Board 8 > Ahem... there's SAND on my boots! [Playthrough Topic] [Kefka]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Sabin. dem blitz moves.

I think most other characters are mediocre to bad, with Terra being awful. I do like Edgar too, but mostly for his tools. I generally like characters in this game because of battle stuff (see: moogle charm)

which is kinda ironic seeing as how I think FF6 has terrible battles!

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iphonesience

Terra is good until later on. Well she's passable until later on.

I don't like her later though.

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"Setsuna, you have to change. To make up for me... who didn't change." ~SCP~
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Psh, when it comes to the battle system, FFVI is definitely near the bottom.

I favor customization, and pretty much anything other than IV and IX outright destroy the Esper system.
Of course, it's not all that simple, I still like IX's ability system, and II's stats mechanics are great in theory but kinda frustrating in practice.

I could write a long essay on my feelings on FF6. they're mostly negative and yet I find very undefinable positives in it that make me remember it fondly.

and then I play it again and all the negatives come to the surface. however, the fact that I keep coming back to it outweighs any complaints I have.

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iphonesience

What are your top... three FFs, tranny?

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"Setsuna, you have to change. To make up for me... who didn't change." ~SCP~
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1, 4 and 9 or 10.

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iphonesience

Nice choices. I'd throw 7 in there and I'm not counting Tactics or it would make it too but those are cool.

4 wouldn't make the cut though, much as I enjoy its battles.

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"Setsuna, you have to change. To make up for me... who didn't change." ~SCP~
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4 has great pace and the best boss fights.

Tactics is probably #3 for me. it's in that 9/10 tier.

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iphonesience

4 does have surprisingly great boss fights, I'll give you that. But the story doesn't do a whole heck of a lot for me after a certain point.

1 on the other hand doesn't need a great story because it's just so damn fun.

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"Setsuna, you have to change. To make up for me... who didn't change." ~SCP~
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IV's mechanics: put on the best equipment and level up to learn some spells.

It's lucky it invented the ATB system or it would have gone down as making most unremarkable contribution to the series.

It still would have lived on for being one of the first JRPGs to try telling a story with actual emotional resonance.

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"Setsuna, you have to change. To make up for me... who didn't change." ~SCP~
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FF2 kinda tried it first. <_<

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man, that was a horrific boss battle.

Wonder if Blazer will rage just as much.

(tis dat one boss in the same area you get that golem magicite mentioned earlier)

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From: JaKyL25 | #312
FF2 kinda tried it first. <_<

lol

I mean, right. >_>;

Oh hey, I know the fight in question, voltch!

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"Setsuna, you have to change. To make up for me... who didn't change." ~SCP~
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so annoying.

Lucky Sabin owns ass.

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'Well, he uses a lot of Quake spells, so I'll just cast Float, and *Gravity Bomb, Quake, Honed Horn on the survivors, dead*'

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We are thought, and reality, and concept, and the unimaginable

Know the worst part about FF6 and 7? Finding specific ****ing places once you get the airship.

NARSHE

HOW HARD CAN IT BE TO F***ING FIND THE FIRST AREA IN THE DICK LICKING GAME

I QUIT

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Watch and you'll see... someday I'll be... part of your world!

Well that ended eventfully!

I've always found FFV to be the worst offender of this btw.

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"Setsuna, you have to change. To make up for me... who didn't change." ~SCP~
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Yoblazer, use FAQ maps.

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Look for desert where Figaru Castle first was. North of that is Narshe.

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From: voltch | #319
Yoblazer, use FAQ maps.

I did. It doesn't help much when the town has zero distinguishable characteristics on the world map. There are no HOUSES. How the hell does the starting town, a place where you visit several times, not have HOUSES on the world map. Man, ****ing SABIN'S HOUSE HAS A HOUSE. HIS HOUSE. HIS LONE HOUSE. HAS A HOUSE. ON THE WORLD MAP.

HOUSE HOUSE HOUSE

Playing these games at such an age, after experiencing the refinement in game making during the last 15 years, is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, a 25-year-old can probably appreciate the finer plot points and character growth more than an eight-year-old. On the other hand, spending 20 minutes searching for ****ing Narshe PROBABLY DOES NOT BUG AN EIGHT-YEAR-OLD.

