Together Retro: Final Fantasy Spin-Offs

[Exhuminator]

a few of the late game sidequests required very high levels that could only be achieved with grinding

Thanks for the warning. I have been beating every sidequest I come across, so we'll see how it goes. I did hit one sidequest where enemies were level 36 and I was only level 17, but I was able to beat that mission. The goal of the mission was to just mine one specific spot of ore, not to kill all enemies. But, that ore spot was smack dab in the middle of gobs of high level enemies. So I had my troops just haul ass to the ore spot and mine as quickly as possible. Most of them died. But one of my Sagittarius units pulled it off. Twas a bit of a Hamburger Hill moment.

[laurenhiya21]

maybe I'm just completely missing something? I'm not really sure I'll probably play a little more, but if it doesn't pick up soon then I might call it quits on this game.

That doesn't sound like a lot of fun to me. There's certainly plenty of other FF spin-offs to try. I thought you were gonna do Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon?

Oh yeah I'm definitely not going to play too much longer of My Life as a King (assuming it doesn't get better). I just want to play a little more since I just unlocked some more story, so maybe something new will beadded? We'll see.

And don't worry, Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon will definitely be played this month I just wanted to play My Life as a King first since I was pretty sure that it would be a shorter game (it's certainly shorter if I don't beat it haha).

[Xeogred]

I am about 90 minutes into Mystic Quest, in game time (have died a few times and it's felt longer than that). Very mixed so far and I'm honestly not sure if I'll finish it...

+ I'm a sucker for the classic tile based FF/DQ look, so I love the aesthetics
+ Music is incredible
+ Collecting permanent armor pieces is kind of cool and different

- Unless a JRPG is a full on ARPG with real time combat like Quintet's stuff (Terranigma) or whatnot, when I play JRPG's I like controlling a gang of characters that generally gives off this cool sense of comradery and adventure. Or in the cases of SRPG's it feels awesome being in the position of commanding your own army and getting to play with a lot of units. In FF:MQ... you have this one random dude and 90 minutes in they've already rotated in 3 different characters for the second slot. I got some magic girl now. I can't name any of them. Fast forward 20 plus some years and I disliked Lightning Returns because you only play as her, that was a huge downgrade when you had cool party mechanics in the previous games. 1-2 party systems in turn based RPG's are a big red flag for me.
- The field battles have to be one of the worst artificial extensions of a game I've seen in awhile. You want to do them for the rewards, sometimes you get some key items. But it's just so dull.

Kind of weird it takes awhile to get to the second town that has the first Inn. It's humorous you can respawn the normal chests and stock up on those items easily. I dig the weapon mechanics or jumping in dungeons. I have died a few times though, because of how random the game can get. Like this new magic chick I got, some troll hits her causing her to be Confused so she'll use some magic on Random Dude and do hundreds of damage. One little wacky thing in a battle can mess things up. But you're otherwise just spamming the attack button and it's really not that interesting.

None of this is fully surprising but I was maybe a bit too optimistic about this one... it is far more VANILLA and bare bones than I even expected. Super Mario RPG was my first JRPG and offers way more than this.

[Nemoide]

I played another hour of Kingdom Hearts tonight, finally meeting up with Goofy and Donald. I have to say, tonight's session wasn't great: I was mostly wandering around aimlessly killing infinitely spawning enemies until I finally triggered the event to meet "Leon" (Squall). Oh well, hopefully I'll start figuring out what I'm supposed to be doing soon...
Also the idea that Squall from FF VIII is apparently good friends with Donald Duck and Goofy amuses me. This really IS the weird Disney/Final Fantasy crossover fan fiction story I imagined it to be years ago!

[dsheinem]

I am on my way to Crystal 4 in FFMQ. I just finished

the part where the tree carries you around the map like he's Treebeard or some shit

.

