Can I beat Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster with only Cecil?

[@taemien9219]

When I saw the title, I jokingly said to myself, "Can you beat FFIV with anyone alongside Cecil?" Cecil is an absolute beast in that game and you will frequently beat bosses with only him still standing. Especially in the DS version.

[@stevemanart]

HOW??!? It's so easy. Strait up the only game in the main series where you break it over your knee by just playing it at its own pace.

[@SnowyTotodile]

Cecil has soooo much HP and really beefy stats. Augments in the DS version make it even more amazing as he can easily rack up ridiculously high stats at the high levels, as well as abilities like HP +50%, Focus, and Darkness, which let him hit like an absolute truck. Kick combined with Counter can be quite powerful, too, for training, since it damages all enemies without any risk of being counter-attacked. That said, the DS version can be quite brutal on the first playthrough, since they made bosses actually hard - maybe too much in some cases because the difficulty spikes can be ridiculous.

[@taemien9219]

@@SnowyTotodile I actually found the difficulty progression in the DS version to be quite good. Its just spikes hard when you compare areas in it to the same areas in other versions. For example, in the first part of the Lunar Subterranean the Witches in most versions only use mid tier black magic like Lit2. In the DS version they will use high tier spells like Lit3, which will do 4k damage single target. You have to make good use of crowd control abilities to which FFIV has an extensive amount of.. but very little use for them on previous versions. The DS version fixed that. The tricky part on a first playthrough is figuring out what works on what of course. But I rather enjoyed that exploration.

[@SnowyTotodile]

@@taemien9219 My main difficulties in FF4 DS on my first playthrough were against bosses, notably the Golbez fight, Barbariccia, Dr. Lugae, and the final boss. Actually, the DS version was the first time I experienced FF4! I don't think the encounters were that bad. In fact, I found most of them to be fairly manageable (even if they could be quite potent when trying to train), and it was mostly just trying to prepare for bosses that was difficult. Funny enough, many bosses were completely reworked in the DS remake, which is why I was a bit disappointed when I played other versions of FF4. Golbez in the DS version, for example, now works like Magus from Chrono Trigger where he attacks with powerful mid-level spells and rotates his elemental weakness whenever you hit it. It's tricky to train here because you're now stranded and have to deal with the comparably higher level enemies than before now. Dr. Lugae randomly flips damage/healing, and because of ATB, you have to be careful to time your attacks/damages as he may flip it again. Barbariccia is completely immune to physical attacks in her second form, and her attacks are a bit scarier, so you can't really brute force her that easily. And I'm sure there are more things, but I think FF4 DS really made these bosses much trickier and more engaging, but also made each area become considerably more difficult than the last.

[@veghesther3204]

On the DS version Big Bang can still hit for over 6000 damage a LV 99 Cecil MAY have less HP then that and its Meteor spell on that version hits for 9999 damage.

[@qinop]

"Cecil ends up being so much stronger than he was as a Dark Knight." Always makes me smile I love Cecil, he came a long way and doing it with him was so amazing

[@SnowyTotodile]

Yeah, I absolutely love his transformation in this game! Him, like his brother, was manipulated into doing some horrible stuff by Zemus (albeit by proxy), and in the "long and unskippable cutscene" at the start of the game, we see this in action. Racked with guilt and lost as a person, he could've hid from his problems and become an evil monster like his brother did, but instead he decided to do better and literally faced his inner demons, represented by himself as a Dark Knight. This, of course, didn't right the wrongs he did. He didn't suddenly become a different person by becoming a Dark Knight - it's really still the same Cecil. However, by becoming a paladin, it shows Cecil was willing to start over and try again, and in the end, he grew as a person.

[@polarisguild]

Cecil is one of my favorite characters of any game. Being closer to the light might be a bloodline thing, but he could have easily stayed dark instead.

[@MahDryBread]

I can't get over how good the music is in the pixel remakes

[@SnowyTotodile]

When I went into the Giant of Babel in FF4 for the first time and heard the "Within the Giant" music, I actually stopped playing for a moment to just listen to the music. Not only did they improve upon an already good soundtrack, they added actual vocals, and that made my heart utterly melt. It's so good!

[@MahDryBread]

@@SnowyTotodile I know, right? The other week I booted up the pixel remaster of FF6 just so I could listen to the music. My wife and I have been playing the SNES version on the Steam Deck, so it's cool to hear what the music sounds like in the most recent releases! The Veldt's song is awesome

[@punchsnonsense2336]

In the original FF4, when a character leaves your party and returns later they come in at a level comparable to that of Cecil, so it’s likely something similar is happening here and that’s why Kain came back at level 71 at the end there.

