Final Fantasy Megathread - People here, it sounds like sickness

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Final Fantasy Megathread - People here, it sounds like sickness

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ACES CURE PLANES: Oct 21, 2010

I've been reading that article for a while and honestly it's not really something that can be summed up. It's Just a history of the development through the eyes and words of the people who were there, and their feelings on things. I'm about halfway through and it's really interesting, especially the sides to Nintendo's reaction to Square jumping ship.

# ? Jan 9, 2017 19:45

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# ? May 25, 2024 22:58

Gologle: Apr 15, 2013; The Gologle Posting Experience.

<3

ACES CURE PLANES posted:

I've been reading that article for a while and honestly it's not really something that can be summed up.

Oh you loving watch me kiddo.

# ? Jan 9, 2017 19:52

Huxley: Oct 10, 2012; Grimey Drawer

I liked the PDF of the advertising strategy for FFT I saw linked on twitter that came out of that story.

# ? Jan 9, 2017 20:59

Mordiceius: Nov 10, 2007; If you think calling me names is gonna get a rise out me, think again. I like my life as an idiot!

[Insert Toxx's Homestuck synopsis here]

# ? Jan 9, 2017 22:33

jivjov: Sep 13, 2007; But how does it taste? Yummy!; Dinosaur Gum

So after spending like 20 minutes trying to get through a stealth challenge in that drat dungeon, I just said gently caress it and went to beat up Chaos. 1 Final Fantasy down, 14+ to go!

# ? Jan 9, 2017 22:52

Selenephos: Jul 9, 2010

jivjov posted:

So after spending like 20 minutes trying to get through a stealth challenge in that drat dungeon, I just said gently caress it and went to beat up Chaos. 1 Final Fantasy down, 14+ to go!

Good luck. I tried to marathon Final Fantasy plus notable side games a few years back and I got burnt out around the time I got to Final Fantasy VIII.

# ? Jan 9, 2017 22:54

jivjov: Sep 13, 2007; But how does it taste? Yummy!; Dinosaur Gum

Mr. Fortitude posted:

Good luck. I tried to marathon Final Fantasy plus notable side games a few years back and I got burnt out around the time I got to Final Fantasy VIII.

It helps that I'll be playing a good handful of them on my PSP. That leaves all my other gaming devices available for side entertainment for avoiding burnout.

# ? Jan 9, 2017 22:56

a computer ghost: May 30, 2011; an unhackable cat???

Sunning posted:

Did anyone want a tell-all about Final Fantasy 7's development?

Because there's a tell-all about Final Fantasy 7's development.

I want to print this out and roll around in it, it's an amazing autopsy into a major gaming landmark and all the artistic/technical innovations that were made because one dude said, "gently caress it we're going 3D." Regardless of how you feel about FF7 as a game, it's worth reading if you have any interest in game development.

# ? Jan 10, 2017 00:20

Sam Sanskrit: Mar 18, 2007

Does Polygon normally/regularly do pieces like this? Cus if so I should really start paying more attention to them.

# ? Jan 10, 2017 01:25

Huxley: Oct 10, 2012; Grimey Drawer

What is the most busted way to power me through x-2?

# ? Jan 10, 2017 01:29

Gologle: Apr 15, 2013; The Gologle Posting Experience.

<3

Unlock the Psychic dresssphere.

# ? Jan 10, 2017 01:32

Help Im Alive: Nov 8, 2009

Why not just play it legit

It has one of the most fun battle/job systems in the series

# ? Jan 10, 2017 01:38

Barudak: May 7, 2007

Huxley posted:

What is the most busted way to power me through x-2?

If youre on PS4 or PC, cheat.

# ? Jan 10, 2017 01:41

Randallteal: May 7, 2006; The tears of time

Your way works too posted:

Does Polygon normally/regularly do pieces like this? Cus if so I should really start paying more attention to them.

Not too often. They've done quite a few though, and most of them are awesome. This postmortem of the troubled 2K XCOM shooter is choice, as is this Street Fighter 2 oral history.

# ? Jan 10, 2017 01:42

ZenMasterBullshit: Nov 2, 2011; Restaurant de Nouvelles "À Table" Proudly Presents:
A Climactic Encounter Ending on 1 Negate and a Dream

Huxley posted:

What is the most busted way to power me through x-2?

