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  • Locked thread
anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer
The problem is that JRPG plots tend to warp the meaning of "dumb" pretty much by definition.

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Weavered
Jun 23, 2013

Kate Bush is a very appropriate name for the good lady Siren, can I change my vote from Godiva

Gnoman
Feb 12, 2014

Come, all you fair and tender maids
Who flourish in your pri-ime
Beware, take care, keep your garden fair
Let Gnoman steal your thy-y-me
Le-et Gnoman steal your thyme




Lavender menace posted:

I vote for Kate Bush

It feels like limits should have a cooldown time especially when most bosses have a fixed attack animation for Renzokuken that completely negates crisis level. I don't think theres anything wrong with leaving the name untranslated like with judo throws.

The only problem with it being untranslated is that literally nothing else in the game is left that way, making it really out-of-place.

Attestant
Oct 23, 2012

Don't judge me.
When I first played ff8 when it was released, I wondered why they didn't just call it Omnislash again, since it's pretty much the same thing.

Vil
Sep 10, 2011

Gnoman posted:

The only problem with it being untranslated is that literally nothing else in the game is left that way, making it really out-of-place.

Zantetsuken?

Astrofig
Oct 26, 2009

Pvt.Scott posted:

A siren needs a name that evokes eerie, incomprehensible vocals. I vote for Grimes

Enya.

MagusofStars
Mar 31, 2012



Lavender menace posted:

I vote for Kate Bush

It feels like limits should have a cooldown time especially when most bosses have a fixed attack animation for Renzokuken that completely negates crisis level. I don't think theres anything wrong with leaving the name untranslated like with judo throws.

The fixed attack animation can actually be a negative though - Renzouken goes 4 to 8 hits, but even though coolghost had Squall both critical health AND blinded, the fixed animation limits it to 4 hits.

Also, AFAIK, it's only Renzouken which can ignore crisis level like that (presumably as a shortcut for the animators?); everybody else's limit uses the same crisis level mechanics regardless if you're facing a regular enemy or a boss.

Pvt.Scott
Feb 16, 2007

What God wants, God gets, God help us all
Omnislash is just way more to the point. It slashes everything.

Weavered
Jun 23, 2013

Pvt.Scott posted:

Omnislash is just way more to the point. It slashes everything.

Either that or he just pisses everywhere

NikkolasKing
Apr 3, 2010



Vil posted:

Zantetsuken?

Leaving that untranslated was a smart move because Zantetsuken is a name. It's apparently a hodgepodge of words (as are a lot of names in these Japanese things) but it sounds cool. Separating the words and translating them is kinda loving up the name I figured.

FF7 translated it and Odin was attacking with "Steel Bladed Sword" which I think is close to what Zantetsuken translates to (not exactly though...I forget. I looked it up ages ago) Point is, it sounds kinda dumb compared to Zantetsuken.

Zulily Zoetrope
Jun 1, 2011

Muldoon
Most cool sounding Japanese things are pretty lame when translated.

Simply Simon
Nov 6, 2010

📡scanning🛰️ for good game 🎮design🦔🦔🦔
At least according to Keikaku.

Gravity Cant Apple
Jun 25, 2011

guys its just like if you had an apple with a straw n you poked the apple though wit it n a pebbl hadnt dropped through itd stop straw insid the apple because gravity cant apple
Adding another vote for Kate Bush if it isn't too late.

KennyMan666
May 27, 2010

The Saga

NikkolasKing posted:

FF7 translated it and Odin was attacking with "Steel Bladed Sword" which I think is close to what Zantetsuken translates to (not exactly though...I forget. I looked it up ages ago) Point is, it sounds kinda dumb compared to Zantetsuken.
Steel Bladed Sword is pretty wrong, it's "Iron-cutting sword".

Yukari
Feb 17, 2011

"That's going in the cringe reel for sure."


Wasn't it possible to destroy the boss 9 times and get 50 AP each time? I thought it regenerated after each time whether or not you destroyed it.

Silegna
Aug 20, 2013

Hey, heads up. I'm about to unleash my rage.

Yukari posted:

Wasn't it possible to destroy the boss 9 times and get 50 AP each time? I thought it regenerated after each time whether or not you destroyed it.

No. You can only kill it on the bridge, I'm pretty sure.

CmdrKing
Oct 14, 2012

Maybe if I called it 'Interpretive Stabbing'...
It's been a while, but my memory is dropping the boss into repair mode a second time in a fight counts as a 'kill' for purposes of generating AP, so you can AP farm the thing, but I think doing so is worth 20 instead of 50. And of course you're completely tanking your SeeD score doing things this way.

