Final Fantasy IV (DS)

Back during the initial months of the pandemic, I decided I was going to play through all of the Final Fantasy games I recognize (anything up to 7, don't @ me). I ended up getting stuck on my playthrough of the first game, because it's an old — and rather unforgiving — game that I have only beaten once in my life.

I've yet to spend much time with parts 2 and 3, which were games I had never played before because they weren't released in North America and any ROMs I found back in my high school days were some mix of glitchy and poorly translated.

Final Fantasy IV is an installment I've had a long, frought relationship with. I love the storyline and the mechanics, but there are parts of the game that drag on and you can easily end up underpowered and stuck in areas if you don't force yourself to grind experience.

Suffice it to say, I was even more vexed when I found out that the North American version of the game was dumbed down for non-Japanese audiences. I've since played versions which include the content removed from the original North American release (confusingly named Final Fantasy II), and I will agree that the game is much harder in its unadulterated form, but not significantly moreso.

I didn't have much in the way of expectations for yet another re-release, this time for the Nintendo DS. I figured they would do a good job porting the game to a quasi-3D format and update the graphics. Instead, I got a whole lot more; rather, this iteration of Final Fantasy IV extends the original game in some very interesting ways, in addition to providing a beautiful graphical upgrade.

After failing in my first attempt because I didn't actually look into the changes in this new version — which left me horribly ill-equipped to win the game's final battle — I've since restarted my playthrough. I don't know what it is about this game in particular, but I am extremely averse to doing my homework despite getting punished for it — repeatedly. (If they do yet another re-release, I would still give myself no better than 50/50 odds.)

I'm now a little more than 2/3 of the way through the game, and I've meticulously sought out every Augment and piece of gear there is to find. I'm at the point where my characters are cartoonishly overpowered, so I'm hoping to beat this game for what will only be my third time, ever. And then I get to do it again, on a harder difficulty. (Which is not something I am aching to do immediately afterward, especially with copies of Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI waiting in my queue.)