Unlock some dresspheres.

Equip them.

Use them.

The game's pretty easy going about what you should/can use and you can power through with most anything if you're not brain dead.

# ? Jan 10, 2017 01:43

Oxxidation: Jul 22, 2007

I'm glad I played X-2 in its original state, before the almighty Catnip was deprived of its righteous might.

# ? Jan 10, 2017 01:44

ImpAtom: May 24, 2007

Oxxidation posted:

I'm glad I played X-2 in its original state, before the almighty Catnip was deprived of its righteous might.

It was even more powerful in the original Japanese release.

# ? Jan 10, 2017 01:44

Huxley: Oct 10, 2012; Grimey Drawer

X is my favorite game ever, and I love this world and all the fanservice. But I bought X2 new and never finished it, got it with the remaster and never finished it, and now I'm on try three. The system just doesn't click.

I'm in the middle of Chapter 3 and am mostly sick of having people die a half second before cure goes off. Git gud whatever whatever, I just know my favorite parts of this game are when I can put on the no-encounters equip and enjoy the game, so I'm looking for the path of least resistance to that.

# ? Jan 10, 2017 01:48

Cape Cod Crab Chip: Feb 20, 2011; Now you don't have to suck meat from an exoskeleton!

If what you want is easy mode, two Dark Knights spamming Darkness and an Alchemist spamming Stash Mega Potions is the way to go. There's very little that setup doesn't turn into chunks while having more than enough healing in the tank to keep the train rolling.

# ? Jan 10, 2017 01:52

Huxley: Oct 10, 2012; Grimey Drawer

That is exactly what I want thank you!

# ? Jan 10, 2017 01:59

Sunning: Sep 14, 2011; Nintendo Guru

MMF Freeway posted:

I definitely want someone to read that and post the interesting bits

On porting FF7 to the PC with Eidos:

quote:

Keith Boesky

[Maruyama] wanted a million eight. And you have to understand Tomb Raider cost $900,000. So [that] was a lot of money for a title at the time � and was a lot of money for PC. And I walked down the hall, and Mike McGarvey was in town. McGarvey ran Europe; I ran U.S. And we went into Rob Stannett�s office, who was the CFO � and Mike picked up a piece of paper off of Rob�s desk, wrote down a million eight � And he just looked at it and said �OK, yeah, that�s about 100,000 units.� And �Rob, what do you think?� And Rob said, �Yeah, we can do that and just move on. Let�s not be stagnant over the decision.� And that was it. That was our green light, and we picked it up. �That [1.8 million] was the MG, minimum guarantee. � It�s an advance against royalties. We had a royalty deal with them where we published and we gave them a piece of every unit we sold, less certain deductions, and I don�t remember the details of what they were. And the advance, what happens is you give them a forecast: �I think we�ll sell this many. And we�ll back that up by giving you hard dollars, nonrefundable, up front against the earn out.� So we wrote them a check for a million eight as a minimum guarantee to secure the publishing rights on PC. �We signed a deal about six months after the first meeting, which is record time for a Japanese company.

On localization hurdles:

quote:

Alex O. Smith

[When working on Final Fantasy 8,] the thing that I heard most in terms of reaction was, �We�re going to spend a lot more time on this translation than they spent on 7.� Because they weren�t given time on 7. �That�s really the story of Square in those days. It�s changed a lot now. � There was so little communication between dev and localization. Localization didn�t even exist as a department back then. We were actually officially subsumed to this � oh my God, what was it? It was like an IT division or something ridiculous. It had nothing to do with localization at all, except that one of the programmers from IT was the guy that they roped into handling the single-byte character conversions and stuff like that. � You know, they were using GameSharks to hack FF8 so they could get to text because nobody would give them files. Because, �Oh, you need files to do translation?� That was news to the dev team at that point. So that sort of complete lack of communication was emblematic of those days.

