This is almost like a shell of a Final Fantasy game to me in many ways. That's not meant to be quite as harsh as it sounds, but it really does feel like more of a tribute to the series rather than a foundational installment in it. In so many ways it perfectly understands the basic things that make the series great. Good soundtrack, a lot of strong cinematic moments, great use of said music to elevate certain scenes, forward-thinking game design. Plenty of elements that Final Fantasy is renowned for are here, yet the game overall lacks that spark that makes entries stand out.

A lot of it comes down to the story to be honest. If I had been playing the games in order, I would be worried that they were already running ideas by the time they made this game lol. That really sucks for a series that is constantly pushing in interesting directions! FF4 has a fairly basic and inoffensive plot but makes it much more insufferable with a LOT of dumb story decisions. There are like 6 different fakeout deaths in that series, each one getting more and more meaningless than the one before. What was even the point of having these happen if you reverse them minutes later? Are these supposed to be emotionally impactful? Why even reverse them when they aren't going to have any meaningful impact on the story or gameplay going forward? I try not to let this stuff sink games for me but it undermines basically every "serious" story moment in the game. Even past that these dumb rug pulls extend to many other plot elements. Just when you think something is resolved, it gets brought back as another macguffin to chase around. It feels like a thin veil of padding placed on a story without much of a strong central focus. While FF2 was also a basic story, at least it was competent? FF4 is all over the place and it annoyed me to no end. I can see how people respect a lot of the semi-novel things this game did with the focus on characters and cinematic moments that the previous games didn't have. But it's all kind of moot to me when the story being told is something I'd write in like elementary school.

Despite all of that...the gameplay is a lot of fun! I definitely had some frustrations at points but it does a really great job of making dungeons actually fun, the perfect mix of linear paths with branches that don't punish you too much for exploring. I really enjoyed how rewarding the loot in each dungeon was as well, I wish more FF games outright gave you good weapons/armor in exchange for fighting bosses in the final dungeon because that was really neat. Overall just feels way more balanced and carefully designed than any of the NES games.

I don't think the gameplay was enough to make up for the insanely bad story but I would still say the game is fine overall. It's just like a textbook example of an incompetent story. It's not like it's repulsive or offensive or anything to me it just kind of fails on every level and is slightly redeemed by fun gameplay.

Game equivalent of this essay

Played Final Fantasy IV Namingway Edition, to keep original feel as much as possible, since US "Final Fantasy II" release cut a lot of stuff out of the game
I'm... very torn how to judge this game. On one hand, it's a definite improvement from last three games. On another hand, it is bland, especially gameplay wise, until it isn't.
Let's start with the good stuff: story. Characters are more fleshed out than ever, I have actually started to remember them: Cecil, Kain, Rosa, Yang, Edward, Rydia, that brat ninja prince, who is attracted to summoner... ok, i definitely remember Golbez, a constant threat and obstacle to our heroes. He has the same feeling as Leon or Emperor from FF II, but more. FF IV is a story-driven game, with a lot of cutscenes not only for our main party, but also supporting characters. It comes with a linear structure for 10 or 15 hours, but you get a lot more variety in the second part. The story is full of tropes and clichés, some of them are so pointless it begins to be ridiculous.
Gameplay... I am 50/50 on it. ATB felt a little weird at the beginning, but I came to both love it and hate it. No more time to sit and think what to do with bosses, it is a dynamic battle and you must think quickly. Enemies spawn rate is really weird here: it's either 1–2 steps or half the map, it happens quite often to point out. The game starts easy and with almost zero variety or something interesting. Yeah, we have some interesting moments: Cecil transition, Four Fiends fights, Lugae. But for good 15 hours I felt like the game played itself and I was watching rather than playing. Minimum variety between characters, I can't choose what to do with them, almost always they are equipped with optimal gear without my influence. It changes rather suddenly once I have to go to the Sealed Cave and can visit Feymarch/Sylph Cave. This is the point when you REALLY need to start playing to your character's fullest. Even the hard portions of Tower of Zot and Tower of Babil were not so hard on you as some enemies in the Underworld caves. A lot of gimmicky enemies and bosses in the second part, some are good, some are annoying. The final dungeon is very long, but since we have midpoints with saves, I don't mind much. I don't know how, but Zeromus was not as menacing as some optional bosses. Or I just played it save by spamming healing spells nonstop.
Graphics... are ok. Textures are what show that FF IV was meant to be a Famicom game first. But then they use Mode 7 for some spells and map and it suddenly looks great. Good to see that some bosses have animation, wish to see more in the future.
Can't comment on music much, I like it in every entry. Boss theme and Four Fiends theme are great.
I wish I could rank any game in the series anything rather than 3/5. The first game isn't bad for lower scores, the second and third have some issues, so I can't rank them higher, and this one, despite more flashed out story... isn't interesting enough to be great.

