Final Fantasy IV DS (US Version)

[abigsmurf]

My dad was in holiday in the US so I asked him to pick this up for me.

Before I start talking, I'd like to remind people that not everyone has played the snes original (me included), please use spoiler tags for any plot stuff.

The graphics are improved over FFIII. The character models are only slightly more complex but have much better texturing. Everything's a lot smoother with the in game stuff looking around 30fps and the batte engine has a big boost too, enemies at this stage seem more detailed, are much better animated and it feels less glitchy in general (enemies fade properly, damage indicators are less jerky). Characters moonwalk though which is a bit distracting.

I'm not far into the story but the characters are much improved over FFIII, there are decent cinematic cut scenes using the ingame engine and there's voice acting for the big scenes. In general it feels a lot more like a 'modern' rpg than FFIII did which felt like a relic given a bit of polish. That said, it still suffers from some old school issues, vague directions on what to do next/where to go, 'death' mobs in random encounters where they ambush you and get off 4 spells before you can attack making it pretty hard to not die.

FFIV uses the ATB which suffers a bit from attacks and spells preventing anyone else attacking. It's easy to select attack after the guage fills up only to have enemies groups to attack 3 or 4 times before you get your attack off. Haven't had a chance to get to know the nuances of the FFIV battle system yet being early in.

I assume a DS extra is a summon where a customisable character takes the place of your summoner. You can give it any abilities your characters have and you power it up by playing mini games, only one of which I've unlocked so far, a slightly unintuitive maths game that boosts intelligence.

Overall it looks like Squeenix have done a good job so far although it's a bit early to give a solid opinion.

[Steve]

I just switched to 'run' in the options menu to get rid of his silly walk.

[abigsmurf]

yeah I did that too. You think they would've noticed it.

I'm 3 hours in now although I assume it's still early days. A few more irritations have popped up: unfair boss where you're only told about his stupidly powerfull counter after you've had all your people attack and the fact that you keep having pathetically weak, underleveled characters join your party.

[Steve]

A bit disappointing so far, just getting smacked ****less, despite grinding. Annoyed to go through the first 'dungeon/passage' to be confronted by a boss (no save point - had I died, it would've been back to outside the dungeon). I was told that dungeons had save points in this one, as it ruined FFIII for me eventually.

Hope this is the exception rather than the rule. If not, it will be up for sale here within a few days.

[abigsmurf]

A bit disappointing so far, just getting smacked ****less, despite grinding. Annoyed to go through the first 'dungeon/passage' to be confronted by a boss (no save point - had I died, it would've been back to outside the dungeon). I was told that dungeons had save points in this one, as it ruined FFIII for me eventually.

Hope this is the exception rather than the rule. If not, it will be up for sale here within a few days.

I think I've died on just about every boss the first time so far.

Most of the time, there isn't a save point before bosses (at least so far). There *are* save points in dungeons but they seem to be out of the way or so early that they're pointless.

They dungeons aren't long though, dying rarely loses more than 15 minutes of work. It's irritating the bosses are set up in a way where you have to know how to beat them else, you'll get slaughtered.

[paperghost]

This seems to be a trend of Squares that doesn't die. I'm currently sick to death of trying to wade through crisis core when they keep handing me stupidly placed save points (at one point you have to get through a tricky boss fight, THEN immediately battle a swarm of goons with most of your energy already wiped out before you can save), or six minute poetry recitals in cut scenes that can't be skipped immediately before a summons fight (which is slowly but surely starting to drive me insane).

sorry, back on topic. but seeing this game might have issues with save points is enough to make me think i don't want to buy it anymore..

[Hype2k]

What the hell is wrong with u lot ? thought this was a hardcore gaming forum Go watch a movie if u just want to see a story I for one am loving the difficulty and to be fair its not that hard u just got to use your brain a bit shock horror

[Steve]

What the hell is wrong with u lot ? thought this was a hardcore gaming forum Go watch a movie if u just want to see a story I for one am loving the difficulty and to be fair its not that hard u just got to use your brain a bit shock horror

I wouldn't mind redoing dungeons if I hadn't just spent twenty minutes grinding to get to where I fell. Ten years ago, I would have just gone in again - these days, I have other things vying for my time. Nothing to do with harcore - it's to do with eyes glazing over with boredom due to the nature of the actions you have to repeat - unlike the second pelican bay on Halo 2, it's just not very exciting the second time round.

