Different views. I see all FF games, even the ones I see as bad are good games because they just are, they just aren't good FF games. 13 is terrible when comparing to other better FF games but on it's own merits, it's still a good game. 

And I did say "some of the best".

In general, I think of 1999 as a year of gaming mediocrity in comparison to its predecessor. In actuality, here in the U.S. it was defined by Pokemon; like the Red, Blue, and brand new Yellow versions, but more so the mass merchandising: the trading card game, the Pokemon League, the anime, the comic books, the toys, the Tamagotchi-alike pet Pikachu, Pokemon Snap, a second set of collectable cards just in case the TCG just wasn't enough, and all of this (especially the cards) being absolutely everywhere, including all sorts of stores that sold no other trading cards. Seriously, Pokemon was absolutely inescapable to the point of obnoxiousness by the summer. And it's not like all this was an earned commemoration of an especially great video game or a compelling anime show or something. The whole thing was just one big capitalist merchandising scheme from the outset. At least the big N offered me the relief of being able to beat the living shit out of a certain ubiquitous electric mouse with their surprise tournament fighting game, giving me the strength to endure. Mercifully, the mania descended back to an Earthly level after the first movie hit American theaters late in the year, but I've never really forgiven Nintendo for putting me through that, so let's move on!

Cultural Impact: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. This game just came out of absolutely nowhere and took the country by storm. To put it a certain way, this game and its sequel the next year were so popular that they brought real-life skateboarding back into style. I even gave RL skateboarding a try myself (though that didn't last long ). I think it was mainly 'cause the game makes it so easy to pull off innumerable feats that look just awesome and which frankly most of us had never seen or heard of before and didn't know were actually done by people.

My Favorite Game: The Longest Journey. I mean speaking of very, very Generation X games, you'll find none more completely fitting that description than this one. My shows at the time were Stargate SG-1, Xena: Warrior Princess, Charmed, and of course Buffy the Vampire Slayer. My favorite movie was The Craft. And yes, I was a practicing Wiccan as a result. It was an era. Fittingly, this attitude-riven point-and-click adventure about a...highly assertive 18-year-old art student named April's quest to restore balance between the worlds of magic and of distant-future science fiction in which she actually lives quickly became my new favorite game practically the second I got it and remained so for years. It actually still holds up fairly well too. There's much to be said here about the sheer fun of the dialogue, with its lack of concern for social taboos that very much reflected where much of teen culture was in that transitory period between the "nice 90s" and the "noughties". I also really love a lot of the games "logic" puzzles. Like there's one, for example, wherein you have to recover an item that's fallen onto some train tracks and the solution is to inflate a blue ducky vest attached to a string, then poke one small hole in it so that it slowly deflates as you lower it down, causing its mouth to close around the item just as it reaches sufficient depth. In that sort of way, a lot of them aren't so much actual logic as reflections of April's personality. It's not actual logic that you have to learn so much as April logic. You have to learn to think the way she does to progress through the game. It's kind of brilliant that way. Here's a playthrough:

And here's a general list of my favorite 1999 games. Know that I don't feel too strongly about the exact order here though beyond the first four entries. Drakan and EverQuest sort of resurrected my interest in Western RPGs and The Last Revelation was my favorite of the first generation of Tomb Raider games, and also kinda where the franchise probably should've ended, at least for a bit longer. With Dino Crisis (which was basically Resident Evil but with dinosaurs) you may be sensing a theme by now if you've been following my posts on these retro threads: yep, I kinda always loved dinosaurs.

1. The Longest Journey
2. Drakan: Order of the Flame
3. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
4. EverQuest
5. Fear Effect
6. Valkyrie Profile
7. Dino Crisis
8. Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation
9. Crazy Taxi
10. Jet Force Gemini
11. Gran Turismo 2
12. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage
13. Crash Team Racing
14. Super Smash Bros.
15. Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense
16. Donkey Kong 64

Gotta catch 'em all! Gotta catch 'em all!

It's fine if that's your opinion, but don't state that kind of thing like it's factual or objective. All of the modern mainline games have aggregated user scores between 70-90%, so clearly the consensus is that they are in fact good. Certainly far from "terrible".

