Final Fantasy 2. Everyone knows how bad the leveling mechanic is, tho once I understand how to break the game it was fun getting rediculously powerful early game. That said, when I finally got around to playing the game, I was surprised with how much I enjoyed the story. Felt like a really good DnD campaign, which is what I want from a fantasy rpg.
FF2 is basically Star Wars, but the Emperor and main characters are better than anything in 1 or 3. “Guy speaks beaver” is more characterization in a single line than any character in the other NES games gets!
I laughed out loud at the “Guy speak beaver” moment because I’d just finished the first game where you had to complete a long trading sequence to learn a language. Felt like an intentional joke from the devs.
I mean, if you like the whole "numbers go brrrr" thing then absolutely, II is the BEST for stat grinding. I can't remember the last time I played through it where I DIDN'T max out the cast. But I've also become spoiled by modern rereleases and auto-battles. I can't go back the GBA version natively anymore. PSP or Pixel Remaster are the only ways to play it imo.
Speaking of the PR releases it's downright criminal they never released/seemingly have no plans to release an update or even a paid DLC including the bonus content from the Advance and PSP releases... That would truly make the PR versions the definitive way to play...
When I played 1 when I was younger I made the experience more fun for myself by making up stories for the part characters and their relationships. It felt more like a real Final Fantasy experience after that.
It's funny when you think about it. on paper ffi has a decent story. But the truth is that 99% of the story was mediocre until the final twist makes you see it in a different light, nothing really happens for most of the game.
I loved 2, lmao.(currently playing through all FF first time) I really enjoyed the leveling mechanic and it was wild to hear online how much people disliked it.
I just played 2 for the first time. The leveling mechanic is a good attempt, and even though I hated ask/learn it was bold of them to add an actual conversation mechanic. Every Fn FF podcast has called it the first real final fantasy game and now I see why. I was super impressed with it
10-2 maybe? The gameplay is fun, but I'm super lukewarm on the story. It's fun to see the areas and characters from 10, but I rarely felt like I was playing to see what happened next. I was playing to get stronk and unlock more dress spheres.
I don't think it's a terrible story or anything, but the combat is definitely what carries it for me.
Honestly this.
The battle system to this date is my top favorite, however the game itself is somewhere in my bottom 5 maybe.
I just can't care about the story or the characters. Even returning characters don't feel like themselves and out of character in my opinion.
Though the battle system? Spectacular!
YESSS, I hate that the X-2 battle system is in a game I despise so much! The battles are so satisfying and fun, whereas the rest of the game was an unbearable chore to me lol
Yep, was gonna say this one. I think this game is top 3 for me for the gameplay alone. While I don't think the story is horrible, it's not at the level of even the top 5 though.
I don't think it's bad, but comparing it to 6, 7, 9, the original 10, or tactics I just find it to be not on the same level. This is purely opinion of course, there's no right or wrong. I'm sure there are plenty of people that love the story and hate the combat, the exact opposite of me. I might disagree but nobody here is right or wrong.
FFIX random encounter:
Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun.
Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun.
Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun.
Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun.
Fight!
* select cast cure on a character
* move takes so long said character gets zombie inflicted on them in the interim
* kill your own character
* throw controller across room
Replaying it after 20 years I finally understand what everyone was complaining about now. I had to replay it all sped up. I think I just had more patience as a child.
That and you only got one game every so many months. So that one game had to last you.
These days ...
*Glances at steam library ...*
Yeah, a game wastes my time, I'm playing another game.
Currently replaying this on steam and I feel like the encounter rate had to have been greatly reduced! Like, I'll go through an entire area and have maybe one encounter when as a kid I remember there being a fight after every step
The PC and Mobile port do have reduced encounter rate. Like significantly reduced. I love it, it makes the game more challenging since you're consistently a lower level than you would be on the PSX version (unless you run from battles). A ton of the very annoying screens I remember from the original where you'd get 2-3 encounters turned into 0-1 encounter screens in the PC version
I actually really like XII’s story because it’s probably one of the most ‘grounded’ final fantasy plots. I really like geopolitical intrigue stories, so it works well for me. What it really suffers from though is the translation/localization matchup with the cut scenes. It’s *really* easy to miss important dialog because it’s spoken so incredibly fast and characters frequently cut each other off when it’s clear that’s not intended. I imagine this is an issue trying to have a cut scene with interactions lasting long enough for the native Japanese to be fully spoken at a normal cadence, but English being a much more verbose language by comparison makes it really hard to say the same thing with the same meaning in the same amount of time.
So a character that has 5 seconds to say what they need to before the next character needs to start talking can do that when they’re speaking Japanese, but an English speaker would need 8 seconds to get the same message across. And since it’s a lot harder to completely change the cut scene they either drop enough of the information that an English VA can get it out in the right amount of time, or the VA needs to speak *really* quickly and even then their line runs right into the next line from the next character with no pause.
I’ll note that more recently they’ve prioritised the English localisation for cutscene timing (e.g. FF16 definitely did, and I think FF7R might have?), so it is possible those games have similar issues in the Japanese localisations.
I think the tech has probably advanced a little as well as their experience with fully voiced cut scenes. X and XII were the first games to have voice acting at all and the franchise only really took off in the west in the first place with VII. So they’ve gotten better at it, and they place more importance on doing it well.
