Final Fantasy... maybe?

[Clempson]

Final Fantasy IX is the best FF imo, and one of the best games ever created. Too bad the start is better than the end (story-wise).

Really? I loved the entire story, front to back.
I'll admit there were SOME bits which made me raise an eyebrow, but then again, it IS a Final Fantasy.

[OrcsRLame]

sooo, you played the game fully twice, and tried to play it fully at least 5 other times(getting mid way).. annd you can't stand the game? how many time have you played fully your "favorite" or the "best" FF then?

for someone who doesn't stand FF6, you sure play it often. (and for long times).

I'm in double digit full playthroughs for most FF games. I'm honestly not sure which one I've played the most, probably 9, 10, or tactics. And for some of the games, I spend 200+ hours on them per playthrough, perfecting every little thing. Like maxing out the sphere grid in FF10, or learning all abilities for all jobs in FFT.

I will also experiment playing the games with different builds or different characters. For FFT for example I did a playthrough where I ran an all hero team, replacing my generics as soon as I got new heroes like Mustadio, Agrias, etc. Then I would do a caster Ramza with 4 generics playthrough, then a Ramza/Orlandu playthrough where I used them as their base classes and ran 3 generics built to support them. Then I ran a caster AoE team with Ramza as a tanky knight with 4 calculator generics. Then of course I have my "perfect" playthrough where I run what I believe to be the optimal team comp, besides ones that exploit stupid broken mechanics like the calculator infinite actions of course.

As for why I've played FF6 for as much as I have. Well, I played it partway through like 5 times, and could just never get into it enough to finish. Everyone kept telling me it was great though, so I sat down, grit my teeth, and just blew through it in a weekend. Years later, I was still hearing about how awesome FF6 was, and I couldn't remember it all that well. So I had to make sure that I actually didn't like it, you know, I figured I may not be giving it a fair chance, looking at it through rose colored glasses if you know what I mean. So I decided to play it again, and this time I decided not to speed run it, and somewhat take my time with it. I suffered through it for maybe 50-60 hours, beat it, and decided to never pick up that game again.

I could probably write a 10 page essay on why I don't like it. If I played the game again, I'm sure I would think of even more reasons to dislike it when I'm in the moment.

[Eace]

VII and IX for sure. They were both amazingly epic with incredible music.

X is seriously overrated; the story is meh at best, the progress is very tunnel-ish (no open world exploration like VII and IX), and there's not enough chocobos. Because chocobos are luvly.<3

[Tazila]

VII and IX for sure. They were both amazingly epic with incredible music.

X is seriously overrated; the story is meh at best, the progress is very tunnel-ish (no open world exploration like VII and IX), and there's not enough chocobos. Because chocobos are luvly.<3

I didn't even know X was highly rated! ;D

[SkodLife]

Final Fantasy IX is the best FF imo, and one of the best games ever created. Too bad the start is better than the end (story-wise).

Tbh, the only bad thing about the story was that final boss wasn't the main atagonist. I would have loved it much more if it were the case, but getting some God-like creature instead is just downright disapointing (another reason why XIII sucked).

X is seriously overrated; the story is meh at best, the progress is very tunnel-ish (no open world exploration like VII and IX), and there's not enough chocobos. Because chocobos are luvly.<3

Frankly, the story picks up a bit later in the game (thank God for subtitles in the European version).
And "Fight with Seymour" and "Otherworld" are awesome.

lol turn based combat, crappy game is crappy

While I do prefer the Kingdom Hearts-series (mainly because of the gameplay), this is just immature (and mainly wrong).



SE, can I haz FFvsXIII? Pleaaaaase?

[skrump]

Heh, that's fair enough.
My first FF was IX, and that basically settled what all Final Fantasies should aspire to be, so I'm a little bit biased to be honest.

Don't get me wrong! FF6, FF7, 8, 10 and 11 I still absolutely love, and yes, those were great Final Fantasies, but...

IX was perfect for me. :P

(I'll stop brown nosing FFIX now, I promise!)

