I donāt know whatās more amazing: the fact that the preorder bonus was a chance to win a car for some reason, or seeing all of those retailers and knowing only one still exists todayā¦
Half of those places barely existed back then too 
I had a Funco Land near me when I grew up. I think I was in 5th grade or so and I thought it was so cool to have a store dedicated exclusively to video games. It eventually became a GameStop which was still cool for awhile but definitely became less cool as time went on.
Since weāre nearing the end of FF4, the poll for FF5ās start date is up:
This is as good a time as any to ask. Would anyone be interested in a Final Fantasy IV: The After Years offshoot club? Itās a sequel to FF4 with the same gameplay, but itās not included in the Pixel Remaster so the platforms are a bit more limited. Iām imagining it running concurrently with the 5 club at about the same pace, and itās long enough that itād probably run for the same number of weeks. Iām happy to run it, though Simias certainly leaves some big shoes to fill.
- Yes
- No
Do you know which ones? According to its wiki page Iām reading Mobile phone, Wii, PlayStation Portable, iOS, Android, Microsoft Windows. Thatās probably accurate but I donāt know how easy it is to play the Japanese version for example.
Iām interesting and I will join if itās available in Japanese on something I already have (PC / Android / Switch) 
Expect a cease and desist in your inbox. I need to protect my āFF book clubā IP.
Whereās my non-committal āmaybeā option?
Aw man, I was planning to play it for the first time in English by myself along the FFV club so I probably wonāt join if itās run right nowā¦ Maybe just for the discussionā¦
I canāt say with 100% certainty. Iāve heard the Steam version does not support Japanese and I know the Wii version is no longer sold. My plan is to emulate the PSP version (which also has an exclusive bonus āInterludeā) and I could definitely find some instructions to get you set up with that on Windows or Android.
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I donāt get an option to only halfway run the club, haha.
There are a few offshoots Iād like to play eventually:
- Stranger of Paradise (distant FF1 offshoot/prequel thing)
- Crisis Core (FF7 offshoot)
- FF X-2
- The FFXIII sequels to further fuel my rage
Looks like itās on Android, which is already how I play FFIV, with my phone in Japanese, so should work as well! Yay! (and same 3D graphics as Iām playing with, looking forward to welcoming everyone to āmy versionā soon)
How distant is it? Itās missing from the second post with the list of spin offs, probably we should add it there?
Distant in terms of release date, it was released in 2022 and from what I can tell is a Soulslike action RPG game.
In fact the existence of this game is the reason I decided to completely ignore offshoots for the purpose of this club (at least as long as we arenāt done with mainline titles) because I couldnāt imagine going from
to
The second list is all canon sequels/prequels while Stranger of Paradise is more of a reimagining so personally I think itās fine that itās not on the list. Itās definitely worth a play in my opinion, though.
As a general rule I am interested in doing a lot of the spinoffs I think, hadnāt even heard of this one honestly. Looking into it, people make it sound really heavy on dungeon reuse and stuff in a way that makes me kind of wary of it just burning me out, thoughā¦
Yeah I shouldāve mentioned it in my post but Iāll be sure to include it in the home thread for the club: Iāve never played it, but as far as Iāve heard itās a borderline asset-flip. The only reason to play it IMO is if you specifically liked FF4ās characters enough to want to see more of them. And reviews arenāt that hot on the plot either.
At least for the Famicom games I know that the reviews of the added content/dungeons werenāt great. The consensus seems to be that the extra stuff is perfunctory and doesnāt really bring anything new to the table.
FF2ās Soul of Rebirth content seemed vaguely interesting though, in spirit at least. It follows our late 仲é Mināu, Scott, Richard and Joseph as they make their way through the afterlife, helping the Warriors of Light defeat the Emperor from the other side. I think it makes sense given the lore of FF2 and itās cool to give these characters the spotlight.
Soul of Rebirth definitely seems like one of the better ones although it also reuses dungeons and enemies. The only reason I havenāt played it is that you need to first complete the entire main game on GBA to unlock it. TAY comparatively is available from the first time you boot the PSP version of FF4, or just sold as a separate game entirely.