In the last chapter, Yuna, Rikku and Paine killed some bad aeons and discovered that vital energy can be used to light their houses. Now they're going to the mysterious cave in the Mushroom Rock Road.



Chrono Cross - Isle of the Dead/Damned

"Remember me?" - Says the door when Yuna is about to put the 10 crimson spheres she has collected in her journeys around the world. This cave contains horrible secrets that can drive anyone to madness, but Yuna wants to know the truth behind the Crimson Squad incident. Paine will have to revive her past whether she likes it or not.



The layout of this cave isn't very interesting and the only encounters are these weak ghosts. The real meat of this cave isn't the journey through it, of that I'm pretty sure.



At the bottom of the cave, a sequence of cutscenes starts. The pyreflies, that have the ability to show memories, form an image of Paine's past recording the exam and how the people went crazy during it. Surprise, surprise! It was Shuyin who caused that thanks to his hatred in the air. It's still present in the cave and it starts surrounding Rikku and the others.

Nightmare of a Cave



Hey gurls, those things are sharp, what do you think you're doing? They are pretty lucky as they are experiencing first hand a possession while saying "You know what she did? Your cunting friend!" and the like.



Yuna is about to enjoy one of those gaseous hugs. Let's take a look at what she sees:



Aha, Vegnagun.



I'm going to explain what this screenshot represents: The big machine is controlled by an organ! And ghost Tidus learned to play it in a five minutes lesson. Well, that last thing was a lie, I don't know how he learned to use it, but I've seen worse things, like people trying to fly a blimp without ever touching one in their life.



Fortunately for the planet, the good girlfriend appeared to save him from his hatred and he didn't vaporize Spira. As we saw in the 1000 words cutscene, some soldiers appeared later and they killed the lovers.



"This is our story, Lenne". He had to say it, doesn't he? For some reason I don't like that catchphrase at all, it's pretty egotistical. And now that I'm pissed, let's hurt some bad friends for not giving back the clothes that Yuna lent them.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Final Destination



This an one on one fight against the girls that calls herself friend of Yuna and that betrays her just because she's possessed. Pfffft, I think that's a weak reason, let's add that she's jealous of her too. Yuna becomes a thief like her adorable evil cousin to steal some valuable goods. I don't know why I can steal things from a party member, but it's a nice feature so I won't question it more. Just when Yuna finishes the theft, she puts her lethal moogle costume to finish that woman.



Yuna has to fight Paine in another battle where Yuna can get the book that Paine reads in secret. What's that about having private things, Paine? All that is yours is also Yuna's, remember that and I won't have to punish you again!



Thanks to Yuna beating them, the former friends come into their senses again and talk about how the pyreflies there caused the people to go berserker in the Crimson Squad exam. With this mystery solved, it's time to exit this cave... or not. There are some memories left to fight.



Baralai, Gippal and Nooj! The two first battles aren't really difficult, but the Nooj one can get a bit nasty if the battle isn't finished soon enough.



After the sequence of fights (five without pause!), the girls think it isn't a good idea to stick around anymore. Paine talks about the events in the cave and how Nooj wasn't being himself when he shot her and the others two years ago because he was possessed by Shuyin. After thinking about the reunion cutscene in Bevelle where a cloud of pyreflies emerged from Nooj and went into Baralai they accord to save the latter because he's the one with an evil spirit inside right now. After this sidequest, our girls get lots of goodies like an extra skill for the Songstress dressphere or a garment grid. Time to rest in the airship then until the next update!





I leave this poll here about Final Fantasy V jobs. It might mean something... or not. Let's see how many fans the Berserker job has!

Link

Well, this certainly says something...

Updated summary (up to post 3706).



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




ActStriker PSP: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Aeana PSP: Part 1, 2, 3, 4
charlequin : Part 1, 2
Chris25 iOS: Part 1, 2
CorvoSol : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Entropia : Part 1, 2, 3
gketter PSP: Part 1, 2
Goli PSP: Part 1
Heropon PSP: Part 1, 2, 3
honorless PSP: Part 1, 2
IdreamofHIME : Part 1
Johnas : Part 1, 2
ninjatrigg PSP: Part 1
Ourobolus iOS: Part 1, 2, 3, 4
Psxphile PSP: Part 1
Scythian PSP: Part 1
sphinx PSP: Part 1, 2
Ultratech GBA: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5




Aeana Famicom: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
CorvoSol DS: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Entropia DS: Part 1, 2, 3
Exentryk iOS: Part 1
gketter DS: Part 1
Heropon DS: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Jucksalbe Famicom; Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 , 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
Kaori's Babydaddy Famicom: Part 1, 2, 3
Kokonoe PSP: Part 1, 2
Natetan DS: Part 1
ninjatrigg DS: Part 1
Ourobolus Famicom: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
PixyJunket DS: Part 1
Psxphile DS: Part 1, 2
stupei DS: Part 1, 2, 3
TranceKuja Famicom: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Ultratech PSP: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Absoludacrous PSP: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Aeana PSP: Part 1, 2, 3
chris-013 iOS: Part 1
CorvoSol DS: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
CorvoSol PSP: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
DarkSchala SNES: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, Some kind of weird stuff, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34
Goli PSP: Part 1, 2, 3
Heropon PSP: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Heropon DS: Part 1, 2
honorless PSP: Part 1
itzknickknac PSP: Part 1
Jedeye Sniv iOS: Part 1
Jucksalbe PSP: Part 1, 2
Kalnos DS: Part 1
Nocturnowl PSP: Part 1, 2
Ourobolus PSP: Part 1, 2, 3
Paches-EJ- SNES: Part 1, 2
Red Scarlet SNES: Part 1, 2
Ultratech PSP: Part 1
Watanabe Kazuma PSP: Part 1
Zerokku PSP: Part 1
Zing SNES: Part 1




CorvoSol Wii: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
CorvoSol PSP: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Electivirus PSP: Part 1, 2, 3




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

Aeana : Part 1, 2, 3, 4
Bladenic : Part 1
CorvoSol GBA: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
Dark Schala SNES: Part 1, 2, 3
Entropia : Part 1, 2, 3
FGMPR PSX: Part 1
FrontalMonk : Part 1
Heropon SNES: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17
jb1234 GBA: Part 1, 2
Jedeye Sniv : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Natetan : Part 1, 2, 3
Nocturnowl : Part 1
Ourobolus GBA: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Rei_Toei : Part 1, 2, 3
Scythian Empire GBA: Part 1, 2
Vamphuntr PSX: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10




Aeana : Part 1
Bearded Dudebro : Part 1
Boogiepop : Part 1, 2, 3, 4
CorvoSol : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27
Entropia : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Forceatowolf : Part 1, 2
Gravijah : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
GrumpyAlien : Part 1, 2, 3
Heropon : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
Jackano PC: Part 1
Kagari : Part 1
led4lyfe : Part 1, 2, 3
Lindsay : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, Bonus, Bonus2, Bonus3
Ourobolous : Part 1
StuBurns : Part 1
TxdoHawk : Part 1




APZonerunner : Part 1
Boogiepop : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Chacranajxy : Part 1, 2
chris-013 : Part 1
CorvoSol : Part 1
Entropia : Part 1, 2
Heropon : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
jb1234 : Part 1, 2, 3
jbueno : Part 1, 2
SFGamer : Part 1
TranceKuja : Part 1, 2
Wildesy : Part 1
xist : Part 1

Billychu : Part 1, 2, 3
Boogiepop : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
DarkKyo : Part 1
Entropia : Part 1, 2, 3
Heropon : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42
Jucksalbe : Part 1
Lactose_Intolerant : Part 1
pikablu : Part 1, 2
Professor Beef : Part 1
TranceKuja : Part 1, 2, 3




Boogiepop : Part 1, 2, 3, 4
Heropon : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37
led4lyfe : Part 1




Heropon : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34
Jucksalbe : Part 1
ULTROS! : Part 1




Xaekid PC: Part 1, 2, 3



chris-013 Zodiac: Part 1-01, 1-02, 1-03, 1-04, 2-01, 2-02
RDreamer Zodiac: Part 1, 2
Xux Original: Part 1



Boogiepop : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
CorvoSol : Part 1, 2, 3
Jea Song : Part 1
Mxrz : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Ourobolus: Part 1
Rahxephon91 : Part 1, 2
Roubjon : Part 1, 2
Seda: Part 1
TheSeks : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17



CorvoSol : Part 1, 2, 3, 4
DR2K : Part 1
linko9 : Part 1, 2

Aeana : Part 1
honorless : Part 1




chris-013 PSP: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Heropon PSP: Part 1, 2
Jedeye Sniv iOS: Part 1, 2, 3, 4
Professor Beef PSP: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35




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




CorvoSol : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20
ivedoneyourmom : Part 1




CorvoSol : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Locke_211: Part 1, 2
Lindsay: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31




Lindsay : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20



Anslon : Part 1, 2
The Awesomest : Part 1
Goli : Part 1




CorvoSol : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6




Jucksalbe: Part 1, 2


aka This game...!

CorvoSol : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Dark Schala SNES: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
Jucksalbe SNES: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18




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




Ultratech : Part 1, 2, 3, 4




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




Lindsay : Part 1, 2




CorvoSol : Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10




CorvoSol iOS: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9


Bonus: If you want to take screenshots on your PSP, follow Stumpokapow's instructions here and here.
Bonus 2: Need to get rid of black borders in your pictures? Look here.
Bonus 3: In the event that any Vita FF game is released, you can take screenshots by pressing the Home and Start button at the same time. This does NOT work for PSP and PSX games on the Vita.

If you find a mistake or something I missed, feel free to contact me.
Also, if you have a better version of one of the logo images (that still looks good at 60px height), send me a PM.

Yuna, Rikku and Paine have remembered that an award awaits them if they go to the Farplane thorugh all the temple holes. There are little puzzles in some of them, but they aren't complicated. In their way, they find the devil twins and one of them is invulnerable to x spam (the attack command) but not to the number 9999. The reward for doing all the walking is a garment grid with access to Ultima, so it's worth it... I think?

Only the final dungeon awaits our girls then. I suppose I'll use two updates for it and then this game is finished.



I'm going to post again the link to the poll because it was trapped at the end of the page and it was massively popular : Link

CorvoSol said:

Does the phone version include the Dark Knight class? Because if so, that, plus Arithmeticians and Cid really breaks the game. I always get at least one Dark Knight by the end of chapter 1.

Click to expand...

Ha, ha! Holy shit, you must grind like a mad dog! Yeah, the iOS version has pretty much everything the PSP version has (including Midnight's Deep) except for the multiplayer stuff. On the plus side, after finishing the game -- and I don't think this is true of the PSP version -- all of the special items become infinitely available at the Poacher's Den.

