I played this game a LOT for having never owned it. Kept borrowing it from a friend.
It’s a fun game, with a story that is suitably Final Fantasyish all the way.
For the first 16 bit game in the series, Nobuo Uematsu went absolutely nuts with the score. So me of his best. I’m particularly fond of the airship and Big Whale themes.
Graphically, it’s what you’d expect from an early SNES rpg. They are not bad, far from it…just outstripped by the end of the SNES’ lifespan.
But they are bright, colorful and clean.
I just recently started a new playthrough (which is what prompted me to write this) and I was harmed all over again by this game. FF6 may be my favorite game in the series, but 4 holds a special place in my heart.
If you’ve never played it, by not give it a try? Or one of the other multitude of releases of it? Just not the GBA version. It’s not bad…but they altered the story so much to fit in the extra stuff they added that they ruined the impact of some key moments in the story. But the PS1 version in the Anthology is fine, the DS remake of 4 is actually pretty amazing, but kind of harder because you are cut down to 3 characters at a time from 5.
But the SNES outing is perfect just as is.
Enjoy gaming, my friends
It’s a fun game, with a story that is suitably Final Fantasyish all the way.
For the first 16 bit game in the series, Nobuo Uematsu went absolutely nuts with the score. So me of his best. I’m particularly fond of the airship and Big Whale themes.
Graphically, it’s what you’d expect from an early SNES rpg. They are not bad, far from it…just outstripped by the end of the SNES’ lifespan.
But they are bright, colorful and clean.
I just recently started a new playthrough (which is what prompted me to write this) and I was harmed all over again by this game. FF6 may be my favorite game in the series, but 4 holds a special place in my heart.
If you’ve never played it, by not give it a try? Or one of the other multitude of releases of it? Just not the GBA version. It’s not bad…but they altered the story so much to fit in the extra stuff they added that they ruined the impact of some key moments in the story. But the PS1 version in the Anthology is fine, the DS remake of 4 is actually pretty amazing, but kind of harder because you are cut down to 3 characters at a time from 5.
But the SNES outing is perfect just as is.
Enjoy gaming, my friends
This game is very desbalanced and the history is mid
shit
I never saw the appeal to this game. Ugly graphics, bad music, basic save the world story and pretty uninteresting characters.
Decided that my next marathon is going to be Final Fantasy, a series I actually have no experience in. Unfortunately, I'm not going to do all of them, as Final Fantasy games are pretty long and I just kind of want to hit the roughly half I am interested in playing. So, I started with IV (II in the West) as I heard it was a nice starting point and wanted to avoid the grindier older ones.
Anyway, it's a pretty good start. Cecil goes on a nice arc, combat's fun once you manage the grind a bit.
Anyway, it's a pretty good start. Cecil goes on a nice arc, combat's fun once you manage the grind a bit.
you can steamroll the entire game if you hard farm for the first 2 hours of the game (using emulator speedup), also the bosses don't have protection against instant death spells, moral of the story, why all the trap rooms?
This was my first Final Fantasy game I'd ever played and I still love it to this day. Great music, great art, battle system is what you'd expect from a Final Fantasy game. It's a great time. I love this entry the most!
1/4 SMTDR
NES(is this FF_USA in japan?)
just straight up not fun
I've just realized, I don't even like having fun. Like not really, fun is sorta overrated when you get down and dirty and you really stop thinking about it. Who even honestly likes having fun certainly not I, certainly not the people who have designed this game.
I see what their mentality was here, they thought giving you encounters with enemies that could inflict lethal status ailments with no way to resist it on top of esuna being able to miss a good way to piss you off. You know what, they were dead on and honestly that is the BEST thing about this game.
Normally when I play a game. I intend to have fun. And in a way that is kinda boring right? Like you EXPECT games to be fun. And I REALLY see what they were doing here, you know what they said? Lets put an encounter with SIX enemies that are able to confuse you and kill your whole party and you are gonna LIKE IT!
You really have to respect that, because they had the fucking balls to go against the wave. They said FUCK all of that fun bullshit. And the geniuses behind this masterpiece game design, I say thank you.
I see what their mentality was here, they thought giving you encounters with enemies that could inflict lethal status ailments with no way to resist it on top of esuna being able to miss a good way to piss you off. You know what, they were dead on and honestly that is the BEST thing about this game.
Normally when I play a game. I intend to have fun. And in a way that is kinda boring right? Like you EXPECT games to be fun. And I REALLY see what they were doing here, you know what they said? Lets put an encounter with SIX enemies that are able to confuse you and kill your whole party and you are gonna LIKE IT!
