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There was a pretty decent marketing blitz for IX, including four commercials in the US and the Coca-Cola one in Japan, but it was overshadowed by the PS2 looming on the horizon as well as the absolutely fuckton of great RPGs that came out the same year.
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Jul 25, 2012 21:40
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Hedera Helix posted:If they were to do more sequels, a part of me is hoping that they make XIII-3, XIII-4, XIII-5, etc, and nothing else. It would be amusing to see just how far they run it into the ground. I wanna see them give Square USA permission to do the FF7 remake they can't be bothered to then wring their hands when it makes millions of bucks 
keet fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Jul 26, 2012 |
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Jul 26, 2012 00:04
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Cardboard Fox posted:I remember reading about IX in an old EGM magazine way back in the day. The game was featured on the cover, and being an already huge FF fan at the time I was extremely excited. The game just looked so drat cool in the pictures and I knew I had to have it. I remember IX because it was the first, and the last, video game commercial they aired in local Hawaii broadcasts (because of the Squaresoft headquarters on Oahu). And how can you forget watchin' like a local show on the local state TV station when all of a sudden this motherfuckin' commercial comes on in this booming voice all CHASE YOUR DREAMS ... OR RUN AWAY with FMVs and hyping it up like some kind of movie only to find out it's my favorite series of games? That kinda poo poo sticks with you.
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Jul 26, 2012 00:11
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FF XII International, and I've made Vaan, Balthier, and Fran, a Hunter, Machinist, and Archer respectively. Have I just screwed myself over? I'm still in the Battery Mimicks passage, and suddenly realize I can't buy any pots, and I don't have a healer.
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Jul 26, 2012 01:07
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Well taking both the Machinist and Archer in the same party isn't ideal. Also Balthier and Fran make the worst Machinist and Archer due to their unique attack animations taking longer but you certainly haven't screwed yourself. I'd take a couple mages and a strong attacker and you should be fine.
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Jul 26, 2012 01:12
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You can run back to the start of the Barheim Passage and buy potions there. Also, Fran starts with Cure.
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Jul 26, 2012 01:17
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voltron lion force posted:Well taking both the Machinist and Archer in the same party isn't ideal. Also Balthier and Fran make the worst Machinist and Archer due to their unique attack animations taking longer but you certainly haven't screwed yourself. I'd take a couple mages and a strong attacker and you should be fine. Yeah, they're slower, but it's only about a fifth of a second per attack. I suppose it adds up over long battles, but not enough to matter that much. As pointed out, though, Archer and Hunter have a lot of overlap (distance physical attackers with light armor, no shields, and a lot of item lores). If you decide to run with two "teams" you generally alternate between, it does make sense to put them on different teams.
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Jul 26, 2012 01:23
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Great thanks. I chose those jobs based on what they "naturally" did, i.e. gun already equipped = you'd think they were a natural machinist. Likewise with Fran and her bow. Miracon - life saver. Didn't realize the shop at the start sold anything other than weapons. 
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Jul 26, 2012 01:26
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I went with the six classes from FF1 - knight, monk, white mage, black mage, red mage, and thief (hunter). So far I haven't had any issues, but I guess I'll be missing out on haste. Oh well.
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Jul 26, 2012 01:37
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Everyone seems (at least on gamefaqs) to bitch about time mage, so I'm thinking it's worth giving it a shot.
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Jul 26, 2012 01:46
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Fister Roboto posted:I went with the six classes from FF1 - knight, monk, white mage, black mage, red mage, and thief (hunter). So far I haven't had any issues, but I guess I'll be missing out on haste. Oh well. You'll be really hard to kill though, since four of those jobs have access to healing magic.
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Jul 26, 2012 01:47
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The White Dragon posted:There's like so much fun poo poo I'm learning from playing through FF6-SNES again. Sabin learns Bum Rush without Duncan in the 80s, as does Cyan and Cleave. You CAN reduce Chupon to 0 HP (rather than him just using Sneeze as a desperation attack), but he has a 100% on-death reaction where he uses it as well. I'd love to go in with like X-Zone and see what the gently caress happens then since that overrides on-death scripts. Probably acts like you won with the dance and poo poo and then you inexplicably end up falling through the sky once the battle concludes. It's like beating Duran(?) in DQ6. The game proceeds as if you'd lost and nothing's different. The Let's Break FF6 has a guy kill Chupon, I think they use Possess (which works on everything, including kefka) to kill him without sneeze going off, or it might be that they kill ultros and chupon just never shows up.
