Final Fantasy Official Thread

[darksnowman]

6 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I put a little more time into Final Fantasy II yesterday evening and decided to move the story along a bit. I completed a couple of dungeons and thanks to the early leg work I put in to grinding, it meant I decimated every enemy and boss that I've encountered. The bosses were dying in a single hit. Lovely stuff.

One-shotting the bosses? Oof!

7 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

So far, I've had three different 4th party members show up and then leave. Seeing as I probably won't be bothering with the post-game content, it means I dont have to faff on and also level up these characters. At this point they've just been along for the ride.

So you're clued into that, then. The post-game content is doable as long as that first character is good enough to be able to survive running from battles until you unite with the second character, then you can start to feel like you're holding your own in there.  Try it and see, maybe you'll enjoy the challenge!

What do you think of those nothing rooms? I think those were probably the worst thing about the game for me. (Maybe you're strong enough that they don't drain your resources.)

[drahkon]

13 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

One-shotting the bosses? Oof!

That's H-o-T for ya  

I'm proud of him.

[Hero-of-Time]

39 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

What do you think of those nothing rooms? I think those were probably the worst thing about the game for me. (Maybe you're strong enough that they don't drain your resources.)

The ones with stupidly high encounter rates? Yeah, they are pretty annoying. I can manage them fine but having a battle every two steps whilst trying to escape these rooms is very tedious.

[darksnowman]

On 22/01/2021 at 10:13 AM, Hero-of-Time said:

The ones with stupidly high encounter rates? Yeah, they are pretty annoying. I can manage them fine but having a battle every two steps whilst trying to escape these rooms is very tedious.

Yeah, those empty square rooms that throw you into a battle as soon as you turn to leave. So many doors lead to rooms like that.  

Any further progress over the weekend?

[Hero-of-Time]

15 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

Yeah, those empty square rooms that throw you into a battle as soon as you turn to leave. So many doors lead to rooms like that.  

Any further progress over the weekend?

Not much. I had to pop into the lab yesterday morning and then was busy doing other stuff most of the afternoon.

I've put a little bit of time into it this morning but at the moment I'm just trying to grind Toad to level 16. Doing this will allow me to get the ultimate weapons and armour and at that point I can just concentrate on the story.

[darksnowman]

47 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Not much. I had to pop into the lab yesterday morning and then was busy doing other stuff most of the afternoon.

I've put a little bit of time into it this morning but at the moment I'm just trying to grind Toad to level 16. Doing this will allow me to get the ultimate weapons and armour and at that point I can just concentrate on the story.

You can get some good grinding in later during the match.

[Hero-of-Time]

6 hours ago, darksnowman said:

You can get some good grinding in later during the match.

Worked a treat.  

[Hero-of-Time]

I tried out my newly equipped team ( completed Deist Cave) during my lunch break...yeah, I think I've completely broken the game. I'm doing 8,000 damage with each of the 3 main characters and if an enemy does manage to land a hit it does 0 damage. At this point any battle that I encounter is just a formality.  

[Hero-of-Time]

I played the game some more yesterday evening and progressed the story a little further. It was hilarious when Hilda invited Firion to her room, only for him to be attacked. Dude thought he was well in! 

I also conquered the Coliseum, met some mages in Mysidia and took out a few bosses on my travels. The fourth character is less than useless at this point and has just stayed dead whenever they get taken out. Things go much faster when there's only 3 characters to attack.  

I think I'm making decent progress and hopefully I'll have things wrapped up over the weekend. 

[darksnowman]

Your trio of fledgling warriors really took getting pwned in the opening scene to heart. Look at them now!  Is dual wielding masamunes and kitting everyone out in genji gear as good as it gets? Not saying it's not, I just don't remember getting to that point--when you said you'd get the ultimate weapons I expected individual weapons for each character. And isn't Guy best with his fists? I suppose that depends on how you play. For some reason I remember mine being like a monk. Or was that Josef? Hmm. 

I think Mysidia and the mask capers there is a bit of a slog but it should be a doddle for you.  I think after that you are almost on the home straight. Have you got the best white and black spells yet? Wondering if you will take time to level them up or stick with what you have.

 

Edited January 27, 2021 by darksnowman

[Hero-of-Time]

In terms of the gear, I read the best stuff comes from the snowmobile card game. As you said though, it will depend on what you've been building up on your characters. My sword stat is at max level and so the Masamune works a treat.

Yeah, the dungeons for the masks were a bit of a pain. They were easy enough but the amount of  random battles that pop up is insane. Not only that but most of the time the enemy gets first go, even though my stats say it should be me. Add to the fact that there are often 6-8 enemies on the screen and it does get tedious quickly.

I don't think I need any more magic. My swords have decimated everything so far and I have my Teleport at level 16 just waiting in reserve.

I actually beat the Emperor last night...at least the first time you fight him. I tore through his guards and then went on to pummel him as well.  

