Anniversary of a not-so Final Fantasy

[Yakumo]

Final Fantasy 6 without a doubt was the final true Final Fantasy game. maybe 7 is ok but 6 is where it ends for me. The newer games aren't even Final Fantasy. It's just a name these days.

[dataDave]

As for the villain in VI, what i meant is that to me Kefka was just silly, he reminded me of an emo teenager who didnt have any motive behind what he was doing, and well, was just not very memorable as a villain.

I don't understand this, I don't mean to offend of course but you seem to have your wires crossed a bit. You're right to begin with, Kefka is void of any emotional motives behind his actions, in turn this makes him a sociopath hell-bent on chaos and destruction, kind of like a Heath Ledger for the fantasy realm.

On the other hand you have your FFVII, with the main villian being the imprisoned Jenova who is actually manipulating the buried emotions of the main protagonist, aided by the implants/cells in his body, to manifest a 'face' villian in Sephiroth. Sephiroth died at the Nibelheim reactor - Apart from a flashback, and a frozen corpse, Sephiroth never actually existed physically at any one point throughout the entire game. It's because Cloud was emo that the whole mirage of Sephiroth and his subsequent actions were able to exist.

[tokyochojin]

Yes, I understand that but Sephiroth is such a much more memorable villain, in my opinion. I?ve never hated a gaming character as much in my life when he swooped down and *fifteen year old spoiler alert* killed Aerith. I wasn?t expecting it, and it made it more real cause id got sucked into the story. That hasn?t really happened since. So for me, he is a memorable villain.

Yeah, I know Cloud is emo too, but at least he had a background, relationships, and actually developed as a character. Im not saying FF6 is a bad game, I just personally didnt enjoy it as much as everyone else seems to have.

[nakamura]

I didn't think Kefka was a great villlian, he just had fantastic attire. I found Sephiroth to be far more appealing as there was a tragic element to him, a real motive.

[MrKirov]

Started 6 yesterday on my go with the intent of spending more than 3 hours on it this time, I want to finish it.

First thing that struck me is how similar the music was to FF7!

[Daragon]

Easily 7 for me, got me into the series and never looked back.

Remember getting the PC version for a birthday one year, starting it up and being somewhat underwhelmed by the start (a stage of the game I actually quite like nowadays). Thought that the whole game would end up set around midgar and it wasn't until the game world opened up after the events at Shinra HQ that I was completely wowed.

Best characters in the series, really felt like I could empathise with their plight. Never really cared much for Aerith but wept like a girl when she got stabbed and subsequently drowned. The momentary silence as that sword went in and out the other end, only then for that music to play and continue to play through the Jenova fight, haven't been quite so moved by a piece of music since.

8 next, again really liked the characters and the story and setting were both very memorable as well.

6 after that - very late to the party with 6. Gave it a quick go on the PS1 and never made it out of Narshe with Terra. Wasn't until the GBA release that I hunted high and low for until I finally devoted the time to it that it warranted. Much more suited to a portable than one of the modern consoles. Never really cared much for the heroes, but absolutely loved Kefka and Ultros (the opera scene a particular favourite).


Must give an honorable mention to XI - how can I not, having been a part of it for about 7 years. Although I probably wasn't as successful as some of the others on this forum who seemed to treat it as more than a game, the experience for me, deaths and all, was what made it so special. The highlight of my time with the game was probably clearing out the Chains of Promathia expansion with a static party consisting of Djtickle and numerous other non-forumites. Dungeon crawling, tackling the toughest bosses in the game (at that point), finally reaching Sea and eventually seeing the questline through to a rather excellent conclusion - everything you could want from a Final Fantasy MMO

[Grapple Convoy]

Software Box in Poole, great little shop (emphasis on little).

Only Final Fantasy I've played through properly was Final Fantasy III/VI. Wanted to own and play it so badly after reading the Super Play news and reviews and guides, looked like Secret of Mana (which I owned and enjoyed), but deeper and more involving. I craved further J-RPG adventures after Mana. Unfortunately, I had very few Super NES games at that young age, only as birthday and Christmas presents, and wouldn't have been bought an import game by my parents, so it passed me by. Until, err, I found out about Super NES emulation on PCs in 1998, and downloaded a cheeky ROM image. I certainly did enjoy that experience. Got me through the N64 Endless Game Drought a treat.

[SUMIRE]

I loved 10 the most, I really liked the characters in it at the time, oh and the music was amazing.

[Charlie]

My fondest memories are of FFII on the US SNES.

Enjoyed IV too but a mate killed that game for me when he copied my cartridge to his 'magic box' or whatever his piracy device was called and, in doing so, wiped my 70+ hour save. Served me right for encouraging piracy I guess.

[Grapple Convoy]

I played FF III and IV remakes on the DS.

Gave up on III quickly as it was tiresome and very frustrating. IV I got about third of the way through, but hit a difficulty brick wall and wasn't enjoying what I played to that point to justify the time needed to push on further. Still, quite liked IV in many respects, even if it was no VI.

Downloaded VI on the PSN to 'make up' for playing the emulated ROM back in 1998.

[Adam]

Eh, voted X without thinking 'cause for some reason I don't consider XI one of the main FF games when they come up in discussion. When you play games and check your total playtime? you get the 30 hours ones, then you get the 500 hours ones like Oblivion. Then you get the 600+ day ones like FFXI. So how can I not consider XI my favourite

Having played a whole bunch of MMO's, I still don't consider anything close to what FFXI achieved. The fact that everything was based on teamwork meant so much. You can't get through a game like that without making friends along the way, it's really special to me.

As for X, I really liked that the main evil force in the game was Tidus' dad. Thinking back to the opening cutscene of the game with Auron raising a drink to his old friend (massive monster), epicness! From a gameplay point of view I think it was spot on and the whole interface was really slick and presented well.

[Guts]

My fondest memories are of FFII on the US SNES.

That would be Final Fantasy IV then. Final Fantasy II was on the NES.

[Kaido]

Mystic quest I loved without knowing it was a part of a series.
7 got me hooked on gaming when I was getting bored with it,
8 had enough style to keep me happy although it didn't live up to the demo due to a poor upgrade system.
9 felt like a let down at the time, but was fun on replaying it.
10 was a return to form for me, loved it.
11 what what what?
12 played for 2 hours, didn't get it (wasn't Gears of War out about then?)
13 I'm still trying to work out why it's so ****e (and also trying 4 on DS)

[Rep]

No Final Fantasy V love? The expanded Job System made it a joy to play, Galuf is boss too!

Surprised at the amount of people who still think Sephiroth is the villain of Final Fantasy VII though.

[Neon Ignition]

FFV is/will be going free for PSN+ users in Feb, that should raise some love