What is your very fff game?

[Tylorious]

Favorite final fantasy game, and why. I will start off by saying Final Fantasy 4 is my absolute favorite because I love the character progression for Cecil. I will not spoil anything, but anyone who has ever played the game before knows and understands that this game will suck the player in with its compelling story and quick and easy-to-learn gameplay. 4 is followed closely by 6 in my list of favorites. I have never played 3, 11, 12 or 14, do you suggest that I play any of those? And also, if you haven't seen the trailer for FF15, please do because it looks great.

[Winthur]

Favorite final fantasy game, and why. I will start off by saying Final Fantasy 4 is my absolute favorite because I love the character progression for Cecil. I will not spoil anything, but anyone who has ever played the game before knows and understands that this game will suck the player in with its compelling story and quick and easy-to-learn gameplay. 4 is followed closely by 6 in my list of favorites.

Yay Cecil! He's the most absolutely wonderful character! I can look up to him, kick butt and not lose hope in virtues! He's awesome. Plus he's like a Saiyan kinda except not really.
Even though FF6 would technically be a better game I still have such a soft spot for FF4.
FF7 is damn good too.
The rest are either okay (FF1) or aren't a big favorite of mine (FF5) or haven't clicked with me (FF8)

[Tylorious]

Yeah I would say mine goes: 4, 6, 7, 2, 10, 9, 13, 1, 8, and then way down 5

[Talderas]

I have never played 3, 11, 12 or 14, do you suggest that I play any of those? And also, if you haven't seen the trailer for FF15, please do because it looks great.

FF12 has the most rediculous superboss. Yiazmat. On average it takes a couple hours to kill. It has just over 50 million hp when you have a 9,999 damage limit. Nemesis, from FF10, has 10 million hp and you have a 99,999 damage limit.

[Tylorious]

FF12 has the most rediculous superboss. Yiazmat. On average it takes a couple hours to kill. It has just over 50 million hp when you have a 9,999 damage limit. Nemesis, from FF10, has 10 million hp and you have a 99,999 damage limit.

is there no limit breaks in 12? i thought surely there would be

[Cespenar]

Tactics. Because it actually has a smart combat system for once.

*dodges*

[Razanir]

Either 2 or 3. I'm still not too big a fan on the ATB system, but it IS growing on me with VII being released on Steam.

I prefer III to I, partially because of the job system and partially because I think it's a better made world.

II is just fun because of all the abuse possible. Everyone in my game fights unarmed and is capable of casting white magic.

[Tylorious]

Tactics. Because it actually has a smart combat system for once.

*dodges*

I love tactics as well, i was talking solely the main story though. Isn't tactics really just Cloud's dream?

[Xefas]

Tactics. Because it actually has a smart combat system for once.

*dodges*

Tactics (and its update, War of the Lions). Cespenar put it much more diplomatically than I was going to, so I'll be brief.

The main line of Final Fantasy games manages to succeed on the merit of its storytelling alone, while having a bland, flavorless, mind-numbing game part. Which, is apparently something Squeenix is aware of, considering the functionality included in the recent Steam re-release of Final Fantasy 7, in which you can just put your characters at max stats and breeze through every combat so that you can get the story, but not have to play the game.

A few games manage to have actual decent, interesting game parts, but their stories are a bit like being gagged repeatedly with the least flavorful spoon you've ever been gagged with. (Thinking of X-2 and Dissidia here.)

Tactics has both an interesting story, decent character development, and the game part is freaking amazing. Winner winner. Chicken dinner.

[Calemyr]

Definitely FF6. I had tried FF4 before, but I couldn't get into it at the time. 6, however, caught me from the first howl of wind to the moment the book slams shut. Several characters with complex motivations, backgrounds, and goals, as well as interactions, excellent music and writing (Woosley rocked), a well-defined yet surprisingly customizable cast, each with their own unique mechanics in play, and just a really epic feel to it in every angle of the presentation. And the game was designed around the story rather than the graphics, so it remains a very good game even now, and has aged like wine while more recent games have aged like milk.

I also have always had a soft spot for exotic "technology", such as steam punk and magitek. Given that FF6 pretty much defined magitek for me, it has remained one of my favorites ever since I first saw those storm-ridden clouds.

Besides that, however, Tactics is probably my favorite. A rich, complex story-line, a lot of cool characters, and a surprisingly deep and customizable gameplay made it great. War of the Lions' cutscene style and voice acting, not to mention the shiny new characters and classes, made it even better.

That said I always end up renaming and modeling Ramza after Cecil, ultimately making him a squire/dark knight. Then I construct three parties for him: story (Agrias, Mustadio, Orlandau, Meliadoul), heroes (Cloud, Luso, Baltheir, Boco), and FF4 (generic fighters modeled after Edge (ninja/thief), Kain (lancer/knight), Rosa (archer/white mage), and Rydia (summoner/black mage)).

[Talderas]

is there no limit breaks in 12? i thought surely there would be

IIRC, only the summons and limit break maneuvers actually break the damage limit. Certain weapon types permit multiple attacks each of which is limited to 9,999 damage. It still takes a couple hours to kill Yiazmat. Yiazmat has multiple health bars and I believe the game records how many you've removed so when you can leave the fight and come back to Yiazmat and only the HP lost on a partial bar will be restored, if that.


Tactics. Because it actually has a smart combat system for once.

*dodges*

It doesn't have a smart combat system. It's just as dumb as any of the other final fantasy games. The only difference is that random encounters level up with you but it's trivially easy to powerlevel and outpace even the random encounters.

Final Fantasy VIII, on the other hand, has one of the smartest combat systems. Powerleveling/overleveling doesn't usually make the game easier (like most other FFs) and if you overlevel in a poor fashion it makes the game harder. The biggest fault I have for FF8's combat system is the nature of the junction system made using magic less desirable but most FF games have been such that you can just melee attack you way through it.

I'd say FF13 is the first game that made using magic a more viable tactic in many battles.

[Terraoblivion]

12 or 13, I can't quite decide. 12 had a setting that felt like an actual world for once and a storyline with politics that get above kindergarten level for once. Also, the combat system might look boring, but it's really fun to actually play and I just plain like the theme of Ashe's personal struggle and conflict. 13 had the most exciting combat system and what I'd consider the greatest sense of awareness of what the series is really about and focused purely on strong points, while leaving the others. Also, even with a crappy ending, it still has the best story that actually focuses on something other than power fantasies and having lots of events happen to drag the plot out, the smooth clean narrative until the very end is a selling point for me. Another thing I like about it is that it gives the female characters the most room, development and focus out of the series, though in general, the characters are pretty interesting and more developed than most of the rest.

[The Rose Dragon]

XIII-2, mostly because it is one of the only two I actually played.

[Surrealistik]

I'm astonished to see 12 and 13 make appearances as favourites in all honesty; neither of their characters really left much of an impression, excepting maybe Judge Gabranth and Vayne. I did like FF13's themes of determinism and of struggling against fate though. Likewise, I am just about equally stunned to see that FF7 has not made any; not because I especially like FF7 (good but ultimately overrated), but because it is often the default for 'greatest FF' besides 6.

Speaking of which, FF6, specifically the Woolsey version, is absolutely mine, featuring plenty of memorable characters, many emotive, powerful scenes woven into a compelling narrative from the slaughter at Thamasa to the apocalypse and Celes' stranding, and excellent, eminently quotable (okay, this is chiefly attributable to Woolsey having fun with Kefka, granted) writing. Beyond all this of course, there is the music.

Honourable mention to the DS remake of FF4, including the canon of the Afteryears. Yes, FF4 represents almost bog standard fantasy, drowning in tropes common to the genre with the perhaps solitary exception of its extraterrestrial twist, but to be truthful, for me that classic element comprises a lot of the charm and I loved the execution.

EDIT: Oh yes, and I will say this about the newer FFs: I absolutely _hate_ their consistently ridiculous, unjustifiable costume design/character aesthetics. There's stylization and then there's just sheer inanity.


I'd say FF13 is the first game that made using magic a more viable tactic in many battles.

Lol, what? Magic has always been insanely powerful, especially with the right spells and/or supplemental items, and often had a niche for crowd control/hitting multiple targets at the very least. It was also about obligatory for many fights.

[Xeratos]

For the story: 7, 6, and 4 were the ones I particularly enjoyed.

I absolutely hated 10 and 13 for their game play. In 13's case, I would say it's more lack of game play. Also, I hated the entire case of characters in that game, everything from the costume design to their personalities.

I was ambivalent towards the rest of the games. They had their mix of good or bad characters, stories, or game systems.

[DiscipleofBob]

For me, FFX is the best of the Final Fantasy games, only barely beating out FF6, and only because FFX has Auron. FF4 makes a close third and has a special place in my heart being the very first video game I ever played.

[Talderas]

Lol, what? Magic has always been insanely powerful, especially with the right spells and/or supplemental items, and often had a niche for crowd control/hitting multiple targets at the very least. It was also about obligatory for many fights.

Spells are horrendous for Final Fantasy up through FF13 (FF11 excluded).

The action economy with the number of enemies you faced caused you to rarely be in a situation why expending MP on anything other than Cure to be a waste of an action. This is especially true once you reach the damage limit. Futher, debuff spells were all but pointless outside of a few exploits. The enemies that were vulnerable to them were more efficiently killed by just attacking and the enemies that would be useful to use them on were very frequently immune or had such a high resistance that it goes back to the whole more efficient to kill with regular attacks.

The cases where spells made more sense were more or less limited to enemies that were regular damage immune or resistant and those only made the direct damage spells attractive because the regular attack was nerfed.

FF13 made it better but that's because of the nature of how the paradigm system worked. Debuff/buff spells are still pretty useless on a lot of encounters because you can just kill it faster with Ravager/Commando but at least debuffs are usable on the targets where you would be justified to do so. Direct damage spells from Ravagers still deal less damage than the commando but they're necessary to extra the highest damage out of commando.

[Xeratos]

Single target spells were by and far worthless in most games, yes. Magic's utility for me mostly came into play when I wanted to blast an entire group of enemies at once. This was especially true when I knew that I was just a bit shy of one-shotting the monster. I could spray the whole enemy group with a fire spell, then each other character could pick off an enemy, mopping the group up nicely, instead of wasting 60% of the damage I could output on overkill.