Do you know what would happen if we tried to play ****ing Zelda 1, for this first time, in this day and age, without an FAQ? There'd be no more rope, BECAUSE THE GAMERS IN THE WORLD WOULD HAVE USED IT ALL TO HANG THEMSELVES.

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Yoblazer: http://8board.webs.com/ariel.jpg
Watch and you'll see... someday I'll be... part of your world!

I still haven't played Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.

Keep me wayward of all rope.

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"Setsuna, you have to change. To make up for me... who didn't change." ~SCP~
http://img.imgcake.com/Jeffzeropngus.png

I never got that impression about the airships.

On the world map, Narshe is represented by a cave instead of the usual houses representing a town, likely making a statement that the caves are supposed to be the main part of Narshe instead of the town itself.

Oh yeah, the inn at Narshe is useless. Try to figure out why.

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I found Narshe no problem!

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Celes is awesome, but Terra's the main character.

Oh wait, we're doing this later?

Opera Scene is pretty good, but it wasn't nearly as good as I was hyped up for it to be. The song is pretty awesome though.

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Definitely seems like Terra is the central focus so far, but I imagine some may take the fact that she hasn't been playable for over half the game (once again, so far) as a point against her case.

ANYWAY

Before giving the Magitek Factory a serious attempt, I take a stroll around the overworld to test out these hot new Espers. The summons themselves are just meh, but the passive stat bonuses to Level Ups and ability to learn new spells are amazing. I'm very happy with these (even happier knowing I don't need to pay the steep MP cost to reap most of the rewards). With my team happy and overleveled, I head back to the factory.

The enemies here aren't a danger, but their high physical defense requires the use of Magic and special abilities, so they're a little annoying. I make my way through swathes of the buggers and... OMG KEFKA. WHY NOT ULTROS. The party hides and spies on the cackling clown as he disposes of two Espers - Ifrit and Shiva - after sapping them of their power. He leaves, and we check on the battered Espers, only to be attacked.

It's a boss fight against the two of em - first Ifrit, then Shiva. Even I'm not hapless enough to **** this up. Cast Runic with Celes, attack Ifrit with anything but Fire, attack Shiva with anything but Ice, and they should fold like paper. And they do. After proving ourselves a superior fightin force, the Espers cede. They realize that Ramuh and others have already entrusted us with their essence, so they follow suit. Both Espers willingly sacrifice themselves so that we may grow stronger: Ifrit and Shiva Magicite acquired!

We journey forward, past other battles and a forgettable boss fight, into the main research facility. This treacherous lab houses several (all?) of the Empire's Espers in glass tanks. They react to our presence and, once again, willingly sacrifice themselves into Magicite. Six more acquired!

Just then, Kefka appears. The party seems cornered, but Celes proves her loyalty to us by sacrificing herself so that we may escape. Well, she doesn't really sacrifice herself so much as she... does a magic move where both she and Kefka disappear. I'm sure we'll see her soon, but for now, it's time for Locke and the Figabros to vamoose. Cid (omggfdgfdfd!!!!), the guilt stricken lab manager/engineer/science-man, shows us the way out. Man, if that's all the FFVI Cid does, then that is a pretty weak Cid. More easy battling before we reach the airship. Just before we make our getaway, the airship is ambushed by a pair of giant mechanical cranes which we murder. Finally, we escape to check up on Terra in Zozo.

Once there, Terra reacts very strangely to one of our recently acquired Magicites, Moduin. Shockingly, she refers to him as "Father." Here are more incredible plot developments, in bullet points for your convenience and mine!

- About 20 years ago, a human girl named Madonna* stumbled through the doorway that separated the Human and Esper worlds
- *This heavily implies that she was like, a virgin
- She was found by the Esper Moduin
- The two grew attached, in love, and had a baby**
- **Madonna lost her virginity to a monster-man from another species***
- ***He probably had tentacles****
- ****This game is Japanese
- That baby was Terra
- Two years after Terra's birth, the Empire found the doorway to the Esper world and invaded
- They were able to abduct several Espers, including Moduin
- Emperor Ghestal also snatched baby Terra from Madonna's arms before leaving the mom there to die

This explains why Terra has no recollection of her early life - because up until her rescue, she was a brainwashed Imperial slave - and why she was consider unique even by Espers - because she is a half-n-half. After recalling these events, SSJ3 Terra reverts to normal form and rejoins the party. We journey to Narshe*.

