After fourteen years of on-and-off play, I finally beat Final Fantasy Tactics last night

Kinda wondered if i was gonna wake up this morning or not

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzIOO065L4k

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v136/primrosehill/Wedge_C.jpg

such a great fukken game despite its flaws

now you need to try a single class challenge

actually, i threw in ogre battle like immediately

seriously though, i've been playing this game for FOURTEEN YEARS
i could've raised a child instead

lol ogre battle...

xmas of the year this came out i spent abt three days holed up at my mom's house doing nothing but ordering take out & playing this game. i only left the house to take the dog for a run twice a day & spoke to no1 but delivery men. i think i ended up getting all the way to chapter four but failed to level the right job classes & couldnt get past one of the minor story battles - maybe the one on a hill w/ all the thieves/ninjas? idk

ogre battle is next to impossible

my second (third?) time through with final fantasy tactics, i spent pretty much a whole summer leveling in a dark room with stankonia and soul food playing in the background
i don't know why i never tried playing with the sword tactic special player one hit kill guys. that shit powered me to the end of the game in no time

it's the worst when you play these kind of games and after twenty three hours you realize you've been doing it wrong and you can either start over or commit to twelve hours of single player grinding and you end up putting them away with tears in yer widdle eyes

yeah my first run through the game i quit in frustration because i realized putting all those job points into chemist & archer werent really paying off. also i had thought that i might need to beat the game in as few days as i could [via ogre battle lol!] so i only fought random battles if they happened while i was moving btw story battles and i was p low levelled

you playing the old ogre battle or the new psp tactics ogre? the new one is totes beatable, i did it!

psp

Congrats man! I never reached that undiscovered country of completing FFT, despite trying so many times over so many years, kudos.

snes ogre battle is beatable but i tried playing a 'perfect game' three or so years ago & even using an faq it is p much impossible

Never got more than 5 maps into Ogre Battle myself

haha i totally feel you on this one forks. i spent years revisiting this w/o ever beating it until a year or two ago. despite that i considered it the greatest game ever for a considerable amount of time.

ive been playing ogre battle: march of the black queen recently - its pretty weird

tbf, what i'm taking on is not ogre battle (which i played about five levels of in japanese on my thai roommates disk-playing snes in college) but the new psp tactics ogre which appears to be a really cleaned up, story heavy step ahead from FFT

fftactics is like top five or ten all time game for me.

btw "that shit powered me to the end of the game in no time" means i logged 57 hours on this particular go round.
i would say, conservatively, that i've logged around a total of 180 hours on FFT

for people playing this game: ignore the archer class. totally useless.
never did figure out what the hell an onion knight was.

I'd congratulate you on achieving this epic milestone but I haven't yet forgiven you for mistaking me for LJ.

when did i do that? it woulda been in jest.

FFT is a top 3 game for me, though I haven't played it in years. You know you love a game when you genuinely enjoy the menu/map music

sad true story: i still have a save file where i used the level up/level down trick to create a 'perfect' character. that alone probably took me like 30 hours...

best class: one of the special knight classes or ninja
worst class: yeah probably archer although bard/dancer are p shitty
most underrated class in the game: oracle
favourite class: time mage. i like their hats

the music is all time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzFooLMKYn0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUSPiYngFWg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f49JZ9v79iM

i'm pretty impressed that you made a "perfect" character; i tried several times and hit the leveling wall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9Ukp3fKEnc
lol nerds:
This moment of the game couldn't help but atleast crack you a bit. the music hits you showing that they are going through a traumatic time and they have no other feeling but sadness, anger, or regret. Malakk and rafa, Miluda and Weigraff. Those are just simply the types that you know have a relationship that shouldn't break so easily.
Polomance862 3 months ago

My heart burns and my eyes cry.I have no command over them when I listen to this music.Something mystical very sad is embedded in this music.
ne0eagle 4 months ago 2

Very True it is sad but their is so much beauty
Garnets42 5 months ago 2

How did they do it, capture such sadness into one song!? Genius, pure genius!
ReticentIndignation 5 months ago 2

