Final Fantasy IV: The After Years [Wii]

Posted June 18, 2009 by Michael Curley.

Reviewed on the Nintendo Wii.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years has big shoes to fill. Final Fantasy IV is generally considered one of the best games in the long running RPG series, and the place where the series really came into its own, with the advent of the Active Time Battle system, and the first really involved plot, setting the standard for all the future games in the series.

The After Years picks up the story 17 years after the conclusion of the original game, and follows a mix of old and new faces as the conflicts that drove Final Fantasy IV start up all over again. Right now, only the first quarter of the story or so is available, but what’s there so far is clearly setting up something big, and will likely grow into a story well worth the Final Fantasy name. Just the first few hours gives you a good idea of what’s at stake, as well as letting you catch up with the first generation of heroes and how they’ve changed in the intervening years.

The game, ported over from Japanese cell phones, looks like it was lifted right from the SNES, with the bright and colorful superdeformed sprites of yesteryear. As well, most of the environments are taken right from the original, with a couple places that’ve been changed and expanded. The graphics work well enough, considering they were going for the retro feel.

The sound design, likewise, is a throwback to the original game, with the usual set of RPG sound effects. Most of the music is lifted right from the original, which is a good thing because music has always been one of the series highlights, and Final Fantasy IV had some great themes. They’re all intact here, ready to remind you of the first game and are used to great effect.

The gameplay is pretty standard Final Fantasy fare. Over the course of the quest, you’re given a variety of characters, each with their distinct strengths and abilities, including old faces who kick as much ass as they did last game, and new ones. New to the battle system are the lunar cycle, and Bands. Every time you rest, and after a certain amount of battles, the phase of the moon changes, and each of the phases gives advantages to different actions in battle, adding an element of strategy to the otherwise standard system.

The Band system lets two or more of the characters team up for an attack, combining their different abilities into one big action that takes up a little MP, but can devastate enemies, or bring your team back from the brink. It’s implemented fairly intuitively, and can turn the tide in a tough boss battle.

The game’s being released in installments, so only the first part of the game is available now, and the rest will be put out monthly until the conclusion is released in September. In total, it’ll cost 3700 Wii Points, or about 37 dollars, which is more than any other Wii Ware or Virtual Console title, but still less than most new games. Still, that’s a good chunk of change for an old style game, and trickling the game out might be a turnoff for those that want to dive right into the whole thing.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years is a good follow up to the original game, andworth buying if you’re an RPG fan at all, especially if you’re into the old school games.

Tagged as Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy IV, Matrix Software, Square Enix, The After Years