THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => CLIKC => Topic started by: ScrambledGregs on 22 Feb 2007, 18:07
-
As seen in various threads, we all have varying views on the legendary, beloved FF series. Share your's now!!
FFI- I actually played through the PS1 remake with a friend when it came out. It helped me that we did it together and used a guide, because this is a very easy game to lose motivation on in my book. I love starting the game and making a party, but once you get through the first two areas there is virtually no plot or character development to speak of. And while that's not necessarily going to sell me on an RPG, FFI isn't exactly a MMORPG where you expect no story. Still, it provides a hell of a lot of the foundation for the rest of the series. Moreover, at the time it was a pretty revolutionary game and helped begin the establishment of the console RPG genre along with Dragon Warrior. 7 out of 10.
FFII- I tried playing through the PS1 remake, but even with a guide I couldn't go on. FFII is shockingly experimental even today, doing entirely away with any kind of experience system to build up skills or stats. Rather, it's all about use. Unfortunately, do to the way this idea is implemented, you will either spend an inordinate amount of time using the same spells over and over, not to mention beating the piss out of your own guys, OR you'll spend an inordinate amount of time exploiting the game's bugs to get a super party that can breeze through the game. Combine this with the fact that the game loves to use the boss of the dungeon you were just in as a random encounter for the next dungeon and you've got an unrewarding and increasingly difficult game to play. However, FFII added an actual plot and characters, alongside such series staples as chocobos and guest characters, so it sort of evens out. The game isn't horrible by any means, but neither the story nor gameplay are what I like. 5 out of 10.
FFIII- Most of us will never know what this game was originally like, since it didn't come on "official" form to the U.S. until it was remade for the DS and released here last fall. Be that as it may, even without the graphical overhaul, added backstory for characters, and (maybe) extra content, it's easy to see FFIII as another fundamental experiment and evolution in the FF series. Best known for introducing the Job system, albeit in a much simpler form than what we know from FFV and onward, FFIII was also the first to introduce a "second world" to adventure through (many would credit FFIV and the moon therein, but FFIII has you flying off the known world map, and later, entering the Dark World). I quite enjoyed the FFIII DS and it's definitely the best 'standard' console RPG for the system. 7 out of 10.
FFIV- I have to confess to playing precious little of this game, mainly because I think it's almost straightforward to a fault. I realize this is the favorite FF of many, but I've never been able to get into it. It's clearly a great game that did a lot for the series, such as introducing the ATB system, but I can't get into it. It doesn't interest me. The plot is OK, the characters are cool, but beyond that, it just feels limited gameplay-wise. Characters have classes/special skills like my beloved FFIV, but it's not enough without something else to fool with, such as Jobs, Espers, Materia, Sphere Grid, etc. Maybe that's holding everything that came after it against it, but it's not like I can help it. I don't listen to very much 50s music because everything that came after is far more interesting to me, even if I have to acknowledge the progression. 6 out of 10.
FFV- Whereas the first three games in the series felt like Square was throwing everything at a wall and seeing what stuck, and FFIV felt like the first tentative steps into 16 bit RPGs, FFV was a confident stride that swept up everything the developers had learned. I've only ever played a few hours into the game simply because I've never gotten around to, you know, paying money for it, but it essentially takes the gameplay system of FFIII and says "more!" while keeping the memorable characters/story and tightness of FFIV. FFV is actually the most popular entry in the series in Japan because of those two facets. Also, Moogles!! 8 out of 10.
FFVI- I can't rationally explain my love for this game. It's great and still one of my favorite RPGs ever. Great gameplay, great characters, great music, great plot, etc. The only complaint I have is that it sees the series on the direction of having incomprehensible plots and mostly interchangeable characters for the next two entries. Oh and I hate the part where you have to use Relm and Strago. 10 out of 10.
FFVII- FF goes 3D, gets cut scenes, gains a whole new generation of fans, and divides a fanbase forevermore. My thoughts on FF are mixed at best. Anyone can tell you that the game looks horribly dated today; I'll take hand drawn sprites over ugly, blocky polygons anyway. Each character may have unique Limit Breaks, but other than that they are essentially interchangeable with the right Materia. What bothers me most is that I've played through most of the game twice but I don't remember the plot, other than struggling to understand what the fuck was going on. I still am not sure: is Cloud a clone or the real thing?? Anyway, love it or hate it, FFVII is a huge turning point in the series and helped popularize the RPG genre so that we got to see games translated and released here that we may never have seen otherwise. 6 out of 10.
FFVIII- Thinking about this game sets off a circuit of frustration and anger in my brain. So much seems dreadfully wrong about this game, so needlessly complex, and absurdly confusing. The Junction system baffles me to this day. I don't get the whole "bosses level up as you do" thing. I don't care about the characters and even though they look better than FFVII, going the realistic route was a bad idea because technology has advanced to the point that the characters in FFVIII look like Barbies with super long legs. I didn't so much mind the scifi aspect of FFVII, but the modernism of FFVIII hurts my head. Like FFII, it'll always be an experiment--that is to say, a failed experiment--in my mind. 3 out of 10.
FFIX- FFIX gets so much right while providing a fun level of fan service to series classicists' like myself that I wonder why I never beat it. The problem lies in the fact that, like the last 2.5 installments, FFIX goes with the "needlessly complicated and confusing" story that sucks all enjoyment out of it for me. Why can't Vivi just be a black mage?? Why does he have to be a robot clone dream or whatever?? The gameplay is spot on, and I liked that they went back to having unique characters with unique skill sets, but if only they had toned down the plot a bit. Ah well. 8 out of 10.
FFX- Another console generation, another FF. I love everything about this game except for the way the last handful of bosses get absurdly difficult. I tried for something like two days to beat the game before irrevocably fucking up my sphere grids trying to build the right strategy for the last string of bosses. Other than that, I loved the characters, gameplay, graphics, and story. The latter did begin to approach "scifi/fantasy headfuck psychosis" shit toward the end, but it made more sense to me than the last three FF's. I can't really think of much more to say other than Lulu is hawt. 9 out of 10.
FFXI- I like to pretend this game isn't real. Or at the very least, not a numbered FF. What were they thinking?! n/a out of 10.
FFXII- Shit hot!! Obviously, my favorite FF since VI. I can't complain about a single thing in this game; it's like a dream come true: a FF game that experiments heavily with the series formula but succeeds amazingly. Remember how fucking bad ass RE4 was, and how it was as much like the other RE games as it wasn't?? That's what FFXII is like. This game is huge and you just want more and more as it goes. 10 out 10.
-
I've stated before, 6 is the best Final Fantasy in the series. Easily in terms of storytelling and perhaps gameplay as well. I've never found a game with a story so emotionally affecting or characters so well fleshed-out. I'm playing through the GBA port right now, in fact. I'm on the Floating Continent.
I dunno if I'd bother ranking the Final Fantasies, but I can classify them.
Great Final Fantasies: 4, 6, 12
Good Final Fantasies: 1, 5, 7, 10
Bad Final Fantasies: 2, 8
N/A: 3 (barely played it), 9 (never played it), 10-2 (never played it), 11 (who the fuck cares, seriously?)
Also, anybody else not really like Tactics very much?
-
not being a huge fan of turn-based rpgs, i've only played a few...
Mystic Quest - short, easy, last boss could be killed with two properly applied pheonix downs. got it for like 5 dollars, it entertained me for a bit
FF3/6 - didn't get far enough in it to really say anything. I did like the first couple of hours, I wish I had more time to go back and actually play it.
FF 7 - beat most of it, got bored of random battles, already knew the story anyways. was kinda fun.
FF 8 - played through the first 15 hours or so, got bored of it.
ff tactics - played a few battles, hated that that was all their really was (I like that style rpg, but i didn't like the way square chose to do it)
ff x - got to the last seymour, stopped playing
ffxii - got stuck against my will, got sidetracked by other games that I like a bit more, but it's actually my favorite out of them all so far.
Anyone notice how in most japanese rpgs there is one point where the difficulty suddenly ramps up tremendously unless you've been grinding (which is not something i like to do in those kinds of games)? in ffx, it was the last seymour, in ffxii, i fucked myself by starting a hunt that's way too hard and directly in the way of where I have to go, in ff7, it was the demon wall, but i got around it. Star Ocean, it was the moonbase/styx (not turn-based, but still)
-
I agreed with you until you got to the Playstation Final Fantasy sequels. FFVII deserves at least an 8/10 because it has a great story and the materia system, which is my favorite ability augmenting system in the series. I felt the FFVIII was severely under-rated, and was a big experiment with it's character modeling and ability system (7/10). I ABSOLUTELY HATED FFIX! The story was predictable, and the only characters with any character were ViVi and Steiner. And DEATH TO QUINA! Quina on his/her own reduces the games score by one point (2/10).
I agree with you about FFX, and FFXI isn't a real FF game. But I had the same problem with FFXII that I had with FFIX. I thought that the plot was bland and predictable, and few characters seemed to have character. I will give it extra points for changing the typical battle system, but I didn't like the license board. While it's a novel idea, I don't think it can be done well. The character models look great though (7/10)
-
I forgot about spinoffs.
