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If she was an anime you'd be able to see her left eye through her hair and it would be less confusing.
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Oct 21, 2016 01:09
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The ambience in Daguerro is just kind of ridiculous. I mean, in a lot of ways it's an endgame town and it's just... a giant library. No real... threat to anybody, or recognition of it. Which I guess makes sense, since after all that devastation Kuja and Garland are just having this weird shadow game nobody knows about.
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Oct 21, 2016 04:56
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It's weird how Garuda gives you no hints about the Yan. Although to be fair I wouldn't wanna tell anyone that Yans are the last species of friendly monster either.  FF9 feels like it punishes people who want to grind; it takes forever getting past the 50s, and Yans are the only things that give good enough EXP to expedite it and look how vile they are. I only recently learned the Friendly Yan was a repeatable optional boss, that's nuts! Also every game I started where I wanted to ace the Ragtimer never panned out for whatever reason. Grand Dragons look really cool and frightening to fit their strength. They have one of my favorite intro noises of FF9's bestiary. Daguerro is nifty but also feels like there's...not enough of it? Too small? Iunno. It'd be interesting seeing a hidden dungeon in FF9, with how basically every area has its own unique enemies and as far as I know there are no palette swaps barring the Friendlies.
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Oct 21, 2016 07:38
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Zeikier posted:FF9 feels like it punishes people who want to grind; it takes forever getting past the 50s, and Yans are the only things that give good enough EXP to expedite it and look how vile they are. It's so easy to hit the damage cap that at some point leveling isn't as important as maxing Thievery/Dragon's Crest/Frog Drop etc. since those are relatively easy to grind up.
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Oct 21, 2016 17:14
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Zeikier posted:It's weird how Garuda gives you no hints about the Yan. Although to be fair I wouldn't wanna tell anyone that Yans are the last species of friendly monster either. It gives no hints about the Yan but all the friendly monsters drop the gem that the next friendly monster in the chain wants -- the Garuda does drop a Diamond, so you know that there's (at least) one more friendly monster out there.
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Oct 21, 2016 18:09
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OH! Oh that's what is says. Well, that... that makes a lot more sense, actually.
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Oct 21, 2016 18:09
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Xander77 posted:OH! Oh that's what is says. Well, that... that makes a lot more sense, actually. This "clue" is absolutely useless in the german version. He says something along the lines of "My round buddy wanted one of these [a diamond] too...". I wonder how many people threw diamonds at Ozma, hoping to make the fight easier.
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Oct 21, 2016 18:45
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MelvinBison posted:It's so easy to hit the damage cap that at some point leveling isn't as important as maxing Thievery/Dragon's Crest/Frog Drop etc. since those are relatively easy to grind up. I spent some time grinding like an idiot because I wanted crystal points.
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Oct 21, 2016 21:43
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This loving challenge
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Oct 22, 2016 00:02
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   Before we get started on the actual update, I'm way behind on Ragtime Mouse encounters. Let's knock three questions out from my rather large backlog on this side quest.   This one is true. Too lazy to see if it's mentioned explicitly somewhere, but there's this I guess if you really want to do math on randomly mentioned background events irrelevant to the plot. Mega64 posted:
 Also true. Mega64 posted:
  Also true. All airships use Mist except the three Hilda Garde airships.  Steiner, Freya, and Dagger are behind on both levels and abilities, so I'm taking this crew to Ipsen's Castle.  It's in the northwestern part of the Forgotten Continent, in a canyon inaccessible unless you have an airship or mountain chocobo.   So, Ipsen's Castle. The upside-down part is not just for show, but a neat little clue as to this place's weird-rear end gimmick. But more on that in a bit.  So you may have noticed that Amarant's been largely irrelevant the entire time he's been in our party, so now's as good a time as any to shoehorn in half-assed character development for him!    ...? What's up, Amarant? I work alone. Always have, always will. I don't know why you bother carryin' dead weight all the time. What's your point? Hilda said there's some key here to break the seal, am I right? Yeah. Let's see who finds it first. I'll be going by myself, of course. Calm down, Rusty. B-But...! Amarant's always been a "Be the strongest, rely on yourself" kind of guy. Zidane obviously handles things much differently, and Amarant's not going to learn any lessons by simply being ordered around by Zidane. So Zidane is going to humor him and let him go.  