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thudricdholee
01-10-13 10:32 PM
01-10-13 10:32 PM
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Sarcasm and irreverence, served up warm.
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01-10-13 10:32 PM
thudricdholee is Offline
| ID: 720803 | 1368 Words
| ID: 720803 | 1368 Words
thudricdholee
Level: 58
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CP: 1021.7
VIZ: 4398
POSTS: 388/834
POST EXP: 88287
LVL EXP: 1554565
CP: 1021.7
VIZ: 4398
Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0
I'm becoming a fan of hacks. I can't help it; I keep stumbling over these little gems, tucked amongst boring or horrible offerings. This is yet another hack of Final Fantasy III, with some interesting tweaks that make it stand out from some of the others. I don't know if any of you read the Final Fantasy comic at Nuculear Power (if you haven't, you should) but this game makes me think very strongly of that. Just...sarcastic awesomeness all around. Some of the things work, some of them don't work as well, but you can feel the amount of time they put into it. Here's a brief list of things that stood out for me, bad or good. Believe me, there's a lot more to discover; I"m not going to give away all the details, because for me, half the fun was picking out the not-so-obvious changes. Character Changes Every character has been changed. They've cast them all in classes and locked them into place; it works on one hand, because I'm a fan of the class system, but in other ways it kind of limiting. Being able to shift classes would have been nice, but teaching them the different spells was interesting. One of the odder changes, the only one I really found a problem with, was the exchange of the moogles (cute, adorable and iconic) for weird blonde dancer clones. Yes, they all look alike. Every time you'd see a moogle, you now get a dancer. It's a bit like...why? I missed the moogles, more than I probably should have. Almost every major character got a face-lift. Sometimes it worked really well, and sometimes it felt a little unnecessary. Spell Learning Changes: This was the biggest change. Instead of learning spells from Espers, you actually learn the spells from your equipped items. Some items teach certain spells, some items are only equippable on certain people. It's a good idea, but... It kind of feels like (excuse the language!) a crap shoot. You don't have a very good idea of what goes with who when it comes to Relics, so you just kind of try to see what can be equipped. And Relics at least tell you what they're going to teach; the spells you learn from weapons and armor feel totally random. You can check on equipment (they show you how to in the game), but weapons are utterly up in the air. And you can't even see it until you've gone through a fight and check to see if you're learning anything. It's really odd, and feels clunky and gimmicky. I know I'm missing spells, but I don't have any way to find out where I might have missed them. The learning thing is really random too; you just have to fight and wait to see when you've learned them. They told us in the game that it's about every 8 fights, but I found some spells went fast, and some dragged, and there didn't seem to be any real indication of how fast you're going to learn them. Character Sprites: Alright, I have to say, the sprites in the game are very nice and well done. That being said, I have to add that the pictures in the menu are terrible. They look hand-drawn, and not in a good way. Paint program? Whatever they used, it looks cheap and very much like an after-thought. Dialogue: Oh, gosh. This game was a lot of fun, and most of it was in the dialogue. Every conversation is laced with sarcasm, hilarious in-jokes, and sometimes just straight out ridiculousness. There were quite a few times I laughed out loud in surprise at something a simple NPC said randomly. The conversations and interactions between the heros is no longer the slightly sappy, save the world goodness of the previous game. At one point, the main character gleefully urges the monk to kill her brother (the idiot king, I think you all know who that is.) Just funny and really, the driving force of the game. Now for the numbers part: Graphics: 7 The score I gave this game isn't for the backgrounds or monsters (all unchanged from the original game, except most of the villains). The score I gave is for the new character sprites and the new monsters. In almost every case, the new inserted graphics are smooth, well-fitting and interesting. A few felt a little odd, especially the esper changes, but for the most part it could have been all from the original game. As I said before, the menu pictures are downright horrible. I think they forgot about them until the very end and had to throw them in really fast before they published the game. Sound: 6 Pretty much exactly from the game...and like most games of this era, the music is