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CorvoSol · May 30, 2012

Toth said:
Do not touch the Lightning DLC scenario until after you beat the game as it spoils a ton. You really do not need that Lightning until post game anyway.

As for the other Lightning and Amodar, they are really only feasible at chapter 4 or 5. Just pick monsters you are comfortable with and enjoy the game

Yeah, I figured it was spoilers, so I won't mess with it. I just wanted to know if the two Lightnings are different at all.

I guess I'll plug away at the story till chapter 4, then, but dang, I really want to get Lightning as fast as I can.

Also: How does the Crystarium work in this game? Like, if I chose to level Serah up to level 10 as a Commando, would I miss anything as a Ravager or Sentinel because I neglected those? As in, can I max out every class evenly and get every ability, or are some missable?

Professor Beef · May 30, 2012

led4lyfe said:
Turns out it is. When I was a kid I could never get passed that part of the game on my own, red dragon always beat me. Can't wait to get my revenge, this is 15 years in the making. Im pretty sure back in 2006 I started a new file and grinded as much as I could, all for one purpose: Embarassing Red Dragon

Don't forget to steal from him!

Forceatowulf · May 30, 2012

You know what... back in my gaming prime the thought of giving up on a game when I've spent so much time with it was out of the question. Absolutely not an option. But the fact of the matter is, I am not that guy anymore. I'm just not...

Aaaand.. I think I'm done with FF9. The end boss is ridiculous. Just ridiculous. I've read the faqs online to prepare for that battle over and over and have also read all the horror stories along with it, and I think I'm fucking done. Up until this point the boss battles have been relatively easy or moderately difficult.. and then the game suddenly decides to pulls this epic road block out of it's ass.

I've fought him 5 times now and it's not even worth it anymore. If I have to watch my team get auto-death'd by Grand Cross followed up by a Neutron Ring again I'm gonna break something. And like I said it's not even worth it.

I think I'm just gonna watch the ending on youtube after dinner and be done with it. What a sour way to end such a good game too, that's the most frustrating thing abut all of this. What in the fuck were they thinking... =/

Jucksalbe · May 30, 2012

Updated summary.

Final Fantasy

Aeana PSP: Part 1A, 1B, 2, 3, 4
Scythian PSP: Part 1, 2, 3
perfect free iOS: Part 1, 2, 3
Cyan NES: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
catchan PSP: Part 1, 2
BreakyBoy PSX: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Jucksalbe PSP: Part 1, 2, 3, 4
kswiston PSP: Part 1, 2, 3, 4
Heropon PSP: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
IdreamofHIME : Part 1
Entropia GBA: Part 1, 2, 3
Ourobolus GBA: Part 1, 2
ATF487 PSP: Part 1
ninjatrigg PSP: Part 1

Final Fantasy II

Aeana PSP: Part 1, 2, 3, 4
Goli PSP: Part 1
Heropon PSP: Part 1, 2, 3
charlequin : Part 1, 2
Johnas : Part 1, 2
Ultratech GBA: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Ourobolus iOS: Part 1, 2, 3, 4
Entropia : Part 1, 2, 3
Chris25 iOS: Part 1, 2
IdreamofHIME : Part 1
Scythian PSP: Part 1
ninjatrigg PSP: Part 1

Final Fantasy III

Aeana Famicom: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Jucksalbe Famicom; Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 , 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
stupei DS: Part 1, 2, 3
Heropon DS: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
TranceKuja Famicom: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Entropia DS: Part 1, 2, 3
Ourobolus Famicom: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Psxphile DS: Part 1, 2
Kaori's Babydaddy Famicom: Part 1, 2, 3
ninjatrigg DS: Part 1

Final Fantasy IV

Absoludacrous PSP: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Jucksalbe PSP: Part 1, 2
itzknickknac PSP: Part 1
Goli PSP: Part 1, 2, 3
Aeana PSP: Part 1, 2
Zing SNES: Part 1
Heropon PSP: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Kalnos DS: Part 1
Zerokku PSP: Part 1
Paches-EJ- SNES: Part 1, 2
Ourobolus PSP: Part 1, 2, 3
Red Scarlet SNES: Part 1, 2

Final Fantasy IV - The After Years

Electivirus PSP: Part 1, 2, 3

Final Fantasy V

HiddenWings GBA: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32
Labadal : Part 1, 2, 3, 4
Aeana SFC: Part 1, 2
Schnei871 : Part 1
Entropia : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Heropon GBA: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
coopolon : Part 1
JCV : Part 1, 2

Jucksalbe · May 30, 2012

Final Fantasy VI

Vamphuntr PSX: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
FrontalMonk : Part 1
Aeana : Part 1, 2, 3, 4
Entropia : Part 1, 2
Natetan : Part 1, 2, 3
Heropon SNES: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17
FGMPR PSX: Part 1
Rei_Toei : Part 1, 2, 3
Ourobolus GBA: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Final Fantasy VII

Gravijah : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Lindsay : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, Bonus
StuBurns : Part 1
Entropia : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Aeana : Part 1
Heropon : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
Ourobolous : Part 1
Boogiepop : Part 1, 2
TxdoHawk : Part 1
led4lyfe : Part 1, 2

Final Fantasy VIII

SFGamer : Part 1
chris-013 : Part 1
Wildesy : Part 1
xist : Part 1
TranceKuja : Part 1, 2
Heropon : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Final Fantasy IX

Billychu : Part 1, 2, 3
Lactose_Intolerant : Part 1
TranceKuja : Part 1, 2, 3
pikablu : Part 1, 2

Final Fantasy X-2

Jucksalbe : Part 1

Final Fantasy XI
Xaekid PC: Part 1, 2, 3

Final Fantasy XIII

Rahxephon91 : Part 1, 2
Seda: Part 1
Ourobolus: Part 1
TheSeks : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
Roubjon : Part 1, 2
CorvoSol : Part 1, 2, 3

Final Fantasy XIII-2

DR2K : Part 1
CorvoSol : Part 1

Final Fantasy Tactics A2

Labadal : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core

Locke_211: Part 1, 2

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers

Goli : Part 1
Anslon : Part 1, 2

Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon

Jucksalbe: Part 1, 2

Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest (Legend) aka This game...!

