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Barudak
May 7, 2007

jivjov posted:

I never understood this mentality. Why have a boss that's not supposed to be beaten? And why punish people who figure out how to beat the boss? Like, we're the methods used to beat AV actually cheating or did some developer just have a hissy fit?

Developers threw a hissy fit because they glitched out AV into a spot where it was unable to dekite but was outside of its aggro range so it basically just sat there for the most part. There is a legitimate way to beat it but it took a while for players to figure out what you had to do in order to drop its defenses and attacks although that strategy very well might not have actually been implemented at the time given the lack of care SE displayed for programming their game.

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Barudak
May 7, 2007

jivjov posted:

Well that seems more like a fault with the developers than the players. They didn't bug test the system enough, players found an exploitable glitch, devs flip poo poo and ban said players. I'm starting to not regret leaving FFXI as much.

No reason to regret leaving, the guy who made the poo poo version of FFXI and the poo poo version of FFXIV are the same guy and things like that are his calling card. He is a real, real crappy producer and the fact that SE allows him to continue to draw a paycheck is a terrible business decision.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Boten Anna posted:

He is now executive of the vending machines in the break room, thankfully.

Which sounded fine until he made it so that the break room vending machines are refilled on a 14 hour cycle with random contents, most of which are garbage, and the machine itself requires a group of 6 trained men just to feed in enough money to spit out a drink.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Happy Blue Cow posted:

6) Tanaka is "respectfully removed" from the role as Producer on FF14 and is replaced by Naoki Yoshida.

A thing to point out is this is the same guy who was producer when FFXI became fun. He's now fixed Tanaka's MMO mistakes twice.

As for issues in FFXI it basically boils down to the game did not care about balance, GUI, competitors, proper instance size, leveling progression, quest content, or solo play, or you as a human being.

The simple example is getting your subjob. In FFXI you can change what class you are at any time with the proper items but your level isn't static, each class's levels are managed separately from each other. That said, however, you could take half as many levels as you main class in whatever other class you wanted. For example, you could be a primary white mage at 30 and have access to benefits and spells from the first 15 levels of black mage. Needless to say this was huge.

So you want to get access to this because without it, you will never find a group because you are pathetic and worthless compared to anybody with it. Well, you can't do it until level 18. Monsters can only really be safely solo'd until 10 after which point their strength skyrockets. Additionally, the game makes you use a check to determine monster strength that tells you nothing about how strong the monster is compared to you only what range of level it is from you. This means absolutely nothing as some monsters could wipe the floor with you even when they were a level or more below you. Did I mention that if they're 3 levels or lower than you you get no XP? And that healing/MP requires you to literally sit on the ground and do nothing for 30 seconds or so at low levels and several minutes at higher levels? Do you want a group? Haha, everybody else your level has already got subjob and is just grinding to build a new class so you get no invites.

So you grind and grind and grind and grind and hit 18. Well the game says, you're strong enough but you need to get specific items. It of course, doesn't bother to even mention where the hell these items can be gotten from or the fact that they can't be bought at the auction house. The first is easy enough and you probably have multiples from grinding. The second, however, requires you to go to a level 20+ zone through a cave with auto-aggroing bats which are 23. They will utterly destroy you at 18. Did I mention you lose XP when you die? Because you do, you lose a lot of it.

So you get back up to 18 and buy the items that let you avoid aggroing the bats. After carefully, carefully, carefully avoiding the other enemies (the nearest warp crystal is about a 10 minute run from here) you manage to make it to the place where the enemy you need to kill spawns. Except it doesn't spawn immediately, its a rare monster. And its item is a rare drop. And the beach is the best place to level in the area. So groups of people are out there killing them without you getting a chance to even kill one, which god forbid if you do manage to fight it, is 18 but way way tougher than you are and kills you.

Should you make it past this point, the game only has more bullshit for you.

Barudak fucked around with this message at 22:25 on Aug 7, 2012

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Stoat posted:

I have a big flight coming up and I'm planning to invest in either FF3 or Tactics for the iPad to keep me busy. I can't really decide which, though. I liked Tactics Advance and Advance 2, but I'm a sucker for old Final Fantasy games, and I've never played 3 (as it's the Japanese 3 not 6)

Anyone have any info that might sway me in one direction? Are the ports good?

FF3, especially this remake, is pretty awful and I wouldn't in good faith recommend it to anyone.

Does Tactics iOS still have that horrendous slowdown issue when you cast spells? Seriously, SE, hackers removed it completely from your game so you just suck at coding.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Calaveron posted:

Aren't they releasing FFXIV 2.0 on the PS3?
Other than graphics, how good is the Xbox 360 version of FFXI? I keep seeing used copies in my local game store, and I'm kinda curious.

