|
But seriously now I would pay for a Final Fantasy that looked all like this.
|
#
¿
Dec 18, 2012 12:11
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 21, 2024 05:35 |
|
|
ImpAtom posted:This looks like they were going for a design like Lenneth Valkyrie and got lost along the way. Possibly in a dominatrix shop. I think it is actually kind of worse than FFXIII-2's and that is saying something. See, Lenneth's outfit is actually kind of okay, in that it looks at least like it provides some amount of protection and you can move around in it. That new design.  If you took an individual piece of it and drew the rest of it to match, like a studded leather coat to match those sleeves or a full set of plate to match that breastplate, you'd have something that works. As it is, it's just a mashup of awkward shapes. Even the XIII-2 armor has some flow and consistency.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 18, 2012 19:41
|
|
|
See, I like that the proceedings in FFXIII made sense, at least until they got through Oerba. Characters started somewhere, got somewhere else. They all ended up as better people than they started as, and it was very satisfying. After that it was, "Okay, well, even though we hate being pawns for this guy who wants us to kill Orphan, let's go kill Orphan, I guess?" XII had kind of the same problem. It felt like the story was pretty much resolved by the time they got through the Pharos, and the only thing left to do was sidequest and kill the one bad guy. Despite him not even feeling all that villainous.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 21, 2012 01:03
|
|
|
Pointless cute noises make a girl sound really super kawaii and vulnerable and makes you want to protect them which apparently is a feeling that gives Japanese nerds a gigantic boner. If Vanille's English VA had just based her performance on her normal speaking voice, she would have been fine. Though really, Final Fantasy just needs to scrap voices altogether. They've always had really melodramatic plots, and sometimes got cheesy as gently caress, but they were fine because they didn't have directors taking it dead-seriously and ordering the actors to do the same. Pre-PS2 FFs are better because I can still imagine Edgar deliberately trying too hard to sound suave, Cid Highwind sounding like a pissed redneck, and the entire cast of FFIX sporting silly Monty Python accents. 
|
|
#
¿
Dec 21, 2012 01:43
|
|
|
NikkolasKing posted:They obviously just need to steal the entire voice-cast of Xenosaga. I swear those guys and gals could make some dumb scenes work well. I think you're either only remembering Albedo, Margulis, and Ziggy, or you're thinking of Xenoblade. While was great, because even though it was full of anime melodrama, they had the VAs approach like a stage production.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 21, 2012 02:02
|
|
|
I dunno. None of them were grating, for sure, but they weren't super-memorable. I highlight those three, because Albedo and Margulis' actors actually took things to an over-the-top level to match what was going on (kind of the same way Kratos works so well in God of War), and Ziggy's sounded cool but without trying to sound cool. KOS-MOS had the same thing going, but her greatness was mainly through actions rather than dialogue (but either way I'd still point to her as the single best character in the series). It's been a long time, though. I may replay those games someday, so maybe impressions will change. I'll say also in favor of them that at least the plotline followed a more discernable direction than that of FFXIII-2.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 21, 2012 02:30
|
|
|
It's fun to imagine that Margulis' enraged "UZUKIIII!!!!" is because the actor was playing Xenogears while recording. But regardless, Dunban is the best Xeno sword dude. 