a bit annoying. Less so than a few other games I've played, but once again, I ended up muting it. Especially during the boss battles-the music attempts to make it feel dangerous and exciting, but to me it just seems rushed and frantic. Addictiveness: 8 The original game was deep, interesting, and incredibly addictive. This game is not as deep, but just as interesting and for me, the addictive factor was finding out what the heck they were going to do with this crazy story and these idiot characters. And finding out what the NPCs in the next town were going to say. It was fun and kept my interest all the way through, although I doubt I'll play it again once I've finished it off. I played it straight through for two days, which should tell you something-usually I can't do that with any game. Story: 6 The story in this game is completely ridiculous, rather light and somehow more believable than the original game. The empire is bad, the rebels don't like them, and everything they do-smart or not-is designed to defeat the bad guys. The character stories are weirdly intertwined and often the main reason for going with the party is "why not"....but it works. It really does. Depth: 6 Like most Final Fantasies, there is a lot of game play in this game...but unlike the newer ones, there are few side-quests or optional areas. You're pretty much herded along, pointed in the right direction, and there's not a lot of options. Even later once you get the airship, there's just not a lot to do. I have pretty much beaten the game in two solid days of game-play (part of that, of course, is that I already beat the original game several times, so I know where I'm going). Difficulty: 9 This game is harder than the original. The enemies are revved up just a little...but it's mostly the class system that kills you. Taking the lady general and making her a wimpy black mage makes the whole section where she and the ex-thief-now-dragoon are sneaking out of town much more difficult, for example, and boss-monsters have interesting new spells that often make the fights twice as long. And taking away every character's ability to learn cure makes some previous strategies impossible. Still, it wasn't that terrible, and once you start to get the hang of the classes and they learn some abilities, it smooths out a bit. I'm finding the end battles much more difficult. I won't give anything away, but don't just cruise through this game-spend a bit of time leveling up, or you will regret it. Overall: 8.5 Overall, I honestly enjoyed this game. The sheer wtf-ery of the dialogue made me laugh quite a bit and stay interested all the way through, and you can't even begin to guess the directions you'll head off in. The class system is interesting if not completely well done, the spells are...weird but not totally frustrating...what really saved this game for me was, as I said before, the feeling that you're playing a whole new game. It's not often a hack can give you that feeling without changing hardly anything about the towns, backgrounds and enemies. I recommend this if you like Final Fantasy games and Monty Python. That's about the feeling you get, all the way through. Some of the things work, some of them don't work as well, but you can feel the amount of time they put into it. Here's a brief list of things that stood out for me, bad or good. Believe me, there's a lot more to discover; I"m not going to give away all the details, because for me, half the fun was picking out the not-so-obvious changes. Character Changes Every character has been changed. They've cast them all in classes and locked them into place; it works on one hand, because I'm a fan of the class system, but in other ways it kind of limiting. Being able to shift classes would have been nice, but teaching them the different spells was interesting. One of the odder changes, the only one I really found a problem with, was the exchange of the moogles (cute, adorable and iconic) for weird blonde dancer clones. Yes, they all look alike. Every time you'd see a moogle, you now get a dancer. It's a bit like...why? I missed the moogles, more than I probably should have. Almost every major character got a face-lift. Sometimes it worked really well, and sometimes it felt a little unnecessary. Spell Learning Changes: This was the biggest change. Instead of learning spells from Espers, you actually learn the spells from your equipped items. Some items teach certain spells, some items are only equippable on certain people. It's a good idea, but... It kind of feels like (excuse the language!) a crap shoot. You don't have a very good idea of what goes with who when it comes to Relics, so you just kind of try to see what can be equipped. And Relics at least tell you what they're going to teach; the spells you learn from weapons and armor feel totally random. You can check on equipment (they show you how to in the game), but weapons are utterly up in the air. And you can't even see it