10 Best No. 4's In Gaming History

The tale of how gaming's most inaccurately-named franchise came to be is the stuff of industry legend.

The original Final Fantasy was intended to be exactly that - one last hurrah from publishers Squaresoft before they went under after one too many failures. Except the game sold like gangbusters, Squaresoft was saved, and there was much rejoicing.

Having said that, Square didn't exactly get everything right first try.

The first FF was a solid JRPG, but a bit light on plot. The second game was more narrative-heavy, but with a wonky, game-breaking levelling system. And the third game offered entertaining combat, but a dull story.

FF IV, though, was the game that finally nailed the Final Fantasy formula.

FFIV contained many of the tropes that would come to define the series - a conflicted hero turning on his former masters, the death of a party member, and a villain with more shades of grey than a spinster's library. It also introduced the series' trademark ATB battle system - an elegant fusion of real-time and turn-based combat - and was arguably the game where composer Nobuo Uematsu announced himself to the world, with "Theme of Love" and the game's pulse-pounding Boss Battle theme signifying Uematsu's immense talent.

(Also, "You spoony bard!" is still the best insult ever written in a video game)