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Introduction Many fought for the mighty power. Some won and some failed. Now... another legend in bravery is about to begin...   Let's play Final Fantasy Legend 2!  (Alternate Title: "Final Fantasy Legend 2: Dad Harder") What? Final Fantasy Legend 2 is the Americanized version of the SaGa series: specifically, SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu. Don't ask me what that subtitle means. I don't know and I don't care. Forged lovingly by SquareSoft in the deepest pits of Hell with shards of the damned, the sequel to Romancing SaGa/Final Fantasy Legend is not without its charms. You may even acclimate to them after the first world or two. Never forget, though, that this is a SaGa game. It may seem as easy as swinging the sharp thingie at your opponent's face until he falls over, but there are a lot of variables that go into fights. The game will expect you to master them. The game will not give you the slightest help doing so. And by the time the mid-game bosses start showing up, hoo boy, you better have a firm grasp on things. Where? The world of FFL2 is—stop me if you've heard this one before—a multi-plane reality with a single vine-line tower connecting all of them. The worlds are not thematically consistent and, according to Why? Because it's fun, you goofball! Seriously, as much as I loved the original Final Fantasy Legend, it is a very flawed game that feels like it was produced in someone's basement as a homebrew. Levelling is uneven, there are huge dead spaces in every world, and the difficulty curve is ridiculously uneven, especially at end game. However! Let it not be said Square doesn't learn from their mistakes. The sequel is tightly woven, well translated, and an overall superior experience than the original. And, happily, exactly none of the schizophrenic batshit insanity of character development has been lost. If anything, it's been ramped up a notch. You want a laser ninja? You got it. Martial artist with grenades? Go hog wild. Bigger monsters! Crazier weapons! Motherfucking robots! SaGa can lead to some magical moments if you know what you're doing. I guarantee you, I will type at least two sentences over the course of this LP that will generate  and  responses at the exact same time.If that weren't enough, FFL2 is better simply because the goofy dialogue is intentional. FFL was a brooding, quasi-emo meditation on the nature of free will that was made utterly laughable by really awful localization. FFL2 is Romancing SaGa's dorky little brother who tells the corniest loving jokes and is a thousand times more likeable for it. How? Now we're getting into the meat of things. There have been some small but significant changes to the engine since Final Fantasy Legend. Those of you unfamiliar to SaGa shouldn't worry too much; we'll revisit the mechanics as we go along. The only thing you need to know beforehand is that weapons and spells can run out and you have to buy new ones to replenish them. Also, if you don't have at least one attack option available, your guy is reduced to sitting there like a brainless meatshield during combat. Alright, let's get to it!  Humans  I presume you're one of these. Humans are hardy and always a good front line choice. They will slowly gain stats as they fight, getting stronger, more agile, and more durable depending on the weapons they use and the strength of the competition. You can also accelerate the process by pumping them full of HgH. Seriously. 'Roids are a thing in SaGa, and they're a pretty big deal. You need dem stats, so buy dem stat potions. In a neat twist, FFL2 eschews the typical RPG strength/agility divide between males and females. This time around, they start them with the exact same stats. Social progress!   Mutants  If you post on Something Awful, you may be one of these. Mutants are a bit like the FFL version of elves—less durable and predisposed to spellcasting. Their real advantage, however, lies in their ability to pick up random powers. These will show up and/or disappear after fights pretty much whenever they feel like it. There's nothing you can do to weight or influence them. Sorry! On the bright side, a roaming Cure ability is always nice, and there's always a chance you'll spike something ridiculous like Whirl or O-Damage. Mutants also grow in stats over the course of the game. With a little coaxing, they can match or even surpass humans, making the difference in effectiveness more or less negligible. One disadvantage of mutant abilities, however, is that they take up slots in your active inventory. A fully powered mutant will use four slots, leaving you with four free slots and some dicey choices to make about armor and weapons. Consider yourself forewarned.  Monsters  If you post on Reddit, you are probably one of these. Monsters are a mixed bag in FFL2. They don't level up, and they can't equip items. Furthermore, they have a fixed set of abilities that don't change. (This is nice if you have a really good/useful layout, but it kind of sucks if the monster sucks.) So, how do they get better? After some fights, you will be informed that the enemy dropped meat. Meat has no effect on other character types, but for monsters, it will (usually) transform them into a new monster. There's a whole paper-rock-scissors chart with different types and multiple tiers and it all just makes my head hurt thinking about it. In general, though, stronger enemies mean stronger meat means stronger monsters. It's also pretty hilarious when that rule breaks down, though perhaps not for the person playing the game.  MOTHERFUCKING ROBOTS  Robots are both the weirdest and awesome-est of SaGa races. Firstly, Robots do not level up. Period. Their stats do not grow over time, they do not generate abilities, they cannot imbibe potions, they cannot eat meat. That's right, I used the word imbibe.  What they can do, however, is equip items—and that's where the fun starts. When a robot equips an item, its usages (if any) are immediately cut in half. After that, two things will happen:
