"One to be born from a dragon..." -- Let's Play Final Fantasy II

If that isn't Photoshopped, Chuck might be my new favorite show, and Peanut and I will FINALLY have something to watch together.

Man, I forgot, but the cartridge even looks like a king among games. All gold lettering on velvety red.

And the sword used for the 'T'? Striking, yet tasteful.

It's like a Faberge egg, except it's filled with an ADVENTURE.

That's one advantage FFII will always have over any crummy GBA cart or DS card. This version of the game does not get lost inside your sofa.

EDIT: on the other hand you have to play the GBA version if you want to see the mages in Mysidia react to Cecil's ascension with "Well, I'll be hornswoggled!"

If he's not holding up two fingers to explain that it's not really Final Fantasy II, this show is less than worthless.

You guys do know that none of the recent DQ games or Heroes of Light were in-house productions, right?

Has there ever really been an "in-house" Dragon Quest?

If you count the script/scenario design as more important than the actual game engine itself, yeah. Horii's an S-E man.

It's real. At one point he even blows on the cart to try and make it work. He does call it Final Fantasy II, and mentions losing a summer to it.

But since a) the label clearly says II, b) to the people who played it at the time it was II, and c) he's explaining it to his fiance who probably couldn't care less about the intricacies of Japanese-American game relations . . . I think we can forgive him.

For instance, making the prophecy have a consistent meter.

... for about the two weeks it has left before cancellation.

Chun Soft was a splinter offshoot of Enix, so I'd say the first few games should be regarded as such in spirit if not in the letter of the law.

Dragon Quest games are as much "in-house" Enix (and later Square-Enix) games as Chrono Trigger or Super Mario RPG were "in-house" Square games. The fact of the matter is that Square-Enix is a publishing company that publishes the games of several developers (including Chunsoft). Enix was like that long before the merger, while Square was the odd one of the bunch for actually hiring in-house developers for just about everything.

Other than the core Final Fantasy development team, Square-Enix doesn't really employ that many game developers directly any more. This is mostly because they started having their Square employees defect to form their own studios and companies after the merger (Brownie Brown, Monolith Soft, Mistwalker, Smile Please, Scanoth, etc.), with much of their development staff rosters being bolstered by other former Square employees.

It's worth noting that most of Square's old "dream team" staff are now either working as second-party Nintendo developers or as competitors for Square-Enix franchises. Karma's a bitch, eh?

I just got a vision of Nasir reviving Gebelli Software just to compete with Square Enix.

The time is now for 3DS World Runner.

That would be amusing, indeed. But Mr. Gebelli seems quite content to sit back in retirement and cash royalty checks from the constant remakes of his old games. Honestly, who can blame him?

How'd he get such a good deal? I always figured 99% of game developers work on salary.

They hired Nasir Gebelli around 1987, when Square broke away from its parent company and became its own studio. As well, Hitoshi Sakimoto was a fan of his work. He was basically the reason why Square was able to break away and also the reason why Final Fantasy ended up not being Square's final game. They were quite happy to give him royalties in that regard. Hell, by the time he started developing Secret of Mana, Square was so enamored with him that they actually sent a fair chunk of their staff with him when he had to return to California after his work visa expired.

I wonder if Sakaguchi's ever invited him to work at Mistwalker. That's in the US.

What do you suppose FF4 would have been like if Nasir had been there at the time? Maybe it'd have been more technically advanced, but buggier?

Actually, Nasir was still at Square when they made FF4 (Secret of Mana didn't get released until 1993; FF4 was released in 1991). And his coding skill was significantly better than most give him credit for. FF1, 2, and 3 are all exceptionally stable (though often glitchy), as is Secret of Mana. For whatever reason, Ken Narita took over for him as the FF series programmer. Probably because SoM was an absolute mess development-wise (and not because of Mr. Gebelli; it was going to be a SNES CD game before the SNES CD got canned).

Needed more Lens Flare.

Much Better.

How did you get a copy of the PSP version before I did!?

This is proof that lens flare can be used to ruin absolutely anything.

Is it just me, or does it look like the sun is rising from between two mountain ranges?

I personally like the lens flare version.

I think it looks rather nice.

I need to go back in time so I can sell a lens flare decal for TVs. Instantly improve the graphics in all your favorite games!

But does Mombomb look better with Ocean Ripple simulating heat ripples and does Milon-Z look better as a toy with Plastic Wrap? (At the end, click on "crappier.")

Whelp, my first post after years of lurking seems to have been a hit. Hooray! I can't wait to post again in two more years!

(Also, Vega, you're talking to one of Homestar Runner's biggest fanboys ever. Me and no-arms go WAY back. Lovely reference, that. )