After playing through FF4 to the point of becoming a paladin on the DS, I can't go back tyo the SNES. Sure the VA's suck, but that is sort of the charm, as well as the better graphics and increased difficulty.
After playing through FF4 to the point of becoming a paladin on the DS, I can't go back tyo the SNES. Sure the VA's suck, but that is sort of the charm, as well as the better graphics and increased difficulty.
Yeah, this topic's old, but I'm bored so I feel like posting.
I like both 2D graphics as well as 3D graphics. However, if they do 3D graphics, they need to execute them well and present them well. The balloon-head concept for the characters on the movement screen as well as the battle screen looked cute when done with sprites. Balloon-head sprites have a certain charm/cuteness to them [it looks pretty close, if not the same as a chibi anime-style]. However, I really feel like complaining that translating the balloon-head concept into 3D polygons was a bad choice, and made the characters look ridiculous. It pissed me off! I couldn't take any of them seriously. Especially when I fought Valvalis/Babariccia, it looked like a bunch of 7 year-olds fighting a grown woman. It looked silly! The sound effects of the menu also drove me insane.Originally Posted by Blue Cup
Aside from that, everything else about Final Fantasy IV for the DS was awesome. There is a slight jump in difficulty, but I didn't really find this game to be as hard as people are making it out to be [but then again, I could see it becoming difficult for someone that chooses to run away from battles too often].
To anybody that's played the SNES or GBA version of this game: Am I the only person that's wondered why Paladin-Cecil has short, pink~violet gradient hair in the movement/battle screen, but not in char select? It's like two different people [obviously this was intentional, but WHY?]. If this was discussed before, then I must have missed it [and for that I apologize in advance]. Although personally, I'm more of a fan of his short hair look as opposed to his woman-hair look.
The difference in Cecil's design is based on technology limitations. Trying to translate the Amano style into those blocky little sprites is a nightmare from what I've heard. My guess is, that his whole color scheme was changed from his original design so he could stand out better from the other characters.
True beauty exists in things that last only for a moment.
Current Mood: And it's been a long December and there's reason to believe. Maybe this year will be better than the last. I can't remember all the times I tried to tell myself. To hold on to these moments as they pass...
Yes, character art was changed in the early days of Final Fantasy to adapt the character properly in sprite form. That is likely the reason for the differences between Cecil on the status screen, overworld screen, and battle screen. They were like three different characters!
Terra, or Tina, from Final Fantasy VI has blonde hair in her concept art and DISSIDIA Final Fantasy, but was given green hair in the release of Final Fantasy VI to help distinguish her from Celes.
I believe in the power of humanity.
I love the DS version, but the difficulty is killing me (yeah. Not a good player. I know :rolleyes2).
I just beat FF IV on the DS for the second time. The only real difficulty in the game is in the end-dungeon, and even then, that doesn't last too terribly long [after a short while of leveling off of Silver, Gold, and Blue Dragons, as well as getting all the main equipment, the difficulty of the final dungeon melts away pretty fast]. Zeromus is stupidly easy, they should've buffed him up more. I did the entire game without the use of any augments or stat-boosting items [I'm a bit of a purist on top of the fact that I feel augments make this game too easy, so I chose not to use any augments whatsoever] and beat Zeromus on a level range of 66~71.
However, I can see why this game would be hard for those that don't know how to fully use Rydia's and Rosa's range of spells. The final dungeon would be pretty difficult otherwise. Also, avoid Dark Sages. They're a waste of time! They deal way too much damage and give practically no exp.
I hate fighting Behemoths!
I only played half of the SNES version (not the GBA one), but I can say I love the DS version a lot more - I favour polygons over sprites anyhow.
"... and so I close, realizing that perhaps the ending has not yet been written."
I only favour polygons over sprites if the polygons are good. The polygon models for all the FF IV characters are chibi-style, which makes them look pretty ridiculous [chibi looks cute with drawings or sprites, but as 3D rendered models chibi-style looks retarded]. I'd rather have an extremely detailed and well-done sprite than a half-assed polygon model.
I personally like them and don't think they look retarded.
"... and so I close, realizing that perhaps the ending has not yet been written."
YouTube - FF4DS-Valvalis
It looks like a bunch of 8 year-olds fighting an adult. D:
1. No it doesn't.
2. Why does everyone on EoFF feel their opinion is final? If I liked something, why do people feel the need to try and tell me I should feel otherwise?
3. I happen to be a big fan of more stylized art direction, so deal with it I guess?
"... and so I close, realizing that perhaps the ending has not yet been written."
You should probably choose a different word besides "stylized", because this can be applied to any form of art.
Actually I don't. You'll probably notice that not many people agree with my statements, haha. It doesn't bother me, so I don't see why you're so offended. Try not to get so defensive and be so sensitive to people that have different opinions and give examples.
I personally like the chibi polygons better than the realistic look. Whenever I play a game that attempts hyper realistic graphics it always makes it seem almost more fake, as they are never perfect and my attention is always driven to the flaws. With stylized graphics I take them for what they are. (Don't get me wrong, just because they are stylized doesn't mean they are good, there are styles I don't like, but chibi is one I do)
My biggest beef about the sprites is how skinny they made Cecil and Kain look. They look like they have sticks for limbs. Being the physical attackers of the party I would expect a little more muscle mass.
"I'd rather have an extremely detailed and well-done sprite than a half-assed polygon model."
I think the reason you come off as hostile is statements like this. Disagreeing with the choice of style is one thing; calling one of them a copout is rather inflammatory. (As I side note, I think extremely detailed sprites look awesome as well.)
Haha, yeah I know. Roogle has pointed out to me on a few occasions when I'm coming across as rather "mean". It's actually not my intention to, but without the tone of voice attatched to my words on here, I probably sound like an overly-critical forum tyrant. Actually, I'm just opinionated by nature, but there isn't really a violent intention behind my words.
Still, I kinda wish they had done sprites or a better 3D polygon model. I understand that some people liked the chibi polygon model look, but, I just... couldn't take it seriously. When I first saw a preview of this game [which was actually the youtube video of Valvalis/Barbariccia that I posted there], I started laughing and it seemed embarrassing to look at. I don't mean that it has to have hyper realistic graphics, but something that looks proportional would be nice. For example, the way they did the battle-screen models Golbez, Valvalis, and Rubicante looked really nice. They actually look humanoid in terms of being proportional. To balance this out, they could have chibi-fied the models of the villains like Golbez, Valvalis/Barbariccia, and Rubicante as well, but then someone said that it would make the villains look somewhat silly. My response to that of course was "Well, there you go! You think it would make the villains look silly, whereas I think it's currently making my favourite childhood characters look silly". My bias against balloon-head polygon models probably got started the first Wild ARMS game.
Everyone person has their tastes and preferences though. My taste is somewhat hard to explain, as I still like the chibi look when it's limited to 2D-art and sprites, because in those two forms I think it can look wonderfully cute [as in teddy bear cute, it's adorable!].
Well, you can't say the polygon's are perfect, but I liked the graphics in the DS version very much. I'll always prefer this style to something that we had, for example in Xenosaga Episode I. I don't mean to say those graphics were bad, but I don't think the "realistic"-manga look (as opposed to super deformed) looks good in CG. I mean, on some occassions when you could see a close-up of Shion's face, she would show no emotion at all. Even in some dramatic scenes. The characters looked like they were baloons.
Anyway, the DS version guarantees, IMHO, the ultimate FFIV experience. The voice acting is fair, the new scenes are great... It' superb!
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
