The military country of Baron is one of the strongest in the land, with a proud army and a majestic air force known as the Red Wings. However, the recent actions of the king make even the most loyal of his subordinates doubt his judgment. The captain of the Red Wings, Cecil, is ordered to attack the city of Mysidia and take the Water Crystal from innocent magicians who protect it. When Cecil questions the king's orders, he is immediately thrown out of the country and sent off to deliver a package to the village of Mist, accompanied by his best friend Kain, the captain of the dragoons. Little does he realize that the king's inexplicable behavior is but a part of a much larger picture, which he is yet to reveal.

The fourth entry in the Final Fantasy series was released as Final Fantasy II in the West, because the second and the third game were not released there at the time. The game is a Japanese-style RPG with top-down world map navigation, automatic leveling up, and random enemy encounters.

The game introduces a system called ATB (active-time battle). While combat is turn-based in its core, the game does not pause when the player accesses the battle menu. Enemies continue to act in real time regardless of the actions of the player-controlled party. The turns of the participants are calculated depending on their agility rating. Each player-controlled character has a special bar that gradually refills itself; said character may act when the bar is full.

Unlike all the previous Final Fantasy games, the fourth installment does not allow the player to customize the characters' abilities and classes. Each character belongs to a specific, clearly defined class: dragoon, white mage, black mage, summoner, ninja, etc. Each of these classes has distinct special abilities or magic spells. New abilities are learned automatically when a character reaches a pre-determined level. Characters join and leave the party as dictated by the game's plot events. The active party includes up to five combatants.

The PlayStation version adds a new rendered intro and ending.

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Alternate Titles

"最终幻想4" -- Chinese spelling (simplified)
"Zui Zhong Huanxiang 4" -- Chinese title
"Final Fantasy IV Advance" -- Japanese Game Boy Advance title
"Final Fantasy IV" -- Japanese title
"FF4" -- Informal name
"ファイナルファンタジーＩＶ" -- Japanese spelling

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Part of the Following Groups

Merchant	Title	Platform	Price
	Final Fantasy II	SNES	$20.00
	Final Fantasy II
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User Reviews

You spoony bard!!	Unicorn Lynx (141779)
The adventure you experience in this game aged surprisingly well	Bregalad (822)

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The Press Says

Nintendojo	Jun 14, 2003	10 out of 10	100
RPGFan	Nov 25, 1998	95 out of 100	95
RPGFan	Oct 02, 2001	90 out of 100	90
Digital Press - Classic Video Games	Dec 10, 2003	9 out of 10	90
RPGFan	Oct 30, 2001	89 out of 100	89
Power Play	Feb, 1992	88 out of 100	88
Jeuxvideo.com	Nov 19, 2010	17 out of 20	85
Total! (Germany)	Apr, 1996	1.75 out of 6	85
neXGam	2002	7.3 out of 10	73
GameCola.net	Jan, 2008	7 out of 10	70

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Trivia

In the U.S. Final Fantasy IV for the Snes was released as Final Fantasy II. Final Fantasy II & III for the NES (the first 3 games in the series were released for the NES) were only released in Japan, hence the fourth game in the series was just the second game to hit the U.S. market.

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This entry was contributed by Charly2.0 (30388), tootbrush (17), Satoshi Kunsai (1824) and Unicorn Lynx

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