[jaxword]

I'm not even sure if the Occuria are the Gods of Ivalice. Like, FF12 makes you think that, but if FF12's Ivalice is the same as FFT's, I dunno, because the Gods in FFT intervene at least twice to actually HELP Ramza and company (Rooftop of Riovanes, Island of Nelveska). Fun FFII fact! At least according to Dawn of Souls, Firion and company are actually Light Warriors. This is something I think people tend to miss, since, while FFI and FFIII beat you over the head with how you're Light Warriors, FFII only tells you this once: In the Tower of Mysidia, when the Crystal of Ultima mentions it. Which is fitting, since the entirety of that room is a shout-out to FFI.

Good catch on the FF2 fact, I love that stuff.

I actually wasn't even referring to the Occuria, though they are definitely God-like.

I meant the Zodiacs. They ARE Gods, just like a Greek or Norse pantheon, complete with infighting and falls from grace to the mortal realm. And then sealed into stones, which is why they end up helping Ramza, since the game goes for the cliche "Power reflects the user's heart."

The Occuria are more like the aloof God, unseeable and untouchable but manipulating things.

The Zodiacs are the beasts and violent God type, punishing mankind with fire and brimstone (summons).

[jaxword]

Everyone who claims FFXIII is a rip-off of FFVII never bothered playing FFIII, because XIII and III have WAY more in common. Upon arriving in the lower world in FFIII you find it is mostly barren (covered in darkness). Upon arriving in Pulse in XIII, you find it is mostly barren (abandoned).

FF3 and FF8 would make a better connection. Some guy already 'sperged out about that one:

http://www.rpgamer.com/editor/2005/q2/050205gm.html

[Dark Schala]

Last time on Megaman Legends Gaiden, we saved Norma and apparently no one in Windia (well, really—no one in the entire world) is aware of anything that goes on around them.



So back to Pazuzu’s Tower we go!

Mountain Range of Whirlwinds

People have a like/dislike relationship with this dungeon because the music’s pretty good. But people dislike how big this dungeon is. The monsters are spaced out a little more so they don’t seem as overbearing, but you have screens with these long staircases with several enemies each, and enemies at each corner of a path. Not to mention that you have to scale the tower using the staircases which go through every floor or every other floor.



It’s like the enemies are guarding something.



By the way, we’ve leveled up! So these are our stats now. We are now better than Kaeli in every aspect save for magic. Hooray.



Damn, that was quick. Now it’s boss ti—



The heck did he go?

Welcome to this dungeon’s gimmick. Remember what Cid told us?



So because of Cid’s “master craftsmanship”, we now have to flick these emergency stoppage switches to stop Pazuzu from operating the elevator at a certain point. Now this brings in something nice—you may finish the dungeon whenever the heck you want to, sometimes when you get to the first floor that you find Pazuzu at if you flick the switch before talking to him. You’ll see me do this in a sec.

You don’t have to do this dungeon within 40-60 minutes.



This is the next floor. Pazuzu isn’t here as indicated by the closed elevator door.



Gosh, what could so many enemies be guarding?!



Oh.



(and because I haven't posted it in a while...)

Battle 1

These are some of the enemies in this dungeon. They aren’t hard because we’re going to spam Wizard and Aero spells at them for the entirety of the dungeon. Chimeras are easier versions of Gidrah and they pose no threat (weak vs wind). Beholders are stronger Gathers and are weak against bomb-type attacks (but by the time you get the weapon in this dungeon you’ll use either that or the claw against them). Gargoyles are weak against wind, and the same goes for Garudas. Nagas can cast sleep and paralyze on people but they’re weak against thunder, water, and wind. Sorcerers are stronger Mages, but are weak against wind. Thanatoses are weak against water, wind, and thunder, so they aren’t hard either, even with their constant curing.

Manticor(e)s can be assholes because they can petrify you but they can be done in with a few water spells.

So all of the enemies are just really darn easy and can be laid to rest with a few spells. You should be carrying around a ton of seeds.



Beholders repel attacks, by the way. They qualify as slimes. Use physical attacks against them.



Look we’ve reached the top of the tower already. :D Well, we have to go back down the staircase. The game forces us to circle about the tower to get stuff, fight stuff, and find Pazuzu.



We’re taking the lower staircase out of the two for a reason.



We wanted this.



We now have all of the spells that the game has to offer, with the addition of the final spell, and strongest spell in the game, Flare. It's a fire-elemental spell so don't use it against stuff that's strong vs fire.



Basically, it’s a shinier reskin of White.



So this is one of the switches I was referring to earlier. Flick the switch with your axe, and the elevator will not go past that floor. I assume the elevator works like the elevators at school and goes all the way up before going down, so let’s look at the situation where we flick the switch and approach Pazuzu.



The boss fight initiates. Once you beat him, you’ll restore the crystal and will be able to carry on with the story.

But we don’t want to do that, do we? We’re completionists! Let’s NOT flick the switch.



Mwa ha! We’re going to kill all of the enemies and find all the treasure in this tower. What do you say to that?



I hate it when they do this. But it’s worth the effort because we get…



The Excalibur is technically the strongest weapon in the game, with an attack power of 127 and a speed increase of 5. You can usually use it to wipe out an enemy with one strike. But I usually default to the claw’s chance-based Petrify attack if I have the patience. For now, though, the Excalibur will usually be equipped for Beholders.

You’ll notice that we also now have all of the weapons in this game. We just need all of the equipment now.



I get it, game.

Anyway, we’re done wiping out monsters. Let’s flick all of the switches now (you really don’t have to do this, but I feel like doing it). You merely have to box in Pazuzu and approach him.



I usually encounter Pazuzu on the third floor so let’s go there.



How does an oversized bird…gargoyle… thing know about Captain Mac, anyway? What makes Captain Mac so important is a better question. Why is this game constantly restricting me from getting to this guy?



Battle 2

Pazuzu can be hard if you don’t know what the heck to do. Pazuzu uses a lot of air-elemental attacks against you, which neither of your characters have an adequate defense against, amazingly enough. You can get rid of him in just a few rounds of Flare and Aero, but… he’ll do this:



This is the PsychShield. Once he uses this, it’ll last for a round until he takes it off. It’ll reflect magic attacks, much like the Beholder’s/Ooze’s repel. Just use normal attacks when he does this until he takes it off.

He’s strong against Earth, but that bit is obvious.

Now we have defeated the last of the Vile Four. For some reason when we take the elevator we manage to go through all of the stoppage points that we set into place while trying to box Pazuzu in. This game makes no sense, though, so I shouldn’t be surprised, right?



Man I hope Megaman and Kaeli aren’t prone to motion sickness.



Yay. No post-crystal-get! dialogue by the way. Kaeli isn’t witty enough for that and she won’t ditch you either.



Get this. We don’t want to climb this tower again unless we’re grinding to the max Level of 41.

Now we could manually go down the tower, but I have a better idea.



Yup. Now back to Windia. I bet now we’ll get to beat the game!

Next time: You all knew that this game was not going to let us off the hook that easily.

[CorvoSol]

Does anybody know the cheat codes that make FF7NES playable? I've about given up on this ridiculously hard game.

[TranceKuja]

Playing Theatrhythm at the moment and it really feels like beating all these games is finally paying off, haha. I'm also really glad I beat the NES version of FF3, that Maiden of the Water track <3

[Ultratech]

So is there any advantage in using toad over exit? you have access to exit basically right from the beginning, and you get it free in a chest in one of the earlier dungeons...

Toad is Black Magic and if you max it in the remakes, it changes up the little matching minigame letting you get cool stuff like Genji Armor and Masemunes. In the original, it's pretty much the best insta-kill spell you can get.

Teleport is generally better since it has higher accuracy for some reason or another. (Life too, oddly enough.)

[CorvoSol]

So I've beaten Goldor's manner now in FFIII, and I'm at the part where you have the world opened up to you. Anybody know a good place to grind for cash? I have lots of stuff I need to buy, and no money at all. My present party: DK/EV/BD/DR is pretty crummy in the healing department, so I need some cash to keep myself buff. I'll likely put Refia back to White Mage before fighting Garuda, though. As a kid, Garuda was an impossible fight for me, until I realized that putting my party in the back and making them all Dragoons was the way to go. I'm still bummed that Sage isn't as broken in this game as it should be.

[Aeana]

I finally finished FF4 PSP, and that may very well be the last time I ever play the game. I just really do not enjoy anything about it anymore. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, every time I replay FF2, my opinion of FF4 drops. I have a hard time calling FF4 a bad game or anything like that, but I really just do not enjoy playing it anymore at all.

I feel awful for letting my progress in this thread languish, but I've just not felt like replaying these games since I've done it sooo many times already, but I don't intend to fail my goal, so I'll be moving onto another game next. I'm not sure which one; it'll be whichever strikes me when I look at them, I guess. Going in order is out the window at this point.

[Dark Schala]

Last time on Megaman Legends Gaiden, we helped Professor Farnsworth find his beloved Pazuzu.