Also, summons. Those were generally one-shots for the entire group of enemies, as long as you were willing to pay the high mp cost.

Honestly, I think the biggest drawback to magic was the cost. It wasn't that the spells couldn't do equal damage to regular attacks. They could and frequently did, or at least pretty close. But you can regular attack all day long, and every spell drains a bit more mp (not to mention time going through menus and the flashy on-screen effects). 13 by and large did away with both of those costs.

[Knaight]

Crystal Chronicles takes the cake, though I haven't tried tactics yet. It has a very evocative setting and shows how to do small narratives well, as it has a number of them. On top of that, it is stapled to gameplay that is actually good.

[Talderas]

Honestly, I think the biggest drawback to magic was the cost. It wasn't that the spells couldn't do equal damage to regular attacks. They could and frequently did, or at least pretty close. But you can regular attack all day long, and every spell drains a bit more mp (not to mention time going through menus and the flashy on-screen effects). 13 by and large did away with both of those costs.

Exactly. They were almost always less efficient. Every Final Fantasy had a level curve. If your current level was above the curve then spells weren't useful. However if you're below the level curve you often times didn't have the limited resources to justify using spells with frequency.

And summons tend to be horribly inefficient. Final Fantasy 7? There's only two summons ever worth using. Knights of the Round is questionable regarding it's usefulness since it's a damage summon it at least can keep up somewhat with straight attacks. The other is Doomtrain and only because it can apply its status effects to Ruby Weapon.

I do have to give props to FF7 though. It did make Regen useful to cast by exploiting the PS1 device.

[Calemyr]

Exactly. They were almost always less efficient. Every Final Fantasy had a level curve. If your current level was above the curve then spells weren't useful. However if you're below the level curve you often times didn't have the limited resources to justify using spells with frequency.

And summons tend to be horribly inefficient. Final Fantasy 7? There's only two summons ever worth using. Knights of the Round is questionable regarding it's usefulness since it's a damage summon it at least can keep up somewhat with straight attacks. The other is Doomtrain and only because it can apply its status effects to Ruby Weapon.

I do have to give props to FF7 though. It did make Regen useful to cast by exploiting the PS1 device.

I do have to disagree with you there. Used intelligently, magic could trivialize fights that would otherwise be very challenging or at least tedious. It wasn't the end all, be all, but it could very easily be the most economic use of an action in many situations. In the hands of someone trained as a caster, magic was generally more powerful than the equivalent melee, especially when the spell was well chosen, and the cost was fairly negligible given the usual availability of inns and items to restore MP.

If you found no value to magic in any FF game, I would venture to say you weren't using it correctly.

[Terraoblivion]

12 and 13 are radically different, which is a big part of why I like them. They actually tried aiming at something other than escapist fantasy for teenage boys and to move away from rigidly sticking to tired archetypes. Basically, they did the exact opposite of FF 4, which is my least favorite from the SNES games onwards due to dreadfully boring, paint by the numbers fantasy plot, bland archetypal characters and just plain ineptitude in coming up with reasons for characters leaving the party, making damn near everybody come off suicidal. The gameplay is also very bare bones. Really, the whole thing is just dull and predictable and any credit it had for bringing narrative to RPGs is not really relevant as entertainment today.

More generally, the big thing I like about 12 and 13 is that they know what they're trying to be and build everything to cohere towards that, rather than letting themselves get bogged down in convention. Many of the things people complain about either of them removing are things that I consider a strength to dispense with. Basically, they achieved a level of professionalism and creative maturity that earlier games hadn't. Also, they're the first games in the series since 6 to realize that minigames are the worst thing since the bubonic plague and do away with the wretched things.

[Surrealistik]

I do have to disagree with you there. Used intelligently, magic could trivialize fights that would otherwise be very challenging or at least tedious. It wasn't the end all, be all, but it could very easily be the most economic use of an action in many situations. In the hands of someone trained as a caster, magic was generally more powerful than the equivalent melee, especially when the spell was well chosen, and the cost was fairly negligible given the usual availability of inns and items to restore MP.

If you found no value to magic in any FF game, I would venture to say you weren't using it correctly.

This.

Also for many FFs, magic was even just straight up more powerful than physicals until the mid-late to late game. By that time of course, you typically got access to dual or multi-casting of some kind.

[Talderas]

I do have to disagree with you there. Used intelligently, magic could trivialize fights that would otherwise be very challenging or at least tedious. It wasn't the end all, be all, but it could very easily be the most economic use of an action in many situations. In the hands of someone trained as a caster, magic was generally more powerful than the equivalent melee, especially when the spell was well chosen, and the cost was fairly negligible given the usual availability of inns and items to restore MP.

If you found no value to magic in any FF game, I would venture to say you weren't using it correctly.

I never said no value. I've said it was less efficient and that is quite testable. I acknowledge that there are some fights where magic is better but that's usually because it goes about by making standard attacks less useful. Final Fantasy Tactics, for example, has very few if any magic effects that are better to use than any non-magic effects. One of the most efficient parties is Monks.You can run through the entire game with a party of monks and the only thing that magic would do that would be more efficient or better is that Raise doesn't require you to be on the altitude as the target unlike the Monk's ability.

I've tried magic on pretty much every Final Fantasy game. In every instance that I have played I've not found magic to a faster way to play the game than using standard attacks. There's many reasons for this.

The first is that the improvement of equipment can be far faster than the character's level and stats. That means that the physical attack damage will scale to the cap faster in most cases than the magic damage.

The second is that unless you read a guide to learn about vulnerabilities before hand you may need to spend multiple battles learning the magical weakness of the target. Assuming that the magical means to defeat the target is actually faster than standard attacks, with a decent pacing you won't often face the same monster enough times to to gain any time benefit from learning the weaknesses.

The third reason is that many of the games have put limitations on the multi-target spells. I know that in Final Fantasy 7 if you did not have a material mastered you could only target all a number of times equal to the level of materia. That limits the usefulness of casting the spells because it is the multi-targeting that makes them competitive.

The fourth fact that makes regular attacks better is the existent of damage limits. Many of the games have methods for non-magic attacks to deal multiple attacks to the target which kind of steps on the toes of the all-target magic and completely trashes magic on a single target. Final Fantasy 12 is a wonderful example of this. All weapons had a native chance to score multiple hits. Katana and ninja swords had a very high rate. The genji glove accessory also raised the rate. Magic simply cannot compete against that damage. FF12 was a little better in that buffs were efficient to use for long fights and you could actually buff pre-battle for trash rather than needing to buff at the beginning of each individual battle.

The fifth problem with magic is that it often times takes longer to execute the a standard attack. This means that in X amount of time you will be able to execute Y attacks and Z magic attacks and considering that without a cursor memory option you cursor defaults to Attack making it far faster to execute than any magic attack. With cursor memory it's only usefully faster for spamming the same spell over and over.

The sixth problem is that magic is a terrible option for grinding as far as efficiency goes. If you're using magic you're burning through your consumable resources in a faster amount of time. Instead of expending MP just on Cures, you're now also expending it on killing enemies. This means you must use a tent or visit an inn far more frequently which is a net loss in efficiency.

Edit: A seventh reason is that using magic often times harms the character in a negative fashion. Equipping magic material in Final Fantasy VII quite often lowers your HP and vitality. Using good magic in Final Fantasy VIII also hurts your stats since all the good stuff is the best stuff to junction.

[Surrealistik]

In FF6 alone, elemental weaknesses and multitargeting both made magic huge time savers, as well as magic being inherently more damaging at the lower levels. There is a lot to be said about it trivializing combats, particularly stuff like X-Zone, Merton and Ultima. Economizer, spamming Ethers every couple of combats or dropping a single Osmose generally dealt with depletion issues. Debuffs like Slow and buffs like Haste/Image/Wall/Barrier/M.Barrier made otherwise challenging combats a cakewalk, or at least much more manageable.

About the only thing that even competed with magic for efficiency on a damage/turn basis, even at the end game was the Genji Glove + Offering and an ultimate weapon.

Now, I'm not even going so far as to say magic > physical, or that physical isn't > than magic overall, but magic was definitely worthwhile and consistently viable before FF13, without question, _especially_ when it came to high damage multitargets, debuffs/buffs and other support magic.


12 and 13 are radically different, which is a big part of why I like them. They actually tried aiming at something other than escapist fantasy for teenage boys and to move away from rigidly sticking to tired archetypes. Basically, they did the exact opposite of FF 4, which is my least favorite from the SNES games onwards due to dreadfully boring, paint by the numbers fantasy plot, bland archetypal characters and just plain ineptitude in coming up with reasons for characters leaving the party, making damn near everybody come off suicidal. The gameplay is also very bare bones. Really, the whole thing is just dull and predictable and any credit it had for bringing narrative to RPGs is not really relevant as entertainment today.

More generally, the big thing I like about 12 and 13 is that they know what they're trying to be and build everything to cohere towards that, rather than letting themselves get bogged down in convention. Many of the things people complain about either of them removing are things that I consider a strength to dispense with. Basically, they achieved a level of professionalism and creative maturity that earlier games hadn't. Also, they're the first games in the series since 6 to realize that minigames are the worst thing since the bubonic plague and do away with the wretched things.

While I definitely agree that the original iteration of FF4 was lacklustre and generally did not hold up/age well, I find that the remake and Afteryears involve a substantial improvement on the gameplay. The story and characters are a matter of love or hate yes; you tend to either despise the convention as stale drivel (though to be fair, I'm not so sure FF4 was _as_ cliche when it first came out as it is now), or you appreciate it as 'classic'. I personally tend more towards the latter.

As for your comments regarding 12 and 13, the only thing unconventional about them (and other post 2000 FFs) I really despised was the aesthetics in some cases which were absurd even by FF standards. Overall, I didn't have an active dislike for Square's innovations and risks relative to these games, so much as I just didn't find them (the games) as moving or memorable as certain predecessors despite being enjoyable in balance (despite some loathsome characters/personalities). In truth, I applaud Square for trying new things and making an earnest attempt to keep the franchise fresh and interesting.

