One thing I could never comprehend about Final Fantasy was the name of this franchise itself. Giving of how many game titles, movies, TV shows and whatnot it spawned, surely the franchise should be renamed into Countably Infinite Fantasy!
Well, the name actually comes from what things were around when they were making the first Final Fantasy game...
It was going to be Squaresofts last game because they were just about bankrupt and all... So they named it Final Fantasy, it became a huge success, and then they started making sort of sequals to it... Almost none of the games are connected to each other by story... Only the ones with a "-2" in the end like "XIII-2".
I grew up playing these games. I haven't kept up with the later games, but the nostalgia is very endearing. 4, 6, and the Tactics series are my favorites.
I am excited to hear they are releasing an iOS version of Final Fantasy 6 in the coming months.
my first final fantasy was FF8, we didn't have a console when me and my brothers were younger so we played it on the PC, it was only when i started getting my own money is when i started buying consoles and older games and now 6 is my favorite, my old favorite used to be FFX but me and my friend spent the time walking into town (roughly an hours walk from my house) picking apart the plot.
my two most hated final fantasy games are 7 and 12 i hate them with a burning passion.
oh and i own all the main ones i dont count -2 as proper final fantasy games and i only dabbled in the "sidequels" such as final fantasy legend for the game boy where there was a glitch in the game and everything was weak to fire....including ifrit....the fire demon: but my list and console:
final fantasy 1&2 for GBA (dawn of souls) 3&4 for the DS (apparently the hardest versions) 5,6,7,8,9 for the play station 10,12 for ps2 13 for Xbox
im not counting 11 and 14 as they are pay to play MMORPGS and thus dont count, if they were free to play i might have bought them.
FF6 - Loved it, great cast, great story, great villain. The only one to succeed in destroying the world. FF7 - Loved it, great storyline, messed up main character, great magic system, great villain (though slightly fetishised by now) FF8 - Ehhh not so much. The mechanics are bizarre (spend hours draining magic to make your characters stronger but casting it makes them weaker) and the villain is a sorceress in a sorceress through a sorceress...or something. FF9 - Loved it, great characters, my favorite style in a Final Fantasy, plot's a little too lineair (yes, even for a Final Fantasy game) but it's a good plot nevertheless even though it turns into a serious acid trip 2/3's through. FF12 - Couldn't get into the main character or into the new gameplay style, or the 'auto-play your character' system. I don't see how making a system that requires the player to play your game less is a good one. FF13 - Cool setting, though very confusing storyline and the battle system was completely pointless to me, extrapolating on what I already didn't like about FF12.
Haven't played FF10 though I'm told it's excellent by someone who usually shares my tastes so I'm moving on to that after finishing up my current run of FF9.
FFX's battle system is more turn based like the old school final fantasy games. best combat system without a doubt. there is a bar on the side of the screen that tells you the turn order and it changes depending on what you do, using an item is faster so (usually) your character will use an item and get an extra turn immediately after. using certain moves like quick hit means you can attack more times that usual but using your overdrive (limit-break) makes you have fewer attacks than normal but obviously its much more damaging.
you have a 3 man squad for each fight and you freely tag in the remaining characters do deal with certain monsters, for example you could tag out your black mage for your theif to quickly steal an item then when its her turn again tag the black mage back in to cast a spell. this is useful so your white mage is rarely in danger as you just have the white mage out of combat and tag in when needed, tagging in doesn't take your characters turn away it just replaces it so the tagged in character has a turn right away
I probably played FF7 more than any other game I ever had for my Playstation. There was just so much to do, so many hidden items and side quests. Once the series went non-turn based though I lost interest.
I grew up playing these games. I haven't kept up with the later games, but the nostalgia is very endearing. 4, 6, and the Tactics series are my favorites.
I am excited to hear they are releasing an iOS version of Final Fantasy 6 in the coming months.
You meant FFVI really!!! (FFVI in PSX = FFIII in SNES). Serious that @Ranger? Can you provide me with a link to your sources or the place where the game is being remade? It's the best FF from the serie!!!
