auronlu | Entries tagged with f: ffiv

Phew. Two WEEKS after I finished the game, I finally get the finale written up.

We have acquired the legendary the airship, the Lunar Whale! All aboard for our voyage of discovery!

Exploring our shiny new airship, we find... we find...

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!

( On with the playthrough ('To the Moon, Rosa!') )

Crossposts: http://auronlu.livejournal.com/248493.html

...with apologies to Terry Pratchett.

Last time on "Let's Play Final Fantasy IV," we met Freddicante, the leg-baring, spandex-rocking, nipple-flashing Archfiend of Fire.

He trounced Edge the Ninja Prince of Eblan and swooshed off with his back to the party of adventurers and their assorted bows, lances, bigass swords and summons.

Fucks given? Zero.

(See this, Squeenix? Seriously. See this? Your final boss is usually BORING. This is why you don't kill off your minibosses like Gilgamesh, Rubicante and Jihl Nabaat prematurely.)

( On with the playthrough )

Crossposts: http://auronlu.livejournal.com/248125.html

Hurrah! We have rescued Rosa from the Tower of Zot!

Whoops, wrong Zot.

It turns out that the Tower of Zot is not the Bigass Tower on the map. In fact, it is not marked anywhere on the world map. Is that allowed?

Before we can tackle the Bigass Tower, the Path of Plot Advancement decrees that we must head to the underworld.

( On with the playthrough )

Crossposts: http://auronlu.livejournal.com/248032.html

...however, I am SO BEHIND on write-ups.

I would just like to register that I did, in fact, finish it Sunday night.

FWIW.

Also, for those who haven't seen it, there is one particular miniboss, the Archfiend of Flaming Fire, whom I have redubbed Freddicante. Because this.

For those who have seen it, apologies for the Photoshop spam.

Crossposts: http://auronlu.livejournal.com/247740.html

Before we go gadding off in our new airship Enterprise, let us pause a moment to admire our Four Warriors of Technicolor.

The colors are fantastic — including Cecil's blue lipstick — but I can't help noticing that all the female characters have now dropped out of the party for one reason or another.

Cidface: :(

But first! Nothing says "sidequests" quite like "The clock is ticking, and your girlfriend or maybe even the entire world is facing imminent destruction!"

( On with the playthrough! )

Crossposts: http://auronlu.livejournal.com/247533.html

...my initial guess was correct. Phew.

( Mild spoilers through tower of Zot, more spoilers possible in comments )

I will catch up on my full playthrough write-up/commentary this weekend with screencaps, but I just needed to get that little item off my chest.

P.S.

akycha, there is some facepalm sexism in the midgame which may interfere with your enjoyment of the rest. :/

Crossposts: http://auronlu.livejournal.com/247054.html

Last time on Let's Play Final Fantasy IV, our Batman angstbucket hero made lots of friends.

And lost them.

Let's review Cecil's Very Bad Week.

slaughtered innocent civilians while stealing their Crystal, feels remorse
lost his position as proud leader of the Red Wings air brigade
lost faith in / betrayed by the king who raised him as a son
too stupid to realize the king was using him again for dastardly deeds
accidentally burned a village to the ground and killed a bunch of summoners
including the mother of a sweet child he's now guarding in atonement
except now he's lost the child and she's probably drowned or dead
attacked by an Octomammoth, which means that somewhere, in some fanfic, Cecil is stuck in tentacle!porn hell
failed to save the kingdoms of Damcyan and Fabul from assault by the troops he used to command
three out of four Crystals now in enemy hands thanks to his failures
best friend has betrayed and tried to kill him
girlfriend nearly died, then kidnapped by villain just to torment Cecil
shipwrecked on the way to rescue said girlfriend
as far as Cecil knows, the friends he dragged along on that rescue mission are dead
girlfriend is gorgeous and underdressed, yet he's trapped inside armor that requires Jaws of Life to remove, so they probably haven't even made it to first base
he's named Cecil Harvey.

Ouch. Surely things can't get any worse?

Ahahahaha. Let's go find out.

( On with the playthrough )

Crossposts: http://auronlu.livejournal.com/246808.html

Ugh. My creative writing muse is in a deep, dark sleep, and it seems unwilling to give me much. But FFIV gave me this, so, for what it's worth:

Title: Skyclad
Rating: G
Wordcount: 488
Characters: Rosa, Rydia, Cecil
Spoilers: Final Fantasy IV, ascent of Mt. Hobs (road to Fabul)
Notes: I'm playing Final Fantasy IV for the first time, and I'm puzzling over Ms. Fanservice vs. Mr. Armor-Plated Batman. I like the characters, I like the ship, but their costuming is throwing me. Also, I like Rosa's interactions with Rydia.

( Skyclad )

Crossposts: http://auronlu.livejournal.com/246295.html

Now that we've had a taste of the current generation of graphics, here's a quick glance at the 1991 original SNES graphics of Final Fantasy IV (released in English as FFII, since the previous two games weren't):

I'm glad that old-school players were able to fall in love with FFIV despite the choppy translation. Then again, I adore FFV, even though my version is the uninspired PS1 translation.

All right! Let's go rescue Rosa!

( On with the playthrough )

Crossposts: http://auronlu.livejournal.com/246141.html

I'm always interested in mentoring and big sister / little sister dynamics between female characters, so of course I latched onto the early interactions between Rydia and Rosa in FFIV. That scene on Mt. Hobbs inspired me to sketch this:

Rydia and Rosa, Final Fantasy IV by ~auronlu on deviantART

I've written Fran tutoring Penelo in black magic, Fran tutoring Lulu (of all people), and some Yuna and Lulu magic-meta, so this slots into that trope.

Crossposts: http://auronlu.livejournal.com/245246.html

Once again, I'm playing the iPad remaster of the the Nintendo DS remake of the original NES Final Fantasy IV — got that? The iOS version is almost identical to the DS, except with crisper graphics and a lack of overwrought Opening FMVs. So here's the DS opening:

Aaah, shiny. I'm relieved that the laws of physics are different in Final Fantasy, because our metaphorical Tower of Babel has reached the silly stage. At this rate, Final Fantasy XX will have to resort to something like the "How far is Mars?" animation to reach the top of the tower before the closing credits.

( Okay, on with the playthrough... )

Crossposts: http://auronlu.livejournal.com/244752.html

Well, here we are. The last main-numbered Final Fantasy game I haven't played, besides the MMOs. This is a bittersweet moment, in a way, since I'm notorious for always leaving "one more" for later. (I managed to hold off reading Sayer's Gaudy Night for decades.) Therefore, I feel some trepidation at breaking the seal on this cask of wine.

On the other hand, I've heard good things about FFIV, and many of my fandom friends love it. So I'm looking forward to learning what hooked them.

I'll ask y'all not to spoil things that I haven't reached yet. I've heard tiny snippets about Kain and Cecil, but I've managed to dodge spoilers all this time. I enjoy trying to come to games with as few preconceived notions as possible. (This made FFXII, XIII and XIII-2 quite enjoyable.)

I'll be playing FFIV on the iPad. SCREENCAPS SO EASY.**

I will, however, try to take fewer of them. I'm afraid that FFIII's charming graphics made me a little screencap-happy!

Speaking of graphics, I need to play enough of FFIV tonight to make myself a userpic for these entries. :D