harriet the spy
Member
(I am ashamed someone at gamefaqs made the same exact joke I did, though I didn’t realize it until I was almost done writing this)
I’ll start by admitting that FF tactics is one of my favorite games of all times. I was super, super eager to play TO. I had played a few missions when the game came out (and even played some of the PSX version), but could never find the time to really commit myself to it.
I am taking my first ‘laid back’ vacation in a very long time, and decided to immerse myself in it
.
I do realize that TO is not meant to be exactly like FFT (or rather, that FFT differed from TO in many key aspects).
In spite of that realization, I can’t help but be a bit disappointed :/
But I am coming to the realization that it’s probably more due to me not being a good fit to most tactics games (I have never tried the disgaeas but I am now pretty sure I would hate them).
There is a lot to like in this game.
The battle/job system is mostly better than FFT, and given that FFT had a great battle system, it says a lot about TO’s.
The branching aspect of the story is really impressive. I am not sure there are that many games that allow you to make such strong choices, and have the choices *actually matter*. Modern games sure lot to pretend to force you to make difficult choices (hello, Mass Effect, hey there, Telltale), but let’s be honest, after playing a few of those, you start saying the really thick strings the storytellers are pulling, and acknowledge that most of the choices truly are meaningless. Not so here. You’re essentially getting a few games for the price of one.
The art is just perfect. I would pay big monies for any game yoshida had his hand in, and I think this is probably his best work (though I will be forever amused by the noseless characters of FFT). I cherish the preorder tarot card as my most prized gaming possession.
Even the older art borrowed from the SNES by way of the PSX is beautiful pixel goodness. Only downside are the spells mostly look like shit, especially compared to the fireworks of FF Tactics special abilities, but that’s a really minor detail (and I never really liked summoners anyway).
Story is.. well, it sounds like it's great. I am not sure it’s wonderfully told (it’s easy to get confused about who’s backstabbing whom at any point in time, and I am trying to follow this shit). I am on chaos path, and it’s a bit similar to FFT (again: i realize FFT is aping TO’s chaos path story, and not the opposite; nevertheless, it’s not a hugely original story in any case). Wish I had gone with law path instead
.
What I am really liking so far is the purely ‘geopolitical’ aspect of the story. No crazy old evil behing everything, just people greedy for power making war with each other. I fully expect to be disappointed about this later on, but at the very least the core of the story is very low fantasy, which is a welcome change from most games.
I had played a bit of the PSX version, and as far as remakes, it’s a tremendous labor of love. I am not sure I have ever played a better made remake than this. Gameplay tweaks, new art, new missions, improved music (I think?), improved translation (if you like ye old englishe - at least characters names are much better, I think).
So.. what’s there not to like?
Well, see, in tactics game, I love feeling like a battle is difficult, and yet I am able to prevail due to cleverness. Not just going through the same old, rote, tactics (swarm healers, heal tanks, yadda), but really improvising due to the configuration of the battlefield. It happens, arguably rarely in both TO and tactics, but it definitely happens, and it feels great.
What I think is boring, largely due to the fact I now have limited gaming time, is grinding. I don’t enjoy spending hours doing the same thing over and over to fill some bars. It’s a plague of gaming, and a plague of tactics games in general. But what I really like about FF tactics, is, if you are careful (and warned about a few key spots), you don’t have to grind at all. You can just go through all story missions in a row, and be done.
It might be that TO does not require any grinding at all. I somehow doubt it. But this put aside, the single, biggest, game-destroying flaw of this game, is the stupendously stupid idea of starting all classes at level 1. Not a big deal at the beginning of the game, the classes can more or less catch up (my denam is a ninja). But for anything in late game, or creatures you somehow only acquire later on (warlock->golems only come much later, all dragon classes are independent; and most unique have their own classes. Hello, incredibly powerful white knights! You suck huge monkey balls compared to the rest of my team, congratulations! not a surprise
)
So basically it feels you’re either forced to cheese the game with archers and knights, or give up on late game classes / creatures. It doesn’t feel like there is an easy way to make up for this. Sure you can have them tag along in normal battles with superpowered units, and get them to leech a lot of the experience, but it still takes forever to catch up (esp. since you superpower units, even though they get less experience, are still going forward).
I am also not sure why I should penalize myself out of a few precious units spots for participating in ‘take your idiot classes to battle' day.
I could perhaps train groups of low level classes participate in random battles that will be level appropriate(thanks to rubberbanding of random battle difficulty). But that also takes forever.
This whole issue is particularly egregious given the battle system, whose main flaw (I think) is to penalize hugely level differences. If you don’t have amazing gear (which you can’t equip at low levels), and a ton of useful skills, being a few levels behind can often mean you’ll barely touch an enemy’s HPs, while he will gladly one-hit-kill-you. So even taking low levels units to battle is not fun, since they just have to hide all the time. You want them to contribute, but they can’t do shit. I can’t count the number of times I see my damage predictor to be ‘1HP’ (I do it anyway), before being attacked back for like 100HP damage.
A ratio of 100/1 for a few levels imbalance just seems ridiculous IMO.
I wish for a tactics like game, where the units are given to you at the beginning of every battle. No grinding between battles. Just clever thinking. Every board designed like a puzzle.
So, perhaps I am not fit for the tactics genre. I like having to choose how to spend my job points / skill points / whatever. I like that battle are more complex than regular RPG battles.
But I just can’t get myself to spend dozens upon dozens of hours doing the same shit over and over again. It’s fun, but it feels like alcoholism. Kind of breaks my heart.
