Heropon said:

I tried a scort mission and the thieves killed him in the second turn. Any tips? I didn't know only chemists could throw potions and at this point white magic isn't an option... I have like a million squires and I don't know what should I do. Should I recruit people?

Click to expand...

If it's the mission with Argath (the dude with blond hair), then you can choose the option to kill everyone, and the mission objective will change to reflect that. If you choose to protect him, then the mission becomes "keep Argath alive."

You shouldn't recruit people out of the blue, especially if it's your first time through. Since it's your first time playing, try and only concentrate on leveling Ramza and 4 other units. Do some random battles once you get the chance and concentrate on leveling up your team until they can learn "JP Boost," since that'll make it easier to learn things for other classes. All the classes are good in the beginning, but you definitely want a dedicated Chemist, and possibly a mage. Whichever one of your units has the highest Faith, make that person a mage of some kind. Knights are ok in the beginning, but you don't start getting serviceable equipment for them until about more than halfway into the 1st Chapter.

SUPER FINAL STATS UPDATE 64 II: TURBO ANNIVERSARY EDITION THE OFFICIAL POST OF THE GAME:

Final Fantasy Type-0:
(Magic is 4 stats, I'll just provide the range per character.)(All Characters level 99)
Ace: HP 1276/MP719, ATK235, DEF70 MAG154-165.
Deuce:HP1117/MP1117,ATK222,DEF66,MAG175-200.
Trey:HP1356/MP1142,ATK255,DEF80,MAG133-148.
Cater:HP1360/MP768,ATK228,DEF72,MAG126-133.
Cinque:HP1952/MP620,ATK255,DEF139,MAG117-136.
Sice:HP1655/MP775,ATK235,DEF84,MAG126-138.
Lightning Seven:HP1615/MP731,ATK239,DEF117,MAG217-239.
Eight:HP1864/MP548,ATK250,DEF85,MAG123-130.
Nine:HP2934/MP487,ATK246,DEF90,MAG110-125.
Jack:HP3377/MP1152,ATK255,DEF21,MAG109-128.
Queen:HP1555/MP1248,ATK242,DEF83,MAG146-160.
King:HP2680/MP500,ATK231,DEF62,MAG114-128.
Machina:HP1795/724,ATK253,DEF116,MAG130-134.
Rem:HP1476/MP1401,ATK233,DEF73,MAG164-177.

Final Fantasy VI:
Terra:LV76,HP9999/MP828,STR68,SPD41,STM33,MAG53,ATK510,DEF161,EVA5%, MDF130,MEV7%
Locke:LV59,HP5275/MP687,STR49,SPD49,STM43,MAG31,ATK393,DEF149,EVA55%, MDF89,MEV22%.
Mog:LV46,HP3280/MP581,STR33,SPD38,STM36,MAG45,ATK255,DEF197,EVA30%, MDF147,MEV32%
Edgar:LV54,HP4409/MP660,STR57,SPD36,STM47,MAG37,ATK255,DEF206,EVA14%, MDF134,MEV1%
Sabin:LV60,HP7849/MP696,STR77,SPD44,STM53,MAG32,ATK246,DEF213,EVA32%, MDF166,MEV44%
Shadow:LV56,HP5875/MP669,STR67,SPD44,STM36,MAG53,ATK255,DEF215,EVA68%, MDF148,MEV39%
Cyan:LV53,HP4341/MP636,STR51,SPD30,STM44,MAG32,ATK495,DEF152,EVA56%, MDF87,MEV1%
Gau:LV48,HP3538/MP594,STR75,SPD44,STM39,MAG35,ATK109,DEF186,EVA41%, MDF125,MEV28%
Celes:LV61,HP5534/MP907,STR44,SPD42,STM41,MAG62,ATK255,DEF227,EVA87%, MDF198,MEV99%
Setzer:LV53,HP4361/MP651,STR42,SPD36,STM41,MAG34,ATK252,DEF154,EVA9%, MDF94,MEV1%
Strago:LV62,HP5549/MP999,STR40,SPD26,STM30,MAG66,ATK190,DEF168,EVA26%, MDF124,MEV27%
Relm:Lv59,HP4989/MP702,STR37,SPD61,STM32,MAG63,ATK181,DEF194,EVA33%, MDF154,MEV19%
Gogo:Lv50,HP3715/MP610,STR29,SPD40,STM24,MAG30,ATK238,DEF176,EVA30%, MDF116,MEV16%
Umaro:Lv37,HP2229/MP465,STR62,SPD33,STM46,MAG42,ATK198,DEF217,EVA18%, MDF158,MEV15%

Fun fact: I NEVER USED UMARO.

Professor Beef said:

If it's the mission with Argath (the dude with blond hair), then you can choose the option to kill everyone, and the mission objective will change to reflect that. If you choose to protect him, then the mission becomes "keep Argath alive."

You shouldn't recruit people out of the blue, especially if it's your first time through. Since it's your first time playing, try and only concentrate on leveling Ramza and 4 other units. Do some random battles once you get the chance and concentrate on leveling up your team until they can learn "JP Boost," since that'll make it easier to learn things for other classes. All the classes are good in the beginning, but you definitely want a dedicated Chemist, and possibly a mage. Whichever one of your units has the highest Faith, make that person a mage of some kind. Knights are ok in the beginning, but you don't start getting serviceable equipment for them until about more than halfway into the 1st Chapter.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. Then it seems that I have to approach this game differently to FFTA(2), because I tried to train many people thanks to the laws and I never used items thanks to my lovely Nu Mous.

Heropon said:

Thanks for the advice. Then it seems that I have to approach this game differently to FFTA(2), because I tried to train many people thanks to the laws and I never used items thanks to my lovely Nu Mous.

Click to expand...

Never use the recruiters in the beginning. The game literally fills your roster to capacity on its own.

Previously on Batman’s Dying Dream, Batman met Hojo I and beat him up! Well, no, let’s credit that victory to Tommy because he made fun of Hojo.

Today… instead of chasing after Rubicant and the crystals immediately, Batman’s decided to save the dwarves from the Super Nintendo Cannon which they’re already defending against. The dwarves can save themselves, but Batman likes to play hero.

Tower of Bab-il



To be fair, though, I guess we can’t go to the upper portion of the Tower of Bab-il anyway. Plus the path ahead is a dead end. It’s a shame because there’s treasure in an area we can’t get to.



Donnie has taken this opportunity to go nude. He figured that he can beat up the Super Nintendo Cannon with Karate, and he’s discarding all of his clothes so he can move faster and be more of a Karate.

Let’s go back to that locked door.



Alright, let’s kick some tough monster ass.



Hey, Batman actually had a decent line there. Also, in other versions, the lackeys say something like, “Killing dwarves is fun!” But you can’t exactly say something like that in a 1991 SNES game, can you.

Alright, miniboss time!



Price is Right Losing Horn

Never mind. Hahahahahaha!



Run!

Well, with their dying… movements… the Dark Imps end up blowing up the computer system which manages the conditions of the Super Cannon. Somehow. Oh, and we ended up standing there yet again because Batman sucks at being a hero.

Okay, GAF. There’s a lot of bullshit dialogue here and I feel like it’ll take up a lot of space if I post it all. So I’m not.

.

Man, I’m gonna post a snip of something I posted in the Final Fantasy Community Thread.

Huh? Oh cool, they taught you how to stop computer-operated cannons when you were a traitor to us, eh Donnie? Wait, how does this cannon even work? Where did all of this technology come fr--

Logic? In my Final Fantasy? No. Accept everything at face value!

Get outta here, Batman!



Donnie kicks everyone out of the bathroom cuz he has to take a leak because somehow he learned how reprogram the Super Cannon in the span of a few seconds or something. I don’t know. Logic never ever applies to Final Fantasy.



DONNIE, GET OFF THE TOILET. You’re taking too damn long in there.

(You don’t even want us to tell your wife you love her? Was it against the rules to freaking discuss even love back then?)



Cry in Sorrow

And we lose the power of Karate forever.



Can’t even freaking Exit out of this damn place. We get a massive hole in our party, and it’s incredibly noticeable when you go through more battles as you descend the Tower.

The dwarves are safe (even though I think they could have fought against the Super Nintendo Cannon with Dwarf Tank Power anyway), and Donnie would’ve wanted that. It’s just too bad that the only cool people in the party now are Clair and Tommy.

It’s also too bad that Donnie couldn’t go one-on-one with Golbez. That’s the final battle we want to see, really.



Golbez, Clad in Darkness

Speak of the devil…!



Well, it was a nice dream. What am I talking about? This was a garbage dream. Batman had the worst dying dream ever and I can’t stand playing this ga--…



There’s more of this nonsense?!

This gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmme!

Alright, there’s a ton of dialogue here, and again, I’m not going to show all of it. It honestly goes around in circles and it’s quite repetitive.



Gotta find a way to introduce characters and give a very very very very short reason as to why musical chairs happened in this party makeup.

[

Run!

I think it’s incredibly obvious that Golbez’s Science >>>>> Haddock’s brand of Science.



Haddock has come up with the best plan in the world. Haddock goes around day-in and day-out with a bunch of bombs attached to his body. He does this stuff all the time, I bet. You see, he never ever runs around the airship to look for a bomb before he jumps off.



No one cares about Batman and Beer. I know I stopped caring about them when Batman died. Well, I never cared about Beer, but y’know…



Somehow this explosion manages to close the volcano or hole to the underground. Or something. Guys, this isn’t logical. There aren’t a lot of rock layers or top layers on the mountain that can allow the entire underground opening to cave in. But we have to ask ourselves about the depth of the underground. This is never ever addressed. Nothing is ever addressed.

No, I’m not going to stop thinking about this. This is silly!

And if you go back to Agart now, no one ever says anything. They must be the most oblivious people in the world. A giant explosion occurred and the mountains near their town crumbled on themselves. Somehow. I don’t know.



Huh? Tommy, you should have said that before Haddock killed himself. Before.



This is something I really missed in the DS version. IIRC, the DS version omitted the slapstick humour here. It always made me chuckle when I was little, and to be honest, it made me do that again. Haddock’s two assistants are busy trying to retool the airship, and one’s super-lazy. So Mr. Diligent runs around trying to get his job done, and drags Mr. Lazy along with him. He jumps around and spins in the air whenever he gets mad. It’s cute.



They don’t even give a crap. “Oh, Haddock’s trying to strap bombs to himself again? He’s fine.” They also tell us that we can use the hook to get the hovercraft and fly it wherever we need it. How did Haddock even know we had a hovercraft? Why didn’t he get it himself? Why didn’t he install the hook when he came back to Baron to put the Mystic Silver on the Enterprise?



Batman can’t even summon his Paladin Powers to tell her that her father’s dead. Some Paladin he turned out to be. Batman sucks. He’s a terrible protagonist.



Guys, remember how I said Donnie’s wife was one of the best characters in this game? She’s exhibiting some prescience at the moment. You’ll see why later on. Even she knows that “live for me” is a shitty line.

As for Bolton, well, we all wish he were a better character in this version.



The Airship

When I was little, I thought this animation was completely mindblowing.

Now I’m like, “How the crap is that flimsy little hook holding onto a vehicle like that?” Haddock may be an engineer, but I don’t think he thought of things like physics and engineering in that respect. Especially since we’re flying with this thing attached at a rather decent speed.



This is the permanent home for the Enterprise. We will not be using it again. Well, I don’t usually use it again. What a waste, eh? Went to the surface to put a hook and silver on it and we never use it again.



Zero no Kiseki – Get Over the Barrier!

Cave Eblana is kinda like the Underground Pass in Baron; well, the first part of it, anyway. I like this dungeon because it’s all blue and stuff. As we go through the dungeon, we come across some old friends in the form of palette swaps.

Skulls aren’t hard. Burn them with fire. They do have the ability to inflict your party members with Curse. Curse is a good thing when you use it against an enemy. It is a bad thing when the enemies use it against you. Curse lowers strength and defense stats by 50%. You don’t want that on your squishies if they’re in your front row, and you certainly don’t want it on your physical attackers. Er, it’s not much of a problem in FF4 SNES, though.

Ironbacks are just as useless as their Armadilo counterparts. You can end their lives in one strike. It’s the Golbats you have to worry about because their Vampire spell animations take 200 years to animate so you’ll be sitting there waiting to take your turn. See, see… this is why more games need to play out their battles like Suikoden so you aren’t stuck their waiting for enemies to execute commands because everything is done at the same time.

God, I hate Zubats and Golbats in this game. They suck.



How can you people afford to stay here? Look at this. It’s expensive. I think you’re charging more than the dwarves!



We could buy some weapons here. You know how much I don’t like equipping Beer with arrows in this version, so I’m going to equip her with the Power Staff. Now she’ll be Power Beer. The black robe also gives Clair a bonus to her Wisdom stat so we’ll grab that too.



Please don’t eat each other.

No, you will never be able to help the Eblanians out. Ever. Sorry, mate.



Oddly, the makeshift hospital is the most popular room in this “town”. Everyone’s still injured here, but you have to ask yourselves how long they’ve been here. For all we know, Eblan was terrorized at the beginning of the game, which may have been a week or two ago. Or they could have been attacked shortly before we got the airship (because we came here around the time we had to go to Toroia). We’re not even sure how they even got attacked. No one ever tells us.

So… I’m not sure if the hospital should be crowded like this, but to be fair, it’s not like they have anywhere else to go anyway.

The biggest buzz is about this “prince”. He’s digging a hole to go to the Tower of Bab-il. Um, that doesn’t sound very smart to me, you know. This prince must be an idiot. Also, apparently, everyone in Eblan is a ninja. You know what this means, right? Ninja < Karate. Fabul is still standing and is still populated, and they used Karate. Eblan uses Ninja. Their castle’s abandoned.



D’awww…



I thought that was Golbez’s Love Hospital, not Rubicant’s hideout. These people are mistaken.



Genso Suikoden II – Labyrinth (Penpe 2)

As we go through the dungeon, we come across some downed soldiers who talk about their prince with their last breaths. Their prince left them to die here. He sounds like an amazing guy~

We’re just as amazing so we’re going to leave them to die here too.

