| Words Of Wisdom said: Hey Kasz, what elements did you enjoy in the Final Fantasy games you liked? |
It really depends on the game... The earlier final fanasy games seemed brilliant in different respects... the ones that came after seeemed to tried to play the middle and it didn't ever seem to work.
In order that i've played i think...
Final Fantasy 1 - The first RPG like that i'd played with a party... the closest before was Ultima Exodus. Which was a lot of fun but the classes were unbalanced. The FF1 classes were unbalanced somewhat... but they all had a purpose... except the theif or so it seemed at the time. Never figured out what was good about him.
The soundtrack was amazing, a soundtrack that rivaled the Megaman games. Despite having little to no story it wasn't hard to get lost... you always knew what you had to do next.
Final Fantasy 4 - Really great storytelling, looked great with it's distinct art style, used it's artstyle to interject humor, The class system was a little rigid... but that was saved by each character actually being very different from each other. My only complaints came when i found out we got a gimped version and plenty was taken out of the game... It was the first game i played where a character died permanently who was well founded on your team. Instead of someone just dieing in the prologue or someone who fought with you for one battle or something. The main characters were truley well developed. The battle vs Cecil's Dark Self was brilliant. Better music
Final Fantasy 6 - Even better storytelling then 4 in my opinion... you couldn't choose a "main character." I love games where everyone is important... rather then everyone waiting for the main character to come in and save the day. The 2nd and 3rd rate characters often got more development then main characters in previous games. The subtleness of some characters like Shadow who's depth might be missed because things may be given away in optional events and in subtle facts like what relic he could equip. Even better music... the peak of the music in my opinion. The Branching paths... few RPGS use this because there is always "one main character". The stages where you control multiple parties... another rare inovation. Having to recollect everyone because your party falls apart... how many games does that happen in? Having actually failed, and bad things happen because of it.
Final Fantasy Tactics - It's a tactics game. I love those. The class system was smart in that it didn't penalize you allowing you to feel smart for coming up with combos. Like giving the Knights break abilties to someone with a gun. Rather then forcing you to use the normal range for it. The story was... pretty good. Though not up to Matsuno's usual work since he decided to go more "mainstream" with it and tone down the complexity... and it bothered me somewhat that the whole thing was a jab at the catholic church. Granted the Catholic Church during the crusades but... still some of the stuff they implied could be unsettling.
Final Fantasy V - The Job Class sytem was a lot of fun... and in letting you change your job system... the story really wasn't anything special and was a step backwords... but after playing FF7 I appreciated that it was more like the NES games and the the story stayed out of your way at least... and the story wasn't as bad as much as it was underdeveloped.
Final Fantasy 3 - Was the progenitor of the jobclass sytem. I'd of liked it had i played it on my NES (had it come out then.) I can respect it for being new.... and it's still kinda fun. Just what 5 added in letting you mix classes is what put it over the top.
Final Fantsy 2 - Ok. I don't like 2... but i can respect the direction... had it been sligtly better implemented it would of been great! I mean i think there is a lot of merit to have a system that improves stats by how you use your abilties... in a turnbased RPG.
Final Fantasy 12 - I found the gameplay... fun. Sure you can auto-play... but if you decide not too and leave character under your control it's like playing an MMORPG but with competant allies. I like turnbased better... but it was fun... and the liscense gird was a good shot at customization.
I actually wish Shin Megami Tensei Online had the Gambit system. It'd make my dang monsters get involved more!
The story i found greatly lacking... I'm guessing because Matsuno left in the middle of the project.
