Vita's Playstation Plus is Fantastic

When Playstation Plus was rumored to be heading to the Vita, and even after it was announced, everyone seemed to sort of tentatively wait to see in just what context it would, in fact, emerge in.  When it became obvious that it would be in a similar fashion as the PS3 iteration, with free games, discounts, Cloud Storage and automatic updates/synching, hopes were kindled, but cynicism even moreso.  It was mere moments following the breaking of the news, the outlining of the preliminary features that speculation was abound in terms of the 'free games' aspect, all wondering at the varied ways with which Sony could pull value away from Playstation Plus by splitting it across both platforms.  People were already imagining a world where the Instant Game Collection was still 12 games large, split across PS3 and Vita with the lion's share of the titles being for the former.

As you can see above, this is not the case.

It's almost with a certain level of smug satisfaction that I look on the titles offered, and their number, and consider just how many people just don't know what to do at this point.  That there is real and tangible value with enough meat to it that you can sink your teeth into it generously.  Not only do you get access to the same amount of games on the PS3, but an additional six games on the Vita now that, much like its console counterpart, will be shuffled out with other titles overtime to create a rather robust library for those who stick around and keep subscribed.  Being that, after being attached to your account, you can download a game for the PS Plus price of free even after it rotates out of being free there's a really hard argument to make against it beyond actually worrying about what you buy, in the case of not wanting to spend money only to get the same game for free later on.  It's an understandable fear, for sure, but one that I find is mitigated by the other upsides the program has to offer.

Personally, on the Vita side of the games, I already own half of them, and really, -really- came close to biting on two of the ones I don't own.  Combined, the games that I own set me back a cool $100 ($50 for Uncharted, $40 for Gravity Rush and $10 for FFT) so that does kind of sting, but being that I buy physically, I still have the cushion of getting a free digital version which, as we all know from other forms of media, not just games, you are not automatically entitled to simply because you bought the physical version of it at some vague point previous.  It's a method of 'future-proofing' so to speak, since everyone has been very lenient on allowing you to 'own' the games you purchase digitally, even if the company that sold it eventually loses the rights to actually sell it.  It hasn't happened a lot, but it has happened - developers and publishers letting selling rights to a game expire, meaning that it has to thusly be removed from a digital storefront in terms of purchasing.  If you -have- purchased it, it remains still in your download list for an undetermined amount of time that may truly be 'forever', and as we move further and further into the Digital Distribution future, all we can do is amass titles in a digital way and hope that the future has a place to play them.

For the games that I don't own, however, this is a straight-up double-tap of awesome since not only do we have a release date for Jet Set Radio HD Vita, but it's next week and it's free.  As if I didn't have enough to play as it is, now I get a game that was already prepped for purchase (I literally have left $10+ in my wallet specifically for the purchase of JSR) thrust into my lap for the price of nothing, meaning that money can then be put towards something else should I desire.  And I do, but one thing at a time.  I slowly realized with a growing horror that I have no less than half a dozen PS3 games alone that I want to play before years-end (though, I'll settle for Final Fantasy XII-2 and finishing Yakuza:  Dead Souls) and I have the bulk of Ragnarok Odyssey yet to conquer as well as the entirety of Assassin's Creed:  Liberation.  And then I have Persona 4 Golden awaiting my money next week as well as Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale because I have very poor impulse control when it comes to Cross-Buy, I've learned.  I think what I'm saying, as I've said all year (no seriously, it's a running gag) is that I just don't have enough time for all this gaming, goddamnit and that depresses me.

Mutant Blobs Attack!! and Wipeout have also had my interest for a while, but I've simply never figured on having time for the former, and I just....really don't like racing games.  For the price of 'free', however, I think I'm willing to give Wipeout a shot because I just might like it.  Maybe not, and I doubt very much that I'll sink a lot of time into it in any case, but this is pretty much a brand new world to explore.  Being that things are a bit more flexible in terms of downloading when it comes to my Vita, I feel completely comfortable in letting it go to pull down a gig or two over the course of the ten hours it inevitably takes, so whereas I haven't really experienced any free PS3 games, I will be experiencing the shit out of the Vita ones.  Doubly so because of the cloud storage that Plus offers, though I suspect I'll end up crumbling and purchasing myself a 32 Gig memory stick at some point in the future.  I almost need to, I think, as I believe my 16 gig is a little off, corrupting things with little warning.  That is why, by the way, I haven't mentioned LittleBigPlanet Vita in a while - my save is corrupted, and I really am not going to replay the entire game right now.

The moral of the story in any case is that Playstation Plus continues to be one of the better, if not one of the best, member services out there by sheer bang:buck ratio.  Even if you're a stalwart and claiming that the games are not, themselves free because the exist behind a paywall, the basic math just throws everything off.  For $50 that I paid a few months ago, I will, next week, be able to play Jet Set Radio HD, Mutant Blobs Attack!! and Wipeout 2048 without paying a cent for either game.  I don't know what Wipeout retails for now and I'm not going to bother looking it up, but I assume, all told, those three games come in around or under $50.  I have thusly made up my investment.  Next month when a game or two moves out of the rotation and is replaced with another, that is another game where my money is safely unspent on it, able to be put towards something else.  And that's just on the games part - the cloud storage is going to be a goddamn invaluable tool, especially for those out there who really, really truly don't want to spring for a 32 Gig memory stick.  Need space?  Throw your data on the Cloud, delete the bubble, bam free space.  And you can come back to it at any point in the future after a redownload.

Well played.  Well played all around.

Final Fantasy Tactics Update 2: In Which I Forget I'm Only in Chapter Two

The second proper update to my Final Fantasy Tactics playthrough brings us to the end of Chapter 2 because I wasn't paying attention to the actual flow and story of Chapter 2 at all and thought it went completely differently than it ended up going.  It also sees my team (Minus Minerva) hilariously overleveled to an actually embarrassing degree because, again, I really totally forgot I was in Chapter 2.  And when I say 'hilariously overleveled', I mean everyone's coasting around 60.  When the max is 99.  Whoops!  This is also where I point out that I've accidentally gotten most of the team close to their Master Class already because I am bad at planning, but oh well, no reason to fuss on about it; nobody is -at- their Master Class just yet, it's just everyone is various levels of "ALMOST THERE", and then it's about 30 levels of coasting to 99 when I can stop worrying about XP and such and really set everyone up to their Master, rather than throwing the Squire set on everyone (for Focus spamming for guaranteed JP).

Chapter 2 is really where the story picks up for FFT, obviously, as the first chapter is all just prologue as I discussed in the first update, and it's just really setting things up.  Starting in Chapter 2, Ramza's party really strikes out on their own to do what they have to do (or at least think they have to do) and end up making quite a few powerful enemies, some for better reasons than others.  It's more or less this stuff that makes me think I should do a side-update or something that basically throws the whole story of FFT out there as I get to it, but I am....entirely too unorganized for that.  But to throw out random bits of it here would also be doing the story of the game a disservice.  I can broach things simply/vaguely here, I suppose, and give myself an in for more complexity later.

