Final Fantasy 4 GBA

[MottZilla]

Has anyone else played this port yet? I have to say I didn't expect a very good port. But infact it's a solid port. Aside from some overworld jerkyness during flying in mode 7, it's very nice. I have to say it's nice to have a solid FF4 to take with you everywhere you go, and not to mention its the real FF4 and NOT on CDROM.

Who else has tried this out? I'm quite happy with it too because in my opinion FF4 was the best FF game.

[*b*]

while I won't go so far as to say it's the best FF game, it certainly is nice to have it portable (and not a rom, which I never got around to beating). I love the new graphics, but I was a bit disappointed to see that the spells and battle-character sprites weren't redone. that said, it's really fun, and definitly the $29.99 I payed for it

[Warlock]

Yes, hands down this is the best version of FF4 released on any platform. It has the Wonderswan Color version graphics (but even improved upon that, especially for battle backgrounds.. but they are definately a step above the SNES graphics). And I believe the superior translation of the PSX version (though I could be wrong, I havn't compared the two so maybe they are different. But it's def. not the SNES translation). The Zeromus battle has massive slowdown though, so watch out for that. I've also heard it's slightly easier than the Japanese version (and I suppose the PSX version). But it wasn't bad. It's def. not as easy as the SNES one.

Minor Spoilers ahead:
But really what impresses me about this version, and I bet you are not that far yet, is the extra content. It's extremely freaking fun. First off you get to use Yang, Cid, Palom, Porom and Edward (who still sucks horrible ass) again. There is a brand new dungeon just to give them new lvl 50+ gear which is fun. It's nothing extremely special but some of the bosses there provide a decent challenge.

But the real improvement is the Lunar Ruins dungeon after you beat the game. The basic idea behind this is that Square has something like 100-150 pre-generated rooms. The dungeon is 50 levels and picks from these rooms somewhat at random (it seems to be more like, every three floors, there is a set of maybe 6-8 rooms those three floors can be). So that alone adds some replayability because most of those floors are really unique. Some are basic battle floors, but a lot of them are real puzzles. Some examples: One involves finding a book in a huge library for a guy. You can talk to people in the library for hints on its location. Another is sort of like a personality quiz and at the end you get rated as a class (i.e. "You are a Paladin" or "You are a Monk") and you get different items based on that. Another is a floor where there is a bad-ass dragon that wanders it. You can avoid him, but if you fight him he's probably the hardest boss in the game (yes, harder than Zeromus.. he is quite insane). Another is simply a fountain with Sylphs that heal your party to full health and give you a Mexalixer. So it's pretty random like that. And there is good loot to be had on most of the floors too.

But then about every 3-4 floors there is a floor with a "Trial door", of which there is one for each character (actually, Palom and Porom share a door). Each is a really unique challenge which must be faced alone with only that character. Some of them are easy. For example, Cecil's is a bunch of morality trials where he has to not steal a chest from an old man who fell asleep, or stop a robber who is stealing, etc. (Incidentally, he gets an insanely bad-ass sword from this, it's fucking crazy and the only weapon that can really exceed the 9999 damage barrier because it sometimes casts Holy on hit). Rosa's is a crazy hard one where she must heal everyone in a town that has been decimated within a time limit (hardest part is they don't tell you that time limit). Kain's is a wierd murder mystery thing which isn't bad except you have to face Lunar Behemut after that who is a freaking PAIN IN THE ASS. If you don't time everything right he can wipe Kain (only person you get to use) with one hit. And that's not so bad except you have to repeat the whole trial again which takes around 15 minutes to do -_- If you do that one, bring a damn Lunar Curtain. God I hate Megaflare. Cid's is a version of Crazy Taxi.. etc.

And at the end of each person's trial they get an item which for most of them in some way enhances one of their class abilities. For example, for Palom and Porom it changes Twin to sometimes cast Double Meteor (which is worthless because it does 9999 regardless, which is exactly what regular Meteor does minus the 2 minute casting time). Rosa get a ring that changes Pray to the very awesome Miracle which from what I can tell randomly switches between Cure, Cura and Curaga for the whole party (but ususally the last two) and sometimes casts Esuna on everyone. Pretty bad-ass. Oh, and it never fails like Pray. Kain gets a ring that changes Jump into Double Jump which basically hits twice on a Jump. Not bad. Cecil and Cid both get awesome weapons. Rydia gets a ring that enhances her Summons damage and changes Mist Dragon summon to cast Blink on the entire party (very useful, but also a good way to witness the slowdown that is the GBA processor.. if you do this on the Zeromus battle.. umm yeah, good luck with your 2 fps :)). Edge gets the oh-so-predictable change of Steal to Mug (I forget the exact name they used, it wasn't Mug but it's the same thing.. steal and attack at the same time). etc

Then there is a final boss who is the USA version of Zeromus (well the toned-down USA graphics.. though really what was wrong with the original graphics? Was he too "gross" looking?). He's a bit harder than Zeromus but not much, and he doesn't have a first form (that you can steal Dark Matter from). So his Big Bang (is that the right spell?) does a bit more damage. He's totally pointless though. Once you kill him you get nothing. No extra ending, no special items. Nothin. So it's a bit annoying.

