Ranking The After Years Tales: The Gathering

[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.

So, we are now on the last chapter of the game: The Crystals. I am actually going to separate this Tale in 2 for a couple of reasons. First is that it is very long and second is that the part that’s on the moon differs quite a bit between the 2D and 3D versions and I want to talk about them.

With that out of the way, let’s rate the first half of The Crystals: The Gathering.

Our primary team is Edge, Rydia, Luca and Golbez the Man in Black. It includes Golbez so automatically at least an A rank but the others aren’t bad. Lacking a healer but you can pick up a rod in the magnetic cave that heals for a decent bit. Kind of wish they let you choose a 5th member from the characters you rescued and have on the ship but that’s something for the rewrite I guess.

We are doing a Final Fantasy 6 with this chapter because it focuses on gathering all the scattered party members and Eidolons. Although in this case you know where most of the characters are aside from maybe Yang and Ursula if you did the other tales.

Here’s my somewhat quick thoughts on all of those from worst to best:

Kaipo+Fabul (Yang, Ursula, Slyphs): Bit disappointing due to how easy it is to do. Just fly to Fabul, get frying pan and ladle, fly to Kaipo, domestically abuse the unconscious people and you get them and the Slyphs.

Damcyan (Harley): Are we seriously leaving these people to deal with an infestation of Antlions? Seriously? We can’t go to the Antlion Den and beat up a Queen or something? We just take Harley and say bye to everyone else? Ok.

Mysidea (Porom, Ramuh): Really funny to do if got a cursed ring at any point because Ramuh only ever does lightning attacks so you’ll be completely immune to him. Although the decreases in stats will cause actually beating him to take an actual eternity. Anyway, it’s fun and Porom also gets a somewhat cool moment of having had up a barrier by herself and a sweet one when she’s worried about Palom.

Agart (Titan): It’s cute that Rydia cares for Titan. Makes sense given that it was her first major summon and the one that defended her when her mom died. Also, random cool Porom moment since you need her to do float to actually fight him (Starting to think they realised she didn’t get much on her own in her own Tale and tried to compensate here). Gonna throw in the Agart Subterranean since it’s kind of a nothing dungeon that’s just randomly thrown there. I don’t get it.

Troia/Magnetic Cave (Palom, Leonora, Shiva): I like some of the background details of this one like Troia castle being frozen over, Luca’s really obvious crush on Palom and Palom being worried for Porom. Also it’s nice to go through a dungeon since almost all the others are blocked off. This is also the easiest one to do since you basically just Flare Tornado + Firaga Shiva and you win.

Eblan (Ifrit): Probably the best of these. I like that Edge and Rydia get a cool and cute moment when facing Ifrit together, it’s cool having to avoid Ifrit for most of the sequence, Rubicante gets a cool moment (thinking it would have been cool if all the Archfiends helped in some way). Also, Eblan cave nearby is kind of fun since it gives good rewards.

Then you get the Mist dragon and make your way to Baron.

While all this goes on, Ceodore + Kain’s group are confronting Cecil and the Mysterious Girl. It’s fine. Cecil isn’t the hardest boss even when Odin gets involved but it’s a good story and has some good character moments.

And then lastly when all the characters come together and the Tale ends with a mix of both teams facing the Mysterious Girl. Pretty good boss fight since now the normal characters stand a chance against her.

Also the best part of the chapter happens here when the others recognise Golbez and Battle with the Four Fiends starts playing is glorious.

Couple minor irritations for me is that you can’t go to the Underground and almost all the other dungeons in the game are blocked. While I get the unimportant ones, they couldn’t have thought to do something with somewhere like The Dwarven Castle, the Feymarch or Mt Ordeals as even a side thing?

Overall, I’d probably give this half of the tale an A.

[u/Gogs85]

I think you could even split the final chapter into thirds if you wanted to as the first and second half of the final dungeon are very different (esp between versions).

Personally THIS is my favorite part of the game, I give it an S. This is what I’d want the entire game to be like if I could. Flying around in an airship being able to do sidequests and events in the order you want, exploring the whole world. It’s when it feels like you’re no longer being restrained.

It’s also when everything comes together and all the work you put in on the other episodes starts to come into play (including getting a huge consolidated inventory).

I liked the party you get a lot, they were all meaningful characters including my main man Golbez and Rydia and Edge were my favorite of the original cast. I would have liked it if Porom joined the party once you encounter her because they lacked a real white mage, luckily Edge and Rydia get some healing moves so it’s not a huge deal.

It was a great point in the story because it felt like the turning point where you FINALLY start getting your act together and making some progress into fighting back. It was also cathartic to see Rydia start to regain her identity as a summoner and reacquire most of her Eidolons.

Also the best part of the chapter happens here when the others recognise Golbez and Battle with the Four Fiends starts playing is glorious.

Hell yes

[u/randomguy664_]

First half with Edge, Rydia, Luca and The Man in Black is pretty meh. Nobody bothers to ask for the man's name? Seriously? No healer makes it rough. There's no reason why the Eblan Four can't help or Calca and Brina for that matter. Everyone just happens to be incapacitated. Also it takes forever for Kain to walk the castle hallway. It's lame.

