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Android Blues
Nov 22, 2008

biosterous posted:

i can't decide what to vote but want to say aaaaaaaaaa that was so good! AB you continue to hit it out of the park, thank you for doing this

Awwh.

I'm so glad people are enjoying it. I love telling stories, I love making stuff, and there's a special spark to doing it collaboratively. Fiction rules!

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Felinoid
Mar 8, 2009

Marginally better than Shepard's dancing. 2/10
C. Nothing has changed. There was an unexpected (and unrelated!) problem, but it was overcome and you're back on track. If it was worth coming along in the first place, it still is.

Capfalcon
Apr 6, 2012

No Boots on the Ground,
Puny Mortals!

GunnerJ posted:

Finally, it's time to be Bad.

Bad times ahead.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe

Android Blues posted:

Dora has a choice.

A) It was reckless to follow the Sign of Alexander around, hoping it would let you go home. If you ever did manage to return past the Sealed Gate, this brush with oblivion was proof enough that a warm welcome would not be in store. Leave. Whatever's left of your life, you'll have to build it in the realm of mortals.
B) You can still use the Sign - but you have to be more circumspect. Leave, and tell the Empire about Nalaal. They'll salivate at an opportunity to open the Sealed Gate once again.
C) There's still a chance - and you told this brave, aggravating idiot that you'd get her where she's going. Fly ahead, and scout the Veldt for Nalaal and Ziqiya. Fair trade for them saving your life from the Phantom Train.

A. It's time you started building a proper life for yourself, whatever form that might take. Yearning for what you can't have will only breed suffering.

(also, yeah! this chapter was super good!)

SMaster777
Dec 17, 2013

I wish this was my Smash main.
C

Jadecore
Mar 10, 2018

They say money can't buy happiness, but it sure does help.

Felinoid posted:

C. Nothing has changed. There was an unexpected (and unrelated!) problem, but it was overcome and you're back on track.

Ayyyyyyyyyyyyyy

C, sure.

Social Psychology
Mar 25, 2015
B

Leraika
Jun 14, 2015

Luckily, I *did* save your old avatar. Fucked around and found out indeed.
I am biased here, I admit, because I think Dora is very interesting and I want to see her stick around.

Android Blues
Nov 22, 2008

10. The Strongest Woman in the World

A) Leave, and try to build a new life in the realm of mortals. [2]
B) Leave, and sell Nalaal out to the Empire. [7]
C) Fly ahead, and scout the Veldt for Nalaal and Ziqiya. [5]

Yeah...yeah, that makes sense. The Empire pays good money - and they know what would happen if they tried to harvest you for magicite, so by the principle of mutually assured destruction, you can "trust" them. Nalaal - this human, you correct yourself - is just an extension of an Esper you hate viscerally. Helping her would be labour by proxy for the most insufferable of all the Esper hegemons. It would be like helping a bandit stab you because you're friends with their dog.

As for owing her something...when has that ever bothered you? When has anyone ever owed you anything?

Maybe it's time they started. You just need to find the right lever.





You feel a tiny pang - but it's difficult to distinguish it from the constant din of unravelling magic that rucks within you. Makes it easy to ignore.

You are now Nalaal Xandros Figaro.

The descent's rocky - and treacherous. A creek that's nearly vertical cuts through the remnants of worked stone steps. Part of you wishes Dora was still here to guide you, but then a larger and more realistic part of you places Dora into this situation, and sees with clarity that she'd just be hovering a few feet away from the cliff face, criticising your choice of footholds.

Ziqiya keeps up with you aptly: actually, you sometimes struggle to keep up with her. It's a long, gruelling climb...and you're both taken aback when, legs stiff on the fourth hour of your descent, water bursts from one of the broad cracks in the stone steps, knocking both of you off your precarious balance!



Body whirling through the spray, the current catches you just where the slippery bed of the creek turns into sheer waterfall. Snapping fish, carried in the sluice of water from some archaic gate, flow in the current like biting raindrops.



