Final Fantasy Online Review
| A review for Final Fantasy Online created by Gakumerasara | ||||||||||||
|
This is a review for Gakumerasara's Final Fantasy Online game.
Presentation:
I will start with the presentation of the game. I will go through quality of graphics, sounds, and the flaws that were found in each.
Graphics
The graphics used in this game were taken from the first Final Fantasy game for the NES, and possibly some tile icons were taken from one or two of the other Final Fantasy games for the NES. The graphics were doubled in size most likely to fit the byond movement system and collision more than for looks. Sadly I don't think that the oversized graphics look nice all of the time like that, but it certainly works out better that way overall. The hud interface which Gakumerasara put into the game is exceptional and very user friendly.
(Click to enlarge)
You will notice here that I drew in two arrows. A black and a white arrow. The black arrow shown is pointing to the hud inventory. You can click on either the equipment or the item tab(clearly distinguishable) to enter each section. At the top you can also view your spells and abilities which you can then drag to the bottom section(shown being pointed to with the white arrow. You can also drag equipment into the section in the middle of the hud inventory which shows a large picture of your character. Simply drag the weapon or armor item onto that section and your character will be equipped with it. An excellent system.
The white arrow section shows many things that I will point out. Starting from the top left, you'll see two boxes with swords in them and the word action in between them. The left box shows the action that you will perform when you click an mob around you, in this case attack. The right box's purpose is to click on so you can go into melee attack mode again. Next to those boxes is your gold count. You simply drag your mouse over it and it shows your gold amount in the bar at the bottom, a simple and ugly feature in my opinion, but it does save time. Everything else in those huds is fairly self explanatory by simply dragging your mouse over them and seeing the name.
(Click to enlarge)
Here is something I have to fuss about. You'll notice that you see the wall of the city there, then 16 pixels of ground, then blackness. This is a mapping error which I fuss about a lot. Even when it's dark, the darkness doesn't go over that piece of ground that you can see there, it's still perfectly bright.
Sound
The sound is very nice. Everywhere you go there is excellent music and every action you perform has a sound effect, a feature I long for in every game. According to the community, each continent has a different battle music when you encounter enemies. I have also noticed excellent dungeon music(some of it a little too powerful and loud for a dungeon, such as the wolf cave. That would have been better boss music than creepy cave music in my opinion).
Overall Presentation Rating: 7/10
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Gameplay
Here I will explain the gameplay aspects of the game. I will go through Beginning, Fighting, Shopping, and Parties.
Begining
(Click to enlarge)
This shows the character selection screen. You start out by giving yourself a character and a name. The character you choose is a tough decision. If this is your first time, I suggest beginning the game as a Red Mage. They are very balanced with sword skills and magic skills. The other classes to choose from are Fighter, Black Belt, Theif, White Mage, and Black Mage, each class with their own unique abilities and strengths. This game is fairly well balanced in terms of character strengths. You can even customise your character to do things that the class wouldn't normally be able to do.
After you're finished making your character, you are told to talk to Silas and he explains everything you need to know very well(If you can find him. He walks randomly so sometimes he can be in the most remote places and other times he'll be right next to where you spawn.) There is no substitute for going out and fighting on your own though, so you need to do as he says, get some equipment from him, and kills some monsters!
Fighting
(Click to enlarge)
This shows me beating up monsters with my poison magic. Fighting is fairly simple. I remember my Dragon Quest 8 package saying on the back that it's easy to pick up and hard to master, and that is very true here. It takes some work to get used to the system completely and fight well with it, but once you have the game gets very exciting.
The way to choose an attack to do is simply to find it in your abilities tab and click on it. You can also drag the actions into your quick selection area at the bottom, another reason why the hud interface is very nice and user friendly. Once the action is set you click on an mob and you will automatically walk to the mob and attack it at the distance necessary. Speaking of walking as well, you do not normally walk using the arrow keys. If you do, you won't be for long. Clicking is the way to go here. If you are a Runescape player then you will feel very at home here with FFO's movement and click attack system.
Shopping
Shopping is very nice in this game and such a huge part that I dedicated an entire section to it. I'll start with shopping for abilities.
(Click to enlarge)
As you defeat enemies and use magic or skills, you gain experience points, nothing new, right? Well how these points are used is very nice in this game. Instead of automatically levelling up with your experience points, you get a choice. Go to these guys and Level up, or spend your experience points on your skills. In the picture I get the choice of raising my magic skills. As the skill increases, the strength of the magic or even the speed and precision of a sword and everything in between can be improved. You choose what to improve though. There is also a level cap for every level that you go up. You must wait each time for you to be able to level up again, this gives you the chance to spend your points on some skills, an excellent system which defines the gameplay of this game.
