Final Fantasy III Review
Final Fantasy III © 1990, 2006 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD.
Everything stated in this review is my opinion.
System: Nintendo DS
Number of Players: 1
ESRB: E10
My recommended age to play this game: 12+
Total Time spent with the game: 34:57
Review Playthrough Time: 31:16:28
This review was written on November 10, 2009.
*This review does contain spoilers.*
With the completion of this game I have now beaten all the core Final Fantasy games except XI! I feel so proud!
I really have to hand to Final Fantasy III - it implemented many of the things we now consider standard in the Final Fantasy series: jobs, summons, moogles, and even plot elements (crystals in danger, evil that wants to become immortal, and a final boss that wants to reduce everything to nothingness). It’s really a shame that it took until 2006 for this game to be released outside of Japan because then it might be a more fondly remembered game that really made what the Final Fantasy series what it is today. Sadly, this game fell flat in many ways for my tastes, and I really like the series! I know that this was an end of cycle Famicom game that was remade for the DS. It needed a few more tweaks in my opinion.
Story:
This story centers around four nameless warriors. Oops! I mean four orphans named Luneth, Arc, Refia, and Ingus. They have so little dialogue and so little development that they should have just remained four nameless warriors like in the original game. If you are going to put characters in the game make them characters and not transparent, one-dimensional people. Anyway, the Light Crystals are in trouble and it is up to the four “Warriors of the Light” to recover the crystals and restore balance between the Light and Dark Worlds. The story is, at its core, a longer retelling of Final Fantasy I’s tale. There are some differences but overall it’s the same deal – save the Crystals from elemental boss monsters and confront the final boss to restore order. To be fair, the script is well written and doesn’t induce many moments of “Did I really just read that? Lame.” There are a few touching moments and they revolve around two of the better conceived characters, Desch and Aria. The other NPCs are pretty light on character, but this is a 1990 Famicom game.
Game Play:
This is a traditional turn-based RPG. You pick your commands (Fight, Magic, Guard, Item, Etc.) and watch the turn play out. The order in which the characters and monsters move is based on speed, so if you find yourself being outmaneuvered and overpowered by the enemy, it’s probably time to experiment with different jobs and/or increase your level. The jobs that you use affect what stats increase when you level up, with the Black Belt offering the highest HP growth. Early on, I found that Red Mage is the class of choice – good equipment and can use white and black magic. Once you get to the Fire Crystal (around 8 hours in), it’s time for more specialized jobs – I used 3 Black Mages and 1 White Mage for quite awhile. After the Fire Crystal, I kept a dedicated healer in the party for the rest of the adventure and switched the other 3 characters to jobs that would be effective against the upcoming monsters. For example, in the Cave of Shadows, only Dark Blades that are wielded by Dark Knights and later Ninjas will damage the monsters without them duplicating and overpowering the party.
Jobs:
This is the first game in the series that allows the player to switch jobs. I’m not too happy to announce that most of the twenty-three jobs are pretty useless.
Here’s a tip: many monsters are weak against the different elements, so you are going to want jobs that invoke magic or allow you to equip magic inducing items. I used the Fire Staff to cast fire for free for a long time and the best part is that a White Mage can also fight using this type of equipment!
These are the only jobs that I used during the game: Monk, Black Mage, White Mage, Red Mage, Dark Knight, Black Belt, Dragoon, Scholar, Knight, Ninja, and Devout. Since I only used the Scholar for one boss, I only really used ten out of twenty-three jobs. The player could experiment with other jobs and might be able to get by for a while, but when the difficulty ramps up you are going to want reliable jobs that have reliable skills. I did find that Dragoon is pretty useful for most of the game, but not against the final boss. I know this because my Dragoon took much more damage than the other members and was dead most of the battle. If I ever play this game again this will be my final party: Black Belt, Ninja, Summoner/Sage/Magus, and a Devout.
Difficulty:
This game is tough. The random encounters are easy at first but become increasingly more difficult as you progress. The best way to fight back against the random encounters is to keep your levels consistent with your enemies and don’t be afraid to run away. Elixirs and Phoenix Downs are rare and you will have to run out of dungeons and back to towns with Revive Wellsprings to bring your characters back from the dead until you able to buy the Raise spell relatively late in the game. Also, the Teleport spell becomes available after you get your first boat, the Enterprise. This spell is crucial to escape from dungeons and battles when you get into a pinch, and trust me, you will.
I found the difficulty a bit unbalanced. The game is not frustrating until you go to the Temple of Time – cool name, cool music, but the encounter rate dramatically increases and the enemies’ power becomes too much for level 33. Once you train up to about level 37 or so it becomes a decent place to train, but before that, you will fall in battle if you don’t fight wisely and are at least on level 32.
There are also a couple of bosses that cleaned my clock; the first being Salamander, the boss before the Fire Crystal. Just about all the bosses can attack twice per turn and possess super attacks that can wipe out your party. They tend to fight relatively fair but there were times when I was wiped out because my healer didn’t move before the boss used his super attack again.
What makes that even more annoying is that the game has no save points at all. You save your progress on the world map and only the world map. I found the best way to do things is to run through the dungeon and collect treasure while battling to level up, warp out, heal, and save, and then go through the dungeon while running away from monsters to preserve your health (and time!) and then fight the boss. If you lose, adjust your jobs, gain a level and try again. It does help the dungeons are small, usually between 4-7 rooms in length.
What really irks me is the final area! I beat the fifth boss from the end on level 52 rather easily, but that is also the point of no return. I used the player’s guide and I knew that the final boss is on level 60 but the book failed to tell me that is the point of no return. I had to reset, train for nearly four and half hours to push myself to level 60, and then I go to beat the game. Cloud of Darkness is the final boss and it looked bleak for me on level 61. I was able to use my wits (and my Elixirs) to keep myself alive and finally beat the game. It took me nearly an hour and half to beat the four bosses in the Dark World, defeat the Cloud of Darkness, and watch the credits. It would have been a massive pain to spend an hour defeating the four bosses, losing to the Cloud of Darkness, and having to start over again. Not to mention it takes 7-10 minutes just to reach the top of Crystal Tower, which leads to the door to Dark World, when you run away from random enemies.
