why(somewhat spoilers)

[~SapphireStar~]

i skipped most of the things i didnt have to do in an effort to end the game as quickly as possible... hence my characters being at levels 35, 26, 25 at the final dungeon.

You were in a rush to finish it werent you

[Adamant Barrage]

No that's just typicle for a speed run.

[RMartin1]

i wasnt really aiming for a speed run. i just didnt really branch out for any side quests other than a few of the card games and mainly just went where the plot took me and apparently managed to not get into too many fights along the way if my levels are more characteristic of a speed run.

anyways, the question still stands, am i pretty much relegated to just having to finish the game or is there anyway i can stock up on some supplies for refinement, should i choose to lvl up, etc.

[Ryushikaze]

Yes. Go grab the Ragnarok (you can still do chocoforests in dic 4) and go find Tonberry King. He can get you supplies.

[Omnislash07]

Ryushikaize said that it was the laziness of the developers...

I will add that it was the laziness of the developers riding on the coattails of the blind successof the FFVII that the simple NAME of Final Fantasy and expectancy of even more extravagent FMVs that they thought they could get away with graphics over a poorly executed story to feed the masses to feed they're hungry pockets and egos for the suckers that never bothered to play a Final Fantasy BEFORE Final Fantasy VII...

Okay, there... I said it... And ONLY I said it... Bring it on...

But I will also say/add this: I thought it was because at "Disc 4", "we" were in a World at the intitial stages of Time Compression that the towns were "Out of Sync" with the current time of Ultimeica... But that's just my assumption. Look to previous post by Sir Bahamut for his view on this subject matter.

maybe the reason some people never played any Final Fantasy games before VII was because they were too young. I mean come on we still have people coming on this forum that have never played VII or VIII so why would it suprise you that a bunch of people never played any of the old games. Also i consider the story in FF VII and VII to be alot better than those of the early games simply because the villain's motives in the later Final Fantasies are much better than the early ones.

Final Boss in FF I - VI "I want to destroy the world"
Hero "Why...?"
Final Boss "Ummm... cause that is what Final Bosses do?"

However in VII Sephiroth wanted to destroy the world so he could use its power to make himself a god and then move onto another planet and remake it in however he saw fit.

Then in VIII Ultamecia spent the entire game trying to kill Squall and co. because she thought they would kill her some point and she wanted to kill him to try and prevent her death.


But back on topic. I think the towns were blocked off because if the team is in Ulti's time then the world map would look extremely different than it did in the character's time and the developers decided it would not be worth their time to comepletly remake the world map and add in new cities, ecspecially since it is at the end of the game and they wanted you to focus all your efforts on beating Ulti and not exploring a bunch of new areas.

[Arrianna]

They are blocked because they had no more place in disc 4 with the very long cinematic ending, so they decided to cut on the towns. To explain that in the game, they did that Ultimecia's power blocked all the towns.

That's what I've always thought myself.

But I will also say/add this: I thought it was because at "Disc 4", "we" were in a World at the intitial stages of Time Compression that the towns were "Out of Sync" with the current time of Ultimeica... But that's just my assumption. Look to previous post by Sir Bahamut for his view on this subject matter.

And that sounds like a really good excuse that they can come up with to explain it away.

[boys from the dwarf]

think of it this way. if the company had made alternate versions of the towns for the future it would take along time and would be pretty pointless and quite a few people believe that the world map is a time compressed world because you cant see ultimecias castle on the world map.

there are a tons of reason why they didn't change it. mainly because it would have pointless and would have took loads of time and ideas because of advancing and the world map changing. what if another lunar cry happens in the future? that could change the world. overall its more trouble than its worth.