Title pretty much says it all. I've been interested in getting into the series and X sounds like the best one from reviews.
What do I need to know about backstory or whatever to get into this series quickly?
Title pretty much says it all. I've been interested in getting into the series and X sounds like the best one from reviews.
What do I need to know about backstory or whatever to get into this series quickly?
Well, most Final Fantasy games have their own storyline...except this game and it's sequel, FFX-2(which is not FFXII).
As long as you pay attention, the story should flow for you.
Make sure you explore everywhere, even if you don't need to go there.
I think you'll have fun.
Also, there are many subtle references to the other games that you won't get if you haven't played the other games(such as reused names and whatnot)...but don't worry, they're not essential.
Also, I do think this is the best FF game(even though FF7 is very close). It's where my original screenname is derived from.
This and Final Fantasy VII were my 2 favorite final fantasy's and it is hard for me to pick which I like more. Final Fantasy X is excellent, just start the game and get into it, there is no background info you should know from any other final fantasy's or anything. Pay attention to the game, make sure you understand the sphere grid fully and enjoy this game is the shit.
I think you got jewed. That game came out like 5 years ago. It is however an awesome game, and I have never beaten it. Fucking Seymour Mortichai or whatever his name is always kills me. Always.
Haven't you heard, we're in a recession. And Santa is not real.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shinysides
(also, I got LittleBigPlanet as well)
Ive been playing LBP for the past 16 hours, with no end in sight.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick Scarf
Add RickScarf to your friends list, I'll be playing it a lot tonight after the wife goes to bed here in a few hours.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shinysides
Alrighty, tag is DiverDan7234 or Manjews depending on who's playing.
FFX is an excellent game. Again, it is it's own unique plot contained in a unique world. Do you have the US or PAL edition? As the PAL has some bonus content if I am correct in thinking. FFX offers the chance to really uber your characters and the PAL version offers super bosses to match your potential prowess. FFVII/FFXIII let you stat max also but it was far more constrained and tedius than in FFX.
This is a game worthy of 2 play throughs. Once just to beat the game and then a second to do the additional stuff which can really extend the life of the game. If you are stuck at all, don't hesitate to ask as I fucking love talking about FFX lol.
Here are some tips:
-As you can switch characters in fight, make sure all your characters make an appearance. In order to get SP, you must use an action turn (displayed on the right of the screen). Just hit triangle if they cannot do much damage, then come their next turn, replace them so everyone gets SP.
-Overkill increases the SP earned (I think by double) so it is best to start a fight with a weaker set of characters, use a turn then switch them with a high hitter to increase your chance of getting as many overkills as possible.
-As soon as you get the overdrive mode which charges your overdrive when you deal damage, set it as the mode of the specific character. I believe it is warrior. For your overdrive bar to charge, it depends on what mode is selected. I believe all start with stoic which charges is when you take damage. However you deal alot more than you take, so this charges your overdrive faster.
-Tidus learns his overdrives based on the number of times he uses his current one. So use his as soon as it charges, you will learn his more powerful ones much faster. For the others, save them. It is better to keep them for boss fights so you can unload them, only use Tidus's one when his bar is charged and make sure he learns overdrive mode warrior (I think that is its name, charges it when dealing damage).
-When you enter a new area, I always find spend at least 30 mins-1 hour grinding. Once you can kill all mobs, with overkills with relative speed and ease, continue on your way.
-With regards to boss fights, many have their own overdrive bars. Yuna's Aeons are your meatshields for these, ensure you summon one before they can use them and have it take the hit. If you have an Aeon's overdrive bar fully charged (easy to do) and Yuna's also, you can rand summon one, use its overdrive then once it gets another turn you can use it again, so added damage.
-Maybe not for your first time, but on a second play through GET ALL THE DESTRUCTION SPHERES from the temples. For maxing out your character stats it makes life much easier.
Once you beat the game as Meg Ryan you unlock Tom Hanks as a playable character.
You need to know that you should check out FFVII after you beat X if you happen to like it. Though if you can't find that, then you can get FFVI (FFIII in America) much easier, and it also happens to be the favorite of many who have actually beaten it.
FFVII is easily my very favorite though. Not only because it has such amazing music (as do all the final fantasy games I've played, though VII takes the cake), but because it has so much mystery and intrigue even after you've beaten it. Though it's not the bad kind where you are like "why didn't they explain that?" It's the kind of conspiracy-theory feeling when you actually believe it may be true and that you are onto something that very few others know about. That probably sounds ridiculous, but FFVII should not be overlooked. FF7 Citadel (a website) has many cool things about the game that you don't even realize when you're playing, but that make a second play-through all the more engaging. Going there beforehand though would be a gigantic mistake as there is a massive spoiler that is hard to avoid when looking at anything about the game.
