Final Fantasy IV

Final Fantasy IV

Systems:

• SNES
• PS1
• GBA
• PSP
• DS (3D Remake)
• iOS (3D Remake)
• Android (3D Remake)
• Windows (3D Remake)
• Releases:
  • SNES: 1991
  • PS1: 2001 (JP: 1997, EU: 2002)
  • GBA: 2005 (EU: 2006)
  • PSP: 2011
  • DS: 2008 (JP: 2007)
  • iOS: 2012
  • Android: 2013
  • Windows: 2014

ESRB Rating:

• E10+ to Teen (T)
• Reasoning:
  • Mild Fantasy Violence
  • Suggestive Themes
  • Mild Language

Graphic Style:

• Detailed Pixel Art
• Cartoon 3D (3D Remakes)

Gameplay:

• RPG
• Turn-based combat
• Third-Person
• Single-player

Final Fantasy IV was the second Final Fantasy game to be released outside of Japan, which lead to the initial release for the SNES being titled Final Fantasy II in North America.

In this game, the player controls Cecil, a dark knight in service of his country Baron. When the orders he receives from his king clash with his conscience, he defects and teams up with a slew of friends from across the Earth and beyond to stop the machinations of the evil powers driving his world into darkness.

General Comments

This review was compiled based on the US SNES release of the game. Names used for enemies will be based on this version; please note that different releases have different enemy names.

Content that is exclusive to later releases has not been reviewed.

Due to the random nature of combat, players can reasonably expect to come into contact with any mentioned enemies; very few of them are avoidable.

Alcohol

Some NPCs make offhand comments about alcohol in bars and pubs.

In some versions, an item called Bacchus Wine can be used to cause the berserk status effect which causes characters to behave independently.

Animal Death

The first quest of the game involves Cecil and Kain going to the Village of Mist. On their way they kill a dragon who is defending the village who turns out to be the familiar of Rydia’s mother.

Aquatic Violence

While there are many aquatic-themed enemies, they are encountered just as regularly while walking on dry land as they are while wading through water. The party does not swim and is in no danger beyond standard random encounters.

At one point, the party is attacked by a sea monster while on a ship at sea. This causes the boat to capsize, and the party to become separated.

Avians

Raven and Roc enemies are based on large dragon-like birds.

Eagle, Cockatric [sic], and Rocbaby enemies are based on birds of prey.

Marion, Sorcerer, and Conjurer enemies have some sort of bird perched on their back.

Chocobos are large birds used as mounts in the Final Fantasy universe. Yellow chocobos are land-bound and can be ridden, white chocobos restore MP when interacted with, black chocobos can fly and be ridden, and Fat Chocobo stores items for the party. These are largely avoidable, but black chocobos are required to enter the Magnetic Cave near Toroia.

Body Horror

The boss Milon Z encountered on Mt. Ordeal is a grotesque undead creature with exposed bones showing through his skin and tentacle-like growths coming from his torso.

Edge’s parents are kidnapped by Rubicant and turned into strange, grotesque monsters by Dr. Lugae. The aftereffects of this are depicted, but not the transformations themselves.

The final form of the final boss Zeromus is a bizarre monstrosity: a framework of bone-like structures connected with red musculature and glowing blue eyes.

Bones

D.Bone, D.Fossil, and D.Lunar enemies are all skeletal dragons.

Skeleton, RedBone, and Skull enemies are animate skeletons.

The Milon Z boss is an undead creature with visible bones.

In the Magnetic Cavern, a few low-resolution skeletons are used as tiles for the floor in several rooms, as well as a few torch sconces that appear to be constructed from bones. These cannot be interacted with and simply exist to visually establish the danger of the area.

The final form of the boss Dr. Lugae is a skeletal robot.

The final form of the final boss Zeromus is a bizarre monstrosity: a framework of bone-like structures connected with red musculature and glowing blue eyes.

Brainwashing

Edge’s parents are kidnapped by Rubicant and turned into monsters by Dr. Lugae. They are hostile to the party when first encountered. Seeing their son again breaks them free of the control, and they chose to die rather than live further as monsters with no sense of themselves.