But yeah, I got a Dark Knight on my first playthrough just out of curiosity, and man, the work to get it surely wasn't worth that payoff. It's a cool class, but unnecessary and nothing special once you get Cid. Heck, even Agrias is enough, really. But the arithmetician is just silly broken. Nonetheless, the game is heaven (and hell). It's beyond remarkable. I just completed Limberry Castle, which always inspires me to brush up on the backstory of Saint Ajora and the lucavi. Such great storytelling. Sure, it's all lifted from the Christian gospels, but it's a really cool twist on contemporary Christian religion.

Sssccrrriiiipppttttteeeedddd Bbbbbaaaaaatttttttllllllleeeee !!!!!



So Hojo dismissed Lucrecia's theories and thought his experiments on Vincent until he saw the guy transform into Chaos three years ago. When was this? In the Northern Crater before the Weapon's awoke or as he was getting killed in Midgar? The latter doesn't leave him much time to formulate and execute his grand plan of becoming one with a thing he didn't believe existed until then. Deepground the most powerful beings? Really? Whether he determined this before or after his death its still bunk.


Hojo's especially pleased he was able to get the assistance of Nero under the guise of reviving his dead bro. Yeah laugh it up chucklefuck, while ya still can! Vincent's ready to shut this old fool up!


Part 21: "fuck off hojo"



Sadly though it is Vincent who gets the pulp beaten outta him. Before he's gonna finish him off, Hojo decides to let our hero watch as he absorbs the Lifestream. But Vincent gets back up and challenges him again!


With how fast this guy was moving around the room and how hard to target he was I had a feeling... and so I purposely let him kill me. An it turns out I was right! The show goes on! Chaos starts ta wake up again which Shelke senses. She talks to him through Lucrecia and helps him to regain control and ta use the power of Chaos while still in his human forme!


Time to end this here an now for reals! ...And do some shopping mid-battle. I was curious! I often saw shop-box's during other boss battles but never tried interacting with 'em. Soooo why not give it a try? I am now a gigantic cheater ^_^


With the ability ta actually track the guy, battling him became doable. Not easy cause he's got some mean attacks, speed, and barrier. Though when he pins himself to the reactor core he makes for a nice easy target. Hojo freaks out cause Omega's power starts fading an this is cause Nero's darkness had seeped into him! So much for his perfect untainted body.


Nero & Weiss hug up together and decide to let themselves pass on to the afterlife. Which leaves Hojo truly fucked! The mad scientist goes out crying like a little bitch as Weiss dies, taking him along for the ride. Not laughing now are ya?


Dat time expired. 5 of a kind!! Yup these look like my usual stats. The scripted defeat didn't count against me so hurrah for that! I did rather well on the missions save for the one I was like 'no' to. Tough chapter overall but since its almost(?) the last one this is to be expected.


Yuffie catches up to Vincent all happy-like an says "they did it" but what did she do?? This celebration isn't meant ta be cause the reactors and Lifestream in Midgar start going wild! This results in the revival of Omega. Okay yeah. That is definetely Weapon material. I am not displeased.


Omega's awakening brings out the Chaos in Vincent! He's truly lost control this time! Shelke seems to think she can do her 'net diving into the network of souls within Omega. Shockingly such a strange thing is possible!


She successfully gets into Omega and finds its automated defenses are... tentacles?! Sheesh! Of all the... ya know what lets just move on. Cause besides tentacles, someone else is there. Someone with the gift of Protomateria!!


With this she busts free an shoots straight through Chaos, plopping the Protomateria right back where it belongs. Vincent vaguely comes to his senses in time to see a vision of Lucrecia being pulled right back down into Chaos. Does that mean Shelke's caught up inside it? I am confuse.


Memory time! It seems that after getting shot by Hojo, Vincent was more or less legit dead. Lucrecia didn't even seem to know Hojo had experimented on him before getting her hands on Vincent. However, she did witness Hojo shooting him in the first place. This just added to her guilt of first causing his dad to die an now this. And Vincent thought he was the one with sins to atone for!


Infusing Chaos into Vincent to save him wasn't quite working out as he was just becoming a monster. Lucrecia got super depressed over this failure and Hojo's taunting. He never even let her see her son once! Finally she just gave it all up and left, leaving him for dead.


The remants of Lucrecia's data call out to Vincent, bringing his mind to that happy place they once shared. As always she's so super sorry for all the mistakes she's made and brought upon him. Finally she vanishes and our hero snaps outta it!


Shelke's still as hard to please as ever but it's cool with Vincent. Despite his weird appearance he's his old self!


He projects himself a real fancy looking gun an decides to put all this to rest!


Chaos VS Omega, let's rock!

Just a question, is it too late for me to join in the let's play goodness? Cause I'm planning to play FF5 (GBA version) for the first time.

SougoXIII said:

Just a question, is it too late for me to join in the let's play goodness? Cause I'm planning to play FF5 (GBA version) for the first time.

Click to expand...

Absolutely not! Anyone can join any time they want.

Question: In FFIV, what is the recommended level range for your default party when fighting the final boss? Mine are in the 50's but I haven't really looked deep into strategy. I get owned too fast for any strategy.

SougoXIII said:

Just a question, is it too late for me to join in the let's play goodness? Cause I'm planning to play FF5 (GBA version) for the first time.

Click to expand...

Glad seeing new people choosing to play the masterpiece that is FFV, feel free to ask any questions! And if you like it, you could try to join the FFV Four Job Fiesta later in the year.

itzknickknac said:

Question: In FFIV, what is the recommended level range for your default party when fighting the final boss? Mine are in the 50's but I haven't really looked deep into strategy. I get owned too fast for any strategy.

Click to expand...

I think the 50-60 level range is enough to beat the final boss, and well, about the strategy... There isn't really a strategy apart from using Curaja repeatedly while Edge throws everything he can, Cecil and Kain do some damage and Rydia rests in peace.

In the last update, our girls fought among themselves because there were some sales in a cave and they obtained some accesories and garment grids thanks to that. Later they went to...



THE FINAL DUNGEON: The Farplane Abyss

There are some impressive vistas in there. For example, that thing far away is our friend Vegnagun, that machine that I had to stop urgently but I decided to spend many valuable hours doing sidequests and the like instead.

There are some places where Yuna can stand activating them.



Thanks to that, she can play some musical notes in an organ looking device and continue without fighting a very powerful enemy. I thought English speaking countries used the CDEFGAB notation, but upon some research the version you all have played uses the DO RE MI FA SO LA T/SI one too. Can someone explain why?



Persona 3 Portable - Wiping All Out

As with all the final dungeons, we can find some big enemies trying to wipe us all. Hey, I remember you from FFX!

Heropon said:

Persona 3 - Mass Destruction

BONUS: Oops, I forgot Omega! It/He? rests in the depths of Omega Ruins and awaits its death after 700 years. About the boss, it has 999999 HP in this version (I heard that it was 99,999 in the original, so pitiful :lol).

Kimahri can learn Nova from this battle (from Nemesis too). I think the readers are already familiar with Wakka's attack reels. Well, they strike again.

Kiss me!
Auron says something about leaving Spira for the living. Yeah!

Click to expand...

That battle was pretty one-sided and Omega was demoted from boss status and now can be found as a random mob. That's a terrible fate but deserved for this weakass monster. After the sphere grid mysteriously disappeared, Yuna and Rikku can't do 99999 damage points anymore, but they're bringing doom to this thing anyways.



There are more downgraded bosses from the past there like this fuzzy thing. Rikku's spells in her Mascot form have a petrifying secondary effect and this poor monster suffers it. I was going to drop a tear, but then I remembered that it was trying to kill my group.



This place also have giant turtles, a really terrifying sight. There are more places with notes to collect and organs. We can see the completed melody in the last one and how it suspiciously sounds like 1000 words. Why does this place have puzzles related to that song? While I roll my eyes, the second to last electrified door opens and Yuna and her cronies can continue their quest.



Gippal is slacking a little after getting beaten by some random monsters. Leblanc and her minions want to join the party too.



Gippal has one of those spheres with embarrasing secrets of Paine's earlier life as an amateur camera operator: This is a story about a gang of young people imagining about running a videogame business. Nooj wanted to be the CEO so he could shout at people and drive the business to the ground while using a seer to help with the important decisions. Baralai wanted to be a producer to enforce his view of storytelling over gameplay while using Director Gippal to perpetrate his schemes. Meanwhile, Paine wanted to be Gippal's muse so she could appear in all the game covers even if she didn't appear for more than five minutes in them. When they ended talking, they laughed and thought: "That would be horrible, being the tripulation of an airship would be easier". And then they started talking about who would be the pilot, the captain and more stupid things.



After that boring cutscene, the final puzzle of the game awaits. Yuna has to play the song again by stepping in some platforms in order. It's really horrible and failing has a pretty cool reward:



Azi Dahaka! I think that name means problems in every RPG where it appears. This guy is tough too and can destroy the party if it's unprepared. The run command is our friend in that case.



Doing the stupid puzzle well opens the gate and the final boss is just beyond that. As Rikku mentions, there's a Point of no Return there, so it's a good idea to save and do whatever we need to do before engaging the boss. It's also a good place to end the update then!

Next: I don't need to tell, right?

Heropon said:

Glad seeing new people choosing to play the masterpiece that is FFV, feel free to ask any questions! And if you like it, you could try to join the FFV Four Job Fiesta later in the year.



I think the 50-60 level range is enough to beat the final boss, and well, about the strategy... There isn't really a strategy apart from using Curaja repeatedly while Edge throws everything he can, Cecil and Kain do some damage and Rydia rests in peace.

Click to expand...

Lol, then I will not waste time trying to revive Rydia. Thanks

About FF5 though, PSN is having a sale where FF psn classics are half off.. Should I buy FF5 or FF6? But should I buy either if I already have the actual disc (FF Anthology)?

Heropon said:

I think the 50-60 level range is enough to beat the final boss, and well, about the strategy... There isn't really a strategy apart from using Curaja repeatedly while Edge throws everything he can, Cecil and Kain do some damage and Rydia rests in peace.

Click to expand...

Sheeeiiit. IIRC my party's levels are in the mid-high 40s. (Haven't played the game in months; was gonna ask if this was good enough for Zeromus when I got back to it.)

White Hole is distilled hatred. :|

Heh, been a while since I've done an update...

Last time on FFIII: Zandig got two more Party Members and the Party obtained an Airship.
Also, ghosts!



So with the Party's new Airship, we can travel the world...or they could if the damn thing went more than 100ft in the air. Sadly, Zandig and Co. are literally landlocked by mountains.

And that boulder sitting there isn't helping things...

However, a Castle is nearby. Perhaps they know something?



Looks like somebody's standing guard. Only one person though...don't guards come in pairs?

It appears the denizens of the Castle Sasune have been cursed as well.



Hold up, how'd he find that out? Did he talk to Cid too?




Well, at least he's helpful and doesn't appear to be useless.



