New developments on the Final Fantasy Tactics situation. Turns out that after a few years in my closet, my PS2 has decided to breath it's last and no longer works with controller inputs. You can plug the controllers in, start up a game but damned if it's going to do anything when you push buttons on the controller.
A nice ceremony was held for my fallen brother in arms. Words were spoken, songs were sung and we laid my longtime friend to rest for the final time. But alas, what would this mean for my pilgrimage? If you recall, I had no luck emulating Tactics on my computer and now am not able to play it on a console either. I almost threw in the towel when I decided rules must be bent in order for the pilgrimage to continue.
The good news, Final Fantasy Tactics will work fine and the pilgrimage will commence as originally planned (with Tactics first and then Final Fantasy VIII rather than doing them simultaneously). The downside is that I'm actually going to be playing the updated version Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions released for the PSP on a PSP emulator. It works on my computer at least through the first battle so I don't forsee any further issues with this. It does seem to be a pretty major overhaul including new localization, new cutscenes and I know it contains additional Final Fantasy characters and other bonuses. It's too bad that I can't go with the original but it just doesn't seem to be in the cards. War of the Lions is better than no Tactics at all.
The reason I say disaster is merely postponed is because while this will get me through Final Fantasy 9 (using a rom for the PSN release of 9), I don't know how I'm going to play Final Fantasy X or XII as I don't have a PS3 to play the X release on and XII is a PS2 exclusive. I'll have to cross that bridge when I get there. Perhaps I'll invest in a PS3 and get the X/X-2 collection, which I heard was quite good and would solve the problem of not owning X-2, and find some other option for XII. Idk. I'll keep you up to date. For now, I'm just excited to finally be able to start Tactics.
Game on!
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Monday, April 14, 2014
PSX Emulation
After Sephiroth got ownaged by Cloud, we step aside from the core series and go to the undisputed king of Final Fantasy spin-offs, Final Fantasy Tactics. I'm happy about this since it'll be nice to have a change in genres but also because this is the first game on the list that I actually still own!
As it turns out though, emulating PSX games is not as simple as SNES or NES. I downloaded ePSXe, the most common PSX emulator on the market but it seems that it takes a more modular approach to emulation. Instead of coming pre-packaged with everything you need like SNES emulators do, you actually have to download a whole bunch of separate files to get it to work.
You first need the PSX BIOS file. This tells the emulator which region you want to be playing in. I'm in the US so I need the one for NTSC-U disks. You then need a graphics plug-in. For SNES, these were all built in so I got to play around with my different options and find what worked the best. For PSX, it's more a matter of downloading them all and finding which one sucks the least. There are several available so experimentation is not only recommended, it's required. Sound is thankfully built into the emulator already.
After spending about two hours mixing and matching softwares, I decided to scrap it since the only one that didn't chug along at 10 fps had frequent texture pop-in and skewed graphics. This means that I'll have to play it on my PS2 back home, significantly decreasing the amount of time I'll be able to devote to it and I won't be able to take screenshots from the game.
Because of this, I decided to work through Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy VIII at the same time (since I have FFVIII on Steam and it works just fine). Expect a lot of jumping around in the next few posts as I bounce between the two highly anticipated games.
Oh and I kind of half-assed my game rankings last time due to some time constraints. Here is the full list in order from best to worst Final Fantasy game.
Game Rankings:
Game on!
As it turns out though, emulating PSX games is not as simple as SNES or NES. I downloaded ePSXe, the most common PSX emulator on the market but it seems that it takes a more modular approach to emulation. Instead of coming pre-packaged with everything you need like SNES emulators do, you actually have to download a whole bunch of separate files to get it to work.
You first need the PSX BIOS file. This tells the emulator which region you want to be playing in. I'm in the US so I need the one for NTSC-U disks. You then need a graphics plug-in. For SNES, these were all built in so I got to play around with my different options and find what worked the best. For PSX, it's more a matter of downloading them all and finding which one sucks the least. There are several available so experimentation is not only recommended, it's required. Sound is thankfully built into the emulator already.
After spending about two hours mixing and matching softwares, I decided to scrap it since the only one that didn't chug along at 10 fps had frequent texture pop-in and skewed graphics. This means that I'll have to play it on my PS2 back home, significantly decreasing the amount of time I'll be able to devote to it and I won't be able to take screenshots from the game.
Because of this, I decided to work through Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy VIII at the same time (since I have FFVIII on Steam and it works just fine). Expect a lot of jumping around in the next few posts as I bounce between the two highly anticipated games.
Oh and I kind of half-assed my game rankings last time due to some time constraints. Here is the full list in order from best to worst Final Fantasy game.
Game Rankings:
- Final Fantasy VI
- Final Fantasy VII
- Final Fantasy IV
- Final Fantasy V
- Final Fantasy III
- Final Fantasy
- Final Fantasy Adventure
- Final Fantasy II
Game on!
