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FF4 Solo Edward Part II
Nov. 3rd, 2024 02:09 amBefore I head into the next section of the game, let's talk about the Pig status. It's unique to Final Fantasy IV and a counterpart to Toad and Mini. Toad removes a character's physical and magical capabilities (except for Toad), Mini just removes the physical, and thus Pig just removes magic abilities (except for Pig). So what's the deal? Status priorities. Being a Pig will render a character immune to most status ailments. This does disable a few commands, but Hide (or Edward's other commands for that matter) is not one of them.
The best part? A dancer NPC in Mysidia will gleefully inflict this status on the entire party. I got Edward turned into a pig before I continued into the Underworld, feeling any little bit of help could make a difference here.
The problem with Edward for a while was going to be his equipment. He is unique among the characters not in the final five in that he doesn't get a lot of options for himself. Mages have a similar draw to other caster classes, Yang is fine and doesn't need weapons, and even Cid gets to use axes despite none being available while he's in the party. Edward is stuck with harps (I already have the best one until before the final dungeon), knives (the next one is only seven points stronger than Dancing and way over in the Sylph Cave), or bows. He can use any and all bows, but besides their low accuracy they always suffer from the back row penalty on the Gameboy Advance version. He could go to the front, but with his HP and equipment, this is very suicidal in most scenarios. Nevertheless, I grabbed a set of elemental arrows just in case. Unfortunately, while the PSP version fixes this bug, it comes with another issue: a solo Edward is forced to unhide, critical HP or no. I found that out after humoring switching over and running it back. A tradeoff I wasn't willing to make. I could surmount this eventually. Short term pain.
The Calco dolls could be confused, which made the fight easier. Didn't even need to bother with an hourglass to prevent them from fusing. Golbez followed a distinct pattern with his spellcasting. In this case, I just had to hide past the higher damaging Thundaga to make the fight more comfortable.
Now I could have Edward buy a Rune Armlet. I could've gotten this from a drop in the Tower of Zot, but it would've been a hassle for something that had few benefits in the short term. It gave Edward some extra magic defense, which was always welcome.
I found a hilarious way to die on the first floor of the Tower of Babil: I confused an Evil Puppet, whose script is to cast Reflect on their party. The Puppeteers cast Death on their party when confused. Oops. That aside, there wasn't much to the dungeon. Aside from that hiccup which was easily manageable by confusing them first, nothing was dangerous or did anything bad when confused. The only potential problem were the White Mousse, but Dancing Dagger itemcast beat them if I wanted to.
Lugae at the end was dealt with by using Thunder Arrows on Barnabas. I could then hide until he blew himself up. As for Lugaeborg, he healed Edward's Piggy status. Oh well. He is strictly a magical opponent, so there was no issue with having Edward fight up front. As long as I hid past his deadly lasers, this wasn't a dangerous fight.
There were some annoying encounters in the Elban Cave, but nothing deadly. I was able to buy Poison Arrows here for the first time. Babil 2 was also not too much trouble, although there were some fights that were too much hassle to regularly deal with. Balloons were not one of them as he could just Hide on and wait for them to blow themselves up.
But now here comes Rubicante. This was going to suck for many reasons. First off, he effectively has 32999HP (he technically has 34000, but he dies under 1001 and shows a unique message if he somehow lands on that tiny threshold). He counters the attack command with Fira, counters fire magic with Life on your party, and though irrelevant, counters summons with Blizzara on himself. Which heals him if his cloak is up. If it's down, he's about to cast Scorch, which could deal over 2000HP. Close to double Edward's max HP.
With just Spider's Silk, Edward could attack with the Dancing Dagger's itemcast and immediately go hide, healing as needed. This cut out the threat of Fira, but it was painfully slow. There had to be a better way. Okay, a better way that didn't involve using one of my precious Hermes Sandals.
Well I tried to find stuff in FF4kster, but it didn't have the right version of Rubicante in it. But I managed to find this guide which gave some helpful insight and showing me what I had figured from initial testing.
The fire fiend follows a strict attack pattern: Cloak off -> Nothing -> Scorch -> Cloak on -> Physical -> Cloak off -> Nothing -> Scorch -> Cloak on -> Nothing -> Double physical -> Nothing -> Nothing -> repeat. And indeed, Edward had time to attack then hide before the Scorch with just Spider's Silk. This let him use Ice Arrows instead. And hey, there's a nice spot to bow back out after that double physical. It's just, there's no cue of it, and, you know, arrows don't deal full damage from the back row in this version of the game.
