Final Fantasy Thread

[Sir Auriel of Lionel]

So I'm hearing collect and play every iteration of FF 3 and 4?

 

[MasterEn]

I wanna give FF4 another try someday. In high school I went through a streak of binging all the mainline games I hadn't been able to play up to that point, and FF4 was the only game in the series that I ended up not liking by the time the dust had settled and all were finished. The story felt cliche to the point of absurdity, the game felt waaaay too easy (I played the PSP version) and outside of a couple characters and the general art direction I just didn't enjoy much of it. Didn't think it was bad, mind you, but I came away thinking it was meh while every other game sparked joy.

But that was a younger, far more cynical me. I'm sure if I tried today I'd have a lot more fun with it. Maybe I'll binge FF4 and the DS remake at some point this year, especially since they're like 20-25 hours each.

the psx and ds version are the hard versions. all others are meant to be playable by normal humans.
who were the characters that you liked?

Post automatically merged: Feb 12, 2025

So I'm hearing collect and play every iteration of FF 3 and 4?

if you want; but be warned, the final dungeons are rough. there's only one save spot in ff3 and 2 in ff4.

 

[Strategist's icon Strategist Strategist]

So I'm hearing collect and play every iteration of FF 3 and 4?

The DS remake of FF3 is near perfect. They updated the graphics, added some personality to the previously nameless onion knights and kept the story and gameplay pretty much the same. I don't see a particular reason to play the NES version at this point, except as an example of the upper limits of pushing the Famicom hardware.

 

[MasterEn]

The DS remake of FF3 is near perfect. They updated the graphics, added some personality to the previously nameless onion knights and kept the story and gameplay pretty much the same. I don't see a particular reason to play the NES version at this point, except as an example of the upper limits of pushing the Famicom hardware.

i would recommend the psp version. it doesn't have the bullshit of the ds version and it keeps all of the good stuff from the remake.

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

I wanna give FF4 another try someday. In high school I went through a streak of binging all the mainline games I hadn't been able to play up to that point, and FF4 was the only game in the series that I ended up not liking by the time the dust had settled and all were finished. The story felt cliche to the point of absurdity, the game felt waaaay too easy (I played the PSP version) and outside of a couple characters and the general art direction I just didn't enjoy much of it. Didn't think it was bad, mind you, but I came away thinking it was meh while every other game sparked joy.

But that was a younger, far more cynical me. I'm sure if I tried today I'd have a lot more fun with it. Maybe I'll binge FF4 and the DS remake at some point this year, especially since they're like 20-25 hours each.

Im quite patient with games well if I wasn't I won't have liked final fantasy in the first place and became a big fan

I went backwards when playing the 2d games from 7 to 6 5 4 2 1 8 and now tactics so I only expected everything to get worse especially the Retarded leg syndrome where characters keep moving their legs even when standing still only FF6 solved that , at that point I expected the same basis of gameplay that is random encounters and such when FF4 had you be able to have 5 members in the party that was pretty rad and each character having unique abilities and your class turning from dark knight to paladin having healing (which sucks for the most part but healing is always good to have) was both a plus in gameplay and story well FF4 had a more engaging story than 5 but 5 has better gameplay and Xdeath just stands there menacingly when fighting him instant 10/10 villain

4 had slightly annoying enemies that can hit multiple people in a row I think some sort of crocodile enemies those were annoying to deal with I was for the early game always short on supplies and the game feels like it encourages at some points using the option of pausing the game when you open spell/item menu like the wall fight , bahumut and king and queen of summons another thing to note FF4 lacked the awesome facial expressions brought in 5 and greatly expanded upon in 6 that felt like a downgrade in some aspects but it is what you get when you play backwards

 

[Lena CE]

When I play FFVI I have to do 0 random battle runs to keep it challenging, otherwise it is super easy. It could also be that I've beat the game about a dozen times and know it inside out.

