(Shao)Long Gui is stupid. It is making me think the rest of the game is stupid, too. I've obliterated every thing in this game, and now I'm suppose to fight/farm this thing which can apparently act whenever it wants. Throwing in a random/luck based fight after all the nifty battles/missions is just lazy.
Despite having heavy magic resist, Ultima can apparently kill Lightning (20,000hp) and Snow (30,000 hp) outright. Fang, with no magic resist, takes 4k. The fuck? Bay should basically be called "derp, restart"since gearing it against it doesn't seem to matter either.
(Shao)Long Gui is stupid. It is making me think the rest of the game is stupid, too. I've obliterated every thing in this game, and now I'm suppose to fight/farm this thing which can apparently act whenever it wants. Throwing in a random/luck based fight after all the nifty battles/missions is just lazy.
Despite having heavy magic resist, Ultima can apparently kill Lightning (20,000hp) and Snow (30,000 hp) outright. Fang, with no magic resist, takes 4k. The fuck? Bay should basically be called "derp, restart"since gearing it against it doesn't seem to matter either.
Are you using Sentinels (ex: the Tortoise formation) at all? Are you using Daze against the smaller ones? Are you using Sab at all in any of your Optimae? I agree, its attack pattern is very random, but... I... kinda thought grinding Shaolong Guis was way more fun than grinding 'toises because of that.
Here's a link to a post where I write what I do. It's halfway through the post. I found Long Guis easier to farm from in the end since they dropped Dark Matters and Gold Nuggets more often than Ingots/Traps.
Aeana : Part 1, 2, 3, 4 CorvoSol : Part 1, 2, 3 Entropia : Part 1, 2 FGMPRPSX: Part 1 FrontalMonk : Part 1 HeroponSNES: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 Jedeye Sniv : Part 1, 2 Natetan : Part 1, 2, 3 Nocturnowl : Part 1 OurobolusGBA: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Rei_Toei : Part 1, 2, 3 Scythian EmpireGBA: Part 1, 2 VamphuntrPSX: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Final Fantasy VII
Aeana : Part 1 Boogiepop : Part 1, 2, 3, 4 Entropia : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Forceatowolf : Part 1, 2 Gravijah : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 GrumpyAlien : Part 1, 2, 3 Heropon : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 Kagari : Part 1 led4lyfe : Part 1, 2, 3 Lindsay : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, Bonus Ourobolous : Part 1 StuBurns : Part 1 TxdoHawk : Part 1
Final Fantasy VIII
APZonerunner : Part 1 Boogiepop : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Chacranajxy : Part 1, 2 chris-013 : Part 1 Entropia : Part 1, 2 Heropon : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 SFGamer : Part 1 TranceKuja : Part 1, 2 Wildesy : Part 1 xist : Part 1
Final Fantasy IX
Billychu : Part 1, 2, 3 Boogiepop : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 DarkKyo : Part 1 Entropia : Part 1, 2 Lactose_Intolerant : Part 1 pikablu : Part 1, 2 Professor Beef : Part 1 TranceKuja : Part 1, 2, 3
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. Bonus 3: In the event that any Vita FF game is released, you can take screenshots by pressing the Home and Start button at the same time. This does NOT work for PSP and PSX games on the Vita.
If you find a mistake or something I missed, feel free to contact me.
Bonus 3: In the event that any Vita FF game is released, you can take screenshots by pressing the Home and Start button at the same time. This does NOT work for PSP and PSX games on the Vita.
That emulator probably has an optional screenshot function, since a few games support taking screenshots (at least on the PSP, haven't tried them yet on the Vita). But it's just in line with the overall job they did on that emulator.
By the way, I'm now playing Suikoden for the very first time on the Vita (figured "what the heck, my content is gone anyway..."), this game better be as good as you make it out to be (and it really better be, because I bought every game of the series except 2 over time, and never played any of them). Just compared how it looks on the Vita compared to the PSP...those colors!
Maybe I'll march down there with a party of all Mimics and Quick-Bahamut his ass off, but physical attacks are so out. Busted my chops dying partway through the fight without getting the chance to save after Guardian.
EDIT: NOPE. Fucking bastard can use Almagest 3 times in a row. I'm sorry, but an attack that does 4000 damage should not be something you get to spam. Fuck Enuo, fuck this dungeon, fuck it. I beat FFV, I beat Omega and Shinryu, fuck modern day JRPG programers who think "challenging" means "fucking cheap spam shit."
You get a Force Shield somewhere in the Bonus Dungeon that can absorb Almagest (apparently, it's a Holy-based attack). Also, I forgot that he's got two different forms (this is probably what's getting you since he spams all sorts of nasty crap in his 2nd form). HOWEVER, he loses the dummy targets from his 1st form, so you can actually use Rapid Fire. Finisher helps as well, since he's pretty buffed up in his 2nd form.
Frankly, I used and abused the hell out of everything I knew of in that fight. Big Guard, Hastega, Quick+Dualcast/Jump/Rapid Fire/Mimic/etc., Golem, White Wind, and so on...