Now, I want to acknowledge my bias going into this review. While this is my first time playing this version of Final Fantasy IV, this was not my first time with Final Fantasy IV. I played the DS remake of the game years ago, and this is where my bias comes in. Final Fantasy IV was the first Final Fantasy I ever played, and I absolutely loved it. At the current moment, with the Final Fantasies I’ve played (I, III, IV, VI, and VII), Final Fantasy IV is my favorite Final Fantasy. I had the urge to finally go and replay Final Fantasy IV, especially cause I really wanted to give it a proper review. Instead of the DS version, I was given a patched version of the SNES version, which is meant to make it more like the original Japanese release, from what I hear, the western release of Final Fantasy IV is ridiculously easier in comparison. Even though my original experience with Final Fantasy IV is the DS version, I’d say with confidence that I love the SNES version just as much.
Now, before I get into the actual content of Final Fantasy IV itself, I really want to compare a certain aspect of my experience with the DS version, and the experience I had with the SNES version. Particularly, and most obviously, the difficulty. I don’t know how best to describe why this is the case, even with the patch that made the SNES Final Fantasy IV have the original difficulty, the DS version of the game was noticeably much harder. This can best be seen when comparing the hours it took me to beat the game. When I played Final Fantasy IV DS, it took me a total of around 45 hours to beat the game, while the Final Fantasy IV SNES took me only about 21 hours, less than half of the time total. I think that may be in part to Final Fantasy IV DS being a somewhat slower game, but I also remember long bouts of grinding, sometimes all my time in a day was spent level grinding. When it comes to this, I can see myself more likely replaying the SNES version than the DS version, the difficulty is more manageable, and I can beat the game in less than half the time. Another minor thing that differentiates Final Fantasy IV DS and Final Fantasy IV SNES is that the inventory in the DS version is unlimited, while the SNES version isn’t. While that is, of course, limiting, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, the inventory was generally manageable throughout the entire game. I know there’s a way to store items, but I never needed it.
Now onto the actual game proper, god I absolutely love Final Fantasy IV. To what I know, Final Fantasy IV was the first Final Fantasy game to introduce the Active Time Battle system. An alteration to turned based combat where enemies and the characters you play as all have a set amount of time before they can act, instead of acting specifically in turns. Especially in the case of Final Fantasy IV, there’s a really good sense of tension with Active Time Battle. You can do your best to prepare for attacks that enemies can throw at you, but since you don’t know when enemies are going to attack, you don’t know how much time you have to prepare. And for harder battles, it can be really tense. The one thing I miss when comparing Final Fantasy IV SNES to the DS version is the lack of a noticeable meter to know when your characters can act. It seems like there is one in the game, as pressing a certain button (I’m honestly not confident to which button it is) switches showing the health to a meter that fills to 100%. While that itself would be a “noticeable meter”, I can’t see myself ever using it specifically as seeing the health is so much more important.
Final Fantasy IV is also the first Final Fantasy to really try and focus on its story. I mean, prior Final Fantasies did have stories, but none have properly focused on them as much as Final Fantasy IV did. It truly feels like I’m playing a proper cast of characters, and especially due to Final Fantasy IV being the first I’ve played of the series, I find the all rather memorable. I really love the sort of underdog story that Final Fantasy IV has, as the villains always seem to be ten steps ahead of the main cast. I love Cecil’s journey as the main character, and how that is impacted in the actual gameplay of the game itself. Even further, while it may frustrate some, I love how party composition is constantly changing throughout the game. Characters join and leave the party over and over, and many sacrifice themselves in order to allow the party a way forward. There’s a powerful struggle in the story of Final Fantasy IV, which I really adore. Final Fantasy IV is not too unique of a story, but it’s executed amazingly, I feel.
On top of it all, I really love the differences that come with each playable character. To me at least, Final Fantasy IV is where a lot of the major RPG classes really get solidified. Rydia has always been one of my favorite characters in the game. Searching for all her summons, and fighting powerful bosses to obtain them, it’s really fun. It really allows to make Rydia particularly one of the most powerful characters. From what I remember, Final Fantasy IV is the first of the Final Fantasy games to use a proper MP system, instead of spell slots, and as well, characters learn spells through level up instead of buying them in stores. With how party composition changes over time, it really allows you to try out all of the major characters throughout the game, which I really appreciate. In later titles like Final Fantasies VI and VII, while I love the main cast of both games, I never utilized all of them and stuck with the ones I like. Final Fantasy IV on the other made me feel like I properly tried out every single playable character, especially since many have noticeably different playstyles.
Yet again, while the first version of Final Fantasy IV that I did play was the DS version, I still love this version of Final Fantasy IV just the same. It’s still the first Final Fantasy I ever played, so even though it’s noticeably easier, and it has a different art style, it’s still the game that I love to bits. It’s hard to imagine that any future Final Fantasy game that I play will ever beat my love for Final Fantasy IV, it’s definitely a nostalgia bias for sure, but that’s fine. I can definitely see myself replaying this version of Final Fantasy IV multiple times in the future, it’s just that good to me.

