Only played this for the base FF4, neither of the extras added.
Really happy with the way each Final Fantasy game just seems to get better in my eyes without ever feeling like just a case of "the previous game but a tiny bit better and more refined", they've each felt pretty different so far, and while I might prefer the vibe of FF3 to an extent, I just cannot deny that this is my favourite FF as a whole so far. Everything here just feels more impressive in scale, so much more carefully refined, more nuanced, takes more advantage of this underlying complexity, just, so much cooler on the whole, I love it. After the more sprawling adventure of 3 that focused almost entirely on the world surrounding the player, having another more deeply character-driven narrative here is also a nice change of pace.
The character-driven nature of FF4 is particularly interesting with the way it plays around with its game conventions to craft this slightly offbeat tone throughout the story to me. The biggest example of this is that while this game is mostly very easy like the previous games, once again feeling like a bit of a power fantasy with all the big numbers and the way you're often able to completely end fights in a couple of turns, especially early on, but having some more interesting thematic elements that contrast with this very well. The sheer brutality of Cecil in the beginning sections of the plot, along with the actions taken, make the power at your fingertips almost feel wrong to have, with this self-reinforcing theme of the dangers of unimaginable power being ever-present as time and time again it clearly ends up being the cause of strife for all involved. It takes multiple forms too, whether it's Cecil's power being used the way it is in the opening section or the game, Tellah becoming more reckless once he believes he can take down the object of his vengeance, or even how the main antagonist's perceived superiority over humanity led them to a sense of entitlement over how they should be led forward. It's all a great way of tying in core gameplay elements with story and I think that the way it's handled here is wonderful at making everything feel that little bit off without ever fully dwelling on it for too long in such a context.
Gameplay and story also nicely overlap in a few other ways, my favourite of which being the dynamic gameplay and story that ends up being revealed to the player through the revolving door of party members you meet throughout. It not only adds to the variety of what happens due to being able to interact with a mainly different cast at regular intervals, but it also leads to a lot of more engaging scenarios due to the unconventional team setups that the player will find themselves in. My favourite of these is pretty early in the game, where you're a dark knight with 3 mages on your side, but all the enemies are undead, so your melee fighter can do almost nothing to them, forcing you to make tactical use of your party's mp while occasionally being clever with healing items and the like. There are a few other sections that put you into some inherently difficult to immediately vibe with situations, but it never gets difficult enough that it walls you either, more of just a way to really force players to more deeply engage with the systems at their disposal. I also love the way abilities are handled, with each character having one or two specifically related to them, bringing another way to further reinforce elements of characterisation while lending itself more to a varied gameplay experience at the same time.
I feel like a lot of the game is built upon idiosyncrasies like this revolving door of characters however, and while I love most of it, I also understand the downsides that could be perceived as well. The ATB is the biggest one of these to me, as I dunno if it changes how it feels in future entries, but it felt very frenetic here at first to the point where it felt as if it was a bit too fast at first, affecting any decision making that could be made as carefully due to the comparative lack of control over battle cadence. That said, I definitely got used to it by the end and found that it added a lot of little interesting elements to how the battles felt, particularly with how enemies using absolutely massive attacks, while usually pretty devastating, would also come with the upside of that extra long animation that basically all the powerful spells have providing you that tiny bit more time to plan out your next move once you're able to input commands again. I also liked the way it added a greater sense of weight to some of those stronger attacks, seeing this slow moving bar go up as your other party members continue to fight, just waiting for the all powerful spell to finally be unleashed. Little bits and pieces like this added a lot more to the moment to moment gameplay, and when combined with encounters that more readily took advantage of the various use cases of some of the tools present in the game, it made for a really fun time.