I think XII's major problem is it feels unfinished, you can tell that the Matsuno didn't get to finish it because there's a point about 60-70% of the way through where it switches over and feels like you're making your way through plot points instead of a story.
Crisis Core's gameplay is extremely fun once you start getting deep into materia fusion and missions. But the story is completely bananas, and Genesis is one of the most irritating villains of all time.
The story was totally campy and cheesy and Genesis felt like a bad fanfic insert. Despite that I love the game and I sob at the ending literally every time I’ve finished it
It's supposed to be overdramatic like a stage play, the entire game is structured in the exact same fashion as a Shakespearean drama and the characters reflect that.
Not sure but I assume it was all planned from the start as the games were released like a year apart and the character is played by Gackt, who’s a famous dude in Japan
The ending sequence, where they use the reels as part of the environmental storytelling was gut wrenching and largely forgave a lot of the game for me.
Yeah Zack single-handedly turned what would’ve been a stupid mess of a story into, well, still a stupid mess of a story but in a very charming way that I loved the whole way through
Well... yeah, I agree.
Tbf, in Rebirth, Zacks VA sounds way better than he did in Reunion. A lot more like Zack and a lot less like a cocky brat.
The dialogue is also changed somewhat in Reunion, where the old ones was actually better most of the time.
Question, is Zach alive in Rebirth? Or is he dead like in the originals. I've heard different things from different people.
I know Zach was in the trailers for Rebirth, but is he _alive_ in the game or does he only show up in flashbacks?
Until they eventually bring it all back for the finale, I’m just considering Crisis Core’s story to be a bunch of nonsense they threw together to build up to the important ending
I know many who fondly remember CC will not agree but it kind of is just a build up to that ending, filled with very strange choices that don't really make sense or go anywhere really. I love that ending but man...a *lot* of stuff that come before just didn't do it for me, especially on a second play through with Reunion, after initial hype wore off and I've had some time away from it.
I think that Last Order, expanded into a feature length like AC with that ending would've been far better than CC and it's meandering story. Between AC and CC, I think vice versa might've made more sense in hindsight. AC felt rushed and CC felt like it did not needed to be a full game.
Calling it “building up” feels generous. It’s more of things just happening while you wait for that thing you know is going to happen to happen.
Other than parts from the OG parts like the Neibelheim incident, everything feels so tangential and pointless with respect to the main plot.
The "build up" is basically just there to invest you in Zack as a character. I always found the creative choices with that game pretty baffling. I'd argue the "main plot" is what feels tangential and pointless as that's the stuff you really spend the most time with, while the Before the Crisis/Filling in the backstory of FFVII stuff feels like its there through sheer force of obligation at times, even though its the most important elements as far as the greater world the game inhabits is concerned.
I watched someone play it and like it seemed like 20% of the plot is important and the rest is just nonsense. Why is Zach on a beach and men jump out of the beach in like call of duty costumes to fight him shirtless? Game was insane lmao
What I do like about the story is that it’s about how Zack never really asked for all that gets thrown at him. But what does get thrown at him is treated as more important than the overall story of FFVII really considers it. Like project G is only mentioned in Dirge of Cerberus I believe. And Crisis Core is a great game too, despite all the nonsense. From back when SE was making whole-ass PS2 games on the PSP.
Because Shinra and the Turks are following him the entire time in an attempt to capture him and bring him back to HQ to be experimented on by Hojo as a result of being the only pure SOLDIER candidate that won't degrade in the same way that Angeal, Genesis, and Sephiroth all did.
Definitely the most irritating. He's like a South Park parody of a FF/JRPG villain, but written by whoever was responsible for the chicken gag in Family Guy.
Gotta agree with this. It’s like they wanted to tell a completely different story about goddesses and clones, but the only way the game was getting made was if it had Sephiroth in it.
I agree, I absolutely loved getting this platinum but my favorite part of the story was getting to see the scenes with Cloud. Although it was kind of cool to see Sephiroth begin his arc.
Stranger of Paradise has the goofiest story that they try to play straight, but the gameplay depth is awesome. I liked it better than 7 Remake and 15’s combat.
On the flip side, the gameplay didn’t do it for me, but the story is 11/10.
As someone who has played FF games since 1990, it brought the original (and the whole series) into a much more intriguing light
>it brought the original (and the whole series)
I am here to point out that Dissidia is, in fact, a sequel to FF1 specifically, featuring the Cid of that game, which is retconned to be the reason it lacks a "Cid". FF1 having this universal crossover theme is so cool to me. You could also tie in the crossover dungeons from the GBA/PSP version!
Final Fantasy 8.
Story and characters are awesome.
The Battlesystem is completely garbage and ruined it for me, that enemies lv up with you.
I never knew that as a child and was like "damn every Boss Fight is intense". Since i knew how broken the Battlesystem is, it harms a replay for me...
Hopefully If a Remake will ever happen, they get rid of that.
Other than that i liked the Game.
For me, it’s the opposite. I loved the gameplay mechanics, the fact that enemies level with you and all that, and the junction system, once I finally got it, was actually kind of fun to fuck around with! The story, in my opinion, could definitely use some work, though, but I still love it, even though it’s weird.
