Judging the main Final Fantasy games

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#27 Feb 05 2008 at 6:42 PM Rating: Good

Karlina

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Wait is identical to 4-8 with a small exception: time still advances (as if on active) during spell effects, leading to backup when there are lots of spell effects in a row.

That was my biggest problem with it. I can't even count the number of times I died because I chose an action and then got hit with heat before it went off.

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#28 Feb 05 2008 at 11:23 PM Rating: Good

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Candidly I don't understand what anyone can see in XII. IT received many high reviews, but I believe that it had serious flaws beyond the realm of personal taste.

Story is a highly subjective category, but I honestly was taken aback. I reached teh end of the game and said aloud "Wait... what?" I was so confused, I thought I was only a third of the way into the game because nothing had happened. Everything I had assumed to be setup and backstory for the real main storyline turned out to be the real main storyline. The criticism of Vaan is more than he doesn't do anything, he has no real point in tagging along either.

I liked the new take on the combat system and found it refreshing, but all the novel ideas were destroyed by horrible abilities. All skills, debuffs, and black magic were useless for the majority of the time (save for nearly phys immune enemies). The most effective strategy was to buff pre fight and simply auto attack and heal. Skills nearly always did less damage than normal attacks, debuff magic was either useless on immune bosses or wasted on short enemy fights, and black magic while doing decent damage was mp wasted that would have better been used for healing.

It also had the most inane spell I have ever come across, reverse. This spell changes all damage to healing and all healing to damage. In theory it could be a useful spell. Cast it on yourself and let the enemy heal you, or cast it on a highly resistant enemy to hurt them with cures. The problem is that you cannot cast it on yourself. Ok fine, so cast it on enemies right? Sure, except that you cannot cast cures on enemies. This spell in practice only helps your foe. Such a poorly thought out ability.

The game also suffered from FFX character duplication. Initially it was nice to develop my characters freely as I chose, and I made a highly specialized and effective party. But at the end of the game every character had everything and the only difference was in innate states and items equipped. All sense of indenty is lost, and it is much easier to do than in FFX.

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#29 Feb 06 2008 at 1:45 AM Rating: Decent

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Allegory wrote:

Candidly I don't understand what anyone can see in XII. IT received many high reviews, but I believe that it had serious flaws beyond the realm of personal taste.

Story is a highly subjective category, but I honestly was taken aback. I reached teh end of the game and said aloud "Wait... what?" I was so confused, I thought I was only a third of the way into the game because nothing had happened. Everything I had assumed to be setup and backstory for the real main storyline turned out to be the real main storyline. The criticism of Vaan is more than he doesn't do anything, he has no real point in tagging along either.

I liked the new take on the combat system and found it refreshing, but all the novel ideas were destroyed by horrible abilities. All skills, debuffs, and black magic were useless for the majority of the time (save for nearly phys immune enemies). The most effective strategy was to buff pre fight and simply auto attack and heal. Skills nearly always did less damage than normal attacks, debuff magic was either useless on immune bosses or wasted on short enemy fights, and black magic while doing decent damage was mp wasted that would have better been used for healing.

It also had the most inane spell I have ever come across, reverse. This spell changes all damage to healing and all healing to damage. In theory it could be a useful spell. Cast it on yourself and let the enemy heal you, or cast it on a highly resistant enemy to hurt them with cures. The problem is that you cannot cast it on yourself. Ok fine, so cast it on enemies right? Sure, except that you cannot cast cures on enemies. This spell in practice only helps your foe. Such a poorly thought out ability.

The game also suffered from FFX character duplication. Initially it was nice to develop my characters freely as I chose, and I made a highly specialized and effective party. But at the end of the game every character had everything and the only difference was in innate states and items equipped. All sense of indenty is lost, and it is much easier to do than in FFX.

pretty sure I could cast reverse on my own guys... the first half of the game you can pretty much instant kill all bosses with a quickening chain.

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#30 Feb 06 2008 at 5:39 AM Rating: Decent

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Yes reverse def worked on the party, keeping it up together with decoy made you an basicly imortal tank. Very useful altho slightly overpowered.

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#31 Feb 07 2008 at 2:48 PM Rating: Decent

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The ones I liked the best: 5, 6, 7, 9, Tactics.

Granted that 6 was the first I legitimately played and the ones before that were fairly retro by the time I finished them. All of them are ok, but I don't think there's been a truly good one since 9.

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#32 Feb 08 2008 at 8:50 PM Rating: Decent

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Yeah well...

XII had a fight with Gilgamesh that had a fantastic remix of Clash on the Big Bridge, so I was happy. I also put the game down shortly after beating him.

While it was possible to cast reverse on yourself, it did not last very long at all, and it also was not guaranteed to land (based on spell resistence, since it technically counted as a debuff). Black Magic was useful if you could deal capped damage, because of the ability which gave mp back to you after dealing damage (warmage or something). A sucessful Blizzaga could restore more mp than it comsumed.