FF Mystic Quest- If I recall correctly, this was developed entirely in the U.S. and released in Japan as "Final Fantasy USA." Quite possible the most dumbed down and easy RPG ever made, but that was the point. It's not really worth discussing. It is what it is. I had a friend back in middle school who hated RPGs, but his grandparents for him this game because they were told games like this would help get him into reading and make him more intellectual. Something like that. n/a out of 10.
FF Tactics- Combine the Job system fleshed out in FFV with a more or less direct rip-off of the Tactics Ogre gameplay/graphics and you've got probably the most popular spinoff in the series' history. I myself think this game would be fantastic if not for its ridiculous length and level grinding. I've had this game for around 7 years but I've never gotten close to beating it, despite having a strategy guide. I'm very finicky about my strategy RPGs and this game always struck me as merely "good." 7 out of 10.
FF Tactics Advance- The saddest part of this game is the way it took the FF Tactics system, added more jobs, races, the Clan system, the Hunt system, and changed Job building from sheer Job points to being FFIX style building based off of what items you had equipped...and somehow dumbed it all down and made it really easy. I rarely complain about how I think a game is too easy, but here we are. Yet it's a frustrating easiness, because once you get deep into the Clan system, you end up spending too much time fending off other Clans or re-taking capture territory. Also, the Judgement system is a HUGE pain in the ass and I would enjoy the game far more without it. 6 out of 10.
FFX-2- I've never played this game, and never will. n/a out of 10.
-
Don't be a snob. FFX-2 is actually very fun. At least give it a chance, just saying "I've never played it and I never will" is ridiculous. People mock it for the fanservice angle or whatever and totally miss the fact that it is still a damn fine RPG.
-
I couldn't stand FFX-2. Still though, you might give it a try.
-
The plot of X was less confusing that 7, 8 and 9? I'll admit 7 got a bit crazy.
But the plot of 8 is very straightforward. I'd even go as far as saying that it's the simplest plot in an FF game. Or the ones that have plots anyway.
As for 9, it started out really simple, it eased you in slowly. So slowly that it shouldn't have overwhelmed you at any point in the game unless you weren't following it. Although that last boss did come out of nowhere...
I still don't get the hating on FF8.
You'll have to do more explaining.
-
FF8 sucks for the following:
1) The plot is a mindnumbingly stupid series of coincedences.
2) The battles require little to no planning or strategy(Lionheart! Lionheart! Lionheart!)
3) All of the characters by Squall and Rinoa are irrelevant to the plot by the end.
4) All of the characters but Squall are irrelevant in battle.
5) GFs.
6) Squall.
-
I vaguely remember enjoying FF8 at the actual time I played it, but it is the only FF I have never felt the desire to replay and all I remember is some vague stuff like "This town is only two screens big?", "Wait, there are only 3 towns in the entire game?", "Wait, we're going into space?!", "Wait, why is that guy a Wild West gunfighter?!", "Wait, they all grew up together and didn't notice until JUST NOW?!", etc.
Basically the entire game was downhill from the second(?) cutscene, where Quistis comes in looking all "sexy librarian" in that FMV.
-
ive only played 1 of them i dont remember which one, you go on a train and then get a little ninja lookin dude or something...anyone know which one im talking about?
-
Has anyone here tried going through FF8 without gaining a level for any character? It throws much more challenge and strategy in the game. "Card" is your best friend, and Odin is your enemy.
-
Final Fantasy I - My first time playing it was the re-re-release in the Final Fantasy : Dawn Of Souls compilation. It was great, especially with all of the advancements and the extra dungeons to increase the challenge. Anyone can agree though that it is very basic, but I'll give it a 10/10, out of respect.
Final Fantasy II - I couldn't play it, since I couldn't get past the weird experience system.
Final Fantasy III - I have yet to play it, but I have high hopes.
Final Fantasy IV - Very great. Extremely challenging and with an interesting story. I need to play the new re-releases! 8/10.
Final Fantasy V - This is the first "Classic" Final Fantasy I played. The job system worked very well and the story and dialogue were grat for a game of the time period. 8/10.
Final Fantasy VI - Extremely good game. Very engaging and with a cast of interesting characters and a story that did, and still does, stand out in the RPG world. 9/10.
Final Fantasy VII - This was , like a lot of folks, the first game I played in the series. A beautiful, engaging, and well-crafted story, with highly likeable and diverse characters. The materia system always made combat interesting, and is probably one of the most creative and well-done systems of play in a RPG to date. Definitely deserving of the praise it receives. 10/10.
Final Fantasy VIII - An interesting game with a lot of good features, but nothing that ranks it as an absolute favorite. The game was fun and many of the systems were enjoyable (it is very rewarding to level up all of your characters, GF's , and weapons to the absolute MAX. Also, the magic system is very deep and cool.) However, the game was a cakewalk, most of the characters started off as interesting, but I lost interest in most of them by endgame. The story also started off interesting, but had sunken into nonsensical shit by the end (I did, however, enjoy the last boss fight, and the ending itself.) 7/10.
Final Fantasy IX - My favorite in the series. Fantastic characters, a perfect and very satisfying story, fun battle system, and truly epic feel. This game is pretty much my favorite THING ever. I have never understood all of the complaints! (The complaints that I often here are very similar to those that I have with VIII, interestingly.) I adore this game and would long for a sequel if I weren't so absolutely pleased with how it concluded. 10/10.
Final Fantasy X - I enjoyed it. The battle system felt very new, even though it changed very little. The story was interesting, but nothing special. It, like 8, was not a big challenge to me, however. The only truly difficult thing were the stupidly impossible quests for the items to enhance your weapons. 8/10.
Final Fantasy XI - Never played it.
XII - Very refreshing change of pace as far as the series goes. I'm getting tired of this.. maybe I'll write a few more later.
-
Basically the entire game was downhill from the second(?) cutscene, where Quistis comes in looking all "sexy librarian" in that FMV.
Srsly. Quistis is the hottest FF character evar.
After the first disc, though, yeah. There's no more game. There's just a bunch of stupid plot leading up to the last boss which, unfortunately, is 3 discs away.
-
The Dawn of Souls version of FF2 is actually really fun (and a LOT easier). I've played through it twice. I can't say the same for FF8.
And wait, FF4 is "extremely challenging"?! The last dungeon is somewhat tough, but everything before that is very, very easy, even the original "hardtype". I had much more trouble the first time through FF5, though I have no idea why, since when I went back and played FF5 Advance I found it to be even easier than FF4, and I didn't do any power-leveling until the last dungeon (which is my favorite last dungeon in any FF ever).
FF7 is weird. I'd played 1, 4 and 6 all when they came out, so obviously I was immediately blown away by ZOMG MOVIES and the futuristic setting. Then, for several years, any time I tried to replay it I got bored somewhere around the part where you get Cid, where you're basically just playing "follow the trail of dead bodies" all across the world. I'd say the first third or so of the game is very good, the middle is pretty blah, and the last third is great fun.
Also, Yuffie ftw.
-
there was a while ago, some website trying to put together a paperbased FF game, rules and all that, it looked like fun.
I actually liked 8. To me it seems more like an experiment than a game, testing cool concepts that may have been implimented in future games if they had have worked. I'll admit the story was hock, and the final boss was a rip, but the ideas were there.
also, the boss leveling thing? i think that the thinking behind that was that any character could do anything in battle. it just didnt work is all
-
FF 1 - I have a strange relationship with this game. The NES game was the 2nd RPG I ever played and I enjoyed it immensely. Outside of having played through the GBA re-release, I can't stomach going through it again. How important it was to the console RPG market though is insane. 5/10
FF II - Got about halfway through it on the PS remake before I got too goddamn frustrated with the loading times, and then finally beat it on the GBA. I liked the idea behind the skill/xp system but didn't think it was pulled off terribly well. The story was goddamn near an impossibly large jump from FF1, that with the GBA release makes me rank it slightly higher the original. 6/10
FF III - NES ROM translation version... meh, never played it enough to beat it. Very likely it had to do with the translation though. DS Version kicked lots of ass though. Going back and messing with the roots of the Job System was a hell of a lot of fun. 7/10
FF IV - Personally, I think this game had some of the best cheesy one liners ever. It also had some of the most lovable and memorable characters in any RPG and I absolutely loved the art direction in it. The story was more of a Fairy Tale, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and it pulled everything off very well in the game. Lots of emotional pulls and treachery with all the delicious angst of Kain, and you can't forget Palom & Porum, Yang, Edge, Tellah... goddamnit, every character in the game was awesome. Also had one of the hardest fucking end bosses I have ever fought. Also, I found the Moon to be tedious. 8/10
FF V - I... love the job system. The game was a lot of fun, almost due entirely to the Job system and Gilgamesh. The story was decent, but I was spoiled by the quality of the story in FF IV, and Ex-Death seemed like a carbon copy of Golbez, but not as interesting. Also, I have no clue what the fuck was up with the Ex-Death Tree... thing at the end, he was also a complete basteard to kill. 7.5/10
FF VI - Damn near every aspect of this game was perfect. Lots of characters, all who have a fleshed out backstory, as well as none of them taking up TOO much of the spotlight and taking away love from other characters. I do agree that this game started the trend of interchangable characters, but they at least had the decency to have special powers for each character that made them a different experience. Also, they merely touched on the strange storyline aspects they abused so much in 7, 8 and X and used just enough to add to the story. This game also had the coolest villian in the series.