I figured out a good rhythm pretty quickly. Have Edward wait in hiding until the second cloak off with the double physical. If I lose track, it's obvious by the delays in the cloak being closed where I am. When the sound effect finishes, count to seven. Unhide, use a Hi-Potion, attack, hide. His damage was all over the place, but it was way way more than the Dancing Dagger itemcast. Repeat, and hope menu lag doesn't screw me over.
It did once, but with this, the fight was entirely down to execution. I had the ATB speed turned down to 6 to give me some leeway. But it thankfully didn't take too long.
This opened up the sidequest dungeons, and neither area was very pleasant for Edward to be in. The Evil Dreamers in the Sylvan Cave were nearly unbeatable. They came in massive groups and spammed Fira. The Bog Witches were as annoying and not dangerous as always, though hilariously cast Mini when confused. The other enemies were less of a problem, they just took forever to wear down. Even Malboros: their Bad Breath simply didn't work. How status immunity functions in FF4 (at least in earlier versions) is that if you're immune to one part of a multi-status attack, you're immune to it all.
At least there was the Mage Masher to pick up. A stronger melee weapon than the Dancing Dagger, finally. Though at this point, it was better to use bows. The Elven Bow was here too. Both weapons did extra damage to mage-type enemies.
Similarly, the Land of Summons had plenty of enemies that could ruin Edward's day, especially on an ambush. Thankfully, there were plenty that could be wrecked with confusion as well. That Lamia's Harp turned out to be way more useful than I thought. I had him equip a Diamond Armlet to make the Thunder Dragons less of a problem. I could probably have beaten the bosses at the end, had I been willing to use Elixirs. I picked up the Yoichi's Bow from the town, grabbed a stack of Angel's Arrows, and went off to the Sealed Cave.
At least the doors were not going to be a problem: Edward could smoothly duck past the Ninth Dimensions. He usually did have to deal with the enemies that popped out of the door at low health though. Actually used an X-Potion against the Yellow Dragon at the end.
For the boss, Spider's Silk, Hermes Sandals, then fire away with Yoichi's Bow + Angel Arrows. I was concerned about this, but apparently there was nothing to worry about. Its physicals were infrequent and manageable, and Edward killed it long before it got close to him. Resources well spent.
Edward was level 56. That was really suspect for getting through the Giant of Babil, especially the Elemental Lords fight. Once I did get through that though, he would finally gain actual equipment. And once he got beyond level 70, business would really start to pick up. And there was a fantastic grinding spot on the moon. The first floor of the Cave of Bahamut had plenty of Dark Sage and Selene Guardian encounters. They were prime bait for the Lamia's Harp: once they were charmed by Edward's music, they would gleefully petrify themselves. Worst case scenario, this would help get me through the Giant. But I got him up to 60 at first, keeping an extra save just to be on the safe side.
Edward pretended he was Rosa for this battle, attacking the elemental lords with the appropriate arrow that they were weak to. I made sure to have him hide through Scarmiglione's Curse as well as Rubicante's Firaga and Scorch. I used Spider's Silk on both phases of the fight (Cagnazzo/Barbarricia is considered a different enemy). Because Rubicante was entirely magical, he could fight up front for extra damage. Cagnazzo had no attacks worth hiding behind.
For Barbarricia, I had Edward pop back out after Maelstrom. Then he had two turns to attack or heal before having to hide past Ray. It was insanely slow going though, entirely because I somehow had Ice Arrows on instead of Holy Arrows. I even bought Holy Arrows just for this fight. Do not ask how that happened, because I am equally as unsure. Only thing I can think of is that I did this fight when distracted and groggy. Hey, it still worked.
Meanwhile, the CPU was a time where Edward's low HP was a boon. The Attack Node's laser is tuned to 10% of max HP. Edward simply shrugged it off. The only potential problem could've been running out of Hi Potions, but I had enough to make it through.
And now finally, it is time for what the Pixel Remaster does not want you to have, despite being based off the GBA version and making plenty of other changes to the games against its mission statement to be faithful to the originals, especially blatant with FF1 which isn't anything like the original at all.