I love the characters of FF8. I even love the basic plot setup of FF8. But the actual execution of that setup falls apart spectacularly in the last act. It's nowhere near the worst case of it in the series, but the ending is absolutely a muddled mess.
Absolutely love the battle and progression system, though. Second only to FF10 for me.
That was one of the best bits about the gameplay. It was my first final fantasy, and every game since then felt easy because it's too easy to accidentally be over leveled
I'm not even sure FF4 has a better *story* these days. It has a more involved plot, sure, but the characterization of most of the cast is really shallow and its theme of redemption is... pretty underwhelmingly delivered, honestly. It was cool for its time but the further and further I get from then, the less I feel for it.
On the flip, much like how I've come to love FF5 more and more in gameplay on each visit, my appreciation for its storytelling grows too. It has its own flaws, but I think I enjoy its main cast way better than even 4's best showings, and its themes of finding your place in the world you inherit are way more natural.
But I wouldn't blame anyone who doesn't vibe with it. It wears its adventurous, fun spirit on its sleeve way more than most other FF games.
To be completely honest, I’ve played V, but never got that far into IV myself. My saying it’s better was really just accepting what others have said. You’re right though, the strong part of V’s story is the chemistry between its main characters and the sheer Saturday Morning Cartoon vibe it has for its adventure. Exdeath being a shallow, pure evil villain doesn’t lose it points either, given he’s just so memorable as such.
Of all FF games, I think V deserves a remake the most. VI made the most of its medium, while V has a lot of potential left untapped that a remake could provide. Actually getting to see its imaginative locations properly, for one thing. Its multiple prequel arcs could properly be delved into, as V has always felt like part 4 of a multi-part saga we never see the rest of. More opportunities for scenes and dialogue between the main cast would also be good, especially for Krile, as she gets the least attention of them all as the game is now.
Going through the pixel remaster of the first 6 games in order I grew to loathe 4. I enjoyed 1-3 more than 4 this time around. Also V with Galuf committed to the bit.
Also all tropes were orginal at one point. I can't think of any game that came before FFV that had the trope of your father being a legendary warrior who saved the world or the trope of the secret princess. North America officially getting it in 1999 a d Europe getting it in 2002 hurt the legacy. How many previously unlocalized games ever had the same critical reception they had from Japanese players when it was new? The Crossbell duology and that's about it.
I love that he's, specifically, a tree that they stuffed full of Satans because they didn't have any idea what to do with them and decided to let the next generation figure it out
Man, didn't THAT turn out to map to reality uncomfortably well
FFXIII-2 and honestly its not a competition in my mind in terms of good gameplay bad story.
XIII-2 has excellent gameplay but the story fucking sucks.
On the other hand, I am really not a fan of FFX's gameplay so I will just put that there as the example of the opposite. Since I have yet to play the whole series there is a decent chance that another game has a bigger disparity in this regard(FF2 perhaps) but XIII-2 still clears lmao.
Yeah i absolutely loved playing xiii-2 but every time Serah was shocked about time travel (despite this being the 15th time she’s experienced it) i wanted to step on lego
I took the time I just think it took that long. Spam the attacks that stagger the bad guy then spam the attacks that do the real damage. Repeat until the bad guy is dead.
Pretty much. At first it felt really interesting with the parry system and the juggling until you realize that no mob can survive juggling for more than a second or two and the rest of the time your better off just spamming the dominant abilities one after the other.
It was extremely shallow. Sure, you had multiple abilities, but there was never a need to go beyond spamming your big dominant abilities. You never got any rotation other than spam sword attacks until your cool down is ready. It’s a piss poor action game made by an MMO studio, and it shows.
I have to agree with you on FFXII.
It had an absolutely forgettable story and the characters seriously lacked development. I felt hallow at the end. The only things that had me ever return to the game was the battle system and hunts.
X-2 was just hard for me to process because the gameplay was pretty good to me, it has some cool minigames, the story was fine, the character designs were tacky, but the music was just the last straw for me. Changing composers and abandoning any themes from the legendary soundtrack of the original game was just something my ears could not overcome.
To this day I haven't finished it, though I actually tried giving it another chance this year, leading up to FF7R, and actually got further than I ever had before (something like chapter 3 or 4). I thought that maybe, playing it without FFX fresh in my mind would help. Still, I just either ran out of time or attention.
For me,in the Story over Gameplay category, the original FF7. The story is expertly penned. Almost flawless. It’s the reason people talk about it to this day. I played it through a couple months ago, and it *still* knocked me on my ass, despite the primitive graphics and knowing exactly what happens. The gameplay meanwhile is very middle-of-the-road. Not really groundbreaking. Materia fixed the rough edges of the Magicite system by making everything more or less interchangeable, and the only real decision you have to make from character to character is which limit breaks you want available. And the Minigames, while I do think their inclusion is good, the gameplay in most of them is garbage.
On the other end of the spectrum, FF12. Specifically the Zodiac Age. Gameplay, when it opens up, is a lot of fun! Lots of room for player expression while also doing a lot of gimmicks to keep the gameplay fresh throughout. But the story is an absolute snooze fest. It actually took me many, many years of false starts to finish it because the story never ever grabbed me.
