I can’t stop listening to this train wreck of a song for some god damn reason…fuck you Mark.
Is there any turn-based RPG besides FFIV where you have a party of at least five?
They knocked it back to four, then three, and then decided you’re only responsible enough to directly control one. Did we do something wrong? It’s like we keep getting demoted. Are we not trustworthy enough to manage five people in a turn-based battle? I’m doin it, my brain is not exploding.
Things I have also been curious about.
My Game Design Brain says this sort of thing is due to battles taking too many clicks to get through, thus drawing the process out, having too many things to juggle and generally being a chore with FIVE characters per round. It’s friction, as Mr Kellams so elegantly put it. It’s padding out something you could do quickly with more actions.
Personally, I would cap party at three, but give the player the option to shuffle the moves within their submenus. So say you use Fire the most, but it’s in the middle of a list that is thirty articles long, you can customise your magic list so that you can access Fire in two quick presses of the button. Then below that is, say, Big Heal, Haste and Shield. Or whatever. The same goes for your fighter and their fancy moves.
It’s not so much that you’re not being TRUSTED with so many characters, it’s just that it’s a lot to juggle and generally does not lend itself to giving you a smooth, enjoyable experience. However, if it is distilled TOO much, you end up with FFXIII, where the leader dies and it’s game over.
As a general rule, whatever gets the player to their desired location the fastest is the most wanted outcome. Nobody likes having their time wasted!
But I don’t believe streamlining every process is optimal for every type of game. It’s just like the issue of the “shops” in FFXIII, the concept was probably motivated by adding convenience to the player, not making them have to worry about only being able to get certain types of items in certain shops, or particular ones of those items in particular shops around the world. RPGs in the fashion of Final Fantasy are enjoyed because of they are fantasy, you get to explore a fantastical foreign world full of history and people that feel authentic and believable, using “whatever gets the player to their desired location the fastest” rarely serves this end. There is something that feels more genuine about walking into a town, locating their shop and walking in to do your business, it gives you the feeling you are actively participating in this fictional world. If they wanted to expedite every process in Final Fantasy they could just let you choose where you want to travel to from a menu, measure your stats against every enemy encounter and instantly calculate whether you’ll win or lose, and do away with side quests to go kill a strong certain enemy and just stick them all in a fighting coliseum. Sadly they seem to be of the mindset move in this direction.
But in any case, the battles of IV are not necessarily longer for having more party members. If it’s an easy encounter, the battle can often be done before you’ve even cycled through your party due to the magic of the ATB system, the game is merely asking you what each character should do when their time comes, and they commence to execute it, it’s not like you necessarily need to plan out what five people are going to do in order for the battle to proceed. There’s no noticeable difference between how much you need to do with a party of 5 or even 2, other than your options are more plentiful. I enjoy having a bigger party at my disposal because it feels more like a true band of heroes working together, and not like a small deck of special use classes I’m pressured with balancing correctly, I actually find that more troublesome to manage.
I always have the sneaking suspicion that it is more of the developers being lazy, that they tend to reduce it to three members because it makes matters much less complicated for themselves in terms of balancing the system and managing everything going on, especially since it started right when the games went 3D.
And actually XII gave you many of those sort of options with sorting abilities, you could at least order your magic however you liked.
Facebook like pages I’ve created/administrated over the years
‘Rave Rush’ from San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing
School should have a Dramatic Reading day
Killing Mario by Deforming His Face in Super Mario 64
The Broom Faced Dog from Alice In Wonderland is The Evilest Disney Villain
Chicken “Katsu” Curry Ramen
This has become my standard method as of late of upgrading cheap watery Top Romen soup into something that feels more like a full hardy meal. I recently came upon a seemingly endless bag of friend chicken patties, and I wanted to figure out creative ways to get rid of them while hiding their flavorless processed sponge anatomy.
A little inspired by runnyrunny999’s curry soba recipe, one could opt to simply toss one of those curry cubes to thicken and flavor typical ramen broth, or pre-make a large batch of thick curry sauce and add a bit of it to a bowl near the end, but the method that follows is probably the best for quick single servings.
- Toss chicken patty in the toaster, it usually takes at least 10-15 minutes to go from frozen to crispy so it’s best to start this first.
- Cut some bacon into bite sized pieces, I go for 2 or 3 strips, along with one crushed garlic clove, and fry in a small sauce pan over medium high heat until most of the fat renders out. I like to pepper the bacon at this point too. If you’re not into bacon, start with a tablespoon of butter or olive oil instead.
- Mix an equal amount of flour to the fat, slightly more if you want your sauce extra thick, and stir constantly until it no longer looks dry (add extra oil if necessarily for this) and it begins to turn slightly golden in color.
- Take the pan off the heat and pour in a teaspoon of curry spice mix. Any generic can of “curry powder” will do, I’ve found the one they sell at Trader Joe’s is pretty good. While continuing to stir quickly, gradually pour in the recommended amount of water for ramen broth.
- Return the pan to medium heat, toss in the ramen flavor packet (any flavor is good for this, beef or oriental might be best but in the end it only makes a subtle difference) as well as the noodles, and stir occasionally while gently letting it come to a boil. By the time the sauce thickens the noodles should be done too.
- Bowl it all up, and while it cools thinly slice one green onion to garnish, take out the hot crispy chicken and chop into strips, laying them on top of the noodles and sauce which should be just thick enough to barely support their weight.
Like all ramen dishes, the best part getting to customize it with extra ingredients, toppings and condiments to your liking. Here are just a few suggested extras I feel would go best with this dish:
- To spice things up, I know most will opt to go for the tried and true Sriracha, and that’s good and all, but some alternative options I feel better compliment the flavors here are shichimi (added on top while serving), cayenne powder (added with the curry powder), or my most favorite recent discovery gochujang, Korean red pepper paste, a heaping tablespoon of which tossed in the pan just before pouring in the water.
- Various sauces to top the chicken with, such as tonkatsu sauce obviously. I drizzled some spicy peanut vinaigrette (pictured) and it complimented everything surprisingly well.
- Mayonnaise. cuz they sometimes top curry with mayo, right? (they mentioned it on Nichijou, thats good enough for me)
- Sesame seeds, the darker the better
- Diced bell peppers, onions, carrots, and tomatoes
- Chopped herbs such as cilantro, parsley, or thai basil.
- cabbage, or kimchi if you’re into that.
I keep this jumbo sized pin on my backpack, I found it at a thrift store, I have no clue who they are but the top one is definitely a Kristen Wiig character.
raverush replied to your post: the only thing I understood from final fantasy…
And the game therefor ended with a fantastic planetoid-sized crystallized lesbian orgasm grand finale.the only kind of orgasm worth having ^0^
What’s not to be sold on? I’ve kinda decided even if the gameplay stinks, it’s still worth it to play a game scored by Joe Hisaishi.I can’t argue with that, haha.
raverush asked: Have you seen Cloverfield? That thing was totes a Swampert.
Yeah, I really see the resemblance between the two.