Good luck with X, let us know how it went and what you thought of it.
The only problem with getting FFVII is that it costs so fucking much nowadays.Quote:
Originally Posted by UnreasonablyReasonable
Well right now apparently the (used) disc is unreadable by the PS2 (it looks fine but is scratched I guess) so I will be swapping it out tomorrow :(
Or you can get it pretty easily for free...Quote:
Originally Posted by Pepsi
I prefer Authentic...you know...PS1 with the discs and old school controller.Quote:
Originally Posted by Killuminati
Yea but there are too many discs to keep track of for me and they get scratched so easily. Plus on PC you can hook up a 360 controller and have better graphics and such than ever existed on ps1.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pepsi
It's all about authenticity bro.Quote:
Originally Posted by Killuminati
And anyone with a third of a brain can keep track of three discs.
I have FF7,8 and 9, but cannot play them due to my TV, the discs play at the wrong frequency (I think) so the image is all messed up and flickers.
Rick, get another copy. Don't give up on FFX, it is in my opinion one of the best RPG's you can get for consoles.
I never had a Playstation so I bought it for the PC when it came out and it lost nothing for me (as you can see from my earlier post). I'm also told the music is the only difference, but that can be made to be identical to the Playstation version as well with the help of a transformation guide I saw. The music it comes with is the same anyway just in MIDI format, so depending on what you play it on it actually can sound better than the Playstation version.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pepsi
Got a working copy today, put in an hour or so on it (I gave it a break when I got to the ship with that weird group of people). Pretty fun so far :allecto:Quote:
Originally Posted by gismo
vvvvvvv yeah I got the first one, and saw the two blue orbs (one I couldn't understand, written in al bhed, and the other was to load any existing dictionaries which of course I didn't have) when you first start out swimming. I'm the type of person that explores every nook and cranny so I'll be sure to keep an eye out for them.
The beginning is a bit slow. It always annoyed me when I would start the game over. Speaking of that weird group of people (al bheds) make sure you try and collect as many of the al bhed dictionary things you can (the first one is on the ship you just went on). They can be pretty useful.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick Scarf
Before you got onto the ship, did you get the moon crest(or sigil, cannot remember)? Basically each char has an ultimate weapon, but it is crap, you need its corresponding sigil and crest to unlock it. In most FF games, the most hp you can get is 9999 and the max dmg in 1 hit is usually 9999, but in X you can ad another 9 to that, ultimate weapons allow you to do 99,999 damage. It is awesome when you first start to hit that kind of damage.
Keep mind those tips I listed, some will help you big time. You know, I am considering wiring up my Ps2 and playing FFX again. Completed it a million times, each time I play it through it still feels awesome.
No I didn't see/get that :(
Also, in case anyone else sees this thread and is thinking of trying out (or replaying) the game, I have a PDF of the official strategy guide. Shoot me a PM if you want it.
Can you link what it says about the butterfly catching minigame? This IMO is the toughest part in the game, consisting of 2 courses, I can complete 1 but not the other. It is one of the few things I haven't done in the game.
The (quite useless) text from the strategy guide can be found here: http://www.ffextreme.com/ff10/sidequests-p1.htmlQuote:
Originally Posted by gismo
You might be better off googling for that specifically or checking through the FAQs here: http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/game/197344.html
edit: and reading through the guide the sections that I've passed, I haven't missed the moon crest yet. Looks like it is near the beach I will be headed to soon.
Uh, I always thought the butterfly catching mini-game was one of the easiest ones to do for an ultimate weapon. I guess some of the others are pretty easy, but a lot more tedious (lightning bolt dodging; blitzball; etc)
If you are on the ship, and on the way to Killika, you have missed it for now. I was just wondering if the official guide had anything that might not be elsewhere. I've read all the gamefaqs stuff, a wonderful resource. But that minigame is fucking hard lol.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick Scarf
I've never heard of Killika. I just beat that underwater boss where you learn the trigger command to Stand By, and got whisked away by Sin to the island where they love me because I can play Blitzball. Right at the start of that island is where the crescent moon was. I'm just to the point now of exploring the town and getting ready to head to the temple.Quote:
Originally Posted by gismo
Quote:
Originally Posted by UnreasonablyReasonable
I think FFVI was the last game I truly devoted myself to. I've played through VII, VIII and IX, as well as GBA and DS remakes of both FF and Dragon Quest games, but never had the same dedication I did back in '94. My old FFIII SNES cartridge has my main characters at level 99 and all characters (except Shadow, left him on the Floating Continent) at level 75 or higher. I'll still pop it in from time to time just to go back up (or down) Kefka's Tower and defeat Kefka for the millionth time.
