Eyes on Final Fantasy Forums - Blogs - ham http://home.eyesonff.com/blog.php/42606-ham The Eyes on Final Fantasy Forums are the premier place for Final Fantasy fans to meet and discuss this classic video game series. Join our community today. en Fri, 15 May 2026 15:20:55 GMT vBulletin 60 http://home.eyesonff.com/images/images_neoclassic/misc/rss.jpg Eyes on Final Fantasy Forums - Blogs - ham http://home.eyesonff.com/blog.php/42606-ham Finished FFXII http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6300-Finished-FFXII Mon, 12 Dec 2022 02:44:04 GMT I finished Final Fantasy XII and by far I can say it is my least favorite game which is a bummer because I really love the world of Ivalice.

My biggest gripe is the battle system mechanics -- I felt like there were certain things I wanted to do but did not have the proper spell to do them. I'd chalk this up to me not really trying to learn the mechanics of the game. It is also the only title that took me a long time to complete in terms of playing the game and not in-game hours. I racked a total of 36-40 hours in the game when I finally closed it last night but that journey was over the course of a year plus.

I thought the story was pretty good, it reminded me a lot of Star Wars and a bit of Final Fantasy II. One thing I felt was really off was the synergy between the cast of characters. I didn't feel like all the characters really synergized. It makes me wonder what the writing team had in mind and if anything was cut from the final product.

Overall, I am glad I played it and will revisit the game in New Game+ and take more time with it. I think the combination of life events and the feeling of just getting through the game made me want to run through it as fast as possible.

The next title is Final Fantasy XIII trilogy! But before that, I am going to take a break and play some other games on my list. I'm eyeing Chained Echoes and Persona 5 Royal. ]]> ham http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6300-Finished-FFXII FF12 and quick life update http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6299-FF12-and-quick-life-update Wed, 26 Oct 2022 13:31:14 GMT Been a cool minute since I updated.

Picked up where I left off from Final Fantasy XII: Zodiac Age. This game is turning out to be more of a time sink than I had anticipated. Overall, I feel if I had more time I'd thoroughly enjoy the game and the battle system. Not wanting to detract from original intent in finishing all the main titles of Final Fantasy and their spin offs, I decided to power through once again. Except this time I'm doing it offline since setting up a streaming schedule is also a lot harder now.

I had to dial back on school and am working a full time job at a corporation. My education goals have been the same. I just realize I need to live life instead of postponing the things I want to do after I finished. Decided to take it a bit slower and see if I can ramp up once I get comfortable with my schedule.

I still lurk the forums but as always am trying to become a more active member. I'm hoping I can finish FF12 & FF13 trilogy before FF16 comes out. Sorry for the inconsistent numbering of the titles.

Looking forward to seeing you all in the forums. ]]> ham http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6299-FF12-and-quick-life-update An update on what I have been up to and summer plans http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6284-An-update-on-what-I-have-been-up-to-and-summer-plans Tue, 20 Apr 2021 12:29:48 GMT Hello everyone!

This one might be a doozy, and there are some parts in here that talk about the loss of a couple of family members.

Since, I made a post in the Let's Play category, I've decided to refocus this space into a behind the scenes kind of area. Honestly, I think it is more for me than for other people because it helps me document my experience with Final Fantasy and life. At this point, it's just me writing just to write so I can keep refining my skills to write.

This semester has been pretty busy and admittedly I have slacked off quite a bit because there were other things bogging me down. I have taken time aside to focus on those things and work through them with a therapist. Even though I am more than happy to share, I feel like that would probably be more appropriate in a private setting than in an open space like this. Suffice to say, I have been quite busy trying to work through things and keep up with my academics this school semester. I don't think I will be doing any more streams until the semesters done and if I do, it'd probably just be streams of competitive Apex Legends play.

