Would you recommend the first game for the NES for 5$?

At 11/13/09 03:58 AM, HellboundNinja wrote: You really should toss in Tactics from the PSP and Crisis Core and dissidia for the shits and giggles part....all 3 are worth playing

I might consider it if I had a PSP. Unfortunately I don't, nor do I have the money to pick one up any time soon. I could get the original Tactics for the PS1, but the pacing of the tactics style games make them hard to riff on. I don't really want to tell people about my progress in a game if I can't make it entertaining. Of course I'm fairly certain I could find some clever things to say about X-2, so I may keep that in mind. If the leisurely pace of this challenge doesn't quite live up to the term masochism I could always suffer a girly-foo-foo game to punish myself a little.

At 11/13/09 05:00 AM, puddinN64 wrote: Would you recommend the first game for the NES for 5$?

If you want to be entertained I'd suggest Dawn of Souls for the GBA. You get FFI and FFII in vastly modernized packages and you can probably find it for under ten bucks. If you want the full NES experience then go for it. Just be aware that the pacing is going to be much slower than you're used to if you've never played an NES RPG before.

At 11/13/09 07:56 PM, Jercurpac wrote:

If you want to be entertained I'd suggest Dawn of Souls for the GBA. You get FFI and FFII in vastly modernized packages and you can probably find it for under ten bucks. If you want the full NES experience then go for it. Just be aware that the pacing is going to be much slower than you're used to if you've never played an NES RPG before.

So, does Dawn of Soulds add or radically change the gameplay of the first Final Fantasy?

I actually loved the leveling system in FF2, had to get my casters raped for a few hours to get their hp up and the like, was unique. Killing stuff makes you level and get more health? Nah being smashed with big hammers makes you more enduring!

At 11/13/09 10:44 PM, puddinN64 wrote: So, does Dawn of Soulds add or radically change the gameplay of the first Final Fantasy?

It's pretty much the same, just made less tedious. You level faster so there's almost no need for grinding, plus enemies are easier and the battles are streamlined so they proceed faster. On top of that you get the reworked dialogue, static "cutscenes" at certain points, and the four bous dungeons.

Alright moving right along now, despite not being worthy of joining the resistance not to long ago, the rebel queen Hilda (what a unappealing name, and that's coming from someone who named the female in his party Testes) has entrusted me with securing a supply of mythril. This would have been easy if I wasn't wandering around for an hour to find the town of Salamand.

You see, at one point your path breaks off down two directions. If you take the left it's a short trip to Salamand and if you take the right you're going to be wandering around like an asshole. I think it's pretty clear that I was wandering like an asshole.

So eventually I get to a point where the monsters are to strong to fight so I work my way back and finally found the town I was looking for. If find my contact, but he thinks I'm not worth his time and I must prove myself. There's a fundamental difference between I+II right there. In final Fantasy the First motherfuckers were knocking down my door to offer me sacred quests, in here no one trusts me worth a shit. I can't really blame them, would you want a guy named Cock fighting at the head of your rebellion?

I should just leave this asshole to his own devices, but I'm a good guy so I work my way down to the caverns, free some slaves and then fight a boss that actually requires some thought. After the previous game I was expecting a five minute dungeon capped off by a boss that dies in three hits. This was a nice change of pace, the dungeon was deep, filled with hidden treasures and an optional boss that almost fucked me up.

Unfortunately the denizens of this world have no intention of making things easier for their inevitable saviors. You'd think after bringing the mythril back to the base they would suit me up with some badass weaponry and armor. No, I have to buy that shit on my own. You motherfuckers aren't even paying me. I have to scrounge my spare pocket change off of the corpses of goblins. Do you even know how bad the corpse of a goblin stinks? It's like shit, if shit could die and rot into an even more fetid pile of unholy stink.

You have long way to go..... This is taking you a really long time too. Get to 5 and we have something to talk about! If you really wanted to finish these games they would take you 2- 3 weeks tops.

Quick question, chief. Are you playing FFII the legit way or the "press attack or magic then go back and continue to completely destroy the game" way. If it's the latter, I don't blame you at all, man. Shit, when I first got it for the PSone, I did it the legit way and got through every boss battle by the skin of my teeth. Then I found out about the "X X O" trick and I never looked back.

If you're doing it the legit way, hats off to you good sir. Good luck climbing the ladder of virtual pain! Also, FFV had the best gameplay of all of them, this is not opinion, THIS IS FACT!

At 11/15/09 05:52 PM, zen64 wrote: Quick question, chief. Are you playing FFII the legit way or the "press attack or magic then go back and continue to completely destroy the game" way. If it's the latter, I don't blame you at all, man.

The GBA version gets rid of that cheat. I think they tweaked the system so that you shouldn't have to resort to dastardly tactics to get your character up to snuff. In any case I'd be trying my hardest not to sink to that level if it was available.

