I never did exactly explain what my favorite fantasies were. To answer this I'll just list them, and say why I like them. These will include games I have yet to beat as well, because I've only beaten a few of them,but I've played them enough to make a judgement about them.
Final Fantasy I - I understand it's historical importance to the series and I think that the way they started out with a simple story was the right choice. The classes set the ley lines for the series and made all future classes possible. White and Black Mage were on top as is usual, Fighter is a tank as always, Black Belt is a great cheaper alternative to the fighter. Honestly though, I think Red Mage and Thief were absolute crap. The of the Red Mage was great as he was a jack-of-all-trades, but the fact that he couldn't go very high in the tier system of magic just ruined that class for me, though his style was just so slick. Thief is just worthless as he didn't do anything that his class suggested he could do like pick locks, sneaking in and out of places, or even friggin' steal items from foes. I had hoped that the remakes would've justified this class properly, but they didn't do jack. Overall, I'm sorta meh about this game as it's just too simple which inversely makes teh game harder.
Final Fantasy II - This entire game was absolute shite. The whole story was derivative of Star Wars and totally unoriginal. Don't anyone get me fucking started on the combat
EDIT: Accidentally hit submit before I was finished. I will finish it soon.
Final Fantasy II - This entire game was absolute shite. The whole story was derivative of Star Wars and totally unoriginal. Don't anyone get me fucking started on the combat
I haven't played FFII, but the basic plot of Star Wars was a standard monomyth. Now, there may be similarities that go beyond this structure, but I am so tired of people saying that things ripped off Star Wars when really they are just classic Hero's Journeys.
I'm a fan. Thus far I've only played I, II, IV, V, FFTA, and FFTA2, though. FFV is definitely one of my favorites. FFIII, FFVI, and FFT (PSP remake) are all on the way!
I'm a fan. Thus far I've only played I, II, IV, V, FFTA, and FFTA2, though. FFV is definitely one of my favorites. FFIII, FFVI, and FFT (PSP remake) are all on the way!
The problem with V (for me at least) is that the plot is a transparent. The game mechanics were the shit, there is no question about that, but the plot was so generic and so obvious that it made me cringe at some points and (SPOILER ALERT DON'T HIGHLIGHT INVISIBLE TEXT) the villain was a goddamn tree! Who makes that shit up!!!
Most of the plots in JRPGs are generic and obvious. I mean, I love JRPGs, but I won't deny that the plots aren't usually anything complex or spectacular.
No VII?! Shame on you?!
Fuck that. For me, Final Fantasy anything is 2d or GTFO.
k that. For me, Final Fantasy anything is 2d or GTFO.
The graphics aren't the deciding factor in a game (although they help), it's the story and gameplay that define it. But I don't think I should have to tell you that should I?
It's not that I'm being a graphics whore, it's just that I've heard nothing but bad things about FFVII except from fanboys. I've heard decent things about VIII and IX, and absolutely nothing good from X and above. I don't feel like wasting my time.
It's not that I'm being a graphics whore, it's just that I've heard nothing but bad things about FFVII except from fanboys. I've heard decent things about VIII and IX, and absolutely nothing good from X and above. I don't feel like wasting my time.
Poll
Favorite Fantasy?
Final Fantasy XII45
32%
Final Fantasy XII:Dirge of Cerberus8
6%
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles19
13%
Final Fantasy XI:Online7
5%
Final Fantasy III62
44%
Total Votes:142
Who have you been listening to? Why don't you just gamefly, emulate, or flat out buy the games (for a cheap price at least) and judge them for yourself. That's what being a gamer is all about, unless you've done enough research and have seen the pros and cons in a game, don't always listen to everyone who tells you something. Same thing goes for anime as well.
I know exactly what you're talking about when you mention fanboys, I'm not a fanboy but VII is my favorite for a few reasons.
It has a very deep, intricate, and sometimes heartbreaking storyline. While it is a little confusing at first, the story balances between action and philosophical moments beautifully.
The characters are fleshed out to the bone. They all have very personal and well-told stories about their lives and they don't hesitate to hold back for one second. They also know WHEN to tell each section of their story.
The combat system is very innovative (for the time at least but good nonetheless). Much like the job system, the Materia system is extremely customizable and each character has different growths, strengths, and weaknesses.
The pacing in the story is superb and there are many sudden twists and turns that will catch you off-guard, not to mention the setting is really well-portrayed and designed.
While it is indeed a grindfest, I think you just have to play through the pain because the story will drive you to transcend any grinding (at least in my opinion). That's all I've gotta say about it.
I dislike XII immensely, as I may have already said in this forum. I like VIII's music, and parts of the plot, but the Junction system just makes me despise it.
