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ok Amazing
Apr 7, 2012

Final Fantasy Job Faire


Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings was released in 2007 (JP, US) - 2008 (EU, AU) for the Nintendo DS, and is the smaller scale, portable sequel/spinoff to Final Fantasy XII.

A lot of world building and exploration from the original is gone, as well as all the political drama, to tell a simpler, shorter story more focussed on it's characters. The plot also shares little with the original FFXII, perhaps because it actually started development as an unrelated title. Because of that, it's accessible to those not familiar with the original. I gotta admit, I played this one before I played FFXII, and I was fine. But there's still a lot in there for people familiar with the original, and they're gonna feel a bit more comfortable through this! If you wanna jump into this Let's Play, go ahead. However, there's an FFXII LP in the archives, as well as another, more informative one, so if you want to look at either one of them and come back, that's cool too.

The graphics use a style easier for the DS to render, 2D sprites on top of 3D environments. There are a few FMVs, which will be posted on Youtube. The soundtrack is almost entirely recycled from FFXII, but it unfortunately sounds a bit worse coming from the DS hardware. Gameplay wise, its a real-time strategy, although I find that the strategy is a bit light. I'll explain the combat more when it comes up in the Let's Play, including elaborating on my feelings about it.

Since this is a story-heavy game, let's not go ruining it for anyone! No spoilers at all for Revenant Wings please! Also, because this game is accessible without being familiar with FFXII, don't needlessly ruin the original FFXII. But you can just spoiler tag for the original FFXII if you're not sure, and then yap all you want! Later in Revenant Wings, there will be parts that assume you have knowledge of FFXII, and a couple of things, big things, from FFXII will be spoiled! There's nothing that will "ruin" the original in my opinion, but if you're hoping to go through FFXII completely blind one day, don't read this first! When anything that assumes you know FFXII comes up, i'll fill you in on the blanks. But enough out of me, let's start the game!



Prologue - In Search of the Eternal

Chapter 1 - The Derelict

Chapter 2 - Distant Skies

Chapter 3 - What goes up...

Chapter 4 - A Grand Hunt

Chapter 5 - Stranded

Chapter 6 - Stealing Eternity

Chapter 7, Part 1 - Illusions Within

Chapter 7, Part 2 - The Oath

Chapter 8 - Ivalice



The instruction book. Just in case you wanted to read it, I scanned it in for you. Click here.

Magicks and Abilities

ApplesandOranges makes some informative posts about our playable characters and Espers.

ok Amazing fucked around with this message at 04:37 on Jun 17, 2014

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ok Amazing
Apr 7, 2012

Final Fantasy Job Faire
[reserved just in case]

ok Amazing
Apr 7, 2012

Final Fantasy Job Faire


This is the FMV cutscene that plays as the attract sequence.





And this is the one that plays when you start a new file, and continues directly on from the one in the attract sequence.









"Not who I was expecting. Well if that's how it's gonna be..."





The conditions for victory are stated at the beginning of battle. For the first few battles, it's fairly straightforward.



Soundtrack: Field 1 - Battle 1 (Giza Plains)
The Field part of the song plays when gameplay is relaxed and you're just walking around, and the Battle part when your characters are actually exchanging attacks with foes. It's neat and tricky to recreate in Let's Play form, so here's the two variants, take your pick. The soundtrack is recycled from FFXII, and this particular tune originally played in the Giza Plains area. Hence, it's name. Lots of songs do this, I won't point it out after this, but if you're wondering about a track name, it's probably a throwback to where is was in FFXII.



- You must get past the flan first to proceed. -



- Before issuing a command, you must first select a unit. You can use the Unit Tabs at the top of the bottom screen to quickly select units. A hand icon will appear above the heads of any selected units. -



- Now that we've selected Vaan, let's order him to attack. Touching the flan will cause the cursor to change to a pair of swords. Lift the stylus to issue the attack command. -



- Touching an open space on the battlefield will cause the cursor to change to a pair of boots. Lift the stylus to order the selected units to move to that location. Units will automatically attack enemies near their destination, so you can use the move command to attack as well. -

"Let's see what you've got!"


As the tutorial says, tap on or near an enemy to attack it. Being the first enemy in the game, this guy dies pretty quickly.



"Now to find Penelo. She has to be in here somewhere."

Bonus: The tutorial instructs you to fight a flan before finding Penelo. You get a bit of different dialogue if you choose to walk past the flan.