[Hawriel]

FF tactics. It's the only one I have played. I really liked the turn based combat set on a map. I hate red rover combat.

I liked how I could customize my characters. Especially my extra's I could personalize. The story was rather good until near the end. J RPGs, and a lot of anime, take a odd left turn that makes no sense in the third act. FFT did this.

That's it, never played other FF games. They never appealed to me.

[Maryring]

Final Fantasy VI. Economizer + Ultima = no random encounters, just free xp and gold. Or Osmose and gold hair pin. You know what? Just plain Osmose. It made the cost of magic trivial in FF IV.

Anyway, favourite FF... can we split games? Final Fantasy VI World of Balance is my favourite but, except for the ending and the beginning of World of Ruin, the second half of the game was plagued by poor pacing, lack of direction and poor consistency. It simply wasn't fun.

I also have a fondness for Final Fantasy V. The story was... honestly a bit bad, but the gameplay was excellent. Maybe I just love it for the class system, but what a system to love.

[Ebon_Drake]

FF6 is one of my favourite games of all time, let alone my favourite FF game. I could happily play it time and time again - and have done.

...The second is that unless you read a guide to learn about vulnerabilities before hand you may need to spend multiple battles learning the magical weakness of the target. Assuming that the magical means to defeat the target is actually faster than standard attacks, with a decent pacing you won't often face the same monster enough times to to gain any time benefit from learning the weaknesses...
I don't really want to get too deep into this debate, but this point raised an eyebrow of mine. I've never had much trouble just guessing what different enemies will be vulnerable to, most of them tend to follow the standard RPG logic: if you see something fiery-looking, hit it with an ice spell (and vice-versa). If it's a plant, burn it. If it's watery or metallic, try lightning. If it's undead, throw cure and holy spells at it. There are exceptions of course, but not so many that you can't make a sense check on what to try.

To be honest though, you've obviously put far more thought into it than I ever have. When it comes to random encounters and level grinding, I just run around bashing things until they go away and use flashy effects as the mood takes me. I've always seen magic as the big guns to save for the bosses or toughest encounters when just repeatedly hitting "fight" isn't enough.

[Calemyr]

Final Fantasy VI. Economizer + Ultima = no random encounters, just free xp and gold. Or Osmose and gold hair pin. You know what? Just plain Osmose. It made the cost of magic trivial in FF IV.

I can do you one better:
Economizer + Gem Box + Quick + Ultima
In one turn you can cast Ultima, Quick, Ultima, Ultima, Ultima, Ultima, Ultima, Ultima.
69993 damage to each enemy on the field, for 8 MP. And both of them you can get multiple of. Really only has a place in the GBA bonus dungeons, but still...

[Zevox]

Of those I've played? Either 1 or 4, I suppose. Probably 1. I enjoy a simple dungeon crawler sometimes, and that was a fairly good one. 10 had the best combat system, but is drug down by the story.

Yeah, I haven't been impressed by the series personally, really. 1, 4, and 10 I enjoyed, but didn't love; 12 was I felt was mediocre all around; 13 I thought had decent combat but an awful story and characters; and 8 and 10-2 I found to be just plain bad. I've played a fair few hours each of 7 and 9, but not enough to really judge them. I intend to go back to them at some point, but obviously I wasn't exactly enchanted by them since I got distracted by other things and wound up setting them aside without finishing them like that.

The rest of the main series I haven't played - and don't intend to in 13-2 and Lightning Returns' case. I'm tentatively interested in 15, though. Gameplay looks good at a glance, at least.

[Aidan305]

Personally my preferred FF is IX. I love the slightly cartoonish graphics, though many hate them. I consider the plot highly enjoyable, though perhaps not the best. The thing that makes the game shine above all of the other FF's though, are the characters. While a very controversial opinion, I consider the characters of IX to be the most well-rounded, and well developed of any character in the entire series of FF games, superior even to those of VI. Watching the characters change as they learn about themselves and the world around them, as they're forced to confront these changes and think about them. These characters stand up as an amazing example of character development which is unmatched by any other game in the series. I've replayed the game five times just to re-watch these changes.

IV may have made feel feel sad when PC's died, but only in IX did I feel sad at the death of a villain NPC.

[Maryring]

I can do you one better:
Economizer + Gem Box + Quick + Ultima
In one turn you can cast Ultima, Quick, Ultima, Ultima, Ultima, Ultima, Ultima, Ultima.
69993 damage to each enemy on the field, for 8 MP. And both of them you can get multiple of. Really only has a place in the GBA bonus dungeons, but still...

Yeah. Final Fantasy VI was completely bork and generally an excersize in just how much you could completely obliterate the opposition. And hey, if dealing tons of damage wasn't good enough for you, there was always the Vanish + Doom combo.

[Sajiri]

I'm going to admit, I'm just not a final fantasy fan. I've tried 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and I've watched others play 8, 9, 10-2, 13-2. I don't think the series is bad or anything, I can recognise when a game is good, it just doesn't suit my personal tastes though.

11 being the mmo was my favourite, I played it for years..keyword is was though, it's really not a good game anymore. I've been in the beta for 14 2.0 though and it looks like it's shaping up to be amazing.

[NeoVid]

I'm deprived and didn't get to play more than partway through any of the FFs before the PS1 era. However, not counting 11, I've beaten every FF from 7 through 12, and my favorite by far turned out to be 8.

The story was designed in a way that particularly caters to my nerdy tastes, delivered in parts over the course of the whole experience that you had to keep track of and piece together. The combat wasn't great, but it was cool to watch, and easily exploitable so the fighting didn't get in the way of the story too often.

9 and 12 were the others I liked a lot. 9 didn't impress me as much as 8, but there was hardly anything about the game that I could actually complain about... Constantly getting your party broken up, and Not Enough Freya, mostly.

12 had an excellent story, but it was tedious as hell to play through, since it was crippled by the lack of an overworld. Getting to a story location would have been a 30-second walk in any other FF, in 12 it was 45 minutes of constant fighting. Argh.

[Triaxx]

I'd have to say 9 is my favorite, despite playing a considerable amount of 6. I've played through 7, and 8 and while I enjoyed them, and frankly I had too much fun with 8's card game, they didn't quite stand up to 9. 7 had an acceptable story and interesting gameplay, but it was a first 3D entry, which is always a bit unpolished. (Exceptions exist of course.)

8 on the other hand was better gameplay wise, but had a story that would have been better served if they'd spent more time on the sorceresses and less on the annoying teenage love story. You know, the one they rammed down our throats.

9 figured it out, with both interesting combat, and a story that told both the plot and the love story without forcing one down our throats to the detriment of the other. Plus I find Quina hilarious for a reason I can't put my finger on. And Zidane is just incredibly cool.

Tactics I love for it's gameplay. Story is interesting, but I find it nothing more than a framework for the awesome gameplay. And magic is king of the field. Play as white mage, learn Holy, play as Calculator, learn Math. Level the Field. Repeat, for free, forever.

[fizzmaister]

Of the ones that I've played Final Fantasy Adventure, Final Fantasy 5 and Final Fantasy Mystic Quest are my favorites in that order. I couldn't really get into 1, 4, 6, 7, or Tactics Advance. I probably would have enjoyed X-2 because of the class system, but I only played about an hour of it at my cousin's house so I didn't have enough time to form an opinion on it. Final Fantasy Fables Chocobo's Dungeon gets a dishonorable mention because of the bad voice acting and the fact that the class system doesn't make up for the lack of a party which severely restricts your options inside of the dungeons (plus rougelikes give me too many options for exploration, but not enough reward for it).

[Eldariel]

I think FF6 stands head and shoulders above the rest of the series. I also liked 4 and 7, though 7 might be nostalgia. I think their respective merits have been sufficiently discussed already, but I'll add a bit on FF4.

I loved the unpredictability of FF4; the fact that heroes aren't invulnerable or plot armored or whatever and that the game is very dynamic and you're not e.g. restricted that much in terms of which weapon types people can equip in spite of everyone having their own.

Oh, and Rydia is awesome, and I feel Golbez is actually quite a solid character. Cecil isn't poorly written either; the battle of loyalty and righteousness, it's surprisingly a fairly rarely explored theme in Final Fantasy (granted, FF6 does some with Terra & Celes both identifying as imperials for a long time in spite of joining Locke). Same would go for Kain, except even more so. Tella is also fitted into the game quite well and makes it more vivid when you have people with the forgotten arcana already in the start of the game; makes the whole world and character development feel less forced.

Then you have your spoony Bard (for everything that's wrong in the English SNES release to the degree of being unplayable IMHO, I can't argue with Woolseyisms), the obligatory Cid, Yang, the magician kids, I think the cast is just large enough to be interesting without being bloated (see e.g. Chrono Cross). And the fact that the story is less in tune with the stupid "heroes always succeed"-tune makes this necessary.

I find it awesome for much the same reasons I find A Song of Fire and Ice awesome; the story feels more believable without the necessary heroic success mandate and the whole RPG nonsense of the PCs being completely unable to be a threat to the big bad early but conveniently being unable to reach him until they've grown strong enough; FF4 has Tella, Rydia, etc. keeping the heroes strong enough to be relevant at all times.


I didn't hate 10 either in spite of Tidus being...well, Tidus and the plot being the whole "I'm an underwater football player created by ghosts of time brought from the past/imagination to kill my father who has become satan".

I don't know, there's an eerie sort of immersion in the world and the rest of the cast is quite well written (Auron & Kimahri are a bit too perfect an examples of the "mysterious, strong, silent" archetype, but Lulu, Wakka & Yuna are all quite well written).

Thinking about it, I'm having a hard time putting a finger on why I actually enjoyed the game; it's mostly a bundle of nonsense combined with a really annoying main character and a weird world

[Terraoblivion]

Eldariel, didn't you ever notice that all the deaths and supposed deaths of heroes in FF 4 follow the exact same pattern of something the party cannot deal with conventionally happens, they sacrifice themselves to either stop it or win time for the other heroes to get away. The game does that at least five times. It stops being unpredictable or showing vulnerability after a while and instead comes off as the writers having no clue how to write characters leaving the party to make room for new ones. I'd include Cain's chronic brainwashings in this, for that matter. Also, Cecil's conflict is handled with all the depth and complexity of a school play in an elementary school.

