Queen's Blood (Final Fantasy Thread)

[DMN in the House]

I liked XII too, probably more than X. Only thing i didn't really like was that it was so easy to make everyone able to do everything, and then they didn't have defined roles, which was a nice thing about X, where it was much harder to fill everyone's sphere grids.

[Skummy]

I thought X was dire, apart from the battle system, which had a few nice innovations while still feeling like a Final Fantasy game. The voice acting was probably the main thing to really put me off through the whole game, but I just never enjoyed it.

I thought XII was a lot of fun. It was probably the only Final Fantasy game where I actually enjoyed going out and battling random monsters more than I enjoyed the storyline; I'd struggle to explain the plot of XII, or to name a single character, but I could tell a hundred stories of hunts I went on, or funny combat stories.

As for sphere grids, or their equivalent in XII, I hate them. They're all designed to more or less force you down a certain path anyway, it's just needless busywork to give you the illusion of freedom within an incredibly linear system.

[KONGO]

Finished Final Fantasy IV! Was a fun game, dragged at the end but my faithful GameFAQs sherpa pulled me along the rest of the way. Didn't bother with any of the post-boss stuff. Now I'm on Final Fantasy Tactics while I figure out which proper RPG I want to play alongside it.

Did you find the final part on the Moon to be a huge jump in difficulty? I was really disappointed that all my leveling meant nothing once I got to the Moon and was getting my ass handed to me.

Not huge. The only guy I had any real trouble with was the final boss Zeromus. I did have to backtrack a bit and do other stuff to get through the Cave of Slyphs & Cave of Summons, but once I'd done that I really didn't have any more trouble. Curious that the game everybody else said was easy (FFVII) I've always had trouble with, but the one everyone else says is hard is the one I pretty well breezed through.

[gunnar hendershow]

Okay, I'm 4 hours into FFV (a little more actually since the clock on the game is slow for some reason) and I've twice encountered the whole "left wandering with no idea where to go" problem. That world map they have in the game is thoroughly useless. Fortunately there's only one place to end up, classic FF illusion of freedom!

DMN, you should definitely play Tactics. It's a game where, for the most part, you can grind when you run into trouble. A couple battles are really hard regardless and I'd recommend having a guidebook handy just for those moments.

Also, I remember nothing of FFXII's story but that game was a good bit of fun to wander around during. I'm not sure what my favorite of the FFX games and beyond are, I enjoyed all of them but none of them like I enjoyed the previous FF games. FFX-2 is the one I distinctly remembering having the most fun playing, but I remember wandering for hours and hours in both FFXII and FFXIII. FFX felt like an epic journey for the first 2/3 or so, and then just fizzled out. But the early part of the game was really entertaining.

[TKz]

There isn't much I liked about XII. It's got the same battle system as XI, which I didn't like and it was basically an MMO, just... single player. Really didn't like the way you learned magic and stuff either. Also, Limit Breaks and Summons were rendered completely useless. The story didn't grab my interest either. It's a shame, because if there was anything that grabbed my interest, I could have seen myself getting really into all the jobs and missions.

Overall, I blame Vaan though. Fuck that kid.

I loved X, I didn't mind the voice acting for everyone outside of Tidus. I think what appealed to me the most though, was the "post-game" content. It was like they realized people spent a ton of time min-maxing their characters in 7 and 8, so why not incorporate that into the game? It's why you can get your HP up to 99,999 and do 99,999 damage. And in the EU version especially, there's even those extra bosses with a ridiculous amount of health. (Dark Aeons + Penance) X was designed to keep you playing for much longer after you'd already beaten it. It's part of what made XIII-2 a ton of fun, they expanded on that again, including bosses definitely tougher than the final one. XIII had this too, but the problem was that it was so linear that you could only really do it AFTER you beat the game... and I found myself ending up under leveled 2/3rds through the game.

I also had this problem with XII, but that was my own fault. I got bored and tried to rush the end of the game, ended up getting stuck in the final dungeon, unable to beat the boss but unable to leave without ending up dead.

[probablyoliver]

XII is the best for super bosses though. Everyone talks about Yiazmat but fuck that guy, there were a good five or six bosses way more challenging and way more interesting than Vayne.

And Vaan wasn't that bad, he stays silent after the first 1/8th of the game and gets relegated to simply being the narrator which I can deal with. Main character duties pretty much get juggled between Ashe, Basch and Balthier and god damn, all three would make it in my top 15 or so FF protagonists.

Also I really dug the loot/bazaar system and some of the secret dungeons were wonderful.

I'd say my main gripes with XII was the fact there were a lot of gaps in storyline progression where not much seemed to happen, pretty much every enemy (including the super bosses and 90% of hunts) were lazy palette swaps and y'know, sexy rabbit ladies.

And yeah, the license board/levelling system was pretty hit and miss as well.

And yeah, Vaan.

Fuck Vaan.

