ShadowPaladin V1.0

*grins* the first time i played a ff game, i looked after levelling up each time. then i found that none of the insanely numerous values actually really meant anything, except "X gets more uber". Ah, kefka, there is a difference. At level 99 of a final fantasy game, you've got spells of mass destruction, innumerable immunities, and basically maxed out the limits of that particular RPG character system. In D&D, you haven't done that yet; so think of FF's level 99 as.... TOB level 50. There's just nowhere else to go because you can't make magic or build golems or whatever. Every system has its limits. D&D just makes you take a looooong time to get there. The real difference is that in D&D , or any known system for that matter you have a benchmark of progress. Also because D&D was never really intended to go to those levels you end up with a lot of stuff tagged on. Having never gotten to level 99 in any of the FF games I cant really say how effective it is. But as its possible to finish the games in the mid 50's and lower one would assume its merely a matter of scaling damage and abilities.

Horrible title. Fits in with attack of the clowns though. The creeping fear sounds like a Lovecraft book

Depends if you played the PC version or the PSX version. The PSX version dosnt have any control issues which is not suprising as the game was designed for it. You dont need to be a fanboy just need to be open minded. It took moving in with a Japanese girl to break down my prejudices so I'm generally not suprised.

Do you know what depth is ?

There were a couple of times when you had to use a specific party member, or when one of your main team. Like Cloud for a good while , was unavailable and you had to draft in a replacement. Thats where KOTOR had a one up. Because everyone advanced at the same time when they were in your party or not it made it far easier to switch. I dated Tifa first time. I dont know if it was just luck or if I picked up tips from FFX (where whoever you talk to first and most determines some event outcomes). I've only played it once. It's not what I would call my favourite FF but sure people are always going to have different NPC preferences. Those who really connected with Aeris got a little extra emotion out of the game

No they lack choice. The depth puts most of the non Japanese RPG efforts to shame. Dont confuse depth with choice.

The StarForge is a constant. It dosnt matter what choices you made during the game the StarForge was always going to be there. It's a an element common to everyone who has played KOTOR. Where as things that depend upon player choice are not. The romances in KOTOR were not very well done compared to those in BGII. Most stories have a hero that dosnt discover his true heritage right away. Take Luke he was brought up as a moisture farmer. It was only a "chance" meeting that led him on the path to being a Jedi otherwise he would have been toasted by StormTroopers like the rest of the family. These sorts of things are generally much easier to carry off in a story where you dont have that old element of choice to screw things up. Imagine in SW was an RPG and you chose not to chase after R2. No more story unless you expend the effort to write multiple paths to get you to the same place. 1. True but the best way to differenciate would be like this. FF is a story you experience. A classic RPG is a story you write within a given set of parameters. The Japanese are very demanding about closure in a game , as they are about complete characters. Interesting piece on Gamestop recently about tips for breaking into the Japanese market. 2. Viconia was a rewarding romance at least from my characters perspective. While love is a good motivator again you are faced with the problem of if you want to use it as a plot device the character has to go along with that. Unless you remove their freedom of choice. 3. There are always problems with direct sequels in RPGs. In JK II the character grew along the path that the designers chose from JK. Same with Yuna in FFX-2. In both cases Kyle and Yuna were not significantly more powerful than they were at the start of the previous game. Because Yuna was effectively starting over in a new class and growth is never really a major aspect of an FPS so Kyle never changed a great deal statistically. Where as if you put a level 20 character (or party) into a game it basically dictates the whole design. 5. There are a bajillion JRPGs which follow the strong story less customisation mold. There is a greater tradition of choice in the classic RPG's and that choice comes at a price of a weaker story. But its one that many people are more than willing to pay. I do wonder how succesful KOTOR would have been had it not hidden its plot twist so well and had you playing a specific character from the start PST style. It's not so much that the character needs to look different. As the character needs to be different. If you took two peoples experiences of and FF game, they would be quite similiar (dscounting combat results and secrets) . If you took two peoples experiences of KOTOR then they would be different. The chance of getting two people who picked the exact same options would be pretty high. There wasnt really a need to go into detail as all those things you mention can be summed up by costs and sales anyway.

Yep but whenever she wasnt forced on you as a party member she wasnt in my party. Dating Tiffa isnt that hard. But the parameters for dating Barret are quite obscure.

