The game is so much bigger than I remembered. Like how the heck did I have the patience back then to walk all this at normal speed? It's huge!
I'm not sure, as it was a long time ago...but I think it was a game where I said, y'know I don't even care about any sidequest stuff, I'm just doing the story. Or I told myself I'd do sidequests at the end, and then didn't have the patience or desire for that afterward.
It's one of the reasons I wish you could just summon a chocobo on every map. Also, I wish we could get a BotW inspired one where you could really travel anywhere.
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Sometimes I get jealous of the people who can replay games they love and enjoy them again. Because there are times when getting to experience some old FFs again would be great.
Sometimes I get jealous of the people who can replay games they love and enjoy them again. Because there are times when getting to experience some old FFs again would be great.
But I just cannot replay anything and enjoy it.
Out of pure curiosity, why?
Selling PS3 & 360 Madcatz TE Stick
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Sometimes I get jealous of the people who can replay games they love and enjoy them again. Because there are times when getting to experience some old FFs again would be great.
But I just cannot replay anything and enjoy it.
Out of pure curiosity, why?
I guess all the stuff that makes me really get into and love a game doesn't really work outside the first time.
The sense of wonder is a big one. Seeing what happens next, proceeding through the story, watching the characters grow. And that goes for the gameplay as well. Seeing new spell and attack animations as you get stronger, getting new weapons and seeing the models. And then they even feed into each other as while I am caught up in the characters it makes me want to see them get stronger which makes the progression feel better.
Going back to a game loses too much of that and then it starts feeling *just* like a game. And even just in general I don't really play games that are just gameplay focused except on rare occasion.
And I'm also a person who is greatly affected by spoilers so a story I know isn't really something I can get caught up in either.
So yea... I guess a second playthrough just loses most of what I love about gaming in general.
That's interesting, makes sense. I think I feel very similar to that for long, long time. I've never really been able to a New Game + of really any game I can think of.
But eventually that feeling of a game just being a game fades for me and I can go back and replay things. Granted it normally takes years.
Selling PS3 & 360 Madcatz TE Stick
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
One good benefit though is that I never have a backlog!
So I have that going for me. Although the downside to that is sometimes not having anything to play while waiting for the next release.
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
No replaying AND no children.
The true path to backlog slaying!
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Kai_SanCommonly known as Klineshrike!Registered Userregular
I often forget enough that replaying a game 5 + years later feels new enough.
Like I’m currently playing through the new threat mod of ff7. I don’t remember enough details to know half the time if something that seems different is the mod or just me forgetting. Which speaks of the quality of the mod btw. They do a really good job of making their improvement tweaks feel natural.
Which kind of brings me to the opposite point. I don’t know how more people cannot fall in love with these labor of love fan mods of great games that basically revive the game for you. BNW for ff6 did the same thing minus it’s odd choice to change so much of the dialogue for the worse.
New threat is amazing and I never realized how well done ff7 is at its core when it’s actually challenging.
Much like the rest of the online fanbase, I've decided to do a full run-through of the original FFVII again, although in fairness I was already planning this prior to the release of the newest trailer since I wanted to try out the Remako background mod.
It does the job and makes the pre-rendered backgrounds look real nice. I've also added the Becuase retranslation that fixes a considerable amount of the broken lines, a menu transparency for dialogue boxes, and an additional mod that spruces up the world map and battle textures.
And as of last night, I was made aware of a new mod for the character models during battle that's quickly making the rounds:
As someone who has personally disliked all the previous attempts to spruce up the character models (including any that replace the chibi Popeye-armed field models....seriously, don't do this, it will never look good), this has to be the first mod to actually impress me. Someone finally got the right idea to create character models that reflect the art style of the original instead of going for this extremely ugly "hyper realistic" look others have tried.
Ignore the changed music and sound effects, those are additional mods the user has applied. You can just apply the battle models and still keep the original field models. The only complaint is that only some of the enemies were given the same treatment, so if you don't mind the clash between these nicer character models and original enemy polygons, I highly recommend this one.
The "HD" battle environment mods have been around for a long time, though that's the first time I've seen implementation of Nomura's original release art in the models. It's....interesting, very hit or miss. The earlier versions I used made them look more like what we got in FFVIII (or just using the battle models, which are in the game after all).
The AI-driven "up-resing" of the 2D environments (I think that's what we're seeing here) is interesting. The limitations are extremely evident, but it does work well sometimes. Other times less so.
