/vr/ - Retro Games

FFVI. I'm replaying it now with the BNW mod and it's pretty damn fun.

Why? The steampunk and magitek presence in the setting. The characters and the music. I also like the themes dealt with. The espers and genocide/exploitation, Terra's identity crisis and the whole contrast between Terra and Kefka.

It has its flaws but everything is good enough to let me look past them.

The only FF games I can stand to replay nowadays are FFI, III and V with V being my fave game atm. I enjoy the replay value provided by the job systems and different combinations of classes and the LACK of 2derp4u stories and crince worthy romance subplots.

>>2369135
Good job explaining why FFIX is your favorite OP.

>>2369243
Don't forget:
>dat coinflip
>dat opera scene
>dat "leap of faith"
>teenage pregnancy
>dat Dancing Mad
>dat teasing of da octopus

>>2369135
FFIV, because it actually isn't II.

For /vr/, my favorite is probably IV. I love the soundtrack and characters. I liked V for how whimsical it was too, but it got much too overwhelming for me (I could never decide on which jobs to go with).

I liked what I played of VII, but then Midgar ended and I suddenly lost all interest.

I would like to try IX sometime, but I unfortunately spoiled a big event for myself some time ago :(

>>2369358
>IV. I love the soundtrack and characters.
this

The soundtrack is beautiful and nostalgic as fuck

>>2369358
Kinda funny, first time I played through VII, I was kinda bummed when Midgar ended.

But then replaying it, I thought it went on for a bit too long.

You should play IX though. I had most FF games totally spoiled for me before playing them, but I was still genuinely moved by many scenes and really grew to like the characters. IX probably has one of my favorite casts.

And I definitely recommend giving V another chance. The trick is to not overthink things. Just pick something and go with it. The game is pretty easy and very lenient. I don't think it's at all possible to screw up your characters.

Also Exdeath is my favorite villain because he's a tree.

>>2369253
Wow, one post and three minutes in and there is already a shitposter. That one's gotta be a record.

The numbered series are all good, excepting 14 pre-update. That shit was awful. Hyped for 15, don't care about all the feminists complaining about it. Never played 12 for more than 10 hours, though I enjoyed what little I saw.

Tactics is variably good, Dissidia is great, the 7 spinoffs aren't my thing, and Theatrhythm is secret best FF. The new Record Keeper game has potential but it's clearly just some shitty free-to-play fluff.

>>2369407
>The new Record Keeper game has potential but it's clearly just some shitty free-to-play fluff.
It's fun for a few minutes till you realize that it's not. It's battle after battle with barely anything else. Still, for a FTP game it's alright and it's what ATB should have been.

>>2369407
You are a very forgiving man, anon. I respect that.

VI is my favorite FF and my favorite game of all time, however I think that overall V is the best in the series. I kept with the series until XIII-2, however both games were such a huge disappointment and Square Enix(mainly the Square portion) had become such a shell of its former self that I couldn't keep spending $60 on anime hallway simulators or Crisis Core reskins.

I also enjoy the spin-offs, Dissidia was really fun and Theatrhythm was one of the best rhythm games I've ever played. Bravely Default is also amazing, and has slightly restored my faith in Square to make good games again, but I can't forgive them totally.

>IX
The sense of adventure is great and it's a good love letter to the old RPGs.

>Tactics
Was my first tactical rpg and loved the genre, building my army while mixing skills was great for me.

>VI
Liked the plot and the characters, the party was pretty balanced in terms of personality.

>>2369394
>I was kinda bummed when Midgar ended
In my opinion, Midgar was the best part of VII.

V is my all time favorite. Job system, tons (I mean tons) of fights. It was less story oriented and more gameplay focused which was nice for at least one FF. It also gave birth to my second favorite.
Tactics. Awesome style of fighting, the story was pretty complex and overall was a lot of fun and tons of replay value for V and Tactics.

Of the more mainstream FF's I'd say VI is really good, VII was great (especially for it's time) and IX was like the cherry on top of the cake. It brings all the old school elements we loved from FF into the present with nice graphics and arguably the best cast of characters. I loved 10 but there was a lot of cringe worthy scenes for me. Tidus is also a little derp.
Anything after that is kind of sub par imo

I'd say it's a tie between FFII and FFVI.

FFII has my favorite cast, story and artwork, I also love the combat system, as much as it's messy and not really well thought out for most things.
I like how the story is simple yet endearing, a cast that has a lot of charm and a great story of a bunch of heroic rebels fighting against a powerful empire led by a charismatic and capable leader.
I also really like the more tragic setting, it's really one of the most "serious" FF for most things and it was also the first one to introduce a lot of conventions of the series like Bombs, Dragoons, Chocobos, the Ultima spell and so on.

FFVI has a great cast, my favorite score and a great steampunkish setting which is really one of my favorites in its kind.
It's a bit too easy and some parts might be a little too cheesy even for me, but it's probably my favorite SFC FF and one of my top favorites, though FFII could win by a small margin.

>>2369618
>FFII has my favorite cast, story and artwork
Well that's a rare opinion to come by! FFII was really enjoyable for me too, and I had no qualms with the combat system either.

My favourite is FFVII despite FFIV being the first I've played (being that everyone's first is usually their favourite). I just played it at the right time I guess; everything just clicked with me: characters, story, materia system, music.

However, my favourite OST is probably FFV's which doesn't get much love from what I see.

I used to play VII once a year.
Somewhere along the line it switched to IX. It's just so fucking magical and great.

>>2369557
I love IX but when you say that IX had a great cast of characters, I'd have to disagree. Outside of Zidane, Garnet, Vivi and Kuja, the rest of the cast were throwaway characters to me. Freya, Steiner and Quina all felt tagalongs with Eiko just being an unlikable Relm.

>>2369557
>cringeworthy scenes

you mean this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5FTJxfV3pc

>>2369557
I loved Titus, despite how really dumb he is. He's dumb in a charming way, and he's that way intentionally. He's not dumb because the writers were incompetent. He does nothing but think about blitzball all day every day, so he's really not too clever. And he has to think of everything in blitzball metaphors to understand it.

Also, yeah, some awkward scenes. Mostly I think due to the fact that it was Square's first attempt at voice acting. Or at least full voice acting. So they weren't very experienced in giving the VAs good direction and whatnot.

