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FINAL FANTASY Community Thread: XV Mainline Entries and Counting

Style

Banned
I beat it.

Fuck this shit forever.

Fuck the writer.

Fuck the staff.

Fuck the people involved.

Fuck the people who didn't say "no" to any of this.

Never have I ever seen a game so completely dedicated to burning whatever goodwill it had built up.

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Oh you. I almost want to play it now to see how bad it is.
 

Turin

Banned
I'm going to take the time later to really write it out, but in the meantime, let me put quickly into words what has me so angry about Bravely Default.

The first four chapters of the game are really, really good. There's a great adventure, solid character development, and the gameplay is challenging, but not cheap. There's progression and a building of momentum. Then Chapter 5 happens and the game slams into a wall.

But the thing is, I cannot in any way see a reason for why Chapters 5-8 exist. I mean, what happens there that either one chapter or some simple explanation from key characters couldn't do? The answer is nothing. There are very few, rare new scenes of any actual bearing upon the plot in those chapters. Mostly a couple of visits to the Sage, Ringabel getting his memories back and some harassment of Airy. But then, if Airy had gone evil right in Chapter 5, with the visit to the Sage preceding, and Ringabel explaining it all to Tiz before that, what would change? Nothing. Oh, sure, that noise about fooling you into awakening the Crystals again and again, but that's for the good, really. The villain fools you into it once, doing it 4 more times is beating a dead horse.

What's more irritating is that when Airy DOES finally expose herself, everybody acts surprised, even though we'd known for like, two chapters.

But I mean, SO MUCH of this shit was unnecessary. There were just scene upon scene of reused footage well into chapter 8. The whole time, though, I held out that there'd be an emotional pay out. A big CGI ending like the opening and some happy emotional stuff to leave me content at the end.

The final boss tries to guilt trip the player with "All this violence and trauma and bloodshed is entertaining to you and that's why I keep doing this!" except it isn't entertaining. By that point in the game it's unbearably dull. It's a remark that would've been more meaningful without the nauseating repetition of the game.

Incidentally, and this is THE final confrontation, by the way, they off-handedly bring up that Tiz is apparently being inhabited by a Celestial being. Whether that's the player or a God, I don't know, since the game brings it up at the very last possible second and never discusses it nor has anybody react to it at all. Then the ending happens and you get something unworthy of even FF5 or FF4. You get some bullshit FF3 stuff with two second vignettes of the cast splitting up back in their home world and not seeing each other again. (By the way, the game never bothers to explain why the cast opts to go all the way back to a world full of death and sorrow when they could instead go to the world where their friends and family are alive.) More confusing still is that somehow, in spite of Ringabell going back to your world with you, he appears to also be back in his own world, saving the first iteration of the team.

And then the real nonsense starts. "Guess I'd better give back what I borrowed!" Tiz says, before a light flies out of his body and he rolls over. Then "OH HEY THAT FAIRY FROM THE START WAS AIRY'S SISTER WHO WAS NEVER MENTIONED. BUT IS GOOD. EVEN THOUGH AIRY SAYS SHE WAS BORN OF OUROBOROS. ALSO YOU'RE IN A TANK OF WATER IN THE FUTURE WATCHING SOME GIRL DO KICK FLIPS. TA-DA. So not only does Ringabell's love for Edea never get closure since he apparently goes to a different world, but Tiz's relationships with everyone are mooted twice over with the implication that he was never actually Tiz and now he is awake in an entirely different era.

In conclusion, though, it isn't just that the game repeats itself 5 fucking times. It's that it does it for no reason. There's no point. No significant justification. It's this weird, unnecessary padding and bloat that the game would've been just fine without. Followed by an ending full of stupid baffling nonsense that wasn't hinted at and that ruins everything the game had built up.

I want to like Bravely Default, because the first 4 chapters are great, but I can't because the second half of the game is so awful I'm wondering if it isn't worse than FFXIII.

Well there goes any chance I'd ever play that. On a side note, this reminds me of the bitterness I had about the last 3-4 seasons of Dexter.
 

aravuus

Member
Dunno if it'll change anyone's decision to play or not play BD but thanks to the awesome encounter rate option, you can speed through from chapter 5's beginning to the final dungeon in a couple of hours. In gameplay hours, the first 4 chapters took me around 40 hours I think, the rest of the game maybe 4 or 5.

