u/MasterOfChaos72

So, we ranked all the Tales of The After Years. Here’s what they looked like:

S: Lunarians/Golbez , True Moon
A: Palom, Kain, The Gathering, The Planet Eater
B: Ceodore, Edge, Edward, Rydia
C: Yang
F: Porom

So now, after all these posts, I’m curious. As a whole, how do you feel about Final Fantasy 4: The After Years?

Me personally, I do really like the game. I like the world of FF4, I really like the bands, getting to play as Golbez is great, a chunk of the new characters were interesting, I like the Mysterious Girls, I like that certain returning characters got more development like Edward and Kain and I like how the tale system means I can play it more in chunks then most RPGs.

That’s not to say I’m blind to its issues. The story repeating what happened in FF4 is very annoying at times. Edward going to the Antlion Den for a pearl again, the main villain being after the Crystals again, climbing the mountain with Yang and fighting the big bomb again, going to the sealed cave again (these last two also happened in the Interlude too), etc.
A number of the new characters are somewhat half baked in terms of story (Ursula), personality (Ceodore), gameplay (Harley) or all 3 (the Eblan Ninjas and the Dolls).
And as a sequel to FF4, it doesn’t really push it that much forward as either a game or a story outside of a couple things like Kain and Golbez.

It’s not a bad game by any means but it could have been a lot better. I’d probably still give it a B (which would be great for most series but for a series with as many S and A rank games, it does look worse by comparison).

Was watching a video of all the conversations of Marvel Ultimate Alliance and saw this Deadpool one and the idea came to mind. Only rules is no characters who already professionally do music like Luna Snow or characters whose powers have them using an instrument.

Regarding Deadpool’s suggestions, for some reason I can’t see Storm being a vocalist (might be her general grandiose when speaking) Ben I can definitely see playing drums and I’m sure Deadpool is… something on the bagpipes. I can more see Wolverine playing some other kind of guitar.

For other characters, Rogue and Gambit I can see being very good vocalists for slower songs, Peni is probably good with karaoke, I can see Black Widow probably be a good singer, Dr Strange I can imagine having played some kind of instrument before his accident and any womaniser like Johnny probably learned to play some instrument to impress girls. Anyone else got any thoughts?

Have the After Years on my mind recently due to replaying it for a dumb rewrite thing I’m doing for it. I know the game in general isn’t liked but I’m curious about how people feel about the individual Tales so I’m doing a little tierlist thing for fun.

Current rankings are like this:
S: Lunarians/Golbez , True Moon
A: Palom, Kain, The Gathering
B: Ceodore, Edge, Edward, Rydia
C: Yang
F: Porom

And now we come to the final end to this Tale: The Planet Eater.

This is very different between versions. In the 3D version, it’s a straight forward dungeon with you going down a 13 floor dungeon with you facing the Mysterious Girl early on before going deep and facing the final boss and maybe some superbosses in the Lunar Eidolons. In the 2D version, the dungeon is 29 floors long. Where does the extra length come from? In the 2D version, there are 20 additional optional bosses coming from all the other 2D final fantasy games:
FF1: Lich, Marilith, Kraken, Tiamet.
FF2: Asteroth, Beelzebub, King Behemoth, Iron Giant.
FF3: Cerberus, Ahriman, Echidna, Twinhead Dragon.
FF5: Gilgamesh, Atomos, Omega, Shinryu/Nova Dragon.
FF6: Ghost Train, Orthros, Deathgaze, Ultima Weapon.
Theres also an additional super boss in the Lost Babil (which is the only part of this Tale where you split your whole party).

And now for my controversial option: I kind of prefer the 3D version of this area. Don’t get me wrong, it’s cool to see all these previous bosses and everything as well as seeing the characters reactions to them but I feel like it makes the dungeon too long, I’m not the hugest fan of the selection for some of them and I don’t like that all the superbosses are just from 5 and 6.

Story and character wise, this last part is very simple since most of that was done in the previous part. There are still some save point conversations primarily involving Cecil like him and Golbez, him and Kain, him and the other kings, etc. And all the bosses still have dialogue either before, after or both as well as getting the crystals back and meeting the baby Cuore.