[@SnowyTotodile]

Hey, I see! That makes a lot of sense.

[@DDRFaQ]

Party members still gain exp when they leave your party. That’s how it ends up being comparable.

[@SnowyTotodile]

@@DDRFaQ Oh hey that's pretty nice!

[@chadd990]

perfect editing on the 'Cecil' pronunciation gag. I was debating in my head if you pronounced it correctly, when suddenly the voice actors started saying it. Great timing.

[@SnowyTotodile]

Yeah, that always got me in the 3D remake! Glad you liked it hehehe!

[@curajacaster]

edward is like the best character in the complete collection, his speed is crazy

[@nofuneral6754]

It occurred to me to try this, but you already did it and I'm so glad you did because I would not have had the patience for this. Great video.

[@SnowyTotodile]

AAAA!!! That is fair! It did take a while. That being said, if you allow the usage of items in battle, I think it could go a lot faster. With how much grinding it took for Dark Knight Cecil to beat Scarmiglione (for a level that was going to be completely reset 5 minutes later), I was reeeeeeeeeeeally considering relenting for that fight, as I found that the Skullnants could be instantly removed from the field using pretty much any item that does magic damage (and you have a few of these at this point in the game). And with healing items, I could just take my time with Scarmiglione by himself. Calcabrina could also be cleared out with anything that targets multiple enemies, thus you wouldn't need to deal with the RNG hell that is her second stage. Barbariccia would still be annoying to deal with, and I actually don't know if Cecil using magic items would do more damage than him just attacking. Overall, electing to not use items cost a LOT of time in this game. Cecil doesn't have much going for him early into the game. Dark Knight Cecil is basically just a walking attack stat without any support, and while Paladin Cecil has way more utility with White Magic and just better equipment in general, he can't really take full advantage of it until very late into the game.

[@nofuneral6754]

@@SnowyTotodile I think the way you did it was very entertaining. I wouldn't have even thought to go the "no items" route but that was the TRUE just Cecil route.

[@KnownAsKenji]

I did it with Porom some years back, with the PSP version. It makes the approach relatively easy because a White Mage has a good toolkit of solutions to various problems. She also has higher speed than Rosa and is one of the speedier characters in the game. I don't remember the specific tough points, but the biggest issue was lack of power early on, you can stay alive easily but it's really hard to actually kill stuff until you get Holy and some decent weapons way later in the game. I recommend trying it out if you feel like it. Of course, you'll have to use cheats since Porom isn't in your party all the time, I don't know an exact method involving Pixel Remaster but you could probably find a method if you look around enough.

[@Caspicum]

no items is blasphemy.

[@PinkMawile]

Late, but I really enjoy this kind of stuff. Hope to see more from you

[@SnowyTotodile]

WHAA, thank you!!!

[@StarlightMirror]

Recently started this same Challenge on Stream and I got stuck at Baigan cause didn't know how to beat him without getting stun locked, thanks for uploading this! Saving it as a reference if I get stuck again.

[@SnowyTotodile]

Super glad it could help you!!! Good luck~

[@StarlightMirror]

Thanks! @@SnowyTotodile

[@Valdo0511]

Nice run and commentary! Hope you keep them coming

[@SnowyTotodile]

WHAA thank you!

[@Meidoification]

Cecil is easily my second favourite FF protagonist, with my 1st being Zidane. I love how gloomy he was as a Dark Knight, like he knew that was not his calling, but only continued to be able to serve the King of Baron, the man who raised him. When he became a Paladin, it felt like he came into his own finally.

[@SnowyTotodile]

There's a good opinion right there! I suppose as far as the early Final Fantasy games goes (i.e. FF-FFVI), Cecil's the most interesting out of the three "main" protagonists, because his actual character class is an important part of the story. With Firion and Bartz, you can make them into whatever you want to be. Firion's story is pretty cool, but he doesn't go through some massive character transformation. And Bartz is just there for the ride, really. FF and FFIII's party members are just extensions of the player, and FFVI has a rotating cast of fairly static party members, and although you start with Terra, I wouldn't call her the main character. Cecil, on the other hand, is purely a knight, and the type of knight he is is critical to the plot. Like Golbez, Cecil was manipulated by Zemus into doing horrible things (in this case, pillaging Mysidia as well as burning down Rydia's home and making her an orphan), but rather than cowardly run from his problems and becoming an evil warlock like Golbez, he was willing to set things right and start completely over from scratch as a paladin.

[@MarthSR]

4:19 - Scar-mee-leo-nay! Yeah, I'm that guy! 🤣

[@SnowyTotodile]

Oh dear, I just listened to the cutscene in FFXIV and you're right! Thank you!

