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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ffiv_ds.png]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:The cast of ''Final Fantasy IV'' circa the DS release. [[QuirkyBard Spoony Bard]] [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg included for free!]]]]
3
4->''Birthed from womb of dragon's maw''
5->''And borne unto the stars''
6->''By light and darkness cast aloft''
7->''Are dreamtide oaths resworn''
8->''Moon is swathed in ever-light''
9->''Ne'er again to know eclipse''
10->''Earth, with hallow'd bounty reconciled''\
11''Yet fleeting is the reverie''
12->''When moon from shadow has egressed''
13->''Guided forth anew by light made manifest''
14->''Two bound by ties of blood''
15->''By Time and Fate are wrest apart''
16->''Unto lunar light and Gaian breast''
17-->-- '''The Mysidian Legend (3D Remake Edition)'''
18
19''Final Fantasy IV'', the fourth entry in the [[RunningGag face-meltingly popular]] ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' game series and the first [[MediaNotes/The16bitEraOfConsoleVideoGames 16-bit]] game in the series, released in 1991 for the Platform/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem.
20
21The main character of this tale is Cecil, a [[BlackKnight Dark Knight]] in the service of the King of Baron. After questioning the recent warmongering of his king, [[DisproportionateRetribution he is demoted to errand boy]] and sent to a village called Mist in order to deliver a package and slay a dragon menacing its borders. He is joined by his best friend and [[TheRival rival]], a Dragoon named Kain. Once they reach the village, they discover that nothing is quite what they have been told: they have been used as disposable pawns in Baron's ongoing crusade to capture the {{Power Crystal}}s that exist around the world. Cecil vows to stop the evil intentions of Baron, but first he must [[TheAtoner atone for the sins that he committed in its service and overcome his own inner darkness.]]
22
23Since the [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyII second]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII third]] ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games hadn't been released in North America when ''Final Fantasy IV'' came out, the original North American release of ''FFIV'' was titled ''Final Fantasy II''. The North American ''FFII'' was easier than the Japanese version; before the North American version was released, it spawned another Japanese version, "''Final Fantasy IV Easytype''", whose difficulty level was scaled down even more (thus, the North American version was less difficult than the original Japanese version, but significantly harder than ''Easytype''). The North American ''Final Fantasy II'' also suffered from severe [[{{Bowdlerize}} censorship]] and bizarre wording choices even outside the context of censorship ("[[QuirkyBard You spoony bard!]]", anyone?). Many of the [[GoodBadTranslation fan favorite lines]] were kept in the re-released versions.
24
25Received a sequel initially released for cellphones called ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIVTheAfterYears The After Years]]'' (also available on Platform/WiiWare, Platform/PlayStationPortable and received a 3D remake for PC and iOS/Android), which stars the old cast and some of their children teaming up again to prevent the same catastrophe from happening again. It, along with ''Final Fantasy IV'' itself, was released on the PSP in March 2011 in Japan and April everywhere else. Also includes a midquel called ''Interlude'' to further connect the plots. Both games use new graphics and is the largest 2D graphical change to the original other than the cellphone version. This version is heavily based on the Platform/GameBoyAdvance version, and the only thing taken from the Platform/NintendoDS version is the translation of terms (e.g. Carnellian Signet rather than "Bomb Ring").
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27''Final Fantasy IV'' is ''the'' title that had the most impact on the direction the franchise went in, and it had an ''enormous'' influence on virtually every one of its descendants, not to mention on Japanese role-playing games in general. It's been remade/ported numerous times. In addition to being half of the ''Final Fantasy [[VideoGame/ChronoTrigger Chronicles]]'' compilation on the Platform/PlayStation, ''FFIV'' has been ported to the [[Platform/WonderSwan WonderSwan Color]], [=GBA=], cellphones, and was the second game (after ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'', [[NoExportForYou which didn't make it over beforehand]]) to be fully remade with 3D graphics on the Nintendo DS in 2007 (this version was ported to PC in 2014), which added voice acting for key scenes and a introductory Full Motion Video with brand new CGI renders, significant additions to the script which further detail the backstory of some characters, several gameplay changes, along other new content such as an Augment system, minigames, a New Game Plus feature, and new superbosses. A 2D remaster, created as a part of the ''Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster'' series and largely based on the previous [=GBA=] and PSP rereleases (excluding any new content those versions added), was released for Steam and mobile devices in September of 2021. 2023 saw the ''Pixel Remaster'' version brought over to the Platform/NintendoSwitch and Platform/PlayStation4.
28
29----
30!!This game provides examples of:
31
32* ActorAllusion: The [[Creator/RyoHorikawa Japanese VA]] for Zemus has other experience in voicing a character with a [[Anime/DragonBallZ Big Bang attack]].
33* AdvancingBossOfDoom: Overlapping with AdvancingWallOfDoom and LivingStructureMonster. The Demon Wall's only move for most of its boss battle is to gradually approach the party. If it gets too close, its Crush attack is instant death.
34* AesopAmnesia: Happens in the ''same line of dialogue''. [[spoiler:Tellah, while dying, regrets that his blind thirst for vengeance led him down this road. He then asks Cecil to avenge him and his daughter.]]
35* AlienSky: The planet has two moons instead of one.
36* AllMythsAreTrue: The Mysidian Legend, naturally, turns out to not only be dead-on accurate, but the basis for the entire game.
37* AlwaysCheckBehindTheChair: Many areas have hidden goods or passageways, but Eblan Castle deserves special mention due to the sheer prevalence of this. In summary, there are: secret corridors on basically every floor; a Sutra hidden behind the throne; a pit that you have to edge your way across to reach a chest; and then, just to confuse you, a ''different'' pit that you'll only fall through if you try to cross it. That's not even getting into [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon The Very Definitely Final Dungeon's]] obsession with paths under paths under paths, all obscured by the top-view.
38* AntiFrustrationFeatures: If you headed to Mythril and got rid of Cid’s non-metallic weapon before Cave Magnes, Troia has the Wooden Hammer for sale so he isn’t completely useless.
39* AntlionMonster: One of the bosses is a giant antlion. Cecil, Edward and Rydia travel to its lair to get a cure for Rosa's fever. However, it's unexpectedly hostile, and they're forced to kill it.
40* AnyLastWords: In some versions that exclude the SNES version, Kain says this to Cecil after strking him down during the attack on Fabul Castle.
41* AnyoneCanDie: Throughout the game, several characters die, including playable ones. [[spoiler:Out of all these characters, only Tellah is dead for good toward the end. The rest come back or weren't quite dead.]]
42* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: You can only have five people in your party. This game's method of dealing with it? Killing off the spares. [[spoiler:Though only one stays dead, which makes it all the more obvious.]] That Baigan joining your party would take it up to six characters is your first rather fourth-wall threatening tip-off that he's a monster on Golbez's side (and he's outed as such before you even have a chance to go to the menu screen.)
43* ArcWelding:
44** The Japan-only guidebook ''[[http://www.sceneryrecalled.com/trans/ff4comp.htm Final Fantasy IV Settei Shiryou Hen]]'' attempts to do this between this game and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'', which is noteworthy as few games in the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series take place in the same continuity. According to ''Settei Shiryou Hen'', the Dark Sword which Cecil can find and equip in Fabul was left there by fellow ''FFII'' Dark Knight Leonhardt, while ''FFIV''[='s=] Mysidia was founded by ''FFII'' White Mage Minwu. This could, however, be a case of the series [[LegacyCharacter reusing character names and concepts]] in BroadStrokes, which is standard for ''Final Fantasy''. According to the timeline established in ''Settei Shiryou Hen'', ''II'' would have taken place around 200 years before the events of ''IV''.
45** Remakes of both ''II'' and ''IV'' reestablish the connection between the games in a different way, with the GBA version of ''II'' establishing that fellow Dragoon Ricard Highwind has a young ''protégée'' named Kain, and the DS version of ''IV'' acknowledging this connection by having Kain mention his father Ricard, [[spoiler:who died fighting an evil empire]]. Notable is that ''Final Fantasy II'' and ''IV'' must take place a single generation after one another if these comments are to be interpreted as placing the games in the same continuity, which would mean the 200-year gap established in ''Settei Shiryou Hen'' is [[RetCon no longer canon]].
46* TheArtifact: As of the Pixel Remaster, several things are no longer necessary due to quality-of-life changes.
47** The spell Sight and the item Gnomish Bread both zoom out the map to help you see more of where you're going. In the Pixel Remaster, these are irrelevant due to the presence of the in-game map.
48** The Fat Chocobo isn't necessary in the Pixel Remaster, because there's now no limit on inventory space. You can still summon him and store items if you want to, but there's no need to do so anymore.
49* AscendedMeme: "You [[QuirkyBard Spoony Bard]]!" is the TropeCodifier for the series, being kept in all releases of the game when the rest of the script has been re-translated. It has even worked its way into other ''Final Fantasy'' games and beyond.
50* AsLongAsThereIsEvil: The TropeNamer is the FinalSpeech given by the FinalBoss after defeating it, saying that it will return as long as there is hatred in the hearts of men. [[spoiler:He makes good on this promise in ''The After Years''.]]
51* AstralFinale: Cecil's journey to the moon culminates in TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon and the FinalBoss, despite taking place mostly on Earth.
52* TheAtoner:
53** Cecil feels incredibly guilty about stealing the crystals for the king of Baron. After his raid on Mysidia, Cecil vows to never do it again, even if ordered. But when Cecil is tricked into performing yet another atrocity, he says ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight and rebels. Part of this redemption even involves going back to Mysidia to atone for what he's done with the people he's personally wronged.
54** Kain isn't happy about the fact that [[spoiler:he ends up under Golbez's mind control. Not once, but twice, at that]]. So he vows to help Cecil in his quest in order to make amends.
55* AuthorAppeal: This game contains more or less all of Amano's favorite art trends. Cecil is the typical pale willowy man with frizzy white hair, blue lips, and very pale skin. He also has spiked armor and a cape, which Amano ''loves''. Rosa and Rydia meanwhile are clad in catsuits, and as for capes, it's probably more efficient to list the main characters who do ''not'' wear a cape (Cid, Kain, Yang, and arguably Fusoya, who wears a robe).
56* AwesomeButImpractical:
57** The Meteor spell does high damage and hits everything on the field. It's blunted by a very long casting time, four times longer than the next longest. It costs 99 MP, meaning Tellah will never be able to use it despite knowing the spell since his MP caps at 90, and by the time Rydia levels up enough to learn it, she can do just as much damage with Flare or Bahamut, which cast faster and cost less MP. The DS version makes it more useful by making it compatible with the Dualcast augment, unlike Bahamut, introducing the Limit Break augment to deal more than 9999 damage, and nerfing Flare's damage output.
58** DS introduced Ultima, which is obtained by Twincast with Cecil and Rosa. This is completely unnecessary unless one of said casters has Limit Break as Meteor itself is more than enough to hit the Damage cap and using Ultima will cost 99 MP of both Cecil and Rosa and has longer casting time.
59* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: [[spoiler:Cecil, Rosa, and Yang]] all become monarchs in the epilogue. Edge also this, but he was already a prince to begin with, so he's just ascending to the throne as expected. [[spoiler:Considering he had to MercyKill his parents and all.]]
60* BadassAndChildDuo: After the mission to Mist Village, Cecil and Rydia become the only playable characters up until Tellah joins the party. The former is a Dark Knight, while the latter is just a young girl who can cast a few basic magic attacks.
61* BadassBoast: Rubicante, after Edge hits him with a Flame attack.
62-->'''Rubicante:''' Poor technique. ''This'' is how it's done! ''[casts Inferno]''
63* BalanceBuff: The Pixel Remaster gives bows an accuracy boost, and arrows are no longer consumables but can be used indefinitely. Pay attention to monster type, and Rosa will be matching Cecil and Edge blow-for-blow.
64* TheBattleDidntCount: Golbez pulls this off three times. The first time is in his Tower, where he's battled as a CutsceneBoss. The second is an actual boss battle in the Dwarven Kingdom. The third is [[spoiler:on the receiving end for Golbez, as taking Zemus out with Meteor doesn't actually stop him]].
65* BeefGate: Eblan Castle, which you can enter as soon as you have an airship. Its monsters are meant to be taken on much later in the game, but if you can survive, you end up with some borderline DiscOneNuke equipment.
66* BeneathTheEarth: The underground world of the dwarves, featuring mountain ranges, a sea of magma, and the lower part of the Tower of Babil.
67* BewitchedAmphibians: The game features ''frogs'' that turn you into frogs (and, because of how the mechanic works in-game, frequently subsequently change you back again). A (justifiably) pissed off wizard in Mysidia will turn you into a frog, but, again thanks to the game mechanic, will turn you back if you talk to him again.
68* BigWhy: Cecil, in the DS remake, after finding out just what that package for Mist was.
69* BlackMagicianGirl: Rydia focuses on offensive spells after the PlotRelevantAgeUp, losing her ability to cast white magic altogether.
70* BlindIdiotTranslation: The SNES English script had many, many mistakes. The overall poor reception to the English translation actually got the original translators relieved of their duties, and what led to Ted Woolsey getting hired. He then began a trend of improving translation quality in the industry.
71** In particular, during the scene where Cecil and the gang talk in private at Baron's inn, [[https://legendsoflocalization.com/final-fantasy-iv/baron-2/#plan-of-action Cecil introduces Tellah as Edward's father]]. Tellah and Edward are not related, as the whole "spoony bard" incident makes no sense otherwise.
72** The poor translation in the SNES translation makes the final boss, [[spoiler:Zeromus]], harder. "Magics became invalid" actually means that all statuses are erased on your part. Other translations afterward clarify what Black Hole's effect does.
73* BoldInflation: The Dark Elf speaks in ALL CAPS in the SNES version.
74-->'''Dark Elf:''' YOU CANNOT GO ANY FURTHER! YOU CANNOT TAKE MY CRYSTAL! YOU CANNOT USE METALLIC WEAPONS! YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME!
