This was the 1st rpg I ever played great game love it the translation never mattered to me lol.

Final Fantasy IV is my favorite game of all time. It was both my first RPG and the first video game story I ever truly cared about. When Kain betrayed Cecil at Fabul, I booed. When Cecil became a paladin, I cheered. When adult Rydia showed up to set Golbez straight, I was pleasantly surprised. When Edge was forced to put his parents out of their misery, I was empathetic and when the person responsible showed up soon after, I was enraged. A perfect 10/10 for me, then and now.

ABSOLUTELY WORTH IT. In my honest opinion, this FF2 Snes and FF3 Snes {I guess 4 and 6 in Japanese}, are the best FF games hands down. I am 33 years old and I find myself once a year spending the time about 1 or 2 months replying magical gems, rather then these new age BS games that only focus on graphics and are stale in other areas.

maybe a little harsh. I think its definitely worth playing. The translation is bad but not simons quest bad. The music/story/gameplay are all worth experiencing.

Man as a kid playing on release I was so confused with Cecil doing the “dark” move in the intro, and than seeing unable to do it in game. The mount ordeals shit hits hard emotionally The soundtrack was so absurdly good for its time man... 🎼 🎵

"You spoony bard" fits perfectly for the situation he and Tella's daughter are in. Spoony means 1. Silly, Foolish and 2. being sentimentally in love. Sp yeah, it's pretty apt.

This is in my top 3 Final Fantasy games, everyone's gotta try it. I gotta say: The graphics were pretty awesome at the time. It was one of our first peeks at MODE 7 GRAPHICS! Some of the dungeons are quite pretty with the mineshafts and rivers and vistas in the background; and damn some of the spells are really nice looking! I'll defend even the US version of this game to my last breath but, I agree, I've gotten the most enjoyment out of the GBA, PSP versions. (And an early emulated translation back in the day).. Anyways.. Great videos dude, keep up the good work!

my favorite turn based RPG of all time. LOVED and played this game to death as a teen in 1992

2:58 - And Thus, Noah The Spoony One Antwiler was born.

This has long been considered the "easy type" version of the game in retro gaming communities even though it really isn't,. Instead, it's streamlined, the equivalent of a radio edit. As far as I know, the gameplay changes between the Japanese original and the U.S. SNES release are: * A lot of marginally useful items are removed or consolidated (Antodotes/etc. replaced with just Heals, which are basically cheap Remedies; consumable spell items just gone). While I miss Bacchus Wine and Lunar Curtains when playing the SNES version, losing them is IMO a fair trade for not constantly running out of inventory space thanks to Maiden Kisses and Coeurl Whiskers. Some chests have different contents as a result, but that seems like a wash. * Several marginally useful battle abilities are removed. The video mentions Cecil's Dark ability, and that and Palom's Bluff are the only two that are even situationally useful. Tellah's random cast, FuSoYa's underpowered regen, Porom's tears, Yang's charged attack, Edward's potion sharing, and more are pretty much useless. * Spells are learned at earlier levels in some cases. In Rydia's case this hardly matters since her summons are still superior. In Rosa's case it means that Float and Wall come a little earlier, and that's early enough that you can tackle the Summoned Monster and Sylph Caves as soon as they become available, even if you haven't been grinding at all. As a result, those caves can be harder since you're lower level all around (whereas in the original you have to grind to a higher level to learn Float, or just be ready to heal every few steps -- either way, pretty tedious). * I think that's it, actually. There are other rumored differences, like the game being easier in any meaningful way, but it's just not true. It's frustrating that the people who accuse the game of being easy also complain about abilities that have been removed. If they were worth keeping, wouldn't that imply that their removal makes the game harder, not easier? I've played both the U.S. SNES version and the fan-translated SFC version many times, and I like them both. I wish the SNES version was given a better translation, but otherwise I think the U.S. changes can be argued to have improved the game. If you play both, pay attention to how much more tedious grinding and inventory cleanup you have to do in the more "faithful" version. The actual meat of the game -- making meaningful decisions about purchases, equipment, exploration, and battle -- is just as good in the U.S. SNES version.