Yes, FFXIV 2.0 will go to the PS3, although its release date isn't known yet.

The 360 version of FFXI is really good only if you have the chat pad. Its how I played FFXI during my time and the controls/chatpad set up worked really well. If you want to try it there are copies of FFXI with all expansions going for like 10 bucks on the 360.

That said, I can't imagine a PC made in the last few years having a problem with FFXI, the drat game is a decade old upgraded graphics or not.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Calaveron posted:

My laptop is in absolutely awful condition, and I'm due for a change but I'm moving countries very soon and would rather wait so I can get a PC.
Now, I recall that I mostly see copies of things like FFXI: Chains of Promathia. Could I get that or is it only an expansion of the base game? And do I need to pay for an account or will my Gold account suffice?

You pay separately from your gold account; FFXI is the only 360 online game that does not need gold to function and it was a work around MS promised just so they could have some sort of Final Fantasy on the system.

Every copy of FFXI includes the base game+whatever version it is expansions. Obviously get the most recent version of it with all the drat expansions and mini-expansions and what have you as otherwise you'd have to buy them separately. After that go to the goon thread in MMO HMO and get ready to be laughed at for being one of the like 2 dozen people to ever play the game that way.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Cardboard Fox posted:

You know, one day I think I'll try beating the 2 weapons without using any game breaking abilities. No KotR, Mime, or Omnislash. Just a straight up battle. I think I'll be able to take down Ruby quite easily, but Emerald still has that annoying 9999 AE attack. Any idea if Wall reduces that damage to make it survivable, or are you pretty much reliant on final attack revive?

Isn't that attack based on the total number of equipped materia? Like 500 dmg x Total Number of Equipped Materia or am I thinking of another Emerald Weapon attack?

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Mountaineer posted:

Theatrhythm is making me want to replay FF6 for the first time in well over a decade. I will probably just get the SNES version on the Wii's virtual console, but is there a compelling reason to try to find the GBA version instead?

Forget all that and play Awful Fantasy instead. You know the story and the music is still in there and enemies that were annoying just die instantly now. Little tough to get the chainsaw unless you're up on your Something Awful history.

The GBA version has worse sound but it fixes a lot of bugs and makes minor changes. If its easier to get the SNES version there's no real need to hunt down a GBA for a huge quality upgrade.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Fister Roboto posted:

You know what I really want?

Final Fantasy Football.

Be it either American or Rest of the Goddamn World Football.

Don't draft a Beserker, its a magic first league.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Mega64 posted:

I hate this "mini-world" trend Square's been doing. The whole "Ivalice" thing went nowhere, and their "World of Mana" thing ended up killing that series. And now we're going to have an entire series of Final Fantasy XIII's just because.

It tends to be really bad because it doesn't feel like Square understands how to exploit a universe properly. The Ivalice games share no time period, mechanics, geography, tone, theme, or culture. Hell despite playing FFT, FFTA, FFTA2, FFXII, FFXII Wings of Whatever, and some of Vagrant Story I have no clue how the hell the geography/racial composition of the planet is supposed to work or why these games share a setting rather than just a hodepodge of random details.

This of course also ignores that the writing staff for SE is incredibly spotty with a tendency to ignore anything other teams have written like what happened with FFVII and its spin off universe games. On top of that, the actual worlds they construct tend to require tons of optional content to fully understand like the Ultimanias. Hell in FFXIII the entire world isn't particularly intriguing because the game hides anything that might be interesting to explore in another game inside a giant, optional encyclopedia.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

ImpAtom posted:

The KH games have some kind of co-publishing deal. Disney sells KH merch, advertises the games and has at least some input on the products that get in. It's also the reason Birth By Sleep isn't available digitally because Disney has issues with that.

Beyond that they reuse a lot of assets and materials.

If you were a Disney exec would you really want to have someone explain to you the plot of KH or would you just check to make sure the characters don't swear and use their approved assets?

"And if you flip to slide 23 you'll see that he wasn't actually Sora but a nobody of him..."

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Safari Disco Lion posted:

I already have Final Fantasy Tactics on the PSN for my PS3. I'm getting a PSP soon, is it worth getting The War of the Lions for that if I already have the PS1 version?

The PSP version (post unofficial patch, oh dear god post patch) has a re-written script and some additional content. If you love FF Tactics and want a little bit more of it then yeah, get War of the Lions. Otherwise you're fine just using the original version.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Toshimo posted:

Ok, so I'm starting to go through replaying the series in sort of a random hodgepodge order. Which version of FFVII should I be going with? I've got PSX and the old PC version. Do I gain enough in loading screens to go PC? Or should I just fire up ye olde PS Deuce and kick it?