But yeah, it's pretty varied which is cool. It's probably some of the most interesting content in the game and really I can't wait to see what they do with Final Fantasy VI Advance. They could do some bad-ass stuff with that. I wouldn't mind seeing them tie up some plot holes that always seem to turn into internet rumors (i.e. Siegfred stealing that chest.. that is so out of the blue and pointless.. Or a rumor that there is a device in the capital city - I forget the name - that can revive the dead.. oh what fun "Let's bring back Gen. Leo!" rumors that brought, etc). Would also be a great way to really data-cise the game like they did with the Bestiary. Like, a list of all the monsters you have Lept on the Veldt. Or if a monster uses a Blue Magic ability (excuse me... "Lore" ability -_-), listing that in their Bestiary entry. etc.

[ZomfgIts0rzlolo]

I've played it and it's a really good port, but the highlight of FFIV was the hilairiously bad translation :(

[Dechipher]

I think it's really fun. Edward's not as much of a bitch now, which is good. I haven't gotten very far, mostly because it's been really friggin easy. I jsut started Mt. Hobs though and it's all of a sudden more challenging. So I should get farther now. The dialogue is a lot cooler, and not near as cheesy as the SNES version.

[AtmaWeapon]

FFIV is one of my favorite games, and the port added life to it. However, I have a few gripes about the quality of the port.

Jerkiness on the world map doesn't bother me at all. What DOES bother me is the jerkiness in combat. Sometimes the game just locks up for a period of 2-6 seconds and I'm left wondering if I have to abandon the game. What's worse is the jerkiness interferes with button presses. I get used to quickly navigating the menus of my magic users, and it is really frustrating to hit a button and see absolutely no response. Sometimes I have to take to repeatedly pressing the button just to get the game to respond.

Even considering that annoyance, I prefer the GBA port to the SNES version. The quicksave feature is great if I'm on the run and don't have an hour to play. The music is better almost without exception (I think the final battle music is kind of weak but haven't tried it on headphones yet). The graphics are better. You can run twice as fast now. All in all it is an improvement.

Also the difficulty is spot-on with what it should be. This game has made me take the Lord's name in vain more than any other game I have ever played. Some battles were a matter of trying my darndest to keep one character alive.

That said, some of the battles towards the end (especially the 'boss' of the lunar ruins) were quite disappointing. However, I figure this probably has something to do with the fact I was level 75+ at the time.

[MottZilla]

I've noticed slight pauses during combat but never anythign close to an entire second. More like slight hiccups. They are annoying but battles are ussually fairly fast paced so it doesn't matter much. My only guess for the hiccuping is it decompresses or loads some kind of data into memory like a spell's graphics. That might explain it, but that's silly cause they only use 8MBytes of a possible 32MBytes.

Anyways, it's still a nice port. I was surprised there wasn't a thread for it already.

[Warlock]

I've noticed slight pauses during combat but never anythign close to an entire second. More like slight hiccups. They are annoying but battles are ussually fairly fast paced so it doesn't matter much. My only guess for the hiccuping is it decompresses or loads some kind of data into memory like a spell's graphics. That might explain it, but that's silly cause they only use 8MBytes of a possible 32MBytes.

Anyways, it's still a nice port. I was surprised there wasn't a thread for it already.

The Zeromus battle is rediculous though. That is pure graphical lag. Also, try casting Blink on your entire party. Or like I said above, cast Blink on your entire party DURING the Zeromus battle. Haha.. the game will grind down to a halt. It's crazy.

[Dart Zaidyer]

I have this game, and I've beaten it, but so far I haven't finished the Lunar Ruins. Funny fact: On my very first battle with Zeromus, I managed to steal the Dark Matter in only 2 tries. I've seen it take upwards of 30 before.

I disagree that the game is "easy". If you know what you're doing you can get by, but if you don't, or if you're just under-leveled, then each battle can become hell very quickly. (I hate Bog Witches, I hate Dark Bahamut, and I HATE HATE HATE Wicked Masks.)

[AtmaWeapon]

Wicked Masks are lame. Cast Holy on yourself, Flare on yourself, and attack with attackers. With the right eq and this strategy they MIGHT last through 2 rounds.

2x Behemoths are much, much more difficult to deal with.

The game is still easy. I don't know why so many people make a big deal out of stealing the Dark Matter, I didn't need to do so to spank Zeromus.

[MottZilla]

The Zeromus battle is rediculous though. That is pure graphical lag. Also, try casting Blink on your entire party. Or like I said above, cast Blink on your entire party DURING the Zeromus battle. Haha.. the game will grind down to a halt. It's crazy.