I agree with almost everything Corvo has been writing about BD, it has a lot of flaws but I still think it's very much worth playing for the first 4 chapters. The plot is nonexistent, but it's still a grand adventure with lots of fun characters and practically a perfected turn-based battle system.
 

Seda

Member
I did genuinely enjoy some of the optional boss encounters in chapter 8, if only because they were challenging (but not stupidly so) and required toying and tinkering with the job and party setups to defeat.

But right, everything about the structure of Chapters 5-8 really bewilders me. It's unnecessary, tedious, and most importantly, not fun at all. "My attitude towards the game probably shifted more rapidly than with any other game" is how I put it at the time. Corvo's thoughts on how the plot resolves are on-point too.
How Airy's betrayal is handled particularly doesn't make sense in how her actions are basically literally spelled out to the main characters, but for whatever reason they ignore it

There's still enough to like about the combat mechanics and supporting systems that has me optimistic about Bravely Second - assuming they can avoid some other boneheaded design decisions.
 

MagiusNecros

Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
I beat it.

Fuck this shit forever.

Fuck the writer.

Fuck the staff.

Fuck the people involved.

Fuck the people who didn't say "no" to any of this.

Never have I ever seen a game so completely dedicated to burning whatever goodwill it had built up.

I blame the Stein's Gate writer for wanting to write Stein's Gate again.
 

CorvoSol

Member
...Wow. That sounds horrible. I mean... wow.

How exactly is the whole "redo dungeons five times" implemented? And by reused footage do you mean they just play cutscenes over and over again as you redo the dungeons?

As per the ending
they dun fucked up

1.
You literally go through the same exact dungeons four more times. Although, like Muntu says, most can be skipped, you will still do the Crystals 4 more times each, two of which have dungeons.

2.
Yes, they just replay the same cutscenes three times or so after certain boss fights.

Dunno if it'll change anyone's decision to play or not play BD but thanks to the awesome encounter rate option, you can speed through from chapter 5's beginning to the final dungeon in a couple of hours. In gameplay hours, the first 4 chapters took me around 40 hours I think, the rest of the game maybe 4 or 5.

I agree with almost everything Corvo has been writing about BD, it has a lot of flaws but I still think it's very much worth playing for the first 4 chapters. The plot is nonexistent, but it's still a grand adventure with lots of fun characters and practically a perfected turn-based battle system.

No that's fair. You can skip a large amount of the bullshit from chapter 5 onward, and the gameplay will remain excellent. Bravely Default never failed to be a challenging game and there is an excellent amount of depth to the number of strategies you can pick to work through stuff. But I did turn off encounters and set the game to easy. Even so, the mandatory bosses still have inflated HP.

I did genuinely enjoy some of the optional boss encounters in chapter 8, if only because they were challenging (but not stupidly so) and required toying and tinkering with the job and party setups to defeat.

But right, everything about the structure of Chapters 5-8 really bewilders me. It's unnecessary, tedious, and most importantly, not fun at all. "My attitude towards the game probably shifted more rapidly than with any other game" is how I put it at the time. Corvo's thoughts on how the plot resolves are on-point too.
How Airy's betrayal is handled particularly doesn't make sense in how her actions are basically literally spelled out to the main characters, but for whatever reason they ignore it

There's still enough to like about the combat mechanics and supporting systems that has me optimistic about Bravely Second - assuming they can avoid some other boneheaded design decisions.

I agree with this, too. Here's my problem with the boss rematches, really. Aside from them existing, they come way too late, and the mandatory ones never do change. Which is to say, I liked Chapter 8's, and they should've been in Chapter 6. Chapter 5 should've had Chapter 6's boss fights, and Chapter 7 should've kept it's boss fights. Chapter 8 should've never existed then. Which is to say, I did think some of the later change ups were good, especially the party battles. But the actual mandatory bosses never change. It's just "Oh that silly Chaugmar, forcing me to do nothing for four turns!" five times.