I mean, shit, KEFKA WON! I have noticed that lots of people tend to dislike the 2nd half of the game after the world has been broken, but I personally loved the feeling of of hopelessness and the sense that you weren't fighting for some great resistance force. The rebellion was gone. Nothing at all was ok, anyone that had had the will to fight had either lost it, or been killed in the Armageddon that Kefka caused. Even by the end of the game your party was basically fighting on it's own, with not even the moral support of anyone but Terra's orphan children. Even those you helped weren't willing to believe anything was going to change. They were just waiting for Kefka to finish the job.
So yeah, 10/10
FF VII - I enjoyed this game a lot the first time I played through it. After having payed it more than once my enjoyment for it was greatly reduced. After getting over the 3D graphics and cut scenes, I thought the characters just weren't up to snuff after VI, and the story went into metaphysical bullshit with a whiny, but still cool main character. Cid was bad assed, and I still think it was genius killing Aeris (HER NAME IS NOT FUCKING AERITH!). The first Time I played through it I would have given it a 9/10, Once I tried to play it a 2nd time and beyond, I couldn't stand to give it that high of a score. I respect the fact it opened doors for JRPG's to join the mainstream, but i couldn't give this game more than a 7/10.
FF VIII - Quistis was the only saving grace for this game. The plot was complete shite, drawing was a pain in the ass, junctioning was horribly done, I had Squall as a fucking demi-god by the end of the 1st disc, and no other party member was relevant at any point in the game. Also has the whiniest most annnoying main character in the FF series. I also wasn't a huge fan of the setting. The end boss was also ridiculously easy. 1/10
FF IX - I loved the direction they went with the game, I liked the main character, but I couldnt make myself like this game. I'm actually at a complete loss as to what it was. I also hated the shit outta the Black Mage twins. Every time they had dialogue I wanted to break the television. 4/10
FF X - I didn't really like this game, but I didn't hate it either. I hated Tidus with a passion, he was like a preppy version of Squall. His voice also grated on me to a ridiculous degree. I wasn't a fan of the grid system, I hated Wakka, Blitzball was just annoying and I hated the plot almost as much as I hated VIII's, but not quite. Auron was a bad ass though and for reason's unknown to myself I enjoyed the game enough to beat it. I regretted it immediately after seeing the end boss and the end cutscene. Still gets a 4/10
FF X-2 - Honestly, I never had the will to play this game. the Job system looks great, but I can't see myself enjoying it after X.
FF XI - I'm not sure why this was even made a core game.
FF XII - Combat system was fun, hated the grid system, and thought the plot was kinda meh. The characters were entertaining though and I didn't despise any of them. I ended up not bothering to beat it and I don't think I could ever slog through it from beginning to end, but from what I DID play, I'd give it a 6/10
-
I am among the very few, it would seem, that really enjoyed VIII. I thought the GF's were pretty bad-ass, at least until I played X (never got around to IX for some reason) which I also liked, quite a bit. The sniper scene (I think it was right at the end of disc 2?) was pretty intense for me. Unfortunately, I got stuck somewhere on disc 3 and never finished, but I cheated by reading the walkthrough online, and I think the ending to the story satisfied me. Is it fair to say that Squall was de-pop?
Like I said, I skipped IX and went straight to X, loved it. Hated Blitzball with a passion, but the rest of the game was fun, the graphics were gprgeous, and it was all in all good fun for me. X-2 wasn't nearly as engaging as I thought it would be, and I never really bothered with playing it much.
Now I'm about 9.5 hours into XII and it's easily my favorite of the franchise. So far, I love everything about this game, but I think one of my favorite new features is having minor characters joining your party as a guest. That was always one of my gripes about the franchise is that I'd spend all this time leveling up a character, only to find out they leave the storyline after a few hours of gameplay. It's convenient not to have to worry about doing anything to these guest characters.
-
Also, the guest characters in XII tend to be a few levels above your party and pretty badass. Yes, even Larsa.
-
Larsa kicks fuckin' ASS. The second time he joins you he has unlimited hi-potions and shit! I loved that.
-
1- original, basic, entertaining, sure sounds good, whatever out of whatever
2- no opinion.
3- worth it on the ds, not worth it on the nes 6/10 ds 2/10 nes
4- where the games get going, most people love 4, but i'm generally impartial to it, 5/10
5- now this game i loved quite a lot more than all of the previous games, it was one of the longest games i've played for snes and i couldnt put it down when i was playing through it. i started writing a guide for it (hey i was 13) and eventually decided never to play it again as a result of that. 7/10
6- classic greatness. lots of great characters (who for the majority got a decent amount of development) and a very excellent villain. whats to say that hasnt been said, 9/10
7- fuck this game. 3/10
T- best game on the playstation. 10/10 every time over. i love tactics games to begin with, but easily the best.
8- here's where i differentiate from everyone else. i LOVED 8. yes the junction system was abusable. yes i know. i still like it more than materia, which i thought was gay. i dont care and i cant imagine ever arguing it over 7 anymore than i already have. 10/10
9- again, most people didnt like 9 that much, i loved it. 9/10
10- i didnt like it. i didnt like the characters and i didnt like the villains and i didnt like the everything. except blitzball, i liked that. 4/10
TA- fuck this game. i dont want to snowball fight to learn my game. even aside from that, i played probably 20 missions and i fucking hated it.
12- havent played, heard its outstanding.
-
Final Fantasy 9 was awesome, easily my favorite. Other then that I agree with most of what everyone else says about the other Final Fantasies.
-
Word, bitch.
-
Jeremy Parish is easily my favorite game journalist, and has been for almost a decade. Awhile ago he wrote a really good, compelling, and well versed screed against Final Fantasy VII. It made a lot of sense to me even though I'm in the "I don't hate the game, but think it's kind of weak" camp that he sites. Anyway: http://www.gamespite.net/toastywiki/index.php/Site/FinalFantasyVII (http://www.gamespite.net/toastywiki/index.php/Site/FinalFantasyVII)
-
It makes sense but at the same time it comes across as someone who doesn't really have the best handle on the game in a literary sense. Because Kefka's villany wreaked greater havoc doesn't necessarily mean that he's a better nemesis than Sephiroth - more dangerous, perhaps, but not necessarily a more maturely-written character. I happen to rank FFVI higher than FFVII by sheer virtue of having fully beaten the former and not the latter, but the story of FFVII got its themes across via interpersonal destruction rather than international. Calling the characterization inferior because of that fact is absurd; in fact, I find it ironic that he accuses Sephiroth of being this really stock sort of mopey character when earlier he derided Cloud's internal conflict as being merely a method of pandering to the game's core audience.
There are some other irking flaws in his argument but I think that one is the most glaring. His most valid point is that the game has aged poorly from an aesthetic standpoint.
Oh, anyways, my favourite Final Fantasy games are IV and VI because they're the only two I've beaten. VIII seemed better to me than everyone keeps saying, even though I played it on the PC rather than the PlayStation. Maybe I'll have to dig out my old copy and give it another go.
X-2 is also mostly based around having fun which makes it a surprisingly good game! You should check it out.
-
I had a dream last night that I saw a brand new copy of FFX-2 for $5 and had to really think about if it was worth the money. One of my friends back in college had it but I never played it and he never seemed to, either.
-
X-2 might have been an okay RPG but since I was expecting Final Fantasy type play is sucked.
-
I've enjoyed the majority of the FF series.
And if I look at the statistics, I enjoyed more of the old sprite-y games than the newer series.
Even FF8 I'm torn about. I enjoyed quite a bit of the storyline but Squall irritated the all living, all dancing crap out of me.
-
Okay, here's what I think.
FFI: fun for what it is. Not very complicated, mind you, but I don't dislike it a bit, even if there wasn't that much challenge toward the end of the game.
FFII: I didn't play the original version of this, just the GBA remake. Could have been a lot of fun, but the levelling system was just murder. I swear, I could make this game my full-time job and I still wouldn't have Ultima past lv.9.
FFIII: emulated it. Really fun game, even if some of the classes weren't very useful. It had a ton of content given the limitations of the hardware at the time. This is one of the rare games that I'm glad I emulated, mostly because the final dungeon couldn't be taken in one reasonable sitting.
FFIV: Probably still my favorite, maybe just because I played it first. Not perfect, mind you, but I enjoyed the story and really liked some of the characters. The overall challenge and all the dungeons were great, and it really seemed epic when your party went to the moon for the last time.
FFV: Fair story, neat job system. Somewhat spoiled by the fact that Exdeath was the cheesiest boss of all time. Much like III, probably too many classes that weren't really useful. Still a pretty good game.
FFVI: One of the three or four best games for its system. Really well done in a lot of respects, great story and characters. I particularly liked how the transition between the first and second half of the game was handled. My only gripes were that the second half of the game could have used some more structure, and the fact that everyone could learn every spell eliminated the need for much strategy. Still, these aren't enough to detract from a really strong game.
FFVII: I never really cared for this game, played through it once and never went back. Maybe after Kefka really did tear the world apart, I could never take the threat of Sephiroth seriously. Getting points to use spells really seemed tedious in this game, and the battles just didn't seem epic enough. Cid was about the only character I really cared for, the rest of them didn't really appeal to me. I thought Sephiroth looked like the sissiest broadway-musical pirate of all time, I don't care if I get banned from the intarweb for saying so.
