Dagger and Eiko

An observation I wanted to make.  Spoilers for FFIX below this point.

In Final Fantasy IX, you have two surviving summoners, Dagger and Eiko.  Eiko is six-years-old and was raised by summoners.  Dagger is sixteen, and had completely forgotten her summoner heritage, since she was raised elsewhere.

They learn broadly similar skills; white magic and summons.  The difference is, Dagger learns twice as many summons, and Eiko learns twice as much white magic.  This discrepancy is reflected in their Trance states, too; Dagger's is focused around making her summons stronger, while Eiko's gives her double white magic.

In short;  Dagger is a much better, stronger summoner, while Eiko is a better white mage, and that's overcoming how they were raised.

Just seemed worth pointing out.

Maybe I'll replay FFIX next.

Breath of Fire Series

Another tiny piece of evidence for Breath of Fire VI being the prequel to Breath of Fire, if the games are connected; in IV, Deis says this is her first time on a ship.

Kids with Swords

I played my first RPG, Final Fantasy VIII, when I was around twelve or thirteen. Now I'm twenty-two.

The heroes of Final Fantasy VIII were all seventeen or eighteen, and it's been very odd growing past that age. At first, the characters seemed impossibly mature to me - now they seem very young and out of their depth. I wonder how the older characters will look, in later games, as I grow past them? I've past Cloud's age (21) now. I'm the same age as Aeris (22)(I insist on calling her Aeris. Bite me, it's my blog and my playthrough). I've passed Alice Elliot (21). Soon I'll catch up to Yuri Hyuga (24).

I played Final Fantasy X and X-2 between the ages of fifteen and nineteen. That is, I started off at Rikku's age (15) and grew up through to Yuna's (19) in X-2.

I defended Yuna strenuously when her new look was criticised. I suspect that all teenager girls go through a stage like that, when their clothes become sexier and more revealing, as they realise that they're becoming women and not girls. It's not a bad thing. It can be dangerous, if they are encouraged in the wrong ways or by the wrong people in their budding sexuality, but it doesn't mean that Yuna has essentially changed as a person - no more than any teenager does during those years.

If it helps, though, think about how the monsters' hit points are represented, numerically. The characters don't see that - that's there for the player, to make things easier. Is it not possible that the revealing outfits are there purely for the player, that the in-game characters don't see them that way? After all, while people comment on her new outfit, they don't mention that it's overly revealing.

Breath of Fire III, Part 9

First thing I did today was head to the faerie village, to start building it. I may or may not write a guide post on this - there's a huge number of guides out there already.

I started off with three faeries. One who was great at hunting (and not much else), one who was hugely intelligent (but bad at hunting), and one who was mostly strong, but not really.

I love how the appropriate bars flash when you assign them to a job.

I assigned one to hunting, one to clearing, and one to studying culture.

Did some fishing, caught two red catfish and a barandy. Bought a Katzbaiger from the manillo.

It took bloody ages to learn Mind Flay. And Timed Blow.

I love Rei. Poor Rei.

When they were separated, all he tried to do was get justice. Ryu searched for Rei and Teepo, but he also found friends, while Rei was alone.

Rei kept on searching for Balio and Sunder long after Ryu defeated them at Maekyss Gorge.

Imagine Rei's life before Ryu and Teepo. Ryu and Teepo always had someone. Rei had to be alone.

I got Nina. Work now!

Breath of Fire III, Part 8

Blogger ate the new bits of some of my posts in the night, so I rewrote them while fighting the thirty battles for Fahl. Apprenticed Garr to him.

Ryu's only one level off learning Bunyan's final skill, so I had him, Nina (who is maxing out Yggdrasil) and Garr (who just apprenticed to Fahl) train for another level in Mt. Zublo. Currently debating who to apprentice Ryu to next. Torn between Yggdrasil and Mygas.

No, I know, he can max out Hondara next. I'm saving Meryleep for Rei, although I suppose Momo could do it, since I've been keeping her under D'Lonzo for the agility anyway. Or maybe put her under Giotto for now, and under Deis later?

Masters only affect how much your stats go up by in future, not what they're at currently, after all. They won't actually lower them.

Also, a note on the Vulcans - Nina's Simoon spell works pretty well at waking them up.

The thing is, I want all my characters to be well-rounded. Perhaps I should just make a list of which stats to emphasize for each one, in order of importance?

Okay.

Ryu; AP needs to be high, and so does Power and Defence.
Nina; Intelligence and AP. Defence would be nice, and so would be HP. Speed, maybe, but she seems fast enough by herself, and I tend to use the chain formation with Rei in the lead anyway. So, Mygas, Yggdrasil, Hondara, Emitai, and Deis.
Momo; Power, AP and Intelligence. So, Deis. Since Deis severely lowers defence and HP, I should work on those early on. So, Fahl for a bit. I also had her master D'Lonzo, for speed, and to get Steal as early as possible.
Peco; Well-rounded. I'm thinking Giotto then Deis and Ladon.
Garr; Defence, Power and HP. So, Bunyan, Fahl, and Hachio.
Rei; Speed and Power. So, D'Lonzo, Meryleep, and then Fahl.

