Final Fantasy Series

[Dark Phoenix]

I love FF IV, but thinking about the layer upon layer of villains gives me a headache (i.e. King of Baron -- who is really Odin, being manipulated by Golbez -- who is Cecil's brother, who in turn was being manipulated by Zemus/Zeromus-- who looked like some creepy, old guy).

If you think about it, the double-villain-hierarchy of FFIV is a form of trolling by Square's writers.  Square absolutely LOVES the http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheDragon'>Dragon - http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BigBad'>Big Bad trope combination; they use it in practically every game in this series.  FFIV lets you know about Golbez very early in your adventure, and most of the plot clearly sets him up as the Big Bad, with guys like Kain and the King (Cagnazzo) as his Dragons.  The whole Zemus angle flips this setup on its head; it reveals that the whole time, Golbez was the Dragon, and the Big Bad was doing what Big Bads do best; controlling things from the shadows.  They pull a similar stunt in FFVI; the first half builds up Gestahl as the Big Bad and Kefka as the Dragon, only to have Kefka kill Gestahl halfway through and become the Big Bad himself.

OTOH, FFV plays this perfectly straight.  Maybe that's why it seems different; FFIV and FFVI have these reverse Dragon setups, but FFV is a lot like FFI and FFIII (to a point) in that there isn't a surprise reveal at the end; the guy the game builds up as the Big Bad actually IS the Big Bad this time.

 

[Eschaton]

I'm usually alone in this opinion but I think Final Fantasy 8 was the best one.  It had the coolest story.  Most unique characters and environments.  And the monsters leveled up with you (a mechanic I think is a must for any RPG).

It had some flaws.  Such as the bosses being too easy since for some odd reason the developers decided not to scale them.  But over-all, this game was something special. 

I don't know if you saw my earlier remarks regarding FF8, but I'll enter my diatribe anyway.

FF8's gameplay design is a train-wreck, and it's plot is a train-wreck.  You can break the game from the outset through the Card command and careful junctioning.  Once you have Selphie and Irvine and a shitload of Aura spells - which is pretty freakin' early, btw - the other characters become inconsequential.  Or, you can just keep them at low HP and boost the sheep out of their Eva and skip the Aura altogether.  If you don't have the patience to Slot for The End, then you can Slot for absurdly powerful spells from Selphie.  Blast targets murdered with Irvine's easily-obtainable special rounds.  Renzokuken dead your enemies with Squall's perfectly accurate attacks (even against Cactaurs).  The only reason to level up is to get better loot... which is just used to turn into spells for junctioning to Str/Mag/HP/Def.

The plot is mentally challenged.  Screw spoilers...Ultimecia- a wizard from the future- is manipulating world events in the present (her past!) in order to bring one person in contact with another wizard -IN SPACE- so that she can compress time and become God.  Oh, and because she did all this, Squall goes back in time to give Edea the idea for SeeD...so she can train Squall to go to the future and help perpetuate Ultimecia's plan... and so he can kill her... wait...

*bonk!*

Go eat a steak.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

yeah... at first I thought 8 was really good [it was my first RPG to play], then I played 7, tactics, and some other RPGs in the PS and boom, I realized how bad it is...

 

[Berylstone]

I don't know if you saw my earlier remarks regarding FF8, but I'll enter my diatribe anyway.

FF8's gameplay design is a train-wreck, and it's plot is a train-wreck.  You can break the game from the outset through the Card command and careful junctioning.  Once you have Selphie and Irvine and a shitload of Aura spells - which is pretty freakin' early, btw - the other characters become inconsequential.  Or, you can just keep them at low HP and boost the sheep out of their Eva and skip the Aura altogether.  If you don't have the patience to Slot for The End, then you can Slot for absurdly powerful spells from Selphie.  Blast targets murdered with Irvine's easily-obtainable special rounds.  Renzokuken dead your enemies with Squall's perfectly accurate attacks (even against Cactaurs).  The only reason to level up is to get better loot... which is just used to turn into spells for junctioning to Str/Mag/HP/Def.

