Current Events > I'm playing World of Final Fantasy (Playthrough Topic with Spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Welcome! I'm sure that most of you don't know who I am, which makes sense since I'm a major lurker. But who I am doesn't matter here, but instead that I'm doing a first-time playthrough of World of Final Fantasy! I going to do a playthrough topic here and see how it goes. It'll be mostly screenshot focused as I myself like to look at them over just reading about it, and my set up makes it easy to take them in a turn-based game like WoFF. Though any comments or questions about the game are also welcomed and I'll do my best to reply to them.

Before all that though, I just want to state to get a baseline understanding that I'm assuming that anybody that partakes in this topic will be okay with light spoilers for the game that naturally comes from playing it. Since I know not everyone here has the same tolerance for spoilers. I will, of course, spoiler tag all real spoilers that I happen to post here but I will have to show some gameplay in order to do this topic. Stuff like showing normal battles and what common monsters are in the game that you can get and showing some out of context events in cutscenes are among what I consider to be 'light spoilers'.

---

So to start of with, I had to do a bit of fiddling to get the game to launch which is a problem for sure. Some update from either Steam or Windows apparently messed the game up and you can't launch it from the Steam launcher right now. Though thankfully, someone from Square did update the game so that a workaround could at least work. Now if you go to the game's local file and run the game's .exe as an admin, you can get the game going. I just made a shortcut to my desktop of the .exe, and running it as an admin got it to work for me.

Starting a new game itself, I get greeted by this sight.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/5/9/AAXh4NAAEbtL.jpg
Is this some kind of Kingdom Hearts game I never knew about? It has that look.

But seriously, this is a monster catching game akin to Pokemon but with Final Fantasy monsters and summons. And a battle system that also takes its cues from how Final Fantasy turn-based battle systems work.

Now to start the game, you have to get to the main character's job. Note I said 'Get to their job' and not 'get their job', like a FF fan may assume.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/6/0/AAXh4NAAEbtM.jpg
Yes, the ever constant grind of daily work. All JRPGs start having the hero having to go to their 9-5 job before they can get started with their heroics. Wait...I meant that as a joke but that really could work for a Persona game...

And using the word 'grind' pulls double the weight here since the workplace in question is a coffee shop in the middle of a mall. Eventually stuff happens and our protag is already having to deal with quite the trouble with a crazy customer.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/6/1/AAXh4NAAEbtN.jpg
Most relatable JRPG protagonist ever.

With the introduction out of the way, I make it to the starting tutorials. The game is a ATB like battle system so long-time fans will instantly know how it works. Yet I do hear some of you telling me "I like FF but I actually hate ATB. It's too stressful having to actually do stuff and be attacked when I move through my long menu of spells unless it's on wait mode. And even then, I want a much harder wait mode". I am glad to say to you that this game does have a wait mode, and it's perhaps the strongest one in the series.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/6/2/AAXh4NAAEbtO.jpg
It stops time completely, even if you aren't actually in a menu. In other words, once it's your turn then it's your turn and no other unit will move until you take it. It really does become purely turn-based with that. Oh, and don't worry about that bit about trying to move back to active mode later if you don't want to. Square doesn't care how you want to play on this game, as they have several cheat options you can enable via the config menu if you want to play with those such as infinite AP.

Anyway, this is getting kind of long so I'll end this post here. I still have more to post in my next one though, such as how to capture the monsters in this game and use them.

Fun game.

Credits are nightmare inducing tho

Now that the protagonist, Lann, and his sister, Reynn, got brought to the tutorial forest, its time to learn about how to capture the monsters of this game which are called mirages. How to capture them is...well, this serves as the basic gist of it.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/0/9/AAXh4NAAEbvh.jpg

Okay, maybe not everything. There's the matter of how to imprism any given mirage. That because unlike pokemon that's a simple 'Get their HP as low as you can and maybe put a status on them for good measure', every type of mirage has their own requirements on how to catch them. Which I find to be slightly more engaging way to capture monsters as you have to pay attention to what they're like. Case in point
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/1/0/AAXh4NAAEbvi.jpg
This one needs to be physically attacked to enter that state, which you can do with just a simple plain attack. Do so, and they start glowing.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/1/1/AAXh4NAAEbvj.jpg
In that state, you can try to capture them if you have the right kind of prism on hand. It might not work the first time, so you may need to repeat the attempt but you won't waste the prism if it does fail so you can keep trying.

