More like final Sci Fi, amirite?

Here we are, the fourth instalment of the franchise, or the 2nd if you’re American, now powered up for the SNES! Originally released in 1991, a year 2 months & 22 days after the 3rd, so what did they choose to focus on this year and could they make yet another hit? Well, it went on to sell 1.44 million units in Japan and 200k of those were on the very first day!

So here we are today with the 2021 Pixel Remaster release, a faithful remastering of the original, ignoring any extra content that came after with beautiful remastered original sprites, sexy modern particle effects and faithful remastered music.

FFIV has made some large improvements to the formula. We can now have 5 party members in total, although now they have to be staggered between front and back rows, so you can have three in the front and two in the back, or two up front and three in the back; you cannot just swap characters freely as before. They’ve also brought back tents and cottages, and added in points within dungeons where you can use them which is really nice considering how long these dungeons are!

One of the biggest changes made is to combat with the new Active Time Battle system. Gone are the days of turn based chill move selections and in is the rushed panic of quickly selecting what to do. I have to admit, coming from the first three I really struggled with this at first; The amount of times I’d get into battle and then pick up my phone to reply to someone, only to look up and see me getting wiped out, oh boy! It took some time to get my head around it, and I really didn’t like it at first, but it did grow on me and I can see the appeal, especially when you start casting Hast, watching that bar fill up so much quicker never gets old.

The next noticeable change is visual boss changes during fights. We previously had bosses that could change their weaknesses with a spell, but now we have full on boss phases, where the boss will change form or stance causing different effects, strengths/weaknesses/movesets you name it.

Another notable change this time around is the intelligent boss design found throughout the game. No longer will just raw strength get you through all the bosses, although it’ll help, but there are outright moments where you will wipe and have to rethink what’s going on. Considering how straight forward the previous final fantasies were, this is greatly appreciated.


*** Spoilers Ahead ***


They’ve really dial up the story to 11 in this one, introducing changes that help facilitate the story telling. They’ve made wonderful improvements such as putting the name of the character of who’s talking on the dialog box so I can finally understand whose saying what, as well as allowing characters to have dialog within the combat sequences! So much story now takes place within the combat screen allowing for some wonderful moments as well as player agency based off what’s going on in the story.

You play and follow the Dark Knight Cecil working for the King of Baron as leader of the Red Wings, but after realising that you’re the bad guys, you renounce the king and begin your adventure to bring him down only to find out the king has been replaced by the mysterious & evil Golbez, and your bestfriend Kain the Dragoon has suddenly betrayed you. You team up with the young Summoner Rydia and your White Mage girlfriend Rosa and set out on your adventure, finding assistance along the way from Prince Edward the Spoony Bard, Yang the Monk, Tellah the old wise Sage, Palom & Porom the young mage twins as well as Cid the Engineer, Prince Edge the Ninja and even eventually FuSoYa the Lunarian Sorcerer.

Along the way you renounce your dark ways and become a Paladin, battle the four fiends sent against you and attempt to defend the 4 great light crystals that Golbez covets, however after failing in this task you travel to the underworld in an attempt to defend the 4 dark crystals from also being stolen. It is here you meet the dwarfs and then learn of Golbez’s plan to use all the crystals to open a path to the moon to go and revive the ancient Lunerian evil Zemus, who has been mind-controlling everyone from a distance to do his evil work this whole time.

The world this time feels bigger than before, likely due to it being on the SNES. You go around in a big linear path slowly visiting all the places on your adventure, meeting your friends and battling enemies, slowly growing in power. You unlock the hover-craft allowing travel to even new places, and then the airship which allows you access to the whole world.

When you finally enter the underworld, a whole new lava filled map opens up to you to explore and battle new monsters. While down there you eventually steal an enemy airship and attach a drill to it allowing you to come and go from the underworld as you please.

Failing to defend the dark crystals too, you seek out the ancient interstellar ship the Luna Whale that can allow you to follow your enemy to the moon to finish the fight opening up a final third world to explore and battle within. The moon as exciting as it is, is very underwhelming, with very little to do and explore up there, but what you can do is fun. It has probably the best joke in the game with the Namingway’s, home to the most powerful summon Bahamut, and of course the final gauntlet, a mammoth maze of a dungeon, home to the final evil of the game the Pink Tail, oh and I suppose Zemus.

The Pink Tail is a very rare item with a 1.56% chance to drop from a very specific room from the Flan Princess, but of course it’s completely random, so you could get lucky and get it rather fast, or you could end up like me and grind for three hours before you get even your first one. Technically the Pink Tail isn’t required, unless you want a better chance at defeating the foe that lies ahead or want all the achievements, but obtaining one allows you to get the best armour in the game, the Adamant Armour and I wanted three. By the time I was done, I was capped for gill, overlevelled, had max Elixers and three sets of the best armour in the game. I was prepared.

You make your way down and catch up to Tellah and FuSoYa facing off against Zemus, giving their all they surprisingly manage to defeat him and he goes down, but then suddenly in his place a fiery evil presence ignites calling himself the hatred of Zemus, Zeromus! He wants everything to be destroyed and in an instant lashes out and everyone goes down.

That’s when you hear the prayers of everyone you’ve helped throughout the world, offering you the energy and health to stand back up again and face your enemy. Using the power of the crystal, you reveal Zeromus’s true form and face him head on.

Expectedly being so over levelled for him he was nice and easy for me. I did try to keep all my characters alive, but had trouble keeping Edge up, so I left him down and burned him down with the others. I was a little disappointed I beat him so easily on my first try, but none the less I still enjoyed the fight and the postgame wrap-up.

All in all, FFIV is a fantastic story, with some really fun gameplay, it’s a step in the right direction for the franchise and a whole lot of fun. I loved the characters and the challenges and it’s a big improvement to its predecessors. This is a must play for those who enjoy the old school final fantasy games.