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Aurain posted:They're both incredibly Matsuno, even though Matsuno left during FFXII development. If you like the whole political intrigue angle of FFT, you'll likely enjoy XII This is a lie. I thought the same thing before trying XII for the first time and ended up pretty disappointed. It turned into FF: Star Wars two hours into the game.
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Apr 1, 2013 18:40
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pretend to care posted:Finishing up IX right now. Not going to bother fighting Ozma. The endgame is still ridiculously easy having only really done the Chocograph sidequest to completion. I mean, Curaga is fully healing characters with 4000+ HP even when cast on the whole party and it costs 11mp in battle with the Half MP skill (I've also done zero intentional grinding). Aurain posted:If you like the whole political intrigue angle of FFT, you'll likely enjoy [...] Tactics' little brothers Tactics Advance ... Unless this is a very cleverly-crafted April Fools joke 
Fur20 fucked around with this message at 19:17 on Apr 1, 2013 |
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Apr 1, 2013 19:07
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Krad posted:This is a lie. I thought the same thing before trying XII for the first time and ended up pretty disappointed. It turned into FF: Star Wars two hours into the game. It's a fair complaint, especially as there is no Chewbacca analogue. The White Dragon posted:Ozma's actually pretty easy if you do the friendly monster sidequest, but if you were unaware of the part where completing it makes him vulnerable to Darkness instead of absorbing it (like I was), your chances of success drop from like 90% to 5% just because he basically gets an extra round before dying. The law system is so horrid in that game. Whenever I play it, I just do laps in the Jagd areas because I don't have an Game Shark for my Gameboy Advance.
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Apr 1, 2013 19:17
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The White Dragon posted:I don't see how anyone could possibly enjoy Tactics Advance 1 without disabling laws. Because real men have a balanced enough team to handle any law. 
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Apr 1, 2013 19:19
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I maintain that with the exception of a couple of badly thought out laws ("No harm x" laws in general can go gently caress themselves), I liked that laws forced me to alter my playstyle from map to map instead of relying on the same five overpowered techniques. Plus, there's always AntiLaws if you're feeling lazy. FFTA2 definitely improved on the system, though.
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Apr 1, 2013 19:21
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Dr Pepper posted:Because real men have a balanced enough team to handle any law. Step 1) Forbidden: Dmg2 Humans Step 2) Human boss, immune to instant death attacks Step 3) gently caress Fur20 fucked around with this message at 19:32 on Apr 1, 2013 |
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Apr 1, 2013 19:21
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That's what confusion and charm are for.
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Apr 1, 2013 19:28
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Dr Pepper posted:That's what confusion and charm are for. Actually I wouldn't be surprised if Confusion and Charm were banned in that fight, too, considering how many laws are in play at once by the time Dmg2 starts showing up in the ban pool 
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Apr 1, 2013 19:34
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Well, there's always Doublecast to deal with Dmg2. Of course, that takes forever to master.
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Apr 1, 2013 20:20
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The White Dragon posted:Ozma's actually pretty easy if you do the friendly monster sidequest, but if you were unaware of the part where completing it makes him vulnerable to Darkness instead of absorbing it (like I was), your chances of success drop from like 90% to 5% just because he basically gets an extra round before dying. I always felt like the biggest problem was that laws could be avoided in FFTA. Like, you always hear some grumbles about Disgaea's Geopanel system, but most people eventually just consider it just another hurdle to jump. The fact that you had so much control over the laws system in FFTA, not to mention all the ways that laws like Dmg2 could be cheated, watered down the law system's presence enough that it was more annoying to deal with then challenging, and nothing pissed people off more then being really annoying to deal with but not actually having to be dealt with. FFTA2 handles the whole system a lot better, though.
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Apr 1, 2013 20:30
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Renoistic posted:I forgot to mention this myself, but these are all good points. The world itself is pretty interesting I thought it was refreshing with an RPG where most of the PCs either dislike or outright loathe each other. It's a fine line and usually takes a good writer (at least, whoever is writing for the characters not the overall plot). Stuff like FF7 is fondly remembered partly because everyone in the party was an outcast, a criminal, a dickhead, or a liar, but they drew that out and didnt emphasize it till later, so at that point you felt sympathy rather than disgust. With stuff like FF8, a big problem was Squall (who starts as a jerk, but not neccessarily a moron) immediately calling out his teammates being morons. We're supposed to think he's just being antisocial except they really are and made us notice that way too quick. That's great for a comedic character but no one we're supposed to marginally take seriously.
