When I first heard Final Fantasy 4 was being remade for the ds, my expectations were low. As it is my favorite of the series, and one of my all time favorite rpgs, I expected to be more disappointed with the changes than anything. Playing through final fantasy 3 for the ds all but confirmed my fears. The feminine, childish characters seemed more likely to decorate your room than kill dangerous monsters. When I finally got my hands on FF4, though, I was quite surprised. The new version has amazing graphics, great cut scenes, enhanced skills, and improved difficulty that make for a great experience. And despite what I expected, the only character remade to look overwhelmingly girly was Edward (who was gay to begin with)
Let’s start off with the translation patch. If you are playing this game, or are planning to in the near future, odds are you have an R4. The translation patch doesn’t translate the storyline, but it will translate the basics to allow you to play the game (item names, skill descriptions, etc). You can find more information on the translation patch here. Information on an R4 chip can be found here . On a side note, I do not recommend doing this if you are not already familiar with the story. I’ve beaten this game maybe 10 or more times over the years, so it wasn’t an obstacle for me.
With that out of the way, we get down to the basics… What has been changed, and how? I’ll start with the graphics, which obviously received quite the revamp. I'd say these are the best graphics I've seen on the ds so far. I'd rate them slightly better than the graphics for final fantasy 7. The cut scenes are nicely done, while not taking up too much of your time. The voice acting sounds really nice as well, if you understand Japanese. I’m not sure how the voice acting will translate over when a US release comes, but hopefully it is done just as well. Here is a good example of the newer graphics. Also shows the increased difficulty, and is only part 1 of 3. The user who uploaded this video has videos of every boss encounter on the ds version for those who are curious. Also added a video of the old version for you to compare graphics
Another change is the refinement of the main character skills. Most of them have been significantly improved, such as Edward’s sing ability and Yang’s kick. Edward can choose his song, which makes him not completely worthless (Just chain cast the regeneration song). On a similar note, Yang’s kick does quite a bit more damage, and makes him even more badass. Other changes include Cecil’s dark ability, which doubles his attack power for a few rounds while costing him hp.
To compliment the skill changes, we have the introduction of decant skills. These are skills you find throughout the game that are one time additions to a particular character. For example, you’ll find the ability, “counterattack”. You can now give this to one of your characters, who will then counter attacks with the ability at the top of his list. These can be given to anyone, and you can switch them out between battles. You can also receive the abilities of former party members, which leads to some interesting possibilities, like Cecil and Rosa using the twin ability to cast Ultima. More information on decant abilities can be found here
The last major change to this version is the difficulty. I can’t stress enough how much harder this version is than the rest. To give you a good idea, I died in my third random encounter after buying the game. And while the random encounters have definitely been buffed, they don't compare to the new bosses. They not only do more damage, but have many more abilities to give you trouble. I had everyone defending when mom bomb exploded (first encounter with yang in your party), and everyone but yang still died. Caznazzo killed my 3 weakest members every time he did his wave attack, which has a chance to outright kill others. Bahamut’s mega flare can no longer be reflected. Stuff like that makes the encounters quite a bit more difficult. This can be frustrating to some, but I enjoy the new challenge.
The good
The enhancements to character skills, as well as decant abilities, add some nice flavor to the game without completely changing the feel.
The increased difficulty means you won't fly through it in a day due to already having played it. The random encounters are much harder, and the bosses even more so
The Bad
- Final Fantasy 4: Advance changes aren't in
In Conclusion
Update: The North American version of this game is set to release on July 22, 2008 for those who are interested in waiting for it. I'll be picking it up for sure
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