Topic: Final fantasy discussion thread

@Fight_Teza_Fight lol, I opened the trailer and skipped forward 20 seconds to get into the meat of it - heard "l'cie" and "cocoon" within literally 2 seconds and had to stop. I'll have a mouthful of Valium and try again later

I didn't have issues with the linearity, the combat etc. I just hated nearly every single character, I found them actively annoying in every cutscene. In the trailers I assumed I might really like Lightening and Snow, and although they were perhaps less annoying than Hope and Vanille, they were still a total drag. The only remotely redeeming character was Sazh. The music also appears to have left no impression on me.

My expectations as far as Final Fantasy are concerned are much lower these days, so if I played it again I might be more forgiving. But for a large part of my gaming life during very impressionable years, you picked up a FF in the shop and you knew you were getting a 10/10 experience, you didn't need a review. The warning signs started with 10 if we are honest but I kept the faith until I was about 15 hours into FF13. The day the child in me died? Maybe*.

*eh, not quiet.

But, it's all about context I guess - for me, I love Xenoblade Chronicles 2. People who loved XBC1 often seem to dislike 2. I don't understand it, XBC2 is a lot better in my opinion, but when you have certain expectations you can be left disappointed, even if what you're getting is really not objectively that bad.

@kyleforrester87 I think it all depends on when you jumped into a series. I played through Super Mario 64 for the first time on Switch & thought it was just ok. Much prefer Sunshine & Galaxy- even though we know SM64 is the far more influential game.

It’s a question I’ve asked myself a lot over the years. When playing a game or even reviewing it should you take the time of release into account? This I would even apply to Indie vs AAA or price point. I just judge things in the moment, which is why I actually think that infamous Jim Ryan GT who would play these old games makes sense in a way.

Unless you’re trying to experience an entire series from the very beginning & working your way through it, it’s difficult to recommend older titles.
I wouldn’t recommend FF1-5 to anyone really new to the series (maybe 4). 6 is exceptional though & looks stunning, but even the PSOne era FF games haven’t aged greatly.

As for XB3. I have not played it actually, but XB2 was such a turn off overall. Even though I enjoyed it it just had too much fan service for me. Then supposedly you find out Rex ends up having a child with Nia & then with both Mythra & Pyra (how does that even work?) & I was out. Feel similarly to the new Fire Emblem.

@Fight_Teza_Fight obviously you’re right, Final Fantasy 7 (for example) just doesn’t have the same impact today as it did on release, and if FF13 is your first game in the series you’re not going to go back to FF7 and get the same experience as someone who played it in the 90s.

But having played every FF game prior to 13 at launch, my issue with 13 is that it was just a very average FF game, and I know that because past instalments blew my socks off. It’s probably a decent enough RPG but it didn’t meet expectations and that’s always doubly disappointing. I’d be happy to give it another shot with aligned expectations if there was an easy way to do so, but unless they release it on PS4/5 I can’t.

XBC3 has way, way, way less fan service. The mood and tone are totally different. Leave your expectations based on XBC2 at the door as far as that is concerned.

@kyleforrester87 I reckon I’ll end up giving XBC3 a go at some point, but only after a replay of XBC:DE first!
I’m glad to know it’s less fan servicy. 2 really went overboard, but getting off topic now.

I beat Crisis Core in my Steam Deck while getting all the achievements. I managed to find a cheap PS4 copy and I will start it again. I really love this game!

I never got why FF13 got all this hate back then. I have played all FF before it and got it on launch day with a PS3 and enjoyed it immensely. Now that the FF1 to 6 have PS4 versions only the Lightning trilogy is missing from the PS4, it will have all main FF games if the trilogy is ported.

As for XC2 Rex might be the worst and most annoying character in jrpg history. I can't stand this guy, he is stupid, even for jrpg standards, and talks annoyingly... I would try XC3 but I retired my Switch after getting my Deck.

@belmont Nicely done! Unfortunately I’ll never get the platinum the Squats challenge is just too hard. It doesn’t help either that I’m almost certain there are input delays. My best is 48. Nowhere near the 55+ you need.

@Fight_Teza_Fight This was hard. TBH I hate in jrpg where the combat is not 100% action focused to have trophies based on quick time events. In any case what I did was pushing the buttons slightly earlier that how power pyx suggests and beat the challenge in the 100th try or something.

