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Speaking of non-FF RPGs do people generally hold favourable thoughts of DQ VIII? I've never played any of the series before and it's the only one I came to own after my uncle passed off all of his old PS2 games on to me since he sticks to PS3 now.
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Feb 25, 2013 10:56
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I really enjoyed DQ8. It has a leisurely pace, it's a bit too long, and the gameplay doesn't innovate in any way whatsoever but the visuals, music, and story feel like a loving homage to oldschool JRPGs. If you have fond childhood memories of the genre and getting lost in other Dragon Quest games, you'll enjoy it. If you can't stand "oldschool" games, you should probably stay away. It's a lot like Ni No Kuni, if you've played or seen anything about that, except the actual gameplay is far better. I had much more fun with it than DQ7, which was just tedious and unpleasant, and DQ9 which is mechanically and visually similar but feels totally lacking in character or soul. The party members in DQ8 are simple, but they're likeable.
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Feb 25, 2013 11:04
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Last Emperor posted:Speaking of non-FF RPGs do people generally hold favourable thoughts of DQ VIII? I've never played any of the series before and it's the only one I came to own after my uncle passed off all of his old PS2 games on to me since he sticks to PS3 now. There's actually a Dragon Quest thread here. But yeah, DQVIII is pretty well regarded. Just be aware that the series can get a little grindy at times, since they're very traditional JRPGs. Although there are means to offset that.
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Feb 25, 2013 11:08
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Thanks for the input, and yeah I should've known there'd be a DQ thread. It sounds like a game I'd enjoy though, I'm fine with traditional jRPGs and mechanics. I've actually considered picking up some of the ones on the DS since I've pretty much exhausted all the jRPGs that can be had my 360. It's why I'm kinda glad a lot of the earlier FF games were given remakes that are much more accessible to me in terms of console. I've been thinking of trying to get through the GBA version of FF VI due to the little extra bits and some of the stuff I missed out when completing the PSone version.
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Feb 25, 2013 11:15
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Last Emperor posted:Speaking of non-FF RPGs do people generally hold favourable thoughts of DQ VIII? I've never played any of the series before and it's the only one I came to own after my uncle passed off all of his old PS2 games on to me since he sticks to PS3 now.
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Feb 25, 2013 11:19
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I never clicked with the DQ/DW games other than that Monsters one on the game boy color back in the day. They are typically really grindy, I remember playing one of the early ones and thinking "wow these weapons are expensive, guess I shouldn't have them yet" when the game actually expects you to go outside for an hour and get that money. If you grew up with FF as a reference for RPGs it's weird getting used to them.
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Feb 25, 2013 13:57
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It's been a bit since I played it, but I don't really remember DQ8 being grindy at all. Like before the very first boss you might wanna grind for, like, 5 or 10 minutes, but I always figured that was more of a self-referencing joke than an actual mechanic, and I never had to grind again at any point.
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Feb 25, 2013 14:04
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Pyroxene Stigma posted:You're seriously overthinking it. FFVII was confusing because it was confusing. They hid important plot elements in easily-missed locations and everything was translated by Japanese people instead of native English speakers. I actually think that was one of FFVII's strengths. Not the translation. I don't think anyone's going to defend that. But I think the hiding of plot elements was a good thing. It gave you a reason to explore. I'm well aware that an awful lot of people disagree with me on that point though, and I'm willing to admit that perhaps some of them were hidden a little too well.
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Feb 25, 2013 15:24
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The problem is that some of them flat-out weren't included or were WAY too obscure. Everything with Zack for example. That entire cutscene wasn't even in the original Japanese version. It was added to the US (and later International) release and even then it was shoved into an out of the way corner of a place you had no reason to revisit and yet it's a major part of Cloud's development. There is no reason it shouldn't have occurred during Cloud's magical mindscape trip except that they added it after the fact and couldn't redo that sequence.
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Feb 25, 2013 15:31
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Odd question, but I figure some FF fans might know - Where did Scarletite originate? I know it was present in FF12 and the World Ends with You, and it piqued my curiosity when I saw it in FF13 as a transformational catalyst. I know most of the fictional or mythical metals and materials in FF have been around from older games for quite awhile (Orihalcum etc), but I don't remember where Scarletite popped up for the first time.
