Remove ads

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

Reader mode
Ah haha. I was quite glad you didn't know this about Cait Sith. He's not just the cute character, he's the spy for one of the bad guy groups. And yet, there's something there. He didn't have to lead with explaining his confusion about why the group does what it does without pay or praise, he could have just gone straight to "I have a hostage" That would match what is Shinra's usual behavior, but they didn't do that. Perhaps since they are likely stuck doing the controlling of Cait Sith at all hours, making sure the party doesn't leave the robot behind, they are starting to get attached.
 
Being the pilot of a drone actively infiltrating a group (to the point they didnt notice it was a drone) must suck. I'm imagining him not having left his remote piloting rig in weeks, living on stuff friends bring him from the cafeteria and pissing in bottles.
 
And now it's safe to start watching the Parody again (up to episode 23 anyway)! Cait Sith in the parody is an absolutely awful spy and Mog keeps voicing his inner (often very self deprecating) thoughts for laughs so he was constantly giving spoilers for his betrayal.
 
Last edited:
The Battle Square kinda feels like a precursor to the screwier challenges in Pokémon Emerald's Battle Frontier. It even starts with the word 'Battle'
 
Zap Rowsdower said:
Being the pilot of a drone actively infiltrating a group (to the point they didnt notice it was a drone) must suck. I'm imagining him not having left his remote piloting rig in weeks, living on stuff friends bring him from the cafeteria and pissing in bottles.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
He didn't have time to go kidnap Marlene himself and the Turks were on vacation busy, so he actually had to send Marlene tickets to the ShinRa Museum with a free backstage pass to the AI exhibit where he's been living in his own filth, and hope she showed up.

Luckily, Barrett is a notoriously tight spender and impressed on Marlene how turning down free things is $#@!-in' rude.
 
ApocalypticFish said:
Now that we're through that...

There are four options for who Cloud can go on a date with, based on an internal counter of points, which increase or decrease based on various actions. Aerith is the most likely, since she starts at 50 points; Tifa is the next one down, starting at 30; Yuffie's the next one down, starting at 10; and then, finally, Barret is the least likely, starting with 0 points.

There's practically no way you're getting the last one without a guide.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I'm amazed Yuffie didn't steal more points than just Barret's.
 
Omicron said:
The EDK loudly announces he's coming at Cloud, the wizard tells him to quickly use the power of true love, and we can choose to kiss either Aerith, the Dragon, or the King.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

You should've kissed the dragon and we both know it.

Omicron said:
​
Aerith: "...First off, it bothered me how you looked exactly alike. Two completely different people, but look exactly the same[sic]."
Aerith: "The way you walk, gesture…"
Aerith: "I think I must have seen him again, in you…"
Aerith: "But you're different. Things are different…"
[She closes her eyes.]
​
Aerith: "I'm searching for you."
Cloud: "...?"
Aerith: "I want to meet you."
Cloud: "But I'm right here."
Aerith: "I know, I know… What I mean is…"
Aerith: "I want to meet… you."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

typical nomurian dialogue, i mean what is she talking about, she's just saying nonsense, what a stupid scene, ding

Omicron said:
So, what happens now?

Well.

First off, Cloud and Aerith blow him off. Aerith says "And so on, and so on," which I'm pretty sure is an awkward rendition of her essentially going "Blah blah blah" at Cait Sith's nonsense. Cloud tells him that obviously they can't just go on like this and he needs to get real, we can never trust him again.

So Cait Sith pulls the ace up his sleeve.
​
Cait Sith: "...just as I thought. Talking won't make a bit of difference. But I prepared something in case this happened."
Cait Sith: "Why don't you listen to this?"
[Here it's implied he pulls out a phone.]
Voice: "Papa! Tifa!"
Aerith: "Hey! That's Marlene!"
Marlene: "Hey! It's the flower lady! Flower lady…"
Cait Sith: "...So, you have to do as I say."
Cloud: "You're the lowest…"
Cait Sith: "I didn't want to do this… using dirty tricks and taking hostages…"
Cait Sith: "But this is how it is… no compromises. So why don't we go on as we did?"
[He climbs up the stairs, then turns back around.]
Cait Sith: "Tomorrow is the Temple of the Ancients, right? I know where it is so I'll tell you later. Of course, we'll get there after the Shinra, but you'll have to deal with that."
[Cait Sith leaves.]
Cloud: ..Well, we're stuck… We'll have to do as he says."
Aerith: "I wonder if Marlene is all right… I wonder what happened to Mom?"
[Fade to morning.]

