Final Fantasy general

It's a pretty good game, IMO. As long as you avoid the FanDumb, anyway. The battle system is top-notch, and I loved the lighter feel it had going for it.

It's V's Spiritual Successor. Plus if you don't mind the Fanservice it's worth trying out.

...Yes. Magical Girls in Final Fantasy.

X-2 has an incredibly fun battle system. The fanservice borders on the obnoxious, however, and I'm not a big fan of the story. I felt like it cheapened the ending of the original game, honestly. And parts of it were just plain silly and/or contrived. Your Mileage May Vary, of course.

The After Years is a much better sequel and it's to my favorite game in the series. I loved revisiting my childhood through this game.

edited 3rd Nov '09 6:00:10 AM by ccoa

^ Not to mention finally getting an explanation of where all those Crystals came from.

I'm almost immune to pretty much everything said against it so far, and if the gameplay's good and it's similar to V, well, it's sounding better by the second. But yeah, ridiculous fanservice and stupid stuff I can overlook if the game plays well. I mean, I gave Sonic Heroes a chance, I'm sure FFX-2 isn't going to kill me.

It's also the only FF which actually uses 100% Completion.

Which is so much of a Guide Dang It! you're better off just watching the perfect ending on Youtube.

Yeah, kids, whistling is VERY IMPORTANT!

I heard that Edward actually becomes less of a wuss in Final Fantasy IV The After Years. On one hand that could be awesome, but on the other hand, it could lead to I Liked Him Better When He Sucked, since I just love hating him for his wussiness. I'm probably not picking up The After Years, though, considering Square Enix's obvious milking schemes concerning Wiiware. Pity Square seemed to abandon the "no sequel" policy for milking their games for all they're worth after the merger.

edited 3rd Nov '09 6:32:27 AM by Cliche

Yeah, Edward takes many levels in badaasitude.

-*wanders into thread*

Final Fanatasy thread. Hmm. For me, Final Fantasy tends to start, stay with, and finish at Final Fantasy VI. IV was cool but kind of crude (although if memory serves, that was my favourite version of Cid), V was tons of fun but didn't have quite the same spark for me, VII was alright, although maybe not as revolutionary as some people claim, and what I played of X was fun, although I spent a good deal of the game wanting to either slap the emo out of Tidus or the stupid out of Wakka. Or maybe watch Auron do it

Anyways, back to my favourite

Final Fantasy VI. Epic plot, wonderful soundtrack, amazing (for the time) visuals, and engaging characters... although ironically, probably my least favourite was the one that a lot of people consider the lead, Terra. The whole Broken Bird thing just wasn't doing it for me.

And Kefka... hoo, boy, Kefka. Best. Laugh. Ever. And how many villains actually get to actually cause the apocalypse and set themselves up as a god? I mean, the second half of the game is set [[spoiler:After the End with Kefka sitting in his tower, worshipped as a god by a cult, and zapping the crap out of anything that displeases him with the Light of Judgement, and occasionaly just raking the countryside with it when he's bored. For a year, while the party is getting their crap together. Or attempting to commit suicide in a fit of depression, if you fail the wrong minigame >.<

Kefka: Horrible clown, psychotic failed experiment, right-hand man to the Emperor, a succesful Starscream, no less, Deadpan Snarker, Magnificent Bastard, One-Winged Angel, and crazed god. How can you not love him?

Besides, how many villains nearly vapourize the heroes on accident, without even realizing they were there, just because they were bored and blowing the hell out of the landscape for something to do?

Kefka's certainly one of the more interesting villains in a JRPG.

I think part of the reason I love Kefka is because he's obviously having so much fun doing it. He's a complete dick, but he knows how to have a good time

Kefka: Chaotic Evil and loving it.

IV was cool but kind of crude

AND MICHELANGELO IS A PARTY DUDE

I have to say I do respect your opinion Te Chameleon, but it really bugs me when people only care about Final Fantasy VI. Not to say it doesn't deserve the respect and love it gets, but...after a while one just kinda thinks "You know, that VI in the title means there are other games in this series."

Could be just me, though.

I never really liked FFIV that much, but it's probably just a matter of taste here. No hate here, it's just that at some point I just wander off and get distracted by other games.

The ones I like are V, VI, and the Tactics series including the portables.

A2 was okay, but Luso is a boring protagonist - they should have had a postgame with Cid as your Leader and no more Luso, who's gone home. Maybe have a sequence where Adelle disappears over to Luso's world to visit him one day in the summer.

II was a grindfest, just spend a few hours zapping yourself/hitting yourself/curing yourself and you become gods. With maxed shield skills, very few hits would actually connect, and the hp you grind up from the process makes you hard to kill.

VI was pretty good, but easy. I'm so familiar with it that I don't even need the Vanish+Doom trick to maul everything in the game.

V is also quite easy once you know what abilities to get.

I generally don't really think of Final Fantasy Tactics as a part of the Final Fantasy series, but if you count it, I think it had the best writing, barring the translation. At least out of the games I've played, I think that was the only time Squeenix has combined believable political intrigue with a Save The World plot, and had it work.

X-2 just really got on my nerves. The epic scale Bag of Spilling perfectly drove home why the series isn't suited to direct sequels. Plus, at the end of the first game, Yuna was the only High Summoner ever to survive her pilgrimage, and the one to vanquish Sin forever. To liken her to a living saint would be an understatement. It even seemed likely that she was going to become the secular leader of Spira. So why do they treat her like a goddamn pop star?

Pity Square seemed to abandon the "no sequel" policy for milking their games for all they're worth after the merger.

I...don't really see how that's a bad thing.

^^^ My biggest beef with VI is the fact that the SNES version was very bug-laden. Certainly not how to design one of the best games.

^^ To be fair, it isn't an FF really... It's a Tactics Ogre game dressed up as a Final Fantasy.

edited 3rd Nov '09 7:03:00 AM by Kinkajou

I...don't really see how that's a bad thing.

Because the new material seems shoehorned into the canon after the original works that didn't leave the door open for it?

Not to mention the many Retcons involved.

I quite liked X-2. More than XII, certainly, though it had plenty going for it as well.

Then again, I also liked Mystic Quest for what it was (a short, easy, light-hearted RPG) so maybe I'm just more open-minded about this sort of thing. 8-)

Hey, Cid!

Yeah, I also liked Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. Maybe because Darker and Edgier isn't my number one criterion for RP Gs.

edited 3rd Nov '09 7:15:05 AM by Kinkajou

Hell, as long as the games are good, I honestly couldn't give a crap about Retcons.

I do, because I care about the overarching story. In my opinion, the writing is probably the most important aspect of an RPG, and if the story contains significant retcons, it becomes impossible to take the whole thing in at once without it seeming incoherent.

I didn't dislike Mystic Quest, but I didn't feel there was a lot of substance to it. It felt like a basic sketch of a story, rather than the real thing. There was potential for the story to be good, but it needed a lot of filling out.

edited 3rd Nov '09 7:26:44 AM by Desertopa