ApplesandOranges
Jun 22, 2012

Thankee kindly.

CmdrKing posted:

It's been a while, but my memory is dropping the boss into repair mode a second time in a fight counts as a 'kill' for purposes of generating AP, so you can AP farm the thing, but I think doing so is worth 20 instead of 50. And of course you're completely tanking your SeeD score doing things this way.

You have to take out all its health, let it repair, then run. This grants the bonus without killing it.

Of course, doing so either requires grinding up Quezo or the party a lot.

Zulily Zoetrope
Jun 1, 2011

Muldoon

Silegna posted:

No. You can only kill it on the bridge, I'm pretty sure.

You can kill it anytime except for the first encounter, where it will repair indefinitely. In any other battle it will go into repair mode four times (at 80% of its max HP every time), and then you can kill it by depleting its entire 5000-ish HP pool.

I don't know if takedowns carry over between battles, so that you'd be forced to kill it if it caught you five times. Thread anecdotes point to no.

Cool Ghost
Apr 13, 2012

MORE YOU SWEAT、
LESS YOU BLEED。
MORE YOU WEEP、
LESS GAME OVERS。
...OVER
Voting closed a long-rear end time ago, but I'm lazy as hell, and anyway, Siren will be renamed Kate Bush.

Cool Ghost
Apr 13, 2012

MORE YOU SWEAT、
LESS YOU BLEED。
MORE YOU WEEP、
LESS GAME OVERS。
...OVER
Part Ten: Test Results


As we approach Balamb from Dollet, time runs backwards and it magically becomes afternoon again.



Looks like Seifer's crew is here to receive him.



: Man... All they did was get in my way. Being a leader ain't easy.


I know I mentioned it when she was introduced, but I hate the way Fujin talks. I think it's supposed to convey that she's very to-the-point, but it just makes me think of a yelling robot or something.



Seifer just shrugs off Fujin's concern, and the whole disciplinary committee leaves.


How was any of that a job well done? We abandoned our post and we didn't stop the Galbadians.


Oh, who knows with Seifer? Could be anywhere, honestly.


Quistis ain't even give a gently caress.

: Just be back at Garden by sundown. You're free 'til then.

I guess we're free until continental drift moves Balamb over to neighbour Dollet, then.

: Ok, dismissed!


One example of where Seifer could be: taking off in the Garden car. Only god knows for sure.

: Not again, man! There goes Mr. Ego...

Uh, Zell, his name is actually Mr. Almasy. :rolleyes:

: Might as well walk it.

Seriously. Garden is only, like, two kilometres away anyway.


Before we leave, though, let's look at our newest refinement ability.


Cure is okay, whatever, we have a billion Cures already.


Curaga is a great, easy-to-get HP junction early in the game (100 Curagas add 2,200 to HP) and it's honestly not a terrible idea to sink a bunch of gil into Tents for it.


You can also use Cottages to get Curaga. If you don't refine, Curaga won't show up for a while. Refinement is huge in breaking the game.


I fill Squall up on Cures. Might as well have 'em around.


We're not being penalised for chatting anymore, so we might as well get our gossip on.

: You can buy some souvenirs... Have a review meeting... It's up to you. I recommend you go back and rest, though.

Going back and resting sounds great. Buying souvenirs sounds lame.


Let's go home.


We'll talk about it at length later, but here's my comment on Balamb right now: it's pretty. I like a lot of the towns in this game, they're pretty well-done.



poo poo, why not grab some lame-rear end Thunder spells?


Over here is a shop! Neato!


This is a junk shop, which is Final Fantasy VIII's version of a weapon shop.


See, instead of buying new weapons straight-out, you upgrade by swapping some items and gil to "remodel" your weapon. Weapons also only have one real stat, which is Hit % - for damage, weapons just add directly to Strength, instead of having an Attack stat. It's pretty simple.


Nobody has new weapons available, so I pop over to the item store.


I am not going to blow all my money on Tents.



I am also not going to blow all my money on rental cars. Rental cars replace chocobos in this game for transportation, and I think I've rented a car three times in all my playthroughs of Final Fantasy VIII. None of them have been to go between Balamb and Garden.



See? We're already there.



In an interesting design decision, the game makes you walk about two steps before starting this scene.

: Finally made it back...
: Seriously...

Oh my god, you two, it's like a ten-minute walk.

: Well, I guess we just wait for the test results.



Yeah, peace.


It's pretty cool.


Wow...fuckin' rude...


We've done the entire exam and these girls still haven't gotten lunch? Jesus.


Hey, other SeeD candidates.

Squad C Student: Looks like Galbadia's real target is the communication tower.

