SNES to DS changes

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

What's your judgement on it, Kishi?

There were several scenes that had more dialogue than I remembered being in the original version, although now that I've gone back and replayed some of it, maybe there was always that much.

But saying there's only one extra scene is pretty misleading. It's more like a series of scenes, including a short playable sequence, that are all presented together at one point in the game. And I can recall at least one more scene that occurred outside that event, as well.

How does the Decant Ability System work for the Twin Command? Do you have to set it to two players with MP?

Usually, you get one Decant Item per ability; with Twin, you get two and apply them to a pair of your choice. Which combination of characters you select determines whether the resulting magic will be Brave, Faith, Bubble, the twins' original spells, or Ultima.

Furthermore, does anyone know why all characters except Cid naturally gain MP? I would assume that the temporary characters have no way of expending MP.

There are several Decant Items whose abilities require MP use, so it's important that even characters with no native magical abilities have a stock of MP to accommodate them; otherwise, it would restrict your options in forming a strategy to your liking.

I suppose they singled out Cid just to keep him unique. It's pretty inconsequential in his case, as he's only with the party for about two dungeons anyway.

[leader of mortals]

Well, kishi. On a scale of 1-10 what would you rate the game

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

I give it two out of two cheering Lydias.

[Necronopticous]

As much as I enjoyed it, I couldn't give it a perfect score.

The Matrix team really learned from the mistakes and missteps they made in the development and presentation of Final Fantasy III, however, there is definitely still room for improvement. Many of the interface odds and ends seem as though they were rush-jobs or last-minute tack-ons, and some just flat out annoyed me.

One example is the minimap, which, to be honest, looks and feels like a testing placeholder that never got replaced with the clean, presentable version, and is pretty buggy to boot.

Another is the awkward command window set-up. You can rearrange and replace commands in much the same fashion as you could with Gogo in Final Fantasy VI, except some certain commands cannot be removed, such as item. That's all fine and good, but the issue comes from the fact that you are incapable of even rearranging these commands, and they are locked in whatever position they originally come on any given character. Once you start adding decant abilities, this poor design starts to make all of your command windows look inconsistent and unorganized.

Then a bunch of less major, but still majorly frustrating things, like the spell lag in menus.

So there you have it: worlds better than III, a testament to the Matrix team's ability to learn from and grow out of their mistakes, and loads of fun, but still imperfect in the end.

[Elpizo]

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

[Bolivar]

Necronopticous, what mistakes (specifically) did you feel they made in III that they learned from/improved upon for IV?

[Roogle]

That's all fine and good, but the issue comes from the fact that you are incapable of even rearranging these commands, and they are locked in whatever position they originally come on any given character. Once you start adding decant abilities, this poor design starts to make all of your command windows look inconsistent and unorganized.

Can you give an example? I wonder if it is possible to edit the command lines with an editing device. I have looked for that type of thing in the past to fix organizational mistakes from programmers on other games.

[Captain Maxx Power]

Can you give an example? I wonder if it is possible to edit the command lines with an editing device. I have looked for that type of thing in the past to fix organizational mistakes from programmers on other games.

Basically wherever the item command starts on the menu it's stuck there. So for Kain he has Attack, Jump and Item in that order. So you can remove/replace/rearrange Attack and Jump, but Item will always occupy the third slot. I will admit it's an annoyance and something that could've been sorted out in a manner of minutes coding-wise. Even if they don't let you remove it it wouldn't have taken much to allow you to change it's position.

I also want to point out that when you go back and play FF3 you really notice the framerate drop that has occurred with FF4. Playing FF3 is like someone turned on the fast-forward button. It really highlights how much the graphics system chugs along. I don't know much about DS hardware capabilities, but if this was a performance issue then it could in theory be dealt with with better graphical routines.

[Roogle]

It is unfortunate to hear about the hardware slowdown for Final Fantasy IV on the Nintendo DS; moreover, it reminds me of a similar hardware slowdown that took place on Final Fantasy IX on the Playstation because of the increased number of polygons on the screen due to a four person party.

I think that the menu and commands problem has a slight chance of being fixed in the localization process. I will be prepared to look for a modification code with a device, too, when the game comes out — things like that really annoy me.

[Dr. Acula]

I'm still quite excited about it, my DS is getting dusty from being underused.

[Necronopticous]

The hardware slowdown is not a problem or annoyance at all, don't worry about that.

[MJN SEIFER]

My opinions, hope it's still ok to post here.

You now control Cecil in battle in the opening sequence

That’s kind of hit and miss for me. I like to take part in battles naturally, but I always considered that fight to be more storyline – plus I like how it misleads you into thinking that Cecil has some really cool attack to use. (for those who don’t know – they are actually items.)

