Remove ads

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

Reader mode
I suspect that Ramza is also higher level, so he probably had more chances to level up his Physical Attack, and might have hit a breakpoint that Hester is behind.

Stuff like this is why I kick out all the starters and spend a bit of time on day one recruiting people at the soldier office. They come with gear, so selling all the clothing from your nobles doesn't put you too far behind, and ensures you don't have a massive gap.

As for the zodiac, I really do suggest just drawing the symbols on a piece of paper in a circle, and then you can just glance at it, go 'is the target three signs away (bad) or four (good)?'


View: https://imgur.com/a/e5G73sL
 
Last edited:
I mean, there's one random fight in the game that has a Time Mage which uses a male sprite, but has female stats growth and is coded as female for the purpose of compatibility - or perhaps I'm remembering it in reverse - so, it's certainly something that was in the developers' mind.
 
Parzival said:
I was tempted to say non-binary but I was worried that you'd take my post seriously if I did.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
... so you instead chose to make a joke that doesn't logically parse while still risking being offensive. Less funny to no benefit.

(like. it's not signalled well as a joke. There's no reason suggesting Ramza is an effeminate man is more absurd than suggesting he's nonbinary. if anything, it's more likely to be something someone believes of the pretty boy with yaoi hands. it simultaneously sounds more earnest and less insightful than jokingly suggesting he's nonbinary.)
 
Omicron said:
I'm having a minor problem. After leveling Hester into Monk, it turns out her damage sucks - she's dealing 18-21 damage, compared to Monk Ramza regularly hitting 40s and 60s.

I checked her stats (I did make sure she had good Bravery before making her a Monk), and while her Bravery is below Ramza's, it's just 61 to his 72, it's not that much of a difference. Her Physical Attack stat, however, is 5, whereas Ramza's is 7. @Egleris wrote that the Monk damage calculation is PA x PA x 1.Brave, so the multiplicative effect would explain the huge discrepancy, but my question is - why is her Attack rating so low? They are both unarmed, so there's no weapon to explain it; is it just because Ramza is a couple of character levels higher?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Delita, socking Ovelia in the stomach: "Tis your birth and cooties that wrong you, not I."
 
Sudden mechanical sexism is surprising because, as was noted, the game so far is reasonably good about incidental female characters (though the main character roster remains mostly a sausagefest). Milleuda in particular is a lady knight afforded dignity and respect. So for the game then turn around and go "boys just fight better, it's simple biology" is weird.
 
Terrabrand said:
gender inequality as a stat mechanic is always something that gets a side-eye from me, honestly, but especially in older games I can to a point just shrug it off.

But of course, that's when it's reasonably open and upfront. It being secretly the case that you will do better if you make your men fighters and your women casters, and there's really no way to know this is true given it's not told to you and the game is quite complex and resultingly opaque on things like overall stat mechanics is extra Not Great.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The game shows you this upfront every time you look at a character's stats. It doesn't tell you why, but right at the start of the second battle (you know, the one Omi tried to solo YOLO) you can compare the male and female squires and see the difference in PA and MA.

Of course, actually doing that and understanding what it means is a completely separate issue :V

Omicron said:
Yeah, Hester was doing fine enough as a Knight that I didn't notice her damage being particularly low, it's when she leveled into Monk that she literally powered down, her attacks are now weaker than they were as a Knight, the opposite of what happened to Ramza.

I guess she gets to graduate to Geomancer early
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Not a bad idea actually. Geomancer skill keys off MA.
 
FunkyEntropy said:
The game shows you this upfront every time you look at a character's stats. It doesn't tell you why, but right at the start of the second battle (you know, the one Omi tried to solo YOLO) you can compare the male and female squires and see the difference in PA and MA.

Of course, actually doing that and understanding what it means is a completely separate issue :V
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
There's a reason why I specified mechanical complexity leading to opacity- okay, you've looked at your squires. Some of them have higher and lower stats- is this gender? is it the all important astrological signs? Is it sheer random variance? The game doesn't point blank tell you, so for all intents and purposes it doesn't tell you at all. Even if you look there's literally no reason other than being, yourself, sexist, or suspecting the devs are such, to jump straight to 'huh this stat difference must be gender based' when there's so many other things it could be.
 
The anime blonde female knight archetype is specific and ubiquitous enough that I assume it's one of those tropes where there's some CRPG from the 80s or something that you can trace all of them back to.
 
Last edited:
cB557 said:
The anime blonde female knight archetype is specific and ubiquitous enough that I assume it's one of those tropes where I assume there's some CRPG from the 80s or something that you can trace all of them back to.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

You're searching for Lady Oscar from Rose of Versailles back in the 70s, though she's from the French Revolution rather than the Middle Ages
 
illhousen said:
Sudden mechanical sexism is surprising because, as was noted, the game so far is reasonably good about incidental female characters (though the main character roster remains mostly a sausagefest). Milleuda in particular is a lady knight afforded dignity and respect. So for the game then turn around and go "boys just fight better, it's simple biology" is weird.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Being fair, girls apparently just magic better as part of their biology! I'm not saying I'd get a sex change just for the sake of being able to better blow people up with my mind or something... but I'm also not saying I wouldn't want to be better at it.

