Has there been any word on these annoying little bundles of insanity for FFXIII yet? What sort of difficulty can we expect from them, and how many of them are going to be popping up in all their immersion-breaking glory?
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Has there been any word on these annoying little bundles of insanity for FFXIII yet? What sort of difficulty can we expect from them, and how many of them are going to be popping up in all their immersion-breaking glory?
Final Fantasy XIII Trophies Revealed - TheSixthAxis - PS3 and Xbox 360 News, Trophies And Opinion
Some of them sound like horrible grindfests, but I'm glad there's a lot of story achievements.
I don't know. Looking back through previous FFs, I think I would be pretty upset if they had story-related achievements.Quote:
Originally Posted by Psychotic
I mean, imagine you're viewing the cutscene of Aerith's death when all of a sudden:
Achievement Unlocked - Two Sided Love Triangle
That said, most of them seem to be nothing more than things I do while playing normally, so shouldn't be too hard for me.:D
I really hope they utilize achievements for the uberbosses. I always thought it was stupid you were awarded a set of master materia for beating Emerald - what use is a set of master materia after you beat one of the two uber bosses?
An achievement for killing an uberboss is so much more rewarding to me than some random ultimate weapon or something.
edit: The localisation of the achievements sound silly. Why did "Felled a behemoth" have to get changed to "Felled a heavyweight" :S
I concur. I hate getting achievements in games for not really achieving anything. Whenever I complete some part of the main story and an achievement pops up it tends to annoy me.
... Really? I thought Emmy's prize was great, because beating him is far less effort than mastering every single materia in the game, including KotR. Now Ruby's prize was definitely underwhelming.Quote:
Originally Posted by Moon Rabbits
Especially considering how much that chocobo blew at racing. It was the only female gold chocobo you could get in the game, but there was no point as I would never let one of my prized race birds go near that piece of dysgenics.
Yeah that's un FF.Quote:
Originally Posted by Moon Rabbits
That's weird out of all my PS3 games trophy icons only pop up after a custscene.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zero
Wait, does this mean you can actually do more than 100,000 HP worth of damage in a single hit?Quote:
Originally Posted by The Link
I'm excited about the trophies. I'll get them all no doubt, even though some of them really do sound like a ridiculous amount of grinding, like Psychotic stated. :D
Most likely because there are additional "heavyweight" mobs in the lower world besides just the Behemoths.Quote:
Originally Posted by Depression Moon
Higher numbers, perhaps, but it won't actually change gameplay any. In FFX, Break Damage Limit let you go from 9999 to 99999.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rade Bromance
Now I guess the same ability will let you go from 99999 to 999999.
Larger numbers do not a better game make, and wish to hell they'd get over it. Yiazmat was bad enough.
I don't know... Some people love to see large numbers. Doesn't matter to me though.Quote:
Originally Posted by Skyblade
I mostly prefer story achievements because I'd get them anyway. I hate grinding xD
After playing Disgaea I can definitively say larger numbers is a bad direction in which to be heading in. When you are hitting for 10000000 + on a regular basis it becomes extremely difficult to keep track of how much damage you are actually doing. I know I have miss estimated the damage being thrown around simply because I didn't get a chance to count the decimal places before the number popped off the screen.
Imo, they should be designing battle systems where the damage cap isn't a relevant factor. Like Chrono Trigger.
I don't understand the point of story achievements. Isn't getting to that point in a game more rewarding than a pointless notification which says simply... that you've gotten to that point in the game?
Apparently adding easy achievements to a 360 game will bost sales by 40,000.
News: Gearbox: easy Achievements mean 40,000 extra sales - Official Xbox 360 Magazine
(Warning, anyone who reads this may die a little inside.)
Haha, I actually thought about how what I said basically invalidates all those people showing off achievements on XBL. Yeah, people are dumb.
I love Trophies, they're the main reason I play most PS3 games. Which is why I don't like to see them on FFXIII.
I mean: I'll get the game the day it comes out, but I feel i'll focus more on trophies than actually enjoying the game.
I'd rather this game had none tbh.
Ok then:Quote:
Originally Posted by VeloZer0
We'll do a bunch like "start a new game". "Pause the game". "Pause the game 3 times", etc.
