[GrumpyAlien]

Truth. I'm enjoying it so far. As much as the music can really suck sometimes (first Atlas fight, anybody?) I think it does a good job of energizing the game and making it less of a downer than FF13 was. Also, it's nice to see PEOPLE around! FF13 was by far the most sterile RPG I've ever played.

Lol the atlas fight song (the one in the beginning of the demo) is my favorite song that I've heard in the game so far. Really gets
Me pumped up for battle and I love the lyrics.

[Suairyu]

I don't think so. But I have saved the site if you need it.

If you would upload for us all, we would very much appreciate it. I know I would.

[Jucksalbe]

Here you go:
http://www.mediafire.com/?5nkom6yimey655b

It's grouped by those codes they give in the guide.

[Suairyu]

Gentleman and (objectively, given the nature of your deed) a scholar.

edit - so much redundancy in it all. No reason why this couldn't have been included in the guide itself.

[shuri]

This thread inspired me to rebuy FF:Origins on the psn. I loved FF1 when I was a kid on the NES, its interesting to see how 20 years makes a difference when it comes to strategies.. When I was 10 years old, i would only buy offensive magic (bolt, fire, etc), or would seldom have a white mage in my team; now my team is all about using buffs and debuffs and being strategic!

I just got the pirate boat. I like the snes look the remake has. The translation is different, isnt it? The text isnt the same at all!

[Johnas]

This thread inspired me to rebuy FF:Origins on the psn. I loved FF1 when I was a kid on the NES, its interesting to see how 20 years makes a difference when it comes to strategies.. When I was 10 years old, i would only buy offensive magic (bolt, fire, etc), or would seldom have a white mage in my team; now my team is all about using buffs and debuffs and being strategic! I just got the pirate boat. I like the snes look the remake has. The translation is different, isnt it? The text isnt the same at all!

I'm playing this right now also, it's a beautiful game. I feel like the translation is different, but I'm not 100% sure (levistone versus floatstone, for example, if I remember right).

I love the promotion/class change midway through the game, it's one of the coolest moments in any RPG for me.

I posted earlier that I thought the game leaned more toward the original in difficulty, but at this point in the game, I've changed my mind on that. It's pretty easy right now, not GBA easy, but the difficulty curve has really smoothed out, for better or worse.

[Jucksalbe]

Time for another short break from FF XIII-2 and for some more FF III (where's all the kupokupo gone?).



Last time I stopped at Canaan.



But then I heard about some treasure I missed in the first cave. So I went back and indeed there were a lot of treasure chests. Mostly with stuff I already bought, but there was some money as well. :)



Okay, back to the story to pay a visit to Bahamut.



That didn't go so well, though. These pictures are actually from two different fights. After the first one (which I barely managed to survive) I went back to town to heal. Didn't get very far when the fight in the second picture happened, so back again (not gonna use my Phoenix Downs here). But on my third attempt:



I finally made it to the summit!



That shady guy told me to run away right away, but since Bahamut doesn't seem to deal much damage (maximum he did was 2), I tried to fight him. I managed to hurt him a little, but after I looked up his HP (60,000?), I decided I might be better off running away.



"Where to?", I thought. Oh well, why not just down the mountain.



I remember this area from the remake. I was to lazy to change my jobs, so I decided to run away from every fight in the cave. Some of my people nearly died, but in the end it worked perfectly.



Next stop: Final Fantasy V! At least it feels like that. The pirates, no, vikings even look the same. There's some nice treasure to find here. How about all level 3 black magic spells?



This is where I stopped. So far I'm really enjoying the Famicom version, but what bothers me is how often you (and the enemies) miss. Battles take way too long just because of that. Am I doing something wrong or will this get better later on?

[Link1110]

The next dungeon is annoying. Make sure you make 3 black mages and give each one of those level 3 spells. You can leave the other a white Mage. The boss will go down pretty quickly.

[Heropon]

Final Chapter: From the sky to the chaos.



Without Guardian Forces, our friendly neighborhood heroes have to find another use to the Rosetta Stone: A philologist teaches them Lufenian with its help.



Their next stop is a town full of path-blocker meanies. Now that they know their language, they can obtain the key to the Mirage Tower, a chime.