So where was I? Oh yes I acquired the Mythril and have now been tasked with destroying the empire's dreadnought, which is a real shame. I find myself having a hard time bringing myself to destroy something with a name as awesome as "dreadnought." Unfortunately this game doesn't offer you the option of defecting to the empires side so blow it up I must.

I go to the town where it's being build, slip through some sewers, but egads! The Black Knight (Oh golly gee-willakers, what could his real identity be?) informs me that I'm too late and the dreadnought goes on a killing spree. I've got to hand it to this game, it's actually pretty dark as far as games on the NES go. Major character die left and right, villages are besieged with only an elderly man left crying in the streets to mourn the dead, young nubile virgins are raped and implanted with the unholy seed of thousand screaming hell-beasts.

So now I have to find open the gates to this one place to get some kind of fire to blow up the dreadnought. Unfortunately I get lost for an hour at this point because I didn't realize that you have to talk to the king to get the necessary information. Being the kind of RPG player who always talks to every character after every major event just incase they have some slightly different dialogue I already did that. But no, that was wrong. You have to talk to princess Hilda first before he'll give you that information. That's utter bullshit, if you mention the sunfire before you talk to Hilda he draws a fucking blank, but afterward he's got a fucking novel's worth of information. Fuck you king, I'm glad you're dead.

So for those keeping track -

Made it to the Keep: YAY
Got the torch: YAY
Got the sunfire: YAY
Princess gets her ass kidnapped: BOO
Infiltrated dreadnought: YAY
Princess is not in another dreadnought: YAY
Dreadnought goes boom: BOO
King dies: YAY

Still moving ahead and despite the game starting to pick up in terms of difficulty I continue to make headway. You know how a lot of RPGs tend to recycle previously defeated bosses as common enemies near the end of the game? This game has a real nasty habit of bringing back the bosses you've just bested in the very next area. This is a constant nuisance as the developers realized at this point that people like fighting bosses so they significantly upper their number. I've already exceeded the total number of bosses for the first game and I'm probably only about halfway through.

Another thing Ive learned is that while you certainly have the ability to push characters in certain developmental directions it's really in your best interest to make everyone a jack-of-all-trades. Invariable in an RPG certain enemies, and almost always the bosses, have a certain weaknesses that certain types of characters will be ineffective against. Most RPGs force you to work around your deficiencies, but the best way to overcome every encounter is to stock every character with the same layout of magic and strong weapons with a slight focus on defense for low HP ones. Oddly enough allowing complete control over your character's statistics and magic leaves you with a team of similar design rather than unique characters.

So to keep it short here's some quick points on my progress.

- Got sent to a mysterious island to recruit dragoons and wyrvens to my cause. I was excited by the prospect of seeing some bad-ass troops around the rebels camp. The fancy hat wearing 'tards that prance around there just don't seem capable of taking on an empire so massive that people simply call it the empire. Unfortunately that hardened nation of warriors couldn't stand a little poison in their drinking water (you hear that shit Kefka, that trick was old hat by the time you pulled it) and they were all dead, tough shit.

- Came back to find that the princess had been replaced by a hideous snake monster that tries to rape and devour Cock. I'd also like to recommend naming a character Cock if you ever play this game. It's a source of endless cheer to see the game declare that my Cock's strength has increased whenever mhy stats go up. After briefly considering the implications of reptile-human relations I decide to slay the abomination.

- Go to rescue the queen and promptly get captured. Fortunately the empire had the decency to leave me with all my weaponry and items as I sit in jail. Seriously, who do they have running this prison? That's day one stuff right their buddy. I have a copy of the empire's prison guard training manual, it says that shit on page one. "If you happen to capture a foursome of plucky teens make sure you TAKE THEIR FUCKING SHIT!!" They will come back to bring forth the empire's down fall. This shit happens all the time, don't be the douche to fuck it all up because you couldn't be arsed to confiscate the hundreds of eapons and healing items they drag around. Also, rape them if you get a chance, they have soft skin and even the dude's faces are pleasantly effeminate"

- Stormed castle Fynn, pretty straight forward stuff here. Go straight to a boss and kick his ass. I need to give the empire props for their etiquette on invading cities. They had the courtesy to not touch any of the valuable treasures of immeasurable wealth that sit, unhidden, in unlocked chests. I, of course, do not have that level of chivalry.

At 11/18/09 08:42 PM, Jercurpac wrote: Oddly enough allowing complete control over your character's statistics and magic leaves you with a team of similar design rather than unique characters.

With having total control and being used to making them jack of all trades this seems to be what I would expect. When you have a White mage, or a Warrior, you tend to level them in the way their class wants and it works best for them. With that said when I played FF2 I still had my back row characters magic only etc, mainly as I am used to having warriors and white mage and black mage and the like as my team. I prefer having to rely on a specific 2 or so people for a fight they are good at, rather than make all ok at it. End of the game or when on bosses anything goes the fights go much better with "pure" characters.

had been replaced by a hideous snake monster that tries to rape and devour Cock.