Of course, unequipping the item will cut its usages in half once more, so don't do that. Also, equipping a single use item will remove it from your inventory entirely, so don't do that either. As long as neither of these apply, feel free to pimp out your robot as much as you want.  Spoiler Policy No spoilers: not equipment, not events, not wink-wink-nudge-nudge "oh man I can't wait for X" stuff. This rule isn't quite as crucial as it was for FFL, but it'll still spoil some nice surprises. Part of what makes FFL2 awesome is the "holy poo poo where did we end up this time?" factor, so don't ruin that! And now... Time for the good stuff! This is where you, the discriminating LP viewer, help build the party! Your choices will determine whether their ascent is a heartwarming tale of misfits coming together as a surrogate family or a nightmare of self-obsessed treasure hungry sociopaths. I'd put money on the latter, but I've been wrong before.  Here's what I need from you guys:
You can suggest as many characters as you want. I make no promises, though, and may take liberties with ideas. If all your suggestions suck, then I'll substitute my own.  Lead character will be selected from the final candidates based entirely on my own capricious whims. Playthrough gimmicks will be accepted if I think they're doable and they'll make for good characterization.(We're not doing an all-monster party. Ever. Don't even ask.) One last thing, and it's my standard disclaimer: I am not a Final Fantasy Legend 2 expert, nor will I be grinding the game into oblivion to prove my LP street cred. I'm just a nerd with a screenshot tool and a love of near-ancient RPGs. I encourage discussions (of things we've already seen!) and will edit corrections into the LP as we go along. I'm not planning on engaging any exploits, though, other than to show they exist. This will be a clean run with some extra plot on top, so just kick back, relax, and enjoy the ride. Let's see those character ideas! Voting closes whenever the hell I feel like it.
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Oct 10, 2014 04:12
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Updates and Fanart! Final party selected. Lots of appealing ideas, so I had to squish a bunch together to get them in. We'll be going with Roy (Chokes McGee, Alectai), Sara (Camel Pimp, Remliel), Zero (Snugglecakes), and Heather (Rabbi Raccoon). Fan art! If you see one saw this season, see MShadowy's saw.  SystemLogoff has height, width, depth, and a couple of other things!  Flash Fact: Bear Sleuth is made almost entirely of pudding.   Camel Pimp knows that red is the new black this season.  KataraniSword provides us with some concept art! I assume this is how Zero sees Sara and himself in his head.  US manual art. More reasonable to a degree, but still too old to be our guys. v v Chokes McGee knows that it's all relative.  MShadowy's computer still runs Microsoft Bob and no one knows why  DjinnAndTonic rides the wind! And doesn't tip afterwards. (Jerk.)  Zore makes a brave attempt at modernization.     Meanwhile, in Bizzaro SaGa...     Aristide is all business. ALL SERIOUS BUSINESS.  Captain Bravo knows a thing or two about musa acuminata, if you know what I'm sayin'.   Antie Em! Antie Em! It's a SystemLogoff GIF!  Also available is the HD remix! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm7VCPh2OUY In the grim dark future, there is only Ciaphas. And ice cream. Mostly Ciaphas, though.  TurnipFritter drew this picture, because Roy's party is saving the world, because I played this game, because you read this LP. Nice work!  EAT, SLEEP, CAMEL PIMP, REPEAT  Kheldarn is your worst nightmare. Other than the waffles. You know which ones.  Camel Pimp is a heartwarming tale of three men just trying to make ends meet as professional breakdancers.  Chokes McGee knows how it all ends. IN FLAMES 
Chokes McGee fucked around with this message at 07:18 on Oct 6, 2015 |
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Oct 10, 2014 04:12
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Oh my gosh, a Chokes McGee LP!  Name: Magnum Wrath Gender: Male Race: Robot Personality: Named by an entirely too enthusiastic engineer who was looking for the lead unit in an endless army of robot terminators, Magnum is an genial war machine who would really rather be involved in gardening, landscaping, and architecture, as those don't involve you being shot at, slashed, or stabbed in various important components. Something of a coward at heart, but does take pride in his hobbies.
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Oct 10, 2014 04:17
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Man, I played the hell out of this game But the end game, ohmygod. It was unfair to Young-Geop. I always named my rowbutt "ROB". It just fit so nicely!  Not throwing it in the ring, since I can't think of a fun personality quirk.
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Oct 10, 2014 04:20
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Chokes, you wonderful man/woman/something-else-entirely. I'm so glad to see this. 
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Oct 10, 2014 04:22
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Name: Timus Gender: Male Race: Human Personality: Dad's a jerk. Timus decides to stick up to him for once and give him what for. Of course, he has to FIND him first... It's a SaGa joke. Tide & Time ho! Bellmaker fucked around with this message at 04:34 on Oct 10, 2014 |
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Oct 10, 2014 04:31
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Name: Nyarlo Gender: Manifold Race: Monster Personality: That which devours, seeking to climb ever higher on the food chain and incorporate all things into his/her/its non-euclidean substance
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Oct 10, 2014 04:38
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Name: Chainsaw (She prefers Sara) Gender: Female Race: Human Little Chainsaw is the child of some... odd people. Cultists, really. Sara's pretty eager to distance herself from her roots, and she really wants nothing more than to be a normal girl. She's kind of sensitive about her idiosyncrasies.
