The Final Fantasy IV Retrospective

With Final Fantasy III selling over one million units in 1990, Hironobu Sakaguchi and his team were preparing to send off the Famicom while also embracing the new 16-bit Super Famicom. But with so many of the original team moving on to different projects, Final Fantasy IV would prove to be a new beginning for the series as well as a celebration of what it has built so far.

In this installment, we'll be examining Final Fantasy IV's development, themes, characters, influences, and symbolism, as well as how it would lay a new foundation for the series going forward. We will also be looking at how subsequent iterations have built upon the original and reimagined it for new generations.

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Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:55 Part I - Coming to America
15:43 Part II - Ultimate Fantasy
25:37 Patreon
25:52 Part III - Final Fantasy IV
29:10 Character First
33:41 Aesthetics of Storytelling
50:18 New Console, New Combat, New Dungeons
1:01:40 The Party as People
1:09:02 Influences
1:21:25 Revelation & Resolution
1:43:35 Personal Thoughts
1:45:43 Part IV - Closing the Sequel Gap
1:50:55 Part V - The Proliferation of Final Fantasy IV
2:07:38 Part VI - Reception & Legacy
2:17:38 Epilogue & To Be Continued...

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