Gaming Final Fantasy Saga (FF7 Rebirth Spoilers TAGGED)

Did you know that originally Arazlam signing his full name at the end was supposed to be a big reveal? They, uh, kind of lost that in the new version.

Also I still can’t get over the fact that FFXIV of all things confirmed the final cutscene wasn’t a dream.

 

I beat FFVIIR about a week ago. It's the first FF game I've played all the way through. It was...kind of dumb but enjoyable I guess. All the villains are literal cartoon characters except for the guy with the long hair who just sounded stoned the whole entire time. I do have some questions and then a comment:

1. How is Clod able to walk around places with a 12 ft long sword strapped to his back? Wouldn't he be in tremendous pain the whole entire time? How does he sit on chairs and benches?
2. What happened to Barret's arm? How is he able to perform day to day tasks without accidentally murdering or committing acts of vandalism with a dangerous lethal weapon attached to his dominant hand?
3. Why does the president of Detroit look like a blonde Walt Disney? Was that intentional?
4. How is Tiffa able to successfully kick giant mechanical machines to death without causing multiple fractures and bone breaks to her legs?

Spoiler

I do appreciate how at the end of the game, a young David Bowie is now president of Detroit.

 

4 is why they tell you not to skip leg day, obviously.

 

You already kind of answered it. He removes the u in his name and the sword goes there.

His dominant hand is actually his left foot. There's a deleted scene that shows him eating a bowl of soup and drinking a cup of coffee without spilling a drop.

There's a popular fan theory on reddit that covers this question in great detail. I'd recommend searching it out there.

She uses the extra f in her name for protection from fractures.

 

I definitely didn't assume that post-credits scene was a dream... How did they confirm it in XIV? Are they connected?

 

There was kind of always a discussion of whether or not Orran

Spoiler

really saw Ramza and Alma or if it was just an ambiguous thing

but I guess there's some material in XIV that clears up that yes, since they cameo in such-and-such cutscene they did make it.

As for the connection, Arazlam is a major NPC in a series of quests in FFXIV because apparently that MMO takes place in his timeframe. To which I say "Sure, I guess." Also he literally named his kids Ramza and Alma which is, like, plus infinity history geek points.

 

The enemies in FFVII:Remake in hard mode are pretty unforgiving. Unlike the original game, there's a level cap at 50, so after leveling up the weapons your best bet is manipulating the Materia in the weapons and accessories. With the Chapter Select, you don't have to play through the entire game again; just select which part of the game you want to replay.

 

You, er, don't really get this video game concept, do you?

 

Ah very cool. I thought it was clear those characters were actually alive yeah. I thought you meant the sad post credits scene.

 

Now then, @Ramza especially but anyone really... Are Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 1 and 2 worth it? Because I could play them on my DS and 2DS respectively.

Edit: Oh btw FFVIIR was ****ing awesome.

 

Complicated question, honestly, I'll break it up on mechanics and plot.

Mechanically: I think A2 is solid. Advance... I dunno, some people swear by Advance, possibly due to nostalgia, but I found it infuriating. There are these judges that periodically outlaw actions based on the in-game calendar, which sounds like it would add complexity but in practice means you're usually just trying to game the map until you get some laws you can cope with. The enemies in story missions basically cheat by having units that can just ignore these laws completely or "weirdly" only ever get yellow cards, never red (oh yes, it's like football, because... well, we'll get to that). A2 rightly tosses this for a reward system. Beyond that they both add some cool ideas to the formula: you learn skills from equipment, like in FFIX; there are different races, which have unique class trees; you get to customize the map by placing locations as you see fit, which can effect random encounter spawns; and there's a ****ton of side content.

Now, plotwise the broad consensus is that Advance is better, but these people are right for the wrong reasons because both games' plots suck ass and Advance just sucks a bit less. To elaborate without spoilers: the theme in both games is that escapism is unhealthy. This is... well, okay, it's already a moral you could literally argue for centuries about, but because the plots are presented literally the central metaphor completely collapses right out of the gate. There's a minor meme that the main character of FFTA is a monster... because he is, he willfully annihilates sentient beings because he postulates that his assumption that his preexisting reality is the correct reality overrides evidence to the contrary (no, seriously, that is the text, this is "fine" because since the magical world has evidence of being the product of multiple characters' desires it must be a dream, hence the football thing, aren't we ****ing clever. EXCEPT IT ISN'T. ALSO NO ONE IN THE GAME IS A FOOTBALL FAN.). To "fix" this, in FFTA2 the protagonist is himself engaging in the escapism... which owing to the identification of protagonist action with correct action causes the moral to collapse alongside the central metaphor, which never stood a chance once the gameworld had to appear more than once. We're basically left with two sets of flaming wreckage and arguing that the one burned out husk is a bit less burned out, so it's the good one. I obviously don't have a lot of patience for that.

I'm just... I'm just not a big fan. For me, Tactics Ogre is the only other game that really stands in the lineage of FFT proper with its combination of great mechanics and a good story, and these are just weird little tactical RPGs that tie in to FFXII the way bad self insert fan fiction would. But some people really like them and can reminisce at length about salad days playing FFTA at the bus stop or whatever.

In conclusion:

 

Thanks for the detailed response! Exactly as I expected.

I will probably look at Tactics Ogre instead.

BTW have you played Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark? I actually played that before FFT and it turns out that's heavily influenced by FFT both in gameplay and story. I liked it.

 

I have not, but that sounds up my alley, plus apparently it's on Switch! I'll check that out for sure then.

 

Yeah you should! I played it on Switch. I would love to hear your thoughts on it if you do play it. I don't know anyone else who has.

 

Finally, a version of TWEwY aimed squarely at me, apparently the only person in the world that didn't really like playing it.

 

Hey he's from Kingdom Hearts.

 

I have Final Fantasy Advance but have yet to play it. I've heard it's great, at least the ps version.

 

Just here to report that I'm playing the original Final Fantasy VII now on Switch. I'm past Midgard and out into the open world. Very excited to find out more about the story of this game, since all I know is what I've gleaned from Advent Children and FFVIIR.

 

Is it hard going from new graphics to old and reading txt? Great game.

 

AC and the Remake game barely touched the surface of what you learn from the open world after leaving Midgar. And it's likely the next installment of the Remake may go in an entirely new direction than what's experienced in the original; considering what we know from the ending of the first installment.