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Update coming up today.
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Aug 3, 2011 00:55
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 00:18 |
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Chapter 24 - In which we do more side-quests Hello, my lovelies. Last chapter we had just finished meeting the Turks in the Mithril Mines. We heard they're going to Junon.   First, we learn [Flame Thrower] from the Dragons at the Mines. Flame Thrower is a crappy one-target attack but we learn it anyway.  We follow them out of the mines. Now we have a whole new world/side of the continent to explore!  In the map, these are the places we've been through, in order: 1 - Midgar, 2 - Kalm, 3 - Chocobo Farm, 4 - Mithril Mines and we're now heading to 5 - A blue dildo with a bird sitting on top of it.  The charms of the PSX Low-Poly Graphics. It was so easy to be a good 3D Artist back then.  Today you have to do the same model 10 times, and at least one of the versions has to have approximately 10 zillion billion polygons.  You then have to bake these 40 quadrillion polygons into Normal Maps, Displacement Maps all over one of the other 20 lower poly-count versions of the same model you did.  Each model has to have at least 30 different texture maps, each doing something entirely different. It's glorious.  This is Fort Condor, a place that's, for the most part, entirely optional. Apparently Shinra is trying to invade it and our brave group acts as investors and strategic planners to the people living here.   No Tifa, by "Shinra", he means "She-ra". She's gonna invade Fort Greyskull any moment now.  Wait, this is not axiomatic. For all intents and purposes we're just people walking around and passing by.  A radio station - the only one in the planet. And we need to turn it on so the Sorceress can broadcast Korean Pop 24/7 to the whole world. You know I'm right. There IS Korea in FF7 and the script gives us empyric proof with the Korean BBQ back in the slums. There's no Japan though.  That sounds like the name of a children story the parents in Nibelheim would read to their kids before bed, about the evil of Shinra.  He really wants to cross the ts and dot the is today.  My point.  Anyway you got the idea. Condor comes in, Shinra wants the materia, and random people decide to throw their lives away for no good reason.  If you're into CGI, Pixar publishes some very good papers on the subject.  Keep in mind they're very math-intensive. You need some good foundation in calculus.  Which you should have, either way. Math is fun.  So, Fort Condor is essentially a Tower Defense mini-game. Every now and then, Shinra will try to attack it and you can help them defend it.  If you defend it successfully, you get a reward. Some rewards are lovely, others are awesome. The problem with Fort Condor is that there's a lot of battles in it that are really easy to miss, and it's also mind-numbingly boring to come back to it every time there's a battle because it's not exactly a place located in a privilleged spot.  So yeah, you put up the very friggin expensive units in the field, and wait until the enemy reaches them.  The game makes sure to stop everything every time combat occurs, which is as annoying as you can imagine.  Eventually you get to fight the commander which is much more powerful than any other unit. If you lose the TD fight, you get to fight the commander with your party instead as a normal battle.   We win and get the first reward, which is the best reward we're getting in this hole for a long time - the [Magic Comb]. That weapon is loving amazing. Not only it has 37 Att which makes it our best weapon so far, it also has Double Materia growth.  I mean, just look at this beauty. Now we can leave this place.  By the way, this is what the reactor and the condor looks like. Like I said, there's a lot of Fort Condor battles. I'll do them offscreen because you really don't want to see it. Whenever I get an interesting reward I'll drop a note.  We now move north. These are the first forests we have access to since everything the other side of the mines has been devastated by the reactors. So let's fight some enemies in it.  These blue birds are NASTY. They deal a lot of damage. In fact, they can deal over 900 damage total in one turn (100 to everyone, 3 times).  Because of that, they're great to train Limits. But they also allow you to steal [Boomerang], which is yet another weapon we can't use   Occasionally, however... you're gonna encounter this girl in the forest. Her name appears as [Mysterious Ninja], so nevermind me about Japan not existing in this game.  She's harder than the average mob, but nothing Choco/Mog can't deal with.  When you win, instead of she disappearing, something else happens -  You're taken to this screen with a Save Point and the girl on the floor.  That's right, lady.  "Spikey-headed jerk" is the most accurate description. I'm liking you, lady.  This chick is actually Yuffie, and she's an optional character that's somewhat easy to miss if you're playing blind.  