You really have to respect that, because they had the fucking balls to go against the wave. They said FUCK all of that fun bullshit. And the geniuses behind this masterpiece game design, I say thank you.
Spoony bard
I hate videogames.
Final Fantasy 4 (FF2 on SNES, people here seem to not know this lol) is when the series really started to shape into what it is today. FF4 really stepped forward with developed characters and world. Now characters were predetermined in their own class based on who they are. The story was a bigger focus and with more dialogue. The gameplay being closer to FF1 refined and without class upgrading. Characters would come in and go in your party changing your battle options. For an early SNES title FF4 is a great RPG that really set the standard for the all time greats to come. It still holds up reasonably well today too.
Still a pretty fun FF game, but the DS version is much better.
My favorite game in the series, Active Time Battle was a game changer. Story is fantastic. This game got me hooked on Final Fantasy. A must play.
Playthrough got cut short due to a bug where Yang was still in a party after he supposedly died - meaning when I encounter the next new party member, the game freezes. Gameplay is pretty basic but with little customization, the story decides who's in your party rather than you. FF6 is better, but the story is worth reading up on. The dialogue in-game is pretty basic.
I've already experienced Final Fantasy 4 through the Pixel Remaster edition, but I wanted to go back to the SNES original for the sake of the aesthetic, seeing as the remasters all look pretty identical to each other, and just to see how does the original stack up. Expect the review to be described from this kind of perspective.
Obviously, it's the first version of the game, so you're not gonna get any of the remaster's conveniences. Battles are slower, overall menu navigation is slower, there's no run button... one of the more surprising things missing is the ATB bar. Like, the ATB system is in this game, there's just no visual indicators for when will your character be able to have their turn.
The localization is butchered to hell and back, but from my viewpoint, it's a bonus that makes the game's story more entertaining. And you're gonna want that, because the story by itself has pretty barebones characterization, and a comedically frequent amount of death scenes to increase the drama. I'll take all the narm I can get.
So far I've been a bit on the negative side though, is this still a good version of the game to play? Yeah, sure, as long as you're the patient sort. A fast forward button helps too, but patience is more important here. It is an RPG after all. The difficulty is perfectly managable, and considerably better balanced than any of the NES Final Fantasies. I think the only part I didn't like was the final dungeon, which smothered you with enemies that took forever to kill, and made for an incredibly long and exhausting dungeon. You might wanna consider splitting it into two sessions instead of trying to knock out all of it at once. I remember this dungeon being a bit tough in the remaster, but not to this extent.
I think your enjoyment of this version also verges on just how much you care about getting the "true" version, which, well, this one's not even it, because they nerfed Final Fantasy 4's difficulty when they brought it to the west and renamed it to Final Fantasy 2. So, you'd likely have to dabble in some rom hackery to get the real original version of Final Fantasy 4, but I don't have it in me to play a harder RPG than this right now, I'm a coward and like these things to be on the lax side.
Otherwise, if you just want the most QoL-like version of FF4, the Pixel Remaster will do you fine. It's faster, and surprisingly faithful now that I can compare the two. Though, I haven't played any of the other versions of FF4, so it's possible there might be even better versions of the game. Feel free to recommend them in the replies if you have any. Either way, I'll be getting to all of them in the future.
Obviously, it's the first version of the game, so you're not gonna get any of the remaster's conveniences. Battles are slower, overall menu navigation is slower, there's no run button... one of the more surprising things missing is the ATB bar. Like, the ATB system is in this game, there's just no visual indicators for when will your character be able to have their turn.
The localization is butchered to hell and back, but from my viewpoint, it's a bonus that makes the game's story more entertaining. And you're gonna want that, because the story by itself has pretty barebones characterization, and a comedically frequent amount of death scenes to increase the drama. I'll take all the narm I can get.
So far I've been a bit on the negative side though, is this still a good version of the game to play? Yeah, sure, as long as you're the patient sort. A fast forward button helps too, but patience is more important here. It is an RPG after all. The difficulty is perfectly managable, and considerably better balanced than any of the NES Final Fantasies. I think the only part I didn't like was the final dungeon, which smothered you with enemies that took forever to kill, and made for an incredibly long and exhausting dungeon. You might wanna consider splitting it into two sessions instead of trying to knock out all of it at once. I remember this dungeon being a bit tough in the remaster, but not to this extent.
I think your enjoyment of this version also verges on just how much you care about getting the "true" version, which, well, this one's not even it, because they nerfed Final Fantasy 4's difficulty when they brought it to the west and renamed it to Final Fantasy 2. So, you'd likely have to dabble in some rom hackery to get the real original version of Final Fantasy 4, but I don't have it in me to play a harder RPG than this right now, I'm a coward and like these things to be on the lax side.
