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FF4 3D Solo Cecil Part I
Dec. 6th, 2016 08:10 pmI've done five solo FF4 variants so far on the Gameboy Advance release, with a sixth in-progress as of writing. But since the 25th Anniversary of the game was recently as of posting, I figured I'd do something a little more interesting. For the game's 15th anniversary, Square-Enix released a remake of Final Fantasy IV on the DS. This is often considered one of the harder games in the series. They really went in with the difficulty on this version of the game, which was rebuilt from the ground up in contrast to how each successive version of the game built off the rest.
Since I want an excuse to play a game from my Steam library, and a number of the achievements requires leveling him to lofty heights, I'll be playing through this PC version (which was built off the iOS version) with a solo Cecil. On the game's Hard difficulty setting, naturally, for the glory and masochism. Let's see just how much fight this game can put up. And how much regret I'll have.
Also going to go into more detail than usual here, since the game is so drastically different from the 2D version, some things warrant extra explanation.
The first thing to note about this version of the game is the many mechanical differences. It's apparent from the opening battle - you actually have control during it against these two Floating Eyes. Here you can see me demonstrating another change - Dark Knight Cecil's ability is no longer Dark Wave, but Darkness - a command that temporarily doubles his damage output, though deals 1/10th Max HP damage with each attack. Generally speaking, this is worse for random encounters, but better for bosses.
Speaking of random encounters, even they do not play around in this version of the game. Mere Goblins could gang up on Cecil and down him if given the opportunity. Had to use a number of Potions throughout the cave leading to Mist.
The Mist Dragon itself also hit very hard, being able to hit Cecil for as much as he could hit it. Luckily, it retains its attack pattern of turning into mist periodically, giving ample time to heal up in-between. An easy win.
At the end of this cave, I received 5 Potions from completely filling in the map. Filling in all of them is necessary for a useful Augment (and achievement) later on in the game, and you get some small little bonuses for doing so as well. Given how much I was going through them, this was a very welcome gift.
Nothing to say about these guys. Used Darkness to beat down the General.
In Kaipo itself, I received the first of many Augments from Rosa. Now this is going to be a bit janky. While this is a solo playthrough, I'm also playing through with intent to set up being able to obtain 100% achievements on the second playthrough. You need to give these Augments to temporary characters in order to get more from them. One such achievement is to obtain all Augments. This isn't too bad, as some abilities are questionable. As it pertains to the solo challenge however, there is a limited amount of abilities I can obtain before the twins and Edward leave the party, and I do need a second playthrough to get them all in the first place.
How about the one I just got? Well, Auto Potion is what you`d expect, has some problems. One, it's a recipe for wasting a ton of items if carelessly equipped. And two, it only works with regular potions, making it obsolete by the end of the game.
Cecil hit level 15 in the Underground Waterway, popping one of the achievements for leveling him up. One of the worst enemies here were these Tiny Mages. They're insignificant in the 2D versions, but they could massacre a solo Cecil here. I had to run against groups of four here or face certain death, especially if they got an ambush. Against groups of three and a Sahagin, I could take over 300 damage in a single battle!!
The one mercy of this game is that death is insignificant thanks to the autosave/continue feature. So I didn't just waste 10-15 minutes on the first screen of the cave when some of these things got me along the way.
Thankfully, beyond those enemies, there really wasn't much to worry about. The only other notable enemies were the Zombies and Red Marshmallows. I could simply run from the former, and the latter just made me use Darkness to deal enough damage to one-shot them. I made a save before entering the waterfall cave. I only had around 15 Potions in-stock there, which I wasn't sure if they would be enough.
Regardless of that, Octomammoth was completely deranged. Just like in the original, it powers up as it loses more tentacles. Unlike in the original, the power difference is significantly more pronounced. It would only do 10-15 damage when it had all its tentacles, but could do over 100 when it was down to a single one. No amount of healing could keep up with that, particularly considering it was slightly faster than Cecil. Ironically, this is one place where having Auto-Potion would've been nice, but I'm a crazy fool, I guess.
Cecil could hit him hard all right, especially with Darkness, but pure offense can't win if you run out of health before you can kill the target. I seemed to come close several times, once in particular losing because Octomammoth decided to critical Cecil at the last minute.
So I went back anyway, with intent to level up along the way. I spent all my money on Potions back in Kaipo. By the time I made it there and back, Cecil was two levels higher than he was before, which made a huge difference.