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Apr 1, 2013 21:43
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Is FFV from the PSN store (a copy of the PSX game) pretty playable? I'll get $10 back in April and wanted to pick up an rpg for my Vita. My choices are pretty much FF6, FF9 and Xenogears. FF5 seems like it'll be very good for being on the go, but I don't know if it's got any of that lag I hear about from the FF PSX collections.
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Apr 1, 2013 21:47
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The PSX version of FFV is terrible. Horrid load times and an awful translation.
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Apr 1, 2013 21:51
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Having had the PSX version as a kid, I can tell you the lag is absolutely there. I seem to recall it not being as bad as the FF6 lag, but still. It's a pretty sketchy port, I'd stick with FF9 or XG.
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Apr 1, 2013 21:54
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Shaezerus posted:So with some sudden inspiration, Galuf's Necromancer concept: Finished the other Galuf Necromancer sprites.  "Why so silent, good Messieurs?" Pesky Splinter fucked around with this message at 22:05 on Apr 1, 2013 |
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Apr 1, 2013 21:56
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Do not play the PSX port of FF5 unless you like good games being mangled into bad games.
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Apr 1, 2013 21:56
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Proto Cloud posted:So, I want an honest answer here. It's been almost a decade since I picked up a legitimate FF game and I've been wanting to come back in and try something out since I just played Theatrhythm. XIII has a fantastic battle system, soundtrack, and the best visuals in the series. Its story isn't bad, but it isn't great, either. A lot of it is contained in the Datalogs, but once read it all begins to make more sense. Definitely worth playing. XIII-2 improves the battle system, has another fantastic soundtrack, and opens up the world by having a much less linear structure. The monster collection system is addictive, but the story takes a further nosedive. Again, while the story here seems convoluted, it's not as convoluted as it tries to be, and is actually pretty simplistic. It's definitely worse than the first game's plot, though. Azure_Horizon fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Apr 1, 2013 |
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Apr 1, 2013 22:09
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Shaezerus posted:
Someone figure out how to replace the FFV iOS sprites with custom ones without jailbreaking a phone/iPad and it'd be perfect.  ProfessorProf posted:Got FFV iOS, started a Four Job Fiesta run on a whim, and goddamn if it isn't fun as hell. The restrictions really make you sink your teeth into the mechanics of the game. I had no idea that Death Claw worked on Byblos. Give everyone Blue Magic and vampire(?) should help with healing at times. Elec posted:Dang, that sprite work is nice! It never stops being tedious. The only upside of the Famicom version is that if you take an action then cancel it, you still get experience for the canceled action. Meaning you have Firion attack/cancel enough times and he'll gain a weapon level every fight. Easy to get level 16 unarmed on your main 3 before you even get Minh. One nice thing with the PSP/iOS version is that, while useful bugs are fixed, you can find some enemies/treasures easier. One of the dungeons you can access late in the game has a chest that will always have an Osmose book in it. Farming Wizards to get one to drop sucks horribly (unless you abuse save state if you're playing on an emulator) and I wasted 3-4 hours trying to get one before I said gently caress it, checked online, and saw that I could just get them by running that dungeon a few times once I got the next keyword from the main game. Osmose even at level 1 is beastly and means that character will never run out of MP unless you Osmose undead stuff. Barring that, you can just level Swap a shitload since it seems to work on pretty much anything as well, but it's not nearly as useful as just sucking the enemies dry of their MP. The original will probably take you hours longer, look worse, and make you hate yourself more. Being able to gain a level in every spell every fight is cool (excluding said fight taking 15-20 minutes of tedium) thanks to the buggy code, but you'll still be stuck hitting yourself to gain HP and casting heavily to gain MP (Swap can be useful for this too). Regardless of the version you play, my advice is this: Get Minh, kill soldiers at the town (get attack spells to 2-3 for the main 3 character and about 200hp on guy/firion to make this less hellish). Equip 2 shields on everyone, Firion/Guy in the front guarding, minh uses Protect on them to lower the chance of instant-death. Have the 3 characters cast until the enemy dies. Repeat until you get a Toad book or 3. Level toad/shield usage to 16. Walk through the game turning everything in to toads. Normal enemies, bosses, doesn't matter. Everything's susceptible to it.  I think Golems and a few other enemies have 15 or 16 magic defense, so if they aren't immune they're still a bitch to turn. Another option is to get Haste/Aura/Berserk on your main 3 (have each focus on 1 spell to 12+) and just use those to massacre everything, especially since Berserk stacks and even a single use of it at level 10+ puts your attack through the roof. FF2 is broken and tedious but you can just as easily break the game in your favor. I still preferred the FF2 iOs version to the FF3 remake though. Head Hit Keyboard posted:Maybe the Hallway-ness of 13 didn't bother me so much because I thought of it more like a gauntlet of battles (kinda like what you get in a beat 'em up) than actual dungeons/locations to explore. Fits the game's biggest strong suit after all (battle system and balance). PS1 has "blame yourself, or God" which on its own is better than WotL's stuffy, over the top rework.
