Reviews from

in the past


Despite some minor nitpicks with some story elements, this is a great game and by far my favorite final fantasy yet. The part switching annoyed me, wspecially when I got Edge 10 levels lower than all my party members, but those are only minor complaints. The story is a massive high point so far, and has actual characters with personalities and arcs. Besides some fake outs I was very into the story and I anxiously await to play The After Years

The upgrade from FF3 is immense, however more interestingly this is where the franchise got into actually good storytelling. As much as I enjoyed the experimentation with deeper writing and characters in FF2, it had a LOT of problems that are completely fixed here. In a way this is a perfect sequel to FF2, while being completely different from 3.

The changed combat is also really cool, even if it did make the game more stressful.

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!

first SNES final and definitely where for better and for worse the switch to that timed rpg and a bigger focus on spectacle and more linear story progression happened

aside though this game was a pain to play through not from any fault of its own I just had no sleep last night had to drive to the airport and back for my mom then got hit with one of the hottest days of the year I just felt like I was melting and half asleep the whole day and I still got work later wish me luck


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.

pretty funny how phoenix downs are only 100 gil

good game but unfortunately the origin of ATB :(

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.

This review contains spoilers

HOLYYYYYYYYYY SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT. This game is somehow even better than FF3! Ok lets start with this games many positives. Level ups are even quicker in this game than in previous games while still making a quite large difference in the power of your character between levels. The story is insane just for it being the first FF game with a REAL story. The previous games all attempted stories but this is the first one with an ACTUAL story. Characters, Motivations, Betrayal it's all here and makes for an insanely entertaining and gripping story especially in comparison to FF1,2 and 3. This game was also the introduction of the active time battle system which ditches the more traditional turn based system for a system that combines turn based actions with real time elements such as when the enemy attacks. I feel that this system works incredibly well in this game. Even though i initially thought it was too chaotic at the start of the game, I grew to enjoy the system and especially the improvements made in other areas. The world is even bigger than in previous games while still being more densely packed with content. In FF1 you would often have several minutes of walking between locations especially with random encounters included. This game opts often to shorten the distance required to get from location to location which is refreshing. Another massive thing that I love about this game is how non-existent grinding is. As long as you fight every random encounter you will be very ready for the final boss. This game's pacing overall is immaculate there is practically never a dull moment in the game and its also a bit shorter than other FF games. My completion time for this game was 3 hours shorter than FF3 but It felt like there was even more things going on than in that game. With all of that said I have to unfortunately talk about the one bad point in this game... the final boss. Not only is it way too easy (I literally beat it while forgetting phoenix downs and having 3/5ths of my party dead near the start) the character who ends up being the final boss gets very little setup. He basically shows up in the last hour of the game and is like "Yo guys im here now" and It really reduces the impact of the final boss. Personally no matter how cliche it would've been i really feel like Golbez would've been better as a final boss. He is set up the entire game as this formidable unbeatable foe yet you never get to fight him proper. Every "fight" with him is a cutscene where you all get your ass beat. It would've been immensely gratifying to kick his ass in a final boss battle. In conclusion, if the story of the NES era games really doesn't do it for you than i can actually recommend this game as a starting point. It's an absolutely unforgettable experience and an insane improvement over the previous games.

Gameplay? Really good. Story? Fakeouts galore and super on-the-nose dialogue that makes me roll my eyes. The 3D remake has a new script, so maybe that'll be a better experiance?

Feels like the first grand FF story and the point where they started working out how to do proper characters. Great game and a must play for any FF fan.

This game is very obviously where Square started to gain their footing with what exactly they wanted Final Fantasy to be. Graphics in the pixel remaster are fantastic. Each character in game is fleshed out enough to have a personality; this is contrary to the previous three games where story and character development was nonexistent. Gameplay is fine and is at times tedious. Overall very solid game and very important to the FF franchise.

This review contains spoilers

FFIV is kind of The JRPG Ever. It’s not bad, I didn’t dislike it, but it hasn’t actually done particularly much to stand out and has some very old RPG elements to it that somewhat stick out.

