Final Fantasy IV

Today I managed to beat the main game in Final Fantasy IV advance.  I'm glad I wasn't cooking anything while the ending scenes were playing, otherwise I would have missed them (or let the house burn down).  At times I felt like the narrative was pretty straightforward, that there wasn't much of a difference between the moon, overworld, and underworld in terms of actual exploration or gameplay, just that I had different ships to explore different places and could see different caves and cities, some of which had interchangeable personalities living there and only varied in terms of equipment for sale and inn prices.
 
The little chibi character designs were off-putting to me, especially when they would do their interminable dances or spin around and raise their fist in their (yet again), but I was touched by the story sacrifices made mid-game by many of the characters.  That said, the impact of their supposed deaths was robbed when they appeared unharmed later.  Really, game?  I think it would have been cool if you actually went through ordeals to bring people back, rather than have them pop up again like they'd just had a booboo (instead of, as in the case of Cid, getting BLOWN UP BY A BOMB! ! ).   I also felt it was touching when the party left behind prayed for you.  It was a nice sentiment to think such things are possible.  I just wish these moments could have been better sustained; this game could have had a stronger emotional impact if it made the sacrifices more real.
 
My final team had Yang, Cid, Rosa, and Rydia (who I renamed Lydia, guessing that it might have been one of those L/R translation things).    I also stumbled upon Ragnarok, and Cid had a nice hammer that devastated robotic enemies.
 
I tried, I really tried to have the spoony bard in my team, because I admired his character and willingness to mourn the loss of his lover longer than most characters in games, but in gameplay terms, the guy was a liability.  When heavily wounded, he runs away, meaning if you can't heal him in time you waste healing and time that could be spent fighting the enemy, no matter how useful it is for him to be out of the battle when a powerful area effect spell hits.  His potion-use ability is great, but hard to manage.  His singing and special effects with his lutes only affect lesser enemies, and despite his high level when he joins your party again, the guy has very few hit points.  It was disappointing to have to deal with that.
Many of the spells seemed useless.  Perhaps there were some lesser enemies that could have been adversely affected by some of them, but I leaned heavily on the three elemental spells,  protective spells, healing (of course), and tons of summons.  Combat, also, felt like chipping away at rocks at times.  I would set up a nice strategy and then just pound on the a button, often having conversations with other people while holding my GBA micro and slapping the a button while I killed things.  I noticed that the Behemoth doesn't attack if you use Yang's Power skill on it, so I wound up doing that when the behemoth showed up again, but it didn't make it any less boring.  It would have been nice if enemies had symbols on them for the effects currently affecting them, or something to make them seem less like pretty drawings.
 
It's an old game, so it's hard to pick on the interface, but I didn't appreciate having to cycle through spell and item lists in order to get what I wanted, while being pounded on.  At least a page skip would have been nice; if I remember correctly, later games let you cycle quicker through your inventory, making this less of a hassle.  I still spent a while reorganizing spells and items so the more useful stuff would be near the top.
 
What's really cool is this extra dungeon past the basic ending.  I think I'm enjoying this more than the latter half of the basic game.  Very surreal, with a lot of variation.  Anyone play Final Fantasy IV/II when it first came out?  Or have you had a chance to try it out recently?  I think the last time I played this game was about 20 years ago, which is as mind-blowing for me as it may be for you.
 
The game didn't have a lot of depth (either in plot or mechanics), so I can't say I enjoyed it as much as I would have liked, but it had some nice surprises and rewarded my curiosity, which is always a plus in games for me.