I didn't play through anything more recent; FFVII turned me off enough that I didn't give VIII any real consideration, and by the time IX came out, there were too many other things vying for my time that outweighed serious gaming.
-
X-2 might have been an okay RPG but since I was expecting Final Fantasy type play is sucked.
Uh. What? Other than not having an epic FF-style story, the gameplay was very FF. In fact I would say the Job-based system of X-2 was a lot more fun than the Sphere system of X. The characters in X were only customizable if you went to a whole lot of trouble.
-
Yes I was referring to that crap ass story and not the game play itself.
I misspoke in that original post by saying that. The nonepic story line made it feel like I was playing some dumbed down version of a FF game, which can be fun but not when you are looking for a FF.
-
OK, here's another arguing point. What do you think was the best 'skill' system in the FF canon?? I'm talking the Sphere Grid, Materia, Junctioning, the Job system, etc.
I LOVE the Job system. It's the only thing that kept me playing FFT despite that game's repetitive gameplay and inscrutable story. I would say of all the games that use it, it's probably best implemented in FFV. The thing that I think is funny is how people complain that some of the Jobs in each of the FF games that use the system are completely useless or at least very weak. But that was half the fun of the system to me. Unless you use a guide or are going for maximum damage vs. minimum fuss, I thought it was fun to screw around with each Job and see if I liked it or not.
-
Given your love of the Job system it is even more ironically sad that you refuse to play X-2, as it had the best use of the Job system since FFT and FFTA, certainly far better than FF3 and 5 as none of the jobs are "useless".
Plus, chicks with a bunch of different badass costumes each. Come on. Don't be a snob. Admit you want it.
-
Sorry, but I don't.
-
Although the job system is dynamite, and system from FF9 was fun where you learned skills from items, the Sphere grid from FFX was my favorite, it was really well executed and allowed you to cross into other skills and strategy/planning actually helped you maximize the efficiency of the system.
-
The problem with the Sphere Grid is that it isn't until very far into the game that you truly have the option to customize.
I hear they fixed this in a Japanese-only re-release though.
-
I loved 9's take on learning magic from equipment, i thought the sphere grid was awful (honestly i dont have a hgue argument for it i just really dont like it) and junctioning was too easy to abuse. materia bored me (along with all of 7) and espers were too hard to level up your characters with effeciently for stat gain, too complicated for a simple system.
-
I liked the sphere grid but some of the locks made it annoying (level 3 locks be damned).
-
I think the main problem about VII is that, from what I remember, if you don't do two completely optional things (watch the videos in the basement of Professor Gasts house in Icicle Inn and complete the various tasks to get Vincent and view the flashbacks this unlocks) then the plot doesn't really make all that sense. I liked it immensely when I first played it. It was, indeed, the first RPG I'd ever played, and the only 3D Final Fantasy game I ever completed (I went through VI on an emulator: never got too far into the older ones and never bought any of the later ones except VIII, which I thought was schmalzy crap with a shit battle system, and never soldiered on with after the first time I got stuck. I've played bits and pieces and seen bits and pieces of others, but meh. I don't have the time. As far as VII goes, I loved the story, even if it is somewhat cliche looking back on it, and I thought the overall look and feel of the game: that strange fantasy/cyberpunk/steampunk conglomeration, was amazing. The graphics have of course dated awfully. I personally don't really consider the Final Fantasy games to be the best thing Squares done, anyway. I would buy a new console to play a new Seiken Densetsu or Chrono Trigger game. I thought those were both amazing: Seiken Densetsu 2 had that sort of 2D sprite graphics that will never, ever age and just get cooler as time goes, and a brilliantly non-linear plot. Chrono Trigger as well I mainly liked for the quality of graphics, storytelling, design and the non-linear plot. Along with Earthbound and A Link to the Past, they stand as the greatest computer RPGs EVAR. VI of course doesn't have so much of a non-linear plot, but it makes up for it by being fucking amazing, right from the intro.
-
It's too bad that Chrono Cross was fucking terrible in every sense of the word, and all Mana games after, I would say, Legend of Mana on the PS1 have been boring, or crappy, or both.
-
First FF game i ever played was FF7 and that blew me away, was my first RPG! The story line did get confusing but as long as you completed all the sub plots it generally made sense.
Then went on to play FF8 which i found to be completely different yet thats what i seemed to enjoy about it...the game was different yet it contained some of the characteristics of FF7! The plot near the end did get a bit confusing with the whole Ultimerdia person :?
Played FF9 till my memory card crashed and i lost my game....was enjoying it though didnt seem the same as the others! The plot didnt capture me as much as the other 2 had! Didnt get round to finishing it as i couldnt be bothered sitting through the game again to get to the point i was at again!
Enjoyed FF10 though hated the character Wakka in it who jus done my head in through-out the game! It also seemed to chuck a strong religious element into the game that didnt feel right in a game...
I bought FF10-2 and found it to be a waste of time....enough said!
Have avoided FF11 as i dont like the idea of paying for a game and then having to pay for a subscription to play it!
Have yet to play FF12 as it only came out in the UK on the 23rd! It has caught my eye but as of yet im avoiding it as i know if i start playing it will effect my uni work! Might wait for the holidays :-D
With the other FF games i have yet to bother to play them....i dont know why but i just havent bothered! Have noticed one FF spin off you have missed Chocobo Racing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocobo_Racing)
-
The less said about Chocobo Racing, Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon, et. al., the better.
My main problem with FFXI, aside from the fact they had to make it part of the numbered series, is the aesthetics of it. All the charm and personality of different races and characters from the previous games is absolutely sucked out, replaced with amazingly bland character design. It all looks so dull and boring. That's why I didn't go for Crystal Chronicles, which I also forgot to mention. Well, that and the fact that to get any kind of enjoyment from Crystal Chronicles you had to get 4 people together, each with GBAs and GBA-to-Gamecube cables. That's a lot of money to play a gussied up Gauntlet.
-
What do people think about the little sub plots/games such as FF8 had that card game and FF10 had the Blitzball game?
-
Enjoyed FF10 though hated the character Wakka in it who jus done my head in through-out the game! It also seemed to chuck a strong religious element into the game that didnt feel right in a game...
That entire game was one huge not very well done religious symbolization.
Your main enemy was Sin. It was attracted to larger populations.
No matter how many times Sin was destroyed it would always come back.
They make a new "Savior" every time they need to deal with Sin.
Lots and lots more that were so obvious they made me want to punch babies.
-
Yeah, at least all the gnostic/kabbalistic stuff in FF7 was somewhat subtle.
-
I actually enjoyed FFXI, honestly. Yes it had some pretty big flaws (grinding solo was incredibly boring and getting a good party together was really difficult unless you were a White Mage, but those are flaws of all MMORPGS from what I understand, FFXI being the only MMORPG I've played). But I thought the landscape was gorgeous, the nature town was beautiful, the quests were actually kind of interesting. It did suffer by having so few options for customizing your character. I guess I'm saying it was kind of like the .hack series except not as fun and without the cool characters and you had to endure a bunch of dumbasses.
Now that I think about it, it is kind of sad that it can be said that .hack is better than FFXI. Repetition be damned, I thought .hack was really fun and I dug the simulation of reality, you know, getting emails from your party members' "real" personalities and whatnot. That was cool.
-
It's good to know there will always be certainties in life.
I have always said that IX was the best, and it only got better as I played through the previous installments. My goal for this summer is to beat all of the FF games I have got most of teh way through, then puttered out to pursue other games.
-
Save yourself the trouble and skip FFII. What an awful, badly designed game. There's a reason they gave Kawazu his own series to experiment and piss off gamers when he was gone designing FFII.
-
What do people think about the little sub plots/games such as FF8 had that card game and FF10 had the Blitzball game?
I did not enjoy Blitzball. It was a silly game that did not give you much incentive for playing the needlessly complicated and boring game. I enjoyed the card games from 8 and 9, though! As far as the subplots go.. only 9 and 10 had ones that really mattered.
-
I can't think of a single minigame in the FF series that strikes me as cool. There is stuff like the Colosseum in FFVI and the Hunts in FFXII, but the former is just a cool little way to win items and the latter is a full fledged game mode that has enough length and depth to rival the main story. Seriously.
-
Man, the Hunts were probably my least favorite part of FFXII, just because they required so much fucking backtracking and took an annoyingly long time to track down. Rogue Galaxy's version of the same concept was executed much better, because since you can teleport to any savepoint in the entire game once you've visited it once, getting to the hunts (or as they're called in that game, 'quarries') is easy, you just need a special item to lure them out and then they work like a normal boss fight.
Besides guys, I already said 6 was the best game in the series in like, the third post of the thread. It's surprising how wrong so many of you are.
-
Triple Triad was possibly the only really fun part of FF8.
Though the card game in Xenosaga kicked its ass.
-
I did not enjoy Blitzball. It was a silly game that did not give you much incentive for playing the needlessly complicated and boring game. I enjoyed the card games from 8 and 9, though! As far as the subplots go.. only 9 and 10 had ones that really mattered.
I actually enjoyed blitzball. Not at first, but after I played it a few times I got into it. Datto was a lot of work to keeppace with the rest of the team, but it was really quite fun. The card games were always a bit of a fun disraction, but X-2, mingames sucked ass. Blitzball wan't a friggin playable game. and the math thing? grr...
