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
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~
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