Final Fantasy and Square-enix RPG

[DuskShark]

I REALLY hope that SE releases a demo...I wanna try FF13.

[Goshi]

My favorite FF: 4,7,5,6,9,8,3,2,1
Never played 10
Worst FF: 12
Best spin-off: Crisis Core, Dissidia, Chocobo Dungeon
Worst spin-off: X-2, Mystic Quest, Crystal Chronicle Series, Tactics Series

Personally...

Best: I, IV, V, VI, X
Decent: II, III
Mediocre: VII, VIII, IX, XII
Never played: XI
Best Spin Off: Dissidia, Tactics, Chocobo Racing, Hikari no 4 Senshi
Worst Spin Off: Chocobo Mysterious Dungeon, All things Crystal Chronicles, Tactics Advance, Tactics A2
Best Remake: II, IV
Worst Remake: I, III

Now for insane reasonings

Final Fantasy I
The best. I of course taking about the original NES version and the Origins remake. The GBA and PSP remakes screw yup the stats and formula that you may as well consider it blasphemy. (Its FFI for babies pretty much!)

Perfect balance, perfect gameplay and it has without a doubt, the most memorable soundtrack in the series.

Final Fantasy II
Bad dungeon design aside its an okay game. Its pretty much the opposite end of things as remakes are concerned (Since it makes the game more bearable to play... showing to you, that is actually not a half bad game). The amount of reocurring elements that are introduced is incredible.

Final Fantasy III
Its okay. I used harp on about how great it is but lately my opinion has changed a little. Class balance is pretty much non-existent. Dungeon design is worse than the the first game (And even the second if you ignore those infamous empty rooms). The DS version improves the balance but messes up the damage formulae and tacks on some poorly designed character devlopment.

Final Fantasy IV
Also the best. IV prides itself on having the best remake in the series (FF4DS). Everything I said about I (Barring balance, Cid and Edward suck) applies here. I love the IV remake since it encourages the use of strategies in order to defeat bosses instead of just a battle of who has more power.

Final Fantasy V
Everything III should've been pretty much. Though balance is thrown out the window with stuff like X-Fight and Magic Sword.

Final Fantasy VI
For the ones I like I'm pretty much going to start repeating myself. That said, being the first FF I've actually played, it always has a special place in my heart.

Final Fantasy VII
So easy, that a badger should have no trouble beating it. Also the translation sucks. Issues aside I suppose its okay, but those two elements are the main reasons I've only ever done two playthroughs.

Final Fantasy VIII
See above only replace bad translation with horribly long and slow battles. Enemies have boatloads of HP for no good reason. Also the storyline is poor.

Final Fantasy IX
Too much tributes, not enough original content. Also the game is just as easy as the last two! As far as the PS1 FFs go though its probably the strongest of the three.

Square's other PS1 games were better.

Final Fantasy X
Remember what I said for VI? Yeah.

X is special though since the romance subplot is actually a lot more realistic. Surprise, surprise.

Final Fantasy XII
Combat is too automatic. Storyline is a trainwreck.

I want FF Gaiden

Same here. The game's great from what I've played in the Japanese version. But I would enjoy more if it was in English. There's rumors for a Q3 release in Europe though.

[LJkAze]

How can you say Final fantasy 12 was the worst

Okay I'll be Honest and tell you why I hate the game with 3 words: Main Character Design; there I said it.

[Goshi]

Okay I'll be Honest and tell you why I hate the game with 3 words: Main Character Design; there I said it.

Technically Basch is the true main character. Vaan is only the main character to boost sales.

This is pretty obvious since Vaan doesn't say a word for the entire game after the opening areas.

(It sucks how he has the best stats though. Gahhh)

[Rhapsody]

Technically Basch is the true main character. Vaan is only the main character to boost sales.

Now you've hit upon the reason why I dislike FF12. Placing a worse character in the lead purely to boost sales is a deplorable tactic, I wish I'd never bought the game now.

[DuskShark]

Now you've hit upon the reason why I dislike FF12. Placing a worse character in the lead purely to boost sales is a deplorable tactic, I wish I'd never bought the game now.

Fun fact: SE wanted to have a more rugged MC but in the end, they chose Vaan.

