Tell me about Final Fantasy

Dman001

I dont think I have ever played a Final Fantasy game properly. What is so good about these games. From what i have saw you dont actually fight but give commands on what to do( going by a Final Fantasy 7 picture). If this is the case with all of the games, I dont think it is my type of game.

johnny_ultimate

Of all the Final Fantasies Ive played (6-10) they are all turn based. Your party attacks, then the enemy attacks. This is the game at its most basic. Of course, the battle system is very dense and complicated. There are numerous ways to distort the basic concept - e.g. using 'haste' or 'slow' spells.

You control 3-4 party members directly (not counting FF12, which I hear is entirely different) and you give them commands - e.g. attack, summon, magic spells. This keeps on going around in turns until the enemy is defeated, or your party.

To answer your question, no - it is not a real time battle system. Again, 12 - as far as I know - is much more real-time than the older ones.

Maybe youtube a video of a battle from one of the games for a more accurate description.

Dman001

ok thanks

Zapp Brannigan

The thing that usually sucks me into a FF game is the story.
VII got me right from the off, VIII not so much but I really liked the Junction system. IX, never really played it. X played it and liked some aspects. X-2, no comment. And I haven't played XII yet so I dunno whats goin on with that.

steviec

Well I recently convinced a friend who's always hated Final Fantasy based on it being turn based to actually give FFVII a chance and now he loves it.

Being turn based, the battles are all about strategy rather than reflexes, and developing and equipping your characters correctly before battle is important. It's not as complex as the systems you may find in western RPGs or deeper strategy games, but it works well and compliments the story which is the real selling point of these games.

Final Fantasy games have tended to have some of the deepest stories of any computer games, with beautiful settings and art direction, great characterisation and an accompanying orchestral score that's as good as any movie. The newest one, FFXII, has actually moved away from storytelling somewhat to focus on it's much improved battle system, which has produced a lot of mixed opinions, some love it, but to me it's just become a hack and slash game without the soul of the previous episodes in the series.

Retr0gamer

Get yourself FFX on the cheap and play it. If you don't like it then trade it in and you didn't waste a whole lot of money. However if you have given it a chance and have any bit of taste, prepare for one of the greatest gaming experiences ever.

humanji

I could never get into FF myself. My mate was crazy about it and convinced me to get FFVII and I hated it. I couldn't find a single thing about it that I enjoyed (with the random encounters being the most annoying). Maybe it's that I've been brought up on PC RPG's which are completely different in style and content.

Kevster

hehe, the random battles were annoying alright but you gain character strengths through fighting. Final Fantasy VII was the best by far in my opinion but when I played it first I said to myself: 'What the **** is this?'. I decided to give it a go and was hooked after 10 minutes. The start to FFVII was great where you are being chased by the guards through the suburbs of the city - whatever it was called.


There were other things too though. I mean, if you got tired of the main plot, you could go travelling around the game-map to different cities and play sub-games / games-within-the-game.


I perfectly understand why some don't like it though.


I never completed FFVIII because it wasn't as good as VII.

Kevster

Retr0gamer wrote:

Get yourself FFX on the cheap and play it. If you don't like it then trade it in and you didn't waste a whole lot of money. However if you have given it a chance and have any bit of taste, prepare for one of the greatest gaming experiences ever.

Is X good? I never played it.

melekalikimaka

Kevster wrote:

hehe, the random battles were annoying alright but you gain character strengths through fighting. Final Fantasy VII was the best by far in my opinion but when I played it first I said to myself: 'What the **** is this?'. I decided to give it a go and was hooked after 10 minutes. The start to FFVII was great where you are being chased by the guards through the suburbs of the city - whatever it was called.

Midgar

johnny_ultimate

Kevster wrote:

Is X good? I never played it.

Its definitely worth paying. Don't know if Id be as big a fan as Retr0, but it is one of the strongest role players around. Some absolutely huge subquests in there. Although I felt like it was more linear than previous games (there is no world map per-say - only towards the end of the main story do you have completely open travel without backtracking).

Slightly off topic, but here's a very entertaining Japanese advertisement on the subject of random battles http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2of98A86aI

Kevster

Pretty classy video. It'd actually be quite odd if you were to walk along the street having to face random assailants...

