On June 18 2011 12:19 shinosai wrote: Hmm, my thoughts:
FF4: Pretty linear game. Class based system made combat fairly boring.
FF5: Job system was extremely innovative, and probably the high point of the game. I'm a sucker for any game that let's me pick my class (neverwinter nights yum)
FF6: Probably the best FF in my opinion. Lot's of different characters, and you could customize their spells and stats with espers. Very solid story. Character development wasn't so great because it was a short game, but Kefka was very well defined.
FF7: The materia system, again, very innovative. It is perhaps my favorite customization out of all the games. There are simply so many interesting combinations one can make. Character development in this game was actually pretty solid, in my opinion. The story might have been a little generic (bad guy blowin' up the world...) but this was made up for with one of the best soundtracks any game has ever had.
FF8: I like to think of this game as trying to mix FF6's espers with FF7's materia. Unfortunately this led to some very bad mechanics. Who the the fuck wants to spend 30 minutes drawing out 99x magic every time they fight a new creature? Not. Me. That being said, at least you could customize, which is a bonus. The story made no sense, but at least it had some cool music. The characters... Selphie... what the fuck is wrong with you? Are you autistic? And Zell, seriously, did you drop your face into a blender? Squall, if you show any emotion we will kill you.
FF9: I hated this game. Very little customization possible. Customizing by equipment is probably the most boring way to go about it. The combat wasn't even fun because animations tended to be long and slow. If you managed to make it past the boring combat and leveling up, you might find a fairly generic story. Guy wants to destroy the world, you know, the usual. But then, a mysterious villain appears out of nowhere! He's the real bad guy!!! Super. But all of this is okay, because the game is in a fantasy setting instead of a technological one. And we get to make fun of fatty rust bucket.
FFX: Liked this game. Sphere grid would've been more interesting if it was less linear in the original, but other than that the combat in this game is fun. ATB > turn based, though. Good soundtrack, nice plot twist towards the end.
What nice plot twists are in FFX? :/
Well, you're led to believe that this final summoning thing will defeat Sin for a while. And then, wow, the final summoning isn't a summoning at all. It just makes a new sin out of a person, and kills the summoner. And you're led to believe that Sin is some sort of punishment for the use of machina, but really it has nothing to do with that. Yu Yevon is just an asshole. Oh, and Tidus isn't even real.
Whether or not these are good plot twists are subjective, I suppose, but I liked where they went with it.
Yeah I guess. What FFX really comes down to for me is a great world, and underneath a really great story, but its HORRIBLY told and has absolutely retarded characters, then hindered by minigames like blitzball, which was just excruciating. It's like they had a really good start and just mucked it up.
On June 18 2011 12:00 br3ak.g0d wrote: wait i don't understand...How can this be a final fantasy fanboy thread and there not be a huge discussion on how good ffVII was........
lol can we get a poll? OP should add a poll for our favorite FF.
Edit:
guys if you want to play FFIX (FF9) on PC with 1920x1080 resolution enhanced graphics and custom shaders pm me and I can give you links to set up your PC emulator for a more enjoyable and great looking game experience.
Kinda like this:
but even better with the newest shaders and emulator plugins.
You will need an iso or .bin file of the game. Or you can used your FF9 CD. PM me though because we can't share links.
If you guys want I can post up some screenshots of FF9 on PC at 1920x1080
On June 18 2011 12:19 shinosai wrote: Hmm, my thoughts:
FF4: Pretty linear game. Class based system made combat fairly boring.
FF5: Job system was extremely innovative, and probably the high point of the game. I'm a sucker for any game that let's me pick my class (neverwinter nights yum)
FF6: Probably the best FF in my opinion. Lot's of different characters, and you could customize their spells and stats with espers. Very solid story. Character development wasn't so great because it was a short game, but Kefka was very well defined.
FF7: The materia system, again, very innovative. It is perhaps my favorite customization out of all the games. There are simply so many interesting combinations one can make. Character development in this game was actually pretty solid, in my opinion. The story might have been a little generic (bad guy blowin' up the world...) but this was made up for with one of the best soundtracks any game has ever had.