"So, where did everybody run off to?"

But whether you're a pacifist or not, both choices reunite at the camera tutorial.



- You can move the camera at any time to survey the battlefield. Touch the stylus to the bottom screen, then slide the cursor to the edge of the screen to scroll your view. As you can see, the camera will move in the direction of the side of the screen you touched. You can also use the Control Pad to move the camera. Now it's time to use the commands you've learned to find Penelo! -



On the top screen of the Nintendo DS is a minimap. The blue arrows are characters currently under our control. The yellow arrows are non-aggressive characters not under our control. The purple dots are foes. Anyway, Penelo is just up ahead.


If you tap on a unit, some info appears on the top screen. Here's what you get when you tap on Penelo. Once you get close to her, a conversation will automatically start.


Soundtrack: Penelo's Theme
(Giza Plains resumes after this conversation)



"Sorry, I got here as fast as I could."

"You didn't waste time getting yourself into trouble."





- She'll cast Cure on nearby allies to restore their health. You can also select Penelo, then target an ally to have her cast Cure on the targeted unit. -



"Yeah, so?"



"They're just up ahead. And I don't think Balthier is gonna wait forever."

"Then what are we standin' around talkin' for? C'mon!"



- Guide Vaan and Penelo through the dungeon to reach Balthier and Fran. Slide the stylus across the screen to select multiple units at once. Selecting multiple units can save a lot of time when issuing commands. You can also press the X Button to select all friendly units. -



- You can clear you current selection without issuing a command by touching the Clear icon in the top-right corner of the bottom screen. You're then free to make a new selection. -





Penelo is purely a white mage, and can't attack enemies. Her role is just healing, but it's a very valuable role. On the way up, there are a couple more flans to fight. Like the first flan battle, there's pretty much no way to lose, especially considering that Penelo is here to heal Vaan now. Once they're defeated, just proceed to the two yellow arrows remaining on the map.



"Enjoy your stroll through the ruins?"



"Well, at least they waited for us. C'mon, let's go!"





If you tap on Balthier and Fran, here's the info you get.



After winning a battle, you're given the opportunity to save. Since this was a short, tutorial-heavy mission, and the prologue is only two battles long, let's keep playing!

Soundtrack: Title Demo (Loop Demo)



"Whoa..."



"It would seem the Cache of Glabados holds two treasures."

"Perfect! One for you and Balthier, and one for us!"

"Settling for only half the treasure? What sort of sky pirate are you?"



Soundtrack: Boss Battle 1 (Slash of the Sword)









"Ernh..."



"This Mist...so strange. It's...cold."

"Can you fight?"

"Yes, I think so."











- Use Vaan and Penelo to attack Ifrit. Move in to attack while Balthier and Fran keep the other enemies busy. -



If you just follow the instructions the tutorial gives you, this battle is simple.



Fran and Balthier are being controlled by the AI, and will dispatch the smaller foes. All you have to do is tap your stylus on Vaan and Penelo, and move them both towards Ifrit!



When all the smaller foes are gone, Fran and Balthier will help you finish the big guy off.



And you're done! Easy as!



Soundtrack: Balthier's Theme (Destiny)

"What now?"

"The legend of the Cache of Glabados - you're familiar with it, yes?"



"Why am I not surprised? Very well, I'll tell you this once, but no more."



"It holds a connection with the eternal."

"The eternal what?"



"A treasure is like a mysterious woman. You have to be worthy of her, or she'll slip through you fingers."



"Better if I take it."

"Go ahead."



"Vaan, what are you doing?"

"He's acting the sky pirate."





"But remember, Vaan. The things you own can end up owning you."



"Seems our performance has brought down the house."



"We've gotta get outta here!"





Next time: Vaan returns home and tells his friends all about his adventures and how badly he screwed up. See you then!

ok Amazing fucked around with this message at 01:58 on Aug 29, 2013

Azure_Horizon
Mar 27, 2010

by Reene
Director: Motomu Toriyama

... I can see now why people have a problem with this game.

Black Balloon
Dec 28, 2008

The literal grumpiest



Oh neat. I never felt motivated enough to pick this up myself, so I've been waiting for an LP to spring up. It doesn't make the most exciting first impression, but I'll be keeping my eye on this. Thanks for starting it.

