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RPGamer Mailbag presents: Final Fantasy Opened Mind Second Chance
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There's a lot of long dungeons in the game, so don't neglect your MP capacity, either.
The leveling system is still atrocious: after each battle I'm crossing my fingers that someone in the party gained some MP or a stat boost. Otherwise that battle felt like a waste of time due to the lack of a complementary exp system and the abysmal amounts of gil the non-goblin enemies drop. The lack of an ingame indicator of how and when you get a stat boost and the seemingly random nature are the main culprits and completely unacceptable as this a remake. There were also a few farcial situations were I was almost begging the enemies to attack Maria as she was extremely lagging behind in HP. (33HP compared to Firion's 112HP or Gus' 150HP)
I will probably play some more tomorrow and go to Bafta or grind a few hours to get the Mythril equipment. But at this moment it's obvious that Final Fantasy II is a decent game (for it's time) dragged down by an awfull leveling system.
I've managed a little more time into Final Fantasy IX. I ended up putting it on my PSP, and having it portable helps. Now I can literally put it down and make a sandwich while battles load!
It's kind of cheesy but you can attack your own party members to work on their HP stat. The leveling system really isn't that random, you'll get boosts to what you use.
And, unfortunately, "straying too far and getting your butt whupped" is exactly what has been happening to me in FF9. What I remembered disliking about the game was the poor pacing. While that's there, I forgot about being straight-up punished for even slightly going off the rails. In a game--so far--with save points often tucked away in side rooms, this is not good. A couple other things have been driving me nuts, too, but they might get better. We'll see.
I'm not sure you're quite getting the open minded aspect of this challenge. FFIX, at least a large portion of it, is very much linear and intended to be so.
Complaining about punishing you for going off the rails kind of misses the point. Get back on the rails and come back with complaints if you don't find them to your liking. I'm serious when I say I'll be chucking all entries with typical complaints for any given FF.
Approach the games for what they are, not what you'd like them to be.
That wasn't my point, and I hope you're not expecting totally flowery responses from your entrants. I know this game is very linear, and I don't mind that about this series. At all. Hell, FFX is one of my favorites in the series. My complaint, if you want to call it that, isn't that the game is linear, it's that, as I wrote, even slight deviations aren't supported.
I'm talking about things like dying to normal-difficulty-then-suddenly-superpowered trash a couple of times because I tried to pick up a Blue Magic spell. Or, not realizing the book in Castle Alexandria's library was going to wipe the floor with me (and it's a battle you can't run from).
Me going into this game with an open mind was accepting the pacing problems and looking past them. I'm enjoying the more high fantasy than usual setting and the skill system, despite a few early hiccups with that. What I've recanted here are things I either completely forgot--it's been more than ten years since I've played this far into it and I have zero memory of much so far--or things I was not bothered by before.
Sadly that's just kind of a side effect from a lot of NES era RPGs. Saving often is not a bad idea!
I certainly don't expect a giant stack of flowery "I LOVE FF <Insert number> NOW!" responses.
That said, going into these games with an open mind means trying to look past ALL the issues to see if the overall experience is something you can enjoy. This instance is fine because it's something you hadn't remembered but it seemed like a good time to remind everyone that this isn't simply "replay a hated FF and send me your vile!" Carry on!
I actually did something like this a few years ago with IX. I went into it with the specific goal of giving it another chance and trying to keep an open mind (given all of its praise, though that praise remains inexplicable to me). My opinion of the game improved slightly, but IX is still a thumbs down entry for me.
That leaves X and XIII. I sold XIII, so no. X's got the HD version coming out, but I would never pay for that experience again. I've considered playing X over, but there's just no point. There's no "new" way to play it. With IX I could at least use a different set of characters. X's character-switching system is brilliant, but also a double-edged sword in that a replay doesn't lend itself to using different characters. And the sphere grid is too restrictive to "customize" characters in a different way than the first time around, whereas with FF3 I could at least grow a different set of jobs.
So, yeah. 1, 3, 9, 10, 11, and 13 are my thumbs-down games in the main series, and I can't bring myself to spend more time with any of them. Haven't played 2 or 14.2.
Good luck to those who give it a shot.
Nope, Because of FF4AY I'm completely burned out on ATB FF games right now. I'm avoiding them like the plague.
Umnn ok? Different strokes for different folks man. We obviously don't all agree. Many "underrated" RPGs are underrated for a reason, even some of the ones I like (SaGa is too obtuse for many people and that's OK).
Also this thread is strictly for discussion related to this challenge, so maybe start a specific "Final Fantasy sucks" thread in the Square Enix forum?
I figured as much considering the reuse of location assets!
I took a detour from FF9 into Bravely Default. I have a feeling I'm going to seriously regret trying a new JRPG with a fast-forward feature in the middle of this.
Unfortunately, the games I did not enjoy in the series, I have since sold so I don't want to subject myself to those games again and pay for the experience. I'll pass on playing FFXII, FFXIII, and FFXIII-2 again, thanks (and just skilled FFXIII-3 entirely). I don't play MMORPGs so FFXI and FFXIV are out. I am hoping that (for me) the bad streak ends with FFXV, otherwise I think I am done with the series.
The series changes often so can't see any reason not to keep checking back in. This isn't Call of Duty, XV or XVI or XVII etc. etc. etc. could be something right up your alley.
I swear everybody seems to forget that...also, Nojima, the scenario writer (meaning the main story, probably not the dialogue) behind the stories of FF7, FF8, FF10, Kingdom Hearts, FF10-2 (again, main campaign, not the side stuff), Advent Children, Kingdom Hearts 2, Crisis Core, Super Smash Bros Brawl (Subspace Emissary), etc, is back for FFXV.
Also yes, this does make me go on a tangent because people tend to have lapses in logic when it comes to Final Fantasy. I don't see you people doing this for the Tales series, Dragon Quest series, SaGa series, Mana series, etc. So knock it off.
That said, I have always agreed that all mainline FFs are standalone. I don't bail on the series just because I don't like one entry.
Twitter @FinalMacstorm
Hopefully they will, but to be fair Bravely Default has even sold remotely close to FFXIII.