Check Out Some Final Fantasy IV: The After Years Gameplay

Can't wait for this one.

Yay! I can't either.

Still up in there air if I buy this or not. I got the impression from the latest Nintendo Power that its going to be episodic...?

It will be episodic. Now just how many we don't know yet.

@SupermarketZombies: Yep, 9 episodes. Let's hope they're not too expensive.

Somewhere, SquEnix is laughing.

They aren't putting the episodes together? How big/long are they?

damn i am starting to dislike square and the funs that support it, making episodes games is not right at 9 episodes in the game all i can say is it better have over a 100 hours of game play

I can't wait to return to Baron but if its going to be done in episodes then SquareEnix better bundle them and charge a reasonable price!

Wait... What? Episodic? What the... Oh, I'm so not getting this now. Screw greedy developers!

WHAT? 9 episodes!? And I bet you anything they will be 800 points each, and that makes it $72, which would be more than a regular in-store game!

I will only accept episodes if they are 500 points each (even that is too expensive at $40 for a 16-bit downloadable title).

The original cell phone version had 13 eps, I believe. Yeeps.

@ Panda -
You answered my question before I even posted it. Thanks.

I don't see how this episodic content will work, can we not transfer stats between the games? Its usually not a problem with episodic games because they are adventure games, but it could face some big problems with the rpg genre.

Bah, if you have to download each episode I will not buy it.

Now that I know it's episodic I'm rethinking buying this.

Unless each episode is less than $5, this is a complete rip-off. A game that could run on cell phones or console hardware about 15 years old is simply not worth the price of a current generation retail disc. Oh well, I doubt it's as good as the original anyway, but it's still disappointing.

Also, why does the profile for this game say 4 players? Is it really, and how does that work if so?

@Razoredge17: My guess is there'll be some kind of community save file that all the episodes can access. I dunno, I have little insight into how the cell phone version worked, and I think that would be a very good indicator as to what we can expect from these.

Hmm... never played a Final Fantasy game, so I'll be sure to pick it up. And for the episodic content, why not have seperate stories as DLC for 200-500 and the whole package is 800-1000.

@FroguinZX: that is what i'm am hoping it is

@Adam-I believe you can each control a character's actions, like a turn-based Tales of Symphonia.
It says 9 episodes but perhaps they will sell the "episodes" (prolly like chapters or levels or dunegons) in packs of more than 1. They should know that almost no one will pay more than 2000 pts for this game.

this sounds sweet. i plan to get this around my birthday in october after i buy FFIV for ds.

i don't know that this will be so sweet. i just read the bit about the episodes.

It would be reasonable to have 3 episodes across 3 groups for 800 points a group. That way we don`t have to wait a month for an episode and the game will be affordable.

i'm not into episodic games, sorry, but i'll pass

Curt's idea sounds pretty nice. I think I actually like this kind of episodic rpg. I have a really short attention span and have a lot of issues getting through rpgs because of it.

@curt
your idea's kinda like the ffcc thing for the race packs. that might not be a bad one, actually.

heh heh. check out my funky icon

People will buy it, hell they did it with Strong Bad for 5000 Wii Points overall. A lot of gamers will buy it because:
1. It's got the Final Fantasy name.
2.Final Fantasy 4 was just released on the DS, so a lot of peope have played it.
3. It's a "hardcore game" and "hardcore gamers" will buy it.
4. It's the sequel to a great RPG.
Of course I will buy it, I love Final Fantasy, I'm ready for the game to come now.

Oh no,episodes! Crud! This game looks awesome,but do you know how much all these episodes will cost!? Let see:1 episode costs at least 500 points.
If there are going to be a total of 9 episodes,then all these episodes will cost a grand total of...$45 worth of Wii points!? Are you kidding me!? I just hope each episode has a decent length.

@SuperSonic1990
yeah, it really would suck if it were $45, but I don't think Nintendo would try to rip us off THAT much.

MY guess is that the first game will be 500 points (though they may go for 1000). I think they will, most likely, have in-game menu where you can buy the other episodes (think the downloadables for My Life As A King).

Hopefully, the episodes after the first episode will be cheaper.

Honestly, I'd love to buy this game. I love RPGs and the footage for this looks so great. But the whole episodic thing has me worried. I have a lot of points right now, but I don't want to spend them all on this game. Plus, would I even have enough points for it? Square really should tell us ahead of time how much this game is going to cost...

In any case, I'm going to wait and see how the reviews for this are. I have to know how long the episodes are going to be and how much. sigh

DF2506

I'll probably get this, but I hope they bundle all the episodes together. It would be stupid if they are separate.

Wait, wasn't that whole gameplay video Final Fantasy 2, on the SNES? I know it's not, but every scene they showed looked exactly like a scene from FF2. Is this game a remake?

The game is a sequel to FF2 (FF4). Thats why it looks similar.

owww, i want it now >_<
however, i cannot play this before FFIV (VC) because i wanna follow the story
so let nintendo first put that one on VC, then this on WW as soon as they possibly can

@FroguinZX:
the game looks good, but your idea may be the only way I'd buy it.

@Supermarioman:
maybe its cause the Strong Bad games weren't part of the same game? I don't really know, considering I only bought the first one on accident and didn't play it.

Do WiiWare games really have that little memory, to have SE need to put a 16-bit style game into 9 episodes? That's barely less than the amount of episodes in the mobile phone version. I was considering getting this but now I'm really not sure, although i did like what i saw in the video. It all comes down to the price now.

Wow lots of criticism associated with the episodic content. I'll get it anyway though, peer pressure from Final Fantasy junkies.

@Supermarioman: I think the Strong Bad games were stand-alone as apposed to a complete game that's broken up into episodes like The After Years. I haven't played any of them but that's the impression I got from the media and news coverage on the game.

