Final Fantasy: Every Numbered Game Ranked

Final Fantasy IV begins with you in service of the dark side, years before that sort of thing was cool. What follows is a story of ruin and redemption, clocking up a body count far higher than Nintendo's Standards and Practices would ever commonly allow.

And indeed, they didn't. The North American release - Final Fantasy's first in the region since its inception - was heavily bowlderised, leading to far more spoony bards than grisly deaths. The game was also significantly nerfed, but that didn't stop Western audiences trying out the franchise's SNES launch from falling in love with it.

The blank slates of previous games are gone. Now, narrative and gameplay are closely interwoven, with characters and their classes inseparable. This is no better exemplified than Cecil's iconic story of atonement, which sees him transform from a lance-wielding dragoon into a white magic casting paladin. The series-defining ATB makes its debut here also, as Final Fantasy brushed off the restrictions of Dragon Quest to become the fluidest - and critically, most inviting - JRPG of its time. You also go to the moon.

For many, Final Fantasy IV holds a sacred place as their introduction to the series. Its popularity helped it effectively establish a formula that'd be mostly followed until XI's drastic departure, but that also means what it does well was subsequently improved upon several times over. That said, it's still a definitive title every Final Fantasy fan should play, even if it now feels a bit like a template.