Almost a year later, Final Fantasy IV the DS VERSION is finally mine. I have a very passionate and bipolar relationship with this game: the universe makes me feel giddy like a little child on Christmas eve, and I theoretically love every character and plot element within it, but in actuality every time I sit down to play it, I feel... disappointed. And empty. In the original the way the plot progressed was understandable due to the console's constraints, and the two-dimensional and predictable characters and character relationships went with the territory. The DS version with its shiny new graphics (and other related gimmicks), however, only highlights the already existing problems. I'm supposed to care about a PC with three lines of characterization? Really? Why does my party go over a 80% change every half an hour? Why, for that matter, is the plot stacked with a new (sometimes literally) earth-shattering revelation to go with each of the changes? Didn't we already decide in the eighties that prophecies about chosen ones are a poor premise for fantasy (related category: dark is not evil, stop lying to me, game), why is the second X chromosome a reason for leaving my mages behind in an assault, when WILL Cecil shut up about "the lack of even one mote of light in his... heart"?
That said, I actually am quite enjoying myself with all the new stuff they've put in. There are thought bubbles for every character that pop up whenever accessing the menu, and they change after many a main or minor plot point/entering a new terrain, and they actually manage to be either funny or startling a large percentage of the time (when they are not about shipping Cecil/Rosa the OTP that is, which is.... not that often). Namingway embarks upon an epic journey of career experimentation after noticing his old power doesn't work any more, and occasionally steals your tents when on a continent that doesn't sell the pesky things. Completing maps might mean free ethers. That sort of thing.
And Kain, stereotypical traits and all, will never lose the appeal.
That said, I actually am quite enjoying myself with all the new stuff they've put in. There are thought bubbles for every character that pop up whenever accessing the menu, and they change after many a main or minor plot point/entering a new terrain, and they actually manage to be either funny or startling a large percentage of the time (when they are not about shipping Cecil/Rosa the OTP that is, which is.... not that often). Namingway embarks upon an epic journey of career experimentation after noticing his old power doesn't work any more, and occasionally steals your tents when on a continent that doesn't sell the pesky things. Completing maps might mean free ethers. That sort of thing.
And Kain, stereotypical traits and all, will never lose the appeal.