Next I will explain the true shop system.
(Click to enlarge)
Here is shown the weapon shop. You can see many weapons there, but not all of them are there automatically. No, most of them were deposited there by players. The looting system forces you to sell your weapons at the shop, because you have no use for them. When you sell them at the shop they are displayed for all to buy. After some time the item displayed at the topleft will be taken off the shelf and all of the items will move up by one slot. This keeps everything running and running smoothly. There is always something to buy and you never know if there is something new and great to buy that you've never seen before. It's a system that's been used many times before, but it works very well in this game.
Lastly, I will explain the blacksmith system.
(Click to enlarge)
You can see in the picture above that there are many things to do at the blacksmith. As you use weapons in the game, they begin to become damaged over time, armor as well when you are hit. You can tell that something is damaged because its color will change slightly. Usually the items you loot from monsters are damaged as well. Because of this, there is a repair option. You can repair one item at a time, or all of them by selecting the all option. Next you see the Upgrade option. With this, and some extra cash, you can upgrade any weapon or armor item that you have and make it something worth bragging about. Versions of weapons and armor range from worthless to perfect, and you can raise the equipment's stats by upgrading to a higher level. Even the simplest of equipment items can be great things with this option. Under that you see the option of Engrave. This is almost completely necessary to do to all of your items. An item that is engraved with your name will not be lost if you die. An engraved item will always be with you. Engraving items can come with a fairly large price though. It all depends on when you engrave it. If you engrave it when it's worthless, it'll cost less. If you engrave it when it's perfect, it'll obviously cost a lot more.
All of the shopping systems are very excellent.
Parties
This game has a very nice party system, though I don't see it as anything all that new, it's very useful for playing the game. In this you will join a party and each of you will see a health and mana bar next to your character's icon. This gives you the ability to monitor everyone's health which is very useful if you can heal. For every enemy that is killed, the experience goes to everyone and I don't believe it's shared. The gold that is found is equally distributed among the party members though. Getting in a party with other players is a great way to train, it's also fun to talk with them. I enjoy RPing on this game with other players, though it's not enforced to do so.
Overall Gameplay Rating: 9/10
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originality:
With all that I've said earlier, you can imagine that this game is very original, and I believe it really is. The fact that it's a fan game really is it's downfall in complete originality, but the game play offers something new and refreshing. The things you find here that you cannot find anywhere else are what keep me playing this game consistently. It fits action turn based fighting with real time fighting perfectly.
It adds in a great shop and experience system. It also adds in many great quests to do. It almost feels like much of the things in this game are modelled after Runescape. That's not a terribly bad thing, and perhaps I'm wrong there. Runscape ideas aren't new to the internet, but this stuff isn't something you find everywhere on BYOND.
Many of the things here aren't new or extraordinarily original, but everything is implemented into the game in such a way that makes it great.
Overall Originality Rating: 7/10
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In conclusion, Final Fantasy Online is a game that you must check out. It has excellence in every aspect of it. Though it still isn't perfect, it's a great game for any RPG fan that's looking for something new and refreshing on BYOND and hasn't playing this already. It's a game that keeps me coming back for more because of the gameplay and the community as a whole.
Overall Game Rating: 8/10
Great job, Gakumerasara. Keep up the good work.
Presentation:
I will start with the presentation of the game. I will go through quality of graphics, sounds, and the flaws that were found in each.
Graphics
The graphics used in this game were taken from the first Final Fantasy game for the NES, and possibly some tile icons were taken from one or two of the other Final Fantasy games for the NES. The graphics were doubled in size most likely to fit the byond movement system and collision more than for looks. Sadly I don't think that the oversized graphics look nice all of the time like that, but it certainly works out better that way overall. The hud interface which Gakumerasara put into the game is exceptional and very user friendly.
You will notice here that I drew in two arrows. A black and a white arrow. The black arrow shown is pointing to the hud inventory. You can click on either the equipment or the item tab(clearly distinguishable) to enter each section. At the top you can also view your spells and abilities which you can then drag to the bottom section(shown being pointed to with the white arrow. You can also drag equipment into the section in the middle of the hud inventory which shows a large picture of your character. Simply drag the weapon or armor item onto that section and your character will be equipped with it. An excellent system.
