The Final Fantasy Series

[Smues]

Until 13 finally comes out (next year?) and will probably need it's own thread I figured I'd start one for discussing the rest of the series.

I've started playing FFVIII again, for probably the 213th time. I'm playing it on the PSP via the PS3, so at least my PS3 is getting some use, after I dusted it off. I know FFVIII is an incredibly polarizing game, but I like it. Had I not been an angsty lonely teenager like Squall back when I first played the game it's quite possible that I wouldn't like it, but I was and so I do. It also has a bitching soundtrack.

And of course, an anti-magic field!
Doctor insano! [election and the anti magic field generator]
(skip to 2:52)

 

[Molotov The Bear]

I don't know, most everyone I've ever talked to about the Final Fantasy series loves FFVIII. It's definitely one of my favorite of the FF series. I haven't played all of the series as I've only played 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (and 10-2), 12, I'd put 8 near the top as one of the best.

 

[Jingus]

I've never played 8. Heard bad things about it back when it came out, never got around to seeing for myself. Never played 2 or 3, nor much of 5; never got around to any of the Tactics series either. Played all the others though, yes even god-damned Mystic Quest. (I'm assuming we're not counting the Gameboy "Final Fantasy Legend" games, which were imported from some other series and had the FF label slapped onto them afterwards.)

Most people will of course pick 6 as the best, and it's hard not to argue. Others will make a case for 7, or even 9. I'll always have a big soft spot for 4, since it was the first RPG I played which had actual dialogue and characters which went beyond the standard 8-bit avatars. But it's not my favorite: myself, I fell in love with the odd one: 10. It's incredibly strange for me to play any video game which goes into surprisingly deep philosophical consideration on questions of religion of all damn things. It didn't really feel like a Final Fantasy game, with the odd plot and atypical settings and basically having Godzilla as the lead heel. But I really liked the different stuff they were trying to do with that one.

I actually just picked 12 up again tonight. Anyone got any tips for good ways to grind a bunch of levels before you get other people in your party besides the main dude? I noticed that all your new player characters start out at the same level you're currently at, and rotating all six people around to gain experience once you've picked up everyone is a tedious chore. Some teasing bastards at Gamefaqs have mentioned there are some good quick-level-up techniques early on, but never explained what any of them were.

 

[Sabre]

God i hated the promotion for FFVIII, they not once showed actual gameplay, it was all just the ballroom dance which at the time looked lovely.

 

[Obi Chris Kenobi]

I didn't mind FF8 once again it going, the card game was pretty fun - actually, I might play it later on!

 

[Black Lushus]

I actually choked up like a little bitch at the end of X...what the fuck man!

 

[Sabre]

I actually choked up like a little bitch at the end of X...what the fuck man!

Play FFX-2 and question your sexuality.

 

[Jingus]

X-2 was the only FF game of the Playstation era that I rented and subsequently did not bother buying. I made it through the first 1/3 of the game, and it was just pure crap the whole time. Hated the Pretty Princess Dressup job/experience system, hated the J-pop soundtrack, hated the entire "we're marketing this exclusively towards the Sailor Moon demographic" feel of the thing. Plus, the way that people treated Yuna was just dumbfounding. "Sure, you may have almost singlehandedly saved the entire world permanently and ended our most grievous suffering... and that don't mean SHIT to me! You better go sell these balloons/dig in the sand for junk/kill the shy one-legged imps which are bedeviling our this town/advertise my popsicle stand/any other random dumbass request I have, or else you can just go fuck yourself." I understand they were going for a The Turks-like Goon Squad B feel with Leblanc and her goons, but you kicked her ass so many times that it got ridiculous: "Ha ha, you might have defeated us in the seventeen previous times we have fought, but for some reason this time it will be different! Destroy them, my two pathetic and repeated-demonstrably incompetent flunkies!" Also: Lulu is sitting around waiting to pop out a fucking-trophy, while you're stuck with goddamn helium-voiced Rikku as one of your main characters? Do not want, motherfucker.

 

[Sabre]

Sadly I bought X-2 on its release as i had just finished X. It felt completely like Yuna was on an Emo trip gagging to find Tidus again. I have mixed views on the game being viewed as a prequal to FFVII with Shinra starting to question using the farplane as an energy source (even one of the FF guys said its possible).

The dressphere idea was fucking stupid, but who cares i got the good ending

 

[Youth N Asia]

Sorry, I'm not going to use the Japanese numbers. 4 is 2 to me.