Jucksalbe SNES: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
Dark Schala SNES: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Seiken Densetsu / Final Fantasy Adventure / Mystic Quest

Jucksalbe SGB: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Chocobo Racing

Jucksalbe: Part 1
HiddenWings: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Bonus: If you want to take screenshots on your PSP, follow Stumpokapow's instructions here and here.
Bonus 2: Need to get rid of black borders in your pictures? Look here.

TheSeks · May 30, 2012

Well, I finished the final boss. The whole ending was pure WTF. But

Fang and Vanille saving the Cocoon after what they did 500 years before was kinda poetic?

Started to grind some turtles. Maxed out my jobs. Leaves treasure hunter (nearly there) and the missions left to do.

Toth · May 30, 2012

CorvoSol said:
Yeah, I figured it was spoilers, so I won't mess with it. I just wanted to know if the two Lightnings are different at all.

I guess I'll plug away at the story till chapter 4, then, but dang, I really want to get Lightning as fast as I can.

Also: How does the Crystarium work in this game? Like, if I chose to level Serah up to level 10 as a Commando, would I miss anything as a Ravager or Sentinel because I neglected those? As in, can I max out every class evenly and get every ability, or are some missable?

The scenario Lightning is an insane COM while the DLC Lightning is a veryyy good RAV.

For the crystarium, it's not too bad. Only use large nodes for roles you want to master and little ones for SEN, SYN, and MED. There's a ton of good guides on gamefaqs.com on this if that would help

Forceatowulf · May 30, 2012

Are the end boss' in FF7 and 6 as ridiculous as FF9? Please GOD tell me they're not...

Professor Beef · May 30, 2012

Forceatowulf said:
Are the end boss' in FF7 and 6 as ridiculous as FF9? Please GOD tell me they're not...

I didn't find 9 so ridiculous, but I mainly protected myself with Auto-Life and Antidote abilities on everyone. There's no stopping Grand Cross, so you can only really protect yourself against the nastiest effects.

As for the comparison between the final boss of FF7 to 9, then they don't really compare. I thought Sephiroth in both his forms were pretty easy, with his first form taking much longer because I didn't want to use Knights of the Round since I could only use it once at the time. Turns out that summons reset after that fight, so I wasted a good 10 minutes.

Absoludacrous · May 30, 2012

It's always hard to gauge difficulty for a FF boss, because usually they become incredibly easy if you do any of the side stuff. And most people do.

Unless you mean the WTFness of where 9's boss comes from, in which case, no, you know exactly who you're fighting in 6 and 7.

CorvoSol · May 30, 2012

TheSeks said:
Well, I finished the final boss. The whole ending was pure WTF. But

Fang and Vanille saving the Cocoon after what they did 500 years before was kinda poetic?

Started to grind some turtles. Maxed out my jobs. Leaves treasure hunter (nearly there) and the missions left to do.

I was able to make more sense of the ending this time around, but I agree that

the way the whole "We're not Cie'th anymore!" thing gets handled is bollocks.

.

led4lyfe · May 30, 2012

Forceatowulf said:
Are the end boss' in FF7 and 6 as ridiculous as FF9? Please GOD tell me they're not...

I've beaten the end boss of 9 a lot of times. It was pretty much the Vivi show as he was the one doing all the damage. Zidane and Garnett just watched and cheered him on.

Professor Beef · May 30, 2012

led4lyfe said:
I've beaten the end boss of 9 a lot of times. It was pretty much the Vivi show as he was the one doing all the damage. Zidane and Garnett just watched and cheered him on.

Grinding out for Ozma really helped, since Ozma and the final boss are both easier and harder then each other for different reasons.

Forceatowulf · May 30, 2012

YES! I FINALLY MANAGED TO BEAT THAT MOTHERFUCKER! EAT A DOOMSDAY DICK NECRON! BACK TO THE VIDEO GAME SHADOW REALM FROM WHENCE YOUR CHEAP ASS CAME!!!

Casting reflect on him from the start was huge. Got him to waste a few turns because of that. Then I just used Steiner and Vivi's Doomsday over and over again. I also got lucky as FUCK that his Grand Cross only inflicted Zombie on one of my characters and I was able to cure him before he died. Every other time most of my party would either get Auto-death'd, Zombie'd, or doomsday'd. Or a combination of two of them! I seriously just got lucky this go around, pure and simple... but I really don't give a shit. I'll take it!

Aww yes, that sweet, sweet feeling of over coming the utterly ridiculous in a video game. I am now the ONE TRUE CHAMPION of Gaia. Feels good... feels good...

Still, whoever it was at Square that OK'd that boss needs to get their ass beat. Fucking jerk.

Forceatowulf · May 30, 2012

Just started FFVII. Oh man... the controls.. so bad. Thank god you can change most of them. No use of the analog stick is gonna take some serious getting used to though... damn.

But at least the battles are faster than IX! Yay!

So does anyone have any tips for me before the game really starts to pick up? Like characters I should ignore. Characters I should use often. Secrets or valuables to make note of before I get too deep in the game. Stuff of that nature?

Professor Beef · May 30, 2012

Forceatowulf said:
Just started FFVII. Oh man... the controls.. so bad. Thank god you can change most of them. No use of the analog stick is gonna take some serious getting used to though... damn.

