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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPPuHHfUwOc
I thought it was FF XIII-2, not FF X-3. lol
Dat beach scene.

Big necro-post on the basis I was just gonna make a similar thread.

Hey losers, let's talk about FF. FF15 is coming out, and we have 20+ years of older games to talk about about, so let's hop to it.

Let's start with easy things. Which is your favorite game? Who is your favorite character in the series?

FF8 is my favorite (shoot me) and Balthier from FF12 is my favorite character in the series.

FFVIII was the first one I played. I remember playing a demo of it over and over until my dad bought it for me. My brothers and I played it a lot, but none of us managed to get past the stupid infiltration mission on disc 2, even with the official strategy guide. My younger brother really buckled down a few years ago and managed to get to the end of the game, but he got stuck and never finished it.

I rented FFVII once, but it was so different and ugly that I immediately hated it. $5 down the toilet.

Next one I got was FFX-2. I was an unapologetic, raging pot of hormones at that time, and those three babes looked very appealing. I got the official strategy guide for that too, but I never finished it. I was too focused on trying to 100% it and the tedium got to me.

We got FFX next. It was so much more enjoyable than X-2. Had a much heavier focus on romance and being chill, which was more my speed. The first several hours of that game are so good, and Besaid Island is still one of my favorite video game environments. On top of that, Blitzball was such a hit with me and my brothers that we kept records of it. That game kept us busy for several years and both of my brothers beat it eventually, but I didn't.

I couldn't tell you when, but at some point I became completely turned off to JRPGs, anime, and just pretty much Japan in general. Maybe it was Kingdom Hearts that did it, maybe it was my increasing awareness of toxic fandoms. I don't know, but I was uninterested in anything Final Fantasy after that. I became intolerant to that overplayed, overdone, and overused style of overly-dramatic cheesiness. I do, however, intend to get FFX/X-2 HD on Steam if it becomes real cheap so I can hack my way through it. That sounds fun, to me. Plus Blitzball. It doesn't make any sense, but it was still pretty fun.

The very first Final Fantasy I played was 7. That was 5 years ago and I have yet to complete it. Same with FF8,9 and 6. All are excellent with their own quirks, flaws but all of them are legends in my book. FF7 is being played currently and man, I forgot how excellent it is. I will admit, every time I hear..... a certain character's theme, it does make me very sad. FF7 knows how to pull the emotional scenes and a lot of it is overlooked. I do hate that Square flanderised Aeris/th, Cloud and a few other characters as it has damaged the characters. E.g. Cloud is protrayed as a moody bugger when in fact, he is not just that. Plus, FF7 has a good reason for showing him as a moody bugger with limited emotions at first. I do hope they do a good job with the remake and don't remove certain parts from it. E.g. the crossdressing section, flashbacks. Do feel that voice acting may harm some of the plot but hopefully, FF7 remake will be decent.

FF8, I kinda am mixed about the drawing system but again, I enjoyed it. Though it had one heck of a job trying to step out of FF7's shadow. I recall there being moments where the game flat out removes all the stacked draws and that was real [&@%!] but it's been years since i've played it.

FF9 is overlooked by a lot of people. Tis a fun entry into the franchise that is often regarded as a love letter to the earlier FFs. 6, i've not played much.

All of those games have the best soundtracks i've heard.

I did play 13 and no.

Just no. I couldn't stand it. The linear layout, the bs party leader is beaten = game over, the limited combat and the characters not being memorable. Just not fun for me.

FF15, I'll probably pick up in the future if it's any good. Got limited hopes as well, 13 ruined my optimism for the franchise.

FF10 and 10-2, I'll probably pick up on PS3 at some point.

If I had to pick a game as my favourite, I would say FF7. Introduced me to RPGs(DAO and TES were the other two that introduced me to RPGS), showed me turn based combat and has a very memorable cast. The soundtrack is excellent and I never noticed how they used certain parts of other themes until a few days ago. E.g. The Slum Church theme is partially Aeris's. I love the limit break system and it has a lot of amusing moments. I mean, what other RPG forces the protagnist to crossdress and potentially almost kiss a mafia don as part of it's main plot? The typos and mistranslation adds to it's charm.

Sephiroth's theme(not One Winged Angel) does the job of showing Sephiroth perfectly and i would say FF7 doesn't hold back with it's plot.

Garland's theme(FF9, Master Norg's theme, FF8) are very memorable.

