Final Fantasy general

Not for me.

People say the PS 1 F Fs all had slow battles but I never noticed or felt it in any of the games except IX. Even back when I'd gladly denounce FFVII as an overrated piece of garbage while also saying IX was the super-better game that more people should love, I never enjoyed IX's gameplay as much as VII or VIII.

edited 26th Apr '14 2:00:18 AM by Nikkolas

299 quests! Just one I'm missing...and I don't know what it is. Bugger...

IX had okay gameplay, if not for the combat lag. I really hated how noticeable it was after assigning commands.

VIII was horribly imbalanced, though. Magic is better hoarded instead of used, party members are far too homogenous offering little diversity and drawing is just about my least favourite mechanic ever.

I only used Draw for a couple early fights, plus the occasional later ones to get unique abilities, and relied on drawpoints and card transmutation for the rest. I was still powerful enough to ROFLOLSTOMP everything. Also, I never once used a GF.

I'm playing a mod of FFVIII right now and am having a lot of fun with it. I played the vanilla game again about a year ago using my own challenge run of pseudo-job classes. Basically Squall (or whoever the leader was at the time) would be the Attacker and could only junction to Str and Vit while the other two were both Mages so they did Mag and Spr Junction but they could each only use Black Magic or support/white magic.

I also never played Triple Triad.

I still beat every boss with no problem up until Disk 3 when I tried leveling up a Ruby Dragon to 100 so I could get Meteors. That...didn't work out so well.

Still, it was boring as shit. When you have to put all these restrictions on yourself to make teh game more interesting, the game fucked up. And if the game is STILL too easy even with those restrictions, you really fucked up.

The mod I'm playing is awesome though. I've never played Triple Triad much in my life but it took me about 30 hours to get through Disk 1 and dI'd say at least half of that was playing cards. It realy is addictive and I ended up going all Palpatine with UNLIMITED POWER.

Granted, the mod still makes it very challenging, which is why I love it. Nevertheless, Abyss Worms? Mesmerize? Very easy to get cards. 5 Mesmerize Cards = 100 Regen. Supersize your HP. 5 Abyss Worms? 100 Tornado's. Supersize your Atk or Mag stat. If they boost it this much in a rebalanced version of the gme, I can only imagine how they break the original.

It's easier to get Aga spells than the level 2 ones with Triple Triad. Blitz Cards are all kinds of common in Timber so there's your Thundaga. Snow Lion are pretty common so theres your Blizaga. Throw in the Tents for Curaga and you can't lose.

The mod also removed Vit 0 save for Doomtrain and Quistis' Bad Breath. Vit 0 really is a stupid status. Physical attacks are already the way to go in the game and now you made it so the bosses have no defense. Great thinking.

Is there any game where magic is more useless than VIII? Actually using your best spells will screw you over since you want to keep 100 of them for Junction. Just hold down the Attack button and you win.

That's a vid of the mod with me playing. It was about my fifth or so go with the fight. I know the quality sucks but even with it al down Fraps still made it run slow because my comp sucks. Still, it was quite the thrilling battle and I shit a brick when Edea pulled out Ultima the first time. Then her AI made her do it AGAIN right after so...I died. The mod really has made me appreciate game AI. For example, on one of my fights witH Seifer, he immediately started with Flare, which oneshotted Shell-less Squall. Then the next fight he never used it at all.

The best thing about Triple Triad though? The Kiros Card. THREE AUTO-HASTES. I can't tell you how much they have saved my life ever since I died a billion times to Fujin and Raijin.

edited 26th Apr '14 7:39:44 AM by Nikkolas

I keep seeing how people hate how slow are battles in FFIX, but I never noticed it.

I have a question: are there any people, who played XI? I have been thinking for a while to read its plot on wiki, but since I know pretty much nothing about it, it is hard to actually make myself to read. So, I was wondering: is it worth to read this game's plot?

Don't read it, play it. I haven't finished it yet, and I'm already suckered in. It really is a good game.

Seriously. I hate Triple Triad and all the BS sidequests associated with it. I never bother to find hidden draw points. I hate drawing during battles and I don't grind. I still have yet to die in FF 8 outside of the final battle. About the only saving grace as far as difficulty goes is that recruiting Doomtrain takes a bit of searching around since you likely won't know how to do it unless you read a guide or stumble upon it. But a crapton of restrictions and FFVIII still fails to provide any challenge whatsoever.

The only way that I've really been challenged in FFVIII is being at a high level (which happened on my first playthrough because I didn't know that enemy level scales with your level). Most of that difficulty probably came from it being my first time playing so I didn't know a lot of the game-breaking tricks.

Re: battle speed in PS1 games, I always turn the battle speed up as high as it goes, but I'm not sure how much it actually helps in terms of speeding things up. I don't really notice it after a while.

Oddly enough, Doomtrain gathering is the biggest problem I have in FFVIII(and only issue with the game). I love the Anti-Grinding aspect(this is coming from someone who loves to grind too) alone. It makes for something unique. The only specific problems that ever came up is owning a bad first disc(can't start or finish the disc itself), and I got stuck on Fujin and Raijin. Basically, I wasn't trained well enough/didn't have an optimal build and had absolutely no way to beat them at the time. Or my strategy sucked. Either way, they slaughtered me every time. It wasn't so bad to the point that I'd want to throw in a cheat device just to get through them(albeit, I didn't have one at the time. To clarify, I could not leave the town, which is why I was stuck. I would've simply trained Diablos to be Level 100 in general, but do little on my character training).

Mind you, I find the characters really fun and unique. Squall was odd since he had tons of personality in reality, just pretended to be distant instead. One of my favorites is Irvine, although he wasn't a great character gameplay-wise, he was funny character-wise.

edited 26th Apr '14 7:59:44 AM by Irene

I assume people mean the time it takes for the camera to stop flying around and let you battle, but it doesn't feel all that long to me, and the actual battle itself seems fine, so...