This may sound like a convenient excuse, but I LOVE the bad english translation. Yeah, the rereleases are better games overall which holds true for the next two games (except the awful smart phone versions). But I still think FF4 SNES is great and would recommend it to my generation. Is it flawed? Most definitely and they have every right to be called out when present. I guess it doesn't ruin the experience for me despite being very aware of it. :)

This channel should be more popular than it is. It's quite good.

Japan: "We need to simplify our RPGs to accommodate Western gamers." Also Japan: "We need to simplify Western RPGs to accommodate Japanese gamers."

FF4 is the game that made me want to become a game developer when I was a kid, I LOVED this game. English not being my first language, I was too busy trying to understand that I never noticed that the translation was bad. The "spoony bard" never bothered me because I just thought "oh that's an english expression that I'm not aware of".

Got this for Xmas in 91. I was 15. Loved it and still do

i honestly think none of those flaws take away from any of the enjoyment of an almost perfect game.. but then again that's coming from a guy who has a tattoo of dark knight cecil on his arm :)

This FF6, CT, and Ogre Battle were my favorite Snes rpgs when I was a kid and this always got brushed under the rug. In my opinion FF4s story line surpasses Ff6s as well as the soundrack (maybe tied, very close). I am 32 and still listen the OST and play some of the piano versions for my daughter to sleep. (Theme of love, Troian Beauty, Land of Summoners) I think she would have nightmares if I played the 4 fiends battle before bed. This game will be apart of me forever, Keep making great videos.

I have to disagree, Final Fantasy 2 is one of the greatest games of all time! It may be hard to explain to people that weren't alive or old enough to remember the early 90's but the graphics on this game were unseen at the time, playing it for the first time was truly an experience! Everything looked beautiful and the game was very immersive story wise (as good as reading a book). The music as you said is phenomenal, I would easily put it up against any of today's games. The remakes added flavor crap and an artificial difficulty, this game wasn't meant to be hard, and nobody really cared about that back then, it was just good... which was an uncommon trait. Cecil could still use "dark", it was a weapon ability. I would easily recommend this version to anyone and everyone, even over the PSP/3DS versions. Watching your video almost made me feel like you had never really played the game outside of a port, give it a chance.

The word "spoony" definitely seems out of place, but it does make sense in context being it simply means he's foolish, or dim witted, or even "foolishly in love". Anyway, another good video, sir.

FFIV has such amazing story and character elements to it, especially in the early parts. There are so many different kinds of characters -- young, old, brave, cowardly, rich, poor, strong, weak. There is a variety of relationships: romantic, father-daughter, siblings, best friends and rivals turned enemies, estranged father & brother, etc. The main character, Cecil, starts off having unerring faith in his king, to questioning his motives, to facing his past crimes and realizing he was on the wrong side all along. He takes Rydia under his protection, who cannot cast fire spells at first because of the trauma of her village burning down. There's Tellah, who is a respected and powerful mage, yet has a tragic weakness for being over-emotional (possibly a bit senile?) and throwing himself carelessly at his goals (lashing out at Edward who dotes after his daughter Anna, sacrificing himself in a vain attempt to thwart Golbez). On a basic level, some of these characters give us moments that rank among some of the best storytelling video games have ever offered -- if, perhaps, told a bit awkwardly through an early 16-bit medium. But I think this game deserves to be looked at a lot more favourably, and taken as an example of how to craft a quality RPG.

Playing this game back in the early-mid 90's was untouchable. I know people fanboy over Chrono trigger and FF6 now (rightfully so). This game was a game changer in its day. The music in this game is probably the best ever, Hans Zimmer (Gladiator) good. Its mix of medievil/space/alien setting and the ascension from Dark Knight to Paladin. It had feels of true desolation/hoplessness and how the party was going to overcome the bleak present.

This and FF6 is my fav In the series,so emotional yet fun,i agree with you, the music make it sound like a big deal,Really great story and great game.thanks snesdrunk

I always thought it was weird how Rydia in the SNES translation just casually said that her mother died because the dragon died without expressing any real emotions. She sounds much more believable in the new translations, where it's made clear that she is actually _crying._

This game is very special to me. I played this a long time ago when I didn’t even know that games came from Japan 😂... I rented it from a generic video store for the weekend. (remember those days?) 😆! I fell in love with it and remember returning it to the video store and re-renting it over and over until I beat it. I eventually found out about the whole FF2 is really FF4 and finally had a chance to play the real one when I played it for the Game Boy Advanced... Amazing game easily ranked on my top 5 next to FF6 and Crono Trigger which is just godly status. Thanks for the video. You brought back very pleasant childhood memories...

