/vr/ - Retro Games

>>4418894
i think this one might be the next on the "retro rpg i played too much" list.

>>4418894
Why was Zidane and Eiko edited to have big, pouty grimaces on their faces?

>>4418894
Anyone who didn't was a full-on retard. The whole main series was well above average back in the day, but this was the only one that would qualify as a masterpiece.

I love FF9.
I like being in the world, it feels magical.
When you walk around in FFVII, you feel the impending doom every moment and its pretty spooky in a lot of parts.

In FFIX I dont feel so lonely and afraid and love to see the beautiful world and hang out with its inhabitants.

I have replayed 9 the most out of them all.

I hate the pace and the blatant nostalgia pandering. It feels very much like a patchwork quilt of all the previous FF's greatest hits.
You still end up with a good game but it's a fucking slog to get through at times.

I adopted a 15 week old black kitten in August 2016 and named him Vivi.

>>4418894
It was the last good final fantasy game. How i miss these :(

>>4419175
Every FF game is at least a 6/10 in my opinion.

>>4419071

cute

>>4419048
I actually love the nostalgia but yeah the pace is fucking horrific.

I don't see how I could play it today without speeding it up on an emulator and even then it would feel too unnatural.

>>4418909
>This is not a game anon!

>>4418894
Shame about that slow as molasses run of the mill combat, shit card game, unfocused and nearly improvised storylines and one note characterizations.

Tons of sidequests and comfy locations all around though

Best FF
My 2nd favorite games behind SOTN for sure

>>4419048
Agree, and also always felt so lifeless and bland to me. Maybe it's because it was trying to so hard to be a modern interpretation of past games that it was not, it forgot to ever be anything of its own. I also felt like there was nothing particularly rewarding to find or do outside of the main quest. There were a few things, but nothing really that felt rewarding, on the contrary it was often tedious in design, an area which earlier FF titles used to very well (I have the same complaint about VIII).

>>4419238
even the new ones?
lucky you, the magic was gone for me after X-2 and XII

>>4418894
It's okay, little boring imo but still one of the best titles in the franchise.

>>4418894
Hey man, I loved it too.

>>4418894
A VOICE FROM THE PAST
JOINING YOURS AND MINE

>>4419747
Yeah. Most people haven't played enough truly awful video games if they think any FF is bad.

>6/10 tier
1, 2, 9
>7/10 tier
0, 3, 8, 12, 13
>8/10 tier
5, 12
>9/10 tier
6, 7, 15
>10/10 tier
4, 10

>>4421730
Whoops, accidentally put 12 in the 7/10

>>4418894
that's not controversial

>>4421730
>10/10 for 10
now this is controversial and correct

Beatrix should have been a permanent character though.
I hate when they tease you with an awesome warrior playable for just a moment and then don't let you use her/him up to the end, much like Tellah in FF4.

4, 6 and 9 are the God-tier FF games.

3, 5 and 12 are good-to-great tier.

Rest are shit-to-OK tier.

>>4422083
I tried using a bunch of codes to create a solo Beatrix run of the game. It's very fragile though; some boss fights break the game if you don't have the right character in, and you have to arbitrarily decide what skills she can learn before implementing the codes.

>Card interaction was overly complicated with three numbers and a letter rather than just a number
>Almost entirely luck based despite the complexity
>Cards almost always have a blank side (or 3) ensuring your great cards can still be easily beaten
>No traveling rules
>Cards have absolutely no impact on the main game so there is no reward for playing it
>Highest collector rank is glitched and recommends you just discard (reflecting how trash the card game is)
How did they fuck up the card minigame so badly?

>>4419040
What do you feel in FFVIII?

>>4419040
>When you walk around in FFVII, you feel the impending doom every moment and its pretty spooky in a lot of parts.

>>4422561
Like most late capitalist societies the upper class distract themselves with spectacle while looming climate change or economic disaster lurk around the corner. And IIRC when meteor shows up the Gold Saucer has less patrons.

