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One thing I don't think some people actually noticed, at least in the original version of 12: stat boosts aside, heavy armor had the highest physical defense and mystic armor the highest magic defense. Thing is, armor was for defense and helms were for magic defense. So I always went with heavy armor and mystic helms for maximum defense and well-rounded stat bonuses. gently caress light armor, I've got Bubble to survive burst anyway. That and I'm madly overpowered because for some reason I can't not grind for hours in that game. The lack of battle transitions make it fun and fast and the loot chaining system encourages half-hour grinding sessions instead of killing a couple mobs and moving on.
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Sep 30, 2012 11:41
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| # ? May 11, 2024 23:46 |
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These days I find myself not grinding at all when going back to play the older Final Fantasy games. It kind of makes me think whether Square designed them to be played this way, or where the developers hoping you'd grind up a bit before progressing to every new boss. It was funny to see me drop Bottomswell with no issues, while a a kid I wouldn't even get near Junon Harbor unless all my party members had at least 1000 hp. I was a weird kid....
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Sep 30, 2012 15:18
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Little kid me had some kind of problem where I never liked to use consumable items. That lead to a lot of unintentional grinding as I retreated to inns and other free heals as much as possible.
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Sep 30, 2012 15:39
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Cardboard Fox posted:These days I find myself not grinding at all when going back to play the older Final Fantasy games. It kind of makes me think whether Square designed them to be played this way Pasteurized Milk posted:Little kid me had some kind of problem where I never liked to use consumable items. That lead to a lot of unintentional grinding as I retreated to inns and other free heals as much as possible.
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Sep 30, 2012 15:47
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Pasteurized Milk posted:Little kid me had some kind of problem where I never liked to use consumable items. That lead to a lot of unintentional grinding as I retreated to inns and other free heals as much as possible. I had the opposite thing - I used to use items all the time, and kept topping up my massive reserves of potions or mana refils or whatever. Nowadays, it's just "gently caress it", real men don't need items  The exception being IIIDS, because, gently caress that noise.
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Sep 30, 2012 15:53
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Cardboard Fox posted:These days I find myself not grinding at all when going back to play the older Final Fantasy games. It kind of makes me think whether Square designed them to be played this way, or where the developers hoping you'd grind up a bit before progressing to every new boss. Final Fantasy games, at least past the NES era, did not require grinding at all, aside from occasional bits of optional superboss content which were grind-tastic. For some reason people got it into their mind they had to grind and did so despite it being entirely unecessary. The few roadblocks you encounter are usually the result of poor design or something that you can exploit. (i.e: A powerful enemy who is vulnerable to debuffs.)
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Sep 30, 2012 16:42
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I remember not grinding at all in FF4 when I first played it. You'll die on a boss here and there (I remember having some problems with the Magus Sisters and Rubicant) but you can pretty much make it to the last dungeon without any major trouble. My brother and I fled/Jump'd our way to Zeromus and got massacred so bad we thought it was another scripted fight. Our best weapon was Ogre Axe and our best spell was Titan.
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Sep 30, 2012 16:52
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ImpAtom posted:Final Fantasy games, at least past the NES era, did not require grinding at all, aside from occasional bits of optional superboss content which were grind-tastic. For some reason people got it into their mind they had to grind and did so despite it being entirely unecessary. I remember reading one of those Brady guides as a kid and seeing a screenshot of all his party members having 1000 hp, so I thought I had to have that same amount. This transitioned to VIII and IX for me, and it was only when I actually got to around high school that I realized how silly the whole grinding aspect was. These days I make a point to never grind in any games, even ones that encourage it.
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Sep 30, 2012 16:58
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Cardboard Fox posted:These days I make a point to never grind in any game, even games that encourage it. This seriously makes the games a lot more fun to me. Hell, one of the reasons I really couldn't enjoy FFXIII-2 is because it allowed for too-easy 'grinding' by accident, which in turn made the game less fun.
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Sep 30, 2012 17:00
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Most FF games don't require any grinding to beat. Hell, the fact that Low-Level Challenges are feasible for most of the games is proof of that. The main thing is that when many of us first played, we didn't know all the various tricks of some of the bosses and sometimes didn't have access to strategy guides or GameFAQs, thus rather than try to figure out the mechanics of each game, it's easier to just grind up your levels and brute-force a solution. I mean, would you know that Gau can be a wrecking machine, or that FF5's Chemist can utterly ruin bosses? Even simpler stuff like how Slow trivializes a vast majority of FF4's battles is something that's easy to overlook in favor of a few more levels to punch stuff in. I do like that once you figure out the strategy, you can simply breeze through that boss in future runs barring some kind of challenge run.
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Sep 30, 2012 17:09
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ImpAtom posted:For some reason people got it into their mind they had to grind and did so despite it being entirely unecessary. Probably because their first JRPG experience was with Dragon Warrior, which did require you to grind a bit.
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Sep 30, 2012 17:18
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I was flipping through an FAQ for IX the other day which recommended you have your party at around level 15 before fighting Gizamaluke. I did this at level 8. Getting to 15 would take an insane amount of grinding at that point in the game.
