Lurker > andylt

Uncharted, Half-Life (I like it but not a massive fan), I used to be a fan of Fire Emblem but I fell off that pretty hard, and uhhh that might be it. Smash Bros is probably the only series where I buy every entry but don't consider myself a massive fan.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

I've only met him once so far but he's already been pretty rapey so gotta say negative! He has been the source of fun memes though.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

We get some backstory for Sabin at Figaro Castle, and the brothers comfort each other. The scene is decent if a bit standard, I wonder how this would play out if I hadn't brought Edgar with me. The castle buries itself under the sand and moves to the other side of the mountains, where we find the town of Kohlingen. This time it's Locke's turn for backstory (Hey I was lucky picking the right team members!) and indeed there's a woman in his life who he believes he failed to save. But it is a bit more complicated than that, as she is apparently dead but still being... preserved in some way by some herbs, and there's a treasure somewhere (apparently in the Imperial capital of Vector) that could send Rachel's soul back to her body. We see a few flashbacks here and Celes has a brief moment thinking about Locke, again I wonder if that's just cut out if I don't have her with me.

Apparently Terra has been here and burned someone's house but then flew south, so I head north to a little cabin whose owner wants to build a coliseum. So there must be some kind of timeskip or something here. We trek all the way down to Jidoor, a posh town of posh people who are nonetheless still split into their own sort of caste system. Lol. We get told about an opera house, and I have to say I think this is the first time in a JRPG that I've seen opera be featured. I am remembering hearing about a famous opera scene in this game, now that I think about it. Our party gets told we look like the famous opera singer Maria (I'm guessing he was talking to Celes, not party leader Locke) and up in the fancy part of fancy town there's a bunch of paintings we don't seem to be able to do anything with, including one of a lady and one of an Ultros.

The poor people from Jidoor have been pushed out and moved north to the funkily named Zozo, where we head next as the Opera House is closed :( . I get so tempted here to ride back to Narshe and swap out team members to see if there's different dialogue options/backstory scenes with Cyan/Gau/Shadow, but I don't do so.

Zozo is a cool looking rundown town with threatening looking monsters and just generally a pretty urban and modern look for a town compared to the more medieval vibes of Jidoor and the rest. I soon realise our goal here, to find the correct inputs for a clock in the Inn. It takes me a bit to realise/remember that literally everybody lies here, and we end up wandering the whole town looking for info, fighting an awful lot of battles along the way. There's some fun dialogue with all the lies around, at one point a string of villagers run up each telling us a different time on the clock. Thankfully my note-taking for this topic helps me keep track of what isn't true, and we eventually get enough info.

Turns out that's not the main plot here though, because traveling up and across the buildings we find a friendly villager who claims to be weak and will let us pass, lol. Great intro for a boss fight. The fight itself isn't very hard, Sabin's Aura Cannon hits like a truck and with Locke's Mug and Edgar's many Tools we make short work of him. Our reward is finding Terra, still unconscious, and Ramuh! The Esper gives us plenty of exposition and important lore, seems like summons are gonna be very very important in this narrative. Notably Terra herself is not quite an Esper, but something else. Ramuh pretty much dies and converts himself to Magicite, and we gain him and his three compatriots Siren, Cait Sith (!) and Kirin. Surprisingly no Ifrit or Shiva just yet, they're normally early!

Terra does not come with us, our next goal is to head to the Imperial continent and rescue some other Espers that should help Terra come to terms with her identity. It's time for a new party (I swap out Sabin for Cyan, for now), and we get an intro to how Espers work in this game. It seems very cool, kind of a proto-junction system from VIII, and everybody now has MP and access to spells and summons. Guess I'm allowed to grind now, hopefully! With this new mechanic it feels like I'm properly out of the 'intro' now and into the main game, I'm very happy about this development.

Before leaving I solve the clock puzzle and get a Chainsaw! A powerful tool that seems like it can insta-kill some enemies. Fun! Back at Jidoor it is confirmed to us that Celes is indeed a lookalike of Maria, and as luck would have it Maria has an admirer who possesses the only airship in the world. An airship we need to reach the Imperial Continent down south. The biggest twist in this game so far is that this guy is not in fact named Cid, but Setzer. I would've bet money on that! Setzer is 'free from society's narrow views of morality', which could swing either way depending on how you look at it, given that he plans to kidnap Maria he seems like a shady dude but the text intro implies he's gonna be in our party so who knows.