The Bonus Dungeon in general was probably the first time I started abusing Quick and having to think outside the box on some of those bosses.
Are you using Sentinels (ex: the Tortoise formation) at all? Are you using Daze against the smaller ones? Are you using Sab at all in any of your Optimae? I agree, its attack pattern is very random, but... I... kinda thought grinding Shaolong Guis was way more fun than grinding 'toises because of that.
Here's a link to a post where I write what I do. It's halfway through the post. I found Long Guis easier to farm from in the end since they dropped Dark Matters and Gold Nuggets more often than Ingots/Traps.
I was, yeah. After raging for a bit, I dropped Snow for Sazh, ditched all the resist equipment, and loaded up on strength. Debuffing just enough for Imperil & Deprotect, and buffing just for enfire/brava. This worked much better for me. I snagged six dark matter in around ten minutes.
It is still aggravating that I couldn't consistently win. I dislike the implementation of Daze a great deal. Any time where a game goes "You can't do anything now" ticks me off.
FF6 - I've been plugging away at this some more, I'm headed towards the secret esper-world gate thingy and fighting bastard enemies that are immune to fire, making much of my arsenal obsolete for this section seeing as most of my weapons are fire based. Ho hum.
I finally started to look at the Esper powers as well and I think I'm getting the hang of it, but maybe someone can clarify? When I have an esper equiped, do the bonus spells level by themselves or do I need to be using the summon power in order to level these powers up? The system seems pretty flexible and I like how it removes the issue of 'dedicated healer' (I especially dislike it when my healer has great attack powers - I'm looking at you, Earthbound!), although it does seem a bit too flexible and could break the game or even worse, lead me down a dead end path if I don't switch them around often enough.
Currently my party is Terra, Sabin (love love love the Blitz system), Cyan and Edgar. Does this seem a good team? I think these are my heaviest hitters, although I get the sense that Gau could be devastating if I put the time in to figure out which of his powers are best. But to me that seems like a lot of busy work trying different attacks. No time for that, I need to find out what happens next!
I didn't really have the time yet to read all your FF4 posts, so I was a little confused at first what that post was all about.
That emulator probably has an optional screenshot function, since a few games support taking screenshots (at least on the PSP, haven't tried them yet on the Vita). But it's just in line with the overall job they did on that emulator.
By the way, I'm now playing Suikoden for the very first time on the Vita (figured "what the heck, my content is gone anyway..."), this game better be as good as you make it out to be (and it really better be, because I bought every game of the series except 2 over time, and never played any of them). Just compared how it looks on the Vita compared to the PSP...those colors!
Edit: Someone did and he answered:
And almost no game has it enabled.
I was just pulling your leg. It was a joke post inspired by another person's tip.
Admittedly, my fondness for the first Suikoden game partially has to do with nostalgia, the encyclopedia, the artbooks/background knowledge, and the novels/manga for the game. I own it several times over. But the game's pacing is pretty good because something keeps happening. Having so many characters didn't really feel daunting. And battles were super-fast. I loved how fast the battles were. Especially compared to the likes of FF or something back then. And I like the story.
Oh, and Suikoden has one of my favourite soundtracks of all time. I love it so much.
For its time, Genso Suikoden was an excellent game and showed off some neat stuff.
If I had to recommend a Suikoden game to anyone, it would naturally be a combination of the first and the second, or just the second game in general. The second game improves on many mechanics, has a more fleshed out story, and offers a lot of what Genso Suikoden I had in combination with the content from Genso Suikoden II. It's a rather packed game.
By contrast, you can probably beat the first Suikoden game in 6-7 hours if you really wanted to. The game, if you play it in-full, is very short compared to the second, and subsequent games.
And regarding the screenshots, that's a darn shame. I'd want him to push for it.
FF6 - I've been plugging away at this some more, I'm headed towards the secret esper-world gate thingy and fighting bastard enemies that are immune to fire, making much of my arsenal obsolete for this section seeing as most of my weapons are fire based. Ho hum.
I finally started to look at the Esper powers as well and I think I'm getting the hang of it, but maybe someone can clarify? When I have an esper equiped, do the bonus spells level by themselves or do I need to be using the summon power in order to level these powers up? The system seems pretty flexible and I like how it removes the issue of 'dedicated healer' (I especially dislike it when my healer has great attack powers - I'm looking at you, Earthbound!), although it does seem a bit too flexible and could break the game or even worse, lead me down a dead end path if I don't switch them around often enough.
Currently my party is Terra, Sabin (love love love the Blitz system), Cyan and Edgar. Does this seem a good team? I think these are my heaviest hitters, although I get the sense that Gau could be devastating if I put the time in to figure out which of his powers are best. But to me that seems like a lot of busy work trying different attacks. No time for that, I need to find out what happens next!
You just need the Esper equipped to learn spells. You don't actually have to use the summon. Just gain AP and you'll learn them eventually.
For reference though, all spells take 100 AP to learn, but some Espers have multipliers on their spells, so you may learn it anywhere from 1x to 20x than normal.