*See my Narshe rant above

FFVI Cid also doubles as a raincoat salesman.

Love the Magitek Factory though, great part of the game.

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"I can set you free, mate."
"My freedom was forfeit long ago!"

Maduin

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GMUUUUUUUN

how ya doin tonight! ;)

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Yoblazer: http://8board.webs.com/ariel.jpg
Watch and you'll see... someday I'll be... part of your world!

On the world map, Narshe is represented by a cave instead of the usual houses representing a town, likely making a statement that the caves are supposed to be the main part of Narshe instead of the town itself.

To be technical, Narshe is represented by a mountain path, which makes sense since it's built on the side of the mountains.

Also, be careful where you park that airship. Land it in the wrong spot near Nikeah, and you won't be able to enter it again. Game over.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

Er, can't you just take the Chocobo route up, over and back around (like you'd do to get the Water Dance from the Trench)?

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We are thought, and reality, and concept, and the unimaginable

Not that, I'm talking the spot next to town that you can only enter one way. When you leave town, you won't be able to reach the airship again.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

"Madonna" is "Madeline" in the GBA version, which I suppose is a "more accurate" translation.

Once again, imagine if that esper hadn't knocked the slave crown off of Terra at the beginning of the game. Oh no.

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Currently Playing - Mega Man 2
Hopefully Next Up - Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid, Brood War

Do you know what would happen if we tried to play ****ing Zelda 1, for this first time, in this day and age, without an FAQ? There'd be no more rope, BECAUSE THE GAMERS IN THE WORLD WOULD HAVE USED IT ALL TO HANG THEMSELVES.

I have never understood this sentiment. People act like having to discover and map the entire overworld themselves instead of having the game do it for them is some unfathomable evil chore that modern game design has eradicated for good reason.

I would hate to see those people try to play Zork!

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Gaming has changed and gamers have grown up. In the early 90s, I wasn't even ten years old. I wasn't too dismayed at the idea of being stuck for hours because a game couldn't even point me in the right direction. Nowadays, that type of game design just doesn't fly. In Zelda 1, wasn't there a dungeon entrance (it may have been something smaller, like a treasure) that was discovered by burning a random bush? Like... one of the hundreds of random bushes in the game? Try that in today's games and see how gamers react.

I can play and enjoy older games. Heck, I'm loving these old Square games for the most part. However, I can't tolerate being stuck for very long. Not stuck because of a difficult puzzle or a challenging fight... but stuck because I have no clue what I need to do or what to find or where to go. That's just faulty design, especially today when designers should know better.

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Yoblazer: http://i32.tinypic.com/zlf1w7.gif
Watch and you'll see... someday I'll be... part of your world!

It was not a "random bush."

It was a highly conspicuous bush!

Now if you're talking about the Second Quest, then yes, but that was only for the hardcore adventurers anyway.

The whole point of older Adventure games was to, you know, adventure. Then ALttP comes along, as great as it is, and implements the idea of the BIG BLINKING ARROW TELLING YOU WHERE TO GO and suddenly that's the standard, and true adventuring in adventure games has since become the stuff of sidequests.

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Though I will grant you that with the size of today's game worlds, old school adventuring probably wouldn't work.

What makes older PC adventures and LoZ and even text adventures so good is that they're not SO overwhelming that you feel hopeless when you're lost and directionless. You know the solution has to be somewhere in this finite game world, so you bust out the graphing paper and you get to quest logging.

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ff6 is not exactly some huge open world game. it's not too hard to find things.

boy, I can see the second half of this playthrough topic just falling apart

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iphonesience

FAQ Maps, FAQ Maps, FAQ Maps.

Abuse those for that second half damnit, the gamefaqs FAQ maps are actually really good.

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Isn't there an overworld map in the corner? It's not that hard to find stuff if you have been paying attention to it the whole game. The map in FF6 is really easy.

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Hey all this is Bartz btw.

ff6 best game ever.

really though it's not hard to find things, I don't understand the problem.

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It's because of the camera angles.

if it was a top down view I doubt Blazer would complain. But with the flat surface you can miss stuff fairly easily at first, you get used to it eventually, but yeah I can see where he's coming from.

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I suppose, I found it pretty easy to get used to and thought it kind of revitalized the whole flying around on the world map experience. I greatly prefer the airship experience in ff6 to ff4 or ff5.