Your hair rises through the water, drifting away from your face. Next to you, Ziqiya is enveloped in the aura too, the current pushing her on without harming her. As you crest the falls, the deluge parts around you.



This is the three dragons result on Nalaal’s Slot - Big Guard. The Sign of Alexander expands its fortress-like protection not just to its chosen heir, but to her allies.

Big Guard casts Safe and Shell on all party members, and is normally an endgame ability that’s a real bear to learn. I’m not the Slot queen, so getting the three dragons result is not guaranteed, but this is still an incredibly powerful trick to have in Nalaal’s back pocket.



You float down the falls and crash into the slow eddies of the river below. Your breathing shifts from perfect calm, and the gleam of royal green fades like dye in the water.

You drag Ziqiya in your wake, warming her soaked jacket with the remnants of the powerful protective aura you manifested when the rapids dragged you under. She splits from you in the current, and catches her own handhold on the riverbank.





At first glance, it looks as though she's wearing a dress - but as she strides towards you, you can see that the skirts are open in the front, revealing tall and jaunty boots beneath. Nor are the skirts fabric - they look like interlocking scales, membraned with the gossamer of wings.

You're still coming to your senses. You've never done that consciously before. It felt like a moment of total harmony with yourself. It hasn't escaped you that, after five years in the mountains dedicated expressly to that purpose, those moments of understanding are still astonishingly rare.



Ziqiya takes in a shallow breath from the abdomen, and kips up, rolling her neck to one side.



The woman executes a sweeping bow. A variety of metallic objects jingle under her belt as she does so.



She helps you up, her bicep broad and burly.



You don't have any epithets. It's gauche to call yourself a royal after abdicating, and Duncan wasn't big on titles. Um...



Minna dar Holm wrinkles her nose at you.



Ziqiya bows smartly.









You chafe at that.



You bite your lip. You think the Esper mark would protect you...but you're not sure about Ziqiya. Manifesting the impermeable barrier that held you safely through the rapids probably isn't something you can pull off for three days straight.





The Veldt doesn't take long to live up to its reputation. Less than twenty minutes have passed before strange half-formed creatures that resemble the onryo you fought a day ago burst from the ground, cauled in cracked earth.





Minna's first command is Blitz. She's not kidding about being the strongest woman in the world, either: her attributes are absurdly good. She has excellent Magic, fantastic Vigour, and an unmodified Battle Power of 90. For reference, none of our other characters has a base Battle Power exceeding 30.



She also has a really interesting weapon proficiency: as well as her fists, she fights with darts and fanned throwing knives, allowing her to pour on damage from the back row and then dive in to grapple with Blitz when her prey is wounded.



Ranged weapons are rare in Final Fantasy 6. Beyond Chaos adds a few more by allowing characters with the right proficiencies to equip shuriken, but other than that, Minna's weapon set is close to the only game in town. Seeing it strut its stuff on a character with such fantastic physical stats is going to be interesting!

Straight off the bat, she hits for ~390 damage. Monsters of the Veldt, beware!



The town of Mobliz is nestled within a valley, its cliffs overlooking a shining bay - one with no moorage at all. Not even fishing boats.



You're instantly struck by how people react to Minna dar Holm. Some wave and shout greetings: others actually remove their hats or make like signs of companionable genuflection. She has a word for everyone, and the patter of news back and forth is easy and constant.



Full of limber excitement, Minna ushers you over to look at the messenger dovecote.





She winks hugely at the young woman's companion, with an insinuation that's mostly lost on you.





You pull your boots off in the inn. Your heart yearns to travel...but you have to admit, it does feel good to sit down on a soft bed.

Sleep comes easily. The next morning, you trek south-west from Mobliz. Minna sets what would be a brutal pace for almost anyone else: you've lived in the mountains for years, though, and Ziqiya's rangy strength is just as evident as it was in your father's stories.