PSX version has better music although there is a patch for the PC version to make it less awful. Otherwise they're identical so just go with whatever you want. The new PC version does have an additional feature with built in cheating so you can instantly max out characters levels/money/materia and steam roll the game if you're only in it for the plot and locales and for some reason unwilling to just hack your other copies of the game..

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Pyroxene Stigma posted:

Okay you can listen to this one. (I guess I should have been more clear, that people will spew hatred for 7 and they should be ignored.)

Not everybody likes having a Lovecraft monster be the villain.

Those people are of course, wrong. FFVII and X for life.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

ImpAtom posted:

Sin doesn't do that but the other characters do. (Wakka in particular has a scene where he's like "Sin is because of our sins!") It's just better executed and probably less offputting when it is a monster.

That or players instinctively ignore things that backwoods fundamentalist-yevon racists say.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Pollyanna posted:

What? They're not just gonna disown the drat thing? 11 already exists...

Its getting a full relaunch and PS3 release. FFXI is also about 11-12 years old now so they're going to try to make FFXIV work. It is massively improved from launch and after the new upgrade will basically be a new game designed by the guy who should have been in charge in the first place.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Loving Life Partner posted:

Can you give me a couple sentences about what was so bad? I remember it was a panned universally at launch, but I never looked into it whatsoever after until I heard about SE apologizing profusely and saying they were going to fix it.

I did some googling and all I can find is "unfinished".

Basically it was FFXI at launch all over again which means no quests, no jobs, no skills, no cool areas, bad UI, and tons of grinding. Then the guy who made FFXI and FFXIV got fired and was replaced with the guy who fixed FFXI into a good game and now FFXIV is going to relaunch into what will probably be a good game.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Pollyanna posted:

So glad I never played that game (lol at you anna). If XIV is going to be similar but with a UI update and basically prettier, then I hope that they fix all the dumb poo poo from the original and take some clues from popular current-day MMOs (i.e. none of this Everquest poo poo).

XIV has already removed a huge chunk of the everquest-esque hold over stuff and what remains of it will be getting a gutting/overhaul in 2.0. The new guy is really really good at explaining where and why there changing things and publishes a thoughtful weekly letter to the playerbase filled with charts and graphs to back up their decisions.

I don't think it'll ever be an amazing game though; they hosed up and had to spend millions just to make it ok instead of taking an OK game and making it amazing.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Pollyanna posted:

Well, if they've got a good guy in charge, then I guess it'll be fine :unsmith:

The guy in charge is who "saved" FFXI and turned it around into a fun game. After FFXIV was garbage they brought him off of FFXI and put the guy whose messes he kept fixing back on FFXI. As if by magic FFXI started to turn to poo poo again and FFXIV started to get way better. Thankfully the guy who made two bad MMOs is now gone from the company and I would in no way mind if the guy who currently runs FFXIV gets a crack at a single player FF game.

Its a feel good story where the good guy wins. And then lets you become a summoner.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

ImpAtom posted:

And you're still wrong. Again, one of the most common tactics people use is "fill up Overdrives, go in and have each Aeon use an Overdrive." It's not as easy as just spamming attack but it requires very little effort in general, especially since filling an Aeon's overdrive bar is so easy. It sure as hell isn't fun but that didn't stop people from using it.

This is how I think most people I knew beat FFX because not a one of them understood the Sphere grid properly enough. Aeon Overdrive->Banish->Aeon Overdrive until the boss dies or is manageable.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Boten Anna posted:

Yeah because most people aren't homophobic douchebags.

On the other hand FFIV is just recovering from its big boring not-the-cool-main-story (Note: main story not actually cool as it progresses) escapades and ten the main character is pathetically weak and if its a replay you know that annoying as hell dungeon is coming up.

Death to that goddamn no-iron dungeon.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

rodbeard posted:

The game is mistranslated and tells you to attack the scorpion while its tail is up. Some people didn't catch on, some people didn't even read the text because they realized it was a rehash of the whelk from FF6.

Doesn't it split the critical distinction text onto two different lines? So if you're just slamming X trying to skip dialog asap it'll seem like its telling you to attack while the tail is up because you gloss over the second text box?

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Pasteurized Milk posted:

But how could he be with Rosa then?

Edward needs a new Queen.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

TurnipFritter posted:

I knew those Al Bhed were no good. They're a bad influence on the good, honest Sin-fearing Yevonites of Spira.

Wakka account spotted.

Has there been any talk of porting more old FFs to phones? FFI-III is great and all but I'd like to play some of the actually good ones. Basically I just want V.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Schwartzcough posted:

I don't pay much attention to fan patches of Japan-only games, but I think there were a number from the SNES days- I believe Seiken Densetsu 3 (aka Secret of Mana 2) and Bahamut Lagoon were two supposedly good ones.

