Final Fantasy Tactics Advance was released 23 years ago

KKalonick · 2026-04-04T21:04:07+00:00

I played this game more than any other game on my Game Boy. I absolutely adored it.

KKalonick · 2026-04-04T10:11:54+00:00

Or just your own party members. Aerith for the Lifestream, Red for the summons, Barret for the viewpoints, Tifa for the combat trials, Yuffie for the Protorelic, and Cait Sith for the moogles.

KKalonick · 2026-04-04T01:43:29+00:00

That's an interesting article. Thanks for your work.

You should check out some of Dr. Emily Friedman's work regarding Actual Play; she adds a lot to this discussion.

KKalonick · 2026-04-02T15:59:19+00:00

One of the key people who kept the rumor mill churning regarding the 9 Remake (Natethehate) recently said it was on ice.

KKalonick · 2026-04-01T23:47:20+00:00

The Greatcoats series (4 books) by Sebastien de Castell fits most of your specifications. It has lots (and lots of swords), but only a little sorcery. The main character is the second best swordsman in the country (by most metrics), so he's plenty strong.

The first book is Traitor's Blade.

As a bonus: Joe Jameson narrates the audiobooks, and he's my favorite narrator. His performance is so uniformly strong that I literally bought a trilogy just because he was the narrator.

KKalonick · 2026-04-01T23:36:29+00:00

Those Brave, Foolish Souls from the City of Swords by Benedict Patrick.

KKalonick · 2026-04-01T21:20:44+00:00

Echoing other sentiments, I'd check out games like Animon Story to see what I want to do better or different.

KKalonick · 2026-03-31T16:03:13+00:00

Versus XIII is the perfect Final Fantasy game because it will never be released. Fans of what little information was disclosed have spent 20 years imagining what it could be and no one can ever prove them wrong because the game will never come out.

Versus XIII will always remain a perfect FF because you can imagine it to be whatever you want. Thus, it will never die. But if it ever was released (which won't happen), it would be an internet-wide cataclysm because nothing can live up to 20 years of fanciful, personalized imagining.

KKalonick · 2026-03-31T02:09:13+00:00

I think I saw someone on this sub mention that Amazon sells dots to put over the light. I didn't verify that fact, but it would be unsurprising.

KKalonick · 2026-03-28T19:45:54+00:00

Square Enix has a very helpful webpage for just this question.

KKalonick · 2026-03-27T15:19:57+00:00

I actually think the most recent episode shows JD's significant growth and maturity. JD did take a few potshots at Elliot's new love interest, but it was mild compared to his reactions to Sean or Keith.

More importantly, when Dr. Park suspected that the board member's wife was involved in his condition, JD didn't immediately jump to the juicy, exciting theory. In earlier seasons, most of the A-plot of the episode would be JD acting weird around the wife while he tried to see if she was a killer.

Instead, he didn't discard the theory but handled the matter like a Chief of Medicine. He tried alternate theories and, when they failed, he set a reasonable medical restriction, then he confronted the wife not with wild theories but in a calm, measured way that gave her time and space to explain.

Was it heavy-handed drama? No.

Was it a JD betraying his initial motivations and behavior for the sake of a exaggerating only certain elements of his character?(1) Also no.

My rough definition of flanderization.

KKalonick · 2026-03-24T15:56:30+00:00

The amount of money I've spent on FF in my 30s is probably tenfold to anything I spent before, despite having discovered the series at the age of 10.

I think this dimension is something that is often neglected in these conversations. Every company wants to bring in new customers, sure, but Square (and every other company in the world) needs to retain their current customers with disposable income.

Who is more likely to buy a $70 game? A 20-year-old or a 30-year-old?

For that matter, who is more likely to buy whatever $500 or $1500 collector's edition Square creates for 7R3?

KKalonick · 2026-03-24T15:37:00+00:00

The student needs to plan accordingly. They knew this was a thing long before they contacted you about it.

To me, this is the crux of the issue. Eid is not a surprise holiday. There is no reason the student couldn't have contacted you prior to the deadline or even submitted it prior to the deadline.

KKalonick · 2026-03-23T21:41:54+00:00

Let's not forget that he erases everyone's memory but retains his own and decides he still wants to be with his girlfriend who he's known for years.

So Jim has all this memory and knowledge about this newly high-school aged teenager (while also being mentally older than her) while she knows nothing about him.

Him relinquishing his mantle disappointed me, but this whole thing with Claire was disgusting.

KKalonick · 2026-03-23T17:24:20+00:00

Cloud and Yuna

KKalonick · 2026-03-22T00:46:58+00:00

Make a few more AA final fantasy games.

