Everything Good About Square and Nothing Bad

Squaresoft, back when it was Squaresoft and not Square-Enix, was one of the best, and depending on who you ask the best, creator of 16-bit RPGs of its era.  Many of the best moments of the SNES and PSX era can be credited to Squaresoft, from the opera and suicide scenes in Final Fantasy VI to the creepy windy silence in the dark future of Chrono Trigger to, as much as I hate to admit it, Aerith’s death scene in Final Fantasy VII.  However, in the modern error, they have been a little more hit-and-miss, and have unfortunately become infamous for cranking out constant remakes of their classic titles.  I’m pleased to say, however, that this game is one of the hits.  And boy, does it hit hard.

The After Years takes place approximately 20 years after the events of Final Fantasy IV, so if you are a JRPG fan that has somehow managed to miss all four versions of this game that have been released, get off your ass and go play it.  I’ll wait.

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Ok, now that they’re back, let’s move on.  The After Years was originally released as an episodically-delivered cell phone game in Japan, and SquareEnix brought the American version to WiiWare.  I will be reviewing the content as it becomes available on WiiWare.

In the first chapter of the game, you play as Ceodore, the child of Cecil and Rosa.  Its 20 years later, Cecil and Rosa are married and rule as King and Queen of Baron.  However, after a short tutorial dungeon, shit gets real fast and the world is quickly plunged into utter chaos, beginning a typical struggle for the crystals with a slightly darker twist.  Most of the cast from the original game at least make cameo appearances in this episode, and many are placed under your control at least briefly.

This game does a lot of things right.  First of all, while the graphics are a little cleaned up and not quite as pixilated as some of the versions of Final Fantasy IV that have been released, it does maintain the classic retro-16-bit feel of the original.  All the music you loved from the original game is back, some slightly different, some exactly the same.  The game features two new combat systems; one involving phases of the moon and one involving combo moves.  The moon system consists of a different phase of the moon each day, which changes when you use a tent/stay at the inn.  However, the system is very easy to understand thanks to some convenient in-combat reminders.  The second system involves combo attacks very similar to the Tech system from another popular Square game, Chrono Trigger.  Also, while this game frequently ditches the traditional slower pace of most classic JRPGs in favor of fast level gain and intense dramatic moments that involve flashing back and forth between characters, something that rarely occurs in a JRPG, and really kept me interested.  The games price point (800 wii points or $8.00 in real world money) should also be cited as a positive feature.  For once, Square-Enix seems to have resisted the temptation to gouge their fans.

There are a couple minor problems with the game, however.  In certain areas, the difficulty seems to spike randomly for no good reason.  For example, in one “dungeon” Ceodore and another party member have to climb up one side of a mountain and back down the other side.  The climb up was very easy, but the climb down was insanely hard, forcing me to run away from every single encounter.  Also, while the fast pace provided for a nice change, I couldn’t help but feel very rushed at certain points in the game, which seemed to discourage exploration and discovery.

All in all, this is one of the best SquareEnix experiences I’ve had in a long time.  Buy it, you won’t be disappointed.

	System:	WiiWare
	Genre:	RPG
	Experience:	Finished the game

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