Final Fantasy

[tyckspoon]

Coming in second, I think, is FFX-2. I've never been able to finish it because, at some point, one more vapid, squealing, regurgitation from Rikku's face was going to end me. But the combat system, I thought, showed promise. Switching jobs on the fly, and the sphere grid mechanic, were cool. I'd like to see that kind of thing again, iterated a little bit, in a game with characters that I find bearable to watch for the duration.

This, pretty much. X-2 has perhaps the best iteration of the Jobs system and a solid combat engine, and there's a fairly decent story happening behind everything.. it's just stuck behind the obnoxious barrier of the first two chapters of "The Gullwings Girl Power Tour". Imagine the game if the faction leaders trio- Gippal, Nooj, and Baralai- were the viewpoint characters instead of Yuna, Rikku, and Gothy McMohawk.

[Traab]

VII is my favorite. What can I say? I like the classics.

I've played 1-3, but….they aren't my favorites.

I've played Tactics and eh…..never got that far on it. too hard.

I agree with tactics. I liked the idea behind it well enough, but it was just too damn hard. I would spend awhile leveling up whatever job class I was playing on, then move on to the next area, only to find out that what I need to win those fights was of course, the classes I had been neglecting for whatever reason. It just took too long to get anywhere. Its been years since I played, but iirc, I gave up fairly soon, when I started to face black mages that were slaughtering my entire party before I could get close enough to kill them.

[Tengu_temp]

Best FF game: 6
Good FF games: 5, 7, Tactics, 9, 12, 13
Bad FF games: 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 10, 14

More specific opinions:

1 - was good when it came out, is not so good anymore. Skip it.
2 - was terrible even when it came out. It's a disaster.
3 - the best NES title, but 5 is still superior in every way. See FF1.
4 - the most overrated Final Fantasy game ever. Shallow characters, random plot with no emotional impact, annoying combat. Was good when it came out but really didn't age well.
5 - very nice atmosphere, very nice music, a great class system, a simple but very charming story. It's a very underrated title.
6 - awesome characters, really well put-together story with lots of awesome moments, a battle system that's simple but fluid and fast, and an awesome soundtrack. One of the best RPGs of all time.
7 - this game is grossly overrated by its fanbase and has some dumb plot points, but I still like it a lot. Has some cool moments, I like most of the characters, and it was extremely influential when it came out for a good reason.
Tactics - actually, what I have to say here is pretty much a repeat of my opinion on FF7, even though its fans tend not to like 7 much.
8 - boring battle system, boring atmosphere, story that goes nowhere and lots of wasted potential.
9 - this one is really uneven. When it's good, it's really good, but when it's bad, it's really bad. Overall still positive, though.
10 - couldn't be bothered to finish it due to the boring characters and combat system.
10-2 - haven't played this, but I feel like lots of its haters are missing the point by calling it girly.
12 - haven't played much, but I liked what I saw from the story.
13 - has some corny moments and the ending sucks, but overall it's a good title with good characters and a fun combat system. I think that most of its haters haven't actually played it and just repeat the common opinion like parrots.
14 - played only a bit, but what I played was really boring.

Haven't played the others.

I agree with tactics. I liked the idea behind it well enough, but it was just too damn hard. I would spend awhile leveling up whatever job class I was playing on, then move on to the next area, only to find out that what I need to win those fights was of course, the classes I had been neglecting for whatever reason. It just took too long to get anywhere. Its been years since I played, but iirc, I gave up fairly soon, when I started to face black mages that were slaughtering my entire party before I could get close enough to kill them.

I think the biggest problem with FFT is the fanbase. The game can be very challenging for a newbie, but if you go to the fanbase and ask for advice, they will burrow you under a mountain of advice for high-level character builds (most of which require way too much JP grinding and/or are so powerful they're not necessary to finish the game), while ignoring useful advice for beginners such as "don't keep more than 4 generics" or "basic classes like knights or chemists can actually be really powerful and carry you through most of the game".

[Cespenar]

FFT, in my experience, only requires you to be spoiled about Wiegraf. The rest of the game is pretty manageable for even a first-time player.