But Final Fantasy 6 deserves a very special mention because of one man. Sabin. Dude suplexed a train whilst being chased by said train!

FFTA is the best Final Fantasy, u wot m8

Is it one of those Nintendo spin offs? Never heard of FFTA before.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced is a top-down strategy/RPG series on the Gameboy handhelds

It takes more inspiration design-wise with the older FF games, but obviously mechanically-wise is very different from much of the franchise(top-down strategy duh). It also features a more light hearted theme and story especially compared to recent FF games

Btw, merged the two threads

Edit: And unlocked. God damn thumb joint touched the bane of all mobile mod banes

I blame Shinra for this.


If I ever get my hands on a 3DS or if Ninty decides that having an online backwards catalogue is actually a good idea due to the extra decade/decades they have over MS and Sony, I'll definitely give it a chance. Find myself more inclined to play more retro FF games then modern ones. Also, Lightning Returns. That actually was a thing. *facepalms*

Frankly speaking, the FFT series should be rereleased on the app market. I mean, it already is minimal with controls and is very easy to pick up on the go. It just screams for that official port >__< and maybe.. A 4th installment, please?

Remake 8, with modern graphics, and no other changes, and Believe will be one happy little boy.

I loved that game with a passion, the only problem is on modern tv's, ps2 games really do look utter [&@%!]..

9 was good too, as long as you could look at it as a slightly less serious game. I really liked Zidane, although none of the other characters really jumped out at me. (And the card game in 9 was [&@%!]. Which was really disappointing after how much fun Triple Triad was in

Never played 7 so can't comment, but tried X and just couldnt get into it, I found the first like 4 hours to just drag on and on and on..

An 8 remake would complete my life. It's a contender for my favorite game of all time, next to New Vegas, Baldur's Gate 2, and Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Part of why I love VIII so much (besides the nostalgia factor; it was the first FF I ever played) is the setting. The sorceress concept, the Gardens, the culture of the nations, the weird but endearing early-70's aesthetic...

I have had a pull to do a Garden RP in the roleplaying subforum for so long. It's just so unique, yet so familiar to people. Sure, it's a school dedicated to training lethal mercenaries, but it's still a school with school vibes that everyone can relate to.

Plus I love the dynamics between the characters and the villains. Even Ultimecia, who is by Final Fantasy tradition a pulled-from-nowhere villain, has some emotional ties to the cast (especially if you subscribe to the theory that she is an alternate future version of Rinoa gone mad over the death of Squall; a theory that I like but have yet to really accept).

Plus, I find the soundtrack to be some of Uematsu's finest work. The Premonition does a beautiful job of capturing the pain the party faces over fighting Edea, while still holding true to the urgency of the situation and the very real threat the Sorceress poses to the world.



Then we get to FF13. It's always polarizing, but I'm on the side of the fence that loved Final Fantasy 13. A lot of people get so caught up in the game's change of pace from previous installments that they put on rage goggles and refuse to rate anything else about the game fairly.

The thing is, that the series has been evolving into more of an action RPG series ever since FF7 introduced the motorcycle minigame. Then you had FF8's movie scene, the train boarding... FF9 had the play that was a front for a heist, FFX had blitzball...

The deal is that Squeenix is probably moving towards a KH style of gameplay. How could they not after how astronomically popular Kingdom Hearts has become? That's why FFXV looks like it'll play like KH, as does the FF7 remake.

How does this go to FF13? Well, the fast-paced battle system is a lot like an action RPG, but in a more in-tune way. I've always appreciated FF13's combat system (I don't want more of the same. If I did I'd just replay FF4 and be miserable). When the battles get tough and you're swapping around paradigms like a madman at breakneck speed, it's just so mentally engaging... far more than spamming Knights of the Round and waiting for it to finish on FF7.

And the story. "Boring characters" my ass. The scene with Sazh and Vanille in the amusement park is, in my humble opinion, one of the emotional high points of the series. Sazh's VA hit that [&@%!] out of the park.

Linearity also confuses me. EVERY Final Fantasy game is linear up until about 3/4ths of the way into the story; just like FF13, which DOES open up about 3/4ths of the way into the story. Seriously, think about it. You never get to roam freely, not truly, until you get your airship. Hell, in FF4 I find you're even MORE constrained once you get the airship. I've never understood where the linearity complaint comes from.