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#33 Feb 12 2008 at 1:45 PM Rating: Good

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You put....FFVII....in the same league as FFXI?!!!!
Outrage!
I mean Tifa's boobs alone should give the game a higher rating!

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#34 Feb 14 2008 at 5:57 PM Rating: Good

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FFVI was a good game but not perfect by any means and FFVII was probably the best one at its time, it was the only one I have found myself replaying over and over.

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#35 Feb 17 2008 at 7:38 AM Rating: Good

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My favorites are FFIII through FFVI, I don't know why but I always seem to go back playing them again, especially FFV.

For XII, I believe even the Executive Producer had an issue with it being not up to par with other Final Fantasy titles. Honestly , they should have used the Zodiac Job System that was in the International version in the base version of the game. It prevents duplicate characters and adds a bit of depth in terms of customization, even though it limits the original games license board. It's story though, reads like a History of Ivalice rather than an epic about a group of heroes. It's Sound and Music, especially the dubbing, is top notch.

While I enjoy FF Tactics and its related games, I find them not up to NIS's Disgaea series of games (though they're better than NIS's Makai Kingdom or Phantom Brave). I'll just finish the game for Tactics, while I have unlocked nearly everything in both Disgaea 1 and 2, working on that for 3.

Personally, I'd love to see 5 or 6 redone for the PS3, (or one of the handhelds, either one is fine with me).

Will I buy FFXIII without reading any reviews, and on the first day? Yes. It looks like a fresh take on the battle system (It is part of the reason I bought a PS3). Not to mention I'm impatient. Smiley: tongue

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#36 Feb 17 2008 at 1:13 PM Rating: Decent

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Lady KeikoMYA wrote:

My favorites are FFIII through FFVI, I don't know why but I always seem to go back playing them again, especially FFV.

For XII, I believe even the Executive Producer had an issue with it being not up to par with other Final Fantasy titles. Honestly , they should have used the Zodiac Job System that was in the International version in the base version of the game. It prevents duplicate characters and adds a bit of depth in terms of customization, even though it limits the original games license board. It's story though, reads like a History of Ivalice rather than an epic about a group of heroes. It's Sound and Music, especially the dubbing, is top notch.

While I enjoy FF Tactics and its related games, I find them not up to NIS's Disgaea series of games (though they're better than NIS's Makai Kingdom or Phantom Brave). I'll just finish the game for Tactics, while I have unlocked nearly everything in both Disgaea 1 and 2, working on that for 3.

Personally, I'd love to see 5 or 6 redone for the PS3, (or one of the handhelds, either one is fine with me).

Will I buy FFXIII without reading any reviews, and on the first day? Yes. It looks like a fresh take on the battle system (It is part of the reason I bought a PS3). Not to mention I'm impatient. Smiley: tongue

FFVI for the GBA (can be played on DS)
FFV for the GBA (Can be played on DS)

Edited, Feb 17th 2008 9:14pm by RuinatorVek

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#37 Feb 17 2008 at 3:59 PM Rating: Decent

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Comparing any srpg to Disgaea is simply not fair; there is no game that is better than it in that genre, whether it be in terms of mechanics, character development, or whatever,

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#38 Feb 17 2008 at 4:05 PM Rating: Decent

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I had a hard time getting into Disgaea tbh. I liked Tactics better, but to be fair I think I will enjoy Disgaea's story more once I get around to it.

I have some confusion with the Disgaea series though. Among all the SRPGs out there there are several I know that are part of a series but aren't indicated so by name. For example, I'm fairly sure that Disgaea is in the same series as Rhapsody (yes, I beat that game, and I am ashamed). Obviously there's Disgaea 2 now. Then there are games like La Pucelle Tactics and Phantom Brave that look so similar in style that I assumed they were in some way related.

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#39 Feb 17 2008 at 8:31 PM Rating: Good

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FFVI for the GBA (can be played on DS)
FFV for the GBA (Can be played on DS)

I already own both of the GBA remakes xD. I guess I was meaning more in the line of how FFIII and IV were redone.

Kachi wrote:

I had a hard time getting into Disgaea tbh. I liked Tactics better, but to be fair I think I will enjoy Disgaea's story more once I get around to it.

I have some confusion with the Disgaea series though. Among all the SRPGs out there there are several I know that are part of a series but aren't indicated so by name. For example, I'm fairly sure that Disgaea is in the same series as Rhapsody (yes, I beat that game, and I am ashamed). Obviously there's Disgaea 2 now. Then there are games like La Pucelle Tactics and Phantom Brave that look so similar in style that I assumed they were in some way related.

