Not neuroses

[davidn]

The new Windows 7 effect of windows fading out and falling slightly away from you puts a whole new spin on sending emails from Outlook. Now, when you hit the Send button, you get a direct visual representation of the message tumbling out of your grasp and through the unknown ether, knowing that you're powerless to get it back if you've accidentally sent everyone a personal note or copy and pasted in an observation that your client wears silly shoes.

But that's not what I wanted to talk about - though this might be more a question for the people who read this on LJ rather than anywhere else. I just remembered that in the PS Final Fantasy games (which were, of course, the first encounter with the series that I had), where your movement on the playfield was periodically interrupted by random battles with completely invisible enemies, I subconsciously developed a habit to try to avoid them. Instead of just running to where I was aiming for, I would always run a short distance for about a second, then let go of the direction to pause for a tiny amount of time, then start again, inserting little pauses between bursts of movement. I remember I read a speed FAQ for FF9 (where you got a special award for completing the game in under twelve hours) that recommended this out of nowhere, which makes me think that I wasn't alone - is this a habit that other people also got into?

I'm not sure whether it actually had any effect on the game, or whether it was an illusion born from taking slightly more time to move anywhere, therefore making the gaps between the battles seem longer. I know that as soon as I took advantage of snapshot saves in FF6 and found that the time to the next battle was a predetermined number of steps from the last one, I stopped bothering with it for that game immediately.

Comments

[xaq.livejournal.com]

As far as Final Fantasy 7 goes, my strategy for handling random encounters once I got onto the world map was simply "get Matra Magic as soon as possible and then blow everything up with it until Blade Beam is acquired...then use both."

Didn't hurt that the site of a missile barrage coming out of Red XIII (whom I always gave the Enemy Skill Materia to) looks awesome.

[lupineangel.livejournal.com]

As I recall, with FF9, the encounter rate varied depending on whether you were running in straight lines (and thus, knew where you wanted to get to, in which case it dropped) or doodling around in circles (and thus presumably grinding levels, wherein it increased). I don't remember stopping and starting ever having an effect, but I never tried it myself, so it's possible.

Also, as someone who got suckered into buying the guide for FF9, only to find that I'd bought an advert for a website that never worked, I never found out what the special thing you were supposed to get was. I think I've heard somewhere it's supposed to be Steiner's ultimate weapon, or something, but I've never seen it in action. :(

D.F.

[xaq.livejournal.com]

That's precisely what it was. If you could get past the Lich, in the final dungeon, in under 12 hours, you could find Excalibur II, Stein's ultimate weapon...leaning against a pillar like it's nothing.

Personally, I'd just plug in the ol' Game Shark, snatch that sucker up right at the beginning, not equip it until the final dungeon for fairness' sake, and let myself actually enjoy the darned game. The closest I'll do to a speed run in an RPG is starting my party out at max level and just laying a path of destruction in my wake, but I'm not gonna skimp on the details that actually make a game and the world within it interesting for anything less than a special ending, and even then, that'll be on the 2nd playthrough.

[rakarr.livejournal.com]

I don't mind the idea of doing a speed run, especially if I've already experienced a game at my own pace, but I do agree that it's a bit ridiculous to put such a tight one in a lengthy RPG. An important thing about speed runs is that if you just don't make it you can start again and not lose too much time, but if you miss the Excalibur 2 by about three minutes...
And doesn't it also just about require manipulating your Playstation to skip the FMV sequences? Rather than just, I don't know, provide an in-game skip function... or better yet, only count your time spent actually playing rather than viewing story events.

Besides, the idea of not being able to go back, from that point, to do all the things you missed makes the completionist in me very unhappy. I understand and even appreciate when games employ a choice system whereby you can't do everything and have to make tough decision, but it seems that the primary point of getting that sword is for the sake of completion.

[davidn]

Yes, the guide that I looked at (the same one as mentioned above) mentioned "[FMV skip]" every time one came up - open the lid of the Playstation and immediately close it again, to confuse the machine into thinking the video had finished. I'm not sure if it was really necessary...

The pointlessness of getting an ultimate weapon at the very end of a rushed game in which you're underpowered and can't even go back to use it is not lost on me, but I was interested that it was even there, as a special challenge - playing an extremely long game as fast as possible, all the way through, within what seems like an impossible limit.

[davidn]

That's a fascinating thing about the encounter rate in Final Fantasy 9, if it's the truth (which is something that I remember the guide wasn't really keen on). I wonder if my own habit fooled it somehow and ended up with me only moving in very small straight lines.

Actually I've never seen the fabled guide, just heard of its reputation of uselessness...

[rakarr.livejournal.com]

I just tried to take the shortest routes everywhere, and in Final Fantasy VIII I abused the heck out of Enc-None.
I think I did the same as you a couple of times, though - waited around in one place for a little while as though to "shake off" the random encounter rate. It didn't really seem to work so I gave up on it. But now I'm rather forcefully reminded of all my early attempts to avoid the Midgar Zolom in Final Fantasy VII.
Actually, I used to find the whole random-battle thing very oppressive, and many's the time I would avoid exploring out of my way - but these days I'm almost obsessive about exploring a whole dungeon or nooks and crannies on the overworld.