Neat Final Fantasy Site

[Warlock]

http://www.warmech.net/warmech.html

Something I just stumbled on tonight. There is a lot of beta/unreleased/etc stuff on there that is cool to look at. He seems to really hate FF7 though. I'll never understand the total hate for that game. It wasn't the best Final Fantasy (*cough*6*cough*) but it *was* fun. Sure as hell better than 8 :)

[DarkFlameWolf]

Blasphemy, FF8 was better than 7! People just simply didn't like it because it was too oddball and too unique.

[Warlock]

Blasphemy, FF8 was better than 7! People just simply didn't like it because it was too oddball and too unique.

If by unique you mean terrible. I don't care about the story or any of that crap. What I care about is the fact that the battle system is absolutely the worst ever designed in the history of Final Fantasy games. First off, you have the rediculously tedious task of "drawing" magic from enemies. Yes, that's what I love to do. Sit at the same enemy for an hour pulling fire spells out of him. Then you had the retarded notion that the same enemies should get harder as you level up. Who the heck came up with that one? "Yes, I've leveled up enough to fight this T-Rex who kicked my ass before.. oh wait, now he's even freaking harder!" And finally, the oh-so-fun reliance on Summons for every single battle. Because really that's all battles amounted to. Summon spams. And guess what. Summons took a minute or longer to play their freaking animation so by the one millionth time you've seen Shiva do her like diamond dust dance you want to rip your eyes out.

Yes, that is "unique" gameplay right there -_-

[DarkFlameWolf]

? Then you really didn't know how to use the system. Except for a few spells like Ultima, Meteor and other rare spells that are hard to find the items to refine them from, I usually never drew from any enemies. I simply refined magic from items. Simplest and fastest way to get magic. Furthermore, if you knew how to junction properly, you wouldn't have to summon a single GF unless it was necessary like Cerebus, or Doomtrain to put a Vit 0 status on a tough boss. If you played your cards right, you could dominate the battle system by the end of disc 1 and be at level 15-20 by the time you got to the end of disc 4. Judging by your comments, it looks like you truly didn't understand how the entire battle system worked.

Anyway, on topic, that is one neat ass site. I like the Triple Triad section where it literally has every single graphical card.

[Daarkseid]

I'm with DFW, the game had a much deeper battle and character building system than is easily seen on the surface.

The fact the card game also figured into it by being able to refine items/magic from cards won in matches was excellent.

Also, the long GF summoning sequences were more easily tolerated than in other FFs because of the little mini-game that can be done with them. When holding Select, you can press the square button repeatedly to boost the GF's damage, and you have to stop intermittenly(as show with the display showing a cross over the Square button) or else you lose the points you've boosted. Every time I used a GF, I'd always try to boost that number from 75 to over 200.

[Cloral]

Actually I found the battle system way too easy. It ended up being a matter of whenever you found an enemy with a new spell, sit there and draw out 99 copies for each character. Then once the battle's over, re-junction your magic so if the new spell is better than one of your old spells, you get the benefit. If you do this, you totally dominate over all the enemies and almost never have to use summons at all (as DFW pointed out). I didn't hate the game as I liked the writing and found that it made playing the game worthwile. And I do appreciate the fact that they were trying something new. I just don't think it worked all that well. Having the PC version was nice as it meant that I got the little WonderSwan minigame where you earned items back in the main game. Though I found an exploit that let you get 99 of each item pretty easily.

[mikeron]

The junctioning system in FF8 made the game playable for the hours required to make a comprehensive playthrough. FF7's materia system was straight masochism.

Oh yeah, Diablos was totally wicked.

[AlexMax]

Hell hath no fury like Final Fantasy fanboys arguing over which games were the best and worst.

[DarkFlameWolf]

Diablos does rule, but his use is completely obsolete by the time disc 3 rolls around and your normal characters can probably beat 9999 damage in two turns, making the time spent to watch his animatic wasteful. Agreed with mikeron about FF7, 500,000 AP just for mastering Knights of the Round? Some of those AP numbers we insanely high for certain types of materia. Almost like they didn't want you to have multiple copies of lots of them. The AP system in FF8 was a bit more manageable, 250 AP max for any one hard-to-learn skill.
Anyway, back onto this site, the FF9 section is seriously lacking in goodies, but at least I found some new bits of info. That a PS2 version of the game was being planned with better graphics, etc. But it was eventually cancelled. I never knew that. Also, the possibility of a Tetra Master ONLY PC game wandering out there is nice. I want it.

[Daarkseid]

Anyway, back onto this site, the FF9 section is seriously lacking in goodies, but at least I found some new bits of info. That a PS2 version of the game was being planned with better graphics, etc. But it was eventually cancelled. I never knew that. Also, the possibility of a Tetra Master ONLY PC game wandering out there is nice. I want it.

I believe Square Soft had a more extensive plan to make PS2 remakes of VII, VIII, and IX. The plan died when The Spirits Within tanked in theatres in 2001.