"Sure you would, buddy. Speaking of, what's stopping ya?"




Seriously? I swear, it's just one thing right after another...




Oh?



New Party Member get! And he's the last one (and secret best) at that!



So yeah, this guy's name is now Lenin. As in the Russian leader. (It's a homage to this dude who did a Single-Character Run sometime back; that guy's character was Stalin. Lenin in his game died a horrible death.)

Unlike the other two losers, Lenin actually has some experience and isn't a complete moron and/or coward.



Hell yeah! Zandig's got the right idea. And Lenin officially joins the Party!



(Protip: From now on, Lenin is the main character for all intents and purposes. Because I said so...AND THAT'S THE BOTTOM LINE!)



The Castle also holds some hidden goodies like a Bow and some Arrows, as well as a Wightslayer (which I conveniently forgot about until after the next dungeon...oof!).



The World Map and our next destination!

Next Time on Final Fantasy III: Shit gets real. Really real. And a Princess!

So after Square Enix scammed me with their inferior version of FFV on PSN. I decided to get back at them the only way I can - I'll play the far superior GBA version, point out all the flaws and inconsistencies and upload it on Neogaf! That'll show them... some how.

A little background knowledge about me: FFV and FFVI are my cursed Final Fantasies - no matter how many times I tried to get through them some technical difficulties always arise: corrupted saves, corrupted game, corrupted company ripping me off (I want my hard earn £6.99 back you bastards!) etc... and thus I haven't complete any of them yet. One day I told myself: 'Sougo, you called yourself a FF fanboy? Forget FFV but how could you ignored one of the most critically acclaimed FF in the series? I mean, old fans are practically drooling over FFVI. We all know FFVI is a masterpiece that transcend time and space. A gem that shines so brightly that any other FFs - no any other games in existence look like pure garbage in comparison. You own it to yourself. You own it to humanity to play FFVI.'

At which point I go 'Nah,' and starts up FFV.





Wait, FFV (GBA) was release in 2006?

So I began my FFV play through by ranting about FFVI. Stella start. Well let's all jump into it then shall we? (Oh I must add that this is practically a fresh start for me, since I have forgotten any progress I made during my previous attempts on this game. So this should be fun. Or not.)



You know I feel a little depress inside when during the opening sequence all I can think of is 'blah, blah, blah I get it. Broken crystal = bad. Me = good. Get to the gameplay.' because when I was little I used to love these 'cut scenes.' I am not sure what brought about these changes. Maybe it was modern gaming that hardwire me into a less impatient gamer. Maybe I have played FFI and FFIII to the extent that the mere mention of crystals in FFs instinctively made me roll my eyes and go into 'bare bone plot device, no need to care' mode (Well any FF expect that-game-that-does-not exist)

Finally, we can have gameplay as we take control of our mysterious adventurer and his trusty chocobo. First thing first -



Let's crank up that speed shall we? After that nightmarish slog of PSN FFV, I'm not exaggerating when I say the GBA version feels at least 10 times faster. And it is 10 times smaller than the PSN version. And it doesn't take me an hour to download. And - OW. Okay, back to the let's play. (Jerks.)

So our hero wandered into a forest nearby and stumbled upon two goblin thingies dragging with an unconscious girl. Normally our hero would step aside and let them go off their merry way. Who knows? Maybe they're acquaintances and is acting out one of their fetishes. If he jump right in he might ruined their carefully constructed fun. And then who's the dick? (Our hero do not know what kind of fetish that would involve an unconscious body but he's not going to judge.) But this is no ordinary circumstance. One closer look at that girl and he knew. He knew he was destined to save her and held her in his arm. This girl is special. She have pink hair.


Well that was underwhelming. I'm not sure what impress me more: The fact that our hero wipe our foes out in less than 10 seconds or the fact that the girl probably lost to them.

Our brave hero step in just a nick of time and save the damsel in distress. She dust herself off thanks us for our heroics -naturally- and offer us her name: Leena. She then stare at our hero as if expecting something. He respond with a blank stare. What does she want? My sword? A hug? Or a ki-

Leena: Urm... Sir?
???: Yes?
Leena: May I ask for your name?

Shit! Quick Sou- our hero, think of a name. This is always been your weak spot. You have terrible naming sense. You're the kind of player that sit on a naming screen in a RPG for half an hour trying to come up with a name that's not retarded and end up googling 'random name generator.' You're simply not ready for this.

Leena: Sir? Are you alright?
???: Urm... I have amnesia?
Leena: That's the next character.
???: Lucky bastard.

Hey look! the game have offer you a name: 'Bartz.' Take it you fool! But I don't want to use the default name. I want to something special. Something that elevate me from the crowd. Something like-



Perfection.

Now that the naming crisis have been averted, let's pay attention to the old man lying on the floor. He's been lying there diligently throughout all of commotion, patiently waiting for Butz to press A.



Shocking.

'Wow, that's terrible, not being able to know who you -



Pitty. 'Old man' sounded much better.

'That's great but you still don't know what to -



Plot-convenient amnesia ladies and gentleman. A plot device that's older than Galuf himself

So after pretty much forcing himself into Leena's party. Galuf and Butz decided to part way. Butz wasn't concern about leaving an amnesiac old man with a pink-hair girl who just lost to two gobblins. Because he knows exactly what kind of plot this is. Its the kind of plot that will find him no matter where he is or how contrived the reason. Sooner or later he'll run into them again. Whether he like it or not.

Up Next: Pirates and ladies who dressed like men.

itzknickknac said:

Lol, then I will not waste time trying to revive Rydia. Thanks

About FF5 though, PSN is having a sale where FF psn classics are half off.. Should I buy FF5 or FF6? But should I buy either if I already have the actual disc (FF Anthology)?

Click to expand...

I don't know if you read my let's play but DO NOT GET FF5 for PSN. It is an inferior version. If you want ff5 get the gba version.

SougoXIII said:

I don't know if you read my let's play but DO NOT GET FF5 for PSN. It is an inferior version. If you want ff5 get the gba version.

Click to expand...

I just got back on gaf and read your post. I have played a few hours of FF5 (a couple of years ago and now forgot) and it always got buggy when I tried to save. I might as well start over and play with the gba version. Thanks for the info/help!

Controlling Chaos for the final battle? Now thats one thing I did see coming.



Who'll you root for?


Damn! That's some seriously high damage output Vincent's new toy has! Either that or these drones Omega keeps sending his way are seriously weak. According to the map his current locaction is "Above Midgar". True enough but that's kinda bland when its clear he's scooting along the Sister Ray both inside and out!


Towards the end of that road he takes to the sky, dodging drone lasers in his attempt to get closer to Omega. Progressing ever forward up and through the area these seemingly always spawning baddies barely slow him down!


Part 22: "wheres the flying"



As he draws even closer something seems to be happening to the Weapon! Its power supply is being cutoff!! His buddies finally managed to do something useful!


That's right! They've finally put the reactors outta comission! About friggin time!


Its the thought that counts. But where's that slacker Red XIII in all of this? Whatevers! His friends that are there are totally cheering him on! Good to see Cid & Reeve survived along with some WRO members.


So with the full backing of his best buds he's left with little choice but to save the world! Now that Omega's barrier is weakened Vincent charges straight into it!


He totally busts through the barrier an right into the things body! Look! Flight! Its not just limited to cutscenes! This segment doesn't last all that long but it fulfills an expectation an makes me happy. The next part totally reminds me of .hack. Fighting your way up to the core of a giant beast an all.


At the top Vincent is warped outside and runs along the Lifestream, blasting more baddies an drawing ever closer to Omega's head. Once within range, the Protomateria shines brightly signifying the time to attack HEAD on is now!


Short & sweet. Or is it bittersweet? I mean c'mon an A rank? Throw me a bone an gimme an S already! Like why would I wanna switch to weaker weapons just to cast magic?? Having zero Mako points doesn't exactly tell me I should be using magic ya know! There were no stage missions which meant no stuff for me to further fail at. I dun mind. But boy that chapter sure was short?

Reading back on my previous post, it seems that I spent a couple of hours writing about the first five minutes of the game. That's... totally planned, I assured you. It's not like I planned the prologue to be a quick twenty minutes post or anything. Or if I did, I'm sure that will be the last time that I'll get sidetrack ever again.

Alrighty then. Now where were we...?

Previously, our protaganist, Butz, separated himself from the party in a vain attempt to escape the cliche plot devices. If that mean leaving two seemingly defenseless individuals to fend for themselves then that's a small price to pay. Our resident Chocobo, however, was having none of that shit.



The moral compass of this game is a chocobo ladies and gentleman. I, for one, welcome our feathered overlords.

Fine. Fine. I'll look for them. But its been awhile since we split off. Who knows where Leena and Galuf could have end up now? And does anyone know where the Wind Shrine is? Cause I certainly don't. Man if only there's -



Hey look! It's the plot! I knew it have to be around here somewhere.

Rushing forwards to Leena's aid - again, I was surprised when goblins decided that this would be the best time to ambush me.



Say what you will about them but these goblins are tenacious. You would have think that it would be a bad time for hunting when the EARTH IS CRUMBLING AROUND YOU. They sure seem content with risking their life for 3 humans and a chocobo combo meal. Then again who am I to question the rich, intricate culture of random generic mobs?

Needless to say, I wiped the floor with them and found Leena and Galuf unconscious on the ground - again. For a second there Butz consider leaving them for their own incompetence but Boko is giving him that look. Reluctantly, he saved their lives - again.



Am I the only one who wonder how Leena manage to survive that without a scratch? Assuming the falling rocks was strong enough to knock her out, she would have at least suffer long term brain damage. No wait- she survived a meteor crash before didn't she? Never mind then, this game have already decided to give the middle finger to logic a since the beginning. Sheesh, at least Galuf lost his memories.

So after being nursed back to life by a chocobo, Leena and Galuf decided that it would be a good idea to have Butz tagging along since he's more competent than both of them combine. Butz would object but have learned his lesson.



Party Members Get.

No time to waste, onward to the North! Our party stumbled upon a cave that's conveniently opened up during the earthquakes. Huh. Since there's no where else to go, we decided to step inside. Not before parting with the chocobo though - cause chocobos can't go into caves apparently. Inside, an enormous cavern stretch out before us: water droplets rings hollow in our earns, our footsteps echoing throughout the cave, our vision are impeded by the surrounding darkness. We must stay vigilant, we mu- Ooooh, is that a spring? Bath time.



What!? You don't have to spend all day near Galuf.

After freshening up, we step into the next only to encounter a *gasp* pirate. Finally, the game is kicking into gear. Let's crack our knuckles and get ready to kick some pirate ass!
Or we could hide behind a rocks while he reveal the location of the most obvious secret switch in the history of video games. It's your call game. I was just trying to have some fun.



Worst.Secret switch. Ever.