With all this done and ready to head into the Cave of Trials, Edward's gametime is not looking too hot. But not about how long you take after all, it's about how well you do. And okay, Edward has been functional at best up until now, but his ascension is close at hand.
Next | Index
The best part? A dancer NPC in Mysidia will gleefully inflict this status on the entire party. I got Edward turned into a pig before I continued into the Underworld, feeling any little bit of help could make a difference here.
The problem with Edward for a while was going to be his equipment. He is unique among the characters not in the final five in that he doesn't get a lot of options for himself. Mages have a similar draw to other caster classes, Yang is fine and doesn't need weapons, and even Cid gets to use axes despite none being available while he's in the party. Edward is stuck with harps (I already have the best one until before the final dungeon), knives (the next one is only seven points stronger than Dancing and way over in the Sylph Cave), or bows. He can use any and all bows, but besides their low accuracy they always suffer from the back row penalty on the Gameboy Advance version. He could go to the front, but with his HP and equipment, this is very suicidal in most scenarios. Nevertheless, I grabbed a set of elemental arrows just in case. Unfortunately, while the PSP version fixes this bug, it comes with another issue: a solo Edward is forced to unhide, critical HP or no. I found that out after humoring switching over and running it back. A tradeoff I wasn't willing to make. I could surmount this eventually. Short term pain.
The Calco dolls could be confused, which made the fight easier. Didn't even need to bother with an hourglass to prevent them from fusing. Golbez followed a distinct pattern with his spellcasting. In this case, I just had to hide past the higher damaging Thundaga to make the fight more comfortable.
Now I could have Edward buy a Rune Armlet. I could've gotten this from a drop in the Tower of Zot, but it would've been a hassle for something that had few benefits in the short term. It gave Edward some extra magic defense, which was always welcome.
I found a hilarious way to die on the first floor of the Tower of Babil: I confused an Evil Puppet, whose script is to cast Reflect on their party. The Puppeteers cast Death on their party when confused. Oops. That aside, there wasn't much to the dungeon. Aside from that hiccup which was easily manageable by confusing them first, nothing was dangerous or did anything bad when confused. The only potential problem were the White Mousse, but Dancing Dagger itemcast beat them if I wanted to.
Lugae at the end was dealt with by using Thunder Arrows on Barnabas. I could then hide until he blew himself up. As for Lugaeborg, he healed Edward's Piggy status. Oh well. He is strictly a magical opponent, so there was no issue with having Edward fight up front. As long as I hid past his deadly lasers, this wasn't a dangerous fight.
There were some annoying encounters in the Elban Cave, but nothing deadly. I was able to buy Poison Arrows here for the first time. Babil 2 was also not too much trouble, although there were some fights that were too much hassle to regularly deal with. Balloons were not one of them as he could just Hide on and wait for them to blow themselves up.
But now here comes Rubicante. This was going to suck for many reasons. First off, he effectively has 32999HP (he technically has 34000, but he dies under 1001 and shows a unique message if he somehow lands on that tiny threshold). He counters the attack command with Fira, counters fire magic with Life on your party, and though irrelevant, counters summons with Blizzara on himself. Which heals him if his cloak is up. If it's down, he's about to cast Scorch, which could deal over 2000HP. Close to double Edward's max HP.
With just Spider's Silk, Edward could attack with the Dancing Dagger's itemcast and immediately go hide, healing as needed. This cut out the threat of Fira, but it was painfully slow. There had to be a better way. Okay, a better way that didn't involve using one of my precious Hermes Sandals.
Well I tried to find stuff in FF4kster, but it didn't have the right version of Rubicante in it. But I managed to find this guide which gave some helpful insight and showing me what I had figured from initial testing.
The fire fiend follows a strict attack pattern: Cloak off -> Nothing -> Scorch -> Cloak on -> Physical -> Cloak off -> Nothing -> Scorch -> Cloak on -> Nothing -> Double physical -> Nothing -> Nothing -> repeat. And indeed, Edward had time to attack then hide before the Scorch with just Spider's Silk. This let him use Ice Arrows instead. And hey, there's a nice spot to bow back out after that double physical. It's just, there's no cue of it, and, you know, arrows don't deal full damage from the back row in this version of the game.