75* BoisterousBruiser: Cid is a loud, brawny BigFun who clobbers enemies with hammers and axes.
76* BoringButPractical: The 2D version's stinginess with MP recovery items means that you'll be relying on regular weapon attacks quite a bit. Not to mention that many characters use little or no magic to begin with.
77* BossAlteringConsequence: Rubicante is a Fire-elemental fiend who absorbs fire attacks. Being a FairPlayVillain, if you use Fire attacks against him, he will repay the favor by casting Raise on your entire party.
78* BossInMookClothing:
79** The Behemoths and Deathmasks in the Lunar Subterrane are immune in their own ways to magic offense (Behemoths have 254 magic defence, a single point from the cap; and Deathmasks cast Reflect on themselves as their opening move, which ''will'' be before you can go), both require significant strategy to defeat (Behemoths will only counterattack; Deathmasks cast reflect on ''the entire party'' so you can't heal), and both have ''buckets'' of HP. They even come in pairs in the lower floors of the Lunar Ruins, and the boss music plays when you encounter them.
80** The Brachioraidos is a ''[[OptionalBoss superboss]]'' in mook clothing. At first glance, it's just a [[FixedEncounters fixed encounter]], like many other floors in the Lunar Ruins. The only real clue is that you have an NPC warn you about it before you fight it, something no other floor has. Even then, with the way that other Lunar Ruins {{Non Player Character}}s behave, it's [[SchmuckBait easy to dismiss it as exaggeration]].
81* BottomlessMagazines: In the SNES, PS, GBA, and PSP versions, individual arrows must be purchased and are consumed when fired with a bow. The DS and Pixel Remaster versions play this trope straight in that they only require you to buy or find a single arrow (or perhaps a quiver of arrows), which has infinite uses.
82* {{Bowdlerise}}:
83** Instead of referencing Hell, two bosses late in the game tell Edge to come with them to the "Dark World".
84** Cecil's Dark Knight equipment was changed, with Hades armor becoming "Black" and the Deathbringer sword becoming simply the Black sword.
85** The blade above Rosa's head during her captivity is changed to a metal sphere.
86** Rosa's Holy spell becomes White, and Holy elemental becomes "Sacred power."
87* BraggingRightsReward:
88** According to the Final Fatasy Ultimania Archive, stealing Dark Matter [[spoiler:from [[FinalBoss Zeromus]]]] is so unlikely that doing so is cause for celebration. You might as well, since that's all it's good for... in the 2D ports, anyway. In the 3D ports, it's [[spoiler:vital to fight against the [[OptionalBoss Proto-Babil]]]], making it a subversion there.
89** The 2D remakes feature the Hero's Shield, the strongest shield in the game, which is earned by defeating the [[OptionalBoss Brachioraidos]] - at which point there's nothing left to do but [[spoiler:traverse the rest of the Lunar Ruins and fight Zeromus EG]]. Even then, it's arguable that the Brachioraidos is a harder fight than [[spoiler: Zeromus EG]] anyway.
90** Speaking of [[spoiler:Zeromus EG]], the only thing granted upon its defeat is its bestiary entry.
91** In the Japan-only mobile phone version, beating a character's trial in the Lunar Ruins three times nets you an exclusive piece of headgear for that character, usually with multiple status defenses. But since you've already beaten the game and most of the BonusDungeon, it's unlikely they'll make a difference, even against [[spoiler:Zeromus EG]].
92* BrainwashedAndCrazy: [[spoiler:Kain, Yang, and Golbez]] are all revealed to be under someone else's control throughout the story. The latter's brainwashing lasts the longest, as it lasts nearly the whole game before [=FuSoYa=] frees him.
93* BrattyHalfPint: Rydia, when you first meet her, acts a bit like this, though to be fair, you had just killed her mother. She has a moment like this after her PlotRelevantAgeUp as well.
94* BrokenBridge:
95** Several, including mountain passes being blocked by fire or ice until you clear the right plot events or recruit the right party members. Also, an underground passage leading to your next objective remains sealed until you complete a certain task.
96** There are two ''retroactive'' broken bridges that later appear at two places where the characters take drastic 1-way movements. If you attempt to jump down the waterfall in the Watery Cave a second time, Cecil will remark that the current is too strong, and you will not be allowed to jump. The second is in the Eblan Cave, where one of the Eblan guards blocks the final passage to the Tower of Babil (and an eventual dead-end at an airship dock). This is to prevent players from stranding themselves without an airship and rendering the game {{unwinnable}}.
97* BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu:
98** [[spoiler:Golbez]] and Fusoya attack [[spoiler:[[TheManBehindTheMan Zemus]], but only succeed in making the latter release his spirit, Zeromus.]] This also severely weakens them to the point where their most powerful attacks do absolutely nothing.
99** Tellah [[CastFromHitPoints attacks Golbez with his most powerful spell]], and only succeeds in weakening him enough to [[spoiler:break his hold on Kain while dying in the process]].
100* CallBack: The story is, essentially, a mish-mash of story elements from the first three games.
101** From ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'', the game reuses the idea of a BlackKnight controlling four elemental fiends.
102** From ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'', it uses the idea of a character betraying the party, becoming BrainwashedAndCrazy, and eventually redeeming themselves.
103** From ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'', it uses the idea of the final boss being initially a HopelessBossFight, and characters around the world having to pray for the party, thus giving them a HeroicSecondWind.
104* CampfireCharacterExploration: Cecil and Tellah reflect on what they have been through and plan their next move around a campfire while in a cave on their way to Damcyan.
105* CantDropTheHero: Cecil is the only character that you must have in your party. In versions of the game where you can switch your party around, Cecil still can't leave the group.
106* CartographySidequest: Namingway tasks you with mapping every area in the 3D remake. Each full map awards the player with a bundle of items.
107* CastFromHitPoints:
108** Tellah does not have enough MP to cast Meteor, so [[spoiler:when he uses the technique against Golbez, his life force is drained and he dies]].
109** Cecil's Darkness is a gameplay example, as it saps his health either to attack all enemies on screen or to power up his normal attack, depending on the version. This is a subtle clue that Paladin Cecil's boss battle against the Dark Knight involves [[SheatheYourSword waiting until the boss's HP runs out]].
110* CasualDangerDialogue: During the attack on Fabul Castle, while Yang, Cecil and Edward are in the room near the Throne Room, believing they're outnumbered, Yang reassures them with something along the lines of:
111-->'''Yang:''' We must keep an eye on our foes...\
112''[An enemy {{mook|s}} arrives to attack]''\
113'''Yang:''' ''[finishes]'' ...and crush them!
114* TheCavalry: Just as the [[spoiler:Giant of Babil]] awakes to raze the planet, the heroes stand horrified and at a loss as to what to do. Cue the ''entire armed forces of the world'' arriving to HoldTheLine.
115* ChallengeRun: The Switch and [=PS4=] versions of ''Pixel Remaster'' have settings related to how much experience is gained, which include cutting experience gain in half or disabling it entirely.
116* CharacterDevelopment: A big addition to the series, moving on from the flat player insert characters in the first three ''Final Fantasy'' games. Cecil starts as a morally conflicted character and grows into a virtuous character seeking redemption.
117* ChekhovsBoomerang: When Cecil becomes a Paladin, he receives the Sword of Legend/Mythgraven Sword. You find a number of more powerful swords as you progress through the game, but if you can acquire the Adamant ore and take it to a certain blacksmith, he'll temper the sword and make it into the more powerful Excalibur, one of the most powerful swords he can wield.
118* ChestMonster: In addition to the regular booby-trapped chests throughout the game, the Sealed Cave has nearly every door in the dungeon be an Assault Door enemy, which will kill in one hit right away and spits out a strong monster upon dying.
119* ChildhoodFriendRomance: Of ''both'' flavors between Rosa, Cecil, and Kain; Cecil and Rosa love one another and get married at the end of the first game; Kain is forever [[AllLoveIsUnrequited pining away]] for Rosa, even in the sequel.
120* ClassChangeLevelReset: Cecil's level returns to 1 after he changes from a Dark Knight to a Paladin, but his HP and some other stats are equal or better than what they were when he was a level 20-ish Dark Knight. On your way back down the mountain, he levels up gratuitously as you fight random encounters, sometimes even gaining several levels per fight.
121* ClimaxBoss: All the Archfiends. Scarmiglione is fought to open the way to the top of Mt. Ordeals where Cecil is to become a Paladin, Cagnazzo is fought [[spoiler:when Cecil confronts the King of Baron and discovers it's Cagnazzo]], Barbariccia is fought as Kain and Rosa rejoin and Golbez retreats from his tower, and Rubicante is fought atop the Tower of Babil as the party tries to retrieve the Crystals. [[spoiler:Then comes one of the potentially longest fights in the game when all four reappear in the Giant of Babil guarding the core.]]
122* CloakOfDefense: Rubicante is weak to Ice and Water attacks, but wears a cloak that heals him if he is hit by those elements while it is raised.
123* CombatMedic: Rosa can be this, if you choose to equip her with a bow. Her Aim ability gives her increased attack power and accuracy with a bow; while it's not near enough to match the damage output of, say, Cecil or Kain, it's still better than your average WhiteMagicianGirl. And that doesn't even take {{Holy|HandGrenade}} into consideration.
124* ComicallyMissingThePoint: You can win the mirror-battle at the top of Mt. Ordeals by just attacking and killing the Dark Knight, and the game will proceed as normal.
125* CompilationRerelease: The game was part of no less than ''five'' of them:
126** ''Final Fantasy Chronicles'' for the [=PS1=] ships this game with ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger''.
127** Also for the [=PS1=], ''Final Fantasy Collection'' ships the game with ''Final Fantasy'' ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyV V]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI VI]]''.
128** Still for the [=PS1=], the European version of ''Final Fantasy Anthology'' contains both ''IV'' and ''V'' (The North American version has ''V'' and ''VI'' instead). It marks the first time both games are released in that region.
129** ''Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection'' for the PSP brings together the original game, ''The After Years'', and an {{Interquel}} "mini"-game called ''Final Fantasy IV: Interlude''.
130** The Japan-exclusive ''Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Ultimate Box'' contains (among other goodies) ''all the first thirteen main games'' for the [=PS1=], PSP, [=PS2=] and [=PS3=], all in one box.
131* ConvectionSchmonvection: Your airships require special modification to fly over lava in the underworld. But, when you're on foot in that same underworld, you can walk right next to the same lava with no ill effects.
132* CoolOldGuy:
133** Cid is never explicitly stated to be old, but he's at least older than Cecil, and he's still the master engineer. It's his work that created Baron's fleet of airships, and he still works on them even despite his advanced age, and later his injuries.
134** Tellah is stated to be an old sage that Palom and Porom have heard of as having incredible amounts of power. He makes good on it by being a valuable ally to Cecil, and even helping stop Golbez's plans for Rosa.
135* CoolShip: Several of them, ''[[CoolAirship airships]]'', no less: [[SuperPrototype Enterprise]], [[ThisIsADrill Falcon]], and the [[CoolStarship Lunar Whale]].
136* CounterAttack: Players will find that many enemies, bosses, and even the FinalBoss have a counter in some form or another. The DS remake adds the ability to teach this to the heroes.
137* CreepyDoll: Calcabrina is six of them that can merge into one giant one.
138* CrutchCharacter: Tellah, whose physical stats actually ''lower'' as he levels up: he's an old man, and he's not getting any younger. His 90 MP, second-tier magic and possession of the Osmose spell (absorbs MP from enemies, so strategic use means Tellah will never run out of MP) is a godsend when you first get him. Even though he unlocks his third-tier spells later on, his 90MP cap is a crippling hindrance by that point and your other spellcasters will have overtaken him.
139%%* CuteMonsterGirl: Higher-resolution graphics in the DS and PSP releases result in some female monsters becoming this. Meet [[http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110404151850/finalfantasy/images/8/8d/FF4PSP_Lamia.png the Lamia]], for example.
140* CutsceneIncompetence: While credit is due to Tellah for at least thinking of using Esuna on Palom and Porom [[spoiler: after they turn themselves into stone]], it proves ineffective for the only time in the game. (Some versions justify this via [[spoiler: the twins becoming stone of their own volition]]) Even attempting to use [[spoiler: golden needles or remedies]] after the fact won't cure the ailment.
141* CutscenePowerToTheMax:
142** The Titan summon. When seen in a cutscene, it causes an earthquake that permanently alters the world map. In later uses, it's a normal summon spell. Not to mention that Rydia's level 1 at the time and doesn't even have enough mana to summon it yet.
143** Cure spells used in cutscenes manage to completely heal the whole party, even when they barely hit double digits when multi-targeted in battle. They are also shown to revive a fallen character, a trait normally reserved for the Raise spell.
144** Tellah's cutscene use of Meteor exceeds his maximum MP (90) by 9. Moments before, he casts four spells that add up to 110 MP, then casts a spell that costs 99 MP, making a total of 209 MP used from a maximum of 90. [[spoiler:This is because Tellah's desire for vengeance caused him to CastFromHitPoints, and Tellah dies shortly after the fight with Golbez is over.]]
145** The Mysidian Elder apparently gets access to a higher level of Esuna than Rosa ever gets; [[spoiler: he can cure the petrification on Palom and Porom that the player's magic and items cannot undo]].
146* DamselInDistress: Rosa spends the first half of the game dying of mysterious diseases or being kidnapped and chained up by the baddies. She gets over it.
147* DarkIsNotEvil: Well not fully. Cecil himself isn't a bad person as a Dark Knight, though he still has to commit atrocities under orders that he regrets. Thus, he [[DefectorFromDecadence leaves the King's service]], and eventually redeems himself as a Paladin.
148* DarkReprise:
149** "Final Battle," the theme of the battle against Zeromus, contains haunting echoes of "Airship" and "Overworld".
150** "Sorrow and Loss," which plays when a major character dies and a few other suitably sad occasions, uses the same melody as the Overworld theme.