The Zodiac Stones, or 'auracite' as it's sometimes referred to by the characters first show up here and quickly show off why they're possibly wanted, and -then- at the end of the chapter, show off -exactly- why they're wanted.  Obviously they contain a power if they're referred to by a special name like 'Zodiac Stones', but I'm not going to say just to what extent or anything.  Regardless, there's a whole lot of intrigue and backstabbing going on over them and because of those antics Ramza's ever-dwindling group of miscreants ends up public enemy number one to a lot of groups, which is what comprises much of the story of Chapter 3.  But I will state that Chapter 2 (I believe) features the first of the few extra missions inserted into War of the Lions (fairly seemlessly) specifically for the remake.

It's a common theme that, despite Ramza being the focus of Final Fantasy Tactics, Delita, his childhood friend, is actually the main character of the game.  This is only further reinforced by War of the Lions insistence on featuring Delita in every single one of the new cutscenes made specifically for this game as well as the increased amount of time spent telling his story which includes a new mission where you actually play as Delita.  This isn't much of a spoiler, but Delita, at a certain point in the game, has Princess Ovelia with him as he's running about, doing his Delita business.  Unfortunately, at this point, there's a price on the Princess (safe return, of course) at this point and they happen to wander across some ruffians willing to cash in.  A knight, archer and Black Mage, specifically.  While you can only control Delita and his only partner in this is Ovelia (who, in my play, actually -killed- two of the three because they were left with crap for HP after a single hit from Delita) the battle is terribly easy, but does add a little bit to the narrative, making it enjoyable and worthwhile.  And, like I mentioned, sometimes something awesome happens like the Princess caning two dudes to death.

On that note, it's probably best if I just go ahead and begin with the actual Character Update portion here.  As I've hinted to, there's been quite a bit of progress, most of it unintentional, but it all works out regardless.

Counter to Chapter One's support role, Mogs has been one of the two main offensive members of the team, with a Chakra to Haplo or whoever needed a heal here or there.  Truly, I have a little over a half a notebook page of entirely different murder scenarios that Mogs has carried out, even if I am being a little too pedantic with some of them.  Such as "Killed Story Human" and "Killed Story Human with Martial Arts" (As in, one of the Monk's abilities, likely Shockwave).  Still, I maintain that it's important to make these distinctions because they're entertaining, especially here when I'm doing these breakdowns.  Mostly because I can recall specific situations like the random encounter with three Mindflayers and a Panther in which a Mindflayer decided it was a good idea to Berserk Mogs on turn one.  Obviously, when a character is Berserked, they move to the closest thing and attack, and I don't know if FFT: WotL just has an "Enemy before Ally" priority or if he was actually closer to a mob than not (I doubt that though), but this was a very, very poor move as Mogs proceeded to murder the shit out of every single Mindflayer while Sakura (also berserked) punched the Panther to death.  ....More on that in Sakura's section.

Mogs is unique in Chapter 2 because he started and ended the Chapter as a Monk with no class change in between.  Whether it's because I don't want to move him into something else because I quite enjoy him punching shit to death, or because I think he's more or less set exactly how I want him (I.E. Mastered) I haven't quite decided yet.  I would actually kind of hate for him to be -done- already, but it is entirely possible that I decide not to move him into anything else.  We'll just have to see on that.  He did end up with Move +2 over Teleport which I think I prefer since Teleport always has a chance to fail which can really screw you in crunch time.  Or it could work and make a level impossibly easy.  More the former, though.  Obviously, he has gotten Ninja and has acquired Dual Wield which means he punches twice with every regular attack.  Most of the time, this second punch is unnecessary but it was required to end the Boss of Chapter 2 in a single action (which was -awesome-.) so it worked out.
# of Jobs Had: 1 (Chapter 2), 4 (Cumulative)
Jobs Mastered:  0 (Chapter 2), 2 (Cumulative)
Most Important Achievement (Chapter 2):  Killed the Boss of Chapter 2 (With the only action taken in that battle)
Progress:  (Almost Too) High

Haplo didn't get too many accolades in Chapter Two because, more or less, he didn't do a lot of killing, but rather was the Support character to end all Support Characters.  He started as an Orator so as to get the abilities that raise Brave and Faith values (Temporarily, though every 4 Temporary Point Nets one Permanent point of gain, meaning several battles of spamming to get 90s in Braves and Faiths) and then went into Mystic because I'm pretty sure I thought they had a better raise skill but was wrong, which meant I remedied that by throwing him into Time Mage with Orator skillset secondary.  'When in doubt, Haste' became his motto and when everyone was sufficiently faster, that's when he'd start talking people up, making sure they became more courageous and more faithful to the word of Ajora.  I didn't record every instance of this (in fact, no instance of this), but everyone walked away with Brave and Faith in the 90s or top-tier 80s depending on what they needed.  (So, basically, Haplo and Sakura got Faith while everyone else, still including Sakura got Brave.)  After accidentally Mastering Time Mage, I threw him into Black Mage since that's one of his Master Classes and he was fairly close to Mastering that anyway.  Following his stint in Black Mage, he went into White Mage where he closed out the chapter in.

His stints in Orator, Time Mage and Black Mage were all enough for him to Master all three classes, almost completely on accident as Orator and Time Mage aren't even in his final build, but, screw it, they helped me.  Currently, he's a White Mage with Time Magic as a secondary because it's still useful, but once he masters White Mage, he'll.....pretty much be done, honestly.  At that time, I might just say the hell with Time Magic and throw Black Magic secondary on him to ride it out as his Master, but I'm not sure.  We'll see how it works out when I get to that point.
# of Jobs Had:  5 (Chapter 2), 11 (Cumulative, includes multiple stints in the same Class)
Jobs Mastered:  3 (Chapter 2), 3 (Cumulative)
Most Important Achievement (Chapter 2):  Continued being the Best Support Character and also Toaded Nine Different Enemies during his run as Black Mage
Progress:  Almost Complete(!)

Where Saki-Chan was my Goddess of Chaos in Chapter 1, she emerged as the Unquestioned Master of Murder in Chapter 2, taking up a full notebook page of paper with different exploits of killings and job changing.  Seriously, of the 26 lines on this piece of paper, six of them are entries of non-destruction.  Sakura started Chapter 2 as a Geomancer, on her way to get it to level 8 which was a requirement for Dark Knight.  As is Level 8 Dragoon, Ninja and Samurai, on top of Mastering Knight and Black Mage, both of which were done last chapter.  Another semi-hidden (I believe) requirement is that she needs to have killed 20 things and left them dead long enough to turn into a Crystal or Treasure Chest, meaning they are irrevocably dead.  It will come as no surprise that this was accomplished well before it needed to be, so that when Samurai Level 8 was finally reached, Dark Knight instantly became available.  Which she instantly went into because goddamn Dark Knight takes a lot of JP to master.  Way more than I anticipated, but it shouldn't be too bad.

