RadiantHex
2016
I only ever played this game before any of the DLC came out, if I ever go back to try those maybe my opinions will change a little bit. I think this game is fun to play the first time through but for me it doesn't scratch the same itch I'd hope for a FF game to. I think if all the DLC, planned and released was in the game I think it had the possibility to be that much better, but for now it's just a bit underwhelming at the end of the day.
I mean, what more can I say that anyone else hasn't already? The story in this expac alone changed the public perception of this game to "cool FF game, but it's just an MMO so it's not mainline" to "this story is just a mainline FF story" and it deserves it. Of course there's plenty of hiccups along the road that upon replay aren't as exciting, but the story it manages to tell at the end of 5.0 and again at 5.3 are just so beautiful that I don't even need to explain why I enjoyed them.
For visual tourism, this expac had pretty much all bangers (I'm not crazy about kholusia) with the final zone probably being my favorite in the entire game. And god, the music is some of the best in the entire series period.
The raids, while in my opinion take a step back from the design philosophies of SB in a way I wish they wouldn't, still hit some high notes with the 5.3 trial being in my top 3 fights in the game. The whole eden raid series is mostly fun and the first time I did savage raiding in the game! People may hate e8s but for me it was the first tier I ever cleared, so it and e6s hold a special place in my heart as certified Cool Fights.
Jobs at 80 also had a mix of fun tools and shedding some of the more arbitrary mechanics of the game for simplicity/consistency. While I do miss old Astrologian and the concept of stance dancing for Tanks, a lot of the other changes were welcome like the removal of damage type specific debuffs and protect which was just a roleplay button and only messed things up if someone died in a fight. I think this was a great balance to try and bridge veterans and casuals together on a similar playing field for combat and wish we had stayed closer to this philosophy than what they did in Endwalker.
If you haven't played it already, you've probably had someone tell you to, and I won't push it any further by gushing or saying you NEED to, but if it's just a little bit of hesitation I'd say take the plunge cause if FFXVI story isn't very good then it's going to be the best FF story we've had and will have for years. The final area theme makes me emotional when I hear it to this day.
For visual tourism, this expac had pretty much all bangers (I'm not crazy about kholusia) with the final zone probably being my favorite in the entire game. And god, the music is some of the best in the entire series period.
The raids, while in my opinion take a step back from the design philosophies of SB in a way I wish they wouldn't, still hit some high notes with the 5.3 trial being in my top 3 fights in the game. The whole eden raid series is mostly fun and the first time I did savage raiding in the game! People may hate e8s but for me it was the first tier I ever cleared, so it and e6s hold a special place in my heart as certified Cool Fights.
Jobs at 80 also had a mix of fun tools and shedding some of the more arbitrary mechanics of the game for simplicity/consistency. While I do miss old Astrologian and the concept of stance dancing for Tanks, a lot of the other changes were welcome like the removal of damage type specific debuffs and protect which was just a roleplay button and only messed things up if someone died in a fight. I think this was a great balance to try and bridge veterans and casuals together on a similar playing field for combat and wish we had stayed closer to this philosophy than what they did in Endwalker.
If you haven't played it already, you've probably had someone tell you to, and I won't push it any further by gushing or saying you NEED to, but if it's just a little bit of hesitation I'd say take the plunge cause if FFXVI story isn't very good then it's going to be the best FF story we've had and will have for years. The final area theme makes me emotional when I hear it to this day.
This review contains spoilers
To be honest the only thing keeping me from giving this a full 5 is that there's a bit of fluff in the MSQ that makes it a bit hard to say I was fully engaged, but if you love raiding then this might be the best expac of the game we ever had. For full disclosure this is the patch I first started playing the game in, so there is definitely a bit of bias in that regard.
For story to be honest, I don't think it will grip someone nearly as much as it could Heavensward. All its plot points are decent, but my combined dislike for Lyse's arc and the general weak resolution of "take down empirical monarchy by replacing the head with someone that's our friend" is a pretty sad ending for the residents of the lands. This is also the expac that introduces Zenos who you have probably seen if you're on twitter at all. He's alright, a good chunk of what makes him interesting takes a while to sink in, and is even relegated to small side stories that are contained in supplemental materials like the compilation book of side stories. But in the end it's all serviceable and can give you a good time here or there.
The areas of this expac are kind of a grab bag. On one hand all the Gyr Abania zones have very little to distinct them, while Othard hosts more varied and interesting locations. But to be honest, the meat of this expac is all in the gameplay.