STILL, I don't want people to forget the following about Bravely Default, for all that the game's second half is a horrid steaming pile of shit:

1. Excellent visuals the whole game.
2. Excellent music the whole game.
3. Excellent gameplay the whole game.

Personally, I think the problem is that the game goes on way, way too long. Maybe there's someone out there who skipped all the optional rematches who can comment about whether or not it feels less tedious, but I'm still really raw about that rip-off ending.
 

CorvoSol

Member
Closing thoughts on Bravely Default: Where the Fairy Flies

So, it is my intention to talk a bit about this game in a way that people who haven't played it can understand both the good and the bad and make a decision less influenced by my bitterness over certain aspects of the game. I want to really try and be fair here, but at the same time I'm not going to sugar coat things that I really, really did not like.

I assume by now all of you are familiar with the basic narrative here: first half good, second half bad. I want to take a moment to just briefly discuss why "First Half Good" though. The game begins and operates like numerous old school Final Fantasies do, and that emulation of the classic is to its favor. There are four crystals, they're in danger, and the evil empire is out to stop us from getting to them. The main characters bring to the table a fairly solid party: The hero is generic, and plays the straight man in most every prank. The heroine is a spoiled, self-centered brat whose sheltered world view clashes with the moralistic ends she claims to serve. The second man is a shameless flirt, and the second girl follows in Cecil's footsteps as a traitor to the Empire out to prove she's turned over a new leaf. What's important to note about the cast is that there's actually a fair amount of growth to them over the course of the game. For all that Tiz is generic at the beginning, his character becomes stable. Agnes eventually lives up to the compassionate stance her character ought to have. Ringabell, for all his flirting, is actually quite devoted to a single woman, and Edea learns that life can be much more grey than it appears. Their growth is thought out well enough, and for the most part executed in a way that endears them to the cast. The same can be said of numerous villains in the game: the perverse old sage's lechery belies a much more tragic past, the Templar's cold blooded nature hiding how kind he truly is, etcetera. Some villains, however, like the salve maker Qada, remain vicious the whole way through.

The world of Bravely Default is constructed over the course of the game in a dedicated manner as well. There are four nations, each with a Crystal, each with their own unique, silly fantasy customs and so on. There are wars, ancient cities, castles and crypts to explore, and the first time through it all feels like a rich, well-made return to Square Enix's halcyon days of yore. By all accounts it appears as though Square has learned from the lessons of their successes in previous hand held RPGs from the end of the DS/PSP era and made a classic adventure worthy of their forgotten pride.

I cannot stress enough how beautiful the game looks, either. From the game's excellent concept art to its beautiful locales, even the battles are visually pleasing the entire trip through. From collectable costumes to the diverse types of arenas one finds oneself in, Bravely Default never once ceases to be a stylish game. But then again, Square Enix has always prided itself on looking good.

Nor was there every any cause to feel dissatisfied with the game's soundtrack. From the bombastic world map theme Land of Light and Shadow, to the pulse pounding boss theme That Person's Name Is, there was never a bad song in the game. I felt, indeed, that there was an excellent variety and complexity to the soundtrack. Songs like Beneath the Hollow Moon could make scenes that perhaps lacked in writing more powerful through their own sincerity. The World of Scattering Flowers remained a personal favorite of mine, as well. The game's soundtrack could be somber, vibrant, thrilling, moving, whimsical and encouraging at any given point in time. The only song I would like to say was in any way bad was "Love in the Crossfire" which, arguably, wasn't supposed to be good at all.

And not least of all is the way the game plays. Combat is turn based, meaning that once a round, commands are input and speed determines how each plays out. The Brave and Default systems are a spin upon this, allowing one to either fold a turn in exchange for more turns later, or use turns now, in exchange for folded turns later. Combat is, more or less, built around the effective use of this system, and with the game's numerous jobs and abilities, I consider it to be a fairly deep system which is forgiving enough to permit numerous strategies most of the time. Once or twice there can be some annoying bosses that need finicky special strategies to get around, but on the whole I found the game doable with just about any combination of job classes. I confess, to you, though, that halfway through the game I changed the difficulty to easy, but I will explain that in a moment.

