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I'm pretty sure Irvine would be the guy who wrote the ending of Lightning Returns. Also, I don't think this is ever explicitly mentioned, but Irvine actually isn't a SeeD. That term only applies to Balamb graduates. It doesn't really make any sense when you consider the importance of the SeeD program and the fact that Galbadia Garden is the biggest Garden, but that's the way things are.
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Mar 21, 2015 22:39
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Kajeesus posted:I'm pretty sure Irvine would be the guy who wrote the ending of Lightning Returns. No, no, that's Seifer. 
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Mar 21, 2015 22:48
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Kajeesus posted:I'm pretty sure Irvine would be the guy who wrote the ending of Lightning Returns. SeeD candidates from other Gardens transfer to Balamb for the exam. It's basically like three schools in the same system--just only one has the exam, so the other ones have to travel there to take it.
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Mar 21, 2015 22:51
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Kajeesus posted:Also, I don't think this is ever explicitly mentioned, but Irvine actually isn't a SeeD. That term only applies to Balamb graduates. It doesn't really make any sense when you consider the importance of the SeeD program and the fact that Galbadia Garden is the biggest Garden, but that's the way things are. It does come up at some point, but I'm not sure whether it's in the required scenes or if it's NPC dialogue.
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Mar 21, 2015 23:40
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Kajeesus posted:Also, I don't think this is ever explicitly mentioned, but Irvine actually isn't a SeeD. That term only applies to Balamb graduates. It doesn't really make any sense when you consider the importance of the SeeD program and the fact that Galbadia Garden is the biggest Garden, but that's the way things are. My understanding of it is that Galbadia Garden trains future soldiers for the Galbadian Army (whereas Balamb trains mercenaries for hire), so when you consider the quality of the average Galbadian soldier it calls into question the quality of education at the place. Also who even knows what the heck Trabia does since I'm pretty sure it's mentioned that they don't train SeeD's either (hence why Selphie transferred) and they have no army seriously why does that place exist
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Mar 21, 2015 23:48
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Regalingualius posted:Does that make Irvine the guy who spent a year rendering a rock as realistically as possible? Kajeesus posted:I'm pretty sure Irvine would be the guy who wrote the ending of Lightning Returns. Nope, sorry. He's the one behind Vanille's l'cie mark location.
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Mar 22, 2015 00:29
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RareAcumen posted:Nope, sorry. He's the one behind Vanille's l'cie mark location. And character design, and voice actor's combat quotes, and her relationship with Fang.
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Mar 22, 2015 01:03
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You know, we've already had a situation like this, with a complex plan that relies on everything going off exactly and has major holes if you think about it for more than a minute, and an improvised plan that relies on bulling through any obstacles. Interesting.
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Mar 22, 2015 01:15
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dotchan posted:Suddenly, I wonder if this game is not about Teenagers Being Bad At Life but a metaphor the production process at Square--everybody's incompetent (but imagine themselves to be amazing auteurs), rife with emotional/family problems, the plans suck, and just plain bad luck all add up to a great big mess. In which case Final Fantasy VIII is secretly Squaresoft staff's cry for help. (I used to defend this game's story so ardently back in the day. I'm part of the problem.)
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Mar 22, 2015 01:45
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Effectronica posted:You know, we've already had a situation like this, with a complex plan that relies on everything going off exactly and has major holes if you think about it for more than a minute, and an improvised plan that relies on bulling through any obstacles. Interesting. Like father like daughter
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Mar 22, 2015 02:57
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ultrafilter posted:It does come up at some point, but I'm not sure whether it's in the required scenes or if it's NPC dialogue. Required scenes yes. Possibly NPC dialogue as well. There's also a nice subtle touch - there's one part of the game on disc 2, where you're playing as solo Irvine and can run around Balamb Garden... and you can't take the elevator to 3F because that's only for SeeDs. (There are actually a lot of easily missed things in that solo Irvine segment, mostly because it's a super short time window and the game doesn't go out of its way to let you realize you can wander around anywhere except the one room it starts and ends in.)