I brought the Vita to work with me and so I should make a little more progress on my lunch break. I may actually have it completed before the weekend.

[Happenstance]

I need to try and get back to FFXIV today I think. I completed A Realm Reborn’s main story last week and fell away a bit as I started the post game content. I need to make a push to start the first expansion as I think that’s where the real top quality stories start.

[Hero-of-Time]

I made it to the Jade Passage whilst on my lunch break. It's quite a step up in terms of damage output by enemies. They went from doing zero damage to landing hits around the 300 mark. Still not causing me any issues but  I imagine it would be a shock to the system going into this area unprepared.

[Hero-of-Time]

Took on the last boss and after 2 turns he was dead. 

Spoiler

I spent around 30 hours on the game and I think 25 of those were all grinding and prep work. It was all worth it in the end as it allowed me to absolutely breeze through the adventure.

It's not a great FF game and it's easily the weakest mainline entries. Still, I'm happy that I can finally say that I've played and completed the game. Only FFIII left to beat and then that's every single player mainline FF game completed. 

[Happenstance]

1 minute ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Took on the last boss and after 2 turns he was dead. 

  Final Boss Pics (Reveal hidden contents)

I spent around 30 hours on the game and I think 25 of those were all grinding and prep work. It was all worth it in the end as it allowed me to absolutely breeze through the adventure.

It's not a great FF game and it's easily the weakest mainline entries. Still, I'm happy that I can finally say that I've played and completed the game. Only FFIII left to beat and then that's every single player mainline FF game completed. 

You need to move onto the mmos then next! I highly recommend XIV. I’ve pretty much solo’d it for everything other than the dungeons which party you up well anyway.

[Hero-of-Time]

7 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

You need to move onto the mmos then next! I highly recommend XIV. I’ve pretty much solo’d it for everything other than the dungeons which party you up well anyway.

I'd love to play XIV but I tried it a couple of years ago on the PS4 and it's not for me. Had it been like DQX, in that it still looks like a standard game, then I probably would have stuck with it a little more to see if it got its hooks into me. It looks far too much like a PC MMO, with the different camera angles and countless button shortcuts on screen. Make sense seeing as it was made for PCs.

[Julius]

Does this mean what I think and pray it means?

Why else would you need to differentiate between 3D remakes of what were 2D games, unless...HD-2D or 2D remakes of the original games are in the works? Right? RIGHT?! 

Please please please please please, S-E, don't toy with my emotions. A Final Fantasy I - VI Collection is the main thing I've been asking for these last few years, but I'll gladly take some remakes instead 

[Glen-i]

There's no denying it, doing that for no reason would be beyond odd.

But aren't some of the people who did Octopath Traveller working on DQ III HD-2D right now? I'd be legit surprised if they were doing a HD-2D Final Fantasy at the same time.

Then again, it could be more of a straightforward "2D" remake? Or a new 3D one? Or it could just be Square getting ready for another HD-2D project after Dragon Quest is done?

[Dcubed]

I just want the original NES/SNES ROMs re-released, untouched and untainted, with high quality emulation; along with new localisations for FF2-5 (leave FF6’s script alone; Woolsey’s original script is way better than the modern redo).

I don’t trust modern day S-E with anything else (Though I’d love to see faithful HD2D remakes that don’t muck around with the original gameplay; I don’t trust modern day S-E to deliver on that front).

Edited June 7, 2021 by Dcubed

[Julius]

2 hours ago, Glen-i said:

But aren't some of the people who did Octopath Traveller working on DQ III HD-2D right now? I'd be legit surprised if they were doing a HD-2D Final Fantasy at the same time.

Then again, it could be more of a straightforward "2D" remake? Or a new 3D one? Or it could just be Square getting ready for another HD-2D project after Dragon Quest is done?

So I had to get my head straight and do some digging, because I was thinking the same thing, but they also seem to have their fingers in a lot of pies over at Square Enix.

After looking into it more, the impression that I'm getting is that Team Asano work in the capacity of producers rather than key developers on projects, because since Octopath Traveler, in terms of major releases (speaking to their console work rather than anything they've touched on mobile) they've worked on Bravely Default II, and I assume, are currently working on Project Triangle Strategy, however it's worth noting that Octopath Traveler was developed by both S-E and Acquire, and for Bravely Default II the main developer cited is Claytechworks, with Team Asano being cited as producers in the announcement trailer (link to timestamp in trailer). Similarly, Team Asano's logo was featured prominently at the end of the Octopath Traveler reveal (link to timestamp in trailer) back at the Switch Presentation in January 2017. 

What I find interesting is that the Project Triangle Strategy reveal trailer made no mention of Team Asano at all, nor did it feature their logo, instead opting to go with the HD-2D branding (link to timestamp in trailer), which is peculiar to me because their other works have gone out of their way in their reveals to state that they were being made by Team Asano, their logo remains what it was before on their Facebook page - so we know they haven't rebranded to be 'Team HD-2D' - and we know that Team Asano is involved based on this post on their Facebook page and this interview which cites Toyoma Asano as the game's producer. 