The point is, given the above, Bravely Default had the perfect set up to be a game I would love forever after. Great music, great visuals, a solid story and cast, and an engaging change to the usual turn based battle system which was challenging but not frustrating.

Much of this changed in the second half, though, for reasons I will attempt to keep as free of spoilers as I possibly can.

Let us say that there is a twist occurring exactly half-way through the game. A twist which, in spite of my efforts, there isn't much I can find to really justify. The ultimate point of the twist is to stress to you that the bad guys are really, really evil because they're doing something really evil a whole, whole lot. In depth, that means
that the point of the time loop as I understood it was to stress Ouroboros' evil to the player by showing them the numerous worlds in existence, and to set up the finale's inclusion of heroes from yet other worlds coming to your aid.
The reason I don't find this particularly necessary is because I feel the story had already put in place the proper elements to address this point without the need for repetition for emphasis' sake. That is,
I think that Ringabell's entire backstory was firm enough to demonstrate the existence of multiple worlds to the player, and get the point across without forcing them to replay the game four more times.
But I think, generously, that the same points could all be achieved in one chapter, rather than four. The game becomes incredibly repetitive, you see, but it isn't the repetition alone that is the problem. It's the execution of that repetition that is truly problematic.

I apologize that here I must explain in more detailed form what I mean to those who understand just what I've been discussing.

The fifth chapter could easily contain all of the variant boss fights, visits to the Sage, and conversations with Ringabell. There is no need to stretch them out over so many continued worlds.
What's worse about all of this is, as I have mentioned before, that so little seems to effect the cast. Scenes are replayed, dungeons are reused, bosses are refought with no change at all several times. All of this repetition could be justified if the story had but tried.
The party knows that things in advance, so why do they never aim to try to save Olivia, to rout the noble foes in different, less lethal ways, and to stop the enemy to save lives? They only do this once (twice) with the Ninja subquest, when their foreknowledge could have helped make the world a better place. If the repetition had but influenced the cast's actions in an effort to change things for the better. The Conjurer's Asterisk could have covered the entirety of the chapter, or have been revamped into this supposed better fifth chapter.

Ultimately, though, one simply questions the need for at least two of the chapters when so little reaction from the cast occurs, and so many scenes are reused after they have ceased to make any sense, and when these chapters have no bearing on the final chapter anyway. It really is as easy as that. An added annoyance is that
many of the enemies you had previously fought return far stronger. Which is a term to mean longer, in this case. Enemies don't really change in any way. They just do more damage, take less, and have more HP. Which is why I set the game to easy. Because it didn't change the difficulty, it just shortened the years I would spend fighting a boss.

For all that I dislike the repetition and for all the noise I have made of it, though, I should stress that nearly all of it can be skipped over, and that you may proceed at a far, far quicker pace to the end of the game than I did. You will still suffer some repetition, but it would be markedly less than I did. And with that in mind, I certainly could have been content to let bygones be bygones and feel much less ill will than I presently do.

The problem, though, is the game's finale. Although the final battles of the game are well done and indeed rank among the best moments in the game, I think this only serves to make the ending's cut more painful. Because the abrupt, vague nature of the ending somehow manages to destroy numerous parts of the game's character relationships which had been building from the beginning without providing any explanation or solace whatsoever, seemingly for the sake of a trademark vague Square Enix sequel hook.

Putting the point in what I did not like about the ending,
I hated that they left it entirely ambiguous over whether Tiz was ever actually himself, or if he was a Celestial Being. I hated that the entire concept of Celestial Beings was introduced at the very last minute, given how important it became to Tiz's ending. I hated that somehow Ringabell wound up back in his original homeworld in spite of the Great Chasm closing forever with him in the game's beginning world and I hated that this meant that Ringabell and the Edea of our adventure were now separated beyond the boundaries of explanation. In one fell swoop the relationships between Tiz and Agnes and Edea and Ringabell were cast entirely into doubt and suspicion and then rendered further moot by an insane time skip sequel hook. All the ending had to do was show Tiz, Agnes, Edea and Ringabell meeting up happily in Caldisla and smiling into the distance, possibly at sunset over the water to mirror FF1's opening, for me to feel entirely content and forgive 30 hours of ill will. Robbed even of that, however, I have spent today with a sour taste in my mouth.

