This review contains spoilers
Final Fantasy IV is the first entry into the SNES console for the franchise and it makes a fantastic impression. You’ve got war, love, friendship, dedication, repentance, and everything that you’d expect of a Final Fantasy title based on what you’ve experienced with the last 3 titles. From inspiring acts of heroism, to crazy strong adversaries, Final Fantasy IV gives you everything.
The narrative in this story starts with an interesting premise. Your king turns out to be evil and you decide to stand up against him. While on this path you make several allies, some who join you for a time, and some who aid you when you need them. By the end of the game you have 5 party members that all fill a specific role. Overall the game gives you about 6 characters that end up leaving your party and 5 characters that are permanent by the end of the game. The characterization of each party member is better for some and not so great with others. Cecil is the repentant Dark Knight who early in the game becomes a Paladin. Rosa is the White Mage who is in love with Cecil and (when she’s not separated from the party) stays by his side to the very end. Kain is a very vapid character. He’s supposed to be Cecil’s best friend but ends up spending the majority of the game working for the enemy due to mind control (more on that later). Rydia starts off as a whiny child who eventually grows into a more confident and powerful Summoner (and grows up due to time dilation shenanigans). Edge is a Ninja introduced late in the game and is the leader of a fallen kingdom known as Eblan. His character is head over heels for Rydia and tends to (physically) bounce around. Each of these characters have interesting and unique designs. I just wish we had more time with them to define their personalities. We get Rosa early in the game only to lose her, then we find her much later in the game. Once we do, she’s an invaluable asset. Until then you are stuck having to deal with several interchangeable characters that have their own agendas.
Tellah is obsessed with finding his daughter and upon discovering that she’s been killed by Golbez he then swear vengeance against him and marches off and leaves the party. When you get separated from several party members via an attack on the ship by Leviathan, you lose Rydia, Rosa, and Edward. Edward is the prince of Damcyan and lover of Tellah’s daughter. He joins you to help you defeat Golbez only to leave the party after Leviathan’s attack. You wash up on the shores of Mysidia a town you had sieged at the beginning of the game and (somehow) convince them to help you because you’re really really sorry that you killed their people and stole their precious crystal of light. You meet Porom and Polom, they help you for a bit and then they die. You reconnect with Cid, he helps you for a while, and he dies. You meet Yang, he helps you for a time and then dies. Except, none of these characters (except for Tellah who ends up dying when he casts Meteor to defeat Golbez) actually die. For one contrivance or another these characters all survive. Cid literally jumps out of the airship and falls to his death so he can explode the whole leading from the underworld (more on that later) to the overworld. But somehow he survives and is able to help you a few times more afterwards. I don’t have problems with characters going away and coming back but when you kill of a character they need to stay dead. And while we’re on the topic of character death. Not every character needs to go out in a grand act of heroism. None of these characters are “killed” by the villains. I’m willing to forgive Porom and Polom sacrificing themselves and being brought back because they turned themselves into stone and their master came and restored them later. A bit obvious of a plot point but not as indefensible as “killing” off 5 characters and bringing them all back. Even Tellah makes an appearance from the grave by the end of the game.
Now let’s talk about Golbez and Kain. For the majority of the game Golbez is the villain. He rules over the four elemental lords and is on a mission to gather all 8 crystals (4 of light and 4 of darkness). Golbez mind controls Kain three times before you find out that Golbez himself is being mind controlled by the actual villain of the game. Having a “real villain” once the main villain has been stopped isn’t new to this series. That was the done in FFIII. There’s not an issue with that inherently but at least the main villain of FFIII was his own person up until his death. Golbez being mind controlled by Zemus (the real main villain who is of an alien race called the Lunarians) feels like a cheap way to undercut the fact that Golbez has committed several atrocities throughout this narrative. The redeeming factor of this is the fact that they allow for Golbez to be remorseful without expecting the world to forgive him despite it not being his fault. They’re able to avoid undercutting the weight of his actions while still addressing them. His choice to exile himself and stay with the Lunarians is fitting for the character. I still would have preferred Golbez just being a villain in league with Zemus. There was plenty of narrative reason for this. Golbez being Zemus’ son being one of the main reasons.
This game introduces some new and innovative gameplay design. Namely the Active Time Battle (ATB) system. Previously in Final Fantasy you would select all of your team’s actions, the enemy would have preselected actions, and then based on the character’s stats a turn order would play out in which each character would do their selected actions. ATB changes this by giving each character a timer. When the timer fills up that character gets to conduct an action. Most actions are taken as soon as they are selected. I did notice, however, that some actions (namely high level spells and summons) take longer to conduct. A spell like Firaga has the character standing there for an undeclared amount of time casting the spell. The only other action that seems to have a delay is Kain’s Jump action but that makes sense. I don’t think strong spells taking longer to cast is a bad thing. I just wish we were told how long it takes for the character to cast said spell or summon. I’m personally not a fan of ATB but I don’t think it’s a bad system.
