I’ve been derailed variously by Street Fighter IV and other commitments, but have made some progress all the same. The game is sitting better with me now, mostly because it has gotten sort of interesting. At Galbadia Garden we were given our mission: assassinate the Sorceress. Ostensibly this is because she will wrest full power from President Deling and lead the country into ruin. But who knows what the real reason is. It seems that the country of Esthar, traditionally ruled by a sorceress, was a huge pain in the ass for the rest of the world some time ago and had to be beat down in some war. Why exactly is anyone interested in working with them now? Now, Edea (the sorceress) has a nice set of virtual goggles that includes a wig of retractable hair. This is the coolest thing I have seen in the game so far. What could it be for? I could come up with several theories, but I hope it has something to do with either spying on or controlling Laguna in his world or timeline or whatever it may be. It’s starting to look like Laguna’s adventures take place in the past and that he may be someone’s (probably Squall’s) ancestor. It has already turned out that Laguna’s crush, the piano player, is Rinoa’s mother… I think.
The people of Centra sound like this game’s Lunarians/Cetra/Magi. They fit the required Final Fantasy role of people-who-did-something-X-thousand-years-ago, in this case, being the forbearers of some of the planet’s modern inhabitants. The history of the sorceresses suggests that they may be good people corrupted, and that someone we’ve met in Laguna’s timeline actually became Edea.
The battle against Edea at the end of disc one was actually enjoyable. Having to draw and cast her protective magic as a means of survival was finally a good use of the system. Battling the Brothers in the Tomb of the Unknown King also involved a certain amount of satisfying strategy. And this is all well and good, if only the random battles didn’t take so long. FFVII had this right: the random battles should not take more than 30 seconds.
After more Laguna at the start of disc 2, I have to say his dorkiness is growing on me. He’s Final Fantasy’s own Dan, overconfident and hopelessly inept and inappropriate. The other characters like him despite themselves. Back in the present, we escaped from strangely illogical drill-prison and have split our party down the middle, with one group off to stop Galbadian missiles from destroying Trabia Garden and the other heading to Balamb Garden to play cards or something.
After 20+ hours, I still don’t feel like the game has started yet. There is no groove to get into. The game play is plagued by constant interruptions. You’re either sitting around for 30 minutes Drawing, being thrust into Laguna’s mostly unrelated story, or methodically challenging everyone in town to a card game. The random encounter rate in some areas, like the over world, is stupidly high.
Guardian Forces, as it turns out, are just fancy materia. They combine summon, command, and independent materia all into one simple equip. Of course, this removes the flexibility that materia had, which let you equip a bunch of one type if you so chose. But the bigger crime is that, once again, your characters have almost nothing to distinguish themselves other than their single limit break. At certain points, you choose your party members. Why? What does it really matter, other than which dialog trees you’ll see?
I’m fighting to keep FFVIII inside my head despite the line of more interesting thoughts in line outside. The whole point of this exercise was to complete a title that, you know, pretty much everyone should be complete. If I give up at this point, I’ll be reduced to reading the story faq. For shame.
2.25.2009
2.07.2009
Losing It
I’m going to take a break from describing the development of the plot so far, because frankly I’m having trouble remembering what’s happened so far. Other FF games have had their share of bad design and stupid ideas, but none have been as downright boring as this one. The anchor that drags the whole experience down is the battles. You fight so often in FF games, it’s not surprise they can make or break the title, and VIII is just broken. Even with the configurable speeds maxed, battles move like frozen molasses. It’s not even just the drawing either. Everything takes too long. The battle animations are slow, the GFs are infamously slow, even battle intros and conclusions are slow. The battle commands I have available so far don’t help. Besides the standard Attack, Magic, GF and Draw, I have Card and Doom. Card is card, I don’t have any complaints about it. Doom, however, generally has the effect of making battles take even longer, assuming you wait for the Doom clock to run out and actually kill the enemy.
