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Final Fantasy IV (SquareSoft, 1991)

bryan.eddy@newretrowave.com — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 23:49:17 +0000

As many JRPG fans know, when Final Fantasy II was released for the SNES in America in 1991, it was actually the fourth installment in the series. As all too often happens between here and there, the second and third titles weren’t released stateside until a long time after their inception. Nonetheless, US and European fans were pleased to have another entry in the loosely-connected saga of FF, and were blown away by its monumental quality.

The Japanese box art for the Super Famicom version. The characters depicted are more evocative of the first game than this one, and the art is of a cutesy “super-deformed” style now very popular in anime and manga.

Everyone who loves the classic Final Fantasy games has their favorite title… for many (perhaps most), it is Cloud and Tifa’s tale in VII, or maybe even the return to form seen in part IX. I have always loved IV more than any of them, for a slew of reasons. Firstly, it’s a fantastic, richly detailed story, ahead of its time by far. Secondly, I love any tale that strongly features redemption as a theme (spoilers). Thirdly, it is the first RPG video game I ever played that was truly character-driven.

The Red Wings on their way to beat some ass and steal a crystal. (SNES version)

FFIV revolves primarily around Cecil, a dark knight in the service of the Kingdom of Baron, leader of a group known as the Red Wings. The Red Wings have been tasked with collecting a set of powerful magical crystals, and have been instructed to do so no matter what they have to do. The game begins, in fact, with a cinematic sequence showing them doing just that. They slaughter a group of mages who barely resist to claim the Water Crystal for the King. Upon returning with it, Cecil questions the King’s motives and is stripped of his command. He and his friend Kain, a member of the King’s Dragoons, are sent on a quest to deliver a sinister magic ring to a village called Mist. This begins the story in earnest.

Cecil battles the Earth Fiend Scarmiglione with the help of the sage Tellah and the twin mages Palom and Porom. (GBA version)

In the process, Kain betrays and reconciles with Cecil, and the group of heroes expands to include others who reject the evil of the King. It is found that a villain named Golbez is behind all the wickedness afoot, and Cecil must step up to the plate and redeem himself to stop it. There’s so much more detail, and I really recommend you grab the game in one of its modern incarnations to play yourself… but we’ll get to that. In between, the player leads a changing crew of warriors, mages, healers and scoundrels across the world. The adventures go from ruined cities like Damcyan and exotic settings like the city of Fabul to strange locales such as the inside of a mechanical colossus and even the moon!

One of the more interesting battles, the CPU inside the mechanical Giant of Babil. You must destroy them in a certain sequence… (PSP version)

Squaresoft has refurbished and improved this title several times, beginning in 1997 with a PS1 version. It was later released for the Game Boy Advance and the PSP, again for the Nintendo DS. I’m currently replaying it via the incredible Android/iOS port, which is possibly the most easily found by modern gamers and is fairly affordable for such a detailed game. In 2014, FFIV was also released for Windows. The music, scored by the legendary Nobuo Uematsu, is fully half of the immersion experience, and is often hauntingly beautiful. It ranks among his finest work in the series, which is truly saying something since Uematsu is easily among the masters in VG scoring. I have embedded the Nintendo DS version, but almost all the other versions can be found on YouTube if you wish to hear them.

I would rate Final Fantasy IV a strong 9/10. It is a benchmark in its genre’s history, not to mention a work of art that could easily stand on its own if not already part of gaming’s finest RPG series. Like many of its prequels and sequels, it remains popular and retains the attention of generations of gamers.

Here’s a glimpse of the final boss fight from the iOS/Android version. See you later, RetroFans!

Retro Gaming – Final Fantasy

Joey Edsall — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 22:30:00 +0000

I was seven years old when I was
first exposed to the world (metaworld?) of Final Fantasy. It was
a few days after Christmas of 1999 and my cousin had received Final Fantasy
VIII as a gift. Being seven in the presence of a teenager meant I had no right
to take a turn in his game, and it wasn’t even a game where you could take
turns. So I sat back and just enjoyed the cinematic experience of the game.
That moment had a profound impact on me and is what truly led me to identify as a
video game enthusiast for the better part of my formative years. The sheer
narrative scope of RPGs astounded me.

We here at NRW review music and films, and so I wanted to kick off a series
of video game reviews with a game whose name has grown to
weigh more than any contribution to the series. Final Fantasy received its name because it was believed that it
would be the last game Square would be able to release before declaring
bankruptcy. It was their “Final Fantasy”. Little did they know it would be a massive
success and create a massive series of unconnected but thematically similar
games and eventually give us this
masterpiece.

