Okay, Square Enix, you got me. After refusing to refer to Super Nintendo classic Final Fantasy II as its chronologically accurate name Final Fantasy IV, I am finally giving in. With your constant re-releases of the Final Fantasy series, my stubbornness is just making everything too confusing. You win. Final Fantasy IV it is.
Even though the original Final Fantasy IV is still, to this day, one of my favorite role-playing games of all time, I wasn’t all that excited when they announced this Nintendo DS remake. Why redo a beautiful piece of art when the original is just fine? To me, it’s similar to someone like Miley Cyrus rerecording Etta James’s "At Last". Sure, the kids might like it ... but what’s the point?
Regardless of my reservations, I knew I was still going to play it. If anything, I was curious how some of my favorite videogame moments of all time would be recreated in fancy 3D (Palom and Porom’s noble sacrifice!).
So what is the final verdict? Does Final Fantasy IV for the DS maintain the charm of the original, or does everything precious get lost in the technological translation? Hit the jump for the full review.
Final Fantasy IV (Nintendo DS)
Developed by Matrix Software
Published by Square-Enix
Released on July 22, 2008
Chad Concelmo
I’m not going to lie: the first two hours of Final Fantasy IV are a little rough. The constant barrage of cutscenes, new graphics, and (gasp!) mediocre, slightly tinny voice acting is almost too much to take. Had it been a brand new, original game this stuff wouldn’t have bothered me -- in fact, it most likely would have impressed me. Experiencing all of this added flair in a game you have already grown to love, though, takes a little getting used to.
The good news: once I got over the initial shock, I began to appreciate how spectacular a game Final Fantasy IV on the DS really is.
For anyone not familiar with the Super Nintendo original (or the Game Boy Advance remake) Final Fantasy IV tells the story of a dark knight named Cecil, captain of a shady fleet of airships called the Red Wings. Through some extraordinary events, Cecil leaves the Red Wings and goes on a journey of redemption accompanied by a wide variety of allies. Like most RPGs, this quest of righteousness eventually turns into an epic battle to save the world.
During its time, Final Fantasy IV revolutionized RPGs by focusing heavily on story and characters. Instead of featuring a cast of generic wizards and warriors, Final Fantasy IV introduced deep, memorable characters, each with elaborate backstories and relationships. While the story was extremely linear, Final Fantasy IV wove a complex plot full of surprising twists and dramatic turns.
Story-wise, not much has changed in this upgraded version. All of the same characters, locations, and emotional story moments remain. If you are a huge fan of the original, this DS re-imagining is worth picking up if only to experience everything again in a brand new way.
The new presentation, though, is a slightly mixed bag. While the upgraded 3D graphics are crisp, colorful, and very clean (much better looking than the similar remake of Final Fantasy III), I found myself missing the personality of the 16-bit sprites. For every gorgeously rendered dungeon that looks like a watercolor painting, there are a handful of generic and bland textures that feel a little empty.
Most of my initial disappointment with this upgraded Final Fantasy IV concerned Square Enix’s odd decision to not incorporate much touch screen support. To me, an RPG is the best kind of game to be played on a touch screen since control is minimal and menu navigation makes up most of the gameplay. Strangely, the touch screen can only move your character in Final Fantasy IV. All of the menus -- including ones used in battles and shops -- have to be navigated using the D-pad and face buttons. It’s not a deal breaker by any means (I love old control schemes!), but I had hoped more touch screen implementation would be included.
Luckily, most of the additions to the game -- for which there are quite a few -- are stellar and really add to the overall experience.
For starters, everything just feels more polished and user-friendly in this new version. Some of the highlights:
-After a battle, an experience meter displays how much more experience is needed for a character to gain a new level.
-The same, gorgeous music from the original is remixed and better than ever.
-A wonderful auto-battle system makes constantly hitting the “A” button a thing of the past
-A new summon for fan favorite Rydia can be customized, trained, and used in fun touch-screen minigames
-A handy map is displayed on the bottom screen showing you key points of interest, be it an armor shop or the location of a hard to find treasure chest.