X seemed pretty decent during the few hours I played it. I popped in Kingdom Hearts, though, and didn't look back. I just got a PS2 but have been playing Kingdom Hearts 2 instead of giving FFX another look-see.
So you just got to Besaid. Like i said earlier...explore everywhere...your guide will tell you where to go anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick Scarf
And it's not a bad idea to just sit there for an hour and fight monsters to get your sphere grid filled.
AAA I forgot about the AlBhed ship. Hehe sorry about that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick Scarf
As Pepsi said, take some time to kill monsters, I'd do it before you enter the village if you can and deffo after it. At least on of your characters will get an ability to extract power/mana/speed spheres, this is a good time to not only empower your team a little but to also stock up on these.
Check out Final Fantasy IX and Final Fantasy XII. FFIX and FFXII turn back to more typical and traditional setting of Final Fantasy with the latter exploring many new concepts.
IX is a charming little game with perhaps one of the most difficult to acheive weapons in any game ever (Exalibur 2). Essentially you had to get to the room just before the final boss in under 12 hours. In a 4 disc game that is bloody hard lol. I had a guide for it which you basically had to be at point X by Y time and I just gave in eventually.
My TV cannot play the old FF games, the image flickers like mad...but there is a chance IX might, might just play on it. Im going to dig it out and try. It didn't have the epic feel of 7 and 10 (or indeed 8 imo), although it does at times rise to epic heights, the joy of playing it lies purely in its charming nod back do its predecessors.
XII dissapointed me hugely. The story and the weakness of the characters really let the game down in my opnion. In an attempt to be different, somethings worked, like the battle system but removing much of the fantasy from the plot killed it for me. And the old framework of protagonist being linked with the events threatening the world and the antagonist, aswell as the love interest also having a link, whilst old remains a very good framework to build a plot around. And it had been working well.
It's marvelously confusing every time I see the name Tidus in this thread.
Final Fantasy XII is probably the worst game in the series (story and gameplay) aside from the obvious exception of XI.
I guess it was on par with FFX-2
that you're playing the worst of the series
Well said.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nermy2k
As for what you need to know about before playing FFX, in spite of what everyone else has said I really think the best answer is: nothing. It is its own story separate from all other Final Fantasies, its own fighting and leveling system (the best leveling system ever, if you ask me), and its own everything else. Excellent game.
Agreed, I have been so pissed since the release of ffx.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nermy2k
Agreed. Easily the weakest entry into the series for me.Quote:
Originally Posted by captain castle
Dislikes: Most of the gameplay.
Linearity.
How fucking dumb Tidus is.
How fucking annoying Tidus is.
How fucking dumb and annoying Yuna is.
Bitch with the belt clothes.
Battle system.
Blitz-ball being incredibly stat based and involving no real game-play skill.
Chocobo fucking flag race or whatever.
Likes: Sphere grid, although it was done just as well in Rogue Galaxy, a game I enjoyed far more.
Uh...
John DiMaggio doing some of the voices, I guess. Bender is good in whatever form you can get.
I like having god-like characters.
And...
Well, hm.
FFX is nowhere near the epic fail that FFVIII was, though. FFVIII suffered the same problem Oblivion did - I never felt the sense that I was growing more powerful, as the enemies grew with me. I was salaried. Magic wasn't quite magic. The storyline confused me until I figured out Rinoa was Ultimecia. Weapons were a bitch to get.
I mean, in FFVIII, the final battle would literally be easier had you not leveled up at all in the game. Oh, hey, you want more money? Take a quiz!
In Oblivion, at least there was a shit load to do to hide the fact that goblins will, in essence, always take the same number of swings of an iron sword to kill at level 1 as they did at level 10. Guilds and shit like that. FFVIII just fell on its goddamn face. I can't stand that game. I did like the story.
I also like the story for FFX. And I wish they would have, I dunno, finished the story for FFXII. I would probably have liked it more then, although I still enjoy it.
My favorite FF games are V (I know, it's the easiest, but I have a save file on FF Chronicles for the PS1 where I have all my classes maxed) and FF IX, which was, at times, Nintendo hard.