In the middle of a desert stands the legendary Mirage Tower. Thanks to the chime, the group can enter it. Inside, the party finds ol' friends of them.



The name of the second image is VALiS. The group manages to evade Omega Warmech. At the top of the tower they find the Sun Cryst a teleport to the Flying Fortress.



In this fortress, the legendary Adamantite awaits. Thanks to this, the final boss is a little more dead.


The last Fiend awaits to be killed mercilessly. With the old strategy of buffing Hero, the group manages to destroy Tiamat and the last crystal shines again. But this isn't the end. As they saw in another room, the energies of the crystals are being drawn to a familiar place, the Chaos Shrine.



Before going to the last dungeon, the party buys the most powerful spells they can use (not Lv.8 magic) and gets the Excalibur thanks to their adamantite. With all this things, our heroes are ready.



Hero, THIEF, Serah and Riku travel to the past to storm the shrine. After some time, they find what seems to be a dead end. Thanks to princess Sarah's lute, they break the illusion and can proceed.




Along the way, familiar faces attack. Our heroes, with fourty levels at their backs, delete their enemies without remorse.



At the heart of the dungeon, the heroes of light find the big bad. Surprise, surprise! The last boss is Garland, tenacious as a cockroach. Thanks to his evil powers, he becomes a worthy rival.



Well, let's explain the strategy: buff Hero, raise the HP cap so the characters don't die of two spells and cure, cure, cure.



This boss isn't even a threat, as he goes down like his minions. Well, our heroes save the day, blah, blah, blah. THE END.



I've never finished this game with Lv. 41. I always learn the last spells, but thanks to the caravan's potions, who needs them?

This is my least favourite mainline Final Fantasy game, but it doesn't mean much.

Next: Final Fantasy II (PSP)

[Handycrap101]

Just beat FF IX for the first time and it took me just under 60 hours. My final party was Dagger (68), Zidane (66), Steiner(61), and Vivi(65). I found the end pretty easy but it was still a fantastic ride the whole way through. Vivi was my favorite character by far though, overall I was pleased with the care Sqaure took to develop most of the cast.

It's hard for me to rank the FF games since I've only really played 1, 7, 9 and 12. I will say though that I completely adore 9. It's filled with so much charm and the battle system is simple but works so well. My only complaint would be that you lose 'Trance' after every battle even sometimes before you get a chance to use it.

Currently the other FF's I own and have yet to beat are 2, 4, 5, and 6 (All would be played on PS3). I can't decide which to start and I'm also juggling around the idea of replaying 7. Any suggestions?

[Rahxephon91]

So now, I'm heading through the Giza Plains during the rainy season. Pretty much the best track in the game plays here.

Well I can understand that watching FFXII can be a bit boring, right now especially no since there's not much going on in the story. I mean I'm watching Code Geass while playing this.

Either way I am streaming it and here is the post for today.

http://www.twitch.tv/rahxephon91

[Clear]

There's a lot of (justifiable) complaints levelled at FFXIII and FFXIII-2, but to give SE their due props, at their best points both titles have visuals that are as beautiful and arresting as anything in the history of gaming.

Mild area description spoilers ahead, I'm hiding the name of the zone to be on the safe side!

Right now for instance I'm just chilling near the end of Academia AF500 in XIII-2, letting to the gentle tinkling of Naoshi Mizuta's "Chaotic Labyrinth" wash over me, mixed with it are distant sounds of whistling and the ominous sounds of air-raid sirens...

The track title is of course completely apposite, as accompanying this soundscape is a staggeringly detailed vista of a futuristic metropolis seeming dissasembling itself into a myriad of tetris-like geometric shapes.

Its quite the sight... wish you were here. :)

[neoemonk]

This is cool that you guys are doing this. I'm tempted but there's no way I can make it through all these games in year. I've played them all except for III, X-2, and XII but don't really want to acquire the ones I don't have.

[charlequin]

I have gotten past the part at the beginning of FF2 PSP where everything is too ridiculously easy and instead gotten to the part where everything is just ridiculously rude and annoying instead. ;_;

So now, I'm heading through the Giza Plains during the rainy season. Pretty much the best track in the game plays here.

Agreed. It's a beautiful area too.

