Post-Holiday update and a rant!
Jan. 7th, 2009 02:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
croikThe holidays have been over for a whilen now but it only just occured to me that I haven't posted anything about them. So here's the skinny:
Christmas was fun! Spent it with family, got some great gifts, including a snap-on keyboard for my PS3 controller, Disgaea for DS (yes this will be my first time playing it, please leave you "HEATHEN" comments below), Disney's Robin Hood on DVD (oh, my childhood!) and a new toilet for the upstairs bathroom!
After that my brother stayed over at the new house with TK and I for a while, and then we went with our parnets sto Califorina for my cousin's wedding. She looked amazing and it was a wonderful ceremony/reception. Not my first time in San Francisco, but the last time I was there it was for Yaoi Con (DON'T JUDGE ME) so I didn't exactly see much of the city. This time, we did a lot of touristy sight-seeing including cable cars and Ghiradelli chocoloate and such.
Now I'm back home and waiting for my new work schedule~
Up until last night I was also working on beating Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2, on loan from my brother. And you must know what that means...!
CAPLOCKS OF RAAAAAAAAAGE!!!!!!
Okay, so maybe no capslocks. Truth be told after RW I don't think I can ever work up enough rage for a horrible Ivalice game ever again. I went into FFTA2 with literally zero expectations of quality and that's pretty much what I got, so instead of seething hatred all I have is this vaguely guilty feeling when I look at the "70 hours" on my game file.
Of course, playing a game for that long must mean that I did enjoy it to some degree. But with A2 (and RW, and FFTA before that) it felt a lot more like playing a game out of a sense of obligation and compulsion rather than pure enjoyment. I still love the Tactics style gameplay, which makes even a bad game hard to put down. And any gameplay system where you earn points through experience that you then have to apply to certain areas for enhancement is going to press every OCD button in my bain (it's a weakness). So even though I could play the game for hours at a time, and felt driven to teach every member of my party all the skills they could possibly learn regardless of their usefulness, I'm not sure you can say it's the same as having actually enjoyed the game.
In comparing it to FFTA, I would have to say I liked 2 a little better, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't feel the same way if I played them out of order: I was so disappointed by A1's story and overall cheesiness that afterwards I couldn't help but think to myself, "I would have rathered they not include a story at all, than put in THAT story." That's pretty much what A2 is - A1 without a plot. In a way it's like I got my wish. So even if A2 was a disappointingly shallow game with zero point, at least I didn't even have the opportunity to roll my eyes at it as often as I did its predecessor.
Gameplay wise, everything was the same. The auction house was an interesting addition at first but once you get the "buy token" ability it becomes so easy it's barely worth doing. I still hate having to learn abilities from the items: the game brags about customization, but early on in the game you don't have a choice as to what you're going to teach your characters, because you only have a few rods and swords to choose from. You can't even switch their jobs until you've unlocked the useful ones through more tedious missions. And then there are things like, the Chain Mail will teach a Hume or a Bangaa counter, but not a Viera or Gria or Viking - you need different items for that. But then you get one weapon that can teach a different spell to three different jobs, so unless you're able to afford three you have to pass it around and take turns. It was so much easier in FFT where the more you used a character, the more they learned, and you could literally make them anything you want.
I was really fond of my gun-weilding White Mage in FFT, but that's just not possible now :(
A2 also added a few new races and job classes, but now there are so many that the overlap in their skills is rediculous. The Viera Spell blade uses attacks that cause damage and also slap on some kind of debuff. So does the Elementalist. So does the Raptor. So does the Lanista, etc etc, except they're all called different things. The Moogle Flintlock uses the same weapons and has all the same attacks as the Bangaa Cannoneer, except that the moogle has to "prime" his weapon before he's able to use any of those attacks, while the Bangaa can fire off any of his at the start of the battle. Duel Wield can only be taught to Humes as far as I can tell, even though it would be most useful on a Bangaa. It's the Viera that learn Double Cast even though the Nu Mou have the best magic.
The system is in need of balance >:I If there's a FFTA3 they really need to clean out their list of races and abilities, stop focusing on the number of different things and focus on what's really USEFUL in battle.
