General Final Fantasy Discussion - Final Fantasy XII remake incoming!

[finalark]

I swear Versus XIII will be the Duke Nukem Forever of Final Fantasy.

Its really ambitious for a simple spin-off. I legitimately believe that if Square wasn't so devoted to its mission of making FFXIII the definitive Final Fantasy for a new generation it would released as Final Fantasy XV.

I wonder if Square is going to do what call of the cool kids do these days and reboot the series by releasing a title as just Final Fantasy? Which would be silly because god knows we'd just call it FF (insert year it came out here).

 

[Minato]

I guess everyone forgot about this.

Spoiler

FFXIII was pretty much meant to be the face of FF and the center of everything FF related Square did for the next decade. That's why for a while they liked to slap the number XIII onto everything. Think of FFXIII as a semi-reboot I guess.

I actually don't mind that idea, and I think it's pretty great. Creating a set of games with possible connected lore sure beats adding more numbers for every new FF game. It's a shame XIII wasn't my kind of game, no localization announcement of Type-0, and Versus XIII taking too long to develop.

 

[LivewiresXe]

I actually had never even heard of that bit, so it's news to me.

 

[finalark]

I actually don't mind that idea, and I think it's pretty great. Creating a set of games with possible connected lore sure beats adding more numbers for every new FF game. It's a shame XIII wasn't my kind of game, no localization announcement of Type-0, and Versus XIII taking too long to develop.

If Square ever decides to localize Type-0 I'd expect it to be re-released on the 3DS or maybe as an iPod app or something. I think the thing that's holding them back is that they don't want to release a game on a platform that's pretty much dead outside of Japan.

I honestly don't expect Versus XIII to come out until at least 2015, maybe 2016 if Square decides that releasing it on the PS3 at that point would be pointless so they end up having to rewrite a ton of the source code for a new console.

 

[Jon Farron]

If you have the time to do so, you can grind your characters' levels to 99 and equip them with the Onion Knight job; their stats will max out, and if you equip them with Onion equipment dropped by the various colored dragons, you can make them neo gods.

Also, little known fact: You can break the damage limit in FF3 DS. Thing is, it will not display a number higher than 9999. Of course, I was only able to do this with level 99 Onion Knights dual wielding Onion Swords.

I can't get the Onion Knight job because my router isn't compatible with WEP :C


I need to get a PS3, I have had to "play" FF13 by watching Youtube videos... it's not the same :L


I have officially given up on FF4 DS. I decided to give it another try last night at fighting the final boss, got to lvl 74. Then I'm going through the dungeon feeling comfident , and find a chest I forgot to open. Big mistake. It was a trap, I got murdered ;_; Hate that game.

 

[LivewiresXe]

I know what you mean about "playing by watching" a game. I had to do that with Mass Effect 1 and it just doesn't seem right.

 

[Claire Diviner]

I have officially given up on FF4 DS. I decided to give it another try last night at fighting the final boss, got to lvl 74. Then I'm going through the dungeon feeling comfident , and find a chest I forgot to open. Big mistake. It was a trap, I got murdered ;_; Hate that game.

Yeah, they intentionally made the DS version harder than the SNES original by upping the stats and levels of all enemies and bosses. It's pretty unforgiving and vicious.

 

[finalark]

Yeah, they intentionally made the DS version harder than the SNES original by upping the stats and levels of all enemies and bosses. It's pretty unforgiving and vicious.

And as a result, more grindy since you really have to power level to actually stand a chance against anything in that game. IMO Square should start incorporating difficulty settings into their games. The only thing that they would have to change is the levels of the monsters and bosses depending on what you have the game set to.

 

[Jon Farron]

I think I'll just have to watch the ending on Youtube D:


Edit: 500th post! woo \o/ (after 3 years :S)

 

[Rickerdy-doo-da-day]

I have officially given up on FF4 DS. I decided to give it another try last night at fighting the final boss, got to lvl 74. Then I'm going through the dungeon feeling comfident , and find a chest I forgot to open. Big mistake. It was a trap, I got murdered ;_; Hate that game.

