O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.
Final Fantasy IV has not been the first Final Fantasy I played. But it is the only title in the franchise so far that I’ve played more than twice. In fact, this Pixel Remaster playthrough has been the… fourth playthrough, I believe. As I’ve previously played through the original “Final Fantasy II” release, the unofficial translation of FFIV, the Final Fantasy Chronicles release on PS1 and the Final Fantasy IV Advance version on the GBA. I’ve also attempted to play the 3D remake for DS, but extremely disliked the visual style and changes to the game. Hence, why I was so excited about the Pixel Remaster version coming – hopefully the “ultimate” remaster of the original version of the game, available for generations to come. And this version is pretty much exactly that.
Final Fantasy IV feels like the first game in the series, where everything clicked together just right. In many ways, it remains the “quintessential Final Fantasy” and a perfect introduction for anyone who has not played the series before. It has a strong story focus with lots of memorable characters and events, now presented in a more “cinematic” way than it was possible in the previous games. It streamlines all of the ideas of the previous titles in the best possible way, allowing you to enjoy the adventure without thinking too hard about the mechanics behind it. Even the soundtrack, that is always good in Final Fantasy games, feels especially memorable and amazing.
Of course, the streamlining could be taken as a negative too. You no longer manage your party as much as you would in previous games – all of them have their own jobs/classes assigned and all you have to do is gain experience and level up, the skills and abilities will unlock on their own. There’s only one “gimmick” dungeon and even that one is pretty simple to go through. All while the requirement to think very tactically about using each class and each spell or ability comes up very occasionally, during the trickiest fights. Most of the time, you can just attack. The party size in IV is the largest of all numbered single-player Final Fantasy titles too, with five controllable party members, which also makes it considerably easier to manage the flow of the battle and turn the tide when the party members start getting incapacitated in any form. Personally, this never bothered me, as Final Fantasy IV is a fun story-driven adventure first, and a jRPG second. Which is why the fact that Pixel Remaster rebalances the game even further is more than fine with me.
Now, the story of the game isn’t particularly deep or complex, and it even reuses some of the twists and ideas from the previous games, with some very direct references to Final Fantasy II. This is more of a young adult fantasy adventure story than anything, but a well delivered one. And, arguably, that’s what most of the Final Fantasy stories are like, with more complex plots and characters being an exception rather than the norm. It also feels smaller in scope compared to the previous game, but yet again – most of the games in the franchise are.
There are elements of the game that have never been great and are not changed by the Pixel Remaster. The final dungeon, for one, is still a pain in the butt, even with the return of additional save points from previous ports. If you’re a completionist, you will be happy to hear that items like “Siren” can be purchased in a shop added in the previous ports and the chance of some enemy drops have been increased. And with the quick save ability you can always retry if you run out of this item. But you’ll also be sad to learn, that this doesn’t make the item grinding any less annoying, just potentially shorter.
That said, if you aren’t aiming at doing everything the game has to offer, it’s unlikely you will have to grind or will find many troublesome parts (apart from the final dungeon, I suppose) that can detract from the enjoyment of the adventure. The rebalanced level gain feels just right for that (and if you want to grind, it’s less tedious now too) and I’m glad it’s here. Also I’m very glad that none of the additions from the latest ports, like new dungeons and ties to “The After Years” are here. The flow of the game is exactly as it was in the original version with most of the script sticking to the original Japanese version lines (they did keep the “Spoony Bard”, I’m happy to note). I can see some lamenting the lack of those expanded mechanics and ideas, but personally I found them to be annoying and superfluous.
In case it’s not obvious, Final Fantasy IV is one of my favorite entries in the series. And Pixel Remaster version is exactly what I wanted to see. The game, in my opinion, remains one of the best candidates for “your first Final Fantasy experience”, with the remaster making it even more enjoyable. And even the new arrangements for the soundtrack felt so perfectly close to the original, despite being enriched with new instrumentation, that I never felt like I wanted an option to switch to the original soundtrack (even though I still feel like it should be a thing in these remasters). I loved replaying FFIV yet again and cannot recommend this Pixel Remaster version enough.