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Feb 25, 2013 18:04
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victrix posted:Odd question, but I figure some FF fans might know - According to the FF wiki, the first game it appeared in chronologically was FFXII.
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Feb 25, 2013 18:06
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Still making my way through Tactics. Not putting a ton of intentional grinding in (or hyper specializing characters) makes some battles a real pain in the rear end. I promised myself I wouldn't sperge out and try to get everything but now I'm stuck trying to steal Meliadoul's weapon and accessory and not get people killed.
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Feb 25, 2013 20:26
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A summary of FF13-2: Now Loading...
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Feb 26, 2013 01:00
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victrix posted:A summary of FF13-2: There we go. Now you've got the whole thing.
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Feb 26, 2013 01:04
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It's really quite bad  Everything causes loading.There's FPS issues too, I saw some horrendous drops, whereas in 13 I can't recall any, and it had insanely good looking areas with tons of detail. Guess that's what happens when you churn out a sequel in a year and farm some of the work out. The rest of it... how can I put this... It's so "I don't even, what  " that it's wrapped straight around to "Welp. Kupo."The combat is still good and I like the way they handled the Crystarium in this one. Monster raising I've never been big on, so that's a throwaway for me. I'm a bit concerned that it may be too easy though - 13 definitely had flaws, but keeping a tight rein on character power made for more interesting fights throughout. Monsters add a whole nother level of whacky power growth. Oh well, I'll see how it develops. Kupo.
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Feb 26, 2013 01:31
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If you grind, it will be easy. If you take things at a casual pace, 13-2 has a very steady difficulty rise. 13-2 also has some really beautiful areas (Academia in all of its time zones, Vile Peaks when it snows, the Archylte Steppe when it's storming, etc.), but it definitely does suffer from FPS issues.
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Feb 26, 2013 01:37
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Azure_Horizon posted:If you grind, it will be easy. If you take things at a casual pace, 13-2 has a very steady difficulty rise. No, I didn't grind at all and it was still trivial. It really depends on what you do more than anything.
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Feb 26, 2013 01:49
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XIII-2's improvements to combat combined with XIII's difficulty would be a very fun game to play. I also wish XIII-2 had re-used Gran Pulse, because when I played XIII, I was so desperate to get it over with that I just ran to the objective marker, and powered through the difficult enemies. I loved that there were enemies roaming everywhere, and you could see those giant turtles from miles away. Much better than the semi-random battle system from 2.
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Feb 26, 2013 02:09
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Azure_Horizon posted:If you grind, it will be easy. If you take things at a casual pace, 13-2 has a very steady difficulty rise. This is straight false. If you find the game being too easy, make an active effort to push the plot forward, else it WILL be too easy. But if you intentionally move forward you'll retain challenge (and the game, remain fun)
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Feb 26, 2013 02:19
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Francois Kofko posted:This is straight false. If you find the game being too easy, make an active effort to push the plot forward, else it WILL be too easy. But if you intentionally move forward you'll retain challenge (and the game, remain fun) That is exactly what I just said. "Casual pace" = "constantly moving forward and never dawdling in one area."
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Feb 26, 2013 02:42
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ImpAtom posted:No, I didn't grind at all and it was still trivial. It really depends on what you do more than anything. Earn your challenge: Rush.
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Feb 26, 2013 03:11
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pretend to care posted:Still making my way through Tactics. Not putting a ton of intentional grinding in (or hyper specializing characters) makes some battles a real pain in the rear end. I promised myself I wouldn't sperge out and try to get everything but now I'm stuck trying to steal Meliadoul's weapon and accessory and not get people killed. If you don't know, give everyone the "Maintenance" skill from the Chemist class. It prevents Meliadoul from being able to use her sword skills, which makes the battle much easier. Alternately, I think she only has the skills to break body/head armor, so theoretically you could send everyone in naked (maybe a bunch of Monks), but that'd be more challenging.
