Just trying to get the 2 last achievements out of the way.
Was Omega the one that shoots lasers and beams and stuff? I hated that fight. The one on the big military base?
Nah, Omega Weapon is a new hidden ultimate (level 119) enemy hidden just before the end, he is a part of the Royal DLC and he is such fucking bullshit to fight, I just beat him... The fight took like an hour and a half.
I did pitiful damage to him despite being level 99, all normal weapons dont even seem to do damage to him, have to use royal weapons that arent that much better and also drain your HP.
30-50% of his entire hitbox doesnt seem to register anything right and he can shoot you with a (oneshot) frontal faced cannon even if you are behind him.
He has 3 different oneshot attacks (9999 damage), one of them can kill your entire party all at once. (Hyperbeam)
"Clunky" isn't the word I'd use to describe XV's combat. I usually describe it as smooth, simplistic, and chaotic with a hidden depth that you might never use if no one told you about it. Similar to XIII you could instantaneously transition between attack and defense with a single button push (and hold). Unlike XIII you also could take mini-breathers by using your blink strike to go to safe areas and survey the battlefield for a moment while recovering MP. Swapping between 4 weapon styles was great, especially if you knew how to take advantage of each and what enemies were weak to which weapons. After a few hours of play I gained a near instinctual sense of timing on when to dodge.
It wasn't without it's faults to be sure. A few of the monsters like the Red Giant and other larger creatures (especially in the capital) were definitely a slog to get through. I had trouble even into the end game on hitting the counter timing reliably. Magic grenades, while a fun concept, were too difficult to use efficiently (read: without K.O.-ing our party) outside of an alpha-strike. And a lot of boss enemies were so tedious that I often used a summon to kill them. That being said, I still don't think "Clunky" is how I would describe it. Clunky is what I think of Monster Hunter combat where you're locked into specific attack chains, can't change weapons after embarking, and your facing doesn't track enemies at all.
Targeting your warp strike was fiddly at best, and often you'd end up warping somewhere you didn't want to. Likewise, making mana regen dependent on warping to those elevated perch points was super dumb, and depending on where your combat encounter took place, sometimes you were either out of range of the warp perches, or sometimes they were there but were untargetable because targeting in that game was awful.
Likewise, there was absolutely no depth to the combat in that game at all. It was basically just hold down the attack button and then roll around to dodge stuff, or use the special warp dodge move, which was also fiddly and unreliable, and in like 97% of all circumstances it was better to just make an evasive roll than to try to use their dumb magical dodge thing.
Not to mention "magic" was just throwing crafted grenades, and the system was both simultaneously overpowered and busted to the point of hilarity and also completely useless and ineffective against major bosses.
Companion AI was the worst and you spend more time than you should reviving your dudes because they loved standing in fire, standing in beams, standing in telegraphed attacks, and standing anywhere at all.
On top of that, the camera angle was always a battle, and while it was generally "okay" against small packs of enemies of small size, as soon as you fought a boss of enormous size, such as Titan, the Adamantoise, or any other massive enemies, the camera angle became your worst enemy.
No, combat in that game was not good, and it was definitely not something you could finesse to perfection. It was a hot mess of a dozen individual problems that added up to one of the worst action game experiences I've ever had.
I couldn't fight Titan because the camera was more concerned with Noct's face than letting me see where I was or the giant arms that were going to crash down. I tried three times and gave up after a half hour of trying hard. I didn't have that much trouble with the behemoth or other mini bosses at all.
The party AI's knack for standing around in hazards was a bit annoying, though. I agree on that.
I think you misspelled "Dragon Age" there.
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Sirialisof the Halite Throne.Registered Userregular
The controls were awkward and hard to work with.
Having fought everything in FFXV, Omega wasnt even the hardest, I beat him on my 2nd attempt.
Noctis is the hardest boss in the game, when you play as Ignis in his DLC, you can ask for a sparring match, if you win he actually eats his vegetables.
Targeting your warp strike was fiddly at best, and often you'd end up warping somewhere you didn't want to. Likewise, making mana regen dependent on warping to those elevated perch points was super dumb, and depending on where your combat encounter took place, sometimes you were either out of range of the warp perches, or sometimes they were there but were untargetable because targeting in that game was awful.
