alright, jokes aside, this review is about Final Fantasy IV. the reason i list it as FFII is because, pretty famously, that's what it was released in America as originally. Square didn't release the original Final Fantasy II or III on NES in the west, so it would have been pretty weird for them to suddenly release the fourth game with no name changes. so, they renamed it. it's sorta like how because SMT1 and 2 didn't release in the states, Atlus called SMT3 "Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne" when they localized it, to avoid confusion. (now, this didn't stop square from just calling Final Fantasy VII by its proper number later on, but... that's besides the point.) all of this is to say, i played the original, NOA localized version for my playthrough, for better or for worse. there are a lot of pretty major changes, sorta like how they changed a bunch of shit for the localized version of Persona 1 for PS1. they also made the game a lot easier apparently, which... i do kind of appreciate, because damn i suck at these games.

so, how is Final Fantasy II- i mean, IV, anyways? well, its one of the most iconic games in the series for a reason. (one of those reasons being it was one of three Final Fantasy games released in the west at first, but... whatever.) i want to say this was the first RPG to ever use an ATB, or Active Time Battle system. this is an extremely iconic take on the traditional turn-based system, being the go-to for a lot of RPGs throughout the 90s and even into the early 2000s. this even served as the inspiration for the battle system implemented into early versions of RPG Maker, such as RPG Maker 2000 and 2003. it was a really unique and innovative idea at the time, and... wow, i really don't like it! sorry any ATB fans out there, i've played tons of games with it, i even made a couple with it (because RPG Maker 2003 held me at gunpoint to do so) so i feel like i have the authority to say it's not great. especially in this first iteration of it too, usually games that use some variety of the ATB have a little meter to tell you how much longer until you can act, but not Final Fantasy IV. i guess it's because it's such an early take on the idea, but in the SNES version there is no indication on how much longer you gotta wait. now, i knew all about the ATB before going into this game, so i knew what to expect. but imagine someone coming hot off of Final Fantasy 1, or basically any other RPG of the time, do you think they'd have ANY idea what's going on? it'd probably just feel like you randomly get a chance to attack every couple of seconds in some random order, i'd imagine it'd get really confusing. luckily, later ports and remakes remedy this and give you a fancy meter to look at, but we're rawdogging it on the SNES version, we don't get any such luxuries. now, i know i'm complaining a lot, so lemme bring some positivity. none of the battles (with a few exceptions) were really too difficult, and there is an option in the menu to turn down the battle speed to make things a little less overwhelming. most of the fights i got stuck on were easily dealt with by cranking down that battle speed, it gives you a lot more time to think and react to stuff that's happening, which really helped for stuff like the Odin fight. i got hard walled by this guy, it felt like you didn't have enough time to do anything before he just completely floored you, so you can imagine how turning down battle speed would help with that.

the story was surprisingly good too, i have to admit. i really like how Cecil isn't your average "hero of light" like Firion or the crew from FF1 were. he starts off the story being on the side of Baron, destroying a village and killing many civilians just to get a crystal for his king. this weighs on his conscience, making him wonder if what he's doing is really for the good of the people. he doesn't like doing what he has to do, but he can't exactly speak out against it either. later in the game, you actually have to revisit the village he was forced to invade by the king, and the civilians are understandably pretty angry at him. they're all mages too, so in a couple of pretty funny interactions they inflict him with status effects as payback. you have to regain their trust by becoming a paladin, hanging up your old past as a dark knight, and i think that's pretty cool.

unlike Final Fantasy V, you aren't running the same party of four throughout the whole game here. in fact, your party can have a max of 5 members in it in this game, and the members shuffle in and out over the course of the story. you only get your definitive endgame party nearly 90% of the way through, until then you shuffle through 12 different characters, all with distinct personalities, abilities, and battle uses. one of my favorites was Edward, a bard who can inflict statuses using only his basic attack. unfortunately, you don't get to keep him for long, and he never comes back, at least not as a usable party member. yeah, i'm kind of not a fan of that aspect... it feels like certain party members barely get any time to shine, and it kind of feels like a waste investing time in levelling up when you know they're just gonna leave later. some of these guys kinda suck in battle too, i love monks in Final Fantasy but Yang is just not it man. he has such low defense and doesn't even dish out damage very well to make up for it. Cid felt a little underbaked too, he has the unique Peek ability innately, but this is also a White Mage spell known by Rosa the moment you get her. not to mention, the SNES translation has the same monospace issue i talked about in length in the FFV review, so it's not like any info you get from Peek will do you any good.

i know i've been kind of negative in this review so far, but there is a lot that i really enjoy about FFIV. namely, the music. holy god damn man, this game has got to have one of the most iconic SNES OSTs of all time. the battle themes are all time classics, everyone knows the FFIV boss theme and the final boss theme when you're fighting Zeromus is another banger, but i feel like just the basic battle theme is super underrated. at least, i'd never heard it before, and when i did hear it for the first time it got stuck in my head for weeks. it even made me weirdly emotional? i don't know how to describe music in detail, but something about the way it progresses just sorta hits hard for me. even though i heard it hundreds of times for each encounter i can still happily enjoy it on its own, it's a great theme. the music for Baron Castle is great too, its really intimidating and does a great job setting the mood after watching Cecil get disowned by the king. it makes Baron feel like a dangerous place, and the only reason you're being spared is because you're working for them. i could say similar things about the overworld music after leaving Baron, it gives the mood that Cecil feels defeated and doesn't want to do the things he has to do. the cave music is excellent as well, its really mysterious and gives each cave so much atmosphere. it sort of makes me think of the Meteor Falls music from Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire, if you want a comparison.

alright, let's address one of the biggest things i immediately noticed when i started this game; the spritework. this was the first SNES Final Fantasy after making three games for the Famicom, and... wow, you can kinda tell it was their first game on the hardware. now, does this mean i don't like how the game looks? hell no! i kind of love the janky, weird spritesn and some stuff even looks pretty awesome. i've got a couple of cherry picked examples i'd like to go over, shown below, so let's take a look at those.

