I can tell by that statement you've never played II. I think Square was trying to win some sort of "Impossible Game Award" at that time, as II is less a game and more a psychological attack on the player.
I did play it a bit, but only for like... I dunno, a couple hours. Something about it that just didn't grab me at all; I was positively bored out of my skull. :lol: I put it down and never came back to it. Sounds like it's quite a slog.
The PSP is the definitive version of Final Fantasy 4. The DS version was horribly, obnoxiously broken thanks to the Augments.
Oh yeah, heard about those a bit (Augments, that is). Some people loved em, some hated em, but regardless, I disliked the DS version's graphical style so much that I decided not to bother with it after just seeing videos. I agree about the PSP version though. They really knocked it out of the park with that one!
V's story doesn't really pick up until Exdeath and Gilgamesh hit the scene. The two villains are so insanely over-the-top that the game starts feeling more like a parody of RPG's than an actual RPG.
Hm, even as far as I got, I recall that it had a certain light feel... it didn't have the weight to its story that IV, VI, VII... most of the rest of the series really, tends to have. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but for me personally, I find it a bit less compelling than an RPG that has a complex, serious narrative (assuming, of course, that it's well-written). I do plan to get back to it... someday. I have a huge stack of "Damn, I never did play through that" games that I'll probably never get completely through. <_<
Psyker,
FFIV is my series favorite too, but Touchfuzzy is...well...Touching on one aspect I hated too: character respawn. By the time Cid--then Yang!-- show back up after blowing themselves up I wanted to meteo thier asses and hope they stay dead! The Noble Sacrifice concept doesn't mean much when they keep coming back for more... Tellah was probably my favorite character in the game. When that old fart died, he stayed dead! LOL
On this... despite my love of FFIV, I do have to agree, at least a bit. This is possibly the game's weakest aspect, story-wise, since it happened three times (the twins sacrificed themselves, but were later brought back rather suddenly, and that counts too). And it would have been SO EASY to fix.
Just don't have both Cid and Yang do this. Only one, but not both. Then it would have been fine. Tellah dies, and stays dead. Then either Yang or Cid "dies", but isn't actually dead. One real death, one noble sacrifice that turned out to not be what it appeared. Maybe the twins shouldn't have been revived, also, though at least in their case, it was
different since there was no way they would have come back without the intervention of the Elder; it wasn't just that "Oh, they weren't dead after all, oops". Still, however you slice it, having that essentially happen three times was too much, whereas if it had happened only once, I don't think there would be a problem.
On the other hand, that does bring up an interesting question. In a world where the miracle of ressurection can be found at your local item shop, what do you expect?
Well, my answer to that (not just for FFIV or even just for FF; the "revive" item and/or spell is a JRPG staple) is quite simple. The miracle of resurrection
can't, in fact, be found at your local item shop, because party characters aren't actually dead when they reach 0 HP, just unconscious. Your Phoenix Downs and Life spells are actually repairing whatever damage caused you to get KOd.
I'll just link to this:
http://www.ffonline....02-12-03&page=3
It pretty much says all you could possibly say about Final Fantasy 4...
Good read. Another major strength of the game's story that it actually
doesn't mention (possibly to avoid spoilers) is all the crazy stuff later on, when the story departs from classic Tolkien-esque fantasy and you find yourself flying off to the damn
moon to fight aliens.
This article is interesting.
While we're on the subject, it's also worth mentioning that even though Kain is mind-controlled into "turning evil", he still admits that a part of him was clearly jealous of Cecil and willing to get rid of him to keep Rosa. Put back into the context of FFIV release date, it was not that common to outright state in a video game (or at least J-RPG) that even good guys have a part of darkness and that they're not 100% pure goody-two-shoes heroes.
This is one of the reasons I like FFIV so much. Both Kain and Cecil have demons, and these are dealt with rather than just brushed aside (i.e. they are real people who are troubled by the darkness in their pasts, rather than tough guys who "have a dark past" and brood a lot because of it, but other than that it doesn't amount to anything).
(Though Kain appears also as a whiner for me, but shhh, I've said nothing)
BLASPHEMY
Kidding. ^_^ .
