Final Fantasy IV.

Original Release: Super Nintendo, 1991. Version Reviewed: PSP Complete Collection, 2011.


THE PLOT:

The dark knight Cecil, leader of Baron's Red Wings, is troubled. He has just returned from his latest mission, an attack on the peaceful city of Mysidia. He followed his orders and seized the Mysidians' crystal for his king, but he cannot help but ask why such an order was given. In response, Baron's king strips him of his rank and sends him to deliver a ring to a nearby village. The mission is a ruse, the ring enchanted to release monsters that lay waste to the village, leaving one young girl as the only survivor.

Appalled by his role in this destruction, Cecil vows to stop his former liege. It's evident that the king plans to claim all the crystals from the assorted kingdoms, so Cecil and his allies attempt to defend those that remain. In the process, they discover that Baron's king is actually a demon in disguise - and that their true enemy has a plan that could mean the end of the world!


CHARACTERS:

As can likely be gathered from the plot description, characterization is much stronger in this game than in previous entries. Cecil is a particularly well-drawn character. As the game opens, he's a dutiful soldier following orders even when he doesn't agree with them. There is no serious indication that the Cecil of the game's opening would have defied his king's orders had more attacks been demanded. It is only after he is deliberately deceived and betrayed that he finally rebels against Baron's leadership.

Of the supporting characters, the strongest impression is made by Kain, Cecil's friend and fellow soldier. Kain feels like Cecil's equal and opposite in many ways. Like Cecil, he is portrayed as dutiful but decent, and early on voices support for turning against Baron, disgusted at seeing his troops used for evil ends. He is later brainwashed by the villains, with it strongly hinted (practically stated outright) that envy over Cecil's relationship with the white mage Rosa made him vulnerable to temptation. Kain's character moments end up providing the most memorable dramatic points in the game - in my opinion, he easily eclipses Cecil as the most interesting character.

Other roles are more two-dimensional, from warrior monk Yang to indestructible coot/inventor Cid to a pair of bickering twin child mages. Still, even if these characters lack much depth, they do have distinct personalities. No one is reduced to just being a name filling a role in the plot.

The Red Wings of Baron

GAMEPLAY:

Final Fantasy IV puts a few spins on the strictly turn-based combat of earlier entries. The most obvious of these changes is the way in which characters take turns. An "ATB gauge" fills up, determining when each party member will get to act. Some characters' gauges fill faster than others, and some actions (i. e., casting spells) take additional time to execute - and enemies can attack during that gap. This adds an additional layer to battle strategy, as finding ways to move those gauges faster against tough enemies (such as through "haste" spells and items) can turn the tide at least as much as upgrading weapons and armor can.

In addition to the gauge, there are different ways in which an encounter can take place. The default encounter will proceed based purely on whose gauge fills up fastest. However, you can also get a "pre-emptive strike," in which your characters start with a full gauge, allowing you to attack enemies before they can react. You can also either be attacked from behind or ambushed - either of which gives the enemy the first strike. The results can at times be frustrating - but it unquestionably adds more immediacy to the combat.

(The version I played - the PSP Complete Collection - allows for "auto battles," which can help reduce the tedium of frequent random encounters against weak enemies... Just be sure to turn the auto battle option off if you end up with a strong enemy!)

A mid-game boss battle.

THOUGHTS:

It's difficult to overstate the significance of Final Fantasy IV. I mentioned in my review of Final Fantasy II how that game had pushed forward a degree of narrative complexity far beyond that of the original game. IV takes what that game did for plot and applies it to the characters. Cecil and Kain are conflicted characters who, at the game's start, have rank, relationships, and backstory - some of which is directly spelled out, some of which (i. e., a love triangle with Rosa) is merely indicated. Roughly a fifth of the way through the game, Cecil finds himself in the very city he had just attacked when the story began - and the locals remember him and curse him for his actions. Even when he proves himself in a later quest, some of the inhabitants still bluntly say that they still can't forgive him. It's an added layer of sophistication in a series that can be seen advancing in various ways with each new entry.

There have been various reissues of Final Fantasy IV. I was torn between the PSP version and the Nintendo DS remake. The PSP won, after I looked up the opening minutes of each version on YouTube. I found the 2-dimensional sprites clean and visually appealing, whereas the 3-D character models in the DS version just looked ugly to my eyes. In the end, I think the preferred version is a matter of individual taste. I like well-drawn sprite animation; but the DS remake does feature roughly an hour of fully-voiced cutscenes, and reportedly offers more challenging combat, so many would likely prefer that variant.

Music has emerged as a consistent strength of this series, and Final Fantasy IV offers the richest score yet. From the militaristic theme for Baron's Red Wings, to the lyrical love theme, to the lively score that plays for twins Palom and Porom, the music sets atmosphere and character with extraordinary effectiveness.


NOT QUITE FULL MARKS...

This is an important game, and a very good one even today. But I did encounter some nitpicks. First, the version I played had an often ridiculous random encounter rate. In some maps, enemies would pop up every time I so much as took a step! Since most of these encounters qualified as little more than nuisances, it quickly became tiresome, even with "Auto Battle" activated. A minor annoyance, the kind of thing one simply accepts from JRPGs of a certain age, but it still bears mention.

The storytelling is good, particularly for an archive game, but there is one area in which it falls short of Final Fantasy II: Character deaths. The makers of this game seem to have an aversion to letting sympathetic characters die and stay dead! On at least three occasions, party members we had seen sacrifice themselves for the greater good end up popping up again, no worse for their ordeals. I found it diminished my investment in the dramatic scenes, knowing that there were unlikely to be lasting consequences.

Oh, and the final dungeon's too long. But it's not nearly as overlong as the final dungeon for Final Fantasy III was, and the last save point is located reasonably close (about 20 minutes' playtime) to the final boss, so those at least represent some noticeable improvements over the previous main series title.


OVERALL:

Those complaints do largely amount to nitpicks. Nearly thirty years after its initial release, Final Fantasy IV remains highly engrossing and enjoyable to play. Easily recommended.


Overall Rating: 9/10.

Sequel: Final Fantasy IV - Interlude

Previous Main Series Game: Final Fantasy III
Next Main Series Game: Final Fantasy V

Previous Release: Final Fantasy Adventure
Next Release: Final Fantasy Legend III



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