I'm currently playing through this on my channel and you are right about the translation. One of the funnier bits was when Cecil introduces Tellah as "Edward's father" when he was really Edward's father-IN-LAW. Otherwise, you get this weird idea that something wasn't right in Tellah's family...lol.Even when I first played it back in the day it stuck out.

I started playing this a few weeks ago, the translation is bad but it really doesn’t detract from how awesome the game is as a whole. Also, I like how action packed it is. I don’t have the time to grind for levels, I just want to sit down and have fun

Final Fantasy II on the SNES holds a special place for me. I still play it despite its bad translation. I got it for Christmas when I was 12 and made sure I kept it.

When I started really collecting SNES games this was one of the first games i found. It is rough around the edges and better ports are definitely out there, but i think the SNES port holds up pretty well despite that, just take yourself back to the early days of the SNES and think about how ambitious this game was. I also find silly translations and typos funny in these old games.

I really liked the Nintendo DS version. The additional components I thought were great and the complete graphical design I enjoyed. It also rewards multiple playthrough as you can access new abilities each time

Sad part is, its my favorite instalment in the series and my favorite game on the snes.

Final Fantasy II was the very first Final Fantasy i played.. Nostalgic! But yeah.. i liked the GBA version more. Rydia is my favorite character in the series, i use her name in a lot of other games too :)

Decided to replay my childhood! 1 hour into this beautiful gem!

This review has some good points, but ultimately draws the wrong conclusion and makes a bad recommendation. This game is *not only* worth playing in any form, it's a top 3 or 5 greatest RPG ever (I rank it #1 for the story, characters, and - of course - the soundtrack). At the time of its release, it was RPG magic... even with the flaws mentioned in the video. It didn't matter. I guess you had to be there in '91' or '92 playing this game to know what it felt like. This game single-handedly took RPG's out of the dark ages (literally) and made them into something so much more grander, epic, and emotionally compelling. You can't go wrong playing this game in any version, but I recommend the original 16 bit version (on any system).

i love this game, literally cherished memories

I like the graphics in this over the later versions. PSP version looks too polished. Great games, one of the best in the series.

FF4 is a so nostalgic game to me.

Great review, wish you could have been there when it came out though, playing ff1 then moving to this was amazing!!

This was the first RPG I got on the SNES and ever played. It completely got me into the genre. This game will always be a favorite because of the nostalgia :)

This was the first game I ever rented and I been hooked ever since. It amazes me that a 7 yr old would want to play and enjoy a game with this much reading. I guess it might help explain why I've been a bookworm my whole life

This is such a good game !!! Beated this game about 15 times..

You thought this game was easy?

The PSP version that comes bundled with The After Years is probably the best version of this game. Not only do you get FF4, but you also get After Years which I recommend playing (even though a lot of other people don't). I mean, it's FF4. The only thing better than FF4 is ... more FF4. lol. Sure, TAY has a lot of grind in it, but the boss rush at the end is fun. Also, the "Dark" Command? It sucked anyways. It did very little damage, and it drained your own HP. I'm not so sure it was removed for censor reasons (they could have just renamed it to 'wave' or something). I think it was removed because of how... bad... it was. You were better off just swinging away than using it.

4 was the first rpg i was actually allowed to look at. any other game my family didnt want me being near for fear that i would delete their save. but at this point i was ... 8? so my uncle actually let me play it for a little while...i hold this one high for probably that reason. also soundtrack. great soundtrack.

I know it's an old video, but the 3D-versions of the game (DS, iOS, Android, PC) are also worth playing if you're interested. And I'm certainly gonna get the PSP-version

"No, not those Red Wings." Almost spit coffee all over my monitor.

I think the Dev Room in the 3D remake had someone say they did their research on the word "spoony" (meaning overly emotional and sentimental, which face it, even into The After Years described Edward/Gilbert Christopher von Muir's lamentation over losing Anna), and what was initially considered "bad localization" was actually the correct term.