I realize there's a sequel coming, but I'm going to not going to rush to buy it the way I rushed to buy this, I expect.

In the end, though, I can't say I hated the game or that I would advise away from it. Unlike FFXIII or XIII-2, it's not a bad game. I'm not even sure if I can really say the story is bad so much as half of it is poorly executed/unnecessary in my mind. It's less that and more that I'm disappointed that this is what happened, because none of it needed to. The game could have gone so much better, and I'm mostly left wondering why this happened. How could no one involved have stood up and put in the effort to prevent these strange and bad choices from happening?

I think that the worst part is that I really just don't know what to think of Bravely Default now. Half of the game is incredible, and the other half frustrates me quite handily.
 
Excellent write up, Corvo.

Though I have to say, I can tell that you are as confused as you say you are on your feelings towards BD. It's a tough call: How do you classify a game why you loved the first 30 hours but disliked the last 30?
 

Falk

that puzzling face
Closing thoughts on Bravely Default: Where the Fairy Flies
Nor was there every any cause to feel dissatisfied with the game's soundtrack. From the bombastic world map theme Land of Light and Shadow, to the pulse pounding boss theme That Person's Name Is, there was never a bad song in the game. I felt, indeed, that there was an excellent variety and complexity to the soundtrack. Songs like Beneath the Hollow Moon could make scenes that perhaps lacked in writing more powerful through their own sincerity. The World of Scattering Flowers remained a personal favorite of mine, as well. The game's soundtrack could be somber, vibrant, thrilling, moving, whimsical and encouraging at any given point in time. The only song I would like to say was in any way bad was "Love in the Crossfire" which, arguably, wasn't supposed to be good at all.

REVO is definitely something of a great boon to Square Enix's music lineup, even if it's contract work for a portable game. That airship theme is something else. Rock + orchestral is something I felt that Ys always did better than any Square Enix franchise, and now here we are.

How could no one involved have stood up and put in the effort to prevent these strange and bad choices from happening?

I think that the worst part is that I really just don't know what to think of Bravely Default now. Half of the game is incredible, and the other half frustrates me quite handily.

I can answer this one in part out of personal experience, I think. In anything greater than indie games where one guy is in charge of everything, game development is a crazy complicated thing with many moving parts where one change here affects pretty much half of everything else in a ridiculously interconnected manner. It's quite often in game development that pre-alpha or even alpha builds simply are not fun to play while they're in development, and then everyone just assumes/prays/hopes/etc that it's simply because it's in progress, that systems aren't functioning as they should, that the narrative seems disjointed or too short or too long or whatever just because of temp material, etc, and that when the final product is done as per the original complete vision the game will actually turn out fun.

Sometimes it just isn't, in the end. Other times, what might have been fun gets castrated by running out of time/resources and the need to answer to shareholders, at which point you simply just release the game and hope for the best. Not that it makes BD specifically any less disappointing, but I'm trying to say it's not as simple as one person simply saying 'hey look, the game turned out to be quite drawn out in the end!' and then everyone going back to the drawing board. This is why the top brass who manage to turn out genuinely fun AAA games really deserve recognition, and it's something that honestly comes with an equal measure of experience and talent. And this is Silicon Studio's... first large project, I guess?

I was definitely mildly surprised that BD:FtS (/international) didn't change much of the dialogue/events/etc for the better and call it a Final Mix or something. I guess they were ready to move on to Bravely Second at that point. The encounter rate/speed sliders definitely made the game a lot more tolerable in the second half, though.
 

CorvoSol

Member
I was definitely mildly surprised that BD:FtS (/international) didn't change much of the dialogue/events/etc for the better and call it a Final Mix or something. I guess they were ready to move on to Bravely Second at that point. The encounter rate/speed sliders definitely made the game a lot more tolerable in the second half, though.

This is also something that I think people who are on the fence should know about. A lot of the bad, repetitive gunk is severely lessened by this. Like, I didn't do random encounters for half the game, and then turned encounters on to 100% at one point and spent like, a day grinding on easy to make sure I had all the EXP and JP I needed.