Very True

worst class: yeah probably archer although bard/dancer are p shitty

'team of bards/dancers' can be a very fun way to power through random encounters

i wish this had a New Game+ so i could play it again without putting hundreds of hours into perfecting all my dudes again

back when there was a psn this was on it, right? assuming it comes back, will this stand up without the support of nostalgia? i have always been intrigued.

as a game it's unbelievably broken, but still somehow really fun - i dont know how it manages that. idk if the psn version retains the awful old localization, but it was pretty famous for being poorly translated back in the day (and again, somehow its still fascinating & awesome).

psp version is WONDERFULLY translated, brilliantly localized and actually makes the story sorta worth following!

quite frankly, you can get the psp for 120 and fftpsp for 15 bucks used; figure like three bucks an hour for what you put into it. totally worth it.

'team of bards/dancers' can be a very fun way to power through random encounters

i remember finding them ok @ controlling the flow of a battle (really one of the most impt things in fft) but tedious to use, mostly. why did you like using them?

rs - its a good game. i think part of what makes so many ppl love it is that i did come along when most na gamers were starved for sprgs so it seemed for unique/good than it actually was, but its still a really great game. its broken but also deep & it offers a variety of challenges for both an xp'd and a novice. also i do think it was one of the best rpg stories of any game of its era imo

playing it as a "walking around" game changes the grinding considerably btw.
when you turn off the psp, it's like you've paused the game. turning it back on resumes immediately right where you were, so there's no real issue with grabbing five minute play sessions. that innovation alone made this playthrough much more fun than some past grinds.

haha its p sad how happy i am to be talking abt fft!!! i have to exert real willpower to avoid a v long post abt how great the oracle classs is & what the best passive abilities are...

i ended up levelling everybody's chemist all the way early and then always making item the secondary skill so everybody can phoenix down or remedy or whatever
then lifefont for movement and instapotion and then got rid of all potions but xpotions so guys are basically healing full after every hit.
levelled everybody up all the way through black mage, geomancer, monk, most of them through geomancer

u r among like souls lamp, let it out........

please make the big oracle post lamp

also i do think it was one of the best rpg stories of any game of its era imo

― Lamp, Friday, May 13, 2011 1:01 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark

story-wise i dont think any RPG has ever hit all the right notes for me like this one did

maybe Deus Ex or the first Fallout - certainly no other JRPG

i remember finding them ok @ controlling the flow of a battle (really one of the most impt things in fft) but tedious to use, mostly. why did you like using them?

i just found it funny that you could basically leave a battle on autopilot thanks to them - there were also a few funny times where i ended up barely scraping through a tough battle because i had a dancer tucked in a corner doing the HP damage dance or the random status dance

this shit right here is my jam forever
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGdeHJKicmc

This song is just too beautiful. Makes me think of drizzle gently falling on green fields, while kid-looking humans and magical creatures fight for survival.
tribilyan 1 year ago 26
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Imagine living in the ff tactics world. I would be a no nonsense rogue knight who wants to beat the crap out of the royal families and nobles with badass music
WillC 5 months ago

this is my jam:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azKaZUfPOJ4

haha lol @ me. the thing about oracles is that they have the best melee stats of the mage classes (iirc?) & their status-altering abilities are probably the most useful @ controlling the flow of battle & at isloating and sidelining enemies so you can stat-boost/jp milk/steal items/learn spells w/e reason you might want to prolong & manipulate an encounter.

also the combo of praise/doubt faith always you to mitigate the low base success rate of your more powerful spells, minor spells like blind & sleep are both long-lasting & effective, most of your powerful equipment can be stolen/obtained from drops early & you have a v useful built-in MP recovery system in both the drain spells & move MP up.

obv a time mage w/ math skill secondary & good spell book can break the game so hard but taking the time to master calculator is boring. in the same way you can build ninja/monk characters that are basically unbeatable but they have a hard time controlling the battle if you want to do anything other than win. oracles are both easy to master & versatile to use making them the best support class & one of the most interesting & fun to use imo

mediator's better b/c the sleep spell is called "Mimic Daravon"

the most obscure of in-geek nerd jokes

never did figure out what the hell an onion knight was.