And once you capture one (or a few of them), what do you do with them then? Simple, you have to add them into your battle party by sorting them into your stacks. ...What's a stack, you ask? Well the simple version is that you can stack mirages onto each of the player characters to let them all share the same stats, abilities, and resistances and weaknesses. For example:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/1/2/AAXh4NAAEbvk.jpg
This is Reynn's base stats, and she currently has no special abilities other than to imprism when that occurs. However if you want to stack the small mirage we just gained on top of her (stacks always have to follow a large, medium, and small pattern from bottom to top. You can't have, say, two large units at the bottom followed by a small one on top) then her stats would now look like this.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/1/3/AAXh4NAAEbvl.jpg
Of note, her HP, AP, Strength, and Magic stats are all greatly larger in this setup as the two add their stats together. And Reynn's stack would now be able to use the Ram attack that the chocochick possesses. In short, you really should learn how make good stacks in order to get far in this game.

Quick tip if you want a bit of a boost early on:

Once you unlock the Coliseum you can fight the summons. You'll probably be really underleveled to win against them but if you get lucky you can just spam capture them and if you do you get the rewards as well as add them to your roster.

Not a story spoiler, more of a mechanical/gameplay one, but I marked it in case you'd rather not see it.

Fun game. Haven't played since I got the plat though.

I really want that game

If the vast majority of my exposure to the series is FF1 and Theatrhythm(lots of it), will the game do much for me?

Or is it something I should play after playing (many) more mainline titles?

LordFarquad1312 posted...

Not a story spoiler, more of a mechanical/gameplay one, but I marked it in case you'd rather not see it.

Yeah, it's cool. I don't really mind spoilers all that much myself so I already looked at it. I'll keep it in mind if I need to but for now I think I want to play it kind of normally.

wackyteen posted...

If the vast majority of my exposure to the series is FF1 and Theatrhythm(lots of it), will the game do much for me?

Or is it something I should play after playing (many) more mainline titles?

I mean, it's hard to say. It is a fan service game so the more you know of FF, the more impact it will have. But I will say that there is a FF1 themed area in the game that I've already came upon very early on so you might get a kick out of that if you know nothing else at least.

KanWan posted...

Really cute character models lol

Yes, they are. Honestly I think the chibi style gets hated on too much. Do I want in everything, no. But it's a fun break from more realistic or anime styled 3D models from time to time.

Going back to Mirages as a whole, they do have their own way to learn their abilities largely in place of normal leveling.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/4/3/AAXh4NAAEbxn.jpg
This may look very familiar to those of you that have played FF X. Like the sphere grid system of that game, you gain SP from fights and mainly leveling up which you use to unlock new abilities here (though you don't need items to do the unlocking with here, just SP).
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/4/4/AAXh4NAAEbxo.jpg
This is the same mirage after I unlocked its stroll ability for 1 SP. Stroll itself isn't a battle ability, but one that can be used in the field itself so there's more here than just your battle abilities like Cure. There are also nodes for raw stat boosts like HP+.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/4/5/AAXh4NAAEbxp.jpg
Keen eyes may already spot two things of note with this screenshot.

1. Each Mirage has their own unique 'sphere grid' so they won't all have the same abilities.
2. Some nodes are empty ones akin to the ones in FF X that you can fill with whatever you may want or need the most to round them out.

Thankfully, even if you have a mirage on hand but they're benched then they still get exp after battle. around 80% iirc. Either way, it's worth it to keep them on hand just to keep within range of the party's overall level so that you can keep their mirage grid filled out just in case you need to swap them in for a certain opponent or you need to use a field ability that they have to be able to move ahead.

By the way, it may seem like I'm going very deep into the combat mechanics here than might normally be expected in a topic like this but I do like talking about that stuff. I also like giving people that want to know more about it something more to latch onto than a simple 'you make towers to attack other enemies' with. Now that the tutorial area is done and I'm moving on to the first real area, I'll be able to step a bit away from mechanics posting.

And go back to where we should be now, back to the funny.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/4/6/AAXh4NAAEbxq.jpg
Buddy, I'm trying to be a hero here. I don't have the time or brainpower right now to want to tackle legal contracts!
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/4/7/AAXh4NAAEbxr.jpg
Not only that, but you're super lazy too? At least the tutorials in this game are more willing to actually be more helpful about these things than in most other games, at least for a moment before self-correcting lol.

I was very surprised how much I enjoyed this game. I bought it and Type-0 at the same time and played Type-0 first. Which just felt like they tossed every FF into a blender and dumped it out onto a table for us to eat.

But WoFF was so fucking charming.. Touching notes of nostalgia while giving us a unique battle system that made me want to catch em all more than Pokemon ever did.