Excellent write up, Corvo.

Though I have to say, I can tell that you are as confused as you say you are on your feelings towards BD. It's a tough call: How do you classify a game why you loved the first 30 hours but disliked the last 30?

And I mean, the last 30 hours are themselves just this really confusing bundle because how everybody approaches them must be different. I think, in the interest of people who haven't played yet, it's really important to help them to know how to handle the second half in a way that will decrease their frustrations with it. Like, "Skip all the sidequests in chapter 5" and I think probably 6, too. Don't bother with the sidequests until they actually make things different. The idea was probably to ramp up the challenge, but to me it felt like that didn't work right.

As I played Bravely Default and to a lesser extent as I go through Type-0 this fifth time, I feel like both games could stand a significant amount of fine tuning. But it's like Falk says, I guess. It's one thing to say that, but it's another to really do it. Still, I can't help but wish that things had been differently. Especially about the ending. If the game had just
had a happy, worthwhile ending to give the player some closure
I'd have been fine with saying "Enjoy the first four chapters, speed through the last four." and left it at that. But that ending, man. Just a final slap to the face.
 
After playing XIV for a few, I hope we see more bosses like the ones in Crystal Tower. I love those crazy or outlandish designs like Scylla or Amon. Give me more like that
 

MagiusNecros

Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
Excellent write up, Corvo.

Though I have to say, I can tell that you are as confused as you say you are on your feelings towards BD. It's a tough call: How do you classify a game why you loved the first 30 hours but disliked the last 30?

Rather simple. The 2nd half of the game basically retreads the same actions over and over again. It's padding in one of the worst ways possible. Game would be more tolerable at 5 maybe 6 chapters with one retread with character awareness. 2 of the characters could have used more development as well.
 

SougoXIII

Member
Excellent write up Corvo. I agree that the game play is pretty fun, the world beautiful and the cast is non-offensive overall but I can't really say that the story (even for the first 4 chapters) is any where near solid. Chapter 5 onwards is what threw away my trust in the writer out of the window for everything. Everything in the game suffers the 'because the plot said so' syndrome where everyone act stupid and irrational to advance the plot. You have the 'villains' doing these horrible atrocities (and they're really, really disgusting)
Just look at the water crystal chapter for example: A group of insane squadron managed to brainwashed an entire city into spoiled, superficial brats that's willing to kill each other over a piece of jewelry and the leader of the city do... nothing to stop it. She have no power, no military force that can separate these shrine maiden from there poisonous accessories even though it should be freaking obvious day one what's the cause was. Oh let's not forget the Red Mage who can drug almost any women to obey his will - and any unfortunate implication that might have.

Now ask yourself, If it was that simple to take over the water temple, why couldn't they use another humane, less comically ridiculous method? (like, you know, just squatting in the temple? What forces can oppose them? Are a group of chaste maidens such a threat to them that they have to resort to war crimes?) No, it's there for the writer's own shock value, to put a giant neon sign on them saying: 'THEY B THE VILLAIN GUIZ' so that they can pull the rug under you later with their 'twist.' Then I realised that this is a world where brainwashing and mind control is an actual thing. This is a world where
Edea is willing to kill her childhood friend, her mentor and her father without even talking to them about the reason for their action. Oh wait she did tried and the answer was: 'You don't know what you're doing.' Fantastic.

So yeah BF could have been such a great game if only the writers could have taken their heads out of their arses and don't sacrifice everything for their 'neat' twist and finale.
 

CorvoSol

Member
Rather simple. The 2nd half of the game basically retreads the same actions over and over again. It's padding in one of the worst ways possible. Game would be more tolerable at 5 maybe 6 chapters with one retread with character awareness. 2 of the characters could have used more development as well.

This is pretty much the way I'd put it, with the addition that I'd have liked more closure in the ending.
 

Golnei

Member
So yeah BF could have been such a great game if only the writers could have taken their heads out of their arses and don't sacrifice everything for their 'neat' twist and finale.

