Definitive version of Final Fantasy IV?

I picked up The Complete Collection from Amazon the other day, since I don't have a Wii to play The After Years with, and not to mention it was a good price.

I'm a little disappointed that since they kept some of the outdated gameplay features (like the limited inventory) but overall, I'm really enjoying the game so far. I will happily purchase any version of Final Fantasy IV since it's one of my favorites. As of this year, I've probably been playing it for about a decade now.

So what I'd like to ask my fellow tropers is which their favorite version of the game is? I am still in love with the DS version because it kept the story and gameplay mostly intact and gave it a much needed gameplay and graphical overhaul, as well as giving much more customization and more difficulty. I know a lot of the Unpleasable Fanbase didn't like the lack of the bonus dungeons and such from the Advance version, but all of the other features made up for it and beyond.

The DS version was awesome. Dem voices, dem cutscenes!

Although I do wish that some of the features of Advance made it into IV DS, I'll agree with you in that the DS version is probably the best version of the game to date. The battle system was updated and given a good amount of customization due to Whyt and the Augment system, and the story, while still remaining faithful at its core, was fleshed out a bit more with plot points that didn't necessarily make it in on the first go round.

I like PSP IV a little more than DS.

DS was just ugly and it just seemed to be lacking something, While the PSP version was a conversion of the GBA version which allows party members to be switched as well as a quick interlude between it and after years, and it was damn pretty.

I will always love the original SNES version (back when it was called Final Fantasy II), but I happily accept the PSP as a supplement.

the SNES version is nice, but I like the DS version better overall.

Whats fun with Complete Collection is they really improved on After Years making it a lot better over all.

Yeah, that is most of my reasoning for getting it since I never played The After Years when it first came out. This is a much better way of playing it and it looks a lot better.

I'd say either the Super Famicom version (due to being the original and the Final Fantasy II US having a horrible translation) or the PSP one (due to better graphics and including After Years). The latter is quite a bit easier, though (apparently the GBA version was also made easier, but they changed that back in the European version). YMMV about that.

I don't like the DS one. They cranked up the difficulty to borderline-impossible, added unnecessary gameplay elements (which may actually be pretty nice, but due to the former, I'll probably never know) and gave it fucking ugly 3D graphics (just as they've done before and later did another time).

The GBA version is just buggy, although the EU version either fixed those bugs, or had more bugs to counter them, not sure.

The increase in difficulty for the DS version made it a welcome change to me, although the last few floors of the final dungeon require you to be very high levelled, run a lot or make copious use of status effects. The augment system was a definite change from what had been the formula up until then, although it didn't really do much to the battle system. A solid addition, though.

Still prefer the PSP version's package overall, though.

Stop making me wish I had The Complete Collection. I already have two versions of IV and the Wiiware version of After Years, darn it! Maybe I'm just bitter, but something about the sprite style for The Complete Collection feels a bit off to me.

I think so too, actually. It's the same with the remakes of the first Star Ocean games and the standard sprites of the RPG Maker XP. There is something about these sprites that is a bit... I don't know, strange.

I waited until the Complete Collection was $14 before actually purchasing. And yeah, the sprites are basically designed to look as much like the concept art as possible, like Final Fantasy II on the PSP. They do look a little off, but better than the squashed look from the SNES version, which looked ugly on the GBA.

As far as I know, the EU version and a second Japanese version of IV Advance corrected most of the bugs from the original Advance edition.

edited 21st Dec '11 1:31:12 PM by AetherMaster

So the EU version doesn't have that awful ATB setup that FFIV: Advance had? Because that games ATB timing was really messed up. Moves like Jump hardly seemed worth it with how long it took for Kain to come back down, and Edge went from being fast to getting another turn right after going fast.

My definitive version of Final Fantasy IV would be a rebooted version of the real one which Square canceled and divided the resources into Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger...

The fake Final Fantasy IV is infact the true Final Fantasy V.

In other words Gilgamesh's Final Fantasy V is a fraud!!!!!

...What?

Here's what he's talking about:

http://www.lostlevels.org/200311/200311-square.shtml

For me, it's the Complete Collection. I liked IV DS, but the insanely high difficulty turned me off wanting to play it or III DS anymore then I had to.

DS also doesn't have any of the extras. I'll take or leave After Years, but the Lunar Subterrane (if I have the right thing) is a pretty good addition.

It's hard to find a version of the game that's better translated than the SNES, doesn't have any weird modern add-ins, but also isn't drowning in winking jokes about popular memes.

Final Fantasy IV is desperately in need of a back-to-roots retranslation. That is, however, a lot of work, and probably will never actually be done.

edited 14th Nov '13 9:01:32 AM by TobiasDrake

this is the proof that the real Final Fantasy IV's resources were divided into Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger.

I would like to see Square Enix take resources from both games(resources being Popoi and Primm from Secret of Mana as well as Chrono, Marle, Robo and Magus from Chrono Trigger) as well as the usurper of the Final Fantasy V title(resources should include Gilgamesh, Bartz and Lenna) and combine them into the true Final Fantasy IV.

That would be the definitive Final Fantasy IV....

The usurper of the Final Fantasy V title(the rightful user of the title itself stole the Final Fantasy IV title when it's rightful user was split into Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger) should be demoted to Final Fantasy Gaiden 2/Final Fantasy Adventure 2.

I didn't expect to say anything in this thread when I clicked on it but...that sounds a little high-handed to me.

I mean maybe, in theory, a Final Fantasy IV that combined the awesomeness of Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana would have surpassed those games. But the gaming world would be a poorer place without Chrono Trigger, and I presume Secret of Mana as well (I haven't gotten around to playing it to date.) To feel cheated on the Final Fantasy series' behalf sounds pointless and petty. The world has plenty of Final Fantasy games as it is.

edited 14th Nov '13 10:28:58 PM by Elle

Why would you want Spoony Bard gone? It's like asking for a FF1 remake without "I'll knock you all down".

edited 14th Nov '13 10:29:24 PM by Moth13

The NES FFIV had nothing made for it, only some vague ideas for more action-based gameplay and a class system. Hiromichi Tanaka decided to use the idea for action-based gameplay that he thought up for it to make a SNES disk system game called Chrono Trigger. The SNES disk system was never released, so production on the game was stalled until they revived it as a Seiken Densetsu game on the regular SNES game, renamed Seiken Densetsu 2 (Secret of Mana). The name Chrono Trigger was then used as the name for the project headed by Yuuji Horii.

As far as we know, there's nothing really in common between Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger, as in, they aren't one game that split into two. So saying you can combine the two games and make some hypothetical FFIV that was going to be made is ridiculous.

Secret of Mana is way cut down from the original concept, but yeah, just because an extremely basic concept ended up causing 3 games doesn't mean the games have anything in common aside from having that very basic concept. It's like how Star Wars originally started as a Flash Gordon concept. Adding the concept back in wouldn't make it any better because the final product wandered away from the concept to the point that they are completely incompatible.

And Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger are completely different. The worlds don't fit together at all and they have very different moods and writing styles. Oh, and Chrono Trigger came out way after Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy IV.

edited 15th Nov '13 12:36:50 PM by Zendervai