A Green Mushroom

I wanted to take a chance during this break between games to talk about strategy guides.  I've been using them a lot lately.  The JRPG genre in general tends to have more use for guides than other genres and Final Fantasy is no exception. I've used a strategy guide for four out of the five games I've played so far.  The game I did guide-less was FFIV.  I actively needed the guides for the other games. That's the sad part, guides are basically a necessity for so many of these games.  It's really easy to get stuck in the early Final Fantasy games.  There are sections where the only option would be to wander the world aimlessly searching for hours... or look at a strategy guide for five minutes.  I will almost always choose the guide at that point.  Not to mention how easy it can be to get stuck somewhere and not be able to go back.  In a few places it's a very real possibility that you can get stuck in an area that is too high level for you.  And if you saved

Final Fantasy V was ok.  I finished it, but I wasn't inspired enough to write about it while I was in the middle of playing.  That should probably tell you something about how I feel about the game.  It was fine.  It wasn't bad .  There is no single thing I can point to and say "I hated this."  But, overall, it simply didn't click with me. The story is perfectly serviceable.  It had semi-interesting characters, multiple worlds, Cid, Moogles, Chocobos, an airship, and an evil villain.  Exdeath, the big bad of this game, even had a more complicated plot than "destroy the world by destroying crystals."  Not much more complicated, but at least it's a step up from FFI, FFII, and FFIII.  The story was definitely better than those games.  My biggest problem with it is that it just isn't as good as FFIV.  It feels like a step back in terms of storytelling quality. Maybe that's my overall problem with FFV.  It's not as good as FFIV.  

I've been taking a break from Final Fantasy games to play through Bravely Default, a new release for 3DS.  I just finished it up in the last few days and wanted to get some thoughts out there. Honestly, this is the best Final Fantasy game that has been released since XII.  It's really funny that this isn't truly a Final Fantasy game.  I can definitely tell that it started out as one.  The job system, crystal story, items, and spells are all taken, almost directly, from Final Fantasy.  It started out as a sequel to Final Fantasy Four Warriors of Light but at some point in development it got to break away and become it's own brand.  Maybe that's why it's so good, because it doesn't have the weight of the Final Fantasy name on it's shoulders. I love, Luxendarc, the world of Bravely Default.  Everything from the art direction to the music is top notch.  My god, the music!  I haven't enjoyed a game soundtrack this much since I played Final Fantasy X.