On that note, I have been analyzing Valorant & Apex Legend games to help refine my ability to coach. I make it a point to work with people who are new to FPS and people who are plateauing at a certain rank. Working with newer people has helped me ask the right questions and unravel what I have ingrained into my mind since I started competing in FPS games back in the early 2000's. Eventually, I would like to help people reach the next level of their game play and coach them to become better players.

In retrospect, coaching has helped me improve my own game play by helping me become more objective. I operate on the idea that I can only work with what I see and not what I perceive. Basically, before I would try to improve what I thought I needed to work on which did not produce any tangible results. It became too intuitive and it was hard to figure out if I was actually improving. Not to say that playing intuitively is bad but it is bad for gathering data and analyzing said data to find what can be improved upon. This approach has helped me tackle some of the more nuanced parts of competitive gaming like tilt or the emotions that are involved when playing an intense game. I hope to get more into this during the summer when I have free time.

The other part is by the end of the year I will be moving to a different state. This decision was a pretty big one for me because where I am at, I am very well situated to succeed in my chosen career field. I am heavily networked in where I can talk to the right people to get the right help that I need to proceed. Once I move, it may be more difficult to tap into these resources, but there is another part to that as well. The other part is I have not tapped into that resource because I have been dealing with my mental health issues. I just wasn't ready to move on from my father passing away in August 2020 and my step dad following shortly after. Their deaths had a bigger impact than I had anticipated for myself and exposed a lot of things that I wanted to improve and work on to be a better person and to be in a better place.

I am definitely in a better place now but I am not done working on myself. I feel that I may be working myself perpetually until the day I pass away but that's okay with me. I crave that type of growth and if in some way that can be gleaned from these blogs that will help motivate/inspire other people then this blog would have been worthwhile.

My current plans for the summer are to attend a couple of events and attempt to reconnect with everyone within that network. I have a feeling that not everyone will be as welcoming to me coming back but I can't focus on that, I can only focus on what actions I can do to help push me to the next level in my academic and work career in the near future. I also plan on putting time aside to stream more often and put more hours into playing more Final Fantasy and connecting with different people on Twitch and hopefully people here. This summer will be focused on growing as a person and connecting with other people to share our experiences together. It is something I am pretty excited about and I hope that is expressed when things get moving.

Hope everyone is well,
Ham ]]> ham http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6284-An-update-on-what-I-have-been-up-to-and-summer-plans 2 More notches under my belt http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6274-2-More-notches-under-my-belt Sat, 19 Dec 2020 20:50:32 GMT So promptly after beating Final Fantasy X, I was able to beat Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus and Final Fantasy X-2!

So I'm finally on Final Fantasy XII!

I think I'll write a quick recap on Dirge of Cerberus & Final Fantasy X-2.

Dirge of Cerberus:
I don't really recall what the reception was for this when it was first released. I just remember picking it up and being excited because it was an expansion on Final Fantasy VII, one of my favorite titles. I'm not one to shy away from shooters, especially because I used to compete heavily in FPS games. Dirge of Cerberus isn't particularly difficult when it comes to shooters, but its definitely one of the wonkiest titles I've played in this genre.

It's definitely a skippable title if you're not into FFVII or like shooters. I think the bulk of the story can be watched from a Lets Play. I added it in because I played through Crisis Core and I thought it would flesh out the Final Fantasy VII portion well. Overall, it wasn't bad and was bearable for me.

Final Fantasy X-2:
It starts off really slow for me and a bit overwhelming because you're sort of thrust into this story. After CH1 or CH2, it starts to pick up for me because at this point I started to understand the mechanics a bit more. At this point, I started abusing the mechanics to try and create a decent end game party to beat the game. I wasn't too worried about trying to 100% the game because it was my first play through. I was delighted to find out there's a New Game Plus option that allows you to keep all your acquired items from a previous play through. I might revisit and try to gun for the 100% completion for this title.

X-2 was considerably easier than X, the difficulty doesn't ramp up at all. Everything runs smooth if you grind just enough to get by. Exploring the Dress Spheres was interesting, it reminded me of FF III and FFV with the different jobs. The battle system with how the turns are registered was interesting -- it's sort of like they were experimenting with a new "ATB"-type system. Although, I think I appreciated Final Fantasy X's battle system more than X-2's experimental one.

