Final Fantasy?

[devonin]

Re: Final Fantasy?

You might try Baten Kaitos for the Gamecube, Rubix. The story was actually pretty interesting, even if it did seem like they ripped off most of the characters from FF10, the soundtrack was fantastic, and the battle system, I found anyway, was a lot more compelling than most.

It runs off a card system. You'll have a large card pool, and a fixed deck size for each of the characters. You find such cards as loot, as rewards for questing, and best of all, you can make new cards by playing cards you have in a certain order.

The basic level of deck construction centres around planning the deck so you have a nice balance of damaging attacks, heals, and status effect cause/cures, there are 6 kinds of 'elements' of damage you can deal, and the power of your attack is additive of your whole play of cards (If you deal 50 fire damage and 30 water damage, you actually only deal 20 damage, they fire and water cancel out, so you have to plan both your deck and your individual plays well)

There's additionally numbers on some number of the faces/corners of the cards (higher level cards have numbers in more places) and playing cards by certain numerical sequences can also increase your damage output. So playing three 3's in a row increases your damage some, 4 3's in a row by more and so on, playing a sequence of 1, 2, 3, 4 increases it more.

You need some luck to get the right numbers on the right cards at the right time, but the more skilled you are in deck design and thinking on the fly as to which number on which card to use, you can dish out some pretty significant damage.

[Squeek]

Re: Final Fantasy?

Baten Kaitos had the most amazing variation of turn-based combat that I've played so far. But DEAR GOD was the voice acting dreadful. And that second fight with the trio... Ugh. That was my four-hour battle I mentioned somewhere else among this Final Fantasy madness we've been going through.

That's one thing Tales does very well, though. Voice acting. Never once have I noticed a flubbed line or even a wrong pitch in a sentence. It's phenomenal. There must be well over 10,000 lines in the game over 50 different voices and they're all great. Abyss is really a step up from Symphonia, which is saying something because Symphonia was solid as well.

Rubix: He's referring to Tales of the Abyss, if you haven't been told yet. And no, you can't disable spell animations, but they're never boring. I played the game three times through non-stop and I never once wanted the spell animations to hurry along. I put well over 200 hours into the game. It takes about 60-100 to beat it the first time, it takes 40-100 the second time depending on whether you do all the side-quests or not and if you decide to get 2x exp or not. It takes no time at all the third time if all you want to do is grind levels on 10x exp so you can beat the game on Unknown difficulty.

In Tales, the difficulty doesn't do much other than unlock certain titles for beating bosses on that difficulty. What it does is just boost enemy stats. Hard mode makes enemies twice as good. That means it's four times harder to win. They have double the HP, double the attack, double the defense, etc. In Very Hard, they have triple the stats. That means it's nine times harder to win. Triple HP, triple atk, triple def, etc. In Unknown, they have quadruple the stats. That means it's sixteen times harder to win. Quadruple HP, quadruple atk and def, etc. Not only that, but when you ramp up the difficulty in boss fights, they get better. They'll use stronger attacks more often. In team battles, they'll revive their partners, as you can see in that video which is on Very Hard difficulty. In Unknown you have to kill them about four times each before they stay down.

Shash: I watch that video all the time. I have the game sitting right next to me, but for some reason I just love listening to how a battle progresses in Tales of the Abyss. It never gets old. There's a comment from the author of that video that says Kratos will be one of the Cameos in Vesperia. Swweeeet. Once the 360 drops under 100 dollars I'll get it and Vesperia.

And I'm sure you've seen this guy's videos. He's a machine. He maxed out everyone's stats with herbs using Search Points over and over and over again. http://www.youtube.com/user/Shinryu74 . Yeah, he's the one who soloed the hardest boss on Unknown without taking any damage.

Shaionei: Well, I can understand if you think Abyss is bad, but not in your case since you think Star Ocean 3 is good.

Here's the main flaw of Star Ocean 3 aside from the huge lack of a real plot: the game is called Star Ocean. That means space. Why am I only allowed onto ONE PLANET for most of the game? The entire time I was playing it, I was just so irritated with the first planet. I figured we'd be doing like a backwater planet, then a super-futuristic planet, maybe a prehistoric planet, you know, fun stuff. Think Kingdom Hearts here. Then a friend tells me while playing it that the first disc takes place entirely on that planet. I very nearly quit playing the game when he told me that. Oh, and another thing. Why don't party members outside of battle get exp? I mean, I understand it in a game like Persona 3 where you pick your three party members and the four of you go off exploring while the rest stay behind but in Star Ocean the rest of your party is always with you. And it really, really isn't fair that some party members start at level 1 when you get them despite getting them 40 hours into the game. That's just retarded. And finally, there should not be skills that take HP to use, and there should not be dying from running out of MP.

