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Let's Play Every Final Fantasy Game In Order Of Release [Now Finished: Final Fantasy Tactics]

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Aliya said:
Some of the mainline games are MMOs, so cant really be covered. As such, important spin-offs and sequels, such as FFT, are considered as replacement.
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Well, I, for one, would be there to see Omi devoting years of his life mastering solo play in a dead MMO.

Egleris said:
As mentioned, both have excellent gameplay, but I find that FFV has more replayability, and additionally, the fact that FFV forces the individual members of the team to develop a personal identity through mechanics is something that I find better. As for story, while it's true that FFV is a much more simplicistic, cartoon-like narrative, my opinion is that it actually performs its own particular narrative goal nearly flawlessly, whereas FFVII has a lot more stumble on it's (admittetdly vastly more ambitious) story. So... I guess I think that, when judging a game's quality, while ambition and execution of those ambitions both matter, I value the execution a bit more highly. I also think that FFVII, while it does quite a lot with the tools at its disposal, is visibly harmstrung by its need to experiment with new things, whereas FFV makes a much better use of the (yes, inferior) tools at its disposal, which I also value highly.
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I think FFV fails in the context of this thread specifically because there just isn't that much to talk about, narratively (aside from Inexplicably gender). It's a simple story executed well, and that's the long and short of it. Unlike early games, it's defined enough that it's hard to go on wild tangents about the role of monsters and the secret history of the world (though Omicron does try), and unlike later games, it doesn't try to talk about Big Important Themes, well or badly. It's fun. The end.

SerGregness said:
More fodder for the hypothetical FFVI Remake: What if you just don't fight Kefka at Narshe? Introduce one or two more Imperial minibosses, and have them take the fall in that particular battle, and earlier when you face Kefka at the siege of Doma, rather than him running, make it more explicit that he's misleading Sabin/Shadow with illusions, which will serve double-duty as foreshadowing the confrontation with Leo.
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Eh, I think Kefka being full of hot air and crumbling instantly when met with any kind of resistance is pretty important to his image, and making him a legitimate powerhouse from the start would detract from it.

As was discussed back then, the solution is simple: add a scene where Kefka or Banana Mengele reads the data obtained from the party's infiltration of the esper lab, which allows the bad guys to make a breakthrough regarding magicide and devise a way to forcibly convert espers into powerups for Kefka. It honestly wouldn't take that much effort to plug in this plot hole, which is what makes it annoying to begin with.

Connelly said:
Clearly, it was a missed oportunity that the few FF crosses only have Taylor get super op by giving her/become All The Summons/Primals (and then sum magik) instead of giving her All The Mastered Materia. :V
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Ah, but you're forgetting the first rule of good Worm crossovers: Taylor's new powers should be creepy, as it's an essential part of her appeal.

Fortunately, FFVII has no lack of horrifying imagery to draw from, some of which is even directly connected to its protagonists.

Which is to say, Taylor should get the power to control chocobos.

See, canon Taylor is regarded as creepy because she's constantly surrounded by bugs, allowing them to crawl in her hair and clothes. She's also ruthless, going for the eyes or choking people with flies.

FFVII!Taylor would be creepy because she makes chocobos do incest.

Squirtodyle said:
I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that they'll nail Sephiroth, they've already done so in the first game and I can't imagine they won't continue to do so in the next.
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But will they nail Shera (and Cid, I guess)? That's the real question.
 
I definitely am looking forward to FF8. On top of the more negative stuff I said, its FMVs and music basically burned themselves into my brain and kinda-sorta defined me for a while in small and big ways. Like, the music and the graphics were "blow you the fuck away" levels at the time.
 
Also, calling Kefka a Joker knockoff but not calling Sephiroth an Elric of Melnibone knockoff? For shame.

I jest, though how much does Sephiroth actually have in common with Elric? I guess spending the latter half of Disc 2 just lying around does sound pretty Elric-y
 
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I'll be honest, I think the ff8 gunblade is also just cool.

"But it doesn't shoot bullets -" then it's a sword that uses ammo and that's even cooler.
 
They already failed at doing Cid by not adding a mustache to his design. Never has a face screamed for one as much as the one belonging to this remade Cid.
 
Kuja said:
Final Fantasy 8 & 9 still bear the Squaresoft logo, as they were made while Spirits Within was in production, but this is it right here, where the seeds for the end of an era were sown.
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I guess it's that time of the year where I bring the Neogaf thread about why that's not entirely correct.

The3rdCorinthian said:
"But it doesn't shoot bullets -" then it's a sword that uses ammo and that's even cooler.
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They don't say it in the game, but IIRC it's actually supposed to be a sorta lowtech vibroblade; the ammo is not to shoot with it at jerks, but to make the blade vibrate with the explosion during a slash (and I'm pretty sure at least Parasite Eve 2 goes with that explanation for its bonus weapon gunblade. No it's not FF but it's SE so it works).
 
illhousen said:
But do they? Do they really? Like, why are there both the cat and the moogle? Why not just control the moogle? Why megaphone? Why Reeve?
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There are two tasks that Reeve needs to accomplish for Cait Sith to work: he needs to infiltrate and he needs to fight.

Unfortunately for him, these two tasks are diametrically opposed as far as engineering is concerned. Infiltration requires intricate and complicated parts that can move gently and emote, while combat requires robust parts that can stand up to battle while still hitting hard. What's more, he needs to hide the fact that CS is a robot.

Solution? He makes it obvious that the moogle is a robot and have it do the fighting while pretending that the cat is just a magic animal like Red. That way all the infiltration parts go in the machine that isn't fighting and the fighting parts go in the machine that isn't infiltrating.
 
