Final Fantasy IV DS ramblance.
Sometime back in 1992 or so, I discovered a nifty red box at the video store. "Final Fantasy II," it said, with shiny gold letters. Seemed right up my alley, so I rented it and took it home. And played it. A LOT. Through repeated rentals, I finished the darned thing, and thus became eternally hooked on the RPG genre.
Fast forward many years to an older, wiser me. I chased every version of the now-properly titled Final Fantasy IV that came Stateside since then, and was quite, quite happy with the redone translation in Final Fantasy IV Advance for the GBA.
Then, what do I find out, but Square-Enix is putting out a remake for the DS? In 3D? VOICED?? SQUEEEEEE. XD
So yeah, needless to say, I was excited-- and damned impatient, too. I shuffled about it for a few weeks after the game came out on December 20th... then got my bonus cash at work in January and said hell with it. I can has import plzkthx? So yay, I did.
Just finished my first playthrough of the game on Sunday, and I have to say... I really, really love the game. It's not JUST nostalgia talking here, though it surely does help. They've updated the game engine and added a couple scenes and side ventures, but the core script seems to have been untouched by what I can read of the Japanese. (I'm a forgetful 201 level student; kanji is my bane.)
Let's cover the new stuff first.
* Decant Abilities: This is probably the biggie, as it changes the entire way the battle system works by adding a certain level of customization to the group. Decant abilities are gained through various means; some are passed to you via mandatory story events, others have to be found after jumping through the expected RPG hoops, while still others are given to you by departing party members. These last are usually the self-same custom abilities the characters had in their default battle menu, plus a few more if you did things right. Assign abilities and commands as you like, and you have a much more exciting experience in fights. It adds a certain strategic element the original didn't have, because you can swap the various skills out in the camp screen. Once you give a character a decant ability, though, you can't move it to another character.
Suffice to say, I have SO much love for Kain when he fires up the Darkness ability Cecil once had, then pulls his standard Dragoon Jump for massive damage. ^__^<3
* Shiny 3D Graphics: Gone are the too-tiny sprites of old! Now, I'm not a sprite-hater by ANY means... once I was quite the opposite way, clinging desperately to sprite graphics when the 3D stuff was still way too blocky and goofy looking. While these are by no means realistic looking or state-of-the-art, the character models are beautiful and expressive. I especially adore the attention to detail on their costumes and their physical attitudes in general. What exactly am I talking about? No more bouncing up and down in victory for everyone after battle, nope! Everybody has their own unique poses, both for battle victory and level-ups. They also move uniquely IN battle when it comes to wielding weapons, from stances to swings. Let them stand idle on the camp screen for awhile and they'll start to assume a pensive little pose of their own. Shopping for armor? They do a little something to get attention if it's an item they can use. Little things like this have continued to entertain me all the way through the game, from start to finish.
Some of my favorites? Tellah's level-up pose is a crack up. XD He gives a mighty puff of the chest and pumps his fist-- then halts midway with pained surprise-- and proceeds to rub his poor, achin' back. Guess someone's forgetting they aren't as young as they used to be... hehe. I could go on for an entire entry about all the fun little nuances the characters have... maybe I'll do that. ;)
* 'Cinematic' Cutscenes: Now, I don't mean full-blown CGI wonders here, for all that the opening movie is precisely that. Said opening movie is also the ONLY one of that nature, but it's a damn good one, with an amazing new medley of some of the main themes present in the game as it shows the cast strutting their stuff at all the important locales. In this case though, I mean that important scenes in the game are now fully voiced, with a dynamic camera showing you all the good, dramatic angles of a scene, just like a movie. It really adds huge amounts of power to the storyline, which has managed to withstand the test of time in its own right. The Japanese cast is quite good; a lot of very seasoned voice talent. Here's hoping the English version will receive the same treatment when the game makes its eventual trip overseas.
...No, I'm not saying it's been announced or anything, so shut up. >_< But do you honestly think Square-Enix would snub their nose at the potential cash-cow this game honestly is? It's just too early to tell right now, since there's almost always no less than a three-month gap from Japanese release to English release date announcement. Or so it seems to me.
Back to the goodness of cinematic scenes. These are also where we FINALLY get a more conclusive imagining of Cecil's character, I think. He honestly has very little in the way of truly character-defining lines, as he tends to be all about the mission at hand, or just plain out master of the ellipses, as RPG leading men are wont to be. But let us remember that he was one of the early ones. =P Chew on that, Squall. Ahem.. however~!! In these cinematics, we get to see Cecil go through a wide and vivid array of facial expressions and surprisingly subtle body language at times--I was highly, highly impressed by these details, and give massive props to the designers for being so thoughtful. ^_^
* Camp Thoughts: Once upon a time, in the Final Fantasies, when you smacked the menu screen button, you'd get exactly that. Well, this time, developers at Matrix opted to take advantage of the DS's dual screen capacity, so the menus are a little more widespread. What's that mean for us now? Well, when you 'camp' to the menu, your party leader (you can still change this at the push of a button) will reveal their thoughts at that present moment in the game. It's nothing earth-shattering, but it does help bulk up the character development a little bit more if you actually bother to check their thoughts out regularly during the game. Mind, I could only read some of them some of the time, or pieces of them... but it was still enjoyable. This is also liable to be one of the features I'll be most eager to dig into on an English release, obviously.
