Final Fantasy Omnibus

[Raziel]

The tutorial is optional, but recommended, because the other option was to wedge the tutorial into the first few fights instead and put it on rails then just tossing you in like it did.  And don't worry, the game proper starts up with a big opening scene like the rest of the games.  

 

Far as the bug, that's not indicitive of the game, as I'm 10 hours in and haven't hit anything bad yet.

[Raziel]

Well, My "I'm almost finished the game" review of FFXV.

 

I loved this game up until Chapter 9, then the whole story takes a massive hard turn off the rails in a hurry and hits the fast forward button.  I'm overall dissappointed with how then just almost swerved for the sake of swerving and did almost zero setup to what the final third of the game was, just kinda pulled it out of nowhere.  And worse, unless you scour the dungeon areas, you zoom right past the lore explaining what the heck is going on, and even then it's not that clear.  And I might've cared about any of the major twists if they were in any way either hinted at or we spent more than 30 seconds (or 10 minutes in Luna's case) with them.

 

Combat was a joke.  I mean, yeah I did a ton of sidequests and leveled, but 90% of the fights boiled down to "Hold O, occasionally move, hold Square when prompted to parry, occasionally warp strike, toss in a link move to speed it up a bit".  The summons would be neat if they even gave you the faintest hint of the requirments to preform them.  

 

This really feels like half a game, where the first 8 chapters were paced nicely, fun with the driving and exploring and sidequesting, but the final 3rd was a mess, and combat really felt like an afterthought, as most of the time I barely needed to use the magic system, and the best straight up sword for Noctis had overly easy requirements to upgrade and get.  With this being the 3rd main line single player FF in a row that was underwhelming (The base version of XII was bleh, I haven't been able to play Zodiac Age yet to see if that fixed the issues I had with it gameplay wise, doubt it fixed the story issues), I highly doubt another FF will be on my radar again anytime soon.  I'll swing back to wrap it up and it looks like the Platinum is pretty easy to get, but for now, it's off to dig further into my pile of shame.

[JLSigman]

21 hours ago, Raziel said:

(The base version of XII was bleh, I haven't been able to play Zodiac Age yet to see if that fixed the issues I had with it gameplay wise, doubt it fixed the story issues

You would be correct in that the story is still a convoluted mash of Ashe's revenge and Basch's guilt and Balthier's heroics and Vaan's existing. The Zodiak system did make the combat something you occasionally had to think about, instead of never really think about, and is still the best part of the game.

[Raziel]

That at least sounds promising, as I'm growing ever more frustrated at Squeenix because I wish they'd put as much effort into gameplay and story as they do into making it look pretty.  The bug I got in the Imperal Throne room first time I entered the area up the elevator was unexcusible that it made it past QA.

[Matt D]

I pulled 10/33 on the Golden Week pull last night. New USBs for Faris (wind imperil chase on thief attacks), Nabaat (XIII, which would have been great before I finally defeated 4* Magicite Siren), and Yuffie (Clear Tranquil), with a burst for Leon (II), and LMRs for Wakka, Cloud(25% wind-doublecast), and someone else. A dupe Marche USB and General Leo (VI) BSB. Good haul all around though nothing game changing. I'm debating diving Faris which will help with the V torment theoretically but I don't know.

None of you care.

[J.T.]

HOLY FUCK IT'S OUT FOR XBOX ONE~!

oh, and yeah it's available on Nintendo Switch or something.

I thought I had outgrown JPRPG's but I think they may have outgrown me.  That fucking Job / License Board system looks like it requires a Ph.D to figure out.

As much as my OCD is intimidated by the Gambit system, I am marking out for the fucking airships.

This may be the first FF game I have legit bought in over a decade.

Edited May 2, 2019 by J.T.

[JLSigman]

16 hours ago, J.T. said:

HOLY FUCK IT'S OUT FOR XBOX ONE~!

oh, and yeah it's available on Nintendo Switch or something.

I thought I had outgrown JPRPG's but I think they may have outgrown me.  That fucking Job / License Board system looks like it requires a Ph.D to figure out.

As much as my OCD is intimidated by the Gambit system, I am marking out for the fucking airships.

This may be the first FF game I have legit bought in over a decade.

It's actually pretty intuitive, thankfully. And the gambit system is amazing. FF XII is a probably the one game that I love to start up but only have finished like maybe twice. There is tons to explore and do.

[dogwelder]

 

[Raziel]

More to come in June, release date in another 2 years.

 

Also, wonderful, either XIII or XV's system.  Because they weren't bad and boring enough.

[dragonzombie]

[BurningBeard]

Okay. Real talk. I've attempted to play that game about three times since 1997. First time was when it was released. It was my first RPG and I didn't get it at all, I sucked and it bored the hell out of me.

Second time was at uni in 2007, I got all the way to the airship and the PC disc was scratched and I couldn't go any further.

Third time was through Steam and my gameplay just petered out as I had better things to be doing.

Do I really, reeeeeally need to complete this game? It has become my white whale

[Matt D]

33 minutes ago, CreativeControl said:

Okay. Real talk. I've attempted to play that game about three times since 1997. First time was when it was released. It was my first RPG and I didn't get it at all, I sucked and it bored the hell out of me.

Second time was at uni in 2007, I got all the way to the airship and the PC disc was scratched and I couldn't go any further.

