Eyes on Final Fantasy Forums > Final Fantasy: Nerds in Paradise > Final Fantasy IV > SNES to DS changes

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

I give it two out of two cheering Lydias.

[Necronopticous]

As much as I enjoyed it, I couldn't give it a perfect score.

The Matrix team really learned from the mistakes and missteps they made in the development and presentation of Final Fantasy III, however, there is definitely still room for improvement. Many of the interface odds and ends seem as though they were rush-jobs or last-minute tack-ons, and some just flat out annoyed me.

One example is the minimap, which, to be honest, looks and feels like a testing placeholder that never got replaced with the clean, presentable version, and is pretty buggy to boot.

Another is the awkward command window set-up. You can rearrange and replace commands in much the same fashion as you could with Gogo in Final Fantasy VI, except some certain commands cannot be removed, such as item. That's all fine and good, but the issue comes from the fact that you are incapable of even rearranging these commands, and they are locked in whatever position they originally come on any given character. Once you start adding decant abilities, this poor design starts to make all of your command windows look inconsistent and unorganized.

Then a bunch of less major, but still majorly frustrating things, like the spell lag in menus.

So there you have it: worlds better than III, a testament to the Matrix team's ability to learn from and grow out of their mistakes, and loads of fun, but still imperfect in the end.

[Elpizo]

I'm not sure what to think of FF IV DS, to be honest. I was very excited for it, but once I played it, I couldn't help but feel incredibly dissapointed, so dissapointed I was unable to enjoy the game for a while (this later changed (luckily) when I saw the awesome Golbez-entrance in Fabul, but still).

I'm pretty sure most people will claim "Ha, miles better than III DS!" but I have to disagree. They are pretty even IMO. IV DS doesn't really improve much over III DS. The graphics one could consider better, but I find them worse than III, no offense. Things lack detail, clothes seem to be the character's skin instead of their clothes, plants in villages seem like paper... In III, things had more detail. At least, that's the impression I got. This is very obvious in battles. In III you had a good view of everything, in IV the camera zoomed out drastically when compared to III to allow more monsters on the screen, but in doing so detail was lost for the characters. In general, I just feel like everything lacks the detail FF III did have for everything. I know why this was done, but that doesn't mean I should like it.

When it comes to the technical aspects of the game, I don't see it improving over III DS that much either. There are still many loading times, and starting up a battle in IV takes as long as, if not longer, than in III DS.

There is use of the second screen, yes. This is the only thing I really feel was improved over III. They could have easily given III this auto-mapping system, why they choose not to is beyond my ability to understand.

The soundtrack is okay, the change is not that drastic when compared to III. This is understandable I guess, for III was NES music changed to DS music and that's a huge difference, whereas IV was SNES to DS and it's not that different.

The VA and the storyline-scenes are impressive, I give SE that much. Like I said before, the scene were Golbez makes his grand entrance in Fabul was amazing for a DS game, me thinks. Thing is, so far, while the VA is good, it's a let down because there simply isn't enough of it. SE hyped this aspect of the game pretty much, so I expected more.

In general, I feel like SE tried to do more with the game than the DS could handle. It is not the improvement over III DS I had hoped it would be. It is on the same level, it improved some things but made a step backwards in other things. This makes me fear that the DS has reached its limits. Maybe SE should have waited for a more powerful handheld or should have gone with the PSP to remake this. (I'm not saying this to annoy people) For in the end, while IV DS is certainly a great game, arguably the best RPG so far on the DS, it still feels incomplete in some areas and in other parts it feels like it tried to be more than it could be. Too bad, I guess. But on the other hand, I'm relieved, now at least I don't feel like SE screwed III DS anymore. =P

[Bolivar]

Necronopticous, what mistakes (specifically) did you feel they made in III that they learned from/improved upon for IV?

[Roogle]

Originally Posted by Necronopticous ^

That's all fine and good, but the issue comes from the fact that you are incapable of even rearranging these commands, and they are locked in whatever position they originally come on any given character. Once you start adding decant abilities, this poor design starts to make all of your command windows look inconsistent and unorganized.

Can you give an example? I wonder if it is possible to edit the command lines with an editing device. I have looked for that type of thing in the past to fix organizational mistakes from programmers on other games.

[Captain Maxx Power]

Originally Posted by Roogle ^

Can you give an example? I wonder if it is possible to edit the command lines with an editing device. I have looked for that type of thing in the past to fix organizational mistakes from programmers on other games.

Basically wherever the item command starts on the menu it's stuck there. So for Kain he has Attack, Jump and Item in that order. So you can remove/replace/rearrange Attack and Jump, but Item will always occupy the third slot. I will admit it's an annoyance and something that could've been sorted out in a manner of minutes coding-wise. Even if they don't let you remove it it wouldn't have taken much to allow you to change it's position.

I also want to point out that when you go back and play FF3 you really notice the framerate drop that has occurred with FF4. Playing FF3 is like someone turned on the fast-forward button. It really highlights how much the graphics system chugs along. I don't know much about DS hardware capabilities, but if this was a performance issue then it could in theory be dealt with with better graphical routines.

[Roogle]

It is unfortunate to hear about the hardware slowdown for Final Fantasy IV on the Nintendo DS; moreover, it reminds me of a similar hardware slowdown that took place on Final Fantasy IX on the Playstation because of the increased number of polygons on the screen due to a four person party.

I think that the menu and commands problem has a slight chance of being fixed in the localization process. I will be prepared to look for a modification code with a device, too, when the game comes out — things like that really annoy me.

[Dr. Acula]

I'm still quite excited about it, my DS is getting dusty from being underused.