by Matt Wetsel - January 31, 2006

In 1991, the Final Fantasy series made its 16-bit debut with Final Fantasy IV (II in the US), establishing many of the hallmarks of the series and even the RPG genre itself. In the 15 years since it's original release, FFIV has aged quite nicely and remains a highly playable and engaging title. While it's seen a re-release on the PSOne and the Japanese-only Wonderswan Color, enough content has been added to this release to warrant a purchase even if you own another version, not to mention it's one of the best RPGs ever made in a portable format.

Arguably one of the first story-driven RPGs (at least here in the US), FFIV is the story of Cecil, a Dark Knight who leads Baron's Red Wings, an air force whom the King has been using to steal the world's elemental crystals. Soon Cecil and his soldiers are pushed to kill the peacefully resisting Mysidians to obtain their Crystal, and he begins to question the orders he's given. Angered when Cecil questions his authority, the King relieves Cecil of his post and sends him on an errand to the villiage of Mist. Accompanied by his friend, Kain, they arrive only to realize they had been deceived into killing more innocents. Realizing the King can no longer be trusted, Kain and Cecil agree to fight against Baron together and the real adventure begins.

Being a traditional RPG, odds are you're familiar with how the game works if you've played most any RPG. Players will have random encounters in the play field and engage in turn-based combat against all kinds of monsters and enemies. FFIV was the first Square game to use the Active Time Battle system - meaning that commands are given in real time - a staple of the series that appeared in Final Fantasy V-IX and became somewhat standard in the industry. However, only FFIV seems to make the best use of the real time commands. For example, when you command your summoner, Rydia, to cast Bahamut (the strongest summon in the game) she doesn't do it instantly - there is some down time actually spent casting the spell instead of it just happening. Not limited to summons, you can see an increase in spell-casting time as you earn higher level spells as well as certain abilities. Given that some battles are timed or just against rediculously hard enemies, it's necessary to be aware of this down time and use it strategically, which is something that other games in the series fail to do. Likewise, with the exception of Final Fantasy IX and maybe X, this game is one of the last in the series to have truly unique job classes and abilities for each character. Only mages can use magic, only Rydia can use summons, only the fighters have high melee damage, etc. A large amount of strategy was taken away from the series when the job system, espers, materia, the draw system, and to a lesser degree, the experience grid, were implemented in their respective titles. In games with a large cast, like Final Fantasy VII, the party you select is largely due to preference rather than necessity since every single character can use every single ability or spell. In this regard, FFIV is a breath of fresh air which demands balance and attention to every party member.

The driving force behind all these battles and exploration, of course, is the story, which is going to come off as linear and probably cliche'd to anyone who hasn't played this game before. However, it's important that you remember that back in 1991 a lot of these generic RPG elements didn't exist and FFIV helped create the standard rather than shamelessly emulate it. That, and the story isn't without a few surprises, so it will definitely keep your attention. The only true drawback is a considerable lack of characterization for most of the supporting cast, a problem which is slightly addressed (especially for Kain) in the character-specific sections of the special dungeon that becomes available once you beat the game (more on that later).

Graphically, the game hasn't aged quite as well as the rest of the package, but anyone who appreciates 16-bit games as much as I do won't have anything to complain about. It's still bright and colorful with a fairly diverse number of environments, and some of the enemy and boss sprites look just as awesome as they did 15 years ago. The battle backgrounds have all been re-done and are much more detailed, and the character portraits have been redone to more closely resemble Amano's original concept art. Plus, these brand new portaits appear in the dialogue boxes whenever their respective character is speaking, which is a nice touch.

If the rest of the game has simply "aged nicely", than Uematsu's score has more than stood the test of time. Like many other games in the series, the music truly defines the experience. Before we had massive pre-rendered backgrounds and FMV, it was difficult to extract much emotion out of the super-deformed characters on-screen through dialogue alone - especially when the original US release's dialogue was censored and dumbed down for a "wider audience." We therefore were dependent upon Uematsu and crew to convey the mood of the moment, and he does so in a way not seen in many other series. Thanks to the score, we can hear the despair, triumph, and resolution that the characters must be feeling, and it even sounds great coming out of the tiny GBA speaker. Some of the battle sound-effects will get old, especially in areas where you encounter a lot of the same enemies, but they get the job done and are rarely obnoxious.

There are a few flaws worth mentioning, although they by no means should be grounds to not make a purchase. The most glaring problem is a little glitch that allows a character a turn directly after going, effectively giving them 2 moves in 1 turn. Sure, it works to the player's advantage and it's fairly unpredictable, plus it's relatively infrequent, so it's almost more like a critical strike than it is a major, game-disrupting problem. Still, such an obvious bug seems like it should have been addressed long before the game got shipped, and I'm sure it will be fixed in future pressings. Also, there's an almost unnoticable slowdown when there's a lot going on the battle screen - namely if you cast a large spell or summon while scrolling through your items or spells. Whatever slowdown exists is always brief and never problematic, but it's still worth mentioning. Despite both of these minor problems, the game remains highly playable.

A True Classic

What can I say? Final Fantasy IV is one of the best RPGs ever created and it helped define it's own generation while laying the foundation for nearly every RPG that came after it. Sure, it's not cinematic like the Playstation generation of Final Fantasies, nor is it as deep or nice looking as it's 16-bit older brother, Final Fantasy VI, but there's a charm in it's simplicity in characters that hasn't been seen in quite the same way since. If you're an RPG fan and you haven't played this game, it's time to get in touch with some of your roots.