You are a GM. Your players want you to design a Final Fantasy-like world, with all the correct tropes and cliches. What do you include?
>>44464214
everything is belts
>>44464214
Depends, which Final Fantasy? Each one is an entirely different world and setting. Crystal based magic seems to play into it in part, but it's not necessary and takes many different forms, from tiny magic beads made out of the world's soul to giant crystals that stop the poisonous air from killing everyone you love and forcing you to recharge them via giant crystal trees that only grow where there's shitloads of monsters.
>>44464214
I just run Anima, that is fairly literally what it's for. Even already has a JRPG style setting I can pull apart for ideas.
>>44464214
Four crystals of Magic, one Fire, one Water, one Earth, and one Wind.
There is a rare disease that can cause serious amnesia in those infected. Infection rates are ridiculously low.
There are Airships, created by a humanoid race that live in a massive floating city, but used by humans as well.
Moogles exist, obviously. Cute, cuddly, and a ridiculously proud race.
There is an Empire with aspirations of world domination and an elite fighting force.
Practitioners of magic are incredibly special in some way.
Not sure about everything else, but Human, Viera and even Moogle would be player races, that's for certain.
Maybe the Black Mages from IX too, but that would require a name and a way for them to be other classes if desired.
Instead of horses there are Chocobos.
There is someone trying to take control of all four crystals of magic and/or the power that binds them to the world. That attempt might cause that person to obtain godlike powers which he or she might or might not be able to contain. If the latter, it results in his or her inevitable death.
There must be summons.
Belts and Kingdom Hearts
>>44464214
I'd probably set in in Ivalice, the original Final Fantasy Tactics world on the PSone. Political intrigue, a church actually a front for Demons and Thunder God Cid (what a guy).
>>44464451
>Kingdom Hearts
That's not even Final Fantasy.
>Belts
Nomura character designs weren't even a thing until 7.
Damon, I've been on the fence between playing ff14 or Wildcats, this makes me want to play 14 again. On topic though, I have crystalline trees, borne from a single Mana tree that is in peril because the 6 sacred crystals are being corrupted, (Earth, fire, wind, water, light, and darkness), there is a floating city of Dragon knights and images that they and police the world but a technologically advanced Empire with robits, airships and land vehicles are tearing apart the countryside in a war for power. The bbeg is an ancient demon king who's underlings are trying to rez and bring about certain doom. The empire faction while being controlled by an evil guy aren't that evil, just caught up in a zealous fervor.
My inspirations are the Mana Series, Chrono Series and of course the final fantasy series.
>>44464568
Should have thought twice before making me the GM then, asshole
Chocobos
Cid
Cactuar
Moogles
These are mandatory
>>44464568
And BELTS weren't a thing until 8, part of which was passive aggression IIRC
>>44464400
>but that would require a name and a way for them to be other classes if desired.
No it wouldn't. They're black mages, they're artificially grown wizards. If you want to be a Black Mage, you have to be a Sorcerer or whatever. Fuck any faggot that wants to be a special snowflake Black Mage Paladin
>>44464214
If they want different playable races, use the Ivalice ones. If you're feeling so inclined, add espers, burmecians, and qu.
Weird-ass hair and huge, ridiculously shaped swords.
>>44466096
He said FF, not 40K.
>>44464214
i quit
>>44466096
That's Nomura, not Amano. "Classic" FF is Amano, which means "scarves, pearls, jewelry, veils and Middle-Eastern patterns enough to supply the entire stage performance of Aladdin for perpetuity".
>>44464214
I run Vagrant Story-era Ivalice, the least Final Fantasy of all Final Fantasies. Pretty much no magic, only playable humans.Though when I don't feel like being a dick, I run something during the Lucavi rebellion or reign of the Dynast King.
>>44464214
I quit because FF7 is an overhyped generic JRPG and I prefer different ones.
Just run a game using Final Fantasy d6
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?173958-Final-Fantasy-d6-%28Complete-System%29
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2954274/FF%20d6/FF%20d6%20Sheet.pdf
Changing your clothes changes your class
Multiclassing is just mismatched wardrobe.
>>44466140
>this is a plausible, usable and down-to-earth weapon
Yeah, sure anon.
FF2, btw.
>>44464214
Everyone's a princess.
Most people have some tragic backstory to be emo about.
there's guns, swords, magic, lasers, cyborgs, ninjas, ancient tree ents, and it's all a clusterfuck of mythos and sci-fi and fantasy rolled up in there.
They are out to save the world. It goes from 2 and a half to EPIC before the end of the first session.
The thing they think they're fighting is actually not the TRUE EVIL threatening the world.
>>44464696
you forgot airships
>>44464214
Or you could just use a final fantasy setting that's already damn near standard D&D.
1) Reviving dead people i pretty common. Pheonix down is cheap.
2) This is totally ignored when it comes to plot.
3) The fastest way to character development is sucking out the abilities from dead people's crystallized souls. (Why isn't there any FFT/Soul Reaver crossovers?)
>>44464214
Don't forget a race of spankbank bunny girls.
>>44464214
Iconic monsters.
>>44464214
1. Crystal Chronicles
Done.
>>44466140
>>44466096
. . . Yeah dude.
>>44467520
So fucking pointless. This is what really made me hate 7.
>>44467429
>y no FFT/SR xover
Not gonna lie, that would be awesome. They'd have to use the purple prose that they have in War of the Lions to even come close to how loquacious Legacy of Kain is, though.
As for my own idea, there's actually a FFd20 system already, and it's made to work to Pathfinder rules (with a few changes), and it includes elements from pretty much every Final Fantasy, especially Tactics. I'm actually working on a setting involving a war between Eidolons from Gaia and ones from Luna that happened centuries ago. I'm also developing archetypes for the system to include Path of War (Weeaboo Fightan Magic for Pathfinder) stuff, like for Dark Knights I made the Tenebris Angelus, which keeps to the "sacrifice HP to do a fuckton of damage" theme that they typically have throughout the series, but also gives them a theme about harnessing powerful emotions to grind your enemies into dust.
Here's the thread where I have what I'm working on: http://www.finalfantasyd20.com/ffd20/showthread.php?tid=490
>>44467520
>>44466096
>>44464223
I think it's really sad that this is what people associate with final fantasy, considering the breadth of aesthetics the series covers
for me, other than including all the iconicdirect goddamn dnd liftmonsters, magitech would be a huge necessity
>>44464214
I just run a game in Ivalice.
Fuck my players. What they want already exists, I'm not going to uphold any pretence by relabelling things when Ivalice stands on it's own as a fantastic setting anyway.
>>44467694
The setting itself involves the Gaian Eidolons defending their home against the Lunar Eidolons, who aim to raze most mortal life from the surface so they have new territory to muscle into. The Gaian Eidolons are led by Asura, who had ended up making a gambit that, while it did ultimately give the Gaian Eidolons enough of an edge to finish the war, it also put her into a deep slumber before the battles ended, and so she was buried in a tomb for centuries. She had done a few other notable things, like ascending Odin (the first Dark Knight) into the ranks of the divine after he managed to fend off nearly an entire army on his own. The whole thing is still very rough at the moment, though.
>>44468065
>>44467429
>>44464504
glad so many people recognize the best FF games and setting, i'm proud
>>44467429
To be fair, you only got three turns to "revive" someone in FFT.
I think dead is dead in Ivalice, Phoenix Downs just pick you up when you're mostly dead.
>>44467429
Phoenix down is smelling salts, not resurrection. It jerks you awake when you're unconcious but can't bring you back from the dead. That's why it doesn't do any healing, because you're still just as fucked up, but you're now awake enough to drink a potion.
>>44468122
Sounds fuckin awesome. I'd love to help with the setting, if you have a Google Doc and you feel comfortable.