I didn't like the story at all but it did shed some light on Spira's lore. It sort of felt like a big bait for FFX fans. Maybe that thought will change if I see the true ending? I don't know.

Either way, the next journey will be in Final Fantasy XII.

I'm stoked!

...and then after XII, I'll probably be tackling the XIII trilogy. ]]> ham http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6274-2-More-notches-under-my-belt <![CDATA[I've beaten Final Fantasy X]]> http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6273-I-ve-beaten-Final-Fantasy-X Mon, 14 Dec 2020 07:50:10 GMT Hey everyone!

It took me a good minute but I finally beat Final Fantasy X. I had some trouble towards the end with specific boss mechanics. Overall, I'm glad I finally completed a game I never got a chance to play when I was younger. The story lost me towards the end because there were some resolutions I would have liked to seen become resolved. I have a feeling that any of those answers won't be answered in FFX-2 but if it does then that'd be cool.

I'm beaten 10 games + Crisis Core + FFVII Remake so far -- Honestly, I didn't think I'd make it this far in my marathon. I'm currently play through Final Fantasy X-2 and will tackle FFVII: Dirge of Cerberus after or during my FFX-2 playthrough. ]]> ham http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6273-I-ve-beaten-Final-Fantasy-X The Final Fantasy Pilgrimage http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6269-The-Final-Fantasy-Pilgrimage Mon, 05 Oct 2020 00:52:04 GMT Hey everyone!

Lately I've been sucked away doing life stuff. I want to spare everyone the details. My main focus now is "The Quest to Play Final Fantasy" which I dubbed my Final Fantasy marathon. I want to update that list again and go over what I've played so far.

Before I do that I want to put it out there that I am actively trying to build a hub for other Final Fantasy fans to find their way to this website. From my short interactions with everyone here I've found this place to be very enjoyable to read about Final Fantasy & anything else in-between. The way I want to start this is by first starting a CWLS between players of Final Fantasy XIV & then from there I can explore other avenues to bridge the connections.

My current list of Final Fantasy titles:


Final Fantasy I PSP Complete
Final Fantasy II PSP Complete
Final Fantasy III Steam ver. Complete
Final Fantasy IV Steam ver. Complete
Final Fantasy IV After Years
Final Fantasy V Steam ver. Complete
Final Fantasy VI Steam ver. Complete
Final Fantasy VII PS4 Complete
Final Fantasy VII Remake Complete
Final Fantasy VIII Remaster Complete
Final Fantasy IX Steam ver. Complete
Final Fantasy X PS4 In Progress
Final Fantasy X-2 PS4
Final Fantasy XI**
Final Fantasy XII Steam
Final Fantasy XIII Steam ver
Final Fantasy XIII-2 Steam ver
Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning Returns Steam ver
Final Fantasy XIV (ARR, Stormblood, Shadowbringer)** In progress
Final Fantasy XIV Steam ver
Spin-Offs
Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core Complete
Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift
Final Fantasy Type-0
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remaster

**Online games are not included in the list of the series because the way it is designed is to keep players playing month after month

*Side note: Final Fantasy IV After Years and Final Fantasy X-2 will be included in "The Quest to Play Final Fantasy" while the Final Fantasy VII compilation games will be optional.

I mentioned before that I think it would be cool to have a title that can be given to people who play through "Final Fantasy I to Final Fantasy XV, excluding Final Fantasy XI & Final Fantasy XIV". I think for now that title will be pending and there would be have to be a way to assess that someone's played through the entire series. If nothing happens I suppose it could be self-proclaimed. I'd actually be fine with that as well but I think it would be cool to meet other people who embark on this pilgrimage.

