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Final Fantasy Thread: There's a big difference between 'Mostly Dead' and 'All Dead'
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Pretty much. Generally speaking it's the second most popular under VII.
The Pipe Vault|Twitter|Steam|Backloggery|3DS:1332-7703-1083
If you just want everyone at 99 and don't care about anything else, I found the easiest place to do it is in the second world, the desert south of uh....damnit I can't remember, there were the Hoover enemies. They gave a ton of XP/AP per kill and they would go down with 2-3 Ice3's. If you go there immediately after getting Edgar, and get Edgar, Celes and uh...Cyan? Man it's been awhile. Anyway, if you get them all to 99, then every other party member you get is also level 99. Either way you can go there with as few as 3 people to get the Airship and just grind super fast to 99 on them, then the rest of the game is a breeze.
You can't do stats this way, at all, but if you just want everyone at 99, it's by far the quickest way to go.
EDIT: To the above, I'd say VI is 2nd behind VII in interweb popularity. I think X would be behind VI for sure, possibly even IX and IV.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
edit - I just found that there are a couple mega bosses in the Advance port.
There is/was a superboss in the Advance version-
but-
I, to this day, cannot track him down within the Dragon' Den, because it is a goddam labrynth of pain. After spending 3+ hours wandering about, flipping switches, trashing mobs, I buy 99 of everything again and call it a day.
[also FFVI was easy by FF standards, you can beat everything, all of it, with an average level of 9 or so]
It's odd, I didn't have a strong opinion on it at the time, but the more I think back the more it holds up where the others didn't. I've played most of the FFs, save III and IV, and my top 3 would be VII, X and XII, in no particular order. I really cannot see what people liked in IX, though. It was less fun than testicular torsion.
I just didn't think it was for others as much as the more "classic" ones.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Between big fans of the series like us, probably, but generally speaking the mainstream player that likes the series but isn't a huge fan, X would be second. Just look at the gamefaqs Best Game Ever Poll. X got to the semi Finals.
The Pipe Vault|Twitter|Steam|Backloggery|3DS:1332-7703-1083
Also, I'm continually shocked how much better the FMV became between VII and VIII. Pretty staggering.
Nothing that happens on gamefaqs counts toward anything. A poll of the best Final Fantasy given to a group of rabid squirrels would have more meaning to me.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Edit: Holy crap this post is a wall of mostly irrelevant text, spoilering liberally.
Musings on the design decisions of FFXII combat:
I view it as an attempt to solve a symptom rather than a disease. The problem it tries to solve is repetitive command-entering. Many favorable opinions on it (including Tycho's, IIRC, who made it sound great) suggest that gambits merely replace entering the same command over and over. And it's true that many earlier FF games could basically be played automatically with gambits with no loss.
This view is incorrect. Repetitive command-entering is not a problem. Game design that requires repetitive actions is a problem. Look at Final Fantasy X. It's concievable to script AI that wins fights in this game just like gambit-level AI could beat the entirety of many earlier games, but it would be far beyond the scope of what anyone would expect a player to customize. Rather, what we have in FFX, love it or hate it, is a game where the battle system and monster design provide so many different situations that it provides its own variety. Rather than removing player interaction because it was boring, it replaced the boring player interaction with (more) interesting player interaction.
Furthermore, the specific mechanics of FFXII, at least in the way I played it, were such that repetitive command-entering were not at all removed, just moved. A typical SNES-era RPG could be described as 'if HP < X% Curaga, otherwise use *insert best attack*'. Which formed the base of most FFXII gambits, so became automated. In FFXII, though, throughout the majority of the game there is no MP<X% Self gambit, so the gameplay boils down to 'if MP < X% open the menu and select Charge, otherwise run in circles since moving regenerates MP'.
It's entirely possible that I wouldn't have found FFXII's battle system to be bad if it had, like almost all its contemporaries, also embraced the idea of adding interesting features/interaction. And it's mostly true that some of the harder of the hunts ended up being fairly similar in required tactics to FFX, with status effects and weaknesses actually playing a role.
So it's not really that the battle system was terrible. It's that the game itself (main quest) was not designed in such a way so as to make the battle system shine.
(For contrast, look at Lost Odyssey - very bland and boring battle system, though it does have one of those 'extra interaction' dealies, but the design of the actual encounters was stellar and used it to its utmost.)
Regarding FFVI love:
Final Fantasy II (IV) was something of a legend at the time. I assume now that this wasn't really backed in fact, but it had a local reputation of being impossible to find. A friend of mine had played it through, but for some reason I forget didn't have it anymore. In his estimation it was the best anything ever and nothing could come close. FFVII came out and neither of us had Playstations and I remember arguing in the lunchroom about how FFVII was obviously awful because the overworld was ugly and you could see little cracks between the polygons and what the fuck is up with popeye men?
Anyway, once FFVII came out on a platform I owned it was okay to not hate it, and the fan translations of the other games started trickling out, so those got played. The point of all this is that by some bizarre combination of fanboy exposure and tiredness and what have you, after fully updating myself with 1 through 7 under my belt (possibly 8 also by this time), I named FFVI as my second least favorite after II.
Then the FFIV loving friend and I started to do a synchronized play through and discussion of the entire series, and I ended up playing FFVI for the first time in years, and he played it for the first time ever. He demanded to know why I hadn't told him the game was so awesome. Since then I have placed it on a pedestal.
Just a little story about opinions of immature persons and how they are shaped by so many factors beyond the actual merit of the item in question, and last for longer than one might expect.