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Sep 30, 2012 18:23
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You never need to grind in FF9 if you keep up with your boss steals and synthesis items, although I have kept Level Up equipped. I haven't grinded at all on Disc 3 and Vivi and Eiko can both do 9999 damage just because of skills they got. If I grind dragons Freya could do it too but her attack is close to 6k anyway.
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Sep 30, 2012 18:52
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TL posted:I was flipping through an FAQ for IX the other day which recommended you have your party at around level 15 before fighting Gizamaluke. I did this at level 8. Getting to 15 would take an insane amount of grinding at that point in the game. The only reason you'd ever have to grind for Gizamaluke is if you're trying to steal the Ice Staff from him for the increased survivability. He's weaksauce otherwise and you can easily roll him in like three rounds.
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Sep 30, 2012 19:02
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The White Dragon posted:The only reason you'd ever have to grind for Gizamaluke is if you're trying to steal the Ice Staff from him for the increased survivability. He's weaksauce otherwise and you can easily roll him in like three rounds. You don't even need the survivability, since you can just Tent him and steal in near absolute safety.
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Sep 30, 2012 19:18
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I love IX and it's my favorite Final Fantasy but I also agree that Eiko + Garnet is very weird. I think it boiled down to a couple of design choices that merged. 1. Many players will want a dedicated healer. 2. If we make only one healer then these players will have to use that character. 3. If we make two healers then we'll see more diverse parties. I do like though that they further mixed this up by putting powerful healing skills on Quina, Freya, and Aramant but I would say that's for more advanced players. Every time I observe a casual-average skill player play a jRPG they always shove a dedicated healer into their party. The party I used to beat IX the first time when I was young was Zidane, Vivi, Dagger, and Eiko. I really wanted all the heals. Also Eiko is 8 and says a lot of creepy things.
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Sep 30, 2012 22:34
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It wouldn't be Final Fantasy if there wasn't a little girl to pander to the creeps.
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Sep 30, 2012 22:36
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Bear Sleuth posted:It wouldn't be Final Fantasy if there wasn't a little girl to pander to the creeps. Based off this I decided to look up the ages of all the "little girl" characters in FF that I could remember. Porom is 5 years old. 
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Sep 30, 2012 22:43
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Belzac posted:Based off this I decided to look up the ages of all the "little girl" characters in FF that I could remember. Yet she's somehow not as bad as Relm, that Edgar actually hits on. Vivi's the youngest though, at less than a year old.
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Sep 30, 2012 22:46
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Bear Sleuth posted:It wouldn't be Final Fantasy if there wasn't a little girl to pander to the creeps. What? Final Fantasy does a lot of bad things, but this isn't really one of them. In all the mainline games, Porom and Eiko are the only young girls I can think, which is hardly a trend. Especially because neither really panders in any way. e: Ah, right, Relm too. I do stand by my point though.
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Sep 30, 2012 22:47
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ApplesandOranges posted:Yet she's somehow not as bad as Relm, that Edgar actually hits on. Pretty sure he stopped himself before he did. Creepy, but not as creepy.
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Sep 30, 2012 22:50
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Cake Attack posted:What? Final Fantasy does a lot of bad things, but this isn't really one of them. In all the mainline games, Porom and Eiko are the only young girls I can think, which is hardly a trend. Especially because neither really panders in any way. Also a character in a video game is not inherently there as something for people to want to masturbate to. The fact that someone may do this does not mean it is inherently part of the design and that someone at Square-Enix (or wherever) is going "throw in a five year old for sexual appeal!"
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Sep 30, 2012 22:52
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I feel like 3D and bigger, more complicated scripts made that stuff weirder, because when I was playing 4 and 6 as a kid I always thought Porom and Relm were like 12 or 13, not 5 and 10 respectively. Five years old? Then again, I was like that with the adult characters too. It's really easy to imagine Cecil, Kain, and Rosa being like 30 or Celes being a lot older than what, 18? JRPGs are just weird with age-related stuff.
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Sep 30, 2012 22:55
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Okay, maybe "little" girl was a misnomer, but there's still an abundence of pandering fanservicey characters.
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Sep 30, 2012 23:05
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Zombies' Downfall posted:Then again, I was like that with the adult characters too. It's really easy to imagine Cecil, Kain, and Rosa being like 30 or Celes being a lot older than what, 18? JRPGs are just weird with age-related stuff.
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Sep 30, 2012 23:25
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Bear Sleuth posted:Okay, maybe "little" girl was a misnomer, but there's still an abundence of pandering fanservicey characters.
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Sep 30, 2012 23:26
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So I'm getting around to playing The After Years finally on the complete PSP collection, and it's... not as bad as I expected? I mean, it's not great by any means but at least the new sprites in the PSP package at least all look really well done and unified. Although Interlude was the most  thing I've seen put out by SE recently.