Really, these are small offenses in the overall scheme, because at least A2 is more creative in its mission objectives, and the graphics and music were pretty nice (though the music was stolen almost entirely from FFXII and FFTA anyway). In fact, the game wouldn't truly bother me that much outside of vague disappointment if it wasn't given a solid canon connection to FFXII. Reallllllly didn't need that.
Because what really gets my goat about this game is that just by stating that it takes place in the "real" Ivalice of FFXII, it pretty much puts a huge boot to the face of everything that great game stood for. In A2, there are magical judges that can prevent people from dying from just about anything, just because the judge happens to be around. In A2 there are "gifted" people who have undefined incredible power and live forever. And that's horrible.
In my head, I imagine Luso having a chat with Ashe, and he tells her about how judges are spiffy awesome who uphold the law and protect you from death, and how nobody ever has to die because Ivalice is a spiffy awesome place with cheering children and clans who play coin games in order take control of territory and keep people from fighting, not that they can die anyway, because the JUDGES are so AWESOME. And then Ashe smashes him in the face and says, "WHERE WERE THESE JUDGES WHEN MY HUSBAND WAS SHOT IN THE THROAT!?"
And then she meets Adelle, who complains about how horrrrible it is being gifted and special and perfect and powerful, and what a bummer it is to have to watch people die of old age while you remain perfect and awesome and fully capable of tromping just about anyone. And then Ashe punches her in the cunt and says, "WHERE WERE YOU WHEN MY COUNTRY WAS OVERRUN BY AN INVADING ARMY AND I WATCHED ALL MY FRIENDS DIE NOT OF OLD AGE BUT ARROWS SHOT INTO THEIR THROATS!?"
And then she meets Cid, who doesn't get to say anything, because she murders him on sight for having no character or point whatsoever. So sorry.
"People don't die" is the dumbest plot point to a fantasy game ever. It just is. And trying to say that such magic exists in the world of FFXII, where a single death can launch armies to war, and you spend the game trying to keep the bad guys from obtaining the magical equivalent of nuclear warheads, it's like... AUGH! SHUT UP, FULL STOP, GO PLAY IN YOUR OWN SAFE KIDDIE POOL AND LEAVE MY POLITICAL DRAMA ALONE!!
Not to mention the "gifted" are so poorly defined that their title means almost nothing. These people are considered "powerful" but none of the Heiritor skills look as impressive or are even as useful as one of Basch's Quickenings (let alone his 3rd one, which is all manner of bad-assery). If you unlocked this "gifted" job class and found yourself with a tank on your party at the level of fucking Orlandu, then I would believe this is a superior race with superior ability. But the one gifted on your party barely even gets a stat boost. Even being on the same level, my Trickster has a more powerful basic attack, and he is tossing the Ace of Spades! If you can't buy that this "gifted" is as powerful and amazing as everyone seems to claim, all their character developement (read: wangst) about "I can't be with people because I'm so different" goes to waste. My moogle hits harder than you, ho. You are not that special.
There were a few bright spots in the game, such as the Duelhorn sidequests (10x more interesting than the final boss), the Witch of the Fens (who has great profile art, I wish I had a pic of it), and Frimelda. But even those weren't able to live up to their potential, as the Duelhorn sidequests were vaguely labeled and easy to miss if you do a lot of dispatching. And though Frimelda's backstory between her and Luc was really interesting, it was blurted out so openly that it might as well have been written out in a clan note, and afterwards Frimelda has little character to speak of. She's adorable but "I am myself" is her only notable line and I would have liked to see more out of her.
Annnnnnnnnnyway, so yeah. FFTA2 is a shallow but addictive tactics game which would be rather inoffensive if they didn't try so hard to connect it to a much more complex and interesting game, thereby lowering the quality of them both. It is a detriment to Ivalice canon as a whole and I wish they'd stop making the Advance games. Please.
Phew! At least I didn't pay money for it.
Now that I've finished FFTA2 I really want to go back and replay FFXII, but I still haven't decided yet if I should finish off my old file by beating Yiazmat first. Seems like a shame not to, with that file so close to 100%... I know if I replay, I'm not going to put the same amount of obsessive mark-hunting effort into it again when I know I've already done it (I am especially not fighting Omega again!! 8U) Maybe I'll do some warm up fighting and then Yiazmat and then start a story file over...