​
In the morning, Cloud comes down from his room, Cait Sith makes fun of him for being a late riser, gives us directions to the Temple, Aerith says she's definitely coming, and we pick a third member to go along with her and Cloud, then head out.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

holy shit, after all that I think it's Cait Sith showing up in the morning to rip on Cloud for sleeping in like nothing's wrong that really gets me. Just call me PETA because I would destroy that housecat with my own two hands to spare it the fate of living in a society.

EDIT: Fun fact, there is an analogue to the Gold Saucer date in FF7 Remake, specifically because they felt bad about not being able to get to that iconic part of 7 in one game. My understanding is that it's relatively simplistic compared to the points-based system used here, where it's primarily about sidequest completion in chapter 3 (hanging with Tifa) and chapter 8 (hanging with Aerith), with who you wake up first prior to the Abzu fight acting as a tiebreaker. However if you don't do any of their sidequests, it won't matter who you wake up first, and you'll instead see a Barret scene in chapter 14 - as a bonus, unlike the Gold Saucer 'date' with him the scene with Barret is actually sincere and offers him an emotional resolution about the loss of Avalanche.
 
Last edited:
I am kind of shocked Omi didn't end up with Tifa on the date.

That said, I do think Aerith's is the stronger event. Tifa's more wishy-washy about it being a date at all, referring to it as 'spending time together'. There is a very cute bit where she finally screws her courage to the sticking place by saying, "Aerith would be able to just come right out and say it... Sometimes being old friends is hard... Timing is everything." but then it's just ellipse city. Cloud even tries to prompt her a couple times, but she just can't get it out.
 
Last edited:
Look the Aerith date thing is cool, cute, and probably has the best emotional beats overall.

But Barret is the real best girl. Because nothing is better than two dudes staring at each other in total silence wondering what the hell they were thinking. My one and only hope for the next part of the remake is that they actually let Cloud and Barret act in the couple's fantasy supported by presumably exhausted and underpaid actors thing. It would be glorious.

Posting the below video because while there are certain forms of insanity clearly evident in this thread I don't think that playing through the entire first part of the game again just to make mildly different choices to see one kinda funny scene is the kind of insanity Omni is going for. Probably.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D30JDkDHWZk
 
Last edited:
Omicron said:
*Immaculate opinions about a jank old JRPG*
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I can forgive Cait Sith for the bad things he's done for the same reason I can forgive my actual cat for all of her many misdeeds: Severe Toxoplasmosis Infection He's just a little rascal that's 2 qt 2 h8.

Anyways, "Joke character turns out to be viciously amoral, but is having an existential personality crisis influenced by the people he's ostensibly meant to betray, but is still viciously amoral enough to do terrible things when desperate" is truly peak character writing, and I'm glad you're enough of a gigabrain patrician to appreciate it. As for Cait Sith appearing in various sequel spinoff media, all you need to be aware of is this.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that if the Remake has any sense, they'll invoke the old anime trope of a closeup on the jovial looking character's squinting eyes being opened just a fraction of a centimeter to show they're actually deeply sinister.
 
Last edited:
Cypocryphy said:
I can forgive Cait Sith for the bad things he's done for the same reason I can forgive my actual cat for all of her many misdeeds: Severe Toxoplasmosis Infection He's just a little rascal that's 2 qt 2 h8.

Anyways, "Joke character turns out to be viciously amoral, but is having an existential personality crisis influenced by the people he's ostensibly meant to betray, but is still viciously amoral enough to do terrible things when desperate" is truly peak character writing, and I'm glad you're enough of a gigabrain patrician to appreciate it. As for Cait Sith appearing in various sequel spinoff media, all you need to be aware of is this.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Vincent's spinoff game support crew being almost entirely Yuffie and Cait Sith is proof that karma exists; payment exacted for his sins. He'd say so himself.
 
Omicron said:
At the end of every match, we spin a reel. The reel has three options on it (the reels are not the same from run to run, so you won't be getting the same options even on Round 1 from multiple battle square runs), we press OK to stop it, and then that option inflicts a handicap.

In the screenshot above, for instance, I've just beaten the 5th (out of a maximum of 8) round, so I've rolled for handicap a 5th time before the 6th round. The handicaps I rolled were, in order:
-HP: Cloud's HP is cut in half: This is my maximum HP reduced by half. While this is not much of an issue in the easier early rounds, rolling this once makes winning the final round extremely difficult, and rolling it twice essentially means we're doomed. I don't know that at the time, but I already lost the Battle Square on round 1.
-The boot: Cloud's speed is cut in half. This is mechanically similar to Slow, but is a separate effect from it; Slow is cumulative with it, and Haste does not cancel it but merely brings us back to normal speed for its duration. This is extremely painful.
-Lucky 7: No Handicap this round!
-Sword: Cloud's weapon is broken. His Attack damage sharply decreases (this doesn't disable Materias equipped into the weapon).
-0 MP: Cloud loses all his MP. Because this can be fixed with a single Turbo Ether at the start of the fight, it's not too much of a problem… Provided you can survive one round with your current handicaps.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Oh hey! This was the demo I played!
 
