The Authoritative Final Fantasy & Bravely Default thread

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xrg

xrg

Golden Squire
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I played a translation rom of Final Fantasy 5 before Final Fantasy Anthology came out. It was actually the release of that that I discovered emulation in the first place. I didn't get very far since the emulator I had didn't support transparency and there is an underwater part early on.

Here is a blogI have in my RSS feeds where he goes through and compares the various translations of FF4. It's not super compelling, but kind of interesting to read the differences with the weird stuff like Spoony Bard.
 
Gavinmad

Gavinmad

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Haast_sl said:
So what you're saying is, you were wrong?
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It's really cute how you deleted your post when you realized that you were a fucking moron.

xrg_sl said:
I played a translation rom of Final Fantasy 5 before Final Fantasy Anthology came out. It was actually the release of that that I discovered emulation in the first place. I didn't get very far since the emulator I had didn't support transparency and there is an underwater part early on.

Here is a blogI have in my RSS feeds where he goes through and compares the various translations of FF4. It's not super compelling, but kind of interesting to read the differences with the weird stuff like Spoony Bard.
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This is interesting, but the fact that he apparently didn't have the time/inclination to include the DS remake is disappointing, because I think the changes to the dialogue for the DS remake are fantastic. I mean they basically rewrote it from scratch, but THEY KEPT SPOONY BARD!
 
Haast

Haast

Lord Nagafen Raider
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Sean_sl said:
FF6 characters are all the same, Haast. They can all use the same weapons and you can build them all the same with Espers. Espers is basically the pseudo-job system in FF6 and the characters are only different due to their single special skill. It's just like the FF7 system and Materia, every character is the same sans limit breaks.

FF1 - Pick a unique class at the beginning
FF2 - No one can be assed to explain this horrible system
FF3 - Job system
FF4 - Unique Characters
FF5 - Job system
FF6 - Esper system + 1 special skill
FF7 - Materia system + unique limit breaks
FF8 - Junction system + unique limit breaks
FF9 - Unique Characters
FF10 - Sphere Grid + unique limit breaks
FF10-2 - Job system
FF12 - License board and screw you if you didn't use Ashe/Penelo/Vaan
FF13 - Crystarium system
FF13-2 - Crystarium system + monster party member

Basically the only games in the series with characters that you couldn't all build to be basically identical were 4, 9, and to an extent 1.
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Sorry Sean. I killed the previous post because I didn't feel like discussing it further. You're right, you can build them all the same with careful planning and a shitload of grinding, which I did on one play-through.
 
Haast

Haast

Lord Nagafen Raider
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Gavinrad_sl said:
It's really cute how you deleted your post when you realized that you were a fucking moron.
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I deleted it because I didn't feel like discussing it further. You are still wrong. Feel free to continue being wrong.
 
S

Sean_sl

shitlord
4,735
11
Hey man, discussing the nuances of the character systems in these games is great discussion. Gavitard is just a pretty volatile jackass, don't let him bait you too much.

I think FF6 goes both ways a bit - most of the characters you ended up just using special equipment or esper skills that anyone could use and their unique skills didn't really mean a whole lot. Others like Gau are totally different beasts that were monsters because of their special skills.

The Limit Break games also have a similar setup. Characters in them are pretty interchangable through most of the game until you get to a part where you can chain limit breaks which makes others stand above the rest. Cloud/Tifa/Yufie in 7, Squall/Rinoa/Quistis in 8, Tidus/Yuna/Wakka in 10.

10's quite a bit different though, because every character is pretty unique due to to Sphere Grid locks for most of the game and has a great feel to making characters feel necessary, especially with the in battle swapping. Then it gets to a point where they're all the same for a while deep in when it starts unlocking, then a while after the Limit Break setups destroy everything else.
 
Gavinmad

Gavinmad

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Yeah, I was pretty firmly in the 'Gau totally sucks' camp for the longest time, until I read a guide and found out what I was missing. I mean, I knew he had one or two solid rages, but I never knew the overpowered glory of Stray Cat, or the game breaking Nightshade.

I mean it's sorta disingenuous to say they were all the same in FF6, because that really wasn't the case until the last 1/4th of the game or so. Prior to that, the higher innate magic attribute of Terra, Celes, and Relm (but seriously, fuck Relm) made a pretty big difference. Similarly, the awesomeness of Edgar's tools was hard to argue, I always had trouble excluding Locke because FF6 was the first one where you can pretty consistently get good shit from stealing (plus Locke is far and away the strongest character at end game). Shadow is pretty badass in the WoB, but he sucks pretty hard in the WoR. Cyan pretty much always sucks because sword techs aren't even vaguely powerful enough to justify how long they take to charge, Setzer is a joke and would be the worst character by far if it weren't for Umaro and Gogo having a battle to the death for that honor. Mog is actually way better than people give him credit for because the Moogle Charm rocks, and you can just give him the dragoon relics to make him a strong damage dealer.
 