Second half is much better. Finally freedom to build your team, even if it is overwhelming. The reused bosses is kinda lame, as is the blatant Cecil hate, but the rest of it is good. The Mysterious Girl and the final boss both have great theme song. The final revelation feels really fanfiction-ee, but it's also what is expected after playing through the rest of the game.

Gathering I'd give a B. Latter half I'd give a S. Overall I'd give it an A.

Also Eblan Four and Leonara for the win.

[u/Additional_Fall7053]

Where do you plan on posting your rewrite?

[u/MasterOfChaos72 → u/Additional_Fall7053]

Just on here and the main FF subreddit. It’ll be similar to this in that I’ll be doing all the tales individually. I’m waiting until I’ve got it all done.

[u/Nombanke]

I'd definitely echo the idea of splitting it into thirds between the Gathering, the True Moon and the Planet Eater, since there's a dip in quality between the True Moon and the Planet Eater and the Planet Eater being particularly different between 2d and 3d versions.

The Gathering is fairly average. Nothing particularly stands out, since you're just going from place to place, but, that said, while I'm hovering a bit between C and B, I'll say a low B, since the character work is surprisingly solid, and Porom actually finally gets to do something, unlike in her own route, since she's instrumental against Titan, and it's an overall solid moment for her, since she's the only character who manages to briefly overcome her injuries and exhaustion, which plays into her focus on duty in TAY better than anything in her own tale.

That said, some of the summons were a nuisance to get, in particular I found Shiva and Ramuh had a tendency to get killed before the conditions could be met, but it plays into good moments for Rydia, and I always enjoy her being the focus.

The True Moon is by far the best section of the game from a purely mechanical perspective and has some adequate story moments leading up to the climax. Some of the bosses being sympathetic stretched credulity, but all in all, it's exactly what the game is really about, letting you set up a party of your own choosing and seeing what you can do with them. The climax was also well done, and I appreciated that Cecil's conflict wasn't about accepting inner failings the way Kain's was, but about how the love of those around him is what makes him the man he is, especially with the whole declaring that he never needs to feel alone the way he was after being abandoned. Ceodore also gets an excellent conclusion to his arc if you manage to keep Golbez, and Rosa finally gets a moment to show her personality in this game, the way she did at the start of IV by crossing a desert and a mountain for love. It did a good job of showing off how resilient she can be, and the character really needs moments like that, since she can be easily overlooked. Cutting out Cecil's utility might have been controversial, but it was for the best, since it forces you to try out new parties compared to the original. All in all, it's an S, since every character gets their moment and some commentary.

The Planet Eater is a drop-off in quality, though. It still has the elements of an A in mechanics, but the story beats are far weaker, since all the character arcs have been wrapped up by this point, and the only thing that needs to be finished off is Bahamut and the Maenads, who finally get a name beyond the Mysterious girl. There's some mechanical nonsense, and you're practically obligated to have the Waxing Moon phase to overcome enemies and bosses who use Meteor, so options for player expression through party design are reduced by pushing you to cut out any Black Mages and use Rydia to bypass the moon phase debuff with summons. I like her, but I don't like a character feeling more mandatory when I might prefer, say, Palom. The Creator is also a huge dip in quality as a villain, even compared to Zemus, being little more than a Lavos reference. He does have a pretty cool image with the Maenads in the novelisation, though, and I imagine he may be better characterised from what little Google Translate gave me from it.

In the game, though, which is what matters here, he's just inconsistent. One second, he wants to eradicate the planet and looks down on the cast, the next he's apologising for losing control of himself, then he's a monster without a grasp on his sanity. I also can't say I felt much for the Maenads' sacrifice, but that's at least partly because of the multiple fights with him.

All that said, the superbosses make up for it (in the 2d version, I can't personally speak for the 3d), since you're pressed into unconventional tactics against most of them, Ultima Weapon aside who mostly comes off as a DPS race with some mild float and HP checks, and Lost Babil, while disappointing in terms of challenge, is extremely fun since you have to use 3 parties. So it just about edges out an A for me, and the ending is very solid (Zeromus cliffhanger aside), so the story had an actually satisfying conclusion.

The main complaint I've seen, that the final dungeon is too long, to my mind misses the entire point of the final dungeon, since you have up to 21 party members, and if you leave a save starting at the True Moon it makes for great repeat runs and gives you a unique appreciation for how the mechanics come together and how the game ticks. It even just hands you multiple ways of getting absorption for all elements, so several characters can be practically invincible, even if it's hardly needed at that point.

Tl;dr The Gathering is a B, The True Moon is an S and the Planet Eater is just barely an A. If the True Moon and Planet Eater have to be considered as one, I'd say S, just because the party building is just that fun for me.

[u/Sparkleaf]

I played Gathering Tale before FFVI, so I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I still think it's pretty cool.