New flashback scene of Cecil/Kain dueling in Baron Castle

This sounds interesting, however I don’t really like how they’re taking a OLD GAME and adding these NEW SCENES into them. Either make a new game, or think up these scenes in the first place, unless that said scene was intended for the game a cut for some reason. However, I am intrigued by this scene, so I can probably over look this.

Additional dialogue between Cecil/Rosa in Baron Castle bedroom (?)

Again, it just seams silly doing this – it’s almost as if they’re rewriting themselves.

Extended scene in village of Mist between Cecil/Kain/Rydia

This is probably similar, but I actually welcome it, as the scene I think they’re talking about went far too quickly to be as dramatic as it was.

Rydia has a new companion, the Pochika

Sounds cool to me.

Subtle map changes to towns and dungeons (ie: On the peak of Mt.Ordeals, instead of a small shrine, there is now a stone tablet which teleports you to a shrine)

Doubled-sword again. I like how this change works a bit better, and makes more sense, but it just seams a bit strange to suddenly decide against what was originally intended.

Namingway has a new job as Mappingway (changing names appears to be unavailable due to voice acting)

I always considered Namingway to be a stupid method of naming characters, so I don’t mind this change, and I am interested to see what the “Mappingway” actually does. Oh wait, this game has voice acting? Well that’s my interest in buying this game severely diminished then!

Decant Ability System

Does not make any sense to me; “Pour out Ability System”? “Transfer Ability System”? Oh, does it mean that you can transfer each other’s abilities? A bit silly as they where good that way.

Auto Battle System

Boring. I never use this on RPG Maker, so why would I use this on actual game?

Auto-map, rewards for 100% exploration per level

What?

Cecil cannot equip bows or staves

Always preferred him with a sword, so doesn’t matter to me.

Cecil gains more white magic spells (protect, shell, raise)

This sounds pretty good, I still say it’s silly redoing all they’ve done – I just don’t always like the concept of remaking things this way.

New magic spells Ultima, Faith, Brave, Bubble

Like above.

Arrows are not consumed when shooting a bow, and come in quantity of 1 from chests

Where they ever? And if that’s a mistake doesn’t defeat the RPG feeling?

Characters rejoin at set levels

So, Kain is now the weakest character in the game then? Just, great!

Tellah is now able to earn sufficient MP above 90, with sufficient level ups. (thus allowing meteor to be cast early.)

What? No, no, no! The whole point of that storyline was that he couldn’t use Meteor without exceeding his strength – hence why it was such a big deal he died later.

Bosses are generally harder and have new attack patterns

Fair enough.

New Hidden bosses

How do they know if they’re hidden Seriously this sounds interesting. Again though, why not just make another game?

Kain and Palom are now right handed

Why? Are lefties not cool enough? (not intended to offend), there was no reason to change this, it made it more “real” that left handed people existed in this world.

Item capacity increase

Makes sense, I thought it was far to limited

Switching weapons mid-battle takes up a turn

Sounds good, but it may annoy some.

Gilbert can select songs to perform

Brilliant, I didn’t like how it was done before. Hang on… this is Edward, right?

Bows are fixed on the right hand, while arrows are fixed on the left

Pretty pointless change if you ask me.

Bows no longer cause extra damage to flying targets

Why did this get removed? It’s like Fire attacks no longer damaging Ice enemies…

Spears no longer cause extra damage to flying targets

Again, Why?

Child Rydia learns different spells over the long run

[Reserved]

Various characters have different stat gains

[reserved]

Stat changes past level 71 are no longer random but controled by equipped decants

That sounds pretty interesting, I don’t know if it is.

Spell damage has increased for most spells

[Reserved]

Bio damage reduced

[Reserved]

Can use spells from the magic menu without going back to the main menu after each turn

Finally. It was stupid the other way.

Every character except Cid naturally gains MP

[Reserved]

Edge can no longer equip claws

Shame, I liked them.

Exit/Warp is disabled in all Castles and towns. (prevents bugs, like fetching the dark crystal early.)

Well if it fixes bugs then ok.

Warp is completely disabled in the Sealed cave. you now have to walk all the way back out.

While this seams like a fair change, it’s probably really annoying.

Warp now puts you at the start point of the previous room.
Elixirs can now be bought (from hummingways).

[reserved]

Bahamut's megaflare attack cannot be reflected.

I wasn’t aware it could be, but I’m pleased it can’t now.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

Please read the rest of this thread. Most of your concerns about various changes have been addressed in previous posts.

[MJN SEIFER]

Please read the rest of this thread. Most of your concerns about various changes have been addressed in previous posts.

Such is the curse of procrastination. I started my reply when the thread first started and admitidly was in a rush to get it done - I apologies, and will read the rest of the thread, but please leave my reply so I can edit it when finished.

[Captain Maxx Power]

I started my reply when the thread first started and admitidly was in a rush to get it done

You started your reply to this a month ago? What the hell man?