Final Fantasy Thread

[YuriSukiSan]

My favorite final fantasy is FFTA(final fantasy tactics advance) on gba. In this game there is a skill for thief which remove forever.steal:ability. With this ability humans and moogels become super bug. I love final fantasy tactics because their isometric graphic and learning mechanic. Any body like it?

FFTA is probably a close favourite for me because of it's message which I think is important but I prefer FFT: WoL. Everything about Ivalice setting is incredibly charming! The music of FFT is thematically some of the best in the franchise. Just listening to the victory screen gives me a deep sense of nostalgia. I think the creator went on to score Valkyria Chronicles if I remember correctly!

What I really love about FFT is that it's essentially an old european fable about knighthood and honour which is something that's very close to my heart. You already mentioned Orator but my own personal favourite is the Arithmetician, it's incredibly OP with the right job setup. There's some absolute game breaking combinations available in FFT, my only real complaints is that I wish I didn't have to kill so much as a Dark Knight because you're usually overleveled by the time it's through. And the Mime, and the Archer I think definitely need a rework. People often complain about dancers and bards which do need some love as well but if you have a troupe with a Bard they can work.

 

[happymasksalesman happymasksalesman]

FFTA is probably a close favourite for me because of it's message which I think is important but I prefer FFT: WoL. Everything about Ivalice setting is incredibly charming! The music of FFT is thematically some of the best in the franchise. Just listening to the victory screen gives me a deep sense of nostalgia. I think the creator went on to score Valkyria Chronicles if I remember correctly!

What I really love about FFT is that it's essentially an old european fable about knighthood and honour which is something that's very close to my heart. You already mentioned Orator but my own personal favourite is the Arithmetician, it's incredibly OP with the right job setup. There's some absolute game breaking combinations available in FFT, my only real complaints is that I wish I didn't have to kill so much as a Dark Knight because you're usually overleveled by the time it's through. And the Mime, and the Archer I think definitely need a rework. People often complain about dancers and bards which do need some love as well but if you have a troupe with a Bard they can work.

Orator was really weird. He can turn every enemy to allies in any level.

 

[Leon_Squallhart]

Since 2020, I've slowly but surely been working my way through the Final Fantasy series. I've played a lot of spinoffs that definitely slowed down my progress, but I can finally say that I've completed I - XVI (minus the MMOs). I've still got the XIII sequels and X-2 to get through at a future date, but it's been a big journey for me and a really fun one to blast through.

Before anyone asks, it's a boring answer but Final Fantasy X is probably my favorite.

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

I'm not a huge fan of FF4 myself (only due to having played it a billion times and sort of expanded from there) but it's a very good game to see the first time Final Fantasy really found its footing. It's a very seminal game, and for a console game from 1991 it's got a surprisingly deep/fleshed out plot with lots of themes that resonate well with people and became mainstays of the entire franchise. Love, sacrifice, honor, all that good stuff.
As far as party customization though, it has exactly 0. It's very much a story-first kind of game, and you have no control over which characters you have in your party, and you can't edit them aside from equipment. That also means that every fight is sort of designed around your party at all times though, so it's not all bad.

I ended up starting a FFIV playthrough earlier today and have been enjoying it. I can't imagine I'm very far along yet (just beat the Antlion), but I get what you mean about the linearity of the player party so far. I like the cast and story that I've seen though, and get the feeling I'm going to enjoy my time with this one.

Thanks again for humoring a total amateur question.

 

[FlameSpice]

Hey guys! I've never tried Final Fantasy before, doesn't hurt to try something new. Should I play them in order?

 

[MasterEn]

Hey guys! I've never tried Final Fantasy before, doesn't hurt to try something new. Should I play them in order?

no. start with either 4 or 10, then 5, 6, 9 and 12. then 7 and 8. 1, 2 and 3 should be saved for last. they are the roughest in terms of gameplay.
you can play them in whatever order that you want, they don't share stories, only a few common elements like chocobos, moogles, summons and a few common enemies.

 

[FlameSpice]

no. start with either 4 or 10, then 5, 6, 9 and 12. then 7 and 8. 1, 2 and 3 should be saved for last. they are the roughest in terms of gameplay.
you can play them in whatever order that you want, they don't share stories, only a few common elements like chocobos, moogles, summons and a few common enemies.

Thanks for this!

 

[MasterEn]

Thanks for this!

you're welcome. if you have any questions about any of the games, feel free to ask me or anyone else who's made a post on this thread. we've all got plenty of knowledge and info on practically every game in the series.

 

[happymasksalesman happymasksalesman]

Thanks for this!

