Queen's Blood (Final Fantasy Thread)

[Clawson]

Yeah IX has definitely gained a lot of steam in recent years for how solid it is after so many people doubted it when it originally came out.

And for anybody bitching about how hard leveling up is in XII, I've gone from 34-38 in Tchita Uplands in about 3 hours. I was surprised at how quickly it came around.

Edited March 14, 2008 by Clawson

[Momo]

...Wow, I must be doing good then. I went from 74-78 in 2 hours yesterday.

Likewise though, I'm still puzzled as to why people complain about how hard it is to level up. They're just not in the right places. >_>

Anyway, I have 5 espers, Hellwyrm, Seer, Yiazmat and Omega to go before I've beaten everything excluding rare game. Right now I'm looking to get to level 80 and then I'll try out some more of the espers.

[probablyoliver]

This auto-leveling trick is annoying. Started out level 76, my playstations now been on for around 48 hours, but due to the fact most of that was (I assume) during the part where my party leader had died and the game was on auto-pause, i've only managed to get to level 82. I'm thinking of going back to the Henne mines and doing this the conventional way.

[Guest Kou]

Thats why you should challenge yourself every once in a while with Final Fantasy Games. Instead of over leveling why not try under leveling. There are people who've beaten FFVII for instance with no characters in the end game over level 28.

[MalaCloudy Black]

I'll echo FF9 love, it's immense. One of the few FFs I get the urge to go back and play through a bit on occassion. Great atmosphere, great story, just a good game.

[Sam]

Plus Lindblum is my favourite ever city in a Final Fantasy as it's so cute! And ATEs do wonders for character development.

[Liam]

I really didn't like FF9 for some reason.

Never gone back to play it either though, so maybe I'd enjoy it more now.

[Vilge Duin]

A lot of people got into the FF games via VII, and subsequently if not then, a lot started with 8. Very serious (generally) titles compared with what became of IX. What they fail to realize, which many people still do, IX was considered an "end to an era" that was meant to celebrate the entirety of the series going to the next generation of titles (X, XI and XII).

Having played the very first FF in 1990 at the ripe age of 5 and then on to the subsequent IV, VI, VII, VIII and then V in Anthology, including the Gameboy games (despite not really being FF) and Mystic Quest, I appreciated the hell out of IX.

It truly is an immense and fun game with a lot of variety. However the story can feel a bit dull at times with the Queen being a horrendous villain and Kuja only seemingly being any good near the end. And outside of the main four (Zidane, Dagger/Garnet, Steiner and Vivi) the playable character cast is weak. I hated the inclusion of Necron though.

I actually played through I-VI with my girlfriend awhile ago. We started on VII but stopped just at Don when XII came out. I started up X again not too long ago (at the Moonflow), but I feel the desire to go through VII, VIII and IX again.

Suppose I should get around to them once my current Smash Bros. addiction subsides a bit. Then there's my lingering game of FFT on the PSP just before Elmdore.

Damn games...

[Mattman]

It seems that my friend is a lazy git who can't be arsed to go into his attic to look for the game, even for money.

A copy of VIII has just turned up on CEX online though, and from what I can gather from that discussion you all just had its just underneath VII on popularity. So my current plan is: buy that copy from Cex as soon as I can (about 2 hours) and then nag my friend for VII.

And although I'm not that far in (probably done about a fifth of the game) III is very good. Theres no fancy overdrives or summons and the job system is very simple but its still very fun to play. Although only really in short doses. Half an hour to a hour and a half maybe.

On a side note does anyone else think the Romans got VIII wrong? IIX would have looked better and been shorter.

[stokeriño]

If you're going to criticise Roman numerals for being inefficient, you can do a lot better than VIII.

And really the reason was that it was still closely tied to the 'tally' origin of counting. They even used IIII at the time instead of IV, because IV stood for Jupiter. Clearly, being concise wasn't their priority.

Edited March 14, 2008 by stokeriño

[Guest strongarm85]

I hated the Junction system with a passion. I think that was by far the dumbest thing Square ever came out with. It was way too complicated, it time consuming, and kind of made using Magic pointless because spells where more valuable if you just stolkpiled them the whole game. Personally, you'd be better off with IV, VI, or VII than you would with VIII.

[stokeriño]

My favourite abilities system has to be the one from IX, where you equip items with said abilities to use them and, after collecting however much AP in battles, you learn them for good, allowing you to then switch equipment and learn new stuff. Plus, just to stop it from getting silly, you can only have an X number of these learned abilities activated at any time.

Transplant that system into VII and it would create greatness. Materia is okay, but its value lies more in Yuffie thieving it relentlessly than anything practical.

Edited March 14, 2008 by stokeriño

[Clawson]

Re-reading through the thread I'm stunned at how many people are actually buying the pre-VII games. But yeah I think next time I level up in XII will be the first time that I've ever had characters over level 40 in a game. I'm sure I would have in X but they didn't have levels then so yeah....damn, I think I'm finally turning fully hardcore into Final Fantasy.

[Mattman]

If you're going to criticise Roman numerals for being inefficient, you can do a lot better than VIII.

And really the reason was that it was still closely tied to the 'tally' origin of counting. They even used IIII at the time instead of IV, because IV stood for Jupiter. Clearly, being concise wasn't their priority.

Edited March 14, 2008 by Mattman

[DMN in the House]

One thing that trips me out about XII is that when you give people certain weapons, they seem to look like they don't really know how to use them, and their animations look off. For example, Penelo and the katana.

[Cadet Ember McLain]

Bah, everyone's talk of XII has convinced me to play through it again...

I hope you're happy...

[Momo]

I only have Zodiark and Ultima left in the Esper department now. I'd rather not verse Ultima cause of the changing battle conditions. I hate that sort of shit. This is not mentioning the fact that I prefer not to visit the Great Crystal. >_>

[probablyoliver]

seriously, wtf? Party of Ashe, Vaan and Penelo, all at lvl 87, and all with some fantastic equipment, yet I'm still getting raped the minute I step into Penumbra by a bunch of lvl 56 abandons. This isn't fun.

Edited March 15, 2008 by Ollie

[Benji]

seriously, wtf? Party of Ashe, Vaan and Penelo, all at lvl 76, and all with some fantastic equipment, yet I'm still getting raped the minute I step into Penumbra by a bunch of lvl 56 abandons. This isn't fun.

Surely you mean Abaddons?

[probablyoliver]

whatever they are i'm 30 levels above them, and the fat frog fucks are annoying me.