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KataraniSword posted:For FF5A and FF6A, I would agree with that. If you're going to pirate FF4, either get FF4 PSX or the SNES version. The GBA version is a slipshod port of the Wonderswan Color version, and is just falling apart at the seams. The battle system is completely borked and there's really no challenge in it whatsoever because of such. The only consolation is the ability to take characters far better than Edge into the final dungeon/battle. I presume when you say the SNES version you mean the one of the original with a translation patch? Because there is no reason to play the original American release of FF4/2. Never, never, never play it. Unless you really want to guffaw at the old translation. (Didn't the PAL version of FF4a fix the ATP glitch?) Although the PSX version is no great shakes either. I guess it's irrelevant when you emulate it, but the load times are pretty bad (mostly for saving) and like most ports it fucks up the mode 7.
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Jul 17, 2011 07:57
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There is also the DS version which I can assume is better than the GBA version.
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Jul 17, 2011 08:46
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Olibu posted:There is also the DS version which I can assume is better than the GBA version. I'm pro-FFIVDS (and FFIIIDS), but a number of people hate it for a variety of reasons, such as wacky difficulty curve that seriously upped the random encounters while making some of the bosses easier, not being able to rename characters, the fact that the game never tells you to put lovely augments on characters that leave your party, etc. Not renaming characters isn't an issue for me, as I almost always use defaults, and while screwing up the augments locks you out of the good ones, it's not a huge issue, IMO. The rear end-kicking random encounters in some areas are a bit more of a problem. Also, the animator absolutely sucks at Cid's beard. Yeah, I'd stand up for both FFIVDS and FFIIIDS, but the current FFIIINES thread and last year's FFIVA thread shows that I'm pretty clearly in the minority on both counts.
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Jul 17, 2011 09:07
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FF4 DS is a good game if you're the kind of person who intends to just open a walkthrough to play alongside. Going through that game alone with no prior knowledge is stupid, especially with the way they limited runs on new game+.
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Jul 17, 2011 09:12
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Magicpokey posted:Skipping 11 obviously, what spin off games are worth it to hunt down and play? I've never played a sequel or spinoff, but I know there's an x-2 and several spinoffs from FFVII. Which ones are worth my time? If you haven't played Final Fantasy Tactics, you really should. Man, I hope you have a lot of free time to play through the entire series plus spinoffs.
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Jul 17, 2011 09:38
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KataraniSword posted:For FF5A and FF6A, I would agree with that. If you're going to pirate FF4, either get FF4 PSX or the SNES version. The GBA version is a slipshod port of the Wonderswan Color version, and is just falling apart at the seams. The battle system is completely borked and there's really no challenge in it whatsoever because of such. The only consolation is the ability to take characters far better than Edge into the final dungeon/battle. Oh, I'm not pirating anything, I mentioned the ones I did because those are the actual ones I own. I am going to have to go find and buy/borrow all the ps2 ones though. I am a collector of older video games, I have tons of old carts that I have never played. I'll just be using the emulator for convenience sake. I'm not averse to downloading a better version though, so what versions of IV-VI should I download/buy? I have emulators for everything from gba on back, and I can afford a used ds game or two. Schwartzcough posted:LIf you haven't played Final Fantasy Tactics, you really should. I do have a lot of free time. I am on disability and am a stay-at-home dad with a three year old who is in daycare three days a week. This will give me something to do while waiting for elentor to update, I really am enjoying this lp.
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Jul 17, 2011 14:56
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I second the recommendation for Tactics, and I'll add to it Tactics Advanced and A2: Grimoire of the Rift. The latter is a DS game. Also, I've only played FF4 on the DS, and I really enjoyed it. That augment system is pretty dumb though, and I did not appreciate being forced into one particular party. That just seemed like a giant step back. But that's probably the fault of the game itself and not the DS remake.