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Feb 26, 2013 03:49
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Schwartzcough posted:If you don't know, give everyone the "Maintenance" skill from the Chemist class. It prevents Meliadoul from being able to use her sword skills, which makes the battle much easier. Or cast Mimic Daravon and steal her Sword instead 
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Feb 26, 2013 04:05
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Azure_Horizon posted:That is exactly what I just said. "Casual pace" = "constantly moving forward and never dawdling in one area." how is that a casual pace at all Casual pace would imply that you do the sidequests and poo poo in areas and take your time. Stopping the game from being trivial means you have to actively not do that.
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Feb 26, 2013 04:20
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Azure_Horizon posted:That is exactly what I just said. "Casual pace" = "constantly moving forward and never dawdling in one area." How does playing a game casually equate to rushing through it?
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Feb 26, 2013 04:22
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You're just sitting down and playing through the game. No grinding, no going out of your way for hidden things, just going where the game is pushing you.
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Feb 26, 2013 04:53
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This is a great thread, thanks for all this. I played 1 on NES when I was little, then went through both 4 and 6 on SNES with a friend (6 is my personal favorite), and then beat 5 and tried 2 and 3 in high school. 7 I had played on PC, and I found disc-based gaming's load times in an RPG a little annoying, and the plot didn't help much; compound that with 2's weird system and 3 on DS's initial difficulty, that was unfortunately my last FF game for long while. I bought a Vita last year and decided to give Dissidia a second shot, after having bought it used on PSP a couple years back and not really 'getting' it. Duodecim fixes whatever turned me off it the game the first time, and I am really enjoying it, and it set off a huge wave of nostalgia, so I bought 7, 8, and 9 from PSN and will get to those eventually. I have a few questions that I hope haven't been rehashed TOO much. -I live in Japan. Last night I bought Type-0, and now that the game has finally given me a little bit of control I am extremely intrigued. The setup reminds of a mix of Persona and Harry Potter, in that you're basically a bunch of kids at a wizard school and you have a certain amount of 'hours' before main quests to putz around at school. The amount of characters and stuff is so overwhelming though that I haven't sat down with it, just currently glossing over Japanese guides and tips. On the off-chance anyone's played it, how did you find the experience? Any tips? -What are the best versions of 2 and 3? I'm hoping deep down it's the PSP versions. -How 'easy' are 8 and 9? 7 I have played once before so I kind of know what to expect, but I'm definitely a more casual 'experience the story relatively pain-free' kind of gamer. 8's system seems daunting, though apparently there are ways to break it and have tried to search for the 'easiest' one but come across a lot of different ideas. Anyway, if I ever actually complete all of these, I am actually kind of excited to try 13. I didn't care about it at release because I thought I was "over" Final Fantasy but I feel like I just got sucked back in hard.
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Feb 26, 2013 05:29
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Winks posted:You're just sitting down and playing through the game. No grinding, no going out of your way for hidden things, just going where the game is pushing you. This is what I was getting at. Thank you. Re: Difficulty in 8: It depends on how much you get into the card game, and how often you draw magic from foes. Provided you exploit both of these things right at the start, the game becomes the easiest title in the franchise. Re: Difficulty in 9: Pretty even throughout. A few roadblocks, but as long as you level occasionally and make sure to learn abilities from equips you can buy/synth, you'll be presented with a pretty straightforward difficulty the whole game.
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Feb 26, 2013 05:35
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Something I've noticed for what it's worth in regards to XIII and XIII-2 is that the 360 version of XIII was clearly the inferior one, but XIII-2 the 360 seems to have the upper hand. The LOADING issue isn't nearly as pronounced on there compared to the PS3. I know because I'm replaying XIII-2 on the PS3 now and it IS really, really bad.
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Feb 26, 2013 05:49
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ShadeofDante posted:Something I've noticed for what it's worth in regards to XIII and XIII-2 is that the 360 version of XIII was clearly the inferior one, but XIII-2 the 360 seems to have the upper hand. The LOADING issue isn't nearly as pronounced on there compared to the PS3. I know because I'm replaying XIII-2 on the PS3 now and it IS really, really bad. I seriously thought my PS3 was breaking when I played XIII-2.