Today, we're going to try to restore the rest of the Rainbow Road racing track. Nintendo lent the source code to Farnsworth but he lost it.



Finally, someone acknowledges what we're doing. Let's go see Cid now.



Isn't coercion against the law?

Suddenly...

World



The heck did you get here? And why are you so lame that you don't you have your own theme song?



Metal Gear?!

Cid somehow gets an idea from all of this because I guess he wasn't paying attention as usual.



Waitwaitwait. Remember the last time we used a bomb at Spencer's Place? The whole thing caved in and I think Phoebe's house is sinking into it because her grandpa's the only guy there and he's digging with a spoon.

Why is everyone's solution to a problem a dang bomb? We used one of those to get Arion out of "danger" too, and he stood really close to the explosion! This game, I swear...

Anyway, how do we get to Spencer's Place now? I bet Phoebe's house is on the verge of collapse and we won't be able to enter.



Your dad couldn't find his way around the tiniest boulder in the world, son.



It doesn't take a genius to navigate Focus Tower, though! And Kaeli got there all by herself. Ugh. Well. Let's see if we gained anything by having Reuben in our party.



Reuben's stats are awful (and once again, ignore the status strengths; Reuben's strong against fire, etc.). At least he comes with White, but man Reuben is awful. He does even less damage than Kaeli and his magic stat is not going to help that White spell much.



Ice cold, professor. Ice cold.

So, uh, remember how I said the entire Windia section has you backtracking? Ugh.

City of Fire ~ Fireburg







YOU DIDN'T EVEN LEAVE YOUR BED. Where the hell have you been keeping that thing? Gross! Should we wash our hands before we leave?



That was fast. btw, the Rainbow Road is visible in-town.



Everyone is obsessed with bombs in this game. Everyone. Do you people even know what you're doing?! Reuben even threw the damn bomb at a random wall. And somehow ended up not killing us.



I guess Reuben knew what he was doing. But, uh, wasn't the lake under Aquaria lacking adequate force and pressure, so wouldn't the lake take days to flow into a space as big as under the entire Windia section? Wait, better question: aren't we actively draining Aquaria of all of its water by doing this?

Does any of this make sense?

None of it? Okay.

Shrine of Light



Let's not do that just yet. We need to get something in order to beat the game here first. Also, note that the water is now shallow as you can tell by the colour.



The first two pics indicate how to blow up one of the blocked doors to get the Mobius Crest. We need this to progress. We can also use it to warp from Windia to Fireburg, and also to warp from Alive Forest to some random place to get free items.



It sure is. (No, really; I like the shade of blue here.)



Just so he, like, doesn't know we stole it from you or anything. So, how do we get to the Ship Dock, anyway? Well, let's talk to the elderly man who gave us the tip about the Mobius Crest.



Here? Are you referring to downstairs?



I... I can't tell you how many problems I have with this. D:

What if the old couple aren't home to let people in to go to the docks? What if someone desperately needs to use it? Do people break into their house to use the Mobius Crest? Is there only one Mobius Crest in the world? I'd hope not, because how did it get into Spencer's Place? Did Spencer have it? Why was he allowed to have it? So many questions.

So little logic.



I thought the ship was going to be bigger than that.

Next time: There's always gotta be a ship filled with monsters. (And also because the dungeon's short, I'll demonstrate how to spam Life on enemies.)

[lazybones18]

After playing so much of Theatrhythm, it's tempting to buy as many of the OSTs as I possibly can.

If I can't play the original games, I could at the very least listen to the music to my heart's content

[Canis lupus]

After playing so much of Theatrhythm, it's tempting to buy as many of the OSTs as I possibly can. If I can't play the original games, I could at the very least listen to the music to my heart's content

Dat Terra's theme :P

[Stumpokapow]

I actually like Mystic Quest a lot, you know.

I think the "battlegrounds" for leveling up are clearly broken and unfun time sinks. I think the battle system requires no strategy or decision making at all--but I think that's true for pretty much every FF game in some measure.

But besides that, I like the graphics, I like the music, I like the (very simple!) characters, I like the layout of the world, I like the simple plot, I love the dungeon designs and the incorporation of simple puzzles into the gameplay. I especially love how the enemy sprites take damage during the run of the fight.

I would obviously place it below the top tier of SNES RPGs, but welllll above the swill!

[CorvoSol]

Two more things FFXIII and FFIII have in common: Valhalla (the Vikings mention it in III) and the villain wanting to stop/destroy time (sorta. Xande's problem with time is its killing him, while Caius, who is immortal, doesn't like time because it keeps killing Yeul.) Also, Owen, Desch's father, was studying Crystostasis not long before the Flood of Light. This sounds a bit like Crystal Stasis if you ask me.


Anyway, I finished up in Saronia last night. I can't believe how cold Arc kinda seems during some of it. Like, Alus' dad JUST DIED and in reality his body would be RIGHT THERE but Arc is already shouting "LONG LIVE AND ALL HAIL THE NEW KING!" Give the kid a chance to grieve, darnit, he's TEN.

[Dark Schala]

I actually like Mystic Quest a lot, you know. I think the "battlegrounds" for leveling up are clearly broken and unfun time sinks. I think the battle system requires no strategy or decision making at all--but I think that's true for pretty much every FF game in some measure. But besides that, I like the graphics, I like the music, I like the (very simple!) characters, I like the layout of the world, I like the simple plot, I love the dungeon designs and the incorporation of simple puzzles into the gameplay. I especially love how the enemy sprites take damage during the run of the fight. I would obviously place it below the top tier of SNES RPGs, but welllll above the swill!

Despite me poking fun at it (and to be honest, I do that with a lot of games I play--including stuff I really like), I like FFMQ quite a bit. It's one of my favourite SNES games, particularly because of its presentation and because it's easy to pick up and play. This is probably my longest playthrough of it, though. I usually get through it in a weekend.

I think its colour palette is very nice to look at--I love the shades of blue and green employed in the game, the spell effects, and the water/lava/glowing effects employed. I also like the enemy design and the fact that enemies' portraits change throughout the fight. I... actually do think that if you're playing Mystic Quest legit, the battles do take some strategy (ex: Beholders and Oozes reflecting spells), but you can usually get rid of mobs with the Life spell or a few casts of strong spells.

I have a like/dislike relationship with the dungeons. I do think the worst ones are in the Aquaria region, and the rest of them are alright. I legitimately like Pazuzu's Tower's attempt at puzzle design because it sort of requires you to think before you hit a switch or talk to the boss. Edit: And another thing--I really like being able to use weapons and the like on the field. And jumping!

I've elaborated on how much I love the music. Sasai and Kawakami did such a good job with it, especially Sasai, whom I think is very underrated and should probably get back into game composition because he can actually use live instruments now. Mystic Quest may not be his best work (Rudra no Hihou probably is), but he clearly put a lot of work into some of the dungeon themes, the battle themes, and some of the extra tracks on the OST (which he mixed and mastered at his studio).

It's just the dialogue that makes me laugh when I try to apply logic to it (which, of course, you shouldn't since the game is rather short and simple).

[CorvoSol]

Despite me poking fun at it (and to be honest, I do that with a lot of games I play--including stuff I really like), I like FFMQ quite a bit. It's one of my favourite SNES games, particularly because of its presentation and because it's easy to pick up and play. This is probably my longest playthrough of it, though. I usually get through it in a weekend. I think its colour palette is very nice to look at--I love the shades of blue and green employed in the game, the spell effects, and the water/lava/glowing effects employed. I also like the enemy design and the fact that enemies' portraits change throughout the fight. I... actually do think that if you're playing Mystic Quest legit, the battles do take some strategy (ex: Beholders and Oozes reflecting spells), but you can usually get rid of mobs with the Life spell or a few casts of strong spells. I have a like/dislike relationship with the dungeons. I do think the worst ones are in the Aquaria region, and the rest of them are alright. I legitimately like Pazuzu's Tower's attempt at puzzle design because it sort of requires you to think before you hit a switch or talk to the boss. Edit: And another thing--I really like being able to use weapons and the like on the field. And jumping! I've elaborated on how much I love the music. Sasai and Kawakami did such a good job with it, especially Sasai, whom I think is very underrated and should probably get back into game composition because he can actually use live instruments now. Mystic Quest may not be his best work (Rudra no Hihou probably is), but he clearly put a lot of work into some of the dungeon themes, the battle themes, and some of the extra tracks on the OST (which he mixed and mastered at his studio). It's just the dialogue that makes me laugh when I try to apply logic to it (which, of course, you shouldn't since the game is rather short and simple).

When I first started playing FFXIII-2 and I found out you could jump, I sat there for ten minutes, just jumping and gleefully chanting "Mystic Quest! Mystic Quest! Mystic Quest!" I did not stop until my family forced me to. Something about jumping in a game where it isn't necessary is awesome. Like getting the Roc's feather in a 2D Zelda.

[Dark Schala]

During the last entry of Megaman Legends Gaiden, we found out that bombs are the cause of, and the solution to, all of life's problems.

