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FINAL FANTASY Community Thread: XV Mainline Entries and Counting

S

SuperChoco

Member
Out of those options, Final Fantasy 7 is probably your best bet.

I love the PS1 version of Final Fantasy 1 but, it's not really great for newcomers. Whereas FF2 is really bad since its a near identical release of the famicom version.

Both Final Fantasy 5 and 6 suffer from horrible load times. While both are great games, I cannot in good faith recommend the PS1 versions of them. 5 gets a gold star in mediocrity for having a tremendously awful translation.

Final Fantasy 8 is different; You'll like it or hate it. Regardless, I wouldn't recommend it to new players.

Final Fantasy 9 is actually pretty good for new players, though I'd hold off on it since we have a PC port coming up soon.

So that leaves 7 by default. Though it suffers visually, it has rather simple mechanics that are easy to understand for new players and the characters are likable enough.
 
F

Funyarinpa

Member
I'm very likely to be burned out by FF7 anyway, so I probably won't try FF6 (want to play that on Vita regardless of load times) until summer or something.
 
ST2K

ST2K

Member
Just finished my fourth or fifth playthrough of Final Fantasy VII the other day. It's amazing how replaying games over time and at different points in your life causes you to appreciate different aspects and re-evaluate things you thought you knew very well.

In general, Final Fantasy is a really cool thing and I am tremendously thankful it exists. I just needed to write that somewhere.
 
woopWOOP

woopWOOP

Member
I really wanted to replay Final Fantasy VII too, instead I bought a Steam copy for a friend when Cloud was announced for SSB4. Watched him play it whenever I came to visit and it was really fun seeing that world again. There's just something I really love about those low poly 3D models and pre-rendered backgrounds. He had fun, but we both agreed that some story elements felt a bit rushed, something I'm hoping Square Enix fixes a little in their episodic Fantasy VII.
Atleast I got him excited for the Final Fantasy IX's Steam release too now ;D

Myself am replaying Final Fantasy Tactics: Advance through WiiU's VC right now. Rather slow, but it's still fun building up a whole guild. Having a whole 'active' guild with different classes instead of focusing on the first six is a lot easier when it comes to dispatch missions. I forgot how bullshit the quest items stuff was tho. In the past I threw away the wrong items and got stuck, so I decided to keep that from happening this time around. However one of my members failed a dispatch mission that used a one-time-only item (Dictionary), even tho he was being all jumpy 'n positive about doing it, and now I'm essentially screwed out of ever completing that mission and whatever missions I would've completed with the item I earned from that quest. I'm still gonna finish the game for sure, but it sucks that I still won't be able to recruit Cid after all these years :[

I'm also using Morphers and Blue Mages for the first time now, they're pretty fun! Took me 15 mins of spamming attacks to realize that Morphers can't teach Blue Mages anything tho, ha. Wonder if I'll still be able to find a Goblin at some point now...
 
H

Hasemo

(；・∀・)ﾊｯ?
My journey finally ended. Over a year ago I decided to play all mainline FF games which I haven't cleared yet. Today, by finishing Lightning Returns, I finally achieved this goal and I'm extremely happy (mostly because I don't have to play LR anymore :p).
 
M

manipulate

Member
I just wanted to say that I absolutely adore the soundtrack to Final Fantasy VIII. It is diverse, atmospheric, powerful, and truly magnificent.


Balamb Garden, Fisherman's Horizon.

Succession of Witches, Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec, The Landing.

The Man with the Machine Gun.

Tell Me, My Mind, Trust Me.

Dance with the Balamb-fish, Waltz for the Moon.


There are so many others. It's four hours and almost every track is wonderful. It has everything. Calmness, melancholy, alarm, threat, vigour. It's just so emotive. Combined with the visual design of the game, it's simply one of the most amazing artistic achievements ever - whatever one thinks of the game itself or the narrative.
 
G

Golnei

Member
Nothing's dethroned FFVI for me as far as complete Uematsu scores go, but VIII does have some great pieces. I think Find Your Way might be the most commonly covered piece of dungeon music in the series next to Chaos Shrine.
 
F

flyover

Member
manipulate said:
I just wanted to say that I absolutely adore the soundtrack to Final Fantasy VIII. It is diverse, atmospheric, powerful, and truly magnificent.
Click to expand...
It's wonderful. Have to admit, though, I never liked the overworld theme... until I heard the orchestral version. Then it all came together for me, and (weirdly) I then enjoyed it when playing the game.

