Final Fantasy IV is a great game. This port however is an embarrassment - I can not bring myself to defend it.

A quick bit of history, this is a PC port of a phone port of the (excellent) DS remake of the original SNES game. What I wanted was just to be able to play my DS copy on my TV. With this I got that... and some further changes.

The aspect ratio, I've not seen anything like this done by a developer of SE's caliber. The 4:3 aspect from the DS, in order to fit a 16:9 display, has had the top and bottom cut off and then black bars added to the side to fill the rest. The result is that you actually see less than you do on the tiny DS's screen, and that animation can actually move large creatures and bosses awkwardly off the top of the screen a little - you can notice this early on with the Mist Dragon's idle animation.

The UI is horrendous. It is the phone UI with its big round buttons and overinflated scale that takes up half the screen in battle. Important if you're trying to mash your finger onto a screen to perform an action but an eye-sore on PC. Icons are scaled up and bilinearly filtered - resulting in a big ugly smeared and edge-clipped hand cursor in the menus. The characterless arial font that they've replaced the DS's font with is even poorly clipped itself with little white dots appearing between certain arrangements of letters. A real disregard shown for any polish.

There is a gameplay adjustment as well. An auto-save before every battle. So, now, gone is the whole point of dungeons in a game like this; where you would struggle on to the next save/rest point, the compromises you might have to make and rationing of items and MP. Now, if you fail, you're simply started right where the battle last began, to continue on as if nothing had occurred.

Through that hacky aspect-ratio induced letterbox and under all that horrible phone UI... is still the wonderful game of FFIV. What a port though...

Final Fantasy IV is the mobile port of the DS remake.

Compared to other versions:
Graphically, whether you prefer the 3D models or 2D Sprites (whichever version that may be, SNES/GBA/PSP are all different) is highly subjective, I do like the 3D models though the textures are very obviously made for the DS's tiny resolution and can be pretty ugly at times.

Gameplay-wise this version of IV is slower, and I'm not just talking about 15fps in combat. I'm talking actual combat speed, fights take far longer than they really should in no small part to due to the longer and fancier animations, and it can feel real sluggish at times especially late game. The UI doesn't help with this given that it was designed for mobile and doesn't account for PC play. Unlike the PSP version, there is no party-switching, this is how the original Super Famicom version played. This version (and the mobile version) also lack the Whyt Eidolon from the DS version and it's respective functionality and features.

Thoughts on the game itself:
IV suffers from a lot of classic FF-isms, reused enemies (recoloured), invisible/hidden paths where you must navigate pitch-black (and not just for optional loot, there are required-to-progress paths), in-general just a navigational nightmare (but HEY at least you have a map that closes every time you talk to someone, enter anywhere or reach a new floor, not to mention it doesn't have any labels on the overworld).

Story-wise I was never really into IV's plot or characters, while the cast is fun enough they were never all too interesting or complex, and given the plot bleeds into another complaint of mine I lean more towards disliking it.

You see, compared to III, strategy is restricted by your plot defined party and characters come and go frequently. This is bothersome for a few reasons, for a start if you're playing blind you'll not know when to unequip characters and may end up losing gear other party members could be using in their stead. You're also stuck with the toolset defined by the party you are given, so for the majority of the game they give you a very basic broad party disallowing any specialisation that would come with the classic job system found in other Final Fantasy games. Obviously there are benefits to this, bosses can be tuned in a way that best fits the current party. The drawback is a significant lack in player choice, on how they want to approach each situation, especially notable with bosses where there tends to be only one or two effective strategies for beating them.

There is something I do like about this version of IV, the superbosses Geryon and Proto-Babil. The original version of IV didn't have any, whilst the GBA and PSP versions did, Zeromus EG (lame) and Brachioraidos (good but Edward exists). I prefer this version's set of superbosses, Proto-Babil especially was a tough fight. Though it's a bit perplexing that they are the only superbosses in the entire franchise that can only be fought in new game+, at least to my knowledge and I'm not counting FFXIII-3's final boss.

I don't know how to end reviews, if you're interested in playing this instalment I'd recommend looking into the various versions of the game to compare and weight the pros and cons yourself before deciding on a version to play.

