I basically played this all weekend. I probably put 15 hours into it, if I had to guess. Maybe one or two less. I'm at level 17 right now, still Archer. I've made it to the second major hub in the game, which is a pirate area. It's a bit confusing to navigate, and certain areas being referred to by characters as one name while the map refers to them as others made me want to throw my controller at the wall, but I eventually figured it out and it's not too bad.
Anyway, the main point of this post was to discuss Sastasha Seagrot, my first instanced dungeon in an MMO. I received the mission, put the word out that I was looking for a party, and then went and did other single player quests while a party formed. This one took twenty minutes to form, despite the game telling me it might take thirty, so that's good.
Sastasha Seagrot requires a "tank," two "DPSs," and a healer. Healer being self-explanatory, I'll explain the other two: a "tank" gets the enemies' attention and attacks and defends and basically acts as a damage sponge, and a DPS is a damage dealer - which is the category I fall into since I'm an archer. So once the game found me a party of people to play with, I delved into a dungeon with three other humans and played for roughly an hour.
It was a blast, I have to say. The dungeon was pretty straightforward, but like everywhere else in the game, was gorgeous. It was a sea cavern, with rivers and rivulets flowing through it, and I fought mostly clams, their weird magic casting spawn, and pirates. The boss of the area was a Sahagin, one of those classic Final Fantasy water enemies. My favorite touch of the dungeon was the classic victory battle music playing when the boss went down, followed by the four of us doing a sort of victory pose all lined up like a regular Final Fantasy game. Good stuff!
But it was pretty fun seeing the other classes at work. The healer buffed us, healed, and occasionally attacked, while the tank got all the enemies to focus on him, while the melee guy and I threw everything we had at the enemies. Archer fits me well; I sometimes find myself surprised when my HP gets low when soloing, so not having to worry about it for the most part was fun, while I really got to stretch all my abilities. They mesh pretty well, and being able to poison or bind the enemies occasionally helped the other guys quite a bit.
As we progressed through the dungeon, there were a few minor bosses who would drop stuff we could grab. The game puts up a pop up and lets people say if they want it - and as near as I can tell, you get it, so long as A. no one else wants it or B. if they do want it, they don't roll higher than you. The first four items were all useless to me, so I passed on all of them, but the armor the boss dropped was really good so I grabbed it. I don't think anyone else tried for it, so it didn't really matter what I rolled, but I got it and my character is wearing it as of this post.
I was thinking about Monster Hunter while I played today, though, and how that game doesn't scratch the itch I'm looking for. I want to get cool new gear that makes my character look different when I equip it (which FFXIV does) and level up my character, too, while customizing some skills and stats and such (FFXIV does this too, while MH does not). I have been wanting to play a game like this for a long time now, and it really does seem like the MMO for me. I don't want to play WoW and be damned to have to play with people at certain times - I want to initiate a quest, wait for other people to join, and go off and play a dungeon, then be done. This works so well because I'm pretty sure the game gives bonuses to higher level players who help out low level people like myself, so there's always a reason to run old dungeons.
Depending on how burnt out I get on the game (and how tolerant my fiancee is of me hogging the TV), I could see myself paying a few monthly fees. Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the quality of FFXIV.
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Final Fantasy XIV
I don't know why, but I bought and started playing an MMO. I haven't played one since the Matrix Online, almost ten years ago. That one had issues, and it didn't help that my laptop at the time could barely run it. God forbid anyone else appeared on screen, because the game would slow to a crawl.
Anyway, I'm playing Final Fantasy XIV on PS3. It looks pretty nice and seems to run pretty well. I've been around plenty of other people and even had a battle involving some enemies and maybe ten other people or so, with no noticeable lag (though it did get a bit hectic, UI wise, though I can probably fix that in the settings). It's a very pretty game, which I wasn't expecting so much because the PS3 is the "least powerful" choice to play the game on. The music, so far, hasn't made much of an impression on me, though it isn't bad, just pretty generic.
...Which is a word I'd use to describe the story, so far. Other than the idea that the world was torn almost completely apart five years ago, it's been pretty generic Final Fantasy so far. Find the Crystals! Defeat whoever stands in your way! Etc.
I have to say I really like exploring and fighting stuff so far, though. It's an MMO - meaning you use abilities, and when a timer cools down, you can use them again. Run around, rinse, repeat, level up. I'm playing as an Archer and have leveled up that job to 9. What I like is that I'm not limited to that class - if I buy equipment another class uses and start killing stuff with it, I'll gain levels in that class. I'm thinking I might play as a Mage of some sort as well as the Archer. I like the powers I have as an archer so far, too, which are kind of a combo. If you use them in the right order, you get an attack boost and once the enemy's HP drops below 20%, you can use a finishing move. I like ranged attacks in these types of games.