The FF series in general does a great job at being on the easier side of the difficulty spectrum. Most of the games are cakewalks with minimal grinding for even fresh players, but every game has at least 1 or 2 bosses/sections that end up serving as huge momentary difficulty spikes.

Stuff like Magic Master in FFVI, Carry Armor in FFVII and Seymour Flux or Final Aeon in FFX spring to mind as super hard for anyone unprepared. I appreciate that because it allowed me to blast through many of the games as a kid/teen without much thought, though it did lead to me being way too overconfident when getting into some harder JRPGs later in life lol. I remember my first time going through FFVI as a 10ish year old kid (idr how old I was when I got it on GBA) I made it all the way to Magic Master without having to really engage with mechanics only for that fight to feel absolutely impossible. I remember going to an island on the northern side of the island where you can fight dinosaurs that give tons of XP and just grinding a ton, eventually finding Gogo on accident in the process. It still wasn't enough to survive that damn Ultima attack at the end though so I put it down for a good while. Replaying the game in high school I actually got Rasp and had the idea to drain his MP, which worked and his Ultima failed to cast!

One fun aspect of this approach to difficulty is that it allows for tons of variety in playstyle by virtue of fights typically not being very demanding, as well as allowing for tons of challenge routes. Stuff like low level runs or things like No Sphere Grid or License Board force you to engage with the mechanics in interesting ways and really discover just how much depth and nuance these battle systems really have.

Post automatically merged: Feb 12, 2025

i would recommend the psp version. it doesn't have the bullshit of the ds version and it keeps all of the good stuff from the remake.

I didn't know that the 3D PSP version and the 3D DS version were any different, what was changed for PSP?

 

[MasterEn]

Im quite patient with games well if I wasn't I won't have liked final fantasy in the first place and became a big fan

I went backwards when playing the 2d games from 7 to 6 5 4 2 1 8 and now tactics so I only expected everything to get worse especially the Retarded leg syndrome where characters keep moving their legs even when standing still only FF6 solved that , at that point I expected the same basis of gameplay that is random encounters and such when FF4 had you be able to have 5 members in the party that was pretty rad and each character having unique abilities and your class turning from dark knight to paladin having healing (which sucks for the most part but healing is always good to have) was both a plus in gameplay and story well FF4 had a more engaging story than 5 but 5 has better gameplay and Xdeath just stands there menacingly when fighting him instant 10/10 villain

4 had slightly annoying enemies that can hit multiple people in a row I think some sort of crocodile enemies those were annoying to deal with I was for the early game always short on supplies and the game feels like it encourages at some points using the option of pausing the game when you open spell/item menu like the wall fight , bahumut and king and queen of summons another thing to note FF4 lacked the awesome facial expressions brought in 5 and greatly expanded upon in 6 that felt like a downgrade in some aspects but it is what you get when you play backwards

ff4 was intended to be a 3 cartridge game for the nes and was about 80% done in development when it was very abruptly moved over to the snes; hence the lack of taking full advantage of the more powerful tech.

 

[Strategist's icon Strategist Strategist]

The FF series in general does a great job at being on the easier side of the difficulty spectrum. Most of the games are cakewalks with minimal grinding for even fresh players, but every game has at least 1 or 2 bosses/sections that end up serving as huge momentary difficulty spikes.

Stuff like Magic Master in FFVI, Carry Armor in FFVII and Seymour Flux or Final Aeon in FFX spring to mind as super hard for anyone unprepared. I appreciate that because it allowed me to blast through many of the games as a kid/teen without much thought, though it did lead to me being way too overconfident when getting into some harder JRPGs later in life lol. I remember my first time going through FFVI as a 10ish year old kid (idr how old I was when I got it on GBA) I made it all the way to Magic Master without having to really engage with mechanics only for that fight to feel absolutely impossible. I remember going to an island on the northern side of the island where you can fight dinosaurs that give tons of XP and just grinding a ton, eventually finding Gogo on accident in the process. It still wasn't enough to survive that damn Ultima attack at the end though so I put it down for a good while. Replaying the game in high school I actually got Rasp and had the idea to drain his MP, which worked and his Ultima failed to cast!

