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Pablo Gigante posted:I finished the FFV4JF last week and I was amazed how low my party's levels were at the end of the game - between 30-35. Probably the lowest I've beaten an FF game at (besides FFVIII but that's a whole other level of breakable). If you flee a lot, you could end up even lower. If I hadn't had to grind to have enough max HP to survive Almagest, I think I could've finished around 26-28; that's when I killed Shinryu, at least. (This FF5 and FF12 talk keeps making me want to type Yiazmat when I mean Shinryu and vice versa, damnit!)
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Jul 17, 2012 15:36
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ImpAtom posted:His Japanese voice actor is awful and his English voice actor did a pretty bad job despite doing reasonably well elsewhere. It's kind of hard to get past that in the first fully voice acted game. I can see that. I find FFX's (english) voice acting a lot more tolerable than most, in fact I think some of it like Jecht and Auron were pretty good. I've been playing FF4 for the first time this past week. I've really liked it, I thought I might not be able to get into it because of its age but that hasn't been a problem. The story might be a little basic at points today, but it deals with some pretty deep stuff for an SNES RPG. The combat is fine too, on regular settings the ATB feels faster than FF6's did. It also feels like I'm flying through the game, 13 hours in and I've beaten Rubicante. But I have no idea how far I'm actually am from the end.
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Jul 17, 2012 15:41
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The Gunslinger posted:I think FFXII works best when you're underleveled for content as even the automation doesn't make up for the challenge and you're constantly tinkering or overriding things to go with the flow. I did the Gilgamesh fights at a very low level and it was probably one of the enjoyable and challenging boss fight in any FF game I've played. The fighting becomes rote when you have god equipment or are just facing little wolves in the desert though. Pretty much this. The game throws tons of optional fights at you at points where your level or available equipment are pretty woefully unmatched to the challenge, and if you man up and take them on as soon as you think you can they provide amazingly engaging and challenging battles that you cannot just "watch." The enemies, and bosses in particular, are given a wide enough array of attacks and status effects that you can't typically protect against everything (even if you know what to expect, and most players don't have the game memorized that well). On top of that, the enemies' entire AI routines and abilities change as their health goes down specifically to make you change up your approach. I maintain that anyone that complains that they've taken on most of the bosses and that the game "plays itself" were grossly overleveled or overequipped. My recently mentioned Cuchulainn fight, for example (and most harder bosses) have my doing nearly everything manually eventually. Granted, I play on Wait mode, highest speed setting, but I find the user interface perfectly usable for manual input, as it allows you to switch between your different characters very easily. Even fighting trash mobs, I'm doing something- run up to steal, and monsters aggro on the leader, at which point you run back and kite the enemies through your team who tend to get several hits in before the enemy manages to catch and hit you. Yes, you COULD just run up and stand there and take a bunch of hits and heal, but why would you intentionally do poorly and have to watch your team heal itself all the time? Even during easier boss fights, it's a good idea to occasionally manually move your team around to either keep them bunched up for healing or spread them out to avoid AOE attacks.
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Jul 17, 2012 15:56
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If you view each individual (non-boss) battle as an optimization puzzle that rewards you with slowed attrition of resources - which, granted, is a more valid perspective in other RPGs than in Final Fantasy - then the automation works against that, because either your gambit setup is optimal in a majority of situations, in which case you're just watching them play out, or your gambits are suboptimal and you need to take manual control through an interface that's largely inferior to standard ATB. It was an interesting experiment, and I don't think it was to the game's detriment, but it's kind of an evolutionary dead end if they're not going to apply it to a game that's so complicated that it needs automation in order to be comprehensible at all.
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Jul 17, 2012 16:23
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Pablo Gigante posted:I finished the FFV4JF last week and I was amazed how low my party's levels were at the end of the game - between 30-35. Probably the lowest I've beaten an FF game at (besides FFVIII but that's a whole other level of breakable). That's pretty standard for FF5, even a normal playthrough. Higher levels give you marginally lower returns in the form of damage output, since it just increases your multiplier and it should already be pretty high when you reach the 30s. Besides, in a normal run you have chemists that can boost your level as high as you want.