Love the series for the most part.

Played the hell out of the first game when I was a kid, but never beat it till probably 7 or 8 years ago when I made up my mind I was going to see it through. Easy as cake when I went through it that time.

II and III for the SNES are always going to be classics. 3 was so open ended that it really made 2 look like much lesser of a game than it was. After the world falls apart in 3 and you just start with the one character and have to find you team, that was a lot of fun.

VII...never played it through to the end. Got at the end, but never really cared to finish it. Maybe one day.

Never played VIII or IX

X...loved it. I know a lot of people didn't The game play wasn't as open, you were pretty much lead to where you had to go through most of the game. The fighting mechanics, graphics, voice acting, and story were all great. I loved Sin as a bad guy, even though he was easy at the end. I could see replaying this one years down the line.

Started X-2, but got bored and never gave it an honest shot.

 

[Star Ocean 2]

Sorry, I'm not going to use the Japanese numbers. 4 is 2 to me.

except those are the actual numbers because it's the correct order of the series.

and nintendo or square just chose not to release a few of them here

and since then they've been ported to gba and ds with the correct numbers

and if 4 is 2 than 7 must be 4

 

[Youth N Asia]

Sorry, I'm not going to use the Japanese numbers. 4 is 2 to me.

except those are the actual numbers because it's the correct order of the series.

and nintendo or square just chose not to release a few of them here

and since then they've been ported to gba and ds with the correct numbers

and if 4 is 2 than 7 must be 4

No...I like my way better

I have Final Fantasy II sitting on my shelf, I'm staring right at it. I'm calling them what I know em as. (I played the real FF2 on DS, and it sucked)

 

[Black Lushus]

6 was my first real taste...loved it, of course. I went to play the previous ones but just couldn't get in to them enough to stick with them.

7 was pretty good. Not as good as 6.

8, too emo, I didn't like the leveling up system, the junction system, all that shit.

Never played 9.

10, I loved.

That's where the Final Fantasy journey ends for me.

 

[Star Ocean 2]

Sorry, I'm not going to use the Japanese numbers. 4 is 2 to me.

except those are the actual numbers because it's the correct order of the series.

and nintendo or square just chose not to release a few of them here

and since then they've been ported to gba and ds with the correct numbers

and if 4 is 2 than 7 must be 4

and you said Japanese numbers like it's some weird foreign thing, but they're Japanese games to begin with.

and the numbers have since conformed to the correct order

 

[Youth N Asia]

I said II and III...and I mentioned SNES. Should be no confusion

 

[Sabre]

Whats everyones views on FFXII, i have the leaked beta and have never played it.

 

[vivisectvi]

I haven't bought a "main" FF game since 8. I might actually go for 13 when it comes out next year.

 

[daileyxplanet]

Mega64: Final Fantasy XII

 

[Smues]

Whats everyones views on FFXII, i have the leaked beta and have never played it.

Never actually finished it but I'm at the last dungeon. The gameplay mechanics are great, the world is vast, and there's a lot of side stuff to do. Getting strong enough to kill all the monster hunt monsters takes forever for example.

The only real downside is that there's practically zero in the way of character development, and the main story never really hooked me either. It's still certainly worth a play though.

 

[Smues]

Re: FFX-2. First direct sequel to a Final Fantasy game and it turns out to be Final Fantasy X-2: Charlies Angels. Ugg.

Yes I own it, yes I've played it all the way through...more than once. But it's pretty awful, even if it didn't have the Final Fantasy name. WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU?

 

[Sabre]

I was just thinking about X-2 just now and remembered the pop concert in the middle of the Thunder Plains. Who the fuck thought it would be a good place to host a concert there.

 

[Molotov The Bear]

XII is a great game. I actually like the story for the most part, up until you get alittle past halfway through the game, then the character development/any sort of real plot just sort of... dies. That's the only real problem with it. The battle system, which when playing the demo I thought I'd hate, is actually pretty good, and the sidequests like the monster hunts are alot of fun.

Never actually finished it but I'm at the last dungeon.

The last dungeon is lame. My buddy and I ran through it in an hour and a half and didn't die once. The boss battles are fun but the final battle is lame for all the buildup to it. The ending's... alright.

It's overall a great game though.

 

[Psycho Penguin]

I reviewed and FAQed most of them on GameFAQs. Love this series.

