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Tempo 119 posted:Mwynn created Bhunivelze. XIII could've used a town with just a library in it. Then, hidden backstories like this one wouldn't bother me as much.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 00:21 |
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# ? May 26, 2024 20:57 |
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Krad posted:XIII could've used a town with just a library in it. Then, hidden backstories like this one wouldn't bother me as much. No, what XIII could have used is that video where SE explains the loving myth. Why they decided to remove such a crucial explanation is beyond me.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 00:35 |
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SSNeoman posted:No, what XIII could have used is that video where SE explains the loving myth. Why they decided to remove such a crucial explanation is beyond me. I literally JUST figured out that Pulse himself branded the main characters and not just Anima's true spirit form. It's super dumb that Anima and Pulse have basically the same design motif of weird shaped spinning gear.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 00:38 |
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I was really enjoying FF9. The plot has been lighthearted fare with characters I actually have managed to care about. The combat system is really interesting, especially with the ability system making equipment paramount to success, adding another layer of strategy to a game that has been giving less room for error than the last few FFs. It's also the first time I haven't minded when the game shuffles and splits up the parties, because I really do want to play as all the characters all the time and the forced separations mean tooling around with new strategies every few hours of game. I was really liking the game. And then I discovered Chocobo Hot and Cold and now I love the game.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 03:56 |
glod posted:I personally miss when final bosses were just giant masses of weird poo poo stuck together. So does The After Years.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 04:03 |
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Great Lakes Log posted:I was really enjoying FF9. The plot has been lighthearted fare with characters I actually have managed to care about. The combat system is really interesting, especially with the ability system making equipment paramount to success, adding another layer of strategy to a game that has been giving less room for error than the last few FFs. It's also the first time I haven't minded when the game shuffles and splits up the parties, because I really do want to play as all the characters all the time and the forced separations mean tooling around with new strategies every few hours of game. I was really liking the game. Chocobo Hot and Cold is pretty much the best jRPG minigame.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 04:06 |
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Azure_Horizon posted:Chocobo Hot and Cold is pretty much the best jRPG minigame. The first time I played it I was like "ok neat, get points, trade em in. Sure". And then my beak leveled up, and I found a treasure map, and then I found a piece of a treasure map, and now I just want to keep peeling this all back until I find everything that has to do with this stupid little side game.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 04:28 |
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Great Lakes Log posted:I was really enjoying FF9. The plot has been lighthearted fare with characters I actually have managed to care about. The combat system is really interesting, especially with the ability system making equipment paramount to success, adding another layer of strategy to a game that has been giving less room for error than the last few FFs. It's also the first time I haven't minded when the game shuffles and splits up the parties, because I really do want to play as all the characters all the time and the forced separations mean tooling around with new strategies every few hours of game. I was really liking the game. This makes me really happy. Basically every post of mine in this thread contains "FF9 is the best FF" and I had the same reactions to Hot + Cold as you - to the point where now, every time I play through the game, I do everything I possibly can with the mini game as early as possible. You end up with some really good gear and a tonne of cash for doing it too.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 05:22 |
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Sex_Ferguson posted:Yes, the Sazh DLC confirms that Chocolina is the Chocofro. A bunch of pages ago, but Frocobo would have been way better. SpazmasterX posted:It's supposed to be Kefka merged with one of the Statues at each level. Holy crap, I knew each one was one of the statues, but I never realized that the blond dude on each rung of the tower was supposed to be Kefka. That owns. God, VI is such a cool game.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 05:54 |
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Great Lakes Log posted:The first time I played it I was like "ok neat, get points, trade em in. Sure". And then my beak leveled up, and I found a treasure map, and then I found a piece of a treasure map, and now I just want to keep peeling this all back until I find everything that has to do with this stupid little side game. Seek out the world with your mighty choco-beak.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 06:14 |