But just out of curiosity, are there going to be feats added that let you use the classes' signature techniques or abilities? Like Doublecast for the Red Mage?
>>44464214
daily reminder that red mage is best job and they have the besthats
>>44464214
God tier soundtrack
An evil empire of some kind
Crystals/Orbs
HP sponge bosses
A talking octopus
An ancient evil awakening
Chocobos
Suplexing
Noble bad guys
Psychotic bad guys
Magic
Gilgamesh
A children's card game
Evil mist
Chests that have equipment better than what the party just bought
Airships
A demon wall
Summoning
Ninjas
Suffering
And overall make an attempt to have the PCs be Heroes not just adventurers, unless we're in Ivalice, in which case endless suffering
>>44464304
/thread
>>44468820
You forgot
Airships
Someone named Cid
Operetta
>>44468647
The classes in FFd20 actually have a lot of that built into them already, and then some. The Red Mage is basically Magus+, offering the typical Spellstrike and Spell Combat stuff, but along with their own spell list, they can select stuff from Black and White Mages' spells as well on occasion. Holy and Dark Knights get all the sword techs from Tactics that you see Agrias and Gaffgarion using, on top of other Paladin/Antipaladin abilities (in the setting I'm doing, the alignment restrictions on those classes are alleviated, considering there are examples of evil Holy Knights- Delita, anyone?- and good Dark Knights- Cecil is, at his worst as a Dark Knight, Lawful Neutral- throughout the series).
I don't have a Google Doc for the setting, although I am perfectly fine with other people putting their own ideas into the mix. One of the most important things is that I'm largely going to be deciding on the interactions between the groups of Eidolons and between them and mortal races.
For the FFd20 stuff on the whole, here's the site to get the lists of classes and whatever: http://www.finalfantasyd20.com/ffd20/index.html
They're all typically a slightly higher power level than vanilla Pathfinder, just so you know, but I suppose that's not much of a surprise.
>>44464304
>>44467520
To be fair, 40k did invent the original bullshit huge swords and Japanese just liked the concept and made it their own.
>>44469228
Races that exist solely for fanservice
Limit Breaks
Reduced damage from back row
Useless bow/arrows
Depending on time period, crapton of belt buckles
Anti-Judeo-Christian symbolism
Four elements but only three types of magic attack, one of which has nothing to do with any of the four elements
Revive kills Zombie
The occasional bishounen protagonist
Overpowered ability combos (Ivalice only)
But I kid, I love Final Fantasy.
>>44469343
Seriously. Put it all in a Google Doc and let others suggest or comment. It is gold.
>>44469355
The Japanese had the idea of fuckhuge swords before Warhammer came around. The longest blade in the world was made in Japan in the 1800s. The sword is a nodachi that totals about eleven feet in length, and seven or so of it is the sharp part.
>>44469454
Getting to it as we speak.
>>44469454
Here's the little piddly shit that I threw together at the moment, feel free to leave comments about which Eidolons you want where: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f6os5ecLSdNS6qJ-ifzpvSFhaYX1aM62fZLilf1Mpo0/edit
I have to take a snooze, I work graveyard shift (throw freight at a grocer), and so I need a couple hours to keep myself from being dead on my feet at my job.
>>44467518
Fucking this, man. CC is fucking great, it's such a comfy adventure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b6mkTELUGUWii U game when ;_;
>>44464214
>What do you include
Nothing. I promptly say "No".
>>44467388
See >>44464304
It has LITERALLY all of that, and airships.
Shit, one's even a giant flying casino.
>>44468750
FACT.
Sorry I'm late, guys. I have to include that magic is actually boring ol' SCIENCE!
Also, there needs to be at least one sex-idol in every game.
>>44468820
>>44469429
Don't forget NPCs whose death may potentially traumatize a player or two.
>>44464214
A .44 magnum.
I shoot the players, then myself.
>>44472443
man too many people got a bullshit racket in that game
cloud is lucky he's a literal schizo brain damaged retard with superhuman strength and en entire party of co-dependents willing to take care of his turtlenecked ass
>>44472560
Indeed. Cid's wife didn't get too raw a deal, but that's about it.
>>44472323
Fuck you. Fuck you for destroying everything.
Fuck you for Square Enix.
>>44472443
>>44472560
Cloud always came off to me as an awkward, anti-social crazy-man. It surprised me when he really turned out to be a brooding, depressed, stupid asshole.
>>44472999
He was both. Cloud, out of all the FF protags, had a legit reason to be as moody and psychotic as he acted. His brain sincerely was fucked up beyond repair until Tifa tightened the screws and installed some new flooring in his soul. Kind of made him more sympathetic than most of the brooding losers and hyperactive blonde fucks we've had to swallow since.
>>44472946
I was only pointing out how Final Fantasy started sucking really bad. Don't burn down my house, please. FF7 was my favorite, but it should have been the last with all the "sci-fi" bullshit.
But I do enjoy the sex idols.
>>44473051
Indeed.
Credit where it's due, I found Zidane pretty entertaining, for different reasons. He actually FELT like a thief/performer who suddenly wound up WAY out of his league with all the bullshit that went down.
>>44473121
Zidane was good, he was just in the wrong era. Dude belonged in FF6 or somewhere past it - FF9 was so weird in that it seemed to do everything right, and was a solid game, but it was entirely and utterly unmemorable.
Campaign set on Gaea where you're a little known anti-ShinRa resistance, resorting to terrorist acts against ShinRa including blowing up Mako reactors. You know, like AVALANCHE was supposed to be/Before Crisis AVALANCHE. How about being part of ShinRa, working with both SOLDIER and the Turks during the Wutai War.
>>44473168
>unmemorable
Except
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xqtQwC-hwM
Such a great goddamn sequence. Especially since it parallels Vivi's story and shows Zidane it's not easy to just smile and move past it.
>>44473326
I'd love to do a Turks game. Be some hunk or broad in a nice suit who acts as an enforcer and dirty laundry worker for some multi-billion murder business empire? Fuck yes. Sign me up as Elena 2.0, I wanna punch shit and be a spy.
>>44464214
A big bad evil guy who is really the harbinger of an even bigger badder eviller guy
>>44473349
That was good, and it had some excellent music, but it just wasn't enough to really save the game. It felt like some back-to-basics hangover after the climax of 6, the sheer insanity of 7, and the ugly experimental surrealism of 8.
>>44473371
Its almost like they were made to fit perfectly into a Shadowrun campaign
>>44473418
>Its almost like FF7 is a Shadowrun Campaign
FTFY
>>44473418
>>44473459
God I hope they got hot and sloppy and long and HARD on the Midgar chapter for the remake. I want to suck that shit up like a dirty gutter wine. Frankly they should have never let the game LEAVE Midgar to begin with.
>>44473459
That said I'd still like to play as a Turk, get a nice suit, some funny comrades, access to Shinra company secrets (or making them), top of the line equipment and materia, cute girls, commit mass murder and not held accountable then go on a vacation in Almost Japan.
They'll never make a FF game with the character development that FF6 had. Celes' suicide would make most players cry like a bitch. What other FF game would make you cry like a bitch?
I try to dind a system thats done summons in the same way FF does
>>44473501
I like the idea you could break up all the Turk campaigns with Mandatory Vacation Time. Everyone could argue after each major story arc closes where they get to go vacation (and have some obnoxious sidequest) next. Saucer? Costa? Not-Japan? The local bath house and hotel?
>>44473502
God, FF6 was so weird. It did stuff with characters that they never tried since, and it wasn't even popular in Japan despite being peak Not Star Wars.
>>44473495
If we're lucky, the game won't be a shitty railroad through the maps like 10. I'd definitely love to explore Midgar a lot more thoroughly with this new game.
