FF ramblings

[ria_oaks]

I happened to check Rpgamer.com a few minutes ago and noticed that FFIII:DS comes out today (I haven't really been keeping track...). I'm probably just being too over-emotional, but this day feels rather historic in the RPG world - the last Final Fantasy that wasn't released in the US is finally here. I checked, and it's been approximately 16.5 years since FFIII was released in Japan - well, better late than never, I guess. XD I mean sure, I played it years ago on a translated ROM and I won't be buying this version anytime soon (lack of a DS... and lack of time to play. woe.), but it's still cool to think that it's here. It's sort of a pity that the original version of the game will never make it here, most likely (how hard would it have been to include the orignal version in the new game, really...?), but the new version looks pretty spiffy. Hopefully I'll get to play it someday.

3 FF games in the past 2 weeks, 2 of which are new to the US (FFXII and FFIII:DS) and one of which only ever made it here in a mangled fashion (FFV Advance) - makes me miss the days when I could play all the time... I haven't really been into gaming as much the last few years, largely because of a. lack of time during school, b. other interests take up my free time, and c. i'm lazy., but I still get excited hearing about games and still want to play when I get the chance. I'm way behind on all the games I'm playing, but I still plan to ask for either FFXII or Disgaea 2 for Christmas (leaning towards the latter - FFXII will be easy enough to find for years to come, and it'll get cheap fairly quickly, whereas Disgaea 2 will start disappearing soon...). I am sorely tempted by FFXII, though - it's been getting fantastic reviews, and hell, it's FFXII! We've been waiting for this game for years, and it's finally here... and I really can't justify the time or money to get it. Part of me, too, is still a bit uncertain about it - but most of the reviews have said that the game is nothing like (and much better than) anything we've seen of it to this point, including the demo. I plan to give it a chance eventually, but can't do it yet.

And... I'm procrastinating. Back to my Farscape paper... it's due tomorrow at 9, so I need to get moving. Up to 5 pages, need about 12 - and I'm still blathering on about the context, haven't even gotten to analysing the series itself! Ehehehe. baaack to work.

Comments

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Where's the levelling ground to do that? I've heard of some good ones, I think, but can't recall where. Anyway, I checked a guide and it said level 60+, which is doable in awhile for me... I'm around level 43-45 right now, and finding the storyline stuff pretty easy. Did some levelling, mostly to make money, in the Feywood, since you can chain Mirrorknights there and make a fair chunk of money quickly. :) Anyway, I'm going to go blast through some hunts, most of which are pretty old now so will be quite easy, then we'll see. Once I get to the harder stuff, I might wait until after Pharos so I can get better equipment and magic (I want Hastega... and Holy and Flare. All of which you get after Pharos). Not sure if I'll bother going after more Espers; frankly they've been pretty useless so far. I've used them maybe 2-3 times. And then, just to see what they did. But yeah, anyway, I want to see Gilgamesh - he's awesome. :) I was trying to recall which FFs he's been in, besides V. VIII and IX, I think? But where the heck was he in VIII? There's a Triple Triad card with him on it, I believe (I own a physical one in my card set...), but I don't remember him in the game. Was he a summon?

That's dumb. -_- Odd that they don't just put a slip in your mailbox and keep it at the post office? That's what they do for us now. Last time I had a package here I just got the slip in our box then went up to Parkgate.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Okay, see now I just spent like 20 minutes on Gamefaqs trying to figure out where Gilgamesh was in FFVIII... turns out he was a randomly appearing GF. Totally forgot about that. ^^ Didn't seem to have a card, though, even though I have on in my physical set. It's a Japanese set, though, so maybe there's only a card of him in the Japanese version.

[bk635.livejournal.com]

It's in the Henne Mines, unfortunately. It's kind of a pain in the ass to gain access to, and it's one of the hardest dungeons in the game. You can see the leveling strategy here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIh_vJ054PI I started doing this between levels 60-70.

Yeah, I did the Mirrorknights thing too. But a better place to make money (the best place) is the Shrine of Miriam, after defeating Zeromus. That room spawns about 30 undead which drop bones that sell for 1,200 Gil a piece. It's easy to get 99 of those very quickly, amongst the other items that they drop as well.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Hmm, yeah, I went and read up on that and some other strategies on Gamefaqs. I need to get 10 espers first to do that, though, so that will take some doing. The faq I checked had some other good ones, though, anyway. And wow, I've never seen a chain that big - in the video the enemies are dropping big crazy balls of light or something. Whoa. I've never managed to get above about 25-30, and I thought that was pretty high. ^^ Need to find places like they're mentioing where the same enemy respawns over and over again.

