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YIKES Stay Gooned posted:You should try XIII next if you can Play IX if you like, but ignore this advice like the plague.
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Dec 10, 2014 19:36
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Cake Attack posted:i mean im coming from that perspective, i played IX early and wasn't aware half of anything was a reference, except for being vaguely aware that the black mages had a similar to design to some earlier black mages, and it's my favorite mainline game so Not emptyquoting, just saying this is me as well.
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Dec 10, 2014 19:38
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Cake Attack posted:ffix doesn't rely on nostalgia at all, even if it does have a lot of throwbacks Yeah, IX has a ton of throwbacks, but they're yours to miss: it stands well enough on its own. Catching the references enhances the experience, but they're all flavor except for the whole Golbez is Cecil's brother thing.
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Dec 10, 2014 19:39
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No other FF game is as well written or interesting as VII, so you're gonna have to rely on interesting mechanics and good presentation to maintain your interest. In this vein VI and XIII are good bets, because VI is a very fun and fast paced, great looking SNES game and XIII has the best combat in the series (except for maybe XIII-3). X is good too but it sounds like you may have already gotten a look at it so maybe not.
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Dec 10, 2014 19:42
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dMastri posted:Are IV and VI back to traditional fantasy tropes? IV is hard fantasy (with airships anyways). Its got kings and castles and knights and honor. But VI on the other hand is much like VII, like somebody was just saying. Lots of people compare them, its almost like VII is the 3D version of VI. That's not really accurate, VII is way more cyberpunk, but it is somewhat appropriate. VI has lots of technology and has a nature versus technology thing going on just like VII. VIII is also modern and has motorcycles and flying buildings and poo poo, but everything's in this weird like sorta post-apocalyptic but not quite setting so there's a mix of a little fantasy here and there with the sci-fi. IX is a straight classic fantasy throwback, if you haven't played any of I-VI you won't appreciate it as much. Still good but not my favorite. X is also a weird animal, starting very sci-fi and having a very sci-fi plot, but generally keeping the game pretty low-key (Riding around tropical islands in a boat) with lots of fantasy monsters and magic and even religious themes, but it still has a good bit of tech (zanarkand, the al bhed) XII is pretty much star wars, but through a fantasy lens. You have fantasy races of bunny-people and lizard-people living in huge kingdoms and wearing armor, but then you have TIE fighters and Darth Vader and huge imperial spaceship armies. XIII is back to full on sci-fi, feels kinda like VII in its setting in some ways, although XIII also kinda sucks balls.
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Dec 10, 2014 19:44
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I recall the combat in X being realtime with macros and such, is that the case? I'm leaning towards IV, VI, or Tactics at the moment. It sounds like they are all traditional fantasy though, right? nothing modern or steampunky? edit - is there any reason to play these things in order or can I hope from VI to IV and not skip a beat? Doesn't seem like there's any continuity
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Dec 10, 2014 19:45
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dMastri posted:I did consider looking at Tactics. Is that at all like Shining Force or completely different? Well its an SRPG so it is very similar in that regard to Shining Force, however the maps tend to be MUCH smaller than the majority of Shining Force Maps. It uses a job system analogous to FFV so characters can freely change from being a Monk, to a Knight or a White Mage however, in order to select those jobs a person has to meet certain prerequisites, generally by leveling up other job classes. A unit's Jobs level independently of a unit's character level using a separate type of experience labeled JP or "job points" Both Exp and JP are gained by performing an action in combat, the same way they are in Shining Force The vast majority of units you will use are generic, and you can even name them, however, there are quite a few Named characters who will join your team who have special Jobs unique to them. Also, with the exception of monsters and 1 robot, every character in your party is human. The storyline in FFT is actually very good, especially for a JRPG, although the translation can be a little wonky. Blame the translator or God. Anyway, if you like Shining Force, FFT is definitely for you, it is a great game and superior in just about every way to Shining Force.
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Dec 10, 2014 19:45
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dMastri posted:I recall the combat in X being realtime with macros and such, is that the case? No that's XII, X is straight-up completely turn-based.
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Dec 10, 2014 19:48
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dMastri posted:I recall the combat in X being realtime with macros and such, is that the case? VI's designs are all robots + magic so it's probably the closest to what you're looking for. And no they're all different, just going backwards you're going to see varying levels of polish.