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Apr 1, 2013 22:21
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Azure_Horizon posted:XIII has a fantastic battle system, soundtrack, and the best visuals in the series. Its story isn't bad, but it isn't great, either. A lot of it is contained in the Datalogs, but once read it all begins to make more sense. Definitely worth playing. As a devils advocate, I think XIII really isn't that good. I have played and beaten every mainline single player Final Fantasy game 1-12, and I just flat out gave up on 13. The combat is pretty entertaining, the soundtrack and visuals are indeed good. But its one of those rare games where a lot of really good stuff comes together to make a mediocre experience. I played 22 hours before I realized that I just plain wasn't having any fun. I'd recommend trying it, but take a step back after 5 hours or so to see if you are actually having fun. =/
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Apr 1, 2013 22:25
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Aurain posted:It's a fair complaint, especially as there is no Chewbacca analogue. Fran = Chewbacca Balthier = Han Vaan = Luke Ashe = Leia Basch = Obi-Wan Penelo = R2-D2
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Apr 1, 2013 22:27
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Caros posted:As a devils advocate, I think XIII really isn't that good. I have played and beaten every mainline single player Final Fantasy game 1-12, and I just flat out gave up on 13. The combat is pretty entertaining, the soundtrack and visuals are indeed good. But its one of those rare games where a lot of really good stuff comes together to make a mediocre experience. I played 22 hours before I realized that I just plain wasn't having any fun. I'd recommend trying it, but take a step back after 5 hours or so to see if you are actually having fun. =/
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Apr 1, 2013 22:33
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drat that sucks. Why aren't the FF1/2 PSP remakes on PSN? Square has a weird thing about letting their games go digital. I'd gladly pay $10 for that redrawn/resmastered FF1 digitally.
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Apr 1, 2013 22:38
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As someone who's currently playing the PS1 port of FF5, it's not bad if it's your only option, though I'd recommend any other version over it due to the load times and the crappy translation. The load times aren't as noticeable as the FF6 port, though they're still annoying. There's really no reason to play the PS1 port when there's better options available, but if it is your only option, it's still playable.
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Apr 1, 2013 22:40
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A piece of advice I'd give to someone going into XIII would be to pay attention to all the information the game gives(yes, introducing all the gameplay concepts takes way too long but knowing how stuff like stagger works is critical to being any decent at the game) and to remember that the game is pretty experimental for a JRPG and the things you don't usually see in JRPGs are done for a reason that will probably help you get into the mindset the game wants you to be playing in. Stuff like bringing you back to full HP after every fight or removing MP entirely or scoring/timing you after every single encounter and giving better rewards for higher scores all push you towards playing as efficiently and aggressively as possible without having to worry about resource conservation from fight to fight. edit: also no matter how much you think the story is alright it will absolutely fall apart in the last act of the game so be prepared for that even if you do like the characters
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Apr 1, 2013 22:53
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Ineffiable posted:Is FFV from the PSN store (a copy of the PSX game) pretty playable? I'll get $10 back in April and wanted to pick up an rpg for my Vita. My choices are pretty much FF6, FF9 and Xenogears. Play Xenogears goddammit.
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Apr 1, 2013 22:58
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SpazmasterX posted:Play Xenogears goddammit. On the other hand, this game has aged abysmally. Of the choices listed, just play FFIX and enjoy life.
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Apr 1, 2013 23:06
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Xenogears is pretty awesome. If you have any tolerance for PSX RPGs, it's a must-play.
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Apr 1, 2013 23:06
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Azure_Horizon posted:On the other hand, this game has aged abysmally.
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Apr 1, 2013 23:10
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Mega64 posted:As someone who's currently playing the PS1 port of FF5, it's not bad if it's your only option, though I'd recommend any other version over it due to the load times and the crappy translation. The load times aren't as noticeable as the FF6 port, though they're still annoying. There's really no reason to play the PS1 port when there's better options available, but if it is your only option, it's still playable. Worst comes to worst, I've got the FF5 GBA cart too.
