The DEFINITIVE Final Fantasy IV Analysis

hello everyone! this is a very long video. i spent 9 months working on this, and i really hope you like it.

chapters:

Introduction: 0:00
History + version differences: 2:55
Opening + Baron: 13:31
Mist + Kaipo: 23:32
Underground Waterway: 38:29
Damcyan: 44:30
Mt. Hobs + Fabul: 54:40
Mysidia + Mt. Ordeals: 1:08:26
Cecil character analysis: 1:18:04
Return to Baron: 1:29:27
Palom and Porom character analysis: 1:33:51
'Troian Beauty' +: Troia 1:41:16
Edward character analysis: 1:47:00
'Golbez, Clad in Darkness' + Tower of Zot: 1:56:07
Rosa character analysis: 2:10:59
Agart + Underworld: 2:20:46
Dwarven Castle: 2:29:54
Rydia character analysis: 2:38:08
Tower of Babil: 2:49:11
'Main Theme of FFIV' + Eblan: 3:04:03
Return to Tower of Babil: 3:10:36
Four Fiends analysis: 3:13:32
Edge character analysis: 3:28:07
Sealed Cave: 3:34:24
Sylph Cave + Sylph summon analysis: 3:40:03
Feymarch: 3:48:12
Asura summon analysis: 3:56:14
Sidequests + Lunar Whale: 4:00:31
Moon: 4:08:59
Giant of Babil: 4:22:28
Golbez character analysis: 4:29:08
Return to Moon + Augments: 4:40:58
'Red Wings' + Lunar Subterrane: 4:46:25
Final boss: 4:52:06
Ending: 5:01:13
Kain character analysis: 5:09:08
Theme analysis: 5:20:38
Conclusion: 5:26:22
Thanks: 5:33:26

as sojiro would say, hoo boy. that's a lot of timestamps.

links:

music i refer to in the golbez's theme bit:
my FFIII video timestamped to 'main theme' discussion:
best ffiv version posts:
tokita interview:
sakaguchi interview:
legends of localisation:
rydia maturity post:
footage i used from other videos (thank you!):
also, pretty much every definition is from wiktionary. i love that site.

if you're here looking for something else i said would be here, and it isn't, please leave a comment and let me know so i can sort it out for you.

i'd like to say a huge thanks to my best pal Joe, who has done all the art for my channel from its inception, from the old logo to the new black mage logo, all the old intros and outros, and also the incredible art for my Patreon tiers! he is an immensely talented artist and an absolute legend so check him out:

i’d also really like to thank HotCyder for his excellent work on the thumbnail! this one is my favourite yet. he's the goat. if you want to check him out, you can find him on both YouTube and Twitter:

i think that's it! thanks everyone. hope you enjoy the video :)

- alastair x

[Ludiscere]

just wanted to say, in case anyone was wondering about the FFV video - it is being made, and i am working on it whenever i can, but i have been really unwell the last year and haven't had as much of a chance to work on videos as i would've liked.

if you want more specifics/details on what's been up, head to the community section of my channel and scroll down a few entries until you get to the '2023 end of year update'.

but yeah, i am working on it when i am able! i promise it'll be out as soon as it can be. i am looking forward to it :)

thanks for your patience friends.

- alastair

[funkylionsfan]

The spoony line fits so well, when you realize it was a term for someone who was love struck used 80ish years ago in books and in a few songs and applied Tellahs age (60ish years prior from the games release) . I mean people still say things they have said their entire life even if it's outdated.

[fcoolplane]

I am Dutch. Zot means "insane". I always thought the reference was "Tower of Zot" = "Tower of Madness"

[Drumboardist]

Golbez was, as far as I know, taken from the Glabrezu, in the original D&D Eldritch Wizardry Supplement (1976) and later the Monster Manual (1977). A powerful creature that would tempt people with power and wealth, and uses authority and control over fellow demons, as well as lies and deception. They aren't leaders, per se, but would definitely try to have minions do their combat work for him.

tricks Kain (possibly by using his unrequited love for Rosa) into turning against the team repeatedly, as well as sending others (the Four Fiends) to do his dirty work for him. Heck, when he DOES engage people, he either loses because they have more powerful spells (Tellah's Meteo casting), or he shows up with *another* minion to devour his opponents for him -- the Shadow Dragon, which Rydia (smartly ) immediately blows away, leaving Golbez on his own. And when he *does* decide to go up against the Big Bad, he doesn't make that decision on his own; nossir, he sees another Super-Mage deciding to do so, and joins up with *him* instead. (Might as well have someone do the heavy lifting, eh?)

