Remove ads

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

Reader mode
Adloquium said:
A minor thing I was curious about: playing the FFV Pixel Remaster on my phone, I discovered what probably counts as a "Peninsula Of Powerlevelling" quite early on, in a little outcrop southeast of Tule. At this point you're probably around level 5 or so, while in the few tiles of that one little outcrop facing the sea, you'll be facing level 20 Sahagin.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Not a bug. The Peninsula shows up in most of the early games starting with the first one.

Even in FFII, where it is in fact useless.
 
SolipsistSerpent said:
Hm... Sea monster causing a whirlpool. Karlabos... Kharrabos. Is that Charybdis? I've seen that depicted as a sort of weird crustacean before.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The FF wiki proposes it's a mistranslation of Karabos, from the ancient Greek word for a spiny lobster or beetle. Seems to fit more for the sprite, but FF has a long and storied history of both mistranslations and bizarre naming conventions, so it could go either way.

Speaking of ol' Karly, he's actually one of the biggest roadblocks for anyone attempting a solo game challenge. High physical defence and a lightning weakness make Black Mage the only viable damage dealer without farming many Elixirs from rare Wind Shrine drops, and paralysis is typically an instant wipe.
 
Omicron said:
One of the crewmen offers to take the ship to the Wind Shrine, and Faris is given the option to refuse, but I'm not particularly interested in doing anything until I've gotten access to the job system, so I let the game take us there.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Wait a tic, we're actually going to get to go there? I figured after the previous set of pulling-away-the-football moves that we wouldn't actually get to the Wind Shrine until visiting at least one of the others, if not all three.

Omicron said:
Somewhere across the world, the Fire Crystal lights up, and some of its power reaches Faris, and endows him with 'Courage, the essence of flame.' The same thing happens in sequence with the whole party - from an isolated island tower, the Water Crystal reaches out to Lenna with 'Devotion, the essence of water,' from a remote village in the mountain the Earth Crystal reaches to Galuf with 'Hope, the essence earth,' and finally the remains of the Wind Crystal gather up their light to endow Bartz with 'Passion, the essence of wind.'
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Huh, interesting. Let's summarize...

Fire=Courage
Water=Devotion
Earth=Hope
Wind=Passion

But the typical associations seem like they'd be more like this...

Fire=Passion
Water=???
Earth=Devotion
Wind=???

... Er, I know how I'd pair those last two, but I'm not sure anyone else would. I suppose courage could refer to... wait, no, that one usually means passion too doesn't it. I really wonder what the thought process behind this was.

And if it'll matter in the rest of the game. After all, this isn't like Exit Fate where your party members have elemental types just like enemies do.

Omicron said:
The pirate elder tells us not to worry, all he needs now is some rest,
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Also, there are pirate elders.

Omicron said:
I'm… going to go out on a limb and say that his father kinda looking like King Tycoon might look without his helmet is just the inherent limits of sprite design and he probably isn't Lenna's secret sibling?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That's ridiculous.

They're cousins. In fact, everyone in the party is cousins. I had better be wrong.

Omicron said:
The ship graveyard is honestly one of the coolest places we've had in the game so far.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I'd be surprised if the people who designed FFXI's Arrapago Reef weren't at least a bit inspired by this place. Broken ships that you have to travel between by walking on inconveniently placed planks, crawling with undead... and lamia, but they actually evoke Siren's thing a bit. Kind of a pain to get around in, but very atmospheric.

Omicron said:
No, she didn't stop being masc the moment you found out she had tits, Galuf.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

And really, it's quite refreshing, having her not change her mannerisms entirely once the secret was out.

... Well, I say that, but the only example of that which is immediately leaping to mind is someone who there's solid reason to believe was never any kind of male identifying, and was probably happier when the ruse was no longer required. But I feel like there's still a pretty common pattern there that FFV isn't doing and I like it.

I'm not sure how I'd feel about Faris having more complicated gender stuff going on, since... well, she's pretty relatable on that front as is.

