Final Fantasy XIII - 2: Game Mechanics

Back on Cocoon, our heroes decided to confront the Pulse Fal'Cie, that creature whose presence was responsible for The Purge. Confronting such a powerful being may not have shown great judgment, however, they defeated the massive being, Anima. In it's death throes, it wrapped them in powerful restraints, then branded them... as l'Cie. Conventional wisdom says they are now enemies of Cocoon, destined to seek its destruction. However, the heroes themselves know not what their task is.

Since I mostly covered the characters in my last post, I'll start by summarizing the plot a bit here. Final Fantasy 13 has a pretty deep history and "mythology" as the developers have called it. The people on Cocoon are overseen by massive, powerful beings called Fal'Cie. Many people talking about the game refer to them as gods, but I don't think that is most appropriate, as altough the Fal'Cie are much more powerful than humans, they do not approach the power of gods. There are thousands, possibly millions of Fal'Cie, some of which have such mundane tasks as being a "bulkhead", up to being the source of Cocoon's light (Phoenix), and creating the human's food (Carbuncle).

A bulkhead Fal'Cie, which serves as a massive... bulkhead.

Besides managing the human's lives, the Fal'Cie have an important power, to turn a human into a l'Cie. L'Cie are branded and given a task called a focus. However, this focus is only vaguely given, through a vision as the l'Cie is branded. L'Cie also gain certain powers, such as access to magic. If a l'Cie does not complete it's focus withing a certain amount of time, they become creatures called Cieth. Cieth are creepy beings that are essentially monsters.

This tormented Cieth is choking itself. Perhaps it's into auto-erotic asphyxiation.

Beneath Cocoon is the planet Pulse, which the people of Cocoon live in dire fear of. Pulse also has Fal'Cie, who are able to create their own l'Cie. This is a large part of the premise of FF13, as early in the game the main characters find a Pulse Fal'Cie. The discovery of this Fal'Cie has caused "The Purge". The characters end up meeting at the Pulse Fal'Cie, Anima. They fight and defeat it, however the Fal'Cie brands all of them as l'Cie.

Battling Anima.

The "vestige" which is the huge structure that contains the Fal'Cie falls into Lake Bresha, and in its death throes it turns the lake to crystal, shown in the last post. Beyond that, the characters than try to figure out how to handle their situation, as as far as they have been taught, as Pulse l'Cie, they are enemies of Cocoon.

There are numerous flashback scenes in FF13. This one shows the Pulse Vestige in the distance.

There's a lot of detail and character development that happens after that, but that gets you relatively up to date on the story. On to some game mechanics. Combat is mostly automated, which some people appreciate, but I personally find kind of dull. On the surface it can appear very simple since the player doesn't have to make many selections, but underneath this the mechanics of the combat system are actually very complex. I find that this means there isn't as much opportunity for mastery by the player, and thus find it a little less satisfying than most Final Fantasy combat systems.

The characters have "roles" which are similar to classes or jobs from other systems. The characters don't access these roles until they gain their l'Cie powers, and this is when the combat system starts to flesh itself out. The roles are Commando, Ravager, Sentinel, Medic, Synergist, and Saboteur. These roles encompass the abilities of previous games, but simplified down to their core. Commando's attack, doing the most damage. Ravagers cast magic, but their role in this game is building "chain bonuses". Sentinels are defenders, drawing attacks. Medics are "white mages", or healers. Synergists buff your members, Saboteurs de-buff your foes. Together, these groups of roles are called "Paradigms".

Viewing available paradigms.

Shifting paradigms in battle.

The complexity of the system comes into play when you consider that a key to combat is building "chains". This is an expansion on the system from FF10-2. When you strike an enemy it builds their chain gauge, which is displayed in the upper right corner of the screen above. When it's filled the enemy is "staggered", and takes more damage. Staggering enemies is essential to success in the game. I don't know about you, but even describing this seems unnecessarily complicated and somewhat uninteresting, which makes it no surprise that is how I feel about the system while playing! Am I being too harsh? I'm not sure, the combat system seems to have been relatively well received at large, but I find it of average appeal. I should say it's alright during regular, fast combats, but often when you run into harder foes it becomes a trial and error system which is aggravating, I very much dislike "trial and error" gameplay. The Eidolon battles are the worst, but I'll cover that later.

The gameplay images were getting a bit boring, so here is Vanille in front of a tomato bush. You say tomato, I say... tomato.

Strangely, the game incorporates arcade elements with the combats, giving you a summary of the time it took, and even a score. After reading some statements from the director of the game, I understand they were almost trying to create a new genre, an interactive action third person arcade shooter movie or something... so... I guess this score thing makes more sense. On a side note, I think I had a bit of a revalation while playing that maybe this game really isn't an RPG! I plan to apply CRPG addict's definitions of an RPG and see how well the game does, haha. I digress, but I think this helps to explain the games reception, as it departs a little too much from the assumptions of its franchise.

The after combat summary screen. Higher ratings increase your chances of getting better item drops.