This is the laziest port they possibly could have made. It's literally a PC port of a mobile port of a Nintendo DS port. It runs terribly (locked at 30fps and 15fps in battle), doesn't have any additional PC features, the UI is way to big (looks like a mobile port zoomed in), etc. FFIV is one of my favorite titles of all time but this is just a lazy money grab. Better off just emulating the original.

There's a TL;DR at the end.

Final Fantasy IV was originally released as Final Fantasy II (FFII and III did not come to the US and places outside of Japan at first. This made numbering confusing for a while, especially since the Japanese FFV skipped over us too) for the SNES. People evidently liked it so much that it now has 9 different versions, from DS to PSP, GBA, iOS, PS1...

The point is, people *love* this game. A lot.

Before I proceed to rip this version a new one, know that I also *love* FFIV, and have beaten it multiple times on other platforms. I love almost every single version I own (DS, PSP, SNES, and of course PC), but I do *not* love this version, hence the thumbs-down. It changes and removes too much for me to love it. For example:

-I rather liked Whyt, an Eidolon summon unique to the DS version, and the minigames associated with it. They took them out.

-Instead of just talking to the aforementioned Whyt in order to get the Piercing Magic Augment, you now get to do a fetch quest. Yay! (sarcasm)

-They removed one of the Limit Break augments (abilities you can use on characters as items and equip). See, FFIV DS and the various ports of it have you run through the game up to 3 times, and you can get most augments more than once as a result. However, every level from 71 to 99, including 71, your stat gains are dependent on augments equipped. If I remember right, the removal of a Limit Break forces you to change your strategy to get all characters max stats as well as have a viable strategy to fight a secret boss. That's annoying, and I don't know why they did that. Sure, you can add it back in with Cheat Engine, but you shouldn't have to.

-They took out Edward's commentaries (a character I grew fond of) from the music box. It was a nice touch, and I rather liked it, seeing as how *SPOILERS* after a certain point in the game, you really don't see much of him anymore. *END SPOILERS*

-They changed the Developer's Room. Instead of the NPCs representing the DS staff (you know, the guys who actually made the game and didn't just port and butcher it), we instead get representations of the mobile staff. Also, there are no more treasure chests in the room, and that makes me sad.

-I know you might think the last two points are just nitpicking, but really, it's like being used to getting cupcakes with sprinkles for dessert every month, and then suddenly you get a plain muffin. These little things added charm to the game. They are the frosting and sprinkles.

The only positives about this version are the slightly (very slightly) improved visuals and framerate, and achievements. The framerate in battle, despite technically being higher/better than in the DS version, still bothers me, as it is capped to 15fps. I wasn't as bothered by the choppiness in the DS version, likely due to the smaller screen.

-Now, the actual game itself is good. You can't go wrong with FFIV. It has an ATB system (this is the game that introduced it!) where you have gauges that slowly fill up and allow you to do an action with that character once their ATB gauge is full. If you set the battle system to "Active" in the options, enemies will attack you even while you're selecting spells or items, which forces you to think on your feet. The ATB makes the game feel dynamic, as opposed to static like FFIII and earlier.

-There's also plenty of unique equipment you can get throughout the game, particularly the incredibly rare and tedious to get Onion equipment and other equipment added in this version. Only equipment equipped to your hands will show up on your character, for better or for worse. Still, the equipment that does show up looks cool, and the various special effects are exciting.

-The visuals are great, and will not make your eyes bleed like other DS games. Some people hate the slightly chibi art style, but I think it works rather well. FFIV DS has colorful and pleasing visuals, and this version is no different!

-The OST is amazing. The tracks do a good job of not only setting the mood, but getting an emotional reaction out of the player. Since FFIV DS was my first experience with FFIV, I decided to listen to the original OST to see how different it was, and they seemed to have stayed very faithful. I'm impressed, since usually remakes change the OST so much it becomes unrecognizeable. Here, it seems like they made higher quality versions of each track, which is what every remake should do, provided that the OST was already good in the original.

- (some minor spoilers about the plot here) The plot is not necessarily completely original, but it doesn't need to be. It's still unique enough that I care about it. It could be the world that it's set in, how strange and mysterious the world is, but the plot itself is still entertaining. Fetching crystals, conspiracies about the king, the main protagonist's girlfriend getting captured...nothing original, yet it's endearing anyways.

