4 posts tagged “final fantasy”
You know, it's weird. Videogames are one of the great loves of my life, minus novels, and yet I can't seem to recall the last time I had written an entry that focused on videogames.
Ever since I have entered the period of time known to students as Summer Vacation, I have been in a gaming frenzy. Just a few weeks before, I had made a vow to complete a wide series of games under my property, including Lost Odyssey, Persona 3, Xenogears, Final Fantasy Tactics, Breath of Fire 4, and Suikoden. All but the first two were games I downloaded onto my PC because I could not find them in stores.
If you did not count my desire to do things besides playing videogames (like, perhaps, writing a book), it is very apparent that I have a busy summer in store for me.
Two Thursdays back, I ordered Final Fantasy IX, because I was determined to essentially complete my collection of the Playstation era of Final Fantasy. The only title that is absent is 11, but since it is an MMO, I want nothing to do with it.
I knew even before I inserted the CD into my PS2 that FF9 was designed as a tribute to the previous eight entries in the franchise. I was expected to be alienated for the most part, due to the fact that I had not completed 6 of the games FF9 was a tribute to. For the most part, FF9 is just as enjoyable as 7,8 and 10.
It is a fun game. I love how each character has a class, with limits and advantages. Zidane is a thief, so he is the only character that can steal...but despite his high health, his defense is not up to snuff. Vivi as a Black Mage is a powerhouse, but his health and defense is dismal at best. Steiner has little MP, and not the best strength, but as a Knight his defense and health is through the roof. These are just a couple examples. It brought back memories of the one aspect of WoW that I loved - everyone has to know their class and work together. It is the reason why I will be adopting the Enforced Class System Challenge when I eventually get to play 12 (with the exception of everyone being able to use items).
9 is the most humorous entry in the series I have encountered. 7,8,10, and especially 12, is a lot like the Gundam anime - any sort of comic relief is strictly forbidden. It's almost as if the story writers thought of themselves as "Manly men who can only write manly stories for manly games! Comedy is for sissies! We are manly! Final Fantasy is manly! So, no comedy for Final Fantasy!" Steiner's antics of him trying to perform his Knightly duties always bring a smile to my face.
However, there was one instance of Final Fantasy 9 that just made me pull my hair out - the dancing scene in Cleyra. It is was just sheer idiocy, and it just looked so stupid. I never wanted to see humanoid rats dance some cross between Polka and Folk before I played Final Fantasy 9, and I certainly do not want to see it after the fact!
Besides Final Fantasy 9, I have also been playing Final Fantasy Tactics. I have been fascinated with Strategic RPGs ever since I first encountered Ogre Battle 64 in Junior High, and I have head time and again that Yasumi Matsuno was a master of the genre. I also wanted to understand Matsuno as I played up to Final Fantasy 12 - from Tactics to Vagrant Story to finally his latest piece of work.
Strategic RPGs have never been known for being simple to understand. There is a reason why you can have access to a tutorial right from the start menu, and why said tutorial can easily last an hour - these games make you think! Alot! I don't want to exaggerate the matter, but Strategic RPGs are the Risk of console games. You can easily miss a good deal of essential game mechanics just because you wouldn't know that it was there. It was only after reading a FAQ on GamwFAQS that I learned my characters had to manually learn skills.
I am barely into the game, but the story is intriguing. I like the idea of a young noble being placed in a position where his naive beliefs will be challenged. It should make for good storytelling. And when we know right from the beginning that our main character will be wrongly told as a villain make for an intriguing way to prepare us. We see Ramza as he is now. How will he be at the end? Will he make some immoral acts of judgment? Will the government paint him as a villain, or will his own actions be all the evidence historians need?
Overall, this should be an interesting summer.
This is something I have been waiting for a long time: a full out brawl with all of the FF characters! I was hoping that Nintendo would put some FF characters in SSMB, but I suspect that S-E will do it even better with their own game.
Apparently, there's some story behind the madness, something about Cosmos and Chaos having a war or something, but its obviously there just as an afterthought. The real reason I'll get it is just for the chance to have Squall beat the heck out of Tidus.
Nothing really happened yesterday. I got practically nothing done in The Dragon's Wail, and I didn't even get my Geometry homework done because it made no sense whatsoever. I made some progress in Final Fantasy VI, making the three hour mark when I defeated the Phantom Train. I am beginning to see what Kevin meant when he said that it had the entourage feel, with all of the characters being given the spotlight, rather than just one single main character. I could under what the Cyan was going through when he saw the spirits of his loved ones pass into the afterlife...to an extent, at the very least.
In other news, I started to play Xenosaga again. I equipped my party with poison resistant anything, and I am finally giving those cursed Lizardmen the beating that they deserve!
I started playing Final Fantasy VI yesterday, although the exact reason is beyond me. Maybe it was because I was tired of spending all day working on The Dragon's Wail, or perhaps because I wanted to experience the famous entourage feel that FF 6 was so famous for. What I do know is that, despite its age, I'm loving this game. Its probably because of the whole retro feel.
In other news, my dad watched me watch the trailer for Lost Odyssey. He thought it was absolutely ridiculous, some of the over-the-top moves that Cain was pulling off. I suppose some people just never will appreciate cool stuff when they see it.
