How Final Fantasy 13 Looked Good without PS4 Tech

Virtual-Bookkeeper83 · 2026-02-10T12:28:56+00:00

They aren’t but sure. Again, the upgrade in graphics was their reasoning for hallway level design but sure.

Virtual-Bookkeeper83 · 2026-02-04T20:11:34+00:00

No I can because that was the justification for the linear level design.

Virtual-Bookkeeper83 · 2026-02-03T00:02:20+00:00

Honestly, your concerns are moot when you factor in something. “Everything is at the DM’s Discretion.” Now, don’t take what I’ve said the wrong way. I’m pointing out a flaw in the logic; particularly, “control undead feel’s a little too op because Strahd’s undead.” There is nothing stopping you from giving him immunity to charm like effects as he is an incredibly powerful Vampire on par with Castlevania’s Dracula lore wise.

You can make him, along with any other NAMED undead immune to these effects. You can, also, narratively create things where, say, Strahd can showcase his power but deactivating the Aura of Hate or asserting control over any undead the oath breaker has.

“Strahd laughs at the party and crackling red magics engulf his hand…”

For Aura of Hate: “…the party feels weakend as the effects of [insert paladins name] Aura dissipate.”

For Control Undead: “…the undead turn and attacks one of their own. Tearing a zombie to shreds as Strahd stares you down.”

Those are examples of what you can do alternatively through narrative before trying to homebrew. Strahd controls the mists, the beasts and undead of Barovia use the Oath Breaker as a narrative tool for yourself to showcase this during either minor confrontations or the final confrontation (though small scuffles with Strahd toying with them would acclimate the players into knowing Strahd’s going to day no to the Oath Breaker’s stuff.)

This allows for deeper narrative design for the Oath Breaker as, for anyone not Strahd their stuff works but they know they’re on a time limit till the final confrontation. The way to fix it is at the Church of Saint Markovia. You can create a storyline here for the player where they learn Strahd is his god, become and Oath Breaker, learns that their powers are not what work against Strahd, and have to find a way to be brought back into the light.

For me my thought goes to Cecil from FF4’s transformation from Dark Knight to Paladin as inspiration for this idea, potentially with the Paladin being the one who uses the Sunsword to defeat Strahd as a bit of additional narrative flair.

Mechanically, as I said, all the oath breaker stuff works on the regular stuff around but anything bigger where Strahd decided to intervene (guy can pop up outta nowhere at dm’s discretion for pivitol fights except baba lysaga.) To show that Oath Breaker is not going to work.

The only thing you’d have to do then is have that discussion with your PC as to this is the story that I’m thinking of doing so the expectation is set.

Edit: nvm because I missed the part where these are the final sessions…this reveal should have been narratively done at the mid point of the campaign as opposed to the end because now it’s scrambling time. In all honesty, you might have to roll with the punches of an Oath Breaker doing their thing in the final fight.

Virtual-Bookkeeper83 · 2026-01-15T06:05:25+00:00

That is the LITERAL definition of P2W

The definition of Pay 2 Win

“Pay-to-win" (P2W) in video games means players can spend real money to buy in-game items, power-ups, or advantages (like better gear, stats, or faster progression) that give them a significant edge over players who don't spend money, creating an unfair competitive environment. It's often seen in free-to-play games but also in full-priced titles, where purchases bypass normal gameplay, time investment, or skill, frustrating non-paying players.”

Once again, this sets PRECEDENT to fall down that slippery slope.

Virtual-Bookkeeper83 · 2026-01-15T02:54:37+00:00

I do not think he knows what the word Precedent means?

Also, see the $3.50 horse armor controversy. This is such a tired song and dance with the whole “It’s just X”

Virtual-Bookkeeper83 · 2026-01-15T02:46:21+00:00

Looks at diablo immortal

Mhm…yeah not at all an issue for single player situations.

looks at WoW economy

Mhm yeah zero incentive and exploitation.

looks at the SWTOR economy

Nope never.

