Post by Lumi on Jan 19, 2008 17:42:03 GMT -5
Figured I may as well make a mini-review thread for this, since some discussion about it was spilling over here.
For the uninformed, Matrix, the development team behind the Final Fantasy III DS remake, decided to do a remake of the next game in line. We've seen Final Fantasy IV (or "II" as it was originally brought to us in the US way back when) go through a handful of little touch-up ports over time, but this time we get a full on remake. This little gem hit stores in Japan on December 20th. No word yet on US or European release dates, or if they're even going to translate it.
Since I'm impatient, I imported the darn thing-- and I'm very glad I did.
Graphical/Sound: The 3D stuff is done fairly well-- everyone has their own little stances on victory/level ups, or in the stores when buying equipment. The faces are very expressive during the cutscenes, and the voices are just icing on the cake. They're all well done so far, though I've seen a lot of people complain about how Cecil sounds "like a teenager." I never got that impression myself, but hey. The music is slightly remixed, but highly faithful to the original. Sounds better if you pop in headphones, because the tiny and tinny DS speakers butcher the sound a bit.
Battle System: The battle system and bosses have been tweaked quite a bit. Bosses have some additional attack patterns-- many of them much more lethal than before--and the party now has "Decant Abilities" you receive at key points in the game and can assign to anyone you like. Things like counter attack, or Chain Spell-- allowing you to cast two spells per turn-- all this combined with the boss difficulties add another little element of strategy to things. You definitely won't be winning boss fights by steamrolling through, unless you LIKE hours of senseless grinding. The ATB system is still in place, but you can now also see a new bar while your character is preparing to take the action you assigned to him.
Script: Admitting I'm only barely at the 201 level in Japanese course knowledge, I can more or less safely say the script is pretty much unchanged. They didn't ALTER anything, but they did add in some things here and there. I'm only about halfway through the game, so this may change in later points.
Miscellaneous Pros/Cons:
- I love, love, LOVE how much paladin Cecil has been improved. His white magic was always pretty much useless in the original; now he actually has handy spells like Protect and Shell, and enough Spirit to allow his healing to be worthwhile support for Rosa (and believe me, you need it in some fights). He's a much more versatile character in battle.
- I sort of wish they'd taken time to redesign the dungeon maps. The environments have of course been updated and look nice, but the map layout is pretty much identical to previous versions. For those like me who have played this game's incarnations many times over... it makes the dungeon runs pretty unexciting at times. Even the treasure is the same, near as I can tell.
..So, has anybody else picked up the import? Any of you waiting for a localization?
For the uninformed, Matrix, the development team behind the Final Fantasy III DS remake, decided to do a remake of the next game in line. We've seen Final Fantasy IV (or "II" as it was originally brought to us in the US way back when) go through a handful of little touch-up ports over time, but this time we get a full on remake. This little gem hit stores in Japan on December 20th. No word yet on US or European release dates, or if they're even going to translate it.
Since I'm impatient, I imported the darn thing-- and I'm very glad I did.
Graphical/Sound: The 3D stuff is done fairly well-- everyone has their own little stances on victory/level ups, or in the stores when buying equipment. The faces are very expressive during the cutscenes, and the voices are just icing on the cake. They're all well done so far, though I've seen a lot of people complain about how Cecil sounds "like a teenager." I never got that impression myself, but hey. The music is slightly remixed, but highly faithful to the original. Sounds better if you pop in headphones, because the tiny and tinny DS speakers butcher the sound a bit.
Battle System: The battle system and bosses have been tweaked quite a bit. Bosses have some additional attack patterns-- many of them much more lethal than before--and the party now has "Decant Abilities" you receive at key points in the game and can assign to anyone you like. Things like counter attack, or Chain Spell-- allowing you to cast two spells per turn-- all this combined with the boss difficulties add another little element of strategy to things. You definitely won't be winning boss fights by steamrolling through, unless you LIKE hours of senseless grinding. The ATB system is still in place, but you can now also see a new bar while your character is preparing to take the action you assigned to him.
Script: Admitting I'm only barely at the 201 level in Japanese course knowledge, I can more or less safely say the script is pretty much unchanged. They didn't ALTER anything, but they did add in some things here and there. I'm only about halfway through the game, so this may change in later points.
Miscellaneous Pros/Cons:
- I love, love, LOVE how much paladin Cecil has been improved. His white magic was always pretty much useless in the original; now he actually has handy spells like Protect and Shell, and enough Spirit to allow his healing to be worthwhile support for Rosa (and believe me, you need it in some fights). He's a much more versatile character in battle.
- I sort of wish they'd taken time to redesign the dungeon maps. The environments have of course been updated and look nice, but the map layout is pretty much identical to previous versions. For those like me who have played this game's incarnations many times over... it makes the dungeon runs pretty unexciting at times. Even the treasure is the same, near as I can tell.
..So, has anybody else picked up the import? Any of you waiting for a localization?