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Omnislashed
Final Fantasy VII is complete! Unfortunately, I was dumb and played the game without using Big Picture Mode on Steam. Because of this, none of my screenshots actually took since not using BPM uses different screenshot hotkeys than using it. I guess you'll just have to take my word for it this time. There isn't a fancy The End screen anyway.
Final Fantasy VII is a grand foray into the brave new world that is 3D gaming but like most early pioneers, it's flawed in many ways. I've mentioned the character sprites many times but I feel I have neglected to mention how gorgeous the rest of the graphics are. The environments are wonderfully drawn and have many little details scattered throughout. Sure, some of the finer details are extremely pixelated and thus, hard to see, but it all comes together to make a great whole. It's too bad that the sprites are such low quality. They stand in stark contrast to the world around them and diminish the picture overall. The eyes that look drawn on, their blank or cheesy expressions and the lack of hands all grate your nerves throughout and prevent you from fully immersing yourself in the dramatic storyline unfolding. Further evidence that the fifth generation of gaming consoles was a necessary but ugly stepping stone in gaming history.
The storyline as a whole is very impressive and marks some serious steps forward for the franchise. It's unfortunate that poor localization and incoherent dialogue mars several of the finer points. The characters often wander into overdramatization and psycho-babble when staying clear and concise would have been a stronger option. While the details can be nit-picked forever as I did with describing the characters a couple posts ago, the story has an interesting point and does feel relatable and personal.
The materia system is a great experiment from a franchise known for it's experimentation but it never quite adds up to Final Fantasy VI. Instead of furthering the trend of using the battle system to further flesh out characters, VII tries to go the way of V by making all characters more or less the same in battle but make them definable in the storyline instead. They take the limit breaks idea from VI but otherwise make characters all the same. Unfortunately, this loses the strengths of VI without ever feeling as exciting and involved as V and thus strikes an odd middle-ground between the two that simply feels as though it failed at both.
Still, the gameplay is fun and despite some antiquated gaming standards of the time, battles are interesting and there are plenty of places to explore and things to do, adding up to several hours of fun. The minigames are hit and miss which is fine because the ones that hit are great. Chocobo Racing was the highlight for me but snowboarding was quite fun as well. It's too bad that the camera can't often keep up, something common in that era of 3D gaming.
Ultimately, Final Fantasy VII's reputation has long since surpassed the actual experience but to judge it for this isn't fair to the game and overlooks many strong, positive traits that the game passed on to future games for years to come. Even if the game isn't as good as it's legacy, the legacy has provided an always raising bar that game developers can strive for and having a lofty goal is always good for the industry as a whole.
Game Rankings:
... Final Fantasy V < Final Fantasy VII < Final Fantasy VI
Game on!
Final Fantasy VII is a grand foray into the brave new world that is 3D gaming but like most early pioneers, it's flawed in many ways. I've mentioned the character sprites many times but I feel I have neglected to mention how gorgeous the rest of the graphics are. The environments are wonderfully drawn and have many little details scattered throughout. Sure, some of the finer details are extremely pixelated and thus, hard to see, but it all comes together to make a great whole. It's too bad that the sprites are such low quality. They stand in stark contrast to the world around them and diminish the picture overall. The eyes that look drawn on, their blank or cheesy expressions and the lack of hands all grate your nerves throughout and prevent you from fully immersing yourself in the dramatic storyline unfolding. Further evidence that the fifth generation of gaming consoles was a necessary but ugly stepping stone in gaming history.
The storyline as a whole is very impressive and marks some serious steps forward for the franchise. It's unfortunate that poor localization and incoherent dialogue mars several of the finer points. The characters often wander into overdramatization and psycho-babble when staying clear and concise would have been a stronger option. While the details can be nit-picked forever as I did with describing the characters a couple posts ago, the story has an interesting point and does feel relatable and personal.
The materia system is a great experiment from a franchise known for it's experimentation but it never quite adds up to Final Fantasy VI. Instead of furthering the trend of using the battle system to further flesh out characters, VII tries to go the way of V by making all characters more or less the same in battle but make them definable in the storyline instead. They take the limit breaks idea from VI but otherwise make characters all the same. Unfortunately, this loses the strengths of VI without ever feeling as exciting and involved as V and thus strikes an odd middle-ground between the two that simply feels as though it failed at both.
Still, the gameplay is fun and despite some antiquated gaming standards of the time, battles are interesting and there are plenty of places to explore and things to do, adding up to several hours of fun. The minigames are hit and miss which is fine because the ones that hit are great. Chocobo Racing was the highlight for me but snowboarding was quite fun as well. It's too bad that the camera can't often keep up, something common in that era of 3D gaming.
Ultimately, Final Fantasy VII's reputation has long since surpassed the actual experience but to judge it for this isn't fair to the game and overlooks many strong, positive traits that the game passed on to future games for years to come. Even if the game isn't as good as it's legacy, the legacy has provided an always raising bar that game developers can strive for and having a lofty goal is always good for the industry as a whole.
