thoughts on FF tactics GBA and/or disgaea?

[Anouleth]

Let's not forget some of the broken combos you can create (Assassin's instant death attacks + Archer's concentrate). Or some of the broken abilities in their own right like steal weapon/ability and Damage -> MP (1 MP completely absorbs damage from one attack? Count me in). If you like godstomping, the game is okay. If you don't like it, you need to play badly or place arbitrary conditions on what you let yourself do in order to have anything resembling a challenge for most missions.

Sounds suspiciously like Fire Emblem to me.

[Rewjeo]

If you have a PS3 or PSP, Valkyria Chronicles or Valkyria Chronicles 2.

[Narga_Rocks]

Sounds suspiciously like Fire Emblem to me.

How?

steal ability: if your moogle/human can use the ability, you can steal it. Imagine having Sothe "steal" Adept from Soren in 3-13 while he is using it, resulting in Sothe having Adept active from the moment he steals it. (or Kurth steal Ire from Deg)

steal weapon: only fe5 comes close to this (steal equipped weapons), just imagine having 21 build on your thief and no weapon have above 20.

Damage -> MP: nothing is similar to this since it is automatic. The closest, I suppose, is Big Guard/Pavise. Those, however, only activate sometimes.

ID attack + Concentrate: 95% OHKO on almost everything in the game regardless of hp and atk and def. Jaffar on steroids. I think you can even make a build to do this from 7 range (close to the maximum in the game), though I can't remember for sure.

Edited August 10, 2010 by Narga_Rocks

[Suichimo]

Assassin, Red Mage, and Summoner were great classes. A Red Mage/Summoner with double cast was great, as was a Red Mage/Spellblade in the sequel.

No, the combo is still Red/Mage Summoner in FFTA2. You just spend a bit of time getting the Spellblade's unique ability, that lets you use HP instead of MP, and you wear elemental armor so you can stand in your own blasts absorbing your own summons. You're literally double casting summons every turn in the fight once you get this going.

Paravir with the one Black Mage ability that reduces the grade of elemental resistance an enemy has is just sick though.

[Original Alear]

I mean, I liked FFT more than FFTA, but I would hardly praise FFT then turn around and call FFTA a terrible game. The two are still pretty similar, and I even find some of FFTA's gameplay changes to be an improvement, like the addition of a defense stat. Also the removal of the Zodiac symbols in battle. I personally wasn't a huge fan of those in FFT.

Well ya, but I think FFT has a huge lead over FFTA in music and story.

[Anouleth]

How?

steal ability: if your moogle/human can use the ability, you can steal it. Imagine having Sothe "steal" Adept from Soren in 3-13 while he is using it, resulting in Sothe having Adept active from the moment he steals it. (or Kurth steal Ire from Deg)

steal weapon: only fe5 comes close to this (steal equipped weapons), just imagine having 21 build on your thief and no weapon have above 20.

Damage -> MP: nothing is similar to this since it is automatic. The closest, I suppose, is Big Guard/Pavise. Those, however, only activate sometimes.

ID attack + Concentrate: 95% OHKO on almost everything in the game regardless of hp and atk and def. Jaffar on steroids. I think you can even make a build to do this from 7 range (close to the maximum in the game), though I can't remember for sure.

I was referring to your comment about broken skill combos, which also exist in FE (Wrath/Vantage, gg, plus the guys in FE4 sound pretty insane), and the way that the game isn't difficult unless you play badly or deliberately limit yourself, again, much like Fire Emblem. Personally, I found a lot of the ridiculously broken comboes also to be ridiculously fun (I never used Damage -> MP though, defensive comboes are laaaame).

Incidentally, my opinion on FFTA is that it's pretty fun to make a team of ass-kickers, the only problem is that some varieties of ass-kicking (Gunners, Assassins, Summoners) are infinitely easier than others (Templars, Black Mages, Paladins). FFTA2 was improved in some ways, with a greater variety of classes and races and a less annoying law system, as well as a less broken maguc system. However, recruiting new units early on is impossible, and the game forces you to unlock classes. I liked the way that in FFTA, I'd sometimes see a strange enemy and look at them and be like WOW I HAVE TO GET THAT CLASS. However, I still had fun doing stupid shit like building a team of Scholars and spamming Shadow Shade Tome with Bone Plates, or using Spellblades with Turbo MP.

Edited August 10, 2010 by Slowking

[Narga_Rocks]

(I never used Damage -> MP though, defensive comboes are laaaame).

I only really found great use for it in two situations, I think. One was a one-on-one battle with Marsche against someone. Marsche was fast enough that the other guy never got to go twice. Marsche recovered at least 1 MP every time he got a turn. You can see where this one is going. The other situation is sitting around waiting for blue magic and not wanting to have to bother healing or thinking. Well, I'm not certain I did the second one, but it sounds like something I'd do. I might have used it elsewhere, but there are many super-powered abilities in the game so it is entirely possible I mostly went all-out offence rather than bothering to be nigh-immortal.

[Furby]

Some of the gameplay stuff I like from FFTA/2 over FFT, and some of it I did not.

It seems petty, but one thing I think they need to bring back is naming your units. Hell, one of the only reasons I hacked FFTA2 was to be able to chose names I wanted rather than the RNG.

I want the Zodiac system back, but with less importance. A very minor increase would work.

I also want them to at least attempt a story as good as the original. What they've been doing is obviously not the same as the masterpiece that FFT had.

I'd also like for genders to exist. For some it'd obviously be worthless (Hallo thar rabbit chicks), but still.

[bunny: spider bitten]

I'd probably suggest SRW. It plays similar to FE, but the characters differ more and, depending on the game and how you play, it can be harder.

[geozeldadude]

I'd probably suggest SRW. It plays similar to FE, but the characters differ more and, depending on the game and how you play, it can be harder.

SRW looks interesting. i'd never heard of it. how else does it compare to FE in terms of the amount of strategy vs. luck vs. "try and die" gameplay, etc.?

[bunny: spider bitten]

SRW features a few 'spirits' per character. The way they play out is, used well, they remove luck from the factor for some characters or increase odds for others.

The only failing element of strategy is the odd, over the top formulas for damage. However, most characters will have some sort of defensive spirit and be able to take 2-3 hits.

And then their are skills, which generally play out to differentiate the series involved(which, depending on your taste in anime and your ability to play through some moon speak can help the games) and the ability to upgrade stats and weapons is nice.

Current offerings are OG1 and 2, which are a little hard to find but can be picked up as the carts. The rest are in moon speak. But some have patches - 3 and alpha gaiden have full patches, J almost has a patch, and there are some menu translations for R and K out there - if you're playing on the computer.

Almost makes me wish modding SRWs were easier.

[Albus]

I actually enjoyed both FFT and FFTA. The latter got pretty old quickly, though. Didn't help that I didn't really care for how the sprites were so.. bright. One thing I missed in FFTA, though, was the ability to make any character any class, assuming prerequisites are met and excluding bard/dancer and unique story character classes. The race system in FFTA kinda got in the way of that. Enjoyed the map layout in FFT more as well.

Currently trying FFTA2. Essentially seems to be FFTA1.0.1. Revised law system is nice (did the game even give a valid excuse for their presence in the first place? they seem to be there just to piss you off). I like the bazaar system for acquiring new equipment. Hopefully the rare equipment won't be so frustrating to find as it was in FFTA (lolrandomdrops).

I also recommend SRW:OG1/2 as fun strategy games. They can be a little difficult until you get the hang of things. Haven't played any of the moonspeak SRW games, though, but I hear they're good.