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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 remember playing FFT some time ago, and I'm pretty sure I got pretty far into it before getting sidetracked obsessively leveling Ramza in every job and then dropping the game. Thing is, I'm pretty sure that was twenty-ish years ago, and I realize that remember basically nothing. I'll be curious to see if this play through is going to jog memories.
 
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I am curious to see how the recruitment will go in this game (I didn't play it).

Because in T-RPG, my heart can be sometimes torn apart for the mercenaries I have recruited.
Why ? Because usually, your team is small at the beginning, and you need to recruit them to advance in the story (as a side note, I think it's kinda fun you only pay when you hire them, and after, you never pay them. Sure, you stuff them and feed them, but no more salary for them. Meaning you can hire them at the beginning of the game and bring them to the final and kill the Ultimate-Evil-Of-The-Universe and then, you tell them goodbye without any reward. You can probably take off all their stuff before the end, so they have absolutely nothing at the end.
"I have saved the world and I just earned 5 PO" is quite an impressive feat.
It's possible to think they will receive a big reputation for their achievement, but in the same time... They usually absolutely never appear in the ending, like they don't exist at all, so they probably didn't receive any reputation gain.
They are the small hands who allows your party to win, and no acknowledgment at all, that's crazy. They are the true secret heroes in this kind of games....)

So, you play with them and you begin to grow attached to them. I mean they evolve too ! And they begin to form their own surname in your mind (surname you can't add in game sadly) ! Why ? Because even if they are the same unit, with the same stats and stuff, RNG fucks everything ! And then, you begin to have these characters in your mind like :
"Arnold The Abnormal Archer Being" -> Miss everytime with his arc, but he is a monster with melee attacks
"Momo The Late Bloomer" -> Bad the first half-time of the game, and suddenly becomes a monster killer in the second part
"Thing The Furious Immortal" -> Because the party is already almost wiped and then, on the verge of death , it suddenly dodges every attacks and crit every enemy, killing the boss by itself.
"Randalf The Clutch One" -> When the fight begins to be messy, Randalf will make a way for everyone.
"Maria The One Who Can Do The Impossible" -> Basically failing at everything, but rarely, achieves impossible feat like killing something she should not be able to kill.
"Gorg The One Who Goes Straight" -> Because it's probably the only thing he is good at.
"Mook The Suicidal" -> Loves to go in suicide action alone and SURVIVES !
"Bjorg The Finisher" -> Everytime she attacks, she just finish an enemy which has few HP left. No idea how much damage she can do on a full-life enemy because she never has the opportunity to hit them.

And so on... I think the fact they have no stories, make every of their own actions shine in battles, and their true characters appears here.

The problem ? The arrival of story-named characters who join the hero team. Quite often, they are better than your actual volunteers/mercenaries. So, it's better to use them. But they often are the same class as one of your mercenary/volunteer, so, you will have probably to bench this character. Which is sad... I want to continue to play with "Rob The WTF Are You Doing ???" because he is fun, but sadly, it will not be a wise choice..... I could free him from the contract, but I can't, I still want to have him in my team, even of the bench ! What will happen to him if I free him ? He can be killed in the wild ! I refuse to take this risk ! So, I keep him on the bench. Which is sad. And finally, I kick him if I don't have any more place in my army. Which makes me sad again.

So yeah, the volunteer/mercenary system frustrate me enormously. Curious how things will go in this game.
 
This is why knightly orders are doomed to die out, the future is professional mercenary armies where everyone is ensured a fair wage and stable work.

Now we just need an academy to teach them in, some strong administrative oversight, and a healthy supply of impressionable young orphans...
 
StormyEyed said:
This is why knightly orders are doomed to die out, the future is professional mercenary armies where everyone is ensured a fair wage and stable work.

Now we just need an academy to teach them in, some strong administrative oversight, and a healthy supply of impressionable young orphans...
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not gonna lie the first sentence had me thinking this was some sort of metal gear solid joke.
 
Oh you could absolutely do a whole bit with FFVIII and MGS couldn't you? I never thought about that before, but there's absolutely some material there.
 
StormyEyed said:
This is why knightly orders are doomed to die out, the future is professional mercenary armies where everyone is ensured a fair wage and stable work.

Now we just need an academy to teach them in, some strong administrative oversight, and a healthy supply of impressionable young orphans...
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You literally just described modern professional armies.
 
....I was more making lightheared reference to the fact that modern-day professional armies generally fight for a paycheck, rather than obligation. Occasionally there's both in countries with conscription, but the world's generally moved away from that.
 
