Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (Switch)

Star Wars... but in Ivalice

Played and finished Final Fantasy XII for the first time. Never had it as a kid. It was released on the PS2 right as I was moving away for University and I never got a PS2 to play on so it never came to it. So I picked it up for the Switch instead. The only thing I knew was that it seen as a Star Wars-rip off in story... and when you begin to think that, you can't unsee it. So the game takes place in Ivalice, like the Final Fantasy Tactics game (which I only played the Advance version) where there is a wedding between the prince of Nabradia and the princess of Dalmasca, but the Archadian Empire attacks Nabradia so the prince together with the knight Basch sets out to defend his homeland since they are united now. The prince is killed in battle and the fortress they defended was destroyed by some unknown power that works like a nuclear bomb... or the Death Star if you like. Basch returns to Dalmasca, but the king have left to sign the surrender so the royal knights try to reach the king before it's to late... which it is, but it seems that Basch killed the king for surrendering Dalmasca to the Archadian empire. 

Two years later we follow Vaan, the brother of one of the soldiers who died after the attack and witnessed the kings death by Basch's hand, right before he stabbed him. Vaan works with Penelo in the former Dalmascian Capital Rabinaste that lies in the desert. He dreams of becoming a sky pirate. During the celebration of the new governor Vayne Vaan sneaks into the palace and find a magicte (a magical stone pretty much) but while escaping runs into the sky pirate Balthier and his companion Fran, a Viera (mystical rabbit pretty much) who also looked for the stone, these will be our Han Solo and Chewbacca for this game. Escaping through the sewers they meet Ashe, who is the princess of Dalmasca and leader of the resistance... Princess Leia I presume. They get captured and Vaan and the sky pirates are taken to an old Nabradia fortress where they escape before some bounty hunters find Balthier who owns them money. They also find Basch who have been trapped there for two years. Turns out that it was his twin brother Gebranth that killed the king, framed him and then got him locked up here. 

So not only is there a twin involved, but the brother works for the empire as a judge who goes around in black armour from top to toe. They meet the resistance and together with Ashe travels to Cloud City... I mean Bhurjerba, the floating mining town who supplies the empire with minerals while the lord is financing the resistance. After a lot of saving they rescue Penelo, Ashe gets taken and they rescue her and the magicite Vaan stole turns out to be one of three shards the Dynast-King used to create peace in Ivalice. The party escapes and plans to get the Dawn Shard from the Dynast-Kings Tomb which they get, but are captured again. The empire test the Dawn Shard, but its powers causes the ship they are on to explode, killing the Judge that controlled that ship and the whole 8th fleet, setting in motion a build up to war between Archadia and Rossaria, the other empire in Ivalice. Heroes escape and search for the Dynast-Kings sword which can destroy magicite which was hidden by the Daila Lama of Ivalice... or Yoda if you like that. Get the sword, sneaks into the Imperial capital where you confront Dr. Cid. The capital is also in turmoil since the Emperor have been killed by the senators, but the judges have apprehended the senators and Vayne, the oldest son of the Emperor take over as a dictator to bring stability when the Rossarion army seems to move on the Empire. 

Dr. Cid is Balthiers father and seems to be possessed by the being Venat, they meet the pirate leader Reddas who hunted Cid as well and they all escape. Cid hinted to the ancient city where the Dynast-kings power came from so they go there, but it holds a giant crystal where the Occurians live, the ancient gods of Ivalice who controls history and gave the Dynast-King the sword to cut the magicite from the Sun-cyst. They give the same powers to Ashe so that she can destroy the Empire and turn Ivalice back through the course of history that Venat, herself an Occurian, have led the humans stray from. With both swords the party heads to a giant lighthouse at the brink of the world where the Sun-cyst lies. Climbing the tower they find the Sun-cyst, but both Gebrant and Dr. Cid appears, Gebrant goating Ashe to take the Sun-cyst and demand vengeance. Ashe forsake it, but Dr. Cid and Venat overflow the Sun-cyst with power causing it to spew out powers that apparently powers the flying fortress Bahamut, aka the Death Star. They are saved by Reddas who takes the Dynast-Kings sword and destroys the Sun-cyst, killing himself in the sacrifice. But as he was responsible for the destruction of Nebradis as a judge on Cid's order he was kinda satisfied with that. 

