Sunday, April 17, 2011

What's So Great About Final Fantasy IV, Anyway?

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What's So Great About Final Fantasy IV, Anyway?

A 20-year salute to one of the most influential adventures ever.

By: Jeremy Parish April 15, 2011

Next week's Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection for PSP marks the fifth remake or rerelease of the game in the past decade. While this version offers plenty of new content to entice die-hard fans, the frequency with which Square Enix has been reissuing the same game strikes many as overkill. Does the world really need so many renditions of a single RPG? At what point is enough enough?

Far be it from us to make a definitive statement on such a subjective question (at least outside the confines of a review). However, even if five Final Fantasy IVs in the space of 10 years is more than enough, you can certainly understand why Square would keep returning to the same well time and again: It's a very deep and content-rich well. Final Fantasy IV was a groundbreaking work, and it remains one of the most influential RPGs ever made. It's nearly as significant to Square's history (and the genre's) as The Legend of Zelda is to Nintendo and action adventure games. Granted, there's something to be said for moderation, which is why Nintendo has only reissued Zelda a few times over the years... nevertheless, no matter how tired you may be of seeing FFIV variants, its ubiquity in no way diminishes the impact and importance of the original Super NES game.

Diora Baird Laura Prepon Ashley Scott Michelle Behennah Julie Benz

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