The plot is mentally challenged.  Screw spoilers...Ultimecia- a wizard from the future- is manipulating world events in the present (her past!) in order to bring one person in contact with another wizard -IN SPACE- so that she can compress time and become God.  Oh, and because she did all this, Squall goes back in time to give Edea the idea for SeeD...so she can train Squall to go to the future and help perpetuate Ultimecia's plan... and so he can kill her... wait...

*bonk!*

Go eat a steak.

Well it probably goes without saying we don't agree.  But that's ok.  I'm use to taking heat for this opinion I hold. 

Having a group of amnesiac mercenary orphans flying around on a floating college battling a sorceress possessed by a witch from another dimension was just a storyline I ate up.  I also loved all of the side plots and the characters were stellar.  The environments were also soaked in personality.  Timber is still my favorite RPG Town.  That game had more personality in the first hour that most games have their entire length.

yeah... at first I thought 8 was really good [it was my first RPG to play], then I played 7, tactics, and some other RPGs in the PS and boom, I realized how bad it is...

I haven't played tactics.  I played 7.   I liked the story.  Sephiroth was a better villain - and his back story about being mutated from the cells of a space alien and going insane when he found out was pretty awesome.   Cloud was basically a delusional schizophrenic who created a fantasy to feed his ego - so that was interesting and original.  So I'm not going to bash 7.  It was a good game, even though I thought 8 was better.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

the only thing I liked in 8 was the GF animations... 

 

[Touchfuzzy]

I haven't played tactics.  I played 7.   I liked the story.  Sephiroth was a better villain - and his back story about being mutated from the cells of a space alien and going insane when he found out was pretty awesome.   Cloud was basically a delusional schizophrenic who created a fantasy to feed his ego - so that was interesting and original.  So I'm not going to bash 7.  It was a good game, even though I thought 8 was better.

I went on a long explanation of what happened to Cloud earlier in the thread. He is actually one of the more interesting protagonists from an FF game.

Tactics is an excellent game and you really should play it.

 

[Berylstone]

I went on a long explanation of what happened to Cloud earlier in the thread. He is actually one of the more interesting protagonists from an FF game.

Tactics is an excellent game and you really should play it.

He was.   Piecing together his fragmented past added a lot of depth to the game.  Psychological plots sound tricky to pull off - but Square did a good job with it.

My brother really liked tactics also so I may have to take your advice and see what I'm missing.

 

[voymasa]

He was.   Piecing together his fragmented past added a lot of depth to the game.  Psychological plots sound tricky to pull off - but Square did a good job with it.

My brother really liked tactics also so I may have to take your advice and see what I'm missing.

As for playing Tactics, you have a choice, because the original PSX version plays "slightly" differently in that certain bugs in that version (like the free job/ability/9999 JP glitch) make the game alot easier. Overall though I prefer the PSP version (War of the Lions) because the translation on it was better IMHO.

 

[Seacliff]

I thought 8 had a good battle music at least.

I want to play tactics but after 60+ hours of Fire Emblem: Awakening and 70+ hours of Pokemon Conquest, I'm a bit bored of tacticals for now...

 

[Touchfuzzy]

As for playing Tactics, you have a choice, because the original PSX version plays "slightly" differently in that certain bugs in that version (like the free job/ability/9999 JP glitch) make the game alot easier. Overall though I prefer the PSP version (War of the Lions) because the translation on it was better IMHO.

The game is pretty easy anyway. And even without those glitches, maxing jobs isn't hard at all. Especially on generics. kill down to one enemy, speed break speed break speed break, power break power break, accumulate, accumulate, accumulate, accumulate.

 

[Lorenze]

Well, after finally beating FFX, I can say that it's one of my favorites in the series.

It's CERTAINLY not perfect, and there were a lot of annoying moments, but it's definitely within the top 5 of favorite FF games.

Now on to X-2, which I'm looking forward too. Not sure if I wanna get the original PS2 version (for $5) or wait for the HD remaster. Decisions, decisions...

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Get X-2 now... XD...

though it's not as much fun as X if you ask me...

 

[LionHeart48]

The game is pretty easy anyway. And even without those glitches, maxing jobs isn't hard at all. Especially on generics. kill down to one enemy,  speed break speed break speed break, power break power break, accumulate, accumulate, accumulate, accumulate.

Dem rap skills...