Bahamut Lagoon is a fun little strategy game where you can't control several of your units and there is an absolute bastard of a mission where you're expected to run through a nigh unending stream of artillery fire praying your uncontrollable units decide to attack that instead of faffing about and getting killed by them.

Other than that not bad at all.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

TurnipFritter posted:

The .2 second difference in their attack animations isn't really a big deal.

Gotta optimize DPS in a forgiving single player game.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Boten Anna posted:

I found out that Tanaka, the guy responsible for the diasternightmare that was launch FFXIV, was in charge of IIIDS. That explains so goddamned much.

Balance? Oh ho ho no, just make the monsters attack twice as often as they did in the original version. Thats fair.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Moldy Taxes posted:

Everything Tanaka touches turns to unfun bullshit.

I wonder why he thinks like this? I already know from years of playing pre-Abyssea XI that he doesn't listen to critisism, but eventually he had to have taken a step back and thought "I really don't know what I'm doing, do I?"

As long as you remain employed at your same level working on new projects of importance its hard to think you're doing anything wrong.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Azure_Horizon posted:

Welcome to the designer who created the SaGa series, known for stuff the game will never teach you about.

Hi, I'm Unlimited Saga. Are you ready to peruse a 200 page technical manual that makes successfully starting and operating a combat aircraft look like instructions on the back of a microwaveable dinner? Good, lets get started!

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Azure_Horizon posted:

After watching the tutorial videos on Youtube, I have to admit the game makes a LOT more sense. That still doesn't mean it will when one actually plays it.

Oh yeah, after about 20 or so minutes of tutorials the game begins to make some basic semblance of logic. The problem is on top of the already obfuscated core mechanics (dungeons are like a map, you have two types of health, roulette determine if you get to do anything ever) you have a veritable fortress of bullshit in obscure quest chains, hidden areas, weapon combos, skill learning, item creation etc. Its a game where you need foreknowledge to even understand what you'll need foreknowledge of.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Momomo posted:

Tidus is also similar in that he isn't even the leader.

Right, but he's important to the story whereas Vaan has nothing to do with anything really.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Francois Kofko posted:

No worries, FFIX is flawless :smug:

Bad card game, slow plot, Eiko, Quina, entire soul transfer poo poo, final boss, slow slow combat. I did like learning skills from item and the main character's job being thief but outside of that I didn't really care for the game.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

ImpAtom posted:

You're praising it for being a game where you can and should avoid all the combat. I guess I just can't see how that meshes with being a good game. I'm not trying to be insulting I just don't get it. Why is it a good game because it allows you to skip playing most of it?

Because I can get back to playing the card game faster. I loved that card game and the plot wasn't bad entirely devoid of interest. Its rather fun to playthrough a story book, wander and do some quests, and play some card games. Not a tough or unfun game unless you gently caress up and introduce random.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

fount of knowledge posted:

No card game, fictional or real, has ever been as much RNG bullshit as FFIX's card game.

Fire up a copy of Culdcept Saga and prepare to begin swearing uncontrollably at the TV until you beg for the rigid logic and predictability of Tetra Master.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Stoat posted:

Alright, I think I'm going to play through FF6 to the end (which I've never done oh god).

What's the best version? SNES classic or GBA remake?

Wildcard option, Awful Fantasy on PC.

GBA though if you want to be a big baby and be able to understand the story, or what to do next or not have enemies/characters randomly die.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

The White Dragon posted:

1) Mute your TV
2) Make a playlist of Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, TLC, and the Jonas Brothers
3) Role. Playing. Game.

Thats only like the first disc. After that its nothing but the worst and most saccharine love duets you can find. If possible, try to double mute the TV whenever "Eyes on Me" plays.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

voltron lion force posted:

I don't know why, but I liked Vanille's voice. I like the weirdness and inconsistency I guess, made it interesting to listen to. Fang's accent was too cut and dry Australian where as Vanille's actually sounded like a unique dialect. Well, more of a mishmash of existing dialects, but I appreciated it anyways.

I vowed I would watch the cutscenes in the game but then Vanille started talking and I went back on my oath. I'm sorry Sazh, I knew you so little.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

voltron lion force posted:

I also had fun in the first few hours. Check back in 15 hours when you realize you're still doing exactly the same poo poo.

No the worst part is the opening of the game when it dawns on you you aren't earning any XP for what turns out to be a fairly lengthy and cutscene heavy portion of the game. After that its just a string of dissapointments building up to quitting when you hit the open plains.

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Barudak
May 7, 2007

Dross posted:

It doesn't matter if you're earning XP because character growth is gated.

Which is dissapointment number 3. Dissapointment number 2 is being unable to change your classes at the outset once you've earned them. Three is being gated and four is constantly switching parties with no control and five is having your paradigms get erased.

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