The white arrow section shows many things that I will point out. Starting from the top left, you'll see two boxes with swords in them and the word action in between them. The left box shows the action that you will perform when you click an mob around you, in this case attack. The right box's purpose is to click on so you can go into melee attack mode again. Next to those boxes is your gold count. You simply drag your mouse over it and it shows your gold amount in the bar at the bottom, a simple and ugly feature in my opinion, but it does save time. Everything else in those huds is fairly self explanatory by simply dragging your mouse over them and seeing the name.
Here is something I have to fuss about. You'll notice that you see the wall of the city there, then 16 pixels of ground, then blackness. This is a mapping error which I fuss about a lot. Even when it's dark, the darkness doesn't go over that piece of ground that you can see there, it's still perfectly bright.
Sound
The sound is very nice. Everywhere you go there is excellent music and every action you perform has a sound effect, a feature I long for in every game. According to the community, each continent has a different battle music when you encounter enemies. I have also noticed excellent dungeon music(some of it a little too powerful and loud for a dungeon, such as the wolf cave. That would have been better boss music than creepy cave music in my opinion).
Overall Presentation Rating: 7/10
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gameplay
Here I will explain the gameplay aspects of the game. I will go through Beginning, Fighting, Shopping, and Parties.
Begining
This shows the character selection screen. You start out by giving yourself a character and a name. The character you choose is a tough decision. If this is your first time, I suggest beginning the game as a Red Mage. They are very balanced with sword skills and magic skills. The other classes to choose from are Fighter, Black Belt, Theif, White Mage, and Black Mage, each class with their own unique abilities and strengths. This game is fairly well balanced in terms of character strengths. You can even customise your character to do things that the class wouldn't normally be able to do.
After you're finished making your character, you are told to talk to Silas and he explains everything you need to know very well(If you can find him. He walks randomly so sometimes he can be in the most remote places and other times he'll be right next to where you spawn.) There is no substitute for going out and fighting on your own though, so you need to do as he says, get some equipment from him, and kills some monsters!
Fighting
This shows me beating up monsters with my poison magic. Fighting is fairly simple. I remember my Dragon Quest 8 package saying on the back that it's easy to pick up and hard to master, and that is very true here. It takes some work to get used to the system completely and fight well with it, but once you have the game gets very exciting.
The way to choose an attack to do is simply to find it in your abilities tab and click on it. You can also drag the actions into your quick selection area at the bottom, another reason why the hud interface is very nice and user friendly. Once the action is set you click on an mob and you will automatically walk to the mob and attack it at the distance necessary. Speaking of walking as well, you do not normally walk using the arrow keys. If you do, you won't be for long. Clicking is the way to go here. If you are a Runescape player then you will feel very at home here with FFO's movement and click attack system.
Shopping
Shopping is very nice in this game and such a huge part that I dedicated an entire section to it. I'll start with shopping for abilities.
As you defeat enemies and use magic or skills, you gain experience points, nothing new, right? Well how these points are used is very nice in this game. Instead of automatically levelling up with your experience points, you get a choice. Go to these guys and Level up, or spend your experience points on your skills. In the picture I get the choice of raising my magic skills. As the skill increases, the strength of the magic or even the speed and precision of a sword and everything in between can be improved. You choose what to improve though. There is also a level cap for every level that you go up. You must wait each time for you to be able to level up again, this gives you the chance to spend your points on some skills, an excellent system which defines the gameplay of this game.
Next I will explain the true shop system.
Here is shown the weapon shop. You can see many weapons there, but not all of them are there automatically. No, most of them were deposited there by players. The looting system forces you to sell your weapons at the shop, because you have no use for them. When you sell them at the shop they are displayed for all to buy. After some time the item displayed at the topleft will be taken off the shelf and all of the items will move up by one slot. This keeps everything running and running smoothly. There is always something to buy and you never know if there is something new and great to buy that you've never seen before. It's a system that's been used many times before, but it works very well in this game.
Lastly, I will explain the blacksmith system.