In the evening, your hiking trail becomes a sodden, glistening mire of sand and mud. Minna assures you that it's not more soma clay, just regular quicksand - but just as Ziqiya begins to rolls up her sleeves to cast a Float spell, Minna flexes an arm, and the three of you lift a few inches into the air.











She laughs, cocking her fingers at Ziqiya. For her part, the mage of Mysidia crosses her arms, looking just a touch suspicious.

Minna is another natural mage! Her second command is Magic, and right now, she knows Shell, Demi and Float. Many of the songs about the Bride of the Veldt describe her astonishing powers, and sometimes attribute them (and her rippling muscles) to her being born out of the febrile land itself.



Minna licks a finger and tests the air.



Blitz works just like its base game incarnation in Beyond Chaos - with a single caveat. If you tick the appropriate flag when generating the seed, the inputs for each Blitz are randomised.



Sometimes this results in easy recourse to beloved moves...



...and sometimes it results in a diabolical finger puzzle, as here. I kind of love this, though. The level of dedication required to memorise certain moves creates a sort of meta-game where in different runs, different Blitzes will be your standbys.





She looks off into the wind, hair blowing majestically.



You can't help but crack a smile. She glances over at you, and you catch her expression in the moment where she decides between taking offense and grinning back.





You sprawl out on your palms. You haven't had a chance to just shoot the breeze for quite a while. When you were kids, you and Zekiye would climb up on the parapets, under the moon, watch the cool desert, and talk about your futures.



Ziqiya pats you on the back.





The seasonal port is all disorder, scattered yells, people hauling crates in, rigging out. You see a huddle of hunters crouched under the purple hide of a gigantic Behemoth, trying to drag it onto the deck of their ship. People call and holler at the sight of Minna dar Holm, as if she's a walking good omen.

She grins and plays to her people, waving, fanning out the scales of her flexible armour, working a little magic on the kids that run up to her so that they levitate off the ground for a few wonderful seconds.

You are now Ziqiya of Mysidia.

The black mage's robes, the woven hat poking up above the crates and sacking, alert your senses and gladden your heart. You stride through the thronging crowd, and thrust your hand into theirs, gripping their gloved palm tightly.







Your voice becomes fast and breathless. Tears bead up in your eyes, as they have not since your childhood.



Your heart bursts its stitches inside you.



You are now Minna dar Holm.

Passage is secured: the luggage squared away. You stand on the dock with Nalaal, filled with a feeling like a sunset.

Nalaal looks askance at you, as if she can't decide if she likes you or not.



She shrugs, as if to say maybe she will. You have the sudden very unfamiliar feeling of being a big fish in a small pond. Maybe it's time to burst those banks.



Minna has a choice.

A) Make a deal with Nalaal: you sail with her to war, the Returners pay you handsomely, direct from their war chest. Mobliz has a few roofs that need repairing. It could use the extra cash.
B) Every great hunter knows where the pinnacle of their craft lies - and it can't be summited alone. Fight the Empire with Nalaal - on the condition that afterwards, she and her rebels help you hunt a dragon.
C) Fighting Imperial troops you could do one-handed in your sleep, but these magitek soldiers you've heard of might be a challenge. Plus, a little juzhe of rebellion against tyranny can turn a renowned hero into a legendary hero. You have no direct experience of tyranny, but in the abstract, you're against it.
D) Actually, you know what? Forget it. Life on the Veldt is good. You don't need to go chasing fairytales.

Android Blues fucked around with this message at 02:05 on Mar 28, 2022

YggiDee
Sep 12, 2007

WASP CREW
C The Veldt's been a little quiet this year? Let's go from the Slayer of Monsters to the Slayer of Empires. Become a loving legend

SMaster777
Dec 17, 2013

I wish this was my Smash main.
B. That dragon must be a royal pain if the idea of pulling a scratch for scratch exists....

