Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection

Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection is a PlayStation Portable remake of Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. It was released in Japan on March 24, 2011 and April 19, 2011 in North America, and April 22, 2011 in Europe. Complete Collection also features a chapter bridging the gap between the two stories called Final Fantasy IV -Interlude-. It includes updated 2D graphics on par with those of the PlayStation Portable versions of Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II.

The game also has a new opening FMV for The After Years; the opening FMV from the DS version of Final Fantasy IV is used after some time has passed on Final Fantasy IV's Main menu. The Complete Collection features Data Install and new cinematic scenes in Final Fantasy IV, such as Agart's volcano erupting and Leviathan's attack on the party's ship.

Final Fantasy IV -Interlude-
New to Complete Collection is a scenario called Final Fantasy IV -Interlude-, which bridges the original game with The After Years. Interlude is based on the gameplay of the original Final Fantasy IV and not The After Years. It is longer than the average After Years tale.

Story
Interlude is set roughly a year after the original game, and players take control of Cecil again. The story begins at Baron after Cecil has a dream about one of the Crystal Chambers, where he sees Rydia and hears a voice which says "Finally, it has a new form." As soon as the voice is just about to reveal itself, Rosa wakes him. Cecil and Rosa set off on one of the Red Wings airships for Damcyan. Meanwhile, at the Feymarch, Rydia is about to leave and is confronted by Asura, who asks her where she is going. Rydia tells her she is headed for Damcyan for its reconstruction celebration, and Asura lets her pass.

While at the celebration, a guard enters and tells Yang that some monks were brutally attacked at Mt. Hobbs. Hearing this, Yang plans to leave but Cecil and Rosa decide to go with him. Once they get to the summit of Mt. Hobbs, they find two injured monks, whom Rosa heals. Soon after they are attacked by the Dad Bomb. When they defeat the Dad Bomb they head to Fabul where Yang's wife Sheila is about to give birth to Ursula. Yang asks Cecil to be Ursula's godfather, which he gladly accepts.

When Cecil and Rosa are about to leave they find Cid, Luca, Palom and Porom, who tell Cecil that there is a swarm of monsters coming out of the Sealed Cave. As they are about to take off Cecil tells Yang to stay with his family. Cid notices that Rosa looks pale and Cecil asks Yang to take care of her while he is away. Once they get to the Sealed Cave, the notice the Tower of Babel pulse with light. Edge notices this as well and goes off to enter the Tower of Babel through the underground passage way. Once Cecil and the others reach the Crystal Chamber they are attacked by the Demon Wall and narrowly dispatch it. In the Crystal Chamber they find Rydia there. She cannot remember where she was, but she says that "they" were calling her. While everyone wonders exactly who "they" are, the party decides that they should go to the Tower of Babel and investigate.

While they are scaling the tower, Rydia begins regaining her summons and acts more strangely. As they pass the cannon control room Rydia enters it and three guards come out to stop Cecil and the others from getting to Rydia. The three guards merge, and Edge finally arrives to lend a hand in defeating it. After the sentry is taken care of, they go into the control room only to find that Rydia is nowhere to be found. They decide to keep going up the tower in hopes that they will find her. They then encounter someone who looks like Rydia, who attacks the party with her recovered Eidolons. At some point she summons Bahamut. The real Rydia shows up and talks sense into him. When the party realizes that the Rydia they had with them was not the real one, they defeat her and she escapes.

Somewhere, possibly on the True Moon, the impostor Rydia says to an unknown entity that the Eidolon project is complete, before vanishing. Back on earth, in Cecil's bed chamber, Rosa lies in bed and Cecil asks if she is alright. At Damcyan, Cecil reveals that Rosa is pregnant. Everyone is overjoyed with the news, and they tell Cecil that he should start coming up with some names. Meanwhile, on Mt. Ordeals, Kain is still training when a voice calls out to him.

Gameplay
Players have the option of beginning with any game of their choice, including Final Fantasy IV -Interlude-. Final Fantasy IV is more in-line with the original version and does not have the features or extra story sequences from the DS release. It instead retains the bonus features of the Advance release, with the post-game dungeons and party swapping.

Other features include the option of being able to switch between the original music and the DS version's music during gameplay. The game contains an image gallery with videos and artwork. The gallery also includes new, never before seen images.

Changes to the The After Years include separating Ceodore's tale from Kain's, which was how it was in the original mobile phone release. Ceodore and Kain's original Challenge Dungeons are no longer merged with one another. Exclusive to this version of The After Years is a post-game boss called Lost Babil, which can be fought if the player talks with Challengingway on the True Moon. It is composed of three boss fights, which the player must assemble three parties for. New enemies appear, one for each tale existing in that tale's Challenge Dungeon, which drop rare items including Megalixirs.

Development
Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection has a similar visual style as Final Fantasy 20th Anniversary versions of the original Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II. Although Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection was developed by a different team, the producers are the same as for the Anniversary releases. There was demand for a packaged version of Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, so that's where the developers started in terms of creating the complete set for PlayStation Portable.

Just packaging The After Years with Final Fantasy IV didn't seem enough, thus the developers wanted to create new content and create something to connect Final Fantasy IV with something that would happen right after the original game. Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection uses 2D graphics rather than 3D like in the Nintendo DS version. Takashi Tokita has explained that the game has so much volume that it made sense to revamp the original graphics and create a higher quality version of the original.

Special Edition
For the Japanese release, a limited edition was released with an artbook and a walkthrough. Enclosed with the limited edition is a soundtrack CD called Final Fantasy IV & The After Years Sounds Plus with seventeen tracks, five of which have been selected from the DS version of Final Fantasy IV by fans on the Square Enix Members website.

The European version of Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection comes in a special edition package that features a fold-out box and contains a selection of art cards, a PlayStation Portable screen cloth featuring Cecil and a DLC costume for Cecil in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, based on the original super deformed artwork for Final Fantasy IV. The special edition was available at pre-order and on launch.

First print run copies of the NTSC versions of the game contain the product code for the Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy DLC for Cecil, and also include five bonus art cards featuring Yoshitaka Amano's character designs.

Links

 * Official Japanese website
 * Official website