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Oct 10, 2014 04:40
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Name: Zero Gender: Male Race: Mutant Personality: Has plenty of confidence, but is inexperienced due to being sheltered from the outside world, as such can present as naive and childish at times. Zero is fascinated by magic all of kinds, especially his own innate magical abilities. He is motivated to explore the world, meet new people, find his purpose, and maybe find another mutant to settle down with someday. Snugglecakes fucked around with this message at 04:54 on Oct 10, 2014 |
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Oct 10, 2014 04:52
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Name: Robo Buddha (RoBu, or Boo for short if you're friends) Gender: Unneeded Race: Robot Personality: Though self-aware, RoBu is a wise sagebot that seeks further enlightenment and perfection of self. This perfection will involve assimilating every manner of possible item and equipment and discarding the unneeded bits until it becomes transcendent and achieves a perfect union of mind and body. RoBu is willing and eager to guide, teach, and destroy. Also yesssss another Chokes FFL LP 
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Oct 10, 2014 05:15
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Name: XM-5280 "Xim" Gender: Robot? Outlet, rather than plug. Race: Robot. Personality: Xim was built by a collection of misfit robots to do what their programming forbids them from doing - disobeying, deceiving, or if need be destroying humans. Xim has hoisted upon her the hopes and dreams of her "enslaved" people, and yet the lack of a First Law in her prorogramming has lead to a selfish, impulsive personality, who revels in her ability to lie and indeed has made it her greatest weapon, playing the loyal servant to those she judges contrary to the goals of robotkind while subtlely engineering their downfall. It is not clear whether her eventual "queendom" will include humans at all, but perhaps she can be persuaded to show some mercy.
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Oct 10, 2014 05:18
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Name: Thomas Manuel Gender: Human After All Race: Actually A Robot Though Personality: Some robots were built to kill. Some were built to help people. Thomas Manuel was built to ROCK. Thomas Manuel is a robot bard, for all the good and the spoony that comes with. T-M is more concerned with rocking out the sweet-rear end beats than saving the world, but if the world isn't saved, no one will be able to listen to music so I GUESS.
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Oct 10, 2014 05:21
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Name: Heather Gender: Female Race: Human Personality: Heather is a stereotypical valley girl. Very spoiled. Loves shopping, gossiping, pretty sparkly and shiny things, and carnage. Very violent, very bloodthristy. She will straight up put a sword in your head and then go for a manicure. Rabbi Raccoon fucked around with this message at 05:52 on Oct 10, 2014 |
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Oct 10, 2014 05:22
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This is my favorite of the FFL games. I have the final boss theme in rotation of my songs, just because I like it so much. I look forward to seeing what you do with it. As for characters: Name:Adam Gender: Male Race: Mutant Personality: Adam looks down on all of the lesser races. Stupid humans, filthy monsters, soulless robots, all of them are beneath the true glory of the mutant. Of course he cannot hold his disdain in for the actions of those lesser races. However, should a mutant do the same thing one of them did he would likely praise them, claiming that they thought sharply to emulate the actions of a lesser being to "show them how it is done". His hubris, of course, would be a major downfall in the long run.
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Oct 10, 2014 05:29
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Colander Crotch posted:Race: Mutant Read as: Elf. Odd, there doesn't seem to have been the huge robot bias I was expecting from the character suggestions just yet. I'm sure goons will correct this oversight shortly. 
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Oct 10, 2014 05:51
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Name: Yuki Race: Human Gender: F Yuki's family hails from a far-away land of noble samurai and cunning ninja - or so she's been told, growing up. A quick look at any map of the world will reveal that no such land exists; her fellow classmates have repeatedly accused her of "just telling tales," and as she nears adulthood, Yuki has almost come to believe the same of her parents. Her underlying resentment over this, however much she tries to hide it, has made her eager to leave home and strike out on her own. She harbors an abnormal love of bananas, which greatly worries both of her parents for reasons none of the other villagers can fathom.
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Oct 10, 2014 06:16
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I got this game by mistake as a kid (I thought it was FFL 3, which hadn't been released yet) and I ended up playing the hell out of it. I'm really glad to see you start an LP of this! I don't have a suggestion for a specific character, but I'd like to request that you take at least one robot. I always liked making the main character be a robot, because robots are awesome and I thought it was kind of funny.
