General Final Fantasy Discussion - Final Fantasy XII remake incoming!

[Suspect]

Naw, you need to play through Dirge of Cerberus so you can witness how extremely powerful/broken Vincent really is

 

[Minato]

New article about FFVII remake http://www.gamesradar.com/ff7-final...ren/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews

It was to be expected. I do want changes in the remake overall, but I do hope I end up liking whatever the battle system ends up being. Just let me be able to control all of my teammates and I'll be happy.

 

[finalark]

Yeah, they had mentioned somewhere before that they were going to be making some tweaks to the battle system but it sounds like they're opting to go beyond tweaking and are planning on giving us something all new.

I really hope Squeenix doesn't overthink this. I'm pretty sure I said this in another thread, but IMO part of the reason why JPRGs suffered on consoles in the HD era was because devs were trying so hard to stay relevant by trying to "update" JRPG game play to the point where most of these "updates" ended up not really working in the long run.

If the sales of FFXHD, Dragon Quest IX and Bravely Default have anything to say, there are clearly a ton of people out there who still enjoy turn based combat.

I'm keeping my mind as open as possible with the remake, I just hope Square doesn't accidentally shoot themselves in the foot.

 

[finalark]

Sorry about the double post, but I wanted to share this really cool thing I found a local used game store.

Behold, a Japanese copy of Final Fantasy III for the famicom.

Spoiler

Sorry if it's not a very good shot since I took it in my car, but as you can see it came with the box, manual, cartridge and that little plastic holder thing. How much did this cost me? Five bucks. Yeah, I'm not much of a collector anymore but this was too cool not to have.

They also had a ton of other Japanese games there, mostly PS1, 2 and 3 JRPGs. If anyone wants to see them I can go ahead and upload the pictures I took of those too.

 

[Minato]

Japanese copies tend to be considerably cheap compared to retro US cartridges. Makes me want to just buy a lot for a nice collection. US prices regardless of supply and demand are inflated for the most part :/

 

[finalark]

Japanese copies tend to be considerably cheap compared to retro US cartridges. Makes me want to just buy a lot for a nice collection. US prices regardless of supply and demand are inflated for the most part :/

That can be said in general about Japanese games versus their NA counterparts. At that store I got FFIII at they also had Japanese copies of Vagrant Story, Suikoden I, III, IV and V, Breath of Fire III, Radiata Stories and a number of other games that normally go for $30+ all within a $5-8 price range.

I wonder if it's just because the collector's scene isn't as big as it used to be or if its because we're at a point where an interest in Japanese stuff has pretty much been phased out of American pop culture.

 

[dezeray112]

After watching the reveal of the remake of Final Fantasy VII, I'm a lot more hyped about the game.

Speaking of remakes, it seems like Final Fantasy XII remaster could be in the works?

http://gematsu.com/2015/08/distant-worlds-composers-says-final-fantasy-xii-remake-coming

 

[Minato]

I'm excited. FFXII was the last FF that I really really liked. I would love if Matsuno was on board and they decided to add even more to it. If they don't, I'm still hype to play the IZJS additions anyway.

 

[LasermasterA]

And in other belated news, Final Fantasy Type-0 HD is coming to PC. That means I will finally get to play it (I don't have a PS4) :D

And not have to resort to the (excellent) fan-translation of the original PSP game.

 

[finalark]

I really wanna play XII international. I'm hoping us westerners finally get our hands on it soon.

 

[Carrill]

Is Final Fantasy Type-0 any good? I've had an interest in it for a while but I've heard mixed things about it.

 

[Atrabilious]

I'd buy an FF12 remake just for the opportunity to play the IZJS improvements. I really enjoyed that game, never did get around to killing Yiazmat though.

@ Carrill FF Type-0 is quite enjoyable as a game. Combat is excellent, albeit it punishing if you don't learn the in's and out's. Large variety of characters to play as whom all have their own unique playstyle, something for everyone there. Playable summons add to the character variety. Tons of unlockables and side content to do.

