Total Death Count: 10 (Hard Type, mind you)
Finish Time: 34:00
Final Fantasy IV Journal
We began Final Fantasy IV not knowing what it would bring us. It brought us the bittersweet combination of better translation, cooler battle system, and tougher enemies. Read on to see how we fared.
-Quinton-
- Conquest began immediately after Final Fantasy III was vanquished, at Orie’s place, while preparations were being made to make the trek back to Quinton’s. It was decided that only two names would be altered. The Dark Knight Cecil would bear the name of ‘Quint’ while the Dragoon Kain would be brandishing the name of ‘Orie’ for the duration of this adventure.
- Swift progress was made through the Baron countryside, to the village of Mist, where a special ‘package’ was to be delivered. This ‘package’ left no doubt as to its purpose, bearing the name of ‘BombRing.’ THAT doesn’t sound suspicious or anything.
- Surprise surprise! The BombRing explodes, leaving everything fooked all the heck up. Rydia, one of the village girls, goes medieval on Quint’s ass and Titans him to Kaipo, where the White Mage Rosa was up to deathly illness. A quick bout with an antlion later saw the addition of Tellah the sage and Edward, the resident Spoony Bard, along with a cure for Rosa. Whee! Although Tellah left right away. Boo!
- Keeping in line with the ridiculously enhanced technology of the SNES, our first vehicle is presented to us: The hovercraft! This thing… Most certainly hovered. On shallow water, even! It’s like a godsend to those unable to cross shallow reefs without getting their knees wet. Or some such thing. Regardless, then there was a mountain.
- This mountain was by and far the first mountain we had encountered in the game. Tall and sturdy, and most definitely NOT soft, Mount Hobs was a mountain to be reckoned with. So was the Mom Bomb at the end. Though Yang decided it would be best for him to jump in, so he did. And owned all. How handy.
- Fabul, Fabul, Fabul. Yes, it was there. Trounced fairly quickly, it was, and then assaulted by a beast of a monster of a summon, Leviathan. Everybody was separated, but after a short detour to Mysidia to pick up some unruly children and the power to slay all evil in the form of Paladinhood, Quint made it back to Baron, ready for action. And not naked! That’s always a plus.
- It was about this time (after several hours I’d say) that Orie decided it was time to leave. So, we left to Quinton’s for some well earned… More playing Final Fantasy IV. And possibly a shower. By god I hadn’t bathed since tuesday. It was Saturday now. I think some form of proto-intelligent life form was forming in my armpits. They may have been, but it just smelled like they were making me stink. So showers are good.
- During this, it was discovered that my PS2 controller had been thoughtlessly forgotten at Orie’s, left with only a vastly inferior nameless-brand controller whose origins are best left forgotten within the boundless void of time and space. This controller is worse than having no controller at all, as the buttons are so unresponsive you may end up getting carpal tunnel syndrome attempting to navigate the simplest of menus. Fortunately, a friend was able to loan a substitute controller, and thus gameplay was to continue unhindered.-Orie-
- At this point I took over the control so Quinton could go off and shower. There was much rejoicing.
- After wandering into town, I checked out the local pub, where I saw Yang at the table with some scruffy guard folk. I decided to say Hi, but he randomly attacked me. After knocking some sense into him he muttered something about mind control and gave me the key to the underwater passages. This allowed me to slip into the castle unnoticed.
- I entered the castle and wandered around for a bit, testing out my old bed in the tower. I then came upon Baigan who turned out to be a freakly freak who needed to die. He did that very well indeed.
- Upon entering the throne room I confronted the king only to learn he was the freakliest freak of them all. Cagnazzo, the fiend of water was his name. Unfortunately my rusty memory led me to believe he counterattacked if you attacked him with his wall up. This led to me not disappating the wall when I should and his wave attack making me very hurtful. This is how I died. Very embarassing.
- A bit of a trek back to Cagnazzo and I’m more prepared to do what needs doing. Bolt 3 makes extremely quick work of him.
- I ran around the world with the new airship for a while collecting stuff. There is a chocobo forest on an island in this game. I fail to see the point of a chocobo forest on an island. You can’t GO anywhere! Anyway, cool stuff was to be found in the land of singing and dancing midgets. Mithra Brothas yo! Then I saw to a village of odd people claiming to descend from dwarves. Midgets and dwarves…I was getting tired of short people…
- After flying all the way to Troia and speaking with the clerics I had to be off to try and get some updating done with things, so I turned over control to Quinton once again.-Quinton-
- Troia… Troia… Oh! Troia! That was that… Place. Right. Yes, things were done there. Noble things. Ignoble things. And mayhap even… Great things. Although probably not so much of the latter. Regardless, there was a chocobo. A black chocobo who was a rather distinct purple color as opposed to the outright blackness one would expect of a black chocobo. I mean, it’s not a purple chocobo, is it? No! It’s a BLACK chocobo. Jeez. It flies, at any rate. That was good enough for me. So off we flew, into the sunset. Of the FOREST. Next to a cave. The most annoying cave in THE ENTIRE WORLD.
- The Magnetic Cavern was thus named for its highly magnetic properties. So magnetic that metal equipment cannot be equipped in the cavern. This rules out essentially all of Quint’s current gear, leaving him nigh naked save for some prisoner’s clothes and a bow. Whoo.
- The end of this cavern saw two things: The return of metal equipment, and the completely random entrance of a one Jordon Amundsen. At 3 AM IN THE MORNING. TWICE. Delays in the second and third journals were caused by this random interruption of Jordon, along with various computer troubles. I managed to clear my way through the Tower of Zot through all of this, though, so it’s all good. To be continued!
Final Fantasy IV Pictures