[Starbuck_II]

On FF6, I like the version Final Pony Fantasy 6: Friendship is Magic better.

My favs are FF4, then Tactics, then 9, then 10.

[Tono]

Tactics is and always has been my favorite overall. WotL would be amazing but you know. Slow-down. Advance and A2 were fun to just play, but meh all together.
IX fallows. Actually enjoyed the fights, played the card game a ton, and never felt the story was too bad. Plus Kuja always reminded me of Pete Burns. I like that.
VIII is also up there. Can't exactly say why, just always liked it. Even if sometimes the story hit up hard on the idiot-ball. Wish I had the option to leave Rhinoa drifting in space.
V's job system was love.
VI's cast was decent. Don't like a lot of the changes the English version had, but it worked. Would have made more sense with the Celes abuse scene though.
XII is actually decent once you shelve Vaan and just ignore him and Penelo outside of combat.
X was good. Really want the HD version.
I always liked the way X-2's battle system worked out, and it had some amazingly well done cut-scenes, but everything else about the game makes me want to poke my eyes out. I felt like it could have been made a tad bit harder too. No game should be that easy with such a promising way to fight. "You SCORED an opinon!"
IV and VII always felt like meh games to me. Cecil did nothing exceptional I felt, and his allies only use was to be a convenient plot device. And Cloud's a weeny who barely manages to beat a suicidal momma's boy. That game would have been -far- more entertaining with Baret as the MC. I always imagined Avalanche as an eco-terrorist version of the A-Team.
I, II, and III I never really had an opinion on.

[ChaosArchon]

My favorite is FF3 (the one with Arc and the cloud of darkness) because it was the first one i ever played (I played it on the DS version) and loved the music and gameplay style as it was the first JRPG I ever played and I liked how it was a difficult game. I never finished it as a kid but I'm on my way to finally beating it now.

My 2nd favorite was FF 10: Revenant Wings because I liked the RTS gameplay and variety of Espers.

Also relating with magic, I feel that in FF3 magic was actually fairly viable as an attack, whereas many enemies had better resistance to melee as opposed to magic. But that is just my opinion.

[Celesyne]

Final Fantasy 6. and will always be final fantasy 6.

No other game I have ever played has moved me to tears with the music and writing more times than I can count. and not on just the initial Play through. Aria de mezzo carattere, or better known as the Opera Scene was the first game scene to ever have me in awe of the music and storyline merging into an epic symphony of unmitigated awesome. I still get chills and tears from time to time listening to it today, YEARS after the fact. Celes' stranding on the island with Cid in the World of Darkness. Her complete and utter loss of all hope. Cid's death and her attempted suicide are all scenes so powerful that no game I've played to date has ever trumped them. Sure, Aeris' death in 7 was powerful... but from sheer shock value more than almost anything else.

People argue, and argue hard, that 7 was one of the darkest final fantasy's written and it makes me want to hurt them. In 6 more people important to the story and your characters die and not in the same cliched predictable way than in any other RPG I can recall. The Slaughter of Thamasa, The Poisoning of Doma, General Leo's death. Basically every possible betrayal portrayed in an almost perfect manner set to the most amazing musical score and soul warping demented laughter of the worst (read best) villain I've ever seen... Kefka. A man so insane... he wins... and the good guys decide to just kill him out of spite. You don't get much darker.

From general musical score, to story, to gripping combat mechanics (even for the usually dull final fantasy combat) memorable bosses (GODDAMN YOU ULTROS) and pacing that... while did lose its step slightly in the dark world (though mostly because you had 1000000 different things you could do and was almost unheard of at the time for a game to just say "ok... pick one and go to town") was still great enough to keep me thoroughly.... thoroughly entertained even to this day to the tune of me having purchased it on every format its been released on. Final Fantasy 6 wins in the best Final Fantasy game to be EVER released and loses out on best RPG of all time in my standings to only 1 other game. Chrono Trigger.

[DigoDragon]

Final Fantasy 6 gets my top spot. I loved the characters of this game. Most of them had good backgrounds and their interactions during the story were fun to explore. The villain Kefka was very memorable too. Dude was like The Joker with access to god-like powers. I don't think any other FF game had given their BBEG a freaky laugh sound-byte like what Kefka got. That sets Kefka apart from other villains in the series. When you heard the laugh, you know who was coming. :smallbiggrin:
Also, out of all the FF games I've completed (nine of them thus far), #6 had the most satisfying ending to me.

Honerable mention to FFX for its combat system. I love how you can switch party members during combat. I don't think the other games addressed that (Or maybe they just avoided it). Another prop goes out to FF5 for being one of the more challenging games (though its job system was really sweet).

[Eldariel]

Eldariel, didn't you ever notice that all the deaths and supposed deaths of heroes in FF 4 follow the exact same pattern of something the party cannot deal with conventionally happens, they sacrifice themselves to either stop it or win time for the other heroes to get away. The game does that at least five times. It stops being unpredictable or showing vulnerability after a while and instead comes off as the writers having no clue how to write characters leaving the party to make room for new ones.

It, however, does avoid the annoying Deus Ex Machinas that normally happen whenever the party faces something above their level. The whole "party hunts enemies far above their capability and only survive because said enemies refuse to fight them until they are strong enough"-trope really irks me and FF4 falls victim to that less than the most others of the series. Usually there's one or two encounters that are solved by Deus Ex Machina and then the final battle after the whole game. In FF4, those are solved by Heroic Sacrifice instead.

No, it's not perfectly written and yes, it does repeat a lot. In my books though, in war people die. It's not that unplausible (though Edward & Cid are only wounded). It might be their replacement for writing characters leaving the party, but I find I might just prefer it that way, at least far as stories the type FFs usually carry go. "I'm leaving 'cause I...I have to go do something else; you guys deal with the end of the world, mmkay?" has never struck me as a very convincing line.


I'd include Cain's chronic brainwashings in this, for that matter. Also, Cecil's conflict is handled with all the depth and complexity of a school play in an elementary school.

Well, I'd say Cain's chronic brainwashing is just natural and I'm kinda surprised mind control is restricted to so few characters in the story in all. It's established it's more or less Zemus's primary tool for affecting the outside world after all. If you're a person with massive mind control powers and a world conquering agenda, obviously you're going to be using it to its fullest extent. I mean, not everything has to be new and unexpected for it to work; I, for one, wasn't terribly bothered by this aspect of the story.

Cecil's conflict, yeah, it could've warranted more character development. It got kinda randomly solved. It's still there though, which at least I enjoyed in the story.

Mind, all this might be in part due to me being a preteen when I first played the game though. I have since played it again and still found it enjoyable though so while I don't claim for the game to be flawless, I find it averts many of the annoying JRPG traditions and while it does get predictable at times, the whole is, I find, a rather enjoyable and dynamic story with a few good characters (and then you, unfortunately, have Rosa who has no personality whatsoever, but I rather look at the parts that work and enjoy them, than cling to the ones that don't).

[tensai_oni]

My favorites are FF VI, FF VII (so original, I know), followed by XIII, V and IX. Tactics is somewhere up there too.

I consider IV to be the most overrated, with really simplistic characters, plot and writing that did not withstand the test of time. Not even mentioning the gameplay.

[Tylorious]

I don't mean to throw a wrench in the conversation, but I forgot to add in my OP that Final Fantasy 13-2 is my favorite (albeit in a different list)

Now let me explain why...as a kid my favorite game was none other than pokemon, as a teen my favorite game was final fantasy 4. Now, as a 25 year old suffering from severe nostalgia and missing my old favorites, a game that combines those two is nothing more than a miracle in my life haha.

FFIV will always be my favorite game (despite the cliches and occasional story hiccups) but FF13-2 is the first game that has had me counting down the minutes until my shift at work ends. I am certain that not everyone here agrees with me on this, and I literally could not care any less than this. You have 3 characters in your group, and 1 of them is a monster that you have caught in a random battle (caught, leveled and even trained the way you want it to fight)! Guys, come on, you cannot deny that the idea is most amazing. I don't care about the story, narrative, characters, or any of that jazz, just the catching and training of monsters. Also, I enjoy the seemless fighting. Anyone agree?

[Talderas]

You have 3 characters in your group, and 1 of them is a monster that you have caught in a random battle (caught, leveled and even trained the way you want it to fight)! Guys, come on, you cannot deny that the idea is most amazing. I don't care about the story, narrative, characters, or any of that jazz, just the catching and training of monsters. Also, I enjoy the seemless fighting. Anyone agree?

You get to feed your pets to other pets....

[Tylorious]

You get to feed your pets to other pets....

Haven't seen that yet :/ but if that's true, then i will pretend like that doesn't exist and i will never use it.







Sad though...

[Talderas]

Haven't seen that yet :/ but if that's true, then i will pretend like that doesn't exist and i will never use it.







Sad though...

It's a necessary part to making uber pets. When you feed a pet to another pet one of the learned abilities can be transfered. A pet can only learn 10 abilities, I think, but will only get 4-6 from leveling up.

Chocobos, except plain Yellow, are overall very good at the role they fill. There's only a handful (2-3) in a role that are as good as the chocobos and usually their more apropos to specific fights.

[Tylorious]

It's a necessary part to making uber pets. When you feed a pet to another pet one of the learned abilities can be transfered. A pet can only learn 10 abilities, I think, but will only get 4-6 from leveling up.

Chocobos, except plain Yellow, are overall very good at the role they fill. There's only a handful (2-3) in a role that are as good as the chocobos and usually their more apropos to specific fights.

I don't want to believe you.

[The Rose Dragon]

Technically, it's not feeding. It's infusing one crystal with the energies of another. The end result is still one pet gone and the other being stronger as a result, but there is no eating involved.

[Tylorious]

Technically, it's not feeding. It's infusing one crystal with the energies of another. The end result is still one pet gone and the other being stronger as a result, but there is no eating involved.

I am so happy to hear you say that

[Tylorious]

is there a good bit of post game stuff to do in 13-2?