1.
these are three face sprites that kind of stood out to me when i first saw them, in order they are Cecil after becoming a paladin, Palom, and Rydia as a child. Cecil's portrait feels kinda busy when it comes to his hair and looks a little... ugly, but it's still charming in a way. Rydia's looks pretty amateurish too, but in a way that i really like. it feels like something i could have drawn in paint.net with a mouse, and something about that really speaks to me. and Palom just has this STUPID expression on his face that had me laughing the first time i saw it. he's so smug and dopey looking, it's awesome.

2.
this was something i kind of already knew going into the game, but take a look at Cecil's battle sprite. if you're a fan of Terraria at all, like i am, you wouldn't be judged for mistaking this for a sprite from said game. a lot of Terraria's early visual identity feels very inspired by the SNES Final Fantasy games, especially IV. in fact, i want to say that some of the really early assets may have even been traced over, or at least heavily referenced some of these... go look up Cecil in his Dark Knight armor, that straight up looks like some pre-hardmore armor set.

3.
next let's delve into some enemy sprites, and you know i have to start out with the Antlion. this guy is extremely fucked up looking, it caught me by surprise the first time i saw it and it was what really solidifed this game's visual style to me. apparently this sprite is so infamous that it has its own stamp in Final Fantasy Record Keeper, and it looks as fucked up as ever! never change, man.

4.
these are two of my favorite boss sprites, Calcabrina (right) and Cindy (left). Calcabrina is this huge, hulking mechanical(?) doll thing with a menacing presence, and shows up completely out of left field. it's such a weird and surreal encounter, sort of like how you fight a living cake at one point in Super Mario RPG. i love bosses like this, they're always my favorites in any game. Then there's Cindy of the Magus Sisters, and she might be a contender for my favorite enemy sprite in the game. her and her sisters are a boss you encounter in the Tower of Zot. (man, that's a cool name... if this website wasn't already named after Mot's Drama, i probably would have named it towerofzot.neocities.org!) they all have pretty funny and over the top sprites, and it's a pretty interesting fight too. i like how Cindy looks the most in the SNES version for sure, they kinda fucked it up in the PSP remake where they redid all the sprites. she looks too soft and gentle, she NEEDS to look fucked up. also, apparently they reappear in Final Fantasy X, and are themed after bugs instead of looking like circus performers... weird change, but they look cool. at least it isn't Final Fantasy Dimensions II, where they just made all three of them Normal Anime Girls. man, i don't even know what this game IS but i already dislike it based on that alone! that's so lame, let the character designs be weird and unique!!

5.
and finally, we arrive at Zeromus' final form. i feel like this started a tradition of strange, abstract final boss monsters in the Final Fantasy series. FF1 had Chaos, who is just this big demon man, FF2 had Emperor, who feels like diet-Chaos, and FF3 had Cloud of Darkness, who broke the mold and was a big demon woman instead. and then we get to FF4, which has Zeromus, and like... what am i even looking at here? i feel like by the time they made this sprite, the artists had gotten well acquainted with the hardware and were able to make something truly killer. it's this abstract monster that you can sort of pick bits and pieces out of, like there's an arm or two in there, maybe a ribcage, perhaps even a face if you look hard enough, but that's it. it's such a sick design because of how out there it is, and truly feels like a final boss monster. i love the huge, blue crystals scattered across its body, and combined with the orange parts it really does bring the whole design together to look aesthetically pleasing, while still feeling super alien and strange.

alright, i got the sprite talk out of my system. there is one more thing i'd like to address before wrapping this up, and it has to do with the battles. sure, i'm not super big on the ATB system in this game, but the battles make up for that in a very free-form spellcasting system. you see, you're not limited to just casting healing spells on yourself and attack spells on the opponent, the game won't stop you from healing your enemy or blasting yourself with Meteo. this seems like kind of a frivolous, or even sloppy way of implementing this, but it can actually make fights way more engaging in some cases. for example, the Wall spell will put up a shield on a character that reflects all magic. seems normal, right? well when i say "all magic," i really do mean all magic. this includes not only attack spells from the opponent, but healing spells you try to cast on that person as well. this means that, if you cast Wall on one of your party members, you have to take into account that you can only heal them with items... or can you? because there is a way to heal with magic if someone has Wall setup, and it's by casting Wall on your opponent as well! if you bounce a spell off of a Wall, it'll pierce any other type of reflect, as to not cause an infinite loop. this means that you can give up casting offensive magic on the opponent in exchange for more defensive capabilities, giving yourself magic reflection AND the ability to heal yourself with magic by bouncing it off the opponent. this all culminates in the fight with Asura, an optional summon for Rydia you obtain by defeating her in battle. she constantly heals herself with powerful healing spells, and it's hard to break her defenses. so, what do you do? you cast Wall on HER, making her healing spells bounce off of her and heal you instead, allowing you to whittle her down with physical attacks. this blew my mind when i saw it for the first time, it's such a unique puzzle of a boss fight and was a cool twist to see. having such a free-form magic system can add a lot to boss fights, and im surprised i haven't seen stuff like this anywhere but Final Fantasy.

so, overall, what's the final verdict on Final Fantasy IV? it's pretty killer for the hardware, and i enjoyed my time with it a lot, despite the many changes and downgrades the localized SNES version had. i'm glad to have finally played this classic, and i can understand why it resonated with so many people back in the day. it has a few pretty big flaws, but it's still a really cool piece of history that stands the test of time quite well, all things considered.