Now for the rest, in brief... sort of. ;)
Bosses and monsters have been massively tweaked. It's much harder than it was on the super watered down SNES version, and still harder than the properly-released PSX and GBA ports we later got. The bosses have new tactics, and some of them can be incredibly nasty if you aren't careful. On the up side? It means fights are much more exciting, even for people like me who've played the original game more times than they care to count. I will say, however, that I didn't find the fights as hugely OMG IMPOSSIBLE as I've seen many other players complain they are... not sure what that's about, but hey. I enjoyed the fights a lot this time around; it suits my evolved playing style. Oh yeah, and all those little stat up/down spells like Slow and Stop that NEVER freakin' worked in previous versions? They work now. And they will save your ass. Use them.
More battle stuff-- some character abilities have been slightly tweaked too. Another great improvement? Rosa's "Pray" skill which was dodgy at best and mostly useless is now awesome, even at end-game. And it very rarely fails. ^__^ Oh.. and it uh, restores HP AND MP.
There are some mini games, which run the range from "OMG NOOOO" hard to addicting and fun. They have a purpose, but I really don't use the new summon Rydia got, so whatever. =P
Hrm... so much more...! I could go on awhile with all this... yeesh.
Instead, here are some random things I liked:
Now for the random things I didn't care for as much:
That'll do for now. Whew.. looong entry. Perhaps with more to come
Fast forward many years to an older, wiser me. I chased every version of the now-properly titled Final Fantasy IV that came Stateside since then, and was quite, quite happy with the redone translation in Final Fantasy IV Advance for the GBA.
Then, what do I find out, but Square-Enix is putting out a remake for the DS? In 3D? VOICED?? SQUEEEEEE. XD
So yeah, needless to say, I was excited-- and damned impatient, too. I shuffled about it for a few weeks after the game came out on December 20th... then got my bonus cash at work in January and said hell with it. I can has import plzkthx? So yay, I did.
Just finished my first playthrough of the game on Sunday, and I have to say... I really, really love the game. It's not JUST nostalgia talking here, though it surely does help. They've updated the game engine and added a couple scenes and side ventures, but the core script seems to have been untouched by what I can read of the Japanese. (I'm a forgetful 201 level student; kanji is my bane.)
Let's cover the new stuff first.
* Decant Abilities: This is probably the biggie, as it changes the entire way the battle system works by adding a certain level of customization to the group. Decant abilities are gained through various means; some are passed to you via mandatory story events, others have to be found after jumping through the expected RPG hoops, while still others are given to you by departing party members. These last are usually the self-same custom abilities the characters had in their default battle menu, plus a few more if you did things right. Assign abilities and commands as you like, and you have a much more exciting experience in fights. It adds a certain strategic element the original didn't have, because you can swap the various skills out in the camp screen. Once you give a character a decant ability, though, you can't move it to another character.
Suffice to say, I have SO much love for Kain when he fires up the Darkness ability Cecil once had, then pulls his standard Dragoon Jump for massive damage. ^__^<3
* Shiny 3D Graphics: Gone are the too-tiny sprites of old! Now, I'm not a sprite-hater by ANY means... once I was quite the opposite way, clinging desperately to sprite graphics when the 3D stuff was still way too blocky and goofy looking. While these are by no means realistic looking or state-of-the-art, the character models are beautiful and expressive. I especially adore the attention to detail on their costumes and their physical attitudes in general. What exactly am I talking about? No more bouncing up and down in victory for everyone after battle, nope! Everybody has their own unique poses, both for battle victory and level-ups. They also move uniquely IN battle when it comes to wielding weapons, from stances to swings. Let them stand idle on the camp screen for awhile and they'll start to assume a pensive little pose of their own. Shopping for armor? They do a little something to get attention if it's an item they can use. Little things like this have continued to entertain me all the way through the game, from start to finish.
Some of my favorites? Tellah's level-up pose is a crack up. XD He gives a mighty puff of the chest and pumps his fist-- then halts midway with pained surprise-- and proceeds to rub his poor, achin' back. Guess someone's forgetting they aren't as young as they used to be... hehe. I could go on for an entire entry about all the fun little nuances the characters have... maybe I'll do that. ;)
* 'Cinematic' Cutscenes: Now, I don't mean full-blown CGI wonders here, for all that the opening movie is precisely that. Said opening movie is also the ONLY one of that nature, but it's a damn good one, with an amazing new medley of some of the main themes present in the game as it shows the cast strutting their stuff at all the important locales. In this case though, I mean that important scenes in the game are now fully voiced, with a dynamic camera showing you all the good, dramatic angles of a scene, just like a movie. It really adds huge amounts of power to the storyline, which has managed to withstand the test of time in its own right. The Japanese cast is quite good; a lot of very seasoned voice talent. Here's hoping the English version will receive the same treatment when the game makes its eventual trip overseas.