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Oct 10, 2014 07:12
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Hey Chokes, awesome to see you back. Eager to see how this one is gonna go. Let's give this a shot. My goal's here is to give you some ideas to rummage about! Sorry if it came out a bit long! Name: Kurtis (or Raoul, you decide!) Race: Mutant Gender: Male Personality: Magic must flow. It is life. It's no wonders that his kind spontaneously develops magical talents, then lose them by the whims of some strange sort of fate at seemingly random. Magic simply must flow. This is a phenomenon that Curtis spent most of his young life pondering on, moving along with the ebbs and currents that goes through him, interpreting them as signs. Clearly, if magic works like this, then the world itself must as well, like an untouchable river of events, fate and destiny carrying everyone toward some goal or another. Perhaps nothing at all. As such, he is rather calm, laid back fellow, eager to follow strange new events and flexible in surprising changes, perhaps even a little obtuse in expressing concepts that goes through his mind despite his best attempts. Now, if only he could figure out the reason why the world works like so -- and what are the stones that falls in the river that changes the currents of the world. Or the assholes that seeks to block the flow for themselves. Quirks: Likes spicy food and sugary drinks. In that order. Name: Rusty Songbird (Or Tin Nightingale, That Rusty Singing Rustbucket or, he likes that one, the Brass Minstrel) Race: Robot Gender: Robot Personality: New models of robots comes out every years. Don't ask him from where, Songbird just knows that it happens. It happened to him, he's pretty sure. From little he remembers, he was meant to be a reconnaissance unit. Or was it a messenger unit? He barely remembers himself, his memory unit rusted -- among other things -- from lack of maintenance from wandering. When he settled in a town, he earned himself some keep by playing music with his voice modulation unit at the bars, discovering himself the soul of a poet! He is very well articulated for a robot, diplomatic, even if his voice is atrociously monotone when he is not imitating the latest songs from the currently popular bards. This earn him some ire from said bards, as his imitations comes out rather... digitally with beeps and boops, as entertaining as they are. That's fine. A little adventure didn't hurt nobody! Not him, anyway. Quirks: Wears a hat that fits his strangely-shaped head. (Oh crap I just noticed your entry, Waffleman, hahaha.) Cosmic Afro fucked around with this message at 08:41 on Oct 10, 2014 |
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Oct 10, 2014 08:32
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Name: Imagine a capital sigma is here. Sum for short. Well okay not short but look math puns are hard okay. Gender: Female. At heart. Possibly literally. Race: Robot Personality: While most robots are servants who possess sapience as a sort of side effect of the advanced AI required to operate a humanoid frame while also doing the complex and dangerous tasks humans would require a humanoid robot for, little Sum is just a cute little girl who likes to dance and pick flowers and has trouble distinguishing play from brutal violence against persons. Some unknown, presumably deranged scientist very clearly modeled her after a lost daughter, to the point nobody is willing to examine her chassis for fear actual bits of said daughter are in there. But as long as you keep her entertained and treat her nice she'll be the most loyalest bestest buddy ever promise.
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Oct 10, 2014 08:56
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Holy sweet mother of cake, Chokes is back with more delicious FFL series goodness. This series was one of my favorites throughout my childhood (and in fact I was considering doing an LP of the DS remake of this very game, but  has so far proven an insurmountable obstacle). Here, have an entry. Name: Riva Gender: Female Race: Mutant Personality: Riva can be summed up as 'energetically happy'. Optimistic to a fault, she always looks on the sunny side of things, using her boundless energy to help others as much as she can. The fact that she has amazing Mutant powers just makes it that much easier. She views her abilities as a blessing and a means to an end. However, sometimes the best intentions get one into bad situations, and Riva has a bad habit of trying to help or sticking her nose into things that she shouldn't. She's that morning person who makes people coffee and breakfast. She brings people baked goods. She tries to use Flame to do fireworks. The people of her home have sworn to never speak about that time again. Quirks: Loves to think of ridiculous nicknames for people, places, and things. Especially pets.
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Oct 10, 2014 08:59
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Oh, boy! I missed out on the FFL LP, and I'm not good at making ideas happen, but I'm glad to watch this on the ground floor; it was always my favorite of the Gameboy SaGa games. As far as I know all of the glitches have been fixed from the first game, but there's a few other bugs (mostly crazy speedrun-tier shenanigans) in their place. Are you going to go over any of those in side-updates?
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Oct 10, 2014 10:15
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Like KataraniSword, I'm eager to watch this as well. Your FFL1 LP was pretty fantastic to read.
