Game Boy Advance User Reviews

Not a perfect game but I love it alot when I was a kid. Gameplay was fun and the story was quite good even though some of the tropes get tiring but I still love it.

One of the best from the classic era of Final Fantasy, featuring charismatic characters and a great battle system.

I have a little problem with this game that will just catapult you around with different characters without warning and you better have kept them all high level (and not go with a team that you liked) or you're screwed. A good game, but it asks for lots of your time. Though, and I can't say that loud enough, I love the story and the style. And it's not nostalgia, I discovered it as an adult.

I loved basically everything about it except maybe sometimes a bit to Grundy for my taste

I have so much fun every time I play this game. Everything about it, from the story to the gameplay, is just amazing. I enjoyed every moment while playing this game

worth it and glad to play this game again. so much memories and nostalgia within this fourth game in the series.

The definitive Final Fantasy IV game. Also portable! A true classic RPG. Do not miss out!

I finally had the energy and motivation to finish this game. I've failed to end FF4's story since I first picked it up years ago yet now here I am, rejoicing with excitement and realizing how dumb I was to even call this a mediocre game on my first playthrough. Final Fantasy IV at first never really had that spark with the characters compared to other FF games (particularly X) because of how wide the variety of companions that comes and goes, leaving a lot less time for the player to get invested in them with their own respective story arcs. The main characters weren't really intriguing early on in the game, but great and subtle developments ensue later as the story moved along. The relationships built within every second of the cast together strengthens and deepens, sacrifices of the closest to the MC, Cecil, become the root of his own change from what he was before and the discovery of who he really is. It had a slow start and a very by-the-books story IMO, but it takes a different turn with the twists that came along with it. The gameplay was really good and fun. It might look like the standard Turn-based combat system we're all used to, but it has more depth than meets the eye. I love how the game forces you to make quick strategies for the plan of attack because the moment you take too long, the enemies would strike you. This gets more frequent and challenging later on as the player encounters stronger, more versatile monsters with a wide range of attacks that damage the characters a ton which creates intense pressure and tension. I don't know if it were the same with V and VI, or the games that came before IV, but it definitely felt new to me. Pokemon and even Final Fantasy X didn't have this type of gameplay battle design. The graphics hold up well since I played this in Gameboy Advanced. I've seen the original SNES version and even that still looked pretty, even after almost 30 years since its inception. The soundtrack design felt very audacious. It fits the setting of the game and helps immerse the player in the medieval mixed with steampunk world. Final Fantasy 4 is a very good RPG game. No matter the problems I found within, it makes up for what it lost through the display of each character's compelling arc outcomes, the narrative that slowly blossoms into impressive storytelling, and the brewing intensity of the gameplay made Final Fantasy 4 a classic in video game history. 8/10 would play again.

Wayyy overly oppressively dark story [you start out coming back from a village full of innocent people you just slaughtered, and children sacrifice themselves later], and it seems to hold on gameplay wise until the grind wall comes. Really disappointing

Solid RPG, a game that doesn't need you to be grinding for hours and, although not excellent in terms of story, it has a bunch of iconic moments. Improved graphics in regard to the original SNES/Famicom version.

