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i'm very excited to see what modders make happen with FFVPR
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Nov 1, 2021 05:48
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Countblanc posted:i'm very excited to see what modders make happen with FFVPR Put V’s job system in every other PR? 4 job fiesta the entire set of 2d FFs
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Nov 1, 2021 07:03
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Or the other way around; make every character archetype from the other FF games available in FF5. "This Fiesta I got Cecil, Firion, Cyan, and Monk."
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Nov 1, 2021 08:02
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All-Umaro run could probably be easier than all-Berserker if whoever did it could kludge in his accessory attacks
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Nov 1, 2021 08:17
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One thing I love about FFXII is just how much the Esper boss battle theme stands out from the rest of the game's music. Most of the game's music, even boss themes, can often be pretty restrained. And then there's the Esper battle theme, which is more bombastic even than the final boss theme. It's such a great like oh poo poo theme, especially when you just wander into an Esper's battle arena without knowing ahead of time what you were getting yourself into. Side note, good god do the Espers ever earn that intimidating theme with the Struggle for Freedom mod. Even Belias, the first Esper you fight and a pushover in TZA, is pretty drat threatening with the SFF mod.
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Nov 1, 2021 13:49
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The last time I was truly wowed by PS2 graphics were the esper fights, specifically the first time I ran into Belias. Whatever frame-buffer effect they used during those battles made them look unreal, especially in 2006.
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Nov 1, 2021 14:26
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I looked through some of the esper designs last week. I had never noticed that Belias is a smaller humanoid torso embedded in the much larger body. Zodiark is kind of lame though. https://twitter.com/vgcartography/status/1452692751116607492?s=20
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Nov 1, 2021 14:37
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Harrow posted:One thing I love about FFXII is just how much the Esper boss battle theme stands out from the rest of the game's music. Most of the game's music, even boss themes, can often be pretty restrained. And then there's the Esper battle theme, which is more bombastic even than the final boss theme. It's such a great like oh poo poo theme, especially when you just wander into an Esper's battle arena without knowing ahead of time what you were getting yourself into. They don’t gently caress around in SFF but yeah, the fights are really well designed in SFF. Vanilla, pretty much every single fight (espers included) was a roll-eyes emoji Zodiark is a great fight too because you very much get the impression you should not be there, by way of mechanics. The trash is very hard and exhausting (in many ways) and the Zodiark fight itself is very spiky and difficult where you never really feel confident you’re strong enough to beat it, even if you’re at- or above-level. And the enemies you fight are all weak to holy, so the best way to fight them is to just blast them with holy but that takes a LOT of MP and has a long lead up. It reminded me a lot of those early MMO days where everything feels dangerous in a new area, even when your group is easily clearing it. That feeling when you were concerned that one bad pull would wipe your group, etc. jokes fucked around with this message at 15:04 on Nov 1, 2021 |
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Nov 1, 2021 14:59
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jokes posted:They don’t gently caress around in SFF but yeah, the fights are really well designed in SFF. I was sorta impressed by how SFF has already disrupted the way I usually play. In TZA, I usually spend some time grinding skeletons in the Lhusu Mines the first time I'm there, on that one bridge where skeletons spawn almost endlessly, so that I can sell the Bone Fragments and buy good gear. In SFF, though, those skeletons were way too dangerous to do that with, even with I did stop to grind the Alraune walking-tomato dudes at the Ogir-Yensa Sandsea for a bit to sell Succulent Fruits but poo poo, sometimes you just need some money, y'know?
