Remove ads

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

Reader mode
StormyEyed said:
Also, now that we're entering Time Compression and, officially, the endgame, I'm realizing that the whole intelligent monsters just being a part of society also kind of got dropped? I remember being really intrigued about that back when we first saw them in Timber, but I guess it was just. A neat background detail?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yeah, it's one of these subthemes that got dropped along the way, either because the writers never intended for it to be more than a random unexplored background detail, or because as writing entered the crunch phase and the teams was pressed for time they had to drop extraneous stuff to focus on the core narrative (which probably also explains why no one outside Esthar notices the Lunar Cry and town dialogue doesn't update past that point).

Similarly, what the hell happened to Garden Master NORG? We beat him, but after that defeat a weird kind of sphere formed around his pod, and later the sphere was broken and empty on the inside, and we know the Shumi evolve into new forms in particular situations, and that... Was never followed upon? We're heading into Time Compression, I highly doubt Neo-NORG is going to show up in Ultimecia's stronghold as a random boss. Maybe he'll get a beat in the epilogue?

RubberBandMan said:
You know, we don't know anything about Seifer's backstory besides the orphanage. And he keeps being mirrored by Squall... And has quite a lot of Laguna-coded traits....

Maybe the real hidden plot implication is that Seifer is Squall's half-brother, Unknown to all. After all, we know just how closely Laguna keeps track of kids (Not at all).
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The funniest possible thing the game could do at this point is reveal that Seifer is Laguna's son, not Squall, but Laguna, Kiros and Ward all mistook one for the other because they only saw him when he was born and know about the orphanage and it just makes so much more sense for it to be Squall than Seifer. That Seifer was meant to be the protagonist of the story but he fucked up so bad some unrelated classmate had to pick up the slack.

I mean, it wouldn't be a good twist, but it would be a funny one.
 
Option C - neither Seifer nor Squall are related to Laguna in any way, and their entire involvement here is a really bad case of mistaken identity.

Laguna's actual son went on to become a highly respected baker in Dollet and is entirely unrelated to overarching plot.
 
Omicron said:
Similarly, what the hell happened to Garden Master NORG? We beat him, but after that defeat a weird kind of sphere formed around his pod, and later the sphere was broken and empty on the inside, and we know the Shumi evolve into new forms in particular situations, and that... Was never followed upon? We're heading into Time Compression, I highly doubt Neo-NORG is going to show up in Ultimecia's stronghold as a random boss. Maybe he'll get a beat in the epilogue?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
SURVIVE-FIGHT-WITH-HERO
EVOLVE-OUT-OF-NARRATIVE
EXPLAIN-NOTHING

 
Kuja said:
SURVIVE-FIGHT-WITH-HERO
EVOLVE-OUT-OF-NARRATIVE
EXPLAIN-NOTHING

Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Since Omi seems to have passed the point of no return and begun the final sequence(?) I looked this up and...

That literally is what happened. "NORG isn't seen again after, but if the party visits NORG's chamber again later, they can meet a couple of Shumi who apologize for NORG's behavior and the "cocoon" is now broken. When visiting Fishermans Horizon for the first time, the boatman on Drunkman Alley wonders what NORG will evolve into, confusing Squall."

What the fuck.
 
NORG out there being the most successful Final Fantasy antagonist there is. Take the L after fighting the heroes and fuck right out of the plot - can't get any further comeuppance from the heroes if you just never let the camera see you, can you?

Hell, given how robust Balamb Garden's payment processing system is, there's a good chance he's still getting paid and is just living it up in the tropics somewhere.

Absolute king.
 
Omicron said:
Well. We're Odinless now. Hopefully Gil will pick up the slack somehow. I also have no idea what 'you gave me the 4th one' means - or rather, I do; he's clearly referring to Zantetsuken, which he grabbed after Seifer killed Odin. What I don't get is what the 'other three' would be if this is the 'fourth one' (of the swords Gilgamesh is seeking?). Excalibur, maybe?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It's been three games since FFV while remembering he started with one sword (Excalipoor) in V, obviously getting Excalibur from VI, got the Masmune in VII (since we've already seen an enemy use Cloud's Ultima Weapon that leaves Sephiroth's blade as the only choice of sword to represent the game) and now he got Odin's Zantetsuken here

Hence "the fourth one"
 
Last edited:
StormyEyed said:
Option C - neither Seifer nor Squall are related to Laguna in any way, and their entire involvement here is a really bad case of mistaken identity.