Something new they introduce in this game is the black chocobo. These birds can fly over water. You ride it to where you want to go and it stays put when you get off of it. When you get back on it the bird will automatically take you back to the chocobo forest that you found it. It’s a neat feature that is sadly underutilized. It only demands use one time in the game. We get a hovercraft for the first time here too. It’s interesting in its implementation as you need it to access a few dungeons. We also get three different airships. Each one is effectively meant for the three different maps you get to explore. You get an airship that eventually gets a hook designed to pick up the hovercraft to carry it to a late game dungeon. You get an airship that allows you to travel between the underworld and the overworld (as well as fly above lava. This one gets used probably the most. Then lastly we get the Lunar Whale. It’s an aircraft designed to carry our heroes between the planet and the moon. You also use it to travel around the moon. The Lunar Whale is also equipped with a healing station which we also saw in FFIII. Changing between ships is a bit cumbersome but it’s not that bad since there’s a central point in which you change between the ships.
The job system in this game is back to being static only this time you have no choice in what roles your characters fill. Cecil is a Dark Knight and has a good early game multihit move that costs HP to use. Then fairly early on in the game you undergo a trial and Cecil is transformed into a Paladin. He loses the multihit attack and gains some basic white magic along with the ability to protect party members from damage. While it is nice having the ability to create your own party composition and customize characters to the style you want to fill. Having characters with fixed attributes allows the game to present you with unique challenges that require you to play to your character’s strengths and weaknesses. This is well implemented as each area and boss is designed with this in mind. Also every character you meet is a different class with little overlap. This system also helps define the characters better as it gives them more uniqueness. Another nice touch is that we get to experience characters learning spells by leveling up for the first time. Up until now you’ve had to purchase and teach spells to your magic wielding characters. It’s nice not having to budget gil to make sure your mages are properly equipped along with having to buy equipment for them as well but on the other hand this game gives you a large abundance of gil so it really wouldn’t have made a difference. As far as leveling goes I should mention that I don’t spend a lot of time grinding (except for in FFII because of obvious reasons). I did however feel compelled to level grind at two points in the game. I read in patch notes that they lowered the exp given by enemies overall and I don’t think that served the game well. One of two moments in the game that I found myself level grinding are right after Cecil becomes a Paladin and his level is reset to 1, and in the endgame where my party was about 5-10 levels short of being able to handle the dungeon without having to explore to get treasure, warp out to heal, and then rush to the end to save resources for the boss. I spent a collective 2 hours on level grinding which I don’t believe is inherently bad. I do believe that the developers choosing to reduce exp gain which potentially caused this need to grind levels to be problematic.
Dungeons have seen a massive improvement in this title. I think this game does dungeons the best out of the series so far. The dungeons include lots of twists and turns and secret passages that lead to treasure and sometimes nothing at all. Doors almost always have a purpose even if it’s a single treasure chest but pathing is never guaranteed to see a reward. Another interesting mechanic I came upon is casting the spell “Float” on your team to make them avoid taking damage from lava that’s on the ground. This status effect also makes your characters immune to ground spells like “Quake.” Dungeons have interesting boss fights, each with unique mechanics. Some bosses retaliate to being hit by a spell while some are effectively immune to damage unless their sprite is in a specific position. This is a nice way of changing up the battle monotony and making full use of the ATB system. This also requires you to strategize instead of setting up your party’s strongest moves and then auto-battling through. I found some of the bosses in this game to have the most challenging battle mechanics I have faced thus far.
The last thing I want to touch on here is the music. This soundtrack has some gems but overall feels the least inspired of the series. I know the first two games are very repetitive and this game isn’t like that but I find some of the tracks to be interesting but entirely too short. The battle theme has a good, catchy tune but it loops way too soon and leaves me wanting for more. My favorite tracks in this one are “Battle with the Four Fiends,” “Welcome to our Town,” and “Mystic Mysidia.” Some tracks that are worth noting include “Dancing Calcabrena,” “The Lunarians,” and “Battle 2” (which I prefer over “Battle 1”). The tracks that are good are great but the rest just didn’t quite land for me. I don’t think any of the tracks were bad by any means but it just didn’t land for me this time.