Likewise, there was absolutely no depth to the combat in that game at all. It was basically just hold down the attack button and then roll around to dodge stuff, or use the special warp dodge move, which was also fiddly and unreliable, and in like 97% of all circumstances it was better to just make an evasive roll than to try to use their dumb magical dodge thing.
Not to mention "magic" was just throwing crafted grenades, and the system was both simultaneously overpowered and busted to the point of hilarity and also completely useless and ineffective against major bosses.
Companion AI was the worst and you spend more time than you should reviving your dudes because they loved standing in fire, standing in beams, standing in telegraphed attacks, and standing anywhere at all.
On top of that, the camera angle was always a battle, and while it was generally "okay" against small packs of enemies of small size, as soon as you fought a boss of enormous size, such as Titan, the Adamantoise, or any other massive enemies, the camera angle became your worst enemy.
No, combat in that game was not good, and it was definitely not something you could finesse to perfection. It was a hot mess of a dozen individual problems that added up to one of the worst action game experiences I've ever had.
All of this.
Plus, the skill system sucked. I have no idea if Gladio had any crowd control. I'd think, as the group's tank, he would have something to grab aggro and make it so the squishy Ignas and Prompto would live longer, but damn if I knew what that ability, if it existed, was. Given how the game liked to throw packs of enemies at you, it should've been something available from the outset.
And, yeah, the camera was atrocious. Especially if you were trying to fight in any spot with trees or shrubbery.
Outside of the mechanics, I really hated the feel of it all. Too much emphasis on dodging/warping, not enough on anything else. It made the bros feel like weaklings rather than fantasy heroes.
So, I got the first volume of the Ultimania Archive book for Christmas. It's a really fun book; it's full of concept art, information, original notes, and scrapped ideas or obscure facts about the first six games.
For example, FFI has a small section with notes describing the various spells in D&D or fantasy novel terms. Stuff like how White Mages were once known to use spells like Blindna to heal people who were born blind, or how Black Magic is actually extremely dangerous and has been known to destroy prospective practitioners before they master it.
But I really like some of the stuff for later games, like FFVI. Did you know that Biggs and Wedge were at one point planned to survive at least as far as the Opera House? There's an early script in the book detailing them performing the "drop a weight on the opera singer" plan that Ultros comes up with in the actual game. There'd be a brief boss fight in the catwalk before everyone falls to the stage. The fight on the stage was also planned to have the audience react to the battle, oohing and aahing at stuff like magic attacks, or screaming when people get knocked out. I like to imagine that this eventually got re-imagined as the mock battle you do at the start of FFIX, with the "special effects" commands and all that.
Also, for some reason, Sabin likes walnuts, but dislikes eating nuts. I've taken this to mean that he likes to crack nuts with his bear hands as exercise, but just tosses the nuts away afterward. At least put them in a jar for someone else to eat, dude.
There's also a cool bit of info about the Crusader esper. According to the book, the three figures summoned when you use that Magicite is, somehow, a manifestation of the Warring Triad itself, and what they're actually doing when you summon them is reliving their final battle from the war all those eons ago. No wonder the attack destroys everything around them.
So, I got the first volume of the Ultimania Archive book for Christmas. It's a really fun book; it's full of concept art, information, original notes, and scrapped ideas or obscure facts about the first six games.
For example, FFI has a small section with notes describing the various spells in D&D or fantasy novel terms. Stuff like how White Mages were once known to use spells like Blindna to heal people who were born blind, or how Black Magic is actually extremely dangerous and has been known to destroy prospective practitioners before they master it.
But I really like some of the stuff for later games, like FFVI. Did you know that Biggs and Wedge were at one point planned to survive at least as far as the Opera House? There's an early script in the book detailing them performing the "drop a weight on the opera singer" plan that Ultros comes up with in the actual game. There'd be a brief boss fight in the catwalk before everyone falls to the stage. The fight on the stage was also planned to have the audience react to the battle, oohing and aahing at stuff like magic attacks, or screaming when people get knocked out. I like to imagine that this eventually got re-imagined as the mock battle you do at the start of FFIX, with the "special effects" commands and all that.
