Final Fantasy Thread

So I've gone years ignoring the series and last month I finally cracked and decided to get into it.

I've got I, II and III on iOS, and got XV out of a bargain bin

Finished I last week, thought parts of it were a real slog like some of the dungeons (though i suppose that comes with the territory) and the game not giving you any direction at times
>You want Handholding?
No, there's a difference between handholding and the game giving you 3-4 nearby settlements, each with dozens of interchangeable NPCs, and expecting you to find the one that has the macguffin that lets to advance.
This is especially weird because the game really doesn't have anything resembling a plot. It begins with rescuing a princess and then quickly becomes this vague af mission to restore the 4 crystals to power. This isnt a bad thing, but worth mentioning.

Of what little of II I've played so far, it immediately begins with a setting and a story, which is an improvement. I've read


Anyway FF thread. Lemme know what games to play next and which to not.

Other urls found in this thread:

youtu.be/w45JNgQgijc
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

As for XV, well, I'm level 21 and I've only just reached Lestallum if thats in indication. Really enjoying the combat, the ascension system feels rewarding, and the characters are growing on me a bit. You can tell it went through about a decade of development hell though. Having watched that movie Kingsglaive, and the Versus XIII trailers, surely the battle in Insomnia should've been a higher priority for inclusion than most of Chapter 1, which was just the gang fiddling about the desert. Also because Kingsglaive looked fun to play (if a little rage-inducing)

I can look past it for now but XV also has this really jarring sense of tone. All the cutscenes have Noctis being a brooding depressed hero, but then in almost every sidequest or flavour dialogue he's either upbeat or sarcastic. On top of this, there doesn't seem to be much effect on the larger world the way you'd expect it to. Shouldn't there be a stream of death and famine coming outta Insomnia? Would the goal not to get as far away from there as quickly as possible? Also I know its a game but almost every pitstop and settlement is full of non-combat civilians while the host nation has allegedly been at war for decades, and there are packs of savage monsters within metres of said settlements.

I dunno, maybe it'll get better as the game continues.

the game's unfinished

you'll know EXACTLY where the game has cut content while playing the story

Looking forward to it :)

Anyway the bit about II cut off but I've been warned it's terrible so I'm just gonna roll with whatever comes. Can't be THAT different from I and I finished that so :/

Just a tip. For your first playthrough, stick with Noctis during Chapter 13.

You can also always go back to the open world by talking to Umbra the dog for unfinished sidequests.

>on iOS

I personally haven't played the first three, and I think it's commonly acknowledged, they're not as strong as the later games.
IV through IX are all solid games worth playing.

>Shouldn't there be a stream of death and famine coming outta Insomnia? Would the goal not to get as far away from there as quickly as possible? Also I know its a game but almost every pitstop and settlement is full of non-combat civilians while the host nation has allegedly been at war for decades, and there are packs of savage monsters within metres of said settlements.


If you watch Kingsglaive you know that there's a truce before the game starts. Insomnia is super BIG and the majority of the military were in there when the fall happened.

So when FF7 remake drops who is ready to see articles bitching about Cid's character from Soy Boys who didn't even get the point of his character. Thus simplifying it to "HE ABUSES SHERA"

You mean the spots where DLC fits in?

FF1 is exactly how you described it (all of it's versions). It's really outdated all around.

Surprisingly FF2 (not the original NES but all of it's later versions) isn't like that at all. The directions are always clear, there is very little backtracking, unique gameplay with decent costumization and challenge, and an actual story. It's definitely worth playing (I recommend emulating it on PSP so you can speed up the occassional boring battles (most of the combat is surprisingly good though))

I wouldn't recommend FF3, hardly any story like in FF1 and the gameplay is similar to 5 but 5 does everything much better.

4 is worth playing for the story, but I wouldn't recommend the DS/Android version. The PSP version is is the best.

5 has the best gameplay, it's by far better than any previous FF (and probably even better than the later ones). The story is engaging too though it's nothing very unique for the most part. It's only problem (as with 6) is that it doesn't have a good modern port (the andorid/steam port has some qulaity of life changes and good resolution, but really washed out visuals). Still, it's a must play.

6 is a must play for the best story in the series.

Should I play FFV or World of Final Fantasy?

>must play for the best story in the series
Why do people say it has the best story? I mean it's pretty basic. VI is very well paced and the combat is varied and it's never dull, that's the strong point. But the story is largely messy and the cast is so big you barely care about half of your party. And Terra is a horrible lead, she's just boring

Shoulda waited for the Royal Edition, desu

>maybe it'll get better as the game continues.
It doesn't.