EDIT: My favorite RPG is Chrono Cross, though. Weird leveling system, weapons that were just as difficult to get as FFVIII, but 40+ characters, ties to one of the greatest RPG's of all times, and an incredible story. Multiple play-throughs are required to get every character and every weapon and do every side-quest and get every ending. New Game + always makes games better, and I wish FF games would employ them. I mean, often times I'll shut off a game for extended periods when it gets tedious, which will make me forget chunks of story at a time. If I had the ability to, once I finished a game, go back and play through it as a powerful diety and focus on learning the story and the mythos behind the game, I would most certainly try and finish more games.
Also, Chrono Cross has the most incredible instrumental score for a video game that I have ever heard. When I have it on in my car, people can't even tell it's from a video game, which really says something.
I need to play that game again. Here's to hoping it comes out on the PSN.
Whilst I totally disagree with you on FFX Mal, I share your dislike of FF8 and Oblivion. Well, I mean I like both, however they give you no real incentive to level. I mean in FF8, what was the point of allowing you to level if they were going to essentially make the level gained redundant. It is a massive flaw engineered into the core of the game.
IX is the only one where I failed to kill the superboss. I agree with you, at times IX was hard. Did you ever fight one of those ram thingies, cannot remember their name, I think it was Yu or something, but they looked like cuddly rams and were insanely difficult to beat.
I think I will need to check out Chrono Cross, never heard of it. I love a good RPG so I will deffo check it out.
EDIT:
Anyone ever played Valkyrie Profile? I have the 2nd one on the PS2, I recommend some of you go check it out. Takes a while for it to get good but once it does it is a terrific ride. And some of the optional content offers up a real challenge, youtube for Seraphic Gate for the platformer puzzles, they are very hard.
I have VP2: Silmeria or whatever. Very, very good. But also insanely difficult. The customization allowed your party with the departing einjanher and the equipment situation made the game overwhelming for me and I had to stop playing, because I was trying to do everything at once.
I didn't exploit the ghost thingy fully. Yea, I imagine it would be overwhelming to try to do all the stuff you can. I didn't find it overly difficult, I did alot of grinding and the main difference was getting Dylan to lvl 45 before he left the party, the sword you get is fucking awesome, I gave it to a heavy warrior and from then up to the final boss it was a peice of piss.
Did you complete the game? Make sure you just complete it without doing any extras. I completed it and did the Seraphic Gate once, but I couldn't do many of the platformer puzzles there because that is some of the most difficult peices of gaming I have ever seen.
Ever seen a video with someone who exploited the ghost system to max out some of their stats? They could kill the Seraphic Gate bosses in one round of attacks. Screw that, it is really tedius getting your stats maxed. The thing I loved about FFX was that they took alot of the drudgery out of it.
I made it about 35% of the way through. To the first time you cross a country border, I think. Some of the bosses started to grate on my nerves and I just lost interest. It's by no means a bad game, I just have a terrible time playing a game for extended periods because I'm weird like that.
Hey Rick, are you still playing FFX? How far in are you, what do you think of it so far? Hopefully you enjoyed/are enjoying it.
Partially because of this thread I went out last week and bought a slim ps2 for 60 bucks and ffx for 10. I have thoroughly enjoyed it since.
Hehe good man. I tried to play it but I am not sure if it is my PS2 or game copy but its all jumpy and doesn't play right.Quote:
Originally Posted by Killuminati
The first time I played ffx, my copy was fucked up and right after I got the jecht shot and tried to continue playing it would turn black and play the music but never continue in the game. The worst part was I was given the option to save while in the black screen so there was no going back. I had to rent a copy to get past that(then return my copy).Quote:
Originally Posted by gismo
Oh Rick Scarf, just FYI....if you have the international version (i.e. contains Dark Aeons), MAKE SURE you obtain all of the orb-treasures from the Aeon dungeons (I forget what they're called)on your first trip through, especially the one in Besaid.
I've still got my FFX for my PS2. This FFX happens to be one of the first 100,000 off the line. Not bad considering that it sold 6.6 millions copies as of a couple of years ago.
Do you know how I can get an international copy and make my ps2 work with it? My computer can't handle the ps2 emulator very smoothly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crysack
I haven't had a lot of free time unfortunately to devote to it. I am in Luca where the summoner girl just got kidnapped. I am enjoying it.Quote:
Originally Posted by gismo
:( You really need a long weekend to devote to it. I got so hooked I took a full week off college to play it lol.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick Scarf
Crysack, good advice, the one in Macalania is more important, Dark Shiva protects it and she is much harder than Valefor. Mind you, it is almost impossible to not miss the Besaid one. The Macalania one though is much trickier to get.
