Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Day #609 Recap (Final Fantasy XI)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): 261:36 (+)
Total Play Time - 1,472:06 (+)

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 54
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Rise of the Zilart Mission 4
Current Levels: RDM 99/DNC 49(50)... BLM 50... THF 30.
Current skill levels/Desired skill levels:

Sword(379/398)  (+)
Elemental(326/378)  (+)
Enfeebling(384/424)  (+)
Healing(199/368)  (+)
Dark(235/300)  (+)
Enhancing(259/404)  (+)

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): None

Status & Notes: 

Yeah, another day of no play time... went and took the wifey out on a date night last night. Gotta do that every once in a while. Anyway, today, I'm planning on really getting my emulator settings finalized for XII... I'm actually kind of leaning towards stopping XI for a while... I have a couple of days before my subscription is going to renew... I may very well cancel it for a bit... I'd like to start up XII... ready to get moving on things. I'm sure you all are as well. That said, I'd still like to complete a few more missions because why not??? Hopefully the RNG will start to cooperate with me.

As for the race... still haven't been watching as much... yesterday I watched a little bit and Crumps was trying to take down the weapons and not having much luck in doing so... I think Cereth is still playing IX... I REALLY haven't been watching his stream. His playthrough, he is doing a user-submitted challenge where he can't BUY any weapons or armor other than those in the synthesis shops... so he has to do a lot of stealing and what not from the bosses.... that's quite a time sink... believe me... I did that all as well.

Update: Apparently, Cereth actually beat IX already... so he can buy equipment now... he's gonna take on Ozma... and then move onto X today at some point I'm sure.

Day #608 Recap (Final Fantasy XI)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): 261:36 (+)
Total Play Time - 1,472:06 (+)

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 54
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Rise of the Zilart Mission 4
Current Levels: RDM 99/DNC 49(50)... BLM 50... THF 30.
Current skill levels/Desired skill levels:

Sword(379/398)  (+)
Elemental(326/378)  (+)
Enfeebling(384/424)  (+)
Healing(199/368)  (+)
Dark(235/300)  (+)
Enhancing(259/404)  (+)

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): None

Status & Notes: 

Umm... more happy holidays... things are just too busy...

Day #607 Recap (Final Fantasy XI)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): 261:36 (+)
Total Play Time - 1,472:06 (+)

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 54
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Rise of the Zilart Mission 4
Current Levels: RDM 99/DNC 49(50)... BLM 50... THF 30.
Current skill levels/Desired skill levels:

Sword(379/398)  (+)
Elemental(326/378)  (+)
Enfeebling(384/424)  (+)
Healing(199/368)  (+)
Dark(235/300)  (+)
Enhancing(259/404)  (+)

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): Made my way through the jungles of the Elshimo Lowlands into the Sea Serpent Grotto... and within there we found the hideout of Norg. Here, we met up with Lion who recounted for us what happened when we beat the Shadow Lord...

Apparently, the Grand Duke of Jeuno and his little brother showed up, and proclaimed themselves to be the last of the Zilart... another one of the ancient races of Vana'diel, thought to be extinct. They summoned five ancient crystal warriors who are to purge the world of everyone... well, the ex-shadow lord turned himself back into the shadow lord to give us time to escape, even though he was basically committing suicide.

We then met the leader of Norg... a man called Gilgamesh(cue Battle at the Big Bridge)... he says that he once had gone deep into the Temple of Uggalepih and found an old lady who told him to return when the end was near... or something like that... obviously the return of the Crystal Warriors is the trigger for this... so we should probably return. We headed over to Kazham, to see the chieftain who gave us a key to the sacrificial altar deep within the temple... she told us we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into.

We returned to Norg and talked to Magephaud who gave us a key which would give us access to a Tonberry Priest who could cleanse us of the hate that the Tonberrls had toward us. We then went to the temple and got a key... the key opened a library of sorts.. we read some books and then found a paintbrush in a coffin... yay??? Then we headed a little further in and tried to find an Unlit Lantern... because it might be useful...

Status & Notes: 

Again... sorry for the delay in writing up some stuff. Things have been kind of crazy in real life... I haven't even gotten any play time in a couple days. So yeah... anyway, started the Rise of the Zilart questline. Seems pretty cool... though, honestly, I've had a lot of bad luck with random drops... took me quite a while to get the key I needed for the paintbrush room... and I've probably been trying for at least an hour at this point to get the Unlit Lantern with no success... maybe I'll have to try actually going into the Den of Rancor and trying to get it there...

Alright, I'll leave some notes for the other couple posts I have to do today...

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Day #606 Recap (Final Fantasy XI)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): 261:36
Total Play Time - 1,472:06

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 54
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Done with Windurst Missions... On to Rise of the Zilart!!!
Current Levels: RDM 99/DNC 49(50)... BLM 50... THF 30.
Current skill levels/Desired skill levels:

Sword(379/398)  (+)
Elemental(326/378)  (+)
Enfeebling(384/424)  (+)
Healing(199/368)  (+)
Dark(235/300)  (+)
Enhancing(259/404)  (+)

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): None

Status & Notes: 

Alright, we'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming. Did some work today getting the emulator all setup for XII... going to be starting that very soon. Today, I'm looking to get back into some XI... starting the Zilart missions and what not.

Haven't been keeping up too much with the race to be honest. From what it looks like Crumps is still on VII somewhere... Cereth has gotten onto IX. That's all I really have to say about that for now... I'll try and catch some soon... too much holiday stuff going on.

Day #605 Recap (Final Fantasy XI)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): 255:27  (+)
Total Play Time - 1,465:57  (+)

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 54
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Done with Windurst Missions... On to Rise of the Zilart!!!
Current Levels: RDM 99/DNC 49(50)... BLM 50... THF 30.
Current skill levels/Desired skill levels:

Sword(376/398)  (+)
Elemental(326/378)  (+)
Enfeebling(384/424)  (+)
Healing(199/368)  (+)
Dark(235/300)  (+)
Enhancing(248/404)  (+)

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): None

Status & Notes: 

Merry Christmas!!!! No gameplay today...

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Day #604 Recap (Final Fantasy XI)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): 255:27  (+)
Total Play Time - 1,465:57  (+)

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 54
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Done with Windurst Missions... On to Rise of the Zilart!!!
Current Levels: RDM 99/DNC 49(50)... BLM 50... THF 30.
Current skill levels/Desired skill levels:

Sword(376/335)  (+)
Elemental(326/315)  (+)
Enfeebling(384/361)  (+)
Healing(199/305)  (+)
Dark(235/255)  (+)
Enhancing(248/341)  (+)

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): So, it is time to rescue the Star Sibyl from Joker!!! We realized that Joker is actually the soul of Karuha-Baruha that had done the complete summoning of Fenrir. However, the soul of Fenrir is so big that it actually completely consumed Karuha-Baruha. So, Apururu devised a plan to deactivate the remaining cardians. First, though, we needed to go along with Joker's request to ensure the Star Sibyl's safety.

So, we had to find three verses of an ancient song that would release the power of the stars and moon. We travelled far and wide... first we stopped at Ro'Maeve where we collected a verse from that fountain we first saw the dead Karuha-Baruha. Next, we headed to the temple of Uggalepih, collected a key from a tonberry, and then got a verse within a library. Finally, we headed to the Altepa desert, where the Quicksand Caves lay underneath. First, we collected a stone from the Earth Protocrystal and gave it to a goblin along with a meteorite from back in West Sarutabaruta. This gave us a lodestone we'd need to open some doors in the Quicksand Caves.

We returned to the Quicksand Caves and made it deep underground to the Chamber of Oracles. Here, the last verse lied. With the three verses, we returned to the Full Moon fountain. We sang the verses and the energy began to release. Next, the Ace cardians attacked... with our Level 99 powers, they fell amazingly easily. With this done, Apururu deactivated the rest of the cardians... The undead Karuha-Baruha didn't enjoy that so he unleashed a wyvern and manticore on us... Ajido-Marujido joined in and together(after like 7 tries) we took them down! Power returned to the Full Moon Fountain and the great beast Fenrir was released... Windurst was saved, but the Star Sibyl lost her powers to perform Moon and Star readings... the future was no longer in view.

Status & Notes: 

Okay, let's talk the last quest here. The running around part isn't that bad... its a good way of getting some more practice learning the Temple of Uggalepih as well as an introduction to the Quicksand Caves. That's all well and good. Some easy farming for the key to the Quickand Cave... as for the last fight. Well, that's a different story. At level 99, I had WAY more power than necessary. Taking out the 4 ace cardians was incredibly quick... I didn't even compile 3000 TP any time I took them out. Phase 2, however, is just annoying. Ajido-Marujido joins in the fight and if he dies anytime, the fight is over and you have to start all over. Now, he dies in about 4 or 5 times and seems to love to gain threat on whatever one you're not fighting. Eventually, I got good at just hitting the wyvern and switching over to the manticore real quick. I was able to get hate on both and take them down quickly enough.

Next? Well, I'm going to move right in to the Rise of the Zilart missions. I know at some point, they lead to some boss fights... I don't know if they're soloable at all... I guess we'll find out... but there's a bunch to do before that.

Race update... Crumps is in Disc II of FF VII, just past the reunion part. So, still a ways to go. Cereth finished FF VIII today... so he'll be on to FF IX tomorrow, making some good progress. Apparently, IX is another game that he speedruns... though I have no idea if he is planning on doing that with this game.

