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Let's Play Every Final Fantasy Game In Order Of Release [Now Finished: Final Fantasy Tactics]

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McFluffles said:
IIRC the best ways to make GP are either Chocobo racing, or there's a hidden NPC who will directly sell you GP for Gil in a back alley. Apparently he's hiding behind the save point, though no idea if he's there now and Omi missed him or shows up later, and also don't know the conversion rate and if it's actually worth it at this point compared to showing up endgame with ten billion gil.
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MiskWisk said:
So, that hidden NPC can be accessed immediately, but they only have a chance of showing up whenever the screen loads in. Effectively, you have to go back and forth on the tram until they spawn, which also means sitting through the animation that plays every single time. Which now makes me wonder, when was the option to skip cutscenes put in? Because I'm thinking 10.
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Unfortunately that NPC is not available until quite a bit later, (mid disk 2, once you have the Highwind). Also, you can run between the interior screen of the Saucer, no need to take the tram.
 
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SolipsistSerpent said:
I feel like Duck Hunt beat them to the punch by a bit there.
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Nintendo pretty much invented the light gun--though the initial models were toys for home use, including, yes the original Duck Hunt game--and they wound up being how the company broke into the arcade world, after an initial plan to create light gun galleries out of former bowling alleys--it's a long story--fell through thanks to the 70s Oil Crisis sending Japan into a bit of a recession.
 
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ArlequineLunaire said:
The Magnavox Odyssey (1972) might have something to say about that:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbYlrSRhsZk
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Nintendo's first version was released in 1970.

There were previous light guns, but they were... well, cumbersome ensembles that worked with special vacuum tubes in the targets that detected lights. What Nintendo hit on was in essence a method to make the gun the sensor, thus making a toy people could play with at home, or that an arcade could stock easier.
 
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It's a neat bit of wizardry that lets the gun work, actually. All that the gun senses is if there's white light, so with Duck Hunt they set the game to make the screen go black except for a white square around the target. This does mean you can cheat by shooting at a well illuminated sheet of paper instead of the screen, though.
 
Connelly said:
Sure, but I imagine most people playing blind would go through them, if only to find how to progress.
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I'm pretty sure I managed to make it through by just saving at the expensive save point and reloading after every minigame (and not resaving, since playing the minigame didn't help any, which meant I only had to pay once) until I hit the one that advanced the plot. Fortunately a lot of them seemed like obvious dead ends, so I think it only took a handful.

The only things I remember were staying at the cool inn and going on the ride around the saucer, plus an event that I guess Omi didn't trigger or something. Maybe it's not unlocked yet. Or maybe it's not even a Gold Saucer event and you unlock it somewhere else.I'd even forgotten this is where you find Cait Sith, despite remembering the beats of his introduction. I will say @Omicron should probably try actually staying at the Inn. I literally don't remember if it does anything, but after some of these FF playthroughs where he missed dialogue by not staying at the right inn at the right time, I feel like staying at every Inn is a good idea.
 
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SolipsistSerpent said:
I'm pretty sure I managed to make it through by just saving at the expensive save point and reloading after every minigame (and not resaving, since playing the minigame didn't help any, which meant I only had to pay once) until I hit the one that advanced the plot. Fortunately a lot of them seemed like obvious dead ends, so I think it only took a handful.

The only things I remember were staying at the cool inn and going on the ride around the saucer, plus an event that I guess Omi didn't trigger or something. Maybe it's not unlocked yet. Or maybe it's not even a Gold Saucer event and you unlock it somewhere else.I'd even forgotten this is where you find Cait Sith, despite remembering the beats of his introduction. I will say @Omicron should probably try actually staying at the Inn. I literally don't remember if it does anything, but after some of these FF playthroughs where he missed dialogue by not staying at the right inn at the right time, I feel like staying at every Inn is a good idea.
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I did stay at the inn, it didn't appear to do anything.
 
SolipsistSerpent said:
The only things I remember were staying at the cool inn and going on the ride around the saucer, plus an event that I guess Omi didn't trigger or something. Maybe it's not unlocked yet. Or maybe it's not even a Gold Saucer event and you unlock it somewhere else.
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I don't think I'm spoiling anything when I say you visit the Saucer more than once, given, you know, the locked-off bits. It's possible you're blurring them together.
 
One thing that could have solved part of Gold Saucer's frustration, while keeping the theme of Shinra projects being capitalistic dicks, would be to give the player a good starting amount of GP before they arrive.

My thinking is that in Junon and/or the ship, you somehow get your hands on a whole ton of GP(booby prize for failing mini games, chatting with a broke bum trying to offload his "winnings", etc. - there could be multiple ways). At the time, the GP would seem worthless, but it'll make sense once you reach Gold Saucer.

