Final Fantasy Discussion Thread

[ariich]

I may be an odd exception, but I loved FF XIII, so I'm somewhat excited about XIII-2. Anyone gonna give it a shot?

I loved the story and characters of XIII

There were a story and characters in FF XIII?

Yep, good ones too.

[yorost]

OK, who's ready for XIII-3?  Lightning Returns, actually, big surprise after the the complete "fuck you" to fans ending of XIII-2.  If anybody tells me it covers up the rotten taste that game ended with I think I'll preorder it.

[Dimitrius]

OK, who's ready for XIII-3?  Lightning Returns, actually, big surprise after the the complete "fuck you" to fans ending of XIII-2.  If anybody tells me it covers up the rotten taste that game ended with I think I'll preorder it.

Don't you need to buy some DLC for XIII-2 to clear that up? I think I read that somewhere.


But yeah, why do we need 3 FFXIII games?!?! One was enough, more than enough in fact.

[yorost]

I did not buy the Lightning DLC, as I understood it all it did was explain what simultaneously happened to Lightning during the end.  More why than a different outcome.  I won't purchase more from XIII until I know they've somehow corrected the disaster they've left it in.

[Genowyn]

After all this vs. XIII had better be goddamn amazing.

I've seen some play of Type-0 (previously Agito) and it actually looks pretty good. Raises my hopes for vs.

[Elsydeon]

After all this vs. XIII had better be goddamn amazing.

I've seen some play of Type-0 (previously Agito) and it actually looks pretty good. Raises my hopes for vs.

I thought I read a rumor a month or two back about vs 13 being cancelled

[Genowyn]

And very recently Square Enix confirmed vs. XIII is still in development.

[Elsydeon]

And very recently Square Enix confirmed vs. XIII is still in development.

OH wow, I don't really keep up with gaming news these days as much as I used to. But that is awesome news indeed 

[Lynxo]

It's seems I'm in the minority here, but...X was the last good game. That game had serious voice acting issues but everything else was awesome. XII had it's moments but wasn't up to the standard set by the previous games.

XI, XIII and XIV...don't get me started. Hated 'em. Especially XIII. Ridiculous story, characters I wanted to kick the living shit out of and a battle system that was interesting but not as intriguing as the previous games.

I've kinda lost hope I'll ever play a new good FF game again.

[Perpetual Change]

Yeah, I don't expect anything good to come from the company from now on. I remember thinking "WTF?" when FF XII came out. I couldn't have imagined it'd be the last decent thing the company do.

[Dimitrius]

I think Square Enix is allergic to making money.

[ehra]

The only recent games of theirs I've played are the Kingdom Hearts games.... they definitely come up with some unique stories and ideas, but holy shit did they turn the series into a huge clusterfuck. I'm fine with writers throwing out interesting weird shit (in fact, I encourage it), but I shouldn't need a god damn flow chart just to understand how and why a character even exists.

Then the games themselves tend to have some interesting systems that are fun to play around with but, with the KH games at least, so much of the content feels like padding. Especially 358/2 Days, if you removed the padding from that game you'd probably have a good 2-3 hours of content.

It wouldn't surprise me of the recent FF games are similar (haven't played any since 10). SE is one of those developers that I really want to like because it's clear they do know how to write interesting stories and design fun combat systems, but then they bury it all under so much shit it's baffling. And for how huge they are and how long they've been around you'd think they'd know better.

[yorost]

SquareEnix has made/published plenty of great games since XII.  I believe two Valkyrie Profiles, The World Ends With You, Dissidia, I loved the sequel to XII, which is probably the strongest FF sequel, Dragon Quest IX was there or close, the DS Crystal Chronicles I would consider adding... 

SquareEnix had a great run on the DS, easily my favourite publisher on the system.  I think nostalgia has helped make them an easy target for people.

[Perpetual Change]

SquareEnix has made/published plenty of great games since XII.  I believe two Valkyrie Profiles, The World Ends With You, Dissidia, I loved the sequel to XII, which is probably the strongest FF sequel, Dragon Quest IX was there or close, the DS Crystal Chronicles I would consider adding... 