That tends to happen a lot - the writer's so focused on creating a 'shocking' plot development that they don't bother with narrative consistency or properly developing the plot save for the twist. It's probably symptomatic of a lack of faith in the player/viewer/reader.
 

CorvoSol

Member
Final Fantasy Type-0

I need to retract an earlier complaint I made with the narrative, or modify it.
The Nameless Tome/Akashic Records are actually brought up much earlier in the game, just that they're mentioned in NPC dialogue in a town. You can rightly question the decision to do that, but it's better than the not being brought up or being relegated to a data dump somewhere else.

Just finished Chapter 3 again. The end of that chapter and the beginning of Chapter 4 are still some of my favorite parts of this game. I actually prefer the first playthrough to the Code Crimson missions for this section, though.
 

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
Just FYI. For those who play QuizUp, they added a Final Fantasy subcategory.

I keep on losing because of fucking Ivalice, I don't know crap about Ivalice and their terminologies are pretty hard to follow.
 

CorvoSol

Member
Just FYI. For those who play QuizUp, they added a Final Fantasy subcategory.

I keep on losing because of fucking Ivalice, I don't know crap about Ivalice and their terminologies are pretty hard to follow.

Doesn't help that Ivalice terminology got all weird post FFXII.
 

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
The Ivalice terminologies are driving me insane, it makes the FFXIII terminologies much more comprehensible.
 

Ambitious

Member
Back from vacation. Good to see that the PSN sales are still ongoing.

My last concern regarding FF8 and FF9: How are the German translations? Surely worse than the English ones, but are they actually bad?
 
The Ivalice terminologies are driving me insane, it makes the FFXIII terminologies much more comprehensible.

Oh please, FFXII explains it's terminologies without the need of a datalog if I remember correctly.

And even then it doesn't make the plot confusing. Doesn't make it exciting either though.
 

Grudy

Member
FF XII does get confusing but I find if you really pay attention during the beginning of the game you'll have a good grasp throughtout the rest of it.

Certainly better than FF XIII. Or maybe I was just bored and not paying attention after the first hour.
 

CorvoSol

Member
Oh please, FFXII explains it's terminologies without the need of a datalog if I remember correctly.

And even then it doesn't make the plot confusing. Doesn't make it exciting either though.

FFXII has a huge section of optional lore to read. It's not quite the same as XIII's "plot critical info here in obscure formats" but like, there's all kinds of stuff in the bestiary you won't find out without reading the bestiary. Like how the entire Church of Glabados from FFT is just a heretical cult of the prevailing religion in the time of FFXII.
 

Wazzy

Banned
Just FYI. For those who play QuizUp, they added a Final Fantasy subcategory.

I keep on losing because of fucking Ivalice, I don't know crap about Ivalice and their terminologies are pretty hard to follow.

Oh nice! I was waiting for it to happen. I was getting FF questions in the Sony category but was hoping they would make FF it's own.

Time to redownload Quizup!
 

jimmypython

Member
FFXII has a huge section of optional lore to read. It's not quite the same as XIII's "plot critical info here in obscure formats" but like, there's all kinds of stuff in the bestiary you won't find out without reading the bestiary. Like how the entire Church of Glabados from FFT is just a heretical cult of the prevailing religion in the time of FFXII.

yes FFXII bestiary reminds me of item description in dark souls
 
A question for anyone who has played FF Type-0 for the PSP. Does the HD version hold any appeal? Honestly I just wanted a spruced up Vita version.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
How the heck is anyone supposed to answer that when no one knows the scarcest details of the HD version
 

CorvoSol

Member
How the heck is anyone supposed to answer that when no one knows the scarcest details of the HD version

I assume the nature of the question is "would it be okay to play this hand-held game on a console?" and the answer is "I have no idea." I really enjoy Type-0 because it's like Crisis Core expanded into a full game. The game's story is definitely less character driven than Crisis Core's, and while it is also more disjointed, it's still infinitely better than The Third Birthday's. I'm making a point of only drawing comparisons within Tabata's own library because those make the most sense and will help you to have the best idea of what kind of game you're getting.

I have hopes for some alterations of numerous aspects of the game in the transition, but I think Type-0's base format is still a stellar advancement over Crisis Core and The Third Birthday in terms of gameplay. The world of Orience is still one I like a lot, and the game still inspires confidence in FFXV for me.

