Darn,why couldn't Square-Enix release Final Fantasy I or Final Fantasy IV before The After Years!? If I had to,I'll just buy the Playstation version of Final Fantasy IV.

@Rezon
I was referring to the base game only. I'm not playing $36 for this. I don't want to give Square ideas.

@Tails: If you think that's bad, try it on max battle speed! There are a couple approaches--you can party-spam rosa's Cura whenever things are looking grim, or you can keep Cecil covered on Cid and keep him healed--he'll auto-take damage in his place if he's attacked, and he automatically covers anyone who's damaged and kneeling (quarter HP or less I think?) I'm assumingyou're have trouble with the last battle--Stratoaevis and the 3 bird-things. Just focus your healing on Cecil first, and you should be fine, as he'll take physical damage in anyone's place who's "weakened" - the only worry is if someone gets hit hard enough to die before going into weakened state, at which time you Raise/Phoenix down them ASAP! Just input commands quickly--you'll get it, and you can always temporarily drop to Wait mode if it's too quick.

@ Budda

1. So far, it seems close to identical. There are some fun additions, such as actually getting to walk the Serpent's Road! (never figured out why it wasn't a dungeon in the first one)
2. No augments. DS-addition only--this is really more a sequel to the FF4 Advance version, as it makes a couple references to the "extra" characters being present in the final battle.
3. The game supports classic, but doesn't state that it supports GC--a few games support it despite not actually saying so, but I haven't tried. So I think it's just regular, NES-mode wiimote, and classic
4. I called Reggie and told him to release it in Europe this week. Expect it Thursday!

...I have no idea!

Sean...I don't know how you missed it the first time. By the time I was 13, I think I'd already beaten it 3 times...one of those games that's miles above the sum of its parts.

@KnucklesSonic8
Like I said earlier, you don't strictly need to play FF4 to play FF4:TAY. I wouldn't recommend doing that though since basically the whole game references the original and it skips between a couple of the old main characters throughout. You won't get the significance of the base game "ending" at all without knowing what happened before. What's more you might be confused by the whole plot because you don't know/care about the characters and how they developed in the original.

This game is exactly what it say's on the tin, it's further character development for what happened after FF4. No need to develop a character further for yourself if you haven't even started. It will probably ruin the ending of FF4 for you, since there are lots of references to what happened.

Anyway, I'm only about an hour into Rydia's Tale and it's good, but it's like starting all over, it doesn't use the save file from the main quest at all. It's like a separate side quest, not an add-on to the main quest. The strange thing is the story is in sync with what happened in the main quest and it seems it's inevitable that the stories will eventually cross paths. I guess it doesn't really matter what you do in it, it won't effect the main quest, but there will be references to Rydia's Tale in the main quest and there already has been, kinda like a teaser for the DLC.

The main quest is clearly unfinished though and it there has to be a real add-on to it that will use the save from it. Coming from an FF fan since day 1 (yes, I'm old) and with FF4 being my favorite of the series for it's story, I've had a lot of fun with it (and a few wtf's) and it's definitely worth the price of admission so far. I can't wait to see what happens next.

I can't play until later today though because the E3 coverage just started back up again and it's Nintendo's then Sony's day. It's going to be very interesting. I really should have 2 TVs for days like this.

im on the last part of the first episode (where u become kain) and thankfully i bought the 2nd ep so far the game seems like it will b a decent length

Thanks NESG. I'm wondering because FFCCMLK was my first Final Fantasy game and I have no intention of trying FFIV for the DS. (I was contemplating Echoes of Time & Chocobo's Dungeon at one earlier point.) So that being said, still say it's worth getting?

FFCC:MLAAK doesn't feel much like FF to me, it was fun but repetitive, toward the end I was happy it was over. FFIV DS is a great game, not sure why people shun it. It's not what FFIV:TAY is based on though, it's more like FF4 GBA, sorta. Those other 2 I haven't played and probably never will.

I say FFIV:TAY this is an easy skip if you haven't played or never will play FFIV to completion. In my opinion you would be a crazy person not to do so though if you like RPG's at all. It's a classic.

Well, you see I didn't partake of the 8-bit/16-bit console era (outside of the Atari VCS) and then I tried the first FFVII on Playstation via rental and hated the turn-based gameplay. Now that I'm older and wiser I prefer it to action RPG games, so I'm rather keen to play this series again with a fresh attitude.

@Sean

to be honest, I'm actually quite jealous, as you'll get to experience them for the first time...I might suggest the DS version of FF4--the challenge makes it a much more satisfying game to complete. It's almost certain that you'll die several times on each boss before you figure out a good strategy, and it makes each resulting victory all the more satisfying.

I'd see if you can find a copy of Baten Kaitos Origins for GC...I had an absolute blast playing through it, and it's one of the absolute best examples of an active-time turn system, e.g. newer FF4-forward...the first is a much, much slower game, but it's still fun too...Origins is just far superior imo.

[Edit] Also, FFVII just got green-lighted for PS3/PSP in NA (and the international version at that, what with the extra stuff-filled 4th disc), so it should be showing up on PSN in the not-too distant...not even gonna try to hide my excitement!

I think too many people were underestimating the length of each episode. I'm still only on the base game and have been playing for quite a while. The moon phase system is pretty neat, although it's pretty annoying that the game makes you beat the first dungeon when your physical attacks, which are all you really have at that point, are weakened. There's also a lot of new dungeons which weren't in the original game, making this an original experience after all.

@Curt
I've DLed this game and I ended up wandering around during the day leveling up before even figuring out the moon system to enter the first dungeon... And I've been playing for a coupla hours, it's a fun game! This will be a long one, but a must have for fans of any of the early FF games!

You don't really have to spend time leveling up unless it's too hard for you.

@NESGamepro
I know that, I didn't want to go stay at the inn, so in making my way to the first dungeon to find out I could not enter it yet, I levelled like 4 times.

Anyone tried multiplayer?

@Adam
Where is it?! How would that work?

I would guess it'd be seamless, not a separate mode, just turn on the extra controller and start. Supposedly you can have multiple players (up to 4) control individual characters in battle. I'm not sure if there is much of a point to it. Maybe it'd be helpful if there is a little time gauge like in FFVI. I think I heard about there being some way to combine your attacks or something, but it was a vague statement that could have just been meant to make it sound cooler than it is -- hence my wanting to know if anyone can comment on it before I get this.

The multi-player is nothing new or special, it was a feature in the original. All you do is assign any one or more of your characters to any other controller.

You then would have to work together very closely because all of your characters will need to do something specific just for you to survive in this game. I think it would be annoying more than fun because it's just a recipe for death if you aren't doing exactly what it takes to stay alive. The game can be that tough. Anyway, most of the base game is done with 2 characters and many times just one. This is a single player game when it comes down to it.

The attacks that involve multiple characters have nothing to do with the so called multi-player.

Dang, I was hoping for something innovative, but it's about what I expected. Thanks. Earthbound actually had a similar feature a lot of people don't realize. It was never advertised in the manual that I noticed, either, so I wonder if it was even intentional. Might have been a debug thing they forgot to take out.

Well I just finished Rydia's Tale. It took me 3 hours but this one I only died once. I was easier but towards the end it was getting tougher. Again, at the end you create a finished game save file and there is no opportunity to explore. that's it really. The story cuts you off just as it's getting good too. I can't wait for more

Ok, I just found there IS something to do after you finish each part. Load up your finished save file and go talk to Namingway. He will let you into challenge dungeons and says the treasure is different each time. I will have a go at them later on.