Pyroi
Aug 17, 2013

gay elf noises
B, though we'll end up fighting magitek soldiers anyway, and if someone's legend were to grow a little bit more...well, where's the harm in that?

Jadecore
Mar 10, 2018

They say money can't buy happiness, but it sure does help.
C, though B is totally reasonable too. I'm liking the vibes here.

Cattail Prophet
Apr 12, 2014

Huh, I guess it is possible for GauMinna to never see combat again after this if you so choose. Voting D just for the sheer chutzpah of giving us the option to pretend she's not here. (Though I'm hoping she'll get an eleventh hour triumphant return in the WoR in that case.)

I noticed that the inputs for pummel are unchanged. Is that just coincidence, or a deliberate failsafe for if you actually have blitz available for Vargas?

Haar_Dragon
Aug 21, 2015
Gotta go B here. She feels like a Monster Hunter character, so what better than to go fight a dragon? Or even...perhaps eight of them?

Also man, this seed loves irony, huh?

biosterous
Feb 23, 2013




leaning slightly more toward B but C is also pretty dang close!

GunnerJ
Aug 1, 2005

Do you think this is funny?
Minna seems like A real hometown heroine.

Capfalcon
Apr 6, 2012

No Boots on the Ground,
Puny Mortals!

Look, if the Empire gets any ideas about messing things up over here, you'll just suplex them until they get the message, but... dragons? That's the stuff of legends.

Be a monster hunter.

Android Blues
Nov 22, 2008

One of the very few snippets of story Beyond Chaos cuts is in this chapter - and it does so for gameplay reasons, and also maybe (?) to avoid scripting a workaround. Normally, you'd have to buy Dried Meat in Mobliz, and use it to gain the trust of your new party member. One problem: you have to throw the Dried Meat in battle with an Item command, and there's no guarantee either of your two party members will have Item on their command list.

(Without spoiling anything, the "character shows up after you defeat a monster formation and can be interacted with" mechanic is cut in a later segment of the game, too, so it could also be that Beyond Chaos just doesn't play well with that particular architecture.)

So instead of that, Minna just joined our party immediately after her introduction, and the cutscene that plays after you use the Dried Meat is (tragically) snipped. Going to Mobliz at all is entirely optional. We did anyway, though, because hey, it's a nice little town!

Cattail Prophet posted:

Huh, I guess it is possible for GauMinna to never see combat again after this if you so choose. Voting D just for the sheer chutzpah of giving us the option to pretend she's not here. (Though I'm hoping she'll get an eleventh hour triumphant return in the WoR in that case.)

I noticed that the inputs for pummel are unchanged. Is that just coincidence, or a deliberate failsafe for if you actually have blitz available for Vargas?

Good eye - I think that's exactly what it is! You can't check Blitz inputs in the Vargas duel or before it, so Pummel always being the same lets you actually do the Vargas Destruction Technique if you happen to roll into a character with Blitz.

W.T. Fits
Apr 21, 2010

Ready to Poyozo Dance all over your face.

Android Blues posted:

Good eye - I think that's exactly what it is! You can't check Blitz inputs in the Vargas duel or before it, so Pummel always being the same lets you actually do the Vargas Destruction Technique if you happen to roll into a character with Blitz.

What if your party member with Blitz is [Terra], [Locke], or [Edgar]? Is it possible to kill Vargas before [Sabin] shows up, and if so, what happens?

Also, let's go with B for the vote.

Android Blues
Nov 22, 2008

W.T. Fits posted:

What if your party member with Blitz is [Terra], [Locke], or [Edgar]? Is it possible to kill Vargas before [Sabin] shows up, and if so, what happens?

Also, let's go with B for the vote.

I'm actually not certain, but I think that would bypass the duel. Vargas isn't replaced by a new monster when the boss fight transitions into the duel - his different behaviour is all handled by his AI script checking his HP total, and none of his immunities change.