Game Rankings:
... Final Fantasy V < Final Fantasy VII < Final Fantasy VI
Game on!
Final Fantasy VII Fight Tactics
Small post today, I just wanted to share my personal strategy when coming up with a party/materia setup for Final Fantasy VII fights. This is my general strategy, although I'll give specifics as well. It isn't necessarily the best strategy and certainly isn't for certain situations but in general, this has gotten me through the game quite nicely.
My party has been made up of Cloud, Vincent and Tifa from the moment I got Vincent. Before him, I used Barret and when Cloud and Tifa were absent, I used Cid, Vincent and Barret. Here's why.
My general setup uses one tank character, one full magic character and one hybrid, leaning more towards magic. My magic character is the backbone of the party, in this case Tifa. As early as I can, I get her a Time materia and attach it to an All. This allows me to cast haste right away on the whole party. One of the things most newbies do is to ignore Haste. This is a HUGE mistake as Haste is easily one of the best spells in the whole franchise. Not only can you attack about 1.5x as much (meaning 1.5x the damage!) but you can respond to devastating attacks much more quickly by healing frequently. Later in the game, I also attach a Restore materia to another All which allows me to cast Regen on the whole party as well. Tifa can then heal as needed and otherwise use some incredibly powerful magic spells and summons as needed. Her Limit Break also rocks.
If my magic character is the backbone, the tank is the rib cage. The most important materia to place on this character is HP Up. This will increase their HP drastically as time goes on. Then, you want to place Cover on them. This will allow them to cover the other players frequently with their bonus HP. Finally, Counter Attack. This all adds up to a character with a ton of health who takes the damage from other characters and responds with a counter attack frequently. My other characters rarely get hurt from single attacks, making healing incredibly simple as well. Another helpful one is the materia that uses enemies attacks since that doesn't diminish this characters physical stats but still gives them some powerful magic, assuming you get it.
Finally, you want to make sure your two non-tank characters are in the back row. I give Tifa a long range materia and Vincent is naturally long-range. This allows them to take only half damage from attacks. Cloud is front row in my game but if you use a character like Barret as your tank, you can keep them all in the back and still do full damage in return. The last character is rather unimportant as to what you give them, as long as they can hold their own. I have Vincent equipped with Bahamut ZERO, another enemy move materia and some spells like Bio and Escape.
If you are having some trouble getting through portions of the game, check this out and give it a try. I haven't died yet in the game nor have I found any battle all that difficult. Results may vary so feel free to post your own strategies below!
My party has been made up of Cloud, Vincent and Tifa from the moment I got Vincent. Before him, I used Barret and when Cloud and Tifa were absent, I used Cid, Vincent and Barret. Here's why.
My general setup uses one tank character, one full magic character and one hybrid, leaning more towards magic. My magic character is the backbone of the party, in this case Tifa. As early as I can, I get her a Time materia and attach it to an All. This allows me to cast haste right away on the whole party. One of the things most newbies do is to ignore Haste. This is a HUGE mistake as Haste is easily one of the best spells in the whole franchise. Not only can you attack about 1.5x as much (meaning 1.5x the damage!) but you can respond to devastating attacks much more quickly by healing frequently. Later in the game, I also attach a Restore materia to another All which allows me to cast Regen on the whole party as well. Tifa can then heal as needed and otherwise use some incredibly powerful magic spells and summons as needed. Her Limit Break also rocks.
If my magic character is the backbone, the tank is the rib cage. The most important materia to place on this character is HP Up. This will increase their HP drastically as time goes on. Then, you want to place Cover on them. This will allow them to cover the other players frequently with their bonus HP. Finally, Counter Attack. This all adds up to a character with a ton of health who takes the damage from other characters and responds with a counter attack frequently. My other characters rarely get hurt from single attacks, making healing incredibly simple as well. Another helpful one is the materia that uses enemies attacks since that doesn't diminish this characters physical stats but still gives them some powerful magic, assuming you get it.
Finally, you want to make sure your two non-tank characters are in the back row. I give Tifa a long range materia and Vincent is naturally long-range. This allows them to take only half damage from attacks. Cloud is front row in my game but if you use a character like Barret as your tank, you can keep them all in the back and still do full damage in return. The last character is rather unimportant as to what you give them, as long as they can hold their own. I have Vincent equipped with Bahamut ZERO, another enemy move materia and some spells like Bio and Escape.
If you are having some trouble getting through portions of the game, check this out and give it a try. I haven't died yet in the game nor have I found any battle all that difficult. Results may vary so feel free to post your own strategies below!
Friday, April 11, 2014
Final Fantasy VII: The World is My Oyster
SPOILER ALERT!
