Based on some things I read from newcomers, and my personal opinion, it aged horribly. No wonder Square is doing a complete overhaul on the mechanics with the Remake, not just putting the exact same thing into a new engine like with FFIII/IV/V.
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Out of curiousity: Which mechanics do you/they mean? I think the materia system was one of the best they ever had in the series. It was really flexible and not overpowered. And it was well implemented in the story of the game. The limit attacks also worked pretty well.
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So far they said they rework the combat. Since it really was the "strap down A" type of combat people like to accuse FFXIII with, I wouldn't be surprised by a completely new combat system.
(And I just throw in that IMO the materia system was worse than the junction system of FFVIII ever could be… You could get junction spells fast and easy in there once you learnt the game.)
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Seems reasonable. From today's perspective the combat is pretty slow paced and tedious. Not many people would like that. I'm not sure how I shall translate junction spells. But haven't you been limited in VII by the materia you found? So you could not learn new spells easily.
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Yep, you were limited. I would say way too limited. This is why most combat was just bashing the Attack command since that one usually did more consistent (or just, well, more) damage, while possible debuffs inflicted taken care of by items.
Of course magic was locked out from FFVIII as well since you needed it in storage, and it sure as hell was so much of a hold-down-a-button game that I literally strapped down a button on my controller and left the game running for a day to get an achievement of 1000 enemies killed, but the special commands felt more useful, almost in an FFVI level.
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Hm, hard to judge the limitation from today's standpoint. Been too long since I played it. Also have never been a magic guy too much so in many games rely on bashing attack .... in VII I used the materia to give secondary abilities to the weapons and bracelets like fire immunity. And in VIII one would refrain from using most magic since it would decrease the stats. I think the reason I have a better image of VII then VIII is that there was a lot of stuff you could miss and not obtain afterwards in VII including the guardian forces (and that card rules spread out semi-random, stupid combo rule).
But in conclusion I don't think that limitation has to be something bad. For example I really did not like the system in XII that every character could learn everything (applies to X as well actually). I prefer to have some predetermined roles also if it makes some characters limited or even useless.
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Personally, I always loved 3 and 4 for their art style and stories. I couldn't really get into 7 for example though.
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Heh, I think this is where the phrase "to each on their own" would come to play. For me,t he only reason I never even put them on my wishlist on Steam was because they put up the 3D version and not a 2D one with some retouched sprites like with FFVI.
Although my horrible, horrible experience with the 3D version of FFVI may contribute to that.
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Well, I know what the 2D versions look like, though I just never played them; I only ever got the 3D version, first for the DS and then when it came out on Steam. I don't know, I just really like it. I didn't play it because it was the 3D version though, but because I really liked the story of III when I originally played it.
Edit: Just looked up what IV looks like. Eh. That's indeed a bit.. 'meh'.
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Oh, I know that game! So many great games out there, so little time to play them all!
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I've never played Brave Default, but Fire Emblem is more of a tactics game with RPG elements than a JRPG.
Anyway, here's my opinion on the FFs I've played:
FF 1 Not particularly interesting, very grind, poor story. Skip
FF 4 Felt grindy, had a lot of potential, but I lost interest not too long into the game
FF 5 Best FF game from a gameplay point of view. Interesting character customization. Story is so-so
FF 6 Good story, alright gameplay. I enjoyed it, but I don't think I'll be going back to it. Worth a playthrough.
FF 7 Never really managed to capture me. I did not care for the main character, or the main antagonist, but a lot of other people seem to have liked it, I just found it, and the characters, a bit dull and uninteresting.
FF 8 Has a really annoying system where you need to "draw" spells out of enemies. Results in a lot of grindy bits towards the later parts, as you need to stock up on spells, but the strong spells are drawn 1 at a time (and you need a lot of them). Uninteresting main character and a story that drags on forever. Skip.
FF 9 My personal favourite. It's funny, it's charming, and it also managed to deliver some good serious moments. Overall, if I were to recommend a FF game, it's this one.
