A Look At Final Fantasy

It’s fun to watch the melt down over the FF series, like oh the last “real” FF was X or XII depending where they sit. Um no? FF was turn based we get that and it did turn based better than most. After all in the older generations every RPG was compared against FF.

Here’s the thing FF has always evolved, always changed, no two games were ever the same AND YES THATS A GOOD THING! You can play them in any order and not worry about lore and those before/after. Unless it’s addressed as being in the same world. X-2 for example, XIII-2 and XIII-3.

But some things have and always will remain consistent. Great characters, great worlds, and ALWAYS an engaging story! This is why FF and Square have the place they have. Sure they’ve made missteps, 13 was fairly linear, the lack of “open world” since XII has kinda been and adjustment.

So what do they have in common, the thread that makes them a Final Fantasy game? Story telling. Without doubt some of the very best. Final Fantasy was a great entry and for the time 1983, reset the direction a small developer was going, lets not forget Square were all but bankrupt before Final Fantasy turn the companies fortunes around. So it’s so it’s spun upward of 40 titles with the name Final Fantasy. 16 mainline entries and various spin offs.

The fact is Final Fantasy’s story telling has always remained top notch. They always draw you in and always make you want to play. I started my journey with Final Fantasy VII, back in 1999 (I was late to the PlayStation era).

I fell in love with the way they tell stories, and it’s the first game I played I can remember wanting to play again. This hadn’t happened since Zelda Link to the Past. I was a Sega boy through and through but I did enjoy Zelda. I borrowed my Uncles SNES so I could play it. But the way the world of FF7 draws you in is amazing. So much so I replayed it on the PS4 after it was re-released, I think this may be the only game I’ve bought on every platform.

So admittedly was very nervous for the Final Fantasy VII Remake, because it was admittedly my golden game. I was never worried about them changing the game play style, or how it looks. It was only ever gonna look better but the games heart, it’s story, that’s what I wanted them to protect. And they did and then made it better. I was not prepared for the ending!

But of course as time passes, stances will often soften, for example Final Fantasy X-2 was widely hated upon release yet now its a lovable nostalgia trip. I think the game that got most hate was Final Fantasy XIII for it’s step away from the traditional norms of Final Fantasy, it was a very linear progression, a relatively straight run through the game. Sure you could hop around but progression was very linear. I personally enjoyed the story from thirteen and love Lightening as a character. It also of course spun off twice with FFXIII – 2 and FFXIII – 3. The only Final Fantasy Trilogy I remember.

Of course then came the horridly troubled development of Final Fantasy XV and that sadly it does show, it feels like a road trip with a boy band but the writing was still great. My biggest gripe was no central female character, something traditionally Final fantasy has does and does better than any other franchise.

Speaking of troubled development was Final Fantasy XIV 1.0, the disaster was so bad they literally blew up the game world to begin again, and a couple of years later rose as Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. In my opinion the very best writing of any Final Fantasy game. A gamed that has only gotten better with every update over the last decade. I only really ever intended to play until I got the Platinum trophy, yea I’m still here a decade later!
If you haven’t played this why not? I’ve literally been playing for a decade and anyone reading this blog has been here every step of the way! I mean I started with the Beta of ARR. If you haven’t played it you have no excuse the first three expansions are FREE to play. It’s currently on PlayStation and PC, and will next year finally arrive on XBOX.

The latest arrival of course is Final Fantasy 16, first of all this is done by Creative Business Unit III, the same team responsible for Final Fantasy XIV. So I was never worried about this game. It’s writing is hammered, well OK maybe the side quests can be a little lack lustre the story itself is great. The game play is simple, maybe too simple if you use the rings, though switch to Final Fantasy Mode, believe me it comes a whole other game!
It’s still a fantastic game, I’ve loved every second though admittedly I’ll be glad to see the back of Final Fantasy Mode, I’ve had to work to survive this. The last thing I need to do for this now will be the new DLC and the final one in January.

So I guess the point of this is the Final Fantasy purists are kinda focused on the wrong things, instead of looking what’s different on the surface look at the heart of Final Fantasy’s it’s always about the journey our heroes take. Because that has ALWAYS been consistent, their story has always been the very heart of the games they create.