FF8: I like to think of this game as trying to mix FF6's espers with FF7's materia. Unfortunately this led to some very bad mechanics. Who the the fuck wants to spend 30 minutes drawing out 99x magic every time they fight a new creature? Not. Me. That being said, at least you could customize, which is a bonus. The story made no sense, but at least it had some cool music. The characters... Selphie... what the fuck is wrong with you? Are you autistic? And Zell, seriously, did you drop your face into a blender? Squall, if you show any emotion we will kill you.
FF9: I hated this game. Very little customization possible. Customizing by equipment is probably the most boring way to go about it. The combat wasn't even fun because animations tended to be long and slow. If you managed to make it past the boring combat and leveling up, you might find a fairly generic story. Guy wants to destroy the world, you know, the usual. But then, a mysterious villain appears out of nowhere! He's the real bad guy!!! Super. But all of this is okay, because the game is in a fantasy setting instead of a technological one. And we get to make fun of fatty rust bucket.
FFX: Liked this game. Sphere grid would've been more interesting if it was less linear in the original, but other than that the combat in this game is fun. ATB > turn based, though. Good soundtrack, nice plot twist towards the end.
What nice plot twists are in FFX? :/
Well, you're led to believe that this final summoning thing will defeat Sin for a while. And then, wow, the final summoning isn't a summoning at all. It just makes a new sin out of a person, and kills the summoner. And you're led to believe that Sin is some sort of punishment for the use of machina, but really it has nothing to do with that. Yu Yevon is just an asshole. Oh, and Tidus isn't even real.
Whether or not these are good plot twists are subjective, I suppose, but I liked where they went with it.
Yeah I guess. What FFX really comes down to for me is a great world, and underneath a really great story, but its HORRIBLY told and has absolutely retarded characters, then hindered by minigames like blitzball, which was just excruciating. It's like they had a really good start and just mucked it up.
Some of the characters were decent, like Auron. But having a girly man like Tidus as a lead character was kind of annoying. The villains also lacked flavor. I felt like Seymour did not live up to other villains like Kefka and Sephiroth in terms of being an evil bad ass. And sin didn't really have a personality.
Seymour's only saving grace to me is that at least he was better than Ultimecia... oddly, the second boss fight with him was the most challenging. And the most epic.
I am a later generation Final Fantasy gamer; my first was FF7. I've owned 7,8, 10, 12, 13, Tactics, Tactics Advance, and the 12 spinoff.. I forget what it's called. I've heard lovely things about 4 and 6 and enjoyed the limited time I spent with them so they'll definitely rank up there for me. That said, I actually found 7 to be one of the less engaging games for me. The simple black-and-white morality and story were too boring for me. I don't enjoy "here is the bad guy, kill him" premise of a lot of these older games. I'm not saying 7 was bad by any stretch of the imagination - it helped define a generation of games and changed the landscape of console gaming. I just think it is more shallow than a good deal of the stories that came after it. I will break with what appears to be the common convention that says 12 and Tactics were average or sub-par games. I actually found those two to be by far the most in-depth and engaging games in the series thus far. The complexity of the characters and their motivations make it murky and unpredictable (to a point). The political intrigue provides a great backdrop for character development and harrowing gameplay moments. The characters are more relatable and dare I say "deep" than characters like Yuffie or Rinoa. Obviously we all have radically different opinions on these games and part of that is because we all look for different things in games. I'm just glad the FF series continues though I do hope they improve the quality after 13. I'm looking forward to Versus 13 with a passion.
I watched a friend play FF-7 but I never got into it. Felt it was overhyped. That said, since I haven't played the game, this is very immature judgment.
FF-10 : Played and finished it. I don't remember much from this game, so I don't think it was 'great' for me.
FF 10-2 : Played but never finished it. The all 'girl' stuff got me bored. It felt too cheesy.
FF 12 : Played but never finished it. I'm at a boss or mini-boss that I am not able to beat. I think I've read that you need a skill to float so that his earthquake (or whatever attack) doesn't kill you. Well, I don't have that float ability because I never bought it. And I don't want to go down a hundred floor (I'm probably exaggerating, but I do remember that dungeon being very very tall). The story of the wars between empire and the small kingdom was quite interesting though. Too bad it was not developed enough for my liking!
