The Ultimate Final Fantasy Thread: This Guy Are Knock You All Down

[Peklo]

The whole "Penelo and Vaan as the droids" bit has never connected with me that much because it seems to me like it has more to do with the memetic insistence of framing everything and everyone in this game via Star Wars because of surface similarities (and series precedent) instead of letting them inhabit whatever archetypes that come more naturally to them according to their narrative roles and characterization. You can't stop at "Aladdin" for Vaan because he's a street urchin pickpocket and wears a vest because his circumstances and arc don't reflect that comparison under scrutiny, nor can Penelo be reduced to a "genki girl" as codified by perceived stock roles in prior games in the series because she isn't that set of characteristics either (this isn't particularly directed at anyone except the unending claims to dismissing both characters under these pretexts that have occurred over the years). If the game treated them like the droids are treated, they would have no empathetic interiority to speak of and the narrative and surrounding setting would have no respect for them as individuals or really any acknowledgement of their autonomy to begin with, and the game's wider themes wouldn't be sustained and informed by them. The attitude to both pairs is completely at odds with what either narrative is interested in or the function the characters are there to fulfill, which I think applies to most "it's like Star Wars" comparisons that arise when the game is discussed.

 

[pudik]

final fantasy has one character that is actually a man of the people that actually humanizes the pain cased by the antagonists, and suddenly he's the most hated man in the series...

 

[pudik]

I'd like Vaan a lot more if the writers' overt attempts to make him important beginning nearly at the start of the game didn't all culminate in essentially ignoring a core rule of the world's history because they wrote themselves into a corner where it would be very narratively inconvenient if he wasn't a special exception. Using him as emotional connective tissue between characters doesn't resonate with me because imo all of those characters would've been better developed and more interesting throughout more of the story if they weren't systemically required to run so many things by him for the sake of justifying him as the POV (especially as it relates to Ashe's decision). I basically think they just flubbed an attempt to retread IX's party development dynamic. Vaan's general role in the narrative makes me feel very specifically the way I felt when I was playing youth basketball; a lot of the time during practice when the ball got passed to me I'd just shoot form half court because kids that were way better friends with the rest of the team did so why shouldn't I. I related to his selfishness and trying to be the center of attention so much more than I related to any other part of the character that when the game was new I was kinda worried about what that said about me. And honestly that means there's DEFINITELY good writing there. But wow do I not think it belongs where it is.

I would've vastly preferred for Penelo and Vaan to switch roles if only so Larsa would have an excuse to stick around the party longer (I would love if Larsa stuck around the party longer for LOTS of reasons). She's also just WAY more empathetic and makes a lot more sense in the position of the party's emotional core, and Vaan's general arc makes him far more suited to being dragged into EVEN MORE political intrigue he has no business messing with.

can you specify this? I'm not sure what core rule is voided, and I don't really know when or where vaan ever insists he be the center of attention. He has an initial drive to avenge his brother's death and speaks up a little in regards to that, but beyond that he is nearly muted as far as grand characterization goes. He's only selfish in that he is the only person speaking for his own existence in a power struggle that is using people (like his brother) as worthless pawns. If ashe was the main character/pov character it's a game about asses shuffling around thrones. Vaan's only selfishness is pointing out to Ashe that he exists and there are more people like him than her.

 

[gogglebob]

I may be misremembering, and I don't wish to speak for Oathbreaker, but isn't there that bit where Vaan can see/hear the "gods" of Final Fantasy 12, the Occuria, and he is the only person that can do that other than Ashe, their chosen princess of the world? My personal recall of that bit made me think "oh, they're just doing this so he can offer his informed opinion on matters," and that it didn't make a whole lot of sense outside of that narrative justification.

