Census Results - Get your slack asses in here.

[Hollycat]

[QUOTE=Vivi22;3105574]

The award for most active female forum staff who consistently disappoint me by failing to participate in a forum event no matter how much HC spams their inbox or I berate them for their undeniable apathy:

.

I was mentioned, now I can die happy.

[Jiro]

It pleases me to see that the Job System, if nothing else, made it to the top spot. For you see, it really is one of the most creative things the Final Fantasy series has ever made - without it sucking of course - and so I'd like to give you a chance to improve your standing in not only my eyes but the eyes of the good man himself, Vivi22. He hurts for you, people of EoFF. You cause him great pain and suffering. Let's try not to do that with this one, okay?

Favourite Job Class System

You all know what job systems are. 7 of you correctly voted for it in the previous category. Let's see which one you think is best. Suit up, gentlemen.

One Pointers

A job is not just a job. There's a difference here as there are differences in meatspace. Do you want a system that's horribly bias against you? No, of course not.

• Final Fantasy XI
• Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2

I was confused, for a minute, by the presence of Final Fantasy XI. I thought surely Loony BoB would have voted for the fourteenth instalment despite its tendency to utterly suck bollocks. But it turns out the vote was actually from Del Murder. Let's see what his reasoning was.

FFXI. Because everyone else will vote V or Tactics.

Wait, what? You're voting one way because everyone else will vote another? Way to skew the Census, pops! But at least you can recognise greatness, so you're spared some wrath this time.

Fourth Place (2)

Now we're starting to make progress. Sitting in fourth place with a total of two votes is...Final Fantasy XIII's Paradigms. I cannot believe only two people could see that the stripped back and simplified job system contained within Final Fantasy XIII was immensely well conceived. Look at the sheer number of combinations a party could have. Not only that, but each Paradigm set up has its own name, which scores several points of awesome in my book. I simply cannot comprehend why you people are so smurfing negative when it comes to this game to the point where you cannot even see the component pieces that are masterfully done.

Paradigms. I have not played FF I through VI so I don't have that many options, but I found the paradigm system to actually bring strategy to many fights. Although the dress spheres were also kind of nice.

You should endeavour to play the rest of the games as soon as possible good sir. Otherwise I will have to mock you in due fashion.

Third Place (4)

Look at how well we've done here to almost have a perfect podium set up. Congratulations on not sucking at that, this time. In third position we have some quite amazing; Final Fantasy X-2's Dresspheres. It's more than a simple dress up game, and was in some respects the basis for the Paradigm system seen later anyway. Fitting, then, that it would receive a couple more votes due to the one winning ingredient that Final Fantasy XIII left out: fanservice.

I actually loved the Dressphere thing, some of the outfits were hot and some were crazy-hot, though I admit some were just crazy

The job system of X-2, while primarily fanservice, was great in that you could switch to a select number of other jobs during the middle of battle. It gave you some functionality without making it a simple game of "pick the best class", but rather you had to balance your garment grids and then make the right choices during battle.

As you can gather, fanservice does play a role in the "popularity" of the system, however don't underestimate it. There is a wide variety of jobs with numerous abilities to learn, and you can switch between classes mid-battle. That sounds like a pretty good gig to me.

First Place (6)

Here's the gold medal time and once again we have a tie. While that would previously have angered me, I am beaming at that fact that you might just have made Vivi22 cry tears of joy. Why? Well, simply because our two first place entries are Final Fantasy V's Job System and Final Fantasy Tactics' Job System. You have redeemed yourselves somewhat. Try not to smurf it up.

As Vivi22 was the only one with enough eloquence to put his thoughts on either job system into words, and as Vivi22 already used that explanation in the category prior, let me just remind you one last time that you haven't let us down this time. I know you can feel the excellence in these two systems.

Let me wrap this category up with Bubbaforever's entry. Ever the comedian, isn't he?

www.jobsite.co.uk

[Jinx]

Oh, Bubba. <3

[Jiro]

Do you like to get around? Like getting out and about? Cruising around town, wind in your hair. Yeah, you love it. Come with me baby, let's go for a ride. Where we going? Who knows, anywhere will do. It's not about the destination, it's about the journey. You feel me?

Favourite Form of Travel

We looked at the crappiest forms earlier. Seems like you don't like cars. That's too bad. Cars have some pretty badass qualities. Picking up chicks in a car is easy. You obviously just don't get it. Oh well, let's see what kind of transport you do like. Whatever it is, you better paint some badass stripes on it or something.