I managed to catch em all and named every single monster after It's Always Sunny characters. There's so many that I ended up having to page through IMDB to find named characters to use.

I do have a slight headache as of right now, so I'll just keep this update brief as to at least keep it from purging before I make my next, bigger post.

I have made it to the caves outside the first town in the new world and have made my way over to the end of the cave. Where it's pretty clear that there's a boss fight up next, if the save point didn't fill me in then the ominous-looking glyphs floating about in the area up ahead also helped. So I just spent a little extra time just retracing my steps inside the cave and catching any mirages I missed on my first pass, and now I feel like I'm ready to go face the boss now.

BettyWhite posted...

But WoFF was so fucking charming.. Touching notes of nostalgia while giving us a unique battle system that made me want to catch em all more than Pokemon ever did.

this. The game has a bit of a slow start but once it gets going it's fun and the writing was surprisingly funny and entertaining

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/2/9/AAXh4NAAEcFt.jpg
...Malboros...actually have mouthwash?

In any event, I've pushed myself through into the first real boss fight of the game. Before that though, I ran into my first Mirajewel which I can equip to Lann or Reynn to grant them the ability the mirajewel has. So that's how you have them 'learn' their own abilities outside of the mirages in their stack.

BOSS BATTLE #1

This one is a bit odd that you're given a choice of who you want to fight. Mainly, because they know you can't win if all three fought you so instead they want to test you by letting you only fight one of them.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/3/0/AAXh4NAAEcFu.jpg
For reasons, I decided to go with Shiva. I assume those reasons involve the fact that she's a pretty ice woman.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/3/1/AAXh4NAAEcFv.jpg
The actual battle itself is pretty easy for the first half. She has three moves, and two of them are just a weak normal attack and a weak single target blizzard spell. However once her HP is knocked to half, the real fight begins when she starts using her final move at that point.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/3/2/AAXh4NAAEcFw.jpg
That move is a target all move that really hurts. If my characters weren't at full HP or nearly full HP then Diamond Dust would have KO'd them. I had a cure spell at this point, but after this attack I just defaulted to using my potion stock so as to heal back up to full HP in one action instead. So with that, I just had to get used to the tricky timing of being healed enough by the next time she used Diamond Dust and victory was mine.

After the boss fight was completed, I got this mirage as a gift from events.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/3/3/AAXh4NAAEcFx.jpg
I decided that I'm going to keep that one as part of my permanent roster and gave it a nickname. And about that, I want to ask to any one here that knows...is there a way I can rename mirages later on if I want to?

In any event, the events at the cave are done and I'm back at the town. After more events, I'm now moved towards the mountainous plains out outside the city so that's where I'm going next. It's never a dull moment with these two.

Purestarfall posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/2/9/AAXh4NAAEcFt.jpg
...Malboros...actually have mouthwash?

In any event, I've pushed myself through into the first real boss fight of the game. Before that though, I ran into my first Mirajewel which I can equip to Lann or Reynn to grant them the ability the mirajewel has. So that's how you have them 'learn' their own abilities outside of the mirages in their stack.

BOSS BATTLE #1

This one is a bit odd that you're given a choice of who you want to fight. Mainly, because they know you can't win if all three fought you so instead they want to test you by letting you only fight one of them.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/3/0/AAXh4NAAEcFu.jpg
For reasons, I decided to go with Shiva. I assume those reasons involve the fact that she's a pretty ice woman.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/3/1/AAXh4NAAEcFv.jpg
The actual battle itself is pretty easy for the first half. She has three moves, and two of them are just a weak normal attack and a weak single target blizzard spell. However once her HP is knocked to half, the real fight begins when she starts using her final move at that point.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/3/2/AAXh4NAAEcFw.jpg
That move is a target all move that really hurts. If my characters weren't at full HP or nearly full HP then Diamond Dust would have KO'd them. I had a cure spell at this point, but after this attack I just defaulted to using my potion stock so as to heal back up to full HP in one action instead. So with that, I just had to get used to the tricky timing of being healed enough by the next time she used Diamond Dust and victory was mine.

After the boss fight was completed, I got this mirage as a gift from events.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/3/3/AAXh4NAAEcFx.jpg
I decided that I'm going to keep that one as part of my permanent roster and gave it a nickname. And about that, I want to ask to any one here that knows...is there a way I can rename mirages later on if I want to?

In any event, the events at the cave are done and I'm back at the town. After more events, I'm now moved towards the mountainous plains out outside the city so that's where I'm going next. It's never a dull moment with these two.

