FFIV - Square kills kids!

Alright! I got to play a good bit between yesterday and today, much has happened so I'll try to break it down as best and quickly as I can. Essentially the evil Golbez was successful in stealing the first three crystals and in capturing Rosa, he and the traitor Kain talked Cecil into obtaining the fourth (Earth) crystal in exchange for her life. So Cecil ventures to the dungeon where the crystal is held with the aid of the monk Yang, sage Tellah, and the two wizard kids I picked up along my path to become a paladin. After obtaining the crystal and defeating another arch fiend (three down, one to go), the bastards seal us in a room and start closing in the walls Indiana Jones style. The two kids decide to sacrifice their lives by casting Petrify on each other at the exact same time to halt the moving walls. Madness I say! My first party member deaths, but certainly not the last. This marks the first time the series has actually killed off a party member who you were in full control of for a time. I can't believe they killed the kids off first...

Of course after going through all the trouble of getting the crystal and handing it over, Golbez decides he does not want to part with his captive Rosa after all. Tellah, the Sage, then goes nuts on Golbez with the ultimate spell Meteor and the spell over Kain breaks; Kain then helps Cecil save Rosa. Golbez is only slightly wounded by Meteor and leaves, but casting the spell kills Tellah. After swearing to Tellah that we'd avenge he and his daughter's murder, we add Kain to the party (Dragoon if you don't recall), as well as Rosa (White Mage). Back to a party of four: paladin, dragoon, white mage, and monk. After Golbez has left, the party feels like we've lost but Kain explains that Golbez has the four crystals of light and that for each crystal of light there is a crystal of dark as well that he must obtain in the underworld. Off to the underworld! I pick up Cid as a character as I get a new airship and off I go.

I arrive at the underground Dwarven stronghold and Cid leaves the party to help rig the airship for the dwarves fighting the armada of Golbez. The dwarven king explains that he has three of the crystals locked up safely behind the throne room and one sealed away in a secret cave. Well guess what, the crystals in the throne room are getting jacked as we speak. I rush back there to face down a back to back boss fight against a doll and then Golbez himself. Once the doll went down, Golbez paralyzes the whole party and starts casting death one at a time. When he finally gets to Cecil, Rydia comes outta no where (lookin' all grown up now), and annihilates Golbez summoned creature with a powerful new summon of her own. Now the fight starts with Cecil and Rydia; Kain, Rosa and Yang being dead. A very harsh starting condition... Every time I'd rez a character, Golbez would immediately cast an -aga spell and kill the rez'd member as well as dealing significant damage to Cecil and Rydia. Not only that but he kept barrier shifting, so I kept healing him on accident with Rydia's summons for like 2500. After about an hour or two of party wipes (I kept putting it down for a bit and coming back to it), I finally gave up on trying to get my party up and just fought with Cecil and Rydia. Eureka! I cast Libra with Cecil to find his current weakness and summoned the corresponding beast with Rydia. About three summons later the fucker died. Finally! Except once more he was only wounded and retreated with the three dark crystals, now he has 7 of the 8! Well, I go back and tell the Dwarven king the bad news and he suggests that I go to Golbez keep and steal the 7 he has while he's out after the eight. Ok, sounds like a solid plan. I head on over to the tower and start at the 13th floor below ground. Ugh, this is gonna be a while. I work my way all the way up to about the 6th floor when I'm faced up against the master strategist of Golbez army, 'The Doctor'. I beat the crap out of him and his war machine, grab his key and head to the next floor to find some super death machine about to blow all the dwarves to hell. Enter my monk Yang to sacrifice his life to stop the death machine (fourth party member suicide). I really wish these guys would stop dying...

I head to the next level and that sneaky Golbez disintegrates a bridge under my feet. My party falls to the lava below, and is rescued by Cid in his airship just in time. The armada is hot on our tail so we start to bail for the surface. The ships in pursuit are gaining fast though and it doesn't look like we're gonna make it so Cid grabs a bomb and jumps over the side just as we reach the opening to trap the armada in the underworld. Another one bites the dust!!!

Finally I arrive at the Ninja empire which is currently under siege by Golbez (man that guy is busy). I'm trying to get into the same tower again, but from above ground this time. I pick up another character, Edge the ninja. I do believe I'm done with switching party members this time because ninja is usually one of the end game classes and my party is already in the 40's. Game can't be too much longer. Anyway, I get into the tower at the top floor and work my way down to about 6, when I'm faced up against the final arch demon. A mean sucker but no wipes, we kicked his ass pretty solidly. As we enter the chamber behind him we see all seven of the crystals on a pedestal and approach. And fall. Through a trap door. Damnit! My party then decides that they can not possibly defeat a trap door and give up on the seven crystals. They head back to the dwarven kingdom to regroup and I'm guessing go after the eight crystal.

Pretty epic story so far, going all over the place, lots of classes, lots of different tactics. Can't just tank and spank these bosses, each has a specific strategy. Cecil is really starting to become solid. I have the Counter Attack and Draw In augments on him. So essentially every mob HAS to attack him unless they do a party wide spell, and he counters with about 2k dmg each time. So Cecil gets like 5 attacks for 2k each round, it's pretty sweet. The summoner Rydia isn't nearly as cool as my last summoner in FFIII though. For one, her summons cost too much, I can cast like 6 before I'm out of mana. The summoner in FFIII could cast all the low level summons like 20 times each before he ran out. Not only that but I'm not sure she's going to have to fight for any summons either. We shall see though.