As much as one can be in awe of the Final Fantasy XIII and XIV trailers on the giant screen at Square Enix’s booth at E3, I kept walking around to find something else.  The classic jRPG fan in me jumped for joy at the sight of Final Fantasy IV: The After Years.  Already out on Wii Ware, picking up and playing Final Fantasy IV: The After Years was like running into a warm hug of an old friend.

This sequel, 18 years in the making, tells the story of you, the son of the paladin Cecil and the white mage Rosa, years after the end of Final Fantasy IV.  The great evil of the second moon destroyed by Cecil and Rosa’s party in the original has returned and it is now up to you to stop this evil and return peace to the once quiet planet.  New and old faces alike will join you on your quest to save this beautiful world.

     

Even though I know this was built specifically for Wii and Wii Ware, this game has the magic that made the early Final Fantasy games such a staple of jRPG fans everywhere.  It has everything you would want from a classic franchise sequel from the top-down look at the overworld to the victory fanfare after each battle.  The battle system is your classic ‘your party is on one side, enemies on the other’ with time-dependent attacks based on the strength of the attack. I even played a classic Final Fantasy puzzle where every time you walk across an opening, it and perhaps two to three other openings close barring you from passing and you must figure out the correct combination of steps to reach the other corner exit while facing a slew of random encounter battles.  I know the random encounter battles frustrate many people but I always chalk it up to that’s just how the game works.

     

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years takes everything you love about classic Final Fantasy games and delivers it to you like your mom gave you warm chocolate chip cookies after school.  Playing this for a short time has convinced me to get Final Fantasy IV on the DS so I can play the story, then download the sequel to wrap it up, and for 800 Wii Points (roughly $8 USD) you really cannot go wrong.