Devils Inc November Updates

So for those of you paying attention, here’s an updated look at my wrestling stuff, this is pretty much about 80% of my heavy arsenal of moves. So of the big high impact ones I use, and yes the guy I speared is OK! I also finally made my debut with UK Wrestling at our Hallowed Ground Event, a whole night of cage matches and even picked up a title along the way. Also took a fall off the cage but thats another story.

So mostly I’ve been focused on Final Fantasy XIV, with the expansion rapidly approaching I wanted to try and wrap a few things up. So as you can see, I have pushed MCH to level 50, making just 3 below 50 now. Only taken 6 or 7 years to get to that point alas here we are. I’ve picked up a couple more achievements in game and finished up with Relic and Bozjan, trust me I am glad to see the back of that place, though may end up farming crystals for the mount at some point.

The primary focus this week will be on getting a few more episodes of this done, and ready to go. Hopefully I can wrap up Season 1 and get to the end of the 2.0 scenario quests.

Gaming

So right now I’m back on an old friend, well yea sort of. I’ve been mainly playing Dark Souls 2, Scholar of the First Sin. Essentially a Directors cut of Dark Souls 2 for the PS4. Got to say though I’m both impressed and kind of confused.

It’s been a pretty fun play though most of the game coming back by instinct and memory, which makes it fun, but what makes it really fun is the changes, they have added in some new enemies as well as moved some around, this makes the fact that even though I’ve done the game, the not really knowing part is what makes this run fun.

Though at times I’ve made a royal mess of things. Just look at the video below as proof, it really did all go wrong there!

I do love the Souls series though, it makes me look forward to the third and final instalment of the series. So after just 3 days I’ve taken out a good portion of the game, cutting through most of the bosses with a practised ease, they also seem to have added a bunch of new NPC’s to help with those fights so that helped a whole bunch too.

And as ever I’ve just moved to 180 days on Final Fantasy XIV, which means 6 months of play! Probably the longest I’ve committed to a paid product ever! Of course it sucks right now I don’t have access to Heavensward but hopefully for my birthday I can convince my wife to part with the cash for it!

Of course I’ve done a little more work since this but mostly with crafting classes, while I’ve given up on forcing the Plat for this game, I have not given up on getting it. Right now I’m working on the 1000 Levequests trophy which is taking some time, at last guess I was around 800 done, and as you only get 3 every 12 hours I’m having to let the counter clock up a little before cashing them in.

But on the upside at least the T5 trophy is done, allowing me to focus on just getting the rest done. Once the Levequest one is done I can focus on the FATE trophy and intend to combine it with Alexandrite farming getting two tasks done with one job. That will then just leave the 100 materia trophy to do, which again as I farm toward the alexandrite and next relic weapon upgrade I can just fix cheap materia to completely souled gear. So everything with that is hand hopefully another month and the Plat will be taken care of. That will then allow me to just play.

Boredom Does Funny Things

So since getting my PS4 I have very uncharacteristically bounce from one game to another, finding myself at a loss to settle down to just one game. I have however found myself enjoying the games I’m plugging away at, especially enjoyed my jaunt through Infamous First Light, a franchise which I believe has gone from strength to strength over the years.

As ever I am still plugging away at Watchdogs, which has been a great game all around, in my opinion it’s more fun than Grand Theft Auto which I kinda feel has gone stale over the last couple of iterations, I always preferred Red Dead Redemption and look forward to the second in the series, assuming of course they work their magic on it once more.

I have also picked up the PS4 copy of Resident Evil Revelations 2, while I already own the full game on the PS3 I want to work through it so I have the PS4 version as well save me having to keep jumping back to the PS3 version every time I get the itch to play, this also gave me the opportunity to do a “Let’s Play” style video for episode 1 which was real fun.

It will get you through but it wont get you all the collectibles, I prefer to work on the game and start to finish before going back for collectibles a system I have employed on every Resident Evil game so far. I have also done a couple fo these playing through the Raid Mode as well which is still as impressive as ever.

