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chuckroI had replayed a chunk of FF:MQ last year, but the rom ended up being corrupted and I couldn’t finish the game. I had plenty of comments anyway. I discovered a cool randomizer for the game and decided to try that out for a replay.
The randomizer itself: I love the ability to scale enemy stats, enemy density (that is, how many battles you have to fight), and XP/gold multipliers; basically, you get to set your own difficulty, and that always works for me. I went with pretty much their default settings, which include “friendly” logic in item placement (that prevents having to revisit dungeons) and rearranging with items are in which red chests, NPCs or battlefield locations.
This cuts out most of the cutscene stuff and changes the dialogue it keeps to terse, goofy summaries and one-liners. It also reduces the number of fights in each battlefield (to 1-5, rather than always 10) and “tweaks” several of the dungeons to make them less annoying. You can go anywhere on the world map as soon as you can access that area (generally via the coin doors in Doom Tower) and you can recruit the partners in their usual spots regardless of what plot you’ve done or who else you have with you.
I did the game mostly in order, where I could. I actually picked up the Doom Tower coins very early, which meant I could have gone more out of order than I did. I started with bombs and got a claw almost immediately, got the Earth Crystal, did everything in the water area except the Pyramid; but was in Fireburg when I finally got an axe (and the Tree Wither) and was able to go back and complete the first forest. I couldn’t do the Pyramid for a long time because I still didn’t have a sword when I went to the giant tree in the wind area. (And then finally found the first sword in the forest outside the tree, allowing me to complete the tree itself.) I never found the Cure book or the third axe; checking the spoiler file after I finished showed I missed a chest in the Lava Dome and I missed an event in Windia where Kaeli was supposed to give me the upgraded axe.
I think, because I didn’t have the exact plot triggers and maps in my head, I was flying more blind than the average person who’d play a randomized game. Like, when I play randomized Link to the Past, I know exactly where to go with any pathfinding item. In this case, I didn’t remember where to use the Thunder Rock or which chest the Venus Key opened until I wandered to them. The game is small enough that it’s not that big a deal—it’s easy to do a fairly thorough search—but I found that interesting.
Overall: This was a pretty great randomizer and it game me a seed that allowed for a three-hour speed-replay of the game, which was ideal. I might do it again sometime.
The randomizer itself: I love the ability to scale enemy stats, enemy density (that is, how many battles you have to fight), and XP/gold multipliers; basically, you get to set your own difficulty, and that always works for me. I went with pretty much their default settings, which include “friendly” logic in item placement (that prevents having to revisit dungeons) and rearranging with items are in which red chests, NPCs or battlefield locations.
This cuts out most of the cutscene stuff and changes the dialogue it keeps to terse, goofy summaries and one-liners. It also reduces the number of fights in each battlefield (to 1-5, rather than always 10) and “tweaks” several of the dungeons to make them less annoying. You can go anywhere on the world map as soon as you can access that area (generally via the coin doors in Doom Tower) and you can recruit the partners in their usual spots regardless of what plot you’ve done or who else you have with you.
I did the game mostly in order, where I could. I actually picked up the Doom Tower coins very early, which meant I could have gone more out of order than I did. I started with bombs and got a claw almost immediately, got the Earth Crystal, did everything in the water area except the Pyramid; but was in Fireburg when I finally got an axe (and the Tree Wither) and was able to go back and complete the first forest. I couldn’t do the Pyramid for a long time because I still didn’t have a sword when I went to the giant tree in the wind area. (And then finally found the first sword in the forest outside the tree, allowing me to complete the tree itself.) I never found the Cure book or the third axe; checking the spoiler file after I finished showed I missed a chest in the Lava Dome and I missed an event in Windia where Kaeli was supposed to give me the upgraded axe.
I think, because I didn’t have the exact plot triggers and maps in my head, I was flying more blind than the average person who’d play a randomized game. Like, when I play randomized Link to the Past, I know exactly where to go with any pathfinding item. In this case, I didn’t remember where to use the Thunder Rock or which chest the Venus Key opened until I wandered to them. The game is small enough that it’s not that big a deal—it’s easy to do a fairly thorough search—but I found that interesting.
Overall: This was a pretty great randomizer and it game me a seed that allowed for a three-hour speed-replay of the game, which was ideal. I might do it again sometime.