Now, I have to let you guys in on what is quite possibly the most badassest thing I've ever experienced in Final Fantasy Tactics in all of my attempts at playing it.  Now, I know that the Monk is a dedicated class to punching shit to death and that's awesome, and when I switched Sakura to Samurai, I had no Katana to give her so she could wield nothing but her fist.  I briefly considered throwing one of the many "Equip (weapon)" skills onto her to give her -something-, but recalled "Brawler" which is basically "Equip Monk Fist" and thus brilliance was born.  Sakura as a Samurai running around and punching shit to death is just....just amazing and was definitely the overall highlight of the chapter.  While she has a sword now as a Dark Knight, I will always fondly remember her days as the best samurai in FFT ever.
# of Jobs Had:  5 (Chapter 2), 8 (Cumulative)
Jobs Mastered:  1 (Chapter 2), 3 (Cumulative)
Most Important Achievement (Chapter 2):  Punched Eleven(!) Story Humans to Death as a Samurai.  Really, the whole Punching Samurai bit.  19 things in total fell to a fist of hers.
Progress:  High

Much like Chapter 1, Kasey has resumed being the Behind-the-Scenes Sleeper guy, not going over-the-top with murder like some people, but has managed to get in a number of clean kills unopposed.  He and Emily share a spot for the least amount of Job changes in Chapter 2 (aside from Mogs with 0) simply because I'm sticking them with their preferred classes as I try to figure out just what my plan for them is.  I'm still leaning towards them being Equipment Destroyers, but I still haven't tested whether they can do that at range yet which means they've more or less been at a stand-still since.  I've been considering putting Kasey into Thief secondary since Archers are fairly fast (I believe) and I'm pretty sure Steal works off of Speed in this game as it does in others.  Still, the idea of an Archer is to be -away- from an enemy, not right next to it, which makes that idea seem counter-intuitive even if it matches the stats.  I'm sure there's a right right here that I'm not thinking of, but eventually it'll come to me and all will be glorious.

Indeed, most of Kasey's jobs have been -about- speed, which is why I'm thinking about it so heavily as I imagine he has higher base speed than most, or at least I would hope as much.  Between Thief, Ninja and Archer, he should be a point or two above everybody, but I might just be hoping more than thinking on that.  Still, he's more or less built as a support fighter now and even if I threw him into Monk, Dragoon or Knight to finish off to level 99 it would likely be too little too late.  Which is why it's time to think about what I've got to work with.
# of Jobs Had:  2 (Chapter 2), 6 (Cumulative)
Jobs Mastered:  2 (Chapter 2), 4 (Cumulative)
Most Important Achievement (Chapter 2):  Was the only person to kill one thing, let alone three things, with a Shuriken.
Progress:  Undecided (High)

Again, much like last Chapter, Emily's job has remained more or less unchanged in being the secondary Fighter when necessary (I.E. when Sakura isn't a direct physical class) and one of the designated shields for the formations, given her armor, reaction ability and Shield offer a great rate of blocking, not to mention the high HP she has regardless.  Always using terrain to the advantage, I tend to find some way to wedge Mogs and Emily between the units that might not be able to take the hits (Kasey and Haplo primarily being an Archer/Ninja and Mage respectively) and it works quite well.  Emily has been put in primarily Physical classes all the while, which means she's pretty hardy which is good and having defaulted to Dragoon for the majority of the chapter (after switching from Monk post-Mastering it) only amplifies that exponentially.  I think I'm more apt to put the Rend skills on her, especially if they work at range with the spear, if simply because a lot of the physical characters will be the ones to run up to her, try and attack, get blocked and leave themselves open to getting their shit wrecked.  Literally.  And if needed, that one extra tile of reach could always come in handy if something -needs- destroyed right away.

You can't say that I haven't had Emily use the Dragoon skill-set to its fullest either.  Even with Sakura as a Dragoon for quite a while, Emily has far more Jump-Kills than she, which obviously means she wins the class.  And it's only fair, after all she wanted to be a Dragoon.  I built her -into- Dragoon, not the other way around, so it's a perfect fit, which means I don't know if I'll actually shift her out into anything else.  She already has Knight Mastered anyway, which is where the Rend skills lay, but again, I haven't tested her mettle with them yet.
# of Jobs Had:  2 (Chapter 2), 6 (Cumulative)
Jobs Mastered:  1 (Chapter 2), 3 (Cumulative)
Most Important Achievement (Chapter 2):  Jump-Killed 10 Foes, Including One of the Major Antagonists (Kind of) of Chapter 2
Progress:  Undecided (Possibly done-ish?)

I introduced Minerva in the In-Between Update to explain why I hadn't updated in a while and it's kind of a blessing and a curse that I introduced her at all.  A blessing because I needed Extra Characters (and still do, especially now with most of my main team possibly -done-), but a curse because in training her up some (Only to level 20) I ended up doing a lot of grinding for everyone else at the same time which is how I got into this Over-Leveled, over-prepared state to behind with.  Regardless, I don't regret it, but I'll have to be a little more careful with how I raise my Extra characters from here out.  At least until I get my main team to Level 99 at which point it won't really matter.  Unfortunately, all that grinding was mostly just Focus-grinding which means Minerva has no accolades to speak of besides being Berserked by the same Mindflayer that Berserked Mogs mere turns before it got its face punched in.  Just that and the job changes she went through on her way towards her Orator class, which she still hasn't reached unfortunately, as she got to Mystic before I put things into High-Gear Story-Clearing mode.

Nothing else to really say about Minerva yet unfortunately.
# of Jobs Had:  5 (Chapter 2 and Cumulative)
Jobs Mastered:  0
Most Important Achievement (Chapter 2):  Exists.
Progress:  Low

Chapter 2 came and went with a blur which is kind of unfortunate for the various reasons I described above.  Hopefully Chapter 3 will be a little better paced and I'll actually remember the mid-way point of it so I can split it into two updates, but I can't guarantee anything.  I know I'll be picking up at least one more Extra character during the course of Chapter 3 as well, which will entail the same pitfalls as getting Minerva held, so I'll have to be a little wary of that as well.  Still, it'll work out, I'm sure and I can't wait to get it all figured out on the way!

Final Fantasy Tactics Update 1.5: Why No Update?

It has been a while since the last update and I do have to start this off by stating that I do apologize for that.  The reason for it is purely technical; I've mentioned it a few times but my PSP is really running on Empty in these long, long months before the Vita comes out and I'm encountering quite a few issues with the device itself.  The analog nub just had long worn out and floats; whenever I open the internet browser, the 'mouse' just goes straight down or sometimes straight down and to the right and will always head that way and nothing I do fixes it, though I can stop it from doing as much if I press and hold the bottom left corner of the device (where the nub is) which is, as you can imagine, less than constantly feasible.  The only problem this directly presents is that, without fixing it, the map has a tendency to move all by itself (as you control the map rotation with the nub) which is quite disorienting, however I've also had some problems really accessing menus, presumably because the PSP is registering too many inputs.

On top of that, the battery is, understandably, really really past its prime.  I've said it several times before and will likely say it again:  My PSP is a 1000 from before the 2000s were even announced.  It is old.  And I've never modded it or anything, so it's just been a regular old PSP-1000 for years.  It is understandably old and worn-down and, to paraphrase Metal Gear Solid 4, has 'had a hard life', but that doesn't make it any less bothersome to me.  I have, however, discovered that using my PSP Theater Experience Nyko Case (it was cheaper when I bought it) has not only the handy benefit of extending the battery life, but has completely solved the issues I have with the analog nub when it concerns Final Fantasy Tactics.  This is a boon, of course, and while it's a bit unwieldy, I'm more than happy to go with it since it helps me enjoy a game I want to enjoy!  Discovering this has, of course, led to me actually getting to play the game once again without having to glare in frustration at it.

