back in it baby!!! i got a PS5 and have played through the game again on there so i am now ready to download some able content. i even rewatched every cutscene thinking they'd make more sense knowing how it ends. no it's still incomprehensible, but i also still haven't unlocked every lore entry which as i learned is probably crucial to understanding what's going on

anyway it took me around 12 hours to hit the credits again. i didn't try to rush through it but i also didn't worry about side missions this time around, for now. the only real Gettenstronger metric is the gear i use, and on my first playthrough i would unlock a new story mission and it would say whoaa you're a little underleveled for this one buddy! so i'd play side missions to try to bridge the gap. but this time i'd start the story mission anyway kill like five dudes and then from the gear they'd drop i was no longer underleveled

screenshots of this game on PS5 apparently all have watermarks that's cool thank you

first DLC is Trials of the Dragon King which i was especially giddy about after having just replayed Final Fantasy 1. for a game whose story i wasn't really following much until the end, i was weirdly eager to see the continuation of Jack's Strange Adventure. the gang have now supposedly spent thousands of years sittin and waitin for Minestrone's crew but then they go speak with Bahamut and they're all acting the same

speaking of speaking with, i love that a main component of progressing through this DLC is unlocking new conversations with Bahamut. yes i want to converse with a dragon about rats and tails, etc. i was wondering what the equivalent of the FFI class upgrade that he grants would be here, since there's already a thousand jobs to choose from and upgrade...

Huh ? ? then what were the dozens of giant job ability trees i was working with before!! now they are superbigger!!! the game has suddenly introduced one million new systems and it's pretty overwhelming. i've played for a few hours and i'm still not entirely sure i'm making progress in the areas that matter. i've just been hitting up missions i haven't done on the new BAHAMUT difficulty, which is even harder than CHAOS difficulty, so yea.... "It's hard"

from what i can tell the two new main currencies are Dragon Treasures and Rat Tails. earning dragon treasures is cool because there are a ton of difficulty modifiers that affect how many i earn from a mission, but also probably not cool because the amount of specific modifiers there are makes it ripe for exploitation. as for the rat tails an explanation is finally given as to what the deal is with them

the game has become a grindgame. in attempting to go through missions again on Bahamut difficulty i quickly hit a wall when i spent maybe two hours trying to beat Tiamat. then i remembered the tried-and-true method of just playing a mission slightly above my level and quickly getting geared up from it. phew! was worried i'd have to get deep into crafting and stat optimization and being good at the game and whatnot

so i did a lot of replaying the first story mission at gradually higher levels because i had the boss somewhat down (i would still die to it several times each level (and as i write this i'm realizing i could have gone with a side mission that doesn't have a boss instead)). i've done my fair share of final fantasy forevergame grinding but it being consistently difficult and demanding takes its toll. at least my gamerbrain is occupied enough to not be able to think about how i'm spending my time

got the platinum which tricks me into thinking i'm anywhere close to being done with this game. i've looked ahead at gameplay of the next DLC and my god it gets insane. all the numbers that i usually see are now much, much bigger numbers. even more new systems, i'm astonished at how in-depth this game seems to get. and it's looking more and more like the "optimize equipment" button is going to become useless even for story progression.....

wondering how far i'm willing to go.. there's apparently an exploit that involves Extra Mode, which puts Jack in a permanent state of epic where he always has MP, in conjunction with an MP ability that grants invulnerabiliy, so it becomes possible to just not die (currently his biggest frustration). for now Zephie's Gamer Code will prohibit use of this Extra Mode. so i suppose i'll just have to learn how to play this game

had to fight Bahamut which sucked. the fight was cool i just didn't wanna hurt him, he's a chill bro and Jack goes overboard. it's funny when in all the conversation cutscenes he's just standin, then he's suddenly a murderous hell god, then he goes back to standin. two legs like a guy

it's like first fantasy!!!! i finished the first DLC yesterday. Jack wanted Minestrone to kill him to fulfill the prophecy or whatever but apparently me dying to him twenty times wasn't good enough. for the first time i had to think about my build...i even grinded to a hundred above the recommended item level and he still busts out those quick one-two insta-kills!! it's entirely Jack's fault, midway through the fight he's like hell yes take Bahamut's power and destroy me even though i still have to kill you to progress the story

thinking this dude may have gotten a lil chaospilled these past couple thousand years. he just bloodycrystalexplodalizes him like a common enemy, show a little respect dude that's Final Fantasy himself ? i'm surprised the story is still going. we're in forever timeloop territory now nothing's off-limits. onto the second DLC - Wanderer of the Rift oo

this is such an interesting progression for this game. the first DLC involved just replaying a bunch of previous missions with optional challenges, until i'd earned enough dragonpoints to fight final fantasy 1 in a crazy-hard boss fight, that was mandatory to unlock the next DLC which is a roguelike??? and progressing through enough floors in this mode is mandatory to unlock the final story DLC. i kind of love it but i can imagine there will be times i won't love it, having to play on the new GILGAMESH difficulty. also Gilgamesh is now here

i went back to grind for dragonpoints to upgrade the classes i use most, and i found out an amazing method. i was totally right about the Dragon King trial system being ripe for exploitation, because i just pump every difficulty modifier up to max for one mission, caste Haste on myself and zip zoom past every enemy, then when i get to the bosses i hit em with a knockbock ability that pushes them off the edge, killing them instantly

i get this for each mission completion. for reference as to how much of a lot that is, it's around a hell. also instead of slowly inching my way up in gear levels i went straight for a max-level mission to try to launch myself forward. those were some real hardy spiders and bats but it was worth powering through

back to da rift. i've concluded it's the perfect DLC, because very recently i was just thinking there should be an FF game where i get to befriend a Tonberry. and behold

it does not stop there. the roguelike gameplay is whatever, once again there's a thousand new systems i'll probably finish the DLC before i get a good handle on. no, to me this is now a monster raising sim. guys visit me and i can feed them and complete quests for them and they tell me about themselves!!

it does commit an RPG sin though, where if one of them asks for an item that i don't have, i can only say "hell no" instead of "i don't have any sorryyy i still love you". why must you make me upset Bang so. anyway i can't believe i was considering leaving this game with a corrupted save