These Crystals Really Need Some Better Defenders...

Final Fantasy IV is finally starting to up the difficulty from the beginning so now I'm actually having to heal my guys and I've actually died a couple times, albeit because I wandered into stronger territory but hey, it's better than being able to slaughter everything from the get-go.

In my Final Fantasy IV intro blog, I mentioned how the game finally has a plot but I didn't really go into detail about what it was. Here's a bit of a beginners guide to Final Fantasy IV.

 

 

Final Fantasy IV in a nutshell

You play the part of Cecil, the leader of the air division of Baron's military force. Unlike the previous games in the series, you don't get a central party that follows you throughout the entire game. Sure II had one character slot that rotated people but the first three were the same throughout. In IV, you blow through characters like water, but that's kind of the point.

In development, the team decided that in reality, every person has their own motivations, their own drives. Sometimes that brings people together and sometimes it tears them apart. They wanted to bring this into Final Fantasy so they make you follow Cecil and the people who interact with Cecil.

Shortly after starting the game, Cecil is cast out from Baron, losing his status and soldiers, after he decides that killing innocent people and stealing crystals from them is not a very nice thing to do. So, he decides to stop Baron instead, thwarting their world domination scheme. Obviously, other people around the world aren't big fans of their cities getting air bombed so you make friends and allies fairly regularly. However, each of these characters have their own goals, not necessarily in line with Cecil's own.

Along with the outward plot, Cecil also has to struggle against his internal demons as well. This is where the game truly shines. As a knight of Baron, Cecil is trained as a Dark Knight. By it's very nature, Dark Knights use evil power to fight, an identity that Cecil struggles with as the game progresses. One of the most famous boss fights in video game history is the battle against Dark Cecil, a turning point in the game's story.

All in all, this is where Final Fantasy truly starts to hit its stride. In the SNES version, the translation is still wonky but it's at least manageable.

 

Fortunately, the game is available on tons of different consoles with updated translations so don't worry about wading through Engrish in any version post-SNES. That's all for now, time to get back to saving the world.

SPOILER! They can't!

 Game on!