This game was just utter brilliance, even with the flaws. I will always cherich the memories of everything this game gave to me and my friends. I still love listening to the soundtrack and play the game once a year or so. Some of these Snes games truly makes me turn into someone who cannot be objective in any way when talking about them. Great review, you sir are stronger than I am, talking about a work of art in in a serious obective sense of it's place in video game history. I cast Cure 4 and Life 2 on all of you now while Nobuo Uematsu's theme of love is playing.

This is my most favourite RPG. Would’ve love to see a movie made from this. The most part I had the most frustrations with is getting Rydia’s other summon monsters like the goblin and bomb in which you gotta fight those monsters a ridiculous amount of times until it dropped the item for in which rydia could acquire to be able to summon. Great storyline in my opinion.

I loved this game growing up as a kid, since back then most of us never knew about the Japanese versions. So I'd say once again this is a game that people like me who'd enjoy for nostalgia reasons

You know, I gotta say back in the day when this was released on Super Nintendo it was a significant step up when compared to the original Final Fantasy. In North America, we had no idea that there were FF 2 - 3 so when we got this version it was released as Final Fantasy 2. And compared with how clunky and broken the original one was on the NES, this was incredible and really engaging. The battle system was cleaned up and much more efficient, the inventory system was fixed, and each of the characters in your party had individual dialogue that could "speak" amongst themselves and had more personality than a plank of wood like those of the original FF. Looking back on it, yes there were some problems that you pointed out, but it wasn't a bad game. I really enjoyed it and I still look back on it as one of my favorite RPGs of all time.

This game blew my freaking mind in 6th grade

This was my first RPG on SNES and it set the tone for storytelling and exploration. I still love the game. Definitely some nostalgia here, but I still enjoy it. Cheers.

I loved this game bro. I played through it again in like 2013. The part with the twins when your chasing the baddy. I don't want to spoil it but damn that part.

This was my first RPG and first Final Fantasy. I was introduced to it by a new neighbor at the time who was... an interesting character. I may have borrowed it from him, but I distinctly remember renting it from Blockbuster or a grocery store. It had a save that was at the end of the game, characters were in the level 60s, best equipment (sans Adamant armor), etc. I was blown away. Eventually, I got my own copy of the game. This game, rather than III/VI or VII, has the most nostalgia for me (though VII is pretty nostalgic).

The Wonderswan color version is also pretty great imo! But unfortunately we haven't even received a complete fantranslation for that one, only a combat text translation.

i remember i had trouble with the final area or boss. i later found out if you level up too much your stats go down, is that true?

First snes game I ever played! Great video! Glad I subscribed!!

Now there are a lot of translation issues, for example - "I was to get Zemus!" but when Kluya says "Justice is not the only right in this world.. Someday, you will see... Go... Cecil..." It's my favorite delivery out of any of the ports or remakes.

I still think it's worth playing. The translations isn't accurate but its at least understandable. The core of the game is fine.

This game was awesome. Got it for Christmas when I was 12 along with the album Purple by STP.

the game may not be very good but I had fun with it playing it when I was 8 years old. It brings back so many memories.

damn, that song at the end though

Yeah, I'm playing this right now and the thrust of the story is pretty clear to me and the antiquated bizarre language has a kind of charm. I'm certainly glad to hear this is the version that wastes the least amount of my time with grinding too.

They joys of childhood: my friend Kenny and I were you g and had absolutely no clue to any sort of controversy over this game. We just loved playing the game thinking it was the most amazing thing ever :)

That music cue at 2:10 is on point. It’s pretty funny.

1:49 "No, not those Red Wings" That Evil Empire has already collapsed.

FF4 isn’t my favourite SNES RPG, but I still enjoy the original release. I agree that the translation isn’t very good, though I still get the gist of what’s going on.

Just subbed cause this channel is good. loved the FF 2..FF3..Contra 3 & super castlevania 4 videos. Great job bud 👊

I'm glad I had this game when I was like 9 or 10 years old. I didn't notice anything wrong with the dialog xD

Wow, you're the first person i've known to ever speak or know of HCBailey. He does such great work in his LP's that i'm glad someone else recognized it. Now if only more people recognized your work.