This dungeon has a ton of hidden passageways to find treasures. It’s almost like figuring out a puzzle: you see a treasure chest but you have to figure out how you’re going to get it as you go through the dungeon. This means that you have to explore the cave in multiple trips in order to get everything you want (unless you’ve memorized the dungeon after multiple playthroughs). It makes the player reach for a goal instead of saying, “well, I picked the wrong path so let’s go down the other one.”

Not just… make a map, have branching paths where one is the right one and the other one has a treasure down it because they couldn’t be bothered to put effort into decent dungeon design because they were so focused on making the game look extremely pretty no I’m not talking about another game possibly in this very series where dungeons bored me out of my damn mind what are you people talking about



Oh no, I anticipate something dreadful is about to happen. Say, can I get that treasure chest first?



Hey, it’s those two guys that the people in the cave were talking about. How convenient.



I like Rubicant already. Edge is a loser and doesn’t feel the same way.



…if he’s the Fiend of Fire, why the hell would use Flame against him? Are you stupid? What the hell is wrong with you?



Even he thinks you’re an idiot! He thinks you’re so foolish that he teaches you how to use the spell properly, and he decides to kill you because you’re terrible at your job.

I didn’t show it, but Rubicant decided to show his leg while casting Glare on Edge. Why? I have no idea. He must really like his legs. To be fair, they’re awesome legs.

Why do I think Edge is suddenly worse than Edward? At least Edward knows what accountability is. Edge would probably go in gung-ho and get his whole kingdom slaughtered in the process.



Well, he’s dead now. Let’s move on. We can’t do anything to help him. I would prefer not to, personally. And Rubicant is too nice. Now, for that treasure chest.



Why does this game keep doing that? Seriously. Did no one edit this?



No. I think you’re an idiot. You used flame on the Fiend of Fire. Obviously you can’t put two and two together and you’re useless to me. You deserved your butt-beating.



Ninja < Karate. Stop being a little suck and learn from Fabul. And if freaking Batman isn’t cutting you slack, you’re clearly doing your job wrong.



Rydia

What’s your problem? We’re just picking on him. You don’t know how to have fun anymore, Clair. What happened? You used to be cool.



Well, that’s mostly Batman’s fault because he’s useless, a terrible Paladin, a terrible character, and a terrible protagonist.

How did she even know about Abe anyway? She was never attached to him. She never said a single word to him while we were in the Watery Pass.

Is this supposed to be making me feel something? Because I’m clearly not feeling anything. You know what would have been better? If Clair were younger and weren’t aged. If she were younger, I’d be more sympathetic. She’s not seven anymore, and right now she’s coming off as a little… um, unstable. Because we all like our Callers and Black Mages unstable. To be fair to her, though, she suffered PTSD as a child but then she was able to cast Fire and she was okay after that? This scene was probably supposed to make her seem compassionate and fragile or something. I have no idea.

FF4 really didn’t handle Rydia well at all, I’m sorry. I genuinely dislike how they handled her character. She had the potential to be a good character because of her backstory, but they ended up messing it up a little by aging her.



They totally SORAS’d her to act as something for Edge to hit on.



Tommy likes being in charge of the beer.



This is an actual line of dialogue in the game. No, I did not put this in GIMP and mess with the image. I just think it’s hilarious they didn’t go with Cure but went with Cure 2. Because this line of dialogue sounds absurd.

So, uh… do they say “Give me a Cure 2 bottle?” sometimes?



Hey Cid!

Keep it in your pants.

Also, why bother using Cid/Haddock’s theme now anyway? Did Uematsu only get commissioned for just a tiny bit of character themes and figured Edge didn’t deserve one (he doesn’t; don’t get me wrong)? Uematsu probably thought Edge casting Flame on the Fiend of Fire was really lame and thought Cid deserved the theme more.



I-it’s not like I like you or anything, gawwwwwd!

Our new party member is Edge, short for Edward Geraldine. Edge knew that name was stupid and knew it was associated with a crappy prince from another country so he decided to rename himself to something better. It’s just too bad that Edge is kind of an idiot.

So, with all new characters, let’s show off his Nintendo Power artwork and his chibi artwork. They’re not as bad as we think.

Click to expand...

Edge’s stats aren’t actually that bad. He’s a pretty balanced character. He does a few things that I really like in playable characters and that’s: be fast, and dual-wield. It’s just that he can’t excel at everything he can do so what we need to do is go with what he brings to the party in terms of attack commands, but more on that in a minute.

Edge can dual-wield, but unlike Donnie, how much attack power his weapons have make a difference when hitting things. He can’t use shields, and his attacks are generally weaker than Batman and Tommy’s. The problem is that when he’s in the front, his poor defense can be taken advantage of real quick; and when he’s in the back, he’ll do less damage. He can equip ranged weapons like boomerangs but they’ll make his attacks weaker. So… you kinda have to see what you like him as (do you want him to be a thief, do you want him to attack, do you want him to help with magic, etc).

Edge is one of the endgame party members, and he ended up drawing the short straw because he doesn’t excel much at anything. So what can Edge offer in battle?

Fatalize



One of Edge’s attacks is called “Dart”. This is one of the most damaging commands in the game provided you have enough ammo for it. You can select a blade or throwing weapon from your inventory and throw it at a monster for decent damage. We will be able to take advantage of some duplication tricks to increase Edge’s arsenal of weapons to throw though.



Edge can also cast Ninja magic. It’s pretty mediocre compared with Clair’s Black Magic. He’s a better physical attacker, tbh. You only have access to Flame right now, but you’ll get more as the game goes on. This is where Edge kind of sucks in this version compared to the DS version where he seems to get better spells.



Edge has a Sneak command. It’s Steal. It likes to be unsuccessful, and when it’s unsuccessful, Edge takes damage. I’m surprised that I actually stole something here. Speaking of stealing something, let’s talk about the Sneak Glitch!

If you open up the menu right as Edge is stealing something, the character can equip whatever Edge steals, even if it’s not their brand of weapon or armour.

So…



Fuck, let’s make Clair play a harp just because. If you go into the Equip menu and unequip it, you cannot re-equip it. This is how you can have people like Beer and Clair equip shields and stuff. Cool, eh?

So, now we need to go back through the cave to rename him.

So, if he’s a ninja… doesn’t that mean that… you can’t see him?



I think I made the right decision.

Next Time: We are just horrible at this “hero” thing.

EDIT: gonna put an actual update in this post. Whee!

LAST TIME: ...I don't even know. We got threatened by some street urchin about the Scriptures of Germonique, and we learned where Alma was being held. Today, we go after her. That's what big brothers do!



Looks like he's in the middle of an argument with his OWN sister, though.




Looks like one of them discovered the truth about their adoptive father. I wonder who it was~?




To be fair, power is pretty cool. But in this context, it's kind of a dick move. And knowing what I know already, it's actually kinda horrifying.



Slapping your sister? This guy has been guzzling the kool-aid.



What she's talking about...well, it's shoved in your face more and more in this version of the game, but in both translations it is heavily implied that Rapha was raped by Barrington. You'll see (not the rape, thank goodness) as we proceed through the updates. It's actually really...maybe not "awkward," but it certainly feels...weird to see it referenced so blatantly.




As we arrive, Rapha rushes off and begs for our help. This mission then turns into a "protect Rapha" mission. Well fuck. :| It's actually not that hard to protect her if you're on top of things. She does a lot of running away, and Marach mainly targets her so you only really have to worry about keeping her healthy and killing his minions. If you do manage to KO him early, he runs away but you still have to fight the other guys.

Rapha can fight when she needs to, but I'll get to her abilities later, since they require some explanation.




...I'm not even an apprentice anymore. Did he not read the script!?




As mentioned earlier, Marach runs away after getting into critical HP, and the rest of his goons are yours to pick off. They're nothing spectacular - a handful of ninjas and summoners with really bad equipment - so the rest of the battle is cake. Afterwards, you get a scene where you talk with Rapha and get some background info on the two of them.



This guy really DOES love power. And his plan is already going well. He's got my sister, he has these two fighting each other (although that's not really in his plan, but he's getting rid of a weaker person), he's even got his own castle!




No glory for me. I do it because it needs to be done. Although if you have money I could sure use some because I'm kinda hungry...



Poor Beef. He's so used to being insulted and hearing about people dissing his mom, he can't even take a compliment anymore.




"Quarrel" is putting it lightly, seeing as how he was trying to end her life.



Even I knew what his intentions were, and I've never even met the guy! WHY DOES NOBODY LISTEN TO ME!?




Those powers that she's talking about are the Heaven and Nether "Mantras" that they can use in battles. They can be good, but they have a crippling drawback: the special spells they use hit random tiles in their areas of effect a random amount of times. They're great if you can hit clumps of units, but a unit by their lonesome will usually walk away relatively safe. Square fixed this in the re-release so that the attacks have a bit more accuracy, but a lot of times they still end up missing. A lot of players usually end up ditching the twins because of the unreliability of the Mantras (plus the fact that they're not really all that great compared to the other powerhouses).



Here it becomes a bit more obvious what Barrington did to Rapha.



Hey, Marach is back! Oh, but you won't believe this, folks...



He's a frog! The look of surprise on Beef's face never fails to crack me up. :lol




We're in no real condition to argue with Frog Marach, so he reminds us that we have to bring the Scriptures and the stones to Barrington's place or else Sister gets it. And with his message delivered...



BOOM.



...sorry Rapha, we're still a bit perplexed by the exploding frog.

NEXT TIME: Riovanes Castle!

Dark Schala I tried to go and fight Omega Mk. II and NEo Shinryu for you, but that entire dungeon is Bullspit so I decided to instead move on to FF7CC.

Does anybody know if the GAF Plays ends in December? Because I have something special planned for my FF1 playthrough, but I'm saving it for last. It'd be awesome if I had more than just 3 months for that, though.

CorvoSol said:

Dark Schala I tried to go and fight Omega Mk. II and NEo Shinryu for you, but that entire dungeon is Bullspit so I decided to instead move on to FF7CC.

Does anybody know if the GAF Plays ends in December? Because I have something special planned for my FF1 playthrough, but I'm saving it for last. It'd be awesome if I had more than just 3 months for that, though.

Click to expand...

The way I see it is threads don't end until they're locked or people stop posting in 'em so I dunno about anyone else but I'm not gonna let myself feel time constrained! An your doing CC next? I better pick up the pace! ...After finishing my random out of the blue no save run of FFVII x_x

Lindsay said:

The way I see it is threads don't end until they're locked or people stop posting in 'em so I dunno about anyone else but I'm not gonna let myself feel time constrained! An your doing CC next? I better pick up the pace! ...After finishing my random out of the blue no save run of FFVII x_x

Click to expand...

I just started it today. The controls are . . . clunkier than Type-0's, now that I play it. Like, I dunno, playing T-0 and then CC feels sorta weird. Mostly because the battles are more static in Crisis Core. It's interesting, though, to see the progression of Tabata's works from Crisis Core to Type-0. Third Birthday is a crazy weird intermediary, but it had its influences on Type-0 also. Crisis Core is nice because I can look at everything in it and say "That's how this became that." You can also tell where they reused models (The Behemoths in Type-0 are very similar to the ones in Crisis Core, for instance.)

That said, there are some other elements of note. Cutscenes in CC take place on maps, whereas in T-0 they're done with backdrops. This means that while the graphics in some of Type-0's scenes involve less choreography, they avoid that weird grainy look that Crisis Core and Dissidia's pre-rendered but not FMV cutscenes have. I think? Well, no, because Type-0 has roughly 4 types of scenes: 1)Real-time, which usually are just small events, 2)Backdrops, which are real-time but kinda not, 3)semi-CGI where the characters have more facial animations, move around maps and physically interact, and 4) The CGI, which is of comparable quality to CC and DFF's.

Faces seem different, too. That or Angeal's face is just creepy as heck. I think the faces in Type-0 might actually be LESS detailed than Crisis Core's. CC's are more cartoony, but that's just part of it's style, the game being more about blue, green and purple than T-0's red, black and gold (with a dash of real is brown). Still, CC's scenes seem more in line with say, KH or DFF than T-0's, which are more along the lines of 3B.

The perspective seems different, but that could be the camera. In T-0 you have the MonHunClaw camera as seen in Monster Hunter and Peace Walker. In Crisis Core the camera is along the lines of KHDays or KH3D. Except in battle, because you need the LR buttons to navigate menu commands instead of move the camera.

Environments seem built in much the same way as MonHun, Peace Walker and Type-0: A sort of pearl necklace of map zones. The AA in Crisis Core is noticeably worse in some areas, but I'm willing to believe that in an emulator jaggies go away anyway so whatevs.

The dialogue is bollocks. The transition from 6 to CC makes it painfully obvious. In spite of that, I do remember that, when this game focuses on FF7 it's quality material, whereas when it touches on Gacktesis it's horrible, terrible, and only spare from "Worst FF idea ever" by the fact that Toriyama actually writes for FF.

Even so, I love Crisis Core, and I love Tabata's work, so I look forward to playing this, the one good thing to come out of the Compilation.

I present to you, therefore, CorvoSol's acceptance: Or how I learned to stop worrying and ship Tifa and Cloud.

LAST TIME: We managed to save Rapha from her awful brother Marach. In this post, we finally reach Riovanes Castle where Beef's sister is being held. Time to start climbing up! But before we can actually start fighting, we get to spy on a meeting between Barrington and some knights templar.




...This guy talks way too damn much.



I'm sure he's all too familiar with women and power. *shudder*



Folmarv gets it. When you bring a guy to a meeting, you don't start bragging about how awesome your home is because it makes you seem like a jackass. This goes double for when the participants in the meeting are all villains!



What we are about to see here is a lot more hot air from Barrington. Folmarv decides to play nice and go along with it, though.




And thus, Barrington reveals part of what he knows - that the zodiac stones hold far more power than your average army. Folmarv, a holder of one stone, is playing dumb. But this act isn't enough for Barrington, since he already knows what's up.




Folmarv is really bad at playing stupid, though. He's much better at swinging that sword around.




...If they don't share the reasons with you, then...never mind, I'm asking the wrong set of guys here.




Barrington is now getting impatient, so he brings out a trump card: Folmarv's son, Isilud. We fought him, remember?



Not shown here: Folmarv giving Isilud the taste of the back of his hand. Before Folmarv can continue to demonstrate his parenting skills...