The end result is that my opinion on FFVI is so complex and full of nostalgia and baggage that I can't possibly make a judgement on how the game stacks up, only that I love it.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Though I'm wondering where XIII and Versus will stack on my list. From everything I've seen so far I'm thinking XIII will be up there, and Versus too as long as it isn't too heavy on the melodrama.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
It's a nomura directed game. The one thing it will assuredly have in abundance, is melodrama.
The Pipe Vault|Twitter|Steam|Backloggery|3DS:1332-7703-1083
Yeah, I'm really hoping for the best out of XIII. I already like Lightning and Sazh a fair bit, and Snow and Vanille both have the potential to be good characters, depending on how well they're written. I wonder whether the quality of the dialogue will live up to XII? No matter what you think about XII as a whole, you have to admit that it has the best dialogue of any game in the entire series.
What are you talking about?
I had that gambit by the second dungeon.
The one problem with it, is that I can't go back to the combat system of older FFs. What I played of XII was great, but otherwise, I find ATB really annoying. It seems to mainly serve to make random encounters last longer than they have any right to.
Fixed because, honestly. Every single game in the series is filled with it.
Final Fantasy is melodrama. High stakes, high emotions! Betrayal, love! Action!
True, but Nomura tends to turn it to 11
The Pipe Vault|Twitter|Steam|Backloggery|3DS:1332-7703-1083
I've been flip-flopping on whether I'm more looking forward to XIII or Versus.
On the one hand, Versus has shown blood and is apparently going to have a darker story than XIII. These are things that I like. I also like the way the setting's shaping out, how it's more modern than futuristic. It makes sense, compared to XIII's "HOLY SHIT THERE'S LIGHTS EVERYWHERE AND FUCKING FLOATING MOON CITIES AND JETPACK TROOPERS AND BIRD-JET-THINGS!! EVERYTHING IS GREEN!"
On the other hand, the male characters in XIII don't look like rejects from My Chemical Romance. I mean, I can appreciate the suits and stuff that people are wearing in Versus but the main character's hair is unforgivably awful. I don't want to stare at that for 40 hours.
I'm digging the setting and general style of Versus (shitty hair aside) more than XIII, but what I've seen of XIII's characters makes me think it's ultimately going to be a more enjoyable game. Snow looks right cool, and Lightning might as well have been written by Joss Whedon. The only one I'm not too sure about is Vanille because she looks like she'll be filling the obligatory innocent and fragile pretty princess role, and I always hate those characters.
Do... Re... Mi... So... Fa.... Do... Re.... Do...
Forget it...
Oh...I know that. Yet, I have a level of tolerance when it comes to the stuff and while every FF does have melodrama, they don't all share the same degree. And from what Versus trailers have shown me it may end up tipping the scales in that department. When that happens I usually go blind from rolling my eyes so much, making it impossible for me to finish a game.
Basically what I'm getting at.
Self: MP < X% is unavailable until Balfonheim Port.
source
Maybe Ethers are plentiful enough that you could gambit them with the Ally version. I honestly didn't look to find out since I am one of those people who will die rather than use an item because it might be needed later and ends the game with every single consumable unused.
I recognize this is a problem and I am trying to cure it but it still would never occur to me to automate the usage of a consumable that is traditionally rather rare.
And for all the shit Squall gets, he's not half as bad as some of the other characters in his archetype.
I appreciated that IN THE GAME you can pick dialog that makes Squall not nearly as much of a jerk. You can take Selphie on a tour, show concern for your comrades when they go on dangerous missions, and respond positively to Rinoa's advances. He cares, he just has a hard time showing it.
Er, so you're completely gimping yourself and then blaming it on the battle system?
Awesome.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Huh. I must have gotten it from a chest or something.
Well this is your fault then. :P
Or are you just making a general statement? (which I can generally agree with, but it doesn't really reflect on my opinion on FFXII specifically)
I always just manually used ethers, and had charge gambits for mp = 0.
No?
I'm saying if you didn't use items you were gimping yourself.
I don't know why this isn't apparent, but you can give your party members action commands without using gambits....ever if you so choose.
In fact more often than not it is safer to do so instead of relying on gambits in a critical situation.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
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I think the 'never use items ever and end the game with all consumables' was pretty obviously an exaggeration. It's a pretty common affliction among JRPG players, from what I've read, to save items for only the direst of emergencies rather than use one as part of normal strategy (e.g. in a gambit). I am one such afflicted player. I've learned that Auto-Potion and such aren't always bad but I haven't quite reached the fundamental mental shift required to actually pay attention to consumable stores and the like in games that haven't been difficult enough for me to often reach that 'oh crap time to use an item' stage.
This is getting a bit too heated, let's keep it down please.
The Pipe Vault|Twitter|Steam|Backloggery|3DS:1332-7703-1083
Um... something on topic...
So for the lovers of FFVI out there: How many of you played without a guide?
I've been wondering lately how frustrating/stupid/whatever the World of Ruin was without one. I always vaguely thought it would be awful but in thinking about it in more detail, most of the obscure sidequests were mentioned by random people in town, right? Was there someone who 'showed' you where the Phoenix Cave was? I'd imagine that would be hard to find otherwise.
Still, between Shadow and the two secret characters, it seems entirely probable that many non-guide-users were forced to use less than 12 characters for Kefka's Tower.
If I remember correctly, a soldier in the arena tells you there's a secret behind the Emperor's portrait. Check the painting, and it'll tell you there's something hidden in the middle of mountains shaped like a star.
Doesn't the phoenix cave show up on the map? If it does not it is easy to stumble upon when searching for Doomgaze.
Also, i loved the PS FF, but the PS2 entries dissapoint me (specially XII). Also, the rise of the megami tensei franchise doesn´t help things...