Other Projects > Play With Your Buddies
Let's Play: Final Fantasy III/VI!
USEC_OFFICER:
Spoiler: Introduction (click to show/hide)
You know, I always wanted to do a LP of one of those famous SNES era RPGs. I've read tons of them on the LP archive, and
they seem pretty damn fun to do. Admittedly the workload will be pretty big, but it's mostly transcribing so I won't be
writing a novellete for every update like some of my other LPs.
Obviously the most important choice for this LP was choosing a game to play. At first I wanted to do Chrono Trigger, which
is my favourite RPG of all time, bar none. But it took me fifty hours to beat the game in my first run, and I wasn't
looking forward to going through the entire thing again. Plus doing a LP would rub off a little of the nostalgia too.
My second choice was Earthbound, which I also loved, but never completed. Thus I had another incentive to carry this LP
through to the end. But the plot in Earthbound is a little thin at times, and I don't think that I'm a good enough Let's
Player to do it justice. So, what other big SNES RPG could I play?
That's right! Final Fantasy VI! Err... I mean III! Um... you see when Final Fantasy III VI was released in America,
only two previous Final Fantasy titles were localized (Final Fantasy I and IV, I believe). Thus the American localization
was renamed Final Fantasy III, thus causing much confusion. Or something like that. The only Final Fantasy game I've
played was this one back in spring. :P
I quite enjoyed Final Fantasy III VI. The gameplay got a little grindy at times, but the story was pretty awesome.
I also missed quite a lot of stuff in my first play through, so this time I get to follow guides find all the
things I bypassed, including all of the optional characters.
More importantly, I never finished the final dungeon, because of a gimmick that would have required hours of grinding to
get past. I'm not going to spoil anything about the gimmick, but I'm assuming that 95% of you know what I'm talking about
and how I got stuck. So hop-
Oh. The prologue has started. I'll just shut up.
(WEDGE): Hard to believe an Esper's been found intact there, 1000 years after the
War of the Magi...
(VICKS): Think it's still alive?
(WEDGE): Probably... ... judging from the urgency of our orders.
(VICKS): I heard she fried 50 of our Magitek Armoured soldiers in under 3 minutes.
(I'm calling bullshit. She wouldn't be able to kill all of those soldiers while going through the entire battle sequence.)
(WEDGE): Not to worry. The Slave Crown on her head robs her of all conscious
thought. She'll follow orders.
What follows next is a very long credit sequence where Vicks, Wedge and the Mysterious Girl walk to the town in their Magitek armour (those grey mecha-suits). I'll post
the credits in its own spoiler, because the guys who made this game deserve the recognition.
Spoiler: In-Game Credits (click to show/hide)
And thus the game begins...
UPDATES:
Update 0: Introduction
Update 1: Magiteking
Update 2: A New Dope
Update 3: The Empire Strikes First
Update 4: Look at that S. Figaro
Update 5: Everybody was Kung-Fu Fighting
USEC_OFFICER:
Update 1: Magiteking
Spoiler: Wherein I ramble about menus for far too long (click to show/hide)
And now control is finally given to the player. Yay!
Trying to leave causes Wedge to yell about the Esper in the town. Sheez, we get it already. Anyways, while we're here why not check out the menu?
Despite Wedge talking about putting the girl on front, she's actually on the back of the party.
On the right side of the screen are the various submenus, including the save option, which we can only use in certain locations. Item opens up your inventory, Skills shows you a character's abilities and any magic they learn. Equip allows you to equip arms and armour onto characters, while Relic allows the same things but with Relics. Status brings up the current stats of a character, while config opens up the options.
If you bring the pointer to the left side of the screen, you can fiddle around with the party order. I'm going to do that now.
There. I moved ????? to the front and the useless mooks fellow party members to the back. I've also moved everyone in the back row, where they'll take less damage, but also do less damage with their attacks.
Despite carrying around three grand in gold, our inventory is completely devoid of anything.
Being a sorceress, ????? knows a bit of magic, namely cure and fire. If you don't know what those two spells do, shame on you. Fire is a magic attack, and all magic attacks ignore damage reduction from being in the back row. Thus all squishy mages should hang out in the back for extra protection. Fire also happens to be the most useful spell this update. Cure heals a bit of HP and will suffice for a while.
The mysterious girl is currently equipped with the crappiest equipment in the game. Oddly enough we can't access Wedge and Vicks's equipment screen, despite them instrumental and no-doubt long-lasting characters in the story.
We currently have no relics, and won't get any in the next update or two.
Honestly the status screen is pretty redundant. The equipment/relic screen shows a character's basic stats, and the main menu shows a character's level, HP and MP. The only thing new that the status screen shows us is a character's EXP, and what commands a character can use in battle (ie fight, magic and item). However fight and item are common to all characters (more or less), and the skill screen also shows whatever cool abilities a person can do.
However, the status screen is great for seeing the stats of any one-off characters that join your party, since you can't access their equipment or skills. Of course, being NPCs, the only reason that you'd want to do so is if... say... you were doing a LP.