I swear I'll hunt them down like fucking dogs if they give Tifa her shitty Advent Children costume and leave out the jiggle physics on her. They damn well better make the game appeal to the original gamers rather than Disney's policy of marketing it to whiny little brats that annoy their parents to buy it for them.
>>44473502
Galuf
Bring My Garnet Back To Me
80% of FF6
Aeris' kabob
Cosmo Canyon
You Are Not AloneTidus' death
>>44467424
>you forgot airships
He said Cid, didn't he?
>>44473548
Wonder where they recruit from, what their standards are, what their training is, where their HQ is, who picked that awesome theme?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSAjNWypykQ
>>44473589
>I swear I'll hunt them down like fucking dogs if they give Tifa her shitty Advent Children costume and leave out the jiggle physics on her. They damn well better make the game appeal to the original gamers rather than Disney's policy of marketing it to whiny little brats that annoy their parents to buy it for them.
Oh for fuck's sake stop being a horny 11 year old you stupid nerd, go jerk it out of your syetem. Of course they're not going to have her run around in a titty top and short skirt in ultra def PS4-era graphics, save probably as some DLC outfit. Listen to yourself.
>>44472323
Ienjoyedthat movie.
>>44467992
You can thank memes for that. What's really depressing is that higher-ups in Square got convinced this was what western gamers wanted and now we've got FF13.
>>44464214
As was said before in the thread, Ivalice game could be neat. Any era.
Alternately, full-on high-magic old FF. Because it's FUN, dammit.
>>44473495
If they never left Midgar to save the world, it wouldnt be an FF game
>>44473627
I imagine it's like their SOLIDER program but for low lifes. They find people on the streets of Midgar who are especially smart, tough, or just plain mean. They coerce, bribe, tempt, and beat their recruits in; find the orphans, find the gangbangers who got in over their heads but succeeded anyways, find the kids who hacked into Shinra and got caught, go to the bar to find the girl who manages to con guys for thousands a night, roll up with a shit-eating grin and an offer they can't refuse, put them through Corporate Thug Boot Camp, give them an almost suicidal reason to compete and a license to do what they like.
That way you carve out the chaff and get yourself a whole small shadow group of very professional, devoted, and well-dressed psychos who will do ANYTHING for the benefits you laud on them.
>>44473698
I mean, they should have designed the game to begin with so that leaving Midgar almost never happened. The first part of the game was insanely solid and fun, and despite all the cool stuff that happened outside of it, it feels like they could have gone long and hard on the corporate espionage, city terrorism, and digging up dirty secrets.
While I could easily see most of the game's content being spread through the city instead of the world, you could still have had them go to other 'needed' locations by stowing away on planes or something. Going back to Midgar for the final raid was a hell of a high point.
>>44473642
Sex sells, you stupid woman. It's a guy thing. You wouldn't understand.
I imagine Tifa's tits are still going to be absurdly huge, but she'll probably be rocking some jeans and a tight top this time. But they'll also likely be lavishing everyone with tons of DLC costumes to buy. They have one chance to play this card, and they're going to milk it of every last penny the world is willing to bleed for it. All they have to do is make the game GOOD and not a hideous burning disaster like FF13 1/2/3 was.
>>44473502
>>44473590
Almost every single side character dies in 2
If you go to Josef's hometown, every single person will talk about how hes dead
Everyone's family got fucked in 7
I feel especially bad for Zack and his parents
>>44473867
Zack and Aerith got tremendously fucked that's for sure
Aerith got the last laugh with her own psycho plan, but still
>>44473711
I know they did recruit thugs and other criminals, but some came from nice, privileged backgrounds, some honest, and others nobody has no clue not even themselves. The main thing is they're very loyal and avoid coercion from outside forces, and especially those from within Shinra.
>>44473711
>mfw i now realize this is literally what our current Shadowrun game is
The only difference is that we're under the benevolent watchful eye of Horizon, not EVO, so we're more likely to release A MEME SO SUPREME YOU LET OUT A SCREAM into the wild than release a planet-devouring monstrosity.
But the rest fits perfectly, we even have borderline-incompetent-JRPG-miniboss-squad thing going on.
>>44473867
Ahh! You spoiled ff2 for me! Been trying to play that game for 10 years now but haven't gotten around to play it.
What happened to Zack was pretty sad, though. But shit happened to everyone in FF7. Aeris getting killed was powerful, but it didn't hit the emotions quite like many parts of FF6 did.
>>44473900
I figured, yeah. They're the Gmen, just a little more loose and dirty. Like a CIA and FBI crammed together and told to get this seriously esoteric shit done, and in exchange here's all the goddamn wine, pussy, dick, and fancy cheese on crackers you can choke down before the next suicide run.
Seriously, not enough games focus on basically being the dirty boys of the Great Dark Empire. Fuck the dark knights and the SOLIDERs and the lot, just grab a big stick, a nice suit, and pop a few heroic kneecaps while stealing their data plans AND their lunch. Bully everything.
>>44473838
>All they have to do is make the game GOOD and not a hideous burning disaster like FF13 1/2/3 was.
They havnt made a good one since 10
And that was about the time they learned that they can make more money form cookie-cutter j-pop models, flashy weapons and costumes, than good stories or mechanics
Casuals ruined the franchise 15 years ago
Every game is kingdom hearts now
Probably just do a world like FF9 but insert my genderbend and giantess fetishes.
>>44473711
Turks were Shinra's SS
>>44473898
>>44473960
What happened to Zack was the worst tho
Cloud doesnt remember him
Aeris doesnt know what happened
His parents dont even know hes dead
>>44474013
It felt a little more loose than that, though. They're SS, but also like, corporate themed instead of military or state. SOLDIER were the mighty elites, but the Turks felt like Shinra going after the theme of the 20s gangster era and setting it loose on some magitech post-future city.
And sometimes in distant exotic locales.
>>44473982
>XII
>not good
Yeah, Vaan was a tosser, but come on.
>>44473982
>Casuals ruined the franchise 15 years ago
/v/ you're in /tg/, nobody cares, you don't have to try hard
just pray with us that they're desperate enough for money and a renewed empire that they actually make FF7 good and not just a glitzy cash-in
>>44464214
Whatever the fuck I want, then toss in Energy Crystals or some shit and bam.A rockslide has occurred.
>>44474077
>>44473979
Well they do have their own snappy theme, and smokey bar that soldier boys aren't allowed in. The more I talk about them, the more fun they sound like they would be to play.
>>44473982
I can't understand why people liked 10. I swore I'd never play another FF after 10. The first one for the nes had a thousand times more freedom than 10. You could explore all day. You could fly an airship. You could beat bosses out of order. Final Fantasy 10 should have been a graphic novel.
>>44474103
It was too far gone with all the elaborate costumes, spiked hair and technopop
The casuals wanted everything to look like FF8 and thats what any FF is now
>>44474167
You kidding? They're way more fun to play. You couldn't pay me enough to play some SOLDIER bullshit, it's Turks or bust.
It's like the difference between being a Star Wars bounty hunter of the Empire, and a Dark Jedi working for them. One has fun and snaps witty one-liners and has bad hookups and worse throwdowns with the heroes, while the other has to commit itself to nothing but raw theatrics and rigid order unto hopeless joyless death.
People mummified in belts.
Monsters mummified in belts.
Weaponry mummified in belts.
Belts mummified in belts.
Oh, and a zipper or two as well.
>>44474217
Hey, FF7 was actually very controlled about the belts. I don't care how much of a turn on it was to know that Lulu was that easy access with just one or two quick snaps of a buckle, that shit got out of hand real fucking quick. But FF7 was ok about it.
Did this once in D&D 3.5, could probably be done the same way in 5ed.
