Final Fantasy : The Thread (and memories)

[SUPERECWFAN1]

So for Christmas I picked up Final Fantasy XV (15 for you non-Roman numeral folks) . Anyhow before i discuss that game and the silliness I have went through for 3+ hours already ...lets discuss my past with the franchise of games.



I had basically gave up video gaming by 1997. It was tired , boring and the N64 wasn't really wowing me. In fact I was prepared to never play another game or system after beating a couple of the games. Yep folks , by 1997 I felt done with it all. Then one day I met a buddy of mine who lived next door at the mall. Me and him were pretty much best buds and have stayed close for years after. So he's at the mall and shows me this cool game in Sears. Its "Final Fantasy VII".

Now before this I never really paid attention to the commercials hyping this game. In fact I barely even knew what a Final Fantasy was. I had thought ...well it odds are is another generic fighting game. Since he always seemed to get those. Plus he just got a Playstation at his home. So it seems to be that I guess. He also got a free cool FFVII t-shirt with it...




So he tells me to come over as soon as I get home from the mall. I'm like...ehh ok. I get back like 30 minutes later and he tells me...dude you need to come see this game. Its not a fighting game. In fact...well come n see. I was reluctant but did and was stunned. It was a 3 disc game and the storyline just exploded quick. It became a huge deal. I'd play the game at his house for hours.

After a week I told myself...its time I go get a Playstation game system and Final Fantasy VII. So I did , and we'd spend the winter playing and solving that game. I mean untold hours went into that game we'd play. It was wild...and how at the end we'd try and defeat the Ultimate Weapons. (we never could...no matter every trick we tried lol)


After Final Fantasy VII , I learned that a year or two later VIII was coming. Yep #8 was coming. So me and him both bought that game. And we played it as well. Final Fantasy VIII wasn't to us as great as VII . Because yes Squall was a nice character and it was a nice move towards human looking characters. But VII had the better storyline all-around and how it grew from stopping an evil corrupt company like Shinra from destroying the world. To suddenly stopping a former good guy named Sepiroth from destroying the world.


The final Final Fantasy game on the PS1 was one that many don't really bring up much. It was a homage more to the past FF games from what I'd learn later. Anyhow Final Fantasy IX had a nice storyline with Zidane and the Princess.





One thing that has been brought up was the insane idea by Sony in the walkthrough you'd purchase to make ya wanna go online a lot. In fact me and my friend would grow so pissed at this , we'd think of throwing the walthrough guide into a fire place. Because you'd be reading and then it would tell you --- FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ____ GO TO FF9 ONLINE !"

By the time the next Playstation was coming out I had pretty much knew I was gonna get it. The Playstation 2 was gonna get some cool games and one was Final Fantasy X (10) . Anyhow this one had some knocks as it featured the 1st voice acting. I remember we'd be playing and both would say , can't Tidus just go jump in a river somewhere ? It pissed us off that bad playing him.

This also may have led my friend who loved the games to start to lose interest by this stage. Me and him tried to get together and beat it , but I took more of a leadership stage in this one and finished it off finally. I have to think that maybe the premise of the games had done him in and Tidus as a whole sucked as a character that led to it.

What stunned me was they made a sequel to this one with Final Fantasy X-2. This sequel was one I picked up and I played half into alone. In fact it wasn't good and my buddy wasn't interested in it at all. I got halfway in and quit myself. Its the 1st Final Fantasy game I had played and quit.

By the end of the PS2 another Final Fantasy game came out and it was Final Fantasy XII and this one seemed to be a lot better. I got the collectors edition steel book one and this enticed my buddy back into playing it with me. Overall this game was a lot better than FFX. As someone would say the characters have a close comparison weirdly to....Star Wars characters. Maybe that is why they came across so well. Beating this one was nice and it at least gave us good memories to remember of Final Fantasy.





By the time the Playstation 3 arrived , I had held off getting a new system for a number of years. In fact by the time I did , the backwards compatible models were gone. So I got a regular PS3 Fat one. In 2010 , they'd release the next Final Fantasy (13) and this one I got cheap. I would also find Final Fantasy XIII-2 as a sequel. I'd end up getting it to play.

I know folks have hated this one with how it represents some characters and how Lightning comes across. It seems like a good game. I got so many hours in and soon discovered...i couldn't go any further due to a set of creatures I can't defeat. I always intended to go back and play it and finish that game. Because since then I have gotten the 3rd sequel to Final Fantasy XIII and I'd love to finish all 3 games in that series ...eventually.


