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Final Fantasy Thus Far (To Me)

Posted: 14th August 2017 13:03

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Onion Knight
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Ive been playing through the Final Fantasy franchise in chronological order. I have to forgive FF1 for a number of issues because it is the first one. They are allowed to get stuff wrong on that one.

I actually really liked FF2s story and gameplay. Prior to playing, I knew that people generally regarded it as the worst one. I found it enjoyable. The story felt like you could really relate to the characters. When you actually sit and think about the series of events that happen in the game, you cant help but pity and root for the heroes. The leveling up system was good because you could really choose exactly what you wanted each character to specialize in.

FF3 for the DS I disliked. The job system was OK, I didnt feel like the jobs were very interesting strangely enough. The dungeons felt short and sweet which is a change from 1&2. I was wiping the floor with every mob and boss up to the final boss. I wiped on him a few times, decided to gain 10 more levels and try again. Didnt help, got destroyed. I chose to watch someone else beat the game and have made the decision that I beat it ohmy.gif)

FF4 is a horse of a different color. Unchangeable jobs, jobs that have specific abilities, and a conflict that you dont really understand....that is to say, you dont get much background on in the beginning. Ive started this game a number of times but just have never finished it. I have always found it "meh" as far as the other games.



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Posted: 14th August 2017 13:26

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Black Waltz
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FF4 is a drastic change from the first three, when I reflect on it.

You played the DS version of 3 but didn't list the versions of the first two you played. I imagine it was probably the GBA Dawn of Souls compilation, though Origins is a possibility, it's on the PSN Store.

Either way, you probably did not play the NES versions of 1-3, so you woudn't have noticed how similar they all are to each other. The Fighter sprite is largely unedited for Fighter, Firionel, and then the Fighter job for FF3 as well.

2+3 were likely produced very quickly to generate fundage for Square, who had a hit on their hands with Final Fantasy and were, by all accounts, hurting very badly for capital. They did them so fast, and moved on to FF4 so quickly, that they really didn't even have time to localize them, nor money it would seem (I'm guessing time was more of a factor). FF4 needed to be out to showcase the graphical capabilities of the SNES running a FF game, and I'm willing to bet all personnel involved with localizing FF2 for NES (there are some preproduction translations floating around the net) were reassigned to 4 as soon as the workstations necessary to do it were available (can't edit a SNES game if you have no comp, after all, and the comps used for SNES games were likely far more advanced than those the NES development was done on).

To try to implement a loose Job System, and write a better, deeper story than the NES games had had (I think Sakaguchi himself said that that was a key focus of the development; simply due to the fact that the music was now far mor emotionally evocative, they chose to make a more charged tale) would have taken a little more time than they had, too, I think, so the Job System was changed to something rather simple to implement in favor of spending more time on the story.

FF5, as you'll find out if you continue, re-implements that loose Job System in SNES form...

PS - Thank you Caves of Narshe robot for saving my post data when this thread was moved. smile.gif Yeah, if it's about the series as a whole, it belongs in General Squeenix.

This post has been edited by Spooniest on 14th August 2017 13:27

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Post #213234
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Posted: 14th August 2017 14:10

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Onion Knight
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Yes, I played the GBS Dawn of Souls versions of 1&2.

As I am thinking about 3, another thing that they had in the DS version was the spell "Charges" instead of actual mana. Im not sure this is either good or bad. I think that have spell charges make it a little bit easier. That way you dont necessarily have to manage mana usage. For the record, I prefer actual mana.

Another thing I disliked about 3 was that Phoenix Downs arent readily available. It made the game a little bit more scary in the sense that you had to be very careful and not use too many.

Yes, I will be playing 5 next. Another game Ive started before but quickly lost interest. I am enjoying going through the games an sequential order to see the progression and design decisions that Square made. flag-olly.gif
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Posted: 19th August 2017 21:38

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Palace Guard
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I played the first one, once. I think it was a ROM of an NES version... it was a long time ago, it was slow loading, I didn't play it for long. The earliest one that I actually played and finished was FF4, and I've played all of them from there except for the MMO ones, and Tactics Advance (I played, but didn't finish, Tactics. It's not my cup of tea).

Several years ago, though, I was unemployed and played all of them through from I think 5 through 13 (I skipped 4 because I didn't own it or have a way to play it). Most of the games are quite replayable. My favourite ones are FF6, FF7, FF9 and FF12. I didn't enjoy FF13 really, but it has beautiful music and scenery, and I like the hunting sidequests, which were also there in FF12. I guess it must be popular since they did something like it again in FF15.

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Posted: 20th August 2017 03:12

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Black Waltz
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The first three games were a fun romp the first time I played through, but it takes a lot for me to want to replay an RPG. A lot of times I'll start to replay one, let it down a while due to boredom with it, then pick it back up one day later. It's a big 'eh' for me now.

That said, there is a certain time of year, when it starts to get cold enough to where the threat of snow is upon the town, I enjoy beginning new games of FF6, due to the Narshe March music being set on a snowfield the way it is.

It's like "This is the cold time of year that best matches what I'm seeing onscreen." Dunno quite how to frame the idea for you.

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Posted: 30th December 2017 00:40

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Behemoth
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Quote (Spooniest @ 19th August 2017 23:12)
The first three games were a fun romp the first time I played through, but it takes a lot for me to want to replay an RPG. A lot of times I'll start to replay one, let it down a while due to boredom with it, then pick it back up one day later. It's a big 'eh' for me now.

That said, there is a certain time of year, when it starts to get cold enough to where the threat of snow is upon the town, I enjoy beginning new games of FF6, due to the Narshe March music being set on a snowfield the way it is.

It's like "This is the cold time of year that best matches what I'm seeing onscreen." Dunno quite how to frame the idea for you.

I feel that way even about RPGs that I love. I think it's just because RPGs require so much time investment. I've gone through the opening of FFX so many times, and got stuck during the sphere grid explanation! With that being said, I've never thought about starting FFVI during the winter and snow, but I think it's because it doesn't snow in Tennessee anymore (global warming).

A couple years ago, I played VIII-XIII in sequential order, and before I played IV and V (having already played VI and VII). I was cool to play them in order to see the progression.

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Posted: 4th March 2019 17:49
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Quote (JTrigger @ 14th August 2017 13:03)
Ive been playing through the Final Fantasy franchise in chronological order. I have to forgive FF1 for a number of issues because it is the first one. They are allowed to get stuff wrong on that one.

I actually really liked FF2s story and gameplay. Prior to playing, I knew that people generally regarded it as the worst one. I found it enjoyable. The story felt like you could really relate to the characters. When you actually sit and think about the series of events that happen in the game, you cant help but pity and root for the heroes. The leveling up system was good because you could really choose exactly what you wanted each character to specialize in.

FF3 for the DS I disliked. The job system was OK, I didnt feel like the jobs were very interesting strangely enough. The dungeons felt short and sweet which is a change from 1&2. I was wiping the floor with every mob and boss up to the final boss. I wiped on him a few times, decided to gain 10 more levels and try again. Didnt help, got destroyed. I chose to watch someone else beat the game and have made the decision that I beat it ohmy.gif)

FF4 is a horse of a different color. Unchangeable jobs, jobs that have specific abilities, and a conflict that you dont really understand....that is to say, you dont get much background on in the beginning. Ive started this game a number of times but just have never finished it. I have always found it "meh" as far as the other games.

another thing that they had in the DS version was the spell "Charges" instead of actual mana. Im not sure this is either good or bad. I think that have spell charges make it a little bit easier. That way you dont necessarily have to manage mana usage. For the record, I prefer actual mana.
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