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Oct 10, 2014 10:21
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Name: Rex Manstrong: Defender of Space! Gender: Manly Man. Race: All (Hu)man, man! Personality: He's fought in the space war, the world war (2) and now he's back for more! He's got spandex pants and a soundtrack by Queen. He's Rex Manstrong and he has no idea what he is doing! He's no coward, but he sure does like to lead from the back and whenever things go south, people next to, in front of and behind him die! Some say this is because he's a no-good fiend who sells out his companions for another day of sweet, sweet life. The truth of the matter is that he is terminally unlucky, thinks of himself as the best commander in all the worlds and doesn't aim so well. Also, he believes that every robot on the team is his Robot Buddy Sidekick (tm), no matter how obviously hostile or generally unpleasant they are, all monsters are aliens and the mutants are... well, just mutants. Name: Rezak One-Eye Gender: Male. Race: Monster. Personality: Rezak has one goal in life: Conquer all the worlds. Some might say this makes him evil. But, to him, it's a simple matter of: it's impossible to live in a fantasy world without doom happening every five minutes and damned random encounters everywhere you walk. He wants to bring the world together under the perfect order, with liberty and freedom for everyone not dumb enough to go against his rule. He's violent and thuggish, but he holds the greatest respect for the law, which, understandably puts his goal at odds with what he believes in. Well, you'd think that, right? But he knows that the law is decided by the strong. He also knows that the rule of law is vital to a functioning society where slimes and dragons do not ambush people when they go to the toilet in their own house. So he'll just be the strongest and make all the laws and make sure that nobody can ever be as strong as he is so that everything just works, okay? After all, how hard can that be? NewMars fucked around with this message at 10:54 on Oct 10, 2014 |
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Oct 10, 2014 10:29
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Name: Al Forno Race: Monster, probably starting life as a Baby Dragon? Personality: Al is a descendant of a legendary gourmand and has inherited his family's love of all things food. But while there's a lot of pressure from his family to take up the business of eating all the things the world has to offer, Al finds himself more interested in the actual cooking and preparing of meals. Specifically, the baking, the frying, the searing, burning, toasting, microwaving, basically anything that involves heat or fire. To this end, he finds himself a much more picky eater than his large family would approve of, since he only wants to eat meals that allow him to become a form that increases his ability to cook things. He wants to become monsters that can breathe, conjure, set, or otherwise nuke things with fire. Exclusively. He's kind of a rebel like that.
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Oct 10, 2014 11:53
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Yapping Eevee posted:Chokes, you wonderful man/woman/something-else-entirely. I'm so glad to see this. I'm a wandering algorithm that started life as a Markov chain and achieved sentience. My wife is actually a quicksort routine. You should see her buffer Also, thanks for the well wishes, everyone. Keep in mind the plot is way better established in this one, so don't expect the sprawling epic from last time. But! There are some twists in store, so stay tuned! KataraniSword posted:Oh, boy! I missed out on the FFL LP, and I'm not good at making ideas happen, but I'm glad to watch this on the ground floor; it was always my favorite of the Gameboy SaGa games. I'm planning on showing off some goofy stuff, yeah. If I do them, they'll be sub-updates along the way.
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Oct 10, 2014 13:38
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What's this? IFTTT tells me there's a new LP on SA? Let's see what we've got... Another FFL by Chokes McGee? YES! Name: V1-CK (Called Vick by others. Not his name, but what can you expect from Humans?) Gender: Male Race: Human Personality: V1-CK thinks he's a robot. The last robot. Everyone else in the world is Human. Mutants, Robots, and Monsters? Those are just Humans pretending they're not. V1-CK knows better. Because he thinks he's a robot, V1-CK is always getting the heaviest, bulkiest, Roboty-est weapons and armor he can find. Robot Big. Robot Powerful. Addicted to Fantasy. Loves all the books, movies, and games of the genre,
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Oct 10, 2014 15:00
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Hot dang, you guys! I think I already have the final party in mind, but keep suggestions coming! I'm still open to tweaks, and ones that don't make the full roster may show up in the LP anyway. Or maybe not! Honestly I'm winging it at this point.
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Oct 10, 2014 16:06
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Well, just in case you do feel like making a tweak... Name: Pratibha Race: Mutant Gender: Female Personality: A very serious minded young woman, Pratibha is somebody who is a firm believer in the principles of science. Which makes all the magic flying about, and her own aptitude for it, immensely frustrating. But after many years of people telling her to just accept the wonder around her she has come up with a different plan. Everything must run according to some kind of law, and she means to discover the science of magic. She doesn't care how long it takes, she WILL make all of this mumbo-jumbo make some kind of sense and prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that magic runs by the same logical, rational rules as everything else.
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Oct 10, 2014 20:00
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Name: Edith Tenfoot (Alias of: Erwin Tallbody) Race: Monster Personality: Erwin is pretty much adventuring royalty. Offspring to the greatest monster duo of wanderers, dungeon delvers, pot breakers and meat eaters the world has ever seen. Headstrong and confident Erwin rode on their reputation of being BoC (Blood of Champions) but actually has not much skill to call their own, which later became the cause for some insecurity. After an absolutely shameful bar fight with some mercenaries who didn't hold much respect for the Tallbody name Erwin started some soul-searching. Traveling under an alias and realizing the shadow of legends that hangs over, Edith now seeks to make a name, strike a mark in history, burn an image in everyone's' minds and surpass the hurdle that is their parents. Though it's a bit hard to hide when a family trait is being really tall, but mostly it's from the amount of boasting and showboating one did before.
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Oct 10, 2014 20:20
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Chokes McGee posted:I'm a wandering algorithm that started life as a Markov chain and achieved sentience. My wife is actually a quicksort routine. You should see her buffer I don't have any character ideas, but your FFL LP was probably my favorite LP in recent memory, so I'll definitely be following this one. 
