Part 66: DS Have Fun Storming the Castle!

DS Update 11: Have Fun Storming the Castle!

Hello folks! Welcome to another edition of Let's Play Final Fantasy IV DS.


When last we left off, we had just rescued Yang, who had been brainwashed by Golbez. We were about to take the fight to Baron Castle and bust Cid's ass out of jail!

Today, we're going to do that, but first, I have one small side trip to make.

Where, you ask? To the village of Mist! Why? I'll explain when we get there. Just go with it.


Of course, that means we have to go back through the Mist Cave.


I'll spare you the boring details. Just picture this, over and over and over...


And just like that, we're outside Mist!


I was going to come back here a bit later, but it seems there's a useful item here. I decided to grab it now.


Nearly?! I'm surprised this whole place wasn't reduced to ash! Not to mention the earthquake on top of it...

Now that I think of it, Mist is either the world's luckiest- or unluckiest- town in the world, depending on how you look at it.


I'll chat up more of the locals later. For now, the thing I want is in here.


It's this little number. After selling some more shit I don't need anymore, I can just barely afford it! _{Goodnight, sweet Deathbringer, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.}


I give it to Palom. It boosts a lot of his stats, but his intellect takes a slight hit.


We'll get to see what it does in battle a bit later. For now, it's off to Baron Castle!


Hmm. I wonder...


Didn't think they'd just let us waltz in the front door. Oh well! I figured it couldn't hurt to try.


Just like in the GBA version, we can use the Baron Key to unlock this suspicious locked door we saw waaaaay back in Update 2.


And in we go.


Our next dungeon lies down those stair, but first- I spy treasure!


There's a secret passage right here! I seriously wonder what this looks like from Cecil's perspective...


Cash! I always appreciate more cash, especially considering my spending habits as of late. Sheesh...


Anyway, who's ready for a dungeon?


How about some new enemies, too?

Splashers are palette swaps of the Killer Fish, which we first encountered back in the Underground Waterway. They have 360 HP and share the Killer Fish's weakness to lightning.


But that's not the important part. I'm going to use Palom's new toy on one of these unsuspecting fish.


The animation is pretty cool, and it has a satisfying swishy sound-effect.


And the damage is quite impressive! Elemental weakness? Psssh. We don't need no stinkin' elemental weakness!


Cecil even profits from the experience!


At this point, I figure it's a good idea to equip Tellah with that Thunder Rod I bought last update. In fact, it's a very good idea, considering the vast majority of enemies here are weak to lightning!

Of course, I forget to do one other smart thing until the next floor. Any of you know what it is already?


Ponder that for a bit while I talk about another new enemy.


The rather awesomely-named Devil's Castanet is an upgraded version of the Fangshell. They're weak to lightning, and have 760 HP.

The castanet is a little handheld percussion instrument commonly used in Spanish music. (They make a clicking sound- I'm sure you've heard it.)


Anyway, here's Tellah's damage with a Thunder Rod. Palom's Dancing Dagger still out-damages it, even with effective damage.


Porom and Yang make a rather nice dynamic duo in this dungeon. Porom Cries to distract the enemy,


giving Yang a chance to Kick them to death!


Yep, Tellah, way to min-max those stats.


There's treasure here, too. It's a dungeon; of course there's treasure!


I have a nice pile of these now, not that I use all that much MP. I rely more on spell-casting weapons, like the Thunder Rod and Dancing Dagger.


I suppose items like these could also save me MP, if I ever remembered to use them!


I did some playing around, to test Palom's damage output with Thundara. It's... pretty goddamn respectable! Nice job, kid, you'll go far.


Moving on, we're done with the first floor.

Obtained 3 Hi-Potions

I'm afraid these will never be as useful as they were against Scarmiglione. Man, that was awesome!


Next floor throws a couple new enemies at us. Gigas Gators are the big brother of the Alligator back in the Underground Waterway. (Are you picking up on a theme, here?) They have 584 HP and share the same ice weakness as their scaly brethren.


Electrofish, on the other hand, are a whole different kettle of... well, you know...


Here's what Libra has to say about them. Their 284 HP is nothing special, but their elemental affinity is.

Guess who didn't notice it?


Yep, that's right, me. It's quite a curveball, if you just go through here spamming Thunder/ara everywhere! Hey, all the other enemies here, except the gators, are weak to lightning! Dick move, game!


Here, have a level up screen to cover my stupidity!


The next floor contains the first example of this dungeon's gimmick:


secret passages!


Lots of secret passages!


