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Author: Ben <benulo@systemli.org>
Fri Oct 15 11:56:08 AM +0330 2021
It is time for the big review of Final Fantasy IV, which I just mastered last night. It's the last game in the Pixel Remaster series to be released so far, which means that unfortunately I can't jump straight to V unless I play it on an emulator, but I'd rather have the new version for various reasons. (Widescreen, orchestrated soundtrack, new translation...)
Since I'm playing them in order, I end up having to compare IV with III. The comparison is not unwarranted, because there are some major similarities between these games. As expected, however, the newest installment features a number of improvements over the previous installments.
One thing that I wanted to note here, is that between III and IV there was a console generation shift, with the latter being released on the SNES and taking advantage of a majojr upgrade in hardware capability, whereas III was an NES game. Because the versions I have now are remakes, some of the gap between them is closed. With upgraded graphics, the NES titles look really much more like SNES games, with a decidedly 16-bit graphical style. That's not to mention that the sound has been upgraded as well.
So, since the games became roughly equal in graphics and sound, it seems to make IV suffer as one of the most beloved titles in the series. There are some who played this game in their childhood and believe it's the best Final Fantasy game, and it is quite good, but ultimately after a thorough play-through, I don't believe it can possibly dethrone VI or even the Playstation era titles.
I hadn't played the original release of IV on the SNES when it came out. A friend of mine had it and he showed it to me once, but I did end up playing it a few years later on the PC with an emulator (ZNES), and I was still quite young then. Even so, now in my mid-thirties I was still able to thoroughly enjoy III.
As much as I loved III, and possily prefer it to IV for personal reasons, I would have to fairly state that IV is better than III. The stories are somewhat similar, and even though I preferred III's, you can see that IV has focused a lot more on developing characters as individuals with personalities and focusing on their emotional states. It's hit-or-miss with certain things, but the story provides lots of classic moments that are famous and familiar to anyoen who's played it.
Composition-wise, the music seems better. Certain songs in IV stand out as iconic masterpieces in the series, particularly the overworld theme. That's not to say that there's anything wrong with III's, but IV manages to edge it out. It's generally like that with everything else about the game.
One notable difference is the absence of the job system, which allows it to avoid some problems III had, but it seems to rob the game of some variety. This is probably why the job system makes a comeback in V, and VI just has a ton of playable characters.
As I mentioned, IV's story does well with certain character moments, something that until this point it doesn't seem like any Final Fnatasy title has capitalized enough on. However, I just wasn't so impressed with the overall plot. Like the previous games, the main villain is really just the force of evil itself, so not much to report on that front. Very late in the game, a seemingly critical plot point develops where Golbez is revealed to be Cecil's dragon-born brother, but it's almost impossible to care about this. Golbez really has no character, and their being brothers is also just not really explored in the game. Even though the game seems to end with heavy emphasis on this point, I personally couldn't care about it.
Really the side-characters were just much more enjoyable, like Tellah, Edward, Cid, Palom/Porom, Rydia, Edge, Yang... Really a great cast of characters aside from Cecil and Rosa. Also very few of them die, though the game annoyingly tries to make you think they've died only to have them randomly turn up later.
Probably one prolem with Cecil/Golbez is that story-wise there was a lot more interest and potential in the dynamic between Cecil and Kain, who are also both in love with Rosa. This makes things complicated, and Kain's character depth is explored a little in the game as it takes up a decent enough portion of the plot, so that's something at least.
Overall, it is a worthy and notable game in the series, and I'm probably being a little too critical. None of the other games in the series can replace this one, so it is unique, and at the time of its release must have clearly overshadowed all the previous Final Fantasy games. We just have the remakes to thank for breathing new life into the first three titles.
I do recommend this game if you are interested in Final Fantasy. My reason for recommendeding FF3 more strongly was that it's less known and appreciated, whereas FF4 is very well known and appreciated. It's also not perfect, but it is certainly special.
I also have another recommendation, which is that it's becoming increasingly apparent to me that the best order to play the Final Fantasy series is not in ascending order, but descending. It just seemed logical to me to start at one and then play two, three, and four, and that is the order that they are being released in currently, so at this point I've no choice but to play V before VI, but it seems like you could appreciate and enjoy the games more if you work backwards, finishing off with FF1 as the great classic that started it all.
That's just my opinion, though, and you'd also have to decide where to start if you were to play them reverse-chronologically. Should you start with VI? VII? Perhaps later titles? That, I do not know. I suppose I might recommend playing the Pixel Remasters this way, so start with the last title and then work back, and then on another occasion play the Playstation games forward, that is start with VII and then play VIII and IX after that. The installments that appeared on the PS2 (X and XII) are both worth playing and can be played individually however you want. I don't see any point in putting those two games in a specific order. I guess the same could be said for any later Final Fantasy game. What do you think?