And speaking of this newly added map: One of my favorite new additions to the game comes in the form of a little rabbit character named Mapingway (an evolution of your classic name-changing friend Namingway). Every time you enter a dungeon, Mapingway provides your party with a map that is displayed on the lower of the two DS screens. However, only the small area around your character is revealed. As you journey through the dungeon, the map starts magically filling in the new areas you discover. If 100% of the map is completed (indicated by a constantly increasing percentage in the bottom right corner) your party is awarded with a special gift. The harder the dungeon, the better the prize! It is an excellent feature and so addictive that you will refuse to leave a dungeon until every last inch has been explored.
Sadly, not all of the new additions in Final Fantasy IV for the DS are for the better.
For one, the challenge level has been increased so much that it almost becomes unplayable at times. At first I didn’t notice, but as the game moved forward I found the experience to be more and more humbling. Bosses, in particular, will destroy your party unless you come in fully prepared with strong weapons and healing items galore. Unfortunately, this is a tough task as the amount of gil you receive after each battle has been dramatically reduced. Don’t be surprised if you fight a giant enemy only to receive a 15 gil reward for all the hard work. A warning to the easily frustrated: You thought the no-metal-allowed Dark Elf cave was hard in the original? Just be prepared.
In an effort to balance out this increased challenge, Square Enix added a brand new system called Augments. When certain characters leave your party they leave behind their abilities in the form of these magical items. By giving one to a party member, that character picks up the ability of the other character.
For example, say you want a non-magic user to be able to cast Cura: just supply them with a White Magic Augment and, voila, your knight can now cure the party! While this seems great in theory (since in the original game characters could never share abilities), the execution is a little sloppy. Once you use an Augment on a character you can never transfer it. Because of this, I wasted many Augments on characters I thought would benefit from certain abilities, but didn’t. Had the Augment been able to be equipped (and therefore transferable), I think this system would have worked a lot better. When it works, though, it works great and I give the designers points for trying something new.
Despite all the changes, Final Fantasy IV for the DS is still Final Fantasy IV: one of the greatest role-playing experiences of all time. While I can’t quite say this new version is the definitive one (that award still goes to the SNES original), it is easily a close second. Final Fantasy IV has one of the best videogame stories ever, populated by characters you instantly fall in love with ... and genuinely miss once they are gone. No matter how it is presented, Final Fantasy IV will always remain a timeless masterpiece.
I may have been a little jaded going in, but the DS remake of Final Fantasy IV stole my heart all over again.
Score: 9.0
Jonathan Holmes
Like Chad, I grew up completely infatuated with Final Fantasy II on the SNES, so it was with cautious optimism that I approached this DS remake. Square-Enix no longer means "guaranteed quality" in the way that it did back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. More so, remaking a classic with a more "modernized look" often leads to total failure (I'm looking at you, Gus Van Zant's Psycho). Thankfully, Final Fantasy IV kicks all kinds of ass, and is the most fun I've had with a Final Fantasy game since Final Fantasy IX.
First off, the graphics work. There was reason to fear that the jump from 2D to 3D would diminish the endearing, innocent, honest quality the game has always been known for. The sprite based, action/melodrama is a genre of it's own, with the juxtaposition between the seriousness of the events depicted and the low res sprites containing it's own inherent meaning. There is nothing like a game where little super-deformed 2D sprites declare their undying loyalty for each other, battle to the death, and inevitably utter their dying breaths in the arms of the ones they love. Altering that experience with polygons is risky stuff.
If Final Fantasy IV had employed a look akin to the Final Fantasy VIII, X, and XII's "sexy mannequin" style, I likely would have been turned off by it. But the 3D polygons here evoke the same sweet, childlike charm that the original's sprites possessed. They are still low res and super deformed so they still feel like videogame characters, as opposed to more "realistic people-oids" in the FF games listed above, who mostly never found their way out of the uncanny valley. The ability to zoom and pan in and out of the action also does wonders to emphasize the drama experienced by these cute (but miserable) little bastards.
Make no mistake, playing this game will make you sad. In the first few hours, a main character's mother dies before their eyes, another is forced to murder multiple innocents, life long friends try to kill each other, and others knowingly walk into their own death to save the lives of their companions. This stuff was interesting in the original because it was more mature and dynamic than anyone had seen outside the PC gaming world, but it worked just as much as novelty as it did a real piece of drama. Now with the new translation and camera work, it's not only a novelty, but it's also genuinely effective. If you were a fan of later Final Fantasy games but couldn't get into the earlier titles because they seemed too "kiddie", this remake could make you a believer. It contains as much non-stop, high tension, roller coaster moments as any other title in the series.