151* DeathIsCheap: A number of party members have emotional death scenes. In all cases but one, it doesn't take; they all pop up at the same time to reveal that they're just fine. Justified in the case of the twins, who were only turned to stone; the fact that they couldn't be restored by conventional means didn't preclude there being a way, providing someone was clever enough to find it, which someone was.
152* DefeatMeansFriendship: Most of the more powerful Eidolons must be defeated before you can summon them.
153* DependingOnTheArtist: The designs of the entire cast vary greatly between sprites, artwork and renders. Look no further than TheHero -- Cecil's [=SNES=] field sprites have him in blue as a Dark Knight and gold as a Paladin with purple hair, but in battle his Paladin armor is white and his hair is blue-purple, while it's white in his portrait. This is even carried over to re-released with refined character designs -- in the PSP release Cecil's battle sprite has spiked white hair with a tiara-like headpiece covering it, but his portrait has flowing white hair with a headband ''under'' the hair.
154* DevelopersRoom: Hidden in the Lali-Ho Pub in the Dwarven Castle. Interesting in that it includes some of the developers as random encounters in the area. It was removed from the North American SNES version and restored in the [=PS1=] and GBA release. The developer's room showed up again in the DS version in the same place, with a completely new set of author avatars and in-jokes, because it's a different team this time around. The Pixel Remaster has removed it, with a somber note on the wall where the staircase would normally be marking its passing.
155* DiscardAndDraw:
156** Cecil ditches the power of the Dark Knight to become a Paladin instead. He loses the ability to case Darkness, instead gaining the Cover ability and some minor White Magic spells.
157** Rydia can always summon eidolons, but she eventually loses the ability to cast White Magic. Instead, she gains a focus just on Black Magic, learning much more powerful spells after going to [[YearInsideHourOutside a place where time flows much differently]].
158* DiscOneFinalDungeon: The Tower of Zot. It appears right after you acquire the Earth Crystal [[spoiler:which, up to that point, you've been led to believe is the last one.]] Only once this dungeon is cleared does the game then reveal The Underworld of the Dwarves [[spoiler:and the four other Crystals therein.]]
159* DiscOneNuke: Tellah's high-end spells, from the time he obtains them until the party enters the Tower of Zot. Consider that Tellah's [[spoiler: Thundaga (on Cagnazzo) and Tornado (on Dark Dragon)]] spells can make 2 out of the three boss fights during that time into 1- or 2-shot battles. Within the Tower of Zot, though, the lack of places to rest and monsters that won't give up MP to Osmose makes his 90 MP too much of a limitation.
160* DisneyDeath: [[spoiler: Cid, Edward, Palom, Porom, Rydia, and Yang]] are all less dead than you're led to believe. Sometimes the circumstances that apparently kill them are the same explicitly fatal ones (or worse) that Cecil had narrowly avoided, and [[spoiler: Yang]] gets two of them.
161* DisneyVillainDeath: This is what happens to [[spoiler:Scarmiglione after battling him. He falls off of the bridge, all the way down Mt. Ordeals. He comes back thanks to Zemus]].
162* DisproportionateRetribution: You dare question the king's warmongering ways and slaughtering of innocent people, Cecil? Enjoy being the king's new messenger boy!
163* DopeSlap: Porom slaps Palom on the back of the head whenever he ends up SayingTooMuch.
164* DoubleEdgedBuff: In the DS remake, Cecil's Darkness skill increases his attack power in exchange for a portion of his HP.
165* DroughtLevelOfDoom:
166** After returning from the Moon, you are forced to go straight into the next dungeon, which is full of very strong enemies, culminating in ''two'' boss battles in a row (although you do get to save and heal in between by backtracking to the save point), all without being able to re-stock on your items.
167** The DS version has a merchant Hummingway (or counterpart) at the single SavePoint in the Giant of Babil. They compensate for this by making the two boss battles harder. Unlike the SNES, PS, and GBA versions, the Archfiends use all their abilities from the first encounters in the rematch, and the CPU battle is murder.
168* DualWielding: Yang and Edge can both dual wield. Yang can use two claws, whereas Edge can use two claws, throwing weapons, or katanas.
169* DubNameChange:
170** Gilbert[=/=][[InconsistentSpelling Gilbart]] the bard was renamed "Edward". Good thing the ninja Edward Geraldine goes by "Edge."
171** Golbeza was shortened to Golbez.
172** Cain = Kain (pronunciations are also different between regions with the Japanese pronouncing "Cain" much like the biblical "k-eye-n" and the English version being said the same way as "Kane.")
173* DyingAsYourself: [[spoiler: Edge's parents snap out of their demonic trance long enough to say goodbye to their son.]]
174* AnEconomyIsYou: Played perfectly straight, but especially notable in that the weapon/armor shop in the first town is ''locked'' until you return there later in the game and obtain the key. Not exactly the best business model.
175* ElementalAbsorption:
176** A series staple. Generally, attacking a fire or ice monster with weapons or spells of the same element as them is a ''bad idea''.
177** Rubicante exploits this. He normally absorbs fire and is weak to ice/water, but when he uses his cloak, he absorbs ''all'' elemental damage.[[note]]In the 3D versions, the cloak only absorbs ice and water damage.[[/note]]
178** In the boss fight with Golbez in the Dwarven Castle, he uses an ability called Barrier Shift that makes him vulnerable to one random element, but absorbs all others.
179** There is an accessory called the Cursed Ring that seems useless because it lowers all of a character's stats. However, it has a [[GuideDangIt hidden attribute]] that turns armor with elemental resistance into elemental absorption, which can be nearly a GameBreaker in certain areas.
180* ElementalEmbodiment: The Elemental Archfiends are the embodiment of earth, fire, air, and water.
181* ElementalRockPaperScissors: A ''Final Fantasy'' staple. Utilizing the correct elemental weakness is crucial to defeating the four Archfiends, particularly Caignazzo, who can only be defeated when hit with thunder attacks, and Rubicante, who makes up for his weakness to ice by employing a cloak that absorbs ice damage.
182* ElementalTiers: You fight the [[ClassicalElementsEnsemble Elemental Archfiends]] in order of their strength, starting with Scarmiglione (Earth), then Cagnazzo (Water), Barbariccia (Wind), and finally the strongest, Rubicante (Fire).
183* TheEmpire: Baron sort of becomes one early in the game. It does attack and ruin various nations to steal their Crystals, but it doesn't expand its borders.
184* EmptyRoomPsych: The Sealed Cave does this quite a lot. There are several Trap Doors that guard rooms with nothing at all inside of them. Some of them, however, contain very good loot. A new player will either have to kill all of the Trap Doors, look up a guide, or hope for blind luck to get the best stuff.
185* EqualOpportunityEvil: Baron's forces consist of both humans and monsters. This is made most apparent during the Siege of Fabul, where Golbez sends his troops to steal the Wind Crystal.
186* EquipmentSpoiler:
187** You can find throwing stars for Edge in Eblan Cave before he joins the party at the end.
188** The armor shop in Mysidia sells Paladin equipment; it can be bought before you have someone who can use it. As well you should, since Cecil's Dark Knight armor is gone once you complete the Paladin trial, and it's a long way down the mountain.
189* EscapeBattleTechnique: Edge can use a smoke bomb to get the party out of a battle.
190* EternalEngine: The Tower of Zot, the Tower of Babil, and the Giant of Babil. All three are dungeons which take place in what appears to be otherworldly technology, unlike anything else seen on Earth. The latter, in particular, was buried in the Earth for ages, yet it runs just fine.
191* EvenEvilHasStandards: Rubicante. He heals you to full strength before both battles he's involved in. [[spoiler:He also apologizes to Edge when Lugae transforms his parents into monsters, saying Lugae had no authorization to do so, and Rubicante didn't want that in the first place.]] He's also the only Archfiend to not try and kill you with his last breath.
192* EvilTowerOfOminousness: The Tower of Babil, which is massive enough to rise from the world underground all the way up high in the skies above the surface of Earth.
193* {{Expy}}: The Dark Elf is one for Astos from the original ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'', to the point that the two share the same battle sprite in the PSP versions.
194* TheFaceless: The dwarves in this game only show their eyes and their magnificent beards. It's most noticeable on Luca, King Giott's daughter, who lacks the beard or anything that could obscure her face, and still only her eyes are visible (until the sequel, where she's older and finally reveals her face). This tradition, first appearing in [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII the previous game]], tends to persist in future appearances in the series.
195* FakeKing: [[spoiler:The King of Baron is really Cagnazzo, Archfiend of Water, who has killed the real king.]]
196* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Roughly 60% of the game involves the main characters failing at the tasks they set out to complete, especially when it comes to trying to stop Golbez from getting the crystals.
197* FantasyCounterpartCulture:
198** Fabul for ImperialChina. Their monks practice rigid disciplines, their king is a former warlord, and Yang (the party member from Fabul) has a design that is heavily inspired by China.
199** Eblan for Japan. It's a place with ninja warriors, and it's the only such place they're found in the game.
200* FictionalEarth: The planet the game takes place on is named Earth.[[note]]or Mother Earth for the Dwarves, or Blue Planet for the Lunarians[[/note]] However, the landmasses are [[https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/File:Overworldmapff4official.jpg definitly not ours]]. The surface where most people live is named "Overworld" and the inside where Dwarves live is the "Underworld".
201* FantasyAliens: The Lunarians are revealed late in the game as this. [[spoiler:For that matter, so is the father of Cecil and Golbez, making them both half-Lunarian. It's one of the reasons the two have such remarkable power.]]
202* FightingFromTheInside: Edge's parents. They manage to break through once Edge shows up. [[spoiler:Albeit just long enough to say goodbye to their son.]]
203** With the revelation of [[spoiler:Golbez being Cecil's brother]] suddenly it becomes fairly clear that [[spoiler:he managed to fight Zemus' control over him just long enough to not kill Cecil at the Tower of Zot.]]
204* FissionMailed:
205** In the fight with the Dark Elf, the party is wiped out by its initial onslaught of spells. However, Edward senses their distress and plays a song that reinvigorates them, after which the fight properly starts.
206** Golbez summons a dragon that picks off the party one by one. When it seems he's won, [[spoiler:Rydia shows up and destroys his Eidolon with the help of the Mist Dragon]], giving the heroes the chance to recover and fight back.
207** The FinalBoss easily defeats the entire party in addition to [[spoiler:Golbez and Fusoya]]. It takes [[spoiler:the collective prayers of everyone on the planet]] for them to recover, enabling the last battle to start.
208* FiveSecondForeshadowing: During the attack on Fabul Castle, while Cecil and his team are in the Throne Room, Yang locks the door securely, with what appears to be the castle guard following him. When Yang divulges on the location of the Wind Crystal, however, the guard suddenly unlocks the door, and Yang reacts in shock with "What are you doing?!" In the next part of the script that's not in the SNES version (or a few others), Edward is surprised and realizes, "So ''he'' must be one of them!", before [[TheMole the "guard"]] transforms into a monster out to attack them.
209* ForcedTransformation: Pig, Toad, and Mini. Some of the mages in Mysidia will use them on you when you revisit the town as a Dark Knight and continue to use them after you've transformed into a Paladin. Of course, they seem to have no problem using them on you when you are already so afflicted which changes you back.
210* {{Foreshadowing}}: Multiple characters try to warn Tellah of the consequences of casting Meteor because he doesn't have the energy reserves he used to. Even in versions where Tellah can get his MP boosted to the point where he can actually use the spell, Tellah pelts Golbez with multiple high-level spells right beforehand anyway, so he is out of MP by the time he casts the last one.
211* FountainOfYouth: A mist does this to Rydia during her section of the BonusDungeon in versions that have it. As a result, only the weapons and abilities she could use in her younger form will be at her disposal during this time (eg. No summons).
212* FragileSpeedster: Edge is the fastest character in the game, bar none (and in the DS version, he's almost absurdly quick). However, he only has an average amount of HP, and he takes far more damage than Cecil or Kain do.
213* FranchiseCodifier: The game influenced the franchise decades after its original release due to how radically different it was from previous entries, both narratively and gameplay wise. On the narrative side of things, the game follows the story of several named, well-defined and speaking party members (unlike the first and third entry) and was the first ''Final Fantasy'' game to truly focus on the story and character interactions. On the gameplay side, the game was the first to use the classic [[CombatantCooldownSystem ''Active Time Battle'' system]] for its turn based combat, as well as being the first game in the series in which ''all'' characters have defined combat Jobs and skills that make them unique from one another. Its impact on the franchise as a whole is undeniable, especially on the much beloved sixth entry in the series.
214* FrankensteinsMonster: Barnabas is a grotesque humanoid monster created by a MadScientist and visibly resembles Frankenstein's monster himself.
215* FunnyBruceLeeNoises: This is likely what the SNES translation was going for with the monks' "ACHOO!" battle cry. Mentioned in the Pixel Remaster, when a boy in Fabul's pub tries imitating Yang's {{Kiai}} (here called a "Hiyaaaaah!") with a "Watchooooooo!"
216* GameBreakingBug:
217** Sometimes called the ''Film/DieHard'' bug, the game remembers the last 63 flights of stairs you have accessed in a single area. The 64th stairway will reset the counter to 0, making the game think you are on the world map. Now, if you try to go downstairs again you'll enter the MinusWorld and can drop 44 more floors before the game either warps you to a random room in the game (like right in front of the final boss) or deletes your game saves. Speed runs of the NES Die Hard game involve a ''lot'' of time spent running up and down a single staircase.
218** The Medusa Sword in the SNES game is extremely glitchy. Most times than not, if it procs on the enemy, it may cause the game to softlock. [[note]]This is when the game still runs, but it no longer accepts button inputs, forcing the player to reset the game.[[/note]]
219* GameplayAndStoryIntegration:
220** You begin the game with Cecil and Kain, both trained knights in the service of the Baron kingdom. Both start at level 10 with some pretty good equipment. Rydia, the first other character who joins you, is a small child. She starts at level 1 with minimal equipment.
