So I’ve finished playing Final Fantasy IV DS a while back. This would be the fifth copy I’ve owned (FFIIUS, FFIV Wonderswan Color, FFIV PSX, FFIV GBA being the previous four). The only copy I don’t have is the Easy Type. And I guess if you count the fact that the original Japanese version is different from the US one (besides the language, I mean), you could really count seven versions of the game. Let’s not even get into regional differences of the other versions.
So yeah, there are lots of versions of FFIV out there. Is this a good thing? All these ports and remakes? Well, since new gamers are born every day I’d argue it is.
The weird thing about the video game industry is the whole issues of compatibility. If my DVD player dies, well, I have about seven more since everything comes with a DVD player these days. Blu-Ray and HDDVD players play DVDs. Before that there was VHS but we’re slowly seeing everything that was on VHS come to DVD or higher. Books are even more of a non-issue when it comes to this. I can go to a store and pick up a copy of a book written hundreds of years ago. Some are in the thousands. They just reprint more. You don’t have to worry about anything but your own reading abilities.
Yet games are a mess. Systems out the wazoo. Compatibility issues to make the most level headed tech savvy person scream. Have you seen the 360? And now the PS3 is giving up most of it’s backwards compatibility. I’m seriously contemplating buying a PS2 to keep locked away if anything happens to mine and I can’t find the system anymore.
As a child, I never thought there would be more than a Nintendo Entertainment System. The NES satisfied all my gaming needs, well, along with my Commodore64 and Atari 2600. But the times went and new systems came and went with it. I’m on my fourth generation of Nintendo portables, fifth Nintendo console, third Sony console and first portable, second Microsoft console, and who can remember when we couldn’t believe there would be a first.
And yet I keep my older systems because I want to play my older games. I replay. Which I’ve come to find isn’t and is more common than I thought. I can’t fathom everyone doing this, though. And as much as I love some of the older game some are a real pain to play. Interfaces have generally gotten better. (Although not as much as they should have. Mental not for later article.)
But why Final Fantasy 4 DS really got me thinking on this path is that they did not simply make 3D graphics and put the game on the DS. They added a new skill system to the game. They upped the difficulty. It was immensely frustrating at times yet deeply satisfying when I was able to figure out a boss. Only a “Try again?” option after a boss fight would have perfected the game for me.
So while I love to get a new experience, I can’t do anything but applaud the amazing effort put into remakes like Final Fantasy IV DS. Sure, there will be half assed remakes, but since when haven’t there been half assed new games anyway?