Claustrophobia

During an unavoidiable cut scene after defeating the boss Kainazzo, the party triggers a booby trap which locks them into a small hallway and begins to close the walls down around them. Two party members sacrifice themselves by casting a spell to turn themselves to stone in order to keep the walls from crushing the other party members.

Clowns

Marion, Sorcerer, and Conjurer enemies are clown-like puppeteer characters.

Dead Bodies

Characters are not killed when their health is depleted, but they are depicted as a fallen-over version of their sprite and have the status effect Swoon until healed.

When characters die outside of the battle screen, their corpses are depicted as lying-down sprites, and certain dead characters’ bodies will flicker and disappear when they die.

In the Magnetic Cavern, a few low-resolution skeletons are used as tiles for the floor in several rooms, as well as a few torch sconces that appear to be constructed from bones. These cannot be interacted with and simply exist to visually establish the danger of the area.

There are many undead enemies which are animate corpses. See also: Bones and Undead/Zombies content tags.

Death of Family/Friends

Rydia’s mother is killed during the beginning of the game.

Tellah and Edward both are depicted as struggling with the loss of Anna, Tellah’s daughter and Edward’s lover.

Over the course of the game, the party struggles with the deaths of several of its members, though all but one end up surviving.

Edge struggles with his parents’ deaths.

Depiction of Disaster

The first quest of the game involves Cecil and Kain traveling to the Village of Mist to deliver a package. This package is, in reality, a bomb that wipes out the village and kills its inhabitants.

There are several episodes throughout the game in which Baron’s forces are depicted attacking various cities, often by aerial bombing. The immediate effects and the aftereffects of these attacks are depicted.

After the death of her mother, Rydia summons Titan which creates an earthquake that separates Cecil and Kain and blocks the pass to her now-destroyed home village.

Depiction of War

Cecil was the leader of the nation of Baron’s air force, and the game opens with him on a mission to steal a magical crystal from a neighboring country. Baron’s military features repeatedly throughout the game and is often depicted attacking various cities through both ground action and aerial bombardment.

The dwarves of the Underworld make use of tanks to fight Baron’s air force and the Giant of Bab-il.

Disease

When Cecil discovers Rosa after leaving Baron, she is ill and the next quest involves going off to seek a cure for her disease.

Disruptive Home Life

Rydia’s mother is killed at the beginning of the game, leaving her an orphan.

Tellah raised his daughter Anna alone and, as a brilliant sage himself, is implied to have had very high hopes for her. Given the fact that Anna eloped with Edward because Tellah was angry at her for wanting to marry someone he assumes is just a lowly bard, this implies that Tellah was likely verbally or physically abusive when she attempted to go against his wishes.

Dolls

Puppet and EvilDoll enemies and the sub-bosses Cal and Brena resemble ball-jointed puppets.

The boss Calbrena is a giant doll.

Drowning

At one point, the party is attacked by a sea monster while on a ship at sea. This causes the boat to capsize, and the party to become separated. The party spends a good portion of the game under the impression that the missing party members have drowned, but this is not the case, and Cecil is eventually reunited with everyone who was lost.

Electrocution

Electric magic can be wielded by the party’s mages, Rydia’s summons, and the enchantments upon certain weaponry. Many enemies can also cast lightning spells.

Existential Despair

Kain and Golbez both struggle with guilt and despair when they realize that they have been mind-controlled into committing some terrible atrocities. They struggle with the philosophical hurdles of their responsibility for the things they did while under the mind-control.

Explosions

Several of the Fire spells and the Nuke spell usable by Tellah, Rydia, and FuSoYa and many different enemies throughout the game create damaging explosions. MegaNuke spell, usable by several bosses, creates explosions that damage all party members.

Bomb, Gray Bomb, Balloon, and Grenade enemies can Self-Destruct and cause heavy damage to one party member. This is depicted with a synthesized explosion noise and a puffy explosion sprite.

The MomBomb boss explodes at the party as it leads up to its third phase. This damages the entire party and is depicted the same way as the Self-Destruct attack used by other Bombs.