The difficulty is inherited from the 8-bit original and in some ways the DS version is even harder! You know the World of Darkness I was just ranting about? The Famicom version has a save point! It’s probably a double-edged sword; if the save point was there, the player could never leave to buy more supplies and it would probably take even longer to level up the party to level 60. Still, not being able to save in any dungeon and not being able to escape from the World of Darkness just leaves a bad taste in my mouth; it produces a lot of unnecessary backtracking! If you are looking for an old-school challenge, you found one.
Controls:
The controls are simple. When not in battle the X and R buttons open the menu. A confirms an action and B cancels. When walking around hold the B button to dash and push the L button to zoom in the camera. When zoomed in you can see hidden items and switches to open paths and doors. In battle, use the control pad to cycle through your options and confirm with the A button. If you made a mistake, push the B button to cancel your command and try again. After the selecting the fourth party member’s command the turn is over, so be extra careful with whomever you put in the fourth position.
Graphics:
The opening cinematic is on par with a Square-Enix PS2 game with great animation and beautifully drawn characters and locales. The in-game graphics aren’t quite as clean. It looks a little blockier than it should.
What disappoints me is that several of the dungeons have the same color scheme and the same background set pieces. There are a variety of locations that run the Final Fantasy gamut: forests, fields, caves, volcanoes, oceans, and waters temples. My favorite location in the game is when you first arrive on the surface world. The world is covered in what looks like a deep mist and I found it relaxing for some reason (probably the music). The characters are done in chibi style – oversized heads with cute faces. Even some of the more imposing boss monsters look harmless on the world map. I’m thinking, “Can this doll even hurt me?” The monster designs in battle are much more dynamic. The colors are sharp and magic animations are pretty nice as well.
I would be amiss if I didn’t talk about the jobs – every character looks the same, yet different, for each of 23 different jobs. Luneth always has his three belts, for example. I did not feel the compulsive urge to see what every character looked like in every single job; there was just no point. The differences are minuscule at best, but the look is consistent.
Music:
The music is not bad by any means but after listening to every other game in the core series, this is game with the weakest soundtrack, in my opinion. There are a few tracks that stand out in my mind: Eureka, Temple of Time, Surface World when it is covered in darkness, Crystal Tower, and The World of Darkness. The tracks seem shorter than in previous two games and loop endlessly. It also hurts that same tracks are used constantly! Just about every dungeon calls upon the same theme and so do the towns. The random battle music isn’t bad, but I found myself wanting to hear something else before the game was over. The MIDI quality is also a mixed bag; most of themes sound “meh,” and the few standouts, well standout. When I first made it to the Surface World I thought, “Why doesn’t the rest of the music sound like this?”
I know I praised the opening cinematic for its great graphics, but the orchestra recording was not put on the DS card perfectly. It sounds degraded – plain and simple. Square fixed the audio problems for later games, but the opening orchestral gave the game an early strike against the music category.
SFX:
Most of SFX are pretty generic. The basic sword swings and punching sounds are accounted for. The airship and boat sounds sound authentic but most of the rest of them are forgettable. When the monsters actually make sound (which is rare), it sounds like Pokémon. The magic sounds are ok but nothing special. Basically, the sound works but isn’t stellar.
Moments in the Adventure that I Enjoy:
Even though I have been pretty down on this game, it does have a few memorable moments. After the demise of the Salamander, the Dwarves will give you their treasure. The dwarf guarding the treasure says something to the effect of: “Thank you! You can have our treasure now. Follow me as I do the Dwaven Moonwalk!” I don’t know if that was in script in 1990 (it could have been – Michael Jackson was very popular in Japan in the late 1980s and early 1990s) or just the translators having a little fun with the dwarf walking backwards, but that was enjoyable. Another moment occurs when you play in the piano in Amur. First off, it sounds like a guitar band and not a piano but it is fun to watch the NPCs dance and then say, “Great job. Fantabulous!” This is the only Final Fantasy game I have played that has the word fantabulous in the script.
Moment in the Adventure that I Think is Odd:
Near the end of game, the party gets trapped by a magic mirror. It is the curse of the Five Wyrms or something like that. Anyway, only five people who are pure of heart can hold back curse. It becomes a very strange situation – the party is trapped and one of NPCs shows up and says that he is going to find the five to break the curse. So, he embarks on a five minute cut scene to find these people. The chosen five all go with this total stranger blindly, which is strange enough, but two people are stranger than the rest and they are Cid’s wife and some random old guy called Gramps. Cid’s wife has no reaction as Cid leaves, and Gramps is not even a good NPC. It’s like they just ran out of NPCs to use. It was surreal moment and in a game where strange moments are expected, that took me by surprise. Why didn’t the boss just blast me while I was trapped by the curse? I would have if I was the big, bad guy. Oh well.
Problems:
I’ve already hit on some of the problems. What I really despise about this game is all the Wi-Fi and Friend Code stuff. If you want to do everything there is to do, get ready to get onto websites and forums and begging for people to put in your friend code and asking them for theirs. The best equipment is only available after you unlock the sidequests by sending seven messages to other game owners. It would have been cool if you could unlock the stuff early by doing the friend code messaging but it all should have been unlocked automatically after you find the last crystal. I spent twenty-five minutes looking for the Master Smith and I was royally ticked off after I looked on GameFAQS and discovered that she wouldn’t appear unless I had sent seven messages over Wi-Fi.
I spent five hours just level-grinding. I could have been a quarter of the way through Final Fantasy IV Advance in the time I spent fighting the same monsters again and again!
When the enemy party has a group of three the graphics will slow down. It isn’t absolutely terrible, but it slows down enough for you to notice.