They'll be over in the first 5 minutes, the people who like trophies can brag about their high numbers, and the people who actually play the game can ignore them.
It's good to see these being revealed which means that FFXIII is one step closer to hitting shelves soon.
Even though I'll be tempted to look at the Achievement list for the Xbox 360 version of the game, I'm gonna try to hold off on it so I don't spoil any part of the story for myself.
Yeah, when I first got my Xbox 360 and played Lost Odyssey, and it kept telling me "You Got Achievement blah blah blah!" when I didn't actually do anything but progress in the story, it seemed incredibly pointless and silly to me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Raistlin
But now I understand it's so all your buddies can see how you're progressing, which is cool I guess, but not something I particularly care about. :greenie:
Whatever happend to "Guys, I just barely squeaked by that boss the other day. Totally epic fight!". I mean, if they're actually your friends, you should be able to, you know, communicate with them outside of automatic updates. And if they're not your friends, who cares what they know of your progress?Quote:
Originally Posted by Rad BromanceYeah, when I first got my Xbox 360 and played Lost Odyssey, and it kept telling me "You Got Achievement blah blah blah!" when I didn't actually do anything but progress in the story, it seemed incredibly pointless and silly to me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Raistlin
But now I understand it's so all your buddies can see how you're progressing, which is cool I guess, but not something I particularly care about. :greenie:
Precisely, that's why I couldn't really care less about said achievements/trophies. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by SkybladeWhatever happend to "Guys, I just barely squeaked by that boss the other day. Totally epic fight!". I mean, if they're actually your friends, you should be able to, you know, communicate with them outside of automatic updates. And if they're not your friends, who cares what they know of your progress?Quote:
Originally Posted by Rad BromanceYeah, when I first got my Xbox 360 and played Lost Odyssey, and it kept telling me "You Got Achievement blah blah blah!" when I didn't actually do anything but progress in the story, it seemed incredibly pointless and silly to me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Raistlin
But now I understand it's so all your buddies can see how you're progressing, which is cool I guess, but not something I particularly care about. :greenie:
Not reading the article. But I'm pretty sure all the achievements on 360 are -also- trophies on ps3Quote:
Originally Posted by VeloZer0
I agree and disagree. Yiazmat was bad because he's HP was grossly higher then the amount of damage you can deal. But sometimes adding a zero can allow little nuances to be added to a game. A good example where creating larger numbers was CoD MW2's online. They threw an extra zero on the end of everything, so leveling stayed the same, however they where able to throw tiny XP boosts that would've in the tenth decimal places (and therefore looked really, really odd) in CoD4.Quote:
Originally Posted by Skyblade
Well for really difficult, near unbelievable things ("Ninja Gaiden II on Master Ninja? gtfo you liar") proof is nice.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rad BromancePrecisely, that's why I couldn't really care less about said achievements/trophies. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by SkybladeWhatever happend to "Guys, I just barely squeaked by that boss the other day. Totally epic fight!". I mean, if they're actually your friends, you should be able to, you know, communicate with them outside of automatic updates. And if they're not your friends, who cares what they know of your progress?Quote:
Originally Posted by Rad BromanceYeah, when I first got my Xbox 360 and played Lost Odyssey, and it kept telling me "You Got Achievement blah blah blah!" when I didn't actually do anything but progress in the story, it seemed incredibly pointless and silly to me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Raistlin
But now I understand it's so all your buddies can see how you're progressing, which is cool I guess, but not something I particularly care about. :greenie:
I don't think anyone dislikes achievements for actually achieving stuff, just achievements for regular game play. While numbers need to be large enough that you can play with them, the bigger they are the harder they are to keep track of, especially when you have all the numbers from multi hit moves flashing across the screen.
Actually, he was bad because he was as broken as the rest of XII's gameplay. The only things that made him difficult was the high HP and the ability he had to instant kill any party member or even your entire party. He's not actually that hard, he's just tedious, time consuming, and cheap.Quote:
Originally Posted by GoldenbokoI agree and disagree. Yiazmat was bad because he's HP was grossly higher then the amount of damage you can deal. But sometimes adding a zero can allow little nuances to be added to a game. A good example where creating larger numbers was CoD MW2's online. They threw an extra zero on the end of everything, so leveling stayed the same, however they where able to throw tiny XP boosts that would've in the tenth decimal places (and therefore looked really, really odd) in CoD4.Quote:
Originally Posted by Skyblade
And, sorry, but how exactly did throwing the extra zero on the end of CoD MW2's numbers help? Did the game really change that much because of the extra numbers? No. The game was exactly the same. The extra points which would have been decimals in the original system could have just been rounded and no one would have cared.
