My first and favorite is FF9. The colorful and bouncy characters, the whimsy of it and how colorful and fun the world is, it really just spoke to me and swept me up into the game.
i mean i was 26 at the time, but still
Let's Play Every Final Fantasy Game In Order Of Release [Now Finished: Final Fantasy Tactics]
- Thread starter Omicron
- Start date
- Let's Play
i mean i was 26 at the time, but still
Guile
Having a really great time right now
Teenage Me somehow managed to completely miss the POINT of Squall.
That guy is a cool badass fighter who is also an awkward dork and these two states manage to uneasily coexist in one neurotic teenger with all the grace and subtlety of someone grabbing a Bomb monster and shaking it like a martini. Dude had no idea how to react to Rinoa. Magical mercenary school did not prepare him.
But then on replay, the 'annoying' parts of the game (like Rinoa) just engendered so much fond amusement in me. At Squall's expense, yes, but it made me like him more, not less.
FourthWall
Love & Destroy
- Location
- Chiraq
But mine is FFT and I played VI/III US first
I do have a soft spot for X-2 because I played it as a kid, though.
E:
The Orphan of Ur is a Boss Baby
But seriously, they're post-Goku Shonen protagonists; adult body, childlike spirit. We're deep in DB(Z) being a part of the Japanese kid's media zeitgeist by now.
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ZerbanDaGreat
Daemon Noble of D E M O G R A P H I C S
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- They/them
My first FF games were... 12, then 13. I don't have particularly fond memories of either of them. Then next was 15. Otherwise before I started on the Pixel Remasters the only other FF game I'd played was LOTR: The Third Age which I'm told just outright stole FF10's battle system, so I've wanted to play FF10 and see if I actually like it ever since.
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oh so you decided to play Being An FF Fan on Hardcore Mode
Zap Rowsdower
Ex-cultist vagrant
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- Bright lights, big city
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12 wasn't actually bad - the story and worldbuilding in particular are standouts, and while the mechanics suffer from being when Squenix's post-merger "always reinvent the wheel, never build on or refine what works" philosophy of Final Fantasy was really getting underway, they're not bad, just different. There's a reason XIV draws pretty heavily from it and not just for the cameo raid series.
13 is a different story (Ive heard better things about the sequels to it, but after trying 13 and the first half of 13-2 I couldnt bring myself to care), and 15 is about half a good game and half an okay game awkwardly mashed together due to its troubled development.
13 is a different story (Ive heard better things about the sequels to it, but after trying 13 and the first half of 13-2 I couldnt bring myself to care), and 15 is about half a good game and half an okay game awkwardly mashed together due to its troubled development.
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My first Final Fantasy was VI, and I'm pretty sure I can trace my weaknesses for ensemble casts and soundtracks straight back to it.
I'm not entirely sure I want a 3-D remake of VI? I was a definite no on it for a long time because I sort of assumed any project like that would be a lazy port, but I'm more open to the idea now seeing what the VII remake was. Something like that I'd be down for. It's tricky though, because so much of the characterization for the SNES final fantasies are pieced together with each player's own headcanons that it'd be hard to really capture that for modern audiences. You'd have to have the sort of mad obsession with dialogue and fleshing out characters that the Trails series has.
I have told people forever that Final Fantasy VIII has some of the absolute best ideas in the whole series, shackled in places with the worst execution.
I'm not entirely sure I want a 3-D remake of VI? I was a definite no on it for a long time because I sort of assumed any project like that would be a lazy port, but I'm more open to the idea now seeing what the VII remake was. Something like that I'd be down for. It's tricky though, because so much of the characterization for the SNES final fantasies are pieced together with each player's own headcanons that it'd be hard to really capture that for modern audiences. You'd have to have the sort of mad obsession with dialogue and fleshing out characters that the Trails series has.
I have told people forever that Final Fantasy VIII has some of the absolute best ideas in the whole series, shackled in places with the worst execution.
