Final Fantasy IV is a game that has been revisited and re-released a bajillion times over the years; I'm pretty sure it's the one that's gotten this treatment the most out of any Final Fantasy? Maybe VII's got it beat in terms of being an actual franchise, perhaps because uhhh TAY didn't. quite. do it for a lot of people. Maybe I'll visit that someday.
And yeah, sure, compared to future games it doesn't go quite as hard as it could. The melodrama is high, everyone's getting brainwashed all the dang time, your party is a revolving door of fakeout deaths... it's kinda silly. Like there's a particular instance in the storyline involving Edge's parents that's supposed to be fucked up and shocking but GOD the musical sting and the dialogue are so fucking funny.
But at the same time, I feel like I kind of get it, you know? It's charming as all hell. Much like FFIII before it, there's a cheeky playfulness to a lot of it that I feel has been present in pretty much all the Final Fantasies I've played. (Yes, even II, there were at least two goofy bits amidst all the grim insanity.) With perhaps one exception, every town has at least one NPC you can talk to in order to watch a goofy little dance sequence where the programmers did their damnedest to get the limited animation to do all it could. This isn't just limited to optional content, either; despite the High Drama of the main storyline, there's a bunch of out of battle story cutscenes where Palom and Porom squabble, Cid drags Edge around to make him help with the airship building, Edge pretends he's not crushing on Rydia... those kinds of things. It's really cute! Like, the way the story is conveyed through the gameplay is probably the star of the show, like the way Tellah's stats work or Cecil's battle against himself to become a paladin and so on, but I think they do a lot with a little in that regard.
I think they tried to do a lot with a little in terms of the Big Themes, as well. It maybe aims a little higher than it manages to convey, in that I feel like the Big Theme of the game as a whole is atonement and redemption. It does feel like the big themes of Cecil's arc comprise the bulk of the beginning of the game and kind of... finish with him becoming a paladin, but I gotta say, I do like that shit. I think it's pretty good, even if it feels like it goes a little fast. The way his relationship with Rydia, the child who he inadvertently orphaned, develops is pretty strong, and his return to Mysidia is good as hell. I love the way Cecil's interactions with the townspeople go in that segment! You get poisoned, you get turned into a frog, and you kind of deserve it, honestly. And Cecil is entirely aware he deserves it.
Of course, you can see it in other characters, as well, from Edward's guilt over his uselessness to Kain getting brainwashed all the time to the dang antagonist. I do feel like Brainwashing All the Way Down is a bit of a cop-out, but at the same time, it does feel like it's aiming at a metaphor. I think it ultimately ends up juggling too much to do any one thing justice as it hurdles to the end, but I kind of appreciate the ambition? I know the DS remake expands on the characterization more, so I look forward to that eventually.
The gameplay itself is kind of an interesting departure from the previous games in terms of giving you set parties with set roles rather than giving you the freedom to experiment. It's less "figure out which tools to use" and more "figure out how to win with the tools you're given." I still feel like there's a range of stuff to experiment with, though. When I played the game as a kid I got stuck at a very specific point (FUCK BAIGAN ALL MY HOMIES HATE BAIGAN) because I didn't really understand how to use the tools I was given, but now I have a better idea of how to deal with, uh, a party with one tank, one punch man, and three squishy mages, one of whom has a pretty bad MP stat because he's old. I didn't actually find myself that frustrated with Tellah on this go around because I discovered the wonders of Osmose, which was a helpful way to compensate for his shitty MP without using Ethers! Just steal it from enemies for free!
It's a little bit of a shame that the game pretty much tells you how to beat its puzzle fights right off the bat instead of giving you some time to experiment, though. There's some spicy fights before the endgame (rubicante... your hot leg distracted me into failure...) but the endgame yanks your training floaties off and tosses you right into the deep end. I was kind of tempted to ragequit on the final boss before I figured out the pro strats to beat him just because it was such a wild shift from what had been going on before and I'd already beaten Zeromus in a different game in a fight that was actually FUN even though I spent most of the fight dead on the floor because my internet died. I'm glad I pushed through, though, the ending was a lot cuter in motion than it was in screencaps.
Anyway, uh. Final thoughts. I wish they actually managed to capture the insane Beard Elemental energy of FuSoYa's Amano art because he actually looks like a weird alien and that's sick. I did like that his eyes flash red and green when he's casting, though, and his KO sprite is cute. Also I love that there's just a part where a robot bigger than a fucking castle starts stomping around and blowing shit up and it's extremely apocalyptic? I'm truly disappointed that's the one thing FFXIV didn't reference in its FFIV expac. Maybe they're saving it for later so they don't blow their whole FFIV Reference load in Endwalker...
