Final Fantasy Megathread

[Tonberry]

It's such a shame FF8 is a pretty decent game hidden under a massive dogshit game.
Still a quaint product of its time though, and it definitely has its charm, but it's such an unfinished sloppy mess that it detracts from the cool stuff imo.

I know this is like sacrilege or whatever but it should've unironically played more like Persona, where the GFs would feel like more than just a summon you get tired of watching.
I don't have any real solution, but it'd be cooler if they acted more like spells instead of summons imo, and equipping them gave pre-set stats instead of having to junction stuff. It feels so awkward to Draw and Junction 100 Firaga the like third hour of the game.

And it needs a way more intuitive menu. It's just gray boxes hidden within gray boxes!!

 

[Guinea]

Final Fantasy VIII is one of my favorites but the Junction system really is a confusing mess.

It's also my favorite FF game to theorize about (no, not that stupid "Squall is dead" theory crap, but how it could maybe share the world of FF3, only set far into the future)

 

[Tonberry]

but how it could maybe share the world of FF3, only set far into the future

B-But that's equally stupid

I do love much of the aesthetic of the game though. I really like the kind of "contemporary fantasy" vibe it gives off. Feels similar to how 15 did it all those years later.

And the music if absolute top-shelf for the entire series:

 

[Guinea]

B-But that's equally stupid

Idk, the lore behind Hyne about how he gave his cast off skin to humanity lines up with his skeletal boss fight in FF3, not to mention that Ultimecia and Xande had the same goal of time manipulation, and the Floating Continent from FF3 sharing a location with the ruins of the Deep Sea Research Facility in FF8 (plus the world maps are similar)

I think it's not a bad theory tbh

Edit- Oh yeah, not to mention the interaction between Laguna and the Cloud of Darkness in Dissidia. He says something like "I feel like I've felt this power before" (yes I know Dissidia's canonicity is debatable)

Oh, and the clock in Ultimecia's castle points to 3 and 8. Probably a coincidence... unless... ??

There's even more to it, but I have to dig around.

 

[Tonberry]

Idk, the lore behind Hyne about how he gave his cast off skin to humanity lines up with his skeletal boss fight in FF3, not to mention that Ultimecia and Xande had the same goal of time manipulation, and the Floating Continent from FF3 sharing a location with the ruins of the Deep Sea Research Facility in FF8 (plus the world maps are similar)

I think it's not a bad theory tbh

I'm just being cheeky is all, I don't care about fan theories and headcanons and all that stuff
FF is built around being self-referential and shares themes all over the place all the time anyways, so it's whatever really.

 

[Ikagura]

I feel that futuristic JRPG should be for the Xeno series but that's just me.

A question about FFX: why in the PS2 version sometimes I see damage with a thin font and other time I see it with the thick font I'm used to? And I'm not talking about the HD version but only the original.

Is the thick font a PAL version thing?

Here's a screenshot from the Japanese version (not FFX International, the vanilla one)

 

[Tonberry]

I feel that futuristic JRPG should be for the Xeno series but that's just me.

A question about FFX: why in the PS2 version sometimes I see damage with a thin font and other time I see it with the thick font I'm used to? And I'm not talking about the HD version but only the original.

Might be regional differences, or maybe some rendering error from screenshots taken from emulators? PCSX2 messes up text all the time for instance.

 

[Ikagura]

I find it funny

 

[Tonberry]

I find it funny

HOLY SHIT
KEEPA THE GOOOOAAAAAT

Can't believe I've never seen this before!!!

 

[Ikagura]

Might be regional differences, or maybe some rendering error from screenshots taken from emulators? PCSX2 messes up text all the time for instance.

Okay, it's something added for FFX International that got carried to the PAL release I think

HOLY SHIT
KEEPA THE GOOOOAAAAAT

Can't believe I've never seen this before!!!

This has the same energy as the Theatre mode from MGS.

 

[Blue Buddha]

I've just started Final Fantasy VIII, which at this point would be the 7th mainline FF game I've played. This is definitely the game with the worst reputation out of that whole dominance period from VI through X so I'm curious to see how I'll feel about it by the end. I'm not sure what to make of the game's overall setting or its characters at the moment but I'm keeping an open mind (Aside from Zell he can gtfo), military school is an unusual pull for a prestige RPG of this nature.