New threat is unique in that the difficulty is just about right, that it make you feel now as dumb/bad as when you might've played through the game the first time as an adolescent.
At least till you get to the optional endgame bosses where it gets a bit meaner than that.
+1
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Kai_SanCommonly known as Klineshrike!Registered Userregular
I picked the advanced option which I think is purposely over the top tough. It has extreme ups and downs though. The elevator right in particular was a sudden nut kick of difficulty because apparently on advanced mode you fight all 3 robots at the same time. Sometimes you just get assaulted by like 5 attacks in a row.
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KoopahTroopahThe koopas, the troopas.Philadelphia, PARegistered Userregular
The HD battle models look really good in that video.
knitdanIn ur baseKillin ur guysRegistered Userregular
edited May 2019
I am loving FFXII zodiac age but one nitpick I remember from the original that I hoped they’d fix but never did is:
There’s no good way to set up a Steal gambit. You either have to do it yourself at the start of battle, or do something like Foe: HP>90%—-steal and just hope it’s successful before the enemy HP drops below that level.
Because if you just set up Foe:party leader’s target-steal or somesuch, the character with that gambit will keep trying to steal even if they’ve already gotten the one item the enemy has.
What I’d really like is a way to say Foe: has item- steal but that’s not an option. So instead I’m stuck not stealing everything I can
knitdan on
“I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
I am loving FFXII zodiac age but one nitpick I remember from the original that I hoped they’d fix but never did is:
There’s no good way to set up a Steal gambit. You either have to do it yourself at the start of battle, or do something like Foe: HP>90%—-steal and just hope it’s successful before the enemy HP drops below that level.
Because if you just set up Foe:party leader’s target-steal or somesuch, the character with that gambit will keep trying to steal even if they’ve already gotten the one item the enemy has.
What I’d really like is a way to say Foe: has item- steal but that’s not an option. So instead I’m stuck not stealing everything I can
On your main character, do foe hp == 100%, and on your other characters do, party leader's target == attack. This will cause your main character to steal from the closest enemy that is at full health, which will then get hit by your other party members and lose health, so your main character's next action will be to steal from the next closest enemy, so on and so forth until everything has been stolen from at least once. You might not steal from every enemy 100% of the time, but it works out fairly well.
+2
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knitdanIn ur baseKillin ur guysRegistered Userregular
I also redid all my license boards because when I picked them the first time I thought each job could only be done by a single character.
~6000 LP all at once takes a long time to distribute, lol
“I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
Vaan: Red Battlemage
Balthier: Red Battlemage
Fran: Red Battlemage
Ashe: Black Mage/Bushi
Penelo: White Mage/Bushi
Basch: Some combination of Uhlan, Knight, Shikari... The tank of the group.
Keep in mind, most of these streams are speedruns, so they're not trying for Yiazmat or any of the harder bosses.
As cool as job systems and open skill trees are in principle, none of the FF games that had them ever held interest for very long in my admittedly limited experience. Somehow VII is the one glaring exception, and if I hadn't noticed that party members had their own unique strengths and weaknesses stat-wise starting out, I probably would've dropped it upon the replay where I started paying attention. And then there's still how big a role Limit Breaks have compared to how much later entries downplay them, and character-specific gear that sometimes has unique secondary attributes. The ones like V, or XII, where it seems like your characters are just a face for whatever build you feel best suits that character based purely on preference...nah.
I saw Final Fantasy The Spirits Within is on amazon prime video last night. Is it worth a watch?
The thing about Spirits Within is that it's a middling-passable sci-fi film which bears, at best, a passing resemblance to Final Fantasy. There's a chocobo icon embroidered on the main character's shirt, and the chief scientist is named Cid, and the plot involves an alien force that's eating the planet's life-force which the heroes must combine the seven spirit macguffins to obtain, but it never quite feels exactly like a Final Fantasy story. I feel it's sort of like the Super Mario Brothers movie in that respect; all the right names are there, but the aesthetic is just slightly off.
It's not terrible, but it's not great, and it isn't quite Final Fantasy.
My favorite musical instrument is the air-raid siren.
I am loving FFXII zodiac age but one nitpick I remember from the original that I hoped they’d fix but never did is:
There’s no good way to set up a Steal gambit. You either have to do it yourself at the start of battle, or do something like Foe: HP>90%—-steal and just hope it’s successful before the enemy HP drops below that level.