For me though, it won't end at Final Fantasy XV and it will continue into the spin-offs. I typically sprinkle my play throughs with other games to help keep me sane throughout the entire process. Ultimately, I would have played as much of the Final Fantasy titles as reasonably possible but this endeavor will dip into other titles as well. It's all a work in progress but at least I have a general idea with some specifics in mind to go towards to. ]]> ham http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6269-The-Final-Fantasy-Pilgrimage Update http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6268-Update Thu, 27 Aug 2020 09:51:13 GMT Hello everyone!

I have a lot to update on today -- some good and some bad.

The bad news is my biological father died and I am having to come to terms with his death. I was close to him which is why I find it weird that I am not feeling too much. I think I'm pretty numb about what's going on and I usually wake up feeling pretty empty. I noticed that every time life hits me hard that it never stops. Right now, I'm throwing myself into school and projects to help ease the emptiness. I'm sure his death has a subtle but profound effect on me and how I view life now. Sharing this is probably an effect of that but I'm not too sure. Either way, I will be okay, I am just taking it day by day.

I can dive into this a bit more if there's any interest but I just wanted to preface this blog with this because I may be going through a lot of ups and downs from here on out.

The rest is just updates on custom keyboard parts I've ordered awhile ago. For those of you that don't know I'm into custom mechanical keyboards -- I spend a good portion of my money on various items. In the near future I plan on making my own custom mechanical keyboard but for now I've resorted to looking at key caps for my boards. The key caps I ordered are called Pom Jellies and they look like little candies. It's definitely an acquired aesthetic because there's no type face on the keys. They're all blank but with the current keyboard that I have they look really nice.

Gif of my keyboard

And finally my update on my quest to play all the main Final Fantasy titles & possibly their spin-offs. I have managed to beat Final Fantasy I - IX and promptly stopped at X because I think I was getting burnt out. I have been filling a lot of my gaming hours with playing Valorant because I'm a highly competitive player. I'm currently ranked Diamond and am trying to get to Immortal and then Radiant. Like with all games with rank, it can be grindy, and sometimes I lose myself in that grind. Through it all I have been helping a lot of my friends learn the game and it has set me back from achieving my goal of reaching the highest rank. I think I'm okay with it because there is no real rush to reach the highest rank for me. At the end of it all, I'd like to join a high-performing team and try out some tournaments. I'm not sure if that time will come but its always something I look forward to when it comes to games like Valorant.

However, I noticed my lack of commitment to my original goal and I think I've decided to set every Friday of the week to playing through Final Fantasy. I haven't decided what hours I want to commit to the game yet. Originally, I was thinking 5-8 hours per session, it feels like a good balance without burning myself out on the game. I wanted to start this routine this week but some things have come up that it may be pushed back into September.

In summary, I'm grieving because of my dad, I got new keycaps for my keyboard, and I'm working to tackle Final Fantasy X through the month of September.


Thank you everyone for taking the time to read this blog.

~ Ham ]]> ham http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6268-Update Finally beat Final Fantasy IX http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6266-Finally-beat-Final-Fantasy-IX Mon, 22 Jun 2020 10:28:44 GMT Hey all,

For those of you that don't know I have been on a quest to beat all the main titles of Final Fantasy. I started with the spin-off "Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core" but have steadily progressed through Final Fantasy titles I - IX now. I am finally into the PS2 era of Final Fantasy as I set out to play Final Fantasy X. In the past, I've done quasi-reviews but I feel like I don't really need to review them. Instead I'll just talk about what annoys me and what I thought was good in the games. These topics can span from game mechanics to themes used in each Final Fantasy titles. Another thing to note is also the recycling of themes or expanding on ideas seen from previous Final Fantasy titles. I think Final Fantasy IX is a good candidate to use to reflect this.

Overall, I thought the story was a bit confusing, and that might have been because I didn't thoroughly spend enough time unearthing Final Fantasy IX's lore. I feel I have a pretty good idea of what set events in motion and how our protagonists were given a call to action. Despite its light-hearted aesthetic, there were a lot of dark themes that involved the finality of death and reflecting on the meaning of death as seen through various characters such as Garland, Vivi and the black mages, Kuja, Eiko, Garnet/Dagger, and Zidane. I thought this aspect was particularly wonderful because it shows the consequences of what a war is.