Oh, I also got jumped while traversing the void.






Level ups for Cecil and the twins!


On the other side of the secret passage: treasure!






And more secret passages!


And even more treasure!


At this point, I finally remembered: Yang has a lightning-based weapon, too! Maybe I ought to equip that...


Now he'll be able to hit nearly ever enemy in this place for effective damage! Hell yeah!


Observe. The old one-two. And everyone gets a shot!


Palom


Tellah


And Yang! Not too shabby, either!

Between Yang/Porom, Palom, and Tellah, the party makes short work of the monsters here, no question.


Yep, Tellah, just keep on min-maxing. Whatever!


Here's Yang's damage on a single target. Not too shabby at all!


Now, in order to continue on, we need to head back up near the entrance to this floor.


There's another secret passage right where the water meets the stairs. I have no idea how I managed to find it when I first played this game. Even with a guide, I had trouble spotting it.


It leads into this little side cavern. Nothing of import here, except for a cool waterfall.

Now's as good a time as any to get the party's thoughts on our situation!


Only one way to find out! Though, I have a sinking feeling it won't be good...


Bah. "Easily killed things" is more like it. We haven't had anything even resembling trouble with the baddies here!


Yep, and Cecil seems much happier, too! Getting him out of that armor did him a world of good. Now we just need to get Rosa back...


Yes, Tellah. We've been beating them off with a stick since we first set foot in this place, remember?


I'm sure this observation is accurate.

Of course, I got jumped on my way through the void, again.


And Cecil levelled up!

Learned Cura

Ah, good. Now he can be a proper emergency heal-bot. Don't try to heal the whole party with it, though. Cecil's spirit stat is way too low to make it worth it. On a single target, though, it's not bad.


Making our way through the secret passage,


we find more treasure! These might actually come in useful, now that I think of it. Haste can't be multi-targeted. Flinging these around would be the most efficient way to Haste the whole party, if you were so inclined.

Of course, you can always just Slow the enemy for pretty much the same effect!


Oh yeah, and guess what?


More secret passages!

There's nothing to the west here, but you need to pop in here if you want to complete the map.


East is the way to go.


And of course, I got jumped again, but the twins levelled up, so I don't mind.



Learned Toad

Eh... I suppose if anyone ends up Toaded, that could be useful. I doubt I'll end up using it on any enemies. Like I said, why bother with status ailments when you can just burn everything to a crisp? (Of course, this statement does not apply to Slow. Slow is damned useful!)


Porom doesn't learn any spells, sadly.


But we did complete the second floor of the dungeon!

Obtained Ether

Again, one Ether?! We're getting past the point where one Ether makes much of a difference, except for Tellah that is. Either give me a small pile of Ethers or a Dry Ether, jerks!


Onwards to the next floor!


New floor means new enemies!


Their first act is to paralyze Tellah.

Whatever. They're snakes. They constrict things. That's about all there is to 'em.


Hydra have 514 HP, and despite their reptilian appearance, they're weak to lightning.




Thank you, Porom, for solving that problem. White mages are hella useful to have around.




That frees up Yang and Tellah to finish off the rest of our scaly friends.

The current team has very nice synergy. I like it.


Yang grows more powerful, and shows off his nifty shocky claws.


Anyway, can you spot the secret passage?


It's right through here!

This one's easier to spot than it seems, since you can see the treasure chest right there on the lower screen. Sometimes, the DS version is kind to you. When it's not vigorously kicking you in the balls.


Oh, hey, that was quick!

Obtained 3 Remedies

Ooh, now we're talking! Remedies are always handy to have around, especially when your guys get hit with multiple status effects, and your healer is otherwise occupied!


These are helpful, too. You can never have too many. Cecil's MP pool is still small enough that these are useful for him, at least...


Believe it or not, we're just about done with this dungeon. It's really short.

Just two ways to go. West, or east.


I head west first.


It leads to a savepoint, and there's a hidden chest here, as well! (Maybe not so hidden to us; it's right there on the bottom screen, after all!)


To reach it, take the secret passage through the eastern wall.

That's the last secret passage in this dungeon!


And this is our prize. It's a new weapon for Cecil.


And it kind of sucks. Statistically, it's inferior to the Mythgraven Blade in every respect. The difference is, it can Curse enemies on contact. Curse- as you might recall from Leave's runthrough- reduces attack and defense by half. Porom can do the defense part herself, on every enemy on the field, and Protect mitigates physical damage just fine. I think I'll pass. Cecil's job is to hit things hard, not mess around with status effects.


