Final Fantasy

[Sasquatch421]

My favorites in Final Fantasy are Tactics and IX.... For whatever reason I just enjoyed all the characters of IX although tongue lady might have been a bit much. Then of course I absolutely loved Beatrice's theme... So simple but so lovely.

IX might also be one of the few where I never got into the cutesy type character.... Just off hand VII you had Yuffie, VIII the cutesy char was Selphie, X it was Rikku, XII it was Vaan's friend and XIII it would be Vanille. For IX I don't even remember who they used, but Freya was my favorite of that one.

VIII wasn't bad to me, I just got tired of drawing spells....

Though my favorite RPG's are still Lunar SSS and Lunar 2 Eternal Blue....

[Eislynn]

Omg, I...

Omg

I know dude... I know. You had about the same reaction as me.

[Inkidu]

I thought about that theory before I got on the internet, they did more research, but ultimately I look at it this way.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

You can win or lose the fight. If you win you get 20AP, but if you lose the same thing happens no AP. So if you win, Squall is healed by magic (literally) so Ultimicia possessed can interrogate him about SeeD, and the plot proceeds as normal. If you lose, Squall's Dead Theory commences

[Silverfyre]

What a fascinating theory.  Love it.

[SinXAzgard21]

I thought about that theory before I got on the internet, they did more research, but ultimately I look at it this way.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

You can win or lose the fight. If you win you get 20AP, but if you lose the same thing happens no AP. So if you win, Squall is healed by magic (literally) so Ultimicia possessed can interrogate him about SeeD, and the plot proceeds as normal. If you lose, Squall's Dead Theory commences

If you haven't played VII or VI don't bother reading this.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

This kinda all goes back to it being a Japanese RPG.  Cloud gets fully ran through by Sephiroth and lives, this is during his Mako poisoning where he realizes he was an MP not a SOLDIER.  Kefka destroys the world and some how the heroes survive in VI.  The theory is cool and thought out but I can't buy it.

[Will]

If you haven't played VII or VI don't bother reading this.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

This kinda all goes back to it being a Japanese RPG.  Cloud gets fully ran through by Sephiroth and lives, this is during his Mako poisoning where he realizes he was an MP not a SOLDIER.  Kefka destroys the world and some how the heroes survive in VI.  The theory is cool and thought out but I can't buy it.

I think the reason the theory gets more traction in VIII is because of how difficult to follow the plot is, as opposed to VII or VI. 

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

The story does seem to get more and more disjointed and ridiculous, like a dream spiraling out of control.  The ending fmv really clinches it for me.  I'll never look at that game the same way again!

[Chris Brady]

It was hard to follow?  Huhn.

[Inkidu]

I think the reason the theory gets more traction in VIII is because of how difficult to follow the plot is, as opposed to VII or VI. 

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

The story does seem to get more and more disjointed and ridiculous, like a dream spiraling out of control.  The ending fmv really clinches it for me.  I'll never look at that game the same way again!

I didn't think it was hard to follow. I got it the first time I played through.

Traditional Plot Synopsis. Surprisingly Short

Squall, mercenary, finds out eventually that his job is to defeat sorceress's. Because in Esthar Adel was persecuted for being a sorceress. She goes forward in time to  escape persecution. Squall and Co. fight her in the future. Then, because of the time compression event (due to all the time travel the past (Adel's time) the present (Squall's time) and the future (Adel wins) the SeeD are able to defeat her, removing her from the stable time loop (trope name, look it up) opposed to insuring her own future through possession and all that; and because Squall is able to go into the past due to time compression he's able to plant the idea of SeeD insuring victory.

That's really it. It makes as much sense as Terminator sure, but that's time-travel plots. The amnesia, the GFs, the first few missions. They're actually not A-roll plot

It's not hard, in a lot of ways I think it's a throwback to Final Fantasy's plot. :)

[Silverfyre]

The story grew disjointed and quite convoluted near the end of the game.  I am with Will on that one.

[Shjade]

The story grew disjointed and quite convoluted near the end of the game.  I am with Will on that one.

Something else games in the Final Fantasy series tend to have in common.

[Silverfyre]

Especially the later ones, i.e: Post VII.  Even one of my favorites, IX, got a little loopy near the end.

