#ff tactics

[hotchickheaven]

My piece for

Lost In Cult's Lock-On Issue 006 (funding is live) I was ecstatic when Patrick asked me to make work about Ivalice and had to dedicate my love to my tween fixation game Final Fantasy Tactics advance!

[ethernalium]

[domainrespite]

[crazedsmiles]

comm for brin

Back to comm hell, more Akihiko Yoshida style studies as well woooo

[topbanana-art]

"House Beoulve is no more. But what does it matter? We are the sum of our deeds, not our names."

[venatohru]

I just think they're neat (and they should meet)

[bezeltorpe]

ornate armor and fluffy fur [x]

[barbariccia]

so i’m being taken through fftactics (wotl version) for the first time in my life (shocking, i know, but i gargle bollocks at tactical games and my inability to be able to do those unfortunately trumps my desire to play every ff ever) by my love, my light, my absolute nemesis @reflectionsofacreator​

guess i should keep an ongoing thread on my thoughts and feelings!

chapter 1 (the lookbackening)

very much enjoying myself with this so far! i knew i would but i think i vastly underestimated just how much i thought i would

despite knowing that some Whack Ass Shit is going to happen later on wrt the lucavi et al, i honestly would be really happy with just a standard fantastical story the way it’s being presented in chapter 1. no traditional ff bullshit, just a good scathing look at a highly unequal class system and the people that fight against (and perpetuate!) it.

for a surprising not-a-lot-of-scenes-in-chapter-1-all-things-considered, the characters are strong from their introduction and don’t feel hackneyed or clichéd (even though they’re from around the time of Man Those Clichés Sure Are Beginning To Exist).

the spritework and diorama-esque scenery are absolutely gorgeous for their time and their simplicity. i’m honestly kind of blown away by how simple the sprites are but how much they’re doing and portraying. every little lean, every glance over the shoulder, the light, the colours,,, stunning, honestly. i even enjoy the difference in text boxes (to what i’m used to) - how they feel like they read naturally, at a decent pace, clearly signposted as to who’s who!

i do not , however, care overmuch for the portraits - while i very much appreciate that they’re giving us a nice little slice of life in ivalice and its members at the top of the food chain, everyone looks too similar for me to be able to differentiate immediately. as much as like akihiko yoshida’s artwork, i also think the stylistic lack of noses in the portraits doesn’t do them any favours in a. helping to look different enough for my liking and b. unfortunately takes away from some of the seriousness of the scenes. i’m sorry, wiegraf, your hard calls are very moving, but... how do you smell? (baadly god i’m so sorry for that one. i already know he turns into belias. i can only apologise.)

however, a good conversation with azly/reflections about the absolute goofiness of dycedarg’s hairstyle ended up being a really good talk - to me, ivalice is (has been, always will be) very theatrical. it makes sense, then, for the sprites (and portraits) to be somewhat theatrical in nature - big silly hairstyles to show you who’s who, a uniform of sorts - it all adds up and looks very natural, even when some of the design choices are... well, sure designs!

who the fuck is naming their kids shit like larg and zalbaag et al?

it’s interesting playing wotl when azly/reflections has previously played the psx version - i get a nice insight into what they’re used to considering as the “true” names (and the same with places et al), and then double-checking the kana via the ffwiki. “mol” i hear you say “what is the truth: argath or algus?” to which i say neither, i am taking a third path and simply calling him algath which i think flows better and is in keeping with the kana. if they did not want this they should have called him ア―ガス and not アルガス and should have anticipated that one day i would make this decision, quite fucking frankly.

similarly wrt translation differences, getting “this is what X said in this scene in the psx version” makes my evening. i keep making comparisons to lotr and tolkein’s usage of low language because... damn, i really feel like that sort of thing would work in this setting. great, i love ye fake olde manners of speaking and being all fun and theatrical about it! still works for the ivalice setting, but there’s some lines that really would’ve worked better had they not been... on par with everything else. i’m thinking specifically at ziekden: after hearing algath prattle on, and on, and on--

Delita (WotL): Is our forked tongue done flitting? What I'd hear from your lips are not words!

Delita (PSX): Is that it? Is that all, Algus?!

i know which i’d choose. unfortunately a cursory look for the script actually seems to indicate that people... prefer the PSX version and think the wotl version is too... wordy? silly sounding? whatever. it’s a shame, is what it is.

so, the characters themselves, now:

knowing that algath is capital-d Dead by the end of chapter 1 is a relief, because i’m not sure how much more i, a veteran xiv player, could take of hearing his fucking voice from rabanastre and yell them aloud once the appropriate line is spoken.

pictured: three perfectly normal* ivalice fans all taking equal psychic damage.

i’m a little ashamed to admit how much i enjoyed algath’s brief debut. oh my god, what a shitheel? what an absolutely pathetic pile of mediocracy. i have got to do something about those zero-redeeming-quality characters that i keep enjoying, yeesh. on his own he wouldn’t even ping on the interesting scale, it’s just his association with ramza and delita that makes me go 👀hello? dynamics? tasty dynamics?

i’m really enjoying delita, who’s name i cannot spell correctly on the first try, as well. not that i think the “commoner invited to live above his station” is an overdone trope or anything like that, but he’s just such a... genuine little dude that i want desperately to know what his role in the rest of the story is going to be. or not be! fftactics: the Delita Not Appearing version. especially considering how much of algath’s diatribe he was party to, knowing that he was very earnestly not on the same wavelength as ramza all this time... even though they were friends without any problems til now. (onscreen, at least.) thanks, algath. jerk.

it is WILD to see ramza as a sweet little  thing with pinchable cheeks rather than the absolute ass he was in the RtI raid series. he’s very naive. i like that about him - he’d be terrible as a protagonist if he didn’t try and grow from any of this, so of course he’s going to be doing some of that, but... i dunno, something about growing up and losing everything you ever had. being changed by the hero’s story etc etc tale as old as time etc etc we can never go home for it no longer exists etc.

a delight to be listening to fft tracks again as well, even if i feel like i should be doing mechanics instead of sitting peacefully watching it all play out. azly/reflection is gonna jumpscare me with tgcid or something, i can taste it in the air.

i swear to all the scions of light and darkness if we pick up a random unit with the generated name of orella i’m going to shriek so fucking loudly every person on the original team is going to hear it

[aikirooooo]

Frieren

[ladyswillmart]

It works! Screenshot is just a fake out (I edited a preexisting unit in LionEditor and changed the job name in FFTactext but just temporarily so I could get the screenshot lol) but the portrait is a 100% functional, 4-bit BMP compatible with Shishi Sprite Editor.

Next I guess will be an actual sprite sheet. His outfit is going to be based on Sethys's apron in FF14:

As for a Barista Job mod, I might just be bored enough to attempt it! Modding the PSX version is supposed to be easier (or at the very least, possible) because you can expand the ISO, so I'll probably try that.

[levilagoon]

A handful of sketch commissions I did for Nebkon this year! Wanted to share them here too! (okay okay Lisa was done like a few days after)

[ethernalium]

Ramza, Agrias and Orlandeau in FFBE

[golbiey]

ramza beoulve print from february

[mousy-maja]

I’ve been playing ff tactics on my iPad recently and had an urge to draw Ramza in his second outfit ❤️✨

[magicpopsoda]

agrias 🦋