Final Fantasy IV Advance - Review

[Misty]

Yeah, I finally finished this game after about 2 weeks/30 hours of play. Keep in mind that this review is from the POV of someone who has not previously played any version of FF4.

Let's start with the basics. The story is quite good, if a bit generic by 2005 standards, but it's still interesting and well-executed. The excellent translation certainly helps. The characters are all well-done (except maybe Kain...

Spoiler

I dislike how he just suddenly betrays you in the Sealed Cave... that felt lame.

)

The gameplay system is a bit archaic, but makes up for it with pretty significant challenge and varied bosses, especially some of the new ones in the Cave of Trials and Lunar Ruins. From the bizarre Calcobrena to the evil antics of Brachioraidos, there's a lot of variety.

The sound is good... the move to the GBA hardware, in my opinion, has benefited the music significantly.

Graphics are pretty good... the enemies have all gotten significant improvements. You may not know this, but FF4 was original slated for the NES, and graphically it showed in previous versions. FFIVA, on the other hand, is an upgrade of the Wonderswan Crystal version and definitely looks and feels like an SNES game.

There are some unfortunate parts to this port, though... some noticable glitches in the ATB system cause some turns to be lost, and on the flip side, sometimes you'll get extra turns! There's also some slowdown, especially with high speeds (I used speed 2, with 1 being the fastest, and noticed it fairly often.)

Overall, it's a quality port, and while there are downsides, FF4 Advance makes up for it with all the new content and technical upgrades. As a game by itself, it's an excellent purchase. I highly recommend it.

 

[Sillymence]

I agree with you on all fronts. I'm really enjoying the game right now. I haven't finished it, though. I've gotten to the part where I'm trying to find Cid....so yeah....but I've never played any old FF games and I'm glad I picked this up.

 

[Coffee]

Yes, Misty, this game is equal to ToS on my RPG FTW scale.

This was one of the first games I ever played (when it was known as FF2), and my first RPG. I could never get past

Spoiler

Bagian

but I did on FF4A.

I've noticed quite a change in dialouge in the game, the first noticable one is when Cecil said 'Damnation' as monsters where attacking the Red Wings.

 

[Dogasu]

I finally started playing my copy of the game, and it's just as enjoyable now as it was when I played it back in 1992 (I was only ten!). I remember this being the first Final Fantasy game to have a must-have soundtrack, and the characters and story and gameplay all compliment one another quite nicely. I just finished playing FF2 on the GBA, and I must say that FF4 is the first Final Fantasy game that could really suck you in for hours and hours at a time.

I am, however, finding the game to be really really easy so far. I'm just blazing through the game

Spoiler

(I got Cecil to become a paladin on my first day playing)

and I may be finished with it by the end of the week. So I'm assuming that the GBA version isn't the "hard version" that I keep hearing about?

Technically, I am noticing some annoying slowdown when you run around. Oddly enough, the game looks the worst when I play it on my DS; when I play it on my GBA SP or my Game Boy Player, the game isn't as twitchy.