[Gullara]

I feel the need to elaborate on my opinion of X-2. It's not so much that the game is bad overall. There are definitely positive elements. The dress spheres were cool for one thing. The negatives made it so I prefer most other FF games, however.

One thing was the excessive fan service. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that fan service is a strictly bad thing, but this pushed it too far. Not to mention that Yuna of all people was barely wearing any clothes. It just didn't suit her personality at all.

I think the thing that actually bothered me the most was that it was a sequel actually. I don't think X needed a sequel... or at least Yuna didn't. Seeing Spira post Sin was interesting, but I never enjoyed the story much at all.

[tyckspoon]

FFT, in my experience, only requires you to be spoiled about Wiegraf. The rest of the game is pretty manageable for even a first-time player.

Well, that entire sequence of fights, really- the

Spoiler

Show

duel with Gafgarion

is pretty rough too if your Ramza/rest of party isn't set up to deal with it. And then a few of the rougher random encounters, like the horde of Red Chocobos..

[Traab]

I feel the need to elaborate on my opinion of X-2. It's not so much that the game is bad overall. There are definitely positive elements. The dress spheres were cool for one thing. The negatives made it so I prefer most other FF games, however.

One thing was the excessive fan service. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that fan service is a strictly bad thing, but this pushed it too far. Not to mention that Yuna of all people was barely wearing any clothes. It just didn't suit her personality at all.

I think the thing that actually bothered me the most was that it was a sequel actually. I don't think X needed a sequel... or at least Yuna didn't. Seeing Spira post Sin was interesting, but I never enjoyed the story much at all.

Honestly, I agree, the overwhelming fanservice was one of the many things that made me stop playing early. Its been awhile, but iirc, wasnt there some crazy cinematic every time you changed jobs/clothes? And basically every job should have had the word "sexy" in front of it. "sexy" gunsliger, "sexy" black mage "sexy" nurse. In all honesty though, since I didnt like the earlier ff game, its not surprising that I would lose interest even faster with a sequel.

FF8 was a different matter for me. To me it seemed like it ruined a few things I always liked. Best example, leveling up is now a bad idea because everything else levels up with you. I also didnt like the excessive weight put on the movement quality. I remember being somewhat annoyed at the ranting over how awesome they were for doing some sort of motion capture technology or some such thing to make the characters move naturally. I dont play ff to watch the hero bend at the knees and elbows. I play ff games for an awesome story, a fun combat system, and lots of interesting hidden things to find and do. But where I really lost it was them going into outer space and fighting aliens on a space ship. If I want that? I will play Phantasy Star.

[Gullara]

Honestly, I agree, the overwhelming fanservice was one of the many things that made me stop playing early. Its been awhile, but iirc, wasnt there some crazy cinematic every time you changed jobs/clothes? And basically every job should have had the word "sexy" in front of it. "sexy" gunsliger, "sexy" black mage "sexy" nurse. In all honesty though, since I didnt like the earlier ff game, its not surprising that I would lose interest even faster with a sequel.

Oh gods, I'd almost forgotten the changing cinematic. Fanservice aside, those really made combat feel choppy too.

And I had a similar but opposite problem. Final Fantasy X was my favorite FF. So seeing what I'd enjoyed so much the first time around be done badly the second time around made it an even worse experience for me.

[Brother Oni]

One thing was the excessive fan service. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that fan service is a strictly bad thing, but this pushed it too far. Not to mention that Yuna of all people was barely wearing any clothes. It just didn't suit her personality at all.

While I'm not excusing the actual dress sphere character designs, as I understood the in-game fluff for the Dress Spheres, they were modelled/taken from actual people (hence why the Singer Dress Sphere held fragments of Lenne), so Yuna didn't intentionally dress as a scantily clad gunner, just that the Gunner Dress Sphere was taken from a gunner who believed in bullet proof nudity.

That said, Yuna did become more significantly easy going in the two years between X and X-2 (not having the weight of the world on your shoulders will do that), judging from the Eternal Calm video.