I remember that scene when he was being controlled by her beauty or something I dont know. I found it looked really stupid and couldnt take it seriously, no real threat of "oh whats going to happen" it was just, people are going to come save him. Also could tell strait away she was a fake not sure if they tried to slightly hide it or make it blatantly clear. But it was blatantly clear.

- Go to rescue the queen and promptly get captured. Fortunately the empire had the decency to leave me with all my weaponry and items as I sit in jail. Seriously, who do they have running this prison? That's day one stuff right their buddy. I have a copy of the empire's prison guard training manual, it says that shit on page one. "If you happen to capture a foursome of plucky teens make sure you TAKE THEIR FUCKING SHIT!!" They will come back to bring forth the empire's down fall. This shit happens all the time, don't be the douche to fuck it all up because you couldn't be arsed to confiscate the hundreds of eapons and healing items they drag around. Also, rape them if you get a chance, they have soft skin and even the dude's faces are pleasantly effeminate"

Leaving them on you is more stupid than normal. Usually they keep your gear in the room next door.

Hey, I remember this thread. I wasn't nearly funny as I thought I was seven years ago when I was ripping off Spoony's Final Fantasy rants (at least I never became a shut-in and a theif), and I've only marginally improved at finishing Final Fantasy games. I've gotten through the first five and I may catch up before I die of a massive heart attack due to stress related complications.

So seeing as this forum is almost dead and completely inactive let's revive this old-ass thread so we can all laugh as I subconsciously channel my real-world frustrations into a narrative about an obsession with an irrelevant video game franchise. You know, fun stuff.

At 6/17/16 06:52 PM, Jercurpac wrote: So seeing as this forum is almost dead and completely inactive let's revive this old-ass thread so we can all laugh as I subconsciously channel my real-world frustrations into a narrative about an obsession with an irrelevant video game franchise. You know, fun stuff.

IMO, it's a little too easy to point out flaws in the later ones (especially XII and XIII). They honestly do more damage to their own reputations than any amount of internet-raging can cause.

Anyway, if you haven't played FFVIII all the way through yet, I want to give you one little heads up as per something Murray mentioned on the first page (about 6 years ago lol): Most games have a point of no return once you get to the end parts of them, and most give you at least some warning of exactly where in said game this point is. FFVIII has a point of no return in it, after which you will never be able to access any of the towns or villages - literally everything bar 2 locations on the world map will be off-limits past said point. FFVIII does not, however, give you any clue whatsoever as to when in the game this will be invoked, so here's a heads-up:

Pictured below is a screen you'll come across toward the end of disc 3. The arrow points to a door at the end of the hallway. That door is the point past which there is no going back from if you enter it. You will get literally no warning about it in the game, so make sure you've done everything you want to do with towns / locations before going through it. Go through it, and the world will be off-limits completely until you beat a few bosses and progress all the way to the endgame dungeon, and even after you get access to the world map back, all the cities / towns etc. are permanently locked off.

This happens in both VIII and IX; both had such large ending sequences that they took up too much disk space to have both all of the game's locations and the ending in one disc, so Squaresoft cut some of the towns from IX and all of them from VIII's final discs to make room for the endings. Stupid '90's CD storage limitations.

So yeah, for a less sarcastic update I've beaten Final Fantasy I-V so far and enjoyed them all.

I&II were on the GBA and were okay for being neutered versions of the originals (I guess it counts as both a pro and a con) , maybe I'll go back some time and play the original on the NES to get a taste of old-school grinding.

III&IV were the DS remakes. I remember almost nothing of III which is weird since I usually have a good memory for stuff like that. All I remember is the final boss and that you shrink at one point to progress. IV was pretty dope though, great music and solid story. The DS remake is a solid challenge that isn't too hard, pretty much just where a FF game should be.

V was the GBA remake. It drops IV's story improvements for better gameplay. The job system was great and encouraged me to try formations outside the standard tank, healer, damage melee, damage mage setup I usually default to in these types of games. The plot is corny and the jokes fail more often than they hit, but there's something stupidly charming about it.

So now I'm at about the halfway point of VI. I like it, it uses the Esper and relic system to give you the abilities from FFV without tying it to class system sob you're given free reign to create the characters you want. The down side is that too much freedom means you're going to make a lot of similar characters, restrictions often force more inventiveness. I guess the fix to letting characters be unique I should giving each their own unique ability in battle. I like that they're tired to each character's background, but some are way too good while some are too situational or outright useless.

I also find it kind of funny that 90s Nintendo felt like attempted suicide was acceptable for all ages, but God forbid you name a spell holy. I think they're both acceptable, but it's funny where they drew the line.

At 6/17/16 07:24 PM, Sheizenhammer wrote:

At 6/17/16 06:52 PM, Jercurpac wrote: So seeing as this forum is almost dead and completely inactive let's revive this old-ass thread so we can all laugh as I subconsciously channel my real-world frustrations into a narrative about an obsession with an irrelevant video game franchise. You know, fun stuff.