Wait, the comm tower they repaired was their target? It seems like there might have been a better way to get there than invading Dollet.

Squad D Student: But radio signals are useless, even if they get the tower to work.

Yeah, they're probably just gonna put some stupid DJ on there. I'll stick to tapes.

Squad C Student: Why?
Squad D Student: It was on last week's exam, remember? How any form of communication using radio signals can't be used.

That's...a lot of types of communication. Wow.


They'll give you peter cancer.


(This is the real answer.)

: The worldwide signal interference.


Yeah, thanks.

Squad D Student: Worldwide signal interference. It started without warning 17 years ago. That's why we communicate online, and use chocobos as messengers now. That's why there's no reason to get the tower up and running.

So what the gently caress were they doing? :iiam:


I wonder if Garden has tuition, and this guy is pissing away his parents' money.


Nice job, man. What a pro. What's squad D, "diaper squad"?


Xu, we failed completely. Every mission objective was a failure.

Xu: The candidates are back safely, right?

Well, if that's what you consider a success, yes, mission accomplished.


Someone, maybe the squad in the town square, probably should have noticed that and stopped them. Wonder what happened there...

Headmaster Cid: We've just received word from the Dollet Dukedom. The Galbadian Army has agreed to withdraw as long as the communication tower is repaired and the uplink remains operational.

Again, it seems like they could have come up with an easier plan that invading Dollet. Maybe invade a drat Emily Post book next time, assholes.


I have a feeling that both women are making a face like "what the gently caress" right now.

Xu: Well, in any case, Galbadia is out of there.

I will grant you that that was our mission, but we did not accomplish it.

Xu: We could've made much more money if they'd stayed and caused more ruckus.

This is an important line that is easy to miss or forget. SeeD is not a heroic organisation at all. They are strictly clock-punchers, and any good or bad they do is incidental to gettin' paid.


Well, we did destroy the Galbadian bank machine.

: Of course! He's my best student. He's not very social, though.


This is a straight-up lie. You have to leave this area to get your results.



This is kind of a quaint choice, because every answer is true in some way. It probably felt exhilirating, because of how adrenaline works.


But it also would have been scary, because of how being in a life-or-death situation works.


And this one is true to Squall's character as a person who tries not to think about stressful situations.

: ...Whatever.
Headmaster Cid: Whatever?

That's what he said, man.

Headmaster Cid: That's great! Whatever!

Cid approves of hiding from your problems.

Headmaster Cid: Well, I'm just glad nobody got hurt.

Squall spent most of the exam unconscious. He probably has brain damage or something now.


Since this game has something like seventy trillion lines of dialogue, we can go over and chat with these guys about the exam, too.


This is the guy in yellow we saw chillin' outside the front gate earlier. He probably slipped a disc being too laid-back.


Kid, that's what "chronic" means. (This is the jogging kid with the MiniMog card, by the way. In fact, if you don't have it already, this is a good time to win it off him, since he's just standing around.)


Uh, probably?


Oh, great, you know, I left my post, failed to stop the enemy. 100%, full marks.



Life lesson: if you brag about your abilities, children will respect you.



If you're a little more down-to-earth, children hate it, and they will hate you.


Well, whatever, let's go to the dorm and grab a nap.


Oh, hey, Seifer.



: We would've been heroes if it weren't for that withdraw order.

Heroes of what? It's explicit that the G-army left when the comm tower was up. If we hadn't been there, they probably would have gone anyway. If we'd stopped them, things probably would have just been worse for Dollet.



: My dear instructor. I'm hurt. Those are rather cruel words for an aspiring student. A mediocre instructor like you will never understand.



Xu: You'll take all responsibility for leaving the designated area.
: Isn't it the captain's duty to take the best possible action?
Xu: Seifer, you'll never be a SeeD. Calling yourself a captain is a joke.


After dropping the :iceburn:, Xu walks away with a sassy little wave. Also, look at Seifer here, hanging his head in shame. He knows he's a joke. Notably, despite the fact that he told Instructor Trepe to gently caress off earlier, Seifer doesn't say anything to Xu.


After Xu disappears, Cid shows up.



Then he says something we don't hear to Quistis, and she leaves. I wonder what's going on there.


I have a feeling that Seifer's in deep poo poo now.

Headmaster Cid: You will be disciplined for your irrational behavior. You must follow orders exactly during combat.

I think Xu was right, and he's never going to be a SeeD. You know, the game mentions that Seifer's taken the exam before, but I doubt that he was ever a squad captain before, and I think this is much worse than whatever he did to fail then.

Headmaster Cid: But I'm not entirely without sympathy for you. I don't want you all to become machines. I want you all to be able to think and act for yourselves. I am...