I believe Rhapsody and La Pucelle are directly related to eachother. While Disgaea and Makai Kingdom are as well (a bit more indirectly). Phantom Brave is off on its own. What you've noticed with all the NIS games looking so similar is that they haven't really upgraded the graphics in 6 years. Even with the jump from PS2 to PS3 all thats changed is it has split second loading times and a higher text resolution. It's still amazingly fun (though impossible to read on a Standard TV), though I wish they'd make higher resolution sprites, as some of the games by VanillaWare and Gust that they have published easily outdo any of the NIS titles graphically.

Edited, Feb 18th 2008 4:33am by KeikoMYA

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#40 Feb 17 2008 at 10:31 PM Rating: Decent

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Hrm, somehow I never even heard of Makai Kingdom. Guess I'll have to try to hunt it down.

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#41 Feb 17 2008 at 11:13 PM Rating: Good

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My buddy in elementary school got Final Fantasy I when it first came out. I watched him play it for about five minutes and said "who wants to play a game where you walk through a town, that's stupid." We then went outside with one of his mother's books and pretended to be wizards fighting "demons" (his dogs). Smiley: lol

I'd have to say 6, 4, Tactics, FFXI, 8, 10, 5, 7... the NES ones were brutal, and going through a long dungeon without a save, then dying and losing an hour's work, would usually be enough to make me take a break. I didn't replay the Playstation ones (other than Tactics and 8), and I have only played 9 once - lost one of my discs and never replaced it. I have only played through the first hour or two of 12; my friend owns a copy, and I play it sometimes when I visit her, but I never bothered to buy it myself. It seems to be one of those "you have to buy the strategy guide" type games; I love unlocking ultimate weapons and fighting all the monsters, and the game seems a little arbitrary about how it lets you do those.

Just hearing the music from VI or IV is enough to give me butterflies. But, to be fair, I don't feel objective enough to say how much of the love I have for the games is the actual content or just nostalgia. I know kids who go apesh*t over 7 because it was their first, but to go back and play the SNES ones, they just don't connect.

Edited, Feb 18th 2008 2:26am by Dandruffshampoo

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#42 Feb 18 2008 at 7:48 AM Rating: Good

Karlina

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I had a hard time getting into Disgaea tbh. I liked Tactics better, but to be fair I think I will enjoy Disgaea's story more once I get around to it.

I didn't like Disgaea that much over all. It was fun at first but I stopped playing somewhere around chapter 10 and have no interest in ever touching it again. The story didn't really impress me, the humor got old VERY quickly, and you can only go through so many near identical item worlds before the battle system gets boring (no matter how awesome it normally is.)

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I'm fairly sure that Disgaea is in the same series as Rhapsody (yes, I beat that game, and I am ashamed).

Weirdly enough though, I really enjoyed Rhapsody. VERY short, VERY easy, and had more sugar than a skittles factory, but it was entertaining anyway.

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Items no one cares about: O
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#43 Feb 18 2008 at 11:26 AM Rating: Decent

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What is with people and thinking FFX was good? The story was pitiful, Tidus is a total pussy*, and lest we forget the forced laughter scene that made me want to jab pencils through my eardrums. The entire game was a very developed broom, a solid line until the very end where stuff expands and branches out in the same general direction. You had zero freedom outside of "how about some blitzball" until the end of the game. It felt like half the game was made of cutscenes, if there was any less interaction they would have just called it FFX: The Spirits Within. The limit break weapons were a total joke, especially considering how easy pretty much the only fight you use them on is (practically 1-hit the final boss?).

I beat the game once and never touched it again. In fact, I bought the game, played 45 minutes of it and got so disgusted I never touched it again for almost 2 years, then forced myself to finish it.

And if that's what people think was good, I can't imagine how awful X-2 would be.

*Not to say that other FF characters aren't. Vaan takes the cake for queeniest of the sissies. All I picture is him running towns in nothing but a black top hat and his pseudo-vest with a present covering his genitals, running up to people and popping the top off of the box effectively exposing himself to whoever is in front of him and yelling "BASCH LIVES!"

Edited, Feb 18th 2008 1:31pm by bsphil

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#44 Feb 18 2008 at 11:43 AM Rating: Good

Karlina

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bsphil wrote:

The entire game was a very developed broom, a solid line until the very end where stuff expands and branches out in the same general direction.

Most of the games are like that. FFX just did it without giving you the illusion of freedom known as the 'wold map'.

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75 Scorpion/75 Wamoura/75 Pixie/75 Peiste/64 Sabotender
51 Bird/41 Mandragora/40 Bee/37 Crawler/37 Bat

Items no one cares about: O
Missions no one cares about: O
Crafts no one cares about: O

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#45 Feb 18 2008 at 1:05 PM Rating: Decent

bsphil

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Lady Karlina wrote:

bsphil wrote:

The entire game was a very developed broom, a solid line until the very end where stuff expands and branches out in the same general direction.

Most of the games are like that. FFX just did it without giving you the illusion of freedom known as the 'wold map'.

The illusion makes all the difference in the world.

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