Marach leaves to prepare for another rumble with us. And not a moment too soon, either.




Unmasking the Church? That's a mighty big threat. Folmarv brings up a point, though. The stones alone won't prove anything. Barrington is prepared, however...



Ah yes, the Scriptures. Although he doesn't have them yet, he's planning ahead because he assumes we're going to cooperate. Many a plan has failed due to this.



Weigraf, now fully healed after making a pact with the Lucavi, quickly leaves to track down Marach. Shit is quickly starting to go down, folks.



Not pictured here: a menacing thunderclap with a red hue. I couldn't capture it since they happened at infrequent intervals, but it really helps capture the scene we're watching.



Looks like Folmarv is done playing stupid. Anytime someone refers to others as "humans," you know things are serious. Isilud is rightly confused, as well. This is a different side of his father that he's seeing.




And at this moment, the scene shifts back to Beef as he tries to enter the castle.



Marach is already waiting for us, and Rapha tries to plead with him to stop what he's doing. Unsurprisingly, Rapha isn't getting through to him.




...AND YOU BELIEVED HIM!? Your sister has been telling you for a while now what a dick the guy is, and...never mind. He's more kool-aid than brother now.




............
:|



And with this, the battle starts. It's a very straightforward battle. When either Rapha or Marach reach critical HP, they both leave. No matter what though, you have to eliminate everybody. There's a soldier here with shoes that come with Auto-Float, but I decide against stealing them since I can't think of a time when I'm going to really need them.




Wow, sounds like a pretty sweet deal! I was tired of lugging this thing around, and--




--and I forgot that I haven't finished reading the Scriptures yet, so I should finish. It's rude to leave something unread, after all.
...*cough*




ANYWAYS! In this battle, an archer got a lucky crit on Rapha, so she ended up fleeing first. It's funny how NOW Marach seems to care about her all of a sudden. For the life of me, I'll never understand his thought process. The battle ends soon after this, and the gates of the castle open up. But what we see isn't what we expect...



He barely makes it outside before dying from his injuries. He's one of the lucky ones, though. People are currently being slaughtered inside, and you can tell from a couple of screams...which a screenshot cannot capture.



Let's hope they're both safe. We're walking into the figurative lion's den here. Let's check on Alma though, just to make sure.



Awww. I'm coming!



The fighting and screaming can be heard from Alma's chambers, and they're actually growing louder. Before she can walk to the door to try and peek through an opening, a guard gets tossed right through.



Now now...maybe it's just really cold in the castle! You'll be fine!



...Ok, maybe not. Alma takes this opportunity to get the hell out of dodge, but even she doesn't know where to go exactly. Plus there's a rampaging demon running about, so it's not exactly safe. What in the world is going to happen to her!?

...We'll find out in the next update, and we'll also finally get to see one of the, if not THE most, infamous fights in the game.

Lindsay said:

The way I see it is threads don't end until they're locked or people stop posting in 'em so I dunno about anyone else but I'm not gonna let myself feel time constrained! An your doing CC next? I better pick up the pace! ...After finishing my random out of the blue no save run of FFVII x_x

Click to expand...

So what you're saying is...there ain't no gettin' offa this train thread we're on posting in?

Scorching Desert

Spira people says that Sin is a vicious killing machine, but it usually serves as transportation to my characters. This time it takes them to a desert full of big monsters. Tidus is right now alone and has to fight this big bird.



But Tidus has more tricks than it thinks thanks to his role as a time mage. Sadly, that isn't enough to slain this thing.



When they're needed the most, my damage dealers return and the bird stops singing.



Final Fantasy VI - Searching for Friends

Now that I have three characters, it's time to find the rest. The first is Wakka, who is angry because he doesn't see Yuna and was attacked by machines.



This place apologizes for not giving you Yuna by making rain albhed potions. They're are unusable right now thanks to the lack of Rikku, but they'll become pretty handy because they cure 1000 HP to all the party and cure stone, poison and silence. Kimahri appears now... Nothing more to say, I try to ignore him.



Dragon Quest V: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride - Battle Theme

Here we have the "Metal Slime" of this game, the Cactuar. It gives obscene amounts of AP, but it can run when it feels like it, so the strategy of switching to all the characters before killing it can backfire. The best way to kill them is to accumulate overdrives in other battles and use them right now. And now we get Rikku!



Wakka is still mad at her, we can see his petrifying glare. Rikku explains that this place is an island where the Albhed live and maybe them have Yuna.



Final Fantasy Tactics A2 - Beyond the Wasteland

Rikku can destroy the machines in one turn by stealing them the screws and a some items as a bonus. Lulu's Bio is a good weapon agains the giant enemies thanks to their massive HP.



The Venus sigil can be easily found in the desert right now. There's another big monster that is a giant worm. It can inhale my characters and spit them later and if you kill it when a character is inside it, he/she will not recieve AP.



Instead of antlions, this desert has evil plants to kill my characters. They cause status effects including the dangerous confusion, so be careful.



The Albhed Home is being attacked!

I've just done the mission where Wiegraf appears for the first time and you have to fight humans in some slums. I was massacred the first time I went there but then in the second try it was really easy.

I'm focusing three characters in physical jobs and two in magical ones. I want Ramza to become a ninja, and right now he's a monk. The other two physical characters are female archers, so I get more jobs for them, should I change one of them to knight for more variety? In the magical side, I have a mystic who uses white magic and a black mage that throws items.

I think I don't want a dark knight, too much hassle.

Heropon said:

I've just done the mission where Wiegraf appears for the first time and you have to fight humans in some slums. I was massacred the first time I went there but then in the second try it was really easy.

I'm focusing three characters in physical jobs and two in magical ones. I want Ramza to become a ninja, and right now he's a monk. The other two physical characters are female archers, so I get more jobs for them, should I change one of them to knight for more variety? In the magical side, I have a mystic who uses white magic and a black mage that throws items.

I think I don't want a dark knight, too much hassle.

Click to expand...

Dark Knights are EXTREME hassles to get unless you plan as soon as you start a new game.

Knights are "ok" classes, but they have such a huge lack of variety, and are slower than most classes to boot. If you wanna run a Knight, then give it a good secondary skill like Martial Arts, or Summon so it can cast Golem. Golem protects your entire party from physical attacks equal to the amount of HP of the caster. Knights always have a huge HP pool, so you can see where I'm going with this. You should also look into Dragoons, since they're basically more mobile Knights who can attack from almost anywhere on the map.

Personally, I never liked Archers in this game, but I always run a couple units through the class in order to learn "Concentrate" because it's a great skill to have, especially on Thieves. In the end, it's all up to you. FFT is so open-ended with the job system, you can make units with just about any combination and you'll still do fine as long as you play smart.

Oh yeah, here's the Job Tree in case you still wanted to know what becomes what.

Still progressing on FFVIII. I´m still on CD2, right after the NORG battle. Man this game´s story is getting weirder as I go through, and I hear it will continue to surprise in that aspect. Also I have to say I´m not liking the game´s music as much as say FFIX or VII which is a shame because I see lots of fellows here praising it as their favorite FF OST, and of course it doesn´t quite compare to the grandness of FFVI.

LAST TIME ON ALL MY CHILDREN: We made it to Riovanes Castle just as a slaughter began. In this update, we dive headfirst into what is widely considered one of the toughest fights in the game.



Beef is shocked at all the carnage before him as he steps inside the castle. Who could've done this? Maybe Folmarv? No, there's someone else that we forgot about. Someone who was with Folmarv before shit went crazy...



TA-DA. Weigraf is back, and he's ready to tear us a new asshole. All those soldiers he just killed were just the appetizers.



Actually, I will. I really hate this fight. D:




Oh my god, STOP BRINGING UP THE MAN'S DEAD SISTER. It's like how Spider-Man would constantly call Venom "Eddie Brock" to try and get him mad and lose concentration, but Beef is just plain bad at it!




Well at least he admits that I'm special to him~

PART 1 of the fight begins here. It's a 1-on-1 fight between the two of you, and even at my high level it's still tough. Weigraf has a full set of sword skills at his disposal, as well as Martial Arts to heal himself with. If you do manage to get a hit on him, he has Counter to crack you back for 130+ damage. He's a very, VERY difficult opponent. Once you do manage to get him down to critical, this portion of the fight ends.




Oh believe me, I WISH he had run away.



I still don't know why he decided to teleport away, only to come right back at the top of the stairs. It matters not; Weigraf is done screwing around, and activates his Zodiac Stone.



*insert middle-school joke here*



Where the FUCK were you guys when I needed you!? Belias knows of the standard rules of RPG boss fights though, and is prepared for just such an occasion.




These are the first (but not the last) time we'll be seeing Archaeodemons. They're strong, have lots of HP, and can shoot off an attack called "Gigaflare" that hits several panels, takes no turns to charge, and hits like a truck. They will be doing this often. Meanwhile, Belias will be using the Cyclops summon, which does around the neighborhood of 300+ damage to several units. It won't take long to cast, since he has Swiftness. He can also walk up and turn your units to stone, silence them, or confuse them for no cost. He's also immune to every single negative status effect except for Blind, Immobilize, and Slow, which is unimportant since he can hit your team from far away or rely on his minions to do the work for him.

In short: Weigraf is a fucking dick.

It is of the utmost importance to make a second save file before even entering Riovanes Castle in the first place. I don't mean this fight, I mean the Riovanes Dot on the map. If you don't, and you find yourself to be ill-equipped to take Weigraf on, then you're shit out of luck and will probably have to start a new game. I had to restart the fight three times before I was finally able to beat him. And even then, most of my party was close to dying permanently.



Thankfully, Nocturnowl was there to save the day for all of us. Praise be to Nocturnowl!




Finally, the fight is over. Now let's hurry up and save Alma! But where could she be? Let's find out as the scene shifts once again to where she is.



We're back in the room where Barrington and Folmarv were arguing in. Barrington is nowhere to be found, while Folmarv's own son Isilud is clinging to life.




Isilud, while we originally thought was in on the whole thing, turns out to be someone who had no idea what the stones were capable of. Looks like he wasn't lying when we fought him back at Orbonne Monastery.



It's unfortunate that Isilud had to find out about his father and the Lucavi the hard way.



Well, I'm happy to be right, but I can save the celebrating for a later time. :x




Weigraf is dead. That much Isilud can be happy for. It seems that he's inching closer and closer to death, however.




Looks like we have Isilud's stone as well as Weigraf's I'm sure there are people wondering why Isilud didn't use his stone to stay alive. After seeing what his father became, I don't think he was in any shape mentally to do such a thing to himself.



Uh-oh.



Well...fuck.



It was probably the earth-shattering kaboom, but Folmarv knows that Weigraf is no longer with us. It doesn't help that he's going to take his revenge out on Alma...at least, that's what we're all thinking.



Before he can do anything, his own stone starts to react to Alma's presence.




Something has reinvigorated Folmarv, and it involves Alma. While it's good that Folmarv has decided not to kill her, it's bad because no we have no idea where Alma is headed next!



There IS one ray of light to be found in this new cloud of darkness...



Alma dropped the Zodiac Stone.

NEXT TIME: What the hell happened to Barrington!?

Final Fantasy VIII - Only A Plank Between One And Perdition

The guado are killing people like the bastards they are, I'd like erasing them all so much. We meet Cid, Yuna's uncle and Rikku's father, so that makes them are cousins.



The monsters and Guado wander the building like if it was their home. There's a MISSABLE Albhed primer in a room and a chest that asks you how is said one word in Albhed. If the answer is correct you get nice items.



There's another MISSABLE primer around the place, and that reminds me of another one in the desert. That one isn't missable, fortunately.



And there's another one in the part of the desert that has strong fiends. There's a chest with 10000 gil nearby too. That day I was really obtuse...



I return to the home and get another MISSABLE primer. That makes three missable primers so one has to get them in this visit or else... you know what happens, bad luck. There's another locked chest, this time one has to discover the password by solving some clues in Albhed.



Another chest wants to know what's the name of the son of the Albhed leader. The answer is Brother, a really stupid way of naming your son... Rikku explains since when do the Albhed live here and Wakka starts liking her again.



The Albhed have a "Summoners Room" to hide all the summoners they kidnap. It must be full of riches and fruit so they are comfortable. Wakka says that he understands why the Albhed are kidnaping summoners. WHAT? That sounds like nonsense, why would they do that? Tidus doesn't understand anything and starts thinking they've hidden from him something he should know.



Revealed Truth

The other guardians don't say anything when Tidus asks what the heck is happening. For being so many summoners disappearances, there are only two of them and I already know who they are. I can assume the others are dead or the budget was limited to include more unique summoners.



This kid says that the Albhed say that the summoners sacrifice themselves. Tidus asks why they have to worry about the summoners safety if the guardians can already protect them. Rikku gives the answer: Yuna will die if she summons the Final Aeon.



Being deluded all the time angers Tidus and remembers how he told Yuna the things they would do after they defeat Sin. Lulu and Wakka admit that they don't like talking about Yuna's sacrifice and how they tried to stop Yuna from becoming a summoner. Spira is in such a state thanks to Sin that people are ready to kill themselves to give a couple of peaceful years for everyone in the world.



Time to leave this awful place with an airship!



It seems that the Guado have taken Yuna and Cid doesn't want Tidus and the others to rescue her to take her to Zanarkand. Tidus promises him to save her and not let her die.



Now that all the survivors are on the airship, Cid can use a certain thing to make the Albhed Home go BOOOOM!



BOOM-KABOOM-BA-BOOM!!!!!!!



Final Fantasy VII - Interrupted By Fireworks

Wakka tries to cheer up Rikku by telling her that she can think that the missiles and the explosions were like fireworks. It obviously doesn't go well, at all.

And with the fire of victory this update ends!

LAST TIME: I managed to get through one of the hardest boss fights in the game. In this update, we find out what in the world happened to Barrington and the Mantra Twins.



Well, we've already found Rapha and Barrington, and Rapha has him in a corner...figuratively speaking.




Rapha is finally ready to exact her revenge on Barrington, no matter what. Barrington isn't denying her claims, but he's instead questioning her resolve.




Her father...right. I'm sure a loving father would be more than willing to do the things that he has done to her. Barrington is a creepy villain, but he tops it with his next set of lines.