I'd say the over-arching plot and the ideas behind it are very interesting and the setting is very well done, but in my opinion the actual delivery of the story is fairly unimpressive. The playable cast are either bland or irritating bar a couple of exceptions, most of them play off a very distinct quirk/archetype and don't really have much in the way of character development. Game requires multiple play-throughs for the player to have a solid understanding of the background story elements and why things are transpiring since certain story elements and cutscenes are inaccessible on the first run through the game and are only unlocked via NG+. NPC's and their motivations tend to be reasonably interesting (Kurasame, Cid, etc) but don't get as much screen time/exposure as they deserve. That having been said the game does a good job of painting the central themes, i.e. war and loss, and even with a less than interesting set of characters to play as it does succeed in showing the gravity of the situation.

For the record I think it's a good game. It just has a lot of short-comings in terms of interesting characterisation, it's hard to get invested in the cast since they're fairly 1-dimensional, and even the more likeable (IMO) members of the cast (Seven, King, Trey) don't really evolve throughout the story.

I bought it on release day and I'm happy with it, now that it's probably dropped in price I can't say it's anything other than a good purchase. I guess you could rent it if you're still wary of it.

 

[Jae]

I've never played FFXII in my life and have been wanting to since forever. This installment is probably one of the harder ones to access nowadays since it's still only been available for PS2, so the news of a potential remake excites me.

I do hope that it comes in some sort of modern form, be it a PS2 Classics or an HD Remaster a la FFX/X-2.

 

[Minato]

So a week ago I caved in and started playing FFXII IZJS on an emulator. Game looks gorgeous.

I have Vaan as a Time Mage, Balthier as Uhlan, Fran as Black Mage, Basch as Samurai, Ashe as Monk, and Penelo as White Mage. The job system adds a lot to the game. I'm able to have dedicated casters while making use of certain equipment I wouldn't have to use before. What the character can access early on in their license board really shakes things up. Unfortunately, Fran is again my least used character since she's held back on when spells become available.

With the game having a speed up/fast forward button, leveling up and exploring is so much fun. Had no idea you could go all the way to the Nabreaus Deadlands and Necrohol of Nabudis before the Ozmone Plains. I'm also doing sidequests and hunts this playthrough unlike before. I'm having greater appreciation of the world they built for this game.

FFXII was already a pretty good FF, I felt like. It feels great that there's so much content that's new to me.

 

[finalark]

After avoiding it for years I finally got around to starting a X-2 play through today. I have to say, I'm actually pretty presently surprised so far. I'm only a few hours in and I just got to Kilika. The story is really hit and miss, with a lot more misses than there are hits. Not to mention that there I times when I can just feel the focus groups oozing out of my television. That being said, it does have its share of good sequel moments that really work in its favor. Even if some of them turn goofy whenever Paine tries too damn hard to be cool in that terribly cheesy 2000s "I'M SO DARK AND MYSTERIOUS AND EDGY" sort of way.

The game play is what's really selling me on the game. The battles are really fun and the dresspheres add a nice amount of options when customizing your party. I kind of feel like XIII took a lot of inspiration from this game but attempted to streamline it. I also really like the game's efforts to make exploring more interesting with the ability to climb and jump to get around. It's not utilized as much as it should be, but it's a nice touch.

I'm hoping the game can stay fun all the way through, right now I'm feeling pretty optimistic about it.

 

[Atrabilious]

X-2's battle system is absolutely excellent, very well done and fun to play.

I just think the rest of it is... well, irredeemably awful. I mean the story is kinda there, and it had the potential the be awesome, but I felt like all that potential was squandered on cheesy Charlie's Angels-esque sequences, some really cringe inducing moments and just general goofiness.

That and I don't know what Yuna did to deserve having her characterisation dragged through the mud.

That being said, bar a couple of exceptions I've never really liked direct FF pre/sequels so I'm probably not the best measure to go by.

 

[AustarusIV]

Has anyone here played through Final Fantasy III from beginning to end?

I think I've only gotten through...one-fourth of the game, tops. It's probably the hardest Final Fantasy game I've ever played.

 

[finalark]

That and I don't know what Yuna did to deserve having her characterisation dragged through the mud.

I'm more disappointed by what they did the RIkku. Like, Yuna is barely Yuna but at least they got a few things right. So far the part where you return to Zanarkand only to find that it's been turned into a tourist attraction is the best part of the game in terms of narrative. It's almost like someone on the team remembered that Yuna is an introspective introvert who was raised her entire life to be devout in her faith, meaning she is very upset to see a once holy site turned into nothing but a joke, even if she's not religious anymore.