Well, that entire sequence of fights, really- the

Spoiler

Show

duel with Gafgarion

is pretty rough too if your Ramza/rest of party isn't set up to deal with it. And then a few of the rougher random encounters, like the horde of Red Chocobos..

Never mind Red Chocobos, I dreaded facing a party of Yellow Chocobos in the prequel bit since that usually resulted in a TPK.

[Gullara]

While I'm not excusing the actual dress sphere character designs, as I understood the in-game fluff for the Dress Spheres, they were modelled/taken from actual people (hence why the Singer Dress Sphere held fragments of Lenne), so Yuna didn't intentionally dress as a scantily clad gunner, just that the Gunner Dress Sphere was taken from a gunner who believed in bullet proof nudity.

Oh I know that, but there's one thing to keep in mind. The people that the dress spheres were taken from were not established characters (as far as I can tell) and they did not appear on screen. There's no reason the person the sphere was based on couldn't have dressed decently.

You can make justifications all you want, and they can make perfect sense. When it comes down to it, however, the reason they're dressed like that is because whoever designed / approved the costume design wanted them to be eye candy.

That said, Yuna did become more significantly easy going in the two years between X and X-2 (not having the weight of the world on your shoulders will do that), judging from the Eternal Calm video.

This is true, but since when did easy going equal flaunting your half naked body all over the place? And even considering her being more easy going, it still felt like an inorganic change in tastes.

And it's not just Yuna, but a lot of other characters too. I understand that Spira has changed, but I find that to be a weak argument.


Just so my thoughts are clear, I don't have a problem with any character showing off his or her body to some degree, but there's a fine line between sexy but still tasteful and, well not tasteful. X-2 regrettably falls into the latter category far too often.

[KillianHawkeye]

And then a few of the rougher random encounters, like the horde of Red Chocobos..

Never mind Red Chocobos, I dreaded facing a party of Yellow Chocobos in the prequel bit since that usually resulted in a TPK.

Forget chocobos! The worst random encounter was a group of 8 to 10 Monks on one of the desert levels, all packing Chakra, Wave Fist and Earth Slash.

Thankfully it was a pretty rare encounter.

[Brother Oni]

This is true, but since when did easy going equal flaunting your half naked body all over the place? And even considering her being more easy going, it still felt like an inorganic change in tastes.

And it's not just Yuna, but a lot of other characters too. I understand that Spira has changed, but I find that to be a weak argument.

I think you're underestimating the fundamental shift in the whole of Spira's society and culture when Sin was defeated.
I'm finding it very hard to find a non-political example, but I'm sure you can think of some major events where a country's society completely changed virtually overnight.

As for Yuna's 'inorganic' change, she was 17 at the time Sin was defeated and had spent all her life thus far living in the shadow of her father's Calm, preparing for when she would do the Summoner's Pilgrimage and lay down her life as well.

She's survived the Pilgrimage, Sin's destroyed and for the first time in her life, she has the freedom to express herself without the shadow and weight of duty and expectation on her.
Is it any wonder two years later at 19, she's still hasn't quite adjusted?

You only have to look at college/university students to see how they change the first time they're out on their own and at about the same age.

Edit: I've been re-acquainting myself with Yuna on the FF wiki and it makes note that Tidus and Rikku have both been strong influences on her post X. So effectively you have a shrine maiden being led astray by her kogal cousin and her jock surfer dude boyfriend... yeah, I can see how Yuna's change can seem to be rather drastic.

Just so my thoughts are clear, I don't have a problem with any character showing off his or her body to some degree, but there's a fine line between sexy but still tasteful and, well not tasteful. X-2 regrettably falls into the latter category far too often.

While I can see your point, I have to admit the semi nudity of Yuna and friends didn't bother me that much.

It might be because I'm so used to this sort of material from playing other JRPGs, or just personally/culturally I'm not so hung up on nudity.

[Gullara]

I think you're underestimating the fundamental shift in the whole of Spira's society and culture when Sin was defeated.
I'm finding it very hard to find a non-political example, but I'm sure you can think of some major events where a country's society completely changed virtually overnight.

