Final Fantasy VI

[Metroid66]

To encourage those forumites currently stroking their beards/chins in contemplation of joining this playthru I hereby create this topic.

 

Evaluate yourselves, your choices, the futile desire for modernity. Do you really need that many pixels in your life? Does 120 frames per second gaming somehow justify your existence? What's wrong with 15?

 

Sunday, 14th of April.

 

Cometh the thread, cometh the men!

[one-armed dwarf]

Well, 15 frames per minute is 1 frame per 4 seconds, so it would be very challenging to input the button sequence needed to get Sabin to suplex the train. 

 

(also I think VI actually ran at 60, or maybe 30. Depends on the video signal maybe)

[Metroid66]

Joke analysis.

 

I like your style. You're in!

 

Joke refined in editor. 

[Metroid66]

I just had a quick look at my version on Switch. I didn't know it had that ATB meter. I always thought that was a 7 invention. I quite like that system.

[Maryokutai]

So I decided to play this after all. Can't guarantee I'll follow a certain schedule but it'l be nice to finally (hopefully) see it through until the end after my short-lived attempt on the PS1 (such bad ports, loading times galore). 

 

First thing I did was changing the font to pixelated. Second thing I did was changing the OST to original. Not that the remixes aren't good, but some themes suffer a bit from over-instrumentalisation I think, with Terra's theme being an unfortunate early victim of this.

[OCH]

Spoiler

 

[Metroid66]

No schedule as far as I'm concerned. Just play and comment as you would for any game, especially if the game hits the old 'sacked that off, mate' spot.

 

 

[Maryokutai]

I'm 5 hours in and I'm not loving it to be honest. The first 30 minutes are, and have always been, fantastic and as good as a game from that era could possibly be in setting up a plot and scenario while leaving some things blank. But they soon start with the usual JRPG thing of throwing stuff at the wall and using everything and very few of those things are actually good IMO. Splitting up the party for example has never been a good idea and it's interesting to see how that concept has survived through the ages when it's so painfully obvious that limiting toolsets in an RPG is not what the player is there for. I'm now at a part where you have to go through a dozen fights before facing a boss and the game gives you a misleading hint beforehand which can result in you having to start over.

 

So far, so meh. We'll see where it goes from here. At least I think I have a full party now moving forward. This also made me realise I barely played the PS1 port at all considering I don't even remember the team splitting up.

[Metroid66]

Grabbed a good hour on this. Look really good on the switch screen. My big telly swells up the pixels a bit mad, but it stills looks good docked, like someone made a cut price Octopath.😀

 

Up to now I've named three characters, but played only 2. Feels pretty good to play, I must say.

[mfnick]

Bit behind but got it downloaded. Will be joining in soon. 

[OCH]

Eight hours in, I decided to end the first session at the Veldt (Just recruited Gau). Yes, I have been min-maxing. I was level 10 by the time I left Narshe. Currently the three parties are all roughly around level 15. Auto battle really takes all difficulty from the battle system. Especially Blitz. Set the correct input (it helps they are on the screen in this version) and from that point on, just press auto and watch the enemies melt. Of course I did suplex the Ghost Train (you have to, really). But in spite of the frequent party splits. I remember this one being a lot more challenging/difficult than it is?

[Maryokutai]

I mean it's obviously going to be easy if you overlevel your party. Kinda nuts that auto battle covers Blitz as well though, haven't really tried the feature yet.

 

I've died against three bosses so far, mostly a case of not knowing what I'm up against than anything else though. Which is kind of how games of that era balanced themselves to be fair, because the mechanics themselves aren't super deep, at least in the beginning. There's only so much your team can do or deal with, so throwing something at you that you don't expect is one of few ways to make it challenging (the other being pure number inflation).

 

I was rather negative in my other post, so I'd like to say that I still adore its soundtrack – I've also began to switch around between Classic and Arranged, some stuff does sound decent in the new version after all. And I appreciate that it went for a more limited colour palette, which was unusual for its time and pretty much set the tone for both VII and VIII.

[OCH]

29 minutes ago, Maryokutai said:

I mean it's obviously going to be easy if you overlevel your party.

I don't actually think I'm that overleveled, to be honest. The multi-spells and Blitz technics that I've been using are default. I guess in respect to the former, I just have more experience with magic usage in FF than when I first played this, back during the PSOne collection. Also each new party member tends to be a level or two higher than the player character. I assume that is a set value. Similarly I didn't remember that certain areas/events don't give you experience at all. Just Gil. Which, by this point I have already amassed about 30K. Suffice to say, new armour and weapons are immediately affordable. 

[one-armed dwarf]

I don't know what min max means in this context but these older FFs don't really require you to grind I think (at least not the 16/32 bit ones). You can generally speed through and the speedbumps you hit along the way are by design

[Metroid66]

I closed out just under 3 hours. I'm trying not to grind because of something I learned when I 'accidentally' watched a tips and tricks video.

 

However, my nature is to battle, learn, develop my characters and thrill to see that extremely gratifying 'level up' notification. It's just the way I like to play these games. And this battle system is pretty cool. It's fast, flash and full of charm. It's what I was hoping for, and faster and more fleshed out than I was expecting for a game this old.

 

Fact is, when I'm free to grind I probably will, because I like nothing better than the feeling of power you can get in these games by levelling. It doesn't ruin it. For me it makes it better. 

 

That's one of the reasons I was bit cold on FF7 remake. That game just didn't want me to get powerful enough to trash it's big bosses. I've always thought that in a good RPG that decision should be the players, and the players alone.

[one-armed dwarf]

Not the topic for it I know but you really should play FFVIII

 

edit to include a bit of context I mean cause it's a game where powering up beyond reasonable levels has never been half as interactive and interesting as in VIII. It's the best game for this specific thing (XII is also good at it though)

[Metroid66]

Well this (for me, not the others) is a franchise playthru. I'll be prioritising the games I haven't played which includes 8, 16, 13 + sequels, 9 and rebirth, and the better regarded spin offs like crisis core. Depending on my experience with 6 I might also have a bash at the other recommended 2d effort, 4.

[Nag]

If you slate 8 I'm blocking you...👍

[OCH]

Session two concludes at the Opera House. I can't remember if this was the first FF that had a mini-game set piece? It's so weird and amusing in equal measure. I actually failed it a couple of times. Because I didn't follow what they were asking. Obviously, I am skipping over a lot of spoilery details here. But if I'm remembering the game properly. I should be done with the game in another couple of days. 

 

I had also forgotten how different the Enemy Skill mechanic is in this game. Also how game breaking some of those abilities can be.

[Maryokutai]

I reached the same point yesterday and I think I'm finally liking the game. I mean you have to have a heart of stone to not fall in love with it during that scene, really well executed, especially considering its age.

 

The new gameplay additions you unlock shortly before that are super interesting, too. Give you significantly more control over how to develop your characters, vaguely reminiscent of the whole EV stuff in Pokémon but thankfully more openly communicated by the game. I have not looked into Gau at all though, and probably never will. Don't really like those RNG mechanics.