FF Games - Which is best (VII of course)

[Charismatic]

That's the thing about FF12, they weren't carbon copies unless you wanted them to be, and the game didn't play itself unless you wanted it to.

Those are the most common arguments I see against the game, but you have the freedom to play the game however you want, which is what I liked most, yet other people seem to dislike having this freedom.

It's just odd.

[Daimen-G]

Throw in FF2's bizarre leveling system with a lame version of FF7's materia system and battles that are longer and less interesting and you have FF8's battle system.

err

You realize that in about a half an hour of "grinding" (getting to and drawing 300 triples from odin takes 10 minutes, then you need to learn J-SPD) you can make your characters so god damned overpowered in FF8 that they can literally kill enemies before their turns come up? It's so easy to get a character with both 255 STR and 255 SPD, and then plug Auto-Haste onto them. At that point, you have a person basically attacking constantly for ~9999 damage. It's NOTHING like FF2's horrible system, and only like FF7's materia system in the sense that "putting in stuff changes your stats". The change in stats is almost always -Physical, +Magical in 7, whereas in 8 there's all sorts of tactical bullshit you can pull.

Also, what is actually wrong with every character being fully customizable? Given the choice, I'd like to be able to pick who my favorite characters are out of the cast, and be able to use them without making the game more difficult because THIS character's special ability is absolute trash compared to THAT one's.

[Xno Kappa]

That's the thing about FF12, they weren't carbon copies unless you wanted them to be, and the game didn't play itself unless you wanted it to.

Those are the most common arguments I see against the game, but you have the freedom to play the game however you want, which is what I liked most, yet other people seem to dislike having this freedom.

It's just odd.

I understand its the way you play but the fact still remains none of the characters felt like it had a "unique flair" to them in the battle-system so I couldn't really connect with any of them. Just my own personal opinion to be honest, that and summons were basically useless after the ridiculous difficulty to obtain them.

[layoneil]

I understand its the way you play but the fact still remains none of the characters felt like it had a "unique flair" to them in the battle-system so I couldn't really connect with any of them. Just my own personal opinion to be honest, that and summons were basically useless after the ridiculous difficulty to obtain them.

the only way you connect with characters is through the battle system? it's the story that's supposed to connect you to the characters and you're given the tools via the board to mold the characters you like into the roles you think fits them.

my characters were all completely different.

[Zoot]

People talking about the old school FF games should go read this if they haven't already.

That was a really fantastic article. Thanks for linking!

[Xno Kappa]

I understand its the way you play but the fact still remains none of the characters felt like it had a "unique flair" to them in the battle-system so I couldn't really connect with any of them. Just my own personal opinion to be honest, that and summons were basically useless after the ridiculous difficulty to obtain them.

the only way you connect with characters is through the battle system?

Of course not but I personally believe a battle-system is there to help supplement a characters personality, i.e. Shadow's Interceptor running in to bite your ass, Cid lighting dynamites up with his cigarette, Squall running on Bahamut's wings to limit break on him, etc. These are the type of memorable oh shit lol moments I kind of found lacking in 12.

[Attila]

People talking about the old school FF games should go read this if they haven't already.

That was a really fantastic article. Thanks for linking!

Agreed, I'm still working through it actually lol

[Dantrag]

People talking about the old school FF games should go read this if they haven't already.

That was a really fantastic article. Thanks for linking!

Agreed, I'm still working through it actually lol

I skipped to VI after reading some of the others, mainly because it was the one i started on. LOVE that game SO much. I think the reason people don't like it is because just like he said, they got into the series around VII.

[Xno Kappa]

I love his bit on the FFVII story-line lmao.

[Khrno]

Boo our derail got moved, well since the topic of this discussion changed already I will say that best 2D FF is 6, and best 3D FF is 12, story lacks behind but it has the best fighting system ever for a jrpg.

[spoiler:1bdgwf53]In My Opinion [/spoiler:1bdgwf53]

[Charismatic]

I'll agree that it has the best fighting system in a Final Fantasy... but, in a JRPG?
That I can not agree with, glad you enjoyed it though, I know I sure did too.


For games with great battle systems I'd like to recommend Star Ocean 2 and 3 as well as pretty much the entire 'Tales of' game series. (Skip the GBA remake of Phantasia, others will say skip Legendia, but I don't know... haven't played it.)

[Khrno]

I played the SO and some Tales, not all but a few on different platforms. I don't like SO over the standard menu based combat tho, Tales is very fun too, but I liked my gambits better. Still lacks customization, but walking around in an area full of skelletons and just level up by moving the analog stick only that's just pure win.

