Final Fantasy IV

Final Fantasy IV
Japanese hardtype cover
Developer(s)	Square Co., Ltd.
Publisher(s)	Square Co., Ltd. / Square Soft, Inc.
Designer(s)	Hironobu Sakaguchi (director) Nobuo Uematsu (composer) Yoshitaka Amano (char. design) Takashi Tokita (main design)
Platform(s)	Super Nintendo Entertainment System (see below for later rereleases)
Release	19 April 1991 / 23 November 1991
Genre(s)	Role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single player

Final Fantasy IV (ファイナルファンタジーIV in Japanese, or Fainaru Fantajī IV using romanization), often abbreviated to FF4, is a console role-playing game developed and published by Square Co., Ltd. in 1991. Originally released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the game was subsequently rereleased for the PlayStation, the WonderSwan Color, and the Game Boy Advance. It was originally released in North America asFinal Fantasy II. A modified version of the game was released for the Super Famicom in Japan in 1991 under the name Final Fantasy IV Easytype. While the game retained the storyline, graphics, and sound of the original game, the game engine had been modified so as to make the game substantially simpler, and the finished product was marketed at "beginning" gamers. Despite popular belief, this was not the version translated into English by Square's North American subsidiary SquareSoft. Because the previous two installments of the Final Fantasy series had not been released to North American audiences, it was instead released under the title Final Fantasy II for the purposes of maintaining continuity. Subsequent enhanced remakes of the game have been released in North America under the original title. The game was not released in Europe until the release of the PlayStation port as part of the European version of Final Fantasy Anthology in 2002.

Story

File:Final Fantasy IV JAP Airship.png

Dark Knight Cecil and his crew aboard the Enterprise, the flagship of the Red Wing fleet.

Further information: List of Final Fantasy IV characters

Further information: List of Final Fantasy IV locations

The most powerful nation in the world, the monarchy of Baron, begins utilizing its unparalleled air force called the "Red Wings", and its legions of Dark Knights to attack peaceful nations in search of four Crystals, each corresponding to a different classical element. Cecil Harvey, a Dark Knight and leader of the Red Wings, begins to question the king's motives after forcibly stealing the Water Crystal from the wizards' town of Mysidia (both Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy IV contain a town of magic users called Mysidia.) Upon questioning the king, Cecil is stripped of his rank and sent, along with his friend, the dragoon Kain Highwind, to deliver a package to the Village of Mist. However, the package contains explosives that destroy the entire town and kill most of its inhabitants. The aftermath leaves Kain missing, while Cecil encounters a young female survivor named Rydia. Cecil, now angered with his Baron and the Red Wings, initiates a quest to stop them.

On his journey back to Baron, Cecil encounters his lover, Rosa Farrell; an elderly wizard, Tellah; the cowardly and emotional prince of Damcyan, Edward Chris von Muir; and the powerful monk of Fabul, Yang Fang Leiden. Cecil also encounters Kain, who is proceeding with the theft of the remainder of the crystals for Baron. During a skirmish, Rosa is kidnapped by Kain. The party soon discovers that a man named Golbez is manipulating Kain and Baron in order to retrieve the Crystals. After a ship attack by the sea monster Leviathan, Cecil becomes stranded in Mysidia, where he is forced to repent for his previous crimes by becoming a holy Paladin. It is here that he also meets the apprentice mages Palom and Porom. On the mountain he fights one of the four Elemental Lords, whose names are the names of four demons in Canto 21 of Dante's Inferno. Scarmiglione, Cagnazzo, Barbariccia, and Rubicante are the elemental fiends, and the enemy Calcobrena also appears to draw its name from the same passage.

File:Final Fantasy IV WSC Screenshot.png

The heroes battle the Elemental Lord Cagnazzo, from the WonderSwan Color remake.

After Cecil reunites with his allies, the party invades Baron. However, Golbez has manipulated the people of Baron enough; the failed attack ultimately results in escape on Cid Pollendina's airship. Cecil soon encounters the brainwashed Kain, who forces Cecil to retrieve the final Crystal in exchange for the life of Rosa. Kain then leads the group to where Rosa is being held by Golbez. The party seizes the moment and attacks, but they are unsuccessful and the attack merely leads to Tellah's death. However, the brainwash spell on Kain is shattered, and he explains that Golbez has not retrieved all of the Crystals; four more, called the Dark Crystals, are hidden in the underground land of the Dwarves, and Golbez has already stolen two of them.