Onmi
Jul 12, 2013

If someone says it one more time I'm having Florina show up as a corpse. I'm not even kidding, I was pissed off with people doing that shit back in 2010, and I'm not dealing with it now in 2016.
This game is... not that good. Now keep in mind if we're talking Toriyama you can have much worse games, but I still wouldn't call this fun.

I think my utter dislike for the game is it tries to address a complaint that didn't deserve to be there... also the gameplay is just kind of dull. Which is a shame because Ivalice and FFXII are some of my favorite settings/games. But this didn't need to be a thing and would have been better served remaining its own thing.

That being said, again, this isn't the worst game.

Gyre
Feb 25, 2007

Onmi posted:

This game is... not that good. Now keep in mind if we're talking Toriyama you can have much worse games, but I still wouldn't call this fun.

I think my utter dislike for the game is it tries to address a complaint that didn't deserve to be there... also the gameplay is just kind of dull. Which is a shame because Ivalice and FFXII are some of my favorite settings/games. But this didn't need to be a thing and would have been better served remaining its own thing.

That being said, again, this isn't the worst game.

I got near to the end but go bogged down by the sidequests and the realization that the characters are pretty much indistinguishable in gameplay. Sure, some have different skills, but by the midgame I didn't even notice the differences.

ok Amazing, I know you said no story spoilers, but are gameplay ones okay if they don't mention stuff like units we don't have and such?

Antipersonnel Mime
Feb 27, 2011
I'd have titled the thread 'Flan are strong against magic?', given the simplistic, yet completely un-FF method that unit effectiveness is determined.

The story itself I actually enjoyed, because politics are indeed boring.

Small question, will there be a naming contest/vote for the airship?

Onmi
Jul 12, 2013

If someone says it one more time I'm having Florina show up as a corpse. I'm not even kidding, I was pissed off with people doing that shit back in 2010, and I'm not dealing with it now in 2016.

Gyre posted:

I got near to the end but go bogged down by the sidequests and the realization that the characters are pretty much indistinguishable in gameplay. Sure, some have different skills, but by the midgame I didn't even notice the differences.

ok Amazing, I know you said no story spoilers, but are gameplay ones okay if they don't mention stuff like units we don't have and such?

I'm pretty much the same, I got to the final boss, unlocked the final dungeon and that was it.

CmdrKing
Oct 14, 2012

Maybe if I called it 'Interpretive Stabbing'...

Azure_Horizon posted:

Director: Motomu Toriyama

... I can see now why people have a problem with this game.

That surprises me. For the problems on both gameplay and plot the game has, being utterly incoherent and nothing making sense without an in-game guide and a couple FAQs wasn't one of them. It's on the generic side definitely, but the scope of the game is firmly on Vaan and Panelo as characters and it does an adequate (if not terribly interesting) job of it.

Curious what people will make of it going forward. Planning to show off 100% completion? I took a few stabs at the end/post game sidequests and concluded it wasn't happening, but I'm pretty bad with RTS so maybe you'll have better luck.

Shinji117
Jul 14, 2013
100 completion for this game is incredibly aggravating. Not for the sidesquests themselves as much as what happens afterwards. Only did it once, personally.

Though there is a repeatable sidequest at the end that can break the game...

Carbolic Smokeball
Nov 2, 2011
Honestly, I really enjoyed this game. I consider it a hidden gem of the DS library, but I guess I'm one of the only ones. Looking forward to the LP.

ok Amazing
Apr 7, 2012

Final Fantasy Job Faire
For anyone who asked, I plan on showing everything! Don't worry.

Antipersonnel Mime posted:

Small question, will there be a naming contest/vote for the airship?

Yeah, probably.


Gyre posted:

ok Amazing, I know you said no story spoilers, but are gameplay ones okay if they don't mention stuff like units we don't have and such?

All the gameplay elements will appear by the end of Chapter 2, so it won't be long, and it would be better to hold off until then.

ok Amazing
Apr 7, 2012

Final Fantasy Job Faire
Update #2: Eve of Adventure



Soundtrack: Rabanastre



- Vaan shrugged it off. He said he'd buy a new airship, and he never even talking about the treasure we'd found. It was as though our adventures were only dreams, dreams that faded day by day under the brilliant Rabanastre skies. We went back to the quiet lives we'd always led, like nothing had ever happened. But it wasn't to last... -





"He's sure been in good spirits, considering what happened to his airship."





"Life's not all adventures and treasures, you know. There's a lot to be said for peace and quiet."



"Vaan!"