Parting Shots:
You might think I hate this game but that’s not true. I try my best not to bring other games into my reviews and judge each game based on what it is, but that is really hard in this case. Final Fantasy V could just as easily be called Final Fantasy III-2. Final Fantasy V has better characters, more of the jobs have practical uses, the script and plot are more fleshed out, and less grinding is needed to win. That being said, I really don’t like FFV much either but given the choice, I would chose FFV over FFIII.
Pros: Simple adventure with clear objectives, classic Final Fantasy game play and challenge, a few good musical themes, and a happy ending
Cons: Woefully underdeveloped characters, extra stuff Wi-Fi only, overall bland music and sound, level-grinding, no save points that require the player to backtrack, and a few reused set pieces
Score: 7/10
I really wanted to give this game a lower score. But it isn’t broken; it’s just dated by Final Fantasy standards. This could have been an amazing game. The basic foundation is there, but I found myself more enthralled with the story the game was not telling. A thousand years before the events of the game, the people in the Light World attempted to harness the power of Light for their own purposes and it was up to the four “Warriors of the Dark” to restore order. I hope that story is eventually told one day by the Final Fantasy team. Anyway, this game could have used a few innovations that were introduced after 1990: save points, being able to buy Phoenix Downs, putting in Ethers to restore MP, and longer musical tracks. Still, it is an authentic Famicom experience and it stays true to the original game’s roots. This game is for the dedicated turn-based RPG player only and even then it may miss the mark.
Buy/Rent/Skip: Final Fantasy Fan: Buy. Everyone else: Skip.
Even though I personally don’t care for this game, it was interesting to see the origins of many of the Final Fantasy mainstays. The game play isn’t broken and like they say in the sports world, “It is what it is.” It is a solid title from the Famicom days that will test your nerves. Oh save points, I’m so glad you exist from now on!
Date Completed: November 10, 2009
Dated Edited: May 28, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Dissidia: Final Fantasy Review
Dissidia: Final Fantasy © 2008, 2009 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All rights reserved.
Everything stated in this review is my opinion.
System: PSP
Number of Players: 1-2 via ad hoc local multiplayer
ESRB: T (13+)
My recommended age to play this game: 14+
Why: Some of the female characters are provocatively dressed. Don’t let the little kids play this one.
Time spent with this game: 81 hours
It’s time for Written Review # 2 and overall review number eight: Dissidia: Final Fantasy for the PSP. Without any further ado, let’s get started!
Story:
Cosmos, the goddess of harmony, and Chaos, the god of discord, have been in conflict for ages. They are equal in power so they summon warriors to fight with them. Ten heroes and ten villains answer the calls of their deities and thus, a new battle begins. Cosmos and ten heroes are defeated in the subsequent encounter. The heroes are tasked by Cosmos to find crystals in an attempt to reset the balance of power. Can these Final Fantasy legends rise to the challenge and save the world?
The story is centered on the lead protagonists and antagonists from the first ten Final Fantasy games. Dissidia essentially creates two new characters – Warrior of Light (FFI) and the Onion Knight (FFIII). These characters are nameless and emotionless in their original games, so it is nice to see some heart injected into these blank slates. Firion from Final Fantasy II is also augmented from his original personality and I think it makes him less interesting. The other heroes and villains stay true to their sources, mostly.
The villains are overall more interesting than the heroes, which is a shame because you spend much more time with the heroes. But don’t get me wrong, there are a few on both sides that are just plain boring: Warrior of Light, Squall, Cloud, Exdeath, Sephiroth, and Ultimecia. Golbez, the adversary from Final Fantasy IV, has more meaningful dialogue and is the best developed character in the game. Sadly, there are no villain stories to play through.
The narrative as a whole feels detached. I know that it is hard for crossover games to have coherent stories and Dissidia does come close. But since I am a Final Fantasy fan and have beaten all ten of the original games, the characters (especially the heroes) fall short of their originals.
Cloud is probably the most famous Final Fantasy character in existence, so I’ll use him as my example. In the original game he was more than a brooding, self-loathing man. He stood by his friends, offered them encouragement, and he didn’t answer their questions with more obscure questions. The Advent Children version is the Cloud that wandered his way into Dissidia, and this Cloud is not the true Cloud. I’m just so sick of seeing this Cloud… what happened to the character development that occurred in the original game!? Did the creators just forget that they made a compelling character? Why the reduction to a lone wolf, self-loather?
I better stop with my mini Cloud rant; otherwise it could go somewhere I don’t want to go today. What are talking about again… oh right, Dissidia.
Game Play:
This is not a turn based RPG but rather a one-on-one dueling game. The combat centers around a statistic called Brave. Brave appears above the HP meters and is the number that determines the HP damage inflicted upon the opponent. At the bottom of the screen is a neutral pool of Brave that builds up as the battle progresses. If you manage to completely deplete your enemy’s Brave (sending him into a Break state) that pool will be yours and a massive HP blow becomes possible. If that happens to you, you’re not completely defenseless. While in Break, critical hit rate increases. All the fighters’ moves and abilities can be customized before battle.
Brave attacks are activated with the O button, and are used to attack Brave Points. They are divided into three categories: close range, mid-range, and long range. The attacks are used in combination with the control stick or pad. For example, my Terra has Blizzard Combo set to O, I can use Fire by pushing the control pad away from my opponent and pressing O, and I can use Graviga by pushing the control pad towards my enemy and pressing O. There are also combinations for airborne attacks, and the same principle applies for the HP attacks, which are used with the square button. I’ve had a few issues with chaining attacks together but overall the system is fun and pretty easy to get a handle on.
Something I nearly forgot to mention is guarding! By pressing the R button you can block a brave attack and knock your opponent off balance. If you manage to attack him after a guard, your critical rate drastically increases and it is the perfect opportunity to break your foe’s brave and turn the course of the battle.
If you want to try something a little different, command style is also available. In this mode you give you character suggestions and the AI will play out the battle. Control is gimped so I would stay away from this mode.
