Favorite Final Fantasies

[Tev]

Yeah I was going to bitch about you all leaving out Final Fantasy Tactics but then Magus pulled you out of harms way.

Anyway, games with "Final Fantasy" in the title that I played and enjoyed:

1.) Final Fantasy Tactics
2.) Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions
3.) Final Fantasy Adventure (for the Game Boy and from what I'm told not a real Final Fantasy game but it's got Chocobos so screw you.)
4.) Final Fantasy X


And that's about it really.

[Azisien]

1. FFT - PSX or PSP version I don't care, though PSP version has multiplayer which is cool.

2. FFVII - the RPG that got me into RPGs. Love the battle system, love the opening part of the game. Also enjoyed Chocobo racing/breeding.

3. FFX - Pretty much just really enjoyed the battle system here. Blitzball meh.

4. FFIX - Loved battle system, loved Chocobo Hot and Cold mini-game far too much.

5. FFXIII - Because HAHAHA JUST KIDDING

And the rest, just a random jumble of memories. I played FFIV and FFVI about halfway through each but lost interest in both. Nothing particularly wrong with either, they just didn't hold my childhood attention. Never tried any of the others. Oh, wait, I tried FFIII on the DS, thought it was garbage though that may have been the port?

[RobinStarwing]

Originally Posted by Azisien

I played FFIV and FFVI about halfway through each but lost interest in both. Nothing particularly wrong with either, they just didn't hold my childhood attention.

What can I say? I was strange as a child and already reading college-level fiction in 7th and 8th Grade (Robert Jordan Wheel of Time series to be exact).

[Magus]

Originally Posted by Tev

Yeah I was going to bitch about you all leaving out Final Fantasy Tactics but then Magus pulled you out of harms way.

Anyway, games with "Final Fantasy" in the title that I played and enjoyed:

1.) Final Fantasy Tactics
2.) Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions
3.) Final Fantasy Adventure (for the Game Boy and from what I'm told not a real Final Fantasy game but it's got Chocobos so screw you.)
4.) Final Fantasy X


And that's about it really.

Final Fantasy Adventure is actually the first Secret of Mana game. It was pretty good, I remember playing the original Game Boy version and then the updated Sword of Mana remake as well (which kind of sucked all the joy out of the original. It wasn't bad but the original was much more straightforward if I remember correctly, I don't think it had HP, it had lifebars, for example, and played more like Zelda. I may be totally misremembering it though, I just remember jumping off a waterfall to get away from Dark Lord, really).

So while it's not a Final Fantasy game it's a Secret of Mana game which is almost the same thing, really. Square RPG is Square RPG.

[Bifrost]

Every time I read something blasting Sword of Mana I feel all weird for liking it enough to make wacky theories about the plot threads and write fixfic for my favorite characters (read: the villains (because the heros were boring)). Maybe it's just that I never played the original as a kid and didn't have precious memories to murder.

ANYWAY IT'S TIME FOR FINAL FANTASY even though I haven't played many. So there is blather to make up for it.

1. FF3 (the DS version; the biggest flaw for me is the fact that in order to win the game you need to go through a huuuuge dungeon and fight six bosses in a row without saving, which is a total pain in the butt. All because test gamers in Japan thought that having one save point after the Crystal Tower made it too easy. No, Japan, that is not a reasonable level of difficulty. That's called "Artifical Difficulty" and it is a bad thing. But that's a pretty small flaw in an otherwise pretty awesome game. c: I genuinely liked the mains and their interactions, and I had a lot of fun playing with the class system (including an ALL MAGES ALL THE TIME run, you can guess how much fun that was). I just wish that more of the classes were actually, you know, usable. Or obtainable if you don't have a friend with the game.)
2. FF2 (GBA version; besides the obligitory HUSH YOU, I found the game to be really fun, if a bit too easy for my tastes in some areas and too spiteful in others, but what else do I expect from a game based on an NES game? Also I liked the Emperor. He was a fun villain, and refreshingly straightforward with his goals. The mains were kind of dull, though, and I got more attached to the temporary characters than the mains, which is kind of sad but at the same time I've started to expect that from games. I liked the bit added for the GBA version, at the very least; made the game a bit more interesting, even if it is one of the "spiteful" portions of the game.)
3. FF12: Revenant Wings (OH NOES A SPINOFF. Anyway, I really liked this game, even though at first I wanted to punch everyone not named Lyude (sorry if I misspelled this, I can't find the instruction manual), Cu Sith, or Balthier in the face. But eventually most of the cast grew on me and the plot points actually managed to stir emotional reactions in me. But between the battle AI's derp (why do you get stuck on things, vaan. why do you do this), the sheer amount of split-second micromanaging needed to win later battles, and the lack of any real replayability, I dropped it like a hot rock as soon as I beat the game with 100% completion.)
4. FF1 (GBA version again; kind of bland and pretty easy overall, although I admit to both abusing the Penisula of Powerleveling so that my mages would STOP DYING and brutally sodomizing my foes with the best weapon in the game as soon as I could get it. This is another case of not being terribly familiar with the source material, though, so I might put it higher on the scale if I manage to find the time to play the Virtual Console version. The music's nice but that's not really a surprise for a Final Fantasy game.)