Now as I sit down to play Final Fantasy XV , what is my big memory of this game thus far ? Well folks its likely the 3-4 hours I have waited downloading a near 12 GB file for it. Plus 2 more downloads I gotta do to get my free stuff with it. Hopefully it delivers.

[LoganAlpha30X33]

I've played most of the games, starting with the very first one way back in my middle school days, way back in the early 90's...as for this latest game it...well I hate it, the game looks nothing like a final fantasy game and hate the more modern setting and all and all of the main guys are pretty boys that look like male models and just bore me, so hopefully the next game will be better...the early games were the best of the series...the last few have been terrible imho...

[Robotech Master]

15 has been the best Final Fantasy experience for me in a long time. It's setting and open world is one of my favorites. Logged about 50 hours so far; still exploring all the secrets and extra dungeons.

[Montressor]

My first introduction to the series was the very first game, right around the time Street Fighter 2 was gaining massive popularity in the arcades. I was blown away by the large fold-out map that was included with the game and all the monsters it showcased on the back of it--I made sure to encounter every mob in the game. This was before the web (as we know it now, at least) so I played through it with no walkthrough, and it was incredible.

I played 7 long after the fact, and 8 was my favorite (though it becomes quote broken if you do a few things with Squall after a certain point). Loved 9, it was like a sort of 'tribute' to the entire series to me, and 10 bored me early into it (though I do intend to get back to it eventually). Never tried the online versions.

[Vic Vega]

I played 9 and 10 all the way to the end but never finished them.

I really liked playing X-2 because you could do the missions in any order except for the first mission and the last one.

Seven I finished.

Never played 8 or 11.

The big problem with FF 13 is it's basically you walking from one end of a hallway to another.

They just dress it up really well so it never looks like that is what you are doing. There are no towns, no backtracking no alternate routes.

Well there may be all that stuff later (from what I hear) but after 8 hours of monotony I haven't tried to get to the part where the game DOES open up some.

The story is always good, if I have one complaint with the series is that it does battle and gaining experience different every new game. So even if you are a FF vet you always have to spend that first hour or so figuring out how to do stuff.

[Montressor]

My favorite things were the summons. I remember thinking how cool Doomtrain was in 8. Someone started a 'create Your Own Summon' thread on a board I frequent long ago, and we came up with some doozies.

As much as I love working towards getting some ultra rare item in MMO's I could never settle down and grind out Chocobos to get KotR in 7. And 10 looks awesome, visually--I really gotta remind myself to get that one started again, but I remember absolutely HATING Blitzball and being forced to play it. I got into the card game in 8 because there were rare cards to collect, and the game itself was easy enough to grasp.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

The best part of Final Fantasy XV I have enjoyed (still haven't played the main game yet) is the King's Tale. The add-on which is a side scrolling beat em up , monster mash deal. I have gotten a number of trophies off it. But its a fun beat em up deal.

[Orujo-man]

My first FF was the VIII. I didn't played any jrpg before so I was lost the first time. I remember some friends of the school and of the neighborhood played the game at the same time so we competed with the game. Who passed the discs first, who had the higger level, all the G.F., etc.

After that I played FFVII and some time later FFIX. I remember the first time I see FFIX I hated it. I didn't like the aspect of the characters. But then I started to play and I love it, more than FFVIII and FFVII. Four characters in battle, each one with his own abilities, the system of learning the abilities with weapons and equipment, the chocobo "mini-game" and the fantasy and humorous world (Zidane flirting with any woman, Steiner with his black and white view of the world and his sound when he run, Cid as a Buri Bug, Quina...) but at the same time a mature history with cruelty and sadness. Even in the ending you saw good and nice moments until you realizes who telling you his last words and die.

I played FFIX a lot of times and I never get bored of it. I played almost all the FF, from FF original until FFXII, and my two favourites are FFVI and FFIX. Honestly, I don't know what to think about Square-Enix now.

[Hiromi]

15 has been the best Final Fantasy experience for me in a long time. It's setting and open world is one of my favorites. Logged about 50 hours so far; still exploring all the secrets and extra dungeons.

Very much agree to this, it's honestly the first time a Final Fantasy has felt open since probably 9(10 is where the linear game style really started), also love the dynamic of playing a character and his close friends.

I do need to go back and play 12 as I don't believe I really gave it a fair try when it came out.

[Xero Kaiser]

I'm pretty indifferent to Final Fantasy as a whole, with the exception of FFT and FF14. I've spent stupid amounts of time on 14 (and still do)

FF15 is cool so far. Only complaint is that between the controls and camera, combat feels a little clunky.

Very much agree to this, it's honestly the first time a Final Fantasy has felt open since probably 12.