You can see in the picture above that there are many things to do at the blacksmith. As you use weapons in the game, they begin to become damaged over time, armor as well when you are hit. You can tell that something is damaged because its color will change slightly. Usually the items you loot from monsters are damaged as well. Because of this, there is a repair option. You can repair one item at a time, or all of them by selecting the all option. Next you see the Upgrade option. With this, and some extra cash, you can upgrade any weapon or armor item that you have and make it something worth bragging about. Versions of weapons and armor range from worthless to perfect, and you can raise the equipment's stats by upgrading to a higher level. Even the simplest of equipment items can be great things with this option. Under that you see the option of Engrave. This is almost completely necessary to do to all of your items. An item that is engraved with your name will not be lost if you die. An engraved item will always be with you. Engraving items can come with a fairly large price though. It all depends on when you engrave it. If you engrave it when it's worthless, it'll cost less. If you engrave it when it's perfect, it'll obviously cost a lot more.
All of the shopping systems are very excellent.
Parties
This game has a very nice party system, though I don't see it as anything all that new, it's very useful for playing the game. In this you will join a party and each of you will see a health and mana bar next to your character's icon. This gives you the ability to monitor everyone's health which is very useful if you can heal. For every enemy that is killed, the experience goes to everyone and I don't believe it's shared. The gold that is found is equally distributed among the party members though. Getting in a party with other players is a great way to train, it's also fun to talk with them. I enjoy RPing on this game with other players, though it's not enforced to do so.
Overall Gameplay Rating: 9/10
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originality:
With all that I've said earlier, you can imagine that this game is very original, and I believe it really is. The fact that it's a fan game really is it's downfall in complete originality, but the game play offers something new and refreshing. The things you find here that you cannot find anywhere else are what keep me playing this game consistently. It fits action turn based fighting with real time fighting perfectly.
It adds in a great shop and experience system. It also adds in many great quests to do. It almost feels like much of the things in this game are modelled after Runescape. That's not a terribly bad thing, and perhaps I'm wrong there. Runscape ideas aren't new to the internet, but this stuff isn't something you find everywhere on BYOND.
Many of the things here aren't new or extraordinarily original, but everything is implemented into the game in such a way that makes it great.
Overall Originality Rating: 7/10
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In conclusion, Final Fantasy Online is a game that you must check out. It has excellence in every aspect of it. Though it still isn't perfect, it's a great game for any RPG fan that's looking for something new and refreshing on BYOND and hasn't playing this already. It's a game that keeps me coming back for more because of the gameplay and the community as a whole.
Overall Game Rating: 8/10
Great job, Gakumerasara. Keep up the good work.
Posted by Fugsnarf (Dungeon Master) on Tuesday, March 24, 2009 07:00PM
- 27 comments
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Keywords:
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(Edited by moderator on Sunday, March 29, 2009 02:00AM)
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#27 Tiberath:
Alhamdulillah wrote:
> This is a half-assed review. Lots of misinformation.
If the game was updated at all, it's natural that aspects of the game may change.
It's also possible the reviewer didn't understand an aspect of the game or documentation in the help file is misleading. Once again I state: There's nothing half assed about this.
Monday, October 26, 2009 07:04PM
#26 Fugsnarf:
Half-assed is one thing. Some incorrect information is another.
Monday, October 26, 2009 01:27PM
#25 Foomer:
If you want to talk about sucky reviews, you should see all the one-liners that get removed from the front page on a daily basis. As far as I'm concerned, if someone writes a review this long, include screenshots and wraps up the whole package with some proper formatting, then its a good review.
Whether its accurate or not and whether the author is any good at writing or not are all up for debate, but that doesn't make it a bad review.
Monday, October 26, 2009 01:00PM
#24 Alhamdulillah:
1) Numpad keys and mouse for movement are usually preference based and one is not usually used instead of the other, rather they are used together.
2) Speed is not affected by proffing.
3) That is not how shops work and it is quite the opposite. Most items in the shop are randomly generated. Shops cycle fairly quick, therefore items sold by players are not in the shop for very long.
Monday, October 26, 2009 11:41AM
#23 Fugsnarf:
Yeah, I wrote this awhile ago. I can't edit it. I did figure that out after I wrote this, but again, I can't edit it.
And don't say I half-assed it <_< I did work hard on it. There were some minor details that I didn't get right such as what you quoted there.
Sunday, October 25, 2009 02:36PM
#22 Alhamdulillah:
This is a half-assed review. Lots of misinformation. For example, quoting you:
"The left box shows the action that you will perform when you click an mob around you, in this case attack. The right box's purpose is to click on so you can go into melee attack mode again."
Wrong. The left box shows whatever action you prime to your left mouse button, the right box shows whatever action you prime to your right mouse button, whether it be melee attack, magic, a skill or using an item.
