Final Fantasy IV is a classic. It's pretty flawed (ridiculous encounter rate, needing to use a spell to pull up the map, and crazy difficulty spike in the final dungeon in an otherwise easy game) but FF4 is also the true formula for the "golden age" of Final Fantasy.
The story is a bit more basic compared to 6-10 and the gameplay isn't as strong as 5's, but it's still a really good game. The characters are all pretty enjoyable, with some decent complexity to them. For being the first real ATB game, the combat is enjoyable. Music is stellar as per usual. This is just a damn good game. Easily in my top 5 for the series :)
I'm interested in checking out the DS version to see what it does for the story and then the Pixel Remaster to see if the QOL stuff changes how I feel about the replayability.
The story is a bit more basic compared to 6-10 and the gameplay isn't as strong as 5's, but it's still a really good game. The characters are all pretty enjoyable, with some decent complexity to them. For being the first real ATB game, the combat is enjoyable. Music is stellar as per usual. This is just a damn good game. Easily in my top 5 for the series :)
I'm interested in checking out the DS version to see what it does for the story and then the Pixel Remaster to see if the QOL stuff changes how I feel about the replayability.
This was my first Final Fantasy. For my entire childhood I'd told myself not to bother with Final Fantasy until I was an old man suffering from carpal tunnel or something, wrongly assuming the whole series had generic turn-based battles with plots that didn't justify the effort.
Yeah, uh, so I was wrong. Turns out, a lot of them have a pretty neat little core gameplay mechanic called active time battle. And if this one is any indication, their plots are perfectly enthralling enough. Though looking it up online gives a lot of results of people criticizing it, I thought the active time battle system was fun! In JRPGs, I'm used to, you know, taking my time and carefully considering my next move. With this system, it gives you time to plot your moves while you're not in control. Because once that menu pops up, you'd better execute your plan as fast as you can... and hope that you pressed right hard enough to cast Curaja on the entire party, because there's no time to make sure your inputs registered! The enemy could kill you in that time.
As for the story, supposedly the game was influential for storytelling in the medium. While with that perspective it does feel like the first of its kind in a bad way, it still held my attention, with a chaotic start that gripped me instantly. While reviews often seem to shrug the plot off as rather trite, I thought that not knowing if it was going to be a fake-out or not only added to the chaos.
The music is also fantastic and has been stuck in my head. That boss theme REALLY pumped me up; the overworld theme instantly became one of my favorite overworld themes. One of the towns most important to the story has a theme that, in my opinion, really captured the awkwardness of the situation, but perhaps that's just me. These are just to name a few, it's a stellar OST.
Lastly, the PSP version in particular looks beautiful, and has definitely spoiled me before I play Final Fantasy V and VI. The spiraling blur as you transition into battles, the way the enemies disintegrate when you beat them... just pretty to look at. This version also comes with an optional redone soundtrack which, from what I've heard, is also excellent, as well as two other scenarios I haven't played yet. Regardless of the... less than positive takes I've seen of them online, I'm excited to come back to play them once I'm a bit more caught up on the franchise.
Yeah, uh, so I was wrong. Turns out, a lot of them have a pretty neat little core gameplay mechanic called active time battle. And if this one is any indication, their plots are perfectly enthralling enough. Though looking it up online gives a lot of results of people criticizing it, I thought the active time battle system was fun! In JRPGs, I'm used to, you know, taking my time and carefully considering my next move. With this system, it gives you time to plot your moves while you're not in control. Because once that menu pops up, you'd better execute your plan as fast as you can... and hope that you pressed right hard enough to cast Curaja on the entire party, because there's no time to make sure your inputs registered! The enemy could kill you in that time.
As for the story, supposedly the game was influential for storytelling in the medium. While with that perspective it does feel like the first of its kind in a bad way, it still held my attention, with a chaotic start that gripped me instantly. While reviews often seem to shrug the plot off as rather trite, I thought that not knowing if it was going to be a fake-out or not only added to the chaos.
The music is also fantastic and has been stuck in my head. That boss theme REALLY pumped me up; the overworld theme instantly became one of my favorite overworld themes. One of the towns most important to the story has a theme that, in my opinion, really captured the awkwardness of the situation, but perhaps that's just me. These are just to name a few, it's a stellar OST.
Lastly, the PSP version in particular looks beautiful, and has definitely spoiled me before I play Final Fantasy V and VI. The spiraling blur as you transition into battles, the way the enemies disintegrate when you beat them... just pretty to look at. This version also comes with an optional redone soundtrack which, from what I've heard, is also excellent, as well as two other scenarios I haven't played yet. Regardless of the... less than positive takes I've seen of them online, I'm excited to come back to play them once I'm a bit more caught up on the franchise.
Final Fantasy IV in many ways set the blueprint for the best of the series, but even still holds up as a great game in its own right.
This review is only for base FF IV.
Not a bad RPG. The ATB system is a lot of fun for battles and the music is pretty good. The characters and story aren't that special, but it works. Game has some fucked up level curves and difficulty spikes but SNES rpgs be that way sometimes.
Not a bad RPG. The ATB system is a lot of fun for battles and the music is pretty good. The characters and story aren't that special, but it works. Game has some fucked up level curves and difficulty spikes but SNES rpgs be that way sometimes.
i simply pretend like the after years doesn't exist, i think i sleep better at night because of it
Really good stuff, just ignore The After Years.
Gay
Golbez's Theme is my alarm and it doesnt fail to wake me up every day.
Well I finally played the og classic for the first wave of final fantasy fans outside of japan lol. I really enjoyed it!!! Sure it's dated in places and thats to be expected this is a 1991 game after all(the year i was born!!!) But i enjoyed this cast of characters and the typical final fantasy type exploration was great with all the optional side areas and super bosses. Playing this game and I can see so how important it is to the franchise at large. So much of ff12, ff14 and ff16 came from this game in particular and I personally think it was handed better here. 16 using the main character but switching out party members constantly, and the overall mixture of high fantasy type world with a sneak of sci fi at the end. My fav characters were cecil, rydia and golbez but everyone was cool and the music was great as to be expected. Glad I played this although I know i got lucky and played the easier version. For those who want a real challenge play the ds version but be prepared for a real ruff time lol. I will continue my ff journey later this year but this was a really fun game.