|
|
#
¿
Dec 21, 2012 02:55
|
|
|
It feels like FF is now half-assing it's own serial gimmick: Rather than a totally new world and heroes each game, all we get is the new world. Same hero. Imagine if Tidus high-fived his dad, then suddenly was a scrappy street urchin in the slums of Rabanastre. Then pretend that might not actually be an improvement.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 23, 2012 13:31
|
|
|
My point was that it's a bit silly to have the same main character in a totally different story. But yeah, Vaan would honestly have been fine if they'd just written him into the ongoing plot better. Honestly, both he and Penelo could have been great if they'd explored their growth as both members of a resistance movement and good friends with second-to-the-throne of the empire they're resisting.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 23, 2012 14:32
|
|
|
Fran's role was pretty much the one "mystical" person, who sort of brings an explanation for all the magical crap going on. Though really, that only seemed to kick in when it was convenient.Zombies' Downfall posted:Vaan and Penelo should've been one character called Penelo (a GIRL who wants to be a sky pirate?!) and the sixth character should've been a male demihuman with some personality to give us an additional look at the races of Ivalice (Ba'gamnan or Montblanc would've worked for this) You know, I really like that idea. Penelo as "lead" works (no one had a problem with a lady being the story's early driving force in VI), but in particular, it really bugged me that they created all those demihuman races but had only one in the party (and the most 'human' one, at that). Both your suggestions would've had great chemistry with the rest of them, too. Montblanc as kind of the older wise dude (advise the princess, be bros with the soldier, bring the cocky pirate down a notch every so often), and Ba'gamnan as the scruffy, id-driven rear end in a top hat as a foil for all of them. Though honestly, I'dve also settled for Gilgamesh as a hidden recruitable.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 23, 2012 16:50
|
|
|
ImpAtom posted:No, we see him hanging out with a guy who is clearly intended to be historical Jesus with the implication being that chaos the REAL Jesus and the other guy was... something else. A patsy I guess? It was supposed to be a Gnostic thing. That particular system of beliefs says something like the spirit of Christ was in different people at different times. Or not. Since Gnostic canon frequently disagrees with itself (intentionally, it is thought). But whatever, KOS-MOS is the only really cool thing to come from Xenosaga.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 28, 2012 20:11
|
|
|
I actually did like Xenosaga, but played through fully aware that the whole thing was incredibly loving goofy. Nowadays it's a little easier to appreciate knowing that the same people who made it can pull through and make something legitimately good (Xenoblade). Still, I wouldn't recommend the series to anyone unless their first reaction to anime bullshit is derisive laughter and not irritation.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 28, 2012 20:21
|
|
|
All this talk about Chrono Trigger, but then the Chrono Cross crap and then reading that explanation of Final Fantasy XIII-2's plot (for which I feel less and less bad each day for never finishing) makes me really wish we could have back the days where our JRPGs could be nice ensemble affairs about kicking the rear end of something or someone huge and horrible bent on complete global annihilation for it's own pleasure/satiation. A Lavos. A Kefka. Hell, even a Deus or a Jenova. I miss these bad guys. 
|
|
#
¿
Jan 15, 2013 12:38
|
|
|
Krad posted:You're talking about simpler times and then you mention Deus? Yes. The game opens with a biblical quote. So, because it was a JRPG, it was pretty clear right out the gate that you were probably going to need to kill God to win. Granted, this could be speaking only in retrospect through a bunch of other kill-god games, and a bunch of other crap happens before you finally got to do it that was a dreadful omen of what was to come.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 15, 2013 14:09
|
|
|
NikkolasKing posted:Well Xenosaga more or less used Xenogears' formula of having a bunch of varied antagonists to progress the plot and develop the characters while at the core you had Wilhelm, the manipulative mastermind behind everything. He's kind of Deus and Krelian wrapped into one which works because Deus and Krelain more or less ended up being the Big Bads of Xenogears. Both games had great antagonists and a premise that was cool as gently caress. They just kind of fell apart, as the famous story goes, as they put too much time and focus on the story and less of gameplay. Least that whole affair has a happy ending in Xenoblade, which comes forth with an imaginative premise that's mostly new but carries enough shades of the older ones to satisfy those who played them. Ultimate bad guy seemed a bit stale thanks to being basically Krelian-Deus 3.0, but a couple of the supporting antagonists made up for that. Especially hysterical screaming giant Cockney murderbot Metal Face, who as far as I'm concerned takes his place right up there with Id, Kefka, Luca Blight, Albedo, and every other bad guy you as the player were legitimately delighted to see show up, just to see what the hell they would say or do next. Anyway. I was about halfway through Final Fantasy XIII-2 when Xenoblade came along, and after putting the other one in I couldn't even look back, because the newer RPG actually made me give a gently caress about what was going on, even though I didn't like the gameplay as much, it was a small sacrifice compared to the payoff in story and setting. It's not to say I have no faith at all that the FF people can deliver a satisfying narrative and awesome characters again, but, if this makes sense, it genuinely seems like they are the ones who don't. No risks, just slap Lightning on it because she's recognizable, reuse the gameplay that worked, and plot and setting...uhh....what the gently caress, who cares, don't even use the one we spent so much time establishing, throw some poo poo together and give it some latin chanting now and then to make it seem like it must be important. Not like coherent storytelling matters in the genre that sells itself of story.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 15, 2013 17:48
|
|
|
Where can this be found? Translation stuff is always fun. It was highly entertaining to know just how utterly vulgar the Sprite in Secret of Mana was written as, as was discussed in an LP thread a year or so back. NikkolasKing posted:Maybe a lot of Japanese women are the 'oh but I can change him!" types. Squall, Seifer and Laguna are all in desperate need of a woman to fix them. 'scuse me, Mr. Laguna Loire is in no need of fixing. 
