FINAL FANTASY IV

You spoony bard! 10/10

One of the best FF games of all time. The Pixel Remaster Edition is awesome and adds some great quality of life features.

Dude Like It's like Final Fantasy XIV :Endwalker Man

classic

10/10

[h1]I genuinely love Final Fantasy 4.[/h1] In essence, Final Fantasy IV is the first-generation mold of future FF behemoths that has shaped the roots and legends of the franchise. Packed with a great cast of characters, a surprisingly emotional story of the world’s crystals, the introduction of the iconic ATB system, the ever-evolving soulful melodies and mysteries of its music composition… I really could keep going, but as you can tell, Final Fantasy 4 IS an easy recommend for anyone wanting to hop in. If you want to learn a bit more, feel free to proceed to the rest of the review! [h2]Story + Characters[/h2] I’ll try to keep it brief and spoiler-free, but this game has been out for almost 3 decades- hard to avoid! We follow the journey of Cecil, the Dark Knight of the Kingdom of Baron, raiding the village of Mysidia for their Crystal. As he starts to question the orders of his king, he is quickly thrown into a sinister plot by the forces of darkness to chase the 4 light Crystals for an unknown purpose. Along the way, we get to meet a wonderful cast of characters, such as the Summoner Rydia (favourite mage so far!), the iconic Dragoon Kain Highwind, the beautiful White Mage Rosa, and more as Cecil journey continues. The story is tight, straight to the point yet still has room to play with the personalities and choices the individuals face in each story beat. The game is still primitive in its storytelling capacity, but way more compelling than previous entries. FFIV isn’t afraid to pull some punches that you may predict will happen, as it is definitely the first game in the series in which characters in your party will not be permanent (until a certain point). Some plot points had hit me in the usual “Damn, that sucks…” spots, but there were other points I was not expecting. The story is great overall, and if this game ever got a remake of some fashion, FFIV’s story and cast of characters would definitely shine, particularly with the extra-iconic antagonist Golbez. [h2]Gameplay[/h2] FFIV PR follows up on the previous entries’ turn-based combat by introducing the iconic ATB system, removing the strict, outmodeled your-turn/my-turn system in favour of a real-time ready gauge system. Unlike previous entries, your actions are additionally dictated by time. Every button press will matter, as the enemy will not wait for you to finish your turn EXCEPT for one major, default exception. As of my last playthrough, the default setting for ATB is ‘Wait’ as opposed to the true-to-term ‘Active’. This means that as long as you’re looking through your spell/item menus, the enemy will actually wait for you to finish your input before executing their turn. For a harder, more active experience, I recommend turning the setting to ‘Active’. Aside from that, FFIV also introduces the concept of tying the original job system to characters, further enhancing the individuality of each character. The usual ship and airship combo makes a return- like previous entries, access to the vehicles are tied to the story as well. Usual gameplay consists of random encounters throughout the world as you traverse the land. Depending on where you are in the story, the game constrains you to the land thestory requires you in, but not so corridor-ly that you’re left with no room to grind. As with previous FFs, you possess the freedom to explore your current area, complete with the set of towns, dungeons and open areas for EXP and Gil grinds. Overall, not too much for me to critique as it returns the usual gameplay systems with open arms (of which I do personally enjoy), with massive improvements on a couple of its core systems. Coupled with the Pixel Remaster’s Boost settings, grinding has also become easier which enables franchise runners like me to enjoy the story without too much pause. [h2]Music[/h2] Nobuo Uematsu has done it again. FFIV’s original music is phenomenal, with each entry always being a step-up from the last, but with the introduction of FFIV to the 16-bit era, you just hear more of… everything. More emotion, more instruments, longer song length, more moments for characters to have their own music… even the Boss themes are so good. Unfortunately I have not listened to the Pixel Remaster-exclusive Arrangement, but from the few songs I’ve listened to… let’s just say I would explore another playthrough in the future with the PR Arrangement. [h2]Conclusionado[/h2] Easiest 9/10 I’ve given, and my favourite of the 2D FF era. If you do want to play the 16-bit era of the FF franchise, I implore you to start here!

SQUARE ENIX!!! GIVE ME THE AFTER YEARS (and the interlude too i guess lol) PIXEL PERFECT AND MY LIFE IS YOURS!!!! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE!!!! I WILL DIE FOR SQUARE ENIX!!!