Final Fantasy

[LL!]

The entire "Wall Market" section of the game, and the sheer existence of Mukki, is enough to persuade me that, actually, an HD remake probably isn't that great an idea after all.

[Benji]

I would play a game set solely in Wall Market.

[TKz]

I agree that the rest of the compilation are lacking the charm, but Crisis Core is amazing. The story and characters are really touching.

Really? I've only played a little of it so far, but it seems like the sort of game where the PSP controller is the worst for this.

[TKz]

Benji! Sell me on Crisis Core. I just beat Tomb Raider and now I need something new to play when I beat Dead Space 2! Something JRPG rather than something third person.

[Benji]

Benji! Sell me on Crisis Core. I just beat Tomb Raider and now I need something new to play when I beat Dead Space 2! Something JRPG rather than something third person.

Okay, take the most one dimensional character in all of Final Fantasy VII, someone who basically serves as absolutely nothing more than a macguffin, there to fill in a place in the story and nothing else. Now take that character and turn his story into one that not only makes you love the character, but wish that he had been the main character of one of your favourite games of all time. That's the power of the Crisis Core story. It adds to Aerith's story, it adds to Sephiroth's story, it has the Turks in a semi-prominent role, and adds some really poignant angles to much of the Final Fantasy VII canon (in particular, the Buster Sword's legacy).

The gameplay, whilst repetitive at the start, does get a lot more interesting down the line, and some of the materia combo stuff and reels become a fun mini-game within itself. Not to mention that I'd say the game's superboss is probably one of the most challenging I've ever faced.

It's not going to be your favourite Final Fantasy game, but if you manage to play through to the finish, it will earn a special place in your heart.

[TKz]

What about the battle system? And grinding and so on? I usually quite enjoy leveling in stuff like FF7.

[Benji]

There's no need to grind, each part has levels (which I will admit, get very repetitive and is it's biggest flaw, as they're like Dragon Age 2 where they just basically repeat the same ten areas or so but with the layout slightly different) but with different goals, but you'll never need to go out just to grind if you just do missions at a good rate. On the plus side, the side-missions are great if you just want to have a "pick up and play" ten minutes, like I often do with handhelds.

Oh, and I forgot to mention before, it has my favourite Final Fantasy soundtrack.

[Pizza]

I'm playing through Final Fantasy Tactics(War of the Lions version) for the first time and I just looked at a job chart for the first time. Are Dancers and Bards any good? I have no girls on the fighter track and no guys on the mage track so it would be a lot of work to get there just to find out they suck.

[Sousa]

Dancers are pretty legit as a secondary skill, but Bards are awful. Honestly, the game becomes silly enough if you exploit Math Skill that you won't need a Dancer if you don't want one. Some people get a female Sagittarius as a talented Thief just for a specific battle near the end of the game...

Marquis Elmdor or however he spells it in WotL is decked out in rare gear that's only available if you steal it from him in that one fight, but I don't think you can steal it in WotL

...and then level that person up as a Dancer as well for a good secondary ability.

Best advice I can give you is that if you want somebody to pick up Dance abilities, use jobs from the bar to get the necessary JP (also advised for leveling up your Calculator/Arithmetician/howeverthefuck). Slow Dance and Nameless/Forbidden Dance are absolutely amazing, but I wouldn't keep someone as a Dancer forever.

The reason why Dancers are good and Bards suck is because Bards increase your abilities, while Dancers decrease them in enemies. So if you have Speed 6 and your enemies also have Speed 6, your options for moving twice as fast as your enemy are...

* 3 Slow Dances

* 6 Whichever Bard Ability Increases Speed, I Don't Remember, Because Fuck Bards

So Dancers > Bards.

[gunnar hendershow]

The Thief trick that Sousa mentions is really important if you're a completionist, and I'd get to work early on in the game for that.

In any case, at a certain point in the game it really does become a question of whether or not you just want to use Math Skill to make the game easy or not. I also found the special characters you can acquire later in the game with unique classes can also make the game remarkably easier. I won't spoil any of who they are for you, but I'm sure when you get there you'll figure out just who the couple people are that will make FFT a walk in the park. At least for the main storyline.

And, yes, Dancers > Bards.

[Benji]

Okay, I'm trying to give FFXIII another chance. First off, I stand by all my previous statements that whilst this has a great battle system, it's not a Final Fantasy battle system.

The story has far too many emo characters, even Sazh and Vanille who are sort-of designed to be comic relief are constantly whining (I understand why, but there's basically six characters, all of whom are whiny fucks, give me some genuine humour).

I've come around to liking Snow more than anyone else, despite disliking him on my first play through. Probably because he's the only one who seems capable of not being a whiny bitch every second of the game.

