At 12/5/09 07:52 PM, HellboundNinja wrote:
I see FF has come up yet again so ill see if i can throw in my 2 cents
If we're listing what we think of each of the Final Fantasy series, I might as well have a go.
FFI - I tried playing this once on PSP. There was nothing to hook me in, since there was barely any story. I mean, I like random battles as much as the next person but I need a reason to do them. As such, I gave it up very quickly.
FFII - This one didn't seem that bad. I don't remember doing any crazy tricks for levelling up like other people say they do. The story was far more interesting than FFI's story, but still stuck back in the NES standard. I played it for about five hours, but as I was playing it on my cousin's GBA, and he moved back to Scotland, I was unable to complete it.
FFIII - Bought this one on DS. I got very irritated with the lack of phoenix downs in it. I got stuck on a very long boss fight, then most of my characters died. I beat the boss, but I had run out of phoenix downs. So then there was practically no way of reviving them, so I gave up. I found out later that there's some random monster that drops them every so often, but by that time I had long since given up. The story wasn't interesting either.
FFIV - I'm playing this one at the moment on DS (sort of). It seems to be a step up in narrative from the previous games, and the addition of an auto-battle button makes it very easy to dungeon grind while watching television. However, I feel like the game moves too swiftly through each plot point, in some sort of mad dash towards the end of the game. As such, it makes it very hard for me to actually care about any of the characters, since it barely goes into any detail on how they feel about each thing happening. So, while it seems pretty good for an old RPG, it's not brilliant like I hear it constantly proclaimed.
FFV - I played a bit of this one a while ago. I don't remember a thing about it, aside from the fact that I got stuck at some boss battle and then gave up.
FFVI - This is the first time the series actually started being something apart from other RPGs. The story was far deeper, and I actually cared about the characters for the first time. Again, I don't feel its brilliance like other people do, but it's a good game, and definitely the best of the 2D Final Fantasies. It definitely had some great moments. I'm not a huge fan of the villain because he's really only evil. There's nothing about him that lets you understand him; he's just the embodiment of evil. I tend to like to, to some degree, understand the villain, but this guy is just evil.
FFVII - This might be the nostalgia talking, but it's probably my favourite Final Fantasy. It injected some depth into its characters that I find hard pressed to find in other games (at least, of the time). The main character (who is a terrorist) struggles with the idea of identity; the villain is evil, but it gives you a great idea of why he's evil, etc. I think it's great. Obviously there are a bunch of flaws in it: the translation is bad; the characters mostly have their own little stories, and then don't have an effect on the larger game, etc. But it's one of my favourite games.
FFVII: Crisis Core - Not really a big fan. I didn't think that FFVII needed a prequel.
FFVIII - I did like this game a lot. It tried something different to the main Final Fantasy idea, in that it was more of a love story than an epic adventure. The game was very enjoyable to me. It, again, had its problems: the junction system was easy to exploit, there was no reason to fight any random battles, some of the plot points come out of nowhere with no explanation ("There may be many reasons, but it doesn't matter." anyone?), and the love story between Squall and Rinoa is a little awkward and ham fisted. But despite all that, it has some good characters (Squall can get on your nerves, though), some great moments outside of the overarching story, and, as always, an enjoyable battle system.
FFIX - Great game. An interesting plotline overall. The battle system was clearly trying to emulate the old days of job classes, which I didn't like so much since it forced me to use certain characters rather than my favourite ones. Vivi remains one of my favourite characters across all Final Fantasy.
FFX - Probably the best Final Fantasy (though nostalgia makes me say otherwise). The story is appropriately epic. I loved the villain FFX, since instead of just being this guy who makes everything hard for you, he's a massive whale thing that destroys everything you see. How's that for ever-present evil? Tidus was a bit annoyingly whiny, but I got over it. The battle system was great; I loved having reason to use every character in battles. Oh, and I thought that the laughing scene was a great bit of comedy (I don't know what everyone's problem with this scene was. The awkward way the VAs laughed was the whole point of the scene, was it not?)
FFXI - Fuck FFXI.
FFXII - I liked it, despite what others think. The story was a bit more awkward than usual (for most of the game I was wondering why Vayne was considered so bad by the characters), and it just meandered from one plot point to the next. But it was still an enjoyable game. Balthier and Fran are two of my favourite characters from the series.
FFXIII - Looking forward to it.
That was a lot of text.
