The After Years is a direct sequel to the iconic 4th iteration of the Final Fantasy series, as its title suggests it is set several years after the events of the original, so you can see how our beloved or hated characters grow up and even meet some of their children. In theory and depending on how you see sequels, this could be a great experience but in practice, it is far from the mark.The After Years is a direct sequel to the iconic 4th iteration of the Final Fantasy series, as its title suggests it is set several years after the events of the original, so you can see how our beloved or hated characters grow up and even meet some of their children. In theory and depending on how you see sequels, this could be a great experience but in practice, it is far from the mark.
The game is presented in episodes, each episode stars one specific character that you follow mainly for that said episode, this decision might feel odd but narratively speaking it makes sense more or less, a lot of the stories are happening almost at the same time so you can see characters from other stories intertwine briefly and unfold the plot little by little, again, in theory this sound like it could be an interesting choice but in reality, it felt quite tiresome to start a chapter with a new set of characters and to increase their levels again and again, in no time you get tired to the core.
Let's talk about the gameplay, it uses the ATB system so you know more or less the drift, the interesting new feature tho is a new command called 'Band' this band thing consists in combining two commands of two to five characters to make a more powerful defensive or offensive skill, is interesting since you have to do trial and error to find what combinations can be made, it uses MP to prevent extended usage of them or to exploit them which is OK. Another new feature is that now the potency of your attacks, magic, throws, and summons depends on the phases of the moon, this not only affects you but also the enemies so depending on the jobs of your party you need to choose wisely on which moon you're going to venture a dungeon, depending on your decision you might have a harder or slower time, although you can change the phase by resting in inns or tents.
Now, taking aside the new features that can feel sometimes superficial, the gameplay remains the same as the original or at least the newer editions of the original, what it truly makes me reconsider quitting this game on more instances that I want to recall was first and foremost the grinding, to put you in perspective the original game took me 31 hours to beat, this one took me 44 hours, in the original, I did some sidequests while in TAY I didn't, why I comparing their length you say? I'm glad you ask, The After Years consists not only on similar almost identical events of the original with other characters but it also features every boss of it, dungeon and locations rearranged in a different order so in a lot of ways is like playing the original but with less charm and soul, combine this with over-grinding and you'll get a tiresome and unbearable experience, it doesn't help that you have to repeat and backtrack some dungeons in different events.
Being an episodic game I imagine that it would be complex to a game like this be explorative on its design so I'm not blaming that much that they made it this linear, but keep in mind that you're guided literally to where to go next every time that you advance of the story, at least till the last episode where you'll be tasked to repeat a few dungeons again.
The music is still great mainly because they're arranged versions of the original game with a few new tunes that sound like they belong to this game , I can even say that I appreciate some characters more after playing with them again, although the new characters are fine I think they're overshadowed by the older ones, I would prefer that the story focused more on them and give the veteran cast a more supporting role, however, it's nice that by the end of the game you get a huge pool of characters to choose from, so I guess is not that bad in that regard, also at different points of your adventure you'll find several instances where some characters can get permadeath, at least to me it affected my gameplay and narrative so it seems that several story branches exist so you can replay the game to see them all, it is indeed a nice touch for the hardcore players but in my case, I wouldn't mind keeping this game in an obscure place for a long time.
As an RPG is at its best OK but for the most part it's generic and repetitive, however, being the sequel to one of the best FF entries and to completely recreate events, boss fights and almost everything from that game makes this experience cheap and tiresome, it is truly a big missed opportunity. I wouldn't recommend it to play it that much unless you're itchy to know what happens next to our heroes, in that regard it has some kind of payoff and maybe it even gives you the illusion that it was worth it but it is a 70% bitter 30% sweet experience, so if you're going for it just be prepared for an excessive, grindy and unbalanced game.… Expand
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