The mind of an FF fan

[Voan Darl]

Ok, just wanted to weigh in on this discussion here.

I remember back when I was a little kid watching my older brother play Final Fantasy 1. I have the ROM for it and I still enjoy playing it to this day. It's simple, quirky (From Garland's "I, Garland, will knock you all down!" to Bikke the Pirate for no reason handing over his ship after you kill his 9 pirate crew...) and fun. For its time it was an amazing game, and now it's... well it's probably only really good for what it represents. There is nothing in the game it does better than pretty much any other RPG out there. I also was a big fan of the class change, where you "grew up." I thought that was pretty neat. There was a lot of neat quests, and some that were just odd... for example, having to find a ruby to feed the Titan in the cave to pass, or the trap of Astos, who couldn't see that one coming? C'mon Heros... Getting to pick your party was also a nice function of that game. I'm not saying other games havn't done it waaay better, I am just saying that it was pretty revolutionary for its time. Perhaps its just Nostalgia.

Final Fantasy 2 (4, whatever... I'm talkin american 2) A good game, I really liked the Dark Knight aspect you start as, although I don't really see "cecil" being a very tough guy name. Starting off as the captain of that airship fleet was pretty sweet. Tellah dropping one of the best quote in FF history: "You spoony bard!" I also really enjoyed the fighting yourself aspect in that one cave to become the paladin form. A solid game I felt, though not one of the best in the series. Plus the whole going to the moon thing kinda put me off. I'd say... probably 3rd? best.

Final Fantasy 3 (6 japanese... ugh, so confusing) THE Final Fantasy. This game was in my opinion the best RPG of all time. Amazing story, amazing villians and so encompassing. There was so much story to this game... the places you went, the quests you did... Even the reoccuring bad guys you loved to hate in the forms of Ultros and Chupon. Ultros especially, I hated him so much and took great pleasure in whooping him over and over. And he showed up at the best times! Opera House anyone? Haha, that little hand, or tenticle! written letter he dropped to him trying to push that ton weight off the little boards over the stage. classic. Besides that the characters were some of the best of the series. I loved Sabin and his techniques. Cyan was great, Shadow was AWESOME, although i'm not sure how he lived jumping off of that flying continent... Umaro was fun, although you didn't get to control him the guy was a powerhouse. I liked how each person really brought alot of different skills to the table. Sabin's techniques, Cyan's sword techs, Shadow being able to throw stuff for some pretty insane damage, Mog's dancing, Gogo who when used right could be f'in crazy with his mimic ability... There was alot of really good story points too, and neat battles etc to do. From the times when your party split up and you had to do 3 different things at one time (and how they overlapped) to the Ghost Train (which was one of my favorite parts. I loved it), to the battle of Narshe where you had to set up those different parties to block the attack of the imperial soldiers. The final boss was pretty crazy too with that 3 screen tall monster before fighting a half angelic Kefka... I could go on and on. I simply cannot praise this game too highly. A masterpiece.

After that I didn't play any of the other Final Fantasy's until 7, but later in life found ROM's for some of the earlier ones. I am not sure which one it was... I believe 5. With the character with the best name in Final Fantasy history... Butz! hahah. I only played it through a little bit and it was pretty weird... like when they look under that pirate chicks blanket to finally discover it was a girl. Ah well, I can't really comment on this game too much since I barely played it.

Moving on... I remember getting Final Fantasy 7 the christmas it came out and playing that damn game for days straight. Wake up, play till way too late, sleep way too little, rinse and repeat. I would say this was probably the second best behind 3. Perhaps its Nostalgia on this one too, but I would say while 3 was simply fantastic 7 did deliver... just... I would go as far as to say that 7 was the last of the great Final Fantasy's. There were alot of humorous parts (hunnybee inn?), some pretty decent story and its the game that spawned all the FF fanboy's (or girls') nut hugging of the GRATE SEPHIROTH!11!111!! He was cool, but eh. Anyway, it's the game that brought Final Fantasy really mainstream, and at times I think that was a great detriment. That's how you end up with games like FFX-2... The characters were pretty good, I enjoyed Vincent although I don't think he deserved his own game (that I never played but heard it was rediculously easy). Some chocobo racing, some secret summons and bosses, and some nice cutscenes, one of my favorite being when Diamond Weapon attacked Junon... BLAM! And not to forget the sub attack and snowboarding mini-games that I found myself addicted to, all contributed to the overall fun of this game.