The arranged version of Balamb/Ami is goddamn perfect.
 
M

manipulate

Member
flyover said:
It's wonderful. Have to admit, though, I never liked the overworld theme... until I heard the orchestral version. Then it all came together for me, and (weirdly) I then enjoyed it when playing the game.

The arranged version of Balamb/Ami is goddamn perfect.
Click to expand...

Funnily enough I didn't like overworld theme for a long time, too. It's definitely less grand than FFVII's. But it's very fitting for FFVIII's barren overworld - it feels ponderous and lonely, but not overwhelmingly so.

It always puzzled me how accurately the music reflected the visual design of the locations. I was under the impression that Uematsu only received very vague directives for the music.
 
N

NipplesAndToes23

Member
Professor Beef said:
So...any version?
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SuperChoco said:
Eh, I'm not the biggest fan of 6, but it's not that bad. I think that in terms of the mainline games, there are certainly worse and it's probably one of the more accessible ones.
Click to expand...

VI is no where near being bad WTF are y'all on? In facet is it even being close to it. Functions properly as it should. On the technical front it is fine. No glitches that deter your gameplay experience unless you're looking for them, no stuttering in the pixels and frame rate, there are no issues with the sound. Uematsu properly recorded it in so the sound quality is just fine. I hear the Gameboy Advance speakers in general are low quality, so don't take issue with the composition if the hardware is the issue. The level and game design offers plenty variety. You've never doing one thing for too long unless you want to. The encounter rates are better amongst this trilogy. This is not Adventures of Horai High in which you would get into four random encounters by just trying to get to a chest that's just twelve steps away. That game in contrast also has severe technical issues, which none are present in VI.
This game is all around made by a crew who has been in this business for a while. If I had my hand in this, this would be a game I would have been proud to produce and any studio out there would without a question consider you if this was present in your portfolio.

Sub_Level said:
I don't have a gf to junction this weekend, guys.

:(
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I haven't played VIII in a minute either. I miss it. If you tell me what you like, maybe I can suggest another game to you.
 
P

Professor Beef

Banned
The encounter rate in FF6 is pretty bad. Everything else you mentioned are things that I don't really care about in games. The ER is only the tip of the iceberg anyways for me.

I'm on mobile and don't have time to link it, but search for the thread I made on FF6, and you'll find out why I don't like the game.
 
S

SuperChoco

Member
Blasian Persuasion said:
VI is no where near being bad WTF are y'all on?
Click to expand...

I didn't say it was bad, but rather middle of the road in terms of quality for the main series. The reasons why I don't necessarily care for it:

-The plot is pretty bad. The setting is fine, but it drops the ball when it comes to characterization and it's made even more evident when you get the
World of Ruin
and there's no plot at all. The only characters that have any decent characterization are Terra, Locke, Celes, and arguably Shadow, which is pretty bad for a game with 14 characters. Granted, they probably wanted more characters so they could fulfill more roles in battle, however...

-The character specific abilities are awful and magic is OP. I can appreciate that they gave all the characters unique abilities, but nearly all of them are pretty useless and gimmicky. Why bother chancing what Gau, Mog, and Umaro do when you can just use magic to do the effect you intend to do. Why wait for Cyan's abilities when you can do the same thing(s) in less time thanks to magic. The only abilities that are worth using are Trance(which increases your magic damage), Runic (which counters magic), and Throw (which deals fixed damage). However, I guess that doesn't matter since...

-The game is too easy. The only relatively difficult part of the game is when you have a limited selection of magic. Once you can use magic, the difficulty is gone and the rest of the game is a cakewalk. This is made worse by the fact that the game has random encounters at a pretty high rate where half of the enemies just physically attack you. The whole purpose of random encounters is to make the player use their resources carefully to travel from point A to point B but this is negated by the fact that every character has the ability to revive and heal due to magic and the game giving you so much MP to work with.

Final Fantasy 6 isn't a bad game of course. I do love the open world aspect of the second half of the game and the music is wonderful. However, it is a flawed game at its core.
 
RussellXV

RussellXV

Member
After many years, I got around to playing FF5 and FF6, and finally finishing FF4. I stopped playing midway through FF4 on the DS a couple years ago. I completed 4, 5, and 6 on Steam within the last couple months. VI is the best out of the pre-PS1 games. IV may have been the most difficult. A lot of grinding in V. Playing VIII at the moment. I've forgotten how amazing this game is.
 
broz0rs

broz0rs

Member
first post in this thread, but i'm a regular on FFRK.