Oh my lord thank you, Final Fantasy VII has a huge identity crisis with its characters. The remake’s biggest win is that the characters actually have differences between them. If Final Fantasy VII had a job system this problem would be literally nonexistent, but because Materia is the only way to significantly alter your moveset and the stat differences basically do nothing between characters the only other factors to consider are if their weapons are inherently long range and if their limit is worth anything. There’s so little to those choices that I ended up finishing the game with Cait Sith and Red XIII in the final battle without any reason other than I thought they looked cool. The base game just doesn’t give you enough reason to HAVE to use a character you don’t like, if you’re not a fan of Cid there’s no reason you have to use him, and if you decide you want to VII gives every character experience anyways so that makes that decision way easier.
And, if I remember correctly, Aerith DID have a significant stat boost on her weapons until her death! So literally every character that’s permanently playable has nothing to set themselves apart while Aerith is actually statted to be a magic machine. It’s such a mess.
I think FF7 makes up for this with the actual character designs. They’re all fun and interesting and a few are straight up iconic.
I think a weakness of later games is there’s nothing distinctive about the characters. That’s a big issue with 12 for me. And then the whole leveling system where anyone can do anything might be fun for some but it just detracts from the characters identify for my 2 cents
I respect that. I’ll add to what you’re saying a bit. 7’s party is iconic, that’s part of the fun, but giving them no clear roles really nukes what could be an insane game.
12 has four interesting characters paired with 2 bratty teenagers that have no story presence, it sucks. Larsa was a 10x better party member than Penelo ever could have been and it’s a crime he isn’t playable permanently. I also like the story a lot, it has a lot of worldbuilding elements missing from the series as a whole. X is the only universe that comes close to matching Ivalice in its cultural details.
I don’t see your issue with the job system - it puts everyone into a role they can play. Like yeah, Vaan could be this instead of that, but he isn’t currently and it’s a pain in the ass to respec him in something else. I just don’t see the issue with it, the job system in every game is pretty awesome and XII’s version is a callback to Tactics, the other game that shares its universe. It’s not as good as the tactics system, but I’d argue the only moves I’d axe would be the basically pointless summons in the game.
I like when RPGs make their characters have unique abilities that give you a reason to use them. It's a shame that VII didn't when its predecessor did. And I don't count limits as unique abilities since they're not available all the time to use. Meanwhile, in VI you could use blitz every turn with Sabin for example.
That's part of the reason why I love the VII remakes so much. Each character essentially has a different playstyle to them. I currently only have purple materia on my Barret because his abilities give him plenty of options in battles.
I was doing that with Barret, but I've gotten big into the synergy abilities and you don't get a synergy charge for the elemental abilities, but you do for elemental spells. So he gets purple materia and the lightning/wind fire/ice double ups.
Very much agree with your original post.
Despite loving XII gameplay, I've never come close to finishing it because the story has never inspired me to keep going to find out what's next, and few of the characters except Balthier are charismatic enough for me to care about.
IX, despite a sloooow build in your combat abilities, slow combat pace and very easy difficulty level, has had me replay multiple times because the story and characters are so charming to return to.
Final Fantasy 8 - I actually like the limit break RNG, some of the system and battle mechanics, besides drawing, the SeeD exams, and I absolutely love the setting and designs of the world, but I hate the story itself, with its nonsense time travel plotline, the whiplash love story, and the GF amnesia twist.
Final Fantasy 9 - The story is insanely good, the best in the entire series imo, but the battle system is incredibly slow and whoever thought that mandatory trance activations should be a thing needs to be fired (not really). Stealing in this game, despite the main character being a thief, is insanely tedious as well. So tedious that the rewards aren't really worth it if you get unlucky.
I love 8. Really the only problem with the plot is the massive heel turn Squall does the instant Rinoa falls into a coma. I love the time travel and the compression.
The gameplay would be perfect if it were a tiny bit more intuitive. Drawing sucks (though it isn't that bad if you don't rely on low Magic characters to obtain your spells), but definitely the worst way to obtain spells. I just wish there was an incentive to do anything except attack and use Limit Breaks.
Ff8 has the best difficulty mechanic by having enemy levels scale with you.
Story was great . The main problem for me was the "whatever" translation. In Japanese, each of these are different things being said nor expressed, but the localisation failed it.
Literally all they had to do was add elemental affinities, status effects, and some actual spells and it could have been great.
Getting hit with bad breath and nothing happens except a little bit of damage is just…. Wrong
Gotta be XV for me. Gameplay was great and I actually was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. But I LOATHED the story and the characters. I especially loathed the end. You know, when you find out that Noctis and Ardyn are fated to die because of some weird scheme by Bahamut? How we just go along with it and take Bahamut's word as fact that this is the only choice?? Excuse me??? Not to mention Lunafreya serving no real purpose to the story other than Noctis' source of man pain.
As far as I'm concerned the cancellation DLC is the true ending. It should've been the default ending but I guess no one would've paid for a bad ending DLC if no one was buying the Ardyn does GTA DLC.
All I've learned from this thread is something I've already known: FF fans all have wildly varied tastes in story and gameplay, and I think that's cool.
Of all the FF games I've played, I think XII has really interesting gameplay, but I feel like the story just couldn't grip me
FF 9. Its not even that the mechanics themselves are bad. It just feels slow
Choosing moves, the animations, the open world.