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Jul 26, 2012 03:05
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The White Dragon posted:I remember IX because it was the first, and the last, video game commercial they aired in local Hawaii broadcasts (because of the Squaresoft headquarters on Oahu). And how can you forget watchin' like a local show on the local state TV station when all of a sudden this motherfuckin' commercial comes on in this booming voice all This commercial loving ruled my world when IX came out. A journey begins, a fantasy returns... And then fantasy never returned to the series again. 
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Jul 26, 2012 08:30
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Just found this thread. Nice job with the thread OP. Really informative. I don't know about arguing Final Fantasy with this many people, though. That said, I'm 3/4ths of the way through FFVI, and I'm finding it really hard to enjoy. I skipped out on playing this one when I was younger; however, I always enjoyed the soundtrack when I would mindlessly seach FF themes on Youtube. I don't know if it's modern games skewing the way I enjoy plots with depth, but I'm rushing through this game like there's a deadline. Also, I hate Terra. teen phone cutie fucked around with this message at 12:18 on Jul 27, 2012 |
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Jul 27, 2012 12:15
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Squirtle Squadee posted:Just found this thread. Nice job with the thread OP. Really informative. I don't know about arguing Final Fantasy with this many people, though. Whaaaa... I don't.... Gameinformer just had an article up by a guy playing through it for the first time: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/07/26/return-of-the-pixel-a-call-for-an-old-fashioned-final-fantasy.aspx Would you be willing to expand upon why you don't think you like it very much? For my money it's one of the best things ever.
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Jul 27, 2012 13:58
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Squirtle Squadee posted:Also, I hate Terra. How can you hate Terra? 
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Jul 27, 2012 16:00
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Because Terra is actually the whiny protagonist everyone seems to think Cloud is. She's mopey and wishywashy and literally has a conversation with someone about whether or not she is capable of love. Everything about her is awful and annoying except for ability to blow poo poo up with her mind.
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Jul 27, 2012 16:10
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TurnipFritter posted:Because Terra is actually the whiny protagonist everyone seems to think Cloud is. She's mopey and wishywashy and literally has a conversation with someone about whether or not she is capable of love. Everything about her is awful and annoying except for ability to blow poo poo up with her mind. I suppose there is some validity there, but I didn't mind it as much because it's such an ensemble cast. She's the "main character" but not in the same way Cloud or Squall are. If you think her story is dumb, at least it's not the only one in the game. Plus, I think she earns a little bit of her indecisiveness. "Yeah, I was just a tool of the Empire forced to help crush the Returners, now you're the Returners and you want me to help crush the Empire? I dunno..." Plus, she's essentially half-monster, so I understand a little self-doubt when it comes to a capacity for love.
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Jul 27, 2012 16:39
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If Terra was in a voice acted game people would hate her. That's basically all there is to it. (And people did in fact start complaining about Terra in Dissidia!) The only reason she gets a pass is because she came from a time before voice acting. I don't even dislike Terra. I think she's not a bad character but she is exactly the archetype that people would have massive freakouts about how terrible she is if FF6 had come out last year with voice acting. She's wishy-washy and lacking in self-confidence and overly-emotional. She spends large chunks of the game unavailable due to self-confidence problems even. She has amazing superpowers and talks about how much they suck and has bizarre discussions about her capacity to love. She turns into a pseudo-naked pink furry. Her plot ends extremely late in the game despite starting at the very beginning and so her development is slower than literally any other character in the game. She is like a giant beacon for poo poo people would hate in any modern game. (These are, of course, a bunch of traits taken out of context and the execution is important to determining the effectiveness, not just the traits listed.) ImpAtom fucked around with this message at 16:48 on Jul 27, 2012 |
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Jul 27, 2012 16:43
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I think the only Final Fantasy game that I haven't seen people in this topic hate is 5.
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Jul 27, 2012 18:16
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That's because it's the best.
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Jul 27, 2012 18:19
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Heroic Yoshimitsu posted:I think the only Final Fantasy game that I haven't seen people in this topic hate is 5. I think it tends to get a pass for its goofy translation and likable characters. I never really took the game seriously but still had a good time just breaking it through crazy job combos and exploring the world.
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Jul 27, 2012 18:20
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It's harder to hate 5 because it's pretty blah. There's really just not a whole lot going on, outside the job system. The characters all feel like cardboard cutouts.
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Jul 27, 2012 18:22
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Heroic Yoshimitsu posted:I think the only Final Fantasy game that I haven't seen people in this topic hate is 5. Nah, a lot of people dislike FF5 for having a thin plot/almost nonexistant characters/an overemphasis on mechanics. It just doesn't get brought up much.
