Iām keeping myself from bringing it up TOO much but if you particularly like the growth system here I really think you would enjoy some SaGa games. That series has taken on the evolution of this kind of system, playing with character growth through your actions (and sometimes more unique means). Itās particularly fun once they added systems to learn new techniques in battles for the types of weapons you use.
Alright I took a look anyway. I understood through the manual how it is only looking at value discrepancies (thus presumably if you take a bunch of damage but heal nothing counts) so I understood it partly but I suppose not to the degree of knowing how much more single lumps matter than repeated smaller instances. Iāll see what all I can do with that ā to a degree Iām avoiding trying to game the system too hard specifically because I want to see for myself how well it reacts to what feels like just āplaying it normallyā with just an understanding of the broad systems, given the reputation this game has for not letting you do that.
Besides the nasty surprise I mentioned it hasnāt really been difficult to survive and make it through places yet, that one fight was just cruel but otherwise my pains up to now are mostly hypothetical as I try to stay ahead of things. Weāre still super early so that might change though.
Man, did no one want to comment on seven identical dudes all telling you the exact same thing in Poft while wandering in circles? Devs must have just run out of time or something.
Iāve noticed a lot of npc doing it, the guards in the rebel hideout, the people in salamander both after and before you rescue the othersā¦ It is a bit strange.
I donāt understand why this game introduces so many towns so early but also Gatea, Palm and Poft are not very interesting or unique. Poft at least has Cid I suppose.
IMO a real downgrade from FF1 and its many unique settlements: Cornelia, Pravoka, Elf village, Dwarf cave, Luffein, the dragon cavesā¦ Even Gaia and Onrac had unique NPCs despite being more generic. The early FF1 game progression is really stellar IMO, everything until Melmond/Earth Cave is really good and feels modern to me.
That said I canāt really give a complete opinion about the world of FF2 at this point, weāll have to continue this discussion when we reach the endgame.
Thereās a lot I think I like more so far about 2, but yeahā¦ I started getting slightly turned around on the big trip back and was asking myself if a town I entered was one I had already been in. Theyāre definitely not super distinct.
I didnāt really mind the pacing of them, I thought traveling around by vehicles through pitstops made it feel like a big trip through a world we probably donāt want to go at on foot and that was a nice vibe to me anyway.
I would want to say the pacing of early towns makes sense if they sell a variety of things, since the game wants to get you your tools earlier (given how itās now less about getting access to new ones and more about getting better across the game at using the ones you get) but Iām pretty sure at least in magic, which Iāve paid more attention to than the other stuff, I saw repetitive stock already IIRC.
By the way, while playing on the real Famicom, have you noticed that sometimes the game seems to register two inputs when you only did one? Like moving two items down in a menu instead of single one? Or skipping past an enemy while targeting?
That happened a lot in my playthrough, but I donāt know if itās a game issue or my emulator setup.
Yeah I donāt think it is then. Never had this issue with FF1 but it looks like they messed up the controller sampling code in FF2. Itās annoying when I end up casting the wrong spell or targeting the wrong enemy because of it.
Itās certainly annoying, but at least in a turn-based game you can usually reset and retry.
Playing the Pixel Remaster is certainly a lot more relaxing while paradoxically being a lot faster paced. Not to mention that you get an autosave at every level change, so you donāt lose your entire dungeon progress if, say, you end up murdered by a trapped chest on the deepest level of a dungeon. Hypothetically speaking.
It does make the original game a lot more intense however. It feels different when you face a boss at the end of a long dungeon, and you know that if you die youāll have to restart from the top.
For sure. High risk high reward. I feel like Iām okay with the relaxed version! But appreciating that you tell us the differences, I would have never known
I dunno, itās annoying when it happens but if Iām taking my time it seems to be occasional and usually fixable. Like itās often enough it definitely happens every session but itās an annoyance that pops up here and there and not, like, Iām fighting to control the menus at all or something.
But yeah as for stakes I really like it this way, making it through the fights means a lot more since it can be super punishing when you donāt. Of course, this does add more pressure to make the fights good, and not have badly designed trapped chests on the deepest level of a dungeon.
That turtle feels particularly evil because itās right before a boss that is also highly resistant to physical damage, just to make you waste MP against itā¦ At least you get a free teleport tomeā¦
Probably even worse if you explore in the order I did and itās AFTER the boss. I was in full mopping up mode, already victorious! And with no MP left on attackers all I could do is sit and watch it remove all our progress while I hit revive and run away like 20 times and hoped that it was a low chance and not impossible (as it seems to be).
Even funnier that I had bought the teleport book in the town right before this trip
We havenāt, or at least I havenāt, seen trap chests or anything of the sort yet either so this is just particularly cruel; thereās no reason to expect me to see this coming at all.
Iāve bounced off the GBA version in the past, so Iām glad to have the PR with more modern QoL. I even left the default HP boost on, though Iām still too self-flagellating to let myself turn off encounters for any reason.
Thatās an issue with this game for me: given the way the world and dungeons are setup, youād think that running should be easier and more reliable than in FF1, but itās the opposite. Many encounters prevent fleeing altogether, and even those that donāt can be extremely difficult to escape at a low level.
āOh you wandered in a wrong part of the map and you triggered a battle with an enemy that you were only supposed to face 5 dungeons from now? Oh that sucks. I hope you have a fresh save ā
Once I got into the dungeon I did enjoy it visually and the music was great. The dungeon design itself was kind of whatever, with the only real interesting feature being the doors that lead nowhere. And calling those interesting is generous. Still, combat wasnāt too bad, but did end up running out of MP on my mages during the boss fight, and physical attacks werenāt doing much. I did somewhat mess up and used ćć§ć¼ć³ćø on the boss which cause Mināu and the boss to switch health pools, but Mināuās was higher. Then wasnāt able to switch back so was stuck with that. And because Iād run out of HP I then had to hike back out of the dungeon. Still, enemies in there couldnāt really hurt any of the party seriously so no big deal
Oof, yeah. Maybe this is a running theme; I recall that in some of the original Romancing SaGa games, where enemies also gradually get stronger the more fights you get in, in some of those games even running away still adds to the counter while you get nothing. Generally people overthink battle rank but if you run a lot for whatever reason, that can really hurt.
Yeah something about the way people describe it, I did the same thing. And it doesnāt help that thereās that seemingly inaccessible exit(?) cave opening over there that I kinda got tricked into wondering how I was meant to reach it.
You can actually reach the entrance from both sides:
If you go from the south side, you canāt climb the waterfall so you end up having to walk around through the forest and the small āravineā that leads to the top portion.
Obviously the North path using the river is just better: itās shorter and you donāt have encounters while on the canoe.
but if you particularly like the growth system here I really think you would enjoy some SaGa games. That series has taken on the evolution of this kind of system, playing with character growth through your actions (and sometimes more unique means). Itās particularly fun once they added systems to learn new techniques in battles for the types of weapons you use.
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