|
|
#
¿
Jan 16, 2013 09:15
|
|
|
Vanderdeath posted:Edit: Holy poo poo, she has some kind of facial expression. She is already better than Serah. Even if she is Serah.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 16, 2013 18:48
|
|
|
There's a lot to be said for how much enjoyment you get out of a game when you play it for what it is, rather than what it could have been. Final Fantasies XII and XIII have a kind of remarkable contrast in that respect. Forget that Vaan was not originally written as the hero. Forget about the development hell that the game went through. Play the game for precisely what it presents to you, and aside from some dumb gameplay mechanics, it's pretty much solid. Brain Weasel's LP is a great demonstration of that, showcasing the story for what it is rather than veering off into speculation over what could have been. For all we know, favorites like V and VI went through just as much trouble in trying to establish a direction, but we didn't see any of that because the dev team and the amount of assets they needed to work with were much, much smaller, making for much easier communication and far faster changes. And of course, we didn't have the same kind of media with insight into devs' brains as we do nowadays. Now in XIII-2, and XIII to some extent, you kind of have to go grasping outside the game to really find context for everything that's going on, even beyond the fact that it's a sequel (albeit a far less direct one than it would appear at first) and to understand what the hell the game's designers were attempting to convey. Unless, of course, you can just focus solely on gameplay mechanics (which are fine), but that strikes me as missing half the appeal that an RPG should have. About this XIII-3 business: Hobo-Lightning is the least awful costume and Bizarro Serah looks like she could actually be hilarious, because she's got this crazy-eye thing going. But she will probably be anime as gently caress in the worst way.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 20, 2013 13:21
|
|
|
Krad posted:And not just the characters. Isn't Cocoon supposed to be some artificial super city or something like that? Then why would it have mountains, beaches, forests, etc etc? It sure doesn't look big enough for it to be an artificial planet when you look at it from the ground. Pretty sure they never said it was anything beyond an artificial environment that served as an isolated utopia, not really speaking much of the scope. Cocoon actually is really nicely designed, too -- any time you're playing through a segment there, look up and you can see the opposite interior surface of the sphere beyond the sky. It's an incredibly striking visual, all the better for not being blatantly showcased. The shame there is the one everyone knows; that the actual gameplay environments were too restricted to explore what looked like an otherwise unique and gorgeous world.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 20, 2013 15:37
|
|
|
It is completely acceptable...no, wholeheartedly recommended to base any and all impressions of Final Fantasy VII's story on the contents of the three discs it shipped on. No more, no less.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 20, 2013 17:48
|
|
|
By all reports, the PSP version of FFIV (which I think is the same as the iPhone one?) was pretty good altogether. No frills other than the inclusion of After Years and a small bridging episode (both of which are far from mandatory playing) and higher-rez sprite graphics.Krad posted:So what you're saying is that everyone did die in the end thanks to the Lifestream. I'm okay with that. Except Red XIII, who went on to have many babies.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 20, 2013 18:08
|
|
|