The Red Wings of Baron are depicted dropping bombs on several cities throughout the game. These explode with synthesized explosion noises and puffy explosion sprites.

Eye Horror/Eye Trauma

FloatEye, Red Eye, FatalEye, and Plague enemies are large winged enemies with a single large eyeball dominating their face. Attacking them doesn’t provide any different animations than attacking any enemy, but their huge eyes could be unsettling.

Felines

Panther and BlackCat enemies are based on big cats.

Ice Beast enemies and, despite the name, FlameDog enemies resemble large burning feline-shaped monsters.

Chimera and Mantcore [sic] enemies have a lion head.

Fire

Fire magic can be wielded by the party’s mages, Rydia’s summons, and as enchantments upon certain weaponry. Many enemies can also cast fire spells.

Ice Beast enemies and, despite the name, FlameDog enemies resemble large burning feline-shaped monsters.

Ghosts

Anna appears to Edward as a ghost following her death.

Weeper, Grudger, and Screamer enemies are ghostly creatures inspired by banshees.

Spirit, Soul, and Ghost enemies are whispy ghosts.

Tellah appears as a ghost during the final battle to help offer support and healing to the party.

Gore

The boss Milon Z encountered on Mt. Ordeal is a grotesque undead creature with exposed bones showing through his skin and tentacle-like growths coming from his torso.

The final form of the final boss Zeromus is a bizarre monstrosity: a framework of bone-like structures connected with red musculature and glowing blue eyes.

Guns

Beamer enemies look like laser pistols, and some other robotic enemies use laser beam attacks.

MacGiant and RedGiant enemies are large robots that have a laser canon for an arm.

Heights

The paths the party walks upon in the mountain areas of Mt. Hobs and Mt. Ordeal are an image that moves independently of a background of a wide forest that gives the impression of being at a great height. It is not possible to fall from these areas.

In the Underground Waterway, the party has to jump off of a waterfall. A falling sound effect plays, and the party is depicted as a small splash in the waterfall’s face. This jump does not harm the party in any way.

Insects

SandWorms, AquaWorms, and Red Worms are huge worm-like enemies.

SandMoth, RockMoth, and GlomWing enemies are large moths.

Larva, Crawler, and RocLarva enemies resemble caterpillars.

The Antlion boss is a large insectoid monster with large pincers.

Sandpede and Centipede enemies are large centipedes.

Kidnapping

Golbez kidnaps Rosa and ransoms her back to the party for one of the magical Crystals.

Edge’s parents are kidnapped by Rubicant and turned into monsters by Dr. Lugae.

Medical Malpractice

Dr. Lugae is a mad-scientist character who, among other things, turns Edge’s parents into monsters through his experiments.

Mind Control

The Confuse status effect causes those affected to attack their allies and heal their enemies. Based on this, this effect could be construed as mind control.

Golbez uses mind-control to turn Kain against the Cecil and the party.

In fact, Golbez turns out to be under mind-control himself by Zemus.

Murder

Cecil and Kain accidentally commit mass murder at the beginning of the game when they deliver the package (actually a bomb) to the Village of Mist which destroys the village and most of its inhabitants.

By killing the Mist Dragon on their way to the Village of Mist, Cecil and Kain unknowingly kill Rydia’s mother as well.

The King of Baron was killed prior to the events of the game and replaced with an evil duplicate.

Mutilation

Edge’s parents are kidnapped by Rubicant and turned into strange, grotesque monsters by Dr. Lugae. The aftereffects of this are depicted, but not the transformations themselves.

Needles

Edge's Ninja move Pin or Shadowbind uses needles to paralyze the enemies. Even when used, however, the move rarely lands.

Nudity

The design for the Weeper, Grudger, and Screamer enemies features the nude upper torso of a woman with a wispy, ghostly lower body. The enemy’s arm, however, is posed to almost completely cover the breasts.

