A good remake. That does what it says on the box.
Intro & Graphics:
Final Fantasy IV is Square Enix's fourth entry into the ever popular and expanding Final Fantasy franchise. The game debuted on the Super NES in 1991, marking the series' entry into the 16 bit era.
The story is simple in premise, revolving around the tale of Dark Knight Cecil of Baron, who questions the recently villainous morals of his king; who ordered him to kill a town of innocents to retrieve a crystal, resulting in the beginning of an epic tale, about redemption, adventure, jealousy and relationship. Featuring many legendary characters like the morally troubled Dragoon Kain, Cecil's love interest Rosa, the Ninja prince Edge, the summoner Rydia, and the lovable twins Palom and Porom.
For many of us, this isn't our first time playing Final Fantasy IV, after all, it has been released in a myriad of different forms over the years, the PSX, the GBA, and recently the Nintendo DS to name just a few. The game boasts increased screen resolution and improved graphics (akin to the PSP Final Fantasy I and II remakes from 2007,) a option to switch between the arranged soundtrack from the DS edition of the game and the original 16 bit rendition. The game is based of the GBA version, with the main game being complemented by two extra dungeons and party swapping towards the end of the game. However, the GBA version's script has been adjusted to reuse many of the DS versions terms and place names.
Square Enix has also included the mobile game; previously released on Wii Ware in the west; "The After Years" in the package, (hence being a "Complete Collection") and also the newly developed "Interlude". The latter being quite disappointing, but more on that later.
Gameplay & Presentation:
Square Enix gives us the tried and tested formula of the ATB battle system, used in the original game. It is a pretty standard JRPG, featuring a linear story with re-visitable locations via a world map; which like dungeons, is littered with frequent random encounters.
The game is hardly unforgiving, with quite an easy difficulty for the 3-4 hours of the game, with difficulty slowly ascending between the middle and the end of the game. Still, Final Fantasy IV PSP is quite and easy game and is perfect for a first RPG experience. The random encounters however, can become frustrating due to the sheer number of encounters.
The gameplay is all JRPG, and never meant to be anything other than that.
During The After Years, the sequel set 17 years after the events of Final Fantasy IV, centering around Cecil's son Ceodore, who witnesses a seeming repeat of a past catastrophe. The game was released on Wii ware and mobile phones, (the latter being exclusive to Japanese phone networks) in chapters. The Complete Collection includes all of the chapters, so the package is a far more economic decision.
The game is still presented in chapters, with sets of chapters being unlocked according to other completed chapters. The chapters each center around a certain group of characters, with the final one bringing the whole cast together. The idea is, you keep every cleared save file from the previous tales separate from each other, so you can import them all for the final bout.
While on this subject, saves from the original Final Fantasy IV, Interlude and The After Years are completely separate.
The gameplay in The After years is similar to FFIV, except band attacks similar the group attacks in Square's Chrono Trigger are implemented, adding depth to the simple battle system. The new moon phase system, effects the strength of different types of attacks, however this system isn't very important to the over all feel in this reviewers opinion, (ei, melee, White Magic, Black Magic.) Final Fantasy IV lasts around 12-15 hours and The After Years lasts around 3 hours for each tale, with the last one spanning up to 10 hours.
Interlude, the bridge between both games, is a short game, set one year after FFIV, depicting the events following a celebration of the rebuilding of Damcyan castle. The plot is weak, and the world map navigation is almost completely absent. The Aesthetic is consistent with the other two games in the package (all three selectable separately from the start menu) and is a measly 1.5 to 2.5 hours long, (3 maximum) despite being promised 15 hours by Square Enix (maybe they left out a decimal point....)
The game uses the FFIV battle system and is not a reason to buy the game on.
Sound:
Nobuo Uematsu, a long time composer for the Final Fantasy series, brings us many beautiful orchestral scored pieces, ranging from the heart searing love theme, to the iconic overworld theme and the historically legendary victory theme.
The soundtrack alone, is quite a good reason to buy this, if you are into JRPGs but want a reason to buy FFIV.
Replayablility:
The game boasts a dungeon that is unlocked after completing FFIV, which gives each character new equipment and abilities, also featuring new bosses.
The After Years, brings back the Challenge dungeons, that are unlocked after each tale is complete by speaking to Challenging way. Ceodore has his own Challenge dungeon, thanks to the separation of his and Kain's tale.
There is also a secret super boss, available to fight upon completing the whole game.
Each game has a developers room, but I will let you discover them yourselves.
Verdict:
By far the best edition of the game, featuring the whole Final Fantasy IV canon, with 3D cutscenes in the first game, full CGI intros for IV and TAY, a gallery featuring Amano's artwork and CGI viewing, the game is truly complete. Featuring a DLC code for Dissidia Duodecim with UMD release of the game, this is an unmissable package, that truly defines the game.
Limited editions are available in Japan and Europe, each featuring different goodies.
Graphics: 8, clean and sharp, reminiscing the 16 bit era in clear 2D HD, looking far more appealing than the blocky 64 bit mess that the DS version presented.
Gameplay: 7, JRPG goodness at it's very best, although seems a bit outdated!
Sound:8 , Uematsu provides an incredible score, bound to have you coming back just to listen to the music.
Replay value: 7, there is plenty to do, but once all the content has been completed, there is little incentive to return other than nostalgia.
Presentation. 7, A great package, although the Interlude seems clumsy and unnecessary.
Total Score: 7