During the course of a battle you will notice little white dots appearing in the air. If you collect these a gauge next to your fighter will slowly increase. This is the EX meter and when it fills you can enter EX mode. This mode regenerates your health, greatly increases your critical hit rate, for some it changes their movement, and makes it possible to unleash your ultimate attack upon your unsuspecting foe. The moves differ in execution; some require hitting buttons in a sequence and some others just require mashing on a button until a set time limit runs out. Periodically items called EX cores appear and absorb all the EX energy in the air. Collect them to fill your gauge faster! If your rival fills up his gauge, enter coward mode and wait for his gauge to empty or go for the ultimate humiliation and trounce the guy while he is at full power! EX mode can really turn the tide of a fight so make sure to keep an eye out for those cores!
Modes:
There are only four battle modes at the outset: Story, Arcade, Quick Battle, and Communications.
In the Story Mode, you take control of the heroes and guide them through campaigns to retrieve the crystals. When all the stories are completed the path to final boss appears. Once the final boss has been defeated, missions appear to recruit the final two characters. Once that is done the Ultimate Fantasy scenario appears. The stories difficulties are represented by stars with Cecil’s being the easiest, and Warrior of Light and Terra being tied for the hardest. The extra scenarios are harder still and require mastery of technique, the right abilities, and high level equipment to work through. I still haven’t beaten Ultimate Fantasy.
The stories are told by a series of cutscenes and text boxes. You move your hero through a chessboard like area to battle and collect loot. All the main stories are split into five parts and each new region gives you a new set of Destiny Points (DP). If you finish a board with DP remaining you will receive PP, summons, or equipment. It is impossible to get everything on the first run so expect to play the individual stories at least three times.
In the Arcade, you pick a character with preset abilities and fight a string of computer drones. You can buy harder modes to increase the challenge and prizes.
Quick battle is where most of the training gets done. You select your character and opposition (or just push random if you’re lazy) and fight. You can adjust the AI’s power, level, and behavior. If you want to train against higher level dimwits to quickly raise your level, no problem. Or, you can test your skills buy maxing out the drones to give it everything they have. The experience, money, and items earned in the battle are yours to do with as you please.
The Communications mode is for the two-battle bouts. I have never played it but I can guess that is probably a lag-free experience since the two players have to be in the same general area to play each other. The option to play against in-game ghosts is also possible in this mode; all that needs to be done is to collect the cards that are given out throughout the course of the game.
Once the final boss goes down Duel Colosseum appears. This mode puts you into a string of battles to earn medals. These medals can be used to buy items found in this mode or saved to add to your PP. It isn’t an easy mode but the computer will make allowances if you send in a level two character on the lowest course setting. This mode is split into four courses, with the final area having opposition that goes twenty levels past the maximum you can obtain.
The other major modes are the PP Catalog, Museum, Player Settings, and Options. The PP catalog is where you buy things like extra characters, extra stages, music tracks, and many other things.
The Museum is where you can browse through pictures, read back-story about the characters and summons, watch movies, among other things.
The Player Options is where you enter your name, select a play plan, and enter your bonus day. The bonus day is the option that really matters. On this day all of the things earned after battle are increased and something else, like shops having a sale, will happen. Make sure that your bonus day is the day you have the most time to play.
Items:
There is no shortage when it comes to items! They are divided into these basic categories: Equipment, Accessories, and Summons.
Equipment is a facet of the game that cannot be ignored. If you aren’t equipped well you might as well not play the harder matches; you will have no chance to achieve victory. The weapons increase attack and sometimes have a secondary function like increasing physical damage by ten percent. Armlets and shields raise defense, most helmets raise brave, and most armor raises HP. Fortunately, new weapons and armor becomes available as you level up. If you want the really good stuff you’ll be playing this game for a long time; you have to forge the best armaments by trading in rare items at the shop.
There are many, many accessories to augment your characters with. For example, my level two Golbez has one that increases his power because he is under level four, and two others that raise his power when he is in the air and near his enemy. There are many more and vary in purpose from raising luck to increasing your power after the opposition uses a summon. It is a very customizable system, so be sure to experiment until you find something that fits your play style.
The Summons don’t cause massive HP damage like they do in the main games. Instead they will increase your power, lower your rival’s power, or just even things out. When you find yourself outmatched consider changing your summon to counter what the enemy is doing. In the hard matches they are a must. The first ones you receive activate automatically based on certain battle conditions but later on you can find some that you can use manually. They can only be used once per battle so use them wisely!
Presentation:
Dissidia shines when it comes to presentation. Tetsuya Nomura (of Final Fantasy VII and Kingdom Hearts fame) stays faithful to the original designs of Yoshitaka Amano (Final Fantasy I-VI) and that is quite a feat unto itself because those two have completely different approaches when it comes to character design. The characters are beautifully detailed and nothing was over looked from Kefka’s goofy walk to the minuscule details on Onion Knight’s armor. It isn’t perfect – a foot will phase through a cape or something but the action is so fast paced that it wouldn’t be noticed in battle. The stages and set pieces from the various games are recreated in a masterly manner and are varied as well. Pandaemonium from Final Fantasy II is confined and renders most distant attacks useless, while Order’s Sanctuary is wide open and has a lot of space to run in. The colors stay true to the original games and are wonderful to look at and actually a little overwhelming when you stop to take it all in as a whole (not Uncharted 2 overwhelming, but still quite stunning). There are a couple of CGI cutscenes and they are gorgeous. The in-game cutscenes could have used a bit more polish. All of the characters look “flashy” or something. It’s like the guy working the lights accidently puts a spot on them. Also, when the camera pans back during these scenes the characters look a little pixilated.
The sound is a bit of a mixed bag. Some of the new and remixed tracks use high quality MIDI and even recorded orchestral and vocal performances, and some just sound cheap. Fortunately for us, most of the bad tracks are used only in the story mode and aren’t heard as often. Once a particular track is unlocked it can be used on any stage. I like listening to my favorites and bypassing the ones I find less interesting. The music as a whole draws you even deeper into the experience, and it is very well done overall. It was a stroke of genius to include one track from each of the original games – NOSTAGLIA FOR THE WIN! My favorite tracks are Last Battle Part 1 and the Ending Medley.
