Final Fantasy Megathread - People here, it sounds like sickness

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Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

So, I just started this up:

Gilgabot posted:

@MrAristocrates has registered for #FFV4JF2012 and got the Wind Job 'Thief' because they are dashing!

Oh, this could be painful.

Edit: Also, what's the rule for skills? Am I allowed to put skills for one of my other three jobs on a character once I've unlocked those crystals? The answer's probably no, but I'd like to be clear.

Edit 2: \/Awesome, thanks.

Arist fucked around with this message at 17:11 on Jun 20, 2012

# ¿ Jun 20, 2012 17:02

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 16:50

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

I'm really hoping I get Bard after reading this thread. It seems like a pretty great job.

Edit: ~~Also, after I get the next crystal, how many characters do I switch to the new job?~~ Never mind, found it.

Arist fucked around with this message at 17:45 on Jun 20, 2012

# ¿ Jun 20, 2012 17:37

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

Gilgabot posted:

@MrAristocrates can now use the Water Job 'Berserker'. Haha.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2012 20:03

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

How in the world am I supposed to beat Liquid Flame with Thief/Berserker?

# ¿ Jun 20, 2012 21:09

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

Just beat Liquid Flame. Had to use a combination of all the advice: I switched two of my Thieves for Berserkers, grinded up to level 23, and stole about 20 Hi-Potions (I only needed 4).

Edit: I got Geomancer for Fire. I've been told that's good. :toot:

Arist fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Jun 20, 2012

# ¿ Jun 20, 2012 22:10

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

Alright, after some trouble with Soul Cannon, Archeoavis was rather simple. Got Samurai for my last job.

# ¿ Jun 21, 2012 04:25

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

Word of advice: If you don't have a dancer, give your Berserker the Dancing Dagger. Mystery Waltz and Jitterbug suck, but Swords Dance hits hard enough to kill most enemies I'm coming across.

# ¿ Jun 21, 2012 15:20

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

I'm getting close to the end, but Azulmagia is giving me some serious trouble.

Edit: \/ As good a plan as any, I suppose.

Arist fucked around with this message at 06:02 on Jun 22, 2012

# ¿ Jun 22, 2012 05:55

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

THE AWESOME GHOST posted:

Am I missing anything because it look like theatrythm is a cheap cash in but a lot of people are actually exited for it.

I played it at PAX, and while I can affirm that the main draw seems to be primarily nostalgia, the gameplay reminded me heavily of Elite Beat Agents (a game I love). I'll probably buy it, because what I played was pretty fun.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2012 14:40

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

Ugh. UGH. Neo Exdeath is just killing me right now. Between Exdeath's White Hole :suicide:

and his occasional spam of Meteor, I'm lucky if I can keep my characters alive into the second phase.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2012 22:42

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

Kyrosiris posted:

Do you have people who can wear the Aegis Shield? It blocks Petrification, which blocks the entirety of White Hole.

I have a Samurai and a Berserker. Unfortunately, I missed the first shield.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2012 23:05

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

Any really good grinding spots? I need better damage on Zeninage and progress is pretty slow.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2012 01:37

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

I finally did it. I had to get Bartz up to level 50 so Zenigage would deal more damage (4500 per turn). I lucked out in a several ways; He only used Grand Cross and Almagest once each. Grand Cross gave me Silence on one character (ha!) and Poison on another, so I got pretty lucky there. He used Flare once, on the character with a Flame Shield. He never once used White Hole. I gave my Geomancer Equip Axes and the Rune Axe, and she ended up dealing more damage than anyone else to Exdeath's first form. I gave my Thief the Chicken Knife (fully charged), and so I had a pretty steady line of damage on Exdeath's forms. I ended the fight with a Zantetsuken from the Magic Lamp. It all came together; a mixture of luck and good preparation. The fight ended up being astonishingly easy, in stark contrast to my other attempts (you see the HP totals? They're all at max. He couldn't keep up with my healing at all)

There is absolutely no way I could have done this without help from the IRC channel, though. Thanks, guys! I had never even beaten this game before!