Also, for some reason, Sabin likes walnuts, but dislikes eating nuts. I've taken this to mean that he likes to crack nuts with his bear hands as exercise, but just tosses the nuts away afterward. At least put them in a jar for someone else to eat, dude.
There's also a cool bit of info about the Crusader esper. According to the book, the three figures summoned when you use that Magicite is, somehow, a manifestation of the Warring Triad itself, and what they're actually doing when you summon them is reliving their final battle from the war all those eons ago. No wonder the attack destroys everything around them.
These FFVI facts should definitely show up as things in an eventual HD remake.
I love how Japan are so meticulous/obsessed with character background and things like blood types, likes and dislikes. It's the kind of detail that wouldn't be given a second thought for American developed games, but Japan?
Japanese culture has a pseudo-scientific belief that blood type influences personality, akin to the belief in astrology here. To the point that you put it on work applications so they can factor that in (ie discriminate if you have the wrong blood type). AB is supposed to be eccentric/two-faced.
Japanese culture has a pseudo-scientific belief that blood type influences personality, akin to the belief in astrology here. To the point that you put it on work applications so they can factor that in (ie discriminate if you have the wrong blood type). AB is supposed to be eccentric/two-faced.
Guess what? That's Kefka's blood type.
Other interesting/weird FFVI stats:
Umaro's age is given as "4 years counted". So probably Mog met him 4 years ago and taught him to start recording stuff like that?
Mog's blood type is "Black-footed Duck" (thanks, Mog. That's super helpful), and the book confirms that he was in a relationship with Molulu.
Both Relm and Umaro hate hairy caterpillars
Strago has a collection of monster costumes.
Both Shadow and Cyan have, under "Treasure", a pocketwatch with a portrait inside. For Cyan, it's explicitly a family portrait.
Cid's hobby is cultivating new species of plants: he has a rose garden that Celes likes to tend, and he named one of his new breeds of flower after her.
Kefka's "Like" is General Leo. Which... what? That seems at odds with the Thamasa scene, no? Have I been misinterpreting that as being Kefka's plan all these years?
The ghosts like Hell and dislike Heaven.
Japanese culture has a pseudo-scientific belief that blood type influences personality, akin to the belief in astrology here. To the point that you put it on work applications so they can factor that in (ie discriminate if you have the wrong blood type). AB is supposed to be eccentric/two-faced.
I learned something today. That's kind of awesome.
Japanese culture has a pseudo-scientific belief that blood type influences personality, akin to the belief in astrology here. To the point that you put it on work applications so they can factor that in (ie discriminate if you have the wrong blood type). AB is supposed to be eccentric/two-faced.
Guess what? That's Kefka's blood type.
Other interesting/weird FFVI stats:
Umaro's age is given as "4 years counted". So probably Mog met him 4 years ago and taught him to start recording stuff like that?
Mog's blood type is "Black-footed Duck" (thanks, Mog. That's super helpful), and the book confirms that he was in a relationship with Molulu.
Both Relm and Umaro hate hairy caterpillars
Strago has a collection of monster costumes.
Both Shadow and Cyan have, under "Treasure", a pocketwatch with a portrait inside. For Cyan, it's explicitly a family portrait.
Cid's hobby is cultivating new species of plants: he has a rose garden that Celes likes to tend, and he named one of his new breeds of flower after her.
Kefka's "Like" is General Leo. Which... what? That seems at odds with the Thamasa scene, no? Have I been misinterpreting that as being Kefka's plan all these years?
The ghosts like Hell and dislike Heaven.
Could also be he liked Leo before he went insane. I think he was a normal dude before the Magic was put in him.
Kefka was driven mad by the Magitek infusion, yes. General Leo refused said infusion, maybe in part because of what it did to Kefka?
I'd love to see a FFVI prequel story, doesn't need to be a game really. Just what Kefka and Leo and the empire were up to before Magitek experimentation, the tragic fall of Kefka into madness afterwards, and the emotional toll it has on Leo.
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
Kefka could like Leo the way the Joker likes Batman.
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
The example that comes to mind is how the original Final Fantasy VII manual includes birthdays (though not birth years) in the Gregorian calendar (the international norm). Even though there was no indication in the game itself that they lived on a planet with 365 1/4-day long years divide into a dozen months.
