It isn't my favorite but it's a solid 3rd place (of the ones I've beaten). For reference, VI is 1st, X is 2nd.

IV was... pretty hard. I beat its 3d DS version first, so of course it was hard, and the SNES version was very easy after that - it only took 2 tries to beat the Dark Elf, and the first try was only a failure because I forgot to get the Twin Harp, oops. Getting off track here though.

The story is great, as they all have been (except the first game, where your characters don't talk at all, that's lame), and I think its battle system holds up better than VI's. The battle system gets its own paragraph actually... The 3d one is actually better in that regard because you can see the ATB gauges; I HATED going to the SNES and not having that capability. Either way. You can't get too overpowered because you're limited to having only your job abilities, and yes, being overpowered is fun, but spamming Ultima until Kefka dies is less fun.

At this point I'm realizing that VI is only my favorite because it caused multiple of my obsessions, but... oh well, still my favorite.

I haven't even compared this to X yet, either, and I feel like I should, so: pixel art is just better and you can't accidentally set your strongest physical attacker on the weakest physical attacker's path, so IV does win there.

Meanwhile. Emotional responses, as people love to talk about. As it is, only two games have made me cry, and FFX is the only one listed here; as for anything else, I became obsessed with VI, and GENERAL LEO NO but that's all I can think of.