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Apr 1, 2013 23:12
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Endorph posted:Honestly, as much as I love FF9, it isn't exactly a tour-de-force of gameplay either. Aside from a battle system that's slower than usual, I don't see any other flaws in any part of its gameplay. The minigames are fantastic and the world exploration is neat.
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Apr 1, 2013 23:15
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Azure_Horizon posted:Aside from a battle system that's slower than usual, I don't see any other flaws in any part of its gameplay. The minigames are fantastic and the world exploration is neat.
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Apr 1, 2013 23:16
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Brother Entropy posted:A piece of advice I'd give to someone going into XIII would be to pay attention to all the information the game gives(yes, introducing all the gameplay concepts takes way too long but knowing how stuff like stagger works is critical to being any decent at the game) and to remember that the game is pretty experimental for a JRPG and the things you don't usually see in JRPGs are done for a reason that will probably help you get into the mindset the game wants you to be playing in. Stuff like bringing you back to full HP after every fight or removing MP entirely or scoring/timing you after every single encounter and giving better rewards for higher scores all push you towards playing as efficiently and aggressively as possible without having to worry about resource conservation from fight to fight. I agree with pretty much everything you said in the first part. The battle system in 13 really is great once you can actually dig more into it, and the game does at least expect some level of mastery which I think a lot of critics never bothered to reach, or they weren't prepared for a game where grinding cannot be a solution, or they never made the connection that the roles were commands instead of jobs. If you failed in a fight, 9 times out of 10 it's because you were doing something wrong. I can't agree with any criticisms about capped character growth because that's what kept the difficulty curve good. Also the music is, as is often mentioned, fantastic and the game itself is pretty and I think it does a good job conveying a sense of scale. The scale of the environments is another source of misplaced criticism, I think. For example, the town somewhat early on actually felt huge unlike the typical 4 building town in most FFs. Having the old-fashioned deformed sprites running on an overworld just wouldn't have fit with the game. Character designs also weren't that bad (Sazh in particular was perfectly believable) and character development wasn't any worse than the average FF, nor was the plot, really (though to be fair I don't have the highest opinion of FF plots). Also I don't consider suddenly we're in hyperspace for some reason I guess to be much different from suddenly we're on the moon/some tower made from a dude's penis/the lifestream/the moon again?/a dream of a dead continent inside our dad who is both dreaming of and the dream of said continent or some poo poo and he's also a space whale. Ultimately, enjoyment of FF13 depends on how much visuals, music, and the battle system can carry it for you, and how willing you are to acknowledge that all JRPGs are fundamentally just straight lines, the only difference in 13 being that it gives you a map that confirms that. I don't mind linearity at all, so that wasn't a problem for me. 13-2 on the other hand, you'd really better like that battle system, because almost everything else in that game is terrible, except for the music, Chocolina, Sazh, and Caius. The plot has practically nothing to do with 13, Serah is the worst character ever created in any game (given the ending, I think Square realized it, too), Noel is just kind of there, and they pretty much threw out the interesting setting of 13. Like I have pretty low standards for video game plots and 13-2 is awful even by those. I personally didn't care for the whole pet system, though I can't say it's by default bad. The crystarium also lost that satisfying feeling of just stocking up thousands of points and holding down the button to watch it go. The difficulty curve doesn't exist, either. The battle system was definitely improved though, and it does get you into the meat of it faster, and the music was good, but yeesh. I'm a 13 apologist and even I don't like 13-2.
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Apr 1, 2013 23:23
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chumbler posted:I agree with pretty much everything you said in the first part. The battle system in 13 really is great once you can actually dig more into it, and the game does at least expect some level of mastery which I think a lot of critics never bothered to reach, or they weren't prepared for a game where grinding cannot be a solution, or they never made the connection that the roles were commands instead of jobs. If you failed in a fight, 9 times out of 10 it's because you were doing something wrong. I can't agree with any criticisms about capped character growth because that's what kept the difficulty curve good. While the focus is much different, 13-2 is a direct result of the end of FF13. It has almost everything to do with 13 in that respect.