Otherwise, if you just want the most QoL-like version of FF4, the Pixel Remaster will do you fine. It's faster, and surprisingly faithful now that I can compare the two. Though, I haven't played any of the other versions of FF4, so it's possible there might be even better versions of the game. Feel free to recommend them in the replies if you have any. Either way, I'll be getting to all of them in the future.
It must have been crazy for people in the western world to see Final Fantasy go directly from FF1 to this. Much more emphasis is given to the story over the typical JRPG progression of: starting as a regular guy in a town at level 1, going out and fighting animals, getting lost in the overworld and starting to curse the existence of random battles. This one is far more linear, which sounds like it might go against the idea of a big adventure, but really it just cuts out a ton of bullshit and gives the game more focus. Despite JRPGs being one of the only genres of the time to have big maps to explore, I think those of this era work best with a certain amount of linearity - see Super Mario RPG, Earthbound, probably a bunch more examples when I get round to playing them.
Speaking of Earthbound, my favourite thing about the combat in that game (although it takes ages to get there) is the rolling HP. It's still turn-based, but having your HP gradually decrease after being attacked adds much needed urgency to your heals and finishing off battles as quickly as possible to presumably staunch the bleeding these children are experiencing. Well, thanks to the patented Active Time Battle system, every fight in this game has urgency. Everyone has their own speed stat that determines when they're gonna attack next. Those goblins aren't gonna wait for you to decide to slash them. They're on a schedule. They've got an appointment for gobbling at 2pm and need this fight to be over as soon as possible. Don't think too hard about that last sentence.
A cool intersection of gameplay and story is the sheer number of times your party changes. People move in and out of your party at the whim of the game's story, which I really like because other games would be like "nooooo!!! you can't just add a character 10 levels above everyone else to the party!!!" but FF4 is like, don't worry bro, it'll work out. And it does. I appreciate the willingness to give you fairly overpowered characters when it makes sense to, and then just balance the enemies accordingly. Another advantage to having a revolving door party is that your playstyle and strategies change up every hour or so. You might lose a tank melee character and gain two sorcerers. Better put the remaining tank up front, and use the sorcerers in the back to heal everyone and start focusing more on the elemental weaknesses of enemies. Not to mention all these characters have things to say and things to do in the story, which is normal now but pretty cool for 1991 on a 16-bit console. I wouldn't say the story is particularly high art or technically proficient, but it had Themes, a pinch of meaning, and at least a few characters I did end up caring about. At a bare minimum, it made me want to keep playing to see what it was gonna pull next. That's a low bar, but I've played Breath of Fire so believe me when I say these games can miss that bar.
Now to talk some mad shit about the game since I've been very positive so far. I don't think I'll ever like random battles. Very controversial opinion I know. I just don't vibe with each footstep feeling like playing Russian roulette with the bullet being about a minute of enemies that are the equivalent of Desert Bus - easy enough to coast through but you can't stop paying attention juuuust in case you total the whole thing. Even if you get rewarded for winning, sometimes I just wanna explore and look for chests please. It's a system that I haven't found a satisfying iteration of yet.
Also, the translation in the original NTSC release is a bit sketchy. I usually felt like I at least got the gist of what they wanted to convey, but what hurts it most is the severe text box limitations from differences in how much you can convey in Japanese vs. English within a certain number of characters. It does lead to some lines being slightly baffling. That's what I get for forgetting to do two minutes of research before playing a 20 hour JRPG. A quick look at available translations seems to conclude that the 3D remake has a considerably better script, as well as there being numerous fan translations, so look into it!
I'm not entirely sure why I chose this as the start of my old JRPG expedition over FF6, which was originally the plan, but I'm glad I did. I think this game has less baggage in terms of being an all-timer you have to experience, and to be honest I just wanted something chill to play before TotK comes out. Having looked into how pioneering this game was, I think it was the start of most things I value in this genre. It might be half a star higher with a better translation, but I really enjoyed my time here; it's truly a big hunk of lovely JRPG beef. The story comes at you fast, it's surprisingly investing, and there's plenty of meat and potatoes JohnRingoPaulGeorge mechanics to sink your teeth into. What I'm trying to say is that you should eat The Beatles. And play this game.
Speaking of Earthbound, my favourite thing about the combat in that game (although it takes ages to get there) is the rolling HP. It's still turn-based, but having your HP gradually decrease after being attacked adds much needed urgency to your heals and finishing off battles as quickly as possible to presumably staunch the bleeding these children are experiencing. Well, thanks to the patented Active Time Battle system, every fight in this game has urgency. Everyone has their own speed stat that determines when they're gonna attack next. Those goblins aren't gonna wait for you to decide to slash them. They're on a schedule. They've got an appointment for gobbling at 2pm and need this fight to be over as soon as possible. Don't think too hard about that last sentence.