I’m genuinely surprised at how much the lack of any equipment has detracted from the game. I’m supposed to be able to upgrade weapons, but that hasn’t happened yet, 15 or so hours in. Collecting and equipping items is fun. Why eliminate it? You don’t collect money either, it just shows up in your inventory periodically as “salary”. Given these shifts, what does the game really want you to focus on? Drawing, Junctioning and Triple Triad, it seems. Oh and the story. But even that has been borderline. Seifer’s supposed death at the hands of the Galbadians finally jarred me out of my semi-stupor by actually being interesting.
The main thrusts of the story (the Squall/Seifer/Rinoa triangle, the relationship between Deling and the Sorceress, Laguna) are not holding my attention. What about, the Lunar Cry? What is up with that? How about these GFs, let’s learn more about them. Even the broadcast interference is more interesting than the Forest Owls or Laguna’s crush on a piano player. I honestly have trouble playing more than an hour or two at a time without falling asleep.
I’ve been told things pick up at the end of disc 1. I’ve also been told by a few people that they never finished the game. Part of writing this blog is to make sure that doesn’t happen to me. I wish the game wasn’t working so hard to make sure it does.
I’m genuinely surprised at how much the lack of any equipment has detracted from the game. I’m supposed to be able to upgrade weapons, but that hasn’t happened yet, 15 or so hours in. Collecting and equipping items is fun. Why eliminate it? You don’t collect money either, it just shows up in your inventory periodically as “salary”. Given these shifts, what does the game really want you to focus on? Drawing, Junctioning and Triple Triad, it seems. Oh and the story. But even that has been borderline. Seifer’s supposed death at the hands of the Galbadians finally jarred me out of my semi-stupor by actually being interesting.
The main thrusts of the story (the Squall/Seifer/Rinoa triangle, the relationship between Deling and the Sorceress, Laguna) are not holding my attention. What about, the Lunar Cry? What is up with that? How about these GFs, let’s learn more about them. Even the broadcast interference is more interesting than the Forest Owls or Laguna’s crush on a piano player. I honestly have trouble playing more than an hour or two at a time without falling asleep.
I’ve been told things pick up at the end of disc 1. I’ve also been told by a few people that they never finished the game. Part of writing this blog is to make sure that doesn’t happen to me. I wish the game wasn’t working so hard to make sure it does.
1.28.2009
10 Hour Mark
So Squall, Zell, Selphie and Random Fourth Guy (RFG) are granted the rank of SeeD, while Seifer is denied. Sewing the SeeDs of discontent, no doubt for a future confrontation. Perhaps the twist is that RFG turns out to be last boss… he was rather conspicuous there in Cid’s office.
And now it’s off on our first real mission. Zell and Selphie have traded in their dorky uniforms for even more dorky outfits. Low and behold, on the way to Timber, the party passes out and now appears to be disembodied observers of a man named Laguna and his cohorts. Given their conversation, they seem to be Galbadian soldiers, and Laguna sounds like a bit of a loser. What could this possibly mean? Is the game going to draw a comparison between rival factions by letting the player experience the conflict from both points of view? Let us develop some sympathy for Galbadia, which up until now has seemed like a den of troublemakers (they devastated Timber too!). Do Squall’s and Laguna’s timelines overlap? It’s interesting that in this “otherworld” Selphie’s gear went to Ward (a burly sunuvabitch) and Zell’s gear went to Kiros. What is the meaning of these pairings?
Probably the most exciting moment in the first 10 hours was fighting Lucifer in the Magic Lamp. That was a nail-biter, and he killed me more than once. Otherwise, the game is really taking it’s time getting interesting. Rinoa was introduced and quickly disappeared. Quistis was fired and also disappeared. We’ll have to see where this Laguna thing leads. Even my card game has been taken from me: everyone I play now uses the Direct Trade Rule, which basically means I will be losing at least one card every game. I don’t like those odds, so I’ll have to wait until it passes.