[DarkFlameWolf]

sad, truly is. They could have improved on aspects of the games that were lacking. :P

[mikeron]

sad, truly is. They could have improved on aspects of the games that were lacking. :PThe artwork in FF9 would really have benefitted from a higher resolution, and the trains from Deling in FF8 always bothered me in 32 bit.

[Daarkseid]

No no no, you're forgetting the obvious benefit of redoing the graphics for these games.. FFVII Tifa, better jiggle rendering in battle, and then maybe a victory stance where she shows off some gorgeous cleavage.

EDIT: Aww damnit, I wish I hadn't loaned my copy of FFX to that one asshole. I wanted to win some battles with Lulu.

[DarkFlameWolf]

LOL, lulu is awesome as a character, but in battle, I found her to be quite lacking. I tended to use Auron, Yuna and Tidus as my primary team. Rikku was okay, Wakka was below her and Lulu and Kimhari were last on my list.

[Daarkseid]

I had some long post about why I liked Lulu so much, despite her shortcomings in battle overall, but it mostly always went back that lucious rack of hers.

Actually, thats not all true. She was also a cold unapproachable bitch throughout the early part of the game, and that probably also turned me on quite a bit.

[mikeron]

She was also a cold unapproachable bitch throughout the early part of the game, and that probably also turned me on quite a bit.I heard that. ;)

[DarkFlameWolf]

well, if you think about it, it takes MP to use most of her skills to cause the same amount of damage where most other characters can achieve with normal attacks alone. Furthermore, anyone can learn all of her skills once they break into her sphere grid and thus eliminate her from being useful completely. Even her Overdrive, which could have saved her as a character, is not that useful compared to other characters', face it, she's got a nice bod and a personality that seemingly turns on many men, but as a character in battle she fails.

[Warlock]

The junctioning system in FF8 made the game playable for the hours required to make a comprehensive playthrough. FF7's materia system was straight masochism.

Oh yeah, Diablos was totally wicked.

That was another thing I hated. I don't need to spend a half an hour setting up my character so that they "reach their maximum potential". I just want to play the freakin game. That's one of the things that was nice about the Materia system. It was simple, but let you customize your characters at the same time.

And I agree with Cloral. The game would have been fine otherwise.

Job system was by far the best though. I actually thought FFX-2 implemented it pretty well.

I liked Lulu though. What was wrong with her? Not every enemy was weak against physical attacks. I always prefer a balanced FF party. Fighter, White Mage, Black Mage, Thief. Or some combination to that effect. The thief was of course to steal :) I usually did try to throw the Blue Mage in if I could though. Blue Mage always rocks.

P.S. - Does anyone remember what FF9's system was? I recall it had something to do with equiping certain weapons. I remember liking that one :)

[Daarkseid]

P.S. - Does anyone remember what FF9's system was? I recall it had something to do with equiping certain weapons. I remember liking that one :)

Your characters learned abilities and their job specific abilities by learning them from equipment. The cool thing was that the equipment allowed the use of the abilities immediately, but until the abilities were learned, the item could not be removed without losing the ability.

Also each character had crystal points that went up with level that allowed them to equip their passive abilities. This forced players to choose their abilities because each one had a particular crystal cost, and so a 5 point ability, which tended to be most useful, could potentially take up the space that could otherwise accomodate two 2 point skills(which were less useful but potentially necessary for the task at hand). As your crystal points increase, your characters can equip more abilities at once.

Whereas active abilities tended to be job based, like Steiner's sword skills, Garnet's white magic and summons or Vivi's black magic, passive abilities could be available to all or a number of characters, while others were restricted to a particular character(like Zidane's cheap cover ability that only takes damage for female characters).

The system was awesome, and very well complimented the game's job system. I consider IX, along with IV, to be the finest games in this series, for their more job driven gameplay. Strangely, however, I've never actually finished the game, and haven't actually touched it since 2001. Part of this probably had to do with the fact that at the time, I wound up playing through the game two full times(stopping before the final dungeon) so I could get those damn Stellazzio coins, and the third playthrough I got to about the third disc before I began feeling sick of the game.

[Warlock]

Your characters learned abilities and their job specific abilities by learning them from equipment. The cool thing was that the equipment allowed the use of the abilities immediately, but until the abilities were learned, the item could not be removed without losing the ability.

Also each character had crystal points that went up with level that allowed them to equip their passive abilities. This forced players to choose their abilities because each one had a particular crystal cost, and so a 5 point ability, which tended to be most useful, could potentially take up the space that could otherwise accomodate two 2 point skills(which were less useful but potentially necessary for the task at hand). As your crystal points increase, your characters can equip more abilities at once.

Whereas active abilities tended to be job based, like Steiner's sword skills, Garnet's white magic and summons or Vivi's black magic, passive abilities could be available to all or a number of characters, while others were restricted to a particular character(like Zidane's cheap cover ability that only takes damage for female characters).