I'm really getting into things now that we have the Esper system in play, and I'm very much looking forward to heading to the Opera House next time!

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

colliding posted...

ffvi has SO MANY scenes that I use to judge other jrpg's it's ridiculous.

I am excited for more of this stuff!

(Page break)

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

Cool topic idea!

For reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqZghYkfwLM

My vote is for IV DS specifically (though VI is great): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbC2cmwx9Vo

Also major shout-out to Shadowbringers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNuP8cB6RZY

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

ZeroSignal620 posted...

Final Fantasy has a huge tendency to choke in the finals of these tournaments.

Hades > FF7R in the finals confirmed!

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

I forgot that recruiting Shadow was even optional, I wonder why.

Well the Terra+Edgar+Banon scenario is indeed incredibly short, a quick rapids ride and they just wander into Narshe the same way Terra and Locke left before. In fact they don't even accomplish anything here, the townspeople don't believe them and it's only Locke and Celes who know that the Empire plans to attack. And it's not like that knowledge does any good because Kefka shows up right now anyway! Ah well, the gang is back together, with some new additions.

There are some conflicts and intriguing relationships brewing here- apparently Terra and Celes have known each other before, and Celes was injected with magic at a young age. Terra also asks her out of nowhere if it's possible for her to love anyone. Odd. Cyan does not take kindly to Celes's presence here, and the group has a brief debate about the Empire. Edgar claims that though the Empire is evil, not all of its citizens are. ...That's true, but Celes was a general! A high ranking officer who apparently laid waste to Maranda of her own free will! Seems a little inaccurate to equate her to a random civilian, or indeed to Terra, who was brainwashed and made a puppet of. I'm sure there'll be a whole journey/backstory to Celes, but as it stands I don't exactly blame Cyan for not trusting the lady who like 5 minutes ago was apparently working with Kefka and Gestahl.

Locke also defends Celes, but for the same reason that he is protective of Terra. Still hung up on some promise he must've made to a woman in the past that I guess he didn't manage to keep. Edgar warns Celes of this pretty much but she makes it clear she is no love-starved twit (good!). We then have a series of battles to get to Kefka before his team reaches Banon, and this is much harder than the first version of this kind of fight we had back in the mines. I'm not sure if I split the group wisely- my teams were Sabin/Celes, Terra/Locke, and the other three. I kept the mages apart, and we laid waste to several dozen enemies before I remembered that we have to actively move south to end it. Oops! The music here is a nice remix of the terrific overworld theme. There's also been a slower version of that theme played earlier so I'm guessing it's the equivalent of this game's main theme.

Unfortunately I use up a lot of healing items and have some very bad luck in Kefka (who actually fights us this time) casting Blizzara moments before Celes casts Runic. I fail on him a few times and have to eventually restart the mission. Second time round I just rush right to the bottom with Sabin and Celes, wasting everyone in our path. This is a surprisingly effective tactic, and the Hell's Raiser doesn't halt us much. Against Kefka I get into a routine of Raging Fist with Sabin and Runic with Celes, and we're pretty much untouchable. He runs away eventually and the rest disappear.

Reaching the Esper Terra first knocks Locke, then the rest of the party over the side of a cliff, and seems compelled to interact with the Esper against her will. She turns into a... something, as Celes aptly states it, and flies around the world, apparently heading west. Huh, didn't see that coming. Everybody decides to go look for her, so now it's time to properly decide on a party. I am not used to this after IV and V had set parties the whole games lol. I never know whether to put people I already like into the party or pick new ones so I can warm to them more. I have tentatively put in Sabin, Celes, Locke and Edgar but I'm open to changing it.

I get some new gear, rest in the Elder's bed for free (up yours, 200 Gil Inn), and see a weird yeti like creature taunt me from within the mine. I don't seem to be able to reach it inside so that's something to make a note of for later. There's also a locked chest, gotta remember that too. Leaving it here for today, it was a short one but we made some progress.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BestialityIsDepraved

Well... charming. TBF, far more games here than I expected.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

They're both bad but 3 bored me more, at least Resurrection has fun bits if you turn your mind off. What a waste of Charles Dance in 3. And yeah Weaver is lots of fun in Res.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

Galaxy 2 is great pure 3D Mario, if you've played Galaxy 1 you know exactly what to expect. 3D Land is a very fun mix of SMB style and the 3D style, if a bit slight looking back. I love Yoshi's Island but it's very different from Mario games, a much slower paced collectathon so only play it if you're looking for different vibes.

