Final Fantasy III
I got ill for Christmas. Cold sweats, runny nose, the lot and because I was in lands-a-foreign, the only thing I had to see me through moments when I wasn't delirious was a DS and a random selection of games. I needed to play a game that wouldn't mind me running away to snot every few seconds and also one that I could play in all three positions (laying on my front, reverse cowboy and neck propped up). Turns out Final Fantasy III was the only game that I had on me that fits the bill, annoyingly.
I say annoyingly for three good reasons.
Firstly, in something that might be called RPGitis I've been stuck on the same bit for years now. If you ever played an RPG, particularly a Squeenix one, you'll have no doubt experienced something similar. When I load up my game I find that I'm outside a city. I go into the city but from the way everyone is welcoming my guys like heroes, it's clear I've just finished what I needed to do for these city dwellers. I have no godly idea what to do next. Really is a memo pad too much to ask for? Especially in these older RPGs where the story doesn't make a frigs bit of sense. Go here, kill a dude, get a key, give the key to Mandoor who gives you a mallet. Take the Mallet to some city halfway across tha globe and then a secret mountain pathway will appear. Eventually after visiting ever single city (and after a thousand random battles) I discovered I missed talking to a guy who let the rest of the game progress. Thanks dude.
Secondly, I was one of thos kids who was really sold about RPGs after Final Fantasy VII. For me that was and still remains a good RPG. All these internet people keep banging on about the older ones so when FFIII eventually came out for the DS I thought I'd have a go. Just no. No. I've played VI, II and III now and they just don't have the same magic as VII. Everything feels disparate and unconnected. I've invested 14 hours into III and I couldn't recall one detail about the story. Well, that's a lie here are the four things I know about FFIII 1. One of the guys in my team is called Assex because ass sex wouldn't fit. 2. At some point I had to toad all my guys 3. Something about Crystals/Dragons? 4. Sometimes you have to change jobs in order to do something out of battle AND that person has to be the first one in your party but that's never really explained. I remember being so gripped by FFVII, FFVIII and to a lesser extent FFIX but the pre-VII (and post IX [excluding X-2]) ones really aren't doing it for me. Environments are bland and repetitive, the jobs make no sense and the world seems very flat and boring.
Lastly, there's a whole part to the game that involves sending messages to other people that have the game (Onion Swordsman and Final Dungeon are the two unlockables). Of course, the two other people who I know who had this game no longer play it and also, the gimped online with the DS means that even if they were playing it right now I couldn't send them letters anyway. This winds me up. The kind of fleeting content that is time sensitive and ruins a game experience for OCD people like me. The wonder of Resident Evil? I can stick it in and play it to my hearts content. I won't miss out on exclusive content or awards for online achievements that I can't get because nobody is playing it anymore. With the letters thing in this game though I feel that I've been robbed of content that should be mine. I've paid for it. it's on the cart!
Anyway, I'll plug on with it I've just left the floating continent and now there's yet another world map to explore. Normally I'd be happy that a game just kept giving but I'm feeling a bit [RANDOM BATTLE] sick [RANDOM BATTLE] of this [RANDOM BATTLE] already.
I say annoyingly for three good reasons.
Firstly, in something that might be called RPGitis I've been stuck on the same bit for years now. If you ever played an RPG, particularly a Squeenix one, you'll have no doubt experienced something similar. When I load up my game I find that I'm outside a city. I go into the city but from the way everyone is welcoming my guys like heroes, it's clear I've just finished what I needed to do for these city dwellers. I have no godly idea what to do next. Really is a memo pad too much to ask for? Especially in these older RPGs where the story doesn't make a frigs bit of sense. Go here, kill a dude, get a key, give the key to Mandoor who gives you a mallet. Take the Mallet to some city halfway across tha globe and then a secret mountain pathway will appear. Eventually after visiting ever single city (and after a thousand random battles) I discovered I missed talking to a guy who let the rest of the game progress. Thanks dude.
Secondly, I was one of thos kids who was really sold about RPGs after Final Fantasy VII. For me that was and still remains a good RPG. All these internet people keep banging on about the older ones so when FFIII eventually came out for the DS I thought I'd have a go. Just no. No. I've played VI, II and III now and they just don't have the same magic as VII. Everything feels disparate and unconnected. I've invested 14 hours into III and I couldn't recall one detail about the story. Well, that's a lie here are the four things I know about FFIII 1. One of the guys in my team is called Assex because ass sex wouldn't fit. 2. At some point I had to toad all my guys 3. Something about Crystals/Dragons? 4. Sometimes you have to change jobs in order to do something out of battle AND that person has to be the first one in your party but that's never really explained. I remember being so gripped by FFVII, FFVIII and to a lesser extent FFIX but the pre-VII (and post IX [excluding X-2]) ones really aren't doing it for me. Environments are bland and repetitive, the jobs make no sense and the world seems very flat and boring.
Lastly, there's a whole part to the game that involves sending messages to other people that have the game (Onion Swordsman and Final Dungeon are the two unlockables). Of course, the two other people who I know who had this game no longer play it and also, the gimped online with the DS means that even if they were playing it right now I couldn't send them letters anyway. This winds me up. The kind of fleeting content that is time sensitive and ruins a game experience for OCD people like me. The wonder of Resident Evil? I can stick it in and play it to my hearts content. I won't miss out on exclusive content or awards for online achievements that I can't get because nobody is playing it anymore. With the letters thing in this game though I feel that I've been robbed of content that should be mine. I've paid for it. it's on the cart!
Anyway, I'll plug on with it I've just left the floating continent and now there's yet another world map to explore. Normally I'd be happy that a game just kept giving but I'm feeling a bit [RANDOM BATTLE] sick [RANDOM BATTLE] of this [RANDOM BATTLE] already.
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