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General Discussion => The Speakeasy: OOG/Off-topic Discussion => Topic started by: Wanoah on 20 Apr 2010, 14:08

Title: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Wanoah on 20 Apr 2010, 14:08
There may still be one or two of you hereabouts that are familiar with the sort of long, rambling forum posting I used to inflict on people back in the day. Some of you may have read some of my posts, and maybe there's someone out there that remembers that I have a bunch of opinions on games and gaming and what I think it should and shouldn't be. You're probably wishing that you get get the time reading all that tripe back somehow, but it's gone: I stole precious minutes of your life that you could have spent hugging your children or making love to beautiful women. I'm going to steal more of your life away now. In good conscience, I can only recommend that you don't click any of the links below. In fact, stop reading right now.

Still here? Well, don't say I didn't warn you. Anyone familiar with my views on games will probably have a hunch that the Final Fantasy series is likely to represent everything I think is rotten in the world of gaming. You might suspect that I would having nothing good to say about them. You might think it possible that I may at some point have vomited pure hate-flavoured vitriol at the merest mention of a Final Fantasy game. You'd be right.

It's fair to say that just about the worst thing I could do would be to make a firm commitment to not only play a Final Fantasy game, but to finish one. I'd rather play through a 24 hour Fork Lift Simulator (http://www.excalibur-publishing.com/forklift.htm) marathon after suffering a stroke than waste days of my life playing through a game I am practically guaranteed to hate every minute of. A game that robs you of many many hours of your life that could have been better spent winning that Nobel Prize or boning the aforementioned beautiful women.

Obviously, I have made a terrible mistake. A terrible terrible mistake. I have made that commitment to play through a Final Fantasy game. I was even stone cold sober at the time. All things being equal, I start the torment this coming Sunday. I plan to chart my progress with some kind of diary - links to the introductory bits are below. I'm not sure how much I'll write, or how often: it rather depends on how much this damnable thing damages my brain. I may be incapable of speech after the first day. I may be only capable of rage like the infected in 28 Days Later. All I do know is that it's unlikely to be pretty.

Anyway, without further ado, I present I Fantasise About This Being Over: a story in an indeterminate number of parts. Enjoy. Or don't.

Part One: The Challenge (http://www.wanoah.co.uk/?p=58)
Part Two: Why I Hate Consoles (http://www.wanoah.co.uk/?p=63)
Part Three: Storytelling In Games (http://www.wanoah.co.uk/?p=68)
Part Four: I Hate Fantasy (http://www.wanoah.co.uk/?p=89)
Part Five: The Horror! The Horror! 25 hours with FFX (http://www.wanoah.co.uk/?p=104)
Part Six: Failure and Resolve (http://www.wanoah.co.uk/?p=119)


Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Myrhial Arkenath on 26 May 2010, 01:18
Your blog thing is borked in Chrome, screen goes white after a second and displays [ur=http://stats.wordpress.com/g.gif?host=www.wanoah.co.uk&rand=0.9156052952166647&blog=12221513&v=ext&post=58&ref=l]this[/url] image. Might want to look into fixing that.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Wanoah on 31 May 2010, 13:41
Thanks for letting me know. And curious, given that it's vanilla Wordpress with a common template. :ugh:
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Lillith Blackheart on 31 May 2010, 19:10
Why would you challenge yourself to play a horrible game the whole way through?
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Zuzanna Alondra on 01 Jun 2010, 09:00
Trick: You only have to play Biltz ball *once*  -  any games past that are optional.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Wanoah on 01 Jun 2010, 12:58
Why would you challenge yourself to play a horrible game the whole way through?

It's a very good question. I have been somewhat vague in the blog posts as to how this came about, but I'm not challenging myself. I have been challenged by someone else: someone who is taking great delight in my misery. There was also reciprocation: she had to go to a football match (she hates football). When the bargain was struck, I didn't realise just how unequal it was. Tbh, had I realised, I would have insisted that she watches an entire season of football. :P

Trick: You only have to play Biltz ball *once*  -  any games past that are optional.

Yeah, I got past that Blitzball bit. I was actually looking forward to it on the basis that it was some kind of sport, and therefore might be somewhat enjoyable. Predictably though, they made it unimaginably awful, as only people entirely unacquainted with the concepts of sport and fun could. :(

I am currently languishing in some place where I keep getting hit by lightning. For some reason. Because the random battles every five paces weren't tedious enough. :/
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Lillith Blackheart on 01 Jun 2010, 16:28
Tbh, had I realised, I would have insisted that she watches an entire season of football. :P

Hey, by then you might have even finished the intro portion. . .
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Wanoah on 01 Jun 2010, 17:25
Tbh, had I realised, I would have insisted that she watches an entire season of football. :P

Hey, by then you might have even finished the intro portion. . .

/o\

:P
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Mizhara on 01 Jun 2010, 20:07
Tbh, had I realised, I would have insisted that she watches an entire season of football. :P

Hey, by then you might have even finished the intro portion. . .

Urgh, don't say that. I've already thrown away the FFXII disc, after about 25h or so of playing it, and I'm still not sure I'm past the intro. God that was an awful game.