 

[pudik]

Everyone (or at least Basch and reddas) sees rasler/the occuria at pharos. The occuria can choose who sees them at any moment, and they do that as an attempt to manipulate them. I think overall though, that's about the symbolic connections that Ashe and Vaan have. The way Ashe and Vaan talk to each other is the general impetus for Ashe's development. Ashe sees rasler, from the occuria, and takes it as her purpose to exact revenge on the empire. Vaan's entire story is about overcoming the same drive for revenge on Reks, and the occuria show him Reks. I don't necessarily think the Occuria are well developed in the story, but if the Occuria are attempting to use Ashe by exploiting her emotional drive for revenge, manipulating Vaan in the same way makes sense. At the very least, you could argue that they see Vaan as a contingency, probably more likely as using Ashe's voice of reason and the person that has helped her move past her trauma against her. Especially as the bigest moment of defying the Occuria is with Gabranth taunting them at that moment at Pharos. The ones they acknowledge as seeing the occuria have direct conflict with Gabranth, and maybe even none as personal as Vaan (I mean, basch does, but he doesn't really seek revenge). And at that point we have Gabranth and Vaan really representing two opposite reactions on the same theme

I can understand the argument that it's overinflating Vaan's purpose or whatever (I mean, the story is for us to experience in the end), but I don't think there's an inner logic that's voided.

 

[Sarcasmorator]

The whole "Penelo and Vaan as the droids" bit has never connected with me that much because it seems to me like it has more to do with the memetic insistence of framing everything and everyone in this game via Star Wars because of surface similarities (and series precedent) instead of letting them inhabit whatever archetypes that come more naturally to them according to their narrative roles and characterization.

It's not a perfect comparison and I wrote it ~15 years ago, but it was the closest fit I could find for them at the time in comparing the two, and playing through some of it again a few years ago my opinion hadn't changed much.

Vaan's role compared to other FFs is closest to Tidus, who also tagged along on someone else's epic quest, except Tidus does turn out to be central to the story because of who Sin is and where he came from.

 

[Lokii]

Plenty of works tell the story from a viewpoint character who isn't necessarily the primary protagonist. Star Wars took the technique from The Hidden Fortress where it's even more pronounced, but you also see it throughout literary works like The Great Gatsby or Moby Dick. I think the issue is that video games work on an assumption that the onscreen avatar is a stand-in for the player, and the player obviously is the main fulcrum through which both gameplay and narrative progress occurs. By requiring the player to "inhabit" Vaan the game makes an unstated assumption that the Vaan should be the most important character in the narrative.

I wonder if as small a change as allowing the player to pick which character they controlled when walking around the map would cause this whole point of contention to fall away.

 

[Oathbreaker]

I can understand the argument that it's overinflating Vaan's purpose or whatever (I mean, the story is for us to experience in the end), but I don't think there's an inner logic that's voided.

Yeah I probably worded that poorly calling it a rule. Just given how it does work it completely breaks my ability to buy into the history. Like, Vaan happens to be traveling with Ashe but so is the entire rest of the party, half of whom have equally ripe motivations and in Balthier and Basch's cases have more effective positions and experiences to manipulate than Vaan ever does (I get the idea that he's written as the most vulnerable but it just doesn't gel with the execution at all). It goes right back into how I feel like all of the characters would have been better off not being centered on Vaan's perspective. And Penelo again imo would fit better for this role simply because she would actually add something, ANYTHING to Ashe's dilemma rather than flatly mirroring it at best.

The Occuria are very poorly developed yeah, and they're even painted as making a bunch of bad decisions so there's a world where I could have liked their dumb decision to interact with Vaan biting them in the ass. But as-is I just feel like the rest of the cast ends up severely under-served while Ashe in particular gets HEAVILY undercut by Vaan. Honestly I can't even think of a single plot event in the game that wouldn't have gone exactly as it did without Vaan other than some quibbles about Penelo's motivations to be with the party. In that way it feels like even he got under-served because of how poorly I think he was utilized.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

