Yup Squares milking their old games for all their worth now adays. Final Fantasy IV DS was released in Japan Dec 20, 2007, close to a year now and was released in America in July 22, 2008. Although Square Enix is milking one of their greatest games, although its no Final Fantasy VI, the update is actually quite enjoyable. The updated graphics aren't as bad, they're better then Final Fantasy III DS actually and the added features give the game quite a bit more then just a typical remake of the game.
The game is basically Final Fantasy IV hard mode that was in Japan many years ago on the SNES. Back in the days of the SNES when Final Fantasy IV or II as most people know it in the US from back then was a simple game. You take the role of a Dark Knight named Cecil and go on a mission for your king, which eventually leads into a larger scaled mission for the world. In the days of the SNES, the American Version we got was dummed down a bit from the original Japan version. Special skills such as Dark, Recall, Pray, and many more were all removed, enemies were made easier dealing about 2x less damage then normal.
In Final Fantasy IV DS the player, although the game is the same, must look out for the many changes of the world. A player who easily played Final Fantasy IV on the SNES would easily go outside Baron Castle and kill a imp in 1 hit. And if the imp was lucky enough to hit one of the players characters would deal anywhere from 1-10 damage. In Final Fantasy IV DS, the enemies are alot stronger now, as they were in their original Japan version. An average imp, outside Baron Castle, that deals 1-10 damage in the SNES version now deals about 53 damage to your characters. Levelling is a plus but not actually needed for this game, you can level but with the upgrade on the system strategy is more needed.
Voice Acting, unlike in the original which was 16 bit, now has voice actors for major scenes. For example, in the scene where Cecil and Kain invade the village of the mist, home of Rydia, the whole scene is voice acted. This link will show you the scene I am talking about. Rydia
Augments play a huge role in the game this time around. A new feature added to the game gives your characters special powers such as other player attacks and skills. In the SNES version you were limited to having Palom and Porom with Twincast. Well in this game if you were to give these two the right amount of augments when you return to Mysidia the elder would give you the Bluff and Cry augment, the two skills Palom and Porom use, TwinCast x2, and a Dualcast Augment. This way you can make your characters more versitile. Want Rosa to be able to cast Cura twice when you know one time will not heal enough? Then equip her with the Dualcast Augment and all your worries are over. Want Rosa and Rydia to use a powerful spell together? Equip Twincast on them both and you can use PyroFlare and Comet, two of the powerful spells the Twins use when you cast Twincast with them.
Battles play out normally as you would see in the old Final Fantasy games. Side ways view has always been the theme of the battle system. In this game however the game takes a turn on the battle system. The majority of battles are side view, such as random encounters. But when you arrive at a boss, such as the Mist Dragon in the Mist Valley, the battle turns from a side view to more of a 3Dish view, where enemies are facing you from the top of the screen, while your characters face them from the bottom, much like the battles in Final Fantasy III DS.
Myself I coughed up the $39.99 for this game. Even though I hate what Square Enix has become I do enjoy the old games. This game was worth it in my personal opinion. Even if you hate Square Enix this game should be picked up due to the excitement of the old games that made Square a great company in the day. The moment I fought the Dark Knight as Cecil turned into a Paladin was excitement enough. So if you must, don't write off Square Enix yet, at least until they create Final Fantasy VI DS, then we'll write them off lol. But give this game a try, you won't be disappointed.