221** Like other ''Final Fantasy'' games, battle spells follow most of the standard element patterns (fire, ice/water, lightning). Rydia learns ice and lightning magic on her own by gaining levels, but not fire. Her hometown was destroyed by a fire, and she ''hates'' fire as a result. She only finally unlocks fire magic when the group needs to proceed past a wall of ice to warn another town of an impending attack, and there are no other black magic users currently in the party. The fact that innocent people will die if they can't be warned in time allows her to overcome her psychological block and cast fire to melt the ice.
222** Edward, who is established as a wimpy musician, not a talented fighter, and a bit of a coward, has the Hide command, which even happens automatically if his HP runs low. The game might even take this a bit too far; his frailty is such that he is outdone by a small child in terms of robustness.
223** After Cecil becomes a paladin, his appearance [[GoodCostumeSwitch appropriately changes]]. Also, he can no longer use any of the dark knight equipment.
224** Cecil’s dark sword is useless against most of the denizens of Mt. Ordeals, hitting for only a single point of damage, basically backing up what the Elder has just warned you about. However, on the return journey, the newly-minted Paladin Cecil’s holy sword will utterly annihilate the monsters.
225* GameplayAndStorySegregation:
226** Rydia doesn't learn Fire until a plot event, because she gained a phobia of fire when Cecil burned down her village. However, with excessive LevelGrinding, it's possible to have her learn Firaga before said plot event occurs.
227** When you get to Damcyan Castle, you find it under attack and filled with injured and dying people. Yet, despite having ''two'' white mages in your party and most likely dozens of potions and phoenix downs in your inventory, you can't do a thing to help any of them. This becomes utterly jarring when [[spoiler:an important NPC passes away in your healer's arms without him even attempting to heal her]], and despite there being ''two'' magical healing pots capable of fully restoring all your health with a single touch in the very same room.
228** Titan is only able to alter the World Map upon its first appearance.
229** After falling for the pitfall trap in the Tower of Babil, you'd think a Warp spell would've taken the party back up a floor. Yet nobody even suggests the idea.
230** The Tower of Babil appears on the Overworld map surrounded by a large black hole. You'd think it'd be possible to fly an airship through, much like the hole that's sometimes open near Agart, but you'd be wrong.
231* GenderIncompetence:
232** Early on in the game, it features a battle to try to protect a castle that focuses on fighting hordes of bad guys, which wouldn't be so hard except that just before the battle, you're robbed of all your most powerful spellcasters, seemingly just because they're women. The rest of the game isn't bad at recovering from this, however.
233** More likely, though, that they were just moving the party members who knew white magic to the back lines in order to treat the wounded. (The fact that the women are all spellcasters, of course, [[StaffChick stumbles into another stereotype]].)
234** The end of the game averts this. Cecil tells the female party members to [[StayInTheKitchen stay behind]] while the men go off to the final dungeon on the moon. Upon landing on the moon, they realize the ladies simply hid on the ship. Based on [[NintendoHard how hard the last dungeon is]], Cecil should thank his lucky stars.
235** The scene is semi-replayed during Yang's chapter in the sequel; it's just about the only point in the chapter (after she joins you) where Ursula isn't either fighting alongside her father or searching for him.
236* GetAholdOfYourselfMan: [[spoiler:Cecil, to Edward, after the Red Wings firebomb Damcyan into oblivion and Edward is in HeroicBSOD mode.]]
237* GlassCannon:
238** Rydia starts out at 30 HP. At level 99, her HP barely passes the 5,000 mark. Even then, she's got one of the lowest Defense stats out of the playable characters, meaning she'll go down pretty fast. On the other hand, her Summon magic and black magic have her deal an excessive amount of pain right back.
239** Edge. While he has more health and is physically powerful, his durability is the same as Rydia's.
240** Palom is much like Rydia, except that he specializes in BlackMagic. In fact, if you want to use him for the final battle in the GBA and PSP ports of the game, he knows the super-powerful Meteor and Flare spells.
241** In the GBA-based remakes, Edward also counts, being the glassiest cannon of them all. His statistics aren't absurdly overwhelming (he does get nice Speed), he gets useful commands, but for some reason his endgame harps are utterly amazing weapons that in many ways outclass all others. He attacks like an archer, except more accurately without the ammunition limit, and his harps are strong against some particularly pernicious enemy types (or in one case, all enemy types, period). Damage-wise, he can't do anything but a basic attack, but his basic attack effectively becomes a faster version of a powerful single-target spell that can't be blocked by Reflect and costs no MP, all because of the improbable superiority of his weapons.
242* GlobalAirship: You get a few of these throughout the course of the game. First up is the Enterprise, master engineer Cid's pride and joy. The second is the Falcon, which the party steals from an enemy base. [[spoiler:The last is the Lunar Whale, an airship capable of flying to the moon.]]
243* GlobalIgnorance: When Golbez (via mind-controlling Kain) gets the final crystal, King Giott notes that the only hope is contained in an old legend, and begins to recite the Mysidian legend. Cecil recognizes it and tells Giott about Mysidia, and Giott is amazed that Mysidia exists. To be fair to Giott, there was literally miles of crust acting as a barrier between the Underworld with Giott's kingdom and the overworld where Mysidia lies, and a crack opening travel between the two was a very recent development.
244* GoWaitOutside: When a blacksmith is forging you a weapon, the flag triggers as soon as you go to the moon.
245* GoodArmorEvilArmor: Cecil is a dark knight whose armor is black, red, gold, and purple to represent his reliance on dark powers. After becoming a paladin, his armor is transformed, [[HelmetsAreHardlyHeroic ditching the helmet]] and turning his armor a holy white and deep blue on top of giving him a flowing BadassCape.
246* GoodCostumeSwitch: Cecil, after he becomes a paladin, goes from black and dark blue armor to white and light blue armor.
247* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: According to a villager, Cecil's mother knew that her pregnancy was dangerous but decided to keep her child.
248* GracefulLoser:
249** Rubicante praises our heroes and bids them farewell upon defeating him, in stark contrast to his fellow Archfiends, which try to [[TakingYouWithMe take the heroes with them.]]
250** On the GBA and PSP ports, [[spoiler: Zeromus EG takes his defeat with grace and says he is going to go back to sleep, despite the fact that he is (supposedly) a part of Zeromus' spirit]].
251* GuestStarPartyMember: In all versions, Tellah and Fusoya only join for a few dungeons before leaving. Edward, Yang, Porom, Palom, and Cid count as well in the original and DS versions, and in the Pixel Remaster. The PSP and GBA versions effectively make them into permanent characters because the player gains the ability to freely put them in their party for the final dungeon and post-game.
252* GuideDangIt:
253** The DS port never tells you that A) Augment distribution is used to unlock other augments from characters who leave the party and B) Augments will eventually affect the stat growths of the characters who have them. You'd need a guide anyway to put those growths to proper use, because there's no way guesswork alone would let you figure out how to use them to max the stats of your final party.
254** To get Cecil's InfinityPlusOneSword, you have to cross an invisible bridge to reach the boss you have to fight to obtain it. There are precious few invisible pathways in the game, and none of them are in dungeons. If you don't know how to reach it, it can be quite frustrating, especially since the sword is fully visible on a normal pathway.
255** The final boss has an attack called Big Bang that can easily do 2,000 damage that he telegraphs by shaking first. What the game doesn't tell you is that hitting him with any kind of magic attack between the shaking and the Big Bang will significantly reduce its damage.
256* HalfHumanHybrid: [[spoiler:Cecil and Golbez are Half-Lunarian; their father, [=KluYa=], was [=FuSoYa=]'s brother.]]
257* HarpOfFemininity: Edward the feminine Prince of Damcyan is a [[ImprobableWeaponUser master harpist]].
258* HaveAGayOldTime: Cecil's squad of knights are called the Red Wings, which is also slang for [[SincerityMode something you probably shouldn't look up]].
259* HeadsIWinTailsYouLose: The battle of Fabul. Even though your party wins every fight with no casualties[[labelnote:*]] other than a few [[RedShirt red shirts]][[/labelnote]], you keep getting pushed back.
260* HealingSpring: Although the water is contained in pots in this installment, you can sometimes find healing water in places that will completely restore your HP/MP. If you ever find one of these, [[SuspiciousVideoGameGenerosity expect to use it shortly]].
261* HeelRealization: In the opening sequence, when Cecil tries to tell the King about his men's (and his own) doubts regarding their latest missions. He is promptly relieved from command and sent out to a nearby village to deliver an item that sets it ablaze. This is what ''really'' starts his path of redemption.
262* HeWhoFightsMonsters: It is implied that this is what would have happened to Cecil if he had stayed a Dark Knight.
263* HelpfulMook: Of the Accidentally Assisting variety. The Li'l Murderer, found in the last dungeon, only casts Scan on itself unless you use the element it's weak against. If you fall for the trap, he "supercharges" and counterattacks with the -ga spell of the same element. Since it's still weak against said element, if you set your party up with Reflect beforehand, it'll keep hitting itself and counterattacking until it kills itself.
264* HeroicSacrifice: So, so very many examples, [[spoiler:though most of the characters who attempt this fail to die and come back as a ClimacticBattleResurrection. Tellah is the only one who stays dead.]]
265* HumongousMecha: The Giant of Babil is summoned by the Moon to destroy the planet towards the game's end. Cecil and company must journey inside of the mech to stop it.
266* {{Hypocrite}}: In all versions but the DS remake, Cecil finds it difficult to accept and forgive [[spoiler: his brother Golbez]], despite the fact he had done some terrible things at the beginning of the game and is now TheHero despite it, and he has implicitly forgiven [[spoiler: Kain]] for his actions already. In the DS version, however, while progressing through the final dungeon, Cecil's thoughts show him going through the process of realizing this, and makes his forgiveness and acceptance at the end seem much more natural.
267* IdiotBall:
268** When the party defeats Golbez in the 3D remake, they walk away, leaving him ''right next to the crystal he's trying to steal''. Cue NotQuiteDead followed by VillainTeleportation. It's even worse in the original release, where they actually stay there and just stand and watch Golbez turn into a weird arm thing and steal the crystal right before their eyes.
269** In the beginning of the game, Cecil thinks he's just going on a simple delivery run with Kain to get back into the King of Baron's good graces. In certain translations, he's specifically delivering an item called the Bomb Ring, which pretty much [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin does exactly what you think it would do by the first word of its name]]. His shock at the fires and explosions rage rings hollow in any version where this is the case. Avoided in others, where it's merely the generic Package or the Carnelian Signet (carnelian merely being a type of red stone).
270* IHaveManyNames: Namingway's ever-shifting moniker in the DS version, since you can no longer change the party's names.
271* ILied: Golbez promises to free Rosa if Cecil hands over the Earth Crystal. Cecil hands over the Earth Crystal. Golbez suddenly "forgets" who Rosa is.
272* ImpossibleThief: Edge can steal Dark Matter, something whose existence is ''only theorized''.
273* ImprobableWeaponUser: Edward attacks with harps. There's even a special harp he gives the player that acts a bit like a two-way radio.
274* InconsistentDub: From [=SNES=] to [=PlayStation=] to [=GBA=] to DS to PSP to Pixel Remaster, every time the game is re-released, things get renamed.
275* InconsistentSpelling: Name change aside, Edward's Japanese name "Gilbert" gets written that way in most materials...and spelt "Gilbart" in a few guidebooks as well.
276* InfinityMinusOneSword: It's not flashy and it doesn't do the most damage per cast, but the Virus spell has a quick charge time, an MP cost that allows it to be spammed, and an element that's rarely resisted, making it very useful even after getting access to "stronger" spells like Meteo.
277* InfinityPlusOneSword: The [=GBA=] release adds several in the BonusDungeon. Most notable are the Lightbringer (for Cecil), Abel's Lance (for Kain), and Fiery Hammer (for Cid). Not only is their attack power at or near the maximum of 255, but each may randomly cast a high-power spell ''on top of the regular attack!''[[note]]Holy, Tornado, and Flare, respectively[[/note]] [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Just be careful around enemies that use Reflect.]]
278* InnSecurity: Cecil vs. the Baron Guards in Kaipo. Later in Baron, guards attack the party, [[spoiler:along with a brainwashed Yang]].
279* InterfaceSpoiler:
280** Subverted in the original SNES version when [[spoiler:Palom and Porom turn themselves to stone. You can interact with them and the game will offer to let you use an inventory item (which you do in other places to advance the plot or unlock things, and which seems to indicate that there's an item you can use to change the situation)... but there's no way to save them. In the original Japanese version you could get a special failure message (well, a repeat of the failure message when Tellah tried to restore them) by trying to use a Golden Needle on them, but the item was DummiedOut in the version that got translated, and even in the original it didn't actually accomplish anything.]]
281** After rescuing Rosa at the Tower of Zot, checking her spell list reveals she knows [[EscapeRope Teleport]]... and the game won't let you use it, hinting that there's an important story event about to happen. [[spoiler: Sure enough, you're ambushed by Barbariccia, though hilariously, Rosa Teleports you out of the dungeon automatically in the post-fight cutscene]].
282* JapaneseRanguage: Rydia was probably supposed to be '''L'''ydia, which is a more common English name.
283* JokeItem: Some of the low level monsters have a tiny chance to drop a spell to summon them for Rydia. Summon Imp is exactly as useless as it sounds.
284* JustFollowingOrders: Defied. At the start of the game, Cecil realizes that this is no excuse for the terrible things that he's done, such as slaughtering the people of Mysidia, even when they weren't fighting back. Cecil vows to never commit such atrocities again, even if ordered to. When Cecil is tricked into committing another one anyway, he takes responsibility for his actions, defects from Baron, and starts his path of redemption.
285* KarlMarxHatesYourGuts:
286** Ethers and Elixirs sell for 10,000 gil and 100,000 gil, respectively. So you'd think that any random Ether or Elixir you find in pots or treasure chests would be an easy 5,000 or 50,000 gil if sold at a store, right? Nope, apparently their resale value is only 1 gil. Some merchants must be making a killing on margins like those.