But at least the battles are faster than IX! Yay!

So does anyone have any tips for me before the game really starts to pick up? Like characters I should ignore. Characters I should use often. Secrets or valuables to make note of before I get too deep in the game. Stuff of that nature?

There are certain parts of FFVII where the game will not recognize your new controls (the first time in Junon, and a couple of other things), so be extra cautious.

You should definitely take some time and invest in the Steal Materia. Early on in the game it's pretty awful since so many of the enemies have nothing worth stealing (mainly potions and junk), but it becomes useful almost immediately after you leave Midgar. This also goes for the Enemy Skill Materia. Enemy Skills are obscenely powerful in FF7, and most only cost a fraction of MP that their "normal" spell equivalents would cost. Look up what enemies give what Skills, but for the love of god do not try to get Beta from the Midgar Zolom during your first encounter.

Yuffie is an amazing character if only for her dialogue throughout the game. She's essentially self-aware the entire game, and it lends itself to some very hilarious moments. Definitely recruit her and keep her around. Cid is a strong character to have during battles, as is Red XIII. There's no universally "great" character (aside from Cloud

), so any party will work really. Characters that you may want to avoid simply because they're boring or whatever would be Cait Sith and Barret (at least they were for me). HOWEVER, Barret, Yuffie, and Vincent are important during certain boss battles since normal attacks won't reach those bosses. Those three characters are the only ones with long-range attacks that will hit them normally (unless you have someone with the Long-Range Materia equipped). Unless you just want to use magic all day, make sure to keep one of them with you.

Speaking of Yuffie and Vincent, unless you didn't know already, you have to go out of your way to recruit them into your party. It's worth the trouble, though.

One last thing: certain equipment will have AP modifiers for materia (Double is the most common, although there are a handful of Triples as well). While some of them have less materia slots then other equipment that you can get during the same time frame, you should keep them around just to level up your stuff.

EDIT: I almost forgot about a handful of glitches/bugs to watch out for (nothing harmful, just things to be aware of). The Blind status effect will not affect enemies. Due to a bug, Blind only affects the commands Attack, Morph, Deathblow, Mug, Slash-All, Flash, 2x Cut, and 4x Cut. Since enemies don't use those commands, it's pointless to try and Blind them. Another bug is the Magic Defense bug. The Magic Defense bug renders all Magic Defense values in all armor useless, as the stat is never used when calculating damage on a target. Back Attacks on your party are also glitched; if your party is the victim of one, then they won't take double damage if their back is turned. All it does is change the rows of your party.

Forceatowulf · May 30, 2012

Professor Beef said:
There are certain parts of FFVII where the game will not recognize your new controls (the first time in Junon, and a couple of other things), so be extra cautious.

You should definitely take some time and invest in the Steal Materia. Early on in the game it's pretty awful since so many of the enemies have nothing worth stealing (mainly potions and junk), but it becomes useful almost immediately after you leave Midgar. This also goes for the Enemy Skill Materia. Enemy Skills are obscenely powerful in FF7, and most only cost a fraction of MP that their "normal" spell equivalents would cost. Look up what enemies give what Skills, but for the love of god do not try to get Beta from the Midgar Zolom during your first encounter.

Yuffie is an amazing character if only for her dialogue throughout the game. She's essentially self-aware the entire game, and it lends itself to some very hilarious moments. Definitely recruit her and keep her around. Cid is a strong character to have during battles, as is Red XIII. There's no universally "great" character (aside from Cloud ), so any party will work really. Characters that you may want to avoid simply because they're boring or whatever would be Cait Sith and Barret (at least they were for me). HOWEVER, Barret, Yuffie, and Vincent are important during certain boss battles since normal attacks won't reach those bosses. Those three characters are the only ones with long-range attacks that will hit them normally (unless you have someone with the Long-Range Materia equipped). Unless you just want to use magic all day, make sure to keep one of them with you.

Speaking of Yuffie and Vincent, unless you didn't know already, you have to go out of your way to recruit them into your party. It's worth the trouble, though.

One last thing: certain equipment will have AP modifiers for materia (Double is the most common, although there are a handful of Triples as well). While some of them have less materia slots then other equipment that you can get during the same time frame, you should keep them around just to level up your stuff.

EDIT: I almost forgot about a handful of glitches/bugs to watch out for (nothing harmful, just things to be aware of). The Blind status effect will not affect enemies. Due to a bug, Blind only affects the commands Attack, Morph, Deathblow, Mug, Slash-All, Flash, 2x Cut, and 4x Cut. Since enemies don't use those commands, it's pointless to try and Blind them. Another bug is the Magic Defense bug. The Magic Defense bug renders all Magic Defense values in all armor useless, as the stat is never used when calculating damage on a target. Back Attacks on your party are also glitched; if your party is the victim of one, then they won't take double damage if their back is turned. All it does is change the rows of your party.

Now this is what I'm talking about. Thank you very much.

I was hoping to run a team of Cloud/Vincent/RED VIII for the entirety of the game. Is this a good idea? Do I have to wait a long time to acquire RED/Vincent? Will there come a time when using just them for so long will bite me in the ass down the line?

Professor Beef · May 31, 2012

Cyan said:
Wait, are we talking VII or VI? Weren't those exact two glitches in VI?

The Blind bug is in both. You're thinking about the Evade Bug in FF6. It's pretty much the same thing though.

Forceatowulf said:
Now this is what I'm talking about. Thank you very much.

I was hoping to run a team of Cloud/Vincent/RED VIII for the entirety of the game. Is this a good idea? Do I have to wait a long time to acquire RED/Vincent? Will there come a time when using just them for so long will bite me in the ass down the line?