If you're an absurdly high level via cheating or grinding at this point in base FF6, you can in fact kill him before the duel cutscene triggers and skip directly to the cutscene after that, so really it depends on whether Pummel is coded to instantly kill him at all times, or whether that's a vulnerability he gains after the cutscene trigger.

As far as I know, the scripting would be able to handle this eventuality pretty smoothly - the field cutscene is coded to play when you exit the battle with Vargas defeated, so as long as he's beaten some type of way, it should still work.

I bet someone with more Beyond Chaos experience than me does know - if you run enough seeds, this is a scenario you're bound to run into!

Felinoid
Mar 8, 2009

Marginally better than Shepard's dancing. 2/10

GunnerJ posted:

Minna seems like A real hometown heroine.

This, very much. A.

Jade Rider
May 11, 2007

All the pages have been censored except for "heck," and she misread that one.


W.T. Fits posted:

What if your party member with Blitz is [Terra], [Locke], or [Edgar]? Is it possible to kill Vargas before [Sabin] shows up, and if so, what happens?

I've had it happen to me before! It is indeed possible, and the cutscene after plays out as normal.

Let's go C for the vote.

Mildly Interesting
Nov 24, 2012
It looks like you've got your T.G. Cid! Does getting a single really powerful character like this have much of an impact on the difficulty in Beyond Chaos?

And C, because if you're strong enough to beat up a giant robot it is your duty to do so.

RabidWeasel
Aug 4, 2007

Cultures thrive on their myths and legends...and snuggles!
C because I love the level of conceitedness required to decide to fight against tyranny not because it's the right thing to do or even for profit or necessity but because think of my legacy :v:

cdyoung
Mar 2, 2012
I'mma just say stack my vote on whatever option is highest since I lost track. if there's a tie then B gets it.

By popular demand
Jul 17, 2007

IT *BZZT* WASP ME--
IT WASP ME ALL *BZZT* ALONG!


Thanks for playing this for us OP, I'd never play a harder FFVI with more plot so this LP is the best way for me to experience all the effort that went into this mod.

Android Blues
Nov 22, 2008

Mildly Interesting posted:

It looks like you've got your T.G. Cid! Does getting a single really powerful character like this have much of an impact on the difficulty in Beyond Chaos?

And C, because if you're strong enough to beat up a giant robot it is your duty to do so.

It definitely can! Minna is powerful by FF6 standards, but she'll work well along the Beyond Chaos difficulty curve, I think. In the base game at this point we'd have access to the Genji Glove and she'd be able to dual wield, which would make her double bonkers, but since treasure is randomised that's not something we've stumbled upon yet.

She'll have a really strong niche as a powerful physical attacker, and her high Magic stat will also make her Blitzes far more powerful at baseline. Blitz in the base game is hampered by being on a character with a very low Magic stat, because counter-intuitively, the only Blitzes that scale on Vigour are Pummel and Suplex - every other Blitz ramps up its damage based on the user's Magic attribute. Plus, casting spells with 41 Magic is just good!

It is possible to roll way more powerful characters, but it's a relative rarity. The procedural skill lists pull from every ability in the game, and while most of those abilities are of moderate strength, it's entirely possible to (for instance) roll a character who has double Ultima or similar as a command, and can steamroll most encounters.

It's just that the truly powerful endgame spells and abilities are so thoroughly outnumbered by enemy abilities and other spells in the randomisation lists that this almost never happens. You're way more likely to get things like Chayma and Zekiye have - Schiller and Rage - which are interesting, a little weird, and powerful but not overwhelmingly so.

The thing that preserves the difficulty curve (to some extent) when this does happen is that a) Final Fantasy 6 has a couple of crucial dungeons where you have to split up the party and b) Beyond Chaos makes the latter of those dungeons significantly harder. So, even if you have your double Ultima barnstormer in one team, you still have to make two more strong parties at a few crucial points!