287** The rare drop summons are powerful spells that are remarkably affordable to cast, and well worth teaching to Rydia... or you could sell them for 50 gil each. It makes sense, though -- Rydia is LastOfHerKind, so she's literally the only person in the world who could even use them.
288* {{Kiai}}: Yang's battle shout. At least the [=PlayStation=] version's is so much better than the SNES's hilariously embarrassing "ACHOOOO!"
289* LadyLand: Troia Castle is run by a council of eight women, and their warriors are all women who act in the Dancer role.
290* TheLancer: Kain, both figuratively and literally. It's even his class name on the SNES. Still, Kain ends up being Cecil's closest confidant in defying the tyrannical work of King Baron, even saying that he'll help Cecil defy his orders when Cecil decides to rebel..
291* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Yang ends up hit with this on the way to Mysidia, falling off of the ship back to Baron and supposedly being lost at sea. When found again, Yang remembers everything except his journey with the party. However, a few good whacks to the head seems to snap him back out of that, too.
292* LaserGuidedKarma: After the ship sinks, Cecil washes up right next to the city he razed and plundered at the beginning of the game.
293* LastOfHisKind: Cecil and Kain following the King of Baron's orders at the beginning of the game leads to Rydia being the only summoner left alive, as they accidentally destroy her entire village.
294* LeftHandedMirror:
295** Palom to Porom: HalfIdenticalTwins who are also PolarOppositeTwins.
296** Kain to Cecil: TheHero and TheLancer, who also share an extremely similar backstory. In addition, it is only through luck that it was Kain who ended up BrainwashedAndCrazy and not Cecil.
297** Golbez to Cecil: TheHero and TheAntagonist, but also [[spoiler: long-lost brothers. It was because of who their father was that Golbez ended up BrainwashedAndCrazy, which means that it's only through luck that it was Golbez and not Cecil in the antagonist's role.]]
298* {{Leitmotif}}: This was the first ''Final Fantasy'' game to make extensive use of the technique. Almost every major character has one, including some of the villains and other [=NPCs=].
299* LetsFightLikeGentlemen: Before fighting Rubicante, he fully heals your party.
300* LevelMapDisplay:
301** The Sight spell displays a map.
302** The 3D versions have a minimap. The player will get a reward for each dungeon map they complete, and receive [the Treasure Hunter augment for completing every dungeon map in the game.
303** The Pixel Remaster adds a map by default that shows your current location and what floor/area you are currently in.
304* TheLoad: Edward, in the original version of the game, is so wimpy he even has a "Hide" command. In later versions of the game, his abilities and available weapons are increased, so that he eventually becomes one of the most desired characters near endgame. Initially, Rydia can seem to be a liability as well, until you figure out that her rods can be used as battle items.
305* LookWhatICanDoNow: Golbez appears and wipes the floor with Cecil's group, until [[spoiler: Rydia]] returns and effectively destroys Golbez's summon.
306%%* LostTribe: The Lunarians.
307* LoveMakesYouEvil: This sort of comes into play. Kain's jealousy of Cecil as a result of his unrequited feelings for Rosa make him a lot easier to be [[BrainwashedAndCrazy controlled by Golbez]].
308* LoveTriangle: Kain has feelings for Rosa, but she has feelings for Cecil instead.
309* LuckBasedMission: In the DS version, the battle versus the CPU. It pretty much boils down to how quickly the Attack Node begins to attack... its only attack, Laser Barrage, is ''guaranteed'' to two-shot your entire party (and it'll usually one-shot Edge and Fusoya). If you can off it before it fires the lasers twice, you have the battle in the bag...[[spoiler: unless you kill off the Defense Node. Prepare for the carnage of [[OneHitKill Object 199]] if you do.]] There is, however, a trick to this. See PuzzleBoss below.
310** The fact that Fusoya's "instructions" [[TutorialFailure were not redone]] and ''still'' describe the original battle better than the redone one doesn't help. In fact, if you do what Fusoya says, you're ''screwed''.
311* LukeIAmYourFather: Golbez is [[spoiler:Cecil's brother, Theodor.]]
312%%* MacGuffinDeliveryService: More than once with the crystals.
313* MadScientist: Dr. Lugae, a cruel EvilutionaryBiologist and the progenitor of a long line of despicable mad scientists across the series.
314* MagicalLand: The Feymarch, where time flows faster and eidolons live. The King and Queen also possess powerful magic.
315* MagicKnight: Cecil learns White Magic once he becomes a Paladin. His white magic isn't as good as Rosa's, though.
316* MagicMissileStorm: The Magic Arrow spell, an obscure, low-level NonElemental attacking spell that can be cast only by using the most basic Rod weapon from the Items menu in combat.
317* MagicMusic: Pretty much Edward's whole purpose as the prototypical ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' Bard.
318* MagnetismManipulation: Dark Elf has magnetic powers that cause your characters to become paralyzed if they enter his lair while equipped with metal gear. Though in a rare case of ShownTheirWork for a fantasy RPG, silver weapons aren't affected (on the SNES version, but not SFC).
319* MakingASplash: In the 2D editions of the game, contrary to what the descriptions in certain spells suggests, water does not exist as an element. Ninjustsu Spell Flood is [[AnIcePerson Ice-Elemental]], while the rest of the seemingly water spells are all NonElemental. This is fixed in the 3D editions, where all the water-sounding spells are Water-Elemental.
320* TheManBehindTheMan: At first, it looks like the King of Baron is the BigBad. However, it turns out [[spoiler:he was [[DeadPersonImpersonation killed and replaced]] by the {{shape shifting}} Cagnazzo, a minion of Golbez, the king's supposed [[TheDragon Dragon]].]] Late in the game, it's revealed that [[spoiler:Golbez is under the control of Zemus, a wizard who came from the moon.]]
321* MarathonLevel: The Subterranean Depths of the Moon, which is also TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon. Thirteen floors, only two save points, and every random encounter is a BossInMookClothing - on the last five floors they actually have the boss battle music.
322* ManyFacedDivinity: The Asura summon is directly inspired by Asura demons from Hinduism, albeit with an added MultipleHeadCase which each give different abilities.
323* MeaningfulName:
324** The [[FourIsDeath four Elemental Fiends]] are all named after demons in Dante's ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' - Scarmiglione, Cagnazzo, Barbariccia, and Rubicante.
325** The Tower of Babil and Kain are names that should ring a bell for anyone at least mildly familiar with Literature/TheBible. Kain even gets Abel's Lance in the GBA remake to drive the point home.
326* MedicalGame: In the GBA and PSP expanded content, there's an extra dungeon where Rosa has to heal as many people as possible before facing Luna Asura. Rewards are based on how many people she heals in a time period.
327* MeteorSummoningAttack:
328** Meteor is the strongest normal spell available to the player, first used by Tallah in a cutscene to drive off Golbez at the cost of his own life. Palom and Rydia can both learn Meteor by levelling up and Fusoya knows it by default.
329** Palom and Porom can twincast Comet, a weaker version of Meteor that calls down a hail of star-shaped magical projectiles. There's also stronger version called Double/Twin Meteor which is [[spoiler:cast by Golbez and Fusoya to kill Zemus]]. The twins can also use it if they both have the Twin Stars equipped.
330* TheMillstone: '''FUSOYA''' in the DS version. Not only is he merely TheLoad (e.g. trying to keep him alive, since he's a horrifically slow caster and SquishyWizard, which usually means he gets one-shotted before he can cast, will pretty much ensure GameOver), but see the bad advice under LuckBasedMission above. Following his advice there is a nearly instant GameOver.
331* MonsterTown: The Feymarch and the town of Mythril. The former hosts various enemies you fight in the game and several Eidolons, while the latter features townsfolk based off the Toad, Pig, and Mini status effects.
332* MookCommander: The Toad Lady/Bog Witch. She appears with multiple "Tiny Toad" underlings that cast the Toad spell at her command...''only'' at her command. And since they have no other abilities, taking her down renders them completely harmless.
333* MoraleMechanic: There are two instances in the game where you fight against a small group of soldiers and their commander. If you defeat the soldiers, the commander will flee. If you defeat the commander first, the soldiers will attack themselves to death.
334* MoreDespicableMinion: Dr. Lugae turns Edge's parents into hideous monsters and sends them off to kill him. It's easily the most personally cruel act by any character in the game and [[NobleDemon Rubicante]] is ''furious'' when he finds out.
335* MyGodWhatHaveIDone:
336** Cecil is horrified upon realizing the King of Baron has tricked them into destroying the Village of Mist.
337** Kain snaps back to his senses at the Tower of Zot. His shame for the actions he performed while brainwashed haunt him for the remainder of the game.
338* MyRulesAreNotYourRules: If enemies get the first strike: every single one will attack you before you even get to choose attacks and chances are that they will attack again before you get your turn. If you get the first strike: you may attack first, but if you take too much time, the enemies will attack you. If you have the "Active" battle option enabled, then they will attack even if you're using your time reasonably, like picking out a spell.
339* MythologyGag:
340** The idea of traveling to a remote and high location to prove oneself worthy of a class change, including a long trip to and from the location itself with a lack of transport involved, is lifted almost wholesale from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'', besides the wrinkle of Scarmiglione involved and shifting from a tower to a mountain. The original English release of the first game even called it the "Castle of Ordeals", though later versions would retroactively change it to "Citadel of Trials".
341** Kain's father's name is Richard, which is similar to Ricard Highwind from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'' (and in fact, his name ''is'' Richard in Japan - his name is shortened overseas due to space limitations). And in remakes, FFII returns the favor, by having Ricard adopt a boy named Kain.
342** A sign in Baron's inn in the DS version references the awkwardly-scrolling and -phrased text "l i t t l e m o n e y" in the original version of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics''.
343* NearVillainVictory: Right before the final battle, the heroes are all seemingly wiped out, and Cecil [[YouCanBarelyStand drags himself into battle]] with one HP. Right after that, the heroes get a much-needed boost.
344* NeverSayDie:
345** The spell is called "Fatal" instead of "Death," and "Swoon" is used for "dead" characters.
346** This was the first ''Final Fantasy'' to have the loss of all HP count as a NonLethalKO instead of actual death.
347* NewGamePlus: In the DS version, after defeating the final boss, you can play the game again, inheriting all those augments you gave to your characters. And if you gave the previous game augments to characters that weren't going to be in your final party, you will be rewarded with these characters' abilities as augments. You can play NewGamePlus only two times in a row though.
348* NewWorkRecycledGraphics: The Dark Elf's battle sprite in the PSP version of the game is actually Astos's sprite from the PSP version of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI''.
349* {{Ninja}}: Edge and the Eblan clan are all ninjas. Edge is merely their prince.
350* NoEndorHolocaust: The Tower of Zot, a huge flying structure that falls apart moments after you leave it, never crashes anywhere. The Tower of Babil is perfectly fine (and is totally structurally intact, according to the sequels) after the Giant of Babil seemingly walks out of it. Similarly, in the sequels, there are almost no changes to the world map (not even changes to local climates, tides, or sea lanes) after one of the planet's moons flies off into deep space, never to return.
351* NonStandardSkillLearning:
352** Because of trauma, [[ChildMage Rydia]] cannot use the spell Fire, until [[WhiteMagicianGirl Rosa]] convinces her later in a storyline event. Hilariously enough, she can still learn Firaga given you do enough LevelGrinding.
353** Several of Rydia's [[SummonMagic summons]] can only be obtained from getting an item that RandomlyDrops from certain types of enemies. Pray that the RandomNumberGod is in a good mood.
354* NoOneCouldSurviveThat:
355** Scarmiglione returning immediately from {{Not Quite Dea|d}}th before Cecil reaches paladin-hood.
356** Cid jumps down from an airship at a very great height holding a nuke bomb in his hand which explodes right in front of his face. Yet he doesn't lose any of his limbs.
357* NoSympathy: Cecil and Rydia towards Edward; they immediately lay into him for being temporarily catatonic over the deaths of all his loved ones. Granted, Rydia is a kid and she immediately went after the two men who killed everyone ''she'' ever loved, but grown man Cecil has a total want of empathy for Edward. It's not with the argument that Edward needs to be strong for his people, either; Cecil is only interested in having Edward help him and Rosa.
358* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Dr. Lugae initially appears to be a harmless nutjob with a malfunctioning Frankenstein-type robot, before turning into a fairly dangerous boss. Only after Lugae dies do you discover how monstrous he truly was, with what he did to Edge's parents.
359%%* OhWait: Golbez insults Kain this way at one point.
360* OldSoldier: Tellah, Fusoya, and Cid all join your party at some point, and all of them are quite capable of kicking some serious ass. While their ages are never stated, Tellah is presented as a frail old man, and Fusoya is implied to be [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld a lot older than he looks]].
361* OminousFloatingCastle: The Tower of Zot seems to be well outside of Earth's atmosphere.
362* OminousLatinChanting: The ''Pixel Remaster''[='=]s improved soundtrack has a bit of women chanting ominously in the ruins of Damcyan and Eblan Castles. And the final battle toward the end of the game has the music revamped with the Latin-chanting choirs, almost as if to bring doom on anyone on the team that's unprepared for the maelstrom.
363* OminousPipeOrgan: Golbez's {{Leitmotif}} directly rips off "Music/ToccataAndFugueInDMinor" in some places.
364* OmniscientMoralityLicense: When Leviathan first shows up, he capsizes your party's ship, abducts your summoner, and derails your mission to stop TheEmpire, thus placing the fate of the world in (further) jeopardy. The aftermath leaves one party member an amnesiac pawn of said empire, another bedridden until the very end of the game, {{the hero}} stranded alone on a continent that {{h|umiliationConga}}ates [[LaserGuidedKarma him]], and [[RedShirt all the ship's crew]] (since they're never seen or mentioned again) presumably dead. Everything [[AllAccordingToPlan works out uncannily]] in the end, despite (or even [[InMysteriousWays because of]]) debilitating injuries to plot-important characters. Nobody ever brings up the whole murderous {{sea monster}} thing.
