This is a list of known version differences in the 3D Remake of Final Fantasy IV, with new releases altering content and removing bugs and glitches presented in the previous version; changes are cumulative unless otherwise noted.
See also: Final Fantasy IV version differences
Nintendo DS[]
A 3D Remake of the original Final Fantasy IV developed by Matrix Software for the Nintendo DS released in 2007 on December 20 in Japan, followed by a 2008 release on July 22 in North America, September 4th in Oceania and September 5 in Europe.
- Official Logo - A new version of the logo featuring Golbez in a newly drawn illustration by Yoshitaka Amano. The logo is used for material in relation to 3D versions of Final Fantasy IV, while the 2D versions retain the original Kain logo.
- Full Motion Video - An introductory FMV that plays before the title screen featuring nearly all major characters in Final Fantasy IV with new CGI renders.
- 3D Visuals - Fully rendered 3D graphics for characters, environments and spells.
- Voice Acting - Full voiceover for major characters in story cutscenes.
- Touch Functionality - The 3D remake utilizes the touch screen functionality of the Nintendo DS.
- Story Changes - The story has been more faithfully localized from previous versions, now incorporating new backstories, as well as adding more perspective to certain characters:
- A flashback depicting Cecil's birth and discovery by the King of Baron.
- A flashback depicting Golbez's manipulation under Zemus's control.
- A scene where Kain Highwind mentions his upbringing by his father.
- Clarification on Zemus's motivation; a desire for all Lunarians to populate Earth.
- Auto-Battle - An auto-battle feature is included, enabling faster battle progression. Different commands can be mapped to auto-battle.
- New Game Plus - The option to carry over any activated Augments, acquired items and any incomplete progressions.
- Superbosses - Two new superbosses available to battle: Geryon and the Proto-Babil, with the latter only possible to challenge in New Game Plus if the player stole the Dark Matter key item from Zeromus.
- Namingway - With the addition of voice overs, Namingway no longer changes a character's name, instead changing his own name throughout the game as the party interacts with him in various towns and dungeons. Namingway's misadventures form a game-arcing subquest as the player assists him in finding new meaning to his life and he changes his name to fit his situation.
- A minimap is placed on the bottom screen, given by Namingway. Exploring 100% of a dungeon floor that the map is displaying results in free items. Exploring 100% of all maps in the game rewards the player with a rare augment ability.
- Whyt - A new summon that replaces Rydia in battle and acts automatically, based on the abilities set prior to battle. It has infinite MP and will act for three turns before dismissing itself.
- Fat Chocobo - The Fat Chocobo no longer holds items, as the inventory space limit is removed. It instead grants access to five minigames specifically to increase Whyt's stats, as well as an option to battle another user's version of their Whyt, customize its appearance using the touch screen, and changing its battle behavior.
- Augment - A new gameplay system allows characters to learn special abilities in addition to their own innate ones. These abilities can be exchanged with the character's current abilities at any time outside of battle. Characters can learn abilities from former party members (as well as bosses and NPCs) that can be arranged to be used in battle.
- Gameplay - Numerous changes to the gameplay were implemented:
- Several items, abilities, and equipment are renamed.
- The ability to switch party members near the end of the game has been removed.
- The ability to walk and fly airships in eight directions is added, as well as through use of the touch screen.
- When opening the menu on the world map or in towns, a thought bubble appears over the party leader's head, reflecting their current feelings.
- Character stats are modified. Dark Knight Cecil, Kain, Edward, and Yang naturally gain MP and no longer start with 0. Stat boosts for Level 71 and on are affected by which augments the character is equipped with, rather than being random. With enough patience and the right combination of augments, all characters in the final party can achieve 99 in all stats.
- Equipment attributes are modified.
- The ATB Gauge gains a second red bar indicating the time between selecting an action and the action being performed.
- Switching weapons in battle consumes a turn.
- The loot system is altered, with items dropped and stolen from enemies changed.
- When purchasing something from a shop in a quantity greater than 3, a 10% discount is applied.
- The Developer's Office is changed to reflect the new staff.
- The desert around Fabul is reverted back into light green grass.
- After becoming a Paladin, Cecil lacks the Clothes armor. He can also learn Protect, Shell, and Raise.
- The Hovercraft can't be brought to the Underworld.
- The Hummingway Home shop sells X-Potions, Remedies, and Sirens instead of Ethers, Bestiaries, and Gysahl Whistles, the latter being removed from the game entirely. Hi-Potions, Phoenix Downs, Dry Ethers, and Elixirs are also cheaper.
- Summon Books are removed.
- Twin Meteor, used by Fusoya and Golbez against Zemus, deals 99,999 damage instead of 9,999 damage. Like Meteor, it is also non-elemental. Afterwards, their Meteor spells deal 0 damage to Zeromus rather than healing for 9999.
- Abilities - Various abilities are changed.
- Darkness applies a status that powers up the user's physical attacks instead of dealing damage to all enemies.
- Aim can be used with other weapons instead of just bows.
- Pray has a higher chance of success and restores both HP and MP, with the amount healed based on a percentage of each party member's max HP and MP.
- Bardsong's effects can be selected and no longer require a harp to be equipped. Four new songs are usable.
- Salve consumes up to five of any item, rather than splitting one Potion among the party.
- Focus no longer attacks for double damage; instead, it allows the user to charge their attack power up to three times, which will increase the damage done by the next physical attack they execute.
- Brace reduces all damage by 75% instead of applying Protect and Defend.
- Kick is now affected by any elemental or status effect properties from the currently equipped weapon.
- Bluff doubles Intelligence, but wears off after one turn.
- Cry halves the Defense and Magic Defense of all enemies instead of making it easier to steal from them.
- New spells are accessed via the Twincast ability: Bravery, Faith, Bubble, and Ultima.
- Recall's spells are modified, and Tellah retains it after Mt. Ordeals.
- Bless restores MP instead of HP and doesn't prevent the user from acting while in effect.
- Edge can successfully Steal from an enemy only once, rather than infinitely, and no longer takes damage after failed attempts.
- Edge learns three new Ninjutsu abilities and starts with Shadowbind and Mirage. Flood is changed from ice-elemental to water-elemental.
- Spells - Virtually all spells are modified in regards to power, accuracy, MP costs, effect, what level they're learned at, or a combination. Rydia's summons in particular are also more powerful than before.
- Protect, Shell, Haste, and Slow inflict statuses instead of modifying stats.
- Osmose costs 5 MP instead of 0, but can drain more MP from most enemies.
- Bio, Flare, and Meteor are roughly three times weaker, and Meteor is non-elemental instead of holy-elemental.
- Teleport and Warp are disabled in towns. Warp now places the player at the entrance of the previous floor. Like Teleport, it can be used to flee battles, and is disabled in the Sealed Cave.
- Dispel pierces through Reflect.
- Item magic is now affected by Spirit and Intelligence.
- Status Effects - Some statuses are modified.
- Toad, Mini, and Pig cannot coexist.
- Stone removes Float, Blind, and Silence.
- Float can be removed by casting Float.
- Sap constantly drains HP at a higher rate and can't be removed with Dispel.
- Curse lowers all attributes by 20% instead of halving Strength and Defense.
- Doom is affected by Haste and Slow, but not Stop, and the counter won't be reset when the status is reapplied.
- Equipment - Equipment options for nearly every character are changed.
- Cecil cannot equip bows or staves, but can equip new elemental knives found in Troia.
- Child Rydia cannot equip bows, daggers, and whips.
- Rosa can equip daggers.
- Edge cannot equip claws.
- Rydia, Edward, Palom, and Porom cannot equip bows.
- In battle, Kain and Palom are depicted as being right-handed. Rosa cannot equip bows to her left hand.
- The Avenger and Poison Axe can be equipped with a shield.
- Arrows are now infinite.
- Enemies - Many enemies and bosses are much more difficult to defeat. In general, they have increased HP, deal more damage, and have modified attack patterns and counterattacks, though some enemy group compositions are reduced to compensate. Additionally, certain status effects like Stop and Paralyze are more effective, and a large majority of enemies and bosses are vulnerable to Slow:
- Cecil is manually controlled during the opening sequence. He still starts with a Red Fang, and fights two Floating Eyes instead of three. The fight with the Zu is omitted.
- Octomammoth gets stronger rather than weaker as it takes more damage, with Tellah now addressing this.
- Antlion now shifts between phases where it can instead counter magic attacks.
- Scarmiglione's physical attacks inflict Blind instead of Poison, and he uses both Cursed Elegy and Gas, the latter of which inflicts Poison, Silence, and Sleep instead of Curse.
- The fight against Yang uses the intended script, with him attacking twice before succumbing to an attack from the party, rather than the party having to fully deplete his HP.
- Dark Dragon is immune to Tornado.
