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1* AntiClimaxBoss: Lost Babil in the PSP is actually quite easy to defeat, especially if, like you would expect of a {{Superboss}}, you wait until the post-game to fight him when your party is at a high level with the best equipment in the game.
2* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The new music tracks generally got a warm reception, particularly [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUQ2pe_3Mcs The Eidolons Shackled]], the Mysterious Girl's BossRemix of her theme.
3* BestBossEver: The fight against the Mysterious Girl and Bahamut. Her magic pressures you throughout the fight to make up for Bahamut's countdown, and she ''removes your buffs'' before Megaflare, meaning the usual way of defeating the Eidolon God doesn't work and forces you to facetank the attack. Additionally, after he's weakened enough and awakened from his brainwashing if the right conditions are met, Bahamut also delivers an epic BadassBoast before decimating the Mysterious Girl, forcing ''her'' to facetank the attack:
4-->'''Mysterious Girl:''' R-Reflect..
5-->'''Bahamut:''' [[BadassBoast You waste your breath!]]
6* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The final dungeon is full of Crystals both light and dark, far more than the eight taken from the Blue Planet. Interacting with them spawns a boss from the original ''Final Fantasy IV'', but then they start spawning bosses from the other NES/SNES era ''Final Fantasy'' games. Many of them are completely out of place in ''Final Fantasy IV's'' setting, the Phantom Train being most prominent. Shinryu, Omega and Deathgaze can also be found in manners similar to their original games--Deathgaze and Omega are just wandering around and Shinryu lurks inside a chest. There is absolutely no reason given for why the bosses from the original game were revived, no explanation about anything at all for any of the new bosses, and no word on how they are connected to the Crystals. The party even lampshades the trope, often being confused and surprised by the enemy they just encountered and wondering why it was here.
7* BreatherBoss: After fighting your way through a maze full of DemonicSpiders, including {{Degraded Boss}}es and consecutive normal battles, Rydia's Challenge Dungeon shows mercy on you with the Boss Gobby at the end. All he does is order his three minions to attack you, and their attacks are laughably weak, otherwise he only attacks as a counter when you attack him, but two of the three spells he may counter with are fairly weak themselves. If you level grinded to teach Rydia Bio, her DiscOneNuke, it can kill the Bossy Gobby in two casts, and then you just need to mop up his minions. The battle gets more difficult if you kill his minions first, [[KaizoTrap which most players will try the first time]], but otherwise he's a snap.
8* BrokenBase: The changes to the final dungeon for the 3D version. Some fans are upset the dungeon was shortened to remove the classic bosses, as for many it would be the first time these enemies could be seen modeled in 3D, and the reusage of other map areas feels lazy and is nonsensical. Others appreciate the shortening of the dungeon and removal of excess bosses because it greatly reduces the original's EndingFatigue and [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment were completely unrelated to the story and had unexplained origins in the original]], and the revisiting of other maps gives the dungeon an otherworldly feeling, like it's an illusion or another dimension.
9* CharacterTiers: The ''The After Years'' has the largest party roster of any ''Final Fantasy'' to date, and the characters each have their strengths and weaknesses, however some are favored more than others. To elaborate:
10** Top tier: Cecil, Kain, Rosa, Rydia, Edge[[note]]Basically the final party from [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV the previous game]][[/note]], Palom, and Porom. Their high stats, adaptability and wide Band combinations leave them the most desired characters to have in the endgame party. Palom and Porom also have the ability to learn Dualcast, which allows them to do their roles better.
11** Middle tier party members include Ceodore, Edward, Golbez, Yang, Ursula, and Luca. Decent Band combinations and can hold off on their own but not to the extent as the top tier characters.
12** Lower tier party members include the other Eblan Four: Izayoi, Tsukinowa, Gekkou, and Zangetsu. As well as Cid and Leonora. The Eblan four having decent bands with each other and select other characters, but fall short when by themselves. Cid is a MightyGlacier but is overshadowed by Luca's superior speed and adaptability. Leonora has both white and black magic, but her HP is extremely low and she gains the spells so late that by the time they're learned, the party's powerful enough already. If you do level up her however, other than her low HP, she can become [[MagikarpPower an extremely powerful magic user]] and can also learn Dualcast.
13** The bottom ones are Harley, Calca, and Brina. Their low stats, with Calca and Brina being the only party members (along with Leonora) to have below 3000 HP at level 99, and limited and heavily niched Band combinations leave them as borderline {{Joke Character}}s.
