Final Fantasy IV was released here in the States as Final Fantasy II, and was the game to firmly establish Square as an RPG force to be reckoned with. Sadly though, the release was plagued by censors, edits, and a pretty godawful translation. Later Squaresoft rereleased FFIV in the States for Playstation as part of Final Fantasy Chronicles, complete, uncensored, and retranslated. Making an SNES translation kind of unnecessary in this day and age. But honestly, before that came along, how else were you supposed to check out the super-cool Programmer's Room? That's right.

You play the part of Cecil, commander of the Baron's airship fleet, known as the Red Wings. You've served your king faithfully over the years, but recently he's been acting weird and demanding that you retrieve the Crystals from all over the world, and by using any means necessary. Cecil questions the king's judgement and is stripped of his command. What follows is a pretty nifty (and kinda weird) tale of good vs. evil, with some love and loss thrown into the mix. Granted, it's not the first FF game to have a decent plot, but it's the first to be a good game along with that.

FFIV was the last truly traditional Final Fantasy game, with all the characters learning specific skills when they reached a certain level. Just like Dragon Quest! These days the game may not look like much (admit it, the graphics aren't too hot except for all the cool Mode7 stuff), but the gameplay is engaging, and the story keeps you playing. And the soundtrack is pretty sexy as well.

This translation is very impressive, especially with the 3.21 update that fixes lots of bugs and makes the translation near-perfect. Of course it's received tremendous criticism due to Trainspotter's script revisions; though I personally don't mind them that much, apparently some people demand an untouched Japanese game to play in English.