After completing Final Fantasy III in 1990, Square planned to develop two Final Fantasy games—one for the Nintendo Famicom and the other for the forthcoming Super Famicom, to be known as Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy V respectively.[58] Due to financial and scheduling constraints, Square dropped plans for the Famicom game and continued development of the Super Famicom version, retitled Final Fantasy IV. A mock-up screenshot of the aborted title was produced for a Japanese magazine, but little other information exists about it.[58]
Audio -
The score of Final Fantasy IV was written by longtime series composer Nobuo Uematsu. Uematsu has noted that the process of composing was excruciating, involving trial and error and requiring the sound staff to spend several nights in sleeping bags at Square Co. headquarters. His notes were humorously signed as being written at 1:30 AM "in the office, naturally."[59] The score was well received; reviewers have praised the quality of the composition despite the limited medium.[9][49][8] The track "Theme of Love" has even been taught to Japanese school children as part of the music curriculum.[60] Uematsu continues to perform certain pieces in his Final Fantasy concert series.[61] Three albums of music from Final Fantasy IV have been released in Japan. The first album, Final Fantasy IV: Original Sound Version, was released on June 14, 1991 and contains 44 tracks from the game. The second album was Final Fantasy IV: Celtic Moon, released on October 24, 1991, contains a selection of tracks from the game, arranged and performed by Celtic musician Máire Breatnach. Lastly, Final Fantasy IV Piano Collections, an arrangement of tracks for solo piano performed by Toshiyuki Mori, was released on April 21, 1992 and began the Piano Collections trend for each successive Final Fantasy game. Several tracks have appeared on Final Fantasy compilation albums produced by Square, including The Black Mages and Final Fantasy: Pray. Independent but officially licensed releases of Final Fantasy IV music have been composed by such groups as Project Majestic Mix, which focuses on arranging video game music.[62] Selections also appear on Japanese remix albums, called dojin music, and on English remixing websites.[63]
Versions and rereleases Final Fantasy IV has been ported to several platforms. Each version is nearly unchanged save for minor differences. To date, an easy version of Final Fantasy IV has been released for the Super Famicom, and the game has been ported to Sony PlayStation (in 1997), the WonderSwan Color (in 2002), and the Game Boy Advance (in 2005).
Final Fantasy II (North America)  Boxart of the North American localization of the game Because the previous two installments of the Final Fantasy series had not been localized and released in North America at the time, Final Fantasy IV was distributed as Final Fantasy II to maintain naming continuity. Later remakes of the game have been released in North America under the original title. While the game retains the storyline, graphics, and sound of the original, developers have significantly reduced the difficulty for beginning gamers. Certain items are less expensive or rare, and several battle commands have been removed—including Tellah's Recall (allowing him to use a random magic spell), Edward's Medicine (which used Potions from the player's inventory to heal the entire party), and Cecil's DarkWave (an attack which targeted all enemies but sacrificed a portion of his health). Several enemies and bosses have been reduced in strength and assigned special weaknesses. Entrances to secret passages on field maps are outlined in blue, whereas they are invisible in the original Japanese version. The translation has been changed in accordance with Nintendo of America's censorship policies (at the time before the formation of the ESRB and its rating system), and certain errors have been introduced during localization.[64] Certain character descriptions and elements of backstory have been cut due to space limitations. For instance, Kain's background and relationship with his father and the motivations for Zemus's plans to colonize Earth are not in the game.[65] The logo for the U.S. version features the same font and sword-letter-T emblem used in the Game Boy Final Fantasy Legend series rather than an image of Kain, which was used for the Final Fantasy IV title logo (and was used for its later releases as well). Other changes include the removal of overt Judeo-Christian religious references and certain potentially objectionable graphics. The magic spell Holy has been renamed White. All references to prayer are eliminated; the Tower of Prayers in Mysidia is renamed the Tower of Wishes, though the White Mage in the tower still calls it "Tower of Prayers" and Rosa's Pray command is absent. Direct references to death are omitted, although several characters clearly die over the course of the game. Anything considered too risqué has been censored, such as bikinis on town dancers (replaced by leotards). The Programmers' Room special feature (in which the player can find a Porno Magazine) has been removed.[66] New promotional character art was made for published previews.[50] In addition to the content edits, one major gameplay function was altered: The multiplayer option, which operated similarly to the same option in Final Fantasy VI, was completely removed,[citation needed] as was the ability to edit controller settings.[citation needed] These edits prompted the creation of an English language fan translation of the original script, produced by J2e Translations.[67] The fan translation uses the original version of the game and not the Easytype.
