/vr/ - Retro Games

>>6304594
Threads of Fate

>>6304594
It‘s also the only good 3D FF not even baiting

>>6305582
>strongest way to play is to play some cards and then do nothing but hit 'attack' for the rest of the game
>spells are not only worse than attacking, but decrease your junctioned stats and must be farmed back up
>leveling up scales everything else with you so you're far stronger if you never level
It's the most mechanically broken out of every 3D FF. Triple Triad is a great minigame though, I'll give it that.
>9 is slow and clunky. Still love it, though.
9's combat speed bothers me far less than the gear skill system where you're stuck grinding out unlocks on shittier gear before you can use the upgrades the game is throwing at you. Otherwise it's a very good game, barring a lot of questionable character designs.

>>6305586
Lrn2cardmod

>>6305620
>then do nothing but hit 'attack' for the rest of the game

Thats every final fantasy

>>6305717
That's a wild exaggeration for 7, 9, and 10. It's not for 8, where simply attacking with junctioned stats really is the fastest and most efficient way of playing all the way through.

>>6304632
FFX didn't even have an airship? What the fuck, man... FFIX truly was the last FF game.

>>6304594
FFV

>>6304594
I didn't care for the skill inheritance system nor the pace of battle. I wish those were better so I could enjoy this game more

>>6304594
Chrono trigger. Final fantasy was never really all that good. I have always prefered the Dragon Quest games.

>>6304594
FFIX is the main one coming to mind, but FFXII International had some good moments. Nice huge medieval-style world and lots of variety.
Not retro though.
FFIX has the peak feel of Final Fantasy though IMO. The Gold Standard of the series.

>>6305620
Yeah, I definitely agree there. The gear system is a bit odd, but it's the damned slow ATB that gets me. It starts to get bare-able once you get to Tantarian and take his shoes.

>>6306101
>There's nothing confusing about VI
No, but the seeds of foregoing gameplay for spectacle were planted with it.

>>6306116
Getting that Demon Mail though is a giant pita.
>MUH PAPER STORM
Fuck you, you little shit.

>>6306201
It didn't run out of ideas, it evolved to a point it only needed to copy anime to sell. And that happened around FFIV (actually II), everything else is just changing the presentation.

>>6307735
I don't disagree in regards to Final Fantasy. II established the story template, while IV established the ATB system. And then it was just a matter of creating new stories and updating the visuals.

>>6304594
ffx

>>6306117
VI had it right though, enough cutscenes to be endearing without becoming annoying. Not its fault they went full retard afterwards.

>>6306117
I think he meant writing-wise

>>6304594
every game after 9 lacked the special sauce for me. ff 10 and 12...hell even 13 have fun aspects to them, but they're not really ff games to me. just in name only.

4-9 are the essentials. 1 and 3 are worthwhile.

>>6304876
Octopath has flaws but it's my favourite Switch game and favourite new RPG in a long time, I truly hope it gets a sequel that improves on the original with a more cohesive story between characters in the part (like FFVI). The combat is already great, they have everything they need.

>>6305416
>Square ruined Enix
Did they though? Every DQ since the merger has been fantastic, while I'm a bigger DQ fan I have to admit that they early FFs are way more bold in terms of experimenting, with highs that are genre-defining and lows that are utter garbage. DQ has always kept a consistent level of quality, probably because the original creators are involved and they follow a strict code of adherence to what DQ should be rather than going wild with futuristic settings, action-based combat and other deviations. Hell I still remember the backlash when DQIX was originally going to be an ARPG like the Mana series.

>>6304594
10 & 12 were still decent and had that square feel in my opinion

Probably.

X plays great but I can't stand the story, characters and soundtrack. Spent most of my time playing Blitzball.
XII coud have done it if it was actually finished.

The most baffling thing about "recent" FF games are the two MMOs. They got really close to what a modern FF game should have been,... except they're fucking MMO. It makes me think they could do it, but they don't want to.

The Bravely Default games look/sound/play good, but the story and characters are fucking garbage. It feels like an elaborate trick to trap nostalgiafags into playing garbage.