Have everyone play a not-primary-caster class. If it has limited spellcasting (ie Ranger or Paladin) then you have to use an alternate feature that trades it in for something else. Derive "MP" as a stat - 1d12+WIS mod per level or something like that. Hand out materia as quest rewards, and have some of the basic forms available in shops. Each materia allows a character to cast it's associated spell for an MP cost, and the number that can be equipped is decided by the player's weapon quality (one slot normal, 2 linked slots masterwork, etc). Green materia contain a single spell of any level, blue materia are essentially a free metamagic feat that gets applied to the linked green materia, yellow materia contain class features that get added on to the equipping character, and purple materia contain bonus feats. Switching materia is a minute-long process, so doing it mid-battle is impractical at best. Feats and such that would apply to spellcasting cannot be applied to materia casting.
I practice, it lets you control exactly what magic your party has access to, which is neat from a GMing perspective, and makes getting and identifying loot more interesting.
>>44474208
What kind of campaign could there be that's not covered in Before Crisis, or FF7? Investigating? Silencing informants? Kidnapping and other strong arm tactics on local populations that don't comply with Shinra's authority?
>>44474254
I see magic being as easy as "add a spell to your list of castable spells even if you're not a caster class" and you use your class's main stat for bonus spells....so if you have a class based on strength you can cast spells if you qualify for bonus spell due to high strength
>>44474173
Granted 10 is nowhere near my favorite, but it had some good ideas like the battle system, modding your weapons, the ability grid
Some of the optional boss battles are really challenging
But on the other hand, it had way too much stylized crap, the story was only slightly less retarded than 8, and like you said it was fairly linear
>>44474387
Yeah, all of that. Look, throw out FF7 'canon'. Who gives a fuck. Set it before FF7, ignore whatever garbage they put out, do your own thing. Fight AVALANCHE, fight other splinter groups, do the dirty for Shinra, murder renegade SOLDIER agents before their own can to score huge points, recovery materia for exotic places, assassinate country heads visiting the golden saucer, PROTECT allied country heads about to be killed by Wutai extremists, you could have a whole solid short game based around it. You don't even have to include a single solitary gunhand, titpunch, or flowerlastofherkind. If you have to end it clean, have someone find some bullshit Prophect Materia and have them go 'Ok [PC party], we got one last mission and then an island to go hide on for roughly the next year and we should be ok, we just gotta get there alive'
>>44474123
They arent desperate enough to make it good
Games like 7 cant be made today because it wasnt a safe enough product that would ensure sales
7 made money because it was an amazingly made game and people realized it
If they could make good games, they would make those and not a 7 remake
People want 7 and not the trash they make now, for obvious reasons
Its gonna be 3 different games, how could it not be a cash-in
>>44466361
there's a crunchier one too with a d100 mechanic
>>44474202
>It was too far gone with all the elaborate costumes, spiked hair and technopop
Did you even play the game? It had one of the more down-to-earth artistic styles out of any of the post-VII Final Fantasy games, and the aesthetic direction was wonderful.
XII remains tied with VI as my favourite FF game.
>>44474202
If you did not play XII, you can just say so.
>>44474047
I agree, Zack got royally boned, but at least he went out knowing he finally became a real hero.
Aeris(th) fell in love, thought Zack abandoned her but held on for years, just missed learning the truth, gets over Zack, finds Cloud, starts to fall for Cloud, decides to not let this one slip away, follows Cloud, gets impaled.
Aeris literally got no lasting satisfaction while alive.
>>44473838
To be honest, I actually like XIII-2, it feels almost like a Chrono series game.
>>44475979
I can't say I enjoyed XIII-2 as much, but I actually liked the basic setting of the first two games. I just wish the games really worked the setting rather than the railroad fest of the first game and the pokemon collecting of the second game.
The third game wrapped things up interestingly enough, thoughthe idea that the new world ends up being our world is thirteen kinds of bullshit.
>>44473691
person who you were responding to hereI like 13
I feel like people also had a weird and wrong perception of that game coming out of it
>>44471811
my nig
>>44467678
It wasn't even in 7 though.
A LOT of what people associate with 7 isn't even in the game actually, it's all later retcons and stuff like that.
>>44474652
I can never tell if crunchy means good or bad with you nerds
>>44474253
>Lulu's belt dress
Fun fact, that was given the green light to challenge the animation team. They ended up minimizing closeup scenes of Lulu that show the dress because they couldn't get it right.
Squall's fur collar in VIII was also an animation challenge.
>>44473502The ending of X
Celes didn't even die man. It's not even a required scene if you know what you're doing.
Might be repeats from the thread but, these come to mind:
Dragoons
White/Black/Blue/Red Mages
Phoenix Downs
Ethers
Chocobos
Mogs
Airships
Malboro
Bahamut/Ifrit/Shiva/Odin
Setting with viable of magic with technology, swords with guns.
"Naughty" scenes and magazines but never explicit
>>44476121
Yeah, they had a lot to work with, but they didn't really touch it. At best, you get to look through their Datalog feature to pick up whatever blurbs about the setting they felt like throwing in for those of us who would ever bother reading it. There is nothing if not loads of missed opportunities here.
Again, to me, XIII-2 was more fun, but that's largely because of the gameplay, and also the times where it really doesn't take itself seriously, which helps cushion the blow from all the hyperdrama in the first game, and what of it there is in the second. I mean, come on, who doesn't think that the screamo chocobo theme is awesome and zany? Also, as I mentioned, it feels almost like Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross had a baby that was raised by Final Fantasy VII and VIII as foster parents.I haven't played Lightning Returns, but I don't mind the spoiler there. The writing in these three is kinda shitty to me, so I'm not gonna sweat it. I do still plan on playing it eventually, though.
Dont forget to have a classic song that pulls every fan's heartstrings long after the game is over.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oQv3leISYU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UigzN-4JR14
There's a bar in every city and village, and a piano in every bar.
The lead character of the party should be able to learn how to play the piano regardless of classes or other perks. If they have two working hands, they can learn the piano.
>>44476400
Whether or not a game being crunchy is a good thing is entirely subjective.
>>44476469
10's ending only left me confused and then slightly depressed when I realized that he ceases to exist rather than dying. Yeah, it sucked, but I started the game off hating Tidus, so it was easy for me to say good riddance at the end.
Chests/Boxes everywhere. And people don't mind you wandering in their house/castle/dungeon and ruffling through said chests to take things.
>>44476676
You should have watched the credits the whole way through
>>44476701
How about a chest that vanishes if you touched some largely irrelevant chests earlier in the campaign
And that chest contained a super powerful endgame weapon.
>>44476625
I see where you're coming from with XIII-2. There were some genuinely fun moments when shit wasn't getting real. But I didn't really get into it for some reason.
It's like the only good thing that came out of the XIII trilogy were the soundtracks. Grab those soundtracks, write up a scenario that happened during the big war between Gran Pulse and Cocoon, and I'll jump right in on that campaign.
Now that I think about it, VIII suffered the same issue with me. It was an interesting-as-fuck setting, it tried some interesting things with the FF formula, and had a great soundtrack, but it fell so fucking flat with boring characters and a clusterfuck of a plot when it was all said and done.
That all aside, I still say I'd want to play in Ivalice. Goddamn that setting is perfect for a TTRPG! Especially War of the Lions/Vagrant Story era.
>>44476746
Maybe one of these days I'll youtube it if I get curious enough.
>>44476785
Be like VI or Chrono Trigger and have stuff end up being better and more useful if you leave it be for awhile.
>>44476785
Sounds too unfair.
How about if they mess things up and miss out on the super powerful endgame weapon, the DM gives them another shot with a chest hidden in the same spot as a different largely irrelevant chest that has a 1/1000 chance to get said super powerful endgame weapon?
>>44476816
>Vagrant Story
My baby. I'm not going to lie, pretty much 50% of my game settings and moods directly seek to copy the sort of dark and moody fantasy grime of VS and FFT. I ate that aesthetic up and was practically begging for more which FF12 fucked up RIGHT good. Should have dropped Square as soon as FF10 hit.
