The Lifestream Final Fantasy Marathon

[Flintlock]

To mark the release of Final Fantasy XV, the first offline, main series Final Fantasy title in seven years, I thought it would be awesome if TLS looked back at the entire series and asked "how did we get here?".

The best way to do that, if you ask me, is to play the entire series, back to back. Obviously that's far too big a task for just one person, so this would be a community event, streamed live on Twitch. I haven't run this past JT yet but hopefully he'll help organise it as the Community Manager.

The event will take place in November. The exact format will depend on the people willing to stream. I know most people have work/study commitments, so we'd work around them. It could be that we only stream on the weekends leading up to XV's release. (XV itself will be the final game in the marathon.) Basically, if you want to take part, you can.

Ideally, you'll have some idea of how long your chosen game will take you to beat, but this isn't a speedrunning marathon. If you can do it in one sitting, great, but we can also accommodate you if you need to split it into two days, possibly even three. I am hoping that we can get a variety of run types in, though - maybe someone wants to show off a low-level run of VIII, while someone else feels like doing a Four Job Fiesta run of V, and another person decides to recruit all 14 characters in VI. If you can't do anything like that, don't worry, regular playthroughs are acceptable too, particularly if you're highly knowledgeable about a specific game and can offer good commentary.

You can indicate your interest with this form. You can choose up to three games from the drop-down boxes, but in case there are more than three games you'd be willing to stream, there's an "other choices" box. You can also use that box to suggest games related to the main series, like X-2 and XIII-2. I can't guarantee they'll be included but you never know, we might need them! Making a post in this thread to show your interest can't hurt either.

Note that you're not committing to anything yet by filling out the form. I just need to find out who's interested because organising an event like this can take a long time. And if you've never streamed before, don't let that put you off. Provided your computer isn't actually a toaster, we'll help you set everything up. You just need a microphone and headphones (or a headset) and a decent internet connection.

This has the potential to be really special, so I'm hoping lots of you will take part. If you have any questions, ask away.

 

[Kuroto]

Erm, can I ask what's the difference between the first/second/third choice and the run type choices? The run type seems to include a normal playthrough as well so I don't really understand why you have a separate run type choice.

I think it would be fun to take part but my computer is slowly dying and I doubt it is running fast enough. Also I'm not sure I know enough about any of the games. But I think this is a great idea and hopefully a lot of people want to take part. I think it would be time for a FFVII race rematch.

 

[Ite]

I can't "stream." I can barely program a VCR. But I want to be able to do this by November! I have FF7 and 8 for PC.

 

[Flintlock]

Erm, can I ask what's the difference between the first/second/third choice and the run type choices? The run type seems to include a normal playthrough as well so I don't really understand why you have a separate run type choice.

First/second/third choice: pick the game you want to play most as your first choice, pick the game you want to play second most as your second choice...

Run type: if you want to do a regular playthrough, just write "regular playthrough". I guess I can make that field optional.

 

[Jason Tandro]

There is the Series Retrospective to consider. I think by that time Vader, Ryu and I should be onto FF9. That said I don't want to speak for them interest wise.

As far as coordination of the variety of streams I'll help in any way I can, of course. Are you saying that we will all just be streaming / recording + uploading whatever game and whatever playthrough style we choose / get assigned and then having them all linked together?

Edit: I may not be able to stream as I don't have much in the way of FFs on my computer, but if I get my new PS4 by then I have a few ideas. FFXIV's 2.0 story, FF7 Port cheaty mcspeedrun, FFX / X-2 Remaster playthrough. We shall seashells.

 

[Flintlock]

I imagine it will work like this:

The person playing the game will stream to a low-latency service like Hitbox. Only the people commentating will have access to this stream. Their commentary will then be combined with the video and re-streamed to Twitch, which has a much bigger audience.

My awesome internet connection (100 down, 100 up) is good enough to handle the bandwidth but I won't be around all the time to coordinate with the runners, which is why I'm hoping you'll help out, since you're in a different timezone.

I'll try to assign at least one person to each game. Some of the games might be races, co-op runs, etc. In an ideal world, once someone is done playing Final Fantasy, someone else would start playing Final Fantasy II, and so on, all the way through to XV. But I know that's not likely to be feasible, so we'll have to be a bit creative with the scheduling.

 

[Jason Tandro]

I imagine it will work like this:

The person playing the game will stream to a low-latency service like Hitbox. Only the people commentating will have access to this stream. Their commentary will then be combined with the video and re-streamed to Twitch, which has a much bigger audience.

My awesome internet connection (100 down, 100 up) is good enough to handle the bandwidth but I won't be around all the time to coordinate with the runners, which is why I'm hoping you'll help out, since you're in a different timezone.

I'll try to assign at least one person to each game. Some of the games might be races, co-op runs, etc. In an ideal world, once someone is done playing Final Fantasy, someone else would start playing Final Fantasy II, and so on, all the way through to XV. But I know that's not likely to be feasible, so we'll have to be a bit creative with the scheduling.

I don't mean to rain on your parade but a literal relay race is completely infeasible given a number of facts:

1. Game times vary as do play styles.
2. Different time zones.
3. Life.

However I see a couple of ways around this:

1. A loose-structure relay race where it's still one after the other but the hand-off from one game to the next doesn't have to be precise, say player of FF2 could start either early (by the time the FF1 player gets to, say, The Sky Castle) or if there is a delay between 1 and 2 that's okay.