Still, it's hardly the worst RPG I've played when it comes to that. Some scenes were genuinely pretty good.

There are plenty of PS1 and 2 JRPGs where your face is in danger of imploding from cringing too hard.

>>2369557
>>2369557
He's a bit dumb, yes, but that's because he's a blitzball jock

>>2369618
This is an interesting opinion that I don't hear very often. I've played and beaten most of the games in the entire FF series, but I put FFII down almost immediately--probably because of shit posters and retards constantly railing on it for being 'terrible,' causing me to be overly critical out of the gate.

I'll give it another go sometime.

>>2369284
I like II at least a thousand times more than IV. No hyperbole.

>>2370023
>probably because of shit posters and retards constantly railing on it for being 'terrible,'

>"I-I-I-I-It must be shitposters and r-r-retards that hate on this game, I mean it's a retro Final Fantasy game for pete's s-s-sake! How can it possibly be bad when one anon says it isn't on /vr/!"

FFVIII because Squall.

Not sure why it is my favorite, it's just a lot of fun!

Favorite is V because:

>job system
>story doesn't take itself too seriously
>the most difficult of the sfc ff games

Now let me tell you what I think of the others:
1: Good, good replay value with different party set-ups
2: Average, stat system is fucked up and exploitable, story is good, though
3: Excellent: Job systems rock, most difficult of the FC ones
4: Poor, linear, no replay value, story is a giant space flea out of nowhere and cringy romantic bollocks
6: Excellent, good story, character building is fun and music is amazing
7: Average, it was okay, but didn't leave a lasting impression on me
8: Shit. Whatever.
9: Low, four discs of exposition

>>2370029
Well to be fair, it's a very odd game compared to the others in the series. II is actually one of my favorites as well, but that's because my first RPG was FF Legend so the Saga system feels pretty intuitive to me.

Also, most people who play II go straight to breaking the game which completely ruins the experience.

My favorite FF is actually a toss up between II and IX. I really like them both, but they're completely different games.

FF1: I mean, today it's boring shit to play, but it had it's appeal when it came out.
FF2: Absolutely horrendous, ended up watching a "story video" of FF 2 instead. Couldn't even bother "breaking" the game to see what unfolds.
FF3: It's alright, the 3ds remake that got to PSP/PC later is a much more enjoyable experience.
FF4: The epitome of Final Fantasy, exactly what it should be, swords, lasers, space travel, medieval setting with steampunk areas. Fantastic music, would say on par with IX. DS/PC difficulty can get intense. Advance and PSP release for added content, it really shines out as a game.
FF5: Oh boy, I mean besides having good music and choice of jobs if you like that, and a pretty good story, it falls short if you ask me, the random encounters, especially in the later stages of the game really is bullshit, people like to give FF4 flack for overusing the counter system but FF5 random encounters are just awful. And that arguably the biggest gameplay problem a FF title can have.
FF6: Okay music, a cast that is mostly forgettable cept say 3 of them out of 14, espers were waste of time and only gotten for spells and you never really used any of them either, mainly quick to break the game. The game really is mediocre and bland compared to other great games in the series.
FF7: No reason to go into much detail, we all heard the reasonings why it's awesome before. it's just great and arguably best one or sharing the top spot with 4.
FF8: Well, except that you can "break" the game like you can with 2, I guess it's pretty good, the story is pretty great if you're not stupid and actually comprehend what's going on.
FF9: Great story, great cast of characters ,nobody really falls on the short end and you can mix and match any party and it will be great really. Probably the best music out of all games. Minigames I see a lot of mixed opinions about but I like them.

>>2370060
>FF2: Absolutely horrendous, ended up watching a "story video" of FF 2 instead. Couldn't even bother "breaking" the game to see what unfolds.

If you're playing an old RPG like FFII for it's story, you've already failed before you started. The rest of your opinions are almost as funny.

>>2370063
>replying seriously to a troll post
please /vr, can't we be better than this?

>>2370063
>>>/v/
>>2370067
>serious reply

>>2370023
The problem with FFII is that it was a prototype of Kawazu's brainchild so while it had really nice ideas it suffered from poor execution in a lot of things.

The growth system is very good on paper but it is hampered by abnoxiously low growth rate even among SaGa game, a magic system that while it is theoretically great is rendered null by again, growth rate, success rates of debuffs and the fact that most of the useful spells aren't available early so you must either grind or abuse the action cancel bug to make them worth.
It's an amazingly intuitive and very satisfying system since you can nurture your characters the way you want instead of having fixed roles, it also feels more realistic to have a character that can become good at mostly anything given he/she trains enough for it, even though all characters have set differences in growth rates, it's much more roleplaying relevant than most RPGs of its time and after really, but it was conceptually flawed.
As long as you realize this you can go past the usual rants and memes, like the fact that every idiot thinks that you should really, atively hit yourself to have HP growth when that's the last of your problems anyway and the Captain exploit works much faster.

Regarding all the rest, it really comes down to your personal taste, but let me reiterate what I said in my previous post.
The story is amazing for a game that came out in the late 80's, it has everything you want, tragedy, dead people stay dead and die for a really good reason, betrayals, a grand story of a ragtag group of rebels who struggle to barely stay alive till the end of the game, it's marvelous in its simplicity.

Of course you should like a minimalistic approach to story and characters like most games from Kawazu or FROM instead of the typical cheesy RPG, if you like games that prefer to show things instead of telling you shit FFII is a great ride, if not you'll probably hate it with a passion.

FFIX has my favorite cast, and it does the best job at creating a world that feels alive and growing; extremely minor NPCs actually have arcs that you will literally never notice if you don't talk to them frequently, there's a pretty hefty amount of flavor text in every corner of every town and city, and the ATEs let the writers have relaxed, non-critical scenes without worrying about breaking the flow of the game. Plus, I absolutely love the music, and the graphics (especially the FMVs) still hold up today because of the heavy stylization they went for.

The speed of the combat and the pretty mediocre sidequests are my only real gripes, but they're totally squashed by how good the world and characters are.

>>2370038
Bait

>>2370072
To be fair, if you played FFXI it's almost the same system as 2, only they made massive improvements.

