Final Fantasy IV is one of my all-time favorite Japanese role-playing games. It was my first true console RPG, coming in the form of the altered-for-the-USA Final Fantasy II. While Final Fantasy VI vies for my favorite game of all time (that versus Metroid Prime; it depends on my mood), I'm more familiar with its predecessor. So, as I played through Final Fantasy IV for the DS, I made sure to keep an eye out for little changes.

One of the more advertised changes -- at least in the gaming press -- was the level of difficulty. Many enemies hit harder, dropped less gold, and developed new and dangerous habits since the last outing on the Gameboy Advance. For the first time, I found myself legitimately struggling to get past game over screens on account of some more particularly mean nasties. Here are some of the enemies / enemy groupings that gave me a particularly tough time, much moreso than in the original, until I was able to grind for a reasonable amount of time.

Disclaimer: I don't remember the names and numbers exactly, and since I'm at work I can't look up GameFAQs. So, please excuse me if my numbers aren't spot-on. I just remember getting pwnt by these enemies and I'm trying to approximate.

1 Raven, 2 Cockatrices - Near Mysidia, After Leviathan's Storm

On second thought, this isn't much different than in years past. This is particularly tough in any of the Final Fantasy IV games because Cecil's alone, and one cast of Petrify means lights out. While Petrify isn't a one-hit kill, I found that I was unable to defeat all three enemies before the Petrify took full effect. It seemed to be even more difficult this time around to avoid this fate, so in the end, I had to just jam on the RUN button. Cecil grinders, save after EVERY battle.

2 Fire Dogs - Tower of Babil, After Calcobrena and before Edge

Unless you've been really grinding your tail off, whenever you encounter Fire Dogs, you're likely to have issues. In the Tower of Zot, just one Fire Dog is enough to incapacitate you if you're not careful. The real test comes, though, when you're wandering about the Tower of Babil. Here's the problem: A Fire Dog's inferno attack hits your entire party for 800 damage or more. At around that time, my stronger guys were between 1500 and 2000 hit points. Rosa was still struggling to get to 1300, and Rydia had just broken 1000 or so. Now, you get two Fire Dogs throwing that crap at you, and you've got an almost dead party after two Infernos. It does no good if there's someone still hanging on for dear life, as a Phoenix Down won't heal nearly enough for you to survive a third Inferno blast -- and boy, those Fire Dogs are fast. So what do you do? Well, hope that you either get a Preemptive Strike, or that Rydia's ATB bar is near full at the outset of the battle. That way you might be able to pull off a Stop attack on one mutt, buying you time to heal and cast Slow on the other one. Then either Cecil or Rosa can cast Shell. I'll say this: I was booted back to the title screen probably five times while exploring the first floor. Not fun.

6 Luna Virus - Moon

These guys aren't tough as much as they are annoying, and this wouldn't be on the list were I a more patient person. But, at some point I always make the mistake of casting a spell on these suckers. You know what they do when you hit 'em with magic? They cast reraise. Every. Single. One. So, if you hit all six Luna Virii with a spell that doesn't kill 'em, you have to sit there and wait for them to each cast Reraise on themselves. Kill three of them, and they'll just get resurrected. Moral of the story: Be patient and hit them with a sword. No, they shouldn't be on this difficulty-themed list. But I hate 'em. So up they go.

3 Dark Sages - Lunar Caverns / Lunar Subterranae

The first time I encountered three Dark Sages, my guys ranged from between 2000 and 3500 hit points. One Dark Sage will cast a third-level elemental spell (Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga) on either one of your party (2500+ damage) or your entire party (900 - 1100 damage per member). Three Dark Sages = massive FAIL if they decide to all cast spells, and at least two of them involve hitting Rosa. I'd encountered many situations where the first two Dark Sages would take out Rydia and Edge (Rydia with the least HP, Edge with the lowest defense), and the third one would nail Rosa (just under 2500HP) as she was casting a Raise spell. Then comes the ridiculous pattern of Cecil casting Raise on someone, only to have that person's meager resurrection HP get knocked out by another third-level spell. Your odds are obviously much better if both Rosa and Cecil are alive. The same thing with the fire dogs apply here: Nail one with Stop, then Slow the rest and Stop them one by one. Thankfully, Shell is more effective by this point in the game, so even if Cecil is the first in line to attack, casting Shell helps more than it would have back with the Fire Dogs.

1 Red Giant - Lunar Caverns / Lunar Subterranae

Yeah. One Red Giant. Emission (which is what it was called in FFII-SNES), another all-party fire-based attack, causes a lot more damage per hit (try 1100+ each target). He also counter-attacks against almost everything (or it seemed like it) for heavy physical damage. His Beam attack also causes four-digit damage. You also CANNOT cast Stop on him. So even if you manage to throw a Slow his way, he'll still walk through the mud to get you. The only solution here until you grind up is to heal excessively. It doesn't matter that you just cast Curaga on someone who has 80% of his HP; you never know if he might have been hit with a Beam attack before, so it's worth the MP hit.

2 Blue Dragons - Lunar Caverns / Lunar Subterranae

Take everything about the Fire Dogs and translate them to ice. A Blue Dragon's Ice Storm can hit you for up to 1500+ per party member. One Blue Dragon on its own isn't bad. If you can get EITHER a Slow or Stop on it, you'll have the upper hand already. But two Blue Dragons? Nuh-uh. Blue Dragons are incredibly fast, and almost always lead off battles. Even if I'd get a Preemptive Strike, I'd find myself clicking the A button on Stop just as the first Ice Storm came my way. There was then a 50-50 chance that the second Ice Storm would hit before Rydia could cast the Stop spell. Good stuff, yeah? Oh, before I forget: A Blue Dragon's physical attack renders the target mute. Good luck one decides to hit Rydia after you select Stop, and the other decides to hit Rosa or Cecil after you select Esuna to help Rydia.

Caignazzo - Castle Baron

Hey look! Caignazzo isn't a pushover anymore! Remember in FFII-SNES, where casting Lit-3 a few times put him under in like, 3 or 4 rounds? Remember in FFIV-PSone/GBA where casting Thundaga was almost as effective, though not as quick? Well, this time around Caignazzo has a nasty habit of counterattacking with either Slow, Tsunami, or a physical attack much more often than before. Tellah, Palom and Porom are pretty much fish food if he pulls off the Tsunami, and Yang's usually not far behind on account of his gimped defense rating. Yeah, hitting him with a lightning spell when he raises his water barrier puts it down, but you have to cast it extra fast because Caignazzo is absurdly speedy in this game.

Lunasaur - Lunar Subterranae, guarding the two Ribbons

Ok, so the fight in which I beat it was really easy. Here's the thing: The first fight against it went really, really badly for me. He will hit you with either slow, confuse, blind, or maybe all of the above. It did precisely that during my first battle, and I can't remember if it hit me with Silence too, but I sort of feel like it did. So my attacking people were confused, my healing people slow, and my confused attacking people hit my healing people, then hit each other, and then the last man standing was Cecil, whose wimpy Raise was rendered moot whenever the Lunasaur would hit whoever was just resurrected, and then he'd hit Cecil with confuse, and then Cecil would kill himself... stream of thought means I'm pissed. Lunasaur memories anger me.

Can't think of any others at the moment. Must get back to work. Must forget Lunasaur.