Anniversary of a not-so Final Fantasy

[Neon Ignition]

In another worrying reminder of my age another series is due to have its anniversary this year as Final Fantasy turns 25 years old.



What are your memories of the series? Where you there with the early entries of a post-FF7 arrival with the FMV led era? Stuck with it through all incarnations or drifted away from the recent entries?

[briareos_kerensky]

I played the first FF in one of its many reincarnations, not the NES original, but I've played IV and VI on the SNES back in their days. I particularly liked VI but skipped the PS1 titles as I didn't own the console. After a while I've played VII and VIII on the PC and while I found the alright at that time, I doubt I will ever play them again.
To be fair I doubt I'll appreciate any of them right now, olds and news alike: when FFIII came out on the DS I bought a copy but only played for about three hours before getting bored at the random encouters and overly strict story progression.
Three or so years ago i asked a friend to lend me FFXII and I appreciated the shift in the battle system but the whole system could have used more options right from the start.

And this list lacks FF Gaiden and the Tactics.

[Neon Ignition]

I skipped the spin-offs and kept it to the core titles only as the FF series sprawls far too much to please everyone. For me I'd dabbled and thought well of FFVI, FFVII looked great on release and isn't a bad game but has always reeked of overrated for me. VIII was a decent entry too which I enjoyed and gets too much bemoaning (personally I think it's better than VII but peeps had built expectations too much following that game). I think X is my fave, it's not perfect but it's reasonable enough to play through without the random encounters getting too much of hitting a heavy grind spot with not too dry a story. The series has stumbled since then.

[kryss]

My favourites are Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates and Revenant Wings *ducks to avoid incoming shoes*

I managed to play about 13 hours of FF3 when it came out on the DS before realising that I don't much like turn-based RPGs, although I do keep dabbling my toes in the water every once in a while.

[J0e Musashi]

The ?69.99 US copies of SNES FF3(6) in CEX Rathbone is what springs to mind when I think of the series.

1, 2, 7 and 10 are the only ones I've played personally.

[Flabio]

7 was the first I played, and was fairly instrumental in my deciding to actually become a games coder, so it'll always have a special place in my heart.

But having played most of them now, 6 is by far the best. It has the grandest story, the best character moments and arcs, and the gameplay doesn't get in the way of it.

I think that 12 probably has the best combat system they've done (and I know I'm very much in the minority thinking that), but the story is a little dull.

Of course, the best Final Fantasy is still the original Final Fantasy Tactics, but I guess that doesn't count does it?

[fuse]

The ?69.99 US copies of SNES FF3(6) in CEX Rathbone is what springs to mind when I think of the series.

Similar to J0e on this one. I'd played Mystic Quest, and had traded it with a mate for FFII (IV), which got me very excited about III (VI). Software Box in Poole (RIP) was where I got my copy from about a week after launch, and I remember the dedicated Square column in Super Play being one of the first bits in the mags I'd read for a long time after. What a game.

I've finished most entries in the main series, and have dabbled with quite a few of the spin-offs too. Crystal Chronicles gets a special mention here for providing one of the most unique 4 player games I've played. Went to a few events like the FFXII launch and Distant Worlds just last year too. I'm more excited about XIII-2 than I probably should be.

[Dogg Thang]

Heh, the ridiculous amount I paid for an original FFVI Piano Collections CD and book is what I remember about the series. Still, it's a lovely rare piece of gaming history.

I was one who came late to FF, getting my introduction with FFVII. I thought it was amazing. The amount of content in that game is just astounding. It has such a long and involving main story but also has so many extras - the Golden Saucer, snowboarding game and so on. It keeps on giving. I played through it twice and I think I racked up over a hundred hours on my second playthrough and got everything in the game and beat the two extra Weapons (damn them). If someone had offered for me to live there, I would have accepted in an instant.

From there, I went both forwards and backwards playing through FFVIII, IX and X and also playing through all the old ones on various formats. Going backwards, I found VI to be pretty amazing and with an atmosphere all of its own. I enjoyed I and II most on GBA for whatever reason and mildly enjoyed III and IV. For me, V has easily the most charm. I love the job system, the simple story and especially the music. It's a favourite of mine.

FFVIII I thought was really interesting. I loved the setting and the feel and, again, the music. I didn't quite feel the same love going into it as I did with VII and it did somewhat collapse at the end for me. I still think it was excellent though. And I loved the feel of IX but, again, the ending didn't quite satisfy.