Something to keep in mind though is that if you want stats on a character to increase, you'll need to have the proper Esper on a character when they level up to get the stat bonus.
By themselves, the only stats that increase when you level up are HP/MP. (However, level does factor into a lot of attacks, abilities, and other stuff, so you're not totally gimped if you don't take advantage of using Espers before a level-up.)
You get a Force Shield somewhere in the Bonus Dungeon that can absorb Almagest (apparently, it's a Holy-based attack). Also, I forgot that he's got two different forms (this is probably what's getting you since he spams all sorts of nasty crap in his 2nd form). HOWEVER, he loses the dummy targets from his 1st form, so you can actually use Rapid Fire. Finisher helps as well, since he's pretty buffed up in his 2nd form.
Frankly, I used and abused the hell out of everything I knew of in that fight. Big Guard, Hastega, Quick+Dualcast/Jump/Rapid Fire/Mimic/etc., Golem, White Wind, and so on...
The Bonus Dungeon in general was probably the first time I started abusing Quick and having to think outside the box on some of those bosses.
Sony always does this. With almost every feature it's up to the publisher or developer to decide to use it, which almost always leads to almost noone using it. I have to test my games later on, but the only games I know of that use the screenshot function are Blood Omen and that Mickey Mouse game (PAL version for both).
I'm gonna be starting a FFT playthrough sometime today, but I'm only going to be recording story missions (and the occaisional regular mission if something cool comes up). Schala, Chac and Nocturnowl, you guys are gonna be transferred from the roles I had for you in FF9 to units in FFT. Any particular class ya'll want?
Ah-HA! SUCK IT ENUO YOU ARE MY BIOTCH NOW!!!! Had to make Lenna a Freelancer, had to give Faris Dual-Cast-White and had one or two close calls BUT YOU ARE DEAD!
All that leaves is the Cloister of the Dead, Omega II and Neo Shinryu. I may do all that, but not ATM. Right now I'm gonna end FFV on the happy note that I BEAT ENUO!!!!
Sony always does this. With almost every feature it's up to the publisher or developer to decide to use it, which almost always leads to almost noone using it. I have to test my games later on, but the only games I know of that use the screenshot function are Blood Omen and that Mickey Mouse game (PAL version for both).
I'm purely guessing here, but it's probably a licensing issue for the publishers and for a lot of them, they'd have to go back and re-write contracts/acquire new rights to allow the screenshot function. It probably would not be worth the cost of getting the rights for a lot of the publishers and I doubt Sony wants to potentially cut PS1 classics from the Vita lineup by requiring every title to be screenshot-able.
But it is incredibly frustrating. I would be all over my PS1 Classics with a screenshot function, like chocolate on peanut butter. There's no good reason for the FFs at least to not have the ability, since it's not like SQEX doesn't own all of the rights.
I'm gonna be starting a FFT playthrough sometime today, but I'm only going to be recording story missions (and the occaisional regular mission if something cool comes up). Schala, Chac and Nocturnowl, you guys are gonna be transferred from the roles I had for you in FF9 to units in FFT. Any particular class ya'll want?
I really didn't like FF IX when I first played it 12 years ago. Maybe it was because it was so different (if you started with FF7). Only thing I always really liked about it was the design of the menus, so pretty.
But that was 12 years ago, now it's time for a fresh opinion so I started the game again (on Vita, so no screenshots). I have only played the beginning so far (until you crash in the forest), but damn I love that beginning! Everything about it, the music, the writing, the characters, the comedy. Let's hope that impression will last.
There aren't a lot of super-long animations in GS1, so you don't really have to worry about slowdown often. You can dash on the field if you equip a Holy Rune on someone, btw, if the slow walking speed is bugging you. I'm always hesitant to recommend GS1 to people now because some people I know think it's pretty old in terms of mechanics, and to their credit, they're kind of right. But I like the story of the hero. Out of all the Suikoden protagonists, I feel like he got screwed the most (outside of arguably GS4's).
GS2 has a summon rune, but the summons don't last very long. And the character animations are so much better in that game it's ridiculous. GS1 has good character animations when the situation calls for it though. :3
Sony always does this. With almost every feature it's up to the publisher or developer to decide to use it, which almost always leads to almost noone using it. I have to test my games later on, but the only games I know of that use the screenshot function are Blood Omen and that Mickey Mouse game (PAL version for both).
smh, what is SCEA doing? Nah, what is Sony doing? Make that shit mandatory for every game. It would be so beneficial to LPers and just for taking screens in general quickly and painlessly. Give me a damn break.
Man, what are you going to do about your Vita saves? Going from what you said, some of them sounded complete or really far into a game.
I'm always hesitant to recommend GS1 to people now because some people I know think it's pretty old in terms of mechanics, and to their credit, they're kind of right.
I had no problems with it. I noticed the slow walking speed, but got used to it pretty fast. But so far I spent the most time playing the ridiculously easy shell game.