Here, he confirms what we all knew but possibly didn't want to believe; he raped her, and possibly impregnated her. Marach overhears this conversation, and decides to finally confront Barrington as well.




I like how he has the gall to call them ungrateful. Barrington keeps his gun cocked, and Rapha, despite knowing this, decides to charge him.




I couldn't capture it quickly enough, but Marach, realizing that she was telling the truth and in one last effort to protect his sister, jumps in front of the bullet.




What great timing on Beef's part! Giving less of a shit about Marach, he orders Rapha to get the Zodiac Stones from his body.



Unfortunately for Barrington, while he may have his eyes and gun locked on us, he doesn't have anything for the back of his head.



Wheee! So long, Barrington! It was a bit anti-climactic, but we don't have time to worry about that now. That woman right there is one of the most dangerous adversaries in the game. And her boss is someone from all the way back in Chapter 1.



The Marquis! This is another situation where you may be a bit confused with a character's appearance and the subsequent dialogue if you haven't been reading the tavern rumors in the various cities, so I'll shed some light on this. Marquis Elmdore died during a battle by getting hit by a poisoned arrow (what a death, eh?). His funeral was pretty fancy, and that's really the extent of it. But now he's alive again, and he wants those stones.



Beef's right. Elmdore probably made a contract with the Lucavi, and those two women in his employ are demons in disguise.




...You're a soldier, yet you hate seeing blood...never mind, I'm talking to the wrong guy here. Either way, we're not about to hand over the stone so easily.



While Elmdore may seem calmer than the other knights we've faced, it only serves to make him seem more dangerous.



Stop with the guilt trips, dammit!



What we have now is not only a fight with the three of them, but a "protect Rapha" mission...how dandy. This fight, depending on how you tackle it, can be extremely easy or an exercise in frustration. Because I'm a glutton for punishment, I decided to do things the hard way. The battle ends once any of the units gets to critical HP, as opposed to other boss fights where you need to get the "main" boss down to critical. But Elmdore and his assistants also have really good equipment available to steal. And I decided to try and steal them. Seems simple enough...right?

Unfortunately it isn't. His assistants can either inflict Stop, Stone, or Death on any of your units for no cost and no charge time. And that's if they don't decide to attack you twice thanks to Dual Wield. Meanwhile, Elmdore has Samurai skills and loves smacking you around with his extremely powerful Katana. I didn't even get a chance to steal before my Thief was knocked out, so I said "fuck it" and KO'd Elmdore.




Elmdore makes a tactical retreat once you beat him, and lets you know where he'll be waiting for you: Limberry Castle. The fight there is also an extremely difficult battle, on par with the Weigraf fight from the previous update. But I'll explain that once we get there.




The sun begins to rise, and Rapha is busy mourning over her brother the only way she knows how by remembering the good times she spent with him before Barrington completely corrupted him.



Poor Alma. Beef has no idea where to search for her now that he's been in nearly every room.




...Shit. We've seen this before, and it led to something really bad!



STOP, YOU CRYING FOOL!



Um...



He lives! And he's not some sort of beast-thing! Praise Ajora!
...waitaminute




Awwww~
Brother and sister are reunited...too bad it's not Beef and Alma. But at least Marach isn't a jerk anymore! In another cutscene, Marach and Beef have a conversation regarding his short stint with death, while we also see Beef exploring the meeting room.




Beef locates the stone that Alma left behind, but doesn't know that it was Alma who dropped it.




So the Zodiac Stones aren't inherently evil? How about that. Looks like we know that those Templar Knights are mostly assholes, then. It explains why Isilud wasn't a Lucavi, and also why Weigraf turned into one.



With this small revelation, we get another story backdrop as Chapter 3 comes to a close.



We also get Rapha and Marach as new party members! HIT THE MUSIC!

As I breifly explained in a previous update, Rapha and Marach are...odd characters. Their Mantra attacks are different, even though they do the same things. Marach's Mantras do damage based on the target's faith like normal magic, but the damage calculations are inverse. In short: Nether Mantra deals more damage if both he and his target have low Faith. This makes him a great melee-killer...if the Mantra attacks were more accurate, at least. Rapha's Sky Mantra doesn't follow a Faith formula at all, and instead relies completely on her Magic Attack. Both twins can be great, but rely heavily on secondary abilities in order for them to truly shine. Rapha can make a great Samurai due to her naturally high Magic Attack, since Samurai rely on that stat the most. She can also be a great Treasure Hunter since that ability relies on the user having low Brave in order to find the really rare stuff. Marach could make a really good melee unit due to his low Faith reducing the magic damage he takes. Once again, it's up to you how to raise them. I personally won't be using them much, except for Rapha on an upcoming sidequest.

NEXT TIME: the intro to Chapter 4!

Beyond The Darkness

Lulu and Cid have a little discussion about how much does Cid know about controlling the airship. He doesn't have any idea about how it works internally, but well, it's moving. That's good enough.



Auron also wants to talk to Cid about Yuna's pilgrimage. Yuna's uncle doesn't want her to continue it, but Auron thinks she'll still want to complete it. Wakka discovers thanks to the conversation that Yuna is Cid's niece and that she's half Albhed. Fortunately, he doesn't mind those things anymore.



Brother has discovered Yuna's whereabouts. She's marrying Seymour in Bevelle, who was supposedly dead. Auron explains that the dead can stay in Spira if they have pending issues. Time to rescue her then!

Launch



There are monsters in the airship to grind if the next boss is too difficult. Rikku is possessed by Selphie for a moment and suggests blowing up the airship to kill them. It was only a joke, fortunately.



Rin wants to win money in this desperate situation and he charges for his items. When the characters say him that everyone could die if they fail for not giving them the items he responds: "I trust you." I don't know what to think of that... There's a giant lizard dragon outside the ship called Evrae that is said to guard Bevelle from intruders. In this room, the emulator gets crazy and reverses the controls and I get confused, arghh!



Pokémon Black/White - Kyurem Battle

Boss battle 17, Evrae: This is the hidden legendary Dragon/Poison monster that appeared... It really doesn't have any backstory. Its dragon typing means that fire, electric and water attacks are halved. The ice weakness? It has an unlimited supply of yache berries and a hidden ability that halves the effects of ice attacks so in the end the effect is halved too, so Lulu's damage output is severely reduced. Your best bets in this battle are Auron when the monster is near and Wakka when it's far (Luckily, at this point in the game Wakka is much more powerful than Tidus and does very nice damage). Tidus and Rikku can tell Cid to move away the airship from the boss.



Evrae can use a moderately damaging move from afar and ExtremeSpeed to approach the airship and do some naughty damage.



Evrae can do the powerful Poison Breath that takes one turn to charge. If the aiship moves back it will miss and Evrae will feel like a stupid.



Wakka overkills the enemy and the fight ends. Now it's time to assault Bevelle!

Assault








These encounters between the landing place and Yuna are really dangerous. The soldiers are powerful and the flamethrower ones attacks all the group at once. But the most evil enemies are the robots. The tall ones can kick people from the battle and cause an easy game over. The robots that hide in the rear can drop some powerful bombs over all the group. One has to be very careful. Tidus learns one of his best skills, Hastega and Lulu the -ga tier spells.



In the end, the group is surrounded by soldiers and they have to surrender.



Seymour, you can kiss the bride.



After that nausea inducing kiss, Yuna tries to commit suicide. Seymour is going to inherit her villa if she dies now so I hope she doesn't kill herself.




False alarm. It would have been interesting to see the female protagonist, that you have leveled up with all your love, die.


And then Rikku throws a flash grenade and the group goes to the temple. Time to do some trials!



The last MISSABLE primer is on the way to the temple, so one has to be careful and not lose it.



The Incredible Machine 2/3 - TIM

I hate this place!!!!! It's full of conveyor belts but it doesn't have any funny things like cats, cannons, lasers and kid eating crocodiles.



The destruction sphere is obligatory to use in this place and the Anima Seal chest has to be opened to finish the trial.



There's a secret chest too, but it has a Kimahri weapon so that means that it doesn't exist for me (but I get it anyways. Completionism, why?). Tidus wants to see how Yuna gets her new summon and tries to open the door. Kimahri has to help him when he clearly can't do it alone.



Hey! That's MY agent, what is he doing here?! He now works as fayth and fuses with Yuna.



GOTCHA!

First scene with Genesis! Yay! I hate him so much! Seriously, the guy is a massive tool and a wannabe Kuja/Red Sephiroth. I can't stand Loveless, I can't believe the people of FF7's world are so taken with that literary piece of garbage, I can't believe anyone thought Genesis made for a compelling character and I can't believe that
Which is my way of saying Minerva isn't the Goddess, but some horrible demon. The LifeStream is the God of FF7 and Minerva is basically FF7's Ultima. Because no way do the people of FF7's planet waste their time worshiping so capricious and awful a deity.

Chrono Trigger - Kingdom Trial

The inevitable trial has come and Yuna has to defend herself from the accusations of "disturbance of the piece", "high treason" and "conspiracy". The possible punishment is the death. Obviously, this trial reeks and Yuna and her guardians are condemned even knowing that Seymour is a zombie. By the way, Mica is another "unsent". Imagine a world dominated by zombies? Here we have one.



Chrono Trigger - The Hidden Truth

Actually, the punishments in this place are pretty tame, as Tidus is only condemned to die like a Sim in a pool. Pretty cool, I always killed Sims that I didn't like this way. These guys in Yevon are my new best friends.



Is it a coincidence or only people that can swim are here? Seymour and his cronies have put Yuna in a dungeon, but they think she can survive so Seymour goes personally to kill his bride.



Path of Repentance

Yuna has to fight alone in this dungeon, or at least that's what the monsters think. Yuna has good partners to fight for her in this fight like BAHAMUT!



Poor enemies, they didn't know who they were fighting.



Yuna finds Lulu and Auron in her way to the exit and tries to approach it when...



...Isaaru comes to catch Yuna. You son-of-a..., the Albhed saved you from the monsters and the Guado! You should be executed for treason.



Mother 3 - Volcano! Inferno!

Boss battle 18, Grothia (Ifrit): Round 1: Ifrit vs. Ixion. Who will win?



This fight is really easy if you play smart and use some aeon options like defending and using damaging magic to cure.



Mother 3 - Fight With Mecha-Drago

Boss battle 19, Pterya (Valefor): Bahamut vs. Valefor... Another easy battle.



Mother 3 - Smashing Song Of Praise

Boss battle 20, Spathi (Bahamut): Bahamut vs. Shiva. It charges its overdrive in 5 turns and Shiva does all the damage she can before that moment comes.



Defend against it and the damage becomes pitiful for an overdrive.



Scared, aren't ya? You can go **** yourself. I don't have time to kill you, so goodbye. This fella ends his pilgrimage like a fool.



The Sims™ 2 - Who Can Say

The yevonites have forgotten to put a ladder, so the three swimmers have to find another exit. The jailors have given them a chest that works like a shop, let's see if I can buy a ladder... No



Mother 3 - Even Drier Guys

Boss battle 21, Evrae Altana: Our favourite boss comes in zombie form to kill my lovely friends. Phoenix downs work differently in this game against zombies and instead of killing them, they halve their total HP, so two downs and it goes down!



The party reunites again in the town outskirts but Seymour wants to meet them too. He has killed Kinoc because he was a conspiranoid, yeah. I'd be one too if everyone was a killer zombie...



Kimahri, where were you and what are you doing attacking Seymour??? Seymour likes being an evil spirit and starts absorbing people's souls.



Mareeeeeeeg!!! OK, Kimahri, we flee while you die! Sounds like the perfect plan!



Final Fantasy V - Clash On The Big Bridge


Yuna is a bit silly and wants to rescue the pet. I say that we can buy some lottery tickets with the money saved by not buying him food, but she isn't convinced.



Boss Battle 22, Seymour Natus and Mortibody: Our strategy of using nul... to defend from his elemental attacks is rendered ineffective thanks to Mortibody using a magic of the same element to neutralize that. If you try to kill the little companion, it will absorb HP from Seymour and survive. A good idea is to try to separate their turns so nul... serves for something.



Hastega isn't very effective in this battle thanks to a dispelling attack from the Mortibody that targets all the group.



At a certain point in the battle, Seymour starts using Break and if the Mortibody's turn comes right after that, it's game over for that character.



Seymour breaks two of my characters!!!! Bahamut, save me, please!



After an off-screen death, I let out a sigh of relief and tell Seymour to fuck off.

Going back to a previous comment, CorvoSol, don't worry about beating the other bosses if you don't have time. Ya gotta get to better pastures.

Heropon said:

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I was grossed out too, Yuna! Seymour isn't exactly a good looking person and he's an asssss.

My bf enjoyed Seymour as a villain a lot. He thinks Seymour's despicable. But I dunno... Seymour's main intent is to: A) Get into Yuna's pants, B) UNLIMITED AND ETERNAL POWER, C) Get into Yuna's pants, D) Some bullshit about his mom I forgot about, and E) Get into Yuna's pants.

I don't think he's that much of a spectacular villain outside of . Perhaps he's something to fear, but eh... when think of his objectives, it's just kinda weird.

Dark Schala said:

A) Get into Yuna's pants

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I don't think he cares about these kind of things, he only wanted to use her to get UNLIMITED AND ETERNAL POWER, and... I think Tromell got into his pants before.

EDIT: About Final Fantasy Tactics. I think I won't use much white magick in this game thanks to the enemies moving to cure themselves thanks to the casting time and that it depends on the faith stat. I think I'll have to rely on items and the Moogle summon.

Yay! FFVII beaten without saving the game at all! Not I can get back to my regularly scheduled programming! Also I remembered there's a FFVII 15th Anniversary thread. Someone oughta bump it for more chatty goodness or something~

CorvoSol said:

The dialogue is bollocks. The transition from 6 to CC makes it painfully obvious. In spite of that, I do remember that, when this game focuses on FF7 it's quality material, whereas when it touches on Gacktesis it's horrible, terrible, and only spare from "Worst FF idea ever" by the fact that Toriyama actually writes for FF.

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Curious as ta what non-Genesis dialogue ya think is terrible. I'm having hard time finding anything offensive. Main characters & NPC chatter is pretty normal stuff, and mail/mission descriptions are usually amusing!