-Morgan.
 
This part of the game is absolutely incredible. The humour, the gutpunch of Syldra, the hopelessness of drifting aimlessly, the spooky ambience of the ship graveyard, the Power of Amnesia… it's all so perfect.
Omicron said:
Karlabos has a "Tail Whip" move which is just Hurricane, setting a character's health to a single digit number, which is a cheap fucking way of making a boss threatening. He also has a paralyzing attack. One of the villagers in Tula said that the monster of the canal 'only seems to target women'; I initially assumed that this was meant to hint at something regarding Faris when the monster attacks him later on, but it turns out to be a complete lie. Karlabos just takes turns hitting Bartz and Galuf and then dies to the overwhelming pressure of three monks, one of whom can cast Thunder.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That's actually referring to the non-boss monsters in the canal. The encounter rate is low enough that you might not have seen them, but there are a bunch of giant octopus and squid that will only go after Lenna and Faris with their tentacles. Yeah, the game went there.
 
Warclam said:
That's actually referring to the non-boss monsters in the canal. The encounter rate is low enough that you might not have seen them, but there are a bunch of giant octopus and squid that will only go after Lenna and Faris with their tentacles. Yeah, the game went there.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Lenna and Faris? I see the game was giving hints about Faris' gender even before the shipwreck.
 
Omicron said:
As a starter town, Tule contains shops that allow us to equip any of the jobs we have access to as well as sells the basic tier of magic (Fire/Thunder/Ice on one hand, Cure/Libra/Poisona on the other), as well as a 'Greenhorn's Club' which contains a bunch of old dude sprites, who inform us about classic mechanics for newcomers ('Cure hurts the undead') and new ones (Thieves have a Find Passage ability!) There's also a Surprise Monster where one of the geezers 'teaches us' about trapped chests by having us open one and fight a bunch of goblins.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The other thing they teach you is about treasure barrels. IE Field tiles that are not visually treasure boxes that nevertheless give you an item when interacted with. This is actually pretty important as you can get a lot of good stuff from treasure barrels in towns.

I also vaguely remember that the original version (also for FFVI) you didn't get a nice little ! prompt like you do in the remaster. Nice little quality of life improvement.

Omicron said:
Further information will recontextualize Faris's whole deal but it'll nonetheless be clear at this point Galuf and Bartz don't suspect Faris or not being a dude. This is officially the gayest Final Fantasy cast so far.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This is a moment in the game which I feel is pretty peak anime for the series.

Omicron said:
Of course I don't mean to stick with this for too long, the point is only to still have two pseudo-mages while I train Galuf and Faris to learn the Monk's Barehanded ability and swap them back to mages who now can also cast FIST.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This is how you're supposed to play FFV, a bunch of squishy wizards beating the everloving shit out of everything they happen across :V

Omicron said:
A fucking crawfish? That's your monster? What is this, Elden Ring?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Definitely not, because Elden Ring crustaceans are dangerous.

Omicron said:
HE'S AMNESIAC

SO THE SIREN PULLED OUT HIS TRAGIC BACKSTORY OR WHATEVER OUT OF HIS MIND

AND HE DIDN'T RECOGNIZE IT
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I love how well the game utilizes Galuf's amnesia. It's two main methods are Galuf faking amnesia to cover his mistakes (whose bright idea was it to try and hijack the pirate ship), and here where it's what lets him avoid the charm effect and save the party from otherwise certain death. What a great character.
 
Oddly enough, one of the earliest hints of Faris' gender is the Black Mage job outfit. Bartz and Galuf get pants with their outfit, but Lenna and Faris get long robes. Similarly, the White Mage outfits have Faris and Lenna wearing hoods while the guys don't. I'd link the pictures, but there are mild spoilers.
 