Saw this at my local Louis Vuitton store. Poster was about 10 feet tall too.

G2Niuqj.jpg
 
D

deanote666

Member
FFVI was the first FF game to introduce the 3ed dimension! That is why it's so popular! lol.
Been awhile since I played it so I am rusty on the details. I was kind of
disappointed with the ending since it was just them escaping the tower.
I thought it was a good game overall. How many games actually
let the bad guy blow up the world without time travel to fix it?

I've played all of the numbered games, except for XI and XIV.

VIII is one of my favorites, actually. I'm just confused by the
assassination scene where the shot is to the front of the float but Squall drives straight to the float but is at the back of it

I actually miss the complex battle systems. VIII's has a learning curb to it but is easy once you get the hang of it.

XII's chest system can go burn somewhere. I don't want to spend a couple of hours going into a hard dungeon, without a map or save point, for a slim chance of getting the weapon I want from a chest that may not even be there!!! (half the chests weren't there - true story)

Not looking towards XV. The demo actually put me off it a bit. Not a fan of the battle system.
 
L

Lunafreya Nox Fleuret

Member
U

Ultratech

Member
Finally played through and beat XIII last week....I don't think I've ever wanted to finish a FF game so badly.

The story actually wasn't that hard to follow, but holy crap was it stupid. Also kinda annoying to introduce all these other characters who don't even really do much in terms of stuff that goes on. But yeah, it was stupid.

I will say this, they manage to make places look DAMN good. Though I guess you can do that when your game is summed up as "Corridor Fantasy XIII". Kinda annoyed me how they had all these areas you go through for about the first 9-10 chapters only to find you can't revisit them. Gran Pulse was really nice and a welcome change from everything else prior to that point. Missions are pretty awful though for being the only real sidequests in the game. (Go kill X monster. Now go kill X monster with its friends!)

The battle system I'm a bit mixed on. On the one hand, once it really gets going, things can get pretty nuts. On the other hand, it also feels very hands-off since you're more or less in control of only one character while the other two are doing whatever the AI demands of them. While XII's battle system could be hands-off, you had to set it up that way and you still had control over most everything. Also annoying that they made it to where if the lead character dies, it's Game Over. That annoyed me to no end in some fights.

Also irked me that you really don't get full control over your Party until a long ways into the game (think I was at 35hrs?). Until then, you're stuck with 1-2 people parties per chapter.
Weapon/Gear upgrading also feels thrown in and not explained totally well with the Organic and Mechanical components.

Music was pretty well done, though it did get a little annoying when kept using the same tracks over and over again for different areas. The Battle Themes are are so good though!

So overall, I guess it's a decent game, but compared to previous entries, it feels pretty lacking in spots.
I've got XIII-2, so I may give that a go at some point later on, since I hear it fixes some stuff from XIII.

deanote666 said:
XII's chest system can go burn somewhere. I don't want to spend a couple of hours going into a hard dungeon, without a map or save point, for a slim chance of getting the weapon I want from a chest that may not even be there!!! (half the chests weren't there - true story)
Click to expand...

At least IZJS fixes that somewhat with chests respawning when you move a screen away (though good luck with the low % stuff).
 
F

Falk

that puzzling face
The thing about the three XIII games is there's been pretty much every possible permutation of people who like or dislike the three entries. Some are yes no yes, some are yes no no, some are yes, yes, no, surprisingly enough quite a few are no no yes. As in, it's really, really hard to advise someone if they should play the sequels based on their experience with the first game.

Personally Lightning Returns in particular is the most awesome time I've had in a Final Fantasy battle system, solo affair or not.
 
C

Chilikar

Member
Falk said:
The thing about the three XIII games is there's been pretty much every possible permutation of people who like or dislike the three entries. Some are yes no yes, some are yes no no, some are yes, yes, no, surprisingly enough quite a few are no no yes. As in, it's really, really hard to advise someone if they should play the sequels based on their experience with the first game.

Personally Lightning Returns in particular is the most awesome time I've had in a Final Fantasy battle system, solo affair or not.
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I'm of the no no yes variety at the moment, the gameplay for lightning returns is seriously great. That being said I'm such a fan of FF that I ended up buying all three regardless in hopes they get better. I would really enjoy the LR more if it didn't have so many frame rate drops, it's disappointing.
 