I knew about the blood type, but not the part where it's put on JOB APPLICATIONS. That's kinda fucked up, Japan.
It isn't just job apps either. Schools and universities may ask for it as well.
People compare this astrology and that's fair, both have horoscopes, "personalities" and such. The difference though is that each sign in the astrology is generically "good" or "positive". With blood types though? Some are considered downright negative.
B are thought to be uncooperative and O are aggressive and rude. Which are just about the worst things you could call someone in Japan.
A are apparently the Golden People and are polite, helpful, considerate, etc etc. Pretty much all the traits the Japanese value.
AB are considered to be two-faced or eccentric, but AB is so rare (not just in Japan, but the world) that most people find it "neat" if someone is AB.
Burahara is the term for blood type discrimination, if memory serves. It has become enough of a problem that the Govt has had to tell people to stop it, but as far as I know there isn't an actual law against it. Though there are TV regulations to mitigate how much blood type talk is on tv.
Axen on
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
Even when I was living in Japan in the 1990s, these issues (specifically for job applications, I believe) were already starting to become common news in the civil courts. Though I think we (the expats) joked that Japan was becoming a much more litigious society, as part of becoming more like them (the American expats) in general.
I'm not sure just how much freedom of motion Kefka actually had within the Empire. He shows up all over the place, but if his actual function was just to go where Emperor Gestahl told him to go and kill who Emperor Gestahl told him to kill, it's possible that Kefka's actual life experience was kept painfully small. So for as cruel as he is to General Leo, if General Leo is one of the few people he has any real interaction with, he would probably say that he "likes" General Leo just for want of anything or anyone else preferable.
My favorite musical instrument is the air-raid siren.
I'm not sure just how much freedom of motion Kefka actually had within the Empire. He shows up all over the place, but if his actual function was just to go where Emperor Gestahl told him to go and kill who Emperor Gestahl told him to kill, it's possible that Kefka's actual life experience was kept painfully small. So for as cruel as he is to General Leo, if General Leo is one of the few people he has any real interaction with, he would probably say that he "likes" General Leo just for want of anything or anyone else preferable.
Kefka really is such a tragic figure. There isn't a lot of information about him before he was the prototype Magitek Knight, but we see how he was after the experimentation - a violent, nihilistic megalomaniac. A perfect prequel story, to me, would be about the year or so of Kefka's life leading up to him being experimented on. It could give some insight into why he would have such a love/hate relationship with General Leo - Leo represents what Kefka could have been if he had denied the Magitek experimentation.
And for some reason, all I can picture is a Wicked-esque musical now, the tragic tale of how beloved, misunderstood Kefka Palazzo became the power-mad magician, kingslayer, and shaper of the new world.
Defying Gravity, indeed.
PSN: TheArcadeBear
Steam: TheArcadeBear
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
He comes off even more pitiable in the Japanese version. His personality in that version is like that of a child.
A spoiled, rotten, child who does whatever he wants and can't comprehend how his actions affects others.
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
I remember once seeing someone’s fan translation of FFVI. During the part where Kefka is yelling at the Warring Triad to let him into their circle, he says something like “you, too, were created to fight! Now let me in!” Which, if accurate, says rather a lot about his mental state and view of himself.
He comes off even more pitiable in the Japanese version. His personality in that version is like that of a child.
A spoiled, rotten, child who does whatever he wants and can't comprehend how his actions affects others.
Does it though? One neat thing about the Japanese that doesn't quite make the translation is that he can't keep a consistent tone. It goes from ultra respectful Keigo to downright rude Kudaketa and flip-flops between masculine and feminine. It was explained to me that this was to indicate that he's literally insane and showing signs of schizophrenia. Also, I'm not passing judgement or anything, but I've never even considered being sympathetic towards Kefka: I think he's engineered to be the least sympathetic villain ever.
I do like how he sort of shows an extreme end of the game's theme about what people do to get power, and what they do when they have it. Kefka seems to seek power for its own sake, going further than Gestahl dares to do when he breaks the balance of the Warring Triad. But once he does achieve ultimate power, he finds that he has literally nothing to do with it that feels fulfilling. He climbed to the top of the heap, only to find nothing waiting for him there. If he thought he was born only to fight, finding nothing to fight for once he has all the power must have been shattering.