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Apr 1, 2013 23:42
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Mega64 posted:As someone who's currently playing the PS1 port of FF5, it's not bad if it's your only option, though I'd recommend any other version over it due to the load times and the crappy translation. The load times aren't as noticeable as the FF6 port, though they're still annoying. There's really no reason to play the PS1 port when there's better options available, but if it is your only option, it's still playable. I don't know if it happens with the PSN version, but the disk version of 5 apparently will just freeze up when you try to save (edit: On PS3). On the PS2, it often turns the screen into a garbled mess when you go to the save screen, but it still works alright if you memorize what the menu options are. Schwartzcough fucked around with this message at 01:03 on Apr 2, 2013 |
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Apr 1, 2013 23:46
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Mega64 posted:As someone who's currently playing the PS1 port of FF5, it's not bad if it's your only option, though I'd recommend any other version over it due to the load times and the crappy translation. The load times aren't as noticeable as the FF6 port, though they're still annoying. There's really no reason to play the PS1 port when there's better options available, but if it is your only option, it's still playable. It's never your only option. The availability of remakes and digital downloads on poo poo like PSN and WiiWare has muddied the waters a little, but emulation of 16-bit games is a ship that's already long-sailed and the SFAM versions of 5 and 6 are still arguably the best of those games. The RPGe translation of 5 isn't much if any better than the PSX one, but it's been complete for years. I dunno, I'm not sure what the rules are with this kind of stuff these days but I think it's a real loving shame that the only versions of 5 and 6 being distributed (aside from like, the iOS version of 5) are the worst ones they ever made, identical to the SFAM versions plus bestiaries and terrible loadtimes. Baku fucked around with this message at 23:59 on Apr 1, 2013 |
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Apr 1, 2013 23:54
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chumbler posted:13-2 on the other hand, you'd really better like that battle system, because almost everything else in that game is terrible, except for the music, Azure_Horizon posted:While the focus is much different, 13-2 is a direct result of the end of FF13. It has almost everything to do with 13 in that respect. The sequel should have focused on the more interesting aspects of FFXIII, such as the Fal'Cie. Being cursed to carry out a mission, while being given extraordinary powers in order to do so is an interesting concept which was mishandled by the first game. What if they actually gave you the freedom to interpret the vision however you wanted to, and you had several ways to achieve it? Sounds much better than "My girlfriend died a thousand times, so I'm going to destroy the universe".
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Apr 2, 2013 00:10
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I'm definitely going against the general opinion of 13-2 here, but who cares. I thought the story in 13-2, while a bit convoluted, was way more interesting than 13. The first game was pretty typical "They are heretics! Get them! Choose your own destiny!" whereas the second is all about "What the gently caress is happening with time?" I'm extremely biased though because I absolutely love when something deals with space time fuckery. I think the game would have been much better if it had the same balance of difficulty that 13 had, makes me wish they had some sort of 'hard mode'.
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Apr 2, 2013 00:21
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Only the Cannoneer left, Shaezerus.  This has been quite fun. 
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Apr 2, 2013 00:28
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Rueish posted:I think the game would have been much better if it had the same balance of difficulty that 13 had, makes me wish they had some sort of 'hard mode'. This is to an extent impossible, because 13's balance was partly a product of it being almost 100% linear and having strict restrictions on what roles characters could play and how high they could level in those roles prior to the endgame. Balance is usually the trade-off you make in exchange for freedom, player agency, and exploration, partly because every linearly-additional option makes balancing content exponentially more difficult, and partly because some people like freedom/control/exploration because they *want* the game to be able to handicap themselves or be overpowered depending on their choices. Look at Fallout 2, where you can make a perilous overland trek to San Francisco right at the beginning and acquire power armor or steal an OP automatic weapon and trivialize more than half the content. I'm not sure I know of a game with a lot of freedom and player agency that's really balanced; the Elder Scrolls games and newer Fallouts have tried with scaling mechanics, which are a thing people loving hate. The relative balance in 13 wasn't worth the cost, to me. Baku fucked around with this message at 00:46 on Apr 2, 2013 |
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Apr 2, 2013 00:44
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Thanks for the honest opinions on XIII. I'll give it a shot. I don't mind linear RPGs since I've enjoyed Persona 2 or Xenosaga. I could probably enjoy it on its own merits, though it seems that just about everyone states that XIII-2 is pretty bad. If that's the case, I might have someone give me the Kliffnotes version on it.SpazmasterX posted:Play Xenogears goddammit. I dunno how anyone can recommend XGs with a straight face with how just how poo poo game gets after disc 2. Then there's the lousy platforming and a battle system that is both super easy and terrible.
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Apr 2, 2013 01:02
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