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

Posts 421 to 440 of 1,768

JaxonH

It was 6 years ago when I first played FFX. I’m a couple hours in now, and... wow. SUCH a great game. It’s just so dang good! Really set the bar high as my first proper JRPG, and even now, all these years later playing it again, it’s still one of if not the very best games I’ve ever played.

They just don’t make em like this anymore

@Xyphon22
PS Classic is pretty poor. Very low end. Incompatible PAL versions runnin in slower motion, FFVII has a glitch for every fight scene, etc etc. it’s all kind of minor stuff but it adds up, ya know.

I think the Switch version is as good as any other console release of the game. To me it’s the best release because you’re getting a consul and handheld version of it together. But just as far as features and technical aspect I think it’s is good as any other.

If you haven’t played FFX though, I really recommend it.

All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans

God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John

Quarth

I ordered the Asian version of X/X-2 from Play-Asia, as I don't like the concept of download codes inside a box. Hopefully I will get it in the next couple of weeks. I've also preordered XII.

Friend code: SW-3941-9887-2293

Xyphon22

@JaxonH OK, thanks. I'll just stick with the Switch version then, eventually. I'm still trying to finish up FFVI (I think I'm close, but it's hard to say since I'm just kind of wandering around aimlessly trying to find people). I'm not really a big FF fan, I've just always heard so much about VII that I would like to play it just to see what the fuss is about, even if other games might be technically better. If I like it enough, I'll probably give another a try. Although it would be hard to pick since reading on here some swear by IX, others think X is the best ever, and some love XII. Which is why I'll just pick VII to start, probably when it goes on sale.

Xyphon22

3DS Friend Code: 5069-3937-8083

JaxonH

@Xyphon22
The thing is, FFX is the obvious top pick imo, as it's a remastered mega budget PS2 game as opposed to a hardcore, blocky, old school PSone era JRPG.

I think the people who like FFVII and FFIX the most, are people who played them back in the day and have that nostalgia. Playing them for the first time now, I dont think they hold up nearly as well for a new player.

Naturally opinions will differ, but I think FFX is often recommended as the one to start with because it's not so retro and old school, and does hold up to today's standards (honestly it sits proudly alongside games such as Xenoblade Chronicles, and feels just as modern).

Alot of fans pride themselves on having played earlier entries though, and will always say they are the best, in the same manner people still say SNES/N64 games are the best of all time (something I don't really agree with myself- Super Metroid is classic but Metroid Prime is better, Ocarina of Time is classic but countless Zelda's have surpassed it by today's standards)

But if you're one of those people who still hold retro games in the highest regard, you're probably right to listen to those recommendations. If you're like me and grew up in the retro era, and appreciate how good games were for their time but feel PSone games dont exactly hold up that well today... I'd say Final Fantasy X is the game for you.

All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans

God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John

JaxonH

Ok, question time. Recommended paths for Kimahri on the Sphere Grid?

I’ve heard:

1 Hit up steal/use from Rikku’s grid, then head to Yuna’s section for white magic, and either follow through for top shelf white magic or split off to Tidus for Hastega/Quick Hit

2 Hit up steal/use, then make a run for Wakka’s grid and finally Auron’s for high physical damage output.

3 Hit up steal/use, then make for Lulu’s grid, as her high magic points mix well with Kimahri’s best abilities.

All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans

God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John

Bunkerneath

Just got my FFX in the post today, but playing FFVII, damn I really wanna play Blitzball!

I AM ERROR

Switch Friend Code: SW-5538-4050-1819 | 3DS Friend Code: 1633-4650-1215 | My Nintendo: Bunkerneath | Nintendo Network ID: Bunkerneat | Twitter:

Anti-Matter

My sibling has ever drilled Yuna until All nodes on Sphere Board full of supportive parameters (All 255), so his Yuna could do 99,999 damage by normal Attack with Nirvana staff. 😁
No need Fancy Overdrives. 😜

Anti-Matter

Dezzy

@ALinkToMyProfile

Yep, this is from the normal game with no names changed:

Untitled

It's dangerous to go alone! Stay at home.