Forget about them, I guess? I still have them on my PC, if I ever find a solution. But yeah, I completed Gravity Rush, finished the story in Disgaea 3 (so I could do all the post game stuff later on....), finished the single player mode in Everybody's Golf and completed everything in Rayman. Rayman and Gravity Rush are not so bad, I would have to start them over anyway if I wanted to play again. Disgaea bothers me the most. I already finished the story on the PS3 versions and really wanted dive into the post game this time.
But I lost a lot of saves on PS1 and PS2 games before, so I guess I'm used to it anyway. It'll just be a pain to switch accounts in the future. I wanted to buy a bigger memory card sometime in the future anyway, so when I do at least my two main accounts (EU and US) should be easy to switch. Also, Sony, please reduce the price on the 32GB cards, they're way too expensive.
I'll think of something! I actually already have yours and Nocturnowl's classes planned, I just need to think about Chac. He's my homey so I wanna get it right.
Alright, I'm joining this thread with a FFVIII playthrough. I've tried to replay the game a few times over the last decade but I always get sidetracked by the end of the second disc.
I wanted to replay X first (one of my favorite FFs) but I'm waiting for the HD remaster.
Ah-HA! SUCK IT ENUO YOU ARE MY BIOTCH NOW!!!! Had to make Lenna a Freelancer, had to give Faris Dual-Cast-White and had one or two close calls BUT YOU ARE DEAD!
All that leaves is the Cloister of the Dead, Omega II and Neo Shinryu. I may do all that, but not ATM. Right now I'm gonna end FFV on the happy note that I BEAT ENUO!!!!
Oh yes, you can copy that. If I remember right you can choose the file to use as memory card somewhere in the menu, if it doesn't recognize it right away.
Omega's not too bad once you figure out what it's doing. It's really quite similar to the regular Omega, just with some added stuff.
I don't remember much about Neo Shinryu, though it does a crapton of annoying stuff. Depending on how you go about it, it's almost on the same level as Enuo or less. It borders on the same type of BS more or less.
The major annoyance is that he rotates between two different forms, with one being invincible to everything. This results in your stuff being negated half the time. Plus, there's multiple dummy targets, so Meteor and Rapid Fire are useless.
Though he is vulnerable to Old and Slow. And Dragon Lances can help a ton if you can hit him.
Neo Shinryu's status effect vulnerabilities are pointless. You see, Neo Shinryu technically has three parts. Two of them are untargetable. The part you can target doesn't actually do anything but randomly toggle on and off an invincibility mode. The part that actually attacks you can't do anything to. So even if he's slow'd and old'd he'll be just as deadly.
Neo Shinryu's status effect vulnerabilities are pointless. You see, Neo Shinryu technically has three parts. Two of them are untargetable. The part you can target doesn't actually do anything but randomly toggle on and off an invincibility mode. The part that actually attacks you can't do anything to. So even if he's slow'd and old'd he'll be just as deadly.
Old helps since he gets a bit Crit-happy towards the end, and his actual Physical attacks hurt like hell. Slow may be a little bit of moot point, since I think one of the targets counters most crap thrown at him.
This makes me wonder if Status actually persists through a Form Change. Can't find it mentioned in the Algorithm FAQ or anywhere else.
Old helps since he gets a bit Crit-happy towards the end, and his actual Physical attacks hurt like hell. Slow may be a little bit of moot point, since I think one of the targets counters most crap thrown at him.
Type-0: Deuce has officially conquered Milites' armies--and their hearts!--with her adorable little song and dance routine. Like Lacus Clyne's impersonator, her spunky little dance routine has improved Rubrum's troop morale and, er, "roused" their spirits. King and Rem won the battle of Concordia's first city, which included a Western-style Bolivian Army scenario with them facing off with 5 minutes worth of Thunder Dragons. Cater was unhappy that she wasn't invited.
VI: Maybe she couldn't do it in three minutes, but Terra pretty much single-handedly won the Battle of Narshe, marching down the snow-slopes and leaving a trail of burning corpses of man and beast in her wake. Maybe Kefka wasn't scared when, her fingers still smoking, she arrived before him, but he certainly was quick to flee. Oh, and I guess Edgar helped. Bioblaster is a pretty great tool. Locke and Celes were useless, Gau was whatevs and Cyan did his best, but in the end it really was Terra and the twins winning that fight.
IV:TAY: Golbez and Fusoya met the Mysterious Girl for the first time. Golbez was a total BOSS about it and nuked her face in. Fusoya, being the old mop he is, just kinda looked there and pondered how his nephew was the most awesome being his race had ever spawned.
So, Mr. Creator PuPu man, that's GODBEZ 1, your crummy Rydia clones: 0. Suck it, Palom. We all know who the ALMIGHTY BLACK MAGE is. Hoping to finish Golbez' Tale before taking off for the weekend.
Abe’s spells aren’t worth casting and it’s not worth keeping him alive. Leave him dead. Meteo will always be greyed out because he doesn’t have the necessary MP to cast it. Bor-ing. You can imagine how much of a disappointment this was to me when I first played through the game because they dangled the spell right in your face the whole time.
