Final Fantasy IV One Of The Greatest Games

Gamespot's series of "The Greatest Games of All Time" rolls on with a look at Final Fantasy IV. Dubbed Final Fantasy II in the states, it was easily one of the best games to be released for the SNES. From the article: "The narrative in Final Fantasy II gripped you and shook you like a rag doll right from the beginning of the game. Your introduction to the protagonist, Cecil, took place on the deck of a military airship that had been ordered to extort a magic crystal from an innocent town (not a very heroic vocation). After his complicity in this war crime, the conscience-wracked Cecil was dismissed from the military and sent on an errand to a nearby town, along with his best friend Kain. Using generic archetypes for characters (like Final Fantasy's White, Black, and Red Mages, for instance) was standard operating procedure in RPGs at the time, but Final Fantasy II went off on a far more interesting tangent."

Final Fantasy Series

[Rolman]

Not only IV was an incredible breakthrough that shook and redefined the whole genre, Square kept adding and reinventing the saga in parts V and VI. Though not everybody really liked FFV, it did help the genre advance to what many people (myself included) is the culmination of the FF series: FFVI.

FFVI had everything that made FFI-FFIV great and none of the so-called flaws of FFV, while retaining its improvements in storyline structure and technical merits, and then went far beyond. It's nice to think Chrono Trigger's was released only months later, with a similar level of excellence.

FFVII was OK, neat and and even overwhelming for its time, but it started the trend to make RPGs more mainstream-friendly, up to the current marketing and merchandise fests we see today in FFX-2, Kingdom Hearts and the such.

I like to see the transition this way, FFI-III defined the series. FFIV-FFVI reinvented it and took it to the highest standards, achieved by very few games even today. FFVII-FFIX made it accessible to the masses. FFX and beyond are definitely taking the genre and the series to a new place again, though I'm not sure I like it, I haven't played FF to the end since part X.

So, yeah, FFIV marked the beginning of the era that ended with FFVI, I certainly agree with it being one of the best games of all time. I hope none ever get remade, only ported like the PSOne versions.

Final Fantasy : RPGs :: Halo : FPSes

[Haeleth]

Final Fantasy IV (II) a pioneer in featuring moral dilemmas and character development? Don't make me laugh. Try Ultima IV, perhaps, which did it all half a decade earlier in 1985.

Puh-lease. Maybe Final Fantasy IV was something new and special in console terms, but computer-based RPGs were already way ahead, and providing little things like mature themes and non-linear gameplay that the Final Fantasy series still hasn't got the hang of, for all its flashy graphics.

Don't get me wrong - the FF series is on my "great games" list too, particularly nos. 5-7. Just don't go kidding yourself it ever broke any ground -- because it didn't, whatever its fanboys want to think. Truly Final Fantasy is the Halo of the RPG world.