Final Fantasy IV Initial Impressions

By -
Kain is here to ease my suffering from FFIII.  Thanks Kain.

I was planning on writing my initial impressions sooner, but FFIV pulled me in right away and hasn't let go.  I'm already about 8 hours into the game so I figure it's about time to put some thoughts down.

When I put on my headphones and first launched FFIV the music overwhelmed me.  It was so much better than the last three games I played.  I literally just sat there and listened to the title music for at least 5 minutes.  I don't know if the music has been remastered or if Square just hit their stride with this one, but the music is top notch.  This is where the work of Nobuo Uematsu truly starts to shine.  So many of his compositions and arrangements are in my mind forever and I know FFIV will add a few tracks of it's own.



It's also immediately obvious that the story in FFIV is meant to drive the game.  I'm invested in the saga of Cecil and his companions in a way that I never was with FFI through FFIII.  This is still from the era of Final Fantasy games that I've never played before, so each twist and turn is a delight for me.  I'm so excited to see where the characters end up.  *Spoilers* I've already guided Cecil on his path to redemption and watched him find solace in his transformation from a dark knight to a paladin.  I was touched when Polom and Porom sacrificed themselves so that the other members of the party could live.  I was legitimately upset when Rosa was taken away because I enjoyed seeing the positive influence she had on Cecil. *End Spoilers*  I don't know what the next twist will be, but I'm excited to experience it.



From a technical standpoint this is a better remake than FFIII.  Quickly I realized the virtual analog stick controls much better than FFIII, which is something I was never entirely satisfied with.  Character animations and models are given more attention, detail, and are used extremely well in cut scenes.  There is actual voice work in the game and it's not bad.  The game even has iOS achievements integrated well, if you're into that kind of thing.

I have a lot of other thoughts still bubbling in my head about FFIV, but I want to play more and see how things shake out.  At this point I can already recommend this over the first three entries in the series.  If you're looking for a classic Final Fantasy game to warm that old-school heart of yours you could do much worse than dropping a few bucks for Final Fantasy IV.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Latest Board Gaming

By -
Image
Besides video games I also regularly play board games when I'm hanging out with people face to face.  My brother, my wife, and I end up playing a lot of 3 player board games, but sometimes we get other players involved too. I realized I haven't talked much about what I've been playing in the world of board games, so here goes: Ticket to Ride - We own 3 different base versions of Ticket to Ride, 2 expansion sets, and an extra map set.  We love this game.  This is the game that gets the most overall table time when I'm playing board games with friends.  It's super accessible but still holds fun for people who have been playing the game for a long time.  I recommend this as a great beginner board game for anyone. Masquerade - A hidden role game where roles are constantly switching hands.  You're limited in actions on your turn and can only take one action.  This means that a lot of the time you're not entirely sure what role you currently have.
Read more

S2E22 - E3 2017 - “Who doesn’t want to be a dinosaur?!”

By -
E3 Hype! E3 2017. Not comprehensive. Not VGNN.  Only talking about things we think are interesting enough to talk about.  You have video game news sites for the rest :) We’re talking about Press Conferences, if more news comes out throughout the rest of the week it won’t be here because we’re recording on Tuesday night! http://e3recap.com/ has been my friend Overall trends Esports being forced onto games that aren’t even out yet “Influencers” being put front and center BJ: torn on the current “influencer” boom. Feels like a bubble that’s totally disingenuous Shorter press conferences with less big game announcements Really hard to tell what is actually exclusive Microsoft “Console Launch Exclusive” Most of these press conferences would have been better pre-recorded as just a series of trailers instead of having a stage show, honestly. Updates on games we already knew existed.  This is what we get for so many years of announcing games way ahead
Read more

Games of the Year 2022: In Conclusion

By -
This running Games of the Year list has been an interesting experiment.  I decided to start this series right as we were shutting down the Geek to Geek podcast as a way to keep creatively broadcasting some gaming thoughts out into the world.  I learned a few things from sticking with it this year. The main thing I learned is... I just don't have as much desire to broadcast my thoughts out in public as I used to when I started this blog or when I started podcasting.  I still love to have in-depth discussions about current games and general geekery, but I feel less and less need to broadcast those thoughts widely.  Honestly, it's been over a decade of blogging and podcasting at this point.  It would be more surprising if my relationship with the media landscape hadn't  changed. Around mid-year I started trying to use Twitter as more of a microblogging platform to do very short quick-hit thoughts about games but didn't get much traction or conversation going which was wha
Read more