Final Fantasy gets top billing this week not only because I am getting into Final Fantasy Dissidia NT, but also because Record Keeper got an unteresting update to reinvent itself that I want to report on. I didn't have time to finish another volume of Sandman, but I've read enough to make some larger realizations about the series.
Final Fantasy Record Keeper got a major update this week overhauling it's interface and introducing a new mode called the Record Dungeons covering Corrupted Paintings. This is actually a big deal for this game because the Record Dungeons actually allow you to travel around inside the Final Fantasy worlds and truly experience the story. When this game was originally released, the format reduced the games to just battles. This is fun enough, and it was workable enough based on the system set up for All The Bravest, but since Brave Exvius and Mobius raised the bar for storytelling and overall gameplay for both the platform and the company, Record Keeper has started to feel antiquated and overly simple, and ultimately too repetive to keep players interested when the company has better ways to spend your time. I've only played through one dungeon so far, but it looks promising; the Record Dungeon starts with Final Fantasy VII being played through again, but now Tyro, the player avatar, gets inserted inside the story interacting with the characters. Battles are roughly the same, but now the party is adjusted to the story so you can play through it as it was meant to be, serving the story better than the original format. You can still play the higher level challenges, everything that was there before is still there, but thanks to special restrictions on the Record Dungeon, they can be enjoyed equally well by everyone new and old to the game. If you are a Final Fantasy fan and you haven't tried Record Keeper, now is the time to jump in.
I have been practicing hard at Dissidia and I think I'm getting better, but I am kind of cheating by only playing against the lowest level AI, when I play any kind of real challenge I still get my ass handed to me. At least I'm getting to the point where I know what is going on around me and I can figure out how to play, but I have to say, the controls are still kind of awkward and the fact that fights are 3-on-3 means that whether you are playing with AI or actual players, you only have control of about one third of the action, and when you activate your summon, you're down to a quarter of control. I suppose this is the same in any team game, but is really hard to get used to the fact that at any moment my team could win while I'm personally getting my ass kicked, and somehow stats can still list me as 1st place MVP. Basically, NT is a major button masher; aim roughly in the direction of your target and hope for the best. Strategy is difficult because your combos are kind of predetermined so it just doesn't matter. You have seven bravery attacks that are all preset by character and your only control is which direction your moving your character in, and honestly it's largely cosmetic, no matter what you do your just stealing bravery, different techniques rarely make any real difference other than what your character appears to be doing on screen, the effect remains the same. What you do have control over is your HP attack and your EX skills, but the HP attack doesn't provide a lot of variety, it's just that when you level up, you get a stronger HP attack, so just put the strongest one in that slot; the real strategy comes in with EX skills, your buffs and debuffs. EX skills actually do have different effects, and selecting the set that suits your playing style is very important, it can make the difference between whether you are actually making a difference or wasting time if you don't even understand what th abilities are actually providing. My winning combo that I recommend, especially for newbies who may not be sure what to do, is Poisonga for the forward skill, and HP Regen for the reverse. Both skills affect HP over time, Poisonga reduces it for your opponent, while Regen restores it for you, by settign Poisonga forward you can throw it at your opponent while chasing them which defaults Regen to the reverse which can be good because if you need Regen you may want to retreat while restoring yourself.
