Genre: RPG
Year: 1991
Developed by: Square
Published by: Square
Platforms: SNES
#115
Feeling Like: The Alpha and the Omega
There are very few games as important to me on the 500 as Final Fantasy 4. I may have rated 114 ahead of this one in terms of emotional importance, or quality of gameplay, or graphics, or music but only a select handful had a direct influence on my favorite hobby. Final Fantasy 4 was one of the first RPGs I ever played, only Super Mario RPG preceded it. The minute I laid eyes on it in Kasim’s basement watching Aaron D. pummel Zeromus with various spells, I was entranced. Later, when Dave V. and I rented it, we had no idea what we were doing. We were hilariously inept, thinking we were doing well running away from every encounter we could. The concept of experience points and levelling up was a complete unknown to us. We were used to running right and dodging holes in the ground. Story? In a game?
You can do that?
As soon as the Red Wings theme hit and I watched the squadron of airships fly across the world, I knew I had never seen anything like this, and I knew that I instantly loved it. The focus on dialogue reminded me of the fantasy novels I was obsessed with, and the perils that threatened the world stirred in me a desire to save these little digital people.
It’s no wonder that nowadays, every game has some kind of RPG element. Early Final Fantasies and Dragon Quests showed that if you want to pull gamers in, you needed to have all the fundamentals in tow. Compelling characters are a must. You have to have dungeons filled with treasures, enemies that won’t pull punches and villains that deserve their comeuppance. The graphics had to be cutting edge (for the time) and the soundtrack had to have dozens of memorable tunes. It was really, really difficult to have all of these factors in anything but an RPG. Now that the technology has caught up, you’ll see all of these in virtually every genre, regardless if the game has a big budget or not. But back in the day, this kind of experience was seemingly reserved for RPGs that came from Japan.
If I had started with Final Fantasy, I may never have come back to the series. The original NES versions are rough, even with the various updated versions seen in the Pixel Remaster collection, or on the PSP. Grinding wasn’t just a requirement, it’s the entire premise. Final Fantasy 4 changed all that: characters had individual motivations, relationships and struggles. The story, as wacky as it is, took center stage with party members appearing, vanishing, dying and being resurrected with surprising frequency. Scenarios rarely felt the same and the big moments went for broke. This was a new direction for the series and most would agree if you’re going to jump onto the Final Fantasy train and want to really understand the history of it, Final Fantasy 4 is where you’ll want to start. At least, for old geezers like me. I hesitate to show this to my niece and nephew who proclaimed that Super Mario Kart was “terrible” and the graphics are “so bad, Uncle Henry.” Bah! Kids today!
I had to slowly understand this new gaming language. Walking around and fighting monsters, then healing at the inn and repeating the process was a requirement. I simply wasn’t good enough to zoom through the game, though apparently the North American version we got was the easy version! Go figure! I had to learn that combing dungeons was smart, so as not to miss any treasure boxes. That being said, the painful lesson of getting a Game Over prior to saving meant a lot of lost progress. This meant I was doubly prepared when we ventured out of the safety of towns – healing potions were purchased in bulk, and we might as well gain one more level per character, right? Won’t take that long. This is where my saving OCD also started. Can’t be too careful!
I do remember some things stumping me. The Lodestone Cavern rendered any party member wearing or using metal useless, I hadn’t quite made the connection that bows and leather gear was the trick. No metal there. This is the type of challenge that Strategy Guides were created for and I’m immensely grateful. I might still be stuck in that cave without them.
There were far too many fake-out deaths and even then it pissed me off. Yang, Palom & Porom and Cid are but a few of the characters that are seemingly gone forever…only to re-appear against the Giant of Babil. Admittedly, it’s a cool moment but in retrospect it really does weaken their previous sacrifices. As far as I know, only Tellah remained dead-dead. The legend who cast Meteo and called Edward a SPOONY BARD was one of my favorites, but in Final Fantasy 4 it’s easy come, easy go. I will say, it did keep me on my toes. Kain, your best friend, betrays you twice but apparently he was mind controlled. Ditto Golbez, the seeming big bad of the game. It doesn’t really matter in the end – Kain’s Jump ability was so cool to use that he could’ve betrayed me every other hour and I would have welcomed him back with open arms. I’m a forgiving type.
In a sense, it was an RPG for beginners. Many of the battles can be won by mashing A and I can still remember the strategy I used for nearly every fight with my final party.
CECIL – ATTACK
RYDIA – SUMMON SOMETHING
EDGE – ATTACK (or throw, if I had a bunch of leftover weapons)
ROSA – CURE ALL (always)
KAIN – JUMP
Not much more to it than that. Still, I liked the look of everybody’s design. The character models were all over the place, I’ve never seen a group with a bigger variety of hair colors in my life. It was fun and exciting to see what a new party member could do. Learning new spells after a fight was a pleasant surprise, even if most of them weren’t very useful. Combat was basic, but enjoyable and still a major upgrade from Final Fantasies 1-3.
What’s held up far beyond the tropey story and characters is the soundtrack and get used to me saying that a lot about 16 big SNES RPGs. They are insanely catching and memorable, I still hum them often to myself while I reminisce. Some of my favorites are…
Golbez. When you heard this, you knew shit was about to go down.
The Moon’s surface sounds like it should be in Super Metroid instead. Yes, of course you go to the moon.
Within the Giant. What a track!
The Final Battle is one of the best end boss themes I can remember.
It’s an embarrassment of riches. There’s a reason there are 65 selections on OCRemix pulled from it, the content is simply that good. It’s as if Nobuo Uematsu was finally free from any technological shackles experienced on the NES and went full out here. It’s impossible to believe that he scored many games after Final Fantasy 4 that are considered even better.
It won’t be for everybody, even with several versions available (Game Boy Advance, PSP, 3DS, Pixel Remaster). Still, developers don’t go all out with multiple versions and remakes for just any game. Square knows that this is a beloved title for millions of older gamers and the foundation is strong for anybody wanting a classic, simple adventure. It worked on me, and I scoured the shelves every time I entered Spotlight Video for either this, Super Mario RPG, Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy 6. It’s not often you can point to a single product and definitely say that it started you on a path that lead you to where you are today.
The 500 