FF IV - Box Art Brawl
Image: Nintendo Life

Hello folks, and welcome to another edition of Box Art Brawl!

Before we get cracking with this week's rumble, let's take a look at how the votes panned out last time. We took a look at Professor Layton and the Curious Village for the DS and, holy moly, it was actually a rather close call. North America won out with 48% of the vote, with Europe just missing out with 41%. Finally, Japan wasn't quite able to win the hearts of our voters and pulled in just 11% of the vote.

This week, to celebrate the Switch release of Final Fantasy I-IV Pixel Remaster, we're going to take a look at the DS remake of Final Fantasy IV, launched back in 2007. The game was a remarkable critical success, and we here at Nintendo Life adored it, awarding it a score of 9/10 in our review.

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We'll be checking out three different variants this week (though, admittedly, two of them are remarkably similar), so without further ado, let's get started.

Be sure to cast your votes in the poll below; but first, let's check out the box art designs themselves.

North America

FF IV - NA
Image: Square Enix

So this is very much your "quintessential" Final Fantasy cover, with the beautiful title font set against a lovely image of antagonist Golbez. What's interesting about the North American version, however, is that the standardised colour palette for Final Fantasy has effectively been inverted, with the title in white and the background in black. The image of Golbez, meanwhile, is all shiny and pretty. Ooh...

Europe

FF IV - EU
Image: Square Enix

So for Europe, the composition is exactly the same as its North American counterpart, but the colours are much more in keeping with Final Fantasy's "traditional" image. The title font is now in black, the background is in white, and the image of Golbez is now mostly blue with hints of orange and red.

Japan

FF IV - Japan
Image: Square Enix

Okay, so Japan really bucks the trend with this one, utilising the skillset of Final Fantasy illustrator Yoshitaka Amano for the cover art. We see the game's core protagonists in the foreground with a whole bunch of airships and clouds in the background. It's a striking piece, to be sure, but is it as iconic as the European/North American approach..?

Which region got the best Final Fantasy IV box art? (1,945 votes)

  1. North America
    North America17%
  2. Europe
    Europe57%
  3. Japan
    Japan26%

Thanks for voting! We'll see you next time for another round of the Box Art Brawl.