Blue Dragon - Completed. Final time 38 hours or so, final level 45... generally everyone was around Level 30 in one class and 15-20 in two more, though it varied.
The final dungeon's major bosses (eye laser dinosaur, pyro dragon, giant robot, finals) were extremely challenging! I definitely had to make good use of my various classes/skills and the charging-attacks systems which are core to the gameplay. This was pretty much exactly what I was hoping for when I decided not to do any sidequests. Challenge-wise, the game starts off terrible for randoms and okay for bosses, but the bosses get worse over time, as most of the ones on disc 2 and all the ones on disc 3 before the final dungeon are terrible. Personally this makes it very hard for me to enjoy a game which I'm definitely playing for gameplay and not plot, so I went straight into the final dungeon, and yeah, generally had a great time. The final dungeon is about 7 hours long which is nearly a fifth of the game, and not only has the aforemntioned good bosses, but also some solid randoms which actually required me to form strategies for the best way to deal with them! So good. I really can't stress enough how this is the most enjoyable part of the game.
I've mostly talked about the gameplay already. The system is good, and pretty much remains so throughout. Only nine classes, but really, it's more than enough; I think Blue Dragon and FF13 have proved to me that games going for 20+ doesn't really add much; it's closer to clutter if anything. I appreciated that the manual included what all the skills were so I could form plans without consulting the internet. Class balance could be better just because Black Magic is stupid for most of the game (and still great at the end) but isn't terrible, most classes have a use certainly. The game strikes a pretty nice balance between levelling up in a class for stats and levelling up in different classes for their awesome skills (and Generalist levels let you expand your skill slots in a nice way). Good stuff.
Character/plot stuff is of course less good. Shu was a pretty unlikable main at best, not really the most endearing of the "idiot main" trope and I rarely adore those anyway. The Suicide Counseller Shu scene which I've already ranted about firmly cements him as my least favourite talking main character since the last Xenosaga game I played, though. Marumaro is the other obvious offender, just rather loud and annyoing most of the time. Better than Shu because he's ultimately harmless and the Zola crush is cute. Jiro and Kluke are both pretty dull overall (Jiro is "the smart one" but isn't really that smart anyway, Kluke is pretty bland outside the love triangle silliness which is kinda funny). Zola's the best of the PC cast and this owes entirely to the last half hour of the game where they do some neat things with her. Would have been hilarious if she were the final boss! Well, even before then, she facepalms and Shu's ability to do stupid things and dive into trouble, and I approve of that too.
Of course, Nene is the highlight. Basically, Nene's only real motivation is to see people suffer because it is funny. This guy has immense magical power even before completing his Xanatos Gambit (which incidentally is pretty cool), commands literally thousands of combat robots and multiple mobile battle fortresses. He could kill or enslave millions of people whenever he felt like it. Instead he chooses to:
-annually send in a "land shark" to destroy houses of a village randomly once a year
-sends tsunamis at the world's largest city... which sounds boring until you realise that the tsunamis come from giant cubes of water which he has float in the sky for a week before crashing into a tsunami just to taunt the citizens.
-encase one particular town inside a magical forcefield, then give the townsfolk a controller that will let them take down the barrier... and then bury that in an underground factory just below the town guarded by killer robots.
-plant a tree that eats people in a town square, have it eat about four people per year, and plant other killer trees to lock people in this town
-afflict a town with a magical storm that freezes them, still sentient but immobile, should they ever step outside, and lets them know about this.
This isn't even going into the ways in which he trolls the party specifically which are also masterful. However, his trolling of the party serves a purpose. What he does to the rest of the world, though... there is no rational gain for him to do any of it, he doesn't extort or expect anything from the citizens of the world. He just has too much time on his hands. For a fluffy game like this, definitely my type of villain.
*spoilers I guess*
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I have decided that the game's plot makes more sense if the entire third disc is Shu's fever dream as he lays dying after being crushed underneath Nene's mech at the end of disc 2. I mean, let's review what happens after this:
-Shu somehow gets his magical powers back for a flimsy reason!
-Shu teleports himself and his entire team to a random location.
-Trees that eat people.
-Entire rest of party also regains powers for flimsy reasons.
-World gets sawed in half.
-Robotic dinosaur with eye lasers.
-Parakeet-type thing turns into giant super-weapon.
Uh huh. You must admit, my theory makes more sense than what actually happened!
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Visually the game looks nice enough despite the limits of choosing Toriyama as your character designer (nice monster/robot designs as always). The world map in particular looks very nice indeed. Musically the game is excellent, I definitely dug the 70's/80's rock influence evident in the soundtrack. Eternity is obvious but most of the mechanical dungeons and the final bosses stand out as also having good music.
I think the game ends up as a 6/10. It felt headed downhill but then the final dungeon comes along and saves it, totally justifying that good class system. So in the end, we have an excellent class system, some weak writing, and a game that is generally fluffy but quite polished and enjoyable enough otherwise. Pacing could be better, but it also wasn't as bad as I feared.
Class notes...
Swordmaster: Once I realised that Charged Attack worked with this it certainly got a fair bit better! Tends to be a little unimpressive without weaknesses to hit, but good when it can hit those. Mow Down's nice too. Not as powerful as Black Magic due to the much more limited multitarget and a bit less damage, but still good.
Black Mage: Obviously the overall best, smashes things in the face. Great damage of all varieties: ST, MT, GT. Elements helped more than hindered until the final dungeon, and even then, very little really walled the entire set (just one particularly memorable enemy I think). Smashy smashy. Also had Extracta and Regenerate MP, which meant you had infinite MP even without hurting your pocketbook.
White Mage: Also awesome, the Zephyr spells are great multitarget healing, as is the option of Double Item. Shina even lets it get in on the attack magic fun, and regen's a decent buff.
Monk: Charges so it can punch things. Attack Amp is also great, although forcing charging makes it situational. Good attack and Battle Essence lets you spread that to other classes, too, and has the counter skills... probably the best physical class overall?
Assassin: Long Range and Double Attack are both great investments for a physical setup, though a bit late and physical setups are more complicated/weaker as already mentioned. However, everyone loves Ninja Swiftness. Speed for everyone!
Guardian: Generally felt like the least useful class because enemies until the final dungeon didn't have the offence to make it feel worthwhile. Such is the nature of tanks. By the final dungeon, class levels for stats were a bit too important so I couldn't change my mind and start putting it to great use. Oh well, Max HP+25% is obviously a great skill and doesn't even need that large of an investment.
Barrier Mage: Apart from some grinding purposes, it's not great, although Shielda and Shella (mostly the former) were nice against the endgame bosses who didn't get too dispel-happy (looking at you, Ultimate S.).
Support Mage: Good stats overall, Quicka is great, Attack/Max HP buffs were also nice, Slow destroyed bosses until they started immuning it late disc 1. Doesn't provide much for randoms but Quicka is so important for the final bosses.
For my own builds... everyone had up to Black level 4 because it's so good at mowing through randoms for most of the game (and Extracta's nice). Everyone had their default job as their highest-level. Otherwise, Shu was Swordmaster with some Black/Monk/Guardian. Jiro was White Mage with some Black/Barrier/Assassin. Kluke was Black Mage with some Support/Assassin. Maru was a Monk with a fair bit of White/Black. Zola was Assassin with Black/Monk.
FF4: TAY and an FFX replay are now my focuses.