I don't know why it's called Fate, but I really like the system. There will be special enemies that spawn here and there, and you go in and kill as many as you can. The more you help out (because everyone else will make a beeline for them) the more experience you get. The enemies tend to be a little stronger than the other enemies in the area, but with tons of people helping out they aren't too bad, from the 3 or so I've been in so far.
I'm not sure how hardcore the multiplayer gets (I'd imagine pretty hardcore) and I don't know how long I'll play. I have a 30 day free trial, and have enjoyed my four or five hours I've played so far. No idea if I'll end up paying the monthly fee or anything. I do intend to make the most out of my trial.
I'm enjoying an MMO. God help me...
Anyway, I'm playing Final Fantasy XIV on PS3. It looks pretty nice and seems to run pretty well. I've been around plenty of other people and even had a battle involving some enemies and maybe ten other people or so, with no noticeable lag (though it did get a bit hectic, UI wise, though I can probably fix that in the settings). It's a very pretty game, which I wasn't expecting so much because the PS3 is the "least powerful" choice to play the game on. The music, so far, hasn't made much of an impression on me, though it isn't bad, just pretty generic.
...Which is a word I'd use to describe the story, so far. Other than the idea that the world was torn almost completely apart five years ago, it's been pretty generic Final Fantasy so far. Find the Crystals! Defeat whoever stands in your way! Etc.
I have to say I really like exploring and fighting stuff so far, though. It's an MMO - meaning you use abilities, and when a timer cools down, you can use them again. Run around, rinse, repeat, level up. I'm playing as an Archer and have leveled up that job to 9. What I like is that I'm not limited to that class - if I buy equipment another class uses and start killing stuff with it, I'll gain levels in that class. I'm thinking I might play as a Mage of some sort as well as the Archer. I like the powers I have as an archer so far, too, which are kind of a combo. If you use them in the right order, you get an attack boost and once the enemy's HP drops below 20%, you can use a finishing move. I like ranged attacks in these types of games.
I don't know why it's called Fate, but I really like the system. There will be special enemies that spawn here and there, and you go in and kill as many as you can. The more you help out (because everyone else will make a beeline for them) the more experience you get. The enemies tend to be a little stronger than the other enemies in the area, but with tons of people helping out they aren't too bad, from the 3 or so I've been in so far.
I'm not sure how hardcore the multiplayer gets (I'd imagine pretty hardcore) and I don't know how long I'll play. I have a 30 day free trial, and have enjoyed my four or five hours I've played so far. No idea if I'll end up paying the monthly fee or anything. I do intend to make the most out of my trial.
I'm enjoying an MMO. God help me...
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Persona 1 PSP: I'm Calling it Beaten, I Don't Even Care
I'm at the true final boss of Persona 1, the SEBEC route, anyway, and I just can't take this game anymore. I did something I've never done before, for any game of any type - I just watched the ending on Youtube.
I'm putting this game in the beat column, and I'm not putting an asterisk next to it. The final boss is bullshit, I grinded a TON on BEGINNER to get to around level 60, and I'm not going to waste countless hours hoping she doesn't use her stupid ice attack twice in one turn which will kill my whole party guaranteed. She switches between two different forms at random - at any time, even in the middle of your turn - which changes her weaknesses. Which wouldn't be so bad if she DIDN'T ABSORB AND HEAL MY MAGIC ATTACKS (that I cast while she's in one form, because she's weak to magic in that form)! So yeah, hit her with physical attacks, you say? Well, it just so happens that my high level Personae that got me through the game are weak to ice, so I switch to lower level Personae that aren't and I plink her for single digit damage. She supposedly has several thousand hit points. Did I mention she can randomly just wipe your whole party if she happens to cast her ultimate attack twice in one turn? Fuck that, I'm not risking being wiped out after an hour, it'd give me a heart attack. And the first Persona is not worth dying over.
This game is quite possibly the most frustrating RPG I've ever played. I'm sure there are worse ones out there, but this game has parts that have merit - I even enjoyed myself a bit! But when the game sucks, it sucks hard. I've tried to get through the game several times since it came out in 2009, and just couldn't get over its problems. I decided to finally force myself to play through it. After roughly thirty hours... I'm glad I did it, but I doubt I will ever play the thing again.
The game is just flawed on a fundamental level. The thing that bugged me right away when I first played it five years ago still sucks - your characters gain experience proportionate to their participation in battle. This is a terrible, terrible idea. If you happen to wipe out the enemies before, say, your slowest character goes, they don't get any experience (or hardly any so as to not matter at all). So you have to spend time paying close attention to who is at what level and basically have some characters skip turns so the low level ones can get a chance to level up. You have to fight poorly, basically, to level up, which sucks because you're then more vulnerable because you're not killing the enemies as efficiently as you could etc. etc. etc.
