Final Fantasy IV (Nintendo DS) Review

(Originally posted on December, 2013)

                                                     

(2007, Nintendo DS)

In the 90’s, I only made it about a third through FFIV on the SNES. The game was fun, but back then, even the American easy-type version was simply too much to deal with!  My gaming-conscious feels the weight of every quality RPG it’s abandoned in the past, intending to revisit many of them. When I stumbled on the DS remake for a decent price, I knew it was time to give FFIV another shot. Like fighting games, I feel RPGs are a more personal experience and difficult to judge. Here goes anyway.

The game begins with a fantastic opening movie, seeming to celebrate the entire patois that is FFIV, going so far as to spoil key moments in the story. Square continues to add their love with the opening scenes and many other moments being told through multiple camera angles complete with voice acting (I played the Japanese version, which struck me as better than the English voices). The redone cut scenes work particularly great in FFIV, as the game is regarded as an important evolution to JRPGs with its focus on story and cinematics.

Although it’s been many years since I’ve played the original, I noticed some big changes that make the game more of a reimagining than a remake.

-    The optional decant system allows far more customization with the characters, with their unique abilities/jobs now able to be swapped.

-    The DS’s bottom screen features an auto-filling map, making the game’s massive dungeons far less of a hassle to completely navigate.

-    Pulling up the menu now yields a useful hint or more insight into the world from whichever character you’ve chosen to lead the party.

Differences aside, how’s the game itself? Great, if you can handle it! Don’t be fooled by the fancy (for the DS) 3D graphics, it still plays very old-school with its irritatingly long dungeons, battles favoring tactics over brute force and instances of save points being located several minutes away from bosses you’ll likely fail on more than once. If you don’t use a guide, prepare for lots of trial and error and note taking. Fortunately, I’m one of those people who enjoy dealing with all that bother. Even with the dungeon grinding, my 43 hour play time felt fast paced with the party members constantly being shuffled during the journey not just through continents, but multiple worlds.

For me, FFIV DS’s redone soundtrack is neither better nor worse than the SNES overall. The upbeat punch of the main battle doesn’t hit quite as hard as it used to, while “the lunarians” is even more effective at creating a sense of dread, mystery and unease. Whichever version you prefer, no one could argue that both of them make for a fantastic soundtrack. Two personal highlights:

-    One of the boss fights takes place to a harp being played for several minutes, only to immediately break out into the boss theme. The excitement from the contrast had me wanting to jump up and down!

-    Upon entering the underground world, my first impressions were of how unpleasant and dreary it appeared, yet the sense of serenity and magnificence from the music made me begin to see beauty within a place I didn’t any.

FFIV is far from my favorite JRPG soundtrack, but I won’t argue that it’s fantastic and wonderfully does the job of drawing one into the game’s world.

As mentioned before, FFIV’s redone 3D graphics lend themselves wonderfully to the game’s cinematic focus. The colors and textures are done in such a way that in some moments, the game appears as if Yoshitaka Amano’s wonderfully odd style has come to life on the DS. While not all that important to the gameplay itself, the ever present low frame rate during battle is tiring on the eyes.

FFIV’s theme of redemption was told in an interesting way, but neither the general plot nor characters were that engaging to me (I should note that the game was played in a language I could understand but am a long way from mastering). I enjoyed the game more for the challenge than the story, although I did find myself getting wonderfully uneasy from the atmosphere at the end of the game. I made it to the end of what I would call a high quality game, but it’s not one of those rare RPGs I find worth replaying. I wouldn’t recommend FFIV DS to a beginner, but it’s certainly worth a look for those who’ve already saved a few worlds and want a greater challenge.