I don't know what you're thinking, but if that's what you want, it's okay by me. Well, aren't you an agreeable fellow?  What can I do? I can't change the way he thinks. Then the game lets us pick our party again. As you may have guessed, we can't take Amarant for this dungeon, though everyone else is fair game. I stick with the party I said I was going to use.   So, Ipsen's Castle. First thing to notice is the music falls similarly to the title screen's (titled "A Place to Call Home", or in the case of the soundtrack translation I'm using, "The Place I'll Return to Someday") and Oeilvert's, i.e. the weird Terra-centric place. I'll let you connect the dots for this one, even though I've pretty much hammered the drat meaning into your skull by now.  Our first treasure is a Dagger. The Dagger is the weapon that Zidane started with. Indeed, everybody's initial weapons (as well as the Air Racket, the first racket) are treasures in this dungeon.   Also the Aquarius Stellazzio. Aquarius doesn't really give a poo poo about wooing chicks, apparently.  Alright. Time to start wrecking poo poo with my physical powerhouses.  ...and here is where we get to Ipsen's Castle's gimmick. Yep, the weaker the weapon is, the more damage it does. So Zidane will do more damage with the crappy daggers he just got than his fancy new goat skull thief sword. Likewise, since I've got Steiner and Freya decked out to learn abilities from higher-end weapons, they're going to do poo poo damage.  So even though Steiner hitting Trance in a random encounter is normally good since he's one of the very few to actually have a Trance useful for randoms, it's still useless here because of the weapon he has. Trance: Even when it's useful, it's useless.   However, abilities such as Freya's Jump and Steiner's Darkside bypass the gimmick, since it only applies to the Attack command.  Next room has a moogle to deliver mail to.   I heard that you can't enter Mognet Central unless you're riding on a chocobo. Kupo.Way ahead of you there.  Kumool also sells the second-weakest weapon for each character, in case you're not hoarding everything already.  This is the Veteran, another staple FF creature.    Like its brethren, its gimmick is to inflict the Doom status, where after a count of 10 the target instantly dies. This is also a Blue Magic staple, and is in fact Quina's final Blue Mage spell. I will grab this spell next update since Quina's not really that great for this dungeon due to the initial fork being too powerful.  The Agares (the right creature with the book) can revive the Gargoyle, which does annoying petrification attacks. Of course, Soft instantly kills it so I never saw it act. Otherwise, the Agares spams -ra magic and inflicts the Freeze status, so Body Temp is handy for this dungeon.  Go down the pole and then go up this ladder (we'll get to that chest later).  There's all sorts of wonderful weird architecture here. I mean, Symphony of the Night kinda did it first but it simply flipped its castle rather than having a right-side-up castle placed on top of an upside-down one.  The two paths lead to more weak weapons.  The last encounter here is a doozie. These are Tonberries, one of the best-known FF enemies. They're murder incarnate.  They simply slowly advance towards the party. If they reach a party member, it can knife a character for 9999 damage before disappearing. Even worse, they can inflict their signature attack, Everyone's Grudge, on the party for damage equal to 4^(# of dead Tonberries). So simply killing six of them will very likely cause a party wipe (4^6 = 4096), assuming I understand things correctly and the damage is not split. I believe there needs to be multiple Tonberries alive by the time one reaches you for it to take effect. Let's nuke the poo poo outta them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEPCT5mdx-Q    Bahamut is pretty swell. Not as good as other summons if you exploit weaknesses and/or use equipment that boosts elemental damage, but eh, it's a giant gently caress-off dragon blasting poo poo at enemies for large damage. It's alright with me.     And all those Garnets are paying off.  Just make sure not to gently caress around with these guys. Running away from them isn't that bad an idea.  Anyway, next up is this room.  This thing is kinda weird. First, we examine it.   Then push it.   Then pound it.   Then we think about it.   Push and pound some more.    Then try something drastic, to no effect.  So gently caress it, let's rest.   This unlocks a stairwell at the entrance. We'll backtrack there in a bit since we're almost at the thing we came here to get.  In fact, all we need to do is take this elevator.  Welp, so much for the contest.   ...Have you figured out how to break the seal? Take a look at that wall. Maybe you can figure it out. But it's no longer my concern. What do you mean? I proved myself right. I don't need to follow you around anymore.  Amarant's gone forever. Goodbye, Amarant. I'm sorry I wasted time grinding up abilities for you.  ...It's his way. We can't change him. Amarant doesn't even have a guaranteed 9999-damage attack. We won't miss him. Let's finish this place up.  ...? There's something written on it.  Since there's a wind mirror, as you may expect, the others are mirrors of water, fire, and earth. Because it's always those four elements. Always.   See? Those elements are core to Final Fantasy.   