One fun aspect of this approach to difficulty is that it allows for tons of variety in playstyle by virtue of fights typically not being very demanding, as well as allowing for tons of challenge routes. Stuff like low level runs or things like No Sphere Grid or License Board force you to engage with the mechanics in interesting ways and really discover just how much depth and nuance these battle systems really have.

Yeah, don't get me wrong. There are some difficult sections in FFVI, especially if you haven't been leveling all of your party. There's the Fanatics Tower, Phoenix's Cave, Floating Island, Kefka's Tower. But the vast majority of the game is easy. And if you know where to find all the powerful gear, the game is pretty trivial.

Post automatically merged: Feb 12, 2025

ff4 was intended to be a 3 cartridge game for the nes and was about 80% done in development when it was very abruptly moved over to the snes; hence the lack of taking full advantage of the more powerful tech.

Yeah, its funny to play the series and notice little details like how they reused the Corneria soldier sprites, the black and white mage FF3 sprites in FFIV.

 

[MasterEn]

The FF series in general does a great job at being on the easier side of the difficulty spectrum. Most of the games are cakewalks with minimal grinding for even fresh players, but every game has at least 1 or 2 bosses/sections that end up serving as huge momentary difficulty spikes.

Stuff like Magic Master in FFVI, Carry Armor in FFVII and Seymour Flux or Final Aeon in FFX spring to mind as super hard for anyone unprepared. I appreciate that because it allowed me to blast through many of the games as a kid/teen without much thought, though it did lead to me being way too overconfident when getting into some harder JRPGs later in life lol. I remember my first time going through FFVI as a 10ish year old kid (idr how old I was when I got it on GBA) I made it all the way to Magic Master without having to really engage with mechanics only for that fight to feel absolutely impossible. I remember going to an island on the northern side of the island where you can fight dinosaurs that give tons of XP and just grinding a ton, eventually finding Gogo on accident in the process. It still wasn't enough to survive that damn Ultima attack at the end though so I put it down for a good while. Replaying the game in high school I actually got Rasp and had the idea to drain his MP, which worked and his Ultima failed to cast!

One fun aspect of this approach to difficulty is that it allows for tons of variety in playstyle by virtue of fights typically not being very demanding, as well as allowing for tons of challenge routes. Stuff like low level runs or things like No Sphere Grid or License Board force you to engage with the mechanics in interesting ways and really discover just how much depth and nuance these battle systems really have.

Post automatically merged: Feb 12, 2025

I didn't know that the 3D PSP version and the 3D DS version were any different, what was changed for PSP?

the psp is like the pixel remasters, but with the extra story content from the ds version and all of the stuff from the gba version [post game dungeon, swap party members, new ultimate weapons and the easy type version of zeromus is now a super boss] along with excellent sprites and music.
the ds version along with the steam and mobile version, and the after years ports to those same systems, have voice acting and higher difficulty. ff4 ds also allows you to customize characters abilities, you even get some boss abilities to use too. and after level 70, the abilities equipped affect stat growth. rydia also get a unique trainable and temporary party member summon, whyt.

Post automatically merged: Feb 12, 2025

Yeah, its funny to play the series and notice little details like how they reused the Corneria soldier sprites, the black and white mage FF3 sprites in FFIV.

it's the old saying in action: if it aint broke, don't fix it.

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

On the topic of difficulty I think final fantasy is the sort of game that isn't absurdly difficult nor is it very easy like for a casual player that just plays through the game normally and uses adequate spells and such the game presents him with a good difficulty curve that scales well with the supposed levels the player should have when entering new zones.

Now like any RPG game you can so some grinding or find some super secret broken thing to make the game easier but I dont think that happens in your first playthrough.