SquareEnix had a great run on the DS, easily my favourite publisher on the system.  I think nostalgia has helped make them an easy target for people.

Well, yeah, Tri-Ace are still awesome, although I hated The Last Hope (not sure what changed: them, or me).  But Dissidia "great"? C'mon. I guess it's as great as a broken nostalgia trip of a fighting game can be. But anyway, the occasional decent game doesn't really make up for the sheer number of total embarrassments and destroying the Final Fantasy series, or  the insane amount of price-gauging going on, like the new commemorative box. 

Ten years ago, I would have told you Squaresoft was my favorite videogame company. These days, SquareEnix would no-doubt be among my least favorites. The Enix portion is still OK from time to time, but the Square side absolutely sucks. If there's even a difference these days.

[yorost]

Dissidia is a great fan service game, not sure what your problem is with it.  I wouldn't recommed it to non-FF fans, but so what, that's not the target?

SquareEnix isn't THAT bad.  They were one of the best publishers for the DS/PSP handheld generation.  ...so their console efforts left something to be desired this generation, oh well.

[Perpetual Change]

Well, yeah, there is a WORLD of difference between a "great game" and a "great fanservice game". If you want to call Dissidia a great fan-service game, that's cool. But it's not the same thing as what you said earlier 

And yeah, SquareEnix truly has done some of the best republishing of classic games on the handhold consoles. I'll give you that as well. I don't know about much aside from that, though.

[yorost]

We are in a Final Fantasy thread, I'm not sure what difference it makes how I labeled it.  It's clearly aimed at Final Fantasy fans, they succeeded wonderfully  in that aim.

For handhelds it was more than just republishing, they did a great job with new releases, too (moreso on the DS than the PSP).

[Perpetual Change]

We are in a Final Fantasy thread, I'm not sure what difference it makes how I labeled it.  It's clearly aimed at Final Fantasy fans, they succeeded wonderfully  in that aim.

For handhelds it was more than just republishing, they did a great job with new releases, too (moreso on the DS than the PSP).

But that's just it. Some of us are sick of SquareEnix because all they're capable of doing lately are spin-offs and fanservice games, which are OK when they don't manage to taint the series they're supposed to be a part of. And those are the best of the SquareEnix bunch these days, which is not saying much.

[yorost]

Ok.

The World Ends With You was a great new IP, though.

[yorost]

https://www.ign.com/articles/2013/04/17/square-enix-final-fantasy-versus-xiii-news-is-coming

It's not much, but SquareEnix has a set date to reveal more about Versus XIII. I guess that could mean anything, but one would hope it's something fairly big. Interesting that it was called a delicate situation within SquareEnix, I suppose some might consider the handling of the game an embarrassment?

[Jaq]

My ex-GF calls Final Fantasy XIII the video game equivalent of a grudge fuck. You hate the damn thing, but you do it anyway. 

As much as I loved this series from FFVI to FFX-and FFVII is my all time favorite video game of all time-I haven't finished a Final Fantasy game since FFX. FFX2, nope, FFXII, got 20 hours in and quit, FFXIII, gave up about seven hours in, never bought FFXIII-2. I really would like to see someone shut down the FF department at Square Enix and start again with new people.

They can still make stunning cinematics, though. I saw the one that came at the end of FFXIV, the MMO so bad they had to literally blow it up, and it was fantastic. Shame they don't come with good games anymore.

[LieLowTheWantedMan]

X-2 is one of the best gameplay wise. It's just really cheesy.

[yorost]

Yeah, X-2 was much better than X, except it was so awful of a presentation. Both were pretty poor overall.

I really would like to see someone shut down the FF department at Square Enix and start again with new people.

They do switch teams between games, so that's not the issue. I loved XII, anyways, if they were releasing main titles as often as they used to people probably wouldn't see the series as dead as they do. When you release 11 titles in, what, 15 years, people will find enough they're happy with to forget about the ones they dislike.

[Ultimetalhead]

Thread revival. We were doing some FF discussion over in the Video Games thread, and it inspired me to finally play the original again and try to beat it this time. Having a lot of fun with it so far, even the grinding. I've mostly been grinding for Gil rather than EXP right now, and I'm a little overleveled as a result. Those level 3 and 4 spells are just so damned expensive. 