[@polarisguild]

Great video, I’ve thought about doing a run like this myself, not counting the rules. But no way could I make a video as clean as yours, I’m going to sub to do my part towards your 1000.

[@SnowyTotodile]

Golly, thank you!

[@polarisguild]

@@SnowyTotodile you deserve the 1000 you have and more, it was a very good quality video. Sadly I didn’t get around to watching your others, but I will get to it eventually.

[@SnowyTotodile]

Oh golly, thank you! I wish you luck!

[@Konflick25769]

very cool video thanks man

[@Weniavin1206]

Great video

[@MobileGamingChronicles]

Nice run! I never played FFIV, so seeing this was nice. Any chance you'll try solo runs in the Final Fantasy 1 Pixel Remaster game? It would be nice to see you attempt that.

[@SnowyTotodile]

Possibly! I've been looking at doing FF1, FF3, and FF5, actually. FF4 is worth a try, and you might actually like it. However, of the earlier Final Fantasy games, FF4 (especially the SNES and pixel remaster version) is a biiiit of an odd game, as you have zero control over your party composition. At each point in the game, you will always have exactly the same party composition for that point in the game, up to and including the endgame party will always be a Dragoon, Paladin, Ninja, White Mage, and Summoner, who will all have the same abilities (save for some random stat growth at level 70+ and some optional summons for Rydia).

[@caimhighwind5530]

I not got the Pixel remaster i love the extra stuff they added but hate the way they got rid of the GBA dungeons they were great as well I plan to get it soon

[@SnowyTotodile]

Yeah this version of the game is really not the best version, sadly. I'd have to go with either the GBA version for the bonus dungeons or the 3D version for the more interesting bosses.

[@brad2138]

Odin sitting in the basement, completely forgotten.

[@SnowyTotodile]

Oh, no, you're right! I completely forgot to battle him. Now he's just going to be trapped there as a spooky ghost. Forever...

[@veghesther3204]

About that I'm not sure if he's beatable at least Solo since the Z Sword attack solo even on the Pixel remaster at lv 80+ may still hit him for like 5000+ damage vs a full party still alive barely having it to 1500 to 2000 IF its used. As for Asura SOLO Cecil UNLESS you OUTDAMAGE her cure 3 spells theirs no way to cause the Reflect status on a Solo Cecil run.

[@SnowyTotodile]

​@@veghesther3204 Asura is apparently weak to the Mute arrow, so I beat her by just spamming attack while in the back row. I'll have to give Odin a shot later if I still have the save file.

[@veghesther3204]

About that even with a full party at lv 75 and MUTE arrows set to ROSA I still barely had Rosa hit her for like 1500 to 2000 PER arrow turn and her CURE 3 spells restores more HP then that at least 2500 to 3000 per use and on a Solo Cecil run if your NOT doing more then 3000 damage she will simply outheal it.

[@SnowyTotodile]

@@veghesther3204 Could be another difference with the Pixel Remaster. I was around level 60 and did 4000 damage per hit with Cecil.

[@kaidenmelon]

how about ff4 after years with only Ceodore? (when applicable that is)

[@SnowyTotodile]

Oh my, that's one character I never really used much in all of my playthroughs. That sounds like fun!

[@kaidenmelon]

@@SnowyTotodile just thought it'd be a good continuation, considering his father is cecil of course

[@SnowyTotodile]

@@kaidenmelon Well in that case, I might just do it!

[@veghesther3204]

About that the Creator Boss has a version of Big Bang and it does a tons of damage but even the Mysterious Girl + fighting Bahamut solo is barely possible and that's a required battle my lv 55 party ONLY using the main FF4 party members could barely survive the Girls Meteor spell and she always starts the battle with it before you get a single turn. Rydia MUST be in the party for that fight Else once Bahamut DIES it will end the fight by using a 9999 damage Mega Flare on YOUR party and NOT the Mysterious Girl boss itself. BUT 1 of the Creator's Forms can also START the battle with Meteor and at lv 55 I had a full party take over 3000 damage from it using a MOON phase that DECREASES Black magic damage when a lv 55 party in after years barely has even 2500 max HP to begin with.

[@InMooseWeTrust]

The after years is so much harder than the base game that you won't be able to win consistently with solo ceodore. I was doing ceodore's challenge dungeon solo because I didn't want kain to level up before evolving. I was getting doubled by random encounter enemies until ceodore was almost max level.