FF8 had enemies scale up with you in terms of level so they dealt respectable amounts of damage and while I found 8 to the easiest of all the boss fights especially adel and well the final boos fight were really tough I wasted my entire cure magic on keeping poor rinoa alive and would go into ultimecia castle which by the way is the best final zone I seen in a FF game so far with all the cool puzzles and just the design of the castle , I went low on healing and few potions and somehow managed to kill 3 out of the 8 seal monsters then figured the portals take you to the real world rode a lot of chocobos and upgraded all weapons of the team I wanted to get myself the lion heart but couldn't find a star fragment or who drops it man I missed so many GFs in 8 but I got the big cactus guy I would have liked to get him way earlier and missed siren and probably a ton of other cool GFs still haven't beaten the piano puzzle or the drawing puzzle I think the picture is trying to tell you something but I can't figure it its either a watchman in the sky watching over a garden or something like that , also the ultima weapon is unbeatable well in theory if you get lucky and have rinoa cast invincible moon you should have a chance if she also gets wishing star multiple times I would say even 8 had good difficulty I couldn't beat the malbro no matter what every single time I would fight these in previous games I could beat them like sometimes by luck but in FF8 they are death machines or death plants to be more correct.

 

[MasterEn]

one of the best ways to see if a game is well thought out and does everything correctly is if the player uses everything at their disposal. is the player using the tools available? are they checking out all of the new abilities, jobs, classes, spells, weapons, characters? are you incentivizing to check for enemy weaknesses and to get experimental with fighting them? making sure to tempt them into looking into every corner, nook and cranny? checking the shops and chests for new swag? talking to npcs for lore and hints?
and as you said, Pandaprewmaster325, is the difficulty engaging? is the game too easy? hard? if its easy, is it enjoyable? fun? if it's hard, is it rewarding and satisfying to beat the challenge?
those are a few questions to keep in mind when asking if a game is good or not.

 

[Lena CE]

Looking into it more it seems like the PSP version of FFIII is pretty identical to DS, albeit with a better resolution, widescreen display and some quality of life stuff like Mognet being offline and the ability to swap to the Famicom ost. I think I'd still stick with DS for the tiny novelties like the shop display and more stylized font, as meaningless as they are. PSP/Steam definitely seem like the altogether best versions though even if they're pretty much identical. I do wanna try the Pixel Remaster version next, though.

As a side note too can we just appreciate how fucking cute the art style of the DS Final Fantasy games are? Both III, IV and Heroes of Light are just so damn pretty and I really dig the elements of Akihiko Yoshida's art you can feel in the designs, particularly the faces. I hope someday we get an old school style FF game with this art style on modern hardware!

 

[MasterEn]

View attachment 25077
Looking into it more it seems like the PSP version of FFIII is pretty identical to DS, albeit with a better resolution, widescreen display and some quality of life stuff like Mognet being offline and the ability to swap to the Famicom ost. I think I'd still stick with DS for the tiny novelties like the shop display and more stylized font, as meaningless as they are. PSP/Steam definitely seem like the altogether best versions though even if they're pretty much identical. I do wanna try the Pixel Remaster version next, though.

As a side note too can we just appreciate how fucking cute the art style of the DS Final Fantasy games are? Both III, IV and Heroes of Light are just so damn pretty, I really dig the elements of Akihiko Yoshida's art you can feel in the designs, particularly the faces. I hope someday we get an old school style FF game with this art style on modern hardware!

yeah, my main complaint of ff3 is locking the ultimate gear and onion knight job behind mognet. it takes 7 full hours of gameplay to unlock everything. not a problem when you are starting out. i'm at the end, lvl 60 and 45 hours in. and i only have 1 copy of the game and system. and the only dungeon worth grinding in is locked off behind mognet as well.
i love the chibi like designs for the characters too. and i quite like the little subtle differences between the outfits in ff3.

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

Yeah I try everything the game offers so I can get a full experience of the game even if I end up missing some content the core experience was there and that's what matters most , I think me missing GFs is because I didn't check what magics I can draw from bosses I got pandemonia by sheer luck same for odin and cactus.

