Final Fantasy IV
December 21,2005 - Let’s be honest here. RPGs have just been rather bland as of late because every game just seemed to play the same. They’ve had the same old story with the damsel in distress, and the hero trying to stop the villainous empire from thrashing evil upon the once holy land. This was the standard for a quality RPG about a decade ago, as it still is today. The thing people don’t realize, though, is what started this pattern. Today, people will know.

Final Fantasy IV essentially set that standard, and today, it remains as fresh as it’s ever been. This same game was released here in the U.S. in 1991 by the name of Final Fantasy II on the SNES. It has a solid story with characters that you can actually relate to, as well as one of the best musical scores ever composed. You can make a case saying games like Final Fantasy III or Final Fantasy VIII set the tone for the whole series, but with that—you have to give IV its credit for being the first of many RPG’s to use this kind of battle system and method of storytelling.

You play the role of Cecil, a prestigious and experienced Dark Knight, working for the Baron Empire. Cecil is a very dedicated knight to his king, and he never questioned any of his actions. However, when he finally does question the authority, he gets demoted and is then just an average Dark Knight who runs errands. After running an assigned errand with his best friend, Kain, he is greeted by total disaster of his own actions…leaving him more confused than he ever has been. Eventually, he leaves the darkness, only to find that the world is not the way he had always seen it to be.

Final Fantasy IV is pretty much just a port of the SNES classic rather than a remake. If you’re an absolute diehard fan of the series, you might be a bit turned off to see that some of the names were changed, and the game is a slight bit easier—but other than that, the game doesn’t fix what isn’t broken. What set Final Fantasy IV apart from most other RPG’s, instead of its unique storytelling, was its wide focus on exploration. There are secrets that lie in every corner and every shadow in the world, and discovering them leads to an even broader sense of accomplishment. What kind of secrets? Say you’re at an inn, and you see three treasure chests that you’re just dying to open, but you don’t see any means of getting to them. The only way to get to them would be to walk through invisible walls. This sort of thing didn’t really exist in RPG’s before, and even today—it’s never been done to the extent at which Final Fantasy IV did. It’s really nothing you’ll ever see in a modern 3D RPG.

At a certain point in the game, you’ll also have the opportunity to control an airship. This gives you the ability to fly anywhere on the overworld map. This includes flying over mountain ranges and seas. The only disadvantage to this is that you can only land on dry plains. You can’t land directly on top of a forest, mountain, or in water. Either way, this gives you the sense that the game is indeed non-linear, giving you the ability to explore certain places that you really aren’t expected to be.

However way you look at it, exploring won’t mean much if you can’t save your game frequently. One method of saving is finding a safe area. Safe areas are usually put right before the maze of a dungeon and right before the boss. In these safe areas, you can use items like a tent or cottage to completely heal your party from the damage suffered in those battles in between. The last method of saving is on the overworld map. All you have to do is pause the game and find the save option, and the game will save permanently. But what if you’re really busy, and you just have to save early? Well, the developers have also added a new “quicksave” feature that allows you to save at anytime. However, once you resume that file—the data is erased. So if you load a quicksave file, and your batteries unexpectedly die—you’re screwed. The way you save depends on you, but if you’re buying this game then you should know that all RPG’s require you to save often.

Aside from the game’s obvious focus on exploration, the game makes use of Square’s infamous “Active Battle System” where enemies can still attack you if you just continue to sit there and think about what attack you should use. There’s a gauge at the bottom of the screen next to your character’s name that’ll constantly fill, and a character can only make a move once that gauge is filled. The speed of the gauge depends on the actual speed rating of your character.

Final Fantasy IV also gives you a bit more freedom with its battle system. Unlike most games, certain spells can only hit a single enemy or work on a single ally. In Final Fantasy IV, every spell can hit up to one or more units. For example, if you were using the Thunder spell, you can choose to just spread the damage between enemies by tapping left on the D-pad; or you can choose to cure your entire party by selecting a cure spell and tapping right on the D-pad. It doesn’t end there either; if you want to, you can even attack one of your own allies. Sometimes it’s useful just to get a certain character of paralysis. It’s a tried and true battle system, so as stated before, this is something that did not and will not need any changing.

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