As for Yuna's 'inorganic' change, she was 17 at the time Sin was defeated and had spent all her life thus far living in the shadow of her father's Calm, preparing for when she would do the Summoner's Pilgrimage and lay down her life as well.

She's survived the Pilgrimage, Sin's destroyed and for the first time in her life, she has the freedom to express herself without the shadow and weight of duty and expectation on her.
Is it any wonder two years later at 19, she's still hasn't quite adjusted?

You only have to look at college/university students to see how they change the first time they're out on their own and at about the same age.

Edit: I've been re-acquainting myself with Yuna on the FF wiki and it makes note that Tidus and Rikku have both been strong influences on her post X. So effectively you have a shrine maiden being led astray by her kogal cousin and her jock surfer dude boyfriend... yeah, I can see how Yuna's change can seem to be rather drastic.

Well, I didn't mean to say that I would have expected no change. I can definitely buy there being a change in fashion and attitude, in Yuna and Spira at large. But, the outfits in X-2 are extremely fanservice-y. To a point that I believe it's no longer reasonable.

As for taking the example of collage students, I'm not sure that's exactly fair. Now, I certainly don't deny that it happens, but based on personal experience, it's not so widespread as the media portrays it. Or at least not so extreme.

And coming back to Spira's cultural shift in general, I do feel that along with the change being so extreme, I think it was too fast as well. Two years isn't really that long when you think about it, and I think you'd expect aspects of the old culture to linger more than they did. I don't claim to be an expert on the subject, however.

While I can see your point, I have to admit the semi nudity of Yuna and friends didn't bother me that much.

It might be because I'm so used to this sort of material from playing other JRPGs, or just personally/culturally I'm not so hung up on nudity.

Haha, I was afraid I'd give this impression. Nudity in general really doesn't bother me much at all, but I do think that there are appropriate settings and contexts for it. I don't believe that X-2 used nudity well, and that's why I object. I would feel safe saying that the reason the characters are portrayed as they are is because of the assumption that sex sells.

[Kobold-Bard]

Oh gods, I'd almost forgotten the changing cinematic. Fanservice aside, those really made combat feel choppy too.

...

Same as the Aeon summoning sequences. Both of which could be turned off.

[Brother Oni]

Well, I didn't mean to say that I would have expected no change. I can definitely buy there being a change in fashion and attitude, in Yuna and Spira at large. But, the outfits in X-2 are extremely fanservice-y. To a point that I believe it's no longer reasonable.

That's perfectly fine - we all have different levels of what's regarded as reasonable.

Technically speaking, the entire game is fan service, if you regard fan service as 'giving the fans what they want'. X has a bittersweet ending in my opinion, making it unique among the more recent FF games, Crisis Core excepted (but we already know how that ends from FF7) and I believe a number of fans were clamouring for more.

I know I certainly wanted to know more about Yuna's story, so I was looking forward to X-2.

As for taking the example of collage students, I'm not sure that's exactly fair. Now, I certainly don't deny that it happens, but based on personal experience, it's not so widespread as the media portrays it. Or at least not so extreme.

I'm just speaking from personal experience from what I saw during my Fresher's week. I subsequently helped out as a volunteer during my second and third years and I know that some of the other volunteers were having a contest on 'how fast they can bed a fresher' (I think the record was 3 hours from helping her move in).

As for extreme, I guess it depends on where you are. In the UK, the age for buying alcohol is lower, so you have this explosion of young adults out from parental supervision for the first time and cheap alcohol available.

And coming back to Spira's cultural shift in general, I do feel that along with the change being so extreme, I think it was too fast as well. Two years isn't really that long when you think about it, and I think you'd expect aspects of the old culture to linger more than they did. I don't claim to be an expert on the subject, however.

If you remember, some aspects did linger - a major part of the story is the conflict between the Youth League and New Yevon. It's exemplified in Kilika with the split between Dona, a former summoner who's now Youth League, and her former Guardian Barthello, who's joined up with New Yevon because he thinks things are changing too fast.

