeps the Dark Elf distracted enough that I am able to use metal-based items again! It is a good thing. After re-equipping Cecil, I charged again at the Dark Elf for TRUE BOSS BATTLE TIME! The Dark Elf proved to be a formidable foe. His biggest strength was his access to powerful spells like the elemental -aras as well as the Tornado spell (which did massive damage to my displeasure). With the spells in mind, I immediately threw up a Shell spell on everyone and then started whittling down his health with attacks. Thankfully, with a fully equipped team and programming not being against me, I was able to slay the Dark Elf and reclaim the Earth Crystal! The only true problem I had with this situation...they re-used the same Dark Elf monster picture that was used in Final Fantasy 1 and Final Fantasy 2. Could they not have made something SLIGHTLY different at least? Oh well, not like it matters that much. With Earth Crystal in hand, I teleported out of the cavern and made my way back to Castle Troia. Seeing as my battery was getting low and that I had quite a bit in this post...I decided it was time to save my game and quit there for now.
     And yes, I did this post over a couple of days to add up to one bigger post. This game has lots of things happening in very little time. >_<

Ending Point - Nearby the Kingdom of Troia.
Current Party -

• Cecil  - Level 24
• Tellah  - Level 26
• Yang - Level 24
• Cid - Level 25

Goals Accomplished - Reunited with Yang in Baron. Traversed the Ancient Waterway and made it into Castle Baron. Defeated the corrupted King's aide, Baigan. Defeated the Water Fiend Guy Cagnazzo. Obtained the Airship, Enterprise. Explored a good portion of the world and found Mythril and Agart. Did a bit of level farming. Found the Kingdom of Troia. Found Edward safe and hurt...but still safe. Located the Dark Elf's lair, Lodestone Cavern. Defeated the Dark Elf and rescued the Earth Crystal.

Next Goals - Return the Earth Crystal to Castle Troia. Trade the Earth Crystal for Rosa. Defeat Golbez. Save the World.

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

Side Post!

My Favorite FF Villains

Well...it has been a while since I last did a "Side Post" and felt it was time to do another one.
The main problem with that was that I had no idea what to do it over. After some time and a little bit of thinking, it finally hit me...main villains! So, the main subject of this post will be discussing some of the major Final Fantasy villains. 

     Honestly, one of the most interesting things about the Final Fantasy villains is that there are a large number of differences between each and every villain. I mean...there overall goal might be death or destruction, but each one of them tends to either go about it differently OR have different perspectives of evil. Before you read any further, I'd like to warn you that there will be large and numerous spoilers upcoming...so...

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD! IF YOU ARE AFRAID OF THE SPOILERS, DON'T READ!

     First and foremost, I'm going to list my five favorite Final Fantasy villains (not necessarily in the order of favoritism). 

Final Fantasy I - Chaos

Final Fantasy IV - Golbez

Final Fantasy VI - Kefka

Final Fantasy VII - Sephiroth

Final Fantasy IX - Kuja

     Now, what is a villain? As far as the Final Fantasy generally goes, a Final Fantasy villain has to be one of three things.

1. Pure evil god/being.
2. Crazy and demented.
3. Insanely powerful person that wants to control/end everything.

Sometimes, they are two of the three! I realize that these points are really open ended, and that basically any villain could totally fit that category. That is however besides the point....sort of. STOP JUDGING ME! 

     The Final Fantasy series is famous for many things, but I'd say one of the bigger impacts it has had is with the ominous and unforgettable villains! Although they weren't always the toughest bosses (sometimes not even the FINAL boss), they always did something that made you say "That...bastard!" They showed us the true face of "bad" by doing above and beyond in evil. Since I have yet to fully play through all of them, I will only be glimpsing over a few of them. I'll be going over the favorites that I've listed as well as a noteworthy mention Let's begin with Chaos.

     Chaos. He's the root of all evil. Chaos was creaetd when Garland traveled back in time and merged with the Four Elemental Fiends to keep himself alive. Chaos didn't really have much of a plot to him other than his existence, but maybe that was a good thing! He was just simple and pure evil. Chaos was evil because he kept time in an eternal loop which kept him (and Garland) from dying! He corrupted the world at its core to keep himself alive. That's really all there is to him. His backstory was revised in Dissidia, but (pardon this) fuck that! I looked over it, and that backstory is stupid and pointless. Just a huge pile of silly, nonsensical crap. Minus that detail, I would highly suggest Dissidia (the original, not the sequel) to any of you with a PSP. It's a pretty fun game.

