God dammit, not another one. Freeform characters in RPGs annoy me to no end, except in something like Tactics. I loved 9 mostly because they actually defined each character, and they weren't all just the same thing with a different model and a few limit breaks that looked different.

The freeform character development irritates me kind of, but it's similar enough to the FFX sphere grid, that I'm not going to complain.

It's pretty good so far, I can usually go through a FF completely without dying once (except to special bossess, or unusually hard ones), but I think I've died two or three times so far, once to the headhunters, once to the group of six soldiers in the boss fight on the leviathin battleship. The first time I went up against the headhunters, I got stuck in a corner, decided to fight, and died horribly, the second time I ran out with no deaths at all.

The gambit system gets better as you get more things, but I'm a fan of the old school choose your moves for each character thing. To make it a bit harder and compensate, I've turned on the active instead of wait, and I kicked it up to the second-highest speed. I really don't like running around in the fight though. The only time I like running around like that is a game like KH, if you're trying to do an FF style battle, I want to be more or less stationary. FFX-2, the horrible game it was, had it right, where the characters aren't in a straight line, but they kind of run around.

Anyway, I died a few hours ago, so I figured I'd log onto Lusternia. I imagine I'll play all weekend. Hopefully it gets a bit more interesting...

I actually prefer it this way. In other games the whole role thing is rather limiting and you're forced to take certain people over others unless you want to have a harder time. Here I can take who I actually like and the battles are so fast that you don't notice anyway.

The characters do come somewhat with their own place on the license board and do have different "limits," but I haven't tinkered with those so I wouldn't know. Honestly, even with the "free form" aspect of it I haven't bothered to take my characters out of their set niche. My main is still his thiefy self, my girl is still a mage, and my other girl has a Paladin vibe to her that she started with.

I personally love this FF. Streamline into battles, interesting story so far, large areas, and I don't have to fret over who to choose to fight with ().

I need more gambits though.

The streamlining into battles is one of the best things so far.

And right now, I have Balthier with a lance as my leader, Vaan is still his thief-ish self, and Fran is my mage/archer.

During the main story arc, it's not as noticable. When you're playing through for the third time, you realize that unless something storyish is happening right now, your characters have no character, because they don't really play differently. I haven't played 12 yet, but 6, 7, 8, 10 (to a lesser extent), and X-2 all get annoying if you're not in the thick of the storyline.

I like that Vaan isn't "special" like main characters are in previous games. At least, he's not "special" at my point in the game. Just a seemingly normal kid. No silly different dimensions or genetic testing or whatever.

My tastes are exactly the same, only the other way around. Those FF games with freeform characters development, those I liked (especially when characters felt different on the battlefield like in FF 6, where even though freeform and you could take what characters you like to the party, Sabin/Mash for example had a completely different feel than Gau). But those with characters and their classes set in stone - read FF IV and IX, well... I can't say I didn't like them but the fact that each character had a set function was a major drawback for me.

Especially adding to the fact that caster-types are much worse than melee-types, both battle-wise (let's face it, they're WEAK!) and personality-wise (exception: Vivi in IX and to a lesser extent Rydia in IV).

And, please explain this:


I find it very unusual to judge the character of a character by how they play in battle. In FF VII, even if everyone can do (save for limit breaks) exactly the same, they still have a different feel for me. Even in battle. Because while they do the same thing, they do it differently - animations, etc.
Also, just because I HAVE to take Dagger, Rosa or any other stereotypical wimpy-rescue-me-princess in order not to suck in the healing department, it doesn't make these characters a bit more enjoyable for me. On the contrary, I feel like strangling them even more.

Did I mention I hate most white mages yet?

Casters are weak? Vivi kicked ass. The only reason casters are weak end-game is because of the damage cap, usually.

Which was allowed to be broken in FFX, they should do that again...

So wow, this game is insanely difficult. I die a lot just running away from things bigger than me.

I think that means it's time to spend 4 hours in the easy areas getting xp. My least favorite part of games like this D:

Yeah. I've spent a while grinding.

I think I'll love it. I'm sick of FF games that are so easy, I can get through them by mashing X and running away from every non-plot combat

Odd, I almost never have to go bashing in FF games, I'm just usually at the point where I can beat the boss or creature because I've just gotten that much exp thus far.

I love that this game is hard. I hate playing a console RPG where I never die and never have to claw my way through just to survive. I was laughing my butt off earlier at a particular fight with a character on the airship after the tomb. All my characters but Basch died and he survived with only 44hp to his name.

Yeah, the traitor was hard. I had to level up a bit in the tomb and a lot of people died when I finally fought him. I probably should've summoned earlier. Right now I can't even get into this stupid jungle because the panthers kill me on sight so I'm doing sidequests.

If anyone can find me some nice screenshots of Bhujerba (not the flying city part, the streets and such within the city) or the Lowtown area from the first city you're in, I'd appreciate it. I found that Bhujerba's archetecture is very similar to what I'd envisioned for Deepnight, and lowtown was similar to what I'd wanted for an undercity...

Really? Are you focusing on augments for your characters? That and the items I get from hunts (Found an accessory that doubles LP for whoever has it equipped) make it a little easier.. although I guess my lust for LP has me a higher level than I should be.

Destrier manes. You can steal them from the purple horse things and they sell for like 800 gil. The iron carapace they drop (or stolen) is around 400ish. Coeurl pelts from the panthers are good too.

Oh, and no one should underestimate shield block.

Shield block = win.

So, now my guys are all like level 30, and they're getting a lot more specialized so fights are actually really fun, now. Definitely much more interesting as you progress in the game, and it's hard to imagine that a real-time battle system can actually require as much micro-managing as previous FF's.

Hardest battle so far has been the ice esper. zOMG that nearly wrecked me. Started out with her and her minions sleeping 2/3 of my party, killing the other off, and then laying waste to the last two. So, before I could even do anything, half my party was dead and had to be switched out

Didn't help that there were no save crystals right before her, so both my healers were at 0mp. Had to use ethers (which I tend to hoard).

I've killed 13 marks now, tried a rank 3 one (ring wyrm) but damn....the thing must have like 200k hps, it was ludicrous. Both healers drained dry before I even got it halfway down.

Anyways, I'm just curious how everyone else is building their characters. Mine are as follows:

Vaan = Sword/shield, arcane/green, and techniks.
Baltheir = Time / support black magic, guns still, sometimes poles.
Fran = Main time/black magic. Bows, or sometimes switch to katana.
Basch = Lances, arcane/green magic.
Ashe = white magic, rods or crossbow if I need a healer against flyers.
Penelo = white magic, dagger/shield and my main thiefy.


And yes, I need more gambits. I love the system, but I need more! I keep thinking in terms of lusternia-ish systems for curing, but I don't have the resources available to set up a legitimate curing system!

I can't get past the demon wall