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Jul 17, 2011 15:08
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The GBA version of FF4 is perfectly fine so long as you don't farm experience. Playing through the game normally is enough to keep the difficulty up there. A lot of Final Fantasy games are like that, you make a bee-line towards the end stopping for sidequests and it's still difficult. You dick around fighting random battles near a healing pot for an hour and the game is a cakewalk. The SNES version is just as good. An English translation of the Japanese version of the game is probably the most enjoyable. I don't believe there's an English SNES "Hardmode" version. But yeah, definitely recommending at least FFTactics in terms of spin-off games. While there are plenty of good ones (like the FFT sequels and Crystal Chronicles) and decent ones (like Mystic Quest), FFTactics is by far the best.
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Jul 17, 2011 15:46
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The DS games feel lumpy and awkward, but have their charm. They can in no way be considered "faithful". I don't know about that PSP version of FFIV, but the sprites look dumb in screenshots despite the high resolution. Also it has The After Years packed in with it, which is best ignored. Definitely play FFT, but if you're not feeling the FFTA games after an hour or so you should put them down. You should play this before FFXII.
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Jul 17, 2011 19:02
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I'd say play War of the Lions if you happen to have a PSP lying around. The YE OLDE ENGLISHE speak gets a bit irritating, but I like it better than the original's horrible Engrish.
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Jul 17, 2011 20:02
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George posted:The DS games feel lumpy and awkward, but have their charm. They can in no way be considered "faithful". How so? FFIIIDS inserts a bunch of "characters" that are incidental at best to the plot, so I can see your point there, but what's unfaithful about FFIVDS? If anything, it's more faithful to the original than FFIVA, which allowed party-swapping.
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Jul 17, 2011 20:15
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Dauntasa posted:I'd say play War of the Lions if you happen to have a PSP lying around. The YE OLDE ENGLISHE speak gets a bit irritating, but I like it better than the original's horrible Engrish. War of the lions supposedly has some horrible lag from what was mentioned in the last FFT LP. you can also get the original ps1 version for your psp on psn as well, supposedly with less lag if the special features don't matter to you as for the psp port of ff4, its pretty well made if you don't mind the different looking sprites,including all the bonus content from the gba version.Interlude is boring and incredibly short, and the after years....yeah...
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Jul 17, 2011 20:34
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Tengames posted:War of the lions supposedly has some horrible lag from what was mentioned in the last FFT LP. you can also get the original ps1 version for your psp on psn as well, supposedly with less lag if the special features don't matter to you The lag in WotL is really, really bad. Math skill out a holy that hits everyone, and you'll have the screen turn off before it gets done.
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Jul 17, 2011 21:29
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It's not lag. The game is hard-coded to run particle effects at half the normal FPS. That's it running normally.
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Jul 17, 2011 21:50
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Phoenix Taichou posted:Second time I played FF7 it's what my immature young mind named her. Barret was Mr. T but hey, who hasn't renamed him that before? It produces two good early game lines. First one is in Shinra building when Aeris says "Thank you Mr Barret.", rename him, his line after is "Hey, who you calling Mr Mr. T?" My second playthrough (and all subsequent) saw me begin to rename Red XIII 'Fuzznuts'....
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Jul 17, 2011 21:54
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Welcome to the PSP. Everything is filled with horrible lag because Sony intentionally throttles things to extend its pathetic battery life.
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Jul 17, 2011 21:55
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Orange Fluffy Sheep posted:It's not lag. What a horrible idea. Why recode the particles when you could have just coded in a quick animation option? 5 minutes of rendering full length holys at half FPS or run the last ten frames of it full for 45 seconds. If they did it to save battery, that would have done more than any rendering cheating.
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Jul 18, 2011 00:09
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Black Balloon posted:FF4 DS is a good game if you're the kind of person who intends to just open a walkthrough to play alongside. Going through that game alone with no prior knowledge is stupid, especially with the way they limited runs on new game+. Anyone who plays a game with a walkthrough alongside of them every step of the way may as well not even play the game and just read the walkthrough. The point of playing a game instead of reading a book is that you have some control - you're not simply reading what a magazine says to do and then doing it, you're finding things on your own by exploring on your own. Of course you won't be able to get everything or even most things but why would that matter? So what that you have limited runs on new game+? Just beat it once and play something else or start a new game.
