FINAL FANTASY IV: THE AFTER YEARS

The Steam Subscriber Agreement and various End User License Agreements typically prohibit the use of cheat software such as trainers to mod Steam games. Therefore, I strongly discourage everyone to increase battle and movement speed, which would make the game much faster and more fun, and would allow you to experience a surprisingly decent story without slow periods of dull grinding, because that would be against Steam's policy and The After Years' EULA, which you agreed to implicitly when installing and starting the game.

I need to preface this review with a disclaimer: Final Fantasy 4 - The After Years is a good game. It came out in 2009, which was a terrible year people who were too young won't understand. The Angry Video Game Nerd popularize the Angry Video Game Reviewer genre, spawning thousands of clones who wanted to get famous pretending to be angry at video games. At the same time in the cultural zeitgeist, this idiotic opinion of "sequel bad" just got parroted everywhere by everyone who didn't have an Interior Monologue. So this game was lambasted at launch in the West. FF4: TAY is no better or worse than FF4. But I need you to also keep in mind that this version of TAY is objectively inferior in every way to the WiiWare and PSP versions. If you can "legally obtain" a copy of those (especially the PSP version since it is the only one with the in-between story called -Interlude-) do so. This version is riddled with bugs to this day. Dialogue boxes that don't correctly separate the speaker's name into a separate box turning it into one giant run-on sentence. The final dungeon will cut off characters' lines before and after boss fights if they have more than one dialogue box in a row (the second just shows up as blank). The original had a sizeable number of characters who can -die- depending on what you do in the game, this version removed all those. The original has the ability to play any tale you want without importing from previous tales, this version does not. That ALSO means that the unique scene you can only view if you DON'T import to the final tale cannot be seen in this version. And in addition to all that, the final dungeon is completely mutilated. The original version has it parallel a dungeon from FF4 before becoming its own thing. This version cuts it down and replaces it with running through parts of other FF4 dungeons, which doesn't make any sense in the story. The game can crash upon entering battle, which is fun when you remember the final boss is FIVE FIGHTS IN A ROW. FF4: TAY is an objective improvement over the 2D FF4's combat. It adds a cool system called Bands where characters team up for powerful moves that can be attacks, healing, status buffs, or any combination. This game has 22 playable characters and the devs put a LOT of moves in there between different groups meaning there's reason to go through the last tale with different parties just to experiment with different playstyles. The 2D version was a little obtuse on this - to unlock a Band you had to activate the Band command with one character, then *guess* what other character(s) moves to use. This turned it into a Wiki Game. Once unlocked they could be freely selected but that wasn't great game design. This version just unlocks them as characters battle together. Plus, Bands can level up for more potency or lower MP costs. In theory this is nice, in practice it's not worth playing this over the 2D version because more powerful Bands don't matter when they already hit the damage cap of 9,999 and lower MP costs don't matter when Ethers exist and are sold in every shop at the end of the game. One problem with said final dungeon is that the dungeon and its contents are directly tied to the story. The 3D version swaps 20 bosses directly tied to the story AND the PSP three-party superboss fight for 4 recolored bosses from FF4. It is THAT lazy. Also there IS no superboss in this version. The animations in this version are great, a big step up from the 2D version, but not worth dealing with the bugs and terrible final dungeon. If you're a hardcore FF fan and you want to go through TAY again, go right ahead.

Inferior to the PSP Final Fantasy IV Collection or the WiiWare original. The missing challenge dungeons and superbosses are what save a mediocre story with some of the most compelling ATB gameplay in the series and it's just not here.

Wish we had a 'meh' vote. I would have skipped this if it wasn't for the IV 3d I also got at same time, and THAT I would have skipped had I known what I bought(I would have got the pixel remaster instead tbh) - This is NOT a bad game... not really, but if u don't really like vast collection of characters with uninteresting stories, that all tie in at the very last hour of game (IE after u finished ALL the stories, THEN the story gets interesting,but only lasts an hour or two at most before it's done...) plus the vast amount of grinding to -not- really see any benefit at endgame, eh.... The mechanics are good, and feel like it could have been pretty epic of it was a fresh NEW game, and less total 'stories' but more debth to each story maybe? But in the way it was presented, I barely had time to even 'get to know' the characters I was traveling with before each journey was finished, and when u get together again, u have already forgotten them(due to the vast collection of NEW uninteresting characters u meet) And this is ignoring the somewhat over-the-top amount of grind u need to get them outfitted... Personally, again, on fence about it, cuz the game design and mechanics are pretty good(Even in 2025) but the writing was weak. IMO does not stand up to the original IV (And i won't even mention the weirdness that was the 3d remake lol) Edit post full game completion (100% Achievements, etc) I have to add only that, even after the additional time spent, I really felt the whole time that I just wanted it to be over. This is the FIRST time (And I hope the last) I have ever felt this in ANY final fantasy game, and I have played ALL of the pre-8 and some of the post 9 ones (And plan to replay many of them) - I cannot change what I said above except maybe to add to it(IE even more grind than I thought, even less interesting characters throughout, etc) - Maybe the non 3d versions are better, idk Anyways, have to say that while I still think its a 'meh' vote (IE if u really like huge casts and want to touch on the nostalgia that u were left with after IV, grab it, but if u dislike EXTREME grind, HUGE casts of forgettable characters, and pretty tepid and boring story, give this one a skip