The reason is that she only appears in Forests as a random encounter, and once you beat her... well, you have to deal with this. The whole screen is actually a huge trap.  If you at any time enter your menu, she'll run away and steal your gil. The Save Point is also a trap - using it will make her seize the opportunity to run away.  And then there's the fact that if at any moment you choose the wrong option, she'll just leave.  The correct answers are the ones that massage her ego, basically.    Even in this screen, if you ask her name, she leaves. The developers really wanted to piss you off here.   And now we have a new addition to our team. Hooray!  Yuffie is a Love or Hate character.  Most people either really like her, or really hate her. Personally, I really like Yuffie, because her comments tend to be very down-to-earth.  I commented early on in spoilers that having Yuffie in your party is almost like having a LPer following you. She tends to offer an outsider's view of the situation which can lead to some very funny and amusing dialogue. Anyway, she starts with this unique materia, [Throw]. It allows you to pick up a weapon you have unequipped and throw at the enemy, dealing more damage than a normal attack command normally would.  And look how convenient, we can even equip her [Boomerang] weapon.  Yuffie as a Combat character is also very interesting. She's easily dismissed and often counted as weak, but she does bring some interesting stuff to the table: First, all Yuffie weapons are Long Range. Barret, on the other hand, has a lot of weapons that are melee. One of her weapons also has very unique characteristics, which makes it deal full damage using a skill that would otherwise greatly reduce damage output. Her limits are also good. Yuffie is the only character with a controllable healing limit other than Aeris. In fact, her limit 1-2 is EXACTLY like Aeris' 1-1. Other than that, her limits are mostly a rehash of other characters' limits, usually Barret. Her Limit 3-2, however, is VERY good. VERY, VERY good. I'm gonna make use of her so you can see what I mean. Anywayzz  I think this is the real Team FFX-2. Paine, Yuna and Rikku. Since Yuffie is a Ninja, I'm changing color scheme to black. We go to Junon and...  ... what the hell?   This looks like something brought to you straight from Tetsuo the Iron Man.  Shinra did something.   Here's what I don't get - what is it that Shinra intentionally builds suspended/vertical cities on top of existing cities? Just to gently caress them up?   We obviously must ask the barman to continue the storyline.  Isn't that heater an accident waiting to happen?    Oh great, another kid, portrayed as annoyingly as you can. For all the awesome characterization FF7 gives to its main characters, the kids are absolutely boring stereotypes that just annoy you.    Ah, I've been missing the smell of the absolutely meaningless increadibly easy generic boss.  Of course, unlike in the real world where kids are by design easy to frighten so they'll stay away from danger, J-RPG kids have absolutely no instinct of survival whatsoever and instead of crying and running away, they just run straight into a giant sea monster that is 10 times their size.  Bottomswell has the same gimmick Reno had - from time to time he will cast a bubble that will prevent that character from acting. Additionally, the bubble will drain your HP constantly so if you don't break it, the character will die. I've decided to take this opportunity to show off some of the stuff we've got in the past few updates, including the Materias I leveled up while crossing the Mithril Mines (Fire, Lightning, All and Ice are now Level 2). To make it fun, we kill it with JUST skills we've never used in Boss battles before.  And of course, the obligatory video of us exploiting the gently caress out of this game to completely obliterate the poor thing.  Yuffie has one of the fastest Limit learning curves in the game. We killed some enemies in the forest that come in groups of 5 and in no time we opened her Sets 2 and 3. It takes almost as many kills for Yuffie to open her Set 3 as it takes to Cloud open his set 2. Meteorain is Cloud's 3-1. [Fury Brand] is the most overpowered offensive limit in the game. Anyway, another Boss that bites the dust.  We get a Power Wrist, which adds Str to a character.  Now with Priscilla rescued, turns out that she, too, is about to bite the dust.   And with that, I'll finish the update. NEXT TIME: Mini-games! Rewards! Awesome Music! Stuff! 
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Aug 3, 2011 05:10
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Yuffie wasn't that annoying in FF7. Other media tie-ins, however...
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Aug 3, 2011 05:22
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How can you not like Yuffie after seeing her menu portrait? Just look at that poo poo-eating grin! It's hilarious!
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Aug 3, 2011 05:23
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Yuffie's 3-1 limit is pretty much the best Limit in the game, if only because it's Level 3 and consistently fucks the entire game open.
