Thus, the Dark Knight
Cecil was expelled from
his command as a Captain
of the Red Wings.
And he and Dragoon Kain
left Baron for the Village
Mist in a valley
enclosed in deep fog.

Airships had been a dream
of many people...
After the realization
of the dream, came
greed and ambition.

Throught its fleet of
airships, Baron became
the most powerful nation.
But why is Baron
seeking the crystals?
Why do the monsters
keep increasing...?

The crystal was shedding
its light silently......

This was the first FF-game released on the Super Nintendo (in USA renamed to Final Fantasy II), but it isn't actually the same game as the Japanese version. It's much easier and many of the items as eyedrop and all these things that exist in FF6 have been taken away. Also the slots in the battle menus are full in the Japanese version. I just can't understand why they took away Edward's heal command for example. You can get a translation of the real game in the Translation section.

Story

FF 4 has a very good story. In the beginning you see when Cecil and his soldiers in their airship-navy are flying towards Mysidia. When they arrive in Mysidia they rob the Water-crystal from the villagers. When they are back at Baron, the castle where Cecil lives, Cecil gives the crystal to the king. Then he says that he doesn't understand why he has to rob crystals from innocent people. The king finds the question annoying and expels Cecil from his command of the Red Wings. Now Cecil must go to the Callers village and deliver a package if he wants to be accepted by the king. On his little trip he has Kain on his side. As the game proceeds Cecil and his friends, who will accompany him to help him save the world (of course), will understand why the king is gathering the crystals and many other things. I think this is the best FF-game that makes it the best RPG.

Music

The music in FF4 is much better than in previous FF games, mainly because the Snes soundchip is much better than the one sitting in the Nes. Now the programmers could put in real instruments into the game, making everything sound more realistic. Nobuo Uematsu has also done an awesome work with the music. This is one of the games that have made many people understand that even game music can be very good.

Graphics

In the beginning Square developed FF4 for Nes and not for Snes. Later on when Nintendo released their new 16-bit console they asked Square to convert FF4 to Snes. This meant that Nintendo could get a good start with their new console and Square could continue their RPG series before the rival Enix, which are the producers of the Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior in Usa) series. Because of this the graphics of FF4 are similar to some Nes games. Not many improvements have been done with it.

Battles, menus, & gameplay

The menus are the same as always; status, items, etc are on the right side, your characters on the left. Magic is learned only by some of the characters like Rydia and Rosa. You can't by it or find Espers in FF4. As you maybe know every FF-game has its own magic-system. The ATB-system (Active Time Battle) is introduced in this part of the FF-series. This means that you must hurry to chose your commands in battle or your enemies will knock you down.