WHAT PLAY YOU!? Version 3.0

[SuperBacon]

I've only ever played 7 but when I got it, it felt like the first "grown up" game I'd got, despite the graphics being quite child like. 

It was on 3 discs for a start, it was the first RPG I'd ever played and it had this incredibly serious message behind the gameplay. It felt very adult, and the copious games magazines I used to buy every month added to it with their write ups/previews/reviews.

Amazing game, it was mind-blowing at the time. I think I'll try and revisit it on the old PS2 I have.

 

[RedRooster]

13 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

In terms of the games I've played and remember (I played the NES ones on emulation, but don't really remember anything about them, and played 12 but don't think I ever finished it), I'd put my Final Fantasy order something like this:

VII > IX > VI > IV > VIII > X > V

I know that will be controversial, because some people inexplicably think VIII is the best in the series. These people are wrong.

I loved VIII until the twist part-way through. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but never mind jumping the shark, this is skyrocketing over it. 

I hated 12 the first time I played it, as it was such a departure from the previous games. I played it again recently, and enjoyed it to the point I'd say it's one of my favourite games in the series. 

For me, I'd go with: 

VII > VI > XV (a convoluted plot, but a brilliant villain and gameplay lifts this one for me) > XII > IX > V > VIII > X > III

I've only played the DS remaster of IV so haven't ranked it, but I plan to give the Pixel Remaster a play at some point this year.

[Dr. Alan Grant]

I usually tell people that FF VII is my favourite game, but I’ve played IX a lot more. I love the characters, the music and the setting. My only major criticism of IX is the end boss. Who the hell is Necron and where have you been for the entire game? It should have been Kuja. Oh, and I hate Tetra Master.

[Jazzy G]

I've got VII on Switch, and I've got VI, X & I think X-2 on Playstation/PS2 but they just can't keep my attention. It all gets a bit too much for me. I love watching people playing them, and totally appreciate and understand what makes them good games, but my brain just isn't wired for them. It isn't for lack of trying, though. 

[FLips]

11 minutes ago, Dr. Alan Grant said:

I usually tell people that FF VII is my favourite game, but I’ve played IX a lot more. I love the characters, the music and the setting. My only major criticism of IX is the end boss. Who the hell is Necron and where have you been for the entire game? It should have been Kuja. Oh, and I hate Tetra Master.

I played Tetra Master before I played VIII and honestly despite the janky rules, I prefer TM over TT mostly due to the simplicity of it and not being tied into core gameplay mechanics. I got to I believe the start of Disc 3 of VIII and just gave up on it because so much of it was a chore.

[RedRooster]

27 minutes ago, Dr. Alan Grant said:

I usually tell people that FF VII is my favourite game, but I’ve played IX a lot more. I love the characters, the music and the setting. My only major criticism of IX is the end boss. Who the hell is Necron and where have you been for the entire game? It should have been Kuja. Oh, and I hate Tetra Master.

I totally agree about Necron. I don't agree about Tetra Master, though! I preferred the basic mechanics of Triple Triad, but as soon as they introduce the "random" rule, it becomes a lot less fun to play. Some of the other regional rules take away from the fun also, overcomplicating it. 

17 minutes ago, FelatioLips said:

I played Tetra Master before I played VIII and honestly despite the janky rules, I prefer TM over TT mostly due to the simplicity of it and not being tied into core gameplay mechanics. I got to I believe the start of Disc 3 of VIII and just gave up on it because so much of it was a chore.

Initially, Triple Triad is the much better game, but, mirroring the storyline of VIII, they fuck up a good thing by introducing elements that just didn't need to be there. 

[BomberPat]

33 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

VIII is great until about 3/4's the way through and then you can tell there was some kind of development hell or something, the writing takes a dramatic fall off a cliff and resorts to the worst time fuckery bollocks.

I replayed VIII a couple of years back, and the quality of life improvements on the remaster (fast-forward, mostly) made it a lot more manageable, but the entire second half is bollocks; not only that, but it kind of highlights how much of the first half also feels like it was just made up as they go along. 

Spoilers for a 25 year old game just in case:

Spoiler

The absolute worst plot twist imaginable is "we were all in the same orphanage, and Edea was our governess, we just don't remember". For all that it confuses things needlessly, it actually adds nothing to the plot. There's nothing to be gained by swapping one evil sorceress out for another. On top of that, Irvine does remember, he just never thought to tell anyone?

That the explanation is that "GF critics have suggested GFs affect your memory" could have been interesting - aside from thinking that GF critics might be more concerned with the fact that GFs allow teenagers to summon giant monsters in the first place - but it's never mentioned again. You carry on using GFs with no effect, and no mention of the fact that they affected your memory. It's all pointless.

On top of that, you've got Squall getting stabbed and then just being fine afterwards - again, no explanation, never mentioned again. You get the reveal that Laguna is Squall's dad, which feels significant but, again, has absolutely no bearing on the plot whatsoever. It's a game that just throws plot twists at you for the sake of plot twists, but they don't mean anything.

There's little stuff too. "The giant alien that owns The Garden is rebelling!" - oh right, think maybe you could have mentioned that character a single time before now? There's a ton of stuff like that, it's just an infuriating experience to try and follow the story.

It's a shame, because the game looks great, the world is interesting, and I appreciate that they tried some really interesting things. The magic/draw/junctioning/GF system was a bit too complicated for me when I first played it, and on replaying it I made better use of it and it became very quickly apparent how completely broken and easy to exploit it is - especially when you have a fast-forward button to take some of the tedious grind out of it. Ideas like getting a salary, the SeeD exams, the card game, and different ways of getting weapons than the usual "go to weapon shop" Final Fantasy stuff - none of it necessarily landed, but it was good to see them trying it out.

