Review Insights · App Store
FINAL FANTASY IV
SQUARE ENIX · 167 ratings · ★ 3.6
3.6
★★★★★
167 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 36 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"controller"
23 negative reviews mention this · 64% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Missing controller support. Missing controller support" - AmpLid88
2
"support"
23 negative reviews mention this · 64% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Missing controller support. Missing controller support" - AmpLid88
3
"controller support"
23 negative reviews mention this · 64% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Missing controller support. Missing controller support" - AmpLid88
4
"game"
22 negative reviews mention this · 61% of all complaints
★★★★★ "WAY TOO EASY. Zero challenge. SNES version was way more challenging, took twice as long to level up, and you had to level up to beat the bosses. You can’t walk through the 4 elemental fiends with no sweat in the SNES version like you can with this. Red…" - WJCK5
5
"version"
10 negative reviews mention this · 28% of all complaints
★★★★★ "WAY TOO EASY. Zero challenge. SNES version was way more challenging, took twice as long to level up, and you had to level up to beat the bosses. You can’t walk through the 4 elemental fiends with no sweat in the SNES version like you can with this. Red…" - WJCK5
6
"needs"
6 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "NEEDS controller support. Game needs controller support, I paid much more for this decades old game than I would any other new iOS game only for it to not be updated to modern accessibility. ADD CONTROLLER SUPPORT PLEASE." - Jimdisme
7
"games"
6 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "My Favorite Final Fantasy but AWFUL controls. I’m okay with onscreen controls generally, but this is god awful. The graphics are beautiful. It looks like the wonderful PSP port of this game. But why, dear lord, is it so difficult to control? I was disappointed that the version of Final…" - Travelin' Chris
8
"remaster"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "WAY TOO EASY. Zero challenge. SNES version was way more challenging, took twice as long to level up, and you had to level up to beat the bosses. You can’t walk through the 4 elemental fiends with no sweat in the SNES version like you can with this. Red…" - WJCK5
9
"controllers"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Game is good, but. The game is just how I remember, but it would be so much better if it were compatible with controllers. Could you please include this in an update?" - BigSlimYeti
10
"support game"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Controller support. Game lacks controller support, which is odd as their WotL supports it" - biggusvaginus
11
"other"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "NEEDS controller support. Game needs controller support, I paid much more for this decades old game than I would any other new iOS game only for it to not be updated to modern accessibility. ADD CONTROLLER SUPPORT PLEASE." - Jimdisme
12
"needs controller"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "NEEDS controller support. Game needs controller support, I paid much more for this decades old game than I would any other new iOS game only for it to not be updated to modern accessibility. ADD CONTROLLER SUPPORT PLEASE." - Jimdisme
📋 All 36 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
WAY TOO EASY
Zero challenge. SNES version was way more challenging, took twice as long to level up, and you had to level up to beat the bosses. You can’t walk through the 4 elemental fiends with no sweat in the SNES version like you can with this.
Redditors who claim the game was always this easy are lying. Try for yourself on SNES and see if you can beat the 4 elemental fiends with ease like you can in this version. You can’t.
This version also has the least amount of content. The 3D version is better. Way more content and it’s challenging. With the pixel remaster you are stuck with super easy difficulty and a shorter game.
Also you can’t skip cutscenes. I’m on my phone just let me skip the cutscenes.
Redditors who claim the game was always this easy are lying. Try for yourself on SNES and see if you can beat the 4 elemental fiends with ease like you can in this version. You can’t.
This version also has the least amount of content. The 3D version is better. Way more content and it’s challenging. With the pixel remaster you are stuck with super easy difficulty and a shorter game.
Also you can’t skip cutscenes. I’m on my phone just let me skip the cutscenes.
Missing controller support
Missing controller support
Disappointed
Add the challenge dungeon and I’ll make this 5 stars
Controller support
Game lacks controller support, which is odd as their WotL supports it
NEEDS controller support
Game needs controller support, I paid much more for this decades old game than I would any other new iOS game only for it to not be updated to modern accessibility. ADD CONTROLLER SUPPORT PLEASE.
