Let's Play Every Final Fantasy Game In Order Of Release [Now Finished: Final Fantasy Tactics]
- Thread starter Omicron
- Start date
- Let's Play
- Location
- SV's Only Complete Persona Quest
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Reason I didn't bring him up, at least not on this thread, is because talking about him could get into some CT spoilers since it's on the table.
Ooh, but you know who I did forget? Odio/Oersted from Live A Live, major overlook from me. I also didn't go into the Dragon Quest villains from this time since, er, I don't really know that much about them
Last edited:
Zap Rowsdower
Ex-cultist vagrant
- Location
- Bright lights, big city
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Dragon Quest had things like "depth" and "defined comprehensible motivation" in its villains exactly twice: DQ4 (NES) and DQ9(DS).
Everything else in terms of final bosses and makes-you-think-its-the-final-boss is just "the demon lord" and "person brainwashed by the demon lord".
Last edited:
- Location
- Back in the 90s (In a very famous TV show)
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Ve/Ver
Oh, Odio seemed pretty well-done from what I've heard of him. Then again, I have a soft spot for characters defined by a burning, unending sense of hatred.
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
...Kefka is the Donald Trump of FF antagonists?
- Location
- the Republic
- Pronouns
- He/They
Is there a recommended mod list for all that? I'm having a hard time sitting through all the options.
I think this is more referring to the one personal conversation they had with each other. Where he said 'of course you'll learn to love other people, just give it time' or some such.
In the hypothetical 6 remake, they'd definitely need more scenes together to really sell her still being stuck on that conversation. Or maybe a scene with the Mobliz kids where one of them unknowingly echoes the words right before she kicks Humbaba's ass.
I can confirm that having played the Remake when it came out last year, Live-A-Live is top tier game, and Odio is a fantastically fun villain. Totally recommend playing it if you can, though be forewarned the whole "seven different eras" thing means said eras vary widely in tone and gameplay because they experimented with a lot of things. Just as one comparison, Far Future has very little combat and is more of a borderline horror game, while Present Day is literally just "what if Street Fighter was an RPG" and thus has nothing but combat with the occasional cutscene.
Wade Garrett
Just trying to do the right thing
- Pronouns
- He/His/Him
Now that's a name I haven't heard in quite some time...who would draw "Did Nothing Wrong Ever" fire from every angle, sure he uses slave labor to build his murder fortress, manipulates the Vile Tribe as sacrificial pawns, but he has a garden! He's doing it to save magic! He's a tall albino bishounen with, credit where due, immaculate fashion sense and a voice like butter and honey dripped over silk, that man's Online Defense Squad Would be legitimately terrifying and then he gets deforming but not TOO much so monster bits in the Sequel, aye yay yi!
GilliamYaeger
M'crazy.
The basic list is as follows:
- Echo-S 7 Voice Acting Mod (you can turn off the voice acting in the configuration menu, in fact if you do so I'd probably recommend turning off everything in that config list since the main thing we're after with this is the full retranslation of the game that comes with it)
- Ninostyle Battle and Chibi models
- Anything from [Tsunamods] with Satsuki_Yatoshi's name attached to it, since these are the big AI rescales.
Last edited:
chibipoe
May I tell you of the glory that is Catradora?
- Location
- Astoria, Oregon
Tsk, tsk, tsk. Not Ghaleon, my dear Quark. MAGIC EMPEROR GHALEON.
FourthWall
Love & Destroy
- Location
- Chiraq
Joker's bastard children are great and varied.
- Location
- Phoenix
Yeah, the recent remake of FF7 isn't a remake, it's a whole AU of FF7.
Geckonator
Occult Materialist
Okay, so, I mentioned earlier that I'm thinking of playing through 7 to follow this LP, and since it sounds at the moment like Omicron has an (entirely reasonable) approach of "let's just see what the official version is", I've got a bit of a modlist.