FF6 is just full of unique and memorable moments to the brim. By story I didn't necessarily meant character interactions but the situations the characters are put into, the bossfights, and general story ideas.


play FFV first, it's a damn good game

World of Final Fantasy is a game with huge focus on fanservice, it's mostly worth playing after you've already played a good chunk of other final fantasies.

On the contrary, I think it's impressive that with that much characters on your control, they're all just unique, both in characterization and gameplay. Moreso if you bother to find out which relic and/or espers that fits them best. Sure there're Umaro and Gogo, but still they're unique to some extent.

>FF6 is just full of unique and memorable moments to the brim
Like what? I've just finished it yesterday for the first time and it felt very bland to me, especially compared to the PS1 games. The only thing I liked was the opera bit, that was nice and did make me feel like I was playing one of the good FFs. And the pirate guy was cool.
Not that it was ever boring or not fun, it was fun and well paced. But I don't think I'll remember any of it except for the opera bit

Reminder that X-2 and XIII-2 are good games.

FFXV is fucking horrible.

By JRPG standards it would be mediocre, but the bar was set so high,the development time given to the creators was the most of any JRPG created, the budget was so high,the marketing was so aggressive that It cannot stand to just be a 5/10 JRPG. It's a 3/10 JRPG by that fact alone

I almost entirely agree with this except that the DS version if FFIV is great, fuck you

Are the iOS ports of I-III as bad as the iOS port of V?

>By JRPG standards it would be mediocre
Oh so that's what average JRPGs are like this gen huh. I loved FFXV, what other mediocre JRPGs can you recommend from this generation?

XIII-2 is one hell of a golden turd. Everything BUT the story is gotyay. I still hate the pokemon system or whatever it's called, but I remember having fun creating my personal Jihl, so maybe I was just salty not having a normal party.

I consider visual ideas to be part of the story (since they would have just as much importance and great detail even in book format), and FF6 is really strong with those.

The only reason people like XV is because 2016 was a shit year for games in general. Oh, and buyer's remorse.

I don't like FFXV but I'm not autistic enough to think that no one else ever could and have to invent ways their opinions aren't genuine

The PSP port has just so much better visuals than the low poly models on the DS. It's also faster, much easier to follow what's happening in the battle, and the voice acted scenes are completely unnecessary in the DS version.

The DS version is more challenging which is always nice, but with skipping some battles you can make the PSP version just as challenging.

I just got to see an actual live English version of the opera by trained opera singers in the Kaufman Center in KC and it was fucking baller

What ideas though, what specifically. Being a SNES game it can't really show the world in an interesting way, everything looks pretty samey because of the copypasted building blocks that you have to use to deal with SNES memory limitations. I get that concept art for the game looks cool, but I'm not seeing that in the game itself.

If you like 2, definitely play 3. The standard FF games that everyones loves are 7 and 6. If you like 6 give 4 and 5 a try. If you like 7 try 9 and 10, 8 if you want something experimental in the same vain 7 tone wise. Everything after that really isn't worth your time. Also play tactics

You literally can't prove me wrong.

I liked it because I thought the world was interesting. You can say that it's not as interesting as the world of 7-12 and that's true, but 12 came out 12 years ago, it's not argument.

I can prove you wrong because I played it in 2017 and liked it. So there, your "argument" "proven" wrong.

I, too, have buyer's remorse user.

The DS version gives you more customization and unique content, FMVs, the voices are nice, and the models and environments look good

I ain't talking shit about the PSP version, it's a fine version but as remakes go the FFIV DS one is pretty damn good

>I can look past it for now but XV also has this really jarring sense of tone.
>Shouldn't there be a stream of death and famine coming outta Insomnia?
>Would the goal not to get as far away from there as quickly as possible?
Apparently that's supposed to be intentional, the times he's upbeat and sarcastic is when he's simply putting up a front or is just sheer denial at all the shit that's happening.
There's a particular campfire scene later on that showcases this.
It's jarring at times, but i can get what they were going for.
The game starts as a road trip to his future wife and then suddenly his father dies and his home city is invaded and destroyed, he's all for charging back home to defend it but he's told to stick with the plan and do his duty while the remaining military tries to deal with the situation as best it can.
The invading military doesnt want to genocide everything, just take control, thats why they establish checkpoints send out patrols looking for you and otherwise allow citizens their general autonomy.
The royal family was generally well liked and attacking you directly runs a high risk of collateral damage, hence why your movements arent reported on and you dont get attacked in towns.
The camping spots dotted around the wildiness are also explictly magical and hide/protect you from enemies, same type of magic that lets you summon weapons.
There's more shit involved but it ventures into spoiler territory.
Just make sure you grab all 13 of the royal arms, a few are 'optional' but the game will assume you have them past a certain point and it's slightly weird to see them used in cutscenes.

