Final Fantasy IV Advance

While the more recent Final Fantasy games stick out in peoples mind, those who have been gaming for a long time will, no doubt, praise Final Fantasy IV as being the Final Fantasy that made the series what it is! Originally, it was released as Final Fantasy II in the United States in 1991. It later had another release on the Playstation in Final Fantasy Chronicles in 2001. Final Fantasy IV truly does define what Fantasy is, and it's nice to see that after fifteen years, the game is still a blast.

Cecil, a dark knight, is the leader of Castle Baron's airship fleet. As Castle Baron's motives become more warlike and disturbingly unjust, Cecil begins to question his morals. And when he brings about question to the King, he is stripped of his rank, and is ordered to deliver a package to a nearby village. Cecil doesn't suspect that what's happening to the kingdom could be real. He soon sets out to conquer whatever evil it is that has taken over his kingdom, as well as pursuing a more justified course in his life by ultimately giving up being the dark knight.

The story is a classic in the RPG world, said to be one of the best. It's full of memorable characters, and was the first Final Fantasy to incorporate a love story.

Aside from the story, the most memorable thing about Final Fantasy IV were the characters, bringing about some of the most well developed characters that had more than just a name, but a story of their own. The story is told in text on the screen just like any RPG. It has been updated from the original release of Final Fantasy II on the Super Nintendo. The text, for example, is more legible, and it is also a little bigger. This is perfect for the Gameboy Advance. Some backgrounds are also redrawn and made bigger for the GBA.

Those who played the original Final Fantasy II on the SNES will also notice changes in the battle system. Each character, for example, has a special attack. Cecil, for example, has the "Dark" technique which is fairly powerful. If you played Final Fantasy IV in the Final Fantasy Chronicles package, this is no surprise to you at all.

Final Fantasy IV was the first RPG to use the Active Time Battle System (ATB). When entering battle, all your characters have a gauge displayed below them. When it's full, they get to select a command and attack. The difference between this battle system and the original turn based is that your enemies can attack as you're selecting a command. This adds new challenge to the game, and Final Fantasy IV takes advantage of it by being one of the hardest RPGs you'll ever play. Battles do, however, come to a swift conclusion, despite how challening they are.

If you're new to the Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy IV is not the first game you should play. Likewise, if you didn't play the Final Fantasy Chronicles version of Final Fantasy IV, you'll also find the game a little too challenging at first glance. This is simply because in Japan Final Fantasy IV had two versions. Easy Type and Hard Type. Easy Type was sent to the states as Final Fantasy II in 1991, and Hard Type was sent to the states as Final Fantasy IV in 2001 with the Final Fantasy Chronicles package. Easily enough, those who started with Final Fantasy VII will be amazed at how quickly Final Fantasy IV escalades into being what is widely considered one of the hardest RPGs ever made.

Graphically, Final Fantasy IV is right on par with GBA graphics. They look a lot better than they did on the SNES and the PSX. Places look a lot smoother, the backgrounds in combat are also incredible to look at. The enemies are about the same however, meaning they don't move, but rather flash when they do something. Despite that, the graphics are a fine update.

Where Final Fantasy IV truly shines is the music score. Branded as one of the best in the series, the music clearly captures the dramatic sequecences. Each character also has his or her own theme (a staple that would go into later Final Fantasy games as well). Final Fantasy IV has a captivating music score that any gamer will love.

It's nice to see Final Fantasy IV on the GBA, but the question has to be, why so long for the wait? The GBA isn't dead, but it certainly isn't lively anymore. It is better than waiting for a revamp on the Nintendo DS, though. Fans old and new alike will enjoy Final Fantasy IV on its new home.

The Good

+Classic RPG

+Compelling story

+Loveable characters

+Fantastic music score

+Good graphics

The Bad

-It's short. Ranging from 15-25 hours

-The game, for some gamers, will be overly difficult

I just bought this game last month, and have played all the way through it, including the unlockable side quests.
I'm not going to write much about the games story here, there are plenty of other reviews for that already. All I'm going to write about is the game itself.
Anyway, after playing all the way through the game, I have to say that I like it even more than the original. The script is much better, and the music sounds much better on the GBA.
One thing that I particularly liked about this game was all of the new unlockables! After beating the game, you unlock a new dungeon to explore, as well as a really cool music player! If you go down to extra and select "Music Player" in the main menu, you can listen to all of the tunes and melodies that you heard throughout the game! My personal favorites include, Hey Cid!, Rydia, Theme of love, Chocobo-chocobo, and Dancing Calcobrena.
The unlockable dungeon, Lunar ruins, is very cool! To fully unlock every room in the dungeon, you have to beat Zeromus once as each character. After that, you get to do some really cool extra tasks as each character! I wont spoil them for you, but just having them in the game highly increases the overall replay value of this game.