Arist fucked around with this message at 03:03 on Jun 24, 2012

# ¿ Jun 24, 2012 02:47

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

Happy Blue Cow posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBrHWgg522U

My favorite part of that video is Sazh quietly freaking out in the background.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2012 18:14

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

Fister Roboto posted:

There is a patch for the PSX version that has the WOTL translation plus the spell quotes...

That version doesn't have Balthier in it. :colbert:

# ¿ Jul 1, 2012 06:07

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

Miracon posted:

I want to point out that Shades of Black became a much better skill in IZJS, too. In vanilla FFXII, Shades of Black was weighted to almost always give basic spells. In IZJS, they removed the weighting, so now you're much more likely to get hard hitting spells. It's also available significantly earlier, and to the point where Shades of Black is a legitimate attack option for a good while.

Also, Larsa/Lamont knows Shades of Black, but he won't ever use it unless you change his gambits. If you do, his Magic is significantly higher than his Strength. Shades of Black will do hilarious amounts of damage on your first trip to the Lhusu Mines.

You can change guest characters' gambits in IZJS?

# ¿ Jul 3, 2012 06:02

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

Mr. Fortitude posted:

Yes, as well as directly control them if need be. Same with Espers. You can't change guest characters' equipment though.

I suppose that means Larsa no longer has infinite X-Potions when you meet him at Jahara. Well, that just made Tiamat harder...

# ¿ Jul 3, 2012 06:30

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

Does IZJS have equipment restrictions? XII's bonus content is so loving broken in difficulty (don't get me wrong, XII is my favorite in the series, but come on Subterra :argh:

) I could only get through most of it with Bubble Belts.

# ¿ Jul 4, 2012 02:10

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

Schwartzcough posted:

poo poo, you guys are going to make me import this. This sounds great.

# ¿ Jul 4, 2012 02:18

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

I enjoy 13-2. However, its plot is beyond incomprehensible. If you delve into the chaos, you can decipher the major plot threads, but so much goes unexplained and it's all so overly complicated and confused that I kept wondering if I missed entire cutscenes after zoning out for seconds. Part of the problem is that time-travel isn't well-explained (wait, poo poo in the future can affect the past?), and the word "Paradox" loses all meaning by the end due to its ubiquitousness throughout. The ending itself, though, was actually foreshadowed and made sense from what the game had told me, so I didn't have a problem with it.

The lack of a synopsis doesn't help things, either.

XIII's problem is that it had a decent story told poorly. XIII-2's problem is that it had a nonsense story told really, really confusingly.

Arist fucked around with this message at 00:45 on Jul 12, 2012

# ¿ Jul 12, 2012 00:41

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

Momomo posted:

I thought it was less of a who and more of a why. Your party had no reason to do any of the things they did.

Main problem, right there.

"We can't be pawns of the fal'cie!" Your party then proceeds to play directly into their hands for the entire drat game.

Francois Kofko posted:

If I adored XIII's gameplay, would I enjoy the sequel? I can tolerate a silly/bad story if the gameplay's fun.

The gameplay in XIII-2 is actually better, in my opinion. The new monster system adds several limitations to combat, making good planning of Paradigms more crucial.

Arist fucked around with this message at 02:10 on Jul 12, 2012

# ¿ Jul 12, 2012 02:08

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

VagueRant posted:

FFXII did the whole fal'cie thing so much better. "Occuria give you nukes and that means they own you and control the destiny of mankind" is a bit more of an interesting narrative than "Nonsensical Focus! L'cie! Bitches turning into crystals! Fal'cie! Don't ask why! Look at the shiny! Focus! Anime gasp! L'cie! Cutscene where we stop to say we have to keep moving! Focus!"

XII and XIII both have hard-to-follow plots. In XII's case, it's because it's subtle and doesn't beat you over the head with plot details. In XIII's case, it's because the story is a mess.