M

Meowster

Member
meh yes meh

The first Final Fantasy XIII was one of my favorites when it first came out. I still really like it. It is one of the most lacking replayable games I've ever encountered though. I'd rather watch a video than play through the Vile Peaks again. XIII-2 was just a blast through and through. Lightning Returns was fun with a god-tier soundtrack but the time/freeze time part was so chaotic to me and made me feel so rushed. It was nice.

On another topic, I know that Final Fantasy Tactics for iOS/Android was pretty panned around here when it first came out but I heard it got a bunch of updates. Was wondering if it was worth a buy. It's been ages since I've played it (probably five years or more) and was thinking about buying it from the store.
 
Sub_Level

Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
Sub_Level

Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
Only 15 hours in but so far IZJS is prolly my favorite FF thus far. The plot is very well done and I enjoy learning more about the world's history. Gameplay-wise, locking in jobs from the start reminds me a lot of FF1. Its great.

Played a bit of vanilla back in the day. Mist bar being separate from MP and speedup mode are huge improvements. Graphically this is possibly the best looking ps2 game when taking performance into consideration. Production values are through the roof.
 
Sub_Level

Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
^I got Fran as Time Mage.

Vaan - Hunter
Penelo - White Mage
Basch - Knight
Ashe - Samurai
Balthier - Machinist

Keeping everyone equally levelled, which I thought would be boring but on the contrary, switching between 2 teams of 3 helps keep the longer dungeons from getting boring. Have to make alterations to dealing with enemies.
 
Z

Zantetsuken88

Member
Sub_Level said:
Only 15 hours in but so far IZJS is prolly my favorite FF thus far. The plot is very well done and I enjoy learning more about the world's history. Gameplay-wise, locking in jobs from the start reminds me a lot of FF1. Its great.

Played a bit of vanilla back in the day. Mist bar being separate from MP and speedup mode are huge improvements. Graphically this is possibly the best looking ps2 game when taking performance into consideration. Production values are through the roof.
Click to expand...

How are you playing? I just started IZJS for the first time via PCSX2 and holy crap this game is gorgeous when upscaled. It's just unbelievable.

Really enjoying the IZJS so far, but it's early days. I'm being a little held back by my slightly underpowered laptop. I wish SE would just remaster the damn thing so I can play it properly.
 
Sub_Level

Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
Zantetsuken88 said:
How are you playing? I just started IZJS for the first time via PCSX2 and holy crap this game is gorgeous when upscaled. It's just unbelievable.

Really enjoying the IZJS so far, but it's early days. I'm being a little held back by my slightly underpowered laptop. I wish SE would just remaster the damn thing so I can play it properly.
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On an actual slim ps2 through ethernet. The iso is on my pc's hdd. So it looks and runs the same as playin off disc. Loading times are about the same (some games are faster this method, some slower, important thing is that its much faster than playing through the USB interface). But yeah I have seen pcsx2 screenshots and it looks so good, but even on ps2 I have to say its one of the better holding up titles out there.

I'm past early days. 20ish hours in now. This plot is sooo good and some bosses have been a little tricky. Controlling these giant summons and having them use items is kind of hilarious...
 
Z

Zantetsuken88

Member
Sub_Level said:
On an actual slim ps2 through ethernet. The iso is on my pc's hdd. So it looks and runs the same as playin off disc. Loading times are about the same (some games are faster this method, some slower, important thing is that its much faster than playing through the USB interface). But yeah I have seen pcsx2 screenshots and it looks so good, but even on ps2 I have to say its one of the better holding up titles out there.

I'm past early days. 20ish hours in now. This plot is sooo good and some bosses have been a little tricky. Controlling these giant summons and having them use items is kind of hilarious...
Click to expand...

Ah I'm nowhere near that stage yet. Really looking forward to getting to grips with the new battle system which I already loved even in my vanilla copy.

I was never a huge fan of the story actually, but seeing it again in this very refined state is giving me more appreciation for the characters since I can actually clearly see their mannerisms. But yes, this game was always some kind of Sqeenix Wizardry. When you upscale it, it looks like a PS3 game.
 
M

manipulate

Member
XII is a great entry. It just suffers from some bland characters and a plot that isn't quite absorbing enough in the later stages. The world is wonderful, though.
 
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