Final Fantasy IV: The After Years

Originally Posted by GEEKANG

LOL, no.

Wii games are about £15-30, and DS games are £10-25.

LOL, yes. Retail price for new big developer Wii games is 40 pounds. 30 pounds for DS games. The prices you find in Gamestation or whatever are normally less than retail, but that doesn't change it. I can find any PS3 game I want for less than 45 USD, that doesn't mean the retail isn't 60 USD.

By the way......Sweet Jesus, is that you 3rd username today?

I live in England. I go to video game stores often and I know the prices. Seriously, I've never, ever seen a Wii game cost £40. PS3 and 360, sure, but not Wii games. Even Brawl was £35. The most you'll pay for a Wii game now (outside of perhaps the first couple of weeks), is £30.

And yes, it is.

I'm just citing the retail prices. Guess they must just be a ruse to make people think they're saving more. Though I guess I rarely see Wii games for more than 35 pounds in Edinburgh either.

Oh well. Still doesn't change that new (good) Wii games are generally more than 26 pounds.

Originally Posted by silver arrow

Umm, no. 10 USD is 10 Wii points, is 7 pounds. So the whole game should cost about 25.9 pounds, or 37 USD. Which is a bit cheaper than a new DS game which runs at about 30 pounds. They are 40 USD in the USA. Wii games on the other hand cost 40 pounds new and 50 USD.

You really don't know what you're talking about, do you?

If the breakdown someone posted earlier is right, then the entire game will cost 3,700 Wii points. 2,000 Wii points generally cost £20, which means 3,700 Wii points will cost £37. Now, it might be slightly different online, but I wouldn't know what I was doing and I really don't think it would be as cheap as you're making it out to be.

In other words, going by retail price, this game will cost as much as a brand-new Wii game. A high-end brand-new Wii game, at that, rather than some crappy mini-game cash-in that nobody in their right mind would charge more than £25 for.

Yes, games are more expensive in England, but how exactly does that make this game the same price as a Wii game. 26 pounds < 40 pounds. It will cost you about the same as a new American DS game.

"Har har har". I wish.

I spend quite a bit of time in Britain, and I'm not American, why the hell would I be surprised that America doesn't cover the entire world?

Your incorrect assumption that the pricing for Wii points outside America is even remotely similar to inside America.

Back on topic.
More FF sequels include Legend of the Crystals. An Anime Sequel to FFV. Also I recommend Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII. I found that game to be fantastic.

*shrugs* I'd need a PSP first, and I don't feel like wasting my money on a single game I might not even like.

Originally Posted by GEEKANG

LOL, no.

Wii games are about £15-30, and DS games are £10-25.

...I really, really want to visit the shops you're using. Or are you talking about pre-owned as well as new?

Originally Posted by Tiroth

...I really, really want to visit the shops you're using. Or are you talking about pre-owned as well as new?

Well I'm including crappy games in the lower end of the margin here, but I use Gamestation, GAME sometimes, HMV even gets games cheap sometimes, then the pre-owned retailer Grainger Games which is great for getting imported DS games. Also, there's Play.com which is very cheap overall, since it works kind of like how Dell does compared to PC world. They're super reliable if you don't use the Play&Trade thing which is like Ebay.

But yeah, I think this guy is going from the false advertising which is "Save £40! now only £39.99 for Lego Star Wars". Obviously exaggerated x:

I've often seen brand new high profile games, Super Smash Bros for example, at £40, though £30-£35 is more common. Very few games retail at their launch for less then this. Prices do seem to drop pretty quickly though. On average you will end up with anything from £20-£35. DS games from would start from £20 to £30.

£7 for 1000 Wii points. Admittedly, stores often go a little higher then this, but no more then £15 for 2000. Taking online prices, all episodes will cost £25.90.

So, not the cost of a retail game, but I still don't think it's worth it, considering they have put no work whatsoever into the graphics or improvements for the Wii. Maybe for 2000 Wii points, no more.