14* ComplacentGamingSyndrome:
15** For the final chapter, a lot of players stick to the "original five" (Cecil, Rosa, Rydia, Kain, Edge), occasionally subbing out one or two members for someone like Golbez, Palom, Porom, Edward, or even Luca. Not to mention, you'll see ''lots'' of Bands. The "original five" is a diverse team of a Paladin, Holy Dragoon, Ninja, White Mage, and a Summoner/Black Mage, which thanks to the buff Kain has, means that the team has plenty of healing, buffing, and damage that very few other teams can potentially use.
16*** Another less common party will use Ceodore, Ursula, Palom, Porom, and either Luca, Leonora, or even Golbez. This party lineup not only provides a very useful candidate for Dualcast (Porom), plenty of damage potential (Especially since Ceodore and Ursula learn a useful Band that easily hits for five-digits of damage, more than the two will do through normal attacks), plus Luca scales very well into the endgame.
17** When obtaining the Dualcast ability, Porom is the first choice for most players. While Palom can get some definite use out of Dualcast, the ability to cast white magic twice in one turn turns Porom into a GameBreaker. While [[RedMage Leonora has white magic as well as black magic]], she unfortunately falls into a case of CantCatchUp due to how late she learns high level spells[[note]]For comparison, Leonora learns Curaga at level 45 and Flare at ''85'', Porom learns the former at level 33 and Curaja at 48, and Palom learns the latter at level 50 and Meteor at 55.[[/note]], though if you are willing to level her up regardless, [[MagikarpPower she can become an extremely powerful magic user]] in her own right, having the most variety with Dualcast.
18* DemonicSpiders: Edge's Tale has a notoriously nasty Challenge Dungeon, but it also throws two utterly cruel enemies at you in the form of the infamous Malboro (which hits like a truck and has Bad Breath) and, even worse, the Chimera Brain, who has a first attack that can chop off nearly 800 HP ''from the entire party.'' At low levels, there's no chance that Izayoi, Tsukinowa, or Zangetsu survive it, and Gekkou and Edge will be left barely holding on by a thread. The only saving grace is that the attack's power decreases as the Chimera Brain's HP goes down, so a speedy party can make it much less dangerous. If it gets an ambush, however, that's teetering with a TotalPartyKill.
19* EarlyGameHell: Not so much early in TAY as a whole, but early in The Crystals. The starting party consists of Edge, Rydia, Luca, and [[spoiler:Golbez]], none of whom are healers in any sense of the word. Edge has Heal Pill, but it's single-target. Rydia can get the Sylphs (provided the player doesn't kill them), which drains enemies to heal the party, but it's hardly effective, since while it deals decent damage to enemies and heals allies based on the damage dealt, the amount of health restored is split among the 5 party members. And despite the group gathering some White mage characters, like Porom or Leonora, they're unusable due to story reasons until a certain point. What's worse is that, assuming everything was done right in Edge's Tale, [[CombatMedic Izayoi]] should still be alive and able to fight, but she and the rest of the Eblan Four can't join the party. [[spoiler:Golbez]] knowing Taunt to have enemies focus him takes some heat away from his squishier party members, but it doesn't help much against Eidolons, who tend to use [=AoE=] skills.
20* EndingFatigue: The final dungeon of the game is one of the longest of the series, and more than three times as long as the final dungeon of ''Final Fantasy IV''. The inners of the True Moon is a 33-floor long trek with as-many bosses sprinkled along its length, and that's in addition to the obvious fact that the most powerful enemies in the game are fought as normal encounters in-between. There's also several cutscenes along the way to keep advancing the story a little and bring closure to personal character arcs. While save points are fortunately provided at regular intervals, they do nothing to break up the fact that the dungeon is simply ''very long'', and can take as long to complete as some of the individual tales did.
21* EnsembleDarkhorse:
22** Luca, for being an effective AscendedExtra that's a powerful party member with a non-fanservicey design (uncommon for the series) and a humorous crush on Palom.
23** One of the most inexplicable examples of the series is Monk C from Yang's Tale. The fandom nicknamed the Monks Anderson, Brown, and Coleman. Coleman joins five levels higher than Anderson or Brown due to being recruited later, and he has a better weapon in the Metal Knuckles. This resulted in him becoming a MemeticBadass because he was significantly stronger than the other two Monks and could possibly match Yang and Ursula in damage output. The PSP release gives Monk C a darker portrait, seemingly distinguishing him from Monk A and Monk B in a nod to this.