By FFX, the Final Fantasy fatigue had set in. I loved the locations, the characters but the story bored me and, more than that, I didn't like how so many locations were now just one long path. For me, the awareness of that made it much less interesting. FFX-2 became the first FF I started but didn't finish. And I didn't bother picking up any core games after that. Played Crisis Core but that was just long paths too and didn't remotely grab me. Oddly, I didn't feel the same fatigue playing the older games (which were just as new to me).

One of the major highlights of FF for me is the music and it's something that really contributed to me getting into VGM. I have most of the soundtracks, arranged versions and extras up to FFX-2 and I still put them on the odd time. And I got married to a Piano Collections track.

[Julio III]

I only ever played a few hours of FF7 on PSX/PC at friends houses. Thought the graphics were terrible - seriously, those big square hands. And how it was funny how the characters went inside the lead when you walked about - yeah, I'd not played a JRPG before.

But then, I started playing FF6 on a SNES emulator. A couple of friends did the same so it was great to talk about our progress. I remember there was one character whose special moves (the roulette one) would crash my emulator so I never selected him. I absolutely loved the game though - only stopped when you have to recover all your party members and I wanted to get one specific one back - but just couldn't find the correct place on the new world map. I consulted FAQs as well and spent ages trying to find the place. Eventually gave up and never played the game again.

The music for that game remains one of my favourites. I remember picking up the 3 disc OST in Tower Records in Oxford Circus for ?36. Years later I also picked up bootleg copies of the piano and arrange soundtracks but didn't like them much. I had printed out a couple of the sheet musics for piano, and really enjoyed playing Terra's theme. The other year I finally bought a Super Famicom version of the game for cheap when I was in Japan to sit on my shelf.

I've never played any of the other Final Fantasies, and have no intention of doing so - their length scares me.

[nakamura]

Software Box in Poole (RIP)

I ended up working there! Good times!!

I got into the series via Super Play. VI was the first I played and did really enjoy it but the random battles with the simplified visuals didn't grab me. I got the world of ruin and stopped, I will finish it one day.
I moved to Chrono Trigger and found it much better.

VII came along and I loved it, I was however very disappointed with the music. Tunes are great but digital composition is poor, some really nasty chip tune sounds grated against the big story.

VIII I thought was a better game than VII, I prefered the battle system, music, story and the world was more seamless. Music was much improved but it was still utterly destroyed by Chrono Cross and Xenogears.

IX I loved to bits. It felt traditional but modern and had bags of charm. Character animation is among the best of the generation too. Great script in places.

X was good, too linear in feel and the voice acting of Yuna was ****. Music was much good and the battle system fantastic. I liked the story overall, like Tidus too and the twist was smart.

XII is genre defining for me. It made the J-RPG feel grand and less of a solo experience. The game world blew everything away, the music was staggering, the combat system was perfect and the story was interesting. The only flaw with XII is the slightly thin character development and that Balthier should have been the real leading man.
I read somewhere that Yasumi Matsuno was forcefully removed from the project and it changed a very adult game into Vaan and co. I don't mind Vaan actually, he doesn't really get in the way of the story but Balthier was better. Matsuno was prolific at Square, FFXII and before that Tactics and Vagrant Story were all special games. Pity he left really as the series has nosedived since.

[fuse]

I ended up working there! Good times!!

Hah, we've probably met countless times in that case! Were Nigel and Chandra still there when you were about?

[nakamura]

Nigel was indeed still there, I worked part time late into the life of the store for a bit and helped out in poole and christchurch.
I was a customer when Chandra was there too, still chat to him on FB a bit.

I remember when F-Zero X came out, Chandra came running from the shop to where I worked in Oswald Bailey and shouted 'We got it!' at the top of his voice at the door and legged it. I was allowed to go early to pick it up.

This is me, https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=674455077 if you can see it. I look the same!! I was 15 in 1996 ish and went there from 1992 ish on.

[Wil]

VI(III) was definitely the highlight for me. I got the US II(IV) from ACE in the Osnaburgh St. shop/office in London for a nutty price and loved it so I was well hyped for VI. I played through the Jp version as much as I could (up the opera, if I remember rightly) before I gave up and waited for the US version. None of the others have ever surpassed it for me in terms of story and characters.

[ETC]

X for me, lent a US import of 7 played about 20hrs then had to give it back so didn't bother, 8 skipped, 9 was more interested in saving for a DC so didn't bother, X gripped me from the minute I got it I managed to burn out my first ps2 playing it. Did try 12 when it came out and I hated it more than I hate 13 and that's saying something stopped playing it just before the end I don't like RTB, just DL 7,8,9 again in the PSN sale so will have a bash over the next fee weeks

[teddymeow]

VI - Kefka is badass!!