Outside of combat, the big time departures from series conventions continue. There are no "towns" per se, there are very few NPCs you can actually speak with, most talking is displayed automatically as you walk by a character. Shopping is handled "online", at kiosks that also allow saving. The shops are kind of neat and have their own personalities, but I miss the towns. Once an item becomes available you can buy it at any kiosk. I've found the new items are generally things that have already appeared in treasure, so there isn't that motivation to grind for a new item in a shop like is generally present in RPGs.

The main screen for one of the online shops, B&W Outfitters. Although looking in the lower right, it was probably originally "V&W" Outfitters, as B and V use the same character in Japanese. Oversight or deliberate move by the translators? You make the call!

I'm not going to lie, I'm getting bored writing this post. Which makes me ask whether it's just boring to write about, or whether this game is actually... f'in boring! I'm curious what readers think. To tie up the mechanics is the character development which is handled by the "crystarium", because in Final Fantasy, and I think Japanese games in general, every new little development needs a creative new name, and if it has an acronym, even better (see ATB, CTB, RTB, ADB and CSB). The crystarium can be thought of as a simpler version of the sphere grid from FF10. The characters have a few choices of paths, but cannot branch into other character's paths like on the sphere grid. Also, the crystarium is limited by where you are in the storyline, so power-leveling is not possible. Overall, it probably won't surprise you I find the crystarium pretty average, as there is no motivation to grind, and I don't think there are meaningful choices to be made in character development, making the game seem even more like a railroad.  

The crystarium.

That sums up the core of the game mechanics. You may remember I decided to play FF13 after FF10 to see if I have gained some new perspective on it, perhaps being able to forgive it for its linearity. However, there is no doubt I dislike this game even more this time around. FF10 did have very linear dungeons. However, the random encounters actually helped that game out, making the areas seem more full, FF13's dungeons end up being massive empty rooms and tubes. FF10 also had towns and the puzzles of the temples to break up gameplay that might have become monotonous. FF13 breaks up combat with one thing and one thing only... cutscenes... over and over again. Cutscenes used to be a reward in Final Fantasy games, coming rarely and at key climaxes. In FF13 they happen so often you wish you could just play the damn game for once! Granted, you can skip cutscenes, but I don't find that to be a good defense for their overabundance, because you won't know what's happening if you do. That's all I've got for this week. FF13 still has some time to redeem itself, but so far it's not doing too hot.

As l'Cie, the heroes have gained great power, but are now fugitives. To find out how they fare as foes against all they have known and held dear, come back soon... for This Bard's Tales!

Play Time to Post: 6h 43m

Total Play Time: 16h 7m

Final Fantasy XIII - 1: Voodoo Magic

Tonight my friends, I take you again to another world. Here, humanity lives inside a manufactured moon of sorts, called Cocoon. Inside Cocoon, beings of great power called Fal'Cie keep the climate controlled, the sun alight, and the food flowing to keep the human population content and docile. However, if Cocoon is a moon, what is it moon to? That would be Pulse... the planet below. Although few have any first hand knowledge of this place, Pulse is regarded on Cocoon as a dangerous place of fire, death, and despair like "Hell on Earth." It is because of this fear that a recent event has been initiated... called "The Purge" innocents who may have been contaminated by contact with Pulse remnants are gathered to be purged to Pulse. However, are they truly to be sent to the planet below, or is simply an execution? Given the legends, is transfer to Pulse an execution in itself?
 
Last Wednesday I was all geared up to start my play-through of Final Fantasy 13, planning to get back into a modern game. I've moved a couple of times since I last played it though, and couldn't say for sure if I had the disc with me. After looking through my things, I was forced to admit it was probably in storage back at my parent's place. After this small disappointment, I decided I would be willing to purchase an additional copy if it was less than say... $20. Unfortunately, unlike it's sequels FF13 is not available online for download on the Playstation network, so I could not satisfy my jones immediately. A quick look online showed FF13 available pre-owned for $9.99 at my local Gamestop. Cool, no problem. While at the ol' brick and mortar store, I also picked up copies of Dark Souls 2 and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, both games I plan to play but as yet did not have a copy of.

Dark Souls 2, mm-mmm, that's good stuff.

So I was all set! It just so happened that I woke up very early and couldn't get back to sleep one night soon after my purchase. I slid in my new disc... only to find it didn't read! What? Thwarted for a second time? To help me work through my pain, I played Dark Souls 2 for a couple hours, which thankfully works, and has so far been as great as its predecessor. Afterwards, I figured I'd pop in FF13 again and see if it might work. It did. Not only did it work... but the same thing has proved consistent. Turn on the PS3, FF13 doesn't read, play Dark Souls 2, then it does. I can only conclude that there is a voodoo spell upon my disc, and Dark Souls is the counter-spell. Or, more likely, the caster of the spell requires that I play a quality game before it will let me step into the more suspect FF13.

There is a high possibility this is the spell caster who enchanted my disc.

Enough shenanigans... on to the... good stuff?

Final Fantasy 13 puts the player pretty much directly into the action, starting with a combination of cinematics and battles. Overall, the first 6 or so hours of the game have seemed like a combination of a game play tutorial and a movie. The cinematic sequences have served to introduce the characters and set the story in motion. A slew of terms are used such as Fal'Cie, l'Cie, PSICOM etc. without much explanation. There is a database, that is automatically filled in as the player progresses, that explains these terms and some background on the world. It's sort of strange that the game lets so much of the dialogue go by without explanation, when it is insistent on hand holding the player through anything related to the battle system.