But as to whether the transition from a hand-held style game to a console one would work, I certainly can't say. At the very least, having a second analogue stick to work your camera will be a big improvement!
 
I assume the nature of the question is "would it be okay to play this hand-held game on a console?" and the answer is "I have no idea." I really enjoy Type-0 because it's like Crisis Core expanded into a full game. The game's story is definitely less character driven than Crisis Core's, and while it is also more disjointed, it's still infinitely better than The Third Birthday's. I'm making a point of only drawing comparisons within Tabata's own library because those make the most sense and will help you to have the best idea of what kind of game you're getting.

I have hopes for some alterations of numerous aspects of the game in the transition, but I think Type-0's base format is still a stellar advancement over Crisis Core and The Third Birthday in terms of gameplay. The world of Orience is still one I like a lot, and the game still inspires confidence in FFXV for me.

But as to whether the transition from a hand-held style game to a console one would work, I certainly can't say. At the very least, having a second analogue stick to work your camera will be a big improvement!

I can always rely on Corvo to read my vague posts and elaborate on them so beautifully. Ive been under a rock the last few months, so all I know about FFType-0 HD is that its on PS4X1.

It's true, we know little about the game, but I can't find myself being excited for it because of this strange transition from PSP game to PS4/X1 game. Square must be feeling pretty good about these new consoles, since they are putting out FFXV, KHIII, and FFType-0 HD, on both.
 

CorvoSol

Member
I can always rely on Corvo to read my vague posts and elaborate on them so beautifully. Ive been under a rock the last few months, so all I know about FFType-0 HD is that its on PS4X1.

It's true, we know little about the game, but I can't find myself being excited for it because of this strange transition from PSP game to PS4/X1 game. Square must be feeling pretty good about these new consoles, since they are putting out FFXV, KHIII, and FFType-0 HD, on both.

I would suggest seeing how they transition Birth By Sleep from PSP to KH2.5HD as an example, I guess, but I don't know.
 

Squire

Banned
FFXII has a huge section of optional lore to read. It's not quite the same as XIII's "plot critical info here in obscure formats" but like, there's all kinds of stuff in the bestiary you won't find out without reading the bestiary. Like how the entire Church of Glabados from FFT is just a heretical cult of the prevailing religion in the time of FFXII.

It's basically a codex in the style of a WRPG. The gambit system was an inspiration for the first Dragon Age, funny enough.

I like to think of Matsuno as the Japanese Tolkein. Ivalice is one of the richest worlds gaming has.
 

CorvoSol

Member
It's basically a codex in the style of a WRPG. The gambit system was an inspiration for the first Dragon Age, funny enough.

I like to think of Matsuno as the Japanese Tolkein. Ivalice is one of the richest worlds gaming has.

Yeah, the Silmarillion was full of all kinds of Elf chicks in forest bikinis and high heels.
 

Grudy

Member
FF IX
Black mage village is so wonderful. There's a clear atmosphere that the mages are enjoying their life here a lot, but still sad knowing they're all gonna "stop" in a year or so. I don't want them to die :(
 

aravuus

Member
I think I want to start a yet another FF IX playthrough

I have no idea what it is about that game that makes me love it so much. It has a nice cast of characters but nothing particularly incredible, the story is great but there's a bunch of JRPGs with stories I like more and the battle system is enjoyable but not incredible.

Yet I've finished it so many times I've lost count and I think it's easily my favorite FF game and one of my all time favorites of any game everrrrrr
 

Grudy

Member
I think I want to start a yet another FF IX playthrough

I have no idea what it is about that game that makes me love it so much. It has a nice cast of characters but nothing particularly incredible, the story is great but there's a bunch of JRPGs with stories I like more and the battle system is enjoyable but not incredible.

Yet I've finished it so many times I've lost count and I think it's easily my favorite FF game and one of my all time favorites of any game everrrrrr

It has vivi <3
 
Hawt.

On another note, I find it slightly annoying that the song that plays in the first part of Giruvegan from XII, isn't it's own separate song...lame!
 
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