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Maybe the PC release version was different, but I remember FF8 taking you into the menus and SHOWING you junctions and how they increase your stats and poo poo, and explaining how GFs gain new junction abilities as they level up, so I never had any confusion whatsoever. Maybe they didn't do that on the console version for some reason?
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Apr 17, 2015 19:12
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Gus Hobbleton posted:Maybe they didn't do that on the console version for some reason? No, they did it in the console version. I can't remember if it was skippable or not, but they definitely did that. There's even an entire section of the menu available at any point that shows you how all that poo poo works and lets you replay the menu tutorials. As far as in-game dialogue is concerned, yeah, they tried to make the junction mechanics mesh with the gameworld, but they would literally break the 4th wall to explain it to the player.
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Apr 17, 2015 19:16
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zakharov posted:I tried playing 9 recently, but the chocobo tracks on the world map are pretty much invisible on a modern high-res TV Just play it on an emulator, there have been much worse HD remakes. Also I'm not sure how I ever stood playing old JRPGs without savestates and a speedup button.
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Apr 17, 2015 19:34
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zakharov posted:I tried playing 9 recently, but the chocobo tracks on the world map are pretty much invisible on a modern high-res TV BioMe posted:Just play it on an emulator, there have been much worse HD remakes.
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Apr 17, 2015 20:31
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The White Dragon posted:I'm really surprised that they used the native resolution in the PSN versions when FF9's textures are designed to support ultra-sharpness. If you're using a PS2, you can crank up the read speed and use the double texture resolution setting I guess? It's still kinda lacking. Has anyone ROMhacked FF9 to use those high-resolution original pre-rendered backgrounds someone discovered, instead of the downsampled PSX textures? Is that possible/feasible? Combined with running in a higher resolution to show off character model and texture detail, I think that's all FF9 would really need in an HD remake, except for maybe some UI adjustment for aspect ratio.
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Apr 17, 2015 22:11
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General Specific posted:Has anyone ROMhacked FF9 to use those high-resolution original pre-rendered backgrounds someone discovered, instead of the downsampled PSX textures? Is that possible/feasible? Combined with running in a higher resolution to show off character model and texture detail, I think that's all FF9 would really need in an HD remake, except for maybe some UI adjustment for aspect ratio. IIRC, they were the actual background images from the artists' webpages, rather than extracted from the game data.
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Apr 17, 2015 22:51
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Pesky Splinter posted:IIRC, they were the actual background images from the artists' webpages, rather than extracted from the game data. I know; I was comparing it to FF7, where most/all of the original art was discarded completely, and probably not saved anywhere.
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Apr 17, 2015 22:58
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9 is great because literally every menu has a dedicated "ask Mog about this" button.
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Apr 17, 2015 23:35
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General Specific posted:I know; I was comparing it to FF7, where most/all of the original art was discarded completely, and probably not saved anywhere. Ah, sorry, I misread your post.
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Apr 18, 2015 00:03
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Gus Hobbleton posted:Maybe the PC release version was different, but I remember FF8 taking you into the menus and SHOWING you junctions and how they increase your stats and poo poo, and explaining how GFs gain new junction abilities as they level up, so I never had any confusion whatsoever. Maybe they didn't do that on the console version for some reason? The reason I didn't know this when I first played ff8 was because I didn't know English. Got to the boss inn the seed exam and died because I only had attack and no junctions. Never really played it again because I played at a friends house.
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Apr 18, 2015 00:17
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zakharov posted:I tried playing 9 recently, but the chocobo tracks on the world map are pretty much invisible on a modern high-res TV Do like me, play on your Vita.
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Apr 18, 2015 04:51
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FruitPunchSamurai posted:FF8's mechanics are so bizarre for a FInal Fantasy game. It's like the designers were trying to appeal to Saga fans or something when they came up with them. Also the barrel is not that bad and people are babies. Every Final Fantasy game's mechanics are bizarre to some extent. That's their place in the JRPG continuum: FF games change like crazy from game to game and always try new and weird settings and mechanics, Dragon Warrior games change as little as possible in basically every facet.
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Apr 18, 2015 05:39
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MonsieurChoc posted:Do like me, play on your Vita.
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Apr 18, 2015 14:10
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Moltrey posted:The Vita is great because I can play PS1 RPGs from the comfort of my bed and/or toilet. I can do that with my PSP which sadly has seen better days. Its a 1000.