Me play 1 and 2 first.....

 

[Leon_Squallhart]

Hey guys! I've never tried Final Fantasy before, doesn't hurt to try something new. Should I play them in order?

You can definitely jump around if you know that the post-X entries get real wacky with their systems and that the NES/SNES games definitely feel like old (but still good!) games.

My personal suggestion for basically anyone would be to start with X; I just think it's one of the most accessible games in the series across all fronts. I'd probably then push someone to VII after that just because it's the most "famous" entry, and then say go wild from there in whatever order you wish.

My order was this:

1. X (as a kid, gave up)
2. VII
3. XV
4. I
5. IV
6. XVI
7. VI
8. IX
9. III
10. X (adult attempt)
11. V
12. VIII
13. II
14. XII
15. XIII

 

[YuriSukiSan]

Hey guys! I've never tried Final Fantasy before, doesn't hurt to try something new. Should I play them in order?

FF4 (PSP) or FF6 are usually my recommendations for beginners. If you're ever curious about the different versions on different consoles, I recommend this channel as well. https://www.youtube.com/@AustinSV/videos

 

[starseeker300]

Hey guys! I've never tried Final Fantasy before, doesn't hurt to try something new. Should I play them in order?

you can, there area couple of other good starting points though, like 4 or 7

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

Alright everyone I done it yup I beaten Final Fantasy 9 and man what a game...

First the game is the only one of the PS1 trilogy that has a main menu theme FF7/FF8 had an intro theme which FF8 takes the lead in that one its worth mentioning the main menu theme is unique making it the third game with unique main menu music with 5 and tactics followed by 9 but hold up if you thought you won't hear the Final Fantasy theme YOU ARE DEAD WRONG.

For the first time ever you get to play as someone that isn't a swordsman infact you play as a humanoid monkey who is a thief with daggers/twin blade swords being our main weapon almost all FF protagonists are always seen with swords and depicted with swords zidane being the dagger guy is such a breath of fresh air , but it doesn't end here oh boy it gets better FF9 brings back classic jobs like black mage and its also the first 3d FF game that has black mages/white mages And they look as good as ever.

The way the black mages are depicted is different from FF4 they were quite nasty people in that game , in FF1 I pictured my black mage as an arrogant and cocky fella who tries to hit on a mermaid just to get dragged away by the warrior yeah I built a little tidbits of story for my party in FF1 , in FF9 black mages are always afraid of people like how are these guys weapons of mass destruction?

Well the answer lies in a cinematic and this game features the most cinematics out of all FF games I played so far while 7/8 had them 8 being a huge improvement in that regard compared to 7 but 9 just swoops both aside cinematic after cinematic it just keeps coming and it gets better each time...square outdone not only themselves but blizzard who I consider to be the master craftsmen in CGI work mind you FF9 came out same year as diablo 2.

The game follows a similar character design to 4 and 6 with each character having a unique command we play as zidane and our unique command is steal and "skill" this has to the game I used steal the most I stole everything from equipment to items and built up an elixir and ether surplus just from stealing , other characters like beloved princess garnet or dagger is a white mage/summoner the game does have characters that have 2 "jobs" like eiko and dagger being summoners and white mages and amarant being a monk/ninja , also the sorcerer job from FF5 makes a comeback with steiner and vivi combo.

The game takes on mechanics from 8 like abilities and synth shops and abilities aren't limited to having 20% more magic or being able to cast doom there is a wide variety of abilities each character can learn combined with magic spells and some other stuff for people like freya and amarant , you get to be immune to certain status effects most importantly petrify and stop , I focused on being high ability/evasion with MP attack I could deal some serious damage leaving tanking for other party members , freya indeed got dragon killer equipped at all time its just appropriate , for steiner I went full on tank with HP abilities equipped and counter a knight like him should have mastered the art of counterattack , magicians got to be most immune to status effects due to them not having abilities like +HP or MP attack or any of the killer abilities.

Card game wise it easier to understand than FF8 as if I understand how FF8 card game plays I just won through sheer luck in FF9 however while not being as good as 8 in terms of card game does allow for epic comebacks I won many games by picking weak cards and placing the last card just to pull off some combo ending the game in my favor.

The game start off a bit light hearted and gets more serious as time goes on it reminds me of FF5 especially in moments like the wind shrine with vivi getting pushed away by wind , square humor never gets old or unfunny.