[gunnar hendershow]

I can tell you the only names I remember from FFXII were Balthier, Fran, Ashe, and Basch. Until today I completely forgot Vaan's name, that's how utterly forgettable of a "lead" he was.

[ZJ Penn]

I always saw Vaan as a means of exposition instead of a lead. The story was very much a Star Wars style epic with several characters you could consider leads.

And I always remember Penelo. Always being spoken in that old blue bangaas stupid accent.

[Nick Adams]

Out of all the FF games, my favorites are (in descending order) VIII, X-2, X, VII, and the DS Tactics games. X-2 would be my favorite, except that the ultimate dress spheres for all three of the characters are so easy to find. I found two of them by accident, and the third was just random questing.

I suppose it's just that VIII and X-2 had leveling aspects that really felt like they were trying to be inventive with the game play. Having certain summons in VIII gave you certain abilities, you actually had a limited number of spells instead of MP, as if using the spell itself burned it up, the characters were fairly memorable, and it had actual cut scenes. While X is okay, X-2 actually feels like it has a better plot for some reason, and you also don't have to worry about character management so much as you need to consider how to use them.

Yuna was either a Gunner, Gun Mage, or Songstress, Rikku was either a Thief, Beserker, or Lady Luck, and Payne was either a Warrior, Dark Knight, or Samurai. For some reason, I leveled all of them as White and Black Mages. I never used the Trainer or Alchemist regularly, only using them out of complete desperation.

XII ... well, it's there. But I already have all the Kingdom Hearts games (save for the original versions of Chain of Memories and Coded), and those games did real-time combat a lot better. I gave up on XII after the infested mine. Tried XIII and hated how linear everything in it was.

[probablyoliver]

If we're ordering...

IX, XII, VII, X, VIII, XIII.

[Ruki]

If we're ordering...

IX, XII, VII, X, VIII, XIII.

IX, VIII, V, VI, X, VII, I, X-2, XIII-2, XIII, XII, II.

Haven't played much of III and none of IV.

[Pizza]

6, 5, 8, 9, 10, 13-2, 4, 7, 13, 10-2, 1.

I replay 6 and 5 probably once a year. I've never played 2, 3, or 12. I wouldn't play 1 again, and replaying 13 seems pointless. The rest are all pretty fun games that I would go back to if I had time. Especially 10-2, which I never beat. I thought it was stupid and girly when I was a teenager, but now I'd probably be more open to giving it a shot.

[gunnar hendershow]

I've played them all, beaten them all, some more than others. Only exception is XIII-2, as I just got it. My order changes once in awhile when I go back and replay a game.

VII, VI, IX, X-2, V, IV, X, II, VIII, XIII, XII, III, I

I think that's it. Top 3 is definitely set in stone, the next 4 are interchangeable and then the next 4 are also interchangeable. Final 2 are just there, victims of their age.

[TKz]

VIII > VII > X > XIII-2 > X-2 > I > IV > VI > II > IX > XIII > XII

I don't really dislike any of them though. It's not like it goes from best to worst (with the exception of XII and XIII that I don't really like), just what I enjoyed the most, in order. I haven't played V and I can't really get into the Tactics games.

I'd like to one day jump back into XIII, knowing now that it's not as good as I might have hoped. I feel like I could beat it and get some enjoyment out of it.

[Ruki]

Play V!

[Sousa]

So this is pretty awesome and full of things I didn't even know about (like the 9999-JP trick).

[gunnar hendershow]

Play V!

This. I'm playing it right now so I'm readily available for advice.

[TKz]

I'm midway through Legend of Dragoon right now! I'll play V after.

[Skummy]

Legend of LANCER!

[Mongrel]

I've only ever played four - VII, VIII, X and XII. From those I only finished VII and X.

From what I remember, VIII was pretty fun, but I only got as far as the second disc before losing the third disc when I moved house when I was younger, so I never finished it. I eventually found that disc and tried re-starting the game, but wasn't feeling it.

XII wasn't my favourite. The story lacked a big bad guy to go up against, and I just felt like playing it was a chore. I hated the lack of random encounters, too, which means the series is essentially ruined for me. IIRC, XII involved a lot of walking back-and-forth from place-to-place, which got extremely tiresome.

X was the first game I've played and I actually finished it twice. I think it is a pretty awesome game, really. The story is good, there's some cool characters, and Seymour is a wicked bad guy. The Aeons were the best summon characters of the four games I've played, too. The only real downside is the end of the game where the final bosses were pretty awful.

I played VII a couple of years ago and had a great time with it. I can only imagine how awesome it would have been for people when it first came out without the benefit of subsequent graphic improvements, because it is a heap of fun with a great story and a really solid main cast of characters. I mean realistically most of the main characters in these games are the same, but the supporting characters in VII were great and completely different to subsequent games. I found XII took itself too seriously, and we'll never see people like Vincent, Red XIII and Cait again which is a real shame.