[Terraoblivion]

No, it's not perfectly written and yes, it does repeat a lot. In my books though, in war people die. It's not that unplausible (though Edward & Cid are only wounded).

The thing is. It isn't people dying in war. It's people eagerly jumping to sacrifice themselves as the first solution to a ton of things. Not just that, it's formulaic as hell given how it does it all the damn time. If you want to show that war is dangerous and people die in it, have people killed in battle, sniped by enemies and similar, not trying to make it a big dramatic scene where they sacrifice themselves over and over and over to the point of absurdity. Also, I believe Tellah is the only one who actually dies.


Mind, all this might be in part due to me being a preteen when I first played the game though.

I'd say this is probably the key, I had no nostalgia for it when I tried it at 18'ish and it was just kind of massively cliché, predictable and generally uninteresting. In general, people who love it seem to be speaking from a position of nostalgia, while people who didn't try it until well after it was released and they're adult tend not to care much for it.

[Mewtarthio]

I don't want to believe you.

I don't think I cannibalized any of my pets, and I got through the game just fine. It's not a very hard game except for the sudden spike in the final dungeon; you only need to use the blender if you really enjoy optimization (or possibly for the post-game content, but I only went for the low-hanging fruit there).

As for Chocobos, they've all got high level caps and are all-around decent at their roles. Other monsters can be more specialized within their roles, though, and Chocobos don't start to pull ahead until you've put a lot of investment into them. In short, Chocobos are the most boring monsters, and only optimizers will look down on you for ignoring them. :smalltongue:

Personally, my most-used monster was the humble Miniflan. I put a flower in its hair and called it "Flan o' War" because the game won't let you input your own custom names for some reason (in my mind, it was "Flannery O'Connor").

[The Rose Dragon]

If you want to show that war is dangerous and people die in it, have people killed in battle, sniped by enemies and similar, not trying to make it a big dramatic scene where they sacrifice themselves over and over and over to the point of absurdity.

Isara, noooo!

[Talderas]

Personally, my most-used monster was the humble Miniflan. I put a flower in its hair and called it "Flan o' War" because the game won't let you input your own custom names for some reason (in my mind, it was "Flannery O'Connor").

Only the Chocobo permits you to have a Chocobo riding a Chocobo.

[Eldariel]

The thing is. It isn't people dying in war. It's people eagerly jumping to sacrifice themselves as the first solution to a ton of things. Not just that, it's formulaic as hell given how it does it all the damn time. If you want to show that war is dangerous and people die in it, have people killed in battle, sniped by enemies and similar, not trying to make it a big dramatic scene where they sacrifice themselves over and over and over to the point of absurdity. Also, I believe Tellah is the only one who actually dies.

Well, the last few get repetitive but I feel most of them are perfectly justified and natural; after all, Tella learned Meteo for that very reason and hell, he wanted to kill Golbez (for Anna) even at the sake of his own life. The Twins figured either they die or all the others die and so on; they're all heroes, not just in name but in character too and more or less every single one of them places the good of the group ahead themselves.

While it's repeating, I didn't find any of the scenes truly stretching my willing suspension of disbelief; I find it was in character for basically all the characters involved aside from the Mage Siblings (well, Palom mostly, but he's mostly playful, not malicious) but even there, it made sense at the time. And yeah, they didn't die permanently.

Overall, I find the game does a pretty good job of avoiding the usual cases of heroic/villain stupidity, plot armor, out-of-character moments and all the stuff that so often plagues this types of games. To that end I'm willing to forgive it quite a bit (though I definitely feel and always felt bad about the handling of Rosa, and to lesser extent, Cecil).


I'd say this is probably the key, I had no nostalgia for it when I tried it at 18'ish and it was just kind of massively cliché, predictable and generally uninteresting. In general, people who love it seem to be speaking from a position of nostalgia, while people who didn't try it until well after it was released and they're adult tend not to care much for it.

That's probably a part of it but it's also possible the story just isn't for everyone. There might also be something to peoples' expectations when playing the game; it is quite cliche story-wise. It isn't like rediscovering the wheel, it's just working off the already existing pieces so anyone expecting something new and amazing will probably be disappointed.

At the same time, while it has its flaws I have no problems listing it among my favorites. Nostalgia certainly has a part in it but it's not the whole story.

[Tylorious]

That's probably a part of it but it's also possible the story just isn't for everyone. There might also be something to peoples' expectations when playing the game; it is quite cliche story-wise. It isn't like rediscovering the wheel, it's just working off the already existing pieces so anyone expecting something new and amazing will probably be disappointed.

At the same time, while it has its flaws I have no problems listing it among my favorites. Nostalgia certainly has a part in it but it's not the whole story.

Hey, have you tried out the After Years for FFIV? Or the PSP version at all for that matter? If not I think you should at least try it. You might be pleasently surprised.

[Terraoblivion]

But it doesn't even execute the clichés terribly well. And the individual sacrifices making sense taken in isolation really doesn't change how it gets repetitive and lazy to use the same method over and over. Same with Cain's chronic backstabbing disorder. Why do people keep trusting him when he keeps turning out to be brainwashed and betraying them?

[Eldariel]

But it doesn't even execute the clichés terribly well. And the individual sacrifices making sense taken in isolation really doesn't change how it gets repetitive and lazy to use the same method over and over. Same with Cain's chronic backstabbing disorder. Why do people keep trusting him when he keeps turning out to be brainwashed and betraying them?

I don't find a story necessarily needs a lot of variety to be enjoyable; for me at least the internal consistency and logic in the story is more important. They're not the best but they're reasonably well executed, I find; good enough that none of the moments is at least groanworthy in my books.

And far as Cain goes, I think it's 'cause, well, the mind control was lifted for the moment and when nobody knew how it worked, it doesn't seem like a leap of faith to think it's permanent. It's a bit hairy but since Cain is Cecil's childhood friend and stuff, I guess he's more inclined to trust him.

[Surrealistik]

I don't find a story necessarily needs a lot of variety to be enjoyable; for me at least the internal consistency and logic in the story is more important. They're not the best but they're reasonably well executed, I find; good enough that none of the moments is at least groanworthy in my books.

And far as Cain goes, I think it's 'cause, well, the mind control was lifted for the moment and when nobody knew how it worked, it doesn't seem like a leap of faith to think it's permanent. It's a bit hairy but since Cain is Cecil's childhood friend and stuff, I guess he's more inclined to trust him.

The party's, or at least Cecil's, trust in Kain despite his betrayals I can see as being justifiable given their long history, Cecil's forgiving personality and his qualities as a paladin. I believe that in the remake Kain and Cecil even have a heart to heart about the weaknesses that allowed Zemus to control Kain (continued below).


Well, I'd say Cain's chronic brainwashing is just natural and I'm kinda surprised mind control is restricted to so few characters in the story in all. It's established it's more or less Zemus's primary tool for affecting the outside world after all. If you're a person with massive mind control powers and a world conquering agenda, obviously you're going to be using it to its fullest extent. I mean, not everything has to be new and unexpected for it to work; I, for one, wasn't terribly bothered by this aspect of the story.

The reason why Kain specifically kept getting subverted by Zemus is because he had an exploitable psychological weakness: his jealousy and resentment of Cecil's relationship with Rosa, and to a lesser extent the perception of Cecil's greater prestige and favour in the eyes of King Baron. It's a major element of his character that receives a lot of emphasis.

Resentment of Cecil (due to his mother dying in childbirth, and Zemus' goading that Cecil was responsible) and of the villagers that had killed his father is the reason Golbez in turn was likewise controlled.

[ChaosArchon]

Am I the only one who even liked FF3 or Revenant Wings... All I'm seeing is a war between 6, 7, and 10 :P

[DigoDragon]

Am I the only one who even liked FF3 or Revenant Wings... All I'm seeing is a war between 6, 7, and 10 :P

I played FF3 once long time ago, so I don't remember much (No bad thoughts though, so it must have been pretty decent). I had the DS version, but didn't get far before the home break-in where my stuff got stolen.

From what I remember, the dual-weilding was fun.

[Ishikar]

But it doesn't even execute the clichés terribly well. And the individual sacrifices making sense taken in isolation really doesn't change how it gets repetitive and lazy to use the same method over and over. Same with Cain's chronic backstabbing disorder. Why do people keep trusting him when he keeps turning out to be brainwashed and betraying them?

I don't think that the party trusting Kain is particularly a stretch because he only really betrays the party one time in the story. I'll put the rest in spoilers just in case:

1) Kain is your ally for the mist cave (denying the king's commands otherwise and giving up a portion of his prestige in the court for it), is separated by the earthquake Rydia causes.
2) He returns as an antagonist in Fabul where he beats up Cecil and kidnaps Rosa.
3) After defeating Cagnazzo in Baron and retrieving the Enterprise he tasks you to get the Earth Crystal in exchange for Rosa. When you have the Crystal he takes you to the Tower or Zot.
4) In the tower after Golbez is 'killed' by Tellah casting Meteo and Kain recovers from being knocked unconscious he apologizes and explains the mind control he was under, is forgiven, and rejoins the party bringing the magma key to enter the underworld.
5) Kain is loyal until the Sealed Cave where you recover the Dark Crystal and upon exiting, betrays the party and takes it to Golbez. This strikes me as a smart play on Golbez's part as he's had an inside agent in his greatest foes until just the moment he needs.
6) The party travels to the moon and returns to fight through the Giant of Babil. After destroying the core FuSoYa uses his Lunarian magic to purge the presence of Zemus from both Golbez and Kain and provide a shielding presence to Golbez so he won't be re-controlled and as such re-control Kain.

At that point you enter the final dungeon with your final five (after STUPIDLY trying to leave your mages behind) to challenge Zemus and the physical manifestation of his hatred, Zeromus.

The plot doesn't strike me as particularly unbelievable or contrived. Especially given that Cecil and Kain practically grew up as brothers after Cecil was made a ward of the kingdom and that Rosa grew up with and loved them both (in an admittedly non-romantic sense with Kain but love never the less). There really was no reason to mistrust Kain other than the mind control which was VERY believably broken in-universe in the Tower of Zot.