Jeez, didn’t know about this mini game in FF9 did I? Still surprising me decades later…

So I added all of the pixel remasters to my wishlist separately but I can’t find a bundle of all 6 on the store. Apparently there is one and it’s cheaper than buying each separately but it isn’t coming up when I search? Am I missing something?

@colonelkilgore https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/product/EP0082-CUSA33838_...

does that work?

@AgentCooper cheers bud… yeah quite strange that it wouldn’t show up when searching the store directly on ps5 but will when searching the internet using iPad/phone etc. oh well, it’s added now anyway 👊

@colonelkilgore Nice one! I was looking at the collection this morning incidentally, never played a FF game so I've got plenty to get stuck into.

@AgentCooper If you haven't played FF before, I'd recommend steering clear from FF2 and possibly even FF3. FF2 is the black sheep of the series as it's completely different from the other games. You don't level up in the traditional sense, you increase your stats by performing actions. For example, in order to increase your attack, you need to attack enemies. In order to increase defence, you need to get attacked by enemies. There's no EXP system.

FF3 is regarded as one of the hardest FF games in the series and I can attest to that. I had to grind for hours upon hours before I could beat it.

FF1 and FF4-6 are great though.

@LtSarge Final Fantasy 3 is a bit easier with the XP Boosts options they added to Pixel Remaster. But II Yeah the leveling up system is just odd. I can see where they were going with it but it just slowed the game down for me.

@Tasuki That's a good point, I forgot that they made these games more accessible with the added features in the Pixel remasters. FF3 might then be more doable, perhaps even FF2.

@LtSarge Yeah the options they added to take out the grind is great. My friend is currently play VI Pixal Remaster and he is loving the boosted points he's getting for the Espers. That was one thing that always made me stop playing that game again but with Pixal Remaster I am looking forward to it again.

@LtSarge Thanks so much for the advice. It could be a little while yet before I start the series but I’m sure I’ll be reaching out again for help. It’s going to be hard to skip entries if I’m honest, it’ll really bother me haha

@AgentCooper The nice thing with Final Fantasy games are you can play them in any order as they aren't connected to each other story wise. I believe some of the later games are but the ones on Pixal Remaster dont.

@Tasuki Ah that does calm the mind somewhat thank you, I could play the recommended ones to find my feet and dive into the lesser regarded ones after 👍

@AgentCooper Yes, to follow up the points by Tasuki and Sarge, there’s no real common narrative thread between the mainline FF installments. So FF8 has nothing to do with FF7, etc. A few of the games have story-related sequels within the numbered entry — notably FFX has a sequel FFX-2, and FFXIII has two sequels FFXIII-2 and FFXIII-3: Lightning Returns, and Crisis Core is a spin-off/prequel to FF7, to name a few. There’s many other random spin-offs, mobile games, etc. but almost all can be ignored, otherwise it can get pretty confusing for a newcomer. If you are just going to randomly try one of the mainline entries then you’re fine to jump anywhere into the main numbered games.

There’s some common DNA between the entries, mostly in terminology, aesthetics, and a little bit of inessential lore. For example, games have a random character named Cid (at least all the games I’ve played) who’s usually a side NPC. There’s probably some crazy theory out there as to how all Cid’s are related but I think it’s more of an inside joke. (Kind of like the recurrent phrase “I’ve got a bad feeling about this…” which repeatedly pops up in Star Wars shows and movies, it’s a tongue-in-cheek nod to fans who follow the series). I think all the games also have chocobos and moogles, which are a couple different species of cute beings that just pop up in the lore. Most of the summons and magic are repeated with similar names, so you get to know if you run into Ifrit he’s fire based, for example. Terms for the elemental attacks mostly make sense like Fire or Blizzard but some take getting used to like Bio is poison… stuff like that.

Depending on your tolerance for old-skool retro JRPGs, FF7 is a common entry point, and was my first FF. The FF7 Remake is a better place to jump in if you dislike retro gaming. FFX is another good entry point, imo. But that’s highly debated. My favorite might be FFXII, but it’s not really a good starting point because the combat system and “gambit” system is really a different and weird thing probably for a newcomer.

Incidental disclaimer: I haven’t played FF1-6 or 15, so take all this with a grain of salt. 😄