Final Fantasy 8 - Never played it. Refused to play it. I hated Squall and the gunblade, I thought he looked stupid as hell. I couldn't respect the main character (which I have since learned to get over since I hate the look of just about every main character in RPG's anymore) and couldn't bring myself to play it. When I finally broke down and decided to give it a shot, the CD kept freezing in the opening movie. Maybe it was an omen? Although i'll say this: Whoever decided to open the game with a lengthy ass movie you couldn't skip is a dumbass. What about people like me who got a bum copy and it wouldn't play through? guess what? you can't play the damn game. Good job Square.

Final Fantasy 9 - Hated Zidan, Hated Garnet, Barely liked Beatrix, Hated Freya, Could somewhat stand Steiner, Hated Quina, Eiko and the list goes on. The worst cast I think I have seen in any Final Fantasy. Well... I take that back. Final Fantasy X-2 had the worst cast ever. Worst game ever... I get mad thinking about it. Regardless, despite me not liking the characters I actually had a pretty fun time with this game. And it had perhaps my favorite cutscene I have seen so far... well that I remember. FF10 did have some pretty good cutscenes. Anyway, the one I am refering to is when the summon Alexander appears over the main castle, god he is a bad ass. I have been an Alexander fan since he appeared in FF3, 6 whatever. Not too bad of a game, although I don't really care for the "main bad guy" Garland, and Necron and all that. Whatever.

Final Fantasy X - Bleh. There is not much I found I liked about this game besides the parts where Sin showed up. He was pretty righteous. Like when that army assembled to kill him and he just raped. I didn't like ... actually the only character I really did like was Auron. I never bothered even to finish this game although I watched my friend fight the final couple of fights. I was not a fan of the level grid system. And Blitzball sucked.

Final Fantasy X-2 - Whoever is responsible for this should be killed.

Final Fantasy 11 - never played it. From what you all say though its pretty good. I'll take your word for it.

Final Fantasy 12 - I am getting kind of tired of typing, so i'll try and wrap this up quick. I think this game is just another game in the series going downhill. Some parts are pretty good, and I like some of the characters (mainly the NPC judges haha and Balthier). Story was Ok, got tired of playing the game actually and just put it down. My biggest problem with final fantasy 12 is that there was simply TOO MANY other things to do. I spent more time in the guild hunts and things than the quests and I think the gameplay suffered because at times, it felt like there were so many things you could do that the main story line kind of took a backseat. Still, an alright game I suppose and a damn sight better than X-2 or X... or 9... or 8... but not great. I liked the first guy you played in the opening introduction more than Vaan. Oh, the game had some pretty bitchin' cutscenes too, like when the nethecite (sp?) blew up the airship fleet. Score.

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest - Too short, too linear, very cliche recycled storyline... uh... kind of a rediculous leveling system where you just sit on that battlefield spot and click 10 times to get 10 battles. I suppose as an introductory RPG or marketed at someone of a young age it could have been alright. For veteren RPG'ers it was a joke. Had an odd item system too, with the little tools you would aquire to do things. Next.