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Aug 3, 2011 05:27
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Fort Condor gives you a ton of different unit types with all sorts of pros and cons, but really the only way to play is to get some relatively fast units and bum rush the bottom of the screen. If you kill all the enemies on screen, you win, even if there are 50 more waiting to take their place. It's just way too expensive to actually fight the battles honestly. Not that it's worth doing the minigame at all after the first 3 battles or so. Also, Yuffie in FF7 is awesome, and anyone who says otherwise is objectively wrong. 
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Aug 3, 2011 05:35
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I kinda find it hilarious that Yuffie's level 4 limit break is probably one of her worst. Her level 3's, hell, one of her level 2's even, are so much better than it.
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Aug 3, 2011 05:38
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Where else can you get Yuffie if you miss getting her before this point?
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Aug 3, 2011 06:15
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You can't miss getting her. Even if you're at the end of the game, you can still go back to that same area and find her.
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Aug 3, 2011 06:17
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Momomo posted:You can't miss getting her. Even if you're at the end of the game, you can still go back to that same area and find her. She can also be found in other forests later in the game, as well. Not just near Junon.
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Aug 3, 2011 06:18
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Azure_Horizon posted:She can also be found in other forests later in the game, as well. Not just near Junon. (I don't want to spoil anything for the thread which is why I'm asking general questions.)
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Aug 3, 2011 06:20
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I used to hate Yuffie thanks to the bad first impression due to that recruitment scene. I then never used her therefore I never really realized how amusing her dialogue was. You should keep her in your party for the rest of the game.
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Aug 3, 2011 06:21
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IllegallySober posted:Is it any forest or specific ones? Any forest in the game (that's not a dungeon)
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Aug 3, 2011 06:26
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Cool, thanks for the info!
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Aug 3, 2011 06:27
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And she apparently doesn't appear until you've taken a trip to Fort Condor. I'm just going by personal experience, but on one playthrough I spent hours in those woods without an encounter. One trip to the fort, and she shows up within three battles.
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Aug 3, 2011 06:32
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Oxxidation posted:And she apparently doesn't appear until you've taken a trip to Fort Condor. I'm just going by personal experience, but on one playthrough I spent hours in those woods without an encounter. One trip to the fort, and she shows up within three battles. Really? I think I skipped Fort Condor my first playthrough and found her easily. From what I've gleamed from some research, she can be found at any time after you leave Midgar, provided you are near a forest.
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Aug 3, 2011 06:35
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Oxxidation posted:And she apparently doesn't appear until you've taken a trip to Fort Condor. I'm just going by personal experience, but on one playthrough I spent hours in those woods without an encounter. One trip to the fort, and she shows up within three battles. That's just coincidence. She can appear anytime.
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Aug 3, 2011 06:45
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Ah, the section coming up is my favourite area in the game :3
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Aug 3, 2011 06:47
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Elentor posted:That's just coincidence. She can appear anytime. Yeah, it was just bad luck. The forests near Junon do have the lowest chance of meeting her, though, at 1/8. If you miss her earlier, there is a forest with a 255/256 chance of her showing up, so you are extremely likely to get her eventually. FAT WORM OF ERROR posted:Ah, the section coming up is my favourite area in the game :3
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Aug 3, 2011 07:20
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I spent hours trying to get her to appear in a few of my games. I once had Condor battles happen during my many forest battles to the point where limits took a while to grow. The game was glitchy and with a horrible slowdown during the ending. The Condor battles also break apart if you try to be clever and stack many static weapons in a crossfire. The upcoming minigame is a mess and succeeds if it feels like it.
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Aug 3, 2011 07:41
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Scalding Coffee posted:The Condor battles also break apart if you try to be clever and stack many static weapons in a crossfire. I know some Condor exploits but not this. Care to elaborate?
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Aug 3, 2011 09:46
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Elentor posted:That's just coincidence. She can appear anytime. I don't know if it's just coincidence as well but in all my playthroughs she only appeared when one of my characters was at least level 19/20, I usually get to the Fort Condor/Junon area at around level 16 and without fail, as soon as I've leveled up a bit she will start to appear in every fourth battle or so but before that, nothing.