Guile said:
Vincent's spinoff game support crew being almost entirely Yuffie and Cait Sith is proof that karma exists; payment exacted for his sins. He'd say so himself.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Tetsuya Nomura: "We're making another FF7 spinoff."
Me: "Eh..."
Nomura: "It's gonna be a dark industrial fantasy TPS/RPG hybrid."
Me: "Oh?"
Nomura: "It stars Vincent, Yuffie, and Cait Sith, your three favourite characters."
Me: "Oh?!"
Nomura: "And last but not least, we're gonna make sure it fucking sucks."
Me: "...Oh."
 
Cypocryphy said:
Tetsuya Nomura: "We're making another FF7 spinoff."
Me: "Eh..."
Nomura: "It's gonna be a dark industrial fantasy TPS/RPG hybrid."
Me: "Oh?"
Nomura: "It stars Vincent, Yuffie, and Cait Sith, your three favourite characters."
Me: "Oh?!"
Nomura: "And last but not least, we're gonna make sure it fucking sucks."
Me: "...Oh."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Actually, Nomura only did the character designs for Dirge. Normally he has at least a Producer credit if he had a serious hand in something (f.e. turns out the best parts of Crisis Core were his idea and he was a producer on that) but around the time Dirge was in development Nomura would've been too busy directing KH2 to do anything more.

Of course with how cheap Dirge is on every level there's no way anyone was gonna Midas touch that shit into gold.
 
wetodet said:
Wh-
Why would you make a game mode this torturous and obtuse your demo!?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Absolute 100% speculation, but if you're the designer and therefore probably don't think it's godawful, it does make a kind of sense? It's a discrete gauntlet where prospective players can try out the combat system as a, well, demo of the game, with a built-in timer on how far the demo can go; demo players prrrobably aren't up to winning this thing and the few who do can just be redirected to a 'congratulations!' screen.
 
Omicron said:
I mean, I want to be clear - writing-wise, this is great work. Cait Sith's bland attempts at shrugging off his betrayal and pretending nothing happened which are obviously dead letter, leading into his half-hearted attempt at giving a character motivation for wanting to stick around, all without any kind of self-awareness or contrition or apology or even regret for betraying people who (inexplicably) thought of him as a friend, all makes sense when he just pulls up a phone and reveals he has Marlene held hostage and we just have to do what he wants anyway or Bad Things will happen to Barret's kid is just… It's incredibly cold-blooded in a way that makes his behavior make sense. All the initial half-assed attempts at placating Cloud and Aerith are cast into better light when Cait Sith essentially shrugs and says "alright, I'm a spy, I'm going to keep spying on you, and you're going to let me do it and tell not a soul or the kid gets it."

It's just that what it is very effective at doing is selling a total villain, an absolute blackguard. I definitely understand why, at this stage, Cloud and Aerith make the choice to go along with Cait Sith's demands, the risks are too great, but - this is obviously set-up for saving Marlene and then shooting the cat in the goddamned face, right?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Hang on a second: A cute mascot design meant to decieve people; a cold blooded, anemotional betrayal of the heroes; and believing that despite said betrayal the heroes should (and preferably would) work together with him regardless?

Why did no one tell me that Cait Sith of all characters is one of the literary precursors for Kyubey!?
 
Omicron said:
This is… cute. I love that for them even though I'm really a Tifa shipper at heart. I believe that this scene actually can have one of several characters, depending on an arcane romance tracking point system? I made a deliberate point of not looking it up and just playing it by ear, and it looks like this resulted in a date with Aerith. I like that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
So, you want to know something amusing? When I played this game, I also played blind, got Barrett somehow and Tifa and Aerith looked at each other and said something like "How unexpected" and then spent the night hanging out together.

EDIT: OH, I see several other people discussed this before me, I posted this as I was reading the update. Still, I actually experienced it blind, which was interesting.
 
Last edited:
So regarding the date mechanics, both Tifa and Yuffie have repeatable ways to up their value so if you know what you're doing it's easy to force them (talking to Tifa during the prison scene and repeating Yuffie's recruitment but failing on purpose). Barret has none of that, so you need to be very particular to piss everyone else off all game.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top