I figured out a good rhythm pretty quickly. Have Edward wait in hiding until the second cloak off with the double physical. If I lose track, it's obvious by the delays in the cloak being closed where I am. When the sound effect finishes, count to seven. Unhide, use a Hi-Potion, attack, hide. His damage was all over the place, but it was way way more than the Dancing Dagger itemcast. Repeat, and hope menu lag doesn't screw me over.
It did once, but with this, the fight was entirely down to execution. I had the ATB speed turned down to 6 to give me some leeway. But it thankfully didn't take too long.
This opened up the sidequest dungeons, and neither area was very pleasant for Edward to be in. The Evil Dreamers in the Sylvan Cave were nearly unbeatable. They came in massive groups and spammed Fira. The Bog Witches were as annoying and not dangerous as always, though hilariously cast Mini when confused. The other enemies were less of a problem, they just took forever to wear down. Even Malboros: their Bad Breath simply didn't work. How status immunity functions in FF4 (at least in earlier versions) is that if you're immune to one part of a multi-status attack, you're immune to it all.
At least there was the Mage Masher to pick up. A stronger melee weapon than the Dancing Dagger, finally. Though at this point, it was better to use bows. The Elven Bow was here too. Both weapons did extra damage to mage-type enemies.
Similarly, the Land of Summons had plenty of enemies that could ruin Edward's day, especially on an ambush. Thankfully, there were plenty that could be wrecked with confusion as well. That Lamia's Harp turned out to be way more useful than I thought. I had him equip a Diamond Armlet to make the Thunder Dragons less of a problem. I could probably have beaten the bosses at the end, had I been willing to use Elixirs. I picked up the Yoichi's Bow from the town, grabbed a stack of Angel's Arrows, and went off to the Sealed Cave.
At least the doors were not going to be a problem: Edward could smoothly duck past the Ninth Dimensions. He usually did have to deal with the enemies that popped out of the door at low health though. Actually used an X-Potion against the Yellow Dragon at the end.
For the boss, Spider's Silk, Hermes Sandals, then fire away with Yoichi's Bow + Angel Arrows. I was concerned about this, but apparently there was nothing to worry about. Its physicals were infrequent and manageable, and Edward killed it long before it got close to him. Resources well spent.
Edward was level 56. That was really suspect for getting through the Giant of Babil, especially the Elemental Lords fight. Once I did get through that though, he would finally gain actual equipment. And once he got beyond level 70, business would really start to pick up. And there was a fantastic grinding spot on the moon. The first floor of the Cave of Bahamut had plenty of Dark Sage and Selene Guardian encounters. They were prime bait for the Lamia's Harp: once they were charmed by Edward's music, they would gleefully petrify themselves. Worst case scenario, this would help get me through the Giant. But I got him up to 60 at first, keeping an extra save just to be on the safe side.
Edward pretended he was Rosa for this battle, attacking the elemental lords with the appropriate arrow that they were weak to. I made sure to have him hide through Scarmiglione's Curse as well as Rubicante's Firaga and Scorch. I used Spider's Silk on both phases of the fight (Cagnazzo/Barbarricia is considered a different enemy). Because Rubicante was entirely magical, he could fight up front for extra damage. Cagnazzo had no attacks worth hiding behind.
For Barbarricia, I had Edward pop back out after Maelstrom. Then he had two turns to attack or heal before having to hide past Ray. It was insanely slow going though, entirely because I somehow had Ice Arrows on instead of Holy Arrows. I even bought Holy Arrows just for this fight. Do not ask how that happened, because I am equally as unsure. Only thing I can think of is that I did this fight when distracted and groggy. Hey, it still worked.
Meanwhile, the CPU was a time where Edward's low HP was a boon. The Attack Node's laser is tuned to 10% of max HP. Edward simply shrugged it off. The only potential problem could've been running out of Hi Potions, but I had enough to make it through.
And now finally, it is time for what the Pixel Remaster does not want you to have, despite being based off the GBA version and making plenty of other changes to the games against its mission statement to be faithful to the originals, especially blatant with FF1 which isn't anything like the original at all.
With all this done and ready to head into the Cave of Trials, Edward's gametime is not looking too hot. But not about how long you take after all, it's about how well you do. And okay, Edward has been functional at best up until now, but his ascension is close at hand.
Next | Index