The helped. I should go apprentice Momo to Fahl now. Nina has a few more levels before she finishes Yggdrasil, then she can move to Hondara. Or, maybe she'll stay with Yggdrasil for a while for the defence boost.

Peco can stay with Giotto until Deis is unlocked. Garr is working on getting all of Fahl's spells.

Ryu just finished with Bunyan, and his Agility is looking low, as is his intelligence. His AP really needs a boost, though. I'll put him with Hondara, since I'll be unlocking him in a minute. Hondara will slow down his power-growth slightly, but Ryu can take that hit.

Oooooops. I forgot to speak to Bunyan twice, to get both of the skills I'd unlocked. I had the levels, but because I un-apprenticed Ryu (and then accidentally saved), Bunyan won't count it. Dammit. I'm going to have earn all ten again later.

Oh well, Peco or Garr can do it when I get to level-grinding with the Ivory Dice.

On the bright side, I did remember to unequip all my characters before getting to the end of Angel Tower.  And to give that fucktard Garr a crappy spear.

It seems that Urkan Tapa (and the factory and so on) are the last remnants of "St Eva"'s empire.  It also seems that the Guardians are Myria's children from Breath of Fire II.

I can't be the only one who finds the ZombieDRs the saddest thing ever, can I?  They try to heal their group, and kapowie, everyone's dead Dave.

I also unlocked Emitai after leaving the mine.  I'll apprentice Nina to him once she's done with Yggdrasil.

Breath of Fire III, Part 7

I really like the fishing minigame in Breath of Fire III (and in the other games, but this one best). I also love the hunting minigame in Final Fantasy IX. D'you know what the silly thing about that is? I'm a vegan.

Played through to Rhapala. I've given up working on my post about enemy skills - just refer to this FAQ.

I got bored with training Beyd after he'd managed to get himself countered to death three times.  Luckily, I'd managed to net him an extra 12 or so attack and defence points and another hp, which really helped.

I took Peco to the Lighthouse for the levels, along with Momo, to get the treasure.  This made the lighthouse much tougher than it needed to be.

I love the aussie dolphin, and the English translation.  It's awesome.  I wonder what they did in the original version?

Bit of advice on the Vulcans.  Firstly, you can steal proteins, which are awesome.  Secondly, you will double the experience gained if you use a fire spell on them.  This will, however, make them start attacking you, with horrible spells like Lavaburst (which can be learned).  I generally try to whittle their hp down as much as possible (with frost) before using a firespell on them.  After using a firespell, they also become vulnerable to physical attacks, which helps.

Once you have the fairy village up and running, these vulcans will be where you level up, and even without the Ivory dice, they're pretty handy.  You might be lucky, like I was, and manage to nab a set of Magma Armour as a drop from one of the monsters here.  With that and the Ring of Fire you've got two characters here absorbing flame attacks as HP.

Idea.  I can get the fairies to copy that ring when I come back here to level up.  And the ring of ice.  Be handy to have three or even six of each of those.

Ooh, creepy old man.  I'd forgotten him.

I suppose all the bits about the tower and the brood mean that the ending of Breath of Fire II, where Ryu waited too long, is canon.

Did some fishing to the south of Mt. Zublo, and bought two Wisdom Rings.  They raise your Intelligence by thirty!  Also, got Meryleep. 

Breath of Fire III, Part 5

Yep, done. Levelled Ryu up to 15 (eight levels under Mygas, one under Bunyan) and beat them. I didn't get any item drops though. Just, y'know, pride.

I learned all the same enemy spells and got the same items as before, although now I'm still missing a few points on jellyfish while my puffer fish is perfect. Currently, Ryu is basically carrying Nina through the Wyndian catacombs. He managed to learn Bone Dart from the Ghouls, too.

I've got something like 4000 zenny, without breaking into my stash of silver knives. I've also got sixty-something healing herbs, which Nina is using up.

After buying a bunch of weapons and armour and a midas stone in Wyndia, I had Nina unlock all of Durandal's spells before moving on.

In the Arena, I bought all of the weapons available, even the ones I didn't really need (again, for D'Lonzo).


Breath of Fire III really is a frightening game. Ryu spends his entire life being hunted. Balio and Sunder are nightmarish, when you think of how relentless they chase this little kid. Nevermind the Guardians, and the people who were burnt to death at the mine, and all the people who betray him, and his only friends being presumed dead...

I'm not surprised he disappeared for ten years.  I'm more surprised that he came back.

Altimate Rewrite of Final Fantasy VIII

I've been reading the Altimate Rewrite of Final Fantasy VIII for a while now. The author, Albert, disappeared for a few months, but he's back now. I've started reading again from the beginning, with the idea that he'd be a lot closer to the end by the time I caught up again. Plus, I'd forgotten some of the finer points of the narrative.

I love Final Fantasy VIII - it was my first RPG, and my first Final Fantasy - and I love the rewrite. Go take a look.

I'm generally not a big fan of fanfiction, but I like this.