Because if you just set up Foe:party leader’s target-steal or somesuch, the character with that gambit will keep trying to steal even if they’ve already gotten the one item the enemy has.
What I’d really like is a way to say Foe: has item- steal but that’s not an option. So instead I’m stuck not stealing everything I can
On your main character, do foe hp == 100%, and on your other characters do, party leader's target == attack. This will cause your main character to steal from the closest enemy that is at full health, which will then get hit by your other party members and lose health, so your main character's next action will be to steal from the next closest enemy, so on and so forth until everything has been stolen from at least once. You might not steal from every enemy 100% of the time, but it works out fairly well.
In this release, the 4x speed is just SO fast for mindless grinding that I have one of the three party members just stealing constantly, not caring whether they've already stolen that enemy's one item or not. The entire game is running at 4x speed, I'm really not wasting that much time being sure that I stole something.
It's funny - when XII came out originally I was pretty 'meh' about the single player MMO flavor of the gameplay. Now that I've played XIV for 5-6 years, I'm digging the shit out of that aspect and wish that both XIV's companions and XVI use the Gambit system.
I'd much rather use rudimentary programming logic to set up my party for success than having no control over them while engaging in tepid action shenanigans.
So I picked up FF13 for 360 when they added it to BC on Xbox, and just got around to installing it. I was just curious what the general consensus around here was regarding when the game picks up. I know a lot of JRPGs have a rough start.
It's funny - when XII came out originally I was pretty 'meh' about the single player MMO flavor of the gameplay. Now that I've played XIV for 5-6 years, I'm digging the shit out of that aspect and wish that both XIV's companions and XVI use the Gambit system.
I'd much rather use rudimentary programming logic to set up my party for success than having no control over them while engaging in tepid action shenanigans.
You should try out Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age 2. They basically take the Gambit System to the next level and have combo actions. Dragon Age Inquisition simplifies the AI setup tho.
I saw Final Fantasy The Spirits Within is on amazon prime video last night. Is it worth a watch?
The thing about Spirits Within is that it's a middling-passable sci-fi film which bears, at best, a passing resemblance to Final Fantasy. There's a chocobo icon embroidered on the main character's shirt, and the chief scientist is named Cid, and the plot involves an alien force that's eating the planet's life-force which the heroes must combine the seven spirit macguffins to obtain, but it never quite feels exactly like a Final Fantasy story. I feel it's sort of like the Super Mario Brothers movie in that respect; all the right names are there, but the aesthetic is just slightly off.
It's not terrible, but it's not great, and it isn't quite Final Fantasy.
I went to see it for my birthday at the height of my final fantasy fandom expecting at least a fucking chocobo to be ridden or an iconic monster or summon or something. So disappointing.
BahamutZERO on
+3
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Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
Yeah, Spirits Within is nothing but a training exercise for Square's CG modeling department. It has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the Final Fantasy franchise, and it sucks. And not even sucks in a way that can be entertaining, it's just grim and dull and uninspired.
+3
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FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
For some reason, they thought a vague environmental plot would be more interesting than Dragons, magic, and all the bizarre bullshit we love Final Fantasy for. Like, we can do a future FF. But it still needs to be ridiculous.
+2
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Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
It wasn't even a good environmental message. A rock comes from a dead planet filled with space ghosts and they infest the Earth and destroy basically all life on the planet. What's the message here? Don't let your planet get hit with space rocks?
+5
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FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
It wasn't even a good environmental message. A rock comes from a dead planet filled with space ghosts and they infest the Earth and destroy basically all life on the planet. What's the message here? Don't let your planet get hit with space rocks?
I mean, it's a good idea. It's just a better idea to have your Holy Materia up and running, rather than... a Rods from God weapons platform? Or whatever?
It's funny - when XII came out originally I was pretty 'meh' about the single player MMO flavor of the gameplay. Now that I've played XIV for 5-6 years, I'm digging the shit out of that aspect and wish that both XIV's companions and XVI use the Gambit system.
I'd much rather use rudimentary programming logic to set up my party for success than having no control over them while engaging in tepid action shenanigans.
You should try out Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age 2. They basically take the Gambit System to the next level and have combo actions. Dragon Age Inquisition simplifies the AI setup tho.
Oh, I've played (and completed) them. And, yeah, they're great (I think Origins is the better of the two). I'd really like to see another FF title or two go back to that well. I doubt any new mainline game would go that way since SE seems determined to steer further and further away from the series' RPG roots, but maybe a side game/spinoff.
the worst part about Spirits Within from my point of view is that it was Sakaguchi's project, and his last project at Square that he had creative involvement with before he resigned. This is bad for me because I haven't liked any of the non-Sakaguchi FF plots very much since then with the recent exception of FF14.