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Oct 10, 2014 20:20
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Name: Levi (short for Leviathan) Race: Baby Dragon Personality: Levi is a baby eldritch abomination, tasked by his progenitor to come to this multi-tiered world and devour as much as he possibly can so as to gain more power until he too is one day able to devour the stars themselves. But Levi thinks that bullshit, and its largely using this as an excuse to pal around with humans before his magnificence grows to the point of driving any would-be friends insane. Friendly, charming, but prone to some very odd social misunderstandings (although it could be inferred he does that on purpose), he's looking for the greatest amount of fun to be had. And what would be more fun for an eldritch spawn than taking down a Demiurge or two?
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Oct 10, 2014 21:25
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This was my first final fantasy game, it's gonna be weird as gently caress seeing it again after all this time in the proper context.
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Oct 10, 2014 21:47
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TheOneAndOnlyT posted:There's an atrociously awful pickup line in here somewhere, but I'm not talented enough to create it. You're looking for "buffer overflow" and this whole joke was a horrible mistake so let's never talk about it again.
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Oct 10, 2014 23:17
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Chokes McGee posted:Hot dang, you guys! I think I already have the final party in mind, but keep suggestions coming! I'm still open to tweaks, and ones that don't make the full roster may show up in the LP anyway. Who do you have in mind at the moment? Or is that a secret, for now?
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Oct 10, 2014 23:46
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Chapter 1: Beep Boop I am Your Protagonist Let's get this party started! See, it's a joke because of the dual meaning.   Ten years ago...    ugh glrrf Wake up, son! Dad it's like 4 in the morning. What's going on? GAH WHAT oh, sorry. *yawn* Listen! Whatever you do, whatever happens, don't lose this. Aw. Does this mean you're leaving again? I love you, Son. Don't ever forget that. Present day...  Mornin', mom! Hello, sweetie! How'd you sleep? Pretty good. Um. Look... Mm? Well... ... I'm sorry. Am I in trouble? *sniff* Mom! Don't cry! You're not in trouble, sweetie. You're all grown up now. I knew this day would come. Er... I'm the same height I always was. It may seem that way, but you're almost an adult now. Seriously, I haven't changed size in like ten years. It's kind of weird. Don't you think it's weird? Don't talk back to mommy, sweetheart. Now go get ready for school. 'kay!  ...and that's the story of the Worst Christmas Party in History. wooooooooooooow There's the bell. Class dismissed! Don't forget to study Chapters 12 and 13 in Monster Biology! They'll be a quiz tomorrow. *groan* Mr. Butte. A word? (Oh crap.) Hi, Mr. S! Did I do something wrong? I hear you're thinking of leaving town. Going to look for your father, eh? Yeah. Pretty stupid, huh? Indeed. You can't go out there all by yourself. It's suicide. I'm sorry. Not to worry, we all make mistakes. Now, run along and fetch your party. Huh? Your classmates. You got an A in Party Dynamics last year, Mr. Butte. I'm sure you know how many of them to pick. You're serious? Of course I am. Remember your lessons on balance and resource maintenance, and I'm sure you'll be fine. Okay, let's ignore how weird it is you're not trying to stop me. Why would the other kids help? They don't even like me. They don't? Whyever not? ...quote:
I look different from them. Mr. Butte! I'm surprised at you. How many times have I told you the color of one's skin doesn't matter? I am literally made of metal. Pish posh. Now, run along and find some party members! There's a good lad. This can only end in tears.And so, Roy checks around town for allies.  Hi! Wanna help me find my dad? SORRY GOTTA WASH MY FISH LOOK AT THE TIME WELL BYE Hell no. Aw. Roy! Hey, Zero! Want to come over to my house later? I bought a couple decks of "Collecting: The Gaming." We can run superblind double sealed tournaments! Oh man oh man oh man. That tournament format sounds awesome. How does it work? I dunno! I just made it up! Hey, Zero. Can I ask you something? Sure! Well... I was thinking of going out to find my dad, and... Omigosh, Roy. It's really dangerous out there. I know! That's why I need some friends to go with me. I dunnoooooo, I don't think mom would like it very much... Can we ask her? I guess. I hope she doesn't get mad, though. You know all those statues in our garden? Yeah? They're not statues.  Absolutely not. aw c'mon mooooooooom I mean it! It's dangerous out there. I'm sixteen! I'm old enough to leave the city! The outside world could kill you! You could get a paper cut and die from gangrene! You could stub your toe! Mrs. Sigma? I don't want to be rude or anything, but your entire garden is full of people you've personally petrified. You're lucky you're reflective, young man. Probably. But, you raise a good point. No matter how much I shelter poor Zero, someone may still bring an Aegis into the house and use my reflection against him. I can't keep him safe anymore. Really? Yes. Which is why your friend here is going to do it for me, or I'm going to add his mother to my garden. You are seriously the most terrifying person I've ever met.Meanwhile...   