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

With explosions.

I take this for granted, but the Giant sprite is really weird. With its intricate detailing and lack of a hard black outline, it looks like it belongs in an entirely different game.

Since Amano's original design made the Giant look like a building, a nice consolation design would have been for the Tower itself to rise out of the ground, sprout legs, and do the walking and bombing itself. Only the Lunar Whale could fly high enough to reach its critical portions, so you'd be pulling the Lunarian's own kill switch on Zemus/Golbez. The Dwarven tanks could have reached the surface through the hole left by the Tower (the tanks would need very grabby treads, but hey), and when the Tower fell it could have created a land bridge from Eblan to Toroia, making the whole world accessible by Dwarf tank and maybe hovercraft.

What utility that would have been, I don't know. Dwarf-fashionista couples?

i mean, honestly, it seems like rosa and rydia are far more important gameplaywise to this merry band of adventurers than edge or kain, but maybe i'm totally undervalueing edge's ability to throw knives at things???

Knives and spoons.

Yeah, I forgot. You have to do push-ups anyway.

Hahaha, the beer belly is what really sells it!

I can't see any of the images in this update! :O

Since the Giant was landlocked, how would have destroyed the world? Answer: it would have drilled a hole under the ocean. This would have flooded the underworld and dried up the overworld in one fell swoop. Had it succeeded, FF2's World of Ruin would have been filled with steam from the collision of massive amounts of water and magma.

That's just silly. How would the giant get a drill without Cid's help?

Well, every step it takes causes a big ol' wave of explosions, maybe it just stands still and taps its foot a lot?

Of course! That makes complete sense. Tap dancing for world destruction.

Brickroad's website, scibbe.com, where he hosts the images seems to be down for now.

it would appear that scibbe.com is down.

EDIT: 'd

Why would KluYa even build a doomsday device like the Giant anyway?

Clearly, KluYa's intentions were far more chilling and terrifying than FuSoYa let us think.

Maybe he just really hated door-to-door solicitors.

where does it imply that KluYa built the Giant?? sounds fishy to me

but for real, i've never played ffiv this far so i really don't know how useful edge is. i know you said he can do hecka damage throwing excalibur, but you only get like one of those, while the rest of the gameplay notes for random encounters are basically "here's what rydia needs to do to end this encounter" so idk???

Edge has less health and lower attack damage than Kain or Cecil. He also has worse magic than Rydia or Rosa. He can steal things in a game with no good steals, or he can throw things in a game with weak throws.

On the bright side, he can cast Blink/Image on himself.

In the GBA version where you can customize your end-game party, Edge is the first one to go.

The only correct way to use Edge is to dupe a pile of strong weapons for him to throw.

I like Edge plenty fine in other versions of FF4, where he can nab infinite Alarms off of floating eye enemies and thus make the battling of certain lurid-colored self-animate desserts that much easier. 'Course, he's not much use once you do get those Alarms, or before, but yeah. Credit where credit is due, he is a pony with at least one trick.

A while ago I looked up the levels of enemies starting in the Land of Summons, I think, and found that most were several levels higher than Edge is likely to be at the time you encounter them. This locks his steal rate at 5% for most encounters (even though many enemies don't have an item to steal so you only get a CURE). Endgame enemies are all over 70 (some are 99). I've never reached level 70, and sometimes don't reach 60. As a bonus, Edge takes a bit of damage when he fails (and, maybe, might be inflicted with a status associated with one of his own weapons? My memory is a bit fuzzy here). It's really the worst implementation of Steal Sneak there ever was or will be.

Edge should do around as much damage as Kain, though, depending on equipment. Agility helps with his attack multiplier, and he's a dual wielder. The main problem is that he can't take hits worth a crap on the front line (using a shield provides a significant bonus to your defense multiplier - 1 point every 16 levels) but he doesn't get any back row weapons worth using for long.

Speaking of multipliers, Agility is also a factor in the magic defense multiplier. The stat system for this game was pretty fine tuned to keep anyone from getting too far ahead or falling too far behind, at least for the segments in which they appear. Also, you can effectively change Rosa's or Rydia's class by giving them certain equipment. I wish they'd use a system like this again in something other than a crappy fanfic-y sequel.

I heard someone mention that the Lunarian Babies scene that made its way into FF4DS was intended for inclusion in the original. (If you haven't played it, the gist is that Baby Golbez was lured by the wiles of Eeeevil to hate and/or murder Baby Cecil.)

I can't say whether this is true, although I can say I didn't really care for that scene anyway.

My guess is Cid put hooks on all the airships.

As if Cid would use the same trick more than once.

No, what he did was retrofit all the tank treads with Spider Ball technology.

Yeah, he didn't.

I would often keep edge in the back row with whatever his best throwing weapon was until the very very end of the game. With Kain jumping that means that Cecil got to soak up almost all of the front-row damage.

I can't remember now much more noticeable his speed was in the original, but I feel like on the DS he was getting almost two hits for every one of the harder hitters.

For some reason that makes me think of Edward dressed up like a pimp (called Doctor Damcyan).

Or did he use the Wall upgrade(s) from the SOPHIA (from Blaster Master)?