Final stage is the heroes using their airship to board the Bahamut in the middle of the battle over Rabanestra between the Resistance and the Archadian Empire. The heroes face of Vayne and Venat and Vayne dies, but I don't think he was that sad since he and Venat achieved their goals, destroying the Sun-cyst and giving humans free will. As the fortress is self-destructing Vaan and friends escape with Gebrant and Vayne's younger brother Larsa that have aided them in trying to stop the war. Gebrant is mortally wounded and ask Bashe to protect Larsa. Balthier and Fran stays behind so the other can escape as well as flying the Bahamut away from Rabanastre before crashing into the ground. One year pass and Ashe is supposed to be crowned Queen, Bashe works as Larsa's judge, Balthier and Fran survived and took back their airship and Vaan and Penelo prepares to set out on their own adventures, the end.

It has its moments, but the story doesn't gel all the way. I can see the themes, Ashe struggles with the thought of acquiring power to restore her homeland and the fear of becoming as corrupted as the Empire. Basch struggles with his failures to protect his former homeland and his new king. Balthier is just the rouge who sees himself as the leading man, but he pushes the plot forward all the time and is the voice of reason (and voiced by the same guy who was Commander Nelson in Wonderful 101). Fran is supposed to struggle with having left her forest and therefore becoming cut off to the voice of the forest. It doesn't effect much though, and Vaan and Penelo really doesn't do much. Apparently since Vaan was the main character in the last minute since they began with Basch as the leading role, but they thought an older main character would turn people off. The power struggle of the empires are really interesting, but the Occurian plot seems disjointed from the others. I get that the lighthouse shows the true face of the Occurians how they look down on people and acts a bit like vengeful gods, but it's never explained. Skies of Arcadia shows the same thing with the Silvites, but there they directly tells the player that the rains of destruction is the Silvites reseting history. Here, I don't get why Venat turned on them, and how was the humans trapped by the Occurians history, what would have been different? 

Gameplay on the other hand... I can see the evolution to XIII. Here they introduced the Gambit system where you can pretty much set the combat AI how you want, if you are gonna attack, with what, against whom or heal and so on. A bit confusing in the beginning, but I got the hang of it really fast. Sadly I didn't get how to set up so that my black mage (Ashe) would use different spells against different enemies depending on which element they were weak to. Think I would have been better against certain bosses in the end game (or dealing with the damn elementals). You also can customise the classes for every character how ever you want from the 12 you got access to, but starting equipment and base stats push you to a certain direction, and then you have the ability to combine it with another class. I went for a spread with all 12 classes. I get that certain combinations are really good together. Kinda alright altogether. Wasn't to hard to get a hold off, but as usual it leads to a strategy where you don't have to push any button, just move until the auto-function takes you to nearest enemy. 

Music... no Uematsu, not bad music and the orchestrated version on the remaster is really good. But again, the imperial theme sound like the imperial theme from Star Wars so not even that can escape it. Graphically... I think X looks better. People's faces looks washed out in comparison. And the voice acting... it sounds bad in my ears. Maybe the more heavy dialects make it feel more unnatural to me, but I assume the heavy compression of the voices is the bigger culprit. Also, the story is a bit too human centric. The only non-human in the party is Fran, even tough there is several established races in Ivalice like the moogles, the Nu Mou and the Baangas. They introduced even more here so even worse that 5 (or 8) out of 6 (or 9) characters are humans... or humes, sorry. Still, worth a play through and for god sake, play the remaster that added speeding up and a minimap. I finished just after 53 hours and that's thankfully for speeding up game play with 4x. I can't imagine having played this the original speed. Although, gotta be fair, at times the speed up and the wriggling of the camera made me feel a bit dizzy. 

