GREETINGS GAMERS FROM ALL AROUND THE WORLD AND FINAL FANTASY ENJOYERS

Very minor spoilers ahead: character names, song names, ambiguous scene descriptions

Finally having dealt with the embodiment of darkness (which was pretty hot, not gonna lie) in FF3, it was nigh time for me to embark on the journey that is FF4.
Similarly to previous installments, this game is a standalone entry and self contained story in the series with recurring themes typical of a Final Fantasy game: that one guy named Cid that has something to do with airships, chocobos, Black & White magic, elemental Crystals, Dragoons and the list goes on.

This time around, the cast is named yet again, thus more in the vein of FF2, rather than FF1 and FF3. Our main protagonist is Cecil, a Dark Knight serving the kingdom of Baron and the game opens with a mission gone rather not as expected. As far as the plot goes, it's definitely a Final Fantasy-esque story, full of twists and turns for you and your companions where you eventually beat up the big bad guy and emerge victorious, thus saving the world! Compared to FF3s rather whimsical and wacky tone, FF4 turns in for a more serious, heartfelt story, although not completely devoid of comedic moments (such as when Cid hangs out with you). Overall the story was enjoyable and I preferred this plot more than FF3s.
The cast is full of endearing and interesting characters (such as Cid with his very upbeat attitude or the flippant Edge) and our main character, Cecil, proves to be rather complex as well, making him very compelling from the very start of the game.

The game retains the typical FF mechanics until now with one single major change: the introduction of the Active Time Battle system, known to some by its acronym the ATB. This is a massive game changer, as now all characters have to charge up their turn before making an action and unfortunately for the player, the enemies can attack as you decide your next move, even multiple times! As such, a much more hectic and engaged approach to combat is required. Thankfully, the pixel remaster edition will let you to slightly tweak the system by activating the wait option: all combat pauses as per a typical turn based game when selecting spells and items. As far as difficulty goes, this was more in line with FF3, with no particular cheese strategies but not ballbusting or gimmicky aside from the final boss requiring me to grind an additional 5 levels for my party members in order to take it down. A rather streamlined and balanced experience with segments that range from easy to challenging for a casual gamer like me.

Visuals! Similarly to the previous Pixel Remaster entries, FF4 PR has a beautiful pixel art style, with great backgrounds and spritework. I've looked online comparing the original, mobile and this versions sprites and I have to say these are the prettiest, with a similar feel to the original game. Similarly to FF2, our main cast even have portraits in the main menu, which is a neat feature I appreciate. As usual, the spell & battle effects take the main slice of take with their flashy and over the top visuals (meteor & Bahamut in particular are very cool).

Music is as usual, phenomenal. I gave the original soundtrack from the SNES a listen and I can confidently say that they managed to capture the same feels with this new soundtrack. In some story segments, the tunes absolutely enhance the entire scene, making some of them unforgettable. Favourite tracks: Overworld theme, love song, sad song, land of summons theme.

Overall, I think FF4 is a strong entry in the Final Fantasy franchise. The story is great, a very interesting tale of betrayal, forgiveness, faith and ones mission. To think such a great story was in video game format 30 years ago is very impressive. In my opinion, if you want an "og final fantasy experience" this would be the first game I'd recommend as it encompasses everything that I think makes Final Fantasy well, Final Fantasy.
I wholeheartedly recommend this game both to people looking for their first entry to FF series and to people on the edge on whether to continue playing the series after finishing (or dropping) FF3.

So long and see you in Final Fantasy V my fellow JRPG aficionados and Final Fantasy enjoyers, thank you for reading.

FFIV feels a bit like a second Final Fantasy I to me. Not because the games are super similar (if anything, IV is like a much improved version of II), but because IV sort of feels like a reset for the franchise, and a new first game in the series since every following installment would sort of follow in its mold, with a large focus on narrative and presentation, and streamlining the actual RPG part by having characters with predetermined roles that you could only slightly adjust rather than molding them in whichever way one chooses.

Being the first game trying out this form of Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy IV is naturally extremely simplistic in almost every way, but that's not really a bad thing since FFIV turns out to be, yes, very basic, but also really polished and efficient in almost every thing it tries to do. The battle system is about as basic as it gets, but it gets the job done and unlike, say, Sea of Stars, no fight overstays its welcome and if you do need to grind (not really required in this Pixel Remaster, but still), random encounters go by so fast that it's barely ever an issue. Boss fights still require some thought, but the game doesn't really require enough of you that you can't ever realize your errors in a fight without being able to course correct before catastrophe strikes. FFIV is probably the perfect first JRPG for anyone interested in the genre thanks to this, with battles both being so snappy, and the difficulty being fairly low and relaxing. Even the dungeons are surprisingly chill, most of them being pretty short and a lot more straightforward than in the NES games, though still with several secrets for those who want to explore. The final boss is kind of a huge difficulty spike, (as well as the final dungeon, though I'm pretty sure the Pixel Remaster's greatly lowered the insane encounter rate from the original release) but certainly nothing impossible even for a novice of the genre.

Storywise FFIV is simple by today's standards, but it's certainly not unambitious. Sure, it's annoying how weakminded Kain is, and how so many characters choose to do a noble sacrifice only to appear miraculously alive later in the game, but it does weave a really intriguing three act story about love - first for Cecil's kingdom, then for the one he loves (pretty insane that this super simple 1991 game does its love story between the two protagonists so much better than 2023's FFXVI, by the way), and then for the entire world that he's explored and learned more about in previous two acts. It does move at an insanely fast pace (case in point: I managed to Platinum the game in 19 hours without using any cheats, and that was a lot of time spent grinding for the secret summons and the Pink Tail) where about a million things happen and you visit an insane amount of places and dungeons in a very short time span, but it works really well and despite the characters being pretty paper thin, their motivations to protect something always shines through and is a great motivator to continue the quest and leads up to a great finale.