FF 14 It's an MMO. It has a main plot, but it's poorly paced. Failed to keep my interest after the halfway point.
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It's not the best game ever made, but it's quite good. It uses its slightly childish exterior to contrast a relatively dark main story to great effect. Also, I found the main character to be far more interesting than FF7 & 8, two games that I found far too teen-angsty even when I was in my teens. That said, it also takes a little while to really get started, so it's one of those games that is far too easy to drop early on. The game is coming to steam soon, if you have any interest in JRPGs, I think you should check it out.
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Both FF 7 & 8 got PC released back in the days, and those were the ones I played. The PC ports were kinda bad, but the story was intact. FF9 was a game I played on an emulator in the mid 00's. I think FF7 was the first FF game that I played, but FF6 was the first one that I bothered beating.
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I liked your reviews haha
I like good stories and good soundtracks so I strongly recommend FF 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10. Those are the ones I will always remember.
FF 5 and 9 are my personal favorites.
FF9 lacks only character customization to be 10/10 IMO, because it's so charming. You're gonna be in love with story and soundtrack.
FF5 is perfect. Can't complain a thing. Soundtrack, battle system, customization, story. Everything is good. I really loved how game begins with thrills of crystals weakening and becomes so tense with x-death advancing on his evil plans.
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All ff are great didnt played the onlines tho but 7 is my best i must have played it like 25 times and i am sure i will go back again one day as for 8 it holds great memories since its the first one with really nice graphics for the time btw since 8 is your best you like the fan theory that squal is dead or rinoa is ultimecia?
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Yes, I believe the Squall is dead theory is strong, because all the weird stuff happen after Squall is hit with ice spike. Everything is kept somewhat 'realistic' till this time. Also, no wound after Squall is found in jail is very intriguing. Even Squall is questioning himself how he made it without wounds. The strongest arguments are:
About Rinoa as ultimecia (Artemisia is better name IMO) - Adel posseses her only, but Rinoa and Ultimecia are completely two independent characters. If Rinoa was ultimecia, then who was ultimecia at the final battle? Rinoa was born naturally, she lived and fough alongside gardens to defeat Edea, she was normal girl until possesion. That's all, they look similar, but they are not the same person.
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In the theory that Rinoa is Ultimecia comes with grief after Squalls death in disk one because she was feeling guilty about his death if thats true it could be that her powers grand her immortality you had to kill her 3 times either way to beat the game The strong parts of that is that her summon is Griever from squall ring and a theory about a multiverse with time collapsing tehre is a chance she created a past where her as rinoa and squall could be together but i also like the squall is dead theory better even tho i have to admit Rinoa and Ultimecia as drawnings are almost the same
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Too bad new players have very little chance to realise that FFVIII is not grindy at all and is probably the only entry in the series which was balanced to be playable on low-levels. Refining should have had a much larger emphasis in the tutorials.
Still, a great game. Putting the emphasis on a love story was a strange choice, but it worked rather nice. Especially when one realises the relationships between all the main characters (that subtle connection between Laguna and Squall, especially when you realise what unique card Laguna has…)
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My only complaint for the FFVIII is Squall and his '...' lines. It gets a bit better after the beginning mut they could have done something else with him. Gunblade action was fine, added a bit more action for the player than just selecting attack all the time and waiting the animation to end. Maybe a bit difference between weapons or something could have been added; different uses for weapons (not just the accuracy buff per weapon 'lvl' and a new skin. Well Squall's limit got better with every weapon but otherwise it seemed to lack something) vs just buying the best one and sticking with it.
And the one most irritating thing seems to be drawing spells if you believe the majority of players. I didn't see much problem with it: stock your magic high and you get 7-9 spells / draw and you can always refine spells from items with quite good ratio (Yeah, you have to get the GF ability for it and the items but those items are plenty!). I also really liked the idea of GFs and getting new abilities for them.
Plotwise the game was good, especially after the things get going and you start to realise connections (like the mentioned Squall - Laguna thing). Also the place where the end part happened was fun (a bit different too) and you had to change the tactics at the beginning.