Connelly said:
I doubt they were thinking too much or at all about gender issues back in that time when they created Faris. But it'd be interesting to know how they come to the idea.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I wouldn't be so sure; I believe that trans presence has always been something they're more culturally aware of in Japan, perhaps as a contrast with their highly structured society. Ranma 1/2 came out a long way before FFV, and there's been some presence of crossdressing people in many animes of the eighties. So, it's not that surprising to me for the issue to show up in a Final Fantasy, and for it to be intentionally referencing real life issue in an indirect way.
 
Last edited:
Saint_007 said:
Oddly enough, one of the earliest hints of Faris' gender is the Black Mage job outfit. Bartz and Galuf get pants with their outfit, but Lenna and Faris get long robes. Similarly, the White Mage outfits have Faris and Lenna wearing hoods while the guys don't. I'd link the pictures, but there are mild spoilers.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The sprite versions showed up in the post, didn't they? Or is it just the more detailed version that matters?
 
cosmicspear said:
...how strict must Faris be about alcohol if her crew's this excited over grog of all things?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Amusingly, this is actually (and probably unintentionally) close to historical accuracy. Pirates during the 17th-18th century "Golden Age of Piracy" were very strict when on ships, and often during shore leave as well. As in "no alcohol, no dallying with women, early curfew" sort of strict. Part of this is due to the origins of most pirates as being former Navy (especially British Navy), and part of it is the whole bit about how the most dangerous enemy is the sea, and so heavy discipline is necessary to survive.

Having said that, Faris and her crew is probably just a portrayal of "jolly family-friendly pirates", and so they cheer for grog when on shore leave because that's what stereotypical pirates drink.

Connelly said:
I looked around in the GBA advance and I can't find anywhere like that. It's goblins and killer bees everywhere I land.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

If it matters, it's moderately far to the southeast of Tule, closer to the canal gate. And it's basically the edge of the land outcrop, where you'd start encountering beach enemies rather than land enemies.
 
Here's two other ways you could look at it: 1. By dint of the chocobo actually fitting, that wasn't a bed for humans and the pirates had some kind of terrorbird healing bed stashed away (this is more reasonable than it sounds -- consider they're also caring for a giant sea dragon, they're probably weirdly well equipped for vet care for exotic beasts). 2. That's actually proper medical treatment for fantasy murder-ostriches and the old pirate was doing exactly what they were supposed to.

...

the second one might even have support from some of the chocobo centric games? I can't remember if there were bed-equipped inns in some of the mystery dungeons or not, but if there were that'd be supporting evidence chocobos actually heal well in people beds.
 
Last edited:
Alternatively, it's just a damn visual shortcut and you people need more Jesus Venat mental abstraction. :V

Frumple said:
the second one might even have support from some of the chocobo centric games? I can't remember if there were bed-equipped inns in some of the mystery dungeons or not, but if there were that'd be supporting evidence chocobos actually heal well in people beds.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Take this with a grain of salt but I think I remember at least the first Chocobo Tales having beds where the chocobo protagonist lives. So uh, maybe?
 
Last edited:
Nottheunmaker said:
He probably tried to get in on it. Man was a complete horndog.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
There's a decent chance he tried and succeeded, considering both Anne and Mary were pregnant once they were arrested. People have been speculating the three of them were a thruple for about as long as stories of them has existed.

... Okay, we might be getting a bit distracted by unlawful nautical history, but in our defense Pirates are a surprisingly consistent aspect of the Final Fantasy franchise.
 
venom3053000 said:
And supposedly Calico Jack, Anne's husband was ok with it after finding out Mary was a woman, after having threaten to cut Mary's throat before hand after seeing how close they were
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I've never heard of a study on the matter and so don't know how common it really is, but I've seen a fair number of anecdotes about relationships with partners who express jealously towards potential third parties of the opposite gender, but none towards same-sex potential partners. In some cases with an explicit rule of "affairs are OK, but only with people of the same gender".

There's a certain logic to it I suppose; it's not like there was any risk of Mary getting Anne pregnant the way there would be if she was another man.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top