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

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I never played more than an hour of FFVIII so I'm very much looking forward to the playthrough just to learn what's going on there.

I'm also looking forward to FFIX because that was my first Final Fantasy, but I played it when I was 12 and didn't engage with any side content or any characters other than the starting ones so I really want to see what all I missed.
 
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So everyone seems kinda stuck on Sephiroth and Shinra as villains and Jenova as a sorta villain mostly polt device as the memorable antagonistic forces in the game. And that's all well and good, but what about Hojo?

Like, I genuinely find Hojo a fascinating character because of just how many awful traits they managed to stick into one character and still have him feel consistent. He's an insecure Science! above all else type while not seeming to be particularly good it it, he's an NTR blank face level manipulator, he's directly and indirectly responsible for most of the terrible things happening in the story, and he was still actively pushing towards the worst possible outcome of events up until the moment he was killed. He was complicated in his awfulness without ever becoming remotely sympathetic.

I'd never call him the best character in the game, not even close, but he's amazing at provoking an emotional reaction in me, and I never felt it was unclear why he was doing what he did. He had an awful and consistent internal logic that he never strayed from, and his primary motivation was proving how much smarter he was then everyone else, with just enough insanity and depravity to keep him interesting.

Like... he's not enjoyable to be around, but he's incredibly engaging. I'm always giving a sceen my full attention if Hojo is there, and that's no small accomplishment.
 
Re: Hojo, it's true that he's a fantastically loathsome enemy. But the beach scene ruined him for me.

He's just… he's just there. We're terrorists/rebels, and fucking Fantasy!Mengele is right there, and we have both first-hand knowledge of how terrible he is and personal beef with him, and we just ignore him. It's, like, rude to kill a monster when he's on vacation, or something.

It undercuts all the gravity the character once had. He isn't a real character that's really in the world, he's just a doll for the devs to play with. When he does despicable things, it's the writers doing it, not the character.

But that could just be me. I'm quite prone to that particular failure of suspension of belief, where I don't dislike the villain for doing terrible things , I dislike the writer for writing terrible things.
 
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Avalanche may be a bunch of people who

-blow up mako reactors
-murder corporate guards
-formed a massive organized militia

but they are NOT murderers.
 
Reeve: "Well sir, murder season started early this year, as the entire staff of a mako reactor was murdered by local man Barret Wallace."
Tifa: "Oh my lifestream!"
Cloud: "I told him that photo would come back to haunt him."
Reeve: "Could Barret Wallace be a murderer? His daughter spoke out on his behalf."
Marlene: "My daddy is not a murderer. He might be a coal apologist, an anarchist, a terrorist, a murderer... but he's not a porn star!"
 
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Warclam said:
Re: Hojo, it's true that he's a fantastically loathsome enemy. But the beach scene ruined him for me.

He's just… he's just there. We're terrorists/rebels, and fucking Fantasy!Mengele is right there, and we have both first-hand knowledge of how terrible he is and personal beef with him, and we just ignore him. It's, like, rude to kill a monster when he's on vacation, or something.
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I'd known, through general pop culture osmosis, that Hojo showed up on the beach at some point during Final Fantasy 7. It never occurred to me that it could be anything but a joke. Like, Hojo's model would appear among other generic tourists, lying in the sand with a bikini lady on each arm, uninteractable or just out of the player's reach. A quick gag that got blown out of proportion. Seeing Omicron go up to him and start talking floored me.
 
As far as he Kefka vs. Sephiroth debate goes?
The way I see it Kefka is kiiinda just another bad guy, but he's fun.
Sephiroth is…Far more Dee and complex, but…
I feel almost like there's an enlightenment versus romanticism in that on the one hand his arc is one of refuting the idea of being so cool and powerful he doesn't have to take any guff from anyone by having him BE one the baddest dudes Shinra had on their payroll who then gets got by a random mook…
On the other hand is the inverted livestream corrruption of the impact of Aerith's death.
Where for Aerith it flattened a lively passionate woman into yet another 'patient healer' archetype, for Sephiroth…
He defied his own downfall, One-Winged Angel proudly declaring him as the new face of awesomeness as Sephiroth steps gladly into being the latest in along line of Great Men of History. And even now he holds power that few characters can easily match. This, is someone who could in fact face King Arthur on the battlefield and expect to make it a clash worth remembering.
And yet.
"I will never be just a memory"
That line is what he says AFTER Cloud Omni-Slashes him into oblivion at the end of Advent Children, and him having his best lines after he's already lost do hint at that weak point buried under the legions of praises and the reams of artwork glorifying him.
That at the end of the day, he's someone who Cloud beat one day in a fight and has been raging for revenge ever since.

