Final Fantasy IV: The After Years (Nintendo WiiWare)
Rated “E” For “Everyone”
Years ago, a second moon appeared and monsters began to run rampant. An evil plot to gather the Earth’s crystals and bring about a horrible evil on the moon had taken part and was growing in fruition. A struggling Black Knight saw the light of his ways and became entangled on a quest to rid this oncoming horror. Cecil found himself shedding his dark side for the light, struggled with his heart over the woman he loved and the brother he had to stop, and teamed up with others to end this terror and bring peace to the blue planet.
=====Story=====
Years had passed. Cecil, now King of Baron, and his wife, Queen Rosa, had been living in harmony and had been working together with the other kingdoms to rebuild what was almost lost years ago. During that time, Cecil and Rosa had given birth to a son, Ceodore. Ceodore had begun training to become a knight to serve his kingdom as the world was healing itself. Unfortunately, the second moon had reappeared once more, monsters are attacking with a higher degree of ferocity and numbers, and the kingdom of Baron has once again seemed to have turned to the darkness with King Cecil leading the way. What brought about the new moon? Why are events of the past suddenly taking place again? Is Cecil really behind this devious plan?
=====Gameplay=====
Although the years have gone by, the way of battling has stayed the same for the most part. It plays like a standard RPG from the 16-bit era and, more specifically, plays like its predecessor (FFII/IV). You have your standard Attack and Items options, Black or White magic, and then you have your character specific commands (Jump, Cover, Taunt, Kick, etc) to choose from. Your party members wait for their bars to fill up and then you give them their command to perform on your foes. There are also a couple new additions that have evolved over the years on the Blue Planet that may aid you in your battles.
The second moon has brought along Moon Phases. The phases change over a period of time and they have a different effect on your attacks as well as the attacks of monsters. Your Black Magic might be stronger, but your normal Attack will do less damage, Attack up with Commands down, Command up with White Magic down, or White Magic up with Black Magic down. You may have to change up your strategies going into battles and don’t forget that these effects work against or in favor of your enemies. You could use 4 Tents/Cottages/Inns to get the moon back to the phase you like if you don’t want to worry too much about it.
New are Band Attacks. With certain characters on your team and by choosing specific commands, you can unleash powerful spells/attacks against your enemies (Rosa-White Magic + Porom-White Magic = Holy Ray). Some can be pulled off with just 2 characters while some may require your entire party to join in and unleash an earth-shattering attack.
=====Difficulty=====
Years of peace can make fighting difficult. It took a great deal of strength for Cecil and the others to take down the second moon the first time and it will take more to take care of the second moon again. Phases of the moon do effect fighting strategies as well as increase/decrease the frequency of random battles and rare battles. Not only that, but there aren’t that many weak monsters to deal with as you journey onward. Monsters of the past that were once indigenous to certain areas could now appear almost anywhere on the world map and your level may not matter in what you come up against. Revisited and revamped boss fights will have you trying old strategies only to find that they won’t work at all. You will come across new monsters and bosses throughout the course of your journey and they won’t hesitate to pounce all over your party. Latter portions of your adventure will have normal monsters able to KO your entire party in one attack. Those latter bosses won’t be any easier either. This second moon came appeared with a purpose and it is not holding back.
=====Content=====
Memories from years ago may lead you to ponder of what happened to everyone on the Blue Planet over time. It is up to you whether you want to find out or not. Downloadable content (300 points apiece) is available each revolves around certain characters giving them a little briefing on what they had been up to and giving you control of them during the present events of the second moon reappearing. While they are short, each tale has a special Challenge Dungeon you can take part in after finishing each tale. It’s not required to do so, but it does give you an opportunity to gain rare items/weapons/armor and to a chance to max out levels.
It may not appeal to some to pour in the time to do that, but it does pay off in the final chapter where you can load any completed tale giving your final team all the items/weapons/armor/gil combined and having playable characters start at their highest level cap at the time. The adventure doesn’t get that much easier as the final chapter itself can take 20 hours to complete.
So there is a lot of content to go through, but only if you choose to with time and money being a factor. You can pay $16 for the first and last chapter (that’s all you would HAVE to purchase to see the beginning and end) and you will still get a good 30+ hours of gameplay if you sped through it. Or you can pay for all the extra tales bringing your total to $37 and you will get at least 2 more hours per tale or 5+ hours if you decide to tackle the Challenge Dungeons and power up your characters. All of that combined can give you 40-60+ hours of gameplay just like the original did. The choice is up to you.
=====Final Thoughts=====
Years between generations may be a factor on whether or not you will like this adventure. It’s hard to recommend this title to someone who has not played any iteration of Final Fantasy IV. The majority of the story requires you to have previous knowledge of the events that had happened and the characters that were involved in it. If you didn’t know who Cecil and Rosa were then why would you care that they had a son named Ceodore?
The presentation of the game may also be a turn off for those not a fan of Final Fantasy IV or the 16-bit era. The sprites and environments resemble their predecessor very well and do get a nice coating on the graphics, but it is light years away from the graphics of this generation of consoles can do. Don’t expect many-minute long cut scenes. Expect to read the voice-less text as your progress through the story.
There’s also something about how you get the game. If you bought each tale as they were released (2-3 a month), this game will carry you through 4 months making you want more. If you wait and buy all at once, it may help to just get you going from one tale to the next. If you bought only the first when it was released and then waited for the last chapter, that’s a long wait of nothing in between.
If you are a fan that has played Final Fantasy IV, then this is an easy buy.
- Nostalgia – There is a ton of nostalgia wrapped in this title. Getting a chance to revisit every location and see old characters will have your inner child jumping up and down with a smile. Even seeing old monsters and knowing what to do against them will be a nice joy.
- Downloadable Content – The extra tales are a must have if you want to see what ever happened to those characters you left behind many years ago. It will add hours of gameplay and will reveal bits and pieces of the main story and why things are happening. Adding all of that to your final save file can give you a total of 22 interchangeable party members and tons of Band attacks to discover.
- Déjà vu – It’s true, you will feel like you’re playing similar/exact events from the original Final Fantasy IV, but that’s not a bad thing. If you had great memories of them before, here it is again with a little twist.
- Golbez Being Playable – While he might not be as greatly powered as he was portrayed as a dark knight, it still will give you some satisfaction to get a chance to play as this one time evil soul.
- Fan Service – Inside jokes are just funny (What, no Knife this time?). And the last chapter is littered with a ton of fan service not only to those that played Final Fantasy IV, but to those that played Final Fantasy I-VI (no spoilers) and they are delightful.
There is a lot more for fans to enjoy. You get a new great story, a familiar and new cast of characters, familiar and new environments, familiar and new monsters, and a great old-school RPG overall.
Rated 3 out of 5
Fan Rated 5 out of 5