His damage output had gone up by around 100 with Darkness on. Even so, I had to time my assault just right. I needed to use Darkness towards the end to bust it down before it could kill me, but needed to use it at a time where it wouldn't wear off before the end. The key to winning this was to keep in good health up through it being reduced to three tentacles (healing right after it attacked at five and four remaining), heal up there, use Darkness, and let loose.
And that was enough!!
After seeing how some memetastic things don't change in this version, it was onward to the Antlion's Den. I really like the new graphics they have for this place in this version.
Speaking of this version, like I said. For whatever reason, slime enemies are not nearly invulnerable to physical attacks in this version. So Cecil could fight these things if I wanted. Which is good, because I do really want to later on. He hit Lv25 in this cave, snaring me the last of the achievements.
The Antlion is a simple boss fight in contrast to the madness of the previous one. Just as the battle message implies, it's been changed around in this version - when its eyes are red, it counters magic. When its eyes are white, it counters physical attacks. Cecil could get in roughly four physical attacks every eye cycle. He defended when the eyes were white. Easy fight (21).
Thankfully, the fight with solo Edward was not a problem. After it, you can retrieve the Item Lore augment from where it took place. This - which doubles the healing of items - would be fantastic for a solo character, if not for what I've trying to do.
And now for something kind of painful. Item Lore is an augment I really want. It doubles the effects of all healing items - although only in-battle when the wielder uses them. However, to set it up a NG+ for later achievement hunting, I need to use it or the upcoming Counter on the twins. The former is better for boss fights. The latter is better for randoms that involve physical attacks, has use in some boss fights, and is better in a party playthrough - which I'll probably do on NG+. To a certain point, anyway. It's a tough call on which to keep and which to dump. Item Lore is the safer choice, but towards the end, Elixirs will be used for healing in major boss battles. Counter on the other hand, is just plain fun.
...that is, until I made a modified augment path for myself. Going to lose out on someone's "optimal" setup, but not like you get anything for that beyond stat maxing. Which is hardly necessary.
Mt. Hobs had some nasty enemies on it. Skeletons were capable of casting Thunder, which could really add up if they were in groups. Spirits could cast Fire - similar danger - but could also use Sleep. Had to run from a few fights here to survive with my dignity intact. Cockatrices were also of note, since gradual petrify could take down Cecil if he got a bad turn order.
You actually gain control for the solo Yang battle, which was a good thing, as it allowed me to sufficiently weaken him before going into Mom Bomb...
...where the explosion, in contrast to being a fun tickle in the 2D versions, is a huge threat in this 3D remake. This damage was with Defend, too!!
I needed to use pop two Hi Potions in this fight - one before the explosion, and one after. Then it was a matter of killing the bombs before they could explode and kill Cecil. This was the most critical moment. I used a Potion (not wanting to use three in a single fight), hoped the Grey Bomb wouldn't explode...and it didn't. A strike took it down, and I was in the clear.
They key in the Fabul sequence was to make effective use of the weaker battles to heal up. Theoretically. The most dangerous was the Gargoyle, who is capable of using Tornado in this version. I planned to pop a Hi Potion against it, but it just stood there, so I killed it in two hits. This wasn't too difficult. The grunts in this version get confused when their leader is struck down, unlike the 2D version. And Cecil could one-shot the leaders.
And here's Counter. The only problem with this ability is that it makes running take forever, since you'll still be countering whatever attacks when you try to flee. However, it is a very useful and versatile ability. It triggers on a physical attack from an enemy. But instead of necessarily a physical attack, it counters with whatever you set the first ability in your menu list to be. This ability will trigger with no charge time. You can do things like simulate Auto-Potion or have everything that touches Rydia trigger a Bahamut or Meteor.
Most of the battles in Mt. Ordeals looked like this. This was not a good thing due to the combination of two factors. One, I'd forgotten to restock on Potions before heading to Mysidia. And two, they only sell the more expensive Hi Potions. Although I did keep a save before getting on the boat just in case. Thankfully, it turned out not to be necessary.
The first form of Scarmiglione only has 1200HP in this version of the game. This made disposing of his first form rather easy. Even without Item Lore, Hi Potions wiped out the Skulnauts. A few Darkness boosted attacks defeated the shrouded fiend.
By contrast, his undead form is a much tougher nut in this version, sporting double his HP from the 2D version, standing at 7046HP. The strategy of course would be to kill him by way of Hi Potions, but it took some brains to do this with my limited stock of seven while using only six. The most efficient way to go about it was to have Cecil in the front row, counterattacking Scarmiglione's physical blows as he force-fed him Hi Potions.