1. The problem here is you take the liberty that the character actual did romance either one of them. Similiar to BG where they concluded that you must like Imoen. 2.Yes there should be plenty of empty space in the SW timeline to fit a game into. Thats probably the least difficult part of it. Odd numbering system but anyway.. 1. In the FF games because the character are already written you can shape a much more intricate story and conclusion around them. The ending dosnt have to allow for the myriad of possibilites that have occured in the game because you know them from the design perspective already. Even in KOTOR you have two distinct outcomes which means you are already doing twice as much as if there was one specific outcome no matter what. In FFX-2 for example you only got the best ending if you got a high enough score in the game and you fulfilled certain conditions as well. But overall yes the longer and more rewarding the ending the better. 2. Again you dont have to take character choice into consideration here. Tidus and Yuna will always fall in love. The writers knew this as they wrote the story (though they were going to let you choose but they ran out of space and the idea of X-2 occured to them anyway). KOTOR and BG II actually allow you romance choices. They allow you to screw it up as well which tends to kill of the whole romance thing as a continuing plot. JK 2 is another game where the romance is pre scripted and your just playing out the version that is written. With a classic RPG the concept of having to make someone fall in love to drive the story is an alien one. The option to fall in love is there but you dont have to take it if its not in character for you. Generally any concept of choice will always weaken the story unless the choice is irrelevent in the wider sceme of things. 3. Dont see how you are realistically going to import a level 20 Jedi Master into a new game. Unless you do it either in the same way that Golden Sun II did or you import them as the antagonist of the piece (name slips my mind but I think it was one of the Shining games). Well unless you happen to be walking along a street in Coruscant and a plant pot falls on your head 5. You can never have too much character customisation when you are talking about freeform character creation. If you have the characters reapear you get the same issues you do in BGII only this time without an "magic" answers. Its better to leave them as history, because history isnt perfect anyway which can explain any inconcistences. Devs dont not make games for the PC because they hate it or anything. They dont make them because its been shown that its not profitable to do so compared console games. Pushing things farther is not always a good idea. Ask the people who are making Dukenukem forever sometime. You have to balance what you can realistically do with your evolutionary choices.

I loved the chocobo racing as well but it also suffered from the bad controls. I don't mind the minigames but the controls are usually so stiff and unresponsive that it adds another challenge of fighting the controls, that kind of challenge shouldn't even be there to begin with. I cant honestly say I have experienced any control issues. However the Chocobo racing is one of those minigames which has a long term reward. You need to breed a Gold Chocobo in order to reach the Knights of the round summon (and copycatting that is the easy way to take down the weapons). So even though it will take you a long time there is something very special at the end. But at the same time it's not something that is essential to completing the game so your never forced to do it (outside of one Chocobo race if I recall).

How could you NOT enjoy Chocobo Racing ?

You know that one is toned down from the Japanese version. Except the Japanese version has a bug which allows you to ride through the birds in certain circumstances. :ph34r: The reward is definately worth the effort in any case even if its not essential to completing the game. I gave up after getting 0.00 twice. After that I just lost my focus and asked Yuki to do it. Frustration is another one of those things that dosnt really have a gauge. I think the best approach is to not make any of the mini games essential to completing the main path and leave it at that.

Is that the one where you need to get below a time of 0.00 to get the sun emblem ? Or the one where you race the Chocobo for the cloudy mirror and get a better prize based on which chest you open ? I never could finish the first one. On the other hand the butterfly one was relatively easy..

I'm used to them, though when they were in the planning stages I asked them time after time not to add them. The mini games were so easy they need not have bothered with them. And the rewards were useless too. If you look at any of the Squenix mini games, the reward (even if its long term) is well worth the effort. And the games are at least moderately engaging which is more than you can say about the KOTOR ones. So I doubt they made anyone happy with the mini games. For the RPG purists they were an aspect of the game that bore no relation to the character. And to people who are actually used to mini games they were an insult to our mini gaming skills. I cant think of a single thing that any of the games added (im excluding Parzak) to the game. And I dont think I have seen anyone who thought otherwise.

