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Final Fantasy IV - 1up.com review

Is this NoA published or SE published?

If it's NoA, then I know of ONE store in NY which definitely should have it Monday! :D
 
Sooo... Is it the same script as the FF Chronicles version? I have that but have never played it.

I'm wondering if it's worth it for me to spring for the GBA release, or if I should just play the PSX port. How bad is the slowdown? Hmmm...
 
Mejilan said:
Is this NoA published or SE published?

If it's NoA, then I know of ONE store in NY which definitely should have it Monday! :D

I'm gonna call Monday for Mej, Tuesday for the rest of GA.
 
Teddman said:
Sooo... Is it the same script as the FF Chronicles version? I have that but have never played it.

I'm wondering if it's worth it for me to spring for the GBA release, or if I should just play the PSX port. How bad is the slowdown? Hmmm...

Go for the GBA one because of all the extras.
 
Mejilan said:
Is this NoA published or SE published?

If it's NoA, then I know of ONE store in NY which definitely should have it Monday! :D
It definitely is NoA for NA, S-E is publishing it in Japan though.
 
Woo! Monday it is, thanks!

And regarding the localization, this is a new translation. It's based off the PSOne version, but with added polish. It's mentioned in the review.
 
I wonder if the combat slowdown is similar to what frequently happens in the PSOne version of FF6?

That really did annoy me. Oh well.
 
Damn it... I was hoping this would be without glaring problems, but slowdown during combat seems ridiculous to me, especially for a game that is about 15 years old on hardware that's been around for 4.5 years. Yes, I understand that it's been updated beyond its SNES roots, but still. This is why I could never play the PS1 conversions with the lame load times, as short as they were. I'll still play this, but thank God I still have my SNES+SWC for the original.
 
I knew PSOne was going to be the superior version.

Buy the PSOne version for the best copy of FFIV and get a free copy of the worst port ever made (CT). Buy the GBA version for portability.

There's no way they can make FFV and FFVI worse than PSOne version though.
 
How bad is the slowdown? That's the key question. Bonus content is a 50-50 selling point for me, as I don't usually find extra dungeons filled with random encounters and little plot relevence all that compelling.
 
How the hell is the PSOne game the superior version?

The GBA game, apparently, has the better translation, roughly 2x the content, and you can fight the last boss with fucking Yang. And it's portable.

GBA ftw.
 
It has 2x the content? Where do you get that from?

All I see from the review, it has slowdown, lower res, couple new boss battles, ability to switch in the old characters and couple new quests.

Slowdown during a battle in an RPG? That's pretty huge.
 
Depends on how bad the slowdown is. 1up didn't seem to mind it so much.

FFIVa Review at 1up.com said:
The graphics are tweaked very slightly; some enemies have been redrawn, and color detail and depth have been upped in almost every sprite and background tile.

Admittedly, the story still suffers from occasional moments of needless melodrama, but it doesn't feel as over-the-top as it used to thanks entirely to the fantastic new translation (which hews closely to the script used in the PS1 rerelease but adds a few coats of polish). While death and sacrifice are doled out a bit too frequently in the third act, the cast actually enjoys character development, and the plot has a genuine narrative flow rather than existing as a series of disconnected events.

It's a faithful restoration, suffering only from a slightly reduced resolution, moderately rearranged music and annoying slowdown during combat -- the biggest flaw in this port. Distracting as the slowdown is, it's ultimately a minor irritant in the face of the port's overall excellence.

Like Dawn of Souls, it offers a massive amount of bonus content. But despite the heavy recycling going on, the bonus material should be a major plus to fans who have explored every last nook and cranny of the game over the past 15 years; not only does it allow disused characters a chance to return to action, it also nearly doubles the play time with some genuinely challenging battles and character-specific events that provide a glimpse into what drives them. While some of the bonus trials are little more than straightforward battles, others are much more creative: A Crazy Taxi-style delivery service, a murder mystery and more.

On that final point, in their summary of the bonus content, 1up also mentioned that much of the content, rewards, and extra boss fights are tied to specific characters, particularly the returning older characters, and help expand their own personal stories within the game.
 
All I see from the review, it has slowdown, lower res, couple new boss battles, ability to switch in the old characters and couple new quests.

Slowdown during a battle in an RPG? That's pretty huge.

What the hell? It has a massive new dungeon for each of the characters and an extra final boss. A little slowdown in a battle isn't going to bother me that much. Yeah, it sucks that it exists but the positives outweigh this one negative.
 