There's a lot of (justifiable) complaints levelled at FFXIII and FFXIII-2, but to give SE their due props, at their best points both titles have visuals that are as beautiful and arresting as anything in the history of gaming.

Also agreed. FFXIII has some of the most visually spectacular areas in any videogame I've ever played. If nobody else at Square-Enix has still got it, the map art teams certainly do.

This is cool that you guys are doing this. I'm tempted but there's no way I can make it through all these games in year.

I'm not sure anyone but Aeana is going to try to do all of them, heh.

[Zeliard]

Also agreed. FFXIII has some of the most visually spectacular areas in any videogame I've ever played. If nobody else at Square-Enix has still got it, the map art teams certainly do.

The visuals are the only thing that kept me playing the first FFXIII for as long as I did (my save says I stopped at Chapter 7). Borrowed FFXIII-2 from my brother and it's a similar experience so far, with the visuals being by far the most interesting thing about the game, outside of some of the combat. I do appreciate that they at least give you paradigm customization options earlier on this time around, though it still feels the need to start off with shitty QTE sections and auto-battling. I tired of the combat in the first game because of the drip-feeding of options and tactics via tutorials.

The visuals are striking though. Just bought a nice new display and it's definitely an impressive-looking game.

[Rahxephon91]

Speaking of everyone's favorite FF. I'm taking a break from XII and continuing a play through of XIII.

[Natetan]

I have gotten past the part at the beginning of FF2 PSP where everything is too ridiculously easy and instead gotten to the part where everything is just ridiculously rude and annoying instead. ;_;

Yeah, that's why I go down to Mysidia after I get Minh Wu. Granted that makes most of the game ridiculously easy, but hey.

I'm currently getting the black mask. For as much time as you spend getting the ultima spell, it's a shame that it's so worthless. I guess I wouldn't even mind the ultima spell being replaced by a special item you need to defeat the emperor or something similar. At least then it would seem required.

[Rahxephon91]

So is FF2 PSP worth playing if you've never played it. All the posts in here have made me interested. I tried playing it back when Dawn of Souls came out and couldn't get into it. Is the PSP version as broken as many claim FF2 is?

[Let me in]

FFV - I would go through this, given how I only finished the FF Anthologies version almost a decade ago. But the Advance version is so damn expensive (plus, I got ripped off pretty hard in the past for buying a GBA Cart online given how bootleg carts are pretty rampant) and to my knowledge, there still isn't a good fantranslation of V out.

What's wrong with RPGe's translation? It's been a while for me, but I didn't realize it wasn't held in high regard.

FFVII - Wanted to play this along side its anniversary, but there is a pretty excellent Something Awful LP going on right now for the game.

I am doing this now with the PC version (I still have that trapezoid box!). It reminds how much the new FFs are lacking in irony and basic humor.

FFXII International - I have been going through this for the past few years at a snail's pace. Doesn't help that I'm getting close to the point where the story just takes an unrecoverable nose-dive.

This is perfect with the English patch.

[charlequin]

Yeah, that's why I go down to Mysidia after I get Minh Wu. Granted that makes most of the game ridiculously easy, but hey.

It's not really even like the game is hard now, it's just obnoxious. When I get into a fight with eight guys, get ambushed, all of them cast stupid status effect spells with high hit rates, they all go before my guys do in the turn, and I can't run away because apparently it is literally impossible to run away in this game, it's not actually hard because they still can't really kill me very effectively*, it's just annoying sitting there waiting through all of it, and then afterwards some other dumb monster that steals 32 MP per hit from my guys shows up and it's just like WHAT UP.

I've never played the "easier" version before, and when I played the original version it was a fan translation of the WSC version like ten years ago and I did exactly that, power-grinding and buying fancy weapons in Mysidia right upfront. This time I'm trying to play it as God intended!


*Except when they cast "Break VII" and it petrifies my entire party immediately, like they did just now. Megaten'd in a Final Fantasy game!

What's wrong with RPGe's translation?

It's the first major RPG fan-translation. It's functional at best, shitty and inaccurate at worst. Compared to the scintillating Advance translation it's like Grade D Generic Fud.

