Fabulous Final Fantasy Franchise Discussion Catch-all

I've also managed to get halfway through Crisis Core this weekend. This game is fun to play, but the presentation and structure are really lacking. Poor voice acting, lots of inane, superfluous cutscenes, and a structure that makes sense for a portable console but just feels grindy and padded out now.

Good to know.

I'm actually just now almost finishing up playing FF7R for the first time, and I was wondering if I should consider checking out Crisis Core while I'm in the mood. I do recall people being pleasantly surprised with it when it was new, saying that it was much better than it had any right to be as a handheld "squeeze some milk out of the franchise" prequel side story, but I wasn't sure if that would translate into it be something worth ignoring my humongous pile of genuinely great games I've yet to play for.

So maybe I'll just watch a summary of the story on Youtube and wait for Rebirth.

Finished Crisis Core! Playtime in-game shows around 21 hours. Probably more than 50% of that was doing the optional side missions. According to the game, I did around 35% of those. I'll reiterate what I said above that doing a few side missions and messing around with materia fusion trivializes the main story's difficulty. I didn't mind in the least. The side missions are where the challenge lies, and I didn't feel compelled to engage with that. If you do, though, there are probably several dozen hours of missions and materia fiddling you can do.

Is it a must-play for FF7 fans? I don't know. It's neat seeing pivotal events play out in HD, but the presentation really hampered the payoff for me. It also doesn't really flesh out or contextualize Sephiroth's descent into madness any more than the original game did. He seemed like a nice enough guy before that, but they make no effort to really dig into why he lost his mind. It was nice seeing Zack and Aerith's relationship, but again the game's presentation undercut it.

I was able to use a gift card to buy this on day one. I'm not sure I'd feel good about spending $50 on it right now. If you just want more of FF7's world and characters and don't want to play the OG or Remake, grab this on sale.

Stele wrote:
Stele wrote:

Anyway this weekend I finally did those first 3 sin battles. And then Inside Sin, and good grief how much longer is endgame? Fighting Seymour again?!

Jeez.

Anyway looks like a whole other area then maybe finally at the actual end point of no return.

And I was right, was able to completely dominate the couple of story boss fights. Lulu does double cast flare 9999 every time since I never did do the lightning dodge for her weapon. Anima just did 20k regular attacks against everything. There was some enemy inside sin that does 7k when you kill it but I just killed it with Anima and shrugged off the damage instead of having a party wipe. Hehehe

Maybe I can push through this week and beat the darn thing finally.

FFX is finally finished!

And yeah Aeons and stuff, I was way overleveled. The final real boss fight that you could lose... Yuna summoned Anima, and overdrive did 217k damage. Hehehehe. Game.

Final cutscene was as expected, after revelations earlier in the game.

Definitely want to get to X-2 at some point.

I know this was a while ago but I just finished replaying FFX as well, for the first time since its original release. I have to say it holds up and has actually risen in my estimation. I will probably start X-2 soon (never played it before) if anyone is interested in joining.

ccesarano wrote:

I feel like I'm in Schroedinger's Hell with this particular collection but I'm dropping it here anyway.

Collection of SaGa Final Fantasy Legend is getting a mobile release in September and Steam release in October. Square Enix is really pushing that PC support these days.

It's technically not a Final Fantasy but whatever. Maybe I'll cross-post.

OMG, I just saw this. FF Legend 2 was my childhood! Barely had enough money to rent that from a pharmacy but completed it. Started my love for JRPGs.

ComfortZone wrote:

I know this was a while ago but I just finished replaying FFX as well, for the first time since its original release. I have to say it holds up and has actually risen in my estimation. I will probably start X-2 soon (never played it before) if anyone is interested in joining.

Oh, you're in for a treat. I love X-2 so much. I started a new game of X-2 this past September (my first time playing since its original release) but I'm only about 10 hours in. I could easily be convinced to fire it back up again.

merphle wrote:
ComfortZone wrote:

I know this was a while ago but I just finished replaying FFX as well, for the first time since its original release. I have to say it holds up and has actually risen in my estimation. I will probably start X-2 soon (never played it before) if anyone is interested in joining.

