admittedly i probably played ffx “wrong,” but it felt like the worst of final fantasy’s general audience approach to design and balance, where they never commit to anything in particular so as to facilitate the playstyles of as many players as possible. each boss felt like mush, there was never much in the way of tension or strategy involved aside from some vague gimmicks, and i ended the game without the sense that i really understood it significantly better than i did at the beginning. the battle system itself is fine and pretty elegant compared to bland 90s atb, but it’s never used in an interesting way imo. it does mesh well with the tonally ambivalent, one-thing-after-another, meandering/lopsided pace of the narrative progression (which is totally thematically intentional), but i wasn’t particularly fond of that either.
battles in ff13 arent random and generally feel like theyre testing something, prticularly bc it scores you on time. i generally feel engaged in combat cos im trying to optimise, learn where i can cut corners & play riskier to get a better time etcetc
you cld still cut a bunch of encounters out with minimal loss, but theres generally an evident progression in the sequencing, even if its just a series like “fight against monster x -> 2 monster x -> 2 monster x and monster y -> 2 monster x but your party composition is different”. in another world there’s 50 video essays on youtube breaking down encounter sequences like mario 1-1 or whatever
im v sympathetic to the vaguely managerial combat system, watching bars to balance maximising dps output vs keeping health up aligns well with the fugue structure of the rest of the game & themes & world design
being able to swap out characters during battles without taking a turn is the only good thing ffx did
besides x-2
It’s awesome to see yoy say this because this has been my take for years too! The progression is so tight and considered and I liked having to work out optimizing my limited toolkit with each fight, building on the knowledge of the previous step.
It’s such a viscerally satisfying combat system when you’re nailing your shifts with just the right timing.
if ur a dork and interested in these sorts of things the speedrun strats are really cool and optimized/technical
La-Mulana (PS4) - is it just my speakers and/or ears, or is the remake’s music kind of really loud and grating by default?
since i figured out bauldurs gate 2 dark alliance has bunny hopping i CANT STOP DOING IT AND ITS TRYING TO RUIN THE GAME FOR MEEEEEE
ITS THE FASTEST WAY TO TRAVEL DAPHNY
from what i’ve read, it was generally pretty highly regarded in Japan
Ah, but what if, I hate both?
truly the quantum superposition of FF takes
What if I think X is pretty OK and XIII is pretty fantastic?
absolutely cannot stand x
in 2010 i was one of the ‘xiii sucks until you get to the open area with hunts and you can really mess with the genuinely interesting battle system’ people, i dunno how i’d feel about it now
lightning returns is gold though
I never played XIII because I so utterly and aggressively despise X which was what I heard it being compared to
in fact I hate it so much that I cannot bring myself to even be curious about XIII
I’ve never really understood all the fuss about Lightning Returns. Granted I havent played xiii or the sequel but I didn’t come for the plot.
The world building is non-existent so whilst there are sort-of-open areas for you to explore, there is no incentive to. The first two towns you visit in game are also essentially circular corridors and the open field area is just that, an open field with nothing of interest.
The quest system is just a series of half-baked fetch quests from your standard jrpg template e.g find this guy, find this cat, deliver this package etc.
The actual battle system is entertaining and strategically interesting but is heavily dependent on finding new outfits which involves solving inane sidequests to unlock. The game completely failed to create a compelling gameplay loop for me.
Would rather play X again on a PAL PS2 with audio desyncs and slow-mo Tidus.
I would be infinitely more interested in playing XIII if it was a third of the length, as I am quite curious about it. One of the ideas I’ve had over the past few weeks would be romhacks/mods that would cut down unwieldy JRPGs to a more manageable length and I definitely thought XIII would be a great candidate for something like that
which final fantasy game do you think brian wilson would like the most?
i feel like X is probably the cheap choice because of the setting, but in reality it would probably be either 8 or 13
no way, 9
He’d dig the seaside ambiace of 8 and it’s various port towns.
He most certainly would not dig being a hired mercenary fighting a time travelling sorceress. He’d probably have a panic attack. No way he’s stepping foot on the Ragnarok.
He would love being called a SEED from GARDEN. Holy shit wowza.
If only he could junction ‘Love’ & ‘Mercy’ to status attack.
In summary, Brian Wilsons favourite Final Fantasy game would be Moon for the Sony Playstation or L.o.L for the Sega Dreamcast.