Give your characters some good augments - that ought to help. I missed out on a lot of during my 1st playthrough but ones like Bless can really help when it comes to MP management. I had Rydia perform Life's Anthem with Bardsong to add in some extra healing abilities. Slowing the battle speed can also help

I need to play this game again - at lvl 74 I would have thought all monsters would be ok provided you had good/the best equipment. What strategy are you using to fight things? Remember to cast Slow and then Protect/Shell/Haste right off the bat (provided the monster doesn't dispel it)

 

[Minato]

SNES original? You guys do know that the US SNES version of FFIV was made easier than the Japanese one. That's why the DS feels more grindy.
I kept hearing that IV DS was really easy because of the extra abilities (augments?) the game gave you.

 

[LivewiresXe]

SNES original? You guys do know that the US SNES version of FFIV was made easier than the Japanese one. That's why the DS feels more grindy.
I kept hearing that IV DS was really easy because of the extra abilities (augments?) the game gave you.

The funny thing is I always found the SNES version of FFIV really grindy. And it was annoying since I'm often one of those guys in RPGs who likes to have the party at full HP/MP going into battles.

 

[finalark]

Speaking of grinding, does anyone remember when Square tried to remove the grind from FF by making monsters scale with your level in FF8? The result was that the best way to play through the game was to level up as little as possible.

Good times.

 

[Minato]

Speaking of grinding, does anyone remember when Square tried to remove the grind from FF by making monsters scale with your level in FF8? The result was that the best way to play through the game was to level up as little as possible.

Good times.

Last boss was a pain at level 100 lol. It just won't die.

 

[Jon Farron]

Speaking of grinding, does anyone remember when Square tried to remove the grind from FF by making monsters scale with your level in FF8? The result was that the best way to play through the game was to level up as little as possible.

Good times.

Oh my god, they did that with The 4 Heroes of Light. It was a night mare. The monsters leveled up with you, including the bosses. And it was EASY to level up. I ended up being 99 by the end of the game from only random battles, and couldn't last more than1 turn with the final boss, it was horrible Q.Q
I did manage to defeat him after the 187th try with a full party of fighters using that broken multihit ability. (You basicly had to hope to kill it in the first turn or I was dead)


On another note. I BEAT FFIV WOO! \o/ I had forgotten something very important: Slow. Omg that move crippled the boss, lmao. Only did one big bang, and Rosa managaed to survive it and used Arise on everyone :D (so glad I gave her that augment that lets you do any spell on everyone) All Zeromus did was spam osmose and the magic effect null. But seriously, Slow is actualy useful in this game lol.

The ending wasn't that great though :L Still hate this game. BUT I feel accomplished. *shelves never to touch again*

 

[LivewiresXe]

Speaking of grinding, does anyone remember when Square tried to remove the grind from FF by making monsters scale with your level in FF8? The result was that the best way to play through the game was to level up as little as possible.

Good times.

I actually kind of liked that. And plus, you could Level Up and Level Down literally EVERYTHING if my memory serves me correctly.

 

[Rutger]

But seriously, Slow is actualy useful in this game lol.

The game is doing something wrong if status effects are not useful. :/

 

[LivewiresXe]

The game is doing something wrong if status effects are not useful. :/

Speaking of status effects, do you guys feel they should disappear when the battle ends (including reviving dead characters with 1hp), carry over after battle in all cases, or just somewhere in between? Like, if you're muted in battle, should you be muted once it' over unless you cure it?

 

[Lythium]

I like when status effects disappear after battle, but that's just my personal opinion.

 

[Rutger]

Depends on the effect and the game itself imo.

Dead should stay dead and I'd like to have my HP and SP left where they were at the end of battle, a big part of the dungeon crawl to me is getting by with what resources I have, get rid of that and I lose any sense of danger. If the game is fairly easy then I'd like the obvious one to stay, poison, silence, but otherwise I don't care too much on what happens with those.

I like my RPGs to make me earn my victory, so I'm happy if they can find a balance of being really brutal without forcing too much grinding.

 

[Minato]

The game is doing something wrong if status effects are not useful. :/

Speaking of that, which FF games had weak/useless status effects? I just remember VI being really powerful. Imp and Poison would work on various bosses. Vanish was ridiculously overpowered.

Speaking of status effects, do you guys feel they should disappear when the battle ends (including reviving dead characters with 1hp), carry over after battle in all cases, or just somewhere in between? Like, if you're muted in battle, should you be muted once it' over unless you cure it?