Oh, you're in for a treat. I love X-2 so much. I started a new game of X-2 this past September (my first time playing since its original release) but I'm only about 10 hours in. I could easily be convinced to fire it back up again.

I would say we should take over the JRPG quarterly thread and vote for it. But I'm pretty sure they played X-2 back in like 2019 or 2020 and I missed it because I hadn't finished the first.

So maybe we can do our own club. Say March-Jun? Get some time to work the pile and plan it.

It was before I joined the club, too. I'd be open to an argument that we should allow some of those prior games to be voted on, again -- especially if most of the people who played it aren't currently playing with the club.

Maybe we could have a "retirement home" thread like the crpg club? That could be a good place for discussion with a bunch of folks who have experience with the games.

You all made me curious, it was Q2 2016, so a very long time ago. I think most people who are in the JRPG club now were not back then.

Well I couldn't resist! Finished FFX-2 yesterday. I'm glad I did play it while FFX was still fresh in my mind since many minor characters reappear, with lots of sly references if you know who they are.

I guess I'm preaching to the choir here in this thread but I still think it's worth playing today, provided you played FFX at some point. In some ways it feels like a missing link - the combat is half ATB, half paradigm shifting, and episodic storytelling is much more prevalent these days in visual novels and RPGs. In other ways it still stands alone, for example focusing on a group of girlfriends without pandering or resorting to icky tropes (mostly). And Yuna is a standout as a protagonist. True there are other ways in which it just feels like a 20 year old game - the awful minigames, and its willingness to screw you over for not talking to the right person at the right time. You are pretty much forced to use a guide unless you don't mind missing some its best parts (or playing multiple times).

But still a fascinating game, warts and all.

ComfortZone wrote:

Well I couldn't resist! Finished FFX-2 yesterday.

Hooray! Glad you enjoyed it (hopefully) as much as I did.

Thanks! Definitely enjoyed it as a game in its own right in case that wasn't clear. The chin stroking potential is just icing on the cake

Good for you. It's still on my pile and it's been over a year since I played the main bits of X.

Hell yeah.

Ever since the game first came out I’ve been trying to tell anyone who would listen how spectacular FF10-2 is. Usually I just get “isn’t that the girl power idol band game?” In response But I’ll be damned if everyone who liked FF10 and actually gives it a chance doesn’t end up agreeing.

Blind_Evil wrote:

I can’t believe I they are making another Theatrhythm game. I thought for sure the audience was limited to me and me alone.

Very excited.

They took out the touch controls! WTH!

I doubt I’ll be buying this without a deep discount, now. What a shame.

Blind_Evil wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:

I can’t believe I they are making another Theatrhythm game. I thought for sure the audience was limited to me and me alone.

Very excited.

They took out the touch controls! WTH!

I doubt I’ll be buying this without a deep discount, now. What a shame.

I do thank you for making this post, as it caused me to look and see that there is a demo out for the Switch and Playstation. Downloading now.

Funny, I checked for it the night before it came out. I’ll give it a shot, but I really felt like the touch controls were integral to my enjoyment.

Blind_Evil wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:

I can’t believe I they are making another Theatrhythm game. I thought for sure the audience was limited to me and me alone.

Very excited.

They took out the touch controls! WTH!

I doubt I’ll be buying this without a deep discount, now. What a shame.

Absurd will probably rejoice. I fondly remember a few nights when he would ask me to stop tapping the screen so loudly.

Edit: Whooo, $99 including the Season Pass? Yup, waiting for discounts!

Nope. Tried the demo and button play feels honestly awful to me. Especially slide triggers. Hard pass. It’s really the most disappointed I’ve been in a while with regards to gaming. I loved the first two so, so much. Will probably dig out my 3DS and the Curtain Call.

Playing on the PS5, the buttons felt fine enough for me. I'm using the L2 and R2 buttons (that would be LZ and RZ on the Switch), which makes it feel more like an instrument rather than button pressing.

You can’t do anything to replace the stick movements for direction presses and slide triggers though, and the sticks on both Switch and PS5 make enough noise from the motions that it bugs me.