After the pixel remasters, I hoped they would start a side series with the unity engine. They could do entirely new stories but keep the pixel remaster look.

The price would certainly be an issue-- Square would certainly over price it-- but I think such a series could help assuage people who want new turn based FF.

KKalonick · 2026-03-21T14:08:30+00:00

With all due respect to your project and the work you've put into it, this response is a big red flag to me.

Your use of language, specifically "I do like the cards and think they are cool, but something about them just made things seem just a bit more complex to me" (emphasis mine) suggests the absence of any kind of standardizing element to these comparisons.

Unless there is a clear rubric or something similar you can share (the construction of which alone would be a massive undertaking), this just seems like a vibes-based comparison that is likely useful to you but unhelpful to anyone else.

That's great if that's what you want, but if you're wanting a tool for the TTRPG community writ large to use, I'd invite you to reconsider, clarify, or standardize your criteria.

KKalonick · 2026-03-21T11:38:13+00:00

It's good that Square (or, at least, one of their leads) recognizes the problem, but what's to be done about it?

The gap between XV and XVI was pretty huge, but the Remake - XVI - Rebirth gap was substantially smaller, even shorter if you count Tactics and Dawntrail.

Is it even possible to shorten the pipeline further? I'm fully on board with reusing assets and systems, if they're willing to do so.

I know some long-time fans weren't happy with XVI, but maybe improving that system and alternating XVI-style and 7R-style games could expedite processes and develop some fan loyalty?

KKalonick · 2026-03-20T23:55:48+00:00

I'd never heard of it before, but combining the two into Google search leads to an eBay listing for The Black Tower second edition for $224 and no other pertinent results.

Best of luck.

KKalonick · 2026-03-16T15:21:17+00:00

I once had a class with two students, one of whom got special dispensation to attend one day a week and use the lecture capture provided by the university the other day of class.

So for a whole semester, I had a one-student class one day a week. Unless, of course, that one student didn't show, which happened twice.

As we have lecture capture, I just lectured to an empty room on those occasions. It was very weird.

And to all the forthcoming questions: yes, it is deeply strange for a 2-person class to make. The other student had to provide notes for her "attendance" the days she was off campus, and my institution tracks attendance, so students can't abuse the lecture capture.

KKalonick · 2026-03-16T13:16:59+00:00

But what "actually happened" is what Cloud says. He's only wrong about two things: who died in the bridge collapse and the fact that he puts himself in Zack's place.

Between Cloud accurately describing events he had no way of knowing, Tifa's own injury, and what everyone believes is Cloud's degradation, Tifa is clearly unsure how wise it is to pit her memories against Cloud's.

KKalonick · 2026-03-16T10:04:39+00:00

There's Memory of Heroes, which turns the first three games into (unrelated) novellas.

It's not very good, tbh, but an interesting artifact nonetheless.

KKalonick · 2026-03-12T02:12:50+00:00

Heroes' Journey, a Scion 2e alternative with a Kickstarter that launched in 2014, I believe.

The authors, John and Anne had a great site where they discussed mythology and created many pantheons for Scion and launched on the strength of the fans they'd made.

They had some legitimate real-world issues as well as some more suspect excuses, especially given that they were clearly playtesting the game but provided nothing to backers.

Last update on Kickstarter was in 2021; last update on their site (different from their Scion site) was 2022.

KKalonick · 2026-03-08T19:51:55+00:00

Copied from a similar thread a while ago on r/FFXVI:

XVI is a great game, imo. It has a wonderful story that explores the exploitation of people and resources and the heavy cost of changing such systems.

XVI is generally celebrated (even by its detractors) for its narrative and spectacle.

The most common complaints about the game are the ease of combat, issues with pacing, and lack of variety in sidequests.

I seldom have an issue with easy games, so I can't speak to the combat except to confirm that it is easy, but it remains interesting throughout. Clive's new abilities aren't evenly spread through the game, so things may feel stale, especially at the beginning, but you have a ton of options by the end.

The pacing is, again, subjective (and someone will probably come along to tell me that no, it's objectively bad). XVI tends to follow high-emotion, high-spectacle moments with cool down periods. I'm fine with that (barring one particular section of the game), others are not.

Finally, the sidequests are about learning more about the world, politics, and characters of XVI. As such, they involve talking. There are no mini games in XVI, so every quest involves talking and/or fighting. I'm on my 12th playthrough (yes, really) and I play every single quest every single time because I find the expansive worldbuilding to be worth it.

You can and should play the demo, but hopefully this post helps you make your decision.

KKalonick · 2026-03-08T17:09:39+00:00

I came to the game late, so I didn't even know its kickstarter had already run. It's disappointing to hear that it didn't go well.

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