Vaan is not nearly as bad/annoying as he's made out to be. Part of the problem is he's very clearly a shoe-horned in protagonist. Which isn't all that bad. But part of the problem is also his ENG voice acting just doesn't... super work right? There's something about English voice actors trying to play the role of the Japanese plucky teen that never really fully works, especially from 15+ years ago. They often aim to copy the original Japanese voice acting's intonations and it just ends up sounding kinda whiney. (Definitely some Tidus-syndrome going on with Vaan.) Played 12 again for the first time in ages not that long ago, but enabled the JP-audio and it made Vaan a lot more bearable protagonist to listen to. Which is a pretty stark difference that sticks out when the rest of the ENG voice acting is generally pretty decent. It's also from the era of dubs before Square-Enix started matching lip flaps separately for the ENG voices, so it's often awkward to see/hear the English dialog paced to fit Japanese mouth-flaps.

I think I prefer some of the ENG voices to the Japanese ones, but I think on the whole the JP voice acting is just better and better reflects the characters and writing:

Ashe's voice acting is not bad, but rather dull in English, when her JP counterpart tends to imbue a lot more emotion into her line reading which fits her personality as construed in the dialog and plot as a passionate, but desperate and lost leader a lot better.

Penelo's voice actor in JP gives her character a very stereotypical "older sister" personality in the way she intonates that matches her personality and relationship with Vaan a lot better, in a way that kinda doesn't really exist in English.

I actually prefer Fran's ENG voice acting because the accent they give her helps immediately situate her as an outsider, and her actress does an awesome job/gives Fran a lot of personality. But that gives her character a completely different flavor/impression from the JP actress who doesn't really put on an accent, and just has a very sultry, mature, tone to her voice. (If you haven't played FF12 in Japanese, but understand the point of reference, she's acted by the VA that did Myung in Macross Plus.)

Balthier and Basch's actors in ENG both knock it out of the park, but the JP actors for both are *huge*, incredibly famous talents that lend the roles their gravitas in the way that the English actors really can't through no fault of their own.

Vaan's role compared to other FFs is closest to Tidus, who also tagged along on someone else's epic quest, except Tidus does turn out to be central to the story because of who Sin is and where he came from.

Tidus has personal connections to what is going on, and early on he seems like he's just tagging along/an observer. And both act as surrogates for the audience so that things neither understands can be explained to the audience through dialog more naturally, and as outsiders to give the others perspective. But he actively involves himself in the story in ways Vaan never does. Very quickly, Tidus becomes the emotional core of the group - keeping their spirits up, pushing people forward, and stepping up to be a real leader of the party when the others are in emotional turmoil or out of commission. And as he proclaims at the very beginning of the game, this story is his story and about him. 12 stops being about Vaan almost immediately. I'd say the best analog for Vaan in how he's used in the story isn't Tidus but maybe more like any of the more primary characters from FF6 like Locke or Terra. Both are important but neither is really the focal point of the story or actively drives the plot forward in the way that say Celes does.

 

[pudik]

Yeah I probably worded that poorly calling it a rule. Just given how it does work it completely breaks my ability to buy into the history. Like, Vaan happens to be traveling with Ashe but so is the entire rest of the party, half of whom have equally ripe motivations and in Balthier and Basch's cases have more effective positions and experiences to manipulate than Vaan ever does (I get the idea that he's written as the most vulnerable but it just doesn't gel with the execution at all). It goes right back into how I feel like all of the characters would have been better off not being centered on Vaan's perspective. And Penelo again imo would fit better for this role simply because she would actually add something, ANYTHING to Ashe's dilemma rather than flatly mirroring it at best.

The Occuria are very poorly developed yeah, and they're even painted as making a bunch of bad decisions so there's a world where I could have liked their dumb decision to interact with Vaan biting them in the ass. But as-is I just feel like the rest of the cast ends up severely under-served while Ashe in particular gets HEAVILY undercut by Vaan. Honestly I can't even think of a single plot event in the game that wouldn't have gone exactly as it did without Vaan other than some quibbles about Penelo's motivations to be with the party. In that way it feels like even he got under-served because of how poorly I think he was utilized.

