About
Final Fantasy IV is the fourth main installment in the Final Fantasy series, developed and published by Squaresoft. It was released in July 1991 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in Japan, and released as Final Fantasy II in North America in October 1991 (with alterations made due to Nintendo of America’s guidelines at the time). It has subsequently been re-released worldwide as Final Fantasy IV for the PlayStation, Game Boy Advance and other platforms, as well as a re-release on PlayStation Portable as part of a collection with its two sequels. A three-dimensional remake, developed by Matrix Software and published by Square Enix, was released for the Nintendo DS, iOS, Android and Steam platforms. The game was directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, with Yoshitaka Amano providing the character designs and Nobuo Uematsu composing the score. It was the first title developed for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the second overall to release in North America.Narrative
The game takes place in a medieval fantasy setting, and focuses on Cecil Harvey, the captain of the Red Wings of Baron. After performing a raid on Mysidia to steal the Water Crystal, Cecil and the knights question the orders of their king as they believed stealing from the Mysidians was wrong. As punishment for disloyalty, the king strips Cecil of his title, and orders him and Kain Highwind to win back his trust by sending him to the village of Mist. This sets Cecil off on an adventure in which he and many other allies he meets must uncover the truth and save the world from monsters.Final Fantasy IV introduced the iconic Active Time Battle system, in which characters’ moves are represented by a gauge that slowly fills up, allowing them to perform an action when the gauge is full. A party consists of up to five characters, each with up to three unique abilities. Characters unlock new abilities and improve their stats as they level up. In the 3D versions, additional customization is available in the form of Augments, that allow characters to use different abilities.