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Apr 18, 2015 16:14
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Fedule posted:9 is great because literally every menu has a dedicated "ask Mog about this" button. FF9 has a very strange sense of using cutaways almost like a play does with its Active Time Events, which I really loved because the whole thing became almost theatrical in its sense of "MEANWHILE CLOSE IN ON A SCENE OUTSIDE A BAR IN LINDBLUM" and it would just be like some sort of weird almost-somewhat-related soliloquy it was awesome.
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Apr 19, 2015 00:07
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FinalGamer posted:Seriously, it's not even like the characters telepathically know about it or anything, it's something YOU the watcher/player must see to understand how the game works because every other character knows this poo poo already. I think it's entirely possible that this game that begins and ends with a play and whose villain speaks 90% in stage metaphors might have several other theatrical influences!
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Apr 19, 2015 00:14
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FinalGamer posted:Seriously, it's not even like the characters telepathically know about it or anything, it's something YOU the watcher/player must see to understand how the game works because every other character knows this poo poo already. FF9 is definitely going for the "play" vibe. I mean, the start of disc 3 with Eiko's love letter shenanigans is completely set up like a Shakespearean comedy, with characters constantly missing each as one exits stage left and the other enters stage right, with endless misunderstandings that still end up bringing characters together romantically... Man, that section is handled fantastically.
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Apr 19, 2015 00:16
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Schwartzcough posted:FF9 is definitely going for the "play" vibe. I mean, the start of disc 3 with Eiko's love letter shenanigans is completely set up like a Shakespearean comedy, with characters constantly missing each as one exits stage left and the other enters stage right, with endless misunderstandings that still end up bringing characters together romantically... And neither character was who the notes were for.
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Apr 19, 2015 01:06
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Moltrey posted:The Vita is great because I can play PS1 RPGs from the comfort of my bed and/or toilet. Having all of the final fantasies from 1 through x-2 including tactics is a pretty awesome thing. Suikoden and p3 / p4g are good too I guess. Schwartzcough posted:FF9 is definitely going for the "play" vibe. I mean, the start of disc 3 with Eiko's love letter shenanigans is completely set up like a Shakespearean comedy, with characters constantly missing each as one exits stage left and the other enters stage right, with endless misunderstandings that still end up bringing characters together romantically... The whole game is really well set up in a referential sense. It's such a shame that it was overshadowed by so much else in the industry at the time (ps2 and FFX most obviously)
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Apr 19, 2015 08:30
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Chapter 101 - Jump Puzzles Gorgeous as the backgrounds may be, this is one of those really experimental places that work better in theory than in practice.  I mean, some places are only meant for the Game Designer to have fun.  The theme of this place is carnivorous plants. We feed them frogs and insects so we can pass through them. This one here is an exception, we can just walk over it and get the item as long as we don't get too close to the center.  You get to battle some plants.  I don't know if this thing is cute, terrifying or overly-detailed.  Since I didn't remember jack of this place I decided to go blind and figure it out as I go. Notice the poor little insect down the bottom unaware I was trying to feed him to the plant. You have a fixed amount of stuff to feed these plants per screen, so in this case you grab all the animals in the screen here and feed them to the plants in succession before they digest the little things and toss you out.  The place is an item pińata, although we don't have an use for most of them at this point.  I love these backgrounds.  Oh look, a materia!   Yea, this one is a bit hungrier. We'll have to figure it out.  Time to hold some flower stamens. Let's just pretend they're vines.  Whee  This is one weird place to narrate with screenshots.  Here's something - We pick up that frog to the right...  Feed the frog to this plant. Because the frog is so big, the plant isn't able to digest it properly -  Eventually vomiting the frog and pushing me upwards.  We pick up the... rock? Bee hive? Whatever the hell that is up top and feed the plant.  And get the [Slash-All] Materia. Although the name seems incredibly intuitive (hits every single one of your enemies) this materia evolves to give you the [Flash] Command, which inflicts the Death ailment to all the enemies in the screen. Which is one of the most awkward things because a lot of enemies are immune to instant Death and Flash doesn't deal any damage, leaving you with either an incredibly good ability or a useless command that's replacing 4x-Cut. Either way, we need it for, you know, completion.  Let's move on. Since the frog wasn't digested we can use it again to jump this plant.  I really would like to see this place in a full remake, with all those glorious godrays.  