I'm not sure what to think of FF IV DS, to be honest. I was very excited for it, but once I played it, I couldn't help but feel incredibly dissapointed, so dissapointed I was unable to enjoy the game for a while (this later changed (luckily) when I saw the awesome Golbez-entrance in Fabul, but still).

I'm pretty sure most people will claim "Ha, miles better than III DS!" but I have to disagree. They are pretty even IMO. IV DS doesn't really improve much over III DS. The graphics one could consider better, but I find them worse than III, no offense. Things lack detail, clothes seem to be the character's skin instead of their clothes, plants in villages seem like paper... In III, things had more detail. At least, that's the impression I got. This is very obvious in battles. In III you had a good view of everything, in IV the camera zoomed out drastically when compared to III to allow more monsters on the screen, but in doing so detail was lost for the characters. In general, I just feel like everything lacks the detail FF III did have for everything. I know why this was done, but that doesn't mean I should like it.

When it comes to the technical aspects of the game, I don't see it improving over III DS that much either. There are still many loading times, and starting up a battle in IV takes as long as, if not longer, than in III DS.

There is use of the second screen, yes. This is the only thing I really feel was improved over III. They could have easily given III this auto-mapping system, why they choose not to is beyond my ability to understand.

The soundtrack is okay, the change is not that drastic when compared to III. This is understandable I guess, for III was NES music changed to DS music and that's a huge difference, whereas IV was SNES to DS and it's not that different.

The VA and the storyline-scenes are impressive, I give SE that much. Like I said before, the scene were Golbez makes his grand entrance in Fabul was amazing for a DS game, me thinks. Thing is, so far, while the VA is good, it's a let down because there simply isn't enough of it. SE hyped this aspect of the game pretty much, so I expected more.

In general, I feel like SE tried to do more with the game than the DS could handle. It is not the improvement over III DS I had hoped it would be. It is on the same level, it improved some things but made a step backwards in other things. This makes me fear that the DS has reached its limits. Maybe SE should have waited for a more powerful handheld or should have gone with the PSP to remake this. (I'm not saying this to annoy people) For in the end, while IV DS is certainly a great game, arguably the best RPG so far on the DS, it still feels incomplete in some areas and in other parts it feels like it tried to be more than it could be. Too bad, I guess. But on the other hand, I'm relieved, now at least I don't feel like SE screwed III DS anymore. =P