Christmas was fun! Spent it with family, got some great gifts, including a snap-on keyboard for my PS3 controller, Disgaea for DS (yes this will be my first time playing it, please leave you "HEATHEN" comments below), Disney's Robin Hood on DVD (oh, my childhood!) and a new toilet for the upstairs bathroom!
After that my brother stayed over at the new house with TK and I for a while, and then we went with our parnets sto Califorina for my cousin's wedding. She looked amazing and it was a wonderful ceremony/reception. Not my first time in San Francisco, but the last time I was there it was for Yaoi Con (DON'T JUDGE ME) so I didn't exactly see much of the city. This time, we did a lot of touristy sight-seeing including cable cars and Ghiradelli chocoloate and such.
Now I'm back home and waiting for my new work schedule~
Up until last night I was also working on beating Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2, on loan from my brother. And you must know what that means...!
CAPLOCKS OF RAAAAAAAAAGE!!!!!!
Okay, so maybe no capslocks. Truth be told after RW I don't think I can ever work up enough rage for a horrible Ivalice game ever again. I went into FFTA2 with literally zero expectations of quality and that's pretty much what I got, so instead of seething hatred all I have is this vaguely guilty feeling when I look at the "70 hours" on my game file.
Of course, playing a game for that long must mean that I did enjoy it to some degree. But with A2 (and RW, and FFTA before that) it felt a lot more like playing a game out of a sense of obligation and compulsion rather than pure enjoyment. I still love the Tactics style gameplay, which makes even a bad game hard to put down. And any gameplay system where you earn points through experience that you then have to apply to certain areas for enhancement is going to press every OCD button in my bain (it's a weakness). So even though I could play the game for hours at a time, and felt driven to teach every member of my party all the skills they could possibly learn regardless of their usefulness, I'm not sure you can say it's the same as having actually enjoyed the game.
In comparing it to FFTA, I would have to say I liked 2 a little better, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't feel the same way if I played them out of order: I was so disappointed by A1's story and overall cheesiness that afterwards I couldn't help but think to myself, "I would have rathered they not include a story at all, than put in THAT story." That's pretty much what A2 is - A1 without a plot. In a way it's like I got my wish. So even if A2 was a disappointingly shallow game with zero point, at least I didn't even have the opportunity to roll my eyes at it as often as I did its predecessor.
Gameplay wise, everything was the same. The auction house was an interesting addition at first but once you get the "buy token" ability it becomes so easy it's barely worth doing. I still hate having to learn abilities from the items: the game brags about customization, but early on in the game you don't have a choice as to what you're going to teach your characters, because you only have a few rods and swords to choose from. You can't even switch their jobs until you've unlocked the useful ones through more tedious missions. And then there are things like, the Chain Mail will teach a Hume or a Bangaa counter, but not a Viera or Gria or Viking - you need different items for that. But then you get one weapon that can teach a different spell to three different jobs, so unless you're able to afford three you have to pass it around and take turns. It was so much easier in FFT where the more you used a character, the more they learned, and you could literally make them anything you want.
I was really fond of my gun-weilding White Mage in FFT, but that's just not possible now :(
A2 also added a few new races and job classes, but now there are so many that the overlap in their skills is rediculous. The Viera Spell blade uses attacks that cause damage and also slap on some kind of debuff. So does the Elementalist. So does the Raptor. So does the Lanista, etc etc, except they're all called different things. The Moogle Flintlock uses the same weapons and has all the same attacks as the Bangaa Cannoneer, except that the moogle has to "prime" his weapon before he's able to use any of those attacks, while the Bangaa can fire off any of his at the start of the battle. Duel Wield can only be taught to Humes as far as I can tell, even though it would be most useful on a Bangaa. It's the Viera that learn Double Cast even though the Nu Mou have the best magic.
The system is in need of balance >:I If there's a FFTA3 they really need to clean out their list of races and abilities, stop focusing on the number of different things and focus on what's really USEFUL in battle.