Then again, compared to say, FFX, I think I can see it.

edited 26th Apr '14 7:53:05 AM by TropayXion

I'll admit to using a FAQ to learn how to get Doomtrain. I had to use a FAQ for a few things. Never would have known about the Kiros Card without some online help. I personally don't think there's anything wrong with asking for help with stuff.

The hardest part about Doomtrain is the Malboro Tentacles. Steel Pipes you can get easily from Wendigo Cards and they are pretty common. Remedy+ are easy because you just need Remedies and by this point in the game you should have limitless Gil. I had a lot of Malboro Tentacles back when I was first playing TT like a madman but I wasted some of them on whatever and I didn't feel like grinding Cards so I dared to face a Malboro on Disk 2 near Chocobo Sanctuary. It was quite a little challenge but thanks to Status Guard )Status Defense X 4) from the Shumi sidequest, I managed to pull it off.

There is one pretty awesome thing I did manage to find all on my own. While going to the final Chocobo Forest, I went over some Esthar desert. So I thought "what if i turn Enc-None off? Bet there are some powerful monsters here." Cute Cactuar. Cute 20 AP from a 10-second fight. Quistis Level Down, Squall oneshots, and before you know it I have learned every ability for my G Fs.

Oddly, "you have to limit yourself and it's still too easy" describes FFVI and Symphony of the Night, two of my favorite games.

Also: I tried getting on FFXI, but every time I tried, it would "time out". Every. Single. Time. I tried again years later, but the instructions were confusing. When I figured it out (to a degree), it turned out it asked for my username and password, which I forgot a long time ago. I just gave up entirely.

Edit: Compared to every other FF I've played (except for VIII), IX really does have slow battles. There seems to be an eternity between the bar filling up, turns out the enemy goes first, you give commands, and, after processing that command for several seconds, they carry it out. It's hard to explain, but it's plenty obvious to me. It wouldn't be this slow if it was turn-based.

edited 26th Apr '14 8:09:58 AM by doctrainAUM

There's that, but even then, it seems a bit slow in general to me. Almost like lag, but not. It's never bothered me too much, though. This is a series with two minute long attack animations just for shiggles. You've gotta expect some theatrics in the fights.

@Nikkolas: I barely used an FAQ at first. I do actually have the Guide, since the game is full of Guide Dang It! moments. XD

Beat Brightmoon Tor 3! Actually lost someone in every level of the tower, though that's not really relevant given I have two summoners with Phoenix. Evade Magick is seriously broken in the Tower, as even the Keeper can't actually touch you (except with physical attacks). Without it I'd have been screwed though, so I'm glad I put it on all three Viera and my Moogle.

Massive anti-climax at the top of the tower it has to be said - two Blackwinds - neither with Critical: Quicken - and an ordinary Crushatrice with no Turning abilities and merely a crapton of health? Pathetic.

Also found the last mission - a House Bowen one that needs you to beat the Kthili Surveyors random fight, which I thought I'd done but haven't.

Ya know the reason I think FFVIII's plot has so many holes/badly implemented elements? They spent 90% of the development time sorting out all the items and what does what. This card refines into this kind of item which can be refined into this kind of magic or this other time and.... It made my head hurt for a long, long time. i was crazily trying to gather up spells and could not remember what did what.

They put more thought into Triple Triad then most of the actual game I think. At Edea's House right now and a cute touch they threw in ther ewas, when you ask her about changing rules, the options are "Yes, please" and "no, thank you." Because she's like his mother and he's being much more formal and pOlite with her than anyone else.

edited 26th Apr '14 11:35:44 AM by Nikkolas

It's still better than Suikoden IV where they kind of forgot to put most of the plot in the game. They had to make a sequel-spinoff thing to make Suikoden IV make sense.

FFVIII is sort of confusing, but they do give you most of the information you need to tell what's going on.

I did it! I beat the Final Quest! That last tournament that doesn't even have an ending, since it cuts to the credits as soon as you complete it.

The first two battles were relatively easy. I've beaten Cinqueleur before, and the second guys were just a (very hard) clan. Third one cost me a few guys but that's what having two characters with Phoenix is for, since the enemy needs to incapacitate both my Summoners simultaneously, and at least four times since everyone has an Angel Ring. I actually realised when equipping my guys that my Master Monk didn't have one in Brightmoon Tor 3 since the Moogle was accidentally wearing two, but it made no odds.

Fourth one - not as hard as it seems as long as you prioritise the fucking Juggler. Kill him and the Tonberry Kings can't be hasted anymore, and they fall easily enough to enough powerful physical attacks. The fifth was a total cakewalk because Evade Magick means that the team's gimmick of Ultima spamming doesn't work. That ability really is broken to all Hell!

Done it, at last, after some 600 odd hours put into the game!

The lightning plains (or whatever they're called) are giving me trouble. I've had characters being oneshot from an enemy ambush, should I go back and grind AP, or hug the save spot until I can install lightning ward/proof in all my character's armour?

Grind around the lightning rod at the start of the Thunder Plains with a save point, then go back to Guadosalam and get equipment with Lightning Ward. Or have Rikku steal heaps of lightning gems/marbles. Or both.

Square Enix wasn't kidding about having a marriage system in the works for FFXIV. Hope they allow same sex marriage.

Just beat Yunalesca without her ever getting a combat round. Time for Celestial Weapon hunting!

How?

Also, marriage in XIV is pretty cool. I don't play it but it would be fun to fight as a Battle Couple. I wonder if there are any significant perks?

Hastega+Auron, Wakka and Tidus dealing 9999 damage with each hit without buffs.

Way over-levelled.