But Final Fantasy wasn’t always a
blend of science fiction and fantasy. The first installment of the series was
purely a fantasy JRPG. I played the PS1 port of the original NES game because
it is most faithful to the original. The first thing that comes to mind when I
think Final Fantasy is how
unrelentingly difficult it is. I’m not saying that later Final Fantasy games were
particularly easy, but none of the games I played (FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, FFX,
FFX-2, Tactics, Tactics Advance, and Tactics A-2) feel so punishing as this original tale.

Before I move on to the actual
gameplay, I’d like to share with you the thoughts that went through my mind for the first hour of playtime:

“Gee, that Prelude song sure is
pretty sounding.”

“I get to name all four of them,
and they have nothing pre-established? Onward Fart and friends!”

“Nah, I don’t think I’ll need a
white mage.”

“This is a lot like tactics, but
with a worse story and battle mechanic.”

“I spy with my little eye a
damsel in distress (cough, Sarah, cough)”

“To quote the King, “If you bring
my daughter back safely, I will build a new bridge. I am counting on you.” Is
that the going rate of missing daughters these days?”

“Buying spells? What black magic
is this?!?! (see what I did there?)”

“Level grinding? Again?”

“Jesus, everything costs money.”

“First boss? That was a joke.”

“Thanks for the lute, princess.
This looks ambiguously useful for the future.”

The early portion of the game will
have you staying close to the nearest town and going back in after every couple
of battles to heal up at an inn or buy some more potions. Everything costs
money in this game, from full saving to learning magic. Random encounters can
be simple, like running into one horse (not a magical horse, it is literally
just a horse) or they can be as grueling as an eight
enemy encounter. It’s really difficult to figure out where is safe to walk and
where is not. From a design standpoint, this is a cost that was probably hard
to avoid.

The game is huge. The overworld rivals the scope of A Link to the Past (fellow Nintendo fanpeople, I’ve got a treat for
you at the end of the article). It only becomes more massive when you get the
boat and find yourself surrounded by water as far as you can see. It is nowhere near as linear as the series has become. To be fair,
the game becomes more manageable once you get your party to around level 20,
especially if you grind enough to do this early. The boss battles are never
particularly difficult. I’d say that moving through each dungeon and dealing
with the random encounters and noticeable LACK OF SAVE AND HEAL POINTS is much
tougher than the actual bosses.

You control four characters with no
exposition apart from some vague talk of a prophecy. They’re pretty vacant as
far as personality is concerned. Don’t expect any dialogue. You are allowed to
choose their jobs, which is an exciting amount of customization afforded
considering how old the game is. I chose a Warrior, Red Mage, Thief, and Black
Belt. I named the Black Belt Cid to ensure that I wouldn’t play a Final Fantasy
game without a Cid in it. These empty vessels don’t have much plot to work
with. Apart from an interesting / convoluted / nonsensical time travel related
twist, the story is really a “go fetch this for me” excuse.

The pixilated graphics of the game
are actually quite beautiful. This is primarily due to the vivid colors and all
around bright atmosphere. The world of the game feels hopeful, and the art
accompanies it perfectly. I’ve always said that old video game scores were so
memorable because of the limitations of the system. The original composers
could only have three sounds playing at once. This led to a greater focus on
melody. There is a reason a lot of these songs are so instantly recognizable. I
mean, just listen to “Prelude”. It’s downright moving.

I hope I don’t sound like I’m
badmouthing what has become one of the most influential games of its
generation. Once you get some experience under your belt (metaphorically and
literally, grind grind grind), the game becomes enjoyable, and actually highly
addictive. I found myself happy to be level grinding and saving up for new
swords or spells. The scenery is interesting enough that I found myself wanting
to genuinely explore for personal enjoyment. Talking to every NPC and
interacting with everything I could even led me to discovering a pretty
interesting Easter egg, especially considering how much of a Zelda fan I am.

If you are a fan of this series and
like the idea of game history or analyzing the medium as a whole, I definitely
recommend finding a way to play this game. You can enjoy it for what it is. The
NES and PS1 versions are, according to my research, notably more difficult than
subsequent ports. I loved playing this game, and wish I could have been alive
at the time of the game’s release and had that feeling like I was playing
something that would be huge. I’d love to continue the discussion on this. I’m
curious if any NRW readers/listeners played the game at the time of release.
What was that experience like? Did you enjoy it? And if you are like me and
played the game years after the fact, how did you like it? What party did you
complete it with?

– Joey Edsall