I heal up the party,


And we're ready to leave the dungeon!

Goodbye, Ancient Waterway. You were... kind of interesting, I guess. And short. Short is good.


Oh wait, nevermind. One more battle before we go, I guess.


You can fight these guys here, too. They're exactly the same as they were last update, when we kicked their teeth in.

That's all I have to say about that.


We emerge back in Castle Baron at last!


The answers to both these questions, later in this update!


Hmm. And I guess that answers Cecil's question from earlier.


Curious!


I guess we'd better be ready for a fight!

I'm always ready for a fight!


I find Palom's youthful enthusiasm to be quite endearing.


And from here we can just waltz right into the courtyard. What is with castles in this game having shit security?!


No guards, either. Man. Whoever's running this operation deserves what's coming to him.


First, let's pop into the west tower real quick.


At the top of the tower, Cecil's room is... exactly as we left it. Huh.


Well, I'm not about to complain about free healing. And I bet Cecil will appreciate sleeping in his own bed, for once.


And now, we have some work to do. And by "work" I mean butt-kicking.

You may have noticed there wasn't a boss fight as the end of that last dungeon? Well... the game makes up for that. In spades.


The party strolls blithely along, in the middle of the enemy's stronghold.


Ah! Finally, someone with a pulse around here!



Baigan... Tell me you've not joined him, too.

Him?

Golbez.

I am captain of His Majesty's royal guard, Cecil. My loyalty belongs to Baron, now as ever.

Oh, well that's reassuring. Baigan, I take back every snide thing I ever said about you.



I fear it is. I led my men here in hopes of rescuing him, but... only I survived.

Oh man, Baigan, that's rough. I'm sorry.

I see. Will you come with us, then? Your blade would be most welcome.

Consider it yours, my lord.


Oh. Well, that's nice. I can always use more members for Team Asskickers! Welcome aboard, Baigan.


Cecil and Baigan stroll off together, like they're in some buddy cop movie, and something just exploded behind them.


Yeah, just like that.


But the twins stop, and so does the rest of the party.



Something stinks.

I smell it, too... a monster's stench.


I smell something fishy, too!






Baigan!




I see Palom isn't the only one with an "I don't give a shit" pose.


Um, because that's what you are?

I'm merely repaying a great man for the wonderful gift he gave me.




And here's our boss!

Like in the GBA version, Baigain has 3 parts: body, left arm, and right arm. All are separate targets. If you kill an arm, it'll regenerate before too long. If you kill the body and leave one or both arms standing you're in trouble! The remaining arm(s) will self destruct, causing massive damage on a single character and probably knocking him/her out. You don't want this; whoever gets knocked out would miss out on EXP that way!

The body has 4,444 HP, and the arms have 2,222 each. Like most bosses, Baigan has counterattacks. He'll counter physical attacks with Constrict, and magic attacks with Reflect. Either way, things can get pretty dicey if you're not careful!

Ideally, you'll want to destroy only one arm, since Baigan will only regenerate if both arms are gone. So, your targets should be: one arm, body, other arm. You run the risk of the remaining arm self-destructing on you this way, though...

Or, you can do it my way.


Yang is going to Focus on boosting his attack.


Cecil will Protect the party.


Tellah will be playing support/heal-bot. First by casting Shell on the party.


And the twins are going to use Twincast.


Baigan's physicals are no slouch, even with Protect!


Fortunately, Cecil does even more damage to him with Counter!


Baigan can also just straight-up judo kick one of your guys for massive damage! Keep your designated heal-bot at the ready!

A few counterattacks from Cecil later,


Tellah finally throws up a Shell,


and Yang begins gathering power. I'll have him do this a total of 3 times.

And finally,


it's time to unleash hell.




Yessss, that's what I like to see! Thanks to Cecil's counterattacks, that's enough to straight up murder both arms!


Baigan duly throws up a Reflect. This can be a problem if you're relying on Palom or Tellah's spells to damage him. To counteract it, you'd have to throw reflect on one of your own party members and bounce spells off them.

However, Twincast ignores reflect, so I don't have to worry about it at all!


Baigan retaliates by paralyzing Cecil. I really don't care.


While the twins gear up for another volley, Tellah heals everyone up,


and Yang keeps doing his thing.


Baigan judo kicks Porom in the face, but it's far too little, far too late.





Death from above, bitch!


Yes, yes, YES!


Baigan still counters with Reflect...


So, now Porom has Reflect. Ooookay!


All right, Yang, now's your chance. Finish this thing!


He does.