A bunch of these counters and a final physical blow was enough to clinch the victory. I guess I could've used an Elixir, but better to save those. With that, Cecil claimed his class change. And now, he could tear apart anything in his path, allowing easy leveling on the moun-
Oh. Well. This is certainly a thing, isn't it?
Next | Index
Since I want an excuse to play a game from my Steam library, and a number of the achievements requires leveling him to lofty heights, I'll be playing through this PC version (which was built off the iOS version) with a solo Cecil. On the game's Hard difficulty setting, naturally, for the glory and masochism. Let's see just how much fight this game can put up. And how much regret I'll have.
Also going to go into more detail than usual here, since the game is so drastically different from the 2D version, some things warrant extra explanation.
The first thing to note about this version of the game is the many mechanical differences. It's apparent from the opening battle - you actually have control during it against these two Floating Eyes. Here you can see me demonstrating another change - Dark Knight Cecil's ability is no longer Dark Wave, but Darkness - a command that temporarily doubles his damage output, though deals 1/10th Max HP damage with each attack. Generally speaking, this is worse for random encounters, but better for bosses.
Speaking of random encounters, even they do not play around in this version of the game. Mere Goblins could gang up on Cecil and down him if given the opportunity. Had to use a number of Potions throughout the cave leading to Mist.
The Mist Dragon itself also hit very hard, being able to hit Cecil for as much as he could hit it. Luckily, it retains its attack pattern of turning into mist periodically, giving ample time to heal up in-between. An easy win.
At the end of this cave, I received 5 Potions from completely filling in the map. Filling in all of them is necessary for a useful Augment (and achievement) later on in the game, and you get some small little bonuses for doing so as well. Given how much I was going through them, this was a very welcome gift.
Nothing to say about these guys. Used Darkness to beat down the General.
In Kaipo itself, I received the first of many Augments from Rosa. Now this is going to be a bit janky. While this is a solo playthrough, I'm also playing through with intent to set up being able to obtain 100% achievements on the second playthrough. You need to give these Augments to temporary characters in order to get more from them. One such achievement is to obtain all Augments. This isn't too bad, as some abilities are questionable. As it pertains to the solo challenge however, there is a limited amount of abilities I can obtain before the twins and Edward leave the party, and I do need a second playthrough to get them all in the first place.
How about the one I just got? Well, Auto Potion is what you`d expect, has some problems. One, it's a recipe for wasting a ton of items if carelessly equipped. And two, it only works with regular potions, making it obsolete by the end of the game.
Cecil hit level 15 in the Underground Waterway, popping one of the achievements for leveling him up. One of the worst enemies here were these Tiny Mages. They're insignificant in the 2D versions, but they could massacre a solo Cecil here. I had to run against groups of four here or face certain death, especially if they got an ambush. Against groups of three and a Sahagin, I could take over 300 damage in a single battle!!
The one mercy of this game is that death is insignificant thanks to the autosave/continue feature. So I didn't just waste 10-15 minutes on the first screen of the cave when some of these things got me along the way.
Thankfully, beyond those enemies, there really wasn't much to worry about. The only other notable enemies were the Zombies and Red Marshmallows. I could simply run from the former, and the latter just made me use Darkness to deal enough damage to one-shot them. I made a save before entering the waterfall cave. I only had around 15 Potions in-stock there, which I wasn't sure if they would be enough.
Regardless of that, Octomammoth was completely deranged. Just like in the original, it powers up as it loses more tentacles. Unlike in the original, the power difference is significantly more pronounced. It would only do 10-15 damage when it had all its tentacles, but could do over 100 when it was down to a single one. No amount of healing could keep up with that, particularly considering it was slightly faster than Cecil. Ironically, this is one place where having Auto-Potion would've been nice, but I'm a crazy fool, I guess.
Cecil could hit him hard all right, especially with Darkness, but pure offense can't win if you run out of health before you can kill the target. I seemed to come close several times, once in particular losing because Octomammoth decided to critical Cecil at the last minute.
So I went back anyway, with intent to level up along the way. I spent all my money on Potions back in Kaipo. By the time I made it there and back, Cecil was two levels higher than he was before, which made a huge difference.
His damage output had gone up by around 100 with Darkness on. Even so, I had to time my assault just right. I needed to use Darkness towards the end to bust it down before it could kill me, but needed to use it at a time where it wouldn't wear off before the end. The key to winning this was to keep in good health up through it being reduced to three tentacles (healing right after it attacked at five and four remaining), heal up there, use Darkness, and let loose.
And that was enough!!