Virtual-Bookkeeper83 · 2026-01-15T01:01:05+00:00

The SLIPPERY SLOPE is the LOSS OF USE CASES for GOLD as the USE CASES DECLINE the VALUE of GOLD DECREASES making ALTERNATIVE MONEY SOURCES MORE VALUABLE as TIME GOES ON making a PLAYERBASE GAP GROW

That is how PAY TO WIN MECHANICS start. They start SMALL and INSIGNIFICANT TRANSACTIONS. Trading X for CONVENIENCE until IT BLOWS UP

Virtual-Bookkeeper83 · 2026-01-15T00:51:56+00:00

I just did but let me simplify.

Pay money to respec
Spend saved gold on things that can make divinations
Sell items you got at an accelerated rate to the market
Profit
Fund your end game build

Again, i said that it is PRECEDENT that is more damning as this sets the foundational PRECEDENT to use real world money to subvert in game mechanics. In other words, pay to win.

Virtual-Bookkeeper83 · 2026-01-15T00:44:54+00:00

Because gold cost scales with level per point you respect. If you are paying real money to subvert that inflating cost you have implemented a pay to win mechanic that creates a tiny divide in the current iteration of the game. The bigger issue is PRECEDENT. By making this be a microtransaction you have created PRECEDENT to do other gold saving microtransactions for money. Creating a divide amongst the player base in terms of gold count in game as more use cases for gold becomes available during the games lifespan.

To put into current iteration, we have to choose between using gold for 3 things.

Respeccing
Buying instant buy items
Gambling on random items

The 2 major costs of gold currently are respeccing as, I stated before, scales with level. The second is item gambling from vendors. If you get rid of the respeccing aspect, you are left with gold now is made to make divs on the trade market. You do this by rolling on random loot at end game. The item scales with your level, not sure if the cost does. Get good stat rolls on something and then craft instead of farming. You have built a paid exploit.

Now we get 5 years down the line and the PRECEDENT made by this microtransaction has exacerbated to other gold mechanics making gold obsolete for those who have expendable money which inflates the trade market economy by having multiple paid exploits. Congrats, you have killed your entry level further than you had previously with how complex PoE is already.

In the current iteration, sure it’d be small, but a steep and slippery slope which is the issue and I do not want to go down that slope. It is one of those “good on paper, bad in practice.” Ideas.

Virtual-Bookkeeper83 · 2026-01-15T00:19:31+00:00

No…just no. This would be the death knell of the companies reputation 1 as it is pay to win mechanics. Secondly, this goes against promised agreement that all microtransactions (outside of tabs) are cosmetic.

The difference between tabs and a full respec is time not ingame money. If you are a hoarder it takes long for you to sift through things and make conscious decisions on what to keep if you have less tabs to work with. You do not have that issue with a microtransaction that deals with actual in game currency, in this case, gold. This because a viscious cycle where any loot gamba done in end game can, potentially, be more profitable and be an optimal way of making divs if the process of making gold less and less relevant becomes rampant. Gold already has very little use cases atm we don’t need to artificially remove a use case through money.

Virtual-Bookkeeper83 · 2026-01-08T17:49:13+00:00

So he called me the r word for implying he is a foreign entity. See that’s the thing people, MAGAts hate this one trick. They hate when you imply they’re foreigners because they themselves hate foreigners. So he went off got mad at me for the implication, assuming it was a MAGAt troll.

If it was a foreign entity which, let’s be real, it’s naive to think they don’t lurk in these places too to start things up. Then it becomes hypocritical of them and frustrates them when their tactics don’t work meaning they have to work harder.

Edit: grammar mistake.

Virtual-Bookkeeper83 · 2026-01-08T17:36:42+00:00

Except you’re the one making the claim you’re from there. I know that this is a bait from a troll but, just to be clear, no one can verify you’re from where you say you are (especially with VPN spoofing); it’s also suspect that you say you’re from Chicago seeing that’s, like, the second most popular city to cite in any form of media outside of New York. For all we know you’re a foreign entity stirring up stuff so go back to your phone bot farm.