Breath of Fire I & IV

Some people believe that Breath of Fire IV is a prequel to the first Breath of Fire game.

Near the beginning of IV, Nina gives Ryu the King's Sword. Soon afterwards, it ends up breaking, and is known as 'Broken Sword' for the rest of the game.

Well, playing the first Breath of Fire, I just found a Broken Sword in Winlan Castle's treasury, with no in-game reference as to what it's doing there.

Interesting.

Braid: Flags

Skimming through a thread, I found the following (credited to Derbonk);

On a different side note: David Hellman (the creator of all the visual art) wrote a great series on his blog about the art of Braid, I hope you have all read it already, it's really interesting. He also hints that there might be something up with the flags in front of the castle. So, I looked at them and they do look like those signal flags you can see on some ships. Looked that up on Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_maritime_signal_flags ) and here is the result:

World 2 (blue/white small checkered) means "N - Negative"

World 3 (red/white checkered) means "U - You are running into danger"

World 4 (yellow/black checkered) means "L - In harbor: The ship is under Quarantine/At sea: You should stop your vessel instantly/With four numerals, latitude/Inport: Radiological Hazard"

World 5 (blue cross on white) means "X - Stop carrying out your intentions and watch for my signals"

World 6 (yellow and blue thick stripes) means "K - I wish to communicate with you. With one numeral, I wish to communicate with you by; 1) Morse signalling by hand-flags or arms; 2) Loud hailer (megaphone); 3) Morse signalling lamp; 4) Sound signals. Inport: Man Aloft.

Braid: My Interpretation

Warning: The following may contain spoilers (depending on how you define spoilers).

Braid's one of those things that everyone sees differently.  Be warned that this is a stream of consciousness, that was written in patches, and so doesn't flow terribly well.

I suspect that the game shows several different people. There's the atomic bomb scientists element, the child, and the romantic relationship. There's always the idea that it shows one person at different stages of his life, of course.

The majority of the game seems to focus on the romantic relationship. The main plot is that of Tim searching for his Princess, and the introduction talks about a girl, and a relationship without mistakes - or, at least, where the mistakes can be learned from, and the experience kept, but the consequences lost. There's the ring. It's interesting, although probably not symbolic, that the further away Tim gets from his ring, the faster he runs. And, yet, if you leave it behind, it shows up right there in your pocket again, as if it never left. Time stops, around the ring.

Then there's the woman he talks about leaving. The one who loved him anyway, all the while he was gone, Princess or no. I suspect that that's the segue into the atomic bomb segment of the game. The scientist who searches, who makes us all sons of bitches.

There are a number of fragments which seem to be talking about the discovery of the atomic bomb, and some people have pointed towards the Princess exploding, if you manage to catch her.

Then there's the child, who wants to get into the candy store, and considers using violence against his mother in order to get what he wants.

Maybe it's one character, who transfers his desperate obsession to something else, every time he gets what he wants.  Maybe, he did find the Princess, every level, every time, and then rewrote the story so she was always one more step beyond him.  Maybe what Tim wants is to be searching.

I don't think the singular character or the specific narrative are important. To me, the game's about obsession. It's about searching, and trying to move forward. What Tim wants is less important than the fact that he wants it, desperately, and goes through fire and goombas to get it.

And yet, assuming he doesn't do it on purpose - or maybe because he does - Tim is destined to fail. He failed before he even began. And yet, he hopes. Maybe, if he goes back, and changes this, and changes that, and does this in a different way, he can find the Princess. Maybe, if he goes right back to the beginning, things will be different.

So there's another theme. Alongside the obsession, desperate hope that will never succeed.

There's also the longing for the past. The game's purposefully reminiscent of the Mario games. If Tim is in his thirties, that would make him a pre-teen around the time those games began. Tim, whoever he represents, is living in the past, in more ways than one.

The images which accompany the five worlds (which can be seen here), the jigsaws whose pieces Tim collects, show another story.  They show a man with a woman, reaching for a wine bottle.  At what seems to be a dinner party, offering a toast.  Then, a child's room, a terrified child on the bed, and a blurred figure opening the door and looking in.  A child - the same child? - on what seems to be a school trip, drinking from a can, alone.  A man with dead eyes, looking at a ring in a pile of trash.  Is he walking towards it, or walking away?

The pictures aren't necessarily in chronological order, of course.  Maybe they show a story spanning two generations, Tim's father's problems leading to his own.  Or, maybe each picture shows Tim, as he grows up.  Maybe the final picture, the ring, is him walking away from his marriage.  Or, maybe, from the way it glows, that picture marks the start of Tim's obsessions, when he sees something in the rubbish that no one else values, something that calls to him.

In summary, here's a recap.  The story begins in World 1, with Tim finding the Princess, and her running away from him. She's alarmed at his presence - he's an intruder, and a threat.

The Princess is then carried away by a Knight, and Tim searches for her, through five more worlds. At the end of each world, he is greeted by a strange dinosaur creature. The first one apologises, and says the Princess must be in another castle. The final creature asks "are you sure she even exists?"

There's a very interesting thread discussing interpretations of the game here.