1. The characters receive no development after the first two hours of the game. The main character receives his motivation within the first bits of the game, and then never changes or develops those motivations. 2. The main villain is apparent from the beginning, and not very cool. Not like a Kefka, who develops into more than you expected, Sephiroth who exuded awesome, or things like Necron and Cloud of Darkness that surprise you. 3. None of the party members besides Balthier are at all engaging. Heroic princess? Seen it. Man whose been framed? Seen it. Boy without shirt? Didn't want to see it. Sexy fanservice and loli fanservice? Bleh. 4. The game requires even more grinding than the usual Final Fantasy. I spent a bit of extra time just levelling, and I was still unprepared. You can't just follow the game's dungeons and fight all your battles and be at the appropriate levels. You need to spend several hours grinding to get good levels. 5. You buy skills. Honestly, that just pissed me off when it became so hard to make money in this game. It's impossible to have characters who do anything but attack for the first many, many hours of the game. Then, when you get limit breaks, they become the easiest way to be overpowered in the game! You get limits far, far faster than you have in any other game, and quite frankly they're just too powerful. Talk about doing thousands and thousands and thousands of damage when your main attack still does like, 500-700 damage.
I'm kind of surprised that I never posted in this thread when I first joined last year, but then left the forum for 10-11 months. So, since I have nothing better to do, a short breakdown of my experience with the series.
FFI - probably my least favorite, it's just too bland FFII - not as bland as the first, and I rather liked being able to abuse the leveling system; still only marginally better than FFI FFIII - in queue FFIV - in queue FFV - in queue FFVI - in queue (I know, I'm a bad FF fan) FFVII - my first true FF experience, and it's still my favorite to go back to; the story is not amazing anymore (I thought it was back then), but I still really like the characters; still love the materia system more than any other FF I've played; I still love the bad graphics; and nostalgia will always play a factor here FFVIII - I don't really remember much of the story from this one, I know I didn't like Squall very much, but what really killed this game for me was the gameplay system; like many others on here, hated the magic, hated the junctions, and while some of the limit breaks were really cool, most sucked; still, I want to revisit it sometime to get a better feel for the story, since it tends to get a lot of praise for it FFIX - I really liked this when I first played it; it had some really good plot twists, and generally likable characters; also mentioned previously, I thought the way you gained skills was really clever; it's just a fun game overall, nothing spectacular, just fun FFX - still haven't finished this game, but my overall impressions aren't that great; I didn't care about the characters at all; the battle system is good, but I didn't care for the sphere grid; honestly, after a while, whenever I booted the game up it was just to play blitzball, and that wasn't even a good mini-game FFX-2 - in queue FFXI - never tried it, don't plan to; I'll wait until FFXIV FFXII - playing through this currently, and I really like it; yes, aside from Balthier the characters are uninteresting, but the plot is actually pretty good; the license board is what I wanted the sphere grid to be; I rather like having a battle system where it basically runs itself with some interactions from me if necessary; it is a slow burn kind of a game, but I'm fine with that, I only play it for a few hours every few weeks, and that's enough FF Tactics - in queue (the PSP version) FF Mystic Quest - oh, Mystic Quest, my first FF game; I know pretty much everyone hates this game, citing its simplicity, but I still love the hell out of it; to this day, I've never seen another RPG structured quite like it, and I think that's kind of cool; I also like RPGs that I can beat in less than 5 hours, and this is the only one that's ever done it FF Adventure - this was my second FF game, though technically a Mana game; I really liked this at the time because it had real-time combat instead of turn-based stuff, but I doubt I could ever go back and play it again, it just doesn't seem to hold up well (even Secret of Mana doesn't hold up well for me) FF Crystal Chronicles - made the mistake of trying to play this multiplayer with only two people, kind of ruined the experience; played it again in single player and found it to be much easier to beat, but as a single player game it's pretty meh
I think that's all of them... well, I guess I could also include Crisis Core (which is good) and Dirge of Cerberus (which is really bad), but as far as I'm concerned, they don't really count. Besides, this post is long enough.
Honestly, how many Final Fantasy's are there that you should play for the "story"?
Most of the stories to the Final Fantasy games are at least comprehensible and somewhat intriguing, the story to X-2 is just a few plot points with no actual story to link them together.
Comments
Final Fantasy I - I understand it's historical importance to the series and I think that the way they started out with a simple story was the right choice. The classes set the ley lines for the series and made all future classes possible. White and Black Mage were on top as is usual, Fighter is a tank as always, Black Belt is a great cheaper alternative to the fighter. Honestly though, I think Red Mage and Thief were absolute crap. The of the Red Mage was great as he was a jack-of-all-trades, but the fact that he couldn't go very high in the tier system of magic just ruined that class for me, though his style was just so slick. Thief is just worthless as he didn't do anything that his class suggested he could do like pick locks, sneaking in and out of places, or even friggin' steal items from foes. I had hoped that the remakes would've justified this class properly, but they didn't do jack. Overall, I'm sorta meh about this game as it's just too simple which inversely makes teh game harder.