In other news, SE hasn't said anything about a NA release of Type-0

 

[voymasa]

The game is pretty easy anyway. And even without those glitches, maxing jobs isn't hard at all. Especially on generics. kill down to one enemy, speed break speed break speed break, power break power break, accumulate, accumulate, accumulate, accumulate.

I used to have my main hero sandbag while everyone else gained JP for themselves and him (which took a loooooooong time), but then started to exploit the degenerator trap in Zeklaus Desert to reduce my levels when the monsters got too powerful.

Well, after finally beating FFX, I can say that it's one of my favorites in the series.

It's CERTAINLY not perfect, and there were a lot of annoying moments, but it's definitely within the top 5 of favorite FF games.

Now on to X-2, which I'm looking forward too. Not sure if I wanna get the original PS2 version (for $5) or wait for the HD remaster. Decisions, decisions...

Personally, if you have the patience, wait for the HD remaster (it will save you money; $40 price point on Amazon for pre-order), but if you can't wait, pick up a cheap copy. Be warned though, there is alot of stuff you can do and see. The game is open world (you can pretty much go anywhere right after the opening scenes), but there are only certain things you need to accomplish in each chapter in order to get the better endings.

 

[Quigon]

I really like VIII, always have. I mean you can break the game from before you go to Dollet - but it does take a really, really long time to do. Lots of playing cards. So much cards. Luckily the game was fun, mind you (aside from rule swapping and stuff, that was a nightmare).

It is extremely unbalanced though. I wonder if VIII would have a better time with that if enemies scaled off of your stats rather than your level. Given that there's a fixed 'up' to each stat whenever the party's average level increases, it'd be interesting to see the monsters break the game as well, and have a level 9 caterpillar with 255 atk if that's what you'd dumped all your magic into through your party.

 

[LionHeart48]

Same boat as you Gorlami, loved VIII, always have, always will.

 

[voymasa]

I really like VIII, always have. I mean you can break the game from before you go to Dollet - but it does take a really, really long time to do. Lots of playing cards. So much cards. Luckily the game was fun, mind you (aside from rule swapping and stuff, that was a nightmare).

It is extremely unbalanced though. I wonder if VIII would have a better time with that if enemies scaled off of your stats rather than your level. Given that there's a fixed 'up' to each stat whenever the party's average level increases, it'd be interesting to see the monsters break the game as well, and have a level 9 caterpillar with 255 atk if that's what you'd dumped all your magic into through your party.

If they scaled on stat up though, it would basically zero sum the gains (i.e. your magic boosts increases theirs proportionally, etcetra).

 

[Quigon]

Hmm true. I wonder how it'd fare then if the enemies didn't level up at all with you, and it just did a usual FF route and they got progressively stronger. OR ACTUALLY, I imagine that game'd be fair if there was no Card-RF command until the very end, because that's where the ridiculous low level/massive stats party comes from, haha.

I must say, I'm currently replaying VI and I just can't get it into it x.x maybe it'll get better as it goes on (I'm not very far in, the last thing I remember is getting on chocobos for the first time) but I'm not exactly finding it gripping, haha.

 

[Touchfuzzy]

The thing that annoyed me the most about FFVI is that statistically if you want the best setup possible, you basically have to do a low level run for a huge portion of the beginning (until you start getting magicite).

 

[Berylstone]

I played VIII like it was my new religion.  I actually reached max level on my first time through in the garden killing tyrannosaurs in the training grounds as a vivid example of the extremes I took that game too.  And I never remember encountering these problems with the gameplay people are mentioning. 

The drawing system was very unique and I personally found it dynamic.  It was a lot of fun for me to explore the world trying to find new cards to draw.  And it gave discovering new monsters a new twist to the gameplay that I found appealing.  The music was great.  Graphics were great.  The story was a bit out there I'll admit.  But I thought it worked and provided the game with a real sense of originality that is rare in video games these days.  So much about VIII was bold and new.  And the monsters scaling with level provided me with a worthy challenge from stage 1 to stage end - aside from the bosses which I already mentioned.

I understand that some people may not have liked it.  It does stand out.  And that can probably be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your perspective.  But the game had a whole assortment of original concepts that I believe deserve credit.