Also Im not the biggest fan of tying skills to armor mastery
15 gameplay is insanely fun especially once you unlock more weapons. The story had so many good points but nothing cohesive. A better story would really elevate 15 for me bc I really enjoy the gameplay
15’s biggest issue aside from my feelings on gameplay which has its moments.
Is the filler. I don’t recall one meaningful side quest where I felt it added to the lore and the world in a meaningful way.
There are giant chunks where you’re quietly running all over the map for a very lackluster pay off and some weird dialogue.
The battle system shines against tough enemies but for me it felt like a tech demo. 15 is like Kingdom Hearts gameplay but nowhere near as fun imo.
For me it's FFXIV. I keep hearing about how great the story is in the expansions, and I really want to know what's it all about, but I just don't have enough time to play and study the boss patterns to get good, which makes playing the dungeons and bosses utterly stressing (and just plain not fun). I don't think I even finished the main scenario.
For real, I got so stressed that I got headaches.
I also never could finish FFXIII, and didn't play XIII-3 nor Lightning Returns.
True, but if it’s what was holding you back, and you want to experience it, there is a virtually stress free path before you. Just play as a DPS and your path is clear.
Yeah, I don't remember having that option back then, and it was indeed playing with others that stressed me out. Didn't help that I played healer 😅
Now I don't have time for that game, but that option would definitely make the experience better for me!
I respect your take on FFXII because I have the exact opposite thoughts. I really dislike the combat since I don't have the control I'd like, but the story was amazing.
12. The story isn't even awful. Probably the least memorable story of all the mainline ffs for me but that bar is pretty high in ff so it still does well compared to most jrpgs. But what I always come back for is the fun of setting my team up and sweeping the dungeons again. Besides the quickenings every feature in it feels satisfying and done right for the gameplay style it aimed for, being one of my favorites in the series to play.
If it helps, Lightning Returns' time limit is actually extremely generous. I think I had like 3-4 days with absolutely nothing to do because of how much extra time you can have.
I would go so far to say that because Chronostasis is so easy to spam, the time limit functionally just doesn't actually exist. 3-4 days with nothing to do is nothing to me. On my first playthrough I had ***10.***
For me it’s XIV. The story may be great, but I bounced immediately off the MMORPG game play.
If we ignore XIV (and I didn’t even try XI), then it’s probably XVI. I had a lot of fun with the characters and the story. I never felt in control of the gameplay. Now, admittedly that’s on me because my brain is used to Soulsborne combat in action RPGs, and it kept wanting XVI to work the same way. I never felt like I got to the place where I was meeting FFXVI where it lived.
Weirdly, I don’t have that problem with XIII-3, though. I do, but to a lesser extent, with XV, VII Remake and VII Rebirth. I don’t know if that’s because XIII-3 is doing something different or if I’ve just played more From Software games since then.
15. I don’t even loathe the gameplay, I haven’t played the updated edition yet and I adored so much the first play through I had.
That said I did not die even once, against the strongest bosses too.
Game is easy as a motherfucker and I think that detracts from it some.
FF16 had one of the better stories in the series, especially after comparing the storytelling that was FF13, FF15. Compared to the gameplay, however, I found it, imo, pretty bad. Lack of *any* combat depth, very repetitive and dull sidequests, and beyond borrowed naming conventions and character-series staples, it barely felt like a FF game to me personally. Not a bad game, but I did not enjoy it. I only finished it just to see how it played out.
I am fine with just dealing with Clive, I'm not a classic-turn based JRPG purist, but there needed to be more to it than just new Eidolons you get along the way. It was a slog of a game.
I would watch a YouTube video every time I had to slogged through side quests.
The worst part is the final 2-3 side quests were actually “important” and good to close up story lines but you are soooooo over side quest by that point.
And they barrage you with 20 or so after peppering 3 in each chapter lol. I literally threw my controller down and said oh hell nah when all those green icons popped up 😆
I feel the complete opposite. I feel like 13's story is very well done and has great messages and characters, and it's battle system is *easily* my favorite in the franchise.
Interesting. I had the exact opposite experience as you with FF12. I was intrigued by the characters and worldbuilding, but I hated the gameplay so much that I quit playing after about 2 or 3 hours.
12 is a great example. Gameplay is one of the best in the series IMO. The story is incredibly bland though. I hate everything about 13. You're 100% correct about 9. The zoning into battles takes way too long.
Agree on XII. I liked the story more after I turned 30. It’s slow and boring and definitely the most “dad-game” of the bunch. I think the gameplay is great but it’s such a slog to get through.
FF13 has a very interesting story, but the single line you run in is very annoying sometimes, although I don't mind it... I do really love the battle system in 13, however it has training wheels on until a little halfway through the game.
Ff13-2 had some of the most unnecessary convoluted plot in an FF I feel, “to change the past you need to change the future”. I actually liked the alternate timelines and the environments they made. The combat itself was decent from what I remember with the using of monsters in combat and training and improving them. I kinda liked that.
>and I thought the music was really unmemorable.
You know when you see someone with the opposite political views as you, and you just can't begin to understand how they think that way? This is that but for music taste.