Even though the way the series handles them is weird. Fire is always well-represented, being a Black Mage's bread and butter along with Ice and Bolt (not to mention Ifrit and fifty other things). Earth is generally an end-game Black Magic spell, but more associated with the Summoner's Titan. Wind is usually Blue Magic, while Water is kinda all over the place (Summoner's Leviathan, Ninja's Water Scrolls, sometimes Blue Mage's Aqua Rake, etc).   Anyway, we've got our four mirrors.     It seems someone from Terra found these mirrors but could not uncover their meaning.   What did it say, Zidane? Yeah, they were the same as the ones I saw at Oeilvert... Like Hilda said, those things on the wall must have something to do with the seal.  Who's there?  Oh hey, some thing's rear end we get to kick.  Wh-What is this!? You should say please when you ask for things.  Boss battle time!  Taharka is pretty straightforward. Apparently it can close itself and do heavy physical damage, but I never made it to that part.  Otherwise, it casts Blizzaga and uses physical attacks. No biggie.  Especially since the former can be nullified by Silence.   And I debuff it a bit while Zidane gets to stealing.  The Elixir and Mythril Claws are nothing new. The Orichalcon are the strongest daggers in the game and Zidane's third-strongest weapon overall, though they have no status effects and only teach Detect. Minor speed boost, though, and again, damage boost.  I had Steiner equip his Flame Saber for this battle. You see, it has a 10% chance of inflicting the Heat status effect. Luckily enough, I triggered it on the first attack!  Reminder: If you act with the Heat status, you instantly die. The enemies are too dumb to realize this. Pretty fun way to kill a boss, though the next one will be even better.    Welp. So much for that. Anyway, we have to manually walk out, so...  The FF Wiki says order of priority of triggering this trap is Garnet, then Eiko, then Vivi, then Quina, meaning Steiner should not be triggering this. Go figure. Bumbling Steiner triggering a trap makes more sense than anything else, especially since he's already done so before. Disc 2 at the end of the Dagger/Steiner/Marcus arc, remember? And probably fifty other times too.  I-I wouldn't fall for such a childish trick! How clever. We must have activated the trap when we reached the top. Well, I'm glad you're okay. Zidane and Steiner are pretty close friends at this juncture, and it's pretty sweet. Of course, I use the scene where Zidane's dialogue is predetermined and vague enough to work with all characters, but still.  Anyway let's fall down this trap.  This is how we reach the chest and the Maiden Prayer inside.  Before we leave, let's check out that central path.  It leads to this elevator...   And this room. Apparently there's a clue here that says "Fight the flow of time" or whatever but I didn't see it. Oh well.  The trick is to rotate the pots counter-clockwise a few times before a thing triggers.   This weird add-on boosts Strength and Shadow-elemental damage and teaches Dagger Odin's Sword, which deals damage to any enemy that Odin's Zantetsuken does not instantly kill. Considering it takes 5 magic stones and the strength is weaker the more Ore you have (when you want more Ore to boost the chances of proccing instant death), it's not really worth the hassle.  Finally, more weak weapons up here in the moogle room.  And with that, we're done!   You came out first, Zidane! What? What happened to Amarant? He was waiting for us at the top and left as soon as we got there! I thought he took off! Is he still inside...? Yeah, Amarant's a loner and kind of a jerk-off. But come on, do you really think Zidane's gonna strand an ally like that?   So now we go back to Ipsen's Castle with only Zidane. Liberal use of Flee is applied.  Who's there!? Who's there? Amarant? What happened to you? Answer my question... I told you we might be enemies next time we met... Or did you come back to mock me? The guys outside told me that you hadn't come out yet. That's why I came here looking for you. We don't have anything to do with each other anymore... You don't have anything to gain from this. Or do you? Amarant's whole story thing is paper-thin, consisting only of his thing about being the strongest, but he's also a good foil to Zidane. Zidane's all about teamwork and friendship and has great camaraderie with his six other followers. As the outsider of this crew, Amarant's only along because he realizes Zidane is stronger than him and wants to know why. He's naturally a loner and values inner strength and power above all else. He doesn't understand how you can be more powerful thanks to the people you keep around you.  Zidane kinda glosses over all that, sometimes playing along with Amarant when he has the time, but sometimes just ignoring it in more dire situations such as this. Zidane simply does what comes natural to him. You don't care...? You're willing to put yourself at risk to save me? Come on. We've helped each other many times since we joined forces. I don't know why I'm doing this, but I can't just walk away. It goes against my nature. And that's what being a part of the team means...? Isn't it?Amarant's slowly beginning to learn how Zidane sees things and will slowly start re-evaluating his perspective on life. I mean, there's really not much to Amarant's arc the way there is for Vivi or Dagger or hell, even freaking Quina, but Amarant does grow and develop like everyone else in the party.  Good point.  I'm getting outta here as well. Next time, we figure out our gameplan and proceed in one of the coolest sequences in the game.
