Final Fantasy IV: Advance [GBA]

[rhoenix]

This game, from what I fondly remember on the SNES, is tied with Final Fantasy X as my favorite game of the series. However, I've read on gamefaqs.com and a few other sites that this port is...well, glitchy.

I'll quote from this review at gameFAQs.com:

Yes, the overworld movements are fine. In fact, some of the overhead sections like in caves and what-not, it's nice that I can either choose to run or trudge around like in the original SNES/SFC release. Menu navigation isn't bad...but the worst? The battles. I could do fine if I had input lag during menu navigation, but the parts where I really need my inputs to be timely and accurate, it isn't. On top of that, the battles themselves lag. How on Earth Square did you manage that? It's like playing a game meant for a Pentium II being played on a 486.

So why is input lag bad? If I want to keep my battle speed at 2 and at Active, then I want to select my spells as fast as I can. But say I activate my White Spell menu, and on row 1 is Reflect and row 2 is Holy. I expect to hit down, then A twice to activate Holy on the enemy, but the game will conveniently lag, and doesn't input the down, and I instead end up casting Reflect on myself. Sounds not like a big deal? What if Cecil were at 1HP? Now I can't heal him without items AND I wasted a turn. And it doesn't happen once or twice in the game, it happens fairly often.

There's also mention of the ATB (Active Time Battle) bug:

The more annoying problem is gauge priority. Some may end up waiting forever to get their turn: say Edge's bar fills up after Cecil's, then while I'm picking Cecil's action, Yang's meter fills, then Palom's, then Porom's. There are many times where instead of Edge going after Cecil, Edge will go last AFTER everyone else, and sometimes by the time Porom would take her turn, Cecil's bar would fill up, and Edge would have to wait again.

Also very rarely, the enemies can move out of sequence. I've had this happen to me on a Bahamut battle, and if you understand how crucial timing is, it's very frustrating when Bahamut almost completely skips a count, and you end up dying as a result.

Not really encouraging - however, one can account for these glitches if one is careful, which isn't too bad. That was the bad news. The good news is that one can now select other party members than the stock story ones late in the game, and connected to this are the bonus dungeons - one can only enter a particular character's section of one bonus dungeon if that character was in the party when you beat the game. This list now includes most characters, other than Tellah, and FoSoYa, neither of whom are selectable for story reasons. There are a total of two bonus dungeons in this release.

Despite the glitches, I'm getting this game. I've been wanting this game on a portable machine for quite a while - I simply hope it holds up to even half the nostalgia I have for it.

[Darth Raptor]

As someone who has played this version of the game into the ground, I can say that these bugs are very real. I can also say that they're very minor and, depending on your style of play, nigh-unnoticable. It's lightyears ahead of the PS1 port, and isn't Final Fantasy for Kiddies like the SNES version.

My two biggest complaints with FFIV: Advance are actually totally unrelated to these problems. They never did fix the music, so the dungeon/overworld themes will RESTART every time you leave battle. I hate, hate, hate, hate HATE that. Also, Edge's bonus dungeon is bullshit like I haven't seen since Tomb Raider 3. You WILL need help on that one. It's impossible to figure out on your own.

[rhoenix]

As someone who has played this version of the game into the ground, I can say that these bugs are very real. I can also say that they're very minor and, depending on your style of play, nigh-unnoticable. It's lightyears ahead of the PS1 port, and isn't Final Fantasy for Kiddies like the SNES version.

While I'm not overjoyed at the prospect of bugs, if they're as minor as you describe, then I should be fine with it. The fixing of the script was also another selling point for me.

My two biggest complaints with FFIV: Advance are actually totally unrelated to these problems. They never did fix the music, so the dungeon/overworld themes will RESTART every time you leave battle. I hate, hate, hate, hate HATE that. Also, Edge's bonus dungeon is bullshit like I haven't seen since Tomb Raider 3. You WILL need help on that one. It's impossible to figure out on your own.

The music restarting will irritate me after a time, I can already tell. However, that's relatively minor trade-off for being able to hear the music from the Giant of Bab-il, and the lower, crystalline reaches of the Lunar Subterrane.