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Dec 10, 2014 19:48
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Zaphod42 posted:XII is pretty much star wars, but through a fantasy lens. You have fantasy races of bunny-people and lizard-people living in huge kingdoms and wearing armor, but then you have TIE fighters and Darth Vader and huge imperial spaceship armies. More accurately: XII starts out with Tactics-esque political intrigue, then it derails itself into a hiking expedition, then it becomes Star Wars.
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Dec 10, 2014 20:00
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dMastri posted:Nah PC only. Still no console though I may finally bite the bullet and grab a PS4 next month. 4 mostly is just fantasy. However, 6 is where the strange steampunkish future fantasy thing started in the series, though not to the same degree as 7 and the later ones. It's pretty solid. Though 8, for all that the gameplay and story is completely retarded in many ways, is absolutely not a traditional fantasy game. So you might like it, I don't know, but I didn't. It's very... experimental. Though 13-2 is coming to PC soon, so you could try that. Do not play ff13-1 under any circumstances.
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Dec 10, 2014 20:02
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dMastri posted:any reason to play these things in order or can I hope from VI to IV and not skip a beat? Doesn't seem like there's any continuity You can play them in any order, though I recommend doing the PS1 Generation games first (VII, Tactics, VIII and IX). This is for a number of reasons, but mainly these games have received the fewest updates and re-releases and have Playstation era graphics. This can make it hard to go from the sleek polish of the PS2 genre, or the amazingly redone sprites of the various rereleases of the SNES and NES era games. but anyway the Steampunkier Games on the list are: I-As Fantasy as you get, its just a few D20's away from being Dungeons and Dragons II-Not quite as DND as FF1, but very similar thematically III-Chibi-Dungeons and Dragons-Originator of FF's Job system IV-Dungeons and Dragons, Star Wars edition. Oh and there are some robots, and a spaceship called the Lunar Whale. But it is essentially a Fantasy Game V-Dungeons and Dragons, Saturday Morning Cartoons Edition. A strong contender in my book for best mainline Final Fantasy, has an amazing Job system. VI-Game is all Magic, Robots, Magic Robots, and Clown Gods VII-Again a very Magipunk game with some Cyberpunk leanings (dystopian Megacorp and body augmentation), despite its fanbase it is an amazing game. I highly recommend Elentor's LP of the game if you decide not to play it. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3415223 Tactics-War of the Roses, Chocobo Edition VIII-This game features a very modern world, with similar technology level to ours, with magic in it . That being said, since it's a Final Fantasy there are some WIDE deviations from that technology level, oh and the plot is incredibly confused.. IX-Straight Fantasy, though there is some high tech dead civilizations. x-A very unique Fantasy game, but completely breaks from traditional Fantasy tropes in the Tolkein/DND vein. Very interesting Pacific Islander feel to the game that I haven't seen replicated. Oh and there is tons of technology and a fallen civilization and this tech plays a strong influence in the game, so this is safe to think of it as Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi with Magic. XI-Didn't play it XII-A very unique Fantasy game, however there is HIGH technology melded in with Fantasy. Very well designed setting, the gambit system is not liked by many, including myself. However a patch for a better version the IZJS edition is available. XIII-Uhhhh, weird high tech robot summons scissoring into bicycles, and I think time travel is involved somehow...... XIV-Didn't play it, though it has wonderful reviews. Madmarker fucked around with this message at 20:27 on Dec 10, 2014 |
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Dec 10, 2014 20:09
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corn in the bible posted:4 mostly is just fantasy. However, 6 is where the strange steampunkish future fantasy thing started in the series, Final Fantasy has ALWAYS been steampunk and people just tend to gloss over it more in the old days since jrpgs used to be such hodgepodge things that people could ignore that games weren't just dragon quest. Like the very first one you are time traveling and fighting robots and 4 is thought of as a very fantasy game but levels are inside giant robots and the whole plot is about aliens and flying in a space ship to the moon.
