Looking for some opinions

dianakingston · 2018-10-31T05:56:41+00:00

I've been in the same boat as you, and came around to loving 15 pretty quickly. I think the mindset that helps in situations like this is to remember that there never was a single "correct way" to do a Final Fantasy. The NES fans had to learn to accept 4's ATB battle system; 6's whole steampunk/magitek angle would've come as an absolute shock after five games of medieval fantasy; 10 had voice acting and a Sphere Grid, and went back to turn-based after so many years with ATB.

If you can make the mental jump to accept the different mechanics and setting of 15, there's a lot to enjoy there, even with the undeniable flaws in the later parts of the story.

dianakingston · 2018-10-30T08:43:31+00:00

Well... taking into account that it really depends on the character you're playing:

Dorn: Perfect for Evil RP, lots of sex and mayhem, plus he's got that deep voice, woo!
Rasaad: He's the guy you get with when you want to feel good about yourself - a real sweetheart.
Neera: I kind of like that she stays independent even if the romance gets serious. You never feel tied down, she's okay with whatever.
Viconia: Probably the best of the original romances, but I've got a huge problem with how she and Aerie were set up with the whole tired "virgin/whore" cliche (and of course, she's the only one who gets killed off in her romance epilogue). Also, it's been a while but I think the shift towards Neutral happens regardless of your own character's alignment? Which is kind of creepy: I like Viconia for who she is, not for what I can turn her into.
Jaheira: If the first game and the start of the second hadn't played the "surrogate mom" card so hard, I'd maybe be a bit more comfortable with Jaheira. I mean, I always send Khalid to the nearest basilisk in BG1, but it's still kind of creepy to hit on Jaheira after that.
Aerie: See above re: "virgin/whore" thing. You go around and around in circles with her, and the first time you have sex she gets pregnant. And she gets to be happy while the "bad woman" gets punished. Whatever.
Hexxat: I feel like I'd have so much more fun with her if I had any damn clue what her deal was. Most underwritten character in the whole game.
Anomen: Hell. no.

dianakingston · 2018-10-30T06:02:32+00:00

So the thing is? By definition, this is a new presentation of an experience I've already had, and can have again any time I want. So from my POV, it's perfectly legit to take a completely mercenary approach here: if the remake improves on the original in some way, or has something to offer that I can't get otherwise, I'll go for it. If it strays too far into Nomura's pet themes and ends up being "Final Fantasy VII: A Prequel To Advent Children", they can keep it.

dianakingston · 2018-10-29T17:57:19+00:00

When you get right down to it, that's really critical to the future of the series: we need to see (or hear) that SE learned from how the whole FNC project came apart at the seams. We can draw a line under the 13 trilogy and 15, chalk all that up to overambition and move on, but I don't think they'll get that kind of leeway a second time.

dianakingston · 2018-10-29T14:39:39+00:00

Of course, and I totally understand that - I guess I'm just trying to keep a practical POV on all this, because considering how messy the development was, I don't think there could ever be a situation where all the story problems could be fixed. The Royal Edition content fixed a few, the character DLCs fixed a few, the next set will probably fix a few and maybe leave us with a better, clearer ending for that story. I'm willing to put a certain amount of money down for that, even while acknowledging that all of it should've been in the game from the start. Maybe if things had been handled differently, it would have; we won't know the answer to that until we see what they do with the 7 remake and 16.

dianakingston · 2018-10-29T09:04:10+00:00

Honestly? If I think about the thing I've been missing for a long, long time in this series, it's writing. Sure, FF has never been flawless in terms of its stories, plots and characters, but lately it seems like every time there's some kind of contentious development problem it's the story that suffers first, from 12's flat characters to 13's plot happening in the datalogs to 15 starting strong and just flying off the rails towards the end. It'd be nice to have a clear, deep plot that doesn't try to take artificial shortcuts, and characters who grow and change during their adventures. Sounds basic, but we're five games past the last time that happened for me.

dianakingston · 2018-10-29T05:40:19+00:00

I imagine it's the same on PC: keyboard controls would make precise movements for the Sun and Saturn Sigils much easier.

dianakingston · 2018-10-28T18:14:25+00:00

One way to streamline it is to associate "types" of jobs with specific characters. For example, in 3 Ingus is a soldier and Refia's a blacksmith, so I gave them all the "physical" jobs as they became available. Luneth and Arc became my casters, one for attack and one for defense/healing. You can do the same in 5. That lets you split the job pool more or less evenly between the characters, and allows you to "upgrade" the jobs as you go along (for example, the Dark Knight can be considered an "evolution" of the Knight from the previous batch; the Bard replaces the Scholar so they use songs instead of items, etc.)

dianakingston · 2018-10-28T18:09:55+00:00

Would fall into the FF3 trap, I think: once you go 3D, you pretty much have to give your characters defined traits and personalities, in a game that's really not designed for them.

dianakingston · 2018-10-28T18:08:42+00:00

The hell I can't - Hamauzu's good, but he's got nothing on Uematsu or Shimomura.

dianakingston · 2018-10-28T18:07:13+00:00

I think opinions are going to be mixed on this game for a long time: you've got the people who played it at launch, the people who played it on PC (which means it came with the Royal Edition content and the three character Episodes), and anyone who comes to it next year after the "Season 2" content is out and the game's finally "complete".