Which contrasts with Terra, who was born with amazing power, but hated it for a time, and honestly wonders why anyone would want what she has. She only finds closure when she finds something that she wants to use her power for; protecting the people she loves.
....
Oooor perhaps I'm projecting my own ideas onto the narrative. This kind of contrast is made way more explicit between Kuja and Vivi in FFIX, for example.
I do like how he sort of shows an extreme end of the game's theme about what people do to get power, and what they do when they have it. Kefka seems to seek power for its own sake, going further than Gestahl dares to do when he breaks the balance of the Warring Triad. But once he does achieve ultimate power, he finds that he has literally nothing to do with it that feels fulfilling. He climbed to the top of the heap, only to find nothing waiting for him there. If he thought he was born only to fight, finding nothing to fight for once he has all the power must have been shattering.
Which contrasts with Terra, who was born with amazing power, but hated it for a time, and honestly wonders why anyone would want what she has. She only finds closure when she finds something that she wants to use her power for; protecting the people she loves.
....
Oooor perhaps I'm projecting my own ideas onto the narrative. This kind of contrast is made way more explicit between Kuja and Vivi in FFIX, for example.
The subtext is all there, moreso in Japanese. I've talked about this before about how much information is conveyed just by the syntax of the language: Celes' entire emotional development is displayed simply by her speech gradually becoming less distant and more direct toward Locke. One of my other favorite themes are the four versions of biblical love displayed through the main characters' relationships: Eros via Locke & Celes, Storge via Relm & Strago, Philia (displayed by all but best seen through Edgar & Sabin), and Agape via Terra's love for all the children of the world. While each of the narrative arcs in the game is relatively shallow, there are so many of them and they're all treated with the proper amount of seriousness that it continues to resonate with players decades later.
飛べねぇ豚はただの豚だ。
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
He comes off even more pitiable in the Japanese version. His personality in that version is like that of a child.
A spoiled, rotten, child who does whatever he wants and can't comprehend how his actions affects others.
Does it though? One neat thing about the Japanese that doesn't quite make the translation is that he can't keep a consistent tone. It goes from ultra respectful Keigo to downright rude Kudaketa and flip-flops between masculine and feminine. It was explained to me that this was to indicate that he's literally insane and showing signs of schizophrenia. Also, I'm not passing judgement or anything, but I've never even considered being sympathetic towards Kefka: I think he's engineered to be the least sympathetic villain ever.
When referring to himself at least before the World of Ruin he typically uses "boku" and "boku-chin" which is what a young boy would use.
During the World of Ruin, IIRC it has been awhile, he uses more gender-neutral pronouns since he has transcended humanity or some such. Though some of those are mainly used by women, but are not exclusively feminine. Just really popular with the ladies I guess.
But yeah, in either version he is completely and totally insane. The way they depict the insanity varies between the versions, but is pretty interesting to compare.
Oh, now I'm on the Tvtropes page for VI,
"No Pronunciation Guide: Gau, Cyan, Celes, and Relm: none of those names are pronounced like you're probably saying them aloud now."
Well hell.
I've not ever heard them spoken aloud correctly before. So for me it is: Gau as in GAU-8, Cyan as in the color, Celes as in Celestial, and Relm is Realm.
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
I've not ever heard them spoken aloud correctly before. So for me it is: Gau as in GAU-8, Cyan as in the color, Celes as in Celestial, and Relm is Realm.
That's how I've always pronounced them, though I'm not sure how many people in this thread know how GAU-8 is pronounced, or how many poor souls have been reaped by the "shot glasses" made from those shells. My WoW Paladin was Cayenne in honor of Cyan and his Japanese pronunciation, but prior to learning that I pronounced it as the color.
I'm having trouble finding the script, but the reference from Kefka that I was thinking of specifically is when he's desert after Terra, Edgar, and Locke have escaped from Figaro Castle on Chocobos. Where the (in)famous Woosleyism "Son of a submariner" appears in the original SNES translation. I think there he keeps flip-flopping between a bunch of different tones.
I've not ever heard them spoken aloud correctly before. So for me it is: Gau as in GAU-8, Cyan as in the color, Celes as in Celestial, and Relm is Realm.