Final Fantasy IV Easytype A modified version of the game was released for the Super Famicom in Japan under the name Final Fantasy IV Easytype. Built from the untranslated template of the US version, the Easytype has been modified to be even easier than its North American counterpart.[68] Because the Easytype was released before Final Fantasy II, fans and critics continue to erroneously claim that the US version was made from this version.[48][68] In the Easytype, the attack powers of weapons have been enhanced, while the protective abilities of certain accessories and armor are amplified (such as the Ribbon, which protects against all magic). The developers have removed the instant killing technique of an enemy called The Tricker.[68] The final boss, Zeromus, has been redesigned as a sword-wielding, skull-crowned scorpion, and a new battle pattern has been created for the beast.[69]
PlayStation -
A PlayStation re-release debuted in Japan on March 21, 1997. Ported by TOSE and published by Square Co., it was designed and directed by Kazuhiko Aoki, supervised by Fumiaki Fukaya, and produced by Akihiro Imai.[70] This version is identical to the original game, although minor tweaks introduced in the Easytype are present. The most notable changes in the PlayStation release are the inclusion of full motion video opening & ending sequences, the ability to move quickly in dungeons and towns by holding the Cancel button, and the option of performing a "memo" save anywhere on the world map.[70] The PlayStation remake was later released with Chrono Trigger in North America as part of Final Fantasy Chronicles in 2001 and with Final Fantasy V in Europe and Australia as part of Final Fantasy Anthology in 2002. The English localizations feature a new translation, which addresses discrepancies between the original by Takashi Tokita and Final Fantasy II, although certain lines from the previous localization by Kaoru Moriyama - such as "You spoony bard!" - were kept, as they had become fan favorites.[71] The developers have also fixed certain bugs present in the Japanese version, including slow-down issues with music.
WonderSwan Color A remake for the WonderSwan Color was released in Japan on March 27, 2002. Character sprites and backgrounds have been graphically enhanced through heightened details and color shading.[72] These enhancements have since carried over to the Game Boy Advance port.[48]
Game Boy Advance  Boxart for Final Fantasy IV Advance Final Fantasy IV was ported a second time by TOSE and released as Final Fantasy IV Advance (ファイナルファンタジーIVアドバンス, Fainaru Fantajī Fō Adobansu?). It was released in North America by Nintendo of America on December 12, 2005; in Japan by Square Enix on December 15, 2005; in Australia on February 23, 2006; and in Europe on June 2, 2006. The ESRB rated it E-10 (Everyone 10 and older) and the CERO designated it for all ages. In Japan, a special version was available which included a limited edition Game Boy Micro with a themed face plate featuring artwork of Cecil and Kain.[73] The developers made several changes for this release. The enhanced graphics from the WonderSwan Color port have been even further improved, and minor changes have been made to the music. Earlier versions of the game also suffered from many bugs during battles, but these were fixed for the European release. The localization team revised the English translation, improving the flow of the story, and certain plot details absent from the original have been restored.[48] The player can change characters among Edward, Yang, Porom, Palom and Cid after defeating the Giant of Babel, although Cecil must be in the party at all times. Two new dungeons have been added: a new cave at Mt. Ordeals featuring powerful armor and stronger weapons for five additional characters, and the Lunar Ruins, accessible only at the end of the game.[48] New trials exist for each character at this location, reachable only after a particular character has defeated the final boss, for example Cid's trial involves ferrying people around in an airship, and Rydia's trial involves fighting her own summons. The Lunar Ruins feature some of the best items in the game and another version of Zeromus to fight. This is his alternate scorpion form from the Easytype version, dubbed Zeromus EG. Also available for battle are a superboss named Brachioraidos and lunar versions of the summons, comparable to the dark aeons in Final Fantasy X.[74] Up to three game saves are possible. In addition, a "quick save" function is available in which the player can save the game anywhere (except in battle or dialogue), but the saved data is lost if he/she continues from that save point. A music player will become accessible when the game is completed.
Nintendo DS -
 Cecil walking through Baron Final Fantasy IV (ファイナルファンタジーIV, Fainaru Fantajī Fō?) is an enhanced remake of the original Final Fantasy IV. It is set to be released for the Nintendo DS as part of the campaign for Final Fantasy series 20th anniversary. The game will be developed by Matrix Software, the same team responsible for the Final Fantasy III remake, and will be supervised by members of the original development team: Takashi Tokita will serve as executive producer and director, Tomoya Asano as producer and Hiroyuki Itō as battle designer. Animator Yoshinori Kanada will storyboard the new cut scenes.[75]
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