24* EpilepticTrees: The Depths of the True Moon contain Crystals that spawn other ''Final Fantasy'' bosses to fight you. As [[spoiler:The Creator]] tells you that many worlds received Crystals to record and process the evolutionary paths of their inhabitants, there are some theories that thus take this as the implication those other Crystals came from other ''Final Fantasy'' worlds [[spoiler:The Creator]] had visited and possibly destroyed.
25* FakeDifficulty: Depending on the phase of the Moon, battles can be easier or harder. While it is possibly to manipulate the phase, you can only do so by using a Tent/Cottage or staying at an Inn. If not, the player has to wait 30 real-life minutes. It's possible for the chances to be so skewed in the enemy's favor, you don't stand a chance. One infamous example being the Tower of Trials in Palom's Tale; at specific points, Leonora learns particularly weak Black Magic spells and occasionally has to fight enemies on her own. If fighting enemies on a Full Moon (when Black Magic is stronger and enemies within the Tower specifically use Black Magic), it's highly likely they'll destroy her, possibly even one-shotting her before she even gets a turn.
26* FanNickname:
27** Monks A, B, and C in Yang's Tale are respectively known as "Monk Anderson", "Monk Brown", and "Monk Coleman", while Guards A, B, and C in Edward's Tale are "Guard Ashley", "Guard Bruce", and "Guard Campbell". These nicknames were proposed by someone who suggested that [[HisNameReallyIsBarkeep all of them are actually named "Monk" and "Guard"]], and the letters are the first letter of each of their surnames, in the same way that a grade-school class would differentiate between students with the same first name by using the first letter of their last names.
28** Golbez's [[WalkingShirtlessScene new appearance]] earned him a new fandom and the nickname "Swolebez".
29* {{Fanon}}: There are plenty of fanworks depicting Edge and Rydia [[spoiler:being Cuore's parents]] due to the many ship tease moments between the two and Rydia [[spoiler:raising the last surviving Maenad.]] The ending credits in the 3D versions fuel this up.
30* FauxSymbolism:
31** The main antagonist appears to come from the moon, looks like Rydia, and brainwashes the Eidolons to serve her. What does this mean for the Summoners, the Lunarians, and the Eidolons? ... not a darn thing. ''Interlude'' reveals she looks like Rydia mostly by chance, the moon she comes from is a different moon from the Red Moon of the Lunarians, and she uses the Eidolons apparently because they're effective and convenient minions.
32** A major plot point is that the events of the original game are playing out again with the return of the Red Moon in the sky. But the late parts of the game reveal the second moon isn't the Red Moon, it's the True Moon of the Creator, and the fact that events are playing out identical to how they did in the original game is basically a giant coincidence. This trope then kicks in again when the party travels to the True Moon and the Subterrane is a mirror image of the layout of the Lunar Subterrane of the Red Moon...until the player gets to the 8th floor and the dungeon designs diverge. The reason is probably to get more mileage out of reused assets, [[WatsonianVersusDoylist but that doesn't explain it in-universe]].
33* GameBreaker: Slow, or more specifically, Spider Silk. No one, not even bosses, are immune to it, and the enemy getting less attacks (or anything it might do) is always useful. Spider Silk is better than the spell because anyone can use it, and it's both easily purchasable and extremely cheap, even in the early game.
34* GoddamnedBats: Literally. Mostly because they're just resilient and fast enough to cast Bloodfeast on you 10 or so times per combat. Which does like 20 damage and puts "Sap" status on your party members. This is especially annoying in Edge's and Porom's {{Bonus Dungeon}}s, the former of which is a [[SpeedRun Time Trial]] and the latter of which has a [[TimedMission time limit]].
35* ItsTheSameNowItSucks:
36** A common complaint about the game is that it heavily recycles content from the first game -- dungeons, enemies, and equipment are identical, down to many dungeons having the same kinds of enemies and the treasures being in the same locations. Gameplay is also identical for the most part -- with no new spells for mages and most characters having the same abilities as the original game. The differences are the order in which you explore the world and the party members you have for each area, alongside new additions to the gameplay in Bands, which act as combination attacks between two or more party members, a Moon Phase system that weakens or strengthens abilities, and some other character abilities that weren't present in the original game.
