Queen's Blood (Final Fantasy Thread)

[probablyoliver]

I really wish FFVIII was a bit tighter as far as storyline is concerned, because some of the individual moments of that game are superb. The assassination attempt on disc one, all the garden stuff on disc 2, the Laguna bits, all of them are up there as far as best and most memorable FF moments ever, but big yikes to the string and sellotape holding it together.

[Draevyn]

1 hour ago, Ollie said:

I really wish FFVIII was a bit tighter as far as storyline is concerned, because some of the individual moments of that game are superb. The assassination attempt on disc one, all the garden stuff on disc 2, the Laguna bits, all of them are up there as far as best and most memorable FF moments ever, but big yikes to the string and sellotape holding it together.

You wash your filthy whore mouth out with soap! FFVIII is the greatest!

[probablyoliver]

13 minutes ago, Forky said:

You wash your filthy whore mouth out with soap! FFVIII is the greatest!

Oh don't get me wrong, I'm loving playing through it again. It's a brilliant game, there's just a whole bunch of massive issues with it. 

The junction system is easily cheesed and can get a little too micro-managey, it also makes using magic totally not worth it, but it's a fun system in of itself, just needs a little bit of fine tuning.

The summons are amongst my favourites in the series, and I love the reliance of GF's to do practically anything in battle.

The story as a whole is a bit of a jumbled mess but as I said, the individual moment to moment beats are pretty much all hit, they just don't tie in so well, and the third act twist is downright bonkers.

It's a definite 9/10, it's just sandwiched between arguably the two best main entries in the series. It's still roughly six thousand times better than XIII and XV.

[apsham]

Re; junctioning

So FF8 kind of slipped past me as a kid because I only played a demo and didn't at all get what was going on. I now mildly understand junctioning, but I'm also just getting into the game as well. One thing that I am not entirely clear on is this.

When I junction magic to a stat, does it matter what that magic is or just purely the quantity of it?

[probablyoliver]

10 minutes ago, apsham said:

Re; junctioning

So FF8 kind of slipped past me as a kid because I only played a demo and didn't at all get what was going on. I now mildly understand junctioning, but I'm also just getting into the game as well. One thing that I am not entirely clear on is this.

When I junction magic to a stat, does it matter what that magic is or just purely the quantity of it?

It very much matters what the magic is. Something like Fire or Scan junctioned to your HP is going to have a very minimal effect, whilst something like Life is going to have a much greater effect.

You'll often find that what the magic does relates to the stat it best corresponds with. For instance something like Protect is going to have a much better effect on Vitality (physical defense) than Spirit (magical defense). The opposite is true for Shell and so on and so forth.

Basically the best magics for HP are your high level recovery, strength is high level attack spells, yadda yadda yadda.

[apsham]

Just now, Ollie said:

It very much matters what the magic is. Something like Fire or Scan junctioned to your HP is going to have a very minimal effect, whilst something like Life is going to have a much greater effect.

You'll often find that what the magic does relates to the stat it best corresponds with. For instance something like Protect is going to have a much better effect on Vitality (physical defense) than Spirit (magical defense). The opposite is true for Shell and so on and so forth.

Basically the best magics for HP are your high level recovery, strength is high level attack spells, yadda yadda yadda.

Ahh yes, I figured that would make sense but with me only just starting out I was unsure. Thanks!

[Draevyn]

One of the best things is getting the Diablos card and turning it into 100 black wholes within the first 10 minutes of the game....junctioning it to Strength and then wrecking shit for the rest of the game.

[Ruki]

Just do 100 Waters and you'll be golden. 

[Draevyn]

Was it Waters to Strength? I know it was one to Strength and one to HP and you were set. You could basically draw Waters in about 5 minutes from some of the enemies around.

[probablyoliver]

The madlads are actually nailing it.

[Ruki]

I want to post the trailer too. because.... holy fucking shit.

 

 

Everything about this is just amazing. This is already the game of the year for 2020.

[Draevyn]

That image of Shiva coming together gave me chills

[Bobfoc]

One thing that was inevitably going to bother me is that the voices generally aren't what I imagined them to be. The power of imagination when playing through games with text-based dialogue is something that's always going to be lost when they're given voices (I should add that I haven't played or watched any of the FF7 spin-offs, so I'm not familiar with these characters being voiced).

