Sign in to follow this  
zeteginara

First Playthrough Review! (1.8.5)

16 posts in this topic

This was my first time playing, and I made a note of a couple of issues.  Let me get into the positives first.

Positives:

This will be a shorter section because I'm not talking about anything specific.  I'm still smiling from my playthrough and I'm looking forward to multiple playthroughs in the next few years, probably at least once a year.  Simply put, Final Fantasy 4 used to be my favorite FF game.  I really liked Final Fantasy 6 as a kid, but I found it had lesser replay value because of the problems that the devs of BNW explained.  Once you get espers, the game shifts into a much easier game (easier than it already was).  As you get more espers, your characters shift from being unique and cool to being faceless ultima casters.  I've tried multiple playthroughs throughout the years but I always get bored midway through; easy games don't interest me.

Final Fantasy VI: Brave New World is my new favorite FF game.  I loved it from beginning to end, and despite some of the flaws I'm going to point out below, I cannot emphasize how they pale in comparison to the overall positive experience.  So for positives, I like "everything else".  The characters were balanced, and there are a lot of tactics that I never used but will next time I play the game:  I didn't know Shadow's smoke bombs were so cool.

Negatives:

Setzer's Fixed Dice

Whenever I attacked with Setzer's Fixed Dice, he would attack with a seemingly random weapon, and several of my party members would get several random status ailments and the game would often freeze.  Needless to say, I think this is a bug.

Certain Dragons

When I fought the Red Dragon the first time in the Phoenix Cave, he wiped my party with S. Cross.  I had to return after I had gained a few levels with a party specifically put together to fight the dragon.

I think backtracking is boring and bad game design.  I also don't think 'gear-check mechanics' are good; requiring that your party either be prepared to deal with fire damage, have easy access to shell, be overleveled, etc... should be required.  While on future playthroughs I might keep this in mind and make sure one of my Phoenix Cave parties is a red-dragon-fighting party, but for a first time playthrough I thought that the 'gear-check attack' was unfair.  The easiest resolution for this is to move the dragon to the beginning of the Phoenix Cave so that players don't have to slog through an already-completed-dungeon to challenge it again.  I had a similar problem with the Ice dragon in Narshe.

Kefka

Kefka's Goner requires your party to either be overleveled, or keep Shell and Reraise on everyone in order to survive.  The latter is all well and good, and provides an additional layer of preparation required for the fight.

The problem I ran into was Kefka kept spamming "purge".  As Kefka has a mostly reactive script, I just had to cease attacking and keep my party healed while I recast Shell, and that wasn't too hard... but then once I was ready to start my attack again, Kefka would 'purge' again.  So there were several times over that I couldn't attack because I had to keep re-applying shell; that was frustrating and boring.  It wasn't challenging because I knew i had to keep Shell up on my party while I attacked Kefka, it was just annoying to have to keep reapplying shell over and over after he purged it.  I think this could be fixed by simply lowering Kefka's chance of using purge.

Certain Bosses' HP

Ultros, the first time you fight him on the Lete River, Inferno, and Hidon I remember in particular of having an abnormally large amount of HP.  The fight with these three bosses seemed to go on FOREVER, even after I had them on lockdown and could react to everything they did.  Hidon in particular... I did try fighting him earlier than usual because I wanted Strago to learn Dark Omen, and I found him to be relatively easy to defend against.  However, I had Shadow use 30 knives against him while a vigor based sabin wailed away.  I ran my party out of MP a few times, etc... before he went down.  I thought I was doing something wrong, or maybe there was some weird gimmick I had to use to kill Hidon, or maybe taking out his minions (which I did several times) healed him or something.  Nope!  Hidon just had a ridiculous amount of HP.  

Gau's HP

Later in the game it's not so bad, but Gau's HP is abysmally low when you first get him.  Even if you keep him in the back row and give him the best gear at the time, it really seems like monsters can kill him at will; and you have to stock dozens of Phoenix Downs just for Gau.  