until you've gone through a fight and check to see if you're learning anything. It's really odd, and feels clunky and gimmicky. I know I'm missing spells, but I don't have any way to find out where I might have missed them. The learning thing is really random too; you just have to fight and wait to see when you've learned them. They told us in the game that it's about every 8 fights, but I found some spells went fast, and some dragged, and there didn't seem to be any real indication of how fast you're going to learn them. Character Sprites: Alright, I have to say, the sprites in the game are very nice and well done. That being said, I have to add that the pictures in the menu are terrible. They look hand-drawn, and not in a good way. Paint program? Whatever they used, it looks cheap and very much like an after-thought. Dialogue: Oh, gosh. This game was a lot of fun, and most of it was in the dialogue. Every conversation is laced with sarcasm, hilarious in-jokes, and sometimes just straight out ridiculousness. There were quite a few times I laughed out loud in surprise at something a simple NPC said randomly. The conversations and interactions between the heros is no longer the slightly sappy, save the world goodness of the previous game. At one point, the main character gleefully urges the monk to kill her brother (the idiot king, I think you all know who that is.) Just funny and really, the driving force of the game. Now for the numbers part: Graphics: 7 The score I gave this game isn't for the backgrounds or monsters (all unchanged from the original game, except most of the villains). The score I gave is for the new character sprites and the new monsters. In almost every case, the new inserted graphics are smooth, well-fitting and interesting. A few felt a little odd, especially the esper changes, but for the most part it could have been all from the original game. As I said before, the menu pictures are downright horrible. I think they forgot about them until the very end and had to throw them in really fast before they published the game. Sound: 6 Pretty much exactly from the game...and like most games of this era, the music is a bit annoying. Less so than a few other games I've played, but once again, I ended up muting it. Especially during the boss battles-the music attempts to make it feel dangerous and exciting, but to me it just seems rushed and frantic. Addictiveness: 8 The original game was deep, interesting, and incredibly addictive. This game is not as deep, but just as interesting and for me, the addictive factor was finding out what the heck they were going to do with this crazy story and these idiot characters. And finding out what the NPCs in the next town were going to say. It was fun and kept my interest all the way through, although I doubt I'll play it again once I've finished it off. I played it straight through for two days, which should tell you something-usually I can't do that with any game. Story: 6 The story in this game is completely ridiculous, rather light and somehow more believable than the original game. The empire is bad, the rebels don't like them, and everything they do-smart or not-is designed to defeat the bad guys. The character stories are weirdly intertwined and often the main reason for going with the party is "why not"....but it works. It really does. Depth: 6 Like most Final Fantasies, there is a lot of game play in this game...but unlike the newer ones, there are few side-quests or optional areas. You're pretty much herded along, pointed in the right direction, and there's not a lot of options. Even later once you get the airship, there's just not a lot to do. I have pretty much beaten the game in two solid days of game-play (part of that, of course, is that I already beat the original game several times, so I know where I'm going). Difficulty: 9 This game is harder than the original. The enemies are revved up just a little...but it's mostly the class system that kills you. Taking the lady general and making her a wimpy black mage makes the whole section where she and the ex-thief-now-dragoon are sneaking out of town much more difficult, for example, and boss-monsters have interesting new spells that often make the fights twice as long. And taking away every character's ability to learn cure makes some previous strategies impossible. Still, it wasn't that terrible, and once you start to get the hang of the classes and they learn some abilities, it smooths out a bit. I'm finding the end battles much more difficult. I won't give anything away, but don't just cruise through this game-spend a bit of time leveling up, or you will regret it. Overall: 8.5 Overall, I honestly enjoyed this game. The sheer wtf-ery of the dialogue made me laugh quite a bit and stay interested all the way through, and you can't even begin to guess the directions you'll head off in. The class system is interesting if not completely well done, the spells are...weird but not totally frustrating...what really saved this game for me was, as I said before, the feeling that you're playing a whole new game. It's not often a hack can give you that feeling without changing hardly anything about the towns, backgrounds and enemies. I recommend this if you like Final Fantasy games and Monty Python. That's about the feeling you get, all the way through. |