Tell me, when you see "232158" flash on the screen after you deal damage or get experience, do you really give a damn what that last number is? Hell, no. It is so small in relation to the total that it is meaningless. You wouldn't go grind for the last 3 exp you needed, you'd just go kill something and get a couple thousand. The extra points are meaningless clutter, and should be removed. 999 served the FF franchise as a cap for quite a while, and it did fine. Then, 9999 did just as well, despite the added number having no effect on gameplay at all. FFX gave us 99999, again with no actual effect on gameplay (the ability to break the base damage limit had a gameplay effect, but that could have been introduced no matter what the corresponding numbers were), and now we're switching to 999999?! How many FF games is it going to be until we're left with more numbers than will fit on the stupid screen (especially with multi-attacks)?!
Is the game really so pathetic and shallow that they have to use meaningless cosmetic changes like that to draw people in? Do they honestly think that simply increasing the numbers is an improvement to the game's quality?
It's a ridiculous trend that has no positive gameplay effects, and will only drag down game quality if it continues. It does not bode well for the future.
That was fixed in Disgaea 2 :p. If you do more than 100000 damage, the game just prints "100k".Quote:
Originally Posted by VeloZer0
Two things here.Quote:
Originally Posted by SkybladeTell me, when you see "232158" flash on the screen after you deal damage or get experience, do you really give a damn what that last number is? Hell, no. It is so small in relation to the total that it is meaningless. You wouldn't go grind for the last 3 exp you needed, you'd just go kill something and get a couple thousand. The extra points are meaningless clutter, and should be removed. 999 served the FF franchise as a cap for quite a while, and it did fine. Then, 9999 did just as well, despite the added number having no effect on gameplay at all. FFX gave us 99999, again with no actual effect on gameplay (the ability to break the base damage limit had a gameplay effect, but that could have been introduced no matter what the corresponding numbers were), and now we're switching to 999999?! How many FF games is it going to be until we're left with more numbers than will fit on the stupid screen (especially with multi-attacks)?!Quote:
Originally Posted by GoldenbokoI agree and disagree. Yiazmat was bad because he's HP was grossly higher then the amount of damage you can deal. But sometimes adding a zero can allow little nuances to be added to a game. A good example where creating larger numbers was CoD MW2's online. They threw an extra zero on the end of everything, so leveling stayed the same, however they where able to throw tiny XP boosts that would've in the tenth decimal places (and therefore looked really, really odd) in CoD4.Quote:
Originally Posted by Skyblade
First off, the bolded part is how banks make a lot of cash. When they round away a penny from you, you say, "Oh, it's just a penny." Do you know what 1,000,000 pennies add up to? TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS >:0
Case in point, I'll take that 50 or 5 xp that wouldn't have existed in CoD4 because it will add up, and it's neat to do the things that get you it.
Next, switching from 999 to 9,999 had a big difference. It allowed the experience curve to be manipulated. Same with FFX. It allowed almost layered gameplay. Sure Braska's Final Aeon is tough at a lower level. But once you can deal 99,999 per hit he's easy. However, by that time you have to deal with Nemesis/Penance.
Also, what Mirage said about Disgaea.
You just described the extent of "difficulty" in every role-playing game ever made, good jobQuote:
Originally Posted by Skyblade
After reading this page I had to double check I was still in the Achievements/Trophies thread.
Those Trophies seem a bit pathetic. Master this and deal lots of damage? Doesn't seem like there's gonna be much to the side stories from that, unless any of those are with the secret ones.
I'll admit I'm an Achievement junkie. Seeing such a pathetic list of Achievements makes me think it'd be pointless getting it for the Xbox, which after hearing about the amount of discs there may be was my only reason to get it for Xbox. What to do, what to do.