Haast

Haast

Lord Nagafen Raider
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Sean_sl said:
Hey man, discussing the nuances of the character systems in these games is great discussion. Gavitard is just a pretty volatile jackass, don't let him bait you too much.
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Yeah, I should probably know better. He's good at what he does, I guess.

I think FF6 goes both ways a bit - most of the characters you ended up just using special equipment or esper skills that anyone could use and their unique skills didn't really mean a whole lot. Others like Gau are totally different beasts that were monsters because of their special skills.
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If you don't put in the time to get numerous high end weapons (like Atmas), gem boxes, economizers and max your stats through high end leveling with the right espers in FF6, the characters remain different. FF6 opened the door for making your characters good at everything with enough effort. FF7 gave it more of a purpose with the endgame Weapon battles.
 
S

Sean_sl

shitlord
4,735
11
Yeah, it's really not black & white - especially in various stages of the game. Certain characters definitely stand out, like Gavitard said. I do think that most of them are pretty much throwaways though where their skills don't really matter. 13 is similar in that characters are unique for most of the game and only really the same in the end-game.

7 and 8 are the opposite of 6/13 and everyone is pretty much the same until the end game where you can chain limit breaks.

Job System games, 3/5/10-2/13-2, are really beasts of their own.
 
xrg

xrg

Golden Squire
180
59
Gogo is pretty lethal in the right party.

I don't remember the exact setup, but I had Terra dual wielding some swords, doing I think 4 hits for ~9999ish damage. One was Atma Weapon, which irrc had damage based on your max health - I forget what the other sword was. Anyway, Gogo would mimic it as if he had the exact same equipment and basically double it. I think there was a trick with duplicating magic spells in a similar way.
 
Gavinmad

Gavinmad

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Alternately, you could use Locke with Atma Weapon/Valiant Knife for 8 quad 9s a round, and not bother with shitty shitty Gogo.
 
Szlia

Szlia

Member
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As a true euro hardcore gamer of the '90s, I played through the SNES Final Fantasies with the japanese originals (I know there were strong Japanese games import scenes in France and Germany too - was it anything like that in the US?). As it was in the pre-internet age, it was all about collective problem solving and very very basic text deciphering. Anyway, going from IV to V was a big disappointment as far a characters go: the Shakespearean epic turned into a steady group of guys that can be anything... The job system de-characterize the characters. The bigger cast of malleable but initially clearly defined characters of FFVI fixed some of that.
 
xrg

xrg

Golden Squire
180
59
Gavinrad_sl said:
Alternately, you could use Locke with Atma Weapon/Valiant Knife for 8 quad 9s a round, and not bother with shitty shitty Gogo.
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Couldn't Gogo mimic that too? I haven't played that game since it came out so I don't recall all the items and rules very well anymore.
 
Mist

Mist

REEEEeyore
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Final Fantasy 12 international: zodiac job system was a huge upgrade to that game. Read up on how to hack the ISO together and play it emulated.
 
Gavinmad

Gavinmad

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Yeah but she wouldn't be hitting near as hard. The main reason Gogo sucked ass was that she couldn't equip Espers, which meant she couldn't get level bonuses. FF6 mime was not nearly as strong as FF5 or FF7 mime.
 
stupidmonkey

stupidmonkey

Not Smrt
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Thanks for the breakdown.

I'm partial to FF4 since I got it day one on SNES. I've owned them all but most after FF7 have put me at odds with the franchise. I think they've really gotten away from what made the series to begin with. The more "realistic" the FF game the more I shy away from it. However, a lot of people seemed to have a problem with FF9 when they tried to go back towards the older formula. Maybe it's just nostalgia over the SNES RPG glory days that I long for.
 
Gavinmad

Gavinmad

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Dr. Mario Speedwagon_sl said:
Gogo was a chick?!? I'VE BEEN HAD AGAIN!
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There are some loose implications that Gogo is Daryl. It's a real thin theory, but it got me in the habit of referring to Gogo as a female.

The problem with FF9 was not that they tried to go back towards the older formula, the problem was that the game was just bland and shitty. Also forgettable since I have only a vague recollection of what went on and every time I try and remember I confuse the main character with Vaan from FF12. The only character I remember for certain is Vivi, and thats only because of the whole black mage shtick and also because he was in Kingdom Hearts 2.
 
I

Itzena_sl

shitlord
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Reminder: FFIX was the lastrealFF game and FFVIII was the predecessor and direct cause of all the terribleness that was XI onwards.
 
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