"One to be born from a dragon..." -- Let's Play Final Fantasy II

I'm excited about this. FFIV was the game that defined my life path. I'm serious--I'm a Japanese translator and de facto specialist in video games. FFIV is what made me realize what I wanted to do with my life. (No, not because the translation was so awful; I still find it incredibly charming and have so far refused to play any other translation but the original, even when the lead translator of FFIVa urged me to give that version a try.)

I leave you with this. (I consider it a spoiler, mostly because it'll spoil your perception of the Four Fiends for good.)

Of course, what I just realized about this LP is that you'll be fighting the bosses as they were originally known. Octomamm, Milon, Kainazzo, Valvalis, Rubicant. And of course, we can't forget Leviatan. Beautiful.

True Story: Back before I played the game, long before, when all I knew was the Nintendo Power article (that I didn't read in its entirety) I always thought Kainazzo was some monster form of Kain transformed by Golbez, just because of the name. I knew he betrayed Cecil, I knew his name was Kain, and there was a boss monster you fought later named 'Kainazzo', so young-me jumped to the wrong conclusion.

Also, I personally vastly prefer 'Valvalis' to what it's supposed to be. I dunno, I just think it sounds cooler.

Totally. But it sounds like it was just a bit too punishing for newbies, and they pissed off too many old-school players by nerfing the NG+. I really, really liked the game, but it's not the one I'll go back to next time I play it, probably.

It's a crime that every RPG since hasn't included this.

You know that discount bulk purchasing feature was in the original version of FF3, right? Still not sure why they ditched that afterward... Pretty sure even the DS remake of that game didn't have that feature any more.

This is awesome. FF2 would have been even better if Kainazzo had been Kain (somehow) and Valvalis is also cool.

I thank you. It made my heart sing a bit.

I've seen that video before. Pretty damn hilarious. Hyadain, the guy who does those videos, sings all the lyrics through different voice filters. The song I like most is probably the one about Bowser and Mario fighting for Peach's affection.

I just assumed he had female vocalist friends do the female voices, since he's an actual professional musician, but that's pretty awesome.

My favorite is the Goemon one, I think (also available in much higher quality but without English subtitles).

Valvalis does sound a lot more Nintendo-y. As does Milon.

One of my prouder Interweb (for a relative value of "proud") achievements has been getting the FF Compendium to correct the Name Origins about Cagnazzo meaning (according to my source) "Dog Nose" instead of "The Big Kain," as it had been listed for years.

Of course, I just tried Google Translate, which puts it closer to "Bitch Nose."

*EDIT* And now I've found this, following Wikipedia to an Italian wiki entry:

Sometimes he does, but it's only for one of the female voices.

I'm getting sick of hearing that New Game Plus is nerfed or that it runnined the game. So you only can replay twice, how many times were you planning to replay anyway? It's not like there are new endings or your stats carried over or anything. It's just an excuse to fuck around with augments some more. Stop bemoming it for not being a feature it was never meant to be.

New Game + is a brilliant but tragically underused mechanic, so it's insult to injury when it's technically present but twisted into something that robs it of its inherent fun and flexibility—an insufferable waste of potential.

Well then the original FFIV was ruined because it doesn't let you replay at all. Talk about wasted potential!

Now, now, lads, let's play nice.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to be pithy. Well, maybe I was, but it wasn't personal.

Really? I had no idea. And I think you are right, I don't remember the DS remake doing that.


But the augments carry over, and I potentially could replay this game every year or so, and eventually get a Cecil with every augment. Which would be rad.

Also, you stats and/or items should carry over.

Anyhow, it's not a huge problem. It's still a fantastic game. It's just that when I heard it would have NG+, I had different expectations.

Not every game can be Chrono Trigger.
I've loved FF4DS. Though how much of the love was caused by nostalgia and how much was caused playing the UNDUB version I can't really tell - FF4SNES is a terrific, one-of-a-kind game and the American voices used in the DS remake were very crappy (and besides, come on, Norio Wakamoto as Rubicante, Kouichi Yamadera as Kain? That's like having the game blow you while you play it, really).

The intended names are more impressive in the context of whence they were plagiarized. They were among the demons that keep a certain class of sinner beneath the surface of a lake of boiling pitch in The Divine Comedy. Though Barbariccia was a dude. With a curly beard. Scarmiglione, Cagnazzo, and Rubicante were among this group, as was, interestingly enough, Calcabrina.

Y'know who else was a dude? Shiva.

Farfarello, a late-game minor enemy from FFV, is in there, too. Geryon, one of FFIV DS's two super-bosses (who fights like an all-in-one version of the Four Emperors), is in The Divine Comedy, albeit not part of the same group.

Yeah, this is one of very few cases in Japanese games where there's a reason to actually care about the original names over the mistranslations as anything more than a matter of preference.

In an attempt to sidetrack here, I've gotta say that I approve of the DS version of FF 4 the most, mainly because of the extreme Olde-Englishe-ing of the dialogue. It's like the reverse of what happened between the NES and GB translations of Dragon Warrior. That, and the translation quality helped clear up a couple of rather questionable lines from the original US version (though I think all versions after the original did this too.)

And, of course, better graphics and sound don't hurt either.

That said, the original will always hold a special place in my heart for the quirky translation. My favorite part was right after Ika/Ruga Palom/Porom stoned themselves: Tellah: "I will avenge!" Cid: "I'll avenge you!" which made Cid sound like the most sarcastic bastard ever.

In this thread, as with all others, I have to point out that the PSOne version is the true FFIV experience. Not that I don't have nostalgia for the SNES one. I would gladly take either over the GBA or DS remakes, and I'm gonna preemptively say the PSP version as well. Though the prize for worst version has to go to the Wonderswan just for giving me motion sickness.

I have yet to see this game all the way through. Oh I played the DS version. And it defeated me. In the final dungeon. Probably half a dozen screens from the final boss. I don't know what went wrong. I jut can't do it, ever. I grinded my fucking characters, slowly, painfully, excruciatingly, into the late 70's and still there was nothing I could do to survive when I opened a chest and there was some uber-dragon inside or even just a random encounter that used a deadly whole-party-hitting spell too many times in a row.

Really cheesed me off it did. I'll be interested in this.

NOT ANYMORE.

Confession Time: as a dumb, dumb child, despite all the obvious and overwhelming evidence to the contrary, I always misinterpreted Cid's facial portrait

as this


The Irony: if the game was made a decade later, I would have been right.

Oh my god it's Vincent! Now I can't unsee it!

HOLY SHIT

Do we have any idea when Brick is going to get around to doing this? Is this a Feb LP he decided to start in Jan?

I'm just curious.