The Script

I'd like an option to either keep the original script, or even better... use the GBA version's script.  While I appreciate the humor of the devs during the less serious parts of the game, it's prevalent during the more serious parts... Cyan's Inigo Montoya impression against Kefka was obtrusive, and so was the (redacted - BTB) thing.

Other Suggestions

-I'd like to echo that I'd love to see Sabin's stamina power his elemental blitzes.  Maybe even add an earth and water blitz to add to the 'elemental avatar' theme. :) Definitely make it so it doesn't outshine his Vigor build.  I'm fine with aurabolt being weak... single-target damage is Vigor Sabin's thing. :)

-I'd love to find something (if there isn't already, I couldn't find it) that changes Celes' "Runic" to "Shock".

-Change the in-game logo!  Rather than Final Fantasy III, I'd love to see "Final Fantasy VI: Brave New World" with the magitek logo as seen in the original.

-Make it so you can find the magic bone and that it isn't hidden as a stealable.  I think it's important to Gau's build.

-I'd love to see information about Gau's rages available in-game, so that I didn't have to look them up on a chart or study an excel spreadsheet to use Gau effectively.  The same could be said about Mog's dances.

-I'd also like for the weapon selection menu to include the descriptions of each equippable item, so I know special effects while I'm equipping them, and didn't have to make a special trip to the inventory screen to see that stuff.







 

Edited by BTB

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Setzer's Dice is a known bug with 1.8.5 - there is a hotfix patch for it linked in several threads here, and it will be fixed in 1.8.6 soon.

The only fight in BNW that was intended as a gear-check fight is MagiMaster, for obvious reasons. As for the dragons, I did make the primary elementals more powerful because their elements are easier to negate with equipment, but I didn't necessarily intend for said equipment to be required in order to take them out. As for the red dragon specifically, I do intend the Phoenix Cave to be done in the mid to late-WoR, so it can definitely be a hard fight if you go there sooner. Same goes for the Silver Dragon at Narshe.

Boss HP has been an ongoing thing that continues to be addressed in each update as seen fit according to player feedback; Hidon in particular was recently addressed by lowering his magic defense.

Keeping the original script is the sort of thing that just isn't going to happen unless someone goes to the effort of re-translating BNW. I will gladly give the source dialogue to anyone who feels like undertaking it.

Changing the in-game logo is not easy for technical reasons that I can't explain really well since that's not my department.

Same problem as above for displaying more information on Gau's rages; there *are* hacks that try to do this, but screen real estate is at a premium and there isn't sufficient space to display all of the relevant data. When faced with the decision to give the player some information or none, I will tend towards the latter so that anyone so inclined can get the full picture from the Printme.

For weapon descriptions in the equip menu, again there's just nowhere to put them.

Edited by BTB

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

BTB, thank you for the reply.  I can see where you are coming from in all of your comments.  And again, thank you for your great work.  I look forward to playing BNW over and over throughout the years, and happy that FF6 is 'back' in my brain as a great game.

Something similar for FF7 would make that game amazing too, I felt that FF7 took a step even further and made ALL of your characters blank slates from the beginning. :)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

While I have not played it, we do have a FF7 mod on this site that I have seen compared to Brave New World. You might hop onto our Discord and ask for some opinions on it, if you're interested.

Anyway, glad you enjoyed the mod. Thanks for playing.

Edited by BTB

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'll echo the sentiment that the Fire & Ice Dragons do feel like "gear checks." S.Cross and Absolute 0 are just too brutal.

Also, I'll repeat the sentiment that for some dragons, too many of their attacks are their own elements. So the "gear check" ends up becoming "Do you have the gear? Y? Easy win. N? You die" (I exaggerate, but the issue is there a bit).

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

There is actually an item in-game already that gives you access to Celes' Shock abillity in the WoR, OP. I don't quite now if the location has been changed (last playthrough was 1.8.4), but it involves Leo and a certain guy that just wants his damn cider already.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks Sharmat!

Yeah, S.Cross and Absolute 0 are no joke.  I feel that the fights are unwinnable unless you are overleveled, or have the right party with access to resistance equipment.  Fire Shields (forget the name), force armor, etc.  Maybe making items that resist fire and ice more readily available from shops or something?  

