What Can You Expect?
Back in 2008 Square Enix introduced Final Fantasy IV: The After Years on WiiWare port and later on as part of compilation on PSP. Nowadays, iOS users can also enjoy playing this game on their devices but bear in mind there isn’t much to enjoy. You can find Final Fantasy III, IV and V available on App Store so every enthusiast of this series can immerse in a world of fantasy. Bear in mind, the iOS versions of these games are not available on other platforms.
With the classic 16-bit style of art replaced with highly evocative visuals, After Years is quite similar to DS remake of Final Fantasy IV. Featured with some completely new 3D graphics, FFIV looks almost identical as FFIII and IV remakes. This new look is the only feature not available on the Wii and PSP versions; the same goes for touch controls.
In this game, all playable characters from previous releases will be included and you are on a mission to save the world again with characters like Cecil, Ceodore, Luca and King Giott’s daughter. With the game being separated into different chapters, the narration is concentrated around the main character. But with no new significant events occurring, After Years version for iOS is basically unchanged and mediocre as before. While the new characters are not interesting and lack for more development, the same goes for the old ones, as they are acting as already predicted. Overall, the story is quite predictable and at certain moments very uninteresting.
Don’t be fooled by the modern graphical look, as The Years After is playing like a retro game with role-play included and with a need of development on level difficulty. You will be grinding to defeat those bosses, per usual, but otherwise, nothing significant will be contributed story-wise. Another downside is that many of the characters that you meet during the game will not be available in the final chapter so, what is the point in grinding? There is none. It is also really easy to predict what characters is not going to come back, so that detail is also stealing the excitement.
Battle system is the same as in Final Fantasy IV, so there is no new attacks and special abilities. The same items are use for characters in previous releases so don’t expect to be surprised by that. The only new feature in The After Years is the ability to use two or more characters for their powerful combination attacks at the same time. While this new feature is not really adding much to the game, it can be useful in certain occasions.
If you have played FFIV, exploration of the world will be very boring and uneventful since almost every dungeon and location can be found in previous releases so leaving you basically only a few new locations for you to discover. They will become available only later in the game, so you have to get prepared for a full gameplay in order to unlock those locations.
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years really isn’t meant to be played for anyone that is just immersing in the franchise. If you are in search of epic storytelling experience, this is not a game for you. With its dated graphics and battle system, The After Years might eventually will be strong enough to stan on its own and give us an adventurous gameplay that modern RPG fans demand.
On the other hand, if you are dinosaur lover and this game is not your cup of tea, read our article, we are sure you are going to love it!