Jobs all reached level 70 this expac, and it also brought in some real fan favorites with Samurai and Red mage. 70 is where I'd say almost every job in the game has gotten the tools that form its core identity and rotation, and in general I personally liked the version of Astrologian we had here more than any of the replacements we've got later down the line. The dungeons are all pretty decent with no stand outs in my mind that i'd be upset to see in a roulette, but all of this pales in comparison to the trails.
I am of the firm belief that this expac was the BEST for raiding content. Outside of the constant references to classic FF games with Shinryu/Omega/Kefka/Exdeath, the fights themselves also just really experimented with gimmicks that leave them really memorable to me. Shinryu EX was basically like a whole different boss fight and I loved the heads you have to heal to remove giving healers something else to do, along with running along the tail before the final phase feeling so cool. I love the byakko freefall segment where you dodge bullets, the suzaku dance dance revolution minigame, the swapping of waning/waxing moon debuffs on tsukuyomi, and the Duty Action mechanic lent itself to some extra gimmicks like anti-gravity for o2 or the electrical current to charge objects/destroy hands in o11. Even the alliance raid series was really damn fun to play all of, and as a Final Fantasy Tactics fan it added that much more to it (even if the story wasn't really that good, the fights were incredible). I can see people irritated by the forced downtime some of the gimmicks provided when trying to farm EX or do roulettes, but in my opinion they don't take much out of a fight. And besides, with the way content is now I would personally prefer a fun and interesting gimmick that takes me out of the fight for half a minute than fights that struggle to leave an impact with every patch introducing a fight with a limit cut that makes the mechanic feel overused. My favorite fights from this are either Shinryu Ex or Kefka
This is also the first expac I'd say that the music team started showing absolute quality everywhere. I think every single Four Lords fight is some of the best music in the game, with Amatsu Kaze being a personal favorite song of mine in the game period, but there's plenty to be found everywhere you go during the Stormblood journey!
Another thing worth mentioning is Eureka, an entire mode that's meant to resemble FFXI but given some fresh spins with the XIV formula. I never played XI, but I had a fun time with it when it wasn't spent grinding for hours to get to max level. They also introduced Ultimate level content with Unending Coil of Bahamut and Ultima weapon Ultimate, and while I never saw myself doing these (or even savage) at the time, at the time of writing this I've even gone back to clear UWU :).
Overall, this expac is what really made me become obsessed with this game, the gameplay and fights had a sweet balance for me and even where the story lacked, it was made up for in spades by the enjoyment I had with the content.
For story to be honest, I don't think it will grip someone nearly as much as it could Heavensward. All its plot points are decent, but my combined dislike for Lyse's arc and the general weak resolution of "take down empirical monarchy by replacing the head with someone that's our friend" is a pretty sad ending for the residents of the lands. This is also the expac that introduces Zenos who you have probably seen if you're on twitter at all. He's alright, a good chunk of what makes him interesting takes a while to sink in, and is even relegated to small side stories that are contained in supplemental materials like the compilation book of side stories. But in the end it's all serviceable and can give you a good time here or there.
The areas of this expac are kind of a grab bag. On one hand all the Gyr Abania zones have very little to distinct them, while Othard hosts more varied and interesting locations. But to be honest, the meat of this expac is all in the gameplay.
Jobs all reached level 70 this expac, and it also brought in some real fan favorites with Samurai and Red mage. 70 is where I'd say almost every job in the game has gotten the tools that form its core identity and rotation, and in general I personally liked the version of Astrologian we had here more than any of the replacements we've got later down the line. The dungeons are all pretty decent with no stand outs in my mind that i'd be upset to see in a roulette, but all of this pales in comparison to the trails.