That's how I've always pronounced them, though I'm not sure how many people in this thread know how GAU-8 is pronounced, or how many poor souls have been reaped by the "shot glasses" made from those shells. My WoW Paladin was Cayenne in honor of Cyan and his Japanese pronunciation, but prior to learning that I pronounced it as the color.
I'm having trouble finding the script, but the reference from Kefka that I was thinking of specifically is when he's desert after Terra, Edgar, and Locke have escaped from Figaro Castle on Chocobos. Where the (in)famous Woosleyism "Son of a submariner" appears in the original SNES translation. I think there he keeps flip-flopping between a bunch of different tones.
Hah, if anyone needs a reference it sounds like this
edit- I had a feeling Cyan was "Ceyenne". It would've been my first guess as to how it is "properly" pronounced. The others though? No idea, but I can hazard a guess that it will upset me.
Edit 2- wait, Gau is a feral child and the Japanese version of “Rarr” is “Gao” so it makes sense for his name to be “Gow” right? In which case I was right! I’ll be vexed if I’m not. Terribly vexed.
Axen on
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
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Fuck Joe Manchin
Nah, Omega Weapon is a new hidden ultimate (level 119) enemy hidden just before the end, he is a part of the Royal DLC and he is such fucking bullshit to fight, I just beat him... The fight took like an hour and a half.
I did pitiful damage to him despite being level 99, all normal weapons dont even seem to do damage to him, have to use royal weapons that arent that much better and also drain your HP.
30-50% of his entire hitbox doesnt seem to register anything right and he can shoot you with a (oneshot) frontal faced cannon even if you are behind him.
He has 3 different oneshot attacks (9999 damage), one of them can kill your entire party all at once. (Hyperbeam)
It wasn't without it's faults to be sure. A few of the monsters like the Red Giant and other larger creatures (especially in the capital) were definitely a slog to get through. I had trouble even into the end game on hitting the counter timing reliably. Magic grenades, while a fun concept, were too difficult to use efficiently (read: without K.O.-ing our party) outside of an alpha-strike. And a lot of boss enemies were so tedious that I often used a summon to kill them. That being said, I still don't think "Clunky" is how I would describe it. Clunky is what I think of Monster Hunter combat where you're locked into specific attack chains, can't change weapons after embarking, and your facing doesn't track enemies at all.
Targeting your warp strike was fiddly at best, and often you'd end up warping somewhere you didn't want to. Likewise, making mana regen dependent on warping to those elevated perch points was super dumb, and depending on where your combat encounter took place, sometimes you were either out of range of the warp perches, or sometimes they were there but were untargetable because targeting in that game was awful.
Likewise, there was absolutely no depth to the combat in that game at all. It was basically just hold down the attack button and then roll around to dodge stuff, or use the special warp dodge move, which was also fiddly and unreliable, and in like 97% of all circumstances it was better to just make an evasive roll than to try to use their dumb magical dodge thing.
Not to mention "magic" was just throwing crafted grenades, and the system was both simultaneously overpowered and busted to the point of hilarity and also completely useless and ineffective against major bosses.
Companion AI was the worst and you spend more time than you should reviving your dudes because they loved standing in fire, standing in beams, standing in telegraphed attacks, and standing anywhere at all.
On top of that, the camera angle was always a battle, and while it was generally "okay" against small packs of enemies of small size, as soon as you fought a boss of enormous size, such as Titan, the Adamantoise, or any other massive enemies, the camera angle became your worst enemy.
No, combat in that game was not good, and it was definitely not something you could finesse to perfection. It was a hot mess of a dozen individual problems that added up to one of the worst action game experiences I've ever had.
The party AI's knack for standing around in hazards was a bit annoying, though. I agree on that.
I think you misspelled "Dragon Age" there.
Having fought everything in FFXV, Omega wasnt even the hardest, I beat him on my 2nd attempt.
Noctis is the hardest boss in the game, when you play as Ignis in his DLC, you can ask for a sparring match, if you win he actually eats his vegetables.
All of this.
Plus, the skill system sucked. I have no idea if Gladio had any crowd control. I'd think, as the group's tank, he would have something to grab aggro and make it so the squishy Ignas and Prompto would live longer, but damn if I knew what that ability, if it existed, was. Given how the game liked to throw packs of enemies at you, it should've been something available from the outset.
