One more for the backlist
The RPG, a favorite gaming genre, is stacking up recently as the bane of this busy gamer. I haven’t had time to play through Oblivion, GTA IV, or Final Fantasy XII but I can’t stop myself from picking up each latest and greatest offering to the role playing gods. These great games sit on my shelf and mock me with their dozens of hours of gameplay, sidequests, unlockable characters and gaming escape.
The most recent game to insult me so is Final Fantasy IV DS, the latest in a long series of remakes of the game first released in the US as Final Fantasy II for the SNES. I spent some time with the game yesterday, to get a feel for the remake and torture myself with guilt and frustration that I won’t be able to give this little gem the hours it deserves. Here are some initial observations:
1) The opening cinematics are excellent and well-matched with the Uematsu soundtrack. Characters retain the look of the cinematics in the Playstation releases, and Cecil and Kain both look imposing in their armor.
2) There are in-game cutscenes which do a nicer job of presenting the story than just dialog boxes did. I really like an early scene where Cecil in a contemplative mood is shown with the moon framed through his tower window.
3) The 3D models look pretty good, almost PS1 quality, but obviously don’t compare favorably to non-portable final fantasy titles released in the last five years. The effort at the armor for Cecil and Kain ends up looking cartoon-y, in contrast to the cutscenes where it looks intimidating. Still, the game pulls a lot of horsepower out of the DS and it’s fun to see familiar sprite-based locations, characters, and enemies get the 3D treatment.
4) It would be nice if battles moved more quickly. You’ll want to go into the menus and turn up the battle speed dial as far as it will go. They should have made it go to 11.
I haven’t played far enough to get a feel for the difficulty or the amount of grinding that will be necessary to experience this re-telling of a great story. I’d give even odds that I never will (or at least will have to push off the time when I can get to it until something like “retirement”) but if you’re a lucky gamer with more time than I, I’d certainly recommend giving this game a try.