Needs controller support!
Needs controller support!
Please support controllers
Game is great but needs controller support
PLEASE HELP/ I HAVE NO SOUND
Booted up the game after buying and there is no sound or music!!! Can someone tell me why that is?
Controller support
No controller support.
Controller support please!!
Not at all sure why, in the year of our lord 2022, there is still a need to call upon games like this that natively supported controller to do so on iOS. Just make it happen! 5 stars if added.
no controller support on mobile?
The much older 3D remaster has controller support for mobile phones, and the PC port for this remaster has controller support, so I don’t understand why this version doesn’t. Was looking forward to playing this on my iPhone with gamepad, very disappointed to see it not supported.
Glitchy
This is a glitchy mess, but the worst thing is just how bad the directional pad is. It makes the game almost unplayable. Considering all the other games have the same issue, it’s gunna be a hard pass.
No controller support.
You’re better than this…
Don’t buy this watered down version
Don’t waste money on this slop
- No controller support
- Very easy and watered down with zero challenge
- Missing content from previous versions
- No controller support
- Very easy and watered down with zero challenge
- Missing content from previous versions
I’m forced to only give 1 star
It’s probably worth 4 stars. The game is beautiful and has the best soundtrack of any version of this game. I’m only giving one star because I spent 20 hours to grind all the achievements and the final achievement never unlocked. I have 29/30 achievements and the last one is “earn all other achievements”. Total joke. I don’t recommend grinding for achievements because there’s a chance you won’t even get them. If they fix this bug I’ll change rating to 4 stars.
Great remaster 0 controller support
This review is only getting a 1 star is from the lack of controller support
No sound on iPhone 8
I have tried on 8, 8plus and iPad. Sound only works on the iPad.
downgraded translation, choreography
loaded this up on an iPad Mini 4 and:
- things are quite slow
- i was able to hang the app by trying to load the bestiary before playing the game
once in the game, i found it strange that:
- the text is so clear yet the sprites/environment relish in the pixelated feel
- the new translation is awful
- why remaster the soundtrack if you are down-mastering the graphics?
other thoughts:
- no augments? woof.
know what would have made this nostalgic game fun/worth it? re-introducing the “bug” that allowed you to duplicate weapons by re-equipping them in battle. seems like a missed opportunity.
thanks for at least including cecil’s darkness ability.
for the record, the DS/polygon-character remake is the best version of this game.
- things are quite slow
- i was able to hang the app by trying to load the bestiary before playing the game
once in the game, i found it strange that:
- the text is so clear yet the sprites/environment relish in the pixelated feel
- the new translation is awful
- why remaster the soundtrack if you are down-mastering the graphics?
other thoughts:
- no augments? woof.
know what would have made this nostalgic game fun/worth it? re-introducing the “bug” that allowed you to duplicate weapons by re-equipping them in battle. seems like a missed opportunity.
thanks for at least including cecil’s darkness ability.
for the record, the DS/polygon-character remake is the best version of this game.
No controller support, really?
I feel stupid for buying this game without verifying that it was supported but f off.... What a joke
Worst Version of FF4
FF4 is my favorite game of all time, but this release is awful. As a mobile title, it suffers from illegible narrow font and a poor interface. Too much of the screen is filled with the movement ring (tap movement is unusable due to mandatory hidden passages and is unavailable on all ships but the hovercraft) and 4 widely spaced menu buttons. This is a severe downgrade from the now defunct FF5/6 mobile titles that, despite controversial graphic changes, were optimized for streamlined play on mobile. Unlike those releases, this title has issues with the combat screen, with its extremely zoom out making the Evil Wall start halfway across instead of menacingly moving in from offscreen, and bizarre targeting menus which overlay the bottom windows and do not let you see current character HP once you select the cure spell. Game is also substantially easier than the SNES release it is supposedly based on- I easily conquered the game in under 9 hours without a single game over, using items/buying equipment, or grinding levels. A huge disappointment since I wanted a solid mobile FF4 and this is not it- the defunct old mobile FF4 was based on the 3D DS version and was also not optimized for mobile play. QOL improvements (autobattle, character pathing with tap movement, visible minimap, auto equip) were outweighed by awkward gameplay changes and the worst font I have ever seen in a mobile game. I sincerely hope they patch this later to fix the font at the very least, since right now it is a complete waste of money.
