FFIV may not be the absolute best Final Fantasy, but it clearly serves as an important evolution in the series. It sets up the core, iconic formula that comes to mind when I think about what it means to be a mainline Final Fantasy game.

I’ve seen this game pop up near the middle of a fair few “Favorite Final Fantasy” lists, and very rarely at the top. It’s clear that the community likes and respects this game, but it’s not one of the alltime greats. Still, I think it’s a foundational game for the series. I’m very glad I played it.

It leans into the rich storytelling the series is known for, hard. It introduces the iconic Active Time Battle (ATB) system, which still echoes in modern releases. It has the strongest job identity so far, both in lore and in gameplay. The characters have more personality, are more expressive, and are overall more memorable than ever. It acknowledges everything the previous three games were reaching for, cherry-picks all the best bits, and improves on it all.

This feels like the game where Final Fantasy found its footing.

The Review#↑

Audio & Visuals#↑

Most of my thoughts here would really just be thoughts on the Pixel Remaster series in general (which I’m very positive about). I won’t spend much time on that here, because you can read it all here

Instead, I’ll focus on the elements unique to this game.

(links contain spoilers for various bosses)
THIS SOUNDTRACK. ROCKS. SO. INCREDIBLY. HARD.

This is easily the best and most iconic OST so far. I would not be surprised if this remains a favorite of mine throughout the series. I had friends want to tune in to watch me stream this game just to listen to its fantastic music.

I picked a few battle tracks for the above links, but there are also some great tracks used as themes for specific characters, to set the vibes for story moments, and more. This is the game where they started using music as a language to communicate with the player. It’s a very effective and beautiful OST.

SIDENOTE: I love the (visual XIV spoilers) XIV versions of these tracks, which I listened to on loop while writing this.

On the visual side, the expressiveness of this game is on a whole other level compared to the original trilogy.

It’s got far more cutscenes than any of the previous games, and each cutscene shows off a lot more motion and characterization. We’ve got characters spinning and hopping around to show excitement. There are special versions of every character’s sprite to show emotion. Characters push and pull each other around. There are even “silent movie” cutscenes in the game that are absolutely bursting with personality without using a single line of dialogue. It’s clear the developers focused on the visual part of their storytelling quite a lot.

There are also some fun “battle cutscenes” during which you see some story play out through the battle mechanics of the game, without you actually participating in a battle. In the fiction, one character might be chasing another around and beating them with a cane. On screen, we see these two characters square up and take turns, with one side attacking while the other constantly tries to flee, and we get dialogue lines interspersed. It’s a clever way to not only add some spice to the storytelling with some alternative presentation, but also to make every real combat feel more tied to the story.

Story#↑

As I mentioned earlier, this is the Final Fantasy game where it feels like they really started leaning into the linear, cinematic storytelling. Earlier games felt more like the developers were presenting the player with a wide open sandbox to explore—with a story if the player was willing to explore and solve the puzzle of how to continue it. In contrast, FFIV keeps you relatively constrained to a linear set of destinations, gives you clear goals, and directly tells you where to go.

I’m going to spoil quite a bit here, so skip ahead to Gameplay if you’d like to avoid that.

This story did everything FFII tried to do, but better.

FFII starts with an evil empire that takes everything from you. You then spend the rest of the game trying to fight back, while it continues to take everything from you repeatedly—every time you gain something.

FFIV flips this. The game opens with you playing as a high-ranking member of the empire, moments after you just slaughtered an innocent village. Your character, Cecil, is confused and conflicted. He follows the orders, but hates what he was forced to do, and confronts the emperor. The emperor then tricks Cecil into slaughtering another village, by way of having him transport a secret bomb to that location. Cecil spends the rest of the game atoning, and putting all of his being into stopping the evil empire.

This redemption story is powerful and touching. It’s much, much more interesting than the “you’re the hero of light, go save the day” or “we’re desparate, and your actions never actually make us any less desparate” of the previous games.

The other characters also get a ton more time in the spotlight, and they’re much more memorable. Like FFII, this game constantly swaps out who is in your party, but it doesn’t feel like a pointless cheap shot this time. You have time to really attach to these characters, and it hurts to see them leave. Plus a great feeling when they return just time to save you.

It’s really cool to see how they merged storytelling into combat mechanics. While previous games would only change your party through events out of combat, this one could change your party on the fly. Getting absolutely wrecked by a tough boss? Pretty amazing feeling when a spell hits from off-screen, and everyone goes “wait, that voice…?!” moments before a party member joins the fray.

There are interesting thematic elements along those lines too. Fairly early on in the game, you encounter some enemies that are just not a good matchup for your characters. Undead don’t take much physical or dark damage, and you’ve just got a Dark Knight and a Summoner (who only knows a physical damage summon). Cecil goes on a quest to swap the power of darkness within him for the power of light. He seeks to change jobs from a Dark Knight into a Paladin. In order for him to do so, he must climb Mount Ordeals, which is covered in these undead. Only by the power of his new allies does he stand a chance. These allies are the very people he hurt at the start of the game, who now seek to forgive him. When Cecil makes it to the peak, confronts his inner darkness, and trades away the power of darkness for the power of light, he’s suddenly extremely effective against the undead that gave him so much trouble before. Along similar themes: The Dark Knight can only hurt others, specializing in widespread damage, and does so by spending its own health. The Paladin, on the other hand, is specialized in healing and protecting, and specifically does more damage to evil. It’s a really cool piece of storytelling through gameplay, and it’s just the start of the game.