# ¿ Jul 12, 2012 18:18

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

ImpAtom posted:

Eh, the Fal'cie thing should have been interesting. Even in FFXII, it was political drama w/hint of God. The idea of a setting where Gods exist and are cruel, capricious and self-centered and are perfectly willing to gently caress over people is one with a lot of potential weight to it. Likewise, the idea of a Focus isn't a bad one at all and could have lead to some really interesting drama.

The primary problem it has, beyond just the general awkward writing, is that they failed to make it come across as horrible enough. If anything, FFXIII should have been structured like FFIV. You can and should have lost characters to underscore "holy poo poo, this is horrible." It should have been a grim story that leads up to eventual catharsis, not a bizarrely inconsistent story that leads up to a dull ending and an even more incoherent sequel.

I mostly agree. I thought the plot elements and general story could have been rather interesting, but it was so poorly executed and put together that it failed.

# ¿ Jul 12, 2012 18:29

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

Himuro posted:

Why does it have to be lighthearted exactly? It's possible to be serious and not be poo poo. But it's also possible to be lighthearted and embarrassing. If it's good, it's good, why does the tone matter?

I'd say XII is pretty interesting in that Ashe has to destroy the order to take back her throne, and the game gives you enough reasons to doubt her reasons for wanting to claim it. Is it pure selfish privilege wrapped in revenge or is it out of purely for the love of her people? FFXII is great at a lot of tiny, yet large questions like that.

I love XII's story for this reason. I've read convincing arguments that Ashe is the villain of that game.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2012 00:55

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

The White Dragon posted:

It doesn't change the fact that I think it's a really ugly game with really crappy music.

Man, what the hell are you talking about? The art direction is phenomenal, and while the music isn't terribly memorable (even I'd rate it on the lower end of the chart for FF music, and I'm a huge fanboy of it), it still has some amazing tracks in it.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2012 20:42

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

Azure_Horizon posted:

Clash on the Big Bridge was epitomized in XIII-2, actually.

Man, you're crazy. XII's is far superior.

Or maybe I'm just upset because Gilgamesh cheats in that game. :argh:

# ¿ Jul 16, 2012 20:55

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

Kyrosiris posted:

_{yes I got Order of Ambrosia the first time I played no I probably will not ever repeat that}

I admire your patience. I've owned this game for 5 1/2 years, and I still have Zodiark, Shadowseer, Yiazmat, and Omega left to beat. I haven't even started the goddamn Elite Marks yet. :suicide:

# ¿ Jul 17, 2012 02:43

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

It's a drat shame that the first several areas are desert, plains, sewers, dungeon, underground passage, mines, airship, then two more deserts. By Raithwall, Giza Rains, and Ozmone Plain, the game really diversifies.

Edit: The game was really hurt by the decision to have even semi-realistic mapping, even if jungle to snowy mountain still makes no sense.

\/Can you elaborate? I can't quite recall that dungeon.

Arist fucked around with this message at 07:01 on Jul 17, 2012

# ¿ Jul 17, 2012 06:57

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

Schwartzcough posted:

What do you mean by "invisible doors"? I think the Pharos lighthouse and subterra had a number of illusionary walls.

The Necrohol of Nabudis had a few as well.

# ¿ Jul 17, 2012 07:06

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

Himuro posted:

I think it's on the way to the Giruvegan. You're in this gray place with a lot of undead, and in order to progress you have to unlock specific doors that are invisible.

Oh, the Feywood. Yeah, that place was pretty great. Annoying enemies, though.

# ¿ Jul 17, 2012 07:18

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

The White Dragon posted:

Huh, they actually have silly entries? I played Devil Survivor and, a long time ago, Revelations and that poo poo was so serious and sanctimonious and self-important that I swore it off.

You've obviously never seen Mara before.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2012 21:42

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

The White Dragon posted:

It's definitely okay. Not the best game in the world, but certainly the best game SE's put out since 2005.