Speaking of wind shrine the game is full of FF1/FF2 references and tropes I looked at the game logo and saw something looking like a crystal but never got to see one in the game but I soon found the 4 elemental stones? Not crystals exactly idk what to do with them , then we find mirrors? And go on to look for elemental shrines? Hold up are we going into FF1 story now? Wait is that GARLAND? What a sinister name...I didn't expect garland to make a comeback like this and his castle is named pandemonium?AND IT HAS A SIMILAR THEME TO FF2 CASTLE PANDEMONIUM? My my are we going back to roots are we? With ramuh the eidolon challenging us to piece a story together and the story just happens to be that of Joseph from FF2 add on it regent cid wife being named Hilda similar to princess hilda from FF2! But what has to be the best part is the 4 elemental fiends make a comeback I WASN'T expecting to fight 3d lich with sound! And a fully animated kraken who still sprays ink at me....THIS IS INSANE it really feels like square wanted to revisit some of the older games especially with the whole fiends of elements being renamed to chaos guardians at that point I was thinking we face chaos himself in all 3d glory I said we don't hear the FF theme right? Well we somehow go to a crystal world with the iconic theme playing!!! No way they just keep making it better and better and so many music pieces feel and sound similar to previous ones like the boss fight music being similar to FF5 boss music , and guess what ? THE BASS MAKES A RETURN at first I didn't notice but after 2-3 fights I was like "wait I know this starting part I heard it somewhere before is that the? The BASS? DAAAAMN THEY BROUGHT THE BASS BACK!!!" Nothing beats the BASS man NOTHING beats the bass , the section when zidane is momentarily depressed in castle pandemonium has similar theme to FF4 world theme , and man I can't be imagining things but lindblum castle feels like what the devs wanted fiagro castle to look like can't help but shed a tear for how far we came imagine being a FF player in 1994 thinking castle fiagro is peak video game castle and 6 years later you are in lindblum castle outstanding work square.

Freya has many similarities to the original dragoon gareth both were away from their homeland when it got destroyed but freya actually feels like she failed her people while gareth is like "tf? What happened? Bro where the bros at?" Freya is a well written gareth.

The game goes from amazing to even more amazing to excellent to Excellency and kuja deserves a mention dude isn't super powerful or a know it all he loses his mind when garland tells him he will die soon...he is the first FF villain that I had a little sympathy for in the end saving the team and all.

The game beautifully ends with us reuniting with princess garnet had to wipe a few tears as credits rolled and the prologue theme from FF1 played

If I give FF7 a 12/10 and FF8 a 10/10 then FF9 gets an 11/10

Virtue
You don't need a reason to help others

Sorrow
How do you prove that you exist? Maybe we don't exist...!?

Solitude
I don't want to be alone anymore

I had these idle quotes pop up when I was preparing a yerba mate cup with the game on I was like "wait I never seen these before?"

"City people are scary"
-vivi

PRINCESS
-steiner yelling PRINCESS for the 10th billion time

Oh and airship theme is easily one if not the best so far.

Up next FF3 famicom

 

[Tonberry]

I just defeated Sanctuary Keeper in FF10 and so far it feels like the only boss fight where I've had to actually use my brain. It had lots of clever behavior that countered lots of strategies. The difficulty in general sort of upped when I came to Gagazet because of the monster compositions.

People call Seymour Flux insanely hard but I beat that guy in four minutes because I went in with my Aeons preloaded and just blasted him (I didn't look up the fight beforehand), but it made me wonder why people claim Flux is harder than Sanctuary Keeper?

Alright everyone I done it yup I beaten Final Fantasy 9 and man what a game...

Total masterpiece in every sense of the word. As I've said a million times, it's not my favorite but I firmly stand by that it's the best Final Fantasy.
I love how the main menu and Terra go hand in hand, and how it's a kind of revelation when you realize the name of the main menu theme. It sounds like a memory, while Terra is the real deal. Shivers every time.

 

[MasterEn]

I just defeated Sanctuary Keeper in FF10 and so far it feels like the only boss fight where I've had to actually use my brain. It had lots of clever behavior that countered lots of strategies. The difficulty in general sort of upped when I came to Gagazet because of the monster compositions.

People call Seymour Flux insanely hard but I beat that guy in four minutes because I went in with my Aeons preloaded and just blasted him (I didn't look up the fight beforehand), but it made me wonder why people claim Flux is harder than Sanctuary Keeper?

i think it's the first time that you get zombie as a status aliment in the game, so you wouldn't be used to it. even nowadays, that battle does always seem harder than the sanctuary keeper to me.

 

[Tonberry]

i think it's the first time that you get zombie as a status aliment in the game, so you wouldn't be used to it. even nowadays, that battle does always seem harder than the sanctuary keeper to me.