The plot, for the first two thirds of the game, is a decent surface level appropriate for the game. It’s hardly revolutionary, and even plays into some very classic tropes, but it doesn’t take itself particularly seriously, yet there’s just enough kernels of information to dig a bit deeper into the story and truly enjoy the narrative. While Cecil is a very generic protagonist, some of the supporting characters are very fun – I was very fond of Cid, Tellah, and Porom. Here’s the problem though: they don’t stick around.

FFIV has a strongly rotating party. You’ll always have Cecil, but the rest of your group is constantly switching in and out – the only person other than Cecil to join and never leave again is Edge, even though some of the other characters’ reasons for joining and leaving are very contrived. I’m considering playing the GBA version at some point just so I can keep Cid in my party, who I think would make more narrative sense than some of the characters you do have in the original/pixel remaster. Of course, some of the characters are more justified in why they leave/return – I find Tellah has a very satisfying arc over the course of this game and I wouldn’t change that. On the other hand, Rydia shows up in the underworld, says “hey I’m an adult now” after spending time in the Feymarch, and no one ever mentions it again. What did that add, exactly? Yang is also kind of the anti-Tellah. He’s cool when he’s around, but him surviving is an absolute deus ex of bullshit that should not have happened after his heroic sacrifice.

You’ll notice I mentioned “the first two thirds of the game”. Everything surrounding the moon and the Lunarians is kind of just completely unhinged and just destroys the suspension of disbelief. I genuinely think this game would have been better if the writers committed to Golbez being actually just evil and the villain of the game, rather than it being some guy we meet in the last 10 minutes of the game and Golbez was actually Cecil’s brother the whole time. The moon and Lunarians are foreshadowed a bit, but not nearly enough to have any sort of payoff and it seems like escalating the stakes for the sake of it, rather than for good storytelling.

Gameplaywise, I’m not sure that the devs of FFIV knew what a difficulty curve was. There are parts of the game which progress smoothly, but also some difficulty curves out of nowhere, and some particularly easy zones as well. This observation holds for regular encounters, bosses, and dungeons as well. You gain access to the Land of Summons and Sylvan Cave at the same time and they are completely mismatched in difficulty (Land of Summons is very easy, Sylvan Cave has batshit difficult random encounters). Bosses like Rubicante exist that can form change making it hard to time ATB around. And for every well-designed dungeon, there’s something stupid like Magnetic Cave. The endgame is also an enormous difficulty spike with Zeromus being a very difficult final boss even if you’ve breezed through the rest of the dungeon.

The rotating cast of characters also remove part of what I consider to be the fun of Final Fantasy, building and customizing your team. You don’t really get to let your party grow outside of Cecil. No matter what you do, your endgame party will consist of a paladin, white mage, dragoon, summoner/black mage, and ninja. It’s balanced, but there are other characters in this game and they’re ripped from you due to the plot (even though most of them are okay at the end). If you like Yang the monk or Edward the bard, Too Bad, you can’t use or grow them. You also lose both your sages who get both black and white magic, making Rosa your only (reliable) source of magical healing, and Rydia your main black magic user (Edge can use black magic but it’s hardly his main tool).

Ultimately, it’s fine. I’m glad I played it, I probably will be curious enough to try the GBA version someday (I really wanted to bring Cid to endgame), but as far as games go it’s Literally Okay. I had a baseline fun time (which is good, video gaming is my hobby and I hope I’d enjoy that!), but I’m not really sure that FFIV will be a game I look back on and remember fondly as much as have the sentiment “yeah that is a game that I have played” about. The highs just aren’t high enough and the lows just aren’t low enough to bring this out of The Game Ever status.

My first foray into the Pixel Remasters and well worth it. Love the story, although obviously its age shows.

How little self respect must you have to play this

My personal favorite FF of the "classic" era so far. This one was considered the standard bearer for a reason, as it boasted rich story and characters, great music, tightened gameplay, and (mostly) evenly paced dungeons.

The first of the pixel remasters that I would consider 'Great'. First three Final Fantasy were good to play out of curiosity but this one I thoroughly enjoyed. This one takes you to the moon!

Of all the Pixel Remasters, this felt like it benefitted the most from the glow-up. Lots of little missing things and an easy xp curve from launch was fixed to make something quite a bit more satisfying to play nowadays. I've a soft spot for other versions but the PR OST for IV elevates the game quite a bit with some of the best tracks of the entire PR series and this will likely be my go-to version in the future unless I'm feeling curious about an older release.

really solid, best characters you'll find in an early final fantasy
story and world is actually pretty compelling despite the generic fantasy tone and limited game length
def would reccomend

Sûrement le meilleur opus retro après le 6. Les personnages et l'histoire sont cool.