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(edited by thudricdholee on 01-10-13 10:33 PM)
01-13-13 04:06 PM
iN008 is Offline
| ID: 722925 | 36 Words
iN008 is Offline
| ID: 722925 | 36 Words
iN008
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POSTS: 92/2358
POST EXP: 173853
LVL EXP: 7354810
CP: 21758.9
VIZ: 212753
Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0
Amazing review. Took me a while to read. Your points are very valid, All of them have given reason... well most of them. Can I ask where you in a Higher English class at High school? Took me a while to read. Your points are very valid, All of them have given reason... well most of them. Can I ask where you in a Higher English class at High school? |
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01-13-13 05:07 PM
thudricdholee is Offline
| ID: 723020 | 83 Words
| ID: 723020 | 83 Words
thudricdholee
Level: 58
POSTS: 460/834
POST EXP: 88287
LVL EXP: 1554565
CP: 1021.7
VIZ: 4398
POSTS: 460/834
POST EXP: 88287
LVL EXP: 1554565
CP: 1021.7
VIZ: 4398
Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0
iN008 : Thank you! I appreciate any feedback, but it's nice to get good stuff. And hah, yeah. It helps that I'm 34 years old now, though. I've always written and read at a very advanced age-I remember a librarian at school took the Return of the King away from me at one point because she thought it was too advanced. i believe i was in fourth or fifth grade? She complained to my mom and my mom told her to give it back. And hah, yeah. It helps that I'm 34 years old now, though. I've always written and read at a very advanced age-I remember a librarian at school took the Return of the King away from me at one point because she thought it was too advanced. i believe i was in fourth or fifth grade? She complained to my mom and my mom told her to give it back. |
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01-23-13 12:10 AM
MC50 is Offline
| ID: 729417 | 251 Words
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Good review! It was interesting to read, and I'm always glad to get some positive feedback.
Since you took the time to type up a review, I'll answer a couple of your questions. I was the one in charge of the Story and Gameplay balancing. My friend was the one who did all the graphics. I do agree that learning spells is a bit clunky. Learning spells works like the original game - Each spell set on a weapon or armor is assigned a percentage, and the higher it is, the faster it goes up. Mostly they were set to high numbers to alleviate the pain of it, but I do agree that it could have been clearer. There were band-aids put around the game (NPCs telling you about how to check, for example) but that was just all I could do. The faces... We were debating whether to keep them or to just replace them with a sprite of the character. In the end, we went with keeping them, because they did have some effort put into them... But it's very hard to get good looking faces with the limitations FF6 has. There just aren't enough colours! The story was fun to write. I did attempt to have an actual "story", but the most fun was definitely the characters being silly, or the NPCs being ridiculous. At times I thought maybe it was a bit much, but I'm glad to see you enjoyed it. Anyway, thanks for playing the game. Since you took the time to type up a review, I'll answer a couple of your questions. I was the one in charge of the Story and Gameplay balancing. My friend was the one who did all the graphics. I do agree that learning spells is a bit clunky. Learning spells works like the original game - Each spell set on a weapon or armor is assigned a percentage, and the higher it is, the faster it goes up. Mostly they were set to high numbers to alleviate the pain of it, but I do agree that it could have been clearer. There were band-aids put around the game (NPCs telling you about how to check, for example) but that was just all I could do. The faces... We were debating whether to keep them or to just replace them with a sprite of the character. In the end, we went with keeping them, because they did have some effort put into them... But it's very hard to get good looking faces with the limitations FF6 has. There just aren't enough colours! The story was fun to write. I did attempt to have an actual "story", but the most fun was definitely the characters being silly, or the NPCs being ridiculous. At times I thought maybe it was a bit much, but I'm glad to see you enjoyed it. Anyway, thanks for playing the game. |
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