FF 13 : Played, never finished. I instead watched my brother complete the game. Graphics were really nice. Names were lame. Hope was fun, cry and emo all game long. Snow was annoying. Sazh too. My favorite was definitely Vanille. Also, the story was a huge WTF. At first, it was sort of interesting. Rebels against Cocoon... and then it transitioned into some piece of crap gods trying to destroy world to recreate world stuff. And everything that happens when you go back on Cocoon is a huge WTF. I was basically asking : Story, why you make no sense? The final boss was also a joke. He doesn't even look that scary. The animations were also terribly funny.
So far, I don't believe I have a best final fantasy out of those I've seen or played. That said, due to its famous name, (which doesn't translate into quality),I usually will buy them when they are released, only to find myself disappointed.
On June 18 2011 13:34 XenOmega wrote: I watched a friend play FF-7 but I never got into it. Felt it was overhyped. That said, since I haven't played the game, this is very immature judgment.
FF-10 : Played and finished it. I don't remember much from this game, so I don't think it was 'great' for me.
FF 10-2 : Played but never finished it. The all 'girl' stuff got me bored. It felt too cheesy.
FF 12 : Played but never finished it. I'm at a boss or mini-boss that I am not able to beat. I think I've read that you need a skill to float so that his earthquake (or whatever attack) doesn't kill you. Well, I don't have that float ability because I never bought it. And I don't want to go down a hundred floor (I'm probably exaggerating, but I do remember that dungeon being very very tall). The story of the wars between empire and the small kingdom was quite interesting though. Too bad it was not developed enough for my liking!
FF 13 : Played, never finished. I instead watched my brother complete the game. Graphics were really nice. Names were lame. Hope was fun, cry and emo all game long. Snow was annoying. Sazh too. My favorite was definitely Vanille. Also, the story was a huge WTF. At first, it was sort of interesting. Rebels against Cocoon... and then it transitioned into some piece of crap gods trying to destroy world to recreate world stuff. And everything that happens when you go back on Cocoon is a huge WTF. I was basically asking : Story, why you make no sense? The final boss was also a joke. He doesn't even look that scary. The animations were also terribly funny.
So far, I don't believe I have a best final fantasy out of those I've seen or played. That said, due to its famous name, (which doesn't translate into quality),I usually will buy them when they are released, only to find myself disappointed.
You should try 6 or tactics, or at least watch a lets play in some of your spare time of 6. Its really such a good game for being the SNES and just has everything an RPG needs. Some of the newer final fantasy's seem to be more eye candy than just focusing on the story (although some of them have great battle mechanics)
I played 3(ds), 4(ds), 5(gba), 6(gba), 7, 8, 9, 10, 10-2, FFA, FFA2. The game I spent the most time on is FFA2 (played 100+ hours), although that might be because it's a hand-held. Other than that, I find 10 to be the most beautiful, 4 and 9 to be the most fun, 6 and 8 to be the most frustrating, 7 to be the most overated.
FFX is simply stunning. It's probably my favourite game if it wasn't for some of the questionable character designs. The story is touching, the universe of FFX is vast
4 and 9 are the most fun for me. It's kind of hard to explain... perhaps because their systems are simple... you just play, level up, get more abilities, and that's tons of fun for me.
6 and 8 are extremely frustrating to me because they penalize leveling up. To have the need to escape from every single enemy encountered is a deal-breaker to me.
Graphics have become a big key to whether i buy/try a game or not. I know physical appearance mean nothing (Girls :D) but they are still the first thing you see. You have to make one step to give a game a chance, even if its graphics are bad! That's how I got surprised by Xenogear in the first place. I never bought it on Playstation (I got mine when the console was already at the end of its lifetime, to be replaced by PS2).
FF6 - Fantastic game. Kefka is a bad ass, the characters are interesting, nice story and the battle system is classic, no nonsense fare.
FF7 - My favourite by far. The locations, the intertwining and twisting storylines, great characters, the incomparable materia system, amazing side questing and optional games (snowboarding!! etc). I really don't think it's possible for any RPG to dethrone this from the top of my list.