Rikku, though. If anyone's characterization got wrecked the hardest it was her. In X she was positive and quirky, yes, but she was also very smart and had genuine leaderships skills. But in X-2 I feel like an executive walked into the room and said, "Alright, it looks like cute, energetic are popular with boys ages thirteen to twenty so stick one in the game." Pretty much every other aspect of her personality is removed, her quirkiness is cranked up to eleven and they hyped her up on caffeine.

The story has had a few good ideas so far. Someone it actually explores what happens in Spira after the collapse of the church of Yevon, like summoners trying to find a new purpose in life, factions fighting to fill the power gap or how some people aren't willing to let go of their faith so easily. But the problem with the story is that the focus isn't on this, the focus is on marketable girls with a tone so far removed from the original that I sometimes wonder if the devs actually played X.

 

[Minato]

Has anyone here played through Final Fantasy III from beginning to end?

I think I've only gotten through...one-fourth of the game, tops. It's probably the hardest Final Fantasy game I've ever played.

Yes. The game's final dungeon is pretty difficult too. I recommend overleveling if you have to since you can waste so much progress.

 

[finalark]

Fact: Your entire party will be eating particle beams for the entire Cloud of Darkness fight. Especially if you're playing the Famicom version.

I also suggest rolling with a Geomancer in your party. It's a really underrated class that can do an obscene amount for 0 MP.

 

[AustarusIV]

Yes. The game's final dungeon is pretty difficult too. I recommend overleveling if you have to since you can waste so much progress.

That...doesn't sound good. I really want to finish playing it one of these days, considering that it's been sitting there in my backlog for a very long time, but I have a strong distaste for ridiculous level-grinding. Oh well.

 

[Jae]

Does anyone play A Realm Reborn / Heavensward here?

 

[finalark]

Does anyone play A Realm Reborn / Heavensward here?

I used to play a ton when AAR came out. Did a lot of end game stuff on my BLM. Unfortunently by the time Heavensward came out I was too swamped with school and work to really play it. I'm hoping I can find time to at least resub to get to 60 in the near future.

For the record, I play on Lamia.

 

[Jae]

I used to play a ton when AAR came out. Did a lot of end game stuff on my BLM. Unfortunently by the time Heavensward came out I was too swamped with school and work to really play it. I'm hoping I can find time to at least resub to get to 60 in the near future.

For the record, I play on Lamia.

I see! I'm pretty much the same (summer vacation, started ARR, school came back, rip subscription). This summer I did the same thing and finally managed to hit BRD 50 after all this time, now working towards NIN class. I hope that you'll manage to find time again to get to 60. It has got to be my most favorite MMO of all time, and probably my most favorite FF in recent times.

Jenova over here, just because my brother suggested it~

 

[finalark]

I was leveling a WHM with my buddy was was leveling a NIN. Healing gets hard around level 30.

I also had a SMN I was putting some time into. I really didn't care that much for the job but I really wanted that archmage title. Guess I gotta level astrologer now.

 

[Jae]

I'm a fan of the "Seeker of Truth" (if you can guess why, have a cookie!) title which I believe requires various DoM quests, though I haven't put in any decent time into them.

I've actually only played the DPS-based classes, kinda scared to try out the Tank and Healer ones. ;___;
Oh and yay me for buying Heavensward before completing 2.0 - 2.5. >_<

 

[Minato]

Final Fantasy XII Internation Zodiac Job System completed. I've always wanted to play this for the longest time. This is pretty much my 2nd playthrough of FFXII period, so a lot of time has passed since release. There's a lot to say about the changes and how I feel about FFXII entirely.

Story. Everyone that has read my posts here and elsewhere know that I really like Ivalice and FFXII, but I've always been disappointed at FFXII's development affected the overall game. Matsuno was the original director, things happened, and then he left. Game was in development for such a long time, and they had to hurry up and get people to wrap it up fast since the PS2 was getting old at that point.

