Game: The Final Fantasy Retrospective

[RyougaZell]

I was browsing through gametrailers.com and found this awesome documentaries...

http://www.gametrailers.com/game/4831.html

A 13-part documentary on all the final fantasy's.

Currently 4 parts have been released.

Part 1 focus on the game that began it all.

Part 2 focus on the FF's that never made it to America (on the NES) till their re-releases on GBA/PSX/PSP

Part 3 focus on the series debut on the 16bit era with FF4 and FF5.

Part 4 focus solely on the masterpiece known as FF6.

Part 5 will be released this saturday on the game that began it for many of us... FF7...


Opinions?

[Board of Command]

Looking forward to Part 5. FF7 was where it all started for me. I still remember running around the Midgar slums trying to figure out how to get Cloud to wear a dress. That was nearly 10 years ago.....

[Psyke]

FFVII was my first Final Fantasy game as well. After that, I played FFVI on an emulator, before going on to VIII, IX, X, X2, and then XII. Skipped XI due to lack of online capabilities for PS2. X is my favourite.

"This is my story."

[Ryllharu]

The game they won't be including was my first "Final Fantasy", Mystic Quest, the retarded SNES cousin of Final Fantasy. I played 4, 7, and then up through the list, skipping only 11 and 12. I skipped 6 to play Chrono Trigger instead, I've since tried 6 on emulators, but I just can't get into it.

Of all of them, 8 is my favorite. The full orchestral score, the sci-fi feel of it, the Sorceress' Knight story theme, an interesting spell system, and the only limit break system that ever made sense to me.

Why are they saving up a "desperation" attack through 100+ battles? It makes more sense to use your last resort as many times as you can when you're at your weakest. It added another strategy element to the game. Until you get the spell that fakes it, do you avoid healing in order to use the strongest attack? There was higher-level battle strategy required in 8 with the limit breaks and the spell limitations that I didn't get to see again until 10.

[RyougaZell]

The only FF of the main line which I haven't been able to finish is FF3. Nor on NES emulator, nor on GBA emulator nor on NDS... LOL.
FFXI is out of the question... bleh.

Rylharu: Who knows? Maybe they will mention it. The perspective is supposed to be a 13 part series... and the first 4 parts have already covered the first five games of the main line. Maybe they dedicate a part to all alternate universes, like mystic quest. And several for the Ivalice Alliance, FF7 Compilation and Fabula Nova Crystallis.

[darkshadow]

*retrospective.
And i love gt.tv's retrospectives, the metroid ones are great too.

[Ryllharu]

Rylharu: Who knows? Maybe they will mention it...
...And several for the Ivalice Alliance, FF7 Compilation and Fabula Nova Crystallis.

I still doubt it, Mystic Quest is notorious for being reviled by hard core fans of the series. It's overly easy, simplified, and really comes off as a half-assed effort. It was made Stateside first, in an attempt to get more people into the rpg genre. Luckily, it did succeed with me.

I expect they will more likely delve into Final Fantasy Tactics and forgo the mention of Mystic Quest. Chronologically, they've already past it by. Tactics has a massive following (myself included). Monk + 3 Dancers + Orlando = Instant victory.

And yes, I'm serious about that many dancers. Don't underestimate lower damage at that rapid a pace.

[Board of Command]

Of all of them, 8 is my favorite. The full orchestral score, the sci-fi feel of it, the Sorceress' Knight story theme, an interesting spell system, and the only limit break system that ever made sense to me.

Why are they saving up a "desperation" attack through 100+ battles? It makes more sense to use your last resort as many times as you can when you're at your weakest. It added another strategy element to the game. Until you get the spell that fakes it, do you avoid healing in order to use the strongest attack? There was higher-level battle strategy required in 8 with the limit breaks and the spell limitations that I didn't get to see again until 10.

I thought FF8's limit break system was pretty poor. Coupled with the junction system, it was very easy to exploit the entire combat system as a whole. Load Squall up with 100 Ultima and 100 Haste, while keeping his health very low. Your party will be invincible. You get a limit break at the start of every battle and every turn that is powerful enough to wipe out just about any enemy in the game except the last boss. When you battle the last boss, you're doing a Lionheart almost every turn for 300,000 dmg.

[Idealistic]

The first FF I played was FF2(in america) followed by FF3. Those 2 games were amazing way back then. Then I played FF5(in america) which also pretty good.

The old ones were good, but I forgot how their stories went, been too long so I won't rate them. As for the newer FFs...

FF7 - The best of them all, simply amazing story and I loved the materia system. Awesome music.

FF8 - A lot of people seem to like this one, but I didn't find it any good at all. The story was short and lame and I didn't understand how Rinoa suddenly fell in love with Squall. Music wasn't all that. Plus the game was so damn easy.

FF9 - Not a fan of the art, story was ok. Pretty decent game and I liked the battle music.

FF10 - I put this one 2nd after FF7. Amazing story and fighting system, but I didn't like Tidus too much. He looked too much like a pretty boy and he had an annoying voice. I mean c'mon, you're going to save the world! Awesome music.

FF10-2 - Why on earth did I buy this game? I should've just went to DL some hentai. The fighting system was good, but the story wasn't all that along with the music. You are trying to save the world! Why the hell are you dressed in skimpy outfits?!?!!

That's pretty much it... I didn't touch FF12 because Vaan(Name of the hero I believe) looked too homosexual.

I just don't see how when I ask what's the best FF I get a mixture of FF7 and FF8. Imho, FF7 is way out of FF8s league and FF10 owns FF8.

[Ryllharu]

it was very easy to exploit the entire combat system as a whole. Load Squall up with 100 Ultima and 100 Haste, while keeping his health very low.