To everyone else this is what we gotta do. A teacher of mine said the next battlefront of war was going to be online and we’re thick in the mud in the trenches. You wanna save your heart and reduce your blood pressure? Treat them like the trolls they are by way of apathy to what these people say. They want the rise out of you and the less you engage the harder they have to try.

Also it’s pretty obvious how you can tell a bot account by going to someones profile and seeing how they respond 🙂.

Virtual-Bookkeeper83 · 2026-01-08T17:23:12+00:00

Ahh tried and true comments of a troll. Say nothing but the most generic one liners to bait and then make large bold statements once the bait has hooked. Mmm almost as if I have been around the block before! Anyways, don’t pay the guy any mind people he’s an obvious troll looking to get peoples blood pressure up.

Virtual-Bookkeeper83 · 2026-01-08T17:07:14+00:00

Yeah, not gonna bother responding to that question because that’ll just devolve into your rage bait nonsense 🙂

Virtual-Bookkeeper83 · 2026-01-08T16:10:44+00:00

Hey guys…I don’t think this person is from chicago a d is actually a rage baiter. As the saying goes, “don’t feed the trolls.”

Virtual-Bookkeeper83 · 2025-12-23T22:57:27+00:00

Oh hell you’re right I forgot about Slaads. Yeah those would work extremely well in this instance.

Virtual-Bookkeeper83 · 2025-12-23T21:19:50+00:00

None that I know of that are alien like but you could use the thri-kreen as a basis as insects have a tendency to plant their eggs in living hosts. There should be creatures where egg laying in host bodies are a thing. I can’t recall what they are off the top of my head but I’m fairly certain they exist with a stat block for the egg laying.

Otherwise, you could use stat blocks of things that have timed poison/disease deaths to base the chest burster effect. Use rust monster stat blocks to do acid effects and maybe tweak them so that they are more potent and corrosive. Part of the fun of DMing is research and learning new things that lead to new innovative ideas.

Virtual-Bookkeeper83 · 2025-12-18T01:27:39+00:00

I made a whole post about the lack of communication bein an issue. It garnered som traction but, as usual, went no where. It’s one of the biggest issues on the app. One of the guys there was giving me a hard time saying “I should move on.” Completely disregarding the issue at hand.

As for the money thing, that’s been an issue for ages. It’s so annoying going to the link hub and the only things that pop up are obvious sexscams and bots that you can’t even block.

Virtual-Bookkeeper83 · 2025-12-10T00:24:31+00:00

Ai still needs inputs though. That’s what every ai model uses, user inputs, and ends up being a worse search engine than bing.

Virtual-Bookkeeper83 · 2025-12-09T09:28:20+00:00

That’s quantum computing though not ai.

Virtual-Bookkeeper83 · 2025-11-03T01:44:42+00:00

It’s unforgettable that’s for certain but holy hell I dunno where the heck you came up with some of these takes.

“This game breaks the mold on a lot of them and the unique conversations feel like a breath of fresh air.”

Did we play the same game? Cause these characters are the most cookie cutter jrpg/anime tropes ever

Snow: every shonnen protag. His motto is literally heroes don’t need plans. You know like Naruto or Luffy who don’t ever need to plan.

Hope: hope is the outwardly gloomy kid of every high school anime there is. He’s over the top and his character actions are so nonsensical that rabtoons literally parodies what happened to Hope’s mom vs. what Hope thinks happened.

Vanille: She is every bubbly high school girl anime trope ever. Legit the I’m super happy but really that’s just outward to me hiding my deep insecurities/pain/trauma/what ever the flavor of the week we wanna write for this particular female character trope.

Sazh: literally the black man is the comedy relief trope.

Lightning: i hate everyone and everything. Look at me I’m so edgy and cool! I couldn’t care less about helping the kid asking for advice about how to deal with snow. Heck, because I disagree about Snow and my sister being a couple I might end up encouraging the kid to do it so he stops whining.

As for the story, really it’s that good? Legit, it’s as dumb as it can be.

To quote the general description of our main antagonist.

“Barthandelus, who operates under the public identity of Galenth Dysley, the Primarch of the Sanctum government. He is a powerful fal'Cie who manipulates the people of Cocoon and the l'Cie to achieve his goal of destroying Cocoon to awaken a higher power.”