Edit:
Also can't believe that I hadn't chimed in on this thread before. I'd have to put the FF games in order from favorite to least as follows:
6, 4 / 7, 9 / 13(and 13-2), 10, 5, 8, 1 / 12, 2 / 10-2.

The / marks basically slot out tiers in the games for me. 6 and 4 are my favorites in part for nostalgia and in part just because they were really good games. I do have to say that even as a 8-10 year old kid that Kain really stood out as a more interesting character than Cecil and that Rydia is still one of my all-time favorites from the whole series of games. Final Fantasy 6 was really neat for how they handled character backgrounds. You had to have the characters in your party (barring Terra, for plot reasons) when you were at certain areas to see their events. I still fondly remember the Sabin and Edgar's story and how Sabin reacts to the coin flip on the Blackjack if he and Edgar are with Locke and Celes.

7 and 9 take the next tier for story and game play but each lose a little something, 7 for how you can carbon-copy characters for materia and 9 for a few too many giant space flea moments. Both are good enough for me to have played more than once but still not top tier.

The mid-tier games were decent and I've beaten all of them but there are some detriments. 13 could have used a leader swapping or positioning command (i.e. not all stacking on the tank and eating AoE damage). 10 had some real annoyances for the ultimate equipment and some odd body-language/voice acting ticks. 5 was just kinda meh between 4 and 6 and 8 was even worse about carbon-copying than 7 was (if I want a thief in the party I'll pick the thief, not the guy who learned to steal from a magical beast that's nesting in his head) that and draw/stock was annoying and made using magic a detriment. 1 had it's guide dang it moments and some odd difficulty spikes.

12 and 2 had some gameplay and story elements that just didn't grab me (yes, I wasn't really hooked by 12's plot, you may stone me if you wish but I'm just being honest) and I never actually went back to finish them. 12 had it's gambits for mind-numbing auto-battle and 2 had the dumbest leveling system ever going against it. I know that some of the remakes for 2 adjusted things but I still never felt drawn to restart it.

X-2 was neat enough when you were playing but the plot stupidity and contrived nature of things just hurt my head. 3 best friends found organizations that try to destroy each other while the hero from the previous game saves the world from someone who's not quite her disappeared boyfriend with her cousin and a new friend who's presence is never fully explained (I may have missed it when my brain turned off to protect against the rest of the plot) and none of her other allies. In the end said disappeared boyfriend returns (if you did things right) and the 3 rival organizations stop fighting when their founders all appear on stage and say "Hey we're really friends so everyone should stop fighting". Gah it almost hurts just remembering how badly people in that game juggled the idiot ball, especially after the faith were supposed to have STOPPED and gone to their final rest at the end of X.

I haven't really played enough of 3 to judge but it seems neat and I need to get back to my DS version of it to get a better opinion.

[ChaosArchon]

I played FF3 once long time ago, so I don't remember much (No bad thoughts though, so it must have been pretty decent). I had the DS version, but didn't get far before the home break-in where my stuff got stolen.

From what I remember, the dual-weilding was fun.

Its on the app store now for $15 if you're interested. The port is pretty loyal to the DS version (ie all the old music, gampeplay, etc.). My only warning is that the game doesn't hold your hand so save often and always!

[Vinsfeld]

I just love Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions (the ps1 version had "some" translation errors). Its story is epic. Very well developed. The characters are unique and you really connect with them.

It's simply great.

[Toastkart]

Final Fantasy Tactics would have to be my vote as well for favourite FF game. The story is great, the gameplay is incredible, and it's probably the only FF game that I thought was worth playing more than twice.

It does have its flaws. I think it is overall too grindy and story missions don't scale to your level while random battles do. Even with all of that, it is still an enjoyable game.

Next on my list would probably be 9. It was the first FF game I played and I had a lot of fun with it. The main cast of characters were pretty well-developed and likeable, but the second string party were rather one dimensional.

[Mattarias, King.]

Having never had the opportunity to play one, I will be monitoring this thread closely. o_o


Uhm... I loved the anime though! Final Fantasy: Unlimited was a masterpiece.

[Xeratos]

Uhm... I loved the anime though! Final Fantasy: Unlimited was a masterpiece.

Ugh...

Other than the names of the "summons" they used (if you want to call them that, they looked nothing like any of them, that I can recall at least) and the fact that it had a chocobo in it, I don't think there was much anything to connect this anime to Final Fantasy. Seemed like a marketing ploy to me.

As far as the actual anime itself, if you ignored the title and tried to just appreciate it for what it was instead of what the words on the box portrayed it as... well... it definitely wasn't the worst anime I've ever seen, but I wouldn't call it a masterpiece. It was alright, nothing special.

[Mattarias, King.]

Ugh...

Other than the names of the "summons" they used (if you want to call them that, they looked nothing like any of them, that I can recall at least) and the fact that it had a chocobo in it, I don't think there was much anything to connect this anime to Final Fantasy. Seemed like a marketing ploy to me.

As far as the actual anime itself, if you ignored the title and tried to just appreciate it for what it was instead of what the words on the box portrayed it as... well... it definitely wasn't the worst anime I've ever seen, but I wouldn't call it a masterpiece. It was alright, nothing special.


┐(￣ー￣)┌ YMMV. I liked G Gundam, which a lot of people disliked as part of that series too.

[Tylorious]

I am almost completely finished with the story of 13-2 and I must say, I believe the plot is just too much. Final Fantasy plots in general are already pretty deep and in some cases complicated to follow. But adding.. time travel to the mix just makes everything ridiculous to me. I mean, I get what is happening and all, I just don't really care because the whole "lets go to the past so that what is happening right now doesn't happen anymore" thing has been done before, a lot. There are a few moments where the story caught me off guard. When the main character told the antagonist he didnt understand something, typically starting a 20 minute explanation of why the antagonist wants to kill the good guy, all he said was "you don't need to" and started attacking. That was sick, but, considering the plot, that's all the good i have to say about it lol.

[Raimun]

I haven't played any FF-games for over 5 years but I still have an opinion.

My favorite ones were the three PS1-games: VII, VIII and IX. They had interesting characters, (at the time) impressive visuals and beautiful music.

If I had to pick one, I'd pick FF VIII. The game had gunblades and they are awesome. I also liked the junction system and the fact that people tend to hate the game just because they can't have gunblades in real life.

Those were the games that sparked my interest to the series and frankly, I enjoyed them more than the older games. X was kinda ok but I was losing my interest to the series during it. XI was the final nail to the coffin. After they made the next single player FF, my interest was at zero for any new FF-games.

[Lost Demiurge]

1, 4, 5, and 6 are the classics. Of them, 6 is my favorite of them all.
7 was just plain fun, even if the main hero had a bit of a chip on his shoulder for a bit too long.
12 was an underrated joy, even if it did try a bit too hard to mimic MMORPGs. For the joy of watching Balthier and Fran I can accept a few flaws.

The rest I can leave, really.

Though Tactics is in a class by itself, as broken and wonky as it can be.

[Pendulous]

I think my list goes, 9, 10, 12, 10-2, 7, 6, 3, from all I've played.

Final Fantasy 9: Amazing story, amazing side quests. Chocobo Hot and Cold is the greatest thing in any Final Fantasy game. Too bad it's so short. Even with rather crappy treasures (which some of them had anyway), I would have enjoyed having a lot more chocographs. But I still play it every now and then when I get in the mood. Tetra Master would have been better if it was more consistent. My card is better than yours? Hmm, then why did it lose? I guess we'll never know, but Square decided to keep doing it later on. The characters are unique, and have their own motivations. It's great. And there doesn't seem to be any stereotypical "whiny kids" that I seem to see from people who oppose the series. Also moogles.

The leveling system wasn't great though. Particularly, the skill leveling. Sometimes, you're stuck grinding with a weaker item, because you needed to learn the skill on it.

Final Fantasy 10: Did I say great story? Because 10 keeps up that mojo. Yes, Tidus is annoying. Yes, everyone who's not Tidus, Auron, or Rikku, is a blind faith following idiot. But I think that actually adds to the depth of the world. And bliztball. If Chocobo hot and Cold is the best mini-game ever, blitzball is closesly behind it. Forget about the ruined version in X-2. This one was super fun, and you could play it forever. And sometimes, you might have had to. Getting Jecht Shot 2, and Wakka's best reels took a LONG time. I don't remember my best team, but Brother was definitely on that list, with surely one of the Al Bhed Psyches, and I think Jassu was good enough to stay.

But yes, the game was a lot more linear than the previous games. But there was a lot to do, and when you got the airship (you know, at the end of the game), you could go around and do all those things. Also, no moogles.

Final Fantasy 12: I have a love-hate relationship with this game. Incoming wall of text:

To start, the story feels really bland. I found a great comparison to Star Wars. Group of rebels attempt to take down the big kingdom taking everything over. The plot just felt forced. Oh crap, we lost? It's ok. There's ANOTHER ancient relic that has ultimate power, just like we did three times already, but had never mentioned before.

And similarly, the characters also felt bland. Each one doesn't seem to have much of a story that gives them reason to be there. And from what I've read, Vaan and Penelo (technically the two main characters) were only added on late. Balthier and Fran were meant to be the mains. Which, I would have been ok with, at least he had personality and some kind of drive. Oh, and some might argue that the story is good because there's no sappy love story involved, but I don't really care one way or the other, as long as it's told well.

The combat system is new, and I'm not a fan. I was never big on squad-based games, and this is basically what it is, except more advanced. You can set up Gambits, which prompt your characters to perform specific actions when a specific event happens. For example, you can set up a Ally= HP<50%, cast=curaga, to cast curaga on an ally anytime one drops below half health. Many will argue that the problem with this is that you can set up your Gambits to where the game basically plays for you. That's not really my problem with it. My problem is that you have to keep an eye on your characters anyway, because, well, stuff happens. So there's no real point in it. You might as well have set up a typical turn-based system, which is why I subscribe to these games in the first place. As far as combat itself, that's another meh. You spend every boss fight making sure you have 5-6 buffs on your characters while you keep the boss's buffs dispelled. It's very uninspiring to actually care about.