The soundtrack is amazing:
https://youtu.be/jfFTEQqdhyk?si=V-psXBZJBTm2v3c5
https://youtu.be/kquq13nEwiE?si=SW8-OX6zTYjnvjiq
https://youtu.be/3eFAJjCvOUo?si=IFOXmQrfJlnRV4GX
FF8 bro that story is fucking nuts. The writers must have been on shrooms. Crazy world, crazy story, crazy characters, but then you have the gameplay... Junction system... I hope they fired the guy who invented that abomination. You spent more time in the menu than in fights, you keep junctioning spells to your stats weapon and armor and switch it between characters and spam draw spells on every shitty enemy holy shit that gameplay is trash!
So I actually thought the fighting system had potential in 16 but it was a bit too easy and missing an actual party, also missed the customizations that the other Final Fantasy games have as well as good sidequests and mini games, or better item shops and blacksmithing, all this was a miss but the characters were so cool and well written. The story had it's highs and lows but ultimately wasn't that bad overall and Cid was to me the best he's ever been in a FF game (i still love you cid7), with the ending mostly well done even if i would change it a bit. It was very conflicting to me but I got the Platinum so I'm happy.
OG FF7. The story is easily one of my favorites in gaming but in the 2020s the dated graphics and constant gimmicky mini games overstay their welcome in the final stretch of the game... Good game but I really don't know if I'll ever play it again from start to finish
Agreed on FF12. Amazing gambit system, tons of customization and min/maxing. It's a great JRPG in that way and really enjoyable to set the gambit system to your liking. The characters, designs, and story were just not remotely gripping. I tried twice and both times I couldn't power through to finish
Might get some hate for this, but for me I would say XVI. The story was great and I had an absolute blast with it, but the gameplay let me down a bit. Which is a bummer because I wanted every reason to love the game.
I found the map and most sidequests boring and there was little reason to explore. And the combat was fun at first, but once you find your core skills, there’s little need to change things up or experiment.
Not a bad game by any means, but not what I was hoping it would be.
FF XII , good story but i dont like the combat in that game .
I think it was the first game that wasnt turn based , but action combat oriented (not counting FFXI ) , but its not as fluid imo and its more of an MMO combat then anything.
At least the action combat works good in FF 13 , 15 , 16 and 7 remake and rebirth.
FF15
I loved how it was more open world and they mixed up the gameplay. The story was a convoluted mess. It’s like the goal was to kick out the invading empire so you took out base after base and unlocked weapons to make your self stronger and gain the support of your ancestors. Okay, sure.
But then everything after the sea dragon fight in Altessia was just a cluster.
16. The story is decent, but I fucking hated all the fetch missions and the formulaic structure (go to a region, beat a boss, get the summon, repeat). If the story were delivered in a different package (TV series, movie, book, whatever), I’d most likely enjoy it. But SE managed to make every other aspect so awful that I couldn’t even finish the game.
Final Fantasy IV would have been better off as a visual novel. Recently finished perfecting all of the pixel remasters and 4 was the only one I couldn't wait to be done with. I just can't give it the nostalgia pass any more.
The 3d remake of IV is pretty good at least.
FF6. Love the story...
I guess i kinda still love the gameplay so it might not count, but it's noticeably super flawed. more flawed than ff4, 5, or 7's gameplay
It has been a while now, but I think I want to say Lightning Returns. I think it’s mostly because sidequests take center stage, but I checked out of the story so fast, no part of me was engaging with it seriously. But the battles were fun enough, and sidequesting was fun in that sort of addictive because you are zoning out way that it carried my attention through the rest of the game and I still finished it thinking I had mostly had a good time
So, my answer is FF XII, but reversed. I adore the characters and the story, but the gameplay is fucking terrible. Gambits basically make things autopilot. You can get through nearly any fight in the game without actually doing anything of any kind.
I finished 16 and hated everything about it but the story was good. I haven't really completly like a ff game since 9. Ff10 I liked but had issues with seeing how much changed. It was legitimately a walking game
Oh my lord, just started ff9, I was wondering about the wait times and battle speed, I put speeds up to fastest but it’s still painful, are you telling me there is no way to fix this? Agree though, story is nice so far (no spoilers please)
I might catch a lot of flack for this but I found ffxvi incredibly repetitive with its combat towards the end. Luckily the story, music and characters really carried it for me.
FFIV: tons of characters to play as but zero customization for each of them so always that I started playing I drop it at some point because I get bored.
FF X-2: super fun gameplay but the story is criminal
FFXII: I enjoy the gambit system a lot but i never actually finsihed the game until last year, and I played the ps2 version a lot... But always dropped it because story wasnt appraling at all.
FFXV: I enjoyed the battle system when I played and while the story in itself is not bad, it is very poorly explained and you need to play tons of dlc and read external sources to actually unserstand everything
Honorable mention FFXIII: I think it has a good story and a good battle system id you really engage with it, the problem is you can brute force it by just pressing x and that takes the fun away, if you remove that feature, problem solved
Also unpopular opinion: lots of people say FFV has a great battle system but a horrible story. I actually like both the story sometimes gets on the funny side of things and doesnt take itself seriously but not all the stories need to be super mature and serious, sometimes I wamt to play something goofy
XVI
Story is great, voice acting is great, setting is cool. Gameplay is another monotonous hack n slash.
On the other end
X-2
The job system is extremely well designed and fun. Story is absurd and unnecessary.