>>4422540
I have only played it once when it came out.
I kind of remember it being pretty depressing to play as well.

>>4422568
woke as fuck

>>4422568
Yes, clearly intended as a parody of bread and circuses to hammer home the hopelessness of the citizens. Not a fun amusement park to break up the tense moments.

If you're spooked by Golden Saucer you are too easily spooked.

>>4422561
>dont mind these dead people all over the place

>>4422583
Right is just because of a massacre thanks to Barret's friend Dyne. Left is literally a kid friendly spooky themed hotel. You are not supposed to be scared of the spooky themed hotel, I found it cozy.

>>4422568
Is VII a game with a left-wing message?

>>4422593
Alright but its literally you that is putting words in someones mouth saying they are spookyed by it.

The original post was talking about the game in general, a moment of levity does not invalidate the argument that the game is pretty dark and spooky.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QCAa0jYeNU

>>4422596
Really just an environmentalist message, that’s that’s extremely par for the course in the 90’s even with Japan.

>>4422601
Allow me to quote again.
>When you walk around in FFVII, you feel the impending doom every moment and its pretty spooky in a lot of parts.
If you feel impending doom while hanging out at the Golden Saucer you're trying too hard. Remixing the Golden Saucer theme to make it sound sad is a perfect example of trying too hard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMaGq6vn7hg

>>4422605
>even with Japan.
FUCKAYU WHALE (ps. go green famz)

>>4422607
I just posted that video because I was listening to it. I was actually looking for the spook music that occurs after golden saucer empties but couldnt find it.

its probably like jenova sounding music

>>4422615
The massacre is spooky because it occurs in such a fun and lighthearted place. Doesn't really diminish how fun and lighthearted the Golden Saucer is.

>>4422617
Nigga, the golden saucer has an express elevator down to a desert prison yard. The only way out of that hell is fighting in the brutal sport of gladiatorial chocobo racing to the death

>>4422628
>The only way out of that hell is fighting in the brutal sport of gladiatorial chocobo racing to the death
Try saying that with a straight face. Also it wasn't to the death was it? And don't forget you're dropped down there because they think you're responsible for the massacre, so it isn't exactly an undeserved sentence. The massacre + Corel Prison work as juxtaposition because the place its juxtaposed with, Golden Saucer, isn't gloomy in the least.

Does anyone in the world honestly think of "Golden Saucer" and think of doom and gloom?

>>4422646
Forgot my picture of the brutal sport

>>4422646
Im starting to think your a shill for BIG SAUCER

>>4422628
Yeah the battle arena would have been the better choice to fight in to earn your freedom from Corel, but I get why they wanted a set piece mini-game instead.

>>4422596
>Is VII a game with a left-wing message?
Well the reoccurring theme throughout the game is corrupt big business, environmentalism, poverty, class and spirituality. I def wouldn't say it's right-wing.

>>4422646
I think you're blowing the guy's original comment way out of proportion.

>>4422705
You'd think, but then he kept trying to argue that Golden Saucer was actually doom and gloom and spooky. I'd of figured he'd just say the Golden Saucer was an exception and move on, but clearly not.

>>4422718
Eh, no one really "argued," people just pointed out that there were some deeper overtones and a mass murder (which didn't really have the proper effect because it's just a bunch of soldiers lying on the ground looking silly).

>>4422726
I don't care what you say, if you bring up the ghost hotel as an example of Golden Saucer NOT being fun and games, you're wrong.

>>4422734
The poster just pulled that image off Google, likely because it had the best shot of the shooting aftermath, and was too lazy to edit the other thing out. I mean, I just found the page where it originated with a reverse search, it's just a coincidence.

>>4418894
final fantasy 9 depression remix

>>4418894
I love my gf but I've never loved someone like I loved Garnet.
I don't even know if the game was good or bad, it just took me to magical lands. I miss these days.