Laguna's actual son went on to become a highly respected baker in Dollet and is entirely unrelated to overarching plot.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Laguna's real son is the one who resembles him the most, at least in terms of personality.

Zell.
 
... so, Limit Breaks verses being a Sorceress is on my mind.
Because I do still question if Ellone is a Sorceress, or if her power is just some oddball unique thing about her. Like Selphie's slot's of doom, or Quistis being able to do monster attacks.

Which as I tried to categorize it led me to the issue that the best way to describe these oddball Limit Break mechanics is... to go to RWBY and compare them to Semblances.
 
StormyEyed said:
NORG out there being the most successful Final Fantasy antagonist there is. Take the L after fighting the heroes and fuck right out of the plot - can't get any further comeuppance from the heroes if you just never let the camera see you, can you?

Hell, given how robust Balamb Garden's payment processing system is, there's a good chance he's still getting paid and is just living it up in the tropics somewhere.

Absolute king.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Secret Final Fantasy 8 missable scene where you go back to Balamb Garden right before entering Lunatic Pandora to find NORG back at his desk handling paperwork like nothing happened.

Squall: Why is he here?
Nida: Well, the thing is...ever since Headmaster Cid left, we started falling behind on the Garden's operations.
Xu: You guys are always off somewhere, and what with fighting the Galbadians it's been hard to get a handle on things.
Nida: So we needed someone who knew the ins and outs of running a place like this.
Squall: You couldn't at least hire Martine?
Xu: Turned us down when he found out the Balamb Garden halls aren't big enough to drive a car in.
NORG: WANT-BEST. HIRE-BEST. Bujurururururu. HARD-FEELINGS-NONE.
NORG: sips from a cracked mug labeled 'World's Best Garden Master'
Squall: ...
Quistis: I need a cigarette.
Zell: But teach, you don't smoke.
Quistis: I'm starting.
 
As a random side note: despite using the Phoenix Pinion, I have yet to see the RNG phoenix summon occur. Granted, I don't get a lot of game overs, but I do get some, and I really thought I'd see it by now.

This is not in any way related to me eating a TPK from an absolutely bullshit move that shouldn't exist-
 
Omicron said:
As a random side note: despite using the Phoenix Pinion, I have yet to see the RNG phoenix summon occur. Granted, I don't get a lot of game overs, but I do get some, and I really thought I'd see it by now.

This is not in any way related to me eating a TPK from an absolutely bullshit move that shouldn't exist-
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It's a 25% chance, so it can happen you see it rarely. Since Phoenix can also trigger if party members are Petrified, it can happen that the whole party is Petrified (say, due to a Bad Breath) and Phoenix is summoned to no effect.
 
Omegahugger said:
This is even the first game where the Summons in general can be killed
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This is a really confusing statement; ever since Summons were introduced in FFIII, in nearly every game that features them you also get to fight a few (usually at least Bahamut and Odin, sometimes more). There is only a single exception, which is FFVII; that's the only game in the series (so far) where you do not get to defeat at least one of your summons in a fight at some point. So... I'm really puzzled at this comment. What am I missing?

Omicron said:
As a random side note: despite using the Phoenix Pinion, I have yet to see the RNG phoenix summon occur.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Are you certain you didn't mix up the saves such that the one you're using is lacking the Phoenix Pinion use? You can always use another one to make sure - you should have a couple by now, and also, Med.LevelUP can be used to create more. Still, as said, the probability is only middling, so it won't happen very often, and if you die only very rarely, you can just have had bad luck so far.

Anyway, @Omicron, I had a few curiosities, that I felt it's probably better to ask now, before you head into Time Compression and have to comment on that.

So: FFVIII is the second time in the series where you get to use both Meteor and Ultima as a player; the last time was FFVI, and that one made it very clear which of the two was better. I'm curious in hearing what you think of the way they choose to differentiate the two spells for FFVIII, and whether it works to let both retain their uniqueness as "the best offensive spell" without stepping on each other toes' too much, or not.

