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Forums - Sony - Why are the final fantasy games so good?

SlorgNet on 10 July 2008

If you've got a PS2, try FF10 (a solid game, though not perfect) and FF12 (a truly great game and an amazing work of art, for reasons I'd need a dissertation to explain).

If you don't have a lot of cash - rent the FF re-releases for the DS and PSP and see if you like them. If you enjoy tactics, the earlier games are probably more your thing, for in-depth stories, try the later ones.



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Riachu on 10 July 2008
Onimusha12 said:

Final Fantasy 1-6 are a collection of games all to themselves and the beloved icons of the "old-school" fans of Final Fantasy. It is after these games that the first great schism in the franchise is recognized.

Final Fantasy 7 was really the last great hurrah, but remains equally controversial among gamers as to what its true worth is now that it has aged.

Final Fantasy 8-9 were unique follow ups but even despite a backlash towards the WTFness of 8, both held together as interesting additions to the franchise in hindsight. It is after these games that the second great schism in the franchise is recognized.

Final Fantasy 10 was the beginning of the streamlining and casual-ization of the series, from this point on the franchise would embrace a new style of androgynous character design, recycled character designs (basically Tidus & Yuna as the main characters in every game), glam frilly worlds and an over all sense of superficial, sometimes forced, Final Fantasy-ish ambience. 10 was a good game, but not a great game, it seemed in some respets more casual than the previous final fantasies however at the time it was forgiven as yet another unique contribution to the franchise, people did not yet know it would be the harbinger of things to come.

At this point Square began whoring out franchises and experimenting with sequels. Final Fantasy 10-2 graced us with charlie's angels girl power while we watched the international special edition of Final Fantasy 10 never get released here. In these duldrums they also started rehashing their most successful game, Final Fantasy 7 with a plethora of spin-offs that drew equal criticism from the fans.

Final Fantasy 11 was released with almost a hush whisper of befuddled anticipation, a Final Fantasy MMORPG that was numbered? The fans were outraged to be quite honest, rightly so. And even though it allegedly was a good game, its utter dependence on other (often uncooperative) players and utility of early online gaming handicapped the game's success and potential. All in all the only really long lasting contribution 11 has offered the franchise is a legacy of Mithra porn on the internet that continues strong until this day.

Final Fantasy 12 was released to much anticipation, especially given its roots in FFTA, and while the community tried to convince themselves it was a good game and tried to defend the controls and system, in about six months time there was no one left to kid themselves this was anything but an exercise in creating a game that played itself. The story, phenomenal, the characters, interesting, the problem, the characters (namely the two main starter characters) had about a much to do with the ongoing story and world around them as you the player outside of the game did. While gambits allowed the game to eventually play itself it at least gave you the option to take a nap while "playing" the game. As far as the fantasy aspect this could have passed for steam punk more than anything else given how hard they tried to keep the majority of races of FFTA basically out of the game. According to Square the merchandising disaster of FF9 prompted them to think no one liked anthropomorphic characters in their main series games and after FF11's mediocre reception they did everything they could to keep non-human characters out of FF12 as main or playable characters. Fran of course (of the viera, the most human of the races in FFTA) was kept as the token savage of the group and while FF12 did introduce new races in addition to those in FFTA they were all kept as extraneous to the main events and story of the game and your party as possible. While the reasons vary, everyone can at least agree the game was a dissapointment. Again, the special edition of this game was spared western audiences for reasons still unknown much like FF10 and the Kingdom Hearts games.

Final Fantasy 13 seems to be following up a dark downward trend though many fans still hold out hope for it. The peppering of the game throughout all the platforms via spin-offs and add-ons does cause worry for me, though there is really little else known about the title so far. The game of course continues on the stylized unchanging artistic trend of FF10-FF12 but the jury remains out on whether that will be a negative factor for this game or not.

All in all the series can be divided up as such...