Scores for reference (Source: Howlongtobeat.com): X (87%), XII (82%), XIII (72%), XV (77%), VII:R (86%), XVI (84%)

Agreed. I’m a massive Final Fantasy fan, and in fact, I’ve nearly played through all 10 of the first games. I used to consider it the last great FF game, but after playing the remasters, I really enjoyed Final Fantasy X. This time around, those hangups weren’t there - probably because I’m more accustomed to it now.

In my replay of the first 10 games, my favourites were Final Fantasy 6 and 8. Next tier would be Final Fantasy Tactics, 4, 7, and X. Reasons: FF4 it was the shorter length of the game, being about 40% to half the length of FF6 and 8; FF7 because, while I love most of the game, the bit with the ancient city and ruins is not much to my liking; FFX, I think I still have hangups on the small town sizes, but I’m still playing it, so after I’m done and in reflection this might change. I’m a massive fan of this series overall.

Final Fantasy 8, I loved for a large variety of reasons, but at the core, it’s the substantial size of the world, the sandbox elements in the the gameplay mechanics, and the gripping story and characters.

Characters and Story have two types of FF games - those with rounded characters (FF4, 6-8, Tactics, and X), and those with Mary Sue ensembles (FF1-3, FFMQ, FF5, and 9). The ones with the Mary Sue ensembles are also less unique from one another, using somewhat similar artistic styles. My preference is for the rounded character style, as I like the struggles they have and the conflicts. Final Fantasy 8 was probably the one I liked best of these more rounded character games. They called each other out on their weaknesses and this was also a part of their growth.

The story of FF8 itself is like an expanded reimagining of another FF game I love, FF4. Seifer is Kain, Edea is Golbez, Ultimecia is Zemus, there’s also the deal with the evil coming from the Moon. Edea takes over Galbadia in much the same way Golbez takes over Baron. Although, I find characters like Rinoa to be more rounded than Rosa - Rosa was a bit of a Mary Sue; both played a damsel in distress, but I felt Rinoa’s was more emotionally appealing. With Rinoa, it wasn’t rescuing some perfect noble princess, but a flawed young woman who was trying to get better. Her sacrifice was painted with the light of her feeling inadequate (Squall pointing out her lack of professionalism and such earlier on). It reminds me of one of my favourite episodes of Star Trek TNG called “Lower Decks” and Ensign Sito. Sito is constantly messing up, others are giving her a hard time, and she’s called out by many of the upper staff. In the end, you discover they were hard on Sito because they knew the danger of the mission she was going on - and she died.

The world is probably my favourite of the FF worlds. There is so much to explore just in Balamb Garden alone. The concept of a blog wasn’t really around in 99/2000, yet Selphie has one on the Garden Network if you access the computers. Her blog is updated after various events, and it’s a nice reflection (in Selphie’s voice) of what’s going on in the world. Balamb Garden itself evolves over time based on the events that occur in the game - it reminds me a lot of how New LA in Xenoblade Chronicles X evolved over the course of the game - but in FF games, I can’t think of anything else quite like it. Garden itself is a great reflection of the world around. There’s also something grand scale feeling about the large variety of cities and the various imperial powers and nations. While I compared Galbadia to Baron, it’s also quite a lot like Vector as well given their military presence across multiple cities.

FF8 introduces a major political element not found in FF4 or 6, however, the hyper-advanced Shumi tribe and Empire of Esthar. Esthar is significantly larger than Galbadia, but is closed off from the rest of the world. Anyone who’s seen Babylon 5 might be reminded of the Vorlons in this respect (or like a Fallen Empire from Stellaris) while they have an interest in the world's politics, but they have stopped expanding and taking an active role world to live in their own hyper-advanced Utopia. The game also has a layer of history in it - Laguna’s time period, which forges a B-story that ties back into the A story.