>>2370072
>The growth system is very good on paper but it is hampered by abnoxiously low growth rate even among SaGa game, a magic system that while it is theoretically great is rendered null by again, growth rate

For the original game, I agree. If you're playing normally and not gaming the system it can get really grindy. But in the GBA and PSP versions, I think they get the balance about perfect.

>>2370082
What are you talking about? FFXI has traditional leveling, not Saga style.

>>2370091
It had a weapon skill, dodge, block etc skill that you could level up and gain abilities along the way

>>2370090
Maybe I just sucked, but I ended up severely underpowered in FFII when I played it on the PSP. By the time I reached the Red Flame or whatever it was, my physical hits consistently did 0 damage to bosses unless I crit with an axe. So I ended up having to cheese the game by levelling Toad up to ridiculous levels on Maria while having everyone else dual-wield axes.

>>2370094
Yes, but those elements are minor, it's based around traditional levels.

FFIX for the character designs and environment art. I really wish I could mod it and improve the graphics, a lot of old renders are available at higher resolutions.

>>2370097
>Minor
Enjoy not being able to tank, heal or miss all your attacks

>>2370108
I didn't mean those abilities were minor. I meant leveling them was a minor part of the overall leveling process in that game. Not the central mechanic for everything as it is in II or the Saga games.

>>2370096
That does seem odd, I've played through both versions several times (only tooled around with the FC version briefly) and have never had much trouble or had to stop to grind.

I played only FFIV DS and FFV so far and liked them both. Here's my boring endgame party, was somewhat tired to trying out last batch of jobs, so I completed it with something that just werked.

>>2370090
The problem with both GBA and PSP versions is that they rebalanced it way too much in the player's favor so the game becomes really easy.
The original isn't realy super hard, the ride is only rough until you get to blow up the Dreadnought, after that you get so much stuff in the form of spells or equipment that the game becomes much easier, not to mention how you can exploit a lot of things in a completely legit way, like farming Berserk Scrolls for money or using the Captain exploit for easy growth.

You just need to know what to do, there are a lot of bad rumours about the game, mostly spread by people who didn't care to tinker with the game or didn't even finish it.

>>2370164
Like I say, I only ever played the original briefly so I can't compare the ports to it. But I've played each of those versions through and thought the balance was pretty good. My personal definition of RPG balance done right is that by exploring the areas you come to fully, but not going out of your way to stop and grind it should be challenging but doable. It fits that pretty well for me.

>>2370131
Well, good for you for restraining yourself to only one instance of the ludicrously overpowered end-game classes. A lot of people's final parties were super-suppins or Ninjas w/ Sage sauce.

>>2370131
>not grinding for AP in the final dungeon to master every job and slaughtering Exdeath with Super-Powered Mimes
Step up.

>>2370256
>grinding pointlessly in a game that you're already plenty powerful to overcome every challenge it has for you.
>literally throwing time in the garbage so you can make an easy game even easier.

Why do people feel proud for grinding?

>>2370260
Because it's fun.

>>2370260
Because for some it's fun, and it was the meat of your older ones.

Don't forget that Dragon Quest had to be released on a weekend.

>>2370261
You really think walking back and forth to fight piss easy random battles for hours on end with the sole purpose of ensuring that any future will be as easy as it possibly can be, is fun? I guess this world takes all kinds, but wow. I could hardly imagine a game being more boring.

>>2370273
Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't find RPGs in general fun. I just don't see the fun in grinding, or the point in ever doing so unless it's one of the early badly designed ones where it's a necessity to kill easy enemies over and over before you're strong enough to move onto the next batch.

>>2370023
>shit posters and retards constantly railing on it for being 'terrible,' causing me to be overly critical out of the gate.
To be fair, FFII's problems do outweigh its accomplishments. The combat system is interesting and innovative, however the way it was implemented ranges from too grind heavy to flat-out broken. The story is also very innovative, but its a real shame that it was the story Square reused another five times before the merger.

The name of the game in FFII is innovation, which is very commendable, but all in all it was executed pretty poorly. The story and characters are the only real shining gem, but it is hard to see how original it was(in the video game medium anyway) with IV, VI, VII, VIII and IX all having the same story as II done in better ways.

>>2370023
The hipster mentality is strong in this one

>Final Fantasy II
I really wanted to like the game and will praise it for it's ideas, story and characters that all are good for a game from late 80s.

However there is lot wrong with the game like it's "level up" system. In theory it sound great:
In theory attacking your enemies makes you better at using whatever weapon you used and occasionally gain str.
In theory taking physical damage makes you tougher by raising your HP and def.
In theory using magic makes the spells you used stronger and gives you more MP and mag. bonuses.

However in practice you are doing things like these:
-Choosing attack, immediately canceling it and doing this over and over again about 100 times per battle. This is bug/exploit allowing you to gain proficiency levels for the weapon type you are using.
-Hitting your own guys in hopes of getting more HP for them.
-Casting your spells over and over again to make them worth shit.

The main problem here is that you basically HAVE TO keep doing these exploit over and over again in every fucking battle to get strong enough just to survive the battles with the random enemies you come across. Oh, FFII is pretty non-linear meaning if you ever walk out of your way and go somewhere else instead of the place you are supposed to go changes are you encounter enemies that are way too strong for you and kill you instantly. And if you ever try to play FFII normally without using aforementioned exploits you are as good as dead and have grind forever to gain any stats at all.

What I typed is based on the original Famicon and PSX versions of FFII, apparently the newer versions/remakes of FFII have been made slightly easier (or should I say more playable) by increasing the stats gains, removing you occasionally LOSING your stats and making the enemies a bit weaker but you are still pretty much required to use all exploit you can in them. Am I wrong in assuming that the FFII fanboys on /v/ and /vr/ have only played one these more recent versions of FFII?

IX.

I just find the cast and world the best by far compared to the others. For example, where I would facepalm at VIII with the love story I found much more convincing in IX. The tons and tons of sidequests just meant for me "more excuse to find shit on this cool map."

Also best waifus. Sorry guys, but in my opinion IX has the best written female characters in the entire series with V and VI close behind.

It also has this odd quality of self-awareness sometimes. Zidane makes some interesting comments and the game manages to be very subtle about it. Pretty damn cool when you realize it.

>>2371134
The thing with the system FF2 uses isnt even new even then.