Final Fantasy IV really showed what a story in Final Fantasy can properly look like
While they had delved into it a few times in the NES era, it never took as centre of a stage as it does in this one.
This has what I think are the first solid characters and factions in an FF game
This is of course helped by the step up from NES to SNES which is apparent in almost everything to do with the game, from graphics, to presentation, to the interaction with the world and the ways stories can be portrayed both through in world cutscenes as well as in battle
The revolving cast of characters are all very charming, Edward, Rydia, Kain and Edge being a few personal favourites.
Cecil as the main protagonist is genuinely amazing, from a Dark Knight destroying the land to the Paladin saving it, dealing with his old friends in the is absolutely phenomenal.
Helped more by the supporting cast that bring out the varied parts of Cecil especially at the end, his new found friends encouraging him to say goodbye to his tragic brother.
Onto the brother
Golbez is a really good antagonist, even if I wish we got more development of his character, him being a reflection of Cecil, being the Dark Knight, the position he gave up. A position the end of the game makes clear could easily have been him instead.
The combat was good, a solid ATB system, with mp instead of spell slots. But at it's basics it's still the same combat from previous entries even if you need to think a bit more now with the ATB
Overall I found it really fun, I didn't feel as directionless as I did with the older entries while still being open. The story is really well told and emotional at multiple points, a lot of the time dealing with loss, but also hope. Making the best out of the worst situation. Self reflection and working to better yourself, atoning for previous actions by putting good and hope into the world.

One of the tightest Final Fantasy games, at least in its original SNES incarnation. (Maybe others, too, but I get the sense that some of the other versions dilute the experience with all the extra Stuff.) It’s true that this is a ‘less developed’ Final Fantasy; they hadn’t quite figured out how to make the best of the SNES hardware graphically or auditorily, and there aren’t as many sidequests or battle options as later games would hold. But I’d argue that’s actually what makes it great. Some of the later Final Fantasy games have a tendency to bite off a bit more than they can chew, giving you a plethora of party members with a host of unique abilities that ultimately don’t actually change how you play the game. They suggest depth that I often find isn’t actually there when you’re looking for it, and on that front FFIV is a little more honest. Here’s a game where every character has a defined role, where your party is strictly dictated by the story, that has about three side quests in the entire game (all of which take place very late into the story). The game gives you a limited set of tools, and leaves you to figure it out.

You could also say some of those things about previous Final Fantasy games—FFII is very linear, aside from its weird leveling system—but this, of course, is kind of where the series comes into itself; at the very least, this is as close as you can get to a platonic Final Fantasy game. The first three were all fairly different in ways that didn’t really stick, but this is the real baseline that the series worked from for a while. No job changing or Espers or materia; your characters’ options are all pretty straightforward, and the only real innovation in the formula, ATB, is the only one that actually stuck around essentially unchanged in multiple games. Square leaned into the simplicity for this game, and let different scripted combinations of those mechanics guide each dungeon into a unique experience that I found later games to lack.

