When Life Gives You Lemons

Go murder a clown!


Things have been cooking along very well in Final Fantasy VI,  in fact well enough that I believe I've managed to surpass the overall power of any party in my previous playthroughs.  Some of it is making use of newer information (I can't do circle motions on a d-pad to save my life, finding out there's alternate command inputs was awesome; finding out you can still learn Ultima via the Paladin Shield, making the Ragnarok sword far more attractive than the Ragnarok Esper), buckling down and using the leveling mechanics as intended (OMG look at them stats), and brining a RPG veteran mindset into things.


Using the Esper bonuses has been the major difference.  The short version is that this game's magic system is based on Espers' essence (the local magic rocks of magicness), almost all your characters can equip an Esper's magicite, with the majority giving a small but significant stat boost when that character levels up.  These bonuses are permanent and persist even when you switch to another Esper, meaning a bit of basic XP management can result in huge dividends.  This results in even the wimpy characters turning into meat-mulching agri-combines of death, and with their powers combined THE HARVEST IS UNLEASHED and not much can get in the way.


I also decided that the open-ended gameplay of the World of Ruin is actually pretty fun, never really realizing that this was a very major departure from the JRPG tradition of linearity.  There are a few oddities; there are bits of gear exclusive to one particular character you can buy, but the process of re-recruiting that character also comes with far superior gear choices, plus using his special skills (he's the local the--I mean treasure hunter) can result in more unique but redundant stuff for him.  There's also some areas on the world map that have random encounters far more dangerous than what you get elsewhere, that you can't even claim as a player nudge or beef gate, since the major dungeon in the area has far more manageable enemies, even the bosses are less lethal than the mooks prowling around outside.


Things are starting to come to a close, with only two dungeons really left (there's a couple I've already cleared than I'll probably return to use as grinding spots) before the big showdown with Jack Hamill in his big trash tower of terror.  The Harvest Never Rests!

Second Star To The Right

And don't bother about morning.


Things have been going along rather well with Tales of Vesperia.  I've actually gotten to the point where I can actually do some dedicated material farming without tearing my hair out over leaving the plot dangling.


Vesperia is a bit odd; the whole 'sandbox' gets thrown at you fairly quickly, but the sand doesn't really fill in until something like 30 hours in, maybe 20 if you're good and rushing through the storyline.  The game's airship is actually pretty awesome, being a an actual sea vessel hooked up to a big flying magic whale/Esper, with the addition benefit of water landings and takeoffs.  With some minimal sidequesting, you can land just about anywhere that's even remotely flat.  The odd part is that there is a constantly shifting day/night and weather cycle, which affect monster encounters and town/dungeon condition (and encounters in those dungeons).  It sounds fairly standard, but there's lots of RNG shenanigans involved. 


I remember being very irritated in my first run-through, but I believe that my judgment was really clouded at the time, with personal problems leaving me really sour about nearly everything.  I'm actually relishing wandering over certain regions at nighttime and jumping out to slaughter giant killer ladybugs for glowing rocks and other monstrous ridiculousness.  Tales has a glorious tradition of having goofy monsters to beat on, (even sobersides Abyss threw angry tuning forks and knights with trumpet-bazookas at you) and Vesperia proudly carries it on.  I haven't encountered the glorious wackiness of gigantic demon canopy beds or fortress turtles, but there's a much better variety over all.  How about monsters like birds with actual bugle beaks or paper fan wings, bush-tortoise things trample you with fruit, bees with gun stingers (yes Sonic did it first, but these are organic gun bees), and starfish that attack you on land and sound like Teletubbies when you shank 'em?   That's just a sample of the crazy bestiary.  And they all drop worthwhile goodies, including materials to make awesome loot with.


Now why didn't I ever want to play this again?  Well, even in angst The Harvest Never Rests!

Devil's Lab

Yeah, seriously.  Those dudes that wandering up and down the internet saying Tales of Vesperia is inspired by Final Fantasy VII are idiots.  It's clearly inspired by Final Fantasy VI.  So there!