>If you like 2, definitely play 3
On what basis

The games are nothing alike in gameplay style, story, world or even tone, at least relative tonthe rest of the series

>let me explain why you don't actually like it
Jesus user, people do have different opinions. Relax will you

You literally can't prove you're right

I don't know what's more retarded, the empire or the excuses the writers came up for the flip-flopping tone. If they simply wanted to lay siege to the kingdom and prevent backlash, Regis shouldn't have been killed. Not reporting on Noctis' movements is even more short-sighted.

was trying to post examples for a while but for whatever reason 4chin doesn't let me

I think all bossfight and enemy sprites look great and unique, and are probably the best in the series. Meeting and fighting all of these "characters" (even if it's just a train) is one big adventure, similarly as with FF4.

I remember the towns looking really comfy in the DS version but the low poly enemy models took a lot away from the experience. It's just so much better seeing those beautiful sprites and spell effects on the PSP.

>enemy sprites look great
Yeah but that's literally just a static image. Doesn't even move. How can that beat the art direction that's gloriously portrayed in PS1 FF games? I don't get the logic here. Sounds like nostalgia mixed with head canon imagination.

The overall adventure is varied and always fun, true. But I also thought it was kind of messy and the story often lost focus as you were doing silly shit. Such as fighting a flipping train. I constantly had to remind myself what it is that we were actually trying to do in the game because it was easy to forget in the moment

They killed Regis to tank the kingdom's morale, he was seen as pretty damn powerful so for them to essentially just walk in and kill him sends a pretty powerful message.
They were also aware of your 'general' location but using more effort than the disposable robot troopers to track you down was seen as a waste since you weren't really doing much to effect the war.
Actual spoilers
They wanted the Ring of Lucii to control the Crystal, more than you specifically.
Not to mention Ardyn was running constant interference on both sides to further his own plans.

I mean the PSP version's artwork is beautiful but static

DS's models are rougher but dynamic, but they still look cleaner than the PSX games. They made good, wise use of the low poly look in my personal view.

Obviously pic is at a higher res than it would be on a DS but you can see the--

>Upload failed
Oh, right. Well.

Not him but you can't honestly tell me you think FFVII has better art direction than any SNES FF

the image being static or animated is irrelevant to the story, it's only visual presentation. What exactly those spriters represent is what matters to the story.

I'm a sucker for Amano's works so I might be biased, but most people also share these views. I think if FF4 and 6 would be redone with Dissidia NT's modern graphics they would blow away any modern game with the fantasy adventure they would provide.

It obviously does. You're mixing up concept art with actual art direction of the game. The concept art for 4 and 6 is great, do we see it in the game? We see fuck all, just ugly little sprites and static pictures. Obviously that's due to SNES limitations and I'm sure it was great back in the day but you can't honestly say the world shown in 4 looks more interesting than the world shown in 7-9 today in this real life. That's just a lie.

The opening, Figaro's submerging, Zozo, Owzer's Manor with the living paintings, the floating continent, the end of the world, the magitek research lab, the tunnel escape from said lab, Locke stealing clothes and saving Celes, Doma being poisoned, the escape from the Returner hideout with Bannon and Ultros, recruiting Sabin, the Veldt, the Phantom train, the Opera, Relm's house burning down, the island with Celes and Cid, the nightmare world, Cyan's letters sent to the girl who lost her fiancé, Terra's personal turmoil after the end of the world, the serpent trench adventure, the Arena, the tower of the Kefka cult, the sandworm with Gogo, Doomgaze, the world of the espers, the three pronged assault on Kefka's tower including the warring triad and the ending of the game.

Just off the top of my head. The entire game is amazing.

>image being static or animated is irrelevant to the story
No it isn't. You're dismissing the work of animators and effects artists if you think a static low resolution picture of a monster provides as strong an impression as an animated fully fleshed out monster. Animation provides personality as well, it's not just empty production value that you can dismiss.