There's a reason why FF13 got two sequels. It had one of the more provoking and open-ended stories and settings. It's why FFXV is technically taking place in the same universe, and likely a lot of the Final Fantasies to come. Fabula Nova Crystalis is here whether we like it or not (and I like it a lot).

Plus, Japan ate it up. Squeenix cares a lot more about what Japan thinks of the series than what the western world thinks.

It's just like when Dragon Age 2 hit. Everyone was too busy freaking out about the game being different that they didn't pause to actually examine it before decrying it as the bane of their favorite series. Now the series has more money than ever.

EDIT: I forgot I once wrote up a huge post about why I liked FF8 so much and figured I'd share it here.

It wasn't the change of pace that put me off it. I would agree to a certain extent that the gameplay is solid. I felt that it needed a lot of tweaking and to scrap the god awful if player controlled character dies, battle over. I dislike that in RPGs in parties. Dragon's Dogma is probably the only game where I tolerate that because it makes sense. FF13? No. Why does it mean game over if I lose? I am used to game overs in FF if it's a party kill or the character is in a single battle and i lose. Not because one character that i control ends up losing. I mean, there's two others ffs.

The plot of 13 is fairly interesting but by god, it felt like I was just going from point a to point b. Other Final Fantasies always hide that well. FF7, it is 6 hours(Took me 6 hours) before it fully opens up and not once did I feel that it was linear due to interactions, the plot and other stuff distracting me from what is the linear part of the game. 13? Point a to point b, b becomes A and repeat. Sure, it opens up but that is 20 hours in and well, I always got bored before that. It just fails to grab my attention. Found the characters to be forgettable not boring. A boring protagnist would be AC3's Connor.(Though, I didn't find him boring. The main opinion is that he was boring).

Forgettable. Soundtrack is best part of FF13 for me and sure, the animation for the cutscenes are excellent but just doesn't keep my attention. And this is coming from someone who can happily waste an entire hour grinding in the older final fantasies.

FF7, I will always agree that is it overrated. It is an excellent entry into the franchise but it can never live up to the pedastal that most of the FF fanbase put it on. That is impossible for any game to live up to due to fans overhyping it.

I do admit, I prefer the older turn based systems for Final Fantasy. I do hope that with the remake, they include all materias, all summons and not come off as awkard.

FFXV looks good and it going open world again is the right direction. Would have liked for it to take place in it's own original universe but if they do a superb job of showing it, I don't mind. The plot is the main feature for me. Do hope that one day, they'll go back to the older style of FF. Not gamplay but in terms of setting, art style etc..

Back to the Remake, I do fear that several sections from 7 won't be included because they deem it too risky but hopefully, FF7Remake will be excellent. They better include the original version of One Winged Angel instead of the Advent Children one. Just needs to be updated with the sound.

FF8, I enjoyed and it is sadly overshadowed by 7. Been too long since i've played it though. Heck, I've only just came back to 7 after a good 2-3 years. 9 is easily the most underrated game of the PS1 entries. It seems to get pushed aside by 10, 8 overshadows it and usually gets overlooked a lot.

I hope they include the victory theme in 15.

If it's still around by the time I get my hands on system(Probably be PS4 tbh) that can play it, I will give FF14 a big chance. MMOs, I've not played before and i think, i would need to give FF14 a good 20 hours to see if I enjoy it.

Anyone played FF12? Every time I hear about it, it seems to be negative stuff.

Where are you hearing that? 12 is one of the most critically lauded entries in the series.

I like lead character death leading to a game over. Reminded me a lot of MegaTen or Baldur's Gate. Focused survival and all that, another layer of danger in battle and another layer of who you choose to lead.

I don't when there are two other party members that should still be fighting yet give up because I made a mistake. That said, with FF, I prefer to control the entire party and admittly, the older games have put me into a turn based approach. That and it is rather frustrating to have a game over despite two other party members still fighting on.

FF12, Just heard negative stuff about it whenever people mention it.

I hope that after the remake of 7 is fully done and is excellent, that they'll consider doing Crisis Core. CC ties into 7 and it would be great for them to help revert the current reputation of FF as a past it's prime franchise that is constantly declining.

I've decided to play all the PS1 entries I have. 7,8,9 and 6. I also don't want to continue 7 due to a certain scene but I must. Damn you square, you utter utter emotion causing people! Out of the 4(barely played 6 but am aware of a certain scene that is sad), I think 7 manages to be the saddest with that one scene. By itself, it is sad. By having that theme play during it, I can't help but feel sad whenever I hear it. 8,9 and 6 don't evoke the same emotion.