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Mar 22, 2015 02:58
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Regalingualius posted:No, no, that's Seifer. "I'm gonna tell you about my romantic dream!" (well played  )
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Mar 22, 2015 04:08
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Extra Tasty posted:My understanding of it is that Galbadia Garden trains future soldiers for the Galbadian Army (whereas Balamb trains mercenaries for hire), so when you consider the quality of the average Galbadian soldier it calls into question the quality of education at the place. Also who even knows what the heck Trabia does since I'm pretty sure it's mentioned that they don't train SeeD's either (hence why Selphie transferred) and they have no army seriously why does that place exist Trabia is pretty much (I guess just in case) an orphanage, and then some of the people leave there (like Selphie) to become SeeDs
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Mar 22, 2015 04:59
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Keromaru5 posted:Does anybody have a link to that article/blog post/whatever it was that speculated that Kitase, Nomura, and co. locked themselves in a room for a week to brainstorm, not realizing there was a gas leak, and FFVIII was the result? Yes! (Pre-emptive Spoiler warning) http://socksmakepeoplesexy.net/index.php?a=ff08 quote:"It's like a sword...but it's also a gun," Nomura explains to Uematsu. "A blade that uses bullets! This is the best idea I've ever had. Don't you think?" Uematsu nods, only pretending to listen. He is secretly gawking at the enormous size of Nomura's dilated pupils. quote:Hiroyuki, who has been in a near-catatonic state for the past few hours, begins speaking to Uematsu. Happy Landfill fucked around with this message at 05:54 on Mar 22, 2015 |
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Mar 22, 2015 05:45
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Happy Landfill posted:Yes!
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Mar 22, 2015 06:08
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It is a damned shame that site kind of died... ...unless it's back? Are they doing things? Anyways, I like the tone of the LP so far! Keep it up!
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Mar 22, 2015 09:11
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I'm also enjoying this, even more since the last time I played the game, I was the same age as most of the cast. Time hasn't been kind to this game's plot  I do remember I liked the graphics, didn't understand well the Junction system until the end of Disc 1, and kept hoping for the moment Laguna would take over as main character.
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Mar 22, 2015 09:56
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The reason this game is so good (despite itself) when you look at modern JRPGs, especially FFXIII is - how much of the gameplay so far has been dungeon crawls? There's so much gameplay without it resorting to dungeons, and when it does it's usually very short or gives it a cool gimmick. That's what modern JRPGs (especially FF games) are missing!
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Mar 22, 2015 10:23
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I loving hate how there is so little dungeons in this game. Final Fantasy is and has always been (to me at least) a dungeon crawler with less to not at all interesting story bits in-between. FF8 has a dearth of dungeons with awesome poo poo to do and possibly the least bosses in the entire franchise (I didn't count, okay, but it felt that way), and waaaaay too much running around towns/gardens/trains talking to insane people about their moronic plans. That's probably my main gripe with the game, there is not enough of the potentially interesting actual gameplay.
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Mar 22, 2015 10:33
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Simply Simon posted:I loving hate how there is so little dungeons in this game. Final Fantasy is and has always been (to me at least) a dungeon crawler with less to not at all interesting story bits in-between. FF8 has a dearth of dungeons with awesome poo poo to do and possibly the least bosses in the entire franchise (I didn't count, okay, but it felt that way), and waaaaay too much running around towns/gardens/trains talking to insane people about their moronic plans. That's probably my main gripe with the game, there is not enough of the potentially interesting actual gameplay. I remember FF9 having a good mix of plot sequences, dungeons, and quiet city/world exploration/minigame time. It rarely feels like you're stuck doing any one thing for too long, and basically every dungeon is tied into the main story. I think the system where you switch between party members doing different things helps to keep the plot moving while holding your interest. I wish they would do that with more FF games, I think it worked really well. I think you can see an attempt at it in FF8 with parties being split up for missions, and the Laguna parts, but the main party members don't really have different motivations like in FF9, and haven't had reason to split up and go on separate adventures. Laguna and his friends are great but at this point they have nothing to do with the main quest and I don't remember if there is a satisfying payoff to that plot thread to make up for the confusion.
