My story is probably going to be a bit different from all the other ones.
Since I grew up with the GBC, and the N64, I never experienced Final Fantasy until I saw the PS2 games, and by then, since I had played RPGs like Diablo and Nox that were action based. I did think that FFX looked amazing, but the menu based gameplay looked so outdated, and to make matters worse (take note that I never played it, I watched other people play) the menues were not simple and elegant like the menu based gameplay in pokemon, it was unnessecarily confusing for no apparant reason (I still to this day maintain that I can come up with a better gameplay system for FF games than square for the newer FF games). When watching the game, I just didn't get it, I didn't understand it, and I didn't care about it, so I forgot about it.
Then I kept hearing that FFVII is one of the best games ever, and when I started to get interrested in retro games and saw final fantasies in top 10 lists of SNES and NES games, I decided to try the earlier games.
The first I found was FFVIII. I found it cheap in a gamestop, so I bought it and played it on my friend's PS2. I hated it, and I have already explained why countless times (People need giant monsters, otherwise they can't use items O_O).
The second was FFV. I knew it was in japanese but I found the cartrige so cheap that I bought it anyway. The gameplay was pretty fun and addictive, like pokemon in a fantasy setting, and without catching what you defeat, and the music was awesome, not pompous orchestra like the newer games, but catchy, and with a nice pace. Turns out the battery save was dead though, so when I stopped playing, all my progress was gone :(
The third I tried was FFVI. It cost me a lot to get that cartrige (since it's super rare in Europe) but it was worth it. The game is incredibly impressive for its time. The soundtrack is one of the best soundtracks in a game ever, and the story had me hooked after just having wathced the intro. (Who is that mysterious girl. Why is she controlled?. What is a Slave crown? Why do they want to control her? What is an Esper?) And the story only got better from there. The graphics, and especially the art is indredible too. (The game actually draws inspiration from known myths and fairy tales, and it's all the better for it. In the newer games, it just seems like they let their artists go crazy) The gameplay is also really good. I'm not a fan of active time battles, but everything else is perfect, nothing is too complicated, everything about the gameplay makes sense and does not make me go WTF like the newer games. I haven't gotten far in the game becasue I don't have time for games like I used to, but I'm impressed by it.
The fourth is FFXIII. I bought it because the price was down in a store, and I wanted to try modern FF out of curiosity. So far, I'm impressed by the graphics, and that's it. Artstyle is crazy and doesn't really resemble anything, even if it looks good. Many WTF moments, like the Eidolons turning into mechas (Shiva sisters into a bike, WTF!) story is hard to follow, you just get thrown into it and I never wanted to know more about any character. There are so many made up terms (Fal'Cie, Eidolon, L'Cie, etc etc) that I almost had to rewatch every cinematic to be able to follow what's going on. Gameplay is simple enough, but doesn't make any sense, why are Experience crystals? why not just spend XP points on attributes like say, Guild Wars? Soundtrack has a nice clean crystallic feel to it, but compared to the songs in VI, that had the magic of hitting every tune just right, and had awesome pacing, the XIII sountrack just pales in comparison. It's a good game I guess, and it's fun to have as a collector, aince it's a milestone in console history (a multiplat FF), but I'll probably never finsh it.
So, that's my entire history with the FF games. The next ones I'm going to try out are FFVII or FFIV. I think I'm going to like both, the one I'm most curious about is FFVII though, from what I have seen about it, it looks liek it could be the perfect blend of the old and new FF games, I don't like cyberpunk that much though, I'm a fantasy purist, but that's just a minor detail.
I LOVE ICELAND!