Ok, let's see. You are playing CoD 4, and you kill two things. One gives 70 exp, and another gives 69. Playing CoD MW2, however, you do the same thing and get 695 for each. Since it takes 10 times more experience to do anything, it has no effect on the game.Quote:
Originally Posted by Goldenboko
Or, let's say you would have gotten 69 for both kills in CoD 4, but get 699 for each in CoD MW2. Will that "add up" to a better total? Of course not. Because CoD MW2 is designed for that level of experience. The same number of kills will get you the exact same level of experience, relative to the game. Maybe you'll gain a level 5 kills faster than you would have in CoD 4. But the designers would have seen this faster levelling coming and designed the enemies to become stronger that much faster as well. The actual exp numbers are meaningless.
Also, take note of something here. Video games and banking are very different. For one things, Bankers can see and use the numbers for more than a second, for one thing. Most video gamers also would much rather use less math than bankers do every day. Bankers also design their numbers to get the bankers as much money as possible, while video game designers calculate their numbers for balanced gameplay. If you seriously think you are getting any advantage out of the extra .5 exp for each kill, you are sadly deluding yourself.
Now, let's address the damage caps. FFX would have played exactly the same without the extra decimal point. If players did a max of 999 damage before Break Damage Limit, and 9999 after it, the monsters could have their HP divided by 10 and the game would have played exactly the same. Break Damage Limit introduced a gameplay change, but just adding an extra decimal did nothing, because every monster in the game is designed to handle it, even Braska's Final Aeon.
And, no, changing the 999 to 9999 didn't have any change. Changes in stat growth and levels are all redesigned each time a number is added. It doesn't change the curve at all. What is important for the growth curve is how quickly the damage climbs, how fast you go from 1 damage to 10, to 100, and finally reach whatever the cap is (and how fast the monsters follow that growth rate with their HP as well).
The secret ones will hopefully contain a lot more than just progressing the story, yeah. Having 30 or so achievements for running through the plot is going to be annoying. As long as they have to be there, I would much rather get them for difficult side quests.Quote:
Originally Posted by Guardian XIII
Not that achievements are actually that new. The Sky Pirate's Den in XII was essentially an achievement list anyway. There were plenty of sidequest monster kills in there (Gilgamesh, Carrot, etcetera). Though, looking back, it is sad how few of even those monsters had any story or dialogue tied to them.
Making a boss over powered with lots of cheep moves has always seemed like a design crutch to me. This is usually because your party has a whole bunch of cheep advantages over random encounters.Quote:
Originally Posted by JibrilYou just described the extent of "difficulty" in every role-playing game ever made, good jobQuote:
Originally Posted by Skyblade
Yes, but 67845k is also no hell to read. Especially if 4+ of them pop up on the screen at once.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mirage
If you round the numbers it works out even in the end. Many games truncate the number at the end, but that only results in you loosing 0.09% of your damage going from 99999 to 9999, and 0.9% going from 9999 to 999. A small price to pay for actually knowing what is going on. (For the record, I feel 9999 isn't too high, but equally good as 999).Quote:
Originally Posted by Goldenboko
This over inflation in games isn't caused by them wanting to add more detail, it is caused by them wanting bigger numbers, because I focus groups said they liked them. If you look at the combat formulas as the series progress they start moving from (when you break it down) [stat]+[stat] to [stat]*[stat] to [stat]^3. This isn't adding detail, it is just making a steeper and less linear curve.
To me this over inflation is a gimmicky way to make the game feel substantially different from the beginning of the game. This is something that should be done by forcing innovations in tactics through a well designed encounter and leveling system. If you take FFT as a case in point, the way I usually build my party, I hit most of the damage I want to do a little less than half way through, and for the rest I spend on developing mobility, 100% chance to hit, ect. And by the time I reach the end of the story, it is like a completely different game with the new abilities and tactics I employ. Compare and contrast Disgaea, where you are using the same moves and same tactics for most of the end game, but the damage keeps going up and up and up. One keeps me interested for long periods of time, one does not.
Are you sure it doesn't print 1M when you pass one million? :p
I don't like FFT because it isn't very polished or streamlined, which Disgaea is :p.
Oh I am very sure it doesn't print 1M until at least 100,000,000 damage in a single hit. (never gotten that high).
I will agree with you that Disgaea is very polished and streamlined, but for me that was what kept me playing a mediocre TRPG, not something that makes it stand out as an great game.
(For the record, I do hold it in esteem as a great game, but that is because of the extremely clever and enjoyable dialog.)
