Final Fantasy

[Blademaster]

Now Blade play nice with new comers.

If the newcomers have come to poison our dear forum further with their Squeenix fanaticistic filth, they shall receive NO MERCY.

[Master Rudy]

If the newcomers have come to poison our dear forum further with their Squeenix fanaticistic filth, they shall receive NO MERCY.

I've got no problems with new members wanting to talk about Final Fantasy. However I will agree with Blade on the fact that SE is a very evil company. The whole fiasco over the CT: Crimson Echos fan game that was being done by the Chrono Compendium/Kajar Labs is proof enough of that. However I'm more than happy to talk about pre-asshole Square (AKA the time it was a good company and called Squaresoft)

As far as FF goes I feel that 10 was the last decent one (not to mention the last one done prior to the SE merger.....hmmm.....imagine that). Going online is a mistake the series should have never done with 11. 12 was too much of a departure from the normal battle system. Hell walking into Wal-Mart a mere four months following release and seeing the game fully stocked and dropped to $19.99 without being on the PS2 GH list was enough of a warning sign to keep far away from it. While 13 itself looks good I will not be buying it. Even without the CE incident the series has been going downhill for far too long in my mind. As for 14 they are once again heading back to online. Personally I think SE should leave online to the big dogs in that market (Act-Bliz with WoW and the company that does CoH/V and Aion)

The best Final Fantasy in my mind will always be FF6. FF7 is a very close second place and despite many people not liking it I also enjoyed FF9 for going back to a more fantasy like setting. 9 and 10 are tied for third in my mind despite my issues with 10 being a very linear game. At this point I'll be honest. Due to declining quality in the series as well as my own issues with SE itself the only FF's I would ever buy new at this point would be PS3 remakes of FF6 or FF7. A sequel to FF7 based on Advent Children might also get a purchase out of me if the gameplay stayed true/close to the original FF7.

[Keyblader]

i am sorry to of offended anyone like, but i just like Final Fantasy and was looking to see what everyone else thought of it, i will agree that the last decent one was 10, but 12 wasnt really all that bad once u got into it.

thou FF7 is by far the best one made, and it has been down hill since the square-enix merger, and they really dont know what to do with the summoning magic, since ten it has been rubbish because of the new battling style, and i dont see what was wrong with the old one because it was what made the Final Fantasy game what it was.

oh and blademaster, isnt my fault u have no taste in good games, because final fantasy was the founders of RPGF games and the reason for the likes of World of Warcraft is because of the likes of FF6 and 7 which set new levels for RPG gaming so ha

[Master Rudy]

Final fantasy was the founders of RPGF games and the reason for the likes of World of Warcraft is because of the likes of FF6 and 7 which set new levels for RPG gaming so ha

Actually Key I'm about 99% certain that Dragon Quest/Warrior came first. When Squaresoft came up with the original concept of an RPG to compete with Enix the company was on the verge of failure. They came up with the name Final Fantasy due to the fact that if the game was not a success that it would have truely been Square's final game. Of course if you want to go further back than FF and DQ it's really D&D that all the modern RPG's should be thanking. Video games were just the natural evolution of the RPG concept.

In regards to SE not knowing what to do with FF it's no real surprise when you think about it. While Squaresoft employees are obviously still in the mix, the higher ups in the company are mainly made up of people who got their start with Enix. Because of that I'm actually more surprised that they haven't tried to do more with Dragon Quest. My bet is that they are mainly wanting to bank on the Final Fantasy name since it's the bigger worldwide seller. However as far as sales inside Japan itself go the Dragon Quest series has always outsold FF. They get so nuts about DQ that it's damn near a holiday when a new one is released. In fact some schools and companies even go so far as to close for a day if a new DQ is out

Setting aside my feelings for SE I will say this. Final Fantasy itself is still a good series. However they need to go back to the good old ATB battle system instead of all the tweaks they have come up with over the years. It's good to try new things but if you change something too much you run the risk of scaring some people off. Hell at the worse going back to FF10's battle system would also work. Save the real time stuff for the Mana series. As for the story I think they need to go back to a setting more along the lines of FF4 or 6. While I did like FF7 I do have to say some of the later games are starting to lean more towards futuristic with fantasy elements. FF needs to bring the actual fantasy back......hell it's in the title! :-/

[DivineAll]

I didn't get into the Final Fantasy series until I played Tactics Advance. Since I'm somewhat of a hardcore Nintendo fan, I pretty much stuck with the Nintendo versions of the FF series.
However, I've seen Let's Plays and videos of the Playstation saga of Final Fantasy and I have to say this to all fans of about one game in particular: VII sucked.

I don't care if you liked it because of all the new innovations and whatnot and I don't care if took a giant step forward into the modern world rather than a fantasy world, which is in the title of the series like Rudy said. It wasn't the best Fantasy. VI is the best fantasy out of all of them with IX being in second, only for the nostalgia factor, then VII.

Of course that's just personal opinion. Also adding to the fact Kefka actually destroyed the world and became a pseudo-god while Sephiroth didn't destroy the world at all and almost became a pseudo-god.

[Master Rudy]

I didn't get into the Final Fantasy series until I played Tactics Advance. Since I'm somewhat of a hardcore Nintendo fan, I pretty much stuck with the Nintendo versions of the FF series.
However, I've seen Let's Plays and videos of the Playstation saga of Final Fantasy and I have to say this to all fans of about one game in particular: VII sucked.