Haven't played 3D World and Odyssey is of course very good but you have no shortage of great Mario titles on you so I'd go through the others first!

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

The Phantom Forest has a cool aesthetic, and a camera angle that isn't completely top down! One of the most surprising things about this game so far is how far the graphics advanced since V. Anyway the forest is a short Lost Woods-esque location, but soon we arrive at the true dungeon, the Phantom Train. This place is cool, I am always a fan of train sequences in video games (and they had quite a run of trains with FF6-7-8 it seems!). This train is the equivalent of a ferry ride across the River Styx, taking souls to their final destination. It's a cool creepy setting, in theory more than practice.

We get a ghost pal in our party who can 'possess' (kill) enemies and then disappear. Cool. There's also a guy named Siegfried who claims to be a great swordsman, but I guess he accidentally picked up Excalipoor because he does single digit damage. He takes some treasure and flees, and I don't see him again. Hopefully I didn't miss another encounter with him on this train. We do have a difficult fight with an Apparition, who casts pretty strong spells in rapid succession. We barely take him down because I'm a fool and forget that undead enemies are vulnerable to Phoenix Downs in literally every game. Guessing that's what I was supposed to do there because there's two Phoenix Downs in nearby chests >_>

The ghosts start getting creepier, multiplying in number and chanting No Escape among other things as they surround us. Now this is more like it! Sabin jumps a few carriages ahead (I guess he was carrying the other two?) and we eventually flee them and have a nice meal. Actually four nice meals, I swap the party around to see the different dialogue. Shadow feeds Interceptor and our ghost pal remains silent but seems to enjoy its food.

At the front we stop the sentient train and have a boss fight on our hands. I use Meteor Strike as recommended and Sabin lifts the train into the air and slams it down for massive damage. Lol. I vaguely recall memes about this now that are making more sense to me. Sabin is living up to the lovable brute archetype pretty nicely! The train isn't actually a problem, and after punching it a bit it lets us off. We then have a pretty haunting scene of Cyan's wife and son boarding the train to the afterlife, giving him a bit of closure but in a pretty horrendous way. Oof. I lost our ghost pal before the boss fight so I don't know what would happen with him if he was still around.

Shadow leaves the party at the nearby waterfall :( but Cyan sticks with Sabin as we leap over the edge. Sabin just has no fear, huh. We wash up in Veldt, with a different overworld theme and tougher monsters. The boy who rescues us, Gau, appears in random battles hungry but feeding him the Green Cherries I have does nothing. The town nearby gives us some Dried Meat, new equipment and we send a letter to Maranda on behalf of an injured soldier. Gau accepts the meat and has a pretty lol sequence bouncing around with Sabin, and bonding with Sir Thou. Kappa shows up to teach me how to give Gau new abilities, but honestly he seems to have a pretty decent amount already. Is this our equivalent of a Blue Mage in this game? Pretty neat way to do it, imo! And more than a few Ayla vibes on this kid.

We find the diving helmet treasure Gau wants to give us after he messes with Sabin a little, and, yes, it's time to jump off another cliff into some water. Is 'Sabin jumping off of cliffs into water' the new 'Lenna poisoning herself to heal Wind Drakes'? We shall see. If this game ever gets remade in live action I hope they keep the utterly bonkers death-defying bouncing around everybody does. Anyway we travel underwater (sharing the helmet I guess), head through a cave, and wind up in a town I forgot to write down the name of. We get supplies, somebody gives us some lore about the aged man in the cabin- we did get some lore back in Veldt, but this time it's bigger. He threw out his baby he saw as a monster after his wife died in childbirth some 13 years ago. Was Gau the kid? Time shall tell!

This time we take a ship, I guess there was no river to jump into that would take us to South Figaro, and so ends this pretty lengthy fun scenario. I wanted to get through both today but this took longer than I thought, so Terra and co will have to wait! We've met like 9 proper party members according to the equip screen in the shops but there's still several empty spaces, this game is packed full of people huh.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

Wait how has this tournament been running since 1996 when the first gfax contest was 2002? Also surprised at FF having never won before! Will this be the year?