...oh wait, you can do that already in Dublin! :rolleyes:

(Sorry if this offends but I'm from Dublin anyway)


Kevin.

Retr0gamer

Kevster wrote:

Is X good? I never played it.

I really enjoyed it. Probably vying with FFVI for the best in the series imo. It was very linear and had no world map but it made up for it in other ways. The story is the strongest in the series with a wonderful pay off when it's all over. The characters were great other than Tidus who was a bit of a whinger. The battle system is the best the series has seen, very strategic and needs a lot of thought as long as you don't be a boring idiot and level up your characters to ridiculous levels early on. To top it all up it had a great soundtrack and looks gorgeous.

Greyfox

Theirs a reason why this series has sold over 70 million copies worldwide..the problem is it will probably take you some time to discover this reason.

I started with Final fantasy 7 and for the first 15 minutes I hated this game!! The turned based fighting that happened randomly wrecked my head..but due to the fact that I was in the process of dropping out of college and was in no rush to get a job I gave it a fair chance..

Not only do I now rate this the best game ever made (this or Res Evil) I can honestly say that no other piece of entertainment has given me as much enjoyment as this game

Each FF game has a story better than just about every other game in existense as well as the vast majority of SF books. From 7 onwards they all have a great soundtrack and great cut-sequences and thanks to the incredible and absolutely endless depth of the fighting system about 100 hours of gameplay.

Yes it's turned based fighting that takes a little bit of time to get use to.. once you get past this point you'll realise that this was neccisary for a fighting system that has an absolutely staggering amount of strategy involved as well as their being so many aspects that your improving with every fight you win. It's also quite usual to spend weeks doing things that dont even effect the main story.

I was blown away with FF7's story and rate it better then ANY book i've ever read (Including HPotter. LoRings,Shannara,Wheel of time). It has a wonderful love triangle, best baddie ever, saddest moment in gaming, great subplots and a surprising revelation!

Play FF7 or FF10 first as their the two best of the series..

Greyfox

Theirs a reason why this series has sold over 70 million copies worldwide..the problem is it will probably take you some time to discover this reason.

I started with Final fantasy 7 and for the first 15 minutes I hated this game!! The turned based fighting that happened randomly wrecked my head..but due to the fact that I was in the process of dropping out of college and was in no rush to get a job I gave it a fair chance..

Not only do I now rate this the best game ever made (this or Res Evil) I can honestly say that no other piece of entertainment has given me as much enjoyment as this game

Each FF game has a story better than just about every other game in existense as well as the vast majority of SF books. From 7 onwards they all have a great soundtrack and great cut-sequences and thanks to the incredible and absolutely endless depth of the fighting system about 100 hours of gameplay.

Yes it's turned based fighting that takes a little bit of time to get use to.. once you get past this point you'll realise that this was neccisary for a fighting system that has an absolutely staggering amount of strategy involved as well as their being so many aspects that your improving with every fight you win. It's also quite usual to spend weeks doing things that dont even effect the main story.

I was blown away with FF7's story and rate it better then ANY book i've ever read (Including HPotter. LoRings,Shannara,Wheel of time). It has a wonderful love triangle, best baddie ever, saddest moment in gaming, great subplots and a surprising revelation!

Play FF7 or FF10 first as their the two best of the series..

Kevster

FFVII always gets a lot of mentioning whenever there's a thread about Final Fantasy going. Are we all in agreement that it is the best one? I have played the ones post-VII, and they got progressively worse. FFVIII wasn't too bad but it just... ...it just wasn't FFVII!!!

Anima

VII is the first one I played and it's my favourite. I think because I was quite young when playing it, it sticks out more that the rest of the games. Had I played VI or X at the time, I might say the same thing about those. All of them are worth playing though if you have the time.

For me, its all about the story with the battles just being what you have to endure before the story progresses further. Probably why I didn't like XII, because its just endless boring automated fighting with no storyline worth mentioning.

I would say VI, VII and X have the best storylines. VIII's story was alright except for some parts which were just useless. Some of the characters are annoying as well. It's battle system is pretty good though and I enjoyed it overall. It's different from the others in that its more western in character design and the societies in the game. Worth playing at the very least.

IX was alright. I enjoyed it but the style is more like classic RPGs than the more modern FF's.