Next let’s discuss the meat and potatoes of this final part: the Maenads and The Creator. The Mysterious Girls/Maenads have overall been a cool set of villains throughout the game. While they don’t really have much in terms of personality (and Golbez is obviously better), they were effective villains in the story that only really lost because Golbez got involved. The final boss with her and Bahamut is really hard but it’s a good boss. I don’t really get why they helped us at the end because they didn’t really seem to care about each other earlier but it’s still nice.

As for the Creator, he’s unfortunately one of those villains that only really shows up at the last minute without a lot of buildup like Necron and Cloud of Darknes. But I do prefer him over them since he does make somewhat sense as the Skynet to the Maenad’s Terminators. I even prefer him over Zemus from the original 4 since he was just kind of a big thing of nothing while the Creator at least has a decent backstory and goal. His fight is ok. Nothing special but he does tie with Kefka and Ultimecia with having the most phases of a final boss at 4 and I like the design of them all (except the final form in the 3D version where it looks like a weird fish). I like the chase thing you have with him at the end.

The ending isn’t anything special with it mainly just being a zoom in on how everyone is doing now. The only part I particularly liked was with Rydia and her new child meeting the Eidolon King and Queen.

And that’s it. Overall, I’d give this Tale an A or B.

Have the After Years on my mind recently due to replaying it for a dumb rewrite thing I’m doing for it. I know the game in general isn’t liked but I’m curious about how people feel about the individual Tales so I’m doing a little tierlist thing for fun.

Current rankings are like this:
S: Lunarians/Golbez
A: Palom, Kain, The Gathering
B: Ceodore, Edge, Edward, Rydia
C: Yang
F: Porom

A couple of people brought up maybe doing these in 3rds instead of halves and I figured sure, i can drag this out for another bit.

Today it’s the second of the final posts covering the second part of The Crystals: The True Moon.

Here we go to the new Moon with our party to try to stop it from colliding with the planet. If I had a nickel for everytime a FF villains big plan involved dropping a moon onto a planet, I’d have 3 nickels (this, 13 and 13-2).

I haven’t brought up the 2D and 3D versions too much since the differences between them weren’t that relevant to me. The only interesting ones were the removal of the challenge dungeons, the removal of the developer room and Izayoi being really good with a bow.

But there are some interesting differences between the 2D and 3D versions of the final tale.

1: You’ll always have the max 22 characters in the 3D version. The Eblan ninjas can’t die in Edge’s tale, you’ll get the things needed to fix the dolls in a manditory encounter and you have to enter all the data for the Tale.

2: You can buy some really good weapons and armor in the 3D version. Since the challenge dungeons aren’t in this version, all the weapons and armor you could get in them are instead sold by the hummingway outside the Lunar Whale. In the 2D version you can only buy Shurikens and Manji Shurikens.

3: You can return to the Blue Planet in the 3D version using the Crystal in the Lunar Whale. There’s not really anything to do aside from grabbing any items you missed as well as the Small Tails but it does make leveling underleveled characters a bit easier since you don’t have to deal with the moons enemies.

4: The layout. Most of the floors are alike being a slight remix of either the Lunar Subterranean or the giant of babel but the 2D version has unique floors for 3 of the 4 Archfiends and the eidolons while the 3d version has copies of the lunar tunnels, lair of the father and the areas where the bosses were originally fought.

5: You can camp on the lunar surface in the 3d version. Not that important but saves you trips down to the healing parts of the Lunar Whale.

That’s all the ones off the top of my head that I remember. Inform me if I forgot any.

Anyway, start of the final dungeon and it’s certainly an interesting one.

The dungeon itself isn’t too interesting design wise (like I said, most of it is just a slightly remixed version of the lunar subterranean and even the unique floors don’t really have any unique gimmicks or anything) but it is interesting in that it is basically a boss rush. There are 12 bosses in just this part of the dungeon all coming back from FF4. The four elemental Archfiends, 4 bosses associated with them in Baigan, The Magus Sisters, Dr Lugae and his Experiment and Edge’s Parents, the Giant’s CPU, Asura, Leviathan and Cecil’s Dark Half, The Dark Knight.