Snow on the exploration map, with enemies ahead.

I remember liking FF13 the first time I played until I got near the end really, so I'm going try to remain as objective as possible as I play through it. It's easy to be negative about the game, as it definitely gives me a general feeling of smoke and mirrors, and that in the end it won't deliver, as well... since I had this experience already.

Vanille and Hope.

The player is introduced to the combat system early, however, at a very minimal level originally. The game features an "Auto-battle" button, where the AI decides what your character will do. So, conceivably you can play the early battles simply by hitting the X button every 10 seconds or so. The game does make you mix it up a bit by using a potion when your hit points get low. Since the early game, in my opinion, is more about the introduction of the characters and story, I'll save the details of combat until the next post.

The main characters, the playable ones, are:

Lightning: who is the somewhat nominal main character, as the third game in the series is named after her... but not really. She is a hardened soldier. She's a little hard to find believable, because who the f' would leave a child alone in the wilderness? (That child is Hope... wait... maybe that would be understandable)

Lightning, with Sazh talking in the background.

Sazh Katzroy: The most likable and relatable character in my opinion... and honestly the only one I really like. He's an African American (or not... because this isn't America is it?) with a huge 'fro, which is ripe for stereotyping, but I really like how Sazh avoids the possible pitfall here, and is the "average joe" or "straight man" amongst the team. I like him the most, because I think he reacts the most realistically to the events of the storyline.

Sazh in front of a crashed... something or other.

Snow Villiers: Snow is a "hero", you know this, because he and his buds talk about it non-stop for the first hour of the game. He is a super positive dude, somewhat annoyingly so, he's prone to somewhat big swings of emotion. Really... he's just kind of immature, a bit of a "bro" if you will, but at least he means well. He reminds me of this Onion article about Wes Welker.

Vanille: She fits into the high-pitched voice, cheery, stereotype of many japanese female characters. However, she bucks that at points. Though not as good as Sazh, Vanille is surprisingly one of the more sane and likable characters if you can get past the cutesie-ness.

Hope Estheim: Here we go again... another whiz kid. He's different because he is not confident, unlike FF10-2's Shinra and FF5's Kryle. However, he's annoyingly under-confident. Hope? "Hope-less" would be a more fitting name, but perhaps they were going for irony with this one.

There is also "Fang" however, she makes scant appearances in the first 10 hours of the game and is not yet playable, so I'll save her.

Here's some combat for ya.

I'm not going to go into too much detail here about the story, it is definitely interesting, however, so far I've found the dialogue to be atrocious. The characters are overly emotional. To quote one reviewer there is "more cheese than a dairy farm." The reviewer went on to say that it won't be anything Final Fantasy players aren't used to though. I disagree. Granted, we are watching fantasy people go through traumatic situations and it's hard to say how someone might really react... the problem here is the characters are hard to relate to, not particularly likable, and worst of all... don't use much logic. The interactions involve a lot of huffin' and puffin' (the grunts and groans are noticeably annoying in the cut scenes), emotional arguments (sans logic), and lightning punching snow in the face. Case and point, Hope's weeny-whiny self witnesses his mother die after volunteering to help Snow fight. He blames Snow, saying he tricked her (or something like that...) then decides to take revenge by killing him. This sort of fuzzy logic might be a realistic reaction, I don't know, but it happens awkwardly, and quite frankly makes Hope extremely unlikable. I mean, the game makes me play as these assholes!

Lightning looks towards the "Pulse vestige" where they just defeated a powerful foe.

You might be saying at this point "Hey Bard, but isn't there anything good about this game?" Well, It's best feature is easy to call... the game is freakin' beautiful! Even having come out some 4 years ago or so, I'm not sure anything quite as pretty has come out since. However, this obviously came at a cost, as the characters are heavily railroaded through the game's paths. In the end, there is tons upon tons of eye candy, but you can barely interact with any of it.

Here are waves which have been turned to crystal by the death of the Fal'Cie.

Lake Bresha, which is depicted in the nearby screenshots is a lake which has been turned into massive crystal waves... it's quite impressive.

I captured this rare moment wherein a branching path was available, leading to treasure!

To summarize, as I finish this post I'm a little over 10 hours into the game, and it overall feels like a gameplay tutorial intermixed with a movie, that may or may not be related. The combat is entertaining sometimes, but so far... FF13 would have been better off a movie. Oh yeah, although the soundtrack got mixed reviews, I'm a fan of it. So far we have brilliant visuals, a solid soundtrack, and a decent story. Hmm... this is a game, right?

The Purge was indeed a cover for execution... the Sanctum, rulers of Cocoon, decided it was better to make those people disappear than to leave them to the vagaries of a future on Pulse, where they still might cause trouble. What does this mean for Cocoon, and our heroes? To find out, come back soon... for This Bard's Tales!