I would say all the main characters had a defining moment whether it played a central role in the main plot or not. They all contended with their own existences and consequences of living. One of my favorite characters was Steiner because of his character development -- he starts off as a very duty-oriented soldier but slowly changes his perspective over time as he witnesses Queen Brahne's wanton destruction of neighboring kingdoms.

The battle mechanics were great I felt if you took the time to witness the boss AI, you could strategize a way to overcome most bosses without grinding levels. I felt the progression of levels might have been sufficient enough to beat the game. I think without grinding, my main squad was around 40+ but I ended up grinding them to LV 70 which I felt was more than enough to beat the end game dungeon and final boss. However, the one thing that annoyed me the most but its sort of understandable is how Trance or the limit break is activated in battle sequences. The way I think it activates is through how much damage is inflicted upon your characters and there is no way to save the trance/limit break for crucial battles. The trance system played a pivotal role in the story and it seems like it's the adrenaline rush one gets when they are in danger. Having access to Trance at crucial battles would have probably made the game way too easy because Zidane's trance moves were very strong.

Despite the story being a little convoluted to me I enjoyed it. It was a throw back to previous Final Fantasy titles IV & V, where there was an outside influence that affected the world the main cast lived on. I might have missed it but I would have liked to explore the lore a bit more in game. I might scour through the forums to see if anyone here has a more complete comprehension of Final Fantasy IX to satisfy my curiosity.

Well, that concludes my update in my Final Fantasy Quest.

See ya guys when I beat Final Fantasy X.

Regards,
Ham ]]> ham http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6266-Finally-beat-Final-Fantasy-IX <![CDATA[Final Fantasy VII Remake Review & Final Thoughts (New Edit)]]> http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6261-Final-Fantasy-VII-Remake-Review-amp-Final-Thoughts-(New-Edit) Wed, 15 Apr 2020 23:16:57 GMT *TL;DR: I decided to redo my entry for Final Fantasy VII Remake. I did this because I read another review from another member of EoFF, and it inspired me to do better. Also note, a lot of these sections will be incomplete because I need some time to digest what I want to express here.

Here's a brief summary of what I thought of Final Fantasy VII Remake. Overall, I enjoyed the game a lot but there were a few gripes I had with the camera controls and battle mechanics. The number one is how the auto-lock camera works, when you lock on to an enemy, it locks the camera into a certain angle. This makes movement very weird and difficult to maneuver or counter attacks. In certain battles, there are events that causes the camera to switch angles so the player can see what's happening. During these times, it can throw the player off and causes you to readjust. There were certain battle mechanics that abuse the camera (a specific arena battle that's not related to the story) but overall it doesn't destroy the integrity of the battle system and is still very playable.


Story

Game-play


Art Style

Soundtrack

Length

Conclusion ]]> ham http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6261-Final-Fantasy-VII-Remake-Review-amp-Final-Thoughts-(New-Edit) Finally beat Final Fantasy VIII http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6258-Finally-beat-Final-Fantasy-VIII Wed, 25 Mar 2020 17:24:14 GMT Hello everyone,

I'm here to catch you up on my journey through the Final Fantasy series! I've beaten it about 2-3 times before on PSX & PC. My PC playthrough is actually what led me to this forums. Playing them 10+ years apart had piqued my curiosity on FF8's plot and I came here to look for answers. I think after some time I was satisfied and I took a hiatus from the forums. It wasn't until I got into streaming that I decided to record myself playing through all the Final Fantasy titles (mostly in sequence) and now I am finally at Final Fantasy IX!

So, like my previous entries I'll talk a little bit about my experience, and what I've done in the game.

