FInal Fantasy IV 101

SPOILERS

First things first:

I will always refer to the final fantasy games by their Japanese numbering hence:

Japan	North America
Final Fantasy (NES)	Final Fantasy (NES)
Final Fantasy II (NES)
Final Fantasy III (NES)
Final Fantasy IV (SNES)	Final Fantasy II (SNES)
Final Fantasy V (SNES)
Final Fantasy VI (SNES)	Final Fantasy III (SNES)

But the fun doesn’t stop there.

Japanese gamers originally found FF4 to be too difficult, so an “easy-type” FF4 was created while the original version came to be known as “hard-type” FF4.

“easy type” FF4 (japan) = FF2 (north America)

The game play differences between hard and easy types are listed here:

Final Fantasy II (North America)

Final Fantasy IV

The Party:

Cecil and Kain are on the front row. Rosa, Rydia and Edge are on the back row.

Party notes:

Cecil has Excalibur.

Rydia has Bahamut

Edge’s dart inventory: 3 old weapons, 4 Ninja shurikens.

Zeromus Strategy:

Generally, I don’t always do the side quests in final fantasy games, so my characters tend to be underpowered. Hence I usually have to devise strategies to work around these shortcomings.

Before I developed this strategy, I usually had a lot of difficulties with this battle. Situations like this were common.

OH SHIT!

Yes, occasionally I still found a way to win. Occasionally.

Surprisingly, the best defense is a good offense despite Zermomus’s large number of HP (120,00 in easy type, double in hard type). The sooner the battle ends, the less likely you’re going to die.

Edge:

Dart until inventory is empty. Then attack

Cecil:

Attack. Attack. Attack.

Then Attack some more.

Kain:

Jump. Jump. Jump. Jump.

Then Jump some more.

Rosa (aka the most important party member):

Cure4 EVERY SINGLE ROUND.

Even if everyone is at full health, Cure4 EVERY SINGLE ROUND. If Rosa dies, the whole party might die. Better safe than sorry.

And at least once during the battle, someone should give Rosa an elixir/whatever to give her max MP. If Rosa is unable to cast Cure4, the party may be finished.

Resist the temptation to cast White/Holy.

Rydia:

Sometimes, to save the hand, you have to cut off a finger.

Although Bahamut does a lot of damage, it’s best to leave Rydia dead for the duration of the battle.

Bahamut is not needed

Why?

With only 4 party members, Cure 4 more than cancels out Zeromus’ Big Bang and Virus attacks. Cure 4 is even more potent when it’s cast as Kain jumps.

Cure4 on 5 party members

Cure4 on 4 party members

Cure 4 on 3 party members

See how (1 / alive party members α Cure 4 power)?

The battle actually goes faster now because you don’t have to watch the Bahamut animation over and over. Also, you no longer have to worry about casting times since FIGHT (Cecil and Edge) happens right away whereas Bahamut takes about 10-20 seconds to cast. Of course, if one of the 4 remaining party members dies, revive them ASAP or the battle will drag out a little longer.

The only real danger is Zeromus casting Big Bang then a flare spell on Rosa followed by another Big Bang. Hence why it’s important to keep Rosa alive for the Cure4 spell.

So like Rocco on Jenna, just keep pounding away on Zeromus and he’ll soon be down for the count. Eventually Zeromus will start casting Meteo, which means he’s near the end.

Zeromus gets desperate

All in all, this battle should only take 5-6 minutes.

I’ve uploaded my save file to my email account (noporns@gmail.com, pass:gimmee) along with the rom. Give it the ol’ college try. The emulator can be found at www.znes.com

For you lazy asses who don’t want to finish the game, the ending of the game can be seen here: (great ending............Brother!)