Edit: I am an idiot I just realised you probably ran contests for the early years more recently >_>

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

Now there's a New Year's Sale featuring some first party titles! Generally just 30% off, but it's games you don't often see on offer. Notably:

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (and the Expansion Pass)
Super Mario Odyssey
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Luigi's Mansion 3 (and the Multiplayer Pack)
51 Worldwide Games
Captain Toad Treasure Tracker
Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Dragon Quest XI S
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Immortals: Fenyx Rising
Sonic Mania
Borderlands The Handsome Collection
XCOM 2 Collection
Bioshock Collection
Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled (Currently free to play for Switch Online users for a few days)
Civilization VI
Puyo Puyo Tetris 2
Ace Attorney Trilogy (Nothing on 3DS, for UK at least)

Weirdly still no Donkey Kong for poor Kate lol, and no Ninja Saviors for paperwarior. No idea if the US has this too.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

Whoops, I way overestimated the average. I guess I was thrown off by Shine and his trophy crew, assumed they'd all be in the hundreds. I should've thought about giant RPGs lowering the count, as they will likely do for me this year (gonna do more FFs and I have Xenoblade now).

Mr Crispy posted...

Slay the Spire (Ironclad)

Was this Act 4? I'm still having trouble with the Heart, I just can't get sufficient Block up with Ironclad.

Big Bob posted...

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey
AC: Origins
AC III: Remastered
AC Liberation Remastered
AC IV: Black Flag
AC Unity
AC Syndicate

I am impressed/slightly terrified by you playing so much Ass Creed in a single year. I get burned out after a single one and don't touch the series again for like 8 years >_>


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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

SeabassDebeste posted...

do sabin's route last and the other two in any order.

Whoops, missed this line before >_>

We start with a stealth quest of sorts in South Figaro. Locke has been busy hindering the imperials... somehow, I don't think we're told what he actually did, and now it's time to leave. This mainly involves stripping a bunch of innocent people and wandering around town. It's a fun sequence, I like when these games break up the fighting with stuff like this. The first time I inadvertently stole the merchant's clothes made me lol. The bits of lore placed around town are almost entirely to help us progress through the quest, I don't talk to the soldiers as a merchant or Locke out of fear of screwing the whole thing up. We do get told about a lady general who turned traitor and is locked away in this town somewhere though. Intriguing!

IDK where I was supposed to find the real password, but after the guy forgot what it was and clicking around that room didn't illuminate me any, I just guessed from the three options. It was the last one I guessed, of course. After a bit more running around we are introduced to Celes, a name I recognise. I am immediately intrigued by her, a turncoat general from the empire is not what I would've expected and honestly female playable FF characters don't usually get given this kind of backstory. Also intriguing is that I quickly learn she is a mage. Locke doesn't react in the slightest, guess he's used to it now. Their brief lines together are cool (she reminds Locke of someone), and I am looking forward to learning more about her. Best line option here: Stealing is wrong! I didn't pick it but lol at the idea of Locke choosing this, guess he really isn't a thief.

I forget to equip the two and scrape through our first battle, oops, but after that it's smooth sailing. We rest up in the bed I guess Sabin was using (I like that you can just sleep in strangers' beds), and not knowing where to go I try east to head back to the hideout. The mountains are blocked off by imperials (apparently they count as a town), so we head back west through the noisier tunnels now and eventually face Tunnel Knight. I was planning to ask what on earth Runic does but the game gives me a perfect tutorial here, it honestly seems pretty OP if you can spam it every turn to negate magic damage to almost zero!

Next up I pick Sabin. He meets up with Shadow, who is much more friendly than he was with Terra and co. There's an aged man and a very speedy chocobo merchant around here, but other than that not much. It seems that Shadow's dog sometimes counterattacks in battle for a lot of damage, Angelo eat your heart out. There goes yet another mechanic I thought VIII came up with!

In the imperial camp we are introduced to friendly "ethical" imperial general Leo (he seems nice but he's still on board with whatever Gestahl is doing...) and see more of Kefka's kefkaness. I'm glad they're not hiding that Kefka is clearly the central antagonist here, he has his own theme and we barely see the others, guess I wasn't spoiled after all. In Doma Castle we get our latest party member Cyan, a noble foreign retainer with a weird Bushido system. Kefka poisons the water supply (honestly a pretty savvy move), and I guess it's super poison cos everybody there dies immediately except Cyan and one guard he's with (do they just not drink water?). The King dies, but it's Cyan's presumable wife and young son dying that catch me off guard. Oof. Poor guy! This game really wants to have everyone be alone with no family, I am worried for the Figaro bros. Also very annoyed that Cyan doesn't open the chest in his room >_>