I am of the firm belief that this expac was the BEST for raiding content. Outside of the constant references to classic FF games with Shinryu/Omega/Kefka/Exdeath, the fights themselves also just really experimented with gimmicks that leave them really memorable to me. Shinryu EX was basically like a whole different boss fight and I loved the heads you have to heal to remove giving healers something else to do, along with running along the tail before the final phase feeling so cool. I love the byakko freefall segment where you dodge bullets, the suzaku dance dance revolution minigame, the swapping of waning/waxing moon debuffs on tsukuyomi, and the Duty Action mechanic lent itself to some extra gimmicks like anti-gravity for o2 or the electrical current to charge objects/destroy hands in o11. Even the alliance raid series was really damn fun to play all of, and as a Final Fantasy Tactics fan it added that much more to it (even if the story wasn't really that good, the fights were incredible). I can see people irritated by the forced downtime some of the gimmicks provided when trying to farm EX or do roulettes, but in my opinion they don't take much out of a fight. And besides, with the way content is now I would personally prefer a fun and interesting gimmick that takes me out of the fight for half a minute than fights that struggle to leave an impact with every patch introducing a fight with a limit cut that makes the mechanic feel overused. My favorite fights from this are either Shinryu Ex or Kefka
This is also the first expac I'd say that the music team started showing absolute quality everywhere. I think every single Four Lords fight is some of the best music in the game, with Amatsu Kaze being a personal favorite song of mine in the game period, but there's plenty to be found everywhere you go during the Stormblood journey!
Another thing worth mentioning is Eureka, an entire mode that's meant to resemble FFXI but given some fresh spins with the XIV formula. I never played XI, but I had a fun time with it when it wasn't spent grinding for hours to get to max level. They also introduced Ultimate level content with Unending Coil of Bahamut and Ultima weapon Ultimate, and while I never saw myself doing these (or even savage) at the time, at the time of writing this I've even gone back to clear UWU :).
Overall, this expac is what really made me become obsessed with this game, the gameplay and fights had a sweet balance for me and even where the story lacked, it was made up for in spades by the enjoyment I had with the content.
This review contains spoilers
Heavensward is a beloved expansion by many fans, and with it being a part of the free trial it really lets people know if all the time sunk into the game will be worth it for the long run, because if this doesn't click either then it's probably not going to be worth buying the full game, expansions, and paying a subscription. So, what are my thoughts on the story of this expansion?
It's alright.
I really don't get too much out of it outside of the roadtrip vibes and church bad, but I will say I do enjoy the plotlines where it focuses around the dragons specifically with the story of Saint Shiva and Hraesvelgar or Nidhogg, but the rest doesn't do too much for me. Yes, even the major death everyone cries about was just kinda abrupt and didn't really invoke anything for me. I feel it would probably do something more for me if I had actually spend a couple years trapped in ARR like old players of the game had been, but since I didn't it's just how I feel about it. In general all the major ally deaths weren't great in this one, but like I said I really enjoyed 3.3 and other dragon-focused parts of the narrative.
I forgot to add this in the ARR segment because tbh none of the areas do anything really special for me, but one upside this expac has is a lot of the areas you visit are really cool! I think Azys Lla alone is worth the journey to if you like playing rpgs/mmos just to see cool zones, and the song for it is also a banger.
The gameplay is where I think this expac excelled. Again, it's hard to feel this way too long when the new level cap is 90, but I think jobs got a lot of what was integral to their identities in this expac, as well as it introducing 3 very unique and interesting jobs (that as of writing this, all got fundamentally changed to what they used to be, for better and worse). The dungeons are a step up, but also introduce my least favorite dungeon Xelphatol, but the trials are a big increase in enjoyability for me! I'd say my favorite is a coin flip between the Nidhogg trial and Sophia, but I also have to admit I sort of like Dun Scaith despite that one being a DF nightmare.
Overall this expansion was really a step in the right direction. Dragonsong is an extremely powerful song that really carries emotion well and ends up making me care about the experience as a whole more than I should've, and the teaser showing off a certain beetle and dragon was a great cliffhanger to get me excited for the next expac!
It's alright.
I really don't get too much out of it outside of the roadtrip vibes and church bad, but I will say I do enjoy the plotlines where it focuses around the dragons specifically with the story of Saint Shiva and Hraesvelgar or Nidhogg, but the rest doesn't do too much for me. Yes, even the major death everyone cries about was just kinda abrupt and didn't really invoke anything for me. I feel it would probably do something more for me if I had actually spend a couple years trapped in ARR like old players of the game had been, but since I didn't it's just how I feel about it. In general all the major ally deaths weren't great in this one, but like I said I really enjoyed 3.3 and other dragon-focused parts of the narrative.
I forgot to add this in the ARR segment because tbh none of the areas do anything really special for me, but one upside this expac has is a lot of the areas you visit are really cool! I think Azys Lla alone is worth the journey to if you like playing rpgs/mmos just to see cool zones, and the song for it is also a banger.
