After finally completing Final Fantasy XII, after several years, and after getting a little burned out on The Legend of Zelda, my thoughts recently turned back to Dragon Quest. Before getting into my Zelda games on the 3DS, I knew I was approaching the final areas of Dragon Quest IX. About a month or so ago, I decided to resume my progress, and within a week or two I completed the last two or three dungeons and finished the game.
Dragon Quest IX is different at game's end than any single-player RPG I've ever played. The game saves itself, but rather than letting you revert to your last position before beating the boss, you load the game into a save where the boss is cleared and the final dungeon is gone. It's a true "endgame" scenario, where you're actually playing after the end of the game.
I considered putting the game back down at this point to focus on doing more with earlier games in the series, but I decided to keep at it, revisiting areas, completing quests, searching for treasures, and leveling my characters up in different jobs. I've actually found myself re-addicted to this game, and it is currently my portable game of choice. There's a lot that fascinates me about the game. When you visit Alltrades Abbey after the game's end, they tell you that once you reach max level, you can "revocate" back to level 1 to ensure you can earn enough skill points to learn all of the skills, revealing an added layer of depth to the job system. After the end of the game, there are still numerous areas on the map that are inaccessible to me. I never encountered a means to fly in this game, but wonder if there is one. Every Dragon Quest game since III has had some means of aerial transportation, so part of me guesses that this game does too but that I just haven't found it yet.
Meanwhile, the game has still inspired me to revisit older games in the series. I booted up Dragon Quest VII for the first time in a long time to see if I could work towards unlocking the Hero. I don't know the precise requirements, but the job unlocked as soon as I mastered the Dragoon job, after having also mastered Paladin and Pirate. In VI, I was under the possibly false impression that mastering any advanced job would unlock Hero for your main character. For anyone else, you need to master three specific advanced jobs, which would correspond, I believe, to Dragoon, Sage, and TeenIdol in Dragon Warrior VII. It's possible that your main character has to master one of these three jobs, not just any job, to unlock it. I suspect that is the case in Dragon Warrior VII. I also ended up unlocking an unexpected job called Godhand. I don't remember if this was in Dragon Quest VI or not. I decided to level Hero first, and I'll probably do the other later. But after mastering Hero, I decided to take a break from Dragon Warrior VII.
Seeing more of what was available in Dragon Quest VII and IX made me boot up VIII for a bit. But I couldn't figure a good place to grind, and realized how much I didn't remember already about the game, and decided to put that on hold for a little while.
Significantly, I finished my maximum playthrough of Dragon Quest II, finally obtaining the golden card. I had obtained every item besides this on my Famicom version a few years back, and with the help of the save feature in the NES version I worked out the reels in the lottery (each reel has its own repeating pattern which never changes) and tried to figure out the precise timing to get the suns. I couldn't find much concrete about it online, but I was eventually forced to conclude that even with precise timing, there seems to be a random element to how long it takes the reel to stop.
I gave up back then after getting bored, but I recently dug out my old notes to try again. Within an hour I had won the Golden Card on my NES! I was thrilled, but not satisfied, as it didn't constitute a 100% playthrough since this file didn't have other items I had obtained on the Famicom. I decided to try to get those items on the NES, but I made the mistake of switching out the cartridge between game sessions. I had trouble getting the game to load again after putting it back, and I must have hit it just wrong, because when I finally got it up I got the cursed music indicating my game file was lost.
I decided to try for the reels on the Famicom, despite having to redo lengthy passwords to try. I gradually hedged my bets more and more by getting rid of equipment that I knew I could buy or get back. I ended up with 10 free spaces for lottery tickets, and tried over and over. It took me several days, but the reels finally turned up right. Full of joy, I bought back my missing equiment, fought enough battles to earn my gold back, and marched on to beat Hargon and Sidoh knowing I had obtained one of every item in the game at some point.
I had been trying to decide just what to focus on next. I want to replay Dragon Quest V, and I want to max out my levels and finish item completion on Dragon Quest III. But as of this week, I am resolved first to focus on challenge-quest and remake playthroughs of Dragon Quest II, which I have started in earnest as of yesterday. More on that later.