Professor Beef said:

So what you're saying is...there ain't no gettin' offa this train thread we're on posting in?

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Exactly! Just gotta keep alternately pressing Up reply & Triangle submit reply to keep it speeding along!

CorvoSol said:

Which is my way of saying Minerva isn't the Goddess, but some horrible demon. The LifeStream is the God of FF7 and Minerva is basically FF7's Ultima. Because no way do the people of FF7's planet waste their time worshiping so capricious and awful a deity.

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What I wanna know is where this goddess came from and why she let the world go to crap. Isn't she an optional superboss & not canon anyway? I rather liked my FFVII world being god/goddess-free.

Dark Schala said:

Going back to a previous comment, CorvoSol, don't worry about beating the other bosses if you don't have time. Ya gotta get to better pastures.

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I like FF5 and the new jobs are okay, but I'll be damned if the Bonus dungeons aren't the height of cheap difficulty. Someday maybe, but not now. Now it's Zack's turn.

Lindsay said:

Curious as ta what non-Genesis dialogue ya think is terrible. I'm having hard time finding anything offensive. Main characters & NPC chatter is pretty normal stuff, and mail/mission descriptions are usually amusing!

What I wanna know is where this goddess came from and why she let the world go to crap. Isn't she an optional superboss & not canon anyway? I rather liked my FFVII world being god/goddess-free.

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I wouldn't say offensive, just crummy. Partially the voice acting feels weird to me. Tseng sounds like he is always dead, Angeal's mother's "Are you Zack the puppy?" was poorly delivered and Angeal's "Zack. Follow your dreams." is a stupid line which made no sense in the context of that scene.

To the game's credit, I recall Zack's interactions with Aerith feeling very genuine, as opposed to the incredibly wooden performance by Mena Suvari in KH II. Sephiroth's voice actor reminds me of why I ever found Sephiroth to be a class act and not the complete joke of a villain that all other villains see him as in Dissidia (seriously, go play that game. They take Kefka and Kuja more seriously than Sephiroth, and it's not hard to see why, since the guy literally wastes his time stealing Firion's flower.)

So final tally: Everybody from FF7 feels great. Everybody specific to CC feels off. In fairness I wasn't this critical of FF4's voice acting, so I'm giving everyone in the game other than Genesis a free pass.

Genesis is a disgrace to the time honored tradition of villains in FF games being the coolest guy in the game. LARKEICUS OF ECHOES OF TIME IS A BETTER VILLAIN THAN GENESIS. JIHL NABAAT IS A BETTER VILLAIN THAN GENESIS. ASTOS IS A BETTER VILLAIN THAN GENESIS COULD EVER HOPE TO EVEN BE HALF OF.

Yuna has an existential crisis because she tried to do what she thought was good and that bited her in the ass. Tidus apologizes for talking with her about the future without knowing she would die if she defeats Sin.



Tidus proposes her to leave the pilgrimage and they start wondering what could Yuna do in that hypothetic life. She could sell churros, demolish buildings, create a new font, discover new continents, defeat Sin with the power of flowers, meet Lightning, kidnap Toriyama, be a femme fatale, collect cats, jump on turtles, collect Manolos, be a pirate, be a politician, catch 649 pokémon...



Oh, Yuna feels she HAS to kill Sin.

Suteki Da Ne (Isn't It Wonderful?)






This is the third WooHoo in the series after Madonna-Maduin and Tifa-Cloud. You can see the glitter symbolizing the act.



Yuna isn't convinced by the "talk" they've had and still wants to die in terrible suffering. Oh, no! There was a voyeur during all the scene: Pervert, degenerate!



Now this is an established couple and they hold hands, awwwwww. Tidus, you have a good woman with you, apart from those suicidal tendencies. And Yuna... He's good at blitzball... Not really, but he can haste you!



Yuna's Determination

The Calm Lands. This place is special because it isn't a large corridor unlike all the other areas, but it has like the same content as the Mi'ihen Road, so it doesn't matter.



In the middle of the zone there is a travel agency and an old friend of Lulu and Wakka appears when the party reachs it. Zuke warns them that Yevon is searching for them to kill them. This reminds me that some dark aeons appear right now in their respective areas: Valefor (Besaid), Ifrit (Bikanel), Ixion (Thunder Plains), Shiva (Macalania Temple) and the Magus Sisters (Mushroom Rock Road). Zuke also tells them that Kelk Ronso isn't a maester anymore because Kinoc's death sounded suspicious.



Rikku and Tidus want to save Yuna from dying of summonitis, but they can't think of anything. Their incredible collaboration crumbles when Tidus complains about her and her buts. But... This Albhed tells us about the state of the airship after the rescue operation. They're reparing it and when it's ready they'll pick them up. I can imagine they'll do it when I end the pilgrimage.



This place has an evil basilisk evolution: The Anacondaur. It's name reminds of the anaconda but it doesn't kill strangling my characters, but by looking at them. This man must be the chocobo trainer!



Final Fantasy V - Battle 2

H wasn't
Belgemine appears for the third time here to teach Yuna more lessons about aeon training.



I want to finish the battle soon, so I choose Bahamut to destroy her...
500 points of damage?! You've got to be kidding me.



We learn that she keeps cheating and her Shiva has more than better defenses. But that isn't a problem for my lethal breath. Belgemine gives an Aeon's Soul, that increases the aeons stats in exchange for items, and tells the party to meet her in the Remiem Temple.



Bravely Forward

At the East of the plains, there's the Monster Arena, which contains the most expansive sidequest in the game. The ultimate goal is to capture 10 fiends of each type of monster, but there are intermediate goals like capturing all the fiends in the same species or the same area. He sells the special capturing weapons for 10000 gil each (my wallet...). It's a very good idea to customize Auron's katana with the Piercing ability so he keeps killing armored enemies. To open the monster arena, one monster of each type in the Calm Lands has to be captured.



In the Calm Plains there are some Malboros running around trying to intoxicate my characters. Luckily, this one is captured like a pokémon.



These flan guys can be pretty troublesome to capture with their physical resistance. Auron can use Armor Break to do normal damage after that and Lulu can weaken it with Blizzard. There's a primer in the Northwest of the plains.



Brass de Chocobo

Next to it, the chocobo trainer is waiting to give us some lessons. She gives a chocobo if Tidus can train it. The first test is taming the chocobo so it runs straight.



It can't be seen well in the screenshots, but the second and third tests are about evading balls and gullwings. Of course my character succeeded at them.



Oh boy, the infamous fourth test, the race against this woman, the gullwings and the balloons. First try and I win, that makes me get the level 3 key sphere because I wanted to get Dualcast and I didn't have one.



Each time you beat the record, the person guarding the Ultima Weapon/Caladbolg wants to see the results of the race and you can get i thent, but I don't have the mirror and I can't.. yet. I'll do it after Zanarkand. Now I want to use the chocobo to do some more optional things.



The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Forest Temple

Thanks to the chocobo's jumping abilities, the Remiem Temple is made available. It has the Magus Sisters but I can't get them until I get Anima, so that means waiting more time.



Belgemine awaits inside and explains that this temple was in the center of the Calm Lands until Sin attacked them. So they were even bigger before! Ah, Belgemine is another unsent, it doesn't surprise me anymore. She has all the aeons in her possession but you only can beat them if you have them in your possession too and if you beat the previous one.



There's another Albhed primer in the West of the temple and another Chocobo minigame in the East. Win it and the Cloudy Mirror is yours.



Then I fight the rest of the aeons I can fight. They change the camera position in the last battle and it looks like the same as the previous one. When you defeat Bahamut, you get one of the items needed to get the Magus Sisters.



After capturing the elusive Chimera Brain, I open the monster arena and I can fight his powerful monsters. So powerful that I won't defeat them because I don't want to use strange mixing tricks and the like. The chest containing the Nirvana, Yuna's final weapon, is made available right now, but I don't have the Celestial Mirror so I can't get it yet (And it isn't that wonderful right now, so...).

Well, I think this is a good point to stop this update, until the next time!

Professor Beef said:

Thankfully, Nocturnowl was there to save the day for all of us. Praise be to Nocturnowl!

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I'll gladly receive this praise for my digitized counterparts heroics.

Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver - Routes 38/39

I return to the Macalania Woods to get one of the Jecht's spheres. It shows how Braska and Auron met Jecht in the jail, because the summoner wanted him to be his guardian and form the group of the outcasts.



The boy and the woman are wondering where is the father. He's only two screens of distance from them, couldn't they search a little better?



And now the kid has disappeared. It's in a recently discovered secret path that didn't exit when I WAS CROSSING THE DAMNED FOREST!!!!!



In this place you can transform the cloudy mirror into the celestial mirror and the final weapons of each character can be adquired with it, but I'll wait to do their sidequests. There's another Jecht sphere in the Thunder Plains and I catch some monsters while I'm there.



The sphere shows how a Lightning hit Jecht and almost dies. And Auron gets his FINAL overdrive, because Dark Valefor says so.



See that guy? Don't walk nearby or the Dark Ixion sequence will start and that means certain death, so I won't touch him. I return to the Calm Lands and get Yuna's Nirvana. It's a very special weapon because... it doesn't give AP right now, so one has to power it up. The requisites for this weapon are defeating all Belgemine aeons and returning to Besaid (No need to fight Dark Valefor, phew..., but I could have taken the Moon sigil the first time I went there).



Thanks to capturing all the Thunder Plains species, this cactuar is unlocked to fight. Oh, my!



I think it's a good time to continue the adventures, but only a bit. The Guado keep wanting to kill my poor characters and summon a golem to do the dirty work, because they're screwed if they fight me directly.



Crusader of Centy/Soleil - Boss Attack

Boss battle 23, Defender X: It's armored and hits like a truck, what to do? Use the newly adquired Auron's overdrive to break its defenses because Armor Break doesn't work here.



And then this is the typical boss battle until Bahamut finishes it off. I'm going to follow this optional path, it seems interesting!



There's a cave and another path, I follow the latter first to get a rusty sword. Then I go to the cave where Lulu's first summoner died. I think every summoner should have lots of guardians like Yuna to not die killed by simple monsters.



Golden Sun - Cave Theme

The Cave of the Stolen Fayth has some nasty enemies like the evil Magic Pot with 30% chances of appearing in each random encounter or the Ghost, that likes dooming mah boys.



Lulu and Auron explain why this place has that name, and it's bacause someone stole a fayth and hid it here so the summoners couldn't train and not die when summoning the Final Aeon. Lulu learns the lifesaver ability Dualcast! Now she's twice as useful during boss battles!



Lulu's Theme

There's another primer in this cave and the spirit of Lulu's first summoner. She doesn't want to be sent and uses her new aeon.




Optional boss, Yojimbo: Yuna has to fight her next aeon even before she can adquire it. He uses his dog to attack and other weapons.



Yojimbo is defeated easily and the poor dog has to live alone from now on.



Now that Ginnem is in a better place the characters can use the teleport to go to secret areas with cool items.



Yuna visits the fayth's stone and has to pay him to get Yojimbo. He asks first Yuna why do she wants him for. The answer that gives a lower price is the one that is about defeating strong enemies.



Then I offer 125001, 125002, 175003 and accept the next offer. Almost 200,000! You cheap bastard...



Aeon adquired and then the Gagazet awaits us!

With another chapter cleared the Mission & DMW status in the OP have been updated!

Its a good thing no ones out driving cause the roads a battlefield tonight!


Pt.9 "The One Left Behind"




As he reaches the highway Zack vows to stop Genesis once and for all only to be interupted by some more copies of the man himself! Plus some mechs for good measure. Battling in a setting like this earns lotsa cool points in my book. As does winning a 6 on 1 fight! Even after that there wasn't any chance for a breather cause a nasty looking guy appeared. This 'G Warrior' didn't put up to much of a fight. Probably because those DMW affecting heightened emotions helped out. With the goons mopped up Zack is still pretty far from Shinra HQ but still finds the time to make silly a comment even though no ones around!


Angeal comes fluttering down to the ground saying his minds mired in fog, but so long as he holds his Buster Sword he must protect his honor. How he can have honor after killing his mother is anyones guess. "Zack, join my battle. Our enemy is all that creates suffering." Crazily enough, Zack says he'll join up to combat this terribly vague enemy! Is he deserting too?! Angeal grabs onto Zack and flies him to the Shinra building where they casually greet Sephiroth who'd just finished off some copies. They come to the conclusion that the reason for this attack is to assassinate our buddy Hojo! Guess neither Hollander nor Genesis like that guy. Now instead of forming a party they split up, leaving Zack to go and defend Hojo solo.


After trying to look around into various things it was determined that the lower level of the Science Departments floor held nothing of interest aside from a couple of treasure chests. So Zack takes a short elevator ride to the next level and spots the professor. Despite finding out that he is a target Hojo remains unconcerned. Degrading monsters from half rate scientists don't scare him! He goes on a tangent about ancients and some calamity, stuff Zack knows nothing about. Since there appears to be no imminent danger its time to poke around at sciencey things!



When you see something that says "danger, do not touch!" what do you do? You have to touch it! Zack does just that and suddenly finds himself in a scorching hot desert with monsters and materia that isn't his! Apparently he'd activated an Experimental Materia Test Unit and now he's a guinea pig! The fight doesn't last long and just as Zack feels like he'll die of thirst he finds himself back in the lab! The desert was just a virtual environment, how could he not have figured that out? Hojo is pleased by the data collected from it but Zack will have to pay for the machine he broke! Better not mess around with anything else... well... maybe one more thing. He plays around with a malfunctioning Mako Recovery Unit over and over again but a poor sense of timing just amounts to lotsa failure. He then takes a close look at a sample pod and gets tricked by Hojo into going inside of it! The experiment he's now part of is a simple series of questions. The answers he gives please Hojo and nets him a free 1000 SP! You'd think he would learn by now not to press shiny buttons but that's just not the case...


The monsters were gonna be disposed of anyway but since Zack released them he has to take responsibility and kill them off himself. Hojo sweetens the deal by telling Zack there are items in it for him if he can get the jail cell keys from the monsters. Down on the 67th floor the monsters scatter! Drat! With only 3 minutes to get the job done Zack chases all 6 of 'em down and uses his newly acquired Steal materia to get the jail cell keys before taking the monsters out! He grabs all the loot and gets the heck out of there with a little over a minute to spare. Somehow Hojo collected data from that bit of foolishness and says he'll accept Zack as a 1st Class SOLDIER. Finally, recognition!