I liked FFVII's battle system but I would say X's is the best overall. It was fun to play and more strategic than the others I felt. I really liked the way you could completely change the board to make your characters insanely powerful (i.e. Wakka's special 12 ball thing at 99,999 damage each...). Plus with the monster arena, it easily adds another 10+ hours if you want to beat all of them in there. Great game.

Kiith

I think its safe to say that VII is the best one, or at least the most popular one. Its definatly my favourite. It had, imo, the best storyline in a game that i have ever played (i've never really played Planescape: Torment). The characters were brilliant. Some of the best, and saddest (Anyone who's played it knows what i mean ) moments i've seen in a game.

I loved the fighting system as well. Maybe not as well developed as X, but i still loved it.

I remember when i first played it, i didnt have a memory card, and i had to restart the game over and over again (kept dying in the area after leaving Aeris's house after falling from the 2nd Reactor). Thats why i try to get through that part aas quickly as possible whenever i play it again.

Vokes

OP,

Best set of Characters: VI
Best Story: FFVII
Best Soundtrack: FFVII
Best Battle System: FFX
Best End Scene: FFX

Chumpski

My first FF was VIII, I saw my friend playing VII and those cutscenes and the whole atmosphere of the game really appealed. When i eventually got a playstation, i picked up FF VIII which was just out christmas 98, and i was completely blown away by it.

For me at least, the story is the most enjoyable aspect of the games but then again its aimed at adolescents. I played VIII, VII and then IX. I loved VIII but VII and IX were also worth playing. VIII had the best story i thought. Theres some value in those games too. Theyd keep you going for months if you try any sidequests too. I remember well trying to get to and beat ultima weapon in VIII...:D

I've played X as well of course and it was excellent as well but didn't quite top VIII for me. Now I have XII. Im pretty let down by it really... I played about 4 hours and it just hasn't got going at all story wise.

Kevster

What was that card game called that appeared in VII? I played that for hours and hours. There was one chap in some village that I could never ever beat; to my bitter frustration.

o1s1n

Kevster wrote:

What was that card game called that appeared in VII? I played that for hours and hours. There was one chap in some village that I could never ever beat; to my bitter frustration.

Don't you mean VIII? Or was there some secret card game in VII that I never came across in my couple of hundred hours of playing it?

Mark Hamill

SofaKing wrote:

OP,

Best set of Characters: VI

Well, there's about 15 of them, so it would be hard not to have a few you wouldn't like.

SofaKing wrote:

Best Battle System: FFX

It is a lot more customizable than FF7, but I thought that the materia system in FF7 was pure genius

SofaKing wrote:

Best End Scene: FFX

Personally, I'd have to go with FF7 on best end scene, quite possibly the best ending to any game I've ever played

Retr0gamer

Thought the materia system in FFVII was overly simplistic and the battles had absolutely no strategy to them. FFX was a far better battle system.

Thought the ending of FFVII was very disappointing myself. You could really tell the end of the game was a little rushed. FFX had a far more logical ending that was both joyful and heartbreaking at the same time and very well thought out.

As for the peole saying that FF games have better stories than books or film, I'm not so sure. FFVI was great but didn't get the translation it deserved, FFVII was great and had potential but was very rushed and FFX did a good job of telling a very good story. I don't think they would be challenging the best works of sci-fi or fantasy. there's also a handful of games out there that tell a better story. Check out Suikoden 2, or better yet SotC, Ico or Panzer Dragoon Saga. The last 3 I note in particular because they tell a story that can only really be told through the videogame medium.

Chumpski

X was good. Voice acting was a real plus for it. X-2 was a complete disaster though. Thats 2 FF games in a row that i've pretty much hated. Well i hated x-2, i suppose i should give XII another few hours before i give up on it.

yawnstretch

It's all about VII people. It transcended its rpg genre for those not usually interested in random battles and turn based gaming.

There's been nothing like it since.

Retr0gamer

I think we have have been a handful of much better RPG's than FFVII since it was released. Also FFVI is a far superior game.

TheAlmightyArse

yawnstretch wrote:

It's all about VII people. It transcended its rpg genre for those not usually interested in random battles and turn based gaming.

No it didn't. I for one found it as boring and ham-fisted as most other Japanese "RPGs".