And that is enough to take Baigan the fuck down.


Double level ups after that one!


Cecil's getting beefier all the time.


And Tellah is still... being Tellah.


Cecil is understandably bummed about this recent development.


And he's not catching any breaks from Palom.

Even Baigan...


Poor Cecil. Looks like the last remnants of his faith in his king have shattered.


We've seen this kind of thing before, but yes, it is rather horrible.


A very unsettling thought, and one I hadn't considered! We'd better get Kain out of Golbez's clutches, and soon!


Oh boy. That's not encouraging either.


Yes, it is, and yes, this was Palom. You could go a little easier on the guy. Just a little.


I heal up in Cecil's room in preparation for the inevitable throw-down.


We're right outside the throne room. Time to see what's become of the king!

But first... the hardest thing I've had to do thus far.


I take the twins' equipment.


That means they'll be leaving us soon. Noooooo!


The party approaches the throne. Let's do this.





Oh, and look at you! You've become a... a paladin, is it? I'm afraid that won't do at all.

My liege?

Your liege? Who might that be? Oh, I think I've just remembered!


Yes, that's it- the king of Baron. It's his part I've been playing all this time. Ha ha ha ha ha!


Cecil seems remarkably composed, considering he just found out his hero has been supplanted by an imposter!


You'd best not mistake me for another Scarmiglione. How one as weak as he came to be crowned as an archfiend is something I will never know. Mwa ha ha!

Then you're one of them!


The king stands up, the screen turn blue, and


his true form is revealed!


Ain't happening, bub!


Oh god, that face. It just screams out "kill meeeeeeee!"

Well, we're only too happy to oblige!


Cagnazzo's first act, before I can so much as twitch, is to Slow the entire party.


This is annoying, but there's not all that much I can do about it. I have Cecil throw up a Protect to help mitigate the damage.


And Porom follows up with Shell.


Tellah is going to try to help this situation by Hasting Porom, while Yang does his usual- Focus 3 times.


Palom's plan is similar. Bluff, then cast a spell.


Ffffff. Oh goddammit Tellah! Cagnazzo just one-shot him, through Proect! Yikes.

Cagnazzo kind of hits like a truck. He has 10,624 HP, and he's weak to ice... mostly. I'll get to that in a second.


Slowing Cagnazzo is a very good idea. At the least, it'll level the playing field. You need every advantage you can get!


With Cagnazzo Slowed, I take the opportunity to revive Tellah while Porom is still Hasted.


To my great relief, she is able to heal him before Cagnazzo offs him again.


And just in time. Cagnazzo Slows her again. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.


Time to start pounding him. Palom stars off with a Bluff-boosted Blizzara.


It hits for pretty darn respectable damage.


Porom then helps out with the physical end of things by lowering Cagnazzo's defense. Being a turtle, his defense is quite formidable!


Oh goddammit, Tellah! Not again!


Cecil tosses him another Phoenix Down. I kind of need him conscious for this fight.

Magic is more useful against Cagnazzo then physical attacks. For one, there's his ice weakness, which only Yang and our spellcasters can hit. For anther, Cagnazzo has counterattacks (of course). He counters physical attacks with Hold, and magic attacks with Silence. Silence is easily cured with an Echo Herb. Paralysis... not so much. I don't want Cecil getting paralyzed, so I have him on heal/support duty.


More Focusing for Yang, and Bluffing for Palom, and Porom heals up Tellah. Again.


Oh yeah. Did I mention that Cagnazzo can also cast Sleep on the whole party? Because he can. Cagnazzo is a huge dick.


Not as bad as I feared, and Cecil is still straight-up immune. Thank goodness for small favors!


This is why I need Tellah in the game. He's bringing the big guns!


Holy sweet shit that's a lot of damage! See what I mean?


Here he goes.


With Porom asleep on the job, it'll be up to Cecil to get rid of that. But first, who wants some more big numbers?


Triple Focused Ice Claws + Cagnazzo =


Ouch. He incurs a counterattack, of course, but that's why I had him Focus first. He'll suffer fewer counterattacks that way, and still dish out big damage!

Now, there's one other thing you have to watch out for in this fight, and it's very important!


When you see Cagnazzo do this, drop everything.


You must hit him with a lightning-based attack, or you will regret it, trust me. Tellah's Thunder Rod will do the job nicely (and frees up his limted MP pool for casting Blizzaga). I highly recommend it!




While Cagnazzo is cloaked in water, his elemental weakness temporarily shifts to lightning. Plus,


It disables his watery cloak.

