Every RPG fan should play Final Fantasy IV at least once. Seventeen years after its release, the game is still a brilliant example of solid storyline, excellent character turnover and fast pace, both in battles and in exploration sessions. Its main characters are still remembered with affection by thousands of gamers and its soundtrack is so popular that it's even taught to Japanese children in music classes. There's no need to talk about the plot here: If you've already played the game, you know what we're talking about. If you were born sometime after 1990 and you've managed to get this far without any spoilers, you should definitely pick up the game and see it yourself. One more reason to do so: the DS remake of Final Fantasy IV is the best version yet.

The modernization efforts made by the Square Enix team are immediately visible when inserting the game card: Final Fantasy IV now opens with a beautiful introductory movie, in which every character is featured in realistic proportions in full dual-screen glory. Cecil, Rydia and the other characters have never been this real, expressing their emotions and moving in a fluid way. The graphic style used in-game is, however, slightly different, as characters are now represented by polygonal models with big heads and a smaller lower body. The effect is cute, especially with the big anime-style eyes expressing so much of characters' personalities, and makes a nice substitute for the beloved sprites from the original version. Further, almost every cut-scene in the game is fully voice acted; from Kain's deep bass voice to Rosa's sweet tones, everybody sounds exactly the way players have been imagining them for seventeen years. Along with the evergreen soundtrack, the voice acting makes Final Fantasy IV a pleasure to listen to when wearing headphones.


Unlike the Final Fantasy III remake, which was beautiful but still bore traces of old-school, somewhat slow gameplay, Final Fantasy IV manages to successfully stand the challenge of time. The pace is faster and the tedious job of leveling up is eased by the continuous character turnover in which some party members disappear for a while and then come back, making up quickly for the missed time. As for battles, Final Fantasy IV marked the introduction of Square's well-known ATB (Active Time Battle) system. This system has been kept intact in the DS remake: Players will still have to input orders for their characters in real time, but they can now choose between six different levels of speed. This option shouldn't be underestimated, as the general difficulty of Final Fantasy IV DS is much closer to the original Japanese version of the game than to the dumbed-down game published in North America in 1991.

The game also features an auto-battle system which can be activated by pressing the X button. This speeds up random battles, but players will still have to take full control of their characters when facing real challenges, heavily relying on their individual skills. Strategy is more important than in other Final Fantasy installments and picking the right spell or ability in the shortest time can really change the outcome of a battle. Thankfully, the new menu system allows players to customize their control bars, placing the most-used abilities in the main menu. Even spells can be positioned in a different order, which is great for quick access.