Fabulous Final Fantasy Franchise Discussion Catch-all

ccesarano wrote:

EDIT: Might as well share.

IMAGE(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/615268099024879642/853941693703651378/20210613_224313.png)

The Final and the Fantasy

ccesarano wrote:

Oh he's probably spot on with the speculation.

The writing is still insufferable.

CHAOS

More vids here of the demo.

I'm sure there is or will be tons of vids in English.

The animation needs some work on the big sword. Too often it goes from 45 degree angle to 90 degree angle back to 45 without a transition and it looks awkward.

But otherwise, looks decent and sounds better in Japanese.

Yeah I watched a stream today and it looks fun, and the job system looks interesting. I didn't watch the whole thing, but the combat itself looks like something I'll enjoy despite the blah aesthetic.

From what I'm reading, it sounds like the game plays much better than the trailer indicated, even if it is still not very impressive visually.

I'm also reading that the game plays extremely similar to Nioh and even uses several reskins of enemies from that game, so I guess it is indeed a Souls-like.

I just watched the Famitsu gameplay, and the fight with Garland was definitely the highlight for me. I've not played either Nioh game, so perhaps it's normal for that franchise to make even mook-style enemies seem like damage sponges. Seems one of the focuses is to try and whittle down the yellow bar so you can get an execution, but there's definitely something tedious looking about it.

The Garland fight actually looked exciting, though.

Looks like my PS5 patched it yesterday so maybe they fixed it. Guess I'll try sometime.

And played the demo today for a bit. A lot of fun amidst a bit of confusion. I still doubt I'll buy it day 1 but may come back and play it later.

It was a lot of systems to layer in a demo, almost combat overload. I didn't catch the first prompt about applying active skills. But eventually figured it out. I'm not sure why there's a block and a special block. The special one steals abilities if you can, so seems like you would always use it. I don't know.

Then it threw a 2nd job on top of me before I was really comfortable with the first, and I wasn't sure when to switch. Seemed like I ran out of mana a lot with the 2nd job. Got overran by a pack of wolves and took a break. Not sure if it saved for me to continue mid dungeon but not really worried about it since it's just a demo.

I also played the demo yesterday and enjoyed it much more than I expected. The game is ugly and poorly written as indicated by the initial trailer, but it was a bad representation of how the game plays.

As Steele mentioned, there are a ton of different systems at play in combat, and the game doesn't hesitate to throw a new one at you shortly after receiving the last. All enemies have health and guard bars. Similar to something like Sekiro, you can whittle down their health or try to break their guard for a finishing attack. Some attacks are good for health damage, some for guard damage, and some are better for staggering. There's also class swapping, steal stealing, parrying, combo attacks, special attacks and spell casting to keep track of. It's a lot all at once, but most of the systems seem to work well together.

Spell stealing off a parry in particular felt great, and the demo showed off how it could factor into encounter design with the bomb enemies. If you steal their fireball attack and throw it back at them, it triggers them to grow and self destruct.

The couple areas that seemed iffy to me were group combat and spell casting. Group combat seemed similar to other Souls-like games, but the lock-on system was not responsive when trying to quickly target swap with several enemies around. I ended up just forgoing the lock-on entirely when there were more than 3 enemies on screen. Thankfully, there was only one place in the demo where there were that many enemies at once, but it's something I'd want them to smooth for the full release. Spell casting with the black mage class also felt a little awkward between the time needed to charge spells and spell selection with the stick, but that could be something I just need a bit more time to get comfortable with. It also looked like there might be ways to speed up casting speed that could help with that.

Stele wrote:

It was a lot of systems to layer in a demo, almost combat overload. I didn't catch the first prompt about applying active skills. But eventually figured it out. I'm not sure why there's a block and a special block. The special one steals abilities if you can, so seems like you would always use it. I don't know.

L1 is a basic block, while circle is a parry. You sacrifice some of your own guard guage to use the parry, but if you land it, you block the attack and recover some MP. I used the parry most of the time, but if you're getting overwhelmed or don't know attack timings against a certain enemy, you would probably want to use the regular block since you can just hold down the button.

Oh yeah that makes sense. Can't hold the circle block.

I just used it on those bomb enemies you mentioned a ton and it seemed easy.

Every time Jack mentions Chaos, Nomura gives him gets another belt.

I have absolutely nothing productive to add to this conversation.

sometimesdee wrote:

I have absolutely nothing productive to add to this conversation.

Welcome to the Final Fantasy fandom! We love the ones we love and hate the rest with a fiery vengeance!

Grenn wrote:
sometimesdee wrote:

I have absolutely nothing productive to add to this conversation.

Welcome to the Final Fantasy fandom! We love the ones we love and hate the rest with a fiery vengeance!

"Hate" is such a strong word. Honestly, I'm really just disappointed in myself for not liking FF12 and FFTactics more.

I agree. "Hate" is a strong word. Final Fantasy games fall into two categories: I either love them, or love to make fun of them.

Ha. Ha. Ha.

Final Fantasy IX is getting a cartoon adaptation. I'm confused, but happy.