Now no more messing around! Hojo asks if Zack is ready to defend him to which he naturally says yeah in an overly confident manner! Perfect timing cause Genesis has arrived and gotten straight to threatening the still chill professor. Angeal joins the party and Genesis goes right into his dumb play quoting "My friend, the fates are cruel; There are no dreams, no honor remains; The arrow has left the bow of the goddess". Hojo recognizes that from Loveless and switches from dissing Hollander to dissing the play! Take that Genesis!



Dismayed that someone thinks Loveless sucks, Genesis decided to take his ball and go home by blowing a hole in the side of the building and flying out of it "My soul, corrupted by vengeance; Hath endured torment, to find the end of my journey; In my own salvation; And you eternal slumber". Zack & Angeal give chase and find another incoming summon! Which Angeal dumps on Zack while he flies off to chase Genesis much to Zack's dismay. Aeris calls at kind of a bad time... cause some really big and bad company has just entered the scene!



Bahamut Fury is one shiny summon! Its attacks require some timing to dodge and recover in time to strike back at it. Zack's heightened emotions don't serve him up and extra special help this time around so it's materia to the rescue! Curaga & Barrier proved to be highly useful. Even so EXA Flare, a crazy attack from space which uses the moon as a giant laser, hits him hard! Luckily the battle ended an attack or two after that. And yet another summon vanishes into the abyss. Meanwhile our hero finds he's been left all by his lonesome yet again.

Finally met the infamous Cissnei who does not live up to the hype. Which isn't to say she's a BAD character, I think she's easily the best character introduced in the game, it's just that people did some serious hyping on this girl I barely remembered. Presently I'm in Hollander's lab in the reactor.

Of note: Axel and Reno really are the same guy. Like, I only now realize that they're even played by the same guy. Cissnei uses Axel's weapon, though. I fully expect that an english localization of Type-0 would see Jack played by the same guy.

How do level ups work in this game? I know it must be linked to SP and when you get 777, but are there set ranges where this happens or what?

Saw the cutscene between Sephiroth, Angeal, and Genesis. Nothing for it but to say that I hate Genesis.

Oh!! And playing this game has actually made me realize that Sephiroth was, before he went crazy, a pretty chill guy. Like, yes, it's Garland all over, but Sephiroth seems like the most NORMAL of the Soldier 1st classes until Zack shows up. He doesn't ramble about LOVELESS or HONOR. He's just a cool guy who does his job, cares about his friends, and is pretty nice to Zack. As opposed to Genesis and Angeal, who both
Makes you wonder how many main villains aside from Sephiroth and Garland were once nice people before they went totally crazy.

Yuna and her guardians are walking when a group of ronsos stops them from following their path, but the group convinces them that they are good people and blah, blah, blah. Result: They can continue.



Servers of the Mountain

Things aren't that easy, Biran and Yenke doesn't want to let pass Kimahri because he disgraces the Ronso and the mountain. That means...

Boss battle 24, Biran and Yenke: Oh, they have so much honor that they bully him in uneven conditions. Neglecting Kimahri during the game means nothing in this fight because it seems that the fight scales in difficulty depending of Kimahri's activated nodes like Yuna's aeons.



These two friends have lots of blue magic to get with Lancet, and each time Kimahri gets one he enters in overdrive, so it's pretty easy to do a lancet-overdrive sequence all the battle. When Kimahri defeats one, the other one hastes himself and becomes a bit more powerful.



Kimahri does something well in his life and defeats them easily. They now respect them and tell Yuna that they'll do a statue of her with a big HORN when she defeats Sin. I'm pretty sure that was related to the horns summoners had in older Final Fantasies...



This bomb variation is called Grenade and they are strong against magic attacks so Wakka and Auron are the best against it thanks to their high attack. The party sees lots of tombs of weak summoners that were killed by local mobs.



Auron reaches the end of his zone in the sphere grid, and that means that he has good enough stats to kill a certain person.



Tidus finds a sphere recorded by Braska in the mountain. He tells Yuna to live her own life. Mmmm... If you left this sphere here, it must mean that Yuna should be a summoner to be able to get this (I don't think normal people do trips to this mountain often), so... It's too late to hear that.



The group finds Oaka's brother Wantz in this place (Normal people can come here, it seems...). He wanted to help Yuna because his brother told him to do so. You MUST talk to him here to open a shop in Macalania that sells weapons and armor with four empty slots for 100,000 each piece. There are FFXIII (more like FFX) styled branched paths that take to chests with interesting things like level 4 key spheres.



Tidus and Rikku stop a little because they have to think about how to save Yuna and the time is running out. Oh, Seymour. Why are you here again?!



Rikku has called everyone to kill this friend of them. But before they can hurt him, he tells that he has killed all the ronsos. Later we'll see that he was lying, he only killed the relevant ones.



Seymour wants UNLIMITED AND ETERNAL POWER by becoming Sin with the help of Yuna. He says something about freeing Jecht by doing so. Auron and Tidus obviously understand what he says, but Yuna gets worried. And the fusion dance begins...



Final Fantasy VII - JENOVA

Boss battle 25, Seymour Flux and Mortiorchis: This evil being tries to use a zombie-Full Life combo to kill party characters in one hit.



He does sometimes a powerful attack that does around 2000HP to everyone and when enough damage has been done, the Mortiorchis starts attacking by itself and flares people.



And then it tries to charge a powerful attack. Thanks to Seymour moving the turn before it I can't block the attack with an aeon because he kills them with one attack. I need to do 13135 with one attack and Yuna is in overdrive: BAHAMUT!



YESSSSSSSSS!!!!!! I get more level 4 key spheres (I want level 3 ones!!!) as a reward.



Yuna demands to know what was Seymour saying about Sin and Jecht. Tidus tells her about Jecht being Sin but that doesn't change anything and she still wants to defeat him. Rikku reachs the end of her part of the sphere grid and this update ends.

CorvoSol said:

How do level ups work in this game? I know it must be linked to SP and when you get 777, but are there set ranges where this happens or what?

Click to expand...

There's a hidden EXP counter in the game, and once you cross the threshold for your current level, your chances of getting 777 increase.

Professor Beef said:

There's a hidden EXP counter in the game, and once you cross the threshold for your current level, your chances of getting 777 increase.

Click to expand...

Ah, cool then. I wish they'd just show it to me so I could build up if I wanted to.

War of the Lions update: Finished chapter 1, that bastard called Wiegraf didn't have a problem giving me his mythril sword but he didn't want to give me his accesory while trying to steal it (+50% chances of success, ha!). How I hated Argath. That icicle piercing through his body was a good death.

Right now my most beloved character is the potion-throwing summoner, she clears the stage and cures everyone <3<3<3. With a time mage I could use her more often...

Heropon said:

War of the Lions update: Finished chapter 1, that bastard called Wiegraf didn't have a problem giving me his mythril sword but he didn't want to give me his accesory while trying to steal it (+50% chances of success, ha!). How I hated Argath. That icicle piercing through his body was a good death.

Right now my most beloved character is the potion-throwing summoner, she clears the stage and cures everyone <3<3<3. With a time mage I could use her more often...

Click to expand...

In case you didn't know, the rate of success for stealing raises as their speed raises. Ninjas get a bonus in speed upon level up, so they make the best thieves...and are just amazing in general. Having the Concentrate ability also increases the steal rate.

And run that summoner through the Time Mage class to get Swiftness anyways!

Excluding Dark Knights, Ninjas are the best generic class in FFT. Calculators can be broken, but Ninjas are just so much faster.

There's a sigil for Kimahri's final weapon in the path, nothing more to say.



The party reaches a place where there's a wall full of fayths summoning something.



Tidus touches the wall and ends in his Zanarkand. It must be a dream, but why did he collapse?



Hey, it's Tidus's agent! Here comes the most important plot twist in the game: His Zanarkand, including him and his father are nothing more than a dream of the fayths created by a continuous summoning done by the Zanarkand survivors of the machina war.



The fayths are tired of doing that for 1000 years and their spokesperson (Bahamut) begs him to end their dream. He talks about a how he's more than a dream right now.



Final Fantasy II PSP - Dungeon

Tidus gets up and the party enters in a cave. First monster alert, Mandragora (Ochu 2): It's the same as the Ochu but more powerful (poison attacks and status inducing gas included in the pack). In this cave there are water areas where only Tidus, Wakka and Rikku can be used.



There are some mini-minigames to open new paths in the cave. In this one, Wakka has to throw a blitzball at the correct moment to hit the yellow light.



Tidus learns his third overdrive in this place thanks to repeated use of his other overdrives. Second monster alert, Dark Flan: It's resistant to all the elements and Lulu doesn't know Flare yet, so the best strategy right now is using Armor Break and smashing it with physical attacks.



Third monster alert, Behemoth: This monster does a physical attack that can damage a party member for 3000HP and likes to fulminate the characters with Thundara. The second minigame consists on choosing a hole with each character considering their size and colours.



Auron warns Yuna about a monster that Yunalesca is going to send to test her. Yuna asks if Yunalesca is Yunalesca and why is she still in Zanarkand. Obvious answer: Another unsent. And the monster awaits the party outside the cave.



Tales of the Abyss - Awkward Justice

Boss battle 26, Sanctuary Keeper: It uses an attack that damages the party, curses them (they can't use overdrives) and also silences them.



Auron and his Break attacks lower its defenses and from time to time it will use an hyper-beam that we can see in the screenshot how damaging it can be.



Thanks to Lulu's dualcasting and Auron oversized sword the monster kicks the bucket. The time of Yuna's death is coming and Tidus gets more and more worried. Auron says that he was like that in his first pilgrimage.



Tidus gets his "final" special skill just before Zanarkand: Quick Hit. It's a normal attack that costs 36 MP but cuts the time someone has to wait to do the next action in a great amount.



Rikku wants Yuna to stop but she's really stubborn and doesn't want to stop. She drops a sphere when she goes to hug her.



Let's snoop a little... It's like a farewell letter, but in audiovisual form. She thanks her guardians for being so nice and all that. Tidus also discovers that she was already in love with him at that moment. Congratulations, Tidus, that was quick!

To Zanarkand






End of this part of the story. Now it's time to tell the rest!

LAST TIME: We witnessed the end of Barrington, and the Mantra Twins joined our party. Unfortunately, there's still no sign of Alma. Where could she be? In this update, we get on with the start of Chapter 4, where we catch Beef and the twins preparing to leave.



Excellent observation skills. I don't suppose anyone is going to clean up here? Anyone...?



At least she's not among the dead. We can breath easy on that.



And it felt damn good killing him too!



Isilud...well, I'm not happy that he died, at least.



But who was the third man?



Mullonde, eh? At least we have a general idea where to go. It's better than nothing.




All true. I wish Beef could've done more to stop some of that, though. Standing in wide-eyed amazement while Weigraf was dying certainly wasn't the wisest move, in retrospect.




And at last Beef is starting to see more and more of the grander plot. We already know that power is what the church wants, but what THEY don't know is how amazingly dangerous the Zodiac Stones and knights are. More than likely it's going to be what causes them a ton of problems.



At last! Beef has the third man's name: Folmarv.



Road trip! We're off to Zeltennia to speak to our good friend Delita. Hopefully he'll be nice and share some info with us without having to tell a story about how we can't change anything. My patience is starting to wear thin regarding that stuff.



...Let's try not to tell Delita that, ok Beef?



And with that, we're officially in Chapter 4! Before we can get back into the action, the scene shifts to Zeltennia Castle, where the Thunder God himself is about to meet with his son.




Oh dear. The last thing anyone needs is bad news regarding the war. Last time they talked about the war, there were riots, droughts, lack of food, rebellions, and a whole bunch of other stuff. What else could go wrong?




C'mon now, Orran. Don't go dissing Cid's loyalty like that. You might be his son, but he'll cut ya down just as quickly as anyone else. Now let's hear about that job of yours.




So they now know that the stones are being hunted. Orran would have more info, but apparently his spies are really bad at their jobs.




WELL NOW. Cid has a Zodiac Stone too!? I wonder if that's the source of his fantastic battle prowess? Let's hope nothing happens to Cid anytime soon...



The scene ends, and we have our new marching orders. NEXT TIME: we get some new guests in our party!

A Fleeting Dream

Tidus is telling the group some stories before going to the Zanarkand temple. Yuna apoils the party because she wants to go to see Yunalesca now.



In this part of the ruins the monsters are from Mount Gagazet, so there isn't anything new in that department yet. The party has to enter what seems like a destroyed blitzball stadium.



There's a man waiting for them . He's an unsent too, no? Of course. This place is full of pyreflies and the party can see memories of the past like lady Yocun (4th high summoner) and her guardian. The guardian says something about sacrificing herself, why would she do it?



We can see unsent Bevelle soldiers and ancient Bevelle machina. They're only more powerful versions of the enemies in Bevelle (well, the soldiers have zombie status).



There are even powerful golems that can drop level 3 key spheres so Auron can keep getting +4 strength nodes and do very damaging attacks. For some reason Seymour was here and her mother wanted to become a fayth so he could defeat Sin and be respected by the people in Spira. Why does she need to become a fayth? It isn't enough with the other aeons to train to get the final one?
"Use me to defeat Sin" says she, and that's the last clue we needed. A summoner has to sacrifice one person beloved to him/her to use as a final summon.



And the last memories we see are from Braska and his guardians. Auron was very worried about him and didn't want to use the final summon. Poor man, but someone has to do it. Jecht reveals a fatal revelation: There's another trial.



Tetris Theme A

This trial constists in finding the tetrominos that appear in the screen. An error and one has to start again. Like in Tetris, the square tetromino is rubbish and has a bid sign saying: Do not touch.



This has to be repeated four more times (the tetrominos in each try are chosen because they form a character that represents one of the other temples) and then a saving sphere appears because it's boss time!



Chrono Cross - Boss Battle Theme

Boss battle 27, Spectral Keeper: Each party member is in a circle and the boss can hit the three in front of it when it counterattacks each attack. The best thing to do is moving two characters behind it (three costs too much time) and cure the third when he/she needs it. The boss can berserk the characters with its normal attack so he/she can trigger more counterattacks, so use Esuna as soon as possible.