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Dec 10, 2014 20:10
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Owlofcreamcheese posted:Final Fantasy has ALWAYS been steampunk and people just tend to gloss over it more in the old days since jrpgs used to be such hodgepodge things that people could ignore that games weren't just dragon quest. Yes there are elements there in every Final Fantasy of Magipunk, however its where the game places its narrative focus and design aesthetic. The one trait almost every Final Fantasy definitely shares is a fallen civilization that predates current society. The fallen civilization tended to have advanced tech, but its essentially magic to the people of the current era, and is usually treated as such in the narrative, if acknowledged as technology at all. Its like calling super hero comic books "Fantasy" because they have characters with magic powers. Yes technically it is correct, but it doesn't provide the same type of story or designs someone looking for a "Fantasy" story is interested in, making it a useless label. Madmarker fucked around with this message at 20:15 on Dec 10, 2014 |
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Dec 10, 2014 20:13
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kinda fantasy but with some technology is really just a pretty common jrpg setting
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Dec 10, 2014 20:17
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Madmarker posted:Yes there are elements there in every Final Fantasy of Magipunk, however its where the game places its narrative focus and design aesthetic. The one trait almost every Final Fantasy definitely shares is a fallen civilization that predates current society. The fallen civilization tended to have advanced tech, but its essentially magic to the people of the current era, and is usually treated as such in the narrative, if acknowledged as technology at all. I don't know, almost every final fantasy game has always had the story of "hey what if we used technology on our old spiritual magic stuff?" with the answer being Armageddon. Like that plot line is one of the most steady things in such a ever changing series.
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Dec 10, 2014 20:18
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XI - FF-themed Everquest. Fantasy mixed with magically advanced dead civilizations. XIV - FF-themed Warcraft, or alternately, XII: MMO edition. 2.0 was redesigned by devs from Tactics and 12, with heavy influence from 3, 6 and 11 from the previous dev team. Varance fucked around with this message at 20:25 on Dec 10, 2014 |
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Dec 10, 2014 20:20
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The gambits in FF12 are good. They just shouldn't have made you have to find them all
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Dec 10, 2014 20:20
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Quest For Glory II posted:The gambits in FF12 are good. They just shouldn't have made you have to find them all I can agree to this, if I had access to the Gambits from the get-go, I probably would have enjoyed the system a lot more than having to buy the ability to tell someone to heal when a character is below a certain percentage of health.
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Dec 10, 2014 20:23
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FFXV looks Baz Luhrmann's Romeo+Juliet set in modern day Tokyo starring the leader of a Japanese boyband and anime Claire Danes.
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Dec 10, 2014 20:25
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Sunning posted:FFXV looks Baz Luhrmann's Romeo+Juliet set in modern day Tokyo starring the leader of a Japanese boyband and anime Claire Danes. Everything about that sentence makes me want to buy this game.
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Dec 10, 2014 20:28
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BTW, the Gambit system is so awesome that they re-used it in FFXIV internally for almost all of the NPCs in the game. Rumor is that they're doing a full player-modifiable Gambit implementation in FFXIV 3.0, where you can customize a squad of Grand Company NPCs, level them up and take them into dungeons/old content/whatnot to fill various party roles. ... and it's not really a rumor, because that came straight from the game director's mouth at one of the recent fan fests. Varance fucked around with this message at 20:34 on Dec 10, 2014 |
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Dec 10, 2014 20:29
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Madmarker posted:I can agree to this, if I had access to the Gambits from the get-go, I probably would have enjoyed the system a lot more than having to buy the ability to tell someone to heal when a character is below a certain percentage of health. Well good news in the international zodiac edition you start with them all and a fast forward button for grinding. I only play the translated edition and urge others to get as well.
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Dec 10, 2014 20:34
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Gambits would have improved 13 immensely. You already spend most battles hitting auto battle, so letting me set up how to act in fully automatic would have been much better. Maybe have separate gambit lists for each paradigm?
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Dec 10, 2014 20:35
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ghostinmyshell posted:Well good news in the international zodiac edition you start with them all and a fast forward button for grinding. I only play the translated edition and urge others to get as well. Yeah, unfortunately for me, my computer is a piece of crap, and I'm not sure it would handle it. Can you patch the game disk somehow to run the IZJS version of an American PS2 in English or is that not a thing that can happen?