Thinking about modern Final Fantasy, I think I'm most disappointed that the series will likely never be truly crazy again. I look at V, with its world-hopping meteor jockeys, its villain-is-a-tree, its cross-dressing heroine, its weird earnest fever dream vibe, and weep. I want a Final Fantasy that isn't just a calculated, focus group-driven money grab. I want something weird and exciting again.
Thinking about modern Final Fantasy, I think I'm most disappointed that the series will likely never be truly crazy again. I look at V, with its world-hopping meteor jockeys, its villain-is-a-tree, its cross-dressing heroine, its weird earnest fever dream vibe, and weep. I want a Final Fantasy that isn't just a calculated, focus group-driven money grab. I want something weird and exciting again.
Out of curiosity, what do you think the last "crazy" FF was?
joshgotroDeviled EggThe Land of REAL CHILIRegistered Userregular
edited May 2019
I played and beat Final Fantasy on the NES with a guide my older cousin gave me when I was seven or 1992. I didn't upgrade until 1998 to the PSX. Sakaguchi FF all day.
Thinking about modern Final Fantasy, I think I'm most disappointed that the series will likely never be truly crazy again. I look at V, with its world-hopping meteor jockeys, its villain-is-a-tree, its cross-dressing heroine, its weird earnest fever dream vibe, and weep. I want a Final Fantasy that isn't just a calculated, focus group-driven money grab. I want something weird and exciting again.
Out of curiosity, what do you think the last "crazy" FF was?
Hmm...
I think V was the craziest for the reasons previously mentioned. Other titles had aspects of the weird:
VI had Kefka, who actually won (for a time)... that the villain succeeds was a huge deal back in the day
VII had Cloud and his 'memories', which gave the first half or so of the game an unsettled feeling that I enjoyed
X had the summoner <-> Sin life cycle, plus the Zanarkand/Tidus reveal
I think IX tried to embrace the weird with the two different worlds, but the cosmology was never explained in a coherent way so it fell flat (IMO). VIII tried to be different with the Laguna sections, but all they did was make me want to play his story (and the ending, with only a handful of safe places to go outside of the final dungeon had been done before in both III and V). XII was a Matsuno game, so it was largely about politics and the idea of groups exerting power over people (which I like as a change of pace). Never played XIII as I've mentioned before. XV was a departure, sure, but not weird. Four guys in a car. Whoopie.
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It's one of the reasons I wish you could just summon a chocobo on every map. Also, I wish we could get a BotW inspired one where you could really travel anywhere.
But I just cannot replay anything and enjoy it.
Out of pure curiosity, why?
I guess all the stuff that makes me really get into and love a game doesn't really work outside the first time.
The sense of wonder is a big one. Seeing what happens next, proceeding through the story, watching the characters grow. And that goes for the gameplay as well. Seeing new spell and attack animations as you get stronger, getting new weapons and seeing the models. And then they even feed into each other as while I am caught up in the characters it makes me want to see them get stronger which makes the progression feel better.
Going back to a game loses too much of that and then it starts feeling *just* like a game. And even just in general I don't really play games that are just gameplay focused except on rare occasion.
And I'm also a person who is greatly affected by spoilers so a story I know isn't really something I can get caught up in either.
So yea... I guess a second playthrough just loses most of what I love about gaming in general.
But eventually that feeling of a game just being a game fades for me and I can go back and replay things. Granted it normally takes years.
So I have that going for me. Although the downside to that is sometimes not having anything to play while waiting for the next release.
There is no escape.
The true path to backlog slaying!
Like I’m currently playing through the new threat mod of ff7. I don’t remember enough details to know half the time if something that seems different is the mod or just me forgetting. Which speaks of the quality of the mod btw. They do a really good job of making their improvement tweaks feel natural.
Which kind of brings me to the opposite point. I don’t know how more people cannot fall in love with these labor of love fan mods of great games that basically revive the game for you. BNW for ff6 did the same thing minus it’s odd choice to change so much of the dialogue for the worse.
New threat is amazing and I never realized how well done ff7 is at its core when it’s actually challenging.
The "HD" battle environment mods have been around for a long time, though that's the first time I've seen implementation of Nomura's original release art in the models. It's....interesting, very hit or miss. The earlier versions I used made them look more like what we got in FFVIII (or just using the battle models, which are in the game after all).