Tactics is a true masterpiece. Except as soon as you acquire more than one character with spiritual sword abilities, the game becomes a cakewalk. And before that, its ridiculously hard. I haven't gotten Cloud yet, can anyone comment on whether he is OP to have on your team?
Tactics is a true masterpiece. Except as soon as you acquire more than one character with spiritual sword abilities, the game becomes a cakewalk. And before that, its ridiculously hard. I haven't gotten Cloud yet, can anyone comment on whether he is OP to have on your team?
Strangely i never liked much final fantasy tactics, what is weird cos i'm fanatic for Ogre Battle 64.
Only FF Games I suppose I haven't played enough to talk about are 11,12 and some of the side games, maybe 14, since I didn't get through the main story because grinding in that game is goddamn boring...
Of the numbered games, the only ones I didn't really like are 2, 4 and 7...
4 Isn't bad, it just feels boring, I don't know what about it does it, but I just can't enjoy it.
7... There's a lot wrong with that game... Lets start with the characters... The "main" character, cloud, he is not the main character even as much as the game wants to treat him as such... If you remove him from the game entirely, the whole story by itself does not change at all, he is not important to the plot at all, he is there just for the ride. And the game wants to try to make you care for him with his like 1 hour long romance with Aeris/Aerith...
The game gets praised for it's graphics... Which are not all that good, or were even at the time... The 3D models are laughably bad, and the 2D graphics in the backgrounds while better, were still just average... Nothing worth being amazed over.
The story, if you ignore the fact that the character shoved to your face as the main character is irrelevant and that the villain is stupid and look around, isn't all that bad... The game just fails at focusing on it all...
The only thing I could really praise about the game is it's combat system, with the materia and all that... But sadly it doesn't get utilized all that much because the game is one of the easier FF games out there... The only fights that offer any kind of actual challenge are the Ruby and Emerald Weapon... Maybe that one boss in Yuffie's quest in Wutai if you're not overleveled...
@Wikkid_Suhn It's been ages since I've played FFT, but if I remember correctly, Cloud isn't really OP, just interesting from a tactical standpoint. Kind of like how you can do crazy things with Rafa and Malak if you train their stats, game enemy positions, and roll the dice.
FF1 - Loved it so much, prefer the PS1 remake most, preserved the D&D feel and fixed all the bugs. FF2 - Also loved it, good story, improved on a lot of things, had real characters and not just "heroes of light." FF3 - OK, didn't get into it much FF4 - My personal favorite. My BG cavalier is named Cecil after the protagonist FF4 The After Years - Also excellent game, not as good but I was so happy a sequel came out. FF5 - A lot of people love this one for the job system. I kind of hate the job system. But it was solid. FF6 - A masterpiece, not my favorite but still excellent. Loved the opera scene, probably the best characters in the franchise. FF7 - My introduction to the FF series and my third favorite. Great story, I get the impression it was haphazardly assembled and things just happened to turn out fantastic. FF Tactics - Masterpiece game, not flawless but still genius. It was D&D 4.0 before it existed, except you got to play all the characters instead of just one, which is why it works. FF8 - I hated this game over and over again. I thought the GF system was so unnecessarily convoluted. And it was. But once I got the hang of it, the game was excellent, and I like that it actually discouraged grinding. FF9 - My second favorite after FF4. Great characters, wonderful feel, love the return to the fantasy setting. The only reason it's my second favorite is because I think it starts to suck a bit when they go to space. FF10 - My least favorite of the first 10. I think this is where FF started to go in the wrong direction. I know a lot of people who love it, but I did not. The characters are boring and the plot's pretty nonsensical in my opinion. FF12 - One of the most visually stunning games I have ever played. But most big American RPGs did what they were trying to do better. They should have stayed linear. They were good at it.
I like FF2 for being the best failed experiment out of all of the games. You have to kind of admire the willingness to try something very different gameplay-wise in the second game in the series, even if it didn't work out all that well.