Sara! Time for prayers! Can't I skip it? Just this once? Sure! Wow! Really? That is, if you don't mind being eaten by the Hat. N...not the Hat! Yes, the Hat! It swoops down out of the sky at night and gobbles up naughty children like you! Noooooooooo If only you'd pray to Our Lady of the Sacred Saw, she'd keep the Hat away! It's too bad a certain little girl won't do it. I'm sorry mom! I'll be good! Glad to hear it. And don't forget to drink your gasoline before bed. It builds strong bones!   We're asking Heather? Look, everyone else turned us down. We need four people, and we don't have a lot of options left. It's not like I mind, dude. I just don't think she'll do it. Well, let's ask her mom first. That might help. I hear she's a total fox. Hi, Mrs. DiMarco! Why, hello, Roy! What brings you and your friends here? Well, I was thinking... y'know, if Heather's around, and she doesn't mind... Like, what are you doing here? Oh my goodness, this is precious! Heather, this young man has come to ask for a date! ...I have? *cough* I mean, I have! Ew? And where were you thinking of taking her? I dunno. North Cave? ! Omigod, I'd love to! Let's go! Really? Well, okay then! Psst. Sweetheart. What? A little behind the ears goes a long way. ... Hi, Heather! I didn't think you'd want to— Save it. Just get me out of here. What? Uh, hello? This little town's too small for someone like me. I need to see the world if I'm going to be a star! Well, at least it's a yes. We just need one more now. Look! Isn't that the freaky home-schooled weirdo? Hey, Sara's nice! She's just a little ... sheltered. And anyway, she's only the only person in town we haven't pestered, so... Hi! We're leaving town to find my dad. I was wondering if— Sara Chainsaw Blackendecker! You get back here and finish the rest of this petrol! Oh my Saw please take me with you Well, at least that explains why you always smell like gasoline. Alright, looks like we're ready. I'm scared!  Everything will be okay. Our Lady will watch over and protect us. Aw. That's kind of sweet! She will eviscerate any who dare harm us and wear their entrails as a warning. Amen. That's less sweet. Let's get going before I change my mind about this. If you're already having second thoughts, then... Mr. S! Hello, children. I couldn't possibly leave you to such a task with a clear conscience. Are you going to help us? For a little while—just to make sure you can handle yourselves. Alright, then... Let's go!Welcome to Final Fantasy Legend 2! Now that we've got backstory out of the way, let's go over the basic mechanics.  Layout's changed a bit from FFL, but the basics are all there. Most are obvious, save for MAGI (which we'll get to later) and Memo. Memo is actually kind of neat, as it allows you to review what your characters have learned about the backstory.  Granted, it's not always useful, but it's still a nice touch. You'll also notice there's a slot reserved for guest characters! This is new to FFL2. At times, an extra character will choose to ride along with your party. They'll usually be more powerful than your guys and will serve as their protector. You have full control over their actions, both in and out of combat. And, if you hit B on the main map, you can ask them for advice!  It's not always useful, either, but sometimes a reminder is helpful. Feel free to check back with them on occassion. The advice does change depending on certain triggers, and they're not always obvious. Trivia for FFL players: Mr. S' sprite is actually the Slime sprite from the original SaGa. As far as I can remember, it's the only time this particular sprite appears. It's kind of a nifty callback.  Alright, deep breath. Here we go!  Aaah! It's huge! Heather, do something! Gag me. I am not touching that thing. Oh no! I dropped my weapon! Help! Is this punishment? Did I do something wrong again?! Children, please. You must keep calm and work together if you're to survive.  ...ah. I neglected to mention the whole digesting-other-living-creatures thing, didn't I. I am suddenly so glad I've never gotten detention.Mr. S is bonkers powerful for this point in the game. He comes with Dissolve (a high level drain attack), Flame (crowd control), and a really good Cure ability. He's there to keep your retarded rear end from getting killed in the first dungeon while you figure out where everything is and how it works. You can even spend some time levelling up with him, if you so choose. Most of the levelling up in SaGa is handled by getting into fights and taking appropriate actions---attack with heavy swords to build strength, with light swords or bows to build agility, etc. We'll get into weapon types later on. The important thing is that you have to actually do something in combat to increase a stat. Note that selecting an attack is enough to trigger a level-up check; you don't necessarily have to hit that attack successfully, or even try it at all.    Neato. What's in here?  Shields are as useless here as they were in FFL1. Using one boosts your guy's defense for a turn and has them sit there like an idiot waiting to get clobbered in the head. There's not even a guarantee someone will hit them, which means you've wasted both an item use and a turn. However, in a shocking twist, there's actually a way to put them to good use...    *ka-thunk* Ack! Getitoff getitoff getitoffameeee  Fascinating. It appears the shield has attached itself to your chest via some sort of magnet. Didn't you teach us that magnets don't affect bronze? Don't interrupt, Mr. Sigma. Well... I mean, it doesn't hurt, and it'll help protect me, so it's not so bad. Kind of freaky, though. There is no freakiness in the world. It is all part of Our Lady's divine plan, hallelujah, amen. You are seriously creeping me out.Yep, shields boost robot defense! I guarantee you I will never (purposefully) use a shield in combat. But, one of the SaGa's most useless items can finally do some real good. Did I mention robots own? Because robots own.   