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.
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.