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I find it kinda sad, that the game story didn't really show up Squall reaction finding out Laguna is his father. :C
It's like- Everyone are sure of it, but there's no dialog in the game that states this directly like "Laguna is your father" even though it's so clear to find out.
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Man those early FF game PC ports on steam just seem to look awful in the screenshots compared to the originals and are mostly mobile and IOS ports, though it probably wont bother you as much if you didn't see the originals. Take my opinion as someone who only played GBA remakes of FF1+2, and playstation versions of 4-6 for as much as it's worth I suppose as well as 7-11 when they came out, but 6 was the deepest and most fully featured of the old games, 5 was where you got to experiment with the job system in all it's complexity-if you like heavily customising your characters that would be fun, and 4 was a bit simpler as it too characters in and out of your party and has some balance issues at points with it's boss battles, but the story is actually decent and charming. I'm afraid 1-3 all use strictly turn based battle systems but are very unbalanced, grindy or in the case of 2 have a leveling system based on getting points in characters attributes for things like taking damage in battle and attacking which in practice means they're very open to exploiting or just incomprehensible.
Getting on to the more modern ones play 7 to get a fucking massive game that is weird and drags in strange ways but has the cool -equipment magic in your weapon slots system, and will prep you for the remake version. Then 9 will come out soon on pc and that was actually the best of that gen. in my opinion, the story really takes you on a ride around the world and back again. They seem not to have fucked those two up on pc as well.
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FFVI if you want to start old-school. The current edition only has a sprite remake but more or less retains the old 16-bit look.
FFIV if you want old-school in gameplay but not graphics. It was remade in fully 3D a while back, and that version is the one available now. Other similar ones are also on Steam and other stores, but IV is considered one of the high points in general.
FFVII if you want to jump on the bandwagon. It was the first game that had a huge marketing outside Japan and therefore the one most people played first. And it is a general rule that you always consider the FF best you played first. (It's a good game, but a perfect example of something way too overhyped.)
FFXIII if you want to keep it modern. It is a trilogy, where the first game is a tactical combat simulator (so if you don't spend a lot of time constantly preparing yourself to the next fight and master the mechanics, it will be a terrible experience), the second is more of an old-style JRPG, and the third is essentially a hack & slash. It veered into new ways that apparently will stick with FFXV, so if you want to start with the "refreshed" approach of the franchise, it can be a good jump-in point.
An important thing is – that many newcomers don't get first – that all entries with Roman umerlas are different worlds with no interconnection. (Not mentioning the gigantic amount of other additional series, which are also separate worlds.) So no matter what you choose, you won't miss anything.
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I personally think Final Fantasy VIII is the best game ever made. Yes, VIII. No matter what.
I recommend:
FFIV, FFVIII, FFIX (Fairy tale style), X, XIII (Haters gonna hate), XIII-2 (very good game IMO, bur hated by the community as well as XIII), LR: XIII (Last part of XIII series) and of course XIV: Realm Reborn which many claims is a strong opponent to World of Warcraft
Note to VII fans: no, really, I tried but I can't get used to this game.
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9 and 6 has excelent reviews. I haven't played very much of the sixth. 9 is very funny.
8 for personal reasons and also has great moments and a underrated system (and also kinda shitty, lets say)
7 has nice things but is overrated.
12 has a nice combat but a weak story.
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Well personally from my experience I can recommend FF4 and FF6. Great stories. And characters.
And, hm, FF7 is a classic.
It's good too, I guess. Cloud's a moron and whatanot, but that's just me.
FF Tactics is similiar to Bravely Default and Fire Emblem, atleast what I saw from the 3DS demos.
I was very bad at it. It had nice art style.
If you can get a hand on FF9, it's worth playing.
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I didn't play any of the games but I am waiting for all games to come Steam so I can finally start from first game to last game. I am still waiting patiently, very patiently. I always try to play previous games before I actually play what I want, if any.