Or just be Built Different like Ramza, that's apparently also an option. Guess that Beoulve blood is worth something special (#ArgathWasRight)
 
McFluffles said:
Being fair, girls apparently just magic better as part of their biology! I'm not saying I'd get a sex change just for the sake of being able to better blow people up with my mind or something... but I'm also not saying I wouldn't want to be better at it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I dunno what exactly this is but this is part of a general trend in Japanese games I've observed- for example, in various Fire Emblems eg Sacred Stones you have gender divided stat caps and female versions of magical classes just Get More Magic while having Less Strength in physical classes. (men in turn have more skill in magic classes, and women more skill in physical ones. It's kinda strange)
 
cB557 said:
The anime blonde female knight archetype is specific and ubiquitous...
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

So I wondered what the OG looked like, and I guess Joan of Arc was relatively, like, swarthy; black hair, dark eyes, olive complexion or perhaps just tanned from a youth working out on the fields.

I guess she had pretty big boobs though, good for her I guess. That seems pretty thinly sourced though
 
While it is pretty cringe today, if you look at it from the perspective of 'we want different starting affinities for magic and physical jobs without making it random' gender makes a lot of sense to a 90s (or even 2000s) game developer. You can get a magic affinity generic or a melee one, but the difference is not so stark that it cripples the unit if it goes to the other role.

Of course if you line that up with all the other gender-essentialist mechanics in the game you're less likely to give much credit.

FF continues to be weirdly good for gender for its time, but still a product of its time I guess.

Historically FF tends to present women as 'more magic' then guys. FF6, 7, and 8 had the 'special' magical people all be female when magic was otherwise open to everyone. (FF6 even had all three playable girls be specially magical in a way that's only shared with with one guy, who happens to be the grandfather as one of the specially magic girls)

I don't think this is unique to FF when it comes to fantasy, although so far I struggle to recall the special singular magical hero with unique powers story, probably because FF has always been a team/ensemble focused game and the 'one main character' thing seems to have started with 4, but only really got in gear starting at 7 and 8.
 
daniel_gudman said:
So I wondered what the OG looked like, and I guess Joan of Arc was relatively, like, swarthy; black hair, dark eyes, olive complexion or perhaps just tanned from a youth working out on the fields.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

As the revelation branded itself upon my consciousness I could feel my sanity crack and crumble, like the headstone of an ancient mausoleum wherein stirs some charnel form that ought remain still.

No Gaelic form e'er sported such loathsome deformities, nor any offshoot of the far branching tree of Celtic blood, nay, swarth dark as the empty void between stars, hair and eyes hued like the decaying branches of some arboreal verdancy succumbing to the rot of the fetid swamp from which its leechlike roots suckle putridity, nay, nay! And I shrieked and squealed and beat upon my breast, rolling upon the very floorboards like some spine shattered serpent in its death throes, frothing and foaming till I could at last force the terrible truths from twixt my rictus bared teeth and lips,

"A LATIN! A LATIN! Your holy Maiden of Orleans is a a Latin, nay, A SICILIAN!" and I shrieked and I wailed, wailed like a soul cast to a Hell below Hell itself, gibbering and gamboling as my limbs were seized and pinioned, with a last maniacal effort stretching one arm, one hand, one finger, my very sinews stretched to snapping as I pressed "Post Reply"...
 
Last edited:
RubberBandMan said:
While it is pretty cringe today, if you look at it from the perspective of 'we want different starting affinities for magic and physical jobs without making it random' gender makes a lot of sense to a 90s (or even 2000s) game developer. You can get a magic affinity generic or a melee one, but the difference is not so stark that it cripples the unit if it goes to the other role.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The zodiacs are, like, right there.

You could even tie it to horoscopes to let people learn about it in-game.
 
Omicron said:
The other day I was seeing some tweet complaining (very fairly) about Western writers who are writing Japanese characters but can't be bothered to look up real Japanese names, so they make up an assemblage of syllables that 'sounds' Japanese, but isn't an actual Japanese name that any person has ever borne. And I think that's a fair complaint, not to say pretty funny, but also I couldn't help but think about Final Fantasy XIV.

Because you see, I'm French, and in FFXIV, the Elezen race (the setting equivalent to elves) are clearly meant to evoke France in some regards (the nation of Ishgard is often referred to jokingly as 'French catholic elves'), and that shows most prominently in their names, which sound French (more specifically, kind of medieval French-y).

But they're not. They're completely made up. They're an assemblage of syllables that sound French but aren't a name a French person has ever borne: Tivionne. Jainelette. Lainiette. Alphinaud. Haurchefant. Jannequinard!?

They're all the mutated offspring of actual French names and if you kinda squint you can see the chain of descent (Janequin is an actual French family name; Jannequinard isn't), but playing through Heavensward is just, like, walking through a collection of bizarre French cosplayers who very enthusiastically came up with their Frenchsona's elaborate name.

It's very funny.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

[upstate New York voice] Yeah yeah, Quebec, we've all seen it.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top