Fabulous Final Fantasy Franchise Discussion Catch-all

ccesarano wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:

It was called the Augment system, can read a synopsis here: https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki...(Final_Fantasy_IV)

Go crazy, make Cecil do Twincast!

Well snap, I either completely forgot about this or just didn't use it much. Huh.

From what I remember, you could perfectly well ignore this during the game, but using it became nearly essential if you wanted to try the optional super bosses during a NG+. I never tried that, though.

Mantid wrote:

Ok everyone, this is it! This is what we have been practicing for! We're ready for this!

Vote for your favorite FF game, character, boss & summon, and music! Time to make those rankings official! :D

So, the results are in! (link in Japanese)

Game:

  1. Final Fantasy X
  2. Final Fantasy VII
  3. Final Fantasy VI
  4. Final Fantasy IX
  5. Final Fantasy XIV
  6. Final Fantasy V
  7. Final Fantasy VIII
  8. Final Fantasy IV
  9. Final Fantasy XI
  10. Final Fantasy XV
  11. Final Fantasy Tactics
  12. Final Fantasy III
  13. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
  14. Final Fantasy XIII
  15. Final Fantasy XII

Character:

  1. Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy VII)
  2. Yuna (Final Fantasy X)
  3. Aerith Gainsborough (Final Fantasy VII)
  4. Vivi Ornitier (Final Fantasy IX)
  5. Zidane Tribale (Final Fantasy IX)
  6. Emet-Selch (Final Fantasy XIV)
  7. Tidus (Final Fantasy X)
  8. Lightning (Final Fantasy XIII)
  9. Tifa Lockhart (Final Fantasy VII)
  10. Zack Fair (Final Fantasy VII)
  11. Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII)
  12. Haurchefant Greystone (Final Fantasy XIV)
  13. Noctis Lucis Caelum (Final Fantasy XV)
  14. Squall Leonheart (Final Fantasy VII)
  15. Auron (Final Fantasy X)

Music:

  1. "To Zanarkand" (Final Fantasy X)
  2. "Battle on the Big Bridge" (Final Fantasy X)
  3. "Eyes on Me" (Final Fantasy VIII)
  4. "Searching for Friends" (Final Fantasy VI)
  5. "Blinded by Light" (Final Fantasy XIII)
  6. "One-Winged Angel" (Final Fantasy VII)
  7. "Aerith's Theme" (Final Fantasy VII)
  8. "Melodies of Life~Final Fantasy" (Final Fantasy IX)
  9. "Main Theme" (all Final Fantasy)
  10. "Still More Fighting" (Final Fantasy VII)

Boss & Monster:

  1. Knights of the Round (FInal Fantasy VII)
  2. Kefka (Final Fantasy VI)
  3. Hades (Final Fantasy XIV)
  4. Anima (Final Fantasy X)
  5. Omega (Final Fantasy V)
  6. Valefor (Final Fantasy X)
  7. Braska's Final Aeon (Final Fantasy X)
  8. Bahamut ZERO (Final Fantasy VII)
  9. Syldra/Hydra (Final Fantasy V)
  10. Safer∙Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII)

Clicking through to the offical NHK web page you can see some of the voting statistics for individual games. For instance: 53.4% of the votes for FFVII where from women, where as FFXV received 71.9%. FFI (in 24th place) received 60.6% of votes from people between 40 and 49 years old.

So.... should we lock the thread, then?

I really should play X sometime. Got the PS3 remaster sitting there unopened from years ago.

Or maybe I should get the Switch version so I actually play it?

Hm...

Dang, XII got no love from Japan.

ccesarano wrote:

Dang, XII got no love from Japan.

Well, it beat out 42 other games for it's place on the list.

IMAGE(https://media0.giphy.com/media/11oMx4h2zyolDW/giphy.gif)

VII Remake demo is up on PSN, for those who are interested.

I thought ProZD put this debate to rest.

garion333 wrote:

VII Remake demo is up on PSN, for those who are interested. ;)

Is it one of those demos where you can move progress to the main game? That’d be cool.

Nope. "Progress cannot be carried over to the retail version of the game."

ccesarano wrote:

Nope. "Progress cannot be carried over to the retail version of the game."

Thank you! I'd been Googling all morning without finding an answer to that question.

I'll check it out when the final game drops then. I've got enough nostalgia for the original that they have my sixty bucks' worth of curiosity money regardless, so no sense signing up to play through the first few hours twice.