The Spectral Keeper can put two mines on the field that kill the character above them when they explode, so it "reduces" the battlefield temporarily. Auron should use his third overdrive to reduce its defenses and start soing massive damage.



After some well done dualcasts it dies. Fate awaits the party...

Finally met Aerith which means I'm at the part of the game that starts to get good. Poor Zack, though, the girl's tryin' to play hard to get. Don't worry bro someday Sephiroth will help you get the girl!

Also I got the Cait Sith, Cactuar and Tonberry DMWs. I forgot that Genesis was one and it only adds to my hatred.

That beginning portion in Zanarkand where you're running up to the temple is one of my favourite design decisions in the Final Fantasy series. Everything about it is perfect, from the art to the mood to the music never changing (and gosh darn that's probably one of my favourite tracks on the soundtrack next to Besaid Island and People of the North Pole). It's probably my favourite part of Final Fantasy X, or most of the recent FFs in recent years (next to the 1000 Words cutscene because that was surprisingly very well-directed).

Boy would I liked to see that Zanarkand bit in HD, eh SE?

FFX HD no longer exists as far as I'm concerned.

Who's got more "Missions & Memories"? Zack does!


M&Ms.3

Missions: Username - Anonymous

An anonymous mail led Zack out to the plains where supposedly an anti-Shinra weapon would be found. Instead, he finds a treasure chest and... "One, with Wutai's woes forever in her heart... Two, through countless, tireless training sessions... Three, armed with new skills to beat Shinra..." it's Yuffie again! She says this is Shinra's last day but Zack just wants to know how she got his mail address. Yuffie tries to get him to look at his phone so she can steal from him but Zack doesn't fall for that and she runs off crying. Later on in a cave a 'mysterious voice' demands he leave 100 gil since she gave him the location of the treasure. "She's always saying something about restoring Wutai... I can leave a hundred gil for that." Another anonymous mail and trek through a cave later and the voice demands he leave behind a Potion. Zack does so then leaves with the treasure, wondering how she gets into dangerous places like this!

The next time she demands 200 gil! Zack agrees but says it'll put a dent in his wallet. "She's gonna bankrupt me before I get to the bottom of the mail address leak..." Seriously, what the heck does Shinra pay SOLDIER in? Peanuts?? In the next place he's led to, no voice calls out when he approaches the treasure chest so Zack opens it... and out comes Bahamut Fury LOL. "Run for it! Yuffie! Are you still with me!?" The final mail leads him to a chest containing Bahamut Fury again, only this time there's no running away! The BF Genesis threw at Zack was a chump compared to this one cause its got way more HP and a slew of new attacks. After this very long battle... "One, the wondrous leviathan shining bright... Two, scenic hot springs not too hot... Three, a tourist attraction for all to see... No one needs a Wutai like this!" Zack's glad to see she's okay and finally gets an answer to his mail address question. Right after the war ended a blond guy gave the info to her dad, but when he did nothing with it, Yuffie took it and started spamming everyone! She ends up running away crying again while Zack ponders who could've leaked this info. "Hmmm... A blond guy who knows SOLDIER mail addresses? Who could that be? The plot thickens..." and obtains a hard earned Bahamut Fury materia!

Memories: Gardening

Zack recalls some time spent with Aeris.

Zack: "I'll give you a hand with the flowers."
Aeris: "No, that's okay. Besides, I'm the only one the flowers want to be tended by."
Zack: "Really..."

Memories: Caught Red Handed

Zack recalls a time he hit on a receptionist.

Zack: "I'm Zack. What's your name?"
*PHS rings, Zack answers*
Zack: "Hey, hold on a second. Oh, Tseng. I'm a little busy, so I may be late."
Receptionist: "Umm, behind you..."
Zack: "Hm?"
*Zack turns around*
Zack: "Gah! Tseng!"
Tseng: "Are you still busy?"

Memories: The Silver Streak

Zack recalls him and Sephiroth defending Sector 8.

Zack: "Go on ahead, Sephiroth, I'll handle things here!"
*Sephiroth blows by Zack, taking out all the enemies*
Sephiroth: "Did you say something? Let's go!"

Memories: Shot Down

Zack recalls searching for Hollander.

Zack: "Where did Hollander run off to?"
Cissnei: "Look like you lost him."
Zack: "Yeah, I'm having some trouble. If only I had a Turk with me..."
Cissnei: "There's no point in going together. We should split up and look for him."

Memories: Whoops!

Zack recalls failing to back Tseng up.

Tseng: "It will be bothersome if they call for reinforcements."
*Tseng calls Zack*
Tseng: "I'll draw their attention. Take them out... definitively."
Zack: "You got it."
*Tseng leaps out and startles the Wutai soldiers*
Wutai Guys: "Turks!? Eliminate them!"
Zack: "Hrraaahhh!"
*Zack jumps down between them*
Wutai Guys: "Wha...!? It's...it's SOLDIER! Everyone, get out here!"
*Tseng shoots them*
Wutai Guys: "D'oh!"
Tseng: "What are you doing? They've called for reinforcements!"
Zack: "Sorry, I jumped out too far..."

Memories: The Turks

Zack recalls Cissnei needing assitance.

*Cissnei is injured and panting as a large group of Genesis copies approach*
Cissnei: "Ngh... I messed up..."
*Zack arrives on the scene and leaps into action*
Zack: "Ha! Uh oh, not good! Hrraaahhh!"
*Zack comes to a quick stop*
Zack: "!!!"
Reno: "All's well that ends well."
Rude: "You were a little late."
Cissnei: "Pretty good teamwork, huh?"

A memory of Jecht's voice activates just before the party can see the final summon fayth: "There isn't a final aeon?" Exactly, the stone that once had Zaon's soul is empty. We can conclude that each final aeon can only be used once and someone else has to become the final summon fayth.



A new path opens that leads to Yunalesca, who will give the instructions to get the final aeon. Auron is asked why he didn't tell anything and he responds that they wouldn't have came if he'd have told them.



Yuna has to choose what guardian has to be the fayth. Yunalesca starts talking nonsense and says that she doesn't have to worry about that because she'll die soon and be freed from sorrow and pain. That sounds a lot like Seymour...



Jecht wanted to become fayth and Auron is still furious about the outcome. Jecht promised he was going to break the cycle, but he didn't accomplish anything...


Well, people born in the Spira start offering themselves to be the fayth, but Tidus keeps insisting in not doing it because it won't accomplish anything, only more summoners being sacrificed for naught.



Tidus: "This is my story. It'll go the way I want, or I'll end it here."
Yuna has to call him out because it's her story too and she's the person who has to decide after all.



Cutscenes in this game can't be skipped, so better to save so I don't have to see the last one again if I die... Let's go!



Before deciding, Yuna wants to know if there are any chances of Sin not returning after killing it. The answer is an outright NO, because the final aeon that defeats Sin becomes the base for a new Sin. That explains pretty well the Sin <=> Jecht situation.



Wakka asks if Sin can disappear if there's no more sin in the world, but Yunalesca says that a world free of sin is impossible (and she knows that sins doesn't have anything to do with Sin's existence in the first place). Lulu gets pretty upset. That isn't my Lulu. Ten years ago, Auron was upset too after Braska died and attacked her but was struck down. The "hope" that Braska and Jecht had lead them to their deaths.



Thanks to these last revelations, Yuna decides that this false tradition has to end and that a false hope isn't good even if people are happier because of it. Yunalesca then wants to kill them before they give up into despair. Someone's craaaazy!

Challenge

I had a "policy" about not repeating songs, but I'm making an exception with To Zanarkand, A Fleeting Dream, this one and Otherworld.



Auron's plan all along was showing the group the truth so they could destroy all these false traditions fight and their sorrow instead of shying away of it with promises of a non-existant hope. Time to write our stories with our own hands!



The guardians prepare to kick this ****'s ass!



Boss battle 28, Yunalesca: Stupid bug, I hate it when it happens! She counterattacks everything with a weak attack. Not much difficult.



Yunalesca, 2nd form: She has an attack that induces zombie status in all the group, but it must not be removed because she has another attack that kills everyone who isn't a zombie. She keeps counterattacking so that drains the characters HP while I can't cure them.



Yunalesca, 3rd form: She can now cast Curaga and kill a zombified character pretty easily.



I had to use some Mega Phoenixes in extreme situations like this one. The second screenshot is the animation of her most dangerous attack in my opinion, Mind Blast. It can confuse everyone and we know how bad is that.



This is the attack that kills people if they aren't zombies. I could have brought deathproof armor, but I'm that reckless. My Lulu can deal about 8000 points of damage when she can attack thanks to Dualcast.



With her HP low enough, it's time to mega flare her and blow up her face.



Oh, noes! Yunalesca is dying! Again... Before she disappears she tells that the one who recreates Sin time after time is Yu Yevon. She gives some level 3 key spheres so the characters can continue raising stats. Before leaving this place I must get the sun sigil because Dark Bahamut appears later and I can't get it then.



Auron wants to tell Tidus that he's an unsent too and that he was the person who told Kimahri to take Yuna from Bevelle to Besaid before dying. Being an unsent, he can use his pyreflies to let Tidus see how Jecht wanted Auron to take care of him.



Jecht/Sin can be peaceful when he wants and doesn't attack the airship that passes right next to him.

End of the update.

I have to say that SIN was a pretty cool concept, even if he was basically just FF Godzilla.

OP now lists Cloud in the character section!

When Zack said "Cloud, look." in this segment I could think of only one thing...
...curse you internet memes!


Pt.10 "A Departure and New Ties"



Zack's trying to call Sephiroth whom he hasn't been able to reach for ages when a SOLDIER 2nd Class named Luxiere informs him that Sephiroth's been holed up in the data room researching Shinra's Science Department. Phones aren't allowed in there which is why he can't be gotten ahold of. He may be unavailable but Aeris isn't! She called and asked when he'll be making her a wagon and Zack says he'll be right over! ...After he's done with all sorts of other things. Things such as making a fool of himself to other SOLDIER members! He then heads down to the Exhibit Room and bumps into another of Shinra's scientists.


This science guy disses SOLDIER, calling them puppets as he walks off which Zack takes offense to! Some more walking & talking leads him to meeting the city development manager, learns from a fellow SOLDIER that Lazard is down in the dumps and taking heat for the Genesis attacks, and decides to test his physical fitness by seeing how many squats he can do in a minute! He blew the competition away four times in a row to obtain quadriceps of steel and wagon parts! Next he visits Lazard who's got alot on his hands due to the attacks. He mentions that security's preparing to take out Angeal & Genesis. Zack complains that Angeal was helping fight Genesis but all the same the company sees him as a risk. Zack says if that's the way things have to be then he wants to quit and asks Lazard if he's ever felt like quitting to which Lazard says no. Now he hasn't been given an assignment yet but Zack grabs a Fira materia from the supply pods before heading back out to Sector 8 all the same!


Zack encounters a reporter who's snooping around to find & reveal Shinra's dark secrets. He decides to let the guy go which nets him access to his newsletter free of charge! A 2nd Class SOLDIER tells him 6 remnants of Wutai have infiltrated the area by disguising themselves and Zack agrees to help find them all! The first was disguised as a regular man in the Loveless Avenue. While seeking the next one he heads to the slums where Angeal pays him a visit. Apparently he came all this way to tell Zack and Lazard that Genesis & Hollander are holed up in Modeoheim. Angeal flies off to meet with Lazard again and Zack gets back to the spy hunt. One of which happened to be right in that area disguised as an infantrymen! In the Shinra building there was one posing as a regular employee. Sector 8 had one sneaking around as a money grubbing woman! Another normal looking guy in the Shinra building turned out to be a spy. Last, and weirdest of all, was a 'kid' in the slum playground! In that same place he bumps into a member of the Sephiroth fan club and at long last gets his chance to join after correctly answering three questions!



It's about this time that Zack remembers he was going to pay Aeris a visit and so he scoots right on over to the church. Tseng stops him at the entrance saying she's not home and that they're needed in Modeoheim. Tseng keeps to himself how he knows about Aeris which Zack shrugs it off as they go board the copter "Well, whatever, I guess." They enjoy a fine flight until the copter is shot down! Their mobile phones get no reception in this frigid wasteland but luckily they all survived and got a country boy in the party. Zack'll find them the way to Modeoheim on foot! And he quickly discovers another member of their group is able to keep up with him. This lowly infantrymen is also a country boy. The two joke around about their hometowns and take a liking to one another. This guy introduces himself as Cloud of Nibelheim and is added to the DMW!



After battling their way through the snow covered area the party stops to take a breather. Cloud asks what its like to be in SOLDIER but Zack says he'll find out when he gets there. Clouds not to sure he'll be able to join, but Zack reassures him saying if he could join then surely Cloud can to! They stumble upon a mako excavation test site which isn't their target, but with Genesis goons guarding the place they can't ignore it. Zack is able to evade being detected by the guards, keeps his body temperature up by squatting, and successfully sneaks into the place, procuring items from five treasure chests along the way! A solo sneaking mission into an arctic base eh...



Inside the building he wanders around and encounters plenty of Genesis copies. Thinking of Cloud allows Zack to unleash his Meteor Shots on these scrubs! Taking an elevator down leads him to finding an off his rocker Genesis threatening Hollander! He gets between 'em and Cloud tries to restrain Hollander only to get knocked on his ass. He'll never make SOLDIER if some tubby scientist get away from him! Genesis says Jenova cells can keep him alive but no one, not even Hojo knows where they are. In that case, Genesis decides to accept his fate... and take the world with him. So much for being a hero! Cloud leaves to chase after Hollander while Zack and Genesis take in a short spar before the G man decides to get serious.



This is it. The real deal. No copies this time. His seriousness is no match for the curse prevention item Zack found while traversing the snowy area. Genesis wasn't half as tough as his beloved summons. Maybe the degradation is to blame for that? Excuses aside, the fight was hassle free and Zack clearly the winner! "Dreams of the morrow hath the shattered soul; Pride is lost; Wings stripped away, the end is nigh such is the fate of a monster. If this world seeks my destruction... ...it goes with me." says the guy allowing himself to drop into a pit. That was... anti-climactic. But hey, Genesis gets added to the DMW... because why not.