-
I did not enjoy Blitzball. It was a silly game that did not give you much incentive for playing the needlessly complicated and boring game. I enjoyed the card games from 8 and 9, though! As far as the subplots go.. only 9 and 10 had ones that really mattered.
I actually enjoyed blitzball. Not at first, but after I played it a few times I got into it. Datto was a lot of work to keeppace with the rest of the team, but it was really quite fun. The card games were always a bit of a fun disraction, but X-2, mingames sucked ass. Blitzball wan't a friggin playable game. and the math thing? grr...
Normally I get really addicted to the main plot of a FF game and not play anything else until finishing it, but in FFX I got bored of Tidus pretty early on, and only played blitzball on my sister's save to win prizes 'n' have more fun than was possible with the main plotline for me.
-
I'd have to say that while FF7 was the first RPG I played, and i thought it was god's gift to gamers at the time, after I played more in the series it was kind of eh. Although it did bring RPGs more into the mainstream gaming community. I played some of 8, but didn't like it very much. I thuroughly enjoyed 9, love the way they brought the graphics back to the cartoony, fun type. The card game was fun too. 10 was ok, as far as the series goes. The Grid system pissed me off, as some said before, screw the level three locks! And Wakka, man, he made me want to drive a corkscrew into my brain and dig out all memories of him. Tidus was retarded too. X-2 was fun, if you didn't take it very seriously. I haven't beat it yet, I play occasionally when i want a break from the seriousness of other games. Didn't play XI. I'm currently playing 12, and think its great. The new battle system is amazing. Granted, there are many things that coulod be improved upon (hunts are way too prevalent), but that is the case with every game in existance.
Now I haven't mentioned the older FF's. I haven't played them very much, so really don't have an opinion. I do have the rom's though, so plan on playing them soon.
-
Final Fantasy 7 is one of the greatest RPG's of all time. That guy who was critizing it wasn't logical at all. Sephiroth was an imposing figure, and the music that went with him was easily able to insite fear in people. The easiest way to point out how wrong the critic is, is that fact that he said the music wasn't very good. FF7 had the greatest music of any videogame. That one can't be argued because it has been remade dozens of times, and all the music creators became hugely famous and succesful musicians in japan. The music was purely fantastic. That doesn't mean that other games don't have some better music, it just means that FF7 had the best music grouped together. The cut scenes were very good at getting across the story, much better than the fourty minute talk at the basketball court in FF8 (which was also good, but not great). FF7 also let you chose whether or not you wanted to have a story thrust upon you, it was good that you could chose whether or not to watch all those cutscenes at reddogs home. One of the best cutscenes was a very short one when you see a huge serpent that sephiroth impaled on a tree. Materia was great because it let your magic become stronger in much better ways than many of the other games allowed. Chocobo breeding... the golden chocobo was cool, that is all I have to say... also try to get across the serpent pond on foot without getting killed at the beginning of the game... it is possible. FF7 was cut short and was still much better than FF9. FF9 had one of the worst endings ever because the final boss was never talked about at all. I will admit that every hero character from FF7 onward including cloud was a massive douchebag. I need to get into the main story line of FF6 because I liked it alot. FF10 had a very bad story line and that "checkerboard" system for making your character better was total junk. The ending of FF10 was bad and the game's best attribute was blitzball if you got into it. I got the characters up to extremely high levels and it was pretty cool. I recently lost FF1 and 2 as I was playing them... it sucked! FF10-2 was actually a fun game. The story was absolute crap but it was still fun to play. The dresspheres were actually a pretty good system of abilities and the battle system was rather good. It is definately not an FF classic in any way, but it was fun. Oh well I know it is still cool to "be different" and hate on FF7 but it was a well made game.
-
I've stated before, 6 is the best Final Fantasy in the series. Easily in terms of storytelling and perhaps gameplay as well. I've never found a game with a story so emotionally affecting or characters so well fleshed-out. I'm playing through the GBA port right now, in fact. I'm on the Floating Continent.
I dunno if I'd bother ranking the Final Fantasies, but I can classify them.
Great Final Fantasies: 4, 6, 12
Good Final Fantasies: 1, 5, 7, 10
Bad Final Fantasies: 2, 8
N/A: 3 (barely played it), 9 (never played it), 10-2 (never played it), 11 (who the fuck cares, seriously?)
Also, anybody else not really like Tactics very much?
To use your post as a template =)
Great Final Fantasies: 4, 6, 7, 8
Good Final Fantasies: 1, 2, 10
"Bad" Final Fantasies: 5
N/A: 3, 9, 10-2, 11, 12
To make it a little more elaborate:
1: Played it on the GBA and it was pretty good. I never had the time or will to finish it though.
2: Same as no. 1. Although I liked it a little more because of the story and characters.
3: Never played. Although Onion Kid must be the best name of a class ever in a FF
4: I love it. It has a solid story and even though it decides the team for you, almost every time you are given a solid team. The fixed teams makes it easer to tell the story IMO, (as they can and have to add/remove characters because of a reason).
5: Was pretty good. I was bored of the job system though... it took to long time to get good because of the job system.
6: A gem in the world of games. A good story with convincing characters. The best in this game is the esper system and the "lack" of a main character which made the game able to explore all the characters alone.
7: The one who introduced me to the FF series. Therefore a classic in my eyes. A good combat system and great characters, although the materia system made the characters not having a clear role in the battles, this made me a little dissapointed. (I mean, you could make Barret a mage and Aeris a fighter without loosing anything). The story still moves me and it's a great story and the interaction between the characters is what caught me.
8: Some odd systems (like junction and draw) made me a little disappointed with this game, especially as I loved the story, especially the twists. The weapon building and Triple Triad was a nice touch though. (To you who never finished it, the ending are worth it, even the stupid drawing system).
9: Never played it.
10: Played a short time at my friends but I liked the little I played there. Will probably buy it to the summer when I'm going to live at home again (with my brothers PS2 available)
10-2: A sequel to a FF? BLASHEMY! (Will probably never play it...)
11: Are against paytoplay games...
12: Never played, but my friend (who just bought it) said it was a great disappointment.
Tactics: Well. I don't like tactical RPG's...
-
Final Fantasy 7 is one of the greatest RPG's of all time. That guy who was critizing it wasn't logical at all. Sephiroth was an imposing figure, and the music that went with him was easily able to insite fear in people. The easiest way to point out how wrong the critic is, is that fact that he said the music wasn't very good. FF7 had the greatest music of any videogame. That one can't be argued because it has been remade dozens of times, and all the music creators became hugely famous and succesful musicians in japan. The music was purely fantastic.
You're pretty much stating your opinion as absolute fact. I think that FF6 had the best music of any game ever, and FF7 is overrated because a bunch of people played it and it was their first RPG and they have fond memories. To say that the issue can't be argued is borderline arrogant.
-
Final Fantasy 7 is one of the greatest RPG's of all time. That guy who was critizing it wasn't logical at all. Sephiroth was an imposing figure, and the music that went with him was easily able to insite fear in people. The easiest way to point out how wrong the critic is, is that fact that he said the music wasn't very good. FF7 had the greatest music of any videogame. That one can't be argued because it has been remade dozens of times, and all the music creators became hugely famous and succesful musicians in japan. The music was purely fantastic.
You're pretty much stating your opinion as absolute fact. I think that FF6 had the best music of any game ever, and FF7 is overrated because a bunch of people played it and it was their first RPG and they have fond memories. To say that the issue can't be argued is borderline arrogant.
I in no way meant to seem arrogant. I merely meant that the guy who was arguing that FF7 had horrible music was not being logical and must at least respect the opinion of a large musical community that believe FF7 had some of the greatest music for a videogame. I actually meant to right one of the greatest soundtracks of any videogame. I merely meant that the music has revieved quite a bit more attention than most other games. I think it has to be agreed upon also that FF7 at least rank up at the top because the opinion of mass amounts of people do matter. I also believe that FF6 is very good and I would like to finish it and see how it ranks.
-
Man, the Hunts were probably my least favorite part of FFXII, just because they required so much fucking backtracking and took an annoyingly long time to track down. Rogue Galaxy's version of the same concept was executed much better, because since you can teleport to any savepoint in the entire game once you've visited it once, getting to the hunts (or as they're called in that game, 'quarries') is easy, you just need a special item to lure them out and then they work like a normal boss fight.
Besides guys, I already said 6 was the best game in the series in like, the third post of the thread. It's surprising how wrong so many of you are.
Having beaten the game (Rogue Galaxy, I'm only halfway through FFXII, finally got past that stuck bit) and all the hunts, I can safely say that at higher levels, some of those fights can get incredibly easy. I've finished a few in less than 10 seconds. The hard part is finding the item to unlock it...and I wish you could go back and do them again (for lowered xp that's still more than most of the other enemies in the game). The Raft To The Underworld one was fucking cool.
-
They were easier, true, but I hated all the stupid backtracking you had to do to make any progress with the hunts in FFXII. I more or less entirely ignored them.
-
The Hunts in FFXII are intended only for hardcore completionists or people who have completed the game once and want more pounds to the dollar their next playthrough. I literally only did the required hunts during my first time through the game and had no trouble beating the game. One of these days I'm going to go through the game and try to get/do everything in it, but I will say that the few Hunts I screwed around with on my aborted second playthrough were fun and give the game a different dimension. It's almost like the game turns into a MMORPG rather than a typical linear Square RPG.
