This is a port of a port of a re-imagined version of one of my favorite games of all time... but unfortunately, the version this port of aThis is a port of a port of a re-imagined version of one of my favorite games of all time... but unfortunately, the version this port of a port is based off of is absolutely terrible.
First, as a PC game, this is god awful. Frame rate is capped at 15fps in battles, and the UI is the same that was used for mobile touchscreens, despite the fact that they disabled touchscreens, and then the next closest thing (a mouse) has been disabled a well. So you're navigating a touchscreen-based UI with a keyboard, and thanks to the 15fps cap in battles, it feels even clunkier.
Visuals are ugly, having the ability to go into HD resolutions just makes it more apparent how ugly this game is. I get it's based on a DS game, but it's more the 3D models than anything. Even the original SNES sprites had more charm than this.
The instrumentation for the music is bad. Again, the SNES version is better, not because of nostalgia, but because the overall sound quality was higher. Some tracks have what sounds like MIDI bass, while others have *actual* bass. Part of me has to wonder if the tracks that have the MIDI bass were supposed to be placeholders until their studio bassist got around to recording the part, and then for whatever reason (money, time constraints, forgetfulness, laziness, who knows), they never did. So some tracks sound 100% live, others sound like they're half-life and half extremely cheap MIDI. The music files are also heavily compressed. It's a complete mess.
There were some changes to how character-specific traits work that I'm not fond of... Cecil's Darkness ability is no longer an AoE attack, but rather a buff that gives him better single-target damage, while retaining the "drain" mechanic of the original Darkness. Kain's Jump takes over twice as long to finish as it used to, which kind of ruins his character... he's supposed to be a badass that does massive damage when falling from the sky, but since it takes so long for that to happen in this version, it's better to keep him on the ground like a generic Fighter most of the time.
The Augment idea is cool, but their presence in FFIV hurts the experience. The concept is that you find these abilities while playing the game that you can tack on to your characters, however the problem is that discovering most of these augments is based on things you'd never know without reading a guide. The other problem is that some of the abilities end up ruining characer definitions (ie. you can give Kain Edward's Bardsong ability). Characters in FFIV were firmly rooted in how defined every character was, and learning to like or dislike them based on how they behaved in battle. Kain was the badass Dragoon. Edward was the cowardly Bard. Cecil was the righteous Paladin. Rosa was the humble White Mage. Having cross-over abilities with augments changes that, and they have no place in FFIV. It really feels like they created this feature in an attempt to make this version feel different, realized it didn't work, and rather than taking it out, left it so they could boast it as an additional feature anyway. But it's awful, and better off being ignored.
Bad voiceacting, bad graphics, bad sound, bad gameplay, this game is a solid example of why retrofitting concepts to a long-existing formula is nothing but bad news. The original game wasn't perfect, but it was still a hell of a lot better than whatever this is supposed to be.… Expand