Chances are you'll only use the config screen once or twice. Setting Battle Mode to wait pauses the game while you go through menus in a battle. Setting it to active will not cause the game wait. Everything else should be self-explanatory, and probably shouldn't be touched. The battle speed could be bumped up a point though.
If you scroll down to the bottom of the screen you can fiddle around with the order that magic spells appear in your spellbook, and the window style/colours. I'll be sticking with the default window, since the rest of them are all butt-ugly.
Alright, enough about the menus. Let's go find that Esper.
Spoiler: Wherein my evil plan is revealed and Magitek is used (click to show/hide)For this map all of the battles are predetermined. Since I want as much EXP as possible, I'm going to blunder into all of them.
The first battle is right in front of this inn here.
A guard appears and sicks his attack dog Lobo on our party before running away like a coward.
Remember how I said that Fire is the most important spell this update?
Well EXP is shared among all alive party members.
And Fire is currently the only attack that hits party members. :D
After a couple more of Fires, Wedge and Vicks are down for the count. If you don't care about hurting the mysterious girl, you can take both of them down with 2-3 Fires by hitting the L or R buttons. Doing so turns Fire into a multi-target spell, meaning that you can either hit all enemies or all party members for the same MP cost as one Fire (4 MP, if you're wondering). Focusing your fire on one target does do more damage, but sometimes you have to spread the love around.
Anyways with our two EXP-stealers down for the count, we can finally show that Lobo what Magitek armour does. Remember how the status screen showed that ?????, Wedge and Vicks had the Fight command? Well it was lying. When you're in Magitek armour the Fight command changes into Magitek, which allows you to do a bunch of different attacks/abilities. The four basic Magiteks are:
Fire Beam
Lightning Beam
Ice Beam
and Heal Force. Final Fantasy VI III has a basic elemental type system, so Fire Beam does Fire damage, Lightning does Lightning damage, etc.
That's all very good and all, but this sorceress also has additional Magiteks.
Bio Blast is probably the most useful Magitek,
Because it hits every enemy for nasty-poison type damage. :3
In contrast Confuser is completely useless.
Using it causes ????? to turn into a one-woman rave party, while the enemies get their freak on.
At the end the enemies will become confused (duh) and start attacking themselves like they were Pokemon or something. But... enemies are barely doing any damage right now, and unlike Pokemon hitting yourself removes the confused status effect.
X-fer is only slightly more useful than Confuser right now.
Using it causes the Aurora Borealis to come down...
And whisk the targeted enemy away (assuming that it actually hits).
TekMissile is the last of the Magiteks.
Basically, it's exactly what it says on the tin.
It's also the most powerful Magitek but... all of our attacks can one-shot enemies. Thus Bio Blast is the most most useful Magitek, since it'll clear the screen in one blast.
Spoiler: Wherein we get some more plot (click to show/hide)If you haven't realized it by now, everyone in Magitek armour is overpowered, so ????? can solo this entire section for EXP. Overall she gains three levels, which will come in handy later when the inevitable happens.
Of course, no matter how powerful you are, you're still no match for the invisible wall.
If you go through the arch to the west of the inn, you run into these two idiots. Needless to say, combat was brief.
The next scripted battle takes place on the intersection between these two grates. If you hate EXP, you could always go around.
Obviously we love EXP.
The enemies come in two waves.
One wave is made up of Lobos,
And the other comprises of guards. Both waves go down easily.
Due to invisible walls, you have no choice but to head north.
Where you promptly get ambushed from both sides of the alley.
Being surrounded means that the enemies get us in a pincer attack, which would be BAD if we weren't in the Magitek suits. In pincer attacks enemies are split up into two different groups,
Meaning that it takes two Bio Blasts to kill everybody. Enemies will also do more damage when attacking characters in the back (facing is determined by which group of enemies is getting their asses kicked by said character).
Later on we can execute our own pincer attacks, but for now we have no choice but to head north into the next area.
*Yawn*
Wait, what's this? Narshe has werewolves?
Oh. They're Mammoths Vomammoths. Whatever shall I do?
Yeah, you saw that coming. I'd talk more about the enemies and their deadly attacks if I wasn't too busy one-shotting them.
????? gained a level up from this battle, and also learned Antdot! Err... I mean Antidote. Due to programming constraints spells can't be more than six letters long. For 3 MP Antdot cures the poison status effect, which is useful for cheap smart people who don't want to waste an item to do so (spoiler: the item is called antidote and costs all of 50 GP).
At the end of the pathway is a mineshaft, where Wedge and Vicks get to do some serious plot exposition.
Or not...
The mineshaft is the first place where we encounter the JRPG staple, random battles.
The only enemies I encountered are these Were-Rats, but more enemies exist (as we'll find out).
To the west is an invisible wall, while to the east is a save point. Let's go there next.
Yeah, why not.
At Save Points you can use a "Sleeping Bag" or "Tent", and also save a game. If you should perish, you'll automatically be able to play from your last save. Though any GP, treasures, etc. you found will have to be found again, your Level and EXP. data will be retained. You can save a game anywhere on the world map.
Thanks save point!
The northern-most section of the mine-shaft is blocked by a hastily constructed wooden fence.