There's also the fact that the FF series has taken from D&D Monsters before, such as the sahuagin ("Sahag" in the original Final Fantasy), Marilith, Lich, Piscodemons (which are *clearly* Mind Flayers)....it's a D&D dude, mah dude! T'aint got nothin' to do with flies!

From the 1st Edition Monster Manual: "Towering over nine feet in height, this not unusual kind of demon has a ghastly appearance, being broad and strong-looking covered with a wrinkled hide, with a head much like a goat-horned dog...it causes Darkness in a 10' radius when it so wills. Additional abilities, any one of which can be performed at will, are: Fear, Levitate, Cause Pyrotechnics, Telekinesis." Yeah, that's our towering, horn-helmed big bad. Causing Darkness and Fear, with minor explosive attacks and summoning creatures to fight on his behalf. After beating him in the Tower of Zot, his telekinesis falters on the Orb/Blade hovering above Rosa, so...it tracks.

[versebuchanan]

I choose to think the Kain thing isn't that he got re-brainwashed, but that Golbez never ACTUALLY fully let him go in the first place. He let the party go with his implanted double agent just in case, and it ended up paying off, 'cause they did the work of getting the last crystal for him. Then all he had to do was Find My iKain and uber him home.

[sclair]

Something else nice about Palom and Porom, is that their age and station have a nice resonance with the intro- Implying that the best black and white mages left in the town are these kids- Because the others have all died.

[geneticjen]

This flows so nicely just following the story and stepping aside to analyse different things rather having a huge section about gameplay, then a huge section about characters, then a huge section about music etc. It works and feels like I'm watching a good movie or documentary. Well, I guess I am!

[sclair]

I think Rydia's aging up concept-wise is supposed to feel like she's come into her full potential. The thing the false king at the start of the game feared was a fully fledged summoner and now through fate Golbez has created exactly that. She's mastered that power inside her that let her suddenly summon Titan and is back to use it for the party.

The problem though is there's no real role for her as 'wise-summoner' she doesn't come back with any strong exposition and as pointed out doesn't have very strong scenes after her amazing return.

Most of why I think she resonates so well as the poster girl for 4 is how memorable every core scene she relates to is:
"That boss fight? Well killing it killed someones Mom!"
"Whoa that kid can summon a mountain that breaks the world!"
"Whoa! I totally wondered why she couldn't use fire!"
"Oh my god I thought I was just bad at the game! Im SUPPOSED to lose!"
"Whoa look at all these cool summons! These guys raised her?"

They aren't consistently good characterisation for Rydia- But they are incredible setpieces and worldbuilding, and that's probably why the 'Destined Summoner' keeps coming back as a character in Final Fantasy with often very different personalities.

[ikkinwithattitude]

I think Rydia's characterization is more consistent than you're giving it credit for, particularly with regards to her forgiveness of Cecil and impatience towards Edward.

After the death of her mother and the destruction of Mist, she's quite reasonably distraught... but her uncontrolled emotions only manage to make things worse. Yes, Cecil was responsible for the burning of the village... but for all Rydia knows, she might have accidentally reduced it to rubble by summoning Titan. And, at the very least, she went from having lost her mother to being separated from everyone she'd ever known.

So the moment that Cecil decides to take care of her, she finds herself in a position of absolute dependency -- he's literally the only reason why she's alive. How awful must it feel for her to know that she'd be dead if not for the pity of the man who killed her mother? And, furthermore, for her to have no idea what his intentions are or how far his willingness to support her even extends?

Under those circumstances, Rydia forgiving Cecil isn't necessarily evidence of psychological maturity. Rather, it's simply the most effective means for her to neutralize the enormous amount of psychic tension generated by her simultaneous hatred for and need of him. His willingness to fight his own people to protect her is a tremendous opportunity in that regard -- she's able to assume the much more psychologically stable position of feeling assured that she can trust him to keep her safe because he's a good person who happened to make a terrible mistake.

The fact that she feels responsible for the consequences of her own terrible mistake doesn't hurt in that regard, either. And that aspect makes sense of much of the rest of her characterization. She's learned from experience that her emotions cause more harm than good, so when she's pushed to set them aside to open a path forward with Fire, she's willing to do so. And when she sees Edward getting emotional about Anna, she's furious rather than sympathetic because she's come to the conclusion that such emotion is counterproductive if not downright dangerous.