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Great Lakes Log posted:The first time I played it I was like "ok neat, get points, trade em in. Sure". And then my beak leveled up, and I found a treasure map, and then I found a piece of a treasure map, and now I just want to keep peeling this all back until I find everything that has to do with this stupid little side game. Luckily the producers foresaw this and made some maps not available till future discs. Rockin' music though.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 06:15 |
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SSNeoman posted:No, what XIII could have used is that video where SE explains the loving myth. Why they decided to remove such a crucial explanation is beyond me. What was wrong with "God made Fal'Cie and Humans, then left. Some bad Fal'Cie want to kill a bunch of humans to get God's attention so that (s)he'll come back" anyway? I mean, FFXIII was terribly written, but that core concept could carry a story fine. If anything, the fact that they decided to pull a ton of bullshit on in datalogs (Etro, Bhunwhatevs, etc.) made the story weaker than if they'd just left it simple.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 06:17 |
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J. Alfred Prufrock posted:What was wrong with "God made Fal'Cie and Humans, then left. Some bad Fal'Cie want to kill a bunch of humans to get God's attention so that (s)he'll come back" anyway? I mean, FFXIII was terribly written, but that core concept could carry a story fine. If anything, the fact that they decided to pull a ton of bullshit on in datalogs (Etro, Bhunwhatevs, etc.) made the story weaker than if they'd just left it simple. Everything you put in air quotes is basically stated in FFXIII outside of Datalogs.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 06:18 |
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I've gotten to Chapter 4 of FFD, the last chapter. I've got my Paladin's runnin', my core characters all nice and tidy, Ninja's kicking rear end, and now I'm having fun. LAST CHAPTER, MORE THAN 15 HOURS OR MORE (definitely more) INTO THE GAME, AND NOW I'M HAVING FUN. The story is actually sort of kind of interesting in a very FF4-ish way. At the last chapter, the game gets fun. It's like I'm playing The After Years all over again. Except the After Years did have some fun chapters. I really loved Yang's tale, aside from the drat forest maze, because you went around as badass monks beating the crap out of everything with your bare hands. And Kain's was good. But if we take the After Years comparison even further, then the game is going to start being crappy again a few hours later.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 06:40 |
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J. Alfred Prufrock posted:What was wrong with "God made Fal'Cie and Humans, then left. Some bad Fal'Cie want to kill a bunch of humans to get God's attention so that (s)he'll come back" anyway? I mean, FFXIII was terribly written, but that core concept could carry a story fine. If anything, the fact that they decided to pull a ton of bullshit on in datalogs (Etro, Bhunwhatevs, etc.) made the story weaker than if they'd just left it simple. It certainly makes things straightforward, yes. But a big part of the story was to show how deluded Bartandelus was. He didn't realize that his plan wouldn't save the world, it would destroy it. Here's the problem: none of the heroes realize this either. If the heroes went after Bartandelus because "We need to stop that moron before he 'accidentally' unmakes existence" that would be great. The villain is misinformed and, poetically, will never know the truth. Instead the heroes just go after Bart because he upset them. Or something. Azure is correct. The setting has potential, being able to be the humans who show the gods what morons they are is a cool idea. That idea is muddled and presented horribly. The game has some great world building, but it doesn't DO anything with the world. "Doesn't do anything with the world!? They smash time!" Yes after a long and meandering adventure which led through a bunch of locales that never quite fit together as a whole. And when this world is permanently changed, well we didn't really have an emotional stake in it so who cares?
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 06:53 |
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I don't think Bart really gave a poo poo about saving the world. He just wanted to die. Which is actually a pretty cool motivation - despot who reigns over the slavish masses and has godlike power turns out to be the biggest slave of them all. The humans bound to Focuses have endured nothing compared to the eons of servitude Barthandalus and the other fal'Cie are born into. if only the game had addressed this before his actual death. As for why the heroes jus tmindlessly pursued him...there really was nothing else. The game really could have used a Spell or Weapon of Ultimate Power that the heroes pursued. Maybe a legend of a way to break your Focus. But no, there is absolutely no alternatives so our heroes just kinda wander here and there while lying to themselves. I love how one of Vanille's standard quotes when you ae running around with her is something like "we have to stop the fal'Cie! That's our real Focus." NO it's not! You're all just deluded and lying to yourselves because you are completely powerless and unable to change poo poo.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 07:12 |
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Tempo 119 posted:Mwynn created Bhunivelze. Wait what? Etro died before the games? Then who saved the party in XIII / died in FFXIII-2's ending which doomed the world? And if it wasn't Etro who created the world, why would her death matter at all?
