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Review: Final Fantasy IV
While aesthetically there’s very little to distinguish this update from the previous one, this is a game far evolved from its predecessor in terms of mechanics and, in particular, narrative. Themes of power, dominion, revenge and loyalty thread together to create one of the series’ darkest tales, albeit one presented a little like a school play thanks to over-acted lines and animations.
Rather than the ‘Easy Type’ version of the game westerners played 17 years ago, here we’re given the full-flavour Japanese experience, a far less forgiving beast. The tough difficulty defines every encounter, from the game’s embellished bosses down to its most insignificant grunts, and as such a sharp focus is placed on item management. Now, every excursion from a town’s safety must be carefully planned and prepared for. Rather than alienating players, however, this challenge enlivens the experience, largely thanks to the developed fight system and levelling tree.
Every dungeon is mapped on the bottom screen, lines drawn on a blank canvas as you explore. Fully mapping each area earns free items, and characters who depart the party permanently leave a unique skill that can be taught to another character, while Rhydia’s summon monster, Whytkin, must be actively trained up via minigames to increase its stats.
As such the attention that’s gone into the update extends much further than a mere 3D overhaul and this update feels like a labour of love, even if its conception was merely for profit. Of course, the game’s aged fundamentals remain in place and this certainly isn’t a title to convince genre detractors otherwise, even if it does confirm that much of the JRPG’s future still lies in its past.
Verdict: 7/10
If you liked this game when it was FF 2 on the SNES, you owe it to yourself to get this version. Its better in pretty much every way. Its harder, got a better translation, and has a lot of nice touches.
Far as the augments go (to get abilities from past party members), some of them are better then others. The trick is that giving augments to some party members causes you to get more augments later, when that person leaves. Like if you give the Bard's augment to another party member who then leaves permanently, that person will drop two augments instead of one. You can use this to trade in the poor ones for some of the best ones.
This game is well worth your money if you're a DS gamer. I was more of an action oriented youth when it came to my games, so it is a really great time for me to play these titles (now that I'm older and ready to accept a little story sprinkled into my gameplay experience). RPGs and handhelds are like peanut butter and jelly, as far as I'm concerned. I also agree with the 8/10 ZeoStar has given the game.
Final Fantasy 4 is definately one of the better ones. I prefer 6 more.
The idea of being able to share the unique skills of characters that permanately leave the party is noce, although why would I want to keep the bard's skills is beyond me. He was the most useless character in the game. I cannot begin to describe the frustration he caused that the huge sigh of releif when he was finally dropped from the party.
The game was quite good over all and judging by the screen shots, the graphics may not have been a great improvement from the 2D game.
I might actually enjoy the game on the DS if I ever get one.
Seventeen years ago I was 12. I had just gotten my first SNES (mom brought it home as a gift for getting stellar grades) and was learning Mario World and getting used to A Link to the Past's graphics (had trouble differentiating between where I could jump down and what I couldn't climb up). I didn't know what an RPG was until 4 years later when Chrono Trigger was released. As such, I never bothered to go back and play FF4 on emulator and decided to try the DS remake of FF4 having never played before.
The storyline in this game is so good thus far (I'm at the part where I'm to retrieve the earth crystal). The bard's voice acting is a little over done, but I thought the rest weren't bad at all compared to some other games... I died on the boss just before this part 3 times before finally getting past him and being unable to buy ether is quite challenging, but I like it.
I would say the game deserves a 8/10 just for the amount of extra work they put into this instead of making it play exactly like the US version (of which I watched a speed run for up to my part).