Well, hello there, TFF! I hope you all are well!

I am back!

Everything has sorted itself out, so I return once again.

By the way, happy 2017 everyone!

Well hello!

So, yesterday was my birthday, but it was uneventful. As I had hoped it would be. Didn't make any plans or anything like that, just decided to stay home (like I always do) and enjoy the absence of my neighbors. The best gift I could be given is solitude.

I need solitude.

I love being by myself. I love the sound of silence. I love the almost surreal feeling that only being by yourself, in the dark, late at night can give you.

The night helps bring my imagination to life and I could truly sit in a dark room by myself for hours on end, letting thoughts and ideas come and go as they please. It reminds me of my younger days, when my imagination would run wild. As I've gotten older, it becomes harder and harder to return to that state of mind.

But the sound of silence always brings me back.

Sometimes, I'll go into my bathroom, close the door, turn off the lights and just sit, watching the afterimages and color-tricks my eyes play on my brain. I could do it for hours.

Other times, I'll actually go outside, usually around three in the morning, and just wander around the neighborhood. During the day, the hustle and bustle is seemingly endless, but late at night everything falls into silence. It's beautiful, almost spiritual in its intensity. I could walk around for hours, if only my legs would let me.

The sound of silence is timeless, unchanging. It is the only consistency in my life. It always makes me feel the same way: at peace. I find this peace to be very life-affirming; something that becomes more and more valuable as I age.

Tonight, like so many other nights, I plan on lighting a candle in the dark and just watching the flame, letting the fire and my thoughts dance their dance, like they've done so many times before. Who knows what dreams may come?

Only the sound of silence.

Thank you for reading.

Well hellooo TFF! Just wanted to say hi and all that good stuff.

Basically, I plan on making more blog posts here, especially about Final Fantasy games. I stopped playing the FF4 remake; I was having some difficulties with my computer. If I want to finish it, which I do, I'll have to wait until I get a new computer. I've been getting crazy lag on just about every game. My laptop is getting older and can't keep up like it used to.

I'd like to use this "less gaming" time to write more. I love writing. ;7

I'd really like to start some kind of RP here, and I have an idea from way back that I'm working on, but if I start anything, it probably won't be that one right away.

I've also been writing fan-fiction, but I never seem to actually finish them haha. I also like to write poetry, but it might be a bit cringe-inducing! :p

Well, okay everyone, have a great day and I'll see you in my next blog post!

Farewell for now!

Hello once more! Well-wishes to you!

So, not too much to report today, because I only did some grinding and looked for the best grinding spot. Edward's low stats make sense to me now: he was a Prince, pretending to be a Bard. Bard was the only class he had any experience at all with, so when he joins the party, that's all he knows how to do, haha. He may just be one of the weakest characters in the series, I'm sad to say. But, with enough grinding, even Edward can be great. We'll see, haha.

I think the best grinding spot for where I am right now is actually the first half of the Underground Waterway. You see, one of the mob spawns is a group of three Mini-Mages and a aqua colored Fishman-Guy-Thing. This battle is over in a single turn and gives about 300 XP to each party member. Low-risk, but high-reward. The only thing better than this is the group of six Skeletons at Mount Hobs, but that's a higher risk for the same reward. Maybe extra Gil. :lol:

I went inside the Antlion Cave just to check it out and it looks really cool. It's very desert-themed and I like the extra details, like the ropes on the drawbridges and the plants randomly blooming about. The enemies in the first room give about the same XP as enemies in the Waterway, which I thought was odd, but I can just train at the Waterway instead.

Well, tomorrow I hope to fell the Antlion and heal Rosa's Desert Fever. Maybe I will try to use some status effects on it.

That's all for now. As always, wish me luck, and I'll see you tomorrow! Have a great day!

Hello everyone! Hope all is well!

Well, good news! The "Spoony Bard" quote is preserved! I was pleased to see that. Sure, it might be something silly, but I guess if a quote can be nostalgic, it's that one, haha.

The Bombing of Damcyan was intense. The initial part where the Red Wings actually drop the bombs was very fast, only a few seconds long, almost humorously fast, especially when compared to the original. Anna's death was emotional, of course. The voice acting is, again, really good. Tellah was kind of funny, since he has a Deckard Cain vibe going on and the first time you hear his voice is during Anna's death, so it's campiness caught me off guard. I feel really bad for Edward; everyone was abusing him pretty bad. Even Rydia wasn't nice. She called him a coward and everything. Poor Edward.