Have you played the first Final Fantasy? I haven't played FFX, but I can't see how it could be worse than that shitty ass fucking game. I can't believe they made it so you just attack air if you order one of your guys to attack a guy that ends up dying before they get a chance to attack it (that sounds a bit confusing I know, but if you've played this game you know EXACTLY the bullshit I'm talking about). That amongst other things made the game quite unplayable.Quote:
Originally Posted by MalReynolds
I've played all the FF games except XI and I have no idea what the fuck you're talking about.Quote:
Originally Posted by UnreasonablyReasonable
In FF, if you order all of your guys to attack and they kill the enemy, whoever else will just attack the space where the enemy was.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pepsi
And shit, man, God forbid you have to use strategy when dealing with monsters. I can't fault that game for being a product of its time. Dragon Quest didn't have that problem because it was only 1 person in your party.
Think of it like this - in FF, you're not taking turns when you attack. You're giving everyone orders and they all attack at the same time. If you have five guys stabbing an orc simultaneously, obviously it will be dead way before the fifth guy ever gets around to getting at it. Instead of thinking it's four people attacking in turn, think of it like they're attacking at the same time.
Which really is how it should be as this, "Your turn/my turn" business is very silly.
I never had that problem.
Perhaps it is silly, but that's how it's represented so it's dumb to have a guy just attacking air when he can already tell the enemy is dead. Also time definitely passes between people attacking, they aren't intended to be thought of as attacking simultaneously unless both attack bars happen to fill up at the exact same time, but even then I just consider it as one person makes the actual attack decision before the other.Quote:
Originally Posted by MalReynolds
As far as it being a product of its time, there's no reason why this isn't an extremely easy fix even for back then. I can understand that there are always certain limitations, but the game still is what it is. I don't say a game is better than current games simply because it wasn't able to reach its full potential when it was made. Though for what it's worth, even before the SNES came out I still couldn't stand how dumb that was, and I never found the story at all captivating.
Lol you sure you actually played it? I'm one lazy ass bitch, so that really annoyed the hell out of me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pepsi
You would have to be GODLIKE to have every attack land on an alive enemy in FF. 4srs.
Also, there were no time bars in the first FF. It was all speed stat based.
EDIT:
I did find Dragon Quest to be better, though. There are always 2 camps - The DQ camp and the FF camp. FF games tend to be a little more easy and a little more forgiving - of course, when you die, you get a game-over. When you die in DQ, you lose half your gold but start from town. The main challenge from DQ is keeping that money, though, because you A: Don't get a lot of it and B: equipment costs a shit ton and C: Enemies are tough. I was never able to just button mash my way through a fight in DQ 8 if I wanted everyone at optimal health.
I highly prefer the Dragon Quest games to Final Fantasy. ESPECIALLY DQ 8 to FF12.
Oh really? Guess it's been quite awhile since I've played it, but I'd rather watch 2 girls 1 cup than fire it up again.Quote:
Originally Posted by MalReynolds
Yeah, the time bars came into play with FFVI. Before that, it was all stat based. I mean, it's still stat based, just with visual representation.
EDIT: Download the remake for the GBA or something. It fixes the battle/magic problem (giving you MP instead of allowing you to cast a certain number of spells per tier each rest period). I cleared it in... 14 hours 59 minutes, and I was using a speed up mod for most of the grinding. It makes quite a difference. Turns it into a rather enjoyable title.
Well, Besaid was the one I missed. I was so irritated I went back and Zanmatoed Dark Valefor.Quote:
Originally Posted by gismo
Valefor aint too bad to kill, you can get Aurons ultimate weapon easily and have him hitting over 10k+, have at least 2 people with more than 10k health, unload overdrives (having attack reels helps) you can down him without being uber. But yea, Zanmato is handy lol.
I remember fighting a Don Tonberry (or whatever they are called) that was made by uber monster maker guy, and fighting it for over an hour and losing.
It was disheartening.
You can use the don tonberry to get ridiculous amounts of SP.
The super one is crazy. A lot of those custom made monsters by that guy were ridiculous.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. E
Yea some are tough. Don Tonberry is a good lvling method, I personally use the cactaur king method but Don Tonberry works well too. The best way to kill him is to use party members who you don't use much. When playing through I got most of my kills from Auron, Tidus and Wakka, I used Yuna, Lulu and Rikku to get SP but never attacked much. His Karma attack, the damage is based on the number of kills a character has made, so I'd get the girls attack up and then own him, his Karma would do hardly any damage.Quote:
Originally Posted by Killuminati