Was there a big War of the Roses revival in the mid 1990s or something? There's FFT, GRRM claims it as inspiration, I'm sure there's more. It's a cool and interesting bit of history to draw inspiration from, with lots of intrigue, but it just seems a bit strange for a Japanese company to pull from that and not something closer to home, given that I can't think of an FF game that pulls from e.g. the Sengoku period or something so it's not like it was mined out for them.
Considering the political situation of Tactics Ogre at least, I think part of it is just that Matsuno in particular really likes the histories of European conflicts.
Anyway, I'm glad that Omi's found the rumors tab. This is one of the game's biggest blessings and also curses - it has somuch lore and if you want to learn more about the world or the characters, it's all there in the menus! It's also, you know, all there in side menus that you have to go out of your way to open, and they have a hell of a lot of text to them. If you want to keep up to date on every bit of trivia, there's a lot there to sift through.
It's also the closest thing the game has to a replacement for towns and talking to random peasantry. It's something I'm mixed on, I like that it's there, but like all codex equivalents there's always the question of if more should have been moved to main game dialogue or not.
Also, I'm fairly certain world events change over time, and characrer bios definitely do after major events, so it's worth revisiting. I for one wouldn't mind them being covered as separate lore entries from main threadmarks, and maybe instead of covering everything there is, you could just pull out bits that interested you or that you thought were relevant?
It's actually more complex than that: some characters' bio only become available after you've read another character's bio. For example, unless I'm misremembering, Tetra's entry only shows up after you read Delita's entry, where she is mentioned. Hers is not the only entry to do this.
Eh, like I mentioned about gender differences, I don't think it particularly matters on a normal run of the game since you won't be doing class challenges, or min-maxing, or anything like that. At worst, FFT is still a Final Fantasy game (that isn't VIII) so you just... go grind random battles until you can overpower difficult story missions with buffed up character levels and abilities.
Well, I did find this one that apparently only fixes the slowdown and screensize, so that might be an option. Being fair, I haven't played WotL on PSP/emulator so I don't know how bad the slowdown for ability use can get, or how willing you are to just say "skippa skippa" and press the fast forward button whenever it becomes an issue.
That is a fun idea; I know people do that for games like XCOM. I don't know if I can change unit names, though, and I'm not sure how I would go about picking which threadgoer goes into the Name List.
If volunteering does end up being the method, I'll happily volunteer and I'm sure plenty of the thread would.
Personally though I'd sooner recommend choosing the MVP's of the thread like Adloquium, and sending a PM asking if they are fine with it instead.
Volunteer's work well when you have a very big cast, in any moderate to large thread but from what I remember of FFT, you mostly stick with the same NPC's since your increasing their LV and Job Skills, and higher LV characters can train other jobs easier, especially since some of the later classes have some weird per-requisites, rather than having a giant stock of different characters with radically different classes.
So chances are there's only going to be 5-8 cast members if my suspicions end up being correct, and I'd be shocked if you got less than 20-30+ volunteers.
Was there a big War of the Roses revival in the mid 1990s or something? There's FFT, GRRM claims it as inspiration, I'm sure there's more. It's a cool and interesting bit of history to draw inspiration from, with lots of intrigue, but it just seems a bit strange for a Japanese company to pull from that and not something closer to home, given that I can't think of an FF game that pulls from e.g. the Sengoku period or something so it's not like it was mined out for them.
It's early-2000s not 1990s but there was literally a Yu-Gi-Oh video game titled "Duelist of the Roses" which was literally just the IRL war of the Roses with childrens' card games instead of knights and magic shenanigans relating to said card games as usual
FFT is still a Final Fantasy game (that isn't VIII) so you just... go grind random battles until you can overpower difficult story missions with buffed up character levels and abilities.
I take exception to that; FFT is like FFVIII in that the random encounters scale with your level. Given FFT came out first, FFVIII took the idea from it, so now you know what to blame for that particular bit of design entering the Final Fantasy series. You're welcome!