A cool intersection of gameplay and story is the sheer number of times your party changes. People move in and out of your party at the whim of the game's story, which I really like because other games would be like "nooooo!!! you can't just add a character 10 levels above everyone else to the party!!!" but FF4 is like, don't worry bro, it'll work out. And it does. I appreciate the willingness to give you fairly overpowered characters when it makes sense to, and then just balance the enemies accordingly. Another advantage to having a revolving door party is that your playstyle and strategies change up every hour or so. You might lose a tank melee character and gain two sorcerers. Better put the remaining tank up front, and use the sorcerers in the back to heal everyone and start focusing more on the elemental weaknesses of enemies. Not to mention all these characters have things to say and things to do in the story, which is normal now but pretty cool for 1991 on a 16-bit console. I wouldn't say the story is particularly high art or technically proficient, but it had Themes, a pinch of meaning, and at least a few characters I did end up caring about. At a bare minimum, it made me want to keep playing to see what it was gonna pull next. That's a low bar, but I've played Breath of Fire so believe me when I say these games can miss that bar.
Now to talk some mad shit about the game since I've been very positive so far. I don't think I'll ever like random battles. Very controversial opinion I know. I just don't vibe with each footstep feeling like playing Russian roulette with the bullet being about a minute of enemies that are the equivalent of Desert Bus - easy enough to coast through but you can't stop paying attention juuuust in case you total the whole thing. Even if you get rewarded for winning, sometimes I just wanna explore and look for chests please. It's a system that I haven't found a satisfying iteration of yet.
Also, the translation in the original NTSC release is a bit sketchy. I usually felt like I at least got the gist of what they wanted to convey, but what hurts it most is the severe text box limitations from differences in how much you can convey in Japanese vs. English within a certain number of characters. It does lead to some lines being slightly baffling. That's what I get for forgetting to do two minutes of research before playing a 20 hour JRPG. A quick look at available translations seems to conclude that the 3D remake has a considerably better script, as well as there being numerous fan translations, so look into it!
I'm not entirely sure why I chose this as the start of my old JRPG expedition over FF6, which was originally the plan, but I'm glad I did. I think this game has less baggage in terms of being an all-timer you have to experience, and to be honest I just wanted something chill to play before TotK comes out. Having looked into how pioneering this game was, I think it was the start of most things I value in this genre. It might be half a star higher with a better translation, but I really enjoyed my time here; it's truly a big hunk of lovely JRPG beef. The story comes at you fast, it's surprisingly investing, and there's plenty of meat and potatoes JohnRingoPaulGeorge mechanics to sink your teeth into. What I'm trying to say is that you should eat The Beatles. And play this game.
My first Final Fantasy, and my favorite. I haven't played it recently enough to know how well it's aging, but Final Fantasy 2/4 is still a must play for jrpg fans. I love the ATB combat, I find it significantly superior to most fully turn based battle systems.
This review contains spoilers
Final Fantasy II or Final Fantasy IV everywhere else is a really good game. The only flaws with the game were the porting job, where it hurts some of the character moments like when Tellah died, most of the characters didn't really show emotion about it, which I'm assuming is only in this port, another thing I didn't really enjoy about the game was that there's a lot of random encounters, which I personally do not like, and the final problem I had with the game is that you cannot save anywhere you want, which makes fighting some bosses a pain, like zeromus for example. This game has many more good aspects than bad flaws, for example, most of the time characters actually feel like characters and the story is really good, some of the twists in it like Yang and Cid not actually dying or Golbez, who is the major villain for most of the game being Cecil's brother was insane. The Final Boss was incredible to fight, its theme is a jam and the sprite work was fantastic! I love how there are vehicles in this game, which show off the SNES, and going to the moon was INSANE!
once again. i played this from start to finish.
if you put a gun to my head and asked me to summarize the plot of Final Fantasy II (IV), just fucking pull the trigger, man. I don't remember shit, and i literally beat this just last week.
shit man, how the FUCK is final fantasy such a massive worldwide franchise??
that final boss theme was kick ass though.
if you put a gun to my head and asked me to summarize the plot of Final Fantasy II (IV), just fucking pull the trigger, man. I don't remember shit, and i literally beat this just last week.
shit man, how the FUCK is final fantasy such a massive worldwide franchise??
that final boss theme was kick ass though.