So we mange to 'sneak' in the base thanks to our pirate and caught a glimpse at the pirate ship returning to base. The catch? There's no wind in the world anymore so the ship couldn't possible sail anywhere. Hm... Interesting.

Butz and co decided that the pirate ship is essential for our journey to the Wind Shrine but disagree on how to get it. Leena propose a more direct approach:



You know what? That's might actually work! I bet no one have consider just asking for their help before. I mean most people are just run or attack them on sight and have never considered their feelings.

Galuf then comes up with an equally sane indea:



Urm... Galuf. You're an amnesiac with no sailing experience. We're a total of three people who couldn't even sail a ship that big even if we know how to. Not to mention that this is not a normal ship and there's going to be guards standing around. They are not going to stand there and let you take their ship.

But of course I have no say in the plot and our 'heroes' set out to steal a ship that they can not possibly sail. Though I might be speaking too soon though cause they're a total of 3 pirates guarding this ship and they're all asleep. In the middle of the day. After a giant earthquake.



Worst. Guards. Ever.

So this might be crazy enough to work! Twisted the game's logic maybe, at least it is consistent...



Damn it game! You can't choose when to make sense then mock me for following your stupid plot. That's not how it works!



Urm... Leena I don't think that's a good idea.



Yep. Straight to Ransomville. We'll also be stopping by 'GullibleIdoit' and 'Does-she-really-have-no-idea what-pirates-are?'



Worst. Insul- Hey don't you dare throw that Book of Insults at me Butz. Saying what you will about my humour but it is better than whatever this is. I mean what the hell is 'Piratey Pirat- OW!

At that moment, Leena decided to flash her jewelries for everyone to see. The captain Faris seem a little bit faze by this and decided to... imprison us anyway. Later that night we're treat to a scene where Faris' holding an identical jewel and mutter something about Leena go to see her father.

Hm... Identical Jewels, same colour hair, talking about parental figures... I wonder if there's a connection to be made here. Nah! Just my imagination.

Tomorrow morning, Faris decided to go to the Wind Shrine to the surprise of everyone.



I like the fact that the game developers give you the option to take you there themselves because it implies that the game is open enough that you can potentially get lost this early in the game. If this were a modern day game, I would expect the game to be close off and the handholding to last at least few hours of the game or in worst cases, throughout the entire game.

Now then where were we? Oh yes the Wind Shrine.



We get to the Wind Shrine and what do we see? A bunch of wusses hiding in the corner while the King disappear to the top floor. Where are the guards? You know the people who can actually fight? Or you're telling me that the King leave an importance place like this unguarded? If there were guards and they were kill then I suggest we rethink our plan- a party of four is hardly going to make any progress if the monsters can wipe all the defenses of this place

And we made it to the second floor and - Is that a boss? It look like a boss, with it own sprite on the map and everything. Man the very first boss of this game. I wonder what kind of deep strategy I have to come up with for overcomes this treacherous foe!?



Ironically, this is going to be my strategy for 90% of the enemies in this game.

So after treating the boss like any random trash mob, we arrived at the wind crystal only to find that ... it's broken! A bunch of boring dialogues later, we finally have our first jobs!

Oh yeah and something happened to King what's-his-face:



Nooo. Not King what's-his-face! He's totally a deep and well-development who I should totally care about!

Okay, I think you have enough of my sarcasm in one post. The first jobs available in FFV are: Knights, Monk, Thief, White, Black & Blue mage. Based the character stereotype so far I would go with Bartz = Knight/Freelance, Leena = Whitemage, Galuf = Monk and Faris = Thief. But screw stereotype. Here's my party:



I love how the Thief's Special Ability is that you can hold B to sprint even though I can already auto-run on the map. Is there anything useful to steal or is thief a generally useless class?

Another thing about Blue Mage. My opinions regarding to Blue mages are as such: They're very useful in early to mid game but phrase to obscurity where your party reaches to godly level of brokeness. Is this the same case with FFV? Are there neat trick that can make Blue mages broken?

Well that's it for the prologue. Up next: I have no idea since I only got to this point so ... Next time, we'll go to the Fire Nation to obtain the art of fire bending.

SougoXIII said:

I love how the Thief's Special Ability is that you can hold B to sprint even though I can already auto-run on the map. Is there anything useful to steal or is thief a generally useless class?

Another thing about Blue Mage. My opinions regarding to Blue mages are as such: They're very useful in early to mid game but phrase to obscurity where your party reaches to godly level of brokeness. Is this the same case with FFV? Are there neat trick that can make Blue mages broken?

Click to expand...

So, I haven't really thought about FFV outside of the constraints of the Job fiesta in a while, but I think you're in for some surprises.

Up for stealing early game: Early Hi-potions, Elixirs (I think)
Up for stealing late game: All of the Genji equipment, Ribbons (although there are 4 that you can get without), Reflect Rings, a protect ring (forget it).

Blue mages are second-most broken single class in FF5. (First place goes to the chemist.) My playthrough earlier in this thread points out some of the better spots for it, but here are some highlights: The Aero series is decent elemental magic, Flame Thrower is single-target Fira but for much less MP, Death claw cripples certain bosses, and LEVEL 5 DEATH.

HiddenWings said:

Atomos is level 41 and has just under 20,000 HP.

Click to expand...

Chock full of bossy goodness.



No getting a standard title screen this time. I tried. I am dumb and there was one other way to get a plain version of the chapter title screen - by selecting the restart from checkpoint option! The alternate version originally posted can still be seen here. Like the title btw.


This part of the chapter starts right off with a boss fight! Against crystal bearing flowers in the sky? Something like that. What we really wanna get at is that thing below. These crystals bloom & unbloom. Obviously ya can only attack when they're open but they seemed to not be affected by bullets so rushing to 'em and doing some PPK action before they shut is the way to go. Forever spawning laser shooting things are present but pose no threat. If for some reason ya wanted to die to 'em (since the feelers don't attack) it may take upwards of 15 minutes or more >.>;


Once those thing are outta the way that orange sphere rises up an ya get to see the mark Weiss/Nero left on Omega when they became one with it! Gunning it down was super quick an easy. Piece of cake.


Part 23: "this is my final form form form form"



The cocoon provided no challenge or danger but what it did leave us was a pretty nifty explosion! And when the smoke cleared... aw, why does he have clothing again?


Cool cutscene fighting ensues with classic actions such as I'm behind you except no you're behind me! And the two moving so fast you don't actually see them! An naturally a face ta face close up clash! Gun toting demon versus respectable looking swordman. Which ones the protagonist again?


Sooo do we fight him again? No! You didn't think this game would rehash bosses did ya? Instead we get the next best thing. Omega piloting a mecha suit which looks like a mini-Omega! What a strange, strange Weapon. You can hit one an you can hit the other but hitting both is extra efficient!


A challenge he is. The battlefield shifts around to limit your movement, he'll put up extra targets for you to break through before hitting him, get up in your face for some painful melee strikes, and try to rain death from above with fireballs. Hope ya still got healing items saved up!


With Omega Weiss going kaboom! I declare the winner to be Vincent!


Cumulative stats!!! I was hoping for something like this! Wait... 24 deaths? Canonically its 26 but lets not go into that. Looks like in the end I'm just a middle of the road player. Getting that D rank for time expired bugs me. Is this supposed to be a much shorter game?


So about now Omega Weapon oughta have lost all power an been soundly busted up. Instead, the beating it endured had the opposite effect! Lifestream to the rescue again?


No! Its gotta be Vincent! He zips on up above Omega an when the two collide this final time they make quite an impact above the planet!


As the light from their final attacks die down, Vincent's buddies can only glance at the sky wondering just what his fate may be?


There's certainly no sign of the guy amongst all that glittery stuffs.


Does this mean he's...??

Why must they leave me wanting more o.o??



It seems The Shera lost another passenger. Shalua talked of returning to the planet, yet there she is. She hasn't faded away and yet there's no reason to believe she would have survived. The life support healing thingy she was in is all busted up and er, obviously got blown outta the airship... so I'm go ahead and say R.I.P. Shalua. Your sense of fashion was something else but ya surely did kick some butt.


On the other hand her little sister Shelke is on the road to recovery and has clearly joined the forces of good! She's got 10 years ta make up for though she's still not sure how ta do that. An in general its a much brighter day.


Part 24: "sequel now plz"



Shelke's been left hanging out in Edge dictating messages she never expects Vincent to find! What an oddball. Cloud's been keeping an eye out for the man himself but has yet to spot him. But who do I spot? Red XIII! Guess he just barely made it in after all.


Some time later and a continent away... Inside that waterfall cave known only as ??? we find Vincent alive an kicking! Interesting. Chaos is gone as well? No longer apart of him? In that case he'll need a new Lv.4 Limit Break!


Once he's done thanking the still crystallized Lucrecia he steps out into the sunlight to find a small messenger waiting for him in some plain clothes! Looks like she won't follow in her sis's fashion footsteps!


She's been sent by the others to collect him! As the newbie of the bunch I suppose Shelke is being treated as an intern lol.


And that's a wrap folks!




........

...

.........

................?






Deep below Midgar, the moonlight shines down upon a body... the body of Weiss?!


Somebody takes note of that party crasher an seems to awaken from some sorta slumber in a pretty showoffy manner.


This man arises and approaches the fallen head of the Tsviets...


...an lifts him right up! He declares sleepy time to be over an done with. Poor Weiss can't catch a break.


Apparently they've got some business not yet finished and are also brothers?!


The mystery man sprouts a single black wing and takes off with Weiss to parts unknown...

Oh, we all know who that mystery man is! It's the guy who we never ever want to see more of ever again! Damn you, Gackt!

How'd you like the game overall?

Welcome back to Final Fantasy VI: The Returners Strike Back. Last time, I talked about how cinematic FF6’s intro was, and that the Mysterious Girl we are introduced to is the Mistress of Ellipses.

Today, we’re going to steal stuff. I mean… hunt for treasure. The character we’re going to meet is obviously Canadian.

First we’re going to name the Mysterious Girl. I am not a fan of all-caps because I was taught that it was very poor style in English. It’s like I’m reading a Square Enix press release!



Awakening

“Tina” was the Mysterious Girl’s name in Japanese. I actually went and looked up the etymology of the name (I know for a fact that it’s Italian because you can just tell by the name being the ending of various Italian names (most notably “Cristina/Christina&#8221. And by that logic, it’s a descendant of a word in Latin (the feminized form of “Christian”/”Christianus”: “Christiana&#8221. Tina is also a Latin word by itself: it means tub/vessel/vat. Usually something used to deliver wine back then (if you know Portugese or Spanish, the word should look familiar). It’s descended from Etruscan (so this is pre-Rome/pre-Italy/pre-Latin). And I suppose there’s a PIE (proto-Indo-European)-equivalent considering the Etruscan word is essentially reconstructed.