Day #603 Recap (Final Fantasy XI)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): 255:27  (+)
Total Play Time - 1,465:57  (+)

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 54
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Windurst Mission 9-2!
Current Levels: RDM 99/DNC 49(50)... BLM 50... THF 30.
Current skill levels/Desired skill levels:

Sword(376/335)  (+)
Elemental(326/315)  (+)
Enfeebling(384/361)  (+)
Healing(199/305)  (+)
Dark(235/255)  (+)
Enhancing(248/341)  (+)

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): Finished grinding all my Merit Points... got about 20... not too bad... bout time to get to that last mission.

Status & Notes: 

Sorry this is late... Christmas Eve and all. Got my grinding done... hooray! Also, I actually put some time in to the WoW free promo... and of course they don't let you get above Level 90... so... yeah, only so much I can do there... I may actually start this up sometime soon. We'll see.

Okay, actually learned a little something today. Not only can you power up your character post level 99 with merit points... no, no, no... we need MORE grinding. So, there are these JOB Points... which you get with Capacity Points... these are actually a good idea. You get them at a MUCH slower rate then EXP points and ONLY from NPCs level 96 and above... These seem to have some bonus points you can assign and then some kind of static bonuses you accrue... like some kind of bonus levels... very interesting. There really is no limit to the amount of grinding you can do in this game... yikes.

Race update... umm lets see if I can remember. Well, Cereth actually lost internet today and didn't stream... so he was still in the middle of VIII. Meanwhile Crumps, was happily into VII, though I have no idea exactly where... I think he stopped at the end of Midgar.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Day #602 Recap (Final Fantasy XI)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): 255:27
Total Play Time - 1,465:57

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 54
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Windurst Mission 9-2!
Current Levels: RDM 99/DNC 49(50)... BLM 50... THF 30.
Current skill levels/Desired skill levels:

Sword(376/335)
Elemental(326/315)
Enfeebling(384/361)
Healing(199/305)
Dark(235/255)
Enhancing(248/341)

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): Woohoo! Level 99!!!! Yeah, figured I'd just finish my grinding... well, kind of. Still gotta do 15 Merit Points so I can unlock the good Weapon Skills... sigh...

Status & Notes: 

Holy crap... what a difference Level 99 makes in this game. I mean, seriously. I probably gained 2.5x the power I had just by hitting Level 99 and equipping the sparks gear. It is RIDICULOUS. So, anyway... I'm currently making 4.5k per GoV turnin... so... I don't want to abandon that... and I'm getting them ridiculously quickly. I would like to at LEAST get the 15 Merit Points to unlock the weapon skills before I move on... I already have 7 right now, so not bad... if I can get a few more all the better. Hopefully I won't have to leave TOO many spark points on the table... that would stink...

Race update... Crumps has FINALLY beaten Minerva and moved on to FF VII. I think he's playing the PC version... and just getting out of Midgar now. Cereth, has finished Tactics... he seemed to have a pretty smooth playthrough. Few deaths, here and there... figuring out how to unlock all the different classes and what not. So... he's on to VIII. Though apparently now he is having some kind of internet issue which might not be resolved until the new year?!?!? Oh noes... well, that would basically give Crumps time to catch up seeing as he is... umm... 60 hours or so behind...

Monday, December 22, 2014

Day #601 Recap (Final Fantasy XI)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): 249:00
Total Play Time - 1,459:30

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 54
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Windurst Mission 9-2!
Current Levels: RDM 97/DNC 48(50)... BLM 50... THF 30.
Current skill levels/Desired skill levels:

Sword(368/335)
Elemental(325/315)
Enfeebling(378/361)
Healing(195/305)
Dark(231/255)
Enhancing(245/341)

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): Just some more grinding... got up to 97... getting like 3.5k per GoV completion right now... so that's not bad.

Status & Notes: 

Yeah, I may as well just finish the grinding... because why not? Get up to Level 99... equip the nice sparks equipment, make everything a ton easier... On top of that, I am planning on starting my 10 free day WoW thing today... though I'll put some time into XI as well... just plan on slowing some stuff down over the holidays and then picking it back up afterwards with XII...

Over in the race... well currently watching Crumps battle Minerva... apparently he's been on this a few times... hes doing it with pitifully low SPR just relying on Phoenix Downs... he's got a chance... but it has not been going well... oh, yeah, no Costly Punch either... which just makes it take that much longer and gives more opportunity for RNG death... I know Cereth is somewhere in Tactics still... I really haven't been watching much of his stream lately... no particular reason. I'll figure out where he is soon enough.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Day #600 Recap (Final Fantasy XI)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): 249:00
Total Play Time - 1,459:30

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 54
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Windurst Mission 9-2!
Current Levels: RDM 96/DNC 48(50)... BLM 50... THF 30.
Current skill levels/Desired skill levels:

Sword(363/335)
Elemental(325/315)
Enfeebling(375/361)
Healing(193/305)
Dark(229/255)
Enhancing(244/341)

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): Back to Waughroon Shrine, where I took on Atori-Tutori... this time with 6 Olde-Rarab Tails in hand... so, we used them right away... and man this guyu doesn't take a lot of damage... and... crap... I hope I don't run out of time... and jeez Chainspell...chainspell... come on Fire IV... go go Fire IV!!!! Go GO GO!!!! PHEW!!! with a whole 7 seconds to spare... yay!!! Level cap 99.

Now, where to level... well let's try Bostineaux with the Nachtmahrs... well, I can kill them easily enough, but there's a LOT of aggressive enemies here... so yeah... that doesn't work... so... back to Ranguemont Pass I think... I know I can kill quickly enough here.

Status & Notes: 

Finally done with level caps... that fight was a LOT tougher than I thought it was going to be... and, I mean, I didn't have to deal with any attacks... now I went with my standard trust team of Kupipi(Healer), Volker(DPS/Tank), Ayame(DPS)... I guess with 6 tails I SHOULD have gone with 3 pure DPS... probbly would have given me a little more time... also, thank god for chain spell and convert... because that was some good dps with Fire IV... So, now, just need to get up to 99 and get some Merit Points...

Not really, much of a race update today... Cereth still making some good progress in Tactics looks like... don't think Crumps has QUITE made it to Minerva yet... still don't think he's REALLY figured out the Materia Fusion system yet... though he did get up to like 65k HP... so... shrug... he's getting somewhere I guess.

I'll keep you updated if I'm going to use my 10 free WoW days and lighten up on XI for a bit...

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Day #599 Recap (Final Fantasy XI)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): 241:39 +
Total Play Time - 1,452:09 +

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 54
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Windurst Mission 9-2!
Current Levels: RDM 95/DNC 47(50)... BLM 50... THF 30.
Current skill levels/Desired skill levels:
Sword(351/335) +
Elemental(325/315) +
Enfeebling(366/361) +
Healing(184/305) +
Dark(221/255) +
Enhancing(242/341) +

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): So, with 3 Olde Rarab Tails in hand I headed over to Waughroon Shrine and entered the battleground, ready to take on Atori-Tutori,,, I entered... and got friggin destroyed!!! Luckily, I didn't even attempt to use any of the tails since my tank got killed before I even finished applying debuffs. So... yeah, I decided it would be better off getting a few more tails... 3 more to be precise... so... first stop, back to Dangruf Wadi, where I headed to the back and got 3 more Fossilized Fangs off of the crabs and monkeys. With that out of the way, back to Ranguemont Pass where I took on the Ahrimans and bats,,, this one took a little longer, but on my last pull of the day I managed to get my 3rd and final Fossilized Bone... we'll try this in the morning...

Status & Notes: 

So, this is going to be a little tougher than I thought... thankfully, we can just basically farm our way to victory... I hope... I was definitely surprised I lost my tank as quickly as I did. That's including a 50% buff I'm currently getting from an event... so, yeah. Fun times...

Still haven't done my testing on XII yet. I'll get to it sometime. If I had to guess I'll start my playthrough soon after the new year... why wait that long? Well, I did just get 10 free days to WoW... and I would like to play through some of the new content... its been like over a year since I last really played any WoW... so, interested to see the new stuff.

Over in the race department... Cereth has gotten his legs under him in Tactics... not saying he knows it well... like he still doesn't really understand how you unlock all the classes and what not... but I think he's done in wiping a ton...

Crumps on the other hand... well... yikes. Sure, he's powering up and clearing out missions, but he STILL does not understand the mechanincs of Materia Fusion... at least the parts about raising your stats... I mean, I figured that part out right near the beginning of the game... He's still got an Atk of like 130 and a Vit of like 60... so... things are hitting him hard... REALLY hard.... Oh, yeah, he's going to be a bit surprised to realize he's NOT going to be able to do ALL the missions... some are unlocked through in-game events... and are permanently missable... at least none of them have anything THAT important... seriously though... if he can't figure out stat grinding on materia, he's going to be on this for another FEW days.

Friday, December 19, 2014

Day #598 Recap (Final Fantasy XI)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): 241:39
Total Play Time - 1,452:09

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 53
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Windurst Mission 9-2!
Current Levels: RDM 95/DNC 47(50)... BLM 50... THF 30.
Current skill levels/Desired skill levels:
Sword(351/335)
Elemental(325/315)
Enfeebling(366/361)
Healing(184/305)
Dark(221/255)
Enhancing(242/341)

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): Over to Dangruf Wadi, where I successfully got myself some Fossilized Fangs. I stayed there until I got three. Definitely a little harder place than Ranguemont Pass... will probably head back there if I want to grind up some Merit Points.