Something I really like about this and the next section is how it deals with the characterisation specifically through the boss encounters and the save point conversations. All the characters have unique dialogue with each of the bosses before and after the battle (and sometimes at the beginning and end of the battle). There are also what I like to call Save Point Conversations where at a good chunk of the Save Points in this dungeon, the game will prompt you to rest and the first time you do it, you’ll get a cutscene of the characters just talking. They’re all great with my favourites being Ceodore properly meeting his uncle and Palom and Porom reconnecting.

And now my few greviences:

You know how the previous part was a bit of an FF6 with you getting back your team? Well they should have ripped it off again with its final dungeon because by god is this missed potential. Max 22 characters and you only bring 5. Yes you can change the party at certain points but there’s not really that much of a reason to outside of seeing the boss dialogue or challenging yourself. My guess as to why this is because the number of characters you can have at this point can vary wildly. I’m not sure what the minimum number of characters is (my guess is 13) but this is still annoying.

Next complaint is that there is nothing on the moon except the final dungeon. Nothing. No optional content or anything, just the dungeon.

Also, Cecil is useless in this section due to story reasons. Not a fan but at least it makes sense.

My only other issue comes from the 2D version. Specifically how you can’t go back to the Blue Planet so levelling up any of the under level characters you have will have to be done on the moon itself which isn’t easy considering the number of powerful enemies here and if you missed something on the planet like the small tails, you have to restart the Tale all over again.

Oh yeah. And lastly, if you bring the wrong party to the Dark Knight fight, Golbez dies! F tier for that one.

Seriously though, I do love this part of the tale. It’s cool seeing all the bosses back again and the characterisation is honestly great. I’d give it an S personally.

Have the After Years on my mind recently due to replaying it for a dumb rewrite thing I’m doing for it. I know the game in general isn’t liked but I’m curious about how people feel about the individual Tales so I’m doing a little tierlist thing for fun.

So, we are now on the last chapter of the game: The Crystals. I am actually going to separate this Tale in 2 for a couple of reasons. First is that it is very long and second is that the part that’s on the moon differs quite a bit between the 2D and 3D versions and I want to talk about them.

With that out of the way, let’s rate the first half of The Crystals: The Gathering.

Our primary team is Edge, Rydia, Luca and Golbez the Man in Black. It includes Golbez so automatically at least an A rank but the others aren’t bad. Lacking a healer but you can pick up a rod in the magnetic cave that heals for a decent bit. Kind of wish they let you choose a 5th member from the characters you rescued and have on the ship but that’s something for the rewrite I guess.

We are doing a Final Fantasy 6 with this chapter because it focuses on gathering all the scattered party members and Eidolons. Although in this case you know where most of the characters are aside from maybe Yang and Ursula if you did the other tales.

Here’s my somewhat quick thoughts on all of those from worst to best:

Kaipo+Fabul (Yang, Ursula, Slyphs): Bit disappointing due to how easy it is to do. Just fly to Fabul, get frying pan and ladle, fly to Kaipo, domestically abuse the unconscious people and you get them and the Slyphs.

Damcyan (Harley): Are we seriously leaving these people to deal with an infestation of Antlions? Seriously? We can’t go to the Antlion Den and beat up a Queen or something? We just take Harley and say bye to everyone else? Ok.

Mysidea (Porom, Ramuh): Really funny to do if got a cursed ring at any point because Ramuh only ever does lightning attacks so you’ll be completely immune to him. Although the decreases in stats will cause actually beating him to take an actual eternity. Anyway, it’s fun and Porom also gets a somewhat cool moment of having had up a barrier by herself and a sweet one when she’s worried about Palom.

Agart (Titan): It’s cute that Rydia cares for Titan. Makes sense given that it was her first major summon and the one that defended her when her mom died. Also, random cool Porom moment since you need her to do float to actually fight him (Starting to think they realised she didn’t get much on her own in her own Tale and tried to compensate here). Gonna throw in the Agart Subterranean since it’s kind of a nothing dungeon that’s just randomly thrown there. I don’t get it.

Troia/Magnetic Cave (Palom, Leonora, Shiva): I like some of the background details of this one like Troia castle being frozen over, Luca’s really obvious crush on Palom and Palom being worried for Porom. Also it’s nice to go through a dungeon since almost all the others are blocked off. This is also the easiest one to do since you basically just Flare Tornado + Firaga Shiva and you win.