365* OneTimeDungeon: The Tower of Zot collapses once finished with.
366* OptionalBoss: The GBA and PSP versions have "Lunar" versions of Rydia's summons, which are fought [[spoiler:after the trials in the Lunar Ruins]]. Said dungeon also has [[spoiler:an upgraded Zeromus, dubbed "Zeromus EG", waiting at the bottom - the defeat of which earns you [[BraggingRightsReward nothing but the satisfaction that you did so]]]]. Finally, there's the Brachioraidos, who can [[LuckBasedMission occasionally]] be found in the lower floors of the [[spoiler:Lunar Ruins]]. Slaying it earns you the [[ArmorOfInvincibility Hero's Shield]].
367%%** The DS version has two accessible only on a NewGamePlus: [[spoiler:Geryon and Proto-Babil]]
368%%* OutsideContextProblem: The Lunarians: Zemus, Golbez, and their LostTechnology like the Giant of Babil.
369* OneSteveLimit: Averted. Edge's full name is Edward Geraldine, and another Edward joined the party before. In the 3D versions, Rydia's internal dialogue before meeting him is "Eblan has a prince too. Will he be like Edward?". Turns out he IS named Edward.
370* OutsideTheBoxTactic:
371** The Reflect spell is integral to defeating Asura, who heals herself twice, at the end every round, in addition to attacking your party. The catch? You have to cast Reflect on her. That way, when she attempts to heal herself, your party will be healed instead. Asura inflicts insane amounts of damage and recovers 2,500-3,300 HP per recovery spell, making her borderline impossible to defeat without this trick.
372** The original SNES release has one for the fight against the Dark Elf. Ordinarily, you have to fight a few rounds of largely ineffective combat, ending with him doing a TotalPartyKill and a story sequence. This results in Cecil [[BackFromTheDead getting up]], but with his companions requiring revival. However, if everyone goes in wearing a piece of metal equipment, the game treats everyone as being paralyzed and "dead," and the sequence still happens, except with the party healthy and ready to fight. Removed in the remakes.
373* ThePaladin: Cecil becomes one after journeying through Mt. Ordeals. He loses the darkness-based attacks he had as a Dark Knight, but his new form gains access to White Magic in return.
374* ParentalAbandonment: A couple of playable characters lose their parents due to the villains (and one loses hers because of the heroes). DeathByChildbirth is part of Cecil and [[spoiler: Golbez's]] background, though it was mostly AllThereInTheManual until the DS remake.
375* ParentalBonus: During the new Namingway quest in the DS remake, he asks the characters for some Rainbow Pudding to give his new girlfriend. When they next see him, he complains about how, upon going to give her the pudding, he found another guy giving her a present of his own.
376* PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling:
377** It's possible to fight enemies from around Mythril and Troia when first arriving at Mysidia by heading north of Mount Ordeals and around the mountains on the southwest side and heading to the very northern tip of the continent. Interestingly, the path can only be traversed on foot, not on a chocobo. Battles there give Cecil 2,000-3,000 per victory.
378** There's also one that is a three-step bit of land in the Underground, which spawns nothing but Eggs. These eggs range in value from moths to ''Yellow Dragons''. And if you got Sirens from a few places, you can spawn multiple Yellow Dragon eggs and get the drop on them for full EXP. This gets especially prominent in a lot of randomizer hacks for the game in the 21st century, but even in the original releases it can still be useful (as you have access to it as soon as you return to the Underworld).
379* PermanentlyMissableContent:
380** Cecil's Dark equipment is permanently lost if it's not unequipped during his class change. Averted in the ''Pixel Remaster'' where weapons and armor that were equipped on a party member when said member leaves the team are immediately taken off and end up in the inventory, and Dark Knight Cecil and his class change are no exception to this.
381** Treasures in The Tower of Zot, the Tower of Babil and the Giant of Babil are lost forever once the dungeons become inaccessible.
382** One odd case involves a dungeon that you otherwise can return to at any point. The Kitchen Knife, [[InfinityPlusOneSword the best throwing weapon in the game]], can only be obtained if you complete the sidequest that involves using the frying pan on Yang before recruiting [=FuSoYa=]. While everything else involving the Sylph Cave (including the very useful Sylph summon) can be acquired regardless of when the cave is entered, recruiting [=FuSoYa=] triggers an event flag that makes it impossible to use the frying pan on Yang [[spoiler: as he's awake, aware, and praying in the Tower of Prayers with other allies after that point]], and his wife will thus never trade it for the knife. The tradeoff is that a player that waits until after [=FuSoYa=] is recruited to enter the Sylph Cave only needs to go through it once to get the Sylph summon, while the frying pan sidequest requires that a player traverse the cave twice.
383* PercussiveMaintenance: In a non-mechanical example, this is used on Yang [[spoiler: after the party finds him unconscious in the Sylph Cave.]]
384* PerversePuppet: Calca, Brina, and Calcabrina are puppets controlled by Golbez's magic that combine together to battle the party in the Underground.
385* PolarOppositeTwins: Palom and Porom. Besides a RedOniBlueOni dynamic, Palom uses black magic, and Porom uses white magic. Palom is a BrattyHalfPint, and Porom is WiseBeyondTheirYears.
386* ThePowerOfFriendship: The player characters who couldn't make it to the final boss fight [[spoiler:send their prayers to the party to reinvigorate the heroes when all seems lost.]]
387* ThePowerOfLove: Several moments, such as Edward defeating the Sahagin and Kain [[spoiler:defeating Zemus's last attempt at mind control]] come from their love for a certain person. In addition, giving Twincast to [[OfficialCouple Cecil and Rosa]] in the DS version yields Ultima, the strongest attack in the entire game bar ''none''.
388* ThePowerOfRock: Turns out the Dark Elf is weak to Edward's songs.
389%%* PowersAsPrograms: The Augments from the DS version.
390* ProfessorGuineaPig: If you destroy Barnabas before Dr. Lugae, Lugae pilots him manually, using Barnabas' vacant neck area as a cockpit.
391-->'''Lugae:''' My poor, precious Barnabas! I guess I have no choice. I'll control him myself!
392%%* PunchedAcrossTheRoom: Or as it occurs in the Tower of Babil, "Punched across the room, through the door, and landing several tiles away."
393* PuzzleBoss:
394** The Dark Knight, right after Cecil's class change to a Paladin. The only ways to win are [[SheatheYourSword by doing absolutely nothing]], or by casting cure on the Dark Knight.
395** In the 3D remake, the actual way to win the Giant of Babil CPU battle is to kill off the Attack Node first, and leave the Defense Node alone, despite Fusoya's advice to the contrary, since the Attack Node's Laser Barrage is much more powerful than previous versions. Killing off both Nodes means the CPU will one-shot you with a OneHitKill. Leaving the Defense Node alive means it will pathetically heal the CPU, while the CPU does nothing except cast Reflect on itself.
396** Asura does nothing but cast high-level healing spells on herself, and any hit made against her is countered by a very strong physical attack. The only way to defeat her is to cast Reflect on her so that her healing spells bounce back at your party.
397** Bahamut, on the Moon, counts down to his Mega Flare attack, which is strong enough to cause a TotalPartyKill. Kain can Jump to avoid it, and some versions allow Mega Flare to be Reflected.
398%%* QuirkyBard: Edward is the former trope namer.
399%%* QuirkyMinibossSquad: The Elemental Fiends. One of them has a QuirkyMinibossSquad of her own.
400* RandomDrop:
401** The Pink Tail is dropped by Flan Princesses. In the room where you can find those monsters (which is a very small room with only one uninteresting treasure), you have an 1/64 chance of encountering a formation of five of those things. Each of those things have a 5/98 rate of dropping ANY items at all, and a further 1/64 chance that the dropped item will be a Pink Tail. If you just run around that room, you have a 0.006% chance of getting a Pink Tail (or you'll on average get 1 Tail every 10056 battles). In most versions of the game, you can use a Siren, which guarantees the encounter with five Flan Princesses, increasing the odds to 0.3% per battle, or 1 tail every 251 battles on average.
402** The Rainbow Pudding in the DS version, which is necessary for finishing the Namingway quest and earning all the augments, has a drop rate of ''0.4%''. You can only get it from the various Flans. And the Treasure Hunter augment only boosts this drop rate to 0.8%. The DS version also adds ''numerous'' other types of Tails necessary for getting the only equipment that can be carried into New Game +. They all have the same horrible drop rate as the Pink Tail.
403** The hidden summons (Goblin, Mind Flayer, Cockatrice and Bomb) are randomly dropped and every bit as rare as the Rainbow Pudding. To add insult to injury, the Goblin summon is pretty much useless, despite being as rare as Mind Flayer (damage, sap, and paralyze), Cockatrice (Multitarget Petrification), and Bomb (Damage equal to Rydia's health, without harming her).
404** Equipments ranging from [[DiscOneNuke mid-game destroying equipments]] like Rune Staves and Lilith Rods, and other [[InfinityPlusOneSword ultimate equipments]] like Crystal Rings, extra Protect Rings, extra Ribbons, Dragon Whips, Glass Masks and so on are all [[RandomDrop randomly dropped]] and at least nearly as, if not just as rare as the Pink Tail, just that the monsters that drop them tend to be more common encounters.
405* RareCandy: The Golden and Silver Apples, which will increase the max HP of the character they are used on by 100 or 50 HP, respectively. There is also the Soma Drop which increases the selected character's maximum MP by 10.
406* {{Retraux}}: The PSP version primarily reuses the DS remake's soundtrack, but also has the option to use the original SNES version's.
407* RealMenWearPink: Although it's never explicitly discussed in the game, Cecil and Kain both wear makeup (and in Kain's case, nail polish). As Ceodore is later depicted wearing lipstick in some artwork, it seems that it's quite usual for Baronian men to use cosmetics.
408* ReformedButRejected: Cecil attacking the city of Mysidia to take the crystal under orders from the King of Baron, an act Cecil feels immense guilt for doing. A few hours into the game later, Cecil washes onto the shores of Mysidia and approaches the city to ask for help. The people of Mysidia all promptly [[WhatTheHellHero call him out for attacking them]] at the start of the game and make it clear he is not welcome in the city, and the only reason he is allowed in is because the city's Elder is willing to listen and give Cecil a chance for redemption. Shortly after, Cecil braves Mt. Ordeals and goes from a Dark Knight to a Paladin to complete his redemption. His traveling companions Palom and Porom then reveal the real reason they joined for this trip; the village Elder wanted them to spy on Cecil to make sure he did actually try to redeem himself. Just because you feel immense guilt and want to redeem yourself doesn't mean your victims will agree or listen, and those who do have every right to be doubtful of you for doing so. Even after Cecil becomes a paladin, there's still a few people in Mysidia who admit they can't bring themselves to forgive what Cecil did, a conclusion that Cecil ultimately accepts.
409* ReviveKillsZombie: You can hurt undead monsters by using healing spells on them. Not to mention that (especially in the DS version), the best way to kill Scarmiglione without invoking his counters is to use healing spells and potions on him.
410* RiddleForTheAges: The Tower of Zot has ''no'' backstory at all. Who built it, why, and for that matter, where? Even with numerous remakes and a sequel to expand the world lore, the Tower of Zot remains a mystery the developers have no interest in answering.
411* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Tellah tried, but just didn't quite pull it off, though he ''did'' whip out the most powerful BlackMagic spell known.
412* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething:
413** Two of your party members in the original game (Edward and Edge) are princes, and two others were adopted by the King of Baron (Cecil and Kain).
414** Rosa and Yang become monarchs themselves at the end of the game.
415** Leviathan and Asura are king and queen of the Feymarch, respectively. Odin is the spirit of the former king of Baron, and Bahamut is titled the god of monsters.
416* RuleOfCool: Some of the translation changes in the DS version were done solely because new translator Tom Slattery loved the original game and wanted to give the script more flair. He refers to the summoned monsters as Eidolons because he wanted them to have a proper name like the rest of the series post-''VI'', and since ''XII'' had just reused Esper from ''VI'', he decided to reuse Eidolon from ''IX'' (and later also used it on ''XIII''). Also, "The Feymarch" was a word he just made up.
417* SchmuckBait:
418** Li'l Murderers scan themselves at the beginning of the battle to let the player know they are weak to Thunder spells. However, hitting them with said attacks powers them up, enabling them to fire powerful magic attacks against the party.
419** An example occurs during a late-game boss: If you try casting Thunder-elemental spells on Ogopogo, thinking it'll be weak to it, like Leviathan was, will result in the party taking a Tornado counterattack.
420* ScriptedBattle: Between Golbez and the king and queen of Eblan, expect lots of conversations in combat mode. Sometimes you won't take control for an entire battle.
421* SelfRecoverySurprise: Scarmiglione first appears with an escort of zombies, and is defeated. Once the battle is over and the party crosses the bridge, he's right back up to attack the party from behind - this time as an undead.
422* ShadowedFaceGlowingEyes: [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Dwarves]] have the appearance of a dark shadowy face with glowing eyes, but lack the traditional wizard attire of a Black Mage. They even have visible hair on their heads, but their faces are still darkened.
423* SheatheYourSword: Cecil's trial to become a Paladin involves not attacking his opponent.
424* ShootTheDangerousMinion: After you defeat [[MadScientist Lugae]], you meet his superior, [[NobleDemon Rubicante]]. He then claims Lugae's actions [[EvenEvilHasStandards were horrific, even for him]] and states he doesn't hold anything against you. A boss fight still ensues, but [[LetsFightLikeGentlemen he is generous enough to heal the party first]].
425%%* ShouldersOfDoom: Golbez.
426%%** Both of Cecil's forms and Rosa have spikes on their shoulder pads.
427* ShoutOut:
428** First, look at Rubicante [[http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20060323013547/finalfantasy/images/b/b5/Rubicant_battle_sprite.gif]]. Then, look at this bad guy from ''Anime/NeoHumanCasshern'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG2W05xJ76o&t=0m47s]]. They have the same [[Creator/YoshitakaAmano designer]], after all.