Rename prisms are easy to come by once you get a little bit further into the game.

BettyWhite posted...

Rename prisms are easy to come by once you get a little bit further into the game.

I see, I'll keep an eye for them later on.

---

Well where I left off, I fought up the mountain camp to fight back the sudden appearance of the army. I will say that it is a nice touch how if you end up having one of the solders in a random encounter, that the game will show them taking a moment to fire their summoning gun into the ground to summon their mirages before then charging into the battle themselves. It helps sell the fact that they are summoners but are still able to fight on their own, like the twins, and are your enemies.

The bosses at the top was a bit tricky because one of them had a heavy hitting physical move. Thankfully though, one of my party mirages had protect so I just had to make sure that it stayed applied to both stacks. It took a little bit of time, but I was able to best both of them.

With that handled, I went back to the main city to resupply before moving out to my next location. And there I did chance upon a new place that has special side missions of sorts.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/2/8/AAXh4NAAEcTw.jpg
These quests have you peeking into the daily goings on of the various characters you end up meeting with a battle at the end of it. The aimed goal with these is to subtlety adjust fate for the characters you end up helping.

In that same room, you can also get champion medals, which I feel are akin to this game's verson of a limit break. Simply put, you can set up to three champion metals for use battles, with each one costing a certain amount of the champion gauge that builds over the course of battle in order to preform a certain action.

Both the side missions and gaining champion medals cost alma gems though, so I'm going to have to make sure I keep a good stock of them.

After that, I headed into the next place to go which was a forest. The forest itself was easy to get through, and it was here that I was able to encounter my first L sized mirage and learn about the joyride ability to ride on them in the field.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/2/9/AAXh4NAAEcTx.jpg
I mean look at this.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/3/0/AAXh4NAAEcTy.jpg
I mean I'm riding on a large metal hand!
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/3/1/AAXh4NAAEcTz.jpg
How is that not cool?

Anyway, that done, I decided to explore a bit once I got to the save point with a lake up ahead (I already have ideas what's going to happen next). I ended up meeting a hidden mirage that needed an elixir to imprisim it, but since I didn't have any I decided to cut my losses and run from it for now. I also found a cactrot on the way but it ran from me as expected. But I still wanted one, so I kept looking around for one, which was a pain because they have a really low encounter rate and you really have to catch it on the first turn before it flees.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/3/2/AAXh4NAAEcT0.jpg
But it was worth it after nearly an hour of searching. Now to go back and tackle the lake.

the cactuar transfigs are also perfect

I plan on playing this game as soon as I finish Final Fantasy Type-0 in the next week or so.

Heading up to the forest and as I expected, boss battle.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/5/6/AAXh4NAAEciQ.jpg
It was nice to see that familiar face again.

The boss battle was easy enough since I had a move to greatly destabilize a stack on hand. The plot beats revealed after the battle were interesting, but raised more questions than they answered. It least the twins are remembering more about their past, and that their mother seems like she's going to be a key person to this if she's even still alive.

Before I proceeded too far, I decided to take a small detour back to the main town. However stuff happened and the twins seemingly got lost inside a desert, only to be saved by this mirage.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/5/7/AAXh4NAAEciR.jpg
Umm...not what I expected but I'm glad this tonberry is a friendly one.

All that leads me to the coliseum, where you can fight and even capture mirages in certain fights. There's also apparently a multiplayer function as well, but I'm a mainly single player type of person so I haven't looked too deeply into that. I did a few fights while I was there to get the ones at my level cleared before heading back.

Now entering an icy area, I had to cross an ice path to get to the town on the other side. At this point, I want to bring up that the dungeons have obstacles that you need certain mirages for akin to HM moves in pokemon.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/5/8/AAXh4NAAEciS.jpg
Like this one is an icicle blocking your path. However if you have a mirage with the sizzle field ability with you like the symbol above it indicates it needs, you'll be able to melt a path open.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/5/9/AAXh4NAAEciT.jpg
So far; it personally feels better than how HM moves in pokemon feel because they're keyed of abilities and not moves, and you have a stock of out of battle mirages with you in addition to the ones in your battle team so you can spare a slot or two for the ability users without needing them outside of that. Out side of that, the only other thing I had to deal with were the typical ice sliding puzzles in places like this.

With all that taken care of and the boss of the area defeated, I move onto the next town.

---

LordFarquad1312 posted...

Once you unlock the Coliseum you can fight the summons. You'll probably be really underleveled to win against them but if you get lucky you can just spam capture them and if you do you get the rewards as well as add them to your roster.