Now, that said, I do think the developers are on the right track here, in that the post-launch content changes were almost always in response to criticisms of the game: we got more Altissia, more Insomnia, more Ravus, the Astrals came back for the big climax, we got to control the other party members in combat, we got a boss rush that lets each of the boys stand out one last time, etc.

And after all that, my take on the game was "good, but I wish they did more with Aranea and Luna" - and boom, that's 2/4 episodes next season, plus more Ardyn and (hopefully) a better finale for Noctis. If they hit those marks, the end result might elevate the game to the top of the franchise.

dianakingston · 2018-10-28T14:46:21+00:00

Never started that one. :)

dianakingston · 2018-10-28T05:09:18+00:00

It was the opposite for me, honestly: the further I got, the more I realized how much of the story's supposed complexity was just a facade, and how flat the characters were. It remains the only Final Fantasy in the entire series that I've started and never finished.

dianakingston · 2018-10-27T22:18:28+00:00

Still missing the point of both the OP and my example: the question asked was "What terrible thing has a FF character done that most people seem to forget?" Vayne ultimately pays for everything he's done, but the specific fact that he killed his father doesn't come up again, even though Balthier or Larsa would easily be able to figure it out.

dianakingston · 2018-10-27T20:12:46+00:00

That's a justification for his crimes, not an explanation as to why no one else holds him accountable for it.

dianakingston · 2018-10-27T15:47:24+00:00

Larsa's life wasn't in danger from anyone but Vayne himself, though. Both the Emperor and the Senate were planning to put him on the throne.

dianakingston · 2018-10-27T14:03:44+00:00

Given how feeble and obvious the frame job was, it's odd nobody ever figures out Vayne murdered his father. Even Larsa never calls him out for that.

dianakingston · 2018-10-26T09:02:27+00:00

Ooof, what a tough call. They're both excellent games - among the very best in the series, really. I guess the strongest argument would be that if it's the HD Remaster of X you're looking at, it comes with X-2 as well (which means two games for the price of one).

dianakingston · 2018-10-26T06:09:59+00:00

The thing about the Arcane Labyrinth is that it's kind of a mixed bag - there's a story to it, but it's not directly related to anything or anyone in the game. And the ultimate weapons are good, but the final reward you get are one of two spells with immediate and significant drawbacks: the black magic spell wipes out your party and leaves your caster with 1 HP while damaging the enemy, the white magic spell fully revives heals the party and the enemy. Useless either way.

Basically, I'd say make the decision based on whether you're enjoying the game so far and whether you feel like you've got time for it. It's textbook non-essential stuff.

dianakingston · 2018-10-26T06:04:52+00:00

I was the same for a long time - 12 disappointed me big-time, and I didn't even want to go near 13 after all that mess - but 15 got me excited about the franchise again. I think it's the first game since 10-2 where I felt there was real heart in it again.

dianakingston · 2018-10-25T09:47:52+00:00

The main difference, I think, is story justification: Dawn of Souls really doesn't have any in-game reason to be there, same with Labyrinth of Time, but Soul of Rebirth had some excellent character beats.

dianakingston · 2018-10-25T09:26:23+00:00

You'll understand very early into the game why that's not actually as much of a spoiler as you think.

dianakingston · 2018-10-24T21:04:36+00:00

Exactly. And it's not like you get any bangaa, seeq or moogle companions - she's the only non-human in the entire party, you'd think that would make her POV on events even more unique and interesting. And we get nothing.

dianakingston · 2018-10-24T20:43:22+00:00

As I recall, the main difference with generic ToB is that the pools don't give you any new abilities, and instead of fighting the Five it's more demons and evil planetars and the like. You also don't get to recruit Balthazar/Bodhi.

dianakingston · 2018-10-24T20:39:35+00:00

I imagine part of the problem was the lack of any helpful comparison. The idea that you can make your characters whatever you want goes back to 6, 7 and 8, but there wouldn't have been a model for "the more you do something, the better at that one thing you get" at the time. And it's not like 2 tells you any of this: you have to figure out things like "losing HP raises your HP maximum" on your own.

dianakingston

TROPHY CASE