I might play the FF7 Remake demo a second time, possibly a third if I want to try the "classic" mode which is inputting commands and letting the characters auto-battle. It's an attempt to give it that traditional feel, and for some players I can imagine that might be preferable. I felt like the battles became pretty chaotic, largely due to the pace being fast enough to focus on just one character but then you have other party members as well. Eventually I got a bit more comfortable giving Barrett commands when his gauge built up, occasionally swapping to him to use his Overdrive, but against the boss in particular I began to wonder if Dodge was really useful at all. It felt more useful to just use block, even if you still take damage. At least then you fill up the ATB gauge and can then use another action, potentially a potion.

It's enjoyable, but I have mixed feelings nonetheless.

Also: how come Cloud can only use Fire but Barrett gets both Thunder and Cure? There's no options for the Materia menu, either.

As far as narrative is concerned, it's just about what I predicted so far. I'm probably the only nerd that cares about the significance of FF7 opening up with what looks to be a view of the stars while you hear the cries of the planet(s?), viewing the origin of both Jenova and Meteor, only to then swap on over to Aeris and the light of Mako energy. The two conflicting sides are effectively illustrated in the opening shot, as well as the true villain and hero of the game. It's great. It's one of those reasons I love how the game opens. Remake? Clearly doesn't get it, dives right into zooming in on Aeris as she leans over some Mako. Most people will feel like it's perfect, while I thrash about crying like a babby about how "they just don't get it man".

Which is what led to me laughing at two moments I was not at all supposed to be laughing.

Spoilarz for demo:

Spoiler:

Before Cloud sets the bomb and you see a black feather drift down to the ground. Even though Sephiroth doesn't have wings until the game's end. But the name of the song is "One Winged Angel", so of course there's a feather, and oh wait, I forgot about the feather crap in Crisis Core as well, wow, yeah, these guys went fan-fiction level with this iconography and I cannot help but laugh at it. I'm sincerely sorry to anyone that got excited seeing a feather. It's just... so silly to me that they have to throw that whole thing into Sephiroth's identity when it was never even there before.

Then I laughed when Cloud could jump like twenty feet in the air to escape the collapsing bridge thing at the end. Because of course he can. We're in Nomura land now.

As for the change that I'm not sure if it's bad or if I'm just an old man yelling at cloud:

Spoiler:

I'm not sure how to feel about the bomb Jesse made being a dud and Shinra choosing to blow the reactor up themselves. It's technically not out of character for them, but something about it just feels... it feels very "Harrumph harrumph harrumph! Watch me twirl my villain mustache!" Which, yeah, President Shinra kind of already was, but in my mind I'm imagining a differing scenario where the bomb remains a dud, it never goes off, and Barrett gets angry at Cloud because he thinks he turned traitor or something. I dunno.

Maybe we'll just have to see but it's one of those changes that doesn't add anything. Maybe that's why it bugs me? Nothing is added. Avalanche only looks more inept (and by that I mean Jesse looks more inept, unless they change who makes the bombs), and Shinra is just as evil as they were before. So why change it? For the sake of changing it?

Eh, I'm sure someone will explain to me why it's great and better than the way the original game did it.

Anyway.

I liked playing it, so I'll definitely be getting it. And despite the paragraphs spent here, I'm not super bothered by the changes. I do not seethe with rage. I sigh. Or I laugh. But most of all, I'm glad I own the original Final Fantasy VII multiple times over.

As to your second "not sure if bad or just old" spoiler:

Spoiler:

Sounds like the same kind of thing as making Greedo shoot first. The heroes don't have blood on their hands, the villains do. Jesse didn't screw up and build a bigger bomb and kill a bunch of innocent people, it was that dastardly the Shinra, Inc. who did it!

ClockworkHouse wrote:

As to your second "not sure if bad or just old" spoiler:

Spoiler:

Sounds like the same kind of thing as making Greedo shoot first. The heroes don't have blood on their hands, the villains do. Jesse didn't screw up and build a bigger bomb and kill a bunch of innocent people, it was that dastardly the Shinra, Inc. who did it!

I can't believe I didn't think of it that way.

I mean, I can. Just... yeah, that's the obvious answer, isn't it?

This definitely had a Star Wars prequels feel to it. I don’t remember the plot details of the original to comment on the spoilered bit, but the voice acting, glitzy presentation, and fast paced opening immediately reminded me of the goofier side of Star Wars. I didn’t really mind that, tho Barrett sure got on my nerves quick. Also, realizing Wedge’s voice actor is the one stoner from Breaking Bad made me laugh pretty hard.

I played the Classic Mode and enjoyed it. I might go through again on normal to see how the real-time combat feels, but it was hard to keep track of everything. But maybe battles last longer in the more difficult setting?

Anyway I finally got around to preordering it.

So, just played through the Demo and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Yes, it is a bit goofy, but so was the original - I should know, I'm currently replaying it - and much of what happens in the demo seems like an extension of what the oldie was. The dialogue didn't feel too out there to me, but instead it was almost like how I read the lines in my head when I was 16 and had just popped that wonderful first disc into my chunky PSOne.