[Tev]

Originally Posted by Magus

Final Fantasy Adventure is actually the first Secret of Mana game. Blah blah blah blah blah blah.....

So while it's not a Final Fantasy game it's a Secret of Mana game which is almost the same thing, really. Square RPG is Square RPG.

Chocobo!

[Kerensky287]

Originally Posted by Bifrost

3. FF12: Revenant Wings (OH NOES A SPINOFF. Anyway, I really liked this game, even though at first I wanted to punch everyone not named Lyude (sorry if I misspelled this, I can't find the instruction manual), Cu Sith, or Balthier in the face. But eventually most of the cast grew on me and the plot points actually managed to stir emotional reactions in me. But between the battle AI's derp (why do you get stuck on things, vaan. why do you do this), the sheer amount of split-second micromanaging needed to win later battles, and the lack of any real replayability, I dropped it like a hot rock as soon as I beat the game with 100% completion.)

What I found was that a no-Yahri playthrough improved replay value by a ton. I kind of cheated by sticking healers with Penelo in every fight (which you kind of need if you don't want to spend hours on end grinding) but when all you have is human characters, the abilities become much more useful and I found myself having a lot more fun there.


And I do think FF2 gets a bit of a bad rep, if only because the Emperor is so great. Like, remember when Kefka turned out to be the power behind the throne in FF6? Well, in FF2, the Emperor was the power BEHIND the power behind the throne. He was also on the throne in the first place. Power sandwich. And hey, the game had some really great music, too.

[Flarecobra]

In Legend of Mana, wild black chocobos are random monsters and uncapturable, but it's possible to grab bird eggs from several locations, and these have a chance of hatching a tame yellow chocobo, a pet that would fight alongside the player. Moreover, if the player has a game save from Final Fantasy VIII on their memory card during the Monster Corral tutorial quest, the egg obtained during this quest will hatch a chocobo (rather than a Rabite).

From the FFWiki entry on the Chocobo.

[EVILNess]

Ranked top 5 as thusly in my mind:

1. Final Fantasy Tactics (Job system, Ramza is a not a whiny bitch, Story, world, and characters was aces)
2. Final Fantasy 9 (Solid Battle mechanics, every character was unique and useful in their own way, Generally more lighthearted and less angst-y, Ozma was a great hidden boss)
3. Final Fantasy 5 (Job system, Pirate who could be a ninja at the same time, lots of sidequests and hidden goodies, Gilgamesh, generally more lighthearted and less angst-y than next 3 games)
4. Final Fantasy 6 (Mecs and Mog)
5. Final Fantasy 4 GBA version (Not as easy as Hardtype, but harder than the SNES version, Colorful characters, Everyone was useful in their own way)

[bluestarultor]

And I do think FF2 gets a bit of a bad rep, if only because the Emperor is so great. Like, remember when Kefka turned out to be the power behind the throne in FF6? Well, in FF2, the Emperor was the power BEHIND the power behind the throne. He was also on the throne in the first place. Power sandwich. And hey, the game had some really great music, too.

FF2 has a surprisingly good story and cast for a first try, all told. It's really just the weapon and spell proficiency and stat system that drag it down. If magic were easier to cast and you could grind one weapon without it hitting a plateau until you improved other weapons (knives are basically useless and you'll need to start on them eventually), pretty much all my complaints would vanish. The game has a very good enemy balance in the PSOne version unless you're not supposed to go into an area (the game uses high-level enemies instead of walls), but the stat growth system makes it hard to really control where your characters go because A) it's totally determined by what actions they do and what happens TO them in battle, which you can only control half of and B) it doesn't go nearly fast enough to really be immediately useful. Spells are the worst of this because they need to be used a stupidly high number of times to level and your low starting MP severely limits your ability to cast unless you're grinding just outside a town.

Plus, not having a proper level system limits your ability to assess your party's strength.

Basically, the whole thing could have been mostly fixed by instating a normal level system and making spells cheaper. The rest could pretty well stand despite being a bit annoying at times.

Also, quick tip: equipping shields in such a way as to make your character "attack" with them greatly increases your chance of blocking, so it basically is like having a Guard command.