On the company's investment in technology and work equipment:

quote:

Shinichiro Kajitani

I was the head of system administration, so I arranged and bought all of the equipment. [Over the course of two years] I signed checks to Silicon Graphics totaling about $38 million. I bought more than 200 Indigo2 desktop machines, Onyx and Challenge rendering servers and other machines. �During Final Fantasy 7�s development, we purchased 200 to 250 Indigo2s at $70,000 apiece. An Onyx server cost about $1,000,000. A Challenge server cost about $500,000. So we paid a total of around $17,000,000 on SGI equipment. � And also for software, we paid Alias approximately 2,000,000 yen multiplied by 250 for a total of around $4 million. So excluding labor costs, we spent around $21,000,000 on graphics hardware and software. About 90 percent of that was for Final Fantasy 7, but we may have used it on other projects as well. �One thing that surprises me even now is, at the time, the PlayStation development kits were about $20,000 each, and they were just sitting there in cardboard boxes in the hallway where pretty much anybody could enter off the street and grab them. And there were SGI machines sitting there too, and literally anyone could have just walked in from outside and taken one. There was pretty much no security.

On the mismanagement during the production of FInal Fantasy Spirits Within:

quote:

Alex O. Smith

The movie � was an unmitigated disaster. � I talked to the lawyer, and I just remember at a party, but she was the lawyer from Hawaii who had handled their applications for doing the movie there. And there were so many tax benefits on the table, and they didn�t take a single one. Because they went in and they were like, �We�re bringing our team.� And they were like, �You hire 10 percent Hawaiian and you get this huge tax cut.� And I don�t think it was like Sakaguchi sitting there going, �No, we�re keeping it pure. It�s our team.� I don�t think there was any thought at all. I think it was like, that came in and the whole organization was so dysfunctional that when that kind of news hits the grind, it never gets to the person that needs to hear it.And that�s the problem when you�ve got that kind of power structure. It�s like a family thing. And this is endemic in Japanese companies where it operates like a family instead of a business. And so, if something isn�t on the family�s radar, it just doesn�t happen. And there are so many missed opportunities there. So apparently, they could have saved so much money � millions of dollars � if they had taken advantage of these really easy [opportunities]. They just had to hire janitors locally, really, and they could have done it.

On the effects of Sakaguchi's departure on the balance of power in the company:

quote:

Hiroshi Kawai

Character programmer, Square JapanIt�s one of those [things] where, when somebody like Sakaguchi-san, who had such authority in the company, kind of just disappears, there�s this vacuum that exists where nobody can really arbitrate between your devs and your artists and your game designers. And in that environment, most people � especially in Square � tended to avoid conflict and try to resolve things as best as possible. And unfortunately, the way each individual tried to resolve it wasn�t necessarily in the end user�s interests.

# ? Jan 10, 2017 02:24

bloodychill: May 8, 2004; And if the world
should end tonight,
I had a crazy, classic life; Exciting Lemon

Sunning posted:

On the effects of Sakaguchi's departure on the balance of power in the company:

My favorite from that was:

quote:

Tetsuya Nomura

I shouldn�t be saying this, but hmm, how to put this? It was like Sangokushi [the Chinese literary series �Romance of the Three Kingdoms�]. You know, where the king dies, and then a civil war erupts and everyone starts fighting each other.

# ? Jan 10, 2017 04:00

Gologle: Apr 15, 2013; The Gologle Posting Experience.

<3

Sunning posted:

Did anyone want a tell-all about Final Fantasy 7's development?

Because there's a tell-all about Final Fantasy 7's development.

After reading it all the way through, I won't bother to summarize it. It's immensely fascinating, but it's also very depressing.

# ? Jan 10, 2017 04:12

mandatory lesbian: Dec 18, 2012

Your way works too posted:

Does Polygon normally/regularly do pieces like this? Cus if so I should really start paying more attention to them.

polygon used to be laughably bad but i guess maybe it got better in the last few years

or maybe i just keep confusiing it with kotaku, who knows

# ? Jan 10, 2017 04:15

bloodychill: May 8, 2004; And if the world
should end tonight,
I had a crazy, classic life; Exciting Lemon

Polygon is very mixed in quality. Their long articles tend to be really fascinating and well-researched if you're into behind-the-scenes stuff. Their reviews tend to be kind of lovely. Their youtube content bounces between intensely funny original content and boring videos about the framerate of Halo.