Umm...I know I said I wouldn't do this but...I kinda of did it by accident lmao. I apparently wasn't paying attention one of the times when I was picking which fight to do (I have the DLC, so there's a lot of them already) and I must have picked that fight.

At first I tried to fight fair since I didn't know that it was that fight, but I quickly realized that something was off since my attacks were doing single digit damage and they were taking out half of my HP bar in one attack. I started to panic so I decided to try to imprism them to take them out that way. I used it on Shiva first...and I caught her on my first attempt. Ifrit however was much harder to capture, and I eventually was unable to deal any more fire damage to keep trying. So at that point I took advantage of his rather low Max HP and just spammed 1,000 needles until I won.

So now I have a superpowered Shiva that I'm having to keep on the bench in order to have some amount of difficulty still before I get to level 40 lmao.

i really need to replay this with the Maxima content/DLC lmao

So I actually forgot to take screenshots for a bit because I've been engrossed in the game. In case I haven't said it before, this game is super damn fun lol. Let's just say that in the time I managed to run afoul of a mess in the next city and then had to go steal a pirate ship. Which lead me to heading to the low seas as part of my next step forward.

...Getting there, I see that's why it's called the low sea now.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/8/0/AAXh4NAAEctk.jpg

One thing led to another and now I'm hitching a ride across the sea to my next location.

Meanwhile on the side, I've gotten involved in more side quests.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/8/1/AAXh4NAAEctl.jpg
I'm getting wrapped up in utter shear, unfiltered madness, as per usual. (Which I like honestly, seeing as I'm a big Neptunia fan with that being one of the reasons.) The writing is very on point though, and always hilarious.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/8/2/AAXh4NAAEctm.jpg
What do we even call this technique? The showdown barrel drop? The saloon cactus blindside? Either way, the rampaging Tifa is sent back home.

Oh and just to say something else while I can, the OST is pretty good. Though considering the the composer behind this game also composed FF XIII, that's to be expected. I think my favorite track so far is the nine-wood hills theme. Though the one at Slvyer Park is great at well.

Making my way through a mountainous region now, I had to watch my step as tough enemies started to show up as on-map symbol encounters. Like this red dragon in the background.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/8/3/AAXh4NAAEc1b.jpg
Other than those, the dungeon was just has dungeons always were...at least until I ran into this mirage blocking my path. That I caught, because of course I'd catch a new mirage the moment one shows up.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/8/4/AAXh4NAAEc1c.jpg
Since he's a XL mirage, I can't have him in my battle stacks because he's just too big. So instead you have to use both the twin's available AP and summon him out to take their place. Which makes it not something you can use often because it can be a bit wasteful, but still is worth it because XL mirages are really powerful just on their own.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/8/5/AAXh4NAAEc1d.jpg
Once the dungeon was cleared, I headed out to my next location in this volcanic active land for the next part of my journey.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/8/6/AAXh4NAAEc1e.jpg
Oh hey, it's Midga...*checks notes*

...

...It's called Nibelheim? Not at all what I was expecting, but sure, I'll go with it.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/5/4/AAXh4NAAEc7O.jpg

Lann is such a treasure lmao. I mean it makes sense when you think about it, treasure chests often have gemstones inside and Lann has a rock in place of a brain.

More seriously, I finally was able to use transfiguration on my bablizz by now. So I did that and turned it into a Mishiva.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/5/5/AAXh4NAAEc7P.jpg
Now onto a fire cave, which taught me how to learn to use the chill ability.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/5/6/AAXh4NAAEc7Q.jpg
See that pile of lava that blocks my path because it'd burn me if I tried to cross it?
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/5/7/AAXh4NAAEc7R.jpg
It's not a problem anymore after chilling it.

After I cleared the fire cave, I then went to a swamp and cleared that area as well. It was all pretty quick to do. After getting to a desert town after leaving the swamp, I left to go back to do yet more side quests. It helps that they're fun to do.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/5/8/AAXh4NAAEc7S.jpg
Sorry Rikku, stuff like breaking the normal rules of reality tend to happen whenever magic is involved.

One of my favorite games. Easily one of the more interesting FF games released in years.

Senta posted...

One of my favorite games. Easily one of the more interesting FF games released in years.

For as far as I gotten so far, I feel the same way. It's easily one of the better ones out of all the ones I've played. For if nothing else, it's gotten real claws hooked into me. The game is just plain fun and charming, which I find to be a major boon to any game that possess it.

