Re: Final Fantasy Thread

[BretBaber]

Cool story about FFXII...

I never got the game when it first came out, I was going through a stage in my life when games didn't interest me much anymore besides FIFA games with friends (the ex-girlfriend and myself broke up, and despite never really liking her, the actual idea of it being over was depressing). Not really sure when, but I got the game for my birthday from now wife Lindsay. I played the game on and off and it seemed fun, but being fully vested back into the video game world after a reintroduction of vagina I had a new PS3 and online multiplayer to tempt me. Final Fantasy XIII was about to come out, and the old nerdy Bret inside me did not like that I was going to be getting a new Final Fantasy game without beating the last one. The day before the new one came out I had off, and I swear I played that game for 8 or 10 hours and actually beat the game! I was so pleased with myself. Now I never want to finish new Final Fantasy games because they suck so much.

[Krubixcube]

"Hey boys, how do we start this game with a pop? With a bang? With a real explosion of fireworks and bravado to keep people hooked?!"

"Sewer level."

"...God dammit, Milton, you always say the stupidest things."

(rest of development team gives standing ovation, counts their money from mobile apps)

[volvocrusher]

Crash Bandicoot 2 and South Park: TSoT are the only games where I can remember enjoying the sewer level off the top of my head. And SP needed Mr Hankey to get the job done

[Krubixcube]

I haven't played Crash 2 recently enough but I imagine the sewer levels in a platformer wouldn't be as bad. But even in Rayman Legends the sewer levels were the most annoying. Given the quality of the game they were still good but...sewer levels. Not. Even. Once.

[volvocrusher]

Who decided gamers want to explore where all our shit goes?

[pspiddy]

Milton, obviously. That bastard!

*edit* Oh, and nice story Bret. But I couldn't really make a joke off of that...

[SanAndreasX]

I think game designers love the giant sewer monsters trope, plus they make such handy-dandy escape/infiltration routes. Or maybe it's just because they make for convenient dungeons. Or something. Old-school 1980s computer RPGs loved sewer levels.

The first video game I played that had sewer levels was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game, and those sewers were awfully clean. I guess the makers of the 1987 cartoon wanted to gloss over the fact that the Turtles were living in a pool of human body waste.

Anyway, I think I've said this before, but I took a paid day off for FFXII's launch. Never did that for a video game before and never have done so again.

[volvocrusher]

TMNT at least makes perfect sense to have a sewer level. I'd be more disappointed if it didn't have one.

[Miraculous Kaydybug]

I'm having flashbacks to the sewer level in DDS OH MY GOD THAT WAS HELL. THE MOVING CURRENT PUZZLES DEAR GOD

[BretBaber]

Xenogears sewer was bad, but mainly because you had no idea where you were going. There was a couple parts in that game where the developers were like "Have fun traversing this maze mind fuck!"

[BretBaber]

Finished chapter 1. Now that I've got Resident Evil 2 and 3 out of the way and God of War, I'll be back to playing this.

Currently working on Gunner for Yuna (almost done), Gun Mage for Paine, and Thief for Rikku. I'll be making Yuna a White Mage next.

[BretBaber]

I'm 32% in and so far 100%.

One problem I have with the combat is how weak the enemies are. I'm sure it'll open up at some point, but this whole time enemies can be defeated so easily.

Now working on making Yuna a white mage

[chocobot]

I still haven't started X-2 and am wondering when I will ever get to it. I still keep going back to X thinking I have a chance to get the platinum trophy. lol x_x

[BretBaber]

Final Fantasy X's platinum is too much of a grind for my taste. Ni no Kuni was a fun grind, but just thinking about dodging lightning 200 times really turns me off of the idea. Just join me on my X-2 adventure, since no one else will.

[Miraculous Kaydybug]

I've been thinking of going back to X-2 but with all the other games ive thrown on my backlog lately i dunno

[chocobot]

Surprisingly I got the trophy for dodging the lightning and it wasn't too bad. At least compared to the horrible chocobo stuff. Balloons and birds will haunt me forever man. 

I will let you know if I decide to throw everything else in my backlog aside to join you with X-2, Bret.

[BretBaber]

Awesome. If you do, we just need one other person besides the two of us to say in unison...

"Gullwings take the gold!"

[BretBaber]

100% run fucked again. I've been following the strategy guide to a fucking T (whatever that means), and after completing the mission in Thunder Plains in chapter 2 it says I should be at 34.0% completion, but I'm only at 33.whateverbecauseitdoesn'tshowmeanydecimalamounts%.

[BretBaber]

Since I beat Killzone Mercenary and got the platinum I'm back onto this game. Right now my party is...