Status & Notes: 

Okay, time to finally get on to some questing. I should be more than prepared to do the last Limit Break quest... so today I'm going to log on, sell my excess stuff, probably head over and get the couple new Trusts for the month, check the AH for anything interesting and get started on this. I'm going to pick up Dia III using the Merit Points I've accumulated, I think 2 points in for now will be just fine.

Now for the race update. Well, Crumps has at least learned his lesson that the game is forcing him to grind... he's even started dipping his toe into the Materia Fusion waters... though he hasn't really learned the algorithm... not that they are at ALL logical... I can safely say I did not watch a single minute of Cereth's playthrough of Dirge... though it only took him like 7 hours... so now he's on to Tactics which he is playing COMPLETELY BLIND. Yeah, he's up to the Magick City Gariland fight, and having a VERY rough go on it... think this is already his 5th or 6th attempt. Should be an interesting and LONG playthrough...

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Day #597 Recap (Final Fantasy XI)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): 239:57
Total Play Time - 1,450:27

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 53
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Windurst Mission 9-2!
Current Levels: RDM 95/DNC 47(50)... BLM 50... THF 30.
Current skill levels/Desired skill levels:
Sword(345/335)
Elemental(325/315)
Enfeebling(362/361)
Healing(183/305)
Dark(220/255)
Enhancing(241/341)

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): Headed over to Ranguemont Pass... started killing some bats and ahrimans... got myself 3 Seasoning Stones and 3 Fossilized Bones... time to head over to Dangruf Wadi and find some fangs... oh yeah, capped out XP and even picked up 6 Merit Points along the way.

Status & Notes: 

So, started in earnest to the last limit break quest. The way it works is you need to get a Seasoning stone to unlock the quest... and then you can trade 1 Seasoning Stone, 1 Fossilized Fang, and 1 Fossilized Bone for an item that will make the ensuing fight easier. I'm personally going for 3 such items, and I'm hoping between that, and the skillups I've been doing, it should be enough.

"The definition of insanity is repeating an action over and over and expecting a different result." Well, that pretty much describes what Crumps has been doing. So, he started working towards Minerva... and got stuck at 9-1-6... which has 3 bigger mechs you need to take down.  However, he's still under the impression, that you can play this part like a speedrun and skill alone will get him through... no, you do HAVE TO GRIND through those missions. You have to level up and fuse your materia to get some stats... I'm really hoping he figures it out soon... at the same time its strangely satisfying watching him destroy himself over and over again..

Meanwhile, Cereth is pulling quickly ahead. He's finsihed his speed run of FF VII and has moved on to Dirge of Cerebus... a game I have not played, and do not plan to, so I have no frame of reference as to where he might be.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Day #596 Recap (Final Fantasy XI)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): 232:34 +
Total Play Time - 1,443:04 +

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 53
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Windurst Mission 9-2!
Current Levels: RDM 95/DNC 47(50)... BLM 50... THF 30
Current skill levels/Desired skill levels:
Sword(324/335) +
Elemental(325/315) +
Enfeebling(336/361) +
Healing(180/305) +
Dark(211/255) +
Enhancing(236/341) +

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): Did some more levelling... really finished up what I'm going to do in the Crawler's Nest

Status & Notes: 

I don't know why I didn't do this first thing today, but I did not. So, really, I'm not going to fill in values, since if I do, I just won't have any advancement tomorrow... will say, though, that I'm pretty much ready to move on. I'm going to take care of the last limit break quest first, and then move on to the last Windurst Mission. I'll let you know how that's going tomorrow.

So, race update. Crumps finally beat Crisis Core today... but, oh wait, he still has to go and beat Minerva. I'm kind of annoyed I'm not going to be able to watch him go through those missions tomorrow and realize how hard they're going to get... he still does not really know how materia fusion works... and there's no way he's getting to Minerva without it... Cereth is currently Speedrunning FF VII. Yeah, he's using Slots on Cait Sith which basically lets you one shot all the bosses if you're good at it... seems kind of cheap...

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Day #595 Recap (Final Fantasy XI)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): 232:34
Total Play Time - 1,443:04

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 53
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Windurst Mission 9-2!
Current Levels: RDM 95/DNC 47(50)... BLM 50... THF 30
Current skill levels/Desired skill levels:
Sword(324/335)
Elemental(325/315)
Enfeebling(336/361)
Healing(180/305)
Dark(211/255)
Enhancing(236/341)

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): Got a lot of Enfeebling levels in today... up to 336 there. Also finally hit Level 95 for RDM. I think it will be time soon to start farming some Seasoning Stones.

Status & Notes: 

Going to just talk about the race a little bit today. So, it is very painful to watch people play a game in this kind of setting when they really don't understand the basic mechanics of the game. Case in point. Cereth has been on Crisis Core for a couple of days now. He's been playing it in Hard Mode... blind... yeah, and he knows nothing about combining materia or anything like that. Ugh... oh yeah, he was going through the game without really even grinding. I will say, impressively he HAS made it up to the end of the game... and now he actually is starting to grind a little bit and run some missions... but... man... I couldn't even imagine how difficult it would be to make it all the way to Minerva on Hard Mode... I may have to try that sometime..... not anytime soon mind you...

Anyway, Crumps is on Crisis Core as well... not EXACTLY sure where he is. I believe he was heading out to Nibelheim... but of course... he IS going after Minerva... so that will certainly eat up some time.

Oh, administrative note. I didn't get to test out my FF XII rom... and I left my controller at work... so that's going to have to wait until at least tomorrow. Also, going to be a bit of a light day today. Getting some necessary Christmas chores out of the way today.

Monday, December 15, 2014

Day #594 Recap (Final Fantasy XI)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): 229:42
Total Play Time - 1,440:12

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 53
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Windurst Mission 9-2!
Current Levels: RDM 94/DNC 47(50)... BLM 50... THF 30
Current skill levels/Desired skill levels:
Sword(319/335)
Elemental(325/315)
Enfeebling(316/361)
Healing(179/305)
Dark(207/255)
Enhancing(233/341)

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): Kind of a light day... plus a bad death on a funguar really limited my growth... ugh... anyway... still pretty close to 95. We'll get there today.

Status & Notes: 

Alright, so I'm just going to talk about what I have coming up soon. I do believe today, I'm going to start doing some testing making sure I'm all set to go on FF XII. I will absolutely still be playing this in conjunction with XI. Once I hit 99, I'm going to be moving very quickly through alot of the missions in the game pretty quickly, so I may as well make the most of that.

For XII I will be playing the International Zodiac Job System version of the game... which I've never played through, and has never been given an official english translation. Which is why I want to take a couple days to do some tests to make sure the rom I have of the game works completely correctly. I'm interested in playing this version of the game which restricts the abilities of characters a bit more. Why? Well, when I gave myself the same restrictions in FF VI, I definitely found the game more enjoyable. It's nice to have a direction to build your characters, and sometimes the restrictions really help with that.

Race update time!!! Cereth has gotten through Midgar and the Shinra building and took out Bahamut Fury... so he's up to Chapter 6 in Crisis Core... Crumps is just finishing up the floating continent... seriously at this very second he's just waiting for Shadow..,. now the interesting thing is once Crumps gets to Crisis Core... one of his donation goals was to fight Minerva.... yeah, there's really no quick way of doing that... I think Cereth will get through Hard Mode MUCH quicker then Crumps will get through all the missions...

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Day #593 Recap (Final Fantasy XI)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): 228:32
Total Play Time - 1,439:02

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 52
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Windurst Mission 9-2!
Current Levels: RDM 94/DNC 47(50)... BLM 50... THF 30
Current skill levels/Desired skill levels:
Sword(316/335)
Elemental(324/315)
Enfeebling(310/361)
Healing(179/305)
Dark(206/255)
Enhancing(233/341)

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): More levelling and skillups... yawn... but wait! We hit Level 94, and I moved on to killing Dancing Jewels and Olid Funguars... using the strategy I talked about yesterday, and it' worked well. Up to about 35k/53k exp towards 95.

Status & Notes: 

So, I'm done with levelling Elemental for now, and any work I'm doing is going towards Enfeebling, I should easily hit 95 soon, and I may even take some time to learn some Merit point stuff. Will probably be a couple days before I move on to either taking down the final Windurst mission, or at least getting into the last level cap mission.

Now, for the interesting stuff, the race... Well, Cereth is getting lots of Patreon money and practically has met all of his realistic goals already.... right now he is up to Crisis Core which he is playing in Hard Mode and he is up to the attack on the Shinra building. Might take a while, I don't know how hard  that is... Crumps2 is making up a little time... I guess.... he's about 1/2 way through Mystic Quest right now... with still VI to go before he gets to Crisis Core.

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Day #592 Recap (Final Fantasy XI)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): 225:23
Total Play Time - 1,435:53

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 52
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Windurst Mission 9-2!
Current Levels: RDM 93/DNC 46(50)... BLM 50... THF 30
Current skill levels/Desired skill levels:
Sword(307/335)
Elemental(323/315)
Enfeebling(292/361)
Healing(178/305)
Dark(204/255)
Enhancing(232/341)

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): Different day... same stuff... yeah, I know, sorry for the boringness.

Status & Notes: 

So, I came up with an idea for how I'm going to get to the next difficulty level of enemies here. That is, the Dancing Jewel and Olid Funguar. Really, the issue is the Olid Funguar, because as I said, they do like 1000 damage with their special attack to my tank. Really, this is dealable. The damage is completely able to be healed through, but you certainly want to end the fight as soon as possible. My elemental skill is basically at cap, so I should be able to chain elemental spells to just kill it quickly. Will probably go ahead and do that once I hit 94. I'm only a out 12k exp from it.