The AI-driven "up-resing" of the 2D environments (I think that's what we're seeing here) is interesting. The limitations are extremely evident, but it does work well sometimes. Other times less so.
At least till you get to the optional endgame bosses where it gets a bit meaner than that.
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
There’s no good way to set up a Steal gambit. You either have to do it yourself at the start of battle, or do something like Foe: HP>90%—-steal and just hope it’s successful before the enemy HP drops below that level.
Because if you just set up Foe:party leader’s target-steal or somesuch, the character with that gambit will keep trying to steal even if they’ve already gotten the one item the enemy has.
What I’d really like is a way to say Foe: has item- steal but that’s not an option. So instead I’m stuck not stealing everything I can
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
On your main character, do foe hp == 100%, and on your other characters do, party leader's target == attack. This will cause your main character to steal from the closest enemy that is at full health, which will then get hit by your other party members and lose health, so your main character's next action will be to steal from the next closest enemy, so on and so forth until everything has been stolen from at least once. You might not steal from every enemy 100% of the time, but it works out fairly well.
~6000 LP all at once takes a long time to distribute, lol
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
Vaan: Red Battlemage
Balthier: Red Battlemage
Fran: Red Battlemage
Ashe: Black Mage/Bushi
Penelo: White Mage/Bushi
Basch: Some combination of Uhlan, Knight, Shikari... The tank of the group.
Keep in mind, most of these streams are speedruns, so they're not trying for Yiazmat or any of the harder bosses.
Not really, IMO
The thing about Spirits Within is that it's a middling-passable sci-fi film which bears, at best, a passing resemblance to Final Fantasy. There's a chocobo icon embroidered on the main character's shirt, and the chief scientist is named Cid, and the plot involves an alien force that's eating the planet's life-force which the heroes must combine the seven spirit macguffins to obtain, but it never quite feels exactly like a Final Fantasy story. I feel it's sort of like the Super Mario Brothers movie in that respect; all the right names are there, but the aesthetic is just slightly off.
It's not terrible, but it's not great, and it isn't quite Final Fantasy.
In this release, the 4x speed is just SO fast for mindless grinding that I have one of the three party members just stealing constantly, not caring whether they've already stolen that enemy's one item or not. The entire game is running at 4x speed, I'm really not wasting that much time being sure that I stole something.
I'd much rather use rudimentary programming logic to set up my party for success than having no control over them while engaging in tepid action shenanigans.
You should try out Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age 2. They basically take the Gambit System to the next level and have combo actions. Dragon Age Inquisition simplifies the AI setup tho.
It's pretty lame, the only thing it had going for it when it came out was state of the art CGI. Now it's both a poor movie AND it looks dated!
I went to see it for my birthday at the height of my final fantasy fandom expecting at least a fucking chocobo to be ridden or an iconic monster or summon or something. So disappointing.
I mean, it's a good idea. It's just a better idea to have your Holy Materia up and running, rather than... a Rods from God weapons platform? Or whatever?
Oh, I've played (and completed) them. And, yeah, they're great (I think Origins is the better of the two). I'd really like to see another FF title or two go back to that well. I doubt any new mainline game would go that way since SE seems determined to steer further and further away from the series' RPG roots, but maybe a side game/spinoff.
Needless to say, there was no second date.
Steam: TheArcadeBear
Out of curiosity, what do you think the last "crazy" FF was?
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Hmm...
I think V was the craziest for the reasons previously mentioned. Other titles had aspects of the weird:
VI had Kefka, who actually won (for a time)... that the villain succeeds was a huge deal back in the day
VII had Cloud and his 'memories', which gave the first half or so of the game an unsettled feeling that I enjoyed
X had the summoner <-> Sin life cycle, plus the Zanarkand/Tidus reveal
I think IX tried to embrace the weird with the two different worlds, but the cosmology was never explained in a coherent way so it fell flat (IMO). VIII tried to be different with the Laguna sections, but all they did was make me want to play his story (and the ending, with only a handful of safe places to go outside of the final dungeon had been done before in both III and V). XII was a Matsuno game, so it was largely about politics and the idea of groups exerting power over people (which I like as a change of pace). Never played XIII as I've mentioned before. XV was a departure, sure, but not weird. Four guys in a car. Whoopie.
So, yeah, V was the weirdest/craziest one, IMO.