I'll wait before getting close to finishing the game to offer real final thoughts, but I will say at this point it would have to really fail at the end in order for me not to sing glowing praise about it. And given all the talk from others in this topic like you that have already beaten it...I feel like I can safely hope that it won't fumble at all.

This will be a quick update. I've gotten across the sands and moved my way through the dungeon. It has a trick that keeps you from progressing unless you can solve a riddle of sorts, though it's a pretty easy one to get. Along the way, I got a lure mirajewel which will greatly help in getting harder to find mirages or just gaining a bit more EXP on the way. So I put that on in the dungeon in order to help catch one of these.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/8/8/AAXh4NAAEdFI.jpg
I just can't help myself, can I? I just liked having another type of those on hand lol.

Eventually I got to the end of the dungeon, though not without running into a few surprise Bahamutian solders along the way that has me wondering why they're there. I beat the boss encounter though, and right now I'm resting at the camp in the middle of the night before I get going once more.

I'm currently replaying all ff games, thanks to the pixel remaster. Cant wait to get to this game again. Currently on FF3..

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/1/9/AAXh4NAAEdVP.jpg
That must be nice to sleep comfortably without needing a mattress.

At this point I got more lore info about what I've been doing.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/2/0/AAXh4NAAEdVQ.jpg
Unironically, I like the fact that wind got replaced for shadow. It mixes things up a tiny bit, so I can't wait to see the shadow area.

I haven't spoken much about the plot itself so far, and that's because there hasn't really been any. It's mostly just has been the twins going on an adventure thus far. That not to say that I'm seeing no future plot threads being laid, because there are, but I don't know what will happen with those until they get tripped. That said, I did hear Tama tell the twins in one of the chats at Nine Woods Hill that she can't enter the Girl that Forgot her Name's room. So I'm wondering if it's a case that she allowed just the twins to enter, or if she and Emma Kros actually don't get along for some reason. I'll have to wait to see how that turns out.

However the next morning, it became clear that there was a trap that was laid and the twins got captured. So I had to break out of the prison but something happened to their hands during being captured that sealed their abilities, so they had to get by without any of their mirages. Which was a pain but I was able to finally catch machine-type mirages here to make up for it.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/2/1/AAXh4NAAEdVR.jpg
They actually take something completely new called an Eldbox to catch, so I suppose that solves that problem. The twins eventually got all better after meeting a new person and after heading down deep into the dungeon I was able to do what I was sent there to do.

So next stop, Big Bridge.

TheGreatEscape posted...

i really need to replay this with the Maxima content/DLC lmao

i decided to play with that content (bought the original) didn't regret spending extra for it.
helpful early on and for getting enough of the mirages for trophy's.

I hope you're happy. I'm now going to play this game again immediately instead of later.. Might as well go for a 100% run...

Senta posted...

I hope you're happy. I'm now going to play this game again immediately instead of later.. Might as well go for a 100% run...

Not what I was expecting would happen lol. I hope you have fun with the playthrough.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/0/8/AAXh4NAAEdjI.jpg
If you look really closely, you can see Snow out in the wild on his Shiva-bike...being Snow.

So a bit of a short update this time, but I decided to knock out some sidequests and other things before heading to Big Bridge. By the way, dungeons often have secret areas that you can go into for stuff like extra mirages. You're expected to come back to them later on to complete it, but some you can do on the first trip there. I happened upon it going back to the dungeon that I just did last, and came upon this.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/0/9/AAXh4NAAEdjJ.jpg
I did not survive that fight.

Otherwise, all the sidequests that I focused on doing right now were able to be finished and turned in.

By the way, I have to just say that I like how the battle abilities work for the most part. While the major bosses still largely have complete immunity to all status ailments (Boo!), the attack skills feel like they scale quite nicely to stats. While Blizzara does do more damage than Blizzard, I've never really felt like my attack power was truly lacking if I went with Blizzard over Blizzara unlike in other FF games. The base-tier attack spells can still pull their weight, which makes them gel quite nicely with how the AP system works.

Can I also just appreciate the fact that attack items are actually sold in this game, both the element and ailment kinds? It makes it so much easier to have the ability to invoke prismtunities to catch monsters if you can cover a wide amount of them with any-given team if you're stocked up on those attack items.

And finally, I just have to bring this up now that I've noticed. Lann's default stack is called '(x)stack L' while Reynn's is called "(x)stack R' (The x's can either be 'Big' or 'Lil' depending on the current size of the twin). I noticed that Lann's stack is the left side of the battle when looking from their side towards the enemies, while Reynn's is on the right side. I see what you did there Square...

Forgot how much charm and humor this game has. I love reading all the mirage entries.