Over in the race... we still have some separation... I THINK Crumps finally finished FF V... currently Cereth is in the World of Ruin in FF VI... in Gogo's cave I think. It is all pretty interesting to watch, lemme tell you. If you're not watching it, you should be.

Friday, December 12, 2014

Day #591 Recap (Final Fantasy XI)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): 222:34
Total Play Time - 1,433:04

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 52
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Windurst Mission 9-2!
Current Levels: RDM 93/DNC 46(50)... BLM 50... THF 30
Current skill levels/Desired skill levels:
Sword(296/335)
Elemental(298/315) +
Enfeebling(286/361) +
Healing(177/305) +
Dark(200/255) +
Enhancing(231/341) +

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): More Crawler's Nest fun... tried out the Dancing Jewel's and Olid Funguars... and I got ROCKED when two Olid Funguars joined up on me... yeah... that was no fun.

Status & Notes: 

Okay, so, note to self... Olid Funguars hit REALLY REALLY hard... okay, well not physically, but they have an AoE which deals 400 damage to some people and 1000 damage to my tank... yikes! Yeah, I did kill a couple, but unfortunately, I learned that they will link with each other, and that was just not happening.  So, back to killing the other stuff, which unfortunately is not giving me chain exp anymore... but really, its the skills I'm caring about right now... so yeah.

So, race news... Crumps2 I guess is playing FF V blind... its going swimmingly let me tell you... he just opened up the void... and is going in without any weapons... or speed-running strats. Cereth took a short day yesterday... got into FF VI, though I can't say as of now exactly where he stopped. Maybe I'll update this when he starts up... I have to update my skills up there anyway.

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Day #590 Recap (Final Fantasy XI)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): 220:34
Total Play Time - 1,431:04

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 51
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Windurst Mission 9-2!
Current Levels: RDM 92/DNC 46(50)... BLM 50... THF 30
Current skill levels/Desired skill levels:
Sword(291/335)
Elemental(278/315)
Enfeebling(282/361)
Healing(176/305)
Dark(198/255)
Enhancing(230/341)

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): Continued down in the Crawler's Nest... lots of skill ups gotten, and lots more needed.

Status & Notes: 

So, yeah, keeping track of my skillups there. What I have there is actually only what it would take to hit the caps for Level 90... which is certainly very easily reachable with what I'm fighting now. I had a very good day, where I really had a simpler time taking down things than I did the previous day. I guess hitting Level 92 made a big difference for some reason. I got myself very close to Level 93... at some point, either at 93 or maybe at 94, I'm going to switch over to killing Olid Funguars and Dancing Jewels... basically Level 93-96 enemies instead of 91-93. Why? Well, for one, it will let me continue to level at a decent pace using chain bonuses. Secondly, higher level enemies usually means more skillups. If I hit level 95, my current cap, before I finish skilling up, we'll see if I just continue skilling up, or get ahead and start farming the items I need for the last level cap fight.

Over in the race... well, we've finally had some separation. Cereth did a pretty crazy speed run of FF V(snes version... boo) and launched himself ahead... then today, he finished up Mystic Quest in about 10 hours... which I mean, is going to be about what its going to be. So, now he's up to FFVI(snes version again... boo), and picking up Sabin as I type this. Crumps, well he's stuck somewhere in FF V... can't say exactly where.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission Review

As part of the "international" release of Final Fantasy X-2, Square decided to conclude an epilogue to the Final Fantasy X world of Spira. This epilogue would be done in a completely new game, done in the style of what we like to call "rogue-like" games. A randomized dungeon that you must progress through using only what you find inside. Does this game bring closure to the saga? Is it a game that you as Final Fantasy fans should be excited about, and pick up the HD Remastered version to play? Let's take a closer look.

First, as always, let's look at the story. The game takes place 3 months after the conclusion of X-2. The world is at peace, or at least trying to get there. No earth-shattering evil or danger is present. Yuna has returned to Besaid and has been spending time with the resurrected Tidus. Rikku has been keeping herself busy with all sorts of odd jobs. Paine... well we find out eventually is writing a book about the adventures that happened during X-2, and in doing so started to reminisce... so she wrote letters to Rikku and Yuna to convene for a new adventure at Iucytyr Tower. The significance of this tower is never really stated.

So, we climb the tower, and the girls realize that really they are different people, and they start to fight. Maybe they were never really close to begin with, and were only able to stick together because of the circumstances. Who knows, really. They climb to the top, and find a broken machina, which fixes itself once the girls renew their friendship... yay...

Yeah, not much of a story. Really, it starts out pretty well as you learn what everyone has been up to in the last few months... however, once that is over, the story kind of stalls out, and becomes incredibly uninteresting... almost a little reality showesque.

On to the mechanics. I stated before that this is a rogue-like game. What this means is you crawl through a dungeon, 80 floors in all, each one randomly generated with spawning monsters and randomly placed treasure. You must accumulate treasure with VERY limited inventory space and you can only use this to make your way to the top. This is also a turn based game, each time you move or attack, the enemies on the floor will then get their turn. You can use this information to create the best possible strategy to keep you from getting too hurt or dealing the most damage possible before you get hit.

What's unique in this game is the class system. All the dresspheres from X-2 appear in this game but work differently. You collect dresspheres, and you can combine ones of the same type to make a stronger version of that dressphere. You can equip up to five dresspheres, each one giving its own stat boosts, and conveying certain abilities onto you. Certain combinations of dresspheres also give you "auto-abilities" or passive abilities, whcih if you have them equipped for long enough you can create accessory versions of. You can equip up to two accessories. You should also know that equipped dresspheres and accessories still take up room in your inventory which is limited to 16 spaces.

So, basically, the game is one of inventory management. You can only hold so many items, and you need to reserve 7 of them for the current dresspheres you have equipped and the accessories you have equipped. You may want to carry some healing items or pick up more dresspheres you'll want to fuse later, it really becomes a game of choices.

Now, each dressphere you have equipped has its own life bar, and if it goes to 0, it is destroyed. In addition, whichever girl you choose to play as, has her own life bar, and if all life bars go to 0, it is game over... well sort of. You get kicked out of the tower, your levels reset, and you can only access what you have placed in your vault via a certain book you can find. This personal HP is also a resource used by some skills... which may or may not... okay they are... quite overpowered.

Every 5 levels, you are prevented from advancing until you perform certain actions, which including reading a certain number of books, killing a certain number of enemies, dropping a certain number of items, throwing a certain number of items, passing turns, attacking air... etc. This is fine and all, though it is extremely annoying if you are trying to play the game blind, as there are no indications of what you are supposed to do. Seriously, I can't find clues anywhere. Also, seriously, when you start off, read the tutorial and make sure you have all the commands down... the passing turn thing is so obscure, and there's very little visual indication if you're doing it right...

All in all, this makes for a fun game. It is simple enough, and goes on just long enough... or maybe just longer than it needs to... to keep it from getting too repetitive. You get cutscenes every ten floors which makes for a good carrot to chase. I will say though, that the balancing is really not great. There are some abilities and combinations of spheres which are just amazingly overpowered. Once you find something that works, you can just grind up your power and will have absolutely no trouble getting through it or fear for death at all. Seriously, even in my initial run, before I used a restart guide to start over with all my items, levels, and dresses... it was just taking longer to kill anything... I was never really in any danger.

The graphics... are not fantastic. I mean they're not bad for what's really obviously a quick, thrown together side game. All the monsters are in a nice 3D model, the cutscenes use the same engine as X-2, and I will say the backgrounds for the little areas the cutscenes take place in are real nice. Obviously, there's not a lot of selection in the music, but it makes for fine background music, I never really got too sick of hearing it. Its not anything special, in conclusion... but it is not supposed to be.

So, in conclusion, I would not fault anybody for skipping this game. Sure, play it, if you want to be a completionist, or get all the trophies, or you really like rogue-like games. There are probably better rogue-like games out there... there are certainly better Final Fantasy games out there... but I guess if you are bored, there are worse things you can do then just plug away at a few floors. I wish the mechanics didn't have to be so restrictive, and there's probably enough variety in the spheres to give some replay value, but the story is not worth anything. This is a kind of unnecessary epilogue to a game that didn't need one.

Day #589 Recap (Final Fantasy XI)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): 211:13
Total Play Time - 1,421:43

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 51
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Windurst Mission 9-2! (Current Levels RDM 91/DNC 45(50)... BLM 50... THF 30)

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): Headed down to Crawler's Nest... why? Well, though I'm up at Level 91... I haven't done any skillups since the Maat fight... whoops. So, that needs to be done. I headed down to the big room in the lower level to take on some King Crawlers and Vespos... why? Well, might as well still gain some exp while I'm skilling up... yeah, these fights take a while... but still its kind of nice to have a change of pace for a bit.

Status & Notes: 

Wow, these are going to be so much shorter for a while. Not a bad thing, it gets tiring typing all these up. So, where I'm currently at in FF XI is still needing to work up to level cap, and probably taking a break somewhere around 95 to go take care of the last Windurst Mission. As I talked about above, the problem is since I've been levelling up on low level enemies, I haven't been getting any skillups. So, that needs to be done, as I'm really woefully weak right now and its going to be very important that I cap out all my relevant skills at some point.

So, today I'm planning on probably starting work on my Last Mission review, hopefully will have it done this week. Also, continuing skilling up... I'll probably hit Level 92 today as well.  Who knows, maybe by the time I'm done skilling up, I'll be strong enough to be alot more efficient down here.