The voice acting works for the most part but most of the lines are delivered monotone or way too overdramatically. Peter Beckman (Golbez) and Dave Wittenburg (Kefka) deliver the best performances. I can’t stand Warrior of Light’s over-the-top “I’m the hero and I’m completely obsessed with light” lines. They just get on my nerves. The voice over guy who introduces the stories is just a bit too melodramatic. I get the mental picture of a guy going to a poetry reading and trying too hard to make his reading good. Then again, if he wasn’t overdramatic his lines probably wouldn’t have worked. His performance just feels out of place when compared with the rest of voice work.
Problems:
All things considered, there really isn’t much to complain about. My major complaints have already been addressed: the lower quality cutscenes, a few musical tracks that fall well short of the rest in terms of quality, and the overall average voice work. The game plays great and with an adjustable camera you can always see what you are doing. Something else that bugs me a little is that all you do is fight. There are not any side activities that require active participation; all you do is prepare for battle and fight. It would have been nice to have a matching game or something to pass a little time when I wasn’t in a brawling mood. Oh well, I guess that is what Tetris is for.
Parting Shots:
Pros: fun game play, excellent music and sound, astounding animation, and many extras and achievements to unlock
Cons: middle of the road voice work, cutscenes overall disappointing, a few low quality music tracks, and if not the type to unlock everything there isn’t much to do except fight
Score: 8.5/10
Current Prices: $19-30
What I would pay for this game: I bought this game in a bundle last year with my PSP 3000. If you can get it for $20 that’s great, but I think it is worth the $30 price.
Buy/Rent/Skip:
If you are a Final Fantasy fan, this is fan service at its finest. If you don’t have much interest in the series, I think it is still worth a look. It is a solid fighting game that will keep you engaged for days, if not weeks and months. If you love the series, buy! If you like fighting games, I recommend a rent/borrow. It is definitely a change of pace from most arcade fighters. If you hate Final Fantasy, there isn’t much here that is going to change your mind. If you’re like me, you could rent/borrow just to put the beat down on emo-Cloud.
Everything stated in this review is my opinion.
System: PSP
Number of Players: 1-2 via ad hoc local multiplayer
ESRB: T (13+)
My recommended age to play this game: 14+
Why: Some of the female characters are provocatively dressed. Don’t let the little kids play this one.
Time spent with this game: 81 hours
It’s time for Written Review # 2 and overall review number eight: Dissidia: Final Fantasy for the PSP. Without any further ado, let’s get started!
Story:
Cosmos, the goddess of harmony, and Chaos, the god of discord, have been in conflict for ages. They are equal in power so they summon warriors to fight with them. Ten heroes and ten villains answer the calls of their deities and thus, a new battle begins. Cosmos and ten heroes are defeated in the subsequent encounter. The heroes are tasked by Cosmos to find crystals in an attempt to reset the balance of power. Can these Final Fantasy legends rise to the challenge and save the world?
The story is centered on the lead protagonists and antagonists from the first ten Final Fantasy games. Dissidia essentially creates two new characters – Warrior of Light (FFI) and the Onion Knight (FFIII). These characters are nameless and emotionless in their original games, so it is nice to see some heart injected into these blank slates. Firion from Final Fantasy II is also augmented from his original personality and I think it makes him less interesting. The other heroes and villains stay true to their sources, mostly.
The villains are overall more interesting than the heroes, which is a shame because you spend much more time with the heroes. But don’t get me wrong, there are a few on both sides that are just plain boring: Warrior of Light, Squall, Cloud, Exdeath, Sephiroth, and Ultimecia. Golbez, the adversary from Final Fantasy IV, has more meaningful dialogue and is the best developed character in the game. Sadly, there are no villain stories to play through.
The narrative as a whole feels detached. I know that it is hard for crossover games to have coherent stories and Dissidia does come close. But since I am a Final Fantasy fan and have beaten all ten of the original games, the characters (especially the heroes) fall short of their originals.
Cloud is probably the most famous Final Fantasy character in existence, so I’ll use him as my example. In the original game he was more than a brooding, self-loathing man. He stood by his friends, offered them encouragement, and he didn’t answer their questions with more obscure questions. The Advent Children version is the Cloud that wandered his way into Dissidia, and this Cloud is not the true Cloud. I’m just so sick of seeing this Cloud… what happened to the character development that occurred in the original game!? Did the creators just forget that they made a compelling character? Why the reduction to a lone wolf, self-loather?
I better stop with my mini Cloud rant; otherwise it could go somewhere I don’t want to go today. What are talking about again… oh right, Dissidia.
Game Play:
This is not a turn based RPG but rather a one-on-one dueling game. The combat centers around a statistic called Brave. Brave appears above the HP meters and is the number that determines the HP damage inflicted upon the opponent. At the bottom of the screen is a neutral pool of Brave that builds up as the battle progresses. If you manage to completely deplete your enemy’s Brave (sending him into a Break state) that pool will be yours and a massive HP blow becomes possible. If that happens to you, you’re not completely defenseless. While in Break, critical hit rate increases. All the fighters’ moves and abilities can be customized before battle.
Brave attacks are activated with the O button, and are used to attack Brave Points. They are divided into three categories: close range, mid-range, and long range. The attacks are used in combination with the control stick or pad. For example, my Terra has Blizzard Combo set to O, I can use Fire by pushing the control pad away from my opponent and pressing O, and I can use Graviga by pushing the control pad towards my enemy and pressing O. There are also combinations for airborne attacks, and the same principle applies for the HP attacks, which are used with the square button. I’ve had a few issues with chaining attacks together but overall the system is fun and pretty easy to get a handle on.
Something I nearly forgot to mention is guarding! By pressing the R button you can block a brave attack and knock your opponent off balance. If you manage to attack him after a guard, your critical rate drastically increases and it is the perfect opportunity to break your foe’s brave and turn the course of the battle.
If you want to try something a little different, command style is also available. In this mode you give you character suggestions and the AI will play out the battle. Control is gimped so I would stay away from this mode.