"There's an airship headed toward the city. But not just any airship. It's older than any airship I've ever seen. You remember the legend about the lost sky continent?"















- When Vaan gets that look in his eye, it never is. -

Soundtrack: Dungeon 1 Field





"What's so important we have to come out here in the middle of the night?"

"And how come we didn't bring Penelo?"

"Shh! Just try and keep up, okay?"





Soundtrack: Field 1 - Battle 1 (Giza Plains)









"Something's up. You wanted an adventure, right? Time to get your hands dirty."









- Units deal one of three types of damage. Knowing when to use which can mean the difference between victory and defeat. -









- Think of it as a rock-paper-scissors relationship. We'll examine the relationship of the units over the course of the following battle. -



- Objective: Defeat all enemies! Vaan must survive. -





- Ranged units are designed to stand back and deal damage, leaving them vulnerable to attacks from nearby units. Send in melee units to quickly dispatch any ranged units you encounter. -

"This one's all mine!"





- Flying units are easy map targets for a skilled marksman. Any type of ranged attack, whether from archers or mages, will send flying units crashing to the ground. -

"I sure hope this works..."

"You can do it, Kytes! Just throw some magick its way."



If you remember back to the first battle, Balthier and Fran were ranged units as well. Kytes has a focus on black magic spells, as opposed to Balthier and Fran's guns and bows.


- Melee units attack at close range, so they have a hard time reaching flying units. This makes flying units the perfect counter to melee attacks. -

"That leaves this one for me!"









At this lull in the battle let me show you the info you get about Filo and Kytes on the top screen. It will tell you if they're melee, ranged, or flying. You get similar information about your foes, so you're always able to plan ahead and use the best character for the job.







"...Or not."

"Vaan--!"

"Here they come!"



This part of the battle is just to reinforce the mechanics the game just taught you.



Characters attack automatically when enemies are close enough. Since the enemies are approaching your characters now, you can literally do nothing and you'll win. I chose to make sure Kytes was attacking, just to speed things up a bit, but it wasn't necessary. After battle, Vaan chimes in.

"This time I think we got 'em all."





Characters gain EXP after every battle. Everyone gets the same amount of EXP for winning, and the amount is fixed for each battle.

Vaan learns the Duel Attack ability at the end of the battle, Kytes learns Firaga, and Filo learns Sonic Wave. Next time: A tutorial on what these abilities are and what they do. We also find out why we're out here at midnight. You'll never guess.




As a little bonus, and to explain the rock-paper-scissors match-up better, I made a chart. Ranged - Flying units interact a bit differently than Melee - Ranged and Melee - Flying, and I think this is to balance out the fact flying units can fly. The difference being able to fly makes will become obvious after a few missions, so don't worry about it this second. I'll explain... in a few missions!

ok Amazing fucked around with this message at 02:48 on Sep 7, 2013

Rigged Death Trap
Feb 13, 2012

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

A Hoverboard?
What.

This is already starting to look spotty.
But I have to admit they translated Rabanastre pretty well to DS.

Onmi
Jul 12, 2013

If someone says it one more time I'm having Florina show up as a corpse. I'm not even kidding, I was pissed off with people doing that shit back in 2010, and I'm not dealing with it now in 2016.

Rigged Death Trap posted:

A Hoverboard?
What.

This is already starting to look spotty.
But I have to admit they translated Rabanastre pretty well to DS.

Yeah. Oh you may actually remember Filo and Kytes. Maybe. Kytes was the utterly unremarkable kid from the early game who utterly disappears into the underground after pretty much the opening cutscene. And Filo is a girl already there who's playing Sky Pirate and makes you play Hide and Seek. Except you never seeked her because you had a billion other things to do.

Well they've got unique portraits and set ups now. And a hover board.

ok Amazing
Apr 7, 2012

Final Fantasy Job Faire
The hoverboard isn't so bad. In a world with airships and other hovercraft, it's not even that unlikely. I guess it stands out because Filo is the only one who uses them in Ivalice, ever. It also becomes really useful, so maybe it's usefulness won me over.

Onmi
Jul 12, 2013

If someone says it one more time I'm having Florina show up as a corpse. I'm not even kidding, I was pissed off with people doing that shit back in 2010, and I'm not dealing with it now in 2016.

ok Amazing posted:

The hoverboard isn't so bad. In a world with airships and other hovercraft, it's not even that unlikely. I guess it stands out because Filo is the only one who uses them in Ivalice, ever. It also becomes really useful, so maybe it's usefulness won me over.