>>4422740
You are correct, the only other image was blurred garbage

>>4422718
the golden chocobo is eerie af idk what you guys are talking about

>>4422718
uhh guys, Im pretty sure im the first person to recognize this in the world but..

the golden saucer has marily monroe on it.
this will be on /r/gaming front page soon im sure

>>4422814
Is that a specific photograph they used?

>>4422854
not sure but its definitely supposed to depict her
would have to scour through her pics

>>4422726
>(looking silly)

Everything about FF7's character models is silly. But somehow one acclimates to it and it manages to come across as a serious story. Somehow it just becomes normal that this is how people look.

>>4422863
I dunno, just looks Square's old style of CGI

When Alexander is being summoned and Eiko says something about the Holy Judgment before jumping off the airship I get goose bumps every time. In fact, I'm getting them while writing this.

Anyone else think the Golden Saucer map resembles the jewish Tree of Life (Sephiroth)?

>>4422871
For comparison

>>4422871
It resembles Yggdrasil to me.

>>4422867
>>4422867
As soon as I saw it I instantly thought marilyn because of the milky white skin, trademark red lipstick, fancy earings.

Looks just like her to me.

It could also be serving as another warning to the player that aeris is going to die.

>>4422910
I don't actually remember, but isn't that the date scene? So it wouldn't have to be Aeris you take.

>>4422917
I think its when you first enter the golden saucer for the first time and meet cait, not positive though

>>4419040
Even better, it actually rewards you for loving that world by keeping score of all the easter eggs and items you found by just bumming around. Especially the world map if you hot and cold enough.

>>4422910
>that picture
Good find, really.

>>4422871
It clearly is tree-ish, at least.

Really hated how it took like 15 seconds to get to the battle screen when a random encounter triggers. Tetra Master is pointless.

Other than that it's a great game.

>>4422871
could just be a generic tree design. but, this was the 90's, when Japan loved to throw in random pseudo religious iconography. like all the kabalistic nonsense in Evangelion, the pseudo-religion in Xenogears, and how the main baddies of Final Fantasy Tactics is clearly based on the Catholic church. you even fight Jesus, albeit in the form of a girl in a red leotard...

>>4419238
ugh... even 13? I keep thinking I should slog through that one, but the characters are so fucking annoying! the only one I like is the black guy, and that's because I identify with him so much. every time he gives one of his exasperated sighs, I want to fist bump the tv.

>>4422881
I see what you mean.

>>4423172
My thoughts exactly. The time was filled with shallow references to judaism/gnosticism/old testament/etc

I've concluded that this is the picture that is used.
But I think the FF7 artist manipulated the picture a bit so it looks better in its triangular frame.

the most convincing thing is the teeth in my opinion besides it all looking like pretty much a carbon copy with altering.

I googled marilyn monroe ff7 and did not find anything, so I think this is a /vr/ discovery.

pretty cool.

>>4423323
It's not a sure thing that they actually used a picture of Marilyn. I'm sure you're right that it's her aesthetic they were going for, but it's pretty easy to replicate.

>>4423331
>I'm sure you're right that it's her aesthetic they were going for, but it's pretty easy to replicate.

Could be they just used it as reference indeed.

>>4418894
All of the original Megamans (1-10).
Just recently played through 4-8 (grew up with 2 and3) and had a lot of fun. Not sure why folks don't like them, 7 and 8 in particular.

>>4418894
i really wanted to like XII, i really do. the setting reminds me so much of IX and Ivalice looks like an awesome place to be in despite the wars and shit. but goddamn, does anybody know when the game gets good?

>>4419040

Same. I like the lighter, comfier RPGs for some reason. I can handle dark shit in every other genre just fine. Not that I can't with an RPG but I prefer the ones that don't feel so tense all the time.