429** During the party's first fight with Rubicante, the fiend of fire states that [[Literature/TheDivineComedy "the frozen winds of hell's 9th circle"]] couldn't penetrate his cloak.
430** Square's love affair with ''Franchise/StarWars'' may have become more blatant with ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'', but this installment found other ways to pack its story full of homages.
431*** Cecil must overcome his dark side and become a Paladin if he hopes to defeat Golbez.
432*** Golbez is [[TheDragon a giant in black armor]] [[spoiler:turned to the Dark Side by the robed BigBad. He [[LukeIAmYourFather turns out to be a blood relative of the hero's]], and, outside the 3D remake, suffers a severed hand.]] Golbez also gets the Emperor's Force Lightning routine since the game's BigBad [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere doesn't get to do much]].
433*** They didn't name the [[Franchise/StarTrek Enterprise]]'s companion airship the Falcon for nothing.
434*** The [[spoiler:[[ThatsNoMoon Red Moon]] is not inherently evil. But acting as the BigBad's giant space fortress with a weapon that can wreck entire worlds, it's definitely [[IncrediblyLamePun moonlighting]] as the Death Star.]]
435** ''Film/TheAdventuresOfBaronMunchausen'' came out in Japan two years before the game titled simply ''Baron''. If you can't tell where they got the name for the starting kingdom, consider the airship trip to the moon, the volcanic underworld full of burly tinkerers, and having your quest derailed by a giant sea monster.
436*** The [[spoiler:real King Baron]] becomes this game's Odin. So like the Baron in his film's climax, he can [[AbsurdlySharpBlade slice through entire crowds]] on horseback. By the end of the game, [[spoiler:Cecil becomes the literal inheritor to Baron]].
437** The [[UpdatedRerelease GBA-Version]]-Cid gives us this line: "So how are my airships? I'll bet you and your ''goons'' wrecked them up ''[[Website/SomethingAwful something awful]]''!"
438** The "Pig" spell is a reference to Circe in ''Literature/TheOdyssey''.
439** Two sections of Mount Ordeals, the 3rd and 7th Stations, are named after the namesake sections in the Stations of the Cross where Jesus Christ fell for the first and second time, respectively.
440* SingleStrokeBattle: Odin, when summoned, cuts down every enemy at once for a OneHitKill. However, it only works if every enemy is affected.
441* SinisterGeometry: The CPU boss is three orbs: one big one and two small ones. The boss also has Object 199, a sphere attack that hits the damage cap of 9999.
442* SkywardScream: During the destruction of Mist, a horrified Cecil yells in frustration, unable to understand why his King would send him to destroy the village.
443-->'''Kain:''' "He wished this village ''torched!''"
444-->'''Cecil:''' "But why? ... '''''WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!!'''''"
445* {{Slapstick}}: Yang's wife and her... unorthodox method of dealing with enemy soldiers and amnesiac husbands. [[spoiler:All get bashed over the head with her [[FryingPanOfDoom Frying Pan]].]]
446* SmallNameBigEgo: Edge, he's the first ladies' man to ever appear in the series!
447* SoLongAndThanksForAllTheGear: A frequent occurrence on one's first playthrough, thanks to all the party members that leave your party or (apparently) meet their demise without much advance warning. Averted in the Pixel Remaster: any character leaving your party in any manner will leave behind all their equipment in the inventory, and that goes for Dark Knight Cecil's class change to Paladin.
448* SpaceWhale: The Big Whale doubles as a spacecraft, capable of flying the heroes to the moon. It's only summoned by the prayers of everyone in Mysidia wishing for it to appear.
449* SpiritAdvisor:
450** Cecil hears a voice calling him "my son" once he finally reaches the top of Mount Ordeals and becomes a paladin. This voice tells Cecil to reject the darkness and turn towards the light. [[spoiler:The "my son" part wasn't an exaggeration or a metaphor, either; it was the voice of Cecil's father, Klu'ya.]]
451** Anna becomes this for Edward after her death. Edward had been wallowing in misery for a while after her death. But when Edward is attacked one night by a monster, she appears and tells him to find his own strength, which inspires him to keep going.
452* SpoiledByTheManual: The SNES version of the game had this in the equipment section of the manual, as it listed a few sample pieces of equipment as well as the class of who could use it. Thus, it was pretty obvious that the various {{Disc One Final Dungeon}}s were not the end, because a "ninja" or a "Lunarian" hadn't appeared yet. For that matter, the twist that there's an intelligent race from the moon is spoiled by the fact that "Lunarian" was the name of a class listed in the manual (though that plot point is minor compared to the one about [[TomatoInTheMirror just who is descended from it]]).
453* SquishyWizard: Rydia. She has the worst HP out of your final party, but [[GlassCannon she can slaughter enemies in no time]], even before she gets spells and summons like Meteor, Leviathan, or Bahamut.
454* StaticRoleExchangeableCharacter: From the advance versions onwards, the 2D remakes of the games allows you to swap memebers of the party, as long as Cecil is still in it. When you bring them over to the final battle, the new members will fill in the roles of the originals who are absent.
455* StayInTheKitchen:
456** After all of his travels with the WhiteMage[=/=]CombatMedic keeping the party healthy and the LadyOfBlackMagic/Master of SummonMagic laying waste to all that stood in their way, Cecil suddenly decides the women are a liability and orders them off the Lunar Whale before TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon. Thankfully, Rosa and Rydia are not amused and they stow away to the Moon with them anyway.
457** Also seen earlier in the game during the attack on Fabul, when Rosa and Rydia are relegated to assisting the castle's healers while Cecil, Edward, and Yang fight. Though despite being sidelined/protected, Rosa still gets kidnapped anyway.
458* {{Stripperiffic}}: Suffice to say the female mages do ''not'' wear the concealing robes of their predecessors.
459** [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/5/5d/Rosa_CG_Render.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/130?cb=20130326144139 Rosa]] has wardrobe problems. Never knew that underwear goes under your clothes or just simply does not like to wear a dress or skirt? You be the judge.
460*** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIVTheAfterYears'', she switches to a simpler white dress. [[http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/File:After_Rydia.png Rydia,]] on the other hand...
461** The fiend Barbariccia also fits the wardrobe.
462* StupidSacrifice:
463** [[spoiler:Cid]]'s apparent death: He jumps out of an airship while holding a bomb, saying he has to ensure it lands on the correct spot. However, as he couldn't control the speed of his descent, carrying it wouldn't have altered anything. Though he winds up surviving, it comes off as a transparent method to bump him from the party in favor of Edge.
464** [[spoiler:Palom and Porom]] sacrifice themselves by turning into statues to prevent the castle walls from crushing the party. However, not only does one of them know Teleport, but also Fire spells, which could be used to burn the hallway's wooden doors.
465* SummonMagic: As the game's main offensive magic user, Rydia specializes in both this and black magic. As a child, she is limited to summoning Chocobo, but her adult self can call forth the powerful Eidolons, including the almighty Bahamut should the party best him in combat.
466* TagalongKid:
467** At the start of the game, a young girl named Rydia is forced to tag along with Cecil and Kain after they accidentally destroy her village. Averted when she joins the party later in the game after spending some time in the Feymarch, as the temporal displacement from the Eidolons' homeworld caused her to age faster, so by the time she reappears she is a young adult.
468** Inverted with Palom and Porom. They may be younger than Cecil, but they are the ones leading the black knight to his next destination.
469* TakenForGranite: [[spoiler:Palom and Porom]] petrify themselves to prevent Cecil, Tellah and Yang from being crushed by walls enchanted by Cagnazzo. Tellah himself is unable to bring them back to normal, but the elder from Mysidia breaks the spell just in time for the game's climax.
470* TankGoodness: The Dwarves of the underworld field tanks against the airships of the Redwings when you first arrive in the underworld as well as against the Giant of Babel near the endgame.
471* ATasteOfPower:
472** For assisting in an early-game battle in Fabul, Cecil is given the Deathbringer sword, an incredibly powerful weapon that gives large bonuses to all stats and which frequently kills any non-undead enemy it hits. Unfortunately, you only really get to use it on the trip ''to'' Mount Ordeals; Mount Ordeals itself is crawling with undead, and afterwards [[spoiler:Cecil becomes a Paladin, permanently losing the ability to equip it.]] You won't get comparable weapons until ''far'' later in the game.
473** Right after Tellah gets access to every spell in the game, including powerful -ga spells that you won't see for some time on other members of the party without extensive grinding. However you won't use them for long and with his limited MP pool they'll be mostly used in emergencies only unless one wants to spend a lot of Ethers.
474* TechnicolorDeath: When a boss dies, they fade away from the top down, chunks of the enemy sprite flying off in pieces.
475* TeleportationRescue: Rosa saves everyone from a CollapsingLair by casting the Teleport spell, in a nice bit of GameplayAndStoryIntegration. (Granted, the cutscene version manages to take them many miles, while the usual one just gets you to the dungeon entrance.)
476* ThatsNoMoon: The Red Moon is eventually revealed to be [[spoiler:a giant spacecraft constructed by the Lunarians, a race of highly-advanced aliens.]]
477* ThematicSequelLogoChange: The original logo for ''IV'' has a drawing of Kain Highwind in purple, an important secondary character. For the Platform/NintendoDS re-release, it features a drawing of Golbez, a secondary antagonist in the game.
478* ThemeMusicPowerUp: An utterly awesome example occurs after [[spoiler:Zeromus appears and floors everyone; the game cuts to the Tower of Prayer, where Palom urges the Elder of Mysidia to do something. Cue the ''Theme of Final Fantasy,'' which goes on for at least 5 minutes while all your former party members appear and lend Cecil and friends their power for the final battle.]]
479* ThemeNaming: The four elemental fiends are named for four of the Malebranche in Dante's Inferno.
480* ThisCannotBe: Golbez's reaction to [[spoiler:Tellah casting Meteor]] in the Tower of Zot.
481* TimeLimitBoss:
482** The Demon Wall. If it gets too close, it starts using the Crush attack, which is a OneHitKill.
483** Odin slowly raises his sword, and when he's done charging, he'll use Zansetsuken on the whole party for a large amount of physical damage.
484** Bahamut starts a countdown at the beginning of the battle. When the timer hits zero, he unleashes his Mega Flare attack, which deals massive damage to the entire party.
485** Balnab/Barnabas becomes one if you defeat Dr. Lugae first.
486* TinTyrant: Golbez is covered head-to-toe in dark armor, complete with a BadassCape. The only time he's seen without it in the first game is in flashbacks. Though he's shown without it in ''The After Years''.
487* TooAwesomeToUse:
488** Many healing items, especially MP recovery potions, are rare and prohibitively expensive for most of the game. Tellah and Fusoya's advanced spells fall under this as well. Their limited MP, combined with the scarcity of MP recovery items, means that you'll likely be sticking to their mid-level spells most of the time.
489** Ethers cost 10000 gil, to be exact, and (except on the Easytype version) are only available for buying very late in the game. However, when you [[spoiler:reach the moon]], you can steal ethers from a plethora of enemies, including the very common Black Flan.
490** Remedies can be this too in the non-easytype versions, costing 5000 gil (which is 50 times what they cost in the easytype versions) and not being available to even buy until about a third of the way through the game.
491* TooDumbToLive: The Trickster/Li'l Murderer enemies, once the player catches onto their trick. They're scripted to immediately start spamming [=Bolt3=]/Thundaga once hit by a lightning-element attack, which can quickly overwhelm the unprepared player. However, the ''only'' thing they do if a lightning-element attack isn't used is use Scan/Libra on themselves. If the player doesn't have lightning-element weapons equipped (and at that stage of the game, the only one who might is Rydia, who can just defend the whole time), the player can just do normal attacks with impunity, treating it like a PinataEnemy with mediocre rewards.
492* TookALevelInBadass:
493** Cecil. [[spoiler:After he becomes a Paladin, he becomes significantly stronger in every stat, can wield much stronger equipment and can destroy anything that made you cry tears of frustration when he was a Dark Knight.]] The best part? [[spoiler: This is when Paladin Cecil is level 1, compared to Dark Knight Cecil who's anywhere from 15-20.]]
494** Rydia as a young kid only had access to basic White and Black Magic and the weak Chocobo summon. When she comes back in her adult form, she lost her healing spells, but gained ridiculously powerful offensive magic and can summon the elemental Eidolons. A Rydia with proper equipment can and will take down entire waves of enemies by herself if you can spare the MP costs of her skills.
495* TookAShortcut:
496** Namingway in the DS version travels all around the world, including up to the Moon, and always reaches his destinations much earlier than the party.
497** Rydia comes back from the Feymarch by going through a cave infested with monsters and over seas of lava that even the airship can't cross at that point in the story.
498** Rosa near the beginning of the game somehow gets through the monster-filled Mist Cave, past the burnt-out village of Mist, past the impassable mountains created by the earthquake, and still manages to reach Kaipo at about the same time Cecil and Rydia do, if not before.
499* TornadoMove: The game has Barbariccia, [[ElementalEmbodiment the Fiend of Wind]], whose hair is said to be three times the length of her body! She uses her killer tresses to whip up wind storms, including a tornado around her own body; which deflects all outside attacks. [[DeathFromAbove Attacks from above]], on the other hand...
500* TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening: Inverted with Rydia: she has an innate talent for magic, but the trauma of watching her village being burned to the ground makes it difficult for her to use fire spells.
501* TrickBoss:
502** Calcabrina makes the party fight six dolls before they form up together into one.
503** Dr. Lugae summons a robotic creation to battle you, but it explodes. After that, he turns himself into a hideous monster, and you have to fight him again.
504* TwoGuysAndAGirl: Cecil, Kain, and Rosa all grew up together. Cecil and Rosa's relationship fuels Kain's jealousy, making him an easy target for [[spoiler:Golbez's brainwashing]].
505* UncommonTime: Part of "The Red Wings" is in 7/4.