Yeah, this is looking to be like a trap for the Final Fantasy fanboys. I absolutely love the series, but I'm not going to be buying this. Apart from the price, it doesn't really look that interesting in general. I probably couldn't handle continuing the story from 3D with cutscenes and voice acting back to 2D either.

Doesn't the after years deals with Kain going in a very deep depression to the point he starts abusing drugs and alcohol, Cecil filing a divorce against Rosa despite Cecil beats her, Rydia becoming a porn star, Edge chasing jailbait girls, and the Twins having their mind ****ed up like other child stars before them? Sounds like a great game!

Originally Posted by GEEKANG

Yeah, this is looking to be like a trap for the Final Fantasy fanboys. I absolutely love the series, but I'm not going to be buying this. Apart from the price, it doesn't really look that interesting in general. I probably couldn't handle continuing the story from 3D with cutscenes and voice acting back to 2D either.

It's actually surprisingly really good! I just finished Cecil's Episode I think, and am now on to the next chapter. Oh good Final Fantasy gameplay and music, how I've missed you!

Originally Posted by Tiroth

Now, it might be slightly different online, but I wouldn't know what I was doing and I really don't think it would be as cheap as you're making it out to be.

.......You've been buying them offline? Seriously, it is a MAJOR difference. For the Wii cards you'll be paying 10 pounds for 1000 points. Online it is 7 pounds for 1000 points, making it 11 pounds cheaper if you buy the game. I kind of just assumed you got your points online. It's really easy, you just need your credit card, then you can just follow the simple steps in the shop channel to buy the points.
Yeah, I guess the game IS the price of a new Wii game if you buy your points like that.

Originally Posted by Sam250

I've often seen brand new high profile games, Super Smash Bros for example, at £40, though £30-£35 is more common. Very few games retail at their launch for less then this. Prices do seem to drop pretty quickly though. On average you will end up with anything from £20-£35. DS games from would start from £20 to £30.

£7 for 1000 Wii points. Admittedly, stores often go a little higher then this, but no more then £15 for 2000. Taking online prices, all episodes will cost £25.90.

So, not the cost of a retail game, but I still don't think it's worth it, considering they have put no work whatsoever into the graphics or improvements for the Wii. Maybe for 2000 Wii points, no more.

Exactly. High profile games like Smash and Mario Galaxy, sell for 40 pounds when they launch.

I am confused, FF4 only cost 800 wii points but it's not the complete game?

Originally Posted by linksmolecules

I am confused, FF4 only cost 800 wii points but it's not the complete game?

FFIV The After was a episodic cell phone game in Japan. They've kept the game episodic, so you buy the game in chapters.

Originally Posted by linksmolecules

I am confused, FF4 only cost 800 wii points but it's not the complete game?

800, then 300 for each additional chapter, and another 800 for the final chapter. Altogether 3700 points.

$37.00, I guess the good thing about this is if you don't like it, you only waste $8.00. However, if it's just as addicting as FF4 is then I will be buying all the chapters.

Well, I finally downloaded the first episode (consists of the Prologue, Ceodore's story, and Kain's story) and Rydia's story today.

Wow, this has been a nostalgia rush for me. The moon phase thing actually has a significant effect on battles, so I'm glad it wasn't some minor battle mechanic that has no bearing on gameplay. Right now I'm in the Ancient Waterway.

I'll be getting this, It's a new FF in SNES style. I'm one of those retro junkies.

Sorry to revive a fairly old thread, but I didn't think it was old enough to make an entirely new one.

Managed to get my hands on this game, and to give a context to my thoughts I'm going to mention that I didn't pay a single penny for this game. Forking over money, especially the amount SE asks you to pay for a 20 year old game (yes, this is the same game, more on that in a minute), can lead to altered expectations; you might feel sour about having to pay for a bad game for example. And this is probably telling that I still feel sour despite not having wasted anything but time on this trash.