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Catching up on Final Fantasy
At some point during the year, when I was tiring of Zelda and looking for something to play, I decided to finally pick up where I left off on Final Fantasy XII and push forward. I had started this game a few years ago, and was enjoying it fairly well. But right when I got my copy of Dragon Quest V, I started focusing all of my efforts on that game, and didn't let up until I had finished Dragon Quest VIII over a year later. Final Fantasy XII fell by the wayside.
At some point I had picked it back up and played for a little bit, then did so again at some point later. I had considered starting over, since after so much time I didn't have as clear a memory of the story at each break point as I would have liked. But I kept slogging on. When I picked it up at the last, I found I was surprisingly close to the end. After playing for a week or so, I found myself climbing a very high tower that felt a lot like a final or just-before-final dungeon, and the story felt like it was building to a climax. Sure enough, at the completion of the tower, I saved my game, and the next area I went to was the showdown with the game's final boss.
The boss took me several tries to beat. Each time I beat the first and second forms without too much trouble, but the third and final form was quite difficult. I felt like I did a little bit better each time as I learned the boss's attack patterns and prepared my party differently. But with the cutscenes preceding the battle and three boss fights (the boss's first two forms and one other fight previous, it takes nearly an hour to even get to the fight from the last save, so it took me probably nearly a week to fight the boss five times. I think it was the fifth try that I finally beat him on. I didn't end up having to level up past what I had when I first got to the save point, but it was a tough fight at that level and I wouldn't guarantee that a sixth try would also beat him.
The ending was very satisfying to me. I really like the characters in this game and their interactions with one another, and I thought that the ending was very fitting for each of them. I have since learned the ending song and decided that I really like it, as well. I ended up watching a long Youtube video afterward that contained all of the game's cutscenes, to tie up the parts of the story that I couldn't remember clearly. I hadn't forgotten as much as I thought, but a few details that I had forgotten really ended up making the ending chapters of the game more satisfying.
I got my hands on a copy of Final Fantasy XIII, and I have begun playing the game through. My brother, Bryan, has made no secret of the fact that he doesn't like this game, and I get the impression that much of the internet doesn't, either. But then again, I've never found that the internet as a whole has the same opinions of things that I do, so I've gone into it with an open mind.
So far, I think I am enjoying it. I actually think it improves on the thing that I disliked most about Final Fantasy XII, which was the combat. The gambit system on Final Fantasy XII was innovative to be sure, but I found it quite ineffective for fighting difficult battles and spent most of my time pausing battles trying to manually override gambits. Unless you spend a lot of time grinding, it is difficult to come up with a series of gambits that will fit all situations, but it is quite tedious to change the gambits for individual situations. I found the system very frustrating overall.
Final Fantasy XIII also uses an automatic system, and removes manual override for your supporting characters. But instead of setting gambits, it has something like a pre-defined gambit system for each character job role that you choose, which appears to be somewhat more sophisticated. Rather than setting gambits, you set "paradigms" to choose from. The paradigm consists of a set of job roles for each character in your party, and you can change them on the fly during battle with a quick button sequence. I have found it so far to be a much easier system to manage than FFXII's.
I'm not too keen on the notion that if your party leader dies, you automatically lose the fight, but at least they offset that by letting you redo the fight if you lose without reverting to your last save.
One complaint my brother expressed that is valid is that the game's exploration is very linear, perhaps more so than any other RPG I've played.There isn't really much actual exploration, as you're essentially confined to a corridor moving forward with very few short side paths, and the occasional fork that branches right back to the main path after a short distance. It helps keep the story to a more regular pace, maybe, but I think I would prefer actual dungeons or wider areas to explore.
But so far I really like the game's story. It starts at the end of a thirteen-day period, right in the middle of the story, as it seems, and gradually reveals the events of the past thirteen days through character flashbacks. I find it a very engaging way to learn about each of the characters and what brought them together. The dynamic works very well, and I am continually looking forward to the next cutscene or story element.
I also like the character development system so far, which seems to combine elements of the sphere grid from Final Fantasy X (one of my favorite systems) with a Final Fantasy Job System element. It also has an element which limits development for certain sections of the game, without limiting the experience points you gain, so that fighting a lot of battles might give you only so much advantage in the short term, but might help you develop quickly when the restrictions are lifted and your grid levels up. I find that interesting, so far.
Patty took an interest in the game's story shortly after I started, so I'm currently playing it only when she is downstairs and not using the TV. (Meanwhile, when that TV is free and she's not downstairs, I'm picking away at Zelda Wind Waker.)