A party of Dark Knight Cecil, Rydia, Rosa, Edward, and Yang feels very different from a party of Paladin Cecil, Kain, Cid, Rosa, and Yang; each combination has a different set of AoE attacks, healing abilities, magical attacks, weapon types, and skills. Even fundamentally similar characters, like Rydia and Tellah, function very differently because of their spells and MP pools. Tellah has much stronger spells, but you won’t use them as much during the course of a dungeon, because he has so little MP; Rydia has a lot more MP, but the only attacks that really do anything for most of the game are her high-cost summons that are overkill on most enemies. And over time, those perceptions of the characters change; by the end of the game, Rydia’s summons are useful in general enemy encounters, but they’re also strong enough that you want to save MP for any tougher fights you come across. Some parties have more physical power; some parties give you so many frail characters that you have to put one on the front lines, exposing them to more danger.

This feels like a very conscious effort on Square’s part; characters in the game fake-die so often that it becomes obvious that they’re just trying to come up with a reason to make a new party. (This comes at the expense of the story, which largely stops giving its characters anything interesting to say or do after Cecil’s admittedly striking opening arc concludes with his grand transformation. However: they do ride to the moon on a whale. So that’s pretty cool.) Enough of the dungeons have a unique hook or set of enemies that you have to adapt your play to each area, as well. The Magnetic Cave requires you to unequip all metal weapons, which essentially changes the role of each character in your party for a dungeon (before jerking them back into place for the boss); the Sylvan Cave is rife with status effects and monsters in chests, making it a more difficult test of endurance and item/MP conservation; the Lunar Subterrane has an entire section where regular enemies are minibosses. Not every idea comes off perfectly, and they sometimes verge on annoying, but they always made me think and reconsider my situation given the tools that I had.

I appreciate that constraint; in later Final Fantasy games, the boundless freedom to do any party makeup I want usually means I’m just going to do the same thing every time. (Usually 1-3 physical attackers, a healer, and a black mage. Which is the final configuration in this game, but there were plenty of stops along the way.) This game made me stop to think, and it’s also why I single out the SNES version, which keeps things lean and reasonably difficult. There is no one definitive version of this (even saying 'the SNES version' can mean many different things; I played the US version with the Namingway fan translation), but no matter what, the game’s strengths decidedly do not lie in its story or its characters, at least not to the same degree that other games in the franchise do. This one’s all about the gameplay to me, and while I imagine the other versions hold unique values of their own, I really do appreciate how the SNES version makes a great, constantly changing experience out of so little.

I first played this after playing V and VI, and I didn't think much of it. Re-playing it after I, II and III on the Famicom it's easier to see what the game does right. This is the first Final Fantasy, in my opinion, that really crafts a story with characters that you can follow with strong narrative peaks and troughs. I genuinely teared up a little when the prologue theme plays before the final battle- when all your allies throughout the game come to your aid.

Mechanically, this is the first game to use the ATB (Active Time Battle) that would become standard for the next 5 games. It doesn't feel quite perfect here, but the combat still feels smooth and fun compared to its predecessors. It feels a real shame that they walked back from the complexities of the Job system in III. You basically have no agency over how your party grows and develops- the only direction is up, more levels, better gear. In the original release you don't even get to choose your party composition, and are stuck with a fixed set of 5 characters for the end of the game. It's a crime that my beautiful Edward has to sit out the finale while the odious Edge and Kain are stinking up my party.

I'd still think this were an overall improvement over Final Fantasy III if not for one more thing. Caves & Mountains. Almost every dungeon in the game- and there are many- is a variation on a cave or a mountain. The technology & the talent are there to create beautiful environments, but someone decided there would be no cool cog dungeons, dense jungles, ruined libraries or heck, even a sewer. Instead we get brown caves, blue caves, red caves and silver caves.

Final Fantasy IV is a huge leap forward for the series, narratively. Does the story land? Maybe not. But the attempt at telling a more nuanced story with an ensemble cast is a step towards the PS golden era of FF that is interesting to see form here.