It isn't helped by the way some Youth Leaguers treat Yuna, thinking she's obsolete and no longer worthy of respect. I can certainly see some people seeing the Youth Leaguers as ungrateful little punks and staying with New Yevon in retaliation.

There's also other reasons for staying with New Yevon - cultural inertia making people stay with what they know and possibly bigotry/racism against the Al Bhed (who are either Youth League or Machinists).

Checking up on New Yevon, their motto appears to be 'One thing at a time', so it appears they're not opposed to change, just not so fast.
Even Yuna feels that way sometimes - she objects to the tourists roaming around Zanarkand, a previously holy place and one very important to her personally (probably the only time I've ever played monkey matchmaker).

Haha, I was afraid I'd give this impression. Nudity in general really doesn't bother me much at all, but I do think that there are appropriate settings and contexts for it. I don't believe that X-2 used nudity well, and that's why I object. I would feel safe saying that the reason the characters are portrayed as they are is because of the assumption that sex sells.

I apologise if I gave the impression that I thought you were prudish. I just meant that my personal standards appear to be lower than yours.
While I agree that sex sells, it should be remembered that Square's primary market was Japan, so there are a number of cultural differences that should be remembered. That said, I agree that the characters have been 'sexed up' in the sequel, but at least it's restricted to their clothing and not their body shape.

[Triaxx]

I'm not pointing fingers here, but I think the big problem with Final Fantasy Tactics is too many people see Final Fantasy and not enough see Tactics.

The fourth actual fight in the slums is one of those wake up call fights, and it's extremely hard if you don't examine all the enemies and look around to see how to move. Once to learn how to keep your enemies from killing you, killing them becomes a trivial nuisance.

But if you've played it, and given up and really want to feel like a wimp, go to GameFAQ's and read Ultimaterializer's True Calc guide. It's more a story on his 'misadventures' dealing with it, but he beat the game with Calculators. Without Math skill.

[Brother Oni]

The fourth actual fight in the slums is one of those wake up call fights, and it's extremely hard if you don't examine all the enemies and look around to see how to move. Once to learn how to keep your enemies from killing you, killing them becomes a trivial nuisance.

It's much like the first Vandal Hearts game, where over-extending by a single square usually results in being focused fired by all the enemy ranged units and ending up a character down with no retaliation possible.
When you have significantly less people available in Tactics (5 people compared to 12), the loss of a single party member makes things much harder, if not impossible.

Speaking of which, does anybody else miss the big party sizes that games used to have? I remember FF6 had parties of 4, while almost every FF game onwards only had 3.
You have all these people travelling together, let them fight together, not just pick the best 3 and force them to tag each other in and out due to some unwritten rules of chivalry.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

It's much like the first Vandal Hearts game, where over-extending by a single square usually results in being focused fired by all the enemy ranged units and ending up a character down with no retaliation possible.
When you have significantly less people available in Tactics (5 people compared to 12), the loss of a single party member makes things much harder, if not impossible.

Adds a bit of spice and challenge to the game. Also makes you learn squad tactics real fast.

Speaking of which, does anybody else miss the big party sizes that games used to have? I remember FF6 had parties of 4, while almost every FF game onwards only had 3.
You have all these people travelling together, let them fight together, not just pick the best 3 and force them to tag each other in and out due to some unwritten rules of chivalry.

X did this by being able to change out characters in-combat.

[Brother Oni]

Adds a bit of spice and challenge to the game. Also makes you learn squad tactics real fast.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing, just don't throw multiple battles at me in a row without a chance to save first.
Losing a couple hours of gameplay due to a crash is annoying enough, let alone the RNG screwing me over.

X did this by being able to change out characters in-combat.

Yes, but you still only have 3 characters on the battle screen at any one time, hence my tag in/out comment, compared to older games where you had to go talk to other people to change your party members.

I miss actually being able to have large number of characters where you have the manpower to try out a range of tactics to tackle a map.

Take Vandal Hearts - depending on the character advancements you chose, you could have a slow tough wall of defence backed up with ranged support (Armour, Mages, Clerics and Archers), a fast moving agile team that isolated and destroyed the enemy piecemeal (Swordsmen, Monks and Hawknights) or anything inbetween.