I really want to try and play through all of the main series (At least up to X with X-2 maybe) since I have only finished VII and X. I thought about making it a new years resolution (about 1 a month isn't too terrible) but I know I won't do it if I put any kind of restriction on it. 

[The King in Crimson]

I made it to a certain point in FF1 (right after the dark elf part, I think) where I pretty much said 'Fuck this. This is NOT worth it.' Story and characters can sometimes make me overlook questionable gameplay, but FF1 really didn't have any and the gameplay was SO BAD.

Definitely an important entry in the history of video games, just not a very good important entry.

[Ultimetalhead]

What didn't you like about the gameplay? I'm playing the PSP remake, and everything's really nice so far. I read the difficulty curve in the NES version is evidently ridiculous and you have to grind constantly, but that hasn't been a problem for me (then again I am overleveled). Only issue for me so far has been the age old adage of "WHERE DO I FUCKING GO" but that's certainly more of a problem of the time period rather than the game itself.

And yeah getting "ambushed" by 3 warg wolves and 5 goblin guards is kind of annoying, but the "slow" spell takes care of that.

[The King in Crimson]

What didn't you like about the gameplay?

It's abysmally boring and really, really grind-heavy.

[Phoenix87x]

I really want to try and play through all of the main series (At least up to X with X-2 maybe)

I once had that dream, but sadly it was dream deferred. 

FF I- Should have played more of it, but only got like an hour in.
FF II- Tried it, but didn't like the leveling system, so I walked away.
FF III- Messed with it a little, but only got an hour or 2 in.
FF IV- Finished it
FF V- Very cool, lot of fun, but didn't finish it.
FF VI- Hell yes do I love VI. Played it to the end
FF VII- My favorite game ever made. Played from beginning to the end 3 times
FF VIII- Played the shit of VIII back in 99, only finished once though
FF IX- Not my cup of tea, but I finished it
FF X- Actually really liked this one and finished it
FF XI- MMO's are not my bag
FF XII- Got 10 hours in, wasn't really that into it.
FF XIII- By the time I got to where it opened up, at that point I had enough. I can't stand 13.

FF XV- really looking forward to this one.

[Perpetual Change]

Cool idea, Phoenix

FFI - Played very little of it
FFII - Played even less, as I disliked the levelling system
FFIII - This exists?
FFIV - Great game, finished it but not the After Years
FFV - Thought it was cool, but never got far into it
FF VI - Eh. Got into too late when the hype had created unrealistic expectations for me to enjoy it
FFVII - My first. I love it and have played it several times.
FFVIII - My second. I will never forgive it for not being a sequel to FFVIII, and will never forget how dumb I felt when I realized that wasn't the case.
FFIX - I like it a lot, but I never really finished it. Got pretty close once.
FFX - Love it.
FFXI - Never played.
FFXII - Got pretty far, but never finished.
FFXIII - Lost interest at the end game. 

[Nel]

I'm almost the exact opposite, Phoenix. XD

FF - Got Dawn Of Souls for the GBA, and played it all the way through... somehow.
FF2 - Same. Though I really disliked the leveling system.
FF3 - DS Version. Played it all the way through.
FF4 - GBA. Got about an hour in, got bored, dropped it. Have the PSP version. Meaning to give it another go.
FF5 - GBA. Got about an hour in, got bored, dropped it.
FF6 - GBA. Legitimately was enjoying this one, but I couldn't figure out how the fighter dude worked when you had to play as him, so I ragequit.
FF7 - Bought a used copy for PSOne some 5/6 years back. Got about an hour in, got bored, dropped it.
FF8 - Never owned it.
FF9 - Same as 7.
FF10 - Played this dreck until the very last dungeon, and finally just stopped because I realized I didn't care. The story in 10 is awful.
FF11 - Never owned it.
FF12 - Bought the special edition when it came out. Got about an hour in, got bored, dropped it.
FF13 - Bought it along with its sequel when that came out. Never touched it. But all the negative reactions haven't been very encouraging.
FF13-2 - Backlog. See above.
FF14 - Never owned it. I know they've revamped it, but cripes that initial launch seemed laughably bad from what I've seen. And can SE quit wasting perfectly good Roman numerals on what should just be called Final Fantasy Online.