This playthrough, I'm making myself switch Mirages around a lot more. Use things I've not used much before, and keeping level milestones. Every 5 levels, I switch a mirage out with a lower level one I have with me.

Just finished Icicle Ridge, so still very early in the game. Got Ifrit and Shiva from the Collesium, so of course had to put them in my team and start leveling them up. I do like how all Mirages start at level 1, so you never capture something that is just OP from to start. Gotta invest in 'em.

Love this game and Ive been really hoping for a sequel.

some important tips I didnt see you mention (that you might already know)

1. With the unique catching mechanics the game says you can do it once to get a catch opportunity. What it doesnt tell you is that catching opportunities stack up to 5 times. So with Chicobo for example healing it multiple times increases the likelihood of capture. This is important for the very hard to catch creatures
2. every dungeon area actually has a secret area. Some are unlocked by Mirage abilities while others have secret entrances or switches. These are very important as they also contain at least one (or more) extremely rare mirages. For example the cave where you got your Bablizz by beating Shiva, actually has a secret area where you can get the Ifrit and Ramuh versions. They are rare encounters. Very worth revisiting areas to explore when you have new abilities.
3. as someone else said; fight in the Colleseum until you can refight the 3 summons. You cant fully evolve your starter until you do
4. dont neglect the Tea-Drinking girl. She holds some important items that unlock Mirage Final evolutions.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


Funko Pops allow you to weigh less in battle so you can stack differently.

I really hate the battle system in this game. Why did they do this. It looks dumb and it just makes creating builds really frustrating. Also did i mention it looks dumb

I intended to get further than I have, but unfortunately the weather yesterday turned out to be one that had a storm in my area so I wasn't able to get that much progress in before having to stop just in case I got really unlucky and lightning (the real thing, not the character) wanted to ruin my PC. And today looks like I'll likely get at least one today too, and the next few days look very chaotic so I'm not sure when I'll be able to get around to continuing at this rate.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

To add context to this beyond what was already said, the people of the world that the adventuring happens in, Grymoire, look like that. It's not something that's only just in battle. Lann and Reynn are from another world entirely so they don't naturally have that look, though they do have an ability to assume those more compact forms to try to blend into that world. The fact that they are 'jiants' is enough of a plot point that the people of Grymoire notice them whenever they're in their jiant form and there's even a prophesy about jiants because they're that unexpected.

Granted, this likely does not help you on this if the graphics are the sticking point for you. But I did at least want to say that they do in fact do things with the differing art styles being in the same game.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/6/3/AAXh4NAAEd-j.jpg
That's like saying that you can walk to the other side of the road but you shouldn't blow it up along the way. Like why even worry about that?

I was able to get the screenshots I already had out so I figure to do an update to where I left off. Of course it's Big Bridge, so it was sort of expected that I'd run into this guy at some point during it.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/6/4/AAXh4NAAEd-k.jpg
Bartz: "Why am I the one that always has a stalker whenever we do a FF fanfare project?"

Along the way, I encountered a group of giants and had to learn how to use jump-pads to avoid their attacks before I could get to them and battle them to get them out of the way.

Also about XL mirages since I decided to use them a bit here, they each have their own play style. Like one is a fast attacker but yet another one I had with me was much more defensive to the point of relying on a counter attack that could poison the attacker as it's main tactic so they're actually quite diverse. Also if you win a battle with an XL mirage still out on the field then they'll show up in the battle results screen like normal mirages would get.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/6/5/AAXh4NAAEd-l.jpg

At the point I left off at, I think I'm at the top of Big Bridge so I'm expecting a boss fight with a certain you-know-who the moment I press forward.

One more tip. There is an Encounter Less Mirajewel on the left side of Big Bridge but you have to go all the way back for it

Xerun posted...

One more tip. There is an Encounter Less Mirajewel on the left side of Big Bridge but you have to go all the way back for it

I'll keep it in mind when I'm back in that area.

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https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/8/5/AAXh4NAAEeM9.jpg
As I expected, good ol' Gilga was there.

I actually managed to make a lot of progress yesterday as I could devote nearly the whole day to the game. So to save time I'll just sum up what's happened thus far. First I happened across the eclipsed region and helped the city there get over their 'bat' problem.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/8/6/AAXh4NAAEeM-.jpg
Then I got to Port Besaid to to find the final key. One thing lead to another and I got to the underwater temple.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/8/7/AAXh4NAAEeM_.jpg
Only these two would be able to find a way there by trading their ability to breathe air in order to breathe water lol.

