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AceofAces's Final Fantasy (PSP)
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| [February 20, 2008 08:38:19 AM]
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The second play session was a little bit more frustrating. I saved the princess, and the king is so grateful that he builds a bridge to the next continent so that I can continue on my quest. I guess he just didn't feel comfortable having 4 dudes in town that just embarrassed his armed forces. So, after I've achieved the first story goal, I'm supposed to make my way to the next town to solve their problems. Unfortunately, there's a huge forest in between me and that town, and with the random encounters found in that forest, I have to make a few trips back to the original town to heal up at the inn.
This game places a lot of emphasis on levelling up, and buying gear. This surprises me, because its sequels make it very easy to advance the plot, so easy that it's hard to avoid. This one spends a lot of time focusing on random encounters, which you use to advance your characters' stats. I find it tedious, because combat is slow and a little bit clunky. After you pick your actions, there's nearly a minute where the player is not making any decisions, he's just watching the turn play itself out. This isn't awful for the first hour of play, when everything is still new, but when the game forces you to spend lots of time in battle just so you can progress the story, it becomes maddening. An option to process the battle all at once, without animations, would probably make this aspect of the game more fun.
Design:
The game gives you some power to customize your characters, and this lends itself to the player creating stories and personalities around the party members. (The game gave me a new appreciation of 8-bit theater, http://www.nuklearpower.com ). The party members themselves don't actually display any personality in the game, they don't have any speaking lines, and there is no dialogue between you and anybody you talk to, but giving the player control over what each character can do, and making the player invest time in “earning” those abilities, is extremely engaging.
The game also does have a freeform aspect to it. The player can visit past areas, he's even given reason to, because item and inn prices in earlier towns are lower than prices in towns you discover later on. Also, each store has a unique inventory, so you can backtrack to go tweak your characters after you've gained some levels.
The game mixes in medium term rewards (gaining levels) with long term rewards (advancing the plot.) But in the short term, I think it is lacking. You probably gain a level every 20 minutes of adventuring, but there isn't much to do to entertain yourself in the meanwhile. When you advance the plot, you fight a boss monster, one that probably has a fair chance of defeating you, even if your party is at near full strength. As a reward, you get access to a new part of the world, with more difficult random encounters that provide experience points enough to keep levelling at the same pace.
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| [February 20, 2008 06:51:17 AM]
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With a dozen sequels, and an ardent horde of fans, Final Fantasy kicked off one of the great franchises in video game history. The original in the series is surprisingly similar to the latest, with random encounters, epic storyline, and fight/magic/item combat decisions. You control an adventuring party of 4 characters, dubbed the “Warriors of Light,” on a quest to save the world from darkness. You'll spend a lot of time travelling between towns, levelling up, and defeating boss monsters deep in dungeons. Is it formulaic if you discovered the formula?
Gameplay:
You start out at the character selection screen, presented with a sample party of 4. You can modify the classes of this party, and provide names for each of the characters. You get to choose the classes of each of your characters, from hitpoint heavy fighters, to limited use black mages. I chose a party of a Fighter, Martial Artist, White Mage and Black Mage.
You start out in a castle, with a lot of NPC sprites wandering around in random seeming directions. If you want, you can move your sprite over to them to hear their one line of dialogue, but most of them don't have much interesting to say. However, you do get the gist of the story from these initial interactions. The princess was kidnapped by a knight gone bad, and apparently the “Warriors of Light” are the only ones who can do anything about it.
You leave the castle, and the game goes into a mode with your sprite superimposed on a map of the world, with forests, rivers, and towns. There's a town nearby, so I went to go investigate. This boots me back to area exploration mode, with townsfolk NPC sprites wandering around waiting for you to ask them questions. But added to this, are houses with stores with which you can equip your party. Also, in the town lies the ever important Inn. There you can save your game and replenish the health and magic of your party.
Leaving town, you proceed to your goal of rescuing the princess, moving through trees, and through valleys. Along the way, you'll be jolted out of your world map journey by random encounters. You'll enter a third mode, combat mode, which shows a graphic representation of your party on the right, and the enemies on the left. You select the actions of your party, given choices: Fight, Magic, Drink,Item, and Run. You select actions for your entire party for 1 turn, the computer selects actions for the enemies behind the scenes, and you watch the turn play out. This is repeated until your party flees, wins, or is killed. Rewards for winning are Experience points for increasing your characters' levels, and Gold to improve your party's equipment.
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AceofAces's Final Fantasy (PSP)
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Current Status: Stopped playing - Got Bored
GameLog started on: Wednesday 20 February, 2008
GameLog closed on: Monday 3 March, 2008 |
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