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Jul 27, 2012 18:22
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Squirtle Squadee posted:Just found this thread. Nice job with the thread OP. Really informative. I don't know about arguing Final Fantasy with this many people, though. I felt VI hit a great balance of all of its elements to make it a fun game. The music is obviously fantastic so no real need to comment on that. The storyline was a mixture of cartoony fun with enough drama and seriousness to keep it interesting. Previous entries in the series had either been lacking in story (NES entries), had overly hammy melodrama that I didn't buy even as a kid (FFIV), or TOO goofy with nothing to take seriously (FFV), while later entries mostly take themselves too seriously and forget they're games (and often roll back over to being eye-rollingly melodramatic again). Certain scenes in FFVI are corny for the wrong reasons ("But General Leo, I want to know what love is.... NOW!"), but for the most part it sets the mood it's going for. You can't go in expecting too much, though- it knows it's a game and not a deep thought-provoking narrative (a goal which few video games, if any, have met). The gameplay is easy, but that gives you a lot of freedom to play with the many characters and abilities at your disposal. For the most part, once you get characters you can use them at your leisure and aren't railroaded into a specific party, nor is everyone identical to the point it doesn't matter WHO you choose. If you don't like a certain character, bring someone you do like - there's no real "main" character, so you're not forced to pay attention to someone you might hate for very long. Obviously enjoyment of games is subjective, but I'm curious what people would dislike about VI so much as to rate the game as "bad." If you're just looking for a really strong story, well, Final Fantasy probably isn't the series for you (or video games in general, for that matter). Schwartzcough fucked around with this message at 18:28 on Jul 27, 2012 |
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Jul 27, 2012 18:26
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Yeah I'm playing through FF5 for the first time, and comparing it to the last FF game I played (4) the plot and characters aren't nearly as good as 4's (not that 4's is amazing, but I did enjoy it), but the job system makes the gameplay more compelling.
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Jul 27, 2012 18:29
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ImpAtom posted:(These are, of course, a bunch of traits taken out of context and the execution is important to determining the effectiveness, not just the traits listed.) Exactly. Terra's feelings of indecision and lack of confidence make perfect sense given her background, and I think all the reasons why have been spelled out in the previous few posts. Not everyone knows what they want in life, even into adulthood. Terra was stolen as a baby and raised to be a weapon. She never had a family to teach her about love, and it's a wonder she isn't more screwed up than she is (compare her to Gau in this respect). In fact, Celes and Terra are very similar in this regard, and the way Terra/World of Balance dovetails with Celes/World of Ruin is meant to underline this fact. As has been said earlier in this thread, FF6 is about how important human relationships are, and every character's story - even the villain's - connects with that theme in some manner.
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Jul 27, 2012 18:30
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ImpAtom posted:Nah, a lot of people dislike FF5 for having a thin plot/almost nonexistant characters/an overemphasis on mechanics. It just doesn't get brought up much. I can understand thin plot, but nonexistant characters? A lot of FFV's charm comes from its characters, even if they are somewhat undeveloped.
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Jul 27, 2012 18:32
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What I hate most about 5 is when Cara comes into the party and her sprite is 3/4 perspective and jesus christ it makes me so mad FACE FORWARD YOU LITTLE BRAT! Also I hate the GBA translation of her name.
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Jul 27, 2012 18:37
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voltron lion force posted:What I hate most about 5 is when Cara comes into the party and her sprite is 3/4 perspective and jesus christ it makes me so mad FACE FORWARD YOU LITTLE BRAT! Also I hate the GBA translation of her name. I liked the hero better when he was named Butz
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Jul 27, 2012 18:56
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Sex_Ferguson posted:I can understand thin plot, but nonexistant characters? A lot of FFV's charm comes from its characters, even if they are somewhat undeveloped. The best FF5 characterization comes from the (admittedly quite good) GBA translation, which adds personality to a normally bland script. The original Japanese version is dull and the PSX translation is bland as hell in addition to being kinda bad/dumb. The SNES fan-translation isn't much better. I don't think FF5 is particularly bad but if you're playing it expecting it as something more like 4 or 6 you'll be disappointed. It's one of the most mechanically-focused FFs out there. ImpAtom fucked around with this message at 19:04 on Jul 27, 2012 |
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Jul 27, 2012 19:00
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I never realized how much that bothered me. I thought I just hated Cara.
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Jul 27, 2012 19:01
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Cervixalot posted:I liked the hero better when he was named Butz I never fail to rename him Butz when I replay FFV on the GBA.