Zap Rowsdower
Ex-cultist vagrant
- Location
- Bright lights, big city
- Pronouns
- He/Him
That seems to have been a problem for Square around that time - Xenogears in '98, Chrono Cross and FF8 in '99. All had really great ideas, all failed hard in the execution, although for different reasons
FFVIII was my first, but the one I really had this reaction for was X. First time through I hated Tidus being a winy ass.
Second time through I played after my parents divorce and really realizing what a scumbag he was and... well it spoke to me a lot more.
MiskWisk
Hoot
- Location
- Somewhere devoid of wit
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- He
12 was great in terms of story and worldbuilding. Shakespearean Magical Renaissance Star Wars is a great setting. It just fumbles in its main character is the second least interesing member of the group and it's combat system is in an awkward spot (I actually didn't find it too bad, but I acknowledge the issues people have (apart from Omega Mk XII, Hell Wyrm, and Yiazmat, god damn those bosses are awful)).
Zap Rowsdower
Ex-cultist vagrant
- Location
- Bright lights, big city
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Honestly I have no problem with him after 13 showed what happens when you DON'T have an Ishmael/Watson there to get basic setting and plot details all the plot characters already know explained to. The in game encyclopedia is there to enhance the experience, not to be half the actual plot in and of itself.
Yiazmat, on the other hand, is just there for masochists, plain and simple.
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Egleris
Vagrant Dragon
- Location
- Italy
Yeah, even the worst of the Final Fantasy are still good, usually in several respects. They're just flawed, but there's still something good to find, if one cares to look, in most of them. Also, as I said in the past, I really like a game who tries and fails, over one that just goes through the motions and tries to ape something else instead of actually having some true ambition behind it.
Also sign me up as a person who would be extremely skeptical about the prospect of transitioning FFVI to 3d. That game is so fundamentally a 2d experience, I would consider it a part of its structure and an inherent element of what makes it so good, something where replacing it wouldn't just require impossible amounts of work, but actively require actively re-visualizing entire stretches of the game to find a way to make them work at all, let alone to the level of quality FFVI has. I'd cite examples, but this conversation has had spoilers enough already and I'd rather not spoil FFVI of all things. Still, I'm sure anybody who played that game can (in their head, to themselves) point to at least two or three of their top five sequences in the game that would just not work in 3d. Adding to that that I consider the FFVII remake merely "fine", like it's not bad or disappointing but it just gets a very mild reaction from me overall, and my confidence that the current Square Enix could properly transition FFVI to 3d in a satisfying manner is pretty much nonexistent.
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MiskWisk
Hoot
- Location
- Somewhere devoid of wit
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- He
Indeed. I loved all the lore bits you could unlock by grinding the bestiary. It was great for expanding the world.
XIII on the other hand drowned you under required reading because it explained nothing.
- Location
- Not your place of residence
Is it weird to have a soft spot for 13, as a game with a deep combat system that's exceptionally hard to break over one's knees like basically every other game in the series?
Hell, it gave Debuffs a huge use again, both because encounters were actually threatening, because they work on bosses, and because you can easily get multiple off during the turn.
The story on the other hand...while there are some moments that I think work even in the mess that is the story of FFXIII, the rest of it feels like Xande, with the caveat that the game DOES explain everything...in the 100+ page document that is the in game bestiary+terminology+story guide.
That being said, I'm very different from the falling in love with the first game stereotype as I started with 10, next played 13, then went back to play 7, then fell in love with 6.
Hell, it gave Debuffs a huge use again, both because encounters were actually threatening, because they work on bosses, and because you can easily get multiple off during the turn.
The story on the other hand...while there are some moments that I think work even in the mess that is the story of FFXIII, the rest of it feels like Xande, with the caveat that the game DOES explain everything...in the 100+ page document that is the in game bestiary+terminology+story guide.