Finally, there is something about those Garden faculty members… they are just a little too sinister in their faceless uniforms. Sort of like, kinder, gentler Pyramidheads.
And now it’s off on our first real mission. Zell and Selphie have traded in their dorky uniforms for even more dorky outfits. Low and behold, on the way to Timber, the party passes out and now appears to be disembodied observers of a man named Laguna and his cohorts. Given their conversation, they seem to be Galbadian soldiers, and Laguna sounds like a bit of a loser. What could this possibly mean? Is the game going to draw a comparison between rival factions by letting the player experience the conflict from both points of view? Let us develop some sympathy for Galbadia, which up until now has seemed like a den of troublemakers (they devastated Timber too!). Do Squall’s and Laguna’s timelines overlap? It’s interesting that in this “otherworld” Selphie’s gear went to Ward (a burly sunuvabitch) and Zell’s gear went to Kiros. What is the meaning of these pairings?
Probably the most exciting moment in the first 10 hours was fighting Lucifer in the Magic Lamp. That was a nail-biter, and he killed me more than once. Otherwise, the game is really taking it’s time getting interesting. Rinoa was introduced and quickly disappeared. Quistis was fired and also disappeared. We’ll have to see where this Laguna thing leads. Even my card game has been taken from me: everyone I play now uses the Direct Trade Rule, which basically means I will be losing at least one card every game. I don’t like those odds, so I’ll have to wait until it passes.
Finally, there is something about those Garden faculty members… they are just a little too sinister in their faceless uniforms. Sort of like, kinder, gentler Pyramidheads.
1.26.2009
Cursor Memory!
I never guessed that this long-ignored option would finally come into its own. The draw system, as I’ve discovered, has made it nigh indispensable. I can now just hit X until I hear the error tone, redirecting my brain to other matters during extended draw sessions. Draw 99, beep!, select next spell, repeat.
There are irregularities in the number of spells drawn. Selphie generally draws more casts than Zell. This is probably stat based. Also, Selphie is matched with Quezicotl, and seems to draw 9 thunders every time she tries.
The results of the SeeD examination mission render it somewhat of a waste. A slew of Galbadia soldiers died to activate a communications tower that Dollet didn’t really care about anyway. They could have just asked. Galbadia gives the impression of being a bunch of troublemakers, so maybe unrest and discord is just their thing. So now the uplink is active, but supposedly useless because of the worldwide interference that began 17 years ago. I’ll assume this event is related to Squall’s birth in true Final Fantasy tradition. The possible exact causes are endless at this point. Squall could be the source of the interference himself.
I’ve decided that Squall and Seifer may themselves comprise an East vs. West subtext. Squall, thin, dark, brooding and patient fits nicely into a stereotypical Japanese teenager role, contrasting Seifer’s blond, Germanic, cocky, impulsive westerner. I doubt that aspect of their relationship will move deeper in this direction… it may have even been an unconscious addition on the part of the designers.
I’m embarrassed to admit that I couldn’t figure out GF Boost. Everyone told me that you have to tap X, but no one said anything about holding select, which apparently you have to do as well. Was this buried in the tutorials somewhere?
There are irregularities in the number of spells drawn. Selphie generally draws more casts than Zell. This is probably stat based. Also, Selphie is matched with Quezicotl, and seems to draw 9 thunders every time she tries.
The results of the SeeD examination mission render it somewhat of a waste. A slew of Galbadia soldiers died to activate a communications tower that Dollet didn’t really care about anyway. They could have just asked. Galbadia gives the impression of being a bunch of troublemakers, so maybe unrest and discord is just their thing. So now the uplink is active, but supposedly useless because of the worldwide interference that began 17 years ago. I’ll assume this event is related to Squall’s birth in true Final Fantasy tradition. The possible exact causes are endless at this point. Squall could be the source of the interference himself.