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.

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.

it's kinda like star wars, except vader is your brother, and the emperor is a space ghost on the moon

when they die i decide to dance

Generally the story was more solid. You get a better sense of the characters and their resolve. That doesn't stop the main character from being plain stupid at times.

Uh, I'm trying to find positives but all I see from my notes are negatives...so without further ado.

You can't see the buffs on the bosses. So if you're trying to cast a debuff or remove a buff from them, you can't tell what is on currently. Game tells you everything on stat menu BUT what your commands do on a character. How am I supposed to know what my actions do if you don't tell me? Good thing Google exists now.

There's an annoying amount of unwinnable fights in the story. You'll give everything you got until, oh, it was scripted. Cool. There's hidden walls you cannot see. I guess you're supposed to use your face and walk into every single wall for something hidden. Again doesn't hide the mouse cursor. Whyyyyyy.


First FF I complete, love the story & humor

Esse é o meu primeiro Final Fantasy clássico, então é meio difícil avaliar, já que não joguei nenhum na época. Mas vamos lá.

O que mais se destaca no game é a história e uma boa parte dos personagens principais. Se eu tivesse jogado esse game na época, teria achado a história incrível, por conta das diversas reviravoltas que acontecem nela e os personagens como Cecil e Kain. Porém, apesar de começar muito bem, com o tempo acaba ficando previsível. Fico imaginando como seria um remake desse game atualmente nos moldes do FFVII Remake; tem muita coisa que poderia ser melhor aqui.

O combate de turnos é bom no geral. O problema é que o tempo não para realmente quando você está selecionando a ação que irá tomar. Ele até para se você selecionar os menus de magias e itens, mas se ficar pensando em que ação irá tomar, o tempo continuará passando e os monstros te atacando, o que faz com que você não consiga pensar direito no que fazer e tenha que tomar a decisão do que fazer o mais rápido possível. Isso acaba deixando o combate chato e maçante com o tempo, uma vez que você vai sempre usar os mesmos golpes e magia. Outra coisa que incomoda é que mesmo você usando uma magia para analisar um monstro para saber suas fraquezas e vida, é algo que só mostra quando você usa essa magia. Então, se você não decorar a fraqueza e a vida do monstro, terá que usar a magia novamente ou olhar no bestiário, o que não é nada prático e muitas vezes o uso dessa magia nem funciona, o que faz você gastar um turno à toa. Obviamente, se esse game fosse feito hoje, ao usar essa magia, as fraquezas e a vida ficariam sempre visíveis.

O game também é longo demais. Poderia ter metade do tempo, o que seria bem mais agradável de se jogar. Quando cheguei na metade do game, tudo que eu queria era só que acabasse o mais rápido possível, pois já estava cansado de fazer as mesmas coisas sempre. Para ser jogado hoje em dia, fica bem difícil, mesmo eles tendo feito um ótimo trabalho com as animações do game.

Eu não joguei os Final Fantasy anteriores a esse, mas vi vídeos completos da história e detonados completos de todos os anteriores a esse, e dá para se ver uma grande evolução desde o primeiro game da série, principalmente na história. Só indico jogar esse game se você realmente quer conhecer mais a série ou se joga bastante games retro e já está bastante acostumado com games retro, caso contrário, você irá se frustrar bastante. Minha nota para esse game é 8.0/10, mas, na verdade, eu daria até menos. Porém, por conta de ser um game antigo que tem uma notável evolução se comparado com os anteriores da série, além de um bom combate e uma boa história no geral, acaba por merecer essa nota.

They really stepped up the production value of this game, but the endgame boss cannot prevent me from rating this game poorly because holy fuck is the boss insufferable. I HATE having to grind for a few days just for my team to still not beat the boss. It's a frustrating game design and ruins the entire experience of this game. It would've been in my top three for the classic Final Fantasy games had this not been an issue, but now it's gonna be at the very bottom for me.

I will return to this game again when Im not fuming mad at the game, but until then I'm content shelving this game before I waste any more of my time.