One Pointers

• Trains
• Walking
• Tiny Bronco

Pretty sure I voted for trains there. I love trains. You people need to take trains more often. They're awesome. Fast, efficient, got a nice little SeeD cabin to chill out in. That's what I'm talking about. Tiny Bronco is pretty wicked too, I have to admit. Here's another smurfing essay from Vivi22.

You know, I'm going to have to go with the plane in FFVII I think. Sure, airships are cool, but that plane limited your movement just enough to let you explore every nook and cranny of the waterways trying to see where you could go and what was there. Even if there wasn't a whole lot it was still fun. Airships tend to open things up too much so the world has little mystery left. There's a reason you typically only get them when the world is fully explored (exception being the World of Ruin and the combined world in FFV I guess). Mechanically I just find airships quite dull. They're a means to cut down on time to travel back to old locations, and that's about it.

Flying Arrow is my favourite member of the forum at the moment. Why? Flying Arrow is the one who likes to walk everywhere. He didn't give an explanation, but I know why he picked it. 'cause he doesn't want to be a fat slob breaking the back of the chocobos carting him around. Hey, speaking of chocobos...

Second Place (4)
Chocobos come in second place! These feathery friends are a quick, combat-less method of transport that always brings its very own travelling music. There's nothing quite like the thrill of cruising around on one of these fellas. You can even race them for fun and profit!

So probably Flying Black Chocobo, yes they can only land in forests but they tend to be connected to fun dungeons and their music is usually quite excellent.

Nobody else could really tell me why chocobos were so great but I already know. They're just fun. It makes me get a giant grin every time I think about running about on one of these guys. Seriously. It's also incredible how a full party can fit on a single chocobo. All aboard the chocotrain! Woot wark!

So long as we ignore the stupid chocobo birds stupid smurfing Final Fantasy X zero seconds goddammit.

First Place (16)
Overkill. Look at that. Sixteen smurfing votes. I think the only time this forum was so unanimous in a decision is when Pike won all those smurfing Ciddies. Look at that. smurf. Me. It's hard to go wrong with Airships though. They are a staple of the series, and with so many to choose from, it is little wonder that airships received such love. Hell, I even wrote an article on it. Airships are kind of like flying boats with way more badassitude than cars.

I've always wished that we could keep the bike in VII, but aside from that, flight is the way to go. So, airships it is. You realize that if they could lower a rope over the barrel of Junon's cannon to rescue Tifa, they also could have lowered a rope onto that island with the KoTR materia, but the programmers needed an excuse to make the Golden Chocobo necessary. Sad, sad, sad.

The rest of the comments - and there really are few comments considering the level of voting - talk mostly about speed and access. Honestly though, we all know being faster isn't always better. Sometimes you need the firepower to back it up. Just don't try to look like you're overcompensating. Well, once again you're not been a let down. You've been incredibly unoriginal and predictable, and a little bland and boring, but I don't have to kill you yet.

[Jiro]

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for a special update! It's time for the "How Wrong Is Loony BoB?" award! Let's have a look at the results. I've even presented it in pie chart form just for your viewing entertainment

As you can see, Loony BoB is frequently wrong! I'm afraid this might mean he's excluded from further Censi (totally a word) based on the fact that his opinion is wrong. Don't like it? Run the Census yourself then, jackasses.

[Rantz]

Gil Toss is one of the most ridiculous things in Final Fantasy overall. Do you just throw coins in their eyes or something? Thousands of them!? Do you throw them one at a time, or more like SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY?

ThrowingCoins.gif

[Jinx]

Gil Toss is one of the most ridiculous things in Final Fantasy overall. Do you just throw coins in their eyes or something? Thousands of them!? Do you throw them one at a time, or more like SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY?

ThrowingCoins.gif

I dunno. I've had a penny thrown at me before and it kind of stung.

[Jessweeee♪]

I sometimes end up using it against Yunalesca's final form. Like "oh tit I know I can kill her with a few more hits but she might kill everyone in this next turn RIKKU GIVE HER ALL OF OUR MONEY"

Also if I had known my vote for the Ragnarok was going to be lumped in with all airships I would have voted for the Garden

[Jinx]

Does Gil Toss work well against Yunalesca?

[Jessweeee♪]

The damage done by Gil Toss is only affected by how much Gil you throw. I believe it's the gil you throw divided by ten rounded to the nearest whole number. So it's as effective against Yunalesca as it is against anything else. Handy in that rare situation where you've almost finished something off and you need a guaranteed kill in one turn.

[Del Murder]

I like the Gil Toss adaptation in FFX, where you are paying Yojimbo to do things for you. That makes more sense.

[Jessweeee♪]

Except nobody knows how the smurf it works. You throw all of your gil away for nuthin'

[Hollycat]

give yojimbo ten gil or more and he will stay and attack, less and he leaves.