And, yeah, the camera was atrocious. Especially if you were trying to fight in any spot with trees or shrubbery.
Outside of the mechanics, I really hated the feel of it all. Too much emphasis on dodging/warping, not enough on anything else. It made the bros feel like weaklings rather than fantasy heroes.
For example, FFI has a small section with notes describing the various spells in D&D or fantasy novel terms. Stuff like how White Mages were once known to use spells like Blindna to heal people who were born blind, or how Black Magic is actually extremely dangerous and has been known to destroy prospective practitioners before they master it.
But I really like some of the stuff for later games, like FFVI. Did you know that Biggs and Wedge were at one point planned to survive at least as far as the Opera House? There's an early script in the book detailing them performing the "drop a weight on the opera singer" plan that Ultros comes up with in the actual game. There'd be a brief boss fight in the catwalk before everyone falls to the stage. The fight on the stage was also planned to have the audience react to the battle, oohing and aahing at stuff like magic attacks, or screaming when people get knocked out. I like to imagine that this eventually got re-imagined as the mock battle you do at the start of FFIX, with the "special effects" commands and all that.
Also, for some reason, Sabin likes walnuts, but dislikes eating nuts. I've taken this to mean that he likes to crack nuts with his bear hands as exercise, but just tosses the nuts away afterward. At least put them in a jar for someone else to eat, dude.
There's also a cool bit of info about the Crusader esper. According to the book, the three figures summoned when you use that Magicite is, somehow, a manifestation of the Warring Triad itself, and what they're actually doing when you summon them is reliving their final battle from the war all those eons ago. No wonder the attack destroys everything around them.
These FFVI facts should definitely show up as things in an eventual HD remake.
Name: Diana Carfire
Sex: Female
Age: ??
Height: 5'7
Weight: 135 pounds
Blood Type: AB Negative
Likes: Karaoke
Dislikes: Getting dirty
Steam: TheArcadeBear
Guess what? That's Kefka's blood type.
Other interesting/weird FFVI stats:
Umaro's age is given as "4 years counted". So probably Mog met him 4 years ago and taught him to start recording stuff like that?
Mog's blood type is "Black-footed Duck" (thanks, Mog. That's super helpful), and the book confirms that he was in a relationship with Molulu.
Both Relm and Umaro hate hairy caterpillars
Strago has a collection of monster costumes.
Both Shadow and Cyan have, under "Treasure", a pocketwatch with a portrait inside. For Cyan, it's explicitly a family portrait.
Cid's hobby is cultivating new species of plants: he has a rose garden that Celes likes to tend, and he named one of his new breeds of flower after her.
Kefka's "Like" is General Leo. Which... what? That seems at odds with the Thamasa scene, no? Have I been misinterpreting that as being Kefka's plan all these years?
The ghosts like Hell and dislike Heaven.
I learned something today. That's kind of awesome.
Steam: TheArcadeBear
as a sadist, Kefka likes targets he can torment
Kefka was driven mad by the Magitek infusion, yes. General Leo refused said infusion, maybe in part because of what it did to Kefka?
I'd love to see a FFVI prequel story, doesn't need to be a game really. Just what Kefka and Leo and the empire were up to before Magitek experimentation, the tragic fall of Kefka into madness afterwards, and the emotional toll it has on Leo.
But that's the best kind?!
edit: to be marginally on topic, I always thought Hidon looked like a (non-hairy) caterpillar.
I knew about the blood type, but not the part where it's put on JOB APPLICATIONS. That's kinda fucked up, Japan.
It isn't just job apps either. Schools and universities may ask for it as well.
People compare this astrology and that's fair, both have horoscopes, "personalities" and such. The difference though is that each sign in the astrology is generically "good" or "positive". With blood types though? Some are considered downright negative.
B are thought to be uncooperative and O are aggressive and rude. Which are just about the worst things you could call someone in Japan.
A are apparently the Golden People and are polite, helpful, considerate, etc etc. Pretty much all the traits the Japanese value.
AB are considered to be two-faced or eccentric, but AB is so rare (not just in Japan, but the world) that most people find it "neat" if someone is AB.