Sunday, October 25, 2009 02:34PM
#21 Quick Zero:
You basically became a victim to people that can't seem to be mature with the game. There seems to be a fad where people like to complain to Gaku in PM's or IM's about issues they have with the game (which is in-fact inspired ny more-often-than-not selfish needs/reason). What you may not realize is that through the course of your playing (I'm not sure when that was) a lot about the game has changed, mechanics involving domains and higher end skills. In the end, it all compiled into one final solution: wipe the game and even the playing field.
To be honest, Gaku was losing a lot of players because a lot of people liked to kill lower level players right as they left the safety of New Banian.
I know what you mean about losing your hard work, I didn't dedicate my life but I was one of the most powerful players on that game so the pwipe hurt me pretty bad too.
Give it another go is my suggestion. We're all on a more or less level playing field now, this is a good chance to get into the politics of the game (even if the people experienced in that area seem to prefer avoiding them) and see more of the game, if you didn't get to see it all before.
Thursday, June 04, 2009 08:35PM
#20 Fugsnarf:
I must say now that my love for this game has changed alot since I realized something.
The game is great, and everything I said up there is true. The problem is that Gakumerasara will pwipe just to pwipe. I asked him why he was pwiping and it didn't even sound like he had to, just wanted to start "fresh".
The idea behind this is kind of stupid, and it also caused him to lose me as a player. He is completely pwiping everyone, and no one is complaining about it. I heard one person say that they hadn't had a pwipe in such a long time.
I worked hard to get my character where it was. I did it in my spare time and I don't spend my life on that game. My dreams of ever reaching a high level were shattered because now I know that the game will pwipe everytime I get to where I was before.
Gakumerasara is pwiping because morons with absolutely no life are bored with their maxed out characters. Some pwipes are essential, and for that I could forgive it. But this is just stupid and pointless.
Saturday, May 30, 2009 11:43AM
#19 Flame Guardian:
Yeah, it was like a big thriller movie with one of those huge twists at the end. Except I don't fully understand the ending since my understanding of his grammar is low.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009 07:41PM
#18 Fugsnarf:
Thanks, Tib.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009 06:59PM
#17 Tiberath:
Well, now that delightful argument was resolved. I took the liberty of removing it from the comments of this post. No need to sully a good post with pointless bickering.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009 06:59PM
#16 Foomer:
There are free alternatives such as spellcheck.net as well.
Sunday, March 29, 2009 12:16PM
#15 Fugsnarf:
Thank you, Tib. I don't use Firefox so I don't really have a spell checker or anything. All I could do is look it over lots of times.
Sunday, March 29, 2009 10:17AM
#14 Tiberath:
Flame Guardian wrote:
> True. It's good to read over and spell check. Since some spell checks don't correct a phrase if it doesn't make any sense.
You didn't point out some of the more uncommon spelling mistakes. But I went through it with Firefox's spell checker and corrected the ones it highlighted, while ignoring the desire to put a 'u' in 'colour' and 'amour'.
Sunday, March 29, 2009 02:02AM
#13 Fugsnarf:
I certainly read it over, I'll tell you that. But apparently I overlooked some sutff.
Saturday, March 28, 2009 08:15PM
#12 Flame Guardian:
True. It's good to read over and spell check. Since some spell checks don't correct a phrase if it doesn't make any sense.
Saturday, March 28, 2009 07:12PM
#11 Foomer:
Which, when translated means: "Use a spellchecker."
Saturday, March 28, 2009 04:52PM
#10 Flame Guardian:
Just constructive criticism.. "This is a reivew..." first line. "Runscape", "bottem"x2, "explanitory", "equiped", "abilitys","Begining", "Theif", "smoothely", "expiernce", "moniter", "beleive", "memebers".. I'll just stop.
Friday, March 27, 2009 07:22PM
#9 Fugsnarf:
I read over it many many many times and got rid of every single error that I could find with my intelligence >_>
Friday, March 27, 2009 07:20PM
#8 Flame Guardian:
Not a bad review. I've seen a good amount of grammar errors, and somethings that didn't really need to be talked about. For example, the shop system is neat, but doesn't need to be elaborated and have it's own section. As well I don't think I see the connection between shopping, leveling up and forging since they're all placed in the same section.
And to answer your question Fugsnarf, I'm pretty sure BYOND RPG reviews don't get those bars for the way it was made. Overall, a decent review and I'll look forward to read some more! Good to see some new reviewers, but try to read it over or do a spell check for grammar errors to look more professional(start off at you're first line). :)
Friday, March 27, 2009 07:19PM