Thursday, December 1, 2011

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy 4 (SNES, 1991): Episode #01: How Many Times Now...?


More than ten, I'm sure, and maybe even more than fifteen.

So, as our story starts out, our hero Cecil is a Dark Knight from the Kingdom of Baron. He's in command of Baron's Air Force, called the Red Wings, made up entirely of vehicles called airships. The ships land outside the village of Mysidia, where the Red Wings have been ordered to hork the Crystal of Water from the mages who live there because the King of Baron wants the power of having all four Elemental Crystals. After making quick work of a few mages, the village elder hands over the crystal, and Cecil and his men head back home.

On the way back, Cecil and his crew start having second thoughts about what they're doing, brought on in part by a sudden monster attack. After questioning the king and Bagian, the head of palace security, on the matter, Cecil and his friend Kain, a Dragoon, are sent off to a place called Mist to deliver a mysterious package.

As I said in the teaser post, I could go on from here and just say what happens next, but that's not the point of this. So, what follows will be what I hope is a somewhat humorous retelling of what happens as I start out through this game for the umpteenth time.

To begin with, I had forgotten just how long the opening exposition was in this game. The first twenty minutes or so of this game is just setting up the basic premise of the game, with very little real play time involved.

That's the thing about having played this game so many times, though. I knew all of this, but I'd forgotten just how long it really was. But by the time it's all over, Cecil and Kain are off on the first quest of the game, to deliver a package to the village of Mist.

This little trip is a perfect chance to start taking advantage of a little glitch in the game. See, there's this little trick that makes it possible to get more than one of a weapon or shield. Just use the “item” command on the battle menu to remove a character's weapon or shield, and either finish the battle or run away. Once out of the battle, re-equip the weapon or shield, and there'll be two of them equipped. Take them off, re-equip one. Wash, rinse, and repeat as often as you like for whatever reason you wish. There's the profit motive, but there's not much need for extra gil in this game. Of course, the downside to all of this is that both attack and defense can go way down as a result, and the monsters can really get you if you're not careful.

But anyway, moving the plot along, the trip through the cave to Mist is rather easy. A lot of imps and needle rats, mostly. A few treasures, mostly cure potions. And the first boss of the game, the Mist Dragon.

The Mist Dragon is a decent first boss fight. Nothing too powerful, but no pushover, either. Once it falls to Cecil and Kain, the duo heads off to the village of Mist to deliver the package.

Funny thing about the package, now that I think about it after playing the game repeatedly over the last twenty years, is that the King never says who in Mist to give it to. That should have been a clue that it was going to bust open and release a monster that would burn the town.

On top of that, it turns out that the Mist Dragon was a summoned monster, and killing it also killed the person who summoned it. As the town burns, we see Rydia panicing over her mother's dead body. Cecil and Kain try to take her out of Mist to save her from the fire. She's scared, so she calls a Titan on our heroes, which causes a quake that brings the mountains down on them all.

A while later, Cecil wakes up and finds that Kain is gone, and he's alone in a meadow with Rydia, which puts them in Not What It Looks Like Theater. Cecil decides that it would be best to try getting away from Baron for a while. A big factor in that is that they're cut off from going back anyway.

So, from here, it's off to the desert village of Kaipo. But for now, we're at a good place to break for awhile. Hopefully, this won't be too big a break. Back to this in a bit, and with any luck, I'll have a chance to work up a decent schedule for all this.

See you soon, everyone!

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