# ? Jan 10, 2017 04:22

Jack Trades: Nov 30, 2010

bloodychill posted:

Polygon is very mixed in quality. Their long articles tend to be really fascinating and well-researched if you're into behind-the-scenes stuff. Their reviews tend to be kind of lovely. Their youtube content bounces between intensely funny original content and boring videos about the framerate of Halo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3pQ0oO_cDE

# ? Jan 10, 2017 13:00

Fur20: Nov 14, 2007; すご▞い！
君は働か░い
フ▙▓ズなんだね！

bloodychill posted:

My favorite from that was:

does that make nomura zhang fei in this metaphor, or do you think he's more of a dong zhuo

personally i think it could go either way

# ? Jan 10, 2017 13:08

MMF Freeway: Sep 15, 2010; Later!

Sunning posted:

snips

Hey thanks. That o. smith quote about the gamesharks is hilarious.

# ? Jan 10, 2017 14:49

Nephzinho: Jan 25, 2008

Mr. Fortitude posted:

Good luck. I tried to marathon Final Fantasy plus notable side games a few years back and I got burnt out around the time I got to Final Fantasy VIII.

Back when 12 came out my rommates and I in collage played them all in order and just kind of cycled the controller. It still was rough.

# ? Jan 10, 2017 15:06

Captain Baal: Oct 23, 2010; I Failed At Anime 2022

Kuja

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0rWMcRepmA

The real news is the alexander stage

# ? Jan 10, 2017 15:11

Potato Jones: Apr 9, 2007; Clever Betty

Captain Baal posted:

Kuja

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0rWMcRepmA

The real news is the alexander stage

I still do not understand the music direction for this game, it's almost entirely awful.

# ? Jan 10, 2017 15:23

ACES CURE PLANES: Oct 21, 2010

Man, what kind of miseryguts do you have to be to not appreciate buttrock remixes?

# ? Jan 10, 2017 15:26

Captain Baal: Oct 23, 2010; I Failed At Anime 2022

I mean that sounds fine. It's just more emphasis on the guitar which there was already a lot of in the original song, so...

# ? Jan 10, 2017 15:27

Brother Entropy: Dec 27, 2009

ACES CURE PLANES posted:

Man, what kind of miseryguts do you have to be to not appreciate buttrock remixes?

not all buttrock remixes were created equal

# ? Jan 10, 2017 15:28

Potato Jones: Apr 9, 2007; Clever Betty

It's not that it's buttrock, it's that they're all really bad arrangements. They follow the notes as if they were read by someone who can barely read music.

Edit: Or like music done by machine translation.

# ? Jan 10, 2017 15:30

kirbysuperstar: Nov 11, 2012; Let the fools who stand before us be destroyed by the power you and I possess.

ACES CURE PLANES posted:

Man, what kind of miseryguts do you have to be to not appreciate buttrock remixes?

Maybe if they were actually good buttrock remixes. Nemesis sounds like someone running it through a lovely MP3toMIDI "converter" and picking overdriven guitar for all the possible instruments.

# ? Jan 10, 2017 15:39

Gologle: Apr 15, 2013; The Gologle Posting Experience.

<3

I remember months ago I said the music was terrible and everybody said I was just being a fuddy duddy. Where's your fuddy duddy now, MEGA64?!

# ? Jan 10, 2017 15:52

Hey Fingercuffs: Nov 29, 2007; Yo baby, you ever had your asshole licked by a fat man in an overcoat?

jivjov posted:

So after spending like 20 minutes trying to get through a stealth challenge in that drat dungeon, I just said gently caress it and went to beat up Chaos. 1 Final Fantasy down, 14+ to go!

Since I was snowed in this weekend I finally had the time to start my marathon. Only copy of FF I have is on my Wii Virtual Console so it's not the updated version and has all the lovely bugs and lack of item and spell descriptions. So far it's been a blast and I have just gotten past the Earth Cave. The only really silly balance thing so far has been the Lich only having 400hp when literally everything around it is more of a threat.

# ? Jan 10, 2017 16:00

ACES CURE PLANES: Oct 21, 2010

Captain Baal posted:

I mean that sounds fine. It's just more emphasis on the guitar which there was already a lot of in the original song, so...

This is how I hear it too. It's not world changing but it's fine.

# ? Jan 10, 2017 16:04

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# ? May 25, 2024 22:58

Super No Vacancy: Jul 26, 2012

whats a Kuja

# ? Jan 10, 2017 16:39

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Final Fantasy Megathread - People here, it sounds like sickness

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