>>4423309
I figured Yggdrasil due to the Norse references to Midgar, Zolom, Nibelheim, Climhazzard, etc. but Sephiroth is clearly a nod to Judaism.
Also I believe they make a reference to Yggdrasil in Xenogears but it's been in my backlog for 15 years now and I have no idea if I'll ever actually play it.

>>4423476
Zodiac Job version IMO.
I hated the original US version.
IZJS cleaned it up, made it cool and more classical. I used a patch to play it w/ eng translations on PCSX2 and it was awesome.

>>4418894
Good man. Finest title in the series. Every character was useful to me, none annoyed me, and the abilities system was great in it's structure yet simplicity.
My only gripe of the game is Trance. If it was controllable it wouldn't feel as wasted. They were mostly useless. Making summons more costly to use however helped reel the difficulty back in a bit. Best thing though is the world. When I hear/see the words "Final Fantasy" that is literally the kind of world I imagine. Not some cyberpunk shit. Too many JRPGs aren't actual medieval/renaissance style games. Like the Persona series. Yawn. Shit like that's fine in an anime but as a game it's just boring to me.

>>4423591
well that's the version i'm playing but it doesn't hold a candle to the Jobs system, especially when it felt somewhat restrictive like locking gear unless you grind a lot or unlocking skills that you won't use until much later and the Gambit system costs TONS of gil early on to be useful.

but what i'm talking about is the parts of the story since the pacing is kinda bland even after Ashe gets "kidnapped" so she could fetch a rock

>>4423476
>does anybody know when the game gets good?
it doesn't, drop it now before you waste more time
there's a reason most people say X was the last good one

>>4423635
>>4423629
The problem with FF XII is people went into it expecting a FF game.
It's not. Not a mainliner.
It would have been great as an addendum to the FF Tactics games.

>>4423171
>Really hated how it took like 15 seconds to get to the battle screen
Didn't mind this on Christmas Day, 2000. Speaking of which, the game itself felt really Christmas-like. It was a fun thing to play on a cold X-mas day. The first disc is comf-as-hell.
Just like FF VIII feels like a summer game to me. Same with CCross.

>>4423703
i kinda wished it kept the comfy tone than just went full depression by the second game. not to say it should have some dark parts but it loses its charm when it delved too much in that

>>4423716
*should not

>>4423716
War is srs shit. Especially when the arms dealer is a trap expert.

>>4418894
IX is the new VI

FFIX is the i like to play when like insomniac with no sleep

>>4422578
The titty shaking, window beaner was a great addition to this town.

>>4423331
My thought exactly. It looks like a replica, either an identically staged photo or a drawing.

What about the heavy theatre dimension in FF IX, did someone know books or papers about it ?

Seems pretty important, i didn't play the game yet though but i heard about it

>>4423946
What in the world are you talking about?

>>4423972
I read that from a french book (La légende Final Fantasy IX) :

- There is lot of theatre reference (Shakespeare, Molière, Goldoni)
- The whole scenario is somehow theatrical
- Prologue is inspired by The King Lear
- There's a show that open & close the story
- Some ppl in that show have to do improvisation, which leads to humoristic scene (like the commedia dell'arte)
- Puck is inspired from same character's name in A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Queen Brahne may be inspired from King Ubu

There is big chance FF IX is the most theatrical FF

>>4424138
Actually seems pretty spot on.
The whole game feels theatrical. Even the set-pieces/prerendered backgrounds seem almost like sets.

>>4419021
It came along at a bad time. In the wake of FF7 and 8 which were pushing the limits of edgy cyberpunk realism, FF9 was an insult to "mature" gamers who spent all of their time deriding Nintendo for publishing that kind of "baby game". Even though a lot of games eventually get the recognition they deserve, some criticisms just get cemented for life

>>4422540
Whatever.

I like FFIX a lot. I liked it, V and VII. I'm now playing FFVI and frankly I find it just not appealing. Story goes way too fast as though it's made for people with a short attention span, I understand it's not V's strongest point either but still. It's quite easy even compared to other Final Fantasy titles. I'm just not digging it really. Might ditch it for another playthrough of IX, it's been 7 years.