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Jul 18, 2011 00:24
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I'm not looking to be 100% complete or anying. I'm just looking for a good story. The reason I love FFVII is because it has a wonderfully told story, same thing for FFX (IMHO). I have never played any of the old games all the way through. With that said, I always thought of the tactics series as an arcady, action based spinoff. Was I wrong? Do the tactics games have a worthwhile story to follow? Also, I'm sorry for kinda derailing the thread. I'm really looking forward to the next update.
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Jul 18, 2011 00:38
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Magicpokey posted:With that said, I always thought of the tactics series as an arcady, action based spinoff. Was I wrong? Do the tactics games have a worthwhile story to follow? Yes and yes; they're strategy RPGs. The GBA/DS game are generally a matter of taste, but FFT is pretty much universally well-regarded.
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Jul 18, 2011 00:45
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Super Ninja Fish posted:Anyone who plays a game with a walkthrough alongside of them every step of the way may as well not even play the game and just read the walkthrough. Nah, I disagree. It's all in the atmosphere, watching it unfurl. Plus you might decide to freewheel it and break off from the walkthrough for a bit. It's just there as an anti-frustration net.
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Jul 18, 2011 00:45
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Magicpokey posted:Do the tactics games have a worthwhile story to follow? There are plots within plots within plots WITHIN PLOTS, all of which are trying to be subverted by someone with a plot within a plot. It's a bit complicated, but it's loving genius storytelling.
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Jul 18, 2011 00:46
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Magicpokey posted:With that said, I always thought of the tactics series as an arcady, action based spinoff. Was I wrong? Do the tactics games have a worthwhile story to follow? I might be alone in this but: no. Final Fantasy Tactics begins a wonderful story with exceptional characterization and deep themes about power, class, religion, and war. In fact for about fifteen hours or so FFT is pretty much the War and Peace of videogames. Then the first chapter ends and it goes right back to being retarded fantasy schlock. Honestly the gameplay is enough to keep you playing through the whole thing but just be aware that all the great stuff the story has going for it in Chapter 1/Prologue rapidly degenerates into kill god and save the world and doesn't ever crawl back out of that pit.
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Jul 18, 2011 01:24
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Dauntasa posted:Welcome to the PSP. Everything is filled with horrible lag because Sony intentionally throttles things to extend its pathetic battery life. Welcome to like eight years ago when the factory soft underclock of 222MHz was raised to 333 and every game since then has run full speed, but sure, whatever.
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Jul 18, 2011 01:30
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The worst travesty of War of the Lions is the fact that they removed the random chance for characters to give a little spellcasting quote. I liked those.
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Jul 18, 2011 01:57
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FFT was maybe the best game for the PS1, it was held down by a terrible translation. FFT:WotL Fixes the translation and adds a bunch of content, but removes some neat flavor things and fucks up the combat dramatically. Either one of them still gets a place as one of the best games ever made. It's really that good.
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Jul 18, 2011 02:16
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Get FFT, make an iso, apply WotL translation patch. The best of both worlds.
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Jul 18, 2011 02:26
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Meh, I really only liked the added content. I don't like pseudo-Shakespeare. Besides, the best videogame line of all time was, is, and always will be "Animals have no God!!". And if anyone disputes that I will punch them through the interwebs. And then kick their puppy.
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Jul 18, 2011 02:32
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Nice rear end in a top hat posted:Meh, I really only liked the added content. I don't like pseudo-Shakespeare. I don't have a puppy, but "Silence! Surrender or die in obscurity!" was always my favorite.