Note that I think the game with the most tedious, time consuming, and backtrack ridden Hunt/Quest/Mercenary/Whatever sub-game is Paper Mario for Gamecube. I'm currently playing this game for the first time and I can't believe how fucking irritating the Trouble Center stuff is. There's this flower guy who makes you backtrack three seperate times for three different items. Sure, you could read a FAQ and know what three things to bring along ahead of time, but games shouldn't be this openly "we're just trying to stretch the playtime out" about it.
-
For the life of me I can't understand the massive amount of criticism that FF8 constantly receives. The only explanation I can come up with is the fact it followed hot on the heels of FF7, which is arguably the most popular RPG ever.
Just sifting through some of the comments on it, I take immediate exception to:
2) The battles require little to no planning or strategy(Lionheart! Lionheart! Lionheart!)
3) All of the characters by Squall and Rinoa are irrelevant to the plot by the end.
4) All of the characters but Squall are irrelevant in battle.
In response to 2, Lionheart is relatively weak compared to the downright absurd tactics available in FF7. In 8, Limit Breaks are only usable when near-death (unless you cast Aura, and by doing so lower your stats--a nice tradeoff I felt was an interesting part of the junction system). Anyone want to compare the damage of Lionheart to, say, W-Summoned Knights of the Round? An even easier tactic usable in 7 was reflectic Quadra Magic off of your own party. Nothing like casting your top level Fire spell 12 times in a single round.
Your third concern, while valid, is true of quite a few games in the series. And just briefly looking at 4, careful use of Zell's limit break will do dramatically more damage than Lionheart, Selfie's limit break is capable of essentially infinite damage (The End affects bosses), and having Rinoa in the party had its share of advantages, such as having Angelo periodically revive people.
I only have three complaints about FF8. First, using magic (which was expendable, unlike the MP system in most FF's) would directly hurt your stats. This, combined with the fact that spells were generally very weak past Discs one or two, meant that it was used rarely. Second, I wish there was a bit more differentiation in character's party roles than simply through limit breaks. Finally, it was a bit easier than it should have been.
That being said, the storyline was very engaging, the settings were cool (Fishermans Horizon is fantastic), and the musical score is great. Plus, it was one of the first games ever to rely heavily on FMVs for storytelling. The regular graphics weren't phenomenal (though I don't find the characters are strung out as some other posters mentioned), but the movie scenes were beautifully rendered.
Edited for stupid grammatical mistakes and added more thoughts.
-
I didn't like a single thing about FFVIII. Honestly. The setting, the universe, the characters, the battle system/Junction/Guardian Force systems, the leveling system, the over reliance on FMV to tell the story, etc etc. FFVIII is an interesting experiment, and like most experiments it's usually a love/hate divide in the audience. I'm glad they tried it, and I don't deny that certain people will and do love the game, but to me it will always be a complete mess.
-
3- The three i played was....interesting. The first video took a half an hour to watch and could not be skipped. Game was very difficult. Leveling up was hard to do. Why would eating stuff and putting metal on you turn you into other stuff? I was confused.
5- Liked Job choices. But seriously, who names a villain X-Death? come on....
6- Was alright. Without a walkthrough however Blitz is impossible.
7- Great game, loved story, loved materia system. Loved Red XIII...who didnt?
8- Those who didnt like it...you suck. Great game, like the Magic Junction System. Cards=the bomb. Story=More da bomb.
9- Again those of you who are dumb...you suck. Probably my favorite...due to the music haha. Loved the story, it made my day. This game probably had the most, character to character developement. Loved it, absolutely loved it.
10- meh. tidas ruined the game for me. he was annoying. last boss was not hard. only great thing about it was probably blitzball, which i spent most of my time doing.
12- Liked the battle system alot. Balthier was the coolest person ever. Vaan, like tidas, sorta ruined it though. He also was annoying. and had really bad muscles/tatoos/whatever those were on his stomach.
Tactics- Fun. But needed a more, in depth story. Less always fighting more..you know, story. haha
-
3- The three i played was....interesting. The first video took a half an hour to watch and could not be skipped. Game was very difficult. Leveling up was hard to do. Why would eating stuff and putting metal on you turn you into other stuff? I was confused.
Now I'm confused. What version of 3 did you play exactly?? You make it sound like a completely different game than what I've played.
6- Was alright. Without a walkthrough however Blitz is impossible.
Or you could just look in the menu under Sabin's Blitz command, where it lists each one you've acquired and how to do it.
8- Those who didnt like it...you suck. Great game, like the Magic Junction System. Cards=the bomb. Story=More da bomb.
This is why I love the FF series: everybody has their own favorite they defend like a worried mother. I can't think of any other game series that produces such wildly differing views on its games.
Tactics- Fun. But needed a more, in depth story. Less always fighting more..you know, story. haha
See, I think FFT needed a less in-depth story, or at least a better translation. Toward the middle of the game I always give up on following the plot because it gets so needlessly complicated.
-
I just started playing 9 again last week and I can't believe how hooked I am. I blew through the first two discs in a few days and I'm getting withdrawal from not having played in a while. I just love this one.
Unfortunately, IX was the first one I ever played so, going back and trying to play VII (supposedly the best one), I just couldn't get past the graphics block. The game looked so bad that I found it difficult to engage myself in the playing.
I remember playing X once at someone's house but the volleyball turned me off.
Kingdom Hearts, if it had Final Fantasy-type battles, would have been a huge favorite of mine as I'm a big Disney fan. But I dislike games where I actually have to press square or x and be facing a certain direction, out of a 360 radius, to fight someone. My Super Nintendo-constructed mind finds three dimesnsions too difficult.
-
FF7 had the greatest music of any videogame. That one can't be argued because it has been remade dozens of times, and all the music creators became hugely famous and succesful musicians in japan. The music was purely fantastic. That doesn't mean that other games don't have some better music, it just means that FF7 had the best music grouped together
While most is opinion, some is based on facts that are plain wrong. As far as the "remade" dozens of times, a lot of the soundtrack was actually remade from prior games. The obvious standout is Prelude, which has been in every Final Fantasy ever. Less obvious is that Aeris' theme is actually a good bit of homage to Celes' theme from Final Fantasy VI.
Overall, I'd say that VI had the absolute best music of the series, far and away. The Ending Theme is my single favorite Final Fantasy track (Though it's kinda cheating as it's a medly of all the character themes) and I feel it has the strongest overall soundtrack with standouts like the Figaro theme, the Opera, Dancing Mad (Check out the Black Mages version for a treat), the boss music, Shadow's theme, etc...There really isn't a single piece of bland music in that game.
-
alright i'll give you that six did have a pretty badass soundtrack. idk i still like 9 more. but you know what i dont care like senselessly arguing on this haha
-
mystic quest = pure awesome, I love that game
FF3 (US version for SNES, I think it's 6 in Japan) = more than awesome. This is by far the best final fantasy game ever made. Both the game play and story will never be better.
FF9 = I could play this game forever and half. I love that it's simple. You have time to fool around and play mini-games to your hearts content while leveling each character easily to 99.
FF12 = worst game ever! I hate the pseudo turn-based battle system and there isn't even a good love story. Come on! The love story is what makes a Final Fantasy game legit. I'm going to pretend this game never existed.
-
Other than FFVI, the love story in each FF is shitty and hackneyed. I am so glad they didn't have one in FFXII, and the fact that you weren't forced to use the spunky, hyper hero for the entire game. As soon as I got enough characters I kicked Vaan out of my party for good. Sure you still saw him in story scenes and in towns, but the game was clearly focused on Ashe and Balthier, who are two well developed and believable characters (at least for me).
Plus basically every thing Balthier says or does in this game is cooler than throwing ice cubes at Satan. When you get to hear his backstory later in the game and find out a secret about his past, you love him all the more.
-
Man, I never actually finished the game, but I need to know...
MASSIVE SPOILERZ BELOW LOL
Do you ever get to see Balthier in Judge armor? Because I bet that is badass as hell.
SPOILERZ OVER LOL
-
The game's been out for months now, spoilers can kiss my ass.
Nah, you never see him in Judge armor. You do get to see Basche, though. Maybe it'll spring up in Revenant Wings. I'm counting the days for that one.
Also, I agree about the hackneyed love stories. I've heard people bitch relentlessly about the lack of a love story in XII and I'm glad for it. VI barely had anything romantic and what little it had worked. The closest thing they've ever had success to a real love story was the love-triangle in IV between Cecil, Rosa and Kain. It seems like the Squaresoft folks always tried to shoehorn a love story into a save the world quest and it rarely works.
Look at series like Suikoden or the Chrono games. No real love stories whatsoever and they're some of the greatest RPGs of all time.
XII was, IMO, the best Final Fantasy since VI, which shows me I can pretty much ignore the FF series until XVIII.
-
Technically, Chrono and Marle had something going on, but it was more of an innocent teenage romance than a full fledged melodrama.
-
Chrono and Marle had a single quasi-date at the fair in the game's opening and that was it, really. Chrono was completely and intentionally lacking in a personality to the most literal degree. Chrono and Marle were almost entirely platonic.