Aeris dies! That's right, folks. That lovable girl who we brought along with us on our terrorist assassination mission got killed. I know, imagine that. But in her death, we received the Highwind, the airship that flies you around everywhere. A fair trade, in my opinion.
Seriously though, Final Fantasy VII has been an interesting trek so far. Not only do I have to deal with the monsters and threats filling the land but also my 17-year-bloated expectations for the title toted as the greatest game ever made by it's own box art. It is impossible to be a fan of RPG's in this day and not hold Final Fantasy VII on a pedestal, even if you've never played the game. Because of this unrealistic expectation of an admittedly old game, every joy is tempered and every failing is a massive disappointment, despite my own efforts.
Still, I'm gonna spout my opinions anyway, because this is my blog, dammit! That and if I don't have my opinions to throw around, what's the point? Basically, the game has been somewhat disappointing thus far. Despite everyone obviously being attached to Cloud and friends, I've found it difficult to care about any of the characters. Basically, they are a bunch of environmental terrorists blowing crap up to prove their point.
You know who else does this...?
So maybe Squaresoft was going for a more ambiguous protagonist/antagonist dynamic. I can appreciate that. But when they bring their kid into it, I simply accept that Barret is the worst parent in the world and have to move past any sense of caring. Yeah, remember Marlene? The little girl that they abandon in the slums of a mega-conglomerate city hell-bent on killing them at all costs? Obviously Barret and Tifa don't.
Aeris dies! That's right, folks. That lovable girl who we brought along with us on our terrorist assassination mission got killed. I know, imagine that. But in her death, we received the Highwind, the airship that flies you around everywhere. A fair trade, in my opinion.
Seriously though, Final Fantasy VII has been an interesting trek so far. Not only do I have to deal with the monsters and threats filling the land but also my 17-year-bloated expectations for the title toted as the greatest game ever made by it's own box art. It is impossible to be a fan of RPG's in this day and not hold Final Fantasy VII on a pedestal, even if you've never played the game. Because of this unrealistic expectation of an admittedly old game, every joy is tempered and every failing is a massive disappointment, despite my own efforts.
Still, I'm gonna spout my opinions anyway, because this is my blog, dammit! That and if I don't have my opinions to throw around, what's the point? Basically, the game has been somewhat disappointing thus far. Despite everyone obviously being attached to Cloud and friends, I've found it difficult to care about any of the characters. Basically, they are a bunch of environmental terrorists blowing crap up to prove their point.
You know who else does this...?
 |
| You were born in the 90's if you remember this image. |
Cloud is the whiny middle-school kid who thinks he's too cool to be a part of anything and ends up just brooding in a corner, hoping everyone thinks he's thinking about smart things. Sure his identity crisis becomes interesting but then that quickly moves into resurrecting Sephiroth and destroying the world. In fact, his puppet identity is the most interesting thing about him. What is that saying? The fact that he isn't really a person, has no emotions and mimics memories from Tifa is the most interesting thing about him???
Let's look at the side characters for a minute. Aeris bounces around picking flowers and flirting with the puppet when she isn't busy talking to the dirt or getting stabbed. Barret is the worst parent ever and has managed to get all his team killed. Who the hell knows what Tifa is doing or why since she started in Nibelheim, learned martial arts and then went to Midgard to work in a bar. Red XIII is a talking dog raised by a guy studying the earth by looking into space. Vincent is a not-vampire who hates Hojo and turns into various Universal movie monsters. Cid, the emotional wife-beater who had no better options. Yuffie who steals their stuff and obviously cares nothing for any of them. Cait Sith, a robot controlled by a guy who works for their enemy but apologizes every time he betrays them. Why do we like these people???
The gameplay has taken a step back by being slower paced than Final Fantasy VI and restricting you to three party members. Some people may like this better but I find it restrained and less interesting. The materia may be fun but is it better than the individually unique characters from Final Fantasy VI or the job system from Final Fantasy V? No. Not even close. Aging design choices have also dampened the game's enjoyability. I recently slogged through the ice area which would have been great if it hadn't been for Marlboro's using Bad Breath, an ability that hits your entire party with frog, poison, confusion, silence and sleep. Thankfully, Cloud was equipped with ice absorbing materia so he managed to survive but if I hadn't done this before the battle, it would have been entirely impossible for me to win the battle. Even with it, it took a good five minutes and a Magic Breath spell to kill him off, an enemy spell that costs 75 magic (out of 300 total). Most of that time was spent staring at the screen, waiting for Cloud to wake up and hit himself so I could actually start healing and hopefully get an attack in. Did I get anything good from that battle? No. Less experience than most fights, a pitiful amount of gold and a battle item. This is just an example of the kinds of fights that still exist in this game, something that never should have been repeated after the first game. Six main series titles and two console generations later, this should be a distant relic of the past.