My own FF awards:
FF5 - Best Recurring Boss FF6 - Best Ensemble Cast FF7 - Best Use of an Unreliable Narrator FFT - Most Mature Plot FF9 - Best Panache (also really like this soundtrack) FF10 - Best Ending (up until -2 at least) FF12 - Best use of a pre-existing setting FF13 - Favorite combat system
That last one might be the most controversial, but I liked the quick pace and tactical choices of FF13's combat. If the series is going to insist on keeping the grindy random encounters along (and they will, it's a major tool for padding out the gameplay), at least they can make them interesting.
Tactics is a true masterpiece. Except as soon as you acquire more than one character with spiritual sword abilities, the game becomes a cakewalk. And before that, its ridiculously hard. I haven't gotten Cloud yet, can anyone comment on whether he is OP to have on your team?
Cloud starts at level 1, so at first he's worthless. When you get his materia blade, however, he can use his various skills and becomes very versatile. Certainly not the strongest character. Ramza, Orlandeu, and Meliadoul, or any Dark Knight (in the PSP game) will obviously be more powerful. In my latest run, I'm working on getting one Dark Knight, not letting Ramza use his Squire class, and won't be using Orlandeu, Agrias, or Meliadoul. Made a bunch of custom units named after some RL friends of mine, as I do in all tactical JRPGs.
FF VII was great- but can't remember why FF VIII was great- I think its the one with the cool card game. FF X was the best thing ever on ps 2 - the perfect ff game Imho - atleast the combat was FF 12 was decent - I didn't like that you could build all your characters the same way, and the combat felt strange FF 12< WHAT THE..bad bad bad I'm not lieing when I say that I beat 80% off ffXIII by only spamming my x button. setup spam x, thats it.
i think the story has dissolved over time from intense fantasy drama to....action game, dont get it? let me give you examples:
but first: GIANT SPOILER ALERT, RETREAT NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW, THIS IS YOUR FIRST AND LAST WARNING.......ABANDON THREAD IF YOU HAVE TO!!!!!!!!!!
*ahem*
in final fantasy 6 when you learn that terra is half esper and goes on a rampage, the other characters reaction is: ".....now what do we do?" the fact that they react by not know how to react really gives the characters a more human look, we didnt see it coming and neither did they. and that breif time without terra ill admit scared me. my terra was a beast and was both my black and white mage which at that point in the game genuinely terrified me which meant i wanted terra back more than the characters did.
compare that to final fantasy 10: when yuna gets kidnapped there was no real loss because A: yuna wasn't the main character (more so than tidus but thats another argument altogether) B: she kinda brought it upon her self by not sending seymour after the first time you kill him, and C: the characters react too quickly and the story moves on for the fact you dont have yuna with you to really sink in it pretty much goes like this: "yuna's gone...found her, shes in bevelle lets go get her"
or in final fantasy 12 where penelo gets kidnapped from the justicar and 30 seconds later your storming the air ship after her?
and for final fantasy 13 the party split up all the time so nothing really sunk in
My party felt a great deal of loss without a healer, if only for a little while. TT_TT
Then again, this is coming from the girl who couldn't figure out that Rikku was the only one with the ability to use Al-Bhed potions... And by then, I had 99 of them...
your picking a part of my comment and not the whole lot, besides a wht magic sphere turns lulu into a cure machine anyway, just not as good as lulu and as i mentioned before you go through 1 boss battle without her (zombie evrae doesn't count as pheonix down = instant win) so again there isnt a real loss, in final fantasy 6 the characters are unsure of when they will get terra back so you yourself are unsure. in final fantasy 10 though they go after her instantly so your not missing her a whole lot...plus she goes missing alot so i gave everyone cure so i could use cure more times than yuna out of battle with all my other unused characters.