Oh, and each of your five characters has an Experience Level and a Persona Level. Experience Level dictates your stats and which Personae you can negotiate with, while Persona Level dictates what level Personae you can equip once fused. Why they separated these levels I have no idea, but it's insane because I believe you get less Persona Level experience if you finish battles without using your Persona - so don't just use physical attacks, because that number will fall behind! Or something. I'm not clear how it works, quite frankly.
Since this game came out in 2009, I've played a few more SMT titles that have demon negotiation in them, and I go back and forth on whether I like it or not. It's still pretty random, but because the enemy mobs are so frickin' dangerous in Persona 1, it's way more risky than usual. Your five party members all have different approaches to negotiation, and figuring out which demon likes which approach can be a pain, especially when the closer you are to a full moon, the more likely you are to just piss the demon off and give it a free turn. The upside to negotiation, though, is that when you've successfully convinced a demon to give you their "Spell Card," you can convince the same demon later on to leave the battle if you haven't used the card in fusion yet. This is pretty handy, especially when you come across some asshole demon way in the back row who absorbs all magic attacks and is weak only to physical attacks (which becomes more common the farther you get in the game). Get that guy's card and tell him to piss off every time you come across him going forward.
Another huge problem I have with the battle system is the stupid grid you fight on. You and your enemies are all arranged on two sides of a grid, and depending on where each character or demon is on that grid determines which attacks or spells can reach the other side. So it is possible to be unable to attack without wasting a turn shuffling your people around because for some reason, Maki's bow can't target people right in front of her so you have to move Mark over to hit somebody with an axe, but moving those two costs them both a turn. My most hated thing, though - like I sometimes would reset the game when I came across it while grinding - was when some shithead would be in the back row, reflecting magic attacks and being weak to only physical attacks. I can't reach him until I've wiped all the other demons out at which point the game moves him forward so I can finally reach him. The problem is, the other demons in the front row absorb physical attacks, so I have to spam my multi-target magic attacks to kill them, while the assholes in the back reflect some damage back to me! So freaking annoying. I have no regrets choosing "Beginner," either, at the beginning of the game, because it reduces enemy damage by 20% - nothing else. The story doesn't change or anything, just that. I barely got to the end of the game as it is on Beginner, I can't imagine playing this stupid game on Normal.
All of that said, though, I do quite like the story in Persona. Until you get near the end, it doesn't seem very "Persona-like," at least to me, as someone who played Persona 3 and 4 first. The story seems more like Final Fantasy or something, where some dude figures out a way to summon demons or something and tries to take over the world. The way in which he does it, though, which you don't find out until three quarters of the way through the game, is very definitely a Persona story. Persona 4, specifically, takes several of its main story cues from the first Persona (it's not a repeat, or anything, it just reinforces the very nature of what a Persona even is, something Persona 3 doesn't spend as much time on). Having not seen most of the story of the first Persona until this playthrough, I didn't see why Persona 3 and 4 should even be in the same series as the first game, but it is very clear now they should be.
Luckily, to enjoy Persona 3 and 4, you don't have to play Persona 1. That's the weird thing about the game - I respect it, it lays the narrative structure foundation for future games in the series, and you can certainly see the seeds of where Persona 3 and 4 would go (especially near the end). Playing it is an exercise in frustration, and I can't say I'd recommend it to anyone but the hardest of hardcore Persona/SMT fans. Like I said, I'd be very surprised if I ever came back to it, even to play through the Snow Queen alternate quest. I just can't stand actually playing it.
So yeah, I'm calling it beat. I'm not going to throw myself at grinding for another ten plus hours to beat a boss that is just stupid and cheap to begin with. Persona 3's final boss could be cheap, but not unfair like this game. I've heard Persona 2 is better. I'm going to give it a try next, though if it's basically Persona 1 all over again, I'm not sure if I'll be able to stomach it now. I've heard Hitler is in it, though... I want to see that!
I'm putting this game in the beat column, and I'm not putting an asterisk next to it. The final boss is bullshit, I grinded a TON on BEGINNER to get to around level 60, and I'm not going to waste countless hours hoping she doesn't use her stupid ice attack twice in one turn which will kill my whole party guaranteed. She switches between two different forms at random - at any time, even in the middle of your turn - which changes her weaknesses. Which wouldn't be so bad if she DIDN'T ABSORB AND HEAL MY MAGIC ATTACKS (that I cast while she's in one form, because she's weak to magic in that form)! So yeah, hit her with physical attacks, you say? Well, it just so happens that my high level Personae that got me through the game are weak to ice, so I switch to lower level Personae that aren't and I plink her for single digit damage. She supposedly has several thousand hit points. Did I mention she can randomly just wipe your whole party if she happens to cast her ultimate attack twice in one turn? Fuck that, I'm not risking being wiped out after an hour, it'd give me a heart attack. And the first Persona is not worth dying over.
