For full clarity despite listing this version I'm only talking about the base game of FF4. I don't have enough care to list any thoughts about Interlude, and The After Years will get its own separate review cause otherwise I'd be rating this a lot lower.
Anyways, this is the first Final Fantasy usually credited for having a good story and I think part of the reason for this besides just the time it was released is cause this is the second FF game we got in the west and so by the time we learned of the existence of FF2 it was already well past the years that game was considered impressive. The story in this game isn't terrible, in fact moments like Mount Ordeals and the beginning village segment are still high quality enough that I think about them. The villain design has always been great as well, but in this game the Four Fiends and Golbez are just so iconic and it's honestly not hard to see why. But despite all of this, the story honestly isn't very great by standards today. There are a lot of really shallow characters (regretfully, despite having multiple female party members none of them really do anything on their own or develop negatively) and awkwardly executed moments, which is unfortunate cause the settings in this game have the ability to be so much greater.
The gameplay is solid though, it's the only FF game to date that lets you run around with 5 active party members as the trade-off for the fact you don't really have much team customization until the very end (and even then depending on the version you play). The debut of the ATB system really changes the game for jRPGs in general by giving speed an extra element than just dodge chances and who attacks first in a chain. It also solidified a bit of job identities that were kinda up in the air previously, specifically Dark Knight, which in 3 doesn't play like the Dark knights here on out who take damage to deal damage. It's also the first game to start using scripted battles to tell parts of the story which is something the series starts mastering even by the next entry.
Like in FF3 the music of the series has only gotten better. While I don't hold as much nostalgia for the game as whole like I once did, I do hold a lot for the Hyadain Appearance of Golbez's Four Lords of the Elements cause it's one of the first videos I saw after discovering Final Fantasy beyond 10 in 2011, and by extension really like the Four Fiends from this game.
I'm losing the sauce a bit the longer I go on, so to wrap it up I think FF4 is a game that once nostalgia and filling in the blanks with fan theory are removed it doesn't quite hold up in every aspect, but is still a fun game worth trying out to see how you might enjoy it.
Anyways, this is the first Final Fantasy usually credited for having a good story and I think part of the reason for this besides just the time it was released is cause this is the second FF game we got in the west and so by the time we learned of the existence of FF2 it was already well past the years that game was considered impressive. The story in this game isn't terrible, in fact moments like Mount Ordeals and the beginning village segment are still high quality enough that I think about them. The villain design has always been great as well, but in this game the Four Fiends and Golbez are just so iconic and it's honestly not hard to see why. But despite all of this, the story honestly isn't very great by standards today. There are a lot of really shallow characters (regretfully, despite having multiple female party members none of them really do anything on their own or develop negatively) and awkwardly executed moments, which is unfortunate cause the settings in this game have the ability to be so much greater.
The gameplay is solid though, it's the only FF game to date that lets you run around with 5 active party members as the trade-off for the fact you don't really have much team customization until the very end (and even then depending on the version you play). The debut of the ATB system really changes the game for jRPGs in general by giving speed an extra element than just dodge chances and who attacks first in a chain. It also solidified a bit of job identities that were kinda up in the air previously, specifically Dark Knight, which in 3 doesn't play like the Dark knights here on out who take damage to deal damage. It's also the first game to start using scripted battles to tell parts of the story which is something the series starts mastering even by the next entry.
Like in FF3 the music of the series has only gotten better. While I don't hold as much nostalgia for the game as whole like I once did, I do hold a lot for the Hyadain Appearance of Golbez's Four Lords of the Elements cause it's one of the first videos I saw after discovering Final Fantasy beyond 10 in 2011, and by extension really like the Four Fiends from this game.
I'm losing the sauce a bit the longer I go on, so to wrap it up I think FF4 is a game that once nostalgia and filling in the blanks with fan theory are removed it doesn't quite hold up in every aspect, but is still a fun game worth trying out to see how you might enjoy it.