Man maybe I'm just too good at the game then lol.
I almost never use my Overdrives so I always have them saved up for boss fights.
Both Seymour Natus and Flux just got obliterated because I went in and spammed Aeon overdrives immediately. It was like I didn't fight them at all.

 

[MasterEn]

Man maybe I'm just too good at the game then lol.
I almost never use my Overdrives so I always have them saved up for boss fights.
Both Seymour Natus and Flux just got obliterated because I went in and spammed Aeon overdrives immediately. It was like I didn't fight them at all.

that always helps. overdrives are meant to be used in critical battles, usually boss fights. tidus does have to use his regularly though. everyone else can save theirs for later.
although, i will say, in my latest playthrough of the game on the switch, all of the bosses from the calm lands to zanarkand were very easy this time around.

 

[Tonberry]

tidus does have to use his regularly though

Man what?! I almost never use Slice and Dice, guess I'm way behind now.

As I've admitted before, Final Fantasy is my favorite series but I've beaten really few of the games (In my defense, I kind of rarely beat games I think) because I was exposed to them by others when I was a kid, and when I was a kid I didn't have patience for RPGs. I preferred Zelda because they had more action.

I've seen my brother play through this entire game, but I've never come this far myself before. It's kind of nice though because it lets me have impressions on things I didn't know as an adult instead of a kid.

 

[MasterEn]

Man what?! I almost never use Slice and Dice, guess I'm way behind now.

As I've admitted before, Final Fantasy is my favorite series but I've beaten really few of the games (In my defense, I kind of rarely beat games I think) because I was exposed to them by others when I was a kid, and when I was a kid I didn't have patience for RPGs. I preferred Zelda because they had more action.

I've seen my brother play through this entire game, but I've never come this far myself before. It's kind of nice though because it lets me have impressions on things I didn't know as an adult instead of a kid.

tidus gets his overdrive attacks from using them. he gets blitz ace at 80 uses of his overdrives.
everyone else gets theirs from getting items: wakka gets his from the blitzball minigame as prizes. lulu needs to learn spells for hers, yuna gives her overdrive to her aeons, auron h=needs jecht spheres that are scattered about [he needs 10 in total], kimiarhi can miss out on a couple of his permanently but he gets 13 i think it was, rikku needs items for hers [she mixes the items together, and some have crazy effects like max damage all the time (99,999 or 9,999 with damage cap) or all nul spells with shell and protect casted on every oneand more]
be careful when you get to the last boss in zanarkand. one of tidus' celestial items is in the boss room and you can be blocked from going back to getting it by a super boss if you leave too soon in the remaster version.

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

Total masterpiece in every sense of the word. As I've said a million times, it's not my favorite but I firmly stand by that it's the best Final Fantasy.
I love how the main menu and Terra go hand in hand, and how it's a kind of revelation when you realize the name of the main menu theme. It sounds like a memory, while Terra is the real deal. Shivers every time.

It is indeed a masterpiece I still would rate it below 7 and 6 I'm just biased and I don't care , it feels like the game did justice to tropes and characters from the first 2 games as I said freya is basically a well written gareth and what gareth from FF2 should have been , the main menu theme while less impressive than FF5 one that theme is just unbeatable does have few rewinds like the oilveret one and the terra one also the amount of references to previous games is just LMAO , mayota the witch from FF1 is mentioned , "no cloud no squall" and more...square cooked and they cooked almost too well , in my opinion the next entry should be compared to the previous one and if the previous entry is better then I can safely call the next entry a failure as it doesn't improve upon the previous design FF9 just like FF8 successfully improve upon the previous design and 9 does it very well.

Also the fact that you find out you are just a soulless robot who by pure chance got to have a soul was somewhat soul crushing...like In FF7 my jaw dropped when its revealed cloud who we been playing as this whole time is nothing but a delusional loser nearly everyone held us in high regard being from "soldier" and all that like that was masterfully executed but damn they want even further with 9 and its protagonist origins I just thought we were a funny half human half monkey who is a bit too good of a thief.

I would place 9 and 8 in the same spot both are very decent games in their own right but still go beneath 6/7

 

[MrBird]

I first got into Final Fantasy via the GBA version of 4. Since then, I've gone on to play most of the main series. I've beaten 2-7, 15, and Mystic Quest, and have played 1, 8, 9, 10, and Tactics (PS1). I have 12 on my Switch, but I haven't started it yet, and I used to rent Crystal Chronicles on the Gamecube. I've taken part in the Four Job Fiesta for 5, and... yeah, I think 5 is my personal favorite.