15's structure isn't all that different from 12.

[Sacred Knight]

There's nothing like FF VI-IX. While I enjoyed X for what it was worth, that was when it started going downhill.

But yeah, VII was my introduction to the series, really. Techincally I had heard about the franchise before because my best friend when I was a kid was big into RPG's before I was (in the NES/SNES days), so I was at least aware of them. But the hype VII got when it came out for PlayStation sucked me in and really gave it a shot. And fell completely in love. Its still one of if not my favorite game of all time. Loved the immersion, loved the music, loved the story, loved the subtleties of the leveling system which was really rewarding when you learned it. From there I waited with baited breath for VIII and IX which I loved nearly just as much. And with the help of emulators and re-releases finally delved fully into some of the previous installments. VI is ALMOST as good as VII but I knock it down a peg for what I felt was an underwhelming final chapter. V and IV were always a little tougher for me to get into for some reason but still good.

Unfortunately its the slow death of the turn-based system that started with X which started killing the series for me. With better graphics and tech came with it a philosophy (a flawed philosophy, imo) that turn-based was simply outdated and real-time was where it was at. But its a good example of the idea of just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. Like an overuse of CGI in film. Real-time has benefited nearly all genre in games but I feel it ruins the atmosphere of a JRPG. Regardless of being able to achieve real-time fighting, turn-based action is just ingrained into the genre. It needs to come back in the worse way. They can still make the games as pretty as they possibly can utilizing current graphics while still using a turn based system. Its not one or the other or anything.

[JCAll]

My first Final Fantasy was Final Fantasy Legend III on the Gameboy. The thing about Legend series though, is it's actually part of the SaGa series. The 3 Legend games were actually the first 3 SaGa games, they were just rebranded as "Final Fantasy" to help them sell. It's pretty apt though, the SaGa games were basically spun off from Final Fantasy 2, using a refined version of the combat system from that game that everyone hated. It works for SaGa though, because the whole series is evil.

FFLegend III meanwhile, actually does play more like a Final Fantasy game than a SaGa game, and I really quite enjoyed it. It's probably my favorite time travel RPG game aside from Chrono Trigger, even if it has aged like you would expect a vanilla Gameboy game to. SaGa 3 and SaGa 2 were remade for the DS, with updated story, graphics, and mechanics to make them more like standard SaGa games. And they're really good. They weren't released in the US, but there are fan translations, so I guess it doesn't matter much.

My first actual Final Fantasy game was the original on the NES. It was awful. I can't fathom how that piece of crap spawned so may masterpieces. Plus, my cartridge was damaged, every time I tried to go past the volcano it glitched and died. My favorite was the time when every time I tried to swap my party members places one of them would turn into a White Mage, then they were all White Mages, then the game crashed and deleted my save.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

My first Final Fantasy was Final Fantasy Legend III on the Gameboy. The thing about Legend series though, is it's actually part of the SaGa series. The 3 Legend games were actually the first 3 SaGa games, they were just rebranded as "Final Fantasy" to help them sell. It's pretty apt though, the SaGa games were basically spun off from Final Fantasy 2, using a refined version of the combat system from that game that everyone hated. It works for SaGa though, because the whole series is evil.

FFLegend III meanwhile, actually does play more like a Final Fantasy game than a SaGa game, and I really quite enjoyed it. It's probably my favorite time travel RPG game aside from Chrono Trigger, even if it has aged like you would expect a vanilla Gameboy game to. SaGa 3 and SaGa 2 were remade for the DS, with updated story, graphics, and mechanics to make them more like standard SaGa games. And they're really good. They weren't released in the US, but there are fan translations, so I guess it doesn't matter much.

My first actual Final Fantasy game was the original on the NES. It was awful. I can't fathom how that piece of crap spawned so may masterpieces. Plus, my cartridge was damaged, every time I tried to go past the volcano it glitched and died. My favorite was the time when every time I tried to swap my party members places one of them would turn into a White Mage, then they were all White Mages, then the game crashed and deleted my save.

Final Fantasy I is now on the NES Classic system. Its one of the games included. You maybe able to play it now.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

In playing Final Fantasy XV , the 1st thing ya notice is how chaotic the battle system really is with your group. All 4 of you charge in and its chaos . The system works and has some nice deals with it. Love the warp attack , warp move. The MP charging back up and how ya use magic. But ...the 4 attacking at one point is pure chaos and should be done better.

I even for the 1st time shared some pics from PS4 of my playing....


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[SUPERECWFAN1]

Honest Game Trailers took a shot at Final Fantasy XV. It was pretty funny folks...