So, I finally finished the mod that I was gushing on about a week ago. It was a...different experience than what I am used to.
That isn't to say it was bad, just not what I was hoping for after the early parts of the game.
That isn't to say it was bad, just not what I was hoping for after the early parts of the game.
The first thing that goes right out of the window after getting your hands on magicite is game balance. There is simply no comparing Terra and Celes to the rest of the cast. Couple them with Cyan for his improved Sword Tech and Gau for rages, and well, there isn't much that can beat you.
The linear nature of the World of Balance doesn't really lend itself to much team tinkering. Most of the time, you are required to have certain people in your party, and that kinds of puts a damper on things. Unfortunately, by the time the game opens up for team selection, you've already invested heavily in a few characters.
The hard level cap of 50 (55 for Mog if you manage to hit 50 before recruiting him, somehow) means you aren't spending as much time grinding as you used to. The separate level bonus mechanic for Espers is pretty awesome too. It means you can build levels freely in the WoB before getting your Espers and not miss out on the level bonuses. In the vanilla version, you needed to keep your levels low for the bonuses to be worth anything.
Problematically, I often found myself relying on the same team over and over again. That isn't because the mod itself is poorly done, but because there are 14 characters in this game. That's way too many to realistically give everyone a shot at contributing. There are those moments of artificially creating that requirement, like the final dungeon and the Fenix Cave where you need three groups to progress. But, you can easily put two people in a group and max out at developing six characters while still finding success.
This is a solid mod, and it was nice to rehab the games value after 20 years, but it also manages to expose a few glaring weaknesses in the games overall design as a whole, and while it fixes some, it only manages to enhance others.
Pick it up if only for the chance to see the game differently, but don't go in expecting this to be anything more than Final Fantasy 6 with a few tweaks and a difficulty overhaul. If I had to put a number on it, out of 5, it would be a 4, but only because of the mechanical and script changes. The artificial difficulty is tedious, and I don't have the free time necessary to really sit around and slog through all the game has to offer. Though that is true of all JRPG's after you manage to leave college behind.
See you folks next time.
The linear nature of the World of Balance doesn't really lend itself to much team tinkering. Most of the time, you are required to have certain people in your party, and that kinds of puts a damper on things. Unfortunately, by the time the game opens up for team selection, you've already invested heavily in a few characters.
The hard level cap of 50 (55 for Mog if you manage to hit 50 before recruiting him, somehow) means you aren't spending as much time grinding as you used to. The separate level bonus mechanic for Espers is pretty awesome too. It means you can build levels freely in the WoB before getting your Espers and not miss out on the level bonuses. In the vanilla version, you needed to keep your levels low for the bonuses to be worth anything.
Problematically, I often found myself relying on the same team over and over again. That isn't because the mod itself is poorly done, but because there are 14 characters in this game. That's way too many to realistically give everyone a shot at contributing. There are those moments of artificially creating that requirement, like the final dungeon and the Fenix Cave where you need three groups to progress. But, you can easily put two people in a group and max out at developing six characters while still finding success.
This is a solid mod, and it was nice to rehab the games value after 20 years, but it also manages to expose a few glaring weaknesses in the games overall design as a whole, and while it fixes some, it only manages to enhance others.
Pick it up if only for the chance to see the game differently, but don't go in expecting this to be anything more than Final Fantasy 6 with a few tweaks and a difficulty overhaul. If I had to put a number on it, out of 5, it would be a 4, but only because of the mechanical and script changes. The artificial difficulty is tedious, and I don't have the free time necessary to really sit around and slog through all the game has to offer. Though that is true of all JRPG's after you manage to leave college behind.
See you folks next time.