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Mar 22, 2015 20:06
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LP has totally inspired me to play some FFVIII. Please help me! I want to break the game for fun and I'm not really sure where to start. (I remember last time I played I spent a lot of time Carding the Fasticalon Fs and also playing cards against Dr Kadowaki to get Elnoyle(?) cards - I don't remember if that was to get Tornado junctions or to get Lionheart on disc 1. But it was real tiresome and I started losing my super valuable cards and couldn't win them back and it all went horribly wrong...Very embarrassing.) 1) Any quick and easy advice on breaking the game more than Cool Ghost has? What cards and spells to go for? I always used to draw 100 of everything, so I'm surprised so many of you say you shouldn't have to draw at all. 3) If I can ask, what are the recommended ePSXe settings? I tried googling but it looks uglier than other screenshots I've seen. (Not helped by ePSXe not being very user friendly, at least to an idiot like me.) Thanks in advance. Simply Simon posted:I loving hate how there is so little dungeons in this game. Final Fantasy is and has always been (to me at least) a dungeon crawler with less to not at all interesting story bits in-between. FF8 has a dearth of dungeons with awesome poo poo to do and possibly the least bosses in the entire franchise (I didn't count, okay, but it felt that way), and waaaaay too much running around towns/gardens/trains talking to insane people about their moronic plans. That's probably my main gripe with the game, there is not enough of the potentially interesting actual gameplay. Even when they just do the thing of having you take a few steps and press x to talk to someone instead of just making it one constant cutscene - just that little bit of interaction keeps you that little bit more engaged and in control. VagueRant fucked around with this message at 06:46 on Mar 23, 2015 |
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Mar 23, 2015 06:42
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VagueRant posted:1) Any quick and easy advice on breaking the game more than Cool Ghost has? What cards and spells to go for? I always used to draw 100 of everything, so I'm surprised so many of you say you shouldn't have to draw at all. Just a few things up to this point: 1) You can mod Quistis' card into three Samantha Souls, which refine into 60x Triple spells each. Triple is a rare spell that works great on Junctions. 2) Zell's card mods into 3x Hyper Wrists, which each teach a GF the Str+60% ability. Y'know, if you wanted to hit even harder. 3) If you lose Minimog to the Queen of Cards in Balamb, there's a 50% chance she'll move to Dollet (save beforehand to be sure). After escaping from Timber, you can walk to Dollet, and talk to the Queen, who will mention her father painted a new card. Consequently, a man in the shopping district in Deiling will now have the Kiros card, which mods to 3x Accelerators. They teach a GF the Auto-Haste ability. You can win back Minimog from her son in Dollet, who's involved in a small side quest involving a dog. You can also lose Sacred to her at this point for another card to pop up later on in the game. 4) Minotaur's card refines into 10x Adamantines, which are vital for upgrading to several final weapons. Not as needed, but if you Squall's ultimate weapon on Disc 1 this is the easiest way to get one. 5) Gesper cards turn into Black Holes, which teach Quistis Degenerator. Degenerator is notable in that it kills any non-boss enemy guaranteed, with the exception of maybe two enemies. 6) Scrolls from the Pet Shop in Timber can be refined with Siren's Tool-RF into 10 Wizard Stones each. In turn they can be refined for a variety of spells, including Curaga and Stop.
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Mar 23, 2015 07:01
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Gosh, you're totally the Orange Fluffy Sheep of FFVIII.  Thanks for the info, that stuff alone sounds like it will wonderfully wreck the game. (Also appreciated your info on the game throughout the LP.)My only concern is that if I refine the Zell and Quistis cards, I won't be able to dominate Triple Triad. Gotta have those 9s and As, no? They were the lynchpins of my strategy.
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Mar 23, 2015 08:01
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VagueRant posted:My only concern is that if I refine the Zell and Quistis cards, I won't be able to dominate Triple Triad. Gotta have those 9s and As, no? They were the lynchpins of my strategy. If you aren't spreading Same/Plus, you're playing the boring version of Triple Triad
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Mar 23, 2015 08:06
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VagueRant posted:Are you the one guy they made Final Fantasy XIII for? Wow. I hate all that stuff and really appreciate when a game can tell a story and give you interaction without having to resort to basic kill-mans gameplay. I don't think there is much to argue between us, actually. You just expect a completely different experience from your games and that is fine. I set gameplay above all and the story is at best a pleasant interlude, at worst an annoying distraction. As I hate FF8's story and most of the characters... As someone before said, FF9 really got the balance right even though it has an actually pretty bad combat system (if you can even call it that), it's story and characters and world and music are just so good to me that I'm not really bored even when there is kind of a stretch between dungeons, but even then you can usually play minigames (not bad ones at that) and perform sidequests. The one saving grace FF8 has is that you can Triple Triad all the time, but even that wears thin after a while, for me at least. And for the record, FF13 is loving terrible because it's such a slog, even though it's just "gameplay", for 90% of the game it's so samey and boring and ugh. As an aside, I am now playing Dimensions on my phone, and it tries for a town/dungeon/town/dungeon setup, but you know what? It's also terrible at it. Neither of the two segments are in any way interesting, it just goes to show that the minutiae matter as much as the actual gameplay/story ratio.