Design crutches are the only way to make turn-based RPGs appear difficult. There's no such thing as a "difficult" boss fight in an RPG that is also well-designed; what most people perceive as difficulty in any turn-based game is a direct result of wasting the player's time through arbitrary design choices and/or RNG abuse.Quote:
Originally Posted by VeloZer0Making a boss over powered with lots of cheep moves has always seemed like a design crutch to me.Quote:
Originally Posted by JibrilYou just described the extent of "difficulty" in every role-playing game ever made, good jobQuote:
Originally Posted by Skyblade
There can be no non-gimck difficulty it a turn based game? That is absurd.
If I were to match you up against one of the super chess computers it would indeed be extremely difficult, there would be no gimcks employed. In this case the difficult would lie in out thinking an extremely intelligent AI. Extrapolate chess to something like FFT, or any other turn based RPG. So it is indeed possible.
If you were to face an exact copy of your party in a turn based game it would come down to who could be smarter about their moves, and if the AI is good then it becomes difficult.
There's a reason none of the situations you mentioned exist in single player games. I'm not talking about SRPGs, though.
I suppose I should say the only reasonable way to make an RPG appear difficult is to rely on design crutches. If you implemented true difficulty into an RPG, you'd get what would essentially amount to a multiplayer component with "bots." That'd be fine, I guess, but in single player form? Do we really want to force people to overcome extremely smart AI in a perfectly balanced environment just to progress through a game's story?
But let's take a look at Yiazmat in comparison to other FF superbosses:
Yiazmat's AoE wind attack is easily countered by equipping wind breakers. Death touch isn't a big problem if you have Arise gambits, though it does get pretty brutal at the <10% mark. You don't have to fight him all at once, as you can go to the save point, save, and his HP total will remain even after you turn the game off.
Omega Weapon has a set turn he uses Terra Break on, and Defend takes care of it. Not much else he uses is a threat.
Emerald's Aire Tam Storm or whatever is countered by equipping only necessary materia. His physical attacks are incredibly strong, though -- Emerald is very tricky to beat without resorting to KoTR miming... or W-Iteming 99 megalixirs.
Ruby I don't have much experience with, but I'm pretty sure he's also "cheaper" than Yiazmat with his Ultima KoTR counter.
Ozma's Curse can be... almost countered by equipping a whole bunch of status immunities. That won't save you from it oneshotting your entire party at times, though. Then there's Meteor, and the fact that it can cure itself... I would say Ozma is more "cheap" than Yiazmat is... by far, actually.
If I had to rank them on "cheapness," I'd probably go Ozma>Ruby>Emerald>Yiazmat>Omega. However, if you're looking for a quick but intense fight, you probably want Omega mk.XII or whatever it's called, in the Great Crystal. I would argue that he's the real superboss of the game. I'd even say you should get an achievement for beating him. I have now segued back to the original topic of this thread.
Yes, but Chess is completely different than a tradition turn-based JRPG. We're talking FFI, II or III turn based. Not FFT. I wouldn't define FFT as a turn based game, even if it makes use of a turn based system, FFT is a Strategy RPG. The fundamentals of the game have to do with character placement and movement. Not, "I Attack, you attack, I attack" death matches, in which case the majority of the time the only variables you can change are attack, defense, speed, and health (and number of enemies).Quote:
Originally Posted by VeloZer0
EDIT: I also agree with Jibril, Ozma's the cheapest enemy I've faced. Besides his obvious beastly attacks, he has the ability to attack before you do no matter what his ATB Bar is at, and always will attack before you, which is by far the cheapest thing I've come across in a JRPG (perhaps I don't go out of my way to play JRPG's but still). Far more cheap then 1,000,000,000 health.
Chess was mearly an example to show that turn based games can be challenging without relying on design crutches. The point was that by making combat dependent on thinking skills and not just absolute stat values a game will be far more rewarding. I just use SRPGs as they usually embrace the concept far better than tradition RPGs, which come from a tradition of a dungeon being a grind that wears you down.