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Jul 17, 2012 16:45
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I'm looking to play FFXII for the first time, and I was wondering, is it worth tracking down the Zodiac Job System version? It sounds like a pretty comprehensive overhaul of the system, but in a good way. From my understanding, it sounds like it makes it less like FFVIII's blank slates and more like FFIII/V's more rigid approach, which sounds a lot more appealing to me. (Not that junctions were bad — jobs are just more... I dunno, classic FF, I guess.) As someone who has never played the original, is it worth playing as-is, or should I go straight for the Zodiac version? BONUS QUESTION: I haven't played any of the other Ivalice games — not even the original FF Tactics. Is there a particular order they are best played in? From what I understand, the connections are mostly just that they happen to take place in the same universe than anything like recurring characters (wasn't Vagrant Story originally supposed to be completely unconnected to FF and then just sort of shoehorned in later in development?). FURTHER BONUS QUESTION: ...which reminds me, which version of FF Tactics should I play, having never played it before? I've heard that the PSX's translation is awful, but the PSP remake has slowdown issues. However, I also read that there's a fan patch that fixes said slowdown completely. Is that the case? If so, should I play the PSP version for my first time?
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Jul 17, 2012 17:36
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I can't answer about IZJS or what order to play the Ivalice games, but absolutely get the PSP version if you have custom firmware and can use the no-slowdown patch. I vastly prefer the new translation (though take that for what it is - an opinion).
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Jul 17, 2012 17:38
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Portfolio posted:I'm looking to play FFXII for the first time, and I was wondering, is it worth tracking down the Zodiac Job System version? It sounds like a pretty comprehensive overhaul of the system, but in a good way. From my understanding, it sounds like it makes it less like FFVIII's blank slates and more like FFIII/V's more rigid approach, which sounds a lot more appealing to me. (Not that junctions were bad — jobs are just more... I dunno, classic FF, I guess.) As someone who has never played the original, is it worth playing as-is, or should I go straight for the Zodiac version? 1) Zodiac version gives you rigidly till the end of the game defined classes. This is an improvement in the sense that it makes characters have true roles but its a bit of a jerk move because you can't preview classes. Thankfully guides exist. 2) Zodiac gives you all the gambits to start with. This is a godsend and how the stupid game should hvae been made. Despite not particularly liking getting locked into classes I'd recommend Zodiac over vanilla for this reason alone. 3) Play the PSP version patched. 4) No, the Ivalice stories are all basically disconnected by huge, huge regions or by massive spans of time. Other than sharing some rough geography and races there is no real overlap to speak of.
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Jul 17, 2012 17:40
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If you're going to play FFXII, play the Zodiac version. It's inarguably superior. The PSP version of FFT is the best version assuming you play it patched to remove the inexplicable slowdown.
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Jul 17, 2012 17:41
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IZJS is cool, but to play it you either need to know Japanese, or get your hands on both an English and Japanese copy AND have a good enough computer to run a PS2 emulator.
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Jul 17, 2012 17:46
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Hmm. I think I actually like the sound of Zodiac FFXII even more now — it's not jobs in the III/V sense, but in the I/IV/IX sense (closer to I in that you can choose, I guess). Sounds like the PSP FFT is the way to go too. Thanks all, that was quick! EDIT: There's a fan translation patch of Zodiac FFXII, yes? Does that only run on PCSX2, or would it run on a PS2 via HDLoader also? (if this is getting too close to  , let me know)
Portfolio fucked around with this message at 17:57 on Jul 17, 2012 |
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Jul 17, 2012 17:50
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Bongo Bill posted:If you view each individual (non-boss) battle as an optimization puzzle that rewards you with slowed attrition of resources - which, granted, is a more valid perspective in other RPGs than in Final Fantasy - then the automation works against that, because either your gambit setup is optimal in a majority of situations, in which case you're just watching them play out, or your gambits are suboptimal and you need to take manual control through an interface that's largely inferior to standard ATB. That is perfect, that's exactly how I feel about FFXII's gameplay. I think part of the problem is how as you near mid-game and onward, the license board provides you were what feels like hundreds of abilities. So you're basically scrolling through a whole list of poo poo in a clunky interface to find what skill you want to use. So, that's why I seemingly found a way to fine-tune and optimize my gambits, so that 99% of the time I wouldn't have to do anything but move the character into position. I'm not really a fan of XII's whole gameplay, it always felt like a worse version of something like KOTOR or Dragon Age.