I am unsurprised that the game would find a way to give us another dungeon (albeit a short one) prior to beating the game. This one really isn't bad and you can actually finish it in 5 minutes. But we're completionists, so it's going to take us a little longer than that. Plus the dungeon disappears after you complete it, so try to get all the experience you can here.

The quickest route through the Ship dungeon is via the Mast/Yards/Gaffs/whatever they're called and the rope. That'll lead you to the central path and it'll take you about 4-5 minutes to get through it if you're getting the treasure chest there.

Anyway, let's begin.

Bone Dungeon



Like many ship dungeons, it's foggy and infested with monsters. We'll probably get something special here. In Genso Suikoden IV, we got an awesome new character. In The Wind Waker, we got a Triforce Chart. Maybe we'll get something nifty here.



I genuinely dislike when they do this.



This is below the deck. You'll find the majority of the dungeon's monsters here. Most of the monsters come from Pazuzu's Tower, so they aren't difficult. The only notable one is the Shadow, but we met one of those during our stint in the Doom Castle. I'll go more in-depth with that one when we get to the final dungeon.



This is B1. It has pits and cracks in the floor and you can fall down to B2. Try to jump over the cracks so you don't fall down to B2 and have to climb all the way up again.

Since this dungeon is super-short, let's talk about how useful Life is. When we got Life, I merely mentioned that it's to revive characters or restore all HP or heal all statuses. There is another use for Life that I had neglected to mention:



It can kill.

You see, it can act as a Fatal attack against most enemies. The zombified enemies are obvious. But people think Life can bring back enemies, when in reality, it inflicts Fatal on enemies!

Sometimes it can miss, though:



There are also some enemies (normal and bosses) that are strong against Fatal. Next entry will have me explaining that the Heal spell, when used against an enemy, will inflict bad status effects on enemies, including Petrify. I'll also talk about Exit in-battle, I guess. You have so many White Magic points for a reason! I just don't like doing it because it's pretty cheap. If you're speedrunning, go for it.

Let's take the most direct route to Mac now.



World

For some reason, the world map theme starts playing here. I guess that's the theme for Generic NPCs or something, but that doesn't explain how Reuben got that theme.

A treasure chest! Let's open it up!



We now have the final armour--Gaia's Armour. It adds 15 to defense and 7 to evade. It defends against Water, Wind, Poison, and Sleep. I've also noticed that it defends against Thunder (you get the message), but you don't have an icon for it on the status screen. Regardless, we're strong against sleep now! Yay!



We've also found Mac, too.



I think he's on the verge of death.







!! The prophecy!



Wait. This is crucial... gah, she's pulling him away.



Reuben's dead, you guys.



He says that like we're officially going to kill him off.

Anyway, now we're going to drag Reuben off the ship because even though he spent the entire time fighting against mobs of enemies there, he finally picked the time to say he pulled a few stitches.

Rock Theme



I have a theory. This game is a parody. So far, it's parodied a lot of stuff like listening to music cues and wondering who's going to come out, making fun of the exposition people, making fun of people trapped behind the tiniest boulders in the world, "my allowance is 2GP a month", etc. Really, if you think of this game as a parody, it's pretty funny.





Okay, let's try to give some thought to this. Last time, Spencer was telling Tristam about some super-duper-awesome armour, and that's why Tristam ditched us before giving us the Dragon's Claw. Why, then, would Tristam and Spencer come out all the way here (outside of giving us news from Phoebe)? I'm going to be that the legendary armour they were looking for was the Gaia's Armour we took from the chest. Spencer and Tristam saw us waltzing out of the ship with it on, and things turned awkward. You don't really hear much about it after this.

Back to Windia.



Did Megaman just drop Reuben on the floor next to Phoebe? Reuben, no one's falling for your theatrics.



I love how no one's helping him to bed.



And I'm not going to like having you part of the party cuz you're such a downer. With that, we get our final party member for the rest of the game. Let's see what Phoebe has.



Ignore the Phoebe's status strengths as usual because the game likes to do this. The only new armour addition that Phoebe has is the Ether Shield, which makes her strong against sleep, paralyze, and drain. She now also has the White spell. Even though her spell repertoire isn't as expansive as Megaman's, she has a 99 magic stat which is absolutely excellent! She'll mostly cast spells now.



It feels good to keep poking Reuben. Dude didn't even get hit and he fought against a ton of stuff. What's his issue?

Let's talk to Captain Mac now.



This is the moment of the game that we've been waiting for, folks! It's probably going to be some deep stuff! If it's a lost part of the prophecy, then it's gotta be good. I bet there's another half of the game to complete! Probably an underground part? :D

I'm excited!



Let's review, the entire prophecy goes like this:

The Vile Four will steal the power and divide the world behind 4 doors. At that time, the Knight will appear. The one behind the 4 is darker than the night, and rises midst the land.

But I thought this was obvious. I mean, the game let us go to a place called the "Doom Castle", even, before the entire Windia portion. Reuben finding the Stairway to Heaven the Doom Castle made this even more obvious. And the prophecy doesn't even say that the Dark King will even do anything, but we'll have to beat him anyway because he's the Dark King.

The poor guy.

The Vile Four were repeatedly preventing me from reaching Captain Mac for this?



How?!

Next time: The Bestest Final Dungeon Ever feat. the many ways to kill Skullrus Rex.

[Vamphuntr]

I finally finished FF4 PSP, and that may very well be the last time I ever play the game. I just really do not enjoy anything about it anymore. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, every time I replay FF2, my opinion of FF4 drops. I have a hard time calling FF4 a bad game or anything like that, but I really just do not enjoy playing it anymore at all. I feel awful for letting my progress in this thread languish, but I've just not felt like replaying these games since I've done it sooo many times already, but I don't intend to fail my goal, so I'll be moving onto another game next. I'm not sure which one; it'll be whichever strikes me when I look at them, I guess. Going in order is out the window at this point.

This is how I feel for FF6. I had started a replay at some poin in this thread but I gave up on it because I became bored with it. I must have beat that game 5-6 times already and I didn't find the willpower to beat it again. It's a great game with an amazing soundtrack but I did not find any reason to keep playing. I wasn't even trying hard and kept destroying pretty much everything I had to face in the game anyway.

The funny thing with FF4 is that with each port or remake they have made they added something new to the game. It kinda tricks you intro trying it each time and you eventually get burned. I do hate the sequel a lot though.

[Dark Schala]

A few posts up, the full prophecy was revealed to us and gave us the shock of all shocks... we're just going to go beat up the Dark King just because!

Captain Mac gave us permission to take his ship without putting us on his insurance, so let's do just that. Never mind that we have no experience with a ship.



I'm not gonna lie. I really love how the world map looks. It's just a shame we don't get to spend more time with the boat. The colours the devs picked for everything and layout really beat out some of the stuff in FFIV.

We can also go down into the ship to buy stuff.



Say no to the Cure Potions. Say yes to the Seeds.

Now let's proceed.



Last Castle

Holy crap, this music. This is my favourite final dungeon theme ever. Nothing can beat this. Nothing. There are several reasons why I love this theme:

• The mixing is oh-so-excellent and the samples that Sasai used for this are so damn good. That guitar, especially.
• Feels like a genuinely awesome rock ballad
• Every single instrument used in this theme has its own little section, even if it’s a collaboration between instruments
• Synth xylophone section/square wave section is amazing
• Synth bass is absolutely excellent and I love it to death, but I'm biased towards anything having to do with bass anyway!
• Synth hi-hats are used well. Heck, synth snare is used well.
• Synth horns provide excellent backing at the points where they’re used
• Synth guitar riff provides really awesome backing during the synth xylo section
• Synth lead guitar is amazing, and I can see the fingers going along the fretboard in my mind. So good.

This should be Theatrhythm. It’s excellent. Even if it can’t be the in-game version the version that Sasai recorded himself would be more than adequate.

Anyway, I said I'd show off how to use Exit in-battle. It isn't hard. Just select Exit and...



There is a chance of this missing, but it usually hits. Er, I guess this acts as a Teleport attack or something? Anyway, if you use Exit against all enemies you will not get XP from them. Just keep that in mind.



So let's talk about some of the enemies in this dungeon. We had encountered the Minotaur Zombie before during our first time in the Doom Castle and in the Bone Dungeon so it's merely fodder. The Phanquid is something we had encountered in the Ice Pyramid. We'd encountered Iflytes in the Lava Dome. Gorgons, we saw in the Bone Dungeon.

The only newbie (sorta because we'd encountered it on Mac's Ship prior clearing it out) is the Shadow. They can multiply themselves, cast Fatal attacks, and self-destruct when weak, so it's best to get rid of them quick. They're weak against most status effects, including Petrify, so go wild with Heal and the Dragon's Claw.



We now have the Aegis Shield, the final shield in the game. As a result, we now have all of the equipment which the game has to offer. The shield offers us 14 defense, increases speed by 5, increases strength by 2, and increases evade by 14. We can finally stop seeing Megaman get petrified, thank goodness. We're now basically strong against most stuff in the game other than Earth damage, but a normal defense against Earth doesn't matter.