I have very fond memories of playing this game (the so-called "bad version") when I was 15. I remember renting it many times before buying my own used copy later. This wasn't my first RPG, however, it arguably was one of the first to really sell me on the RPG genre. I remember renting Final Fantasy I for the NES back when it first released. At the time, me and my sister were new to RPGs and neither of us really knew what we were doing, but I was still left with a favorable impression of the game. My sister never got passed the pirates in Final Fantasy I, so we never got the pirate ship to explore the world (about a decade later, I bought the cartridge and finished the game). Final Fantasy II (or IV) definitely sold me on the series for sure, even if I was playing it three years late in 1994. Final Fantasy III (VI) will always be my favorite, however.

What version is that at 3:12 ??

I love bad translations! It's really not that bad either, and you can still understand what's going on. Besides ignorance is bliss in this case. If you didn't know any of the parts were censored, then it wouldn't have made a difference. I played this after FF3/FF6, and I still enjoyed it. Great story, great music outweigh a few bad translations in my opinion.

Just started playing this on PSP, I've never played an RPG before, the music is awesome!!

It's still very fun to play and not broken due to the changes. I get the translation isn't the best but this was a very early SNES release and not much money was spent on localization for RPGs, which were still in the early stages of mainstream support, in those days. You could argue that it's thanks to games like FFII (4) on SNES, that later RPGs like FFIII(6), were far better off. And for many of us old folks it was a great improvement over FF1 for the NES, especially in the story. I guess I am just saying that it was fantastic compared to most of the RPGs that came before it like the early Dragon Quests on NES and the first FF. Now, its easy to look back and dismiss it for its shortcomings, but that's with the benefit of later games, which as I stated might not even have come this way had Square not at least taken a chance with FFIV. Love your channel!

For me this game is one of the greatest games on the snes, i fall in love with this Final Fantasy when i was a kid.

Remembering finding this game at the pawn shop as a kid for 5 bucks

This is my favorite FF game and one of my all time favorite JRPGs.

Oh a video that strikes home. First RPG and I likely know more about it than my own life. Only things I had to correct - the monsters released in Rydia's villiage were actually just to kill off the Summoners because the "King" was afraid of their power. There was no crystal there. And I found the line about it looking like a beefed up NES game funny because (dunno if you left it out on purpose or not) it actually was. The game began development on the NES which is why its art style is VERY similar to FF3 on the NES much like how FF2 was a slightly upgraded but near identical FF1. Great vid though. Opinions on the difficulty and story though. When comparing translations of games in that era this likely ranked mid to slightly above average in all honesty. And the difficulty was actually based on the easymode version in Japan, though they did strip out a few more things from that. It was less about censorship and more about having zero faith in the Western audience to play these kinds of games. Hence why Mystic Quest was released here soon after. Cecil having a command skill was supposedly WAY too much for us to handle >_>

The game is perfect in any version. U can get over 5% of the dialogue being a little quirky, and the graphics are just fine. It looked like a regular final fantasy game of the time... and you are 100% right about the great story. I still waiver between which one is better, 4 or6 and yes I know I'll get panned for that, but I am just a huge fan of 4, and the story most of all. Has kind of an empire strikes back feel to it with the journey of Cecil from dark knight to paladin and of course the golbez reveal... and shit, they go to the moon, with awesome music, so that's definitely STAR wars like, muthaphuckaaaaaaa!

another awesome video!

I enjoy your channel, and you're certainly welcome to think differently, but I've loved FF2 (FFIV) and consider it one of my favorites. I never even noticed any weirdness in the translation; I always got the point of what was going on. (Also, according to a quick Google search, "spoony" is an archaic phrase from ~1875 meaning "sentimentally or foolishly amorous", which seems an appropriate description for Edward, and appropriately dated for Tellah.) Just my thoughts. Thanks for an entertaining channel; just wanted to defend a personal favorite. (Also, holy crap, this was two years ago, and I'm a tad late to the party, huh? Obviously I'm newer to the channel.)

The censorship (removed references to religious imagery) was just how Nintendo rolled back then. Very very few Western releases escaped this, and we were lucky to get this in any form - especially as import-reliant Europeans who barely received a single Final Fantasy until the PlayStation generation.

This is one of my favorite games of all times!

This is a video I've wanted to see for YEARS THANK YOU!