What? XII (I know you disagree), XIII-2, Crisis Core, both Dissidias, and Theatrhythm are all better. :colbert:

And if you extend that beyond Final Fantasy, you get Kingdom Hearts 2, Birth By Sleep, and Dragon Quest 9.

Edit: And yeah, TWEWY.

4 Heroes of Light wasn't developed by SE, anyhow.

Arist fucked around with this message at 22:46 on Jul 29, 2012

# ¿ Jul 29, 2012 22:39

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

How is everyone here playing IZJS? Import?

# ¿ Aug 2, 2012 01:04

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

voltron lion force posted:

Import, rip, apply english patch, emulate or SwapMagic.

Alright, I'll probably end up doing that. Thankfully, I just got PCSX2 running on my computer so the actual emulation won't be a problem.

# ¿ Aug 2, 2012 01:51

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

Pollyanna posted:

My first job was Thief, does that mean I will get two Jobs as of tweeting #wind at Gilgabot or can I only use Thief until the Water crystal?

You have to use Thief until the Water Crystal. Have fun with Garula. :getin:

# ¿ Aug 2, 2012 06:42

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

Same with the article on XII, which is downright schizophrenic.

quote:

I'm tired of going on about this. Sakaguchi and SquareSoft's Final Fantasy is gone, and it's never coming back. Square Enix's Final Fantasy is factory-assembled, market-tested, megabudget tripe; and because of the brand name's near-universal recognition, the massive budgets at Square Enix's disposal, and the ease with which its presentation can knock putty-mided critics and fanboys into fawning trances, it's just going to keep pumping out its mediocre products until the end of civilization as we know it, warping the landscape of pop culture and breeding smug, obsessive devotees convinced that their playing Final Fantasy games is a badge of intellectual and cultural superiorty.

Don't buy any more Final Fantasy games. Please. It will just encourage Square Enix to keep making more of them. It may be far too late for the series to die with dignity, but it neverthless deserves to die.

Two paragraphs later:

quote:

With that said: I probably expect too much from my toys these days, and Final Fantasy XII is still one of the best JRPGs I've played in the last decade. If the genre is slowly sinking into a swamp, Final Fantasy might still at the top of the heap.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2012 22:33

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

ImpAtom posted:

It is and isn't. The combat system has improvements but the pacing is completely hosed, making it incredibly easy to outlevel the story. This leads to the improvements being hard to notice because you'll steamroll through a bunch of stuff. It's pretty disappointing, and this is from someone who really liked FFXIII's battle system.

Additionally, the postgame content (and, arguably, even the final level/boss) is just as hosed in difficulty as all those hunts in XIII were. Gonna fight Gilgamesh? Hope you can deal a lot more than 1 million damage every time you stagger him, because that's how much he heals every time he comes out of it! :argh:

# ¿ Aug 24, 2012 00:11

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

Mazed posted:

One thing that was cool about IX is that each area had its own distinctive theme. No generic dungeon/cave/village/whatever music. XII did that as well, but didn't have quite as much variation in styles and instruments.

XII had great music, but most of the really memorable stuff was the leitmotifs. Not much other than that really stood out (except Battle on the Big Bridge, which is the best version from any game in the series :colbert:

# ¿ Sep 10, 2012 16:14

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

NikkolasKing posted:

FFXII's music is often overlooked, even by its fans. I can name several pieces I love from the game and I think the music is a huge part of the Immersion Factor. FFXII is the most addictive FF I've ever played and I can spend hours just exploring and listening to the area music.

Yeah, I pretty much agree with this. I love the soundtrack, I was just pointing out that much of it isn't instantly memorable.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2012 17:11

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 16:50

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

NikkolasKing posted:

I think the Pharos is the real final dungeon, kinda like how you have "real final bosses" that aren't the final boss of the game.

Of course a lot of people hate the Pharos too. Personally, I loved it.

The Pharos is really awesome the first time you go up. There's this wonderful sense of scale throughout the whole thing.

Of course, I hate the Pharos because loving Subterra AAAAAAAAGH.

# ¿ Sep 11, 2012 17:27

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