Oh that reminds me Kingdom Hearts is another game Square-Enix made. It was actually really damn good. Until they made the second one. Convoluted story, horrible battle system, and fanservice the entire time. And then there's the fanbase that makes you want to hate everything there is to like about the game. Just like another Square-Enix fanbase...

[tsugomaru]

Re: Final Fantasy?

Although I highly doubt a TWEWY sequel, I hope it doesn't turn into a fan service game. The battle system was so damn amazing. I suggest you try it out if you have a DS MrRubix.

Story: It wasn't the most amazing story and it definitely had its flaws, but if you're running it your first time through, you're going to find the story amazing. If you play it a second time, you'll just find that the story gets more in the way than anything else, but even after you reach end game of the story, you'll find yourself playing for countless hours just battling.

Battle System: This will either make or break the game for you. This is TWEWY strong point, its battle system. It makes perfect use of the d-pad, stylus, and both screens to make a very real-time and active battle. On the top screen, it's like a fighting game, you have to press keys to make attacks and do blacks and depending on the character, you can build up combo points which are used to unleash an even more furious attack. The bottom screen, you use a variety of pins with different ability and depending on the pin, there's a different drawing you need to make with the stylus to use that pin. The major complaint about this is that you have to focus with two different screens, but I secretly think they just need more practice.

Music: The soundtrack will be different than your typical DS RPG. All the songs are good and in style with the game. Unless you absolutely hate J-pop, you'll enjoy the music.

Art: The style is consistent throughout the game and the images are crisp. None of this bad imitation 3D crap.

~Tsugomaru

[speeddemon]

Re: Final Fantasy?

I've only played 5 FF's (VII, VIII, X, X-2, and XII), and in my opinion FFX is the best.

1. FFX had my favorite battle system. I honestly don't understand what it is about just a standard turn-based system that makes people hate it so much. Only thing i disliked about it was the random encounter portion. I hate the systems they used for VII, VIII, and X-2. I do however, like the system in FFXII, setting up all the gambits and such make it much less tedious when you plan on doing nothing but leveling for a few hours.

2. I loved the leveling system. Honestly the Sphere Grid has been my favorite system of all time, in any game.

3. The story was great. I would say more... but I don't really know how to describe it. I just loved it more than most stories I see or hear.

4. The music was amazing. It always went with the story, if it was used during pieces of it. Other than that, I loved the background music so much i would turn on the game, go somewhere and just leave Tidus standing there, just so i could hear the music uninterrupted.

5. Blitzball. I admit it loses its appeal after a while, but blitzball is my favorite side game of any of the FF's I've played.

Next favorite is FFXII.

Now for anyone who has only played about half of the storyline(about 20 hours, depending on how much time you take to level your people go out for hunts, etc.), play further into it. The story is pretty boring for a long time. When you hit nearer to the end it's much better. I won't say it's amazing, because i know very well it isn't. The battle system wasn't as bad as most of you keep saying. It is annoying having to buy gambits, or find them, but once you have the necessary ones, the battle system is really much less of a hassle than the others. There isn't that annoying random encounter bull that could stop you a footstep away from the next area, and you don't have to select everything you want to do all the time. And the ability to flee across entire areas you really don't want to be in is pretty nice. I can't say the music is nearly as good as FFX, but it does have its moments/areas.

I can't really say much about FFVII, because in all honesty i only got about halfway through before I got stuck(i was a bit young and didn't understand the necessity of leveling and setting up materia right and such), and then shortly thereafter my brother lost the game.

I didn't really like FFVIII too much...it never really drew me in, and the GF's were really cheap. It was also pretty annoying not being able to control my summoned things, like i could in FFX.

As far as FFX-2 goes...just don't even bother with it. The only purpose behind even touching it is to see a little bit of story that's connected to FFX a little...but it's barely worth the game.


I would try to contribute to whatever conversation you guys have going on...but I'm way too tired to read it.

[Shashakiro]

Re: Final Fantasy?

Never once have I noticed a flubbed line or even a wrong pitch in a sentence.