My brain's starting to explode from just how much there is to DO in this game. o.o How the fuck do people figure all this stuff out? Is it all in the official guide, I wonder, or did people really work this stuff out alone? The power levelling of course, yeah, but I mean all the secret bosses and weapons and whatnot... yikes. Games seem to be getting more and more complex and have more and more stuff to do. ^^; FFVII and VIII had their fair share of sidequests and secret bosses, but.. it feels like more in this game. Either that or I'm getting lazy in my old age. ;)

Dammit, wish I was on Bowen now with my PS2 and had another few hours before bed... want to play. :( Though honest to god, I don't ever know where to start on all the things I want to do.

[bk635.livejournal.com]

People just figure things out for themselves. The Japanese mainly do it first; and as you know, they're really hardcore about this kind of stuff. Square also releases Ultimania guides for their games (~300-600 pages) which reveal absolutely everything, as well. Puts every published English guide to shame.

I just played through it using guides. I did the Mark Hunts and various side-quests (there aren't too many) as they became available. By the end of the game I only had a few more Hunts to finish off. Never really got around to doing that.

I'd never bother figuring things out on my own, though. I'd make mistakes and miss shit. Ultimately it would probably make me end up replaying the game.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Heh, wow, people are hardcore. :) I'm always in awe over the super-detailed guides; there's so much STUFF in them. o.o

Watching those videos on Youtube is amusing, anyway. I poked through a bit and found several showing the same method, some more detailed than others. One showed the guy hitting 999 chain... sweet. Didn't get anything special for it, though, which kinda sucks. But yeah, soon as I'm back on Bowen (Tuesday night...) I'm going to get moving. Think I'll just do some hunts and stuff for now, then do Pharos, then get down to business. I want some of the magic/equipment that you don't get until after Pharos.

Didn't I say earlier that I wasn't going to bother with this stuf? ^^;; Oh well... I kinda want to now, or at least do some of it. Now that most of that boring storyline stuff is done (seriously, I have no clue what is going on in the main storyline anymore.. I don't care, either. Which is a first for me; normally I care most about the story) I want to have fun with the gameplay. Also want some of the higher level magicks that I can't get without doing hunts and sidequests, esp. Bubble.

Shit, it's 12:15... should go to bed... o.o want PS2... :( sucks I had to come down today. *sigh* Suppose I can go out or something tomorrow afternoon, but no sure what I'd do. Should probably study. Going to grandparents' place for dinner, since my aunt's in town, then hopefully will be home by 8 for Prison Break/Sarah Connor Chronicles/JKR documentary consecutively. :)

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

And woo hoo, we're almost at 1700! *is blatantly making random comment to get to that point*

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDdnx22y2Ck&feature=related

See now, this is amusing. :) According to the comments, even at lower levels he's ridiculously hard... I assumed that now, at level 45, he'd be easy (compared to how he kicked my ass at level 4 or whatever), but I don't think so. o.o Esp if he's already eaten a few wolves. Anyway, I think it's hilarious that it eats wolves and levels up. ^^ And holy crap, 9999 damage and the Zodiac Spear did 0. o.o Crazy. And shitty loot/exp, too. But pretty funny.

[bk635.livejournal.com]

Zodiac Spear is really nice. I got it early on, but I had to restrain myself from using it, because I like challenge in my games.

Also, do let me know when you send the order out.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Yeah, unfortunately I fucked up my chances of getting the Zodiac Spear early on. :( I think there's still a small chance that I can get it, like a chest that has it .01% of the time or something dumb, but... oh well. Otherwise I'd have someone learning spears; as it is I'm pretty pedestrian in my weapon choices (always have been, really) - sword for Vaan/Basch/Ashe, bow for Fran/Penelo (since the latter is my healer and I want something that does some damage but is ranged), and axes/hammers/ocassionally other random things like ninja swords for Balthier. Meh. The axes/hammers can do a lot of damage, but sometimes they do, like, 20. -_- And they're slow. But sometimes they do 3000, which everyone else is doing 1000, and that makes me happy. :)

I'm watching an auction right now, before I order that - $61 and it ends in 4 hours. $8 shipping. I'll watch it, though I'll be at my grandparents' place when it's ending ("uhh, sorry Grandma, your dinner's very nice and all but I need to go use your computer to check an eBay auction. Bye!" lol). You're willing to go to $70, right? So that's $45 from you? If it ends around $75-80, inc. the shipping, I'll probably toss in an extra ten bucks... consider it part of next year's present. ;) Would you prefer me to wait until it's over and see how it goes before I order the other thing?