These are lots of elements in one screen.  This vine takes us upward, leading us closer to the canopy.  Another gorgeous background. There's a layer of flares/godrays in front of the background that moves as you go, making it really trippy.  We get our second and last [Minerva Band], which should be enough to cover your whole party unless you somehow managed to revive Aeris.  Back to the forest above we can go a bit to the right. There are two routes here, up and down. If we go up -  - after going completely Tarzan -  - we get the Typoon/Typhon summon materia, which for some reason isn't drawn as a materia on the ground. And without a doubt the strangest summon in the game/series.  If instead we go down we find ourselves on this conveniently placed vine.  This last puzzle here involves some backtracking. We feed an insect to the plant in order to get the Wasp Nest thingie, drop it on the plant and go back.  We toss an insect in front of the tree hollow attracting a frog.  And put the frog inside this rightmost plant which sends us flying to the exit.  This damp cave leads us right to the exit of the forest. Pressing the Square button anytime you're in the Ancient Forest sends you to the first screen, so it's easy to go back in case you've missed something.  The [Apocalypse] is the last important item to be acquired here.  It's a Triple-Growth weapon with three unlinked slots. There's only one other Triple-Growth weapon in the game, Cid's Scimitar.  There's also an Elixir in this room. This place has one of the strongest lighting tints in the game. Look how green Cloud is.  And we're out. We're now almost done with the side-quests! NEXT TIME: We may or may not be done with the side-quests. 
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Apr 20, 2015 22:58
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Elentor posted:
The voting is long since over, but I almost regret not pushing for this screen. It's a beautiful shot. This area can be annoying as gently caress if you don't know what your doing. Only on my most recent play-throughs have I finally memorized the sequence to do it without a guide. For those of you who went through this area without using any sort of guide your first time, how long did it take to do?
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Apr 20, 2015 23:17
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AndwhatIseeisme posted:The voting is long since over, but I almost regret not pushing for this screen. It's a beautiful shot. forever. I'm trying to think of a good timing/platforming based puzzle in an RPG like this and coming up short.
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Apr 20, 2015 23:26
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AndwhatIseeisme posted:This area can be annoying as gently caress if you don't know what your doing. Only on my most recent play-throughs have I finally memorized the sequence to do it without a guide. For those of you who went through this area without using any sort of guide your first time, how long did it take to do? When I played this as a child I was much too impatient (read: stupid) to figure it all out, as far as I can recall I was perfectly happy to leave without all the loot. All I know is that I scooped up slash-all. It wasn't until I replayed a few years later and had the sense to go straight to gamefaqs.
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Apr 20, 2015 23:59
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I recall getting both the summon and the weapon when I played the first time without any guides on the place. Somehow.
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Apr 21, 2015 00:20
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AndwhatIseeisme posted:The voting is long since over, but I almost regret not pushing for this screen. It's a beautiful shot. I don't remember the first time, but I skipped this place in all but one of my playthroughs. It's been like 10 years+ I think since I've last visited it, so I went in pretty much blind for this run. I know that's not the same as 100% blind, but it was very annoying and took me some time. I don't know how long it would have been if I wasn't doing an LP (because I keep backtracking and saving/loading to get screenshots) but it would probably be 30-40 minutes including the battles.
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Apr 21, 2015 01:02
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drat. All I remembered of that place was the forest and the cave. You’d think carnivorous plants would stick in the mind more.  Well, and Slash-All. Got a lot of use out of that. 
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Apr 21, 2015 04:53
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I think a slightly nifty thing about one of the enemies (the giant bird dudes) is that you can steal Wizard Bangles from them. Not that great, but hey armor farming. I keep forgetting if the Spring Gun Clip is long range or not. I always thought Red XIII had a long-range clip for whatever reason. Is the Supershot another 255 accuracy gun for Vincent or just some random trash weapon (this game has a real habit of throwing tons of weapons at you either on top of another or long after they'd be relevant)?
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Apr 21, 2015 05:32
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I never used Slash-All very much when I played this. It comes a bit too late to be useful against groups of regular enemies, and most of the big fights in the second half of the game are against one-target bosses. Double Cut / Quad Cut is just more effective, I think.
