Final Fantasy 2

A few days ago I managed to beat Final Fantasy 2 on stream, so with that now off the list I think it's time I talked about it.

Final Fantasy 2 is a piece of shit, I really don't like it, but I can sort of forgive it for being so crap because you really have to take into consideration when it was made and you kind of have to give Square credit for at least trying to do something different.

The problem with Final Fantasy 2 is that it's broken and unless you exploit the ever living hell out of that broken system then the game is unreasonably hard.  The system with FF2 is that your stats go up based on your actions in battle rather than having an overall level.  So attacking will raise strength, getting hit will raise HP and using spells will increase spell mastery and MP etc.

On paper it sounds like a really cool system and I've played games with similar sorts of systems that have been a ton of fun, but here it falls a bit short.  The problem is that playing the game normally is absolutely not enough to prepare you for the fights that you have to overcome.  2 members of my 4 character party had less than 1000 HP by the time I got to the final dungeon and I had been playing normally without running from many battles.

To be effective in Final Fantasy 2 you either have to grind for hours or exploit the ever loving shit out of the broken progression system, but the problem with doing that is that it makes the game WAY to easy and ultimately unfun.

Still, if you're willing to put up with all that shit, then everything else about FF2 isn't so bad.  It has an interesting world to explore and the plot is OK considering that it's an NES game from 1988.  Also the PS1 origins version has a couple of cool looking cut scenes at major turning points in the game that make things a bit more interesting if your the kind of person who played it a bunch when it was 8-Bit.

I'd suggest that everyone play Final Fantasy 2 just to see how Square were at one point willing to do new and interesting things with the series rather than just fall back on stupid anime cliches and awfully written plot lines.  No matter how much I complain about Final Fantasy 2, it's STILL better than 13 by a long shot.

Also as a little update, a couple more donations came in after the stream had finished and over £200 was raised for the Alzheimers Society! Thanks again to everyone who donated during the marathon, the highlights from the stream will be uploaded soon!

24 Hour Stream Marathon Results!

Well goddamn I actually pulled it off thanks to the support of all my friends and family that watched the stream and kept me from getting bored with Final Fantasy 2/3 got to its most grindy.  After that I thought I'd share some results.

In terms of game progress, Final Fantasy 2 was completed and I made quite a bit of headway into a fan translated version of the Famicom version of Final Fantasy 3.  Also, the donation incentive for me to sing 1000 words was met by a single person and the Cait Sith being killed may as well have been met by many others.

Speaking of donations, last time I checked my donation page, people from that marathon had donated about £183 to the Alzheimers Soceity.  This is absolutely amazing for a first time marathon and I can't thank all the donators and supports enough and I can only hope that you'll keep supporting Identity Gaming and my silly marathon ideas.

Despite that thing making me pretty tired by the end, I do intend to do another one, but next time it'll be for Final Fantasy 7.  When I start playing that game, there will be a 24 hour Stream and we'll see if we can get through the main plot in a single session, so keep an eye out for that.

Finally, there are a couple of highlight videos that me and a buddy are working on getting on the YouTube channel, so if you missed the extremely stupid accidental warp or the dungeon clutch of HOBoi, then you'll have a chance to see them soon I hope.

Once again thanks, and keep watching!

Used Games in Japan (With video examples!)

I've had some bad experiences buying used games in the UK.  For example I once bought a copy of Pool of Radiance, and when I got it home there was a completely different game in the box.  Another time I once bought a copy of Shadow of Memories on the PS2 only to take it home and discover fucking Jam on the CD and despite my best cleaning efforts, that shit just would not work.

In Japan however, I've had the reverse of that.  Every used game I have bought has come in pristine condition with all inlays and extra bits and bobs that came with it when it was new.  I have a friend who got the PS1 version of Metal Gear Solid that came with a load of collectors stickers or something, it was pretty neat.

It also had a Suikoden Demo

So while I was up in Kawagoe doing a bit of a retro game hunt with previously mentioned friend, we came across a copy of Final Fantasy 2 and 3 in a junk pile in a Hard Off.  Book Off is a used book store type deal in Japan that also takes stuff like Video Games and DVDs, Hard Off is like that but for things like old VHS players and TVs, but Hard Off also stocks games.

So for about 200 yen each we took these things back to my buddies place, slammed them in his Famulator and turned it on.  First it didn't work and got a load of gunk inside his system, which we had to clean out before trying again, and then when we did make it work, the sound was a bit.....off.  Take a look!

This is the first time I have ever seen this happen, but it was pretty funny.  Usually used games on carts come with all its save slots full of 100% completed games, this one was just messed up.  Still, for only 200 yen it's not like you can really complain.