I thought I killed you. You’ll notice this about every floor in the Doom Castle. The Vile Four were revived to prevent you from getting to the Dark King. At least you don’t fight them all at once like you do for the Four Fiends battle in FFIV.

Skullrus Rex is the easiest boss in the game because I don’t think they playtested the boss battle.

Battle 2

The Many Ways of Beating Skullrus Rex Part 1: The Dragon Claw



Why did he die? Skullrus Rex is weak against every status effect in the game, including Petrify.

The Many Ways of Beating Skullrus Rex Part 2: Life



This shouldn’t have to be explained. It’s hilarious, though.

The Many Ways of Beating Skullrus Rex Part 3: Heal



So, this is a good example to use for how well Heal works in battle. Heal can be used offensively to inflict either Poison, Paralyze, Petrify, Sleep, or Confusion on an enemy. Skullrus Rex happens to be weak vs Petrify and died easily. Note that this might take several attempts before hitting him with Petrify.

The Many Ways of Beating Skullrus Rex Part 4: Legit



Regardless of his lack of resistances against status effects, if you take on Skullrus Rex legitimately, he can deliver a bit of a punch with Earth attacks because you aren't strong against them, and he seems to like scoring critical hits on you. Using Cure isn't really worth it since it'll do 530 damage (Megaman) or 830 damage (Phoebe). Use White and Flare and you'll be done in no time.



Easiest boss in the game, hands-down. Did they even playtest this?



The game has us go through the Focus Tower for the last time. Now you see why I made sure to grab the Sky Coin before leaving Pazuzu's Tower.



These barriers are in place until we defeat the boss of the current floor. Well, that shouldn't be hard or annoying. Let's go!



Oh pooh.

Next Time: The Different Ways to Kill Ice Golem Reincarnation

Also, I'm wondering whether or not I should level up to Lv 41? I don't really feel like it, but I'll do it if people are interested in the end-game stats.

[Jucksalbe]

I have a theory. This game is a parody. So far, it's parodied a lot of stuff like listening to music cues and wondering who's going to come out, making fun of the exposition people, making fun of people trapped behind the tiniest boulders in the world, "my allowance is 2GP a month", etc. Really, if you think of this game as a parody, it's pretty funny.

That's how I thought of the game before I played the English version. The German translation seems to be one guy who was really bored (probably Moyse?). Even spell and enemies names are just anything stupid they came up with (I remember they called the Spectre the "Horror Diaper").

Also, I'm wondering whether or not I should level up to Lv 41? I don't really feel like it, but I'll do it if people are interested in the end-game stats.

Since you mentioned the stats everytime you had the chance in your previous posts, I guess you should show level 41 for the sake of completion, but I really don't remember how long it takes to get there.

[Dark Schala]

During the last post, we'd discovered that no one playtested one of the last bosses in the game, resulting in hilarity.

Last Castle

Today we're going through the Ice Pyramid segment of the game. Yay. You'll remember that I didn't like the Ice Pyramid at all.



Remember this?



Oh game, why do you do this to me? While we're here, let's see all of the items the game has to offer. The only ones I can see you missing are the Mask, one of the Crests, and the Magic Mirror.



I actually like this version of the dungeon. It isn't irritating and it makes sure that the player uses Jump, the Dragon Claw, and the sword correctly.



Time to fight! But first, let's show the instant win button for this fight.

Rudra no Hihou - Strange Encounters

Ways to Defeat the Stone Golem Part 1: Exit



If you do this you won't get the XP from the Golem, just bear that in mind.

Ways to Defeat the Stone Golem Part 2: Legit



The Stone Golem is the reincarnation of the Ice Golem. It's joined by two Cerberus enemies, which is the final regular enemy in the game.

Cerberus can counter physical attacks with petrification, uses Quake (which you'll remember you have no defense against), Fireball, Bark, and Triple Fang. It's best to get rid of it with a Flare Spell or Fire Spell.

The Stone Golem can use Corrode Gas which is a fatal strike against one member of your party. This is what Phoebe seems to always die from. It's resistant to Flare and Meteor, unfortunately, so it's best to use something like White or Thunder. Other than that, it poses little threat unless he scores a critical with Stone Block or Confuses Phoebe.



Let's move on now.



The Lava Dome section of the dungeon is basically a maze which emphasizes the jumping parts and using the Dragon Claw. It might be a little difficult to navigate, but you'll get it.



Lufia II - Battle #2

The Twinhead Wyvern doesn't have a Staples: Business Depot Easy Button, so we'll have to do this the hard way.

Well, not so much the hard way because he's really easy too. I guess reincarnating these guys didn't do them much favours. He's weak against Blizzard, Aero, and Thunder now, so go nuts with those. I found that using White worked better, especially using Phoebe's high magic stat. Fire Breath, Thunder, and Tornado shouldn't pose a threat to Megaman, and neither should Parabreath or Poisonbreath. Bite is probably the most damaging out of all of those.



Next up, the Pazuzu's Tower part! The paths that are not doubled up are ones that you can fall off of, so be careful around here. You'll have to hike up from the Lava Dome if you fall off.



I've been waiting all game to see that written up.



Pazuzu Zuh is no longer a coward!

Lufia II - Battle #3



Um, you're missing the last one because I killed him too fast with Phoebe's bow and arrows (which counts as a shoot attack, which Zuh is weak against). :x

That should indicate that Pazuzu is indeed stronger than Zuh! He can still use PsychShield during a round to reflect magical damage, but he can also use a version of PsychShield offensively which only deals like, 1-2 damage. He can use Doom Dance which can instakill someone. Other than that, he's really nothing much to worry about.



With that, we never have to see the Vile Four ever again.



I'm scared.



Why would a statue of the hero even be in here? Isn't this the Doom Castle?



I like how the crystals' lights come from their geological location if we believe that we're at the centre and highest point of the world. By the way, the "power" that the crystals have to offer us is in the form of items.



...half of which I can't even get because I was maxed out already.



Final Time and Final Level/Stats prior to grinding to Lv 41 are here. This is actually one of my longer playthroughs, likely because I screwed up in the Lava Dome, took screenshots, and increased the time for messages to stay onscreen so I could screencap them.

You can't tell it now, but that low magic stat on Megaman is going to help us a lot if we take a certain approach to the final boss. The high magic stat on Phoebe is going to hurt us if we take said approach. Otherwise, Megaman is an excellent character to have around. Great defense, great strength (if we have the sword equipped, and strong against most status effects.



Let's do this.

Next time: The Final Countdown Showdown

That's how I thought of the game before I played the English version. The German translation seems to be one guy who was really bored (probably Moyse?). Even spell and enemies names are just anything stupid they came up with (I remember they called the Spectre the "Horror Diaper").

Ahahaha, what? That's great. There are so many straight-up parodies in this game that if you think of it as merely a joke or a commentary on RPGs of that era, including the localization efforts back then. At least more effort seems to be put in the English version to make it seem more cohesive, but the dialogue is still funny.

Since you mentioned the stats everytime you had the chance in your previous posts, I guess you should show level 41 for the sake of completion, but I really don't remember how long it takes to get there.

I'll try grinding up to that, but if it's taking too long, I won't bother. I'd like to post how Ben is basically a god at that point.

[Mxrz]

I'm a little late, but thanks to some insomnia, I started up FF13 a few minutes ago. So pretty at 1080p. Every time I start a FF--even the ones I like to think I don't like so much--I can't help but get all superfan-ish. They could slap a 20 hours of Tidus laughing on a disc, call it FF15, and I'd still probably get hyped at the opening cinematic. Depressing.

Anyway. Aiming for the platinum. There any major Zodiac Spear level screw overs to watch out for?

I like that the Battle tutorial is basically "Press X, Good luck!"

[Dark Schala]

A post up, Megaman beat the Vile Four all over again. He's one step closer to his dream of starring in Mega Man Legends 3.

Mmkay. This post is going to be kinda long because I want to talk about some math. I knew going into this that since I'm grinding to Level 41 that Megaman's magic stat isn't going to work out so well for us at that point. I decided to keep a past save at Level 38 to demonstrate a point when using a certain tactic against a boss.

But first, stats from Level 38 – 41:



Timestamp. Didn’t take too long. Also pictured are how many magic points Megaman has to his disposal.



It should be noted that after Level 41, Megaman will get more spell slots added if you keep accruing XP.

Now where were we? Ah, yes…



Do note that those chests on the final level of the Doom Castle replenish. They just look like treasure chests cuz they’re special.



Spooky. We’re in space and there are eyeballs everywhere. I dunno why, but I’m getting, like, a Quintet vibe from this place. God, I miss Quintet so mu--…right, we’re here to play Mystic Quest.



At last? We’ve only known about his existence for about 45-60 minutes!



This game’s going to go on for another 11 hours, isn’t it?



What.

So this guy made me go on an 11-hour quest because he’s either on a suicide mission or one day he just up and said, “You know what? I want to fuck with the world today. I’ve got all this power and a gang of hired goons, so why not?”

