Final Fantasy Thread
Is there anybody here who is a super fan of the Final Fantasy series? Admittedly, I haven't bought a new computer or consol sinced 2010, so I'm really out of date with things (and ot my understanding things have deteriorated significantly), but this is one of my favorite series growing up, and when I think about all the characters which made up the series I can't help but be filled with nostalgia. Obs my favorite is VII, pretty much all the characters, but especially Yuffie (when I was young) followed by Tifa, Aeris, and Vincent (honestly, there is no character I don't like).
XII is one of the most underrated of the series. Vaan is annoying, but you can ditch him easily for Ashe (probably one of the best characters in the series), Basche, and Fran, who are among some of my favorite characters period.
VIII was also really good (and I admit nostalgia plays a lot into this), but the love story there was one of the best, and I'm such a sucker for love stories. Rinoa (except launching her dog. That was stupid), Selphie, Irvine.
X was mediocre. I just love Rikku. Love story not so good. X-2 was an embarassment.
I didn't like IX. There, I said it. I didn't like the art, I didn't particularly like the characters (except Vivi). IV, I acknowledge the goodness of it, but I think it's overrated (hipsters against VII - IV was also a really good installment and it doesn't get the credit it deserves.)
So in sum, VII (if by nostalgia only) > XII > VIII ~ IV ~ VI > X > IX (I really didn't like IX).
Comments
The XIII or 13 Trilogy was the first console FF game I played, I had played two of the Nintendo handheld ones before that, so far I've really enjoyed them all. I really love Lightning Farron, she's probably one of my fav characters in video games. Though I want to try X, VII, and VIII if I could figure out how. I have a playstation 2 I'm playing an old PS1 game on, so maybe I could just buy VII and VIII for that console.
I have also drawn a lot of inspiration for my books from FF games, mostly for world building and lore. Plus they're just beautiful games to look at and experience. I'd like to play more but I have a very severe lack of time for the next two years due to school, work, and family.
I still like Final Fantasy somewhat. I've played every title from I to XIV (minus XI) and even the XV demo, though I'm no longer a huge fan of it like I was when I was a pre-teen/teenager. I'm not gonna lie, the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy did a lot of damage and soured my liking for the series as a whole so now I find it really difficult to get excited or even care when a new Final Fantasy game is released or announced. The only series I get excited for that has some Final Fantasy relations is Kingdom Hearts. In terms of my favorite Final Fantasy games, my top three would have to be Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy X, and Final Fantasy VI (in that order), whilst my least are the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy, Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy V, and Final Fantasy VIII.
For Final Fantasy IX, I actually did like the characters and art style (Vivi is my favorite hero in the Final Fantasy series), though I can't really comment on the story since it's been so long since I've played it. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it immensely more than any other Final Fantasy I played before and after due to its unique game features like the Active Time Events of seeing what other characters are doing when they are outside your party and the Tetra Master mini-game (though VIII did Triple Triad better I'll give it that).
I really enjoyed Final Fantasy X as well. Loved the characters (Tidus is actually my favorite character in the game believe it or not, followed by Auron) and the story, but what I really loved about X were the side-quests and mini-games, especially Blitz Ball. Sometimes I even wish it was a real sport. I'm also probably one of the very few people who actually enjoyed Catcher Chocobo, the 200 lightning dodge, the butterfly catching, the dark aeons and Penance.
I can probably write an entire essay on why I enjoyed Final Fantasy VI (but I won't). One of the things I loved about it was the huge cast of characters (I think it had about 16 party members with two of those 16 being optional?) and the fact that there really wasn't a main central character. Sure, you could argue that Terra was the main character but she becomes severely irrelevant and even an optional party member during the second half of the game. Despite having a huge cast, I liked how the game tried not to make each character a flat character or unimportant, which I think is pretty hard to do as far as writing goes when you have a huge ensemble cast, especially when each character you took with you at the time ended up getting some pretty interesting dialogue and build up with other characters. I enjoyed the story and loved Kefka (he's probably my favorite villain in the entire Final Fantasy franchise). What I mostly loved about Kefka was how he actually succeeded in his goals, at least his first term ambitions, like devastating the earth and becoming the god of magic.
Tactics>7~8>6>1>14ARR>Dirge of Cerberus>>>>>>>>>>>10.
Obviously I dislike 10. I played it when it came out, and at the time it was like looking into the future of the series, and I did not like what I saw. I did eventually give up the boycott for a month to try A Realm Reborn, but stopped before the free month was even over because it's an MMO and I'm a social retard so I was just soloing everything I could. I included the non-numbered games too because Tactics is one of my favorite games of any time or genre.
I would like to go back and play through some of the older entries I never got a chance to try, but I worry they will be too grindy for me. In the abscence of Final Fantasy games after I was done with 10 I started playing other JRPGs to hopefully find a new series I like. I ended up finding the Persona series and really enjoy the three games I've played, but have only finished two because the grinding is so heavy in that series.