I noticed a few in Symphonia. In Abyss it's pretty much gone, although there's at least one actual grammar error (lmao), as well as some kind of funny word choices--in one Select-skit, Jade says "you guys", and I really, really can't picture him ever saying that >_> But I'd agree that the VA is overall very solid in both games.

And I actually managed to get 3k grade for 10x exp on my first playthrough, so I've never done a 2x...just 1x and 10x XD

There's a comment from the author of that video that says Kratos will be one of the Cameos in Vesperia. Swweeeet.

I'd actually have prefered a different character from ToS. Sure, Kratos is badass, but I've already fought him three times in ToS, so it's not as much of a novelty. I wanted to fight someone like Lloyd, Colette, Genis, Raine, Presea, etc--someone who is NEVER fighting against you, because that's just so WTF. It's still great to have Kratos, though...although I was REALLY hoping for Jade as a cameo >_<

And yea I saw that no damage Unknown Nebilim vid. But then again, I recently saw a no damage solo Abyssion Mania vid...USING RAINE WTF. Definitely the most impressive Tales vid I've ever watched, I'd recommend finding it.

Oh that reminds me Kingdom Hearts is another game Square-Enix made. It was actually really damn good. Until they made the second one. Convoluted story, horrible battle system, and fanservice the entire time. And then there's the fanbase that makes you want to hate everything there is to like about the game. Just like another Square-Enix fanbase...

I'd agree that the first was MUCH better, but I don't think the second is THAT bad...as long as you spend some time grinding Drive forms. If you never use those then the game is boring as hell, you can't dodge anything, and every battle is mash X mash X mash X mash X. That was my first playthrough...and that sucked. Once you can highjump, doublejump, quick dodge, and glide, KH2 becomes a lot more playable.

[zidart]

Re: Final Fantasy?

Although I highly doubt a TWEWY sequel, I hope it doesn't turn into a fan service game. The battle system was so damn amazing. I suggest you try it out if you have a DS MrRubix.

Story: It wasn't the most amazing story and it definitely had its flaws, but if you're running it your first time through, you're going to find the story amazing. If you play it a second time, you'll just find that the story gets more in the way than anything else, but even after you reach end game of the story, you'll find yourself playing for countless hours just battling.

Battle System: This will either make or break the game for you. This is TWEWY strong point, its battle system. It makes perfect use of the d-pad, stylus, and both screens to make a very real-time and active battle. On the top screen, it's like a fighting game, you have to press keys to make attacks and do blacks and depending on the character, you can build up combo points which are used to unleash an even more furious attack. The bottom screen, you use a variety of pins with different ability and depending on the pin, there's a different drawing you need to make with the stylus to use that pin. The major complaint about this is that you have to focus with two different screens, but I secretly think they just need more practice.

Music: The soundtrack will be different than your typical DS RPG. All the songs are good and in style with the game. Unless you absolutely hate J-pop, you'll enjoy the music.

Art: The style is consistent throughout the game and the images are crisp. None of this bad imitation 3D crap.

~Tsugomaru

beat the ultimate enemy.... it will give you a hint of a sequel.

and i think FFX-2 is actually fun because of the battle system used in it, the story is not as good as FFX but it does what i always want a sequel to do which is to see what happened to the characters in the aftermath (reason why i'm very exited for ToS2)

[tsugomaru]

Re: Final Fantasy?

One of the problem that some people have with a turn based game is that you can do nothing against an oncoming attack. The problem I have with the Final Fantasy games is that it takes too long to do anything because after you make all your moves, you have to wait almost 5 seconds before making another one. Not only that, you don't know when the enemy will attack so you can't even prepare for it. At least some turn base games tell you who is up next so you can better plan your attack strategy to drop the enemy before it's his turn to attack or to reduce the damage dealt to you. Otherwise, you spend a great deal of boss battles fearing the bosses turn because you don't know when it will happen.

~Tsugomaru

[BBoyGNF]

Re: Final Fantasy?

I wanted to fight someone like Lloyd, Colette, Genis, Raine, Presea, etc--someone who is NEVER fighting against you, because that's just so WTF.

It appears so far that Symphonia 2's main antagonist will be Lloyd himself; a battle I honestly can't wait another month for. Should be fun as long as the main characters are good.

[zidart]

Re: Final Fantasy?

