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

Now that's a way to make a JRPG sequel that I'd be interested in!

Wait a sec, how do you dupe something you can't equip?

Derp, memory fail, you are right, you can't dupe stars. It's been a looong time since I did that trick.

Even as a kid, I remember liking Rubicante as a villain compared to the other enemies in this game. He has so much more personality, is so much smarter and more likable.

The other three fiends are basically just throwaway monster bosses, Rubicante is the only one they actually tried to develop as a character, and I think it paid off. The dude has a clear air of arrogance and superiority, but he has principles. He's clearly disgusted by the actions of his allies, such as Lugae, and actually seems to respect the heroes. He even spares Edge in the Cave of Eblan in hopes of getting to fight him again.

Every other fiend takes some parting shot at you when they die. Valvalis destroys the tower, Kainazzo triggers the crushing walls, and Milon has a second form.

Rubicante? He just gives you a thumbs up and fades into nothingness with dignity.

But that's not even the best part. My favorite part is that he's a fire demon who is actually smart enough to wear an accessory to nullify his weakness to cold.

If all RPG villains were this smart I'd have had a very frustrating childhood.

You can dupe expensive weapons for the money to buy stars, though.

Which is what I did, of course, which is why I remember having 99 of the crazy expensive ones!

It took me a long time to realize what a big deal that was, because shurikens are no less powerful in FF3/6. Buying up a stock of 'em makes Shadow yet another character who grossly overpowers the world of balance.

If I can say something nice about Edge, though - He's fast and has a high damage output and that counts for a lot. I'd take Palom or Porom over him, but no one else.

"I, Garland, will knock you level 1 warriors into the past right now!"

Bongo knows where's it at. Edge is awful.

To be fair, they at least had the decency to make Edge pretty usable in the DS game. Not only are shurikens affordable, but can be purchased from Cave Eblan right from the get-go. I had him outfitted with 99 and set (in the back row) from the moment I got him.

Yes, definitely. Compared to the personalities of the other three Elemental Lords (Rhymes with "glasspole"), Rubicante's actually a pretty likable guy for one of the bad guys. He just had the misfortune of having terrible lackeys and getting on the bad side of a hotheaded douche of a ninja prince.

Also, there's the long range augment and draw attacks for Cecil. His low defense is pretty much a non-issue. And Pin is actually useful in that version. (still a little said they took out boomerangs and Cecil's bow proficiency, though).

Yea, too bad they had to blow the Augment system completely by not explaining it and putting an arbitrary limit on New Game +.

Oh FFIVDS, how can you get so many things right but ultimately blow it so badly.

Personally, I thought that Rubicante was the guy in charge of all of Golbez's fiendish plans and traps, because things take a turn after this point here abouts.

All I can think about whenever I read Chamberlain is that dumb bird in The Dark Crystal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpIoPQHYhrw

This is related only in how fantastic both entities are.

Apparently there's an Action Replay code that'll let you set the amount of times you've cleared the game, essentially giving you infinite NG+.

It's pretty lame that you have to resort to that, but it's probably the best argument I've heard for getting an AR.

Squenix seems to have lost touch with its audience at large, and FF4DS is one of the best examples of that I've seen. They keep trying to appeal to a group of people that do not need to be specifically catered to (the ones who want more limits and greater challenges placed on them), because they will find ways to limit and challenge themselves without any external help. There is no logical reason to do, well, ANY of the stupid things they did in FF4DS save to appeal to the crowd that never stops crying "challenge us more!".

I remember a time when Squenix made games that were challenging according to how the player opted to go about things, instead of forcing a difficulty level upon the player that cannot possibly be altered meaningfully. Back then, they exploited the most powerful feature of the RPG to the utmost, the ability to let the player choose their challenge level. Now they're revoking that key advantage and losing their main audience in the process. So sad...

I don't really think that's true. Mostly because I don't personally care to go out of my way to do challenge runs, but still like being challenged. I want to feel like the game is making me think while I'm at my best, not just making me think when I place artificial constraints on myself.

