Mac's Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary Journey

Macstorm · January 2017

Episode 1

Macstorm · January 2017

Episode 2 (this is text, not a podcast)

Scott Wachter · January 2017

MAc you broke the forums. you put up a thing with Final Fantasy in the title and got nothing.

Macstorm · January 2017

Twice...unless your post counts.

RealityChecked · January 2017

Fowl Sorcerous wrote: »

MAc you broke the forums. you put up a thing with Final Fantasy in the title and got nothing.

I'm just biding my time until he gets to FFXII so I can go off on him for saying it has the best battle system ever.

I guess to tide me over, in regards to Episode 2, I can continue to voice my dislike for job systems (if they ever created a game that incorporated both gambits and jobs, I would embrace it as a sign of the apocalypse). As you go through this, it will be interesting to see how you view the growth system mechanics (I recall liking IX's and X's systems the best, but I admit it's been a while since I've played them).

Macstorm · January 2017

Oooh, I can't wait to drool over FFXII's battle system. Will likely be at the TZA launch, but we'll see. Like I said, I LOVE job systems, but have a love-hate relationship with their implementation in most of these games. The MMOs do them best.

Clix · January 2017

So, do I take it that you want us to ramble incessantly about our thoughts on Final Fantasy games? Because, if so, then I can easily begin to vomit paragraphs of needless criticism and adoration on the majority of the main series games and a decent number of the spin-offs. Just let me know what exactly you are looking for before I go and make a greater fool of myself.

Scott Wachter · January 2017

there are norms that must be maintained, so feel free to post long tangents about the franchise.

Michael Baker · January 2017

I don't generally have much to comment on, since I think we tend to agree on those games of the series which we've both played. Now, if he decides to extend this discussion to off-brand titles like the Final Fantasy Legend series... we may have words.

Macstorm · January 2017

Anyone is welcome to share their thoughts on the series. Even better would be hearing about what you're playing if you tackle a mainline or side game.

Clix · January 2017

Well, to save time, here are my thoughts on the core series, which has not changed too much since the 25th anniversary:

FFI to VII

FFVIII to XIII

For FFXIV, I have still not touched it beyond a 2.5 hours cutscene video, which only covered 1.0 (up to the fall out of battling one of the Garlean Empire judges). Still need to check out the rest of pre-ARR (namely the Seventh Umbral Age events). Then of course there is ARR and Heavenward. Meanwhile, I should also check out Seekers of Adoulin for the final sidestory of XI. Lastly, I will get to XV sometime around the end of this year. I also will be chugging through Ivalice, finishing up those games. I am currently playing Tactics Advance, which is so far way better than Tactics. Sure, I miss the story and cast of Tactics, but I hated every second of playing that game. I actually like the system in TA. I will also be playing at some point TA2, Revenant Wings, Vagrant Story, and TZA (super hyped for that edition of XII, since I thought we would never get it back in the day).

Now, for my thoughts on the spin-offs and sequels that I have played:

DISSIDIA: FINAL FANTASY

I remember diligently following this pre-release as part of the 20th anniversary so long ago. It ultimately came out in 2009, and I played it in college. I enjoyed the battle system a lot, and the selection of characters was fine, though I did not like how much XI and XII got sidelined. Aesthetically, I really enjoyed Nomura's take on Amano's style. However, the story mode was nightmarishly bad. The majority of the characters were severely out-of-character, especially FFVII's reps (though not a surprise at this point given KH and the Comp). Also, the voice direction was mediocre for the game, which only made the bad story extra cheesy. As one of the five people on Earth who likes II, I dedicated myself to mastering Firion, which was a surprisingly good investment for the endgame.

DISSIDIA 012: FINAL FANTASY

I largely consider this to be a substantially better sequel (well, prequel). The combat is the same, but the expanded cast helped round out the play styles. The prequel plot was a tad better, but then the first game's story was recycled, wholesale. That was awful to go through again. Sadly, for the dub, the scenes were not re-done, so the better voice direction of Duodecim just went under the wayside the moment the old cutscenes were booted up. I still mained Firion here, since all of my experience transferred over. Sadly, I never quite got how to craft elite gear, so I could never get strong enough to beat Feral Chaos in the postgame epilogue segment. Overall, I will say that I do like the lore these games provide for FFI, and I kind of wish to see a reimagining of FFI with some of these plot and lore elements thrown in, since the original game is sparse on plot and characterization.