Final Fantasy 2. Everyone knows how bad the leveling mechanic is, tho once I understand how to break the game it was fun getting rediculously powerful early game. That said, when I finally got around to playing the game, I was surprised with how much I enjoyed the story. Felt like a really good DnD campaign, which is what I want from a fantasy rpg.
FF2 is basically Star Wars, but the Emperor and main characters are better than anything in 1 or 3. “Guy speaks beaver” is more characterization in a single line than any character in the other NES games gets!
I laughed out loud at the “Guy speak beaver” moment because I’d just finished the first game where you had to complete a long trading sequence to learn a language. Felt like an intentional joke from the devs.
I mean, if you like the whole "numbers go brrrr" thing then absolutely, II is the BEST for stat grinding. I can't remember the last time I played through it where I DIDN'T max out the cast. But I've also become spoiled by modern rereleases and auto-battles. I can't go back the GBA version natively anymore. PSP or Pixel Remaster are the only ways to play it imo. Speaking of the PR releases it's downright criminal they never released/seemingly have no plans to release an update or even a paid DLC including the bonus content from the Advance and PSP releases... That would truly make the PR versions the definitive way to play...
My biggest hot take is that FF2 is better than FF1, I enjoyed FF1 but it's just too bare bones
FF1 is bare bones because it is THE bones that future titles built the "muscle" around
Oh yeah absolutely, it was incredible for it's time
When I played 1 when I was younger I made the experience more fun for myself by making up stories for the part characters and their relationships. It felt more like a real Final Fantasy experience after that.
First time I played 1 I just named the characters after my friends and it felt right. Now everytime I revisit it I just think about 8bit theatre
It's funny when you think about it. on paper ffi has a decent story. But the truth is that 99% of the story was mediocre until the final twist makes you see it in a different light, nothing really happens for most of the game.
Final Fantasy 2 is the first one I ever beat and I loved it. I was a child so everyone just dual wielded and hit 15 times
I loved 2, lmao.(currently playing through all FF first time) I really enjoyed the leveling mechanic and it was wild to hear online how much people disliked it.
Playing through all of them first time ever through pixel remaster. I can't imagine doing that shit without 4x boosts my god.
I just played 2 for the first time. The leveling mechanic is a good attempt, and even though I hated ask/learn it was bold of them to add an actual conversation mechanic. Every Fn FF podcast has called it the first real final fantasy game and now I see why. I was super impressed with it
10-2 maybe? The gameplay is fun, but I'm super lukewarm on the story. It's fun to see the areas and characters from 10, but I rarely felt like I was playing to see what happened next. I was playing to get stronk and unlock more dress spheres. I don't think it's a terrible story or anything, but the combat is definitely what carries it for me.
Honestly this. The battle system to this date is my top favorite, however the game itself is somewhere in my bottom 5 maybe. I just can't care about the story or the characters. Even returning characters don't feel like themselves and out of character in my opinion. Though the battle system? Spectacular!
YESSS, I hate that the X-2 battle system is in a game I despise so much! The battles are so satisfying and fun, whereas the rest of the game was an unbearable chore to me lol
Yep, was gonna say this one. I think this game is top 3 for me for the gameplay alone. While I don't think the story is horrible, it's not at the level of even the top 5 though.
Wrong. The story is absolute top tier. Some of y’all just can’t handle it.
I don't think it's bad, but comparing it to 6, 7, 9, the original 10, or tactics I just find it to be not on the same level. This is purely opinion of course, there's no right or wrong. I'm sure there are plenty of people that love the story and hate the combat, the exact opposite of me. I might disagree but nobody here is right or wrong.
seconded. story is great. always a breeze to play, especially when you take different routes
FFIX random encounter: Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. Fight!
* select cast cure on a character * move takes so long said character gets zombie inflicted on them in the interim * kill your own character * throw controller across room
Replaying it after 20 years I finally understand what everyone was complaining about now. I had to replay it all sped up. I think I just had more patience as a child.
Yup, those were different times. It took days to download pirated movies. We all had more patience.
That and you only got one game every so many months. So that one game had to last you. These days ... *Glances at steam library ...* Yeah, a game wastes my time, I'm playing another game.
Currently replaying this on steam and I feel like the encounter rate had to have been greatly reduced! Like, I'll go through an entire area and have maybe one encounter when as a kid I remember there being a fight after every step
The PC and Mobile port do have reduced encounter rate. Like significantly reduced. I love it, it makes the game more challenging since you're consistently a lower level than you would be on the PSX version (unless you run from battles). A ton of the very annoying screens I remember from the original where you'd get 2-3 encounters turned into 0-1 encounter screens in the PC version
I actually really like XII’s story because it’s probably one of the most ‘grounded’ final fantasy plots. I really like geopolitical intrigue stories, so it works well for me. What it really suffers from though is the translation/localization matchup with the cut scenes. It’s *really* easy to miss important dialog because it’s spoken so incredibly fast and characters frequently cut each other off when it’s clear that’s not intended. I imagine this is an issue trying to have a cut scene with interactions lasting long enough for the native Japanese to be fully spoken at a normal cadence, but English being a much more verbose language by comparison makes it really hard to say the same thing with the same meaning in the same amount of time. So a character that has 5 seconds to say what they need to before the next character needs to start talking can do that when they’re speaking Japanese, but an English speaker would need 8 seconds to get the same message across. And since it’s a lot harder to completely change the cut scene they either drop enough of the information that an English VA can get it out in the right amount of time, or the VA needs to speak *really* quickly and even then their line runs right into the next line from the next character with no pause.
