Final Fantasy IV: A Final Word
Posted by Mike Blitz on July 1st, 2008
I have to start with a caveat: reviewing a game that took me eleven months to play is a bit unfair to the game. There were several times when I stepped away from the game for months at a time, and each time I came back I had forgotten more of the story and characters. Eventually I’d piece 
things together but still I spent a lot of time reorienting myself to the game, and the lack of momentum with my game play hurt my sense of appreciation for some parts to the game. Nevertheless, I thought I’d offer up some thoughts on Final Fantasy IV.
Story
Wow! Following on the heels of Final Fantasy III—which seemed to be a game that in many ways forgot to add a story—Final Fantasy IV delivers a compelling story and a twisting plot. Combat drives Final Fantasy III, but the story drives Final Fantasy IV. Rich, detailed, and filled with character interaction, Final Fantasy IV sets the standard for the series so far in terms of quality story. Kudos!
Combat and Character Development
Coming on the heels of Final Fantasy III, with its complex job system and richly detailed combat, I have to say that the combat in Final Fantasy IV was a disappointment in many ways. Character classes are predetermined, and there is little to no gamer involvement in how characters develop.
This doesn’t mean that the game is necessarily a failure with regards to combat. Final Fantasy IV introduces the Active Time Battle system (ATB), which adds a real-time element to the combat. By nature, I like turn-based combat, so there was an adjustment curve for me here. Add in the fact that it can take me more time to read the Japanese and you end up with some stressful combat encounters in the first section of the game. 
However, once I got used to the system it worked fine. I actually found myself spending most of the game with the combat on the game’s fastest setting, and I appreciate that you can move through random encounters quickly. I wish, however, that you could change the speed setting mid-battle, as there were a few times when I unexpectedly ran into a boss battle with combat set on the highest speed and lost valuable seconds because of it.
I also like the combat balance in Final Fantasy IV. Battles were challenging at times, with enemies using a variety of strategies and moves that forced me to think in order to overcome them. For all its combat complexity, Final Fantasy III suffered because it had several jobs and attacks that were simply much stronger than the others. Despite the simplicity in Final Fantasy IV, I found myself forced to use a greater variety of spells and combat moves in order to succeed. Good stuff.
Game Balance and Progression
On the whole, Final Fantasy IV is the most balanced game in the series so far. The story stays focused and tight. I never felt totally lost or that things happened without cause or reason. Money did get meaningless at the end, but for the majority of the game funds were limited and I had to think about expenditures. Combat was mostly on the easy side, but overall was balanced and engaging, with only a couple of exceptions. Dungeons were of a reasonable size, and except for the last battle, I never felt like the save system hurt me that much.
Visuals
The graphics in Final Fantasy IV hardly compare to the updated and immersive graphics of Final Fantasy III, which of course leads the pack so far. 
With Final Fantasy IV, we’re back in the Game Boy Advance era. The graphics are functional, but not inspiring.
Save Me Now
I can’t get around this one: I hated getting killed by Zeromus, losing an hour’s worth of experience and fighting, and then having to do it all over again in order to get another shot at the guy. I realize I could have run from the random encounters at the end to speed things up, but I needed the experience. A game shouldn’t punish you and make you replay so much content just to get another chance for victory. A more modern save system would have been greatly appreciated.
Final Word
On the whole, I enjoyed Final Fantasy IV a lot. The great story and challenging combat kept me engaged the whole time. I honestly think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I had played in straight through rather than playing it in chunks over the course of a year. It can be work to get back into a game after being away from it for a few months, and except for the beginning of the game, I never felt like I achieved any momentum with Final Fantasy IV, though no fault of its own. In the end, I have to give my experience with it an 85%, putting it in second place on the list so far. Well worth playing.
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:57 am
It’s definitely a bummer that you played the game sporadically. When are you going to begin your conquest of FF5, and, realistically, do you think that your gameplay will be staggered yet again? In other words, do you predict that your job will force you to play in spaced/fragmented timeframes?
July 4th, 2008 at 11:11 am
X-Boco,
Yeah, it was disappointing to play the game in so many disconnected segments. I really feel like I missed quite a bit with it. Also, it was a bit frustrating to just be playing the same one game for sooooo long. That might be good reason for coming back and playing the DS version of the game at some point though.
Knock on wood, but my life finally seems to have reverted to normal, so I’m hoping to play through Final Fantasy V in one big stretch. Well, actually, I’ve played a few hours before I went to Japan, but didn’t get a chance to play while I was there. Outside of that break, though, I hope to be able to play through the next few games without having to stop for months at a time.
July 9th, 2008 at 9:03 am
Well, I’m late on this (I was on holiday), but I’d say the save system wasn’t any better than FF3’s…since its the same kinda Quicksave thing. And I hated that too.
Well, I’ll now catch up on your posts I missed
July 9th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Chocobo,
I agree about the save system. I got lucky in FF3 and didn’t die in the last dungeon. In FF4, I got hammered repeatedly in the final battle. I think my impressions of FF3 would have been a bit different if I had lost that last battle and had to start that final dungeon again.
July 11th, 2008 at 3:27 am
Yeah…luckily even though I died the first time in FF3, I managed it the second. I still found the Quicksave thing annoying, because in dungeons if the power cut off, or if I stupidly switched it off accidentaly, then I’d loose some stuff…
August 24th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Well, I’ve figured it would be the best place to post it but I finished FFIV DS!
And man, the final dungeon is hard…when I got in, my characters were around level 60-65 and after days of crawling in trying to get all the chests and get all the maps 100% discovered, here’s my levels :
Kain : 81 Cecil : 83 Edge : 80 Rydia : 80 (and she just learned Meteor) and Rosa : 82
The battles of the crystal part of the dungeon were still a challenge as were the weapon bosses. The best spell in the game is Slow (it even works on Zeromus, who is a real wimp with this active).
August 24th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Slow, huh? I just got Rydia back in the DS version, and I’m lovin’ this remake. I didn’t think it would be as good as it is. Final Fantasy games are really surprising me lately, first this and now Crisis Core. One question:Didn’t Rydia learn Meteor on a much lower level in the GBA and SNES versions?
August 25th, 2008 at 11:37 am
I was thinking of getting that, and I wasn’t sure. I think I will, it seems different enough from the other versions, with enough new (and good) content to make it worth my while. And it seems other people (like you two) are liking it, so I think I’ll get it, but probably not very soon
August 25th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Yeah, this one is worth getting despite its sometime cheating difficulty! Some monster groups can litterally decimate your party when they launch their group attacks all at the same times. In Babil tower, for exemples, there are packs of 2 flame hounds (or something like that) and their flame does 500-600 on everyone. My Cecil had the most HP by far with about 2000 and Rosa had about 1000. What can you do with a barrage like that at the beginning of a battle?!? you can just run…
Except that great game with some little scenaristic surprises added into the mix (which are added mostly in the end)!
August 26th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Sounds cool. Yes, I heard the difficulty wasn’t easy. I’m not exactly great at hard games, but I think I’d try really quite hard with this game, because it would be enjoyable enough for that.
August 29th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Thanks for the updates. FFIV (DS) might be a good game for me to revisit after (if?) I finish the series.
Lately, I’ve been thinking it would be fun to play the series in English as well (but wouldn’t write a blog about it).