FFIV gets a makeover as well, with voice acting this time around.
The story follows Cecil, a Dark Knight, who is torn about the missions he carries out for his once generous king. After accidentally destroying a village, Cecil bands together with friends to overthrow the King, and thus the story begins.
The first thing I noticed about the game was that during the opening FMV...I HEARD TALKING. After I got back up from the ground, I started to pay a little more attention to the game. Surprisingly, the voice acting is quite good. It was always fun getting to a part where there was voice acting, and I actually didn't dread it.
Then there was the graphics. Meh. Let's get one thing straight. I am NOT a big fan of this DS style graphic makeover SQE is doing to its games. I understand that the DS isn't as powerful as the PSP (the psp is the playstation portable, you might not know this since only 17 have been sold). However, that's no excuse for these crappy crappy graphics. They're the worst renditions in FF's history. Really.
Character development is great, you get to see how character's actually evolve over time, and this was the first game in the FF series that really explored this element. Most notably Cecil's role as the dramatic hero, almost out of Shakespeare, is beautiful. The constant inner conflict he undergoes makes him shine as a character.
Gameplay is hard. The combat is tough, there aren't a lot of battles where you're just "supposed" to win. I, myself, died fighting the first boss in the game. Yup, the mist dragon roflstomped my face off. So you gotta stay on your toes when fighting, especially because of the ATB system, which was first implemented in this game. Be quick or you die.
Complaints are few. One MAJOR complaint I have is that there are a lot of characters, but you don't encounter them all at once, obviously. As you do, though, they join your party, and when they do, you'll notice they're at like HALF your level, so you have to spend a lot of time grinding each time you get a new party member. This is annoying, and SQE should have had the new toons' levels be based on your party's at the time.
Overall though, one of the best FF's. Certainly better than III, so really consider getting this one.