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110109162822/finalfantasy/images/1/1a/FF3-NES-OnionKnight.PNG

thought for just a sec that surfing was LJ

― And thusly create the illusion of babby (forksclovetofu), Friday, 29 April 2011 13:00 (2 weeks ago)

ha!

did they rename mime onion knight in the psp port? or squire?

*crosses arms* the oracle's sleep spell has a better range & success rate

fwiw, i lost nobody on my team on my last playthru
i never ever lose team members when i play; i'll reset the game if somebody dies
i'm normally not like that with games but FFTactics brings out the motherhen squad commander in me

You can install TO to memory from disk? How many games have this functionality?

It's the first I've seen... oddly this feature is arriving at the very end of the PSP's life. Took up practically all the free space on my memory card, but like I said above, the game runs smoooooth.

yeah i chose chemist cuz its a class i hadnt really used them much in any of my previous playthroughs & hadnt thought much abt how best to use them. even w/ the terrible stat grown i still have yet to lose a battle

you can install with Valkyria

in fact you have to

picked up TO used from Gamestop. Complicated.

Has gotten me to play Jeanne D'Arc again, a game I got the day I bought this thing just b/c Level-5 worked on it.

fft coming out for iphone/ipod tooch

uhoh

WHY CANT WE JUST HAVE A NEW TRPG MASTERPIECE I MEAN THIS ONES GOOD BUT I HAVE PLAYED IT A BUNCH OF TIMES MAKE A GAME THATS BASICALLY THE SAME BUT DIFFERENT ENOUGH SO THAT ITS NOT LITERALLY THE SAME PLZ DR SQUARE

Sincerely,

Will M.

But I just got this emulated on my handheld

Will otm

What about Disgaea? That seemed to get a lotta hype

Ok, the iphone version's out. I've never played any version of this before. I should buy it, right? I mean, I keep going into the app store, and hovering over the buy button, but...£10.99 feels so steep for such an old game.

the reviews have not been kind; apparently it's a very sloppy port.

Huh. Ok, at the very least I'll wait for a sale then.

this is one of my favourite threads

is level 49 about right for your main character at the beginning of chapter three?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTbtl8_5agM

that's definitely a thing that someone did

4 more years

there are so many great little details about this game that dont ever end up mattering at all

anyway i am playing this game again and really enjoying it, theres just so much stuff and somehow most of the battles are genuinely interesting to fight despite my having put like thousands of hours of my life into playing this game and understanding how it works

shocked they haven't made an FFT2 yet.

favourite class: time mage. i like their hats

this comment traveled thru time from 3 years ago to be super OTM right now

i missed this thread :)

Haste and Slow opened my eyes to the idea of "power scaling" in gaming in general. As an 18- or 19-year old I expected each successive class unlock to present progressively bloodier and higher-damage skill and spell options. It felt like Time Mage took ages to unlock and was kind of pathetic,

it was only much later when I realized that there's a reason they don't give you Time Mage right away and make you work for it.

secret hunt is the most busted ability in the game?

shocked they haven't made an FFT2 yet.

they have! but they're for GBA/DS. i played the first one (Final Fantasy Tactics Advance) and it's fun but suffers in comparison to the original. they added a Judge system which is sometimes fun but mostly annoying. and the story (disclosure: i only played through about 12 hours or so) was pretty mediocre.

oh, duh, i'm sure you know about those. i guess you mean a sequel that takes place during the Lion War and isn't about daydreaming schoolchildren?

i liked the first ds fft but it doesnt have the same depth as the psx game

rn i am fighting the urge to manage my level advancement to maximize stat growth because i really dont want to fall down that rabbithole

i thought the setup of the gba one was really affecting

it sort of felt arbitrary and failed to compel once it got to landmarks on maps, though, a bit like legend of mana

yeah, i tried ffta and it's not really much of a game. but maybe i should go back to it?