Given that trajectory, it makes perfect sense that by the time she returns years later, she's set her past aside nigh completely. Perhaps it might have been more subjectively satisfying to see her come to terms with her trauma rather than putting it soundly behind her, but that seems more a matter of preference than skill.

[NathanxLaMontagne]

What an absolutely amazing analysis.

The fact it held my attention for over 5 hours straight is pretty damn astonishing.

Your research and delivery (and editing... Honestly everything) are about as top tier as it can get.

Thank you so much.

[thorestruck]

You are mad, this is incredible. Hats off to you. Such hard work must have gone into this.

[BeerFloof]

Rydia is definitely a favorite of mine. I suppose she impressed so strongly on me because of when I played the game. I was around her (child) age when I first played. Her characterization is a bit messy in hindsight, but as a young kid playing a game at a time where this was the most ambitious game story I had experienced so far, I didn't see the flaws. And then she comes back, all grown up to save the party for Golbez and remains an extremely powerful character in battle for the rest of the game, and can become even more powerful by gaining additional Summons with optional side quests. A lot of kids yearn to grow up quickly. Adults are big, strong, and taken seriously. So, I guess I experienced some relation that lead to fantastical wish fulfillment through her, which I happened to be the right age for. Ocarina of Time did something similar, which is why a lot of people that were around age 10 when they played it wanted to continue to play as a grown-up Link again from the moment we pulled the Master Sword until we were finally given an older Link again in Twilight Princess, and by then we were grown up ourselves, so it hit different then. Kids want to be adult Link, adult Rydia, at least I did and a lot of other kids my age did.

[Doshirrosden]

Jeremy Parish made a point in his video series on this game that I think might help address some of the writing issues in this game. Takashi Tokita had a background in theater and cited that as a big influence on his design decisions here. In a lot of plays, especially opera, characters can be very simplistic on paper and the actions can be very straightforward and dramatic, so it’s up to the combination of the performances and music to convey the more complex emotions and themes. Since the original game lacked voiced dialogue, I think this reliance on music and the simplistic gestures of the character sprites to fill in the blanks is very similar.

If you judge FFIV by the standards of a TV series or movie trilogy, it comes up a bit short, but if you look at it as an interactive opera, I think it fares better. Maybe that’s just me, though.

[Kazman]

Just stumbled across your content and binged this series. Can’t wait for the 28 hour analysis of FFVII 😂

[archagenteverlasting]

This gave me a whole new appreciation for Final Fantasy IV. Adored this.

[aguyinavan]

My reward for cleaning my room as a kid was my mom going to Video Shark (kinda like blockbuster) and renting Final Fantasy 2 for me. It made school so difficult to sit through knowing that this game was sitting on my bed at home. This was the first game that made me fall in love with video games and it taught me how to write compelling stories.

Thanks for the review, I enjoyed it.

[MelvaCross]

I could follow this video so easily that I listened to most of it while working. Your writing style, your voice, it was just so easy to follow along. Incredible job!

[RocketSlug]

I have a soft spot for FFIV because it was my introduction to the franchise. To address a few of your points, I think Kain's edgy bad boy nature definitely got a little bit of the Draco in Leather Pants treatment where the fandom ends up softening and liking a character more than their traits in the story may warrant.

Another influence I felt at points in the video was from the 1986 Transformers movie. The Quintessons have the rotating face thing where each face is a different personality. It's the closest analog to what you're asking for anyway. I also saw parallels in boarding the Giant of Babil to destroy it from within to the climax of the Transformers where they're fighting inside Unicron as he lays waste to Cybertron, though the red jewel and explosions make me think more of the angels from Evangelion like Sachiel

[litbolt]

24:25 In the SNES version the king gives Cecil a "package." Cecil in the Pixel Remaster is all like, "we were sent to destroy the village!?", and I'm like, dude, he gave you a bomb to deliver.

[Skyehoppers]

I can't believe this video was 5 hours long! Well, I can because it took me over a week to finish it, but the fact that it feels like a cohesive work at this size is astounding. Excellent work. I learn so much about *how* to analyze media from your videos, the way you dive into etymology and mythology is unique and deeply interesting, and has altered how I engage with names in stories for good and for the better. Very impressed, very proud of you for finishing such a massive undertaking. Can't wait for the rest of the series :)