Play Time to Post: 10h 50m             

Forgotten World - 6: Fighting Under the Influence

August was tucked behind a large ceder tree in the groves of Bastille. He was surrounded by the high-pitched yipping sounds of a swarm of kobolds. Feeling strangely over confident, he decided he needed a drink, reaching down to the flask of Bastille's famous ale at his belt. He wet his lips with the brew, then decided to go bottoms up, downing it all. "Ohsshat... that hitz me a lot faster... den I expacted," he slurred, stumbling out from his hiding place, to see an army of 100 kobolds! Unbeknownst to him at the time, only about 8 of them were real...

Now that I'm playing a single class ranger, I'm almost embarrassed how much easier the game is with a better class choice. It's by no means easy, but as far as I can remember my new character is handling things a lot better than my original one did.  I'm feeling the lack of instant stun spells like sleep and stinking cloud, but this is mitigated by my much improved melee abilities and greater hit points.

Last post I mentioned that I had encountered another player in the game and chatted with them for the first time. In a fortuitous happening, I played again the next night... and once again encountered another player! What are the chances?

Encountering another player on the 3D navigation map.

With my new character, I'm essentially looking for good places to "grind" to get back to the point where I can explore the areas I was in with my previous character. I've found the giant spiders to be one of the best opponents, as they are relatively easy (if they have poison in this game, it is very weak), and yield about 400xp. However, grinding can be a bit difficult because I'm not sure I have a hang on how the encounters re-spawn. I'm fairly sure the encounters are divided by day and night, just like they are in FRUA: Neverwinter Nights. Here's what I think happens in Forgotten World: You reset encounters by stepping on their square in the opposite part of the day. So, if you step on a night encounter square during the day, you will be able to fight that encounter again when night comes back around. I'm not 100% sure about this though, I haven't fully tested this theory.

Spider, he is our hero.

To follow up on my last post, remember I had equipped an ale? I was quite curious if I could use the ale for something. I quickly found I couldn't throw it, so I decided to "use" it, which alerted me I had drank one. Something quite peculiar happened then... the screen didn't refresh itself, and suddenly myself and my enemies where wandering around my inventory screen. This is most likely a bug, of course, but it was an inadvertently appropriate result for chugging ale!

August tips back one too many cold ones...

To summarize something else I've been holding onto, I think it's a nice touch how the game's skyline has a transitional period during sunrise and sunset instead of suddenly switching from day to night. Here are some screenshots to demonstrate.

A sunny day over the groves.

 

The last vestiges of sunlight over the groves.

The twinkling firmament over the groves.

I've laid down a lot of text in the last few days, so I'm going to call this post good here. Looking at my notes, I have just reached level 5, and hope I can now take down the minotaur in Southshire to get his magical battle axe. After I have a magical weapon, I'll move on to new areas.

Confident in his latest training, and having learned a valuable lesson about consuming alchohol during combat, August hoisted his long sword and shield, preparing to face the infamous minotaur of Southshire. To find out how he fares, come back again soon... to This Bard's Tales!

Play Time to Post: 7h 20m

Total Play Time: 34h 25m

Community Building and Gil

Trickster over at The Adventure Gamer has a neat system to reward those who frequent his site with Companion Assist Points or "CAPs". I've been contemplating doing something similar myself to encourage participation here at This Bard's Tales.

(Updated 12/3/2015)

Here we'll be using "Gil", the ubiquitous currency of the Final Fantasy games. To start out, a community member (this is anyone who wants to participate... you don't need to be a registered member) may spend 50Gil to add any game to my playlist. A member may also spend 200Gil to move any game on my playlist up the list so that I will play it next (This is, of course, contingent on me being to able to procure a playable copy). So, for a total of 250Gil a member may both add a game and make me play it next all in one fell swoop.

Apparently you can actually see Gil coins in Final Fantasy 10, although I have little idea where. (Update: It's probably during "Gil Toss", didn't think about that)

So how do I earn Gil you say? Good question. Here's where we will start:

Any member will receive 5Gil for their first comment.

Any member will receive 1Gil for each comment they, thoughtfully, post. (In other words, legit comments will earn Gil, no shameful Gil grabs by just posting nonsense.)

In posts I occasionally put in cultural references and homages, if you're the first to notice any particular one, you get 5Gil!

As a note to myself, I'm awarding myself Gil at the rate of 2 Gil per post, and 5 Gil per rankings post. I haven't posted my play order yet, but I will sometime. I already plan to use my first 200 on Planescape: Torment!

There will be a leader board ranked by total Gil earned that will show also remaining Gil to spent seperately, muchs Trickster has with the CAPs.

So that's where we'll start, and I hope this jump starts the "community" a bit from This Bard's Tales.

Thank you, your humble entertainer,

~~This Bard

Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2: Summary and Rankings

Since it would be somewhat foolish to rank Final Fantasy X against itself, I have decided to do my first rankings post as a combination of both games. First though, the summaries.

An ad for the HD remaster limited edition. I think I got this... but the packaging was white instead of black, it doesn't look quite as cool.

Final Fantasy X/ HD Remaster
2001/ 2014

Developer and Publisher: Squaresoft/ Square Enix 
Exec. Producer: Hironobu Sakaguchi (The creator of the Final Fantasy series)
Director: Yoshinori Kitase

I honestly don't want to list all of the staff involved... it's on wikipedia. However, I do plan to reference names in future games that relate to old games. I believe most of the staff was the same for Final Fantasy X and X-2, which makes sense, doesn't it?