One of the problem that some people have with a turn based game is that you can do nothing against an oncoming attack. The problem I have with the Final Fantasy games is that it takes too long to do anything because after you make all your moves, you have to wait almost 5 seconds before making another one. Not only that, you don't know when the enemy will attack so you can't even prepare for it. At least some turn base games tell you who is up next so you can better plan your attack strategy to drop the enemy before it's his turn to attack or to reduce the damage dealt to you. Otherwise, you spend a great deal of boss battles fearing the bosses turn because you don't know when it will happen.

~Tsugomaru

well nowadays FF games give the option to speed up the ATB, and the fact that you don't know when the boss is going to attack actually is a thrill sometimes because it makes you be prepared for everything at any time and FFIVDS just proves this even more.

[tsugomaru]

Re: Final Fantasy?

It's all opinion on how much thrill there is, you find it thrilling, I'm sitting in fear because I don't want to die and have to sit through the same cut scene multiple times. When I do FFIV boss fights, you have no idea how extremely cautious I am. At most, I use only two of my characters every single move and have everyone else on standby just in case bad shit happens and as a result, the battle pace moves extremely slow. It's not that I absolutely hate it, it just could have been designed better.

~Tsugomaru

[ShAiOnEi]

Re: Final Fantasy?

Shaionei: Well, I can understand if you think Abyss is bad, but not in your case since you think Star Ocean 3 is good.

Here's the main flaw of Star Ocean 3 aside from the huge lack of a real plot: the game is called Star Ocean. That means space. Why am I only allowed onto ONE PLANET for most of the game? The entire time I was playing it, I was just so irritated with the first planet. I figured we'd be doing like a backwater planet, then a super-futuristic planet, maybe a prehistoric planet, you know, fun stuff. Think Kingdom Hearts here. Then a friend tells me while playing it that the first disc takes place entirely on that planet. I very nearly quit playing the game when he told me that. Oh, and another thing. Why don't party members outside of battle get exp? I mean, I understand it in a game like Persona 3 where you pick your three party members and the four of you go off exploring while the rest stay behind but in Star Ocean the rest of your party is always with you. And it really, really isn't fair that some party members start at level 1 when you get them despite getting them 40 hours into the game. That's just retarded. And finally, there should not be skills that take HP to use, and there should not be dying from running out of MP.

I can understand your dislikes to the game because you were expecting it to be something it wasn't but the flaws you have pointed out are just preferences you wished could have been in the game. You see I had a pretty damn good time playing the game even though it has been a while and I can't quite remember the story that well. I do remember enjoying the adventure of the game and the battle system in terms of leveling up skills and creating new types of weapons using the synthesis. And to tell you the truth the more you went deeper into the story you actually do discover new and futuristic planets which in fact is the most mindblowing visuals I have ever gotten on real time play of a game. The game scores a 9 out of 10 for me for just sheer depth, you would know what I meant when you get to the last parts of the game.

[tsugomaru]

Re: Final Fantasy?

Things that should have been in the game are considered flaws. It's only when you criticize on the most minor details like the shade of a couple pixels in one map is it not a flaw.

~Tsugomaru

[zidart]

Re: Final Fantasy?

It's all opinion on how much thrill there is, you find it thrilling, I'm sitting in fear because I don't want to die and have to sit through the same cut scene multiple times. When I do FFIV boss fights, you have no idea how extremely cautious I am. At most, I use only two of my characters every single move and have everyone else on standby just in case bad shit happens and as a result, the battle pace moves extremely slow. It's not that I absolutely hate it, it just could have been designed better.

~Tsugomaru

well but it's the style of how you play it that causes this not exactly because it was poorly designed, but i do understand your point because similar stuff has happened to me in the past, but again i find it thrilling, and as you said is all a matter of opinion.

[ShAiOnEi]

Re: Final Fantasy?

Well you know the things he pointed out are not always essential in an rpg anyways. I don't know about you but I like to build my character from the bottom up. I'm not worried about getting experience for a character that I don't use. To me it doesn't make sense if your "out of play characters" get experience at all.

[tsugomaru]

Re: Final Fantasy?

When you're playing a Final Fantasy game you can keep your characters on standby in a battle by having them not make an action and only use several characters to attack. This way, when the boss hits you for a lot of damage, your standby characters are already ready to start healing the rest of your party to full health. They are not outside of my party, they are there in battle, just not doing anything. However, I do use them all.

Also, the gamer should not suffer because he's not playing the game the designers intended it to be. That is a design issue.

~Tsugomaru