What's even sadder about Edward, though, are his stats, haha. After Anna's death, Tellah vows revenge on Golbez (which this is the first time he's mentioned; can't wait to see him in 3D!) and leaves the party. Edward is the replacement. He has fewer stat points than even Rydia, but no magic to make up for it. He does, however, now have a new ability set called Bardsong, which replaces his sing command from the original. This lets him use any of his Harp songs regardless of what Harp he has equipped. While I'm not sure how useful this will be yet, I'm never used status effects too often in the original, so I guess he'll be using the healing song the whole time! :lol:

Now, back in the original, I remember the area of Mount Hobs before the ice wall being a good training spot, since Rydia's healing magic makes short work of the skeletons that spawn in groups of 6. Quick XP for Edward to get him out of his I-die-every-battle time. This, uh, isn't the case now, haha. The skeleton's Thunder spell one-shots Edward and quickly kills Rydia, usually before she can cast Cura. I think I'll just have to train at the Underground Waterway, and then a bit at the Antlion's Cave and then back to Mount Hobs for a bit. This should put everyone at more than enough level to defeat the Antlion.

Well, that's all for now! As always, wish me luck, and I'll see you tomorrow! Have a great day!

Hello, hello! Hope you are well!

So, today I found out that if you buy items in bulk, you get a discount. It's either some kind of wild glitch or that's how it's intended. I don't remember it being that way in the original. I spent almost all my Gil buying about five to ten of every items, just to be safe. I shouldn't need all of them, but I don't know what surprises this remake will throw at me. It does seem like I've been Back Attacked far more than in the original, so maybe more monsters will be able to inflict status effects as well. At least I have something to spend my Gil on! :lol:

Speaking of status effects, I made it to the Octomammoth and I poisoned it! Haha, I'm not used to being able to put status ailments on bosses, so that's pretty cool. The 3D sprite is really intense looking. Very true to the original. But Cecil made short work of the beast, inflicting about 800 damage with each Darkness-buffed attack. I didn't even need to heal!

I used a tent and saved right outside the cave, so next time I play, I'll be ready to jump right into what happens at Damcyan. Can't wait to see the 3D rendition!

I've really been enjoying the remake so far, no complaints yet, haha.

Well, that's all for today! Wish me luck as always, and I'll see you tomorrow! Have a great day!

Hellooo! Hope today is a good day for you!

Well, let me start by saying that the Toad status ailment is hilarious in the remake. Since everything is 3D now, the frogginess is much more apparent and when you win a battle, your Toaded party members will do a little dance that is just the cutest thing. Here's a picture of Cecil under Toad status. Isn't he darling? :lol:

So, I trained up everyone a bunch. Tellah is useful since his magic stats are twice as much as Rydia's. He's much slower though. The battles aren't too tough in the Waterway, but if I don't use Thunder on all enemies right away, their attacks will add up fast. I have Active battles on with the speed up as high as it will go, since if you enter your commands quickly enough, I do believe you will "one-up" the enemy with the turn progression. I'm not 100% sure on that though. On the other hand, if I move too slowly, the enemy will quickly kill me. Luckily, no one has died since Tellah joined the party.

I'm not quite to the Octopus boss yet for two reasons: One, in the remake, there's a minimap now. If you explore each section completely, it rewards you with some items. So far, it's given me some Eye Drops and Antidotes and Tents and such, so it's a nice boost. The only "drawback" is that I encounter many more random battles. That's not a problem though, since I love to power-level.

Two, when Rydia learned Pig, I wanted to see if the Pig status would be as funny as Toad. Not quite, but still humorous. I can't find a picture of it anywhere, sadly. Anyway, when I was casting Pig to check it out, Rydia ran out of MP! A silly mistake and Tellah was also very low MP so I used an Emergency Exit to take me out of the cave. I'll have to run back through and get to the boss tomorrow. I'll also grind just a bit more to make sure I can take down the boss.

Well, that's all for now! Wish me luck and I'll see you tomorrow! Have a great day!

Hello again! Hope life is good!