The game's not all bad, and I don't mean to imply that it is. The storyline is looking up since Aeris died as it finally feels like it has some focus. Up until about Nibelheim, the game felt grounded but then things started to get ridiculous and lose any sense it once had. I already knew that Cloud was a clone of Sephiroth with Zack's DNA and that Sephiroth needed the Black Materia to cast Meteor to end the world but playing the game, I still had no idea what was going on because the storytelling was horrendous. Now that they've stopped playing around with flying sprites and ridiculous leaps in logic, I'm caring more about the character's plights and am excited to start exploring the world with the airship. I'm hoping that there is as much to do in VII as there was in VI.
I'll update you when there's something more to say.
Game on!
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Side Quest: Final Fantasy: All The Bravest + Bravely Default
I admit, I have been cheating on my Final Fantasy order a bit, playing other games here and there. Playing through a huge list of RPG's can be tiring, especially when you enjoy other genres also. Still, some of my dalliances have been relevant to this pilgrimage. Two such titles were Final Fantasy All the Bravest and Bravely Default.
Final Fantasy All The Bravest has become infamous in modern times for being one of the worst games ever made. While I'm not sure it quite deserves that glorious title, it's certainly a terrible game. Essentially, it's what happens when someone who has zero understanding or respect for Final Fantasy fans makes a Final Fantasy game using the worst of mobile game cliches. The upside, Square Enix dropped the entry price to nothing, at least on Android, so I didn't pay a cent for it.
The "game" basically works on the premise of using a huge amount of Final Fantasy characters (up to 35 if I remember correctly) in battle at the same time, all while using the ATB system at it's fastest. You move through maps representing the Final Fantasy titles, fighting classic Final Fantasy monsters in pixel art form, listening to the awesomely represented music. You get to level up by getting experience, gather Gil by defeating enemies and unlock new characters and weapons. It all sounds great, right? The problem is, all of this is purely window dressing. The game itself consists of nothing more than rubbing the screen of your mobile device. That's it. Battles use absolutely zero strategy and just is a game of attacking as fast as possible. You attack with a character by touching them. So, you could feasibly play the game as a glorified whack-a-mole but there's no reason to do this as rubbing the screen is the fastest and thus, most effective, way of playing the game.
But you get to unlock stuff and get Gil too, right? Well, yes, sort of. Gil doesn't actually do anything so it basically just represents score. You unlock stuff randomly by defeating enemies. The weapons serve as passive upgrades, providing bonuses to attack for various characters. Let me explain why this is ridiculous. Each weapon provides a bonus such as +3 attack for any characters that use that weapon type. The thing is, you can never see the stats for any of your characters. So what does this +3 attack mean? Who knows? It could be great or it could be next to meaningless, there's no way to tell.
But the game lets you get cool Final Fantasy characters in pixel art form, right? Sort of... see, the only characters you can unlock are the classes used in classic Final Fantasy games. If you want to use famous characters like Terra, Cloud or Titus, you have to pay money which gives you a random Final Fantasy character to use in battle. The awesome part is that beyond the artwork, these don't do anything new or different. Since the game provides no strategy, there's no reason to buy them rather than looking up their images online. In fact, you don't get to see any new content unless you pay anyway since the Final Fantasy maps available for 7 onwards (the games that don't use pixel art already) are premium content.
So does this game have any redeeming aspects? Yes, a couple. First is that for each weapon and monster you fight, you get a description in the game's menu. These descriptions are often hilarious and are a lot of fun to read. The other cool thing about this game is the music. It actually provides a soundtrack so you can listen to all the classic tunes on the go. Aside from that, the game is a complete drag. I didn't even mention how every time you die in battle, something that happens from one hit of the enemy regardless of how high level your guys are, you have to wait three minutes per character to keep fighting. You can pay to respawn all your guys right away but... why would you?
On the other hand, we have Bravely Default, a recently released JRPG for the 3DS. So why am I saying this game is relevant to Final Fantasy Pilgrimage? Well, while the game is it's own IP, it's actually the spiritual successor to the DS title, Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light. In fact, it's Final Fantasy in pretty much every way other than name. The game world is plagued by environmental disasters as the four elemental crystals worshiped for centuries are being engulfed by darkness. Sounds familiar, huh? You have to go around and save the four crystals to restore nature to it's proper balance.
To be blunt, the storyline sucks. Beyond being an obvious homage to Final Fantasy, the characters are all so bland as to be irritating, particularly Ringabel, an amnesiac womanizer who can literally think of nothing beyond banging every chick he sees. This stereotype is so cliche in JRPG's already that this extreme example proves the undoing of the rest of the story all by itself. I literally want to stop watching every time this guy speaks. Still, I have to respect the full voice acting and theatre-style cutscenes. Also, this is one of the only JRPG's outside of the Tales series that I can think of to use skits, mini-cutscenes that you can trigger at certain events throughout the game, expanding on the storyline further. (FUTURE ME UPDATE: I have discovered that Final Fantasy IX also uses a similar system. Didn't know that when I wrote this originally!)