This game is a parody. I’m sure of it. When you think of it that way, the Dark King’s plot is amazing. Do bad things just because. While you’re at it, build a statue in the Knight’s image to lend credence to your plan. I like the Dark King.

And I know you’ve been waiting for this. It started playing when I initiated dialogue with the Dark King but it goes right into the battle theme if you take too long. I didn’t want to ruin the flow. ;)

Battle 3

There are two ways to defeat the Dark King. Let’s take on the first and more popular.

Methods to Defeat the Dark King #1: Cure

This is probably the most famous and commonly used way to defeat the Dark King. Cast Cure with Megaman/Benjamin and the Dark King will take damage. You can easily abuse this to win the fight.



What this means is that the game heals the target for 128% of its max HP. Let’s say that the Dark King has 40K HP, so the game would add 51200 to his HP. HP is a 16-bit integer, and based on that you know that the limit is 65536, and result would overflow to 25664. This is less than the enemy’s max HP of 40000, so it accepts the lower number as the Dark King’s new HP. We will subtract that number from 40000 for us to get 14336 as the displayed damage. Phoebe cannot exploit this because her magic stat is way too high.

And to check my math…



Let’s look at how much damage Megaman should theoretically inflict if we use his Level 41 magic stat with the Excalibur equipped.



Er, this is actually 200 points off, because he will inflict 12736. If anyone has any idea what’s up with this, please let me know (edit: See Jucksalbe's post regarding integers here.) I’m quite sure that the formula is correct as it works with other conditions (ex: if you have the Dragon Claw equipped, you'll deal 9500ish damage because your stat is 60). It’s best to go in with the Excalibur equipped just so your magic stat doesn't get too high to influence the cure damage.

And just for fun, let’s calculate Phoebe’s cure damage.





Because the outcome is negative, Phoebe will end up healing the boss instead. Oops.

Do note that these formulae are merely theoretical. They will not give a completely accurate measurement of how much damage you will naturally deal. Most of the time, it seems to be right.

So that’s the cure tactic. Fun, huh?

Methods to Defeat the Dark King #2: Legit

The Dark King is strong against Life, so let’s do this legitimately on a Level 41 save.

MYSTIC RE-QUEST II



There is a reason why people generally opt for the Cure approach to taking this guy down. He's actually kinda hard because his damage output is really high. This is his first form, and he's limited to using Iron Nail and Spark to reduce Attack and Defense. His attacks in this phase aren't much to worry about.

When you deal enough damage to him...



...the dude turns into frickin' Gilgamesh! This is where things can start to turn a little disastrous for you.

He comes with Cure Arrow, Dark Sabre, Mirror Sword, Fire Sword, Ice Sword, and Quake Axe. None of the 'elementalish' attacks will do elemental damage. They just seem to be named that way. Quake Axe will damage everyone. Cure Arrow will heal the Dark King. Keep on your toes and keep healing with either Megaman or Phoebe.

After that...



:(

Ummm... This guy comes with a bunch of attacks and this is where your party could start to die. The three single attacks, Lazer, Spider Kids, and Super Stab, are pretty strong and this is why you should be healing every round with either Megaman or Phoebe because damage can catch up to you. Silver Web can cause poison and confusion while dealing a lot of damage. He can also use Mega White and Mega Flare on the entire party to make your life miserable. Really, the person whom you should look out for is Phoebe because she is susceptible to some of these status effects.

After a while he'll change into this.



I don't even know what this is. He gains Golden Web, which can petrify someone while dealing damage. He can use his previous form's attacks too.



All of this just for some story he made up? Ahahahahaha. He doesn't even say anything after this, which I find rather funny. It's like he just stopped caring.

Mystic Quest



Oh hey, Master Roshi. 'Sup. Haven't seen you in a while! Didja get that coffee you wanted? I'm super-rich right now.



So let me get this straight. Some crystal started yammering to me about a 'prophecy' since the beginning of the game, and halfway through the game he started asking me for money for coffee? Should I have suspected something when we all noticed him floating around on a Flying Nimbus? Right, this is Mystic Quest. And I love how good ol' Megaman just doesn't care enough anymore to ask him any questions about hiding his identity, telling us that the Dark King may have been bluffing, etc.

Also, I love how the "World" is capitalized. It's almost like MQ's world was supposed to have a name but they gave up.

We head back to Windia for Jucksalbe's favourite dialogue exchange.



At this point, I'm giggling to myself about the dialogue. Megaman just doesn't care. He did his job and now he wants to relax. Screw everything else! The Dark King wasn't that big of a deal anyway because he was faking it!



Wait, this was your incentive to get off the moon and into Mega Man Legends 3. You don't need more adventure. D:



I think I was supposed to laugh here because Captain Mac got into trouble last time he forgot his cap! Kaeli shows her concern, but Megaman just tells her not to worry about a darn thing.

btw, I'm not even screencapping this, but after every dialogue exchange Megaman has, he just walks away after the conversation's "done", even though it feels like it's mid-conversation.

I love how Megaman's just pulling Phoebe along for the ride for his world voyage. He doesn't care.



wtf. No, Megaman, he just said Tristam went treasure hunting. He won't see him for a loooong time.



Rock 'N' Roll

I didn't know Reuben was in the band! And wasn't he suffering from injuries and diving like a football player all over the place in Windia so he could get Phoebe's attention? How could he recover so fast? And as opposed to all the other towns in the area? C'mon Reuben, you know that your town is the only interesting town in the game, man.

I will note that Megaman immediately walks off right after Reuben says "at least let me see you off". Just because he doesn't care.

Now we've dragged Phoebe to the dock.





I can't remember who half of you people are. Some of you didn't even have names! Why should I care about you people seeing me off?



Well, you did throw yourself off the rope bridge by accident, somehow ended up at the bottom of the Focus Tower while trying to find a way out, pulled your stitches in Mac's Ship, and tried to show how cool you were by demonstrating how "hurt" you were, even when we were poking you a lot. You know, Reuben would make a good football player.



Darn tootin'. We need Tristam, not you.



Go away.



It's come full-circle, hasn't it?



I don't get this. For once, the hero wasn't a skirt-chaser and he didn't want to get with anyone. At least have all of my closest buds and party members including Reuben and Tristam (where the heck is that guy!) come up closer and see me off.



And that's Final Fantasy Mysti--...

Rock Theme

When I was little, this made me smile.



The heck did you come from?! :O



Oh Tristam. :)

Ending

And roll credits. These guys are my favourite people:



It's been a pleasure.

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, even though I joke around with it and poke fun at the dialogue (and I do this with a lot of games I like), is one of those games I keep coming back to because it's easy to get through, I like the presentation, and I love the music. It was one of my favourite games when I was younger, and I'm still very fond of it. Even if it's easy, I do hope people who haven't played it give it a fair shake!

Plus the game has jumping. 2D RPGs and adventure games with jumping are awesome.

[Jucksalbe]

I'm nitpicking (and not really used to people just using (%) in a formula, but wouldn't it have to be "x1%" or just "%" if you want it to be "/100"? Anyway, I guess it fits the game to make such overly complicated calculations for simple things....and then don't really check them for overflows.

Er, this is actually 200 points off, because he will inflict 12736. If anyone has any idea what’s up with this, please let me know. I’m quite sure that the formula is correct as it works with other conditions (ex: if you have the Dragon Claw equipped, you'll deal 9500ish damage because your stat is 60).

(0.5/100)*40000=200, in other words, the game uses integers even for provisional results. That 132.5 is probably rounded within the calculation.


Congratulations on beating the game, and making a walkthrough that's probably more detailed than most of the FAQs for this game out there!

[Dark Schala]

I'm nitpicking (and not really used to people just using (%) in a formula, but wouldn't it have to be "x1%" or just "%" if you want it to be "/100"? Anyway, I guess it fits the game to make such overly complicated calculations for simple things....and then don't really check them for overflows.

Nah, you're right. If I were in a calculus class or a proofs class, I'd certainly be marked down for that. Heck, I'd mark someone down for that if I were TAing a math course. I'll fix it in a sec, so thanks for pointing it out. Been stuck in the sciences for the past few years and not caring much about what I put into a formula other than knowing what the formula does. :)

I'm sort of surprised that no one at all checked the math for that cure spell. It shouldn't be that easy to break the game and beat the boss with cure, and the overflow shouldn't happen.

But Mystic Quest is absolutely full of glitches, so it's not something I should be surprised with anyway.

(0.5/100)*40000=200, in other words, the game uses integers even for provisional results. That 132.5 is probably rounded within the calculation.

Ah, that makes sense now. I didn't even think that it would hand an integer out for that.

Mystic Quest's math is just as interesting as the delightfully interesting plot!

Congratulations on beating the game, and making a walkthrough that's probably more detailed than most of the FAQs for this game out there!