Replaying it, the story was a lot easier to grasp. With all the political strife and factions, it's sometimes hard to keep track of what's going on at times. The first half of the game was fantastic. I even enjoyed it more this time around. The pacing was great, there were a lot of cutscenes that were nicely paced to keep me going. The directing done was really good too. Once you reach the Vossler fight, however, things take a turn for the worst. The story starts falling apart right at this point. Ozmone Plain and everything else south had poor directing, few plot development for both characters and the oncoming war. It's not until you get to Mt. Bur-Omisace to when it shows Vayne again. Important people die quickly and off screen, things get overthrown, everything just jumped way too fast after a whole lot of nothing. They mention Rozarria early on in FFXII and it feels like the game planned on you going there. All we get is Al-Cid telling us they need to stop the Resistance and Rozarria's war with the Empire. Once you head to Archades, things start getting sorted out finally with the story. The pacing is a lot better. Not as strong as the first half, but still good. The ending, however, was done really well, imo.

As for world building, Ivalice is the most well thought out world in all of Final Fantasy, easy. I've even had greater appreciation once I started doing the sidequests in this game. All the side characters that got shoved away in the main story had some relevance in part of this. There's also a lot to explore that I never got around to in the beginning. The sewer stuff was pretty cool as with some of the puzzles. I never traveled to the Cerobi Steppe until now, and that has to be the most beautiful section of the game. It's not even an important place. It's just an optional map just to link Balfonheim to another map.

Gameplay, so much has improved. If you didn't care for gambits though, you still won't care. IZJS simply improved what the game already laid out. You get twelve jobs but you're locked to that job and it's license board forever once you've chosen it. This is a huge improvement over the original. There was little reason to pick any equipment for mages. Game was about picking mostly knight equipment while getting spells, magic lores, hp lores, and potion lores. Now, certain jobs will access lores much faster. Less licenses also meant getting access to equipment easier instead of being stingy. I thought black mages had it really rough since they don't get stuff like Fira until Ozmone Plain. If you get all their magic lores and ways to regain MP, they're really fun though. Having half mp accessory allowed me to just cast firaga all day without running out. They also balanced out some of the spells. Spells like Cure is now AoE instead of just on a single person. A really nice improvement since now you have dedicated healers.

The game also gives you even more available gambits to use and it gives access to buying all of them at a gambit shop right at the very start. I really liked this change since it made experimenting with the gambits on certain jobs much more fun. Another large improvement is the fast forward button to speed things up. This made things a lot more enjoyable. Grinding became much easier along with travelling around. Being at a higher level allowed me to stray from the main destination and just explore some of Ivalice whenever I could. There are also some other small nice additions like being able to control espers and change gambits on guests. Quickenings got a big change. No longer do they multiply your max MP or even rely on MP to use. You gain MP much faster in leveling up. There's less need for players to go for quickenings licenses right away. They're still strong though. Now that they fill up by getting hit or doing damage, they can easily get more use.

Unfortunately the International version didn't fix all of my issues with the gameplay. One of them are techniques. I feel like spells got some good buffs by how they worked and how you can now find them in chests (which now respawn after leaving a room). Techniques are just not very useful. I tried using them with gambits and it didn't quite work out. Another is how espers are handled. Summoning espers and having two party members disappearing is still not worth it. I also hate how espers work on the license board. Some are needed to access licenses that aren't connected to anything. You're forced to choose and plan out who gets what and which esper benefits a certain license board. Quickenings do the same, but the license for it isn't shared like it was before.

Overall the game is a major improvement over the original. Definitely the better version. The changes made the game feel pretty fresh and helped better the pacing. Definitely a game for FFXII lovers though, haters of the gambit system and story won't have their minds changed by playing this version.

 

[Ryu Shimazu]

Was going to pop in to say I played FFXIV from 2011-2015ish. I got Heavensward and was running Alexander endgame and Ravana EX with Ninja, but eh. I found out quickly staying at the top of an mmo food chain ruined normal gaming, so I decided to call it quits for mmos. That aside, XIV is easily one of the best mmos to date.


On another note, almost done platinuming FFX, haha.

 

[Minato]

It's going to be awhile http://gematsu.com/2015/08/final-fa...-system-trial-error-phase#HCqCxYRiuPF42pW7.99

 

[finalark]

It's going to be awhile http://gematsu.com/2015/08/final-fa...-system-trial-error-phase#HCqCxYRiuPF42pW7.99

I'm not surprised. I know that Squeenix wants to try and modernize the battle system into something closer to an action RPG.