Also interesting is that Squall says nothing in this entire scene. Seifer getting told off is not his problem, and mouthing off to superiors is neither his style nor his place. Even though he's the main character of the game, Squall is just a grunt, and he knows it.


Cid is cut off by this faculty member.


I have a feeling like something is going on, but we're not privy.


Seifer, usually so full of bravado, is silent now. He knows how badly he hosed up.



Garden Faculty: We are not a non-profit organization. This incident will be a hard-learned lesson for the Dollet Dukedom. They'll now know to be more generous when hiring SeeD.

This seems pretty dark, but it's how mercenaries work, and it gives a little more context to Squall's character. Everyone in SeeD is a clock-puncher, and it's not an organisation for wannabe heroes or boy scouts. Squall's blasé attitude makes him a better SeeD than Seifer or Zell, in that sense.



I included the second text box because it uses weird text positioning and I love to show off dumb poo poo. It just repeats the message after that.


At this point, we can't go anywhere else.


We can't even use the directory now. :(


Well, let's get to the second floor then, I guess.


Hey, what are Fujin and Raijin doing here? They didn't take the exam. And where's Selphie?




Of the three candidates at the back, only the guy on the far right would talk to me. Now who's anti-social, Quistis?

Well, if these guys won't talk to us, let's do the rounds.

: S'up? Said they're gonna call out names, one at a time...

Raijin: Fujin was sayin' that it'd be all your fault if Seifer doesn't become a SeeD. She can be pretty scary, ya know!

Wow, it must have taken her a lot of dialogue boxes to get all that out.


gently caress off, Fujin.


Like the square in Dollet, you have to wait around a bit for the game to move this scene on.



Congrats, Zell.

: See ya!!!


Zell does the stupidest walk possible after being called.


I have no idea why they use Zell's last name and not Squall's (Leonhart). It's not important or a surprise or anything, but there you go.



How disappointing for you three.


Oh, hey, we get to see the headmaster's office for the first time.

Garden Faculty: These are the 4 students that passed today's exam.

From left to right: Selphie, someone we don't know, Zell, Squall. What a surprising lineup.

Headmaster Cid: First of all, congratulations. However... From now on, as a member of SeeD, you will be dispatched all over the world. We are proud to introduce SeeD, Balamb Garden's mercenary soldiers. SeeD soldiers are combat specialists. BUT... That is only one aspect of SeeD. When the time comes...

Yes? When the time comes, what?


Hmm... It seems like maybe Cid's not entirely in control of the proceedings here.

Garden Faculty: SeeD is a valuable asset to Garden. It's reputation is solely dependent on each one of you. Handle your mission with care.


I have the distinct impression that that is not what Cid wanted to say.


Oh boy, our report card! :neckbeard:


Cid has a little line for each of the new SeeDs. I don't think Squall can hear them, but the player can.


I think that this guy is the guy who pissed himself during the exam. My evidence is: it would be funny if the pants-pisser was one of the four most competent people to take the exam.


If Zell could do that, it would tie up pretty much all his weaknesses as a SeeD.


And this is us. Squall is the first SeeD to use a gunblade.


Maybe we can finally get that nap.


The others leave immediately, with Zell still doing his stupid prance.


We're free to get some chatting in, though.

Garden Faculty: Be sure to ignore all the GF criticism you hear from other Gardens or military forces.

Remember, kids: whenever somebody tells you to ignore all criticism of something, that means it's completely above board. They're just looking out for you.


Oh, Cid's got a present for us.



Headmaster Cid: It may come in handy for future battles.

The Battle Meter is completely useless.


I mean, unless you're huge into knowing how many steps you've taken.


We're done here. Catch ya on the flipside, Cid.


Leaving Cid's office dumps you out onto the second floor.


What chance would that be?


Alright, you just keep on creepin' on, hoss.


Zell, I just graduated. What possible reason would I have to go back to class?

: What do you mean, 'why?' Don't you remember what new SeeD members do?

Well, apparently, they don't sleep.

: They give a speech in front of the entire class! And after that, the inauguration party!

Yeah, have fun with that, nerd.


Selphie's just happy to be here.


Oh hey, it's Seifer.


He steps forward, as if to confront Squall. You can see Zell already freaking out.


Then he starts to clap.



Gradually, everyone else starts to join in.


And the new SeeDs take a little bow.


Then we get our grades! Let's go through this:

Conduct is based on how much time you have on the clock when you escape from Dollet. You need 25 minutes or more to get 100 on that, which is pretty drat tough. I got a poo poo score, since I stopped to destroy X-ATM.