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Nov 1, 2021 15:19
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I’m glad you’re digging FF12 with SFF; It definitely made FF12 go from kind of a non-entry in my FF tier list to top three
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Nov 1, 2021 15:23
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I think SFF had more of an uphill battle for me because I already loved FFXII and had sorta just accepted that it was pretty easy unless you were going after hunts/Espers as early as possible. Kind of like FFIX, which is pretty much effortlessly easy almost the whole way through but I can just make my peace with that, kick back, and have a chill time. So at the start, I think I was kinda frustrated with SFF. I felt like it was pushing back too hard when I didn't really have the tools to respond to it. The Mimic Queen boss fight felt really tedious and annoying and I was running low on patience since I was already annoyed at how many flans I had to fight through along the way... but then I remembered that I had just taught Balthier Oil, and Fran had Fire, and Oil got a huge buff in SFF (it has a duration, rather than being consumed by the first fire attack that hits the target). So I was able to land Oil on the Mimic Queen and just nuke her down and it felt like an actual strategy. That was pretty cool. I imagine later on, I'm going to really love my Time Mage's status effects--in TZA you only really need to give a poo poo about those if you're trying to do hunts underleveled, but here, I bet being able to Immobilize or Disable normal enemies will be very important. I don't know if I would've gotten through the Dreadnaught Leviathan section without having taught three of my characters quickenings, though. That fight with the two Judges and their minions was nuts and I wouldn't have made it if I couldn't just nuke the last one with a quickening chain. One thing I'm curious about is whether I'm going to like my Black Mage as much as I like the job in TZA. On the one hand I think it's smart to give each element its own identity (Fire does the most damage and can inflict Oil, Blizzard is always AoE, Thunder is instant-cast, Aero can Immobilize, Water has a low MP cost); on the other, I worry that I'm going to be frustrated at Black Mage's relative lack of AoE later in the game, when I'm used to being able to AoE down mob packs. Only Blizzard being AoE is a big adjustment, though it might make my Red Mage more valuable, since Dark is AoE. Red Mage's MP management is way better, too, since they're the only job that can get Warmage until the tail end of the game (Black Mage can get it if you give them Ultima). If I wasn't set on using all 12 jobs and not doubling up I'd go Black Mage/Red Mage just for that, but with using all 12 jobs I think it's more valuable to have them on separate characters. Harrow fucked around with this message at 15:36 on Nov 1, 2021 |
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Nov 1, 2021 15:33
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Wait wtf is up with those wings. Does Zodiark have those? I don't remember him having wings. Edit: Oh wait, that's his true summon form, that's pretty cool.
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Nov 1, 2021 15:40
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Another thing on SFF, the creator of it is currently beta testing a Proud Mode version that's even harder. It also adds a couple of interesting things, like a pseudo-blue magic system (there's a way to get motes that let you use enemy skills) and Dia spells for White Mages. I dunno if I'd ever want it to be even harder than it currently is, but the other additions seem cool and I imagine they'll eventually be added to the normal SFF mod once they're fully tested. Also they share my opinion that Red Mages should be using rapiers instead of maces so maybe in a future version they'll be able to implement more rapiers than just Joyeuse  WaltherFeng posted:Wait wtf is up with those wings. Does Zodiark have those? I don't remember him having wings. Normally he doesn't but they burst forth when he does his super move. It's pretty cool.
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Nov 1, 2021 15:43
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Why the gently caress did they give red mages clubs in FF12? Red Mages from the beginning: swords/rapiers, fancy hat, lil bit of white and a lil bit of black.
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Nov 1, 2021 15:47
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FF12's summons and limit breaks both do some incredible work with the lights, shooting beams and sheets of color and void like tentacles, blurry waves and I don't even know how to describe it. I have tried to find a technical breakdown of how some of the effects were done. I get the impression they ONLY work when everything else is hidden except for the single model in question and a ton of particles.