I'm really looking forward to it.
Day one purchase for me 

I'll be getting the game, of course, but SquEnix better take the stats from the previous episode's save file. If I have to go through grinding to L50 from some sucky default stats in all 9 chapters, I'll be pissed. Thankfully, I'm sure SquEnix are smart enough to do this right. Even if 9 chapters is still way too much. I'd rather pay all 5000 points in one go, rather than separately.
Then again, it'll probably be 500/1000 for the first chapter, then 200/300 for the rest.
Ugh... why can't it just be ONE GAME?

People would buy this if it were 20 episodes......no one is going to resist the sequel to a legendary RPG.....Square will get away with whatever price they think they can get away with

I've never played a Final Fantasy game through to conclusion (I started that first one that was released on Playstation, but the turn-based stuff turned me off at the time -- now I'm totally into it), so I'm keen, though if it's a sequel to FFIV I'd like to see that get a release on the VC first.

My opinions on this game...
First off, I agree with Sean on getting FFIV before getting this. I have no idea who any of these characters are, and it would be nice to know what is really going on with this game before I try to play its sequel.

Second, I highly doubt that any of the downloadable chapters will cost less than 500 points apiece. I haven't seen any game (on Wiiware) that has cost less. That means with nine chapters that's $45 minimum. That's more than most disc games on the market right now (Excitebots, if I remember correctly, is only $35 with just the game.)

Third, I really believe the success of this episodic game could spell out the future of other possible episodic games. This is a highly touted game franchise with a great developer behind it. If this game turns out to be awful and dies out before it reaches, say, the fourth chapter, other companies are going to look at this game and not try to do an episodic game. However, if Square can not only sell all nine chapters, but sell them very well, than other companies might look at their success and try it themselves.

Fourth, if this game is going to be really successful, then I would highly recommend Square to release the chapters quickly between each chapter. Although I haven't played any FF games, I know that this series is highly touted for incredible stories, and if Square lingers too long to release the next game in the series, gamers are going to become uninterested in the story and not buy the next chapter.

So, in all, it better come cheap (in its own way), it better come quick between chapters, and it better come good, otherwise I don't think it'll work.

@Crazed

As ridiculous as $45 seems for this game in full, technically Strong Bad costs $50 in total, so I suppose it's not too obscene. Still, I'm hoping for something like a 500 point initial charge and 200 point DLC chapters after that. That would round everything into about $21 total, which isn't bad.

Anyway, we'll see what happens. The game looks great, but the cost could kill it for me.

The game looks good but...

Are they seriously expecting us to own nine seperate games??
That's almost an entire page!

Hi There,
Maybe They'll use the same system as the Japanese Manga wiiware= The Principal application and the rest as upgrades=in Japan you pay 300 points for a Manga part 1 and 200 for part 2 and 200 for part 3 this would be a good price 300 for the 1.Episode and 200 for the others

FFIV is my least favorite final fantasy that I have played, but its story was amazing. Just listening to the music in this trailer made me so nostalgic that I was practically shaking.

DLC should be the better variant, yes.
Square will get a review for every episode , that should be a push for the main game. 9 x great game wow and discussions!
And you MUST start with Episode 1, so it seems to be the only way to go.
@crazed we are another RPG company that going to look at this game. But personaly I think its more effective to do a shorter , but stand alone game and create a sequel after 6 month or a year. (Like the My Life as a... series) Maybe Im wrong...we'll see.

I really hope they bundle the episodes together, but if it's a matter of "buy the game, then pay for DLC to advance the story", I could actually get behind that to some extent-- don't pay for story if I get stuck. Has to take a single channel though.

Release FFIV on VC and create a way for FFIL (40. four-TAY. Get it? GET IT?) to import the save data from that and you've just about tripled the chances I'll buy it; although I'm sure there's no way SE will put in the effort.

I would imagine you'd buy the extra episodes to go on top of the original WiiWare release.

I can't see how it would work that great if you only downloaded episode 6 for instance.

The only way I can see it working is them only releasing the first episode on the Wii Shop Channel, and the rest being bought in game (for cheaper, as the original release contains all the info the other episodes will need)

All this talk about the game and whether it's worth buying episodic...

Does anyone have an idea whether it's actually any good or not? It shouldn't be an assumption that it's worth playing. I'm mean, sure, the Japanese market must've liked it, but that's never a guarantee.

Episodic content is a fickle mistress and I say this with complete certainty. On the one hand you have episodic games or content if you will that is successful like the Half Life episodes where the length is appropriate, there is enough gameplay to sate you for the next installment, and lastly you get your bang for your buck and aren't tricked into selling your soul or anything as tramtic. Then you have episodic games or content which does the complete opposite and makes you feel like the company of said game or content just raped you in a dark alley while taking all your money.

Square has done a bit of episodic content or games, most recently the Crystal Defender games so they have some understanding of the episodic nature in which they are diving into.......I hope. Personally I enjoy the R1 and R2 games because of their addicting gameplay and FF Tactics feel but thats just me. To be perfectly honest, I will most like buy each episode of this game when it comes out because I liked FFIV so much and I'm sure Square knows this will be eaten up regardless of reviews or the cost.

I'm actually quite dissappointed with what I'm seeing here. It looks exactly like the original FFIV - same look, same characters, same enemies, similar scenarios - nothing to really call it new. Just because something is "retro" doesn't mean it has to be exactly the same as the old(then it's just a "remake" or "remix"). In fact, they're best when they're more of a mix of old and new - new concepts, new and more elabrate enemies, as well as revamped versions of old enemies, new stages, obstacles, scenarios, you get the picture. This, on the other hand is simply sad. Unless they prove me wrong between now and June 1st, I say we're better off just sticking with the actual FFIV instead of wasting our time and money on yet another remake.