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Jul 27, 2012 19:09
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Schwartzcough posted:it knows it's a game and not a deep thought-provoking narrative (a goal which few video games, if any, have met). This is why I think 5, 6, 9, and sort of 4 (but only really the original and the GBA translation) are such fantastic games. They take themselves semi-seriously at most and realize that they aren't gonna be Twelfth Night or even just Fantastic Mr. Fox. However, they take the fact that they're video games in stride and instead of trying to be immortalized pieces of literature, they try to be immortalized video games, and one of the important parts of that is that they realize that it has the word "game" in the name. They establish a story, but they take a good amount of time to gently caress around and have fun for the sake of this media designation. I dunno go back to your like SMT and pretend you're partaking in deep classic literature or someshit (you aren't). Well you know I don't mean this part in your direction Schwartz. Fur20 fucked around with this message at 19:20 on Jul 27, 2012 |
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Jul 27, 2012 19:13
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Eh. The idea that a game can only be either completely nonserious or Deep Serious Literature is silly. Something can have themes and not think itself the next Shakespeare. 6 most certainly has themes and ideas behind it and it takes them deadly serious even while having the occasional silly moment. A good product is determined by how serious or nonserious it is. It is determined by the execution of its themes. A video game can execute themes just as well as any other form of media. That doesn't mean the creators think they're god's gift to writing, it is that all (good) media has something deeper to it, from children's shows to classic literature.
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Jul 27, 2012 19:23
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I don't see how FF9 is any different from 7 or 8, when its still full of CG videos. I don't see why 12 wouldn't fit in there, either, especially since it has the biggest game world out of all the single player FF games.
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Jul 27, 2012 19:26
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Mill Village posted:I don't see how FF9 is any different from 7 or 8, when its still full of CG videos. I don't see why 12 wouldn't fit in there, either, especially since it has the biggest game world out of all the single player FF games. FF9 doesn't really take itself seriously. It intentionally structures itself like a play and the characters are all exaggerated actors. FF12 takes itself incredibly seriously most of the time. Far moreso than any other FF except maybe 13. (Which takes itself incredibly seriously while doing a terrible job of executing its themes.) It's trying for a different tone but it has a grounded political story w/ magic and so it treats itself in that manner. ImpAtom fucked around with this message at 19:33 on Jul 27, 2012 |
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Jul 27, 2012 19:30
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ImpAtom posted:A good product is determined by how serious or nonserious it is. It is determined by the execution of its themes. A video game can execute themes just as well as any other form of media. That doesn't mean the creators think they're god's gift to writing, it is that all (good) media has something deeper to it, from children's shows to classic literature. Oh, it certainly can, but it has to execute them differently, and a lot of the games that take themselves overly seriously miss the part where they're games--that is to say, interactive media--and they often fail to implement even the tiniest counterweights to their gravity on top of that. This doesn't necessarily apply to overly-wacky games, though, because those tend not to have a story to speak of to need a serious counterbalance to their monkeycheese. 9 got it, definitely, and had a really good balance of seriousness and comic relief, though most players who disliked it seem to tend to fixate on Zidane's happy-go-lucky attitude as if it were the only thing in the entire game. And self-awareness, too; that's always good in interactive media. 7 got it, and even 1 a little bit. As far as 12 went, it did have its comic relief, but a lot of it was either tedious (gathering chops), annoying (DON'T BELEIVE ONDORE'S LIES), too repetitive (Balthier), or optional (Gilgamesh), and that just didn't work for me. Fur20 fucked around with this message at 19:40 on Jul 27, 2012 |
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Jul 27, 2012 19:32
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ImpAtom posted:FF9 doesn't really take itself seriously. It intentionally structures itself like a play and the characters are all exaggerated actors. FF12 takes itself incredibly seriously most of the time. Far moreso than any other FF except maybe 13. (Which takes itself incredibly seriously while doing a terrible job of executing its themes.) It's trying for a different tone but it has a grounded political story w/ magic and so it treats itself in that manner. Serious or not, FF9 is still far too linear to be considered "gameplay-focused" when it basically has the same gameplay structure as the previous PS1 FF games. I don't know why it gets a free pass on that.
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Jul 27, 2012 19:42
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FFIX has the same annoying flaw that Kingdom Hearts 2 has. There's too many loving cutscenes.The Jorts of Zeus posted:Whaaaa... I don't.... I love the plot, most of the characters, and the music, but I'm not enjoying it. I guess what I'm trying to say is that if this me a few years ago, I'd be searching every corner for every secret entrance and hidden item. Now, if I get stuck, I'll say, "gently caress it. Let me look at a walkthrough." It's a great game, but I'm not playing it like one. If there is one thing that I could remove from the game, it would be the random encounter rate. That poo poo is ridiculously high. A couple of you hit the nail on the head as to why I hate Terra. I wouldn't even consider her the main character. From what I've seen, we've only brought up the Espers for a small portion of the game. The rest of it has just been a bunch of running around. I would call Celes the main protagonist. teen phone cutie fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Jul 27, 2012 |
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Jul 27, 2012 19:52
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