The biggest shake-up staff-wise is that this is the first main series Final Fantasy game where the music was not entirely composed by Nobuo Uematsu. I'm quite curious how much music was written by him for the game. My gut tells me not much, as it lacks his style to my ear.

X is the first Final Fantasy game for the PS2, and as was the case with the first PS game, some major changes were made. In the case of FF7 for the PS, it was moving from 2D sprites to 3D polygons. In the case of FF10, it was the addition of voice acting and the loss of the traditional "overland map" of the previous games. Despite some apprehension by fans over the addition of voice acting, the game was well received.

BAM! Summary... I may add more to this later, I don't know.

Hey look! Here is the cover I have.

Final Fantasy X-2/ HD Remaster

2003/ 2014

Developer: Square

Publisher: Square Enix (I believe the original game was released after Square merged with its rival Enix, the publishers of the Dragon Quest [Dragon Warrior in the US] games.)

Exec. Producer: Hironobu Sakaguch
Director: Motomu Toriyama
Producer: Yoshinori Kitase

As I probably mentioned earlier, making this game was a massive departure for the series, as until this point Final Fantasy had had no direct sequels using the same characters and world as a previous installment. It turned out to be a shrewd move though, I assume as a way to counteract the rising costs and lengthening development times as games became more complex. Basically, by re-using the world, characters, and art, this game could be completed much faster than a full new installment in the series. I'm sure fans were skeptical as this turned the previous design philosophy on its head, but once again, even despite a huge change in tone for the series, the game was generally well received.

The biggest staff shake-up is again in the music department. This time series vet Nobuo Uematsu is entirely absent,  "replaced by Noriko Matsueda and Takahito Eguchi of The Bouncer fame" (From Wikipedia). The Bouncer being another Square title for the PS2.

I read somewhere that one of the design goals of 10-2 was to have enough content that it could be the last game you'd ever need to buy. Which is funny, because that doesn't seem good for business, but it is an admirable goal, none-the-less. However, as you might expect, jamming so much content (including tons of mini-games) into a title means the quality of these little features ranges from great to down right awful. In the end, I think they would have been better off leaving the worst stuff out, as the core of the game is good.

Okay, on to the good stuff! The rankings...

Mechanics - Honestly, both games are solid here, but I prefer turn-based combat so much more that 10 easily has the edge.

1. Final Fantasy 10

2. Final Fantasy 10-2

Storyline - 10-2's story of Shuyin and the tragedy of his love is decent, but can't hold a candle to 10's with its epic tale of a religion gone horribly wrong over 1,000 years.

1. Final Fantasy 10

2. Final Fantasy 10-2

Atmosphere - Let's see, both game's take place in a world with a rich and mysterious history, but 10 reveals it, while 10-2 turns it into a Charlie's Angels, J-pop, magical girl power fest. I think you can see where this is going.

1. Final Fantasy 10

2. Final Fantasy 10-2

End Game - I mentioned in my posts that both times I've played through 10 it let me down at the final boss, and the whole auto-life thing in the battle with Yu Yevon is just a fiasco in my opinion. 10-2 Has some nice battles with Vegnagun leading up to a refreshing battle with a sword-wielding Shuyin.

1. Final Fantasy 10-2

2. Final Fantasy 10

This dude means business!

Difficulty - More options means more complexity, which can lead to higher difficulty. Mix in some non-linearity and you've got 10-2. I appreciated the "job" system for sure, but the openendedness did lead to some frustrations as I encountered foes that whooped my ass without notice, or mercy.

1. Final Fantasy 10-2

2. Final Fantasy 10

Balance - Not surprisingly since I gave 10-2 the nod for being more difficult, 10 is on top here. I found the game to be quite pleasant in it's level of difficulty. It was just challenging enough to be rewarding, the way I like it.

1. Final Fantasy 10

2. Final Fantasy 10-2

Music - I listened to both soundtracks while writing and preparing these last two posts. 10's is a good, fitting mix, however, 10-2 has a lot of groove, style, and is more cohesive, and that puts it on top.

1. Final Fantasy 10-2

2. Final Fantasy 10

Art - Both games unsurprisingly have a similar look, as they were developed close to eachother at the same company. However, due to 10-2's whimsical visuals and ubiquitous fashion faux-pas exposed underwear, I have to give the nod to 10.

1. Final Fantasy 10

2. Final Fantasy 10-2

Let me see that tho-o-ong! Actually... I'd really rather not.

Best Villain - Final Fantasy 10's representive to me is definitely Yunalesca, it blew my mind a bit having the ultimate icon of good and righteousness end up being an adversary and being killed by the party! 10-2 has much less in the way of exciting villains, so Shuyin gets the nod somewhat by default. (Leblanc anyone? I don't think so...) Yunalesca is a much more interesting foe.

1. Yunalesca (FF10)

2. Shuyin (FF10-2)

Part of the fight with Yunalesca.

Worst Villain - Yu Yevon will work for 10. He has a very interesting back story and is the source of Sin, but turning out to be a tiny floating bug thing was pretty anti-climactic. Leblanc fits for 10-2. I don't think her over-the-top character is out of place for the tone of the game, but she's just... a little much. I'm putting Yu Yevon on top because I can't overstate how disappointed I was with that battle!