I don't care if you liked it because of all the new innovations and whatnot and I don't care if took a giant step forward into the modern world rather than a fantasy world, which is in the title of the series like Rudy said. It wasn't the best Fantasy. VI is the best fantasy out of all of them with IX being in second, only for the nostalgia factor, then VII.

Of course that's just personal opinion. Also adding to the fact Kefka actually destroyed the world and became a pseudo-god while Sephiroth didn't destroy the world at all and almost became a pseudo-god.

Div sums it up pretty well. While I wouldn't go so far as to say FF7 sucked I will say that the reasons he listed are the main reasons why I just prefer FF6 overall. I think the primary reason why everyone is so damn crazy over 7 is the fact that this was the point that Final Fantasy and RPG's in general became "mainstream" so to speak. Hell when FF7 came out I was one of the few going "what the hell happened to 4-6?!"

But yeah....while 7 is still good there are several elements in the story itself you could potentially lift out of that and drop right back into FF6, and since FF6 came first and took the shocking step of actually destroying the world I'm going to have to say that one did those elements better.

EDIT-The 6 vs. 7 debate always tends to be a sore subject that almost always gets a flame war going in fan circles. Let me put it this way. No matter what side of the debate you are on, set all nostalgia aside for both games. Think about it this way: if both FF6 and FF7 had the same production values, both came out on the PS3, had full voice acting, ect then which do you think would be the better of the two? The key things to look at in this are the overall story and character development. Hell it's easier to think of FF7 on the PS3 thanks to Advent Children so if you have trouble doing that for FF6 then try to imagine FF7 as a 16 bit game instead

[Blademaster]

oh and blademaster, isnt my fault u have no taste in good games

thou FF7 is by far the best one made

UAU confirmed. FFVI and FFIV were FAR superior titles.

because final fantasy was the founders of RPGF games and the reason for the likes of World of Warcraft is because of the likes of FF6 and 7 which set new levels for RPG gaming so ha

............

Look. Kid. Since you're new here I'll try and be nice.

First and foremost, there's no such thing as an "RPGF game" unless this place has started developing video games that I don't know about sometime in the past 7 hours.

Second, Final Fantasy was NOT the 'founder' of anything. If the word you're looking for is 'forerunner,' or maybe 'inspiration,' that's not correct either. RPG's in video games existed and were popular before Final Fantasy, and even before the aforementioned DRagon Quest/Dragon Warrior series. FF may have made RPG's profitable, but games such as Rogue and Zork/Dungeon made them period.

Third, if you think WoW was heavily influenced by FF.... Well, since I'm being nice, all I'll permit myself to say is a firm and resounding "No.". I could pull information out of nowhere like you and claim WoW was influenced by Dungeons & Dragons instead, but WoW is actually a sequel: the fourth in a series of PC games called the Warcraft series. Not only has the series always been western, as opposed to the very obvious JPRG structure that Final Fantasy games follow, but it didn't even start out as an RPG series: It started as an RTS series.

And lastly, while FFVI and FFVII were at the very least pretty good games, can you name a few of these "new levels" that they set? FFVI was a fine game, but what specifically did it do that games like Chrono Trigger, Breath of Fire, Sword of Mana, Lufia, and the dozens of other early '90's JRPG's didn't do? And FFVII... It was one of the first and most well-made 3-D JRPG's made. OK. It also made the FF series needlessly emotional (a problem that REALLY manifested in FFVIII and has been lingering since) and it created an entire generation of arrogant fantards the likes of which even the Halo and Zelda series have trouble competing with.

You like the FF series. Fine. But don't come and make baseless claims when you have no idea what you're talking about. TPM only has one egotistical and misinformed video game-obsessed loser, and it's not you. ;/

[ChobiChibi]

12 was too much of a departure from the normal battle system. Hell walking into Wal-Mart a mere four months following release and seeing the game fully stocked and dropped to $19.99 without being on the PS2 GH list was enough of a warning sign to keep far away from it.

12's Battle System is probably the most realistic out of all the FF games. I mean, since when would anyone just be wandering around and suddenly, their vision shatters and they go into a random battle! Oh noes! I forgot my pheonix downs! >_>

I like the real time element that 12 has, I get very bored of the turn based strats of the previous games. I'm still getting used to it, since I only bought it recently, but it's much more exciting. Plus, you get to be an idiot and attack a dinosaur when you're only level 1 <3

The most fustrating game has to be FF3. I've got the DS remake. If you put the game down for more than an hour, you forget what the hell you were supposed to be doing and then NOBODY in the game gives you a clue as to where you're supposed to be going! It's so irritating! I would have traded it in by now except they weren't gonna give me enough money for it. One day maybe I'll plow through it, but be full of rage as I do so ._.;

I also don't really agree that FF has lost the Fantasy... I don't see people wandering around using magic on big fat monsters with glowy eyes and an evil grin in real life, do you? And extremely tall people with bunny ears? And little teddy bears with wings that put "kupo!" on the end of every sentance? And GIANT SWORDS, gunblades, staffs, summons, fiends... How is this not Fantasy? It's just a different take on it, that's all. I'd get bored if I was always rescuing Princesses from Castles and liberating Kingdoms...