New week, new Final Fantasy IV episode. This week we pick up where we left off. As it’s become tradition in this playthrough, I ended the previous episode by dying to the latest boss, yet another Archfiend sent by Golbez to stop us.
This time it’s the Archfiend of Water, Cagnazzo, a weird cross between Venom and a turtle. He’s annoying, even by Final Fantasy elemental fiend standards. He has shifting weaknesses, susceptible to Ice magic and attacks normally except for when he’s channelling Tsunami, at which point Ice heals him and Thunder becomes his weakness. There’s no reason for this beyond Final Fantasy IV’s tendency to annoy you with hidden mechanics.
Tsunami is perhaps the most cheat-worthy of abilities, dealing not only a big chunk of damage but also having a build-in chance to outright kill party members regardless of how much or how little damage the attack actually dealt.
But what really sets him apart is that at certain points in the fight, when he’s taken lots of damage, he will hide in his shell and back to back cast heal on himself, forcing you to keep up the punishment as much as possible while still keeping your resources under control, so that when he’s done healing a fixed amount, you’re not back at square one.
Oh, have I mentioned he counters magic with Silence and constantly casts Sleep and Slow on the party? As I said, annoying even by general Final Fantasy standards. Hell, he’s annoying by Final Fantasy IV’s standards!
But with further ado, here’s the episode for you to enjoy. If you like it, please like the video, share it and if you’d agree to subscribe to The Mental Attic’s YouTube channel, I’d very much appreciate it!