I can. And I will. You are clearly lying to get reactions and (You)s.

You're actually trying to claim that the clunkyass dog vomit if a presentation that was Square's 3D puberty looks better than IV-VI because sprites are static?

Like I like VII, but it looks like fucking shit. Are you sure YOU'RE not the ine confusing concept art with the actual game?

Which would you rather fight? Beautiful sprite art adapted from watercolor paintings or a stack of angry green boxes that don't sit properly on the low res pre-rendered background?

I'm willing to account for taste in VIII or IX but VII objectively looks like shit

Those sprites look a lot better and clearer than the lego blocks of the PS games, mate.

Just go in order. Ignore anyone who tells you to skip one.

>I think if FF4 and 6 would be redone with Dissidia NT's modern graphics

PLEASE OH GOD OH JESUS PLEASE YES

This,

>Beautiful sprite art adapted from watercolor paintings
It's just a picture. Would you rather look at a static picture for the duration of a fight or have an actual representation of this monster that attacks and reacts to attacks? Why would you prefer a static picture, what is this argument? That's no different from playing a text adventure while looking a book of concept art, literally no difference at all.

This is actually good advice but make sure you detour for Tactics

meant for this one

>12 came out 12 years ago

Can I go back to 18

We're talking about art direction here
I would rather look at a beautiful static image than dogshit flailing around the screen any and every day of the week

It might be different if the model in question wasn't complete unmitigated ass

The static picture looked nicer, and was in line with the game's style. Animation is nice, but not a necessity. Games don't age. IV, V, and especially VI were amazing then, and are amazing now. VII and IX are also great, but they just don't quite beat the SNES titles, at least for me. And it seems many people in the thread agree. Again, you are just baiting at this point, as you could say the same dumbass shit about playing a text adventure and looking at a series of gifs for the PS titles, and you would be just as wrong.

Is VII a good starting point? I have never ever played a FF game before, and I'm not really into jrpgs, but I want to try at least.

I would go for V or VI, personally. VII is a bit ugly by today's standards, but os still a fantastic game, but thr SNES titles are pretty much timeless. Of course, is thr best answer.

Really outta get into 4,6,7,9 and 10. Those games really showcase the golden ages of Final Fantasy. Compelling stories, interesting side quests, complex and rewarding combat systems and generally memorable events and characters.

8 and 12 are honorable mentions, not as good but still stellar titles none the less.

>Animation provides personality as well, it's not just empty production value that you can dismiss.

Not saying these are unnecessary features, but story-wise they are only important if they are something out of the ordinary.

Like seeing a skeleton swing his sword at you won't "tell a different story" than if it was just a static sprite with an effect indicating his attack, or if it was written down in a book. On the other hand if he did some wierd skeleton dance animation then that would be an actual part of the story. Games rarely do these kind of things even now tough. Modern graphic are usually just used to make everything look more photorealistic rather than using it as a tool for creative storytelling, so FF6 still won't be left behind much because of that.

>many people in the thread agree
Well if that's the case I guess I have to buy 80$ cardboard from Nintendo, many people on Sup Forums seem to think it's a good idea. That's not an argument user. And I disagree that the copypasted low effort cities of VI can be put anywhere near the amazing flashed out cities of 7-9. You just don't care about visuals if that's your honest opinion. I think people just keep repeating that SNES games are great because it's an opinion that's both very safe and also slightly elitist, so people like to repeat it without giving it too much thought.

If you really really really don't want to start at 1, starting at 4 DS version is a good option.

>Like seeing a skeleton swing his sword at you won't "tell a different story" than if it was just a static sprite
Well shit, by that logic I don't even need to see the skeleton, just the word "skeleton" is enough. I can already sort of see it in my imagination, let's leave it at that. Did VI really need to show sprites of wolves? I know wolves, let's just have "wolves" written on screen.

But the static image is also often ass. We're not talking about beautiful paintings here, we're talking about SNES graphics that were pumped out in a year. So sprites looked nice, some looked like ass

If you can get past the basic PS1 models and MIDI music then yes totally. Its a fantastic story with great characters and some truely amazing moments. There is a reason its the most overhyped FF. Honestly I expect the remake will not live up to the original in certain aspects, other than looking better. Worth trying my man.

And yet your only argument is "nuh uh it ugly". Fuck off, this is the last (You) you'll get from me. You didn't even address my fucking post, as expected.