As for the bonus dungeons, well, I'll give in and look through a walkthrough if I must. If Edge's bonus part is as terrible as you state, then I'd consider using a walkthrough to be a probability.

Thank you again for replying - I was hoping to elicit the attention of some here who've already played this version of the game.

[Darth Raptor]

While I'm not overjoyed at the prospect of bugs, if they're as minor as you describe, then I should be fine with it. The fixing of the script was also another selling point for me.

If you play with the ATB on its lowest speed setting and in Wait Mode you really won't notice a thing. Speeding up the battles won't really save you any time. It'll just give your enemies more opportunities to relentlessly pummel you. That and things like Edge's superior speed will actually let him act first. It sounds worse than it really is.

The music restarting will irritate me after a time, I can already tell. However, that's relatively minor trade-off for being able to hear the music from the Giant of Bab-il, and the lower, crystalline reaches of the Lunar Subterrane.

Were those left out of the SNES version? Beating the game unlocks a music player just like in Dawn of Souls. It's very nice.

As for the bonus dungeons, well, I'll give in and look through a walkthrough if I must. If Edge's bonus part is as terrible as you state, then I'd consider using a walkthrough to be a probability.

I have never wanted to throw my GBA so hard before. Nothing but secret tunnels and BITCHWHORE invisible platforms. It doesn't help that you get attacked by pissant guards every other step (although easy, they have a lot of HP. I often forgot what I was originally doing after the battle was over). Ugh! And for what? I don't even remember.

Thank you again for replying - I was hoping to elicit the attention of some here who've already played this version of the game.

I fully endorse this product or service. Whether that means anything coming from a rabid FF fanwhore is up to you.

[Vendetta]

I also fully endorse this version of FF4. It's fully featured, decently translated, and has nice bonus bits.

[rhoenix]

If you play with the ATB on its lowest speed setting and in Wait Mode you really won't notice a thing.

Aha - perfect. Thank you for that; this piece of advice should save me about half an hour of tinkering irritatedly with the settings.

Speeding up the battles won't really save you any time. It'll just give your enemies more opportunities to relentlessly pummel you. That and things like Edge's superior speed will actually let him act first. It sounds worse than it really is.

Excellent - as long as there's a viable workaround for it, I'll be okay with it. Also, that's something that bugged me about the SNES version - Edge's speed never seemed to be taken into account, from what I remember. In this version, if that's "fixed," then that's actually another bonus.

Were those left out of the SNES version? Beating the game unlocks a music player just like in Dawn of Souls. It's very nice.

I don't believe there was a sound test in the SNES version - I used the poor man's method and walked into the lower reaches of the Lunar Subterrane to hear it, and then left it play as a soundtrack while I did other things.

I have never wanted to throw my GBA so hard before. Nothing but secret tunnels and BITCHWHORE invisible platforms. It doesn't help that you get attacked by pissant guards every other step (although easy, they have a lot of HP. I often forgot what I was originally doing after the battle was over). Ugh! And for what? I don't even remember.

That sounds terrible, and was, along with the maps, the reason I bought the walkthrough. However, as with the original Final Fantasy, I've my own way of doing things, so I tend not to follow walkthroughs closely.

However, in reading a bit more about the character-specific sections, I read about Cid's Crazy Air-Taxi part, which I thought was a great idea. Were there extras added in that you thought were good ideas?

I fully endorse this product or service. Whether that means anything coming from a rabid FF fanwhore is up to you.

Well, given that you've played it into submission, I consider your advice quite helpful - especially because you've personal experience with the parts I was reading about that caused me concern. Plus, it's quite nice to know someone thinks as fondly of this game as I.

I also fully endorse this version of FF4. It's fully featured, decently translated, and has nice bonus bits.

As it should be, I think - I've been looking forward to playing the older FF's on the GBA for a while now, anyway. The bonus features, including party re-ordering, are wonderful bonuses.

[Darth Raptor]

However, in reading a bit more about the character-specific sections, I read about Cid's Crazy Air-Taxi part, which I thought was a great idea. Were there extras added in that you thought were good ideas?