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Feb 26, 2013 05:52
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Favorite memory of any FF game ever: My friend and I were playing FFVII so much for weeks after its release that his dad literally broke the disc with a hammer, leaving a clearly hammer-sized, circular chunk out of one side of the PSX CDs, then told us, "oops, guess I stepped on it!" Only, I've stepped on plenty of CDs before and since, and don't none of them ever look like someone took a claw hammer to them...
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Feb 26, 2013 06:06
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The White Dragon posted:Or cast Mimic Daravon and steal her Sword instead Mustadio + Arm Snipe e: I just had my two priests with mathskill completely shut her down with DM/DA/Stop on a cycle in my last playthrough. You can get a defender pretty much as soon as you can access the fur shop at least. Evil Fluffy fucked around with this message at 06:17 on Feb 26, 2013 |
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Feb 26, 2013 06:15
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ShadeofDante posted:Something I've noticed for what it's worth in regards to XIII and XIII-2 is that the 360 version of XIII was clearly the inferior one, but XIII-2 the 360 seems to have the upper hand. The LOADING issue isn't nearly as pronounced on there compared to the PS3. I know because I'm replaying XIII-2 on the PS3 now and it IS really, really bad. I played it on the 360 and I didn't have any issues with loading times. At least not any more than any other modern game.
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Feb 26, 2013 06:28
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TheMammoth posted:Favorite memory of any FF game ever: My friend and I were playing FFVII so much for weeks after its release that his dad literally broke the disc with a hammer, leaving a clearly hammer-sized, circular chunk out of one side of the PSX CDs, then told us, "oops, guess I stepped on it!" Only, I've stepped on plenty of CDs before and since, and don't none of them ever look like someone took a claw hammer to them... I broke my second disc of FFIX at some point in high school, but since I made extra saves after every disc's end I played through it a couple of times just skipping the whole second disc. I'd start it and then get to the end of Disc 1 and jump right to the start of Disc 3 after reading through the guide. Ironically, that was the most use I had for the guide at the time I've since bought a spare disc 2, but at the time I had like 3 PSX games and damned if I didn't love IX, VII, and Chrono Cross. Hit or miss Clitoris fucked around with this message at 07:23 on Feb 26, 2013 |
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Feb 26, 2013 07:20
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Elec posted:-What are the best versions of 2 and 3? I'm hoping deep down it's the PSP versions. The best version of 2 is the PSP one. Each re-release tried to make it more balanced and enjoyable, but I still don't like it very much. The way you improve your characters is simply by using their weapons and spells, you don't gain experience and levels the normal way. This would be a very freeform method of character development, if the best way of increasing your health and defence wasn't hitting yourself over the head with your own weapon. 3 has only had one remake, which was then ported to mobile phones and the PSP. It's awful, I don't like the chibi art style, the personalities it gives to the characters are dull and uninteresting, and the difficulty is much higher than it should be. Because the DS could only handle 3 enemies at a time, as opposed to 9 on the NES, they are buffed significantly. The bosses are all given two turns each round, which makes the final dungeon a complete slog, because every death will force you to retry from the beginning. Basically, play the translated NES version instead. Elec posted:-How 'easy' are 8 and 9? 7 I have played once before so I kind of know what to expect, but I'm definitely a more casual 'experience the story relatively pain-free' kind of gamer. 8's system seems daunting, though apparently there are ways to break it and have tried to search for the 'easiest' one but come across a lot of different ideas. 8 is only easy if you understand the vastly different levelling system. Instead of killing enemies and levelling up, you want to absorb magic spells, and equip them to your stats. Enemies scale at a faster rate than you, so you want to gain as few levels as possible. Each character can be given a Guardian Force, which is a summon which also determines which stats can be boosted with magic, so you want to level those up instead. Elec posted:Anyway, if I ever actually complete all of these, I am actually kind of excited to try 13. I didn't care about it at release because I thought I was "over" Final Fantasy but I feel like I just got sucked back in hard. It has a fun battle system, if you can get past the point where they stop withholding abilities because you haven't had the tutorial for them yet, and are still stuck with two-character parties. Because of the strictly linear design, the difficulty curve is very balanced, so you're always being pushed to find new tactics and use every ability at your disposal. Beautiful visuals, good voice acting (E: except Vanille), terrible story. That Fucking Sned fucked around with this message at 13:05 on Feb 26, 2013 |
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Feb 26, 2013 11:16
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What's the best way to use JP in Dimensions? I got 5 JP at the beginning of Chapter 2 and pumped one point into each "primary" job of each character. Sol is a Monk, Aigis is a Thief, Alba is a Black Mage and Dusk is a White Mage. I have one left over but I'm not sure where to use it. Will I get more in the chapter or will it be fed out at chapter beginnings like this? When I raise a max JLVL, does it raise it for anyone who would use that job later or is someone else stuck at level 3 until I spend the point particularly for them?
