The Latest from FFIV The After, The Sequel You'll Never Play (Update 9-15-08)

[Cain Highwind]

Well there's been a lot of stuff that's gone on in the ongoing FFIV sequel story. So here's the latest bit:

A new character update for the mobile FFIV Sequel. Includes a new Ninja Posse for Edge, and a love interest for Palom. Be sure to check out the Wiki page which features steadfast updates and translations. I also found a nifty page here which features art and sprite rips. And if you want screens and art: Edge Chapter - Palom Chapter - Yang Chapter

UPDATED 9-15

Rydia Chapter - Kain Chapter - Porom Chapter - Gilbart/Edward Chapter

Getting a bit into Spoiler Territory here. Don't read if you're stubbornly waiting for a US release of some sort (highly unlikely at the moment):

SPOILER!!:

New Amano Illustration Kain and Evil Kain

[Dawezy]

Shame, only the 2nd official FF "sequel" made by SquareEnix and they release it on a goddamn cell phone.

>_>

I cant read jap for the life of me, so I'm curious as to what part these other characters play in the game.. Gekkou, Ursula, Leonora, Luca, Tsukinowa, Izayoi. They are mentioned in those "chapters" but I really cant make anything from it. Someone care to copy/paste in English here?

EDIT: Found it, lol.. Eblan four wtf XD. Cheers Cain, I must have skipped the link.

[Cain Highwind]

The Wiki link I posted to has quite a bit of English info.

[Fuzz]

The details are starting to look very interesting... I would say that this game is deserving of a sequel... but for the cell phone? I hope there is some sort of emulator/rom put together for the NTT DoCoMo FOMA 903i phone. Probably not, but would definitely be cool to play this. Good find indeed!

[T.G. Oskar]

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait...you gotta be joking me...

Originally Posted by the Wikipedia entry

The battle system uses a new feature called the "Age of the Moon" (月齢, Getsurei?), which reflects the game's lunar phases, which change as players rest at inns, with each of the phases altering physical and magical attack powers for both player characters and enemies. Certain rare monsters will also only appear during certain lunar phases.

So, they decided to rip this system from Shin Megami Tensei? (If it does not seem familiar, think Persona)

But wait!!! There's more!!

Originally Posted by the Wikipedia entry

The game will also introduce a new type of combination attack through the "Band System" (バンドシステム, Bando Shisutemu?), known as a "Band" (バンド, Bando?) ability. Similar to the Double and Triple Techs of Chrono Trigger, these allow two or more characters to coordinate separate commands into a single new attack at the cost of MP from all involved.

Apparently, not only they are not passing this game into America, they are blatantly out of ideas!! They are ripping systems from other games into their own!! What will they add later? F.O.E.s, monster's the level of end-game monsters right in the beginning of the game?

It's bad enough Japanese companies do not think on their American fanbase (which, if perhaps they listened a bit more, they would prevent some of the flukes of recent years, amongst other things, excusing the self promotion of course), but to alienate an entire fan-base by making games for consoles that cannot be either emulated, nor imported? While Europe may have the chance to play it? While the world laughs at our primitive cellphone technology (barring the iPhone, which should have all that emulation tech available, and some other cellphones)?

[Silver]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

The details are starting to look very interesting... I would say that this game is deserving of a sequel... but for the cell phone? I hope there is some sort of emulator/rom put together for the NTT DoCoMo FOMA 903i phone. Probably not, but would definitely be cool to play this. Good find indeed!

Depending on how the game works, chances are some fan will make an emulator for PC. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a fan translation in the works neither. It'll be illegal, aye, but I personally think it'll happen mostly due to how strong a fanbase Final Fantasy IV has.

I know the game's subscription makes you have to download every chapter, but games with similar if not harder issues have been made available with varying success. Look at BS Zelda no Densetsu for example. It, and it's sequel BS Zelda no Densetsu Kodai no Sekiban was released for Japan's Super Famicom Satellaview attachment. It had to download content, was restricted by a real time clock and had live voice overs as people played. But it was a Legend of Zelda game. And just as with Final Fantasy, LoZ too has a whole lot of fans, some willing to work on projects like this.