Once the four keys were collected though, a path to the crystal tower opened up and allowed me to climb it.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/8/8/AAXh4NAAEeNA.jpg
I left off having climbed the entire tower and the entire events with that, which left me with just a thought of 'What the heck is even going on anymore?'. I think I've been able to take these things away from stuff so far.

1. The twins were tricked into letting mechanical things known as conga into the world. Not sure what the conga are other than that, other than they destroy worlds.
2. I get the sense that Lann and Reynn have done this before in some way, as a lot of the dialog from Reynn's 'sister' (which I could instead see her as having been Reynn's friend instead of being her sister) hinted at. The ruined other Nine Wood Hills also hints to this as well.
3. No seriously, what's the deal with Emma Kros? For such a god to start the twins off on their adventure, she's been oddly quiet ever since all hell started breaking loose on Grymoire.

At this point, I'm probably going to stop taking screenshots since I'm close to the game I think. And try to not post anything else here until I do my wrap up thoughts on the game as I'm in the deeply spoiler heavy part of the game now. In any event, I've got an airship now as well so that's neat.

---
And since I'm nearing the end, I want to ask something. I heard something about the game having multiple endings, so could someone be kind enough to list to me here what the conditions you have to meet to get each kind of ending are? I probably shouldn't worry about that until after I beat the game and get an ending, but as I stated before I'm a Neptunia fan and that series has a really notorious ending to one of its games that is soul-crushing to go through...especially if you aren't expecting it. So now I just make sure I get that stuff sorted away beforehand so that I don't get a super bad ending if I don't want or need one.

For the endings: Just play. There are no conditions for endings. You have to get one ending first, then the other unlocks and it tells you what you need to do. The second builds off the events of the first.

Purestarfall posted...

And since I'm nearing the end, I want to ask something. I heard something about the game having multiple endings, so could someone be kind enough to list to me here what the conditions you have to meet to get each kind of ending are?

the true ending is basically post-game stuff so don't worry too much about it

Alright, I'll keep that in mind and aim for both of them. Thank you to the both of you for the assistance.

if you have Maxima there is a 3rd ending. I cant remember what you have to do but the internet says basically do every dungeon and Intervention. The first two endings should be clear what needs to be done

I got to the minigames and I'm reminded why I like my JRPGs to go without them. They largely weren't fun to me, and it sucks even more if they're have items locked behind clearing them a certain way (I'm locked out of the Madiun momento until at least NG+ because of this because I chose to skip the Sandstalker minigame).

Oh well, I'll just have to go on without it as I clean up the rest of the intervention quests.

Purestarfall posted...

I got to the minigames and I'm reminded why I like my JRPGs to go without them. They largely weren't fun to me, and it sucks even more if they're have items locked behind clearing them a certain way (I'm locked out of the Madiun momento until at least NG+ because of this because I chose to skip the Sandstalker minigame).

Oh well, I'll just have to go on without it as I clean up the rest of the intervention quests.

If you have Maxima Standstalker is fairly easy. I think Ive done it in 2-3 tries each time.

someone could trade you a Maduin if you dont want to do it though. Ive never tried it but I know its possible

the Cactaur kicking game is the bane of my existence.

It's fine. I had the assumption that you could only do intervention quests once per play through, but I found out through trying out to see if you even could that actually you can replay ones that you've already done. So I was able to get the Maduin memento after running through it again a few times. So while I'm still not much of a minigame person, at least I don't feel like I got burned here anymore so that's a relief.

I think I'm nearing the end of the first ending, having passed through the chainroad and the dungeon after that that you truly move around in three dimensions to the point that a 2D map would be pointless to have. So far I've made good progress and if my feeling is right that the 'final' boss is up ahead then I think I'm ready to tackle that and get into the postgame stuff afterwards.

Given that, I just want to ask since this might be my last chance to. Is there anything I should be aware of in the postgame content? Something that might easy to miss if you aren't looking in the right spot for it for example.

This seems awesome so tagging it so I can read later

Purestarfall posted...

I think I'm nearing the end of the first ending, having passed through the chainroad and the dungeon after that that you truly move around in three dimensions to the point that a 2D map would be pointless to have. So far I've made good progress and if my feeling is right that the 'final' boss is up ahead then I think I'm ready to tackle that and get into the postgame stuff afterwards.

Given that, I just want to ask since this might be my last chance to. Is there anything I should be aware of in the postgame content? Something that might easy to miss if you aren't looking in the right spot for it for example.

Game does a really good job of pointing out everything you can do to you. I dont think anything is truly hard to find.