Yeah, we’re going to talk about this stuff a lot. I don’t get to do a lot of it anymore because it’s not the field I work in or study anymore, so I relish any time I get to talk about this stuff!

So, this sort of name is incredibly exotic to Japanese speakers. It’s easy to pronounce (ティ&#12490 and I suppose the Romanization looked aesthetically-pleasing? I dunno. It must be fun to say. I’m not as much of a jerk as Meccanical is so I’m not going to call her that, haha.



I’ll stick with Terra. I… shouldn’t really have to go into detail as to why Woolsey ended up picking the name because it seems like it’s common knowledge (on GAF at least). Testers thought “Tina” was boring as heck (and Cecil wasn’t? Cecil comes from the Latin “Caecilius”/”caecus”, which means “blind&#8221.

But terra means “Earth” in Latin. It’s kind of important and it’s a remarkably good change as it distinguishes her from her foil character.



Son, she never recovered. She’s still going to be the Ellipses Queen for the majority of the game, she’s going to look sad a lot, and I’m pretty sure if she were voiced, she’d repeat the same lines over and over. (I cannot make it through that quote video to save my life, you guys.)

But first!



No one told me this was a Star Wars game! What’s with this series and Star Wars parallels anyway?

It’s like I’m playing Final Fantasy IV all over again. And the older fellow is protecting a green-haired girl. It’s too bad that he’s inconsequential.



Metal Gear?!

Terra, ladies and gentlemen. Get used to reading stuff like this because she’s going to talk like this all game long.



Screw that. I ain’t listening to no creeper.



Shit. I forgot he locked the doors because he wants Terra all to himself. Gross.



Well, whatever you say. I mean, I could fry them with Fire magic but that’d be going a little far. You're just an Old Man. You must only be 26-years-old! You can't handle these guards by yourself.



The Mines of Narshe

Hold on for a sec. I like this part. You can’t see it at all, but I like standing in this little area just to see the smoke animate. It’s a little weird, but I get a kick out of details like this. It’s why I liked SNK’s backgrounds so much back in the day. So much work went into the animations and making the areas feel alive. Narshe is actually one of my favourite towns in FF6 primarily because of animations like these and the general colour palette of the town.

Yeah, weird reasons, I know. I just really like how the town’s designed. The spaces aren’t big enough to accommodate huge Magitek Armour sprites, but they’re just big enough for normal-sized sprites. The town still manages to be designed and mapped well. Thematically and functionally, I think it’s one of the best towns in Final Fantasy, period, despite not offering a lot to the player.



Aw, guards already? The encounter rate in this game sucks!

That guy sucks at protecting women. He should not play the new Tomb Raider because he’d be bad at it.



Terra runs away to another portion of the mines. You know, instead of running out of the town like a normal person would.

This is a better pic of the save point. I do appreciate that they made them easier to see in later games because this is tiny.



Battle Theme

In addition to Were-Rat #s, we can encounter Vaporite #s and Repo Man #s in the mine. Vaporite #s are weak against Fire. Well, since we don’t have Magitek Armour to use free Fire spells with, so we need to use Terra’s Expensive Magic.

I have no idea what Repo Man#s are doing in a bloody mine of all places. Maybe someone forgot to pay the Empire’s debt collectors and they’re swarming the mines. Maybe that’s the only reason why we went to Narshe in the first place: we were the Ultimate Repo Man#s. The Repo Man has 1/3 chance of using Wrench on itself if it’s attacked by anything. When it’s killed, it’ll try to take you down with it by using Wrench on you.

Remember how I said I liked the spell cast animations in Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy V? I don’t really care for Final Fantasy VI’s even though it’s quick and it’s the sort of thing that I’d embrace. In character animations, I like a lot “flash”, so to speak. FF6’s spell cast animations are somewhat boring to me given what its predecessors have done (especially FF5).

I’m a Sonic fan, you see. Aside from a “Gotta Go Fast” mentality, I can sometimes dig style over substance. Levels like Terminal Velocity in Sonic Colours and The Doomsday Zone in Sonic 3&K exemplify this: they’re excellent endpieces to their respective games, but in reality, they don’t ask the player to do much and you can probably cheese the level if you truly wanted to.



We leveled up to Level 5 this time. And if you didn’t believe me last update when I said stats (outside of HP/MP) don’t increase as you level up, check it out.



I wonder how many kids misspelled “Phoenix” as a result of this? I think “Life Potion” or “Life Tonic” might have fit better and it wouldn’t have looked so much like a corruption.

Because what the heck is a “Fenix”? An EXTREME Phoenix with some badass dyed feathers?



Final Fantasy VI introduces the concept that Sleeping Bags have monster repellent. Everyone in these towns need to either live in Tents, Cabins or Sleeping Bags. It’s the only way the world will stay safe. Sleeping Bags render themselves inefficient a little later in the game because you have more people to heal and enough funds to purchase Tents. In fact, I think it’s more beneficial to use Tents.



The old man didn’t even help us at all cuz these guys caught up to us so fast. He really shouldn’t play the upcoming Tomb Raider game. Well, at least we escaped through the floor.



Well, she’s dead. I guess this means that this is the beginning of Terra’s Dying Dream…

Nah, I’m kidding. We’re not doing this in Final Fantasy VI.



The Empire

“OWN YOU!”

So, uh, did you guys know that in the text dump for this game, Terra’s supposed to be saying “No, stay away!” when Kefka’s putting the Slave Crown on her head? Now you know why she says that line ad nauseam in Dissidia.

You’re going to see Kefka a lot in Final Fantasy VI. And most of the time he’s going to be doing this:

His laugh sound effect’s pretty popular.



Next, he puts his newly-crowned slave to work in the trenches, and she mindlessly destroys a soldier who obviously had no fucking clue what he signed up for. I think he thought this was a practice drill and didn’t think this was the real thing where he had to help the new recruit speedrun through a bunch of battles?

And Kefka likes to burn things.



This scene introduces us to a bunch of characters we’ll get to though throughout our journey through Final Fantasy VI. But we don’t know who two of those people are. The guy with the massive… moustache? Is that what he has? Might be some massive hair but that’s boring. Well, he’s Emperor Gestahl. He rules the imperialistic Empire, and he’s a HUGE fan of robots.

I can’t blame him. Robots can be cool.

I think he’s remarkably boring as a character, and I think his motivations are poorly explained because the game places more precedence on developing Kefka (for obvious reasons), but I won’t get into that in this entry. Even Suikoden II's Agares Blight and Luca Blight got more development that Gestahl did.



Cut back to the old pervert and it looks like he has a pervert friend who likes to come in through the back door.

That text box and sprite animation goes so well with that I said.



This Bro’s Theme

That introduction screen is lying because it lacks the words “theft”, “stealing”, “plundering”, or “pirate”.

Next Time: Oh, I missed the time when moogles didn't annoy the crap out of me.

(The post ended up being too long so I split it up into parts again, and it's really really hard to come up with jokes for this game.)

Dark Schala said:

Oh, we all know who that mystery man is! It's the guy who we never ever want to see more of ever again! Damn you, Gackt!

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Speak for yourself! I eagerly await Genesis Corps. -Final Fantasy VII- ! Back to the true blue FFVII rpg nature with Genesis and his party of Weiss, Shelke, Denzel, Marlene, and more once again out to save the planet from whatever crazy shit happens next! An why wouldn't more crazy stuff happen? After an alien invader wiping out much of the ancients, a war in Wutai, an rebellion of clones striking all over the world, a summoned meteor nearly smashing into the world, illness spread far and wide along with the return of the meteor summoner, and an army of nutjobs tricking the planets defenses into wiping everyone out... and the very next day? Worlds still rolling an there's still another 497 years ta fill in... or possibly go beyond!

How'd you like the game overall?

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Gotta say shooting stuff doesn't make for very compelling gameplay. An being shot at totally sucks! I never did get used to using that right stick for aiming whether I was on the move or not. Its just so totally foreign to me an messed with me to the bitter end! The customizing stuff was neat and materia-ish in a way cause ya weren't locked in to any set path just cause ya upgraded one thing, ya could still always swap between the various parts. I liked alot of the music, games definitely got a bunch of good tracks. Not top tier among the FFVII series but thats a high standard! However they did 1 stupid thing with the soundtrack. How do you make a game starring Vincent but not once use his theme?! WTF.

The graphics were pretty nice but the art style/direction left alot to be desired. Its like this and Advent Children are on the totally opposite spectrum of FFVII & Crisis Core. And overall the color scheme is just to dark! They did do good in allowing cutscenes to both be paused and skipped. Story was pretty decent and filled in alot of blanks for a once optional character! The new characters ranged from alright to pretty good and Reeve got some serious face time which was cool. And that true mastermind twist was mindblowing @_@

Couldn't see myself borrowing & going through the game again especially since there does not appear to be a new game+. I could completely rewatch Advent Children since its just a movie but a game who's gameplay isn't for me? Not so much. An yet even as I say that I'll note that my journey is not over cause I've already begun recording some bonus content!

Lindsay said:

Speak for yourself! I eagerly await Genesis Corps. -Final Fantasy VII- ! Back to the true blue FFVII rpg nature with Genesis and his party of Weiss, Shelke, Denzel, Marlene, and more once again out to save the planet from whatever crazy shit happens next! An why wouldn't more crazy stuff happen? After an alien invader wiping out much of the ancients, a war in Wutai, an rebellion of clones striking all over the world, a summoned meteor nearly smashing into the world, illness spread far and wide along with the return of the meteor summoner, and an army of nutjobs tricking the planets defenses into wiping everyone out... and the very next day? Worlds still rolling an there's still another 497 years ta fill in... or possibly go beyond!

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Following my absolute failure at obtaining an S ranking in even a single story mode chapter I decided it was time to get some schoolin'.



Whaaaaat is this?! Ya get to play as normal Vincent !! That's pretty cool! So this is the tutorial mode I skipped trying out before starting the game. Had I tried this before getting invested in the story I woulda ended up not playing the game!


Thats not very reassuring! Damn Shinra cheaping out on safety precautions! Eh?! Stage missions here? Well this one oughta be simple!


Bonus 01: "back to the basics"



Following the lil mech around the room sure was simple enough! Tracking it around with the camera alil harder since it liked to move around on the walls. Going through doors, using latters, crouching, melee attacks, collecting items is all stuff I'm used to by now so things were going smoothly. btw this Vincent can Roll instead of having his Dash. Whats up with that? Why couldn't he have both in the main game?


Do I got mastery at guns after all I've been through? Nopes! Nor a good sense of personal safety. Note that the opponents here do crap for damage... so ya. They put me through the ropes of taking down targets with the regular gun, rifle, and machinegun.


Next they had me use magic & limit break. No prob! Although using a monstrous Limit Break as normal Vincent is kinda strange isn't it? The 'special' techniques turned out ta not be all that special.