So, I leveled Cecil and Rydia up a bit before getting Tellah. And let me tell you, he looks intense! :lol: In a good way, of course. He looks magely and powerful. Here's a picture of him in the remake. I like having him as the party leader. Recall is a really fun ability, but it seems to yield "Could not recall any spells!" more than not. So, instead of setting Recall as his Auto-Battle ability, I equipped him with a Rod and set that to Auto-Battle.

You see, like in the original, you can "use" equipped items and they let you use an ability for free. I remember in the original Kain's Holy Lance let him use Holy. It wasn't very powerful, but he could do it! :D The Rod weapon's ability is Mage Arrows, which is only a single-target spell, but deals considerable damage. It's a great alternative to using the standard Attack command for Mages.

I don't remember if Tellah has Meteo when you first meet him in the original, but he does have it later on, when he joins again at Mt. Ordeals. He needs 99 MP to cast it, but no matter how much you level him, he never gains more HP. In fact, some of his other stats go down after he levels a few times! However, in the remake, he doesn't have Meteo at all when you first meet him, but maybe that's how it was in the original too, I don't remember.

When I was younger, I tried to level him up a bunch to see if it would let me cast Meteo, but alas, he never gained any more MP. I thought it was cool in FFIX when Garnet could use her summons if you leveled her a bunch before she actually "unlocked" them in the storyline. That's not the case here, and it looks like Tellah won't have Meteo at all except in his final scene. That's gonna be a rough one, sniff.

Anyway, I'm going to level up the party a bit more before I head to the boss octopus at the end of the cave. I'm looking forward to seeing how the remake will do the scene at Damcyan. It's emotional, but it's good. Wonder if the "spoony bard" line will still be in. Let's hope! haha.

Well, as always, wish me luck, and I'll see you tomorrow! Have a great day!

Hello again! Hope all is well!

So, I explored the town of Kaipo with Rydia. There weren't any items in any of the jars or crates. I thought this was a bit strange, considering how many items were in Baron. But then, I guess it makes sense; Baron is a kingdom while Kaipo is just a little desert village.

Everything is the same as it was in the original, save for a gigantic chocobo in the upper-left corner of town. When I talked to it, a menu came up that had three options, but they were all ???, so I will have to check back later. I'm pretty sure that one of the options is the bank system, but I wonder what the other two could be...

I found Rosa, infected with Desert Fever, in the same house as always. :D After the cutscene, I received an Augment, which are new to the remake. This particular one is Auto-Potion, and while it might be useful (especially on Rydia), I can only use it on one character, so I think I will save it for now.

I wanted to train Rydia up a bit before heading to the north cave, but she kept dying, so that took up a lot of my time! :lol: Even in the back row with the best armor available, she doesn't last long, especially against the Sand Worm, haha. But I got her up to level 14 and she's doing much better now. I think we will be able to hold our own, especially once Tellah joins the party. Can't wait to fight the boss at the end of the cave!

Well, so far so good, but that's all I have to say for now. As always, wish me luck, and I'll see you tomorrow! Have a great day!

Hello there everyone! Hope you are doing well!

So, I made it to the Mist Cave. First thing I notice are the puddles on the ground. I love the little touches the 3D brings to the game. Like I said yesterday, it brings it more to life and makes me feel just a bit more immersed, which is great. The updated version of Into The Darkness is good and feels as mysterious as ever. This theme is used in several of the dungeons in the game and I look forward to hearing it more often.

The boss fight with the dragon was intense, even if a bit easy. As long as you don't attack it when it's in it's Mist Form, you should have no problem, even at a lower level. It's also weak to the Dark element, so if you use Cecil's Darkness buff, you should be able to end the battle in just a few turns.

The activation of the Bomb Ring when I arrived at the Village of Mist was very visceral. The voice acting, along with the 3D, make it much more gut-wrenching than I remember it. I really felt for Rydia losing her mother. The scene also does a good job of establishing that Rydia is gifted with magic, since she was able to summon Titan and rip a gigantic ravine in the earth. Wicked stuff. :lol:

Now, after this scene, Kain vanishes in the aftermath and Cecil decides to take Rydia some place safe before looking for Kain. He finds himself in a desert and heads to the town of Kaipo. When you enter this town, a cutscene automatically happens where Cecil takes Rydia to the Inn so she can rest. Before this point however, Rydia isn't actually in the party, so Cecil gains full EXP from battles, which is a great time to train him up a bit. This is why I like to stock up on items in the beginning so I can grind out some levels without having to go to the Inn. The Sand Worm fight is especially lucrative, but also intense, since all the sprites are now 3D models and Sand Worm is much bigger than he used to be! Gave me a bit of a jump, if I'm honest! ;7