The centerpiece mod is the large package of mods called the Reunion, which you have to download and install all of (it's an easy if strangely '90s-ass and ostentatious installer) to get its central retranslation mod "Beacause".
The Reunion
You can configure it after installation with a .ini file to turn modules on or off, although from what I understand reading through it Beacause is the central part. Aside from Beacause, it also has, and I'm planning on using, fixes to menu alignment issues, a fix making the game's battles and field screens run at 60 FPS instead of the fixed 15 from the original PC port, and a complete redo of the game's audio font off of the Playstation version's files to fix long-lasting sound bugs. I plan on not using "Weapon", its in-built in-progress difficulty modification mod, and its character model replacements, because I don't want to play an artist's reinterpretation of FF7, I want to play FF7 that isn't painfully blown up on modern screens, and honestly I think the chibi papercraft field models are simple and clean enough that they've aged better than many think.
Except for the mouths. But there's a fix built in there that fixes the original models when it comes to mouths and I'm on the verge of tracking down and linking the original standalone of that for people who don't even want to play modded. It's just fixing a bug that makes characters blink with one eye and their mouths and thus leaves the mouths dumb and gaping open by default for a lot of characters. This is literally the bug that made them disable the mouths for the Playstation release and it just never got fixed along the like three port and updating process it went through on PC.
And then for me it just comes down to upscaled graphics mods, which are compatible with the Reunion framework. Like I said, I don't want reinterpretations, but after playing a bit... some of the pre-rendered backgrounds and FMVs are just no longer "charmingly pixelated by age and more "this is getting unbearably blurry on a modern sized monitor."
The current premiere choice for faithful graphical enhancement is the Satsuki Yatoshi Mod, which basically AI-upscaled every texture and image and animation in the game. It's basically the improved version of "Remako" which you'd find just searching gaming sites for FF7 enhancement mods, which has both been both discontinued and depreciated because it was a quick and dirty fix whereas SY put in more effort to cleaning up the background images and using additional image manipulation to preserve detail and prevent it from looking off. It's not perfect, my heart still yearns for a more professional and less hacky engine remaster from Square Enix with their original assets so one doesn't have to deal with that distinct smeared paint look of AI-upscaled images, but it's the option we have.
Problem is, I'm not sure I can link it because it's so big you can only get it through a torrent. Now, it's a freely-distributed mod, this is not piracy and just using a torrent framework because it's so big and couldn't easily be filehosted anywhere... But I know a lot of people see torrents and think piracy. If anyone with power wants to clarify this point about forum rules that'd be great.
Last edited:
GilliamYaeger
M'crazy.
This is almost certainly better advice than mine - I have zero to no experience with retranslation since I always play with New Threat (massive gameplay overhaul that's completely incompatible with any script rewrites) and the last time I touched FF7 modding Reunion was still on 7th Heaven.Okay, so, I mentioned earlier that I'm thinking of playing through 7 to follow this LP, and since it sounds at the moment like Omicron has an (entirely reasonable) approach of "let's just see what the official version is", I've got a bit of a modlist.
The centerpiece mod is the large package of mods called the Reunion, which you have to download and install all of (it's an easy if strangely '90s-ass and ostentatious installer) to get its central retranslation mod "Beacause".
The Reunion
ff7.live
You can configure it after installation with a .ini file to turn modules on or off, although from what I understand reading through it Beacause is the central part. Aside from Beacause, it also has, and I'm planning on using, fixes to menu alignment issues, a fix making the game's battles and field screens run at 60 FPS instead of the fixed 15 from the original PC port, and a complete redo of the game's audio font off of the Playstation version's files to fix long-lasting sound bugs. I plan on not using "Weapon", its in-built in-progress difficulty modification mod, and its character model replacements, because I don't want to play an artist's reinterpretation of FF7, I want to play FF7 that isn't painfully blown up on modern screens, and honestly I think the chibi papercraft field models are simple and clean enough that they've aged better than many think.