My main memory of the first playthrough was that I had the strategy guide, and there were so many things in there that would have been impossible to figure out without it, and that's a real pet hate of mine. There's secrets in FF7 that a strategy guide make a hell of a lot easier to figure out, but you could still figure them out, at least. In FF8, you have the ridiculous Obel Lake Side Quest, where you have to just talk to random, unrelated areas of the world map (with no indication that you should or even can interact with random spots of the map), and there's no way you'd do that without a guide. 

The card game is just as bad - there are some unique cards that you can only get if you've previously lost a different unique card to a completely arbitrary NPC earlier in the game. Again, no indication in-game that this would be the case. Nonsense.

[FLips]

Final Fantasy as a series is riddled with confusing stuff like that and some of it even more egregious than VIII. XII for example has two huge ones, invisible weapons and the Nihopalaoa accessory.

There is an invisible bow you can get in Zodiac Age where off the top of my head it requires you to manipulate the games RNG by making extra saves, quitting the application and loading and doing cures for specific amounts in a certain order. Otherwise the invisible chest with it is a 1/10,000 chance. It’s the best weapon in the game and unless you have a long guide you will likely never know of it’s existence. I got it by doing this guide and honestly it’s almost a necessity if you want to beat the extra bosses because even with it and being AFK one of the bosses took I think 2 hours. Without it you’re looking at I think 4 hours and having to actively be in the fight for it.

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Seitengrat_(Final_Fantasy_XII)
 

The other one is the Nihopalaoa necklace accessory which reverses the effects of potions and cures and seems completely useless for the main game. That is until you grind hours through 99/100 trials, get to Trial 100 and need it to win. If like me you went into the trials not knowing about the strategy, you’ll get to Trial 100, die repeatedly and never finish it.

Similarly IX has Steiner’s ultimate weapon locked behind a speedrun of the game which unless you’re on at the very least your second playthrough and have experienced the story and have gotten good enough at the game, is a nightmare.

Edited May 22, 2023 by FelatioLips

[Dr. Alan Grant]

2 hours ago, RedRooster said:

I don't agree about Tetra Master, though!

There aren’t many mini games within games that I enjoy. Gwent in The Witcher, Fort Condor in FF7 and more recently the Holocron game in Jedi Survivor and whatever the one in Forbidden West was called. I find them a chore to play, but luckily they’re usually skippable. I liked collecting the cards for Tetra Master, but not actually playing. 

Edited May 22, 2023 by Dr. Alan Grant

[RedRooster]

19 minutes ago, Dr. Alan Grant said:

There aren’t many mini games within games that I enjoy. Gwent in The Witcher, Fort Condor in FF7 and more recently the Holocron game in Jedi Survivor and whatever the one in Forbidden West was called. I find them a chore to play, but luckily they’re usually skippable. I liked collecting the cards for Tetra Master, but not actually playing. 

So...I was blown away by the minigames in Ocarina of Time when it first game out - I loved all of the little side activities that made it feel like a real, lived-in world. I owned a PS1 though, and just played Ocarina with my friend - as we rode around Hyrule and generally ignored the main quest. 

I was looking for a game like Ocarina of Time on PS1, and found out about Final Fantasy VII - and that it had a snowboarding minigame(!) 

That's genuinely why I wanted this game. I asked for it for Christmas, and was massively confused - and a bit disappointed - when I was thrown into turn-based combat for the first time. I quickly realised that this was a brilliant game, and by the end of it, I was looking for other games that were like Final Fantasy VII. 

[FLips]

2 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

So...I was blown away by the minigames in Ocarina of Time when it first game out - I loved all of the little side activities that made it feel like a real, lived-in world. I owned a PS1 though, and just played Ocarina with my friend - as we rode around Hyrule and generally ignored the main quest. 

I was looking for a game like Ocarina of Time on PS1, and found out about Final Fantasy VII - and that it had a snowboarding minigame(!) 

That's genuinely why I wanted this game. I asked for it for Christmas, and was massively confused - and a bit disappointed - when I was thrown into turn-based combat for the first time. I quickly realised that this was a brilliant game, and by the end of it, I was looking for other games that were like Final Fantasy VII. 

My mate had a game on PS1 called Kingsley’s Adventure which was basically a Zelda knockoff with PS1 Tank Controls. It honestly wasn’t that bad but obviously nowhere near the quality of a Zelda or Final Fantasy.

[Jazzy G]

I do prefer action RPGs to turn based (apart from Pokemon), but I find I'll start them and then reach a wall. I made it the whole way through Okami (amazing game), and dragged myself through Outer Worlds. The closest I've come to finishing an old school Zelda style game was Story Of Thor/Beyond Oasis. I don't know why.

[Dr. Alan Grant]

35 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

So...I was blown away by the minigames in Ocarina of Time when it first game out - I loved all of the little side activities that made it feel like a real, lived-in world.

Fishing! Yes! That may be one of the few I liked. 

[gmoney]

4 hours ago, FelatioLips said:

The one thing I’ll always stand by IX on is outside all the typical clone bollocks it has the most relatable story of any of the games with Vivi.

 

What more than X where you're chasing down your dad who's become a whale? Don't think so. 

[Carbomb]

4 hours ago, Dr. Alan Grant said:

My only major criticism of IX is the end boss. Who the hell is Necron and where have you been for the entire game? 

Thing is, isn't that a bit of a motif for FF? Not every time, but I thought I remembered a few times where they did that. 

Spoiler

It's been ages since I played, but could've sworn Yu Yevon didn't put in an appearance until the last battle, same with Ultimecia?