Eblan (Ifrit): Probably the best of these. I like that Edge and Rydia get a cool and cute moment when facing Ifrit together, it’s cool having to avoid Ifrit for most of the sequence, Rubicante gets a cool moment (thinking it would have been cool if all the Archfiends helped in some way). Also, Eblan cave nearby is kind of fun since it gives good rewards.

Then you get the Mist dragon and make your way to Baron.

While all this goes on, Ceodore + Kain’s group are confronting Cecil and the Mysterious Girl. It’s fine. Cecil isn’t the hardest boss even when Odin gets involved but it’s a good story and has some good character moments.

And then lastly when all the characters come together and the Tale ends with a mix of both teams facing the Mysterious Girl. Pretty good boss fight since now the normal characters stand a chance against her.

Also the best part of the chapter happens here when the others recognise Golbez and Battle with the Four Fiends starts playing is glorious.

Couple minor irritations for me is that you can’t go to the Underground and almost all the other dungeons in the game are blocked. While I get the unimportant ones, they couldn’t have thought to do something with somewhere like The Dwarven Castle, the Feymarch or Mt Ordeals as even a side thing?

Overall, I’d probably give this half of the tale an A.

Have the After Years on my mind recently due to replaying it for a dumb rewrite thing I’m doing for it. I know the game in general isn’t liked but I’m curious about how people feel about the individual Tales so I’m doing a little tierlist thing for fun.

Today’s it’s Lunarians Tale: The Blue Planet that was.

Only one way to describe this chapter: PEAK.

In this chapter, you get to play as Golbez and that earns it top marks by itself. Golbez is probably the best individual character in this game. A great physical attacker, black magic user and even a tank that redirects attacks to him. If he could use white magic, I’d call him god. And he’s still a great character (though I miss his armor).

The story is also fun because you actually get to beat the Mysterious Girl (who’s been beating your ass in the previous chapters) not once but twice.

I am giving this Tale a S rank and you all can’t stop me. Though you are welcome to try to persuade me otherwise.

Have the After Years on my mind recently due to replaying it for a dumb rewrite thing I’m doing for it. I know the game in general isn’t liked but I’m curious about how people feel about the individual Tales so I’m doing a little tierlist thing for fun.

Today’s it’s Lunarians Tale: The Blue Planet that was.

Only one way to describe this chapter: PEAK.

In this chapter, you get to play as Golbez and that earns it top marks by itself. Golbez is probably the best individual character in this game. A great physical attacker, black magic user and even a tank that redirects attacks to him. If he could use white magic, I’d call him god. He’s also still a great character (though I do miss his armor).

The story is also fun because you actually get to beat the Mysterious Girl (who’s been beating your ass in the previous chapters) not once but twice.

I am giving this Tale a S rank and you all can’t stop me. Though you are welcome to try to persuade me otherwise.

Have the After Years on my mind recently due to replaying it for a dumb rewrite thing I’m doing for it. I know the game in general isn’t liked but I’m curious about how people feel about the individual Tales so I’m doing a little tierlist thing for fun.

Current Rankings:
A: Palom
B: Ceodore, Rydia, Edward, Edge
C: Yang
F: Porom

Today’s it’s Kain’s Tale: The Return of the Dragoon.

I like this Tale. It’s nice to see Kain feel redeemed after his issues in the original FF4 and I like his new Holy Dragoon thing (though I do prefer his original look). I like that he initially loses to his dark side in comparison to Cecil. Edward’s moment of him opening Cecil’s box in order to fight Kain is amazing.

Dark Kain is hilarious. He just gets so over the top by the end that it just makes me laugh. I know that it’s supposed to be a horrifying moment when he’s dragging Rosa to Baron shouting about how he’ll kill her husband but for some reason, I can’t stop laughing at it. Also, him just going along with the mysterious girls plan is funny.

The one part of the story that’s always bothered me is the Kaipo sequence. They see the airships going to Damcyan, they decide to rest for the night in Kaipo just for the soldiers to attack them and then they go to Damcyan where Dark Kain has just arrived. It’s just a bad setup for a reference. Also, we have to go into the Underground Waterway for the 5th time this game.