Cloud starts at level 1, so at first he's worthless. When you get his materia blade, however, he can use his various skills and becomes very versatile. Certainly not the strongest character. Ramza, Orlandeu, and Meliadoul, or any Dark Knight (in the PSP game) will obviously be more powerful. In my latest run, I'm working on getting one Dark Knight, not letting Ramza use his Squire class, and won't be using Orlandeu, Agrias, or Meliadoul. Made a bunch of custom units named after some RL friends of mine, as I do in all tactical JRPGs.
I may have to try Cloud out then on my next run. But I think you're crazy if you think you can beat that Cardinal guy without Agrias. The others, sure, they make the game too easy at the end. But how do you not play Agrias?
your picking a part of my comment and not the whole lot, besides a wht magic sphere turns lulu into a cure machine anyway, just not as good as lulu and as i mentioned before you go through 1 boss battle without her (zombie evrae doesn't count as pheonix down = instant win) so again there isnt a real loss, in final fantasy 6 the characters are unsure of when they will get terra back so you yourself are unsure. in final fantasy 10 though they go after her instantly so your not missing her a whole lot...plus she goes missing alot so i gave everyone cure so i could use cure more times than yuna out of battle with all my other unused characters.
Hey, it's okay. I was just poking fun, didn't mean to press any buttons. Truthfully I haven't played 10 in a long time and I only have a brief experience with 6, so I really don't have much to argue your point with. I just remember wandering lost in the desert and getting killed by random encounters over and over again right after I lost Yuna, and crying at the walls in utter frustration. I'm by no means the smartest person to beat the game.
Truth be told, it's the only Final Fantasy I've beaten... *lowers head in shame once more*
9's actually my favorite, since it was my first. I loved the theatrical charm and the card game. The only reason I never beat it is because I had awful luck, purchasing two copies that never wanted to load past the first disk. TT_TT
I've only played the first game (on NES no less) and FF7. FF7 holds the distinction of being the only game to make me cry like a young child (unless you count visual novels, which I don't count as really being games). I might be exaggerating, but I swear it took me at least an hour to fully calm down after watching that death.
@Nonnahswriter ahh fair enough im not used to internet context, because im usually arguing on the internet because im stubborn like that ^_^
8 is the easiest to beat and 10 has the worst final boss ever, me and final fantasy 9 don't like each other, i bought it for dirt cheap, played 4 hours straight, went to save and my memory card was full......i wasn't best pleased
I agree the final boss of FFX isn't the best, but the monster arena thing is really fun and there are other bosses in that game that are very interesting, IMO.
I really liked FFX for its story, though I felt like Seymour was a superfluous part of it (c'mon Square, just once make a Final Fantasy without a sneering nihilistic villain). To me the final boss battles have never been a selling point for the series. Kefka and Sephiroth were great villains with great musical themes, but they both went down like punks in the end; FFV's Exdeath could be killed by literally throwing money at him. FF9's final boss just came out of left field and then you kill him (though once again, great music).
I really liked FFX for its story, though I felt like Seymour was a superfluous part of it (c'mon Square, just once make a Final Fantasy without a sneering nihilistic villain). To me the final boss battles have never been a selling point for the series. Kefka and Sephiroth were great villains with great musical themes, but they both went down like punks in the end; FFV's Exdeath could be killed by literally throwing money at him. FF9's final boss just came out of left field and then you kill him (though once again, great music).
I'd say FF9's boss was fitting with the series' one overarching theme. The final boss is almost always some horror brought on by the hubris of mortals.
Comments
It was going to be Squaresofts last game because they were just about bankrupt and all... So they named it Final Fantasy, it became a huge success, and then they started making sort of sequals to it... Almost none of the games are connected to each other by story... Only the ones with a "-2" in the end like "XIII-2".