Edit: And you kind of allude to this structure in your last paragraph.

2. A free-for-all where we play the games all in our own time that are completed by a certain time. Say we make a goal to have the games beaten within 3 days and essentially instead of a relay race it's more like we are marching into battle and playing man-to-man defense.

I hope I'm not being seen as defeatist here, I'm really trying to think of the best possible way to make sure your original vision becomes a reality.

 

[Flintlock]

No, realism is good, but I'm under no illusion that a start-to-finish relay will be possible. I think I've tried to make it clear that we'll work around people's schedules. That could mean that I-II-III take place on one weekend, then IV-V-VI the next, and so on. Or it could mean something else entirely. We'll figure it out once we know who wants to play what.

 

[Jason Tandro]

No, realism is good, but I'm under no illusion that a start-to-finish relay will be possible. I think I've tried to make it clear that we'll work around people's schedules. That could mean that I-II-III take place on one weekend, then IV-V-VI the next, and so on. Or it could mean something else entirely. We'll figure it out once we know who wants to play what.

Gotcha, and now that I'm looking back over it you do but of course as usual I can't be arsed to actually pay attention properly before inserting my own opinions.

Well as this is in the conceptual phase there is still a lot more wiggle room than I thought. I want to see how everybody else is leaning before I select a game to do as, frankly, I'm in the retro pod so I'm going to do them all. I'd rather others have their first choice.

As always, if you need me to tackle something, just let me know.

 

[Flintlock]

I'm the same, I'll probably end up playing whatever nobody else wants.

 

[Flintlock]

Update after one week: three people have registered their interest (plus Jason and myself).

First choice games: VIII (x2), IX
Second choice games: VI, IX, XII
Third choice games: IV, VII

The PS1 era is most likely to be oversubscribed, so if you want to play something other than that, you have a good chance of getting it.

 

[Jason Tandro]

I could do something for Final Fantasy XIV. Maybe a new character and speed run to the end of the 2.0 Storyline or something (still a massive process). Or maybe just do some kind off showcase. In short that's what I have on me PS4 and can twitch outside of the VII Remaster (Just played FF7 so pass). Unless you want the Marathon to include the Platinum Demo or Episode Duscae

Edit: Maybe some other XIV players can join me on Cerbs with new characters and we can do a four-person group run of the whole 2.0 story. One Tank, One Heals and Two DPS of which I claim one, lol.

 

[Dawnbreaker]

If anyone takes FFI, I will murder them in their sleep.

 

[Lex]

So I just noticed this and filled out the form.

I've put myself down for pretty much the entire PS era (VII, VIII, IX, X, XII and XIII).

Flint, I don't know why you've included XI and XIV on that form. It takes about a month to get through XIV's story and that's going as fast as you can. With levelling changes that's probably around two weeks now. But still, it's not feasible at all in this case.

EDIT: Ninja'd by Jason, but yeah pretty much if a person is doing the online games they'd do that across everyone else's single player playthroughs, it's not feasible any other way. And as much as I love XIV, I don't think I'd personally want to do it because it's a pretty arduous process.

 

[Flintlock]

I wouldn't expect anyone playing XI or XIV to play through the whole story. I guess I could have made that clearer. They're on the form in case anyone wants to do a showcase-type thing, like JT is proposing.

 

[Jason Tandro]

I had an idea about how to handle XIV. Obviously the entire single-player campaign would be murder. But what about a superstar tag team does each main story raid? Primals, major story dungeons, final bosses, etc?

We could go in (edit: err under-sized party, that is to say over-leveled) too and make short work of it, perhaps even doing a time trial of it, but it might be a bit more authentic if we go in leveled. Even if we throw in some choice dungeons that shouldn't take us more than maybe 15 hours or so, as a liberal estimate.

 

[Fangu]

Okay I signed up. Guess which game.

Expected time w/o cutscenes: 20 hrs
Expected time w cutscenes: 25 hours

I'd split that in at least two segments, depending on whether it's a weekend day or not.
I signed up for just the one as I'd spend twice or thrice as much time on a game I don't know that well.

 

[Flintlock]

I haven't forgotten about this, but I've been really busy with uni work, the front page design, politics and, uh, video games recently, so I haven't had time to organise it. If you signed up, sorry for letting you down. I'm going away for this weekend but maybe we could still put on a smaller event next weekend? Or long weekend, maybe starting Friday and running through to Tuesday the 29th, when XV is released. I'd be up for playing a Final Fantasy game all the way through or something.

 

[Jason Tandro]

I haven't forgotten about this, but I've been really busy with uni work, the front page design, politics and, uh, video games recently, so I haven't had time to organise it. If you signed up, sorry for letting you down. I'm going away for this weekend but maybe we could still put on a smaller event next weekend? Or long weekend, maybe starting Friday and running through to Tuesday the 29th, when XV is released. I'd be up for playing a Final Fantasy game all the way through or something.

I'm thinking we should, as a group, have a TLS Viewing of Kingsglaive, Brotherhood and playthrough of Premium Demo late Monday night before the launch.

 

[Flintlock]

Good idea.

 

[Avalanche87]

Great idea guys! My wife just gave birth last Thursday so I have some time off work. I'll try catch some streaming goodness if I can.

Also, one really cool bit is that we named our boy Vincent!!! LOL!!! He is named after my wife's grandfather & my great grandfather, but I'm happy there is an FFVII reference! I did pitch Barret for a potential name lol!