1997 Developer Interview, originally featured in Famicon Tsuushin magazine, newly translated:

http://shmuplations.com/fft/

nice
i should play disgaea

disgaea is extremely anime voice but the way it encourages experimentation and exploits is sui generis and great. i haven't played since the PS2 but i've heard the recent PC port isn't great.

hmmmm
https://noisypixel.net/fae-tactics-switch-pc-spring-2020/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2OcmU-KV-I

also the tactics ost is on spotify now so i'm playing that

Given that the remaster is coming out, how is the localization? I'm way of media translated from Japanese because they tend to be stilted in a way that makes me irrationally angry.

remaster has a new translation, so can't answer that yet

tbh I can't remember the last time I played a Japanese game and thought the translation was particularly stilted... localization has come a long way!

I’m intrigued by the new version but have to prove to myself I can make time to beat the new DQ7 first.

I played this for a few hours last night. Did the first few story missions and did a little grinding. It turns out the dialogue *is* stilted, but in a faux-Shakespearean medieval fantasy way, rather than a "poorly translated" way. I suppose it suits the setting.

I've never played the original and I'm something of a tactics RPG neophyte.
Trying not to be overwhelmed with how much *stuff* there is to get to grips with.

There is so much stuff

yeah I don't want to besmirch what is widely recognized as a classic, but it feels a little over-designed, perhaps? this may just be my taste in gaming tends toward minimalism. like, one of my all-time favorites is Into the Breach, which is kind of a minimalist take on this sort of thing.

Into The Breach is closer to a puzzle game isn’t it? FFT is more of a free-for-all where you can surround your hero with nothing but Dancers and see wtf happens.

Still in Chapter 1, slowly getting to grips with this. I think I understand the job system. A question for seasoned players: how many units should I be aiming to have in my roster? I can see you can have up to 50, but I've so far recruited just 8, and I'm really only focusing on 6 of them. Given that new recruits are always level 1 Squires/Chemists, it seems like the game expects me to do a *lot* of grinding to build up a healthy roster. Does that change later? Will I be able to recruit e.g. a level 5 Black Mage to have on hand in case my current guy eats it?

Not a seasoned player at all, but I think 6 is fine because you'll be spreading the xp too thin with more, and also there are named characters who join later who will bench many of them anyway

AFAIK you still have to level new guys to unlock the jobs you want to give them, but there is a shared pool of spillover JP that gives everyone a small headstart in the job (like you will usually have a small pile of free JP in Squire with everyone because you'll have a few people adding to the pool by doing that job; this can be useful for non-squires to dip into to buy universally useful skills like Focus or JP Boost)

I think if an important character bleeds out you just kinda reload and do better unless you're really determined to be hardcore

There are also various weird gamey ways to level up quicker like mostly clearing out an easy map then spamming focus, or throwing stones at each other/a chocobo

reading the tips here closely. i think i'll get the remake and hopefully finally beat this game after like 30 years

I think if an important character bleeds out you just kinda reload and do better unless you're really determined to be hardcore

There are also various weird gamey ways to level up quicker like mostly clearing out an easy map then spamming focus, or throwing stones at each other/a chocobo

it's been a long time since i played but ^^yes on both of those. there's a mid-game point where you'll probably be grinding for a bit (in a nice way, usually it's because you want to check out a new job class or ability or something and you need a couple more job levels to get there), and those battles are kinda silly because you can kill everyone except for one enemy, put them to sleep (or wherever), and then have your whole team fight itself, heal itself, focus, buff, debuff, whatever, because you get exp points for most things you do in battle, including fighting yourself

I wish Square Enix didn't insist on using this serif font for things like FFT and Dragon Quest - it's nearly unreadable when I try to play on my (not very large) TV unless I sit up close. Maybe I should start over in Classic mode and see if it's any better

I think if an important character bleeds out you just kinda reload and do better unless you're really determined to be hardcore

failed to follow my own advice here. had a 1hr50 long play session where I did one of the three-part story/boss battles at the end of it, then had the sudden, horrible Home Alone-like realisation that Johannes was nowhere to be seen

turned out he had bled out in a minor, low-threat skirmish in Siedge Weald two hours prior without me noticing, and I'd overwritten all the save files

RIP Johannes, you were a passable monk and I hope that you at least died from like a chocobo bite or something and not me getting one of your friends to hit you for the XP and then not noticing you'd died