No controller support?
This game does not appear to have iOS controller support. Why? Obviously the original game does, the Steam version does, and even the 3D remake, which is still on the App Store, does. Why remove something that was already there?
No controller support
I guess I’ll Ramon me for not checking, but all of they’re other games support controllers. Really ticked off there’s no MFI support.
Game is good, but
The game is just how I remember, but it would be so much better if it were compatible with controllers.
Could you please include this in an update?
Could you please include this in an update?
Sudden Crashes…
Surprising this 30 year old game is to much for a iPad. Graphics looks great but the chugging between transitions triggers “is going to crash?” Spoilers yes it will so save often. I love the quality of life changes from the original but come on. Make it playable.
My Favorite Final Fantasy but AWFUL controls
I’m okay with onscreen controls generally, but this is god awful. The graphics are beautiful. It looks like the wonderful PSP port of this game. But why, dear lord, is it so difficult to control? I was disappointed that the version of Final Fantasy games you had in the store was no longer available, so all my save data was lost coming to this version. I created a new AppleID in divorce, but I finally decided I’d buy them (again) just to be presented with a prettier version I can barely play. My character wants to move all over the place. I don’t mind the onscreen text appearance as some do, but… These controls have got to be fixed. Also, why no Spanish translation? 30% of Americans speak Spanish? The sad thing is, I know none of this is going to be addressed. This port has been out for a while. I saw and ignored the bad reviews because I really missed the story and music from this game. Alas, I don’t know if I’ll be able to replay it on my iPhone. My only hope is maybe Apple TV with controller support? Ugh. Why couldn’t this just be a clean direct port of the perfection of the PSP perfect port?
One major flaw
There is absolutely no option to play the game in portrait mode. I hate using landscape. There was no warning that we would be forced to use land scape viewing only. Fix this. It’s a mobile game, we should be able to play with one hand if we wanted to!
Rare Drops
Would be higher but you will never get rare drops to drop even after over a 1000+ battles. They increased pink tail and now you can get it in 10 battles but if your farming more ribbons and protect rings don’t waste your time farming you’ll never get any extra ones. Adding new game + and hard mode would be nice as well and controller support.
Needs controller support
This game is best played with a controller, like the original. I wish controllers were supported
Great game. Needs controller support.
I want to use my iPhone as a handheld, and this is one of the games I miss most from my PSP. Square was so close with a perfect release but didn’t add basic controller support. Add it in and this is five stars.
Need controller support
Need controller support
Crashes constantly
Love the game, but crashes frequently which gets in the way of enjoyment. Could be because we’re playing on an iPad? Anyway, I’ll update this if they fix this problem.
No controller or backbone support
Great game but without controller support I regret my purchase and wish I bought it on PC instead or waited for a Switch version.
No OG music option
The game looks great, and the music sounds good, for all intents and purposes, but some people actually want to play the game they remember, and this soundtrack does not have that same retro feel. It would be great to have an option to switch to the original sound, since that is a huge part of what made the original game so great, and is something that got me to purchase this app, which I probably won’t play now.
Still no controller support on any pixel remaster
I was hoping that since FF4 remake on IOS had controller support this version would too but it does not. Game is amazing looking and the soundtrack is awesome. If youre a person who likes touch controls dont hesitate to buy but i dislike them and prefer controllers for games originally designed for controllers. So they got my money on all of them but im not a happy customer yet.
Please add controller support
Please add controller support
Love FF4 but this needs updates
Options to change font and controller support are really needed
Sentiment summary
61%
Positive (4-5★)
9%
Neutral (3★)
30%
Negative (1-2★)