>>44476785
Ya! Uggghhhh.
>>44476826
Did like how chrono trigger handled that. Least if you mess up in CT, the game encourages replays so you can try again.
>>44464214
I include all of FF IX
All the FF fans will shun the game, I get to keep a game world I'm interested in, and the people that are left are probably the ones I'd rather play with anyway.
>>44476785
That set of like 16 chests in XII
Fuck you for reminding me of them.
>>44476871
Fuck you XII was great, it was just different. If anything it serves to highlight the setting even more, since you have multiple games across multiple time periods that portray Ivalice's slow descent into misery.GERUN WAS RIGHT
>>44476871
XII wasn't SOMOODY because it's set in a time period before the world went to shit like in FFT and VS.
It's actually right on the cusp of things going to shit. With the Occuria letting humanity decide their own fate, everything gets fucked up, to the point where humans are the just about the only sentient race left in FFT/VS
>>44476871
Vagrant Story and FFT are the same world?
I've never played Vagrant Story, but I'm interested
>>44476946
It was boring, anon. It was horribly, crushingly, absolutely BORING. Everything was this slow mindless slog and endless menu battle to get your AI puppets dancing right. The characters had little life, the stakes felt hollow, most of the designs were fucking goofy, and all of the truly good stuff was just wasted.
Fantastic music and locales though. Shame it was wasted on a crippled pretend-MMO with a disastrous development.
>>44476871
>FF12
Yeah, XII was a LOT more colorful and optimistic than the prior Ivalice entries, but it does take place before all the shit went down that led to the world that we saw in the original FFT, so I can give it a pass.
And yeah, Vaan and Penelo really shouldn't have been in the game. At all. Ever. But at least once you got other characters in the party, the story focused on them while Vaan and Penelo became the Ishmaels of the game. And that's fine.
But what really made me love XII was the political story in the background. A battle of leadership over one nation. The rebuilding of another nation after catastrophe. Another nation weighing whether or not to fight. And then the shaky future of the nation stuck in between all of this. Oh yeah, and the politics of godlike beings who are trying to control all of the shit down in the mortal world.
I ate that up faster than the delicious fucked-up-ness that was VS. It shows the kind of stuff that led to the grimy fantasy that FFT and VS showed.
AndI absolutely loved the battle system.
>>44476785
>>44476924
Goddamn that bullshit. Seriously, how the fuck did anyone supposed to figure that out without a FAQ or a strategy guide?
>>44477010
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Ivalice_Alliance
>>44477010
Yeah. Final Fantasy 12, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Vagrant Story all take place in the same setting at different times, with Vagrant Story being the far future of either where magic is now this weird lost art; imagine if the Dark Side of the Force was the only Force there WAS, but if you approached it with respect, you could let it work for you. Otherwise it ate your freakin' soul.
>>44477027
Honestly man I'm going to have to disagree with almost your entire post here.
Excepting Vaan, XII had some of the most multifaceted and deep characters, a plot that actually did intrigue well and mixed it admirably with the standard 'Teenagers kill god' FF plot, the overall artistic direction was outstanding, and, well, that was all of the truly good stuff.
>>44476816
It doesn't mean that the game itself is bad when the best part of it is the soundtrack, it just means that the soundtrack is really fucking good. The Sunleth Waterscape is, if you ask me, one of the best songs in the entire franchise, let alone that one game.
Also, with the setting I'm working on, I'm actually figuring out how to include the Oretoises from XIII and XIII-2 in it. I'm thinking they were literally made from the earth itself (they do lay eggs and whatever, but the first ones were born of dirt and stone), they draw sustenance from sunlight and water, but they also enjoy eating crystal deposits. Mortal races nowadays use them kind of like giant, wild truffle hogs who dig into rocks and mountainsides to find geodes of raw, magic crystal. They let the Oretoise eat what they want (only fools and dullards try to fight the Oretoise to drive it off and take the whole load), and then miners dig in and take the rest.
One of the NPCs in it is a Summoner who was raised by one as a child. The Adamantoise had lost her own young very recently (even by Hume standards), and so she raised the baby Hume as her own. Being around such an elementally-aligned and powerfully magical creature ended up infusing some of its own energy into her, and now she can eat rocks and understand what other Oretoises are saying.
>catches pervy Red Mage digging through her clothes to find undergarments for sniffing
>"RRRAAAAWWWRRRRRR"
>"Um... what did she say?"
>"Mother says that if she catches you looking in my trunk again, she'll stomp you to death."
>"RAWRRR"
>"Also, she likes your hat."
>>44477074
I'm saying it had those elements, but none of them were executed well or with any life to them. Balthier seemed awesome, Ashe had a good racket going, they had literal Fantasy Star Wars Yet Again and it just plain wasn't any damn fun. You know what I mean? The parts were all there but none of them fit together well.
>>44477056
>The rebuilding of another nation after catastrophe.
What one was that? Bhujerba? Nabradia's not rebuilding shit.
>>44477056
>but it does take place before all the shit went down that led to the world that we saw in the original FFT
Nope.It takes place during. All that shit that happened in XII? Venat being a Lucifer expy and granting mortals freedom from the will of the Occuria? That directly lead to FFT, and then Vagrant Story. When Gerun made his speech about how mortals would ruin everything if left to their own devices, he was absolutely, 100% right. By that same train of thought, both the protagonists and antagonists of XII were, if not evil, then vastly irresponsible. By allowing the mortal races to take control of their own fate, they set the course for Ivalice's descent into grimdark.The Occuria literally did nothing wrong, and Venat WAS a heretic.
Now I know that Enix is shit, but I'm really quite happy with the Dissidia games.
This basically makes ExDeath's "Void" dimension a means to unify and mix any setting you would want. Who wouldn't want to use that in a tabletop Final Fantasy game?
>>44477105
I don't know what you mean at all, I thought it all meshed very well.
Sorry dude, I think we're just gonna have to agree to disagree here. I loved XII and nothing you can say is going to dissuade me from thinking that it was the best damn game in the entire franchise.
>>44477212
A'ight. Fair enough. You just better not shit talk FFT and VS.
>>44477229
Brah
Brah, no
All the Ivalice games were fantastic.
So Vagrant Story was basically a Final Fantasy game?
>>44477229
Anyone who shit-talks Tactics or Vagrant Story is a fedora-wearing, wheelchair-bound retard who lost their sense of taste as a child.
>>44477174
Nabradia fell, but the only uninhabitable place in it is Nabudis. He's either talking about Nabradia or Landis, which also got fucked up by Archadia.
It's too bad the only thing we see of Razzaria ingame is Al-Cid and his harem, though.
>>44477229
>>44477306
I don't like Tactics, but that's because I don't like tactical RPGs.
>>44477182
The chronological order of the games is the following:
Final Fantasy XII
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift (Main Game)
Final Fantasy Tactics
Vagrant Story (not an official Final Fantasy title)
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift (Prologue & Epilogue)
That's from FFwiki, make of it what you will.
>>44477299
No.
It was better.For real it was a nicely self-contained one-player game where you have to Black Ops your fantasy chaps-loving ass through a giant necrolithic city that is an enormous spellbook and full of strange dark unholy shit that cultists and dark knights are trying to claim. Think of it as fever dream japanese shakespeare fantasy. Brilliant sound and visual design, weird story, clunky battle system that's easy once it's no longer opaque.
>>44477104
I suppose you have a point there. The gameplay was fairly solid while expanding on the basics introduced in XIII. And you could play through some parts of the game in different orders. But I got so tired of Serah and Noel that I couldn't justify finishing the damn thing.
>>44477174
Well, you saw the rebuilding effort in the fort. The Necrohol was definitely going to be shit for a long time to come, but there were people who definitely want to rebuild.