>I'm not really into jrpgs
I definitely recommend 5 then

it has very depthful but easy to understand costumization and well balanced +engaging combat, it can easily make you fall in love with the turn +party based jrpg combat system

don't start with 4, it starts out very linear and has hardly any costumization for a long time, it definitely won't make you fall in love with the genre /FF games if you haven't played them yet

you might even try 2 on the PSP though it's really different from the other FF games

It's not just ugly, it's copypasted. You can't make an argument that it shows a cool unique world if that world is 90% copypasted. It's not unique and it's not cool.

if we are talking only about story then yes, you don't have to see completely generic wolves to know they are part of the story

but 98% of the enemies in FF6 had a lot of unique touches or completely unique designs to them, so they all added to the story

Been playing through every FF game for the first time, starting a few years ago. Started with I on PSP, but after that went out of whack with order. I think I then beat XIII, then IV, V, II, VI, XV, III, beat VII at the beginning of last year and VIII just recently. I'm at that festival of the hunt in Lindblum in IX right now, but I'm also partway through XIII-2 and halfway through Chapter 3 of Tactics on PSP.

I think I'm too much of a brainlet to enjoy Tactics, I'm trying to grind out JP for my party members, which are currently Ramza, Agrias, Mustadio, Luso, and some trainee, but I have no idea what's optimal.

As for X, I'm not sure if I want to deal with emulation, but Yuna's face does look pretty bad in the HD version. I know I should play XII with english voices, but how about X? Is it worth getting on PC or emulating it just for Japanese voices?

Any tips on Tactics and XIII-2 while I'm at it? I'm enjoying IX a lot, it's gameplay is much more traditional.

Play V, VI, VII and IX, those are the best.

VII is a terrible starting point in 2018, try I, IV or X depending on taste

Either IV, V, VI or Bravely Default

>try 1 or 4
1 is extremely outdated even compared to 2, and 4 is a bad start for a first impression as the gameplay starts out really slowly and he might drop it a few hours into the game

X's English VA is really awkward and stilted, but I really can't imagine it any other way. It's up to you, really.

SNES FF sprites are gorgeous you fucking pleb

>Played 1 on PSP

Why would you do this to yourself

If you start at 1 it's for obvious reasons

FFIV is a solid FF game that is like the least deviation from the essence of FF so it's a good introduction that way

>copypasted
You aren't even trying anymore.

See (which you ignored) for some unique and cool things in VI.

but I liked it

>Shoulda waited for the Royal Edition, desu
Tbh I should have, but I bought it at the end of December and what's done is done.

At least the upgrade is around 20 quid, which altogether is cheaper than whatever it takes to buy all the standalone DLC right now

Honestly it's not that bad they just comoletely neutered the MP system

Well JRPG is a vague as fuck genre but if you want some good recent games from Japan with RPG elements I'd recommend Persona 5, Dragon's Dogma, Nier Automata and any of the Soulsborne games except Dark Souls 2 and 3. Or for something more old school I'd say the Trails in the Sky series.

Old games are outdated, news at 11. There isn't much reason to play the old games unless you're interested in video game history or something and want to play what are more or less prototypes to modern games. It isn't like music where some old shit is still kino, video games are programs designed to sell and make money

nope, you're right. nothing looks like a warzone, hell if it weren't for dropships, the world seems way more like a barely-populated frontier wilderness than a military-occupied territory. noctis being a brood-lord is probably largely a holdover from the emo-tastic FFXIII-VS trailer (I still like that shit, don't get me wrong). that said, his arc/hero's journey is still pretty weak for a RPG protag, he basically gets dragged along by fate and duty for most of the game.

a weird bit that annoyed me is in the last chapter where you see shittons of monsters in the railroaded truck ride but you can't fight them. just get your crew together and straight line to Insomnia? It took me like four months of in-game time to get to Lestallum for the first time and no one gave a fuck, but this time we don't get to fuck around at all?

Plebian child

Neckbeard

Damn, this shit is stupid as fuck. It's been a while since I read something this dumb. Reads like a GameFAQs post.

It's a tough redpill to swallow, I know gramps

>redpill
>>Sup Forums is that way, Jr.

III and XIII-2 are the only good ff beside IX and VII, don't bother giving me any (You) I won't argue with you nerds.

13-2 and 10-2 are my favourite FF so no YOU from me user.

Remember that expressing ones individuality is a gift from God or evolution as you will.

youtu.be/w45JNgQgijc