It was already done before and more sensibly by Wizardry(then again, Wizardry did everything first for RPG's).


I also wonder why FF2 fags have such a hate boner for 4.

>>2371140
Not any of them but come to think of it, 2 and 4 are kind of polar opposites in every way except for the medieval setting.

>>2371140
>4
2 and 6-fags hate on it, most probably because it gets the most love on /vr/ from the FF games before the playstation era

>>2371191
Dunno bout 6 Fags. They dont think highly of it but they don't utterly despise it like 2 do.


6 is in an eternal death struggle with 7.

>>2371134
>you basically HAVE TO keep doing these exploit over and over again in every fucking battle to get strong enough just to survive
> try to play FFII normally without using aforementioned exploits you are as good as dead

I don't agree with this. I was able to get through almost all of the game without grinding just by fully exploring and fighting all encounters. This is especially possible if you plan what equipment and magic your characters will have ahead of time so you don't waste level ups on things (weapons, spells) you would never use again. The only time I stopped to grind was towards the end at the Tower of Mysdia and Pandemonium. Even then that's only because I wanted to cheese my way through the last final bit since I was almost done.

This is speaking of the FC version as well. Never bothered to play any remakes in the series.

>>2371191
>2 and 6-fags hate on it, most probably because it gets the most love on /vr/ from the FF games before the playstation era
/vr/ really fluctuates, a few months ago FF threads on here and on /v/ were filled with IV haters. VI fans can be really chill or huge autists, which is a shame since it sucks when an amazing game like that gets a bad rep because some neckbeard can't accept there are other good games in the franchise.
>>2371193
>6 is in an eternal death struggle with 7.
And sometimes V, I know quite a few VI fans who get horribly triggered when someone says V is the best entry.

The two worst kinds of FF fans here on /vr/ are people who have exclusively played III and V and say all of the others are shit and Dragon Quest is better, and VI/VII fans who are smug assholes because they think their game is the best ever made and immediately label everyone else a hipster or shitposter.

Personally VI is my favorite, I think V is the legit best, and each game has its pros and cons. Even II and VIII.

>>2371243
>fans who are smug assholes
I don't get why people have to be this way. My favourite is VII and have enjoyed every single mainline game (of course, some not as much), but I'm not compelled to call other shitters for liking another entry.

What's sad is that I earnestly love VII (not even my first FF), but since it's VII I get much more flak for it. And by pure happenstance VI had the weakest hook for me, but god forbid I mention that while saying VII is my favourite.

>>2371134
>but you are still pretty much required to use all exploit you can in them.

I've been replaying the PSX Origin port since a few days and I can assure you the only exploit I did was the Captain exploit before the Dreadnought for Gold Armors and extra HP.
I just took the white mask and never once did I hit my guys, the highest spell I have at the moment is Cure 7 on Maria followe by fire 4, Blink 3/Berserk 3 and soon Haste 3, you don't need more than this really.
Firion has mained axes and sword and does easily 700-1000 damage already, Maria does a stable 600 with just an ice bow and Guy demolishes anything with punches, you don't have to do anything you mentioned at all, especially since the encounter rate is so damn high you just need to occasionaly cast the spells you want to level two or three times per battle and you'll be set, if you do this regularly of course.
If you really feel the need you can exploit the action cancelling bug for Flare or Ultima, but when Guy already does a solid 1000-1500 to anything it's a waste of time anyway, Ultima doesn't even have a element and the damage multiplier doesn't really make it more worth than elemental spells, which should be your priority in the early game.
Also, the best way to level up your HP in general is exploiting Revenants since they have percentage based HP attacks, you'll level up HP like mad.

>>2369967
Tidus is such a sad character. Everyone conspires to hide stuff from him, in order to make the sudden reveal the most emotionally wrecking as possible for his naive, fish out of water mind. And to be fair he can take on hard stuff, like him being dead all along, but if you wait all the game to tell him that the whole journey he's so eager to take part of will kill the girl he has the hots for, and apparently that's well know stuff in present day Spira but no one cares to tell him but on the most critical time, it's kinda obvious he's gonna spaz out. The whole FFX plot can be summarized like that, stuff that could be more useful knowing hours ago revealed at the most inappropriate time.

>>2371509
When you put like that, I'm actually pretty sad I never looked at him that way til now. I never disliked him either.

>>2371352
It happens, VII has a rotten reputation because of things like Kingdom Hearts and Advent Children, fellow FF fans forget that VII is a legitimately awesome game because it has been buried under kids and weeaboos so long.

But the opposite is also true as well, VII fans can spew a lot of vitriol when you say the game is bad, or not the best in the series.

>>2370727
>The combat system is interesting and innovative, however the way it was implemented ranges from too grind heavy to flat-out broken.

Play either the PSP or GBA port, the skill leveling is curves are adjusted and you no longer loose skill points like you originally did. Those versions are totally playable as straight RPGs and the balance is actually almost perfect, you never need to stop and grind or use exploits and glitches.

You do have to play smart, plan your characters growth from the start but it really is a great version that you can play straight through and never need to stop and grind.

>>2371134
The above applies to you as well. If you like the idea of FFII but not the execution, try out the PSP/GBA version. Zero grinding and zero need to ever exploit anything.

>>2371191
Personally, I hate 4 because it's the point where the series turned from one that experimented heavily with interesting class and leveling systems and went for cookie cutter characters and removing customization. I don't hate it specifically, but I do think it's the least interesting game in the series. At least up to 9 which is the last game I played.

>>2371825
It's not Kindgom Hearts and Advent Children's fault, VII has had that dual reaction of extremes since it came out.

>>2369358
>I unfortunately spoiled a big event for myself some time ago
No big deal, the story's pretty crap anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjZuxAWb8a8

appropiate for thread, pick your battle music.

>>2371856
Very much this. IX might be my favorite in the series, and I really like the characters (minus Eiko and Amarant), but the actual story plot is pretty ridiculous.

I actually think it was meant to be a kind of comedy, especially with the end boss reveal.

>>2371891
The final boss was the ultimate shout-out in a game full of them. Unfortunately we missed said shout-out because we never played very many of the FF games that featured the idea. And the translation of his name didn't help much either, but who the fuck played III at the time?

I agree with you on plot though. I really think it would've been better without Kuja, and they just threw him in last minute when Garland was supposed to have more screen time.

