Sunday, March 6, 2011

Final Fantasy IV

I have recently started playing through FFIV again, I think I last played it as a lapsed Catholic about 5 years back and this time round I am picking up a lot more depth in the game. I'm also amazed at how many elements of the gameplay have not been taken up in more recent ffs. For example, the screen blurring out of battle if you are under certain status effects- I think this could be done really well on the rich 3d new ffs. Another would be Gilbert's auto-hiding away when he is low on life, that is great. Another is the cave where you are not allowed to have any metal weapons or armour equipped- I am so surprised that there isn't a side quest dungeon of this sort in any of the later ffs! It is a great idea!

FF4 really was revolutionary on so many levels.

And philosophically ff4 is great because characters have set roles and different stat development curves- this is a fundamentally more Catholic view of the world than a job based system or sphere grid where the player essentially has the power at his own will to recreate the fundamental attributes of each character. I think it is essentially post-modern and actually makes for quite dull gaming.

I am playing the SNES version and would be interested to hear about how people have found the DS re-make as it looks pretty good.

5 comments:

Filial dos Games said...

Have FFIV in my DS list to buy.. still need to play it.

And it's good to see analyses based on the Catholic perspective.

Keep it going!

Anonymous said...

Have FFIV in my DS list to buy.. still need to play it.

And it's good to see analyses based on the Catholic perspective.

Keep it going!

Andy Kirchoff said...

It's a bit too simplistic and fairy-tale-ish for the modern gaming sensibility, I think. I've played both the GBA and DS remakes, never finished either one.

dustin (The 16-bit Catholic) said...

Interesting take on FF4 as far as the Catholic perspective is concerned. It makes sense, we all have certain gifts that God has given us and different roles to play in the faith. Just like not everyone is able to become a priest, not every character can be a blue mage.

I need a long-term RPG to play through, might give this one a shot.

dustin (The 16-bit Catholic) said...

I took you up on the FF IV DS. I've played about 1/3 of the way through it, and let me tell you, this game on the DS is HARD. I didn't play the original, so I can't speak to that game's difficulty, but the second iteration of Scarmiglione on Mt. Ordeals took me nearly 11 tries.

It is a simplistic fairy tale story (it's no FF VI), but I'm still somewhat emotionally invested in what happens to these characters.

Great recommendation.