...No, I'm not saying it's been announced or anything, so shut up. >_< But do you honestly think Square-Enix would snub their nose at the potential cash-cow this game honestly is? It's just too early to tell right now, since there's almost always no less than a three-month gap from Japanese release to English release date announcement. Or so it seems to me.
Back to the goodness of cinematic scenes. These are also where we FINALLY get a more conclusive imagining of Cecil's character, I think. He honestly has very little in the way of truly character-defining lines, as he tends to be all about the mission at hand, or just plain out master of the ellipses, as RPG leading men are wont to be. But let us remember that he was one of the early ones. =P Chew on that, Squall. Ahem.. however~!! In these cinematics, we get to see Cecil go through a wide and vivid array of facial expressions and surprisingly subtle body language at times--I was highly, highly impressed by these details, and give massive props to the designers for being so thoughtful. ^_^
* Camp Thoughts: Once upon a time, in the Final Fantasies, when you smacked the menu screen button, you'd get exactly that. Well, this time, developers at Matrix opted to take advantage of the DS's dual screen capacity, so the menus are a little more widespread. What's that mean for us now? Well, when you 'camp' to the menu, your party leader (you can still change this at the push of a button) will reveal their thoughts at that present moment in the game. It's nothing earth-shattering, but it does help bulk up the character development a little bit more if you actually bother to check their thoughts out regularly during the game. Mind, I could only read some of them some of the time, or pieces of them... but it was still enjoyable. This is also liable to be one of the features I'll be most eager to dig into on an English release, obviously.
Now for the rest, in brief... sort of. ;)
Bosses and monsters have been massively tweaked. It's much harder than it was on the super watered down SNES version, and still harder than the properly-released PSX and GBA ports we later got. The bosses have new tactics, and some of them can be incredibly nasty if you aren't careful. On the up side? It means fights are much more exciting, even for people like me who've played the original game more times than they care to count. I will say, however, that I didn't find the fights as hugely OMG IMPOSSIBLE as I've seen many other players complain they are... not sure what that's about, but hey. I enjoyed the fights a lot this time around; it suits my evolved playing style. Oh yeah, and all those little stat up/down spells like Slow and Stop that NEVER freakin' worked in previous versions? They work now. And they will save your ass. Use them.
More battle stuff-- some character abilities have been slightly tweaked too. Another great improvement? Rosa's "Pray" skill which was dodgy at best and mostly useless is now awesome, even at end-game. And it very rarely fails. ^__^ Oh.. and it uh, restores HP AND MP.
There are some mini games, which run the range from "OMG NOOOO" hard to addicting and fun. They have a purpose, but I really don't use the new summon Rydia got, so whatever. =P
Hrm... so much more...! I could go on awhile with all this... yeesh.
Instead, here are some random things I liked:
- Cecil's improved Paladin-ness. He has useful spells and his White magic doesn't become obsolete the moment he LEARNS it. He's good for between-fight heals so you aren't wasting Rosa's precious MP. He also has more HP than God by the time you go to knock down the Big Z.
- Rydia's pretty summon 'cutscenes'... and the fact you can skip them if you've gotten tired of seeing them for the 12th time in the same boss fight.
- Edge's laugh. It makes me giggle every damn time, hehe! ^_^ And I once hated this guy.
- Kain's hair. YAY, we can see it dangling from the helm now! ..And whee, it's LONG. o_O
- Rosa + Chainspell Decant = GODDESS. That is all.
- The music. A great score that's received a faithful update. Downside is that the DS really doesn't do it much justice. :( Get the soundtrack; it's out now.
- Namingway is now way, and he leads you on a merry round of side quests which are fun. I also love the way he consistently greets you with politeness like: 「おや、おひさしぶりですね、セシルさん！」 Also; he is now a cute red-clad bunny rabbit creature. ...Moon bunnies. Go figure, Japan. -_-;
Now for the random things I didn't care for as much:
- The dungeons are laid out exactly the same as they were in the original game. Come on, Matrix, Squeenix... couldn't you have redesigned the paths just a LITTLE bit so the oldtimers could explore a little? Oh well-- at least they LOOK much prettier.
- Hell, even the treasure in them is the same! ....ahem, anyway.
- Barring the addition of a few new scenes at key points, the script appears to be utterly unchanged. A little more enhancement/expansion sprinkled in there would have been nice... but the up side is, they didn't seem to cut anything OUT in favor of the new stuff.
- WHERE. IS. KAIN'S. FACE????????????????????? >_< I can't believe you'd do this to us AGAIN, Squeenix!!! WHYYYY??????
That'll do for now. Whew.. looong entry. Perhaps with more to come