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We continue our journey with the "Golden Age" of Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy IV: The Dawn of the “Golden Age”

With Final Fantasy III completed, it was time for Hironobu Sakaguchi and his team to look towards the future, or rather the present, as the Super Famicom (or Super Nintendo as it was known in the States) was now a reality. Moving into a new console generation was not only a first for the Final Fantasy designers but a first for the industry as well. Even though video game consoles had been around for many years by this point this was the first time a true evolutional leap was made in console technology. The Super Famicom simply dwarfed its predecessor in all areas. More colors, larger and more detailed character sprites, and impressive environment scrolling were just a few of the new options available to developers.

"In those days - around the time of the Famicom and Super Famicom - that was the first time that we'd seen a console hardware transition," said veteran Square designer Hiromichi Tanaka in a 2007 interview. "Nowadays we know that when you've got a platform like PlayStation, you'll have PlayStation 2 and then PlayStation 3, and where you've got Xbox, you move on to Xbox 360 - you can sort of assume what's going to happen in the future. But back then, that was the first time that we'd seen a new generation of consoles, and it was really difficult to predict what was going to happen."

The original plan for Square was to produce two Final Fantasy games in parallel-Final Fantasy IV for the Famicom and Final Fantasy V for the Super Famicom. However, this stretched the resources of the relatively small development studio too far, and the Famicom game was scrapped. Instead, Final Fantasy V became IV, and it would become the first 16 bit Final Fantasy. Sakaguchi once again acted in the director’s role and came up with the story concept, as well as naming the airship battalion known as the Red Wings of Baron. Yoshitaka Amano contributed art concepts while Nobuo Uematsu created his most ambitious soundtrack to date. The total development team for Final Fantasy IV was 14 people, and the game was completed in one year, releasing for the Super Famicom in July of 1991.

The game centers on the Dark Knight Cecil, loyal captain of the Red Wings in service of the King of Baron. When Cecil shows signs of remorse after following an order of the King, he and his friend Kain the Dragoon are sent on a mission where they unwittingly cause the destruction of all the Summoners in the Village of Mist, save one—the child Rydia. So begins Cecil’s quest for redemption as he seeks to overthrow a corrupt King, save his beloved Rosa, and cast off the shackles of his life as a Dark Knight. Along the way he meets a colorful cast of party members, including Yang the Monk, Edge the Ninja, and Tellah the Sage. They journey to the ends of the world, the underworld, and even the moon before putting a stop to the machinations of the evil Golbez and his master, Zeromus.

The story of Final Fantasy IV was notable for its more serious themes and intertwining characters, but it was also the first game in the series to deal with death of loved ones. Tellah loses his daughter, Anna, and later sacrifices his own life to avenge her. The characters of Palom, Porom, and Yang seemingly perish, only to reappear late in the story. Death and loss would become more important as the series went on, as Hironobu Sakaguchi mourned the death of his mother, which occurred during the development of Final Fantasy III.

Final Fantasy IV was a show piece for the capabilities of the Super Famicom system. The game utilized the now-infamous “Mode 7 scaling and rotation” effects for soaring over the landscape in airships. This was shown in the intro of the game, setting the tone for the much more dramatic story.  Character sprites were much larger and more detailed than ever before, and the party could increase to as many as five active members—the only time this has occurred in the series as of this writing. The cast of characters contained a whopping twelve members who would cycle through the party as the story played out. All in all, Final Fantasy IV was a drastic leap over the Famicom games, and it once again scored a well-deserved 36/40 in Famitsu magazine.

Vastly improved graphics and a stunning soundtrack weren’t the only things that evolved the franchise however, as Final Fantasy IV featured a game mechanic that would forever change the series—the Active Time Battle (ATB). Hiroyuki Ito conceived of the idea for characters taking turns with varying speed gauges after watching a Formula One race and noting the way the cars would pass each other at different speeds. This one change to the battle system made for a much faster-paced and challenging game; both your party and the opposing monsters worked on a hidden timer, and more powerful attacks and spells would take longer to execute. The ATB system would become a staple of the Final Fantasy series, and went on to influence many other games.

Final Fantasy IV received an extremely quick localization, releasing in the U.S. in November of the same year. With the translation came a name change. Since only the first game had been released outside of Japan, the game was titled Final Fantasy II.  Due to this quick translation turnaround—and the strict guidelines of Nintendo of America—many changes were made to the original script. Lots of character building dialogue was removed, including the revelation that Cecil and Kain were adopted sons of the King. Any and all references to religion were removed, so “prayers” became “wishes” and the Holy spell was transformed into the White spell. Pubs and references to alcohol were removed, and the game included a bizarre insult; the Sage Tellah calls Prince Edward a “spoony bard”. This quirky line of dialogue has become an inside joke within Square Enix, and even showed up years later in Final Fantasy XI Online, and persists in newer translations of the game.

Final Fantasy II U.S. also was drastically changed from a gameplay perspective. The game was overall much easier than its Japanese counterpart, with reduced battle frequency, easier enemies, and a slower ATB system. In addition to these changes, entire abilities were removed. Pretty much every party member had a command that was excised from the U.S. version. For example, as a Dark Knight Cecil had an attack that could do damage to every enemy at the expense of his own hit points. It is an ability that has since become a staple of the Dark Knight job class within Final Fantasy, but it wouldn’t be seen in America until Final Fantasy IV was released completely intact for the Sony PlayStation in the form of Final Fantasy Chronicles—a collection of Final Fantasy IV and Chrono Trigger that was released in America in 2001.

Final Fantasy IV was a smash hit for Square, and it was the first game in the series to sell over one million units in Japan. The game has long been a fan favorite, and has been remade and ported a whopping ten times. The most ambitious of these remakes is a fully polygonal version of the game, released for the Nintendo DS in 2007. Beyond the 3D visuals, the DS version of Final Fantasy IV sported voice acted cutscenes and a higher difficulty level.Since its release Final Fantasy IV has appeared on many lists of the best games of all time, and it set the stage for Square to conquer the RPG space during the 16 bit console wars.