IMO, it's a little too easy to point out flaws in the later ones (especially XII and XIII). They honestly do more damage to their own reputations than any amount of internet-raging can cause.

I'm just being facetious, I've played a little bit of all non spinoff mainline FFs but XIII and I've never felt like one ruined the franchise or was bad. If the hype for XV is any indication the world still has a place for Final Fantasy.

Anyway, if you haven't played FFVIII all the way through yet, I want to give you one little heads up as per something Murray mentioned on the first page (about 6 years ago lol): Most games have a point of no return once you get to the end parts of them, and most give you at least some warning of exactly where in said game this point is. FFVIII has a point of no return in it, after which you will never be able to access any of the towns or villagesomething

Thanks, I'm pretty lazy about going for extras and hidden content in these games though. I usually go past the point of no return with a lot left undone and no super weapons, abilities, or hidden characters. I'll keep an eye out though since I'll probably want to hunt get some extra magic to junction just in case.

Man I remember this thread. Good shit. Still odd how multiple people didn't seem to grasp the concept of what you were doing.

I tried the same thing more recently (as in still a few years ago), but I didn't restrict myself to any order so I ended up playing about half of the first game before I got hopelessly bored then just ended up replaying all of the games I enjoyed and remembered from my childhood - in my case VII and its sequels, Tactics, VIII, IX, X and then got hopelessly burnt out when I tried to play X-2. VII, VIII, IX and Crisis Core (which is rly gud btw, would recommend highly) are the only ones of the series I've completed 100% but I have played almost all of them, including spinoffs, at some point.

I tried playing VI as well since I probably have the most nostalgia and pristine memories of it, but lost interest before I even got out of marshe because of how insufferably slow the combat is. Even at max settings you're spending an unacceptable amount of time looking at a still screen with static sprites. I've still never been able to replay it, but since I've never found a rom hack to fix this I guess I must be the only person who's this bothered by it. VII and VIII are so snappy and enjoyable by comparison. IX is significantly slowed down again but not enough to bother me, and at least it has by far the most battle animations of the PS1 games to compensate.

When someone asks for FF recommendations I usually say I, II and II are for the hardcore fans only, IV is simplistic but it's where they started getting story focused, VI is excellent if not for the above battle issue. VII, IX and X are the highlights and the easiest entry points. VIII and X-2 are garb, XIII is divisive but unless you like being wrong you'll agree that it's garb too. Crisis Core and Tactics are excellent, and more recently Dissidia and Theatrhythm are good and accessible despite being very much for the fans. The rest are very hit or miss and should probably be avoided until you're already into the series.

At 6/17/16 06:52 PM, Jercurpac wrote: Hey, I remember this thread. I wasn't nearly funny as I thought I was seven years ago when I was ripping off Spoony's Final Fantasy rants (at least I never became a shut-in and a theif)

I didn't really get a spoony vibe from your writing, but since we're on the topic.. man I really miss that guy. He used to be a personal hero to me and I still load up some of his old playthroughs and movie reviews on occasion; SWAT 4, Final Fantasy, Phantasmagoria 2. I actually like that last game but I'll always sooner watch his let's play than replay it myself. Let's plays seemed a more noble thing back then somehow, when they were done by actual nerds for a genuine love of games and a sense of humor, rather than being easy money for those with fans and a full fledged, oversaturated industry of its own.

I've never seen such a disappointing fall from grace. He could still be the coolest guy around if he stuck to his roots, and while he does make content now (something that can't be said for much of his career post-2010), but it's all lazy, lethargic gameplay with lots of whining and contrarian bullshit and a palpable spite toward anyone watching. He's seriously on DSP's level at times when it comes to being horrible at games, he'd probably get made fun of as much but so few are watching his streams to begin with.

There was one stream where he died at least ten times in the opening tutorial area of Fallout 2 because he went combat-first and his character wasn't built for it. The chat was telling him the other solutions and that he needs to play to his character's strengths but he was so stubborn that he acknowledged their suggestions and deliberately refused to try them, even insulting the people suggesting them. He obviously can't be blamed for his depression but I hate who he's become before his diagnosis and since his apparent recovery. He's had a forced renaissance but his videos have never been as good and I think his view counts have been reflecting that.

wew lad I had my waffle iron on for that one. This thread transported me right back to 2009 and I had to mentally work through everything that's happened since then.

One last thing, @jercurpac, any interest in XV? I played the episode duscae demo, the one bundled with Type-0, and I have downloaded the platinum demo but have yet to play it. Honestly I think it's just okay and barely so. Combat is very monotonous and the story seems like the usual bloated modern JRPG fantasy-politics. I'm not really understanding why people are absolutely shitting themselves over every new trailer and piece of information, although some of the trailers are really well made (you can ignore the first 50 or so seconds of that one) and that new version of Stand By Me with the FF theme mixed through it is fucking wonderful.