The Pixel Remaster is a great way to play FFIV by the way, but it's probably the first time I've felt like I actually prefer the original. Not for gameplay reasons, but because I've always really liked the spritework of FFIV, being in this weird place between very advanced NES and very primitive SNES that doesn't really look like any other Final Fantasy, and where every character's overworld sprite wears miscolored clothes and is extremely tanned for some reason. I also just plain prefer most of the SNES soundtrack since the compositions very clearly were not meant for anything other than that sound chip, though the final boss theme is fantastic in this new version.

i hate when i go to review a game and i feel like i don't really have my own unique opinion to share. i felt myself agreeing with other reviewers (most notably @DianeThePunk ) for the most part on this game. i'm not really the biggest fan of this game's story. it was so nonsensical most of the time it borderlined on parody, especially in the mid to late-game. i'm also not really a fan of the ATB battle system as a whole, although that can be chalked up to personal preference. i absolutely respect what this game for the series, but it's not a game i'll probably replay anytime soon

This should be the first final fantasy game people should try out if they never played any of the 8-16bit era. This one is easier than previous entries but the characters are more lively and the story is somewhat more structured ( you go to the moon lmaoooo) Again its missing the extra content from the gba and the after years. Music is amazing, the remaster track "Theme of Love" is a godsend. I would recommend people play the psp or even the 3d remakes on ds/pc there are more brutal and the pc version had the after years!!!!! POM in the after years becomes a lil baddie!

Before beating the final boss, I wrote this:

Finished everything else but the final boss was a bit unfair, so skipped that.
Enjoyed the game overall, and the Pixel Remaster adds some really needed boosts that helped me even get through it. But there's definitely signs of archaic design here that I'm glad we've mostly done away with in the years since.
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After beating the final boss, I wrote this:

Now that I've properly beaten the game - An excellent game through and through. A bit of the design of the game has aged with regard to some of the bosses, but at the end of the day I had a great time. Greatly aided by the xp boosts in the Pixel Remaster, do not shy away from using these!

Good game. Seems to be when the franchise started getting more story-driven. The pacing of the story and the character development is much better than the previous 3 titles, and much easier to follow as well. It's also interesting to see that a lot of series staples were introduced here, especially in terms of storytelling, one example being the "power of friendship" trope that is used in a lot of other titles.

One negative aspect, though: I'm not a fan of "fake killing" of characters. It happens quite often in this game and I think that reduces the narrative impact of the deaths because then you just start ignoring them.

FF4 is a fantastic game on its own merits, but it's especially impressive in the context of the series and gaming as a whole.

I really believe FF4 moved the series forward in a major way, from its heavy story focus to its massive universe. It managed to intertwine each character's story with their actual job, and managed to create a captivating protagonist in a way that FF2's Firion hadn't quite achieved. Most importantly, the fact that we went to the moon shows just how imaginative games were. Incredible.

Final Fantasy IV is the first game in the series to make great progress with the leap to a new generation of consoles. You notice this right from the start when you are greeted by a lengthy in-game cutscene instead of a text crawl. This sets the mood wonderfully. And that is important because until this game the world and the characters had never had so much depth. Something which Squaresoft will continue to refine and perfect. Friends become enemies, short travelling companions grow on you and more twists decorate the exciting path from the captain of an air force unit to the saviour of the blue planet. And here in the fourth part of the series, it is Sakaguchi who begins throwing the fate of characters in our faces. Everyone remembers that one scene from Final Fantasy VII, but three games prior you shouldn't get too attached either. Another revolutionary change is the introduction of Active Time Battle, which should bring more tension and urgency to the battles. And they are not wrong. However, I think that with many characters, especially when they can attack in a close time frame, it brings much more stress than tension. Even with the option to set ATB to Wait, it only pauses when selecting spells and items, but not when a character has filled his bar. Otherwise, the battles play out quite similarly to before. We are surprised by a group of monsters and we have to kill them before we die. But wait: This time there are some encounters that actually require tactics instead of just attacking and healing. There are boss fights with clear patterns like enemies casting Reflect on friends or bosses tanking. This doesn't get particularly deep but it's a welcome change from mostly auto-battling. Level up continues to be character based and spells use MP instead of slots. The locations and dungeons are wonderfully designed, sometimes with parallax backgrounds and finally no longer have that pipe-like design. It's really fun to fight your way through the areas, some of which have dangerous floors. And then there is a twist or two as far as the world map is concerned. In general, the game manages to give the impression of a living world with an ongoing story. The world does not only exist during the playthrough. Yes, Final Fantasy IV is a true masterpiece, but it doesn't come without a few flaws this time either. After some imperfections already noted, part four also fails to create an exciting boss fight. Again, it only uses powerful attacks and we try to finish it off before we are dead. In addition, there is grinding to expand the sufficient HP and MP pool and a long introduction to the fight that is repeated after every wipe. Ugh... And the boss doesn't look interesting this time either. Even though I found the last fight incredibly annoying, it's the way to get there that is once again exciting. The story around each of our characters, twists, love affairs and betrayals is too entertaining for that. So once again, it's the world and the characters that make a Final Fantasy game stand out and become a truly great game.

The game that set the bar for future Final Fantasy's. Both in pushing the genre forward onto new hardware and improving on the groundwork the previous games in the series have, this game in a lot of ways still feels modern in design.

You never stick with one group of characters for long, and each dungeon in the game provides a unique twist that keeps the game engaging. You're constantly moving from one interesting objective and set piece to the next, sometimes to the detriment of the characters and story but never failing to keep you hooked.

A great game and probably the oldest Final Fantasy I'd recommend to people who aren't hardcore rpg or retro game fans.