Unfortunately, I have this update marked 1.5 for a reason as there really is -little- to update here; I've grinded some (too much, possibly) and got some of my folks closer to their master class, but not enough that I want to divulge the information here.  At least, not about my main party.  I have, however, picked up one of the 'extra' characters I've alluded to possibly getting along the way (that isn't a Unique character) and have been working on building her up for....really no reason at this point.  I very highly doubt she's going to see much combat, but I just want to have her around anyway, if just for the 'lulz' as kids these days put it.  I believe I discussed her briefly in my last update or some other post, but she is Minerva Metzinger of the Metzinger family that I created....pretty much around her, despite being the youngest of them.  So I will go ahead and talk on her for a bit.

If you can't tell (as in, if you don't have any experience with FFT), the picture being used for her is that of an Orator (or Mediator in classic FFT) which would suggest that that is her Master Class, as I have done in the past.  And in truth, I'm not sure if it will be; though it very well might be.  She's going to be a Samurai/Mediator blend, I know that much and since the Samurai picture is already taken by Sakura, I sort of have to default on Mediator.  While I've decided that she'll be sort of a 50/50 of both classes, I do still have to figure on what she'll be in everyday walkabout, which has me leaning towards Samurai for the better HP and better Base Attack, but I'm worried that it just won't be necessary in that I plan on having her either use katanas or guns, and I'm not sure which is the base.  So either I have her as a Mediator with "Equip Katana" taking up a slot, or a Samurai with "Equip Gun" doing the similar, with one having the secondary of the other.  And as I've mentioned, it really does sound silly, but it's more thematic than it's meant to be adhering to the principle that states "All characters must be as 'good' as possible" which is a theory that I generally subscribe to, hence why I think having her around is 'important' even if it's not.  I need to break that habit to really have fun with games sometime, so there's no better way than to do that in a game that's so easily broken as FFT is.

There will likely be more 'Extra' characters of this sort, as well as the sort that has Unique sprites that I will be using in very utilitarian ways only, as my main party will be my -party- for as often and long as possible.  I'll touch on them whenever I feel it's necessary for you to know about their growth, if any.  You'll notice that I didn't mention much about Minerva -currently- as she is more potential than anything at the moment.  Started as a Squire (as they all do), and has moved into Knight to unlock some other jobs.  Once I see what all she can get access to without a bunch of job-hopping, I'll have a better picture of how I can work out her growth, but for now there is very little done for her, hence no real update beyond introduction and theory, as I did with the rest of the party to start.

Hopefully I'll have update 2 proper in a reasonable amount of time here.  No guarantees, but I can actually play the game now and I have the desire to do so, so there's not a whole lot standing in my way!  I need to start actually advancing the story anyway as I am far outclassing the equipment available to my characters currently and it's getting a little annoying to say the least.  Which is why I believe Extra character 2 might be a thief of some sort, in case I get lucky with them deployed and run into a random encounter with a human opponent since, well, they tend to have appropriately leveled equipment and that's certainly one way to upgrade. 

I Am Obsessed with Making Characters Pt. 2

So, I was talking with Saki-Chan, as I do a lot you'll notice, last night and I brought up my ever-shifting plans for starting up Demon's Souls.  Instead of saying 'this week' or 'soon', I'm just going to say 'eventually' now, since a lot just....gets in the way.  Like me seeing a chance to get Dynasty Warriors 7's Platinum trophy and taking the opportunity even though it, much like other Japanese Games with Trophies, isn't so much difficult to get, so much as it's time-consuming to say the least.  I'm really really close, though, and the trophies I have left (5, though one is the Platinum) will sort of fall in line with another.  As in, when I get one, I should get another, and the same with the other pair, or it should be a little closely related, at least.  They should be a sweep rather than individual mountains themselves, is what I'm getting at.

Anyways, one of the big things that gets in my way when I'm going to start a game where you customize your character is that I never know what I want my character to be, going in.  Unless it's territory I've already navigated, ala Final Fantasy Tactics, because then I generally have the gist.  But when I start a game, I don't know what's going to be good, what's not, and while that's supposed to be half the fun, and you're not really supposed to let power-gaming get in the way, I....well, sometimes, I do.  And it's not even that aspect of the character all the time; sometimes it's more that I just don't know -what- to make the character, appearance-wise.  That was my big tripping point with White Knight Chronicles, as I went into the game -knowing- I had to make an Avatar, but never really thinking about it and then when I was in the Creator, I spent about an hour or more dicking around with it to see what I liked, didn't like, etc. and eventually ended up with an elf-looking guy with green hair.

I'm not disappointed with my character or anything, of course, and I always intended on remaking him when I got back into the game (eventually), but that was always going to be -something-.  A lot of people know or have 'identities' in mind when they go ahead and make something, but I rarely ever do.  Until now, since I actually made up a plan for the next few games I'll play that involve customizing a character.  Unfortunately, that only really pertains to Demon's Souls and Final Fantasy Tactics for now (remember when I said I might have 'extra' characters?  Spoiler alert:  I'm going to.)  This is all kind of ironic with the knowledge that I've professed to enjoying creating characters out of nothing before, and I still enjoy it, but I'm finding that it becomes more and more difficult to do the more I do it, since I end up not.....caring, I guess would be the word.  Not that you're supposed to 'care' about a digital avatar in any way that matters to anything, but I'm sure we all do sometimes.

So I ended up talking it over some more with Saki-Chan and I brought it up to her that I made a character 'family' a while back, mostly for funsies, in the context of a Final Fantasy Tactics time/setting, and that I thought it would be a neat idea to draw from that and expand that family to work out my character issues.  This way, I'll always have a design in mind and will always be able to make a character that A) I 'get' and don't have to feel out a personality for and B) have my own little 'developments' for the characters so that if I ever get to really writing again, I might be able to draw from those scenarios, since, well, I'll be able to really have something done out, rather than making a whole structure on my own, which might, admittedly, leave a little bit lacking.

Where I'm going with all this is that it means, when I finally do start Demon's Souls in that timeline of "eventually", I'll be able to make -my- character and get right into id without worrying about it and playing around for an hour to eventually make something that I have no idea about.  I won't be making a 'elf-looking guy with green hair' that I then have to figure on in my head for my own personal reasons (of enjoying making 'characters' in the sense that they are characters with histories and personalities); I'll be making Mikhail Metzinger, eldest son of the Metzinger clan.  He's going to be a Mage, possibly dabbling with stabbing dudes, and he's going to be awesome.

Likewise, the 'extra' character I'm already planning for in my FFT game is the character I initially planned the Family out for, which is its youngest member; Minerva Metzinger.  When I made her, it was mostly a play off the character of Marion Siegbahn from Valkyria Chronicles 2 since, let's face it, she's one of the best characters in the entire game.  I like to think she's evolved a bit beyond that and I don't really want to get into the big scope of it, since it's something I'm working on, but I'm pretty happy with the character, and with the amount of 'work' I put into making her family 'make sense'.  Don't be surprised if I don't talk about her in the next FFT update, however, since my main focus lies with the main team still and the 'extra' people probably won't show up until I have everyone more or less on their Master Path, to keep levels and progress as close as possible.

