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Are You Buying Final Fantasy IV DS? Huh? Huh? Huh??

Posted by Nadia Oxford

(Pant pant pant, eager tail wag.)

Square-Enix's remake of its SNES classic is garnering good reviews, though I've seen more than one make mention about how it's a bit early for yet another Final Fantasy IV remake. For those of you at home keeping count, Final Fantasy IV has been released on the SNES, the PSOne, the Wonderswan (I think?), the GBA and now the Nintendo DS.

I'm going to go ahead and offer myself up for blame: I buy every remake Square-Enix throws at me, except for the WonderSwan remake because that would just be wack. I can't help it; Final Fantasy IV, when it was known as the dumbed-down Final Fantasy II was a cornerstone of my awkward teenage years. I actually played it after getting through Final Fantasy III/VI, but I enjoyed it for its simple story and gorgeous music. I also played it while recovering from major surgery and I was pretty high, so there might be a bit of bias there. I'm pretty sure it's okay to love a game because it reminds you of your youth or the carefree summer days you should've spent outside, but it's less okay to love a game because it reminds you of a codeine daze.

Nevertheless, I'm going to buy Final Fantasy IV DS and I bet I will enjoy it very much. I'm thinking of a good naming scheme for the characters. When I played Final Fantasy IV Advance, everyone was named after South Park characters. If there is a mightier sage than MrHat, I have yet to meet him in any game.

Related Links:

The Five Greatest Enhanced Remakes--And Five That Weren't So Great, Part 2
Square-Enix's Coup Bring Back Memories
Chrono Trigger Port: Are You Excited or Disappointed?


+ DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT

Comments

boardincali said:

I am totally buying it! But it's for my little brother, he says the same thing, it's one of the founding games for him and his youth.  It has a nostalgic quality to it I guess, which I don't blame, i buy every Mario remake, even though a lot of it is wack after Super Mario 3

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July 23, 2008 7:00 PM

Roto13 said:

You can't rename the characters this time around. Their names are all spoken in cutscenes and whatnot. Too bad. :P

July 23, 2008 7:18 PM

Nadia Oxford said:

Awwwwww! See, the game should've gone the route of DragonQuest VIII and referred to all the main characters as "You" in the cutscenes.

...I guess that wouldn't have worked.

July 23, 2008 9:13 PM

Demaar said:

I dunno, people say those earlier games are remakes, but I reckon they were minor tweaks at best. This is a full blown remake which definitely deserves purchase. Of course, it helps that I bought only one of those ports in the past...

July 24, 2008 10:25 AM

michelle said:

The mastermind behind Final Fantasy, Yoshitaka Amano, just released an amazing graphic novel. I finally got a copy of Mateki: The Magic Flute yesterday and am blown away. The images are breath-taking and the story line is captivating. Amano doesn't disappoint.

July 24, 2008 1:28 PM

Nemo Incognito said:

@Demarr.

That's kind of the reverse of my thoughts on it.  I heard the DS version actually has less bonus content than the GBA version so that makes it a less attractive proposal, especially so soon after everyone bought the GBA game.  Also, the DS version is supposed to be stupidly unfairly difficult.  Those are the two reasons I'm not interested in this.

July 24, 2008 4:48 PM

Roto13 said:

Yoshitaka Amano isn't the "mastermind" behind Final Fantasy any more than Akira Toriyama is the mastermind behind Dragon Quest. He just did the character designs.

July 24, 2008 6:52 PM

Demaar said:

Nemo Incognito: Sooo... does it have the bonus dungeons from the GBA release, at least? If it does, that'll be fine with me...

July 24, 2008 11:08 PM

Nemo Incognito said:

Demaar (got it right this time):

The GBA bonus dungeons, character trials and party swapping are all absent from the DS version.  That's what my source says.

July 25, 2008 6:13 AM

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about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Hooksexup, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia's prized possession is a certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.


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