FINAL FANTASY IV: THE AFTER YEARS

I finally played this a few year ago since I found IV Complete in a store for $5. As the only person that thinks IV is crap, I largely was not profoundly disgusted by the terrible plot as I believe most were. That said, it is still terrible, and the new characters add nothing in the long-run. Seriously, the final party of IV is still the best bet for clearing the final dungeon of TAY. Also, I don't care what marketing says, Kain is the main character, not Ceodore. I enjoyed the various mini-stories than the final combine scenario on the Red Moon II: Electric Boogaloo. That said, the 2D PSP ports have probably my favorite art-style in the whole series, so at least the game looked really nice.

CRISIS CORE: FINAL FANTASY VII

So far, this appears to be the only positive highlight of the Compilation of FFVII, and I expect it to stay that way since I have no hopes for the FFVII remake. While the Genesis plot is a groan, I did enjoy playing as Zack, and everyone were actually largely in-character this time, notably Cloud and Sephiroth. Aerith felt a tad off, but nowhere near as bad as before. Also, for the dub, we finally acquired a good actress for Aerith. Hurray! The biggest problem with the game is that the assets were limited, leading to a lot of the sidequest areas being previous types of area but arranged differently.

FINAL FANTASY X-2

I actually like this game more than the original, since I don't particularly care for X. This is so far my favorite iteration of the ATB system, and I like the dressphere system, though I had to turn off the clothes-changing animations. The plot is okay, especially if you just accept it as a Charlie's Angels parody. Overall, I had fun with X-2, something that I did not have with X. Also, I have an eternal soft spot to Kumi Koda's J-pop insert songs, even if my music tastes have matured since then. Sadly, I never achieved 100% in this game. I got close, but I forgot to do the advertisement campaign and marriage hunt sidequests for one of the chapters, destroying my chance of getting 100% in my first playthrough. Also, Alchemist-Dark Knight-Dark Knight completely breaks the game.

FINAL FANTASY TACTICS

I love Fire Emblem, so, at the time that I play this when it came out on the PSP, I considered myself to be a fan of TRPGs. I have since learned that this is just not the case; despite being the grandfather of the subgenre, most series do not take after Fire Emblem. I found Tactics to be an utterly annoying grind devoid of fun. The difficulty was all over the place, and there was no semblance of game balance. I barely got through, and that's only because the game was merciful and hands the play Orlandeau as end-game insurance. Sure, I enjoyed the plot and the localization, but I just never once liked playing the game.

FINAL FANTASY XIII-2

Apparently I just like -2 games, because I also consider this to be better than the game that it is a sequel to. For starters, XIII-2 is video game, not an interactive movie and walking-through-a-hallway simulator. Following a guide, I completed the game's core plot first, sidelining most of the extra content. This kept me from being overleveled and gave me a large post-game to work with as I worked towards the Platinum Trophy. I actually like Serah and Noel, though I did use DLC to dress them up a big since I do not like their default outfits (I used the free outfit for Serah and the Assassin's Creed outfit for Noel, which actually worked out). While the plot was stupid, I felt like the two were legitimately trying to solve it and understand the wonky time-travel rules of this game, which made them actually feel like people and not soap opera characters. I only wish that Snow could have been the permanent third member, since the monster system was a tad lackluster, I felt.

FINAL FANTASY TYPE-0

This is currently the last FF game that I completed. I finished it back in February of last year. I overall enjoyed the game, especially since every party member played differently. I primarily used Trey, King, and Rem, though I was also fairly proficient as Ace, Machina, and Eight (so cute!). Honestly, I only sucked as Jack. I did not like the plot, however. I felt like it was trying too hard, if that makes any sense. Sure, a child soldier academy is not new to the series (see VIII), but VIII dropped that facet so quickly that there was never any real "war is hell" juxtaposed on the wacky daily life of high school. The tone of the game just bothered me, and the large cast, while fun to play with, were entirely too one-dimensional. Yes, that is a plot point, but I consider that a cop-out, much like a lot of the plot-induced stupidity of the FNC subseries (like no exploration in XIII, because the party is on the lam).

FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES

Weirdly enough, this was first title for the series that I ever saw. When I visited my cousin in Kansas in the summer of 2004, he had just bought the game, and I watched him play the solo campaign as a Clavat. Later on, I tried to complete the game with my best friend (at the time, no my one-sided archenemy), my younger brother, and his close friend at the time. Sadly, being 11-14, we lacked the means to scrounge up enough link cables and GBAs, so we could only have three players at a time. Naturally, this just did not work, and we never got too terribly far--may halfway at best. I played a female Selkie; it was weird being the fanservice character among a bunch of tween and teen boys, but I did not like the bishonen designs for the male Selkies. My friend played a Yuke, but he was the single worst player and a terrible spell-caster that just about always got us killed. For my brother and his friend, I just cannot recall who was the Clavat and who was the Lilty.

Years later, and I mean YEARS later, I finally started up another run with my roommate (SuccessorM) and a friend at the time (for those who read my main-series thoughts, this is the aforementioned crush from 2006--sadly, I fell for him again, so my friendship as recently come to an end as I could not longer settle with just being friends [New Years sucked, BTW]). It took us half a year to finally finish up this game. We had fun twice! The first session and the last session were pretty good. Sadly, all of the time in between was a complete chore. Once again, I played a female Selkie named Dagger, SuccessorM played a male Clavat named Steiner, and my former friend played a male Yuke named Vivi. The game was largely just not fun to play, and the magic system is crap. That said, this is not the worst thing the three of us have played together--no, we have been playing Secret of Mana since summer of 2014. Why is it taking so long? Because we can stomach 3 hours max at a time, and we got several months between sessions because none of us really want to play it, but we are so far in that we just have to at this point (seriously, we are outside the final dungeon as of the Thanksgiving session).

TheAnimeMan · January 2017

My issue is I don't usually have a lot of extra time to sit and listen to podcasts. I work a lot of extra and between 2 kids and shopping what little extra time I get is quickly eaten up. I can read something FAR faster then i can listen to them so that is why I have never really gotten into the whole podcast thing.

Macstorm · January 2017

Do you think these are podcasts? Have you clicked the links?

TheAnimeMan · January 2017

Macstorm wrote: »

Do you think these are podcasts? Have you clicked the links?

I admit I did not, till you said, used to anything around here that said "episode" to be one of the various casts. So now I will go through and read.

Macstorm · January 2017

I'll edit that next time.

TheAnimeMan · January 2017

Okay so having read through.

FF1, guilty pleasure and try and beat it once a year. Has to do with the original game being so hard cause I didn't understand how all the weapons and armor works along with it's super limited inventory system.

FFIII: Understand this one completely, despite my multiple attempts at it I just can't bear the slog.

FFXIV: Love it just can't afford subscriptions for 2 MMO's

FF Type O: Haven't gone back to this one due some other games I really wanna play first.

FFV: Another FF guilty pleasure which I really really enjoy.

FFIV: One of my top two favorites in the series and I love the Complete Collection treatment.

Macstorm · January 2017

Time for Issue 3 (no longer episodes to be less confusing).

imercenary · January 2017

I've been around the scene long enough to simply ignore most Final Fantasy "retrospectives".

Most of them simply boil down to "lets pretend I know what I'm talking about" or "rush through all the old and side crap and get to the stuff I like".

Macstorm · January 2017

Well, you've clearly not been around long enough to read what this is, as it's not a retrospective. But thank you for your insightful comment.

Orophin · February 2017

I thought FFTA was a decent game, (system issues aside) but FFT was really the pinnacle of Square's take on the TRPG genre for me. (despite the horrible localization of the first game, but I still enjoy the broken English over the Ye Olde English) I've dumped so many hours into FFT maxing out all the characters I wanted to keep. I'm sure I've gone over 200 hours in that game in *one* of my playthroughs.

I've found it hard to continue to log in to FFXIV every day after I've completed new patch content, but I'm ok with that. I have less time to play with a more demanding job and I've gotten over the OCD that seems to be required to play a MMORPG efficiently to "keep up with the Joneses" so to speak. Sadly, the social experience isn't quite there as it was in FFXI which kind of forced you to interact with other players in the way back days, but I just enjoy doing the main and side story quests while avoiding more of the grindier aspects of the game.