But yeah, aside from that, I like this Tale. I’d give it an A. What about the rest of you?

Have the After Years on my mind recently due to replaying it for a dumb rewrite thing I’m doing for it. I know the game in general isn’t liked but I’m curious about how people feel about the individual Tales so I’m doing a little tierlist thing for fun.

Current Rankings:
A: Palom
B: Ceodore, Rydia, Edward, Edge
C: Yang
F: Porom

Today’s it’s Kain’s Tale: The Return of the Dragoon.

I like this Tale. It’s nice to see Kain feel redeemed after his issues in the original FF4 and I like his new Holy Dragoon thing (though I do prefer his original look). I like that he initially loses to his dark side in comparison to Cecil. Edward’s moment of him opening Cecil’s box in order to fight Kain is amazing.

Dark Kain is hilarious. He just gets so over the top by the end that it just makes me laugh. I know that it’s supposed to be a horrifying moment when he’s dragging Rosa to Baron shouting about how he’ll kill her husband but for some reason, I can’t stop laughing at it. Also, him just going along with the mysterious girls plan is funny.

The one part of the story that’s always bothered me is the Kaipo sequence. They see the airships going to Damcyan, they decide to rest for the night in Kaipo just for the soldiers to attack them and then they go to Damcyan where Dark Kain has just arrived. It’s just a bad setup for a reference. Also, we have to go into the Underground Waterway for the 5th time this game.

But yeah, aside from that, I like this Tale. I’d give it an A. What about the rest of you?

Have the After Years on my mind recently due to replaying it for a dumb rewrite thing I’m doing for it. I know the game in general isn’t liked but I’m curious about how people feel about the individual Tales so I’m doing a little tierlist thing for fun.

Here’s rankings for them all:
A: Palom
B: Ceodore, Edward, Edge
C: Yang
F: Porom

Today, it’s Rydia’s Tale: The Eidolons Shackled.

Of all the Tales, I believe this one has the most missed potential. It’s the only Tale that takes place almost completely in the Underworld and yet nothing new is done with it. No new locations or dungeons at all. And it’s not like they couldn’t have made new locations. We never saw the locations of the other 2 underworld Crystals in the original FF4 so they could have put at least one of them in a new dungeon but they didn’t. We just go to Sealed Cave again.
Also, I feel if they didn’t release this after Ceodore’s tale and instead released much later (as well as get rid of the cutscene of it happening in Ceodore’s tale), they could have done a semi interesting mystery of what happened to the Eidolons what with the Mysterious Girls summoning them in other tales.

My grievances aside, the story for this tale is fine. Rydia is always lovely to see, Luca’s connection with her dolls is nice, the Mysterious Girl is as cool as ever and it features an appearance from our favourite Man in Black. Main criticism is the missing potential and us going through the Sealed Cave, getting the Crystal, going out and losing it immediately again.

Gameplay is good. I think this tale has the most varied team before the end of Kain’s Tale and the final tale. It’s the only chapter before the final one that gives you control of an airship so there’s some additional content there with going to Sylph cave. Also there’s some ore you can gather and a blacksmith you can go to get some stronger weapons which is nice.

The new characters in this are Luca and her dolls, Calca and Brina. Luca is fine. Her personality is fun, I like the little crush she has on Palom and her gameplay is fine (just a slightly different Cid). Not really a fan of her design though. All the pink doesn’t really work for me and the little bit of make up(?) around her lips that make it lighter looks really weird in the 3d version.
Calca and Brina are possibly the worst playable characters in the series. No character (I don’t think they even talk outside maybe 1 sentence during the final battle), bad stats, bad weapons and random chance based skills (that are broken in the 3d version). Their main saving grace is their unique armor which gives them high stat boosts. They are fine in this chapter but they are bottom 3 for the last chapter.

Me personally, I’d probably give this chapter a C. Maybe a B at most. What about the rest of you?

Have the After Years on my mind recently due to replaying it for a dumb rewrite thing I’m doing for it. I know the game in general isn’t liked but I’m curious about how people feel about the individual Tales so I’m doing a little tierlist thing for fun.