So lastly last night as it happens I downloaded the Free Trial of Final Fantasy XIV (namely because I love the game and miss it and my PS3 subscription expired last week) while I am unable to play my own character on here I thought I’d have a laugh and create a new character on a new server and just do some play by play videos, the trial is capped in many ways so it’s not like I’ll do much damage in a short space anyway, it also gave me a chance to see the Limsa introduction which I have never actually seen.

I know my colour co-ordination is still as horrible as ever, but I go for stats not look, plus still don’t have the ability to dye clothes as yet, also fairly sure that’s a higher level than 20.

It also gave me the opportunity to play a class I don’t regularly use, the Arcanist, I stay away from magic classes as a rule based on the fact that they can’t cast and move which can lead to horrible issues during an enemy AoE attack. But it’s a play and a test so not really any consequence of making a complete mess of this play through. Hopefully next week I’ll return to my fully powered character and then I will begin building out other classes and finishing up my gear for Aerian.

So that’s where I stand today hopefully in the next week or so I can focus down on one game rather than several, though I must admit from a Trophy Hunter stand point it has been quite good overall, I’ve netted around trophies in just one week.

Return to Eorzea

So I have been toying with Final Fantasy XIV ever since I played the beta last year, which is just me saying I want it but don’t have the cash for the monthly subscription, still I happened to find it in a hell of a deal and a 30 day trial is plenty of time to work out my next move.

I have to say it still looks as good as it did when I had the beta still as beautifully crafted as it was back then, I decided to start from scratch, namely because I couldn’t remember what I had or hadn’t done with my beta character.

The one thing I noticed on return was the sheer update in content I’ve done half a dozen quests I don’t remember doing in the beta version, they also fixed the duty finder which is awesome. For the moment I will stay away for PvP or PvE events for now. I want to get levelled up and have a decent DPS rater before I start running at high queue events.

So I picked Archer class for now, I’m kinda a friend to bow characters right now, just check back to my Skyrim days as proof. I’ll level nicely hitting level 10 in around 6 hours, pretty sure that’s been rebalanced as I remember levelling really quickly in the beta. Though I seem to have far more quests on right now than ever before, somewhere around 12 quests on the go right now!!

I used an old name of course so if you see Aerian Elcarus wandering around feel free to say hi! The community is still as friendly as ever but that tends to happen with Pay2Play games, it also means that content development is much more fluid and quicker, I can also buy my own house I look forward to that opportunity.

So right now I’m happy I’m enjoying myself and learning what’s altered since the beta a year ago. And of course see how well I do as an Archer. And then locking into those pesky trophies!! Lets face you all know I’m gonna that Plat if I can!!

Star Trek Online – Lesson Learned

Hmm as you guys know I recently returned to playing Star Trek Online, namely because they plan to bring the game to console later this year and also the release of the Romulan crew member. And of course to get my hands on my personal favourite Star Trek ship, the D’Deridex class warbird. Sadly that’s where my fun ends, the Warbird all be it impressive is seriously slow. As I said while impressive it’s lack of speed makes heavy combat situations very difficult.

So with this in mind I clawed my way to level 40 allowing me to finally move away from the warbird to a bigger faster battle cruiser. Of course the worst part is I was warned away from the D’Deridex quite a while ago but chose to go this route anyways. As the title suggests lesson learnt.

In terms of the rest of the game I’m at level 24 with my Klingon campaign this will be next to push through to level 40 and the top tier ships.

Since the recent Season 9 update I haven’t played much of the new material, the reason been I’m trying to clear up the older stuff, I about 2 seasons through the campaign in Starfleet, but on the upside I’ve hit 25,000 dilithium, if I chose  could finally get a another ship, I believe I still have 1 slot left.
It really does take patience to play this game at times, and my Starfleet fleet (The School of Hard Knocks) is a mere shell of a fleet. I wouldn’t leave though as I practically help found it. Loyalty to my fleet is the one thing that keeps me sane at night, but I have plans and these plans will take time to execute.

Next up will be levelling up my Klingon officer to level 40 and hopefully a nice Vorcha class Battle Cruiser.

