Together Retro: Final Fantasy Spin-Offs

[Exhuminator]

I do remember only having a handful of missions left to beat the game but the levels of opponents was obscene and I couldn't be assed grinding.

Yes you remembered correctly. Up until this point, I have beaten every side mission (from Chapters 1-8). So my levels are like 43 average. But the enemies and bosses in these side missions are like level 68 average. I have synthesized seriously great weapons too, but those hardly matter with such level disparity. Clearly the developers expect the player to grind on the Free Melee missions (non-story stuff where you just kill tons of monsters) to grind up their levels. NOBODY WANTS TO DO THAT SQEX. I still like this game, but yeah, I'll be docking a point from its score for this twilight hour difficulty spike BS.

[TheSSNintendo]

Made it to Doom Castle this evening. Should be finished with Mystic Quest by tomorrow.

[Omerta]

I've been kinda stuck in neutral on FFTA. This game offers way more than I'm willing to take in short bursts. The battles are getting long and tight enough that it's getting irritating to get a couple of key missed attacks and lose a decent chunk of time without any advancement.

Though I'm complaining because it's slower paced than what I feel like playing right now, it's actually great game overall. Definitely a worthy addition to the GBA pile.

[Exhuminator]

Made it to chapter 10 (last chapter) in FFXII:RW tonight. I'll just say it wasn't easy, and leave it at that. Here's hoping I can knock this one out by the end of the week. Maybe.

[pierrot]

Actually, to add even more confusion, Kingdom Hearts 1.5 doesn’t contain Kingdom Hearts 348/2 days; it only contains the cutscenes. I’m not sure if the same is true for Re:Coded inside of 2.5. As someone who actually enjoys the games (apparently the only one in this forum), even I find it ridiculous they think we’d want to just watch cutscenes from a game.

I felt like that was a tacit admission that 348/2 days isn't redeemable as a game, but at least Roxas, Axel, and Xion's relationships are relatively interesting. There are games in the KH series that I don't outright hate (II, CoM, BbS), but 348/2 days is not one of them. That game is about as bad as it gets, although I do tend to assume that Re:Coded is even worse.

I was watching some footage of KH III the other day, and actually think it looks pretty good; Like, maybe I actually want to play it--. Does anyone have any opinions on Dream Drop Distance? That came out at about the point that I was done with the series. Also, what the shit is Chi? Follow up question: Why is it?

Whether or not it's a defense of Kingdom Hearts, I think it may have been overlooked in the discussion that the series seems to have a sizeable segment of its fanbase that comprises a demographic that's not especially well represented on Racketboy.

[Xeogred]

Overall it seems like there is half and half experiences here so far, maybe leaning more towards the negative...

FF does feel like one of those franchises that's best stayed within the main line for me.

Mystic Quest was fine, but too bare bones for me. Sarge's review sums up most of my thoughts too. I just don't feel like I'm missing out on anything after playing a chunk of it. Hated Kingdom Hearts and I don't seem to be alone on that now. Love FF7, but have had zero interests in the spinoffs and it seems like some in this thread confirm I should keep my distance from those. I dabbled into Crystal Chronicles back in the day, it seemed fine but was more of a multiplayer thing only I think? It's not Phantasy Star Online. FFTA... nah thanks man, screw those laws.

[BoneSnapDeez]

The 4 Heroes of Light is solid shit dawg.

[pierrot]

I dabbled into Crystal Chronicles back in the day, it seemed fine but was more of a multiplayer thing only I think? It's not Phantasy Star Online.

Crystal Chronicles is my favorite Final Fantasy game, and I played it almost exclusively solo. Yeah, playing solo means much less awesome combining of skills and magic, but one thing I really loved about that game is the story. The problem there is, it's so subtle, that it's almost guaranteed to be completely missed in a co-op campaign. I like the game either way, but it's probably not for everyone. I still wish more people would play it, though. (Selkie 4 life!)

The 4 Heroes of Light is solid shit dawg.

I hit such a wall in that game. I was hopeful that I would really like it, since it's an original Final Fantasy game by Matrix Software, and I loved their take on FF III, but I don't think it's to be. It's been so long since I last played it, and I really hate the characters. Having them constantly split up just further salts the wounds.

[TheSSNintendo]

Finished up Mystic Quest tonight, and took the cheap route to beat the Dark King.

[Exhuminator]

Overall it seems like there is half and half experiences here so far, maybe leaning more towards the negative

Well, FFXII:RW has been pretty good.

Mystic Quest was fine, but too bare bones for me.

I would have played it, but I beat it years upon years ago already. It was nostalgic fun reading everyone talking about it, brought back memories.

Love FF7, but have had zero interests in the spinoffs

Crisis Core is at least decent, if not fairly good.

I dabbled into Crystal Chronicles back in the day, it seemed fine but was more of a multiplayer thing only I think?

I don't know about the GameCube version, but Ring of Fates on DS can be played single player. I tried playing through it a few years ago, but its terrible level design killed the experience for me. I'm still willing to give Echoes of Time a try.

-

I still haven't seen anybody try any of the Chocobo games yet. There's a lot of Chocobo games. Poor Chocobo.