The music player and the cleaned up script were enough for me, but I really did like the Lunar Ruins. Seeing Zeromus' uber-UBER form for the first time in a North American release was cool. Not only can you use all the other characters after raising the Whale, you can find ultimate weapons for them that will keep them usefull (some of which are ridiculously over-powered, like the Lightbringer which has a chance of casting Holy every time you swing it). Even Edward is a force to be reckoned with once he has his final harp. The twins can learn all of the magic spells now.

Some abilities also get upgraded. Kain's Jump ability changes to Double Jump once you complete his personal dungeon. One last piece of advice: Hang on to all the weapons and armor. Don't be afraid to use Fat Chocobo to his fullest. Don't do what I did and throw away all the old weapons. As awesome as Lightbringer is, you don't want to use it against enemies with Reflect. Buh.

[rhoenix]

I know this reply is technically thread necromancy, but I wanted to address your earlier post, as well as add my own experiences to this thread about this game now that I've played it rather obsessively the past few days.

If this is judged to be thread necromancy, I offer my apologies.

The music player and the cleaned up script were enough for me, but I really did like the Lunar Ruins. Seeing Zeromus' uber-UBER form for the first time in a North American release was cool.

And, as a sidenote, I haven't been too far within the Lunar Ruins yet - I've saved right before Rosa's trial, since I didn't get her White Ring the first time.

Not only can you use all the other characters after raising the Whale, you can find ultimate weapons for them that will keep them usefull (some of which are ridiculously over-powered, like the Lightbringer which has a chance of casting Holy every time you swing it). Even Edward is a force to be reckoned with once he has his final harp. The twins can learn all of the magic spells now.

I noticed that the spell progression of the characters had changed a bit, especially the twins' earlier in the game.

Being able to change your party members is a wonderful change, though - for instance, I find Yang to be far, far more useful than Kain, for multiple reasons, even though Kain looks cooler. Edward is still...useless to me though, and the prospect of getting his special item which lets him cast Protect and Shell on the party for free still won't change that.

Some abilities also get upgraded. Kain's Jump ability changes to Double Jump once you complete his personal dungeon. One last piece of advice: Hang on to all the weapons and armor. Don't be afraid to use Fat Chocobo to his fullest. Don't do what I did and throw away all the old weapons. As awesome as Lightbringer is, you don't want to use it against enemies with Reflect. Buh.

Yeah, I ran into that issue a bit when I discovered the item inventory wasn't anywhere near as large as I remember. Then again, there are many new items.

I was rather shocked at how Cecil's attack power skyrockets when he gets Ragnarok, routinely doing 3-4k damage, and the disparity only grows with Lightbringer, especially how Edge, Kain, and the others just don't do as much damage. However, getting the special and hidden items are changing that for Edge and Yang to a degree.

And now for my update:

Setting the battle speed much lower helps immensely, and setting the ATB to Wait as Darth Raptor suggested nearly alleviates the slowdown problem during battles - as long as one is careful. There are small, though noticable pauses during a battle, and this can cause a certain button input to be ignored.

For some reason, travelling on the Airship(s) or Lunar Whale on an overworld map is choppy - not bad enough to give one headaches, but enough to notice.

The rewritten dialogue in many places flows much better and sounds better than before without sounding trite, which I thought was an achievement.

The first bonus dungeon, unlocked when one goes back to Mysidia's Tower of Wishes after visiting the Moon, basically is a treasure trove for the characters who are normally not supposed to be in your party, and contains some good armor and weapons for them. I still find Edward and Cid (sadly enough) to be less useful than other characters, though it is still fun to go back and have them in your party when you're ordinarily not supposed to.

So far, I'm glad I got this game, and I look forward to further nostalgia when Final Fantasy V comes out for the GBA toward the end of this year. However, I do hope Square-Enix knows they can't get away with the rather rushed beta-testing that Final Fantasy IV Advance received, since the choppiness can be a bit jarring. However, its still far, far better than dealing with the loading times for the game on the PSX version.