PALGN writes: "How many times can the same structure of story, the same forms of music, nay the same game designs be remixed, reglossed and repackaged? While Final Fantasy IV on Nintendo DS doesn't quite answer the regurgitative rhetoric of capitalist media, it does nevertheless offer a guaranteed hit of mixed nostalgia for the Final Fantasy fan base. And that's as appropriately predictable a recommendation as any.
Considering Australians finally managed to legally indulge themselves in 1991's Final Fantasy IV universe well after the turn of the millennium, it's understandable that the game's re-releases and remakes may appear to have come on a little thick in the past few years. It's hard to fault Square Enix on its nth-dipping ways, though. The experience of conflicted Dark Knight, Cecil Harvey, and his motley crew of friends, love interests and foes is indeed one for the proverbial ages. After all, this instalment, the fourth (not second) of an ever-expanding menagerie, is arguably where the Final Fantasy franchise truly hit its first strides. The complex melodrama. The active time battle system. The all-round sense of 16-bit RPG 'epicness'. It's a shame then that these qualities are, for all intents and purposes, a tad clichéd to the outside observer today."
