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Post by Dale on Jul 14, 2009 0:23:34 GMT -8
I'm very happy for them. I don't know how, but my interest in this team got sparked again on this leg. It was nice seeing them be the first team to snag a repeat victory. I think I love them again.
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Post by Dale on Sept 7, 2009 21:57:25 GMT -8
So I'm the only one showing any of the team threads love? . . . Okay.
I'm glad Reina & Faris kept placing high, though it's a slight pity they lost their lead at the last minute. I'm not complaining that much, though, since it meant Ma & Zell finishing first!
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Post by Dale on Nov 22, 2009 5:30:55 GMT -8
I think this is the real team that's stayed under the radar. Except for Dona & Barthello considering U-Turning them, no one's ever said a word about them.
They're probably my third-favorite team, behind Ma & Zell and Fran & Balthier. So I'm glad they made it through leg eight. And I'm even gladder that they're the sole team with a delay point and can now hold all the other teams' fates in their hands.
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Post by Dale on Dec 23, 2009 2:40:08 GMT -8
I hope they're not hit by irony like Barret & Dyne were and wind up eliminated since they're in their home world now.
Interesting situation they're in, though. They're the only team left with a delay point to use, but two of them are left in the race -- a Xing and a Yield. Which begs the question. Will they go ahead and use their delay on this leg, or hesitate to do so and instead save it to knock out a big threat on the penultimate leg (assuming they survive this leg, which I do think they will)?
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Post by Dale on Feb 9, 2010 19:07:26 GMT -8
So they effectively used (read: WASTED) their Xing on Fran & Balthier, but they still seem to be in it with a good chance of making the F3 even without their delay. I mean, they DID win the last leg, after all, for their third one!
Since Biran & Yenke, Dona & Barthello, and Ma & Zell all went for the Fast Forward, that left them with a pretty good buffer on those who didn't win it (in this case, a decent-sized one on Biran & Yenke, who gave up on it, and a seemingly-large one on Ma & Zell, who outright lost it to Dona & Barthello).
Crossing my fingers that nothing happens to them the rest of the leg. I REALLY wanna see them and Ma & Zell both make the F3. They're easily the two most deserving teams.
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Post by Dale on Feb 13, 2010 4:30:13 GMT -8
They once again cleaned up real nice and scored a spot in the F3 for their troubles! They've steamrolled the competition since their first win, at least. It'll be a crying shame if all of this goes to waste and they don't win the final leg. They both deserve it so much!
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Post by Dale on Feb 28, 2010 18:56:47 GMT -8
WHOOOOOOOO! THE WINNERS!
Congratulations, ladies! Though Bob had me going when they stayed in last for most of the leg! That was quite the comeback! Though they have to thank Ma at least partly for getting the chance to make the final push against Dona & Barthello, it's not like they didn't do a few things on their own to make up the time, as well! They were the strongest, most solid team of the F3, won the most legs, and probably got along better than any of the other teams -- both those in the F3 and those who got eliminated! They deserved to win, and I'm glad they did. Helped this season end in the best way possible, for sure!
Congratulations, Reina & Faris!
I'll bet you're happy, Agent0042! They are from your favorite game, after all!
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Post by agent0042 on Mar 1, 2010 15:11:00 GMT -8
Yeah, I am happy. But yeah, it was a heck of a comeback considering how much they were running behind. And I don't know that Final Fantasy V is necessarily my favorite, that's Final Fantasy IX. It's just I really grew attached to the characters and I feel the game is somewhat underrated.
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Post by Dale on Mar 10, 2010 18:57:30 GMT -8
9? Really?
. . . Well, whatever. Congrats again to Reina & Faris! If their type of team can't win the real show, I can at least settle for it happening in FF!
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Post by Bob on Mar 10, 2010 19:32:09 GMT -8
I LIKE FF9, but it dropped a lot in my rankings when watching my wife play through it awhile back. The plot isn't compelling enough and the ability system, while fun, kinda breaks the game for me. That, and Zidane: World's Worst Thief. Most boss fights are SO EASY if you choose not to steal. I tend to die because I'm waiting for Zidane: World's Worst Thief to steal. Also I think they dumbed down the fighting so that people can do that stupid "Memoria in 12 hours" thing. That's a big no-no for me. You don't make a game EASIER for those insane people that want a challenge. Oh no. Don't cater to the group that doesn't want to be catered to.
