Final Fantasy Quest #2 - FF4 (Patreon)

It was 2004, the first year of my two free gap years, and taking advantage of all that free time, I set myself two main goals:

1. "I’m going to throw my heart and soul into learning English."

2. "If I'm such a big Final Fantasy 'fan', it’s time to try the other games in the franchise besides FF8."

Thanks to the wonders of emulation—and the fact that my old PC at least had enough power to run SNES games—I downloaded an emulator and, with it, Final Fantasy IV. It was my second game in the franchise and my very first traditional RPG (okay, technically I had played Pokémon by then, but even though it's technically a turn-based RPG, I’ve never really considered it a real one because of its competitive component, so I don't count it). Here, I ran into a few surprises:

1. The setting was medieval. Back then, medieval settings weren't exactly my favorite (today I'm pretty indifferent to them, though I'm still not particularly a fan).

2. I couldn't find the Junction System anywhere, which ironically made me overcomplicate a gameplay style that is supposed to be simpler (remember, FF8 was my first RPG, so I assumed the junction mechanic was just standard for everything).

Because of that last point, I developed a weird OCD that basically became my default way of playing every Final Fantasy ever since. In FF8, I used to coast by just spamming summons and physical attacks supercharged by the Junction System. I hated using magic because I didn't want to lower my stats. In FF4, seeing that this no longer applied—and instead, there were actual "Mana Points" controlling how much magic I could use, with cast times depending on how powerful the spell was—made me take a much more direct approach. I limited magic to very specific situations and preferred sticking to pure physical attacks, regardless of whether the character was actually built for it or not.

Back to the game itself: while the story didn't hook me quite as much as FF8's did, I still found it pretty interesting, with a charming cast of characters. My absolute favorite was Rydia, and her character arc going from a frightened little girl traumatized by tragedy to a powerful summoner and an indispensable ally to Cecil. This ended up being one of the entries I revisited more than once, playing through different versions over the years (GBA, DS, PSP, and back to SNES), which really says a lot about how much I loved it. I recently replayed the Steam version (based on the DS remake) and, while I still think it's a solid game, this time around I noticed a lot more narrative nonsense that I just couldn't take seriously anymore—like the fact that Cecil and his team are absolute garbage at protecting crystals. Seriously, every place they went to protect a crystal was a crystal that inevitably got stolen. I also played its sequel, but I only did it once, over 10 years ago. I don't remember much of the plot, or even if it was good or bad... but hey, I played it. That's about all I can say.

Anyway, battle-hardened and baptized by fire in the ways of traditional RPGs, my Final Fantasy quest marched on.

Favorite Track: Rydia's Theme.

Coming soon: Final Fantasy I