Final Fantasy IV Review 1

	Final Fantasy IV Review 1 by Dark Paladin
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	Member Since: Sunday 23rd March 2003

Scores	Plot	Graphics	Sound	Game Mechanics	Replay Value	Overall Score
	4	4	5	4	4	9.5/10

Note: All scores on a five-point scale, with five being highest, except for the overall score, which is out of ten.

Final Fantasy IV made its first release in the west in 1992, then known as Final Fantasy II. When the first three installments of the series came out in Japan, SquareSoft decided to be lazy and slow for the series' translation and American release. After the first one was finally given to the west, the fourth was ready in the east, on the newest system — the Super Famicom. Final Fantasy IV's release was so groundbreaking, so record breaking in sales, SquareSoft decided to skip the second and third installments of the series, both of which had also done groundbreakingly well in Japan (when releasing in Japan, they even decided to dump a different project they already had planned for a FFIV on the Famicom). So as not to confuse Americans who had only seen the first Final Fantasy, SquareSoft renamed it Final Fantasy II.
Because in America, video games were just a "kiddie" thing, SquareSoft needed to censor it and "dumb it down." They took out profane and otherwise "adult" language, altered one animation scene, lowered enemy stats, dumped several dozen items, and changed a few names of characters and places. It was done to such a degree that the US release could be considered a different game. This version would be later known as Final Fantasy IIus.
SquareSoft saw such success with the "dumbed down" US version, they decided to dumb it down even more. Lowering enemy stats even more, keeping the censorships, and altering weapon stats and properties, SquareSoft re-released the game in Japan as Final Fantasy IV Easy Type.
Ten years after the original release, Square (formerly SquareSoft) re-released the original Final Fantasy IV on the Playstation in North America (two years after a double re-release in Japan). There were a few alterations, minor ones to monster stats, major name changes to items, and a new (if pointless) "run" option for the dungeon maps. A year later, a fifth version was released for the Japan-exclusive Wonder Swan Color. It was the original release with the original "bugs" removed.
The release information alone is a testament to how wonderful this game is. To have five versions of this game, and just as many re-releases, is a true mark to how great this game is.

You begin the game as Cecil, an orphan who has taken up the art of the Dark Sword. He is returning from an invasion to steal the Water Crystal from Mysidia, the village of mages and wizards, who did not fight back against Cecil's troops. Upon returning to the Kingdom of Baron, he revealed his feelings of guilt, and the king expelled him from his position of Captain of the Red Wings, the Fleet of combatant airships of Baron.
Cecil was given one last assignment — to deliver a Package to the village of Mist, a village of Summoners. His best friend Kain, a Dragon Knight, accompanied Cecil as punishment for defending him before the king. Upon arriving to the village, the package opened to reveal a bomb, which quickly burned the village and slaughtered its inhabitants.
Among the conflagration, the Dark Knight and the Dragon Knight found a small girl crying at the body of her dead mother. At that moment, Cecil vowed to never follow orders blindly again, and to seek out vengeance against the king. When trying to rescue the girl, she became frightened, and fought back with her powerful summoning magic. The result tossed the three of them away from the village, and altered the surrounding landscape. Cecil later awoke in a field with the unconscious girl, and with Kain nowhere to be found.
Cecil later finds out the problems within his homeland are the cause of a man named Golbez, who has taken control of the Red Wings, and is now after the remaining Crystals. Cecil must now seek out this dangerous man. Along the way, he discovers his past, the way to repentance, and his own heart.

Final Fantasy IV keeps a regular rotation of characters, who all become so loyal to Cecil that they would lay down their own lives for his quest, many of whom actually do. Cecil always remains fixed in the character rotation, with warriors and wizards coming and going, to fill no more than five character slots. This game keeps a unique character arrangement never used before and not used since — it allows an alternating arrangement for characters to be in the front or back row. It allows two characters in the front and three in the back, or two characters in the back and three in the front. This arrangement gives more to a strategic and challenging planning to the characters' placement.
Magic in Final Fantasy IV is learned solely by level. Each character who uses magic learns their own spells at specific levels, except for the Summoner, who must learn by defeating specific boss monsters in the game's few Side Quests, or by finding special items dropped by specific regular monsters. This system replaced the former one of buying magic for each character; this way you could focus your hard-earned money on items and weaponry. It is also better than future systems of magic learning through customizations, which can at times be unwieldy, but FFIV's system removes the strategic challenge of learning magical skills.
Final Fantasy IV has unique characters within battle. Each character has their own set skill(s) in battle, thus making them a unique asset that cannot be replaced. The skills, be it Jump, Cover, Dark Wave, or Sing, are set for each character, but is later dropped in the series in favor of variable skills for each character, only to have a slightly unimportant shadow in Final Fantasy VI and to be resuscitated in Final Fantasy IX.

Of all the innovations dropped after Final Fantasy IV, there were an equal amount kept. The two most important were graphical story and ATB. Final Fantasy IV was the first RPG to be graphics-based, whereas former RPGs were text-based. In the past, RPGs included walking around, developing the story by talking to the NPCs, and inputting commands in battle for them to be executed by usually little more than a colored flash. In Final Fantasy IV, the story was told through the advanced graphics and the motions of the sprites. Battles were executed with unique animations for each command, and had a full-screen background, instead of the former background of a strip at the top.
The Active Time Battle (ATB) was a brand-new system first implemented here. In former RPGs, the battles were turn-based for the entire party. The player would input a command for each character, they would all go at once, and then it would be time to input all the commands again. With ATB, a window would pop up for a character, and once the command was put in, the player will wait for the next character's turn. This removes the "battle sequence" style, and gives speed and agility a purpose. Of course, this means the player will have to act relatively quickly as to not be slaughtered while "thinking."
Final Fantasy IV includes many plot points that may seem cliché now (young girl with amazing magical powers, the enemy you chase isn't who you think he is, collection of magical item/artifact, sacrifice of a major character, etc), but this game was one of/the first to use these plot points. It was later that these were used to the point of becoming cliché.

Final Fantasy IV has few side quests, which is a double-edged sword. Having few side quests keeps the story on track, and keeps the player from coming out of doing a series of side quests wondering what they were actually supposed to do next. But, side quests are one of the major things that give a game replay value. However, Final Fantasy IV makes up for that by its item hunt. There are several items and a few summon spells that can be obtained when a specific monster drops it, most of the time rarely. Many of these items are those of great power, such as the Adamant Armor or the Dragon Whip, while others will be for pure curiosity and sense of accomplishment, such as the Imp Spell and the Cursed Armlet.

The plot itself, is admittedly linear, but makes up in quality. The inventive and innovative plot has been taken from so many times, that it has become cliché; being the first one with these plot points, however, is indicative of these two qualities.
The graphics of this game are a wonderful new start for the series; a huge step-up from the former games, and for being the first RPG on the SNES, thus being an experiment with new technology, it was handled with perfection for the 16-bits it had to work with.
The Sound was handled very well. Again, being an experiment with new technology, the crew at SquareSoft were still able to produce wonderful background music that makes its predecessors seem like computerized chimes and dings going in a pattern. Sometimes, it seemed the music and the sharp sound effects blended in with the scene so perfectly that they were no longer separate.
The Game Mechanics, albeit primitive, were major innovations, many of which continue to this day.