Except for the mouths. But there's a fix built in there that fixes the original models when it comes to mouths and I'm on the verge of tracking down and linking the original standalone of that for people who don't even want to play modded. It's just fixing a bug that makes characters blink with one eye and their mouths and thus leaves the mouths dumb and gaping open by default for a lot of characters. This is literally the bug that made them disable the mouths for the Playstation release and it just never got fixed along the like three port and updating process it went through on PC.
And then for me it just comes down to upscaled graphics mods, which are compatible with the Reunion framework. Like I said, I don't want reinterpretations, but after playing a bit... some of the pre-rendered backgrounds and FMVs are just no longer "charmingly pixelated by age and more "this is getting unbearably blurry on a modern sized monitor."
The current premiere choice for faithful graphical enhancement is the Satsuki Yatoshi Mod, which basically AI-upscaled every texture and image and animation in the game. It's basically the improved version of "Remako" which you'd find just searching gaming sites for FF7 enhancement mods, which has both been both discontinued and depreciated because it was a quick and dirty fix whereas SY put in more effort to cleaning up the background images and using additional image manipulation to preserve detail and prevent it from looking off. It's not perfect, my heart still yearns for a more professional and less hacky engine remaster from Square Enix with their original assets so one doesn't have to deal with that distinct smeared paint look of AI-upscaled images, but it's the option we have.
Problem is, I'm not sure I can link it because it's so big you can only get it through a torrent. Now, it's a freely-distributed mod, this is not piracy and just using a torrent framework because it's so big and couldn't easily be filehosted anywhere... But I know a lot of people see torrents and think piracy. If anyone with power wants to clarify this point about forum rules that'd be great.
That said I'd still mostly recommend using Ninostyle's stuff. You'd have to manually install it using the stuff on its Nexusmods page rather than using a mod manager though.
Linking torrents should be fine, you're not sharing prohibited materials and there's plenty of legit uses for torrents.
Thanks for the review and for getting me to finally play the game myself! I hope I will find some spare time to drop my own opinions within the next week or so.
For now I want to say one thing: I know it's a total meme to tell you to play stuff at this point and that I have already mentioned the game a bunch, but keep Octopath 2 on your radar. It really feels like an iteration on the mechanics and presentation of V and VI with multiple decades of added expertise and hardware almost entirely removed as limitation.
For now I want to say one thing: I know it's a total meme to tell you to play stuff at this point and that I have already mentioned the game a bunch, but keep Octopath 2 on your radar. It really feels like an iteration on the mechanics and presentation of V and VI with multiple decades of added expertise and hardware almost entirely removed as limitation.
- Location
- Australia
I've suggested to Omicron on Discord that he runs with the official and original translation, which I still feel is the best option.
It's a clunky translation, but I think that's actually fairly important, contextually. The original translation of FF7 appears to have been done by a very small team, if not a single person, under relatively heavy time constraints with little in the way of resources to support them. This is for a game which was anticipated to be a big success, and was one of the really big releases of its time, and served as a gateway for many people to get into JRPG's in the first place. The clunkiness of the translation can be traced back to be what turned off a lot of people from playing translated games, and may genuinely be a part of what caused JRPG's to be looked on in such a derogatory manner for decades after its release.
If there were a Pixel Remaster equivalent, something that attempted to stick as faithfully to the dev's original vision as possible while making the game more accessible in a modern-day context, I'd recommend that to Omicron in a heartbeat over the clunky original game. But short that, I think that it's more faithful to the spirit of what he's been doing to tackle the original release than it would be to look towards fan-translations and the like.
It's a clunky translation, but I think that's actually fairly important, contextually. The original translation of FF7 appears to have been done by a very small team, if not a single person, under relatively heavy time constraints with little in the way of resources to support them. This is for a game which was anticipated to be a big success, and was one of the really big releases of its time, and served as a gateway for many people to get into JRPG's in the first place. The clunkiness of the translation can be traced back to be what turned off a lot of people from playing translated games, and may genuinely be a part of what caused JRPG's to be looked on in such a derogatory manner for decades after its release.
