Final Fantasy general

I mean, I'm still gonna hold out hope that any return by Aerith will be as some kind of astral projection or ghost or whatever and her body is still fighting-at-0-HP-and-tanked-the-three-best-spells-in-the-game levels of dead.

The planet in FFVII is actually called Gaia. But it's not really ever said in-game, outside of the area name Gaia's Cliff, misspelled as Gaea's Cliff in the English version.

I recall in the ending cutscene the characters say that Holy activated too late and is now helping Meteor instead of stopping it.

Though a theory I read a long time ago that I think is more thematically interesting that just being late is that Holy was designed to protect the Planet rather than protect humanity. So Holy decided to help Meteor wipe out Midgar to stop the Mako Reactors from hurting the Planet. So the Lifestream, the souls of humanity, had to stop them instead.

Wrong translation, since it is Bergan talking, not Vayne. And Venat was in the scene to explain why Bergan was so powerful. She has her part of responsibilities, but she just lent her power to Bergan who used it as a psycho would. In his place, any of the other Judge Magisters would have acted very differently. We are talking about the guy who gleefully beat down a colleague in his previous scene, while Zargabaath and Gabranth were clearly disgusted.

And yeah, Venat is no heroine, no one argues with that. But Vayne does not want Bergan the psycho to be the one in charge, he wants it to be Larsa. Vayne is much less genocidal than Bergan too, since he did not try to exterminate Dalmasca or Bhujerba even though he could.

Raithwall nuked his way to power in the past, now Vayne tries to make it so it does not happen again. He could easily have been the hero of the game with a different way to reach his goal. Instead, he does all the heavy lifting and takes the wrong moral decisions so that Ashe can remain heroic and keep her hands clean, while she ends doing exactly as he wanted in the first place - say fuck you to the Occuria.

Also, since you talk about Gabranth, note how Vayne does not ask him to attack the party, but to protect Larsa instead. Gabranth alone decides that the best way to do so is to kill Vayne, but never once in the game does Vayne threaten Larsa, even though after Drace's death he could have eliminated 1000 times over (he does not have any problem doing so with other people).

So you saying that he may be lying when mentioning Larsa is pretty much going against everything that is said and done by Vayne in the game for no significant reason.

Except that the game has Gabranth dramatically delcaring "yes, I will protect Lord Larsa!" while pointing his blade at Vayne. That's not even remotely subtle.

Vayne's quotes at the end speak volumes as well. "What am I to do with those who oppose me? But show them death!" "Treason bears a price."

Guess who was opposing him. Guess who committed treason. Hint, it's Larsa.

edited 6th Sep '15 7:29:15 AM by Nikkolas

Except that the game has Gabranth dramatically delcaring "yes, I will protect Lord Larsa!" while pointing his blade at Vayne. That's not even remotely subtle.

Vayne's quotes at the end speak volumes as well. "What am I to do with those who oppose me? But show them death!" "Treason bears a price."

Guess who was opposing him. Guess who committed treason. Hint, it's Larsa.

Vayne fell pretty hard down the slippery slope considering he was going to nuke the Dalmascan capital just to make a point about who's in charge. Maybe he doesn't want it now but who's to say he wouldn't kill Larsa in a year or two once power has gone even more to his head?

Raithwall did not nuke his way to power, he used the power he was given to unite the world in PEACE. Yes, with nukes, but we have no way of knowing how much he used them. For all you know he merely gathered together an opposing army and blew them into atoms. There's nothing saying he nuked cities full of civilians. If the real world is anything to go by, Raithwall probably only used his Nethicite once or maybe twice at most before the world fell into line.

But while Raithwall brought peace and a golden age to Ivalice, Vayne STARTED a bloody war and for no real reason.

edited 6th Sep '15 7:35:29 AM by Nikkolas

You know I generally like FF 6's GBA translation more than the SNES but there's one change that's bothering me now that I've gone back to the game. They should have left Meteor Strike as Suplex.

So Raithwall used nukes to bring peace while obeying greater powers, and he is a good king. Somehow, you also seem to assume that he used the shards responsibly - even though the Occurias have no qualm asking Ashe to exterminate all of Archadia if it is what is needed for them to reclaim control.

Vayne plans to use nukes (maybe, it seems than Nabudis kinda made them think it wasn't such a great idea) to bring peace and getting rid of the greater powers, and he is wrong to do so? I'd like to understand really. Because technically, if Vayne wins, there will be peace too. Especially if Larsa succeeds him like he plans to do, it's easy to imagine a golden age for Ivalice in this situation.