[MechaX]

Haha, I got the strategy guide with it as well (Birthday present). I love how half the stuff requires you to go to some site to find out more information. Is it even up still?!

Probably not. God, what a waste of money that guide was. I pretty much just resorted to using the GameFAQs guides full time on that one (even despite how the computer and my PSX were in completely different rooms).

Also, I learned that the emulated GBA version of FF6 actually does have a patch to restore the sound quality. So... the definitive version is essentially on emulator?

What's wrong with RPGe's translation? It's been a while for me, but I didn't realize it wasn't held in high regard.

As charlequin noted, it was the among one of the first, but like the Tales of Phantasia SNES patch, it really hasn't aged that well. The anthologies translation isn't all that great either, but it is still a step above the SNES patch. Of course, when considering that FFV Advance trumps both versions even not-withstanding the translation, it just makes that version seem to be the go-to choice.

[Derrick01]

Does anyone know when the Treno auction house in FF9 updates its items? Is it every time you leave the city and come back?

I've got like 200,000 to burn here but there's some pretty shit items being offered.

[charlequin]

The anthologies translation isn't all that great either, but it is still a step above the SNES patch.

Now that I can't agree with. The Anthologies translation is an affront to God.

[Electivirus]

I spent 120+ hours on FFTA2 ;_;

*checks A2 file from two years ago*

386 hours. Pretty sure I win a prize for that.

---

Made it to Tomra in FF IV. Upgraded Cecil to all Diamond equipment. Diamonds are a guy-who-looks-like-a-girl's best friend. I wanna go through the Feymarch, but I think I'm severely underleveled for that. For one, Rosa doesn't know Reflect yet. ;-;

I wish the Gold Hairpin was as awesome as it is in VI, though. Fuck yeah, Halved-MP usage!

[Magnus]

finally going to run through FFVI with the intent to beat it on my iphone

Whaaaaa??

Jailbreak + emulators?

[stupei]

Hit my first major stumbling block in FF3. I made it to the surface world and found the water Crystal but the boss fight there kicked my ass. Seems like there isn't anywhere to replenish HP and MP nearby either, so grinding is only going to wear down my reserves of spells and/or potions.

Am I missing a place to go heal?

[Natetan]

It's not really even like the game is hard now, it's just obnoxious. When I get into a fight with eight guys, get ambushed, all of them cast stupid status effect spells with high hit rates, they all go before my guys do in the turn, and I can't run away because apparently it is literally impossible to run away in this game, it's not actually hard because they still can't really kill me very effectively*, it's just annoying sitting there waiting through all of it, and then afterwards some other dumb monster that steals 32 MP per hit from my guys shows up and it's just like WHAT UP. I've never played the "easier" version before, and when I played the original version it was a fan translation of the WSC version like ten years ago and I did exactly that, power-grinding and buying fancy weapons in Mysidia right upfront. This time I'm trying to play it as God intended! *Except when they cast "Break VII" and it petrifies my entire party immediately, like they did just now. Megaten'd in a Final Fantasy game! It's the first major RPG fan-translation. It's functional at best, shitty and inaccurate at worst. Compared to the scintillating Advance translation it's like Grade D Generic Fud.

Ha, another cheap thing you can do at least on the iOS version, if you get into a fight you don't like, close and reopen the game with restart. The next step you take will be a battle but it can be an easier one generally. It's how I avoided the blind spell for the majority of the early game and avoided getting stoned from the cockatrices around mysidia!

[Ultratech]

Hit my first major stumbling block in FF3. I made it to the surface world and found the water Crystal but the boss fight there kicked my ass. Seems like there isn't anywhere to replenish HP and MP nearby either, so grinding is only going to wear down my reserves of spells and/or potions. Am I missing a place to go heal?

You could always fly back to the Floating Continent. I forget if there is a place nearby to restore you though.
Should be something to restore you in the Water Temple.

[MechaX]

Now that I can't agree with. The Anthologies translation is an affront to God.

My memory of the Anthologies translation must be really slipping if it is that bad. You make it sound Breath of Fire II bad. I wish I could find a non-bad LP video of anthologies up.

[Aeana]

Now that I can't agree with. The Anthologies translation is an affront to God.

Well, I agree with it. RPGe's translation is terrible, and leaves a lot of stuff in Japanese for no reason.