You simply don't have the number of people to do that in FFT - if you build a two man wall, backed up with a healer and ranged support, that's 4 of your 5 gone.

Now I'll agree the comparison isn't fair to the non-Tactics games with their higher level of abstraction, but take Suikoden in which you have 6 people parties.
In Suikoden, there's the ostensible fluff that characters not in your party have things to do in your base, or spend all their time simply keeping the army organised and running, but in most FF games, the other characters seem to be sitting there twiddling their thumbs waiting for you to take them along.

[Gullara]

Same as the Aeon summoning sequences. Both of which could be turned off.

Oh, could they? I thought they could only be shortened to a fairly brief sequence. I still found it disruptive, but that's just my opinion. As for Aeons, I certainly did shorten those. But they were used much less frequently overall, so a longer sequence is more forgivable.

That's perfectly fine - we all have different levels of what's regarded as reasonable.

Technically speaking, the entire game is fan service, if you regard fan service as 'giving the fans what they want'. X has a bittersweet ending in my opinion, making it unique among the more recent FF games, Crisis Core excepted (but we already know how that ends from FF7) and I believe a number of fans were clamouring for more.

I know I certainly wanted to know more about Yuna's story, so I was looking forward to X-2.

Well, yes, but that's not the context I was referring to fanservice in.

But yes, I can agree with you that I was also drawn to X-2 simply because it promised more Final Fantasy X, which as I've mentioned, I absolutely loved. That's why I was disappointed by X-2 when I found it less than satisfactory.

But maybe I'm being unfair. Now that I'm thinking about it more, some of the good aspects are coming back. Funny how a person's mind dwells on the negatives, eh? So that said, I still think there was a lot of room for improvement, but perhaps I won't rate it quite so low.

I'm just speaking from personal experience from what I saw during my Fresher's week. I subsequently helped out as a volunteer during my second and third years and I know that some of the other volunteers were having a contest on 'how fast they can bed a fresher' (I think the record was 3 hours from helping her move in).

As for extreme, I guess it depends on where you are. In the UK, the age for buying alcohol is lower, so you have this explosion of young adults out from parental supervision for the first time and cheap alcohol available.

How fast can they... Ugh. >.< Well, it comes down to social groups and whether you see that more I'd imagine. Perhaps that's why I saw less of that. I'm not exactly a social butterfly.

If you remember, some aspects did linger - a major part of the story is the conflict between the Youth League and New Yevon. It's exemplified in Kilika with the split between Dona, a former summoner who's now Youth League, and her former Guardian Barthello, who's joined up with New Yevon because he thinks things are changing too fast.

It isn't helped by the way some Youth Leaguers treat Yuna, thinking she's obsolete and no longer worthy of respect. I can certainly see some people seeing the Youth Leaguers as ungrateful little punks and staying with New Yevon in retaliation.

There's also other reasons for staying with New Yevon - cultural inertia making people stay with what they know and possibly bigotry/racism against the Al Bhed (who are either Youth League or Machinists).

Checking up on New Yevon, their motto appears to be 'One thing at a time', so it appears they're not opposed to change, just not so fast.
Even Yuna feels that way sometimes - she objects to the tourists roaming around Zanarkand, a previously holy place and one very important to her personally (probably the only time I've ever played monkey matchmaker).

Yeah, I can see what you're saying. There's a few things I was forgetting. And you know, I actually liked that conflict between change and (some) resistance to it.

I apologise if I gave the impression that I thought you were prudish. I just meant that my personal standards appear to be lower than yours.
While I agree that sex sells, it should be remembered that Square's primary market was Japan, so there are a number of cultural differences that should be remembered. That said, I agree that the characters have been 'sexed up' in the sequel, but at least it's restricted to their clothing and not their body shape.

That's true, though I think sex sells is something that's common between the two markets.

[Gnoman]

I'm not saying it's a bad thing, just don't throw multiple battles at me in a row without a chance to save first.
Losing a couple hours of gameplay due to a crash is annoying enough, let alone the RNG screwing me over.

