Author Topic: Final Fantasy Dimensions II  (Read 3457 times)

Boo the Gentleman Caller

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Final Fantasy Dimensions II
« on: May 08, 2018, 11:24:38 pm »
Hi all,

Since we've heard that elements of Final Fantasy Dimensions II are potentially unrealized aspects of Chrono Break (well, at least Takashi Tokita's version of Chrono Break), I've bit the bullet and bought the game. I'll be playing through it slowly over the next few months and bringing tidbits back to this thread for discussion and analysis.

Just wanted to get the ball rolling.

EDIT: I'm restarting this effort because I love ya'll and we all want to see what the story really looks like on this game, especially now that we all know it's a version of the Chrono Break story-that-was. I'm going to go back through and edit some posts to make them more user friendly, and I'll include a few screenshots here and there.
« Last Edit: December 17, 2023, 07:21:11 pm by Boo the Gentleman Caller »

Acacia Sgt

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Re: Final Fantasy Dimensions II
« Reply #1 on: May 08, 2018, 11:30:54 pm »
Oh, I'd certainly want to know more about that.

FaustWolf

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Re: Final Fantasy Dimensions II
« Reply #2 on: May 08, 2018, 11:57:58 pm »
Looking forward to it! It'll be interesting to parse out potential plot threads Chrono Break might have had.

Boo the Gentleman Caller

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Re: Final Fantasy Dimensions II
« Reply #3 on: May 09, 2018, 12:21:28 am »
Alright...

So the game kicks off with this intro / theme song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oDP6y9E90Q.

PROLOGUE:

Square Enix Presents:



Morrow awakens in a desolate landscape that looks like it could easily be Chrono Trigger's destroyed future of 2300AD: barren earth, the skeletal remains of trees (or what could be buildings) are in the background, all below crimson red skies. Dust and wind batters the kneeling Morrow, who clearly has no idea where he is. Morrow has messy brown hair and wears a blue flight jacket with a red handkerchief, and he has a metal shoulder/arm guard.



Morrow looks like this: https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Morrow

Morrow: ... Where am I...?

There is a ROAR from afar; the screen SHAKES.

Morrow: That's right! I have to stop him!

Morrow draws his sword, which looks sort of like a cousin to the Masamune. It is a broadsword with a winged hilt made of gold, adorned with a single red stone.

He then engages our intro battle against a flying Red Dragon; the tutorial begins. A moogle NPC, Dr. Moogle, welcomes us and offers his assistance in helping us learn and navigate the game mechanics.

Quote
Gameplay Sidebar: Battle is turn-based with options for Attack, Ability, and Summon. Abilities and Summon options are unavailable in the tutorial, which is against said Red Dragon LV48. Turn order is displayed on the left side of the screen and shows who is up for the following 8 turns. Morrow starts with 3160HP and 698MP (is this an event in the future?!). After learning how to do a normal Attack, the Dr. Moogle opens up the Abilities option, allowing for Firaga Breath III, Thundaga Breath III, Phantom Rush III, and Evil Eye III.



Using Phantom Rush III out of the gate, Morrow rushes towards the Red Dragon and circles him doing multiple attacks, similar to Crono's Confuse attack. It hits for 8 individual attacks and defeats the dragon.

Quote
Gameplay Sidebar: Dr. Moogle informs me that MP is refilled after EVERY battle.

Despite having defeated the Red Dragon, it is still flying before me. A blonde, glasses-wearing, spear-wielding ally runs up beside me.

????: Don't be ridiculous, Morrow!

Morrow: Wrieg! You came!

The blonde hero, Wrieg, automatically uses his Jump I command and destroys the dragon.

Wrieg looks like this: http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Wrieg

Wave 1 of 4 is completed and we move on to Wave 2, where we come across another iconic Final Fantasy enemy: a horned, purple-haired beast known as a Behemoth.

Quote
Gameplay Sidebar: Dr. Moogle comes back to teach me how to use the Summon command: it uses both HP and MP. As characters perform actions, a summon gauge fills up for up to three summon points; each character has four summons available, each represented by an icon of the summon entity and named with their attack. These summon entities are those also normally found in the Final Fantasy series (i.e. Siren, Omega, Leviathan, etc.) Morrow has summon options for Wave Cannon, Dark Messenger, Eyes on Me, and Black Sky.