Burahara is the term for blood type discrimination, if memory serves. It has become enough of a problem that the Govt has had to tell people to stop it, but as far as I know there isn't an actual law against it. Though there are TV regulations to mitigate how much blood type talk is on tv.
Kefka really is such a tragic figure. There isn't a lot of information about him before he was the prototype Magitek Knight, but we see how he was after the experimentation - a violent, nihilistic megalomaniac. A perfect prequel story, to me, would be about the year or so of Kefka's life leading up to him being experimented on. It could give some insight into why he would have such a love/hate relationship with General Leo - Leo represents what Kefka could have been if he had denied the Magitek experimentation.
Defying Gravity, indeed.
Steam: TheArcadeBear
A spoiled, rotten, child who does whatever he wants and can't comprehend how his actions affects others.
I only saw this bottom part of your post and had to double check I didn't accidentally click some Trump thread, ha...
Does it though? One neat thing about the Japanese that doesn't quite make the translation is that he can't keep a consistent tone. It goes from ultra respectful Keigo to downright rude Kudaketa and flip-flops between masculine and feminine. It was explained to me that this was to indicate that he's literally insane and showing signs of schizophrenia. Also, I'm not passing judgement or anything, but I've never even considered being sympathetic towards Kefka: I think he's engineered to be the least sympathetic villain ever.
Which contrasts with Terra, who was born with amazing power, but hated it for a time, and honestly wonders why anyone would want what she has. She only finds closure when she finds something that she wants to use her power for; protecting the people she loves.
....
Oooor perhaps I'm projecting my own ideas onto the narrative. This kind of contrast is made way more explicit between Kuja and Vivi in FFIX, for example.
The subtext is all there, moreso in Japanese. I've talked about this before about how much information is conveyed just by the syntax of the language: Celes' entire emotional development is displayed simply by her speech gradually becoming less distant and more direct toward Locke. One of my other favorite themes are the four versions of biblical love displayed through the main characters' relationships: Eros via Locke & Celes, Storge via Relm & Strago, Philia (displayed by all but best seen through Edgar & Sabin), and Agape via Terra's love for all the children of the world. While each of the narrative arcs in the game is relatively shallow, there are so many of them and they're all treated with the proper amount of seriousness that it continues to resonate with players decades later.
When referring to himself at least before the World of Ruin he typically uses "boku" and "boku-chin" which is what a young boy would use.
During the World of Ruin, IIRC it has been awhile, he uses more gender-neutral pronouns since he has transcended humanity or some such. Though some of those are mainly used by women, but are not exclusively feminine. Just really popular with the ladies I guess.
But yeah, in either version he is completely and totally insane. The way they depict the insanity varies between the versions, but is pretty interesting to compare.
Oh, now I'm on the Tvtropes page for VI,
"No Pronunciation Guide: Gau, Cyan, Celes, and Relm: none of those names are pronounced like you're probably saying them aloud now."
Well hell.
I've not ever heard them spoken aloud correctly before. So for me it is: Gau as in GAU-8, Cyan as in the color, Celes as in Celestial, and Relm is Realm.
That's how I've always pronounced them, though I'm not sure how many people in this thread know how GAU-8 is pronounced, or how many poor souls have been reaped by the "shot glasses" made from those shells. My WoW Paladin was Cayenne in honor of Cyan and his Japanese pronunciation, but prior to learning that I pronounced it as the color.
I'm having trouble finding the script, but the reference from Kefka that I was thinking of specifically is when he's desert after Terra, Edgar, and Locke have escaped from Figaro Castle on Chocobos. Where the (in)famous Woosleyism "Son of a submariner" appears in the original SNES translation. I think there he keeps flip-flopping between a bunch of different tones.
In FFXIV, the character who maps to Cyan has his name spelled "Kaien".
Hah, if anyone needs a reference it sounds like this
edit- I had a feeling Cyan was "Ceyenne". It would've been my first guess as to how it is "properly" pronounced. The others though? No idea, but I can hazard a guess that it will upset me.
Edit 2- wait, Gau is a feral child and the Japanese version of “Rarr” is “Gao” so it makes sense for his name to be “Gow” right? In which case I was right! I’ll be vexed if I’m not. Terribly vexed.