That being said, I'm very different from the falling in love with the first game stereotype as I started with 10, next played 13, then went back to play 7, then fell in love with 6.
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My first FF game was Final Fantasy VII, which I found enjoyable if very confusing.
My second was FFVIII, which I enjoyed more than a lot of people did, apparently.
FF IX was...OK for me. I didn't like the art style as much, the pervasive card minigame was much less fun than Triple Triad to me, and cities getting constantly blown up behind me blindsided me.
I liked FF X a lot, outside of Tidus who was just aggravating.
My second was FFVIII, which I enjoyed more than a lot of people did, apparently.
FF IX was...OK for me. I didn't like the art style as much, the pervasive card minigame was much less fun than Triple Triad to me, and cities getting constantly blown up behind me blindsided me.
I liked FF X a lot, outside of Tidus who was just aggravating.
ZerbanDaGreat
Daemon Noble of D E M O G R A P H I C S
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look. listen. only got a ps2 in like 2007. ff12 was what was on the shelf at eb games. and then when i made the worst mistake of my life and got a ps3, ff13 was what was on the shelf at eb games. it's not my fault i was exposed to The Horrors.
EDIT: And then I got into Kingdom Hearts, which as we all know is nothing like Final Fantasy and is full of Nomura Bullshit that he forced into Final Fantasy where it didn't belong-
Egleris
Vagrant Dragon
- Location
- Italy
That's an interesting view of it, in that it isn't wrong, at all really - only that in Kingdom Hearts, all of that stuff actually works. Why would anybody think that same approach would work with Final Fantasy is what leaves me puzzled - especially since, you know, the already have Kingdom Hearts. You'd expect a company which has several flagship series to want to diversify to cater to different tastes, rather than homogenizing, wouldn't you? Or is that just me?
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Kingdom Hearts makes just as much sense as FF, with the caveat that the nonsense continually accumulates instead of having any stopping point.
WanderingEye
smol skeleton
My first was Tactics Advance and boy I learned that everyone hates the main character.
Still the setting made me fall in love with the series or at least made me interested enough in the series to try out Dawn of Souls (didn't finish it) and kinda finally a gateway for me to accept XIV.
Still the setting made me fall in love with the series or at least made me interested enough in the series to try out Dawn of Souls (didn't finish it) and kinda finally a gateway for me to accept XIV.
Marche knows what he did. The most profoundly unlikable MC I can remember outside of like, Lightning, and it wasn't even on purpose.
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My first FF game was X, which I only played at a friend's house in Chicago on summers and so have inordinately fond memories of.
I was very confused when I learned how much people hated the main character.
Funny enough, while FF8, FF7, and FFT were my first games, the one that forever hooked me as "best most favoritest" was FF5. Just something charming about the cast of characters plus the sheer fun of the expanded job system speaks to me.
"All I ever desired was a world populated by only one race.
And for someone to break my brother's legs, him being able to walk is a sin."
-Marche, age 12, probably
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Guile
Having a really great time right now
I'm going to double up on the unpopular opinion expressed here, and say I liked FF13's combat and story.
Is it a good story? I dunno, man. But there's just something about a group of deeply flawed individuals getting tossed together by chance and hounded by the authorities, every gun and blade and god turned against them. You don't learn shit in FF13 because the plot is so far over the protagonists' heads it might literally be in orbit.
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- The deathworld-in-miniature that is Australia
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- They/Them
FF8 was my first, then 7 & 9 pretty much concurrently, then 6 on a SNES emulator, Woosleyisms and all. And while I have soft spots for each of the previous three in my personal order of running into them and do genuinely like large portions of all of them, 6 is my baby. Then 4 & 5, then 10, missed out on 10-2 entirely cos I never finished 10, just as I have never finished any final fantasy, then about two hours of 12 and then a looooong break. Missed out on 13 and 15 entirely. Now I'm going back and playing them all, including 12, 13, & 15, but in a very haphazard, adhd-af manner.
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