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Mar 23, 2015 08:31
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VagueRant posted:1) Any quick and easy advice on breaking the game more than Cool Ghost has? What cards and spells to go for? I always used to draw 100 of everything, so I'm surprised so many of you say you shouldn't have to draw at all. I'm not sure to what degree do you want to break the game, but I feel the easiest in terms of effort to cost ratio is: 1 - Get Siren 2 - Make her learn Light Magic Refine 3 - Buy 10 Tents and refine them to 100 Curagas to junction to Health Note - To get the money for 10 Tents, you can either wait till you get paid enough or sell an Occult Fan issue, one of which is hidden in the Balamb library Is it the best? No, there are better spells to Junction to HP but I think it's a good place to start if you want to mess around with Junctions and don't want to spend too much effort doing it. Then you can play more cards and just naturally go through the game and get right to it. GF Skills ability learning order generally should be Refine skills (which are learned easily), then Junction skills, particularly HP, Str and Mag (later on Spd, when they become available). Exception is Quetzacotl, who should be making a bee-line for Card and then Card Mod. Ifrit also should be leveled up a bit if you plan to use Irvine, as he only can learn Ammo Refine at level 10 or so. Don't be afraid to draw, especially if you have characters who aren't doing anything in a fight. This can happen early game where say you only have two GFs with Str Junctions, but you're packing 3 physical fighters. Just don't spend hours upon hours in random battles drawing.
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Mar 23, 2015 08:44
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VagueRant posted:My only concern is that if I refine the Zell and Quistis cards, I won't be able to dominate Triple Triad. Gotta have those 9s and As, no? They were the lynchpins of my strategy. You never need more than 5 GF/player-tier cards to dominate, and you can do so with less, easily enough. Players at this point will only play monster-tier cards whose highest value is 7, and the next tier only goes as high as 8. GF and Player cards are unique and they'll only ever have one. Few small pointers. 1) Make sure to spread the [ALL] rule if you haven't. Just play against the Queen until she uses it, and it'll become Balamb's trade rule. 2) The Queen moves whenever you lose against her. Try to keep her from going anywhere but Dollet and Balamb. Balamb is where you'll want to play cards for the most part anyway. 3) Know which cards go with which magic refine abilities. For example, the Abyss Worm card just needs Quezacotl's refine ability to give you Tornado, while Quistis' card needs Diablos' refine ability, so you can obviously use it until you get him, at least. 4) Don't grind for Elnoyle cards. You need 20 for Squall's ultimate weapon (which is entirely unnecessary if you have poo poo like Tornado/triple-backed strength), and Energy Crystals don't have a useful ability, nor do they refine into anything good for a long-rear end time.
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Mar 23, 2015 10:40
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Kajeesus posted:You never need more than 5 GF/player-tier cards to dominate, and you can do so with less, easily enough. Players at this point will only play monster-tier cards whose highest value is 7, and the next tier only goes as high as 8. GF and Player cards are unique and they'll only ever have one. Few small pointers. All is really bad. It degrades into direct after some number of matches. Direct is whatever cards you have control of at the end of the match you keep. Diff is the rule to go for. A win nets you at least 2 cards and it degrades back to one.
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Mar 23, 2015 15:51
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It does what now? I've never seen that happen. I've had it degrate to [ONE], but that must have been after a hundred matches. Just go play the Queen again if you get a bad rule. E: Moved to new post Zulily Zoetrope fucked around with this message at 16:52 on Mar 23, 2015 |
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Mar 23, 2015 16:15
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Just to clarify, the trade rule for winning cards has a priority order, which goes: All - Winner gains all cards played by loser Direct - Players exchange whatever cards was won in game (entirely possible to win matches but lose valuable cards) Diff(erence) - Winner gains cards equal to difference in points at the end, so if you win by a 6-4 margin, you gain 2 cards, and if you won with 8-2 or better you win all the cards One - Win just one card These trade rules deteriorate over time - a certain amount of games being played - with no warning. So generally, it is preferable to transfer the Diff rule over the All rule because the Diff rule goes down to One, which doesn't make you risk your valuable cards unless you lose, but Direct does.