Final Fantasy Tactics - Amazing game. This along with 3 are the 2 best by far ever made. Awesome storyline, awesome memorable battles... I really liked the beginning where you are just a crappy knight trying to fight off that rebellion that ultimately ends up at that fort and shit hits the fan. Alot of suprises. Your family turning on you, well... damn you get betrayed alot in that game. Some neat cameo's by other FF charcters (cloud, although I never once used him), The story is what really makes this game shine. The class system is very good in this, and it has perhaps the most challenging side quest I have ever seen. I didn't say ever, there could be a harder one out there, but deep dungeon was a MAJOR pain in the arse. Some of the people I really liked: Weigraf, a bad ass little rebel. Gafgarion, I really liked that guy... I hated that he turned on you like he did... Orlandu, just a bad ass... Saint Ajora I thought was a bit easy, although I wouldn't have seen that coming as a last boss! Overall a simply amazing game. Another one I cannot say enough about but I am just drawing a blank here although I know I am not doing justice with a short review of this game. If for some reason you live under a rock and haven't play this game, leave this forum right now and guy purchase this, whatever it takes. You WILL NOT regret this. Actually... this might edge out Final Fantasy 3 (6, grrr) even... My personal jury is still out on that one.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance - A mere shadow of a shadow of the original. The story didn't really compel me to play that much, not like the first one. The characters were pretty lame (a kid in a wheelchair?) and your friends. Your chick you knew in real life turns on you in the fantasy world which I thought was kind of unexpected but I could totally see why she did it. That world would have been alot better than the crappy one they were living in before. One of the only interesting parts was seeing how people flip flopped in the fantasy world compared to their "real life" persona's. I was kind of mad about your brother not being in his wheelchair anymore. I was looking forward to trucking around the battlefield in his chair, haha. The game was too short at around 40 hours and too easy. For a GBA cart, perhaps it was alright I haven't beaten any other GBA RPG's so I cannot comment on the length comparison. And one thing I absolutely HATED was the law system. What the hell was that? I wish I could have killed the judges because everytime a battle happened I got pissed. If you wanted to make a game more challenging do something than just prohibit certain abilities from being used. That just makes the game annoying as hell.

Ok, my brain is fried. :|

[Luceit]

I was never a big fan of the Final Fantasy series. The only Final Fantasy game I truly enjoyed was Final Fantasy Tactics and truth be told, I even disliked that one when I was first trying it out.

Here's my thoughts on some of them, from an outsider's perspective:

Final Fantasy Tactics: I thought that this was one of the best games I'd ever played and I still think it's the best strategy RPG out there with the exception of an overpowered person. The main dispute over this game seems to center on whether the story was one of the best stories ever or it was one of the worst. Guess which one I think it is.

Final Fantasy Seven: I only played this game for a bit, but my first thought was that it was seriously overrated. Looking at some of the reviews and discussions too, it becomes apparent to me that the quality of this game has to be one of the must disputed among all RPGs and opinions about it vary greatly. It's no stretch of the imagination to say that most people get the idea that Final Fantasy 7 is great because of all the fanboys screaming out that it is. Based on what I've read, I think the honor of the best FF game should go to FF 4 or 6 because the opinions are less conflicting and I've yet to see anyone horribly dissing either game.

Final Fantasy Eight: Alright, I'll admit that this game drew me in and I don't know why. Looking back, I'd say that the storyline is one of the most horrible ones I've ever come across in any game and I thought that Squall was referring to himself when he called Laguna an idiot. That being said, I must have been one of the rare FF8 players who had no problems at all with the Draw system and I liked those obnoxious card battles, with the exception of the one at Trabia Garden.

Final Fantasy Nine: Nostalgic art thou, ye who broke my PS1. :cry: I did enjoy this game too, but that's probably only because I treated it like I would any other other RPG.

Final Fantasy Ten: Never played it, but I might do it someday if only for the music. I'd say this game was decent enough with a storyline that wasn't half-baked, but the next one...

Final Fantasy X-2: *Censored for family-friendly purposes, really*

One thing that annoys me is all of the FFVII spin-offs. I watched Advent Children and found it to be largely a yawn fest with pretty graphics and I thought that the extra games were plainly uneeded. Good grief, I'll have to say that it's really the fanboys that cause all of these crap to be spawned over and over again!
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[Thief]

Ah, Final Fantasy.