I still have a stable of about four other characters I can use at any point in the future when presented with customization, so I can't wait to actually get more chances.  I'm sure I'll end up detailing them here, even if it does nothing more than make myself happy with the amount of work I'm able to put into making fake things that, in the end, don't really matter or make up a lot.  Unless I end up writing about them and having a proper story made or something like that.  Then that would be something to, er, be 'happy' with, I'm sure.

Final Fantasy Tactics Update 1: The Fuss About Flashbacks

The first update of my playthrough of Final Fantasy Tactics actually comes with the first chapter (of four) completed.  While saying that might suggest to you that Final Fantasy Tactics is a short game, I assure you that it is not.  The first chapter is simply a bit difficult to play around in, as the inventory selection is very limited, so much so that changing to some jobs will leave your character unarmed due to a lack of a basic weapon (unless you decide to switch your support skill to "Equip (Weapon type)" which is highly unadvised, as JP is precious so JP Boost should likely be on your character until he or she is right where you want them.  The distinct lack of locations to visit is a big part of the problem with Chapter 1 as well, as only three "Friendly" locations are open, with the rest of seven spaces being openly hostile (meaning random encounters could occur, and also counting the last story mission location), so on top of nothing to buy, there's very little places to -buy- -nothing-.  The game just basically funnels you to complete the first chapter ASAP, it feels to me, is the point I'm getting at here.

The other real big oddity about the way FFT starts is, without spoiling too much, the actual first battle you participate in is in the "Prologue", where you then go into a flashback and that is Chapter 1.  The oddity here is that your main character (in my case Mogs) is level suck for the prologue fight, yet you spend the entirety of Chapter 1 getting him, assuredly, to a higher level.  (Again, in my case, er....32.)  Not only that, but your team is assuredly different, even if you've just used the basic scrubs that come with Chapter 1 (which I didn't; I stripped them, fired them, sold most of their clothes/equipment and recruited my team) than those that fight in the Prologue fight, which, dare I say, would be incredibly one-sided otherwise.  I get that it's just supposed to be the tutorial fight, and it wants to drop you right into the story, but that's always not sat well with me, so I wanted to vent about it here.

Anyway, the majority of Chapter 1 was, unsurprisingly, spent grinding, grinding, grinding, grinding.  Perhaps a bit too much, admittedly, given that I got to an average level of ~31 and my team has already put quite a lot of work into the groundwork of reaching their desired Master Class.  (Which is what I'm going to refer to each final build as.)  I'll cover that a little more in-depth with everybody's progress breakdowns, but suffice to say that this has been a success, as they say.  For the sake of mentioning it, the only reason that Update 1 was the entirety of Chapter 1 was, essentially, the reasons I already described here and that future updates will not be so far into the game.  While I don't want to have a lot of posts about this series and have them every other day, I'm envisioning at least two updates for Chapter 2 and 3 each, and probably three or four for Chapter 4, since Chapter 4 is (obviously) where a lot of the endgame stuff occurs, which I will be participating in.

The final difficulty, really, with doing an 'update' for Chapter 1 is that...well, not a whole lot happens.  What -does- happen is just to set up the story for the rest of the game and it can only really be explained, spoilers or no, as "Political intrigue and shady dealings occur".  The only real spoilers involved would be stating who the involved parties are, and even then that doesn't do a lot since everyone's roles shift dramatically over time and the course of the game, sometimes several times over.  I can try and do a side-update to these main ones that explain the story of FFT (with spoilers that will be marked, so only those who are truly curious/already know or have played the game would dare wander) if I think it's necessary, but I think the bulk of what'll get described here is the important bits.

Anyways, on to the aforementioned important bits:  My team breakdown.  (Note:  Non-Unique members will use their Master Class Portraits)

Mogs, which is me the MC of course, has been playing a lot of support despite being the only member of the team to take solely physical jobs, and at a definite focus as well, since he's only changed jobs three times.  (Squire to Knight to Monk)  Mostly just using Focus to JP-whore and ensure the others get spillover JP from his jobs (Which is a vital tactic for your planning), he's also seen more use with Chakra to give MP back to my spell-casters and general healing than he's felled opponents, though he does have quite a kill-list.  (For reference, I've been taking notes of, well, note-worthy events:  Killing (enemy) with (weapon), being downed, being charmed, etc. and his only noted actions are Killing.)  The most note-worthy thing he's done is holding the 'title' as it were for killing the most story humans. (For noting purposes, I've excluded the prologue battle and the first Chapter 1 battle as neither offers me the opportunity to use -my- team.)

At the end of Chapter 1, he walked away with both Knight and Monk mastered, which is, well, kind of a big deal, especially since his Master Class will be a Monk.  Still, he lacks entry into the Ninja Job entirely which is vital for his build and I'm still debating if I want to give him just a big Move + Skill (Probably Move +2) or Teleport from Time Mage Spillover (which I have yet to get yet).  Still, that decision is a bit far off for now, as is most of the more important ones.
# of Jobs Had: 4
Jobs Mastered:  2
Most Important Achievement (Chapter 1):  Killed Most Story Humans (8)
Progress:  Average

Haplo has been one of the more frantic characters of the team, in that, being my main magic guy, I've had him have a go in just about every Magic (Or at least Chemist-Side) Job that I have.  If it has "Mage" in the Job Title, he's been it assuredly, so long as I have it that is.  Started as a Chemist, he pretty much immediately moved into Black Mage to assist Sakura with getting spillover JP for the hefty JP Cost of Mastering the Black Mage job.  He didn't stay too long, however (though, long enough to grab Thunder, Fire, Blizzard, Blizzara and, my current favorite, Toad) before moving on into Time Mage to grab Haste to ensure the team can outpace the enemy (without relying on Tailwind from Mogs).  Dual-jobbing Time Mage with Black Mage was quite fun for a time, though the only really note-worthy things he did in that time was Haste everybody. 

Then, when my healing problems became an issue to maintain, I threw him into White Mage since, well, that's going to be his Master.  Cure was gained as well as Protect (not much to worry about in the ways of Magic just yet), so as a White Mage with Time Magic as a secondary, he's been the ultimate support character, outclassing even Mogs with that task, even though he relies on Mogs for MP refills.  He's also had stints in Mystic and Orator, mostly just to give everyone spillover JP enough to unlock vital jobs, and is currently an Orator because I just now realized I should be min/maxing everyone's Brave and Faiths appropriately.
# of Jobs Had:  7
Jobs Mastered:  0
Most Important Achievement (Chapter 1):  Killed a Panther with a Stone toss and is the Ultimate Support Character
Progress:  Slow (Mage Mastering is the longest Mastering)

Sakura has, in all honesty, been my little Goddess of Chaos.  Not only has she killed the most things, by far, but she's also caused the most havoc with status effects and has taught me to love Toad.  Sakura's journey in Chapter 1 has been almost as stable as Mogs' with the same amount of Job changes, but, starting out as a Squire and then moving on to Knight, then the shift to Black Mage means that her Job Change spanned the sides and thus, was just a little more eventful.  At the start, when everybody (but Haplo) was a Knight, it really made getting Knight mastered for just about everyone (but Haplo) really really easy.  And while it was nice having four Front-Liners, it had to end eventually and when Sakura changed to Black Mage, I learned that really fast. 