I like where they exist after the battle. Feels more like an RPG when I have to spend money on carrying items to cure status ailments.
It makes the experience of a dungeon much more fun by overcoming it.

 

[LivewiresXe]

Hey Minato, do you remember that Vanish/X-Zone trick you could do on 99.9% of bosses in FFVI?

 

[Jon Farron]

Speaking of that, which FF games had weak/useless status effects? I just remember VI being really powerful. Imp and Poison would work on various bosses. Vanish was ridiculously overpowered.

I like where they exist after the battle. Feels more like an RPG when I have to spend money on carrying items to cure status ailments.
It makes the experience of a dungeon much more fun by overcoming it.

I never used status effects outside of protect, shel,l and haste in FFXII. There really wasn't a need... and all the debuffs missed most of the time. =/


And I would like some status effects to go away after battle (silence, sap) But ones like petrify and poison should carry over.

 

[Minato]

Hey Minato, do you remember that Vanish/X-Zone trick you could do on 99.9% of bosses in FFVI?

Yup. When I first played the PS1 version, I was too used to the SNES's easier difficulty that I had to rely on that tactic on the PS1 towards the end. The statue bosses could one shot kill me since I was underleveled lol. I also remember flying to Triangle Island in the World of Balance and getting easy AP from the Intangr enemy since he always had Vanish on.

I heard they removed Vanish into Doom/X-Zone on the GBA version though.

 

[Rickerdy-doo-da-day]

On another note. I BEAT FFIV WOO! \o/ I had forgotten something very important: Slow. Omg that move crippled the boss, lmao. Only did one big bang, and Rosa managaed to survive it and used Arise on everyone :D (so glad I gave her that augment that lets you do any spell on everyone) All Zeromus did was spam osmose and the magic effect null. But seriously, Slow is actualy useful in this game lol.

The ending wasn't that great though :L Still hate this game. BUT I feel accomplished. *shelves never to touch again*

Slow breaks FFIV bosses

Speaking of that, which FF games had weak/useless status effects? I just remember VI being really powerful. Imp and Poison would work on various bosses. Vanish was ridiculously overpowered.

I like where they exist after the battle. Feels more like an RPG when I have to spend money on carrying items to cure status ailments.
It makes the experience of a dungeon much more fun by overcoming it.

Sap in FFIV is pretty powerful imo because you can quite effectively stall some monsters to death

And yea I agree that some status effects should carry on after battle - certainly ones like Death and Poision. I definitely wouldn't miss Silence going away though

 

[LivewiresXe]

Yup. When I first played the PS1 version, I was too used to the SNES's easier difficulty that I had to rely on that tactic on the PS1 towards the end. The statue bosses could one shot kill me since I was underleveled lol. I also remember flying to Triangle Island in the World of Balance and getting easy AP from the Intangr enemy since he always had Vanish on.

I heard they removed Vanish into Doom/X-Zone on the GBA version though.

I totally forgot about that tiny Triangle Island thing (isn't that later where you get Gogo?). Sucks they removed the trick but it totally makes sense that they did. At least they listened to the fans and didn't change Ultros's name to "Orthos" like they were going to. I also remember with FFVI, you could Game Genie/Gameshark General Leo into your party and he was like 100% complete, worked fine, and even had the proper sprite in the party select screen.

 

[Rickerdy-doo-da-day]

I don't think I've ever used the Vanish/Doom trick despite the number of times I've played FFVI

Not even on the Goddess. That evil, evil statue

 

[Minato]

Slow breaks FFIV bosses

I think I remember hearing that it was really useful against that Wall boss in IV? I really should replay all these FFs again.

I totally forgot about that tiny Triangle Island thing (isn't that later where you get Gogo?). Sucks they removed the trick but it totally makes sense that they did. At least they listened to the fans and didn't change Ultros's name to "Orthos" like they were going to. I also remember with FFVI, you could Game Genie/Gameshark General Leo into your party and he was like 100% complete, worked fine, and even had the proper sprite in the party select screen.

Yeah, it's the same Triangle Island. Intangir gave an easy 10 AP so I would grind there before finishing the Floating Continent. Too bad I couldn't let Shadow go there. Speaking of Leo, I remember Gau could use Shock from one of the Veldt enemies. Fun times.

 

[Lythium]

This conversation reminds me of one I had on a road trip recently.

