Topic: Final fantasy discussion thread

@nessisonett Yes, in my version of FF8 the squad grow old and die in prison, apparently.

@kyleforrester87 I know a lot of JRPGs have that one point where playthroughs are abandoned but I can’t think of anything as clear and obvious as that bloody prison.

@kyleforrester87 They aren't dead, only Squall. The whole game after disk 1 is Squall's dream after he was killed by Edea

@belmont They are dead in my version, I assure you!

@Jimmer-jammer There are many things I don't enjoy in FF mode and if it was not needed for the platinum, I wouldn't play it. Even you strategize a lot still the enemies are "bullet sponges" and battles take a lot of time. What I ended up doing, since I can't memorize the moves and I always press the wrong ones (man I suck in 3d action games) I put the auto evade and auto attack ring and spammed the square button with the following build (based in this discussion ):
Shiva: Impulse, Mesmerize
Phoenix: Will-o'-the-Wykes, Pile Drive
Titan: Rift Slip, Flames of Rebirth

Battles still take some time but it works. I am now before the final battle and have beaten everything except the Chrono things. The platinum is almost mine (I have platinumed almost all FF games).

As for the DLC

Even I didn't like the ending I hope they stuck with it. And, if I did not miss something, magic is gone so after the story so there is no battle system!
Some say you can play as Cid when he was on Woeled and when he adopted Mid.
I would like to see Leviathan and play as other characters

Also, if the game is Steam Deck verified I will play it again but only on easy!

@kyleforrester87 Now I see that my previous joke comment may not have had context. Some years ago there was this fan theory that Edea killed Squall in the end of disk 1. The rest of the game is "the life that is flashing" in Squall as he drops down before dying. I don't want to spoil the rest of the game but there may be some ground to this fan theory although in my opinion it was semi-nonsense. Square debunked the fan theory some years later.

@belmont haha, nah - I am actually aware of that theory, and it’s a fun one, too. Really, the story just goes off the rails from disc two. The whole NORG bit is just mental.

@kyleforrester87 Now I wish I’d got past Disc 2, all I’ve heard is that it goes completely mental. I think I went past the prison once, and then hit the missile silo and wanted to put my head through a wall.

@nessisonett I watched a plot summary video fairly recently and it was pretty mind-blowing when all the weirdness was condensed down into a 40 minute video. Dragged out over 2 more discs of game it still gets very strange.

Question.

I played VII Remake digitally on PS4 a few years ago, and decided I should probably play the Intergrade expansion on PS5 before Rebirth comes out.

Do you get a discount on the PS5 version of Remake for owning it on PS4, and does your save info (in the main game) carry over (& if it does, do you have to do anything special to transfer it)?

@RR529 You get the base game for free but you have to pay extra for the Intergrade DLC. If ai remember correctly the PS5 automatically gunds the PS4 save and unlocks the trophies you may have had.

@belmont, oh, that's good to know, thanks!

@RR529 For me I had to upload a save from the PS4 version, then download it onto the PS5 version.

I played FFVIIR on my PS4 when it first came out, so had to download that version again. Thankfully only the portion upto when it was at 'Ready to Play', so I could open up the game and grab my save, so didn't have to download the whole PS4 version again.

Today is the day I find out if my bid has been successful on my house in Final Fantasy XIV.

@DisastrousFalcon Without playing the new one I can't say, but I'd say that even if it isn't strictly must play, the DLC is actually good. Yuffie is great fun, there's a cool mini-game she can play that I really liked, and it does introduce some characters/ideas that will almost certainly be explored in some way in a future game, but I'm not sure how important they'll be. Basically, it's only a few hours long, and so unless you're super-pressed for time I would say it's worth it.

@DisastrousFalcon I played it fairly recently and found it a fun but brief experience. Playing as Yuffie felt different enough and the combat is ace. When it was over I thought 'Oh is that it?', but there is scope to replay it which I never did.

@DisastrousFalcon I’ll chime in to give another endorsement of the Yuffie DLC. Like you I usually skip DLC, but I was glad I went back to play Intermission. Yuffie might be my favorite character to play, combat-wise.