Let’s try to make Batman not a squishy. First by equipping him and levelling him up some.
As you can see, Batman can no longer equip any of this old equipment. He is a completely new character. So let’s introduce him in the proper fashion.
Batman the Paladin comes with a measly cure spell (well, he won’t be using white magic much unless we really need him to do backup). Batman’s White Magic skillset is quite poor. He may as well not have the option at all, but he does, I guess, to demonstrate the altruistic nature of a Paladin.
Batman’s Fight command and sword equipment are unique in that they have the Holy element attached to them (if a holy sword is equipped), and his swords have their own graphic in the menu screen. His Holy elemental swords get tremendous boosts in ATK+ too, so they’re definitely ways to go here.
Comparing his Level 1 Paladin stats to his Level 10 Dark Knight stats shows a little bit of difference. For one, he’s much faster. He also has higher Will, but that’s because he’s a White Magic spellcaster now. And he isn’t as strong as he was when he started out as a Dark Knight. But that obviously changes by the time he levels up some.
Now that I think about it, I’m kicking myself that I didn’t cap a screen from when he was Level 10 to compare, but oh well, that doesn’t matter much now. The point is, Paladin Batman has faster and higher growth than Dark Knight Batman. He can also equip any weapon that isn’t class-specific outside of his Paladin blades.
This is Batman’s Nintendo Power art. He has no pants.
Because Batman thinks this is the greatest achievement ever as this is part of his dying dream, he gets the Transformers theme song as his reward.
In-battle, Batman has a few commands: Fight, White, Cover, and Item. Well, we know what Fight, White, and Item do, so let’s look at Cover, which you may recognize from Final Fantasy III’s Knight skillset.
Cover is both an active and passive command in Final Fantasy IV. It allows Batman to take hits for other party members. You may either select the Cover command manually from the menu in order for Batman to protect any party member of your choosing (and then turn off the Cover whenever you choose) even if they are not in critical condition.
Batman will automatically cover any party member who is in critical.
Batman will stop covering a party member any time he goes into critical. Therefore, you must treat him like your tank and not allow him to be weak in terms of equipped items or defense. He has the power to Auto-Cover himself to death.
Donnie (Yang) decided to adopt this skill and make it better in The After Years (called “Cover-Counter” where he will take a hit for an ally, and then counterattack the enemy; but he won’t automatically take hits for weak members like Batman does).
Batman gains a ton of levels after the first fight, it’s unbelievable. He also learns some useless spells. He won’t be learning Cure 2 until Level 15, iirc.
I have a question about the No Critical Hit bug in the SNES version of Final Fantasy IV because it's something I've started to notice and it bugs me. Batman has not scored a crit in a while.
So.
There are different ways to lose critical hits (permanently) in the SNES version.
1) Equipping a weapon that does not allow you to score a critical hit, and even if you unequip the weapon in the future, the no critical hit status remains on your character. This applies to such weapons as Rydia's whips, the Rune Staff, the Dwarf Axe, Ragnarok, Fuma Shuriken, etc. There are ten weapons.
2) Be in a position where in the next story battle where the character's spot is not taken up by one of the NPC fighters. Thus, if you were in the positions of the characters in the story battles, you may keep your crit. If you weren't, you'll lose it. Iff the party on the right dies, then you may retain your crit.
3) Be dead when you enter a battle.
The last two... you will never ever be able to regain the ability to do a critical strike, no matter what you try.
Dark Knight Cecil, then, is a completely different character from Paladin Cecil. Therefore he has different data. Thus if Cecil has lost his ability for crits when he was a Dark Knight during the Edward v. Tellah battle, when he class changes, he will regain the ability for criticals.
Am I right, or am I misinterpreting this?
Keeping this in mind, the battles that can affect the critical hit would be:
Tellah v. Edward (wrt saving Rydia and Cecil’s criticals)
Troia spoiler:
Golbez v. Tellah (wrt saving Cecil and Yang’s crits
)
Eblan spoiler:
Rubicante v. Edge (but this doesn’t matter because Edge dies)
Final Boss Spoilers:
Zemus v. Golbez & FuSoYa (saving Cecil/Kain/Edge’s crits)
At the moment, Batman is scoring critical hits. We shall see how long that lasts, and if I can prevent it from being lost.
Oh, did I mention that Virus is my favourite spell in the entire game? Love the sound effect (and I’m utterly disappointed that they changed it in other versions and they should be ashamed of it!), love the animation, love the colour, love the fast cast time… I love everything about it.
Batman can no longer instaswoon enemies because they don’t think his Legend sword is sexy enough. You’ve gotta do it the hard way (and if you were me and left the mountain with 0 MP and no healing, you’ve gotta do most of the work with Batman).
What I like to do when I come back to Mysidia is talk to people to see how they’ll react. Because Batman planned this, you know. It’s his dream for redemption.
Everyone in town is utterly surprised about Batman’s class change. Their dialogue isn’t as creative or witty (except for maybe one guy) as before, and it’s boring to read their reactions sometimes because they all basically say the same thing. At least they seemed more creative when they hated Batman.
