Final Fantasy IV: The After Years

Part 3

I split the next update up since it's so image heavy. I'm hoping we get to a new page so I don't have 200 or so images on one page.

Also, if you see broken images, those are Tindeck links, which went down right as I posted this update. Of course, by the time you're reading this, they're probably back up.

Chapter 3

We're done here. Time for a peaceful and uneventful trip back to Baron!

Free healing is always nice.

The soldier's nice enough to congratulate you before asking if you're ready to leave. How nice.

Sir?

How's it feel to be a knight?

I...I'm not sure what to say, sir.

Of course you aren't. The "Knight's Emblem" is just a name. You risked your life in there to obtain a mummified rat tail.

You've only arrived at the start of your journey. There is yet a long road ahead before you truly belong to the Red Wings.

Yes, sir!

Biggs is either beginning to warm up to Ceodore, or is dropping the hard-ass persona he uses to motivate. Whichever you prefer, I guess. Either way, it's a pretty nice moment.

So of course Wedge proceeds to ruin it.

Here's something else to like about this game. Mainly, the son of the main character doesn't necessarily follow in his father's footsteps. Yeah, his father's a famous paladin and he's pretty good with white magic and a sword, but Ceodore himself has no desire to be one. As for what Ceodore really wants to do, it's something that the game doesn't outright say, but there's some pretty good hints in, once again, the gameplay engine of all things. But that won't be discussed for a long time.

Overall, the game could've handled Ceodore a lot worse.

I honestly have no clue whether they intended Wedge to be as annoying as he is.

Of course there's an incoming attack. Who in all honesty didn't see this coming?

But, but Captain! We, we have monsters! Countless swarms of them!

Here they come!

Brace yourself, Ceodore!

Oh yeah, the characters walk into battle. That's neat, I guess.

If a screenshot looks blurry, blame a combination of constantly moving enemy sprites and 2D games being hard to deinterlace.

Anyway, there's nothing major going on here. Well, other than stripping down Biggs and Wedge. I clearly did it for the challenge!

Not that there is a challenge. These guys have a lot of HP, but their attacks are weak. Like the Sand Worm, they can use Whirlwind on the whole party, but that's pretty much all they can do.

We've got Biggs' Fira and Wedge's Cura to help out, though! They're trivial.

Well, shit

Gah! How can there be so many of them!?

Smoke is coming from Baron's direction!

Full speed ahead!

So Cecil and Rosa are chilling in the throne room. Is that really what a king and queen do all day? How come Rosa doesn't even get a stool to sit on? Why does Cecil get to sit all day while Rosa has to stand?

This is why monarchy doesn't work.

Oh, right, monster invasion and all that.

If you're feeling brave, take a shot every time someone responds with a one-word question.

As many strong points as this game has, the dialogue isn't one of them. The things the characters say can often come across as just plain stupid. Compared to even the SNES version, which had censorship, space limitations, and general apathy about translation, the game's dialogue falls flat a lot.

But their numbers were supposed to be dwindling!

Meh.

Yes, sir!

Don't worry about me. Just stay right here for me.

Thankfully, the scene ends and Cecil goes out to protect the castle.

We don't know, sir! There're so many of them...

All of you, stay on your guard right here.

Yes, sir! We'll guard the throne with our lives, sir!

Let's check out our former hero, shall we?

Damn, that's a high spirit. If a number in the status menu is green or red, that means there's a piece of equipment that's boosting said number. That said, the equipment doesn't actually say which stats it boosts, so you may have to rely on trial and error a bit.

Seventeen years later, and Kain still hasn't returned to Baron. That must be some training regiment he's doing at Mt. Ordeals.

This is kind of misleading, since Cid is still in the castle.

Yep, we're fighting monsters in the castle. Shit's getting real.

Also, this is why I regret not using a tent earlier. The Lunar Phase in this part is the same. Since I didn't skip to the next moon which boosts Attack, I'm stuck at Full with lowered Attack. While it means the enemies do crap damage to me, it also means it takes a couple of attacks to take down most enemies.

Suffice to say, this next part is a huge drag because of how long it is and how frequent enemy encounters are.

We can loot these chests. Yay! Decoy is the Blink spell, which is a great spell. I don't think you can buy these, though, so meh.

It takes two hits in this moon phase to kill a Cockatrice.

This is easy, but so, so boring.

Who the hell are you talking to, Cecil?

One annoying thing about this part is that after every battle, the victory music plays. Since the boss theme is what is playing right now, it restarts after every battle, rather than playing constantly. The worst part is, later in this very section of the game, it plays continuously even after finishing a battle. The way it is right now kind of ruins a lot of the tension, so I have no clue why they did it this way.

Aw, man.

Again, easy, but so annoying when four of these guys attack at once.

Liliths have an annoying counter-attack which can cause certain status effects, in this case Silence. This means Cecil can't cure himself with his magic.

Of course, I have a couple of Potions and find an Echo Herb later, but I'm stingy, dammit!