[Will]

It was really the inordinate number of plot devices and twists thrown in with little to no foreshadowing or explanation.  Like I said, I enjoyed myself in spite of that, but eventually it was just too much.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Time compression was never really explained very much.  The theme of impending doom by magic is not new, I know, but time compression was not nearly as straightforward as Meteor, for example.  The fact that the PCs all grew up together was pretty random; I dunno what that really added to the plot.  The GF-induced amnesia just seemed like an idea the writers threw together to support the orphanage twist, which I'm sure they thought was awesome.  It all has a bit of a Shyamalan feel to me, honestly.

[AndyZ]

My thoughts

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

I think that Time Compression was basically supposed to be the idea that you mash the past, present and future all into a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.  Anyone with godlike power would be able to survive this and could recarve the compressed world into their own little paradise, but ordinary humans wouldn't be able to survive the process to any significant degree.

I can't remember why, but I think she regretted something from the past, or wanted to try to go back to when things were happy or something.  It's a pretty archetypal regret, as is trying to use supernatural means to fix it.

I could well be wrong, though.  It's been like a decade at least since I played it.

[Haruki]

I should probably start with citing my favorite in the series.  For me, it would be VI.  A balanced blend of the earlier titles' fantasy/medieval leanings, with a nod towards what the writers would do full-blast with VII and VIII, adding the more steampunk and technological elements, but not to the point of overblown cliches and presentation the series (and JRPGs in general are now deservedly known for) would become known for with VII and onwards.

For me, it has the most memorable moments in its story, the largest cast in the entire series (no less than 12 playable characters).  It just came out at the right moment and on the right platform.  It's not without flaws of course....the Esper/Magicite system is laughably easy to exploit, the second half of the game feels unfinished (save for the minimalist remainder of the main plot.....it has a ton of side-quests and optional battles with eight INSANELY DIFFICULT dragons.....they were hard for me anyways), and there are some loose ends in the story that never get resolved by the (easily longest on the SNES) huge 30+ minute ending cutscenes and staff roll.

In my feeble attempt to break the nostalgia glasses I often wear when these sort of topics come up, it's hard not for me to notice that the series has lost a bit of that charm it had.

In fairness, I do realize that if we had today's technology back in the early/mid 1990s (the era when FF IV, V and VI came out in the U.S.), the games would have probably been in the same presentation style as more recent offerings like X, XII and XIII.  You all know what I mean....fully voiced cut-scenes, no 'world map' to speak of, a more literal translation with only minor filling-in to make the words flow more smoothly in a Westernized fashion.

Something about the older iterations of the franchise, however, have something the newer games (from VII onwards....my opinion, but especially starting with X) are lacking, when looking at the overall story and the characters that help shape the plot.  When my mind is allowed more free-will to imagine how the characters will look and sound, and (while in general, the overall story's start and end point can be cliche often times), not knowing which way the plot will twist or turn next, I find myself ore engrossed with a game in general.

Those aspects are what truly drew me into the older titles, especially VI.  I was already 17 going on 18 at the time I played and beat that one, so I was possibly outside the target demo.  I was still able to appreciate it, and probably still would today.

I think the other aspect is that, while FF has proven more popular Stateside than in its native Japan (even though it also does gangbusters over there.....nowhere close to what Dragon Quest does though), the other draw is that the story and characters were purely the creation of minds with East Asian ideals and the like.  No one in the Western form of storytelling (unless I was missing some very niche storywriters at the time) was doing things of this sort.  It had that air of exploring new un-explored territory.

The trouble I'm reading and seeing with the newer stuff is.....and I'm probably repeating others' sentiments.  They're purposely fluffing up the story in ways that make it so convoluted and hard to follow.  It's like taking a bunc of ideas, throwing them into a hat, shaking it up, then letting them fall onto a table in a random order that they refuse to change up, excise un-needed plot devices, and change up character models/sheets to bring some different things into the series.  Older iterations did this well enough.....the first few FFs had the right mix of medieval fantasy, adding more touches of 'steampunk' with the middle of the series (VI, VII especially.....WHILE still keeping a focus on fantasy elements like use of magic spells and giving the characters still-relateable looks).