That being said, Bravely Default is a ton of fun and I've been enjoying it immensely. While I believe the story is the most important part of an RPG, Bravely Default's combat and job system are so much fun, they make the game worth playing despite the monotonous story. The job system is directly taken from Final Fantasy V but with some slight tweaks. Each character can pick any of your unlocked jobs. This provides them with that class' special attacks, passive moves and special trait. You can then pick a specified number of additional passive bonuses from other jobs and the special moves unlocked from one other job. As you level up each job, you gain either a new special attack to use or a passive bonus. For example, leveling up a monk will provide you some special martial arts attacks or things like HP + 10%. The special traits of each job can spice things up a bit as these provide an incentive to picking your primary class.
One neat difference between Final Fantasy V and Bravely Default is the way in which you unlock new jobs. In Final Fantasy V, you got jobs from exploding crystals and after picking them up, you got the new job. In Bravely Default, you actually have to find people who represent each job and defeat them in battle to get the new job. So a side quest may have you fighting a Valkyrie which, after defeating her, will unlock the job for you to use. It's a small difference but it's very effective as this will force you to see the strengths and weaknesses of each job for yourself.
Combat is also mostly like Final Fantasy but for a not-so-small tweak: the ability to use Brave or Default. Each character has a BP count which represents the number of moves they can make. At the start of each player turn, every character gains one BP. This means that if you attack once with each character in one turn, you will always stay at 0 BP. If you Default, essentially a block, you will save up your BP. Pretty simple. Using Brave, however, will let you stack up to four attacks for each character which they will use all in one turn. While you can save up BP by using Default, you can also go into the negatives for characters by using several Brave's right at the beginning of a battle. This can provide a quick boost to attacks, killing off minor enemies before they get a chance to attack you. However, any character with negative BP at the start of a turn will have to forfeit their turn until they get back up to 0 BP. This means using Brave can be a risk but one that can pay off with massive damage when used correctly. Enemies also have to play by these rules so you have to watch out for enemies that save up several BP's as they may attack with a huge onslaught all at once. If you can send them into the negatives though, you are rewarded with several free attacks against a defenseless foe.
If you have a 3DS, don't be turned away by the lack of a strong storyline. This game is a blast to play and I recommend it to anyone who's fan enough of Final Fantasy to be reading this blog.
Game on!
Final Fantasy All The Bravest has become infamous in modern times for being one of the worst games ever made. While I'm not sure it quite deserves that glorious title, it's certainly a terrible game. Essentially, it's what happens when someone who has zero understanding or respect for Final Fantasy fans makes a Final Fantasy game using the worst of mobile game cliches. The upside, Square Enix dropped the entry price to nothing, at least on Android, so I didn't pay a cent for it.
The "game" basically works on the premise of using a huge amount of Final Fantasy characters (up to 35 if I remember correctly) in battle at the same time, all while using the ATB system at it's fastest. You move through maps representing the Final Fantasy titles, fighting classic Final Fantasy monsters in pixel art form, listening to the awesomely represented music. You get to level up by getting experience, gather Gil by defeating enemies and unlock new characters and weapons. It all sounds great, right? The problem is, all of this is purely window dressing. The game itself consists of nothing more than rubbing the screen of your mobile device. That's it. Battles use absolutely zero strategy and just is a game of attacking as fast as possible. You attack with a character by touching them. So, you could feasibly play the game as a glorified whack-a-mole but there's no reason to do this as rubbing the screen is the fastest and thus, most effective, way of playing the game.
But you get to unlock stuff and get Gil too, right? Well, yes, sort of. Gil doesn't actually do anything so it basically just represents score. You unlock stuff randomly by defeating enemies. The weapons serve as passive upgrades, providing bonuses to attack for various characters. Let me explain why this is ridiculous. Each weapon provides a bonus such as +3 attack for any characters that use that weapon type. The thing is, you can never see the stats for any of your characters. So what does this +3 attack mean? Who knows? It could be great or it could be next to meaningless, there's no way to tell.
But the game lets you get cool Final Fantasy characters in pixel art form, right? Sort of... see, the only characters you can unlock are the classes used in classic Final Fantasy games. If you want to use famous characters like Terra, Cloud or Titus, you have to pay money which gives you a random Final Fantasy character to use in battle. The awesome part is that beyond the artwork, these don't do anything new or different. Since the game provides no strategy, there's no reason to buy them rather than looking up their images online. In fact, you don't get to see any new content unless you pay anyway since the Final Fantasy maps available for 7 onwards (the games that don't use pixel art already) are premium content.
So does this game have any redeeming aspects? Yes, a couple. First is that for each weapon and monster you fight, you get a description in the game's menu. These descriptions are often hilarious and are a lot of fun to read. The other cool thing about this game is the music. It actually provides a soundtrack so you can listen to all the classic tunes on the go. Aside from that, the game is a complete drag. I didn't even mention how every time you die in battle, something that happens from one hit of the enemy regardless of how high level your guys are, you have to wait three minutes per character to keep fighting. You can pay to respawn all your guys right away but... why would you?