     Next up, we'll be talking about Golbez. Golbez is a powerful mage and a massive schemer! You first hear the name Golbez when you learn about the attack on Damcyan but, you don't actually meet him there. The actual first time you get to see Golbez is quite an affair. He controls the mind of Kain, blasts several team members with magic, and steals your lover, Rosa. After this, he continues to dominate Kain's mind and use Rosa against Cecil and company. As the game continues, he proves to be a formidable enemy. He survives multiple battles with our gang of heroes. In the end, a major secret is revealed as to Golbez's true purpose and identity!...but I won't spoil that. You'll have to play and find out. Golbez also offered something that most of the villains (up to 4) had not so far...an actual appearance! MULTIPLE APPEARANCES! Before Golbez, you got to see the other major villains maaaaybe one or two times (including the final time). Golbez was also dark, mysterious and cool looking. Overall, he's a winner!...for a bad guy.

     Here begins the delve into the mind of madness! A man that looks more like a clown than an evil psychopath. He is...KEFKA! Kefka is a known villain throughout the entirety of Final Fantasy 6. He shows up, makes his evil laugh, and then leaves his mark. Seriously...if you never played FF6, you should know that his most memorable feature was his laugh. His evil, bone chilling laugh that would mark his presence. It was partially limited by the Super Nintendo hardware, but I think that's half of what made it evil! Another ominous version of Kefka includes the 3D/CG look created for him in the PSX (Playstation 1) port of Final Fantasy 6. He looks...like a big ol' ridiculous clown man.  Kefka's part in the game begins as an experiment and minion to an Emperor, but before everything is said and done, he gains a newfound hatred (partially from being crazy) and turns on everyone and everything. The worst part of it all...he enjoys it. He revels in the destruction and mayhem that he causes throughout the game. Overall, Kefka is one of the more liked villains in the series (right next to Sephiroth who is up next). He strays away from previous villains by being flamboyant, crazed, and an overall devilish jester of a man. 

     Now we come up to the one in the PSX FF trio of villains! I'm making a bigger deal of this here because as far as I'm concerned, Final Fantasy 7, 8, and 9 are the best in the series. They were also all on the Playstation (PSX). Therefore...here comes villain #1 (#7 game-wise, #4 post-wise) the infamous and silver-haired Sephiroth! You might know him as the guy with the stupid-long sword, the guy who killed Aeris, or One Winged Angel song boss. You can also know him as all three! Sephiroth's part in the game begins as the well known and powerful man in the unit known as SOLDIER. However, Sephiroth (earlier on before the games story started) learned about his true origin. This drove him to madness and changed his entire outlook on everything. He found out he was a descendant of an ancient race of people. Took to arms and started trying to find the truth of it all. After finding out what he needed, he felt it was time to destroy everything and bring about the end. He used the ancient magic of Meteor to try and destroy the planet. Despite your best efforts to stop him, he technically succeeds in the end. Hell, the game actually ends on a somewhat mysterious note. It does show that the world is saved, but it does it in the most annoying way. That's all I got on Sephiroth. Now, I will move on to my favorite...Kuja!

     Kuja is the villain of my favorite numbered Final Fantasy title...9. He is described in Dissidia (by Kefka) as being too pretty to be a man. As far as it is concerned, Kuja is a VERY PRETTY man. One who doesn't know him might confuse the CG picture of him to be a woman. He has makeup and everything. Kuja's initial point in the story is hard to describe...You first meet him near the end of Disc 1, and his main point in the story is that he is supplying Queen Brahne with power and weapons. However, many things change as you proceed further. He remains a big mystery throughout the game with minor appearances only to cause problems (as most villains do). You eventually learn that Kuja (and a certain other person) are not actually of the planet! They came from a different world to do complicated plot things that I don't want to explain. To put it simply, Kuja was created to be a being of war and sent as an "Angel of Death" to eliminate the inhabitants of the planet. Upon learning this, Kuja turns and becomes Trance Kuja. (Hard to describe without entirely describing the fighting system.) I remember a favored quote from a friend that revolves around Kuja..."Kuja casts Ultima on the party and the party dies. Kuja casts Ultima on the world and the world dies!" Basically, Kuja was a decently difficult boss with high powered attacks. Overall, I don't really have any reason to prefer Kuja to the others, but I do like him the most. If he had an equal in terms of my likeness, it would probably be Kefka, because of his curiously different attitude. 

     As I look over this post, I realize now that I probably should have spent more time and thought it out more...but I digress. These are just a few of the many, many villains that have appeared throughout the game series. There are many villains that are well known but not even the main villain before it is all said and done! This is shown in titles like Final Fantasy 3 where Xande appears to be the bad guy, but the actual evil is the Cloud of Darkness. In FF4, you find out that the true villain isn't Golbez, but that he is being controlled by another, greater foe. (I warned you about spoilers!) Despite this, I feel Golbez plays the bigger part of the enemy in this one. The only problem I see coming up is that despite looking at the Final Fantasy Wiki's villain page...I'm still unsure who the big bad guys are in Final Fantasy 12 and 13. This does not bode well. 

     

     Anyways, this has been my attempt at another side post to chat it up and talk about different yet related things! I will do my best to make sure the next one is better written and more interesting! As always, thank you for reading and remember...

~May the Crystals Guide Me~