Edit: No wait, FFXIII, isn't it?
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Kaleigh Doyle on 01 Jun 2010, 20:31
I still play FF1 for the nintendo. Does that make me a bad person?  :oops:
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Zuzanna Alondra on 01 Jun 2010, 22:24
I am currently languishing in some place where I keep getting hit by lightning. For some reason. Because the random battles every five paces weren't tedious enough. :/

I remember that place... ew.  I had to load a walk thru to live through it myself.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Lillith Blackheart on 01 Jun 2010, 23:00
I still play FF1 for the nintendo. Does that make me a bad person?  :oops:

No, because Final Fantasy was really good up to FF7. Then it took a dive, and each additional one has continued that dive.

For Mizh and Wanoah:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/4/14/

That is all.

Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Benjamin Shepherd on 01 Jun 2010, 23:05
Never beat a single game of Final Fantasy, but I love the orchestral music, good production value when it comes to that.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: lallara zhuul on 02 Jun 2010, 00:38
If you read the dialogues then it makes your life a lot easier.

In that spot you can dodge the lightnings by pressing one of the buttons once you get the obscure cue from the game.

There was some thingie there about twiddling with the pylons to get something, I forget what.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Lillith Blackheart on 02 Jun 2010, 07:03
Do this, Wanoah:

Ask her if it has to be FFXIII.

If it does not have to be FFXIII, you can still be spared.

Get FFVII. It's considerably shorter of a game (like you would be done with FF7 by the time you finish the intro of FF13 assuming you just rushed through it) and also not as god awful.

Save yourself if you can, man.

Save yourself if you can.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Vikarion on 02 Jun 2010, 11:14
I played Final Fantasy 7. By the end of it, I was rooting for Sephiroth. Cloud is nauseating.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Graelyn on 02 Jun 2010, 11:44
Confirm Chrome is borked with these pages.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Lillith Blackheart on 02 Jun 2010, 12:41
I played Final Fantasy 7. By the end of it, I was rooting for Sephiroth. Cloud is nauseating.

Agreed.

So was Aeris.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Wanoah on 02 Jun 2010, 13:26
Do this, Wanoah:

Ask her if it has to be FFXIII.

If it does not have to be FFXIII, you can still be spared.

Get FFVII. It's considerably shorter of a game (like you would be done with FF7 by the time you finish the intro of FF13 assuming you just rushed through it) and also not as god awful.

Save yourself if you can, man.

Save yourself if you can.

It's X. :/

I've been told to tell you that it would have been 7, but it was deemed too old (I would bitch about shitty graphics :P) and wasn't easily available for me to play. So it had to be X.

I'm roughly 30 hours in now, so there's no going back really. I can just about manage to play to the next save point before I start bleeding from my ears and lapse into unconsciousness. I then need a week to recover.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Lillith Blackheart on 02 Jun 2010, 13:55
Pah, anyone who bitches about graphics needs to be introduced to Dwarf Fortress. One of the best games ever made and by default is a Rogue-like.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Mizhara on 02 Jun 2010, 14:28
Besides, FFVII is available cheaply on the PS3 store.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Lillith Blackheart on 02 Jun 2010, 16:52
Besides, FFVII is available cheaply on the PS3 store.

And also the last FF worth a damn.

Sadly it was simultaneously the game that made me never want to play Final Fantasy again.

If I never see another Cactaur as long as I fucking live it is too goddamn soon.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Kaleigh Doyle on 02 Jun 2010, 17:19
(http://www.ffcompilation.co.uk/ffviii_images/cactuar1.jpg)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Lillith Blackheart on 02 Jun 2010, 22:25
/wrists
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Vincent Pryce on 03 Jun 2010, 04:03
When it comes Final Fantasies the truly good ones are the ones on SNES, mainly FFVI and FFV. FF VII was alright but lack so much in every after the masterpiece of a storyline and rich world that was FF VI, despite that FFVII was a good game not tho. However, every FF after the VII marking has been pretty much horrible tripe with poor storylines and hollow characters.

My 0.02isk.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Caellach Marellus on 03 Jun 2010, 04:48
Besides, FFVII is available cheaply on the PS3 store.

And also the last FF worth a damn.


8 was pretty good.

Also I cite Tactics Advance and Tactics A2 as damn good Final Fantasy games.


Though the Remake of IV for the DS is by far the superior FF.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: lallara zhuul on 04 Jun 2010, 00:53
What bugs me is the fact that they (Square) concentrated on Final Fantasy when they had a much better game concept in the earlier days of gaming.

Of course I am referring to Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross...
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Lillith Blackheart on 04 Jun 2010, 10:47
They've had better concepts in the later eras, too.

They've done a lot of much better things.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Ashar Kor-Azor on 05 Jun 2010, 02:35
I skimmed this thread, because I couldn't bear to look directly at it.

It has given me insight into what Hell looks like.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Wanoah on 09 Jun 2010, 16:30

It has given me insight into what Hell looks like.

Yes. Thank fuck it's all over now. It beat me in the end. It broke me.

Final chapter of my adventure into the hellish shithole that is Final Fantasy is up (http://www.wanoah.co.uk/?p=119).

I've also reverted to the default theme due to CBAs wrt sorting out the theme I had so it works with Chrome.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Challenge
Post by: Zuzanna Alondra on 15 Jun 2010, 12:20
But you missed the best part - you can kill him!

Oh wells - it is a bit of a very dumb game.  Long and boring, I made my (soon to be ex) husband level and do all the side stuff for me and just watched it like a movie at the interesting bits, and even then it wasn't worth it.