Laguna is a likeable character, but is soft and cowardly. This flaw develops into a strength later on in the story, but early on it makes him endearing. His attempts at dealing with his giant crush on Julia has great emotional payoff when it ends in tragedy. First, because Julia think’s Laguna perished in the war, and so married General Caraway. Then later on Laguna learn of Julia’s death in a car accident. The whole angle is a great contrast to the Squall and Rinoa story and highlights the cost of failure effectively. Squall and Rinoa are a redo of Laguna and Julia; Laguna is Squall’s father (by Raine), and Rinoa is Julia’s daughter (by General Caraway). The bit at the end of the game, when he’s visiting Raine's grave (the other woman in his life), hits like a freight train - and her death was really central to the whole story. 

Mechanically, I loved the ability to switch equipment in such a slick manner. It's the first (and perhaps only) Final Fantasy game with a strong crafting system, and maybe the best one from the 1990s. The Junction system is akin to the systems in games like Witcher 3 in how you equip a variety of different magical elements to customize your stats. This combines with the skill system, first introduced in FFT and built on in FF8. In FF8, players gain skills through linear advancement, except linked to Guardian Forces instead of characters; this makes it easy to switch skills between characters with the benefit of not having to worry about under-developing a character. FF8 introduced the customization scrolls allowing players to customize GFs. Scrolls can be crafted as well - this is true about nearly everything in the game. The card game also ties into the crafting system, as you can take your won cards and craft them into magic and items. If you like to tinker a lot (like I do), then you can make some interesting builds that few other people will have explored (given how wide the possibilities are); FFX brought something similar in by allowing customization of the sphere grid. FF8 is my favorite game (probably) because I enjoy intricate mechanics like Dwarf Fortress, Paradox Grand Strategies, and Witcher 3..

Musically, this is also among my favourite FF games, which would also include FF4, FF6, and FF7. There are strong mellow pieces (my favourite town themes in the whole series), strong battle pieces, and themes that play through the developing characters. Eyes on Me was a song written by Julia for Laguna, but themed out through the game to grow into songs relating to Squall and Rinoa.

Here is a good video series that goes into a deep analysis of the game. If you like that, check out their Xenogears one too. This is the first video of the series, it's like a giant book report for the story of the game. You might enjoy this video series quite a lot - I like their channel.

Ooh I forgot Drakan was also in 1999, I loved that game.


I would play a remake of this any day.

Pokemon Gen 2 for me personally. Honestly, until I recently where I replaced the battery and replayed the first 3 gens it was my favorite, but now I'm more shifted to preferring Gen 1. I'd still give it a near perfect score because it's a classic. That being said, had I been a little older I could see Quake 3 taking that spot for me. I have great respect for the Quake games, especially since some of my older friends during the Halo 2/3 era were quite fond of it. 

8 and 12 are the only mainline Final Fantasy I haven't finished.  I really struggled staying motivated in 8 and put it away for while until my PS2 stopped working and I lost my save file, so I just never went back to it.  I've tried to play 12 a few times, when it came out and a few years ago on gamepass and I just didn't enjoy it.

I'm probably in the minority when I say that HoMM 4 is the best one for me. They added so many quality of life things (flaggable external unit production buildings, getting units in a daily slow drip instead of weekly all at once...) and other things I like (The Heroes are actually playing their part and actively fight instead of just being like generals, staying on the sidelines). The only negative things are the reduced amount of recruitable troops and the fact that you have to choose between several troops during production. While this would in theory allow you to specialize your cities, the fact that conquered cities can't be rolled back if they went another way is a serious bummer in that regard. Had they solved that in the subsequent updates I believe HoMM 4  would have become the favorite HoMM for many more players, but NWC possibly died before they could do so.

Probably not happening, as unfortunate as it is. My backlog is gigantic, and while HoMM3 ranks fairly high on my backlog, I doubt it actually has much chance any time soon. I'm definitely interested, but there are simply too many other games I'm even more interested in.

FF8 had a broken Limit Break system that made it too easy. I thought Junctions was a cool concept that involved a healthy amount of pre battle thinking and experimenting, but again the game was too easy, so you really didn't need to utilize it manually. Another flaw in Junctions is that it discouraged/limited using magic in battles.

I thought draw system was alright in that it made the game feel more challenging than it is. But the slow combat made it a bit of a chore.

I still thoroughly enjoyed FF8 despite these flaws, it helped that I was a dumb and inexperienced RPG gamer. But even after I returned to it many years later on PS3, I still had a lot of fun replaying it.