On the other hand, we have Bravely Default, a recently released JRPG for the 3DS. So why am I saying this game is relevant to Final Fantasy Pilgrimage? Well, while the game is it's own IP, it's actually the spiritual successor to the DS title, Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light. In fact, it's Final Fantasy in pretty much every way other than name. The game world is plagued by environmental disasters as the four elemental crystals worshiped for centuries are being engulfed by darkness. Sounds familiar, huh? You have to go around and save the four crystals to restore nature to it's proper balance.
To be blunt, the storyline sucks. Beyond being an obvious homage to Final Fantasy, the characters are all so bland as to be irritating, particularly Ringabel, an amnesiac womanizer who can literally think of nothing beyond banging every chick he sees. This stereotype is so cliche in JRPG's already that this extreme example proves the undoing of the rest of the story all by itself. I literally want to stop watching every time this guy speaks. Still, I have to respect the full voice acting and theatre-style cutscenes. Also, this is one of the only JRPG's outside of the Tales series that I can think of to use skits, mini-cutscenes that you can trigger at certain events throughout the game, expanding on the storyline further. (FUTURE ME UPDATE: I have discovered that Final Fantasy IX also uses a similar system. Didn't know that when I wrote this originally!)
That being said, Bravely Default is a ton of fun and I've been enjoying it immensely. While I believe the story is the most important part of an RPG, Bravely Default's combat and job system are so much fun, they make the game worth playing despite the monotonous story. The job system is directly taken from Final Fantasy V but with some slight tweaks. Each character can pick any of your unlocked jobs. This provides them with that class' special attacks, passive moves and special trait. You can then pick a specified number of additional passive bonuses from other jobs and the special moves unlocked from one other job. As you level up each job, you gain either a new special attack to use or a passive bonus. For example, leveling up a monk will provide you some special martial arts attacks or things like HP + 10%. The special traits of each job can spice things up a bit as these provide an incentive to picking your primary class.
One neat difference between Final Fantasy V and Bravely Default is the way in which you unlock new jobs. In Final Fantasy V, you got jobs from exploding crystals and after picking them up, you got the new job. In Bravely Default, you actually have to find people who represent each job and defeat them in battle to get the new job. So a side quest may have you fighting a Valkyrie which, after defeating her, will unlock the job for you to use. It's a small difference but it's very effective as this will force you to see the strengths and weaknesses of each job for yourself.
Combat is also mostly like Final Fantasy but for a not-so-small tweak: the ability to use Brave or Default. Each character has a BP count which represents the number of moves they can make. At the start of each player turn, every character gains one BP. This means that if you attack once with each character in one turn, you will always stay at 0 BP. If you Default, essentially a block, you will save up your BP. Pretty simple. Using Brave, however, will let you stack up to four attacks for each character which they will use all in one turn. While you can save up BP by using Default, you can also go into the negatives for characters by using several Brave's right at the beginning of a battle. This can provide a quick boost to attacks, killing off minor enemies before they get a chance to attack you. However, any character with negative BP at the start of a turn will have to forfeit their turn until they get back up to 0 BP. This means using Brave can be a risk but one that can pay off with massive damage when used correctly. Enemies also have to play by these rules so you have to watch out for enemies that save up several BP's as they may attack with a huge onslaught all at once. If you can send them into the negatives though, you are rewarded with several free attacks against a defenseless foe.
If you have a 3DS, don't be turned away by the lack of a strong storyline. This game is a blast to play and I recommend it to anyone who's fan enough of Final Fantasy to be reading this blog.
Game on!
The Failings of Final Fantasy VII
Fanboys (and girls), avert your gaze. I am about to do the unthinkable: criticize Final Fantasy VII. *gasp*
I know, I know. This could be a hard time for all of us but frankly, it needs to be done. Too long has the game been held up as the mark of gaming perfection when, let's be honest, it has it's flaws. I'm not saying it's a bad game, it just could have used a little more work in a couple areas. Well, just like ripping off a band-aid, it's better to do it quick and get it over with so lets jump right in.
1. The Sprites
I've mentioned this before and people always respond the same way, the game was on the Playstation back in 1997, of course the graphics aren't as good as today. THIS IS NO EXCUSE! The game sprites don't look this way because of the graphical limitations of the Playstation. Look at the environments in the game, the pre-rendered cutscenes, hell, look at the in-battle characters. They look infinitely better than the chibi-designed sprites you see when exploring. Take a look at Final Fantasy Tactics or 8 to see what the Playstation was capable of. This was purely an artistic design and it failed, miserably. It can be hard to take the extremely dramatic story seriously when the characters don't have fingers, noses, mouths or anything else that makes them remotely human.