NikkolasKing posted:She was Larsa's friend which makes her a-okay in my book. The rest of the party were just kind of acquaintances. You know, if they were under obligations to include a romance, and Vaan was nonexistant, they could have done so with Penelo and Larsa and it would have made a way more believable connection between the street kid from Rabanastre and political bigwigs from Archades. It needn't even be a romance, really, but audiences love that poo poo, and if they were so concerned about pulling in demographics... I liked both of those characters. Larsa was great for putting a human face on the old "evil imperials" cliche, and Penelo was a badly-needed inversion of the token young-girl character from other FFs, being grounded, realistic, and not on a constant sugar high. On another note, the stories of Vaan's sudden inclusion at the last minute seem to be greatly exaggerated. Any writer will tell you that stuff like that can happen (though to be sure, it's usually because they're inspired to change it, rather than adjusting based on demographic), but perspective on the matter is skewed because of how well everyone knows about the development problems that game went through. Pushing that out of one's mind, the only real problem while actually playing the game is that Vaan & Penelo don't do more.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 22, 2013 09:40
|
|
|
See, what Final Fantasy II has going for it is two big things: it's own mechanical weirdness and potential for hilarious breakage, and the fact that it established a lot of the "character" of the series, being something other than not-D&D and introducing what would become recurring elements -- chocobos, Cids, clear "homages" to Star Wars, etc. So, it's worth playing at least once just for that. FFIII, on the other hand, really gets the shaft, because it lacks anything noteworthy in terms of story and characters, and what it did with the job system was done far better in V and X-2. The only remake it's gotten only served to make it more tedious and frustrating. And it's weird, because interviews with veteran devs of the series indicate that they have a special fondness for it, so you'd think they'd want to give that one a fresh coat of paint and put it out on a newer handheld. But no, let's just rerelease FFIV every couple of years.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 22, 2013 11:46
|
|
|
It's still kind of baffling that the "it plays itself" assertion didn't die after FFXII was released. Did people completely miss the entire function of the gambit system? Maybe they took it so literally that they just steered the game in a slackjawed daze for hundreds of hours and got so overleveled that missing it didn't matter? Or did they just play a totally different game? 
|
|
#
¿
Jan 27, 2013 13:24
|
|
|
See, I thought gambits were best for grinding. You could kick back, wander around, carve through hordes of enemies, and generally have a grand old time with minimal actual effort -- which is always how grinding in RPGs goes, you just have to press fewer buttons here, and it actually rewards you for going at it for as long as you can. Certain bosses, and most hunts or side stuff? oh, hell no. Those are often tests to see if you've been paying attention to what works and what doesn't. What's fun, though, is you often have the choice of whether to take the reins manually, or to see if you can put together some absurd gambit configuration that can handle it. Mazed fucked around with this message at 14:31 on Jan 27, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Jan 27, 2013 14:25
|
|
|
effectual posted:I'd rather get a Xenogears remake, there's an interesting story and some mechanics there but it's buried by a lot of grindy slog and hours of fighting after a save point, then a difficult boss before you can save again. I never even made it to the half-assed rushed disc 2. This will never ever ever happen. It would be cool, but the closest you'll ever get are the do-over approaches to the concept in Xenoblade (a great game, but story and imagery doesn't quite hit the high notes its predecessors did) and the Xenosagas (awesome imagery and symbolism through the roof, but incredibly inconsistent gameplay, characters are anime in the worst ways). victrix posted:Is there a definitive version of FF7 out there? Original Playstation, non-analog controller, old-rear end CRT TV.