Now who the heck would classify turrets as special? Maybe I'm special cause I'm still no good with 'em so >.<! Never the less I cleared that challenge in the end an won the tutorial!


Hurrah! Finally got a hard earned S rank!! wtf was up with my accuracy though? That's really really sad. Perfected the stage missions for once to. I wonder if that money earned carries over to the main game? Whatevers! I'm an S ranker now an thats what counts!


I'm so good that they recommend I... play on normal mode?! Thats the easiest mode an the one I did play through! Fuuuuccckkk! Yet they dare patronize me with a "job well done"... -.-

Yes, I'm doing this again. Fewer restrictions this time. I do need a name, and I'm happily taking suggestions.



Edit: Scratch that, he's going to take Dark Schala's name for the character he very nearly shares a sprite with.

This updates abit of a grab bag!



Cerberus is your best bud throughout the game. Since it fires 3 bullets per shot its easily the strongest regular gun model. 'Course this also means its ammo gets drained fairly quickly. Hydra is kinda useful at first by necessity but once you've upgraded the Cerberus this rifle is kinda useless. I guess if ya happen to be running low on handgun bullets due to the 3 per shot thing, using this while you stock back up is a solid way to go.


Next up is the Griffon which I dumbly ignored for most of the game! The true power of this machine gun is that like turrets, its damage increases the longer you keep hitting a target until you either miss or have to reload. Use it to mow down baddies with high health & slow moving bosses! The cool thing about your main weapons is that their appearance will change as ya upgrade and add attachments! My endgame Cerberus is worlds away from the one I started with in looks & stats!


Bonus 02: "get equipped with"



The Death Penalty is what ya get in Chapter 12! It's Vincent's Ultimate Weapon from FFVII! If ya ask me its more like a small cannon than a gun. You can't customize it at all but its damage is so grand that doesn't matter. Shinra Handgun is only available in the tutorial. Its stats are the same as the base Cerberus but its color scheme is different.


If you found the model gun part and manage ta save up over 250,000 gil you can upgrade it into the Ultima Weapon! Its stats are dwarfed only by the Death Penalty's but unlike that, this can be used in every chapter! Visually its the Cerberus with a new name but those numbers show the clear difference between 'em! Who'da thought a gag weapon would turn out to be so good?


So onto other things of interest - unlockables! These lil capsules I saw from time to time throughout the game are this games collectables and way of unlocking stuff in the Extra Features menu. These things looked suspicious to me an I spent lotsa time wandering around areas to try and get to them but it was time wasted! The way you 'collect' them is by shooting 'em.


The ones ya find in the story mode only unlock scenes in the Event Viewer. There's so many of 'em, so well hidden (often far off in the background) chances are after you're done a playthrough ya won't have all that much unlocked. Why lock away cutscenes Square - why?! This isn't even their most boneheaded decision! The other Extra Features are locked away in a similar manner! Even the game trailers! wtf. Notable missing unlockables would be the ability to replay the game as human Vincent, and as Chaos Vincent. They're already playable characters so why not let people play 'em through the whole game? So lame to leave something so simple out.


So what DO you get for beating the game?? Well, firstly ya unlock EX Hard difficulty. Its the only difficulty which has New Game+ features as in your money/items/upgrades carry over. I assume its stupidly difficult and its stupid not letting Normal & Hard have NG+ features -.-! The other thing you get is the first Extra Mission... but I'll cover those next time.


Ta cap things off this time lets have a look at the alternate control schemes the game offers! You can use a usb keyboard & mouse to play! Ya PC gamers out there happy? I gave keyboard-only control a short try and its just much to hard for me! Look at all them useful keys all next to each other. Talk about cramped! Memorizing all of that was impossible seeing as how just trying to hit the W key I accidentally hit the ones next to it an scroll through or use an item! I dunno how you people do it! @_@

Final Fantasy Adventure: So here is where I am going to have to say I consider Sword of Mana superior. Let me be clear when I say FFA is a good game in its own right and the Roboco should never have been removed, but SwoM makes Medusa, Stroud, and in particular Devius very sympathetic at this point. Dark Lord kills the hero's parents, and the hero has now killed Dark Lord's mother. Devius is clearly a nice guy, but fights to avenge his mother anyway. Then you get a nice scene of Dark Lord meeting Isabella (which sets up her devotion to him in SD3). All of it comes off a little wrong because Brownie Brown localized things as "Dang it!" and the hero, upon realizing he has now done the very thing for which he hates Dark Lord, exclaims "Rats!" instead of, well, anything. It's actually still a very endearing and emotional sequence, though, as we see the hero destroy Stroud's family, and Lester mourns the loss of his own sister because of the hero's quest and Stroud's madness.
I got the BALL AND CHAIN and used it to clear Snowpeak mountain. Er, bust back into Glaive Castle. This is a dramatic part in SwoM where you have a duel on the castle with Stroud and- oh, I'm doing it again, sorry.
--So I finished Glaive Castle. I won't go into detail, but this is a rather disappointing lack here compared to SwoM, too. I now have to go see Cibba so we can find out that the Sword of Mana (Excalibur, Excalbur, or Xcalbur if you like) is in an undersea volcano (at least that's how it goes down in SwoM). Then it's Dime Time and then Mana Garden. I actually kinda enjoyed the incredibly poorly scripted character development where our hero blows up at Bogard about not wanting to be the Gemma Knight, then changes his mind when Sarah tells him that CHOCOBOT believes in him. Also I totally somehow skipped over getting regular Chocobo, and now will move straight ahead into CHOCOBOT.
---Chocobot and I went on a roaring rampage across a desert of Glass (which, inspite of the fact that I always go the Hawk/Lise route, is actually my favorite second-to-last dungeon in SD3). Then Chocobot was baptized in the river and then we walked across the sea because you know, in addition to being a ROBOT CANARY OSTRITCH HE IS ALSO JESUS. Then we got to Lorimar and he was like, LOL no it is too cold so I stormed a snowfield with my FLAMING WHIP and fought KARY THE FIEND OF FIRE OR ICE OR I DUNNO so we could get Cibbiana Jones out of the Refrigerator. AND I GOT A SWORD MADE OUT OF ICE. It's utterly useless here against snowmen, and it'll be more worthless in places where the heat makes the blade melt! BUT THAT IS LIFE.

Final Fantasy VIII: Quistis is a terrible teacher (she plays a lot of favorites) and Squall is a wooden plank. I forgot how much I don't like FF8's cast initially. I seem to recall warming up to them by game's end, but at the beginning I only really like Rinoa and Selphie. Because they kind of remind me of two friends I had when I was that age, I suppose. Whatever the case, FF8 has some CRAZY dissonance going on. Like, as far as cutscenes go (talking mainly the dance here) Squall is just an awkward teenager, and its easy to see how Rinoa could fall for that blah blah blah. As far as writing goes Squall is a plank of wood and Rinoa is only a good person when she's NOT near him. AKA their romance is terribly written (Zidane and Garnet are still the best romance in the series, suck it haters.) Anyway, Quistis has lured Squall into a park where she's going to roofie him.
-- I made SeeD, and Seifer didn't, but whatever. The important thing is that Squall got to kill a T-Rex and then went to bed alone even the both Quistis and Zell tried to jump his bones before he could get there. Then uh, Selphie, was all "WE HAVE JOBS" and so now we're gonna go help out THE LAMEST RESISTANCE MOVEMENT TO EXIST. (Actually, they WERE, but now NORA exists, so the Timber Owls are only 2nd to last.)

Final Fantasy Dimensions: Alba is the best character in this game, and also the best character to come out of a Final Fantasy since XII (Excepting Type-0, where judgment is withheld [Trey and Sice OTP]). Seriously, everything she says is comedic gold, and really goes well with Glaive's "I AM THE HOT HEADED FRIEND", Diana's "I AM TIFA AND WILL LOSE THE COMPETITION FOR SOL'S HEART TO SARAH." and Nachtis' "AM I COOL ENOUGH YET?" Because Alba doesn't take ANYTHING seriously, and also she says hilarious things. ACTUAL DIALOGUE: "Who are you, old man?" "Why, I'm Clou-" "Yeah, yeah, and I'm Aerit-". This game is an unsung treasure of modern Square guys, I'm telling you.
--Got Titan. One heck of a boss fight to do it, though. My first Lvl2 Summon! Wooo.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years: So I collected the Adamantite from Palom and Edge's tales, so I've moved on to the next. Which is Porom's Tale, AKA the absolute lamest Tale in the entire game. Why? Because it's ALL FLASHBACKS. By the time you play Ceodore's Tale, EVERYTHING in Porom's Tale has been over for AGES. Also New Porom SUCKS. Like, New Palom is a cool guy and following down Cecil's path to be King of Sexy, but New Porom is . . . "I am trying to be more Pink than the White Mage, Lenna, Anna, and Lightning COMBINED." I dunno, I just detest new Porom's design, and she's kinda out of place when she's away from Palom. Like, where Palom gets to grow up and stuff away from Porom she just . . . is sorta there to tell you what you've known for HOURS if you're playing the Wii version.
Speaking of, I'm really glad they split Ceodore's and Kain's tales in this version, because Kain's tale being at the beginning of the game (and not just before Golbez' tale) really ruins one of the game's major plot points way too fast.
-Up to modern day with Porom now. The entire trip with Rydia is incredibly pointless, but it did bring up an interesting point. Everything Cid knows about Airships comes from knowledge Kluya brought with him, just as Tellah and the Elder's magic came from Kluya. I've already gone into that at length, but what I wonder today is this: Cid says dwarves approach technology differently than he does, which suggests that dwarven tech is not the same as post-Lunarian tech humanity is using. Did the Dwarves invent their tech (specifically their tanks and whatever ships ferry them between the Tomran Shelf and the Mainland) or did their technology come from contact with Kluya as well? After all, Kluya's tower DOES extend all the way to the Dwarven Underworld. And yes, piecing together FF4's backstory IS fun to me.
--Finished Porom's tale and her challenge dungeon is HORRIBLE AND DUMB. So I'm getting the white tale and moving on. The most hilarious part of playing this is when you go "OH GEE I DIDN'T SEE THIS COMING AT ALL" even though you did. Porom's party SUCKS without Kain. Really, though, the BM/WM team is the worst of the generic teams. MONK COLEMAN is the best. Started Edward's tale. Also a lame tale.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Just picked this up today and it is SUPER addictive. Played through all 13 games on babies mode and it is FUN. Hurts the hand like no other, though. And its a shame that the DLC characters weren't included, because Celes and Balthier would've been nice. Also why Rinoa wasn't included by douchebag Seifer got in as a rep for both FFVIII and FFXIII is beyond my ken. In any case, I love the FMS (Field Map Sequences) the most. BMS and EMS are meh for now. Kinda hope there are more tracks than what I've seen in the game, though. SABER'S EDGE BUT NOT BLINDED BY LIGHT/NASCENT REQUIEM? UGH WHY?
-- So I fought Chaos already. I don't really feel story mode was any importance at all here, though. I do like that it ended on the distinctly happy note that since that was an issue raised in Duodecim but never really addressed. In any case, I sold out and bought We Have Arrived (Type-0) and Somnus (Versus). At least I can claim to have played one of those! The game is addictive like no other, though. Hard to put it down and do homework.
--- THIS GAME OWNS MY SOUL AND IS THE MOST ADDICTIVE THING EVER. I can't not play it every single day. I want to unlock some characters SO BAD (Aerith, Kain and Locke in particular) and some I NEVER WANT TO UNLOCK EVER (Seifer and also Seifer XIII). When I got my first White Shard I was like "Oh boy that must be for Sarah!" then I saw the silhouetted bandana and said "Oh boy that must be for Locke!" then I realized it couldn't possibly be for Locke since 1)White has nothing to do with Locke and 2)I already was most of the way done unlocking Locke with Indigo Shards.