I'll still most likely get it and try to play through it, as I've done with every numbered FF. The relationship/banter between the four main characters seems like a strong point and the buddy road trip concept has so much potential for greatness I'll be heartbroken if it misses the mark. I'm surprised the whole BROS 4 LIFE #lad friendship thing hasn't been done before, nor has the road trip story in games really. Closest example I can think of is actually FFX, in following Yuna's pilgrimage.

At 6/18/16 12:30 AM, Jackho wrote: I tried the same thing more recently (as in still a few years ago), but I didn't restrict myself to any order so I ended up playing about half of the first game before I got hopelessly bored then just ended up replaying all of the games I enjoyed and remembered from my childhood

Yeah, I don't recommend the NES games at all or even the remakes. I enjoy experiencing how a series has evolved and I find I'm able to enjoy dated games and see them in the context of their own time more than most. Which comes off as kind of douchey and pretentious now that I reread it, but I just mean that's something that makes gaming as a hobby more interesting for me and isn't a better or worse way of looking at games. I totally get why most people prefer not to play clunky old games.

I tried playing VI as well since I probably have the most nostalgia and pristine memories of it, but lost interest before I even got out of marshe because of how insufferably slow the combat is.

Yeah, the ATB is a great battle system when a game gets challenging, but it really sucks early on when all you have is the most basic fight commands and the enemies don't do anything interesting. V was nice in that you're constantly running into even basic enemies that are a genuine threat if you let your guard down, the wait is actually tense when you know the enemy you're facing is capable of incapacitating your whole team, but VI has a lot of valleys to the challenge where you're in no real danger and you just want to mash the fight command.

I didn't really get a spoony vibe from your writing, but since we're on the topic.. man I really miss that guy. He used to be a personal hero to me and I still load up some of his old playthroughs and movie reviews on occasion; SWAT 4, Final Fantasy, Phantasmagoria 2. I actually like that last game but I'll always sooner watch his let's play than replay it myself. Let's plays seemed a more noble thing back then somehow, when they were done by actual nerds for a genuine love of games and a sense of humor, rather than being easy money for those with fans and a full fledged, oversaturated industry of its own.

He was the rare guy making videos who had an encyclopedic knowledge of nerd culture, was relatively insightful in his commentary, and could write a decent joke and deliver it well. I'd almost rather him put out nothing than Let's Plays with minimal commentary. I used to watch his random Vlogs just because he could be interesting with minimal material. At least Ashens managed to stay funny and not lose his mind after all these years.

At 6/18/16 12:42 AM, Jackho wrote: One last thing, @jercurpac, any interest in XV? I played the episode duscae demo, the one bundled with Type-0, and I have downloaded the platinum demo but have yet to play it.

Yeah, but I honestly don't know much about it other than it's graphically impressive and seems to have the "you have total control over one character while the AI does most of the work with the rest" which I generally don't like, but I'm willing to give it a chance. AAA JRPGs are a rare beast nowadays and even if I'm older and less prone to hype it's hard not to feel a little sparkle of excitement.

Like I said I honestly don't know much about it, obsessing over gaming news and updates ruined gaming for a while for me so I prefer to get a general idea of how decent a game is, but not learn every detail. I'm happy to give it a shot eventually and hopefully be surprised by it. Then again I don't have a PS4 and who knows when it'll make it to PC. Maybe now that Microsoft and Sony are moving away from each console being a whole new platform I'll get back into console gaming again.

I haven't bothered with any Final Fantasy after X Square Enix doesn't know how to make a FF much less a proper RPG. XIII and XIV are proof of this.

Any final fantasy made by SquareSoft is alright but after XII is garbage

Still playing VI even if Overwatch is consuming a lot of my free time. I like that the game becomes less linear as you prepare for the final battle. FFV did the same thing, but I think it works better here with the "let's get the band back together" vibe it's git going on. Unfortunately I think the World of Ruin lacks a cohesive theme. The first few hours there are dark and desperate and you get the feeling that the world is really dying and you can feel Kefka's gaze over everything. Once you settle into things it's business as usual and not a lot of the towns are altered aside from the color scheme. Which may have been intentional because of memory limitations, but it still feels off. I mean, is the opera house really going to be functional in a post apocalyptic hellscape?

Hey everyone, it's that time of year where I remember this thread I used to update regularly. Been playing FFXIV with friends recently but I'll get to that in detail later. The other night we were talking about our favorite FF games which led into talk about how state-of-the-art FFVII seemed at the time and how much it actually holds up. I played about half of FFVII about six years ago and I was on the side of "yeah it mostly holds up," but I wanted to test that opinion so I pulled out my Playstation played about eight hours, and guys, it doesn't hold up as well as I remember.