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Mar 23, 2015 16:32
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After looking into it, here's how changing trade rules work: The Queen has her own rule: every time you challenge her, there's an 85% chance she'll change it one step (One <> Diff <> Direct <> All). She keeps that rule until challenged again. Each region has its own rule, which works as such -Default rule is One. -If you challenge anyone in the region the Queen is in, there's a 35% chance the region will adopt her rule. -This is the only way for Direct to spread; just make sure your last match against the Queen was not a Direct match before challenging anyone else. If you ask her about trade rules, she'll talk about a dominant region and possibly say that people are avoiding risky trades. Here's what that means: -Regional dominance is a simple incremental counter. Whatever region you play your first game in gets a score of 1, and it counts up for every match you play until the counter reaches 10. -Every match you play somewhere else decrements this counter, and once it hits 0, the region you're in becomes the new dominant region. -For every match you play, there's a chance that a random region will adopt the dominant region's rule. This maxes out at 98% after playing 10 matches in a row in the dominant region. -Every time that happens, there's a chance that a random region will adopt the One rule, including the dominant region itself. -This is based on a risky trades factor, which counts up for every match played, but resets at 98%. -If the Queen is still in the dominant region after randomly adopting the One rule, you retain the 35% chance of adopting the Queen's rule every match. tl:dr version: No reason to ever not use All; as long as your most recent match used All you will never see Direct in the wild. If the rule degrades to One but the Queen hasn't left the region, just keep playing and All will show up again. Zulily Zoetrope fucked around with this message at 16:55 on Mar 23, 2015 |
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Mar 23, 2015 16:52
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Man, I like Triple Triad in theory, but all the rule fuckery can really make it a headache (and that writeup didn't even get to all the save scumming and weirdness around trying to spread or eliminate some of the other rules).
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Mar 23, 2015 18:09
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Schwartzcough posted:Man, I like Triple Triad in theory, but all the rule fuckery can really make it a headache (and that writeup didn't even get to all the save scumming and weirdness around trying to spread or eliminate some of the other rules). You can do RNG manipulation to guarantee what rules you spread/eliminate, or just save scum, but at the end of the day if you just get rid of Random and maybe Plus all the worst bits of Triple Triad are gone. Because those two rules are really the only ones that stop you from crushing every card player in the world once you get a couple of high level cards.
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Mar 23, 2015 19:20
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Kajeesus posted:Great trade rule mechanic summary Another tl;dr version is this: - If you play a lot in the region where the Queen currently is, you will usually get the Queen's personal rule and occasionally get One for a few games before it bounces back. - If you play a lot in any of the seven regions where the Queen currently is not, you may or may not start out with a more interesting rule, but when you eventually go to One (which will happen sooner or later), you'll stay there. - In either case, when you've just started playing in a new region, things can temporarily be a little wonky because the dominant region won't be the current region for the first few games.
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Mar 23, 2015 21:29
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Cool Ghost posted:Part Twenty-Seven: What Comes Naturally Err... the last time I made the same request I got a bit of a hostile response, but could you include youtube FMV links in your posts? People generally post them in the thread, but it makes a bit more sense for them to be an integral part of the LP.
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Mar 23, 2015 21:57
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VagueRant posted:1) Any quick and easy advice on breaking the game more than Cool Ghost has? What cards and spells to go for? I always used to draw 100 of everything, so I'm surprised so many of you say you shouldn't have to draw at all. Method A: 1: Learn Ammo-RF on Ifrit, Card Mod, and Str-J on any GF 2: Get to this point in the game, to acquire Irvine 3: Get Irvine's Str as high as possible through a combination of Junctions and weapon upgrades 4: Refine AP ammo from Sharp Spikes or Chef's Knifes (easily obtained through cards 5: Manipulate HP junctions to keep Irvine in critical HP You will now be able to one or two shot any storyline boss (and most optional ones) until almost the end of the game as long as you keep Irvine's STR up. AP ammo ignores defense, meaning that you will be able to hit for 3-6 very high damage (9999 before long) attacks each turn. Method B: Junction 100 Death or Petrify spells to ST-ATK-J, preferably both (on different characters). This will one-shot most regular enemies, as fairly few non-boss enemies will be immune to both, and (in my experience) status resistance tends to be all or nothing in this game.
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Mar 24, 2015 01:18
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I spent eight hours carding and playing cards just to get 100 thundagas and 100 tornados for Dollet.  This is not as easy as Cool Ghost makes it look. I sure hope it's enough to beat the spiderbot.(Thanks for the advice on Diff rules, guys.)
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Mar 24, 2015 10:56
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It will be. Just keep squall at low health and use his limit break or whatever they're called in this game. That'll put out enough damage to drop that robot right there.
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Mar 24, 2015 11:03
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Note that limit breaks ignore elemental and status attack junctions. (They also don't have to worry about accuracy calculations.)
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Mar 24, 2015 14:48
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John Lee posted:It is a damned shame that site kind of died... For a couple years there was radio silence, but now they seem to be back in action. The Final Fantasy guy recently finished a three-part writeup on the Mother franchise which was pretty cool. Kajeesus posted:CARD CHAT I can't help shaking my head every time we go over how intricate they made the rule spreading and trade mechanics for Triple Triad. I can't imagine the minds that thought of these systems and what they would do for something that wasn't a minigame that should never have mechanics this complex. Zeikier fucked around with this message at 00:45 on Mar 25, 2015 |
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Mar 25, 2015 00:39
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