Oh yeah and I think we should've been able to let Yang's wife join the party. She would have soloed Zeromus with her frying pan. She is the most powerful person in the game.
And yeah, sure, compared to future games it doesn't go quite as hard as it could. The melodrama is high, everyone's getting brainwashed all the dang time, your party is a revolving door of fakeout deaths... it's kinda silly. Like there's a particular instance in the storyline involving Edge's parents that's supposed to be fucked up and shocking but GOD the musical sting and the dialogue are so fucking funny.
But at the same time, I feel like I kind of get it, you know? It's charming as all hell. Much like FFIII before it, there's a cheeky playfulness to a lot of it that I feel has been present in pretty much all the Final Fantasies I've played. (Yes, even II, there were at least two goofy bits amidst all the grim insanity.) With perhaps one exception, every town has at least one NPC you can talk to in order to watch a goofy little dance sequence where the programmers did their damnedest to get the limited animation to do all it could. This isn't just limited to optional content, either; despite the High Drama of the main storyline, there's a bunch of out of battle story cutscenes where Palom and Porom squabble, Cid drags Edge around to make him help with the airship building, Edge pretends he's not crushing on Rydia... those kinds of things. It's really cute! Like, the way the story is conveyed through the gameplay is probably the star of the show, like the way Tellah's stats work or Cecil's battle against himself to become a paladin and so on, but I think they do a lot with a little in that regard.
I think they tried to do a lot with a little in terms of the Big Themes, as well. It maybe aims a little higher than it manages to convey, in that I feel like the Big Theme of the game as a whole is atonement and redemption. It does feel like the big themes of Cecil's arc comprise the bulk of the beginning of the game and kind of... finish with him becoming a paladin, but I gotta say, I do like that shit. I think it's pretty good, even if it feels like it goes a little fast. The way his relationship with Rydia, the child who he inadvertently orphaned, develops is pretty strong, and his return to Mysidia is good as hell. I love the way Cecil's interactions with the townspeople go in that segment! You get poisoned, you get turned into a frog, and you kind of deserve it, honestly. And Cecil is entirely aware he deserves it.
Of course, you can see it in other characters, as well, from Edward's guilt over his uselessness to Kain getting brainwashed all the time to the dang antagonist. I do feel like Brainwashing All the Way Down is a bit of a cop-out, but at the same time, it does feel like it's aiming at a metaphor. I think it ultimately ends up juggling too much to do any one thing justice as it hurdles to the end, but I kind of appreciate the ambition? I know the DS remake expands on the characterization more, so I look forward to that eventually.
The gameplay itself is kind of an interesting departure from the previous games in terms of giving you set parties with set roles rather than giving you the freedom to experiment. It's less "figure out which tools to use" and more "figure out how to win with the tools you're given." I still feel like there's a range of stuff to experiment with, though. When I played the game as a kid I got stuck at a very specific point (FUCK BAIGAN ALL MY HOMIES HATE BAIGAN) because I didn't really understand how to use the tools I was given, but now I have a better idea of how to deal with, uh, a party with one tank, one punch man, and three squishy mages, one of whom has a pretty bad MP stat because he's old. I didn't actually find myself that frustrated with Tellah on this go around because I discovered the wonders of Osmose, which was a helpful way to compensate for his shitty MP without using Ethers! Just steal it from enemies for free!
It's a little bit of a shame that the game pretty much tells you how to beat its puzzle fights right off the bat instead of giving you some time to experiment, though. There's some spicy fights before the endgame (rubicante... your hot leg distracted me into failure...) but the endgame yanks your training floaties off and tosses you right into the deep end. I was kind of tempted to ragequit on the final boss before I figured out the pro strats to beat him just because it was such a wild shift from what had been going on before and I'd already beaten Zeromus in a different game in a fight that was actually FUN even though I spent most of the fight dead on the floor because my internet died. I'm glad I pushed through, though, the ending was a lot cuter in motion than it was in screencaps.
Anyway, uh. Final thoughts. I wish they actually managed to capture the insane Beard Elemental energy of FuSoYa's Amano art because he actually looks like a weird alien and that's sick. I did like that his eyes flash red and green when he's casting, though, and his KO sprite is cute. Also I love that there's just a part where a robot bigger than a fucking castle starts stomping around and blowing shit up and it's extremely apocalyptic? I'm truly disappointed that's the one thing FFXIV didn't reference in its FFIV expac. Maybe they're saving it for later so they don't blow their whole FFIV Reference load in Endwalker...
Oh yeah and I think we should've been able to let Yang's wife join the party. She would have soloed Zeromus with her frying pan. She is the most powerful person in the game.