37** This is particularly pronounced for the Interlude chapter in the PSP release, which acts as a bridge between the original game and the sequel. ''Everything'' is copied and pasted from the original game with none of the additions of the sequel proper as the gameplay is based on the original instead of the sequel, including enemy encounters in the same formations and the same area, and the enemies will drop equipment for party members not even playable in the Interlude.
38* MagnificentBitch: [[ArtificialHuman The Maenad]], aka the Mysterious Girl, arrives on Earth with the mission to gather the Crystals, and goes about her objective with [[NoNonsenseNemesis single-minded efficiency]]. After enslaving Baron and the Eidolons, she seizes the Crystals in a matter of days, through a combination of using the airships of Baron to quickly travel the world, using the Eidolons to defeat her enemies, and the simple fact that she's really a multitude of beings that can be in several places at once and coordinate through a HiveMind. In the end the efforts of the heroes of Earth to stop her amount to nothing, the Maenad accomplishes her mission and departs Earth with the Crystals to deliver them to [[TheManBehindTheMan the Creator]]. When the heroes follow her to the True Moon and defeat the Creator, the Maenads [[HeelFaceTurn stand against him]] as he goes on a self-destructive rampage. They sacrifice themselves to defend the party so they can escape the True Moon, and entrust to them the final Maenad so she can have a normal life on Earth.
39* NightmareFuel: The final boss, [[spoiler:[[BigBad The Creator]]. Whereas most final bosses in the series build up to an epic final battle that indicate just how hectic things will get, this time around you're against an entity that is practically an EldritchAbomination with steadily decreasing sanity, a horror-esque ambiance that pulls no punches, and, by the end of it all, a relentless and destructive foe repeatedly attacking and chasing after you which you seemingly ''cannot kill'' until a HeroicSacrifice finally makes him vulnerable. To top it off, there is the FridgeHorror implication that it created, harvested and ''destroyed'' the worlds of various other ''Final Fantasy'' games as it forces you to fight bosses from those games and claims that they are from other worlds it's been to.]]
40* MemeticBadass: Monk C from Yang's Tale, spawned due to joining at a higher level and with better equipment than Monk A and Monk B. Is also known as "Monk Coleman" or simply "Coleman".
41* MemeticLoser: Ceodore tends to get mocked for still sleeping next to his parents at the age of 15.
42* PlayTheGameSkipTheStory: The tweaks to ''IV's'' battle system are well liked, allowing the manipulating of Moon Phases to influence battle, offering a wide variety of party members with different skillsets and stats, and Bands to add a new level of strategy to party composition. The story though gets a lukewarm reception, as seen in further detail in ItsTheSameNowItSucks.
43* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Edward. The [[QuirkyBard Spoony Bard]] from the original TookALevelInBadass in both gameplay (he's faster, his weapons his harder while retaining the ability to hit from the back row, and he can even use Bardsong to buff the party) and plot (Going on his own to rescue his adjutant, curing her fever, and deducing the plot to uncover [[spoiler:Cecil's brainwashing]] all while looking to be the same old fop he always was). Fans immediately warmed to this new, capable Edward.
44* ScrappyMechanic: [[ScrappyMechanic/FinalFantasy Here.]]
45* {{Sequelitis}}: Though the ability to change your party and the Band system greatly elevate the gameplay, the plot leaves something to be desired. Many events parallel events in the original game, something even the characters note.
46* TearJerker:
47** Many of the returning bosses you face, including bosses from other games, are clearly not acting of their own volition anymore. Golbez's Fiends are forced to obey their mysterious new masters after their essences are forced back into the world. Golbez and even Edge, when it comes to Rubicante, are both particularly distressed at what's become of them. Once beaten, the Fiends proceed to recognize Golbez if he's in the party, and begin to thank him for the kindness he showed them even as he was himself controlled by Zemus.
48*** Even ''[[FunPersonified Gilgamesh]]'' is implied to be lost in a haze induced by the forces that pulled him here, as when beaten, he merely whimpers out one name in confusion before vanishing back to the rift.
49-->'''Gilgamesh''': ...Bartz?
50** Golbez's death, if you choose not to save him [[GuideDangIt or don't know he can be saved]] (In game's novelization, Golbez cannot be saved and dies). [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXvc4Ke85Ek All characters acknowledge his death and even mourn him]], recognizing how he tried to amend for his evil deeds before his death and forgive him for any wrongs he did during his lifetime.