For this play through, I played the Remastered version which gave me some neat functions to speed up my play through which I used quite generously. These functions are 3X speed, Max HP/ATB/Limit Breaks, and no battles. For a majority of the game I left the MAX function off when fighting bosses and used it to speed level my GFs/Characters. I wanted a decked out squad for end game and then at some point during Ultimecia's Castle I just gave in and abused the functions to breeze through the bosses to unlock functions in the castle. I only fought Ultimecia without any assistance and considered that my "playthrough".

Okay, enough of that. Just a friendly reminder that there may be spoilers for people who haven't played through Final Fantasy VIII yet.

Music
I really like the Final Fantasy VIII music. I think its great and it adds a lot to the game's atmosphere and crazy story.

Mechanics
Junction & Magic system: I didn't mind it as much but I think the 3X Speed and understanding the game before my play through definitely helped. I played at a pace where I wasn't too strong until DISC 3. By DISC 3, I had powerful spells junctioned to my characters and a lot of AP built up developing battle abilities, passive bonuses, and junctioning against my enemies. Towards the end before the final fight against Ultimecia, all of my characters were decked out with the strongest spells and abilities.

Mini-games:
My favorite mini-game would be the Timber mission where you travel along the trains to disable the carts. The other mini games where you fight on a paratrooper jet engine was fun and the Laguna sequence where he fights a big ol' dragon. Unfortunately, I didn't do the Chocobo quest for Final Fantasy VIII, but I might be tempted to look at a 100% guide or define my own 100% guide and try to do everything again.

Story
I really liked the stories in Final Fantasy VIII and my most favorite story arc would be Laguna's dream world sequence. I think I cried at the ending where you see Laguna at Raine's grave. Can you imagine that? I'm not sure what made it so powerful for me or if I might be going through something. It just really resonated with me.

To FF8's credit, I think pulling off a saga with time travel is really difficult to do right. Some of the ideas going on in 8 felt really childish at times. For example, like to reach Ultimecia, Laguna instructs them to all think about a place they feel "good" things (paraphrasing). It kind of takes away from the magic the sorceresses use in the game. However, as much as I could follow, I really thought the time compression thing tied it together in a way that made it complete for me.

Ah, this whole things a mess but I really enjoyed FF8. Now onwards to FF9.

Sorry about my inconsitency.

Hope everyone has a good day. ]]> ham http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6258-Finally-beat-Final-Fantasy-VIII Finally beat Final Fantasy VI http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6254-Finally-beat-Final-Fantasy-VI Tue, 28 Jan 2020 06:41:40 GMT OKAY!

I'm pretty happy that I was able to finally beat Final Fantasy VI. Overall, I'm starting to see reoccurring themes throughout the series. I think FF7 borrowed heavily from FF6 and I'm actually at a crossroads between the two games. I can say that I enjoyed FF7 more but I think it was because of the time I played it. I think it has more to do with the fact that when I played FF7, it was just released.

So here are my thoughts of FF6:

Some things I liked:

  • I enjoyed the magicite system where you had to equip the summons to learn magic
  • There were a couple of boss battles that had very interesting mechanics (one of the 3 statues that casted zombie on the entire party)
  • Everyone's strengths and weaknesses as a character - each character had a unique ability that was specifically given to that character
    • Specifically Gau's abilities and the Veldt

  • Kefka's evolution and personality
  • The unique steam punk-ish setting, lore, and interactions with the world's inhabitants
    • Like the soldier who wrote letters and later the girl who still receives letters
    • The mansion with the collector
    • The opera house
    • The criminal town
    • The empire's capitol

  • The unique situations where you had to split the party to get through a dungeon


Some things I didn't like:
  • I'm not sure if this is exclusive to the Steam version but when I got Gau back, he was severely underleveled
  • There were some relics that didn't seem to have any description or noticeable status changes when equipped
  • The Steam versions interface was awful but this has more to do with the port than the actual game
  • After you get the airship back in the WOR, it was a bit daunting to figure out where to go or what to do -- but this part might be more because I'm used to the linear path the previous Final Fantasy titles had rather than the openness FF6 offered
  • The fish mini-game with Celes


Overall, I enjoyed the game a lot but I do think FF6 needs to be played a couple of times to fully enjoy the game. One play through is definitely not enough.