During the course of a battle you will notice little white dots appearing in the air. If you collect these a gauge next to your fighter will slowly increase. This is the EX meter and when it fills you can enter EX mode. This mode regenerates your health, greatly increases your critical hit rate, for some it changes their movement, and makes it possible to unleash your ultimate attack upon your unsuspecting foe. The moves differ in execution; some require hitting buttons in a sequence and some others just require mashing on a button until a set time limit runs out. Periodically items called EX cores appear and absorb all the EX energy in the air. Collect them to fill your gauge faster! If your rival fills up his gauge, enter coward mode and wait for his gauge to empty or go for the ultimate humiliation and trounce the guy while he is at full power! EX mode can really turn the tide of a fight so make sure to keep an eye out for those cores!
Modes:
There are only four battle modes at the outset: Story, Arcade, Quick Battle, and Communications.
In the Story Mode, you take control of the heroes and guide them through campaigns to retrieve the crystals. When all the stories are completed the path to final boss appears. Once the final boss has been defeated, missions appear to recruit the final two characters. Once that is done the Ultimate Fantasy scenario appears. The stories difficulties are represented by stars with Cecil’s being the easiest, and Warrior of Light and Terra being tied for the hardest. The extra scenarios are harder still and require mastery of technique, the right abilities, and high level equipment to work through. I still haven’t beaten Ultimate Fantasy.
The stories are told by a series of cutscenes and text boxes. You move your hero through a chessboard like area to battle and collect loot. All the main stories are split into five parts and each new region gives you a new set of Destiny Points (DP). If you finish a board with DP remaining you will receive PP, summons, or equipment. It is impossible to get everything on the first run so expect to play the individual stories at least three times.
In the Arcade, you pick a character with preset abilities and fight a string of computer drones. You can buy harder modes to increase the challenge and prizes.
Quick battle is where most of the training gets done. You select your character and opposition (or just push random if you’re lazy) and fight. You can adjust the AI’s power, level, and behavior. If you want to train against higher level dimwits to quickly raise your level, no problem. Or, you can test your skills buy maxing out the drones to give it everything they have. The experience, money, and items earned in the battle are yours to do with as you please.
The Communications mode is for the two-battle bouts. I have never played it but I can guess that is probably a lag-free experience since the two players have to be in the same general area to play each other. The option to play against in-game ghosts is also possible in this mode; all that needs to be done is to collect the cards that are given out throughout the course of the game.
Once the final boss goes down Duel Colosseum appears. This mode puts you into a string of battles to earn medals. These medals can be used to buy items found in this mode or saved to add to your PP. It isn’t an easy mode but the computer will make allowances if you send in a level two character on the lowest course setting. This mode is split into four courses, with the final area having opposition that goes twenty levels past the maximum you can obtain.
The other major modes are the PP Catalog, Museum, Player Settings, and Options. The PP catalog is where you buy things like extra characters, extra stages, music tracks, and many other things.
The Museum is where you can browse through pictures, read back-story about the characters and summons, watch movies, among other things.
The Player Options is where you enter your name, select a play plan, and enter your bonus day. The bonus day is the option that really matters. On this day all of the things earned after battle are increased and something else, like shops having a sale, will happen. Make sure that your bonus day is the day you have the most time to play.
Items:
There is no shortage when it comes to items! They are divided into these basic categories: Equipment, Accessories, and Summons.
Equipment is a facet of the game that cannot be ignored. If you aren’t equipped well you might as well not play the harder matches; you will have no chance to achieve victory. The weapons increase attack and sometimes have a secondary function like increasing physical damage by ten percent. Armlets and shields raise defense, most helmets raise brave, and most armor raises HP. Fortunately, new weapons and armor becomes available as you level up. If you want the really good stuff you’ll be playing this game for a long time; you have to forge the best armaments by trading in rare items at the shop.
There are many, many accessories to augment your characters with. For example, my level two Golbez has one that increases his power because he is under level four, and two others that raise his power when he is in the air and near his enemy. There are many more and vary in purpose from raising luck to increasing your power after the opposition uses a summon. It is a very customizable system, so be sure to experiment until you find something that fits your play style.
The Summons don’t cause massive HP damage like they do in the main games. Instead they will increase your power, lower your rival’s power, or just even things out. When you find yourself outmatched consider changing your summon to counter what the enemy is doing. In the hard matches they are a must. The first ones you receive activate automatically based on certain battle conditions but later on you can find some that you can use manually. They can only be used once per battle so use them wisely!
Presentation:
Dissidia shines when it comes to presentation. Tetsuya Nomura (of Final Fantasy VII and Kingdom Hearts fame) stays faithful to the original designs of Yoshitaka Amano (Final Fantasy I-VI) and that is quite a feat unto itself because those two have completely different approaches when it comes to character design. The characters are beautifully detailed and nothing was over looked from Kefka’s goofy walk to the minuscule details on Onion Knight’s armor. It isn’t perfect – a foot will phase through a cape or something but the action is so fast paced that it wouldn’t be noticed in battle. The stages and set pieces from the various games are recreated in a masterly manner and are varied as well. Pandaemonium from Final Fantasy II is confined and renders most distant attacks useless, while Order’s Sanctuary is wide open and has a lot of space to run in. The colors stay true to the original games and are wonderful to look at and actually a little overwhelming when you stop to take it all in as a whole (not Uncharted 2 overwhelming, but still quite stunning). There are a couple of CGI cutscenes and they are gorgeous. The in-game cutscenes could have used a bit more polish. All of the characters look “flashy” or something. It’s like the guy working the lights accidently puts a spot on them. Also, when the camera pans back during these scenes the characters look a little pixilated.
The sound is a bit of a mixed bag. Some of the new and remixed tracks use high quality MIDI and even recorded orchestral and vocal performances, and some just sound cheap. Fortunately for us, most of the bad tracks are used only in the story mode and aren’t heard as often. Once a particular track is unlocked it can be used on any stage. I like listening to my favorites and bypassing the ones I find less interesting. The music as a whole draws you even deeper into the experience, and it is very well done overall. It was a stroke of genius to include one track from each of the original games – NOSTAGLIA FOR THE WIN! My favorite tracks are Last Battle Part 1 and the Ending Medley.