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Don't start with either 7/8/9. They are great games but they're graphics really didn't age that good. I would recommend starting with something from 4/5/6 because 16bit always looked great and always will. The 6th one in particular is propably the finest FF game. If you manage to enjoy those you may proceed to 7/8/9 ;) The 10th is still pretty decent yet is very weak to the other ones in the matter of characters and story. Gameplay-wise it's okay, save it for the last. And that is final chapter in the franchise, everything after that isn't FF anymore. I'm not saying those games are bad but it's just different games with same lore. The best part of the series is the Sakaguchi era which is 1-7... 8 has it's charms but the upscaling of the monsters, annoying characters and the very dumb magic system makes it very weak experience. People who are saying this one is the best one are most propably insane. 9th one is great again as it's trying to recapture the awesomeness of the 6th one.
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So I heard. Bought it anyways but haven't had a chance to try it yet. I think the PS1 version of FF6 is the best one. You could also get an emulator and play the SNES original or PS1 port on PC.
Maybe this video will help you decide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cnmq8H7nXN0
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FF 1 its a classic but can be a little boring, has little story, and it becomes pretty hard so you have to grind a lot of levels and becomes boring maybe, but still a classic
FF 2 its pretty similar to the first one but with jobs if im not mistaken, your characters are all the same but you change their "job" and you can change them in the middle of the game if your thief becomes useless you can change it to another job and he will be better... the story its very similar to the first, and the same a classic but can be boring
FF 3 was remade for psp or some handheld console and now you can find it on android and steam too, with updated graphics a such, havent played myself, since in USA FF3 was mixed up with FF6 and the real FF3 was only released on japan, so was a game hard to find on the super nintendo...
FF 4 has a nice story and characters, is the first to try to have an interesting story and i think they succeded, is a great game have some issues with the difficulty you can get to the final castle or whatever pretty easy without much grinding levels, but that final place its hardcore, so you end having to grind A LOT to finally beat the game...
FF 5 has the same system that FF2 with the jobs and that and has a great story i recommend it a lot
FF 6 its a classic, i remember playing it on my supernintendo (for me was FF3 xD until FF7 came and i fucking got lost with the numbers and then realized that 3 was 6 and that i never got the chance to play the real 3...) i think its my favorite, has a great story i like the magic learning system and has a lot of fun moments. i really recommend this...
FF 7 its one that really got to me, my nickname actually comes from the main character from this game Cloud... i love this game and its story, they actually made movies and another games using this story has a base since its beautiful, all about ecology and saving the planet... Has a great system for the magic and summons. Its one of the best outthere, i would play it before they remake it...
FF8 its pretty weird because its a love story, and thats weird because they had never done such thing on the previous seven, but its probably the one ive replayed the most, i think ive finished it like 3 or 4 times, its pretty cool, and has amazing graphics, you will wonder how could they do that with a PS1. (has one of the best card games ive ever played xD i think ive replayed it so much only for the card game xD)
FF9, well i cant really tell you about this one because i havent played it, once i tried to start the story i saw the main character and the start of the story and really didnt catch me... i know a lot of people that say its the best but i really couldnt start it... some day ill give it another go.
FF10 its a great game, very fun with a very weird story and with a sport minigame that will have you playing for hours until you remember you have the world to save and you are playing the minigame xD, this game has a weird summon system but you can get used to it... And maybe the most important thing about this game its that this was the last FF game that its turn based combat, from that point forward the game starts with its new combat style that you can hate or love but its not the same as this 10 previous games...
FF11 was a MMO that i think its pretty dead, never played it.
FF12 its the first FF to do an active battle without having your team on one side and the other team on the other side hitting each other when your bar fills... now the bar still exists but there is a tactical aspect with the position and weapon of each player since you battle on the same map you move... its weird to explain it with words (maybe im just dumb xD) I personally loved this game, the story its kind of cliche with 2 evil empires fighting each other and the little town in the middle, and how a little kid from that town changes everything... but its actually a great game with great ideas.