To be fair the combat system is still the same ATB combat that the FF games used throughout the SNES years and the materia system is a fun way to customize your characters. Going through it it feels like the main graphical upgrade is just using the storage space that CDs gave them. The prerendered backgrounds are comparable with something like Donkey Kong Country or Mario RPG and the textureless ploygons of the character models are only a step or two up from Star Fox. Plus navigating around the prerendered backgrounds can be a chore. You're constantly getting caught on edges, angles will shift wildly between screens, and there were times where I just wasn't sure what background elements I could move over/around. I absolutely love the enemy models in the game though. They did a lot with a little and in my opinion the low poly look makes the mutated monstrosities and mechanical foes look more horrifying and imposing than they would have in more detail. I also think it's hilarious while some defeated enemies just fade away others have their models explode in a frenzy of polygons spinning wildly away that looks fucking ridiculous, but is also stupidly charming. Like, they had no real frame of reference on how to make death animations in 3d and something so silly was a genuine option

One thing I was absolutely sure of was that Midgar had really good pacing, but I found it a somewhat tedious 6 1/2 hours. The whole Don Corneo bit drags everything down and isn't as funny as I remember. Invading Shinra tower should feel awesome, but it's bogged down with timing and logic puzzles (the stair climbing bit is still funny). And goddamn do I not remember the translation being this spotty. Slow starts are pretty standard for JRPGs I just remember FFVII being an exception to the rule.

That being said, the finale to invading the Shinra headquarters, escaping Midgar and all the way through the flashback to Nibelheim are still fantastic. The story takes an abrupt and unexpected turn, there's a creepy sci-fi horror vibe running throughout, and it's got one of the best villain introductions ever. Even the thoroughly outdated CGI cinematics work. I think my biggest takeaway is that the elements that made the game great were already established in the series and the graphics that were impressive at the time were a half step to FFVIII and IX where they were really taking advantage of the Playstation hardware.

At 9/10/17 07:36 AM, Jercurpac wrote: how state-of-the-art FFVII seemed at the time and how much it actually holds up.

I'm not sure how long exactly since I beat it, but I'd think it was some time in the past 5 years. It's the only numbered FF game that I've actually beaten, so it must have done something right. Although for a game that receives so much praise for it's story, I honestly can't remember that much of the plot. Admittedly my memory of game plots is pretty terrible in general though.

I would love to play more of the FF series, particularly VI, VIII, IX and X but I really struggle with games of that length nowadays. They're like 80 hour projects that I just can't ever seem to finish before something else steals my attention.

At 9/10/17 09:32 AM, Dean wrote:

At 9/10/17 07:36 AM, Jercurpac wrote: how state-of-the-art FFVII seemed at the time and how much it actually holds up.

I'm not sure how long exactly since I beat it, but I'd think it was some time in the past 5 years. It's the only numbered FF game that I've actually beaten, so it must have done something right.

It does a lot right, age just hasn't been kind to it in a lot of ways and there are a few little bits here and there that never should have been acceptable design. It has one of the widest gaps between what has aged well and what hasn't that I can recall from any retro game and that makes the flaws all the more frustrating.
Also, I figured out that pressing select highlights climbable background elements and exits to other screens which is a godsend since the compression makes some screens really hard to parse.

Although for a game that receives so much praise for it's story, I honestly can't remember that much of the plot. Admittedly my memory of game plots is pretty terrible in general though.

There are a lot of little bits I've forgotten since I last played it. I completely forgot about the RTS/tower defense minigame which is an ahead of its time idea. It's tedious and I'm not gonna play it more than I need to, but it's still pretty cool.

I would love to play more of the FF series, particularly VI, VIII, IX and X but I really struggle with games of that length nowadays. They're like 80 hour projects that I just can't ever seem to finish before something else steals my attention.

Yeah, it's hard to dedicate yourself to one long game. For a lot of people one RPG could be months of their time where there are dozens of other games coming out that they're interested in.

At 9/10/17 07:36 AM, Jercurpac wrote: I played about half of FFVII about six years ago and I was on the side of "yeah it mostly holds up," but I wanted to test that opinion so I pulled out my Playstation played about eight hours, and guys, it doesn't hold up as well as I remember.

I still believe it holds up very well, but I've played it quite regularly over the years so I've always been aware of its faults and never had a shock moment where I went back and found it wasn't what I remembered. I think the combat and materia are enjoyment. I'm not exactly unbiased though when at this point even the flaws are part of why I like the game, it's a strange mess and there's nothing like it even in its own sub-series.

the textureless ploygons of the character models are only a step or two up from Star Fox.

They are mega outdated and simple even for the time but I do like the weird character models in their own way, I certainly prefer weird, squatty, deformed Cloud over slouchy emo Cloud anyway. Come on though, they're way above Star Fox even if they're still a ways off being impressive even for the PS1.

Plus navigating around the prerendered backgrounds can be a chore. You're constantly getting caught on edges, angles will shift wildly between screens, and there were times where I just wasn't sure what background elements I could move over/around.