The voice acting works for the most part but most of the lines are delivered monotone or way too overdramatically. Peter Beckman (Golbez) and Dave Wittenburg (Kefka) deliver the best performances. I can’t stand Warrior of Light’s over-the-top “I’m the hero and I’m completely obsessed with light” lines. They just get on my nerves. The voice over guy who introduces the stories is just a bit too melodramatic. I get the mental picture of a guy going to a poetry reading and trying too hard to make his reading good. Then again, if he wasn’t overdramatic his lines probably wouldn’t have worked. His performance just feels out of place when compared with the rest of voice work.
Problems:
All things considered, there really isn’t much to complain about. My major complaints have already been addressed: the lower quality cutscenes, a few musical tracks that fall well short of the rest in terms of quality, and the overall average voice work. The game plays great and with an adjustable camera you can always see what you are doing. Something else that bugs me a little is that all you do is fight. There are not any side activities that require active participation; all you do is prepare for battle and fight. It would have been nice to have a matching game or something to pass a little time when I wasn’t in a brawling mood. Oh well, I guess that is what Tetris is for.
Parting Shots:
Pros: fun game play, excellent music and sound, astounding animation, and many extras and achievements to unlock
Cons: middle of the road voice work, cutscenes overall disappointing, a few low quality music tracks, and if not the type to unlock everything there isn’t much to do except fight
Score: 8.5/10
Current Prices: $19-30
What I would pay for this game: I bought this game in a bundle last year with my PSP 3000. If you can get it for $20 that’s great, but I think it is worth the $30 price.
Buy/Rent/Skip:
If you are a Final Fantasy fan, this is fan service at its finest. If you don’t have much interest in the series, I think it is still worth a look. It is a solid fighting game that will keep you engaged for days, if not weeks and months. If you love the series, buy! If you like fighting games, I recommend a rent/borrow. It is definitely a change of pace from most arcade fighters. If you hate Final Fantasy, there isn’t much here that is going to change your mind. If you’re like me, you could rent/borrow just to put the beat down on emo-Cloud.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen (DS) Review
Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen © 2007, 2008 ARMOR PROJECT/BIRD STUDIO/ARTEPIAZZA/SQUARE ENIX. © Koichi Sugiyama.
This review is my opinion.
Review Completion Date: Friday, July 3, 2009.
System: Nintendo DS
Number of Players: 1
ESRB: E10
My recommended age to play this game: 12+
Time spent with this game: 39:36
Times Beaten: “B” Ending: One
“A” Ending: None
Initial Impressions: “With headphones, this opening track is really nice. The dragon looks a little blocky, but overall, the opening sequence is nice.”
There is a reason why the opening track, “Overture” sounds so nice – it is a recording of the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra!
This is my first written review. I’ll follow the same formula that I used with the video reviews and we will see how this works out. Here we go!
Story:
You are the hero, or heroine, and you are destined to defeat the Lord of the Underworld upon his resurrection. The problem is you don’t know that yet! You have just turned eighteen and are living in small village that is isolated from the outside world. I don’t know why you are wearing armor if you are living in a farming village, but whatever – your look remains consistent. This RPG is a little different in that you don’t play as the hero the entire story. The main story is divided into five chapters, with different characters taking center stage during their chapters. You play a short prologue in which the hero is introduced and then all of a sudden, you are placed in the shoes of Ragner McRyan, a knight in the far-off kingdom of Burland. He is sent on a mission to save the children of the kingdom. At the end of his chapter, it is discovered that someone named Psaro the Manslayer (not to be confused with Battosai the Manslayer… check out Rurouni Kenshin) is on his own mission to kill the hero before the prophecy can be fulfilled. Chapter 2 follows Alena, the tomboy tsarina (princess) of Zamoksva Castle. She is accompanied by the old magician Borya (Bore-ya! Get it? Ha! Ha! Hmmm…), and the soldier/priest Kiryl. Chapter 3 follows Torneko Taloon, an ambitious merchant who dreams of owning his own shop. Chapter 4 introduces the twins Maya and Meena, a dancer and fortune-teller on an adventure to avenge their murdered father. Chapter 5 reintroduces the hero/heroine and the true adventure to defeat the Lord of the Underworld and Psaro begins. Chapter 6 is comprised of extra stuff including a new dungeon, a new party member, and the “A” or complete ending.
Most of the chapters play out like a traditional RPG – go to towns, talk to the NPCs, find items in the dungeons, and beat a boss. There are a few funnier moments as well such as Alena has to enter a competition to prevent the princess of Endor from being married off to the coliseum winner, as well as other humorous moments. Chapter 3 has the same elements, but finally, you too can enjoy the “fun” of being a worker at a weapon shop. Chapter 3 is my favorite because it is different from the others. Torneko hires bodyguards, gets his wife to sell things at twice their value, and written dialogue is great in chapter 3. I’m surprised more games don’t let you delve into free-enterprising.
Just a quick notice as to what carries over from chapters 1-4 into 5: character levels and all the skills/spells they learned, items and equipment (but not special items), casino tokens, and mini-medals. That means that money does not transfer! In chapter 3, you will find that you are collecting a bunch of steel broadswords and iron armour after battles. Torneko will keep any equipment that you don’t sell in chapter 3, so save some stuff and sell it later when Torneko rejoins in chapter 5.
Along the way, other temporary party members fight beside you. There are eight in all including a healslime, a travelling-poet (who speaks in elementary rhyme), an innkeeper’s son whom eventually starts his own town, a dragon pup, and even an angel. There is certainly a wide assortment of characters.
What works for and against the story is the dialogue itself. It is presented in dialects based off of various languages like German, French, Russian, and even a little Old-English. These dialects sometimes lead to broken grammar that can’t make the characters hard to understand. On the other hand, it helps create the atmosphere that the world of DQIV is a diverse one with many different peoples. It can be strange, but it is readable. If you are a perfectionist English major, try to make to the end of the game.