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 09:01 |
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Great Lakes Log posted:Quick question about a totally different FF game, because I have played either of the XIII's yet. There are a few versions of FFV in existence, and I'm wary of just getting the PSN one because FFVI had such awful load times. Does the GBA game make significant changes? Is the iOS one serviceable? I like the iOS version. Beat it once and playing it again for the Four Job Fiesta (way more slowly this time). I think the sprites look nice, and a lot of the battle effects look really good. Controls take a bit of time to get used to but it's worth having FF5 in my pocket at all times.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 09:17 |
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Azure_Horizon posted:Everything you put in air quotes is basically stated in FFXIII outside of Datalogs. Those weren't air quotes, they were actual things the game tells you. In fact, that is pretty much the plot that FFXIII presents to you straight up (discounting Datalogs). You somehow managed to interpret my post in the most opposite way possible. I was saying that the core of the story as presented to the player could be a decent concept. "Robo-angels decide to kill a bunch of humans in a misguided attempt to catch the attention of their absentee God" could be a great JRPG story. The whole Fabulous Neuvo Crystals "mythology" (now those are air quotes) is where they hosed things up. Sure, the purple crystal eye that you can almost-halfway make out for the last ten minutes of a forty hour game explains why the ending makes no sense. Then they're Cieth, then they're not, then they're Ragnarok, then they're not...obviously I should have delved into the multiple pages of expository text dumps! No, that's stupid. I'm totally okay with beating up mechanical demigods who want to genocide humanity because of crazy religious beliefs. That's a solid, if typical, JRPG plot. I don't need a thousand years of convoluted backstory and retcons that take the piss out of everything the characters accomplish because some Goddess that I've never head about until now did some vague, undefined thing and it broke time for no reason. My entire point was that the idea behind the plot of FFXIII was strong enough that it didn't need a million stupid Datalogs, and in trying to make it bigger than it was, the writers just made it dumb and nonsensical instead.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 09:56 |
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Great Lakes Log posted:I was really enjoying FF9. The plot has been lighthearted fare with characters I actually have managed to care about. The combat system is really interesting, especially with the ability system making equipment paramount to success, adding another layer of strategy to a game that has been giving less room for error than the last few FFs. It's also the first time I haven't minded when the game shuffles and splits up the parties, because I really do want to play as all the characters all the time and the forced separations mean tooling around with new strategies every few hours of game. I was really liking the game. I just replayed everything from 1-9 on a nostalgia trip. I'd never played 2-3 before at all, never finished 1, 4, 8, or 9 (back in the PS1 heydey, I played 8 to the final dungeon and 9 to the end of disc 1 and got bored and quit) 9 is a good game, I liked a lot about it. I'd say my favorites are still 5, 6, 7, and Tactics, but 9 is definitely solid. Gotta say though, I found Hot and Cold pretty tedious and boring. Maybe it was because I was trying to be completionist for once, kill all the superbosses, get all the optional equipment and do all the sidequests, but it basically felt like an obligatory grind to do Hot and Cold just to get the optional gear, and it was annoying to sit there and dig up potions until I lucked out and got all the Chocographs for a given area. I think if you could get all the Chocographs for each area as the first treasures you dug up, and then sit there and play for points if you wanted to, it would've been a lot less annoying. Waiting to find the last Chocograph in each area took forever. Personally I never ended up spending any of the points I got from playing it, I synthesized/found/stole all the Robes of Lords I needed and I didn't think any of the other rewards for it looked too great.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 12:23 |
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Renoistic posted:Here's a video of the final boss of FFXII, by the way. The awful stuff begins at 5:00 I haven't beaten 12 in years, but that final boss reminds me most of Vagrant Story's final boss battle. A giant winged godlike thing circling around an arena and you can hit him at the periphery. Given all the other FF12 -> VS parallels, this isn't surprising, but it felt like that to me. In VS he had big ol' angel wings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkk_wDOQt3g
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 13:05 |
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Thank you for FFV info, I think I'll be going with the GBA version since I played I, II and IV on the GBA and I liked those versions quite a bit. At this point I've noticed a trend that the last disc has been the "no going back" moment, but I guess I wanna just double check that. I just left the first continent and I assume I won't miss anything and can come back later; is this true?