But Batman doesn’t seem to be a good dialogue writer anyway.
This one is my favourite one because YOU NOBLE LOOKIN’, BRAH.
Batman is now super-sexy and now he has Twilight-like fangirls! Well, he has no pants, so why not!
Yeah, fuck you still, asshole. But seriously, though, if Batman killed my friends, I’d still harbour a grudge even if he had a class change into Sailor Venus.
Yeah, uh… This dialogue exchange doesn’t make enough sense here. In the GBA version, the twins speak of Batman with more reverence, and Slam notes that Batman “passed with flying colours”. Here, it’s quite ambiguous, and the dialogue exchange doesn’t really make reference to them spying on Batman in general.
When I was younger, I took it to mean that they thought it was amazing that he actually became a Paladin.
Final Fantasy IV doesn’t give a flying crap about Child Labour Laws! Batman doesn’t even bat an eye at the thought of a bunch of kids being tasked with spying on him.
But considering Batman was barely in town before they were tasked with spying on him, it can only mean that they’d gotten their mission briefing only a little bit after Mysidia attacked or something? Really, how would 5-year-olds know how to spy on an enemy like that unless they were prepared for their entire lives for this one moment? It makes no sense.
Man, it probably must have been different for those who played FF1-3 in Japan for those games to have started with the Prelude or a legend, and for this game to not have it at the beginning outside of the prologue text scroll. Well, here it is.
I don’t think this legend is super-bad in terms of localization. I don’t like how the DS version went about it at all because it sounded like the localization guy was trying too hard. Look at this:
Final Fantasy IV DS said:
Birthed from womb of dragon's maw
And borne unto the stars
By light and darkness cast aloft
Are dreamtide oaths resworn
Moon is swathed in ever-light
Ne'er again to know eclipse
Earth, with hallowed bounty reconciled
And I’m not even going touch the last parts of that. Good lord, how could all those words fit on that sword, anyway? D:
Well, it’s poetry. But it isn’t supposed to be Shakespeare. Poetry, at its root, is all about describing things in terms of metaphors and creating illusions for the reader to think about. Poetry is all about quality or how well you can use a thesaurus. It’s all about what you do with your vocab or what you know in order to create a picture for the reader in terms of escapism and provoking thought.
I can see the translator grinning as he wrote that DS translation, but it looks like it tries way too fucking hard to look like it means something when it looks completely meaningless upon a first read because the guy was like, “Poetry, fuck yeah! Imma make this so damn poetic and filled with complexity.” It’s especially jarring because no one speaks that way in the game. It would fit in something like the PSP version of FFT or a Matsuno-esque sort of thing with additional dressing because the characters were complex, and the plot was more thought-out, but certainly not here in Final Fantasy IV.
Somehow the SNES/PSX/GBA translations of the legend were good in terms of poetic structure, evoking thought, and painting a picture for the reader. It goes for a honest and direct approach that ends up being poetic. Sometimes, there is more beauty in simplicity than there is in complexity and glitter. The SNES/PSX/GBA translations complement the rest of the scripts in those games in terms of bluntness and directness.
The GBA version takes the PSX version’s translation and changes it a bit, I believe. And it doesn’t unnecessarily flower up the language like that.
I already know that people disagree with my position, and that’s fine. But that’s how I feel about this entire thing. I dunno, after years of studying linguistics, I feel like simplicity and directness in communication is an asset when taking a broad audience into consideration. Any attempt to make things pretty, vague, or complex just seems entirely silly for discourse with that audience in mind.
And yes, (very late game spoilers for those who haven’t played FF4)
I am deeply aware that the Mysidian continent is supposed to look like a dragon and the Big Whale comes from the area around its ‘mouth’
.
Enough ranting, and I’m moving on from this issue entirely.
It’s either your father or a higher being, you fool.
So it’s really called the Hall of Wishes? All they do is put candles on a birthday cake and wish for a happy day or something?
It’s almost like Batman went through a blingee transformation here. Light, dazzling, sparklies… he’s a vampire, isn’t he.
Oh, you’re still here? And he’s making this about him yet again. Drama queen.
And I guess they wanted to write, "we met him on the mountain", but changed it. They left the article in there anyway, and didn't bother to conjugate the verb.
Yeah, and he can’t use it. Sooooooooooooo powerful, amirite.
No one cares. If anything, I think Bolton should be the one to have an ‘avenging Anna’ arc because it would add depth to his character somewhat, but Bolton’s dead, so…
Is Meteo a bad thing in general, or something? Like in Final Fantasy VII? Oh, ah, haha, I think you guys know that Meteo is supposed to be Meteor, right?
I suppose this means that Abe was always like this. He must’ve beat up the Elder lots of times when they were kids. The Elder and Abe must have been like Slam and Jam, only the Elder was Jam and Abe was Slam.
Proofreading, what is that?
Because prayer is not allowed! I shall commission the bakery to churn out 1000 birthday cakes to put candles on and we will begin the process of blowing them out!