Ecco The Dolphin 3D (3DS)

Seven Star Had Ursa Major!

Tables Turning, Turning

And Rain Maker!

Was at my parents home during easter, the other christian holiday since this will show up around Christmas, and decided to play through one of the four different Ecco the Dolphin games I have bought through the years and it landed on the 3DS, since that was what I had with me to my parents. Part of the 3D Classic Collection where they took classic games and spruced them up in 3D for the 3DS. At release seen as one of the more impressive graphical titles, great music and atmosphere but seen as one of the harder games. Mostly because the developers set out to ensure that kids didn't finish it in a weekend. 

It's about Ecco the Dolphin who one day tries to impress the others in his pod so he makes a high jump out of the ocean and as soon he leaves a tornado hits the water sucking all life out of the ocean, including his pod. So Ecco has to set out rescueing his family. First he has to find the Big Blue, a blue whale that have traveled to the North Pole awaiting death it seems. Traversing shark infested waters and deadly ice blocks that crush you over and over you finally finds him, but he only knows that the tornado appears every 500 years and sucks the oceans clean, but he directs you to the Asterite, the oldest living creature. Turns out it's some kind of DNA-Helix that lives in the waters who directs you to Atlantis where there is a Time Machine so that Ecco can travel 44 million years into the past and help the Asterite to power up so that he can power up Ecco. Turns out that the tornado is caused by the alien race the Vortex from the planet Vortex in the Pegasus constellation (which they note lies very close to the dolphin constellation... why that matter beyond that it's a game about a Dolphin I don't get). Anyway, the Vortex have no food so every 500 years they suck the oceans of Earth to feed on it.

With this knowledge Ecco travels back right before the tornado appears and jumps with it, ending up on the alien space ship where he fights off the Alien Queen and rescues his pod and returns to Earth. I gotta say, even how bonkers the story is with aliens, time travel and Atlantis... I kinda liked it! Following the story it gets weirder and weirder and I love it. 

Now was it as hard? Well, since I used the 3DS version I set up the Super Dolphin Mode which means infinite health and air. Yeah, since Ecco is a mammal he needs air to breath so a challenge of the game is to traverse underwater mazes before the air runs out or you get killed by the hostile creatures, like crabs and sharks. So no anxiety over that, still got crushed by the ice blocks or the walls of the alien ship. I would probably never have finished it the normal way, which probably explains why I have bought it four times, for Wii Virtual Console, the Sega Mega Drive Collection for PS3 and the Switch collection. Graphics are nice and the music is really good, I really like the Mega Drive sound of it. I got the sequel for the Mega Drive compilation on the PS3 so might try that one day. 

Finding Teddy 2 (Switch)

Look, a winter game! It has snow!

A game where a little girl plays video games and then goes into the wardrobe and follows her flying teddy to a library to help fight off this evil magician that taken over this magical land. That's the gist of it I got from Wikipedia since the game doesn't tell you that much. What's more interesting is that I got this for the Wii U, but it was named Chronicles of Teddy: Harmony of Exidus. So I thought this was actually a sequel which stopped me from getting the game since I wanted to finish the original first. I couldn't do that on the Wii U since it glitches out completely when I play it there (don't know if it is a bad download or that the game really is that glitchy, it freezes after just a couple of minutes so I stopped playing),

Works fine here. It's pretty much styled after Zelda II and you gotta go through 4 different worlds to find the temples and the four seeds so that you can open the final door and fight off Anguis. Neat things are musicon, an instrument you carry with you that enables you to learn different sounds and with it do some musical puzzles. You get a lexicon and the villagers you meet tell you what you need to tell the Guardians to enter the palaces, of course after you done some side quests for them. There's also the firefly collecting game where there is 50 fireflies that are hidden, but if you listen to what they sing you can mimic the sound and reveal them. Getting all 50 unlocks the black overalls. My ears can't get the tunes at all so I used a guide. I would recommend it anyway since I think the chests of the temples with the new items uses the same principle since I had to look up what to do. Nice in theory, but way beyond my capabilities. I like decoding messages and such to get clues and the like, but that I can handle with pen and paper.