This game is quite possibly the most frustrating RPG I've ever played. I'm sure there are worse ones out there, but this game has parts that have merit - I even enjoyed myself a bit! But when the game sucks, it sucks hard. I've tried to get through the game several times since it came out in 2009, and just couldn't get over its problems. I decided to finally force myself to play through it. After roughly thirty hours... I'm glad I did it, but I doubt I will ever play the thing again.
The game is just flawed on a fundamental level. The thing that bugged me right away when I first played it five years ago still sucks - your characters gain experience proportionate to their participation in battle. This is a terrible, terrible idea. If you happen to wipe out the enemies before, say, your slowest character goes, they don't get any experience (or hardly any so as to not matter at all). So you have to spend time paying close attention to who is at what level and basically have some characters skip turns so the low level ones can get a chance to level up. You have to fight poorly, basically, to level up, which sucks because you're then more vulnerable because you're not killing the enemies as efficiently as you could etc. etc. etc.
Oh, and each of your five characters has an Experience Level and a Persona Level. Experience Level dictates your stats and which Personae you can negotiate with, while Persona Level dictates what level Personae you can equip once fused. Why they separated these levels I have no idea, but it's insane because I believe you get less Persona Level experience if you finish battles without using your Persona - so don't just use physical attacks, because that number will fall behind! Or something. I'm not clear how it works, quite frankly.
Since this game came out in 2009, I've played a few more SMT titles that have demon negotiation in them, and I go back and forth on whether I like it or not. It's still pretty random, but because the enemy mobs are so frickin' dangerous in Persona 1, it's way more risky than usual. Your five party members all have different approaches to negotiation, and figuring out which demon likes which approach can be a pain, especially when the closer you are to a full moon, the more likely you are to just piss the demon off and give it a free turn. The upside to negotiation, though, is that when you've successfully convinced a demon to give you their "Spell Card," you can convince the same demon later on to leave the battle if you haven't used the card in fusion yet. This is pretty handy, especially when you come across some asshole demon way in the back row who absorbs all magic attacks and is weak only to physical attacks (which becomes more common the farther you get in the game). Get that guy's card and tell him to piss off every time you come across him going forward.
Another huge problem I have with the battle system is the stupid grid you fight on. You and your enemies are all arranged on two sides of a grid, and depending on where each character or demon is on that grid determines which attacks or spells can reach the other side. So it is possible to be unable to attack without wasting a turn shuffling your people around because for some reason, Maki's bow can't target people right in front of her so you have to move Mark over to hit somebody with an axe, but moving those two costs them both a turn. My most hated thing, though - like I sometimes would reset the game when I came across it while grinding - was when some shithead would be in the back row, reflecting magic attacks and being weak to only physical attacks. I can't reach him until I've wiped all the other demons out at which point the game moves him forward so I can finally reach him. The problem is, the other demons in the front row absorb physical attacks, so I have to spam my multi-target magic attacks to kill them, while the assholes in the back reflect some damage back to me! So freaking annoying. I have no regrets choosing "Beginner," either, at the beginning of the game, because it reduces enemy damage by 20% - nothing else. The story doesn't change or anything, just that. I barely got to the end of the game as it is on Beginner, I can't imagine playing this stupid game on Normal.
All of that said, though, I do quite like the story in Persona. Until you get near the end, it doesn't seem very "Persona-like," at least to me, as someone who played Persona 3 and 4 first. The story seems more like Final Fantasy or something, where some dude figures out a way to summon demons or something and tries to take over the world. The way in which he does it, though, which you don't find out until three quarters of the way through the game, is very definitely a Persona story. Persona 4, specifically, takes several of its main story cues from the first Persona (it's not a repeat, or anything, it just reinforces the very nature of what a Persona even is, something Persona 3 doesn't spend as much time on). Having not seen most of the story of the first Persona until this playthrough, I didn't see why Persona 3 and 4 should even be in the same series as the first game, but it is very clear now they should be.
Luckily, to enjoy Persona 3 and 4, you don't have to play Persona 1. That's the weird thing about the game - I respect it, it lays the narrative structure foundation for future games in the series, and you can certainly see the seeds of where Persona 3 and 4 would go (especially near the end). Playing it is an exercise in frustration, and I can't say I'd recommend it to anyone but the hardest of hardcore Persona/SMT fans. Like I said, I'd be very surprised if I ever came back to it, even to play through the Snow Queen alternate quest. I just can't stand actually playing it.
So yeah, I'm calling it beat. I'm not going to throw myself at grinding for another ten plus hours to beat a boss that is just stupid and cheap to begin with. Persona 3's final boss could be cheap, but not unfair like this game. I've heard Persona 2 is better. I'm going to give it a try next, though if it's basically Persona 1 all over again, I'm not sure if I'll be able to stomach it now. I've heard Hitler is in it, though... I want to see that!
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