>>2371857
I always loved the PS1 ones better, especially when the prog keyboards came in.

>>2371940
From the first 5 games, for my taste, number 4 statnds out. And from VI to IX, definitely VII has an amazing epic feel to it.

Here's VII battle music, on it's own looped a couple of times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY1Vetd7OCs

>>2371940
See, I think Kuja being played up as the big villain and then the bait and switch with Garland right at the end giving him virtually no development or screen time is what makes it funny. FFIX to me is sort of a big joke about all the others. Monkey clones from dimension-X

>>2371978
Garland wasn't a bad guy though. He's also one of the characters in ff9 I like most.

>>2370031
>Not sure why it is my favorite, it's just a lot of fun!
VIII is my favorite too. I love the story and the strange timeline that keeps on unfolding. It became a lot more fun for me to play through multiple times when I found out about the Rinoa = Ultimecia and the Squall = Dead "theories". No other FF game gave the player so much control and stat management over the characters than VIII did.
The fact that the enemies level up with the party can be a pain but as enemies level up with you they have different and better things to steal and pick up and their magic usually changes or gets better. The biggest and most unfortunate drag is the end of disc 1 into the beginning of disc 2. The assassination mission, the sewers, Laguna segment kicking off disc 2 and then the prison segment are such a pain in the ass to get through...most people I've ever known that played VIII get fed up somewhere between the sewers and the prison break
>But those fan fiction theories are stupid and fallible!
>"Whatever."

>>2374292
Just make a save with what you consider a perfect file right after the prison break, replay disc 1, when you get to the assasination mission, load the other file, save over your save from disc 1 and continue, problem solved

>>2374535
...or better yet a save file to start fresh with a low level and from where there are no more dream sequences (somewhere in disc 3), and you have the ship to finally play it as an open world grind fest.

>>2374612
>Grinding in 8

>>2374627
the game is begging for you to play it that way... no, I'm being serious.........

>>2374292
Rinoa = Ultimecia had some merit.

I don't think its fair to compare it to Squall = Dead. Squall = Dead is the same non-theory invoked on a million other things.

>>2369253
I agree with you. III and IV, and V are the ones I only replay every once in a while. III because of the OST and it has charm, and V because it's my favourite. IV because it was my first FF entry and I enjoy the DS version.

>>2374634
>the game is begging for you to play it that way
You won't fool me Rusemeister.

>>2369243
What's the BNW mod?

>>2370060
>FF6: Okay music

Yeah, stopped reading there. Say what you want about the gameplay, the music is that game is incredible, and universally loved. Liking music is an opinion-based subject, but in this case, you're just completely fucking wrong.

>>2370273
That's a myth.

I'd say my favorites are VII and X, VII was my first and although it has its flaws it's universally loved for a reason.

X is a tricky one to explain, people shit on it a lot but I loved the battle system, sphere grid and story. Yeah the VA is garbage and it's linear as fuck. Maybe it's nostalgia, I'm going to get it when it's out on PS4 in a couple of weeks as I haven't played it in years to see if it still holds up.

I don't think I dislike any of the games aside from XIII and online (never played XI and XIV)
If I was ranking I would go -

VII > X > VIII > IV > VI > XII > IX > V > I > III >> II >>>> XIII

IX is comfortably the best

>>2375249
also if it could be tidied up a little bit (economy, stats, level scaling etc) it would probs be the best game ever

>>2375087
Brave new world, a rare mod on ID that isn't a lazy difficulty hack.

>>2371978
Finally, someone fucking says it. I loved Kuja, he was a great villain and a nice homage to Kefka and Golbez, but when Garland got involved his development went right down the shitter.

If IX hadn't tried to fit all the other FFs into one game and do its own thing, something that was a development concept in FF that had been there since the original, it could have been the best in the series.

I love IX, but sometimes it feels like people forget that the story has quite a few flaws.

Does anyone know what happened to The Power Within? I know Square released a cease-and-desist while it was being worked on, but surely someone has picked it up by this point, right?

For anyone who doesn't know what it was, it was a fan-made sequel to FFVI. While I'm sure it would have been very subpar compared to the original, it still would have been interesting to see and play.

FFVII.
Please, guys, we all know how much it means, I don't have to explain it.
I honestly don't when it became cool to hate on or at least disregard it, but it saddens me. In staunch criticism, though, the graphics and battle system have both aged terribly.

For me it goes:
VII > IV > IX > VI > V > XII > III > VIII > X > I = II > XIII
Haven't played XI or XIV because I rarely mmo.

>>2371940
>>2371856
>All this unanswered smacktalk about my favorite

Alright since OP is clearly a fag I'll give my two cents about why IX is my favorite.

And it's hard to say. It wasn't my first FF, I had played 7 through midgar with my friend but when I got my own it was just so different.

I loved the way that Tantalus was introduced with being on the Airship right away. It was great exposition and the kidnapping plot grabbed my attention so well. I loved that the princess wasn't just doing boring princess shit, she was genuinely motivated to do something about her situation, not giving a fuck about what anyone thought about it. The whole sequence up to the Evil Forest is just phenomenal to me. It's the way the characters interact. The consquences of their actions.

The idea that love doesn't stop bad things from happening, or overcome hardship. The game just got more brutal the further the plot developed.

The ending was amazing and it blew my fucking mind as a child. After the credits when the logo came back and the crystal is shown in the center I started crying (being a child). It was almost too much for me to even understand. I've replayed it countless times but I always come back

It's my favorite video game of all time, and it will always hold up to me.

I don't like the angsty nature of Cloud and Who cares from FF8, they are just boring and I'm not that interested in their stories. That being said, I did play and beat both of those games. I definitely prefer a fantasy setting to the steampunk future setting by far though.\

tl;dr shit's good I liek it

>>2376862
>I know Square released a cease-and-desist while it was being worked on, but surely someone has picked it up by this point, right?

Do you know how a cease-and-desist order works?

Time for art!

more

I can't imagine being in this place when half of it was fucking sucked up into the void. God damn that was dark.

How did this scene make you feel?

The realm of eternal rain

FFIV holds a special place in my heart only because it was my intro to the series and JRPG's in general. I came buckets when I found out about the BYOND MMO version of it.