Your daily race update... Both players finished up FFIV:TAY... including Lost Babil... not bad. Crumps has just booted up FF V, and I'm sure in the next couple hours once Cereth wakes up he'll be making a start on it as well... all being said, I'd be very surprised if this race was done by New Years...

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Day #588 Recap (Final Fantasy XI)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy XI

Final Play Time(Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission): 17:46
Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): 211:13
Total Play Time - 1,421:43

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 51
Final Deaths(Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission): 0
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Windurst Mission 9-2! (Current Levels RDM 91/DNC 45(50)... BLM 50... THF 30)

Stuff Did Today (FF X-2 Last Mission): So, continued hiking up the tower all the way up to Floor 79... where there was no elevator... huh? Well, we let the Founder come and kick us out... but wait! He does not kick us out, instead he boots us down to Floor 77?!?!? Okay... well, while contemplating this turn of events he shows up again on Floor 77 and this time boots us UPSTAIRS to Floor 80!

On Floor 80 we prepared for the almighty Major Numerus... a 4 headed hydra thing, that we killed in the Creature Creator in X-2... so anyway, this version is a heck of a lot simpler. At my almighty end levels... Yuna 98/GNM 98/DRK 99/GUN 24/LDL 19/WHM 19 and my magic rating of 215... he stood no chance. After 4 Black skies, he busted on through a wall and ran up some stairs... another 4 black skies... busted through another wall... after 4 more... yeah, it was all over.

So, we made it to the very top of the tower with some broken ancient device... sigh... and a great view of Spira and some falling stars... and a giant mobile???? Well, yes, apparently they'll all be connected forever, yet different... yes, I got that over the last 40 floors or so...

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): Finished up a little levelling... up to 91, then headed back to down to do some inventory management and buy some new spells, including Refresh II!!! Yay 6MP/tick!

Status & Notes: 

So, okay, done with X-2 Last Mission... and while I'll write a full review soon, would just like to talk a little about it here. First of all, I really wish there was some more story to tell in the game. It's like after Floor 40, they just ran out of story and created some conflict between the girls. It was a little disappointing from an epilogue point of view.

From a gameplay point of view, really its pretty good. The secret room stuff is pretty game breaking really, but honestly, there's only so much you can take of using a roomwide attack that kills everything before it gets kind of boring... Also, I don't understand how you're supposed to figure out how to break the barriers if you don't have some kind of guide. Yeah, I kind of stumbled upon the solutions to the first 6 or 7... but like once you get to the ones where you have to pass turns... I mean, I doubt I'd have EVER figured that one out without looking it up.

Which brings me to the equally cryptic end of the game... seriously, you've spent the whole game avoiding the founder... and then you HAVE to let him get to you twice in a row...  I don't know how necessary this really was.  All in all kind of interesting, a game based on around inventory management... by no means was this a great game... but eh, was worth something I guess....

Now, time to start focusing on XI.

For those interested int he race... they're both on the last area of The After Years... Cereth is currently on the last stretch as we speak... just got Bahamut back.... I think Crumps is closer to the top of the ruins. But, really, in trying to speedrun this, they've just made things difficult for themselves... Cereth is honestly playing this rather blind... and it shows.... neither runner did any work in the challenge dungeons... and are woefully low-levelled... all kind of funny really.

Monday, December 8, 2014

Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission Complete

So, you may have noticed I'm not doing completion stats anymore... but that said, I still would like to mark when I complete the games... rest assured, in tomorrow's update I'lll have the completion time (17:46) and a review of the very strange end of the game... so now its time to focuis a bit on XI, before beginning our Ivalice story in XII...

Final Fantasy X-2 Creature Creator Review

When Square Enix rereleased Final Fantasy X-2, they decided they needed to beef it up a bit. Maybe they realized what I did, that they had a really good combat system, except the difficulty was a little lacking. Maybe they just wanted to add something new... or maybe they just wanted you to be able to fight as a chocobo or tonberry... well whatever the reason, they added the Creature Creator which works in conjunction with the main game. This addition substantially changes the gameplay, but is it for the better, or the worse, and does it maybe make this into a game that should be played by the Final Fantasy masses.

As far as story goes... well, there's not much. Shinra has created a system in which he can trap certain fiends and store them. You can then train them and fight with them. As you train them you learn more about their stories, and if you raise them enough you can get cutscenes showing what happens to the fiends after you release them back into the wilds of Spira. Since there's REALLY not much of a plot, and really, its not the biggest spoiler ever... I'm going to spoil the ending of the plot here, since it will be important later on in the review. It is revealed at the end of the game, that Shinra created this system because his mother was killed and believes she is a fiend, and thus would like to find her.

On to the game mechanics. You first must catch fiends. You do this by placing traps in different areas in a way that is very similar to using the airship. There are four different types of traps. Small, Medium, Large, and Species. The size of the trap corresponds to the size of the monster you'll catch, and species lets you try for a specific type of monster. The list of possible monsters you can catch depends on a few things. Mostly, it is based on the Chapter you are in, but finishing certain monster's stories or certain game events can also lock or unlock certain monsters.

Once you catch a monster, it is time to train it up. You can either keep it for your battle team or train it up and release it to see its story. If you want to see its story you must have it gain 4 story levels. A monster can gain a story level by either having it gain an experience level or through having it win a tournament or when you finish certain events in the main game. You can fight with your monsters in a few different ways. You can have it join your team in the main game by replacing Yuna, Rikku, or Paine. You can have it enter a tournament or you can enter the Battle Simulator.

I'd like to talk a little more about having your monster join your main team. In fact, in any of the above mentioned modes, you can actually use any battle party, including Yuna, Rikku, and Paine. So, literally its like adding party members. Monsters you catch fight differently, though, and I'll get into that shortly. When you place a monster into your fighting party, its size is very relevant. A small monster is the same size as one of your main members and takes up 1 slot in your party. A medium monster will take up 2 slots in your party, and so can only have a small monster or one of the girls along with it. A large monster fights alone as it takes up all 3 slots in your party.

The main difference in fighting with a monster instead of one of the girls is you don't have direct control over it. Each monster has an AI, that actually changes depending on how much you use it. A monster can learn different abilities, and chooses one to learn on each of its turns. As with any memberof your party, it can be equipped with a Garment Grid, Dressphere, and two accessories. These can sometimes have different effects on monsters than with your main members usually giving them additional abilities. In addition to any abilities learned from equipped items, a monster can learn 4 active abilities and 4 passive abilities. They can learn these either from having certain abilities used ON them, or by feeding items to them. Feeding items to them can ALSO give monsters PERMANENT stat boosts. So yes, you can train your monsters to really be infinitely stronger than Yuna, Rikku, and Paine.

Now, I said before you can't control what you're monsters do in battle. This is not entirely true. When fighting with caught monsters, you get a bar at the top of your screens that contains 5 stars. The more stars you have in this bar, the more damage your monsters will deal, the more they will take and the more likely they will use offensive abilities. Conversely, the less stars in the bar, the less damage they will deal, the less damage they will take and the more likely they will use support abilities.

Now, there may not be a plot to the creature creaotor, but there certainly is a progression to the game. This is mostly found in progressing through the tournaments of the game. There are a total of 10 tournaments in the game. Each tournament has you progressing through a single elimination bracket against different named preset teams. Winning a tournament gets you new traps to use to catch monsters, as well as one of a list of preset items, generally accessories that can be used to improve your monsters. The challenge in these rises very very quickly. You unlock new tournaments by either winning the previous tournament a set number of times or through catching and seeing the stories of certain monsters.

To train your monsters, you are going to be spending most of the time in the Battle Simulator. This is a room where you can fight against any of the preset teams that you have faced previously in a tournament. You can fight them over and over again without limit. This makes it incredibly easy to gain levels or to fight certain monsters if you want to steal something from it or get a certain drop or anything like that. It makes farming incredibly easy and really makes alot of these functions in the main game kind of useless since it is SO much easier to farm them here. Not EVERY monster is available in some capacity in the Battle Simulator, but most are.

Since a large portion of this game can be played while you are still in Chapter 1 of the main game, you can also unlock certain items that are VERY powerful for the early part of the game, and really remove any challenge from it if you are willing to work on levelling and improving your monsters to the point that they can win some of the middle difficulty tournaments. While this is not easy, you really can trivialize the main game very early on by putting some effort in here.

Now, while you can trivialize the main game, in no way can you trivialize the progression through the Creature Creator. The end game here is VERY difficult. Let's go over the different levels of difficulty you find here. You begin by going through the Standard tournament which you can farm easily with very little training. Beat this a few times and you unlock Standard Cup: Hard. This is a small step up, but again, just by training some experience levels, you should be okay. Grand cup is next, and here, already you are going to start fighting some monsters which are not found until Chapter 5 of the main game. Here, you are already going to need to learn how to balance your party properly and start optimizing your damage output. You're really still just focused on offense, however.

The first real brick wall of the game comes in the fourth tournament, Grand Cup: Hard. Here, you will eventually unlock Tonberry the Ripper, a Mega Tonberry. He will basically one-shor any of  your characters until they have really high defense, a lot of hp, and probably auto-protect. It is now you really have to start training your monsters pretty high, and even then its a crap shoot if you're going to kill him. You get through this fight, and you really earn your way into the next phase of the game.