The slowdown better be infrequent or at least not too drastic.
I mean, technically there was slowdown in the SNES version as well if you cast Fire 3 on four or more enemies at once, but it's not like that happened terribly often--and even when it did, it wasn't like it was that big a deal.

Anyway...


1up.com said:
Perhaps the best part of FF4A is the fact that it will be followed up by its vastly superior sequels in the coming months.
I'll laugh if either of them get lower scores than 8.5 from this same reviewer.
And I wouldn't call FFV vastly superior. Superior, okay, but not vastly so.
While some of the bonus trials are little more than straightforward battles, others are much more creative: A Crazy Taxi-style delivery service, a murder mystery and more.
I like it.

Teddman said:
Bonus content is a 50-50 selling point for me, as I don't usually find extra dungeons filled with random encounters and little plot relevence all that compelling.
If it has an encounter rate along the lines of DoS, yeah, I might not even bother trying it with all the characters. That was just way too high. :|
I think S-E should compel all its employees to play the Cave of Trials in SO2 and see how a bonus dungeon really needs to be done. 1-4 battles per floor if you're just running through and not exploring...
 
Jiggy37 said:
The slowdown better be infrequent or at least not too drastic.
I mean, technically there was slowdown in the SNES version as well if you cast Fire 3 on four or more enemies at once, but it's not like that happened terribly often--and even when it did, it wasn't like it was that big a deal.
Bah, back then we saw that as cinematic effect, sonny!

Anyway, I'm really, really on the fence about this. I think if I bought it, it'd just be to own it. I can't see myself playing through this again in the immediate future. Not that I wouldn't enjoy it, but I've just got other games to play.
 
I got the game today so I'll be giving it a try this weekend. I'm not the FF fanboy (never played FFV or FFVI) and I played IV super long ago on SNES so I wonder what sort of effect it'll have on me...
 
Jiggy37 said:
I'll laugh if either of them get lower scores than 8.5 from this same reviewer.
That'll depend entirely on the quality of the ports and the bonuses contained within. Also whether or not the same reviewer's name gets pulled out of Skip's Magical Sorting Hat.

The slowdown works like this: Sometimes there's a bit of lag as characters perform actions. It's annoying because it makes the menus less responsive than you'd probably prefer, and there were a few times when I selected the wrong command because it failed to register an input. I found that slowing the battle speed a bit helped negate the problem somewhat since there wasn't as urgent a need to make an instant decision. It's going to annoy the hell out of people who prefer active battles at high speeds, though.

Also, I did a side-by-side comparison of several sections of the new script vs. Chronicles. About twice as much text has been rewritten completely as has been carried over unedited, and in every case I preferred the FF4A text by a comfortable margin.
 
ToastyFrog said:
The slowdown works like this: Sometimes there's a bit of lag as characters perform actions. It's annoying because it makes the menus less responsive than you'd probably prefer, and there were a few times when I selected the wrong command because it failed to register an input.

Didn't this sort of thing happen in the PS1 version? I was VERY annoyed with that.

Maybe I'll switch it to wait mode...this might work better in my commute.
 
ToastyFrog said:
That'll depend entirely on the quality of the ports and the bonuses contained within. Also whether or not the same reviewer's name gets pulled out of Skip's Magical Sorting Hat.
True enough.
The slowdown works like this: Sometimes there's a bit of lag as characters perform actions. It's annoying because it makes the menus less responsive than you'd probably prefer, and there were a few times when I selected the wrong command because it failed to register an input. I found that slowing the battle speed a bit helped negate the problem somewhat since there wasn't as urgent a need to make an instant decision. It's going to annoy the hell out of people who prefer active battles at high speeds, though.
Wow, that sucks. :\ It's not like FFIV battles weren't slow enough as it was.
I mean, I'll still buy it, but yeah...
 
lolqueer6pj.gif
 
IMO

This past week I have been playing the PSOne version of FFIV and it has a really really bad slowdown too.. right when u click a spell to cast it and select what units to use it on it slows down soooo much about 45% of the time.

I then get frustrated it hit the button multiple times thuss casting like Cure 3 on 1 person instead of the whole party cause it registers my 2 hits on the buttons

I fear this will be the same in the GBA, so that means the GBA and PSX will have the same battle slowdown..

PSX cant be the superior version since its the same slowdown, and GBA has more features...


GBA ftw.. stfu haters go die in a corner with a dildo up thy asses thx
 
SO FRIGGIN' PUMPED!

I've wanted FF4 to get this kind of ever since I first finished it and realized it was over : (
 
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