IX was awesome the only problems I had with the game is Stiener looked like a Tranny in armor and the Midi music made me want to hang myself.

[bals]

Shows what you know, from IV onwards it was ATB-based, not turn based.

but tactics and 10 are turn based :<

[Migey]

X is amazing - english voice acting is god awful, but the game is still great. My only complaint would be the somewhat lenient difficulty curve right up until the end, and the ease at which some bosses can be killed by prepping overdrives (esp with aeons) before the fight. That said, amazing game with my favourite music from any Final Fantasy.

VII is classic, but its short, and the graphics are not fun to play with if you've played any game released afterwards. I can't comment on 8 and 9. X-2 is very good in some ways, but it sucks in many others because it completely character assassinates Yuna, (one of the main characters from X), and features some of the most annoying characters in any game, ever. Ever. EVER.

XIII is... meh. Ish. It is fun to play through, if you like the setting, but the combat system isn't so great - it can be fun, but your control over the characters is minimal, and there are very few difficult bossfights (the only ones that come to mind are Barthandelus 2, and that odd flying orb-god thingy in that tower on Pulse). The characters are annoying (mostly because Hope never ceases to shut up with his motivational speeches, Vanilla is too annoying, all Snow does is act the 'cool but pure-hearted guy', and Sazh spends the entire game doing what equates to jumping around, waving his arms and yelling 'LOOK AT ME EVERYONE, I'M BLACK), and the after game content is non existent. Seriously. The ONLY QUESTS/CONTENT YOU CAN DO AFTER YOU FINISH THE STORYLINE consists of 64 kill quests - yes, 64 episodes of 'go there, kill that', and mostly for very easy enemies. There are very few truly challenging ones. And i mean, thats it. Just 64 kill quests. And a good portion you will have completed before the end of the game... My main gripe with the game is the suffocating linearity though. It's too linear - you never have any choice of what to do or where to go, and the vast majority of areas can only be visited once. Yep - once you finish an area, you can NEVER, EVER go back to it. The only exceptions are the Pulse zones (of which there are very few) and Orphans Cradle. Oh, and don't get me started on Eidolons... <fingers twitch violently>

I'm playing XII now, and my opinions are mixed. The Liscence Board is badly done - they should have kept it closer to a sphere grid model - they did do so in XIII, but in doing so, they took out any choice, and like EVERYTHING ELSE in XIII, they made it suffocatingly linear. The combat is done suprisingly well though - it is extremely different from every other FF game, but it lets you let the characters do all the work for you, but still giving you the opportunity to intervene and micro when you want or need - different from X in that you don't have to control every characters every move, and different from XIII in that you CAN control more then one character if you want to. The story is great, voice acting is great compare to X (the voice acting is pretty damn good, to be honest), and the graphics are fine. Only complaint is the difficulty that comes with scarcity of gil, and reliance on it to buy equipment to keep up with whatever area you are in. Also, inclusion of high level monsters in low level zones. Seriously. I had to skip half the entire sand sea to get to a save point because of an unfortunate run in with a pineapple. That said, great game, and difficulty (especially in early game) is refreshing.

Final Fantasy III and IV on the DS are also very good. I don't like III that much, but IV is great - voice acting is mediocre, but story is okay, characters are great, and battle system is like X, except i think better. Really long, really challenging game.

[Pool of the Dead]

Okay I hope that nobody shoots me for saying this, but I have never played a Final Fantasy game.
I don't know anything about them. I've never really had the opportunity to play one, really. I've just never done it.

But I am certainly interested in it now that I am not really committed to any game at the moment. But there are so many Final Fantasy games, I'm a little overwhelmed and don't know where to start! Does it matter which game I choose to play first? Is there any particular game that every Final Fantasy fan should play? Which is the best one? Graphics aren't an issue for me, so if the first game is really the best one, I'll play it. I just could really use the advice. I'm pretty stuck.

8 and 10 are Must, followed by 9, 6, 5. As much as anyone says to play 7, Imo skip it, probably the least interesting/annoying of the PS series.