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I've only been stuck once - when searching for Narshe in the airship because I had my eyes peeled for towns with houses. I didn't even notice the crack in the mountain face because it was hardly a distinguishable characteristic.

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Yoblazer: http://i43.tinypic.com/25z1non.jpg
Watch and you'll see... someday I'll be... part of your world!

In Zelda 1, wasn't there a dungeon entrance (it may have been something smaller, like a treasure) that was discovered by burning a random bush? Like... one of the hundreds of random bushes in the game? Try that in today's games and see how gamers react.

To be fair, the first Zelda was deliberately designed to foster communication between players. You would never be able to find every secret by yourself, but by talking to others players and sharing your findings and experiences with each other, you could discover more about the game. That's one of the reasons why it was so popular.

I think one of the reasons you don't see as much obtuse stuff like that these days is because of the internet. It's just so easy to look up all the secrets and hidden items immediately, so it's just like looking up a cheat list instead of discovering things piece by piece.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

In Narshe, the top Returner guys (Banon, etc) are requesting Terra's help once again. Given that she is the only link between Humans and Espers, she is asked to enter the Esper world and recruit their help for an assault on the Empire. She reluctantly agrees and the party makes their way to the Esper world gate. It lies protected by a complex cave system featuring some of the toughest enemies yet. These guys were a nuisance at times, yes, but they gave crazy XP, so everyone was learning new spells and gettin fat n happy. Lots of good treasure in this place too.

After some battling and puzzle solving (haven't seen much of that so far, so it was a nice change of pace), we reach the doorway. Unfortunately, we're not alone, as Kefka has been tracking us the whole time. Little bastard is so proud of himself, too. While the fellas fend him off, Terra opens the doorway. She wants to make her case with the Espers, but they immediately sense that several of their kin have been tortured and killed at the hands of the Empire. Enraged, they cross into the Human world and seriously **** things up. Vector, the Imperial capital, is deserted and almost completely destroyed. Kefka runs off, and the party travels to Vector to assess the damage.

What we find are fires, rubbles, and Returner rebels. The entire Vector population has either run off or been killed off. We learn that Emperor Gestahl has jailed Kefka for his transgressions and wants to make peace with the Espers and end this now costly war. Terra and co talk all this over with the Emperor over dinner, where I answer some dinner questions as best I can ("better" answers apparently lead to better prizes). For my answers, I win liberation for South Figaro and and Doma as well as a bunch of previously locked swag at the Imperial base. Good stuff. Despite the party's natural hesitance, we agree to partner up with the Emperor and seek out the Espers for forgiveness and peace.

Course is set for the small town of Thamasa, which is apparently our best lead. Terra and Locke accompany Emperor Gestahl's elite team there (I had no choice over whom to take). We are split into two teams. On the first team, Terra and Locke are joined by the enigmatic Shadow. Thanks for showing up bro. The other team is comprised of the stalwartly General Leo and... a returning Celes Chere! Locke and Terra are shocked to see Celes back, but after having her loyalty questioned last time, the former general is noticeably colder toward Locke. We all travel to Thamasa by ferry.

On the way, Terra, Leo, and Shadow share an unexpected conversation about love and emotion, where both men offer advice and reassurance to the doubtful Terra. Shadow warns her not to "kill her emotions" as he has. Wasn't expecting this convo at all.

We reach Thamasa, a place with some pretty cool music. Back to playing.

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Yoblazer: http://oi52.tinypic.com/ad21i1.jpg
Watch and you'll see... someday I'll be... part of your world!

What is love?

Baby don't hurt me

Don't hurt me

No more

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Um... hey, did you not get a cool new character? Or did you miss him?

I mean, I guess you can get him at any time, but there's no reason not to get him as soon as possible.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

Terra
Locke
Edgar
Sabin
Celes
Cyan
Shadow
Gau
Setzer
Strago
Relm (soon)

I think I need three more for everyone. I know Mog can join and IIRC, he's optional. If he actually is optional, you guys can drop some a couple hints as to how I can get him. =)

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Yoblazer: http://oi52.tinypic.com/ad21i1.jpg
Watch and you'll see... someday I'll be... part of your world!

Head back to Narshe.

Head back to Narshe.*

(* You asked for a couple.)

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan