LogFAQs > #973678186

DS vs PR is tricky to me because DS is objectively a much more interesting game mechanicswise and yet I feel like I would never recommend it to anyone who wasn't already a pretty hardcore gamer. It's too hard at baseline and it gets way harder if you miss the augments, like Ry said. It also mixes things up in ways where it's very clear it expects you (and I feel even wants you) to have played a version of FF4 other than it. The CPU with adds boss is the big example that comes to mind for me, since iirc it works exactly opposite to how it does in every other version and is clearly playing with your expectations. Pixel Remaster by contrast feels...pure, for lack of a better term. It's nothing but a fairly early SNES game, just polished to the point it shines like a cut diamond. The leveling curve is beautifully tuned so you never have to grind because just battling normally through a zone will always get you to the right level, the translation is deliberately kept simple and solid, and oh my god the music dawgggggggg

Like...I almost feel like these days, FF4 should be experienced by playing Pixel Remaster, then immediately playing the DS version, back to back. DS version is like FF4's own Master Quest. FF4 is such a foundational and timeless game in its SNES version that it deserves to be experienced as close to how it was once upon a time as possible with just a solid polish pass layered on top for good measure, then you try the remake that modernizes the gameplay to add decades of gameplay design experience to it. They're not games competing to be better than each other, it's more like PR is FF4 as you would experience it as a child or young teen, and DS is FF4 as seen through adult eyes, if that makes any sense.