Final Fantasy IV Review (Spoilers)
Okay, we missed four weeks worth of reviews due to maintenance and my busy schedule so I hope you enjoy the review spam.
Warning: The following review contains spoilers. Reader's discretion is advised.
Kon'nichiwa, ToriJ no bideogēmu no rebyū e yōkoso. We continue Thanksgaming Month with another fan favorite, Final Fantasy IV! Final Fantasy IV was originally released to the Super Nintendo in July 1991, and localized to the states four months later renumbered Final Fantasy II since we couldn't get our hands on FFII and FFIII at the time.
The game stars Cecil, a Dark Knight who works for the Kingdom of Baron, but lately the King of Baron has been acting strangely, and when Cecil is tricked into killing a summoner in Mist Town and raining fire upon the city, he's said enough is enough and turn traitor!
At the beginning it's just Cecil and Kain traveling together before you get separated and meet new allies. You can't name each character when you meet them, but there is a guy you can talk to where you can change your names at any time. I would have preferred being able to name them at meeting and then using him in case you changed your mind later, but I digress.
You start off at level ten, making you immensely more powerful than the enemies you fight at the start so just have fun killing things, until you find out that you killed someone's mother. I DIDN'T KNOW! Cecil's regular attack does a lot of damage, but Dark was just next to useless so I seldom ever used it. Kain is a badass through and through and you're going to miss him when he's gone.
There is a lot of party switching in this game. After you're separated with Kin, Rydia joins your party. Then later you meet up with other characters that stick around for a while, before leaving and being switched out for others. This game actually does away with the four members max policy and you can have up to five members this time. Awesome!
Putting certain characters in the back and front rows is the most tedious thing in this game. Instead of just being able to select an individual, all of the characters in your party switch row at once. You have to mess around in the Order menu just to get them in the rows you want before proceeding. Luckily, once you get to a certain point the game just sets new party members in the proper row they should be in and you can go from there.
Something I find strange is the way speech is presented in the game. Usually each character would have their own speech box, not share one like FFIV does in the picture above. The first two Final Fantasy games didn't do things this way, so why does FFIV feel the need to? It just comes across as sloppy.
There are a lot of caves at the beginning, and all of them look alike except for a few minor differences. I can forgive this since it's mostly due to technology limitations, and they get better over time. Monsters you find in these dungeons are challenging to the point I find the bosses to be easier than some of the regular enemies.
Final Fantasy IV's story is well executed, and it really makes you feel for the characters. Whether it be Cecil trying to escape his dark past, Kain's jealously of Cecil, Rosa love for Cecil, Rydia overcoming her fear, Tellah's wanting vengeance, Edward's losing his beloved, it just knows all the right heartstrings to pull and when to pull them.
You don't get to know Anna at all, but you do get to know Tellah and you feel his pain at losing his only daughter. The same feel of tragedy comes later when Porom and Palom, two characters that you actually DO get to know beforehand, and travel with you, sacrifice themselves to save the rest of the group. You don't see it coming, it's tragic, and it compels you to keep going on your journey. For a franchise that has lately been criticized for being afraid to kill off characters, there certainly was a time where they weren't afraid to axe people like they were Game of Thrones. But it wasn't all tragedy. There were a lot of funny bits, too. Who can forget this timeless classic?
The game knew how to balance out the serious parts with some light-hearted humor so it didn't descend into the mellow drama that a lot of stories today do. Final Fantasy IV also tells different parts of the story through gameplay, like the picture above. However, it's kind of annoying that we have no control over the characters during these segments. Like in the opening act where Cecil was fighting monsters on his own. I was just waiting, and waiting for the game to finally allow me to play it.
In closing, it's easy to see why Final Fantasy IV is considered a classic, and loved by so many. It's a fairly challenging game with a good story, well-written characters, and various twist and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat. If any of these things interest you, then I suggest you pick up a copy for yourself.
Get it.