[@sebafletch9867]

Fun fact you can do all of ff 4s story and also the first superboss in the 3d version using cecil only i recomend the run as it is a ton of fun with the augment system

[@SnowyTotodile]

Yes, augments are pretty potent in the 3D remake! I managed to get Rydia to 99 strength, which, when combined with the Dragon Whisker, made her do massive damage to dragons for tail farming. With just the right augments, you can max out a lot of characters' stats.

[@SnowyTotodile]

Oh, also, she could spam Meteor which was really funny, and Darkness is also super amazing with Cecil against bosses in the 3D remake since it boosts damage rather than damages every enemy at once for OKish damage.

[@jfast8256]

The only way I would try this is on the DS version on the third playthrough where I have all the special abilities that make you OP.

[@SnowyTotodile]

Hehe, that version's fun. It's also quite hard on the first playthrough when you don't have them yet, but it's super fun to go back and steamroll the game once you've gotten everything.

[@rosheafan]

1000th subscriber. Haha.

[@SnowyTotodile]

AAA thank you!

[@veghesther3204]

You can but keep the 4x EXP cheat on PS4 PS5 Switch Pixel remaster as in order to KILL those trap door enemies BEFORE their instant death attack kills you ON YOUR 2nd turn you need to do the 5000+ damage IN 1 hit for Paladin Cecil unless he's at least lv 80 you just won't do ENOUGH damage. The Demon Wall boss also requires a lv 80+ Cecil to kill it before its Crush attack kills you instantly.

[@SnowyTotodile]

Huh, I did the whole Sealed Cavern dungeon between level 66-71 and defeated every door. Here's the raw footage of that section: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aprdZ2xuht6Yi7M

[@SnowyTotodile]

I am playing this on the PC, though, so maybe something was changed!

[@mindlessmeat4055]

"Thanks voice acting." Me remembering that kingdom hearts pronounced Tidus as Teedus.

[@FarisFlowers]

Well to be fair that's the correct pronunciation

[@SnowyTotodile]

And I wouldn't have Final Fantasy IV 3D any other way, with its odd voice acting, brutal difficulty spikes, and... uh... "amazing" graphics. That game is so weird, but I love it.

[@DragoEpyon]

That is the official pronunciation, that doesn't stop it from being wrong though.

[@blackchibisan8116]

Why? Why don’t they ever add the bonus dungeons anymore? Is it because they are trying to be “faithful”? My first finished final fantasy was FF4GBA and the lunar dungeons really hit me in the heart… or at least the Kain one did. The rest are a blur in my brain but I believe that they too were probably good.

[@SnowyTotodile]

Yeah, I think the intention was to give you around as much content as was on the original games. They sadly also did this to FF5 and FF6, which had more dungeons and, in FF5's case, four additional jobs, all of which were present on the GBA and (now discontinued) mobile ports. Really, all-in-all, while the Pixel Remaster releases are certainly the most accessible versions of these games, they're missing too much content for me to consider them the 'definitive' versions of these games, despite how 'faithful' they tried to present their remakes.

[@blackchibisan8116]

@@SnowyTotodile Faithful gameplay with new graphics and some version of the extras is always the definitive version of anything. Just never happens because it takes time and love

[@gladius9267]

Congratulations

[@SnowyTotodile]

AAAa thank you!!!!

[@jerikandra]

LOL this was great

[@SnowyTotodile]

AAA thank you!!!!

[@economicsonline]

What about the trap doors in the sealed cave? How did you even get to the demon wall? Don't those trap doors use the unstoppable demolish attack with insta-kill?

[@SnowyTotodile]

The doors don't immediately kill you when you encounter them. They have some "Search" ability that they are scripted to use first, which buys you an extra two turns. I was able to find the footage of this run, and yes, Cecil is able to kill them fast enough before they can kill him. In fact, it seems I sought every trap door and defeated all of them one-by-one. Stats were: - Right hand: Yoichi Bow (oops, wrong hand, so I took a damage penalty) - Left hand: Yoichi Arrow - Head: Green Beret - Body: Diamond Armor - Arms: Diamond Gloves Cecil had 104 attack and was only level 66, and did most of this dungeon in the backrow to reduce damage. I uploaded the raw footage here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aprdZ2xuht6Yi7M

[@veghesther3204]

That's why I posted that Cecil needs to be like at lv 80 to at least 5000 damage by HIS 2nd turn else that instant kill move will do enough damage BUT a lv 60+ Cecil won't do enough damage to the WALL boss since its Crush attack is not only a instant kill but the items that use Blink to be immune to physical hit damage temporarily won't work against that Crush attack. The only reason I don't use Bow's is because without Rosa's aim command they can still miss completely if anybody that isn't Rosa is using them.