I also think that the difficulty of FFIV DS has been incredibly overblown. The game has its share of issues, but I don't consider that one of them.

All the "waaah the game won't let me beat it more than three times waaah" thing against FF4DS is bullshit. Did anyone who ever made that argument ever actually beat the game three times and think "damn, I wish I could new game + this son of a bitch a fourth time!"

Seriously, I think sometimes the haters would be happier if there were no new game + feature at all in FF4DS. That way they could only complain about how bad they are at the game.

- Eddie

I think you underestimate the ability of people to let future restrictions prevent any action whatsoever.

I didn't bother lapping the game at all since I knew it would be limited. If it were unlimited I probably would still be playing it on the side.

Exactly.

It doesn't help any that it's a completely arbitrary and pointless limitation in the first place. I wouldn't be so hard on it if it actually served some purpose, but it's just absolutely nonsensical and flies in the face of what NG+ has brought to the table from the beginning.

You got that right. The exp. curve was really out of whack too. Just playing through the game straight through I was unlocking -aga tier spells at cave Eblan.In other versions, I'll be lucky if I've gotten any those by the endgame.
Nope! I was pretty stoked about NG+ when I unlocked it, then I found out about the limitation and was all, "oh..."

I thought IVDS was fantastic. I just think that placing arbitrary and lame limitations are arbitrary and lame.

They changed the levels for spells in the DS version and rebalanced leveling. It's a mistake to compare it to the original in this instance.

But by the second run you'll have more augments than you'll know what to do with.

There is only a single augment in the game that is really worth having more than two of, and that is the Limit Break augment. There are only three real combinations it's worthwhile in (Rydia with Dualcast, Cecil or Kain with Adrenline, Darkness, and Focus, and Cecil and Rosa Twincast, although you need only give it to Cecil). So basically, your choice is giving limit break to Kain or Rydia. Rosa isn't in contention, and the only argument for Edge is to toss Yangu Darkness's, which I'm not even sure could reach over 20k damage. Every other augment you get three of, which is more than enough to outfit your final five.

So yeah, Limit Break is cool, but it is seriously not worth playing the game three extra times for. And you are kidding yourself if you think you would. And this is coming from someone who is an obsessive collector of crap like that!

In short: man up. The fact that the game lets you only "beat it" three times is only a shortcoming if you were planning on beating if four times. And you weren't.

- Eddie

Thats pretty much what I was going to post.

...except with less cussin'.

I don't see what that has to do with anything I said! But if you think the main purpose of NG+ is to collect all the stuff, I don't think you really understand NG+.

And I've NG+'d a few games more than four times. I don't really see why you're so insistent that nobody would want to do so for this game. I like the game.

I'll tell you what.

Play through FFIV DS three times as you would. On the third game, make sure you collect at least one of each Onion equipment (two of the swords and shields), five Adamant Armours, and then collect (and use) enough Golden, Silver, and Soma Drops to get everyone to 9999hp and 999mp.

If, by this point, you still feel the need to play more FFIV DS I will concede that I am wrong.

- Eddie

Why would I ever want to do that? Not just for FFIV, but any game with a NG+ and tons of stupidly rare crap? I repeat: If you think the main purpose of NG+ is to collect all the stuff, I don't think you really understand NG+.

For most people, it's just a way to replay the game with some of the previous game's abilities/equipment/levels/whatever. The game kind of drops the ball on that end too, since only the augments and stupidly rare crap transfer, but replaying with all your augments is still compelling enough to make it worthwhile.

And people don't have to play the NG+ immediately after finishing the game either. If someone played the game when it first came out and did one NG+ run per year, he'd be wrapping up the fourth run as we speak.

Yeah, the point isn't that I want to collect everything. The point is that FFIV is a game i replay all the time anyway, so it would be awesome if I could replay this game whenever I wanted with the NG+ stuff, and then I at least get something neat for doing it. Being forced to stop after three times is bullshit, and it's why my next replay after this came out wasn't this version.