On the other hand, it looks really nice. It looks as though they're giving Jessie, Biggs and Wedge more screen time, so that will be interesting. I'm less bothered about seeing the Mako reactors in HD glory, but the city of Midgar itself ought to be the star of the show. They've really brought it to life.

[stokeriño]

The little hints towards retaining the stupid stuff (e.g. the workout mini-game) is, in its way, just as impressive as all the glitz and wonderful, wonderful shiny.

[Ruki]

2 hours ago, stokeriño said:

The little hints towards retaining the stupid stuff (e.g. the workout mini-game) is, in its way, just as impressive as all the glitz and wonderful, wonderful shiny.

Crossdressing!

 

Also, really loving that Jessie, Biggs and Wedge seem to be getting actual characters. 

And a new SOLDIER character. They should be fleshed out more, since in the original it was pretty much just Cloud/Zack and Sephiroth, right?

[Bobfoc]

I'm surprised there isn't a different name for the game yet. I understood that the "Remake" part was a placeholder until they came up with something else. Not that that's a problem, given that it gets the message across.

[Your Mom]

I feel like you guys are the experts so I'll ask. I played 7 and 8 back when they came out but I don't remember anything about them outside of really liking them back then. Do you think they still hold up? Are they super hard? I know for sure I finished them back then but I also probably had help that I wouldn't have now. Oh and if I'm pretty sure I'm going to get the remake should I skip 7 and just play 8?

[apsham]

I think they hold up - and there's a silver lining with these remakes. I've played through all of them that have been done so far, and with 8 recently out I'm going through that too. The speedup options the exist in all of them (except for X and X-2 unless you're on PC) are a godsend, so that makes grinding 10 times easier to get out of the way if you need to. And then if you kind of get tired of the gameplay and just want to experience the story again - you can use the other built in assists that give you health or turn off random encounters, etc.

[probablyoliver]

10 hours ago, The Chiksrara Special said:

I feel like you guys are the experts so I'll ask. I played 7 and 8 back when they came out but I don't remember anything about them outside of really liking them back then. Do you think they still hold up? Are they super hard? I know for sure I finished them back then but I also probably had help that I wouldn't have now. Oh and if I'm pretty sure I'm going to get the remake should I skip 7 and just play 8?

They hold up really well, but then I've been playing these games for over 20 years now so I might not be the best judge for people coming in fresh(ish).

As @apsham said, there's little time saving methods in all of the rereleases that make things a little more accessible and you can kind of tailor make your experience depending on what you're after. If you can get past the fact they all look a little ugly by today's standards, the mechanics, gameplay and stories are all still excellent (for the most part).

I'd totally recommend playing through the original version of VII before you jump into the remake. Based on everything we've seen so far for the remake, it looks like pure nostalgia porn, and I think a decent understanding of the original is just going to make the new version all the better.

I also wouldn't sleep on IX, it's a massive departure from VII and VIII but it's incredible.

 

 

Also, as far as my own playthrough of VIII is concerned, I've just got onto disc 3. The whole orphanage twist in disc 2 still doesn't land. It's ridiculous and totally negates everything that comes before it. Still, the battle of the gardens is still fantastic fun. Except that minigame where you're punching a soldier off a mech. That's still the worst.

[Bobfoc]

12 hours ago, The Chiksrara Special said:

I feel like you guys are the experts so I'll ask. I played 7 and 8 back when they came out but I don't remember anything about them outside of really liking them back then. Do you think they still hold up? Are they super hard? I know for sure I finished them back then but I also probably had help that I wouldn't have now. Oh and if I'm pretty sure I'm going to get the remake should I skip 7 and just play 8?

I first played 7 in 2012, so I didn't have the cushion of nostalgia to skew my judgement in the same way I do with other games of the era. I found the random encounters a tad irritating and there were a few sections that are more tedious than fun, but I also thought that the storytelling, characters and locations were great. People make fun of the graphics, but I think they're endearing and lend a lot to the power of imagination. I also have the unpopular opinion that the pre-drawn backgrounds are really nice.

As far as difficulty goes, 7 is often considered one of the easiest in the series, and the remasters have the cheat options that others have mentioned. I have to admit that I used the internet a few times to remind myself of the geography of the world map, and there were a couple of other times when I needed to look up where to go next, but I do that in most old games anyway.