Black Mage, as a job, takes by far the most JP to Master (rivaled only by Summoner I believe) but it's also a really easy class to be in, since it's rather fun.  As I said, she's done well enough at causing destruction, but I've found that, on my many many many bouts in the Mandalia Plains, turning Chocobos into Toads just rocks.  Chocobos, on the whole, are always fearsome enemies, whether it's because Yellow ones can heal for free or the later Red and Black Chocobos can destroy you with spells (also free), you hate seeing them in the line-up, so neutralizing them (since Toad is permanent unless they're hit with Toad again or healed otherwise) is doubly-enjoyable.  By the end of Chapter 1, Sakura did manage to Master Black Mage, so I had to scramble and think of where to put her next.  Geomancer got the bid, as it's a fun class and she needs Job Level 8 in it (as well as a few other classes) to unlock Dark Knight, which is vital to her Master Class.
# of Jobs Had: 4
Jobs Mastered:  2
Most Important Achievement (Chapter 1): Most overall non-story kills (17) and Most Toaded Enemies (7)
Progress:  Keikaku Doori  (I'm honestly baffled that I Mastered Black Mage already.)

Kasey has, for lack of a better term, been my solid, behind-the-scenes, sleeper physical guy so far.  While Mogs has always been the -main- Physical guy, Kasey's jobs has been mostly the same, with the exception of Archer and Thief which are playing up to his Master Class strengths.  Much like everyone else, he quickly made the shift from Squire to Knight and stayed there until he mastered it, which was where I started wondering just where to take him.  Archer is....well, one of the easiest 'required' (in the mindset of my goal here) classes to get, so it was right there waiting for him when he mastered Knight.  So, for a little while at least, I had him in Archer if just to get a couple Aim abilities to have while I figured out what to do with him.  Eventually, I realized that Thief was necessary for my plans and, being an Archer, speed is fairly vital (I -think- certain classes affect Base Speed gain for level ups) so he went into that.

Even as a Thief, however, his front-line position has never been contested, and he's felled quite enough foes with the knives a thief must use, which is more than welcome.  Though he's mostly been sharing the same jobs with Emily, he's just had more opportunities for the kill, I suppose.  Thanks to all that Thievery (Note:  None of my Thieves have stolen anything yet), he unlocked Ninja and is currently one of those.  Again for the speed, the spill-over and because innate Two Swords is just so good.
# of Jobs Had:  5
Jobs Mastered:  2
Most Important Achievement (Chapter 1):  Killed (Story Character Spoiler).  (Hint for those who've played the game:  Screw this character.  This is the only reason why it's so note-worthy is because that guy sucks.)
Progress:  Above Average

Where Kasey has been my behind-the-scenes guy, so has Emily in a sense, but in a less overt way.  She's been somewhat of a Utility character thus far, taking on Jobs just for the Spill-Over while always keeping her own Master Class in mind.  After Knight, she made the jump with Kasey to Archer and then to Thief.  Eventually, however, she then went into Geomancer to bring everybody up in levels for that, and ultimately found herself in Monk.  With her Master Class being Dragoon, I've been considering the speed element, which is why she's spent time in Archer and Thief.  If I'm right and Jobs affect base Speed growth, then the naturally abysmal speed of a Dragoon can be offset by these early gains.  If not, there's always Haste.  Her going into Monk is purely for her own benefit, however, as Mogs had already mastered it and, while I enjoy having another person to Chakra around, I'm hoping her Monk levels helps her PA growth in the overall, so she hits that much harder when she stabs things from two tiles way and/or jumps on them from across the map.

She likely would have been a Dragoon already, but I do worry about the Speed gains a little and Dragoon is one of those jobs that is just impossible to buy for in Chapter 1.  No spear is available for purchase and, while I might be able to scrounge one up somewhere (I don't know for sure) I haven't found one.  The other option would be to throw on "Equip Sword", of course, but that's cutting into the sweet sweet JP gains severely.  But for now, she's just fine and fills whatever spot necessary well.
# of Jobs Had:  5
Jobs Mastered:  2
Most Important Achievement (Chapter 1):  Most Panthers Killed with a Sword (5)
Progress:  Above Average

Overall, I think I've done pretty well with my team management so far.  If anything, I've gone a bit out of my way, rather than being behind 'schedule' (which is impossible, but you know what I mean) and the surprising progress I've made more than shows for it.  My team's overall level has stayed fairly close (I'm averaging it at 31, even though I have 3 32s, a 31 and a 30), so nobody's really getting left behind, which tends to happen in the first Chapter, given the majority of your story battles only offer four slots because you're generally dragging a guest or two along.  In those situations, I've rotated Kasey and Emily in and out of the fourth slot to combat that and tried to use Tailwind to catch them up in a random battle afterwards, and I'd say I'm doing fairly good. 

The only real hurdles I'm seeing is Sakura's overall journey to Dark Knight and Haplo's Journey to Mastering Black Mage (Or at least getting all the spells), but aside from that, this is looking like a smooth travel.  My next update should likely be about half-way through Chapter 2, and I almost shudder to think at the progress I'll have made by then.  I also believe I'm going to make a few secondary characters to fill certain roles (a Treasure Hunter for one), and may feature them in the next update as well.  But until then, that's been my run at Final Fantasy Tactics so far!

Somewhat Sick Post

So....I'm not sick.  Not really.  Honestly.  Except I kind of am, thanks to the weather deciding to be the absolute worst.  You may have noticed that I've complained about this before (maybe, I'm noticing my Twitter gadget doesn't always load up and it's getting pretty annoying) and the only reason that I do so is basically because A)  When the weather changes this dramatically as it has, it destroys me with my allergies and sinuses and leaves my brain in a fuzz and B) when it changes for the warmer, it throws my PS3 plans into the air.  I've not played Yakuza 4 for a few days or anything on my PS3 simply because it's been too hot, which is absolutely ridiculous for Fall.  And yes, it is Fall now.

So not only does it eat into potential material for the blog here, but it also hampers my ability to deliver something I really like.  Though it's not like I'm unhappy with my posts, it's more that, writing them and reading them back in the fog my mind is in, I sort of feel like my messages are getting lost in translation and I'm not doing well enough by writing them.  It's likely mostly paranoia, as I haven't heard any notions of a quality drop, but it is a concern that I've wanted to voice if I haven't already.  Which, I forget if I had, being yet another issue brought on by all of this stuff.

Still, it's a bit frustrating having to write this down, but it's about all I can formulate properly.  I'm already properly considering Update 1 of Final Fantasy Tactics since it's all I've been playing lately, but I hate posting about that over and over again, and would like to stretch it out a bit if I could.  Not so much artificially as to ensure I'm doing everything a bit properly, here, if such a thing is 'possible' given the context.  And I don't want to post again and again quickly, and then start playing PS3 again, playing FFT a little less and feeling like I'm dragging on that, then.