I definitely appreciate the ways the game immediately tries to strike out mechanically with the Junction/GF stuff and magic being a finite resource you steal from enemies. The idea of having 4 limited slots to pick basic battle commands like using items or casting magic is interesting to me as well, strikes me as a further continuation of the design philosophy they started leaning towards with FFVI and FFVII where the player is encouraged to customize the party members to suit certain needs rather than have characters designed to fill one specific role, and since you only get 4 slots it should also prevent your party from feeling super mechanically homogenous since not everyone is going to be running all the same commands.

Graphically speaking the gap between this and FFVII just two years earlier is absolutely insane. It's not even on better hardware but everything from the pre-rendered backgrounds to the models to the camera work is leaps and bounds ahead of their last game.

It is very disappointing that Quistis doesn't keep her glasses on in her combat fatigues though, genuinely might be the worst thing Nomura has ever done over the course of his career at Square.

I've just cleared the first disc. This is a remarkably dense game, so far. It's not fully open ended but there's a pretty absurd amount of internal systems to absorb and side content to experience almost from the start of the game. Even once you have control of Squall and you've obtained some GFs you can run around and grind magic/AP in the training zone or play cards before you even leave the garden and start your first dungeon. I completed FFIV earlier this year and that was a much leaner game; even with the optional stuff like the Slyph's Cave you can be done with the game in a scant 20 hours.

It does take some of the wind out of your sails once you start to unlock the magic crafting abilities/card mod from your various guardians and you realize that manually drawing from the enemies isn't that important unless you need a quick heal or there's something with a spell you can't get from an item yet, but I suppose the alternative to this would be that encounters devolve into aggressive stallfests where you just sap as much magic as you can from the enemy before finishing them off or running away, which would be way worse. I think card mod is especially interesting, since it ties what would otherwise be a cute flavour minigame back around into the core gameplay loop without outright forcing you to do it. If you really want to learn how to play and collect as many cards as possible you can hoard quake spells and other goodies very early in, but I don't get the impression that the game will just stop and force you to bum around playing cards if you slack off on it.

As far as the cast goes, I'm not too hot on any of the characters so far, but I do think the dynamic between Squall and Seifer is well drawn. It helps that they have Squall state outright that he does like Seifer despite the game generally positioning the two in opposition to one another, which keeps it from coming off like a flat high school bully dynamic. If anything they seem to enjoy each other's company more than they do most of the other characters at this stage. Squall specifically seems to be a point of contention with this game but for the most part I don't have a problem with his sullen, withdrawn personality. Some of his interactions with Quistis in particular do seem excessively blunt to me, but there might be some further context I'm missing so I'll let it slide. He's certainly not a bland protagonist.

 

[Ikagura]

I've finished Operation Mi'ihen... still one of the most iconic moment of the game between the first complicated boss that requires tactics, how powerful Sin actually is, Seymour being playable for a short moment and the theme after seeing many bodies on the beach...

Truly a vision of Hell unveiling right in front of Tidus.

I love this music

 

[Ikagura]

I've gotten the third eon and I am watching a guide to get the bonus chest for the cloisters of trial.

Sadly I'm too tired to ride a shoopuf but I cannot wait to do so tomorrow!

 

[Talond]

Probably painting a target on myself here but I enjoyed FF13. It was my first mainline FF title. My first FF was FF7....Dirge of Cerberus.

 

[prostheticleg]

played ff6, ff7, ff8, ff9, ff10... i love this franchise so much, i cant even describe it. i first played ff7 when i was 15 and i feel like it fucked up my brain chemistry forever. i wasnt able to play a different game for another year because i was so fixated on ff7. it is my most favorite game ever, and i honestly hate the remake a lot. i know its a remake but it strays away from the original too much and it just feels like a corporate slop. ff8 is my second most favorite ff game. ff9 was incredibly charming as well as ff6. ff10 was a bit annoying but the ost was amazing, i still enjoy it and its genuinely a perfect ps3 game. have ffx/x-2 hd remake and ff13 physical copies for ps3. had so many of them but i had to sell them.
im yet to play ff12 but im so incredibly disappointed in the battle system. theres something very comforting about ATB system (and similar ones) and whatever ff12 has implemented feels off, locking onto enemies and attacking them.
yet to play other older ff games. the official art for them all is so charming and majestic to me. im looking forward to getting ultimania 2. i would love to see more concept art and learn more about the games i love so much.