Now I'm split between IX and X, really.

>>2377472
Mikoto: This where you bury the dead...? What's the point of this? It isn't like the dead would appreciate it.
Black Mage no. 288: You're right, but I don't think we build cemeteries for the dead. Sure, it may seem pointless to you, but... How can I describe it? It's so that we can think like this: "We'll never forget you. We'll remember you every time we stand at your grave. And we won't let the fear of death, which each of us knows, stop us from living our lives. Because my friends will remember me when I'm here."

>>2371978

Kuja wasn't the big villain you dingus, he was a tool. A living doll executing the will of Garland and the souls of Terra. That's his big character arc. He tries to destroy all life because he is afraid. He realizes that his whole existence he has been manipulated, and in all reality is nothing. For all the damage that he caused, for all the lives he destroyed, it was all for nothing. He almost succeeds in doing so, but the will of life to exist is too strong, even for the embodiment of the end of all life.

After all that though, Zidane still saves him, because he's the same thing. Made for a purpose, but in living in Gaia was not defined by the future that was set up for him. By breaking the mold of becoming a harbinger of death and destruction, he became stronger than Kuja could ever be. The strength of the heart and will over greed and lust for power. And the emptiness that comes from losing the power that you had, having nothing left and just giving up to die.

But Zidane went back, to die with him, as a brother. Because it was the right fucking thing to do. hard
"Just you wait, Garland And you too, Zidane! I'll exact sweet revenge upon you both for insulting me! I'll make the people of both Gaia and Terra know who rules over all of them!

What comedy! Zidane, isn't it hilarious!? I'll die just like the black mages I so despise! I single-handedly brought chaos unto Gaia, but in the end, I'm nothing but a worthless doll! ... I won't let it happen. I won't... I won't let this world exist without me!"

Why should the world exist without me? That wouldn't be fair. If I die, we all die!

Garland from FFIX is basically the Adolf Hitler of the Final Fantasy universe. Sees himself as the executor of providence's will, has a stark Darwinian view of life and death, seeks new Lebensraum for the Terrans. Both schemes end in absolute disaster for Terra and Germany. Garland's final words at the end of FFIX suggest the words of Hitler's last will and testament - that although they both failed, they don't regret having done what they did because they believed they were both serving a greater function assigned to them.

>>2371850
This is true. Even on /vr/ where we try to stay chill some of the time.

It's in part because of how the setting changed when it came out. It's in a lot of ways completely different looking than the games before it. Sci-Fi was never of the ancient civilization for example, now you're the ancient civilization.

>>2377435
You're forgetting Flames of Eternity, which is actually Crimson Echoes.

Who knows, maybe one day. Haven't heard shit though.

POST MUSIC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACFYaHyWrMQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2MDIGredqM

>>2377586
GARLAND DID NOTHING WRONG

>>2377420
Oh I liked the intro too. But I struggle to like ff9 because after the first disc the setting runs out of steam and the plot ceases to be interesting.

As someone who's never played any pre-5th gen FF, VII is my favourite. Every sequel had at least one flaw that kept me from fully enjoying them but VII kept me hooked the whole way through. Yeah the graphics are woefully dated and yes, a bit of proofreading would definitely helped the translation, but I can't find fault in anything else and it flowed smoothly, never getting bogged down by ridiculously hard bosses, tediously long dungeons or obtuse quests.

Before anyone asks - yes, I will eventually get around to playing the oldschool FFs.

>>2378298
>woefully dated
To be honest it's not really as bad as some other games of the era due to the animation. They may be lego men, but damn are they smooth lego men.

>>2377860
>the setting runs out of steam

>>2377592
>>2371850
VII has the dual reactions of extremes since it came out, that much is undeniable, however my point was that VII has gotten a bad reputation among gamers who haven't played VII, but have heard KH fans and weebs gush over the extended stuff. I personally know people who talk about how great VII was, calling it the best FF, and they have never played an FF outside XIII and Dissidia. It gets obnoxious, so many people gush over it that it can de-hype newcomers to the game.

I personally found it amazing, but that amount of excessive praise over a game you never played is just annoying, especially when the people are so in-you-face about it.

>>2377860
>>2378375
Eh, I kinda have to agree. I say after the Iifa Tree and until the Crystal World, IX's setting was really dull(aside from the dungeons, which usually always looked great). The cities and first continent were pretty cool, but afterwards the desert continents were very dull, and combined with how linear the game was, it made for a very uninteresting setting and a woefully underdeveloped world.

The plot never ceases to be interesting, however it does really begin to wear itself out by cramming as many FF allusions in it as possible, especially by the last disc. Aside from Zidane's flashbacks and a bit of intrigue in Kuja's palace, the whole second world/crystal plotline seemed to come out of nowhere just for the sake of referencing crystals and advanced races. Garland being added in only to almost immediately be killed by Kuja also seemed a bit pointless, as did the battles with the four fiends. It was cool, but it all just felt like the developers went a bit overboard with it at the end. If FFIX had tried to be of its own thing and not allude to the other entries so much it would probably be my favorite.

>>2371857
well my favorites are:
FFII is actually good enough to make me feel surprised that this is from an 80's NES game.

FFIII has what i call first season charm, like when a series starts pretty formulaic and simple but ends up being complex and sometimes really dramatic. this applies to FFI too but FFIII is much better.

I like FFIV because it feels so heroic, the boss theme is way better though.

VII is like a modern version of the old themes, but i feel that the song just doesn't fit with the atmosphere of the game most of the time, i prefer the boss theme here too because it actually fits the style of the game and it's really good.

The FFIX theme is arguably my favorite, it never gets old and it's a good theme overall.

FFX feels good and powerful when you hear it the first 30 times but later it gets pretty annoying like the game tries to surprise you in an exaggerated way that there's another random combat in a game modern enough to not have random encounters. Really good theme it's just that it gets old after playing a long time.