I could tell they were starting to run out of ideas with VII and onwards though.  Starting to add, for one, more 'anime inspired' elements, tropes and character cliches.  I understand by then, my generation was out, the new younger generation was in, but I knew they weren't getting the same experience I did.  Or maybe they were and still are....just with different story elements and characters.  I don't know.  :)

The RPG genre (especially JRPGs), is really a barren wasteland though for anyone past their teenage years.  Which is a shame.....there's lots of untapped potential.  That's another topic for another day though.  I personally feel Final Fantasy has run its course.  They had some ideas going with XII, but seemed to fall back (or even regress further) with XIII.  Didn't help that XIV was, to be blunt, an utter failure.

Japan's in the same economic mess (and has been for far longer than the U.S.) we are.  They're just playing it safe, with few, if any, new ideas coming out there, with FF or with anything.

A shame really, as Final Fantasy really had something going for it during the 16 and 32-bit eras.

[DarkSideofThinking]

Final Fantasy <3 well I guess every good forum should have such a topic! ;)

I love this series well...from 8 onwards because I never played the titles before. Also I skipped 10-2, 11 and 12 and I am currently playing 13-2 after borrowing it from a friend. I have to admit that 13-2 is so much better than 13 but I agree that the older games were better. For me 8 is the best it was just an epic story with wonderful music. 9 was really good too and I play it even now from time to time :) 10-2 I skipped because....well the clothes and weapons of Yuna already stopped me from playing it to tell you the truth. Yet I still hope the next titles will get the "FF-feeling" again...I kinda missed that in 13 and 13-2 only could a bit of it back^^

[Haruki]

Final Fantasy <3 well I guess every good forum should have such a topic! ;)

I love this series well...from 8 onwards because I never played the titles before. Also I skipped 10-2, 11 and 12 and I am currently playing 13-2 after borrowing it from a friend. I have to admit that 13-2 is so much better than 13 but I agree that the older games were better. For me 8 is the best it was just an epic story with wonderful music. 9 was really good too and I play it even now from time to time :) 10-2 I skipped because....well the clothes and weapons of Yuna already stopped me from playing it to tell you the truth. Yet I still hope the next titles will get the "FF-feeling" again...I kinda missed that in 13 and 13-2 only could a bit of it back^^

Yeah, what's any discussion board without a Final Fantasy topic?  Most I've come across have one thread dedicated to it.  XP

9 was really where Square gave a nod to the past, but also bid farewell to it.  You got a little taste of the older style of FF (from 6 on backwards to the first) in the flow of battles and story presentation, but giving it all a modern (at the time) polish and production.  As such, playing the older titles may not be necessary, but should still be looked into, if for no other reason to see how FF began and how it evolved in various ways.

[Jag]

*has not read any of the other posts other than the first one*

I love VIII and IX. I started to replay VIII for the first time in about five years a week ago. The copy is mine, but the hubby was playing it. He was having trouble gaining Diablos as a GF. I got tired of his swearing and cussing after his fifth or sixth time failing. So I grabbed the controller from him and got Diablos in one try. I also went on to beat the entire first disk for him. I beat the Seifer battle in one hit. I consider my first disk a complete failure if I cannot beat Seifer in one hit. I will always restart my character if I cannot do that. Not sure why, just a little obsessed with it. The hubby was impressed and upset that I am better at a game than he is. :P

[Mathim]

How did I not notice this place sooner?

I've never been fond of the games where only one character has access to a given skill; it tends to emphasize their use even if you don't happen to care for that character's personality which is a drag, and also causes certain characters with abilities that are inferior or next-to-useless to never be used even if they have a more likable personality. That's the main reason VII and VIII are my favorites; the only things different from character to character are their limit breaks, and luckily for me the preferred limit breaks (the ones that hit multiple times, the only type that makes a damn bit of sense) belonged to my favorite characters in each game, being Cloud, Barret and Cid in VII and Squall, Zell and Irvine in VIII. Games like VI and IX annoyed me, VI being the worst because it had something like twice as many characters as in IX and twice as much of the ratio of characters with decent skills vs. characters with bogus skills. I didn't actually care much for the story of VI either (sorry to those two did like it but I gotta say it) since I had played VII first and already got my fill of the world-dominating megalomaniac; Sephiroth beats Kefka hands-down because of Sephiroth's approach, using manipulation directly on the main character instead of just doing his own thing to take over the world. Nothing makes a vendetta more personal than that. Kefka just kind of seemed like small potatoes until a certain point and that diminished his overall villainness. And once you hit the halfway point, your characters get split up and you no longer have access to even half of them until you meet tons of conditions and make tons of progress, which is the worst idea ever. IX also had that happen quite a bit, seriously annoying having half your party be 20 levels higher than the rest because of how disjointed the game is and the way abilities are learned. Okay, end of rant.