Thanks. :)

I dunno if people would think to put effort into a walkthrough for the game because it's so easy, haha. I'm now willing to accept that the entire game parodied RPGs back then. You have a villain doing things just because, a hero who ends up not caring for anything towards the end of the adventure, Captain Exposition who's a crystal in hiding, a guy who steals your crap, etc. When you think about it that way, the dialogue is utterly amusing.

[Nocturnowl]

Okay so i'm not quite sure if this is the best place to drop this here post but it's either that or making another lttp thread and seeing as there was a rttp for FF6 as recently as this week (and rather unfocused with the other games sharing the spotlight) I figure i'll just make a post on my experience with FF6 here.

But first oh so important backstory, this is actually the first Final Fantasy game i've played all the way through, for the longest time i'd written the series off with the idea that I just couldn't get into these games. I'd seen my friend play a fair amount of FF7,8,10 and 12 and while I never considered the games bad I never really saw much appeal, though I did try and play through 10 I didn't get too far before throwing in the towel.
But last year I finally got around to the highly acclaimed Chrono Trigger and figured that if I could do that then maybe i'd fare better with one of the SNES FF games, so for some time the idea of playing through FF6 has been in my mind and with the recent push from theatrhythm (I was sold by the demo in case you're wondering why I got a game based around fan service for a series i've barely played) I finally took the plunge. RIGHT THAT ABOUT COVERS IT!

Final Fantasy VI
So yeah let's get this ball rolling, i've figured that the best way for me to handle this is to simply put down my pros and cons due to the size of the game, breaking this down into digestible chunks.

+ Sabin's spectacular journey or "I just suplexed a Ghost Train! GAME OF THE FOREVER!"
After the Ultros battle of "why the hell is tentacle so powerful?!" which taught me the importance of the row feature the party split up into three separate journeys. Now I wasn't too chuffed with Sabin because of Vargas caning me into the floor because I kept buggering up those blitz commands so the idea of his journey didn't scream excitement to me but there's nothing like a nice surprise. It's easily the longest of the three stories and has numerous highlights. From Kefka's marvellous poison plot to tagging up with random ghosts this was one of my favourite set of areas in the entire game.
I really thought Cyan was going to be the nuts at this point since he and Sabin were tearing enemies up but I guess that sword tech bar does in fact turn out to be quite the annoyance when it actually has to build up. But the most important thing to take away here is you fight a ghost train while out sprinitng it and you can suplex it because Sabin's just that steroid fueled and this was his ultimate redemption. Speaking of this section there was one other character in this merry mob...

+ Shadow is so cliché badass he actually becomes kind of awesome
A lone wolf ninja mercenary with a murderous pet dog called INTERCEPTOR and his name is SHADOW! it's like so bad it's good, he may not be the best team member but each time I stumbled upon him it was like a celebratory occasion. What was in fact not so celebratory was finding out that I could've saved him from perishing on the floating continent, hey I was too busy trying to haul ass off that place! i'd even prepared plenty of throwing items for him when in the ruined world thinking he would return *sob*.

+ Split up: The good version
So very early in the game and then again a bit later you get these sections where you divide your team to stop enemy troops from reaching the top like a mini strategy rpg or something. I liked these sections and i'd like to have seen one more shot at it.

- Split up: The awful version
Oh god that bloody cave in the ruined world that Locke was hiding it, I hate it so very much. No running from battles combined with a high encounter rate, my not so balanced teams, those freaking smug smirking head enemies that seem to "blowfish" you half the time you dare to touch them, hate, hate, HAAAATE!
Of course you have to do this once more for Kefka's Tower with three teams which had me have to go and actually grind for once (up until this point i'd been pleasantly surprised how little need for grinding there was). See I buggered up, I had my chosen units (Terra, Sabin, Edgar) and they were powerhouses because I neglected the rest, if i knew this was going to happen I would've managed things more accordingly but I didn't so damn.

- These cave encounters are worse than Zubats
Related to the above point, encounter rates are kind of inconsistent but there are those times where you just can't walk like 3 steps before being forcibly dragged into battle. If only I knew about the Moogle Charm earlier. Areas where you can't run are especially infuriating, usually I stick it out for vital exp points but there are times when you just want to say "screw this" and run away and it's at these times where the game is like "hell no and you can't warp down here either!".

+ Kefka
You know you're onto a winner with such vulgar language as "son of a submariner!", yes I think I made the right choice sticking to the SNES version for ye olde translation.
Anyway Kefka is a prick, but he's an entertaining one and I would relish his appearances, i'm kind of disappointed that he sits out the last part of the game just sitting on his tower of garbage but oh well.

+ 16 bit Opera
Such a bizarre section really but it was great, fantastic use of sound and visuals here for the SNES and I successfully nailed those lines.

+ Magic for everyone or Esper Exploitation
There's a great deal of freedom in magic, anyone can have any spell as long as you shove the Esper on them and this is just something I found incredibly useful, such things as having to drag around that one character because they can heal everyone isn't an issue when everyone is flinging out cures. On this point though i have to wonder why potions were so awful in the end, surely there should have been a higher priced, higher healing potion available from the shops towards the late game.

+ Super Figaro Brothers
Alongside our main character Terra these two were probably my favourite characters, mainly because they were just so damn useful in battles, you can't beat a move called the bum rush and pulling out various tools from Edgar's Toolbox. Though if me and JRPG's are anything to go by they probably aren't as great as I think they are in battle. If this is true it's going to be like Robo in Chrono Trigger all over again! I wont hear your lies about him being the worst!

- The occasionally irritating boss/enemy encounter that's tougher than most bosses (i'm looking at you Ninjas and upgraded Kefka tower Ninjas!)
More of a late game thing here but there were some bosses every now and then that excelled at riling me up, Dullahan was probably that one boss for me, I cruised through that tomb veiled in invisibility and was untouchable I tell you, then this git rides in and ices me over many times before I finally snatched victory. It would appear my Achilles heel was mostly from magic based battles, though this did at least lead to the hilarity of Poltergeist in a one on one match against the Sasquatch/Yeti guy who just absorbed all the fire attacks, it was the greatest auto battle of all time.
Oh and screw the fanatic's tower, I got as far as the dragon and got the hell out of dodge as to not endure any more of that horror, I guess it pays to be prepared. Or more accurately I almost got to the dragon, died, returned later with the moogle charm before going to Kefka's Tower and just sprinted up to the Dragon like a little sissy boy too afraid to fight the magic men, and then left because i'm not fighting whoever is up there!

+ Plenty of optional content
Mainly in the last part of the game there are many areas that aren't needed to visit but it's worth checking out, though some like Cyan's dreamworld can go on entirely too long and end with the games worst gimmick boss. In fact the credits show that I missed a character entirely and on that point...

- FAQ time yet again
Some stuff in here is pretty damn cryptic or not well explained, while not outright using a guide I often found myself having to leap into various walkthroughs, too often in fact. Compared to say Chrono Trigger where I only had need of a guide once. Of course some of it was just me being stupid.

+ The Soundtrack
Well I guess it makes sense since a music game gave me the last push towards playing the game itself. I'm not going to go on a music posting spree, i'm sure you all know what tracks are the most highly regarded and all that jazz so i'm just going to say that Relm's theme with it's use of the often underused bagpipes made my day.

Anyway i've built a big enough text wall, on the whole I enjoyed the game quite a lot even when afflicted by my feared JRPG enemies of random battles and occasionally high encounter rates, it goes to show that writing off a series based on some shaky previous experiences could cause you to miss out on something truly great.
I may even try another game in the series some time in the future.

[Jucksalbe]

I'm now willing to accept that the entire game parodied RPGs back then. You have a villain doing things just because, a hero who ends up not caring for anything towards the end of the adventure, Captain Exposition who's a crystal in hiding, a guy who steals your crap, etc. When you think about it that way, the dialogue is utterly amusing.

I find it hilarious that you never really can be sure if this game is supposed to be a parody or not. Has anyone ever played it in Japanese? Is Japanese supposed to be the original language here anyway (since it came out so much later)?
Okay, one final hint for the parody theory:

[CorvoSol]

I'm a little late, but thanks to some insomnia, I started up FF13 a few minutes ago. So pretty at 1080p. Every time I start a FF--even the ones I like to think I don't like so much--I can't help but get all superfan-ish. They could slap a 20 hours of Tidus laughing on a disc, call it FF15, and I'd still probably get hyped at the opening cinematic. Depressing. Anyway. Aiming for the platinum. There any major Zodiac Spear level screw overs to watch out for? I like that the Battle tutorial is basically "Press X, Good luck!"

Don't sell any equipment. That's about all I can think of. If you sell equips, you can't platinum.


Soooo.

I'm finally ready to start marching into the Ancient's Maze in FFIII. I've got all the summons and stuff, but I don't want to go in there really, unless that's how I can make the Blacksmith come back. I want to start cashing in and getting the ultimate equips for all these classes I've spent all this time mastering. And I still need to descend into the watery abyss and claim the Onion gear for myself. Current party= Luneth/Black Belt, Arc/Magus, Refia/Devout and Ingus/Ninja. Which is better, though? 1 Onion Blade and 1 Onion Shield, or 2 Onion Blades?