I mean wagner, is in a sense just like 17th century merc compagnies which were basically arms of their associated monarchs. One could argue the french foreign legion is the institutional successor to those institutions
 
Corti said:
So yeah, the volunteer/mercenary system frustrate me enormously. Curious how things will go in this game.
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The good news is WotL has a higher character limit than the base game, enough to keep all the characters you acquire in the game + all the optional characters.

But the game does still have permadeath, so you can get attached and lose characters in whole other ways! :D
 
AliasiSudonomo said:
The good news is WotL has a higher character limit than the base game, enough to keep all the characters you acquire in the game + all the optional characters.

But the game does still have permadeath, so you can get attached and lose characters in whole other ways! :D
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In practice its around the same due to most of the generic you get at beginning being needed for sidequests.
 
Anyway, on the theme of the subtle differences between things that are very similar, a few notes on the PSX translation:

- When Dycedarg compliments Ramza for his achievements, while the speech is mostly the same, just in simpler words (I heard you slew your first enemies, I'm proud of you, the elder statesmen say you're quite skilled), the last sentence, "you bring honor to our name - and to me", it's instead "you truly are a Beoulve", which suggest that Ramza needs to prove that he is, in fact, part of the family. It's a a more passive/aggressive sentence than the WotL version, making it sound like Dycedarg's compliment is backhanded; it also lacks the WotL implication that what Ramza does in any way reflects on Dycedarg himself. I'm not sure if it's just me, but it makes Dycedarg come across a bit colder.
- Then, rather than a simple "I'm glad" that has no inflection in the WotL version, which makes Dycedarg follow up a bit strange, Ramza says "...thank you", with the opening ellipsis making him sound reluctant to offer thanks, thus justifying Dycedarg's follow-up "aren't you happy?" question. Of course, here Dycedarg is being less openly complimentary, and so Ramza being more clearly hesitant to accept his words makes more sense, at least in my eyes. I think that makes this conversational beat superior in the PSX version.
- The conversation then flows into Algus' request for soldiers which Dycedargs harshly denies, just in less flowery speech. The explanation of Algus' past is the same, and so is the conversation with Zalbag, mostly, although when Zalbag says "what you did was worthy of a Beoulve", Ramza answers with the same "...thank you" as he did with Dycedarg, only Zalbag laughs it off and says "you still don't like that, do you?", suggesting that he was referring to Ramza proving himself worth of the name more in a ribbing manner than dismissively. It creates a clearer contrast between him and Dycedarg.
- Tietra's lines are better in the WotL version (and her name is too - in the PSX she's called Teta, which I don't like; perhaps the only good name change, unlike all the doubling of A in his name which Zalbag has been subjected to), but I do think that Ramza's words to Zalbag being "I pray for your victory" of the PSX version, instead of the simple "good luck" used by WotL, are a better fit for the general religiosity we've seen in the setting. Also, interesting that, when usually the WotL version is more flowery, here the PSX has the more flowery turn of phrase. Then the conversation ends along the same route, although it would be disingenuous of me not to note that here the translation has a famous silly line - instead of the three "ah!" of laughter from the WotL version, the PSX version has five, which really feels overdone.

Even with that, I think the PSX version of the translation is better, but that's just my take on things - the WotL version is still more "stylish" overall, but I value that less than keeping up subtleties in characterization like with the Dycedarg/Zalbag comparison, or Ramza referring to prayer.
 
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Egleris said:
- When Dycedarg compliments Ramza for his achievements, while the speech is mostly the same, just in simpler words (I heard you slew your first enemies, I'm proud of you, the elder statesmen say you're quite skilled), the last sentence, "you bring honor to our name - and to me", it's instead "you truly are a Beoulve", which suggest that Ramza needs to prove that he is, in fact, part of the family. It's a a more passive/aggressive sentence than the WotL version, making it sound like Dycedarg's compliment is backhanded; it also lacks the WotL implication that what Ramza does in any way reflects on Dycedarg himself. I'm not sure if it's just me, but it makes Dycedarg come across a bit colder.
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Both translations appear to rearrange the Japanese text, possibly for flow and readability. Dycedarg's initial speech would be "You seem to have shown victory in your first campaign. As your brother, I am glad. The other vassals have praised you as meeting expectations for having the blood of House Beoulve."

So it's not just being part of the family, it's in being part of the nobility, including the family name. "Bring honour to our name" seems like it's spelling out the implication behind "you have the blood of Beoulve"; Ramza needs to stack accomplishments just to prove himself worthy of the Beoulve name, in the eyes of these (unnamed) vassals.

I'm not really sure what to make of opening ellipsis or the lack thereof, because the opening ellipsis are everywhere. Including the start of Dycedarg's dialogue, for that matter. Just going by the times it has appeared in the dialogue, it seems as though it precedes a Meaningful Statement, and it's supposed to represent a pause while the stage actors make sure everyone is in position, and the audience is paying attention.