Square so far has set (in my mind) a high standard of quality for this series. Final Fantasy IV, while not perfect, meets those expectations. The innovation of a brand new and innovative battle system demands praise. The presentation of the game is well executed. Even though this won’t go down as my favorite Final Fantasy, it has left a lasting impression.
The narrative in this story starts with an interesting premise. Your king turns out to be evil and you decide to stand up against him. While on this path you make several allies, some who join you for a time, and some who aid you when you need them. By the end of the game you have 5 party members that all fill a specific role. Overall the game gives you about 6 characters that end up leaving your party and 5 characters that are permanent by the end of the game. The characterization of each party member is better for some and not so great with others. Cecil is the repentant Dark Knight who early in the game becomes a Paladin. Rosa is the White Mage who is in love with Cecil and (when she’s not separated from the party) stays by his side to the very end. Kain is a very vapid character. He’s supposed to be Cecil’s best friend but ends up spending the majority of the game working for the enemy due to mind control (more on that later). Rydia starts off as a whiny child who eventually grows into a more confident and powerful Summoner (and grows up due to time dilation shenanigans). Edge is a Ninja introduced late in the game and is the leader of a fallen kingdom known as Eblan. His character is head over heels for Rydia and tends to (physically) bounce around. Each of these characters have interesting and unique designs. I just wish we had more time with them to define their personalities. We get Rosa early in the game only to lose her, then we find her much later in the game. Once we do, she’s an invaluable asset. Until then you are stuck having to deal with several interchangeable characters that have their own agendas.
Tellah is obsessed with finding his daughter and upon discovering that she’s been killed by Golbez he then swear vengeance against him and marches off and leaves the party. When you get separated from several party members via an attack on the ship by Leviathan, you lose Rydia, Rosa, and Edward. Edward is the prince of Damcyan and lover of Tellah’s daughter. He joins you to help you defeat Golbez only to leave the party after Leviathan’s attack. You wash up on the shores of Mysidia a town you had sieged at the beginning of the game and (somehow) convince them to help you because you’re really really sorry that you killed their people and stole their precious crystal of light. You meet Porom and Polom, they help you for a bit and then they die. You reconnect with Cid, he helps you for a while, and he dies. You meet Yang, he helps you for a time and then dies. Except, none of these characters (except for Tellah who ends up dying when he casts Meteor to defeat Golbez) actually die. For one contrivance or another these characters all survive. Cid literally jumps out of the airship and falls to his death so he can explode the whole leading from the underworld (more on that later) to the overworld. But somehow he survives and is able to help you a few times more afterwards. I don’t have problems with characters going away and coming back but when you kill of a character they need to stay dead. And while we’re on the topic of character death. Not every character needs to go out in a grand act of heroism. None of these characters are “killed” by the villains. I’m willing to forgive Porom and Polom sacrificing themselves and being brought back because they turned themselves into stone and their master came and restored them later. A bit obvious of a plot point but not as indefensible as “killing” off 5 characters and bringing them all back. Even Tellah makes an appearance from the grave by the end of the game.
Now let’s talk about Golbez and Kain. For the majority of the game Golbez is the villain. He rules over the four elemental lords and is on a mission to gather all 8 crystals (4 of light and 4 of darkness). Golbez mind controls Kain three times before you find out that Golbez himself is being mind controlled by the actual villain of the game. Having a “real villain” once the main villain has been stopped isn’t new to this series. That was the done in FFIII. There’s not an issue with that inherently but at least the main villain of FFIII was his own person up until his death. Golbez being mind controlled by Zemus (the real main villain who is of an alien race called the Lunarians) feels like a cheap way to undercut the fact that Golbez has committed several atrocities throughout this narrative. The redeeming factor of this is the fact that they allow for Golbez to be remorseful without expecting the world to forgive him despite it not being his fault. They’re able to avoid undercutting the weight of his actions while still addressing them. His choice to exile himself and stay with the Lunarians is fitting for the character. I still would have preferred Golbez just being a villain in league with Zemus. There was plenty of narrative reason for this. Golbez being Zemus’ son being one of the main reasons.
This game introduces some new and innovative gameplay design. Namely the Active Time Battle (ATB) system. Previously in Final Fantasy you would select all of your team’s actions, the enemy would have preselected actions, and then based on the character’s stats a turn order would play out in which each character would do their selected actions. ATB changes this by giving each character a timer. When the timer fills up that character gets to conduct an action. Most actions are taken as soon as they are selected. I did notice, however, that some actions (namely high level spells and summons) take longer to conduct. A spell like Firaga has the character standing there for an undeclared amount of time casting the spell. The only other action that seems to have a delay is Kain’s Jump action but that makes sense. I don’t think strong spells taking longer to cast is a bad thing. I just wish we were told how long it takes for the character to cast said spell or summon. I’m personally not a fan of ATB but I don’t think it’s a bad system.