Another reason for the guide is so that it can explain what all upgrades do, since the overalls don't heighten the defence, but increases health and marble pickups (marbles being the currency). Of course, since so much of the game is based on these musical puzzles you can also skip a lot of the game. I used it once to get the health upgrade from the Tower of the Stars, a super hard platforming challenge where you gotta do four different rooms to get the codes to open the door to the upgrade. I did one, but the second one wanted me to jump and pogo stick my sword on bullets from enemies to get to the code. And the control more often than not doesn't differentiate only using the weak downward thrust from the special down-attack that means insta death. I gave up there. 

Overall, enjoyable while it lasted. Graphics are nice, the music very soothing and the ideas intriguing. In the end one could spot a Zelda II poster above the TV so the question is if this is just the girls imagination running wild. It's not without its faults though, and one is that this version also had a glitch, a glitch that made it impossible to go to credits after beating the final boss. So I just youtubed the ending. I beat the boss and have no inclination to do so again. Apparently this game is just cursed for me.

Final Fantasy X-2 (Switch)

 

Girl Power!

Finally finished it, after failing to win in the original release at the end boss. And then never even try it on the remaster release for the PS3, but I got it on Switch and finish it. Don't know why I prefer to finish them on Nintendo console, but I again attribute it to the Pro-controller, just feels right in the hand. This game is also interesting in that it was the first direct sequel to a main Final Fantasy, and afterwards they pumped out sequels to VII, IV and later on XII and XIII. 

The story is that 2 years after Yuna defeated Sin and entered Spira into the Eternal Calm trouble is brewing again. Spira stand divided in different factions, New Yevon who arose from Yevon that try to preserve some order, often being associated with old people and the Youth League rising from the Crusaders with much radical younger supporters and a quest to bring the truth to Spira. There's also a third faction, the Machine Faction rising from the Al-Bhed, but they are not that important since they basically just digs for machines in Bikanel Desert. To unlock the past Sphere Hunters have appeared to gather spheres that show Spira's past. Yuna joins the Gullwings, that are lead by Rikku's brother.... Brother, after Khimari as the new elder of the Ronso found a sphere of what looks like Tidus. Yuna, Rikku and newcomer Paine (that looks a bit like a younger Lulu) sets of searching for sphere's.

This evolves into stumbling upon a secret weapon of mass destruction that lies dormant under Bevelle that New Yevon tried holding away from the people which gets hijacked by a ghost that possesses the leaders of the factions. The ghost being a look-alike for Tidus, and speculated to be the person the fayth based Tidus on, is an unsent that 1 000 years ago during the war between Zanarkand and Bevelle tried to get the weapon from Bevelle to save his girlfriend Lenne that was a singer and a summoner. But as she tried to stop him from destroying all of Spira (which apparently was the problem with the weapon, it was assured destruction for everyone which explains why they couldn't use it against Sin, nice save there writer) both were killed and he spent 1 000 years roaming a cave until the ones becoming leaders for the factions was on a mission for the Crimson squad during operation Mi'hen and the leader of Youth League was possessed.

That's the dramatic story that glues it all together, otherwise it's Yuna and friends going from place to place doing side quest and mini-games showing you what happened to all the people and tying together some loose ends like the animosity between the Guado and Ronso, Lulu and Wakka hooking up and expecting their first baby etc. You go on a "murder-mystery" to find out who smashed up the hoover craft on Mi'hen high road, playing a sphere break tournament. There's a lot, divided by 5 chapter (and chapter 4 is just a railroad for Yunapalooza, a concert to unite the world as Yuna as the headlining act) and a tips for new-comers, don't go after the hot-spots the first thing you do, do them last. That was the problem I had as a kid playing it for the first time, meaning I missed out on a lot of Dresspheres, garment grids and levels. Maybe play the Besaid one first since then you get the White mage dressphere.