Here’s rankings for them all:
A: Palom
B: Ceodore, Edward, Edge
C: Yang
F: Porom

Today, it’s Rydia’s Tale: The Eidolons Shackled.

Of all the Tales, I believe this one has the most missed potential. It’s the only Tale that takes place almost completely in the Underworld and yet nothing new is done with it. No new locations or dungeons at all. And it’s not like they couldn’t have made new locations. We never saw the locations of the other 2 underworld Crystals in the original FF4 so they could have put at least one of them in a new dungeon but they didn’t. We just go to Sealed Cave again.
Also, I feel if they didn’t release this after Ceodore’s tale and instead released much later (as well as get rid of the cutscene of it happening in Ceodore’s tale), they could have done a semi interesting mystery of what happened to the Eidolons what with the Mysterious Girls summoning them in other tales.

My grievances aside, the story for this tale is fine. Rydia is always lovely to see, Luca’s connection with her dolls is nice, the Mysterious Girl is as cool as ever and it features an appearance from our favourite Man in Black. Main criticism is the missing potential and us going through the Sealed Cave, getting the Crystal, going out and losing it immediately again.

Gameplay is good. I think this tale has the most varied team before the end of Kain’s Tale and the final tale. It’s the only chapter before the final one that gives you control of an airship so there’s some additional content there with going to Sylph cave. Also there’s some ore you can gather and a blacksmith you can go to get some stronger weapons which is nice.

The new characters in this are Luca and her dolls, Calca and Brina. Luca is fine. Her personality is fun, I like the little crush she has on Palom and her gameplay is fine (just a slightly different Cid). Not really a fan of her design though. All the pink doesn’t really work for me and the little bit of make up(?) around her lips that make it lighter looks really weird in the 3d version.
Calca and Brina are possibly the worst playable characters in the series. No character (I don’t think they even talk outside maybe 1 sentence during the final battle), bad stats, bad weapons and random chance based skills (that are broken in the 3d version). Their main saving grace is their unique armor which gives them high stat boosts. They are fine in this chapter but they are bottom 3 for the last chapter.

Me personally, I’d probably give this chapter a C. Maybe a B at most. What about the rest of you?

For me, it’s Megaman. I’m not even a big fan of the series but the series has so many unique side series and spin offs that I think it’s a shame to keep the representation to just one character.

Of those series, I’d add Sigma from X, Zero from Zero, Tron Bonne from Legends (admittedly haven’t played those games but she seems fun in MvC3) and Bass.EXE from Battle Network. Not sure who’d I choose from ZX or Star Force as I haven’t played those games yet.

Just something that came to mind. Basic rule is that you can only use the routes next to the gym leaders city as well as any caves or locations that are located on that route.

Here’s my thoughts on the easiest in each gen up to Gen 6 (haven’t played gens 8+9 and I couldn’t think of one for Gen 7).

Lt Surge: Diglett’s Cave is right next door. Theres also Sandshrew in the route in certain versions.

Bugsy: Union Cave has Geodude, Onix and Zubat and the outside route has Spearow.

Brawley: Mainly in Sapphire, Emerald and maybe Alpha Sapphire where you can get a Sableye in Granite Cave which makes Brawley only be able to use 1 move on his Makuhita (Knock off) in Sapphire and Alpha Sapphire and fuck all in Emerald because none of his Pokemon have a non fighting attacking move.

Gardenia: Mt Coronet to the right has Zubat, Eterna Forest to the left has a bunch of bug types and some poison and flying types. And now you either normal or quad resist all her moves.

Roxie: Virbank Complex to the south has Magnemite which basically makes all her Pokemon inefficient except the Grimer she gets in Challenge mode.

Korrina: Go into Reflection Cave, get a Sableye and now only one of her Pokemon can damage you.

Have the After Years on my mind recently due to replaying it for a dumb rewrite thing I’m doing for it. I know the game in general isn’t liked but I’m curious about how people feel about the individual Tales so I’m doing a little tierlist thing for fun.

For those that can’t see, the current tierlist is like this:
A: Palom
B: Ceodore, Edward
C: Yang
F: Porom

Today’s it’s Edge’s Tale: The Pulse of Babil.

