Final Fantasy general

I'd take a PC version, but consoles are my preference.

Honestly, outside of the fanservice appearances in FFXIV (which, if our own Trivia page is to be believed, only happened because the game's executive producer is an unabashed Matsuno and Tactics Ogre fanboy), Square-Enix seems to be doing their level best to forget that the Final Fantasy Tactics series ever existed.

Edited by Reflextion on Jun 7th 2020 at 8:57:29 AM

I'll just stick with PPSSPP until a Steam port is ever released.

So I understand that some of the old limit breaks the characters had have been renamed or reimagined as new skills:

Tifa has Dolphin Flurry instead of Dolphin blow and an attack called Rise and Fall that is apparently similar (and named the same in Japan) to Beat Rush.

I'm wondering if they plan on replacing or updating a lot of the characters old skills.

Tifa realized all her attack names where sexual innuendos and got self conscious about it.

Don't forget Ramza's appearance in Dissidia!

C'mon! That's just....

Fine, but only Final Heaven.

I for one would love to experience Tifa's final heaven.

I really figured that Final Fantasy Tactics should have spawned an entire sub-series that would have ran alongside the other games. At least one a console generation. But it didn't really happen, all we got was Tactics Advanced which at least to me felt like a spinoff of a spinoff.

There was also Tactics A2.

Yes, I should have said "Spinoff Series to a spinoff"

I wouldn't say Square is doing their best to forget FFT given how frequently it's referenced or paid tribute to, even outside of FFXIV.

Agreed, in fact I wish they'd actually ignore FFT and gave Vagrant Story a little more of that attention.

Or just make a new Tactics game. Specifically more in the vain of A2, but hey, anything that isn't Tactics Exvius or whatever will do.

It's another thing that comes up now and then, but I also love Vagrant Story, and I would love to see a remake or a sequel.

That reminds me, there was an idea for a sequel: https://www.siliconera.com/vagrant-story-2-prologue-yasumi-matsumo-shared-twitter/amp/

Hell, I'd settle for a release of the original Vagrant Story on PS 4, or a new Ivalice game entirely.

Edited by artfulscruff on Jun 7th 2020 at 9:17:30 AM

Matsuno gave an interview a while ago where he said he wants to make FFT 2 because he feels like he's getting older and might eventually regret it if he doesn't - specifically sharing an anecdote that he goes to more funerals than weddings nowadays.

Edited by Draghinazzo on Jun 7th 2020 at 5:00:12 AM

Thank God I am still on the college graduation phase.

I'm up to chapter 3 on this FFT mod now and I'm really enjoying it a lot. That being said, some of the battles were kind of infuriating, most of which were the usual suspects from the vanilla game.

Dorter was horrible because of the Black Mages, but with shell I was barely able to outlast their MP pools. I don't remember Goug being that bad in the original game but it was super obnoxious here because it felt like even if just a single thing went wrong I was screwed, and Mustadio gets put into the fight with no equipment and always died in the first two turns meaning it was a 5v6. Lionel Castle Gate took me many tries and I almost screwed myself over on my successful attempt by accidentally lowering my own attack with the Orator skill on Ramza, but I managed to salvage it by luring Gafgarion to the gate so my other party members could reach him. I was expecting Cuchulainn to be a nightmare but much to my surprise it only took me about three tries, I had my two physical units wailing on him and with my white mages's revive spells I was able to buy enough time to just barely win while keeping all my units from crystalizing.

What I appreciate about this hack is that despite the level scaling on story battles, it's not so overtuned that you're going to screw yourself over by grinding just a little to get some more abilities or jobs to help you out, but of course it doesn't make the game a total cakewalk either since the enemies are generally more dangerous and have better abilities and equipment compared to the base game. I understand that absolutely no grind has its own appeal as a challenge run, but I find playing around with the different classes and experimenting more fun and don't appreciate having that be limited by level scaling mechanics.

It's also made me appreciate some jobs I never bothered with in my original playthrough of the vanilla game - I would have probably banged my head against the wall forever against Lionel if it wasn't for the Geomancer class, their damage falls off eventually but the AOE, decent range and potential status of their abilities helps a lot. Mystics/Oracles have an AOE Don't Act which is really huge and tide turning if you can land it. Summoner has come in real clutch since their spells do huge damage and will never hit allied units. White Mage has a damage spell that's weaker but costs a lot less JP to obtain than holy so they're more versatile. Also, while the Samurai's abilities have been changed I don't think they break your katanas anymore, so you have more incentive to actually use them.

Unfortunately I feel like Knight, Archer, and Dragoon, despite being better than in the original, still feel less useful overall compared to the other classes. I only really use Knight class for the tanking ability and once I got equip heavy armor, I don't see much reason to actively use them except for eventually unlocking the dark knight class (which mercifully is much easier to get in this hack). Archer was really good early game for the status infliction and ranged damage, but once you get access to guns and ranged abilities from other classes they're not as attractive an option. Dragoon meanwhile is still very one-dimensional, Jump does good damage but it really feels to me that the class should have had something more to it.

Edited by Draghinazzo on Jun 7th 2020 at 7:49:20 AM

Vagrant Story's an odd one. Even though Word of God is that it's dubiously canon, it just fits so well with the rest of Ivalice lore. Vagrant Story is essentially taking place in the twilight of Ivalice's magical age.

The localization adds a lot to the charm as well.

Vagrant Story is just about the best argument that a translation sticking as close as possible to the original Japanese script isn't a good idea.

One thing that always put me off of it though was how complex the gameplay looked. It's very much a game whose story I enjoy but not one I actually want to play.

It's the biggest reason I like it, personally.

I don't really find it "fun", not really, but it was one of the few genuine attempts from Square-Enix at somethimg completely novel.

And I respect it a lot, I mean, some of my favorite games I don't find fun to play either, like Undertale.

It's why I want a sequel so much: now that the experiment was done, time to polish.

Edited by HailMuffins on Jun 7th 2020 at 12:21:11 PM

Matsuno said he has some ideas for a Vagrant Story 2. Good luck getting Square to fund it given the mediocre sales of the original though.

I'd rather he would go the way of IGA.

Everyone loved Bloostained.

That strategy is pretty hit or miss.

He was involved with a kickstarter for a game called Unsung Story a while back but that turned out to be pretty shady. I don't think Matsuno himself was even that involved other than pitching some gameplay and story concepts to whoever was working on it.