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Nov 1, 2021 15:55
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jokes posted:Why the gently caress did they give red mages clubs in FF12? It's a side effect of the original PS2 version of the game, where there weren't any jobs at all. Maces are the only melee weapon that scale only with Magick Power (as opposed to katanas, which scale mostly with Strength but also some with Magick Power), so they were useful to give to a character who relies mostly on magick. I bet that was intended for your white magick user, the whole mace-wielding cleric thing, more than anything else. (Of course, in the original PS2 version, you weren't likely to have a character who relied on magick anyway--magick was weaker than physical attacks for DPS, and quickenings used MP rather than a separate mist gauge, so you were unlikely to ever build someone primarily as a spellcaster, even before you reach the "everyone just unlocks everything" stage of the game.) When they added jobs in the International Zodiac Job System version, they wanted Red Mages to be able to be melee-mages, and the easiest way to do that without also making their magick too weak would be to give them melee weapons that scale with Magick Power. In FFXII, those are maces, so we get mace-wielding Red Mages. Unfortunately there are only two rapier models in the game files--one is Larsa's Joyeuse, and the other is a more plain-looking sword that's an unused model. The SFF creator actually wants to just outright replace maces with rapiers, but there just aren't enough rapier models in the game to make that actually feasible. Harrow fucked around with this message at 16:13 on Nov 1, 2021 |
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Nov 1, 2021 16:10
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Harrow posted:One thing I love about FFXII is just how much the Esper boss battle theme stands out from the rest of the game's music. Most of the game's music, even boss themes, can often be pretty restrained. And then there's the Esper battle theme, which is more bombastic even than the final boss theme. It's such a great like oh poo poo theme, especially when you just wander into an Esper's battle arena without knowing ahead of time what you were getting yourself into. This theme comes back in Castrum Lactus Latore which is a raid in FF14 which is part of a long running homage to FF12/FFT in the game
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Nov 1, 2021 16:21
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jokes posted:It reminded me a lot of those early MMO days where everything feels dangerous in a new area, even when your group is easily clearing it. That feeling when you were concerned that one bad pull would wipe your group, etc. I'm not at the end-game, but man that's a great way to put the feeling of the optional zones in this SFF mod. I tried to fight both Adramelech and Zalera at around level 25, and the enemies were demolishing me. It's kind of a great feeling to suddenly discover you wandered one zone too deep and just get molly-whopped by 4 skeletons and 3 ghosts. I was able to cheese a win against the goat, but even now that I'm about 10 levels higher, I'm scared to challenge the other espers. I know I can reach Cúchulainn now too, but those gimmicks frighten me. Harrow posted:One thing I'm curious about is whether I'm going to like my Black Mage as much as I like the job in TZA... I worry that I'm going to be frustrated at Black Mage's relative lack of AoE later in the game, when I'm used to being able to AoE down mob packs. Only Blizzard being AoE is a big adjustment Yeah, the lack of non-Blizzard AoE tripped me up at first, but I like how that change made at least a couple encounters I never thought twice about way more distinct by not allowing me to just nuke everyone with their weakness. The class is still pretty good though, especially because debuffs are even more useful than they already were in the base game, so being able to get saps and blinds and diseases off is pretty game-changing at times. I also like all of the weapon hit-effect changes for similar reasons. There've been a few fights now where it paid off to give someone in the party a weaker weapon I saved because it gave something like slow or silence on hit, and to be proportionally rewarded for sacrificing DPS in an RPG is something I feel rarely happens, and I appreciate seeing it.
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Nov 1, 2021 16:27
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Blue Labrador posted:Yeah, the lack of non-Blizzard AoE tripped me up at first, but I like how that change made at least a couple encounters I never thought twice about way more distinct by not allowing me to just nuke everyone with their weakness. The class is still pretty good though, especially because debuffs are even more useful than they already were in the base game, so being able to get saps and blinds and diseases off is pretty game-changing at times. That's the biggest mental adjustment I'm needing to make from TZA, I think. In TZA, a lot of character-building--largely because the game is so easy most of the time--comes down to just "how can I get the most DPS and kill enemies/bosses the most efficiently?" You pair up Knight with something that has robes so you can boost Excalibur with White Robes and just crush endgame enemies, for example. But SFF is actually balanced so that DPS isn't everything. That's pretty impressive for an RPG, yeah, and a big change from what I'm used to in TZA. When I was considering playing with the Struggle boards, I was disappointed that Balthier was stuck with guns and spears (and his spears would do crappy damage without heavy armor to boost Strength), and without much magick, just some Green Magick and item lores. It looked to me like he'd be pretty much dead weight after the early game. But now that I've seen the rest of the mechanical changes, he wouldn't be that at all. He's the only character in the Struggle/Freedom version who gets all the Green Magick. He's the only character who gets all the item lores. He's a support god in a game where that actually matters. That's why I decided to make him a Machinist/Time Mage for my rebalanced jobs playthrough, to sorta capture that idea even though I'm using the job system instead of the Struggle/Freedom boards.