I’m not saying the game is gonna be bad or shouldn’t have its fans, just that the touch controls were special for me, and this doesn’t convey the same feeling at all.

Been playing through the Final Fantasy 6 T-Edition EX+ ROM hack. Just got to the point where I get back to Narshe after raiding the Magitech Factory and re-recruiting Terra in the WoL.

So far it's been very close to vanilla, just with some balance tweaks, QoL improvements (run button ftw) and a few pretty basic extras; fetch quests and little ten-minute mini-dungeons that you can access by talking to bartenders at pubs.

The difficulty has been a little more challenging than vanilla, but on a very smooth curve. The same basic tactics generally work, enemies hit just a little harder, non-magic-based party members have less MP so I might have to use more items for healing, squishier party members benefit more from defensive Relics or having a beefier party member use True Knight to tank for them, stuff like that. So many ROM hacks hit you upside the head with a difficulty sledgehammer (I'm looking at you, Brave New World), I appreciate a lighter touch.

But at this point you gain access to these three bonus bosses that all just wrecked me, and I just beat one of them, on the fourth or fifth try, without having to do any grinding, and it felt GREAT.

One of those, "okay, he's petrifying my dudes, everyone needs a relic to block that. High magic defense, so I need my heaviest physical hitters, except that he's vulnerable to poison so I need to set that early in the fight. Buff my dudes with Regen so I can keep up with his regular attacks without spending turns to heal. Every so often he does a super attack that WILL take out three of my guys, but after that he goes into a defensive state that will give me a couple turns to rez and re-buff. He heals himself when he's in that state, so I've got to do at least enough damage per cycle to keep up with that, and... BOOM! GOT HIM!" situations.

This is the point I love getting to in a JRPG, where it feels like yeah, I COULD go grind at beat this guy through sheer "make the numbers go higher," but I could also, by learning his patterns and using all the tools in my arsenal just right, beat him right now. So few JRPGs ever get to that point, even the acknowledged classics of the genre.

I could also, not for nothing, just skip him altogether. The reward I got from him is a nice-to-have, but it doesn't feel like it's going to be so crucial going forward that I'll be crippling myself if I move on to the next story beat and maybe come back later or maybe not.

Really breathing new life into one of my all-time favorites, even more so than the Pixel Remaster, which I played through last year as part of the JRPG Club.

I’m really liking Theatrhythm!

I played the 3DS version without touch, so things feel pretty normal to me. The one exception being the dual-stick notes are just frying my brain. There are so many little easter eggs and nods to the underlying games.

I give it a 9/10… however I’m forced to dock it 5 full points because FFX doesn’t have Besaid!

An excellent 4 out of 10.

I started Final Fantasy X (HD remaster) on the Vita this weekend - my first every Final Fantasy game. I'm barely any way into the game (I've just washed up on a beach, and met Wakka), but I'm already beginning to understand why JRPGs are famed for their long introductions! There's a lot to learn about combat, levelling, item management, et al. I expect that I'm going to be referring to the Help chapter pretty frequently.

I'd welcome some GwJer advice on the combat. I've read some online explanations of how turn order is set, but I'm still none-the-wiser. Can someone give me a steer on how I read the chart on the right-hand side of the screen?

Also, how should I be thinking about each combat encounter? That is, what should be my mental checklist as I decide whether to use Attack, Special or Item... or do something else entirely. I just fought a squid-thing, which moved out of attack range, and my only option appear to be to use a trigger command on another menu, 'Stand By'. (Quote - "Special commands become available in certain battles. Press left arrow in the command window to access them.")

I suppose I'm worried about never quite learning how combat works, and finding myself stuck later in the game when I need to apply strategy.

Final Fantasy X is one of the more egregious in the series when it comes to slow starts. I was already a long-time FF fan when I played it, and I also felt like it took me a long time to really get my bearings. And every time I've tried to replay it since the one time I beat it back in the day, I've wound up getting bored before getting to the point where I remember it getting good. So not all of what you're feeling is a matter of being new to the genre.

Other, arguably better games in the series (4, 6, 7) do a much better job of getting you into the action.

