Final Fantasy Thread

[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.

 

[Somnia]

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 iconStrategist]

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.

 

[Somnia]

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

 

[Somnia]

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.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

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

The reason is always time and money. Making a definitive version of each Final Fantasy game would require mashing together various versions of games across platforms and doing some serious work. Square Enix is in the business of being lazy and exploiting your nostalgia for the series by putting the least amount of effort into these projects. They probably took the NES/SNES versions of the games as base and spruced up the graphics and called it a day. If they had any respect for their legacy and the fans that brought them success, these remasters would be the definitive versions of their games.

Edit: Or maybe they could include different versions of each game for the player to choose. But again that would require them investing serious effort into this project. Square Enix isn't about that.

 

[Somnia]

It's kind of understandable for games like FF1 and FF2 that have various bonus dungeons spread across several versions that drastically change the balance. Trying to backport them to make them work in the original game's mechanics would be a bit of a pain in the ass and for stuff exclusive to the 3D versions of 3 and 4 it requires time not just on making them work mechanically but also artistically. The issue is inevitable when Square spent decades porting these classic games and making such big changes everytime they did so.

As far as I know games like FF5 and FF6 haven't changed much from their original entries aside from script and bonus content so I'm sure backporting the GBA goodies for them would have been far simpler. It'll never happen but I guess the only real way to please everyone without just going through all of the effort to port the optional content into the PRs in the first place would be to just have these ports be available on modern hardware so people can experience whatever version they deem best.

The Pixel Remasters are definitely not as lazy as people lambast them for, but man the cut corners are extremely apparent. Remember that ugly ass font you had to use when they launched? Yeesh... Regardless of anything, I really feel like if they wanted to go as far as taking the original releases, painting over them faithfully whilst still allowing for new details to shine through whilst also adjusting each game's balance in small yet thoughtful ways to feel authentic yet more refined, you may as well go all the way and include the content from other versions too! I get that for most people who don't engage with RPG endgames it is a total nonissue, but man I just wanna have a definitive version of these games to tell people to buy without some asterisk next to it.

Take my favorite game of all time, Final Fantasy X (no one saw that coming!). It got a mostly stellar HD port, but with things like facial animations getting lost and weird skin tone changes on characters like Tidus along with a divisive new OST, it remains a non-definitive version of the game despite all of the positives it brings to the table. The ports that came after the initial PS3/Vita releases at least let you choose between the OG or the remastered music, which is nice.

Zodiac Age is the hands down best way to play FFXII so at least they've gotten it undeniably correct on one occasion... lol

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

Its quite disappointing to have the same game release ten million times and no significant changes added , proper lore for FF1 and 2 , and voice acting for all these games do it like diablo 2 where you can turn off voice acting and just read text for mr purists or something.

It be nice if they can remake all first 6 games with 3d graphics.....but if what I heard is true that FF7 remake being in the works since 2008 then I guess its going to be difficult to remake all these games why remake? Because why accept the bare minimum when its possible to turn these games into more? Now some will jump and as you know gamers optimistic attitude "but square enix will ruin it" just shut up for once huuuh gamers do nothing but say "X sucks" like bro the game isn't even out yet same story with GTA 6.....who knows? Maybe they mess it up or not and be better if not although idk if rebirth is a massive success then maybe one day I will see FF2 being good

 

[MasterEn]

proper lore for FF1 and 2

ff1 does have some lore in dissidia/012. it was very interesting, and made me sympathetic to garland; which i didn't think was something that could be done.

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

ff1 does have some lore in dissidia/012. it was very interesting, and made me sympathetic to garland; which i didn't think was something that could be done.

No bro simply no....the game itself needs to have lore if it didn't hook you up on its story then why would you seek explanation somewhere else in an entirely different style of games? The game itself should tell me garland is x y z not get some lore more than 20 years after the game launched

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

FF1 and FF2 have plenty of lore. A lot of it was in manuals and supplemental material, as was common at the time of cartridges with limited space. Some of it was in the sparse dialogue in the game, though.

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

I heard they started doing proper manual lore in ff4.....with backgrounds and all any documents of these old manuals you talking about?

 

[Somnia]

I don't mind it tbh. The game was designed and written in such a barebones way that it would feel kinda forced to tack a bunch of depth or lore onto them. When I go back to FF1 I'm going back for a quick, simple, charming RPG that I can beat in a pretty short period of time. If they bogged it down with a bunch of post-hoc worldbuilding and such I just wouldn't be interested, I have a billion other games to give me more expansive stories. The handful of nuggets we do get that lead to some decent speculation on how or why certain aspects of this world are the way they are can be fun to talk about with others though.

FF2 I could see getting some more story tidbits tacked on since its clear that a lot of the story and characterization was compromised for various reasons. A longer prologue and some extra bits here and there to help certain things within the story flow would be nice, but I'm also not in any rush considering how much work they'd have to put in to take this 20ish hour game and make it a 30+ hour long game with a story that actually feels super coherent. What little bits we get are fine at driving the plot forward and much like @MasterEn I actually like that games like Dissidia helped flesh out characters like WoL, Garland and Firion. I get wanting that in the main game, but I really don't think the effort it would take to bring those tidbits into those original games would really be worth it, and the games are mostly fine without it.

One way I could phrase it is if the stories are at a 1-3 out of 10 in terms of simplicity, the amount of effort needed to take that to a 6 or 7 - let alone anything higher - to satisfy people who want a meaningful story and better worldbuilding would just be absurd. If they tried half-assing it when adding to it, neither the people who appreciate the simplicity nor the people who want something in-depth would be happy.

Hell when it comes to FF1 you can more or less get a more fleshed out version of that game's plot with FF3, a game I also appreciate for being pretty barebones.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

I heard they started doing proper manual lore in ff4.....with backgrounds and all any documents of these old manuals you talking about?

I mean, its mostly in the game. The kingdom or Corneria, you rescue their princess from Garland, Matoya the witch, etc... there are characters and lore.

FF2 has even more lore. The wild rose rebellion, princess Hilda. The four main characters have backstories, there are side characters.

Its not much, but its something.