Final Fantasy 4

[Tetsujin]

I'm thinking of picking up the Complete Collection although I'm not sure yet...

 

[Wolf Kanno]

FFIV was a major leap forward, though.
Also, I will not have you calling Cid ridiculous. Unless it is being used as an adverb to accentuate his awesomeness.

In terms of creating a narrative with a strong central cast of characters who possess distinct personalities, as well as blending music into the story to enhance the emotional impact, I certainly agree.

Hell the introduction of ATB and the retort mechanics are also groundbreaking. Yet, I still feel in some ways that IV comes off a bit as a downgrade behind FFIII, in terms of gameplay and player control. Course I'm a total whore for job class systems...

Cid is awesome in IV, probably the second best Cid in the series and its easy to see that the best one was based on him.

Spoiler

Still, you cannot tell me that watching him leap off an airship, hundreds of feet above the ground, with a bomb attached to him, which goes off, and of which is strong enough to cause a fissure large enough to fit a sailing vessel through to collapse; yet appears later in the game, not only alive but healthy enough to move around and fix airships almost by himself (we all know Edge is a slacker), is not just a bit silly?

 

[Ite]

Man, people forget that the SNES Final Fantasy games tried harder to be funny than they did trying to tell a good story. A good story they had, but it seemed incidental. And I love the games for that.

 

[Wolf Kanno]

I love the humor, in fact I feel its the thing that is lacking the most in the series. Its been steadily taking itself a bit too seriously in the last decade within the main games.

 

[Scias]

I'm thinking of picking up the Complete Collection although I'm not sure yet...

Same here, not sure if want, I've already played the SNES, GBA, and DS versions, and that "Interlude" business don't really catch my attention, but well, I might give it a try.

Man, people forget that the SNES Final Fantasy games tried harder to be funny than they did trying to tell a good story. A good story they had, but it seemed incidental. And I love the games for that.

Wait... What? 4 and 6 had pretty serious and good stories... The exception would be 5 that was rather lighthearted, and even then, the game had it's pretty serious business moments... Oh, and a good story.

 

[Ite]

Wait... What? 4 and 6 had pretty serious and good stories... The exception would be 5 that was rather lighthearted, and even then, the game had it's pretty serious business moments... Oh, and a good story.

I'm not saying they didn't have good stories. I just think that the story was there to serve the game, not the other way around (as it's been recently). FFIV-VI were very much about the experience of playing, and so things like humorous Gau/Cyan "dance" sequences seemed to me to have a lot more passion behind them than the development of the story. FFVII changed that, with the game only existing to serve the story.

 

[Wolf Kanno]

I'm not saying they didn't have good stories. I just think that the story was there to serve the game, not the other way around (as it's been recently). FFIV-VI were very much about the experience of playing, and so things like humorous Gau/Cyan "dance" sequences seemed to me to have a lot more passion behind them than the development of the story. FFVII changed that, with the game only existing to serve the story.

I would disagree. In comparison to FFIII and V, the fleshed out cast and story (for its time) were about the only saving grace of the game for some. I don't think most people really noticed the new mechanics IV brought to the table beyond ATB.

VI itself is easily a darker and more fleshed out experience from its predecessors, so I would argue its more of a transition to a true narrative that simply hindered by the Super Famicom/Nintendo's technical limitations. I feel its hard to say the story only served the game when you find yourself as the player dealing with trying to save a life of a father figure, and attempted suicide, the opera being a role play within an role play. Not to mention the times the game splits the party up to see the different characters view points.

 

[Splintered]

I.

I just turned into a pig.

 

[Ite]

Okay, so there's that witch who turns your party into pigs. I talked to her but didn't know I was transformed. I then got Palom and Porom in my party and accidentally talked to the witch again, who transformed my party again. During that transformation, Cecil and Tellah(?) turned back into humans, but the twins turned into pigs.

So for the entirety of Mt. Ordeals I had no idea that anyone had transformed and I just thought that Palom and Porom were pig characters. I was all "These guys are freaking useless wtf?"

 

[Ite]

Full-on Double Posting all the way!

So everything from my iTunes shuffle to the General Gaming discussion to thinking about this thread to random things my friends say, everything seemed to be pointing me in the direction of playing FFIV again. Even if just to see if it was as good as I remember...

This of course meant letting my DS version collect dust shamefully in the corner. As it should. SNES Emulator and ROM it is!

So far, I'm not getting the great nostalgia fix I was hoping for. Maybe it's the emulator or the ROM. (Is there a definitive best ROM out there? I prefer Snes9x to ZSNES because Snes9x isn't built like Mario Paint and it has better save options.) The dialogue is, frankly, nonsensical. I don't remember Potions being called Cure1.

Also... HOW DO I DASH!? The sprites in this game are brain-meltingly slow. I thought I remembered a dash option when I first played it.

 

[Ⓐaron]

The original SNES dialogue is terrible. If you feel compelled to emulate it on SNES, play hardtype with J2e's translation. They inserted a few Woolseyisms (I'm certain the William Shatner reference wasn't in the original game) but on the whole it's a much more accurate translation than the original and it's certainly a lot less grammatically embarrassing. I may have a ROM uploaded somewhere in case you need a link.

And I'm 99% certain the SNES game does not have a dash option. If I'm not mistaken, FF games didn't have a run button until FFVII, although FFVI did have the Sprint Shoes.

 

[Ite]

I seem to recall not being able to dash in FFVI feeling like a step backwards. Maybe FFV had the dash option...

Sure, I'll try the hard-type. Why not, right? Gotta link?

 

[Ⓐaron]

Check your messages.

FFV's thief class had the dash option, I believe.

 

[Alex Strife]

^ It did, I remember it well.

 

[Demona]

The problem with the character revivals is that in terms of story-telling, it's a huge card to pay. Things just don't retain their gravity when you go--whoops, lost a party member. No worries, they'll be back in Disc 2. Grieve for the fact you won't be able to level them up for a while, or the fact that you've wasted about thirty hours grinding.

That said, FF4 had a pretty enjoyable story and it was nice that characters like Tellah and Anna stayed dead. And with the possible exception of

Spoiler

Cid, who essentially leapt out of a moving airship god knows how many leagues off the ground with a great honkin' BOMB strapped to his chest (where it detonated, mind you)

, it was fairly plausible that the characters who survived could survive.

Also, I enjoyed the game mechanics of FF4--nugame, augments and boss battles that you could actually die in included. Some people dislike the necessity for grinding. Grinding is what I do when I'm on the goddamn treadmill (the kind less likely to get me jammed in weird places and more likely to reach LVL99 by the time we meet Big Big Bad).

 

[Ite]

Am I being a selfish FF7 fan when I like how invincible pre-FF7 characters are? It makes Aeris' death all the better.

 

[Ⓐaron]

Spoiler: (FFV spoiler)

Galuf wasn't so invincible. He's the only player character in that game that "died", as well.

But yeah, the fake character deaths in FFIV kind of detract from the story. Still, most of the games killed off at least one important character for real - FFIV had

Spoiler

Tellah

, FFV had

Spoiler

Galuf

, FFVI had

Spoiler

Leo and possibly Cid and Shadow, depending on your choices

. I guess the only death scene that really rivals Aerith's was FFV's though.