I stopped playing FF's after X and X-2 (both of which I enjoyed for a variety of reasons) and War of the Lions (it deserved a lot more than the few scant improvements they put in) so I can't speak for 11-13 but the fact that they supposedly went through seriously changes in the entire dynamic put me off of wanting to try them. 12 sounded like it was borrowing Kingdom Hearts' battle system which was blasphemy to me, but I never looked into it, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm actually working on a planner for developing a real sequel to Tactics, to make it as realistic as possible, incorporating elements from other games like reactions to weather and such and with lots of cool new jobs. The handheld Advance sequels were unworthy. Fun, to a degree, but by no means anywhere near the standard set by their predecessor.

Lastly, I'd like to give a shout-out to Final Fantasy 5. Nobody's really said a word about it so far but it was the first non-3D FF I played and I loved it. It was like Tactics, but with the ATB combat system which rocked as a combination. I enjoyed it much more than VI which I played after, if only because it was more manageable as far as having only 4 party members and nobody got lost for a ridiculous amount of time. I don't think the quality of the plots differed all that much to be honest so I'm not sure why VI got more positive attention aside from its looks and possibly because it had more areas to explore.

[CmdrRenegade]

My first Final Fantasy was II/IV but III/VI was what pulled me in. I think asking which FF was good or bad is like asking who's the best Doctor in Doctor Who or the best Bond. The one that seems to be the most divisive though from my observation is IX followed closely by VIII. Very love or hate with those two. Except for Tactics: War of the Lions and XII, we haven't had many FFs that tried to grow with the audience. They've gone on record saying they're still trying to appeal to teens despite the fact the earliest players are now well into their 30s and 40s with families. It bums me out considering my history with FF but life marches on.

I just wish more of the mature fare like Parasite Eve would get more attention.

[SinXAzgard21]

12 sounded like it was borrowing Kingdom Hearts' battle system which was blasphemy to me, but I never looked into it, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

The battle system was closer to XII's with the only difference of a pause menu.  You could use every character or program them to do certain things in battle such as attack enemies with lower than a certain health or heal when a ally is below a certain percentage of health.  The in combat menu screen has been used way before Kingdom Hearts, all it added was that it wasn't turn based.  FFXI did the same thing and was in development longer.

[TentacleFan]

*stumbles into Final Fantasy thread and looks around*

I didn't realize this was here.  :D

For me Final Fantasy goes way way back. To the beginning in fact. I received the red-covered strategy guide free for subscribing to Nintendo Power  before I even knew it existed. It triggered something in my young fantasy-craving brain and lots of make believe games followed even though I didn't even have the game itself for some time. Then my father took me and my brother to a Nintendo Show that was in town at some convention center. They had Final Fantasy playing on one of the units. It was set to restart every so many minutes but since you could save your progress I kept playing.  >:)

I spent almost the entire time at the show hogging that console and made it a point to request that as the next game purchased in the household. From there I was ignorant of the Japanese only releases but did buy a super nintendo to purchase the American releases numbered 2 & 3. Then a playstation, playstation 2, playstation 3, and so on.

I've played 1, 4 (2 originally in america), 6 (3 in america), 7, 8, 9, 10, 10-2, 11 (for a little while, got tired of it since I don't really like mmos but I was a beta tester), and 12. I've played Final Fantasy Tactics... *whispers* and Mystic Quest  :-[

My favorite is a tie between 4 and 6.

[Mobats]

I have played everything but the online one and have to say 8 was my favorite but that is mainly because it was the first one I played.  I am sorry I am not going to go into much details I just remember how much I loved the music and the game play.

[Will]

The music really was great.  Except for that "Eyes on Me" thing.

Final Fantasy VIII - Blue Fields (Piano)

[Mobats]

Yeah that was a little creepy