The system was awesome, and very well complimented the game's job system. I consider IX, along with IV, to be the finest games in this series, for their more job driven gameplay. Strangely, however, I've never actually finished the game, and haven't actually touched it since 2001. Part of this probably had to do with the fact that at the time, I wound up playing through the game two full times(stopping before the final dungeon) so I could get those damn Stellazzio coins, and the third playthrough I got to about the third disc before I began feeling sick of the game.

Yeah, I never finished it either :(

Edit: BTW, speaking of FF games, I picked up FF IV Advance about a week ago and it's a blast. The graphics are generally from the Wonderswan Color version (in other words, much better than the original on SNES) but even improved over that. And all the new stuff is cool, like being able to use some of the other characters at the end (i.e. Palom and Porom, Cid, Yang, Edward.. I think that's it). The translation is good too (though probably the same as the PSX version, I didn't compare).

[Cloral]

I never finished FF9 either. I got as far as the last boss, then just didn't feel like fighting him and turned it off. Never went back and fought him. I guess because he is totally random and not related to the rest of the story in any way I didn't see any point in fighting him.
9 did have a pretty nice system now that you mention it, but the story never did anything for me. It felt like they were trying to make a concession towards the people who wanted the medieval feel of the earlier games, without doing what they really wanted to do with the story.

[DarkFlameWolf]

Actually, check out the FF9 section at gamefaqs.com Cloral and check out the story synopsis from Squall_of_Seed. He does a pretty accurate theory about what exactly Necron is and why he was in there. To put a long story short, it is the true form of the Iifa Tree that does not exist on the material plane just as Garland had explained on disc 3. And that it acts as a soul divider, which makes sense when Zidane and the others meet it at the end. Because technically, Kuja killed them all with that final Ultima spell, so like all dead souls of Gaia, they must go straight to the soul divider to be spread into Terra's body of souls. But of course, you can't let that happen, and thus you have to fight the creation that Garland created, the Iifa Tree, or as it likes to call itself, Necron. Read up about it, he has references and support garnered from all over FF9's story to back up his theory. I'd said it is probably the one that seems the most plausible.

[SeirraMist]

Eh... I dident particularly like FF8 compared to the other FFs... I mean it was a good game, just not as good... I still think FF6 was the best. (FF7 after, than 5, ect. ect.)

That site was pretty good though, the little mis-subtitled Advent Children pictures were great...

[Cloral]

Really... I guess I never really paid that much attention to the Iifa tree and what it's point was. I was always more concerned with Kuja and Garland and the whole Terra plot.

[algam86]

Actually, check out the FF9 section at gamefaqs.com Cloral and check out the story synopsis from Squall_of_Seed. He does a pretty accurate theory about what exactly Necron is and why he was in there. To put a long story short, it is the true form of the Iifa Tree that does not exist on the material plane just as Garland had explained on disc 3. And that it acts as a soul divider, which makes sense when Zidane and the others meet it at the end. Because technically, Kuja killed them all with that final Ultima spell, so like all dead souls of Gaia, they must go straight to the soul divider to be spread into Terra's body of souls. But of course, you can't let that happen, and thus you have to fight the creation that Garland created, the Iifa Tree, or as it likes to call itself, Necron. Read up about it, he has references and support garnered from all over FF9's story to back up his theory. I'd said it is probably the one that seems the most plausible.I was wondering why he was the last boss...

Anyway, wasn't the Iifa Tree's purpose to make Mist, which made really powerful monsters? I haven't played it in a while, and I don't plan to anytime soon, but I think that's why it was there. I didn't pay much attention to what Kuja and Garland's points were in the game, though. Can someone remind me?

[DarkFlameWolf]

The Iifa Tree was critical for Terra's plot to assimilate Gaia. The Mist it created was merely a byproduct of the soul conversion process in which it could be harnessed to make monsters. The mist was not the primary function of the tree, only a waste byproduct of its function. A material manifestation of the souls it divides for Terra on the etheral plane.

[mrz84]

I liked FF8. not the best, but not the worst (many say MQ has that title, but I liket that game as well :p ) and my favorite parts are when you use the Ragnarol to bust into the floating tower (or obelisk or whatever they said it was) and when you use Squall's Lionheart Limitbreak on Bahamut or the King Cactuar(or was it Jumbo? been years since I played it)

[DarkFlameWolf]

I'd have to say that Omega Weapon from FF8 was easier than the Ruby and Emerald weapons in FF7. But that Ozma in FF9 trumps them all.

[zoraking]

* The Japanese name is Final Fantasy USA: Mystic Quest, the USA part of the title was intended on being an insult to the intelligence of people in the United States.

Wow, I learned something today.

Now I know a place to go other than wikipedia to get Final Fantasy facts.

[mrz84]

I found Ruby WEAPON from VII easy if you keep hitting him with Hades. Ozma was equally easy.