Something new they introduce in this game is the black chocobo. These birds can fly over water. You ride it to where you want to go and it stays put when you get off of it. When you get back on it the bird will automatically take you back to the chocobo forest that you found it. It’s a neat feature that is sadly underutilized. It only demands use one time in the game. We get a hovercraft for the first time here too. It’s interesting in its implementation as you need it to access a few dungeons. We also get three different airships. Each one is effectively meant for the three different maps you get to explore. You get an airship that eventually gets a hook designed to pick up the hovercraft to carry it to a late game dungeon. You get an airship that allows you to travel between the underworld and the overworld (as well as fly above lava. This one gets used probably the most. Then lastly we get the Lunar Whale. It’s an aircraft designed to carry our heroes between the planet and the moon. You also use it to travel around the moon. The Lunar Whale is also equipped with a healing station which we also saw in FFIII. Changing between ships is a bit cumbersome but it’s not that bad since there’s a central point in which you change between the ships.
The job system in this game is back to being static only this time you have no choice in what roles your characters fill. Cecil is a Dark Knight and has a good early game multihit move that costs HP to use. Then fairly early on in the game you undergo a trial and Cecil is transformed into a Paladin. He loses the multihit attack and gains some basic white magic along with the ability to protect party members from damage. While it is nice having the ability to create your own party composition and customize characters to the style you want to fill. Having characters with fixed attributes allows the game to present you with unique challenges that require you to play to your character’s strengths and weaknesses. This is well implemented as each area and boss is designed with this in mind. Also every character you meet is a different class with little overlap. This system also helps define the characters better as it gives them more uniqueness. Another nice touch is that we get to experience characters learning spells by leveling up for the first time. Up until now you’ve had to purchase and teach spells to your magic wielding characters. It’s nice not having to budget gil to make sure your mages are properly equipped along with having to buy equipment for them as well but on the other hand this game gives you a large abundance of gil so it really wouldn’t have made a difference. As far as leveling goes I should mention that I don’t spend a lot of time grinding (except for in FFII because of obvious reasons). I did however feel compelled to level grind at two points in the game. I read in patch notes that they lowered the exp given by enemies overall and I don’t think that served the game well. One of two moments in the game that I found myself level grinding are right after Cecil becomes a Paladin and his level is reset to 1, and in the endgame where my party was about 5-10 levels short of being able to handle the dungeon without having to explore to get treasure, warp out to heal, and then rush to the end to save resources for the boss. I spent a collective 2 hours on level grinding which I don’t believe is inherently bad. I do believe that the developers choosing to reduce exp gain which potentially caused this need to grind levels to be problematic.
Dungeons have seen a massive improvement in this title. I think this game does dungeons the best out of the series so far. The dungeons include lots of twists and turns and secret passages that lead to treasure and sometimes nothing at all. Doors almost always have a purpose even if it’s a single treasure chest but pathing is never guaranteed to see a reward. Another interesting mechanic I came upon is casting the spell “Float” on your team to make them avoid taking damage from lava that’s on the ground. This status effect also makes your characters immune to ground spells like “Quake.” Dungeons have interesting boss fights, each with unique mechanics. Some bosses retaliate to being hit by a spell while some are effectively immune to damage unless their sprite is in a specific position. This is a nice way of changing up the battle monotony and making full use of the ATB system. This also requires you to strategize instead of setting up your party’s strongest moves and then auto-battling through. I found some of the bosses in this game to have the most challenging battle mechanics I have faced thus far.
The last thing I want to touch on here is the music. This soundtrack has some gems but overall feels the least inspired of the series. I know the first two games are very repetitive and this game isn’t like that but I find some of the tracks to be interesting but entirely too short. The battle theme has a good, catchy tune but it loops way too soon and leaves me wanting for more. My favorite tracks in this one are “Battle with the Four Fiends,” “Welcome to our Town,” and “Mystic Mysidia.” Some tracks that are worth noting include “Dancing Calcabrena,” “The Lunarians,” and “Battle 2” (which I prefer over “Battle 1”). The tracks that are good are great but the rest just didn’t quite land for me. I don’t think any of the tracks were bad by any means but it just didn’t land for me this time.
Square so far has set (in my mind) a high standard of quality for this series. Final Fantasy IV, while not perfect, meets those expectations. The innovation of a brand new and innovative battle system demands praise. The presentation of the game is well executed. Even though this won’t go down as my favorite Final Fantasy, it has left a lasting impression.