I still feel like I'm walking down corridors, but at least my knowledge of what's to come calms this, plus I know some power-levelling spots, so I'm not getting frustrated at the way the game seems to randomly jump in difficulty, and yet blocks you off from really developing your characters until the final chapter.

I'm reading more of the datalogs, so the story makes more sense than last time, but it's a sign of poor storytelling that I have to read the game's encyclopedia to understand what the fuck is going on.

[Millsybeast]

I didn't like the FFXIII battle system much. I prefer the old school turn based kinda thing rather than the rape enemies loads to get the bar up so you do more damage. Still stuck on an annoying boss fight where you only have Lightning & that kid (Thats how much I care for him haha).

[Benji]

Yeah, I think that's what I really miss is turn-based battling, it's what made Final Fantasy. I think what's even worse is that they basically perfected turn based battling with the CTB in Final Fantasy X, then decided to not use it again

[MalaCloudy Black]

Square Enix, where our motto is "Why Use It If It Works?"

[Skummy]

Yeah, I think that's what I really miss is turn-based battling, it's what made Final Fantasy. I think what's even worse is that they basically perfected turn based battling with the CTB in Final Fantasy X, then decided to not use it again

Yeah - personally, I can't stand FFX, but the battle system was practically perfecting the Final Fantasy formula.

[TKz]

I like the FFXIII battle system. It's a pretty good evolution of the turn based system, at least it feels like they accomplished what they wanted to do - to take the original idea and make it more cinematic, which FF has really been all about for a long time. Obviously the best system is the one that was used in the PSX era/FFX. I'm really hoping that now we've had their ultimate version of the system they want, they'll go back and, for the next game at least they'll do a "nostalgic" system. Using the FF7 style or something more akin to that than trying to evolve more. It seems like they're going nostalgic from the gameplay demo/engine demo.

God, I just miss having the chance to evolve Materia or level up my GFs. I'll defend FF8 to the death, people really hated a lot about that game but I love it to bits and a big part of that is the battle systems and GF/Junctioning. If you know what you're doing, you can completely break the game, sure, but even then I'd argue you can't break shit until like, Disk 3 when you can get Aura and Card Mod a ton of Hero War's and so on.

As for XIII, I really have an urge to try it again. Benji, you want to share those power leveling spots? My huge problem with it was not being allowed to level at my own pace. I know you still can't, really, because everything is limited by chapters. I've only recently found out that you unlock Limit Breaks near the end of the game and you can power level using Vanilles. I probably won't start on this until after finishing Crisis Core though, which has started to get quite entertaining. I love the missions system.

[Pizza]

God, I just miss having the chance to evolve Materia or level up my GFs. I'll defend FF8 to the death, people really hated a lot about that game but I love it to bits and a big part of that is the battle systems and GF/Junctioning. If you know what you're doing, you can completely break the game, sure, but even then I'd argue you can't break shit until like, Disk 3 when you can get Aura and Card Mod a ton of Hero War's and so on.

Getting 100 Waters per character makes disk 1 pretty easy. That said, if somebody doesn't like game breaking techniques, don't use them. Last time I played FF8 I limited myself to one draw per battle and no intentional grinding, and things went smoothly without being too easy or hard.

[Ruki]

God, I just miss having the chance to evolve Materia or level up my GFs. I'll defend FF8 to the death, people really hated a lot about that game but I love it to bits and a big part of that is the battle systems and GF/Junctioning. If you know what you're doing, you can completely break the game, sure, but even then I'd argue you can't break shit until like, Disk 3 when you can get Aura and Card Mod a ton of Hero War's and so on.

Getting 100 Waters per character makes disk 1 pretty easy. That said, if somebody doesn't like game breaking techniques, don't use them. Last time I played FF8 I limited myself to one draw per battle and no intentional grinding, and things went smoothly without being too easy or hard.

I usually have 100 Waters before I go fight Ifrit

[gunnar hendershow]

I get roped into breaking games far too easily. It's like an addiction where each time I grind I'm like "only one more battle" and next thing I know I've spent the last 15 hours running in a circle.

[TKz]

God, I just miss having the chance to evolve Materia or level up my GFs. I'll defend FF8 to the death, people really hated a lot about that game but I love it to bits and a big part of that is the battle systems and GF/Junctioning. If you know what you're doing, you can completely break the game, sure, but even then I'd argue you can't break shit until like, Disk 3 when you can get Aura and Card Mod a ton of Hero War's and so on.

Getting 100 Waters per character makes disk 1 pretty easy. That said, if somebody doesn't like game breaking techniques, don't use them. Last time I played FF8 I limited myself to one draw per battle and no intentional grinding, and things went smoothly without being too easy or hard.

100 Waters is hardly game breaking. If you play the game anything like I do, you'll be leveling up quick enough that the enemies will level with you and it all pretty much evens out anyway.