Please let them come with me because Abe is a horrible party member. They’ll be good. It’s not like they’ll get drunk or stoned or anything.
He seems very surprised that the twins came back alive from Mt. Ordeals, so maybe it’s true that no one ever comes back from there if they go.
So he expected them to die? Does he hate them?!
Batman, don’t be stupid. Abe sucks, and these kids are all you have.
And thus the Elder goes upstairs to wish for things to be sugar and rainbows. Let’s visit him!
Oh my gosh, the pains they went through to never say “pray” in this game except for one time. They even omitted Beer’s “pray” command in this one because… it would be offensive? Who cares about this kind of shit?
Time to go. I hope this shit isn’t a dumbass teleportation dungeon.
I totally agree with the Mysidian Legend in the DS version being unreadable. Especially since changing the line from "One born from a dragon" to "birthed from dragon's maw" makes Zemus' taunt toward Theodor about "One birthed of womb of dragon's corpse" less meaningful. Heck, even Golbez' name is a play off that "born of a dragon's corpse" bit if I remember. But the maw is meh, and "dreamtide oaths resworn" boggles my brains.
The worst part is that the Legend isn't much of a legend, since it's only been around since Cecil's dad came to the Blue Planet.
I totally agree with the Mysidian Legend in the DS version being unreadable. Especially since changing the line from "One born from a dragon" to "birthed from dragon's maw" makes Zemus' taunt toward Theodor about "One birthed of womb of dragon's corpse" less meaningful. Heck, even Golbez' name is a play off that "born of a dragon's corpse" bit if I remember. But the maw is meh, and "dreamtide oaths resworn" boggles my brains.
The worst part is that the Legend isn't much of a legend, since it's only been around since Cecil's dad came to the Blue Planet.
I play, not surprisingly, the PC port of FFVII since the last few days.
This port is a shame, not to say an insult. Glorious 240p 2D arts and low poly glowing not textured 3D characters on my 1650x1080 PC screen. Meh, I play it nevertheless, what you see is not what you get: the game is still the 2nd best of all time.
The new achievements/trophies whatever are useless and meaningless. A smarter move will be to correct some of the game missing things: Achievements to follow what turtle's paradise notice you got, for example.
However, I think it havn't taking age very well since my last run, 4 years ago on psp.
What is amazing this year, is that the whole scenario of the game took a new serious, obvious level: Saving the planet, building reactors, Earth weapons... Now you can talk about ShinraTepco, Gongagashima and tsunamis weapons. I'm sorry if the reference is shocking for J-GAF, but my final point is, I now see clear concrete arguments of why this game deserve a remake.
By the way, did I mention that Batman’s Black sword has a chance of instakill instaswoon? Those enemies are swooning over Batman’s ability to strike at things with accuracy. It’s hot.
Alright, FF8. Some observations, as I've played the game four hours up to Timber.
First off, it's held up remarkably well, far better than FF7. The FMVs are very attractive, the pre-rendered backgrounds are detailed and the music is smashing, even better than I remembered.
It's also hard not to admire the relative subtlety of the dialogue, at least compared to FFXIII (and most recent JRPGs). Characters are reasonably grounded and there hasn't been a single scene that's made me cringe yet.
Battles haven't given me any problem so far, as I've spent some time junctioning 100 water spells to strength. You could call it taking advantage of the system but it's better than casting GF after GF.
Especially since changing the line from "One born from a dragon" to "birthed from dragon's maw" makes Zemus' taunt toward Theodor about "One birthed of womb of dragon's corpse" less meaningful. Heck, even Golbez' name is a play off that "born of a dragon's corpse" bit if I remember.
This is fantastic. Batman has men, women, and even monsters falling over him because he's the Sailor Soldier of Love, Hope, Beauty, and Justice. Shit, I knew I should've named Cecil "Minako" or "Usagi" or something like that.
The joke writes itself. And I wanna replay PSSM: Another Story now.
I managed to make some slight progress in FFT. Before I display how far I've gotten, I just wanna say that the slowdown-removal patch and the screenshot utility for CFW are godsends. Now, to the action!
...Or lack thereof, as you will see.
Nothing like prayer right off the bat to get a game moving. They pull a Tarantino with the start of the game, and show you the events leading up to this scene. But before that happens, you get thrust into the first of two tutorial fights.
Ah, here I am. And I look quite handsome, to boot.
The first fight is of very little importance (I also forgot to take screenshots :x). It's hard to get killed unless you're deliberately trying, and you have no risk of characters passing away since they all get knocked out instead of how death normally works in FFT. Anyways, once the fight is finished, you get to see a cutscene of Beef's old friend from the military academy running away with the Princess. Cue flashback, which also leads into the first chapter:
The second tutorial fight takes place in the outskirts of the castle town. A band of thieves is trying to run away, and it's our job as new recruits to track 'em and kill 'em.
I have no idea why they decided to give the lead thief a cockney accent, but before he can say anything more, I lead my team of shitty recruits to victory. This also makes me start longing for when I am able to start hiring people myself so I can start adding actual good party members to my roster. The Band of Scrubs will have to do for now, though.
