Final Fantasy IV DS: All hail the Fail!Party
I seriously don't know why anyone in this game gives Cecil the time of day.
After running around Mount Hobs for way too long, I finally decided to get on with the plot because those stupid cockatrices refused to drop their summon spell. Fetching Yang wasn't too bad, since my party was overlevelled; ironically, the only character in any danger of dying from Mom Bomb's big explosion was... Yang. I gather that this is not normally the case.
Surprisingly, I haven't minded Yang's voice actor all that much. This is because Yang barely says anything. His voice is a bit higher than I thought it'd be; perhaps he and Kain's voice actor should have switched.
...Okay, no, because I remember Ikutsuki from Persona 3, and Yang's voice actor is the same guy. I still don't like the way Kain's voice actor is doing the role, though.
Anyway.
Once the dust cleared on Mount Hobs, it was off to Fabul and the castle siege. I hate the castle siege, for a variety of reasons. It doesn't feel right to have the team retreat after every battle. Again, my characters are overlevelled, but... I don't know. I don't think the game really conveys the desperation of the siege defense all that well, especially since we just came off Mount Hobs, where we were frequently fighting six enemies at a time. With Fabul, it's "monster shows up, monster gets wiped, three more monsters show up, everyone runs like hell, rinse, repeat."
I also hate the way that one battle is precipitated by Edward tripping. Yes, let's make the most insecure character in the game look even more pathetic. Feh. (Edward was pretty useful for the siege, actually, between Salve and his Life Anthem song. I had him levelled up high enough that he had his Haste song, too, but I think he would have done well regardless.)
On the other hand, the scene in the Crystal Room was quite good. They gave Golbez a weird reverb in his voice, but it wasn't particularly annoying. The battle between Cecil and Kain probably would have been more convincing had Cecil not been around level 42, but still. (I used Cecil's Darkness skill to help Kain along. I can be nice.) They really made the mind control aspect obvious, as Kain started clutching his head and generally flipping out once Rosa appeared; I can't remember offhand if it was that obvious in the original or the earlier remakes. Then again, the other games would have mostly had to convey this via dialogue, which complicates things a bit.
I made a point of having the party talk to Yang's wife both before and after the siege. I really wish they'd given her an actual name, because she's awesome. Hell, maybe she should have joined the party during the siege; it might have gone better. When we boarded the ship to head to Baron, she saw us off and gave us the Counter augment, which I immediately gave to Cecil.
The Leviathan scene was good. For one thing, Edward actually looked like he'd been injured when he was knocked over in the attack, based on the way he was laying. Leviathan rising out of the sea was suitably unnerving.
After that it was on to Mysidia, where I briefly forgot not to talk to any of the black mages, one of whom turned Cecil into a toad ("Ha! That slimy form suits you well."). After using a Maiden's Kiss (because he wouldn't turn me back), it was off to see the Elder. Although now I'm wondering what would have happened if I'd gone to see him while Toaded... hm. Something to try next time, I guess. That resulted in Palom and Porom joining. Palom sounds like Bart Simpson in my head, although his in-game model looks weirdly like Nanny from Voltron. The twins started out at level 10, so I had to spend some time walking around outside of Mysidia killing Zus. Zus give tons of experience, so I had them levelled up in no time - especially since the Deathbringer sword Cecil got from the King of Fabul did huge amounts of damage.
I did notice that Palom is right-handed. I could swear he was left-handed in the original game.
Once I got Palom and Porom up over level 20, I headed to Mount Ordeals, with a brief detour to the Chocobo Forest to the south. Namingway Recordingway was there again, calling himself Campingway and in need of a tent. He said he needed one; instead, he took all thirty-six of mine and gave me 300 gil in payment. Skinflint. You can't view cutscenes via Namingway Recordingway Campingway anymore; instead, you have to go through the Fat Chocobo. Interestingly, you can still change Whyt's abilities via the Fat Chocobo, but with Rydia gone, this doesn't accomplish much. Also, Whyt's abilities are restricted to those possessed by your current party members, so no more Bardsong for him until I get Edward's Bardsong augment later in the game.