Vaan doesn't mirror Ashe's dilemma though, he actively leads to her growth. And vaan's a great center particularly because he is so powerless. It's a story about grand political intrigue, but the center of emotional and character growth is a nobody street urchin. The easy read is that he grounds the other characters, but that's also a part of their own development. Ashe's journey goes beyond just getting the sun cryst and whatever other birthright she has, when she develops beyond her duties through talks with Vaan. I would definitely recommend reading that link Peklo posted. It's saying basically what I am but it's organized and has more context.

I also don't really get what Penelo would add aside from her relationship to Larsa. I like Penelo as a character, and would like if she had more to do (though that's partially because so much of the early game is her being kidnapped), but Vaan is like, the largest catalyst for growth amongst the party, in a game that people tend to wrongfully suggest has an underdeveloped cast. I'm not sure what else would he should do, as any major arc driving would clash with his focus as a bit for personal growth.

I'd say the best analog for Vaan in how he's used in the story isn't Tidus but maybe more like any of the more primary characters from FF6 like Locke or Terra. Both are important but neither is really the focal point of the story or actively drives the plot forward in the way that say Celes does.

I was thinking Locke initially when I read it too. It's been a while since I've played VI though, but it seems to make the most sense of a grounded character in a rather epic story, though I'm not sure if the party relational stuff is quite the same. That might be more due to huge cast though.

 

[Oathbreaker]

I would definitely recommend reading that link Peklo posted. It's saying basically what I am but it's organized and has more context.

I have, I just don't agree with it and don't think it would be particularly productive to argue against the idea of it. I think about the game a lot because I want to like it a lot more than I do. I love its job system, I really enjoy the combat, and there's a ton of good writing in it. Even just a year ago I wouldn't have been able to explain why Vaan always got on my nerves so much but I've figured it out and explained the personal aspect of it in my first post about him. I fully feel and related to the deep flaws of the character. It used to be the primary reason I thought he didn't belong in the game. I've come around to him enough that I realize he is actually a good fit for the party in general but I don't think I'll ever get to a place where I feel he belongs as he's positioned in the narrative. It just fundamentally doesn't work for me which is basically the exact reason I think a character who starts out with more empathy would fit his role better. And if Vaan were the one getting kidnapped it would give him some room to stretch his legs without stepping on everyone else's toes all the time.

I don't think the cast is underdeveloped though, to be clear. I just think they deserved more than they got, and Vaan is the one getting a lot of the time I think the rest of the party should have had to interact a little more naturally. I think FFIX did this same type of character development WAY better.

 

[Mogri]

Playing FFXII on my Steam Deck! One thing I notice in this playthrough is the intentionality of the accents. Fran's accent is hard to miss and has been mentioned upthread, but there's also:

• The British accent for Archades. Balthier's accent is a clue as to his upbringing.
• The Indian accent for Bhujerba, most commonly heard in Ondore.
• The American accent for Dalmasca. It's easy to overlook Ashe's accent given her fancier speech compared to Vaan or Penelo.
• The Spanish accent for Rozarria. Al-Cid is the only Rozarrian we hear in the game, though.

XIII did it more obviously with the Gran Pulse accent, but XII did it first. Top-notch localization work.

 

[Mogri]

"Hey, what jobs are you using?"

Thanks for asking! My goal going in was to use each job once, which is exactly possible with 12 jobs and 6 characters. I did a good amount of theorycrafting ahead of having them available to me, but through a combination of misunderstanding mechanics (e.g. a bonus that exists on both boards does not get doubled) and not realizing which jobs are way better than others, they ended up fairly uneven.

