Best Final Fantasy poll !!

IV has a difficulty spike when you get to a certain faraway locale.
V gets super boring in the second half. i guess that's a kind of difficulty? I tried replaying it a few years ago, and gave up during that endless forest fire segment.

I never beat it - got to the very end, found out I was a bit underleveled for the final dungeon and gave up. But someday!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdwxq512u8A

this song is amazing. it's also named "Underneath the Rotting Pizza"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8o9gGOKEg4&index=14&list=PL77D98F68F6DBB35D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8o9gGOKEg4

Zoso's cousin theme

playing the steam demo of Final Fantasy XV. it is so great!

so this demo for Final Fantasy XV is great. the intro area is very cool. the story is nice and understandable, it's sort of like an American road movie, at least in the intro. the music is wonderful throughout, the starting garage has this live acoustic guitar with warm Hammond organ sound that gives it a country & western (Italian western being a big US-Japan cultural influence, im watching Fist of the North Star right now and it is very much like those old Clint Eastwood movies) here we have that but with rockstar Japanese cinematic-fantasy royalty.

the battles are so fun, i love the warp ability, it is alot of fun to use. the animation all over is incredible and the character design is great. it is trying to be an HD "realistic" version of the fantasy.

luckily that has not stopped them from including magical sparks and goblins and iron giants and cactuars and chocobos only now they are rendered in HD in realtime with expensive animation and soundtrack work by people that have recently rebuffed their own studio's fantasy output through working with Disney, another studio who has long shared a love of pop fantasy. the post-battle world music makes me think of Kingdom Hearts and imo that is a very good thing.

I dug out my PS1 copy of FFVIII a few months back. Having not played a final fantasy in over a decade, I had a sudden itch to dive back in and give it another go; it was the only one I played that I never managed to beat back then. And I went in with the feeling I wouldn't get very far, just couldn’t imagine having patience for endless random active time battles in this day and age. But it pulled me right back in, all the way to the awesome last dungeon and grueling final battle. I wanna replay every damn FF now!

Anyway, here are some fun write-ups on the series by Jason Schreier, with nifty world-map artwork for each entry (he's taking his time getting around to them, though - note the dates on the entries for VIII and IX!)

https://kotaku.com/tag/ff-retrospective

Title of the VI review says "Simply the Best" so I already agree this dude knows what's up

I played through VI again after VIII and god, it's so good

Been playing through FFX for the first time. It's extremely stupid but the battles + leveling system are fun

love that big fucking grid

I've been playing through the fan translation of FF5 and uh, yeah, it can be a bit boring at times? Maybe i'm just a little tired of JRPGs after playing them a bunch this year but the battles just feel repetitive, even if you mix it up with the job system. Also the story is meh and the characters are all flat.

In contrast, iv might be a bit easy (I played the hardtype version and it was still easy!) but it has great characters, a good story, an interesting setting and an incredible soundtrack. all v has going for it is that it's challening.

like the boss theme in iv is just a straight adrenaline rush

5 has fans because some people are crazy for job systems but in general there's a reason why it was the one out of 4-6 to get passed over for global release the first time around

yeah, it's definitely not as refined as IV or VI in the storytelling/thrillpower department. it certain has its own virtues though

This is another one of those ilx polls that is just “how old are you” in a different guise isn’t it

Gilgamesh's appearances makes FFV worthwhile

been playing them starting from 4 (up to 7 now) and 5 is really just miles above the rest in gameplay. job system is consistently rewarding and thorough and the game's commitment to special statuses makes it sim-like, the whole thing is just a pile of on/off switches that all interact with each other in fun ways. later FF games always treat statuses and ailments and things of that nature like superfluous genre obligations, 5 is built around them.

FFV's job system is fun to play around with but the game still gets boring in the second half. I played through it twice and started getting bored in the forest fire section both times. I tried a "four job fiesta" run and it was so boring that I quit halfway through.

Fans of FFV should check out Dragon Quest V, released a few months earlier in 1992, maybe the first jrpg based around recruiting monsters i.e. the pokemon formula.

the first megami tensei game came out in 1987! but yes DQ5 was what popularized it and led more directly to pokemon

Gilgamesh's appearances makes FFV worthwhile

― ( X '____' )/ (zappi), Saturday, December 26, 2020 4:00 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

oh yeah the battle of the big bridge fight in FFV is obviously amazing

I need to play FF6 again so I can face the final boss rush properly — The last time I was over-leveled and cheesed my way through it by equipping everyone with Flame Shields and spamming Merton. I wish they'd release it on the Switch (not the hideous-looking mobile version)

lol i forgot about "Merton"

Now that I think about it, FFV would simply be so much better if it was possible to dash at any time. anyways i just entered "the void" where exdeath should be chilling and any enemy i see obliterates me immediately with meteo. i appreciate a challenge, but damn, getting through this feels like trying to plow through a 1000 page novel that you're only moderately enjoying

PS1 and GBA versions have a run button and it stacks with the thief's ability. In PC emulators you can just fast forward.

i still have only ever actually finished VI. lately i’ve been experimenting with believing XII is the best, but it’s kind of a spiteful opinion.