Its games have never been what I would call completely amazing, but it has never failed to keep me wanting more either. Whenever I start a new FF game, I know I would at least get a brand new gameplay mechanics to learn and hours of gaming laden with graphical eyecandy. After all, I enjoyed FFX plenty and the first thought that occurred to me upon completion of the game was that how it was such "a brilliant movie". Not that that's a bad thing though.

I wouldn't get into the series for its story though, unless maybe if it involves Ivalice. VI had exceptional storytelling, but the rest was pretty forgettable. Compilation of VII never sat well with me, as all that long hours spent on chocobo breeding must have removed all traces of its plot from me.

Unlike Suikoden (and a handful other series), these games don't even bother trying to keep too much to their predecessors, so I tend to take them as they come. Which had led me to spend much time with them and appreciated the fun that I got out of them. It strives to not be overly simple like Draqon Quest, but it also maintains that certain amount of user-friendliness that games like Xenogears seem to throw out of the window.

The endless ports and remakes might appear to be a disturbing trend at first, but as long as it isn't my money that is spent on those, I don't mind them. After all, a non-oldschool gamer such as I wouldn't have been able to experience I, II or V firsthand if not for these same ports and remakes.

To me, no one FF had never been truly disappointing, so I suppose I'll continue to keep an eye on anything that this series might decide to throw at me. Can hardly wait for Tactics A2 and XIII.

[Himuro]

I reiterate, look what the discussion has turned into:

[UCPesmerga]

[Himuro]

I respect other people's opinion, but we don't have to know what you think about every FF every time an FF discussion pops up!
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She knows stuff.

[Yvl]

Indeed, Himuro, I was wondering what was going on here.
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[UCPesmerga]

[Overdose]

I personally just enjoyed every FF game I played (apart from X-2 which was rather meh). Thats just my oppinion though, I just like games with good stories and most FFs have given that.

All I can say is there are alot of fans out there some may play the games hoping for a new classic like 7 that was different whilst other are happy just playing the games. I myself was a huge fan of the music when Nobuo Uematsu composed it and that affected me playing it as it sets atmosphere. There are bound to be disagreements about things and labeling aplenty from people of FF fans.
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"In the rain, I'm calling you dear, find my way, can't you see me standing right here" ~ I.V - X Japan

FOREVER X!!!

[sansetsukon]

Final Fantasy, huh?

The first FF game I played was FFX. I actually liked it. Cool story, nice character design, and it was the first RPG I ever played. I liked the game so much that I just had to play the previous installments. So, I did.

IX was a great game to me. I liked the comedy it provided.

XIII was okay. I never finished it though.

After the bombing mission for XII, I put it down. It was just something I didn't like about it and never picked it up again. I knew what happened throughout the game anyway because 1.) I was LATE playing it and 2.) the Internet.

Never played Tactics (although my friend swears UP AND DOWN its the best FF EVAR!) and you had to pay to play XI. So, NO.

I played and completed XII a while ago. I didn't like FFXII, the gambit system was cool in the beginning, but once you figured out what you were doing all you had to do was sit back and watch your battles. Most of the characters irritated me except for Baltheir and Fran. And, the speech was not something I was use to hearing. I'm from the south so I had to like really pay attention what the hell they were talking about most of the time. And the final boss had no pants on....

I don't think I'll play XIII. I'm afraid I'll repeat my experience. Get stoked that a new game is coming out, play it, and wonder: why the hell did I get this in the first place???

I'm not really that excited about either.

And, I don't understand why it's so popular and it's not fair. It doesn't give other game in the same genre a chance because the fanbase is huge.

I also hear how they don't play other RPGs. Is that true?? I try not be like this, I'm a variety gamer. I like it all. :D
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"...." - Any silent Hero

Will draw suiko-porn for cheap! No, I'm serious. XD

[Karushifa]

[Amyral]

[Himuro]

[sansetsukon]

[Dragonstar13]