A World of Real Emotion
Sunday September 25, 2011
Yesterday I completed Final Fantasy X after spending 141 hours on it. I defeated Penance and Nemesis, maxed almost all my stats and got all the Celestial Weapons, Crests and Sigils (I hate you, Chocobo Races). The ending was still as poignant and emotional as it was when I played FFX 10 years ago.
My strategy for Penance:
- I used Yuna, Kimahri and Rikku. Using Yuna was a mistake because Nirvana deals damage based on her MP and Penance's Immolation attack does heavy MP damage. I should have used someone with Counter Attack, like Auron.
- Rikku and Yuna had Dispel and Quick Pockets, Rikku and Kimahri had Use. All three had Quick Hit.
- Everyone had max stats except for Luck, and HP above 50000. Luck was at 89.
- Yuna's armour had Break HP Limit, Auto Haste, Auto Protect and Ribbon. Kimahri and Rikku had Break HP Limit, Auto Haste, Auto Protect and Auto Potion.
- When the battle started, Rikku Mixed Ultra NulAll, which additionally provides the effect of five Cheers, reducing physical damage from Obliteration. The next turn, she used Three Stars to reduce the party's MP cost to zero. All this time, Kimahri and Yuna Quick Hit the arms to prevent them from attacking. During the entire battle, the only time the arms got to attack was once when the Left Arm cast Slowga, which Auto Haste protects against.
- When my HP got low, Rikku's Overdrive (Comrade mode) had already recharged, so I Mixed Trio of 9999, which lets Potions heal for 9999. I Quick Pocket some Mega Potions with Yuna and get Rikku to use a Stamina Tonic to boost the party's HP to 99999.
- While there are no arms, I attacked the main body. After three million HP, Penance loses its tail and gains Haste which I dispelled using a Purifying Salt.
- In its new form, Penance uses Immolation which deals around 7000 damage with Ultra NulAll and Protect, but also causes Full Break and 999MP damage. I got Yuna to cast Dispel on the affected character and continue Quick Hitting the arms or the body as necessary.
- When Rikku and Kimahri dropped below 50000 HP, Auto Potion triggered for 9999 HP recovery, meaning Immolation can never kill them as long as Full Break is dispelled.
- When Yuna drops below 50000 HP, I get her to Quick Pocket some Potions or Mega Potions to heal the whole party. Occasionally I give her a Turbo Ether so she can cause 99999 damage with Quick Hit, but generally you can just keep her hitting the arms.
- Immolation triggers Kimahri's Counter Attack, so I get a free 99999 damage every so often.
- Eventually after a total of 12 million HP damage, you get this:
Anyway, I managed to catch the All Blacks vs France game as well. Fantastic game, though a bit of a nervous start. Congratulations to Richie McCaw on his 100th game for the All Blacks, and hopefully he can lead us to victory.
We better bloody win.
And finally, today I went to see the Lion King in 3D. The 3D was not intrusive or overly noticeable at times, which was great, but more importantly, all the things which makes the Lion King so awesome remained intact. The magnificent score, the songs, the humour, the dialogue... amazing. Brought a tear to my eye :P
So now that FFX is done and dusted... I guess it's time to get my X-2 on. What can I do for you!?
Posted by Jeremy at 1:07am on Sunday September 25, 2011 :: 2 comments :: 
Rugby World Cup
Friday September 9, 2011
So yeah, okay, blog post mentioning the World Cup. My wall on Facebook is filled with RWC-related hate and excitement, and it was abuzz about it even before the opening ceremony had started. I saw bits of the fireworks on television last night - they looked really amazing and I wish I was there to see it live. I did, however, catch the game against Tonga and luckily, started watching just before the hakas began. I've never seen the country this patriotic before, and you can definitely feel the hype in the air as you walk through town. I think the atmosphere will be amazing if we win - and I really hope we do.
In slightly related news, Sidhe's Rugby Challenge game hit the stores a few weeks ago and we've topped the New Zealand games charts. I wasn't on the development team for it, but I did make this nifty database exporter tool that they used. Yay. We had a launch party celebrating its release last week, with many of my ex-colleagues turning up for what was a fantastic night, and on Thursday, we got our own Rugby Challenge t-shirts. The Latin phrase "durum candidumque domi ludit" is written on the front, and it means "playing hard and fair at home".
Work has been tough for me lately. I spent a few late nights last week trying to wrap up some features and bugs. The end is in sight though, and I think we can make next Friday's deadline, though it depends on whether the company that we're doing this for can get their act together and deliver the final bits of information to us. The game will be our first social game on iOS and I'll be the first to let you know when you can download it.
Badminton time!
Posted by Jeremy at 9:00pm on Friday September 9, 2011 :: 0 comments ::