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Jul 17, 2012 17:59
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FFXII is amazing when underleveled. I wish I could play FFXII: International. It seems the only way to play with the patch is to import a 100 dollar version of XII International.
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Jul 17, 2012 18:20
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Do you get something cool for unlocking the extra endings in FFXIII-2 o r should I just watch them on Youtube? (still miffed about the ending)
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Jul 17, 2012 19:11
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They count as fragments so that adds towards your total fragments which ultimately nets you an extra ending should you get all of them. Mind you, Serendipity slots will probably keep you from completing all of the fragments because it's poo poo and so is the fragment for it.
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Jul 17, 2012 19:21
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Renoistic posted:Do you get something cool for unlocking the extra endings in FFXIII-2 o r should I just watch them on Youtube? (still miffed about the ending) The paradox endings are worth seeing, you'll need to do them to get all the fragments, but the reward for that is just another ending that's not worth it. Here is all of it: "hi I'm Caius, the main ending was the real one, bye". So yeah just Youtube them if you don't want to play any more.
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Jul 17, 2012 19:24
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My approach with gambits in FF12 was to automate attacking as much as possible, but leave everything else (status effects, non-emergency healing, stealing, etc.) to myself. I didn't have any trouble keeping up, and it still felt like I was making tactical decisions. If they had added some basic formation control (surround that guy / spread apart / regroup) and let you use it to evade enemy attacks and whatnot I think it would have really complimented the rest of the system.
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Jul 17, 2012 19:39
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OK, thanks! I've wanted to beat that giant tomato since I first met it so I'll do that, then we'll see if I care enough to do the rest. Otherwise it's Youtube for me. FFXIII Versus better be FANTASTIC or I have played my last FF game. The latest games have just not been worth the time and effort.
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Jul 17, 2012 19:42
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Kyrosiris posted:I don't see how "tedious" is a worthless word at all. It's subjective, but not worthless. You're right, "tedious" is subjective. That's why it's nonsensical to call X-2's sidequests tedious as a "statement of fact" and worthless when you don't explain yourself any further.
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Jul 17, 2012 21:32
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Tempo 119 posted:The paradox endings are worth seeing, you'll need to do them to get all the fragments, but the reward for that is just another ending that's not worth it. I love the Academia 4XX paradox ending, if only because it's so ridiculously "Saturday Morning Cartoon" material that I'd want to see an adaptation of it in some form.
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Jul 17, 2012 22:27
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Moldy Taxes posted:I love the Academia 4XX paradox ending, if only because it's so ridiculously "Saturday Morning Cartoon" material that I'd want to see an adaptation of it in some form. I'm partial to the Sunleth Waterscape Paradox ending. Funniest thing in the series.
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Jul 17, 2012 22:36
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Moldy Taxes posted:I love the Academia 4XX paradox ending, if only because it's so ridiculously "Saturday Morning Cartoon" material that I'd want to see an adaptation of it in some form. Final Fantasy XIII-3: Timecop Snow and friends
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Jul 17, 2012 22:45
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XIII-2 did a better job of endearing Snow to me than the original one did and it's mostly because of time cop Snow.
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Jul 17, 2012 22:53
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Playing through ff3 at the moment.. Is the player party always on the defensive by design? I'm forever picking attacks/spells to try and predict what the enemy will do, rather than reacting to it. I pick They act I act Every drat turn, every drat encounter.
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Jul 17, 2012 23:47
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Are you playing the NES or DS version? Generally for that game the best defense is a good offense. Dual-wield and go to town on the enemies. Might not work as well on the DS version, but generally it's a good idea for the NES version. Of course, shields are pretty nice as well, especially around the end game when they start boosting stats. If you really want to be defensive, it's very difficult to get through a Viking in the back row with a shield. But usually having your Knights or whatever physical classes plow through everything will work well enough. How far are you, anyway?