Final Fantasy II - This entire game was absolute shite. The whole story was derivative of Star Wars and totally unoriginal. Don't anyone get me fucking started on the combat
EDIT: Accidentally hit submit before I was finished. I will finish it soon.
Gilgamesh is the man.
I know exactly what you're talking about when you mention fanboys, I'm not a fanboy but VII is my favorite for a few reasons.
- The pacing in the story is superb and there are many sudden twists and turns that will catch you off-guard, not to mention the setting is really well-portrayed and designed.
While it is indeed a grindfest, I think you just have to play through the pain because the story will drive you to transcend any grinding (at least in my opinion). That's all I've gotta say about it.2. The main villain is apparent from the beginning, and not very cool. Not like a Kefka, who develops into more than you expected, Sephiroth who exuded awesome, or things like Necron and Cloud of Darkness that surprise you.
3. None of the party members besides Balthier are at all engaging. Heroic princess? Seen it. Man whose been framed? Seen it. Boy without shirt? Didn't want to see it. Sexy fanservice and loli fanservice? Bleh.
4. The game requires even more grinding than the usual Final Fantasy. I spent a bit of extra time just levelling, and I was still unprepared. You can't just follow the game's dungeons and fight all your battles and be at the appropriate levels. You need to spend several hours grinding to get good levels.
5. You buy skills. Honestly, that just pissed me off when it became so hard to make money in this game. It's impossible to have characters who do anything but attack for the first many, many hours of the game. Then, when you get limit breaks, they become the easiest way to be overpowered in the game! You get limits far, far faster than you have in any other game, and quite frankly they're just too powerful. Talk about doing thousands and thousands and thousands of damage when your main attack still does like, 500-700 damage.
There's more, by the way.
FFI - probably my least favorite, it's just too bland
FFII - not as bland as the first, and I rather liked being able to abuse the leveling system; still only marginally better than FFI
FFIII - in queue
FFIV - in queue
FFV - in queue
FFVI - in queue (I know, I'm a bad FF fan)
FFVII - my first true FF experience, and it's still my favorite to go back to; the story is not amazing anymore (I thought it was back then), but I still really like the characters; still love the materia system more than any other FF I've played; I still love the bad graphics; and nostalgia will always play a factor here
FFVIII - I don't really remember much of the story from this one, I know I didn't like Squall very much, but what really killed this game for me was the gameplay system; like many others on here, hated the magic, hated the junctions, and while some of the limit breaks were really cool, most sucked; still, I want to revisit it sometime to get a better feel for the story, since it tends to get a lot of praise for it
FFIX - I really liked this when I first played it; it had some really good plot twists, and generally likable characters; also mentioned previously, I thought the way you gained skills was really clever; it's just a fun game overall, nothing spectacular, just fun
FFX - still haven't finished this game, but my overall impressions aren't that great; I didn't care about the characters at all; the battle system is good, but I didn't care for the sphere grid; honestly, after a while, whenever I booted the game up it was just to play blitzball, and that wasn't even a good mini-game
FFX-2 - in queue
FFXI - never tried it, don't plan to; I'll wait until FFXIV
FFXII - playing through this currently, and I really like it; yes, aside from Balthier the characters are uninteresting, but the plot is actually pretty good; the license board is what I wanted the sphere grid to be; I rather like having a battle system where it basically runs itself with some interactions from me if necessary; it is a slow burn kind of a game, but I'm fine with that, I only play it for a few hours every few weeks, and that's enough
FF Tactics - in queue (the PSP version)
FF Mystic Quest - oh, Mystic Quest, my first FF game; I know pretty much everyone hates this game, citing its simplicity, but I still love the hell out of it; to this day, I've never seen another RPG structured quite like it, and I think that's kind of cool; I also like RPGs that I can beat in less than 5 hours, and this is the only one that's ever done it
FF Adventure - this was my second FF game, though technically a Mana game; I really liked this at the time because it had real-time combat instead of turn-based stuff, but I doubt I could ever go back and play it again, it just doesn't seem to hold up well (even Secret of Mana doesn't hold up well for me)
FF Crystal Chronicles - made the mistake of trying to play this multiplayer with only two people, kind of ruined the experience; played it again in single player and found it to be much easier to beat, but as a single player game it's pretty meh
I think that's all of them... well, I guess I could also include Crisis Core (which is good) and Dirge of Cerberus (which is really bad), but as far as I'm concerned, they don't really count. Besides, this post is long enough.
What the hell kinds choices are these? Dirge of Cerberus? I'll hurt you! I guess I'm going with XII, then.