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Oct 22, 2016 01:35
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Much like Ragtime Mouse and that Gigas with the Fairy Flute whose name escapes me at the moment, Taharka has a mistranslated name. It's supposed to be Dahaka.
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Oct 22, 2016 01:54
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The clue in that Ancient Aroma room pops up if you've messed around in it for a few minutes.
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Oct 22, 2016 02:02
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Hobgoblin2099 posted:Much like Ragtime Mouse and that Gigas with the Fairy Flute whose name escapes me at the moment, Taharka has a mistranslated name. It's supposed to be Dahaka. Yas I, eltsac detrevni na fo ssob eht rof eman etairporppa na.
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Oct 22, 2016 02:18
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One tidbit about this game is that every character skips their end of battle victory animation depending on their emotional state at the time. I believe this point is where Amarant starts using his for the first time since he joined, which is a nice touch. He's finally a real part of the team 
Southhouse- fucked around with this message at 02:25 on Oct 22, 2016 |
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Oct 22, 2016 02:22
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Veteran is supposed to be Ahriman, game, darnit!
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Oct 22, 2016 02:35
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You get Heat on Taharka and I know what you're referring to with the next boss. Can't you let me have any surprises?
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Oct 22, 2016 02:37
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But where's the Heart Mirror?
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Oct 22, 2016 02:43
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 I forgot Taharka existed. I actually have a thing against the music in Ipsen's Castle, so I think I blocked most of it out of my memory. Totally forgot about the gimmick and the traps and how this leads to the next part with the mirrors. That next part, though, will be very fun.
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Oct 22, 2016 02:50
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Nidoking posted:Yas I, eltsac detrevni na fo ssob eht rof eman etairporppa na. I don't get it.  Kahada? Akahad?
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Oct 22, 2016 02:50
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Disc 3 is the best disc. The only problem I have with it is Amarant's out of nowhere plot involvement.
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Oct 22, 2016 02:51
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AlphaKretin posted:I don't get it. The main enemy in Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is the Dahaka, and it speaks backwards.
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Oct 22, 2016 02:53
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I wonder what Taharka is supposed to be. It actually looks a little like a Rust Monster from classic D&D with those bug antennae and the weird finned tail.
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Oct 22, 2016 03:04
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Tuxedo Ted posted:I wonder what Taharka is supposed to be. Azi Dahaka is an evil being in Iranian mythology. The Azi part means "dragon" and FFX-2 and 13 make the dragon part more explicit. Its FF9 appearance is vaguely draconic, at that. 
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Oct 22, 2016 03:16
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXCLDy_b2jc Got thru Gizmaluke's.
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Oct 22, 2016 03:50
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Ipsen's Castle was the point where exploring dungeons became tedious. I don't think it was the gimmick; I think it was just how long it took getting anywhere (and possibly enemies getting worse, but Desert Palace was also pretty nasty). The music didn't help. "The Place I'll Return To Someday" is my least favorite track, and every time they reuse it it never sounds good, just shrill and/or grating. It's catchy, but a bad catchy. Wow, didn't realize Taharka was vulnerable to Heat. Wouldn't be the first time a boss was weak to a crazy status in an FF game, but an "act and you die" affliction? Also, I'll never forget how strategy guides always give Earth element the shaft. FF9's guide mentioned everything other elements were strong against, and Earth was just "Flying enemies immune," like screw you too, pal! Freya should have went back for Amarant  Zidane's had plenty of time reminding us he likes helping. Share the wealth, thief! Zeikier fucked around with this message at 09:08 on Oct 22, 2016 |
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Oct 22, 2016 09:05
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Yeah, upside-down castle is a pretty neat concept for an area that I'm surprised more games haven't done anything with.
