Monday, December 5, 2011

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy 4 (SNES, 1991): Issue #03: Prince Tandem of Damcyan.


Once again, I'm referencing a Web celebrity in the title.

Unfortunately, Tandem the Spoony takes his name from probably the most useless character I've ever encountered in a video game. Edward's battle menu has a command that lets him run away from a battle and still get experience from it. And he does it automatically if his HP gets too low, which is easily done. On top of that, his normal attack sucks, and his special ability, a musical attack, has a bad way of proving unsuccessful. At least he moves the plot along. Too bad that plot advancement includes Tellah running off on his own to avenge his daughter's death.

On the subject of battles, I should point out that the Damcyan area of this game's world map is where I usually go to try scrounging up the Imp summon. I got to thinking about it in the course of the last couple days and decided to change what I said in my original intro blurb for this Text Play, at least a little bit. I don't think I'll specifically go out of my way to get the Imp spell this time around. I'll take steps to increase my odds when I get the chance, but I don't think I'll actually go out of my way to do that unless I come up with some extra time to play when I get to the point in the game when I normally do that.

But anyway, back to the actual game. Edward's one big contribution is giving the party its first vehicle: a hovercraft. This proves useful now in getting around between Damcyan, the Antlion's Nest, Kaipo, and Mt. Hobbes. It'll also prove useful later on in the game, but I'll explain that when the time comes.

For now, our first stop is the Antlion's Nest. It's a simple in-and-out mission to get the Sand Ruby to cure Rosa. It's not a particularly hard boss fight. The recommended strategy that came in the Super NES Atlas that Nintendo Power made in the early 1990s, just after the system in general, and this game specifically, came out says to use Rydia's Chocobo summon as the primary attack and have Cecil and Edward act as healers. That works, but I've found that it works just as well and is quicker to just balls it and have the guys attack while Rydia does her summon because the Antlion's Counter attack really isn't the threat it was made out to be. There should be plenty of opportunities to heal up as needed without there being any danger of somebody aside from the monster being killed.

So, once the ruby is retrieved, it's off to Kaipo to cure Rosa. She'll join the party, of course, as a white wizard. But first, the party spends one more night resting in Kaipo, in this case, to give Edward a chance to fight a Water Hag and come to terms with his grief over losing Anna. It doesn't really man him up any, but he won't be around much longer anyway, and once he's gone, he'll never be in the party again. Interestingly enough, next time we encounter the character, he'll wind up doing something more useful than he ever did when he was in the party.

But now that Rosa's in the party, it's time to tweak her equipment a bit. She's got a pretty good setup to begin with, really. One that rivals Cecil's and Kain's when the game started, but there are a few things that can help a bit. I'd say it's time for a trip to Scheels to outfit the party, but that just proves the old adage about how treasures out and about will almost always have better equipment than the shops that sell such equipment.

So anyway, on the way to Mt. Hobbes, it's a good idea to stop in the basement of Damcyan castle and take the treasures there. It's better stuff for Rosa, and it's free.

And this is where we stop until next time, folks. We'll pick up with the passing of Mt. Hobbes and the first time we'll have all five slots in the party filled. See you then, folks.

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