Mazed fucked around with this message at 17:39 on Mar 5, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Mar 5, 2013 17:35
|
|
|
(disregard. The "post" button is not the "edit" button.)
|
|
#
¿
Mar 5, 2013 17:37
|
|
|
Do so -- or at least check out the ongoing thread about it over in the LP subforum. The biggest flaw in FF7's storytelling, as exemplified here, seems to be the fact that many very, very important details that shed a great deal of light on the backstory and the motivations of the characters, were very easy to miss.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 5, 2013 19:48
|
|
|
The right way to challenge-run FFX2 is to always have at least one Lady Luck in your party. Or all three. Watch the mayhem unfold.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 6, 2013 07:49
|
|
|
THE AWESOME GHOST posted:I wouldn't mind if they did an FFX-2 HD release like they're doing with FFX. Let's get an actual release date on FFX first I guess. I'd play it. The game gets shat on a lot for being, well, stupid. And it is BUT it's still a pretty fun game with very entertaining premise ("What do heroes do after they've saved the world?" Answer: Can't stop bein' the go-to girl for any drat thing no matter how dangerous or goofy.  ).
|
|
#
¿
Mar 6, 2013 16:07
|
|
|
You know, for some reason the thong just doesn't bother me. I think it's because next to the general tackiness of all of these outfits, it's just another weird thing. Guess I'm just numbed to that by now. It's just another silly-as-hell Nomura costume design. Though sometimes, one must wonder if by now he's just doing this on purpose to gently caress with cosplayers. Other than that, these really do look pretty, and I hope Lightning Returns is a fun game to play. I also hope that it won't have required you to finish XIII-2 to get the story, because I could not manage it.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2013 05:39
|
|
|
Square-Enix needs to start doing mainline FF games with stylized or even old-school styled graphics. They were at their best when they were squeezing every last drop of visual potency from extremely limited systems and creating massive worlds that way. Now that those limitations, for all intents and purposes, no longer exist, this has become a liability. They still have that drive to make it look beautiful, which is great, but the intense amount of labor that goes into optimizing graphics for current/next-gen systems bloats the budget beyond sensibility, which is why they're doing so poorly financially. I suppose what I'm saying here is that Final Fantasy 15 needs to look like Bastion.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 27, 2013 19:28
|
|
|
The White Dragon posted:The closest thing FF has come to having a good dub was FF12, and that was ruined by sounding like they recorded it in a loving tin can. That DVD has at least a good gig left on it--I wanna say it's even in the gigs plural territory--so compression is no excuse. I believe it must have went like this: They recorded the dialogue for the Judges. They added a metallic filter to make them sound authentic in their helmets. They forgot to stop adding the filter for everyone else's lines. Then when they realized their mistake, they covered their asses by adding another lair of metallic muffling to the Judges' lines. Alternative explanation: Ivalice is populated entirely by robots. This might explain Vaan's pants. The only other really good JRPG dub out there is probably NieR, and it may not be a coincidence that the tone and setting felt a lot less anime-influenced. Xenoblade clearly was, but the actors took to it like they were doing live theater, not taking themselves overly seriously (which logically could have led to Xenoblade being a musical somehow ). Cheesy as it often was, it didn't make you feel embarrassed to be enjoying it. I'm curious how the dubbing will turn out in FF14:ARR. Being an MMO it's bound to be just a lot of incidental stuff, but that might work in its favor.