Every battle chain (multiple battles without going to the world map in between) in FFT asks you to save after each battle. Without exception. That can be a bad thing, if you don't use multiple saves. Getting stuck at Holy Knight Wiegraf without the unneccessarily gimmicky ways of beating him and no way to return to the map is a game ender.

[Brother Oni]

How fast can they... Ugh. >.< Well, it comes down to social groups and whether you see that more I'd imagine. Perhaps that's why I saw less of that. I'm not exactly a social butterfly.

I didn't even know the others before volunteering. I just paid attention during the quiet periods when we were waiting around on the help desk.

As for the actual contest, I have no objection to what consenting adults do behind closed doors.

Yeah, I can see what you're saying. There's a few things I was forgetting. And you know, I actually liked that conflict between change and (some) resistance to it.

I find it interesting when replaying a game how you can re-interpret something with the benefit of hindsight, or just notice things you miss the first time round.
For example, I missed the whole symbolism from that scene in X when Auron, Tidus and Yuna were watching the memory of Auron, Jecht and Braska.

[Starwulf]

Speaking of FFT....I just finished beating FF Dissidia Duodecim last night(That final Feral Chaos fight is rough), and I decided to load up Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, and I just don't think I'm going to be able to play it. The control scheme is horrible, and it doesn't appear as though I can change it >< It takes me like 3 minutes to move a character into the square I want him to be moved into because the directional control pad isn't just inverted, it's like tilted on it's damn head or something.

Is there a way to change the control scheme? I got done the fight outside of the church(not particularly difficult), and am in the first fight against the rogues, and still haven't seen a way to change. If I can't, I guess I'll be putting the game up permanently, as I just don't have the patience to learn some ass-backwards control scheme ><

[Gullara]

I find it interesting when replaying a game how you can re-interpret something with the benefit of hindsight, or just notice things you miss the first time round.
For example, I missed the whole symbolism from that scene in X when Auron, Tidus and Yuna were watching the memory of Auron, Jecht and Braska.

Heh, yeah. This is true. And speaking of replaying a game, I really want to play X again. I could possibly dig up the old PS2, but I'm not sure I have a means of displaying it. I should see if there are cords that would adapt it to connect to my monitor.

[Phexar]

Oh, could they? I thought they could only be shortened to a fairly brief sequence. I still found it disruptive, but that's just my opinion.

I will note that the dressphere change-cinematics always play the first time you change from one specific dressphere to another, like Gunner to Thief or Gunner to Warrior, even if you have them turned off. After that combination has played once for that character, then if they're turned off the next time there'll be a brief pause and they'll instantly shift to the new costume.

My favourite FF game is probably FF6 for the reasons people have given. The game just feels quite nicely paced to me, and there's so much variety in the characters. Also, Kefka.

Second favourite would probably be FF10. I really liked how every character felt useful and had their own thing to contribute - heck, I ended up using every character in every battle to gain experience for them all, so I got to know them well. I also somehow beat the Chocobo game the first time I played it, go figure. I couldn't resist trying to dodge another 100 lightning bolts after dodging 200 as well - and succeeded. I guess I just really liked the game a lot.

[Traab]

I just have to say it again, what I liked about 10 was how jaw droppingly beautiful it was. Not just the cinematics, but the world you roamed around in as well was amazingly well drawn and designed. For its time it was probably THE most graphically beautiful game to play on the ps2. And even now those cinematics are incredible to watch. The facial expressions, the movements, the attention to detail on costumes and backgrounds, it was just a stunning game in general.

I may rave most about the graphics, but I also greatly enjoyed the crunch of the game. The battle system was very easy to work with, the gear setup was neat with the new twists of ability gems, and skills you could only use with certain weapons. I have been trying to think about it, but I dont think there were any characters who I wouldnt want to play in my group. Even in ff6 there are a few i never liked playing. So in between awe inspiring movie clips, I got to enjoy heart thumping battles and incredible looking dungeons.