The ATB system is something I found to be rather pointless in later entries, but here it works very well. Battles are fast paced, and you really need to use every second efficiently as the timers apply pressure in the later battles.

Narratively, I was surprised at the attempt at a more adult tone here. Cecil is a great lead, and the revolving door cast is generally pretty compelling, though I much prefer being able to stick with a party and develop them across the course of a game. Not knowing whether or not your teammate is about to face a scripted death discourages investing in your party, and I'm glad they did away with this in later entries.

Overall, FF IV is a noted leap forward for the franchise, and one that places in the upper tiers of Final Fantasy games.

At this point in time, the Final Fantasy series had created a pretty successful, albeit divisive at points, trilogy on the NES. These three games that would redefine the entirety of the RPG genre as we know it, garner many fans worldwide, and would cement the Final Fantasy series as Square/Square Enix’s flagship franchise from that point onwards. So naturally, after achieving a hat trick with those games, Square was ready to keep this gravy train rolling, with another installment in the series that would be the final entry for the NES, while preparing for what would come out for the SNES later. However, due to the fact that the SNES was about to be released, Square decided to shift gears and re-develop that NES game for this new system, and while they were at it, they were going to release it overseas as well… only, they would end up changing the name of the game to Final Fantasy II for us, because “lol, get fucked, America”. But anyway, just a few months after the SNES would come out for us in America, we would get this next chapter in the series, which we now truly know as Final Fantasy IV.

Before initially playing this game a good couple years ago, I had no clue about the reputation this game held, nor what it managed to do for the Final Fantasy series as a whole. I had just thought it was just gonna be another entry in the series, this time now being brought onto the next generation of consoles, with nothing else to really get too excited about. However, then I played through the game, and needless to say, I immediately fell in love with what I was presented with, as this game is, in my opinion, the best entry in the series that we had ever gotten at that point, and definitely my favorite of the series that I have played so far. Granted, it does have plenty of issues, ones that became abundantly more clear as the years would go by, but for what we have here, it is a massive leap in quality from the previous titles, and one that manages to take the series, and the genre as a whole, into new heights once again.

The story, for the time, was the most developed, character-focused, and engaging one not just in the series, but for video games as a whole, showing that video game stories didn’t have to be just one-note, and that they could show off plenty of emotions and dramatic moments when treated with care…………. even though, looking back, you can see that the story here is kind of a mess, but trust me, we will get into that later on. The graphics are pretty good, having plenty of great sprites for characters, enemies, and bosses, but when you look at it side by side with previous games, you can REALLY tell that it is just an NES game that was prettied up for the SNES, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is worth pointing out. The music is some of the best the series has ever had, with there being plenty of wonderful, iconic tunes that I love hearing even after having played it several years ago, such as with the boss theme, the common town theme, and, for my personal favorite track in the game, the Red Wings theme. And finally, as for the controls and gameplay, both of them work basically the exact same way that you would expect from a Final Fantasy game, but with notable changes that make the game so much more enjoyable by comparison.

The game is a traditional RPG, where you primarily take control of Cecil Harvey, go through plenty of different locations not just on the world that you live on, but also the Underworld and even the fucking moon at some point (yeah, things get pretty ridiculous), talk to plenty of NPCs that you will encounter who will either give you helpful hints/advice, or they will aid you on your quest in some way, find plenty of items that you can use to either upgrade yourself, get better items with from shops or otherwise, or to help you progress along in the game, and of course, get into random battles, where you will slash away at your foes before you either using your main weapon, spells, or whatever else you have lying around in your pockets, and gain experience points to level up and increase your stats. For the most part, it is your standard RPG through and through, which, even on its own, would’ve been fine enough to play through, and I would have had a good time with it. However, with the changes that this game implements, it sky-rockets it upwards into being some of the best content that I have seen out of this series so far, making me eager to get to the other titles in the series sooner or later to see where we can go from here.

