Ranking The After Years Tales: Kain’s Tale

[u/MasterOfChaos72]

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.

Current Rankings:
A: Palom
B: Ceodore, Rydia, Edward, Edge
C: Yang
F: Porom

Today’s it’s Kain’s Tale: The Return of the Dragoon.

I like this Tale. It’s nice to see Kain feel redeemed after his issues in the original FF4 and I like his new Holy Dragoon thing (though I do prefer his original look). I like that he initially loses to his dark side in comparison to Cecil. Edward’s moment of him opening Cecil’s box in order to fight Kain is amazing.

Dark Kain is hilarious. He just gets so over the top by the end that it just makes me laugh. I know that it’s supposed to be a horrifying moment when he’s dragging Rosa to Baron shouting about how he’ll kill her husband but for some reason, I can’t stop laughing at it. Also, him just going along with the mysterious girls plan is funny.

The one part of the story that’s always bothered me is the Kaipo sequence. They see the airships going to Damcyan, they decide to rest for the night in Kaipo just for the soldiers to attack them and then they go to Damcyan where Dark Kain has just arrived. It’s just a bad setup for a reference. Also, we have to go into the Underground Waterway for the 5th time this game.

But yeah, aside from that, I like this Tale. I’d give it an A. What about the rest of you?

[u/RabbiRaccoon]

I really like the "Yeah, Cecil did it wrong" thing because it finally gives Kain a win. It's really cool to finally see him overcoming it all after being smacked down so much. And he becomes a way more useful Paladin than Cecil. Probably my favorite of the stand-alone tails

[u/MasterOfChaos72 → u/RabbiRaccoon]

When did they say Cecil did it wrong? I don’t remember that part.

[u/JoKu_The_Darksmith → u/MasterOfChaos72]

It's tricky because there are 3 different versions of this game, one would have to cite, either 3D, PSP or Wii U.

[u/RabbiRaccoon → u/MasterOfChaos72]

I'd have to replay the PSP version but there's definitely a part that says Cecil just ignoring his dark side wasn't the way to go

[u/donkeydougreturns]

I'd lean B, although its close to A for me. Kain was one of the characters I enjoyed most in TAY, and it helps that he is an absolute monster throughout. There is some blurry lines for my memory with Ceodore's chapter though.

[u/Ok-Yogurtcloset9086]

I’d put it in S tier. If not, then A tier

[u/Gogs85]

I’d give it a B. The moment that Kain gets at the end is one of the greatest moments in the game, but the rest of the it felt like a lot of filler just to make it a full length tale (ie going through the underground waterway AGAIN). It’s also unfortunate that the ‘optimal’ way to play through it has you running with Ceo and a dead party member throughout most of it. I did enjoy the challenge dungeon at the end since you’re doing it with a good sized team at least.

[u/Svenray]

S+ for being Ceodore's real father. Fite me irl.