I must say, I am liking this game the further I get into it and I think it is too easy to dismiss it as simply an "easy FF game" or "FF for beginners" and not actually appreciate what is a really very compelling (and early) mix of some minor platforming, pathfinding, and navigational elements (and plenty of cinematic moments) that augment a relatively streamlined turn-based content. I actually think this game probably had more of a direct impact on predicting the direction for the series in the long run (and how it may begin to appeal to a wider American audience) than it is given credit for. Given its goals, it executes them beautifully so far.

[noiseredux]

I'm actually really pleased with the attention MQ is getting this month. Always felt it was unfairly dismissed.

[crazythink4]

Reposted from the voting thread, where I mistakenly was waiting (I kept the topic open on my phone and never checked the TR topics).

As mentioned previously, I’m working through Chocobo Mystery Dungeon in Japanese. For comparisons sake, I played the heck out of Rogue on my 8088 and also played through the DS remake of Shiren the Wanderer and a bit of one of the Early Pokémon Mystery Dungeons.

The story is very light (which is sort of expected, and suits me fine since I’m a Japanese novice).

The most interesting mechanic is that they adapted ATB to battle. So, you have an action gauge that fills. The enemies only ever attack when their bar fills, but you can execute your attack at any time to do some partial damage (e.g. if your bar is 90% full, your attack will do 90% damage). This actually makes things fairly interesting (and easier) in that you can attack right before the enemy’s gauge fills to try to defeat them before they launch their own. If you cast a spell, however, you have to wait for your gauge to fill before it executed.

I’m around dungeon level 8 at the moment, so I haven’t gotten any of the advanced spells or events yet. You can encounter a box where you place two unwanted items in and get a random item out. Stoves can combine two similar types of equipment and output an enchanted version (at the cost of a fire spell to light the stove)

Death has a minor penalty of being sent back to the start and losing a level. I haven’t died yet, so I don’t know if you lose your items.

You do need to identify your scrolls, potions and equipment (unlike Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, thank god that made the game way too easy). You can find identify scrolls or pay someone in town to do it. A teleport card takes you back to town and you can unload some inventory (which is limited). If you return this way, you have the option of resuming the dungone on the level you left.

Overall, it’s a nice and gentle introduction to rogue-likes, not as hardcore as Shiren was. The story is silly, which suits me fine. I recommend it if it sounds interesting to you! (There are translation patches if you want.)

If I have more to add later, I’ll be sure to do so!

[nullPointer]

Lend me a hundred men that I might hunt the whoresons down!

^ Actual in-game dialog. I ... I think I love this game. 'Whoresons' might be my new favorite derogatory epithet. I mean ... it's either that or the new name for my grindcore band.

[alienjesus]

a few of the late game sidequests required very high levels that could only be achieved with grinding

Thanks for the warning. I have been beating every sidequest I come across, so we'll see how it goes. I did hit one sidequest where enemies were level 36 and I was only level 17, but I was able to beat that mission. The goal of the mission was to just mine one specific spot of ore, not to kill all enemies. But, that ore spot was smack dab in the middle of gobs of high level enemies. So I had my troops just haul ass to the ore spot and mine as quickly as possible. Most of them died. But one of my Sagittarius units pulled it off. Twas a bit of a Hamburger Hill moment.

In the scenarios I'm thinking of, I recall being about level 45-50 and the sidequests featuring level 90+ monsters.

[noiseredux]

about 8 hrs into Type-0 now, and I've just hit the 4th Chapter. I *think* this places me around the half-way mark, at least as far as the story goes. Maybe. I've been experimenting with odd combos of trios to get things done. I somehow managed to take down some mechs with a flutist. It... took a while. That said, the gameplay remains strong and the story remains... ouch. I try to watch the cut scenes as much as I can stand, but skipping them no longer makes me feel guilty. 'Okay, there's these different kingdoms feuding. Got it.' I could give you a long list of things that I find WRONG with this game, and yet it continues to be fun for me. There's a good chance I'll walk away from this wreckage an even stronger man.