The next tournament, and the final one you can get to in Chapter 1 of the main game is the Youth League Cup. You can win some incredibly awesome items here, but to do it, you'll have to get through some really really hard fights. All the enemies here have a LOT of HP, so your offensive stats have to be insane. The hardest fight here at the start is Nooj. He has an attack called Lightfall which will hit everyone for a flat 5000 HP. Now, you probably have a lot of HP if you got through Tonberry the Ripper, but it is FINALLY here, that you need to learn how to properly control your monsters to be able to heal properly.

Once you beat the Youth League Cup a few times, a new team will appear. Ex-Crimson Squad. This fight pits you against Baralai, Nooj, and Gippal all at once. This fight will make you want to tear you hair out. The increased damage output, and pure length of this fight makes it insane. You will have to endure multiple lightfalls, possibly loss of MP, and just a ton of other damage.

As you get further into the game you can recruit different monsters. The next two tournaments require you use specific monsters to participate. These are the chocobo cup and the cactuar cup. Honestly, these are MUCH easier than the Youth League Cup and I guess just a different place for you to fight as you progress through the main game, not much to say here.

As you catch and release certain monsters as you go through the game, you'll find some monsters that don't have tales. In fact they'll tell you that they possess a fragment of a fayth. When you release them you gain the ability to fight Dark Aeons in the Battle Simulator. Now, these are the Dark Aeons you fight in the main story of X-2. Not the Dark Aeons from FF X... unfortunately... but still. If you find all of them and release all of the Fayth Fragments you unlock the Aeon Cup. Again, and disappointingly... still not as hard as the Youth League Cup.

The next cup, the Fiend Cup is unlocked by going through a long string of monsters that you have to catch and release, which then unlocks the next monster, which you have to catch and release a total of 8 times. At the end of the fiend cup, you either can choose to receive Omega Weapon or Ultima Weapon to train. If you choose Omega Weapon and release him, you find out he was the king of the fiend world and by releasing him the Fiend world will become unstable. Shinra then merges with the spirit of Omega weapon to become Almighty Shinra, whom you then must defeat. This is decently hard... probably could be harder though.

When you have beaten all the tournaments once, the last tournament unlocks. The Farplane cup. Here you fight a lot of special enemies. Also, this contains some of the hardest fights in the entire game. These include Concherer and Trema, a copy from Via Infinito. Paragon, who is a harder version of the one in Via Infinito, and the last enemy... Major Numerus. This is truly an EPIC end boss, who has all the difficulty you could ever want and is nearly IMPOSSIBLE if you use Yuna, Rikku, and Paine. Beating him gives you some of the most insane accessories ever as well as giving you ULTIMATE bragging rights.

Now, the game tracks all the monsters you catch and release, and if you manage to find all of them... including ones that can only be obtained in a new game +, you will find the last entry in the bestiary automatically filled by Shinra. If you select him you can view a special ending including the spoilers I mentioned above. This is very useful since it gives you the ability to make a new start point for New Game + at any point in the game. Now, what REALLY REALLY stinks about this, is once you get it you can NEVER see the bonus Zanarkand scene for getting 100% in the main story again. Somehow it was decided, that the Shinra bonus scene is a "better" bonus scene than the Zanarkand scene. This REALLY bothers me...

That said, this addition to X-2 is completely awesome. It gives you all the challenge you could ever want. It is really fun training the monsters you catch and figuring out all the strategies you need to. Getting through the brick wall fights in the game makes you feel incredibly accomplished, and even once you get really good with your abilities and everything, there is always Major Numerus if you want a challenge. I probably spent as much time in here as I did in the main game itself in my playthrough. I highly recommend going through this entire part of the game... though maybe leave a few monsters uncaught so you can properly see the Zanarkand ending.

Day #577 Recap (X-2 Last Mission)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission, Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission): ~15:00
Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): 211:13
Total Play Time - 1,418:57

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 51
Current Deaths(Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission): 0
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF X-2 Last Mission): Floor 71 (Yuna Lv 94/ DRK 99/GNM 38/GUN 24/LDL 17/WHM 17)

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Windurst Mission 9-2! (Current Levels RDM 90/DNC 45(50)... BLM 50... THF 30)

Stuff Did Today (FF X-2 Last Mission): On Floor 44, I waited and bided by time... and eventually the Founder showed up... he wanted to change me into a Leblanc Goon and kick me out of the tower, I had other ideas. I put on a Thief dressphere and stole the almighty Triple Tiara from him!!! Now I can do 3 regular attacks in one turn...  woohoo!!!

I then made it all the way up to Floor 61... and it was time to finally return to the Mega Tonberry room. I once again got Copy Techniques and brought my Dark Knight dressphere up to Level 99. My Magic was now over 9000!!!! err 190... but still. This time the Mega Tonberries went down in 2 Black skies if I got them by themselves... so... easy peasy... and this time the game gave me the trophy... woohoo!

Continued on til I passed Floor 70... and we get another cutscene. This time Rikku is depressed. Yuna knows exactly why. The more time they spend together, the further they seem to be moving apart, and Rikku doesn't like that, or the fighting that is coming with it... Rikku is SHOCKED that Yuna could read her so well... even though that's basically what the last 2 cutscenes have been about... sigh... Paine stipulates that maybe they really didn't know each other that well to begin with... they made it through before because they had to be for the good of Spira... sure... why not.

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): None

Status & Notes: 

Okay... on the last stretch of X-2 Last Mission now... literally just 10 levels to go. Sort of... the ending is a little weird, and I'll most likely get into that tomorrow... but yes, I'll eventually just make it to Level 80, and I'll take down the last boss... which REALLY shouldn't be that difficult... especially since I can double my GNM level before the last fight and get another... oh 20 or so Magic to put into Black Sky... I know the last boss has like 4000 HP... each time you fight him... so it might take like 4 Black skies... ya know if he has comparable defense to the Mega Tonberries... I'm really not that concerned.

Another thing I'd like to do today is get tot he Creature Creator review... haven't had time to get to that yet, but I'm kind of looking forward to writing it.

My obligatory daily race update... as of this moment... Crumps is just starting the last tale of The After Years... last night Cereth was also on the last tale... just not sure if he finished it or not.

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Day #576 Recap (X-2 Last Mission)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission, Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission): ~11:00
Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): ~183:00 (+)
Total Play Time - 1,386:44 (+)

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 51
Current Deaths(Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission): 0
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF X-2 Last Mission): Floor 41 (Yuna Lv 70/ DRK 48/GUN 22/LDL 15/WHM 9/GNM 6)

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Windurst Mission 9-2! (Current Levels RDM 90/DNC 45(50)... BLM 50... THF 30)

Stuff Did Today (FF X-2 Last Mission): None

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): None

Status & Notes: 

Yeah... that was 7 hours of Christmas Shopping... interesting stats from the day... 18500 steps taken... 10 miles walked... 3 malls visited... 1 slice of Cheesecake eaten... lots of coupons used...

Heh, we'll get back into some X-2 Last Mission and XI today.

For those interested, the FF race is still on. Cereth is going on Edward's tale in the After Years as I type this... Crumps seems to also be on The After Years, I saw him on Edge's tale earlier today. though, to be honest, I have NO idea how many tales they've all actually finished.

Day #575 Recap (X-2 Last Mission)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission, Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission): ~11:00
Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): ~183:00 (+)
Total Play Time - 1,386:44 (+)

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 51
Current Deaths(Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission): 0
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF X-2 Last Mission): Floor 41 (Yuna Lv 70/ DRK 48/GUN 22/LDL 15/WHM 9/GNM 6)

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Windurst Mission 9-2! (Current Levels RDM 90/DNC 45(50)... BLM 50... THF 30)

Stuff Did Today (FF X-2 Last Mission): Made it to Floor 41, where I tried using some secret rooms again. Found the last secret room, and when I opened it up... ah, the glorious sight of a 4xDressmaker book, and the 2xCopy Techniques book... so, levelled my Dark Knight up to Level 99, found the last opened corridor and on to the Mega Tonberry room!!! These guys have a lot of HP but with about 167 Magic rating, you can take em down... just takes a few Black Skies... however... umm... no trophy??? Sigh... guess we're not keeping that save file...

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): Just a little grinding.... RDM up to 90

Status & Notes: 

Interesting day... I was curious to see whether or not I would be able to take on the Mega Tonberries where I was. If I would need to Doom them, or if I could actually deal enough damage... apparently I could. It is a very odd room they are in, somehow the graphics on the floor kind of mess up how Black Sky works in there... which in a weird way is kind of helpful here, since it lets you take them down one by one, which is preferable here.

Now, apparently you NEED to beat the Mega Tonberry room when you're in floor 61 or above for some reason... why? I don't know... The fact is, though, I'm probably pretty good to go for the rest of this playthrough... its just a matter of getting through to Floor 80 now... and then I can concentrate on XI a bit...

There is something I do want to try coming up on Floor 44 though...

Friday, December 5, 2014

Day #574 Recap (X-2 Last Mission)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission, Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission): ~11:00
Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): ~183:00 (+)
Total Play Time - 1,386:44 (+)

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 51
Current Deaths(Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission): 0
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF X-2 Last Mission): Floor 26?!? (Yuna Lv 60/ DRK 42/GUN 17/LDL 15/WHM 9/GNM 6)

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Windurst Mission 9-2! (Current Levels RDM 89/DNC 44(50)... BLM 50... THF 30)

Stuff Did Today (FF X-2 Last Mission): So, I finally tried out the Secret Room book, and lo an behold, I found a room filled with stone pillars! After breaking a few I found my way into a room with some odd pedastals... and more importantly a book with 9x Restart Guides!!!!