After seeing how some memetastic things don't change in this version, it was onward to the Antlion's Den. I really like the new graphics they have for this place in this version.
Speaking of this version, like I said. For whatever reason, slime enemies are not nearly invulnerable to physical attacks in this version. So Cecil could fight these things if I wanted. Which is good, because I do really want to later on. He hit Lv25 in this cave, snaring me the last of the achievements.
The Antlion is a simple boss fight in contrast to the madness of the previous one. Just as the battle message implies, it's been changed around in this version - when its eyes are red, it counters magic. When its eyes are white, it counters physical attacks. Cecil could get in roughly four physical attacks every eye cycle. He defended when the eyes were white. Easy fight (21).
Thankfully, the fight with solo Edward was not a problem. After it, you can retrieve the Item Lore augment from where it took place. This - which doubles the healing of items - would be fantastic for a solo character, if not for what I've trying to do.
And now for something kind of painful. Item Lore is an augment I really want. It doubles the effects of all healing items - although only in-battle when the wielder uses them. However, to set it up a NG+ for later achievement hunting, I need to use it or the upcoming Counter on the twins. The former is better for boss fights. The latter is better for randoms that involve physical attacks, has use in some boss fights, and is better in a party playthrough - which I'll probably do on NG+. To a certain point, anyway. It's a tough call on which to keep and which to dump. Item Lore is the safer choice, but towards the end, Elixirs will be used for healing in major boss battles. Counter on the other hand, is just plain fun.
...that is, until I made a modified augment path for myself. Going to lose out on someone's "optimal" setup, but not like you get anything for that beyond stat maxing. Which is hardly necessary.
Mt. Hobs had some nasty enemies on it. Skeletons were capable of casting Thunder, which could really add up if they were in groups. Spirits could cast Fire - similar danger - but could also use Sleep. Had to run from a few fights here to survive with my dignity intact. Cockatrices were also of note, since gradual petrify could take down Cecil if he got a bad turn order.
You actually gain control for the solo Yang battle, which was a good thing, as it allowed me to sufficiently weaken him before going into Mom Bomb...
...where the explosion, in contrast to being a fun tickle in the 2D versions, is a huge threat in this 3D remake. This damage was with Defend, too!!
I needed to use pop two Hi Potions in this fight - one before the explosion, and one after. Then it was a matter of killing the bombs before they could explode and kill Cecil. This was the most critical moment. I used a Potion (not wanting to use three in a single fight), hoped the Grey Bomb wouldn't explode...and it didn't. A strike took it down, and I was in the clear.
They key in the Fabul sequence was to make effective use of the weaker battles to heal up. Theoretically. The most dangerous was the Gargoyle, who is capable of using Tornado in this version. I planned to pop a Hi Potion against it, but it just stood there, so I killed it in two hits. This wasn't too difficult. The grunts in this version get confused when their leader is struck down, unlike the 2D version. And Cecil could one-shot the leaders.
And here's Counter. The only problem with this ability is that it makes running take forever, since you'll still be countering whatever attacks when you try to flee. However, it is a very useful and versatile ability. It triggers on a physical attack from an enemy. But instead of necessarily a physical attack, it counters with whatever you set the first ability in your menu list to be. This ability will trigger with no charge time. You can do things like simulate Auto-Potion or have everything that touches Rydia trigger a Bahamut or Meteor.
Most of the battles in Mt. Ordeals looked like this. This was not a good thing due to the combination of two factors. One, I'd forgotten to restock on Potions before heading to Mysidia. And two, they only sell the more expensive Hi Potions. Although I did keep a save before getting on the boat just in case. Thankfully, it turned out not to be necessary.
The first form of Scarmiglione only has 1200HP in this version of the game. This made disposing of his first form rather easy. Even without Item Lore, Hi Potions wiped out the Skulnauts. A few Darkness boosted attacks defeated the shrouded fiend.
By contrast, his undead form is a much tougher nut in this version, sporting double his HP from the 2D version, standing at 7046HP. The strategy of course would be to kill him by way of Hi Potions, but it took some brains to do this with my limited stock of seven while using only six. The most efficient way to go about it was to have Cecil in the front row, counterattacking Scarmiglione's physical blows as he force-fed him Hi Potions.
A bunch of these counters and a final physical blow was enough to clinch the victory. I guess I could've used an Elixir, but better to save those. With that, Cecil claimed his class change. And now, he could tear apart anything in his path, allowing easy leveling on the moun-
Oh. Well. This is certainly a thing, isn't it?
Next | Index