1 is an awesome game for its time. I really liked it, even if the GBA one was too easy. It's fun to play once in a while.

2 is horrible. The level up system was just atrocious.

3 is one of my favorites, and the DS remake is pretty ace too.

4 is not quite as good as 3 to me, but I enjoyed how it focused more on a pretty good storyline, a first for the FF series really. I did not like how your party was set for the entire game, making for less options.

5 had the same party the entire game, but the job system returned and I loved it.

6 and 7 are bona fide classics and 2 of my favorite games ever.

8 is not very good to me. I liked the music and some gameplay aspects, but the drawing magic/junction threw me off.

9 was a big bounce back and I remember being hyped for this game and it not letting me down.

10 is a GREAT GREAT fucking game. Whoever disagrees is wrong. The best storyline in the series, the best ending, and some of the best gameplay. Tidus is a whiny little bitch, but the other stuff is brilliant.

X-2 was fucking ridiculous and one of the worst true sequels int he history of anything. Although I will give it credit for a great battle system, some kick ass music, and the dressphere system was pretty cool.

Basically, I like the series except 2, X-2 and somewhat, 8.

 

[Cerebus The Aardvark]

I'm a weird one, I guess. I find IV, IX, X, and XII to be the four best games overall, with VII and X-2 definitely being the worst. The rest are pretty much all the same to me. Of note is that I find VI to be horrifically overrated. I remember being thrilled to get it for Christmas when it came out and just never found it to be more than medicore, even after several playthroughs. Everything about it was, IMO, inferior to IV, and I have never understood the adoration the game has.

I like XII an awful lot, as the story isn't the complete insanity (mostly) that the last few have been (clones, memory loss, etc.), I like the battle and gambit system, the Hunt mini-game is awesome, and the characters typically don't make me want tp punch babies.

I am not as interested in XIII as I have been for previous games, but I guess we'll see what happens there.

 

[HSJ]

I loved VIII, but the constant boss-changing and the stupid "enemies level up with Squall" make it shit. I didn't mind the Draw system or the card game, either.

 

[Jingus]

XII is interesting just because of how different it is. It's designed more like a MMORPG-type world which has been adapted for single-person use, which takes a while to get used to if you're an old turn-based RPG fan like myself. The story is indeed much less outlandish than usual, but it also seems just... less than usual. We barely get to know most of the characters, and most of the plot consists of endless travelling from one place to another. And I'd say maybe 10% of the game involves plot; the rest is ENDLESS levelling-up, because it's definitely one of those games where you can accidentally step into the wrong are and get killed DAMN quick by the new enemies. However, for whatever reason I do actually kinda like ye olde level grind, and it is nice to play a FF game where it doesn't stop every two minutes for a three-minute cutscene.

The last dungeon is lame. My buddy and I ran through it in an hour and a half and didn't die once. The boss battles are fun but the final battle is lame for all the buildup to it. The ending's... alright.

Maybe you were just at a much higher level than me, but I was gettin' my ass kicked in the last dungeon. Specialty enemies like the Tonberry were bad enough, but those regular monsters on the last leg of the run to Sephiroth were actually harder than the final boss. I died more times just trying to reach Sephy than by his hands.

And the ending... sigh. I think it's been thoroughly beaten into the ground that Final Fantasy VII has a real piece of shit for the end, a maddeningly anti-closure and cliffhangery "finale" which was so damn vague that they eventually made an entire feature-length animated movie partly just to explain what the hell happened.

 

[909]

XII is my least favorite. No story to speak of. Honestly I'd rather play World of Warcraft and I don't mean that in a good way.

 

[vivisectvi]

Speaking of bad FF games.. Anyone remember Mystic Quest on SNES? *shudder*

I beat that one the same night I got it.

 

[Psycho Penguin]

Speaking of bad FF games.. Anyone remember Mystic Quest on SNES? *shudder*

I beat that one the same night I got it.

Fuck you! Brilliant game. Seriously. It was short and easy.. but it was supposed to be. It's not like it was supposed to be anything but that. It's like playing FF12 and being mad that it's a 70 hour epic. And the soundtrack was awesome as hell.

I loved VIII, but the constant boss-changing and the stupid "enemies level up with Squall" make it shit. I didn't mind the Draw system or the card game, either.

I didn't mind the leveling up system. It made junctions and equipment much more important than they had any right to be. Strategy is always appreciated in a RPG for me.

 

[Sabre]

Whats your views on Crisis Core?