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Apr 21, 2015 05:37
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The forest is very strange in general. Rewards-wise it's on a very rough par with the Gelnika, but it's considerably harder to get to; fighting Ultimate to get there will put it after Midgar Raid, meaning most of its rewards are actually outdated pretty much, but getting to it with Chocobos means you'll have considerably nicer Materia than it drops as well. Overall it's just going to be the least rewarding of the major sidequests. Although Apocalypse IS very nice.
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Apr 21, 2015 06:59
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Can't you just run through the plants, like they damage your HP but you progress?
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Apr 21, 2015 07:45
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This dungeon would have been great without random encounters.
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Apr 21, 2015 08:05
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Wow, I have absolutely zero memories of this thing, and I still roughly recall everything else. Maybe I just rushed post-midgard? On the balance, that seems like the right decision.
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Apr 21, 2015 08:22
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The music in that place is the same as in several other dungeons, but it's always nice and atmospheric. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ti_iazvRLD4 Zeikier posted:I keep forgetting if the Spring Gun Clip is long range or not. I always thought Red XIII had a long-range clip for whatever reason. Is the Supershot another 255 accuracy gun for Vincent or just some random trash weapon (this game has a real habit of throwing tons of weapons at you either on top of another or long after they'd be relevant)? I'm fairly sure the Hairpin is Red XIII's only long range weapon. Spring Gun Clip's gimmick is that it gives a massive boost to Magic compared to his other weapons. As for Vincent, Sniper CR and Longbarrel are the only 255% weapons he has, but Supershot is a solid weapon and one of the strongest in the game both attack- and magic-wise albeit with no materia growth. If you didn't find Death Penalty it's noticeably stronger than his other guns. Kanfy fucked around with this message at 08:42 on Apr 21, 2015 |
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Apr 21, 2015 08:32
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Pretty sure you can access this area as soon as you have a green chocobo, so how would the loot compare to earliest point available? Also, Typoon is a very strange summon that I am very curious to see if you can figure out a decent use for it.
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Apr 21, 2015 09:38
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VagueRant posted:Can't you just run through the plants, like they damage your HP but you progress? Nope, they swallow you, chew on you a bit and then throw you back where you were.
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Apr 21, 2015 10:16
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Wow...I forgot how beautiful the Ancient Forest looked, one of my favourite things about FF7 is all the godrays of light and how it just tints everything to have either a sense of small hope like in Midgar to add colour to the dreariness, or a sense of reverence like in this place.Schwartzcough posted:FF9 is definitely going for the "play" vibe. I mean, the start of disc 3 with Eiko's love letter shenanigans is completely set up like a Shakespearean comedy, with characters constantly missing each as one exits stage left and the other enters stage right, with endless misunderstandings that still end up bringing characters together romantically... That really was handled beautifully, it was nice to have some camaraderie especially after the rather sudden tragedies at the end of disc 2.
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Apr 21, 2015 10:37
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John Liver posted:I never used Slash-All very much when I played this. It comes a bit too late to be useful against groups of regular enemies, and most of the big fights in the second half of the game are against one-target bosses. Double Cut / Quad Cut is just more effective, I think. Slash-All and Apocalypse together is a really good way to grind materia, so for us dumb completionist idiots this place is a must. Neither is useful at all for the rest of the game from this point, though.
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Apr 21, 2015 12:12
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This update: UGH, the forest. I wonder how many players even entered the place, much less got all the treasures. Last update: UGH, Ultima Weapon. If I remember correctly you have to bash it to make it actually land, so during my last playthrough I lost track of Ultima while it was flying around and the search lasted a solid 20 minutes. 20 minutes!! Meanwhile, the first time I played FFVI, I swear to God I accidentally ran into loving DoomGaze/DeathGaze within 10 seconds of acquiring the airship (and it killed me, forcing me to restart the boss right before it too). I was terrified of using the airship from that point forward, just waiting for it to happen again...
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Apr 21, 2015 17:43
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Man with Hat posted:Slash-All and Apocalypse together is a really good way to grind materia, so for us dumb completionist idiots this place is a must. There's a better Slash-All later on that doesn't incidentally turn into the useless Flash command later on, anyway.
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Apr 21, 2015 17:48
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Flash has its uses, even if limited ones. It's great for grinding the enemies near Mideel. Still annoying that leveling the materia up restricts its functionality, though,
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Apr 21, 2015 17:54
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