Part of that tension comes from the random turn-based battles, which I expected to hate. After being spoiled with Final Fantasy XII and Mother 3, both of which let you see your enemies before you fight them, there was no way I thought I could go back to the tediousness of the random encounter. I was wrong. The turn based battles in Final Fantasy IV work because they are so damn hard. The game almost feels like the first Resident Evil title, where moving from one place to the next was always an exercise in living dangerously. When the battles are this tough, instead of being a chore, each fight feels like a life or death, edge of your seat, survival horror conflict. It's feeling of overcoming hardship and strife, in both the larger storyline and the smaller, individual battles, that makes Final Fantasy IV so special.
Also worth noting are how well the new DS specific features, like the auto-mapping, the new trainable and visually customizable summon "Whyt", and the ability to read what's on your characters mind at any given time by going to the sub-screen, all work extremely well. The only new feature I'm not fond of is the voice acting. It's not badly done, but in a game populated by super deformed characters, it just doesn't feel right. For the record, the only games I can tolerate voice acting in are the Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil series, because they so clearly take their cues from live action films. For me, most other games are best read like comic books, where the in-game character's voices and acting only exists in my mind. Luckily, the voice acting in Final Fantasy IV can be turned on and off at anytime, so it's inappropriate qualities are easily quelled.
In summation, Final Fantasy IV is the perfect game for bringing old and new FF fans together. If you haven't played a FF game since the SNES days, you'll still find a lot to love here. But if you didn't start playing FF until the PS1 or PS2 days, Final Fantasy IV will still be relevant to your interests. It's truly the best of the old and the new, wrapped up together in one sweet little package.
Score: 9.5
Final Verdict: 9.25 (Negligible flaws. Otherwise very, very good; a fine example of excellence in the genre.)
Contest:
8:29 AM on 07.26.2008
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Anyway, so far I'm in love with this game! Every RPG fan needs to play it if they haven't done so already, and for old fans it's just a great treat. I love it!
I think that one fullfilled my retro JRPG fix.
This does look very good on the DS.
Reading this makes me feel more hopeful for the game. I hated the idea of a DS remake of my favorite RPG of all time. Now I may just have to check it out.
Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I agree with most of what was said above. Although Prince of Persia voice work for Cecil was nice. I love that dude. The rest sucked. And Rosa and Rydia are hot now, which is great. Much better than jacking off to a 16x16 sprite. Not that I ever did...
Long story short: I was worried they'd lower the difficulty like they did with the GBA games (I was playing the PS versions of the first and II) or the DS game. Well, actually, I'm not sure if they lowered the difficulty in the DS version of Final Fantasy III. But that game was WAAAAAAY too easy. The final boss lasted two turns, and not only did I not grind that much, I also never realized I'd been unlocking new classes (I'd assumed the few you have at the beginning were the only ones, and by the time I noticed others, I had too much faith in the job level actually doing anything much). But yeah: higher difficulty is yay.
The thing I think that caught me off guard was that the game actually FEELS like Final Fantasy II. I was expecting something entirely different, so that was a pleasant surprise.
With regard to the difficulty, I think I just hit the point where it starts to really take off. Cagnazzo really surprised me with how much he has been retooled. He is a LOT tougher than I remember him being. I don't think that even in the GBA version he countered EVERYTHING with Hold or Silence, all the while casting Sleep constantly while attacking and trying to hit you with a Tsunami. I survived, but Chad's comment about the Dark Elf cave are making me nervous.
All in all though, this game is everything I hoped it would be: a fantastic upgrade to one of the greatest games ever made.
@ keviniski: The GBA version is also riddled with minor and moderate bugs, which stop it just short of being the definitive version.
Spoiler warning? I know this game is old, but I haven't played it, and I just got back to Baron with Palom and Porom in tow on my recently procured DS version of the game.
Now I know they're going to be doing something noble, and I'm sure, like all other spoiled material I've ever run across, that it'll take the wind out of the moment's sails. Maybe just make it not as noticeable.