Now, if you're interested in the story, Dissidia is a whopper encompassing a whopping seventeen games at this point, that's all fifteen main numbered games as well as the spinoffs Tactics and Type-0 which didn't even make it to America. The whole thing starts with th original Final Fantasy, which if you don't know includes a time loop that apparently Dissida is a part of. In FF1, the Warriors of Light begin by hunting down a rogue knight named Garland and then proceed through a prophetic journey to fight the ultimate foe Chaos which turns out to be Garland who was transported through time at the same time you defeated him and that the every conflict on your entire adventure you've been on was created by him when he became Chaos two thousand years ago when he was sent through timeat the beginnign of your adventure. In the original release it's implied this time loop has been going on for a number of cycles, but the game is the last cycle because you actually defeat Chaos and break the loop. Dissidia numbers the cycles by specifying that it is the thirteenth cycle, and since it ends with the first frame of FF1, that game must be cycle 14. Here's where things get complicated, Chaos is opposed by a goddess named Cosmos and they each summon champions from alternate universes, specifically the other Final Fantasy games. In the original Dissida, there twenty two champions left for the final cycle including one hero and villain each from the first ten games plus Shantotto from FF11 and Gabranth from FF12, while the prequel in cycle 12 includes Lightning from FF13 as well as a few others from the other games but everyone else beyond the first thirteen games seems to be new now, so the implication is that since champions are lost with each cycle, the first included the full casts of all thirteen games but so far we have only seen the last two cycles. While the first two games gave everyone amnesia, NT allows all of them to remember everything that happened both in Dissidia and their own original games. This story has introduced two new gods, Materia and Spiritus, surrogates for the old gods who are desperately trying to sustain this world that shouldn't really exist as it was made for conflict and will only exist as long as there is a conflict to be fought in it, and therefore the godsmust generate conflict in order to sustain their world or die with it. The ten villains form the last two rounds are back along with fourteen heroes from those cycles (Kain joins Cecil from FF4) and Y'shtola, Noctis, Ramza and Ace get pulled in as well fresh and new to the surreal nightmare that is Dissidia. Square intends to add more characters, but for the American release, this is our core cast to join the Electronic Sports League (No DLC allowed). That's the setup, but beyond there really isn't much to the story that you need to know. In fact, with the idea of this being primarily for arena play, the story mode is a series of unlockable scenes that you earn from simply winning random battles, and even the story mode ending basically just says the characters leave behind a version of themselves in this world to keep fighting for the gods and what we're playing is just an infinite battle royale with no real point other than Final Fantasy fans pitting their favorites against each other.
Now as for Sandman, I'm reading Volume 7, Brief Lives, which draws attention to the Endless, which I find interesting and amusing. The Endless are the personifications of concpets that are so primal that they precede the gods and are confident they will outlast even the immortals. They are truly eternal which gives thema unique perspective, they know they ae better than everyone, but at the same time they are just seven people who realize that their existence is meaningless if they don't come down from their ivoy towers and interact with people like normal. This is interesting because they relate to each other most honestly as just another dysfnctional family, and they usually interact with other people as equals because they are just over reminding everyone how high and mighty they are, at least until someone is arrogant enough to think they are superior to anyone, then the endless put them in their place. Dream has befriended William Shakespeare, the Fairies, and the gods of many pantheons and treats all of them with the same respect as the ordinary mortals whose lives he extends on a whim to serve his realm and sate his loneliness. But if some dumb fool witch or goddess actually acts like she is above the others and dares to talk down to the mortals while in the same breath approaching Dream like an equal, he reminds them he is even farther beyond them than they are beyond the mortals. And then when his business is done and he's made his point, he goes back to something as simple as having dinner with his sister or going on a date with a goddess and casually acts as if it's just as normal to have an amicable break up as condemn an ex to Hell. The grand beauty of this series is it's simplicity, Neil Gaiman's writing style doesn't suggest anything impossible for me to write myself, what sets him apart is the scope of context, to envision the mightiest beings imaginable, and then make them seem as normal as you and me. In some ways the Endless are even more normal than the mortals in the story, as if the point is that in the short sightedness of mortals who know they only have about a hundred years at best to accomplish everything, those who are hundreds of years old tend to have already crossed off everything on their bucket list and are kind of over it, and those who have literally been around since the beginning of time really have seen it all and it is impossible to impress them. It makes me want to befriend a deity and go out for drinks, but we can't all be that lucky I guess.
My biggest news is that next week will be my first time at Flower City Comic Con, so if you are in the Rochester Area, please come down and see me and buy a book at my booth, I will give my usual report of the cosplayers and other crazies that come by. For those who cannot join me in person, please click the links at the side and buy a copy of my book online.
No comments:
Post a Comment