It's not so much the hoverboard since this is Ivalice's Golden Age (well it's dying Golden Age since they kinda screwed up the world in XII with the whole "History back in the hands of man" thing) it's the fact the hoverboard is the weapon.

Kytes can use magic? Okay... little weird because he has no character in the original game but Okay. Filo flies around on a hoverboard? Why? I guess Vaan brought it for her since "Caring for the orphans" is pretty much is M.O. But why does she attack with it? It's not like FFXII was hurting for weapon types.

Gyre
Feb 25, 2007

ok Amazing posted:

All the gameplay elements will appear by the end of Chapter 2, so it won't be long, and it would be better to hold off until then.

I meant like the effect of doing all the sidequests.

ok Amazing
Apr 7, 2012

Final Fantasy Job Faire

Gyre posted:

I meant like the effect of doing all the sidequests.

A few people have already mentioned they don't like it, but getting specific about this would be discussing things that happen in the endgame, so it's better to leave it alone.

Ran Rannerson
Oct 23, 2010
Oh, man, Revenant Wings! I bought this game and played through most of it, and I'm not quite sure why I didn't finish it. I think I might have gotten stuck somewhere because I'm bad at video games. I remember being pretty disappointed in it because I liked the politics :colbert: Though, it's been forever so I might enjoy it now that I'm seeing it again.

Though I actually did not know that it actually started development as a different title, which... really explains a lot, now that I think about it.

ok Amazing
Apr 7, 2012

Final Fantasy Job Faire
There are a couple of tricky battles that could get you pretty frustrated. On my first playthrough of the game, I quit for a while and came back. I'll be explaining my strategy for each battle, so if you can track down your copy, I might be able to help later! Much later.

ok Amazing
Apr 7, 2012

Final Fantasy Job Faire
Update #3: The Coveted Derelict + The Treasure is the Key

Soundtrack: Dungeon 2 Field (Infiltration)









"Now's our chance!"

"Right, we better hurry."

"So what are we gonna do once we're on the ship, Vaan?"





"It's them or us, right? Only we're gonna take it, so we can figure out where it really came from."



"We'll just, uh, take care of it until its real owners come looking for it."

"Last one there's a rotten egg!"



"Who says we have to tell her?"

- Objective: Sneak aboard the derelict airship! All allies must survive. -



Shortly after starting battle, a few enemies will spawn in your path.



"Look out!"

"Do something, Vaan!"



"I've got something that'll send 'em packin'."



- Let's try using Vaan's ability, Dual Attack! First select Vaan, then touch Magicks/Abilities. -



- Touch the ability you'd like to use, then select a target. Once you've used an ability, you won't be able to use it again until a short amount of time has passed. -





- Area attacks can deal damage to entire groups of enemies at once. Try attacking this group of monsters using Kytes's Firaga magick. -





To the southwest of the battle field, are some Giza Rabbits. They're not aggressive, and will actually heal your HP if you need it.



- Point-blank area attacks are area attacks centered on the caster, such as Filo's Sonic Wave. Use point-blank area attacks when a unit is surrounded to deal damage to all nearby enemies. In addition to manually using magicks and abilities, you can set up gambits to have units use them automatically. -



- You turn gambits on in the same way you activate magicks and abilities. With Filo's gambit turned on, she will automatically use the selected magick or ability. Each unit has only one gambit. Tailoring each unit's gambit to the challenge you face is important if you want to succeed. -

For those familiar with FFXII, you'd know Gambits as a very simple customizable AI for your team. Gambits in Revenant Wings resemble that system in name only, instead here serving as a system that reduces micromanagement by having characters automatically use an ability when it's recharge period is over.





You don't have to defeat every enemy to win this battle. Arriving at the goal was the objective, after all. But all the enemies are placed right in your way so you can't miss any of these tutorials.
Bonus: If Filo or Kytes reach the goal instead of Vaan, they each have different things to say:


"I don't wanna go in first! What's taking you guys so long?"

"The coast is clear, Vaan! Hurry up!"



Something that will become obvious in future battles is that the recharge period for Kyte's Firaga is twice that of Vaan and Filo's abilities. (20 seconds as opposed to 10 seconds) More useful abilities are balanced by longer recharge times. Dual Attack and Sonic wave have really short recharge times, as they hit less targets, and only ones close to the user.

This was a short mission, so let's do another!