I kinda spent 5 hours grinding my limit breaks and I may have unintentionally overlevelled. At late 30s/mid40s and almost everyone is on maxed out level 2 or got level 3 limit break. Normally, I don't grind this hard but I kinda enjoyed it. I do think this will be the first FF game that I will actually complete. Got a good idea of what party setups to use, materia, I've got that sorted out and I use the wait system instead of active one.

I may or may not sing along to One Winged Angel or conduct an fictional concert with it.

I never really felt the weight of Aeris dying. I mean... I GET it, and I understand how it's emotionally impactful for people, but it's certainly not as laudable as it is purported to be. A character you have had for less than a 3rd of the game gets blammed in a weird plot device scene. I always felt that

Spoilers for FFX



But that's just me. I know a lot more video game deaths that hit me much harder. Phantasy Star IV, man...

I disagree but I admit, I use her heavily and she is an excellent character. Annoyingly, they took away the traits that made her stand out and turned her into generic innocent girl 10102903293029302392 after VII. Don't know if CC has Aeris closer to her 7 incarnation or the flanderised one after 7. I mean, this is a flower girl that not only got Cloud to crossdress but threatened to rip off a Mafia Don's balls.

For me, it's the scene and her theme that makes her death(kinda unsure what spoilers are considered ok, for me, it would be anything before and including 10 thus no spoiler tags or not.) Worse, she may have actually survived being stabbed by Sephiroth but accidentally drowned by Cloud who mistook her for dead in his grief. (LIFE spell, Phoneix down jokes etc.. aside). 9 does have it's fair share of sadness but it is the happiest(ish) of the three main PS1 games. Anything before them is just a port that was released later, i think, thus I'm not comparing it. That part where Zidane finds out his true purpose is a good example of one can break and give up easily. It makes Zidane a bit of a tragic figure and that sequence after it legitmately made me panic. I used tent after tent after tenet and kept dying as a result of it the first time around.

Video game deaths can hit me quite hard if done well. E.g. Metal Gear.



I do suspect that 15's open world adventure feel may actually be a deception and they will hit us with a lot of emotional stuff.

Typically terse Mars contribution:

FF13 was a great game. I've played around 40 hours and loved every single one. Great characters, great lore, great presentation, fun gameplay mechanics.

Lightning is an incredibly deep protagonist, and the way her relationship with Hope evolves is one of the game's highlights for me.

Also, Lightning/Fang = OTP.

I found 13 to be just a chore to play and the plot failed to keep my attention. I have heard 13-2 improves on the gamplay, it's got a better plot and the characters are better so I may grab it in the future. Probably grab Type-0. I won't bother getting the PS1 games on PS4 as it's the PC port and they tied some of the options to controls. E.g. Disabling random battles. Max stats being an option etc... I will admit, this is me being rather petty with not liking those options but I feel the full experience includes levelling up, grinding, random battles etc.. That and I would get real bored if every battle for most of the game turned into one hit kills.

VX, I intend to try to go into it blindly. Virtually know nothing about it beyond it being open world, seeming to be an adventurer type plot.

Thought I'd share my outsider's perspective here since I'm more intrigued by Final Fantasy than anything. I've only ever played the first game, which some would argue was a mistake, but since I tend to gravitate toward games that are heavy on story it's never really made sense to me to play a series out of order. I never ended up finishing it; I like hard games, but I've never been Nintendo Hard. Maybe someday I'll achieve that. I've also seen Advent Children, which I actually quite liked, but it was more of a guilty pleasure movie than anything.

Anyway, I'm not a fan. I wish I was, because I've interacted with a lot of fans and I've pretty much never met a fan who wasn't really passionate about the series, and I'd like to be able to see eye-to-eye with them. You'd be surprised how rare it is for me to interact with someone as passionate about their interests as me. Unfortunately, and I know this is petty, I never liked Japanese RPGs with menu-based combat. I admit it, I grew up on first-person shooters and The Elder Scrolls, and I like to aim my shots and do my maneuvers myself. I just feel so disconnected from everything that's going on. That said, I've heard a lot about the storylines in Final Fantasy and I feel like for the most part the series is very well-written (though I apparently chose to play the game with a confusing time travel story, but never mind) to the point that I might eventually pick up FF7 just so I can watch the story unfold. I've heard the accusation before that Square Enix would rather make films than games, but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that interactive stories are more their bag than anything, which is fair enough.

