Queen's Blood (Final Fantasy Thread)

[Ruki]

I accidentally broke FF5. Bartz has dual wield + rapid fire + Excalibur + Masamune + auto haste. He usually gets two turns before anyone gets one. Doing 8k per turn.

[Skummy]

I'm doing a playthrough of the Final Fantasy IX remaster on PS4. 

I've long said that IX is probably my joint favourite FF along with VII - VI would probably be up there if I'd played it at the time, rather than emulated after the fact - but there's a lot of it I just don't remember, so it's been a lot of fun, while my girlfriend's never played it before, so is getting to vicariously experience some of the characters and story for the first time. I figured she'd love Vivi, and she does, but I was surprised how genuinely frustrated she was getting with Steiner's stubbornness early on too.

In terms of remaster stuff, I haven't used any of the cheats and extra bits aside from fast-forward to get through some of the more tedious random encounters - in VIII, I used fast-forward just to get around, because the walking speed is so bloody slow. 

I've just got to the Lost Summoner Village. I'm playing a lot more tactically than I normally would in terms of trying to level up and equip abilities before swapping to the shiny new equipment I find/buy. I've not had the opportunity to choose my party yet (actually one of the things I like about IX is how the game naturally gives you different combinations of characters as and when the story calls for it), but I think my primary party is going to be Zidane/Vivi/Dagger/Quina when I get the chance. It's a toss-up between Quina and Freya, though.

[Ruki]

Always Freya. Thinking back on it, while VIII was my first, I think IX has to be my favorite of the entire franchise. The music is beautiful, the characters are fantastic, the ways to gain new abilities is novel and fun. The only thing lacking about it is the gosh darn card game. 

[Skummy]

I am terrible at the card game. Way worse than I ever remember being. I just don't know what any of the numbers mean, and I don't understand why I sometimes play a card that has like 38 whatevers and it gets beaten by a card with 8 whateverthenumbersmean.

It's only other major flaw is Zidane being an absolute sex pest.

[Captain Kirk]

8 hours ago, Skummy said:

I am terrible at the card game. Way worse than I ever remember being. I just don't know what any of the numbers mean, and I don't understand why I sometimes play a card that has like 38 whatevers and it gets beaten by a card with 8 whateverthenumbersmean.

It's only other major flaw is Zidane being an absolute sex pest.

I remember being so excited for another card game after Triple Triad, and it was just awful.

[jrhodes]

On 09/08/2023 at 09:46, Skummy said:

I am terrible at the card game. Way worse than I ever remember being. I just don't know what any of the numbers mean, and I don't understand why I sometimes play a card that has like 38 whatevers and it gets beaten by a card with 8 whateverthenumbersmean.

It's only other major flaw is Zidane being an absolute sex pest.

I booted up FFIX for the first time in ages the other day too and had the exact same experience with the card game. Such a step back from Triple Triad.

[Ruki]

Speaking of steps... FFVI is such a bit step music, graphic, and storywise compared to the rest of the pixel games. It's so darn good, and I really like when it gives you the option to choose the scenario you wish to follow. 

[gunnar hendershow]

Owing to how quickly games were made back in those days, it's pretty cool to see how many "big leaps" are taken in just a few short years. A lot of these people were learning from each other. FFVI is a great example of a team that identified so much of the good in the games that preceded it without feeling derivative.

[Benji]

On 09/08/2023 at 14:46, Skummy said:

I am terrible at the card game. Way worse than I ever remember being. I just don't know what any of the numbers mean, and I don't understand why I sometimes play a card that has like 38 whatevers and it gets beaten by a card with 8 whateverthenumbersmean.

It's only other major flaw is Zidane being an absolute sex pest.

Check the Wiki. It's actually a good game once you understand it. Not as good as Triple Triad, but still solid.

[Ruki]

Jeeze, you get Ultima Weapon REALLY early in FF6.

[probablyoliver]

Got to the bit in FFXVI last night where you meet

Spoiler

Ultima

and I really can't decide how I feel about it all right now. When it's good, it's really good. Lots of very hype moments, combat is fun (although a little on the shallow end at times) and it's absolutely stunning, but when it's not good it just feels super slow. The side quests are terrible, the story seems to veer off wildly at times and it just doesn't feel particularly coherent.

It's a marked improvement on XV, and is easily the best mainline single player entry since XII, but so far it's not a patch on the VI-X golden age.

I'm hoping it proves me wrong, because I am enjoying it for the most part, but I really wanted to love it a lot more than I am.

[Benji]

[Ruki]

 

[Skummy]

put in some serious FFIX time while my other half was at a music festival last week, and I am at a point where I only have the vaguest of memories of what's going on, and I love it. The early game, while I didn't remember everything, I still had a clear enough idea of what was happening, whereas the story is all a bit fuzzy from the start of Disc 3.

I didn't pay attention to Kuja saying the reason he couldn't go to Oeilvert (a place I had no memory of) because there was a magic barrier, and ended up taking Eiko and Vivi, which was a mistake, but workable. Garnet/Dagger currently has no voice, which means half the time her attacks/magic don't work, and that's one of the more frustrating dynamics going.

I got the trophy for beating Hippaul in 100 races, the kind of drudgery that only Final Fantasy games would reward you for. As a result, I also have a ton of decent cards, and am actually quite good at the game now, even if I still find it quite tedious. 

[probablyoliver]

4 minutes ago, Skummy said:

I got the trophy for beating Hippaul in 100 races, the kind of drudgery that only Final Fantasy games would reward you for. As a result, I also have a ton of decent cards, and am actually quite good at the game now, even if I still find it quite tedious. 

Come back to me when you get the trophy for getting 1000 on the jump rope.

[Skummy]

I don't think I can even get 20 on the jump rope! I'm rubbish at it.

Luckily I'm not a completionist for trophies and achievements, and can fully accept when it's just a skill issue. I've also been playing Sonic Origins, and have come to terms with never getting more than four or five Chaos Emeralds in Sonic 2.

Back to FF9, though, I always loved Vivi as a character, and not being able to remember quite how his story goes - and my girlfriend seeing parts of it unfold for the first time - means I'm really invested, more than in anything else in the game thus far. He really is the heart of the entire story. I'm also enjoying Quina as a character far more than last time, and finding Garnet and Eiko more likeable and well-rounded characters than I remember. Zidane's still a creep, though, which is a shame, as without that, it would be a better romance story than FF8, which was always celebrated for what I find quite a perfunctory and difficult to believe romance plot. 

[9 to 5]

1 hour ago, probablyoliver said:

Come back to me when you get the trophy for getting 1000 on the jump rope.

No trophies talk. 

[Ruki]

I love the Pixel Remaster because when you're in the mood to grind you can up the Exp gains, and when you don't want the distraction, turn off encounters completely. 

[apsham]

7 hours ago, Ruki said:

I love the Pixel Remaster because when you're in the mood to grind you can up the Exp gains, and when you don't want the distraction, turn off encounters completely. 

Yeah, major bonus for me. I've beaten all these before multiple times - and in the past if I was emulating one of them I'd just use a speed-up to grind and get the same results. So just pumping up the Exp a bit lowers my grinding time, and I can enjoy the sound and visuals more instead of hearing and seeing it all at 10x speed.

[Bobfoc]

Final Fantasy XVI's PC port has been re-announced. There's no release date, however.