Yes and in the same way every game of Diablo2 is different. It's actually more different because you can change more variables than you can in FO. The maps are for the most part random. The enemies are randomised and most important of all you never know what your going to get each time you kill one. Diablo works on two levels. The carrot - items are so random that killing the same thing rarely results in the same item. The collector - In the same way that people will eat 100 boxes of ceral to complete a collection , so people will play Diablo to get what they think their character needs to be complete. Toss in a little competition and you have some very powerful driving forces. Even if you allow for the multipath nature of the gameplay in FO your still doing the same thing over and over. Enemies will be the same, the maps will be the same. The items will be the same. So FO fits your argument for repition much better than D2 does. Well I wouldnt want to offend anyone It's not like it's even an arguement. People like different things people will always like different things. Just because they dont happen to like the same things as you dosnt make them stupid. There is a big difference between what you can do and what you want to do for fun. I can do complex math if I really have to. But I'd never do it for fun.

Thats the best way of doing of it. You cant make someone feel something. It's impossible. But you can make expect them to miss someone they have spent the last 10 hours playing through. In my case I used Tiffa and Barret. I took Tiffa on the date and Aeris was rarely in my party. So when Aeris was killed outside of the usual lets get some payback there wasnt really any feeling of loss. On the other hand if it had happened to Tiffa , someone who had been an important part of my game upto that point I would have felt it on a much more personal level. So while killing off a party character can be a powerful thing. It only reaches its full impact when its been a character that someone has either connected with or has been using in the party for a time.

Unlikely as non of those things are Xbox limitations anyway. They did it that way because they wanted it that way. Not because the Xbox couldnt handle extra classes/feats/etc. As I said previously since you were going to be a Jedi from chapterII its pointless going to town on other classes.

People are moved by different things. Never had an impact on me either except for wanting to kick Sephiroths butt. If it had been Tiffa that would have been a whole different ballgame. I just find it intensely creepy that you can "date" Barret and dress up as a girl. The concert in FFX-2 where Yuna and Lenne sing "One thousand years" is very well done and packed with emotion. Then again so is the lake scene in FFX if you know what the purpose of the summoners journey is at the time.

Thats normal. The bonus bosses are always stronger than the end boss. Shinryuu is my favourite one. Four Lancer/Ninja's with lances of dragon slaying. B) X Death was $toss'd to death.

It's very good I just seem to prefer the ones where the summons are intergrated into the story. VI IX X And V because I just love the job system. The only mini game I have ever gone out of my way to play is Chocobo hot&cold.

1. I can remember quite a bit about all of them. But then compared to when they were released I have played them very recently. 2. It's very well done but its still based around what is essentially a mini game which has nothing to do with Squalls abilities. It's a matter of whether or not you can do it without making it a mine game. And non JRPGs dont usually have a seperate battle "field". 3. You could either draw them to use or draw them to store for strengthening your junctions. As each of my characters had multiple GF's I got through rather a lot of cards. Cerberus and his triple and Eden and her triple. Which entailed finding whatever had those cards and sitting there drawing them till you reach 99. I found mugging much more fun, takes less time and your never sure what your going to get.

The Jet Pack mini game. That would be the one where Riona gets knocked off the edge and you have to go around the opposite way to rescue her? In the case of that one not difficult to create because it only had two outcomes. Either you fell off or you got the jet pack. The rest of the action was very much background only which you had no actual control over. The beach scene was similiar , what it does very well is to give you a feeling of being part of something much bigger than your own individual combat. Not a huge fan of VIII never liked the overlong battles as you drew cards.

In X and X-2 the CGI is saved for the big cinematic moments. Yuna and "Tidus" down by the lake in Macalania woods. And the big concert in the Thunder Plains in FFX-2 (which I couldnt figure out until I saw what they had planned then it was just a case of WOW!).Though it bothers me that they translated the song... Otherwise they use the engine. But things have come on in leaps and bounds since FFVII technology wise. Thats them. I just call them interactive cut scenes.I much prefer the idea of not being locked in place while an event is occuring.

The problem with a game with a single character is everything hinges on the character. It dosnt matter what personality you can give them if someone dosnt want to be that character in the first place. Also for anyone with an inkling about Planescape PSTs end was obvious from the start. So Fallouts quality is shown by the number of people still playing it ? Oki doki how many people are still play D2 ? Perhaps games are like women. Once you find one you really get on with you cant look at others in the same way..

Well people are very visual creatures. If a picture is worth a 1000 words then a cutscene is worth a million. Now that the technology had come to a point where you can use the game engine to produce most of the cutscenes they are more and more common than in the days when you needed to cut away from the game and a have a CGI movie play. Generally the more complex the story the more scenes you will require to tell it. Personally I just treat them as I did the reams of text in PST. Which had very much the same purpose and effect as cutscene has in KOTOR. Someone must remember something about HL