I am excited to hear they are releasing an iOS version of Final Fantasy 6 in the coming months.
my two most hated final fantasy games are 7 and 12 i hate them with a burning passion.
oh and i own all the main ones i dont count -2 as proper final fantasy games and i only dabbled in the "sidequels" such as final fantasy legend for the game boy where there was a glitch in the game and everything was weak to fire....including ifrit....the fire demon: but my list and console:
final fantasy 1&2 for GBA (dawn of souls)
3&4 for the DS (apparently the hardest versions)
5,6,7,8,9 for the play station
10,12 for ps2
13 for Xbox
im not counting 11 and 14 as they are pay to play MMORPGS and thus dont count, if they were free to play i might have bought them.
FF7 - Loved it, great storyline, messed up main character, great magic system, great villain (though slightly fetishised by now)
FF8 - Ehhh not so much. The mechanics are bizarre (spend hours draining magic to make your characters stronger but casting it makes them weaker) and the villain is a sorceress in a sorceress through a sorceress...or something.
FF9 - Loved it, great characters, my favorite style in a Final Fantasy, plot's a little too lineair (yes, even for a Final Fantasy game) but it's a good plot nevertheless even though it turns into a serious acid trip 2/3's through.
FF12 - Couldn't get into the main character or into the new gameplay style, or the 'auto-play your character' system. I don't see how making a system that requires the player to play your game less is a good one.
FF13 - Cool setting, though very confusing storyline and the battle system was completely pointless to me, extrapolating on what I already didn't like about FF12.
Haven't played FF10 though I'm told it's excellent by someone who usually shares my tastes so I'm moving on to that after finishing up my current run of FF9.
you have a 3 man squad for each fight and you freely tag in the remaining characters do deal with certain monsters, for example you could tag out your black mage for your theif to quickly steal an item then when its her turn again tag the black mage back in to cast a spell. this is useful so your white mage is rarely in danger as you just have the white mage out of combat and tag in when needed, tagging in doesn't take your characters turn away it just replaces it so the tagged in character has a turn right away
Not to forget FF Tactics either. LOVED that game!
Of the numbered games, the only ones I didn't really like are 2, 4 and 7...
4 Isn't bad, it just feels boring, I don't know what about it does it, but I just can't enjoy it.
7... There's a lot wrong with that game...
Lets start with the characters... The "main" character, cloud, he is not the main character even as much as the game wants to treat him as such... If you remove him from the game entirely, the whole story by itself does not change at all, he is not important to the plot at all, he is there just for the ride. And the game wants to try to make you care for him with his like 1 hour long romance with Aeris/Aerith...
The game gets praised for it's graphics... Which are not all that good, or were even at the time... The 3D models are laughably bad, and the 2D graphics in the backgrounds while better, were still just average... Nothing worth being amazed over.
The story, if you ignore the fact that the character shoved to your face as the main character is irrelevant and that the villain is stupid and look around, isn't all that bad... The game just fails at focusing on it all...
The only thing I could really praise about the game is it's combat system, with the materia and all that... But sadly it doesn't get utilized all that much because the game is one of the easier FF games out there... The only fights that offer any kind of actual challenge are the Ruby and Emerald Weapon... Maybe that one boss in Yuffie's quest in Wutai if you're not overleveled...
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-10-10-final-fantasy-6-is-heading-to-ios-and-android-this-winter
(edited quotation)
On the NES/Famicom, there was 1, 2 and 3... While 1 is good, 3 is just a better game than it is... 2 was just... bad.
The SNES had 4, 5 and 6... 6 is possibly the best game in the entire series, so yea...
The ps1 had 7, 8 and 9... 9 is the best of those easily.
ps2... 10, 11 and 12... From what little I tried 12, it was better than 10 is...
But the current one, 13 and 14... Well, a rather boring MMO grind is not really better than 13...
FF2 - Also loved it, good story, improved on a lot of things, had real characters and not just "heroes of light."
FF3 - OK, didn't get into it much
FF4 - My personal favorite. My BG cavalier is named Cecil after the protagonist
FF4 The After Years - Also excellent game, not as good but I was so happy a sequel came out.
FF5 - A lot of people love this one for the job system. I kind of hate the job system. But it was solid.
