It’s hard to try to review your favorite game of all time, especially when this is the second “makeover” that it has received. I wasn’t too pleased with the remake bundled in Final Fantasy Chronicles since there weren’t too many interesting changes except the inclusion of a full motion video sequence at the beginning. This time, with Final Fantasy IV Advance there is a notable difference, mainly the dialogue, quicksave feature and the addition of an optional dungeon once you finish the game. This was the game that set the bar for future Final Fantasy games, as it was groundbreaking at the time. The emotional story, the fantastic music and the introduction of the active-time battle made Final Fantasy IV Advance (originally released as Final Fantasy II in the US) a memorable experience. The story revolves around a dark knight named Cecil, captain of the Red Wings, the Kingdom of Baron’s powerful airship fleet. Ordered by the King to retrieve crystals from defenseless kingdoms, Cecil finds himself in a moral dilemma. When he confronts the King about the matter, he is stripped of his rank and sent to deliver a package to a nearby village. Accompanied by his good friend, the dragoon Kain, together they set off to the village. In the events that transpire, Cecil will eventually start his journey to find out what is going on with his King, as well as to find out where he belongs. You will encounter a variety of friends that will help you along the way. The story advances as you continue with quests that have been given to you. This was back when RPGs were still relatively linear, so there really wasn’t an option to run off and do other things to deviate from the main storyline. I fully enjoyed the story, even if it is one of the least complicated storylines of the series.
Gameplay was focused around random battles as you trek across the world map by foot. There are specific boss battles when you enter certain areas, but most of the time the fights just creep up on you. If you acquire another mode of transportation, such as an airship or chocobo (the series beloved steed), you can avoid random battles altogether. Running away is easy, which makes it so that these random occurrences don’t really get in the way. What I normally do is comfortably level beforehand, that way I can just run from fights when I know I have a boss fight at the end of the dungeon. The game is reasonably well paced, so even if you fight as you go, you don’t really need to spend a lot of extra time to get your characters leveled.
The battle system is active, meaning that you can’t hope to just sit there and do nothing because the enemies will continue to attack you. Your characters take turns attacking and depending on the command that you give them, it takes time for them to execute their move. This was before the active time bar from the later Final Fantasy games, so you don’t really know when they will be ready next. Some new abilities have been added, you’ll notice that Cecil has a dark ability that allows him to damage all enemies on screen while taking some of his own health. Rosa has a pray ability that can sometimes cure her party for free.
The graphics have been updated to give the background a little variation and more detail. The dialogue underwent some changes, although fan favorite lines such as “You spoony bard” are still there, the story is much more coherent and a little more dark. It’s hard to really tell the difference unless you’ve played the original 10+ times (like me) but the translation is improved and it provides a little more background to the characters. Dialogue boxes have also been improved to fit the GBA screen and the avatar of the characters show up during conversation instead of just their name. The changes are welcome, even though the story is changed slightly with the improved translation.
The music is just as powerful as it was 15 years ago. Nobuo Uematsu created many memorable melodies in this game including “Theme of Love” and “Rydia”. You are also introduced to the “Chocobo Theme” which is always included in some form or another in other Final Fantasy games. The music fits the drama, emotion and adventure that you experience as you play through the game. This was definitely the game that made me pay closer attention to video game music as a whole.
Final Fantasy IV Advance is a remake of a well deserved game so that gamers of this generation can experience it as well. Although it’s not going to meet the same standards of today’s console games, this game was a classic and anyone who grew up with this game are probably grateful for an opportunity to play it again, especially if you don’t own the original Super Nintendo anymore. For newer players, it’s not going to have the same appeal unless you enjoy playing older RPGs that are less about the eye-candy and more about the gameplay.
I am a Canadian living in California with my husband and my precious baby Bailey (95lbs of labrador fun). I work full time and go to school, so finding the time to play video games is tough. I still manage to sneak some time in, whether it's playing on my GBA while I wait in line or sitting in the back seat of my car so I can use our dvd player to play the Gamecube on long trips. I've always been fairly decent at playing games to give my younger brother some competition. I started at the early age of 6 when I inherited an Atari 2600. I played any computer game I could get my hands on during those Commodore 64 days. Now I'll play anything from RPGs to first person shooters, racing games or basically anything that's fun and allows me to play with at least 3 other people.