At Mount Ordeals we met up with Tellah again. Grar. I so hate this stage of the game; Tellah is the most pitiful magic-user in the game, and yes, I'm including Cecil. His fixed MP (90 is not enough) and the way he tends to lose stats when he levels up do not help. And now I'm stuck with him. Palom and Porom are on the fragile side, but at least they don't run out of MP at the drop of a hat. The game put Tellah in the front row; I moved him to the back with Palom and Porom, because his HP was also pitifully low (he's since gained about eight levels, and it's still low).
The trek up Mount Ordeals was somewhat less than fun due to Tellah's presence; since his MP is fixed at 90 for plot purposes and his strength is in the single digits (it's about 5 or 6 at present), he can't do all that much unless you give him an elemental rod to use as an item. Once I gave him the Ice Rod, he didn't do too badly, but he's still a pain to babysit. Cecil's Deathbringer thankfully didn't put him at too much of a disadvantage, despite all the undead monsters running around.
At the summit, Scarmiglione wasssss waiting for usssss. (Yes, he hissssssssssssssesssss a lot.) The first part of the battle went surprisingly quickly. The second part, on the other hand... I really wish it had occurred to me to have Palom and Tellah use their Flame and/or Ice Rods, because if you use physical attacks on Zombie!Scarmiglione, he counters with a skill that casts Slow, while magic attacks provoke a counterattack that inflicts a large number of status ailments. Also, Zombie!Scarmiglione hits very, very hard - Tellah and Porom took the brunt of the attacks, although thankfully Cecil's Counter augment let him do damage whenever Scarmiglione decided to hit him. Granted, it wasn't much damage, because Deathbringer is a Dark weapon and Zombie!Scarmiglione is resistant to Dark attacks, but it was better than nothing.
Zombie!Scarmiglione is really creepy and gross-looking, by the way. He doesn't look... natural... when he's beating the hell out of your party.
Then it was off to make Cecil a Paladin; unfortunately, I forgot to strip off his equipment before I did this - I'd meant to sell it - and it vanished after this was over with. Granted, the ensuing "battle" with the Dark Knight would have hurt a lot more if I had, since Cecil was rebooted to level 1 and Dark Knight!Cecil does a lot of damage even if you're defending, but still. Klu-Ya Mystery Voice has a British accent, unlike any of the characters heard so far; apparently, his voice actor also played/plays Walter in Hellsing, which makes me go O.o. Now I'm curious as to whether The Beard Who Walks FuSoYa is also British. That could have unfortunate implications. Er.
At least I remembered to de-equip Cecil's Counter augment. I don't want to think about what effect that might have had during the Cecil vs. Cecil confrontation.
Luckily, I'd been able to buy Cecil's Paladin gear in Mysidia, so the trek back down the mountain wasn't too painful. It was rough going for a bit, because Cecil, despite having a Holy weapon to wield against all the undead critters on the mountain, did absolutely pitiful damage until he gained some levels. Fortunately, his first fight took him to level 6 or 7. Of course, now he's about five levels below Tellah and has more MP...
After that, it was back to Mysidia and more cutscenes, particularly that interminable prophecy, which takes forever to display fully and you can't speed the thing along. I've never liked that particular cutscene. I mean, I know it's important and all, but at least they could have sped up the text. Then there was more Zu-fighting, to get Cecil some much-needed power behind his attacks, and then it was off to Baron to beat some sense into Yang. I haven't really gone past that, because Yang needs some additional levels. I am not looking forward to the Baron fight, because of what happens afterward, so I suspect I'll be wasting a lot of time in the underwater passage. Maybe if I'm patient, I can get Palom to learn Meteor. That'd be funny.
(Speaking of Meteor, Tellah has it, although he obviously can't use it right now. He also got a scolding from Mysidia's Elder, for being so focussed on revenge. If you put Tellah in the lead position and read his thoughts after this, Tellah will angrily remark that the Elder doesn't know what he's talking about and that revenge is all Tellah has left. This doesn't make me any happier to have him in my party, but I do feel sorry for him.)