There's more, but one paragraph into it and I realized my thoughts aren't that coherent, so it will be reworked and appear sometime in the future. :)
Except Braska's Final Aeon isn't actually that terribly difficult (Yuna's Limit Break combined with Anima at full Limit Break = instant win) and being able to break the damage barrier allows a powerhouse like Auron to "one shot" the "challenging" final boss and thus completely destroys game balance. Damage breaking in X was horribly implemented cause most of the story bosses and enemies barely had health higher than 90,000hp. Its only purpose was for the asinine Monster Arena and your only reward was to better tweak your party and make them more godlike which was redundant cause you need to be able to beat the game to actually stand a chance against anything in there and even then it basically comes down to power-leveling and abusing Quick Hit. :roll2Quote:
Originally Posted by Goldenboko
No, you just don't pay attention :pQuote:
Originally Posted by Skyblade
Gilgamesh is a wandering swordsman and follows his traditional cameo storyline of seeking out the greatest swords in the world.
Carrot is a running gag Monster hunt from the original FFTactics and thus follows the same story as always of being the beloved pet of some noble who accidentally escaped and became wild. You are sent to retrieve it but ultimately have to destroy it.
Most of the Mark hunts actually have back story. Hell, even Omega MK. XII actually has a backstory if you read the special Beastiery notes.
Personally, I liked the achievements in XII and kinda wish XIII followed its example.
I'm in agreement, the high damage in Disgaea only works because it is utterly absurd and Disgaea is not meant to be taken terribly serious. In an FF title like FFX or Crisis Core it still looks terribly absurd, destroys what little game balance these titles had, and looks pretty sad cause the games are very serious despite the fact your party is dishing out "crazy epic damage yo!". :roll2Quote:
Originally Posted by VeloZer0
I generally hate overpowered game mechanics in a title cause I feel it often cheapens the story, one of the reasons why I can't take Sephiroth seriously as a villain cause he can be taken down in a single round with only minor effort, Braska's Final Aeon is even worse since he can be taken down by a single character only using a single attack... Seriously, that just sucks the "epicness" I could ever feel for the story fight. I feel its poor game design when I have to avoid using overpowered attacks and have to intentionally nerf my party just to get some challenge out of a game and this has been a bad trend for the FF series since it started in FFVI.
Granted, XIII looks like they are going to up the ante with normal encounters but I'm pretty sure they will only make the game challenging based off the poorly designed "school of FFVIII difficulty" which is basically make the monsters have tons of more HP and raise their stats a bit to cause more damage, but this creates the problem I had with VIII, X, and Crisis Core that use these systems so thoroughly, it doesn't make the games harder it just makes battles longer and usually more tedious cause I end up just spamming overpowered attacks over and over again and thus I'm back to the problem of most RPG where the only attack option I really need is the Fight command cause there are very few things in an RPG that offer enough challenge to warrant using real attacks.
A boss with a billion HP does not = challenge all it really means is that it might take more than an hour to kill it and frankly I have better things to do with my time. Beating a Grind boss isn't a challenge it just shows how much free time your really have. Go outside, meet a member of the sex you prefer, and start having a "night life". :D
Someone should play Persona 3 or Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. I feel these games not only introduced a very balanced combat system that offers great challenge for the players. It still allows you to get this sense of overpowered accomplishment but it actually requires strategy and effort on the players part but what makes it great is that the system works against you as well since enemies use the same system as your party and thus you have a real chance of getting killed by normal encounters. Its the only RPG series I know since maybe the NES days where you can't really over-level and overpower your way through the game. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Jibril
I think there are very plausible ways to build difficulty in an RPG without resorting to terribly cheap tactics. FFII had a tendency to throw high powered defense creatures (that actually have real defense) to offset a party who was abusing physical attacks and forcing you to rely on most likely the party's underdeveloped Black Magic...Quote:
Originally Posted by Jibril
The DS version of FFIV came up with the idea of giving monsters the ability to counter certain types of attacks and since most of the enemies usually have decent enough stats to overcome a first wave and usually the counter is devastating enough to stop most players from trying it again. Minor stat tweaking combined with a counter system could create some pretty epic battles.
FFV Advance also introduced a really cool concept that is in the original but I never noticed until I fought the new optional boss Enuo. To counter the overpowered Duel Wield/Barrage/ Magic sword combo, the game sometimes gives the boss creatures target points on their bodies that have no hp but are always present. What this does is make the character sometimes waste one of his 8 attacks on a target point that can't be destroyed. and thus prevent a character from actually abusing multi-hit attacks to one shot opponents. I don't know why this was not carried over to future titles cause god knows VI-VIII really needed this to curb some overpowered attacks/Combination/Limit Breaks.