>>44477182
I'll agree that the events of XII sparked the descent of Ivalice into darkness. AndVenat totally is the one to blame for it, but it happened in the sort of golden age that FFT referred to. But seriously, how could have any of the mortal parties have guessed that it would happen that way? The Occuria gave humans powerful artifacts, and they ended up abusing it and eventually faffing off to make their own powerful artifacts. No wonder some folks wanted to get the fuck away from the Occuria.
>>44477299
When it was developed, it wasn't supposed to be in the Ivalice universe. However it was retconned to be in FF Ivalice.
>>44477347
Shit I forgot about Landis.
>>44477348
I'm going to try translating this image, that's supposed to be the Ivalice timeline.
>>44477385
>Well, you saw the rebuilding effort in the fort.
Is Nalbina part of Nabradia, Archades, or Dalmasca at the time of FF12?
>>44477463
I think Nalbina became contested territory between Archades and Dalmasca, once part of Nabradia before they got fucked up.
I can always be wrong as hell though.
Which FF class is, without a doubt, a That Guy class?
>>44477588
Shadow Knight for edgelords
Mascot for lolrandumbs
>>44464214
Summons, jobs, blue magic and a Crystal Chronicles like world.
>>44477385
It's heavily implied thatVenat was the one who showed Cid how to make Manufacted Nethicite. Before that, only the Occuria could grant Nethicite to mortals, and that was how they maintained their grip on the world.
Vayne, Cid andVenathad only the best of intentions. They were basically the good guys from a certain point of view. Unfortunately, we all know what the road to hell is paved with, and it was their actions which sent Ivalice careening into the toilet.
>>44464214
Crystals, environmentalism, vaguely nebulous destiny.
Mankind dealing with forces that shouldn't be messed with.
Why not just use the kitchen sink like setting of FFXIV, the game meant to be an homage to the rest of the series?
>>44477675
Why not just set it in FFVIII?
>>44477637
I guess that's what I liked most about XII. The fact that no one side was pure good or evil. Obviously the PCs were trying to stop a superweapon from destroying home and fueling an even larger war. The bad guys were simply trying to wrest control for Ivalice's future away from their godlike puppeteers. Depending on who you are, you could easily sympathize with one or the other.
On a slightly different topic, I'm scared about XV. The setting has some interesting trappings, the aesthetic of the world looks like a weird juxtaposition of realism and fantasy, and the battle system is like Kingdom Hearts on steroids. But I'm afraid I'll get betrayed again, like I did with XIII.
It's probably going to happen. I'm just hoping for more of an open world game instead of the linear shit we've been getting recently.
>>44477426
Never mind, it's too blurry to deal with the kanji.
>>44477637
XII was an allegory for the Manhattan Project.
>>44477348
>the "real world" of tactics advance is in the canon
That seems a little strange to me but okay.
>>44477174
Yeah, Nabradia got fucking wrecked.
Even though there are people in the game who want to rebuild Nabudis, it's not going to happen because the residual Mist levels have fucked the entire place up with unlimited numbers of monsters.
>>44477780
Well, if you get right down to it, theOccuriawere probably the biggest good guys in the entire setting. Sure, they werecallous asshole gods, but apparently they knew that shit would go pear shaped if they didn't do what they did, and successfully prevented it for eons, right up untilNot!Luciferstabbed them in the back.
Looking at it from the protagonist point of view, yeah, it sucks tohave puppeteers pulling the strings of the worldand they were more or less justified in being outraged, but when you look at it in hindsight, theOccuria saw all the shit coming over the horizon and genuinely tried to stop it as best they knew how.
XII was ambiguous as fuck. Nobody was right, but theOccuriawere probably as close as you can get.
>>44477893
The "real world" is either alternate reality or in the far future, beyond even Vagrant Story. The Ivalice created by the Gran Grimoire in FFTA isn't the real Ivalice, it's Mewt's interpretation of what he reads in the Grimoire made real by the demon Li-Grim. In FFTA2 there's a similar situation with the Gran Grimoire and the demon Neukhia. The FFTA series is hard to place in the timeline because they don't take place in the same region of Ivalice as the other games in the Ivalice Alliance, though.
Also, Revenant Wings being canon is questionable because it's literally a reskin of a different, cancelled game.
>>44478036
Definitely a wonderful twist on the 'we control our own destiny' trope that comes up a lot in FF.
Reminds me that another FF needs a update. VI needs a goddamned update. Not VII. I'm okay with POLYGON Clod and company. But dammit I want to see a graphical update on a great game that did a wonderful job with a lot less to work with.
>>44478131
They did give VI an update, the iOS/Android/Steam release. It got fucked right up.
>>44478173
Hush anon. It never happened.
>>44478036
It was nice to see that old chestnut of a cliché subverted. The asshole puppeteers were demonstrably a force for (more or less) good, and by giving people control over their own fate, they irrevocably doomed Ivalice to a slow and painful decay.
I'm also a huge fan of their style of speaking. Olde english with it's own fantasy twist, almost poetic in it's own way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R43YHkYo31w
>>44478197
>A Friendly Man: "You need to FORGET!"
>>44478173
>>44478197
The only people who whine about the Matrix releases of old FF games are 'muh nostalgia' asshats. It's why I avoid the Steam forums for those games like the plague.
>>44478274
They could have just given V and VI the chibi 3D treatment or the actually good high-res 2D treatment, both of which they gave to IV and it's sequel.
Even just turning off the bilinear filter would have made a huge difference.
>>44478251
The voice work is made all the better because the voice actors were mainly stage performers by profession.
>>44478251
The dialogue in XII is interesting. The phrasing used in many lines is clearly meant to set it apart, and many of the character have that poetic lilt to them.
I still prefer this exchange best. Demonstrates the ambiguously justified motives of the antagonists extremely well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cibQCyJr4Qs
>>44478536
I was hesitant to open the video after seeing the thumbnail, but you've done right by me, friend.
>>44478536
I like XII's Cid. Dude is a douchebag and a terrible father but he's too much of a badass to care.
If VI is Steampunk and VII is Dieselpunk, would VIII be Cyberpunk?
>>44467319
the person who drew that probably got paid 20 yen per picture.
>>44478173
>>44478197
>>44478266
>>44478274
So wait, what did they change that rustled so many jimmies?
>>44479428
No. There's no cyberwear anywhere, the most advanced shit is Esthar and the Ragnarok space shuttle.
Rocketpunk, maybe.
>>44479691
They changed the sprite palette for 'redrawn' ones with a bilinear filter to smooth out the pixelly edges. This means a bunch of people who grew up with shitty CRTs and Super Nintendos hate it because it doesn't look right.
If you know what it used to look like, hit up the Steam store pages for them and have a look at the screenshots.
>>44480083
>FFVIII
>any kind of punk
It's literally just modern fantasy. More-or-less modern society tech (for the time) with magic and monsters sprinkled on everything.
>>44480125
Esthar is straight out of a 70s pulp magazine, but otherwise you're right.
>>44480142
You're right, it's more like modern fantasy with some mild sci-fi elements tossed on
Also, Esthar has jack shit to show in terms of how advanced it is bar the spaceships, which are nothing special beyond looks, and the veil, which is just a fuck ton of monitors displaying empty fields iirc. The city is played up to be this sprawling futuristic metropolis but you visit only five places in Esthar City that aren't empty highways.
>>44480225
They only had 4 CDs of stuff, and they had to fit all those fancy backgrounds on them. The last CD is only, what, Ultimecia's Castle and the Compressed World?
I would buy the fuck out of an FF8 prequel showing Laguna's exploits in Esthar.
>>44464214
Gilgamesh.
>>44464214
Which Final Fantasy? The tropes of the series have changed over the course of 13+ games.
Back in the early games everything was magic crystals. Then it was magitech in 6-8. Then it went back to standard fantasy for 9. Then I stopped paying attention.