With the help of Cid and the other allies, Cecil manages to chase Golbez around the Dark World. However, even after the invasion of the Tower of Babel and the aid of the ninja prince Edward "Edge" Geraldine, Cecil's party comes up short; Golbez apprehends the two remaining crystals with ease. Golbez then retreats to the planet's second moon. In order to discover what plan Golbez has for the Crystals and hopefully stop it, Cecil follows Golbez to the second moon using the ancient starship the "Lunar Whale" hidden beneath Mysidia's ocean.

File:Final Fantasy IV - On The Moon.png

Intent on putting an end to Golbez's machinations, Cecil follows his nemesis to the second moon.

On the moon, Cecil meets FuSoYa, who explains to him that he is descended from a race known as Lunarians, who originated on a planet that was destroyed to form an asteroid belt. Cecil's father, KluYa, was responsible for storing the Crystals, which correspond to Crystals on the moon that hold the thoughts of the Lunarians, on the planet and introducing technological advances such as the airship. However, some Lunarians, led by the Zemus, plan to wipe out all life on the planet for Lunarian inhabitation. It is revealed that Zemus is manipulating Golbez and Kain, and that he plans to use the Crystals to revive a giant android, the Giant of Babel, and clear the planet for this purpose.

Accompanied by FuSoYa, who can neutralize the Giant of Babel's force field, Cecil returns to the planet to find the Giant revived. The entire world, including party members that were once thought deceased, participates in the attack. After breaking into the Giant, FuSoYa is able to break Zemus's control over Golbez and Kain. It is at this point that Cecil finds that Golbez is his brother. Golbez and FuSoYa head to the moon to attempt to defeat Zemus, and Cecil's party follows. After fighting his way to the core of the moon, Cecil watches Golbez and FuSoYa defeat Zemus, only to discover that his death unleashed a more powerful being named Zeromus, the personification of Zemus' pure hatred. Zeromus easily defeats Golbez and FuSoYa, then attacks the rest of Cecil's party. It takes the united life force of all beings, combined with a special Crystal provided by Golbez, for Cecil and his party to defeat Zeromus.

After Zeromus's defeat, FuSoYa returns to sleep with the rest of his people. Golbez, feeling that he cannot return to the earth after what he has done, and being half Lunarian himself, goes with him. Before he does, Cecil forgives him and calls him brother. The moon spins off into space. Many of the characters return to their homes, often to rebuild them, but Kain goes to Mount Ordeals to train himself. The rest of the cast attends Cecil and Rosa's wedding, as Cecil becomes King of Baron.

Gameplay

File:Final Fantasy IV JAP Battle.png

A battle scene from the opening sequence of the Japanese version of the game.

Gameplay in Final Fantasy IV is standard computer role-playing game fare; characters traverse an overworld to fulfill requirements of various quests, using towns to replenish strength, buy new equipment, and discover clues, all the while fighting monsters at random intervals. The game also introduces Square's Active Time Battle (ATB) system, which differs from previous Final Fantasy games and most RPGs up to that time in that players must give orders to their characters in real-time. The ATB system would appear again in the next five games in the series, as well as making appearances in other games produced by Square, including Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy X-2.

In battle, each character has certain strengths and weaknesses, including either spellcasting powers or other special abilities. Like other Final Fantasy games, characters gain in abilities as they gain battle experience. Magic is divided into several different categories: "White," or healing and support magic, "Black," or offensive magic "Summon" (or "call") magic, which is used by Rydia to call forth monsters to damage the enemy or perform some special function to the party, typically healing "Ninjutsu" magic, a specialized type of offensive and support magic used exclusively by Edge. Spellcasters, which account for eight of the twelve playable characters, gain magic spells at preprogrammed experience levels or fixed events in the story; for this reason Final Fantasy IV's ability development system is considered the simplest of any game in the series.

Final Fantasy IV is a very "linear" game, meaning that at most points throughout the game players may advance through the story in one and only one way, with limited opportunities for side quests or alternate paths. However, there are small side quests that can be undertaken, such as finding the secret room in the dwarves castle where characters who represent the games programmers are found. Or if you search to basement of the Castle Baron, you will discover the true king's spirit, and if you defeat him in combat you will game him as a "summoned monster". In the Moon's core you have a small chance of running into a dancing "Pink Puff" monster, and an even smaller chance of it dropping a "Pink Tail" item. Taking it to the midget in the Adamant mine gets your more adamant, and if you take that to Kokkol, the Adamant Armor is created, which is the strongest armor in the game.