Thozmp said:
I put to you the question: Does Rufus have a mother? We haven't seen her, and we know that ShinRa the company has all sorts of biological experiments. I thus submit: Rufus ShinRa, clone of President ShinRa!
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A terrible idea I in no way thank you for seeding in my head

That said, I think the banal human evil of ShinRa works better with Nepo Baby Rufus than Even More Icky Hojo Science Rufus
 
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ArlequineLunaire said:
Also, calling Kefka a Joker knockoff but not calling Sephiroth an Elric of Melnibone knockoff? For shame.

I jest, though how much does Sephiroth actually have in common with Elric? I guess spending the latter half of Disc 2 just lying around does sound pretty Elric-y
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Not a whole lot, for one thing Masamune is no Stormbringer and the Black Sword That Can Solve All Your Problems (There Is A Nuance) is pretty central to Elric's deal. Even their aesthetic, Sephiroth has white/silver hair but he's not an inhuman albino.
 
Omicron said:
The fact that Red XIII is introduced by the experiment name assigned to him by Hojo, the game later reveals his actual name, and the game never gives you a choice to change his name and stop the other character from constantly calling him a slur basically sums up the entire issue with Nanaki's writing: He needed more time to cook.
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Y'know, I've seen more than one person on the internet mention liking to simply use the name entry box to rename Red XIII to Nanaki.

This is something I always see framed as, essentially, a joke- it's funny when he thus goes 'btw my name isn't Nanaki it's Nanaki' and that's the point. But this comment has me suspect that no small part of the appeal comes from exactly this issue.
 
Terrabrand said:
Y'know, I've seen more than one person on the internet mention liking to simply use the name entry box to rename Red XIII to Nanaki.

This is something I always see framed as, essentially, a joke- it's funny when he thus goes 'btw my name isn't Nanaki it's Nanaki' and that's the point. But this comment has me suspect that no small part of the appeal comes from exactly this issue.
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That is precisely what I did this run and why I did it -- on both counts.
 
I do distinctly recall doing a run back in the day where I renamed all the characters for the fun of it. It was mostly some very silly stuff, like calling Cloud "Zack" and Barret "Dyne", but yeah Red XIII to Nanaki was a pretty obvious one to do... and did, in fact, make the Cosmo Canyon reveal funny when Cloud goes "HUH WHO'S NANAKI???"
 
I don't think I've commented in the thread before for lack of anything interesting to say (FFVII is the first of these games I've played and my memory of it is mostly of taking 30+ attempts to beat Sephiroth in the final battle because I guess I was just very bad at RPGs at that point).

But this seems an appropriate moment to express that I've been thoroughly enjoying this journey through the franchise. Thanks, Omicron, and I'm looking forward to following you through the next game(s), even if I probably still won't have much to say. :)
 
Thank you for writing!

I think I've said it before, but I'm really looking forward to your take on VIII -- in part because it was my first Final Fantasy game (though my favorite of all the ones I've played isn't it but IX -- which I'm thus also really looking forward to you getting to, but that's a ways away :D).
 
My first Final Fantasy was X, and while I still like it I wouldn't quite call it my favourite. I probably join what seems to be the bandwagon here and say that's IX
 
While IX is also my favorite I do feel the need to point out that
  1. He's not going to do it fir months upon months so lets not hype him early, and
  2. It is far from without its own flaws, such that many prefer other FF games to it (even within the similarly constructed PS1 trio) for good reasons
 
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Yeah, while more people have re-evaluated it now, for a while IX was the FF (at least for the PS1) that people tended to gloss over, as this one Penny Arcade strip illustrates (pun not intended). And as I've learned from Leila's LetsWatch thread, hyping up a work too much before the reviewer gets to it can seriously backfire, even if Omi's less stringent than her.

...Oh, and IX had the double-sword btw. Well, if you equipped it anyway
 
Yeah 9 absolutely has its own issues. Hopefully Omi will enjoy it once he gets there, but it's definitely not a perfect game. If anything, some of those issues can be very annoying due to how you can see how they ought to have been fixed.

I am interested to see 8 though. I've heard good and bad things about it, but it's always been an FF game that just went and passed me by. Like, I usually forget it exists.
 
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I don't think any Final Fantasy could be pointed at to say "that's it, that's the perfect Final Fantasy, it's THE FINAL FANTASY" honestly. Compared to something like say Dragon Quest where while they iterate there's still a clear underlying formula in each game (turn based combat, hero makes 4 person party with probably extras in the wagon, usually somewhat defined roles per character if there isn't a class system of some sort, anyways go save world here's prophecy or something), Final Fantasy likes to innovate for better or for worse.

And on one hand, that tends to keep things fresh from game to game! There's always something new to look forward to, even in somewhat mechanically similar games like FFI -> FFIII -> FFV there's enough differences with the classes and class systems to make things interesting. On the other hand, building up mostly new systems with every game means... Idunno, less stress testing might be the best way to describe it, so especially now that the series has opened up to more customization from FFV onwards it's just vastly simpler to break the game in two. Whether that be FFV's lategame gravitating towards Freelancers and Mimes spamming Rapid Fire and Dualcast, or FFVI going "YOU GET AN ULTIMA, YOOOOOOU GET AN ULTIMA", or FFVII's materia system just making party members almost entirely interchangeable blobs beyond limit breaks (which while neat are rarely all that relevant). No matter which Final Fantasy game, there often feels like there's room for improvement somewhere, whether that be tightening up some plotholes, giving more screen time to forgotten characters, or just plain better balancing the game between "strategy is optional just spam win button" and "puzzle superboss requires extremely specific strategy, might as well use a guide".
 
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