Harsh, you might think, but true. Every aspect of this game is infuriating. We knew that it would be in the style of the SNES game, but except for some upgraded character spites everything from the graphics to the music is exactly the same. I didn't think this would annoy me until I realised that listening to the same battle theme throughout two games is more then a sane man can bare. This is the laziest sequel I've ever seen. Part of the attraction to revisiting a game's areas in a sequel or remake is, at least for me, seeing how they have developed since you'd played the last game. No such luck here.

Laziness is defiantly the key word here. There is one cave that I've had to play through 4 times so far (I wouldn't be surprised if it crops up again before I reach the ending), twice in one chapter, and almost every other dungeon asks you to get to a particular point and then do it all again as you walk out. The teleport spell (which allows you to escape form dungeons) is, to my experience, disabled; it's nothing but an artificial way to lengthen the game and justify those prices.

Level design isn't nearly the worst of it. If you were expecting to be able to take your loved characters into new and exiting scenarios, think again. You will instead be taking them to old scenarios; almost every situation our characters face is ripped straight from the story of the previous game. To begin with it was nostalgic; meeting characters in the same place you found the the first time around, facing the same bosses in the same place as before, et cetera. It soon gets tedious. You can quickly predict the events of an entire chapter from the location you first visit. Parts of the story are almost engaging, but the majority of it is let down not only from it's repetition, but it's dreadful script and boring characters. Some of it is written like a 5 year old's fan fiction. It reminded me of Full Life Consequences, albeit with better grammar.

I haven't quite finished, and I'm hoping things will improve in the last two chapters; as I said, some aspects of the storyline are almost engaging. But I'm not holding my breath. This is not how you handle a sequel.

But you ask "Sam, how can the game be this bad when it has good reviews". Pressure on reviewers to give popular games good scores is unfair, but it happens. Remember Gamespot giving Zelda: Twilight Princess a horrific 8.8? People who had never even played the game lept up in fury and boycotted Gamespot. Remember the infamous incident in which a reviewer from the same site was fired after giving a low score to Kain and Lynch, allegedly because of pressure from Eidos? Well, I've just read both the Gamespot and IGN review for this game, and I can tell you that the Gamespot one is far more accurate. Not just because it agrees with my own verdict on the game, but because IGNs seems to bull**** it's way through praising the game: "The visuals, for example, are inspired by the almost-20-year-old SNES prequel". How about mentioning that they've barely changed since then? I have new found respect for GameSpot.

I disagree completely. I thought the game to be well worth the 37 bucks. I'm looking forward to the last chapter that comes out Monday.

Something miraculous happened today; I began to enjoy this game. Let me explain; in each chapter, Namingway offers up Challenge Dungeons. It occurred to me earlier that, if one was so compelled, the nature of the episodic chapters (by which you can import data of each characters chapter into the finale) might make for an engaging experience (where you could focus on empowering each character individually before pulling them together). However, I was not so compelled; I had a bit of a rush-to-the-end attitude towards the whole thing.

But when I realised that my low level characters wouldn't be able to power through the epilogue in one go, I decided to give the challenge rooms a chance. And by some strange twist of fate, the very sections of the game that the developers would be excused for being lazy with actually happened to be the most enjoyable parts of the game. It was in part not having to deal with the crummy script and being allowed to focus on the gameplay a little more. The repetition seems to have disappeared as well; although each dungeon is fairly basic, the level design and tile set at least changes with each room. And the bosses manage to be stratigically challenging, and kindly offer up a powerful piece of equipment each time you are through with them.

Don't get me wrong, this still isn't worth the £30 or whatever it is for the every episode. But then, some episodes are better then others. Edge's, for example, managed not to frustrate, moved a steady pace, and introduced new characters. Edward's on the other side, crawls forward unapologetically and offers nothing new (exept for the tidbit that Cecil isn't who he seems, which, well... that is to say... duh) whilst covering the exact same ground as Yang's story.

Still, vaguely thinking there might be hope for the last chapter yet.

I got fed up with the challenge dungeons when I accidentally saved over my perfect Ceodore's Tale with Rydia's. All that grinding is too much for even me, when I have more than 10 more games in line to be played.