Since the prizes are mostly not that great, starting with a big pot won't give players an unfair advantage, but it would let them play the mini-games for flavor without being cheated out of their actual money.

Heck, the hefty Gil entry to the place (at least the first time) could be paid with a VIP card you stole/looted/mugged from a Shinra rep at Junon or on the boat; I'm sure Avalanche wouldn't feel guilty about splurging at a Shinra exec's expense. So it's still clear how the place is ripping off everybody, but you're not affected because you're using someone else's money.
 
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Which is funny, because thats basically how Pokemon did its casino the previous year. Its membership item that the PC implicitly can't afford is a coin case, which you get from a guy trying to quit gambling trying to offload it. And while its nowhere near enough to get any of the good prizes, you find enough casino tokens lying on the floor (pocket change missed by previous patrons) for a good few dozen pulls of the one armed bandits to give you a taste.
 
Looking at it from a purely minmax pov, Cait Sith is probably the """worst""" character in the game, as his stats make him closest thing to a full caster in a game where anybody can fill that role with gear+materia. In addition, his LBs are underwhelming since it's just Setzer's slot's ability where you're trading consistent damage for a minuscule chance of something cool happening. But I don't care. He's a cute cat mascot which already makes it an A+ in my book, but the Gambler/Fortune Teller/Magician gimmick is so laser targeted to my aesthetic tastes that it's frankly kind of unfair.

Speaking of aesthetics...

GOLD SAUCER! GOLD SAUCER! GOLD SAUCER! GOLD SAUCER!
GOLD SAUCER! GOLD SAUCER! GOLD SAUCER! GOLD SAUCER!
GOLD SAUCER! GOLD SAUCER! GOLD SAUCER! GOLD SAUCER!
GOLD SAUCER! GOLD SAUCER! GOLD SAUCER! GOLD SAUCER!

I love the Gold Saucer. The games are ass to actually play (but they look cool, and that's all that matters), and the GP conversion is, as stated, a literal scam. But like I said before, I am a shameless amusement park junkie. This is a love that extends to casinos, malls, resorts...anywhere where commercial art, 80's/90's maximalist corporate kitsch, and engineering/logistics combine together to create a certain kind of spectacle to distract from the hoovering of your bank account. It's sort of like being a theatre kid, but with trivia knowledge somehow even less applicable to the real world.

So needless to say, I am a Big Fan of the Gold Saucer. Deciding that what your psuedomodern anime science-fantasy needed was a theme park episode (and 7's Big Anime Vibes is a post for another day) is already a winner. Going whole hog and deciding that it needed to be in effect a corporate arcology; an Imagineer's blue-sky fever dream crossed with the flamboyant excess of Japanese boom era entertainment centers and the surreal neon hucksterism of a cyberpunk casino. It is, with all sincerity, the sort of place 9 year old me would have considered heaven on earth, and that's before the cartoon horror themed hotel with the iron maiden that opens up into a wet bar.


Oh, and I guess something about Barret's traumatic past or w/e? Rollercoasters weren't involved so I didn't pay too much attention.
 
Ah, right. The prison directly under the casino arcology. Which the arcology's owner can apparently just summarily decide to throw people into. That's... definitely very normal and not at all a cause for concern.

Thanks for writing. I did indeed enjoy this. :)

ZerbanDaGreat said:
I guess I just have an automatic mental defence against gambling, possibly that it makes me violent and desirous of crimes-
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I've had some good luck in casinos, myself... at least, while playing a courier in the postapocalyptic American Southwest. :D
Though sometimes that luck has been less "You've won so much we're banning you from gambling more here" and more "And that Omerta thug has also collapsed into a pile of glowing dust; yay critical hits!".

...And, yeah, I don't remember much about my own passage through the Gold Saucer or whether I noticed it at the moment, but the fact Cloud and Tifa at least don't even have the option to try beating the robots to scrap, like all the previous robots attacking them they beat to scrap, and instead just let themselves be dropped down a hole that for all they know goes straight to the grinder/incinerator, seems... odd.

MiskWisk said:
Hmm... I never considered the desert around Gold Saucer was formed by a reactor. I sort of assumed it was always there.
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Same, IIRC. And I don't remember whatever it is you're hinting at with the next line, but as I already thought from what Omicron said that it seems sensible, it sounds like it actually makes even more sense than that.

McFluffles said:
Golly, that's not suspicious at all, forcing your way into the party to little protest while you have a mind control materia equipped!
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Hum. That is an interesting point.
 
my final fantasy status has now reached the point of "drawing circles on screenshots to show Points of Evidence as I assemble my pepe silva conspiracy board," there is no hope left
 
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