It does nothing to encourage exploration, as you don't want to turn a corner to be met by Mr Insta -Death and his chums.


This is the umpteenth time I've tried to get into a FF game and they always seem to do something to put me off playing them.
DQVIII really got me into this genre and I did everything you can in that. Just seemed far more playable than these for some reason.

[KusoGaki]

The DS version is actually a lot easier than the SNES version, stuff like WEAKNESS flashing up so you actually know what the enemy is weak against and getting free items for clearing a map.

It gets better when you get a full party, pretty much like all FF games, played halfway through the SNES version last year so haven't had much problems with it yet. Did die once this morning though by accident.

One thing i did was to set the battle speed to 1 so that it's alot easier to grind levels, although still a bit boring it makes it a bit faster at least. (Don't turn on ATB for this though!)

Most of the time with bosses its a case of common sense to guess what they're weak against.

I think pretty much all Final Fantasy games start out pretty boring, as much as i love FFVI i never find it interesting until halfway through the game as well. (Although i did get bored of FFIII at the end and still haven't gone back to finish it)

And i'm glad they kept *SPOILER*

->Open Spoiler<-

YOU SPOONY BARD!

Just a shame it wasn't voice acted.



*END SPOILER*

[Zaki]

I was worried they'd leave that line out!

[Malavon]

This seems to be a trend of Squares that doesn't die. I'm currently sick to death of trying to wade through crisis core when they keep handing me stupidly placed save points (at one point you have to get through a tricky boss fight, THEN immediately battle a swarm of goons with most of your energy already wiped out before you can save), or six minute poetry recitals in cut scenes that can't be skipped immediately before a summons fight (which is slowly but surely starting to drive me insane).

Slightly derailing the thread here but I'm amazed your having trouble with Crisis Core - maybe I was lucky with the reel thing (can't remember what it's called) but I found it incredibly easy and that was one of my biggest complaints - no real challenge. Can't really remember much in all honesty (imported the US version ages ago) but do you have cura? I think it's

->Open Spoiler<-

fira/thundara/blizzara/er... the other one which I can't for the life of me remember, in my defence it is 1:55 am

combined with

->Open Spoiler<-

cure

, really easy to get and it's very good.

Or just spend 30 minutes doing the side quests - it was one of the first things I did as I wanted to get to grips with the combat system and felt the story was just getting in the way early on, and that definately helped. Also made me appreciate the game more as I wasn't desperate for the cut scenes to end just so I could get bacck to some hack and slash fun

[oblivion_6]

Played about 8 hours of this so far and just

->Open Spoiler<-

Got the airship so trying to get mythril gear now,

its amazing how you remember things from like easily 10 years ago lol

Absolutely love this remake, the gfx are good and the plot has always been one of my favourites.

Sound wise as well the tunes are all good, the voice acting is a bit corny but I think that adds to it all

[abigsmurf]

The boss before you get the airship is a total nightmare. Was there some way of stopping that tsunami attack I didn't figure out? It'd wipe out all but Cecil everytime it was cast, coupled with silencing and paralysing as counter attacks, it was a nightmare. Thankfully I managed to beat him by casting poison and just spending the whole time trying to keep cecil alive (who got enough xp at the end to level himself 7 times).

Apparently the port is based off of the hardcore difficulty mode which possibly explains why the boss battles are so tough.

[Jusatsushi]

The boss before you get the airship is a total nightmare. Was there some way of stopping that tsunami attack I didn't figure out?

->Open Spoiler<-

Cast thunder on it when it is surrounded by water to make it dissipate.

Anyone got any tips for the

->Open Spoiler<-

Dark Elf boss in the magnetised caves?

Now that git has me stumped at the moment...

[abigsmurf]

Dark Elf boss is unbeatable unless you do something in particular.

Investigate the castle a bit more. Yay for the game giving you no idea you've missed something important! (had me stumped for hours)

To some extent this game is frustrating me a lot now. Every boss is a puzzle, you've got to figure out the specific way of beating each one or else you stand no chance and die. Some of the boss battles are unfair too such as a Golbez fight where three of your party are dead and Cecil is probably injured from a battle beforehand, it's incredibly difficult to get your party back up to strength as he attacks faster than you can revive (and usually attacks the whole party).

Another one where the boss swaps over damage and healing spells randomly is irritating as hell too. Usually because he does it just as you're casting a spell to heal, only for it to then wipe out your party.

There's too much frustration in the boss battles and not enough strategy other than a fixed one you're made to do.