 

[plantbasedperson]

I only played FF7 on the ps1, loved it however and this is gonna sound stupid i made it to sephiroth and couldn't beat him, and then i got busy with my degree and never got back to it, it pisses me off to no end to never finish a game but due to the fact i lost the save i find it hard to start a new save.
Always considered trying other FF game.

 

[MasterEn]

I only played FF7 on the ps1, loved it however and this is gonna sound stupid i made it to sephiroth and couldn't beat him, and then i got busy with my degree and never got back to it, it pisses me off to no end to never finish a game but due to the fact i lost the save i find it hard to start a new save.
Always considered trying other FF game.

i also made it to the sephiroth fights. got to safer sephiroth and he one shotted my party. stopped at that point. but considering that dr hojo is the true villian of the story, we both defeated the true antagonist and just didn't finish up the last bit of the interactive ending.

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

I was half asleep the other day when an idea came to me you know how battles in 2d games were against static sprites? Yeah that always made battles in these games less interesting than the 3d games and square seem to recognize this issue and that's why I think they vastly improved upon battles in 7/8/9 with them becoming more cinematic and all...

But how to improve the 2d games battles? Maybe not through a remake like FF4? Well here is where my idea comes into play what if you can bring all these static sprites to sprites similar to the player character and the party? With animation and all....we already see something similar to this in the cecil vs cecil fight or kain vs cecil so the engine must be capable of doing this.

I already had an idea for some animations for Xdeath , basically you want to copy paste the sprite stance into the artstyle similar to playable character but with the same pose they have as the static sprite , alright now what if Xdeath wanna melee attack? So picture him in this new artstyle and what he does is he raises his hand the one on the sword not the other one , he raises it grabbing his sword and in an instant the sword goes 180 degrees and he cuts left or right here you can make the animation portray how strong Xdeath melee attack is by making the cut super fast...or his spellcast animation can be his other hand where he makes it into a fist surrounded by a small black ball you know he is a bit of X zone fan so that can work , also Xdeath isn't human I think he is the only one to not be a human in terms of antagonists? So he may not exactly feel pain when hit like humans you can make this into his "hit" animation where he takes damage he hardly flinches you can make him slightly flinch or hurt but it should be quite subtle to get him to this intimidating feeling where he hardly is effected by your attacks , of course changing spirtes style similar to ours would mean wounded animation the animation that plays when one of the party members is on low health I don't have any ideas for this so I will leave it to you to picture those.

In FF6 the vector soldiers already have a model all you need is some extra animations and you done , oh and the magitek armor could use some changes to make it look similar to its art depiction , these games don't have an exact death animation more of "ow I got hit" then is already laying on ground next frame , this means death animations may not be possible save for boss fights , but fallen enemies can make the battle look better like there is this many dead enemies you killed or you can make them dissipate after few seconds of them dying.

I also thought of how the empire of palamecia from FF2 would have its soldiers look like now since the FMV intro shows the soldiers to not exactly be humans uhm indicated by red eyes and strange sounds they make not to mention their strange resistance one gets stabbed in the neck and just walks away like nothing happened...you can make the soldiers have red eyes I think that be good change I will let your imagination do the work for they should look like , now when an enemy attacks you may want them to move forward like our character does when they attack its a good indication that someone did a move.

With this idea in mind it makes the pixel remaster feel like a wasted chance to finally have the same sprite style for all objects in battle.

Is this even possible? And how much of it is possible....I'm not into modding RPG games especially since I see no need to change or add anything to The FF games so maybe there might have been an attempt at this that I'm not aware of....

 

[Tonberry]

With this idea in mind it makes the pixel remaster feel like a wasted chance to finally have the same sprite style for all objects in battle.

But that was never the point? Monster sprites were deliberately kept as their Amano designs in order for them to feel more threatening for the player. I think the style mixing is part of the charm.

Also, the entire point of the PRs were to base the games on their original versions in order for there to be a reliable way to experience them on modern systems (with some but minimal QoL and widescreen etc), that’s why the later additional stuff like extra dungeons were ”removed”. They’re not treated as remakes, but remasters of the original releases.

Abstraction has always been a big part of roleplaying games compared to purely skill-based games, the information was the important part so you could sacrifice stuff like animated sprites to make the individual static ones stand out more. Same with crazy overblown attacks animations that you’d never see in an action game at the time. Heck not even up to like FF12 would that have been made common.

As for the Cecil v Kain thing, they likely just use a stand-in for a player character, with unique AI and conditions, and not an actual monster, so they’re able to borrow the systems for an actor to make him animated, instead of using the template they’d originally use for monsters.