Grinding a bit, are we?

I found out where my copy is.



I won't be getting it for a couple days, I'm sure.

ugh! so far ive resisted a good part of the square remake crap they have been smoking lately. but im starting to like these new touches and feel a strong need to play through these games. i dont think i ever even finished playing them to begin with.

i bought a2 today since i had some extra cash and i saw iv for sale. ill wait and see if i can pick up a copy later on when i finish a2 or so or maybe i should just watch the fmvs on my labtop and play the game on my ps (since i havent touched it in ages).

Quick question... does A2 have the stupid laws like Advanced did? I was thinking about getting A2 as well... but the laws from the previous was so bad, I don't think I'll get A2 if it has them.

It has laws, but they no longer have jail. the laws will disable certain abilities if you break them, and some other things. And if you don't break the law you get bonuses.

Okay, I got it today. Didn't think it would. The tracking information was very sucky this time. But, I got it, I was excited, I played it. Rosa's in my party, now. Time for first impressions. (So long as my computer doesn't bork while I'm writing them this time.)

Okay, first off, graphics. Awesome. Dungeons look more interesting now, as do towns, and they each seem to have their own different looks and special details (the antlion cave, for example, has sand pouring through the ceiling with light shining through in various places). Castle Baron is big and empty and boring, though, aside from a few rooms. This edition now has the cutest version of chocobo ever seen in the main series of FF games. Even the fat chocobo. (Speaking of, I can't wait to see how they do the "Barf" feature. If it still exists.) Namingway, also cute. They did an impressive job at translating most enemies to 3D. The only exception so far is the mist dragon. It looks more like a leviathan recolor, now. But the special effect when it's in mist form is cool. Special effects and battle screens are just as nifty as they were in FF3DS.

Music and sound are thankful improvements. The music sounds very orchestrated (by a small orchestra, at least) and pretty clear. I was worried that it'd sound somewhat staticy. Granted, the music during the CG intro doesn't sound quite as high-quality as the Youtube videos.

Voice acting. Not a lot of scenes have it. They seem to save it for the more emotional scenes. Still, the fact that there's any amount of voice acting throughout the game is pretty impressive for a handheld RPG. We didn't have voice acting in RPGs until, what, the PS2? And this is hardly a PS2-calibur system. But I suppose it helps that the games are on 1Gig flash cards. The voice acting really does help the cutscenes, though. Add in some dynamic camera angles, and it's pretty cinematic at times.

The game is more difficult than previous versions of FF4. Or maybe I'm just used to the other versions. But it seemed like I had more trouble keeping Rydia alive at first than previous versions, especially considering I often encountered those tiny mages, and their spells hurt. And I'm even taking advantage of the magical properties of rods, which I only recently found out had such special powers (sure beats using Rydia's regular attacks).

Auto-map feature. Decent (if obvious) use of the second screen. They have this feature in dungeons where if you are able to uncover the whole map, it rewards you with items. I suppose some might consider that making the game too lenient with items, but I myself am not gonna complain about free stuff.

Anybody who plays this wants to set battle speed on high and walk speed to always run. Trust me on this.

Rydia has a new cute mascot, I mean summon. It's this white thing with a bowtie and stupid face. You can draw your own stupid face, and it would seem that later on you can change his body in some way. Unlike other summons, he takes the place of Rydia for a bit in battle, randomly using skills assigned to him. His stats seem to be based partly on Rydia, partly on your success with some dumb mini-games. These mini-games seem to be unlocked after certain characters join the party. The mini-games are not especially interesting, and I can see much stat-abusing being possible. Though, I notice that this thing takes up a lot of MP right now. It may be that the better his stats, the more MP it takes to summon him. Overall, I think he's not a very important addition, plus he gets introduced in the should-be-important scene of Rydia opening up to Cecil.