Additionally, I was wondering what was your feeling on dungeons in FFVIII; while it does retains a couple (the Fire Cavern, the Tomb of the Unknown King, the Deep Sea Research Center, the Centra Ruins, the Centra Excavation Site/Crystal Pillar/Lunatic Pandora, and one more), that's nothing compared to the multitude of caves, ruins and tunnels one had to go through in all of the previous ones, even FFVII. Instead, FFVIII has you fighting into every single town of the game, plus the inside of singular buildings (like the Gardens). I feel like this contributes a different feeling from the game, but I'm not sure if it's for the better or for the worse. What's your take on this?

Finally, when you find the three big portals side-by-side (you'll recognize them when you see them), I wanted to mention that they're not decorative: you can go through each one, and each one leads to a different location.
 
Last edited:
You know, if Adel had been the main antagonist, we could have had a great parallel between her devouring children with potential to fuel her power (Sorcery) and SEED devouring children with power to fuel its power (money).

Heck, if Sorcery is a limit break thing, maybe all the playable characters have that potential, and that's what makes them able to Junction in a more equal equivalent to what Adel does, and Rinoa being able to Junction without SEED training would be foreshadowing.
 
Egleris said:
So: FFVIII is the second time in the series where you get to use both Meteor and Ultima as a player; the last time was FFVI, and that one made it very clear which of the two was better. I'm curious in hearing what you think of the way they choose to differentiate the two spells for FFVIII, and whether it works to let both retain their uniqueness as "the best offensive spell" without stepping on each other toes' too much, or not.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I think it's an interesting approach. In a playthrough where you're playing things at face value rather than pursuing synergestic and abusive strategy, Ultima's "big single damage to all enemies" vs Meteor's "higher maximum damage but randomly scattered across enemies" functions gives each one a different niche. Ultima is better to clear encounters, Meteor is better to deal with bosses. It's a good split.

In practice, the game is straining against the traditional 9,999 damage cap and how easy it is to break it, such that Meteor abuse to get above the 10k mark feels like the more powerful spell when hitting endgame content. Which doesn't make Ultima feel less valuable, really; in fact, because Ultima is so valuable for junctions, I am reluctant to use it in situations where I'm spamming Meteor freely. Meteor itself is extremely valuable, to be sure, but the store of Ultimas I've been gathering over the course of the game is too precious to waste on a 'mere' 9,999 damage, which is something I can already get from Squall's Str 255 Darkside. I certainly would never waste it on random encounters.

Additionally, I was wondering what was your feeling on dungeons in FFVIII; while it does retains a couple (the Fire Cavern, the Tomb of the Unknown King, the Deep Sea Research Center, the Centra Ruins, the Centra Excavation Site/Crystal Pillar/Lunatic Pandora, and one more), that's nothing compared to the multitude of caves, ruins and tunnels one had to go through in all of the previous ones, even FFVII. Instead, FFVIII has you fighting into every single town of the game, plus the inside of singular buildings (like the Gardens). I feel like this contributes a different feeling from the game, but I'm not sure if it's for the better or for the worse. What's your take on this?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This... will have to wait until my roundup post, I think.

Finally, when you find the three big portals side-by-side (you'll recognize them when you see them), I wanted to mention that they're not decorative: you can go through each one, and each one leads to a different location.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Oh, I noticed. I'm honestly not sure why they bothered to design it that way but it sure is something that you can do.
 
Egleris said:
This is a really confusing statement; ever since Summons were introduced in FFIII, in nearly every game that features them you also get to fight a few (usually at least Bahamut and Odin, sometimes more). There is only a single exception, which is FFVII; that's the only game in the series (so far) where you do not get to defeat at least one of your summons in a fight at some point. So... I'm really puzzled at this comment. What am I missing?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
From what I've gathered, most of the time when the player fights a summon, it's usually in the vein of "Show my your strength" rather then outright kill (VI being an exception considering they need to die to become a summon). Most of the time the summons seem to be operating under Pokemon rules, as opposed to this time where Seifer cuts Odin in half and we never see him again.
 
Game is done.

Don't expect an update tomorrow - the final dungeon is chunky and I will likely split it the same way I did VII's endgame, where I separated the Northern Crater from the final boss fights and everything that comes with it, and it'll take me time to write each piece.

This was definitely... one of the games of all time?
 
And that's another Final Fantasy done, huh. At least there isn't hundreds of side material like FF7 so now that it's done, it's done.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top