Doing the Final Fantasy IV game

[zen_monk]

I'm playing some Final Fantasy IV on the PSP, so it's the complete collection thing with the interlude and After Years, and after playing the DS version I was really impressed with the updated graphics for the sprites and the setting since it's the GBA version. Things look lush and vibrant in the game, and it feels different compare with playing the DS version where everything's three dimensional. I miss the voice acting, tho, and especially Kain's DEEEEEP voice and Cecil and Rydia's earnestness. And alas, no augments in this game. Or the bonus items in completing a dungeon map. Or the mini-games... No! I must finish this psp game! I haven't actually finished the DS game, for shame, in over a year even though I'm in the last level xD ahhhh well.


But this time around, I think I'm noticing the depth of the story more than I did when I first played it, and it could be because I'm not older and wiser and more informed, but with the story as a whole, I feel like I'm starting to realize the inner motivations and nuances of the characters than I did before. 

Like, I'm at the point where I'm in the stupid Lodestone cave and the game is like all about Cecil trying to make heads or tail over what's going on with his kingdom, that he has to come to terms with being culpable in enabling his kingdom's tragedies. He gets the leadership role, but it's more like everyone knows they need to work together and so it's not like Cecil is being actively charismatic but that he brings everyone together and wants everyone to work well together. At least, that's how it appears to me, because people keep coming and going in the party so it's like Cecil keeps trying to adjust and readjust to new changes in development. 

Also, Rosa, who at this point is held captive, is so determined and earnest where she believes in her friends' judgments (and that includes Kain). She took initiative when she found out what happened in Mist and saw that there was a new change in the kingdom's order and probably was all "I gotta get out of dodge because even Kain seemed to be out of it so I gotta find the truth of the matter by finding out Cecil's fate. And no Cecil, don't tell me to step back and let you do all the work because I'm going to support you and the kingdom too." I like that she's set in her judgments and trust, and that while she set her affection for Cecil I think she makes room for Kain too.

Kain, to finish this triad of Baron people, so far seems to me this guy who seems opposite to Cecil. At this point he's influenced by evil brainwashing, but during that brief time in the beginning when he was mostly himself and not letting his dark side influence him, I thought he was this person who saw the bigger picture a bit more clearly than Cecil. He knew what they were doing is dishonorable yet somehow takes it in stride more than Cecil. Though, I think he was at the point where he wanted to confront Cecil about their occasional rivalry and of his affection for Rosa, and that gets manipulated at the right time when Golbez took over and influenced him via magic . 
And that's my thinky thoughts for the day about FFIV. Now onto finishing the stupid dungeon and somehow getting all the party members at some point.