I’ve decided that Squall and Seifer may themselves comprise an East vs. West subtext. Squall, thin, dark, brooding and patient fits nicely into a stereotypical Japanese teenager role, contrasting Seifer’s blond, Germanic, cocky, impulsive westerner. I doubt that aspect of their relationship will move deeper in this direction… it may have even been an unconscious addition on the part of the designers.
I’m embarrassed to admit that I couldn’t figure out GF Boost. Everyone told me that you have to tap X, but no one said anything about holding select, which apparently you have to do as well. Was this buried in the tutorials somewhere?
1.23.2009
Triple Triad
I’m struck by the fact that FFVII opens with the bombing of a corrupt corporation’s energy facility, while FFVIII opens with high school exams. At this point, the tone in VIII couldn’t be more different.
Back to the beginning. The game’s introduction (a series of black and white stills) doesn’t really evoke anything. They deliberately avoid showing character faces, but who knows what that means. After the almost-gaudy title screen, there is what appears to be Squall’s fever-dream, recalling his earlier training with Seifer mixed with random images of Rinoa, who I don’t think he has even met at this point. The production quality upgrade in VIII is immediately apparent. The blocky, grainy stiffness of VII is a memory. The video sequences are smooth and attractive, blending very well with the action. The look of the game itself recalls Resident Evil at times. I’m sometimes tempted at times to run at the walls looking for ammunition and keys.
In 3 hours of play, I’ve only gotten as far as the transport to the SeeD exam battle ground in Balam. Any one who’s played this game can probably guess why: I’ve been sucked into Triple Triad, the game-spanning card battling mini game. I can say without reservation that TT is better than anything they came up with for VII. I refused to leave the Garden until I had played everyone I could and started getting duplicate cards. I have 30 or 40 cards now, including my trump, Quistis.
Giving the townsfolk something to do besides rattling off their one or two lines of conversation is great. I chase people down the hallways of the Garden, demanding that they play cards. I block their retreat, forcing game after game until I have robbed them completely. All of this is really because TT is actually fun, and I haven’t even gotten to any of the interesting rules yet.
Besides the card collecting addiction, though, the game is pretty dull so far. The endless tutorials are arduous and drawing is painful. Examining drawing for a moment, each enemy possesses an endless amount of casts of a few spells. When you draw from them, you get a small random number of these spell casts for yourself. But these are not party owned. Each character has his or her own stock of spells. So in a battle, each character must draw over and over and over again, building up their reserves to a maximum of 99 for each spell. You might say, who needs 99 copies of Esuna or Scan, but these spells are also the batteries for your various statistics thanks the Junction system. So, between wanting the best stats for your characters and filling up your spell list with nice, completionist 99s, of course you’re going to draw until the cows come home. Granted, you will eventually fill up on every spell and hopefully there are draw-enhancement abilities down the line (I’m thinking 3x draw). Still, the combined forces of TT and drawing grind the early hours of the game to a halt.
Battle animations are now nicely motion-captured. They look great. They also take forever. Instead of Cloud beaming over to an enemy for a 1-frame slash, Squall saunters over and give a mighty swing and then resume his stance. It looks nice, but since he’ll be doing that animation like 90,000 times, it’s a bit much.
Most of the characters have already been introduced in the first location: Squall, Seifer, Selphie, Zell, Quistis. This is a departure from the usual “HI I HAVE A PROBLEM I’LL JOIN YOUR PARTY” technique.
I was originally planning to discuss story elements, but there needs to be a story first. So far the game is just Yu-Gi-Oh + Saved By the Bell.
Back to the beginning. The game’s introduction (a series of black and white stills) doesn’t really evoke anything. They deliberately avoid showing character faces, but who knows what that means. After the almost-gaudy title screen, there is what appears to be Squall’s fever-dream, recalling his earlier training with Seifer mixed with random images of Rinoa, who I don’t think he has even met at this point. The production quality upgrade in VIII is immediately apparent. The blocky, grainy stiffness of VII is a memory. The video sequences are smooth and attractive, blending very well with the action. The look of the game itself recalls Resident Evil at times. I’m sometimes tempted at times to run at the walls looking for ammunition and keys.