NEStalgia

@JaxonH I don't know. Once you start getting to "start at FFX", you're not really "starting" somewhere, you're just playing a handful of newish games and ignoring the bulk of the series.

However, FFVII has REALLY aged badly in just about every regard. The graphics are ugly to the point of being unidentifiable where you are at points, the animation of attack animations is horrid and jerky, the menus and systems are dated, and the music is painful to hear. I love VII in many ways, but it's just SO awful to attempt to play it now. I feel the remaster if IV is probably a better real "starting point" in that sense. Heck even VI feels less dated because 16-bit pixel art is all the rage these days.

I don't feel that IX has aged nearly as badly though. VII was experimental and their first "3D" game. VII and VIII let them cut their teeth on the format quite a bit before doing IX as a PS1 swan song. Yeah the art is blocky-ish, but it's not the horrible mess that VII is, and animations feel fluid. Gameplay systems were a lot more straight forward, "modern" and not as archaic as well. And IX is a lot less...."weird" than X which stands alone as an excessive melodrama more like XIII, but better.

Going back to VII makes me really appreciate that they're doing a modern reboot. Even if it's an XV-style monstrosity of an action game.

NEStalgia

Eel

7 also used a lot of shabby-futuristic designs and neon colors in dark backgrounds, particularly early on. While 9 went for a more traditional fantasy setting with more natural colors.

Fantasy ages better than futuristic most of the time.

I guess it also helps that they background artists got better over the course of three games. They grew out of the "Myst" style.

Edited on by Eel

Bloop.

<My slightly less dead youtube channel>

SMM2 Maker ID: 69R-F81-NLG

My Nintendo: Abgarok | Nintendo Network ID: Abgarok

JaxonH

@NEStalgia
You’re just starting with the best game to start with. There’s no order where you can only play games that released afterwards. We’re just talking about games to start with. The older games are good candidates for your third or fourth game in the series, just not your first.

Way I see it, 1/3 of the series is super old school NES/SNES that should be avoided at all costs as an entry point (unless you’re a diehard retro enthusiast), another 1/3 are 16-32 bit retro classics which are still extremely rigid and don’t hold up as well as they should, and the final 1/3 are the modern classics from FFX onward. 11 and 14 are MMOs, so scratch those off the list. FFX-2 is a Direct sequel, so scratch that off. 13-2 and 13-3 are direct sequels, strike those off the list. That leaves 10, 12, 13 and 15 as viable entry points. 15 is... good. Great even. But not exactly a shining example of what made the series great. It’s a huge deviation from the previous games and has issues splitting itself between open world and linear. Cross that one off. And if it’s a choice between 10, 12 and 13, well... FFX and FF12 wins out. But 12 is a deviation- I hear it’s fantastic, but it’s closer to Xenoblade than previous FF games, so if I’m gonna lean one way or the other, it’s gonna be in favor of 10.

I’m also glad to see a remake of FFVII. Maybe we’ll see it on the Switch 3 around 2030

Edited on by JaxonH

All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans

God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John

NEStalgia

@JaxonH True. The format may be modern, the "feel" may be modern, but I still have a difficult time recommending X as a starting point. It, to me, is one of the weirdest FF games. IV remaster, IX (it really hasn't aged nearly as badly as VII and is a very accessible, inviting game), maybe XII feel more "FF" than X to me. Don't get me wrong, I love X, but it's definitely going with its own drummer. XIII gets a lot of criticism, but in many ways that's even more conventional (though only available on last gen consoles and XBox right now.) Worse story and characters though, so it's a better game, but worse movie. Battle system is amazing though. We won't discuss FF: Route 66 Edition.