1. Yu Yevon (FF10)

2. Leblanc (FF10-2)

The in game Yu Yevon only looks marginally more fearsome than this.

Best Ally - 10: Auron, he's a super-badass, but not afraid to be vulnerable at times. : ) 10-2: This is tougher... Gippal is kinda cool, but even though she probably annoyed some people, I found Rikku pretty entertaining, and her voice acting was done quite well.

1. Auron (FF10)

2. Rikku (FF10-2)

Worst Ally - 10-2 is Shinra, he's kind of funny occasionally, but I think I have a thing against know-it-all arrogant kids... no, wait... on second thought it's Beclam, he's just such an asshole. 10 is harder... I can't think of a "Beclam" off the top of my head. Nevermind, I've got it, Dona... why didn't I think of that earlier? I think Dona's bitchiness outperforms Beclam's assholeness, so Dona get's the nod.
1. Dona (FF10)
2. Beclam (FF10-2)

Best Enemy - I'm going to go with Yojimbo for 10. Granted he has the advantage of also being designed as an Aeon, but his intro and attacks are just too cool. For 10-2 I was going to go with jumbo cactuar, but he lost out due to not having the awesome mustache I identify with big cactuars (ala FF8). So, I give it to Angra Mainyu for being an interesting boss that can be fought at different times in the game, with varying abilities and a hp total that is affected by multiple battles. Mostly it's just for looking cool though, really. Yojimbo wins.
1. Yojimbo (FF10)
2. Angra Mainyu (FF10-2)

Yojimbo... not to be confused with Usagi or Kurosawa.

 
Worst Enemy - Thankfully neither of these games had an enemy that I dreaded fighting every time it popped on the screen. In earlier play throughs of 10 I remember finding certain enemies, like the mimics, very annoying because they had armor and so many hit points. This time around I had Auron's Masamune before fighting them, which has piercing and break damage limit, so I didn't find them to be nearly as annoying. Therefore, I'm going with the guado, who in the middle of the game have that annoying auto-potion ability, and cause an inordinate amount of trouble in the storyline! 

10-2 had some somewhat obnoxious foes, but generally speaking I came up with reasonable strategies after a couple of battles. I'm going with the claret dragon for having the gall to show up and absorb all elements when I had two characters with the tetra-elemental ability! Meaning I couldn't attack without healing it, for the most part. Besides this absorption, its no pushover either.

The claret dragon is much tougher, but the guado are much more annoying, which is the important part of this category!
1. Guado (FF10)
2. Claret Dragon (FF10-2) 

The dragon has to be named after Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett. Am I right or am I right?

Before I rank mini-games and side quests, a quick note. I thought it might not be fair to rate these categories until I had completed a game 100%, but I've come up with a compromise. I'll simply come back and edit the ranking if I discover something that warrants a change in the future, otherwise I'm ranking the game on what I've experienced so far.

Best Mini-Game - Blitzball is a no-brainer for 10, the mini-game isn't quite deep enough to stand on it's own, but to be honest, it's close. I've happily sunk 10s of hours in on blitzball alone. 10-2 has a glut of mini-games and side quests. I think my favorite is a rather simple one though, leading the people out of the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth, and having to figure out how to manage their "eccentricities." Blitzball, with its breadth and depth, takes this category.
1. Blitzball (FF10)
2. Cavern of the Stolen Fayth (FF10-2)

Worst Mini-Game - These categories are unfortunately easier to pick than one would hope. 10 is a close race between the sanity destroying chocobo trainer and the lightning dodging. Seriously, f' these "mini-games", the're more like exercises in masochism. Lightning dodging takes the cake because while it's probably equally frustrating, it takes longer and is more tedious.
FF10-2 has plenty of crappy mini-games, but I have to give the nod to Spherebreak because it seems like it's supposed to be the next big thing, like Blitzball, but it plays like mediocre educational software.
Lightning dodging wins because... well hell, I wouldn't be surprised if it stays on top forever.
1. Lightning Dodging (FF10)
2. Spherebreak (FF10-2)

Side Quests - Both of these games have good extra content. I'll give 10-2 the nod because it has SOOO much going on. You could play this game a long time and still find new stuff, if you so desired.
1. FF10-2
2. FF10

Overall - And here it is, the grand-daddy of all categories. As I've said, both of these games are great, but it probably won't surprise anyone that FF10 is on top. The mechanics, story, and atmosphere are all vastly superior in FF10, making it the clear winner here.
1. FF10
2. FF10-2

Congratulations, Final Fantasy X... a winner is you!

First ranking done! Phew, that was a lot more work than I anticipated actually, but granted I was coming up with rankings for two games at once, so not a problem. Hopefully, you, dear reader, find it as interesting and entertaining to read as it was to write! Stay tuned for more... here at This Bard's Tales.