Most of the clearly female enemies or characters in the game trend toward partial nudity, mostly through “bikini plate” or "pastie" style armor or clothing. Enemies which feature especially risque designs include:

• Weeper, Grudger, and Screamer enemies - In the 2D versions, they are clearly topless, though their arm is posed to almost completely cover their breasts. In the 3D versions, however, their arms move, and the nipple area is now barely covered by strands of hair.
• Arachne and Talantla enemies - Large pastie-like scales cover their breasts.
• Lilith, Lamia, and Q.Lamia enemies - These enemies are posed in the 2D games so that their bodies are mostly covered by their hair, save for a provocative swath of lower back. In the 3D games, their pose shows a good deal more of their chest and skimpy bandeau tops.
• VampGirl and VampLady enemies - In the 3D and early 2D releases, these enemies are fairly tame, but the PSP release features the enemies clearly topless, though viewed from behind, and clearly depict their butt cheeks through their skirts)
• Valvalis/Barbariccia boss - She wears a strapless bikini-like costume in all releases.

Offensive Language

In certain releases, the words "bastard," "damn," and "hell" are used in dialogue.

Physical Abuse

When they meet for the first time, Tellah begins shouting at and hitting Edward due to Anna’s death. Given the fact that Anna eloped with Edward because Tellah is angry at her for wanting to marry someone he assumes is just a lowly bard, this implies that this is not the first time Tellah has yelled at or been violent toward them.

Psychological Trauma

Due to the trauma associated with the fiery attack that destroyed her home village, Rydia struggles to master fire magic, as fire is an emotional trigger for her.

Rats/Rodents

SwordRat, Needler, and StingRat enemies are hedgehog-like rodents.

CaveBat, GiantBat and WereBat enemies are based on bats.

Reptiles

Sandman and WaterHag enemies are amphibious humanoids with reptilian features.

CaveToad and MadToad enemies are based on toads.

Aligator [sic] and Crocdile [sic] enemies are based on alligators.

Basilisk, IceLiz, and BlackLiz enemies resemble chameleon-like reptiles.

Turtle, Carapace, and Tortoise enemies are based on turtles.

Gargoyle, Hooligan enemies are winged, reptilian gargoyles.

The boss Kainazzo resembles a turtle.

YellowD and GreenD enemies are reptilian dragons.

TinyToad enemies and the second form of the ToadLady enemy are small toads.

The bosses Bahamut and Wyvern are reptilian dragons.

Clapper, Ging-Ryu, and King-Ryu enemies are long, serpent-like dragons.

The D.Machin, Red D., and Blue D. enemies are reptilian dragons.

The Toad effect spell, cast by some enemies and learnable by Rydia, Palom, Tellah, and FuSoYa, turns the target into a small frog. While under the effect of Toad, the character’s sprite on battle screens and on the world map is a small frog, and their portrait on the menu screen is also changed into a frog.

Self Harm

To avenge his daughter’s death, Tellah casts the powerful spell Meteo and ends up killing himself when it drains all of his energy.

Yang intends to sacrifice himself to prevent a magical canon from firing and killing a large number of people but survives and can be re-encountered later.

Cid jumps out of an airship with a bomb to help the party escape the Underworld. He somehow survives this, and the party is reunited with him when they next return to the dwarves castle.

Edge’s parents are kidnapped by Rubicant and turned into monsters by Dr. Lugae. They are hostile to the party when first encountered. Seeing their son again breaks them free of the control, and they chose to die rather than live further as monsters with no sense of themselves.

Sexual Harassment

In the city of Toroia, an old man can be found hiding in tall grass by a pond in which several young women with the “sexy girl”-type sprite can be seen bathing or swimming. When spoken to, he acts surprised and tells you to go away, which implies that he is peeping at the girls.

Sexualization/Objectification

Rosa and adult Rydia, the only female party members who are not children, wear relatively skimpy outfits especially compared to their male counterparts.

Most of the clearly female enemies or characters in the game fall into this design trope, through partial nudity or “bikini plate” style armor. Enemies which feature sexualized designs include:

• Weeper, Grudger, and Screamer enemies
• Arachne and Talantla enemies
• Lilith, Lamia, and Q.Lamia enemies
• VampGirl and VampLady enemies
• EpeeGirl and Kary enemies
• Valvalis boss

Dancer girls appear in many towns and will usually put on a show for the party when talked to. These are quite tame due to the limitations of the pixel-art medium, but the characters are designed to be sexy, with dresses with thigh slits that open to the hips.