Anyways, think of this as one of the "I Hate Spring" posts, since more or less, it feels like it's still Spring.  It's hot for no reason, the weather is shifting about so suddenly that it's ruining my allergies and sinuses and I've been a grumpy mess all weekend at the very least.  I'll have something proper up tomorrow with any luck, so until then, just pretend like I didn't just waste four paragraphs whinging about not feeling great.

Final Fantasy Tactics Update 0: How I Will Update My Progress

I've dipped my toes into War of the Lions in the past couple days and, while I don't have a lot of headway made, I do have some, so I have been trying to think about how I can broadcast that here.  Text is, unfortunately, my only possible means of conveyance, so how I go about it is crucial; I can't do a lot, really, but I figure the least I can do is offer the updated stats of everyone involved, how/why they have what they have, and possibly relay any stories of interest they come across.  As such, I'm going to be keeping notes of what happens every battle I fight in, who killed who, healed who, etc. and will figure out some manner of making that entertaining here.

I'm sure it's not really something that interests everybody, and it's not like it's going to be "Let's Play:  Final Fantasy Tactics - Text Adventure Version", since I'd rather not spoil the story aside from bits where it's nearly impossible to do so (or it's vital to do so, in one important case), but I always feel something of an element of -real- adventure when playing FFT, which is something I don't get from a lot of other games, so I really kind of want to share that feeling somehow.  And since I was so much a fan of how I got to do the last FFT post, I imagine that format will be used heavily with some variation to highlight each member of the team.

The irony of typing this all out might be that I may have discovered what keeps me from finishing Final Fantasy Tactics whenever I play it, and it might be a very egregious error.  With all the emphasis I've been putting on the characters, it wouldn't surprise me to surmise that I get it in my head that the 'goal' of playing FFT is making the team I want, which would make that the end-point.  Which it obviously isn't.  And while I can't simply state that the goal is to beat the game, I can try to force it by making a bet on who's going to get the finishing blow on the final boss.  We'll just have to see!  With this update deal and that new idea in mind, that should hopefully be enough to take down this new White Whale.

With that said, this is update Zero in that all I'm really doing is stating the mission plan and giving the bare-est bones type of update as possible.  Everybody (but Haplo) is a Knight.  Haplo is a Black Mage.  That is all.  I could get into the finer details by going on about how Sakura has actually (thankfully) resisted the charms of a Thief already, Haplo has killed a panther by hitting it in the head with a rock from a few squares away and everybody (including my main character) has fallen in battle at least once because god-damn- if the first few random encounters before you really get a power base aren't hard as hell.  I could.  But, until I really get the delivery for that solid (and because I don't have all the details at the moment), I'd actually prefer to leave this as it is.  Basically just saying I started the game, I'm going to update the progression here character-by-character in a vein similar to the introduction of this 'challenge', if you will, and that it's going to be fun.

Because it will totally be fun. ....Once I finally get some damn abilities.

I Got Nothin'.

There is literally nothing going on today that I can write about.  I've not really been doing anything different lately.  I've been playing Yakuza 4 still, intent on finishing my Extra Hard play-through since that'll likely get me closer to a platinum trophy than I'll ever realistically get for it thanks to the Mini-Game specific ones (though I did get a turkey in bowling which is a fucking miracle) and I've kind of stalled on the Hostess Maker challenge which I pretty effectively described in that post and haven't learned more of enough to make another one.  I've actually gotten one hostess up to number 1, which meant I got to look for another of the three, but that's....hardly exciting enough.

I also haven't started my FFT challenge, purposefully because I haven't started looking at the zodiac system for the game, so I can't really write about that.  I'm still looking forward to it, and am eager to start it, it's just that...well, I want to be ready this time.  I was ready when I took on Star Ocean 2, which obviously helped since I finally conquered it.  So here's hoping that little bit matters as much as it should!  I am looking forward to being able to type about what's happened in the game, as FFT has provided me some wonderful stories in the past, so I look for more of the same.

And the only thing left would be my decision to play Demon's Souls after I finish Yakuza 4 as much as I'm going to, but I can't really type about that since I'm more or less going into the game completely blind.  Which, I'm assured is either the best way to do it or the worst.  Either way, I imagine it's going to be a punishing experience regardless so I'm not really going in with the wrong idea or anything.  I figure with Dark Souls coming out, and likely being on the Christmas List as was Demon's Souls last year, it would do me well to finally enter the world that so wants me dead.  Seeing as the servers will still be open for a year or so now, well, it seems to be a sign, honestly.  As if they're just -waiting- for me.

Waiting.

So yeah.  Sorry about the lack of content tonight folks, but I'm sure you can see my predicament here.  It's a sad day when I can't even think of enough songs for a Music! post, but eh, at least this one was from the heart or...something.  Right?

Good Game, Wrong Genre

It's a topic I've been thinking about for quite a while, and with nothing else to really write about tonight, I figure it's as good a time as any to air this out there.  Much like my thoughts on how almost anything can be made into a TCG-Based game, I try and think of other genres certain games could be made into and be better off for it.  It's not always that easy, of course, and it's not like every game can be switched to something else without losing a lot of what makes it 'good' (MGS as a FPS rather than a TP Stealth game, for example), but some things just.....well, once you start thinking of them in 'this' genre mold, it's hard to think of why the game creators didn't see it your way.

The above pictured game is clearly Dissidia:  Final Fantasy (actually, Duodecim, but details, details) which, as you may or may not know, is some sort of weird Fighting Game/RPG hybrid with a higher emphasis on the Fighting game portion.  While you might not think it (I certainly didn't) it -does- actually work, and Dissidia provided me many hours of amusement; the fact that I still haven't picked up the sequel (er, Prequel) is more a technicality than anything.  Still, even though the fighting game thing works, I look at it, look at the setup, the structure, and yearn for a Tactics-style game.  (Like Final Fantasy Tactics.  Clearly.  Funnily enough, this isn't at all influenced by my upcoming playthrough.)

How could a Tactics game starring every main character and villain from Final Fantasy 1-13 not succeed?  With some exceptions, they're all set up with turn-based styles in mind -anyway-, and Cloud has even been in a Tactics-stlyed game already!  Granted, it...wasn't the best cameo, but it was a cameo nonetheless, and one they assuredly learned from....well....no, no they probably didn't.  But they could've and we're playing a game of 'should of could of' so just go with it.  If you look at it, it just makes sense, and in a Tactics environment there could be more characters pulled, surely.

They already have the generic foes in place (which, again, could become more varied in a Tactics setting), the Manikins, who are simply crystallized forms of the heroes and villains, and the overarching goal is in place and ripe for 'dramatic turns and twists' and the likes as one would expect from such a game.  Dissidia already has a focus on Equipment like a more classic RPG as well, so that mechanic wouldn't need too much tweaking.  I guess you do love a bit of what made Dissidia good, in that you don't get to fly around and slam folks against a wall (Invisible or no) over and over again, but I think the overall experience would be much better in the different genre.  At least....better than it'll be as a rhythm game.