@ Kevinski, the SNES version is superior because the GBA had to make sound compromises as well as very slight graphical changes. Also, nostalgia goes a long way. My SFC copy of FFIV is my favorite, even above my PS1 copy (and probably above the DS version, too).
Maybe you decided to recommend it in the end, I don't know. But as soon as I saw "mediocre voice acting" I stopped reading. Square has had top notch voice acting in every FF-related title since XII, man. WTF is wrong with you?
I think it's definitely harder than even the "hard-type" of FFIV, but I think it's manageable and I think it gets easier as you get farther into the game. I haven't found myself doing too much level grinding, but you need to have a good strategy against the bosses, otherwise you will get owned, even if you do level grind.
It's kind of nice.
But I love challenge in RPGs, so this game is just making me more and more addicted to it. But it's going to be hard to beat the original SNES version.
i think it looks great! the voices all seem a bit 'sleepy' and soft, but by no means bad. still a bit awkward to walk diagonally because of the stiff pad.
i'm addicted to the dancing girls.
I love FFIV. I hate the graphics, I hate that they changed the difficulty, and I hate that they replaced the bonus content from the GBA version, which seemed much more interesting.
But I /want/ to like this game. So Iunno. I'm torn on this.
I'm totally getting this, though.
As a child, I was deprived from games like Final Fantasy on my SNES, so I didn't have a preconceived notion of this game kicking as much ass as people say it does. But, I can say without a doubt, this is my favorite RPG on the DS. Yes, it has it troubles, (The battles feel like they crawl some times) But all in all, I love it.
Also, a 9.25? I'm not so sure I would've scored it in the 9's, but, on Destructoid's scale,I would most definitely give it a solid 8. A really great buy for any DS owner. :)
The game is definitely harder than it's ever been, but it's still not that hard. Almost every enemy in the game has some hilarious weakness that you can exploit to kill it very quickly and easily, same with most of the bosses. And roughly 80% of the time that weakness is hitting them with Slow.
And I have to heartily disagree with the notion that "RPG's should REQUIRE grindan" because that's bullshit. RPG's should be able to be won -without- grindan; the player's strategy should be the most important part, not how much time you've spent leveling up.
Necros: The only time the US got Easytype was on the SNES. The GBA and PS1 versions of the game were ports of Hardtype. This game is slightly harder than Hardtype.
How about having a review from someone who hadn't played FF4 before or only dabbled in Jap RPGs. Your reviews lately have seen to be fan service as you're only reviewing for fans of the particular franchise and leaving the rest of us in the cold.
If you think it's unfair to have non fans of the genre or franchise bringing down the average score maybe just have an unscored "Another Take" segment at the end to give us another perspective on the title.
Sorry but going into the kaipo dungeon and having little gnome enemies go first and practically one shot my party before I can do anything is pretty annoying.
I'll be sure to pick this up :D
I am one for purity - I like the difficulty to be as close to the original (Japanese version) as possible.
Voice acting? I can do without it, my imagination can do a far better job usually.
I'm like Chad in how I just love the original pixel art. I suppose it would be too difficult to have an option to play through these remakes with the original graphics (...isn't the original game like 2 Mbs?). Or maybe SquareEnix just doesn't think today's young gamers would want it, but it sure would be appreciated by older gamers.
I even prefer the original FF1 graphics over all other remakes - I guess that puts me in the minority.
It takes a lot of mystery out of when Twincast is going to happen.
Battle Arena Final Fantasy?
The difficulty in random battles was nice.
Whyt is cool.
Art Design does not cease to amaze.
And please stop calling the US FF2 "easy type." That was yet another version that was JP only. It was even easier than our version and the final boss had a different sprite (which we later got as a bonus boss in the GBA version).
Jackal: *GLEE* I love your avatar. My favorite game of all time.
I am at the no-metal Dark Elf cave right now, so Chad has made me fear more than I did.
I am playing through the game again and I actually don't feel like it is as hard as I initially thought. Maybe it is because I didn't grind at all in order to finish the game as fast as possible for the review. Whatever the reason, I am having a much easier time during my second playthrough. I think I may have overreacted a bit. :)