I quickly left the tower and cleaned out my vault inventory, and reentered... on my way back up I used a couple more secret room books. One led me to a room where I found a Level 15 Lady Luck Dressphere... nice upgrade. I also found a second room with stone pillars... this one just had a lot of Tidying Up books in it... bleh...

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): None

Status & Notes: 

Yay! My plan worked... The Secret Room method was certainly the best method for getting the Restart Guides. It was really necessary, too. I was getting a bit underlevelled... I DID have to reset the game a couple of times. I don't want to waste the secret room guides... and until you find the stone pillar secret rooms, you really don't get much from the other ones. Obviously I need to eventualy get all 3 stone pillar rooms so I can go to the Mega Tonberry room and get the trophy there.

Since I reset the game I've been able to really level up my Dark Knight a bunch. This is great, since as I said yesterday, all I need is to get it up to Level 49 so I can double it. My magic stat is already over 110... so it will be well over 150 by the time I get to the Mega Tonberry room... hopefully this will be enough power. I'd also like to try and get a Thief sphere and get the Triple Tiara accessory on Level 44...

For those interested... in the FF race currently... Cereth is on the moon getting FuSoYa in FF4 as we speak... I'm not positive with Crumps is... he's playing the PSP version of FF4 though, that much I know.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Day #573 Recap (X-2 Last Mission)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission, Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission): ~8:00
Final Play Time(Final Fantasy X-2): 164:10
Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): ~183:00 (+)
Total Play Time - 1,383:44 (+)

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 51
Current Deaths(Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission): 0
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF X-2 Last Mission): Floor 66 (DRK 22/GUN 17/GNM 4/WHM 7/FES 5)

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Windurst Mission 9-2! (Current Levels RDM 89/DNC 44(50)... BLM 50... THF 30)

Stuff Did Today (FF X-2 Last Mission): Through Floor 60... where we had to take down Ultima Weapon. With that done, we were back outside... where we saw a glorious sunset... and all the girls started recollecting their favorite sunset memories??? Apparently there was a great sunset the night that Nooj shot Baralai, Gippal, and Paine after being possessed by Shuyin... and Rikku and Yuna remember a great sunset the night they first camped outside of Zanarkand... and yeah, that's about it... these are getting worse as we go on.

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): None

Status & Notes: 

So updating the current FF race going on... Crumps broke Final Fantasy III... apparently the PC version is a bit bugged... so they are both currently playing Final Fantasy IV... Cereth is playing through the Sealed Cave as we speak... PC version once again, not sure how bugged that one is. I will note, the graphical and ya know processing power tweaks that these ports got on the PC versions make them look VERY nice... pretty much making the 3D versions much more playable and the battles a lot less tedious.

So, back to X-2 Last Mission. I've got a new plan as far as Restart Guides go... I can get a 9-pack of them if I can find the first Special Secret Room... I DO have 2 Find Secret Room books, and 5 Notebooks to copy them with... so, that's not a problem. The plan really is to try and get my Dark Knight up to level 49 if at ALL possible... then hit the third special secret room where I can get the Copy Techniques book... this can be used to literally just double the level of a dressphere. I'm figuring at this point, I should pretty much be able to take out anything.... we'll see how that goes.

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Final Fantasy X-2 Review

Final Fantasy was one of the leading franchises in the video game industry, however, there were still some things that it hadn't done yet. One of those things, was have a direct sequel to one of the numbered entries in the sequel. What Square came up with was a game that was very different in tone. Never had there been a Final Fantasy game where the main evil had already been defeated. The world had to be happier. Many people think that Final Fantasy X-2 was the beginning of a downturn in the quality of the Final Fantasy franchise. I think it is worth taking a closer look, though, to see if maybe this game has more to it than first glance.

As always, let's start by looking at the story of the game. The game takes place a few years after the conclusion of Final Fantasy X. The world of Spira is in the eternal calm brought about by Yuna and her defeat of Yu Yevon. The people have splintered into two main factions, The Youth League which wants to recover spheres and find the true history of Spira instead of the history that was spoonfed to them by Yevon. The other faction is New Yevon, a faction that is looking to protect the old temples. As many of these spheres are in the temples... well, these factions don't get along very well. In fact, there very well may be a war about to break out of this.

In the middle of all this, Yuna has joined Rikku in a group known as the Gullwings, a group of Sphere Hunters. The group also contains Brother, as well as a couple of other Al Bhed named Buddy the navigator of the group and Shinra, a genius Al Bhed who has invented the Garment Grid which allows the girls to obtain powers from different spheres they find. Yuna is busy looking for some trace of Tidus, when one day she happens upon a sphere which looks very ancient and yet seems to contain some scenes of Tidus! How could this be? Well, they keep looking for more spheres, and they finally happen upon another sphere of this mysterious man in front of a huge machina.

Now, it turns out that the leaders of the Youth League and New Yevon have been looking for this machina! It is called Vegnagun, and it a machina created a thousand years ago during the Great Machina War and has some kind of emotions and is possible of destroying all of Spira. Now, through various spheres gathered by the Gullwings, we find out that the leader of New Yevon, Baralai, and the leader of the Youth League, Nooj, knew each other for quite a while, they were looking to join an elite group of Crusaders known as the Crimson Squad along with Gippal, the new leader of the Al Bhed Machine Faction as well as Paine... the newest member of the Gullwings.

Eventually, Vegnagun starts digging holes at all the Chambers of the Fayth and corrupting their Aeons into Dark Aeons, which greatly depresses Yuna. After defeating a few of them, Yuna falls into one of these holes and ends up deep in the Farplane where she only escapes with the help of a certain phantom Blitzball Player. Yuna then puts ona  performance using a dressphere of an ancient songstress, this kind of stops the war between the factions...

Yuna then discovers that the man in the sphere who looks like Tidus is actually a man named Shuyin, who lived during the Great Machina War, and he was in love with a woman named Lenne... who is the same person from Yuna's songstress dressphere. They were in love and were tragically shot after Shuyin tried to control Vegnagun to turn the tide of the Machina War.

Shuyin's spirit, however, stuck around, however, and managed to possess Nooj and continued his search to use Vegnagun. Later on, Shuyin passes over to Baralai and heads deep into the Farplane. Yuna eventually catches up and just as Baralai is about to destroy Spira wth Vegnagun... the Gullwings dismantle Vegnagun and Spira is saved... again... yay.

Throughout this whole thing there are also a TON of sidestories, and other characters such as the Leblanc Syndicate, who kind of acts as a rival to the Gullwings, but ends up tangled up in the web of Vegnagun. The sidestories include Wakka and Lulu who are having a baby in Besaid. The Besaid Aurochs have joined the Youth League and are trained by a hardnose man named Beclem who has a complete hatred of Yevon and even discredits Yuna as nothing but a relic of the past. Dona and Barthello are on opposite sides of the conflict and are literally separated within Kilika. Cid has become an entrepreneur and with the help of Isaaru has turned Zanarkand into a tourist area. Kimahri has his hands full as Elder of the Ronso, as many of the youth want to go to war with the Guado, and two children have run off in search of a way to fix Kimhari's horn.

Yeah, I know this is horribly disjointed... but guess, what, it doesn't really play much better.The main problem, is that the main conflict of the game has absolutely NOTHING to do with the original game. Yes, the story, along with sidequests as a whole, give an incredible depth to the world of Spira, but as a sequel there needed to be more of a tie with the original story... such as Tidus and the Fayth... and yes, I know there is a little there, but technically that is all just an easter egg. That said, many of the new characters are well done, especially Baralai, Nooj, and Paine, they added a lot of backstory in there, the Leblanc gang is also well done... unfortunately, I never found Shuyin and Lenne to be anything other than completely annoying. So to me, the story is really a negative to this game.

Now on to the mechanics, and there is a LOT to cover here. First, let's talk about the way you navigate through the game. For the first time ever, you are in control of an airship from the very start of the game,meaning you can visit any area right from the start.The game is told in 5 chapters. In each chapter, you can visit each area to advance its story a little bit, or open up a new minigame, or in some cases, you'll just be locked out completely or there'll be nothing new to do. Certain areas are marked as hotspots as you progress, and these areas must be completed in order for you to advance the story. Basically, this means, there are a LOT of optional areas and sidequests in the game, In fact, if you want you could really beat this game in just a few hours by only doing the required areas. The game, though, is more about getting a deep understanding of the world, and as stated before the main story isn't anything that's worth rushing through. Also, the game keeps a somewhat "hidden" count of various cutscenes and story points in the game to give a completion rating, so to get 100% (which includes the best ending), you need to visit all the areas throughout all the chapters. All in all, the game just plays better if you take your time to go through all the areas. In fact, this may be one of the most fleshed out Final Fantasy games ever in that regard.

You only ever get the three characters in the game, Yuna, Rikku, and Paine. They can only equip 3 different items. A Garment Grid, and two accessories. As stated before, Garment Grids hold dresspheres which act as the jobs of the game. We'll get a little more into how they work in just a bit. Garment Grids also hold innate bonuses, and can give more bonuses in battle under certain circumstances. Accessories give many varied bonuses from stat boosts to speed boosts to status immunities... basically your standard Final Fantasy accessories...

Battle once again returns to an Active Time Battle setup, as your characters each have an action bar which fills up before they can take their turn. What's different this time, is that the characters' attacks can be chained together to give a damage boost if timed correctly. Abilities are learned by defeating enemies and performing certain actions while having a dressphere equipped. You can choose what order to learn abilities, though there are certain abilities which have prerequisites.

