A product of infectious, childlike passion. FFIV implements the somewhat flawed but then-innovative ATB system, and unlike many of its successors actually feels designed around it. Bosses take far more advantage of the system's unique affordances than later games do. Party members and their "gimmicks" are well thought out and decently balanced.
The story feels like it was written by a child, but an exceptionally enthusiastic child with some great ideas. It frequently comes across as hokey, but at its heart carries splinters of meaningful maturity. It is the fertile garden from which FFVI would eventually bloom and supplant its progenitor in just about every way possible.
I always recommend that people play FFIV before FFVI if they have any intention of playing them all, because looking backward renders FFIV sophomoric and prototypical, but when its ideas are new, if not to the world than to the player, one can see how much of a revelation FFIV really was, and how much of the final form was already in this first draft.
The story feels like it was written by a child, but an exceptionally enthusiastic child with some great ideas. It frequently comes across as hokey, but at its heart carries splinters of meaningful maturity. It is the fertile garden from which FFVI would eventually bloom and supplant its progenitor in just about every way possible.
I always recommend that people play FFIV before FFVI if they have any intention of playing them all, because looking backward renders FFIV sophomoric and prototypical, but when its ideas are new, if not to the world than to the player, one can see how much of a revelation FFIV really was, and how much of the final form was already in this first draft.