At least Kawazu is still doing SaGa once in a blue moon, but it's not for everybody.

>>6309970
>the soundtrack

is one of their best imo

>>6309970
Disagree on X, love Spira, love some of the characters (Tidus, Wakka, Auron). IX is awesome, but the background lore, with the clones and literal Saiyans is beyond retarded and possibly the worst lore in the series.

Disagree on the MMOs. The story in XIV is unbelievably poorly told and there's like 2 interesting plotlines in the entire 10,000 hour storyline.

Would also differentiate between Default and Second. I love the story and characters in Default. Second's are pretty bad.

Agree that they could do it but don't want to. They've spent too much time associating the "FF" brand with that lifeless cgi look, boy band characters, and bad game design.

>>6310196
I know it's a fan favorite, but I still don't like it much.

Tetsuya Nomura happened

>>6304594
Yeah I think so, I don't like FF9 much mainly because of the slow combat but it definitely has that good square feeling. I associate FF10 with the beginning of the downfall of square and taking FF in a cringe direction. Although to be fair to square, jrpgs in general really struggled with the transition from 2D to full 3D and from dialogue boxes to voice acting....it just never really worked as well imo.

>>6304594
KH 1 and 2 had some residual charm left but otherwise, yeah

>>6304594
Garnet and Eiko are cute! CUTE!

FFX had some of it but I'd call it the major dumpoff point. It was among the vanguard of AAA games where it seems like the developers pick game themes based on where they want to get paid to go on vacation once graphical fidelity hit the point in the PS2 era where it could be justified. The combat system was still solid enough to be enjoyable to play but that dropped off and the worst aspects of X are what got carried forward. It seems like the job system is really the soul of the series, maybe even the company itself going back to the first FF and the other series along the way, which makes titles like FFT and 9 stand out, and games like BD enjoyable to play. Sometimes they got lightning in a bottle like 7 but most of their failures in the time since seem to be attempts in recapturing it, which can go quite poorly when the setting sucks and gameplay gets vague in the core concepts like 7 did. It's a shame the job system is largely wasted on an mmo now, in Tactics type games especially it seems especially hard to get around and improve on. I suppose they can't focus on anything like that anymore though since they've reached a behemoth size where they need to make GTA5 style swings for the fences to justify doing anything, there's little else you can do once you get to that point. They basically became the empire from their early games.

brave default looks like basedboy numale poo poo

>>6304594
FFIX is probably the last game filled with the sort of magic people associate with Square, but you could still feel a bit of residual imagination with FFX or KH1+2. We're getting pretty far away from /vr/ territory here, but I'd argue that TWEWY was the last gasp of true, quality Square, even if it has a totally different vibe from the classic stuff.

>>6304594
FFX. FFIX was a desperate wannabe title "we've returned to our roots guys, we swear!" on every promotional interview. There's a reason its director never worked again.

>>6304721
this

>>6311347
Bravely Default is actually a really good, I don't know what you mean by "it looks like basedboy numale", but I would hope you aren't holding off from playing it because of this, you might enjoy it.

>>6311646
>There's a reason its director never worked again.
Ito came back to direct XII.
>FFX
With its lack of ATB, world map, and even the series main theme, it just doesn't feel like an FF.

>>6311667
It has awful writing. I heard the sequel was even worse and I can't even imagine how.
It's a shame because the rest of the game is good/great.

Speaking of nuSquare, how were 4 Warriors of Light and those Tokyo RPG Factory games? They sure didn't set the world on fire.

>>6304803
Materia system makes all the characters feel the same - at least they're distinct in 9

>>6312610
I love the mechanics in IX because they're straightforwards. Every character has a class like in FFIV, and the main mechanics are build around the main character's class: the thief. You're supposed to steal shit in battle, and then equip the things you stole to gain new abilities.
I admit it's very simple and people who love customization have good reasons to hate it, but it was refreshing after the hot mess in VIII.

>>6304594
Anygame before they merged with enix

>>6312636
I'll take a solid class system over a homogenized customizable mess any day of the week.

