QuickNavigation - FF Odyssey FF IV Final Fantasy IV Advance (Last updated on 11/25/2008)

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By: wsim

     You all remember how horrible the FF Chronicles port was on the PlayStation? The loading times seemed to have taken forever and was fairly sluggish. With FFIV Advance for the GBA, Square-Enix has managed to fix a lot of issues and added a whole bunch of extras too. The graphics are crisp and look fairly sharp when ported on the GBA. There is little slowdown and the overall game runs flawlessly. There are a few remixed musical scores from the original version of FFIV, but I think most of them are a bit of a disappointment. Even still, there is a music player feature that allows you to listen to all of the classic themes found in the game which is a nice touch of nostaglia for many fans. There are some minor improvements in the dialogue compared to previously and they make the experience even better than before. There are a few other subtle changes in the actual gameplay, including the fact that characters automatically run in dungeons and other areas. One thing that I have noticed is that the difficulty seems to have been toned down from FF Chronicles. You also have the option to choose from several difficulty levels, such as easy or hard. What FFIV Advance does right is pretty much everything. It tweaks a few things from the original game and presents a more polished port than FF Chronicles. In addition, there are now several new dungeons to tackle that aren't found anywhere else. From Mysidia, you could now take control of other important playable characters and obtain new legendary weapons for them in the new Cave of trials on Mt. Ordeals. As well, the new Lunar Ruins dungeon opens up after you beat the game. As you defeat the final boss with a different combination of characters, this opens up various character-specific trials in which gamers could then take on new bosses and challenges in order to collect all new equipment and weaponry. This randomly generated dungeon has a number of puzzles and other features that will keep people busy for quite some time. To fully complete the dungeon, you will have to take on some new versions of familiar bosses and complete all of the character-specific challenges.


     This game does not present anything radical or drastically new to the framework of FFIV. It simply fixes up a few of the problems that plagued the previous port found on the PSX and adds several cool new features. With different settings of difficulty and a brand-new dungeon after the game is completed, FFIV Advance is a very good portable RPG on its own and the extras just make it that much better. As it stands now, this is the best and most complete version of FFIV available and really makes FF Chronicles look fairly mediocre. If you are looking for a classic old-school RPG to play on the GBA with a decent amount of sidequests and extras to keep you busy for hours, then definitely check out FFIV Advance.