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 13:53 |
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Great Lakes Log posted:Thank you for FFV info, I think I'll be going with the GBA version since I played I, II and IV on the GBA and I liked those versions quite a bit. Of FF5? There's a few stuff you might've missed. Namely, two Bardsongs, the Shiva and Ramuh summon (neither of these are particularly important now anyway,) and the Death Sickle until it's too late to be relevant.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 14:00 |
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alcharagia posted:Of FF5? There's a few stuff you might've missed. Namely, two Bardsongs, the Shiva and Ramuh summon (neither of these are particularly important now anyway,) and the Death Sickle until it's too late to be relevant. You can still get Ramuh, except he's in the second to last part of the final dungeon, so he's no longer really that useful.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 14:21 |
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alcharagia posted:Of FF5? There's a few stuff you might've missed. Namely, two Bardsongs, the Shiva and Ramuh summon (neither of these are particularly important now anyway,) and the Death Sickle until it's too late to be relevant. Ah sorry I meant of FFIX. I've never played FFV before but I will soon. I like a good job system so I'm looking forward to it.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 14:21 |
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Renoistic posted:Wait what? Etro died before the games? Then who saved the party in XIII / died in FFXIII-2's ending which doomed the world? And if it wasn't Etro who created the world, why would her death matter at all? Etro was sent to the Unseen World, where she reached out a few times to influence the course of human destiny. First, she gave humans their hearts (a little piece of chaos in each one), then she saved Cocoon from being totally destroyed (the War of Transgression), and finally she prevented its second downfall at the end of FFXIII. She matters because she is the Goddess of Death, and each time she changes the world, repercussions are felt in normal reality. This is why XIII-2 happens. XIII-2's ending is basically her Gate being opened and nothing stopping the flood of chaos from eating away at the normal world.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 17:27 |
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gently caress MATRIX SOFTWARE'S IDEA OF RANDOM ENCOUNTERS. I've either been blessed or very fortunate in that all of my grinding have been because I personally decided to grind for AP, and not because the game forces you to. But the Mysidia Cavern is bending my party over and screwing it in front of an open window in a skyscraper in Los Angeles. I have actually been forced to switch out my normal Jobs for my bossing Jobs because ever encounter here feels like a mini boss fight. And sometimes I still die. I hate status effects.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 20:04 |
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Gologle posted:gently caress MATRIX SOFTWARE'S IDEA OF RANDOM ENCOUNTERS. I've either been blessed or very fortunate in that all of my grinding have been because I personally decided to grind for AP, and not because the game forces you to. But the Mysidia Cavern is bending my party over and screwing it in front of an open window in a skyscraper in Los Angeles. I have actually been forced to switch out my normal Jobs for my bossing Jobs because ever encounter here feels like a mini boss fight. And sometimes I still die. I hate status effects. I would not grind AP there. Additionally, there is a save point half-way down the cavern and if I remember correctly the encounter tables change halfway down and the status effect inflicting enemies aren't in the second set. Don't bother grinding AP until you get the airship and can beat the tar out of cactuars.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 20:07 |
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Just have a Thief or give someone Flee, then set everything to auto and skip random fights.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 20:12 |
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Barudak posted:I would not grind AP there. Additionally, there is a save point half-way down the cavern and if I remember correctly the encounter tables change halfway down and the status effect inflicting enemies aren't in the second set. Don't bother grinding AP until you get the airship and can beat the tar out of cactuars. No, no, you misread. I've already done all my AP grinding in Chapter 3. The game, up until this point, has never had a point where I felt underleveled. Until this point. Anyway, I have to hand it to the guy/guys who illustrated the character portraits and some of the other pictures, they look very good and suit this game far better than they did in The After Years (I think it's the same guy who made the chapter pictures for The After Years, the style is very similar). I particularly like Aigis', Glaive's, and Dusk's portraits, but then again, I like those characters anyway.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 20:20 |
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Gologle posted:No, no, you misread. I've already done all my AP grinding in Chapter 3. The game, up until this point, has never had a point where I felt underleveled. Until this point. Oh then do exactly what was said earlier; just run away over and over again. End game dungeon will have a few sections with souped up versions of those monsters in the enemy pools so be alert for that. Granted you'll have a full party of 5 then so its a lot easier.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 20:24 |
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Good god. Leave it to Brave New World (a hack I've been legit interested in for quite some time) to show me how much I actually kinda hate FF6. To me it has the same problem 5 has from New Game to the Wind Crystal: it's slow and boring and I've played it a hundred drat times already and just give me the Jobs, except in the case of 6 this intro feeling lasts until after Zozo. I just want some Espers come on hurry up no I don't want to deal with this party-split again