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Jul 18, 2011 03:18
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Woozy posted:I might be alone in this but: no. Final Fantasy Tactics begins a wonderful story with exceptional characterization and deep themes about power, class, religion, and war. In fact for about fifteen hours or so FFT is pretty much the War and Peace of videogames. Then the first chapter ends and it goes right back to being retarded fantasy schlock. It's complicated for sure, I'm not convinced it's good. It's good by video game standards, the fact that it's even trying to hit those themes is good, but they're mostly in speeches given by absurdly cruel & flatly characterized bad guys. It's not War & Peace, from beginning to end it's like "have you considered that these authoritarian straw dogs' opinions might be the opposite of true???" I think the characters are worth something though. Ramza & Delita are a lil more nuanced than most videogame heroes, their motivations are still pretty canned but they show more than one side to their personalities and they change & react dynamically to their circumstances. Final Fantasy 7
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Jul 18, 2011 03:45
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Woozy posted:I might be alone in this but: no. Final Fantasy Tactics begins a wonderful story with exceptional characterization and deep themes about power, class, religion, and war. In fact for about fifteen hours or so FFT is pretty much the War and Peace of videogames. Then the first chapter ends and it goes right back to being retarded fantasy schlock. Uh, that's pretty much completely wrong, but I can't explain how without making a post several paragraphs long and spoiling a really neat story. Check out OFS's LP of it to learn more, though. The gameplay really is great; makes it one of my favorite games of all time. The job system allows for a lot of experimentation, and it gives the game a strange amount of replay value. It's a challenging game for the inexperienced, but as you learn about the mechanics you uncover new game-shattering builds all the time which makes the game fun in an entirely new way.
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Jul 18, 2011 04:41
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Lumberjack Bonanza posted:It's a challenging game for the inexperienced, but as you learn about the mechanics you uncover new game-shattering builds all the time which makes the game fun in an entirely new way. Although it's not like you really need much else once you have someone with maxed out Math.
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Jul 18, 2011 04:49
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Dauntasa posted:Although it's not like you really need much else once you have someone with maxed out Math. This is true, but while it's easily the most overpowered class in the game it's not nearly as much fun as other options. The variety of game-breakers is really what elevates it.
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Jul 18, 2011 04:58
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Lumberjack Bonanza posted:Uh, that's pretty much completely wrong, but I can't explain how without making a post several paragraphs long and spoiling a really neat story. Check out OFS's LP of it to learn more, though. I've played through the whole game. The point I'm alluding to without totally spoiling everything is that I'm pretty sure when you set up this theme of "who are the real enemies forget about this nationalism you're all pawns of the ruling class" you're not supposed to actually introduce an unambiguously evil End Boss. Ramza's whole reason to exist in the story goes from "but what are we fighting for?!" to "oh yeah, that" in the span of three hours. Edit: Not to pull the thread even further off the game we're watching, but a great for a Squaresoft SRPG check out the original SNES Front Mission. The story gets kind of nutty but it's actually really awesome when you start to understand what's actually happening in the game. To this day I'm convinced that the Front Mission series (at least the early stuff) is actually a massive troll of the Mecha genre that relentlessly deconstructs how hideously hosed up it is to create giant warmachines in the shape of people and pit them against eachother in gladiatorial combat. Edit: Red XIII is the best character. Discuss. Woozy fucked around with this message at 05:24 on Jul 18, 2011 |
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Jul 18, 2011 05:14
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Woozy posted:Edit: Red XIII is the best character. Discuss. Hahahaha not even close. Red XIII is boring, has terrible stats, and even worse limits. I honestly think the game could have done just as well without him.
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Jul 18, 2011 05:35
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Woozy posted:Edit: Red XIII is the best character. Discuss. Everybody knows that Barret is the best character. 
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Jul 18, 2011 05:59
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kalonZombie posted:Hahahaha not even close. Yeah, aside from one section, Red could have been completely excised from the game with almost no loss. I remember hearing that he was partly included so that Square could show off their new ability to animate non-human character models. It's a bummer, because for a number of spoilery reasons he could have provided a valuable, unique perspective from other party members. Instead he's got almost no personality at all.
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Jul 18, 2011 06:08
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Yeah, he's really underused. How different would this game have been if Hojo had gotten his wish?
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Jul 18, 2011 06:18
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George posted:Yeah, he's really underused. How different would this game have been if Hojo had gotten his wish? It would probably just be really awkward when you put Aeris and Red XIII in a party together.
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Jul 18, 2011 06:26
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El Belmondo posted:Everybody knows that Barret is the best character. Barrett owns in my opinion, he's pretty stereotypical (the chest thumping animation I mean come on) but the fact that he's portrayed that way while still being smart, heroic, & multifaceted is really cool. He's pretty on point a lot of the time with regard to defusing the overseriousness of the story e.g. "WHERE'S ITS FUCKIN HEAD THIS IS STUPID"
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Jul 18, 2011 06:32
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