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Post by Fleck on Mar 11, 2010 18:15:08 GMT -8
I disagree (sorta). Boss fights in FF9 are easy if you know what to expect beforehand. I recently replayed FF9 so that I could officially state that I beat Ozma (I did, and yes, Ozma is probably the easiest superboss in FF). I played completely without the help of a walkthrough and found more than a few boss fights that beat me my first attempt, mostly because of status effects. "Oh, I'd forgotten that he can utterly rape me with a Confuse-All spell." But then I try again with everyone equipped with Clear Headed and then beat him easily. Having the right stuff equipped beforehand makes every boss a pushover, but I don't think bosses were dumbed down for the 12 hour challenge, I'd say it's to compensate for the fact that Zidane is a terrible thief. Clearly the game wants you to waste 20 turns trying to steal that awesome armor, because they give Zidane so many thief-related abilities.
In my most recent playthrough, I eventually gave up on stealing when I found out that most steal-able gear could be bought in the next town over. Screw you, Zidane.
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Post by Bob on Mar 11, 2010 19:02:30 GMT -8
Ah, yeah, this is true. It's the other thing that watching my wife play made me think less of the game due to my need to constantly either A: apologize or B: give her advanced warning. Too many boss fights are insanely difficult because of statuses, and I think they think it's okay because you can equip armors and abilities to prevent it. Umm, no. It makes it dick-ish. I hate fighting the tree boss in the Iifa tree because of Heat. The whole fight is everybody staring at each other while heated and making noises like Beaker from Muppets, or whispering out the corner of their mouths. "Dude. Do something." "Go to hell. YOU do something." Or friggin Arc. As if it wasn't hard enough having a magic barrier, now we get confused.....yay.
Yeah, good point, about statuses, but I still hold that many bosses are friggin easy. Most don't have status cheats, and those that don't are really easy. But I (emphasis on me) got to Esto Gaza in my "speed run" game, running from enemies and such, and really, it was the only way that FF9 was actually difficult. I think they badly screwed up their difficulty curve since most games are good at being challenging if you go straight through, no level-grinding, no wrong turns. Which I like. But FF9 is only hard when you RUN from enemies. That's a problem.
.....but most FFs aren't 100% about the difficulty, so I digress. And screw you, Zidane: World's Worst Thief.
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Post by Fleck on Mar 12, 2010 10:33:03 GMT -8
Yeah, FF9 is all about the status effects, and most of the statuses are silly. Like Trouble. Who thought that was a good idea? And yeah, heat and freeze suck. Venom is stupid and virus is just dickish. "My status effect makes you NOT GAIN EXP MWAHAHAA TASTE MY WRATH!"
In my last playthrough, I was actually kind of annoyed by the party-splitting that used to be my favorite part of FF9. Now I realize that it's way too unbalanced. Because of plot restraints, too many characters are left in the dust for too long and it makes them suck. Like Quina. And every time I play, I always end up with a huge backlog of weapons that I need my guys to equip so they can learn abilities. Especially Steiner. By the time I get to the part where Steiner and Marcus are trapped in a cage, I have about 5 swords on Steiner's waiting list, and I'm too OCD about abilities to skip any of them and just take the most powerful one. And also it sucks that you can't mess with the equipment of people who aren't in your party. More than once I forgot to unequip an accessory from a character before that character left the party, so that means NO ONE GETS IT for hours until that character comes back.
And let's not forget that it takes about a full 30 seconds between when you enter a random encounter to when you actually beging entering commands. Grr. Argh.
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Post by Bob on Mar 12, 2010 21:30:48 GMT -8
Heh, all very true. Especially that bit about 30 seconds per fight. It drove Kristy nuts, and while I was thinking I didn't remember it being THAT bad, that IS the one FF that I never got to Level 99 (or 100), and it's because fights take so freakishly long. So hmm... I guess I DID think it was that bad. Yeah, it's sad that FF9 was always somewhere in the tops for me, but really, it has some really bad aspects to it. And I count graphics, too. Sure, the FMVs were beautiful, but the regular graphics were just so grainy and pixelated that it was a mess to look at. I've seen worse, but it ain't good.
...This really makes me want to re-review all the FFs (like I've been wanting to do), now a bit more critically and not so superficially.
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Post by Fleck on Mar 12, 2010 22:54:35 GMT -8
I didn't really notice the 30 second delay until later on when I started getting strong enough to pick off weak monsters in one hit. That's when I started getting frustrated. It's really quite shitty to wait 30 seconds for the battle to start only to have the whole fight last one turn.
*Swirly screen transition *Camera spins around wildly, showing the battle terrain *Camera points to the sky, showing trees and clouds *Zoom in on monster *Low camera angle sweeping across screen, showing monster READY FOR WAR! *Zoom in on party *Low camera angle sweeping across screen, showing the party READY FOR WAR! *Wide angle shot showing both the party and the monster *Camera spins around some more, then settles into its final position *Oh wait, camera angle changes one last time *ATB gauges begin charging *Zidane attacks *Monster dies *Camera zooms in on Zidane's victory flip
Whee. Fun.
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