Of course, while in FFT random encounters scale (to the highest level in your roster, even, not just your in-battle team), the story encounters do not; therefore it's extremely easy, if tedious, to grind yourself to high level. And acquire equipment beyond what's found in stores, as enemies in random encounters get random equipment based on their level.
I did mention that breaking FFT was easier than with FFVIII, didn't I? It's just, most people won't ever notice, due to the nature of the gameplay, and the fact that roughly two-thirds of the abilities and jobs are barely functional, and the cheese options are fun to use in addition to being overwhelmingly powerful. I'm sure it'll all be shown as the Let's Play goes forwards.
So chances are there's only going to be 5-8 cast members if my suspicions end up being correct, and I'd be shocked if you got less than 20-30+ volunteers.
Wotl has a limit of 24 characters in your army, with like maybe one third to half of the slots going for special characters.
So about a dozen possible slots for thread members, maybe a bit more.
(I will present myself voluntary as well, if possible).
(The original release has a cap of only 16, btw, leaving very little space for your own units).
That's a great idea! It'll help refresh my memories of Advance too - I haven't played it in over a decade and I only have dim memories of its overall balance, although I'm pretty sure the late and post-game had a tendency to collapse into "All Viera Assassins Obliterate Everything Immediately."
hilariously since tactics advance does player level scaling and does it really badly I would earnest argue the best strategy is 'recruit every rando who approaches you, ignore all of them, obliterate enemies because they're constantly at like half your main parties level'.
Thanks, that limit is significantly smaller than I thought the maximum would be, so even if Omi wanted to he couldn't use every volunteer.
Although I was more referring to gameplay terms, as even if Omi benches Ramza and doesn't use Uniques, which would be shocking, there just isn't a lot of good reason to not stick to the relatively same team from what I can remember, of 6 or so units.
Do you remember if there are in fact more benefits to constantly swapping party members, or there being maps where you can summon 10 units? Been more than a decade since I played FFT so...
hilariously since tactics advance does player level scaling and does it really badly I would earnest argue the best strategy is 'recruit every rando who approaches you, ignore all of them, obliterate enemies because they're constantly at like half your main parties level'.
You cannot field more than 5 units per battle, ever. And I feel like continuing this line of discussion would lead to a lot of mechanical spoilers. Give the let's play five battles, twelve at the very most, and the answer to your other question will become very obvious.
Oh god that game - let me tell you renting that as a child knowing only a bit about Yu-Gi-Oh and even less about the war of the roses was an experience. Compelling though.
That's a great idea! It'll help refresh my memories of Advance too - I haven't played it in over a decade and I only have dim memories of its overall balance, although I'm pretty sure the late and post-game had a tendency to collapse into "All Viera Assassins Obliterate Everything Immediately."
That is a fun idea; I know people do that for games like XCOM. I don't know if I can change unit names, though, and I'm not sure how I would go about picking which threadgoer goes into the Name List.
I think you should choose based on who has contributed the most shitty Neko Arc memes to the thread. This is certainly an objective and unbiased way to do it.
Was there a big War of the Roses revival in the mid 1990s or something? There's FFT, GRRM claims it as inspiration, I'm sure there's more. It's a cool and interesting bit of history to draw inspiration from, with lots of intrigue, but it just seems a bit strange for a Japanese company to pull from that and not something closer to home, given that I can't think of an FF game that pulls from e.g. the Sengoku period or something so it's not like it was mined out for them.
Putting aside various considerations brought up by others, FF as a series draws on Western fantasy tropes as a matter of course to the point that the only canon samurai so far is an exotic foreign retainer holding to an uncommon code of honor and the only canon ninja is a foreign girl with a subplot about taking over her family dojo.
(Somehow, one of the FF writers is a weeaboo despite being Japanese.)
We're generally dealing with kings and knights rather than shoguns and samurais, basically. And from that foundation, looking at Western historical conflicts for your gritty political game rather than drawing on Japan history makes sense.
with a story that is, let's say, controversial.