As far as I'm concerned it'd be a major error on SE's part to keep this sequel away from the shores of some people, and solely on a mobile phone some may not have regardless of where they live. The only thing I can see happening is fans releasing it to the world in some form, and if it comes to that, there's no profits for SE.

Btw, for more info on those old Satellaview Zelda games, try here...
http://www.bszelda.zeldalegends.net/

[Draken Benvolaid]

Damn, was going to post this last week, but forgot.
Mentioned it on MSN.. and it slipped my mind in the hear after. lol


Although, Persona isn't owned by SE, ChronoTrigger is. So they're ripping off of their own games as well as other's games.



IV is a classic storyline, I'm not surprised they made a sequel.

I'm surprised that it's JP only just after they said last year that they're going to make more games international for all the world to enjoy. I think they said that at TGS 07... Makes you wonder sometimes...

[The Matrix CBC]

Is it just me, or does it seem that SE totally ignores its American fan base? I would boycott the company, but I love their games too damn much. I want to say, "Yeah...well...FORGET YOUR STUPID SEQUELS TO GAMES THAT WERE GOOD ENOUGH ALONE!!!" But, instead...I will purchase their re-releases. And we'll all just gripe when they deny us access to the good games that only Japan gets to see.

[Fluffy]

It probably won't be worth it anyway. <_<;;

Or I'm just trying to console myself because I want to play. ; ; I honestly dislike when they do things like this. This, and their "international" versions of games, which are, ironically, Japanese only.

I don't think this will be emulated though. As far as I know, Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII still can't be played here, and FF7 probably has an even larger fanbase. I think it's probably impossible due to how their system works, or just too hard. I haven't looked into it that much, as I don't care about these titles too much. If given the chance, I'd play them. But I don't think we're missing out on a whole lot.

Still, it's the principle that bothers me. =/

[V_Translanka]

It's probably not going to be emulated until all the episodes are released...*shrugs*

But anyways, with FFIV DS doing so well already in Japan (and probably will do well outside of Japan), I have hopes that they'll remake The After: Return to the Moon (god, what a stupid title) for the DS...maybe using the models they created for FFIV DS! Seems like it's just as much all there as it was for the sprite-based one...*shrugs*

[Rocky]

Yay for me trying to post, then having my wireless router go out while I am replying, therefore making me retype everything. But at least this new FF4 sequel is ripping off good ideas from other successful RPGs; the new triple techs are something I am looking forward to, especially the "HOLY-JUMPING-SPOONY BARD!!" (Cecil/Kain/Edward). More then likely we will never no chance in hell ever see this game, so we will be stuck with the crappy FF4-2 RPG Maker Fanboy remakes, sigh indeed. I wonder what they could all do with the storyline, FF4 seems complete after finishing it in my opinion.

[V_Translanka]

Originally Posted by Rocky

I wonder what they could all do with the storyline, FF4 seems complete after finishing it in my opinion.

You mean for FFIV-2: The After: Return to the Moon? Well, they're making it a generational game (which I think is a fairly safe course of action for any RPG sequel) in that the main character is Cecil & Rosa's son...From the title, I assume he goes to the moon for some reason...

[Silver]

Originally Posted by Fluffy

I don't think this will be emulated though. As far as I know, Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII still can't be played here, and FF7 probably has an even larger fanbase. I think it's probably impossible due to how their system works, or just too hard. I haven't looked into it that much, as I don't care about these titles too much.

I think it'll take some time as PSP emulation really doesn't seem to be progressing as fast as would be required, but even if it takes ten years, I think one or both will be emulated well. I finally got to play my FFIX on a psx emulator perfectly a few months back. No bugs, identical graphics albeit in a smaller window. It was bliss...