Egleris said:
- The conversation then flows into Algus' request for soldiers which Dycedargs harshly denies, just in less flowery speech. The explanation of Algus' past is the same, and so is the conversation with Zalbag, mostly, although when Zalbag says "what you did was worthy of a Beoulve", Ramza answers with the same "...thank you" as he did with Dycedarg, only Zalbag laughs it off and says "you still don't like that, do you?", suggesting that he was referring to Ramza proving himself worth of the name more in a ribbing manner than dismissively. It creates a clearer contrast between him and Dycedarg.
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I'm not sure if it's in either translation, but Zalbaag's praising of Ramza includes "(Our) late father would have been pleased." So it's clearer from Zalbaag that his idea of "you are a member of House Beoulve" is based more on familial kinship, rather than noble honour as per Dycedarg's "as expected of the bloodline of Beoulve". Without Zalbaag bringing up their father, this would have been much less clear.

When Ramza responds with the very bland "thank you", Zalbaag says "Haha, you're the same as always. Why not be happy with these words of praise." The contrast with Dycedarg is Zalbaag is not only more familiar with Ramza being Generically Polite, he's also more accepting of it.

Also as another example, Zalbaag's line about "Guarding a castle is quite boring, wouldn't you agree" is preceded by ellipsis, hence my speculation that it's used as a stage direction rather than a rhetorical pause.

Egleris said:
- Tietra's lines are better in the WotL version (and her name is too - in the PSX she's called Teta, which I don't like; perhaps the only good name change, unlike all the doubling of A in his name which Zalbag has been subjected to), but I do think that Ramza's words to Zalbag being "I pray for your victory" of the PSX version, instead of the simple "good luck" used by WotL, are a better fit for the general religiosity we've seen in the setting.
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Ramza's line is the consistently bland "May the fortunes of war (be with you)", which "good luck" fits for its brevity and general distant pleasantry. I should emphasize how Ramza's lines are very generic; he's about the level of Squall at the start of FFVIII, minus Squall's internal monologues.

This is something I've been pondering, regarding the original translation and WotL translation: both these translations appear to make everyone speak in much the same way. For the original translation, everyone speaks in a straightforward manner. For the WotL translation, everyone speaks in a Shakespearean manner. But in the Japanese text, there is a wide variety of speech styles, from the Old Lord of Barbaneth to the Righteous Knight of Agrias to the Gruff Mercenary of Gaffgarion to the Violent Thug of Argath to the Cold Planner of Delita.

It all gets flattened in the translation, whether downwards for the original translation or upwards for the WotL translation. And I'm not sure if I'm reading too much into it, because I'm just a random person looking at the Japanese script and noticing these things, but the translators did get paid professionally, so presumably they might have greater insight.
 
Adloquium said:
but the translators did get paid professionally, so presumably they might have greater insight.
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You're assuming, of course, that they weren't paid with l i t t l e m o n e y :V

Anyway, it'd be interesting to see what they go with if the rumored FFT Remaster is true. Because while 2007 isn't exactly ancient for their translation efforts, it was quite a while ago still.
 
On many of these "tactics" isometric games, archer\projectile range or obstacles friendly fire is more of a suggestion in two ways.

Sometimes you can extend the range by force attacking a square beyond the real target. Making the friendly fire mechanic work for YOU.
Sometimes, the games model out of range as dropping chance to zero or near zero levels. And sometimes, because of logic errors, a weird sense of fairness, or just meaness, the friendly fire hit chance is not related to the real hit chance.

Yeah, I abuse savestates for this when I can. It's fun making impossible shots, don't judge

I mentioned this because it was already said and it's a bit of a interesting inside look at the psychology of game designers. Because this. keeps. happening. Blackguards, nearly all the descendent games of Tactics Ogre, even other snes games I think. Hell I remember doing this in divinity original sin, even goddamn fallout 1 and Valkyria Chronicles 2 had parts of it, it's like a TB contagious disease, it gets everywhere.
 
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Hmm. You know it's actually kinda difficult to talk about this game if you aren't a mid evil period history buff. Otherwise the real meat in this game is talking about the mechanics and how to brutally exploit them.
 
Omicron said:
Elidibus is, arguably, one of the most important characters in the entire game.
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Well, anybody from the City of Garland is immediately suspicious, so that all checks out.

Okay, so I know we wrapped up the Final Fantasy VIII stuff a couple weeks ago, but I was struck by this thought and I have to suffer it, so do you.
Is Yor Briar a Seed? This question struck me while reading the latest Spy X Family release, wherein I noted that she's a superhuman assassin that works for an organization called Garden. Maybe it's a coincidence, but Yor's been working for them since her brother, who is now a grown man, was a small child, so she was effectively a child soldier.
 
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