In terms of the gameplay, not much has really changed, except for one key difference when it comes to the main battles, which now introduces the Active Time Battle system. Rather than taking turns to fight your opponents like in the previous Final Fantasy games, here, the battle is constantly moving, with characters taking turns based on whatever their speed is, allowing them to use commands faster than opponents in optimal scenarios. That may make the game sound pretty easy, but then you remember, the enemies can use this too, which means that, in a battle, you always have to be quick on your toes to use commands before your opponent can, making battle much more fun and exciting as a result. I have never played any other RPG before this that used this type of battle system, so needless to say, it was somewhat odd seeing this play out for the first time for me, but soon after, I quickly fell in love with it, and adored every second of it, as it did make things feel a lot more active, a lot more reactionary, and a lot more strategic, which made me get invested even more. It’s a good thing too, because apparently, this style will be used for plenty of other FF games later down the road, which I am all here for.

That’s really all that got changed for the gameplay though, as again, for the most part, it all plays practically the same as every other game in the series so far. In terms of other aspects of the game though, such as the story, the characters, and what occurs in said story… well, really, what hasn’t been changed? For the first time in any Final Fantasy game, or most other video games at the time for that matter, we have a set of characters that are already defined, have definitive personalities, relationships with other characters, and moments seen throughout that further define them. Yeah, we saw a brief bit of this in FF II, but that was pretty limited in terms of what it managed to do, as this game takes those ideas and pushes them even further.

Not to mention, each character also has a predetermined job class that they work with. You can no longer change up what job a character has, which does kinda suck, but at the same time, not only do the jobs that the characters get fit them pretty well, but they also grow and develop them overtime, learning better skills and different tactics to use in battle. This especially helps out with the boss fights, which do have more strategy to them rather than just “kill this guy while not getting killed yourself”, requiring you to pay attention to what they are doing while you continue attacking, as performing the wrong move at the wrong time can change the heat of the battle very quickly. With that being said though, for what we do get in this game in terms of character traits, dramatic moments, and character chemistry, it is all pretty basic, with elements that we have seen plenty of times ever since, which can make going back to this game feel generic and underwhelming as a result, but for what it is, I was still able to enjoy the cast of characters and the story that we got here… despite how flawed it comes off as.

Which speaking of, in terms of the story, again, it needs to be asked, what DIDN’T get changed? Out of all the Final Fantasy games so far, this one has the most developed and thorough storyline of the bunch, with plenty of character moments, overarching plotlines, and development that we have seen. On the surface, it is all pretty basic, just being another game about collecting a bunch of elemental crystals to stop a big, bad evil person, which is all well and good, but we also have Cecil going from his dark, “evil” nature to becoming a Paladin, Cain being brainwashed and needing to have himself snapped out of it by our party, Rydia losing her village and needing to learn to overcome her trauma, and several other moments that I haven’t mentioned here. Again, a lot of this is pretty basic looking back, but around the time when most video game stories were “Go save your girl” or “Go kill this big evil thing”, this went a long way, influencing video game storytelling all the way up to this day.

However, this then leads perfectly into one of the biggest problems with the game: again, the story is kind of a mess. Yes, it is pretty generic all things considered, and some parts of it have definitely not aged well over time, but when you ignore all that, there’s also several other elements of the story that feel overused and are, to put it bluntly, fucking stupid. First of all, throughout the journey, you will lose a lot of party members, such as with Cid, Porum and Pallum, Yang, and so on and so forth, with you being led to believe that all of them sacrificed themselves for the sake of your quest. But then, as you keep going through the game, you then learn that everyone is ok, and almost nobody ended up dying whatsoever! So with that being said, I have to ask, what was the point of all those fake-out deaths? Sure, a fake-out death can be effective when used correctly, and for most part, they are all pretty well done, but the more times you end up doing this, it not only becomes more predictable and less effective, but it also becomes, again, fucking stupid.

And speaking of fucking stupid, there is also the means in which a lot of the plot elements in this game are carried out. For some reason, Cecil has the biggest case of Murphy's Law that I have ever seen, as whenever he and his crew go on to doing anything in this game, and I really do mean anything, SOMETHING will go wrong, and prolong the journey forward. It all usually involves them going to some place, finding out the problem in said place, taking care of said problem, only to then have the reward or goal snatched away from them in the last second because “Ha ha, FUCK YOU”. There is one part of the game that stands out heavily when it comes to this. It’s when Cecil and the gang defeat Golbez, one of the game’s villains, inside of this sanctuary that holds one of the crystals they need. While celebrating their defeat and discussing what they should do next, Golbez’s hand starts to crawl around the room and go towards the crystal. Cecil and the crew then proceed to watch this hand go up to the crystal, steal it away, and then leave, WHILE DOING NOTHING AT ALL TO STOP IT. Call this story good all you want, but moments like that you cannot defend, as it is just way too stupid to justify.