Anyway, I'm finally getting back into the swing of things.  The Vesperia campaign is still going along pretty well, helped by the fact that I'm not a angry little ball of angst this go-around.  Sometimes even escapism doesn't help you escape things.  I'm noticing a few more little details and nuances, and with the help of a decent FAQ or two I've figured out some the sidequests and extra events without having to save scum and tear my hair out.  Tales-style sidequesting can be mean.


I've finally have some semblance of aptitude for the combat system, thought I doubt I'll have anything like actual mastery.  Watching my main character zip around and unleash the turbo ginsu upon freakish hordes is pretty rewarding, and not whiffing every other attack makes things even sweeter.  Throwing in the mage-support that every good RPG should do and things start turning into a symphony of flashy doom.  The wonders of Tales-style New Game plus allowing for characters to retain the high-end skills and spells just amplifies things.


Repede the Ninja Dog of awesomeness is still very much a favorite for me, helping fetch all sorts of shinies--especially the much-needing crafting materials--with grace, aplomb, and without my supervision.  Vesperia has far and away the best stealing system in the series that I've encountered, with just about everything having something for Repede to grab, reasonable chances for the grab to work, and little worry about not grabbing that super-unique item or it's lost forever bullshit (I'm looking at you Tales of the Abyss); plus it's automated, so I don't have to sit there and manually spam a command instead of unleashing the Harvest properly.


About the closest thing to a major gripe I have so far...well it's an odd thing to say, but there's not the sense of otherworldly grandeur that I got from Legendia.  The graphics and sounds and overall tone is very, very good and a vast improvement over the dust-bowl depression of Abyss (especially in the graphics department) and there's some the same sense of discovery, mystery and plain fun going on.  I think that Legendia is really in a class of it's own there.  At least the monsters are fun too look at and more fun to fight.  We've got stuff like giant wasp-things with gun-stingers, 'mermen' that are really weresharks that beat you with boat anchors, and some other fun stuff.


Unfortunately, it's time to wander off, but The Harvest Never Rests!

They Made Grinding Fun

You know, I've had a copy of Final Fantasy XII for quite some time.  I forgot the details of the original provenance; suffice to say that at some point I wound up with one, then traded it to a friend for my old copy of VII back, then somehow got a second copy (both copies were the steelbox Collector's version even), and that second copy has been hiding among my gaming artifacts for years now.  I had this notion that somehow XII was too different for me to be much fun, or had some abstruse mechanics that would require some head-on-wall action to take place before I found the secret to enjoying the game properly (post-SNES Square games are bad about that).


I was an idiot.  Screw what the nostalgia-drunk fanboys have been braying; this game is frickin' awesome.  Most JRPGs just pay homage to the tradition of grinding and farming as a necessary evil.  Final Fantasy XII embraces grinding and made it enjoyable. 


Yes, there is something of a learning curve, especially if you jump straight in from an 'old school' FF  game, but nothing a bit of action RPG experience won't cover.  Once I got over the initial hurdles and got my feet wet, things started clicking along pretty well, and now the Harvest has been properly unleashed upon Ivalice.  The decision to update the combat to allow free-run and working area-of-effect mechanics, combined with a consistently challenging difficulty curve, adds a layer of strategy and tension to things, giving some much-needed emphasis on risk mitigation and resource management.  On top of all that, stepping away from FF's long tradition of constant cash drops in favor of the material hunting/bazaar system gives a sense of purpose to all the random monster-mashing going on. 


In most games, I tend to have a fairly impatient "plow through the story" mindset.  Here I am actually fiddling around, eschewing direct plot progression and fast-travel in favor of wandering around and collecting all the goodies I can, and it's paid off splendidly so far.  I can't claim I've over-leveled, but I feel that my plucky group of adventurers actually have the skillset, power, and experience to waltz in the next Evil Dungeon of Plot Progression and take on The Horrible Denizens That Guard The Important Relic without the distinct impression that I brought a rubber knife to a chainsaw duel.  It's a powerful feeling for a gamer.


Oh, and I really like how the 'mine' zones give a whole visual reference to Vagrant Story's Lea Monde.  That was a nice touch.