My favourite of all this is the way that there were so many ways reflect could be used due to its effects applying to both defensive and offensive spells, meaning that certain situations would actually benefit from making enemies immune to all magic, or to have reflect cast on you be a bad thing. There were a surprising amount of encounters that seemed to just keep escalating this one idea, along with there being a surprising amount of cases where I felt the need to put in just that tiny bit of strategy beyond attack spam to succeed, while still allowing enough of the random fights to feel mindless enough to never feel especially taxing as a whole either. I also liked the increased focus on moments of spectacle, with a few more immediately recognisable setpieces than before, with them being usually of far higher quality as well. One of my favourites of these was the Fabul siege with the way it was able to convey such a strong sense of hopelessness even if you were able to destroy the waves that were sent your way, constantly feeling on the backfoot, knowing that even if you're winning your own battles, those surrounding you haven't been quite so fortunate. It all serves to add that bit extra to the story that I feel hadn't been conveyed quite as strongly in any of the previous games, even if the town destruction of 2 is still the most impactful individual moment of the series so far to me.
With all this said though, one thing I do feel wasn't quite up to scratch for me was the way the narrative of the 2nd half of the game just, kinda fell apart in a lot of key areas, particularly with the redemption story that was so core to Cecil's early characterisation feeling a bit lost after a certain big event. The more introspective nature of the first half ends up feeling a bit lost after a certain big event occurs and then you're back to a more typical journey to find the crystals and defeat the evil spooky bad dude, even if the cast of characters this time, along with some incredible setpieces and pacing bring it up a notch when compared to the previous entries. It feels like a shame because I personally believe that Cecil's arc hadn't really been completed and had more just entered the 2nd stage of proving oneself to have actually improved, and while that technically happens throughout, it feels as if the entire internal conflict that spurned on so much of the early stages of the game just fizzled out. It didn't ruin the experience or anything, but it definitely felt like a weak point that made it unfortunately a bit harder than I'd have liked to actually connect with some of the events that took place beyond thinking that certain ideas were insanely badass.
As a whole, I love the world of Final Fantasy already, but this is the first game in the series that felt as if it really solidified this love beyond just a vague aesthetic appreciation. I was excited to keep going through the series before, but this really has intensified that a lot, even with its problems becoming increasingly clear the longer I played. Maybe a good place to start in the series regardless? Hard to say at this point considering that I haven't played much, but this definitely at least vibes as an alright starting point.
Really happy with the way each Final Fantasy game just seems to get better in my eyes without ever feeling like just a case of "the previous game but a tiny bit better and more refined", they've each felt pretty different so far, and while I might prefer the vibe of FF3 to an extent, I just cannot deny that this is my favourite FF as a whole so far. Everything here just feels more impressive in scale, so much more carefully refined, more nuanced, takes more advantage of this underlying complexity, just, so much cooler on the whole, I love it. After the more sprawling adventure of 3 that focused almost entirely on the world surrounding the player, having another more deeply character-driven narrative here is also a nice change of pace.
The character-driven nature of FF4 is particularly interesting with the way it plays around with its game conventions to craft this slightly offbeat tone throughout the story to me. The biggest example of this is that while this game is mostly very easy like the previous games, once again feeling like a bit of a power fantasy with all the big numbers and the way you're often able to completely end fights in a couple of turns, especially early on, but having some more interesting thematic elements that contrast with this very well. The sheer brutality of Cecil in the beginning sections of the plot, along with the actions taken, make the power at your fingertips almost feel wrong to have, with this self-reinforcing theme of the dangers of unimaginable power being ever-present as time and time again it clearly ends up being the cause of strife for all involved. It takes multiple forms too, whether it's Cecil's power being used the way it is in the opening section or the game, Tellah becoming more reckless once he believes he can take down the object of his vengeance, or even how the main antagonist's perceived superiority over humanity led them to a sense of entitlement over how they should be led forward. It's all a great way of tying in core gameplay elements with story and I think that the way it's handled here is wonderful at making everything feel that little bit off without ever fully dwelling on it for too long in such a context.
