Final Fantasy Quest - A Miniseries of Repetition

With the -Interlude- is out of  the way, I could then focus on the meatier Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. Originally released on mobile phones, then WiiWare, and finally in the PSP collection of Final Fantasy IV, it is a series of episodes/tales that follow various characters from FFIV including favorites such as Cecil and Rydia, and new characters, like Cecil's son Ceodore, and the wonderful secretary Harley.

I started my first attempt on Dolphin emulator, only to be stopped by lag and a tough boss a fair bit in to the game (having completed almost all of the tales available). Now I've finally taken the plunge on the PSP version (via OpenEmu) and restarted at the beginning.

The opening is fairly straight-forward, playing as Cecil, Rosa and Cid. Later, the party becomes centered around Ceodore and his journey to becoming a Red Wing (like his father before him). Chaos ensues, and he ends up travelling with a mysterious Hooded Man. Because the HM is a strong attacker, and Ceodore has decent white magic abilities, playing this section is not too difficult. In fact, over the course of a few hours spent grinding (while watching various Twitch streams and YT videos) I managed to get both of them to the max level available (here, lv. 50).

I just started the next tale, involving Rydia, Luca (a dwarf princess) and the two living dolls, Calca and Brina. It was decidedly more difficult, since Luca and the one doll were weak physical attackers, and Rydia and the other doll were mushy mages. Getting through (or even just getting ready to get through) the dungeons for them proved time-consuming. (There is an auto-battle feature, which made the process faster with Ceodore and co, and better with Rydia and co.)

Thankfully, the next tale features Yang, a decidedly physically strong character.

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Image source: finalfantasy.wikia.com