>>6305951
>cooed

I wonder what word you were actually going for here. Coaxed?

>>6312725
probably

>>6306201
>Personally, I think the entire genre ran out of ideas by the mid-90s. I mean, look at Pokemon. There's only so many things you can do with Menu Selection: The Game,

I can't believe this, because there are always the two obvious possibilities that no major developer EVER tried as far as I know:

1) Write a story that's actually good, even by the standards of an adult who sometimes reads books.
2) Balance the characters' abilities at least halfway decently, and make the battles genuine challenges that cannot be bypassed via XP grinding (for instance, XP grinding could simply be disallowed in one way or another).

Games that did that could still railroad the player through a linear story and whatnot; they wouldn't cause a revolution in game design or anything. But they'd be better than anything we've ever seen in the genre. And if each one told an original story and added at least a few minor tweaks or innovations to the standard mechanical formula, then an ordinary person would probably be able to enjoy several of them without becoming tired of the genre.

I think the problem is that major RPG developers are adults with childish tastes who are pressed by their financial support structures to make the conservative choice of which audience to design for, that being actual children. The genre isn't perfect, but it has far more potential than people like that want to or are able to squeeze out of it.

>>6304594
FFVIII. FFIX is pandering shite at best.

If you want a recent game with Square magic, try Theatrhythm, even if nostalgia is like half of the appeal.

>>6304594

This is the last game with Square magic, though it wasn't made by Square: https://gamcore.com/games/final_fellatio_deepthroat

>>6312807
This. VIII tried some new stuff out in a series that was stagnating, and Square fucking PANICKED when it didn't get the same universal acclaim that VII did (even though VIII was a critical and commercial smash hit, just that reviews had some criticism about some gameplay systems). They shat out IX as a knee-jerk response and the series never really recovered. It's a real shame.

>>6312530
The writing is really goofy but to be honest after a certain point I just stopped giving a shit about it, and was able to laugh at it's absurdity which entertained me.
>4 Warriors of Light
I haven't actually got around this yet but
>those Tokyo RPG Factory games
They're disappointing to say the least, Lost Sphere has a better combat system than I am Setsuna at the very least but I am Setsuna is just boring version of Chrono Trigger with an OST entirely comprised of Piano pieces, they're still relaxing to play but not that interesting.

>>6312530
4 Warriors of Light is awful in pretty much every way. Other than the throwback style music.

>sword of mana on the gba
>maybe world of final fantasy....

Let's see how the seiken densetsu 3 remake does. If we can play it subbed, we might have a winner.

>>6313608
You can play it jap sub

>>6313608
You can but the voice acting seems the least of it's problems, the wonky over done animations in the cutscenes are very distracting and it seems like most of the effort for the graphics went into the character models while everything else looks subpar. That said it still looks fun to play and the mediocre graphics we've seen are from the Switch version, I wonder what it'll look like on PC.

>>6313608
I can't stand Sword of Mana, it's nothing like the original game. SD3 remake looks quite good though, but maybe that's because I never fell strongly about the original.

>>6304594

Zidane is just objectively shit character design. Aramant too. And Steiner. They all look terrible. Not graphicswise, I mean they look borderline retarded. Thank God for based Vivi and Beatrix to save the day there.

>>6309970
>>6310223
11 = soul, 14 = soulless

>>6313212
I like 4WoL better than ff3. The bosses are cool and the plot and exploration are super comfy. Classes hold more use for longer. The only thing I dislike about 4WoL is the spell system. We need another game to bring back their aesthetic design for black mage, those top hats are cool

>>6313871
Sword of Mana is still better than Secret of Mana

>>6304876
people forget that teams first original game, 4 heroes of light in DS

>>6313871
>>6314248
mana games are like turn based games mixed with action games, they are unique and sword of mana was made to play closer to the other games

>>6313893
I know this is bait but that's the artstyle sweaty

>>6312867
>https://gamcore.com/games/final_fellatio_deepthroat
>Rikku
>not Rinoa or Garnet
Do you realize how many shiggies you just diggied?