[Eldariel]

FFVI is my favorite. It has extremely well-written characters with a lot of depth, best story out of the franchise being both logical and cohesive, few quite emotionally engaging moments, best villain(s) ever created, and an absolutely gorgeous soundtrack. Oh, and a varied, interesting combat system (each character uses their own system), one of the best executions of the obligatory "phantom beasts as a part of the world"-aspect in the series and yeah...

There's also just nothing wrong with it. It's a complete masterpiece and if the latter Final Fantasies were anywhere near that quality, Square would have twice the sales they're dealing with right now.


My next one would the FFIV (the Japanese FFIV is what I liked; I've heard the DS remake is good too but I haven't played that) for the fastpaced story where the player literally feels like he's swept by a flood when stuff keeps happening at an increasingly accelerating rate and while the tips of the whole are there all the time, there are many false leads. It's intellectually engaging. Also, while not VI level, the characterization is fairly good (few downers without much personality of course, but you have the Spoony Bard [ah, the lovable Woolsey translation], the Crazy Engineer, The Dragoon and the Dark Knight) and engaging.

And the combat has many legacy traits I actually like such as being able to equip most weapons on any character (and different combat styles entirely being viable, such as archery or swordsfighting on your warriors), and every character's kit feeling quite unique in combat. Overall, I have to say I like combat in FFIV more than in most editions of the series; it just feels more tactical, and since the "hardmode" is fairly challenging there's actually room to utilize the tactical edge you can get in the game.


After that, I'd say it's something of a tie with FFVII and FFX though others have sung their praises here so I don't need to. FFIX is next up. Then I'd go with FFV, FFI (haven't played FFII and FFIII), FFVIII, FFXII and FFXIII in about that order. Leaving the Tactics-franchise out of this, though it's definitely worth playing FFTactics itself.

[dgnslyr]

Did someone say Tactics? Because I love Tactics.

Yeah, it can be brutal when you're just starting out, but with a good grasp on class mechanics and some investment into the higher-tier jobs, the game can just be snapped over your knee. A Summoner can absolutely level the early-game, a brave Monk can crack heads with a punch (or two - a bare-fisted Ninja is something to be afraid of), a Wizard/Samurai can annihilate anything in a 2-square radius, and of course, a Calculator can destroy a field of foes and friends alike with the power of basic arithmetic.

The plot is something unique, too, because it's pretty impressive, once you get past the at-times clumsy translation. There's still something distinctly charming about the occasionally-awkward localization, though, even if its clarity isn't perfect.

[ThiagoMartell]

I love Tactics. I'm doing my second run of War of the Lions and I did around 7 or so runs on PSOne.
Let me tell you, War of the Lions is amazing. The added content is pretty good and multiplayer is awesome - now we have missions that actually require all that rare equipment and high-level skills. And we get to kill Argath/Algus several times.

[Starwulf]

Did someone say Tactics? Because I love Tactics.

Yeah, it can be brutal when you're just starting out, but with a good grasp on class mechanics and some investment into the higher-tier jobs, the game can just be snapped over your knee. A Summoner can absolutely level the early-game, a brave Monk can crack heads with a punch (or two - a bare-fisted Ninja is something to be afraid of), a Wizard/Samurai can annihilate anything in a 2-square radius, and of course, a Calculator can destroy a field of foes and friends alike with the power of basic arithmetic.

The plot is something unique, too, because it's pretty impressive, once you get past the at-times clumsy translation. There's still something distinctly charming about the occasionally-awkward localization, though, even if its clarity isn't perfect.

I love Tactics. I'm doing my second run of War of the Lions and I did around 7 or so runs on PSOne.
Let me tell you, War of the Lions is amazing. The added content is pretty good and multiplayer is awesome - now we have missions that actually require all that rare equipment and high-level skills. And we get to kill Argath/Algus several times.

Ok, could either of you answer my question as to whether or not it's possible to change the freaking control scheme? Cuz when down makes you go left, up makes you right, and so on and so forth, I just don't have the patience to rewire my brain to accept such idiocy ><(This is all for the PSP War of the lions game)