Topic: Final Fantasy VII, IX, X, X-2 and XII - Now with 80% more FF VIII

@Ralizah I hear XII was ahead of its time and potentially influenced the battle mechanics in Xenoblade Chronicles? Not sure if that’s right. If so though I’m looking forward to Xenoblade, although daunted by the non turn based gameplay (another tick for FFX, the most modern traditional one). If I like FFX and XC1 I’d be likely to give FFXII a shot. Any other FF games you recommend?

That's cool, @JoeDiddley .... I don't really like Blitzball, so I only play the one obligatory match & it doesn't prevent me enjoying the rest

@BruceCM
I don't like soccer at all and i don't like Blitzball too as they looks similar.
But....
The idea of Blitzball stadium design gave me ideas for my Anthro Avian Kickboxer stadium design.

XII had the gambit system, which I just finished beating the game, so it's fresh in my mind how amazing that whole system is. You can set yourself up for pretty much any (story) encounter pretty early on. It's extremely satisfying seeing your party members instantly react to status effects or whatnot. It also made grinding much much less of a pain, especially when combined with the newer 3x speed.

@TuVictus
Except the storyline on FF XII was flat boring.
I didn't even felt something threatening from general Vayne Solidor ambition to use Mist to take over the world nor best moments from FF XII.
I felt threatened by Barthandelus and Orphan on FF XIII as they want to destroy Cocoon. Or i felt threatened by Kuja ambition to destroy the Gaia.

@JoeDiddley FFXII's large (at the time) environments and interesting real-time combat system do feel very Xenoblade-y at times. A lot of people don't like the complex, grounded, politics-heavy storyline, but I thought it was a fantastic deviation from the "save the world" plots the series, and JRPGs in general, lean so heavily on. For my money, it also has a much more interesting set of characters.

I'd recommend FFIV - VII heavily. The games are undeniably dated, but it was the golden period of the franchise. Can't speak to VIII, as I've never played it, but it has its fans. IX and X... well, you know how I feel about them, but they tend to be quite popular. XII is an underrated high point in the franchise, imo.

I can't recommend any of the mainline games after XII.

If I could only recommend three of them, I'd say XII has the best gameplay, VI is the darkest and most interesting of the 2D games, and VII, while a bit rough as the first 3D entry in the series, is a really important entry in the JRPG genre that needs to be experienced. It was arguably the first blockbuster JRPG release, and it was the game that helped to really popularize the genre in the West.

FFIII isn't bad, either, and miles better than the first two. Especially if you play the DS remake. But there's not much story to it.

@TuVictus @Razilah XII definitely sounds worth checking out. VI I really want to experience too. I think even if I end up not enjoying X, I’ll still want to try VI.

VII has too much expectation to be the first for me to try. I’m not nostalgic for PS1 graphics, and it feels like I know so much about it already. IV (PSP version) I’ve heard good things about.

All this history and choice is a good thing, but also what has put me off deciding where to start! Even when you pick a game there is debate about which version to play.

@Ralizah
It's funny, because IX never used to be popular. I'd say only in the last decade has it gotten more praise from players. I remember when it came out people were really down on it. This was before pervasive internet forums and stuff, but all my friends disliked it and early internet culture was the same way. At the time, it was Final Fantasy's first trip back to a traditional fantasy setting in quite some time, and people weren't jiving with it right away. It's also exactly the reason that I got back into FF - I'm not big on the steam punk settings, but they're grown on me a bit over the years.

Thing is, since the main games really have no relation to each other, apart from the obvious sequels, @JoeDiddley.... You can start with any of them! If you definitely plan to play all the series, it'd probably make most sense starting at the 1st game

I actually can't jive with both ff12's story and characters and even the gameplay. And I enjoy nearly every sort of story as long as it's fun but this one just didn't grip me at all. It's weird.

FF9 definitely got my love though, pretty much the only FF I replayed like, 3-4 times? Only finished it 2 times though. But still my fav.

@JoeDiddley
FF IV got 3D Remake with voice acting on NDS, got remastered on IOs.
FF IV NDS / IOs is still as hard as FF IV Super Famicom.

@Ralizah
FF III NDS got beautiful orchestra music arrangement. Almost beautiful as FF VIII OST. And the 4 heroes got their names and gender (3 boys and 1 girl, not All 4 boys like FF XV).

@JoeDiddley I'm no Final Fantasy aficionado, but VI is one of my favourite RPGs. It's definitely old school, but has a good story and great characters (one of the best villains ever!). IV is also a pretty good old school experience, if not a bit formulaic. VII is great, if you can get past the PS1 graphics and try to forget the hype so as to experience it for what it is.
I recently played Final Fantasy X on Switch and it was not a good experience. Some people seem to love it, but I can't recommend it and don't think it's a good introduction to the series. I really had to force myself to even finish it.

Whichever game you end up starting with, just remember one doesn't represent all. They can be quite different from one another.

@JoeDiddley as someone who played their first FF game recently (VII) I was completely surprised how drawn in i was. There was only a few speed bumps for me boss wise. And the final boss was really dang hard until I used a sneaky trick to beat him. Other than that, it was all very manageable. I lightly used to guide to see where to go next and what if any, were required items. I can't tell you where to start as I only played VII but if you start there you wont be disappointed. It was darn near perfect. Graphics were the only set back but I'm not knocking it as it was during the ps1 era obviously.

FFVII graphics are not very representative of PS1 era games, @NintendoByNature Look at screenshots for other games around the same time It's why they haven't Remastered it, like the others....

@BruceCM yea i hear you. I had (have a ps1) but I haven't fired it up in a while 😋. I remember alot of games looking better. THPS1 looked really well for it's time.

There's various reasons offered for why it looked that way, @NintendoByNature.... But just saying it's PS1 era isn't really explaining anything! IX is much better, graphically & it wasn't that long afterwards

@BruceCM well then ya got Me! I dont recall any other ps1 era games looking like that. Then again, it's been almost 20 years since I've played my ps1 so im not really sure why it would look the way it did. Explain please 😊.

Edit: you explained.. got it.

Yeah, they didn't, that's the point, @NintendoByNature.... Something to do with it being the first FF to go 3D is more of an explanation It's a shame, if that's going to stop anyone playing it, though.

@BruceCM got it. It didn't stop me from playing if thats worth anything 😉