The license board is ok. Each monster you kill gives License Points, which you spend on abilities on the board. In order to equip gear, use spells, and use other abilities, you have to first spend the LP to unlock it on that character's board. There is also a section that gives your character permanent buffs, like extra health and damage, and certain procs, like extra defense when your health is low. The thing that bothers me the most about this, is that it completely takes away from the uniqueness of each character. You can have any abilities you want for anybody, and your choice of part is largely cosmetic. Which, in turn, doesn't help the fact that characters already feel bland, as I've mentioned above.

The one place where it shines to me is the exploration. The landscapes are beautiful, and the world is huge. Taking away random encounters makes the world feel more alive as well. As does the hunts. You have two clubs you can join where you basically wander around and find rare spawns. Each one requires some set of circumstances for it to spawn (for example one will only spawn when there's a sandstorm in a certain area of the desert). Your "summons" are called Espers, as they have been in previous games, and there are a few you earn through the main story. However, like rares, the others are obtained by finding them.

There doesn't feel like many side quests though, except for the hunts. There's plenty to do, but it's all minor stuff that doesn't even feel like it helps you throughout the game. The hunts are the best part.

Speaking of combat, the combat queue would lag like hell on certain fights, the last one being a good example. And given his amount of haste, your character could be sitting there for a couple minutes doing nothing.

Also, moogles. MOOGLES EVERYWHERE.


Everything after that on my list, I don't really care enough to say anything about. I hated FF6. I know that's like saying I hate pizza, or I hate breathing, or whatever, but it's true. I couldn't even finish it, it pissed me off too bad. And that's sad, because it's the only game in the series with PLAYABLE MOOGLE.....

[huttj509]

4 words:

Fetch the giant mirror!

FF V's tongue in cheek awesome GBA translation is a love it or hate it style, and I loves it.

[DigoDragon]

Its on the app store now for $15 if you're interested.

Thanks, but I don't think I got anything that plays apps. ^^;
I remember FF3 being pretty hard, but that was a selling point for me. Same with #5, they had a number of difficult areas and bosses. Also, they both had a Job system, so that makes me wonder if there's a connection.

FF5 also had one of the neatest mini-boss musical scores in my opinion~ Gilgamesh's theme.



But adding.. time travel to the mix just makes everything ridiculous to me.

I think there was only one Squaresoft game I played that did that well (CT).

[Tylorious]

I think there was only one Squaresoft game I played that did that well (CT).

Agreed brother.

[Talderas]

I think there was only one Squaresoft game I played that did that well (CT).

The functional method of time travel in CT and FF13-2 is not very different. In both instances you have gates which take you from one space-time coordinate to another. CT only really breaks away after the Epoch is obtained AND Dalton has modified it. Prior to that it's just a gate that maintains it's position but spans all time and truly this difference is not one that can readily be analyzed because FF13-2 does not contain an overworld map.

Unlike with CT, FF13 actually has far more events and locations where choices in the past affect the future. CT toyed with the idea but FF13-2 embraced it. In CT most of the effects center around events in 600AD that altered 1000AD due to the similarities in world map. There were very few events in 65,000,000BC, 12,000BC, and 1,000AD that have an impact on the future and given the time periods you can enter 1,999AD has no events besides ending the game and 2,300AD is the last time period you can visit. Contrast this with FF13-2 where each region has 2-3 different time periods you can visit and each area's earlier events do have a measurable impact on the future.

[Triaxx]

I didn't like FFV. I found it very interesting on a gameplay side, but didn't see a reason to play it for the story. They didn't seem to have a motivation for trying to save the world.

I also hated Chrono Trigger because after 6 hours in, I just gave up because I found it incredibly BORING. Partially because I didn't understand what was going on, and partially because the 'Hedgehog of doom' is the least threatening villain I can imagine.

[Surrealistik]

I also hated Chrono Trigger because after 6 hours in, I just gave up because I found it incredibly BORING. Partially because I didn't understand what was going on, and partially because the 'Hedgehog of doom' is the least threatening villain I can imagine.

Which is actually a cyberduck of doom, lol.

[Mewtarthio]

The functional method of time travel in CT and FF13-2 is not very different. In both instances you have gates which take you from one space-time coordinate to another.

XIII-2 has a lot more complications, though. The big one is how changing the present can alter the past. See how, for instance, fixing the anomaly in Oerba 200 AF also fixes the anomaly in Yaschas Massif 10 AF, nearly two centuries earlier. The anomalies are connected in a way that transcends linear time. That's also why Alyssa joins up with Caius. In the "real" timeline, which she still remembers, she dies in Bresha. Her survival is an anomaly; if you keep changing the timeline, even if you never go back to before the Fall, you'll eventually "fix" that anomaly. And that's not even getting into Adam's crazy time loop shenanigans.

[huttj509]

I didn't like FFV. I found it very interesting on a gameplay side, but didn't see a reason to play it for the story. They didn't seem to have a motivation for trying to save the world.


"The wind just stopped, causing all sea traffic to grind to a halt."

"Eh, someone else can handle it."
"Ok chocobo, fine, I'll help them, stop nagging."

That's literally Bartz's motivation. He gets guilted into helping a bit, then gets caught up in the whole "the crystals chose you and gave you the power to succeed" thing...and learning his dad was a light warrior before.

The world is ending. What more motivation does a hero need?

[Talderas]

XIII-2 has a lot more complications, though. The big one is how changing the present can alter the past. See how, for instance, fixing the anomaly in Oerba 200 AF also fixes the anomaly in Yaschas Massif 10 AF, nearly two centuries earlier. The anomalies are connected in a way that transcends linear time. That's also why Alyssa joins up with Caius. In the "real" timeline, which she still remembers, she dies in Bresha. Her survival is an anomaly; if you keep changing the timeline, even if you never go back to before the Fall, you'll eventually "fix" that anomaly. And that's not even getting into Adam's crazy time loop shenanigans.

The anomaly's themselves are symptoms of altering the timeline. In this case the anomalies themselves transcend time rather than be subjected to it. There are multiple theories of time travel and what happens when events at point A are altered. FF13-2 just doesn't jive well with the Back to the Future style of time travel which is one of the simplist theories that holds that time is linear and in such a theory the universe self corrects to avoid paradoxes. FF13-2's time travel theory does not actively try to correct paradoxes (that's what they call the anomalies) but rather they are indicative of time and the universe unraveling.

[Eldariel]

The anomaly's themselves are symptoms of altering the timeline. In this case the anomalies themselves transcend time rather than be subjected to it. There are multiple theories of time travel and what happens when events at point A are altered. FF13-2 just doesn't jive well with the Back to the Future style of time travel which is one of the simplist theories that holds that time is linear.

It's worth noting that even in Chrono Trigger, the Black Omen and Lavos somehow transcend time to a degree (Chrono Cross extrapolates a bit but eh, yeah, better not get there). Components destroyed in the future are also destroyed in the past. On the other hand, the Black Omen itself will have to be separately destroyed at each previous time but if immediately destroyed in 12000BC, it'll be gone.

Square doesn't like keeping their Time Travel too simple (though CT mostly makes sense with a simple alternate universe theory; CC plays up off that but fails as a game so whatever).

[Tylorious]

The functional method of time travel in CT and FF13-2 is not very different. In both instances you have gates which take you from one space-time coordinate to another. CT only really breaks away after the Epoch is obtained AND Dalton has modified it. Prior to that it's just a gate that maintains it's position but spans all time and truly this difference is not one that can readily be analyzed because FF13-2 does not contain an overworld map.

Unlike with CT, FF13 actually has far more events and locations where choices in the past affect the future. CT toyed with the idea but FF13-2 embraced it. In CT most of the effects center around events in 600AD that altered 1000AD due to the similarities in world map. There were very few events in 65,000,000BC, 12,000BC, and 1,000AD that have an impact on the future and given the time periods you can enter 1,999AD has no events besides ending the game and 2,300AD is the last time period you can visit. Contrast this with FF13-2 where each region has 2-3 different time periods you can visit and each area's earlier events do have a measurable impact on the future.

I will give you that, you do see noticibly the results of your hard labor in the game. I'm just saying that it's just a tad to complicated to follow for me for some reason. I prefer just capturing monsters, leveling them, and fighting with them. I still dont want to infuse them as i feel like they are eating each other ever since the post earlier that scarred my life :P

[Talderas]

I will give you that, you do see noticibly the results of your hard labor in the game. I'm just saying that it's just a tad to complicated to follow for me for some reason. I prefer just capturing monsters, leveling them, and fighting with them. I still dont want to infuse them as i feel like they are eating each other ever since the post earlier that scarred my life :P

Well the big reason it's hard to follow is that the standard time traveling story has one time traveling character or group. FF13-2 has two groups with wildly different goals. It's a pretty meta heavy story, which I understand can put people off. It's also not the first final fantasy to touch on explore Time Travel. FF8 also danced around it until the much later points of the game.

[Olinser]

6 is my absolute favorite, then 10, then 7, then 13, then 1, then 4. All of those I have played through start to finish multiple times. Other than that they're all just kind of generic - not bad games, but not really worth replaying.

[Triaxx]

I don't think I got that far into FFV's story. Last I recall they were heading to join the army. Which says to me that there's someone else already working on it. And yes, I know VG armies are useless but in world you wouldn't know that. At least 8 has the excuse that he doesn't care but he's been ordered to do it.

[huttj509]

I don't think I got that far into FFV's story. Last I recall they were heading to join the army. Which says to me that there's someone else already working on it. And yes, I know VG armies are useless but in world you wouldn't know that. At least 8 has the excuse that he doesn't care but he's been ordered to do it.

At that point they've already defeated mythical creatures, gotten massive abilities from the crystals, discovered this conflict spans multiple worlds, saw their friend go back to his own world, decided to go help him because they don't wanna abandon him, seen an army driven back at the big bridge (now we fight like men, and ladies, and ladies who dress like men...wait, that comes later), watched Exdeath sink an island...

They're invested. They're not gonna back out now, and that army can use all the help they can get.

[DigoDragon]

The world is ending. What more motivation does a hero need?

FFV is light on the story side, especially when compared to the more story-centered games IV and VI. The GBA re-release had some pretty funny dialog however that ensured the game didn't take itself seriously anyway.

And hey, the main hero is traveling with nothing but royalty on his team. How cool is that?

