racketboy.com

OK, this thread has gotten me to think a bit about FF series. First off, as bruno will attest, it seems like my taste is pretty weird for a lot of the series. Like, I'd say I'm a FF fan, but I tend to like some of the more hated entries. But I've also realized that I own some that I have no interest in, probably just to own them. Which is kind of silly. So... here we go.

Final Fantasy - I really like the original to be honest. But probably nostalgia. It and Dragon Warrior were my first two RPG's. Got them around the same time (I can't remember which I got first honestly... DW came free from Nintendo Power though, so that should put a time-frame on it). Sure it's a basic game, and pretty short. It's certainly far less "epic" than Phantasy Star. But it was staggering compared to its immediate competition of DW as the only JRPG's I was exposed to at that time. I can still go back to it today and enjoy it.

Final Fantasy II - though I've owned this in many versions (GBA, PS1, PSP), I've never actually gotten around to playing it!

Final Fantasy III - never played it. The DS version was an ugly remake, right?

Final Fantasy IV - Certainly fantastic. I've never beaten it though -- but that's a theme with FF for me. I always get into one of them, play for hours, and then get distracted by something else. It sounds like that means I'm not into them, but that's not it. It's almost like I just enjoy the game for the length of time I feel like I should and then move on. But yeah I should finish this at some point. (Started on GBA and PSP in the past.)

Final Fantasy V - I have not played. I don't know much about it.

Final Fantasy VI - *see IV. Another good one, but haven't gotten too far. I will... someday.

Final Fantasy VII - Love/Hate. I got this "back in the day" and loved it at first, and then got so annoyed with Shinra Tower. So I decided I hated it. And then years went by and people kept hyping it which sort of made me hate it more. Then that Chinese NES bootleg came out with an English patch so I started playing that version out of curiosity, which strangely sort of made me really appreciate VII a lot again.

Final Fantasy VIII - This is one I own just to own. I don't think I'd even like it. I should probably get rid of it.

Final Fantasy IX - this is one I own because I actually do want to play it at some point. I think it looks awesome -- like they took the first game and updated the graphics. Black Mage FTW!

Final Fantasy X - another Love/Hate. I hate most of the voice work. I hate a lot of the character designs. But I can't pretend it's not a fun game with incredible graphics on the PS2.

Final Fantasy X-2 - this game really intrigues me. (See bruno?) I just think it looks so insanely weird. Like why did it even get the greenlight? I'd rather play a bad weird interesting game, than a good middle-of-the-road game.

Final Fantasy XI - MMO that's not F2P? Skip.

Final Fantasy XII - another I own to own. I think I'd hate it. I hate the look of it. But I bought the SE thinking I'd watch the DVD. I still haven't.

Final Fantasy XIII - I like it. Shrug. I think it's a great title to show of the PS3's power visually. I love the music. I don't mind the linear quality. In that sense, it's sort of relaxing to me. I can walk away from it for months and pop it back in and don't have to remember where I was supposed to go next. And I liked the characters. Even the ones most people hate.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 - I probably like even more than XIII. I think it's an excellent game really. Have you all played it? You guys probably don't like it much eh?

Final Fantasy XIV - if it was F2P, I'd give it a try out of curiosity. Oh well.

...I was going to get into some of the spin-off games, but this post is pretty long as is haha.

Well since everyone else is doing it:

FF I- Played it on PSP. Pretty good. I haven't beaten yet... and Dragon Warrior is still better.

FF II- I've only played about 30 minutes of this so I can really form too much of an opinion.

FF III- At first I liked this, but then around the 12 hour mark it just became tedious and I put it down. A lot of grinding in this one.

FF IV- It's good. That is all.

FF V- Never played it.

FF VI- This was the first Final Fantasy I played. Prior to this game my only experience with RPG's were the Ultima NES ports and Super Mario RPG. I was totally blown away by VI; the music, graphics, everything. So this one is probably my favorite.

FF VII- I just recently played this. I got to the end boss and quit playing... and I probably won't be picking this back up for a few years. I liked the pre-rendered backgrounds and the music. The character designs had that early PlayStation block look which I'm not that fond of and the story was just there... it wasn't anything groundbreaking as I have been led to believe. And was I really supposed to care what happened to Aeris? I didn't. She sucked. I'm glad I didn't have to tote here useless butt around anymore.

