Final Fantasy general

Yep. It's got some nice tunes, but I can already tell I'm not gonna play it. Ah well.

Random brainstorm I just had, but is it possible FFVII's leading ladies' names come from the term "Tiphareth?" In Jewish mysticism this is one of the levels of the Sephiroth.

Thanks XV for adding fuel to the lack of female characters fire. >_>

Apparently, Tifa is just supposed to be short for Tiffany and Aerith was chosen to sound like "earth".

edited 29th Jun '16 7:09:23 PM by Pulse

Aerith (Earth) is also meant to contrast with Cloud (Sky).

They would have done better to name her Terra, then, though they may have been reluctant to do that with a previous character having that name. Also, when I look at Aerith "earth" is not how I think to pronounce it. That first syllable, however you spell her name, always looks like "air" to me.

Terra is Tina in Japan, so it actually would of worked out. It's possible the localized name may have played a part in that not happening, though.

Doubtful- It's troubling recent to have developers and localizers talking to each other.

I used to always misread Aerith as Aether and thought that was what they were going for.

That is how it's pronounced. Air-rith. It's from "earth", but it's intentionally pronounced differently.

SE did a stream for Japan going over the E3 stuff and their pre-order DLC.

I'm grabbing that Blazefire Sabre if I can.

I thought the Tifaret thing was long confirmed?

I hope this DLC goes up for sale for everyone, preordering from 7-eleven isn't really an option for me.

We have different offers from game stores that were revealed back when pre-orders went up IIRC.

edited 30th Jun '16 8:45:40 AM by LordofLore

Let me clarify: I'm going to be smack dab in the middle of China from the end of August 26th until January 2nd. The only thing I can preorder is the Rise of Iron for Destiny, because that's a bit cheaper and the only thing I have room for on my PS 4. Retailer exclusive DLC needs to just stop.

edited 30th Jun '16 9:29:05 AM by TheAirman

It'll most likely be up online soon after launch.

Meanwhile, Final Fantasy 13: I'm playing through Chapter 9 and... man, the gameplay is boring. This chapter is a long series of fights with a few minor cutscenes and here it's really noticeable just how less interesting the battle system is compared to, say, FF 10 or FF 5. Oh well, at least I don't have to draw magics.

Now that the main characters have finished being at each other's throat all the time, I hope the story starts letting them interact with the main enemies soon.

XIII's system is pretty much a heavily streamlined evolution of XII.

Sorta, in some ways, but not really in others.

If nothing else, being able to assign custom macros like XII's gambits would've been great.

There sorta is one way you can save commands. Would've been cool to be able to bind multiple strings to different buttons.

I finally took a look at the record spheres in RK. Apparently for some of the characters you can increase the levels of skills they can use, or open up new types of skills for them to be able to use once you max out the spheres. This makes certain characters more useful, like Quistis, if I ever feel like leveling them up to 65. Kimahri could benefit from this, but he doesn't appear to be on the initial roster of characters that these things can be used on.

I was neutral on this particular update before, but now I'm starting to like it.

Re FF XIII. I think Chapter 10 is when you can start customizing your party and everyone gets access to every role (though you're better off just having them stick to their main three, IMO).

edited 30th Jun '16 4:06:51 PM by asterism

It's certainly expensive to get them into any level of competency in the newly unlocked roles, but it certainly helps. Because having similar roles in a paradigm will boost their effects, it's worth bringing in Medic, Ravager and Commando, for massive group heals, highest chain boosting and highest damage dealing, respectively.

This. Also, Fang+Light+Hope is the only party that gives you default access to every paradigm. Certainly not necessary to make them your primary team, even if you don't plan on grinding much, but worth keeping in mind if you're in a tight spot.

edited 30th Jun '16 5:33:55 PM by TheAirman

Yeah XIII's battle system is a super streamlined version of X-2's and XII's. You got X-2's classes boiled down to the core 6 roles and the ability to change in combat combined with XII's Gambits.

And I always liked Lightning, Vanille and Hope as my basic team. Especially once I got all 6 roles unlocked. Vanille is a much better debuffer than Fang is and high Sen levels wasn't all that needed outside specific fights. That's when I usually switched out Hope or Vanille for Fang.