This is a weird Tale. It’s more like 5 mini tales jammed into one and it all comes together to form a whole lot of meh. The first 4 mini tales don’t really tell you anything new (especially if you already played the Tales in the locations where they are). The most relevant thing you learn is who put up the gravestone in the crater in Yang’s tale. I like the end of the Tale though. Edge returning to the Tower of Babil, meeting up with his disciples and getting away from the Mysterious Girl using the trap door from the last time he was there. Also the tale does have the unique gimmick (in the 2D version) where your characters apparently perma die if they die in their mini tales.

The new characters in this Tale (the Eblan Four) are probably the most bland of the new characters. Character wise they can be boiled down to Big Leader, Little Sneak, Woman and Old Man. Gameplay wise all of them are just worse versions of Edge (2 of them literally have worse versions of Edge’s unique abilities). They’re better at him at one thing but are inferior in all others. Of the 4, Izayoi and Zangetsu are probably the ones I find the most interesting. Zangetsu for having a Dragoon jump and Izayoi for having a fun bug in the 3D version that makes her the best bow user.

Overall, I’d say this Tale is fine. Nothing crazy but nothing particularly bad. I’d say there’s some missed potential in they could have maybe had the ninjas join the parties of the characters of whose tales they are apart of for some more variety in those tales but that idea is for my rewrite thing. Overall I’d probably give it a B or C.

Have the After Years on my mind recently due to replaying it for a dumb rewrite thing I’m doing for it. I know the game in general isn’t liked but I’m curious about how people feel about the individual Tales so I’m doing a little tierlist thing for fun.

Here’s the results so far:
A: Palom
B: Ceodore, Edward
F: Porom

Today’s it’s Yang’s Tale: The Master of Fabul.

This is a bit of a weird chapter for me in all honesty.

I like the gameplay. Having 2-5 monks doesn’t make it the most interesting gameplay but sometimes it’s fun to just turn off your brain and go Star Platinum on your enemies.

I really like Ursula. Both her design and gameplay are top notch. I think she might be my favourite of the new characters. I like fast damage dealers and she’s got both speed and strength.

I like Yang and Ursula’s dynamic together, especially how Yang’s reluctance to train her isn’t because of overprotectiveness or a “women can’t fight” mentality but because he thinks her mentality isn’t right.

And here’s some things that I’m not fond of:

This is one of the tales that recycles a lot of plot from FF4 (I think it might be the one that does it the most blatantly). We climb Mt Hobbs and fight Mom Bomb, the Red Wings attack Fabul and we have to fight them off in a series of battles at the gate, the main hall, outside the throne room, in the throne and ending in the Crystal Chamber where Kain steals the Crystal and to top it off, we take a boat to Baron and the tale ends by Yang running into Leviathan.

I think Yang and Ursula’s story is kind of not conveyed well. Yang won’t train her because she places too much value on strength and power above all else. The problem is that she doesn’t really show that? She doesn’t really do anything or say anything outside of 1 flashback that conveys that to me. The closest thing would be her going to Mt Hobbs by herself but that more just comes off as her being rebellious than anything.
Also, on the gameplay side, she’s a healer. One of her abilities she has from the start is an ability that heals herself and her allies. That doesn’t seem like the ability of someone who only values strength and power.
I don’t know maybe it’s just something I’m not seeing. I do like the story but this thing bothers me quite a bit.

I’d give it a B. What about the rest of you?

Have the After Years on my mind recently due to replaying it for a dumb rewrite thing I’m doing for it. I know the game in general isn’t liked but I’m curious about how people feel about the individual Tales so I’m doing a little tierlist thing for fun.

Today’s it’s Edward’s Tale: Star Crossed Damcyan

If you asked me what my least favourite tale was a while ago, it definitely would have been Edward’s. I absolutely hated his Tale (primarily for the gameplay). But after playing it a couple more times and learning how to prepare for it, I’ve grown to like it a bit more.