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Nov 1, 2021 16:34
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Electromax posted:I looked through some of the esper designs last week. I had never noticed that Belias is a smaller humanoid torso embedded in the much larger body. Zodiark is kind of lame though. We're finally going to be fighting this loving thing in Endwalker. Get hype bitches!
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Nov 1, 2021 17:44
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HD DAD posted:The last time I was truly wowed by PS2 graphics were the esper fights, specifically the first time I ran into Belias. Whatever frame-buffer effect they used during those battles made them look unreal, especially in 2006. FF12 really does have great art/graphic direction, it still looks great today 15 years on with just a little upscaling to go beyond the hardware of the PS2. I've kind of always wondered why the FF games have basically always been the best looking JRPGs - obviously they have always had huge budgets but like, 15 years later the Tales series still doesn't have any of the character that even FF9 or 10 or 12 had
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Nov 1, 2021 18:14
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I've been playing both FFXII and Assassin's Creed 2 concurrently (my partner likes to watch story-focused games and was interested in seeing the Ezio games) and it's really driving home just how incredible FFXII looked for its time. Comparing the faces and facial animation between FFXII, a PS2 game, and AC2, a PS3/360 game, is remarkable. Even just taking the original PS2 version of FFXII and upscaling it, it still looks miles better. For me, FFXII is the most technically-impressive game Square Enix ever made. They've made much more technically advanced games since, games that look incredible in their own right, but taking into account the hardware they were working with, FFXII is pretty insane.
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Nov 1, 2021 18:18
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Paperhouse posted:I've kind of always wondered why the FF games have basically always been the best looking JRPGs - obviously they have always had huge budgets but like, 15 years later the Tales series still doesn't have any of the character that even FF9 or 10 or 12 had The FF games by-and-large have genuinely superb art direction. There seems to be a strong insistence on giving each entry a visual distinctiveness that'll make it stand out even a decade after release. It's clear that the art teams do an enormous amount of research for visual inspiration and guiding motifs and work to maintain that consistency throughout, and they have some absurdly talented concept artists that can come up with truly unique mergers of styles and places. Like, when was the last time you saw a concept piece that looked quite like this?  I haven't played the Tales series much, but my biggest takeaway from their overall art and style is that they're largely fairly derivative of both their previous entries and of that kind of "high fantasy anime" aesthetic in general. There's nothing wrong with being derivative, especially if you're able to execute it in such a clean and visually impressive way as the Arise team did, but it ends up lending it a feeling of having been something you've seen done a dozen different times before across various mediums. By comparison, the look and feel of places like Rabanastre or Archaedes have stuck with me ever since I set foot in them, even though the actual graphical fidelity is an absurd downgrade compared to even Berseria. Being able to create a style that's unique enough to really make you remember it in a sea of media is a part of why the FF games feel a lot more timeless than many of their contemporaries.
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Nov 1, 2021 18:37
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I mean, it was essentially the same team who worked on Vagrant Story, which also pushed the PS1 to its absolute limits. I think their basic schtick was using relatively low poly models, making up the difference in processing power with more detailed textures, and then creative layering of 2D planes and elements. But that doesn’t include the masterful animation of hair, clothes, and facial expressions.
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Nov 1, 2021 18:47
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Ohtsam posted:Put V’s job system in every other PR? Once FF6PR comes out: FF5 4JF with FF6 characters as classes. Umaro risk. 
