Final Fantasy IV

Final Fantasy IV is the pixel remaster of the 1991 SNES classic, rebuilt from the ground up with redrawn 2D sprites, rearranged music, and a cleaned-up translation. If you somehow missed this one, it follows Cecil Harvey, a dark knight who serves an increasingly murderous king, decides he has a conscience, and then spends roughly 20-25 hours atoning for it in spectacular fashion. For 1991, the plot was genuinely ambitious. Replayed today, it still holds up better than most JRPGs three times its length. The Active Time Battle system is the engine everything runs on. Characters act on individual speed timers, so the game never fully lets you breathe, but it is not so fast that it becomes a reflex test rather than a strategy puzzle. Cecil eventually promotes from dark knight to paladin, trading self-damage attacks for white magic, and that mechanical shift is one of the tidiest pieces of storytelling-through-systems in the franchise. The rest of the party rotates frequently, which is either a feature or a bug depending on how attached you get to characters before the story boots them. Rosa the white mage, Rydia the summoner, Kain the dragoon with the perpetually questionable loyalty, Edge the ninja throwing shurikens and bluster in equal measure - the cast is large but everyone has a moment that earns their slot. The remaster specifically adds auto-battle, a run toggle, and a bestiary, all of which are quality-of-life wins. The encounter rate in the original was punishing by modern standards, and while the remaster does not gut it, the run button alone saves hours of tedium. The font and UI got a refresh too, and this time the script actually reflects what the Japanese original said, which matters for a few plot beats that were softened or scrambled in older Western releases. The orchestrated soundtrack is optional - you can switch back to the original chiptune versions in the settings, and honestly both are worth hearing. What does not work as well: the back half of the game leans hard on a parade of dungeons stacked on top of each other, and the pacing drags before the finale. The party also has limited build customisation compared to later entries. Equipment and level scaling do the heavy lifting, and if you come from Final Fantasy VI or V expecting job systems or deep gear theorycrafting, the mechanical ceiling here is lower. This is a story-forward game with functional combat, not a build-puzzle game with a story attached. The challenge mode added in the remaster helps if you want the combat to bite back, but veteran JRPG players will still find it gentle on default settings. For anyone who wants to understand why the series became what it became, or who simply likes a clean, emotionally coherent JRPG with a beginning, middle, and end that all connect, this remaster is a solid way to do it. The Steam version runs without fuss, the graphical upgrade is tasteful rather than garish, and 91% positive reviews from over two thousand players suggests the goodwill toward this one has not faded.

Monika · Scout Team

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