It's funny how many Final Fantasy storylines boils down to "race war temporarily halted by questionable interspecies sex but ultimately made way worse as a result"

Jokes aside the pacing and narrative is miles ahead of what ARR provided, unfortunately the presentation still feels like a major setback from what the Final Fantasy franchise showed in the last 2 decades. I can catch a glimpse of it's potential here and there but it always leaves me underwhelmed.

A lot of people told me it's one of the best expansion story-wise and I get where they're coming from, but to be frank this is just a retelling of Final Fantasy VI with much less at stake and without what makes FFVI actually enjoyable to play.

A major step in the right direction but we're not quite there yet. Looking forward to the next expansions.

For some reason IV was the only classic Final Fantasy I hadn't finish once in my lifetime yet despite numerous attempt at doing so over the last few decades.

I'm both impressed and underwhelmed by it.
The former because the narrative is as Final Fantasy as it gets, with a lot of unique setpieces that are impressive for a SNES RPG. Especially how every single character's personality shines through their body language. A lot of cutscenes contains absolutely no line of dialog whatsoever, yet you FEEL what's going on so clearly just by seeing these sprites eccentrically spin around, emote and jump.
The later because the game is so short and the pacing is so fast that the most pivotal moments in the story doesn't really hit you like it should. You really have to fill in the blank in your mind and assume these characters have been traveling together for weeks and got to know each other between every location you visit, otherwise it doesn't really make sense why they develop such a sense of camaraderie in the span of 30 minutes.

Despite the game being really short, including the extra optional content, I find it pretty insane that the final boss isn't really doable before reaching lvl 70. I was barely level 50 when I reached the final dungeon, and if it wasn't for the Pixel Remaster 4x exp boost option I would have been stuck mindlessly grinding for hours before I could see the end of it.

Out of all the Final Fantasy games, I think IV is the one that deserve a proper remake the most. It's a shame all the attention goes to VII when the original was already an amazing experience through and through. IV really needs more padding so you have time to build up a meaningful relationship with these characters and feel the weight of every sacrifice made along the way.

Also, I think that games that takes inspiration from Divine Comedy are awesome and we need more of them.