Soundtrack: Dungeon 1 Field - Dungeon 1 Battle











"All right, but better be careful."

- Objective: Reach the summoning gate! All allies must survive. -





Right now, each character only has 1 ability, so I set their abilities up as their Gambits on the way up to the summoning gate.







Soundtrack: Title Demo (Loop Demo) (Dungeon 1 resumes after the next tutorial)





- You can use summoning gates to call forth powerful monsters known as Espers to fight at your side. Red summoning gates are under enemy control and must be captured before they can be used. Pray before a gate to capture it from your enemy. Once captured, the gate will turn blue. You can capture a gate more quickly by sending more units to capture it. -

- Objective: Capture the summoning gate! -







"I wonder if I can use it to summon something..."





"Uh, sure. nothin' to it."



- Touch a blue summoning gate to bring up the Summon command. When summoning an Esper, you must assign it to one of the groups led by your main characters. There's no need for the character to be near the gate. -

- Objective: Summon three Espers! -



First, you need to choose a leader for your Esper. Any Esper is allowed to be summoned to any character.



Espers will be represented on the lower screen as a little mark next to a character's portrait on the unit tab. Tapping on the unit tab will select a character, and all the Espers that have been summoned to them, allowing you to move the two together. Although any Esper can be summoned to any leader, try to summon Espers that complement the leader you choose in some way.



After you select an Esper to summon, it'll take a bit of time. You can watch the amount of time an Esper has left to appear by tapping on a summoning gate, and then on the queue tab. You can also cancel a summoning here, if you've made a mistake, or if you don't need the summon any more.



"So these monsters must really be Espers."

"Espers, monsters...what's the difference? The less we have to do with 'em, the better."

"Well, these seem tame enough. Maybe they'll obey us."









"We'll use the ones we summoned to fight these."

"Then maybe we oughta summon a few more, just to be sure!"



Kytes and his Firaga Gambit take out the flying foes in one shot.



Summoning a lot of Espers and using their numbers to overwhelm foes is a perfectly valid strategy.



"Your very own Espers, Vaan!"



"Let's take a look around, see if we can find anything."



"Hey, take it easy, will ya!"



And that's that!

Before ending this post, I thought i'd give you guys a bit more background info on Kytes and Filo.



Here's the official artwork of Kytes and Filo. There's a lot of details in their costumes you can't see in their sprites.

Somebody in the thread already mentioned Kytes and Filo play a tiny little role in FFXII. Kytes gets a few lines of voice acting, but there's nothing notable about him. His role is bounce some dialogue off of Vaan in the beginning of the game, but it's a tiny role and ends early. Filo and Kytes appear together as part of a late-game sidequest, but because it's a sidequest, you might not do it. You'll probably see them while doing the rounds of talking to every NPC ever, if you do that sort of thing.




Here's what Kytes and Filo look like in FFXII. Because of the differences in aesthetics, it's more obvious in FFXII than in Revenant Wings that Kytes and Filo are pretty young. Kytes is 10 years old, and Filo is 11. They mostly hang around a litter of crates in Rabanastre's Lowtown, and pretend to be Sky Pirates. Which is where you meet them in this game, actually. You'd be forgiven if you thinking they're new characters though, because they're just not important in FFXII.

Well, that's all I wanted to fill you in on! Next time, who are these other thieves aboard the derelict?

ok Amazing fucked around with this message at 02:38 on Sep 7, 2013

Meinberg
Oct 9, 2011

inspired by but legally distinct from CATS (2019)
I actually rather liked this game as a sort of companion piece to FFXII. While I can see complaints with the gameplay, the game seems very "cute." It's relaxed and subdued, and focuses the attention onto Vaan and Penelo. I played for a bit, but didn't get very far mostly because I had better games to play on my DS. I might have to go revisit it, though. There's something to be said for a RTS on a handheld device, even if its not a particularly deep one.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
So is this like Herzog Zwei? (Or I suppose for a more modern audience, Guilty Gear 2?) You can send espers out to anybody in the field who needs reinforcing and they'll just kind of auto-fight on the way?

ok Amazing
Apr 7, 2012

Final Fantasy Job Faire

Glazius posted:

So is this like Herzog Zwei? (Or I suppose for a more modern audience, Guilty Gear 2?) You can send espers out to anybody in the field who needs reinforcing and they'll just kind of auto-fight on the way?