Vaan: Time Battlemage/Shikari
Time Battlemage is the only job that gives access to Haste (although Machinist can learn Hastega eventually), and for that reason alone, it's pretty decent. Access to Raise is also huge. Shikari gives some good damage options with daggers and ninja swords.
Rating: A-

Balthier: Knight/Foebreaker
This is a real flop. Knight and Foebreaker fill the same general role (heavy armor, big weapons). Foebreaker feels like the clear candidate for worst job in the game: it brings nothing to the table that can't be found on at least two other jobs aside from the axe/hammer weapon family -- which is a clear candidate for worst weapons in the game thanks to its damage variance. Foebreaker is also the only job to learn no magic. The biggest issue for Balthier, though, is that there's just too much overlap between these jobs. Foebreaker needed to be on someone who wants access to heavy armor and a pile of technicks, and Knight needed to be paired with something that offered more healing. He's the only character without access to Raise.
Rating: C

Fran: Red Battlemage/Bushi
I'm in a slump with Fran right now. Red Battlemage peaks early, before you get the high-end magicks it can't access, and Bushi peaks late, after you get the nicer katanas and some Genji Gloves. Effectively, Fran is acting as a poor man's White Mage at the moment, although I'm sitting outside the Gilgamesh fight right now. Worth mentioning: Red Battlemage has exclusive access to Death, which is actually a really great spell, just not one I'm going to put on a gambit very often.
Rating: B (with aspirations to become an A)

Basch: Monk/Uhlan
I'll be honest: I have no clue how well Basch really operates, because I slapped the Berserker Bracers on him ASAP and never took them off. Monk gets access to some high-level White Magic (Raise, Arise, Renew, Bravery, Curaja) that is otherwise exclusive to White Mage, so I will probably change this eventually (and the more I think about it, the more I think Balthier should be in this role). There's a case to be made that Monk and Uhlan are a little too similar, but in this case, I don't mind it: spears and poles are fairly interchangeable, so doubling up just means I get more regular weapon upgrades.
Rating: B+ (the B is for berserk)

Ashe: White Mage/Machinist
White Mage is frankly indispensable. You could maybe sub in Monk once you've got those higher spells, but you need a healer, and White Mage is very good at it. Machinist is a great sub for Ashe: staves don't really provide much in the way of bonuses (and White Mage doesn't need extra magic power), and guns are a good source of stat-independent damage that also allow her to stay out of the fray.
Rating: S

Penelo: Black Mage/Archer
Black Mage is basically always good. With the Sage Ring halving MP costs, you can sling Bio or -agas across an entire dungeon without needing a break. In the original release, black magic falls off late as you have to deal with the effects queue. I'm not sure to what degree Zodiac Age fixes this, but it at least seems less bad so far. Archer notably adds Raise and a third Swiftness, but for the most part, I think I could swap Archer for Balthier's Foebreaker (which also has Swiftness) and be in a better spot all around.
Rating: A+

 

[Oathbreaker]

Oooh, my favorite part of the game. I did pretty much the same type of theorycrafting ahead of starting when Zodiac Age came out. I did it for deciding who to give what Esper to but it's been a little too long since I last played to remember the exact reasons for most of those.

Balthier: Bushi/Monk + Belias/Adremmalech/Chaos/Zodiark
Monk was mostly there to provide its pretty huge stat bonuses and some other secondary stuff to make Bushi even stronger because my intent was to have him doing Katana combo-ing. The one esper I remember the exact reason for giving was Belias to Balthier, cuz the story said so.

Ashe: Knight/White Mage + Ultima
Went for a really fun gimmick here. Excalibur + White Robes. That's it, that's the build. The one downside is the gendered attack speed differences which are total bullshit so even though Knight feels like an incredibly obvious pick for Ashe, she's not as good at it as others could be. Upshot is she makes a great White Mage when I need it. Thinking on it more as I type, I gave Ashe Ultima for the symmetry (and maybe access to Excalibur? I don't remember if that was an Ultima license). I think Ultima had a useful ability for Knight but not as useful as it could be for how late it's reasonable to get her.