[HiddenWings]

My memory of the Anthologies translation must be really slipping if it is that bad. You make it sound Breath of Fire II bad. I wish I could find a non-bad LP video of anthologies up.

Wyvern -> Y Burn: You be the judge.

I find it very hard to recommend the anthologies version when the advance version exists, except potentially in such cases that one is perhaps allergic to GBA cartridges.

[Therealbeatris]

starte FFIV this morning on GBA, I will keep you updated!

[Psxphile]

And I (re)started FFIII DS. Just because. I'm still in the middle of FFIV: Interlude but I really want to give the former another shot. I just hate it when I get bogged down in Jobs later in the game and suddenly I can't make up my mind who should master what (the same issue killed my interest in FF5 several times before the GBA version and its glorious localization). Fortunately most Jobs in FFIII are direct upgrades of previous ones (Warrior -> Knight) so I only need to decide from a smaller pool of Jobs as I go on.

Still don't like having to wait 1 hour each time I send a letter through Mognet.

[Rahxephon91]

So today we find ourselves at the Stilshrine of Miriam. It's kind of a boring place.

So you should totally watch it.

http://www.twitch.tv/rahxephon91

[Entropia]

Just beat FF1... onto FF2!

I'm pretty excited for this weekend, I'm going home and I'm bringing back my PS2 + all my PS1/2 games which includes FF7-9 and 12, FF Anthologies and Chronicles, KH 2, and DQ8 among others.

[charlequin]

Starting to enjoy FF2 more again now that I've gotten to another part where every single battle isn't SLEEP VIII BLIND IV SWAP VI OSMOSE III zzzzzzzzzzz

SQUARE ENIX Final Fantasy XIII - Free Shipping on eligible orders over $25! $14.92 - Barnes & Noble Bird-B-Gone Bird Control - Low Cost, High Quality Bird Control Products That Work. Guaranteed! BirdBGone.com/GetRidofPestBirds

Google Ads hates chocobos :(

[mudkyp]

Finally beat FF3 on the DS which is the only main line entry that I hadn't beaten. Good way to celebrate 25 years of Final Fantasy. Almost done replaying 4 and XIII-2 was just platinumed today. Think its time to finally plow through Tactics Advanced 2. Or maybe replay VI.

[Ultratech]

Been playing FF2 on my GBA. Kinda doing a normal run for once (i.e. zero to minimal grinding). But I did hop on over to Mysidia early on to pick up Thief Gauntlets, Holy, and an Ogrekiller axe. I love breaking the game like that. :D

Originally, I was gonna specialize my characters for this run. With Firion (Fry) the Black Mage, Maria (Marty) the Warrior/Beserker, and Guy (Gus) the White Mage. Except that ended up being kinda boring. So now they're just whatever. (Marty was originally going to have no Magic, but I ended up giving her Blink and Blizzard.) At least they're all well-rounded in weapon skills at this point. They're also naked save for Weapons/Shields and Accessories. Armor is for chumps. We'll see how that works out later on...

Anywho, I just finished getting the damn Sunfire, so I suppose it's off to the Dreadnaught next.

[Aeana]

Started a bit of FF4 last night. Since my friend was over, I switched it to English for his sake at the start, so that's why it's Japenglish in the first set.

Anyway, this post will begin "Hold O to Win: FF4 Edition"




I held O to win.




This girl said she hates me and then attacked me with Titan. No matter how hard I held O, I couldn't win.




I held O to win again.


Next time on "Hold O to Win," I will most likely hold O, and win.

[lazybones18]

Only played one Final Fantasy game in my entire life: FFX

I didn't get very far....

I really want that Theaterhythm FF game though.

[Castor Krieg]

Next time on "Hold O to Win," I will most likely hold O, and win.

What am I missing here? I suspect FFIV is so stupidly easy you just "Hold O to win"?

[Aeana]

What am I missing here? I suspect FFIV is so stupidly easy you just "Hold O to win"?

Yes, it's ridiculously easy.
That's why I prefer the DS version - it was balanced so you actually have to strategize. But I'm playing on PSP so I can take screenshots, and because I got it so I might as well play it at least once.