[Jinx]

Who actually used Yojimbo? I only get him so I can get the Magus Sisters.

[Slothy]

Time for another reveal. Now for those that don't know, while I can be a bit of an obnoxious, self-righteous, hateful ass sometimes, I'm generally not that bad all of the time, or even most of the time. In fact, I find laying it on as thick as I do in the census reveal to be emotionally draining. Far more than you might expect because I really have to throw myself into it to the point of almost believing the things I say. This is why the reveal usually took me the better part of a week in the past. But since Jiro is co-hosting and we want things to move along a bit more quickly than they previously have (and seriously, these write ups take longer than you'd expect), I'm going to drop the shtick for a few minutes to give myself a mental break and keep on updating for you folks. I'll probably still offer up some criticism of your choices, but it won't be filled with quite so much seething rage.

Moving on. We're going to reveal the results for:

Favorite dungeon

Coming in dead last are the usual 1 vote entries:
Cleft of Dimensions
Ultimecia Castle
Tomb of the Unknown King
Pandemonium
Temple of the Ancients
Deep Sea Research Center
Shin-Ra Building
Archylte Steppe (XIII-2)

I don't have too much to say here. Most are bit meh for me, but the Shin-Ra Building stands out for being quite a unique dungeon experience. More like part dungeon, part town really given the large sections with no combat. It also has the distinction of setting up a mystery which is far cooler than its eventual resolution.

Cleft of Dimensions was also cool, but I'll let Velo explain why:

Favorite dungeon: Cleft of Dimension
I thought it was cool how you just went through all of these incredibly non sequitur locations.

Pretty much what I was thinking. It's a bit of an interesting journey through seemingly unrelated areas which were pulled into the void. Certainly an experience to say the least since you never know where you'll end up.

Second Place:
Lunar Subterrane – 2 total votes
Memoria - 2 total votes

Confession time: I barely remember Memoria. Why? Because despite FFIX being one of my favourite FF titles, I've found the time to beat it precisely once over the years. Yep, I've owned it for 12 year now, have played through large portions of it multiple times, consider it easily one of my top 3 FF titles, but I've yet to see the final dungeon for a second time. Can anyone else explain why it's worthy of second place?

Favorite dungeon: Memoria!

Favorite dungeon: Memoria

I guess not, though Freya's exclamation mark does shed some light on the mystery.

Luckily, I am far more familiar with the Lunar Subterrane. A wonderful place filled with cool gear, tough enemies, tougher bosses, and all kinds of hidden paths and secrets to explore. Were it not for the stupid encounter rates in FFIV I'd say it was a contender for first, so second is pretty good.

First Place:
Kefka’s Tower - 3 total votes
Northern Crater - 3 total votes

And here we are. The top two. FFVII shows its inexplicable popularity again. I'm not sure why people like the Northern Crater this much as I remember it being pretty unremarkable. I'd like to give someone's explanation, but no one backed up their choice. So I guess we'll just have to assume that you folks just like big giant holes.

But Kefka's Tower makes sense to me. A three party boss gauntlet with multiple sections where all parties are needed to advance, with some cool gear, epic battles, great music, and of course, it ends in one of the best final boss fights with the best final boss theme in the series.

Favorite dungeon
Kefka's Tower. By that point you'd been introduced to splitting up parties, but never forced to do it with three whole groups. Add in that the whole thing was a bit of a puzzle and one long boss rush and it made getting to Kefka feel as epic as it should have. Especially if many of your characters were under leveled. It also feels a lot more like the final showdown if you have to bring almost every character you have out of a cast of 14. Brilliant design for a game with such a huge cast. Simply heading into the final dungeon with 4 people wouldn't have cut it.

Favorite dungeon: Kefka's Tower, for embodying just what happened to the world.

Not really gameplay related but we'll take it.

Favorite dungeon - Kefka's Tower, I mean it involved three parties doing a massive switch puzzle and it's combined with a heavy dose of Boss Rush, including a rematch with Ultima Weapon, finally tackling the unstoppable Crusader, and battling the awakened Warring Triad. All this, just before you meet up with Kefka himself and his four tier boss battle done to the best final boss theme in the series. It was the right combination of puzzles, good boss battles, and excellent pacing as you climbed the tower that really set the pace for the climax of the story.

I don't think anyone's surprised that WK and myself agree.

Well, that was nice and relaxing. Which of course means that Jiro will have to be twice as hateful in his next post.

Though not to leave you all without some hatred: FFXIII's paradigm system is terrible Jiro and I should toss you off the census committee for even implying it's good. Luckily for you I'm being nice this post.