FF VIII- Random battle---Hit Down Once---Select DRAW---Select Spell---Select STOCK.
That's the game...

Okay, there's a little more to it than that... What I liked: The music (I actually want the soundtrack to this game), the pre-rendered backgrounds, the character designs (Squall may have four belts but everyone else seems "normal"). What I didn't like: the pacing was awful. As soon as the story would get really interesting, the game would take a 180 and make you do something else. Of course, the story doesn't make too much sense anyway... And I'll give the creators credit; I found Drawing magic to be an interesting concept BUT it was horribly executed. I think with some tweaking this could actually be a "fun" game.

FF IX- I've never gotten past disc 2. It's really strange; I like the game but I always lose interest when I swap to disc 2... weird.

FF X- What I liked: The game has fantastic graphics for the time and the battle system is really efficient. What I disli-HA HA HA HA! HA HA HA HA HA!
Seriously, that's some bad voice acting. FF X makes Corpse Killer look good.

FF X-2- I own a Promo copy. Never played it.

FF XI- Have it for my collection. Never played it.

FF XII- Played 15 minutes. No opinion.

FF XIII- Put me in the boat with the 4 others that liked this game. The visuals are gorgeous, the music is fantastic, and the battle system is very streamlined.
I like this game. Yes, it may be linear but outside of open-world games what game isn't linear?

FF XIII-2- Don't have it yet.

o.pwuaioc wrote:What was so bad about them? The Disney + FFVII turned me off, but I had at least that they were good games (well, not so much the third one).

They're dull, repetitive, and the character designs are absolutely hideous. Every game feels rushed and like a cheap cash-in attempt. Just not my thing at all.

@noise, It seems like you either haven't played or haven't finished the best games in the series. One of the reasons I dislike XIII so much is because it's so more worse than the earlier entries. I'm not saying you'd feel the same way after playing the older games, but to me the contrast between IV/V/VI and XIII is absolutely staggering and makes XIII look terrible in comparison.

BoneSnapDeez wrote:@noise, It seems like you either haven't played or haven't finished the best games in the series. One of the reasons I dislike XIII so much is because it's so more worse than the earlier entries. I'm not saying you'd feel the same way after playing the older games, but to me the contrast between IV/V/VI and XIII is absolutely staggering and makes XIII look terrible in comparison.

to my knowledge, I haven't finished any FF game ever. Which like I said, is funny because I'd say "yeah I'm a FF fan." But even if I got around to playing V or more of VI and thought it was better than XIII, that's not going to take away the hours of enjoyment I got out of XIII. It's not going to make me dislike it all the sudden.

Of course not! If thats how it worked, no one would like VII anymore.

Fwiw, I thought X-2 was excellent. But, I also thought X was excellent, so not sure what my opinions worth there.

X-2 is a surprisingly good game under the initial impression you get from the first 15 minutes of the game. However, a lot of the bullshit involved in getting a 100% clear is bullshit. XIII-2 does the 100% clear much better; you can redo anything you miss.

What's with all the identical avatars???

Breetai wrote:What's with all the identical avatars???

If you don't acknowledge them they'll go away.

@noiseredux

I wouldn't say your taste is too weird, although it is surprisingly to hear you haven't finished IV or VI. I'd say your opinion is pretty much in line with "the average" FF fan, except for XIII. I refuse to ever cut that disaster any slack. I think BoneSnapDeez is onto something though, perhaps if you had completed some of the FF games that most consider to define the franchise, you might see why XIII is seen in huge a negative light. Then again you've been with the series from the beginning, so I dunno. If you enjoy it that's all that really matters.

Like many entries in long-lasting franchises, XIII may not necessarily be a bad game, but it's a very bad Final Fantasy game.

X-2, sometimes I feel like I'm the odd man out. Whenever it gets brought up people seem to favor it, for me I just don't see the appeal. As soon as it was announced I was very apprehensive, each new piece of news made it look worse and worse, finished product is a ridiculous pop star adventure with dress up games and some bizarre combat system. What?

I always thought everyone hated X-2, and that I was the odd man out

X ended on such a weird note that as soon as I heard there was a sequel, I thought they were going to go the VII route and add so much story that it would ruin the game.

I was pretty happy when it ended up being what it was.