FFX was my first Final Fantasy, and in many ways still remains my favorite. The turn-based nature of its combat gave it a relaxed nature and let me think through what I wanted to do as each battle progressed.

The turn order chart on the right is read top to bottom -> the top row with the yellow arrow is the current turn, the row below it is the next person's turn, and so on. Initial turn order is determined by, I believe, each character's speed or agility stat (I don't recall the exact name). Turn order can also be manipulated by abilities like Haste and Slow. Haste will cause the target to have a turn more often, while Slow causes them to have fewer turns. Both your party and enemies can cast these abilities to buff and debuff the other as appropriate.

Eventually you'll have a roster of 7 characters to swap in and out of your party whenever you want. This is important since characters only gain AP to level their sphere grid when they've performed an action in battle, even if it's just to do nothing but Defend. Swapping characters out does not take up a turn, so you can pull someone in if their abilities are more suited to the encounter without wasting time in the battle.

Many enemies have elemental weaknesses, so you'll want to use the appropriate magic spells once you have the option to. Bosses often have a puzzle element to them, though you can also just brute force your way through several. The part of the game that's most annoying is that, even in the remaster, if you have to try a boss multiple times, you often have to watch the cutscene before it each time.

I thought the game does a decent job of easing you into its combat. Once you have a full party you'll find plenty of places where you can run around triggering encounters so you can get comfortable with each person's abilities. It's also relatively easy to breeze through a large chunk of the story. Take your time to find the party members you click with the most, but don't forget to keep the others relatively close in level as well.

Don't have the time to fully expound, but yeah, other than FF6 being my nostalgic favorite, FF10 and 10-2 are definitely my top Final Fantasy games for a number of reasons, including how great their combat systems were.

One extra thought to expand on beanman's excellent summary: the importance of managing turn order is one of the elements that makes the combat so great, and is worth putting effort into getting your head around, especially once you have enough characters that you have character swapping as a mechanic that can interact with that system. Haste and slow are quite often powerful effects in these games, but even more so in FF10, as well as abilities that let you delay an enemy's turn.

Do NOT sleep on those -- being able to even delay an enemy by one or two spots on the turn order can change everything in a fight, particularly considering how powerful it is in that game to exploit the various weaknesses enemies might have. Knock an enemy's turn back to just behind a slot where you can get a character in play to hit that weakness, or change things up to mitigate the danger that their attacks might present, and you can go from an grueling slog (or party wipe) to an easy combat clear.

detroit20 wrote:

Also, how should I be thinking about each combat encounter? That is, what should be my mental checklist as I decide whether to use Attack, Special or Item... or do something else entirely. I just fought a squid-thing, which moved out of attack range, and my only option appear to be to use a trigger command on another menu, 'Stand By'. (Quote - "Special commands become available in certain battles. Press left arrow in the command window to access them.")

I suppose I'm worried about never quite learning how combat works, and finding myself stuck later in the game when I need to apply strategy.

Great question! (FFX is also one of my favorites, FWIW. I have three points. First, if you have the patience for it, having every party member perform an action in every battle will help ensure that people level at a consistent pace and no one is left behind. I've done this when I've played and I find that doing this really eliminates the need to grind.

Second, you can earn extra loot, and maybe extra sphere grid points, by "overkilling" enemies. (Basically, having your final attack do excessive damage.) This is pretty easy to do in many encounters. If you're keeping pace with the sphere grid, and are using the right characters to kill the right enemies, it will happen pretty organically. Like: Tidus should kill the fast guys, Wakka should kill the fliers, etc. But sometimes, you need to make an effort to end a battle with a big hit.

Third, because this game doesn't have traditional levels, make sure you use your sphere grid points regularly! It's the only way your team will get stronger. I'd move people every time I have 2-3 sphere grid points, so they progress at a steady clip. It's possible to abuse the sphere grid to make your characters into gods. But, that's totally unnecessary, and if you find the grid overwhelming you don't need to do anything fancy: just keep them on their default track and they'll gain plenty of power.

A bunch of Final Fantasy XVI previews and interviews dropped this morning

Eurogamer
The Verge
RPG Fan

More are linked here.

Sweet. I'm excited to watch a couple later today.