The gameplay is where I think this expac excelled. Again, it's hard to feel this way too long when the new level cap is 90, but I think jobs got a lot of what was integral to their identities in this expac, as well as it introducing 3 very unique and interesting jobs (that as of writing this, all got fundamentally changed to what they used to be, for better and worse). The dungeons are a step up, but also introduce my least favorite dungeon Xelphatol, but the trials are a big increase in enjoyability for me! I'd say my favorite is a coin flip between the Nidhogg trial and Sophia, but I also have to admit I sort of like Dun Scaith despite that one being a DF nightmare.
Overall this expansion was really a step in the right direction. Dragonsong is an extremely powerful song that really carries emotion well and ends up making me care about the experience as a whole more than I should've, and the teaser showing off a certain beetle and dragon was a great cliffhanger to get me excited for the next expac!
Oh hey, they have them all separated so I can actually rate each one based on how I feel, that'll be fun and totally not take up hours of my day!
Anyways, for the basegame of ARR I will say pretty much every review that says "ARR story is boring" is unfortunately completely right. If you're an MMO player exclusively it might actually grip you seeing as MMOs are mostly played for the combat and content, at least IMO, but if you're just a jRPG/FF fan checking this game out you'd be pretty disappointed with the A Realm Reborn story segment for how really uninteresting it is. The biggest issue for me is there's so much of it that falls apart on replay or any real thought about "why IS this character doing this. why am I bothering with this questline", and even more it relies on you having knowledge of a literal dead game in FFXIV 1.0 for everything to land. I love the coils of bahamut storyline and think it's awesome, but the best parts of it only really conclude well if you look up cutscenes from a dead MMO nearly everyone hated that actively tarnished the reputation of FF.
And honestly, the gameplay is what carried me through my early days of playing this game alongside staring at my cute WoL and playing around with a friend with absolutely no real end goal in sight. I think that the dungeons are all fun when you don't have a bitch in your ear telling you they're nasty, but over the years a mix of oversimplification to the dungeon layouts and base job kits have made them ever so slightly less interesting or memorable.
My favorite fight out of all the content in ARR is probably T13 of the coils, but if you want something that would actually reasonably pop and clear in a synced queue then Shiva is pretty cool.
Overall, this is a really long and bloated part of an MMO that you have to tell someone "nonono, it gets better later on!" to pray they actually commit and go to the later parts. It isn't horrendous hence the 3 stars, but it's very clearly the weakest part of the game.
Anyways, for the basegame of ARR I will say pretty much every review that says "ARR story is boring" is unfortunately completely right. If you're an MMO player exclusively it might actually grip you seeing as MMOs are mostly played for the combat and content, at least IMO, but if you're just a jRPG/FF fan checking this game out you'd be pretty disappointed with the A Realm Reborn story segment for how really uninteresting it is. The biggest issue for me is there's so much of it that falls apart on replay or any real thought about "why IS this character doing this. why am I bothering with this questline", and even more it relies on you having knowledge of a literal dead game in FFXIV 1.0 for everything to land. I love the coils of bahamut storyline and think it's awesome, but the best parts of it only really conclude well if you look up cutscenes from a dead MMO nearly everyone hated that actively tarnished the reputation of FF.
And honestly, the gameplay is what carried me through my early days of playing this game alongside staring at my cute WoL and playing around with a friend with absolutely no real end goal in sight. I think that the dungeons are all fun when you don't have a bitch in your ear telling you they're nasty, but over the years a mix of oversimplification to the dungeon layouts and base job kits have made them ever so slightly less interesting or memorable.
My favorite fight out of all the content in ARR is probably T13 of the coils, but if you want something that would actually reasonably pop and clear in a synced queue then Shiva is pretty cool.
Overall, this is a really long and bloated part of an MMO that you have to tell someone "nonono, it gets better later on!" to pray they actually commit and go to the later parts. It isn't horrendous hence the 3 stars, but it's very clearly the weakest part of the game.
2021
Oh man, this is one of my favorite Final Fantasy games ever! Coming fresh off the tail of FF4 comes a game with better music, story, characters, and more! I'm listing the Pixel Remaster version here despite routinely playing the GBA version more, but most of that is cause of patience issues and being able to use emulator speedup through cutscenes I've seen plenty of times before. This version loses a bit of content as does any Pixel Remaster compared to other ports, but in this case I never really play with the GBA content anyways so it doesn't factor into my mind.