[HiddenWings]

After the grinding break, we're headed to Drakenvale. Galuf issues an order that almost makes sense at the time.


Except a little town in a mountain pass is in the way.


Kelger is less than happy to see us.


But fails to put up a real fight.


Anyhow, passage through the town obtained, with a bonus!


Drakenvale is the home of the powerful armor Bone Mail, which has the downside of making your character essentially undead. Given that my primary healing is white wind (which is NOT reversed on undead) and drains (Vampire stays good the entire game), this is quite useful for this party.


Drakenvale is also reaching the point in the game where summoners go from good to great. Saving Golem grants the ability to summon him, and he protects the party from physical attacks (for the next 2000 or so damage).


Which is used immediately on the boss. This boss is odd, as the main plant has no real attacks. The flowers it spawns all use weak physical attacks with added status effects, which are blocked completely by Golem.


Or they would be, if Titan didn't clear the field of flowers every turn. No opposing attacks were even seen.


Returning to Bal:


Oops.

[StuBurns]

I started FF7 today, first time I've played it in over a decade, only played the first hour, but it still surprisingly impacting. Such a high energy start. While I don't think it's the best of the series, that opening was, and is still, very strong.

I played a couple of hours of 8 a week ago, and probably won't go back, so I don't know if I will with 7, but it was really nice to play it again, I know it's the nostalgia, but it still feels special.

I wish it had analogue controls though.

[Cyan]

Anyway, this post will begin "Hold O to Win: FF4 Edition"

Isn't the PSP version "Press Select Once to Win"?

[Aeana]

Isn't the PSP version "Press Select Once to Win"?

Oh.
I actually had no idea they added auto battle to the PSP version. And it seems to obey previous selections, so yeah, that'll make this go even faster. I will amend the title of future posts.

[Heropon]

The world was at peace but an evil empire appeared. This little town was so dangerous that the Emperor had to attack it personally.



The protagonists visit the Game Over screen a little early.



They are lucky, the insurgence resistance against the Evil Empire™ rescues 3/4 of them. Their first mission as members of the rebel army is to retrieve information from Fynn, their home town.

Let's buy some magics and weapons. Maria wonders why she had a bow. It's tempting to equip everyone with two weapons but one is already overkill to most enemies, so I equip shields (+evasion => +agility => -ambushes, well, I lie, this game has sooooo many ambushes...).



Thanks to their complex encryption system, the group manages to contact with Scott, a prince of Kashuan. He is the first person to increase the death counter (1). He gives a ring.



The party reports the results. Mission complete!
Next Mission: Retrieve the mythril from the Semitt falls.
-Resources: A white mage, a canoe.
-Optional: Rescue slaves.



The nearest town to the Semitt falls is the sunny Salamand, that has the Life and Teleport spells. Inside the Semitt falls cave, they find a group of prisoners and save them (+0 points). The next objective is the mythril.



Who is guarding something as important as the mythril? A dark knight? No, a vulnerable sargeant. The party doesn't try with physical attacks and goes with the spells. Mission complete!



Thanks to the mission the party can buy mythril weapons.

[StuBurns]

I have a technical question about FF7. Why do the characters look as bad as they do? The battle encounters are fully 3D, with much better looking character models. If anything, I'd have expected better looking characters over the 2D art and simplified stuff in battles.

[AndyMoogle]

I have a technical question about FF7. Why do the characters look as bad as they do? The battle encounters are fully 3D, with much better looking character models. If anything, I'd have expected better looking characters over the 2D art and simplified stuff in battles.

That's what I hate about FF7. On the field, the characters look like ass, but in the battles they look fine. Then there is a third version of them in the cutscenes. The game really needs a remake.

[FrontalMonk]

Whaaaaa?? Jailbreak + emulators?

Yup. SNES EX is free, and I still have the original cart, so... :)

The fun thing is, I keep forgetting to go back to it, but then this thread reminds me to start it back up again. I wrapped up Terra/Edgar/Banon's section of getting to Narshe, then started up Sabin's section. Just got to the Phantom Forest with Cyan and Shadow, time to go ride the Dooooooomtraaaaaain!

Also, Aurabolt can be difficult to do with a virtual d-pad, and I'm surrounded by ghosts :(