Talking about all the ways you can break VI, good times. :3

 

[LivewiresXe]

Shock was totally broken if you think about it. Actually, if you cheated and had Leo in he had a permanent Offering relic equipped and would always attack 4 times.

That FREAKING WALL in FFIV was the worst though, I swear. Like, once it got close enough it'd just use Quake twice a turn or something like that, though for some reason this recent bit has me thinking of the original FFT.

 

[Minato]

It's funny how in FFIV, setting the game speed to the slowest setting could screw you over. The Wall boss and enemies casting Condemned on you were hard to beat since it would take awhile for your next action.

 

[Rutger]

The ATB system is pretty silly, but FFIV was my favorite use of it from what I remember.

Maybe because I had to really work with it to get anywhere, whereas every other use just feels like a minor inconvenience/annoyance.

 

[Rickerdy-doo-da-day]

I think I remember hearing that it was really useful against that Wall boss in IV? I really should replay all these FFs again.

It's useful against pretty much everything in IV. I made a habit of using it during my second playthrough and the difference in difficulty is very noticeable even with the limited augments I picked up
Slowing bosses down gives you time to recover if you're in trouble/underleveled. You're reliant on Rosa to keep the party healthy and her MP will run out eventually so switching to Pray + Cura from Cecil + Potions (+ Life's Anthem) is a viable strategy when the boss can't attack as often and Rosa is out of MP/ethers won't cut it

Even if the boss is one shotting your party members, you can still stand a chance by using Phoenix Downs/Life on dead party members and continually battering the boss until it dies (of course this doesn't vs bosses like Cagnazzo that can hit everyone)


You'll want to cast Bio on the boss as well because Sap is just a downright ridiculous status ailment

That's not to say FFIV is easy - Cagnazzo, Golbez and CPU got me a few times that first time I played the game
Honourable mentions to that ******* Dr. Lugae with Reversal Gas who makes it so healing spells damage you...this was before I decided to just use an elixir on him. Or maybe it was a Cure spell I can't remember

 

[Minato]

Cool. I'll definitely try doing that on my next playthrough.

The ATB system is pretty silly, but FFIV was my favorite use of it from what I remember.

Maybe because I had to really work with it to get anywhere, whereas every other use just feels like a minor inconvenience/annoyance.

I actually like ATB system. IV's was weird for me with its issues while the rest were great.
Chrono Trigger perfected it for me though because of the speed and easy access between characters.

 

[Rutger]

I actually like ATB system. IV's was weird for me with its issues while the rest were great.
Chrono Trigger perfected it for me though because of the speed and easy access between characters.

It just felt so pointless in the other games for some reason.

I don't know, maybe it's because I got into JRPGs with Pokemon, I just prefer a more standard turn based system.

Chrono Trigger is always cool, its use of the ATB system doesn't bother me, but that game is so easy that its battle system doesn't really matter.

 

[Jon Farron]

I like FF12's ATB best. It's actually ATB. Lol

 

[finalark]

I love ATB, its the closest thing a JRPG has ever come to forcing me to make quick decisions.

Unless you turn wait on, that just kills it.

 

[LivewiresXe]

It just felt so pointless in the other games for some reason.

I don't know, maybe it's because I got into JRPGs with Pokemon, I just prefer a more standard turn based system.

Chrono Trigger is always cool, its use of the ATB system doesn't bother me, but that game is so easy that its battle system doesn't really matter.

Yeah, I know. "What's this Lavos? You're going to try and be tough? Well, I'll just spam Luminaire and Antipode 3 thanks to my Gold and Silver Studs!".

 

[Jon Farron]

I love ATB, its the closest thing a JRPG has ever come to forcing me to make quick decisions.

Unless you turn wait on, that just kills it.

I only turn wait on during bosses :L

 

[Minato]

CT's so easy to overlevel. I think I got Luminaire towards the end of Magus's Castle with a tiny bit of grinding. lol
The last room where all the bats are chasing you, I'd just fight them and do Lightning 2, and then re-enter the room. Even maxing out levels doesn't take too long in CT. I think I maxed out and did everything but the DS extra content in 15 hours. This includes maxing out with tabs.

Also, DS version added some powerful equipment. Lucca had an armor where it nullifies a lot of spells or something.

It's too bad that Chrono Cross was even easier than Trigger.