Final Fantasy IV starts with a bang, for the first hours it doesn't take prisoners at all and it takes the plot onwards and beyond, everything was great, and for the most part, this rhythm is replicated through the rest of the game. A little side-note: I consider myself a Final Fantasy fan maybe it is my favorite franchise, I have played a lot of the non-numerical games and at this point, I'm yet to play only: 5,6,8,9 and 11. What I'm trying to say is that as much as I love this franchise and considering the time period they were created, at least till the 4th entry, there wasn't a truly great Final Fantasy game, they all were good but they also lack in some departments, be it the story, grinding or combat mechanics, but, having played IV for the first time (in a remake version, sorry about that) its safe to say that they finally achieved a milestone, whereas gameplay, story, rhythm, and progression merged beautifully. Game-play wise, the game relies on the famous or infamous ATB system, in which your characters have a "time-bar" that needs to be filled in order for them to make an action, be an attack or spell, once you use an action this bar needs to be filled once again, it's as simple as it sounds, therefore what you get are dynamic and sometimes dramatic battles where you need to quickly choose commands in order to not lose any time and get the upper hand in battle, you can choose also the speed of battles (at least in this game's edition) if you're getting trouble selecting stuff or if you think you can speed things up you have some liberty in that regard, however, this is where things get mixed. As far as I know in this version of the game, the ATB doesn't seem to work that well if you're not using high-speed battles, and more often than not, characters that have delayed abilities like "jump" will take far more time than it needs to, this is clearly a disadvantage and a thing that will be with you for the rest of the game. Aside from that, I liked the ATB system quite a lot, it maintained battles dense and tight, speaking of battles, I was surprised with plenty of the boss fights, it has a great variety and several strategies that make you feel "super smart" when you figure out their mechanic in the middle of the fight, truly loved that. The story, at least to me, was a reminiscence from FFII, it felt dynamic and well crafted, it kinda subverts a lot of your expectations in a good way, so I accepted gladly all of their plot twists, I loved how it is hinted that you have to get "5 objects" or so in order to get to the "final dungeon" but then the story is like: "you're little too late, the bad guy is ahead of you and it has collected 2 of them" it maintains a fresh and unexpecting rhythm, another strong point is the theme of doing bad things for the greater good, it truly tried to tell something and for the most part (and as a game from 1991 with a lot of technical limitations) it hits the target just right, I won't spoil it but definitely is one of the highlights. Although the story is great it has some problems also, mainly is that at times it somehow feels repetitive, and it seems that they didn't want it to go that far, so some things that should be definitive in the end are not, this lows the stakes a great deal at some point, not that it ruins it, but certainly takes points out of it. Graphically, this edition looks beautiful, the combat sprites look great and for the most part, they nailed the art of **** Amano, maybe the only sprites that didn't look that good were the dialogue sprites, but is not really an issue. The music is also pretty memorable, it has some reminiscence of some tunes of FFIII and also there are leitmotifs that you'll notice in future entries. All in all, I believe FFIV is a well-packaged and crafted game, it simply has everything that the past entries have promised and more, there are some minor issues that I can see how for someone else can be easily overlooked and consider it a masterpiece and that's great, this game has passed the test of time and it makes it look easy. Definitely recommended for any RPG fan and also for people that are interested in a starting point for the Final Fantasy Series.

Es muy blando y aburrido con el tiempo pero para la GBA supongo que esta mas o menos bien. Pero no esta al nivel del Dawn Souls. El principal problema es que si lo comparo con la versión de PSP, la de GBA esta llena de ralentizaciones, glitches y encima con mayor dificultad! Jueguen mejor a la de PSP...

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Game: Final Fantasy IV Advance Genre: RPG Developer: Squareenix System: Game Boy Advance (GBA) Total Score: 86/100 Value Score: 8.6/10 • Story: 10/10 • Characters: 10/10 • GamePlay: 8/10 • Graphics: 8/10 • Sound: 7/10 • Music: 10/10 • Length: 8/10 • Replay Value: 6/10 • Player Value: 9/10 Pros +A great classic on a portable +Memorable characters and a fantastic story +You can now use all characters (except for Tellah) even to the end of the game now +Each of the 5 characters who had left party now have a special dungeon dedicated to them and their own exclusive end game weapons and bosses +Lunar Ruins is a new 50 floor dungeon exclusive to this version (and the PSP ver) which includes the lunar trials and secret bosses +Lunar Ruins is randomized each time you go in and you can redo the trials as many times as you want +Characters now have portraits during cutscenes whenever they talk +Bestiary and Sound test included in the start menu +Higher contrast in visuals Cons -There is menu lag during battles and in the user interface in the menu screen -There is noticeable lag in some of the cutscenes -Sometimes turns will be skipped or someone will have a extra turn (fixed in EU version)

I never played the original Final Fantasy IV, but this is an excellent port regardless. Engaging combat, solid levelling system, improved graphics, and a great storyline and character cast. A personal favourite of the few GBA games I have played and one of the best FF games in the series.

Certainly my preferred way to experience this game; It combines the classic graphics and music with new, very fun post-game content that essentially just makes this version the original with bonuses. I've played the SNES version, the PS1 version, this, and the DS version, and this is by far my favorite.

This is one of those rare games that only comes around once and awhile, a game that just seems to get everything right. The characters are endearing, the storyline is great, the gameplay is great, the music is great, this is a game that you owe it to yourself to play.