|
|
#
¿
May 25, 2013 10:22
|
|
|
NikkolasKing posted:i still don't get how you can say Xenosaga's dub wasn't really good, Mazed. I can't say it was really good, but fairly good, sure. That series was so inconsistent in quality as a whole that it bleeds into the impression of everything*. When you take the actors' actual performances on their own merit, it was actually pretty fantastic, but sometimes the ultra-serious tone that the dialogue took clashed with the over-the-top anime action going on all the time. With a few exceptions (particularly Albedo, Margulis, Allen, and somehow KOS-MOS), it felt like they weren't having as much fun with it as they could have. This is a strange kind of criticism, probably, but this impression struck me hard as the series progressed. *even the music, somehow -- not so much the actual soundtracks, but the way they chose to work them into the package, particularly in the first game. How do you gently caress up Mitsuda armed with a whole live orchestra? Give all bosses standard battle music, use all the really cool stuff in just cutscenes, barely use any music at all in the game world, because running through featureless metal corridors to the tune of ambient engine hum is very compelling. Then fix this in the second game by just tacking in some bloopy electronic synth, which doesn't at all clash with Kajiura's careful, inspired, highly atmospheric cutscene music. ...all good in the third one, though. Xenosaga 3's score loving owned. NikkolasKing posted:That reminds me - Auron is another example of why Square's policy of using a lot of lesser known VAs works. Tara Strong and John DiMaggio are in that game but Auron is almost always listed as everyone's favorite vocal performance. And the guy was really good. It seems like Auron got a pass due to being the one guy who's mouth was rarely visible. Everyone else sort of mangled their own performances struggling to match up with the mouth movements. I wonder if they're redubbing anything in the HD rerelease. One could only hope. The voicework has aged much worse than the graphics. Pyroxene Stigma posted:Why do you add an extra space after every punctuation mark? The things you never notice yourself doing.
Mazed fucked around with this message at 12:00 on May 25, 2013 |
|
#
¿
May 25, 2013 11:58
|
|
|
That loving Sned posted:There are three characters which are much worse than any of the others. The first is Aerith from KHII. Her actress for the first game was good, and sounded like you might imaging her talking in FFVII. In KHII, she was replaced by someone who sounded like they just recovered from a lengthy coma. See, this kind of thing loving kills me. In that interview, Mena Suvari's natural speaking voice sounds like a more believable Aeris than the performance she puts on.
|
|
#
¿
May 25, 2013 12:04
|
|
|
Mega64 posted:I've heard you mention this a few times, and I'd love to learn more about how the translation hosed everything up if you ever have the time (or if someone else has already written about it). I'm curious how badly SE hosed up a translation of their biggest game in years, and if the Japanese version didn't have some of the issues of the US version (or had other issues). The only case that was ever clearly and openly made for this was that one interview with Vanille's actress, talking about how they instructed her specifically to make those little noises all the time and give herself this weird lilt, because that's how she sounds in Japanese. Apparently the director considered it an intrinsic part of the character rather than, you know, a quirk of the Japanese language that sounds perfectly natural there, but when brought into English, sounds really bizarre and forced. Hope means hope.  Wonder if the line in Japanese was actually "Hope means [Japanese word for 'hope']", which might not be as dumb a line.Mega64 posted:"Hope, you inspire us. I say this so that the message isn't literally punching the player in the face with how blatant it is, as far as having a character named Hope giving hope by wanting to kill Snow or something." Lightning has few reservations about punching people, so this scene could have been saved by her immediately turning towards the screen after delivering that line and decking it, resulting in a brief camera flip-out before transitioning back to Sazh and Vanille's rad adventure in the J-pop jungle.
|
|
#
¿
May 25, 2013 12:46
|
|
|
The thing where you actually get completion points for letting Maechen ramble on and on and not taking the frequently-offered chance to interrupt him is a good example of one of X-2's genuinely entertaining points: Self-awareness. Also, the fact that in saving the world and becoming a great legendary hero, Yuna is now consigned to the fate of all RPG heroes: Everyone has some dumb fetch quest for you. Final Fantasy XIII did give random NPCs voiced dialogue. Of course there are literally what, three places where random NPCs even exist.
|
|
#
¿
May 28, 2013 10:10
|
|
|
You can just, you know, push each character along their most easily-available path, and by the time you're crossing into someone else's unique abilities you're ready to finish the game anyhow. Seriously, reach the point where Yuna gets to bypass the 9999 damage cap. Game broken. You won.
|
|
#
¿
May 29, 2013 12:41
|
|
|
This game would sound better if it starred Evil Serah and Axe Snow.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 9, 2013 04:19
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 21, 2024 05:35 |
|
|
After you finish Final Fantasy X, you should naturally play Final Fantasy X-2.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 9, 2013 09:25
|
|