TBH, I'm not really feeling so hot about that. I know that Square likely wants the appeal of the game to be as wide as possible but I'm afraid they're forgetting that the people who are hyped for this aren't newbie, but long-time fans. I'm afraid they might be moving away from turn based because they're afraid that's outdated, despite the fact that games like Bravely Default and the FFX HD port sold very well. There's obvious still plenty of people who enjoy that kind of game play, so why attempt to so radically change it?

I'm mostly worried because IMO part of what put JRPGs into a rut during the HD era was this "turn based is outdated so we need innovate, innovate, innovate!" mindset. I'm just hoping Square doesn't end up forcing modernization for the sake of modernization. Although really, worse case scenario we'll probably end up with Kingdom Hearts with an FFVII skin.

 

[Atrabilious]

The only thing out-dated about the ATB system is the presentation. Nomura previously said that party member lining up and dashing back to their line-up after an attack was out-dated/silly, or something to that effect. I agree with him.

But mechanically it still works perfectly fine. If you want to 'modernise' the ATB system all you need to do is change the presentation. Have the team moving around the screen, make some nice flashy animations for attacks and magic, give enemies and the playable cast some idle animations and stuff just to make them look more lively (changing their stance, dashing around a little like they're feinting, etc). Like they do in FF13, but better. That's really all it needs. Mix that with an ATB system where you can control all character and you're golden.

What FF7 needed desperately in my opinion, is a better translation and better difficulty balancing through out. The original translation is pretty shoddy in plenty of places (so much so that there's an expansive fan project that re-translates the entire game called REUNION iirc) and the game is criminally easy. Enemies are just generally never strong enough to give you any grief unless you're woefully under-leveled, and even then just a rudimentary understanding of the materia system will smooth out any issues you might have. All the fun you can have with various materia combinations is mostly for naught seeing as you never need to really utilize it heavily to win. I assume those will both be things that will be addressed due to the combat over-hauls and voice-acting, but at this point I suppose the bigger questions now should be 'will the new combat be good/bad' and 'how much of the original script will get cut/kept' since I imagine voicing a game with the massive amount of dialogue that FF7 had is not a small or cheap matter.

 

[finalark]

The only thing out-dated about the ATB system is the presentation. Nomura previously said that party member lining up and dashing back to their line-up after an attack was out-dated/silly, or something to that effect. I agree with him.

But mechanically it still works perfectly fine. If you want to 'modernise' the ATB system all you need to do is change the presentation. Have the team moving around the screen, make some nice flashy animations for attacks and magic, give enemies and the playable cast some idle animations and stuff just to make them look more lively (changing their stance, dashing around a little like they're feinting, etc). Like they do in FF13, but better. That's really all it needs. Mix that with an ATB system where you can control all character and you're golden.

There's a semi-obscure Dreamcast RPG called Grandia II that does this. It's combat is similar to ATB, but while you're waiting for the bar to fill the characters and monsters will move around to give the illusion that they're feigning or trying to move into a better position. But if say the attack command is given the character will run up to the monster and slash them, but won't run back and will have the appearance of still being locked into an engagement with their opponent. I actually really like this since it retrains the strategic fun of turn based combat but gives you the impression that there's an actual battle going on.

What FF7 needed desperately in my opinion, is a better translation and better difficulty balancing through out. The original translation is pretty shoddy in plenty of places (so much so that there's an expansive fan project that re-translates the entire game called REUNION iirc) and the game is criminally easy. Enemies are just generally never strong enough to give you any grief unless you're woefully under-leveled, and even then just a rudimentary understanding of the materia system will smooth out any issues you might have. All the fun you can have with various materia combinations is mostly for naught seeing as you never need to really utilize it heavily to win. I assume those will both be things that will be addressed due to the combat over-hauls and voice-acting, but at this point I suppose the bigger questions now should be 'will the new combat be good/bad' and 'how much of the original script will get cut/kept' since I imagine voicing a game with the massive amount of dialogue that FF7 had is not a small or cheap matter.

I imagine to help budget itself out we'll get a combination of voiced cut scene and some bits with unvoiced dialog bubbles like in KH. Unfortunately, we have very little go off of right now as far as store and game play changes go. All we know is that the story will be changed so that it fits into The Compilation (Or The Complication, if you prefer) better. I'm not too worried about them cutting the goofier bits since it's not the 2000s anymore so ANGST ANGST ANGST DARK DARK DARK works don't tend to attract much of an audience these days.