In 3 hours of play, I’ve only gotten as far as the transport to the SeeD exam battle ground in Balam. Any one who’s played this game can probably guess why: I’ve been sucked into Triple Triad, the game-spanning card battling mini game. I can say without reservation that TT is better than anything they came up with for VII. I refused to leave the Garden until I had played everyone I could and started getting duplicate cards. I have 30 or 40 cards now, including my trump, Quistis.
Giving the townsfolk something to do besides rattling off their one or two lines of conversation is great. I chase people down the hallways of the Garden, demanding that they play cards. I block their retreat, forcing game after game until I have robbed them completely. All of this is really because TT is actually fun, and I haven’t even gotten to any of the interesting rules yet.
Besides the card collecting addiction, though, the game is pretty dull so far. The endless tutorials are arduous and drawing is painful. Examining drawing for a moment, each enemy possesses an endless amount of casts of a few spells. When you draw from them, you get a small random number of these spell casts for yourself. But these are not party owned. Each character has his or her own stock of spells. So in a battle, each character must draw over and over and over again, building up their reserves to a maximum of 99 for each spell. You might say, who needs 99 copies of Esuna or Scan, but these spells are also the batteries for your various statistics thanks the Junction system. So, between wanting the best stats for your characters and filling up your spell list with nice, completionist 99s, of course you’re going to draw until the cows come home. Granted, you will eventually fill up on every spell and hopefully there are draw-enhancement abilities down the line (I’m thinking 3x draw). Still, the combined forces of TT and drawing grind the early hours of the game to a halt.
Battle animations are now nicely motion-captured. They look great. They also take forever. Instead of Cloud beaming over to an enemy for a 1-frame slash, Squall saunters over and give a mighty swing and then resume his stance. It looks nice, but since he’ll be doing that animation like 90,000 times, it’s a bit much.
Most of the characters have already been introduced in the first location: Squall, Seifer, Selphie, Zell, Quistis. This is a departure from the usual “HI I HAVE A PROBLEM I’LL JOIN YOUR PARTY” technique.
I was originally planning to discuss story elements, but there needs to be a story first. So far the game is just Yu-Gi-Oh + Saved By the Bell.
1.15.2009
Off to Galbadia
My first blog and I’ve already lied in the description. Actually, I bought and played a little Final Fantasy VIII when it came out in 1999. Now that I think about it, I played Final Fantasy VII (which I had not played up to that point) after I bought Final Fantasy VIII. So that means I played my bit of FF8 sometime later, probably in 2000. I played 10 hours or so, but don’t remember hardly a thing. I think I stopped around the time I obtained a magic lamp with Lucifer inside.
I really enjoy the Final Fantasy series, with the exception of the Playstation era. VII, VIII and IX are ugly games with bad systems. Overblown and soulless. Or at least, that’s how I used to feel.
I recently finished VII again. It took me roughly 80 hours to do everything I cared to do, which is, everything in the game except gathering a handful of materia. I’ve always considered VII to be the second worst entry in the series (FFII is the worst, bar none). But for 10 years now, the adulation heaped upon this game got me doubting my original assessment. Was it really awesome in subtle in grand ways that I just didn’t get? I decided to confirm my impression.
This was all really started by reading VII story synopses. Final Fantasy VII has a really interesting story, it turns out. A story that I had either totally missed during my first play, or had more likely ignored because everything else about the game pissed me off. So my desire to re-experience the story coupled with my own self doubt, along with a healthy disinterest in any new games, triggered my VII replay.
To make a very long story short, VII is a great story trapped in a bad game. I still think the game itself is weaker than just about every other entry. In any case, this blog is about VIII.
VIII is a different animal than VII for me. I know so little about it, it’s basically a brand new game as far as I’m concerned. I’ve decided I’m willing to give it a chance. How can I pretend to know anything about the series if I’ve only experienced part of it? What kind of completionist would I be?
