This review contains spoilers
The first of the SNES trilogy and proves to be a strong first entry in the collection. I believe I completed it (all bestiary, summon magic, etc.) with a total of 20 hours, but I thoroughly enjoyed this journey despite my few issues with it.
The beginning of the story seems to promise a dark story, as I loved the dark tone that Final Fantasy II offered, since Cecil’s former crew slay a bunch of innocent people to retrieve a crystal for the King of Baron. However, unknown to Cecil, Kain, and the rest of Baron, this isn’t actually the real king. Still, the recent actions lead Cecil to question given orders, which is super neat, and eventually makes the space between him and Baron farther away. He then becomes a Paladin, officially beginning a new chapter for the heroic character. What starts off as a really strong and interesting story, gets underwhelming in the middle with lots of fake out deaths, almost worthless temporary party members and loses its footing, but has a great ending. I do really love the “main”/“permanent” cast, though and want to say it’s one of my new favorites.
I loved Final Fantasy III’s combat/job system and moving to IV’s differences, with no swappable classes, also which introduces the ATB system and grants new magic from leveling up instead of buying them from town’s shops. However, the gameplay felt fine and still offered variety for the game’s journey. Some dungeons were annoying to traverse to (mostly the ones you had to cast Float for every floor), but weren’t the worst in the franchise. Lastly, I will say that there were some challenging, but fair encounters, which felt rewarding when defeating them and moving forward.
The upgrades that stood out the most to me were the towns and the OST. While they were neat for what they were in the previous 3 entries, the new places you visit feel a lot more unique with their individual presentations. The OST though… Uematsu never fails and these Pixel Remaster arrangements are really neat, ranging from “Theme of Love,” “Rydia’s Theme,” and “Within the Giant.”
Overall, Final Fantasy IV offers an important role in the beginning of a new era for FF by contributing to helping establish the franchise’s identity. Accomplishing creating memorable characters that feel realistic in the game’s world and story, FFIV is a great entry in the franchise that deserves its place as the impressive SNES JRPG great that it is.
The beginning of the story seems to promise a dark story, as I loved the dark tone that Final Fantasy II offered, since Cecil’s former crew slay a bunch of innocent people to retrieve a crystal for the King of Baron. However, unknown to Cecil, Kain, and the rest of Baron, this isn’t actually the real king. Still, the recent actions lead Cecil to question given orders, which is super neat, and eventually makes the space between him and Baron farther away. He then becomes a Paladin, officially beginning a new chapter for the heroic character. What starts off as a really strong and interesting story, gets underwhelming in the middle with lots of fake out deaths, almost worthless temporary party members and loses its footing, but has a great ending. I do really love the “main”/“permanent” cast, though and want to say it’s one of my new favorites.
I loved Final Fantasy III’s combat/job system and moving to IV’s differences, with no swappable classes, also which introduces the ATB system and grants new magic from leveling up instead of buying them from town’s shops. However, the gameplay felt fine and still offered variety for the game’s journey. Some dungeons were annoying to traverse to (mostly the ones you had to cast Float for every floor), but weren’t the worst in the franchise. Lastly, I will say that there were some challenging, but fair encounters, which felt rewarding when defeating them and moving forward.
The upgrades that stood out the most to me were the towns and the OST. While they were neat for what they were in the previous 3 entries, the new places you visit feel a lot more unique with their individual presentations. The OST though… Uematsu never fails and these Pixel Remaster arrangements are really neat, ranging from “Theme of Love,” “Rydia’s Theme,” and “Within the Giant.”
Overall, Final Fantasy IV offers an important role in the beginning of a new era for FF by contributing to helping establish the franchise’s identity. Accomplishing creating memorable characters that feel realistic in the game’s world and story, FFIV is a great entry in the franchise that deserves its place as the impressive SNES JRPG great that it is.