But don’t worry, my problems with the game don’t just go as far as the story, because oh no, I got some gripes with the game too, albeit very minor ones. Most of the gameplay works pretty well, and again, I would consider it to be the best in the entire series so far, but like with all of these games so far, there just seems to be one or two areas that’s entire purpose is to piss you off. One such place is the Sealed Cave, a location in the Underworld that has one of the crystals you need to get, but it is filled to the brim with these Trap Door enemies, who can all throw themselves into lava for all I care. They can do massive damage to you whenever you fight them, most of the time even one-shotting party members, and to top it all off, they can split into multiple enemies, which can also mean more damage can be dealt to you. But then again, these kinds of issues only apply to one or two areas throughout the entire game, and even then, if you are playing the original SNES version of the game (the US version, anyway), it is very easy, so there aren’t too many instances where you will have a lot of hard-as-hell situations to deal with.

Overall though, despite having one or two annoying areas to go through, as well as a story that is repetitive and flawed when looking back on it, FFIV is, without a doubt in my mind, the best game in the series so far, bringing the classic gameplay to the next generation of consoles in a brand new and exciting way, while further enhancing elements like the story and characters even further, influencing not just RPGs, but all of video games further as a result. I would absolutely recommend it not just for those who are big fans of FF and RPGs in general, but also for someone who wants to get into either FF or RPGs in general, because while it may not be one of the most approachable or beloved game of the series, it is one of the best places to start, and I cannot recommend it enough. Although, now that I think about it, this game sets a pretty high bar for the next game to top. I’m not sure how it will be able to do it. I dunno, maybe they will find a way………. or, you know, they might fumble the ball along the way.

Game #503

This game reminds me my childhood cartoons a lot. That's not a bad thing for me, as long as it's filled with lovable characters, I am okay with super simple "let's stop the bad guy before he destroys the world" kind of story.

I mean I can't say if any of the cartoons I had watched starts with burning an entire village but anyway yeah. This game's story is fun with lots of lovable dorks. Only thing I wish about the story to do is Rosa and Cecil's relationship to get more fleshed out... and maybe those two annoying kids didn't existed... But other than that. Yeah everyone is lovely. Rydia's heartbreaking struggle to get better, Edward's story of slowly getting more mature etc. Oh and of course our main character Cecil and his story of redemption story(cue: ff4 Prelude theme). He is the type of character that if I had played this game before I would paste his posters all over my room. His previous regrets and slowly overcoming to get better is a type of story that makes you motivate and hype you. Simple but effective.

Gameplay starts fun too

You get new magic, new type of attacks, weapons in every progress. I can't say it's strategic that much(but of course strategy gets really important when it comes to boss fights) but time based battle system rather than a turn based makes the game much more energetic and challenging. While one character prepares a magic, other character charges their attack, another one puts a barrier, last one tries it's best to summon a monster etc. But unfortunate thing is, you don't have much freedom for classes. Character classes are premade because story reasons but I wish they gave us options to select our own skills ourselves so we can do our own subclasses. I mean you get new skills when you level up also sometimes new classes because of the story but skills are automatic things, you can't choose your new skill to be more offensive or defensive or supportive etc. This small change would make grinding to more interesting

Grind
Yeah there is grind. But not much in the most of the story, just going around for a hour is enough to take down that area's boss... But it suddenly goes 5 times up in the last area because of lots of minibosses. Because it's required or something in a jrpg? I don't know but at that part I kind of lost my motivation to continue. Also I was playing on the damn ps1 and didn't know they had long loading times before beginning this game so... yeah it was a bit frustrating... I played this before ff5 but now comparing them together, ff5 had a hard last area as well but I said in there that they made grind fun with giving you the ability to diversify your classes so... yeah in this one it's not fun that much. So, I wouldn't say no to anyone for playing this game on easy for that last area sake.