Speaking of Cecil, his dark attack has been changed. No longer pick the attack and a wave of darkness hits everyone. Instead, pick the attack, he goes into dark mode. Then every attack targets a single enemy for more damage and the very same own-HP cost. And apparently now Kain's jump gets announced before he actually jumps, as though it were a magic spell. Kinda dumb, as it'd be obvious enough what he's doing. I mean, you chose Jump, what did you think was gonna happen?

Overall, I'm enjoying the game. Whether I like it more than the older versions, dunno yet. The game doesn't really pick up until the battle at Fabul.

Actually, voice acting in RPGs dates as far back as SNES. I know that Star Ocean had it. Not for scenes, mind you... but battle had a good deal of it.

Also, PS1 had a decent number of voice acted RPGs. I want to say that N64 did too, but nothing comes to mind.

Anyway, I'm quite pleased with what you've said. FF3DS would be hard to mess up because... well, very few people have played it. I have... but the original 3 didn't have developed main characters. No names, no dialog. So there's nothing to really screw up when re-making it. FF4, however, is a different story... though I'm glad to hear things are seemingly for the better.

The Leviathan scene gave me chills.

A handheld game gave me chills.

This game is awesome.

[spoiler]And they really made Golbez badass. Seeing him kick everyone's butts was awesome. This guy doesn't fool around. I'm gonna really enjoy our several meetings with each other.[/quote][/spoiler]

Golbez's real name is [spoiler]Theodore[/spoiler]?!?!?!?!?

I just beat the game, and wow was the ending emotional for a DS game.

I feel bad... I've finished 3 and still haven't started 4 yet. I'll be getting to it shortly though.

I almost felt like wanting to cry when [spoiler]Palom and Porom turned themselves to stone.[/spoiler]

Okay, so I'm a little slow playing the game. I had to spend some time grinding for some very expensive equipment before entering the castle. (My tip to you, before entering the shrine at Mt Ordeals, [spoiler]remove Cecil's equipment so you can sell it later, or else it'll disappear when he changes to Paladin.[/spoiler]) As a result, Ciagnazzo wasn't as difficult as he could've been, though he still took several hits to take out, and you gotta love those counter-attacks.

Hey, did Cid have that "Upgrade" ability in previous versions of the game? I can see that being a pretty useful ability.

Oh, by the way, Fay, you weren't mistaken about the translation. [spoiler]The honorifics weren't quite that high, but one of the twins does say "You've become like a brother to us".[/quote] Which may be part of the reason why I wanted to cry.[/spoiler]

I've just gotten Palom and Porom. Doing a little training with them, because... well, they kind of suck. They were almost completely useless in the original (Healing with Porom after battles and hoping they cast meteor when twincasting was just about it) but who knows.

Yang was still broken as hell.

One thing I like is the agument abilities. I would just like the option to take it off one person and put it on another. The Counter Agument I just got, I'd love to put on Cecil right now but I know would be much better for [spoiler]Edge once he joins[/spoiler]. But that's a good ways away.

I actually find it rather useful on Cecil. For one, [spoiler]Edge doesn't join until mostway through the game.[/spoiler] But beyond that, Cecil counter-attacks even when he Covers. I did some training by letting the rest of my party get low on HP, and the enemies were taken out quickly by all the counter-attacks. I just wish that there was a way to speed up battle messages.

I didn't even think about cover... you bring up a good point. My line of thinking was that [spoiler]Edge ends up hitting for the most damage because he equips two weapons at once,[/spoiler] making him your heavy hitter, but with counter also working with cover...

I got it a few days ago. I'm stuck at the Tower of Zot. [spoiler]Why must Rosa be level 25 when you get her back? Kain was level 33.[/spoiler]

I can't beat barbariccia.

I bet she has both a physical and magical counter-attack, like the other Archfiends.

heh, now I'm at Rubicant. surprising I'm already almost level 50 and I still can't beat him.

I'm at level 27 and still a Dark Knight. Though that's about to change shortly.

Level 53 inside the sealed cave. I can't wait to beat this game.