FF13 has the more or less the same combat as 12 but with a linear aspect that is kind of annoying you just walk a endless path grinding enemies until you finish the game xD the story its nice and you will love lightning the main character, but its linear aspect is something i dont really like since all the 12 FF before this one were all open world... FF13 actually have 2 sequels, the second one its one that fixed the linear aspect of the game just to make it extremely complicated now you just dont have an open world now you have an open world and you can travel time back and forth changing history... its just too much for me xD, the 3rd part of FF13 its their final try to make it work hearing the critics of both previous FF13 they made they last try, and i actually enjoyed it a lot :) But i personally wouldnt start with FF13... i would start with 4, 5, 6 7, 8 or 9...
FF14 its the new MMO like FF11... i havent played it, i wont ever pay a subscription to a game.
And there you go there is my recommendation. TLDR, start with any from 4 to 10 and you will be fine ;)
BTW none of the FF stories are related with another except for the direct sequels... the ones with sequels are FF7, FFX and FF13.
Good luck and enjoy, you are going for a sweet ride there on some of the best rpg ever made :)
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I will never understand why some people out there got so butthurt about FF12. It's ATB with movement, that's it. Also, gambits? You can completely skip them if you don't feel like using them. FF12 also got a sequel in the form of Revenant Wings on Nintendo DS.
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Oh i didnt knew that game, for the first DS? ill check it out... those handhelds sequels are hard to follow, since now they arent only in PSP... I actually liked more FF12 than 13, obviously they had a graphics difference since they were on different generations of consoles but i think that their aproach of the change of style was well done, you had an open world (actually a very dangerous thing in FF12 since you could walk into a very large monster that 1 hit you the hell of you xD) and the story was great... FF13 only had Lightning (i love that character) and great visuals,
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No problem, i hope you enjoy the games, they are really some of the best RPGs ever made and the amazing part is that they always made changes and innovations so the series didnt stagnate like COD or AC or all this new games that are all the same... Tell us when you start playing and tell us if you are having fun :P we sure all did on our first games.
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For me it's X and XII. Beautiful story, awesome characters, eternal lenght if you are a completitionist :)
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If you can somehow get a hold of Final Fantasy Tactics (I don't know if it's on the Playstation store or whatever they call it) or Tactics Advance, they're pretty solid tactical RPGs.
If you liked Bravely Default, you could try the DS game Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, which is supposedly a spirited predecessor.
If you want to start somewhere in the main series, I suggest 3, 4, or 5 and I think they're all on Steam. The DS also has remakes for 3 and 4.
Also, if you haven't already, would you be interested in the Dragon Quest series, also a JRPG made by Square Enix. The 3DS is probably the best place to play, as I think 4, 5 and 6 has been remade on the DS. Dragon Quest 7 and 8 (which I recommend) will be remade/ported to the 3DS this year. Dragon Quest 9 was made originally for the DS. Dragon Quest 10 is an MMO unreleased in the west on 3DS/Wii/Wii U. And Dragon Quest 11 is planned for 3DS and PS4. The 3DS/DS has quite a few good spin-offs as well such as the Monsters series and the Slime series
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Everyone has different opinions about Final Fantasy. Asking which to start with is pretty meaningless since everyone will tell you something different. The FF fanbase is divided many, many ways. Read the comments here and you'll understand what I mean.
Personally, I found many things to enjoy in each title, so I like them all.
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So, I've never played any of the Final Fantasy games before. I know, shame on me, so more and more people told me I finally need to get into the series, mainly because I love other JRPGs like Bravely Default and Fire Emblem. There are so many games though, I don't know where to start.
I'm not sure how good the games are on PC compared to console, but generally don't care either way. I own a PS4 and a 3Ds, which limits the FF games I can play. I usually prefer the classic turn-based combat over real-time and if the story of a game sucks I'm not going to bother with it long. Anyone got recommendations?
Oh yeah, here's a little giveaway as thanks: Stacking
Edit: I just found out that I still own my GBA.
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