Some Final Fantasy IV DS info

A little late to post this, but fuck it. Here's some intriguing localisation news regarding the DS remake of Final Fantasy IV. These info comes from Tomoya Asano, producer of FF III and FF IV DS remakes as well as Takashi Tokita, lead game designer and scenario writer of the original FF IV as well as co-director of Chrono Trigger and director of this remake.

The story has not been tinkered much, so as not to upset picky fanboys. This despite the original game being only 25% of what they intended. Some of these discarded scripts were reworked into the remake in the form of flashbacks.

FF IV DS will have new story scenes that will flesh out Golbez's character.

Problems that plagued Final Fantasy III DS will be addressed. This includes improved loading, character development, more abilities, elaborate summoning cut scenes etc. I am not too sure whether I would welcome a more elaborate summoning sequences. Hope they are skipable.

In FF III DS, one of the screen is switched off during dungeon crawling and combat, but in FF IV DS, the lower screen will be used to display enemy info, status conditions etc. during battle. Nice.

As I mentioned in my impression of the Japanese version, the lower screen contains a map percentage feature where if you explore 100% of the dungeon you will get a reward.

The Augment Ability System (Decant ability) replaces the system in FF IV Advance where the characters that were temporary in the original version are playable again later on. They didn't like it because it messes with the story.

The Augment system will allow characters to permanently learn new abilities. This was originally meant to allow leaving characters to transfer their skills, but is now expanded out to allow you to learn new abilities by furthering story sub plots.

The weird creature that was with Rydia will be called Whytkin. Which doesn't sound as cute as Pochika...

Some of Edward's abilities which were near useless in the original game will be made more useful. Thank god.

It was acknowledge that they didn't want to lower the difficulty to appease to casual gamers. Makes sense, but I remember even hardcore gamers were complaining about FF III DS's difficulty. Man up people! Stop complaining that we need save points just before boss fights!

This is important. FF IV DS won't be an easytype. Instead difficulty is increased as bosses were rebalanced to stop people from memorising boss strategies from earlier versions. I hope we will get a Hard mode like the none-Japanese version of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, but right now nothing has been confirmed.

Auto battle mode similar to gambit where you assign a single action for each character. In the Japanese version this can be turned off during battle if you wish.

The bonus Lunar Ruins from FF IV Advance won't be making it here. Nothing was mentioned about the new dungeon on Mt. Ruins.

Instead we will getting New Game+. ^_^

Summons are called Eidolons for IX fanboys. I have no idea why they would do that...

Totally ripped-off from GAF

The English version of Final Fantasy IV DS remake will arrive 22nd July this year. Take advantage of the low dollar and import.