Finally Finished Final Fantasy IV
After putting this off for weeks, I finally sat down and spent the ~2 hours required to finish my first playthrough of Final Fantasy IV DS... The last part of the Lunar Subterrane took even longer than I remembered. After having to double back a few times, to get equipment I had missed, the descent through the final levels felt like it would never end.
The frequency of random encounters felt extremely high, although each fight was managable enough — it was just annoying having to go through the motions. I could have run from the fights, but you end up taking damage that way so I figure I may as well get the experience points. As a rule, in Final Fantasy games, I don't run unless I absolutely have to.
My party was so powerful, with everyone around level 85, that the final fight with Zeromus was laughably easy. A number of the other milestone boss fights were significantly harder than the final showdown. Whatever; I'm just glad this adventure is over (for the time being). There is extended content and optional boss fights, which I will get to some day — but not any time soon.
As much as I love this game, Final Fantasy IV drags out in certain parts. The story is great and it will always be a classic that I have fond memories of, but it has its flaws too. This is only the third time I have beaten this game. It took me years to summon the patience to beat my original SNES copy a couple of times, and then there have been a number of failed attempts at this DS version. Ignoring the whole Augment system they bolted onto the original gamed turned out to be a bad idea, as was eschewing any sort of reference guide and winging it in a revamped version of the game.
Up next: Final Fantasy V, which I have effectively zero experience with. (Giving up early into playing a badly translated ROM in the early 2000s doesn't count for much.) I don't exactly know when I will be starting on this, but I promised myself I would give it a chance before playing one of my all-time favourite games, period, in Final Fantasy VI.
PUBLISHED: 2026-04-26