[ChaosArchon]

Still surprised so many people don't even mention FF3, was it because it was release in America on the DS? Hmmm... these are the mysteries

[Tylorious]

guys, i don't know if you care, or even know what this is but, I JUST GOT A PINK TAIL!!!!

[Triaxx]

I always think of 6 and 3 as being the same game so I forget there's another one.

[ChaosArchon]

I always think of 6 and 3 as being the same game so I forget there's another one.

Yeah I always get mixed up on the numbering because of the releases in the US vs Asia ( I think)

[Xeratos]

Still surprised so many people don't even mention FF3, was it because it was release in America on the DS? Hmmm... these are the mysteries

I had two big problems with that game that were intertwined.

1. No saving except on the world map.

2. Plow all the way through a dungeon without difficulty; get annihilated by the boss at the end in 2 rounds.

Which means, of course, that you save before you go in, clear the entire dungeon, and then get to do it again after the boss slaughters you.

I'll admit that I never finished this game because of how much I disliked having this happen in dungeon after dungeon, so maybe that changed later on. Either way, it happened often enough early on in the game that I gave up on it.

[Mattarias, King.]

So, I have two questions:

1) I love the idea of Red Mages, so.. What games feature them?

2) Of those, what versions are the best? -By versions I mean like, DS port vs. PsX version, or whatever. ...And by best, I mean upgraded graphics and improved/more gameplay.

Hopefully these are subjective enough. o_o;; Playground pls, dun' keel me.

[Pendulous]

So, I have two questions:

1) I love the idea of Red Mages, so.. What games feature them?

2) Of those, what versions are the best? -By versions I mean like, DS port vs. PsX version, or whatever. ...And by best, I mean upgraded graphics and improved/more gameplay.

Hopefully these are subjective enough. o_o;; Playground pls, dun' keel me.

Guess it depends on the definition of red mage. If you're looking for the mage with all kinds of different skills, then I guess there are a few. Quina in FF9 eats creatures and takes their powers, and thus has a wide variety of skills.

[Aidan305]

Guess it depends on the definition of red mage. If you're looking for the mage with all kinds of different skills, then I guess there are a few. Quina in FF9 eats creatures and takes their powers, and thus has a wide variety of skills.

That's a blue Mage. There are red mages in FF IX, but none of them are in the party. Games with Red mages IIRC are I, III, V, and XI. You can make you own red mages in VII, VIII, X, and XII.

[erikun]

So, I have two questions:

1) I love the idea of Red Mages, so.. What games feature them?

2) Of those, what versions are the best? -By versions I mean like, DS port vs. PsX version, or whatever. ...And by best, I mean upgraded graphics and improved/more gameplay.

Hopefully these are subjective enough. o_o;; Playground pls, dun' keel me.
1.) Most games feature Red Mages, of a sort. They were in the very first Final Fantasy game, and just about any game where you choose classes gives Red Mages as an option. (I think FFT is lacking them.)

Outside games with classes, it's a bit harder to say who the "Red Mages" were. FF2 and FF6 allowed you to pick what spells to teach to each character, along with whether to focus on combat or magic. This means you could turn everyone into a Red Mage of some sort.

2.) Stay well away from the PS1 versions of earlier games. (FF4/FF5/FF6) The PS1 emulation of the SNES was not very good, and the entire game runs extremely slow loading up anything - including waiting for every single battle to load. The actual PS1 games (FF7, FF8, FF9) don't seem to have this problem.

Other than that? It depends on which game you are talking about.

FF4 is my favorite, and so I've played all versions of it. The FF4PSP version (Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection) has nice graphic upgrades along with both the After Years sequel and a short story bit between the games, so is probably the version you want if you're looking for the full story. FF4DS has a much different system thanks to Augments, along with a extra bits of story such as flashbacks and character thoughts. It's also a fair bit tougher, with bosses needing more work to defeat and having a bit more content to find and run though.

FF4GBA allows you to swap out characters towards the end of the game (normally, you only have the last five) and run through some bonus dungeons. I don't recall if the PSP version had the same feature or not. As mentioned above, FF4 on the PS1 has some serious loading issues. The only think you're missing is some very poor CGI cutscenes, which aren't really worth watching. (The cutscenes in the DS and PSP games are much better.)

FF4 on the SNES is of course the classical version, although the US game is the "Easytype" version, which means that some character moves were removed, along with some items and monster attacks. There's not much reason to play this outside historical reasons, or if you can't find any of the above.

[DigoDragon]

Still surprised so many people don't even mention FF3, was it because it was release in America on the DS? Hmmm... these are the mysteries

I thought giving it a 3Dish look was a nice changeup from the usual meager graphical bump that ports get. Wish they'd bump VI up like that. :3



guys, i don't know if you care, or even know what this is but, I JUST GOT A PINK TAIL!!!!

I hated the work needed to get one of those. And I only ever in my life got one pink tail. Congrats on what amounts to winning the lottery. :smallsmile:



2) Of those, what versions are the best? -By versions I mean like, DS port vs. PsX version, or whatever. ...And by best, I mean upgraded graphics and improved/more gameplay.

For me, hands down it's FFV's Red Mage that was the best mechanically. And not for the class itself (Which was pretty average). It's because once you unlock Red Mage's Dual-Cast for 999AP, you can equip it on your non-job class and pretty much own the game from there on out. :smallbiggrin:

[Tylorious]

I hated the work needed to get one of those. And I only ever in my life got one pink tail. Congrats on what amounts to winning the lottery. :smallsmile:


Thank you very much, proud as ever :)

[Olinser]

So, I have two questions:

1) I love the idea of Red Mages, so.. What games feature them?

2) Of those, what versions are the best? -By versions I mean like, DS port vs. PsX version, or whatever. ...And by best, I mean upgraded graphics and improved/more gameplay.

Hopefully these are subjective enough. o_o;; Playground pls, dun' keel me.

Red mages are pretty much restricted to the earlier games, when you picked classes for characters.

The idea of a Red Mage is somebody that is jack of all, master of none. He's a decent warrior, but not as good as a pure fighter. He's got black magic, but never gets the high level game-breakers that the Black Mage will. He's got healing spells, but he'll never be a primary healer.

Since about FFVI, each character has been unique, with set skills for the character. The Red Mage has pretty much become a casualty of the class system not existing in FF anymore.

Case in point, FF 10, 12 and 13 all had unique characters, but the grid/crystal system they all have essentially let you teach every character the bulk of spells in the game (in 10 and 12, EVERY spell in the game), turning everybody into a Red Mage.

[Tylorious]

Lucky Coin Fragment Is The Bane Of My Existence!

[Mewtarthio]

Case in point, FF 10, 12 and 13 all had unique characters, but the grid/crystal system they all have essentially let you teach every character the bulk of spells in the game (in 10 and 12, EVERY spell in the game), turning everybody into a Red Mage.

That's not entirely true for XIII. You can potentially teach any character any role, but they learn different abilities within those roles, plus secondary roles can be prohibitively expensive to build. Hope, for instance, will pretty much always be a caster. His primary roles are RAV (elemental attacks), MED (healing), and SYN (buffing). Within the Ravager role, he never learns any [Element]strike abilities for making physical attacks, but he's the only character in the game who can learn every spell.

Even after the secondaries are unlocked, if you try to make him a Commando (for some bizarre reason), he'll mostly use non-elemental magic unless you explicitly order him to use physical attacks.

[Talderas]

Case in point, FF 10, 12 and 13 all had unique characters, but the grid/crystal system they all have essentially let you teach every character the bulk of spells in the game (in 10 and 12, EVERY spell in the game), turning everybody into a Red Mage.

That is true for FF10 and FF12. The abilities were all tied to a grid that all characters had access to.

Each crystal for a character in FF13 is unique.

Take for example Snow and Hope. Both have Ravager as a primary class yet Snow gets a bunch of -strike Ravager abilities while Hope gets actual spells. And even though with the paradigm system you can swap the role that you're in, you're never simultaneously able to cast black and white magic and be decent at melee.

[Mattarias, King.]

:smallconfused: Hmmm, okay, thanks. I suppose I'll take a look at V and eventually VII.

[Pendulous]

If it matters, the hard-to-obtain international version of FF12 that wasn't exactly released, had more defined characters. There's a bunch of other cool stuff it did too, and I wish they would have released that version as the regular (http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XII#Final_Fantasy_XII_International_ Zodiac_Job_System).

[Mewtarthio]

:smallconfused: Hmmm, okay, thanks. I suppose I'll take a look at V and eventually VII.

Speaking of which, the 2012 remake of FF7 is on Steam now. They've supposedly fixed that annoying mandatory cloud saving thing that plagued the 2012 remake's initial launch, so you might want to check it out.

[Cat Dungeon]

VI. The characters are great, I love the combat system, and the story is so epic even if the final villain is Chuckles McClownPants. No. NO! I refuse to have a clown be the Big Bad in my fantasy game UNLESS their voiced by Mark Hamill. Batman reference - look it up.:smallwink:

[Mewtarthio]

So, anyone seen some of the alternate Lightning costumes in her new game?

http://i.imgur.com/qcgGyxe.jpg

Memory
All alone in the moonlight
I can smile at the old games
I was respected then
I remember
The time I knew what dignity was
Let the memory
Live again

[Zevox]

So, Lightning Returns is X-2 2.0 then?

Somehow, I'm not really all that surprised...

[Tono]

Are you sure about that watermark and that it wasn't just added in by someone else? That looks a lot like the Miqo'te in original gear from XIV.
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/static/img/1302/world/races/miqo-te/miqo-te_001.jpg
There is going to be a Lightning segment in XIV, so it could also be referencing that.
Edit; wow, brain-fart. I guess if XII stuff is in XIV they could put XIV stuff in XII as well.

[Terraoblivion]

That's because that outfit is a miqo'te outfit. It's explicitly called that. I also personally think it doesn't suit Lightning in the slightest. She needs something more dignified and less cutesy to go with her general attitude.

[The Rose Dragon]

Hopefully the alternate costumes are optional, don't affect her traits and I can stay as far away from them as I can manage.

And hopefully she still has the armor from the earlier trailers.