And who knows maybe we’ll finally get that level cap upgrade we’re all so eager for. Cryptic do a fantastic job of keeping the content fresh and fun, you meet assholes along the way but that’s the MMO world in general. Of course STO isn’t the only MMORPG I play, I have jaunted into the Neverwinter game, which doesn’t do a bad job of capturing the heart and soul of NWN, and of course I have been playing both OGame and Bitefight for many years. So back to the grind as it were at least until I finally get my hands on Final Fantasy X HD!!

Been A While

So I haven’t posted since December, that’s not like me at all, to be honest I’ve been a little side tracked with the Prototype for How Long … ? And the new site for Devils Inc Studios.

But gaming wise I’ve started Assassins Creed III and Borderlands 2, so coupled with Dragons Dogma most of my gaming time is spent there. Hopefully one of them will yield a Platinum trophy. In the wings I have Bioshock Infinite and Metro last Light as well as a few of my PS+ subscription I haven’t even looked at. Star Ocean is also in that mix as well as it will work out well as a long term project.

In terms of my games for 2014 I’m waiting to get my hands on Final Fintasy XIII-3 (Yes I’m aware it’s released I just don’t have the cash right now!) Then of course the Final Fantasy X & X2 HD remakes. And at some point a Dark Souls 2 so all in all it should be a good year for Plats for me.

I will of course savour my Final Fantasy X play through one of my all time favourite games of any era. Yuna and Lulu are among two of my favourite characters. Aerith, Rinoa, Irvine, Eiko Carol, just to name the ones I can remember off hand always believed those characters were very well done.

I also hope they do the Final Fantasy XII remakes as well another game I thought was truly underrated. But then from the beginning in my heart Final Fantasy has been a world apart it’s easy to see why I hold Square as the top of the gaming industry.

Anyway if your curious here is my current standings with PSNProfiles as to my gaming credits as they stand right now. My gaming goals for this year are a minimum of at least 4 Plats (preferably more than the 6 of last year but lets not get too optimistic eh?) And of course break 3000 trophies overall, which shouldn’t be too hard really.

Gaming Right Now

It’s been a bit since I wrote and I want to keep this blog rolling so I figured I’d give my fans a good update on what I’m currently upto.

So at this point I’m caught between I think 4 games right now, I have recently tied up the online bits for Hitman Absolution and Assassins Creed III, this will allow me to chase the plats at my own speed when I’m ready.

I’ve also been partial to Capcoms Dragons Dogma which I bought a few months ago and was happily cutting through then I was side tracked with another project. Then I got Dark Arisen from PS+ free this month so have been back with that, another Platinum project.

My Arisen Aerian and my Pawn Torie are quite the combination between them, and this is one of only two games I haven’t gone the Mage first route. The second of course been Skyrim. I seem to be a fan of archer as a skill atm. Goes to show how my gaming style has evolved over the last couple of years.

Yesterday I finally got to play a game that’s had my eye since it’s release Far Cry 3, I’m a fan of the Far Cry series though I haven’t played them I have always taken to online play through vids, admittedly a couple of years ago I wasn’t a big fan of FPS but Dead Island has changed that view somewhat recently.

Got to say I really am enjoying it and hopefully that will be another plat to add to the collection as well. And then of course I still am cutting through Professional Runs of Resident Evil 6 as I hunt down the plat for that which I hope to be done by the end of 2013.

These are of course my latest stats of today and not including todays Chapter, I find professional run takes a lot of you mentally so am tackling it one Chapter a day as best I can, I have tied up Pro runs for Leon and Ada, so that leaves Chris which I’ve done Chapter of and Jake which will be the final story I have to do for the Professional. I battled through Resident Evil 5 with human help, I feel it’s much more sensible than relying on the games AI which can be sketchy at best.

This will definitely be platinum by the end of the year and then I will work through the other titles. My game completion lists for the year sits at 13 I think so been a good year over all.

Premier Manager

So another of my all time favourite games and another that took huge chunks of my young life, Premier Manager and by that I dont mean the supremely complex version that exists in todays games empire but the plain old Premier Manager back in the early 90’s.