It's still very variable based on seed, though. While most characters are well balanced against the difficulty curve just by how the randomisation shakes out, you do sometimes end up with characters that are weaker than the FF6 baseline (this is very rare, but can happen) or overwhelmingly strong (also rare).

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Am I correct in assuming that Minna's power comes from Gau having bonkers stats? Gau normally can't really use those stats as effectively because he can't equip weapons (unless he uses the Merit Award), but that's obviously not a problem here.

In other words, Gau's stats assume that he's unarmed, so his raw strength is correspondingly huge.

Android Blues
Nov 22, 2008

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

Am I correct in assuming that Minna's power comes from Gau having bonkers stats? Gau normally can't really use those stats as effectively because he can't equip weapons (unless he uses the Merit Award), but that's obviously not a problem here.

In other words, Gau's stats assume that he's unarmed, so his raw strength is correspondingly huge.

So, the answer to this is - sort of! Characters don't have the same attributes as their base game counterparts generally. However, because the base game does have two characters who have notably higher attribute totals than the rest of the cast, Beyond Chaos preserves that by randomising attributes for those characters around higher baselines.

Minna doesn't have Gau's stats - her Magic and Vigour are much higher than his, and her Stamina and Battle Power are lower - but she does have broad attribute parity with him.

This does often mean that the character in this slot will be formidable! For our storytelling purposes here, that rules, but it'd also be cool if this attribute boost was shuffled to characters in different slots per seed. Part of the fun in Beyond Chaos is adapting to surprises, after all.

GunnerJ
Aug 1, 2005

Do you think this is funny?
I think the biggest impact of the randomizer is the sheer number of natural mages you're getting. When you're trying to do a narrative FF6 LP, every other character having the Magic command plays some real havoc with the setting lore, but you're handling that complication like a champ.

MechaCrash
Jan 1, 2013

That actually raises a question for me. How do people who don't have the Magic command get it? I know that in the base game, just equip an Esper and it'll appear, but there's already characters who can't even use the Item command because their menu is full of other stuff.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe

MechaCrash posted:

That actually raises a question for me. How do people who don't have the Magic command get it? I know that in the base game, just equip an Esper and it'll appear, but there's already characters who can't even use the Item command because their menu is full of other stuff.

I'm pretty sure that those characters just straight-up can't cast magic. The vanilla game leaves a slot free for everyone that isn't a natural mage. I suspect that that slot is actually already filled in as the Magic command, and it just has special logic so it doesn't appear if the character has no spells and no esper equipped. If all of your slots are occupied by commands, though, then that implies that you don't have a Magic command.

And honestly, that's all to the good. Magic is super strong in FF6, and handing it out to everyone meant that in many situations, your best bet was "have everyone cast the highest-tier elemental spell they know" instead of making use of their neat character-specific abilities.

Android Blues
Nov 22, 2008

GunnerJ posted:

I think the biggest impact of the randomizer is the sheer number of natural mages you're getting. When you're trying to do a narrative FF6 LP, every other character having the Magic command plays some real havoc with the setting lore, but you're handling that complication like a champ.

Thanks! It's been so fun to build backstories around these magical characters, and doing so has spawned a bunch of new plot threads and gradually changed the setting in ways I didn't expect.

When the story began, we were looking at the standard Final Fantasy 6 setting, but with a different protagonist. When I was planning the LP, I specifically wanted to keep the setting the same and just give it a bit more breathing room via the characters. Each character who enters the story with obvious magical vibes, though, means I have to draw on different aspects of the core FF6 setting to explain their gifts, and by this point we're seeing a setting that emphasises and elaborates on the base game's plot and themes in different ways.

It's so much fun as a writing exercise. Really generative!

MechaCrash posted:

That actually raises a question for me. How do people who don't have the Magic command get it? I know that in the base game, just equip an Esper and it'll appear, but there's already characters who can't even use the Item command because their menu is full of other stuff.

Barring a few edge cases - which we may or may not see! - they just won't have access to Magic. They can still bond with Espers and gain the stat boosts from doing so, but they won't be able to cast the magic Espers teach.