Dresspheres is this games job-system, which means this was the third time it was used and the last time was Final Fantasy V. And you also got levels back instead of the Sphere Grid from X so this is basically more closer to old-school Final Fantasy. You use garments grids where you equip the dresspheres and equip them to the players so that in battle you can change job and also by passing through gates get some bonuses, which I pretty much never used, but at least it doesn't penalise you for changing jobs like the old games. Put up a team of Lady Luck, Alchemist and Dark Knight are pretty much enough to power you through to the endgame. Yuna at lvl 72 and Paine lvl 65 and Rikku lvl 63. The game encourage the player to play the games over and over since to get 100 % and the good ending you need to make a different choice, either give a sphere you stole in Kilika to either New Yevon or Youth League. It affects the factions look on you and gives different cut-scenes that add to the percentage score. Finishing unlocks New Game+ where you keep the garment grids, dresspheres and the unlocks for the spheres so that the games get easier or makes you try different jobs, since why still use the Gunner, Thief and Swordsman jobs when they are 100 % and items allow you to use the skills without equipping it? (Some garment grids do the same).

Overall, it's a fun game... if you can get past the more goofy, girlier and fan-service part of the game. I mean, I think I didn't replay it as much as a kid since you wouldn't want to be caught by your parents as Yuna, straddled over rival Leblanc giving her a back message as Leblanc moans really loud, and most females have very exposed clothing... or that within 10 minutes Yuna falls from a ledge and the camera just zooms in on her ass, glad she is officially 19, but it gets weirder the older I get. 

How does that stay in place?

Glad I'm living alone without any insight from the neighbours... maybe I'm gonna pull down the curtains just in case anyway. So I got both main game on the remaster and there's only one thing left and that is Final Fantasy X-2: Last Mission. Started it and it's a dungeon (or more correctly Tower) crawler where you and the monsters take turns in order to get to the top. I'm not gonna play that. I read a synopsis and it feels just sad since the main trio of X-2 seems to have a falling out and go their separate ways. I gather that the original was tied to the percentage score of X-2, but they remastered it without the 100 % dialog so that is probably why it's seems so dismal. But the main reason is I can't bother to learn the gameplay, it just doesn't connect so I don't wanna get into it.

Some negatives is that the music isn't that good, it's not bad and I like the rock style and the chocobo theme is a real ear-worm, but I miss things like the Hymn of the Fayth and the assualt song. Songs that elevate the scenes in the epic proportion... or that might be the reason there isn't one. Most of the main voices are the same, but it's clear they changed Rin for example and that puts me off a bit, but hey, George Newbern is one of the main guys.... you know, Superman from the Justice League series.

Final Fantasy X HD Remastered (Switch)

April 16 2019? Maybe was time that I actually played this (2021-03-20 as of writing)

So I got Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Collection again, but this time for switch, so I had to play it. And I still like it. I like the story, the graphics are cozy nostalgic for me and the music is heavenly. I noticed I never wrote about the story last time which is a bit uncharacteristic for me since I usually focus on that. Glad I can fix that right now? Basically it's about the blitzball (some kind of water polo sport) player Tidus from Zanarkand that during the cup honoring his fathers Jechts disappearance ten years earlier (he himself a famous blitzball player) the city is attacked by the monster Sin and together with his father's friend Auron is transported to the land of Spira. In Spira Tidus learns that Zanarkand was destroyed 1 000 years ago in a war between Bevelle and Zanarkand and after that Sin appeared. His father also ended up in Spira 10 years ago and journeyed with the High-Summoner Braska and sir Auron on a pilgrimage to defeat Sin and they succeeded, but Sin is back again. 