>>44480083
To be fair, the filter did look absolute ass and made the games a blurry mess.
I liked the remakes past that though.
>>44473572
>it wasn't even popular in Japan
Literally criminal.
>>44475979
XIII-2 was actually good?
Do you need to have played through XIII to properly enjoy it? Because "JUST GET THROUGH THE FIRST 30 HOURS AND THEN THE GAME GETS GOOD" is kind of a dealbreaker for me.
>>44483007
>XIII-2 was actually good?
Yes. I consider it a much better game than XIII.
>Do you need to have played through XIII to properly enjoy it?
Somewhat.. the climax of XIII sets off XIII-2, so watch the final boss and end cutscene on youtube or something? If you never intend to play it through.
>Because "JUST GET THROUGH THE FIRST 30 HOURS AND THEN THE GAME GETS GOOD" is kind of a dealbreaker for me.
XIII-2 learned from that mistake and kicks you right into the action about 20 minutes into the game instead. The world is fairly open ended. Raising monsters can be a chore sometimes, but the crystarium of XIII-2 has a much better flow than XIII's.
>>44482925
It was crystals the whole way through, they just had varying importance
>I: Four elemental crystals
>II: Fancy setpieces
>III: Four elemental crystals
>IV: Four light crystals, four dark crystals
>V: Four light crystals for each world
>VI: Magicite
>VII: Materia
>VIII: Crafting material
>IX: Four elemental crystals
>X: Spheres
>XI: Synthesis material
>XII: Nethecite, Auracite, Save Crystals
>XIII: Crystarium
>Synthesis material
>XV: One last crystal
>>44478251
>Olde english with it's own fantasy twist, almost poetic in it's own way.
That's Early Modern English at the oldest, bro.
>>44483064
FFXIV has the Mothercrystal Hydaelyn and her blessing crystals as well as materia of its own. XI also has the five Mothercrystals.
>>44483062
>XIII-2 learned from that mistake and kicks you right into the action about 20 minutes into the game instead.
Yeah, I was assuming that was only the case in the first one, but having to play through the first one to get the second one means I'd have to slog through that anyway.
![[werfs flammen].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/JdsQDfm.jpg "[werfs flammen].jpg")
>>44474652
>ffd100
BEGONE, YOU FIEND
>>44483136
Just skip the first one. The second goes through all of the highlights and important bits in that 20 minutes.
>>44464214
Bandages fix everything
>>44483007
It's got really solid gameplay, they went and took the system from XIII (which was a pretty innovative way to utilize the ATB system) and streamlined the fuck out of it. It's highly nonlinear, unlike the previous title, and it isn't constantly DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA (although it does have some periods that are really dark and you know some serious shit is going down, like watching half of a city turn into C'ieth and start killing everyone else). The mood shifts a lot like Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross did; there are periods where it's all light-heartedness or just a real feel-good atmosphere (compare it to, say, the Millennial Fair in Trigger or Termina in Cross), there are times where it's somber and gray (like 2300 AD (Trigger) or the Dead Sea (Cross)), and there are times where it's loaded with desperate badassery (like the Tyrano Lair of Trigger or when you kill all the Lagoonates in Marbule in Cross).
However, the biggest downside is that you need context for lot of it, which requires either that you play XIII or just watch a collection of the cutscenes. Bit of it are covered, but not enough, in my opinion.
For me, XIII was... bearable. That's mostly because, if anything, it at least looks gorgeous, and that helped alleviate the grim mood that it usually had. When you first get to the Archylte Steppe, the scenery is absolutely breathtaking, even outside of cutscenes, and it's kinda hard to get bored there as long as you're running around doing C'ieth stone quests or grinding up your characters so you can fight dinosaur turtles. As long as the road to that part of the game may seem, it's worth it in my opinion, since more than half of it takes place there; the chapter count up to that point is rather deceptive. Me, I got there in about twenty-four hours, and I've spent over a hundred hours just doing the sheer amount of STUFF there is to do once Gran Pulse is open to you. Biting the bullet to get to that point is the hardest part of the game, though.
>>44483445
Also, XIII-2 has one of the most dope fun soundtracks in the history of the series. They pretty much explicitly make fun of you for being an edgelord and trying to ride around on Red Chocobos with this song, which is probably the only screamo that I can listen to for more than a few minutes at a time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEUOOgNzOv4
>>44483627
>edgelord riding around on chocobos
Come again?
>>44483662
>>44483662
In all seriousness though, they made something like that in FFd20 with the Dark Knight archetype Fell Knight. You get better spellcasting and give up your sword techs to get a chocobo (eventually a black one) mount with special powers, no joke.
http://finalfantasyd20.com/ffd20/fell-knight.html
>>44483445
I like you for showing appreciation for Chrono Cross instead of total disregard like I only seem to find across the internet.
>>44484006
Those who talk Cross down (or even pretend it doesn't exist) are just shitlords who are pissy that they didn't get Chrono Trigger 2. It was apparent all the way back when they did Radical Dreamers that the sequel was going to be far different than Trigger.
To be honest, I think I might like Cross more than Trigger, and I definitely prefer the Cross fanbase, although I'm kind of a weirdo in thatI ship Noel from XIII-2 with Serge. For some reason, imagining the two of them wearing nothing but sarongs and basking in the milky-gold twilight at Opassa Beach makes me feel warm and fuzzy.
>>44484074
Disregarding the spoiled section for the sake of my sanity, I agree entirely with the rest.
It's such a relaxed and clever game. I love how the plot all ties together by the end, even if some people call it convoluted. Replaying it is really fun to see exactly where Belthasar is tugging at the strings, trying to get everything to go in the exact right way.
>>44484180
Well, if I said I'm kidn of a weirdo, that should give you a hint about what's beneath, but oh well.
But yeah, the game is just so much better than what people give it credit for nowadays; fuck the game scored a perfect 10 in several reviews, back in a forgotten time when that meant something. I really like how, in all actuality, Bethasar has a bit of irony attached in that, despite being the Guru of Reason and not being in a world made of detritus and hopelessness, he's still kind of crazy, although this time it's his god complex, rather than going insane from loneliness and despair.
Another thing I really like is the flavor in how the characters fight. A lot of what they do is at least based on real-life fighting styles; Serge uses a modified version of an Okinawan style utilizing oars, Steena explicitly does Tai Chi swordfighting, and Grobyc, apart from the couple of odd moves he can do because he's a robot-man, is a kickboxer. Keeping it related to /tg/, I've actually managed to recreate some of the characters by using DSP's version of Weeaboo Fightan Magick, what with a lot of it being based off of real stuff, but given a fantastic bit of flair.
>>44484006
>>44484074
>>44484180
Cross is my absolute favorite game done by Square. I spent hours upon hours playing and replaying that game, I really want to run a D&D game in that style. As it is right now I'm borrowing heavily from their weapons, the party found an ancient Stone, took it to a master Smith, got it forged with other rare materials to create prismatic weapons.
>>44472999
Cloud was a guy that thought he was a badass but it turns out it was hallucinations due to drugs
Even in AC his brooding was chalked up to "he has brain cancer that made him moody"
>>44464214
>Terrible weapon damage
>A legendary hero named Cid
>A really original race that you will only see once.
>Grinding
>Elemental resistances in almost everything
>Chicken mounts
>The evils of CAPITALISM
>The fantasy world is actually the future after a nuclear holocaust
>Hammy one-liners
>DMPCs
>Backtracking
>Giant airship blimps
>>44473168
well it was a throwback to FFIV
and people treated it like that with those who wanted more pre-FFVII appreciating it and those who grew up with FFVII not caring but they knew it wasn't for them.
