So after a total of something like two hours of playing FFXII, I've apparently managed to screw up my save such that it's no longer worth playing the rest of the game.
Yes, that's right.
Within two hours of the game start, it's possible to completely and totally screw up your game to the point it's not worth playing any more.
Remind me again, why would anyone want to put up with this?!
So I finally started playing Final Fantasy XII. (My car has broken down, and I finished Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, so I really have nothing better to do, sad to say.)
The first thing I noticed was that they managed to screw up the Prelude music. That takes a certain kind of talent. Instead of starting at the beginning of the theme, it just kind of starts in the middle of a phrase in the middle of the theme.
So then it's time to start a new game. Here the Postlude plays. Generally, the Postlude would play at the end of the game. That's why it's called the Postlude.
There's some debate over whether or not Final Fantasy VI is the best Final Fantasy ever created. Final Fantasy VI Advance does not disappoint. It's practically the same game previously released as Final Fantasy III in the United States, but with a more accurate translation. It's just as good as it ever was. If anything, this version is even better than the original.
Final Fantasy VI uses a slightly improved version of the Active Time Battle system previous Final Fantasy Advance titles use. Each character gets a single special ability from their inherent class. As in FFIV, a character's class cannot be changed.
I'm not going to review it quite yet, since I'm only a good two hours into it, but I will say this:
New translation. Gil is gil again, and many items/spell names have been retranslated.
Sound seems to be a little off. I'm blaming that on the DS speakers, though - it seems closer to what I remember with headphones. Given that the GBA SP I had seemed to drop channels when used without headphones, I bet it sounds REALLY off using that.
Characters now have job names listed. Terra is "Magitek Elite" (blech), Locke is an "Adventurer" (to be fair, Treasure Hunter just wouldn't fit in the space available), and so on. Meh. Useless, but, whatever.
After playing Final Fantasy III for the Nintendo DS, Final Fantasy V Advance came as a breath of fresh air. It's basically a port of the original game to the Game Boy Advance, although the graphics and sound have been subtly improved. (Specifically, gradients have been added to the game windows, and the battle screen backdrops have been spruced up.)
Final Fantasy III recently came out for the Nintendo DS and, while it's slightly different from the original version that was released for the Nintendo, it's almost the same game. Unfortunately, that counts more against it than it does for it.
When the original was released in 1990s, it brought a new concept to RPGs: the job system. The job system (where a character can essentially change classes) was a neat system at the time. It remains one of the favorite game systems, having been brought to perfection (in my opinion) in Final Fantasy Tactics. The version in this game is simplistic compared with Final Fantasy Tactics: you gain access to jobs by talking with crystals, and jobs contain a special ability. (White Magic for White Mages, Jump for Dragoons, Steal and Flee for Thieves, and so on.)
(Warning: if you're expecting something serious...)
So far, for the past three or four times I've started my iPod playing a random playlist, it's started with Depths of the Soul from the Final Fantasy XI: Chains of Promathia soundtrack. (And, in case you think that it may be some especially profound music, it's the dungeon party battle music - the music that plays in Chains of Promathia areas while you're in a party and in "Attack" mode.)
Not that I don't like Depths of the Soul, it's an interesting song - but I don't need to hear it every time I start up the iPod..
Well, I've been busy. Sorta. So, here's some status on what I'm working on.
FireTorrent
Still porting it to C++. It loads .torrents successfully, but the majority of the protocol implementation needs to be done differently since C++ XPCOM allows a multithreaded approach.
Vana'diel Clock
I've made some graphical fixes which will be released as 0.7.5 shortly. My planned changes for version 1.0 currently crash Firefox. No, really.
World of Warcraft
I've stopped playing it. My user interface mods are, essentially, dead.
5 (Excellent)
4 (Good)
3 (OK)