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Aug 3, 2011 12:17
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I didn't know there were multiple Condor fights! I thought you just had to protect it once, then I hosed off and never looked back. How good do the rewards get? Glad to have this going again, Elentor!
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Aug 3, 2011 13:47
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Thanks for posting the link to Pixar's papers. They are fascinating reads. I'm not a 3d modeller, probably won't ever be, but I've always wondered about how the math and algorithms of the trade work.
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Aug 3, 2011 14:01
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Ah, finally, the best character in our party. I forgot how hilarious her profile picture looks. Her recruitment scene (besides being a dickish trap) is also pretty hilarious, because there's no way that "... petrified." isn't absolutely dripping with sarcasm that Yuffie just doesn't hear over the sound of her ego. And then the party just wanders off without turning even once to check for her. It's a shame that she's an optional character and thus "missable", so she might as well not exist for any plot-important cutscenes. 
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Aug 3, 2011 14:08
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HenryEx posted:It's a shame that she's an optional character and thus "missable", so she might as well not exist for any plot-important cutscenes. It's okay! She gets her moment in the sun in Dirge of Cerberus! Except she's not really important in that game either! Poor Yuffie.
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Aug 3, 2011 14:27
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Elentor posted:That's right, lady. No, no you are not. (You forgot Zombies, by the way.) Imagination should be vast and infinite, but some people (read: Nerds) just keep coming back to the same tired power fantasies. I think it has to do with society's treatment of them, myself; sure, the world might be a lawless violent place where people are constantly dying and/or being eaten eaten, but at least you have cool poo poo and can do FANTASTIC THINGS and the big boys won't shove you in you locker or give you swirlies anymore. Anyhow, Yuffie. I have... mixed feelings about her, but I'm afraid they might be colored by the EU stuff, so maybe I'd better wait and remind myself of what actually happens in this game before I resolve my feelings about her.
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Aug 3, 2011 15:18
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Oh, by the way, you might not have to do those strategy battles at all to get the rewards...if you let the enemy reach the reactor it'll trigger a (very easy) boss fight and as long as you defeat him it still counts as victory. I can't remember if you get the same rewards but it works for the huge materia.
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Aug 3, 2011 15:54
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Elentor posted:... what the hell? What the gently caress did I just watch. I can't even process what's going on.
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Aug 3, 2011 16:49
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John Luebke posted:Oh, by the way, you might not have to do those strategy battles at all to get the rewards...if you let the enemy reach the reactor it'll trigger a (very easy) boss fight and as long as you defeat him it still counts as victory. I can't remember if you get the same rewards but it works for the huge materia. Except for what you spoiled, you don't get any rewards if you let the enemy reach the reactor (except whatever is dropped after the 'boss' battle).
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Aug 3, 2011 17:26
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Elentor posted:I know some Condor exploits but not this. Care to elaborate?
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Aug 3, 2011 18:15
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HenryEx posted:Ah, finally, the best character in our party. I forgot how hilarious her profile picture looks.    TRY TO OUT-HAW MY MAW, WILL YOU?!
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Aug 3, 2011 19:33
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You are really goddamn proud of that MSPaint image.
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Aug 3, 2011 19:40
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magikid posted:You are really goddamn proud of that MSPaint image. Elentor liked it and it makes me happy that he does. 
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Aug 3, 2011 19:41
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Regarding Yuffie's recruitment, I always remembered the answers by picking the bottom first, and then alternating between top and bottom. Never bothered to use the character though.
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Aug 3, 2011 19:46
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I still love you, Hojo. Never leave.
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Aug 3, 2011 19:59
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Elentor posted:
I remember spending hours trying to get to it. I never realised there was a lower bit of land and kept trying to run at it up on the turret.
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Aug 3, 2011 20:14
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Take your mouth guard out, Yuffie. edit: Her teeth should be white and not, OH GOD, the images. Scalding Coffee fucked around with this message at 20:44 on Aug 3, 2011 |
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Aug 3, 2011 20:18
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Scalding Coffee posted:Take your mouth guard out, Yuffie.  Sure thing.
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Aug 3, 2011 20:22
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 00:18 |
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Yuffie's the best and you should always have her with you. She also has really a sweet theme. I honestly don't know why she was an optional character.
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Aug 3, 2011 20:34
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