Final Fantasy's "Old School" Golden Age

Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy II
Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy V
Final Fantasy VI

Final Fantasy's "Mainstream Appeal" Golden Age

Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy IX

Final Fantasy's Age of "Streamlining", Casual experimentation & Genre blurring.

Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X2
Final Fantasy VII-Dirge of Cerberus
Final Fantasy XI
Final Fantasy XII

People should stop bashing this series just because it is mainstream.

 



 

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swyggi on 10 July 2008

I would suggest to stay away from the older FF's (1-6) if you want to play a FF with less bombardment of random encounters. Also while 10 may be linear, it works so amazingly well BECAUSE it is linear. It's probably the best FF to get introduced to in the series because it's simple and efficient. The story is very decent as well. The only trouble you might have with this game is the characters; besides Auron of course.



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yungmagic09 on 10 July 2008

My personal favorite Final Fantasys are 7, 9, and 10. I especially liked 9.



swyggi on 10 July 2008

On second thought, 6 might be a good place to start as well. It just depends on how you think of random encounters, although you can avoid the rest of them once you get Mog. Of course this happens during the middle-end of the game.



This will only take a moment of your time. *steals your watch*

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ikilledkenny on 10 July 2008

My Rankings:
1. VI- best story, great gameplay, just pure awesome. By far the best title in the series. Almost every player has a huge backstory. Simply amazing.
2. IX- very solid, almost an homage to the 2D titles. A must-play.
3. VII- it's pretty fun, but has its share of flaws. WAY too easy for anyone with any experience in an RPG (It degenerates into rapidly pressing X). Graphically, it hasn't aged well outside of the cutscenes. They look like Lego people. Finally, due to a poor translation, the story is a mess, and is difficult to understand. Still, a fun game despite these flaws.
4. IV- pretty good game, great early SNES title, I recommend playing this if you like one of the above titles.

Do NOT try 1-3 unless you are very good at RPGs. They will destroy you. These haven't aged that well either.

VIII SUCKS. Almost as bad as Chrono Cross. Avoid at all costs.

XII is bad too. Don't try it. It's nothing like the rest of the series.

XI is an MMO. Don't play it either.

I have not played V or X, so I don't know about these.


Riachu on 10 July 2008

@ikilledkenny
You just stated the reasons why people desire a FFVII remake



 

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Riachu on 10 July 2008
ikilledkenny said:
My Rankings:
1. VI- best story, great gameplay, just pure awesome. By far the best title in the series. Almost every player has a huge backstory. Simply amazing.
2. IX- very solid, almost an homage to the 2D titles. A must-play.
3. VII- it's pretty fun, but has its share of flaws. WAY too easy for anyone with any experience in an RPG (It degenerates into rapidly pressing X). Graphically, it hasn't aged well outside of the cutscenes. They look like Lego people. Finally, due to a poor translation, the story is a mess, and is difficult to understand. Still, a fun game despite these flaws.
4. IV- pretty good game, great early SNES title, I recommend playing this if you like one of the above titles.

Do NOT try 1-3 unless you are very good at RPGs. They will destroy you. These haven't aged that well either.

VIII SUCKS. Almost as bad as Chrono Cross. Avoid at all costs.

XII is bad too. Don't try it. It's nothing like the rest of the series.

XI is an MMO. Don't play it either.

I have not played V or X, so I don't know about these.

Yeah, that is a valid reason to hate FFXII./sarcasm

Seriously, if the game is so bad, then why did the game get a lot of praise from reviewers?  I don't want to hear that publishers pay them to give high scores to their games.  If they did, every game would get good reviews.

 



 

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Ajax on 10 July 2008

FFVII hasn't aged well? Have you ever seen it lately? I just played it some time again for a couple of weeks and was wondering about how good it still looks, those prerendered worlds like also FFVIII and FFIX have really aged well if you ask me



''Hadouken!''

graywolf96 on 10 July 2008

my favrite is ff3 for the ds