The drop rate for ingots seemed much worse than it did when I was leveling up before. Probably just bad RNG luck. I was rather annoyed when the Treasure Hunter trophy didn't pop on the last weapon. I didn't realize you had to go all the way back to the robot first.
Currently playing through IV on the Vita. I was just stumbling around the map for around 30 minutes, I couldn't figure out how to reach the Dark Elf cave!
That dungeon is pretty cool, well, except for having to watch those cave bats cycle through their attacks.
The drop rate for ingots seemed much worse than it did when I was leveling up before. Probably just bad RNG luck. I was rather annoyed when the Treasure Hunter trophy didn't pop on the last weapon. I didn't realize you had to go all the way back to the robot first.
I persevered through sheer stubbornness, if I'm being honest. Had I known how grindy that final trophy was going to be, I don't think I would have bothered. But as I'm sure most discovered, it's pretty hard to cast away all those hours, especially when the Platinum is ( or at least appears to be) so close.
In the previous post, I mentioned flashbacks and tutorial fights. This time, there's still more flashbacks, but now the game knows that you're on your own so there's very little hand-holding as you play. One of the first things I did was start buying party members. I originally thought that you had to progress through the game first in order to buy them, but in actuality you can buy people right off the bat. It's just not advised to do so since soldiers are so expensive. The money is well worth it, though.
No Lars, I don't like you and your Bravery/Faith stats stink. Now give me all your clothing so I can sell them, and GET OUT.
Ah, much better. Dark Schala is standing to the left, but apparently I forgot to take the picture. Sorry! Speaking of Bravery/Faith, I managed to get Nocturnowl and Schala's stats high because I kept entering/exiting the soldier shop. Their default B/F stats can be as high as 70 or as low as 40, so there's really no excuse to keep rejecting people until you get the right numbers. And the numbers are very important once the good jobs start opening up. High Bravery affects a handful of weapon attacks, and almost all Reaction Commands and is essentially a percentage of when it will activate. Someone with 90 Brave and Auto-Potion, for example, will activate Auto-Potion 90% of the time they get hit by an attack. The only time you want a low Brave count is when you are using someone with the Treasure Hunter ability, since the percentage gets reversed. If that 90 Brave soldier steps onto a tile with treasure, they will have a 10% chance of finding a rare item.
I made sure to keep their Faith at reasonable levels too. Faith affects the strength and accuracy of all magical attacks, but for both the target and the caster. The higher the number, the stronger the attack/more damage the target takes. If the target has next to no Faith, then they will take next to no damage. If one of your units has too high a Faith number, however, then they will be in danger of permanently leaving your party. The same thing happens if their Brave count is too low. If their Brave drops below 10 in battle, then they literally turn into a chicken and run away from the closest enemy until their Brave count raises above 10 (which does so by one point each turn). A good number for low Brave (for Treasure Hunter) and high Faith (for general magical damage/accuracy) is 11 Brave, and 88 Faith.
Now, back to the story.
As soon as we leave the castle from the previous update, we're hit with a flashback of the passing of Beef's father.
I don't really have an excuse for being late. >_> I do eventually show up, and Pop asks me to come talk to him.
I found it a bit odd that he says I should "tolerate no injustice," and almost immediately says "your pal is a dirty commoner, but he's got a good heart so he'll make a fine servant."
Pop later passes on, and the flashback ends. This also allows us to leave the castle and head to our next destination, which is another story battle!
This squire-looking fellow is about to be killed by a bunch of bums, and you're given a choice to either kill everybody, or keep what's-his-face alive. Since I'm such a noble guy (and since I forgot that choosing to kill them all gives everyone in the party +2 permanent Bravery points), I decide to try and keep him alive.
You go, Beef! (Not pictured: the squire getting killed by a critical hit before I could get a turn, resulting in a GAME OVER.) Once the battle is done, we decide to interrogate him and find out why he was in that spot to begin with.
He certainly has a lofty image of himself. Luckily, Delita isn't as tactful as I am.
I may be a nice guy and come from the 1%, but even I don't feel comfortable constantly referring to Delita as my trusted friend. Apparently Argath knows of my family (the power of social media!) and begs for our help.
Argath's boss, the Marquis of Elmdore, has been taken hostage. And he apparently thought going out by himself was the best course of action. No wonder he's not a knight yet. Delita, being the stand-up guy that he is, decides to comfort Argath.
I bet that lack of tact is common among the lower-class. While we speak in a well-educated manner, they tend to use low-brow expressions like "oh yeah?" and "c'mere a minute."
We decide to let Argath tag-along, and we head to our next destination. Next update: Eagrose Castle and beyond.
I'm so bad at FFT and it's what is essentially its similar alternative Tactics Ogre, I felt so weak in both games and I barely progressed in either, I just don't "get" them, i'm sure my named unit will have more success in Beef's hands than my own.
Oh and i'd forgotten how terribly hilarious that Trips and Vince scene was, damn it Beef!