FF6 - A masterpiece, not my favorite but still excellent. Loved the opera scene, probably the best characters in the franchise.
FF7 - My introduction to the FF series and my third favorite. Great story, I get the impression it was haphazardly assembled and things just happened to turn out fantastic.
FF Tactics - Masterpiece game, not flawless but still genius. It was D&D 4.0 before it existed, except you got to play all the characters instead of just one, which is why it works.
FF8 - I hated this game over and over again. I thought the GF system was so unnecessarily convoluted. And it was. But once I got the hang of it, the game was excellent, and I like that it actually discouraged grinding.
FF9 - My second favorite after FF4. Great characters, wonderful feel, love the return to the fantasy setting. The only reason it's my second favorite is because I think it starts to suck a bit when they go to space.
FF10 - My least favorite of the first 10. I think this is where FF started to go in the wrong direction. I know a lot of people who love it, but I did not. The characters are boring and the plot's pretty nonsensical in my opinion.
FF12 - One of the most visually stunning games I have ever played. But most big American RPGs did what they were trying to do better. They should have stayed linear. They were good at it.
And that is where I stopped playing.
My own FF awards:
FF5 - Best Recurring Boss
FF6 - Best Ensemble Cast
FF7 - Best Use of an Unreliable Narrator
FFT - Most Mature Plot
FF9 - Best Panache (also really like this soundtrack)
FF10 - Best Ending (up until -2 at least)
FF12 - Best use of a pre-existing setting
FF13 - Favorite combat system
That last one might be the most controversial, but I liked the quick pace and tactical choices of FF13's combat. If the series is going to insist on keeping the grindy random encounters along (and they will, it's a major tool for padding out the gameplay), at least they can make them interesting.
FF VIII was great- I think its the one with the cool card game.
FF X was the best thing ever on ps 2 - the perfect ff game Imho - atleast the combat was
FF 12 was decent - I didn't like that you could build all your characters the same way, and the combat felt strange
FF 12< WHAT THE..bad bad bad
I'm not lieing when I say that I beat 80% off ffXIII by only spamming my x button. setup spam x, thats it.
but first: GIANT SPOILER ALERT, RETREAT NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW, THIS IS YOUR FIRST AND LAST WARNING.......ABANDON THREAD IF YOU HAVE TO!!!!!!!!!!
*ahem*
in final fantasy 6 when you learn that terra is half esper and goes on a rampage, the other characters reaction is: ".....now what do we do?" the fact that they react by not know how to react really gives the characters a more human look, we didnt see it coming and neither did they. and that breif time without terra ill admit scared me. my terra was a beast and was both my black and white mage which at that point in the game genuinely terrified me which meant i wanted terra back more than the characters did.
compare that to final fantasy 10:
when yuna gets kidnapped there was no real loss because A: yuna wasn't the main character (more so than tidus but thats another argument altogether) B: she kinda brought it upon her self by not sending seymour after the first time you kill him, and C: the characters react too quickly and the story moves on for the fact you dont have yuna with you to really sink in it pretty much goes like this: "yuna's gone...found her, shes in bevelle lets go get her"
or in final fantasy 12 where penelo gets kidnapped from the justicar and 30 seconds later your storming the air ship after her?
and for final fantasy 13 the party split up all the time so nothing really sunk in
Then again, this is coming from the girl who couldn't figure out that Rikku was the only one with the ability to use Al-Bhed potions... And by then, I had 99 of them...
*lowers head in shame*
Truth be told, it's the only Final Fantasy I've beaten... *lowers head in shame once more*
9's actually my favorite, since it was my first. I loved the theatrical charm and the card game. The only reason I never beat it is because I had awful luck, purchasing two copies that never wanted to load past the first disk. TT_TT
8 is the easiest to beat and 10 has the worst final boss ever, me and final fantasy 9 don't like each other, i bought it for dirt cheap, played 4 hours straight, went to save and my memory card was full......i wasn't best pleased