I can't really think of having problems with the backgrounds other than the bit where you're climbing up to Shinra HQ, but they are pretty blurry. Also if you press select it highlights all the doorways but I assume you know that already.

I absolutely love the enemy models in the game though. They did a lot with a little and in my opinion the low poly look makes the mutated monstrosities and mechanical foes look more horrifying and imposing than they would have in more detail.

The enemies designs are absolutely wacky as shit too, there's one random enemy in the form of an entire pirate ship with a skeleton on the bow who slaps you with an oar. I have a feeling that guy probably wont show up in the remake. The goofy weirdness is a big part of what FFVII stand out, so while the remake is no doubt going to be more serious I hope they don't completely remove that stuff.

Shoutout to the inexplicable house monster that lurks in the slums, the self-driving motorbikes outside Midgar and the frogs that are called "Touch Me" for some bizarro reason (most of the names are seemingly completely random to be fair)

One thing I was absolutely sure of was that Midgar had really good pacing, but I found it a somewhat tedious 6 1/2 hours.

Yeah I agree here, I like Midgar but it's always a bit of a chore and the game doesn't really start until you're out. The opening bombing mission and everything after you get captured in Shinra HQ is badass, though.

That being said, the finale to invading the Shinra headquarters, escaping Midgar and all the way through the flashback to Nibelheim are still fantastic. The story takes an abrupt and unexpected turn, there's a creepy sci-fi horror vibe running throughout, and it's got one of the best villain introductions ever.

One of my absolute favourite parts is the Midgar Zolom. Most players are going to fight it and get completely destroyed since it's by far the strongest enemy in the game so far, so they look for an alternate solution and go on the whole chocobo hunting sidequest. So they finally get a chocobo and are able to outrun the Zolom... but it's not there. They get to the cave entrance and find it's been fucking impaled on a motherfucking tree trunk while they weren't looking. Sephiroth just murdered that thing while your back was turned.

He may be one of the most excessively praised villians of all time but god damn they earned that reputation, his build up is magnificent.

At 9/10/17 09:32 AM, Dean wrote: Although for a game that receives so much praise for it's story

It's a journey rather than destination thing for me, there are a few great moments in the story but it's mostly that the game just has such a unique feel to it. To me good FF is more about travelling all over a fictional planet and getting invested into the characters' world. FFIX is my favourite and the story there definitely has some issues, but it's the world and the characters that make it.

Even FFX which has an awful story is still a great FF to me, it feels like such an epic journey and they bookend it so well.

I would love to play more of the FF series, particularly VI, VIII, IX and X but I really struggle with games of that length nowadays. They're like 80 hour projects that I just can't ever seem to finish before something else steals my attention.

80 hours is an exaggeration for FF, FF7 I would estimate is around 35 hours, 8 and 9 are maybe around 55 and the earlier ones are less than 30. Still an investment but it's doable, and the older ones aren't half as bloated.

At 9/12/17 10:58 AM, Jercurpac wrote: It does a lot right, age just hasn't been kind to it in a lot of ways and there are a few little bits here and there that never should have been acceptable design.

Which bits are those?

Also, I figured out that pressing select highlights climbable background elements and exits to other screens which is a godsend since the compression makes some screens really hard to parse.

Oh, you got that then. I think the same function is in 8 and 9 as well.

Since you mentioned the backgrounds, have you ever seen the uncompressed FFIX backgrounds? It's a pity Square's PC port didn't dig up these old backgrounds and attempt to use them at full resolution, that could've been a game... changer. Instead we have these nice smooth 3D character models that clash horribly with the blurry low-res backgrounds. I really hate how the steam version looks, I'd sooner play the Vita/PSP version since at least the low-res models match the low-res backgrounds.

There's mods to improve it but they're still working off the original low res images.

Also, did you ever get playing the pitioss ruins in FFXV? One of the most bizarre piece of game design I've ever played, I can't decide if it's horrendous or sort of brilliant.

At 9/13/17 04:30 PM, Jackho wrote: I think the combat and materia are enjoyment.

Wow, me from 9 days ago typed like a moron.

At 9/13/17 05:17 PM, Jackho wrote:

At 9/12/17 10:58 AM, Jercurpac wrote: It does a lot right, age just hasn't been kind to it in a lot of ways and there are a few little bits here and there that never should have been acceptable design.

Which bits are those?

God, I've got so much of a backlog that I'm trying to work on while also playing FFXIV that I'm only very slowly working through FFVII so don't consider these thoughts very concrete. I think most of my issues are just with how the backgrounds are implemented, although I guess they don't bother you nearly as much. They should have known to not go so crazy with angles switching between screens, but I guess when you have the possibility of setting up all these visuals that never could have been done before it's easy to go overboard. They definitely toned it down and made seeing where to go without using the indicators much easier in VIII and IX from that I recall. I also hate that a text box prompt pops up every time you walk over a save point. A chime worked fine enough in previous games. Some of the minigames are pretty rough too although I appreciate the attempt to break up the gameplay.

the textureless ploygons of the character models are only a step or two up from Star Fox.

