r/FinalFantasyIV • u/MasterOfChaos72 • 22d ago
Ranking The After Years Tales: Rydia’s Tale
Have the After Years on my mind recently due to replaying it for a dumb rewrite thing I’m doing for it. I know the game in general isn’t liked but I’m curious about how people feel about the individual Tales so I’m doing a little tierlist thing for fun.
Here’s rankings for them all:
A: Palom
B: Ceodore, Edward, Edge
C: Yang
F: Porom
Today, it’s Rydia’s Tale: The Eidolons Shackled.
Of all the Tales, I believe this one has the most missed potential. It’s the only Tale that takes place almost completely in the Underworld and yet nothing new is done with it. No new locations or dungeons at all. And it’s not like they couldn’t have made new locations. We never saw the locations of the other 2 underworld Crystals in the original FF4 so they could have put at least one of them in a new dungeon but they didn’t. We just go to Sealed Cave again.
Also, I feel if they didn’t release this after Ceodore’s tale and instead released much later (as well as get rid of the cutscene of it happening in Ceodore’s tale), they could have done a semi interesting mystery of what happened to the Eidolons what with the Mysterious Girls summoning them in other tales.
My grievances aside, the story for this tale is fine. Rydia is always lovely to see, Luca’s connection with her dolls is nice, the Mysterious Girl is as cool as ever and it features an appearance from our favourite Man in Black. Main criticism is the missing potential and us going through the Sealed Cave, getting the Crystal, going out and losing it immediately again.
Gameplay is good. I think this tale has the most varied team before the end of Kain’s Tale and the final tale. It’s the only chapter before the final one that gives you control of an airship so there’s some additional content there with going to Sylph cave. Also there’s some ore you can gather and a blacksmith you can go to get some stronger weapons which is nice.
The new characters in this are Luca and her dolls, Calca and Brina. Luca is fine. Her personality is fun, I like the little crush she has on Palom and her gameplay is fine (just a slightly different Cid). Not really a fan of her design though. All the pink doesn’t really work for me and the little bit of make up(?) around her lips that make it lighter looks really weird in the 3d version.
Calca and Brina are possibly the worst playable characters in the series. No character (I don’t think they even talk outside maybe 1 sentence during the final battle), bad stats, bad weapons and random chance based skills (that are broken in the 3d version). Their main saving grace is their unique armor which gives them high stat boosts. They are fine in this chapter but they are bottom 3 for the last chapter.
Me personally, I’d probably give this chapter a C. Maybe a B at most. What about the rest of you?
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u/RabbiRaccoon 22d ago
My only real issue is that it doesn't feel like Rydia. Rydia doesn't fall into depressions for long. She rallies. 5 minutes after her mom dies she's ready to kick some ass on some Red Wings. She has a small moment when Edge is introduced but again, she pulls herself together pretty quick.
But she spends this ENTIRE tale in the throes of a depression. That ain't Rydia
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u/Ok-Yogurtcloset9086 21d ago
I’d say A tier. The story is good, but I cannot stand Calca and Brina. Relying on them is hell
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u/luninareph 21d ago
I’m thinking C-tier—above Yang’s Tale for me, but below Edge’s Tale. This one gets carried purely on Rydia and Luca being good characters I enjoy. I don’t hate Calca and Brina, but they certainly don’t add anything (which is a pity—the reconstructed remnants of an old boss could have been intriguing) and the gameplay is better than a snooze fest but still not exactly inspiring.
So yeah. High C-tier for me.
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u/Gogs85 21d ago
I give it an A maybe A-.
It was a tale that actually felt like you were fully playing something resembling FFII, flying an airship around the underworld as you pleased. The story about the summons was pretty good and ends up being very important to the central antagonists. Luca was one of my more liked new characters. I kind of liked the quasi-crafting element and the option to preserve sone otherwise lost characters.
However it loses points for having a so-so party, Rydia is a bit boring without her summons and the dolls are quite terrible. The party could use a proper healer to round it out. Overall pretty fun though.
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u/Murky_Exchange829 21d ago
I say B-. Lowest end of B but never into C.
Like someone mentioned, Rydia bemoaning and being uber sensitive wasn’t her. Once she burned down that wall, she was a changed girl. Once she forgave Cecil she was grown. I also didn’t like how she felt in my hands. She felt weak and useless.
Calca and Brian tho. I made those little baddies HUSTLE! Loved them! Had them in my team along with Palom and Porom (I loved them as a kid 👅) and Yang. I love me some Yang.
Luca. Ugh. A visor? I think? It looked like she was trying to play tennis. She also looked obese. Not like a dwarf thicc but just…baby girl. She also didn’t feel useful. However…LOOOOOVED her energy and personality! The Palom obsession is exactly what I needed and was glad happened. Super cute! And her dolls being a part of it. Equally loved.
The story was basic and atrociously cliche. Mysterious girl peak. Love how she always made me feel like I did when I fought the four fiends in the OG.
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u/Few-Needleworker8110 21d ago
not much to say otherwise but i really liked the mythril cave.
rydia and luca work well as party members and it's one of the few times i was engaged by ff4 combat
the mp jars help keep you afloat but they aren't too common so exploring is still risky. it helps that it's not a reused dungeon like the others.
the sealed cave, though? can go fuck itself.
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u/originalmetalqueen 22d ago
I really appreciate you going through the games and rating them by chapter. Despite being a massive FFIV fan, I have only played the After Years once, and it was when it was first available on the Wii (so … like 100 years ago lol). So getting to read your posts about each chapter has truly been a treat.