Now for the pros & cons of this remake...

Pros:
It's the same old game that you used to love, but with some cool upgrades and additions to game play.
New Quick Save feature allows you to save inside of dugeons and towns.
Some of the text from the old game has been fixed so now all of the magic spells aren't abreviated. Example: Meteo has been fixed to read Meteor.
Has new unlockable Music Player and side quest dungeon!
The music sounds much sharper on the GBA, you can really hear the seperate instruments playing in unison.
This version has the old, unedited script, which is far more convincing durring game play.

Cons:
Unlike Final Fantasy Chronicles, this game does not include Chrono Trigger.
They changed the sound effects for some of the moves, and changed the names of some of the moves. For example, Meteor doesnt make that screechy noise anymore, (which I thought sounded cool) and Nuke has been changed to Flare.
In battle, there seems to be a lag in reaction time when pressing down the buttons... (You press the button, but it takes a second to register the command.)

50/50:
None of the graphics have been upgraded, but if you're like me, that doesnt really matter.

If you're like me, and have already played Final Fantasy II for the snes or Final Fantasy Chronicles for the PSone, buy this game! It's well worth the price!

Here is a blast of nostalgia for your Gameboy Advance. Final Fantasy IV Advance aka Final Fantasy II aka Final Fantasy IV Hard-Type is a treat for old-school RPG players. Back in its hayday, Final Fantasy IV was the gold standard for what an RPG should be. The first in a series of remakes of that wonderful streak that was the SNES Final Fantasies, Final Fantasy IV is back and better than ever.

The story is as good as it ever was. Final Fantasy 4 did what Final Fantasy 2 (Japanese numbering) tried to do: mixed a well developed story with memorable characters with good if simple gameplay. This is the story of Cecil the Dark Knight who renounces his loyalty to the corrupt kingdom of Baron. Baron has been making war against the other nations of the world to capture four elemental crystals. When his king commands him to kill the innocent, Cecil sets out on a quest to make things right that will take him around the world, to the center of the earth, and to the moon. As he unravels the mystery of who is really behind the actions of Baron, he is joined by a cast of over ten playable characters. Each of them has a reason to join the fight. Characterization may not seem much by today's standards, but this game was made in an age when Square believed less was more. You revealed a motive once and then you moved on instead of going over and over the same psychological problem again and again.

Unlike the Playstation port that had absolutely no upgrades beyond its retranslated script, FF4Advance has a few minor visual tweaks. Some of the game sprites seem to have been tweaked abit to have more definition and character portraits have been redrawn and put in the dialogue boxes to indicate who is speaking. Most of the new portraits are fairly close to the old ones, Edge's and Rydia's are actually an improvement, but the new one's for Rosa, Paladin Cecil, and Edward in particular aren't so nice to look at. There are also two new dungeons and the ability to tackle the final boss with any of the other (still living) playable characters than with the fixed party of five like in the original. All of these new features are very unobtrusive so you can take advantage of them if you'd like the extra challenge or ignore them altogether. Instead of using the script from the original release that contained numerous spelling and grammatical mistakes and was censored due to Nintendo of America's then extremely strict guidelines, FF4A contains a more accurate revamped version. Of course, the "You spoony bard" line has, thankfully, been left intact. It's a classic.

If not for one issue I'd say that this is undoubtedly the best version of the game available. Final Fantasy IV was a really hard game. FF4A is not that hard at all- at least early in the game. I don't know if the difficulty was scaled back because they thought that people didn't want to waste GBA battery life on hours of leveling up or because I've played this game many times before, but it just seemed too easy. Anyone whose played it when it first came out should remember at least super tough boss battle be it Baigan, the Magnus Sisters, Evil Wall or something else. This time through they where like a cake walk. Also it seems that the Active Time Battle is set up in such a way as it gives your party the advantage. Your party seems to regain their turns twice as fast as the enemy. About half-way through the game, that legendary difficulty starts creeping back and by the final trek to the core of the moon you'll be thankful for any break the game will give you.

Final Fantasy IV shows in this port that it stands the test of time. Instead of feeling hoary, old, and outdated, it feels just as much fun as it was fifteen years ago.

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