 

Game Rankings - 2: Summaries, Categories, and Rankings Reference

Now that I've completed two games, I'd like to implement a system I've been mulling over for awhile. After each game's "Fin" post, I plan to do a summary and ranking, similar to what The CRPG Addict does. The main difference is I will only be ranking games against one another directly, not rating them (giving them a number). My categories are a little different as well, I want a system that is somewhat independent of the year of a game's release, or what version I'm playing. The idea is to rank the "feel" of the games, as opposed to their relative specs. Also, although I mainly envisioned playing RPGs for this blog, I want to leave the door open for other genres of games as well (I've been watching some great Mega Man Let's Plays while playing Forgotten World and Neverwinter Nights, and it's been giving me an itch!).

This post is to serve not only as a reference for you the reader, but to me as well. 

First off, the Summaries will contain whatever of these things I can find out on the ol' interwebs:

1.Promo-art

2.Notable Staff

3.Series information

4.Development (Timeline, engine, etc.)

5.Intent

6.Specs (I'm not really sure what all "specs" might entail. It might all fit under development... we'll see).

Ranking Categories: To rank (not rate) in categories that are somewhat independent of the year the game was released, and what version I'm playing. These categories are probably somewhat weighted toward the Final Fantasy series, since that is what I had in mind when I came up with it. However, the most important category, the overall ranking, will not be, so I'm okay with it.

Games that don't fit a category will get an N/A instead of a low ranking. The most obvious example is games without music in the music category. 

1. Mechanics - The nuts and bolts of gameplay. Ex. High: Pool of Radiance, altogether great combat and exploration 

Low: Nothing in particular sticks out on my list... but just imagine any crappy interface really.

Here's an Amiga Pool of Radiance screenshot, because you just don't see those as much.

2. Storyline - How good is the main storyline? Ex. High: FF10, fast moving interesting plot with lots of twists and turns. 

Low: Forgotten World, you're basically just set free in the world. An open world game like FW might get an N/A in this category.

I've heard Planescape: Torment also has a decent storyline. This may also be the understatement of the year.

3. Atmosphere - How much does the game draw you in and affect you? This includes background and lore. Ex. High: Skyrim, obvious... this game makes me feel like I'm really there. 

Low: Al-Qadim, it's been a long while since I've played it, but I don't remember it being particularly strong in this category.

I'm sure you've all seen Skyrim, so here's a pic from Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse, a game which I'm using as a bit of a scapegoat, as I really don't remember it that well.

4. End Game - The end game "sequence". It's important to me that a game ends on a high note. The archetype for this category is most Final Fantasy games. It will be a ranking of a combination of the final dungeon/stage, through the final villain, through the ending. Ex. High: FF8, I'm not ashamed to admit the final push of this game has all of what I want. 

Low: Dark Souls, the final boss and ending was adequate, but certainly nothing special.

How badass is this castle though, right?

5. Difficulty - Simple, straight up how hard is the game?

6. Balance - Difficulty is the raw how hard is the game, this category is about being challenging and rewarding, without being frustrating.

7. Music - How good is the music?

8. Art - A conglomerate of the overall art design and direction of the game. This includes accompanying artwork, not just the game itself.

Best/Worst Categories: Pick one of each category from each game. In other words, pick the best and worst of each game, then rank them against each other. Worst winners may be because they are stupid, ridiculous, a pain in the ass, annoying etc.

9. B/W Villain - A developed adversary with a name and motivation (not necessarily the main villain) Ex. Best: Kefka (FF6), Sephiroth (FF7), Adel (FF8), Gilgamesh (FF5) 

Worst: Exdeath (FF5), he has a lame name, somewhat unfathomable motivation and most of all... he's an f'ing tree.

Flee the tree!

10. B/W Protagonist/Ally - A developed protagonist or ally with a name and motivation (does not include player created characters). Ex. Best: Gilgamesh (FF8), his background is light, but its there, and he's awesome! Minsc (Baldur's Gate) 

Worst: !@$# Hope! (FF13), Kryle (FF5), I doubt its a coincidence both of these are know-it-all kids.

Dig this crazy Gil' GIF!

11. B/W Enemy - Whereas the Villain and Ally refer to characters, this category refers to the enemies thatare face during gameplay, especially combat. Ex. Best: Ultamecia's castle bosses (FF8), I hope my enthusiasm for this game isn't lessening yours... 

Worst: Cliff racers (Morrowind), I haven't experienced them myself, but by reputation alone they qualify. Anything that level drains (AD&D games). The most powerful C'ieth (FF13 and 13-2).

One of the many mini-bosses in FF8's final dungeon.

12. B/W Mini-Game - Mini-games are optional areas that use mechanics separate from the main game. Ex. Best: Blitzball (FF10) 

Worst: Sphere Break (FF10-2)

13. Side Quests - Side quests are optional areas that use the same mechanics of the main game, as opposed to mini-games that use new mechanics. I'll rate the side quests as I experience them. If I encounter something new that I feel should change a games rating, I'll come back and note that as such.

14. Overall - The most important category, simple, which game do you like best?

Baldur's Gate. Will it hold on to the top spot? To find out, come back again soon for... well, you get the idea!

Forgotten World - 5: One retires, one aspires.

Our hero woke yet again in the Inn at Spearpoint. He thought to himself as he gingerly moved his stiff and bruised muscles that he was growing old beyond his years. "See the world they said... be an adventurer! I should have just stuck with the guitar," August thought to himself. With mixed enthusiasm, he headed out to see what the day had to offer. 