When he called for "those who oppose him", it's Gabranth and Ashe he is talking about. Since nothing in the earlier cutscenes ever make us think he is a complete moron, he had to be aware that Larsa was opposing his schemes (they even have a talk about it), but as he also says in another cutscene, he bloodies his hands so that Larsa's remain clean. However, in the final fight, he is against Ashe who, for all he knows, supports the greater powers he is directly ifghting, and Gabranth who betrayed him. Of course he will have such lines.

There is absolutely nothing but some kind of headcanon that hints at Vayne offing Larsa after the game. Nothing. From the middle of the game Vayne makes it clear that he is taking all the awful decisions so that when Larsa will be in power, he will be able to remain the good person he is. When he merges with Venat, he is facing a traitor (who already betrayed him to his father earlier) and the woman who embodies everything he is fighting against, and still his last order to Gabranth is to ask him to protect Larsa.

If you think that Vayne will become a power-hungry sociopath that will end up killing his younger brother, so be it, but it does not have any sold basis in the game, it is pure headcanon. I am pretty sure that Gabranth deciding to face Vayne has naught to do with Larsa, and more with finally seeing that Basch was right, and that siding with Ashe is the best way to ensure Larsa's future, considering that his entire story arc revolves around atoning for what he did as a judge.

So for all the Record Keeper fans, the latest in Soul Break celebrations has started. Missed the first day, but for those who could complete it, the optimal use of lithographs was 4/3/4/3/4, mostly on the principle eggs and $$$>upgrade stuff.

Other then that, FF IV event featuring Tellah and Golbez comin up!

The ++ fights are stupidly hard though, so you may just be better off aiming at + stuff at best. Isaaru as FTP is incredibly hard - unless Valefor using Echo was just bad luck for me, I don't know.

And since this ++ is Seymour, it boils down to having Carbuncle or not. If you don't, you're screwed.

I love how many references are in IX. I'll never get over how Zidane is basically Cecil Harvey, right down to being a non-human from space and having an evil brother as the main villain of the game that's hijacked by some kind of abstract entity of hate and/or despair.

Except way more awesome and not looking so much like all he needs is a dress and he'd pass as a woman easily. Oh, and the possible sexism that Cecil had at the end of the game.

What we didn't see was how Cecil told Rosa and Rydia to stay behind not because they were women but because, unlike Kain and Edge, they aren't assholes.

Yeah I bet Zidane isn't sexist. Iirc, whenever he isn't around, the second-in-command is Eiko.

Cecil's sexism is a bit unusual. He didn't have any problems with Palom, Rydia, and Rosa tagging along for the rest of the game. It only comes up at the very end.

I'd not put too much stock in it, considering how thoroughly IV dips into certain romantic chivalry cliches when it wants to.

Zidane does grab Garnet's ass. On accident, sure, but he just goes with it when it happens. And he has a Protect Girls ability, even though 1 of the 3 women he can cover is much bulkier than he is.

And then we get into the whole "is chivalry sexist" thing.

It kinda is, but it means well?

Well let's be fair here. What 15(?) year old straight boy wouldn't have that reaction?

edited 6th Sep '15 3:35:23 PM by Kostya

Zidane's 16

I guess, but he's more or less treated as an adult in every other regard.

My main point was that I personally don't find Cecil nor Zidane particularly sexist, though both have been less than perfect towards women.

edited 6th Sep '15 3:53:12 PM by Hashil

Cecil and Zidane aren't really that similar besides the surface level details of their storyline

I wasn't terribly bothered by Zidane's antics, or at least not as much as I have been by a lot of "womanizer" characters. (Ringabel, I'm looking at you). It wasn't like he was doing it every other scene, and only a few times (the aforementioned ass-grab thing being an example) did it feel like harassment rather than just flirting. It's not the kind of thing that's OK in real life, but it wasn't quite as bad coming from him because it's a relatively minor part of his character. He's clearly a good person otherwise.

Basically, I'm not totally OK with it, but I wasn't bothered so much that it affected my opinion of him. He's still one of my favorite FF characters. I also wouldn't call him outright sexist, even if his track record isn't perfect. He does seem to respect women as people when it comes down to it.

edited 6th Sep '15 3:59:39 PM by SapphireBlue

Ringabel was hilarious, though.

I really didn't think so. I mean, he was funny sometimes, but other times he just felt like a creep.

I never saw him as a creep. He was very evidently a ladies' man, his intro even showed that girls not named Edea were genuinely interested in him.

He was really funny (and being the best written of the BD characters didn't hurt).

edited 6th Sep '15 4:06:49 PM by EpicBleye