The in-battle graphics looks pretty awesome, especially compared to older Final Fantasy titles. So what am I criticizing about this? It's not the graphics but the artistically shifting camera that I have a problem with. Not because it moves but because this can seriously impede functionality in battle. It doesn't happen all the time or even that commonly but more often than it should. What happens is that it positions itself so that two characters exist one directly in front of the other. This makes it entirely impossible to tell what character you're selecting. In one battle, I wasted three Phoenix Downs trying to revive my fallen comrade because I kept using them on the living teammate instead. The first thing is why the hell does the Phoenix Down not default to the fallen comrade but even without this, not knowing who you're targeting should NEVER BE AN ISSUE! Artistic camera angles are fun but they should never get in the way of basic gameplay.
The translation isn't as bad as Final Fantasy IV. In fact, it's not even that bad at all. It's more a localization issue than a translation issue. Whatever the case may be, the dialogue simply isn't as well structured as Final Fantasy VI was. People say very strange things frequently and sometimes reactions seem undeserved or exaggerated. It's hard to come up with a great example but everything just feels off, somehow. Characters just don't speak like normal people and it's noticeable. It makes it hard to care about the characters when it gives me dialogue choices that seem to invoke bizarre responses. When asked by Aeris if I like her, I can say "No, I don't." or "It's not that..." What does the second one even mean? Why would I say that in response to a yes or no question? It's not what? Yet, saying this makes Aeris happy somehow. Frankly, if I got that response from somebody I just confessed my affections for, I'd be pretty confused.
I know, I know. This could be a hard time for all of us but frankly, it needs to be done. Too long has the game been held up as the mark of gaming perfection when, let's be honest, it has it's flaws. I'm not saying it's a bad game, it just could have used a little more work in a couple areas. Well, just like ripping off a band-aid, it's better to do it quick and get it over with so lets jump right in.
1. The Sprites
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| Barret's super power: pronouncing symbols! |
2. The Battle Camera
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| Okay monster, let me turn to my left so you can hit my side. |
3. Translation
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| Student... riiiiiiight.. |
The conversation with Cait Sith in Golden Saucer after he betrays you is another one that's just beyond ridiculous. He throws the keystone to the baddies and then asks if you can just forget about it and let him come along. He makes an effort to convince you that he's not all bad by telling you that he's not all that bad. He then says his actions are all in the past and you should just let him come along. Cloud and Aeris have to think about this due to his betrayal about 30 seconds earlier... He then tells you there's no point in killing him because he's just a robot controlled by Shinra. If there was any question before, this is the moment when I would have taken the big sword and slashed this thing in two. Why would you continue to keep a spy around that's obviously working with Shinra? It makes NO SENSE!!! Sure, he says how he's got the kid hostage so they have to do what he says but he doesn't say this until about 2 minutes into the conversation. Why hesitate for that long??? I can only imagine that this is a translation issue or else it's some of the worst writing in the history of fiction.
4. Storyline Consistency
Throughout the storyline, twists and turns as well as character backstory tidbits pop up regularly but sometimes, I can't see how it all fits together. In the beginning, the game makes you think Midgar is the whole world, which is fine. The revelation that the rest of world exists is pretty cool, actually. But while we're in Midgar, we see flashbacks of Cloud talking with Tifa at a playground. Later, we find out Tifa and Cloud are from Nifelheim, on a whole different continent from Midgar. So, what was this flashback? When did these two kids cross the sea to vacation in the slums of Midgar? In fact, why did they go to Midgar at all? Many of the characters implied that they came to live in Midgar later in life. Who moves to a craphole intentionally? Barret took his friend's daughter, swearing to care for her and then takes her to the slums so he could become an environmental terrorist? Was this a sound parenting decision?
Vincent is another one that really bugs me. I know, there's more about Vincent later in this game as well as in Dirge of Cerberus but let's talk about the here and now. Vincent is chilling in some coffin where he can move things magically with his mind. He is obviously supposed to appear as a vampire when you first meet him. What's the point? Why have this obvious implication if it means nothing and has nothing to do with his character? Why does he move coffin lids with his mind and then never show this power again? Seems pretty useful if you can fling baddies around with your thoughts in battle. Also, his Limit Break has him transforming into a werewolf-esque character called the Galian Beast. Somehow, none of the other characters find this the least bit interesting. I've been playing with him for several hours and not once has it come up that this guy turns into a savage beast on a whim. Personally, I'd want to know what was up with this guy before falling asleep anywhere near him. At least the party is accepting, I suppose.
So is Final Fantasy VII all it's cracked up to be? Not really. The game's great, don't get me wrong. But the three character party, bad dialogue, ridiculous looking sprites and constant brooding are huge drawbacks on a game touted as the best game ever made. Frankly, halfway through the game and I have yet to see how this game is superior to VI in any way other than the environmental graphics and cutscenes.
Game on!
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