Final Fantasy 9 is becoming an animated series

Square Enix's tale of a plucky thief who kidnaps a princess and then accidentally saves the multiverse is coming to the screen: An animated series based on Final Fantasy 9 is being developed by French Cyber Group Studios in collaboration with Square Enix.
As reported by kidscreen, the deal is inked and a project bible is being finished up while Cyber Group Studios pitches the show to broadcasters. The CEO of Cyber Group told the publication that the goal was to begin production by the end of 2021 or beginning of 2022. It makes some sense to see this one in the hands of a studio that focuses on shows for kids—this FF9 animation will be aimed at 8-13 year olds—because FF9 has a pretty family-friendly plot compared to the main-line Final Fantasy games around it.
It makes some sense to see this one in the hands of a studio that focuses on shows for kids—this FF9 animation will be aimed at 8-13 year olds—because FF9 has a pretty family-friendly plot compared to the main-line Final Fantasy games around it.

Zidane straight up grabs Garnet's butt and says "Oooh, squishy!"

Not to mention all the stuff about death and existential crises and oh yes, remember how people got straight up swallowed by that summon monster?

Of course, that's not to say children's entertainment cannot handle mature themes (hello Land Before Time, Secret of Nimh, Toy Story 3), but I expect this to get modified.

I mean, I would hope that any modern adaptation of Final Fantasy IX would take pains to make Zidane less of a #MeToo scandal waiting to happen, regardless of target demo.

ccesarano wrote:

Not to mention all the stuff about death and existential crises and oh yes, remember how people got straight up swallowed by that summon monster?

That stuff happens all the time in kid shows. Avatar: The Last Airbender dealt with genocide and that was a demographic even below this show (5-8 compared to 8-13). There's nothing in FF IX that would be inappropriate for kids that age.

There's a weird need in this thread to police the memories of others. That 10-13 block seems pretty ideal for IX.

Also keep in mind that it's a French studio working on this. Will it get edited for NA audiences? Probably.

Yeah, any adaptation will have changes. It's a twenty year old game and it's, you know, a game. Unless you want a full season of Zidane ignoring Kuja to play Chocobo Hot & Cold, there's going to have to be some changes.

So evidently Square Enix had a 30 minute video this morning discussing the FF Pixel Remaster that they've already taken down. It had Hironobu Sakaguchi, Nobuo Uematsu, and Yoshinori Kitase on because those guys still hang out and chill. Relevant information:

The recently announced Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series will launch in order starting in July, Square Enix announced in a now-removed presentation video.

The series—which will be available for PC, iOS, and Android—consists of individual re-releases of Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy V, and Final Fantasy VI. All six titles’ pixel art characters have been fully remastered from their original versions by pixel artist Kazuko Shibuya of Square Enix, who has worked on the Final Fantasy series since the first game.

That they're releasing one-at-a-time individually is, I think, why there is no console announcement yet. It's probably easier to release games piecemeal on PC and mobile than it is console in this fashion. With console, each game would have to go through the approval process, which can take months. I wouldn't be surprised if they'll release them all at once or in a bundle on console after they've all released on PC and mobile.

As for the art, Gematsu's got the new trailer which still doesn't give a suitable, close look, but it might not be as bad as I first thought. Still not sure I prefer it, but if I can get a version of FFVI with a better translation and more tolerable art than what's currently on Steam by default, then I'll take it.

Which, of course, has me wondering if they're just sticking to older/GBA translations or not. My understanding is FFV and FFVI had good translations, but FFIV and earlier could be questionable. We'll have to wait and see, I suppose.

I tried watching some of that presentation last night before it was removed, but the auto-translate on Youtube did a poor job, so I gave up.

Not sure why they're being so coy with info on what should be a fairly important release for them.

Also worth nothing: they're pulling the current versions of FF5 and FF6 from Steam in favor of the new releases. Additionally, FF3 and FF4 have been patched recently with some updates, and the store name now clearly calls out that they're 3D remakes.

Steam pages are up for the pixel remasters. They're individual purchases, and you can preorder FF1 and FF2 right now for just under $10 each.

Edit: spoke too soon, you can now preorder the whole bundle. It includes wallpapers and soundtracks as well, though it's only a few songs each.

beanman101283 wrote:

Steam pages are up for the pixel remasters. They're individual purchases, and you can preorder FF1 and FF2 right now for just under $10 each, so close to $60 for the full set of 6.

Edit: spoke too soon, you can now preorder the whole bundle for just under $60. It includes wallpapers and soundtracks as well, though it's only a few songs each.

I'm not seeing that bundle in the actual Steam program, though all the games are listed individually. Without the pre-order discount, they're $12 for FF1 and FF2 each, and then $18 per. Logged in through the browser, the discount on pre-orders doesn't seem applied to the whole bundle, putting it at $74.82.

That's a bit too rich for my blood.

Yeah sorry, the prices were my mistake (I edited further). You are correct on the $75ish value. Not sure how to get to the bundle page through Steam proper - I purchased it through the browser.

Is the 3D version of FFIV worth playing. I'm about to finish FFXV and was considering playing IV next, but I don't know whether to wait for the pixel remaster or just go for the 3D version I already own.

I replayed the 3D version recently and thought it was fantastic. If you’re itching to play it now, it’s a great choice since you already own it.

I really hope S-E/Steam has some make-good program available for folks who already bought some or all of those individual (old-version) titles.