I never realized the game was so severely altered. That being said, I enjoyed the original SNES release as it is, so I really want to play one of these later versions to see just how much better it really is.

At the time, this game rocked. Don’t think can capture how incredible it was at the time.

My first RPG. I remember it fondly

I want to elaborate on some of the rare drop rates in this game of what I have discovered the past few days. Firstly, I'm playing the Chronicles version on an emulator which allows save-states. The chronicles version basically mirrors SNES version. The 1/64 drop rate for rare items is actually bogus and has been spread around for far too long. I always thought items were dropped via a lottery system after a battle was won. NOPE. After using save states to save before I attacked the final enemy with the final attack I started to notice some things. If I attacked with an exact amount of damage, let's say 1,245... I would get an item sometimes. If I reloaded the save state and attacked again, my character would attack with the same damage (1,245) and I would get the SAME item, every time if I kept reloading that save state. However... if I switched characters or attacked with a different weapon or spell for the final blow, let's say 3,468 damage... I might not get an item. OR, I might get a different item instead. I discovered though, as long as I reloaded the save state and attacked with 1,245 I would ALWAYS get the same item. At first I thought that was the key to getting rare drops, which it partly is. I tested some more and started reloading save states but switching to another character to attack, and then saving again within the battle if the number damage output didn't produce an item I wanted. Eventually I got a rare item. However... there's more to it than that. If the enemy attacks before YOU attack, it throws the number system off (behind the scenes) and moves it around (the tumble lock). This complicates things more and apparently from what I can guess, is that getting these rare items IS like a tumble-lock. Enemies attacking or taking a turn affects the drop mechanic as well as the number of damage your weapon or spell dispatches to the enemy on the final blow. If the numbers match up, you get the item you want. This shows that it's not a Random Drop rate that is decided at the end of the battle. It's decided on the final blow, the number of HP damage you inflict in congruence to the hidden tumble lock meter that is never displayed which is also manipulated when the enemy attacks. I feel that I did a horrible job explaining this and I still have more to learn about it. In wrap up. If you're playing on a pc, use save states within the battle. Save right before the enemy only needs one more strike to kill it. Strike the enemy and look at the damage number you do and take note of it. If it produces nothing or not an item you want, reload the save and switch to another character, save before you strike/attack and see if THAT produces the item you want. If not, let the enemy attack, save, and strike/attack for the final blow. Keep this process up until you get what you want. I got 3 pink tails in 50 mins using this method. This is MUCH faster than fighting an entire battle for an item when it's actually the tumble lock that produces the item. There is no 1/64. There never was. Thanks for reading.

Also, great video. And I, too, pronounce it 'See-Siuul'. I suppose it depends where you are from in the world.

Loved this game as a kid and really enjoyed the DS remake.

Im in the middle of Final Fantasy 6 now. I played FF 4 for DS a while ago, it was very good on DS

@2:00 I actually created a custom Red Wings roster in NHL 98 using the FFIV cast. Yeah. It IS those Red Wings.😏

OMG I played this as a kid , brings back so many memories. You showed 1 clip of Tellah, it looks like a different version of the game, the graphics looks way better than SNES version ..which system is that for ?

The good thing about the PSP version is that it includes the After Years, which is kind of like a playable epilogue featuring the next generation of heroes growing up after Cecil and his friends. People rip on After Years a lot, but l actually kinda liked it. lt allowed me to stay in the world of FF4 a bit longer and see how everyone's doing after the original adventure ended. Sure it doesn't have the same magical epicness the original game had, but it's still good. And of course, there's the fact that the original game appears in its entirely, untainted by censorship.

What is the version of the game shown at 3:10 in the video?

This was my first rpg and and second snes game I played, helped me become the gamer I am today

That song playing in the background of the video is from Enya

This was my intro to the Final Fantasy series and what cemented me as an RPG fan. The music had me hooked from the first note, the characters had more depth and personality than what I had experienced before, and the story and world felt huge. I knew the translation was bad, but I could still follow along and understand the meaning of everything. I wouldn't go back to the SNES version today as I own the GBA, DS, and PSP versions, but I'm grateful for my playthrough of the original American version.

If I ever play the SNES version, it's mainly out of nostalgia. Rented that game so many times as a kid.