Final Fantasy IV Advance
by Square Enix
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Video Game Reviews of Final Fantasy IV Advance
Customer Review: Square's first FF classic brought back again
Summary: 5 Stars
Final Fantasy IV (originally "II" in America on the SNES) was probably the first time Square did an RPG that resembles the kind they do now. With a more ambitious story - well, at the time, anyway - and a whole host of characters, IV is often considered a classic by many RPGers. While I will admit this is way better than what most companies can do, there was something missing that set it apart from ones like VI or VII. Maybe it's too dated or maybe it just wasn't as compelling or better structured and while I did like IV, I didn't necessarily love it either.
Story: You play as Cecil, captain of the Red Wings, Baron's elite fighting force. Coming home from a mission which had questionable outcomes, Cecil disapproves and the King, infuriated, sends him on another mission to deliver a package to a nearby town. But when the package proves destructive, Cecil and a group of friends he meets along the way, have to somehow stop the King from what he's planning and figure out the mastermind behind it all.
Graphics: Since this is more improved graphics of a SNES release, you'll notice things look more sharper and cleaner than before but there are by no means wow-inducing. But having Amano artwork for character portraits is a nice touch and the game runs quite smoothly. But the environments are just as diverse and although not immaculately detailed, they're fine within the context of the game.
Sound/Music: Many would also consider IV's soundtrack to be the first classic soundtrack with Nobuo Uematsu at the top of his form. Personally, while the themes are lively and one track in particular ("Rydia") has a gorgeous melody, I can't really remember some of them. I could hum practically 3/4's of VI or VII's soundtrack yet if you would tell me what does the town theme sound like, I'd be hardpressed to even get it right. Just saying, it's a good soundtrack to have on but this was just the beginning, as they say.
Gameplay: IV was another instance where characters had specific classes whereas previous games either had the Job system or user-determined classes. From mainstays like dragoons to thieves to bards to white and black mages, all the familiars are here. Some aren't as useful as others but they're all memorable and despite one character you get super late into the game, they all have distinct personalities.
The Chronicles port was the Hardtype version which practically required characters to level up should they want to have a more comfortable playing and not get slaughtered. This port some would describe as easy and while there wasn't a lot of instances where it got frustrating, save some cheap shots, this isn't a game where it feels like a struggle just to get through. My one complaint is that sometimes enemies don't give as much EXP as they should and with 5 members of your team on hand, it makes levelling up a chore when you have to get into near 10-15 battles just for one guy to progress a level.
Part of what made me want to play and finish IV was that it was the only one out of the IV-XII series that I haven't beat. So while the game does have some memorable moments, themes and solid gameplay, this didn't hit me as hard as subsequent games.
Customer Review: Good RPG
Summary: 4 Stars
I am an atypical GameBoy player. I'm a 57 year old grandmother. I love the RPGs and enjoy this series.Customer Review: Classic RPG now portable
Summary: 4 Stars
There is always a tendency to rate reissued classics on a different scale from new games. If Final Fantasy IV were a brand new game it would likely garner average to below average scores but since it was considered great 15 years ago reviewers hold it to a lower standard. The world in FFIV is rather sparse and the game mechanics rather simplistic particularly when compared to a game like Golden Sun (which in all fairness did get better reviews). Players also need to be aware that the battles are random and very very frequent so be prepared for a lot of fighting.
FFIV is a boilerplate RPG with a Middle Ages theme, experience points, leveling and increasingly powerful weapons and armor. The graphics are sub par by today's standards and for some strange reason the programmer decided to use the classic Japanese super deformed appearance for player controlled characters and regular dimensions for opposing humans. It's strange to see these squatty, dwarf like humanoids smacking around regular looking humans. The creature art is pretty good but the villages and surrounding world are rather unremarkable.
A lot of people claim that the game lasts about 25 hours but it took me almost 40 and I'm a decent RPG player. There are a handful of side quests that can pad out the time and some secret creatures to hunt for in order to fill out your bestiary. In addition to the side quests there is a very large dungeon to be explored after the game is completed so a player could easily spend 50+ hours in the game. In my opinion side quests and secrets add a tremendous amount to an RPG and if I had one complaint about the latest Mario and Luigi game for the DS it would be the complete absence of anything outside of the linear quest. There's a reason that FFIV is considered a classic and it's great fun to be able to take one of the all time great RPG's with you on the go.
Customer Review: How did this game make it past the debug team?
Summary: 2 Stars
Though this is otherwise a remake of the SNES classic, "Final Fantasy II / IV," there are some things to consider before purchasing the game:
1.) There are many obvious bugs which will often ruin gameplay.
2.) These bugs never should have made their way past test play. The fact that they weren't even noticed / corrected during the North American localization leads me to wonder how lazy the developer really is, given the opportune amount of time to deal with such apparent issues.
I don't mean to bicker, though the technical issues completely ruined this re-release for me. First and foremost, there are a number of artificial speed-ups and slowdowns on the overworld map, and this is the first issue which I noticed during the opening sequence. Secondly, there is artifacting all over the map, which is the result of unproperly adjusting the map's proportions to fit the resolution of the GBA. (This shouldn't even be a problem, because any half-wit who knows how to use Photoshop can avoid artifacting.) Third, we move in to the newly-implemented battle system, which is an adaptation of the infamous ATB system. A few of the problems here are lag times, commands failing to register and shifty turns. These problems are quite annoying, and can make combat unnecessarily frustrating. I honestly don't know how other people manage to overlook these things...
Now, I have a few other serious issues with this game which aren't necessarily related to bugs. One of the new features, the bestiary, allows the player to add defeated monsters to its databank for later viewing. Simple enough? Well, it seems that the developers redid the encounter rates to make them pre-determined upon starting a new game. In this sense, there are no solid rare or common encounters, as the encounter rates become subjective to the individual game itself. Considering that I've played through the game roughly 3 times, I've never been able to complete the bestiary due to uncommon encounters being too common, and common encounters being too uncommon, vice versa. Doesn't make sense? It doesn't have to -- the developer took a cheap route to make players invest more time in completing the game.
Moreover, many of the new features are completely unecessary, ridiculous, or both. Without spoiling the game, I can say that the difficulty, though advertised as being based on the hard-type release, is significantly nerfed by these additions. Overall, the game barely resembles the original in this right. Albeit, I have no reason to detail much else about this release, as just about all the other details are generally covered in other reviews.
Customer Review: Very Good Game!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Hi:
I'm a big fan of Final Fantasy, i have all games since Final Fantasy 1 of NES, this game is a very good adaption of the original of SNES, like a fan i feel satisfied, good graphics, some improvations, although definitively I am waiting for Final Fantasy XII.