Depending on the format of the FFIV sequel, it may be releasable not very long after the game is fully released. I can't recall how the game is being made, but if it's Mobile Java based it should be very easy for the better part, and even if it isn't, a lot of mobile games conform to certain standards.

Crisis Core will be emulatable when a PSP emulator is more complete. It's really just a matter of waiting...

[Fluffy]

Although you make sense that it'll possibly just take time, I get the feeling you thought I was talking about Crisis Core. o.0 I meant their other mobile phone game, Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII. According to that article, an English version of the game would be released in 2006. But as we're all aware, it's 2008. <_< Still, the U.S. might see it eventually.

It was originally released in 2004. I'm not sure if there's any kind of emulated version of it out there. I haven't looked in the past year.

But yes. It might just need more time.

[Silver]

Originally Posted by Fluffy

Although you make sense that it'll possibly just take time, I get the feeling you thought I was talking about Crisis Core. o.0 I meant their other mobile phone game, Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII. According to that article, an English version of the game would be released in 2006. But as we're all aware, it's 2008. <_< Still, the U.S. might see it eventually.

Ahhhhh, my bad. I misread that. But yeah I know what you mean. I'm pretty sure some time around 2004/5 there were rumours of a possible DS remake of Before Crisis floating around some official site. But yeah, looks unlikely.

I wouldn't be surprised to see it around some time neither. Provided that not only does someone emulate it, they also translate the thing.

[Refieth]

I'm definitely getting some sort of ROM emulator for the PC for this. I loved FFIV, especially 'cause of Cecil/Rosa. =P I'm hoping for a DS remake of Before Crisis and The After at some point... after all, people whose mobiles could barely handle Pong *points to my ancient cell phone* gotta have a chance. =P

[Cain Highwind]

This needed a new bump. It's been a while, but I was just checking up on the latest The After Info. Check the new links I put on the first post as well as the Wiki link I first posted, there's new Chapter Summaries.

Seems Kain has become quite the badass.

[T.G. Oskar]

I just lol'ed at that...

SPOILER!!:

Holy Dragoon? Wait, now that means Golbez will be White Armored Sorcerer? I mean, Mt. Ordeals seems to be just too good of an atoning place...

Which reminds me...the place was used at a D&D game I played. While I was still a Paladin (I passed from common Paladin to uber-kickass Holy Mother-... You know what I mean.

Also, I was thinking...maybe this initiative serves as a test-bed for an eventual DS release of The After? I've heard PSP is gonna get Agito and PE 3rd Birthday, so it's a slim possibility that NA and International gamers do get a DS release or equivalent (maybe a Wii Virtual Console release, perhaps bundled with the old FFIV?)

Because it sucks that S-E tries to sell and press forward a game in a format that few if any gamers outside of Japan are even capable of handling. I mean, are cellphones known for their games? Even the iPhone isn't capable of handling Song Summoner (only the regular iPods can), will they place the gamble of a legitimate sequel being placed in cellphones where they'll probably know they'll fluke, hence pretty much sealing the game as a limited cellphone release?

Also, it seems there's only two models capable of handling The After. Hasn't Square-Enix thought of that? If they did, and they get this much success without losing much money, I definitely want some of those suck...er, guys, to handle some much-needed releases over here (like, SRW non-OG/ NamcoxCapcom / Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, etc.) Since, to handle the variety of providers and the excessive costs of data for a huge variety of cellphones doesn't seem like a smart move, more like a gargantuan task. Yet, they got one million downloads.

Honestly, these guys pulled a miracle. Just don't let them make a mistake afterwards; else, the hackers will make them pay.

[Deathbringer]

I remember a FFIV for the DS that came out on 7/21/08.
P.S. I bought it. It's fun and boring.

[Alpha]

Erm... bump.

FFIV: The After Years is available on the Wii... so we should be able to play it (though who the hell has a Wii?)

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years coming to Wii

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years Review for Wii - GameSpot

Apparently, it's a port of the cell version. Good, bad?