Judgement is how much time is left on the clock when you beat Ifrit. Since you can just run out the clock waiting on the battle results or name screen, and since it's not hard to time it properly anyway, it's easy to get 100. I got 100 because I left it on the name screen.

Attack is how many enemies you killed in Dollet. To get 100, you need 75 kills, which means you have to grind them out. For perspective, I spent half an hour grinding with Seifer and still only got 80 (that's 50-74 enemies killed). Attack isn't hard to get 100 on, but if you don't go out of your way to max it, you're not going to.

Spirit is how many times you ran away from battles. To get 100, you have to only escape once, in the mandatory battle against X-ATM092. After that, you have to either avoid it or destroy it completely if you want max points. If you know what you're doing, it's easy to max this, but if you don't, it'll probably be a bit lower. It also drops off quickly - having 3 escapes gets you 50 points, and if you get to 10, you get 0.

There's another category, Attitude, that's based on talking to people, jumping off the cliff, and a couple of other things you can do in Dollet. Again, easy to get 100, but if you don't know you're being marked on it, it's easy to screw up, too.

You can also see I got 100 points off (a full SeeD rank!) - that's because I showed that one dude my gunblade and the instructor spotted me. It's cancelled out by the 100 bonus points I got for destroying X-ATM092 on the bridge, though.

For the final rank calculation, the game takes some modifiers based on your points, adds them up with a base, then spits out a number. That number is between 1 and 10. I got 9, which means that if I'd kept my gunblade to myself, I would have gotten 10... yeah, I'm pretty good at the SeeD exam. :cool:


And then the game explains paycheques. See, instead of winning gil off of enemies, in this game you get paid by walking a certain number of steps, based on your SeeD rank. Rank 9 entitles me to 7,000 gil per pay period, which is pretty good. Rank is based on invisible "SeeD EXP", and if you get 100 of them, you can bump up your rank; there are several ways to do this, but beware: you can also lose SeeD ranks, and again, there are several ways to do so.

Well, I think that's enough of that. Next time: we finally get our nap.


Oh, goddammit.

Cool Ghost fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Sep 15, 2017

CmdrKing
Oct 14, 2012

Maybe if I called it 'Interpretive Stabbing'...
Selphie Tilmitt, Ace Stalker.

Psion
Dec 13, 2002

eVeN I KnOw wHaT CoRnEr gAs iS
I'd forgotten how they actually did a really good job with Seifer here. There's a lot more subtlety to his character than I remembered.

Schwartzcough
Aug 12, 2009

Don't tease the Octopus, kids!

Psion posted:

I'd forgotten how they actually did a really good job with Seifer here. There's a lot more subtlety to his character than I remembered.

Seifer is easily the best-handled character in this game. I know that's damning with faint praise, but still true.

Vil
Sep 10, 2011

Cool Ghost posted:


There's another category, Attitude, that's based on talking to people, jumping off the cliff, and a couple of other things you can do in Dollet. Again, easy to get 100, but if you don't know you're being marked on it, it's easy to screw up, too.

You can also see I got 100 points off (a full SeeD rank!) - that's because I showed that one dude my gunblade and the instructor spotted me. It's cancelled out by the 100 bonus points I got for destroying X-ATM092 on the bridge, though.

Actually, Attitude and Point(s) Deducted are the exact same thing, except it uses one description if you have the window with the X-ATM092's bonus score (shown here), and the other description if you have the window without it. In both cases, higher numbers are better. Which means, yes, Point(s) Deducted is a total loving misnomer and they should have just used Attitude in both cases. I really don't know why they coded an entirely different window at all rather than simply appending the bonus section if you qualified. :iiam:

I'm pretty sure the effect of showing off your gunblade is that you take whatever starting rank the report card says, and when you actually check your rank next time you're in the main menu, it's 1 rank lower. (Which means basically the same thing as what you said, it's just that the game handles it differently.)

Psion posted:

I'd forgotten how they actually did a really good job with Seifer here. There's a lot more subtlety to his character than I remembered.

Another subtle detail, which doesn't come through in SSLP format, is that between Xu's burn on Seifer and Cid getting his attention by addressing him, he's shaking. His polygon model actually quivers slightly. This isn't a graphical artifact, it's meant to subtly express his emotional state there.

FeyerbrandX
Oct 9, 2012

Cool Ghost posted:

Wait, the comm tower they repaired was their target? It seems like there might have been a better way to get there than invading Dollet.

They're evil. They've got "bad" in their name, right there. Probably kicked the dog in the square before we got there. The last time they went out to buy the Sunday paper, they occupied a city for 40 years.

Also, this is probably the least :psyduck: bit of plot in the game.

