Let's be clear, I honestly don't know what the proper ending is.  I got to chapter eight, but by then I was just totally exhausted by it and did you know what to move things along.  But yes, two more times to get a different ending to me, although after I was done the game dumps you back (with a new item) to before those events so you can go for both endings in the same game.  I may do that...one day.

Have you tried any of the job bosses in these later chapters?  Later chapters start grouping them together. I had to fight four of them at once (chapter 8 maybe?) at one point.  That was fun.

Definitely just go for it.  It stretches its final premise so thin you'll actually end up hating the game and yeah, the story's bobbins, so who really cares anyway.

I'm still oblivious to the dubious bit still to come. 48 hours in and only on Chapter 4. Not sure what the hell I've been doing tbh. I wait with bated breath.

Really enjoyed my time with this after zelda, glad i left it and came back. Now 55 hours in, and got to chapter 5 in this last night...

Wow. Just wow. I mean... Its like the end of ghosts and fucking goblins!

Still, am kinda enjoying it all enough to do all the subs again this chapter. Whats the difference between 'maining the endgame' and doing the subs as well each time? Does it affect the 'true' ending?

That's not a bad thing. FF6 was out before FF7 and I think it was the better game. In fact, I would possibly rate Mana and Chrono Trigger and (definitely) Terranigma above FF7.

hylian_elf wrote:

That's not a bad thing. FF6 was out before FF7 and I think it was the better game. In fact, I would possibly rate Mana and Chrono Trigger and (definitely) Terranigma above FF7.

I'm one of the people whose first jrpg was FF7 back when it released. Got damn near everything in it too. I loved the story, managed to understand it all quite clearly despite the questionable translation, and the materia system was really easy to understand (FFIX crystals probably outdo it for mine).

I agree Chrono Trigger was the better game (than VII), which I only played in 2009 when it reached PAL for the first time on DS. Haven't yet played FFVI beyond the intro (wii VC version). I have Terranigma complete in a box for SNES.

So far Bravely Default feels like FFIX in terms of atmosphere. It looks like my memory of that SaGa game (Frontier?) on PS1 which I played briefly.

I absolutely love the zooming camera when you sit idle in an area. The town levelling business looks like it might be digital crack mark 2 (after Fire Emblem last year).

hylian_elf wrote:

That's not a bad thing. FF6 was out before FF7 and I think it was the better game. In fact, I would possibly rate Mana and Chrono Trigger and (definitely) Terranigma above FF7.

Also yeah, not a bad thing at all. It was more a comment that it feels like a game that came out before the CGI cinematic drivers became a big factor in jrpgs in the late 1990s. Quaint might be one way to put it, without being patronising.

US FF2 is FF4.

Thanks for the tips. So far I have started off on the village as much as I can, but with only 8 villagers so far its slow progress. Ive got the first 3-4 buildings up to Lv3 for now, and chipping away at a boulder.

I guess this is like Dungeon Keeper without the nonsense.

Getting freebies from the town shops should help with that in the long run.

@Vela the encounter rate slide in the game is awesome & a fantastic feature.  Every time I hit a new town, banged it up to max & speed grinded for 30-60mins.

@Rets looking at your list, this might not be your cup of tea.

Need to finish this, the story took the wind out of my sails when I was crash playing this & I burned out.  Might go back over the weekend.

12 hours down. Encounter rate at 200%. Temple of wind.

SO. MUCH. JP.

200% encounter rate would do that.

Turned off encounter rate entirely (after maxing level on all the jobs I liked and getting all the vampire genomes), completed chapter 5 fully, now onto 6! Then 7...8... That's it, right? It's like final fantasy mixed with animal crossing, instead of visiting my villagers to invite them over or serve coffee, I'm just fucking slashing them to pieces everyday in the same place with different dialogue.  Maybe that's how I'm enjoying this??

Yeah, I've been horribly ill the last few days and been grinding and just beating all the subs on chapters 5-7. Really enjoying it, weirdly. 

Maxed nearly every job across all 4 characters, all level 99, all vampire genomes absorbed, and every side mission and boss done till now. Don't know about chapter 8, bit hesitant to now do 4 bosses at once. Might just do the crystals. Don't think it's worth it to just get 4 ninjas and transience them to death... Rather dull!

Also, fully leveled monk + natural ability seems broken...

About 75 hours-ish? Job points I wouldn't start grinding till chapter 4 earliest, but chapter 5 is where its at though. Good to find a place where large groups of enemies form (like forests etc), get a Valkyrie + crescent moon x2, and attack x4 on everyone else. Then just auto, and set speed and encounter rate up full.

Took me 2 hours to get from level 70 to 99 in one area in chapter 5, though, and could get a job fully levelled in minutes, so I'd just wait till later on to do the real grinding. I breezed through the early chapters with a thief and angel bow from Norende. The equipment from Norende restoration is very OP early on. I also never bothered with black mage, dunno why but found them not very useful.