Macstorm · February 2017

I'm right there with you, Orophin. I like FFXIV for the story, but the social aspects aren't as grand. I have a great FC, but we only have so much we do together (dungeons, trials, etc.) since I'm not at end game or interested in it.

Macstorm · February 2017

Here's Issue 4

TheDoomhammer · February 2017

Heavensward stuff

Ha, ARF's not toooo bad a dungeon on its own, it does have a bit of a reputation though on account of people having run it fifty-billion times for lore tomes.

Part of me wants to tell you to push on to the end of 3.3 at least, since thats where the main Heavensward story really wraps up.... but I guess Stormblood really isn't that far away.

Finally, you should unlock the extreme version of the HW final boss and jump in blind, see how long you last. I think that might be my favourite fight in the game I've never actually beat.

Macstorm · February 2017

I do plan on getting through the 3.0+ content as soon as HW hits, as I want to maximize my experience. It worked great with HW, as I didn't have to grind that much since I was 54 when I started it.

7thCircle · February 2017

I thought the same thing. It's not that ARF is hard, but that one relic step requires up to 24,000 tomes to complete (there's some RNG to the total), and the most efficient way to rush that step is to run ARF repeatedly. It gives 150 tomes and can be completed in under 25 minutes. And that comes after a different relic step that can also be sped up by grinding the same tomes. And ARF comes up all the time on roulette. We dread ARF because we're sick of it; it's never been a place people wipe at.

If there's another free login in the spring and you have a few days to get lost in Eorzea, Doomhammer is right. You should make pushing through the end of the Heavensward story your goal. As you saw at the end of 3.0, everyone's still rather screwed.

You only saved about 3/4 of a level at the Aery grind by starting at 2.1. You still needed to do 57-60, and that's where it drags a bit.

Orophin · February 2017

I have an interesting parallel regarding getting a game for the demo that came with it. Back in the day I got Brave Fencer Musashi because I wanted to try the FF8 demo. Amusingly enough, I ended up liking BFM more than FF8...

Macstorm · February 2017

Issue 5 (FFTA2, FFXHD)

Michael Baker · February 2017

The one thing I really didn't like about FFTA2 was what it did to the law system. The cycle of laws in FFTA made sense, both in theme and in narrative: it was the manifestation of the queen's increasing protectiveness and paranoia. More importantly, it could also be effectively planned for, to either remove risks for yourself or place them on the enemies in the next big fight. There were means of adding or removing laws from the list, and the punishments were specific to the unit who got yellow- or red-carded, usually incarceration for the duration of the fight. Depending on the situation, it could be worth the risk to get a yellow-card if it meant taking down a specific enemy unit.

In FFTA2, on the other hand, laws are location-specific, and were impossible to bend to your own use because the punishments were meted out to the entire playing field, not just the offending party. There were plenty of times where I lost a battle not because of something I did, but because the other side broke the local law (and triggered a failure in that quest). The worst offender was that side quest against a group of Morbols on a field with a "No Status Ailments" law in place, but there were others. Even if it didn't immediately end a quest, breaking a law immediately put both sides into a state where party powers were nulled and battlefield resuscitation was impossible -- but those are two features that only the player's party even had, so the end result was that the player got penalized and the enemy side didn't.

Macstorm · February 2017

I have noticed and remembered that. I spent a lot of time in FFTA moving back and forth to manipulate the judges, but can't do that here.

Macstorm · February 2017

Issue 6 (FFVI, PSN)

Also, I'd love to know if you want these every week or just when I have a bigger update, which could be monthly.

Clix · February 2017

I don't know about FFVIPS1, but, if it's anything like Chrono Trigger, then it is likely running the ROM through an emulator... through an emulator. It just doesn't work. Basically, the original PS1 hard disc had the SNES ROM slapped on it and given an emulator software for the PS1 to boot it up through. Now, you are using the PS1 Classic version, which is ran through a virtual Emotion Chip (PS1 emulator). Ergo, you are emulating an emulator. So nope, not a disc problem that can be resolved through digital distribution, alas.

Also, I last used a team of Terra, Relm, Strago, and Umaro spamming Quickening-Ultima. So much death.

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Mac's Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary Journey

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