-The characters, like the plot, aren't original, but you still might find yourself caring about them. The voice acting is likely the reason for this, as while the voice acting is so Shakespearian you might cringe, you find that you like it anyways. It's like how the VA in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is so bad, yet it has charm because of it. You have your angsty ninja, somewhat tsundere summoner girl, pretty/feminine white mage who also happens to be the main protag's girlfriend...again, they aren't exactly unique, but they are lovable.

-The previously mentioned augment system was introduced with the DS version. How it works is that at certain points in the game, places or people will have abilities that you can receive from them and put on other party members. Once you use an augment on a party member, there's no taking it back unless you reset. You may take it out of their command menu so that it doesn't show up in battle, but you cannot assign that ability to another party member, unless you get another copy of said augment and use it on them. Now, previously unique abilities like Yang's Focus can be applied to someone like Kain or Cecil. While this is a good thing, it has some major drawbacks. You can miss certain augments. Also, if you forget to obtain some augments or don't find them before you beat the game once and go onto your New Game Plus, you're forever screwed out of that copy of that augment. So basically, if you want a true 100% run, you'll likely need to hit up GameFAQs or another site that hosts guides.

-Namingway and his few sidequests are thankfully still in this version (although that doesn't save this version from being inferior to the DS and PSP versions). He mostly just has bits of dialogue when you talk to him, but there are a few sidequests involved in his later appearances. You also need to interact with him to get a few (useful) augments. So basically, if you see Namingway (or whatever name he happens to be going by at the time) in a new area, TALK TO HIM. His small interactions and sidequests are GREAT, unlike this version of FFIV. And now, I have one last gripe with this version...

SE's latest (and probably final) patch for this game, 1.0.4, was not even given a real changelog. Instead we get, "Update contains just general bug fixes based on feedback received." Seriously, Square? They didn't even fix the battle framerate with this patch. I'm pretty sure I bought this before this patch came out, because if I saw these patch notes in the latest patch, I would've avoided this like the plague, diehard FFIV fan or not.

*TL;DR*
It's not that I don't recommend this game so much as I don't recommend this version. Get the DS version if you want the augment system, Whyt & minigames, 3D visuals, or the PSP version if you're an old fan looking to get a faithful, updated version with the ability to switch between the arranged and original OSTs. Or be like me and get both! They're way better.

Port of the mobile version, very ugly, giant buttons designed for a touch screen take up huge amounts of screen space. 15(!)fps lock in battle and 30fps lock elsewhere. Content from the original DS version has been removed entirely.

Play the DS version.

I love FFIV. It's probably up there in terms of games I've spent the most time with. Twenty-two years, and I generally find time to play through one of its multitudes of ports and remakes every year or so. It's a remarkably well designed RPG and for what it lacks in freewheeling customizability it makes up for in perfect pacing and balance,

This is a port of the Android version. Actually, from what I've been reading here, it's an EMULATION of the Android version, for a double lazy point multiplier (lazy points can be redeemed for valuable prizes but eh too much work). The Android version is a port of the Nintendo DS version, which was excellent, though pushing against the limits of that system. This remake was designed as something of a love letter to long-time FF4 fans, that showed a deep understanding of the original game. Difficult encounters and bosses were tweaked to be much harder, and their stats and scripts were cleverly turned around to make the old, well-worn tactics ineffective - yet every boss now has a trick to it, and it's immensely satisfying to discover those tricks.

Plus the graphics are really cute (all y'all boneheads who think this game should look like FFXV or whatever are smokin' some loco weed), and the cutscenes are really well done - almost exactly like I envisioned the scenes of the game in my head as a child.

The Android (and iOS) versions were basically just the DS Version, but in a higher resolution with uglier interface assets and the utterly mediocre system font. While most of the game runs at a smooth framerate, as it should since it's not exactly pushing the limits of the hardware, the battle scenes are jarringly choppy. Initially when I played the Android version I was thinking that they must not have optimized the game very well - but no, it's completely intentional, framelocked at roughly 10-15 FPS. This is probably due to Japanese developers still coding like its their glory days on the PS2, like so many Al Bundys dreaming wistfully about those four touchdowns in a single game in high school. All the animation is most likely keyed to that irritatingly low framerate, and bumping it up will either make the animation look really bad or play it way too fast.