This is a podcast where the Final Fantasy games are explained to a non-gamer. I had forgotten how abstracted the early ones would be to a newcomer.

http://www.eruditorumpress.com/blog/shabcast-41-holly-explains-final-fantasy-vii-to-jack-part-1/
http://www.eruditorumpress.com/blog/shabcast-412-holly-explains-final-fantasy-vii-to-jack-part-2/

Funny you mention that 2k11nostagia; pretty sure that's where I gave up on the game, if that's the final final dungeon. But I probably also did a crap build in all honesty

ff12 is the best ff game of the 21st century by a significant margin

would agree with ff12 being best this century, but ff14 is really good in terms of story & characters. would love a traditional ff game set in the ff14 world (seems like ff16 will be very similar to this so kinda hyped for it)
considering a run through the early games, never played ff2 and only a bit of ff3 on the DS before.

wait, 14? The MMO?

ff14 is pretty fun, i put ~30 hours into it when it relaunched and had a good time. the MMO life is not for me but if it were that's the one i'd play (after OG EQ and ultima online).

yeh the MMO, I burnt out of the gameplay after a while but the writing is easily the best in a ff game imo

you've piqued my curiosity, but for my own good I stay away from MMOs

ff12 had great combat but the story, characters, and settings were almost impressively bland

yeah for me 12 fandom is a giving-in to "look just give me mechanics that don't waste my time quite so aggressively and i'll stop asking to be moved." the vestiges of FFT's universe that actually remain can be fun tho if you are a huge nerd, which like, odds seem good

i was playing ffVII remake at my friends house before the latest lockdown started. thinking about playing ffX on PS3 with my gf and ffVI on my ipad to substitute

I've defeated neo-exdeath. i take back everything critical i've said about this game, it absolutely rules. love how the final battle is so intense that it feels like the game could collapse at any moment

hey now
https://ff6wc.com/

I haven't played an FF since 9 (though I did put decent hours into 7 Remake before giving up on the complexity of the combat system), but curious if anyone is playing 16? I'm not sure DMC-style button mashing combat is for me either but the discourse is what I'm here for.

Played the demo. Kinda played like a breezy God of War combat system with some seriously extended and overwrought cut scenes. Really gorgeous graphics though - feels like a PS5 exclusive for sure. Demo was entertaining enough, but I'll probably hold off. Game seems to be okay but not earth shattering with TOTL graphics. I ended up getting the cart of the FFI-VI pixel remasters and will likely bust through some of those instead if I get the itch.

Playing ffxiii right now. Such a pretty game, still holds up very well visually. I like the story movements. I heard someone say it best when they said this game is best as 1-2hr session thing, not a whole day binge. I am okay with the battle system as things move head in difficulty. Also very ahead of its time as a “plays itself” game in the vein of vampire survivors etc. perfect thing to play on the steam deck while baseball/something else is on the tv in the background.

ff16 is fun, of course i'd prefer an old fashioned Active Time Battle system or whatever but the DMC-lite character action stuff is fine. they were smart enough to load it up with TONS of minibosses and cinematic moments so it rarely feels like you are just tromping from trash mob to trash mob a la xenoblade.

looking forward to 16 when i can play it

would be interesting to redo this poll someday, i think V has increased in stature a lot over time now that its far removed from being The Weird one That Didnt Get Released Outside Japan

16 is unashamedly shallow, I'm enjoying how relatively undemanding it is tbh

The combat seems to be designed to make you think you're incredible at dodging without actually being that hard. Voice acting is really excellent, Finchy from the Office among others putting on fine work

XP of the first six V is my second fav! Thought it was a "lost classic" type back in the early 00's when I was able to play it on the PS2.

5 was the peak in terms of the core gameplay imo. Really enjoyed the remaster of 3 as well. 6 obviously towers above in most aspects.

I just realized that 7-9 are the only mainline games I played -- loved 8, enjoyed 7, but did not like the 9's story (mainly disliked the breeziness of the story or Zidane). Are the pixel remasters for the older ones worth checking out in my case?