I like XIII theme too but it happens to me like with X without the random encounter parts. XIII-2 is different but it's a nice song

>>2378298
It's funny how so-called "reviewers" almost always harp on about things that have grown out of the game, rather than the game itself (the trends it established, the frequently rabid and obnoxious fanbase etc.) and when they finally DO get to the game part all their complaints are hilariously exaggerated:

>Cloud is such an emo lololol

I run into this argument a lot and it's a clear example of someone just parroting crap they've heard from other retards, as opposed to experiencing the games themselves. What about him is so "emo" in the first place? The fact that he occasionally questions who he really is? There isn't a single actual instance of Cloud ever moping about like an emo in the original game, even during his "hurr imma lonewolf badass who dont care bout nothin" period at the beginning of the game

>you fight the same enemies over and over and over again

Wow, just like in every other JRPG ever.

>it's the same shit as before

You know what the one thing more annoying than the fans who worship their favourite game while willfully ignoring all its flaws? The haters who are determined to hate the hell out of a game no matter what just because it's not their favourite game - when a game deviates too much from the established formula of a series they whine, when a game rehashes the same formula they whine, and when a game tries new things while still retaining the familiarity of the franchise guess what - they fucking whine! There's literally no pleasing them no matter what, because nothing else besides whatever game they've obsessively latched onto will ever be good enough for them no matter what.

>the plot is crappy childish nonsense

Explain to me how it's any worse than fucking Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy VI, both of which are considered the finest examples of JRPGs

Nobody is denying that it's highly overrated, but you're letting your personal bias cloud your judgement then you aren't any better than the annoying fankids who worship the game

bwahahah i love final fantasy threads, they never stop giving

Best Final Fantasy right here.

>>2378704
I honestly can't tell whether or not this is a shitpost.

I'm a diehard sixaboo, but Lost Odyssey was a fucking excellent game start-to-finish.

>>2378687
>I run into this argument a lot and it's a clear example of someone just parroting crap they've heard from other retards, as opposed to experiencing the games themselves. What about him is so "emo" in the first place? The fact that he occasionally questions who he really is? There isn't a single actual instance of Cloud ever moping about like an emo in the original game, even during his "hurr imma lonewolf badass who dont care bout nothin" period at the beginning of the game

Its because of AC. Cloud being emo is also what Square thinks he was in 7 for some reason, and basically use that in anything else related to him.

Cloud was a jackass douche in 7, but emo he was not.

>>2378736
I'm beings serious. Lost Odyssey is easily the best JRPG of the 7th gen and puts every FF post VII (minus IX) to fucking SHAME

>>2378748
I think this is what happens when Nomura is given free reign over the FF universe.

The 3D ones I've played haven't appealed to me so far. I need to play IX, though.

I like V, IV, Tactics, I, III, VI, II, VIII, and VII in that order.

>>2378763
To me, at least, Nomura is at his best when he's either just an artist like he was in a lot of games or he's doing his own thing entirely with no pre existing franchise or characters like with The World Ends with You. Either restrain him or let him loose, but don't let him mess with someone else's stuff. For fuck's sake, this is the guy is the reason All the Bravest exist.

>>2378704
I dunno, The Last Story was pretty incredible and was unfortunately played by no one.

>>2377438
>>2377440
>>2377445
>>2377449
>>2377456
>>2377464
>>2377470
>>2377472
>>2377481
>>2377498
THAT FUCKING GAME

>>2378748
I think it all started with KH1 since it came out before AC. Remember how moody they made him in that game? It was also probably a lot of people's introduction to Final Fantasy (I know some who bought it for Disney alone), so when they saw him in it they assumed that's how he was in the original without verifying it themselves. AC just helped that mentality even further. I'm a firm believer Cloud's "emo" reputation is solely because of people parroting others who most likely never played FFVII itself.

I would like to say the same for Squall since he also gets called emo as well quite a bit. I replayed VIII last year so I was able to refresh myself on his character. He may have had an introverted personality, but in no way was any of his dialogue "emo".

>>2378769
>All the Bravest

That was him? God damn.

>>2378808
But Squall is the most likable and relatable character in the whole game.

>>2378507

>didn't like daguerreo, esto gaza, or bran bal

hm

V
Bartz a cute
Sarrisa #1

>>2378687
This reminds me of Razorclit's FF7 "review".

>>2378763
I bought it last year but haven't played it yet. Is it really that good?

Also, real FFXV right here.

>>2379482
>Is it really that good?
Yes. Play it. I put off playing it for the longest time, then immediately regretted that the first ten minutes into the game.

>>2374627

I don't grind in VIII, but I also think it's fun to let yourself level up too.

It's cool to see how the same enemies get stronger magic spells over the course of the game. Also if you avoid random encounters, areas like Lunatic Pandora, Ultimecia Castle, and Centra Ruins lose a lot of their charm.

>>2379489
Not only was the combat system and character progression good, but the real winner for me were the dream sequences. Done by a very capable translator, and great background/ambient SFX - I would get hype whenever I found a new one. Very easy to get lost in its storytelling.

I have never played a FF game. Wat do?
Tried FFVI bit the battle system on an emulator with no controller was horrid. Have seen FFX played enough to understand how it and presumably most 3D FF work. And I've played DQVI so I get the gist of SNES era RPGs.
What should I play? I really want to try VII but have no PS1 and only a toaster.

>>2380096
>the dream sequences
A lot of them actually made me cry. I've been a /b/-tard since around 2008. Not a lot can actually do that anymore.

Not even trying to sound edgemeister. It's just that fucking good.

>>2369135

FF9 is sooooo slow. In everything.

>Too much talking
>too many CGI scenes
>loading battle
>pre-battle animations
>slow gauge filling up
>slow battle animations
>hours pass in the game without you really doing much

Slow slow slow.

FF7 and earlier games had the right exact balance of story, text, and gameplay. The battles were also much faster. FF7 didn't have many textures, the attack animations were really fast, and the battles loaded fast. You were in and out really fast.

>>2380119

In battle frame rate drops to single digits at times. Those battle scenes looked great and wowed people in screenshots, but they were too much for the PS1 to take. They should have kept FF7's more limited art style and engine.

>>2380103
PS1 emulators are able to run on toasters, you shouldn't worry about that. Or buy/pirate the PC version which was made to run on PCs from 1998. Unless you really, really mean toaster...

IV will always be my favorite purely for nostalgic reasons. I'll agree that mechanically V and VI are better but IV was the first RPG I ever played and is what got me into the genre. It holds a special place in my heart and I'd never really felt a connection with a videogame protagonist quite like I did with Cecil. No other game at the time had ever really tugged at my emotions quite like IV did either with Kain's betrayal and the love interest with Rosa. Not to mention Cecil's struggle to leave his dark past behind to become a paladin. It was just pure fantasy story-telling at it's finest.