I was able to grind up to level 19 before running out of items. I headed into town, the cutscene started, and then a battle happened! While Cecil and Rydia rest in the Inn, soldiers from Baron arrive and demand that Cecil hand over the girl. He refuses and this starts a battle. Being at level 19 and with the Darkness buff, I one-shot the General, and the soldiers became confused and I was able to slay them all before any retreated. This gets you the most EXP possible from this encounter.

This sequence earns Cecil Rydia's trust and she joins the party! She starts at level 7 in this version, but I remember her always starting at level 1. I'm glad she's at 7 tho, because now she starts with a nice little chunk of her spells, which will be great, even if the EXP will now be split between her and Cecil. More grinding, but more fun! :D

Speaking of that, there's an auto-battle mechanic in place that is very useful. I can relax and watch as Cecil lays slain all of his foes! It makes grinding so much easier, though I think that if you enter the commands yourself, it's faster if Active Battles are enabled.

Tomorrow, I will level up Rydia a bunch and explore the town of Kaipo! As always, wish me luck, and I'll see you tomorrow! Have a great day!

Hey everyone!

So, I spent almost all my playtime grinding out the levels I wanted. Since I didn't go any farther in the game, I'll talk a bit about how the remake is different from the original.

First, like I said yesterday, the voice acting is great. If you don't know who Yuri Lowenthal is, please check out his IMDB page here. He has contributed his talent to many video games and anime, and he is Cecil's voice actor and he's quite good. Cecil is in good hands, haha.

The characters feel a bit more alive to me with voice acting and it adds an extra level of emotion. It makes me really listen in to a story I may have already been told four or five times (I've played the original FF4 quite a bit), and I'm excited about that. This is a close as I will get to reliving the old days. ;7

The intro scene with the Red Wings is fantastic. I have a better understanding of Cecil's misgivings with what happened at Mysidia. It also makes me feel more for his soldiers as well as the innocence of the Mages that were killed. They didn't even try to fight back, the poor dears! :(

The scene where Rosa visits Cecil the night before he leaves does a much better job at communicating her love for him. The remade version of The Theme of Love (which you can listen to here) tugs at my heartstrings and brings back so many memories.

Also, the scene where Cecil and Kain leave Baron gave me chills like never before. I said to myself, "And the adventure begins again!"

Now, I'm not saying that the remake is superior, I haven't played enough yet to say that, of course. :lol: But, I have a stronger sense of story and character already just from the opening than I ever had with my playthroughs on the original. You can't really beat the classic; I mean, there's just something about the original FF4. It really draws you in and never really lets you go. But, the remake is great at communicating the same things, just a bit better, I would say. That's subject to change of course as my playthrough goes on!

The remake's battle system is different than the original, but still has the same spirit. Kain still has Jump! I've always liked the Cast from Hit Points mechanic in games and Cecil can put a buff on himself now called Darkness that makes all his attacks more powerful, but they drain a percentage of his HP. I like this better than the D. Wave attack from the original, since I always felt like the latter was a bit overpowered.

Well, I think that's all I have to say for today. I will be heading to fight the Mist Dragon and then on to Kaipo. Wish me luck!

Have a great day and I'll see you tomorrow!

So! As some of you may know, the remake of Final Fantasy 4 that was released on the DS is now available on PC! I never got to play the DS remake, so I am very excited to be able to play this version.

I just started the game last night, and so far, the updated graphics and music are really cool. It's interesting to see the old sites rendered in 3D.

There's voice acting now, and it's very decent. Yuri Lowenthal (who has been in just about everything, haha) is the voice of Cecil and so far, so good. I'm very excited to hear all of my old favorite character's voices.

I'm currently just outside of Baron, on my way to the Valley of Mist. I have always been a power-leveler, so I am aiming to have Cecil and Kain at level 15 before heading into the cave. Yeah, it might be a bit much, but it's always fun to take out a scary-sounding boss in two turns, haha.

I will update this blog regularly with my progress. I've read that there is some kind of New Game+ system with the remake, so I am certainly excited about that!

Wish me luck and I will see you tomorrow!