Why is this important? Well...


If you're slow on the uptake...


This happens.


It's bad.


Really, really bad! It deals massive damage, and adds Death just for the extra "fuck you!"

Needless to say, it's pretty much impossible to recover from that, so this never happened. I used savestates to show it off.

Back to the rest of the boss fight.


Once you do enough damage to Cagnazzo, he'll retreat into his shell. His defense is boosted quite a bit, and he'll slowly recover HP. On the plus side, he won't cast Tsunami while inside his shell, but he can still do his usual counterattacks, so watch out!


Take the opportunity to heal any status effects he may have slapped on you,


and renew your buffs.


And continue to rain the pain.


As you can see, Blizzaga did a lot less damage, but still pretty good!


Cagnazzo will do this periodically.


It heals quite a bit of his HP, but not nearly enough to put a dent in the Blizzara/aga and Ice Claws fueled onslaught! Just be thankful: any turn he's doing this is a turn he's not spending murdering the shit out of you!




Besides, Palom can take off more damage than he heals with a single Bluffed Blizzara. No problem!


Just make sure to keep your Echo Herbs at the ready. I actually forgot to buy extras, which I should have done. It turned out to not be much of an issue, but for those of you playing along at home, it's advised.


You'll have to keep Tellah supplied with Ethers, too, since he can't keep slinging Blizzaga forever.


Just keep the pressure on.




Don't let up!




And eventually,


You will emerge triumphant!


Sweet Jesus, that's a lot of level ups!


That's two levels for Palom!

Learned Osmose

A vital spell for any black mage! Too bad he'll never get to use it.


Double level ups for Cecil, too!


And for Porom!

Learned Blink

Blink is very handy to have around. It'll make the target avoid all enemy attacks for a few rounds. Perfect for your squishier party members!


Even Yang gets to join the double level up party!


Only one for Tellah though. That's too bad.


Hmm?




It's Cid!


Eh?



Cecil! You're alive! You had me worried, you... you... you!

I'm sorry.

What about Rosa?! She ran off after you- said she was sure you were still alive. But we haven't seen her since.

Oh boy.




Yes, and I'm sure Cecil feels bad enough about that already, so let's just leave it at that!

Hmph... Golbez, eh?







One might ask the same of you!

Me? You're calling me old?

Oh boy. This could get ugly!


This is Tellah, a great sage and wizard.


My name is Porom. I'm an apprentice mage from Mysidia.






Oh great, Palom. You were supposed to diffuse the situation!


Fortunately, Yang has this covered.

Oh, now there's a man who knows some manners!

Cid, where's this new airship of yours?





We don't have time for this blathering! Rosa's life is at stake!

Bullshit, Tellah, you just want a shot at Golbez!




Finally, progress!


The party files out, and into a cutscene!


Polsy version

Nooooo, my murder twins!

(Aside: Cid's voice actor is Ivan Buckley, who is also known by a bunch of other names...)





With regards to the final Crystal, my lord-



What if you were to have Cecil retrieve it for you?

Cecil?

He cannot refuse. We hold Rosa. We could offer an exchange- the Crystal for her life.

Indeed... And when he brings it to us, we can finish him then. Very well.

I will go and deliver the terms.


Oh, good, Rosa. You are alive up there. I was starting to worry.


Hmm. That's an interesting reaction...

Meanwhile...



The darkest place is under the candlestick, or so they say! Who would look for it here?

Oh, Cid, you sly dog!


Cid opens a secret passage,


and the party files on through.


The boys run down the walkway and onto the airship!



Incredible!

You mean to tell me this ship can sail the skies?

Sorry to have kept you down here for so long, my sweet Enterprise!


Liftoff!


Hell yeah! Our very own airship!


Just look at how magnificent it is!


And I, for one, am most anxious to see!






Oh god. What now?


That doesn't look friendly...


Polsy version

Turns out, it wasn't! I guess our next objective is clear.


We're finally given control of our very own airship!


The airship can land on any grassy surface. We'll explore it thoroughly, next time!

For now, I'll leave you with the party's thoughts:


Well, that's looking at the bright side, I suppose!


Yeah something is definitely going on with Kain.


One track mind much, Tellah?


He sure didn't seem that way at the beginning of the game! Something is definitely up.


Let's take a quick look at the newest member of Team Asskicker, before we go.

I'll give Cid a more in-depth analysis next time.




For now, his starting equipment is pathetic. Let's fix that.


And that'll do for today, folks! I'll see you after the holiday. Have a pleasant weekend.