Next up: Losing everybody's crystals. I told you... Fail!Party.
After running around Mount Hobs for way too long, I finally decided to get on with the plot because those stupid cockatrices refused to drop their summon spell. Fetching Yang wasn't too bad, since my party was overlevelled; ironically, the only character in any danger of dying from Mom Bomb's big explosion was... Yang. I gather that this is not normally the case.
Surprisingly, I haven't minded Yang's voice actor all that much. This is because Yang barely says anything. His voice is a bit higher than I thought it'd be; perhaps he and Kain's voice actor should have switched.
...Okay, no, because I remember Ikutsuki from Persona 3, and Yang's voice actor is the same guy. I still don't like the way Kain's voice actor is doing the role, though.
Anyway.
Once the dust cleared on Mount Hobs, it was off to Fabul and the castle siege. I hate the castle siege, for a variety of reasons. It doesn't feel right to have the team retreat after every battle. Again, my characters are overlevelled, but... I don't know. I don't think the game really conveys the desperation of the siege defense all that well, especially since we just came off Mount Hobs, where we were frequently fighting six enemies at a time. With Fabul, it's "monster shows up, monster gets wiped, three more monsters show up, everyone runs like hell, rinse, repeat."
I also hate the way that one battle is precipitated by Edward tripping. Yes, let's make the most insecure character in the game look even more pathetic. Feh. (Edward was pretty useful for the siege, actually, between Salve and his Life Anthem song. I had him levelled up high enough that he had his Haste song, too, but I think he would have done well regardless.)
On the other hand, the scene in the Crystal Room was quite good. They gave Golbez a weird reverb in his voice, but it wasn't particularly annoying. The battle between Cecil and Kain probably would have been more convincing had Cecil not been around level 42, but still. (I used Cecil's Darkness skill to help Kain along. I can be nice.) They really made the mind control aspect obvious, as Kain started clutching his head and generally flipping out once Rosa appeared; I can't remember offhand if it was that obvious in the original or the earlier remakes. Then again, the other games would have mostly had to convey this via dialogue, which complicates things a bit.
I made a point of having the party talk to Yang's wife both before and after the siege. I really wish they'd given her an actual name, because she's awesome. Hell, maybe she should have joined the party during the siege; it might have gone better. When we boarded the ship to head to Baron, she saw us off and gave us the Counter augment, which I immediately gave to Cecil.
The Leviathan scene was good. For one thing, Edward actually looked like he'd been injured when he was knocked over in the attack, based on the way he was laying. Leviathan rising out of the sea was suitably unnerving.
After that it was on to Mysidia, where I briefly forgot not to talk to any of the black mages, one of whom turned Cecil into a toad ("Ha! That slimy form suits you well."). After using a Maiden's Kiss (because he wouldn't turn me back), it was off to see the Elder. Although now I'm wondering what would have happened if I'd gone to see him while Toaded... hm. Something to try next time, I guess. That resulted in Palom and Porom joining. Palom sounds like Bart Simpson in my head, although his in-game model looks weirdly like Nanny from Voltron. The twins started out at level 10, so I had to spend some time walking around outside of Mysidia killing Zus. Zus give tons of experience, so I had them levelled up in no time - especially since the Deathbringer sword Cecil got from the King of Fabul did huge amounts of damage.
I did notice that Palom is right-handed. I could swear he was left-handed in the original game.
Once I got Palom and Porom up over level 20, I headed to Mount Ordeals, with a brief detour to the Chocobo Forest to the south. Namingway Recordingway was there again, calling himself Campingway and in need of a tent. He said he needed one; instead, he took all thirty-six of mine and gave me 300 gil in payment. Skinflint. You can't view cutscenes via Namingway Recordingway Campingway anymore; instead, you have to go through the Fat Chocobo. Interestingly, you can still change Whyt's abilities via the Fat Chocobo, but with Rydia gone, this doesn't accomplish much. Also, Whyt's abilities are restricted to those possessed by your current party members, so no more Bardsong for him until I get Edward's Bardsong augment later in the game.