Gameplay and story also nicely overlap in a few other ways, my favourite of which being the dynamic gameplay and story that ends up being revealed to the player through the revolving door of party members you meet throughout. It not only adds to the variety of what happens due to being able to interact with a mainly different cast at regular intervals, but it also leads to a lot of more engaging scenarios due to the unconventional team setups that the player will find themselves in. My favourite of these is pretty early in the game, where you're a dark knight with 3 mages on your side, but all the enemies are undead, so your melee fighter can do almost nothing to them, forcing you to make tactical use of your party's mp while occasionally being clever with healing items and the like. There are a few other sections that put you into some inherently difficult to immediately vibe with situations, but it never gets difficult enough that it walls you either, more of just a way to really force players to more deeply engage with the systems at their disposal. I also love the way abilities are handled, with each character having one or two specifically related to them, bringing another way to further reinforce elements of characterisation while lending itself more to a varied gameplay experience at the same time.
I feel like a lot of the game is built upon idiosyncrasies like this revolving door of characters however, and while I love most of it, I also understand the downsides that could be perceived as well. The ATB is the biggest one of these to me, as I dunno if it changes how it feels in future entries, but it felt very frenetic here at first to the point where it felt as if it was a bit too fast at first, affecting any decision making that could be made as carefully due to the comparative lack of control over battle cadence. That said, I definitely got used to it by the end and found that it added a lot of little interesting elements to how the battles felt, particularly with how enemies using absolutely massive attacks, while usually pretty devastating, would also come with the upside of that extra long animation that basically all the powerful spells have providing you that tiny bit more time to plan out your next move once you're able to input commands again. I also liked the way it added a greater sense of weight to some of those stronger attacks, seeing this slow moving bar go up as your other party members continue to fight, just waiting for the all powerful spell to finally be unleashed. Little bits and pieces like this added a lot more to the moment to moment gameplay, and when combined with encounters that more readily took advantage of the various use cases of some of the tools present in the game, it made for a really fun time.
My favourite of all this is the way that there were so many ways reflect could be used due to its effects applying to both defensive and offensive spells, meaning that certain situations would actually benefit from making enemies immune to all magic, or to have reflect cast on you be a bad thing. There were a surprising amount of encounters that seemed to just keep escalating this one idea, along with there being a surprising amount of cases where I felt the need to put in just that tiny bit of strategy beyond attack spam to succeed, while still allowing enough of the random fights to feel mindless enough to never feel especially taxing as a whole either. I also liked the increased focus on moments of spectacle, with a few more immediately recognisable setpieces than before, with them being usually of far higher quality as well. One of my favourites of these was the Fabul siege with the way it was able to convey such a strong sense of hopelessness even if you were able to destroy the waves that were sent your way, constantly feeling on the backfoot, knowing that even if you're winning your own battles, those surrounding you haven't been quite so fortunate. It all serves to add that bit extra to the story that I feel hadn't been conveyed quite as strongly in any of the previous games, even if the town destruction of 2 is still the most impactful individual moment of the series so far to me.
With all this said though, one thing I do feel wasn't quite up to scratch for me was the way the narrative of the 2nd half of the game just, kinda fell apart in a lot of key areas, particularly with the redemption story that was so core to Cecil's early characterisation feeling a bit lost after a certain big event. The more introspective nature of the first half ends up feeling a bit lost after a certain big event occurs and then you're back to a more typical journey to find the crystals and defeat the evil spooky bad dude, even if the cast of characters this time, along with some incredible setpieces and pacing bring it up a notch when compared to the previous entries. It feels like a shame because I personally believe that Cecil's arc hadn't really been completed and had more just entered the 2nd stage of proving oneself to have actually improved, and while that technically happens throughout, it feels as if the entire internal conflict that spurned on so much of the early stages of the game just fizzled out. It didn't ruin the experience or anything, but it definitely felt like a weak point that made it unfortunately a bit harder than I'd have liked to actually connect with some of the events that took place beyond thinking that certain ideas were insanely badass.
As a whole, I love the world of Final Fantasy already, but this is the first game in the series that felt as if it really solidified this love beyond just a vague aesthetic appreciation. I was excited to keep going through the series before, but this really has intensified that a lot, even with its problems becoming increasingly clear the longer I played. Maybe a good place to start in the series regardless? Hard to say at this point considering that I haven't played much, but this definitely at least vibes as an alright starting point.