As for the game play, well, hopefully Squeenix doesn't mess things up by trying too hard to modernize the game to make it "relevant."

 

[Ryu Shimazu]

Alright so, I finally near the end of the oh so time consuming FFX Platinum.

For those of you wondering I was using this guide.

http://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/final-fantasy-x-hd/guide/

The most notable (and only buzzkill, really) was activating every Sphere node with every character AND activate all those pesky nodes.

I'm down the bottom of the barrel fight wise; Dark Yojimbo, Anima, Magus, Penance, & the final boss. Yeah, Nemesis was cake so I'm pretty much done.

As for Spheres, every node has a +Stat, and Tidus/Yuna/Wakka (Aka the best endgame) are done. Auron and Rikku draw near, but god Khimari and Lulu. That brings me to the meat of this post, really.

Khimari Sucks. No he doesn't get better, he plain sucks.

Now I'll explain my reasoning behind this:

-Early on Magic is useful (later not so much), making Lulu a good character.
-White Magic/Summons are always useful, making Yuna a top three easily.
-Hitting hard and great Sphere placement, Auron is good until the endgame segment (A little further than Lulu, but not much)
-Having good placement and one of the most diverse OD's, Rikku is a beast. Argue-worthy to replace Tidus with, or Yuna.
-Best OD in the game, awesome Acc/Agi early on, and good skills, .... -sigh- ... Wakka is the best in the game. (Attack Reels, yo)
-Amazing OD, great story sphere placement, and easy to max out first, Tidus is a top three.


Now... lets get into why Khimari is just so bad.

- Sphere placement through the story. I mean the guy is the Red Mage ( a bad one ) mixed with Blue Mage (Also not great either) of this game. Some WHM, some BLM, he can pierce with okay accuracy, and learn some monster skills. Ultimately, his placement does nothing well.

- His ultimate weapon is 2nd (or third, if you hate blitzball) worst to get. Say you want this Dragoon/Bluemage/Redmage/Furry hybrid on your team, well that weapon is so much effort and hardly worth it! Far easier to aim for Tidus/Rikku/Yuna/Wakka (the ladder being the only difficult one) and be done with it.

- Worst Overdrive in the game. Now I know what you're thinking, nah man Lulu is worse. I disagree as I got some useful options with Lulu. Demi spam was fun, and often if done right hers still outdamaged Khimari's OD. Early on it's weak, Mid it's weak, and at the end well... Multihit>All (Go stand in the Auron corner, bro) Oh well, Nova looks cool, right?

So I have one highlight of this guy. When fighting the Choco Eater in Mih'en. Self-Destruct the guy for an easy win.

Why does this bother me so? I like quiet characters, I love Red/Blue Mages, and Spears are one of my favorite weapons by far.

;( I was hoping playing this at an older age I'd discover some usefulness for this guy, but dang.

 

[Atrabilious]

Yeah, Khimari is just pretty bad generally speaking.

I suppose his design purpose was to basically just be the jack-of-all-trades that you can mould into whatever utility you need him to be. In practice however it just results in him being a gimped version of whatever character you're trying to make him be, which largely begs the question of why even bother using him when you could just use the dedicated character for that role in the first place.

I mean the characters all start to become somewhat homogenous towards end game if you max out the sphere grid, especially if you're one of the types that goes for max stats too, but Khimari just never shines at anything in that lead up to end-game. He always ends up being my least used character.

His biggest issue is that his blue magic is his overdrive. If obtaining blue magic through Lancet was a universal sphere grid skill that he specialised in and could cast at will with an MP cost he'd be more interesting to use. They could just given him Dragoon themed overdrives instead of Blue magic and he'd have his own niche. Unfortunately he's doomed to be useless.

 

[finalark]

I get the impression that they gimped Blue Magic in FFX because a well built Quina in FFIX was a bit too good, effectively harming the usefulness of your two white mages/summoners.

 

[Ryu Shimazu]

^ Yeah, and what a shame. I'm at a point where Dark Jimbo/Anima/Penance are left (Nemesis is no more), and Wakka is just a god. My entire strategy can revolve around Entrust an OD from someone to Wakka for insta 450k+, lol


Edit: I never got too much into IX. Great Story, but that battle system was slowwwww.