Music

File:Final Fantasy IV Celtic Moon.jpg

Máire Breatnach's Final Fantasy IV: Celtic Moon added a Celtic music flavor to several musical tracks from the game.

The musical themes of Final Fantasy IV are composed by Nobuo Uematsu, who has worked on most games in the Final Fantasy Series. In this incarnation of the series, many well loved pieces were composed, so much so that he continues to do concert tours of Final Fantasy and use pieces from this game. The track "Theme of Love" has been taught to Japanese school children as part of the music curriculum.

Two music albums of Final Fantasy IV music have been released in Japan: Final Fantasy IV: Original Sound Version, the 44-track original soundtrack, and Final Fantasy IV: Celtic Moon, a selection of tracks from the game arranged and performed by Celtic musician Máire Breatnach. Several tracks from the game have appeared on Final Fantasy compilation albums, including The Black Mages and Final Fantasy Pray.

Development history

In 1990, after the completion of Final Fantasy III, Square intended to develop two Final Fantasy games, one for the Nintendo Famicom, and the other for the forthcoming Super Famicom. The Famicom title would be released under the name Final Fantasy IV, while the Super Famicom title would be released under the name Final Fantasy V.

However, due to financial and scheduling constraints, Square was forced to drop plans for the Famicom game and to continue development of the Super Famicom title, which was retitled Final Fantasy IV. It is not clear how far development had progressed on the Famicom version before its cancellation. A mock-up screenshot was produced for a Japanese magazine, but almost no other information exists about the aborted title.

Remakes

File:Final Fantasy IV NA GBA Boxart.jpg

The North American cover art for Final Fantasy IV Advance, an enhanced remake of the game with a variety of added features. Artwork by Yoshitaka Amano.

Main article: List of Final Fantasy IV versions

Shortly after the initial release of the game, Square released an alternate version of the game with a decreased difficulty level under the title of Final Fantasy IV Easytype. Many features of the original game were removed to simplify the gaming experience. This was fundamentally the same game as was released in North America as Final Fantasy II. The extreme differences between the North American Final Fantasy II and the original "hardtype" Japanese Final Fantasy IV led J2e Translations to prodcue an English language fan translation of the original Japanese game.

Final Fantasy IV has been ported to variety of different platforms. Each version tells the same story, stars the same characters, and features similar graphics, sound, music, and gameplay. Nonetheless, there are certain key distinctions between each version. To date, Final Fantasy IV has been released for the Sony PlayStation (in 1997), the WonderSwan Color (in 2002), and the Game Boy Advance (in 2005). The PlayStation remake was released in North America as part of Final Fantasy Chronicles and in Europe as part of Final Fantasy Anthology. The Game Boy Advance remake was released in Japan, North America, and Europe under the title Final Fantasy IV Advance. The WonderSwan Color remake was never released outside of Japan.

Reception

Final Fantasy IV has been called one of the greatest videogames of all time, and is considered by many to be the forerunner of many now commonplace features of video games in the role-playing game format. It introduced, among other things, an active battle system, lots of new magic spells, the Chocobo as a usable creature, and the summoning of monsters, which later became a defining feature of the series. Some have been critical of the recent Game Boy re-release, saying that it does not hold up well today in visual presentation, and pales in comparison to games such as Final Fantasy VI, and indeed that title is also listed as one of the great games of all time. Overall though, the re-release of one of Japan's highest grossing games ever has been greatly praised by most reviewers.

See also

• Final Fantasy
• Races of Final Fantasy
• Final Fantasy magic

External links

Official sites

• Nintendo Final Fantasy IV Advance Official Site (English)
• Template:Ja iconSquare Enix Final Fantasy IV Advance Official Site
• Square Enix Final Fantasy Chronicles Website - Includes an FF4 Overview (English)

Reviews

• Gamespot.com - Final Fantasy IV Advance Review
• ign.com Final Fantasy IV Advance Review

Fan sites

• DMOZ.org Open Directory for Final Fantasy IV related websites
• Final Fantasy Wiki category list for Final Fantasy IV
• IMDB Database Entry for Final Fantasy IV
• Moby Games Final Fantasy IV Listing
• Collection of official game art at Caves of Narshe