The story isn’t without flaws though. I’m never really a fan of the secret, bigger bad guy revealed at the end. Multiple layers of bad-guy is fine. Just give me some time to learn about that bigger, badder villain. Such a reveal should be at the halfway point or final third or something. Replacing the villain with a bigger villain right at the end just feels cheap. I do like how Cecil chose to forgive Golbez at the end, completing the cycle. I recognize this was only possible if Golbez wasn’t the ultimate source of evil, but just used for evil like Cecil was. Still, the reveal could have come earlier, and it would have been a better story for it. I also would have loved more time with Kain, since a strong bond between him and Cecil is strongly implied, but there isn’t really enough time for me to feel that.

I really, really liked this story. It is easily the best so far, and sets the standard for the rest of the series. I’m looking forward to some of the future games surpassing it.

Gameplay#↑

This is the introduction of the Active Time Battle (ATB) system, which would go on to be used by the majority of Final Fantasy games afterwards. Even now, the most recently released FFVII Rebirth makes use of this system, though it adds more on top. It has even inspired the battle systems of a number of games outside of the Final Fantasy franchise.

I’ll be honest, I hated this system at the start of the game. I was very used to the turn-based systems of the previous games. There was some safety in the strategy of those games, even if the RNG turn order was sometimes frustrating. I could always stop and think. Now, I had to be constantly moving. I couldn’t stop to think. Every moment I wasn’t attacking, I was being attacked by the enemies. Spending time on strategy was punished. This seemed like a critical flaw.

Then I played it some more. I began to think that this is at least more predictable than the RNG turn orders of the old games. Plus, enemy damage was much lower this time. I could survive taking a few hits while taking my turns, instead of being required to heal between every attack like the old games.

Then I played it some more. This system is so much better than the old games that it’s not funny. This system kept me on my toes and made me way more engaged in the combat. I could feel myself getting better at the game and expressing my skill in more ways than just picking better options. I’m no longer surprised it became such a classic, beloved system. I went from dreading playing the rest of the series due to this, to being more excited than ever before.

This game got rid of the job change system introduced by FFIII. As much as I enjoyed that part of FFIII, I don’t think that was a mistake. This game took a fundamentally different (but somehow still similar) approach.

In FFIII, job changes were mostly boring upgrades. You’re going to want to upgrade your Monk into a Black Belt, and your White Mage into a Devout. They’re just direct upgrades. Cool sprite swaps though!

The job changes that weren’t boring were ones borderline required by specific fights. Boss fights were part puzzle in that game. A particular boss may absorb all damage as healing except for a specific weakness, which they can change every couple rounds. It’s going to be very hard to kill without being able to uncover that weakness, but the Scholar class specializes in that. A dragon may constantly release party-wiping attacks. A party of all Dragoons can jump over each of these attacks to avoid them, and also do bonus damage to dragons. The game left hints for this stuff everywhere, including giving you access to a job right before you’d need it.

FFIV maintains that latter part of the job-change formula, but through changing party members instead. Once again, these party member swaps happen right before they are necessary to solve the combat puzzle. This honestly made me appreciate these party members even more. They each got to have their own shining moment where their strengths were on full display against a foe perfectly set up for them. A lot of the time, this would happen in cool, dynamic ways that let you struggle against the threat without the solution before the solution is handed to you. It’s a neat and effective way to accomplish a similar thing FFIII did, while also improving the story and its characters.

Wasn’t swapping characters a bad thing in FFII?

It was, but that was largely because of the focus on customization in FFII, and the poor character development those characters got before sacrificing themselves to no emotional effect. These characters being swapped in and out in FFIV didn’t require me to customize their playstyles as I progressed, only for it all to be wiped away when the story required. This is because character progression in this game is much simpler. Characters level up, and get set abilities and spells at certain levels. When a party member leaves and rejoins later at a higher level, it feels much more natural. They’ve got a new and improved set of skills to look at, because that’s how the leveling system works in this game. I never really had to put any effort into building up the characters, so it didn’t feel like wasted effort when those characters were unavailable.

It may sound like less customization overall. It is. I think that’s acceptable. It allowed me to focus more on the story, and I think that was the intention. I didn’t really care about the lack of playstyle customization, because I was entertained by the content either way.

This had by far the most fun gameplay so far. The ATB system was a big part of that. I also really appreciated the variety of playstyles offerred by the different party members at various points throughout the playthrough, especially since those playstyles were handcrafted by the developers instead of left for me to attempt to cobble together myself. It’s a great experience on it’s own, but it also gets out of the way of the story when it needs to, and even enhances it sometimes. It’s gameplay that is very aware of what it’s designed for.

Final Thoughts#↑

Rating: 8/10
Playtime: 12 hours

I very much enjoyed this game, and it has made me excited for the future of the franchise that I’ve yet to get to. I don’t think it quite makes it onto my favorites list, but it’s very close. The best part about it isn’t actually the game itself, it’s what it represents for the Final Fantasy franchise after it. It’s also a very good game on its own, and I absolutely recommend playing it if you have any interest at all.

Next Up#↑

Final Fantasy V! This one is famous for its combat and progression systems more than its story, though they definitely made advancements in storytelling as well. I’m excited to play through it! I’m excited to give my thoughts on it! Will the focus on combat distract from the story? Will I even like the combat changes? Will I enjoy the combat so much that I take way longer to finish this one? Who knows!

As always, please look forward to it.