So yeah, fun story, fun but near the end gets grindy gameplay. Lovely characters also. If you still have your childhood soul in it yourself, then I recommend this game wholeheartedly. You will have fun with it hopefully

It's the first Final Fantasy game with a REAL story, with actual characters with believable relationships. Still nothing truly mindblowing, but it's good, especially for the era in which it was released. Once again the characters have their own unique moves which help you connect further to them, and unlike FF2, these moves are actually useful and makes you appreciate the characters more. The one MAJOR flaw with this game's story is that it cannot commit to anything, every single plot twist or event in this game is a fakeout, near every single character in this game dies, only for a "SIKE! They're actually totally fine!" for no reason. One of my favourite points in the plot was Kains betrayal, which is not only then repeated but "oh uh he was just under mind control the whole time!" which they then use this "mind control" shtick multiple times over. Its just bad, and also totally unnecessary, it only diminishes its great moments while adding nothing, most of the fakeout deaths only come back to say Hi for a few seconds then cease to be relevant for the rest of the game, so why even bother ruining their death?

This game also introduces the active time battle system, which is huge! And greatly improves the gameplay, the entire battle system even beyond this is much speedier than before with improved UI and damage indicators to help the game flow much better. And if you're a little baby and cant manage the time battle system, there always the option to slow it down or have it wait for you, but its not necessary and much more fun to fight in real-time. The enemies are also greatly improved, with bosses that actually serve as a unique challenge, and not like FF3, where some bosses where more like puzzles, with a few clear solutions, which has its upsides, but here the battles actually feel like battles, with bosses having multiple forms and unique techniques for you to fight against. Due to these unique encounters it allows for challenging boss encounters without the need to simply grind, although if you want to grind (for some reason) there are quite a few collectibles for you to go grind for.

The soundtrack of this game is brilliant, definitely the best so far, especially all the battle tracks, perhaps some of THE best final fantasy battle themes in the franchise.


In conclusion, Final Fantasy IV represents a turning point in the franchise's history, setting the stage for what followed. With its engaging story and memorable characters, it introduced a more character-driven storytelling style. The active time battle system injected new life into gameplay, making battles quicker and more exciting. The improved user interface and challenging boss battles made the game a satisfying experience. The soundtrack is a standout. Despite its quirks, Final Fantasy IV is a classic and a great starting point for those exploring the world of Final Fantasy.

Final Fantasy IV is one of the most important installment in the Final Fantasy series; it was the first Final Fantasy game that featured a fully realized story, fleshed out characters and it introduced the ATB system which was used for the next 5 mainline games in the row. Basically, Final Fantasy IV was a new beginning for the series.
However, being pioneering doesn't mean timeless.
The story in Final Fantasy IV is amazing... for the time it came out; I mean, it's still interesting, but the writing is very weak at times, there are so many fakeouts, tropes or straight up dumb plot twists, and the last few hours feel completely out of place. It's a somewhat captivating but deeply flawed story, unfortunately.
The characters are quite... forgettable? They get in and out of the party so fast that I couldn't get emotionally attached to them at all and their story arcs feel rushed. Surprisingly, I really liked the protagonist, and the story has some decent character moments in general.
The gameplay is quite similar to Final Fantasy VI's but the UI is just worse.
Also, despite the game's flaws, the music is quite good.
Unlike Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger though, the pixelated graphics in Final Fantasy IV look stale.
Lastly, most areas - particularly the dungeons - are dull and the towns look very similar to each other.

Pros:
+ Engaging plot
+ Combat system still holds up to a certain degree
+ Nice music

Cons:
- Underwhelming narrative and characters
- Unresponsive User Interface
- Outdated visuals
- Bland areas and boring dungeons

Narrative: 3/10
Gameplay: 4/10
Content: ?/10
Characters: 4/10
Music: 7/10
Graphics/Audio: ?/10

Final Rating: 4/10
- Weak -
Final Fantasy IV is a great example of a game that was groundbreaking when it came out but has since been surpassed in every way.
I appreciate Final Fantasy IV for everything it has done to the series, however, I can't help but see it as a "relic" from the past.

Do I recommend it?:
I'd recommend it only to people who want to get deeper into the series and experience the origins of what Final Fantasy has become since then.