I’m replaying FFII now because I forgot that you need a clear save file to access Soul of Rebirth. lol Just got the mythril last time I played.
I played TAY a long time ago when the PSP version came out. I remember the story was episodic and each one followed a different group of characters, some returning and some new, but I don’t remember many details of the plot. I was a bit surprised to find out how negatively it was received because I don’t remember anything too egregious. It was fairly forgettable as far as FFs go so I guess in that regard, it’s of a lower caliber than typical series affairs.
I am tentatively interested in a book club for it. I say tentatively mainly because I’m still working on the last week of III currently so if I do join, it’ll be quite awhile after the start.
One year has passed since we’ve started FF1! お誕生日おめでとう！
The last thread of FF4 will be posted tomorrow, so we effectively covered 4 games in a year, which is pretty decent I think. A big thank you to all the people who transcribed, translated, commented, complained and generally kept the club alive.
I wonder where we’ll be a year from now. Somewhere in FF8 would be my guess.
Oh man, it feels crazy that it’s been a year!! I remember the first weeks of FF1 stumbling through some dialogue, it’s cool to see how much progress we’ve done!
Having the weekly threads to look forward to and play some more each week has been one of my favourite parts of this past year.
I think it also may be one of the first “book clubs” I actually participated in all through?
Replaying these games after decades and in a much more focused fashion has given me a new appreciation for them, especially these early ones. It’s cool to see how the games have evolved through time, how things were introduced, the little steps forward in both mechanics and giving stories and characters more depth.
Looking forward to many more hours of Final Fantasy!
To everyone no matter how many games they have played: what’s the ONE word that stuck in your mind more than any other from these clubs?
Playing all the FF games has been an idea I’ve had for many years but never really acted on. Only in the past year did it start to seem possible, and now it feels like it’s just a matter of time! A year ago I had never finished a game in Japanese, and tomorrow (or tonight ) I think I’ll finish my 8th9th (sorry I forgot ぼくのなつやすみ). It’s been an honor to study and grow my Japanese knowledge along with all of you.
Congrats to everyone for making it one year. Though my time with the group has been much shorter, it’s been no less enjoyable. I’m having a lot of fun replaying these games and posting my musings on them. The FFII fanfic is still coming. lol I’ve written about 1500 words so far and I still have a lot of ideas.
My #1 word is 毒消し. Even if the rest of my thought is in English, my brain retrieves 毒消し slightly faster than Antidote now. lol
On a side note, is anyone planning on taking the JLPT in December? I just signed up for the N4 and I’ll definitely be thanking this club again when I pass. lol
Whoa now, buddy, settle down. FFV is already much longer than IV (50-100%), and every game after that is longer than the last. Finishing three more games and change when we only finished the four shortest in a year is quite the pace increase.
A bunch of us! There’s a dedicated JLPT thread here, but in this club I know that I’m taking the N2, @Kelsyy N3, @Shannon-8 N3, @VikingSchism N2, and @Daisoujou was talking about taking N1 - did you ever get registered? I’m probably forgetting someone. But yeah we have all levels.
I was unaware of the thread. I took the N5 last year in California and had to drive 4 hours to the test site. lol There’s a site closer to me but it filled up too quickly. This year I’ll only have to drive 2 hours for the N4. I’ll probably still get a hotel room the night before so I’m not too tired on the actual day.
I’m signed up for the N2! It’ll be my first time taking any level of exam.
I’m thinking of breaking Final Fantasy order and joining y’all in 5 once I finish 2. I’m already going too slow, and test prep isn’t going to help. But maybe participating in the active threads will motivate me to spend more of my free time studying.
Nah, was never sure if I wanted to commit yet or not. It’s a long drive for me to get to. Guess I’m letting another year pass cause it slipped my mind, but that’s fine, not like I really need it and while I’m pretty confident already, the more certain the pass is the better.
Yeah the main reason I’m taking it is moreso as a proof of my personal progress. And taking N2 as I’m certain I could pass it and then I can look at N1 once I’ve had a run at the test in proper conditions before. It’s at least not too bad for me to get to my nearest test centre, but I will still be looking to travel the night before the exam to eliminate as much risk as possible because I don’t fancy tossing £115 down the drain
N2 is definitely not a sure thing for me (especially the listening), so if I get a 不合格 I’ll be retaking it instead of moving on to N1… But it’s fun to dream.
I’m not sure if FF5 is going to be all that much longer, but maybe my current preliminary schedule is too aggressive, we’ll see. The problem is that the longer this club goes the better I get at reading Japanese, and in particular JRPG-style Japanese, so maybe I’m underestimating the difficulty now.
On the other hand I think I’m underestimating the scope of FF7. But also I don’t really want to play the same game for 6 months straight… But also I don’t want to put the bar too high with the amount of weekly text. Tough…
Based on my playthrough, it feels like FF5 is twice as long as FF4. So, I did a sanity check with how long to beat, and basic completion with no extras is about 50% longer than FF4. I’m not even talking about difficulty or text density - it’s just a much longer game. The how long to beat’s for each game get successively longer, though FF6 is only super long if you do all the extras (and it is the first game with LOTS of optional stuff), otherwise it’s about as long as FFV.
The biggest surprise was the jump from X to XII, XII is like 50% longer than X, which itself is around double FFV/FFVI…
Yeah but for the purpose of this club I think text density is the main factor. FF5 is very action-packed, has more side-quests etc… But as long as I don’t go overboard with the Japanese I don’t mind stuffing more gameplay every week.
I’m building my preliminary schedule in the top post of the FF5 thread if you want to have a look, I’m up to week 7 and that covers roughly two thirds of the game (16h play time on the Pixel Remaster). But again, maybe I’m going too fast.
I think past a certain point the assumption should be that players are just mainlining the mandatory dialogue and not talking to every NPC in every town. My sense is that 7 isn’t much longer than 6 if you stick to the critical path, but I could be wrong.
It’s been at least 5 years since I played either, but my recollection is that 12 doesn’t really have more content in the main story, it just has some truly brutally long dungeons that put FF2’s to shame. I remember spending something like 6 hours in the penultimate dungeon with very minimal plot development, just steering my party around at 3x speed as they auto-battled everything.
Edit: Here’s a link to the series on HLTB for anyone else feeling curious. The difference between 10 and 12 actually completely evaporates when you consider the remaster of 12 instead of the original release, because you can fast forward through all the tedium of that combat system.
) I think I’ll finish my 