Let’s get this straight right away: I don’t always have the best judgement of when something’s a good idea, and when it not. But neither do you, so shut up.
Over the last couple weeks, Talking Time has been all abuzz about rougelikes. For any that might not know, roguelikes are games that are like a really old game called Rogue. Distilled down to their base elements, they are games that feature randomly-generated dungeons and make you start back from zero every time you’re killed. Most are on the PC, with Nethack being the big fish in that pool, and Chunsoft’s Mystery Dungeon series has carved out a pretty well-renowned name for itself as far as console editions go. Spelunky is a side-scrolling action variant on the normally turn-based RPG nature of the genre.
The kids at TT have always been into roguelikes, because Parish (our fearless leader) told them to. Lately, the mania has resurfaced because of a ROM hack, of all things.
In the game Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals for the SNES, there’s an optional dungeon called the Ancient Cave. While I’ve played and beaten Lufia II, I don’t know if I even knew about the Ancient Cave all those years ago. So from what I’ve read, it’s a randomly-generated dungeon 99 floors deep that sets your party back to level 1 without any skills or equipment every time you enter. It’s a little more lenient than standard roguelikes, because it contains special items that you can carry over into new runs to help you reach the end.
Somewhere along the line, some fellow decided that it would be a good idea to hack a similar dungeon into Final Fantasy V. Obviously he was correct, because it seems like a really great fit. With FFV’s incredibly flexible job system, there are hundreds of strategies and ideas you can use to make your way to the bottom. Of course, being a roguelike, all your jobs and spells are also randomly doled out as random treasures just like items and equipment. So luck is still a very active element of being able to conquer the dungeon.
One poster’s ongoing Let’s Play of Final Fantasy V: The Ancient Cave has captivated the minds of many of the TT usuals, and they’ve set about dreaming of ways to turn the other Final Fantasy games into roguelikes. More impressive still is that while FFVAC was only hacked in Japanese, some very dedicated Tyrants took it upon themselves to translate the game into English. The result isn’t the more refined translation, but it made the game accessible to any forumgoers who wanted to give it a shot. If you need any more proof that this is the best community on the internet, there really is no hope for you. Go back to the GameFAQs boards and keep on being an idiot.
Sky Render is the world’s greatest philanthropist
In a completely unrelated matter, I had created a thread to advertise my own video Let’s Plays, and in it I asked anyone who cared what game(s) they would like to see me play. Because I really have no idea what the people want. I didn’t get a lot of responses, but the vote was unanimous: Final Fantasy V: The Ancient Cave: Talking Time’s Englishy Adequate Patch Edition. Okay. A reasonable request. Only I’m terrible at roguelikes and have only a basic knowledge of Final Fantasy V.
When Parish originally riled up the kids with his lust for roguelikes, I jumped on that bandwagon like it was nobody’s business. And that was a great time to be into roguelikes too, because the DS was (relatively speaking) swimming in them. In a short period of time I was working on Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer (because Parish said so), Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time (because I <3 Pokémon) and Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja (because tits). There was also Baroque on Wii in there somewhere, but I bought that because I was interested in the theme and spooky atmosphere, not roguelike fever.
Surely you can understand why I bought Izuna
I never completed any of these games. I gave Shiren and Izuna the old college try, but they were a bit too much for me. At tthat time I was still single and buying new games like nobody’s business, so they got pushed further and further into the backlog until they got sold on the grounds of “I’ll never play these again.” Pokémon MD and Baroque have fared better, as I still own them, but I’m still light years away from completing either. It should be noted that Pokémon MD is easily the RPG roguelike I’ve put the most time/effort into. Probably because the main game is Baby’s First Roguelike.
In the time between I gave Nethack a try, but it requires far too much of a time investment just to learn how to play, nevermind how long it would take to get good enough to win. Spelunky is much more my speed, being a pick-up-and-play platformer. But even though it’s only 16 levels long, I still haven’t gotten to the end.
On the other hand, I’ve given Final Fantasy V one effort, ever. Back when my parents first got internet access, I learned of ROMs, and went crazy trying to catch up on all the SNES RPGs I’d never played, including FFV, which had never been released outside of Japan. Some great hero has made a translation patch for it though, so I was able to take it for a spin. I ended up getting to the point where I had my first set of jobs, and spent a few days grinding AP so that I could get cool new abilities. That was as far as I ever got.
Over the years, I’ve gotten a good grasp on how FFV works and what it’s about through the internet, but I’ve never gone back to play it. So I definitely do not have the experience or skill necessary to have a chance at completing the super-hard random dungeon hack of the game.
And all of that is why I’m wondering why I agreed to do this Let’s Play. Maybe in hopes that my inability to win will entertain? That’s pretty much the only draw here. That and I want to fit in with the TT regulars, and this seems to be the hey to their heart.
Wish me luck, I’m going to need it.