Story
-My first question – “how ‘after’ is ‘after’?” – was answered pretty quickly. We learn that the events of the Interlude happened “Long ago!”
-CECIL AND ROSA’S HEIR HOLY SHIT I WAS RIGHT!!
-(Sorry, I’m rarely right in predictions, so I get excited :) )
-“Ceodore’s Tale: Last of the Red Wings” - very cool title for this game, though not sure if they just called it “The After Years” because nobody knows who Ceodore is
-Now it’s CAPTAIN Biggs, not just vice-captain!
-And Wedge is still there!
-Ceodore’s first deployment – so this must be like 16-17 years later?
-So this is Ceodore’s trial to become a knight. The same one that Cecil went through, which is cool to see. We really didn’t see any of Cecil’s dark knight training, so this also serves as a backdoor look into some of Baron’s traditions.
-Ceodore: “That [bloodline] doesn’t mean anything. I am just another soldier being tested for knighthood.” And already, I like him.
-Fuck off, Biggs. …Or maybe he’s a “tough-and-fair” type?
-Ok, Biggs is an asshole.
Still… his assholitude has a specific tenor to it that makes me hesitant to assume he’s a demon or something. He reminds me a lot of Professor Snape being an asshole towards Harry Potter. He gets on Ceodore specifically for having famous parents, and seems annoyed at any remote hints of entitlement – even if Ceodore doesn’t show any inclination that he is entitled. Just the opposite, in fact.
-CEODORE YOU ROCK. I love the boss fight where he “Awakens” and is pushed to the limit, but still wants to win or lose this fight on his own.
-Wrapped up the story by escaping the cave, with the Knight Emblem (ANOTHER ANIMAL TAIL? WTF) in hand. Hurray!
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Game Mechanics
This blew my mind. I thought there would just be an expansion of the story based on the same basic mechanics, and to an extent it starts that way, but they actually introduced new battle mechanics!! Unbelievable.
1) The lunar cycle. A full moon increases black magic, white magic is unaffected, and physical attacks are weaker. A waning moon affects things differently, and I imagine we'll also see new moon and waxing moon.
And it affects enemies too, so if I get stuck on an enemy that has particularly brutal attacks, I might be able to wait until the moon gets full and stack my party with black magic users (if parties end up being that customizable), shit like that.
2) Bands. Band attacks are joint attacks by multiple characters - like a better and more versatile version of Palom and Porom’s Twincast, where two party members can combine their attacks for something specific. I say better because you can actually know in advance what your Band attack will do, while with Twincast it was random.
I don't mind an attack being random. Hell, my favorite part of FFIII was the Geomancer, whose Terrain attacks where random. But I like this better than Twincast.
Band attacks also seem faster than Twincast, but that may be just the early Bands. Perhaps later we'll get ones with super long wind-ups.
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I think my favorite part about these mechanics is that they are not just random changes, but rather changes that take story into account. The second moon is back, and the new influx of Lunarian magic would probably impact life on Earth significantly.
I like the Bands story link even better. Not that there's anything new about the story that makes Bands now feasible, but Bands happen only between specific party members with specific bonds and relationships to each other. The Band menu gives me the option to pick multiple characters to band together, so maybe we'll see three, four, and even five-member bands.
I wonder if the relationships have to be good, or if they’ll have Band attacks called something like “Bickering Brawl.” I’m thinking of “Rivalry Romances” from Dragon Age 2, where the game could use even negative relationships in interesting ways, even if two characters hated each other.
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Solid fucking start. I was a little bit prepared for the story of Ceodore, but not at all prepared for how well it's done, and zero percent prepared for new game mechanics. It makes me curious and excited for what else they'll experiment with.