FF8 - What. the. fuck? Garbage battle system: it was tedious to have to draw spells all the time, and the system was exploitable as fuck. Shit characters: Squall is a bitch. Laguna's storyline was really redundant. The second timeline and the villain hardly made any sense either. I really don't know how I even finished this game; I remember nothing memorable about it at all. I must have finished it simply because it was one of my first 4 or 5 JRPGs that I ever played and I was in my early teens with nothing better to do...........
FF9 - Great game. Very wholesome feel to it. Fun characters. The story was solid, but also felt very familiar (by the time I played this game i had finished dozens of JRPGs). I have to say though... the last boss comes out of NOWHERE. I still remember my friends and I sitting around talking and describing our "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?" thoughts when he comes out of nowhere and Grand Crosses your party to death lol...
FF10 - Tidus.... ugh... The voice acting.... UGH (who can forget the HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA scene.... I wanted to punch the TV screen for the absurdity of it all). Poor end to the story. Very very nice battle system. I liked being able to switch party members in/out. Nice side questing and boss battles!
FF10-2 - Garbage. Everything about it. Borrowed it from a mate, played about 2 hours to give it a chance... and quit.
FF12 - Haven't played it so I wont comment.
FF13 - Nice, fast paced battle system. Supposedly you could autopilot your way though it, but I never used that command, it seemed to be far from optimal. Nice locations, hit and miss characters. Shit story. Shit villain (big wall that I could 1-shot without power levelling). Shit ending. The fact that this game gets bashed for its linearity is hilarious. Every final fantasy is linear; what it fucked up in was the lack of options for exploration and the complete lack of a living world feel. But so did FF10 frankly... Nice side questing in the monster challenges, but there's hardly any reason to pursue those challenges... They don't further explore the characters or story AT ALL.
On June 18 2011 12:19 shinosai wrote: Hmm, my thoughts:
FF4: Pretty linear game. Class based system made combat fairly boring.
FF5: Job system was extremely innovative, and probably the high point of the game. I'm a sucker for any game that let's me pick my class (neverwinter nights yum)
FF6: Probably the best FF in my opinion. Lot's of different characters, and you could customize their spells and stats with espers. Very solid story. Character development wasn't so great because it was a short game, but Kefka was very well defined.
FF7: The materia system, again, very innovative. It is perhaps my favorite customization out of all the games. There are simply so many interesting combinations one can make. Character development in this game was actually pretty solid, in my opinion. The story might have been a little generic (bad guy blowin' up the world...) but this was made up for with one of the best soundtracks any game has ever had.
FF8: I like to think of this game as trying to mix FF6's espers with FF7's materia. Unfortunately this led to some very bad mechanics. Who the the fuck wants to spend 30 minutes drawing out 99x magic every time they fight a new creature? Not. Me. That being said, at least you could customize, which is a bonus. The story made no sense, but at least it had some cool music. The characters... Selphie... what the fuck is wrong with you? Are you autistic? And Zell, seriously, did you drop your face into a blender? Squall, if you show any emotion we will kill you.
FF9: I hated this game. Very little customization possible. Customizing by equipment is probably the most boring way to go about it. The combat wasn't even fun because animations tended to be long and slow. If you managed to make it past the boring combat and leveling up, you might find a fairly generic story. Guy wants to destroy the world, you know, the usual. But then, a mysterious villain appears out of nowhere! He's the real bad guy!!! Super. But all of this is okay, because the game is in a fantasy setting instead of a technological one. And we get to make fun of fatty rust bucket.
FFX: Liked this game. Sphere grid would've been more interesting if it was less linear in the original, but other than that the combat in this game is fun. ATB > turn based, though. Good soundtrack, nice plot twist towards the end.
What nice plot twists are in FFX? :/
Ugh....the god that is worshipped all over Spira turned out to be the evil person and the final summon isnt even a summon but make you turn into the new Sins AND Tidus is already DEAD/NOT REAL?!
If that is not enough of a twist to you then I dont know what you were smoking half way through the game dude.
On June 18 2011 12:19 shinosai wrote: Hmm, my thoughts:
FF4: Pretty linear game. Class based system made combat fairly boring.
FF5: Job system was extremely innovative, and probably the high point of the game. I'm a sucker for any game that let's me pick my class (neverwinter nights yum)
FF6: Probably the best FF in my opinion. Lot's of different characters, and you could customize their spells and stats with espers. Very solid story. Character development wasn't so great because it was a short game, but Kefka was very well defined.
