Final Fantasy 4 hits iOS devices

Final Fantasy 4 has been ported to iPhone, including the improvements made to the DS remake and a few new bells and whistles.

11

Final Fantasy 4 has already landed on what seems like every other platform that exists, so Square Enix finally decided it was high time to port it to the one device you already have on you all the time anyway. The game has released on the iOS App Store for $15.99, and is mostly a port of the DS remake.

Since it's rooted in the 2008 DS version, the iOS app includes fully voiced CG cutscenes and 3D graphics that have been prettied up a bit for the nicer Apple screens. It also features a remixed score and a Jukebox for listening to the music, a mapping feature that starts a dungeon blank and is filled in as you explore, and the "Augment System" that lets you assign special abilities to characters.

If you're already up to your neck in FF4 ports, you'll be pleased to know that Square is going to be bringing other classic Final Fantasy games soon enough. The trailer for this release (via Siliconera) calls this the start of the "Final Fantasy mobile revolution." That revolution will apparently include ports of Final Fantasy V "and more." What could the "more" mean? Your guess is as good as ours.

Editor-In-Chief
From The Chatty
  • reply
    December 20, 2012 3:30 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Final Fantasy 4 hits iOS devices.

    Final Fantasy 4 has been ported to iPhone, including the improvements made to the DS remake and a few new bells and whistles.

    • reply
      December 20, 2012 4:03 PM

      man, give me the psp remake that's still 2d but looks great.

      ill try this tho.

      • reply
        December 20, 2012 4:05 PM

        You are foolish, this rendition of the game is amazing.

        • reply
          December 20, 2012 9:32 PM

          PSP version had all of the after years stuff though. Not amazing, but still worth playing. Owning the FFIV remake on DS (the one this iOS version is a port of) and FFIV complete collection on Vita, I think I like the PSP/Vita version better. Reminds me of the SNES version with much clearer hand drawn art rather than stylized polygonal PS1 quality 3D graphics. They're both great because they're both FFIV, but I like the sprites more.

      • reply
        December 20, 2012 4:12 PM

        The Matrix Software forray into classic Final Fantasy are quite good.

        They did a good job with the FF3 and 4 remakes, Final Fantasy Dimensions, and Final Fantasy After Years.

        They also did the Playstation 2 port for Dragon Quest V which was also pretty solid.

        They didn't just port the game over with new graphics. They totally remade each game to the point where the challenge is entirely rescaled. I found Final Fantasy II (IV) actually pretty easy for the time (and I was in 4th grade). My older self going through the remake found IV to be somewhat challenging. There were definitely some surprises in how some of the battles were played out. For example, your first actual fight against Golbez (where Rydia comes to the rescue) is not a gimme. He won't die after 1 summon spell and will absolutely kick your ass if you don't regroup up and rez your comrades with Cecil's white magic.

        • reply
          December 20, 2012 4:37 PM

          There were 2 versions of FF4. The American release on SNES was the easymode version.

          • reply
            December 20, 2012 4:43 PM

            Yes I am aware. I was quite the Square fanboy in my early days.

            I even picked up Japanese so I can play FFV (no joke) and the Romancing Saga games.

          • reply
            December 20, 2012 4:51 PM

            Really though the biggest changes in the original Japanese version was how Items were labeled. They removed all offensive items, merged all recovery items into "Heal" potion, curatives were labeled after the spell they replicate, and if I am not mistaken, you can't stack multiple piles of 99 of a certain type (I could be wrong on that one, it's been a while). They made Ether's ridiculously more expensive for some reason too.

            Special powers were also removed from just about every character which wasn't too big of a deal since most were pretty worthless. The exceptions were Dark Knight Cecil's Dark Wave, Edward's mass cure with potions made him less worthless, and Yang's focus ability.

            Other than that, the "challenge" was not so much difficulty of the game as it was they thought the game had a large initial learning curb. So they simplified the game in terms of usability moreso than they adjusted the difficulty.

          • reply
            December 20, 2012 6:15 PM

            3. The DS FFIV is harder than the Super Famicom FFIV

            • reply
              December 20, 2012 6:44 PM

              4 counting GBA's "pick your end party" and bonus dungeon content.

              Despite its many other flaws in terms of implementation, it's still a significant content adjustment. Being able to toss a level 99 Edward at Zeromus was always something I've wanted to do.

    • reply
      December 20, 2012 4:25 PM

      what are the difficulty settings they mention in the description in the app store

      • reply
        December 20, 2012 8:27 PM

        I saw normal and hard when starting. Hard said monsters were tougher, but I'm not sure which (if either) matches DS versions difficulty.

    • reply
      December 20, 2012 4:54 PM

      $15.99? WHY!?

      • reply
        December 20, 2012 9:10 PM

        because its an amazing remake and a solid title

      • reply
        December 20, 2012 9:33 PM

        Squenix.

    • reply
      December 20, 2012 4:54 PM

      Android plz kthx

    • reply
      December 20, 2012 4:55 PM

      Is it shackvideo, or does it look like it runs like crap?

    • reply
      December 20, 2012 5:16 PM

      squeenix has finally woken up and released it as universal! Just wish they would use icloud saving.

    • reply
      December 20, 2012 5:57 PM

      Man, I'm right in the middle of playing through the GBA version of this game and this looks way better.

      • reply
        December 20, 2012 6:16 PM

        The GBA blows....speed issues and a fucked up battle timer. You will just randomly get extra turns during battle.

    • reply
      December 20, 2012 10:21 PM

      Warning: they're likely to release a $15.99 iPhone version and a $19.99 "HD" iPad version, with minimal/no improvements in the HD version. Squeenix does not believe in universal titles... I wonder if their high price point and non-universal stance are working for them.

      • reply
        December 20, 2012 10:24 PM

        Possibly $24.99 for the HD version.

      • reply
        December 20, 2012 10:51 PM

        And... this is their first universal app. I'm happy to have been wrong!

Hello, Meet Lola