You get the opportunity to get Vincent fairly late into Disc 1, while you get Red XIII right before you leave Midgar. There's not really any penalty for using certain characters only, but there are certain parts of the game where you have a member locked into your party (Aeris and Barret are prime examples).

Forceatowulf · May 31, 2012

Materia All + lightning is murking everything right now. God damn...

Professor Beef said:
You get the opportunity to get Vincent fairly late into Disc 1, while you get Red XIII right before you leave Midgar. There's not really any penalty for using certain characters only, but there are certain parts of the game where you have a member locked into your party (Aeris and Barret are prime examples).

Thanks for the help. Greatly appreciated.

Boogiepop · May 31, 2012

Finally approaching the end. Just hit disk three of VII. So, should I be doing all my stocking/buffing up before I descend into the crater? I'm imagining it's a pain to get back out. Also, I haven't been grinding AT ALL thus far, and am currently sitting at level 50. The last boss was easy, but weirdly enough the enemies in the staircase leading up to him were doing a hell of a lot of damage, even sometimes when I had Big Guard up, which is kind of worrying.

Is Sephiroth gonna wipe the floor with me if I just try and keep on running at the game full force, or should I REALLY do some of the sidequest stuff?

Entropia · May 31, 2012

So I'm on Disc 2. It took me forever to figure out the path in the snowy mountains to get to the hot springs and get my way back to the witch so I can beat her and get the Alexander materia.

One thing I completely forgot about is how much materia you eventually end up with once you start mastering it. I've just beat the Corel and Juno Reactor "big materia" events, and I've got so many new Ice/Lightning/Fire materias from mastering. Though I can sell it, I've mostly just been plowing through the game so I haven't really stopped to sell that stuff.

It sucks that I've lost Cloud and Tifa temporarily. I'm using Cid, Red XIII and Cait Sith in the interim. Red XIII has been in my party since the get go anyway. Caith Sith is unbelievably bad it seems.

Can't wait to get Cloud and Tifa back in my party which if I remember correctly happens when I head back to Mideel.

Finalow · May 31, 2012

guess I should play (again) that awesome FFVI, especially if I keep using this avatar.
probably I'll start after DDS2 and Nocturne.

Boogiepop · May 31, 2012

And that's it. Made it through the whole game with no grinding and virtually zero sidequests (did the thing where Yuffie steals your materia by accident, and then wnet back after getting the scales for the nice weapon. Oh, and I didn't screw up the Huge Materia stuff, so I got Ultima and Bahamut Zero.) I got a little worried at supernova (and if that's supposed to be what's actually happening in that attack, everybody on the planet should be too, as it just destroyed about half of the solar system). Still, I plowed right on through the end.

It was an interesting ride. As a whole, it felt almost like a tweaked VI in a LOT of ways, with a number of similar systems and ideas in place. I prefer VI still, but what's here certainly isn't bad, and it does enough unique things to set it apart. The game also seemed to love to shove in waaaay too many minigames (snowboarding!!!) and that the battle system felt a little funky in at least a couple ways. The cursor in the battle system was a dick, and one that was only made worse by the ATB. Near the end of the game I found myself in a battle with a tonberry, and I just COULD NOT get the cursor onto Cloud to revive him. Maybe it WAS there, but the angle made it impossible to see, and simply trying to go up to the upmost (where he should have been) position didn't work. Meanwhile, I'm getting shanked by a tonberry nonstop. Just BARELY made it out of that battle alive. For that matter, the ATB as a whole REALLY should've paused when you were in submenus, particularly the items. If you don't organize your bag ahead of time, you'll be losing whole turns searching through things. This is made all the worse by enemies who will jump you immediately after the battle starts, even without a back attack happening. (Worst of all being trying to catch a chocobo, where they can frequently run away even if the first thing you do is throw the greens, even occasionally when the greens are the first thing in your inventory.)

Most of my other issues were just small annoyances that kind of irked me. For example, it felt way too hard to level up Materia. It just took forever! I don't think I mastered anything till the absolute end of the game, and that's including the random low level stuff I had on me since the beginning of the game! Also, I really would've appreciated a skip button. Like, really badly. Particularly for the summons, which make me watch their long animations again and again and again. I was just going off and browsing the internet during them by the end.

The biggest thing though was that the game went a little too far in reorganizing your party at will. It happened just nonstop. It seems like they at least give you some experience, but the characters that aren't your mains are doomed to fall behind BAD. This is oddly both helped and hurt by the materia system. I mean, your materia benefits will carry over to the other characters you're forced to use, which is nice. But on the other hand, the game is forcing you to reorganize the materia nonstop because it's dicking with your party. I can accept that this is for story purposes, but maybe at least make it so that if you HAVE to have a character "there" they can just be there for cutscenes but not necessarily in your party? Certainly, though, I would've been outright pissed if I hadn't known to avoid Aeris due to spoilers, as she's just asking to be your healer/magic user.

Still, a fun game, nothing too annoying, and it's interesting to see the transition into 3D, which DID bring a number of neat little things and little added pizzazz to the plot/story scenes.

Now onto VIII (hopefully I can find disk 1, otherwise I guess I'll have to suck it up and pay to download it of PSN). I've heard it's definitely easier if you avoid leveling as much as possible, but is it difficult/possible to get stuck doing it the normal way? I'd prefer not to attempt to break/cheat my way through if at all possible.

Heropon · May 31, 2012

The new disc begins with Laguna. Maybe he's my new hero now that Squall is dead. He has some kind of "little daughter" and a love-hate relationship with a woman called Raine. Kiros is visiting, that means that is time to dispatch some monsters.

Meanwhile, Laguna does the thing he does best, talking non-stop.

They end the work and return to the "command center". It's time to tell the report containing the casualties count.

