Character Switch

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lilleole

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Final Fantasy IX is a little different from the rest of them, in every final fantasy game, you start with some characters and play them all the way to the end. in FFIX you switch between two groups a lot of times while you are playing, and usually don't have much of a choice and have to play certain characters. except for the end.

So i wonder what you think about this. is this a good thing? or is it just annoying?
 
Hmmmm honestly you dont switch that often really. Theres in Treno, Alexandria and after Garnet becomes Queen, but its not something i found personally to be a pain. The Way the story pans out means your characters have to part, besides they cant always be with eachother.
Its happened in the other games aswell like in VIII for example. When you go to the missile base, then theres also the space incident and lunatic pandora. Its a part of every ff game really and i wouldnt say it was that frequent in IX.
 
Cool thought actually.

I actually didn't mind it at all, and it gave you a chance to see the game from the other characters' perspectives at times. I mean you could control Steiner in a few areas or even Quina when things got ultra-weird.

I mean you look back at older FF games and at some of the hardest parts of the game you'd have to split your party up into 3 groups however you want and a different character was the lead in each group. It's cool to mix it up a bit, even though we all know Zidane was the main character in FFIX.
 
BustaMo said:
I mean you look back at older FF games and at some of the hardest parts of the game you'd have to split your party up into 3 groups however you want and a different character was the lead in each group. It's cool to mix it up a bit, even though we all know Zidane was the main character in FFIX.
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Yeah, in the past if your party wasnt well rounded you could get screwed....I had a tough time at the end of VI because my whole party was not well rounded...but IX did a good job of making it not too hard, not to mention abilities like level up and ability up really help you get the rest of your unleveled party up to par.
 
It annoyed me abit, VI was much the same, Id train up my guys, only to lose them for ages and they would end up underleveled. I did taht with Locke, and by the time I got him back he was way underlevelled and I didnt uyse him again

IX was quite as bad as that, but ity was annoying enough, I swear my party didn't settle til tyhe Final Disk. I dont mind splitting the party up every so often, but it can get really annoying when there is one particular character Id like to keep, rather than not having a choice

It was like musical chais at times -_-
 
I prefer it in games where you have your party pre-determined for you. If it's a challenging selection of party members, then it proves to be quite fun. Having the characters mandatory means that you don't feel as though you're underlevelling or neglecting one member who might be better at a particular aspect of battling than another. It helps you to love everyone and not just your favourites.
 
I didn't mind so much. When I reached the part of the game where Zidane's group goes to Burmecia and Dagger's goes back to Alexandria, Dagger ended up like 6 levels under Zidane by the time it switched back over to her. Well, Square, in all their wisdom, put a series of monsters in the entrance to Gargant Roo that are easy to defeat and gives a shit-ton of experience. so in far less than half the time I spent leveling Zidane, Dagger ended up a higher level.
 
Yea, I think this thread shows exactly why this whole concept is a bit flawed. It works really well if all your characters are evenly leveled. If they aren't, you're pretty much in a bad spot. I remember when Garnet and Steiner had to travel together. She was so incredibly weak in both magic and HP that I'd just let her die in battle and rely on Steiner to carry me through. She was literally worthless. He might as well dragged a huge sack of oglop shit behind him instead.
 
I really liked the character switching. It was nice to have two different stories going on and really helped develop the characters more only to have them be reunited.
I think more FF games need to do things like this to be honest.
My Favorite part of FF6 is the part where you choose the different scenarios to play and I think FF9 did the different scenarios perfectly.
 
Playing through the whole game with the same character seems too dull, I liked the character switching and to me it would be even better if that happened more often.

That gives a more variety of gameplay, instead of always using your 4 main characters or the main protagonist gets all the screentime on the game.
 
I like the switching. Granted I am the type who likes to evenly level my characters anyway, but I still like having to switch up your strategy and really learn the characters: Both in terms of personality and abilities. I think it maximized the experience of the game.

D4D
 
I didn't find it as a pain. I actually liked switching between the two groups during the game. At the end, I usually swapped out my guys multiple times to get everyone at high levels and learn all the abilities.
 
Personally, i liked it because it was different because you got to switch between groups. It's not just told by one person everyone has a chance to tell what they feel or what they think. I think it was a neat idea to bring the story in all directions, to let every chacter have the spot light if you know what i mean.
So, no it wasn't really a bother to me. I enjoyed having the opportunity to get a feel of what all the characters did and felt ^_^
 
Well the character switch was much better in FFX obviously because you could switch your characters readily right in the middle of a battle anytime during the battle. But the switching didn't bother me in FFIX because most of the bosses you had to fight and things you had to do weren't all that difficult and it didn't matter if your other characters were 5 levels lower than your main ones. Not to mention the guardians of the four shrines weren't all that difficult to overcome.
 
I enjoyed it. It gave me a chance to level up the other characters I don't really use and have them learn their abilities. You also get to see what was happening while you were playing the other team when you switch.
 
PrincessGarnet said:
I enjoyed it. It gave me a chance to level up the other characters I don't really use and have them learn their abilities. You also get to see what was happening while you were playing the other team when you switch.
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I agree, that was a nice feature that doesn't happen in alot of games. It's alot better to see what was happening to the other characters instead of just them telling you what happened. It made things more interesting. I wish the others were like that, in FF7 you kind of did, but that was only because of Cloud not being available to use since he got exposed to the lifestream and became ill. Then, you controlled Tifa afterwards but it wasn't like FF9 splitting into two seperate teams going in two different places.
 
sometimes i forgot the previous story so it is quite a trouble...

but not annoying to me.
 
I saw it as a FFIV throwback. You were forced (for most of it) to have that particular team and had to use each others individual treats to get you through that portion of the game if you liked it or not. I sometimes find it annoying because I am so used to VII and VII's way of party managment but overall I think it's pretty cool.
 
I liked it, as it forced you to use all the characters, and personally, it made me appreciate those not in my favourite team more.

It's annoying that Freya and Steiner bugger off for ages after the 3rd Beatrix battle though, when I got them back they were ridiculously under leveled.

The part of the game where you split up into two teams of 4 is when I train everyone and get them to be roughly all on the same level again, I thought it was an invaluable part of the game, as it forces you to use everyone.
 
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