The After Years is a frustrating game. Set some 17 or so years after FFIV, I was so excited to see these characters again and how they have changed over the years. The game is split in 10 miniature stories (most of which are 1.5-2 hours long) as you follow both old and new characters around as a mysterious plot unravels across the land. The narrative itself is honestly quite compelling for the most part, though I do love a good mystery.
Sadly, the filling in the map feature is gone as well as character thought bubbles in the pause screen. What has been added are two interesting new features - phases of the moon that affect different damage types that change when you rest, and band attacks which are like limit breaks between different party compositions of 2 or more characters. What is even more disheartening is the heavy re-use of assets. Don't get me wrong, it is to be expected to some degree, but it eventually borders on the obscene. Some dungeons you have to traverse 2, 3, even 4 times over the course of the main plot and to keep it light on spoilers, the finale itself drags on for EVER. If it were not for the tedious nature of this game, I would score it a 4 or even a 4.5, but it was too much even for me to bear.
There is still a lot I do love about the game which makes this so frustrating. The insane number of band attacks and some aspects of the finale remind me of the Trails franchise in some ways, they just really needed to tone down the dungeon reuse ever so slightly. Even cut one or two of the tales out if they had to. Still, if you ultimately loved FFIV like I did, it might just be worth playing this to see those characters again for a new adventure.
Sadly, the filling in the map feature is gone as well as character thought bubbles in the pause screen. What has been added are two interesting new features - phases of the moon that affect different damage types that change when you rest, and band attacks which are like limit breaks between different party compositions of 2 or more characters. What is even more disheartening is the heavy re-use of assets. Don't get me wrong, it is to be expected to some degree, but it eventually borders on the obscene. Some dungeons you have to traverse 2, 3, even 4 times over the course of the main plot and to keep it light on spoilers, the finale itself drags on for EVER. If it were not for the tedious nature of this game, I would score it a 4 or even a 4.5, but it was too much even for me to bear.
There is still a lot I do love about the game which makes this so frustrating. The insane number of band attacks and some aspects of the finale remind me of the Trails franchise in some ways, they just really needed to tone down the dungeon reuse ever so slightly. Even cut one or two of the tales out if they had to. Still, if you ultimately loved FFIV like I did, it might just be worth playing this to see those characters again for a new adventure.