FF7: The materia system, again, very innovative. It is perhaps my favorite customization out of all the games. There are simply so many interesting combinations one can make. Character development in this game was actually pretty solid, in my opinion. The story might have been a little generic (bad guy blowin' up the world...) but this was made up for with one of the best soundtracks any game has ever had.
FF8: I like to think of this game as trying to mix FF6's espers with FF7's materia. Unfortunately this led to some very bad mechanics. Who the the fuck wants to spend 30 minutes drawing out 99x magic every time they fight a new creature? Not. Me. That being said, at least you could customize, which is a bonus. The story made no sense, but at least it had some cool music. The characters... Selphie... what the fuck is wrong with you? Are you autistic? And Zell, seriously, did you drop your face into a blender? Squall, if you show any emotion we will kill you.
FF9: I hated this game. Very little customization possible. Customizing by equipment is probably the most boring way to go about it. The combat wasn't even fun because animations tended to be long and slow. If you managed to make it past the boring combat and leveling up, you might find a fairly generic story. Guy wants to destroy the world, you know, the usual. But then, a mysterious villain appears out of nowhere! He's the real bad guy!!! Super. But all of this is okay, because the game is in a fantasy setting instead of a technological one. And we get to make fun of fatty rust bucket.
FFX: Liked this game. Sphere grid would've been more interesting if it was less linear in the original, but other than that the combat in this game is fun. ATB > turn based, though. Good soundtrack, nice plot twist towards the end.
What nice plot twists are in FFX? :/
Ugh....the god that is worshipped all over Spira turned out to be the evil person and the final summon isnt even a summon but make you turn into the new Sins AND Tidus is already DEAD/NOT REAL?!
If that is not enough of a twist to you then I dont know what you were smoking half way through the game dude.
I honestly wish they made a mmo of the Spira world, the game was great for me, but the more I think about it could have been so much better.
On June 18 2011 13:44 Alventenie wrote: You should try 6 or tactics, or at least watch a lets play in some of your spare time of 6. Its really such a good game for being the SNES and just has everything an RPG needs. Some of the newer final fantasy's seem to be more eye candy than just focusing on the story (although some of them have great battle mechanics)
FF VI was the only one where the story touched me at moments, it's just an amazing story and I love the fact that it has SNES-gfx because it gives your fantasy more freedom (like books), I just could enjoy the story more compared to all newer ones.
XenOmega if you liked vanille you will like aeris (ff7), they are quite similar <3
idk how people can possibly think ff7 was "shallow". cloud's shit was as twisted as it gets, it took me years before i realised fully what was really going on. yes yuffie is "shallow" in the same way one of jackie chan's characters is shallow, but she is an awesome cool gal, and with a lot of fun surrounding her
a 30 minute mini-movie was released with Advent Children, showing the events of Cloud and Zack escaping Ghast's lab. you guys absolutely MUST watch it, it was godly and so relevent. what was it called....
Using American Numbering system (because I am not an elitist) of the ones I have played and beat.
FF2- First one I ever played and beat, was about 10 years old, and got me insta hooked into the series. Cecil's dark knight to paladin story, among his mind controlled best friend Kane made this one of the best FF plotlines IMO. Remade in sorta 3d on ds and a definate must. ff3- Need I say anything? Top two FF's if not number 1 ff5- First introduction into the class system, great story. Tactics-Zomg, strategy and rpg in one? Yes pls, amazing lionheart story and who doesn't love delita? FF7- The best final fantasy, period hands down, close second being 3 and close third being tactics FF8- Pure kife and shit, a definate skip. Anyone who truly grew up playing ff's will not like this one. Lacking story, especially in creativity (Seifer??? really???) FF9- The last great FF, after 8's dissapointment they put alot of time and effort into this, a must play IMO FFX-Shit, pure shit FFX2- Shit x2 FF11- LOLZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ dumbest boss system ever (world bosses have to drop an item for you to advance to the next boss, did I mention it is a chance to drop not 100%?) FF12- Shit. the battle system taken from what made crisis core fail is what started to ruin this series. People play FF's for old school turn based battle system, not live action move n shit. Crap ff13- Have yet to play ff14- Don't waste your time, was in the failfest beta.