The next game is Final Fantasy 8 - one of my favorite entries in the series. I can now officially say I've beaten FF1-FF7 and I'm pretty proud of that.

:)
]]> ham http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6254-Finally-beat-Final-Fantasy-VI FF6 progress http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6250-FF6-progress Thu, 09 Jan 2020 10:09:44 GMT I'm towards the end of Final Fantasy VI, I still have a few loose ends to wrap up. Currently trying to even out my character's levels so that they are all around level 40. My main squad reached LV40ish but it turns out I am going to need to split the party up if I am going to stand a chance against some of the dungeons that require to split your party. I'm debating on whether going all the way to fully equip my party before the final confrontation against Kefka.

If I finish FF6 I would have beaten FF1-FF7! Pretty exciting! I'll be re-entering the PS1 era of Final Fantasy as well. I'm not sure how far I will go for FF8 or FF9 but I guess when I start those games I'll see how far I get. The only drawback is I will be busy with school soon and my game time will dramatically drop. I will have to see how much time I have left after I complete all my studies.

Anywho, cheers! Hope everyone's New Year was great and hopefully this year will be the year everyone can accomplish something new! ]]> ham http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6250-FF6-progress Just beat Final Fantasy V http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6240-Just-beat-Final-Fantasy-V Mon, 02 Dec 2019 14:19:52 GMT _*Caution! Potential spoilers ahead if you have not played through Final Fantasy V yet.*_ Woo! I have just beat Final Fantasy V at 39 hours on 12-2-2019! There were some frustrating battles but I found that mastering the jobs made it easier. It seems like this game is more about the... Caution! Potential spoilers ahead if you have not played through Final Fantasy V yet.

Woo!

I have just beat Final Fantasy V at 39 hours on 12-2-2019! There were some frustrating battles but I found that mastering the jobs made it easier. It seems like this game is more about the combinations of jobs you pick and what skills you mastered. It really reminded me a little bit of Final Fantasy VII except instead of materia, you get jobs and job skills. I wasn't able to max out all jobs but I was able to put a few jobs together to cheese Neo Exdeath near the end. I think my next play through I'll adhere to the "Four Job Fiesta" rules to see how I fair. There's definitely a lot of depth here that could be explored at a later date.

I found the story to be pretty great, it was unique in how it presented the problems this world was facing. What made it even better were the character's personalities - it seems FFV was more humorous and light-hearted compared to FFIV.

Some fights I had trouble with were the first encounter with Exdeath, some of the optional bosses (Omega & Shinryu), and Necrophobe and his barriers.

The last thing I will comment on is the music! The Final Fantasy V music was great, especially "Battle Across the Bridge" where you escape from Exdeath's castle after landing in Galuf's world.

Final notes:

I've been rushing through these early titles because I wanted to finish Final Fantasy I - VI before the year 2019 ends. I think I've made some pretty good progress with my completion times and what time I dedicate towards trying to beat all of the Final Fantasy games.

Starting with Final Fantasy VI, I will be taking my time and working towards getting a better schedule assigned so I can enjoy the game and not worry about beating it before the year ends. Setting that deadline sort of made me min-max the characters so I was the strongest and not take the challenge of pacing myself through the game. I do suppose there are a lot of different ways to approach the game.

Here's a quick recap of the FF main titles I have completed:
- FF I
- FF II
- FF III
- FF IV
- FF V
- FF VII (I am not sure if I will play this again to keep with continuity or skip to FFVIII)

The next game is Final Fantasy VI! ]]> ham http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6240-Just-beat-Final-Fantasy-V Finally beat Fantasy IV http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6239-Finally-beat-Fantasy-IV Sat, 02 Nov 2019 19:00:41 GMT Good news everyone!

