Final Fantasy IV

Original title: Fainaru fantajî IV

Video Game
1991
Unrated

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

A dark knight questions the ruthless actions of his king and undergoes a quest to redeem himself and save the world.A dark knight questions the ruthless actions of his king and undergoes a quest to redeem himself and save the world.A dark knight questions the ruthless actions of his king and undergoes a quest to redeem himself and save the world.

Director
- Hironobu Sakaguchi
Writers
- Hironobu Sakaguchi
- Takashi Tokita

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

8.4/10

1.9K

YOUR RATING

Director
- Hironobu Sakaguchi
Writers
- Hironobu Sakaguchi
- Takashi Tokita

See production info at IMDbPro

Photos13

+ 7

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
First Final Fantasy game to debut the espers of Ramuh and Ifrit, although their names were originally Indra and Jinn respectively.

Goofs
When Cecil and his allies Rosa, Rydia, Kain, Edge come with him on the Whale spaceship and fly to the moon, they can pilot it until they land it. But when they exit outside, they walk around without their spacesuits. This would cause them to die including Fusoya and Golbez, because first of all, there's no life on the moon including trees or water. Second, they would freeze to death or burn to death by the sun due to extreme heat and cold temperatures caused by the sun or no sun. Also gravity on the moon is different than Earth and they would bounce lightly and float on the moon. If they were provided spacesuits with oxygen tanks, then they would be able to survive on the moons surface but would have limited time to explore and fight before returning on the spaceship. However, their spacesuits would make them more vulnerable to monster attacks and it would be slightly harder to use weapons due to the moons lighter gravity.

Quotes
Tellah: You spoony bard!

Alternate versions
Scenes cut from the Easy Type (edited version):
The programmer room with porn magazines and snuff films.
The seductive bar dancers were cut from the game being replaced with dancers in one piece swimsuits.
The seductive dancer who removed her dress in Town of Baron and Town of Kaipo simply dances wearing the same dress.
The scythe that was going to drop on Rosa was an Iron ball instead.
Removal of magical items such as attack items and individual healing items reduced to one item called Heal.
Profanity including "Damn", "Hell", The F**k word and slang words.
Removal of religious references including "Holy" renamed to "White" and Tower of Prayer being called Tower of Wishes. However the elder still uses one word of "Holy" and the mage still says "Tower of Prayer"
Characters acting drunk. The Pubs being renamed to Cafe. However the Dwarf in the Howdy Cafe still acts drunk as he dances.
Cecils "Darkness" ability, and Rosa's "Pray" ability was removed.
References to Death and suicide has been removed. Although Milon Z. uses the word "Death" and characters like Rydias mother, Anna, Tellah, Edges mom and dad still die in the game.
The North American release is called Final Fantasy II instead of Final Fantasy IV.
The enemies are much easier to kill compared to the original version.

Connections
Edited into Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Ultimate Box (2012)

User reviews18

Review

Featured review

The first true Final Fantasy

In 1991, a little known company gaming company known as Square(soft) in Japan released the fourth segment of it's Final Fantasy series. Little did they know (or maybe they did) where it would lead them.

I would call Final Fantasy IV the "sleeper hit" of the series. It was considered by the few who got their hands on it back in the early 90's their "favorite video game ever". It had rave reviews, and started to garner a cult-like rpg gamer following. And of course, in every aspect, it deserved it.

Hironobu Sakaguchi did a wonderful job in giving depth, for what can be disputed as the first time, to a video game rpg character. The main character of this video game "Cecil" starts out as a "bad guy" with a conscience. Of course, this may be considered cliche nowadays, but back in 1991, it was quite revolutionary. Cecil's predicament, although it may not be original, is a moving one.

Cecil, the dark knight, is the captain of the Red Wings, the Kingdom of Baron's "air force". His story starts with the war mongering of his liege in search for the all-powerful Crystals, which's purposes are shrouded in mystery. After a battle in the mage town of Mysidia, Cecil, torn between his duty and his guilt, confronts his King asking him why he is on this blood-thirsty conquest, and he is promptly banished from the Kingdom on an errand with his Dragoon friend Kain, to make up for this mistake. One must ask, will Cecil ever stand up to his liege and confront his inner demons? Here is where this epic adventure begins.

Following this neat intro, we are introduced to a vast array of different characters that Cecil encounters in his quest; to name a few, Rosa, Rydia, Yang, Palom, Porom, Tellah, and the first of the famous "Cid" characters in the Final Fantasy series. There is a HUGE world to explore (for a 1991 rpg) with many different terrains (even the moon), many different and interesting antagonists (Golbez, the Four fiends), and a mass of evil monsters to be destroyed.

Nubuo Uematsu shines with his inspiring music in this game. This was his first opportunity to show his composing skills and develop a full and rich soundtrack. I was amazed, when this game first came out, at how "orchestrated" a video game can sound...It is no surprise now that Nubuo is now a highly acclaimed composer, both in and out of video game music. If you are a fan, give this soundtrack a listen...These are his roots.

All in all, I give Final Fantasy IV a very biased 5 stars...Although it is reasonably disputed that Final Fantasy 6 and 7 are better overall games, this one will hold a place in my heart. It was the funder of 6...it shaped the things to come.