No but really, over Tales games I like Vagrant Story, only problem was that i found tedious the system the third time i tried playing it (however first 2 were awesome experiences).

Another one great system is from the Shadow Hearts games, 1 and 2, 3 wasn't that good sadly, with the Judgment Ring to decide the potency of attacks, criticals, combos, magic, even to get cheaper items from shops, etc, it's worth to give it a try, unless you have no patience to be pressing X at the right moment.

[Indalecia]

People talking about the old school FF games should go read this if they haven't already.

That was a really fantastic article. Thanks for linking!

Agreed, I'm still working through it actually lol

I skipped to VI after reading some of the others, mainly because it was the one i started on. LOVE that game SO much. I think the reason people don't like it is because just like he said, they got into the series around VII.

Just so you know, I've saved all those kefka sprites to a separate folder in my photobucket....BITCHES GONNA START GETTING KEFKA'D!

[Krandor]

Star Ocean 2 is the greatest combat system in RPG history, hands down.

I think that guys reviews of 8 and 9 are a bit harsh, but I do think his comments about Eyes on Me from 8 are absolutely hilarious.

[Imitarate]

Ahh, FF12, the Game That Was Almost Awesome.

I'm not sure if it was lost on other people, but the thing that really got me into the story was the political aspect. The governments and the conflicts between countries, the allies and enemies, felt really real... up to a certain point, when it just fell into the usual "evil monster controlling the big bad empire, let's kill it and save our peaceful hamlet-country." Before you get into the history of the Occuria, it just feels like an expansionist empire being an expansionist empire -- not the agents of Evil and Horror, just powerhungry dudes. Not like Al-Cid's people, or Marquis Ondore's, weren't jerkoffs too. Or hell, Reddas!

What could have saved it? Ironically, it's one of those JRPGs that really needed to not be made in Japan. The mysogynistic need to cast a male main character really fucked it up. I've said it a million times, and I'll say it a million more -- Vaan would have been a good secondary character, but he was a TERRIBLE main character. The driving, glaring flaw that took me out of immersion time and again was realizing that Vaan essentially did nothing outside of hitting bad guys. He did nothing to drive the story. They could have focused even more on the complexities of the political element if they had just started out with Ashe as the main character. Maybe pull a Wild Arms and have multiple starting paths, then join the characters all together and put Ashe in lead. I always felt we were missing Ashe's perspective, and had WAY too much of Vaan's completely unimportant voyeurism.

[Charismatic]

He wasn't the main character, he was just the character you controlled.
I didn't have any problems with being the side-character and watching epic shit unfold around me, but that's just me.

I think that's why I enjoyed it so much, not many games have ever done that.

[layoneil]

I'm not sure if it was lost on other people, but the thing that really got me into the story was the political aspect. The governments and the conflicts between countries, the allies and enemies, felt really real... up to a certain point, when it just fell into the usual "evil monster controlling the big bad empire, let's kill it and save our peaceful hamlet-country."
...
They could have focused even more on the complexities of the political element if they had just started out with Ashe as the main character.

Matsuno does this all the time (FFT, Tactics Ogre) and FFXII is by far the weakest of these storylines.

the worse part of the story was not that you saw the game through the eyes of Vaan. there are plenty of CS where you are watching it from the perspective of Ashe and after Raithwall's Tomb she makes all the actual storyline decisions anyway.

the worse part of the story was that Ashe is really inconsequential to the political aspects of the story, her actions and motivations are all very one dimensional. the most interesting "good guys" in the story are not in your party (Larsa and Gabranth). playing the game with a party of Larsa, Gabranth and Drace would've presented the storyline much better.

[Exoduso]

playing the game with a party of Larsa, Gabranth and Drace would've presented the storyline much better.

That.

Also, FF9 was just too awesome. It was nostalgic, and at the same time felt very original. I was attached to all the characters, even Quina. >.>
I just don't understand why they had to toss Necron in there...

[Charismatic]

Necron's appearance actually makes sense... he just wasn't presented well.

You can actually play through the game without learning about him, I think that's very bad.

[Exoduso]

Necron's appearance actually makes sense... he just wasn't presented well.

You can actually play through the game without learning about him, I think that's very bad.

That's what I meant, it was too random. His actual EXISTENCE makes sense, the fact they didn't even mention tha tsuch a thing exists (and made it look as if Kuja is the main antagonist) was a mistake.

Same thing with Yu Yevon, even though it wasn't a real fight.