FFIX is good, but it is one of the slowest games I've every played.
>walking around
>battle starts
>swirling camera light show begins
>camera swirls around enemies and your party

>>4424497
It's the slowest for sure, but both current emulation and the newer official version with the shitty graphics kinda alleviate that.

>>4424505
>newer official version
Which newer official version is that?

>>4424548
You know, the PC steam release that has the filtered backgrounds

>>4424548
Square basically shoved the original into an emulation shell for PC and Steam, much like a few of their other mobile offerings (but unlike VIi and VIIi which they just took the PC ports and updated).

It doesn't fix any bugs this time around, but it does have the same "cheats" as VII where you can speed up the gameplay.

>>4424196
I think this was partly a hugeass reference to VI, and partly a bit of meta. FF has for most of it's games been a more cinimatic game.

>>4424590
>shoved the original into an emulation shell
No, actually they ported it. It uses a different engine. You can even mod it. Issue is the backgrounds are shit because the original assets are gone.

>>4424406
Rude.

>>4424610

A while ago one of the guys in the background team posted a ton of high res renders he recovered from an old hard disk, I don't suppose anyone has tried to inject those into the re-release?

Alternatively letsenhance.io's scaling is a goddamed miracle worker. It does a much better job than waifu2x on the style of art used in FF pre-rendered backgrounds.

>>4424784
they lost the art assets for this multi million dollar production of a game.

that guy only released a few art assets not even worth inserting into the game

>>4418894
FFIX isn't a bad game, but it's fuck slow and there's no real customization options. Plus, there's just one way to most effectively play the game, the card game is just there to be there rather than playing into the core gameplay and the plot is generic as shit.

I will say that FFIX has more charm than the rest of the series combined though. It's an enjoyable game if you just want an easy, laid back jrpg to kill time with.

>>4424138
In case you're not aware, the main character Zidane is literally a part of a theater troupe who use their performances as a cover for heists.

My favorite game in the series, but the battles are indeed god awful slow.

>>4423591
>Too many JRPGs aren't actual medieval/renaissance style games

>The first FF had time travel, submarines, airships and a giant fuckoff Metal Gear-like mecha optional boss prior to fighting Tiamat

Uh

>>4425190
I was about to say FF1 is actually one of the more batshit final fantasies but really they're all equally batshit. Its rather impressive that such a mainstream and popular series is so bizarre.

>>4425209
I'd like to think 4 and maybe 8 are the craziest ones.
In 4 you have DQ style teleporters, a hollow earth, a hollow earth inside the hollow earth and fuck it, let's go to (one of) the moons to fight the very concept of
hatred itself. Also the moon is actually a giant ark and it fucks off at the end and the main character was an alien the whole time and so was the secondary antagonist, who was also his brother. They also left some crazy fucking tower and a gigantic mecha behind because reasons.
It's my favourite of the series.

>>4425209
No it isn't, stop bollocking about how it's impressive.

>>4425128
Didn't know that, thanks, that explain a lot

>>4424823
>lost
Didn't they delete fucking everything back then, for fear it'd get stolen?

>>4425753
It kind of is. Compared to FF and Metal Gear, most game series of equal popularity play it safe with their worldbuilding. They don't throw in random science fantasy bullshit and then make it work.

>>4426454
If that's true, man is Square-Enix butthurt about it now.

>>4419021
>qualify as a masterpiece
The longer loading times was slightly annoying when it came out because other games at the time besides bad ports had this. Trance wasn't fun to use. Many of the characters fall into the background after their character arc, the final fantasty special, stat tempering was as stupid as the esper system, and learning skills from equipment limited was bad.