It's time to rest after killing so many mosquitos and worms.

Everyone is in prison, even Squall who survived magically.

The guards and Seifer aren't very nice to our heroes, and Rinoa is taken for some reason.

Zell manages to defeat a guard, it's time to escape!

The first step is to take the weapons. This battle is too easy.

Our old friends Biggs and Wedge want to hurt my favourite ladies but I won't allow it. This fight is laughable, but one of them has Reflect as a drawable magic (good for raising defensive stats).

Now we have to go up, and up, and up to rescue the boss.

Squall and the ladies use a machine to go to the lowest floor, but it isn't a good idea at the end.

Meanwhile, Zell is discovered and has to go down, down and down.

At some point Squall rescues him, but the group gets trapped.

But they're saved thanks to Irvine and Rinoa.

The group splits in two: Squall, Rinoa and Selphie go upwards and they find the exit, but a semi-boss battle blocks them (three mooks, bah).

Oh, oh, but one has to take care as they can cast meltdown (damage and reduces defense).
Thanks to being delayed by the battle, Squall can hear Zell and take them to the top with the machine they used earlier.

Just when they're going to escape, the prison begins to sink and Squall has to do some of his heroic things (if he weren't so slow...).

"It has been dangerous, right?" Thanks for stating the obvious Rinoa.

Jucksalbe · Jun 1, 2012

Heropon said:
Just when they're going to escape, the prison begins to sink and Squall has to do some of his heroic things (if he weren't so slow...).

I really hate that part. I die there at least once every time, just because I try to go in the wrong direction....every time.

Heropon · Jun 1, 2012

Jucksalbe said:
I really hate that part. I die there at least once every time, just because I try to go in the wrong direction....every time.

The first time I did it I died soooo many times it wasn't funny. I don't know why Squall was so far from the others before that scene (well, yeah, so that scene can happen).

Boogiepop · Jun 1, 2012

Well, just played the start of VIII. At first I was feeling a little intimidated by all the random crap they were throwing at me (sooooo many subsystems and whatnot!), but by the first proper boss battle I felt like I was kind of getting into the grove. Even stole (er, "drew") a summon from the boss, which is pretty crazy. Of course, the game wasn't gonna let me have any good feelings towards it, so it decided "you know what'd be a good idea? Putting a boss thing right after this boss, only there's a timer and you have to fight it until it falls over and then run away like 5 times, and then you don't even get to kill it for any rewards." That... was a really annoying design choice.

Oh, and really, you force me to decide what to put into the battle slots, and you make item an option instead of a freeby? Also weird and annoying, as there's no way item is going in over my ability to use magic and summons.

Edit: Also... is the game actually built with the idea of low-level systems abuse whatnot? I mean, the bosses giving zero exp thusfar seems pretty suspect (and lame). I always just assumed it was rubberbanding difficulty gone awry or something. Why would you purposefully build an RPG that encourages NOT leveling up?

Heropon · Jun 1, 2012

Boogiepop said:
Oh, and really, you force me to decide what to put into the battle slots, and you make item an option instead of a freeby? Also weird and annoying, as there's no way item is going in over my ability to use magic and summons.

It's funny you mention this, but items can come handy in case you don't want to use magic because it weakens the junctions (or thanks to 100 free Megaelixirs later <3) and items are pretty cheap at the end of the game (and the magics you'll probably use have item counterparts), so it can be more convenient to use Item over Magic. But well, this isn't necessary until much later.

Boogiepop said:
Edit: Also... is the game actually built with the idea of low-level systems abuse whatnot? I mean, the bosses giving zero exp thusfar seems pretty suspect (and lame). I always just assumed it was rubberbanding difficulty gone awry or something. Why would you purposefully build an RPG that encourages NOT leveling up?

Actually, there are other FF with bosses that only give Ability Points (5 and 9 for example). I suppose they didn't want to frustrate low level playthroughs thanks to the mandatory battles.

Boogiepop · Jun 1, 2012

Heropon said:
It's funny you mention this, but items can come handy in case you don't want to use magic because it weakens the junctions (or thanks to 100 free Megaelixirs later <3) and items are pretty cheap at the end of the game (and the magics you'll probably use have item counterparts), so it can be more convenient to use Item over Magic. But well, this isn't necessary until much later.

Actually, there are other FF with bosses that only give Ability Points (5 and 9 for example). I suppose they didn't want to frustrate low level playthroughs thanks to the mandatory battles.

Thanks for the info. I'm assuming things get less mindboggling to handle as you go on? Right now at least the junction, this junction that all over the place is a little confusing. Still, I think I may be getting a handle on things. Also, if I'm understanding summons right, in this game they have health that'll take hits instead of the character as they charge, and then it refills once the battle is over? Or only part of the way? Either way, they seem incredibly useful in this game, so I'm expecting to be really annoyed at their unskippable and fairly lengthy animations by the end of the game.

Oh, and I forgot to mention it in my last post, but is nice to see some stuff like analog stick movement and the standard x-button for confirm making it into this game. All around the general polish of the game feels a lot better than VII, which is much appreciated.

Professor Beef · Jun 1, 2012

Summons only regain their health if you give them specific potions or if you rest at an inn.

Boogiepop · Jun 1, 2012

Professor Beef said:
Summons only regain their health if you give them specific potions or if you rest at an inn.

Really? I could've sworn their health went back up during the battles with the robot that you had to run away from, but maybe I was seeing things or that battle is just weird.

Forceatowulf · Jun 1, 2012

Professor Beef said:
but for the love of god do not try to get Beta from the Midgar Zolom during your first encounter.

I couldn't resist the temptation of this and went for it anyways. After about 11 resets and yelling at my TV or an hour I got it done.

Elemental materia + Fire materia + Sadness status + BIO = fucking his shit up proper.