Just FF8 is a very good game the animation work is phenomenal , the introduction of sounds for enemies and each enemy having death animation is great addition , the sound of quistis whip and the gunblade draw sound just drew smile on my face many many times "its hammer time" basically , the unique mechanic each limit break had whether your renzokuken getting new finish blows or zell limit break being a throwback to FF6 sabin blitz moves , rinoa walking angelo around and picking which ammo to try with irvine they do feel nerfed compared to 7 especially with them being active only when low on HP , another thing that felt nerfed is melee damage you could blast through past games with pure melee I found 8 relies more on magic and GFs meaning monk based characters or melee damage characters like zell end up weaker than previous characters of the same role like tifa or sabin (literally the original gigachad) or yang I did assign ifrit to zell by the end of the game he had 200ish strength I would like to give a shout out to zell who carried my ass through many parts of the game from edea final fight to clapping behemoth cheeks and more....just cast berserk with rinoa or selphie and haste and watch as he wrecks havoc upon the enemy while you are trying to decide whether you should cast the brothers or Shiva its lore accurate too with his explosive character....the SEED system is quite unique and memorable piece of the game (I find the whole game memorable) but SEED system being the way to make money and that sound when you get paid.....can we apply it IRL too just hear it when you get your salary? , taking tests that challenge your knowledge of the game is also a good way to check if the player is focusing and paying attention or not.....I gotta say abilities from GFs aren't the best , save for mad rush can be useful in grinding also half encounter rate is a quality of life improvement that is entirely optional thats cool as heck bro , great game FF8 great game....took me 70 hours to beat last 10 spent in ultimecia castle I imagine she just kept waiting there "any second now anyyyy second now".

 

[MasterEn]

Yeah I try everything the game offers so I can get a full experience of the game even if I end up missing some content the core experience was there and that's what matters most , I think me missing GFs is because I didn't check what magics I can draw from bosses I got pandemonia by sheer luck same for odin and cactus.

drawing is one of the main mechanics of the game. some dialog from a main character or an npc should have made sure to give you a hint to make sure that you tried that out on bosses, since they seem to hold a lot of gfs for you to obtain. it might be more exciting to find out by accident, but not everyone is going to do that. i played 8 up until the end of the first disc. never tried drawing on bosses. i don't think i did it on regular enemies. so i probably missed out on a lot of good swag.

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

drawing is one of the main mechanics of the game. some dialog from a main character or an npc should have made sure to give you a hint to make sure that you tried that out on bosses, since they seem to hold a lot of gfs for you to obtain. it might be more exciting to find out by accident, but not everyone is going to do that. i played 8 up until the end of the first disc. never tried drawing on bosses. i don't think i did it on regular enemies. so i probably missed out on a lot of good swag.

Yeah idk what I was thinking lol , maybe in 4-5 years when I play it I will remember to draw on bosses , honestly refining magic from items should become the main way save for drawing some powerful spells that can't be gained through cards or items.

 

[MasterEn]

Yeah idk what I was thinking lol , maybe in 4-5 years when I play it I will remember to draw on bosses , honestly refining magic from items should become the main way save for drawing some powerful spells that can't be gained through cards or items.

i just remembered this part of a video. [5:40 - 6:28]

 

[Sir Auriel of Lionel]

Does translation really factor in overall game enjoyment of FF4 and FF6?I see those two with most mods/hacks for this issue, FF7 got one but I see it was made to follow steam's release.

 

[MasterEn]

Does translation really factor in overall game enjoyment of FF4 and FF6?I see those two with most mods/hacks for this issue, FF7 got one but I see it was made to follow steam's release.

to an extent. some ports are more faithful to the japanese script, the ds version of 4 is more Shakespearian with the script; the psx version has palom saying the word bastard when he meets cecil for the first time. it will mostly be up to your personal preference.