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Jul 18, 2012 00:08
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Anybody have any FFV tips on Archeoavis? Doing the Fiesta, my party right now is only Beastmaster / Black Mage / Berserker. It kind of sucks having the creature's magic resistance change so much, so I thought 2x Berserkers (with Death Sickles) would be best for the battle. I keep dying before I can do enough damage. I can try and guess with black magic with my other two party members, but I sometimes end up healing. edit: Beat it. Captured two monsters in the dungeon with 1000 needles to whittle away the HP while I played the resistance guessing game. Harlock fucked around with this message at 00:31 on Jul 18, 2012 |
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Jul 18, 2012 00:16
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iOS (so DS version), Just past the water crystal. Trying Dark Knight and Dragoon out, with the typical black and white mages for support (but end up just doing ice wand attacks during encounters to conserve MP for bosses unfortunately. Tempted to change them) I hate being defensive, I'd much rather go all out, but it's guesswork. I have to commit to my choices before the enemy takes their turn. If I choose to attack, then both mobs hit the healer, I'll be needing a cura, but too late, I've already committed. Alternative is to waste a cura every round, on the off chance that the above scenario takes place. I'm sure the other FF's weren't that defensive, and were more reactive than predictive.
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Jul 18, 2012 00:17
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Try using a Bard. Their harps can give some awesome party-wide buffs, including Haste. Hell, you may want to do Bard and three physical fighters. Definitely get rid of the Black Mage, as this is the point where Black Magic is pretty useless for a long while, especially since he can't pull his weight in random encounters, which is where this game can really be a pain. I've only been that far once in the DS version, and it's been awhile, so I can't really give much better advice than that, unfortunately. I do remember the regular enemies kicking my poo poo in around this time, though, so it's not just you (some comfort, right).
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Jul 18, 2012 00:51
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I just beat the everloving poo poo out of FF5. Maybe next year I'll participate in the Fiesta, because for the most part, it was a wicked easy game with a lot of stuff that's just plain broken as hell. Have a couple mimes with Rapid Fire, Dual Wield, and Spellblade, and then have a couple mimes with Dualcast and whatever max level spells you want. You will gently caress poo poo up. I have yet to try Omega or Shinryu, or the extra GBA dungeon, but that's next on my list. Then FF12.
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Jul 18, 2012 01:32
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Harlock posted:Anybody have any FFV tips on Archeoavis? Doing the Fiesta, my party right now is only Beastmaster / Black Mage / Berserker. It kind of sucks having the creature's magic resistance change so much, so I thought 2x Berserkers (with Death Sickles) would be best for the battle. I keep dying before I can do enough damage. In case you end up ever doing it again, Archaeoavis has a set pattern, where it changes every 2000 HP. It starts off absorbing Air, then Ice, then Fire, then Lightning. In the final phase, it's immune to all of the above. It's immune to Earth in all phases.
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Jul 18, 2012 02:00
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Gammatron 64 posted:I just beat the everloving poo poo out of FF5. Maybe next year I'll participate in the Fiesta, because for the most part, it was a wicked easy game with a lot of stuff that's just plain broken as hell. Have a couple mimes with Rapid Fire, Dual Wield, and Spellblade, and then have a couple mimes with Dualcast and whatever max level spells you want. You will gently caress poo poo up. Freelancer's arguably superior for the physical classes, you get better equipment right out of the gate and a bunch of useful intrinsics and stats (like, say, Dual Wield). And yeah, the game's super easy but the job system is just so much fun to play around with. e: Kyrosiris posted:In case you end up ever doing it again, Archaeoavis has a set pattern, where it changes every 2000 HP. It starts off absorbing Air, then Ice, then Fire, then Lightning. In the final phase, it's immune to all of the above. It's immune to Earth in all phases. Second phase is also vulnerable to L. 5 Doom, which you should have picked up in the Library by then. Makes the fight kind of anti-climactic, but it's funny
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Jul 18, 2012 02:13
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Fungah! posted:Freelancer's arguably superior for the physical classes, you get better equipment right out of the gate and a bunch of useful intrinsics and stats (like, say, Dual Wield). And yeah, the game's super easy but the job system is just so much fun to play around with. I'll keep that in mind. I think I'm gonna tackle Omega, Shinryu and the extra dungeons next. Afterwards... I said I was going to play FFXII, but FFVI GBA is looking hella enticing right now. Plus, I'm sorta on a SNES FF kick. It's been about 10+ years since I really played through it. I've come close to beating every numbered FF, but I've never beaten one twice. If there's one that deserves it, it's FF6. That's really the game that got me into this series, after all.
