JRPG Catch-All

Quick question about some PSP (S)JRPGs. I'm currently playing Jeanne D'Arc and one of the things I like are the Free Fight stages. Basically, I like my team more or less even-levelled, so I don't want to focus on a single set of characters for the fights. Furthermore, I like being able to grind, if needed. A counterexample would be Fire Emblem on GBA - although there were levels where you could levelgrind, you could run out of weapons at some point in time. This sucked.

Now, are there similar options in Tactics Ogre: LUCT and FFTactics? Can I grind as much as I want (if I want to), and keep all the team more or less on the same Exp Level?

MsbS wrote:

Now, are there similar options in Tactics Ogre: LUCT and FFTactics? Can I grind as much as I want (if I want to), and keep all the team more or less on the same Exp Level?

Absolutely! In both games you can take time to go run around and find random encounters which function basically as free battles.

With Tactics Ogre it's a little different. You'll sometimes have trouble keeping everyone evenly levelled, because you're levelling the class and not the individual. So when you get access to a new class, it starts at level 1 and you'll need to assign one or two people to that class and lug them around to give them experience to catch that class up to the rest of your classes.

For the purpose of this game mechanic, some monster groups are treated as "classes" (like octopi, for example).

While you CAN grind in FFTactics, you have to be careful with how much. The Random Encounter monsters level up alongside you while story missions are at a set level. So while it may seem to be a great idea to be at Level 40 when the story mission is, say, level 32 or level 35, the monsters will also be at level 40 in random encounters and the game levels them up with the assumption that you have level 40 equipment.

Grinding Final Fantasy Tactics is what taught me to fear and revere Chocobos.

MsbS wrote:

Quick question about some PSP (S)JRPGs. I'm currently playing Jeanne D'Arc and one of the things I like are the Free Fight stages. Basically, I like my team more or less even-levelled, so I don't want to focus on a single set of characters for the fights. Furthermore, I like being able to grind, if needed. A counterexample would be Fire Emblem on GBA - although there were levels where you could levelgrind, you could run out of weapons at some point in time. This sucked.

Now, are there similar options in Tactics Ogre: LUCT and FFTactics? Can I grind as much as I want (if I want to), and keep all the team more or less on the same Exp Level?

What other people said. One cool thing in Tactics Ogre is that you can set party members on a routine for what kind of things they do with their turn. Then you can turn them loose in a random encounter to grind them. It has the same problem as FFT, though. Namely that you have to make sure not to bring in someone who's leveled much higher than the rest of the team. Otherwise you'll have to work harder to bring everyone to the same level.

Another quirk of Tactics Ogre is that you level the classes and not the characters. This is good in that it means you don't have to grind characters. It's bad in that it means you might need to stick with specific classes so you don't miss out on the chance to level them.

Did anyone get Unchained Blades on PSP? Any impressions? I'm trying to decide if I want to get it on 3DS next week.

Unchained Blades is a pretty good Wizardry style game. It functions pretty well to any other in the genre. The game is translated fairly well. The characters are flat. The artwork is nice and bright. The only thing that really bothers me is the dungeon variety isn't there but you can collect random monsters to fill out your party as well. It has a FFX style upgrade tree where you can spend points where you want and looks like a flow chart. You can customize your party any way you want.

Its not the best though. I would say its on par with Etrian Odyssey 1.

Thanks, guys. I always had serious concerns about 'difficulty scaling' based on EXP level. Especially if the mechanics are not clearly communicated. If the 'scaling' is based on your team's average level, then it pays off to have one character seriously underlevelled (to bring the average down). On the other hand, if the AI level is calculated based on your highest level character, then you get seeeriously punished for having just one or two 'favourite' characters, who are overlevelled.

Guess I will have to see for myself (I have both TO and FFT waiting in my queue).

ccesarano wrote:

While you CAN grind in FFTactics, you have to be careful with how much. The Random Encounter monsters level up alongside you while story missions are at a set level. So while it may seem to be a great idea to be at Level 40 when the story mission is, say, level 32 or level 35, the monsters will also be at level 40 in random encounters and the game levels them up with the assumption that you have level 40 equipment.

Grinding Final Fantasy Tactics is what taught me to fear and revere Chocobos.

This is very true.

The other downside to grinding in FFT is you really need to know what you're doing with Jobs, as abilities are generally more important than sheer levels. If you level up your characters huge amounts but don't pick very good classes/abilities for them, you might have trouble.

In case you missed it, Baroque, a JRPG rogue-like from Sting, originally released for the PS2 and Wii, has been ported to iOS. The first part of the game is free; the complete thing is $8.99.

I keep meaning to get this for the Wii. It looks really interesting.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

It looks really interesting.

Was that the one where you needed to die in order to progress through the world?

Yep.

Hmm.. I think I'll give it a shot since it's free to sample. Was interested in it when it came out, but I think some of the reviews scared me off from purchasing it at the time.