>>44484751
>A legendary hero named Cid
Cid doesn't nessesarily need to be a hero at all he just has to be associated with those "Great airship battles" in some way
>The evils of CAPITALISM
that's just FFVII (and maybe FFXIII haven't played it so I don't know).
>>44484871
>that's just FFVII (and maybe FFXIII haven't played it so I don't know).
Definitely not.
Cocoon is a completely state-run pseudo-theocracy.
>>44484871
and even then it stops being about the evils of capitalism after the first act
for the rest of the game it's "WHERE IN THE WORLD IS SEPHOROTH" with all the subtlety of shinra removed Rufus changing it into a pure military arm it's higher ups changed into mustache-twirling villains and the Turks turned into Team Rocket (which is pretty usual for FF up until X).
>>44484871
Yeah, Cid was a collosal dickhole in XII.
>>44485195
still think the most messed up Cid is the one in VIII
>trains orphans into guns for hire
>training academy was leased from Jabba the Hut
>when wife and matron to those orphans is possessed by witches use said child soldiers to assassinate her
seriously What The Fuck CID? (cool airship though)
So I've put in crystals to my D&D game. I'm thinking of having them in hard to reach ancient temples that elemental once inhabited. The bands are trying to either steal, or break them. This is where I'm lost. If they are broken/stolen what should happen to the world? I recall it was always something devastating when it happened, I just got nothing.
>>44486172
that element becomes out of balance/uncontrolled/fluctuates wildly
Earth: Earthquakes, gravity fluctuations
Fire: Flames burst forth from minor sources, large sources extinguish inexplicably
Wind: Lightning storms out of nowhere, hurricane force winds
Water: Storms, waves, whirlpools, waterspouts, droughts
Heart:Go planet!
Have you considered the amount of education involved with the setting? That the only similarity between Star Wars and FF is stagnant clothing? Also possible bringing western elements into Kara-Tur could be the same. Which brings exclusiveness into the possibilities (power gaming). So really your group could be quite demanding.
WoW accomplished this if you give it some thought toward ambiguous ancestry.
>>44484180
I enjoyed Chrono Cross a hundred times more than Chrono Trigger. Wondering if anyone else here thinks so as well.
>>44488800
I honestly don't think I gave CC a chance when I played it waaaay back near when it first came out.
I remember having recently finished FFVII, and being hype for this game, while having never played CT.
Then I died in like the second battle or the first boss or something, because I couldn't grasp the "Change the color of the field" mechanic.
Maybe I should hunt it down again and give it a second chance now that I'm much older and better at games in general.
>>44484074
>Pretending the awful pacing, boring battle system, uninteresting leveling, and the unnecessary inclusion of a Captain Planet message wasn't dogshit
I beat CC 3 times, mostly because I loved the sound track and it was easier than Mystic Quest, and it was just not a good game.
Warriors of Light!
xD
Me: "Hey, we found the Crystal. Does that man us Warrior of Light now?"
DM: "No."
Me: "Awe, why not?"
DM: "Last time you were Heroes of Light you created a crater that wiped out the middle of a continent!"
>>44491703
>"Last time you were Heroes of Light you created a crater that wiped out the middle of a continent!"
my group in a nutshell.
>>44491690
The battle system is up for interpretation (I loved the stamina and 1-2-3 attack system) and the "Captain Planet message" was just a smokescreen the entire time.
Won't defend the pacing but I found the plot to be a wild ride in spite of it.
>>44491762
Least your group didn't "accidentally" release the Tarrasque into the Gulf of Mexico, watch it swim off to fuck over !Venezuela, and go "eh, coulda been worse."
>>44491820
>just a smokescreen
Dwarves slaughter a bunch of fairies for no goddamn reason and blame it on human expansion and over hunting by humans. Dragons and Reptites found humans abominations and/or usurpers because we were literally influenced by a cosmic horror to evolve. Mystics were routinely the victim of racism perpetrated by humans.
There was nothing to the battle system. There was no reason not to weak-fierce-fierce every time unless you were using your elements, which did less damage most of the time. The setup was done better in Xenogears and Legend of Legaia had more depth to it. Suikoden did big casts better since it actually gave the characters something to do other than act as PartyMember#2. Porre being a military juggernaut that rolled the rest of the human kingdoms came out of nowhere and don't give me that "Dalton gave them tech" bullshit. It was another attempt at making the setting more mature and making shit suck. Like Masamune being evil now. Like Robo getting ganked. Like Magus being a flaming magician. Like Chrono, Marle, and Lucca being MIA. Like Lynx being your dad and burning down an orphanage. It was overwritten and there was no reason to actually give a shit about anyone, unless Kid was you're waifu. If that was the case, you're lucky, because the true ending is her coming to life and finding you in Japan. Sugoi.
It was a failed experiment.
I realize that /tg/ is not the place for this nor am I going to make you dislike the game, but lets not pretend its some underappreciated Square work. I'm sorry. I just really, really hate Chrono Cross.
>>44469593
Oh yeah, Japan definitely is the king of FUCK HUGE SWORDS. But the odachi/nodachi vary WILDLY from like mere 36 inch blades that actually got some combat use to the giant ceremonial swords you're talking about.
>>44492082
no, but we did have a campaign were literally every city we left was either on fire, or a crater.
>>44494901
PLEASE tell me your group were the "good guys."
>>44495247
oh, we were.
>>44492319
The dwaves' hypocirsy is the point, showing that despite what they try to preach, they're still really no better than humans. Reptites didn't find us abominations or usurpers, they were all dead once Lavos hit, and so all they saw us as until their death was a bunch of retarded monkeys. Dragonians were basically the equivalent of the people of Zeal, only with scales and sharp teeth, i.e. arrogant magical jerks. Mystics were just as bad towards humans as we were towards them, if not worse, considering they fucking ATE PEOPLE.
So, yeah, the Captain Planet/Humans Are Bastards message is indeed largely bullshit.
>>44496107
That's some Slayers-tier city saving right there.
>>44464214
>Crystals. Either the players have been chosen by some primordial crystals or they're enlisted to rescue them from some sort of threat.
>Replace horses with chocobos.
>Party member with the most vague backstory is actually an alien or of royal lineage.
>One big bad is orchestrating the overarching plot, but is actually being controlled by an even greater entity, perhaps the embodiment of evil or darkness itself.
>There's a peninsula full of dangerous monsters near the party's starting area. Halfway through the game there's a cave in the party's way that's the second most dangerous place in the world.
>Magic weapons hiding inside walls.
>Summons.
>Dwarves are a semi-forgotten race in hiding, but are in the process of trying to blow something up when the party finds them.
>At some point, the party meets "the last dragoon."
>Parallel dimension of bad shit, such as a realm of darkness or alternate timeline where the villains are stronger.
If they let me just recreate FFXI and Vana'diel, I would. The world needs more Tarutarus.
>>44496437
>The world needs more Tarutarus.
Indeed. Those little nutters were amazing. And inevitably, there would be at least one high level nukemage football in every zone.
Having a BLM75/WHM37 escort me to the BCNM20 for - Guildpearls? A new vocation? - was hilarious. I remember about 10 orcs vanishing the second he dropped Thundaga... IV, I believe, on their heads. And him slapping the BCNM dragon.
Half the reason I set my home province as Windurst.The other half was sweet, sweet Mithra booty.
Haaaah, good times.
>>44491618
If you have a PS3/4, PSN has it for about 10 bucks. Worth it. Get Trigger too, I think they have it.
>>44480453
I want an FF8 side-quel that's Biggs, Wedge, Seifer, Fuujin, and Raijin fucking things up and hacing wacky hijinks.
>>44469355
Warhammer of 1989 didn't really have fuck huge swords yet, the minis were too primitively cast. That makes Japan clearly the winner on this one, given Berserk launched in 1989. Though they take pains to stress that it's hugely impractical for anyone short of teh super human to use.
>>44496528
>I can never go back...