At some point I had picked it back up and played for a little bit, then did so again at some point later. I had considered starting over, since after so much time I didn't have as clear a memory of the story at each break point as I would have liked. But I kept slogging on. When I picked it up at the last, I found I was surprisingly close to the end. After playing for a week or so, I found myself climbing a very high tower that felt a lot like a final or just-before-final dungeon, and the story felt like it was building to a climax. Sure enough, at the completion of the tower, I saved my game, and the next area I went to was the showdown with the game's final boss.
The boss took me several tries to beat. Each time I beat the first and second forms without too much trouble, but the third and final form was quite difficult. I felt like I did a little bit better each time as I learned the boss's attack patterns and prepared my party differently. But with the cutscenes preceding the battle and three boss fights (the boss's first two forms and one other fight previous, it takes nearly an hour to even get to the fight from the last save, so it took me probably nearly a week to fight the boss five times. I think it was the fifth try that I finally beat him on. I didn't end up having to level up past what I had when I first got to the save point, but it was a tough fight at that level and I wouldn't guarantee that a sixth try would also beat him.
The ending was very satisfying to me. I really like the characters in this game and their interactions with one another, and I thought that the ending was very fitting for each of them. I have since learned the ending song and decided that I really like it, as well. I ended up watching a long Youtube video afterward that contained all of the game's cutscenes, to tie up the parts of the story that I couldn't remember clearly. I hadn't forgotten as much as I thought, but a few details that I had forgotten really ended up making the ending chapters of the game more satisfying.
I got my hands on a copy of Final Fantasy XIII, and I have begun playing the game through. My brother, Bryan, has made no secret of the fact that he doesn't like this game, and I get the impression that much of the internet doesn't, either. But then again, I've never found that the internet as a whole has the same opinions of things that I do, so I've gone into it with an open mind.
So far, I think I am enjoying it. I actually think it improves on the thing that I disliked most about Final Fantasy XII, which was the combat. The gambit system on Final Fantasy XII was innovative to be sure, but I found it quite ineffective for fighting difficult battles and spent most of my time pausing battles trying to manually override gambits. Unless you spend a lot of time grinding, it is difficult to come up with a series of gambits that will fit all situations, but it is quite tedious to change the gambits for individual situations. I found the system very frustrating overall.
Final Fantasy XIII also uses an automatic system, and removes manual override for your supporting characters. But instead of setting gambits, it has something like a pre-defined gambit system for each character job role that you choose, which appears to be somewhat more sophisticated. Rather than setting gambits, you set "paradigms" to choose from. The paradigm consists of a set of job roles for each character in your party, and you can change them on the fly during battle with a quick button sequence. I have found it so far to be a much easier system to manage than FFXII's.
I'm not too keen on the notion that if your party leader dies, you automatically lose the fight, but at least they offset that by letting you redo the fight if you lose without reverting to your last save.
One complaint my brother expressed that is valid is that the game's exploration is very linear, perhaps more so than any other RPG I've played.There isn't really much actual exploration, as you're essentially confined to a corridor moving forward with very few short side paths, and the occasional fork that branches right back to the main path after a short distance. It helps keep the story to a more regular pace, maybe, but I think I would prefer actual dungeons or wider areas to explore.
But so far I really like the game's story. It starts at the end of a thirteen-day period, right in the middle of the story, as it seems, and gradually reveals the events of the past thirteen days through character flashbacks. I find it a very engaging way to learn about each of the characters and what brought them together. The dynamic works very well, and I am continually looking forward to the next cutscene or story element.
I also like the character development system so far, which seems to combine elements of the sphere grid from Final Fantasy X (one of my favorite systems) with a Final Fantasy Job System element. It also has an element which limits development for certain sections of the game, without limiting the experience points you gain, so that fighting a lot of battles might give you only so much advantage in the short term, but might help you develop quickly when the restrictions are lifted and your grid levels up. I find that interesting, so far.
Patty took an interest in the game's story shortly after I started, so I'm currently playing it only when she is downstairs and not using the TV. (Meanwhile, when that TV is free and she's not downstairs, I'm picking away at Zelda Wind Waker.)
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Five Months Later...