It’s aim was to see if you had the ability to start your career in the Conference and over time make your way to the Premier League, most do this by jumping from club to club I always wanted to see if I could take a Conference Club all the way to the top.

I never made it back then but it hasn’t stopped me from trying, I start usually at a team such as Wycome Wanderers and then go from there. My aim in the first year is to finish mid table and in profit over the whole year, this time round I managed both these goals all be it the profit coming from the Play-Offs which is fine.

The better aspects of this game over say Championship Manager were the more immersive elements of the financial element, it’s possible to take out a loan, improve on your stadium and manage your teams sponsorship. Of course you also deal with training and ensuring your team are fit and healthy. Even though still very simple it has much more immersion as a full package for a manger game.

I know the whole Play-Off final brought me the biggest chunk of my finance all year but it was a couple of late purchases to replace lost players that caused the need for the expenditure. It’s all fine though I achieved my personal aims.

So for the second season I aim for promotion. Hopefully I can avoid any major injuries and replace players effectively and cheaply should the need arise.

Skyrim – Character Progression

So in my original Skyrim based post I gave my stats at the ones below

[ Destruction – 22 ] [ Restoration – 30 ] [ Alteration – 18 ]
[ Enchanting – 25 ] [ Smithing – 30 ] [ Heavy Armor – 35 ]
[ Block – 33 ] [ Two-Handed – 97 ] [ One-Handed – 47 ]
[ Archery – 50 ] [ Light Armor – 77 ] [ Sneak – 35 ]
[ Lockpicking – 62 ] [ Pickpocket – 24 ] [ Speech – 37 ]
[ Alchemy – 18 ] [ Illusion – 21 ] [ Cunjuration – 18 ]

[ Level – 31 ] [ Magicka – 160 ] [ Health – 290 ] [ Stamina – 240 ]

This was level 31 and relatively well-balanced for what I was doing, however when I originally got Skyrim it was on a rental so I had to hammer the main story to try to get done, sadly my Lovefilm subscription expired and I was forced to send it back, this wasn’t as bad as I was able to buy it for myself a few weeks later and after playing for about another 20 hours my stats as below. Numbers inside brackets are increases from the previous stats.

[ Destruction – 23 [^1] ] [ Restoration – 30 ] [ Alteration – 18 ]
[ Enchanting – 35 [^10] ] [ Smithing – 37 [^7] ] [ Heavy Armor – 35 ]
[ Block – 34 [^1] ] [ Two-Handed – 100 [^3] ] [ One-Handed – 54 [^7] ]
[ Archery – 51 [^1] ] [ Light Armor – 82 [^5] ] [ Sneak – 38 [^3] ]
[ Lockpicking – 65 [^1]  ] [ Pickpocket – 30 [^6] ] [ Speech – 38 [^1] ]
[ Alchemy – 18 ] [ Illusion – 21 ] [ Cunjuration – 19 [^1] ]

[ Level – 34 ] [ Magicka – 170 ] [ Health – 300 ] [ Stamina – 270 ]

So really no major changes except the dramatic increase in one-handed and enchanting, this is because I need to create a Fire resistant Armour set to finish up a quest. I have got most of the Enchanting Skill up by taking apart Enchanted Items. Also my smithing has gone up nicely to allow me to aim toward the Arcane Smithing stat. The reason my smithing has risen is courtesy of the Heartfire Add-on which I strongly recommend.

Since getting the game back and buying the Heartfire Add-on my play style has altered somewhat from my original style, where I favoured the Honed Ancient Nord Sword I now tend to favour the Mace of Malog Bal and a Dwarven Shield. This doesn’t always work so I quick to switch back to my two-handed Ancient sword if I start to take serious damage. I have also found Sneaking and my Ebony Bow can be an effective pre-emptive attack as well. A sneak attack will do 2x the regular if successful. 

My ultimate aim with this game is the Platinum trophy which I know is possible, I am simply picking a trophy and working relentlessly toward that end. This I feel si the most effective way of doing it. Currently I’ve done 38% of the trophies.