XII toyed with something the MegaTen franchise has done for years and I would love to see the FF series (hell all JRPGs) to adopt which is the ability to relegate Physical attacks as a an element and thus create defensive measures against it. The palings were a nice element I would like to see in future titles but even more I want the Physical defense system from MegaTen, how amusing would it be to see Cloud fight some random encounter with his Ultima Weapon that does max damage only to have Cloud attack the creature and learn it "reflects Physical attacks" thus Cloud accidentally kills himself. That would keep a player on their toes...
Ruby in my experience is actually easier than Emerald mostly because Ultima is nowhere near as broken as it was in VI (Ignore all Defense, ignore all evade, ignores splicing damage when used on multiple opponents) so it hardly does a terrible amount of damage and at high levels Cloud and other party members can evade it on a regular basis. So the KoTR trick actually still works and is plausible especially if you use the HP/MP absorb materia correctly. Its Possible to take him down in a single round (that last twenty minutes but still a single round nonetheless).Quote:
Originally Posted by Jibril
For Yiazmat, I feel his real annoying trait is not his "Ultimate Attack" or instant death spell as much as its his ability "Growing Threat" which doubles his levels and thus significantly lowers the damage you cause and raises the damage he does...
In terms of Super Bosses, I sill prefer the original Omega from FFV. He doesn't have high HP or defense he's just terribly fast and horribly overpowered. Even though when you build the proper party set-up to beat him its still one of the most intense fight in the game despite only lasting 5 to 8 minutes. That to me is how a super boss should be not a time sink but just the most intense battle that turns a few minutes into what feels like an eternity.
I phrased that wrong. There is quite a bit of backstory. There is little involvement with the story of the marks, though. They are mostly simple "go here, kill this" things. Short, uninvolved, and too little reason for them. The few that had actual sub plots were great, but on the whole, they weren't the best side-quests in the series.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolf KannoNo, you just don't pay attention :pQuote:
Originally Posted by Skyblade
Gilgamesh is a wandering swordsman and follows his traditional cameo storyline of seeking out the greatest swords in the world.
Carrot is a running gag Monster hunt from the original FFTactics and thus follows the same story as always of being the beloved pet of some noble who accidentally escaped and became wild. You are sent to retrieve it but ultimately have to destroy it.
Most of the Mark hunts actually have back story. Hell, even Omega MK. XII actually has a backstory if you read the special Beastiery notes.
Personally, I liked the achievements in XII and kinda wish XIII followed its example.
Reading what I just wrote, I still don't think I'm getting my message across right, but can't think of a better way to put it. Oh well.
I'm taking it to mean you feel that the mark hunts felt extremely detached from the game. I hope that is what you are trying to say, because that is exactly how I feel.
I think I understand now what you mean but I would ask if this is simply nitpicking at this point cause most sidequest have little to do with the actual main game and most are very detached from the story in almost every RPG out there.
I feel considering the amount of information you get for many of the mark hunts in XII, saying they are detached from the game would also be implying the similar missions found in the FFT series suffer the same problem seeing as they have less development than the ones found in XII.
I think I am meaning more detached from the characters then from the story. The characters have no involvement or interaction with the mark hunts. There are no comments, no decisions, no qualms about their actions, nothing. The characters have no emotional involvement in the mark hunts or any of the other side-quests in the game.
What I found set them so far removed was that there was so many of them, almost as a separate sub game going on parallel to the main game. To me they always seemed in direct competition to the main game, and detracted from it.
Once again, how is this really different from any other mini-game in the series? Very rarely is the minigame attached to the characters or the plot. There is no character reaction to Chocobo breeding, Triple Triad, Lightning dodging, or Chocobo Hot and Cold. How are the Mark Hunts thus any different?Quote:
Originally Posted by Skyblade
Its true that they are very daunting in the long run cause there are many of them so I can agree with you there. At this point I guess its just different taste as I found them great for exploring the world and to act as minor gaming nuggets of goodness when I took out a Mark Hunt on my way to a plot destination. Almost like a self created mini-boss if you will. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by VeloZer0