It's my first time playing Final Fantasy IV and I loved it!
This game actually had an interesting story. The characters were all very well put together also. There were about 10 different characters that you used throughout the game. All of them were likeable ecspecially the final party (Rydia, Cecil, Rosa, Edge, and Kain). They were easily the best characters in the game. The music was top notch as always. Nobuo Uematsu is a musical genius! The boss fights had the best music in my opinion. The active time battle is my favorite type of gameplay in the Final Fantasy series. Things move a lot faster and it makes you think and act quicky with your characters. Many people said this game was extremely difficult. It was hard, but if you've played an RPG before and once you learn the boss's counter attacks and weaknesses its not really that bad. This game was the best game I played on the DS. It had everything that you would expect from the Final Fantasy series, but I found it to be missing one thing....
In no way am I putting this game down, but I do have one little thing against it. This game just didnt feel as epic as the other final fantasy games. I guess i was to use to the recent Final fantasy games. I mean in comparison to those, this game just didnt present its story like the other games. In Final Fantasy VII-XII, theres always a scene or something that is really powerful that either makes you want to cry or just feel some type of emotion. In this game i just for some reason didnt get that feeling. *SPOILERS* i kinda felt sad when Palom and Porom turned themselves into stone to save everyone. But in the end all the characters comes back that "supposedly died" and the ending to this game was basically a short wedding ceremony for Cecil and Rosa. There wasnt anything epic like (Aeris dieing in FF VII, or the true love story in FFVIII, or even a extraordinary twist in the story like in FFX, where Tidus finds out the Yuna will die when she summons the final aeon).
Sorry for the long rant, but I just really wanted to prove my point. I really enjoyed this game, but the only reason I didnt give this a 10 like the other final fantasy games, is mainly i felt that it was missing that "it" factors that all the games VII-XII had. But you should still pick this up, it is definitely worth your money!