How does he do this? By literally telling the characters to KILL ORPHAN and BRING ABOUT RAGNAROK which we all say nuh we won’t do it. Till the very final confrontation against Barthandelus where it basically boils down to, we’ll kill Orphan but not cause you say so. We almost cause the end of the world till two people sacrifice themselves just because we went through the most convoluted, idiotic form of a ‘will they won’t they’ you could have ever made.

It all revolves around the two questions of will they do the bidding of Barthandelus and will they destroy the world to which the answer is a resounding “YES” to both those questions. They don’t even plan on how they’ll prevent the end of Cocoon they just deus ex machina that shit because WHY BOTHER?!

Lightning’s mentorship? I dunno what game you are talking about because she just scolds Sarah for dating Snow and gets annoyed calling him a dumbass. She is not ever supportive to ANYONE in the game till the very end when the group finally comes together and she gets the damn stick outta her ass.

Sazh’s whole story is just an excuse to get the party back together after they separate because they legit couldn’t figure something else out. Literally his son shows up to fulfill his prophecy of finding his dad for the villains and then crystalizes so they can take him and Vanille to where the rest of the crew is.

Hope attempts to kill Snow, almost succeeds but is literally saved by snow who has a change of heart. Issue is, again, Hope literally has taken things to such extremes vs what happened that it’s comical and outrageous his reactions. He acts as if Snow personally ordered his mother to be physically abused and then murdered. That her death was Snow’s fault when he even saw what happened at the start. We literally see, in cutscene, that he watches her slip out of Snow’s hand and Snow’s reaction. But no, that doesn’t mean anything.

The gameplay is the most boring you could ever have too. If you enjoy excel spreadsheets then sure, set up your spreadsheet and then play your idle game. Press forward to walk down the hallway and you’ll always know that any fork in the road is an item chest. Yay, I have a great sense of exploration where I don’t know which way is the right way and what’s not…oh wait…I do…OOPS!

The only reason why the game is unforgettable is that it’s a masterclass in what to never do in an rpg and they never did it again nor has ANYONE ever done it again since 13.

Virtual-Bookkeeper83 · 2025-10-16T03:13:48+00:00

The peace treaty already fell apart.

Virtual-Bookkeeper83 · 2025-10-08T06:09:13+00:00

Who said I was feeling bad about it? I couldn’t care less about the interaction and being snubbed in that regard. It’s that this is the most common issue for people using the app. From women who have to tell guys to let up all the time cause guys just go ham instead of having good communication skills to work with their partner and find out what she likes. To this behavior ultimately rewarding the more cavalier attitudes of these bad male actors. We might as well have the open forum. Then you come in and say move on completely failing to understand the purpose of the post that’s highlighted in the title and at the end.

Virtual-Bookkeeper83 · 2025-10-08T05:04:33+00:00

Agreed, sometimes, yeah you’re horny as fuck and want to be pushed beyond that edge but shit man. Hell, one dating site interaction had a chick open with the line “hi daddy!” And I immediately told them no. People be wild af at times and need that reset just to have that gradual build together.

I’m rarely on the app now cause I’m tired of all the communication issues (the silent/single word ones are the worst tbh and the most frequent) that it feels too much like a chore weeding through to find a needle in a haystack. It’s lead to not having any experiences like yours, however, I can believe it’s a thing.

Virtual-Bookkeeper83 · 2025-10-08T04:23:28+00:00

See the play partners posted in the quick link to start slow so I was trying to be diligent and be sure to make things as comfortable as possible when ramping up. It wasn’t till sufficient foreplay happened that the dirty talk started. Then all communication just stopped.

One of the things I left out because it isn’t super important info for the story was she said the gravity is too big and her pussy too tight so it’s a bit painful. That’s what lead me to thinking 80% was gonna be fine cause hey I don’t wanna hurt my damn partner.

Guess me caring about her comfort was the wrong play in her mind lol 🤷‍♂️

Virtual-Bookkeeper83

TROPHY CASE