THEN I KNEW WHO IT WAS AND WAS DISAPPOINTED. Seriously, some of the Rep 2 choices make perfect sense to me (Kain, Faris, Locke, Aerith, Vivi, Ashe) because they were popular characters from their games. Some make no damn sense at all (Seifer, Seifer XIII) because who even likes that godawful character? When Seifer showed up for the fourth time in TWEWY I was irked. At least he had finally become a likeable character, though.
----Unlocked Minwu, Cid, Locke and Snow. Will probably unlock Aerith, Rydia and Yuna before much longer. Intend to unlock all characters then, I dunno, relax? Also, level 99 with WoL, Bartz, Terra, and Cloud.

CorvoSol said:

Final Fantasy VIII: Quistis is a terrible teacher (she plays a lot of favorites) and Squall is a wooden plank. I forgot how much I don't like FF8's cast initially. I seem to recall warming up to them by game's end, but at the beginning I only really like Rinoa and Selphie. Because they kind of remind me of two friends I had when I was that age, I suppose. Whatever the case, FF8 has some CRAZY dissonance going on. Like, as far as cutscenes go (talking mainly the dance here) Squall is just an awkward teenager, and its easy to see how Rinoa could fall for that blah blah blah. As far as writing goes Squall is a plank of wood and Rinoa is only a good person when she's NOT near him. AKA their romance is terribly written (Zidane and Garnet are still the best romance in the series, suck it haters.) Anyway, Quistis has lured Squall into a park where she's going to roofie him.

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I wouldn't call any FF romance good, but I would say that Zidane and Garnet's was bearable at least.

Meccanical said:

I wouldn't call any FF romance good, but I would say that Zidane and Garnet's was bearable at least.

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I would call one or two good, but I wouldn't say that any was great. Maybe it would be better to say it was endearing.

Jucksalbe said:

CorvoSol iOS: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11"]9[/URL]

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Aaahh! Error ahoy! Fix it fix it fix it!

CorvoSol said:

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy:

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lol theres another one for the spinoff list! How hard is this game if ya suck at rhythm games? Wait is there a demo I never thought to look for one -_-?

Lindsay said:

Aaahh! Error ahoy! Fix it fix it fix it!

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Thanks, fixed it! That list is getting so big, I don't even notice the obvious mistakes anymore. :/

Lindsay said:

Aaahh! Error ahoy! Fix it fix it fix it!


lol theres another one for the spinoff list! How hard is this game if ya suck at rhythm games? Wait is there a demo I never thought to look for one -_-?

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There is a demo, but it doesn't do it justice. I SUCK at Rhythm games, but I'm still doing fairly well at getting A and S ranks on Expert mode (which is basically medium mode, since it goes Beginner, Expert, Ultimate). I'd say it's fairly easy. The Dark Notes just started spinning my arrows, though, and that throws me off.

New enemies! New environments! New curse words spewing from your mouth due to the difficulty!



Sooo, standalone missions huh? Prepare to cry cause Shalua here is greatly underselling the difficulty of these things. Punches shall not be pulled! No levels, no items, no chance in hell of coming out alive!


If theres 1 thing ya may wanna keep in mind while doing these: its that bringing up the menu does not pause the action as it does in the regular game. You gotta customize & check the map on the fly! Your equipment is the same as what ya last finished the game with - but your Level is always set to 1. And you have no items. And limited ammo. And no MP to start with. The baddies seem like they're on their A game and perfectly positioned to piss you off.


Bonus 03: "we are VR"



Right from the start you can tell you're in for a different sort of gameplay. Some areas will be quite large and open! In this first one there is actual multiple routes to the end. A new obstacle appears - red laser gates! These don't never open. Towards the end you might even stumble into trenches! A good way of sneaking to the goal... or a trap in the making?!


The next one puts ya in much tighter quarters but you'll have to move fast! Its got 4 new Black Widow models firing homing missiles at you!! Better find the Ether lying around and have a materia equipped to blast at 'em! They share the same health bar so about 2 shots of level 3 materia should take 'em out if they don't get you first. Wiping them out all at once is kinda badass!


Fancy a romp through the wasteland? Go for it! My archnemesis from Crisis Core reappears - the Dual Horn! And they're no easier to kill here. Total bullet sponges. I dun recall seeing them in the main game... or Cactuars for that matter! The second image here shows just how quickly things can go wrong!


Mission 4's in another big open area and has a gimmick. You can only use magic!! Gotta pick up Ether's lying around and hope baddies drop some. Most go down in one shot but the flying turret dudes take 2 and the Dual Horn's take a ton. I really like the size and variety of this place. Buildings, plains, valley, cliffside - nice! It also gives ya a use for the jump button besides trick shots cause if you wanna not fall down into the valley you gotta jump over a busted bridge. Oh and this mission is good if only to see Dual Horn's jumping over fences lol. Those big guys sure can get around!


The Deep Labyrinth mission is an enormous roadblock. You will be shown no mercy. It also introduces a new gimmick. Red crates! This one will only drop items after you've completed the mission you unlock by using the explosive barrel in the room to blow up this here capsule. That's right! Fail time and time again just to get to this point and then...? Get told ya can't beat it. Go do another then struggle to get back to this point. Rage! Once ya get said items the second half of this almost becomes a joke. Almost.


Step on up an test your luck! There are three Cactuar's hiding in crates! But theres alot of crates an don't expect non-Cactuar ones to hold nothing. Nope! Deepground soldiers, mechs, and noooooo! Dual Horn!!!!!!! It is possible to kill them but your ammo'll go byebye! Getting them stuck behind crates is pretty much your only chance of surviving. So you'll be left with melee for the rest of the baddies but that's not big deal. Kinda fun.


Return to the wasteland an take a seat in one of the many turrets scattered about cause there's tons of enemies to blow away! Gotta rack up 500 points before 5 minutes is up an each monster is worth a different amount of points. Those ostrich-like monsters seen only once in the main game show up in much larger numbers here. Surprisingly the biggest threat are Cactuar's. Their size makes 'em darn hard to hit and if they get in close and 1000 Needle you... death is almost certain!


7th mission is the nicest yet! Not super hard and well you're in a jungle! These new environments have been providing a breath of fresh air from the darkness of the main game but this one looks especially super nice! Someday you feed on a tree frog~ wait a minute!


Where is the enemy?! Where is Vincent!? The true foe here is all the foliage! Can really make it kinda hard ta target them Gargoyles and their minions. Guess what? There's also a capsule somewhere in this overgrown jungle. Good luck finding it! The last mission I got to is one where you need to beat 100 baddies as Cait Sith. Ack!


Some of the missions got capsules in 'em an they're just as well hidden as before. Plus some are bullet resistant. Some need to be busted up with a melee strike, others by magic, an the rest via explosive barrels. With hardly a moment to breathe in these missions, good luck trying to unlock everything since there's like 48 missions in total!


Trailers, character models, sound test, concept art - even missions! All locked away! Its completely ridiculously insane! I guess one nice thing I can say is that at least this game has such stuffs. Neither FFVII nor Crisis Core had 'em. Its totally painfully cruel but whatevers! I'm done with the game!

Its time ta wrap this game up and what better day to do that then on Valentine's Day? Mission complete, Mr. Valentine.



I posted these "G" Reports previously as I found 'em during the game but they fit in with this update. #1 was found in Chapter 8, #2 in Chapter 10, an #3 in Chapter 11.


Something I learned after finishing the game is that failing to collect these means ya don't get the extended ending! Why would they do that? Its not to bad since they're not what I'd call hidden. I knew nothing about 'em but with my thorough approach to finding stuff they pretty much fell into my lap.


Bonus 04: "all in the details"



The Omega Reports aren't just a stage mission! Like the G report these are items you can check out for some added backstory. #1 & #2 can be found in the area below the Shinra manor.


#3 & #4 can be found up within the manor proper. Interestingly these all seemed to be penned by Dr. Grimoire Valentine. If ya think about it, had he not obtained Lucrecia as an assistant and introduced her to his research a whole lot of stuff may never have gone down including the birth of Sephiroth!


I found #5 in Chapter 8. Whether Grimoire or Lucrecia wrote it is anyones guess. But from #6 on (which is located in Chapter 10) they're totally by her. Did she ape his research >.>?


#7 & #8 were both found in the second part of the Above Midgar section of Chapter 12. Didn't expect to find these right near the very end did ya? Lucrecia was headed down the batshit scientist path ala Hojo but in the end she did come to her senses and keep her humanity. An now ya know the rest of the story.

....

..........

NOT!

Let's just say that Square was both ahead of its time and completely ass backwards with this game.

.....


With the unlockable system and extreme difficulty of the extra missions most ordinary gamers won't get even a fraction of the games content. An guess what? Even very good players will still be missing out on a lot. After finishing the game I paged through the instruction book an at the very end what did I see? Cut content or completely seperate game? You decide. Apparently this cellphone game takes place between the end up Chapter 4 an the start of Chapter 5. Crazy huh? Even crazier is that it had multiplayer!


Wait thats not crazy at all! Even more digging brought to my attention the fact that the japanese release of DoC had online multiplayer! It wasn't in the western release because we all know westerners hate online shooters. But beyond that there was an online story mode! This allegedly gave much more info on Deepground's origins, the Tsviets, and other stuffs. Isn't that just great? The games online has long since been shutdown so even japanese access to what it all entails is lost. I guess that makes 2 lost episodes! Read an check out images an videos of this stuff all ya want but most players never got to experience the full tale of this spinoff. This is all even more of a fuck you than ending on a cliffhanger.




...

An I know all about cliffhangers!

.......

.....yups.

Not ending on one! I'm done! I got no more FF games to play nor do I wanna!

....although......

There is one I play every year...


We gobba go back an redo it all over again for as long as the thread lasts...

I forgot that DoC had multiplayer in Japan.

I head the multiplayer campaign had a really screwed up ending.