Slavery

Kain and Golbez are both mind-controlled into servitude by evil powers.

Snakes

Lilith, Lamia, and Q.Lamia enemies have human torsos from the waist up and serpent tails from the waist down.

Hydra and Python enemies are multi-headed snakes.

The boss Baigan has a snake-like face and two arms with snake-heads instead of hands.

CaveNaga, Naga, and HugeNaga enemies have a human face with a snake body.

The Dark Elf boss turns into a long serpent-like dragon for the second phase of its combat.

Chimera and Mantcore [sic] enemies have a snake-like dragon head.

Medusa and Gorgon enemies have snakes for hair.

The Leviathan boss and summon and the Ogopogo boss are serpent-like dragons.

Clapper, Ging-Ryu, and King-Ryu enemies are long, serpent-like dragons.

The Pale Dim boss is a very serpentine dragon.

Spiders

Arachne and Talantla enemies have human torsos from the waist up and spider bodies from the waist down.

Stalking

In the city of Toroia, an old man can be found hiding in tall grass by a pond in which several young women with the “sexy girl”-type sprite can be seen bathing or swimming. When spoken to, he acts surprised and tells you to go away, which implies that he is peeping at the girls. There is no evidence of how long this has occurred, but the man does not move from his spot even when confronted.

Suicide

To avenge his daughter’s death, Tellah casts the powerful spell Meteo and ends up killing himself when it drains all of his energy.

Yang intends to sacrifice himself to prevent a magical canon from firing and killing a large number of people but survives and can be re-encountered later.

Cid jumps out of an airship with a bomb to help the party escape the Underworld. He somehow survives this, and the party is reunited with him when they next return to the dwarves castle.

Edge’s parents are kidnapped by Rubicant and turned into monsters by Dr. Lugae. They are hostile to the party when first encountered. Seeing their son again breaks them free of the control, and they chose to die rather than live further as monsters with no sense of themselves.

Supernatural Evil

Gargoyle and Hooligan enemies resemble winged demons.

The Dark Elf boss resembles an evil goblin.

Gremlin and Fiend enemies are demon-like imps.

Treant and DarkTree enemies are evil possessed trees.

Transphobia

In Fabul, the party encounters someone who, at first appears to be one of the dancing-girl-type characters. However, when asked to perform, their appearance changes into one of the karate-guy-type sprites, and they perform their dance. This surprises the party and is not otherwise commented on; however, this is the only such dance which is reacted to with shock.

Undead/Zombies

Zombie, Ghoul, Revenant, and Ghast enemies are based on zombies.

D.Bone, D.Fossil, and D.Lunar enemies are all skeletal dragons.

Skeleton, RedBone, and Skull enemies are animate skeletons.

The Milon Z boss is a grotesque undead monster.

VampGirl and VampLady enemies are based on vampires.

Vehicular Trauma

The party rides on a ship at one point which is attacked by a sea monster and crashes, causing several members of the party to go missing for an extended period of time.

Verbal Abuse

When they meet for the first time, Tellah begins shouting at and hitting Edward due to Anna’s death. Given the fact that Anna eloped with Edward because Tellah is angry at her for wanting to marry someone he assumes is just a lowly bard, this implies that this is not the first time Tellah has yelled at or been violent toward them.

Violence Against Children

Rydia is quite young when she first joins the party and can take damage and be harmed like any other character. She is also injured in a shipwreck.

Palom and Porom are also children, can also be harmed, and eventually temporarily sacrifice themselves to protect the party.

Weapons

The various party members can wield swords, spears, daggers, axes, bows and arrows, boomerangs, hammers, staves, rods, whips, and thrown weapons, as well as combat magics. Many enemies use these or similar weapons.

The Red Wings of the nation Baron use airships for aerial bombardments of various cities throughout the game.

The dwarves of the Underworld make use of tanks to fight Baron’s air force and the Giant of Bab-il.

There are several robotic enemies that function as defense systems for the mechanical areas the party ventures into.

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