[@SnowyTotodile]

@@veghesther3204 I managed to get three turns in against the doors. If you watch the video I linked, you can see I actually went out of my way to train on them. This might be due to auto-battle giving me just enough time to attack, not sure.

[@SnowyTotodile]

I don't think I've ever missed with the bow in this game even once. Of course, it is possible the Pixel Remaster changed how accuracy works, and maybe in the original, this would be impossible at this level.

[@veghesther3204]

Exactly without Auto Battle you ONLY have 2 turns to do the 5000 damage to kill them.

[@chadd990]

I want to ask, how long do you think a playthrough of the game is with the speed boost and auto-battle, in real time? Because as a kid, when I played this on the snes, it took me weeks or months to beat it for the first time. As an adult, I downloaded it and played it on a snes emu, I used speed up and it only took probably less than a day in real time to beat it. It made the game feel really short. I just wonder how long of a game it feels in the pixel remaster.

[@SnowyTotodile]

Auto battling makes the game go by a lot faster - I'd say you could beat it on a weekend fairly easily, probably getting through most of it in a whole afternoon if you play quickly enough. Speedrunners go through this game in just 2-3 hours, funny enough.

[@otaha1988]

Can you beat final fantasy IV pixel remastered minimum battles no exp or money boost

[@akiro9635]

you can kill undead with phoenix downs

[@SnowyTotodile]

Yes. If someone wants to do this run but actually allowing items in battle, this would definitely make Mt. Ordeals a lot less painful.

[@veghesther3204]

About that while its true it won't actually work against the first UNDEAD form of the Earth Fiend boss so in FF4 any version that only works against the Undead NORMAL encounters.

[@livaliv]

yes

[@MelodeathxTed]

Can you beat Final Fantasy V with just Bartz?

[@SnowyTotodile]

I like how you think. I'll have to do this!

[@veghesther3204]

You CAN but at first Galuf is the only party member you have when X death locks up the REST of the party early on in World 2 so its best to NOT have Galuf so low leveled that Gilgamesh kills Galuf in 1 hit. You also can't LEARN LV 5 death in a solo run and some bosses CAN be killed by it.

[@SnowyTotodile]

@@veghesther3204 That's a good point about Gilgamesh! Luckily Gilgamesh's first fight tends to be quite easy, so I don't need to overprepare or anything. If anything, I'm way more worried about Fork Tower!

[@veghesther3204]

That too but once the final dungeon opens up the area's that require the submarine and the FORKING tower to access it aren't really required to beat the game.

[@paullavoie5542]

This game is pretty easy. Without trying most people can probably beat it in less than 30 hours. I use the leveling of non party characters collecting rydia up to level 50 before getting on the ship at Fabul. By the time you gether back she should be at level 60 with Meteo. From there till the moon should be a speedy run from there.

[@InMooseWeTrust]

I once beat it in like 6 hours when I was a little kid. My characters were very underleveled but I managed to beat zeromus without rydia having nuke

[@SnowyTotodile]

Yeah, this game is suuuuuper easy. It's no wonder they changed the gameplay design so much in the 3D remake.

[@GrimHeaperThe]

Isn't there one hidden super boss left?

[@SnowyTotodile]

Don't think so. I think I only missed Odin.

[@lmelior]

Another small LPer named BlueAnkylo posted a full playthrough of this challenge, and it's pretty great. The conclusion was everybody else holds Cecil back, and solo Cecil (minus your no items rule) is probably easier than full party playthrough! 🤣🤣

[@polarisguild]

I think the turns out to be true on a lot of games. I did a run of the main protagonist on fire emblem path of radiance. And at times it was easier then on a lower difficulty play. With all the Xp going to one character they get stronger faster. Of course that would only make a difference on the FFs that actually split xp.

[@LeinRa-Reaction]

​@@polarisguildwith Fire Emblem, solo MC run is a mixbag between the different entries someone like Ike who got great stat gains and has access to 1-2 range sword will be great for solo run, then you got lords like Eliwood who have mediocre stat gains and no access to 1-2 range weapon until after promotion which is not happening for a long time (especially in Eliwood mode). at least he got a horse after promotion though

[@polarisguild]

@@LeinRa-Reaction you are totally right about that. It definitely depends on the individual game design.

[@SnowyTotodile]

Yeah, this is true. Split experience is especially pretty nasty to Cecil.

[@betacentauri6830]

In several fights you cant use cecil. So the answer is no, you cant beat the game with only cecil.

[@SnowyTotodile]

If you want to be technical, it is not actually several fights. The main rule of the challenge is "I can only use Cecil in battle", and the only fight that actually breaks this rule is Edward vs. the Sahagin.