NEWBLACK'S PROFILE

How about a good looking game that plays well. Why are they always, or at least often talked about as if they're mutually exclusive?

All you need is one left-brainer and one right-brainer and you're good.. Or just to spend some more time and thought in the area in which you're not so hot.

^Nice "review" there. Ever considered posting these videos into reviews and sumbitting them for each game?

Maybe with a little additional text.

This is to let you know that I read this.

In the original game I thought Dison was pretty useful initially but eventually phased him out.

I have a pretty big suggestion for you but it might create a huge case of scope creep (unless you're already planning this).. And that is to deliberately embellish. change and complicate the "story" (I put it in quotes because I don't mean actually changing the plot.. but changing the performance, what actually happens with the characters and situations between the opening and the resolution) in order to force unique and interesting tactical situations so all this battle system wizardry gets implemented and showcased whilst being connected in some way to the events unfolding in the drama of the storyline.

Bad examples would include something like... The party gets divided into two, perhaps one half of the party (or even just one character) can meet a new character who makes an area that's near-impossible with that half of the party into one that's doable ("We're gonna have to work together to get out of this one") cliche and then you're left with a battle arrangement that creates new tactical possibilities. The other half of the party is left with sub-optimal combinations of characters and they have to try new tactics to make things work.

Obviously to make these sort of situations viable you'd have to change the play of the storyline and have more things actually happen to the characters and the setting(s) (which could clash with the 10 day free-roaming system).

You could even put in-battle text to hint at suggestions for tactical combinations.

I know what I'm getting at, but it's hard to convey. Remember in FF4 when the magnetic field in the cavern prevented you from using any metal weapons? Or the anti-magic field in FF5 (I think at least). Things like that.. But better and less straightforward.

It'd be a shame to plan all this out but then give the player the choice to just get used to and stick with one party and is never forced to get creative with what you've painstakingly implemented.

For some reason this caused a tonne of slowdown on my PC (and it's not even that bad a PC :P). I think it was the animating overlays?

So once the game actually got started I couldn't really do much :/ Sounded pretty interesting too.