Tidus joins up with Braska's daughter the summoner Yuna and her guardians Khimari, a ronso blue mage, Wakka, a blitzball captain and Lulu the black mage. On their journey they meet up with Auron again and Rikku the Al-Bhed thief. On their journeys they meet the maester Seymour Guado of Yevon (pretty much the church of Spira that gives hope to the people by claiming that if people atone for their sins, using machines and all that, Sin will never return when the summoners bring the Calm) who intends to kill Sin and become it in order to destroy all of Spira so that all can be free of death... a psychopath is what he is. The church is corrupt and just perpetuates the status quo, even being led by an unsent Maester Maika (unsent being a person that died and haven't been sent by a summoner to the Farplane, and if they aren't sent they can turn into fiends). At the same time the Al-Bheds are kidnapping summoners in order to save them since the Final Summoning they uses to destroy Sin will kill the Summoner. 

Turns out that the Final Summoning must be created by sacrificing one of the guardians. Also, the Final Summoning destroys Sin but is doomed to become Sin since the entity inside Sin, Yu Yevon was a summoner of Zanarkand that as the city was destroyed 1 000 years ago put up the Fayths the summoner prays to recieve different Aeons (summons) by using the survivors from the city, and most of them was used to summon Zanarkand in a dream world so it would become eternal. And since Tidus is from there he is a dream given life by the Fayths since they are tired after 1 000 years and want's to end it. Meanwhile Auron lost his life after Braska destroyed Sin so he has walked around unsent to stop the spiral of death by masterminding everything together with Jecht who become Braska's Final Summoning. Tidus and the gang blasts into Sin by using machines that Al-Bhed have salvaged, like an airship. 

Also you fight Seymour 4 times, the last inside Sin before fighting Jecht as the final summoning and then Yu Yevon, which you can't loose since you have auto-life granted. Nice with a boss that isn't that hard. It's more for story purposes. Yuna sends Auron and Tidus disappears as the Fayths are dying since Yu Yevon isn't summoning anymore.

I finished it 2-3 times, played to the end some 2 more times and I love it more and more. I recall some complaining that Tidus steals what is actually Yuna's story, and on one hand they are right. He hardly actually effects the story in any meaningful way other than actually question how the world works. But on the other hand, it's about Tidus and his strained relations with his father Jecht who always towered over him. He was a drunk, belittled him and his mother didn't look twice at him when his father was around. Until he ended up in Spira and tried to get home, and had to confront his behaviour. Jecht stopped drinking after hurting an innocent beast while drunk that forced Auron and Braska to pay for the damages. And as he realised he couldn't get home whenever he talked about Tidus he almost teared up. Which makes it so sad when he chooses to be the summoning, since he has nothing in Spira. And the music, the Hymn of the Fayth in every incarnation in the game sounds amazing. Auron's theme is fantastic and the assault song as they go for the wedding scene is thrilling, they even used it on the trailer timing it with the cannons from operation Mi'hen going off. And since I never got there as a kid I'm always entranced by Seymour's last battle theme. And the voice acting... I like it? One of the first (almost) full voice acted games I played. And good voices. 

Now, I only played it for 60 hours and only got 3 fully upgraded Celestial Weapons, but I got all summons and Al-Bhed primer. I pretty much sat with a guide by my side so that I could know when to go to Besaid before the Dark Aeon appeared and all that. Got a no encounter weapon that made the end game so much easier. So I checked up on my save on the PS3. I played that for 90 hours, got 4-5 celestial weapon fully upgraded (missing Lulu's that I got this time around thanks to the no encounter weapon). I even defeated the Dark Aeon at Besaid since I got all the Jecht spehere's (I got the trophy to support it), but I have to replay the game since I missed some primers at the Al-Bhed Home. I was actually thinking that if I ever wanted to play it again I might do it on the PS3 since it has the trophies, but since I got the ones I got and frankly the controls are better on the Switch (used a pro controller). I think it has to do that the right stick feels like a walking stick compared to the PS3, it's even placed more naturally above the d-pad. Also I imported a cartridge with both games on it, screw that with only giving 1 game and then download the other. At least not as bad as Capcom who gave you the smaller game (by a lot) and got you to download the 23 GB game to play it.