 

[finalark]

Edit: I never got too much into IX. Great Story, but that battle system was slowwwww.

Pretty much. Admittedly, I know the game inside and out since it was the game that introduced me to RPGs meaning I played it religiously when I was a kid. Looking back, the story is great, I'd even argue it's one of the best in the series. But that being said, the game play leaves a lot to be desired.

But yeah, if you put any time into Quina at all she could potentially outclass both of your other support characters. She has a massive MP pool and can freely cast things like Mighty Guard, Angel's Snack (uses four remedies to clear all status conditions from the party) and Auto Life (for 14 MP, can target anything). The fact that FFIX is no where near as stingy with MP recovery items than other games in the series pretty much makes her one of the best party members in the game.

 

[Ryu Shimazu]

Pretty much. Admittedly, I know the game inside and out since it was the game that introduced me to RPGs meaning I played it religiously when I was a kid. Looking back, the story is great, I'd even argue it's one of the best in the series. But that being said, the game play leaves a lot to be desired.

But yeah, if you put any time into Quina at all she could potentially outclass both of your other support characters. She has a massive MP pool and can freely cast things like Mighty Guard, Angel's Snack (uses four remedies to clear all status conditions from the party) and Auto Life (for 14 MP, can target anything). The fact that FFIX is no where near as stingy with MP recovery items than other games in the series pretty much makes her one of the best party members in the game.

Most of the time I'm against remakes (Remastering is one thing I'm loving X on the Vita), but I'd love a remake of IX. I'm terrified of what they are going to do to VII since ATB is just so bad to the masses. (I need to play Bravery Default, lol)

In IX's case though, I think it'd be nice. A faster battle system, graphic engine, removing or making Excal II viable w/o cutscene skipping would be cool!

 

[finalark]

At TGS some interesting new tibits about FFXIV were discussed and revealed. Kotaku was nice enough to compile them into list form. A few highlights:

- The game will not feature multiple language options because they won't fit on the disc. However, offering alternative languages as DLC is not out of the question

- There might be some Gilgamesh DLC

- No Moogles in FFXV because they "wouldn't fit in with the game's atmopshere" (and yet Gilgamesh DLC is being considered, FF doesn't have to be all somber and emotional, Sqeenix)

- Chocobos will be in the game and players will be able to rent them to get around (seems kinda pointless given the car but I guess we'll have to see how they tie into the game play)

- The reason why we haven't seen a new demo is because Sqeenix has been busy incorporating feedback they got from the first demo into the game

- MINI GAMES MAKE THEIR GLORIOUS RETURN

- Square is considering redesigning the character's costumes (I would be okay with this, the cast all look pretty samey IMO)

- Type-0 might have been an M rated FF, but don't expect this to be a regular thing now. Squeenix is shooting for a T rating with XV

- No chocobo breeding, but there will be some combustibility to them

- Whether or not there will be airships in the game is (pardon the pun) up in the air

Some pasta with that sauce: http://kotaku.com/21-things-we-just..._source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow

 

[Minato]

- The game will not feature multiple language options because they won't fit on the disc. However, offering alternative languages as DLC is not out of the question

I'm really surprised that they were direct with this, at TGS even. If we get DLC, I'll settle on the JP voices since I'm more familiar with it and like it more. Maybe the English voices didn't click with me yet, but I'll see if I warm up to them. Honestly I'm spoiled by the voice direction in FFXII though. They're never going to put that same amount of effort again.

- No Moogles in FFXV because they "wouldn't fit in with the game's atmopshere" (and yet Gilgamesh DLC is being considered, FF doesn't have to be all somber and emotional, Sqeenix)

Honestly I thought they'd fit fine. They don't need to be everywhere. Small villages/wildnerness having moogles and it wouldn't look out of place.

- Square is considering redesigning the character's costumes (I would be okay with this, the cast all look pretty samey IMO)

Sounds good to diversify it a bit, but I'm really annoyed at the same time. They spent all this time working with fashion designers and CG renders that they're going to redo it all again? Also Noctis's dad's new design that was shown awhile ago is inferior to the old one imo. I really liked the whole suit thing and the face.

The game will probably be decent, but I can't say I am hype or have certain expectations of it. I just want the game in my hands. Either way, if things come out as planned, FFXV and Persona 5 makes 2016 a pretty good year.