One of the problems with the Final Fantasy series is they seem almost entirely incapable, for the most part, of having a female character who doesn't have some form of romantic entanglement (Rosa/Cecil, Rydia/Edge, Celes/Locke, Terra/Leo/Edgar, Cloud/Aeries/Tifa, Squall/Rinoa/Quistis, Irvine/Selphie, Dagger/Zidane, Eiko/Zidane (I know she was in love with SOMEONE, I think it was Zidane), Beatriz/Steiner, Yuna/Tidus, Wakka/The black mage chick). Off the top of my head, Relm, Yuffie, Rikku and Penelo are the only female FF protagonists who weren't emotional cripples who couldn't survive without clinging to the notion of their love for one of the male leads (With some vague exception to Ashe, she was pining for her dead husband). And those were the four most ridiculously annoying girls/women in the entire series. It's like they can't write a believable woman who isn't fawning for someone or retarded.
-
Great Final Fantasies: 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 12, Tactics
Good Final Fantasies: 1, 3
"Bad" Final Fantasies: 2, 8, 9
N/A: 11, 10-2
Also: Chrono Trigger = Great; Chrono Cross = Good; Vagrant Story = Great
1: Also the first Final Fantasy I played, this game grabbed my imagination by the underwear when I was 11 and wouldn't let go. I was actually scared of encountering monsters, especially the elementals. The new versions are awesome, and I like the free money from the minigame.
2: Could barely play it because I hate the leveling system. This is also the same reason why I have so much trouble getting in to the Elder Scrolls games.
3: Only played a little of the NES version, but I like it. F'ing hard, but fun.
4: Awesome, actually, seems even better than 5 from a storytelling standpoint.
5: When I was playing this on an emulator I thought it was a joke. FIVE CHARACTERS? What a let-down after beating 6. But since I got it for the GBA, I got really into it because the gameplay saves it bigtime. 4 for story, 5 for gameplay.
6: And if you want both in the same game, go to 6.
7: I don't think the graphics are as bad as people make them out to be. They serve well as a vehicle for the fun gameplay and engrossing story.
8: Two things killed this for me: Drawing, and the homogeneity of the characters.
9: Two things killed this for me: the lack of human characters, and the kiddie visuals.
10: Felt similar to 7 in many ways, which is a good thing. Best FF ending I've ever seen.
12: Best gameplay I've ever been addicted to, but the story was disappointingly thin, especially the villains.
Why hate on Chrono Cross? This is a brilliant game. The visuals make FF9, which came out at the same time, look like child's play by comparison. The music is phenomenal. The story does suffer from the sheer volume of characters, but apart from that this was a real winner. Admittedly not as good as Chrono Trigger.
-
How can you, in one breath, say that VII's graphics "aren't as bad" and then say that the "kiddie" visuals in IX were a major part of what killed it for you? They look almost identical, except IX is a lot smoother.
Please tell me you're not one of those people who decided Wind Waker was a bad game before even playing it.
-
Great Final Fantasies : 6, 9, 12
Good Final Fantasies : 7, 10, 4
OK Final Fantasies : 8, 3 (DS)
N/A : 1, 2, 5, X-2
My personal favorite was Final Fantasy IX (actually seems to be a majority favorite)! :)
-
I don't think I've actuall gone through my list yet:
Great Final Fantasies: VI, XII, V
Good Final Fantasies: IX, Tactics, I
Okay Final Fantasies: IV, III (So far), VIII
Bad Final Fantasies: II, VII, X, XI
N/A: Final Fantasy X-2, Mystic Quest, Tactics Advance
Final Fantasy: I didn't start playing Final Fantasy games until around the time VIII and Anthology came out, so I just played this one recently. It was a fun distraction and overall solid. The customization was fun, but the story was, obviously, paper thin. Tenth one played.
Final Fantasy II: Played this one right after I in the GBA remakes. While the levelling wasn't as bad as people said, it was still a pain. The story was meh and the gameplay was entirely too generic. Maybe if I played it when it first came out, I might have enjoyed it, but not in this day and age. Eleventh one played.
Final Fantasy III: I never played the original and I've only clocked five or six hours on the DS remake. So far, it's been underwhelming for me. A lot of people claim it's the best of the NES Final Fantasies, but the job system is just way too simplistic for my liking. Could move up or down when I finish. Thirteenth one played.
Final Fantasy IV: This is the first "overrated Final Fantasy" to me. The storyline was incredibly underwhelming and I disliked pretty much every character. It wasn't a bad game, merely okay. Fifth one played.
Final Fantasy V: This one gets "great" for the nearly perfected job system. This is the first Final Fantasy I played all the way through. The abilities and jobs really made this one. The story was decent, but I could never get enough of the gameplay. Also, Battle on the Big Bridge has to be one of my all time favorite video game tracks. First one played.
Final Fantasy VI: I think I've already clearly established this as my favorite. I just replayed it again on the GBA and it just never gets old. The battle system is a tad generic, but the job system wouldn't have worked with the heavy amount of characters. The story and music were all but perfect and those are what I really play an RPG for, as most of the time, the gameplay is interchangable. Second one played.
Final Fantasy VII: So overrated I can't even describe it. Everything about it reeks of manufactured and artificial sub-culture "cool." Everyone's an anime/manga stereotype and a boring and two-dimensional one at that. None of the characters compelled me, the story was convoluted and rushed. It was like playing a novel that was half done and then thrown at me out of nowhere. An ending might've been nice, too. The storyline from VI saved it from its generic gameplay, but not VII. It was all the same crap all over again. Fourth one played.
Final Fantasy VIII: I'll applaud them for trying a new route with the system after so many games of the same thing, but the Junction system fell pretty flat. The story was rather cool, but it started to feel like a bit of a rush job the further towards the climax it got. Third one played.
Final Fantasy IX: I really liked this one. Usually, overly simplistic games bore me, but it was a nice departure after the last two. It kept it easy enough to follow and was just rather fun. Plus, who can really hate Vivi? Seventh one played.
Final Fantasy X: The only upside to this game was John Dimaggio voice acting in it. Beyond that, I've never hated more characters in one game. Auron bored me in his generic "badass" archetype and every other character just pissed me off in one way or another. The ability to switch out in battle was a novel idea, but overall, the same boring battle system. Meh, no thanks. Eighth one played.
Final Fantasy XI: Ugh! I've played I think six different MMOs (Star Wars Galaxies, this, City of Heroes, Everquest II, WoW and LotR Online) and this was by far the worst (Though LotR Beta was close). I had high hopes for it, but it just bored me and never gripped me. The character creation was ugly and limited, the levelling was boring and straight-forward, the setting was generic. I might've been spoiled by pre-revamp Star Wars Galaxies (I LOVED the old system and still miss it), but it was just a bad game. Ninth one played.
Final Fantasy XII: Best one since VI, easily. I'm so glad they FINALLY shook up the battle system and hope they stick with it. It's the first one I've played where power-levelling didn't feel like a chore and I actually enjoyed going out and grinding (I filled up about 3/4 of everyone's License boards before I decided I should get around to beating it). I still need to go back and do all the sidequests (I only got about half of the Espers) when I get a new PS2, but overall, I loved it. The story was underrated. I think too many people were just upset by the fact it wasn't an epic save the universe type thing, so much as a political epic. Most of the characters were actually three dimensional and likeable and I loved most of the voice acting. Plus, Balthier. Just....Balthier. Twelfth one played.
Final Fantasy Tactics; The story was great, but the combat was just way too slowly paced for me. I can't get into Turn based strategy. Sixth one played.
I haven't played MQ or T-A and I only played like half an hour of X-2 before I wanted to vomit in my mouth and gave it back to my friend.
-
My biggest complaint about FFXI isn't that they made a main series numbered FF, rather than a spin-off, into a MMORPG and didn't make it look or feel remotely like a FF. It seriously just looks like shit; I can't stand the character design and I wish they had just used designs from one of the games in the series. If they had made it so you could play as Moogles, Humans, Bangaas, half human/half esper hybrids, etc. I think the game would be much more appealing. It's like they took the ass looking character design from Crystal Chronicles and made an Everquest mod.
-
Actually, I get the feeling throwing Bangaas in would've confused the Hell out of people. They didn't pop up until Tactics Advance and XII, both post-dating XI.
-
Is it bad that I don't remember the ending to FFX, despite beating it twice? I was drunk both times. All I remember was the last boss being ridiculously easy with Auron & the main dude's final weapons. Seriously, like 400,000hps on a final boss? What the hell? Make him *hard* to beat!
I'm playing FFXII for the first time right now. It's pretty cool - the battle system reminds me a *lot* of Everquest, in an oddly nostalgic way. (I keep wishing there was a jump button.) I'm still not sold on the whole license thing yet, though. Reminds me of VII and materia - you can make every character exactly alike. I have only now found an area that has tough creatures that give good exp for leveling, and I'm 14 hours into the game. I should've found that place 7 hours ago. Plus, it's terribly difficult to get gil for spells and the like - I don't think I've ever had a problem in any FF game obtaining gil.
The whole gambit system is strange, too. I still haven't figured out how to use it effectively yet.
-
All of that stuff tends to flesh out once you figure it out. Levelling up's actually nowhere near as important as the license board. As far as licensing goes, I'd recommend getting the double LP items, throwing one on everyone and hanging out in the Estersand. Most enemies give out small amounts of LP, but these ones go down easily, so it's the quickest way to grind points.