Cyan goes berserk mode and slaughters a bunch of imperials (literally, we can't control him in battle for a while) and eventually calms down and joins our group. Shadow and Cyan didn't take much convincing to come along with Sabin, really. There's no EXP gained in this sequence at all, and we get another brief time of annihilating people with Magitek armour. Onto the world map (Have I mentioned that I love the world map theme? It's so so good, maybe even better than VII's first) we head to Narshe via Phantom Forest. I leave it here for now. Monk + Assassin + Samurai, I guess this is the cool kid's club.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

I didn't know where to put the boundaries but I know some of you play a ridiculous number so I put them high >_>

I played way more in 2020 than I have in any previous year, 65 according to backloggery. Define 'beat' however you want! I figure lots of us played more than normal.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

I might try taking part in this if it's open to everyone. Probably won't come close to doing them all but it could be cool! How many people beat all 52 last year?

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

I feel like Soul benefitted greatly from coming out just a few days ago.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

Young Woman (I'm Thinking of Ending Things)
Jake (I'm Thinking of Ending Things)
Norah Everhart (Call of the Sea)
Alice (Spiritfarer)
Buck (Spiritfarer)

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

Nanis23 posted...

Cyber Shadow also should be interesting but I lost my hype when I learned Yacht Club are just the publisher.
Still, it looks good

Yeah, this. Voted no games but I'll see what the reviews are like for Cyber Shadow. It's on Game Pass Day 1 so no reason not to try it if it does well!

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

I used to love the original as a kid, played it way more than MK64. But the battle pass mtx stuff put me off this one, and I'm just not connected to the world or characters at all. It played super well though back in the day.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

Last movie I saw in cinemas was Parasite back in March. Good one to end on! There's a bunch of films released this year on Netflix/Prime/Disney etc though, so you have the option. I'm Thinking of Ending Things is good imo, as are Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Mank, but idk what kinda films you like.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

I don't like living dangerously, so I wouldn't be going for those desperations anyway.

Grand Kirby posted...

Tools are like so ridiculously broken it's incredible. It's one, of many, of the reasons why Edgar is one of my favorite characters.

Lol the first time I used it I figured it must be a consumable for how much damage it did. Before this post I was still wondering if it was using some meter I hadn't found yet, figured it couldn't just be that strong for an unlimited attack. Cool!

Nearly every single person has this problem, and you're playing the version where they didn't mess up the translation for the tutorial!

Good, I feel much better about misunderstanding the very simple directions for children now >_>

There's lots of fun hidden stuff in the game like that. There's one random moment in this section where you can find a piece of paper and leave it lying around and Bannon will get ticked off at people not cleaning up their trash during his cutscene.

Oh man I always love that kinda stuff in games, I often make a ton of saves just to experience as many variations of dialogue stuff as possible so I'll have to be creative with just 3 slots!

Also

Bannon

Bannon-banned

Mr Crispy posted...

...

Thanks for the tips about avoiding leveling, I'll try not to grind for a while. I'll also try to keep those vague missables in the back of my mind! I still somehow missed a summon in the V playthrough lol.

SeabassDebeste posted...

you're really blasting through this game, wow! i love this intro segment of ffvi so much.

Lol I like to get a big chunk done the first time I play RPGs so I can get into the mood of the world. It can become a problem, these playthrough topics actually help slow me down a bit sometimes as I think about how much I'll have to write about each session.

I can already tell the OST will be great, I liked V's a lot even with the GBA limitations. I think it helps that I take out headphones and just play it on the console speakers so I don't really notice whatever messiness they've got going on and just get the general vibe of the tunes.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

MZero posted...

Wait this is a thing? I don't really remember having a choice!

After you beat Grimm the first time and go hunting for your third set of flames, if you go to the Deepnest location you meet Brumm and he talks to you about not wanting to be used as a slave to the Troupe anymore. You can then head back to where you first lit the flame to summon the Troupe and help him banish them+himself from existence, breaking the cycle. The Troupe disappears from Dirtmouth entirely, and a new accordion player with amnesia shows up instead, implied to be some kind of reincarnation of Brumm.

You don't get the NKG boss fight this way and you lose Grimmchild but gain a different charm instead. Narratively I much prefer this outcome, though of course people who love the boss challenges don't do it.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

...Could anyone truly be foolish enough to repeat that mistake?

Starting these playthroughs is always the hardest part, when I don't know the rhythm of the game yet or what to focus on etc. The first thing that strikes me here is how visually distinct the intro sequence is- it's all blacks and whites with a bit of brown for a while. Makes a big change from the friendly greens and blues we usually get. The spritework is also noticeably more advanced than V. The intro itself is good, the lore drop is easy to understand and not too heavy, I have actually seen the Magitek walking through snow thing before somewhere but it's still nice, strong presentation right from the start.