Basch: Shikari/Red Mage + Cuchulainn/Shemhazai
This one I remember the least about. Shikari was for Ninja Sword combo-ing, and I think maybe Red Mage was for Black Robe access to do sort of the same thing as Ashe, but with Dark element? There was a powerful dark Ninja Sword right?

Fran: Uhlan/Machinist + Mateus/Exodus/Famfrit
Uhlan doesn't synergize well with anything, arguably only Monk for the same reasons I gave it to Balthier to boost Bushi. You get the Zodiac Spear, you use the Zodiac Spear. With that in mind I chose Machinist for the late game access to Hastega + Berserk through items after getting Famfrit paired with Machinist.

Penelo: Monk/Black Mage + Zalera/Zeromus/Hashmal
Wanted to turn her into someone that can do both physical and magical nukes. Poles are pretty solid for combo-ing themselves and she can break out strong spells for when range is better or required.

Vaan: Time Mage/Foebreaker, no espers
Time Mage is kinda just too good not to have, and since I already had White Mage covered with Ashe I went for Foebreaker so he could do some damage himself with a job that wasn't already in the party.

Skipped Archer on this party because it never really felt like there was much of a reason to stick it on someone. It's not a particularly strong class in the Zodiac Age license board and it's so much easier to get lots of ranged options that I didn't feel its loss. But when I went back and played IZJS Archer was my go-to for Basch because it's WAY more important when you're limited to one job per character. I made Vaan a Machinist in that version for the same reason, and the early popoff with the best gun.

 

[Regulus]

The one downside is the gendered attack speed differences which are total bullshit so even though Knight feels like an incredibly obvious pick for Ashe, she's not as good at it as others could be. Upshot is she makes a great White Mage when I need it.

Isn't this is a per character thing and is tied to the unique animations they use for their attacks? I want to say you're only looking at a few frames either way. Ironically, Balthier is slow with a gun and Fran slow with a bow.

 

[Oathbreaker]

Isn't this is a per character thing and is tied to the unique animations they use for their attacks? I want to say you're only looking at a few frames either way. Ironically, Balthier is slow with a gun and Fran slow with a bow.

Ah, yeah you might be right. Brain just attached it to gender because of how often FF has statistically differentiated them. That said I think all the girls just have slower melee attacks/combos than all the guys. I think it's that Balthier is slow at gun and Fran is slow at bow that are unique to the characters.

 

[Peklo]

It does turn out to be an overall gendered distribution as far as stat allocation, with the balance generally preferring Basch and Balthier for physical roles and Penelo and Ashe for magical ones. Vaan and Fran exist slightly outside of that paradigm, where instead it should be understood that Vaan is generally better at everything than everyone else, while Fran is the worst at most things; the Zodiac tweaks buffed both Ashe's Strength and Fran's Vitality (highest in the game now) presumably to make the situation a little less stock and one-sided. All of the statistical differences, as well as the individual animation priorities, are really just academic and don't affect practical play almost at all, but they're deliberate all the same.

 

[Positronic Brain]

Uh. Somehow I missed Distant Worlds was coming to Barcelona this February - I snapped tickets as soon as I found out! Rikki will sing "Suteki Da Ne" so, yes, I'm so there

(I didn't find out in time to get tickets for the Yoko Shimomura met and greet =( )

 

[Vega]

I'm playing FF4 Pixel Remaster on PC. It's a breezy experience. I just got the winch to bring the hovercraft to Eblan. I'm not a fan of pixel art on hardware that's powerful enough to render sharper, so I imagine I'd prefer the look of the PSP version, but didn't the public get upset with the look of that version and FF6 mobile so the Pixel Remasters are reactions to that criticism? There are still some nice visual flourishes like sand clouds around Damcyan and Eblan and chromatic aberration in Cave Magnes.