I'm not familiar with those games. I tried looking up gameplay videos, and I couldn't figure out what was happening in Herzog Zwei. I could figure out was going on in Guilty Gear 2 though, and you know, it does seem comparable.

You can control the Espers individually, and give them their own orders, but it gets finicky with the touchscreen controls. Espers are generally a lot more flimsy than the leaders, and I feel like the game intends them to be used the way you described, send them to those who need reinforcing and let their AI take over.

ok Amazing
Apr 7, 2012

Final Fantasy Job Faire
Update #4: Unwelcome Guests

Soundtrack: Penelo's Theme












]

"They...they forced their way onto the ship."

"You don't think Vaan would do something like that, do you?"

"You know how he is about airships."





Soundtrack: A Villain (Feywood)



"Kinda creepy."



"Hmph!"



"Do you think she'll fly, Vaan?"

Suddenly, a bangaa jumps out from behind the control panel!

Soundtrack: Boss Battle 1 (Slash of the Sword)





"Some snakes trying to pass as headhunters."

"How many times do we have to kill you, anyway?"

"Well, well. Who have we here! Tire of playing at pirates with Balthier, did you? I settle my scores, boy, and yours is long past due!"



"What do we do?"

"We, um..."





"Hey, get back here!"





"After them!"



"What's that? Do my eats hear mutinous mutterings from your mouth?"



"Aye, sure 'n' there's not, my sister."









"Y'see, we're looking ta leave the headhunting business fer good and all. Only, Ba'Gamnan does nae take well ta desertion. So yer going ta replace the lot of us."



"Not a fair trade by half, but it will have to do."



"You should know better than to bite off more than you can chew, you scurvy lizards!"

"You leave her outta this!"



"Cut or be cut, but be on with't."



"Make it one fer the ages!"









"Now let's see how tough they really are!"

- Objective: Defeat Ba'Gamnan, Bwagi, Rinok, and Gijuk! Vaan must survive. -



This is the first battle in the game that doesn't contain a tutorial.



On the top screen, we can see our foes have run to the other side of the airship, as the cutscene before the battle indicated. This gives us a bit of time to plan our attack.









All of our foes are Melee units, except Gijuk, who's a ranged attacker. Filo and Garchimacera (the flying Espers) will be valuble in this battle, so get summoning more of those.



Kytes will be largely useless, but him and Vaan can be sent out to defeat Gijuk.



You'll notice Espers have significantly less HP than party leaders, and die in a few blows. That's why you need to keep new ones in production! But there is a limit to the number of Espers you can have on field. Espers have an Affinity cost, which varies from Esper to Esper, more powerful ones having a higher Affinity cost. In addition, each leader unit in your party has an Affinity stat, and the total Affinity of the leaders on field represents how large you pool of points to summon Espers is.

As you can see, Garchimacera cost 10 Affinity points, and we have a total of 75, which means we can have 7 Garchimacera on the field or in production.




If you didn't set your character's abilities as their Gambits like I did last battle, you should do that now.



There is nowhere to restore HP in this fight, so if Vaan gets hurt a lot, move him out of harm's way.



As long as you keep the Espers coming, Filo shouldn't take enough damage to ever be in danger.



"We should've quit while we were ahead. Let's get while the gettin's good!"



Bwagi, Gijuk, and Rinok run off, leaving Ba'Gamnan behind.







Soundtrack: Battle 2 (State of Urgency)

"The airship's moving!"

"No time to waste!"

"We better get to the bridge!"











"Never forget that he who laughs last, laughs hardest!"







Soundtrack: Main Theme



"On our next adventure, where else?"

"What kind of answer is that?"



The airship shakes faster, before lifting off!













Soundtrack: Airship 1 (Near the Water)



"The legend!"

"The undiscovered sky continent!"



"It's not our fault. The ship started moving all by itself."

"Don't worry. I can fly the airship, no problem."

"Hmph. You're certainly confident."

"At least I finally managed to get our "guest" under control."



"First things first. Our airship needs a name. No self-respecting band of sky pirates has a ship without a name."

"Yeah! It's bad luck!"

"But since when are we a band of sky pirates?"

"This is the adventure you've always wanted, right? That's good enough for me! Now to think of a name..."



I mean, if it's bad luck and all, we'd better postpone things until we have a name. :tinfoil: That means it's thread participation time! Let's name this airship! You can have up to 9 characters in it's name. The default name is the Galbana, in case you were curious, but lets not go with that. Dunno how long i'll leave voting open, at least a day, and then probably longer, until there's a clear winner.