Really, these are small offenses in the overall scheme, because at least A2 is more creative in its mission objectives, and the graphics and music were pretty nice (though the music was stolen almost entirely from FFXII and FFTA anyway). In fact, the game wouldn't truly bother me that much outside of vague disappointment if it wasn't given a solid canon connection to FFXII. Reallllllly didn't need that.
Because what really gets my goat about this game is that just by stating that it takes place in the "real" Ivalice of FFXII, it pretty much puts a huge boot to the face of everything that great game stood for. In A2, there are magical judges that can prevent people from dying from just about anything, just because the judge happens to be around. In A2 there are "gifted" people who have undefined incredible power and live forever. And that's horrible.
In my head, I imagine Luso having a chat with Ashe, and he tells her about how judges are spiffy awesome who uphold the law and protect you from death, and how nobody ever has to die because Ivalice is a spiffy awesome place with cheering children and clans who play coin games in order take control of territory and keep people from fighting, not that they can die anyway, because the JUDGES are so AWESOME. And then Ashe smashes him in the face and says, "WHERE WERE THESE JUDGES WHEN MY HUSBAND WAS SHOT IN THE THROAT!?"
And then she meets Adelle, who complains about how horrrrible it is being gifted and special and perfect and powerful, and what a bummer it is to have to watch people die of old age while you remain perfect and awesome and fully capable of tromping just about anyone. And then Ashe punches her in the cunt and says, "WHERE WERE YOU WHEN MY COUNTRY WAS OVERRUN BY AN INVADING ARMY AND I WATCHED ALL MY FRIENDS DIE NOT OF OLD AGE BUT ARROWS SHOT INTO THEIR THROATS!?"
And then she meets Cid, who doesn't get to say anything, because she murders him on sight for having no character or point whatsoever. So sorry.
"People don't die" is the dumbest plot point to a fantasy game ever. It just is. And trying to say that such magic exists in the world of FFXII, where a single death can launch armies to war, and you spend the game trying to keep the bad guys from obtaining the magical equivalent of nuclear warheads, it's like... AUGH! SHUT UP, FULL STOP, GO PLAY IN YOUR OWN SAFE KIDDIE POOL AND LEAVE MY POLITICAL DRAMA ALONE!!
Not to mention the "gifted" are so poorly defined that their title means almost nothing. These people are considered "powerful" but none of the Heiritor skills look as impressive or are even as useful as one of Basch's Quickenings (let alone his 3rd one, which is all manner of bad-assery). If you unlocked this "gifted" job class and found yourself with a tank on your party at the level of fucking Orlandu, then I would believe this is a superior race with superior ability. But the one gifted on your party barely even gets a stat boost. Even being on the same level, my Trickster has a more powerful basic attack, and he is tossing the Ace of Spades! If you can't buy that this "gifted" is as powerful and amazing as everyone seems to claim, all their character developement (read: wangst) about "I can't be with people because I'm so different" goes to waste. My moogle hits harder than you, ho. You are not that special.
There were a few bright spots in the game, such as the Duelhorn sidequests (10x more interesting than the final boss), the Witch of the Fens (who has great profile art, I wish I had a pic of it), and Frimelda. But even those weren't able to live up to their potential, as the Duelhorn sidequests were vaguely labeled and easy to miss if you do a lot of dispatching. And though Frimelda's backstory between her and Luc was really interesting, it was blurted out so openly that it might as well have been written out in a clan note, and afterwards Frimelda has little character to speak of. She's adorable but "I am myself" is her only notable line and I would have liked to see more out of her.
Annnnnnnnnnyway, so yeah. FFTA2 is a shallow but addictive tactics game which would be rather inoffensive if they didn't try so hard to connect it to a much more complex and interesting game, thereby lowering the quality of them both. It is a detriment to Ivalice canon as a whole and I wish they'd stop making the Advance games. Please.
Phew! At least I didn't pay money for it.
Now that I've finished FFTA2 I really want to go back and replay FFXII, but I still haven't decided yet if I should finish off my old file by beating Yiazmat first. Seems like a shame not to, with that file so close to 100%... I know if I replay, I'm not going to put the same amount of obsessive mark-hunting effort into it again when I know I've already done it (I am especially not fighting Omega again!! 8U) Maybe I'll do some warm up fighting and then Yiazmat and then start a story file over...