CorvoSol said:

I have to say that SIN was a pretty cool concept, even if he was basically just FF Godzilla.

Click to expand...

He was best when we had yet to see his fully body IMO. When I first played the game and saw him attack the ship on the way to Kilika, I thought he was supposed to be something like a manifestation of natural disaster or something, some kind of natural force without a clearly physical body (I thought he was that wavy thing on the game's logo). But then when he showed up later he was "just" a big flying whale.

Sonic & Knuckles - Flying Battery Zone Act 1

Where to go? What to do? The only clues are that Sin is Jecht and that Yu Yevon guy. Yuna enters the room to see her uncle...



...but they don't talk! They need to recover all those lost years, fast!



This must be Toriyama's least favourite part of the game: I can go wherever I want! From now on, I'll do lots of sidequests/monster capturing, so these updates will be much less story heavy. A total nightmare for certain people, mwahahahaha!

Kimahri says what the party should do next: Talk with Mica because he must know something to defeat Sin.



The other characters have thought of something else to weaken Sin when they fight it: Use the Yevon Hymn so it becomes less vicious thanks to Jecht liking it.



You can tell Cid some passwords to unlock certain new areas in the location selection screens. GODHAND unlocks a secret area in the Mushroom Rock Road where Rikku's final weapon can be obtained. Other passwords are MURASAME and VICTORIOUS, that give a weapon that reduces MP cost for Auron and an armor for Rikku.



I can also introduce some coordinates to discover even more secret areas. The most important ones are the Baaj Temple and the Omega Ruins. An easy way to discover them is to press x everywhere until they show up. Clever, ya?

Capture one monster of each species in Mount Gagazet and the monster arena master will give you the other item needed to unlock the Magus Sisters. Now I only need Anima.



Final Fantasy XIII - Cocoon de Chocobo

Now that I'm in the Calm Lands I want to get Tidus's final weapon and unlock its power. First, I break the last record.



And I get the Caladbolg/Ultima Weapon.



After some "failed" attempts, I go below 0 seconds, and I mean below because if the time is just 0:00:00 then I don't recieve the special reward: The Sun Sigil!



Return to the place in the Macalania Woods where the cloudy mirror changed into the celestial mirror and unleash the Caladbolg's full potential. With this weapon, Tidus can increase the max damage limit to 99,999, his overdrive gauge fills three times faster and he counterattacks magic and when he evades an attack. An added bonus is that his attacks are stronger the higher it's his current HP compared to his HP cap.



I want to get Anima and that means unlocking the last seal, the one in Zanarkand. Yuna learns Holy on the way and they see Dona and Barthello, who have finished their pilgrimage a bit too late. Dona seems a bit relieved now that she doesn't have to sacrifice herself and leaves.



The trial changes and now I have to activate all the 2x2 tetrominos without touching the others. Doing so gives access to the destruction sphere.



Last Anima seal broken!



Anima is in a familiar temple for Tidus and Rikku. Here they have to meet again with an old friend:

Enemy Attack

Well, my policy about not repeating music doesn't exit anymore!

Optional boss battle 2, Geosgaeno: This evil monster does attacks relative to the current HP of the characters and likes to swallow them. Good use of items stolen by Rikku can drain its HP quickly.



With the monster at the hands of its Father, it's time to break the seal that guards Anima (and using a teleporting device to bring Yuna here because she can't dive).



Anima's fayth is Seymour's mother so that makes me realize that he completed his pilgrimage and she became his final aeon fayth, but then he didn't use her to defeat Sin because he didn't want to let her become Sin... but himself instead for UNLIMITED AND ETERNAL POWER! I suppose there isn't a problem summoning the final aeon if it isn't used against Sin.



New Aeon got and time to finish this update!

Final Fantasy IV - Battle 2 (Arranged)

Now that I have Anima, it's time to get back to Remiem Temple and get the Magus Sisters and the Moon Sigil. First, the Magus Sisters are another special aeon like Yojimbo, but thankfully not that special. One has to submit them orders that amount to things like "Offensive action", "Support action", etc. They can stay doing nothing when said to do something. Despite that shortcoming, having three aeons that are stronger individually than all the other aeons except Anima is really great and they can be really useful to start defeating powerful arena monsters.



Now I defeat the other Belgemine aeons. First comes my Anima versus her Yojimbo. Having an aeon that can do 10000+ damage with physical attacks is really unfair to her, but she cheated in our first battles, so...



Second round, Magus Sisters against Anima. Three against one means that this battle is a cakewalk and Anima has to endure pain again at my hands. I'm going to talk about the Magus Sisters a bit more: They can use two forms of "Delta Attack", the one in FFIV consisting of Sandy casting Reflect on Cindy and then she replecting Mindy's magics on the enemy. This tactic is shit and must be avoided by not chosing the orders that can end in Sandy and Mindy casting spells. The second Delta Attack is their overdrive and can deal about 99999x6 of damage in the International Version. The best strategy is trying to make them use their special attacks for massive damage. At first, the most powerful one is Sandy because she can reach the 99999 of damage per special attack earlier, but later Mindy will start doing more than that thanks to her 15x hit Passado. Cindy is pretty good thanks to her healing and reviving skills.



Third round, Anima versus the Magus Sisters: I'm outnumbered, but that doesn't mean she has the upper hand. Thanks to Oblivion, the Magus Sisters will cease to exist.



In the International Version, Oblivion is a 16x hit multi-attack that can eventually deal 99,999 x 16 = 1,599,984 if the enemy doesn't have very high defenses. Bye, bye!



ROAR! Now it's time to send her to the Farplane and get my just reward: The Moon Sigil.



The Moon Crest is in Besaid near the landing point. Tidus has to swim a little and ta-dah!



The real Nirvana can do up to 99999 points of damage, gives double AP, fills faster the overdrive gauge (3x) and Yuna only spends 1MP on each skill/spell. Her attack bonus depends on the current MP, so it's easier to attack at max power thanks to it (MP damaging moves aren't common and thanks to this weapon Yuna doesn't waste much).



I want to get Wakka's final weapon and overdrives, and that means Blitzball time! First I hire competent people and fire the original Aurochs. I don't like those slackers in my newly adquired team.



Thanks to my new members I can beat the best goalie in the world and take my revenge on those pesky Luca Goers.



First step in Blitzball: Winning a tournament to get the Attack Reels. In the middle of the season the Kilika Beasts hire a former Auroch, really? Oh boy, they really must be desperate.



My team also murders the ronsos and gets Wakka's second overdrive.



Final Fantasy IV - Battle

I'm a little bored of blitzball and I start capturing enemies in the "low level" areas. Thanks to that I can fight an overpowered version of the Zu. I can't defeat it with my characters so I call a mercenary to finish it off.



We can see an updated version of FFIV's "swoon", yeah! (Thanks Dark Schala for the screenshot).



While catching lots of weak monsters the party finds another sphere that shows the adventures of Braska's group of outcasts against the Chocobo Eater.



Tidus can use the sword adquired in the Calm Lands near a Mi'ihen statue in the Mushroom Rock Road.



Auron gets the Masamune in front of his pupil Rikku, who will inherit it when he isn't among us. With this weapon, Auron can attack first and that means that going to the Omega Ruins is much less dangerous because I can flee from the quick Malboros that live there. The power of this weapon increases when Auron has been severely damaged.



In order to proceed with the game I go to see Mica, but there are some unfriendly soldiers in front of the city gates. Luckily for my characters, Shelinda appears saying that the rumours about Yuna's being an infidel were spread by the Albhed and that she's a nice person and can enter the city. The church has some problems right now and a there'a a chaotic ambience.



Doom - Intermission

Mica wants my characters to kill Sin soon, but he didn't know about how they defeated Yunalesca. He then enters in doom mode and starts saying how everything is lost and Yu Yevon is going to destroy everything with his spiral of death. He gives a little more information about him and how he uses Sin as armor and the party has erased the only method to destroy it. Oops... Seeing that he can't do anything more, disappears.



"Bahamut" wants Yuna and Tidus to come to his room to know what they plan to do with Sin and tell them about Yu Yevon. He survives the final aeon attack on Sin and then uses it to create another Sin. When Yu Yevon dies, the fayths will awake and their dream will end. Tidus thanks him and Yuna doesn't understand anything but suspects something.



Rikku tells Shelinda to spread the word about how everyone has to sing the Fayth's Hymn when a flying ship starts reproducing it.



From now on, Sin is a selectable "place" to go with the airship. Wantz also becomes available in the Macalania Woods to sell some expensive four slotted armor. It's very useful to get the "definitive" armor.



Final Fantasy XIII - Will to Fight

And now I want to go to the Omega Ruins. They have the most powerful random encounters including the evil Malboro that always attacks first. It seems that an heretic was excuted here and became a powerful monster.



In this cave you can try to open certain chests and a Mimic will appear. They give 50,000 gil upon death (100,000 with the gillionaire ability), so they are a good source of money. When I complete ten cathegories in the monster arena between species and zones I get the Saturn Sigil and that means that I can unleash the Masamune's true power. After that it's time to do the cactuar sidequest in Bikanel to get the Venus Sigil.




Final Fantasy VI - Battle Theme

I didn't take a screenshot of the first cactuar, but he was in the oasis. Some of them were a bitch to catch, but luckily it isn't a must to finish the sidequest.



Put all the named spheres (win) or spheres del perdedor (loser) in the cactuar stone and the sandstorm will end. There is a chest with the Venus sigil in it. With it, I power up the Godhand and it gets the gillionaire ability so now I can farm mimics. It also haves the same damage bonus as the Caladbolg.



The Mercury Crest and the World Champion can be adquired in Luca by going to the lockers for the former and showing the mirror to the bartender for the latter.



"Activating" a league with the Attack Reels can get you the Status Reels as the first prize. Activating means the moment when a league starts and you can see the prizes before playing a any matches. And "activating" a tournament with that prize can get you the Auroch Reels as the first prize.



I reset the blitzball data because I don't want to play a league for some bad prizes. Upon resetting, the new league prize is the Mercury Sigil. I have to hire again my dear players, but playing 10 extra matches was in my opinion a much worse option.



Wakka's World Champion is like the Caladbolg, but it gives double AP instead of counterattacking magic attacks. Ah, I didn't say it before, but the ability Evade and Attack makes the character counterattack even if he/she's is hit.

Well, this is enough for this update. Next: The characters attack that big whale.

CorvoSol said:

I wouldn't say offensive, just crummy. Partially the voice acting feels weird to me. Tseng sounds like he is always dead, Angeal's mother's "Are you Zack the puppy?" was poorly delivered and Angeal's "Zack. Follow your dreams." is a stupid line which made no sense in the context of that scene.

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Ohhh I'm easily to please so the voice acting never raised any issues with me. Though I must say Hojo doesn't look or sound like the ideas I had of him from the original game.

Genesis is a disgrace to the time honored tradition of villains in FF games being the coolest guy in the game.

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I haven't played enough FFs to know this was a thing o.o Evil Clown Guy, Sephiroth, Genesis... none of them are the coolest guys in their games!

CorvoSol said:

Finally met the infamous Cissnei who does not live up to the hype. Which isn't to say she's a BAD character, I think she's easily the best character introduced in the game, it's just that people did some serious hyping on this girl I barely remembered.

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Was this a thing to? I never followed CC and only got it on a whim 2 years ago. She is nice and I do like her but past her introduction she's been pretty much absent save for DMW flashbacks. I know she'll be back soon but she seems way underutilized for anyone to bother hyping her.

Professor Beef said:

There's a hidden EXP counter in the game, and once you cross the threshold for your current level, your chances of getting 777 increase.

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As someone who like to grind this is a beef I have with the game! You can see how much exp enemies give ya but that useless without a progress bar to compare it to!

Heropon said:

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?!
Cactuars find their ways into the strangest of places!

Heropon said:

After some "failed" attempts, I go below 0 seconds, and I mean below because if the time is just 0:00:00 then I don't recieve the special reward: The Sun Sigil!

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Do I need to express my rage about the Chocobo Lady again?

Because I hate that minigame.



Hate it so much.

Final Fantasy IV - Lunar Whale

I'm going to kill Sin without using the final summmon, I'm a hero! We can see the giant whale monster approaching. *monster sound*



The characters can hear the Fayth Hymn, that means that it's time to attack it. Brother has learned a little of "normal" language to tell Tidus to take care of his sister, actually she'll take care of us. Tidus shows Yuna the sphere she recorded in the Mi'ihen Road and throws it.



Sin attacks first and starts destroying the land a little.



Kingdom Hearts - Monstrous Monstro

Boss battle 29, Left Fin: Strategy? What's that when you're a bit overleveled? Move the ship near it and hit it HARD.



Wakka is my personal gatling gun and thanks to its attack reels he destroys the target.

This machine works and cripples Sin.



Boss battle 30, Right Fin: Same battle but the other fin. Same consequences:




Time to jump on Sin. The Sin's toxin isn't anywhere to be seen.



Boss battle 31, Sin's Core and Sinspawn Genais: They're supposed to attack... or something.



Anima can look elsewhere and still kill it. That shows how weak it is.




It isn't dead yet, but the characters have time to talk a little between them. "Bahamut" told Yuna to use them, the aeons, against Yu Yevon and she suspects he will fuse with them, meaning they'll have to defeat them too. Uh oh, Yuna also suspects something about Tidus and says: "You won't dissapear, right?"



I call this picture "Big Whale Over Big City at Afternoon".




Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire - Wild Battle Battle Against Wailord

Boss battle 32, Sin: This is the last battle against Sin and the monster starts pretty far from the party. Holy is the most powerful attack I have right now and it does a pretty good work.



Sin starts attracting the airship to itself with its own gravitational field. But he doesn't know that it also attracts Wakka's blitzballs and...




I'm going to travel inside Sin, what could be inside?



Seymour! What a surprise >.> ,yeah...



And now that the Sin area has been included in the monster arena, I can bribe monoliths when I want without looking for them in the Omega Ruins or inside Sin. 900,000 gil mean a lifetime supply of level 3 key spheres. And that was the purpose of killing Sin, not saving the world or something like that.

End of the update! Does someone see the relation between all the music? *wink* *wink*