I had to make special backtracking trips to beat the dragons with a party built to fight said dragons.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've also realized that a big reason I wanted to go to the Phoenix Cave and Narshe was to get the Illumina for melee Celes... mainly because melee Celes goes from being almost useless to amazing with that sword (same can be said for melee Terra).

It would be nice if there existed an elemental-proc sword between the classic elemental swords available in the empire and Illumina/Apocalypse, so that Melee Terra/Celes actually are viable in the early WoR.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I came back here to chime in that I also agreed with zete that Magic Bone really shouldn't be a "hidden" item. I'll say again that Gau needs proper club progression. Could even tie in the "+7 Magic" with the Blizzard Orb and re-purpose the Magic Bone to being a late-WoB Bone Club.

And, whaddya know, zete also revives the idea of an early WoR for Terra and Celes. *cough plz make Falchion a 140 auto-crit sword cough*

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
5 hours ago, zeteginara said:

Something similar for FF7 would make that game amazing too, I felt that FF7 took a step even further and made ALL of your characters blank slates from the beginning. :)

As the rest of your comments were explained. People have said that FF7 New Threat is about as close as you get to a "FF7 BNW"

4 hours ago, zeteginara said:

It would be nice if there existed an elemental-proc sword between the classic elemental swords available in the empire and Illumina/Apocalypse, so that Melee Terra/Celes actually are viable in the early WoR.

There was actually some discussion regarding WoR elemental blades very recently. Albeit through Zant instead. I just found it amusing that it was just mentioned here as well.

2 hours ago, thzfunnymzn said:

I came back here to chime in that I also agreed with zete that Magic Bone really shouldn't be a "hidden" item. I'll say again that Gau needs proper club progression. Could even tie in the "+7 Magic" with the Blizzard Orb and re-purpose the Magic Bone to being a late-WoB Bone Club.

While I agree with making Magic Bone a more 'known' item I think I prefer the bones being left as "1 magical, 1 physical" with maybe a WoB 'incremental' bone added in on top of those (e.g. +3 or +5 magic with moderate bpow)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
9 minutes ago, Nowea said:

While I agree with making Magic Bone a more 'known' item I think I prefer the bones being left as "1 magical, 1 physical" with maybe a WoB 'incremental' bone added in on top of those (e.g. +3 or +5 magic with moderate bpow)

Fair enough. I can agree with your way.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I got lucky with the Red Dragon. i stumbled onto him without preparing and had no fire protection. he cast southern cross right off the bat and wiped out everyone except for Terra with a few hp. i put a phoenix down on Locke and had him summon Phoenix and i was good to go, he never cast S. Cross again. 

One of the things i really like about this mod is the amount of time it takes to beat bosses. it gives me a chance to really play with my characters and it feels great when i finally win. i know long boss battles isn't everyone bag but i really enjoy them.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 25/07/2017 at 8:32 PM, zeteginara said:

-Change the in-game logo!  Rather than Final Fantasy III, I'd love to see "Final Fantasy VI: Brave New World" with the magitek logo as seen in the original.

-Make it so you can find the magic bone and that it isn't hidden as a stealable.  I think it's important to Gau's build.

-I'd love to see information about Gau's rages available in-game, so that I didn't have to look them up on a chart or study an excel spreadsheet to use Gau effectively.  The same could be said about Mog's dances.

-I'd also like for the weapon selection menu to include the descriptions of each equippable item, so I know special effects while I'm equipping them, and didn't have to make a special trip to the inventory screen to see that stuff.

also id love to see these in the final version.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

There's not sufficient screen real-estate to make the last two happen; the first is something Synchysi has explained int he past and could probably do so better than I. I think it's a compression thing.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The original FF6 logo is something we could import - there are already patches out there that do this. Adding the lettering for Brave New World is probably doable as well, but I don't have the skills to do so.

It's importing the BNW logo that isn't really possible without jacking up all the colors.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this