That definitely sounds like a game with, if not a Bad End, at the very least a bittersweet 'you saved the world but no one will remember you and some asshole will get all the credit'. That's a pretty bleak outset from the opening monologue!
Omi, did you play the Ivallice Alliance Raid in XIV? The entirety of the game is spoiled in it, so be forewarned you might need to clamp down if some of us start getting a little too overzealous in pointing out the many many many many many many ways XIV draws from it.
Akihiko Yoshida is a fantastic artist, almost equal to Amano as far as FF goes. And much like Amano, his characters tend have very...placid facial expressions most of the time.
GoT wasn't translated into Japanese until 2002...but that doesn't mean the initial translator hadn't read it since it had only come out a year before the original release. The WotL translator, though, probably slept with the box set under his pillow every night. (Allegedly) Matsuono himself claims his primary inspirations are the IRL War of the Roses and 30 Years War (duh), along with the Balkanization / Yugoslav Wars of Central Europe.
Not just in therms of gameplay, but the illustrative artstyle and western euro medieval moral ambiguity to boot. It's an oversimplification to say that FFT is just Tactics Ogre in FF cosplay...but not by much. Speaking of Tactics Ogre, I shudder to think how long the wordcount for that LP could be.
Is this the first instance of making direct reference to Garland, or at least a skewed version of his name? Either way, it becomes much more common from here on out.
Earlier, I talked about how the game's screens work, and how every screen is constructed like a battle screen, and this expands to what was, for me as a child playing Tactics Advance, the weirdest and most off-putting conceit about the game:
Ramza and Delita are obviously story-relevant characters, the other 6 characters in our party so far are just mooks without dialogue lines. They have names, but I have yet to remember them.
My OSR bias is showing here, but I kinda love games like this, and the sort of emergent narrative that coalesces around "your dudes" as they grow along with the story. Linyeve may be some randomly generated thief you picked up in a seedy tavern somewhere along the way, but when she drags her battered body across the map to slip behind enemy lines and KO the enemy Black Mage, thereby saving your team from an ignonimous death on the battlefield, chances are you'll cheer for her as loud as you would any of the main characters.
Hot tip: If you press the Select button while on an Item or Map feature, you actually get little textbox screens with lore info about the object in question.
Omi, did you play the Ivallice Alliance Raid in XIV? The entirety of the game is spoiled in it, so be forewarned you might need to clamp down if some of us start getting a little too overzealous in pointing out the many many many many many many ways XIV draws from it.
Cy, I'm gonna be real with you: I have played through the entirety of the Ivalice AR and I do not remember a single word uttered by the racist theatre kid that is its main character. Nada. Not a one. This entire plotline is a blank space in my mind. I think it's the only time in the entire game I actually used the option to skip dialogue.
Cy, I'm gonna be real with you: I have played through the entirety of the Ivalice AR and I do not remember a single word uttered by the racist theatre kid that is its main character. Nada. Not a one. This entire plotline is a blank space in my mind. I think it's the only time in the entire game I actually used the option to skip dialogue.
The objectively correct decision, that storyline sucked. Probably the worst of all the ARs story-wise (only contender is the Nier ones but really did anyone care about their story?)
Final Fantasy Tactics' influence on the Fantasy half of the Final Fantasy creative teams (especially XIV) is why it was argued to be a mainline game minus the number.
I mean, when the Critically-acclaimed MMO FFXIV with a free trial that goes up to level 70 with unlimited playtime, and includes the award-winning expansions Heavensward and Stormblood decides that your entire backstory is good enough to swipe wholesale...
I thought the RTI story was fine enough for what it was, with the caveat that the third part feels rushed and no-sells what seemed to be a burgeoning plot point from the end of part 2, and then ends on a 'to be continued' that led into the utterly atrocious Bozja story-
But I can forgive a lot because Ridorana is my favorite 24 man.