This brings us onto the Dragon Quest III Remake, which also had no mention of Team Asano, but did carry the HD-2D branding (link to timestamp in trailer). Unlike Project Triangle Strategy, there is nothing to directly confirm Asano is actually working on this project, however given the HD-2D branding, I think it's a fair bet to say that they'll involved in some capacity - and I think that capacity is that they will be producers on the project, with the key developers either being the Dragon Quest team (who are also in Square Enix's Creative Business Unit II with Team Asano) or some third party studio (as was the case on Asano's earlier projects). I'd lean towards it being the Dragon Quest team, considering just how much say that team has on their key projects (and also considering how haphazardly Horii shared that they were looking at remaking I and II also, which I don't think he'd say if it was being worked on by someone else), but that's just my own guess. 

In fact, all of Team Asano's major releases have been developed by external teams up to this point (the original Bravely Default and Bravely Second: End Layer were both developed by Silicon Studio), which leads me to believe very strongly that they are also producers on Project Triangle Strategy and that development will be helmed by a third party. I don't want to sound like I'm undermining how much work Team Asano does as producers, but with Bravely Default II releasing and announcing both Project Triangle Strategy and the Dragon Quest III Remake this year, my best guess would be that while they might support in development in some way - likely the implementation of their engine and realising games in their particular style - their main purpose may currently be to oversee upcoming HD-2D projects, which could be why we haven't seen their name on these two new projects, but have seen the HD-2D branding. And I would like to believe that this is the case, because it would be a very smart move by Square Enix. 

And just to throw some fuel on the fire, while I don't think this strengthens the arguments for Final Fantasy HD-2D remakes, the first two games Toyoma Asano served as the main producer on were the Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy IV DS remakes, the two games renamed weirdly in the app stores. I really don't think it means anything, but found it quite funny!

Also on the topic of funny and totally unrelated to this topic, adding those links to the trailers has taught me one thing: Team Asano absolutely uses the same person to direct their trailers. Other than the Octopath Traveler reveal, where it happens at the end of the trailer, the reveals of Bravely Default II, Project Triangle Strategy, and the Dragon Quest III Remake trailer all have a transition at the 0:27/0:28 mark to show a logo (either Team Asano's or HD-2D's) 

2 hours ago, Dcubed said:

I just want the original NES/SNES ROMs re-released, untouched and untainted, with high quality emulation; along with new localisations for FF2-5 (leave FF6’s script alone; Woolsey’s original script is way better than the modern redo).

Honestly, I'll take this or HD-2D remakes, I don't mind which - so long as one is on the way, S-E, or I swear! 

There's a charm to their sprites in I - VI which is absolutely destroyed by the most widely available versions currently, based on the mobile ports, and it's why I bought the games on the app store and then added them to my NES and SNES Classics.

Heck, I even think there's a bit of charm lost to the sprites in the Dragon Quest III Remake with it being HD-2D too - though it's still undeniably easy on the eye and battles look particularly gorgeous - and looking at images of the different versions, I think the SFC sprites are probably the strongest, followed by the GBC ones. I really think it's all in the eyes; the simpler they are when they come to sprites (generally), the more likely I am to enjoy them. 

[drahkon]

Can't wait for Julius to be disappointed when SE announces a battle royale game for every rebranded Final Fantasy title on mobile.

Edited June 7, 2021 by drahkon

[Julius]

1 hour ago, drahkon said:

Can't wait for Julius to be disappointed when SE announces a battle royale game for every rebranded Final Fantasy title on mobile.

Is this because of what I thought of Ratchet & Clank? Because I stand by it! 

While the timing of this might suggest E3, I've been keeping my hopes related to this quiet for the last few months simply because of the 35th anniversary being next year, so even if it is coming, I expect this to be announced towards the end of the year or next year rather than this weekend (depending on where XVI, Forspoken - not FF but still AAA and by a related team - and that other rumoured FF title end up landing). 

Honestly, Square Enix's wording for this weekend's E3 event has me a little nervous that we might not see that much from Final Fantasy as it is. Rumoured title aside, we already know about XVI, so if it was going to be shown here, why wouldn't they tell us it was going to be here like they did with VII Remake? And then there's the whole thing about it being PlayStation exclusive, so it could be saved for their potential event this summer...someone make this madness end 

[drahkon]

2 hours ago, Julius said:

Is this because of what I thought of Ratchet & Clank? Because I stand by it! 

No. You'd know if what I say is because of your thoughts on R&C 'cause I'd be banned for my choice of words

[Happenstance]

 

[Julius]

5 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

 

It could be something, but seems to be aimed at 8 - 13 year olds and wants to "expand" (never a good sign). 

And looking at Cyber Group's other offerings...

...this could be rough. But fingers crossed it's not!