506* UnderratedAndOverleveled: The game features Palom and Porom, a pair of HalfIdenticalTwins with formidable WonderTwinPowers that allow them to wipe out regular encounters in an eyeblink. They provide Cecil with [[GuestStarPartyMember some much needed support when he's separated from his main party]], despite being only [[ImprobableAge five years old]].
507* UnexplainedRecovery: [[spoiler:''Everyone'' except for Anna and Tellah. It's hard to say which is the most egregious example, Cid's "death" scene that should've been impossible to survive in at least half a dozen different ways, or Palom and Porom having their petrification reversed by the Elder despite Tellah, who's explicitly a more powerful mage than the Elder, saying it was impossible.]]
508* UnintentionallyUnwinnable: By having the Avenger Sword equipped on Cecil before the final boss fight, you have softlocked the game because only he can use the Crystal and you can't change his weapon during battle because of its auto-Berserk status.
509* UnstableEquilibrium: Cecil is powerful enough to plow through all but the rarest RandomEncounters on his own for a good hour into the game. In fact, it really feels more like an EscortMission when he's paired up with Rydia and Edward, at least at first. The only time you might be in danger, when Undead show up, you get Tellah, who is ''even more powerful'' than Cecil and comes with the Fire and Cura spells. In the DS remake he's more balanced with the early encounters.
510* UnstoppableRage:
511** After Edge is forced to fight his mutated parents, Rubicante tells him that emotions hold humans back. To prove the demon wrong, Edge unleashes his full rage, unlocking two of his most powerful Ninja Arts, Flood and Blitz.
512** The death of Tellah's daughter fuels his rage for the rest of the game. He first lashes out against Edward, whom he blames for not protecting Anna. Much later, he has a second outburst when he confronts Golbez, which culminates in him [[spoiler:trying to kill the villain with the Meteor spell, knowing full well that casting such attack would lead to his own death as well]].
513* UpdatedRerelease: It's been released on the SNES (with two different versions in Japan), Platform/PlayStation, [[Platform/WonderSwan WonderSwan Color]], Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, mobile phones, the Wii Virtual Console, and PSP in the form of the ''Complete Collection'', with ''The After Years'' and an ''Interlude'' midquel chapter bridging the two parts together. All with upgraded aesthetics.
514** The Pixel Remaster was released for Steam and Mobile in 2021, and for Switch and [=PlayStation=] 4 two years later. This was more of a "back to basics" re-release, drawing more directly from the original Super Famicom version, slightly updating the graphics and introducing some quality-of-life features. It did not include any of the extra content of the GBA, DS, or PSP versions.
515* UselessItem: The Fire Bomb in the SNES version. It wasn't completely DummiedOut - it's just only dropped by Red Dragons in the Lunar Subterranean. By that point, their damage is a pittance compared to what any of the characters can do in a single round.
516* VagueAge: Way back in the SNES days, this was true, especially for the American version which didn't have any ages in the manual or whatnot. Because of the "normalized" sprites resulting in everyone being surprisingly similar in height, it was unclear how old a lot of characters were meant to be - and this didn't just extend to child-Rydia and the twins, though they get the worst of it. Everyone's age was up to interpretation, and oftentimes fanon was way off the mark from eventually-published ages for things like the DS version:
517** Cecil, Kain and Rosa were actually really bad about this. Due to their pretty formal-looking sprites, the fact that they all have pretty high-ranking jobs (Cecil and Kain leading military units, and Rosa being a major figure within the Baron white mages), and the fact that Cecil and Rosa are ''basically'' engaged even at the start of the game, a lot of people had the three of them being pegged in at least their late twenties, if not thirties. Nope - Cecil and Kain are meant to be in their ''early twenties'', and Rosa is ''nineteen''. Those ages getting announced with the DS version surprised a ''lot'' of people.
518** As noted, the "kids" tended to get this especially bad, in no small part due to their sprites not really being much shorter than everyone else, though other elements didn't help.[[labelnote:Fun Fact!]]The art does try to get the idea across in the battle sprites that the kids are "shorter" by having their ''heads'' be lower on their sprites than the adults; if you look closely, the twins and Kid-Rydia have chins at least one pixel lower than everyone else. However, either due to technical limitations or just a desire to make use of all the space they had, the artists still had the sprites be as tall ''overall'' as the rest of the cast, by way of Rydia's famous EightiesHair and the twins just having huge noggins. This meant that overall, all the sprites were of equal height and thus age was a lot harder to determine at a glance. [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kids_59.png This]] is a good illustration of the phenomenon in action.[[/labelnote]] Rydia was "a cute child", but this could put her anywhere between 7 to 12, with a lot of people suspecting it might be on the older side due to having to take the sprites at face value. (The lower value turned out to be the correct age.) The twins got it much worse - their SNES sprites actually look subtly "older" than Rydia's, Palom's in particular, and Palom's [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Bart Simpson-esque wisecracking]] and Porom's practiced formality (along with the stated fact that they were students [[spoiler:and the fact that they were trusted to be spies]]) had a lot of people thinking they ''had'' to be at least pre-teens, if not early teens. Nope again - Palom and Porom are ''five years old''. They're just ''that'' precocious.
519** Edge also threw a lot of people off - his hotheadedness, use of slang, flirty attitude toward the (then-teenagerized) Rydia (and to a lesser extent, his relationship with his parents and [[spoiler:his reaction to their fate]]) made pretty much everyone assume he was 17-18. Nope again: he's actually one of the ''older cast members'' at 26! He's significantly older than Cecil, Kain or Rosa!
520* VerbThis: In the ''Pixel Remaster'', after Sandy casts Reflect on Cindy, Mindy says, "Reflect this!" before casting the Delta Attack.
521* VideoGameRemake: After receiving a enhanced [[Platform/WonderSwan WonderSwan Color]] port which was further polished for the Game Boy Advance, the game was fully remade from the ground up [[VideoGame3DLeap in full 3D]] for the Nintendo DS which added voice acting for key scenes, a introductory Full Motion Video with brand new CGI renders, significant additions to the script which further detail the backstory of some characters, several gameplay changes, along other new content such as an Augment system, minigames, a New Game Plus feature, and new superbosses.
522* VideoGameStealing: In versions previous to the DS remake, Edge ran with this to an absurd degree - there was no limit to how many times you could steal an item from an enemy. They apparently just had an unlimited supply of these items (never used, of course) kept in {{Hammerspace}}.
523* VillainTeleportation: Golbez does this so many times, it's not clear why he needs to send his armies to attack the castles guarding the crystals when he could just jump in and grab them.
524* TheWallsAreClosingIn:
525** One bad guy traps the heroes in one of these during a {{cutscene}} as they try to escape his lair after taking him out. [[spoiler: Palom and Porom, the two cute kid mages, [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifice themselves to save the others]] by turning themselves to stone and stopping the walls.]]
526** One of the bosses is [[AdvancingWallOfDoom the Demon Wall]], which slowly advances toward the party. Once it gets close enough, it will use the Crush attack to instantly knock the heroes out.
527* WakeUpCallBoss: The Calcabrina fight. "Oh, some child's dolls, how cu-- ''what did they just transform into?!''" Especially so in the easy version released on the SNES, as its difficulty was not reduced much, resulting in one of the first bosses the player was likely to wipe on repeatedly.
528* WeakWilled: Kain - he gets controlled by Golbez ''twice'', and it's hinted that Zemus tries ''again'' in the final dungeon in the GBA and later releases. Kain resists the third time, though.
529* WeBuyAnything: Unremarkable standard use of the trope, but it does become amusing in Mysidia where the merchants will happily buy Cecil's Dark equipment that the townspeople curse so much.
530* WeddingFinale: The game ends with Cecil and Rosa getting married and being crowned King and Queen of Baron. All other surviving members attending the wedding, except for Kain, who is pondering over his past actions atop Mt. Ordeals.
531* WelcomeBackTraitor: Kain succumbs to Golbez's brainwashing and turns against Cecil twice throughout the story, but is quickly welcomed back into the party once it seems he has snapped out of it. The second time he comes back, Edge actually defies the trope by calling him out on it, asking Kain what he expects them to do if he gets brainwashed again. Kain's response is succinct: [[IDieFree Kill him.]] In the DS version, he almost succumbs a ''third time'', during the final dungeon, and only barely manages to hang on when Zemus goes too far and tries to make him think that killing Rosa would be a good idea, if his thought bubbles are any indication.
532* WhatDoesThisButtonDo: Dr. Lugae, while he's manually operating Barnabas. It turns out that it's Barnabas's [[spoiler:self-destruct]] button. Wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that [[TooDumbToLive he built the damn thing himself]].
533* WhenEldersAttack: Tellah does this to Edward in a scripted battle, hitting him with his cane and calling him a SpoonyBard.
534* WhiteHairBlackHeart: Golbez has an odd relationship with this trope -- in the original version, there was no way to know for sure if he fit the archetype, since [[TheFaceless he never took his helm off]]. Since he's [[spoiler:Cecil's brother]], though, it was a reasonable assumption. The DS version gave him brown hair in flashbacks, but on the other hand, we only ever see Golbez's face in flashbacks from when he was a child, so that could have changed in the intervening years. ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIVTheAfterYears The After Years]]'' confirms this impression, as Golbez appears without his armor in that game, and definitely has white hair. Of course, by then he too has reformed, and his role throughout the entirety of ''The After Years'' is decidedly non-villainous.
535* WhiteMagicianGirl: Rosa is the prototypical example of the personality, even though she's better off using a bow. Porom also fits the character type, both in personality and skillset.
536* WhoDares: This exchange in the [=PlayStation=] translation:
537-->'''King:''' Cecil!? You ingrate! How dare you renounce the dark sword without my authority!?\
538'''Cecil:''' ...How dare [[NoYou YOU]] renounce your duty to your people, "Your Majesty"!
539%%* WholePlotReference: [[spoiler:To Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds, if you examine Zemus' motives closely.]]
540* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Rydia's initial aversion to Fire stems from Cecil and Kain accidentally burning down her home village and killing nearly everything in it.
541* WithMyDyingBreathISummonYou: At the conclusion, a dying Zemus vows to keep fighting. That vow causes his hatred to become the final boss, Zeromus.
542* WithThisHerring: Cecil and Kain are experienced soldiers, so they start at Level 10 with full equipment and will have no problem cleaving their way through normal enemies up to the first boss. Nonetheless, your starting supplies are a handful of gil and whatever items you find in the castle; it's implied that the King [[UriahGambit wasn't interested in the two surviving his mission]], so of course he wouldn't give them much to help them.
543* WizardBeard: Fusoya and Tellah both have them. It's justified by the fact that they're both very old. In Fusoya's case, centuries old.
544* WonderTwinPowers: The Twincast ability. Palom and Porom have it natively, but you can use [[PowersAsPrograms Augments]] in the DS version to put them on other characters, which can change the spell you might get. Giving it to Cecil and Rosa gives them the [[AwesomeButImpractical Ultima]] [[ThePowerOfLove spell]] which, if the damage cap is raised, outdamages ''everything else in the game''.
545* WorldOfHam: The DS remake combines voice acting with much more flowery dialogue than past releases to create this.
546-->'''Rosa:''' "Kain! Tell me you've not turned traitor!" \
547'''Kain:''' "Don't look at me!" \
548'''Golbez:''' "''Kain''! Why do you now hesitate?"
549* WorthyOpponent: Rubicante is a sort of NobleDemon. He fights you with your whole strength (healing the party before the fight every time), spares Edge life once, tries to explain to Edge how one should fight, apologizes for the bad deeds of his subordinates, and doesn't try to backstab the party once he knows he has lost, which the other bosses often do.
550* WrittenSoundEffect: Either a "POW!" or a *whack* on several occasions where Porom hits Palom.
551* WritersCannotDoMath: The guidebook ''[[http://www.sceneryrecalled.com/trans/ff4comp.htm Settei Shiryou Hen]]'', released alongside the SFC game in Japan, gives a lot of AllThereInTheManual information about the world of ''FFIV''[[note]](much of which hasn't been acknowledged since in the sequel and various remakes of the game, making it [[{{Retcon}} dubiously canonical]])[[/note]], including the population and area of each of the game's nations. All of these numbers seem unusually ''small'', such as Fabul having a population of ''300 people''.
552* {{Wutai}}:
553** Eblan fills this niche, being a nation of ''{{ninja}}''. The [[{{Retcon}} (now dubiously canon)]] guidebook ''Settei Shiryou Hen'', released alongside the SFC game in Japan, [[http://www.sceneryrecalled.com/trans/ff4comp.htm#Eblana gives further history on Eblan]] which is ripped straight from the pages of Japan's own history, describing how the nation [[FeudalJapan once consisted of multiple warrior factions]] and was deeply isolationist before being contacted by airships from Baron, analogous to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Ships Commodore Perry's Black Ships]].
554** Fabul [[InterchangeableAsianCultures can be mistaken for this]], sharing the Oriental flair in addition to the fact that the [[DubInducedPlothole English SNES version]] [[DubNameChange changes the martial art practiced there]] to the decidedly Japanese ''{{karate}}''. However, Fabul is intended to resemble the ''{{wuxia}}'' stereotype of ImperialChina.
555* YearInsideHourOutside: The Feymarch's time distortion causes Rydia's PlotRelevantAgeUp after the Leviathan takes her there.
556* YouCantThwartStageOne: By about halfway through, the good guys should just be going "Here, take the damn crystal" as soon as Golbez appears.
557* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: If you kill enough Goblins, Bombs, Cockatrice, and Mindflayers; they have {{Random Drop}}s of their own summon that Rydia can use. This must mean their own souls are intact enough for her to control.
558* ZeroEffortBoss: PlayedForDrama with [[spoiler: Edge's parents, who were turned into monsters by Dr. Lugae. After enough time has passed, their monstrous forms deteriorate, causing them to die off.]]
559----
560-->[[AC:>Magic > Flame]]\
561"Poor technique. ''This'' [[PreAsskickingOneLiner is how it's done]]."

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