Day VII: Final Fantasy IV

Why This Game Ended Up Here

So if this is my favorite Final Fantasy game, how in the world did it end up so low?  Well, despite my nostalgia, I do realize the fact that this game in very, very simple in nature.  For instance, you may notice that I didn’t even mention the battle/job system in this post.  Well, the reason is, save for the advent of the Active Time Battle System (ATB), there really wasn’t much to it.  Every character was dead set in their jobs and all the equipment in the game progressed at an extremely linear rate, allowing for no customization whatsoever (yes, I realize this was changed in the DS version, but I’m sticking to the original).  While this makes for a harder game to a point, when you reduce customization to very linear upgrades and straight level grinding, you take out a major part of the RPG which is making the characters your own.

Spells are learned based on what level you hit.  Abilities are set based on job.  Every city and dungeon will power up your weapons without fail.  There is literally nothing you can do to change any of that.

Furthermore, while the story is solid and fairly good, it is quite simple.  Save for the few of twists with Kain’s betrayal, Golbez being Cecil’s brother, Cecil’s father being a Lunarian, and Zemus being the actual enemy, there really isn’t too much to the story.  It stays on a pretty basic path of good vs evil, paired with a legend of old coming true.  Make no mistake, the story works and it works very well, but there are definitely much better stories in the series.

I like to think of Final Fantasy IV as the game in which the series grew up.  The story, while simplistic, had very much matured from the basic character progression of Final Fantasy II and added many more playable characters to the fray.  The ATB system was also a major benchmark in the series as it has been used in nearly every Final Fantasy game (and many, many other RPGs) since.  However, innovation alone is not enough to carry this game any further than it this point in the countdown.

Published by NDtex

Texan by birth, Irish by choice.

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