The story was good, the graphics were great, the presentation was top notch, but only within the last 9 years have people gone out of their way to say that 9 is a "masterpiece" when, just like every other mainline title, it has it's faults. Less than 8, more than 7. I'm sure you had the same "oh man this is cool" moment that everybody else had when you start a fight in trance because of story related reasons and the game is full of those but that's all it has. Surprisingly less variance for customization when compared to 7's materia and 8's catastrophe of a junction system

>>4426454
>dude dont steal my copyrighted art that you can do nothing with

>>4422081
HA HA HA
HA HA HA
HA HA HA
HA HA HA
HA HA HA

>>4427323
Not him, but literally nothing wrong with this scene. Tidus, and then Yuna, are purposefully pretending to laugh boisterously. It isn't supposed to sound like a normal laugh, he was screwing around to cheer her up.

>>4427348
>literally nothing wrong with this scene
The concept is fine, but it doesn't work.

>>4427463
It works just fine.

>>4426870
It was more the code they were interested in protecting, Japan's copyright/IP laws being quite a different beast from the US and EU.

>>4424784

> letsenhance.io

It looks like their 'boring' processing is similar to waifu2x; their 'magic' profile on the other hard is really fucking impressive.

>>4428751

original image size was 384x288

>>4423323
that's a neat find

>>4421730
>0
What? What is 0? Final Fantasy 0? Is it just a product of your insane mind?

>>4432058
http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_Type-0

Commonly referred to as either FF0 or Type 0.

>>4432064
Huh. I have of course heard of that game but never would I have thought anybody would refer to a FF13 spinoff as FF0 or list it in a list consisting otherwise of only non-spinoffs.

>>4432076
It's main line FF. It's as much or even less of a spinoff as 15, which is to say it isn't.

>>4432114
>main line FF
>Debuted on a handheld
>"Number" is "Type 0"
No, its a spin off. Just like FF Tactics is a spinoff, or Crisis Core.

>>4432156
A spin off of what? There's no pre-existing universe for 0 to have been a part of.

>>4432193
By that logic, XII is a spinoff of Tactics and Chocobo's Dungeon, Crystal Chronicles, and the mobile games are all mainline. Even your own wikipedia article calls it a spinoff.

>>4432325
>but what about
Nope. I don't play that game. If you can't answer my question, don't try to change subjects.
What does Type-0 spin off from?

>>4432193
>>4432362
The main FF franchise.

>>4432193
It's part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis, so a spin-off of XIII.

>>4424196
Yeah the story structure adds to that, imo.

Love FF9, definitely feels like the end of an era for the series as a whole. I still like the the newer FF's but the 'soul' of the series changes for sure. I guess because Sakaguchi left. Idk.

>>4436070
It's the voices and less Uematsu, X would feel just the same as before otherwise in my opinion.

>>4436074
Having played through X again recently, it feels like a transition between the playstation era and the PS3 era, for sure. It has a lot of the strengths and weaknesses of both. FFXII on the other hand feels like a game from another franchise entirely.

>>4418894
Love the characters, love the story, hate the system. It's not a bad game, but I hate how you have to level up your equipment to learn skills. Honestly, to the point I don't understand why people like it so much.

>>4436137
I can understand not liking the system, but not actively disliking it to the point of disliking the whole game for it.

I enjoy that the system encourages you to think twice before just equipping new gear that is otherwise a straight upgrade. It gets you to make decisions and think about whether you prioritize stats or abilities at any given point in time.

>>4436150
I still like IX, but I just can't say I love it. I think its system just forces you to spend more time grinding your skills out of your old gear so you can finally get that useful skill. Almost like they just wanted to artificially extend the length of the game. Maybe I'd enjoy it more if I didn't care so much about grinding abilities out of gear, but I feel like I'd be doing myself harm in the long run.

>>4436183
I think the idea is to equip things for the stats, test the abilities they have attached to them, then you can decide to pursue mastering them or ditch them by the time the next piece of equipment comes around. The fact that you never get enough crystals (or whatever) to equip every passive ability makes me think you weren't intended to master EVERYTHING, but pick and choose.