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Sep 30, 2012 23:30
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Endorph posted:That's arguable but I don't think Eiko is really one of them. Her huge crush on Zidane is played for laughs, not pandering or anything. Like, I'm sure some creep out there thinks it's the best thing ever, but that isn't the writer's fault. Yeah, it's not taken seriously on any level, thankfully. If there is any one thing that panders the most though in the series, I'd say it'd probably have to be the transformation sequences of X-2. [e]: Christ, how could I forget those  VVV Pesky Splinter fucked around with this message at 00:23 on Oct 1, 2012 |
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Oct 1, 2012 00:08
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Pesky Splinter posted:Yeah, it's not taken seriously on any level, thankfully. If there is any one thing that panders the most though in the series, I'd say it'd probably have to be the transformation sequences of X-2. Don't forget the hot springs scene of X-2, or the massage minigame of X-2!
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Oct 1, 2012 00:18
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Cake Attack posted:What? Final Fantasy does a lot of bad things, but this isn't really one of them. In all the mainline games, Porom and Eiko are the only young girls I can think, which is hardly a trend. Especially because neither really panders in any way. Off the top of my head: Rydia, Porom, Krile, Relm, Yuffie, Eiko, and Rikku. Some of that is subject to what you consider young girls, but I pretty much just went for younger than 18. Edit: Could have probably thrown in the FFVIII girls, too. But everyone is a teen in that anyway.
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Oct 1, 2012 00:27
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Belzac posted:Based off this I decided to look up the ages of all the "little girl" characters in FF that I could remember. The sad thing is that she's smarter as a five-year-old than she is as a twenty-two-year-old. ShadeofDante posted:So I'm getting around to playing The After Years finally on the complete PSP collection, and it's... not as bad as I expected? I mean, it's not great by any means but at least the new sprites in the PSP package at least all look really well done and unified. It takes awhile for the story to really get stupid, but at least the gameplay's a nice enhancement of the original, especially with the tweaks for the PSP version that gets rid of a lot of the bullshit from the other versions.
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Oct 1, 2012 00:55
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Taking a Black Belt as one of my Light Warriors might have been a mistake. She can't take a lot of damage and she doesn't do a lot of damage. I'm considering restarting but how good are Thieves and Red Mages?
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Oct 1, 2012 02:19
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Thieves are easily the worst class in the first half of the game aside from their near-guaranteed Run success, and Red Mages are probably the best (since they can use heavy armor, fight better than other mages, and cast both Cure spells and offensive ones). This flips in the second half of the game, where the Thief (as a Ninja) gets full Fighter gear access and the ability to haste himself and the Red Mage (as a Red Wizard) slowly descends into being a bad warrior and bad mage. Stick with your Black Belt if you want. Also note that once you get up to a certain level (and I'm talking early here, like 6 I think) he's better off fighting barehanded for the remainder of the game. Nunchucks will literally reduce his damage if equipped, while a barehanded Black Belt's power will only continue to grow with levels until eventually they become the best attacker.
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Oct 1, 2012 02:23
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Eggie posted:Taking a Black Belt as one of my Light Warriors might have been a mistake. She can't take a lot of damage and she doesn't do a lot of damage. I'm considering restarting but how good are Thieves and Red Mages? Thieves are awful, and if you're playing the NES version their one advantage is bugged and doesn't work (Thieves are no more likely to succeed at running than anybody else). Ninjas are better, but you'd still be better off with a Black Mage. Red Mages start off useful because they're good at everything, but later in the game they're not good enough. They have an excellent selection of support spells, though. More of these support spells work properly if you're not playing the NES version. Black Belts, by way of contrast, starts off weak because of their vulnerability, because they don't have much armor selection apart from accessories, but their damage output increases exponentially and they're the most powerful offensive class by the late game. Leave them barehanded.
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Oct 1, 2012 02:27
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^^ Black Belt is probably the worst character in the game for the first five or six levels but then he begins his ascent into an invincible and free killing machine. ================== I was bored and produced this: Average ages of human main cast members ("physical" ages from the wikia site): code:Ross fucked around with this message at 02:46 on Oct 1, 2012 |
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Oct 1, 2012 02:42
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I wonder what the difference would be if you removed people who died.
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Oct 1, 2012 02:46
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ImpAtom posted:I wonder what the difference would be if you removed people who died. Help me out here: - Tellah - Galuf - Aeris - Any more?
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Oct 1, 2012 02:48
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What does Vincent's age count as?
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Oct 1, 2012 02:49
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Ross posted:Help me out here: None who die during the game, I think. I just noticed that Tellah and Galuf probably bring things up a whole lot. (Strago too but he survives.) Pasteurized Milk posted:What does Vincent's age count as? I've got to wonder about Auron too. Is 35 his pre-death age or is he like 35 including the years he spent as a zombie-thing.
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Oct 1, 2012 02:50
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| # ? May 11, 2024 23:46 |
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Eggie posted:Taking a Black Belt as one of my Light Warriors might have been a mistake. She can't take a lot of damage and she doesn't do a lot of damage. I'm considering restarting but how good are Thieves and Red Mages? Black Belts are the undisputed kings of (single target) damage in FF1. By level 7-8 they'll be hitting as well or better than a pre-silver sword Fighter and by the teens they'll be out in the lead and leaving others behind. Their bare-handed damage is level*2 and they will get way more hits than anyone else as well. At high levels you one shot everything.
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Oct 1, 2012 02:52
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