- Golbez will change elemental weaknesses.
- Dr. Lugae can inflict Reverse.
- Leviathan's Tsunami no longer deals fractional damage.
- The Elemental Archfiends rematch fight is now in the same order as they were originally encountered rather than the order of the original Four Fiends: Scarmiglione, Cagnazzo, Barbariccia, and finally Rubicante.
- Defense Node heals less and absorbs multiple elements while Attack Node is significantly stronger, no longer dealing fractional damage.
- Bahamut's Megaflare cannot be reflected.
- Most enemies award a great deal more EXP but drop considerably less gil, and items have lower drop rates in general.
- Regional Differences - Several changes between Japanese and International ports:
- The North American and European versions display a "Licensed by Nintendo" screen upon starting the game instead of the Final Fantasy 20th Anniversary logo.
- The North American and European versions do not require you to select "Accept" to save your settings in the settings menu, but lack two options from the Japanese release.
- Message speed can be altered to display messages within text boxes instantly, at a normal speed, or at a slower rate. Messages are displayed instantly outside of Japan.
- There are five additional window designs as opposed to the standard blue color: pink, dark gray, green with a checkerboard background, gray with a yellow background, and orange with chocobo designs.
- The dancing girl still removes her dress to show a bikini, but the dress removal is replaced with a screen transition.
- Other - Golbez was upgraded into a fully functional character in the 3D version, but player(s) will only witness this with the use of a cheating device by placing Golbez within the party. He can equip all dark swords, swords (except Thundershard), rods, and staves. He can equip a wide range of armor with no focus on a single type. He has his own victory pose and knows every single Black Magic spell. His known abilities are: Attack, Defend, Items, and Black Magic. Golbez is right-handed and his "job" is Lunarian.
- In the 2D versions, Golbez's sprite sheet is vastly incomplete, he cannot equip anything, and he has no battle commands.
- Bonus Content - The Fat Chocobo grants additional bonus content, including the Bestiary for information, the Music Box for playing the soundtrack, and the Event Theater to view all voiced cutscenes.
iOS/Android[]
Mobile ports for the 3D remake were released for the iOS on December 20, 2012. An Android port was later released on June 3, 2013. Changes featured include:
- Full Motion Video - Improved framerate for the opening FMV that now runs on a single screen. Reimplemented in Version 2.0.0.
- Visuals - Improved graphical quality framerate.
- Aspect Ratio - Additional aspect ratio options.
- Single Display - The game's functionality from the dual screen of the Nintendo DS has been reworked into a single screen for mobiles and tablets. The control system is altered to be more suitable to the handheld consoles, and a new interface is used.
- The Wayfarer's Map is toggled with a transparent overlay.
- Sound - Both music and sound effects are improved with no compression.
- Achievements - 58 game achievements have been implemented.
- Auto-Save - An auto-saving functionality is added.
- As of Version 1.4.0, Cloud saving is available.
- Difficulty Options - Two difficulty levels have been before starting a new game; Normal and Hard, with the latter equivalent to the Nintendo DS version.
- Removal of Whyt - Whyt does not appear and the mini-games involving it are removed.
- A new sidequest involving the search for eight eidolons is added to replace the former method of talking to Whyt to acquire the Piercing Magic augment.
- The ????'s Love augment is now powered up by covering another party member in battle, with a one point increase in attack power per battle, up to a total increase of 99.
- Music Box - The music box has an altered track list, with Edward's commentary no longer included.
- Limit Break - Only one Limit Break augment can be acquired, even across multiple playthroughs.
- Developer's Office - The Developer's Office is altered to reflect the mobile staff instead of the DS staff. There are no treasure chests in the room and the Lustful Lali-ho does not need to be placed on the counter to get the Reach augment.
- Dark Matter - The Dark Matter can only be stolen from Zeromus's true form after using the Crystal.
With the release of the Pixel Remaster edition (see here) on September 8, 2021, both the iOS and Android port were rebranded "3D Remake" in June 2021 to distinguish them and the 2D version as of version 2.0.1.
Steam[]
The PC version was released on September 17, 2014 globally, excluding Japan, which was later released on November 6, 2020. Its release in Japan also saw an update that added several features not present in the first release, which included changes from the mobile versions along with new additional features:
- User Interface - UI changes to accommodate the option to play with the keyboard and mouse as controllers. Touchscreen functionality has been removed.
- Framerate - In-game framerate has been further increased.
- Video Options - The option for a 21:9 widescreen support and higher.