Gnoman
Feb 12, 2014

Come, all you fair and tender maids
Who flourish in your pri-ime
Beware, take care, keep your garden fair
Let Gnoman steal your thy-y-me
Le-et Gnoman steal your thyme




So, this seems like a good time to give that GF writeup I talked about

The first two GFs we get are Shiva and Quetzocoatl, which are very similar.

Shiva



HP: 298-5450
Attack Power: 263-3563
Element: Ice

Important abilities:
Elem-Def-J
Elem-Def-Jx2
Elem-Atk-J
I-Mag-RF
Spr-J
Str-J

Other abilities:
Doom

Shiva is a rather weak GF overall. She has the second-lowest attack at this point, and her HP is the lowest. Summoning her is useful in the Ifrit fight or to exploit an elemental weakness early on, but is generally a waste of time.

On the ability front, she's the only one thus far that allows junctioning to Spirit, which is decent, but not critical. The elemental abilities are more useful, allowing you to get a cheap boost in damage in some areas, and weakening enemy attacks. Naturally, her most important ability is Ice-Mag-RF, which allows refining of Blizzard, Blizzara, Blizzaga, and Water spells from items. A handy ability, although the Ice spells aren't that great at junctioning (Fire/Blizzard/Thunder spells are identical for junctioning purposes except element), and Water's decent until better alternatives show up later. STR-J is a pretty good means of boosting your physical attacks and physical limit breaks, so really nice there.

Quetzalcoatl



HP: 300-5650
Attack Power: 275-3542
Element: Thunder

Important abilities:
Elem-Def-J
Elem-Def-Jx2
Elem-Atk-J
T-Mag-RF
Spr-J
Card Mod
Mag-J
Mid-Mag-RF
HP-J

Other abilities:
Card

Higher HP than Shiva, and marginally higher attack until higher levels, Q is pretty much the same as far as summon utility goes.

In abilities, however, Q makes Shiva look terrible. Card Mod is among the most powerful skills in the game, T-Mag-RF is strictly better than I-Mag-RF because instead of Water (a decent spell for junctioning), it gives you Aero and Tornado, which are very good spells. Aero is similar to Water overall, while Tornado gives 10 times as much HP and is also better in every way.

Mid-Mag-RF is a very useful skill that allows you to turn basic spells into the -ra level at a 5:1 ratio. Because the necessary materials for refining the low-level spells are much more common than the mid-level ones (especially if you insist on the wasted effort of a low-level run to avoid the entirely irrelevant difficulty increase), this is a very important skill to have. Card is useless unless you want to torture yourself with the extra hassle of keeping your level low.

Ifrit



HP: 305-6150
Attack Power: 298-3695
Element: Fire

Abilities
Elem-Def-J
Elem-Def-Jx2
Elem-Atk-J
F-Mag-RF
HP-J
Str-J
F-Mag-RF
Ammo-RF

Other Abilities
Mad Rush

Of the four GFs we have so far, Ifrit has a small but real increase to attack power and has high HP. If you want to summon a GF without an elemental weakness, Ifrit is the best choice for offence right now.

On the ability front, he combines the best junction abilities of the other two by putting HP-J and STR-J in one package, making him ideal for a physical attacker, while maintaining the same elemental attack and defence capability. F-Mag-RF is theoretically among the best because it is the source of Flare, a spell on the level of Tornado for junctioning purposes that has the bonus of providing elemental defense for Fire, Ice, and Thunder (very handy), but the necessary items aren't nearly as easy to get, leaving it in last place so far. Ammo-RF gives you ammunition for a Limit Break we haven't seen yet, and provides one of the easiest ways to shatter the game. It's also critical for weapon upgrading. Mad Rush berserks the entire party, and is OK for clearing out random battles, I guess.

Siren



HP: 391-5350
Attack Power: 223-2559
Element: None+Silence

Abilities
ST-Def-J
ST-Def-Jx2
ST-Atk-J
Mag-J
ST-Med-RF
L-Mag-RF
Tool-RF
Treatment

Siren has a very weak attack that inflicts Silence on all enemies. Not particularly useful, but she does have high HP, making her a good choice for defensive summoning.

As for abilities, this one's pretty nasty.
ST-ATK-J is really powerful, because the chance of inflicting a status is (Number of spells junctioned)%, meaning that having 100 junctioned always inflicts the status barring resistance, and resistances short of immunity aren't that high. Great for clearing out trash enemies if you have the right skill equipped, and decent against bosses if you want to inflict lesser statuses such as Blind or Poison (both of which are decent). ST-Def-J is very useful in a few places where they through nasty status attacks at you, but x2 is oddly not much of an upgrade, as there's not as many "protect against multiple status" spells as there are with elements, and you'll generally be facing one status, or all of them.