And have mercy jesus is Beta ridiculous. I was already wrecking goups with Matra Magic before this. MP consumption is a bitch though.

TheSeks · Jun 1, 2012

Finished FFXIII. Got the platinum. Worth it? Well, no, not really. But damn it, I wanted it.

FFXIII is still a bad game. Too linear, the missions are a little luck-based depending on your level and set-ups (and even then some of them are crazy. Sup, Giant Cactar and last mission in the game?) and the story is just... ugh.

Still, the demo of XIII-2 seems to show they listened to the critics of XIII as the battle system is much more complex (blood damage, faster shifts) and it was fun to play the demo so I kinda want to get that. But XIII soured me a bit on playing that after XIII so soon. Probably will attempt it in the Fall if I get some time, but for now I've got other things I need to see/do than another Final Fantasy at the moment.

Professor Beef · Jun 1, 2012

Forceatowulf said:
I couldn't resist the temptation of this and went for it anyways. After about 11 resets and yelling at my TV or an hour I got it done.

Elemental materia + Fire materia + Sadness status + BIO = fucking his shit up proper.

And have mercy jesus is Beta ridiculous. I was already wrecking goups with Matra Magic before this. MP consumption is a bitch though.

Beta, Trine, and Aquabreath are the strongest elemental spells for their cost in the game. Trine especially, since the cost is seriously WTF low compared to how much damage it can do.

Also, you're a braver man than me to try to get Beta that early.

Forceatowulf · Jun 1, 2012

Professor Beef said:
Beta, Trine, and Aquabreath are the strongest elemental spells for their cost in the game. Trine especially, since the cost is seriously WTF low compared to how much damage it can do.

Also, you're a braver man than me to try to get Beta that early.

I actually don't mind facing annoying enemies like this because the battle system in this game is so much fun.

I've only logged about 17 hours so far and of all the FF's I've played this is quickly becoming one of my favorite combat systems.

Dark Schala · Jun 1, 2012

TheSeks said:
Finished FFXIII. Got the platinum. Worth it? Well, no, not really. But damn it, I wanted it.

Congrats, though you make it sound like it broke you somewhat. :lol

They make a lot of improvements to the system in FFXIII-2 like change leader, eliminating that effing stupid stupid camera pan and extra animation for the first Optima Change, etc., but it's much easier than FFXIII. You'll see what I mean if you pursue the FFXIII-2 platinum. I did a No Monster Use playthrough on my first playthrough without grinding and the game was still laughably easy. I think that's a consequence of having platinumed FFXIII, though, since you're used to much harder difficulty from the Guis, Vercingetorix, and Attacus. :/

Professor Beef said:
Also, you're a braver man than me to try to get Beta that early.

TheSeks · Jun 1, 2012

Dark Schala said:
Congrats, though you make it sound like it broke you somewhat. :lol

They make a lot of improvements to the system in FFXIII-2 like change leader, eliminating that effing stupid stupid camera pan and extra animation for the first Optima Change, etc., but it's much easier than FFXIII. You'll see what I mean if you pursue the FFXIII-2 platinum. I did a No Monster Use playthrough on my first playthrough without grinding and the game was still laughably easy. I think that's a consequence of having platinumed FFXIII, though, since you're used to much harder difficulty from the Guis, Vercingetorix, and Attacus. :/

Camera pan isn't the issue. The issue is that they stop what they're doing to make their little animation to show they switched. Like Lightning will "twirl" her sword over her head before bringing it back to the ground to show she's shifted. It screws with your attack momentum at times and has screwed my RIS's up a bit on hunts.

That said, getting the stage 10 Crystarium means you can blow through the missions with a proper set-up. The missions in a circle that changes the turtles are a long trek but you can blow through them and five star them in like 2 mins tops.

Only mission besides the Cactar one (which is a little luck based due to the stupid attack that dispels and you don't want to heal in this if you want the five star) was the last mission giving me huge trouble. I died like 45 times there and had about 35-50 attempts before nailing the shifts and counting the buffs/wings the final undying had to debuff and neutralize it's ability to out-damage me. After that, it was a matter of just grinding CP on turtles to max the crystarium out.

Still, the "tube" that FFXIII is in for about 40 hours before opening up a bit is terrible and is enough to get me to never replay it. Similar thing with FFX but FFX at least has some ability to backtrack if you so choose so it's "tube" isn't "hold-forward: the movie: the game."

Professor Beef · Jun 1, 2012

Dark Schala said:

"Oh no!"

Dark Schala · Jun 1, 2012

TheSeks said:
Camera pan isn't the issue. The issue is that they stop what they're doing to make their little animation to show they switched. Like Lightning will "twirl" her sword over her head before bringing it back to the ground to show she's shifted. It screws with your attack momentum at times and has screwed my RIS's up a bit on hunts.

Only mission besides the Cactar one (which is a little luck based due to the stupid attack that dispels and you don't want to heal in this if you want the five star) was the last mission giving me huge trouble. I died like 45 times there and had about 35-50 attempts before nailing the shifts and counting the buffs/wings the final undying had to debuff and neutralize it's ability to out-damage me. After that, it was a matter of just grinding CP on turtles to max the crystarium out.

Well, yes, the animations really detract from making the battle flow well, but the camera pans are bothersome whenever you're looking at the enemy for its animations and then it suddenly switches to something you don't want it to switch to, which is stupid. My favourite is when an enemy uses an attack to knock down your party, and then your party members do these dumb animations which take so long to get over with. Like, Vanille falls down, turns around, poses with her fishing rod or whatever, and then she animates back into her fight position. And no one ever saw anything wrong with that messing up flow and momentum in battles where speed is of the utmost importance? Ugh.