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Feb 26, 2013 12:28
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Zombies' Downfall posted:Yeah, that blog post basically does everything right to start a videogame urban myth. There's no element of the supernatural, the story is completely plausible both because games like JRPGs always have a ton of poo poo on the cutting room floor and because Evermore is legitimately a weird muddy dark game compared to the SD series, and it just comes out and postulates a thing without belaboring the point or turning it into a big ongoing drama. In fact, I still think it's plausible that the whole thing is a fictional story based on a real weird preview screenshot. Even the best-written of the game related urban legends and horror stories from that thread, like Pale Luna, have a bigger scent of bullshit to them. I think even without a BS article it seems clear just from the game that the story they shipped with is not a story anyone would intentionally have written that way. Like, there is a machine where your dreams can become reality, but the people playing with it get stuck in it for decades by a malfunction. So eventually each creates their own version of utopia but oh no each one of them has a really telegraphed character flaw and the utopias become corrupted! There is no way someone writing that and decided "what we need is to make it so things got corrupted because they are evil robots" that is the exact thing you'd expect from an outside decision about the story.
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Feb 26, 2013 13:31
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Levantine posted:What's the best way to use JP in Dimensions? I got 5 JP at the beginning of Chapter 2 and pumped one point into each "primary" job of each character. Sol is a Monk, Aigis is a Thief, Alba is a Black Mage and Dusk is a White Mage. I have one left over but I'm not sure where to use it. Will I get more in the chapter or will it be fed out at chapter beginnings like this? When I raise a max JLVL, does it raise it for anyone who would use that job later or is someone else stuck at level 3 until I spend the point particularly for them? First, each character has 5 JP to spend individually. Second, the best way to spend JP is to decide on a role for each character and basically stick to it. You will get enough JP by story's end to master 4 jobs per character, and a fifth if you do some exploring at the beginning of Chapter 4. If you don't want to look at a guide and base your JP expenditure decision on fusion abilities, then the best thing to do would be to choose whether each character is a bruiser or mage and level those job types on that character. For example a light side bruiser might be warrior/monk/thief/dragoon/paladin. If you plan to do any lategame side farming for rare items, level Thief on at least five characters.
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Feb 26, 2013 13:59
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ImpAtom posted:I seriously thought my PS3 was breaking when I played XIII-2. Granted it was annoying switching back and forth between time periods when looking for stuff, but outside of watching the spinning Historia Crux screen I don't remember any lagging or weird load issues.
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Feb 26, 2013 14:23
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That loving Sned posted:8 is only easy if you understand the vastly different levelling system. Instead of killing enemies and levelling up, you want to absorb magic spells, and equip them to your stats. Enemies scale at a faster rate than you, so you want to gain as few levels as possible. Each character can be given a Guardian Force, which is a summon which also determines which stats can be boosted with magic, so you want to level those up instead. I can't be the only kid who went through that game not giving a poo poo about the level scaling, right? As long as you junction decent magics to your stats (Triple Triad may have had a hand in this, I admit, but I never transmuted something I didn't have extras of anyway) you'll blow through enemies even if they're buffed by being level-boosted. Even playing it completely straight (No No-encounters/running from every battle, no exploiting limit breaks, no transmuting character cards into super-powerful magics, etc.) I would call 8 pretty easy.
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