I laughed, I found the little changes not terribly poor, and the deal with the bomb being implied to be a dud, well, I dunno... I interpreted it more like Shinra and Heidegger just precipitated the whole thing. Maybe I missed something, eh? In any case, I like the goofiness of it all; much like I felt the original to be an Anime RPG in 1997, the remake's demo strikes a similar chord for me.

I don't share the view that this is Star Wars prequels-level of silly, though. It's silly just like any of the "good" Star Wars movies, sure... FF has always been something along those lines, and I'm fine with it.

Now, for the combat. I tried both Normal and Classic... felt Classic was my preferred method, as the apparent chaos of Normal didn't allow me to enjoy the battles as much. Too much info too quickly; I'm probably just getting real old. Didn't like not being able to use potions or any item outside of battle, and that in battle I have to build up a gauge to use them. I figure I can get used to the gauge for something as elementary as an item, but the restriction on usage in the field strikes me as a bit arbitrary.

Still looking forward to the full release and the subsequent episodes.

You can most definitely use potions and stuff outside of battle. I did a few times, particularly in preparation for the boss fight I knew was coming. I believe it's just an X Button command.

I enjoyed it. Seems fine. I like the normal mode. It feels a bit like FF XIII's combat which was good.

ccesarano wrote:

You can most definitely use potions and stuff outside of battle. I did a few times, particularly in preparation for the boss fight I knew was coming. I believe it's just an X Button command.

Yeah, it's supposed to be I guess, but I swear for the life of me, that when I brought up the commands, all was greyed out and nothing would get it to work.

Press X for the commands, then comes the list, but nothing was working.

You have to wait for your ATB bar to fill before the commands will enable.

Chimalli wrote:

You have to wait for your ATB bar to fill before the commands will enable.

You have to wait?! They definitely didn’t modernize this game!

(This comment inspired by my youngest coworker who complains constantly about having to wait... for anything)

You have to wait in combat for the ATB gauge to fill, yes, but once combat is over you should be able to just pull it up at any time with X.

FYI I made a catch all for the FFVII Remake over here.

ccesarano wrote:

You have to wait in combat for the ATB gauge to fill, yes, but once combat is over you should be able to just pull it up at any time with X.

Yeah, I tried, believe me hehehe It won't allow me to use items outside of combat. No idea why.

Wouldn't let me either. I assumed I didn't understand properly.

I'm gonna have to test myself, because i know I used a potion outside of combat at one point. Maybe it's related to your difficulty setting? Or maybe it's just a bug in the demo.

WHY doesn't XV lead you by the nose to catalysts in elemancy? The combat tutorial is all about attacking, dodging, warp strikes, and all that jazz. But dear God, the sheer fun of a Venomcast Thundaga should not be discounted!

I'm very slowly warming to XV in part thanks to discovering that the magic system is more fun than just pumping 99 fire elements into a slot to make a fire spell. Wait mode is definitely the way for me to go in combat.

Probably my biggest frustration is with really basic interactions like picking things up, talking to people, or aiming at warp points. It seems like you need to be standing just the right distance from something with the camera pointed at just the right angle in order to pick it up, or else Noctis starts bunny-hopping around on top of the thing. And warping out of a battle is a pain when I need to a.) find the warp point, then b.) aim at it just-so so that I can warp to it.

I'm still not sure I'm in it for the long haul because I give zero sh*ts about the characters, the world, or the story, but maybe they'll grow on me.

brokenclavicle wrote:
ccesarano wrote:

You have to wait in combat for the ATB gauge to fill, yes, but once combat is over you should be able to just pull it up at any time with X.

Yeah, I tried, believe me hehehe It won't allow me to use items outside of combat. No idea why.

I'm not sure which FF you are talking about but if it is 12 where you program your fighters you don't start with the ability. You'll get it sooner or later.

Baron Of Hell wrote:
brokenclavicle wrote:
ccesarano wrote:

You have to wait in combat for the ATB gauge to fill, yes, but once combat is over you should be able to just pull it up at any time with X.

Yeah, I tried, believe me hehehe It won't allow me to use items outside of combat. No idea why.

I'm not sure which FF you are talking about but if it is 12 where you program your fighters you don't start with the ability. You'll get it sooner or later.

We're talking about the FF7 Remake demo. I, personally, had no problems using items outside of combat. Are you sure you were out of combat completely? A couple of times I left combat only to instantly re-enter because enemies had crept up on me or I had traveled far enough to pull another set.

Edit* I know it says you can store ATB charges for later battles, maybe you use any stored charges outside of battle as well.