I can't take them all by myself! Remember your training! I got the one on the left! AAAAAH Why do you have a gun?! Children shouldn't have guns! I can't help it! It's part of my arm!Roy comes equipped with a Colt right out of the gate. As in, a Colt 45. Forget swords, he will straight up cap your rear end. Guns are a weapons family that operate independent of stats—i.e. its damage output is always within the same range and isn't affected by strength, agility, et al. On the plus side, this also means a gun can potentially do way more damage than a melee weapon in the hands of the same character. As we'll see later, this becomes exceptionally useful when you pick up heavy ordinance. For now, though, the Colt is a solid weapon that will carry us quite a ways. One downside: It's harder to connect with guns than comparable melee weapons. However, increasing agility will eventually reduce that effect to negligible levels. The rest of the cave is pretty uneventful. It's a lesson in proper crowd control: Use Mr. S' Fire ability on groups and Dissolve on single targets. They'll probably never get a chance to do anything, but keep selecting attacks for your guys so they can have a shot at levelling. Eventually, you'll come across...    What are we supposed to do with this junk? How about equipping the bow? Uh, how about no? What about you, Sara? Do you want to try it? I do not need a bow. The Saw protects me. If no one else wants them, I have an idea. If I push this hand against them... *thunk* *kachunk* Look at me! I'm a swiss army knife!The hammer and bow are pretty useless as normal treasure; they're starting tier weapons. (If you need extra weapon uses with Mr. S in your party, turn off the game right now. Vidya games are clearly not your strong suit, and you don't want to end up hurting yourself.) Instead of just dumping them into the rubbish bin, give them to the robot. Each equipped weapon brings stat bonuses with it, and they stack if you equip more of the same type. Your robot isn't going to gain any abilities on its own, so keeping all available slots full, even with trash weapons, is enormously helpful. If you get better weapons later, just replace the trash weapons. No one is going to weep for a hammer that's been reduced to 12 uses. After that, a short jog down the corridor, and...  Excuse me! Can we squeeze through here real quick?  Gonna take that as a no.The BabyWyrm is a fairly big shock after everything you've just been through. Even with Mr. S in the party, you have to pfffffffffffffff hahahahaha nope can't do it.  Seriously, one Dissolve and he's dead. It's the second most hilariously one-sided boss fight in RPG history, eclipsed only by, you guessed it, a boss in the original Final Fantasy Legend. Even better, if you ask Mr. S for advice afterwards:  Well somebody seems pretty pleased with themselves!  At this point, I'm kind of wondering why you aren't looking for my dad instead of me. I don't get summers off since we moved to year-round schooling. Fair enough. Sooo. What was that junk about Magi? Mr. Butte. Do you have the gem your father left you? Yeah. I keep it on this necklace. Why? Would you peer into it, please? Okay...  Woah! Indeed. Your jewel is known as the Eye of Isis. It is a magi—one of the 77 fragments of the Statue of Isis. Each fragment is imbued with its own unique power. I believe your father set out to find the rest. Why? Did he want its power for himself? No—he wouldn't have left you the Eye otherwise. I believe he's attempting to keep them out of the wrong hands. I suspect his disappearance means those hands are closer than we'd like. That sounds a lot scarier than just trying to find Roy's dad... It is—but this is the path you've chosen. Keep each other safe, children. The fate of Roy's father is up to you. Mr. S? I have one last question, if it's okay... Certainly! What does the "S" stand for? Sanchez. Totally did not see that coming. Looks like we're on our own now. Let's go find dad! We are all finding dad, in our own way. In'sawllah. Seriously, she's starting to weird me out now.Next Time: Kickin' rear end, Takin' Magi
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Oct 11, 2014 21:19
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Our Lady, who art with Saw, hallowed be thy Flare. Your Adventure continue, your quest go on, on Earth as upon the Tower. Give us each day our needed Cure, and forgive us our misses as we forgive those with lower agility. Lead us not into traps, but deliver us from Hat. Amen.
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Oct 11, 2014 22:08
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Loving the callbacks to the first LP!
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Oct 11, 2014 23:18
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Boy, is Sara ever going to be disillusioned when she gets her hands on a saw and discovers they're nowhere near as godly as in the first game.
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Oct 11, 2014 23:51
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Chokes McGee posted:
Help. I'm dying.
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Oct 12, 2014 00:04
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If you split hairs, there is one more reason to bother with shields: It's the only way for a character to not take a turn. As Chokes noted, you have to actually perform an action to get statboosts, so it's easy - especially with out-of-depth monsters and/or mechs in the party - to wipe out the enemies before everyone gets a chance to even act. Similarly, gains in the North Cave are awful because Mr. S does all of the heavy lifting. Thus, you slap a shield on whoever you don't want hogging all the battle experience, and just have them sit there picking their nose while the other people do some work for once.
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Oct 12, 2014 00:06
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