There's other games I could use in an example for this (Honestly, the recent announcement of Warriors Orochi 3, which is what it'll be called in America should it head over has me wishing for, again, a tactics version of the game or at least a Romance of the Three Kingdoms-style War Game version) but Dissidia is the one I hold up chiefly.  It could honestly work and work well and I always hold onto the hope that Squeenix will see this, and release a Dissidia game with a good cast of characters from each game in the series, with possibly cameos from other games.  I guess we'll have to see, but I'm not going to hold me breath; Squeenix make a good decision?

HA!

Gaming White Whales: Final Fantasy Tactics Edition

So, you may have heard of this game of mild popularity and renown (I'm being facetious) in passing or the like, but if you haven't experienced it yourself or second-hand, you're really doing yourself something of a disservice.  Final Fantasy Tactics for me remains my most favorite thing to have the Final Fantasy Label on it to this day, and I seriously doubt anything else will be able to take its place in that.  Namely because I haven't really had much of a connection to the Final Fantasy series as a whole and each new iteration seems to...well, not live up to the previous one.  Versus is the only title that instills me with anything resembling hope, so we'll just have to see how that one works out.

And as the title would suggest, Final Fantasy Tactics is one of those games, much like Star Ocean 2, that I've started so many times but I've never beaten it for one reason or another.  Tactics' problem (well, it's -my- problem, in all reality) is that I get to the final chapter and the overall impact of the grind I've taken to this point hits me and I just....give up.  I always end up ridiculously overpowered so random encounters (done to your level) become the only thing resembling a 'threat' the game can offer (aside from a few choice boss fights) and I sort of get a foregone conclusion feeling.  I have the game 'won', I just don't go through with it, basically.  So I fall out of it.

The last few times I've taken up the mantle, I've chosen the names of friends to name recruits after at the start to grow with my character into beings of peerless destruction to make it a little more fun.  I've had countless combinations of this and that, and I guess it's had a thread of "Let's Play" in it long before I even thought of that concept as a thing, since I always make it a point to know what said person wants their virtual representation to be.  Makes it a little more interesting for me, since I don't just go with whatever's the broken-est and actually play around with classes that I might not otherwise.  So, this time around, since I have an outlet, I thought it would be nice to display just who is going to be fighting for me as what.  Which will possibly make it easier for me to actually finish this time!

Starting off, we have the Monk Class, which is what my main character will be.  If nothing else, this will always be the class that is "Gamed" the most, since, well, I guess it's a representation of -me- and how I tend to go at Final Fantasy Tactics.  It's practically lore in itself by now, but the 'classic' overpowered Monk is one who equips the Ninja's Support skill "Two Swords".  Under normal circumstances, Two Swords allows a class to equip two weapons for whatever their class is (provided it's a one-handed weapon.)  Monks, however, fight only with their fists, so this simply allows them to punch twice.  And Monks punch hard.  About as hard as any weapon would deal damage, so if you're worried about something of a trade-off, well, worry not.  Monks are generally going to be powerhouses and pretty sturdy themselves once they've gotten Chakra, which restores HP and MP not only for themselves, but for those immediately next to them.  Equipped with Two Swords and Move +# (Up to 3 if you really want to bother with a Bard) or Teleport, a Monk will quickly become a force to be reckoned with.  And that's the plan.

My first recruit is going to be named after my buddy Haplo, who you might recognize from the comments of several blog posts I've made.  He's really fought alongside me, so to speak, a lot, so it's always great to have him on the team.  (I'm pretty sure I've had him in my game before.)  This go around, Haplo suggested what I coined as a Grey Mage (It's not a Red Mage, goddamnit) which is a White Mage primary with a Black Mage Secondary skillset.  With access to just about every type of spell out there, he'll be, more or less, one of the most important members of the team, as, aside from the Monk's Chakra ability, I'll pretty much be neglecting healing altogether.  Besides, having someone who can toss out Blizzara or Thundaga every now and then will eventually prove to be indispensable, assuredly.  He will be an Aquarius Scorpio to my main character's Pisces (my sign), which I neglected to mention.  If you don't know, the Zodiac plays a big part of character interactions, but I largely just sort of....ignore it, I suppose.  But it's worth mentioning.

Next up is my good friend Saki-Chan (Sakura will be the characters name, of course) who has presented me with quite a challenge.  Samurai primary, which is fine enough, but as a secondary, she's chosen one of the two War of the Lions (the version of FFT I'll be playing, since I neglected to mention that as well) exclusive classes, the Dark Knight, which is....hands-down the hardest thing in the game to get.  I don't think anyone would really argue that point.  Half a dozen classes to level eight, on top of Black Mage and Knight both being mastered, as well as that unit personally crystallizing 20 human enemies.  The other issue is that I'm not quite sure if a Dark Knight's abilities work as a secondary class to a class that doesn't equip "Normal" swords.  These are just things I'll have to discover along the way, though.  Putting Two Swords on her is appealing and I might just go with that if just for the Miyamoto mental image.  Sakura will be signed as a Cancer.

When I asked my friend Kaseius about his and his just-recently-married wife's participation, he informed me that he wanted to be either a Monk or an Archer, to which I responded "Archer it is", as I really don't like doubling-up on a class.  Kind of makes it seem less special or something, I would say.  So Kasey the Archer will be the ranged portion of my team (aside from Haplo's spells) and will be appropriately thought-out for it.  Aside from being an Archer, I've been allowed a blank slate for him, so I'm honestly considering trying to see if Archers can use the Knight's 'Break' skills from afar as other classes can do with guns, as such an ability would be quite useful.  If nothing else, I'll take his first suggestion of Geomancer into consideration and put that in as a secondary since their skills are ranged as well and offer a good range of status effects to consider if you're lucky..  Being able to stop somebody with a Geomancer ability and get away just as they think they'll be able to invade your personal space (an Archer's worst fear) to then take advantage of the space put between their previous-hunter, now-prey with a well-placed arrow....that's the stuff.

My final member of the Main Team (I'll have a few secondary people hanging around for some other purposes, plus the Unique characters that I won't be using) is a Dragoon, so wished by Kaseius' lovely new bride, Emily.  Like Kasey, all I was really given was a class to abide by with the rest being left to me.  I've mentioned my plans for an Archer, but a Dragoon is honestly something of a blank slate for me.  This is why I enjoy doing this, of course, since I have really nothing to expect, to think of for a Dragoon, so it's not something I can plan for, simply something I'll adapt to.  A knight's break skills would make sense here if I can't have them on Kasey, since a Dragoon can attack from two squares away, rather than the adjacent square thanks to their spears, which means no retaliation for it.  If I can break things with an arrow, I'll think of something else, I'm sure; I do have plenty of other classes to think about here.  They've instructed me to sign them whatever I care to, which I will use as my other way to really game the....game.  Since Zodiac affects compatibility (and thus, chances with attacking, healing, etc.) I'm hoping there's a way I can set it up so Kasey and Emily are perfectly attuned to one another while also being a bane to the more prominent Zodiac signs in the game.

If I had the capability to do so, I'd love nothing more than to really take some screenshots of all this and do a real proper cataloging of what happens, but I guess I'll just have to stick with text only updates, as I do plan on doing updates of this playthrough every now and then.  Making it more of a project than a 'goal' might also help me see it through to the end, I figure.  Either way, as it always is, it'll be fun.  I'll do an update as soon as enough has happened, progress-wise, that I deem it necessary.