I finally beat Final Fantasy IV. After about 20+ hours of frustration, I finally caved in and looked up guides on the augment mechanics and that helped immensely. Despite my frustrations, I think I've come to appreciate the remake's new mechanics that doesn't let you power level to beat bosses. Here are my take aways from Final Fantasy IV (remake):
  • I got a kick out of the impact status effect spells
  • Having to actually watch the patterns of boss fights and some tough monsters
  • Story
  • Augment system


I was so used to wiping the floor with my team in previous Final Fantasy titles that I never really explored what each spell does and its impact. Final Fantasy IV (remake) made me test out some stuff in battle to formulate some strategies for different mobs. It really made me pay attention to the mobs I was fighting and forced me to use my resources as efficiently as possible. I developed a few strategies to replenish my resources in battle so I can sustain myself in a dungeon longer because of it.

The other thing I really enjoyed was watching the boss patterns. It took me many wipes to figure out a boss pattern before I was able to develop a strategy to beat the boss. Much to my chagrin I cussed a lot and was malding at some of these fights because there didn't seem to be anyway to win. Eventually I beat them all up and that in itself was rewarding for me.

The story was really good - I enjoyed it a lot. I had a couple of theories going in because of the way some scenes played out. I had initially thought Golbez was Cecil's dad but when I learned his true identity I was like "WHOA" so that was a nice twist for me. I felt my heart strings pull at some of the sacrifices the characters made but that immediately went away at the end. The best way I could describe the experience is being thrust into an adventure and just reacting to everything as it happens. I think what I mean is I didn't really have time to process the story as it happened and it hit me towards the end as everything came to a conclusion.

The augment system was neat because at LV71, the augments a character has determines their stat growth from there on out. I think their innate class also determines their growth but I never leveled a character passed 71. I was around 69-70 when I beat the game. It was hard to power level your characters because the game didn't really seem generous with experience points. I think equipping the augment "Level Lust" helped towards the end to get my characters to LV70. Overall, this system made the game challenging, and despite my frustrations I appreciate the experience.

The next game is Final Fantasy V. I'm planning on playing through FF4 again but on PSP for my 2nd time through and this will include the two sequels. ]]> ham http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6239-Finally-beat-Fantasy-IV Final Fantasy IV http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6238-Final-Fantasy-IV Sat, 12 Oct 2019 08:09:07 GMT Today's session was the roughest by far during my journey through all the Final Fantasy titles. This next bit might contain some spoilers.

Okay, my troubles began when fighting Golbez in Underworld. At first, I had no idea why some attacks were healing him while others were damage him. Once I figured that out, I had a hard time keeping enough MP on Rydia to keep summoning Eidolons to do real damage against him. While his attacks weren't super crazy, they were enough to keep my party on the defensive. The strategy that worked for me was using a Phoenix Down and a Hi-Potion to bring back Rosa and have her cast Slow on Golbez. I used Cecil's turn to keep everyone's health from succumbing to Golbez's relentless attacks. On Rosa's next turn I used Libra to identify Golbez's weakness and then chose the appropriate summon with Rydia. After 3 summoners, Golbez finally went down and I succeeded in winning this fight.

The next boss is Dr. Lugae and his reversal spell. I'm still not familiar with its effects but all I know is that it seems to cause the properties of White and black Magic to go reverse. If I heal while reversal is on then I'll take damage, and I think vice versa for any Black Magic spell. Dr. Lugae does one of two things depending on if he casts reversal a second time or the first time - the first time, he'll heal your entire party which does an insane amount of damage to my party, often KO'ing 2 of my weaker party members (Rydia & Rosa). If he recasts Reversal then he'll do this AOE flame attack that does less damage but its enough to keep me on the defensive.

I've attempted him at least 3 to 4 times and have not been able to nail his pattern or formulate an effective strategy against him. Final Fantasy IV is definitely getting a lot more tough.

However, despite all of that I'll try again in my next session. Thanks for reading.


 ]]> ham http://home.eyesonff.com/entry.php/6238-Final-Fantasy-IV