She’s in the Rebirth trailers and a member of the party going forward, so the DLC introduction of her character is fairly significant, narratively speaking. The story in this remake version is a bit jumbled, so hard to say exactly how critical Yuffie’s intro is, but it’s a fun time nonetheless.

@DisastrousFalcon Since you are going to be playing Rebirth, I would definitely recommend playing Yuffie's DLC. I didn't like her DLC at first, but after taking a break from it and coming back to it, I ended up enjoying it. Probably because her style of combat is so much different from the way combat was in Remake, but it is worth the few hours in order to get to know the character for the next game.

Iconic

I’m about 5 hours into FFXVI now, having taken a second stab at it after failing to really get into it when I tried to play at launch. I have been enjoying it more this time around. I’m now at the part where they introduce the infamous mundane side quests. I don’t mind them, but I know if there’s too many of these trite little fetch quests then it could get annoying. I believe I read on here that the side quests get much better toward the end. Honestly I think it’s fine to have really simple ones in the first areas in order to ease players into learning the characters and setting.

I’m not quite sold on the game’s narrative. This surprises me, since the story has been the facet of the game which has been consistently lauded. There are aspects of the plot and characters which I really like, but so far it feels like the plot execution resides in this strange no-man’s-land between Japanese storytelling and Western storytelling. There’s no doubt this is the most Western styled FF game to date, but it feels a bit like it doesn’t know what it wants to be, story-wise. There’s the Game of Thrones / dark-fantasy backdrop with knights and goblins and blights and political subterfuge and copious graphic bloodshed, all of which feels very Western. But then the characters occasionally have a little Japanese quirk and the voice acting is a little too melodramatic for the setting, much like Japanese games tend to do.

And I don’t want this to sound derogatory, it’s just an observation. I love many JRPGs and Eastern styled media so it’s not necessarily a knock against the game but I think I’m just going to have to get used to this new narrative style. Kojima does this too — for as Western as he tries to be, there’s a Japanese je ne sais quoi that confirms his games’ origin. It’s difficult to describe, but a simple example is the melodramatic death cries in MGS — “Snake? Snake! Snaaaaake!!” Lines of dialogue can be heavy-handed and hyperbolic in Japanese drama, and so I’m seeing little bits of that here in FF16. The story also has some strange plot armor going on. Like, what’s the deal with Torgal? He just happens to be hanging out with Cid when Clive joins him? And that was just an awkwardly unemotional reuniting — His family dog, the one his deceased brother loved, pops up after all these years and he’s just kinda like, “yeah, I know this dog.” Despite the inelegant convenience of dropping Torgal back into his life, at least give us an emotional gut punch. Just a missed opportunity, that all.
If it were just a traditional JRPG with a usual goofy storyline (FF7 Remake, etc) then I wouldn’t think much of it. But the game feels like it’s trying to be an edgy, Naughty Dog / Rockstar styled gritty storytelling, and yet it just hasn’t quite landed at that level for me. (Although in fairness, few games do). But I’m very early game, so I hope things come along better over time.

I do like most of the voice acting, but a few of the voices don’t fit the characters and their character models. For example, I love the actual voice for Cid, but it’s way too gruff and old of a voice for his character model, and it’s just coming across to me as so off-putting. And then the large guy, Goetz I think his name is, has this little voice that sounds much more small. I understand the intent to show ironic contrast in his size with his personality since he’s a simple fellow, but it’s just a minor thing that has pulled me out of the otherwise well executed cut scenes.

And oh yeah… the cutscenes. 😅 I hope they calm down with the cutscenes. I mean, I like a good cinematic story driven game with plenty of exposition, but I feel like it’s been at least 50% of my time so far with the game. Hopefully it strikes a better balance as I get into the meat of the game.

Otherwise, the combat is nice, although coming from playing a couple Souls styled games lately, it’s a little button-mashy so far. But I can see there’s some depth coming up and I look forward to getting access to more Eikon abilities. I think I’ll end up liking the combat since it will be a nice change of pace from the Souls-likes.

Anyways, sorry for the long and wordy post. Tagging @Jimmer-jammer who was interested to hear my early thoughts.