This review contains spoilers
Finished playing final fantasy 4 advance.
This is probably going to be the last game i finish in 2023 and we are ending with a banger! The main protagonist is Cecil who at the start of the game was a dark knight and the captain of the red wings. The king of baron ordered Cecil to commit evil actions so he goes into this journey to redeem himself and to stop the new captain of the red wings Golbez. You will meet many characters that will join your party to help you on your quest where you travel around a world visiting towns and exploring dungeons, each character have their own unique abilities and thankfully none of them are completely useless.
Cecil when he was a dark knight had the dark ability which is an attack that hits all enemies but it costs some hp, when Cecil becomes a paladin later on he gains a few white magic abilities such as cure and esuna.
Kain joins you at the start of the game but he gets controlled by Golbez twice and he rejoins your party twice. Kain is a very helpful party member, he doesn't have any magic but he has got a good amount of health and can deal a great amount of damage with his jump ability.
Rydia is a summoner who lost her mother because Cecil and Kain had to deliver something in the village she was living in which caused a little chaos. Rydia is obviously mad at you at first but later on she forgives Cecil. Rydia is a decent party member at first but when she returns after getting separated she becomes an EXTREMELY helpful party member due to her summons. There are a few more summons that she can learn the most helpful one being bahamut which can deal a massive amount of damage.
Rosa is in love with Cecil and she is a white mage. She joins your party once you cure her from desert fever and rejoins when you save her from Golbez. You will mainly use her for healing party members.
Cid is an engineer who is a very helpful character in the story because he helps with airships and at one point the mad lad sacrifices himself to help the others but he ends up surviving! He is not bad in combat encounters either, he can deal a good amount of damage with his normal attacks and has a decent amount of health.
Tellah is a sage who has both white and black magic making him very useful. Tellah wanted revenge on Golbez for the death of his daughter Anna but gets defeated when he fights him because he casted a powerful attack called meteor and then dies because of his desire for revenge.
Edward is the prince of damcyan and he was in love with Anna. He joins your party to help you get an item needed to cure Rosa's desert fever. He is probably the least useful party member but his normal attack being able to confuse enemies is pretty helpful and he has an ability where he can just hide. At one point in the game he helps you defeat a boss fight by playing on his harp and he also helps you in the battle with the giant of babil.
Palom and Porom are both mages that helped Cecil become a paladin. Palom is a black mage and Porom is a white mage. They sacrifice themselves to save your party but they somehow get revived later on in the game?Idk why anyone would use them when you have Rydia and Rosa on your team but they were pretty useful before their sacrifice.
Yang is a monk who joins your party once you help him. He even has a boss fight where he attacked you because he lost his memory or something. He is an amazing party member with his normal attacks dealing a great amount of damage and he has a ton of health.He has the kick ability which hits all the enemies and the power ability which deals a ton of damage. He sacrifices himself to save everyone but somehow ended up living and he helps you in the battle with the giant of babil. You can switch him back at one point in the game.
Edge joins you pretty late in the game but he is still extremely useful. His normal attacks deal a great amount of damage, he has a decent amount of health, he can steal from enemies, he has some magic abilities like blitz and his throw ability can deal a ton of damage.
Finally we have Fusoya who just like Tellah has both white and black magic but he has a few more abilities. He has a regen ability and you can use meteor with him. He isn't really in your party for long tho.
I really liked the story and some characters especially Cecil and it had a great balance between comedy and serious moments but i personally did not like Golbez very much🤷 in my opinion he is pretty damn generic and the only thing i remember about this dude is that he is Cecil's brother and how he got manipulated by Zemus. The turn based is really great, it is very strategic, it doesn't feel slow and imo the combat shines on the bosses i really liked how it forced you to make good use of your characters abilities and not just spam basic attacks. Speaking of bosses they are awesome!
My favourite ones are Zeromus, Rubicante, Demon wall, Asura, leviathan, Eblan king and queen, Barbariccia, Cpu and Dark dragon. The graphics are pretty damn solid and the ost is great, my favourite songs being: Crystal, the final battle, within the giant, the airship, mt. ordeals and fight 2.The game has a lot of enemy variety but there are 3 of them that i found annoying af which are the malboro , the frogs and those fucking bats. I don't really mind random encounters in games as long as the encounter rate isn't too bad which is not the case for this game the random encounters got annoying pretty quickly. The inventory system is pretty much perfect, it has the right amount of space and it never gets flooded with items. I personally found the difficulty to be perfectly balanced the game never felt too easy or too hard and the game also isn't that confusing to navigate.
I personally had 0 issues with how linear the game is but i did not like how it required some grinding and is it just me or are random encounters less frequent when you need to grind?
The advance version adds character portraits, new items, a re-translation, slightly improved graphics and switching party members.