I guess you ended up using RIC for the Gigantuar? That's what I did. Those are much easier in FFXIII-2. Well... Everything is much easier in FFXIII-2. The Gui in FFXIII-2 is an absolute joke compared to the FFXIII version since it only has 25% of the FFXIII Gui's stats. It's really disappointing, and I wish they had at least given us a downloadable hard mode.

Professor Beef said:
"Oh no!"

I usually try to get Beta right after getting to the Chocobo Farm.

You know, I have the PC version of FFVII. I should give that a whirl since I can easily capture stuff from it, but I've committed myself to MQ and FFIV for now.

Entropia · Jun 1, 2012

Onto Disc 3 in FFVII which is basically just the final dungeon.

I've never did the Chocobo breeding stuff, so I've never seen the Knights of the Round summon. I might give that a shot.

Lumpy Onion · Jun 1, 2012

Been playing quite a bit of FF this summer. Rotating between replays of VII, VIII, IX, X, and XIII-2. I have been through them (except XIII-2) countless times, but they keep me coming back for more.

Currently playing VII and just reached the Cave of Gi. I just picked up the "added effect" materia and combined it with "Transform". lol at turning enemies into frogs with a single hit. Even those huge spiders. I realized after all these years I never really experimented with a lot of the materia combinations, such as ones involving the various blue materia. I think making interesting combinations of materia for my characters is gonna be more fun than just trying to get the max dmg output.

One thing I am realizing about this replay of VII is that I am really being picky about how I set up my characters materia. I am kind of imagining the characters fitting into classic FF jobs. Such as Cloud is my Paladin, Red XIII is my thief/time mage, Aeris is my White Mage, etc. So that means not everyone will be able to equip every kind of materia. It means I have to spend more time planning, but it just feels neater that way. In the past I would just toss whatever materia on anyone and not really give it much concern. I also am forcing myself to rotate out my party members for each new dungeon or area. Because in the past I always end up concentrating on a couple of main characters and end up with a lopsided grouping of Limit breaks by the end. I feel like I always neglect Cait Cith and Cid completely...which is rather sad.

CorvoSol · Jun 1, 2012

Just beat Caius for the first time in XIII-2! Yeah, sucks to your ridiculous regen buff, ya chump!

In other news, Lightning and Amodar continue to beat Serah and Noel up for their lunch money.

Oh, and the plot to this game is babies. Seriously. I got to 300 AF and suddenly Noel is talking about flans causing the end of the world without having set that up at all and then suddenly Snow knows all about everything because magic Lightning dreams (Yeah Snow, we all know what kind of dreams you have about Lightning.) This whole plot is babies. When Serah got all excited to find out that the flan was a paradox, I could not help but laugh.

Oh well, at least Caius is an entertaining villain. Unlike Yeul. UGH YEUL LEARN TO WALK.

Lumpy Onion · Jun 1, 2012

I forgot how addictive FF VII is. Especially when you are playing as slowly as you can trying to explore every nook and cranny (except for that irritating fort condor mini game lol). Found some things I have never seen before too...

-Was shocked in Corel Prison when I walked into the cab of the shinra truck. It acts as a free in. Don't care too much about the inn, but seeing a new pre rendered background is awesome. I found this by turning on the red exit identifiers which I usually have off.

-Found an enemy outside Gongaga village called Flower Prong. Huh? It starts as a little bud, and transforms twice into a massive plant monster. Nothing special or hard, but I cannot for the life of me recall ever seeing this enemy before.

-When you first get the buggy you can actually drive it into Costa del Sol, and then ride the boat back to Junon and the eastern continent. You can then ride the buggy over a small river in the eastern continent which takes you to a strange man in a cave who gives you various stats about how you are playing. I had been to the cave before, but had no idea I could do it this early in the game.

The Praiseworthy · Jun 1, 2012

GrumpyAlien said:
I forgot how addictive FF VII is. Especially when you are playing as slowly as you can trying to explore every nook and cranny (except for that irritating fort condor mini game lol). Found some things I have never seen before too...

-Was shocked in Corel Prison when I walked into the cab of the shinra truck. It acts as a free in. Don't care too much about the inn, but seeing a new pre rendered background is awesome. I found this by turning on the red exit identifiers which I usually have off.

-Found an enemy outside Gongaga village called Flower Prong. Huh? It starts as a little bud, and transforms twice into a massive plant monster. Nothing special or hard, but I cannot for the life of me recall ever seeing this enemy before.

-When you first get the buggy you can actually drive it into Costa del Sol, and then ride the boat back to Junon and the eastern continent. You can then ride the buggy over a small river in the eastern continent which takes you to a strange man in a cave who gives you various stats about how you are playing. I had been to the cave before, but had no idea I could do it this early in the game.

Man... see? FFVII is such an epic game <3

Can't wait for another playthrough in the summer

Jucksalbe · Jun 1, 2012

GrumpyAlien said:
-When you first get the buggy you can actually drive it into Costa del Sol, and then ride the boat back to Junon and the eastern continent. You can then ride the buggy over a small river in the eastern continent which takes you to a strange man in a cave who gives you various stats about how you are playing. I had been to the cave before, but had no idea I could do it this early in the game.

Isn't this the only way to get Aerith's level 4 Limit Break early enough to still make sense?

Heropon · Jun 1, 2012

Galbadia wants to wipe out Trabia and Balamb gardens, and has already launched some missiles to the former. The group splits, Selphie's group will try to stop them and Squall has to warn the people in his garden.

Squall's group uses a free ride to go to their destination.

Mission: Blow up the base!

The party manages to fool the soldiers and get some Full-Life magics.

At last, I get bored and start beating up some soldiers.

The soldiers are defeated and it's time to destroy the base... with the self-destruct button.