Third time was through Steam and my gameplay just petered out as I had better things to be doing.

Do I really, reeeeeally need to complete this game? It has become my white whale

No. There are at least three better Final Fantasies?

[JLSigman]

13 hours ago, dogwelder said:

 

I don't like Sephiroth's voice. 

[J.T.]

13 hours ago, dogwelder said:

 

• Aeris and Barret's reskins are GLORIOUS~!
• They avoided putting Tifa in the trailer.  If she's not wearing the hot pants and suspenders with her trademark knuckledusters, I will be sorely disappointed.  She can still smash people in the teeth and be super hot at the same time.
• Aeris Ressurection quest or GTFO
• I am not sure if the new combat format will make the Weapon fights more infuriating or less infuriating.

Edited May 10, 2019 by J.T.

[Raziel]

1 hour ago, J.T. said:

• Aeris and Barret's reskins are GLORIOUS~!
• They avoided putting Tifa in the trailer.  If she's not wearing the hot pants and suspenders with her trademark knuckledusters, I will be sorely disappointed.  She can still smash people in the teeth and be super hot at the same time.
• Aeris Ressurection quest or GTFO
• I am not sure if the new combat format will make the Weapon fights more infuriating or less infuriating.

If it's XV's system and is "Mash O:The Game" with an occasional dodge, more infuriating because those super fights in XV took forever.  If it's XIII, then it's "Spam X: The Game" and that'll be more infurating.  So. I dunno.

[J.T.]

12 minutes ago, Raziel said:

If it's XV's system and is "Mash O:The Game" with an occasional dodge, more infuriating because those super fights in XV took forever.  If it's XIII, then it's "Spam X: The Game" and that'll be more infurating.  So. I dunno.

I'm not so much concerned about the fights themselves as I am about the prep work.  On average it took me about fifteen minutes or so to thwack each WEAPON, but the fucking shit you have to do to be ready for the encounters is what drives people to alcoholism.

I'd prefer that my classic RPGs be a little more straight forward. Micromanaging minutiae may pack on game hours, but it isn't always fun.

The exception to that is probably FF Tactics.  The grind to get the really good weapons and summons for my people was a pain in the ass, but I enjoyed the extreme power curve I had on final boss at the end of the game.  I had Ramza so geared up that the game engine had Ultima move AWAY from him at her max speed on every turn.

But that is game logistics for a final boss fight.  In this case, you are doing that for every WEAPON as well as Sephiroth.  No Bueno.

[BurningBeard]

4 hours ago, Matt D said:

No. There are at least three better Final Fantasies?

But I don't particularly give a shit about Final Fantasy. It's just that 7 was always lauded as 'the best game ever' since I was a teenager and now I'm an adult I've never cracked it it's this challenge that haunts me

[Matt D]

4 minutes ago, CreativeControl said:

But I don't particularly give a shit about Final Fantasy. It's just that 7 was always lauded as 'the best game ever' since I was a teenager and now I'm an adult I've never cracked it it's this challenge that haunts me

So, looking at the battle system, the game will almost certainly be worse to play than the original version.

My comment stands. 

No. 

Go pick a more fulfilling challenge, like reading Finnegan's Wake or playing Disgaea or something. 

[BurningBeard]

12 minutes ago, Matt D said:

So, looking at the battle system, the game will almost certainly be worse to play than the original version.

My comment stands. 

No. 

Go pick a more fulfilling challenge, like reading Finnegan's Wake or playing Disgaea or something. 

10-4 buddy. Brothers Karamazov has been sat on my shelf since Christmas, still not plucked up the courage for that one!

[Eivion]

2 hours ago, CreativeControl said:

But I don't particularly give a shit about Final Fantasy. It's just that 7 was always lauded as 'the best game ever' since I was a teenager and now I'm an adult I've never cracked it it's this challenge that haunts me

If you don't give a shit about Final Fantasy then there is really no reason to play it. If you actually cared about the series then sure. It was a good game for its time with decent characters and story. Its not as good as  say IV or VI, but worth checking out. The best game ever talk was always ridiculous and came from those who were not used to rpgs, Japanese style or otherwise. Its important for introducing a new generation of fans to rpgs, but there are certainly many games better than it.

[odessasteps]

 

[Death From Above]

A whole bunch of people that haven't revisited 7 in 20 years are going to be incredibly mad on social media when that thing finally comes out.

[odessasteps]

22 minutes ago, Death From Above said:

A whole bunch of people that haven't revisited 7 in 20 years are going to be incredibly mad on social media when that thing finally comes out.

Spoiling a 20 year old game (and a certain death) will annoy a lot of people most likely. 

[Raziel]

I fired up the PC version of VII last night, and... I got past the first boss but aren't really inclined to keep going.  I'll probably wait and see how the Remake is gonna come out.  

the Steam Version of IX, on the other hand, I ran into mods that upped the resolution on the backgrounds to bring it even with the foreground sprites (thus making everything less jarring) and switched the font back into PSX classic font, making the Steam version way more playable, so I don't have to keep pulling out my PS3 to play it.

[Death From Above]

I burned out without finishing 9 which is on me for trying to do 4, 7, 8 and 9 back to back. But when you get by the general Japanese "female characters need to be flirted with" weirdness that is just ultra-prevelant in all JRPGs, it felt like an amazing game. I should really go back to it at some point.