Part 2: What are these job things?

First things first, the ATB tutorial boss. There's a sword in the room directly to the left of this boss, for some more offense.


After that, Blue Magic time. Tommy is the first, but probably not the last, to fall to the cause of learning spells.


Karlabos is not a boss, and dies to six hits of Thunder.


Siren makes a slightly better claim. In the job fiesta, blue mages are probably the best class for this as they can beat down both forms. Fire makes it easier.

Yuna and friends were in their way to destroy that beatiful machine called Vegnagun and save Baralai from a demonic possession. Time to finish the adventures and return to a life of boredom!



Vegnagun can be seen in the distance and Nooj is standing right next to it without being attacked by the huge machine while he's thinking how to destroy it. Vegnagun must have the sensors broken or something, because it could have destroyed this idiot if it wanted. Better for me, I suppose!



But just when the heroines approach it, Baralai/Shuyin starts the preparations to destroy the world. Luckily for Yuna and company, the machine takes its time charging and they have time to chat a little about the plan. Nooj thinks about a suicidal one and wants to be possessed by Shuyin and then kill himself so the ghost disappears. Let's see what Yuna thinks about it:



"It sucks"

I love Yuna dropping those truth bombs. First, killing the host wouldn't kill the stupid spirit, so that would be for naught. And second, killing someone isn't the only way nor the easiest, so that's doubly stupid. Then Yuna starts thinking about when she had to defeat the Aeons in FFX to destroy Yu Yevon and how she regrets that even if they were telling themselves that there wasn't another way to do it. Now Yuna doesn't want to make sacrifices.

Auron's voice can be heard in the distance: "I'm sorry". I don't know why he's apologizing, he was the best party member.



Vegnagun Awakens

Just when the sidekicks appear, Vegnagun starts the annihilation program. Time to scrap some metal... Not yet! Yuna tells the other people her superior plan before going to the battle screen: Using the songstress dressphere to seduce Shuyin using the resemblance to Lenne so he stops doing stupid shit. Leblanc agrees, I agree and Nooj agrees, so it's time to attack the machine.



Vegnagun attacks first and the heroes have to retreat to a safer place. Then they can see the magnificence of Vegnagun's butterfly mode. WTF???



Destruction

Using their ghostly powers, Jecht, Braska and Auron can encourage Yuna and friends in their battle against THE TAIL! That must be pretty tough!

Not really, as it bites the dust easily thanks to the help of the Mascot dressphere.



Meanwhile, Leblanc and her "twin" minions are getting trashed by a leg/arm, and YRP have to help them. Each of the girls says a short sentence at the beginning and the end of each battle. This one isn't difficult enough to say anything about how to destroy it, but we can see three enemy lights that do nasty things.



The leaders are fighting ther head/chest, but as always in this game, the Gullwings have to save the day and fight it themselves. This fight is against the chest and two legs an the latter can do massive damage, so it's very important to have good healing skills.



Just when I'm going to fight the head, Baralai/Shuyin pulls a trick. We're going to die!!!!!



That cannon sure is huge, but ain't got nothing against my deathproof girls. The final fight against Vegnagun is a timed battle: If it isn't finished before a certain time passes, Baralai will fire the cannon and the world will be destroyed, together with our heroines. I can't let that happen, right? The "fangs" can use powerful attacks on our party members, so the same caution as the last battle has to be taken without stopping the full force attack against the head.



And BOOM! Robot-thing destroyed! We can see possessed Baralai showing his body, so it's time to start Yuna's plan.



Dress? Check! Blurry filter? Check!



It seems to work, as we can see how the ghost leaves Baralai's body. That means happy ending, yay me!



Just when Shuyin is going to disappear, he notices how Yuna has a shorter hair and a different voice. Ooops, mission failed. That only means one thing:



Demise

Final boss time, Shuyin: Am I the only one that finds funny how three disguised women are ganging on a poor man? But he isn't weak, as we can see how he tries to imitate Tidus' overdrives (or it's the other way around?).



Ouch, that spiked ball (Wakka's final weapon!) must hurt. Even if Shuyin has tried all his best to kill Heropon's angels, he isn't no match for the mascot rage and "dies" horribly. Rikku takes advantage of the fight to learn auto-protect, not that it matters anymore.



And with the ghost defeated with the power of the violence, Yuna uses the power of love to make him disappear together with Lenne. But now that Lenne's gone, Nadia won't exist in the future! Time to return to Besaid I suppose then.



End of the chapter! That means that we only have to endure some cutscenes to finish this marvelous game and continue the FFIV playthrough.



Bullshit bonus: When Yuna and co. are walking through this flowery place, the player has to press x (meaning: we need a guide here, sir) to call the little boy. He will ask if Yuna wants to see "him" again. I suppose she wants to do so, so I will say yes. If she used her whistle powers in chapter 3, something will happen.



The final CG starts with the three leader friends reunited in a scene reminiscent of Yuna's speech at the end of FFX. Yuna doesn't like doing deep speeches anymore, so she isn't there enjoying some more praise for saving the world again and goes on a airship trip instead.



THE END... if you don't use a guide.



Wish granted by the little agent, Tidus will return so Yuna doesn't have to look for another boyfriend without generic NPC clothes.



At last, Yuna and Tidus' story has a happy ending after two games full of battles, cutscenes and evil ghosts. Now they have to face the woes of marriage, which are scarier that Sin if every TV drama in existence has taught me right.



Now the game offers me the New Game+ option, but I'll have to decline if I want to play more games.



It has taken me almost 40 hours to have a 93% completion, not too much time, I suppose.

FIN

Part 3: To the water crystal!

I decided to use text boxes that would be more visually distinct from my first run about halfway through this one.

Anyway, after the ship graveyard comes Carwen, which contains exactly two items of note.


On North Mountain, an Ether was paid to learn Flash. It's possible to take out Magissa with just the frost rod, but I wanted both Bestiary entries. Galuf's a black mage because Sleep is a level 2 spell.


Next: Plot! (and another spell)


Blue mages stomp all over Garula, as both spells learned in this update work. This hasn't looked that different from the first run thus far, but I promise that'll change relatively soon.

Then you're only using mage jobs? Blue Mage + Summoner is going to destroy everything again!

Nah, I intend to bring out the Red Mage. I'm trying to get !Blue on almost everyone before I start branching out.

Getting Dualcast will mean killing lots of statues, are you ready?

I had ranger twice this past summer. I'm no stranger to killing statues.

Edit: That said, I do still intend to bring out Blue magic for the 3-ish bosses in a row vulnerable to LV5 Death.

The last time, our lovely Red Wings were going straight to Baron from a successful theft and found some monsters in their way. There weren't casualties thanks to Cecil's masterful use of Baron's magic items.

Kingdom of Baron



Cecil returns to the castle and he's received by the Captain of the Royal Guard Baigan. A bit of praising and straight to the business, it seems. Cecil seems concerned about the Mysidians, but Baigan doesn't care about mercy or whatever he has to say apart from the crystal. Oh, Cecil, you surprise me, I thought you were a jerk, but that was only a facade. Maybe I'll learn to like you in this playthrough after all.



Just when Cecil isn't around, that traitorous snake called Baigan starts spreading (real) rumors about our beloved hero. This man wants a promotion desperately, too bad for him that Cecil is the king's lap dog. As I thought, these people are obsessed with the crystals. What kind of powers do they have? Granting the secret of beauty or how to score hotties? It's a mystery for now, I hope the game explains why are they so valuable.



The beloved king shows his concern for Cecil, that is to say, none, as he only cares about that shiny, shiny water crystal. You know what they say: Crystals are king's best friends. I like how Baigan has to check the authenticity, as if Cecil could buy one these huge things in a jewelry. Fuck off, Baigan, I already know you are a traitorous swine, you don't have to show it even more. The king keeps exhibiting his admiration for Cecil and wants him to leave the room as soon as he has his precious new toy in his hands. Cecil, it will be best for you to follow orders and leave this place as soon as possible, things will get worse if you open your mouth.



Oh snap, leave now that you can Cecil, stop with this nonsense!



Oh, Cecil, now that you have started to ask you can't chicken out at the first turn of events. At least he had the minimum amount of guts to even ask, so I suppose I'll have to acknowledge him that... Now that I think about it, it's funnier to talk shit about Cecil and I'm not in a good mood right now, so he won't get any mercy from me.



Oh, Cecil has hurt the king's feelings and now he reproaches him how much has he done for him. If not caring about him is doing something now I know why he would be betraying that useless king. Well, Cecil has been demoted for asking a question, he should feel lucky this king isn't a relative of a certain chancellor or he could have ended with one head less.

Who says I'm not a relative of the king?

>.>



The begging doesn't work and the king has a new order for him. Wow, that was really fast. I wonder if the king wanted to demote him even if he didn't ask anything... This mission is like the last in the sense that the king doesn't explain the dark reasons behind it. Expecting Cecil to question the orders is stupid, he has already spent all his bravery points in the last minutes and now he's again at the coward rank.



Again, Cecil, again? You don't know how to say other things? Upon further inspection, this box doesn't contain the name of the person saying it, which means...



Off screen talking by the new character Kain! I think I'm going to search the voice actor to analyze it a little.

Liam O'Brien, let's see some examples... Caius Ballad (Final Fantasy XIII-2), Akihiko Sanada (Persona 3) and Dist the Reaper/Rose (Tales of the Abyss).

That's pretty diverse, but the character who is most similar to Kain is Ballad, so it's obvious why the actor put almost the same voice for the two characters. I don't know if it's true, but I heard that he was chosen to act as Caius thanks to the good reception he had as Kain. The more you know, I suppose. There are some videos around the webs with him voicing some advertisements. They're interesting...

Kain, eavesdropping isn't good, I thought your parents taught you that. Well, thanks to Kain's arrival, the king now has another person to do the dirty work for him. Cecil keeps saying Your majesty whenever as possible, all is fine in the world.



The king uses the new technique of using the guards to kick out the scum from the room. After this scene, we can do a ranking of jerkiness in this game, let's see how it goes:

Baigan > The King >>>> Cecil >>>>>>>> Kain

I wonder how the positions will move in the upcoming weeks!



Kain has attended the school of Positive Thinking™, I see. I don't trust the king doing nice things anymore, but I hope he's right, we need Cecil as a major jerk or he will become another bland character.



Alert, alert!!! Someone call Dark Schala!



Kain keeps being the best person so far and worries about Cecil, so now I have a time of recess. I think this is a good point to stop the update, so I will use the next one to explore the castle.

Persona 4 - Period

Statistics:
-One person has said [insert character's name]... so far, his name was Cecil and the victim was Kain.
-Majesty has been said nine times in all the update. One kitten was killed each time it happened. Think about it.
-39 screenshots have been used in this update, 49 were taken. 78 and 99 respectively so far in the playthrough.