The countdown begins, and after some works with the missile configuration, the group manages to lower their accuracy.

Before the base can be blown up, the missiles are launched. Is it too late?

It's boss time. This machine has a laser attack that does some major damage at this point. I suppose that's the reason one can draw some Shell magics.

Its parts blow up when enough damage has been done. Seeing the counter, it seems I spent too much time drawing magics.

The soldiers inside the vehicle get out when it's destroyed, but they're doomed too.

Selphie, Zell and Irvine are trapped and the base goes BOOOM! I won't try to predict their deaths, we all know what happened with Squall.

Entropia · Jun 1, 2012

I can't say I was much of a fan of the Prison section of FF8. In fact, after the end of the first disc I felt that the game took an odd turn.

Heropon · Jun 1, 2012

The other group encounters some internal fights in the garden.

These suspicious men use their monsters on me. Luckily, they're only weaklings.

Our favourite seeds go saving people in all the parts of the garden.

Finally, the group finds Shu, that is running to the elevator.

Thanks to her, they discover where Cid has been all this time. Now that he knows about the missiles, the group's new mission is to go to a secret zone in the garden to see if there is a defensive mechanism in there.

This place has some doors and valves. Squall is strong, but not enough to do that alone.

Rinoa and Squall manage to open it together. This place have the famous monster that gives cursed spikes, let's steal some for later.

Another ladder? Yes, Squall. Thanks to another heroic act, Squall reaches a room with another switch.

Just when they are going to reach the room with the defensive device, a pair of monsters appear. They have oil attacks that can be pretty bothersome. Some limits later, they're defeated.

Squall and the others activate the device and the garden transforms into a flying fortress.

Thanks to having Rinoa in the group, I can see an extra cutscene. Unfortunately, the garden is out of control and ends in the sea.

Rinoa wants to do a tour around the garden, but Squall isn't too interested.

But it ends suddenly, Squall has to see the mysterious [Garden Master]. He's some kind of furious rich monster.

Shocking revelation: Edea and Cid are wife and husband! After that, boss battle! We can steal some stat raising items. It seems that he does a powerful attack when the lights are red too much time, but I've never allowed that as the characters attacks them just when they change to yellow.

If the central part is too damaged, it opens and reveals NORG. He has the important G.F. Leviathan as something to draw.

He's defeated and we get a new and shiny G.F.

Just when I think nothing more can happen, a mysterious ship appears. They want Ellone (the little girl with Laguna), has she been in the garden all this time?

Another truth is revealed, she was the mysterious woman from before.She is the person that was inducing the Laguna hallucinations. Goodbye, Ellone, don't get yourself in danger!

led4lyfe · Jun 1, 2012

The Praiseworthy said:
Man... see? FFVII is such an epic game <3

Can't wait for another playthrough in the summer

I would've enjoyed ff7 earlier in life a whole lot more if I didn't bind myself to gamefaqs/brandygames guide as a youth in fear of missing out on something.. That's a problem I have, where I feel in the need to 100% the game on every play through. The FFV Fiesta really help me being able to overcome that, where just beating the game gives me a lot of satisfaction.

Heropon · Jun 1, 2012

After some dreams, pesky Rinoa appears again. She has a serious case of bad taste.

Soon after, the garden crashes into a town called Fisherman's Horizon (F.H.) Let's make friends.

The mayor doesn't want the bloodthirsty seeds in his town and is very unfriendly. Luckily, not everything is worthless in this house, as we can draw Ultima from this place once.

Just when we thought Galbadia's military wasn't going to interfere more, it appears. Although this town is full of pacifists, they upgrade weapons. Thanks to this new weapon, Squall can do a new Skill after his Renzokuken.

Quistis learns some more Blue Magic and it's time to confront those soldiers.

After defeating the three soldiers, the vehicle that attacked Selphie and the others appears again. The fight goes well and its attacks can't kill anybody thanks to high HP.

Squall uses his new Fated Circle skill and the machine is destroyed.

Selphie and the others are alive and Squall is promoted. Everything goes perfect.

The group organizes a concert for Squall, and Rinoa "dates" him.

The next morning, Squall can command the garden's route giving orders to the driver Nida.

We go for some Ultimas in the Shumi village (North continent) for 5000 gil the draw. Having so much money to spend, this is a good investment. Quistis was saying something of going to Balamb, as the galbadian soldiers could be there. It seems the enemy knows about flying gardens too.

This town is sieged but the group tricks the soldiers into thinking that they have information about Ellone. As if the enemies were some kind of bureaucrats, the group has to find the captain to meet the commandant...

The mysterious captain has fished something and has cooked it in Zell's house.

And thanks to their investigations, the group discovers that the captain is Raijin.

Raijin isn't much friendly and a battle begins, let's rock! He has an ATK raising item to steal from him. As his name could tell (Raijin is some thunder God) he absorbs the thunder element.

As one could imagine when Raijin was revealed as the captain, Raijin is the commandant. She absorbs wind damage and has the G.F. Pandemona to draw. The battle is really easy (as all the boss battles for now).

Raijin has more ATK increasing items to get. Zell kicks Fujin's face and the battle ends.

G.F. got and enemies dispatched! They explain why they were with Galbadia, but the reason they give is pretty stupid.

Before ending the post, I'm going to get rid of one of the most infamous parts of the game. Selphie suggests going to her former garden, and as it could be suspected it's practically destroyed.

Warning: Orphanage scene! ►►

Summary: Except Rinoa, everyone was an orphan in the same orphanage, but nobody remembers thanks to the Guardian Forces (besides Irvine who didn't want to tell), and Edea was the owner. Everyone loved her but blah, blah, blah, and now she's their enemy. Pretty interesting. And with that thing this post ends.

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