Well, I suppose it may be possible that I won't turn out to be a very regular blogger. Life is very busy and time is very short. When it comes to a choice between playing games and writing about games, I'll usually choose the former. But I've had the blog in the back of my mind here and there for a while now, and I thought that it might be a good time to update it.
I haven't played very much of Final Fantasy XI recently. I got a bit burned out on it, and started spending my time elsewhere. The games I have played in the last few months include:
- The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
- The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages/Oracle of Seasons
- The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
- The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
- Final Fantasy XII
- Final Fantasy XIII
- Dragon Quest IX
As of this writing, I have beaten all of the above except for Final Fantasy XIII. I finished Dragon Quest IX finally a week or two ago.
Most of my video game time recently has been spent with The Legend of Zelda series. I figure that out of Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Dragon Quest, Zelda will take the least amount of time to explore as fully as I would like to. My recent efforts include trying to get 100% completion in Wind Waker (not resorting to a guide, if possible), replaying Minish Cap, which I had rushed through years ago prior to playing Twilight Princess, and which I did not remember well, and playing through to the end of my several-year-old copy of Phantom Hourglass.
Playing through Wind Waker was, of course, amazing. It is easily one of the best Zelda games I have played. I had forgotten much in the 13 years or so since I had played it, but the game was no less epic than I thought I had remembered.
The only problem was that after I had completed what I felt like was a pretty thorough playthrough, I was still missing over ten pieces of heart and over half a dozen treasure charts, and had still not been able to figure out how to access the Nintendo gallery near the Forest Haven (meaning, I could get to the gallery, but couldn't figure out how to actually create the figurines--I couldn't figure out how to take color photographs). I didn't have the energy to search for so many missing things, so I put it on hold for a while.
That was a while ago. Since then, I have picked at it here and there. I found a few pieces of heart and treasure charts, but most importantly, I figured out the photos I needed to take to get the Deluxe Picto-Box and start taking color photos. It turned out that the Deluxe Picto-Box almost immediately helped me to get one treasure chart and one piece of heart (the treasure chart itself yielded an additional piece of heart). And then I got addicted to the figuring collection side quest and started playing quite a bit more.
Unfortunately again, after scouring the world and not finding enough figurines in certain areas, I was forced to conclude that there may be some figurines that are permanently missable--in other words, unavailable after a certain portion of the game is completed. For example, there is a character on Dragon Roost Island in the earlier stages of the game that disappears from the island later on, and as far as I can tell his figurine is unavailable at the end of the game.
A couple of weeks ago I decided to start the game over to see if I could capture some of my missing figurines. I just finished the Forbidden Woods and am going to do a quick once-over of each island in the sea to make sure there's no characters I don't remember that might disappear after getting the third pearl. I also intend to see if I can get figurines of Tetra's crew while they are on Windfall. I've been working on this bit by bit when I'm alone at home and don't have to share the TV.
During the early summer, I was working on the Oracle games. After I finished them, I learned about the Hero's Secret and how it was necessary for collecting all the rings. After a lot of time spent replaying the games again, I finally managed to get all of the rings except for the two GBA rings. Some day I'll get a working copy of Oracle of Ages (I have one of Seasons) and I'll use the password system to get the rings from those games.
After completing those, I jumped into Minish Cap. That was a delight. I did remember enjoying the game, but now I realize that it is one of the best 2-D Zelda games, nearly on the same level as A Link to the Past. It is very rewarding to play through. I just wish it were longer. But there's plenty of time to be spent trying to find all the secrets.
Unfortunately, after an exhaustive search, I was still missing two or three heart pieces and some amulet that is mentioned in game. I plan to start the game over and start documenting where I find treasures in hopes that it will help me find the rest. But I probably won't do that until I'm done doing that with Wind Waker.
The most recent Zelda game I played was Phantom Hourglass. That was another good experience. I had played it part way through when I first got it years ago. I even got probably about half way. I think it was around the same time that I was playing Skyward Sword and Final Fantasy XII. I didn't finish any of those games at that time, for reasons I've stated previously. It felt very good to finally complete the game. I found all of the heart containers, but I came up short on several spirit stones. It's another game I'll probably restart and document locations for treasure, to help me focus my search better. I might pick away at trying to get ship parts, but right now I'm taking a break from it.
That about catches me up on Zelda. I plan to write more later about Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.
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