Crisis Core- So torn............. the battle system is terribad, and the game is short. With that said, the story they crammed into it was awesome. So if you just want some more pieces of the puzzle I would say play, but be prepared to be annoyed as all fuck
I'll be at the Distant Worlds concerts in Chicago 8 days from today - two full concerts, with different music selections, with Nobuo Uematsu in attendance and even playing. I'll be at both (row 5 for the first concert, nosebleeds for the second), along with a meet and greet with him after the first. I'm pretty sure the only thing that could compare to this would be playing a series with BoxeR or something.
I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures, if you guys are interested I'll see about getting them up for you.
ANYWAY, for somewhat of a currently on-topic post - VI is the best game, V and IX (especially V though) don't get the respect they deserve, everything past X is varying degrees of horrible. X-2 actually has one of the best battle systems in the whole series; it's a shame that everything else about that game makes me rage.
On June 18 2011 22:02 Arkless wrote: Using American Numbering system (because I am not an elitist)
The Japanese numbering really simplifies things, but to each his own.
Anyway, I'll go over the ones I've played.
Final Fantasy I - The game gets credit for starting it all, but it really has not aged well at all. The entire thing seems so archaic and flawed when you play it. Some games however are actually improved by their bugs and flaws, such as Super Smash Bros. Melee and Castlevania Symphony of the Night. Final Fantasy I is poorly balanced in many areas and made extra challenging because of that. It can be fun to work with a flawed system and try to overcome something overpowered with creativity, or to handicap yourself with an awful party. If you're a fan of the series this is a great game, if you aren't I highly recommend you DON'T play it and get the wrong idea. There's definitely gold here, but it isn't for everyone.
Final Fantasy II - Leveling and trying to get the right stats was annoying and the gameplay is only a bit better than I. It excels for being the first Final Fantasy to actually have characters though. It isn't the most beautiful story ever told, but it has its charm for fans of the series.
Final Fantasy VI - Loved this one, but not like I loved VII. Certain characters were lovable such as Locke, but it just didn't have the right sort of magic for me. I played it a long time ago though, so I reserve my judgement. I have to give this another play through now that I'm a lot older.
Final Fantasy VII - It's exactly as good as anyone who allegedly overrated it has said. It gets a lot of flak for how prominent it is, but it really deserves it. It isn't without its flaws though. Cloud is to me honestly the weakest character in the game. He has a story behind him, but not much of a personality. Everyone else is so vibrant and interesting. Tifa tries to support and understand Cloud and compete with Aeris. Barret tries to save the world from the slums and coming to terms with his past in Corel, support his daughter and deal with the guilt of his terrorist actions. Aeris tries to live normally knowing she is something so radically different from everyone else and accepting her fate. Cid, is one of the few people around with a good heart, but with the most hostile demeanor, even one upping Barret, trying to do good for the world. Cait Sith starting as a Shinra spy and eventually sympathizing with AVALANCHE and betraying Shinra entirely while trying to gain everyone's trust. Red XIII was also rather weak in my opinion, and Yuffie and Vincent aren't really as involved, but I love them both. Even the Turks are great in all their comic relief. Cloud is just quiet and mysterious, plain if you ask me. Materia was fun and interesting though it could have been improved by making more physical attack oriented materia besides a few overpowered ones at the end of the game. That's all I can really complain about though. Everything else in this game is nigh-perfect.
Final Fantasy VIII - As soon as you figure out to junction 100 of your most powerful magic to everyone's strength you're set. Casting spells aside from cure, aura and double/triple is a waste of time. Junctioning is just so broken it kills everything in this game. The Sorceress story seems rather silly, the orphanage twist is... bad, and the love story goes from who cares, whatever, blah, blah, two OHMYGODILOVERINOA overnight. Quistis was much better, she actually had a really good understanding of Squall. Rinoa was just forced. Triple Triad was alright until you spent hours abolishing rules to make it bearable outside of the starting town. GFs learning abilities was cool until they all started to overlap. Zell and Selphie were annoying as all hell. Seifer was the biggest pussy of all time. Squall was amusing with his social ineptitude, but I expected some more exciting tragedy to have made him so emo. I really only liked Quistis, Irvine who was initially a comic womanizer, but you learn to see he has a good heart and Laguna. They should have made the whole thing about Laguna. He was so loveable and easy to relate to, and I loved his interactions with Kiros and Ward. Overall worth one playthrough if you're a fan of the series.