They are mega outdated and simple even for the time but I do like the weird character models in their own way, I certainly prefer weird, squatty, deformed Cloud over slouchy emo Cloud anyway. Come on though, they're way above Star Fox even if they're still a ways off being impressive even for the PS1.

Yeah, you're right, that was a little over critical.

Since you mentioned the backgrounds, have you ever seen the uncompressed FFIX backgrounds? It's a pity Square's PC port didn't dig up these old backgrounds and attempt to use them at full resolution, that could've been a game... changer. Instead we have these nice smooth 3D character models that clash horribly with the blurry low-res backgrounds. I really hate how the steam version looks, I'd sooner play the Vita/PSP version since at least the low-res models match the low-res backgrounds.

Yeah, it's amazing how much the technology and artistry behind those improved within one generation. It's sad that so many of the originals were lost. Just in general it's disappointing that these things get lost in time just because no one had the foresight to realize that one day we'd be able to properly display them in a port. It's amazing how much stuff is just gone forever even though the industry is still pretty young, like how the source codes to Silent Hill 2&3, two of the more technically impressive games of the era are just gone and Konami's attempt at an HD port shows how hard it is to actually replicate those things once you lose them.

Also, did you ever get playing the pitioss ruins in FFXV? One of the most bizarre piece of game design I've ever played, I can't decide if it's horrendous or sort of brilliant.

No because I'm a dope. When I got the flying car I didn't think to fly over to the blatantly obvious part of the map where a secret is hidden even though I'd already noticed it and spent 20 minutes trying to hop my way up there. Just haven't has the motivation to go back and check it out.

And here's my Final Fantasy XIV post.

I'm surprised the game actually hooked me because I'm not really big on MMOs and the necessary grinding they usually require to create a game you'll play and pay for over months or years. I think the biggest factor (aside from having a few friends to play with) is that I played on a new server which gives you double experience through the first sixty levels (pretty much up to the latest expansion) which means I've never had to stop and grind levels to continue on with the story. The base game content is pretty dull and is essentially an extended tutorial for how MMO combat works. Even someone like me who never played anything beyond the lowest levels of an MMO was bored with the kit my character had until I hit max level and there are only a few dungeons and bosses with fun mechanics until you hit the endgame content of the base game. If I'd had to stop and grind before continuing the plot I'd probably have fallen off pretty quick. The good moments where you're keeping an eye on avoiding AOEs while timing abilities and managing the mechanics of an encounter are really fun, but even when an MMO is at it's best those moments are rare and it's even worse in FFXIV's base game. I will give them credit for keeping all the content relevant. All the dungeons, trials, and raids are still being run and you can always find a party to work whatever content you're interested in.

The story of the base game is pretty standard stuff. You're the special chosen one warrior of light who goes around righting wrongs. Some people don't like stories in MMOs where you're the chosen hero because everyone in the world is the chosen hero, but it doesn't bother me. I like it more than just being some random guy sitting outside the major events and cutscenes of the game.

I will say that there's a surprisingly interesting amount of interweaving conflicts in the game. There's the ever looming threat of the Ghesta-I mean Garlean empire that's more technologically advanced than you and wants to take over the world. The four main countries on your continent should be working together to fight off the empire, but they each have their own internal strife and they're constantly forced to fight off the beast tribes who summon their gods (primals, essentially fanservice boss fights against classic FF summons). One of the countries is completely insular and walled off at the start of the game so they're not even helping in the fight. Plus on top of that there's a cabal of supernatural jerks from another dimension working behind the scenes to sow discord and manipulate world events. Once again through, I think the base game does a poor job of conveying that to you.

I do shit on the base game a lot (I haven't even touched on the generic world that lacks any meaningful exploration) but it's amazing what they were able to put together in under two years even given the fact that they were repurposing a lot or old assets. That's a ludicrously short amount of time to build an MMO and if anyone's interested the NoClip documentary does a really good job of going over how much of a disaster the original release was and how they built a completely new MMO from its ashes.

And as generic the plot of the base game was (albeit likable in its own dumb way) there are 100 quests that separate the base game from the expansion that are some of the dullest most blatantly filler content that I've ever played. If I didn't have a friend to suffer through them with I probably would have dropped the game there. What shocked me though is how much they turn around during the last 1/4th of the way to the expansion. They begin paying off on the promise of all these plot elements that have been threatening to converge on each other. You fight through some genuinely interesting bosses and dungeons and it all ends in an hour long cutscene that completely changes the course of the plot.

And then there's the Heavensward expansion which has a plot that's solid enough to stand with any mainline Final Fantasy, has interesting areas to travel to that feel like you're actually exploring, and continues to give you new abilities and interesting encounters to use them in. It's a lot of work to get to the good stuff, but when that work pays off it pays off pretty hard.