I have some side games, but that's here or there.

[Edan the Man]

Well, it sounds like... you just plain don't like Final Fantasy. Surprised you keep buying them

[The King in Crimson]

I think it would be easier to list the ones I have played only.

FF1 - Played on the PS1 rerelease. Got a bit into then I got sick of the grinding and the general boredom and quit.
FF4 - One of my favorites. Originally played this back on the SNES. I got pretty far but never finished it. Got it again for the DS. Didn't get as far, but I just stopped playing at one point.
FF5 - Played only a bit of this one on an emulator a looooong time ago. Seemed fun but I never got back to it. I don't recall the story being all that interesting though.
FF6 - The only FF game that I've actually finished and I finished it at least two times on the SNES. Great game even if it does lose a little (a lot) of steam in the World of Ruin. It just doesn't make a very compelling open world game.
FF7 - Played a bit of it, enough to get out of the big city. It was pretty cool but I just never went back to it.
FF9 - Got to right before the end, but I just stopped playing it for some reason. I can't remember why, I think it was because there were a bunch of sidequests and mini games uncompleted and I had a very "I need to finish everything!" desire at the time. Started working on some of them, put the game down and never went back. Pretty great game though actually.

[fibreoptix]

Well, as many have said I didn't play too much of II because I really didn't get on with the levelling system.

Haven't played I, III, IV, V or any of the online ones… guess I'm not as hardcore as some of you, but out of the ones I have played…

VI: Finished it once, wanted to play it again and get into all the extra stuff like finishing the cultists tower and defeating all the dragons but the second time around I just couldn't maintain my interest. The story is good, but really rather bloated. Especially the second half where you need to track everyone down again. It's padding plain and simple and it really isn't necessary. Shame really because I enjoyed some of the characterisation and I also enjoyed the climax.

VII: Love it to pieces. Everytime I hear any of the music from this game it sends me into waves of nostalgia and I get the overwhelming urge to play it again. I love the environments on this one, especially the various areas in Midgar. The Shinra scene with the blood splattered all over the floor is one of the eeriest video game horror moments ever. An absolute masterclass.

VIII: My first Final Fantasy. I could play this over and over and never get bored of it. Unlike a lot of people I actually enjoy the Junction battle system and it's another game where even a couple of notes from the soundtrack make me want to dive in and play all over again. And Triple Triad is one of the best FF mini games period.

IX: Didn't like it much the first couple of times. After 7 and 8 the medieval dungeons and dragons tone was a bit of a shock to the system. But the characterisation on this one was absolutely brilliant and by the time I was on my second play through I really did care about the characters and what happened to them. And Kuja was absolutely badass, wardrobe notwithstanding.

X: Probably the first Final Fantasy I'll turn to if I fancy a casual run through. I don't even know what it is about this one that I enjoy so much but I really just love playing it. Probably a lot to do with the slower paced battle system giving me more time to think through my moves. The voice acting is terrible and some of the characters are really annoying but none of that stops it from being my most regularly played Final Fantasy.

Really did not like XII at all. Might never play it again. Won't miss it.

XIII: Haven't played it yet. Own it but for some reason haven't actually opened it and taken the plunge. I think I was burnt with XII's newfound emphasis on not being in direct control of the entire party's movements which I did not like. I hear XIII is a little in the same vein as far as the focus on peripheral AI vs controlling all active fighters, but we'll see.

Gee, sorry for going on.

[Nel]

Well, it sounds like... you just plain don't like Final Fantasy. Surprised you keep buying them

Me too.

[Perpetual Change]

FF7 - Bought a used copy for PSOne some 5/6 years back. Got about an hour in, got bored, dropped it.
FF8 - Never owned it.
FF9 - Same as 7.

Man, SO MUCH FAIL right here.

Well, it sounds like... you just plain don't like Final Fantasy. Surprised you keep buying them

Me too.

Tritto.