Final Fantasy X - I thought the setting was extremely interesting, and I loved how the entire plot seemed to get darker and sadder as you approached Zanarkand. You knew things were always going to get worse and were left wondering how. The characters though were hit and miss. Tidus was annoying and whiny. You needed a character who didn't quite know what the fuck was going on to have the world explained, but this guy is awful. Wakka is a racist clown, and just felt out of place. Lulu was just kinda there for me, and so was Kimhari. I never understood the Wakka/Lulu relationship though. They never seemed to have anything special and Lulu seems to dark and moody for Wakkas jolliness. Rikku was loud and annoying most of the time, and Yuna was decent. Subdued yet with a strong will. Auron was a badass and actually one of the best characters of the series. Actually his whole team was 10x more interesting. Braska was the outcast who didn't give a shit, Auron was noble and badass, and Jecht was an out of place drunk coming to terms with his life. Tidus' group was boring, loud and annoying like a room full of RAs. Braska's group was the guys I wanna hang out with on the weekend. Seymour?You didn't really get to make use of the sphere grid as anything other than a linear path until you were well versed on the game though and on your second playthrough. Fuck him. I think its a good game overall though if you can sympathize with Tidus. Probably the last good game the series will see though.
Final Fantasy X-2 - What the hell happened to this series? We have Yuna with guns singing pop music on some sort of dancing totem and everyone is wearing thongs and BDSM gear, even the dudes. I have no idea. I think the game was designed to be a softcore porno. Aborted play.
Final Fantasy XII - HATEHATEHATE. I could not get more than 20-30 hours into this mess. To me Final Fantasy was always a solid turn based RPG I could rely on to put out an at least decent game with an interesting story/characters. Then this abomination came out. It tried to change everything for the sake of changing everything and of course did it poorly. Final Fantasy is not an MMO and it is not KotOR. I am also not interested in programming a game to play itself. Vaan and Pinelo are annoying and irrelevant, the dialogue makes me cringe almost as bad as the laughing scene in X, though the IM CAPTAIN BASCH FON RONSENBURG OF DALMASCA scene was unplayable and comes as a close second. Basch and Balthier were interesting, but unfortunately I had to see that from the eyes of the most unremarkable protagonist since the Warriors of Light. The world was dusty, brown and boring and doesn't make sense. YOU NEED A LICENSE TO WEAR THOSE PANTS.
Final Fantasy XIII Onward - Will not play until they either rehire Sakaguchi and Uematsu or go back to turn based play.
Lost Odyssey - Essentially the spiritual successor to Final Fantasy seeing as how it has all the key developers. Hopefully they make it into a series because I loved every minute of it. Posted about it earlier in the thread:
What was wrong with Lost Odyssey? Its the only good turn based RPG in recent memory, and finally forced you to create a party where everyone either fills their role or dies. I loved the front/back line mechanic. Spells were done almost perfectly too where more powerful ones took multiple turns to cast and getting hit made them take longer. People seem to like to think RPGs are strategic, but most of them boil down to either making your standard attack insane or casting an insanely overpowered spell every turn. Lost Odyssey forced you to have a role for everyone that made or broke your party, and every turn needed to be executed well to survive. Even the beloved Final Fantasy Tactics with the name Tactics in it really was more about each individual character being strong on their own and not as a team.
Sure the story was mediocre and Mack was a little bitch (Stop putting little kids in my party dammit), but the gameplay was spot on. It was able to bring the MMO feel FFXII and FFXIII failed so horribly to bring, and it did it damn well. I'm curious as to what exactly your criticisms of it are.
I'll exclude Tactics and spinoffs. Only the RPG games/main series can be fairly ranked against one another, so here's my order:
FFVII Lost Odyssey FFVI FFX FFVIII FFI FFII FFX-2 FFXII
Obviously I still need to play IX, IV as well as play VI again, but that's my feelings on the series.