an essential classic which often goes underappreciated by gamers nowadays.

if you've ever enjoyed basically any video game cutscene, story, or character arc, you probably owe this game a thank you. obviously video game stories and characters existed before final fantasy 4, but only in the loosest sense of the terms. brand mascots and general sequences of events. in comes final fantasy 4 with shakespearean themes of love, jealousy, betrayal, grief, redemption etc coupled with sweeping digital orchestra and tight cutscenes, all of a sudden video games are a medium for storytelling.

besides the historical importance, final fantasy iv is still a killer game. gorgeous music, fun and fast-paced gameplay, memorable locations and bosses, pretty much still defines gamers expectations of what a jrpg ought to be.

the story has some obvious poorly aged pitfalls like the fake-out character deaths and a certain last-second reveal, but even these shortcomings have come to be characteristic of the genre because of this game.

this version of the game in particular deserves some bonus points for being quite possibly the most difficult mainline final fantasy game, with very punishing and involved boss encounters, at least moreso than what you usually expect in games like 6 and 7.

tldr; final fantasy iv is required reading for fans of the genre and for my money, the 3d version is still the best way to play it.