I think the main thing that's putting me off the more recent games more than anything is they look way too silly. I remember watching the trailer for Final Fantasy 13, and on top of having absolutely no idea what was going on, I remember a dude with a baby chick peeking out of his afro, and I said in my head "this does not belong." That's so weird and offputting for me. Maybe someone can explain that. I can definitely tell you Final Fantasy I was way more traditional fantasy at least to a point, and even some of the sillier elements in Final Fantasy 7 like Cait Sith and chocobos and stuff feel like they fit way better into the world than what I've been seeing in the much more colorful, anime-style settings I've been seeing lately. I'm so disconnected from this stuff that even this frame of reference isn't really fair, but what little grip the series has had on me in the past is starting to wane, especially since the series insists on being console-only and frankly I'm not buying any of the modern-gen consoles just to play Final Fantasy. EDIT: Whoops, thought about it and looked it up and FF13 is definitely available for PC. Chalk that one up to me not doing my research properly.

I also wasn't aware until I read this thread that in FF13 you lose if the protagonist dies, and I have a simple question: Why? I mean, phoenix downs... dude dies, you get them a phoenix down, or rez them at a temple. Are they trying to avoid the plot hole from FF7 where no one tries to resurrect Aeris? See, this is what I'm talking about; I feel like the disconnect between story and gameplay would really get in the way for me. I dunno, consider this your opportunity to convince me otherwise. I'm definitely going to play FF7 at least once before I die, mostly out of curiosity but also because I used to hang with a lot of those people who don't consider you a real gamer until you've played FF7 (and Sonic & Knuckles, and Castlevania, and any number of classic games that I've been avoiding just to annoy them)

Aeris's death isn't a plothole. It's a gameplay and story thing. Every FF game uses Phonix down in the gameplay but some kill off characters for good and there is no mention of it. It would be really tedious and potentially frustrating if the only way was to do it at save points. Think of the 0 hp resulting in being knocked out. Phoenix downs get them out of that state and doesn't apply to cutscenes. Apart from Materia(which does play a big part of 7's story), they have no way of bring people back from the dead. The life spell, I consider a gameplay thing.

AC isn't the best way to get into FF7. It kinda flanderises a lot of the 7 characters. Get the PC version if you are just wanting to play it for the story. It kinda requires a bit of grinding. I like grinding but it can be a bit tedious and the PC version has options. Disable random battles, max stats from the start(Which, could make the game very boring imo).

I'm restarting 7 today as annoyingly, I got too far ahead to the point where I am underlevelled at a mere level 50. I also skipped over a side quest i wanted to do and restarting will allow me to do stuff I didn't before.

7 has a lot of silly moments and one very silly moment is part of the plot. It is a mixture of seriousness and silliness. Not to the point where you go "Oh come on, really?" but it has it's light hearted moments.

I hate the party leader loses all health = game over mechanic. Unless there is a good reason for it, I tend to find it to be adding a layer of false diffculty. Dragon's Dogma does that mechanic well as I can believe that without me, the pawns wouldn't fight on.

11 hours into file number 2 because the Dovah is an idiot who progressed too quickly through the plot on Disc 2 and accidentally skipped some content, tis going far much better. Mid-20s levels for the entire party including Yuffie, limit level 2 for everyone. Ok, Yuffie has yet to earn the second level of limit level 1 but that will be resolved soon. Materia is going well and got almost 40k Gil in Junon. Spent 2 hours grinding the limits and levelling up as i was a bit underlevelled. Twas good.

Well you have Yuffie, so the game is all and all beaten already.

Nah. In total, I have only lost once or twice and this is both saves combined. Yet to have a game over on file 2. Yuffie, I intend to use more. Same with Vincent and rotate my party more often. Grinding, I've more or less planned ahead. Disc 2, I should be level 40-50 at the start and apart from Aeris, all will be limit level 3. Hopefully. Kinda aiming for completist playthrough. Everything, I shall get. Sidequests, all shall be done.

The Weapons, I will beat. Probably use KOTR a few times but not the cheap mime-counteract combo that i think, most folks use. Just my own strategy and a true test. Will probably spend 5 hours in total on Disc 1 at the Gold Saucer. I know it's best to do it on disc 2 due to lower BP requirements but screw it.

50 hours in total, i've spent on FF7. It seems my prediction of FF7 being the last game of 2016 will come true.