No real progress in FFL2, I made it to a place called the Cave of Mountain. I did some reading on the game and HOLY CRAP is it complicated getting a good party going! I'm not at all sure if I want to devote that level of attention yet. THey're selling Laser blades in town, though, so I'll likely get one for Bryn Star and Zero.

Started over in FF7NES. This time with Male Enhancement Cloud to make the game more bearable. Just met up with Aerith in the slums, and now we're gonna go to her . . . mom's house? Worst date. Worse still is that I don't recall the Gold Saucer date being in this version of the game.

Beat the Aqueducts Crystal Run in Echoes of Time. My party is doing pretty well there. I'm playing a Selkie male because I've always preferred being a Selkie, and if I want I can give him a sword in this game! The only problem there is that swords just don't give you the same kind of battle movements that Rackets seem to.

Fought Gilgamesh again as Cinque, so now I have her ultimate weapon, too. I intend to collect all of them before finishing this run through and starting another.

I'm actually pretty excited to be finishing up FFIII, because then I can start on FFIV, and while I acknowledge that they perhaps weren't the perfect games some say they are, the SNES FFs are really when the series becomes fun for me.

[Dark Schala]

But first oh so important backstory, this is actually the first Final Fantasy game i've played all the way through, for the longest time i'd written the series off with the idea that I just couldn't get into these games. I'd seen my friend play a fair amount of FF7,8,10 and 12 and while I never considered the games bad I never really saw much appeal, though I did try and play through 10 I didn't get too far before throwing in the towel. But last year I finally got around to the highly acclaimed Chrono Trigger and figured that if I could do that then maybe i'd fare better with one of the SNES FF games, so for some time the idea of playing through FF6 has been in my mind and with the recent push from theatrhythm (I was sold by the demo in case you're wondering why I got a game based around fan service for a series i've barely played) I finally took the plunge. RIGHT THAT ABOUT COVERS IT! [snip] Anyway i've built a big enough text wall, on the whole I enjoyed the game quite a lot even when afflicted by my feared JRPG enemies of random battles and occasionally high encounter rates, it goes to show that writing off a series based on some shaky previous experiences could cause you to miss out on something truly great. I may even try another game in the series some time in the future.

I didn't know you haven't really finished an FF before. We should talk more. Good writeup. You enjoyed FFVI more than Beef did. I think he has the same opinion of FFVI as he does Chao Gardens. :P

I definitely agree--the part where they split up the first time to accomplish different tasks was pretty good, and the second portion of the game with them splitting up involuntarily and trying to gather everyone back up again was a nice way to mirror that. But the Phoenix quest wasn't very fun, I agree. Mostly because most of my parties involved Locke in some fashion. :P

I can't say that I like the Esper system as much as you do, though. I sorta felt like the Materia system in FFVII (which was kind of an expansion of it, I guess) was better in different ways. But I'm the sort of person who likes to switch their party around a lot so I don't like sticking to one group of people. :lol

But hey--you're into the series now... kind of. What do you think you're gonna play next should you ever get the chance?

I find it hilarious that you never really can be sure if this game is supposed to be a parody or not. Has anyone ever played it in Japanese? Is Japanese supposed to be the original language here anyway (since it came out so much later)? Okay, one final hint for the parody theory: [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/m9F9k.png[IMG]

I've never played it in Japanese but given that it came out in NA first, perhaps it was supposed to be in English first? But Chihiro Fujioka seems to have been behind the story so maybe the base storyline was in Japanese, and the other two flowered up the dialogue and enemy names? Who knows. "It's a dog, so we can just call it a werewolf, even though the design has nothing to do with the connotation of the name!"

I'd love to start up FFIV because I sorta want to joke about its narrative a bit, but I'm kind of in a Barkley Shut Up and Jam Gaiden replay mode. :P

[Sora_N]

How is FFVI on GBA? I played FFVI SNES ages ago, but I never owned it so never finished it and I barely remember anything (I got about 7 hours in maybe? I was a kid, don't remember too well). I don't even remember the controls lol. I just had a thought, there's 2 extra buttons on the SNES controller compared to the GBA, has it affected the GBA version at all?

[MicH]

I'm currently playing my first Final Fantasy game ever- XIII. Liking it so far and I'll probably play XIII-2 afterwards. However, I'm really looking forward to digging deeper into the series. Already own III and IV on DS, VI on VC and VII, VIII and IX on PSN. Will probably get the iOS versions of I and II as well as the GBA version of V. Phew. Can't wait to dig in!

[Sora_N]

I'm currently playing my first Final Fantasy game ever- XIII. Liking it so far and I'll probably play XIII-2 afterwards. However, I'm really looking forward to digging deeper into the series. Already own III and IV on DS, VI on VC and VII, VIII and IX on PSN. Will probably get the iOS versions of I and II as well as the GBA version of V. Phew. Can't wait to dig in!

You don't have a PSP? The PSP versions of I and II are beautiful, unless the iOS ones are the same?

I can't find II in stores anymore, sort of wish I grabbed it when I had a chance, I'm going to shop around.

[Professor Beef]

I didn't know you haven't really finished an FF before. We should talk more. Good writeup. You enjoyed FFVI more than Beef did. I think he has the same opinion of FFVI as he does Chao Gardens. :P

At least I understand now why people like FF6! I can accept that it was THE defining RPG for people when it came out. I just don't like the second half, is all. >:P

How is FFVI on GBA? I played FFVI SNES ages ago, but I never owned it so never finished it and I barely remember anything (I got about 7 hours in maybe? I was a kid, don't remember too well). I don't even remember the controls lol. I just had a thought, there's 2 extra buttons on the SNES controller compared to the GBA, has it affected the GBA version at all?

The music is apparently different and a handful of glitches were fixed, but besides that it's the definitive version.

[MicH]

You don't have a PSP? The PSP versions of I and II are beautiful, unless the iOS ones are the same? I can't find II in stores anymore, sort of wish I grabbed it when I had a chance, I'm going to shop around.

Unfortunately no PSP, so I have to stick with the iOS versions or the GBA one. Which one is preferred?

[Sora_N]

Unfortunately no PSP, so I have to stick with the iOS versions or the GBA one. Which one is preferred?

Luckily for you, I just looked it up and it looks like the iOS one is pretty much the PSP one. :)

[Nocturnowl]

I didn't know you haven't really finished an FF before. We should talk more. Good writeup. You enjoyed FFVI more than Beef did. I think he has the same opinion of FFVI as he does Chao Gardens. :P I definitely agree--the part where they split up the first time to accomplish different tasks was pretty good, and the second portion of the game with them splitting up involuntarily and trying to gather everyone back up again was a nice way to mirror that. But the Phoenix quest wasn't very fun, I agree. Mostly because most of my parties involved Locke in some fashion. :P I can't say that I like the Esper system as much as you do, though. I sorta felt like the Materia system in FFVII (which was kind of an expansion of it, I guess) was better in different ways. But I'm the sort of person who likes to switch their party around a lot so I don't like sticking to one group of people. :lol But hey--you're into the series now... kind of. What do you think you're gonna play next should you ever get the chance?

I'm not really sure where I go from here, i'm tending to lean towards one of the games i've seen little to none of, but for whatever reason 4, 9 and 12 are the ones that intrigue me.
Or to step away from the main series I could finally burrow into the PSP version of FF tactics, I already own it, I just sort of suck at it.

At least I understand now why people like FF6! I can accept that it was THE defining RPG for people when it came out. I just don't like the second half, is all. >:P.

I'm sure you've had to explain this before but what's your beef (that was terrible) with the second half? I may actually share some sentiments here as I preferred the first half on a whole.

[Professor Beef]

I'm sure you've had to explain this before but what's your beef (that was terrible) with the second half? I may actually share some sentiments here as I preferred the first half on a whole.

The second half of the game is a fetch-quest for the rest of your party. Yes, you can pick and choose who you want to recruit, but you also have to know ahead of time to level the jobbers that you get stuck with when first entering the World of Ruin (which I did not).

EDIT: Here's the thread I made about the game, it's easier to just read the OP for my feelings about the game as a whole. It also has a case of "first-reply syndrome." :lol

[Entropia]

Dark Schala: Thank you for your FF:MQ writeups, they were a pleasure to read. I'm very nostalgic for FF:MQ.

[Nocturnowl]

The second half of the game is a fetch-quest for the rest of your party. Yes, you can pick and choose who you want to recruit, but you also have to know ahead of time to level the jobbers that you get stuck with when first entering the World of Ruin (which I did not).

And I agree with this, hell I was jobbing from the word go in part 2 because my Celes was incredibly weak, fortunately it wasn't long until Super Sabin joined the fray.
Also my Gau was spectacularly naff all the way through because I had no clue how rage worked, he was the brooklyn brawler of my team.
Still the freedom of choice was pretty nice.