Let's return to the Garment Grids. Each garment grid has paths between the different dresspheres you place in them. In battle, you can travel along the paths of the garment grid to switch between dresspheres. Sometimes, this will take you through gates which will give you more bonuses. Usually this means more stat boosts, but could be other things as well. If you visit all the dresppheres in a garment grid in a single battle, you can then equip a characters ultimate dressphere which is kind of like the summoning mechanic of the game. The other two characters get removed from the battle and you basically control one super unit... which itself can learn more abilities.

This, in all, is very well put together and thought out, and is a great attempt at doing some multiclassing. However... the only downside to all this is that for the most part it is COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY. Most of the enemies in the game are not very powerful and there are very few which can't be defeated by just using normal attacks. There are also some very overpowered dresspheres which really will cover all your bases. The one that comes to mind is Dark Knight. This dressphere is one of the most powerful physical fighter and comes with an attack called Darkness which completely bypasses defense including physical immunity... so basically, you can kill anything with it.

Really, I think it is truly a shame that what should be such a great battle system is ruined by basically a lack of difficulty. Even in the bonus dungeon, which does include some decently difficult monsters, you can still pretty much overpower the enemies just by setup, and not by using the Garment Grid bonuses or special dresspheres. That said, if you take the time to learn abilities and play around with the different dresspheres, it is in fact a very fun experience with a lot of interesting class combinations to play around with...and if you really want to try out the special dresspheres, please remember to go into the options and turn off the animations... they are way too long for what they need to me, and you are going to be forced to watch them once any way. It kind of stinks.

Let's take a look at the minigames and bonus content of the game. There are many small minigames contained within the Calm Lands which has been turned into an amusement company, you can play them for currency to buy some items, but really these are just small minigames. There are quite a few larger minigames and activites you can get engrossed in throughout the game. The first one you'll probably come across is called the Gunner's Gauntlet. Here, you run through the path to Besaid Beach, with a gun and you need to shoot all the enemies that run your way. Each enemy will drop some more ammo, including different types of ammo, and you need to continually kill monsters in order to get a high score. There are 10 different difficulty to levels and there is alot of strategy involved, with a very specific perfectionist feel to it. Its fun and defintitely worth a few hours of your time.

The next big minigame is the digging minigame. This goes through the whole game and has you picking up various things around a small section of the desert. It ties in with an optional event in the story, kind of a "superboss", as well as letting you get the Al Bhed primers to be able to understand the different Al Bhed conversations throughout the game. The next minigame is Sphere Break. This is a math based minigame in which you have to make multiples of a certain number using coins with number values assigned. This is mostly used for one tournament in Chapter 3, but can be played at other times as well. Really, this one is pretty fun, though pretty easy, and I wish it could have been maybe used a little more than it was. The next large minigame is Blitzball. This one, which I'm going to say right from the start is a lot worse than its Final Fantasy X counterpart, has you as the coach of a Blitzball team that is replaceing the Besaid Aurochs who are not playing as they've joined the Youth League. Basically, you have a training menu which improves your players stats, then you watch your team play blitzball games since ya know... you don't have Tidus and Yuna isn't a blitzball player herself. Really, this again just becomes about learning the best way to train your players and then just going through the tedium of watching games to earn more training points... lather, rinse, repeat. In this version of the game, its even worse, since there's really no unique items you can win from this.

The final large "minigame" is chocobo raising. If you do certain things during the story, Clasko will open up a Chocobo ranch where the Monster arena was in the first game. You can then catch chocobos during certain random encounters. As you fight, you earn various food for the chocobos which can be used to raise your chocobos. The reward for doing this is a secret dungeon that can be opened up at the end of the game, which I honestly don't know how you're supposed to figure out with some sort of guide.

The "postgame" dungeon of the game is called Via Infinito, a secret area in which the original founder of New Yevon ran away to, to hide some of the spheres found by early sphere hunters. It is a 100-level dungeon in which you have to solve small puzzles to continue down and contains EVERY monster in the game. This is important as there is a VERY optional sidequest which makes you fight every monster in its oversouled form to win the best garment grid in the game. Basically this means fighting monsters of the same type a certain number of times, and the next monster that comes will be oversouled... it is very time consuming. This dungeon is very very long and contains the few fights in the game that could be considered at all difficult, and rewards you with some insanely powerful items... one of which is actually UNIQUE... which in this version of the game is saying something.

Now, you may have noticed I've omitted a VERY important aspect to his remastered version of X-2. The Creature Creator. Why? Well, I actually consider this a completely separate game to X-2. Yes, it is intertwined in various ways, but really, this is standalone, and I am going to write a completely separate review for this.

Onto graphics and music. The graphics of the game are not as redone as they were for Final Fantasy X, however, they did not need to me as much. Square Enix learned a thing or two between the games, and really the original graphics for this game still dont' look that bad. That said, they certainly did some work on most of the main characters of the game and they all look great in any and all of their dresspheres. The environments look as good as they do in the remastered version of X. The cutscenes of course look incredible. No real complaints as far as the graphics go. The sound of this game, well, its certainly not bad, but there are very few real memorable songs for this game. It is all very upbeat to match the mood of the world, which is can be a little jarring. Of course, then there is the big exception, which is the theme music of the game... kind of a reverse version of the prelude, which sounds a bit somber and has ALWAYS sounded a bit out of place to me. Again, though, some good upbeat tunes, nothing extraordinary, but it all fits.

In conclusion, this game is a very mixed bag. On one hand, it is amazingly expansive... in fact, for the time, I think it is a real accomplishment to have a world this fleshed out with characters and backstory. The problem is, with the real emotional draw having been eliminated in X, there was really nothing that could fill its void. The main villain really had no soul, and they tried to make it work by attaching him to some well fleshed out characters like Nooj and Baralai, but it just didn't work. Also, they created a wonderful battle system, but without the difficulty to really take advantage of it and enjoy it. Is this game as bad as people make it out to be? No, I don't think it is... if it is played correctly, which is a big if. Is there a way to save the game though?? Well maybe there is, I will finish by going out of my way to say that the HD Remaster version of this game is completely worth playing... and you'll have to read my next review to understand why.


Day #572 Recap (X-2 Last Mission)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission, Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission): ~8:00
Current Play Time(Final Fantasy X-2): ~138:00 (still need to get this)
Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): ~183:00 (+)
Total Play Time - 1,357:34 (+)

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 51
Current Deaths(Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission): 0
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF X-2 Last Mission): Floor 53 (DRK 14/GUN 17/GNM 5/WHM 3/FES 3)

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Windurst Mission 9-2! (Current Levels RDM 89/DNC 44(50)... BLM 50... THF 30)

Stuff Did Today (FF X-2 Last Mission): Floor 50 down which means another cutscene... this time Yuna and Rikku are very interested in who actually invited them to the tower... maybe Leblanc... maybe Rin... NO!!!! It was Paine. dum dum dum....

Apparently Paine was feeling very lonely over the last few months and really missed being on adventures with the Gullwings... she thought if everyone got back together she could get that old feeling back, however, nothing has been quite the same...

Then a few more levels... and you know... no Restart Guides...

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): None

Status & Notes: 

Some interesting things today! First of all, kotaku has noted that there are two twitch players who are having a month long race to see who can finish 21 Final Fantasy games the fastest.... here's a link

http://kadgar.net/live/Crumps2/cereth

Yeah, basically doing what I am, only over an insanely short amount of time, and doing a slightly shorter list of games... no Dissidia, no Theatrythm, just the original Tactics, no MMORPGS... etc... still I'm going to keep track of this one.

Also, started playing an interesting game. Fantasy Life for the 3DS. This is an amazingly put together game which borrows alot of things from MMORPGs, but in a single player package. Actually, it borrows a lot from FF XIV. It treats professions as their own classes, it basically lets you switch around things on the fly... its very well done, and I'm very much looking forward to playing it some more.

So, been doing a lot of work on the X-2 Review. It should be done today or tomorrow... the first part of it at least... yeah, the more I thought about it, the mroe I wanted to break it up into a separate review for the main game of X-2 and the Creature Creator... while intertwined in various ways... it really is pretty separate in a lot of ways.

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Day #571 Recap (X-2 Last Mission)

Current Game(s): Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission, Final Fantasy XI

Current Play Time(Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission): ~8:00
Current Play Time(Final Fantasy X-2): ~138:00 (still need to get this)
Current Play Time(Final Fantasy XI): ~183:00 (+)
Total Play Time - 1,357:34 (+)

Current Deaths(FF XI) - 51
Current Deaths(Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission): 0
Total Game Overs: 72

Where I Currently Am(FF X-2 Last Mission): Floor 49 (DRK 12/GUN 17/GNM 4/WHM 3/FES 3)

Where I Currently Am(FF XI): Windurst Mission 9-2! (Current Levels RDM 89/DNC 44(50)... BLM 50... THF 30)

Stuff Did Today (FF X-2 Last Mission): None

Stuff Did Today (FF XI): Back to the Oubilette. Up to Level 89... yay

Status & Notes: 

So... I did promise at some point I would talk about the "real" ending of FF X-2. I guess, they kind of needed to bring Tidus back to bring some kind of closure to the story... because, really, the alternative was to have Yuna get together with Baralai or Gippal or something like that... and, yeah, I don't think that would've worked... as for the whole Zanarkand scene... well, they needed to supple some kind of explanation as for why that worked... I guess... I don't know... its still fairly anti-climactic... I think it would've worked a little better if they showed the Fayth a little more or something. I don't know...

So, as for today... going to be kind of a light day... though I do think I'm going to get started on actually writing the X-2 Review... that'll be an interesting one.