Ho-lee-shit.
Okay so I beat Final Fantasy IV DS. And I’ve been really bad about updating this log. But I played it a lot on the go and without a way to cap DS games short of taking a picture of my DS with a camera, I don’t have much to post but text. Doesn’t mean I don’t love the game.
Well, I love it like one might love an abusive spouse. The game is much harder than any of it’s 300 previous iterations. I thought at one point heavy grinding was a requirement, but it was moreso that you’re expected to explore everything throughout. When I failed to beat the final boss the first time, I went and explored the final dungeon to its fullest, getting most of the treasure it held within. I got some optional summons for Rydia and good equipment for Cain and Edge.
And then I took on the final boss. I had 4 complete party wipes. Between Big Bang and Meteo, he just knocked my party out four separate times. How did I win? Well the game’s decant abilities includes an awesome one called Phoenix. It basically uses all the character’s MP when they die to resurrect everyone else in the party to full HP. Or, HP based on the amount of MP the user had or some such. Didn’t really matter because I put it on Cain who never uses his miniscule amount of MP. That he somehow has in this game. I can’t help thinking that the developers wanted you to do this. Cain sacrificing his power over and over kinda flows with the game’s story, right?
Anyway, so this was my strategy for the final boss:
Edge throws anything and everything.
Cecil attacks.
Rosa casts shell whenever the boss takes down your buffs.
Rydia sits like an idiot.
Cain jumps.
Now, since Cain is in the air half the time, sometimes everyone else will be dead while Cain keeps jumping. This is cool. I let that ride for as long as I can until Cain gets bitch slapped down by something. Everyone else pops up. Quickly Rydia does her most important task of this battle by raising Cain with a Phoenix down. Rosa quickly follows with a Elixer to get Cain’s HP/MP to max. Repeat. I tried letting Rosa hit him with Holy, but he countered by nixing Cecil’s HP to about 5. It did do around 5000 damage though. Maybe I should have kept that up anyway to finish him off faster. Wasn’t necessary in the end, but I was worried that he’d get off a Big Bang or Meteo cast while Cain was still down or not at max MP. Anyway, duder went down finally.
Holy shit was it ever tense. But I’m glad for it. Bring on a harder FFV remake, Squenix!
