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?
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.
I never saw the appeal to this game. Ugly graphics, bad music, basic save the world story and pretty uninteresting characters.
shit
This game is very desbalanced and the history is mid
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
I was very excited for this game when I first read about it in Nintendo Power, but never actually ended up owning it. I got a SNES not long after this came out, but it never got on my wishlists (Final Fantasy Mystic Quest did... maybe I'll replay that one soon...).
Because I rented this instead of owned it, for many years, I only ever made it to the dolls, which feels like it should be halfway through, but is instead only about a third. Eventually, I borrowed it from a friend and completed it, some time after Final Fantasy III came out, and after playing (and replaying) FF III, this one was a bit rough...
At the time, as we didn't get FF II or III, this did feel like a second entry in the series. It referred back to the first entry plenty, but within a completely, unrelated story. We got the four fiends, we got the music and scrolling text post-prologue, we got the rat tail, we got the vehicles, we got the crystals, it was all there.
But this time, there was also MORE! A LOT more! And while much of that "more" is clumsy, at least they tried to really push the SNES to its limits (its 1991 limits, at least).
There are a ton of playable characters, but they come and go, and sometimes never come back. Plot points are raced through in order to get to the next section or story beat, and then sometimes they just draaaaaag (the robot walking just takes for fucking ever).
But it's beautiful and the music is great, and there's no way to actually describe what it was like to see everything we loved from the first entry, but in 16 bits. It was revelatory.
I will say, while the DS complete remake of this entry is much better in just about every way, I prefer this version for one reason: The Tower of Zot/Babel. For whatever stupid reason, Square started to undo the sci-fi elements they put into their entries. The Tower of Zot was like the flying castle in the first game: a sudden surprise. Here we are in this fantasy world, and suddenly there's future tech (see also: Might and Magic III)? That was a shock, and Square just made the tower into a brown, dusty tower. Boring as shit.
Because I rented this instead of owned it, for many years, I only ever made it to the dolls, which feels like it should be halfway through, but is instead only about a third. Eventually, I borrowed it from a friend and completed it, some time after Final Fantasy III came out, and after playing (and replaying) FF III, this one was a bit rough...
At the time, as we didn't get FF II or III, this did feel like a second entry in the series. It referred back to the first entry plenty, but within a completely, unrelated story. We got the four fiends, we got the music and scrolling text post-prologue, we got the rat tail, we got the vehicles, we got the crystals, it was all there.
But this time, there was also MORE! A LOT more! And while much of that "more" is clumsy, at least they tried to really push the SNES to its limits (its 1991 limits, at least).
There are a ton of playable characters, but they come and go, and sometimes never come back. Plot points are raced through in order to get to the next section or story beat, and then sometimes they just draaaaaag (the robot walking just takes for fucking ever).
But it's beautiful and the music is great, and there's no way to actually describe what it was like to see everything we loved from the first entry, but in 16 bits. It was revelatory.
I will say, while the DS complete remake of this entry is much better in just about every way, I prefer this version for one reason: The Tower of Zot/Babel. For whatever stupid reason, Square started to undo the sci-fi elements they put into their entries. The Tower of Zot was like the flying castle in the first game: a sudden surprise. Here we are in this fantasy world, and suddenly there's future tech (see also: Might and Magic III)? That was a shock, and Square just made the tower into a brown, dusty tower. Boring as shit.
-> Una obra magna que se convierte en el primer juego en contarte su historia dentro del propio juego, sin necesidad de manuales.
-> Firion, con pocas interacciones, experimenta un gran desarrollo y se convierte en uno de los mejores protagonistas de la franquicia.
-> Cuenta con una de las mejores bandas sonoras.
-> 'El Alma Renacer' es obligatorio de jugar y representa el culmen de su grandeza.
-> Matheus, un villano muy carismático para su época, se demostró aún más en los spin-offs futuros.
-> Firion, con pocas interacciones, experimenta un gran desarrollo y se convierte en uno de los mejores protagonistas de la franquicia.
-> Cuenta con una de las mejores bandas sonoras.
-> 'El Alma Renacer' es obligatorio de jugar y representa el culmen de su grandeza.
-> Matheus, un villano muy carismático para su época, se demostró aún más en los spin-offs futuros.
It was fun for what it was but a definite step up from the first one.
i hate how grindy it is. maybe back in the day would be a cool idea.
When the twins gave their life to save the rest of the party, i actually shed a tear. So much fun memories.
Played half. A revolutionary RPG, but not one that grabbed me. Cecil's transformation into a hero is excellently told through the language of video games, but I found the combat, graphics, and translation a bit dull.
Personagens marcantes, história intrigante que prende o jogador, com desdobramentos e plot twists muito maduros para a época! FFIV Introduziu mecânicas que estendem-se por toda franquia. Sem dúvida um dos melhores FF antigos.
I like to imagine the people of that time saying "What you mean Final Fantasy TWO?? Wasn't it FINAL?"
PS5- Pixel Remaster
Unfortunately way worse that the first one, the leveling system was awful, rushed through the game with a guide, the story line was better than the first though
Unfortunately way worse that the first one, the leveling system was awful, rushed through the game with a guide, the story line was better than the first though
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
How confusing, this is the original American release of Final Fantasy 4. Still just as good.
Got to the part where the baddies bomb that sad desert town. Good game. Will return to it when I'm not busy with other... junk?
Hit me mommy! It's the only way to level up
P.S: (I just realized that this is actually FF4 not 2 Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!)
P.S: (I just realized that this is actually FF4 not 2 Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!)
Pretty good.
It was my second RPG that I gave a chance to after Super Mario RPG, and when I played it I was really impressed, having a more "mature" narrative and such, but replaying it in the GBA version, I see that the story wasn't all that and this game likes I have to fight a boss until I can't do it anymore, you kill a filler boss and two filler bosses before facing a canon, but I still have a fondness for this game, because it keeps me interested in RPGs (although today I'm a little bored and without much time to be interested in continuing to play this genre)
The pixel remaster fixes a lot of the issues with this game but the biggest issue, the dungeon layouts, is still there. It's been elevated to the point of being basically alright and even fun for the first half, but as the dungeons get longer and the grind requirements get higher it's more and more tedious.
This was my second attempt, but I'm giving up for good - FF II (SNES) aged (very) poorly in my opinion.
From the translation, which made what should have been an emotional story into an "oki doki" one "then", to the amount of grinding required (goodness, I hate that aspect of old RPGs...) or the fact that you really need a guide to know where to go next, otherwise you'll either be lost or miss optional-but-pretty-much-necessary items/summons during your playthrough, this was clearly not for me.
I think I gave it a fair shot at over 20+ hours (and almost reaching the third/last part of the game), but I'm calling it quits before absolutely hating the game.
I'm guessing I should have played the Pixel Remaster and/or a patched / fan-translation instead?
From the translation, which made what should have been an emotional story into an "oki doki" one "then", to the amount of grinding required (goodness, I hate that aspect of old RPGs...) or the fact that you really need a guide to know where to go next, otherwise you'll either be lost or miss optional-but-pretty-much-necessary items/summons during your playthrough, this was clearly not for me.
I think I gave it a fair shot at over 20+ hours (and almost reaching the third/last part of the game), but I'm calling it quits before absolutely hating the game.
I'm guessing I should have played the Pixel Remaster and/or a patched / fan-translation instead?
An important and influential game in the series for sure, but not one I'm that interested in playing these days. The story doesn't do much for me at this point and the combat is a little too shallow since you generally do not have control over any character growth or party composition.
Pixel remaster
A huge step down from the first one, whether you play the original or the pixel remastered its just not fun.