As I play, some of my judgment criteria will be:
- are the characters unique? Do they have abilities that differentiate them beyond their limit breaks? Do the game’s systems render each character generic and interchangeable?
- Are the graphics appealing, or are the characters just a rough collection of cubes on drab backgrounds?
- Is the score emotional and affecting, or is it essentially a step backwards from previous titles?
- Is the game flow constantly interrupted by ill-conceived mini-games?
From the instructions, it looks like Final Fantasy: High School Musical. All the characters are so young and pretty and are apparently in some Garden high school. However, it is refreshing to not see any wolf or robotic cat characters. The Gunblade is quite cool. This is where Final Fantasy, and Japanese game companies in general, excel: excellent design.
Squall seems very Cloud-ish, Rinoa the Aeris stand-in. Selphie is ostensibly the required annoying female, a la Yuffie or Riku. There’s also a teacher, a monk and a cowboy. Hmm. Guardian Forces and the Junction system are both things that I couldn’t possibly comment on at the moment. Their true natures will reveal themselves as I play. The most interesting question right now is: who is this Laguna guy? Squall only encounters him in a dreamlike state. Knowing Final Fantasy, there are probably two parallel worlds, perhaps light and dark, or Laguna is Squall in a past life, or perhaps his brother on another planet.
In any case, enough talk, let the game begin!
I really enjoy the Final Fantasy series, with the exception of the Playstation era. VII, VIII and IX are ugly games with bad systems. Overblown and soulless. Or at least, that’s how I used to feel.
I recently finished VII again. It took me roughly 80 hours to do everything I cared to do, which is, everything in the game except gathering a handful of materia. I’ve always considered VII to be the second worst entry in the series (FFII is the worst, bar none). But for 10 years now, the adulation heaped upon this game got me doubting my original assessment. Was it really awesome in subtle in grand ways that I just didn’t get? I decided to confirm my impression.
This was all really started by reading VII story synopses. Final Fantasy VII has a really interesting story, it turns out. A story that I had either totally missed during my first play, or had more likely ignored because everything else about the game pissed me off. So my desire to re-experience the story coupled with my own self doubt, along with a healthy disinterest in any new games, triggered my VII replay.
To make a very long story short, VII is a great story trapped in a bad game. I still think the game itself is weaker than just about every other entry. In any case, this blog is about VIII.
VIII is a different animal than VII for me. I know so little about it, it’s basically a brand new game as far as I’m concerned. I’ve decided I’m willing to give it a chance. How can I pretend to know anything about the series if I’ve only experienced part of it? What kind of completionist would I be?
As I play, some of my judgment criteria will be:
- are the characters unique? Do they have abilities that differentiate them beyond their limit breaks? Do the game’s systems render each character generic and interchangeable?
- Are the graphics appealing, or are the characters just a rough collection of cubes on drab backgrounds?
- Is the score emotional and affecting, or is it essentially a step backwards from previous titles?
- Is the game flow constantly interrupted by ill-conceived mini-games?
From the instructions, it looks like Final Fantasy: High School Musical. All the characters are so young and pretty and are apparently in some Garden high school. However, it is refreshing to not see any wolf or robotic cat characters. The Gunblade is quite cool. This is where Final Fantasy, and Japanese game companies in general, excel: excellent design.
Squall seems very Cloud-ish, Rinoa the Aeris stand-in. Selphie is ostensibly the required annoying female, a la Yuffie or Riku. There’s also a teacher, a monk and a cowboy. Hmm. Guardian Forces and the Junction system are both things that I couldn’t possibly comment on at the moment. Their true natures will reveal themselves as I play. The most interesting question right now is: who is this Laguna guy? Squall only encounters him in a dreamlike state. Knowing Final Fantasy, there are probably two parallel worlds, perhaps light and dark, or Laguna is Squall in a past life, or perhaps his brother on another planet.
In any case, enough talk, let the game begin!
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