Overall while it may have some issues like the random encounters, Golbez being a generic antagonist, grinding, very few characters i did not care for and those 3 annoying ass enemies final fantasy 4 is an amazing game in my opinion that still holds up to this day
9/10
This is probably going to be the last game i finish in 2023 and we are ending with a banger! The main protagonist is Cecil who at the start of the game was a dark knight and the captain of the red wings. The king of baron ordered Cecil to commit evil actions so he goes into this journey to redeem himself and to stop the new captain of the red wings Golbez. You will meet many characters that will join your party to help you on your quest where you travel around a world visiting towns and exploring dungeons, each character have their own unique abilities and thankfully none of them are completely useless.
Cecil when he was a dark knight had the dark ability which is an attack that hits all enemies but it costs some hp, when Cecil becomes a paladin later on he gains a few white magic abilities such as cure and esuna.
Kain joins you at the start of the game but he gets controlled by Golbez twice and he rejoins your party twice. Kain is a very helpful party member, he doesn't have any magic but he has got a good amount of health and can deal a great amount of damage with his jump ability.
Rydia is a summoner who lost her mother because Cecil and Kain had to deliver something in the village she was living in which caused a little chaos. Rydia is obviously mad at you at first but later on she forgives Cecil. Rydia is a decent party member at first but when she returns after getting separated she becomes an EXTREMELY helpful party member due to her summons. There are a few more summons that she can learn the most helpful one being bahamut which can deal a massive amount of damage.
Rosa is in love with Cecil and she is a white mage. She joins your party once you cure her from desert fever and rejoins when you save her from Golbez. You will mainly use her for healing party members.
Cid is an engineer who is a very helpful character in the story because he helps with airships and at one point the mad lad sacrifices himself to help the others but he ends up surviving! He is not bad in combat encounters either, he can deal a good amount of damage with his normal attacks and has a decent amount of health.
Tellah is a sage who has both white and black magic making him very useful. Tellah wanted revenge on Golbez for the death of his daughter Anna but gets defeated when he fights him because he casted a powerful attack called meteor and then dies because of his desire for revenge.
Edward is the prince of damcyan and he was in love with Anna. He joins your party to help you get an item needed to cure Rosa's desert fever. He is probably the least useful party member but his normal attack being able to confuse enemies is pretty helpful and he has an ability where he can just hide. At one point in the game he helps you defeat a boss fight by playing on his harp and he also helps you in the battle with the giant of babil.
Palom and Porom are both mages that helped Cecil become a paladin. Palom is a black mage and Porom is a white mage. They sacrifice themselves to save your party but they somehow get revived later on in the game?Idk why anyone would use them when you have Rydia and Rosa on your team but they were pretty useful before their sacrifice.
Yang is a monk who joins your party once you help him. He even has a boss fight where he attacked you because he lost his memory or something. He is an amazing party member with his normal attacks dealing a great amount of damage and he has a ton of health.He has the kick ability which hits all the enemies and the power ability which deals a ton of damage. He sacrifices himself to save everyone but somehow ended up living and he helps you in the battle with the giant of babil. You can switch him back at one point in the game.
Edge joins you pretty late in the game but he is still extremely useful. His normal attacks deal a great amount of damage, he has a decent amount of health, he can steal from enemies, he has some magic abilities like blitz and his throw ability can deal a ton of damage.
Finally we have Fusoya who just like Tellah has both white and black magic but he has a few more abilities. He has a regen ability and you can use meteor with him. He isn't really in your party for long tho.
I really liked the story and some characters especially Cecil and it had a great balance between comedy and serious moments but i personally did not like Golbez very much🤷 in my opinion he is pretty damn generic and the only thing i remember about this dude is that he is Cecil's brother and how he got manipulated by Zemus. The turn based is really great, it is very strategic, it doesn't feel slow and imo the combat shines on the bosses i really liked how it forced you to make good use of your characters abilities and not just spam basic attacks. Speaking of bosses they are awesome!
My favourite ones are Zeromus, Rubicante, Demon wall, Asura, leviathan, Eblan king and queen, Barbariccia, Cpu and Dark dragon. The graphics are pretty damn solid and the ost is great, my favourite songs being: Crystal, the final battle, within the giant, the airship, mt. ordeals and fight 2.The game has a lot of enemy variety but there are 3 of them that i found annoying af which are the malboro , the frogs and those fucking bats. I don't really mind random encounters in games as long as the encounter rate isn't too bad which is not the case for this game the random encounters got annoying pretty quickly. The inventory system is pretty much perfect, it has the right amount of space and it never gets flooded with items. I personally found the difficulty to be perfectly balanced the game never felt too easy or too hard and the game also isn't that confusing to navigate.
I personally had 0 issues with how linear the game is but i did not like how it required some grinding and is it just me or are random encounters less frequent when you need to grind?
The advance version adds character portraits, new items, a re-translation, slightly improved graphics and switching party members.
Overall while it may have some issues like the random encounters, Golbez being a generic antagonist, grinding, very few characters i did not care for and those 3 annoying ass enemies final fantasy 4 is an amazing game in my opinion that still holds up to this day
9/10