Treatment is a free, instant Remedy, with the only downside being that it takes up an ability slot. ST-Med-RF is okay, producing things such as antidotes and remedies. Nothing to write home about, but decent.

Tool-RF is interesting. It turns items into items, which is useful to turn junk drops into more useful things, and is the only way to get some of Quistis's limit breaks, although one of them requires a level 100 Siren. Unique, and somewhat useful.

L-mag-RF is in first place for useful magic refine abilities for two reasons. First, the materials needed for Cura and Curaga are sold in stores, meaning that you get great junctioning spells quite a bit earlier than with the elemental refines. That alone would put it in the top spot, but the same ability also gives you access to Death, Holy, Life, Full-Life, and Regen. These are top-tier junction spells, meaning that L-Mag-RF is one of the best abilities in the game.


If this is too long or distracting, I won't keep it up.

Gnoman fucked around with this message at 17:53 on Dec 16, 2014

ApplesandOranges
Jun 22, 2012

Thankee kindly.
^Couldn't hurt to put in GF profile pictures to break up the text a little.

I'm also slightly surprised you didn't play around in Balamb a little to get Zell's card.

Pvt.Scott
Feb 16, 2007

What God wants, God gets, God help us all
Obviously the whoevers don't want to foot the bill for or can't afford to keep a useless radio tower running, but the other guys know something the whoevers don't. Forcing a mostly white peace after a few days of mostly bloodless skirmishing in order to get the tower running seems like an ok move if the other guys couldn't force the issue politically. Obviously they weren't after land or vassals. What they want the tower operational for? :iiam: which I'm sure will be poorly explained in the most oblique manner possible .

Zulily Zoetrope
Jun 1, 2011

Muldoon

Gnoman posted:

Good stuff

What about the stat boosting abilities? Those tend to be pretty solid as well. Quetzalcoatl and Siren can learn Mag +20/40%, Shiva gets Spr and Vit +20/40% and Ifrit most importanly gets Str +20/40%

Ifrit and Siren also get Str Bonus and Mag Bonus, respectively, which boosts the character's base stat by 1 every time they level. In a game where characters' starting bases go from ~8 to ~45 at level 100, it's a pretty significant boost.

Simply Simon
Nov 6, 2010

📡scanning🛰️ for good game 🎮design🦔🦔🦔

ApplesandOranges posted:

^Couldn't hurt to put in GF profile pictures to break up the text a little.
Agreed, otherwise I enjoyed the analysis!

Gnoman
Feb 12, 2014

Come, all you fair and tender maids
Who flourish in your pri-ime
Beware, take care, keep your garden fair
Let Gnoman steal your thy-y-me
Le-et Gnoman steal your thyme




Kajeesus posted:

What about the stat boosting abilities? Those tend to be pretty solid as well. Quetzalcoatl and Siren can learn Mag +20/40%, Shiva gets Spr and Vit +20/40% and Ifrit most importanly gets Str +20/40%

Ifrit and Siren also get Str Bonus and Mag Bonus, respectively, which boosts the character's base stat by 1 every time they level. In a game where characters' starting bases go from ~8 to ~45 at level 100, it's a pretty significant boost.

STR Bonus and Mag Bonus show relatively late even if you go straight to them. They require a whopping 280 AP in a game where a monster that drops 20 each is the grinding target, and you probably want much better abilities first. They're not bad, strictly speaking, but they're not nearly as advantageous as the junctioning abilities in the short term, and if you rush them, you really hurt yourself. As for X +20/40%, 20% isn't that huge a bonus compared to what junctions give you (so you want to prioritize the magic refining skills), and they take up slots that are very useful later on.

As for pictures, screenshot LPs are a real strain on internet connection without someone else spamming images, so I wanted to leave pictures to the guy actually running the LP, at least until he comments on the matter (which is also why I didn't post this at all until I asked him first).

MarquiseMindfang
Jan 6, 2013

vriska (vriska)
The way you know that the FFVIII world is a gritty hellhole is the fact that worldwide interference prevents anyone ever having wifi signal, anywhere.

Seifer is another example of how the FF series tends to do "rival" characters really well. You can dislike Seifer, but you can't really hate him because he never actively annoys you. The Turks and Beatrix are also good rival characters, in that they never feel like they're going out of their way to annoy you, they're just doing their jobs.

Vil
Sep 10, 2011

Gnoman posted:

ST-ATK-J is really powerful, because the chance of inflicting a status is (Number of spells junctioned)%, meaning that having 100 junctioned always inflicts the status barring resistance, and resistances short of immunity aren't that high.