If there were a Pixel Remaster equivalent, something that attempted to stick as faithfully to the dev's original vision as possible while making the game more accessible in a modern-day context, I'd recommend that to Omicron in a heartbeat over the clunky original game. But short that, I think that it's more faithful to the spirit of what he's been doing to tackle the original release than it would be to look towards fan-translations and the like.
- Location
- SV's Only Complete Persona Quest
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I remember one FF series reviewer actually said the opposite, that after trekking through six games of sprites, reaching FF7 felt like being back in 1997 again and experiencing the graphical leap anew (granted, he may have been mostly talking about the opening FMV). Even though I'll also take good 2D over bad 3D anyday (except maybe if it's a PS1 horror game), it's interesting to see how different people react to this
- Location
- Alabama
Sephiroth is going to have presentation competition in Kefka. And yeah, that quest is hype. I enjoy pokemon gym quests.
This is the version of the game which I own on Steam. I do not know if and how it differs from the original Playstation version, or whether there are or were any other 'competing' ports and remakes, the way there are for the Pixel Remaster, except of course for Final Fantasy VII Remake, which is its own whole thing.
Incidentally, my final review of the Pixel Remasters is that they are fantastic adaptations of old games that really feel nostalgic and nail that 'how your inner child remembers the old consoles, rather than what they actually were' sweet spot of modern retro gaming, and if you have any desire to play or replay the NES/SNES Final Fantasy titles I heavily recommend them - although of course III and IV have their own full 3D remakes which you might prefer for their more modern style and voice acting.
I would like to renew my thanks to @Tempera for gifting me with the PR bundle which started us all on this journey. Go read her Pokemon Quest, In A World We Must Defend.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I was trying to keep things PG-13, but choices were certainly made in the design of that sprite, yes.
"The pieces were all there, the game would just have needed to use them" feels like it applies to more than just Kefka
But yes; it would be the easiest thing in the world to justify his passivity, the game just... doesn't bother.Thank you for the recommendations!
I'll keep them in mind, although I think I'll just start off playing the game as is, and then start looking for mods if the experience turns out to be too painful.
Having logged into the game just to get a test for the controls and grab a couple of screenshots, it looks like this:
Which seems fairly decent? The three black bars are a little obnoxious but probably a necessary sacrifice to avoid murdering the pre-rendered backgrounds, which are somewhat pixelated but still completely legible and, I think, looking pretty good.
- Location
- England, unfortunately.
- Pronouns
- She/They
Honestly, as someone whos first exposure to 7 was going through a bunch of old PS1 games I never had the chance to play, I'd say the low poly sprites are actually pretty good. Goofy, but honestly I'd say that goofiness has aged them better than you'd expect.
I still think that the pixel stuff is overall prettier in general, and aged even finer, but that's not to say 7 looks bad. Heck, I think it aged better than 8 did because most of the time it wasn't trying to be as realistic as possible.
I still think that the pixel stuff is overall prettier in general, and aged even finer, but that's not to say 7 looks bad. Heck, I think it aged better than 8 did because most of the time it wasn't trying to be as realistic as possible.
Kadmus
Dragon's teeth are surprisingly hard to sow
- Location
- Devon
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The FFVII backgrounds look... fine? Like, you could upscale them and so on but that's sorta going the opposite direction for fidelity; they were made to be viewed through a CRT television screen, with all the bloom and blurring that causes, so you're already seeing them in crisper detail than you would have back in the day.
somewhatLazy
Serial Procrastinator
- Location
- lurking
I'm actually pretty fond of the PS1 aesthetic (though yeah, all the subsequent PS1 games look better than FF7 because they have less cartoonishly block overworld character models). I can see why some people might find the clear disconnect between a pre-rendered background and 3d character sprites might be jarring, but for me it really reminds me of a play—very suitable for Final Fantasy's larger than life stories.
Yeah that actually looks pretty good!
Now remember, when you start actually playing in earnest:
Don't f*ck up.