Regardless of if the enemy's HP is entirely depleted or not, it isn't destroyed due to this being a scripted event. In a kamikaze counterattack, the behemoth uses a Meteor I attack that does multiple attacks of 99,999HP damage to both Morrow and Wrieg. The behemoth vaporizes itself in the attack, which brings both heroes to 1HP.

Now limited to 1HP each, things look grim until a new party member rushes up. She's a brunette wearing white and green futuristic clothing, and she wields a pretty nifty, high-tech rod-type weapon. She looks serious with a sort of permanent furrowed brow and slight frown.

This is what she looks like: http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Aemo.

I should note that the outfit she is wearing in-game is not the same in the official art on the Final Fantasy wiki.



????: Are you two all right?

She automatically casts Cure III and both Morrow and Wrieg turn to her.

Morrow: [smiling] Who are you?

????: There's no time to explain. Come on!

She joins my party and we move on to Wave 3, where we are fighting more Final Fantasy monsters: a LV48 Allemagne (aka Evil Eye from other FF games) and a LV48 Iron Giant.

Quote
Gameplay Sidebar: Wrieg has Ability commands of Rapid Thunder III, Stonega Breath III, Rapid Stone III, and Jump III. His Summon commands are Abysmal Maw, Aerial Blast, Desert Storm, and Tornado. Aemo has Ability commands of Banishga III, Banishga Breath III, Rapid Banish III, and Cura III. She has Summon commands of Spring of Heroism, Lunar Embrace, Mighty Wall, and Reaper's Judgment.

I defeat both monsters and move onto Wave 4, where we encounter is a black-hole-like space-time anomaly.



Out of comes an alien-esque, dragon-like creature. It's abdomen, wings, and clawed arms come up out of the spatial anomaly, and it has multiple eyes that remind me of the Dragon God from Chrono Cross. The battle music transitions to a boss theme, which also sounds vaguely similar to Chrono music.



This boss is called ???? LV 50.

Wrieg: If we get hit by Mega Flair, it's all over. So no holding back! Give it all you've got!

A countdown begins from 5. The creature is fast, and every turn it counts backwards down to zero. I tried this several times to see if I could ever beat him, but I don't think it's possible -- I can only whittle down around 1/8 of his total HP before the boss counts down to 0.

Wrieg: Damn, not again!

????: Don't give up! This time for sure...!

The boss uses Mega Flare, a white hot beam of prismatic energy engulfing my party.

FADE to black...

Over the darkness:

???: Morrow...? Morrow...!

DISSOLVE into white:

Morrow lies on a cape overlooking a serene landscape. The hill is adorned with a single tree and some tied wood fencing. The hill overlooks a huge stretch of shimmering blue water. Cutting across the water is what appears to be a somewhat modern-day road. On the other edge of the water - on the landscape miles away - are mountains and a single, spiraling tower that reaches far into the clouds.

Morrow pushes himself up from the ground and sees a bearded, gray-haired man wearing brown  robes.



Morrow: Gramps?!

[/i]Gad: Hoho, who else would know to find you here? I came to tell you that your favorite adventurer is back in town.[/i]

Morrow finally stands to his feet.

Morrow: You mean Wrieg's here?

Gad: Yes. He's in the village square telling tales of his journey as we speak.[/i]

[/i]Morrow: Oh no! I hope I didn't miss anything![/i]

[/i]Gad: Hoho, that's what happens when you sleep the day away, Morrow! But you may be able to catch the end of it if you hurry. Now go on![/i]

Morrow runs off and Gad follows. The camera pans up into the sky, where we see how tall the spire actually is. The title appears:





FINAL FANTASY DIMENSIONS II[/quote]
« Last Edit: December 17, 2023, 08:18:57 pm by Boo the Gentleman Caller »

tushantin

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Re: Final Fantasy Dimensions II
« Reply #4 on: May 09, 2018, 12:26:53 pm »
SPOILERS, but......





Schalaaaaaaaaaaaa !
Fiendlooooooooooooord !

Boo the Gentleman Caller

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Re: Final Fantasy Dimensions II
« Reply #5 on: May 09, 2018, 01:54:25 pm »
Yeah, there's actually a ton of spoilers out there, but the Final Fantasy wiki is still very much incomplete when it comes to this game.

I was hoping to keep this more like a quasi-let's play and discuss as we go through the game.

But yup, the Deathlord and others are DEFINITELY Chrono Trigger-esque.

