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.

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)

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?

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

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.

-> 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.