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Jul 18, 2012 04:10
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Gammatron 64 posted:I'll keep that in mind. I think I'm gonna tackle Omega, Shinryu and the extra dungeons next. Keep in mind that if you want Freelancer to be good, you need to have the classes you want mastered. Shouldn't be too hard at that point in the game, but there it is. Hey, I'm going to start playing through 6 again tomorrow too! Good call, it's such a fantastic game.
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Jul 18, 2012 04:15
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To be exact, the classes I say should be mastered for every character to have the ultimate Freelancers and Mimes are: Monk: Highest Strength and Stamina Thief: Highest agility Oracle: Highest magic in the GBA version. Summoner: Highest magic in the SNES and PS1 versions.
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Jul 18, 2012 04:28
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Yeah, I know people are sick and tired of hearing about it, but FF6 is just so goddamn good. Man, I love that game. If you only play one RPG in you entire life... play Chrono Trigger. But if you play 2 RPGs, play Chrono Trigger and FF6. drat it, FF3, 12 and 13 are going to be so hard to beat because I keep getting distracted by actual fun games!
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Jul 18, 2012 04:39
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3, 12, and 13 are all also fun though. 
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Jul 18, 2012 04:52
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Dr Pepper posted:To be exact, the classes I say should be mastered for every character to have the ultimate Freelancers and Mimes are: HP and MP are also inherited. I can't remember if it's Monk, Knight, or Dragoon that has the most HP, though. I'd swear Summoners or Time Mages had the best MP values. You might also want to toss Samurai and Ninja on that list, both of which (like Thief) have evasion procs. Actually maybe just Samurai but you're missin' out if you skip Two Weapons. Freelancers and Mimes also inherit the Samurai's Meatbone Slash, the ability that increases your power as your HP falls.
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Jul 18, 2012 05:19
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I know this has been discussed, but I can't find the specific posts to save my life. I want to get FFV and VI, are the ones up for purchase on PSN utterly horrible, or are they serviceable enough for a play through? I know the GBA versions are pretty much better, but those seem to be hard to track down for a reasonable price.
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Jul 18, 2012 05:23
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The White Dragon posted:HP and MP are also inherited. I can't remember if it's Monk, Knight, or Dragoon that has the most HP, though. I'd swear Summoners or Time Mages had the best MP values. HP is based on your Stamina, MP is based on your Magic. So having a Monk's Stamina and an Oracle's Magic (or Summoner's if you're not playing the GBA version) give you the best totals. quote:You might also want to toss Samurai and Ninja on that list, both of which (like Thief) have evasion procs. Actually maybe just Samurai but you're missin' out if you skip Two Weapons. Freelancers and Mimes also inherit the Samurai's Meatbone Slash, the ability that increases your power as your HP falls. Meatbone Slash wasn't in V. And Ninjas and Thieves don't get any passive evasion procs.
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Jul 18, 2012 05:35
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For something with such a reputation for being "extremely hard", Omega Weapon went down like a chump. Way the gently caress easier than his FFXI counterpart on the airship battle. Uhh... did they decrease the difficulty for FF5 GBA? I'm pretty sure they did for FF4 GBA. The PS1 version of FF4 was frustrating as gently caress. gently caress you, Dark Elf! Son of a bitch.  FF13 was also really frustrating. There was this one fight in Hope's family's apartment where this airship murdered the gently caress out of me and I had to start all over, and then I eventually got to the fight with Cid, lost like 10 times, and I said "gently caress this game" and quit. I made fun of a friend of mine who bought a guide for FF13 and called him a dumbass for spending money on a guide for a game where you simply walk forward and mash the X button, but maybe I do need one, after all.
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Jul 18, 2012 05:36
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