51* ThatOneBoss: Make it two: The Mysterious Girl and Asura. The Mysterious Girl is in the back row behind Asura and lobs third-level magic at you while Asura uses a pattern of healing her, casting Shell on her to buff her magic defenses, and attacking you. The problem is that your two party members are {{Squishy Wizard}}s, you cannot damage or incapacitate Asura in any way, you have limited MP, limited MP-restoring items, and with the girl in the back row all physical damage is halved so the only way to do respectable damage is via magic...except for Asura healing her every third turn or so and then buffing up her magic defense. And that's on top of the aforementioned attacks they both throw at you that you need to keep on top of.
52* ThatOneLevel: The Challenge Dungeons easily fit into the BrutalBonusLevel mold, but a few are particularly painful.
53** Porom's Challenge Dungeon. Being a white mage, you're meant to help various {{NPC}}s by healing them, giving them items, saving them from monsters and putting wayward spirits to rest. But the monsters that are encountered are very powerful, you have a time limit of 15 minutes, and the placement of spirits, {{NPC}}s and your starting location is random. Furthermore, the spirits don't even appear unless you speak to the right {{NPC}}s. [=NPCs=] also bleed you dry asking for expensive pieces of equipment and wanting Esuna cast on them five times or more, draining Porom of 100 MP because she has to be the one to cast it, instead of the generic White Mage you also have in your party who also knows the spell. The most annoying part is that even if you help everyone, you're still not guaranteed to get a good item, and all but 1 of them can be gotten elsewhere with infinitely less frustration.
54** Rydia's Challenge Dungeon. The enemies inside use counterattacks like Blaster or Entice to disable a party member (keeping in mind you only have two party members total), their physical blows pack a punch, and you have no WhiteMage to buff or heal you, so you need to rely on Hi-Potions. Furthermore the dungeon is full of {{Degraded Boss}}es, namely Trap Doors and Demon Walls, and is a maze with many passages leading to dead ends, and if you [[LuckBasedMission pick the wrong rope]] in a room where you need to use them to advance further, you can get up to 3 difficult battles in a row with no chance to heal between them. The going is made easier with Bio, Rydia's DiskOneNuke, but she'll quickly run out of MP for it and your precious Ethers and her Osmose won't do much to prolong her longevity. There's a good reason that after every floor you find a save point--between the powerful attacks of enemies and Rydia's Bio spam being the best offense you have, if you weren't allowed to stop and rest regularly, the dungeon would be nearly impossible.
55** Edward's Tale is fairly uninteresting until the very end; Edward is already one of the weaker low-level party members, and they add Harley to the mix, who has even lower stats and less useful abilities than he does. If that was not bad enough, the two of them plus a trio of generic guards need to traverse the Underground Waterway, after which Harley immediately comes down to Desert Fever, so Edward decides to travel back through the Underground Waterway again, ''alone'' this time, to get a Sand Pearl from the Antlion Den during a Full Moon. The only saving grace is that on the way back a third time through the Underground Waterway, Edward gets stopped by bandits and pushed off the bridge, ending up back at the cave's entrance and saving at least a little headache there.
56* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: The 3D version ''heavily'' redesigned the final dungeon. Rather than just a copy of the Lunar Subterrane, the dungeon is now a mash-up of various other maps from the two games, connected in ways that don't make sense. The dungeon after the fight with the Dark Knight is entirely removed, replaced with a few different floors containing some of the items from the removed floors before you progress to the final floors of the original dungeon. This also means that the NES/SNES bosses are removed, replaced with the Lunar Eidolons, palette swaps of the normal Eidolons. Some fans were not pleased by these changes, as it feels like the final dungeon was a cut corner to save having to model new areas and enemies. While others think of it as in improvement considering [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment the nature of the bosses]] as seen in BrokenBase.
57* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
58** The Mysterious Girl is presented as a Rydia-lookalike that comes from the moon and has the power to forcibly control the Eidolons. This provides numerous potential story threads for connecting the Summoners to the Lunarians and either or both to the Eidolons, after the original game provided some hints already (Bahamut lives on the Red Moon, Golbez seemed to fear the Summoners and could Summon himself), and it would afford a chance to expand on the backstory of all three groups. However, as described under FauxSymbolism, there is no real significance to the Mysterious Girl's appearance, powers, or origins, and any story that could be constructed from them is ignored.
59** The first game had Golbez capture two of the Dark Crystals offscreen to cut down on ArcFatigue, leaving the opportunity wide open for this game to reveal their locations. Unfortunately, the exact same thing happens again.

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