I played 1 through 4 prior to this one. FF4 was the remake and it's very simular. It's far from the pixel remasters, even harder than FF2 late game. The first 9 chapters are short, but the 10th chapter will take 20 to 40 hours to complete. It's very long, especially because it loves to drag out the story, making you go to different places that aren't that rewarding which is frustrating. By late game once on the Moon, you have this very long dungeon which is a copy paste of the lunar dungeons in ff4 only then in this last stretch you get to play with Cecil. But at this point this long dungeon connects to a even longer dungeons call the Depths which is a nightmare of game design. Overly difficult battles that happen every 4 steps, bosses that wipe out your party with one attack, doesn't matter if all your party members are over level 60, you need to grind another 8 hours here to just survive their first attack. And if you run out of supplies, guess what buddy. You gotta leave the moon resupply, then walk down these 100 floors with about 3 to 12 encounters on each floor. You'll spend a extra hour to a hour and a half rehiking back to your progression point. The potential in this game was there, but these poor choices for a ending are only for the psychopaths of hardcore gamers to complete. Because I'm throwing up the towel, I can't endure the madness that is "The Depths" if you can, deep respect.

What is good comes almost entirely from the base game. Mechanically, this offers little, and the lengthy sections where you only have a single party member undercut the main advantages of the combat mechanics. Narratively, this is [i]horribly[/i] paced, and repeats plot points from the original in a cheap and uninteresting way. In many respects, the game tips its hand with one of its first scenes. You watch as a character turns in place, walking in place like they are on a rotating treadmill. It looks ridiculous, happens throughout the story, and never happened in the base game. FF4 offers a strong base to build on, so the sequel still manages to have some satisfying or enjoyable moments. But looking back over the time I invested, I'd rather have spent it playing something else.

enjoyable classic.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years is a sequel that sounds good in concept but doesn’t really live up to the original game. The gameplay feels very repetitive. It reuses a lot of systems and ideas from Final Fantasy IV without adding enough new or interesting mechanics to make it feel fresh. The story is also a letdown. While it tries to continue the original’s narrative, it ends up feeling unnecessary and not nearly as impactful. A lot of it comes across as filler rather than a meaningful continuation. Another issue is how much content is reused. Many areas, enemies, and moments feel recycled, which makes the game feel more like an extension rather than a true sequel. Overall, Final Fantasy IV: The After Years is a disappointing follow-up that doesn’t capture what made the original great. It’s repetitive, lacks originality, and feels unnecessary. Gameplay: 5/10 Average | Overall: 4/10 Bad

Разговоры о лучшей финалке оставим инфантилам и душнилам, но вот однажды мне стало интересно, а какая тогда худшая? Понятное дело, что критериев и способов оценки очень много, тем более во франшизе есть откровенно слабые (но при этом горячо многими любимые) 4, 9, 13 и 15 части, но опытным путём я выявил главного победителя этой анти-премии. Final Fantasy IV: The After Years (4-2, если угодно) отвратительна во всём. Финалкам в целом не везёт на сиквелы, и только грядущему второму ремейку под силу будет снять это проклятие, но здесь же не игра, а царство абсолютной безвкусицы и самоповтора. Сюжетный сиквельный фансервис до невозможности убог, а геймплей и линейная структура первых эпизодов попросту ужасны, даже статистика достижений наглядно показывает, что игроки бросают игру на 2-3 эпизоде. Посмотреть на повзрослевших героев в теории может быть интересно, но проблема в том, что и оригинальная четвертая часть страдает от хромых проработок персонажей. Отдельный ад этого ремейка (да, это еще и не оригинал, а 3D-версия, которую ранее получили 3 и 4 части) заключается в ачивках. Я знал, на что шёл. Знал, что буду писать эти строки еще пару месяцев назад, и вот мы здесь. Я играл во все номерные части (кроме 16), и могу с уверенностью сказать, что 4-2 — это худшая 1) платная 2) номерная 3) финалка. Играть в это недоразумение никому не рекомендую, разве что если вы решили устроить марафон серии. Говно.

For any serious FF fan. Then you must play in order to finish FF4 story. But this isn't as a good or even close to FF4. 6/10.