PixlBit

Been a while since I posted anything, so thought I'd give an update. I usually try not to play too much at once, but ended up playing four games in total, two for console, two for handheld. 

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age- I had heard for a long time that this would be the Final Fantasy game I'm most likely to enjoy. I usually prefer Western RPGs to Japanese ones, though I enjoy both. But my favorite parts of the genre are usually building my character and adapting to the combat based on how they improve, something which Pokemon is probably responsible for. And once I got the hang of the different classes and license board, I was hooked. 

Basically, picking a class in the PS4 remake will give you a number of lisences to buy. These can do anything from giving you new weapons and armor to equip to increasing your health to learning new spells to even summoning Espers (basically dieties to help you fight). You get points to buy them by beating enemies, usually one point per enemy and it makes combat addicting as hell. This is the only RPG where, unless an enemy massively outclassed me, I was fighting every enemy I saw. That might be the only JRPG where I've done that. 

I'm enjoying the combat a lot too. The game is known for its Gambit system, where you set your characters to behave in certain ways over the course of the game. It's fun seeing the best combo for my characters to do and making adjustmants along the way. Especially since it lets you fast forward combat, which works really well with grinding. 

As for the story and characters....I like when I'm reminded of Star Wars. Balthier especially feels like Han Solo (and might be my favorite FF character). Except instead of a Wookie, he has a woman dressed in bondage gear with bunny ears named Fran, who's alright. Vaan and Penelo are bland to me, but Ashe and Basch are decently interesting. Story is meh. Seen better, seen worse. I'm in this for the gameplay, which makes this by far my favorite FF game I've played so far. Very close to the end and it looks to be the first I'll finish besides VII and the first I'll want to replay.

Final Fantasy VI- I know, I just said I'm not a huge Final Fantasy fan, but I want to give this series another shot. Last time I played this game was about ten years ago and even though I bounced off of it, I still kept the GBA game feeling it would retain its value (spoiler, it did). And playing it now, it's pretty good. The game's biggest strength is its pacing, it's always throwing creative ideas to how the story unfolds, such as when three groups of party members venture into wildly different quests only to come together for an epic defense mission. And the characters are all unique, memorable, and pretty fun with their own arcs and motivations. Probably the best party I've seen in a Final Fantasy game.

My issue is the combat. I just do not like the Active Time Battle used in FF IV-IX. My thing is a timed element in a turn based RPG just does not work for me. I need a pause feature like Kotor, FFXII or Dragon Age or I want all the time in the world like Pokemon or Dragon Quest. The only game where ATB worked for me without a pause button was Chrono Trigger since it was designed around characters combining attacks and abilities into stronger or more widespread versions. There was a risk v reward element that wouldn't work in a normal turned based version

I will say this though, I've played a good chunk of VIII and IX then beat VII and enjoy this combat more than all of them. VII's was quick enough that it didn't bug me, VIII's extra elements annoyed the piss out of me, and IX was painfully slow. I like how VI makes every character wildly unique, so experimenting with different combinations of them is fun. I think I'd enjoy V the most of the ATB games (which I just bought). But I'm enjoying VI. Gameplay is just okay enough for me for the story, pacing and characters to make up for it in spades.

Skyrim (Switch)- I couldn't really get into this game on 360, but on Switch it's great. Just pressing three buttons to continue vs picking the game on the dashboard, watching the logos, waiting for DLC to install, picking my save, then waiting for it to load. I like playing this game for a few minutes at a time, so it just works. Would buy other Bethesda RPGs on Switch.

Jak 2- I just beat Jak 1 again, and while I love that game, I am very happy they went another direction with 2 and 3. There's a lot of 3D collect a thons very similar to Jak 1, but even in this age with the market oversaturated with sandbox games, there's nothing like Jak 2 and 3. The game's at its best when you go outside the sandbox though into its platforming stages. 1996 to 2004 Naughty Dog platforming is some of the best in the genre. Combat shows its age, but is still fun. There's a huge adjustmant period in there for sure. I love it nonetheless.

This game is brutal with its difficulty though. Checkpoints and health are both few and far between while enemies can easily get the upper hand. Vehicle missions cut you little slack too, though I'm less keen on them due to the spotty vehicle control. Overall, however, I'm glad to be replaying this again and really look forward to give 3 another playthrough.