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Oct 22, 2016 12:04
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EponymousMrYar posted:To elaborate: it's the epitome of 'what happens when an internet fanfic about a game that someone really likes get made into a sequel for that game.' Tons of copied plot beats. Interesting new mechanics wasted. The reason it takes great stamina to use the Devils Road because said Devils Road is a teleporter maze (that you naturally have to go through manually rather than watching a series of overworld pans.) An insulting use of 'Huh.' I like TAY. Am i bad and dumb? 
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Oct 22, 2016 12:51
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... Oh you poor soul
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Oct 22, 2016 13:22
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whiteyfats posted:I like TAY. Am i bad and dumb? I do actually like TAY's gameplay in most aspects (Devil's Road is terrible, as are a few other dungeons/battles), and there are some genuinely good character moments here and there. It's just the story is so bad and lazy that it still deserves all the poo poo it gets.
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Oct 22, 2016 13:32
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Mega64 posted:I do actually like TAY's gameplay in most aspects (Devil's Road is terrible, as are a few other dungeons/battles), and there are some genuinely good character moments here and there. It's just the story is so bad and lazy that it still deserves all the poo poo it gets. I won't defend the story, but the actual gameplay is pretty fun.
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Oct 22, 2016 14:10
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Zeikier posted:Also, I'll never forget how strategy guides always give Earth element the shaft. FF9's guide mentioned everything other elements were strong against, and Earth was just "Flying enemies immune," like screw you too, pal! That's not the guide's fault. Literally nothing is weak to earth.
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Oct 22, 2016 14:29
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Mega64 posted:I do actually like TAY's gameplay in most aspects (Devil's Road is terrible, as are a few other dungeons/battles), and there are some genuinely good character moments here and there. It's just the story is so bad and lazy that it still deserves all the poo poo it gets. Isn't TAY the one that implies that other FF worlds were completely destroyed at some point?
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Oct 22, 2016 14:30
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You can learn more about that in TAY's upcoming HD remake, Final Fantasy XV.
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Oct 22, 2016 14:46
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I played TAY at a time when I had forgotten most of the specifics of FF4's plot so it was way better to me than it had any right to be. Even knowing what I do now, I still like it for the challenge.
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Oct 22, 2016 14:58
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Alxprit posted:I played TAY at a time when I had forgotten most of the specifics of FF4's plot so it was way better to me than it had any right to be. Even knowing what I do now, I still like it for the challenge. It does seem to be harder than vanilla FFIV. I should replay them both, since I have the android versions, and see.
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Oct 22, 2016 16:34
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The bit coming up is really cool.
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Oct 22, 2016 19:26
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TAY had one of my favourite final dungeons because it was just one huge boss rush and you could run a lot of interesting and/or hilariously handicapped parties. Like others have said, game play is pretty decent, just ignore the plot and have fun. Ipsen's Castle is one of the more memorable dungeons to me because I like the gimmick (it vindicated my hoarding) and I really like the music. I know it's grating to some, but I'm a huge sucker for leitmotifs and I adore it.
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Oct 22, 2016 19:49
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This thread got me to start up IX (again) on Steam. There's an annoying glitch where your character starts auto-walking to the left that almost cost me treasure twice. I hope I don't wind up permanently missing any because of that. Also, the Ragtime Mouse/Mouth trick of cherrytapping in the middle of the forest seems to work well enough. I got him to show up twice after Evil Forest using that method.
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Oct 22, 2016 20:43
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"Try something drastic" is a great videogames phrase.
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Oct 22, 2016 23:27
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| # ? Jun 1, 2024 16:10 |
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I liked certain parts of TAY. Seeing some of my favorite characters from the original game (or even the series) either all grown up or older and wiser was nice. And the challenge dungeons were interesting too. Well, most of them; gently caress Rydia's Challenge Dungeon. Who on earth thought that reprising and extending the Sealed Cave, complete with multiple Demon Wall fights, with a team consisting of ONLY a fragile caster and a slow tank, was a good idea? gently caress that guy! That said most of the other additions were pointless fluff or poor imitations of plot elements from the original game. And several characters were extremely underpowered to the point where an empty slot was almost preferable (the standouts being Edge's ninja team; considering that Edge was the weak link of the original team but made up for it by being good at several things, making four characters each with ONE of his specialties was a terrible idea). I liked the idea of the Band system, but knowing which attacks to use for some of them was an obtuse pain in the rear end. And the moon system was pointlessly annoying. Overall the game was solidly average at best, not BAD exactly but definitely not good.
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Oct 23, 2016 01:04
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