PrincessNadia78

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Re: Final Fantasy Dimensions II
« Reply #6 on: May 09, 2018, 07:53:12 pm »
Oooooo this looks good, I want to play it now!

Too many games and too little time. LOL

Boo the Gentleman Caller

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Re: Final Fantasy Dimensions II
« Reply #7 on: May 10, 2018, 12:20:33 am »
Quote
Oooooo this looks good, I want to play it now!

Too many games and too little time. LOL

Story of my life. And it only got worse once I got Steam and started doing more PC gaming. Due to Humble Bundle and Steam sales, I have like 900 games in my Steam library. That's not to mention physical console games (especially my 3DS games). Ugh.

So much money in games I'll never play.

PrincessNadia78

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Re: Final Fantasy Dimensions II
« Reply #8 on: May 10, 2018, 02:07:59 pm »
Story of my life. And it only got worse once I got Steam and started doing more PC gaming. Due to Humble Bundle and Steam sales, I have like 900 games in my Steam library. That's not to mention physical console games (especially my 3DS games). Ugh.

So much money in games I'll never play.

Holy crap!! 900?! That is a LOT of games! If it wasn't for adulting, we could play games all day! I sure wish I could. LOL Then you'd actually be able to play all 900 of those games. Life gets in the way of fun. LOL Of course, there is always retirement!  :D

Boo the Gentleman Caller

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Re: Final Fantasy Dimensions II
« Reply #9 on: May 10, 2018, 03:53:03 pm »
A lot of those games come from super cheap Humble Bundle sales, and half of those are absolute rubbish games that I would never actually play.

Just to be honest.

PrincessNadia78

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Re: Final Fantasy Dimensions II
« Reply #10 on: May 10, 2018, 06:10:54 pm »
I know exactly what you mean. I've downloaded a bunch of app games that I'll never play. They looked cool at the time and then was "meh" about them. LOL The struggle is real!

Boo the Gentleman Caller

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Re: Final Fantasy Dimensions II
« Reply #11 on: June 28, 2018, 04:47:49 pm »
I need to get back on this. Mobile games are just so frustrating to me.

Balroth

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Re: Final Fantasy Dimensions II
« Reply #12 on: November 20, 2018, 04:36:38 am »
Did you continue the playthrough? The only good/extensive information on this game is via playthroughs, and they are lengthy and boring  :( I am really interested in the story though, because there are so many elements that are more or less obviously originated from the Chrono sequel (from Takashi Tokita's proposed Chrono Break)

When you realize the Chrono Sequel story is converted in a mobile game, we truly live in the darkest timeline

Schala being crystallized, Aemo hints that she would originally be from a "doomed timeline" like 2300 AD in CT, making a unique early game in comparison to CT's slow one. There must be more "links" that can eventually be compiled to realize what the approximate story was for the sequel, I think

Boo the Gentleman Caller

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Re: Final Fantasy Dimensions II
« Reply #13 on: November 20, 2018, 10:19:28 am »
No, truth be told I never did. Spent $15 and never played the game out of that initial session. I really, REALLY should get back on that. If nothing else so we can dissect, discuss, and compare to the Chrono series.

I'm just not much for mobile phone games and that whole battle-oriented format. I prefer the exploration element of jRPGs, which kills pretty much any interest in the later mobile jRPG market. I've tried games like Final Fantasy Record Keeper and Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, as well as Star Ocean Amnesis amongst others. They're all gacha games with no exploration, just battle after battle, which gets old.

chrono.source

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Re: Final Fantasy Dimensions II
« Reply #14 on: November 20, 2018, 12:08:27 pm »
No, truth be told I never did. Spent $15 and never played the game out of that initial session. I really, REALLY should get back on that. If nothing else so we can dissect, discuss, and compare to the Chrono series.

I'm just not much for mobile phone games and that whole battle-oriented format. I prefer the exploration element of jRPGs, which kills pretty much any interest in the later mobile jRPG market. I've tried games like Final Fantasy Record Keeper and Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, as well as Star Ocean Amnesis amongst others. They're all gacha games with no exploration, just battle after battle, which gets old.

I agree I can't stand these new "summon" type games, gets boring quickly. A friend at work turned me onto The World Ends with you (Mobile Port) in case you've never tried it, it has some exploration, not too much, but has a very unique battle system and game style that I thought was great.