Zink
Smash Champion
Well, this game has been out for a few weeks, but seeing as it is a huge RPG and a big trendsetter I think a thread of it would work pretty well. Heed the title!
Short review: I like this game so far. It's the first numbered FF game I've ever played, and I can see why people like it. I think it merits a 9.5 or 9. That said, there are a few flaws- mostly stuff that has been "fixed" in later RPGs. Stuff like, it's often quite difficult to determine where you are supposed to go next. Multiple times I just walked around the world map till I got somewhere new. There aren't many times where the characters sit down and decide "Okay, we're going here next, in order to do this". Most often you just have to talk to everyone until one of them mentions the name of a town, then try to go there. There are a few other problems- like the learning curve. I found that the first half of the game (there's a very noticeable marker) was pretty easy, and I only lost the party on one early boss. Then the second half was much harder, and often I had to basically grind high-XP areas for a while just to progress. Either that, or you come up against a difficult boss that you need a certain spell or technique to defeat, then you have to scour the globe to find that technique. Finally, there's a problem I call the "Fire Emblem effect". There's lots of playable characters, but I find that one certain combination
is so effective that most of them are redundant and never see play. Aside from that, the game is great, certainly worth buying.
Anyway, I just beat the
for the
It was ludicrously hard, because he was so fast and did so much damage. Eventually I won because he has a limit on the number of "1000 Needles" attacks he can do, and he hit it just before he could kill my last party member. I think I need to hang around in the Maranda desert for a while- I need the XP and AP to beef up for the
, and I need the gil to
Luckily my party knows almost all of the spells currently available to me, although I think I'll need to find Reraise somewhere so I can survive the CT's boss's cheap Ultima spell. (that may well be the nerdiest sentence ever written)
Short review: I like this game so far. It's the first numbered FF game I've ever played, and I can see why people like it. I think it merits a 9.5 or 9. That said, there are a few flaws- mostly stuff that has been "fixed" in later RPGs. Stuff like, it's often quite difficult to determine where you are supposed to go next. Multiple times I just walked around the world map till I got somewhere new. There aren't many times where the characters sit down and decide "Okay, we're going here next, in order to do this". Most often you just have to talk to everyone until one of them mentions the name of a town, then try to go there. There are a few other problems- like the learning curve. I found that the first half of the game (there's a very noticeable marker) was pretty easy, and I only lost the party on one early boss. Then the second half was much harder, and often I had to basically grind high-XP areas for a while just to progress. Either that, or you come up against a difficult boss that you need a certain spell or technique to defeat, then you have to scour the globe to find that technique. Finally, there's a problem I call the "Fire Emblem effect". There's lots of playable characters, but I find that one certain combination
Terra, Shadow, Edgar, and Sabin
Anyway, I just beat the
Gigantaur
cactaur magicite.
Cultists' Tower
win Excalipoor at the Jidoor auction house.