Biggs and Wedge (!) are imperial soldiers taking a puppet mage to awaken a frozen Esper in Narshe. The battle system seems pretty straightforward, notably we have Magitek attacks against the poor locals and the ATB seems slower than the others I've played lately, but the only notable gameplay addition here so far seems to be battles where you're surrounded on either side. After a very simple boss (see how they give the information on what not to do on the first boss in the correct order, VII?), our mage seems to have some connection with the Esper and Biggs and Wedge are disappeared from our plane.

Terra awakens in an old man's home (I really like the little character intro screens they're doing here), free of her mind control but without any memories, and I take an Elixir from the clock (thanks mnkboy!). She falls in a cave and has hazy memories of our soon to be main villain Kefka and Emperor Gestahl Sieg Heiling in front of a crowd. She's rescued by treasure hunter/thief Locke, who looks much buffer in his sprite than in his portrait, and a collection of 11 Moogles (do they have a collective noun?). It's a pretty simple minigame here but I appreciate the effort, and soon we're out of Narshe safely.

And then I go the wrong way and re-enter the town we're escaping from, oops. Thankfully I can exit anyway. There's a beginner's school I check out just in case there's new stuff in this game, and indeed there's a couple of new systems. Relics seem to be halfway between accessories and job abilities, and if I'm reading things right there seems to be a limit break system similar to VIII's. We head down to Figaro and meet inappropriately horny King Edgar, and run around to get some background info and a scene of his twin bro, Sabin. I'll try not to judge, Galuf was a bit flirty at first and I ended up really liking him, so hopefully Edgar won't be too tropey. There's also a wolfman in the dungeon, nice reference to V!

We get our proper introduction to Kefka, who claims that Terra is of no importance (probably shouldn't have sent the big guns to collect her if they wanted anyone to believe that), and Locke has a nice moment with Terra, who honestly responds to amnesia more realistically than most protagonists. Edgar feigns ignorance so Kefka orders the castle burned down, but tech whiz Edgar has presumably planned for this exact scenario and has the castle sink down into the sand. Pretty cool trick.

Kefka (who doesn't seem that smart so far!) orders us killed, and there is a very amusing exchange between Locke and Edgar when I have Terra use magic in battle. They're really driving it home how foreign magic is in this world, it's a great conceit. I like that she's the only one with MP, even. Controlling the chocobo is weird, I'm guessing it's in place of the dozens of airships V threw at the player right away. The V references continue with a turtle in a nearby healing spring, and in South Figaro we kinda sorta meet the amoral assassin Shadow. I buy some Sprint Shoes, and some guy won't talk to us unless we bring him cider but I don't seem to be able to pick up the bottle the other guy gives to him. Oh well.

Edgar gets signs of his brother in South Figaro and in a house up north, so we head east to find him. Auto-Crossbow seems to be very useful. We eventually meet not Sabin, but Vargas, the son of Master Duncan who murdered his own father out of jealousy. Neat to throw that backstory in for such a minor battle. The battle is still easy enough to not be worth noting, and Sabin jumps right out of a beat-em-up to help us out. It takes me a while to figure out Blitz, I was first pressing the inputs after clicking on Sabin (I know the game explicitly tells me not to do this but idk). Vargas dies and Terra admits she thought Sabin was a bear. Not the gay slang, an actual bear. How much damage did Kefka do to her brain?

We then meet Banon and the ragtag anti-imperial resistance group the Returners. Not a very catchy name, but ok. A nice quiet sequence ensues where Terra has to get serious and decide whether she wants to actively help out, chatting to everyone about their personal takes. Honestly I'm liking the whole cast here, Locke is probably my fav so far but Edgar has the best lines in letting her make her own mind up so as not to resemble the Empire. We actually get to make a decision, and I click yes figuring no will either loop us or head to a game over. We decide to head to Narshe, and word of attack on South Figaro forces our hand and we head down a rapids ride, sans Locke.

The crew here is untouchable: Sabin using Blitz, Edgar using Crossbow, Terra using Fire on all, and Banon Praying. We waltz through the ride and wind up meeting... Ultros. Oh god, I remember Ultros now from the B8 memes. And he actually is a rapey octopus, it wasn't just those high ground comics making him that way. Oh dear. He goes down after a bunch of dialogue, and Sabin jumps right in the ****ing river to try and finish him. Lol.