EDIT: Here's the link in the app store, since searching for "Baroque" came back with multiple results.

I've played the Wii version, and wasn't overall impressed. Interesting concept, but the execution was bland. That was back when it first came out, though, and maybe time has sort of skewed my perception. Maybe the iOS port helped with some of the clunkiness.

That Baroque kinda looks freaky. I'm looking forward to impressions!

Kotaku has a pretty great article about Xseed. I hope they continue strong.

http://kotaku.com/5971695/the-game-s...

Baroque was really fun and interesting, but I couldn't give it the time it deserves. You can find it used for the Wii for less than that ios price, too.

momgamer wrote:

Maybe the iOS port helped with some of the clunkiness.

I can't imagine a scenario where a game designed for the PS2 was somehow less clunky with a touchscreen-only interface.

Judging by the screenshots in the app store listing, it doesn't look like they made any attempt to redo the textures or models like Square-Enix does with their DS->iOS ports. I'd be surprised if they attempted to smooth the gameplay and not touch the graphics.

MrAndrewJ wrote:

Baroque was really fun and interesting, but I couldn't give it the time it deserves. You can find it used for the Wii for less than that ios price, too.

Too true as I bought it off Amazon new for $4 or some such thing. Still haven't played it since I never unwrapped my Wii after I moved. Still have. The Last Story, Rhythm Heaven and a few other games in the wrapper. I should get on that...

I just started The Last Story yesterday. Initial impressions extremely positive.

So....how about that Lightning Returns trailer? Everyone's excited for another Final Fantasy XIII story with Lightning, right?

If they fixed the problems they introduced with FF XIII-2? Totes.

walterqchocobo wrote:

Everyone's excited for another Final Fantasy XIII story with Lightning, right?

The combat looked like a nice hybrid between ATB and KH/VSXIII, but the NPC models looked eh (could be footage from an early build). Not sure I care that much about the story/plot since I haven't played the previous ones.

shoptroll wrote:

Not sure I care that much about the story/plot since I haven't played the previous ones.

There was a story/plot?

walterqchocobo wrote:
shoptroll wrote:

Not sure I care that much about the story/plot since I haven't played the previous ones.

There was a story/plot?

Based on complaints I've heard that's ALL there was to the game, broken up by long and linear periods of walking through a "dungeon" getting into fights.

Not having played it myself, I wouldn't know.

So... when are we going to get a new main franchise Final Fantasy game that returns to more of the classic (i.e. FF 1-10) gameplay of the series?

ccesarano wrote:
walterqchocobo wrote:
shoptroll wrote:

Not sure I care that much about the story/plot since I haven't played the previous ones.

There was a story/plot?

Based on complaints I've heard that's ALL there was to the game, broken up by long and linear periods of walking through a "dungeon" getting into fights.

Not having played it myself, I wouldn't know.

While long and linear dungeons is fairly accurate, abstracting a game down to "getting into fights" really applies to almost every game.

ccesarano wrote:
walterqchocobo wrote:
shoptroll wrote:

Not sure I care that much about the story/plot since I haven't played the previous ones.

There was a story/plot?

Based on complaints I've heard that's ALL there was to the game, broken up by long and linear periods of walking through a "dungeon" getting into fights.

Not having played it myself, I wouldn't know.

Yup, this is why I prefer FFXIII-2 to FFXIII. However, a lot of people liked FFXIII because it was so different from the traditional ones, so it would be good for Lightning Returns to bring back the gameplay that fans of FFXIII enjoyed.

Kinda like how FFXII was very divisive for series fans as well (though fortunately for me, I really really love that one). That's why I'm hoping that the next main FF game returns to gameplay more like the classic series entries.

Farscry wrote:

So... when are we going to get a new main franchise Final Fantasy game that returns to more of the classic (i.e. FF 1-10) gameplay of the series?

Other than the turn-based nature of combat, gameplay radically differs from FF2-10 in pretty much each incarnation - is that all you're referring to?

walterqchocobo wrote:
shoptroll wrote:

Not sure I care that much about the story/plot since I haven't played the previous ones.

There was a story/plot?

Is that a rhetorical question? I'm just saying I have no investment in Lightning as a character (and her story by extension) since I haven't played through the previous games. So the premise of "Lightning Returns" has absolutely no bearing on my interest. However, the high point of the trailer for me was seeing the combat system which looks intriguing.

Farscry wrote:

That's why I'm hoping that the next main FF game returns to gameplay more like the classic series entries.

X was a pretty big departure from the rest of the franchise simply because they dropped ATB which had been a mainstay for nearly a decade. Also, given how drastic the games can be it's really hard to pin down a definition of "classic" gameplay for the franchise aside from things like airships and magic.

Of course, if you just want a new 16-bit styled FF game they've got you covered on iOS