>>2380106
>tfw Mistwalker are doomed to churning out iOS garbage

>>2369396
someone should make a leto kefka
.. a better one

>>2375087
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2095/

>>2377527
Where in the game does it say this?

Tactics is my favorite. I didn't get very many vidya gaems as a kid because my family had l i t t l e m o n e y so I played a LOT of tactics. I liked the way you could catch monsters like Pokemon (a game I was jealous that I didn't own).

>>2381648
Play the game and find out you dingus. I swear half the hate ff9 gets is because it was played by little kids who didn't understand the last two discs at all. Fuck me. It's mostly quotes from Kuja talking to Zidane in Terra before he goes apeshit and destroys the whole planet.

>>2377449
This scene was the first time playing a game where I felt shit was about to get real.

>>2380103

If you are not too familiar with RPG's then i'd skip straight to VII, as it was designed to be accessible to a large audience in mind. If you can finish that and still think you can take on the rest, then pick one that appeals to you the most and play it.

>>2381660

>>2381660
>l i t t l e m o n e y

>All this FF II love
Awesome! I personally couldn't get behind it, despite multiple tries, but i'm glad to see it get some love.

IV and Tactics are my favorites, with the rest of the series up X tied for a close second place.

After that, can't say I like where the series went/is going, but that's a story for a different thread.

As for why IV is one of my favorites? Nostalgia. It wasn't my first, but it was the one I wanted the most. When I got my hand's on the PSX port, I was ecstatic, and played the FUCK out of it. Still one of my favorite RPG's to this day. Oh, and the music is rad.

As for Tactics, I really love Delita the anti-hero. That and Ninja-Monks/Monk-Ninja's... and experimenting with all the classes and combinations was a lot of fun for me. The story was the icing on the cake. Oh and the PSP port is fucking delicious, frame rate issues aside.

>>2381784
Well once again, Kuja was built up very heavily to be the main villain through scenes like this, powerful scenes that cement motivation and intimidation. But all of that flies out of the window when Garland, a guy who shows up right at the end of the game and stays for about two hours, reveals that HE is actually the main villain. The problem is that Garland just falls flat entirely; he has little screentime, poor logic(if he is master of a crystal world and has access to such groundbreaking technology why didn't he just flood the world with Angels of Death after Kuja and Zidane obviously failed), and just bad charisma. Its like if at the end of FFV the bring in a guy named Matteus and try to say that he created Exdeath or something, only for him to be immediately killed off. It's utterly pointless to try to make him a real threat.

Then, when things get back on track and Kuja becomes the main villain again like he should his final spotlight is stolen by Necron who, unlike Zeromus or Cloud of Darkness, had absolutely no bearing on the story until the final boss fight. Then, they pull the biggest fucking cliche in the book and have Kuja redeem himself and Zidane forgive him in a scene of brotherly love.

Kuja is a great villain, but the way they handled him at the end of the game was awful.

>>2383149
I disagree, he "redeemed" himself cause he understood what death is like after he destroyed the crystal

>>2369135
If I had to pick a favourite it would be IX, but I could easily play IV through to IX regularly without skipping any titles. X and XII were also great

>>2383628
Yeah, that's true, but at that poitn its a cop-out. He knew he was going to die from the beginning, he was destined to be "replaced" by Zidane, and the whole game before that he was a narcissistic,apathetic monster. Putting a scene at the end where this guy who has been nothing but an antagonist the whole game is given a redemption as the MC puts his life on the line(and is even believed to have died because of it) just seems ham-fistedly shoved in to round out Kuja's charatcer arc in a way that doesn't make sense for it to be rounded out. If he had died before the final battle and gave a speech about how he wasn't afraid of death anymore because he knows, or at least believes, the world was and always will be a shitty place that couldn't understand his beauty and that he hopes Zidane one day shares his fate, that would at least make a bit more sense given him as a character.

It's like if at the end of FFVI Terra and Kefka have a heart-to-heart and Terra forgives him for the evil he's done and the game tries to redeem him. Or if in VII Cloud stays with Sephiroth at the crater as it is blowing up so he can try to save him. It just doesn't make sense, and there were plenty of ways they could have made a scene where Kuja expressed his understanding in a better way than that.

>>2386826
Well he was scared, he was angry at the fact that he was going to die and be left behind and forgotten so he decided to kill everyone, go out in a blaze of glory, if he can't live neither can anyone else. Temporary insanity so to speak, and he snapped out of it afterwards

>>2386826
>FFVI Terra and Kefka have a heart-to-heart and Terra forgives him for the evil he's done and the game tries to redeem him
To continue answering your post, it's not the same, Zidane knew that Genomes were raised and "brainwashed" by Kuja to be his angel of deaths and carry out his will, Kuja didn't know better and carried out what he was supposed to do, until he tried to overthrow Garland. Garland knew he had the upper hand even if he died, but I don't think he expected Kuja to go batshit insane when he found out he was a mortal and had a short lifespan left in him.

>Cloud stays with Sephiroth
Sephiroth was an abomination of his former self, and his legs were missing either from Cloud or something happened in the life stream which made only his upper body still be intact. I know I'll get some shit for going with the jenova being in control stuff but for the sake of the argument, sephiroth wasn't a human anymore, he had "shared consciousnes with Jenova" (or to surrender to the ultimania, was in control of jenova) he has left his humanity behind and either thinks he's the chosen of the planet "cetra" or that he was hellbent on carrying out Jenovas will

I know this is a pretty common opinion, but FF VI was way ahead of its time. The pace is slow as fuck at first, even boring, but then... holly cow. It's mature as fuck for FF standards, not the plot itself, but the way it's tailored. Sure it's a little bit dark and edgey sometimes, but it works really well.

>>2386826
Kuja was just a dumb cry baby. If anything, they should have given Garland and the Terrans a lot more attention.

>>2386919
I guess it just comes down to opinion mate. I think the scene is very kinda dumb and pointless, but that is just me. All I can say is that Kuja was a phenomenal villain, but the way he was treated as an antagonist(the built-up main antagonist mind you) in disc 4 was sad.