I mostly agree with your list, but I tend to include the sequels together (X+X2, and the whole FNC collection as one unit -which makes XIII a lot more appealing...) Still, the NES ones I agree are for teh hardest of the hardcore (I'm hardcore FF and even I won't touch those anymore. THE IV remake is excellent though!), but the SNES games hold up well. Better than VII. Poor PS1 had some rooough stuff...

But yeah, 15 really isn't FF. It's a cool game, but it's not an FF game, it's an ARPG set loosely in the FNC universe of 13. Which makes sense, it was intended to be an ARPG spinoff of 13 when it was FFXIII Versus. Making it a mainline entry was a weird choice.

I know everyone loves X more than XIII because the story is at least coherent, but XIII deserves more consideration than it gets. The gameplay is stellar. Yeah the opening act is really off on pacing but once it gets going it's arguably the best gameplay in any FF game. And the two seqels are, IMO better than X....it's just that everyone hates XIII and nobody gives them a fair shake. I hated XIII as well until I started replaying it with X1 BC and realized it's actually a lot better than I thought. Mute point on a Nintendo thread, of course. XIII will never come to Nintendo. It won't come to any console that can't just emulate the PC version or previous console version because the Crystal Tools engine is forever abandoned. Shame though.

Then there's VIII.....shame that may be lost forever short of a total remake. Not the best FF, but not deserving to be forgotten.

NEStalgia

JaxonH

@NEStalgia
I really like XIII. I dont think they're as good as X. The characters aren't as likeable and the story isn't as good. But I still really like the XIII trilogy. Never say never. Usually when people say we'll never get something, we end up getting it. They figure out a way

All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans

God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John

NEStalgia

@JaxonH Yeah, the problem (including for me the first time around) was nobody plays FF for the gameplay, they play for the story, and the XIII story was a MESS with dreadful characters. The sequels got a lot better though. But the gameplay was always good after the first section on rails where you just hit "auto attack" for everything.

"Never"...I don't know. CT is a dead engine. It would take either porting it to UE like they did with FFXIV, which I don't know if XIII is popular enough for that, or just getting consoles powerful enough to emulate it like X1 does. Maybe someday that happens. But it's a shame it's not native. And VIII...I hope they do a remake like for VII if they truly lost the source.

NEStalgia

Magician

With the popularity of the Switch in Japan I wonder what the chances are of Square Enix developing a remaster of FF1-FF6? I'm talking about a step past the 3D remasters of FF3 and FF4 on DS. I want them remastered in Unreal Engine 4, having them look like Octopath Traveler. I don't think I could resist purchasing FF4 for a fifth time if S-E chose to do it.

Switch Physical Collection - 1,241 games (as of March 23rd, 2024)
Favorite Quote: "Childhood is not from birth to a certain age and at a certain age the child is grown, and puts away childish things. Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies." -Edna St. Vincent Millay

NEStalgia

@Morpheel Good point on the color and theme differences. Interesting about "Myst" style...I don't see that really when I look at 7....it's just really low res renders.

Though even looking at character models, VII has highly deformed hoof things. IX has more traditional looking models that could have been sprites abut are instead models. Zidane, Garnet etc look like cartoons, not horror film experiments like the VII cast

NEStalgia

Eel

Hah yes by Myst style I meant mosty the rendering style; basic, otherwordly, sometimes kinda plastic-like.

Like a 90's pre-renredered game cutscene.

Talking about the models being creepy...
Untitled

Edited on by Eel

Bloop.

<My slightly less dead youtube channel>

SMM2 Maker ID: 69R-F81-NLG

My Nintendo: Abgarok | Nintendo Network ID: Abgarok

Bunkerneath

Looked inside the case if FFX and found the reversible cover!!!
BUT the spine is WHITE?? What is wrong with these people??

Untitled

I AM ERROR

Switch Friend Code: SW-5538-4050-1819 | 3DS Friend Code: 1633-4650-1215 | My Nintendo: Bunkerneath | Nintendo Network ID: Bunkerneat | Twitter:

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