Oh dang, that awesome intro, am I right?
In my youth, I had a massive crush on JRPG's. Well, anything made by Squaresoft, really. The Final Fantasy series held my interest all the way until FFIX or FFX even though I never really understood the plot of a single one of them. I love turn-based battles, fantasy/sci-fi elements, and sweet, overpowering orchestral soundtracks, so I was hooked even if I didn't know what was going on. FFII (or IV in Japan, of course), has all my favorite elements, but playing it so many years later makes the game seem pretty slow-moving, but the battles are still fun and the game is generally still pretty great. Plus the fancy SNES graphics as you fly the airship around and the transitions between scenes and battles were a bump up from the hugely important NES debut. Overall, excellent.
And the final battle was great!
Review from thedonproject.com
In my youth, I had a massive crush on JRPG's. Well, anything made by Squaresoft, really. The Final Fantasy series held my interest all the way until FFIX or FFX even though I never really understood the plot of a single one of them. I love turn-based battles, fantasy/sci-fi elements, and sweet, overpowering orchestral soundtracks, so I was hooked even if I didn't know what was going on. FFII (or IV in Japan, of course), has all my favorite elements, but playing it so many years later makes the game seem pretty slow-moving, but the battles are still fun and the game is generally still pretty great. Plus the fancy SNES graphics as you fly the airship around and the transitions between scenes and battles were a bump up from the hugely important NES debut. Overall, excellent.
And the final battle was great!
Review from thedonproject.com
Emulated
FFIV for Super Famicom is an AMAZING game. The translation in the original US version is terrible and is why this game gets 2 stars.
garbage
el tiempo me hice apreciar mas este juego....incluso con plot twist pitero
once and never again
I played this game because Professional Video Game Expert Tim Rogers will review it for his Action Button Reviews Series. I'm treating his reviews like a little book club: if he announces he will do a review and I'm interested in the game, I want to play it to form my own opinion.
The hook of this game is incredible. Cecil decides that he no longer wants to participate in the evildoings of his country. With one final task from the king, Cecil unwittingly becomes a terrorist, and must atone for his sins and fight his former country.
If anyone would have told me this was the plot of the game instead of the generally accepted idea that "This is a generic fantasy setting and game" I would have played it years ago! If you would have told me that the main character regularly has sex and it's handled in a mature and not creepy way I would have downloaded the ROM immediately.
This game is also easy, but in a good way. I nearly 100%ed the game in 24 hours without a guide. I do not say this to brag. I say this to show that this game is designed so incredibly well that a doofus like me can beat it, and beat nearly everything! There are some esoteric things in the last few rooms of the last dungeon that I did not do and did not know existed, but, on my own and because of the good writing and game design, I was able to obtain everything in this game, including all the optional bosses and summons.
Very early in the game the party obtains a hovercraft. From that point on, there is almost no overworld traversal that requires walking or random encounters. More games should do this! It made exploration breezy and fun.
This game is not 5 stars to me because it's my rating and that's how I feel! I also thought that the game was going to end, it felt like a climax, and then there was like 3-4 more hours of game and everything that happened in what I thought was the climax happened again? So not my favorite pacing in the last few hours.
Don't let anyone dissuade you from playing this version because they say the localization is bad. It's good and fun and charming.
The hook of this game is incredible. Cecil decides that he no longer wants to participate in the evildoings of his country. With one final task from the king, Cecil unwittingly becomes a terrorist, and must atone for his sins and fight his former country.
If anyone would have told me this was the plot of the game instead of the generally accepted idea that "This is a generic fantasy setting and game" I would have played it years ago! If you would have told me that the main character regularly has sex and it's handled in a mature and not creepy way I would have downloaded the ROM immediately.
This game is also easy, but in a good way. I nearly 100%ed the game in 24 hours without a guide. I do not say this to brag. I say this to show that this game is designed so incredibly well that a doofus like me can beat it, and beat nearly everything! There are some esoteric things in the last few rooms of the last dungeon that I did not do and did not know existed, but, on my own and because of the good writing and game design, I was able to obtain everything in this game, including all the optional bosses and summons.
Very early in the game the party obtains a hovercraft. From that point on, there is almost no overworld traversal that requires walking or random encounters. More games should do this! It made exploration breezy and fun.
This game is not 5 stars to me because it's my rating and that's how I feel! I also thought that the game was going to end, it felt like a climax, and then there was like 3-4 more hours of game and everything that happened in what I thought was the climax happened again? So not my favorite pacing in the last few hours.
Don't let anyone dissuade you from playing this version because they say the localization is bad. It's good and fun and charming.
Joguei muito na infância, namoral...