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Nov 1, 2021 18:52
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I know folks are able to edit job commands in FFIII PR but I don't think anybody has transplanted mechanics from one game to the other like the job system from III to any others.
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Nov 1, 2021 19:48
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Countblanc posted:i'm very excited to see what modders make happen with FFVPR Replace the model of one Aerith's weapons with the folding chair
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Nov 1, 2021 19:51
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Vermain posted:The FF games by-and-large have genuinely superb art direction. There seems to be a strong insistence on giving each entry a visual distinctiveness that'll make it stand out even a decade after release. It's clear that the art teams do an enormous amount of research for visual inspiration and guiding motifs and work to maintain that consistency throughout, and they have some absurdly talented concept artists that can come up with truly unique mergers of styles and places. Theyre so good at this that their early 2000s MMO, a genre which is almost required to look ugly and unappealing, still looks pretty drat good 20 years later
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Nov 1, 2021 20:45
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Hell, it applies to the rest of their franchises as well. Most Square games on the SNES/PS1 in particular are loving gorgeous.
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Nov 1, 2021 21:58
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I only now got around to the FFI Pixel Remaster, and it's been fairly smooth sailing so far. WAR, MON, WHM, BLM is pretty vanilla but it's been ages since I played Final Fantasy. Everything moves at a nice brisk pace. . . until the Marsh Cave. That place is still a pain in the rear end.
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Nov 1, 2021 22:36
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Just beat Voice of Cards. Looks like there's multiple endings though, as I had four choices of what action to take after beating the final boss. The last one seems like it's probably the "good" choice, but I decided to go for one of the others instead, which was...kind of a downer, in many ways. Without too many spoilers, I decided to save the main character's sister, and this resulted in another party member being reduced to what seemed like a mindless zombie, and the realm being plunged into endless war. So yeah, classic Yoko Taro. I was missing a couple of enemies' flipside stories (you unlock the flipside story after beating five of that enemy), I don't know if getting everything is required for what I assume is the good choice. I also never unlocked the Mar Avatar customization option, and it has to be from doing something in game because it doesn't have the coin icon in the corner (which they put on the customization stuff that requires real money purchases). There's also a new game + option after you beat the game, apparently it carries over all your levels and items and gives you a new one (a ring that prevents random encounters). So a few more things to note: I beat the game in around 19 hours. So not a big time investment if you're interested, and the "short" gameplay time (I mean it's about as long as Chrono Trigger) is probably why it's a 30 dollar game. Also much like SMRPG, the level cap is 30, which you'll probably reach pretty easily if you're not trying to run from everything. So honestly the biggest negative I can give the game is the difficulty. I never got a game over and wasn't ever really in danger of getting wiped. I beat every boss on the first try and none of them were too taxing except the final boss, which was actually really good! So let me break down the problems with the difficulty. First, enemies have really low stats. This doesn't matter too much for random encounters as again, it's not like random encounters are usually particularly difficult in most JRPGs. Still, it probably would have helped to double the enemies' stats. You can face a maximum of three enemies in combat and when they all go down pretty easily, this means you're not taking much damage, and the full heal on level up means you rarely have to use healing items or skills. This also really hurts Bruno, but more on that in a bit. Even bosses have pretty low stats and it wasn't uncommon for me to take out a boss in a couple of rounds, the first time I fought the boss in Woodland (which was when my game got corrupted and crashed), I beat it in two rounds. This is due to a problem JRPGs have had for a while. That problem being the second reason for the low difficulty, status effects. There's a few kinds of status effects but really only a couple matter. There's poison (1d6 damage every round), deadly poison (2d6 damage every round), paralyze (prevents any actions), freeze (prevents any actions and makes you take double damage from the next enemy attack, which also unfreezes you), seal (can't use skills that require gems), and curse (healing actions cause damage instead, this works on regen too so Mar's skill that causes him to regen 2 HP every round makes him take 2 damage instead). Anyway, the thing is plenty of bosses are vulnerable to paralyze and freeze, the Woodland boss especially, which is how I beat him in two