 

[Strategist's icon Strategist Strategist]

Does translation really factor in overall game enjoyment of FF4 and FF6?I see those two with most mods/hacks for this issue, FF7 got one but I see it was made to follow steam's release.

Not really, I mean the original translation of FF4 is clunky and you can tell it was translated by a Japanese person but it is still understandable. There are some minor errors though. And the Spoony Bard line that became a meme. I hear the Namingway localization of FF4 is considered the best out of the romhacks, but I haven't played it myself.

FF6 is probably the best official squaresoft localization at that time, made by the OG Ted Woosley. It has some quirky localization choices and some boomer language, but I find it very charming and nostalgic. There's some censorship and a couple of translation errors, but for the most part it is very faithful. With all the Nintendo of America mandated censorship, I was impressed with all the allusions to more adult topics they were able to sneak in. I will say, I have played a lot of "uncensored" FF6 retranslations growing up and they were all garbage. There might be a good retranslation of FF6 out there nowadays, but I haven't seen it.

 

[Lena CE]

Does translation really factor in overall game enjoyment of FF4 and FF6?I see those two with most mods/hacks for this issue, FF7 got one but I see it was made to follow steam's release.

I don't think any of the translations are so bad that they kill the vibe of their respective game. FF4 SNES seems the closest to being "game-ruining" in its general simplicity but even then I rarely hear of anyone saying it really hurt their ability to enjoy it.

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

As long as "son of a submariner" exists in FF6 translation its good enough I played the anthology version from CDromance well all FF games I played were installed from there it got that 10/10 intro and the crappy loading time but it was fine I didn't spot any weird or out of place wording I guess but I can't remember much since last I played FF6 was October 2024

 

[starseeker300]

you know something petty i dont like about the pixel remaster of the nes/snes ff's , that squeneix took out the optional content added in later rereleases. like i want to play soul of rebirth in ff2; be able to have yang cid, the twins, and edward in my party again in ff4; and have the stupidly broken pirate class at the end of ff5 again; and go thru the extra dungeons in ff1, ff2, ff4, ff5, and ff6. but they are just not there


am i alone in this? am i being entitled and toxic. please be honest with me

 

[Lena CE]

you know something petty i dont like about the pixel remaster of the nes/snes ff's , that squeneix took out the optional content added in later rereleases. like i want to play soul of rebirth in ff2; be able to have yang cid, the twins, and edward in my part again in ff4; and have the stupidly broken pirate class at the end of ff5 again; and go thru the extra dungeons in ff1, ff2, ff4, ff5, and ff6. but they are just not there


am i alone in this? am i being entitled and toxic. please be honest with me

No I agree, it's frustrating that Square Enix continues doing everything in their power to make sure there is no definitive version of these games. For anyone who's a purist it feels like the Pixel Remasters are as good as it gets outside of playing the OG games on OG hardware, but they really should have gone the extra mile and added in the bonus dungeons from the GBA and PSP versions of these games. It isn't a dealbreaker for me, but for $70 for all 6 it does come kinda close.

 

[MasterEn]

you know something petty i dont like about the pixel remaster of the nes/snes ff's , that squeneix took out the optional content added in later rereleases. like i want to play soul of rebirth in ff2; be able to have yang cid, the twins, and edward in my part again in ff4; and have the stupidly broken pirate class at the end of ff5 again; and go thru the extra dungeons in ff1, ff2, ff4, ff5, and ff6. but they are just not there


am i alone in this? am i being entitled and toxic. please be honest with me

no, you're not alone. i have the ff4 pixel game on my wish list on my switch, but i've been waiting for it to be very cheap when it goes on sale.
thanks to your info, i won't be prioritizing it very high up on the list. taking content out is very stupid, especially in this day and age. companies complain about piracy, but they bring it upon themselves. the extra dungeons, new jobs and other stuff makes it worth considering getting the new release. take it out, and what motivation does a new or returning player have to make a purchase with their hard earned money?
none. the answer is none.