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 20:49 |
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Shaezerus posted:Good god. Leave it to Brave New World (a hack I've been legit interested in for quite some time) to show me how much I actually kinda hate FF6. To me it has the same problem 5 has from New Game to the Wind Crystal: it's slow and boring and I've played it a hundred drat times already and just give me the Jobs, except in the case of 6 this intro feeling lasts until after Zozo. I've said it before and I'll say it again; FF6 and FF13 both leave bad tastes in my mouth for having hours and hours of gameplay before it feels comfortable letting you pick your own party or control how you level up.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 20:54 |
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Shaezerus posted:Good god. Leave it to Brave New World (a hack I've been legit interested in for quite some time) to show me how much I actually kinda hate FF6. To me it has the same problem 5 has from New Game to the Wind Crystal: it's slow and boring and I've played it a hundred drat times already and just give me the Jobs, except in the case of 6 this intro feeling lasts until after Zozo. I actually really like the part pre-esper. Other than the party split having some of my favorite setpieces (Locke in South Figaro and the Phantom Train) it's also a challenge to me to get through it at as low a level as possible. The problem BNW has for me is that the early-game difficulty seems turned up a couple notches and at the same time the level cap being lowered makes it all the more important to keep levels down.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 21:00 |
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I don't mind that part, but largely because I don't find Espers very interesting character building. I'd much rather have had them teach passive skills or something instead of pure stat boost + magic.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 21:04 |
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God gently caress this absurdly convoluted Final Fantasy XIII mythology poo poo, where you're supposed to care about the arbitrary assignations of consequences to weird boring actions and then care EVEN MORE when the consequences turn out to be arbitrarily the opposite of what they told you before!! Here's everything you need to know about everything supernatural in Final Fantasy 6: -Espers are creatures who were given magical powers by the ancient goddesses -If an esper dies it turns into magicite, which retains its powers and can give them to other creatures -The evil empire is hunting espers for their magic powers That's everything! Two special terms you need to learn, and they're both based on English words from which you can deduce their meaning, not some bullshit creole of pidgin French and Elvish. That's literally all the more complicated poo poo needs to be to sustain thirty hours of epic menu navigation and melodrama. God
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 21:16 |
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swamp waste posted:God gently caress this absurdly convoluted Final Fantasy XIII mythology poo poo, where you're supposed to care about the arbitrary assignations of consequences to weird boring actions and then care EVEN MORE when the consequences turn out to be arbitrarily the opposite of what they told you before!! Here's everything you need to know about everything supernatural in Final Fantasy 6: At its core FFXIII isn't really that complex
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 21:20 |
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Gologle posted:gently caress MATRIX SOFTWARE'S IDEA OF RANDOM ENCOUNTERS. I've either been blessed or very fortunate in that all of my grinding have been because I personally decided to grind for AP, and not because the game forces you to. But the Mysidia Cavern is bending my party over and screwing it in front of an open window in a skyscraper in Los Angeles. 1st AD posted:Just have a Thief or give someone Flee, then set everything to auto and skip random fights. This. That place sucks enormously and you should just ignore random battle there as much as you can. Honestly this game is very status effect happy and is a bit of a bitch about curing them. You don't get Esuna till like the third-last dungeon and enemies seem to love spamming confuse. I was amazed how much easier the game became when I nullified confuse with my accessories and armor. Also you'll pick up a Chouchou soon, which is a passable ribbon that you should equip on your healer ASAP. ImpAtom posted:I don't mind that part, but largely because I don't find Espers very interesting character building. I'd much rather have had them teach passive skills or something instead of pure stat boost + magic. I agree with this too. I'd much rather have standard leveling with passive boosts rather than FF6's current system. I love the game, but the espers are underwhelming.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 21:21 |
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ImpAtom posted:I don't mind that part, but largely because I don't find Espers very interesting character building. I'd much rather have had them teach passive skills or something instead of pure stat boost + magic. To be fair, though, not a lot of FF games actually let you directly manipulate your permanent stat gains as part of the core gameplay. I think the next one to do so was 9. 10 allowed it with endgame grinding, and 13-2 brought it to the forefront of its Crystarium.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 21:25 |
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# ? May 26, 2024 20:57 |
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Espers were the step towards Materia, which is pretty loved. Plus, up til you get to Espers, VI plays it rather straight as a FF title.
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# ? Jul 24, 2013 21:29 |