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

*Usually.

Today, I learnt that I can read one of Brickroad's updates very slightly faster than the forum software allows him to post them. Wow, that wait must have been agonizing for both of us.

Cool, a Scott McCloud dungeon!


It says right there: SwordMan 2!

Bake him a cake, perhaps?

I never understood why the Magus Sisters were decked out as insects of all things for their FFX appearance.

Also, is it me, or did anyone else see Golbez' helm doing a face the first time you saw his battle sprite, and now it's all but impossible not to see?

Man, I forgot what a bastard this game could be about giving you back a naked party member right before a boss battle. I'm trying to remember if I ever stumbled into the "KAIN, STOP HER SPIN!" fight without giving Rosa armor before, but I guess that would be kind of a bitch.

(I also don't think I've ever used Berserk strategically before.)

So did I. I even translated the Japanese, character by character, minuscule as it was. I had just started teaching myself the language at that time, mostly because of just this kind of thing.

Valvalis' hairnado is one of those strategies that Final Fantasy bosses just love to use.

Really? 'Cause it's basically a Nuke button when used on a strong enough character. Especially in later FF games when you can combine it with spells like Haste, Protect, Shell, and Reflect, you can use it to make a character an untouchable death machine of a physical attacker.

My FF History goes something like this

I - IV - VI ..... XII, IX, X, VII..

Something like that. I tried V on emulator but never got that into it, and I might have finally played the PS1 games after I got a PS2, but it was either right before or after XII came out. And I never played tactics (I don't like tactics games in general)

XII was the first game I ever learned how to use Berserk as an effective buff. I do think I used the Avenger sword for a bit on random battles, but I never thought to use the spell against bosses (or on bosses, like in VI, until much later).

Courtesy of: http://www.videogamesprites.net/FinalFantasy4/

Did you know Kain has a spell casting animation?


I saw this LONG ago in the game using Game Genie trickery...but I don't remember how to give non spell casters magic anymore. I'll try to dig around with the GG and see if Edward, Yang, DK Cecil, and Cid have unused spell casting animation as well...

Berserk is also a great way to neutralize enemy casters.

I'm not sure that I knew that! I don't remember ever leaving Zot before the end.

I believe weakness overrides resistance, so wielding both Fire and Ice Claws will allow him to do bonus damage vs. icy and fiery enemies, respectively, without ever reducing his damage output.

I don't think anything tops FF1's Badman/Evilman, or Catman/Mancat.

I did. It makes shopping inconvenient after that last Toroia visit.

They don't. Not exactly, anyway. See, any character who has no magic but possesses a special attack animation for one of their skills has that animation replace their caster sprites. So Cid's "casting" sprite is him checking things out with his spyglass, DK Cecil's is using his Dark Wave sword ability, Yang's is posing and kicking, and Edward's is singing and hiding.

Hate to break it to you, but the plural of "SwordMan" is "SwordMan 2." It's right there in the screenshots.

Yep I believe your right...way back when I was able to see the dummied out special animation through this technique. I'm guessing in the early planning Kain could cast spells.

Let's just assume powerful Wind magic distorts the Exit route for the time being. Can't be letting the people you're going to double-cross get away scott-free!

Crystals crystals crystals crystals crystals crystals

Gotta make sure the players are on the same page, here!


...And Kain's is "playing an invisible Gameboy"?

Alternate interpretations:
-Using a Kinect
-Texting his BFFs
-Showing off his crab impression

Kain doesn't doesn't have a spell casting animation, nor is he playing an invisible Gameboy.

Clearly he simply enjoys playing the air guitar while he's off screen waiting to land one of his ridiculously high jumps.

- Shadow puppetry

He's pretending his hands are guns.

He's mentally calculating how much his new spear will cost after taxes.

He might also be:
- Warming his hands
- Plotting dastardly like Mr. Burns
- Taking notes on his enemies
- Golf-clapping at Cecil's critical hits
- Making rice cakes
- Trying to start a fire by rubbing invisible sticks together
- Having an epileptic fit

He's appreciating beat poetry.

I love the way the dwarves in this game talk

He could be rollin' a doobie.
..KAIN LIKES TO GET HIGH BAYBEE~

I'm pretty sure Kain has found the dice used by the RNG and is rubbing them for luck.

That's Kain trying to relieve the pain of chronic arthritis. Spears be mad heavy

Wow. I thought this sprite was a robed figure with a frog-head due to some of the later encounter groups. For the first time I'm seeing a face and flowing blonde hair.

Witches are made of people ... I've been killing people. All these years. The real monsters, it's us, isn't it!?!

And this one I used to think was a pair of goggley cartoon eyes in the hairnado as a kid, though I picked up that it was her face and shoulders at some point.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one!

Given his expertise with spears, I'd say Kain's totally conjuring up a Magic Missile. I bet it was cut because Square got most of the D&D Monstorous Manual copying out of their system with Final Fantasy I and the ZOIDBERGs Mindflayers were still pushing their luck.

I love the Tower of Zot. I love its enigmatic name (who or what is "Zot"?), I love the mystique of a location that isn't actually anywhere on the world map (so you'll never know what it looks like from outside), and I love its music. No sooner than you teleport in and hear Golbez's threats over the loudspeaker, you're assaulted with this much more severe, much more urgent variation on the dark man's theme. My first time through the game, it immediately instilled me with the sense that very, very bad things could happen if I didn't reach the top of the tower in time.


FFVI has a whole bunch of characters with a full set of "playable character" sprites, even though you'll never see some of them over the course of the game.