Don't worry about it though, Vicks has got this.
And instead of blasting it with his beams, he runs into it. You know, for a wounded guy Vicks is pretty damn reckless.
: ...
: ...
The guards aren't too happy about Vicks breaking down their wall, and sic their Whelk on the party.
Yes, Whelk is an actual whelk (sea snail).
However this is Final Fantasy and Whelk is technically a boss, so Wedge and Vicks decide pop up from the dead to toss off some critical information.
(VICKS): Hold it! Think back to our briefing...
(WEDGE): What about it?
(VICKS): Do you recall hearing about a monster that eats lightning...
(WEDGE): And shits thunder? ... ... and stores the energy in its shell!
(Huh. I just realized that this game uses a single character for the Ellipsis [You know ...] instead of three periods.)
(VICKS): Right. So whatever you do, don't attack the shell!
(WEDGE): Alright already!
Having dispensed their little speech, Wedge and Vicks return to peaceful oblivion.
Spoiler: Wherein I lay the smack-down on a Buccinidae (click to show/hide)
Whelk is a pretty lame boss as far as these things go.
It likes to cast Slime, which gives a character the slow status effect. Final Fantasy III VI uses an action-bar system instead of a pure turn-based one. Thus slow halves the rate at which the action bar increases, which is pretty damn annoying. Obviously we'll want to inflict slow on bosses and really tough enemies whenever possible.
The sorceress should be using TekMissile to attack, since four or five of these things will bring the over-sized snail down.
Every-so-often Whelk will mutter Gruuu...... and retreat into its shell.
Thus any attacks you have queued up will hit the shell instead.
The Whelk shell will then counter with Mega Volt, which is incredibly dangerous, taking off large chunks of your health.
After a while the Whelk will yell Gruuu...... again and leave it's shell for more punishment. If ????? gets slowed her action bar will fill up in the same amount of time that it takes the Whelk to pop in and out of its, so don't be an idiot like me and think that you have time to do something while it's in its shell.
After wailing on the Whelk head for long enough, it'll turn red and die horribly.
By fading out of existence, of course.
After becoming a champion snail smasher, you have a easy walk to the frozen Esper.
Assuming that you don't run into a random battle. :D
Spoiler: Wherein we get some plot and end the update with a question (click to show/hide)
*Ahem*
The Esper begins to glow with a blue light.
Oh shi- I'm not ready to fight an Esper.
The Esper has dimmed the lights at this point.
Wedge freaks the hell out...
Before Disappearing with a capital D.
(VICKS): Wedge......where are you? W......what's happening?!
Vicks soon joins his companion. Rest in peace, Wedge and Vicks. It's a shame that I couldn't loot your bodies.
The mysterious girl is completely unfazed by this.
She remains unfazed when the frozen Esper begins to blast with with freaking lightning bolts!
And she sure as hell doesn't care when she bloody explodes!
...
...
...
By bloody I meant the swearword, not the adjective.
?????'s benefactor is content with creepily staring at her, so let's see if we have control back, shall we?
Ah. Excellent.
: Where am I...?
: Gah!
(RPG LP convention states that any italicized sentences are added by the OP. Just so you know)
: Whoa! And I only just removed the crown!
: ...head...hurts...
: Aeeiiii!
: Easy! This is a Slave Crown. The others had complete control over you while you were wearing it.
(Fun Fact: We'll never see or hear of Slave Crowns again. What a waste of a good plot device.)
: I can't remember a thing...
: Don't worry. It'll all come back to you...in time, that is.
... ... ...
Ooh, ooh! This screen appears whenever you get to name an playable character so...
Yes! Here we go! We finally get to name this mysterious girl! Her default name is Terra in the American localization to give her an air of mystery. Amusingly enough, she's named Tina in the Japanese version for the exact same reason.
Technically we're limited to six characters max, but we could always but in an abbreviation and spell the name out in full for the LP. The only characters we can use for the name are shown, so we can't name her @#$%^& if we wanted too.
Anyways, Bay12 get naming!
Well, how is it? My emulator is using the lower SNES resolution, so the size of the screenshots will increase in the next update.
Neonivek:
I wouldn't call BS on her being able to kill 50 soldiers in 3 minutes.
your forgetting that characters are a lot more different in Cutscenes then in battle.
For all you know she forced them all to fight her in a Cutscene. which pretty much makes her absolutely unabashingly evil.
USEC_OFFICER:
--- Quote from: Neonivek on September 08, 2012, 07:18:45 pm ---I wouldn't call BS on her being able to kill 50 soldiers in 3 minutes.
your forgetting that characters are a lot more different in Cutscenes then in battle.
For all you know she forced them all to fight her in a Cutscene. which pretty much makes her absolutely unabashingly evil.
--- End quote ---
Damn it, I forgot about story and gameplay segregation, didn't I.
Neonivek:
After playing Way of the Samurai 4 I am starting to believe that Story and Gameplay arn't segregated. It is just that they don't have a choice over which they will settle things by.
So right now you KNOW she is a villain because she forces people into Cutscene battles. Heros challenge people into gameplay battles, villains are the only ones who can challenge people into cutscene battles.
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