As far as comparing it, i'd class it more along the lines of the Final Fantasy V job system. It's more complicated than the Materia system.
As for gil, start doing hunts. That's the absolute best and just about only effective way of getting gil. Aside from the money you get from the guild, you get a lot of pricey loot which adds up quick.
Gambits are useless for the first portion of the game, but later on, they're almost mandatory. Just fiddle around with it a bit and you'll catch on quickly enough. They're VERY helpful, especially when you assign healing spells.
-
My only introduction to the Final Fantasy series was FFVIII, and I found that really, really annoying. I'm not really a big fan of the whole random battles dealie. I must admit I've steered clear of the whole Japanese RPG scene apart from .hack: Infection on the PS2, which was actually pretty fun.
-
My main problem with most JRPGs is the length. FF7, which is definitely among my very favorites, could have had 1/3 of the game removed without losing much at all. The part up until you get out of Midgar is so much better than the end.
That's one of the reasons I like Lufia 2, actually. I can only think of a few areas of the game that felt unnecessary, and only one of those got on my nerves. Also it ditched random battles when in dungeons, which is a huge plus.
Re: the w-summoned knights of the round comment. To get KotR you need a gold chocobo, no? Which pretty much means the people doing ridiculous things like that are going to be the hardcore JRPG players that, were it not available, would just grind levels until they were equally invulnerable. The battle tactics available within the normal semi-casual player scope are a lot more interesting to me, although I can see why others might disagree.
FF6 is my other candidate for favorite FF game seen (I haven't played through many FF games, so my opinions on their relative merits are somewhat uneducated), but somehow it hasn't managed to engage me the same way that FF7 did. It's something about how the atmosphere of the game is built, but I can't really pinpoint what it is. Still a good game though, and pieces of it are quite exceptional (the ghost train comes to mind).
-
If you're set back by the long length and random battles, I'd recommend Chrono Trigger heavily to you. It clocks in at maybe fifteen hours and there are no random battles. It has high replayability with the, I think, fourteen endings.
The first two Suikoden games are very short, as well. Under twenty hours. There are random battles, though.
Me, I've always preferred length in RPGs. If I'm going to drop my money on something, it'd best take me a good while to finish it the first time through, as they're not particularly high for replay value. Two of my favorite RPG's of the PS2 era took me immense amounts of time to finish: Suikoden III (70 hours) and Final Fantasy XII (82 hours).
The problem with the amount of time it takes to beat VII is the horrible pacing of battles. All the most powerful and useful attacks had those immense and unskippable cinematics. I can't be the only person who's cast 4x Knights of the Round and then walked away to make a sandwhich. Thankfully, they've learned their lesson and made the cinematics skippable.
-
If you're set back by the long length and random battles, I'd recommend Chrono Trigger heavily to you. It clocks in at maybe fifteen hours and there are no random battles. It has high replayability with the, I think, fourteen endings.
The first two Suikoden games are very short, as well. Under twenty hours. There are random battles, though.
Me, I've always preferred length in RPGs. If I'm going to drop my money on something, it'd best take me a good while to finish it the first time through, as they're not particularly high for replay value. Two of my favorite RPG's of the PS2 era took me immense amounts of time to finish: Suikoden III (70 hours) and Final Fantasy XII (82 hours).
The problem with the amount of time it takes to beat VII is the horrible pacing of battles. All the most powerful and useful attacks had those immense and unskippable cinematics. I can't be the only person who's cast 4x Knights of the Round and then walked away to make a sandwhich. Thankfully, they've learned their lesson and made the cinematics skippable.
Why does everyone speak about 4x KotR? I never used that, took to long (I have never finished the game with KotR either, just got to disc 3 =P)
I used 4x bahamut zero once by mistake, and that time I actually made a sandwitch!
I mean nobody FORCES you to use it, right? So why use it then, you sure doesn't need to do it.
(If we should talk about times I say Eden if FFVIII though, that was booooring)
-
Yeah, I don't understand why everyone bitches about 4x KotR either. KotR took forever to obtain - the walkthrough for obtaining the golden chocobo is 12 pages long! I'm going to fucking enjoy that cutscene every time it plays, 'cause damnit, it took forever to get: racing chocobos, breeding them, etc.
-
You can get a Golden Chocobo by beating the weapon monster poking out of the desert by Golden Saucer (Ruby, I think?). It's a bitch and a half without the shit you need said Golden Chocobo to get, but it can be done. Basically just power-level the shit out of one character, kill off the other two before battle and rail on him.
I did it that way as I'm a little bit of a completionist but would rather slit my wrists while listening to Dashboard Confessional covers than put any time into Chocobo racing.
The KotR thing was just an extreme example, though. Almost every useful skill ends up taking fuckin' forever sit through. It's even worse in VIII where you can't get full power out of a summon unless you sit through it mashing the square button.
Could always be worse, though. Xenosaga made me want to vomit. I actually dozed off during a cut scene and woke up before it was over.
-
No way is Chrono Trigger only 15 hours your first time through. It's definitely a brisk RPG, but it's not THAT sure. Fuck, the God of War games are about 10-15 hours long.
Funny Obsessions mention Suikoden III and FFXII being long PS2 RPGs, because those are my two favorite PS2 RPGs and I didn't even notice how long they were. The final dungeon in FFXII did have me thinking "this is taking too long!!" but seeing as how the last area of the game is basically three or four boss fights in a row with no dungeon to slog through, I'd say it was paced extraordinarily well. As for Suikoden III, I put so much time into the game because I followed a walkthrough to get everything in the game. It's well worth the 80 hour investment, especially when you get to play Luc's scenario as a reward for getting all 108 characters.
-
I never had the innordinate amount of trouble some of my friends reported with certain bosses in Chrono Trigger. I managed to finish it in about fifteen hours my first time, through.
As for the length mention with the latter two, that's not meant as a knock in the slightest. I felt pretty much the same as you. Until I played Suikoden V, Suikoden III was far and away my favorite RPG since Final Fantasy VI. Then, once I'd finished Suikoden V, I moved on to Final Fantasy XII, which I actually preferred to the Suikoden V.
Everything about III delighted me and led to a great deal of my disappointment in IV. One of my primary interests in the Suikoden series is all the little connections to previous installments. When IV came around and all it really had was Vicki, Jeanne and Ted, it lost my interest in the awful play mechanics. It had so many missed opportunities on characters they could've thrown in. Neclord and Yuber are both immortal and known to be active with Landy Windy at the time. III had me going for every single minute, especially when Luc was revealed. I always did think he was a total dick. Luc's scenario went a long way to giving me understanding into his character, though. I loved the three story system for the fact it gave an unprecedented amount of characterization to so many characters with the shifting focus. The only thing that would've made it better would be some Flik and Victor (With that in mind, where the fuck is the Star Dragon Sword lately?). V was even better somehow. Had the classic feel of the first two down to a science.
Final Fantasy XII bored the Hell out of me for the first few hours, but the second Balthier shows up, it kicks into gear and doesn't stop. I'm chomping at the bit for Revenant Wings.
-
Suikoden IV isn't just the worst game in the series, it's also a bad game in general. Other series, you can point to certain entries as not your favorite, but they aren't bad games necessarily. Suikoden IV, though, is just a bad game.
-
9 remains my favorite FF! I just loved the game. It had.
-Great, likable characters.
-A card game I liked.
-Chocobo Hot and cold game
-Steiner and Beatrix (one of my favorite RPG Romances)
-a great world to place the game in, I still love the city of Lindblum
-too much more to mention
As far as 8 is concerned, I didn't think it was bad, but I could never really get myself to really like most of the main characters (Like you guys, I thought Quistis was pretty hot, but there where times, especially around the time she was removed as a teacher, that I thought she was too mopey, and self pitying). But I will say that if they ever make a game of Laguna's adventures, I will be first in line for it. Laguna was my favorite character in it, and I actually liked him and his friends far more than the main cast. I think my problem with the main cast was crystallized by the orphanage background, which came absolutely out of nowhere, and felt extremely forced. Graphins wise it was good to see Square trying new things, but I think they went too far to soon.
As for Squall, I'm reminded of something I heard once. One of 7's maor selling points was the idea that Cloud was a grim loner, with a dark nature. He wasn't. Outside of him being rather rude to Avalanche in the beginning, he was actually a pretty nice guy through most of the game. Someone once said that Squall is what they were originally shooting for with Cloud.
-
Actually they made Cloud and Squall to appeal to the sub-group of men who are loners who don't say much and hate themselves and humanity, and would be cured if they could get some action, only they're too busy being misanthropic, ego-centric to realize some girl actively wants their nuts--sometimes even more than one.
At least that was my impression.
-
Actually they made Cloud and Squall to appeal to the sub-group of men who are loners who don't say much and hate themselves and humanity, and would be cured if they could get some action, only they're too busy being misanthropic, ego-centric to realize some girl actively wants their nuts--sometimes even more than one.
At least that was my impression.
Oh. Damn... I love those games and Cloud and Squall alike. Cloud because of the guilt he put on himself made him seem so human and Squall just because of he was such a moron =P (I do NOT identify myself with any of them though).
But to cite Squall...
"...whatever"