The amount of remixing in the music is in the Goldilocks zone, which makes me quite happy. By far my favorite feature in this version.

The translation is concise. Dialogue makes points clearly without being wordy.

Scrolling is very choppy and lacks Vsync. Annoying, but not a deal breaker for a game that spends most of its time stationary. But it's a surprising problem for such a low spec game to have.

Weird this has been out for over a year only on PC and phones. Why no console versions?

The negatives of this version mostly feel like the result of a low budget. The upsides feel like the result of the developers being experienced.

Edit: Infinite arrows are sweet! They make the back line characters a lot more useful when they're not spending MP.

 

[Vaeran]

Yeah, every Nintendo Direct I'm like "well obviously they're announcing a Pixel Remasters collection for Switch" but then it never happens and I cry into my Kain Highwind pixel art body pillow

 

[Issun]

Yeah, every Nintendo Direct I'm like "well obviously they're announcing a Pixel Remasters collection for Switch" but then it never happens and I cry into my Kain Highwind pixel art body pillow

Agreed. I could play them on tablet and it'd probably be fine, but the Switch is the perfect console for JRPGs so I don't understand why the Pixel Remasters aren't on it yet.

 

[Bongo]

They're still releasing patches for the PC versions. The remasters don't appear to have been made by a team with a lot of engineering overhead. Ports to other platforms will likely come after the PC versions have stabilized.

 

[Peklo]

I don't think the remasters in any way communicate a "low budget" as far as an audience likes to conjecture about production aspects like that. They remade six full games at once with almost entirely fresh visuals assets, substantially reworked game mechanics (whatever your opinion of the changes is), had a massive team of composers and musicians lavishly rework all music, and even brought original developers like Shibuya and Uematsu on board to work on and oversee the projects. It's far and beyond what repurposing vintage material usually warrants from a production standpoint or the expenditures customarily afforded them.

 

[Mogri]

None of that is incompatible with what Bongo said.

 

[Peklo]

I was responding to Vega, hence the exact quotation.

 

[Vega]

Yes, the production values are quite nice. And I take back what I said about preferring the look of the PSP version of IV. I hadn't actually seen much of it other than knowing the art was redrawn at higher resolution. But after a few minutes of looking at a YouTube video of it I prefer the look of the Pixel Remaster.

It has a large team of composers? I'm looking forward to seeing the credits! I'm up to Zeromus but he's surprisingly tough. I did all the side quests, got all the loot and fought most random encounters so I assumed my guys were up to beating the game but I'm probably going to have to grind ten more levels.

 

[Vega]

I took my time but I beat FF4 Pixel Remaster yesterday with a party leveled to about 70. As always, the takes on the music were great! Not sure if I'm going to get any of the others, but I'm happy these exist.

 

[Vega]

I bought the whole Pixel Remaster hexalogy and played through FF1. I'd say it has the best gameplay balance and quality of life of any version of FF1 I've played. I'll do 6 next.

Edit: Minor gripe, there's no option to adjust window color in these games. Lately I'd prefer brown or dark gray.

 

[Positronic Brain]

A reminder that we're running a list of The Top Numbered Final Fantasies and you still have time to mail-in your votes! What better way to celebbrate the 5th Anniversary of the 10th Anniversary Thread of the 20th Anniversary of Final Fantasy Thread?

 

[Positronic Brain]

i finally figured out what I dislike so much about Stranger Of Paradise. I mean, other than the bad acting, worse writing, uneven art direction and excessive bloodlust.

It's supposed to be a FFI prequel, yet the UI and menus all use very modern look and fonts, almost asif they had been taken out of XIII and XV, and that really makes my teeth grate.

I'm only one hour in, but I'm hating it, thanks- I'll give it a bit more time and see if it manages to click. but the action game here is being done a disservice y being shoved into what, intentionally or not, I can only perceive as a mockery of the FF concept.