I’ll start by admitting that FF tactics is one of my favorite games of all times. I was super, super eager to play TO. I had played a few missions when the game came out (and even played some of the PSX version), but could never find the time to really commit myself to it.
I am taking my first ‘laid back’ vacation in a very long time, and decided to immerse myself in it
I am realizing it would have been more realistic to quit my job rather than taking a week off
I do realize that TO is not meant to be exactly like FFT (or rather, that FFT differed from TO in many key aspects).
In spite of that realization, I can’t help but be a bit disappointed :/
But I am coming to the realization that it’s probably more due to me not being a good fit to most tactics games (I have never tried the disgaeas but I am now pretty sure I would hate them).
There is a lot to like in this game.
The battle/job system is mostly better than FFT, and given that FFT had a great battle system, it says a lot about TO’s.
The branching aspect of the story is really impressive. I am not sure there are that many games that allow you to make such strong choices, and have the choices *actually matter*. Modern games sure lot to pretend to force you to make difficult choices (hello, Mass Effect, hey there, Telltale), but let’s be honest, after playing a few of those, you start saying the really thick strings the storytellers are pulling, and acknowledge that most of the choices truly are meaningless. Not so here. You’re essentially getting a few games for the price of one.
The art is just perfect. I would pay big monies for any game yoshida had his hand in, and I think this is probably his best work (though I will be forever amused by the noseless characters of FFT). I cherish the preorder tarot card as my most prized gaming possession.
Even the older art borrowed from the SNES by way of the PSX is beautiful pixel goodness. Only downside are the spells mostly look like shit, especially compared to the fireworks of FF Tactics special abilities, but that’s a really minor detail (and I never really liked summoners anyway).
Story is.. well, it sounds like it's great. I am not sure it’s wonderfully told (it’s easy to get confused about who’s backstabbing whom at any point in time, and I am trying to follow this shit). I am on chaos path, and it’s a bit similar to FFT (again: i realize FFT is aping TO’s chaos path story, and not the opposite; nevertheless, it’s not a hugely original story in any case). Wish I had gone with law path instead
but really, that first choice would have made me feel like a huge monster.
What I am really liking so far is the purely ‘geopolitical’ aspect of the story. No crazy old evil behing everything, just people greedy for power making war with each other. I fully expect to be disappointed about this later on, but at the very least the core of the story is very low fantasy, which is a welcome change from most games.
I had played a bit of the PSX version, and as far as remakes, it’s a tremendous labor of love. I am not sure I have ever played a better made remake than this. Gameplay tweaks, new art, new missions, improved music (I think?), improved translation (if you like ye old englishe - at least characters names are much better, I think).
So.. what’s there not to like?
Well, see, in tactics game, I love feeling like a battle is difficult, and yet I am able to prevail due to cleverness. Not just going through the same old, rote, tactics (swarm healers, heal tanks, yadda), but really improvising due to the configuration of the battlefield. It happens, arguably rarely in both TO and tactics, but it definitely happens, and it feels great.
What I think is boring, largely due to the fact I now have limited gaming time, is grinding. I don’t enjoy spending hours doing the same thing over and over to fill some bars. It’s a plague of gaming, and a plague of tactics games in general. But what I really like about FF tactics, is, if you are careful (and warned about a few key spots), you don’t have to grind at all. You can just go through all story missions in a row, and be done.
It might be that TO does not require any grinding at all. I somehow doubt it. But this put aside, the single, biggest, game-destroying flaw of this game, is the stupendously stupid idea of starting all classes at level 1. Not a big deal at the beginning of the game, the classes can more or less catch up (my denam is a ninja). But for anything in late game, or creatures you somehow only acquire later on (warlock->golems only come much later, all dragon classes are independent; and most unique have their own classes. Hello, incredibly powerful white knights! You suck huge monkey balls compared to the rest of my team, congratulations! not a surprise
the dark knights kicked your ass so badly in that previous story event
So basically it feels you’re either forced to cheese the game with archers and knights, or give up on late game classes / creatures. It doesn’t feel like there is an easy way to make up for this. Sure you can have them tag along in normal battles with superpowered units, and get them to leech a lot of the experience, but it still takes forever to catch up (esp. since you superpower units, even though they get less experience, are still going forward).
I am also not sure why I should penalize myself out of a few precious units spots for participating in ‘take your idiot classes to battle' day.
I could perhaps train groups of low level classes participate in random battles that will be level appropriate(thanks to rubberbanding of random battle difficulty). But that also takes forever.
This whole issue is particularly egregious given the battle system, whose main flaw (I think) is to penalize hugely level differences. If you don’t have amazing gear (which you can’t equip at low levels), and a ton of useful skills, being a few levels behind can often mean you’ll barely touch an enemy’s HPs, while he will gladly one-hit-kill-you. So even taking low levels units to battle is not fun, since they just have to hide all the time. You want them to contribute, but they can’t do shit. I can’t count the number of times I see my damage predictor to be ‘1HP’ (I do it anyway), before being attacked back for like 100HP damage.
A ratio of 100/1 for a few levels imbalance just seems ridiculous IMO.
I wish for a tactics like game, where the units are given to you at the beginning of every battle. No grinding between battles. Just clever thinking. Every board designed like a puzzle.
So, perhaps I am not fit for the tactics genre. I like having to choose how to spend my job points / skill points / whatever. I like that battle are more complex than regular RPG battles.
But I just can’t get myself to spend dozens upon dozens of hours doing the same shit over and over again. It’s fun, but it feels like alcoholism. Kind of breaks my heart.