I then find out about another new gameplay mechanic, scenario selection! Oh this is cool, I love this kind of stuff. I save and leave it here but my plan is to go to Locke first (I'm assuming you get to do all 3), let me know if I definitely shouldn't or something. Before quitting I reload a hideout save to see what happens if I have Terra select no, and surprisingly the plot actually continues if you say no three times! I'm given the Genji Gloves (!) and honestly I might actually prefer the writing for this, Terra being a reluctant participant in the heroics is kinda more interesting! Really appreciate that they wrote this out.

Edit: Forgot to mention the music. I'm sure it'll come up many times but man it's all been great so far. Like, all of it. The boss theme is already stuck in my head.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

whole

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

Love the variety of responses, nice to see what different things people have been up to.

Zylothewolf posted...

I hate to say it but 2020 was a year were I did a lot of things Im not proud of.

Hey no judgment here! I'm certain there will have been something these past 364 days that made you feel good too.

azuarc posted...

I survived. (Or at least, that'll be true in two days.)

Yep this in itself is significant for us all. (Also you won the guru!)

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

Good luck! I am still yet to beat the final boss...

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

I - II - III - IV - (TAY) - V - Final Fantasy VI - VII - (VIIR - DoC - CC) - VIII - IX - X - (X-2) - XII - (RW) - XIII - (XIII-2 - LR) - XV - Tactics - (TCB)

*Progressive spoilers shall follow*

Between Xmas and my birthday I've gotten quite a few games these past few days, but instead of remaining paralysed by choice of which to play first I've decided to get back to my FF pilgrimage with VI Advance. The eBay guy I bought it from had his account deactivated so it's definitely a bootleg but V held up fine so fingers crossed!

Unlike V and Tactics I'm not 100% in the dark about VI, unfortunately thanks to it being much more famous there's a couple things I know. Namely Kefka being the big bad (this would be impossible to avoid tbf), and the fact that there's a World of Ruin in the back half, I'm guessing like a Light World/Dark World kinda thing. I know Terra is the main character (arguably?) and that she's pretty divisive here, and I've heard most of the cast's names here and there. That's about all though I think, so not too bad!

As always if there's anything I should know beforehand to do/not do or any major missable summon/sidequest/character etc please feel free to let me know. I'll try to keep my expectations in check as I know some people here don't really like this one but honestly I'm really looking forward to experiencing this supposed classic after being so impressed with V and Tactics!

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Next up: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

I'm in the same boat, been checking every week on AA6 for like 6 months and no luck. I think I've seen RE on sale in that time so it might just be AA they stopped, and AA is frequently on sale on Switch so idk. Sucks if they really stopped for good. Maybe we'll get an AA4-6 trilogy instead...

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Next up: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

Post-Xmas bump, couple days left on these sales!

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Next up: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

Anything big or small, personal or professional, a life development, a gaming accomplishment, a decision you made, something you did that helped someone else, something that made you happier as a person even temporarily, anything at all to look back on to help you remember that this year wasn't a total wash, no matter how silly it might sound to you!

Personally, I'm proud that I finally started therapy to help with my severe social anxiety (which also led to me posting regularly here, for better or worse!).

This topic is absolutely not meant to minimise the pain, loss and loneliness that many have suffered in 2020, it's just for people to try and think on something positive as the year draws to a close.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Next up: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

When I was looking for Metroid Prime Hunters (before being advised against it by this board!) there were so many people selling the demo cart while having absolutely no mention of it being just the demo or the words 'First Hunt' anywhere in the listing. And there's a ton of people selling bootleg GBA carts without naming them as such too.

It just seems a bit of a ****shoot, there's bad sellers who get away with anything then good ones who get contested for nonsense reasons. Luck of the draw.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Next up: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

Sounds like customers just not reading properly. Assuming you put the listings in 'Video Game Accessories' category and not straight 'Video Games', otherwise I could see some initial confusion. There's no subheading for boxes unfortunately. But yeah people just don't read properly, especially this time of year with a bunch of people buying who don't usually use the site.

You're just gonna have to decide if it's worth the risk of bad rep I guess, sorry :/

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Next up: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

Also got Pikmin 3 Deluxe and Cadence of Hyrule for my birthday today!

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Next up: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

Yeah I should've clarified, there's not really a feasible way people would just randomly come across the punchline infinite battle without knowing about it beforehand.