There is also side-questing to be done. You must play into Chapter 6 to complete them. You can try to complete “The Big Book of Beasts,” the games bestiary. To gain an entry, you must defeat the monster and not just see it. Good luck against those Metal King Slimes! If you manage to defeat at least one of every monster you will receive 300,000 casino tokens! You can also complete Hank Hoffman Jr.’s town. Doing so will open up item shops that sell rare equipment, as well as a new casino.
Speaking of the casino, it has poker, slot machines, and a monster arena. In the monster arena, you bet some tokens on who you think will win in a battle of monsters.
The names of towns and enemies are often a play on words and sounds. Borya is only one example. A quick sample of others are The Auld Well (old well), Ballymoral (Baltimore), War-Rus (walrus), and many others. If you like word games, you’ll get a kick out of names of places and enemies.
The story itself weaves together and the next objective is always clear. My main problem is with the main characters themselves. They hardly ever talk and don’t really have any character development. That being said, they each have their own moments and are memorable but simple characters.
Game Play:
If you have ever played a DQ game before the battle system will not surprise you at all. It is a traditional turned based RPG. You give your characters commands (attack, magic, item, etc.) and then you watch how the turn plays out. The party and enemies move based on speed. For example, in one battle all your characters may be faster than all of the monsters, so that would be four straight moves for you and then the monsters attack. What happens most of the time is that some of monsters are quicker than some of your party members. Ragner is the slowest and Alena is the quickest. Some characters are purely offensive (Alena, Ragner, Maya), Kiryl is strictly supportive (healing and defensive spells), and the others are a combination of offensive and supportive abilities. Once you get the wagon in chapter 5, you can switch out party members in battle between turns, but only on the world map and in a few dungeons. Don’t worry; the characters that are not in the active party still receive experience. The best strategy is to use the members that will give you an advantage in battle. You pretty much always want someone who can heal and someone that can inflict magic damage. Some characters that work well in some dungeons may not work well in others. An easy example is Maya: don’t use her fire attacks against fire-based enemies! You will have to level grind to learn the characters’ abilities but fortunately, the battles in this game are fast-paced. Still, if you are not the type of player who can stand still for a while to power up your team, you probably will get bored a few times. In my experience, the characters leveled up fairly quickly and I didn’t have to wait around for extended periods. My hero was on level thirty-eight when I beat the game.
Controls:
Move with the control pad and use the A button to talk to NPCs. There isn’t touch screen support at all. There is a mini-map that gets filled in as you travel around the world map. You eventually get a boat and near the end, a hot-air balloon. You will still encounter enemies in the boat but you can travel the world worry free in the balloon. The trade-off is that you can’t enter the menu in the balloon. Simply land to enter the menu. Enter the boat by walking up to it, and press A to enter the balloon.
The menu itself is very easy to navigate. Press X and you’re in! Your party’s current stats are displayed on the top screen and all of the options: talk (talk to someone), items (use and look at the inventory; characters can hold 12 items and extra items are kept in the bag), attributes (shows the characters stats, skills, and equipment), magic (cast field magic), examine (look at the ground near your feet), and Misc. are on the bottom screen. Misc. has the following options: heal-all (restore HP automatically using items and spells), line-up (change party members order), organize items (puts extra items into the bag – special items and equipment currently worn is excluded), battle records, quick save (creates a temp save that works on the world map and outside of buildings), equip, tactics (set the other characters to your own specifications or leave them on “follow orders” to give the commands yourself), sort bag’s contents, and settings (BGM and SFX volume and battle message speed).
In towns and dungeons, use the L and R buttons to move the camera. It isn’t necessary to move the camera often, but sometimes hidden things can only be seen by shifting the camera. Press L and R at the same time to reset the camera.
Graphics:
The graphics are clear and present the diversity the characters and enemies well. Akira Toriyama’s creations are colorful and have a lot of personality in battle. The map sprites are not quite as impressive; they aren’t ugly, just simple. In several towns, the first being Aubout de Monde, there is a slowdown that interferes with the seamlessness of the game. It doesn’t break the game; it is simply annoying. The map sprites could have used a bit more variety as well – when someone is sleeping he is either lying on his side or standing up with his eyes open.
Music:
I’m a sucker for orchestral tracks, so I don’t have many complaints with the music. I wish it could have been fully orchestrated like DQVIII, but that is asking a bit much for a DS game. The MIDI is of high quality and sounds great. Some of the music does get repetitive, especially in the dungeons.
SFX:
The SFX are very repetitive, but that is because you will use many of the same tactics in every battle. Your fighters will attack and your magic users will cast their spells. It doesn’t sound bad by any means – you will just know the sounds after a while.
Problems:
I really don’t have any real big problems with this game. The graphic slowdown is annoying, but beyond that the complaints I have are with the fabric of the DQ series. The experience gained from battles is not great, the money you earn is pathetic, and the good shop items are overpriced. That is just part of the DQ experience, but it seems softer in this installment than in DQVIII.
Parting Shots:
Pros: fast random battles, funny dialogue, good music, and beautifully drawn characters and locations
Cons: level-grinding, other “DQ problems,” and graphic slowdowns
Score: 8/10
This game is DQ and doesn’t make any apologies. The chapters give you insights into the characters and some of writing is just great.
Buy/Rent/Skip: Buy.
If you don’t like turn-based RPGs skip it – there isn’t anything here that is going to change your mind. If you interested in trying a turn-based RPG, this could be a good gateway game. The learning curve is steep for those who haven’t played DQ and turn-based games before, but this would be a good one to experiment with. It isn’t the easiest game I have ever played, but isn’t the hardest either. It is definitely less involved than DQVIII.
Current Price: $30-27 for new and $24-19 for used
I received this game as a Christmas gift, so I didn’t pay for it! I would pay full price for this one. Be prepared to spend at least 35 hours to reach the “B” ending and even more to complete all there is to do in Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen!
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