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Dec 10, 2014 20:43
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One of the things FFXII really needed but didn't have was the ability to save multiple gambit lists. Even as someone who liked gambits, it was so annoying to reconstruct them every time you needed to modify them.
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Dec 10, 2014 20:43
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Madmarker posted:Yeah, unfortunately for me, my computer is a piece of crap, and I'm not sure it would handle it. Can you patch the game disk somehow to run the IZJS version of an American PS2 in English or is that not a thing that can happen? You could mod your console.
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Dec 10, 2014 20:47
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Cake Attack posted:kinda fantasy but with some technology is really just a pretty common jrpg setting
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Dec 10, 2014 20:48
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Swords are always better than guns. One wonders why they even bothered inventing them.
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Dec 10, 2014 20:50
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dMastri posted:I was a Sega man growing up and never got a console past Genesis, so all of FF is new to me. Welcome, to Final Fantasy, as such you should be aware of the following categories of fandom: A. FFVII was your first game and you think it is the greatest RPG ever and no other Final Fantasy will ever compare. B. You started with FFVI first and think FFVII is good but overrated and not as good as FFVI. C. You started with the original or FFIV (FFII) and think that FFVII is trash. D. You started with FFVIII and probably never played another Final Fantasy game again. E. You started with FFIX and are most likely level headed. F. You started with FFX (see A. FFVII) G. You started with FFXII and loved it and are wondering why none of the other titles are even remotely close to having the same gameplay dynamics. H. You started with FFXIII, 13-2 or LR and like loved it, in which case you should probably just watch LP's of games and play dress-up flash games for an equivalent experience. TommyGun85 fucked around with this message at 20:54 on Dec 10, 2014 |
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Dec 10, 2014 20:52
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TommyGun85 posted:Welcome, to Final Fantasy, as such you should be aware of the following categories of fandom: I fall in an odd hybrid of B and C then.  (My first was the original, I think VII was decent but insanely overrated.)
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Dec 10, 2014 20:57
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TommyGun85 posted:D. You started with FFVIII and probably never played another Final Fantasy game again. VIII was the first RPG I ever played and here I am 13 years later wasting my life in the Final Fantasy megathread
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Dec 10, 2014 20:59
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Help Im Alive posted:VIII was the first RPG I ever played and here I am 13 years later wasting my life in the Final Fantasy megathread I actually had fond memories of FFVIII when I first played it. I get why people hate it and its rightly deserved but I cant say ive ever really played a FF and hated it while playing it.....except for FFXIII of course. Most people will disagree, but I actually really hated the battle system as well.
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Dec 10, 2014 21:03
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I started with VI and actually like every game. Where am I in the listing?
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Dec 10, 2014 21:14
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I started with 7 but I acknowledge that X-2 is the best FF. Overall I don't care for 2, never got very far in 3 or 4, but I like all the other games to some degree. After X-2 it's 5, 8 and 12 that I like best. Even though I tend to give 8 a lot of poo poo.
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Dec 10, 2014 21:25
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corn in the bible posted:oh wow shiva was in the bullshit ice lake ??? 
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Dec 10, 2014 21:28
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Varance posted:BTW, the Gambit system is so awesome that they re-used it in FFXIV internally for almost all of the NPCs in the game. If they can also avoid the enemies tells most of the time, this would be amazing.
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Dec 10, 2014 21:28
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TommyGun85 posted:C. You started with the original or FFIV (FFII) and think that FFVII is trash. I started with Secret of Mana and like everything but FF8, FF12, and FF13. Oh and FF3-DS, but that's one of those less-contested opinions.
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Dec 10, 2014 21:33
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The White Dragon posted:I started with Secret of Mana and like everything but FF8, FF12, and FF13. Oh and FF3-DS, but that's one of those less-contested opinions. Out of curiosity, did you ever play Secret of Evermore and what did you think of it?
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Dec 10, 2014 21:34
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TommyGun85 posted:Out of curiosity, did you ever play Secret of Evermore and what did you think of it? Fuckin' love Evermore. It's corny and fun and just generally... it's like Secret of Mana except set in a series of cult B movies. If I could change one thing about it--and I'd only change one thing--it's that I'd make the environment colors richer.
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Dec 10, 2014 21:37
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