So yeah, the PC version is that version. Unless they (or hopefully some intrepid modder) fixes how choppy the battle scenes are (and how dull the interface/font is), don't bother. There are way too many other versions of FF4, all of which you can play on your PC somewhat less legally, but it's hard to feel bad when Squeenix can't even put in a cursory effort to give us a good experience.

This port is actually quite lazy. It appears to be a straight up port from a PSP. The art isn't bad, but textures are insanely low resolution. The screen doesn't fit in 16:9, so they cropped the top of the screen AND added black bars left and right for the worst of both. The default controls make no sense on a keyboard (but a controller is quite natural). Overland travel is a mess because the cropping lets you see little of the world around you.

Final Fantasy IV is a great game. I think it's the best story in the series. But this is not the treatement it deserves. For this reason, I cannot recommend it. It needs a new PC port, not a port of a 10 year old remake from a handheld.

I am a great Fan of FF saga, but I am too sad and disappointed with this version:

Glosary: Best Weapon (Bw)

1. The developers not include the "Cave of trials" so all of you will miss these weapons:
a. Triton's Dagger (Palom)
b. Apollo's Harp (Edward)
c. Seraphim's Mace (Porom)
d. GodHand (Yang's Bw)
e. Thor's Hammer (Cid's second Bw)

2. SPOILER, at "Lunar Ruins" you will not find or buy (I will mention the most important ones):
a. Abel's Lance (Kain's Bw)
b. Gigant Axe (the best Axe)
c. Perseus Bow and Arrow (Best weapon/ammunition for Rosa)
d. Mystic Whip (Rydia's Bw)
e. Sasuke's Katana & Mutsunokami (Edge's Bw)
f. Flare Sledgehammer (Cid's Bw)
g. Asura's Rod (Palom's Bw)
h. Nirvana (Porom's Bw)
i. Loki's Lute (Edward's Bw)
j. Lightbringer (Cecil's Bw)
k. NO characters Trial

3. SPOILER: You only can play with Cecil, Rosa, Rydia and Edge near at the end. No changes added as they promised even in the plus or plus+ walkthrough.

4. If you played the DS version before and enjoyed the "Whyt" (Best and strongest Summon) minigames, this version not includes it, same for Whyt.

5. Easy diffculty even if you try Hard from the start.

6. IMHO , if you are nostalgic , do not buy , you will be disappointed.

I know my review can leave you with a bad taste in your mouth, but don't let SQUARE-ENIX fool you. A game that calls itself a REMAKE (not a REMASTER), must not have less content than the offered long ago, even in the DS version. The things they offered must have been increased , but they removed them. Seriously if you love FF saga stop being a "fanboy" and open your eyes, this game is good, but you are paying a high price for a game which it is not half as good as the original, and have less content than any remake before.

This is why is not worth less than ★★★☆☆ or 6/10.

I've played many versions of Final Fantasy IV, this by far is the worst. This version of the game is just the Android version being emulated on PC. Due to this you have the same performance as if you were playing this on a phone. The most glaring issue with this is battles. In this version of the game battles are locked to an amazingly high 15 FPS. Another prevalent issue is the clunky mobile UI that was designed around a touchscreen, even if you're playing on a Windows 8 PC with a touchscreen you can't use the interface that way. I personally couldn't get that far into this version of the game. Before seeing any of the other issues just playing the game normally there is the standard story intro told thorugh text in front of Castle Baron I could see the clouds jumping about the screen. If you really want to play FF4 that badly I'd recomend picking up Final Fantasy IV Complete Collection on PSP or PS Vita. There is no way I could recomend for someone to drop $15 on this horrible verison of a beloved classic.

The game was fun on the DS but this is NOT that game. From start to 14 hours in, nothing but Frame issues,crashing and putting up with it just to play a game I loved. If Square Enix can't release a Stable PC game then they shouldn't waste out time and money. This is a Pass if you haven't purchased. Wait until square enix starts showing their games love before blowing your points or money.