He awoke again with a start, pain in his head pounding like hammer on anvil. A young healer was leaning over him, dabbing his forehead with a damp cloth. "What... what happened?" August asked. "You ended up on the wrong end of a mammoth, my friend. It must have stomped you a number of times, you're lucky to be alive," the young man said. "That's it," thought August, "I'm going back to Bastille, I'm going to get myself a six-string, and live the quiet life."  

After playing for about nine months on and off, something very exciting happened in Forgotten World. I actually encountered someone in game! I hadn't messed around with the chat functions, since it had not been necessary until now. Hitting shift+F2 will tell you what players are "awake" (in game). Typing the player's name, then a message, will send them a direct message (August Star: Whatsup massive baller? will send me the message "Whatsup massive baller?").

Here is me stating the truth to Grimil.

He (or she, or it) asked what class I was playing, then my fears were confirmed.

I had begun to suspect this myself, that my suffering was unnecessary.

I was a little hesitant to start a new character, as it would mean starting back at 0xp with no chance of recovering my original character if I changed my mind. However, it really didn't take too much internal debate for me to make the decision to create a new character, a ranger, who would dual-class to mage. The character creation process in FW has a handy function that allows you to pick a "build", I picked Ranger/Mage. My understanding is the game then makes sure you have the appropriate stats, and levels you up appropriately as well, so that basically you don't screw up. After all, the AD&D dual-classing rules are a bit byzantine. It would be awful to train your character all the way up to the level max, then realize you won't be able to use the abilities because you can't achieve one level higher in the new class, or to not have the requisite stats to dual-class at all. The game also allows for the player to create their own builds, which is what I chose the first time around with my triple-class half-elf.

When I started my latest session, I was planning to fully explore Spearpoint now that I had a complete map of the sister area (Windy Cliffs) in Neverwinter Nights. I still, not unfamiliarly, got my ass handed to me by most of the battles. Some groups were a little easier due to the fact I can "sweep" in FW, which allows warrior classes to make one attack per level against weaker enemies. I've seen it done in FRUA, however, for some reason the enemies need to be even weaker than in other Gold Box games, like Pool of Radiance, 

I'm not sure why. In FW, the battles are generally harder though, since multiple foes gang up on my character and just cut my hp down like a hot guisarme through butter. So, I retired my first character.

August Star before retiring from the adventuring rat race. His actual strength is 18(15) if I recall, here he seems to be enlarged.

 

A bright new adventurer emerges on the scene in Bastille, August Star!

Now that I'm a ranger, with high strength and hp for first level, the encounters in the wharves with single humanoids and bugs were much easier than I recall with my other character. The only issue is groups like the royal guards and spies are going to take some time to defeat without the benefit of the sleep spell. Overall, I like the pace of this new character much better though, in a couple hours I was able to reach level 3, where I remember it taking quite a bit longer with my other character. If you're unfamiliar with the AD&D rules, a character with multiple classes divides their gained XP amongst them, meaning essentially to reach level 3/3/3, my old character took about three times as much XP as it took for my ranger to get to level 3.

After exploring the wharves, I moved on to Southshire, there I found that spies were my bane, my success rate against them was about 25%. The times I did beat them, I was usually behind a wall, shooting at them from a table. In FW, your character can stand on tables, then see and shoot over walls! Nevermind how realistic this is, as it's a very fun feature! In the FW community, it is affectionately known as "tabledancing." I'm not sure if this is implemented in any of the Gold Box games, but I plan to find out the next time I encounter furniture in the other games.

Tabledancing. Normally I would not be able to see this tree man through the wall.

One important change with my new character is that the "fix" command works differently. Previously, my character would cast healing spells, and then memorize spells. With my new character who has no spells, the fix command sets the time at 1 day then heals some hit points. The interesting thing about this is that at many places, like Inns, this heals 5hp, where as certain places in the wilderness it heals 1hp at a time. I'm not sure how this works. It's notable that the time of day in the game is constant, but a timer still ticks away as when you rest as it does in other Gold Box games. So as far as I can tell, resting determines how often the game checks for random encounters, but does not affect the game clock. It's important to note that I think it's necessary to rest more often as you're exploring than you might typically in a Gold Box game, and you also tend to get attacked less than you might expect in a GB game. This is balanced by the difficulty of encounters though. At first this hurt my immersion a bit, as I like to play as I would a pen and paper game as much as possible, but I understand some concessions must be made for an MMO style game such as this.

This is part of my backlog of screen shots I want to fit in somewhere. I like how messages like this add to the atmosphere and immersion of the game.

Bastille is known for its ale. Here I have readied a flask that I found on an orc! Readied for what? For drinking silly!

August arrived in Bastille with only a short sword and a purse of coins to his name, standing in the square before the rectory of Father Bartholomew. "Haha, see the world they said! This city is overflowing with oppurtunity, I can't wait to see what it has to offer!" said the enthusiastic young man, out loud to himself, unable to contain his excitement.

To find out how our new hero, who coincidentally shares the name of our previous one, fares in Bastille, the jewel of the North, come back again soon... for This Bard's Tales!

Play Time to Post: 5h 15m

Total Play Time: 27h 5m