I picked the Grimm Troupe option that got rid of them so didn't face NKG, but unlike Zote he turns up in the Pantheon anyway :(

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Next up: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

I have only played Axiom Verge and Talos Principle but they're both great. Axiom's a great Metroidvania with a ton of weapon variety and a very cool setting (I don't think it makes the absolute most of its premise but that's why I'm even more excited for the sequel), Talos is a great puzzle game but what really makes it shine is its writing.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Next up: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

I enjoyed Outer Wilds a great deal and it would feature high up for me!

MegamanX posted...

Luigis Mansion 3 received 0 votes last year!

Aw, it deserved better. Did Astral Chain get anything? (Last q I promise lol)

2013: Link Between Worlds was #13

Still can't get over this. A well-received Zelda finished 5 places below Beyond: Two Souls. And there were 3 3DS games in the top 10 so it's not anti-handheld bias! Bizarre.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Next up: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

DeepsPraw posted...

Are you talking about that Ninja Gaiden-y game that I can't remember the name of? I don't know if that's really a spoiler since it was in the trailers and marketing

Yeah, The Messenger. I just picked it up on Game Pass not knowing about that stuff so it was a nice twist for me.

MZero posted...

The only thing I don't like about the combat in this game, and it's a problem I have with a lot of games, is that colliding with an enemy damages you even if they aren't attacking or anything (not including enemies with spikes and stuff obviously) I could understand that being a thing 30 years ago but there's no reason an enemy just standing there should be a hit box these days imo

I get what you mean but I think it works in this game. Some of the enemies are massive and they should be a threat you don't want to brush up against. The damage noise+pause is so good too, super annoying in the best way to make you not want to mess up (there was a video I watched recently that talked about that, made me appreciate the mechanic in a deeper way).

I will always hate the side of spikes hurting you in games though, never defensible!

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Next up: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

Oh, we recommending Metroidvanias now? Axiom Verge and Yoku's Island Express! And uh, a game where it's kind of a spoiler that it's a Metroidvania so I won't say its name >_>

Hollow Knight is my fav though, above Super Metroid even.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Next up: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

Thanks for posting the past lists! Some of them are pretty funny, but from 2017 on they're more standard. 2012/14/16 are generally considered the weakest of the decade so the wild lists are understandable, though lol at FFXV getting #2 after some people were annoyed at it winning the sitewide GOTY poll.

Things that surprised me: ALBW not showing up in 2013's top 10 despite winning the site GOTY (and being ZELDA), no Alien Isolation in 2014, Tomb Raider in 4th in 2018 but RDR2 nowhere to be found, no Luigi's Mansion or Control last year.

Paratroopa1 posted...

the rest of these lists are pretty normal although 2014 and 2016 are pretty sad and people are going to regret not having put Outer Wilds in their top 10 of 2019 but whatever

I think a lot of people just didn't get around to Outer Wilds last year, same reason Hollow Knight and Stardew Valley didn't get on any I imagine.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Next up: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

Are there stats for top 10 of previous years?

Also I'm curious where Doom and Crusader Kings landed.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Next up: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

Huh, I hadn't thought of it before but you're right, this is a weirdly pervasive trope in open world WRPGs. I wonder why that is.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Next up: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

Fallout over Witcher/Bloodborne raised an eyebrow for me.

MegamanX posted...

Spiritfarer [1]

Oof, I didn't do a list as I've only played a couple 2020 games but this was one of them and I liked it quite a lot =(

Turing Test is like years old though.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Next up: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

Xenogang!

I like how much variety there is in the games people got, some I've never even heard of!

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Next up: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

Wow I didn't know B8 had such casual taste

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Next up: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

What an odd collection of Richards.

Trying to think of a VG Richard and coming up blank. Is Dick Gumshoe short for Richard? idk.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Next up: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

pjbasis posted...

Isn't there an actual reward from it?

There's a Hunter's Journal entry to mark you've done it but no percentage point or ability or charm or anything physical like that. A cool brief cutscene though.

BlackDra90n posted...

I cleared everything else and I'm about to start the pantheons, wish me luck.

Good luck! I gave up at the third one's boss or so, also did you try the secret infinite Zote battle?

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Next up: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

Just checked and apparently it isn't! Weird. You should give it a go though, it is its own reward/punishment.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Next up: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!

for the hols

I got Xenoblade and AI Somnium Files. No excuse to keep putting off Xeno now I guess.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Next up: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!