Yes, by the end, it's absurdly easy to exploit the combat system. However, there were some nice touches. Enemies ALWAYS leveled with you, so while some battles remained easy after you got the hang of things, there was still the enemy type that could get a 1 hit kill on you. Tyrannosaurs did lots of damage back in the garden, and they still do lots of damage out in the wild. But by then, you've got all sorts of spells and the strongest of them junctioned to the appropriate ability, etc.

I still think the limit system had that appropriate feel to it. Early on, your whole party falls into the yellow, and then you're furiously recycling through the characters to hear that characteristic chime. Leave the battle system on Active, and you get a slight panic feeling during an pivotal boss fight up to about the midpoint.

Granted, they could have made the game harder. I always appreciated what the first Lunar had done. Every boss's level was always 1.5 times your own. No matter how much power leveling you did, the boss was always that much better than you. If they had applied this to FF8, it would have had the challenge where you needed to exploit the system. It worked well for the two games of Disgaea. The creators pointed out the whole idea was to exploit the combat system, FF8 just never made itself hard enough.

EDIT:
I like both FF7 and FF8. They each have their good points. I think 8 had a better soundtrack and a more cohesive story (many of 7's quests have no connection to the main storyline, where in 8, everything connects back to Ultimacia, the past, and where everyone grew up). 8 was another graphics leap, and the character, mech, and costume design really had one up on 7.
On the other hand, 7 has just so much to do. There's always another Weapon to fight, always another sidequest, always another rare materia to dig up and master into a copy, another city to revisit after a major event.

[itadakimasu]

final fantasy for me started as just watching.. i'd never seen that type of game before and my friend and his dad were playing the original ff on nes. and then ff2 on snes which will always be my favorite in the series. i never beat 1 on nes, had to use emulator help. I have played all of them up to 9... played X for 10 minutes and didn't like the system... didn't play X2, put about 20 hours or so into XII before losing interest / having too many other things to do to rpg.

psyke : if you have not, you need to go back and play the first 4-5 games they're where it really all started even if 7 is the "best"

[XanBcoo]

Funny, I just ran across this about an hour ago.



Not to knock either game, I just found the over-simplified parallels kinda funny.

[Psyke]

psyke : if you have not, you need to go back and play the first 4-5 games they're where it really all started even if 7 is the "best"

I've got the PSP remake of the original FF, but yet to start. You should give FFX another try though. The system might be drastically different, but the plot is absolutely brilliant. I loved Yuna and Tidus.

[RyougaZell]

darkshadow:
.... can't believe I made that mistake....

bbaucom:
X, X-2 and XII indeed have way different systems... but personally I found them good.

XanBcoo:
LOL... indeed

Psyke:
I`ll buy those remakes as soon as FFVII Crisis Core is out...

[The Heretic Azazel]

I loved the system in 8 with the monsters levelling up as you do, though at the end, like many said, it got too easy. Also when I switched parties or finally got more powerful spells I would wipe everyones magic/summons off to re-junction to appropriate strength, and holy shit did that take a long time.

I started playing 9 on an emulator but its boring the shit out of me already, and come to find out the save slot doesn't work. Piss on this. I started 7 again but I think I'll go through 8 instead

[Terracosmo]

Nice another one of these retrospective series. Really liked the Zelda one.

Final Fantasy 6 was the first for me. Even getting to play it was probably rare as fuck in Sweden when it came out. My mom had somehow acquired a piracy version of it run with some weird disc thing you put on the SNES called a Super Wildcard (anyone know about this?).

I was absolutely mesmerized. Back then I didn't know english very well and I was too stupid to realize you could even buy equipment (I was 8!). But it was such an amazing experience even though I only understood half the story.

To this date that game is probably my fondest gaming memory and without a doubt the best game ever made if you ask me.

[Super5]

Ah final fantasy, those were the good ole' days. I first got hooked on RPGs with Final Fantasy 6 (3 in USA). It was unlike anything I ever played. I still think it's probably the best RPG ever. The only ones that could come close are FF VII and Tactics.

[LaZie]

Part VII is out
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/24248.html
This time focusing on FFX and FFX-2.

[RyougaZell]

I still can't believe many decided to not play FFX-2 because of the Songstress dressphere... even though we've have the class before with a different name... Dancer.

Class change and fast battle system was awesome in FFX-2. Yes, the story is a little bit cheesy... but it has its good moments. Plus... the Al Bhed rocks... Gippal is awesome, too bad you can't use him as party member.

FFX is a FF that once again risked changes, and did very good in my book.

Now that I think about it... the PS2 FF's were the most different from the saga, one from another.
FFX - No worldmap for first time. Turn based. Character swap. Management of Summons.
FFXII - No random battles. An even more massive world than FFX.
FFX-2 - First real sequel. ATB back. Classes back.
FFXI - Online boringness.

[Ryllharu]

My biggest issue with X-2 was that in the end, the story feels like a complete and total waste of time. Unless you 100% the game, AND perform the correct button press at the appropriate time, you get the mediocre ending that you get at something around 45% completion.

The only other problem I had was you needed to do very specific things at very specific times (and I'm still not sure how I missed out on the Trainer dressphere) or you wouldn't be able to get certain things.

I loved the, characters, the dress grids, the on the fly changes, the dynamic position on the battlefield (not permanently lined up), the actual presence of racial tensions due to what Seymour and the other Maesters did, and a lot of the rest of it, but there really wasn't any story to back it up. I put in all the effort for nothing. It had a lot of potential as the first sequel, but it really wasn't able to live up to the expectations.