turns: Melanie cast Freeze because the boss is weak to water, it got frozen, and then Ridis got a critical which dealt a ton of damage from the double damage bonus. Status effects are also fairly easy to inflict. Melanie's Freeze has a 60% chance of inflicting it (roll 5 or higher on a d10) and Ridis' status arrows have a 70% chance of inflicting statuses, plus Ridis has an ability that causes her to deal extra damage on enemies with status effects. I appreciate an attempt to make status effects more useful, but yeah, kinda kills the challenge a bit. The third problem is that for most of the game, there's no reason to not use anyone other than the MC/Melanie/Ridis for every fight. This is because most enemies have an elemental weakness, and Melanie gets access to water/wind/fire/dark/lightning, Ridis gets access to lightning/dark/water, and the MC gets lightning/light. Mar and Bruno have no elemental attacks or statuses really, and their attack power isn't really high enough that they'll do much more damage to enemies, especially when Ridis gets bonus damage on enemies inflicted with status effects (which are easy to inflict). On top of that, gems not being a resource you have to manage between battles means that there's no reason not to go in guns blazing with your strongest attacks. For bosses which are immune to statuses, Ridis is a bit less useful, and Mar can easily be slotted in in her place after he gets his big attack Destruction, which is the most powerful attack in the game. And this leaves Bruno without a role to fill. He does healing stuff (which you rarely need) and stat buffs (which you rarely need due to enemies dying so quickly). There was only one fight I used him in the entire game. So all that said: I really liked the game. It's a game you buy because you like the aesthetic and presentation, or just enjoy Yoko Taro's writing. If you're looking for something challenging or something that's going to keep you occupied for a while, then yeah I'd say skip this, but if you're into how it presents itself and want something on the shorter/cheaper side, this is definitely worth a buy.
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Nov 2, 2021 00:15
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Seems accurate. I'm in chapter 3 now and I've had some close calls because I haven't grinded at all so my equipment is not really up to date. Still pretty easy so far. I'm curious how the game wraps because it's apparently really short, which I don't mind because I'm just here for the story.
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Nov 2, 2021 08:43
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By the way, I did finally get a party wipe. The secret boss that unlocks after you beat the final boss is a lot tougher than anything else in the game, I went into it expecting something on the level of everything else in the game and got a game over for my hubris. It's still not like, super difficult, but I did actually end up finding a use for Bruno, left the MC out of the party, and had to actually think about what accessories to equip and skills to bring. It was a good challenge! Every boss fight in the game should have been like this!
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Nov 2, 2021 09:16
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ffvPR intro + new music https://twitter.com/FinalFantasy/status/1455240975341735937
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Nov 2, 2021 12:12
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Vikar Jerome posted:ffvPR intro + new music looks pretty done to me JUST RELEASE IT ALREADY 
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Nov 2, 2021 12:31
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That meteor looks pretty darn cool. Almost as cool as the music.
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Nov 2, 2021 12:48
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I still can't stop thinking about FF6 PR and how unreasonably annoyed I would be if they just used the same spell animations again. FF6 has such distinctive spell animations and it seems like it would do the game a legitimate disservice to just reuse the same ones yet again.
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Nov 2, 2021 13:46
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When people hear the PR version of 'Searching for Friends' they're gonna need a change of underwear.
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Nov 2, 2021 14:08
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I'm sure I'm not the first to say that I'm anticipating the PR version of Clash on the Big Bridge.
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Nov 2, 2021 14:16
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Harrow posted:I still can't stop thinking about FF6 PR and how unreasonably annoyed I would be if they just used the same spell animations again. FF6 has such distinctive spell animations and it seems like it would do the game a legitimate disservice to just reuse the same ones yet again. As long as they do that triple explosion effect after using a magitek beam, I’ll be cool with it Frankly I kinda wish they did the record keeper effects/animation/artwork for the remakes, or at least had them as an option. Record Keeper looks really, really good (aesthetically).
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Nov 2, 2021 14:20
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