But it's too easy to forget that when he's standing in front of you.
When it's YOUR Aerith who's about to have a sword plunged into her back.
Sephiroth hits a very real weak point in human emotion. Not just of a cruel Empire ravaging your community and impoverishing it to feed itself.
Kefka…I'm not saying Kefka would not be dangerous in the same circumstances but…
If Kefka is a worst-person possible to gain power, Sephiroth is a chillingly real example of how such an individual could claim power, what makes them so scary, and worst of all…
How a good man could end up going off the deep end, especially in a system as uncaring as Shinra was…Which is all too often what seems to be all around us now.
 
Well not to spoil anything, but its not surprising in context. I'm surprised cid doesn't have one, but he probably prints the things out of monsters souls... mmm... Nah. Or...

Since Cid probably is involved with the cards, since he's the king of the cards or whatever, what are the chances he's the one printing the cards of his ex wife and students?
 
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Cypocryphy said:
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To this day, the Triple Triad music is seared into my brain. I think I may have spent more time playing Triple Triad than actually playing the game, back in the day.

That doesn't mean the same will hold true in this Let's Play, my attitude towards that kind of collectible/minigame has shifted over times, but damn I was into Triple Triad as a kid.

Also hi everyone, I've now finished an important work deadline and also the holidays, so I should be able to resume work on the Let's Play soon.
 
To this day, the Triple Triad music is seared into my brain. I think I may have spent more time playing Triple Triad than actually playing the game, back in the day.

That doesn't mean the same will hold true in this Let's Play, my attitude towards that kind of collectible/minigame has shifted over times, but damn I was into Triple Triad as a kid.
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Of all my youthful dead-ended wasted time playing these games, that's probably something I regret wasting time on in final fantasy the most.

Not trying to get a full set of 'Master Materia', or leveling up to L99 in FF7/9, or all the other stuff in FF8 (Like doing a no-level up run, until disc 3/4, to maximize stat boosts, or drawing all the magic, or 'optimizing' GF ability lists to synergize better).

But the mindless card accumulation really took me places I shouldn't have gone. The other stuff was goal-directed, but collecting cards just to have items lead to a lot of wasted time that never helped.

Even trying to get 30 enoyle cards in disc 1 (to refine into energy crystals, to refine into pulse ammo, which could let you get LionHeart on disc 1... in theory) was just not worth the time spent, even if I was mindless grinding to max stuff out after school.

Just stick to collecting all the unique cards and enough side-games to break the game (Does not take much to break the game).

Hell, you could probably write a list of 'the top eight ways to break final fantasy 8 over your knee' just using stuff from inside balamb garden.
 
So, assuming it is VIII...
How many here played it, how many didn't?
Speaking for myself, ain't got no clue what's gonna happen.
 
Gun Jam said:
So, assuming it is VIII...
How many here played it, how many didn't?
Speaking for myself, ain't got no clue what's gonna happen.
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I've play up through most of Disk 3, and then "beaten" the game because when I originally got it it was part of a package deal with the PS1 and some used memory cards which included several save files with such things as "completely max level characters and GFs at the last save point in the game", meaning... well yeah of course a kid with that at their fingertips would proceed to bruteforce finish the game.

Still, does mean I'm at least somewhat familiar with most of the plot beats and gameplay of FFVIII, and I've also started replaying it in preparation for Omi's own playthrough, though in my case I'm having fun going for "break the game before the first boss" strats.
 
Oh shit

It's time for ADVENT CHILDREN

Genuinely can't wait to see how this holds up (or doesn't, more likely). I haven't seen it since at least middle school and I don't even remember if I played FFVII proper before or after seeing Advent Children. Really, my memories are just a blur of "cool fight scene bro" and Dis Pear memes.
 
I also remember almost nothing of Advent Children, so I'm excited to see this :D
 
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