 

[Ikagura]

 

[Zarathusta]

played ff6, ff7, ff8, ff9, ff10... i love this franchise so much, i cant even describe it. i first played ff7 when i was 15 and i feel like it fucked up my brain chemistry forever. i wasnt able to play a different game for another year because i was so fixated on ff7. it is my most favorite game ever, and i honestly hate the remake a lot. i know its a remake but it strays away from the original too much and it just feels like a corporate slop. ff8 is my second most favorite ff game. ff9 was incredibly charming as well as ff6. ff10 was a bit annoying but the ost was amazing, i still enjoy it and its genuinely a perfect ps3 game. have ffx/x-2 hd remake and ff13 physical copies for ps3. had so many of them but i had to sell them.
im yet to play ff12 but im so incredibly disappointed in the battle system. theres something very comforting about ATB system (and similar ones) and whatever ff12 has implemented feels off, locking onto enemies and attacking them.
yet to play other older ff games. the official art for them all is so charming and majestic to me. im looking forward to getting ultimania 2. i would love to see more concept art and learn more about the games i love so much.

Glad you are enoying the journey
I am a bit final fantasy 6 world of ruin hater but its nice to see new people get into the franchise!
You should def play FFv and Tactics

 

[Ikagura]

I forgot there was a Beyond Final Fantasy Bonus disc around for FFX

 

[Ikagura]

Well, I've missed a few Al Bhed Primers [/ispoiler]in Home and since this area cannot be visited ever again in the game[/ispoiler] I'll have to redo the sequence...

Spoiler: Primer locations

With those unskippable cutscenes and fights...

 

[prostheticleg]

Glad you are enoying the journey
I am a bit final fantasy 6 world of ruin hater but its nice to see new people get into the franchise!
You should def play FFv and Tactics

thank you ! i dont know if im new to this franchise though, ive been familiar with the franchise for 6+ years now, although i am aware that that is probably nothing compared to some other people that are into ff. and yea ff6 was somewhat weird to me, i really dont remember it because i played it like a decade ago but i remember that i really liked the storytelling.
about ffv and tactics - yeah ive been really meaning to get into that !
im not familiar with ff5, but ive been eyeing ff2 and ff4 (and other older ff games, but these two especially) for a while now because the character design really does differ from the modern one in an interesting way, but iirc they lack the proper storytelling and are just dungeon crawlers (from what ive heard from others). and tactics really stands out to me. i think someone whos this passionate about this franchise should have played a game like tactics already but i just couldnt find the time, but man the artstyle really makes me think its not a ff game. ive only heard good things about it and i cant wait to play it when im done with the games i have on my list.

 

[gokusmacksmyds]

It's such a shame FF8 is a pretty decent game hidden under a massive dogshit game.
Still a quaint product of its time though, and it definitely has its charm, but it's such an unfinished sloppy mess that it detracts from the cool stuff imo.
View attachment 174432
I know this is like sacrilege or whatever but it should've unironically played more like Persona, where the GFs would feel like more than just a summon you get tired of watching.
I don't have any real solution, but it'd be cooler if they acted more like spells instead of summons imo, and equipping them gave pre-set stats instead of having to junction stuff. It feels so awkward to Draw and Junction 100 Firaga the like third hour of the game.

And it needs a way more intuitive menu. It's just gray boxes hidden within gray boxes!!

You have to give square respect for trying to innovate their gameplay between every FF title between VI and X, sadly VIII got the most busted and a stupid decision to have enemies scale with you that ruins it's gameplay imo

 

[Ikagura]

I love his voice

(Small spoilers ahead).

 

[Guinea]

I hate being in-between games. Like, I could play Nier Automata since I recently beat Nier Replicant, and I probably should because I have a terrible-ish memory, but I want to play Final Fantasy instead

 

[Smellyfemcel]

Unless I shrimply messed up the search, I believe LandSandBoat hasn't been mentioned yet. If you're an FF11 fan or a newcomer and would like to experience the story again, hosting your own server is now easier than ever.
Decent alternative to dodging...whatever is going on elsewhere. /Cough/.

GitHub - LandSandBoat/server: :sailboat: LandSandBoat - a server emulator for Final Fantasy XI

:sailboat: LandSandBoat - a server emulator for Final Fantasy XI - LandSandBoat/server

github.com

It's open source as well.

What Works

:sailboat: LandSandBoat - a server emulator for Final Fantasy XI - LandSandBoat/server

github.com

Not everything works, you get mainly up to Treasures of Promathia, Treasures of Aht Urhgan is kinda there. Nothing past that.

 

[Ikagura]

So in FFX I'm right after Seymour Natus and I think after the Macalania cutscene there will be the Calm Lands which is quite the big area.

I need some help for those things:

• how to get key spheres (in case I go in the near end of a path of my characters).
• How to bypass the 9999 damage limit before the end of the game?
• What are the easiest Celestial Weapons to get as well as their sigils?