[Jucksalbe]

I've never played it in Japanese but given that it came out in NA first, perhaps it was supposed to be in English first? But Chihiro Fujioka seems to have been behind the story so maybe the base storyline was in Japanese, and the other two flowered up the dialogue and enemy names? Who knows. "It's a dog, so we can just call it a werewolf, even though the design has nothing to do with the connotation of the name!"

My new theory is that the text wasn't actually done by the time they started translating and they just translated the placeholders.

I'd love to start up FFIV because I sorta want to joke about its narrative a bit, but I'm kind of in a Barkley Shut Up and Jam Gaiden replay mode. :P

I had to look that up. You play strange things.
FF IV's narrative might actually be worse than MQ's. It takes itself very seriously most of the time, but some of the dialogue is equally stupid. On the other hand, the overall story still makes somehow, I guess, and there is definitely no "That propehecy? I made it all up" moment.
Btw. I tried to look up if this line was also in the German version of MQ. I had to look at several LPs since I don't have it anymore, but it seems they just cut that dialogue out, you go straight to the boss fight. My "favorite line" is even worse in German, it's "Otto: Is it true? You defeated the Demon King?, Hero: I would even say I defeated the king of the demons!" and so on.

[Ultratech]

I'm finally ready to start marching into the Ancient's Maze in FFIII. I've got all the summons and stuff, but I don't want to go in there really, unless that's how I can make the Blacksmith come back. I want to start cashing in and getting the ultimate equips for all these classes I've spent all this time mastering. And I still need to descend into the watery abyss and claim the Onion gear for myself. Current party= Luneth/Black Belt, Arc/Magus, Refia/Devout and Ingus/Ninja. Which is better, though? 1 Onion Blade and 1 Onion Shield, or 2 Onion Blades?

2x Onion Blades do more damage, but Blade + Shield will reduce damage done, and I believe prevents all status effects to boot.

Also keep in mind that outside of the Crystal Tower (after you get through the Ancient's Maze) is technically the final save point in the game.

[Mxrz]

I knew "Moms are tough" was coming, but I forgot about the second hit.

I. . . I wasn't ready.

Always wanted to feed Lightning sandwiches. Creepy thin in some scenes.

[Dark Schala]

I'm not really sure where I go from here, i'm tending to lean towards one of the games i've seen little to none of, but for whatever reason 4, 9 and 12 are the ones that intrigue me. Or to step away from the main series I could finally burrow into the PSP version of FF tactics, I already own it, I just sort of suck at it.

The fan in me wants to say FF9, but you won't get much out of it if you played it with a lack of FF experience, so I might suggest FFIV if you really want to play it or FFV to get a good grasp of the job system in the series. FF12 is a bit of a departure from the rest of the series that may or may not influence your viewpoint on the rest of the games (especially the previous games) in the series.

Dark Schala: Thank you for your FF:MQ writeups, they were a pleasure to read. I'm very nostalgic for FF:MQ.

Aw, thanks. I had fun writing them! Even if they took time to write up, I'm pretty pleased that the entries ended up getting better after a while. I think MQ is pretty good, particularly the adventure bits (ie: using weapons on the field, puzzles, jumping at will, etc).

My new theory is that the text wasn't actually done by the time they started translating and they just translated the placeholders. I had to look that up. You play strange things. FF IV's narrative might actually be worse than MQ's. It takes itself very seriously most of the time, but some of the dialogue is equally stupid. On the other hand, the overall story still makes somehow, I guess, and there is definitely no "That propehecy? I made it all up" moment. Btw. I tried to look up if this line was also in the German version of MQ. I had to look at several LPs since I don't have it anymore, but it seems they just cut that dialogue out, you go straight to the boss fight. My "favorite line" is even worse in German, it's "Otto: Is it true? You defeated the Demon King?, Hero: I would even say I defeated the king of the demons!" and so on.

But Shut Up and Jam Gaiden is pretty fun and I couldn't believe that it actually existed at the time. It's too bad someone won't work on an equivalent for other sports (like football because I want Messi and CR7 to fight RPG-style).

FFIV's narrative is worse because sacrifice means absolutely nothing in that game. Fake deaths are everywhere and it takes itself far too seriously sometimes. No matter which version you play, the dialogue isn't very good. Heck, when you stack it up against the real FFII, you see how limited the story is. Especially since people die and stuff actually happens in that game as opposed to FFIV. Now if I were to rip on FFIV, I'd have to pick between versions to play, and it's easier to pick on the SNES version (and maybe the GBA version). I've also been meaning to rip on FFVIII because it's easy.

My "favorite line" is even worse in German, it's "Otto: Is it true? You defeated the Demon King?, Hero: I would even say I defeated the king of the demons!" and so on.

But... but... the Demon King means that he was the king of the...

...

At least the German version seemed to have the sense to cut the "I made all of this stuff up!" bit. But now when I think about it, it seems like a shame because it makes the Dark King's plan even funnier.

At least I understand now why people like FF6! I can accept that it was THE defining RPG for people when it came out. I just don't like the second half, is all. >:P

Does this mean that you can't understand why people like Chao Gardens? :P

[Professor Beef]

Does this mean that you can't understand why people like Chao Gardens? :P

DOES NOT COMPUTE

[kunonabi]

How is FFVI on GBA? I played FFVI SNES ages ago, but I never owned it so never finished it and I barely remember anything (I got about 7 hours in maybe? I was a kid, don't remember too well). I don't even remember the controls lol. I just had a thought, there's 2 extra buttons on the SNES controller compared to the GBA, has it affected the GBA version at all?

Don't bother with the GBA version. SNES is still the way to go.

[linko9]

How is FFVI on GBA? I played FFVI SNES ages ago, but I never owned it so never finished it and I barely remember anything (I got about 7 hours in maybe? I was a kid, don't remember too well). I don't even remember the controls lol. I just had a thought, there's 2 extra buttons on the SNES controller compared to the GBA, has it affected the GBA version at all?

For the love of god, do not play the GBA versions of V or VI. The music has been put through a wood chipper and spat out the other side. Some people do not care about this fact. They are bad people.

[honorless]

Always wanted to feed Lightning sandwiches. Creepy thin in some scenes.

Feel comforted that I'm not the only one. Her legs are yiiiiikes.

[Dark Schala]

For the love of god, do not play the GBA versions of V or VI. The music has been put through a wood chipper and spat out the other side. Some people do not care about this fact. They are bad people.

FFV is fine and isn't as jarring as FFVI (some parts are noticeably different, but it's fine for the most part). FFV GBA is the definitive version as far as I'm concerned.

FFVIa's sound is not fine.

Always wanted to feed Lightning sandwiches. Creepy thin in some scenes.

I kinda feel the same way sometimes.

DOES NOT COMPUTE

If they make a Chao Garden game, we should make it compulsory to play!

[Ultratech]

FFV is fine and isn't as jarring as FFVI (some parts are noticeably different, but it's fine for the most part). FFV GBA is the definitive version as far as I'm concerned. FFVIa's sound is not fine.

Yeah, there's nothing really wrong with FFV's music. I'd say it probably turned out better on the GBA. (I prefer it to the SNES tracks mostly.)

As for VI...it didn't turn out quite as well. At least it's fixable if you're using an emulator.

[Nocturnowl]

The fan in me wants to say FF9, but you won't get much out of it if you played it with a lack of FF experience, so I might suggest FFIV if you really want to play it or FFV to get a good grasp of the job system in the series. FF12 is a bit of a departure from the rest of the series that may or may not influence your viewpoint on the rest of the games (especially the previous games) in the series.

Well the completely different style of FF12 is kind of what draws me to it, still my PS2 basically vanished into the ether one day so that's not really an option anyway at this point.
And I forgot about two things that greatly deter me from the PS entries, loading times (my ultimate enemy in the grand scheme of videos games) and battles that take forever, partly because summons take a minute to do their thing presumably in the name of CHECK OUT HOW CINEMATIC WE ARE GUYS to flex those 3D muscles.
So with that in mind 4 or 5 seem the most likely at this point, I saw the DS version of FF4 today (£15 pre owned? nope!) but then there's the PSP version and the standard SNES version as well, oh the confusion. Meanwhile i'm not sure if FF5 has many options, it's not a game I hear much about by comparison to the rest.

FFV is fine and isn't as jarring as FFVI (some parts are noticeably different, but it's fine for the most part). FFV GBA is the definitive version as far as I'm concerned. FFVIa's sound is not fine.

The GBA sound chip butchers once more, though as bad as that is I still say DKC2 got the more butchering treatment.

[ActStriker]

Theatrhythm got me wanting to beat all the FFs I have but haven't beaten yet, so I got I, II, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, XIII ahead of me... gonna be a long road.

Just restarted FF1 recently and about to go to the Marsh Cave to get the crown for the king in the Western Keep after about a hour and a half in with some Gil grinding on the side. Forgot how huge the jump is in Gil costs for magic from Pravoka to Elfheim, so I bought what I could. Gonna go through the cave tonight when I get home.

So looking at the FF6 talk above, I have the GBA, SNES and PS1 versions; I should just stick with the SNES version?