This is mostly true, but there's a neat little quirk to status infliction that many people aren't aware of. The full formula is basically: 100% defense on target? Skip everything else and don't inflict the status. Otherwise:

Physically-inflicted: Attacker's attack percentage - target's defense percentage + (attacker's Str - target's Vit) / 4
Magically-inflicted: Attacker's attack percentage - target's defense percentage + (attacker's Mag - target's Spr) / 4

Using ST-Atk and smacking something counts as physically inflicted, and uses your listed status attack percentage. Direct-casting the spell counts as magically inflicted and treats status attack percentage as 100%. Enemies work similarly, except they can have statuses as added effects to either physical or magical damage depending on the enemy and the attack.

The upshot here is that if your Str is higher than your target's Vit (or similarly with Mag and Spr), you get a bonus to status infliction rate... but if it's lower, then you get a penalty. The same applies in reverse to when you're the target: if you've got no or partial resistance but relatively high Vit or Spr appropriately, it can boost your odds, but if you've got partial resistance and relatively low Vit or Spr, it can lower your odds.

And the real takeaway from this is that if you care about resisting statuses, it's better to have 100% defense in things you really don't want to get hit with (e.g. Confuse, Berserk), than partial defense in a whole bunch of things. Esuna, Reflect, and Holy on status defense (which give 20-40% to a variety of statuses, but nothing adds up to 100% even with all three) are traps.

Gnoman
Feb 12, 2014

Come, all you fair and tender maids
Who flourish in your pri-ime
Beware, take care, keep your garden fair
Let Gnoman steal your thy-y-me
Le-et Gnoman steal your thyme




Vil posted:

Esuna, Reflect, and Holy on status defense (which give 20-40% to a variety of statuses, but nothing adds up to 100% even with all three) are traps.
This is exactly what I was trying to get at with ST-DEF-Jx2 not being all that much better than ST-DEF-J. It doesn't lend itself to the sort of abuses that Elem-Def-J does (where there's enough multi-element-defense spells that nullifying or absorbing almost everything is quite possible), and most areas either only have one or two statuses that you need to worry about (so you just defend against that), or hit you with more than it's possible to block (in which case you try to block the ones that take control away so you have a chance to cure it).

I didn't know about Vit/Spr defending against status attacks, which makes a lot of sense.

Cool Ghost
Apr 13, 2012

MORE YOU SWEAT、
LESS YOU BLEED。
MORE YOU WEEP、
LESS GAME OVERS。
...OVER

Gnoman posted:

As for pictures, screenshot LPs are a real strain on internet connection without someone else spamming images, so I wanted to leave pictures to the guy actually running the LP, at least until he comments on the matter (which is also why I didn't post this at all until I asked him first).

I think the thread is moving fast enough that you can throw some GF glamour shots.

Gnoman
Feb 12, 2014

Come, all you fair and tender maids
Who flourish in your pri-ime
Beware, take care, keep your garden fair
Let Gnoman steal your thy-y-me
Le-et Gnoman steal your thyme




Done.

Silegna
Aug 20, 2013

Hey, heads up. I'm about to unleash my rage.

ApplesandOranges posted:

^Couldn't hurt to put in GF profile pictures to break up the text a little.

I'm also slightly surprised you didn't play around in Balamb a little to get Zell's card.

You can't get it right after the Seed Exam. I've tried.

Cool Ghost
Apr 13, 2012

MORE YOU SWEAT、
LESS YOU BLEED。
MORE YOU WEEP、
LESS GAME OVERS。
...OVER

Vil posted:

Actually, Attitude and Point(s) Deducted are the exact same thing, except it uses one description if you have the window with the X-ATM092's bonus score (shown here), and the other description if you have the window without it. In both cases, higher numbers are better. Which means, yes, Point(s) Deducted is a total loving misnomer and they should have just used Attitude in both cases. I really don't know why they coded an entirely different window at all rather than simply appending the bonus section if you qualified. :iiam:

I'm pretty sure the effect of showing off your gunblade is that you take whatever starting rank the report card says, and when you actually check your rank next time you're in the main menu, it's 1 rank lower. (Which means basically the same thing as what you said, it's just that the game handles it differently.)

Oh, right, I meant to respond to this earlier. Anyway, my rank is 9 in the menu after the test results, not 8 like it would be if it deducted 1 from the score shown. That's why I thought that points deducted meant points deducted, not renamed Attitude, which is a stupid way for it to be.

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Fister Roboto
Feb 21, 2008

"Well, this guy has been a completely incompetent, insubordinate fuckup in the past... let's see how he performs in a leadership position."

The folks that wrote this really know how the military works.

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