First, here’s the reasons I didn’t like it at first:

1: Desert Fever. I get Rosa getting it because she’s not from a desert but Harley literally works in a castle in a desert. If they wanted to say it was due to stress it’d be fine but it just being Desert Fever is just dumb.
2: Underground Waterway. You go through this dungeon 2 and a half times during this Tale and it’s not exactly a short dungeon. In total, you go through the dungeon 4.5 times in this game and it gets really boring after the second.
3: The Combat. Neither of the main characters are exactly damage dealers so the game gives you 3 basic guards to help. This unfortunately makes the combat boring (because you’re using 3 copies of the same character plus 2 not great fighters) and also makes the levelling slow since for most of the tale you have 4-5 characters in your party so your levelling is slower.
4: Getting ditched. After Harley gets desert fever, you have to go back through the Waterway and the Antlion Den with just Edward. A character who is not good at fighting.

And now, here’s the things I liked about this Tale:

1: Basically all of Edward’s character. His growth, his kindness, his cunning. All of it is just A+ development. Probably the biggest improvement of a returning character from FF4.
2: Harley. I like her character. Sure she sucks gameplay wise but I like her character. I like how she’s supportive of Edward and loves him but also understands that he still is hung up about Anna.

And lastly, here’s what I found to make points 3 and 4 of what I didn’t like better:

1: Go to the Antlion Den early and get the Lamia Harp. It inflicts confusion on enemies and believe me, having your enemies hit themselves can help a lot.
2: Kill the guards early. It lets Harley and especially Edward level up faster so they are better for the rest of the tale.

Overall, I probably wouldn’t rate the Tale any higher than a C due to the bad first playthrough I had but it still is one of the better tales story wise. What do the rest of you think?

Have the After Years on my mind recently due to replaying it for a dumb rewrite thing I’m doing for it. I know the game in general isn’t liked but I’m curious about how people feel about the individual Tales so I’m doing a little tierlist thing for fun.

Today is Palom’s Tale: The Mage’s Voyage.

One of the best Tales in the game in all honesty. Palom has matured in a good way since 4, Leonora is a nice character and I like that they connected her to the little girl he was talking to at the end of 4. I like their dynamic and story together and I like how most of the dungeons in this one are new ones.

There are only 2 semi big issues I have with this Tale. One is Palom’s design. Might just be the 3d version of him in the iOS version but this boy is ugly as hell to me.

And second is the ending, there’s just a few small moments that bother the hell out of me.

1:The Dark Elf coming back: I know the Crystals bring back bosses during the last tale but that’s on the villains home turf. The Dark Elf randomly coming back from the Crystal without any influence from the Creator or the Mysterious Girl seems weird.
2: Mysterious Girl saving the Party: She’s here for the Crystal anyway so why’d she only use Shiva on the Elf?
3: Esuna working on Break: Either Palom’s gotten worse with Break with age or Leonora is somehow better at casting Esuna than Tellah.
4: Learning Particle Bomb against an enemy that it’s basically useless against: What’s the point in giving us this cool, strong band at the end of the tale in a forced loss battle? Why not give it during the Dark Elf fight?

Despite my misgivings about it, I still really like this Tale. I’d give it an A. What about the rest of you?

Have the After Years on my mind recently due to replaying it for a dumb rewrite thing I’m doing for it. I know the game in general isn’t liked but I’m curious about how people feel about the individual Tales so I’m doing a little tierlist thing for fun.

Today is Porom’s Tale: The Vanishing Lunar Whale.

This might be my least favourite tale in the game story wise. Why? Because Porom feels like a side character in her own goddamn story. The flashbacks around her and Palom feel like they belong more in Palom’s story since they’re about his ambitions to be a sage while the last part is just her on a fetch quest for Kain.

Also, minor gripes, it doesn’t even focus on the “Vanishing Lunar Whale”, it has us going to the Underground Waterway which happens way too often in this game and I don’t like that they gave Porom Pray. I get they wanted to show her as being more mature and not crying anymore but just giving her Rosa’s old unique command is boring.

I won’t deny there’s good stuff in it like seeing the twins bond be broken in both story and gameplay (you can use the twincast band in the Kaipo flashback when they’re still kids but not in the Rydia flashback when they’re older), it’s nice to see “Kain” again and it’s funny how quickly he betrays the party this time. But overall, I’d give the tale as a whole a D.