Story as a whole takes a step back from the more serious tone of FF4 while still knowing when to be serious and make it count. For every scene of the cast ribbing around there's an equal amount filled with a fair bit of sadness or despair and eventual triumph that really makes them feel like a group of friends on an adventure that blows up to be larger than they could have ever expected. In particular the scene that precedes getting the 5th party member is one I think about almost all the time when I think of this game, and maybe even Final Fantasy as a whole. And the main antagonist of Exdeath is so simple but works so well within the context of the game that he's a real favorite of mine.
The main draw of this game for me however is the gameplay. Expanding on the Job system from 3 we get a more refined version with a bunch of distinct and iconic jobs that all play differently and learn a variety of abilities you can now choose to equip one of to add that extra level of depth to your teambuilding process. Red Mage might be underpowered in exchange for being a jack of all trades, but now if you max that job then the character gets access to the Dualcast ability to now throw on your favorite mage to make them even more of a force to be reckoned with. There's such a variety of party compositions that there's an annual charity event called Final Fantasy 5: Four Job Fiesta that I always take part of every year where you can be randomly assigned 4 jobs depending on the rules you choose and try to beat the game using only those jobs and it really tests your knowledge on encounters and how to handle the endgame where you can choose to go to the final dungeon at any time but miss out on optional rewards.
As a small note to anyone reading this unfamiliar with FF outside of XIV (if anyone even reads these) this is the game where Blue Mage originated from, so if you like that job you should definitely play this game cause I love playing blue mage in this game a lot.
Overall this game is leaps and bounds ahead of FF4 for me, but there are still a few downsides. The biggest one for me is despite really liking the design and character of Faris, they're treated rather poorly at times with scenes like the inn at the beginning of the game where they find out that they've got titties and the men do some awooga faces after seeing them. Also as someone who is transgender I can't say it feels great to see how much they refer to someone that started with "he" in the beginning as a woman. Yes, I understand it was just to be a pirate leader that they would present masculine and I'm not delusional enough to expect an actual trans character in an old game, but also it's my review so why do you care so much.
In the end though, I'm able to say that because of the awesome job system and fun cast this is easily a top 5, maybe even top 3 final fantasy game for me, and if you like job system games at all (Bravely series for a good example) then this game is worth checking out as well!
Story as a whole takes a step back from the more serious tone of FF4 while still knowing when to be serious and make it count. For every scene of the cast ribbing around there's an equal amount filled with a fair bit of sadness or despair and eventual triumph that really makes them feel like a group of friends on an adventure that blows up to be larger than they could have ever expected. In particular the scene that precedes getting the 5th party member is one I think about almost all the time when I think of this game, and maybe even Final Fantasy as a whole. And the main antagonist of Exdeath is so simple but works so well within the context of the game that he's a real favorite of mine.
The main draw of this game for me however is the gameplay. Expanding on the Job system from 3 we get a more refined version with a bunch of distinct and iconic jobs that all play differently and learn a variety of abilities you can now choose to equip one of to add that extra level of depth to your teambuilding process. Red Mage might be underpowered in exchange for being a jack of all trades, but now if you max that job then the character gets access to the Dualcast ability to now throw on your favorite mage to make them even more of a force to be reckoned with. There's such a variety of party compositions that there's an annual charity event called Final Fantasy 5: Four Job Fiesta that I always take part of every year where you can be randomly assigned 4 jobs depending on the rules you choose and try to beat the game using only those jobs and it really tests your knowledge on encounters and how to handle the endgame where you can choose to go to the final dungeon at any time but miss out on optional rewards.
As a small note to anyone reading this unfamiliar with FF outside of XIV (if anyone even reads these) this is the game where Blue Mage originated from, so if you like that job you should definitely play this game cause I love playing blue mage in this game a lot.
Overall this game is leaps and bounds ahead of FF4 for me, but there are still a few downsides. The biggest one for me is despite really liking the design and character of Faris, they're treated rather poorly at times with scenes like the inn at the beginning of the game where they find out that they've got titties and the men do some awooga faces after seeing them. Also as someone who is transgender I can't say it feels great to see how much they refer to someone that started with "he" in the beginning as a woman. Yes, I understand it was just to be a pirate leader that they would present masculine and I'm not delusional enough to expect an actual trans character in an old game, but also it's my review so why do you care so much.