The GBA doesn't have slowdown caused by lots of graphics/sprites. Their game code is just taking too long per frame. Probably because it's likely bloated C or C++ code. If it were possible to run it on the DS with the ARM7 in double speed mode then FF4 probably wouldn't have any slowdown. Although then again some problems may be related to wait state/rom speed. But really, there's no reason if they put enough work into it that it would lag like that.

[DarkFlameWolf]

Since my money is limited at the moment, I'd rather wait for the Final Fantasy VI GBA port rumored to be coming out. That would be much more satisfying, imo, then this.

[ZTC]

I've gotten FF4A recently, and I've notice that a few things have been tweaked from the SNES port. I'm kinda disappointed with the translation, I was hoping to see some dialogue more along the lines of the translated FF4 rom. Wasn't there a graphical map in the SNES version that could be accessed?

Heh, I've seen a few pictures in a gaming mag for the FF5/FF6 GBA games, (well, for the Japanese releases, dunno if they were mid-production pics though) and frankly, I can't wait for em.

[Dart Zaidyer]

Wasn't there a graphical map in the SNES version that could be accessed?
You have to cast a spell on the overworld in order to see the map. I think it's "Sight".

[Warlock]

The GBA doesn't have slowdown caused by lots of graphics/sprites. Their game code is just taking too long per frame. Probably because it's likely bloated C or C++ code. If it were possible to run it on the DS with the ARM7 in double speed mode then FF4 probably wouldn't have any slowdown. Although then again some problems may be related to wait state/rom speed. But really, there's no reason if they put enough work into it that it would lag like that.

True. Blink I know they just turn the sprite on and off really really fast and move it around like crazy. That's probably some crazy loops running for that :P The Zeromus battle lags because of the background though. You're right in it's probably the code behind the animation of it that screws with the speed. You'd think they could have optimized it though. The whole game certainly isn't an emulation or anything. They did add crap to it.

[ZTC]

I've also noticed that there's some delays with the game menus; and I've found it a bit bothersome that the controls are "lacking" a bit. For example, in the item menu, I hoped that they added the trigger buttons to switch between the pages (that would have certainly helped, especially when I have the cursor set on memory)

And now on to the underworld...

[KJAZZ]

Well, I got this for Christmas, and beat it a while ago, and I have to say I enjoyed playing it. I've played FF4 too many times before on my SNES, as it would erase the data randomly. Still, it was a good gameplay experience. It seemed to go a bit faster than my original runs, but maybe that's just me. Also, the game seemed very easy until I reached the Tower of Zot, wherein the enemies got a LOT stronger, and I was actually underleveled for much of the game, at least until I got Edge and decided to get Leviathan.

The new content was very satisfying as well. And Edward doesn't suck one bit. His speed is incredible at higher levels. :blah: And his reward for beating his challenge actually makes him pretty useful. Not to mention that Palom and Porom have higher stats than Rosa/Rydia.

[Linkman90]

I like FFVI but honestly, all I really want is a FFIII port. I can't even beleive they didn't port this. FFIII PWNS soo much. ^_^

[Dechipher]

I just remembered that I sold AtmaWeapon my SNES version of this game, which I now sorely wish I had not.

How's it treatin you, Atma?

[Orion]

FFIII is being remade for the DS with FF7-esque graphics. There's even screen shots already.

[ZTC]

Also, the game seemed very easy until I reached the Tower of Zot, wherein the enemies got a LOT stronger, and I was actually underleveled for much of the game, at least until I got Edge and decided to get Leviathan.

I've ran into the same situation, the Tower of Zot was a major pain in the ass till I leveled up a bit; once I got to the Magus Sisters, I found that battle to be a bit easier (or is it because I knew what I was doing...)


FFIII is being remade for the DS with FF7-esque graphics. There's even screen shots already.

I've seen comparasons between the orig and the port, and once it comes out; I might get a DS myself :D (yes, just for that game; damn Final Fantasy addiction...)

[mrz84]

I had heard that FF5 and FF6 were being ported to Ds, but didn't know the details. FF7 style, eh? It would be sweet seeing Shadow like that... :kitty:

[Orion]

I had heard that FF5 and FF6 were being ported to Ds, but didn't know the details. FF7 style, eh? It would be sweet seeing Shadow like that... :kitty:

No, I meant the original japanese-only FFIII that was made for the NES. That is being remade for the DS with the SD graphics. FFV and VI are being ported to the GBA, and from what i've heard, there's no graphical improvments to speak of (which I guess is just fine with me).

[Warlock]

There's even screen shots already.

link?

[vegeta1215]

link?

http://www.rpgamer.com/games/ff/ff3ds/ff3dsss.html

[Warlock]

That looks closer to FF9 than FF7 :) Which is a good thing though. FF9 is very underrated :)

[Joshua Milton N]

I don't have a port of this game, but I did buy it from Wal-Mart the day after Christmas and all I can say is WOW!!!!

The plot and Story line for this game is awsome.

I'm a HUGE Fan of Final Fantasy and I can't wait to see when FF3 for the DS comes out and also when both FFV & FFVI will be released for the GBA.