At Mount Ordeals we met up with Tellah again. Grar. I so hate this stage of the game; Tellah is the most pitiful magic-user in the game, and yes, I'm including Cecil. His fixed MP (90 is not enough) and the way he tends to lose stats when he levels up do not help. And now I'm stuck with him. Palom and Porom are on the fragile side, but at least they don't run out of MP at the drop of a hat. The game put Tellah in the front row; I moved him to the back with Palom and Porom, because his HP was also pitifully low (he's since gained about eight levels, and it's still low).
The trek up Mount Ordeals was somewhat less than fun due to Tellah's presence; since his MP is fixed at 90 for plot purposes and his strength is in the single digits (it's about 5 or 6 at present), he can't do all that much unless you give him an elemental rod to use as an item. Once I gave him the Ice Rod, he didn't do too badly, but he's still a pain to babysit. Cecil's Deathbringer thankfully didn't put him at too much of a disadvantage, despite all the undead monsters running around.
At the summit, Scarmiglione wasssss waiting for usssss. (Yes, he hissssssssssssssesssss a lot.) The first part of the battle went surprisingly quickly. The second part, on the other hand... I really wish it had occurred to me to have Palom and Tellah use their Flame and/or Ice Rods, because if you use physical attacks on Zombie!Scarmiglione, he counters with a skill that casts Slow, while magic attacks provoke a counterattack that inflicts a large number of status ailments. Also, Zombie!Scarmiglione hits very, very hard - Tellah and Porom took the brunt of the attacks, although thankfully Cecil's Counter augment let him do damage whenever Scarmiglione decided to hit him. Granted, it wasn't much damage, because Deathbringer is a Dark weapon and Zombie!Scarmiglione is resistant to Dark attacks, but it was better than nothing.
Zombie!Scarmiglione is really creepy and gross-looking, by the way. He doesn't look... natural... when he's beating the hell out of your party.
Then it was off to make Cecil a Paladin; unfortunately, I forgot to strip off his equipment before I did this - I'd meant to sell it - and it vanished after this was over with. Granted, the ensuing "battle" with the Dark Knight would have hurt a lot more if I had, since Cecil was rebooted to level 1 and Dark Knight!Cecil does a lot of damage even if you're defending, but still. Klu-Ya Mystery Voice has a British accent, unlike any of the characters heard so far; apparently, his voice actor also played/plays Walter in Hellsing, which makes me go O.o. Now I'm curious as to whether The Beard Who Walks FuSoYa is also British. That could have unfortunate implications. Er.
At least I remembered to de-equip Cecil's Counter augment. I don't want to think about what effect that might have had during the Cecil vs. Cecil confrontation.
Luckily, I'd been able to buy Cecil's Paladin gear in Mysidia, so the trek back down the mountain wasn't too painful. It was rough going for a bit, because Cecil, despite having a Holy weapon to wield against all the undead critters on the mountain, did absolutely pitiful damage until he gained some levels. Fortunately, his first fight took him to level 6 or 7. Of course, now he's about five levels below Tellah and has more MP...
After that, it was back to Mysidia and more cutscenes, particularly that interminable prophecy, which takes forever to display fully and you can't speed the thing along. I've never liked that particular cutscene. I mean, I know it's important and all, but at least they could have sped up the text. Then there was more Zu-fighting, to get Cecil some much-needed power behind his attacks, and then it was off to Baron to beat some sense into Yang. I haven't really gone past that, because Yang needs some additional levels. I am not looking forward to the Baron fight, because of what happens afterward, so I suspect I'll be wasting a lot of time in the underwater passage. Maybe if I'm patient, I can get Palom to learn Meteor. That'd be funny.
(Speaking of Meteor, Tellah has it, although he obviously can't use it right now. He also got a scolding from Mysidia's Elder, for being so focussed on revenge. If you put Tellah in the lead position and read his thoughts after this, Tellah will angrily remark that the Elder doesn't know what he's talking about and that revenge is all Tellah has left. This doesn't make me any happier to have him in my party, but I do feel sorry for him.)
Next up: Losing everybody's crystals. I told you... Fail!Party.