This has a big impact on versatility, but our non-mages will still be totally viable and, depending on their commands, attributes and which items they can equip, possibly very strong. Jadate for instance has Lore instead of Magic, but Lore rules and is arguably more valuable in a lot of scenarios.

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

I'm pretty sure that those characters just straight-up can't cast magic. The vanilla game leaves a slot free for everyone that isn't a natural mage. I suspect that that slot is actually already filled in as the Magic command, and it just has special logic so it doesn't appear if the character has no spells and no esper equipped. If all of your slots are occupied by commands, though, then that implies that you don't have a Magic command.

And honestly, that's all to the good. Magic is super strong in FF6, and handing it out to everyone meant that in many situations, your best bet was "have everyone cast the highest-tier elemental spell they know" instead of making use of their neat character-specific abilities.

Yeah! This is absolutely a place where vanilla FF6 can homogenise the cast a little bit in the endgame. As mentioned upthread, the best strategy for many characters in FF6 is to teach them good spells and ignore their unique abilities. Since characters who don't have a Magic command get another unique ability to replace it, they retain some versatility and often have strengths that run in different directions than a character with a more traditional command list.

GunnerJ
Aug 1, 2005

Do you think this is funny?
From a pure mechanics standpoint, magic in FF6 having a homogenizing effect wasn't great design. Narratively, though, I did appreciate how effectively it hit home the core story conceit that magic returning is a big loving deal.

ETA: By contrast, the story in this LP is less about magic "returning" since it turns out it never really left, it was just rare and something of a special inheritance, but that just opens more room for exploration of how different actors in the story use (and abuse) magic, which is very neat.

GunnerJ fucked around with this message at 23:08 on Mar 28, 2022

Android Blues
Nov 22, 2008

GunnerJ posted:

From a pure mechanics standpoint, magic in FF6 having a homogenizing effect wasn't great design. Narratively, though, I did appreciate how effectively it hit home the core story conceit that magic returning is a big loving deal.

Yeah, to be clear, I think it really puts across that magic means seismic change for society. Characters like Edgar and Locke are so fundamentally un-magical that the idea of them suddenly being able to summon lightning bolts or cast Cure is a big deal - it's exciting, and it also marries the narrative to the mechanics really well.

I also think, to go to bat for the mechanic, it's cool that you can pick your favourite characters and customise them, and if you want, you can turn Sabin into your party white mage, etc. It's just that the balance of Magic vs. other commands means that another fun and iconic pillar of the game's mechanics can kind of fall by the wayside.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Oh yeah, for casual play the magic system is great. You have some nice options for meaningfully customizing the characters, which is super important. Plus, the homogenizing effects don't really show up until later in the game, simply because it takes awhile for everyone to learn all those spells. It's more something you notice once you really start paying attention to how things work behind the scenes.

Mildly Interesting
Nov 24, 2012
One thing I always found funny about the Magic command in FF6 was that it not only scales up more than the other commands, it scales down, too, so at the start of the game Edgar is panicking over the legendary destructive power of magic when he outdamages Terra by a significant margin. She'll be a big deal in twenty levels, sure, but right now you've got an Autocrossbow that never runs out of MP.

KennyMan666
May 27, 2010

The Saga

Definitely C here.

Been enjoying this LP, mainly to kill time during specific slow work shifts. It has also given me an idea for a narrative-style LP of another game that I absolutely should not do because I already have at least two other writing projects I'm procrastinating too much on.

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Android Blues
Nov 22, 2008

KennyMan666 posted:

Definitely C here.

Been enjoying this LP, mainly to kill time during specific slow work shifts. It has also given me an idea for a narrative-style LP of another game that I absolutely should not do because I already have at least two other writing projects I'm procrastinating too much on.

Can vouch for it being a lot of fun, although, yeah, it's definitely a project. Happy to have you reading along!

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