I want my PS2. *sighs* Stuck in North Van and supposed to be studying. Though I got to go to Cap Mall and have McDonalds, which was a plus. ;) And I cleaned half of my room (only half because then I started sneezing uncontrollably in spite of the Reactine I took, hence the going out to Cap Mall to clear my sinuses ^^;), which is a relief. Vacuumed all behind my desk and sucked up quite a few spiders, dead and alive. Yuck. Might possibly have done a girly scream when one started moving and yelled to my dad to come get rid of it. ;) Next is my bed area, which I'd rather like to do today because suddenly I'm a bit edgy about sleeping in here, having seen the kind of crap that was behind my desk, but I don't feel up to it right now.

Can you tell I'm procrastinating from studying?

[bk635.livejournal.com]

I started out with Vaan using one-handed swords, Fran using bow, and Ashe using...something, but eventually, Vaan ended up using great swords and Ashe ended up using the Masamune + Genji Glove combo (regular combos of 6-8 hits are awesome). Then I remember I had Balthier use spears/guns, and Penelo use dagger. I don't remember that other guy's name, but he used one-handed swords as well. Eventually I filled out the License Board for every character, so it didn't really matter in the end. >.>

To be honest I think I'd get a lot more out of the Swap Magic and game I want to import than VP1. It's a tough choice. >.> The auction will probably go over $80 excluding shipping.

I need to study too. Can't afford to procrastinate today because of Prison Break, later.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

I'll probably end up switching at least Vaan to great swords, yeah, since all the best swords are those ones. But I need something, like armour or whatever, that will give me high evade to make up for losing the shields. I enjoy the fact that I block a good chunk of the attacks coming at me because of my shields. :)

Mmkay, well, I'll watch the auction and we'll see how it goes. Here it is, btw, if I can't be there to watch it - http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260207579921&_trksid=p3907.m32&_trkparms=tab%3DWatching. If it doesn't go too high, then let me know what I should go for. But yeah, in the end we probably won't have a choice since it'll skyrocket...

I might not be back in time for PB, btw, sorry. :( Hopefully I will be, though. I don't like to miss discussing it; it's more fun than watching it. ;)

*still hasn't started studying* *in part because that would involve cleaning off her desk*

[bk635.livejournal.com]

Hahaha.. 10 minutes ago it was at $61, now, $81. I guess someone really wants it.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

6 min left... shall I bid? :)

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

$20 shipping, though... yikes. It'll be $100 right now. Probably more, really. Too much?

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Still $81; one minute left... but $20 shipping. Sigh. Oh well.. if the shipping was less, I'd say go for it, but...

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Aaand, ended for $91. Other than the $20 shipping, that's not TOO bad. Cheaper than I thought you could get them for. Interesting that it went from $81 to $91 in 35 seconds. ^^ Anyway, shall I order the other thing? Or wait until the other one, currently at $67 and ending tomorrow at 7:19pm, ends? Shipping's only $4.50 on that one, but it'll probably go up. Let me know. :) I do rather enjoy watching these, lol, and bidding - had a good time bidding on Heroes s1 during my lunch hour one day. Manager probably thought I was nuts.

1 hour left to PB; still at Grandma's and have to take aunt back to hotel downtown... miiiight make it. *crosses fingers*

[bk635.livejournal.com]

Yeah, just go ahead and order the Swap Magic 3.6 Plus and Slide Tool. I'll make up the difference since it'll be like $40. I've been watching videos of the game I want to import, and I'm increasingly looking forward to it.

I've been eyeing a used copy at my regular import store, but Amazon has it new for less. I know Amazon will ream me on shipping, whereas at the import store I use I can use points I've saved up to reduce the cost.. Decisions. D:

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Mmkay, will do. :)

[bk635.livejournal.com]

Bleh I completely forgot about this. Got wrapped up in my book. But yeah, would've been way too much. I actually wasn't aware the shipping was $20.

I'm guessing it's just too unlikely to get it for cheap, unless some sucker puts up a Buy It Now for $50 or something; that would be awesome.