In the end though, I'm able to say that because of the awesome job system and fun cast this is easily a top 5, maybe even top 3 final fantasy game for me, and if you like job system games at all (Bravely series for a good example) then this game is worth checking out as well!
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.
2021
The original Famicom version of this game has been kind of a guilty pleasure for me lol. My friends all have thoughts on it that range from it being mid to being actively awful, but idk I can just have a good time with it. I've heard of all the things the DS version changes and have tried to play it before, but overall I just like this version the best. I was excited to see this game the most out of anything from the pixel remaster when it was announced cause it had the biggest chance to fix a big part of the problem with this game, being the few bosses that just spam one single high damage AOE attack and maybe adding in a save circle or two to the Crystal Tower. The latter was semi-resolved by the autosave system which actually lets you die to a boss and not lose half an hour of progress which is a plus, but the former... really isn't touched upon at all. The difference between Garuda/Final Boss in the original to now is they have a very low chance to randomly do an auto attack that does pitiful damage instead of the giant aoes that are a dragoon/advanced job check, and this doesn't really fix the main issue with those bosses.
The story is also a bit on the bland and void side, with most of the intrigue being retroactive thanks to Final Fantasy XIV dev Naoki Yoshida loving this game and putting major players from this into that game constantly. But for what I do like: the job system is still fun even in this bare-bones state and forced usage in certain areas/bosses, and the music is phenomenal even in the FC version but really gets brought up to an 11 with the remastered tracks (seriously go listen to the PR version of Eternal Wind if you haven't). Another moment that really sells this game for me is when you first get the airship that lets you fly anywhere on the map, only for you to eventually fly out of the map limit and reveal that the whole area you started the game on was only a small chunk of a larger vast world.
Overall, I think this game is worth checking out if you were a fan of the job systems from later games like 5/12 to see how they first originated, and if you get irritated there's no shame in using a guide or just dropping it to move on!
The story is also a bit on the bland and void side, with most of the intrigue being retroactive thanks to Final Fantasy XIV dev Naoki Yoshida loving this game and putting major players from this into that game constantly. But for what I do like: the job system is still fun even in this bare-bones state and forced usage in certain areas/bosses, and the music is phenomenal even in the FC version but really gets brought up to an 11 with the remastered tracks (seriously go listen to the PR version of Eternal Wind if you haven't). Another moment that really sells this game for me is when you first get the airship that lets you fly anywhere on the map, only for you to eventually fly out of the map limit and reveal that the whole area you started the game on was only a small chunk of a larger vast world.
Overall, I think this game is worth checking out if you were a fan of the job systems from later games like 5/12 to see how they first originated, and if you get irritated there's no shame in using a guide or just dropping it to move on!
2021
Is is one of the worst mainline Final Fantasy games? Yeah, I think so. Is it a terrible game not worth playing? Absolutely not if you're a big fan of the series and already played quite a few of them. It tried to do something very interesting with the leveling system that I can respect, it just unfortunately didn't quite hit the mark. While this version made the game trivially easy (unless it was normal difficulty and I've just played this game enough to get around easily) I think that's the best way to experience the game since it lets you skip most of the grinding in the original release and speed through aggressively okay to bad dungeon design to experience a story that was rather ahead of its time, which for me personally was probably the best story in FF until FF5 came out. Dawn of Souls technically has an extra mode for a bit more content, but personally I don't think it's worth playing a whole version for unless you're already planning on playing the game on GBA, in which case go for it.
I think the original NES game is still fine, I even own a cartridge of it and like to boot it up every now and then, and the pixel remaster is cool, but to me the GBA/PSP version of the game with additional content adds a lot of fun to the experience! You won't miss anything spectacular playing other versions, but the bonus dungeons offer some fun extra challenges for your team to take on in a game that's rather simple and easy to steamroll through the story in ~5 hours. Are they any more difficult? Not really if you know what to do, but it still tickles a part of my mentally ill brain in a good way.
2022
It's an alright souls game if you care about them for the fights, you have a fair bit of variety that can make fighting the same boss a completely different experience with just a single respec. But if you're someone who likes to explore areas in games just to see visually stunning setpieces then this is easily the best game to do so. There's so many colorful and diverse areas with my personal favorite being Nokron, and some of the best characters they've had in souls period. Overall I think this is a great game to play once, but on repeats might lose a bit of charm when you've already explored the vast world in detail and are just treating it like a boss rush.