Yuna - Black Mage.
Rikku - Warrior. And must I say she looks very tasty in this particular outfit.
Paine - Festavilist. I've never used this dress sphere. Surprised to see it has a rather strong attack as a default command.

[BretBaber]

Kay, do you have to beat Shinra at sphere break in chapter 3 for the max completion points or does it not matter. Would be nice if this strategy guide told me. I know you'll get the dress sphere early but that is a dress sphere I wouldn't really use so I could easily wait if it isn't important.

[Miraculous Kaydybug]

You have to win the tournament i believe which is only held during that chapter, if you beat him later on its just a match and not the tournament

[BretBaber]

Bull shit. I hate when they force you to do mini games.

[SanAndreasX]

Bull shit.  I hate when they force you to do mini games.

Me too. IX forced you to win the card game to progress, and X forced Blitzball, though you didn't have to win to move on in the main game. XII had the "Basch Lives!" part in the sky city that you had to win to progress.

[BretBaber]

Imdont remember that one from XII but the others I do. VII's snowboarding and motorcycle riding didn't bother me even if they were awful because they didn't seem like you could fail.

[SanAndreasX]

Imdont remember that one from XII but the others I do. VII's snowboarding and motorcycle riding didn't bother me even if they were awful because they didn't seem like you could fail.

I don't think you could fail the snowboarding one. The motorcycle one I guess it's technically possible to fail, but the enemies do very little damage and you'd have to work at screwing things up. I didn't care about those.

I didn't like the card game in FFIX (I kind of liked the one in FFVIII, at least until the game starts piling on the really annoying/cheap rules). The rules to the FF9 card game are esoteric as hell. And if you lose a lot, then you end up left with weak cards that make it even harder to win. And unfortunately, you have to win four times to progress.

In FFX, I don't think you had to win the mandatory Blitzball game, so there's that.

In FFXII, there's a scene where you're at the sky city and Vaan has to get the attention of the king of the sky city by creating a disturbance, which he does by running around town yelling out stuff like "Basch Lives!" and "I'm Captain Basch fon Ronsonburg of Dalmasca!" Oh, and you have to do this without being seen or heard by the city's police force. You can't permanently fail this segment, but it can get tedious.

[BretBaber]

I think I kind of remember that. I'd like to play that game again, but it might only be if they do an HD remake. It was definitely addicting to play, jus the story and characters weren't at all memorable to me. Still, better than any of the XIII games I've played.

[BretBaber]

Not a big surprise, but I'm really enjoying the Final Fantasy VII HD remaster. The backgrounds all look the same, but the characters, enemies, magic spells, and world map just look really nice. So nice, that I never knew that Shera had glasses. I mean the character models still are wonky, but it's all cleaned up nice and the colors pop on my big screen. Also, they fixed the only problem I had with the older copy, and that's the script. It's not as if they have added story parts, but they just cleaned up some of the really bad dialogue that didn't get translated well. Also, Cid Highwind's potty mouth seems ever more potty!

I do have a gripe though, and I'm wondering if anyone else on here playing it has the same problem. When going through the menus in battle or in the menu screen, does it seem like the buttons almost get stuck and you double click things that you know you didn't double click? It happens to me all of the time. Example, when I'm removing materia and I hit over to remove the next one, it'll go two spaces over. It's a minor gripe, but in battle when I'm selecting magic sometimes I'll hit the X button and it immediately chooses the first magic as if I hit it twice. Thought it might be the new controller I bought, but it seems to do it on the other one as well.

Also, I got Great Gospel for the first time. I honestly thought it was an unobtainable limit. So I'm really looking forward to using it for the first time, and I'll get a trophy as well!

Back when the game first released, I also bought a strategy guide by Bradygames that I still have to this day. Well, it's a horrible strategy guide, probably the worst one I have ever owned. They listed Great Gospel, but never told you how to go about getting it. If I remember correctly, they cover Gold Chocobos but tell you absolute shit on how to get one. In the gold saucer, when you have to race a chocobo for your freedom, there's a Ramuh material laying on the ground. They point this out, but they don't call it Ramuh, it's titled "Ranch". Definitely not one of the finer strategy guides in existence.

I know San and Matt's playing the game, but I hope some others are as well that I don't know about.

[volvocrusher]

I kind of was tempted to jump but I already have two massive RPGs to play. I don't need a third

[Miraculous Kaydybug]

id get the steam version but Xenoblade X is eating all my time also picking up Lightning Returns on steam this week

[Krubixcube]

@Bret is it the THICK ass one for the PC version because that thing is amazing...

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