Some of you will have already figured out Ba'Gamnan and his siblings are returning characters from FFXII. Because we're naming the airship right now, i'll be doing a write-up of where they were in a later post.

ok Amazing fucked around with this message at 01:17 on Sep 2, 2013

Ran Rannerson
Oct 23, 2010
I remember having a lot of trouble with this fight for whatever reason and I'm not sure why. Maybe I sent Vaan into the heat of things instead of keeping him out of trouble, I don't know.

I'm also not entirely sure how Ba'gamnan's crew survived what happened in FFXII outside of a possible reference to the Star Wars EU bringing Boba Fett back because he was cool and popular. Oh well, I guess I can't complain too much because my favorite of the "new" characters has arrived :allears:

Anyway I could be boring and go with Highwind but I am going to go with Phoenix for the airship's name, because outside of the Strahl the airships in FFXII were named after recurring summons and I'm pretty sure that's one that wasn't used.

Rigged Death Trap
Feb 13, 2012

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

^^ Imperial ships were named after Summons.
Resistance ships were named after characters from older games. (Galuf-Val, Garland...)

So since this is a lackluster sequel I'd call it the Shuyin







Hahhahahahah no.

Serious vote : Typhon.

Comedy option : Chupon.

BlazeEmblem
Jun 8, 2013

Uh oh. Do I use Ariadne thread or Goho-M?

Our new ship can only be called the Goonbird.

Senerio
Oct 19, 2009

Ooh! Are we messing with Adora?



Gilgamesh. You know you want to.

Seraphic Neoman
Jul 19, 2011


Senerio posted:

Gilgamesh. You know you want to.

I want to, yes. Gilgamesh is good.

Krysmphoenix
Jul 29, 2010
Gilgamesh is the one true answer.

Like Clockwork
Feb 17, 2012

It's only the Final Battle once all the players are ready.

The good ship Gilgamesh has a fine ring to it.

Sylphosaurus
Sep 6, 2007
We need to christen our fine ship with a name that rings true: the Hindenbug!

Onmi
Jul 12, 2013

If someone says it one more time I'm having Florina show up as a corpse. I'm not even kidding, I was pissed off with people doing that shit back in 2010, and I'm not dealing with it now in 2016.
I support the Gilgasmesh

Rigged Death Trap
Feb 13, 2012

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Senerio posted:

Gilgamesh. You know you want to.

You know I thought of suggesting that but He Actually makes an appearance in this one.

ok Amazing
Apr 7, 2012

Final Fantasy Job Faire

Ran Rannerson posted:

I remember having a lot of trouble with this fight for whatever reason and I'm not sure why. Maybe I sent Vaan into the heat of things instead of keeping him out of trouble, I don't know.

I'm also not entirely sure how Ba'gamnan's crew survived what happened in FFXII outside of a possible reference to the Star Wars EU bringing Boba Fett back because he was cool and popular. Oh well, I guess I can't complain too much because my favorite of the "new" characters has arrived :allears:

Moving a unit out of harm's way is kinda going against what all the tutorials have taught you so far, they all have encouraged being asserting in attacking. I had problems with it on my first playthrough as well.

Since you never saw Ba'Gamnan's corpse, how did you know he was dead? :tinfoil:


Rigged Death Trap posted:

You know I thought of suggesting that but He Actually makes an appearance in this one.

That doesn't bother me, it would probably even make Gilgamesh a funnier name. People could name the airship after Vaan or Penalo or after any other character in this game for all I care. I'm pretty easygoing about names.

SloppyDoughnuts
Apr 9, 2010

I set fire to the rain watched it pour as I touched your face
I say we name it in honor of our dear old friend and name it Bahamut.

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Fearless_Decoy
Sep 27, 2001

You shall all soon witness the power of my Tragic 8-Ball!
Joining the Gilgamesh bandwagon.

I'm a bit late on the discussion, but Herzog Zwei was a proto-RTS game for the Genesis/Mega Drive that was probably too ambitious for its time. You start with your main base and create various troops to either capture smaller bases or go attack the enemy. Cash came in automatically depending on how many bases you controlled, so the usual RTS question of 'expand or attack' applied. It's a fun game once you figure the basics out but it's severly limited by the hardware at the time; giving new orders to units was a pain and the SOS klaxon was painful to listen to for more than a few seconds.

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