[Empty_sky]

ugh, i honestly hate FF12. To me, a game either needs to have a great storyline, a great battle system, and/or a mix. to me at least, FF12 had NONE of these. the storyline was too much like a FFtactics game, which means BORING, while the battle system was... just... awful. if you have free movement, then why can't you dodge anything!!

btw, i have been wondering about FFII, which remake would be the best to try?

[ForceCube]

btw, i have been wondering about FFII, which remake would be the best to try?

PSP remake, hands down.

[DuskShark]

PSP remake, hands down.

Seconded.

[Goshi]

PSP remake, hands down.

Disagree. I personally think the PS1 or Wonderswan remakes are better.

I'll repeat my opinion for the GBA and PSP one:
Its FFI for babies pretty much!

EDIT: Whoop, you were talking about the FFII remake. Welll uh... my point still stands for FFI!!!

[Joseph]

Square-Enix's lack of DS localization announcements is getting kind of worrisome. Their backlog is getting larger, and they haven't even announced Dragon Quest IX, which is a 7-month old game at this point. I want FF Gaiden and SaGa 2R quite badly.

Nintendo says they've got DQ's future covered. I'm kind of surprised there hasn't been any movement on FF Gaiden. FFXIII's marketing campaign must be eating up their resources, I guess?

I dunno. I liked FFXII a lot, but that series has been all over the map since FFVIII. I like DQ because its consistent. They're like Mario games: If you've played one, you can play any of them. From FFIV to FFIX, you could at least count on FF titles sharing a basic menu/combat format, but then FFX suddenly reverted to turn-based combat, and then FFXII did the MMO thing, and now there's the FFXIII system. I hope FFXV is some kind of retro throwback that brings back the old ATBs.

EDIT:
I liked the GBA version of FFII. I think that's the easiest one, isn't it?

[Goshi]

I personally like the remakes since it makes grinding faster but still retains a lot of its original difficulty. Overall its easier since you're not grinding for 1 hour before every dungeon.

[Takel]

but then FFX suddenly reverted to turn-based combat, and then FFXII did the MMO thing, and now there's the FFXIII system. I hope FFXV is some kind of retro throwback that brings back the old ATBs.

In my opinion, FFX reverting to turn based was inevitable given how ornate animations were becoming. I don't know about you, but I got bloody frustrated playing FFIX with the animations eating up the entire cool down cycle of a ATB, even at low levels so in the end your feel or grasp on who's turn is next goes out the window. There was one major boss from memory which I absolutely detested since it took like a minute to pass a single round and I'm the sort of nut case who goes around underleveled because I want the fear of death with every fight. I don't mind bad things happening after a telegraphed attack, I do mind when I cannot do anything about that telegraphed attack because the combat system decided to keep giving initiative to the enemy party when their ATBs come off cool down while my entire party is sitting there like stunned mullets with full ATBs wondering when their turn will come around.

With FFX, the turn based combat meant that you could have pretty, ornate animations but you can still tactically plan out your moves and not have things screw up because you decided you wanted to throw a summon out. In fact, it was great once you've learnt how to read a boss' attack pattern since you can plan out every action properly.

FFXII is the logical evolution to the ATB system. Real time execution, and each character or unit's action does not arbitrarily impacts or affects another's. Many people hate the implications of the Gambit system, but personally, I love it for the simple fact that I want to see what it can and cannot do, then break it. It's not like there's any major thought processes going on for the common trash fights anyhow, attack, heal when below x percent, remove debuffs as necessary and target the ones wearing a dress or have glowy hands.

[Joseph]

FFVII had a pretty good solution to that problem: Put the ATB gauges in "wait" mode during summons or mega spells.

[Dopple]

I got bored with VIII, loved IX, enjoyed X, liked X-2 a lot, and hated XII.

I think I'm one of the few people that actually likes X-2.

I'm currently liking XIII, I just started Chapter 4 (Japanese version, obviously).  I barely have any time for games anymore, so linearity is very welcome; I can be a perfectionist when it comes to gaming, and it annoys me when I can't get everything.

[Empty_sky]

http://www.destructoid.com/square-enix-bringing-the-4-heroes-of-light-overseas-170616.phtml

so, they are actually bringing Final Fantasy Gaiden over to us. woooooooo

(not really sure where to post this. is right here ok?)