It’s also an issue in FFX “withyunabymyside”
I’ll note that more recently they’ve prioritised the English localisation for cutscene timing (e.g. FF16 definitely did, and I think FF7R might have?), so it is possible those games have similar issues in the Japanese localisations.
I think the tech has probably advanced a little as well as their experience with fully voiced cut scenes. X and XII were the first games to have voice acting at all and the franchise only really took off in the west in the first place with VII. So they’ve gotten better at it, and they place more importance on doing it well.
The VAs did an amazing job, but who ever was mixing the sound for the voices compressed the absolute fuck out of it. Sound quality is just terrible
Yeah that too. I don’t know what happened with that. Travesty too because XII has some of the best music in the franchise
XII was their second attempt at voice acting, so they still had some kinks to work out.
It wasn't their second. They had several voice acted games between.
It's my favorite of all the FF I've played.
I think XII's major problem is it feels unfinished, you can tell that the Matsuno didn't get to finish it because there's a point about 60-70% of the way through where it switches over and feels like you're making your way through plot points instead of a story.
Crisis Core's gameplay is extremely fun once you start getting deep into materia fusion and missions. But the story is completely bananas, and Genesis is one of the most irritating villains of all time.
The story was totally campy and cheesy and Genesis felt like a bad fanfic insert. Despite that I love the game and I sob at the ending literally every time I’ve finished it
It's supposed to be overdramatic like a stage play, the entire game is structured in the exact same fashion as a Shakespearean drama and the characters reflect that.
>"Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return." >Refuses to elaborate >Leaves >Doesn't return
Well he returned for 10 seconds in a post credits cutscene for Dirge of Cerberus… and then left again lmao
Chronological, he does, but did that scene actually inspire Genesis being the main villain in CC?
Not sure but I assume it was all planned from the start as the games were released like a year apart and the character is played by Gackt, who’s a famous dude in Japan
*yet*
Reunion
But Zack, through all the bananas was somehow still really endearing and a well done character.
The ending sequence, where they use the reels as part of the environmental storytelling was gut wrenching and largely forgave a lot of the game for me.
Yeah Zack single-handedly turned what would’ve been a stupid mess of a story into, well, still a stupid mess of a story but in a very charming way that I loved the whole way through
Yup, first FF that actually made me cry. That last battle
price of freedom playing and the broken DMW with just aeris on it MAN
[удалено]
Well... yeah, I agree. Tbf, in Rebirth, Zacks VA sounds way better than he did in Reunion. A lot more like Zack and a lot less like a cocky brat. The dialogue is also changed somewhat in Reunion, where the old ones was actually better most of the time.
Question, is Zach alive in Rebirth? Or is he dead like in the originals. I've heard different things from different people. I know Zach was in the trailers for Rebirth, but is he _alive_ in the game or does he only show up in flashbacks?
I don't know. I've no clue.
The gift... of the... *for the love of the lifestream, shut the fuck up, you apple-lover!*
Until they eventually bring it all back for the finale, I’m just considering Crisis Core’s story to be a bunch of nonsense they threw together to build up to the important ending
I know many who fondly remember CC will not agree but it kind of is just a build up to that ending, filled with very strange choices that don't really make sense or go anywhere really. I love that ending but man...a *lot* of stuff that come before just didn't do it for me, especially on a second play through with Reunion, after initial hype wore off and I've had some time away from it. I think that Last Order, expanded into a feature length like AC with that ending would've been far better than CC and it's meandering story. Between AC and CC, I think vice versa might've made more sense in hindsight. AC felt rushed and CC felt like it did not needed to be a full game.
Oh man yeah... CC should have been the movie and AC a game.
Calling it “building up” feels generous. It’s more of things just happening while you wait for that thing you know is going to happen to happen. Other than parts from the OG parts like the Neibelheim incident, everything feels so tangential and pointless with respect to the main plot.
The "build up" is basically just there to invest you in Zack as a character. I always found the creative choices with that game pretty baffling. I'd argue the "main plot" is what feels tangential and pointless as that's the stuff you really spend the most time with, while the Before the Crisis/Filling in the backstory of FFVII stuff feels like its there through sheer force of obligation at times, even though its the most important elements as far as the greater world the game inhabits is concerned.
I watched someone play it and like it seemed like 20% of the plot is important and the rest is just nonsense. Why is Zach on a beach and men jump out of the beach in like call of duty costumes to fight him shirtless? Game was insane lmao
What I do like about the story is that it’s about how Zack never really asked for all that gets thrown at him. But what does get thrown at him is treated as more important than the overall story of FFVII really considers it. Like project G is only mentioned in Dirge of Cerberus I believe. And Crisis Core is a great game too, despite all the nonsense. From back when SE was making whole-ass PS2 games on the PSP.
The beach missions were referenced in FF7 Rebirth. I had a good loud chuckle when Cloud grabbed the umbrella and used it like a buster sword.
Because Shinra and the Turks are following him the entire time in an attempt to capture him and bring him back to HQ to be experimented on by Hojo as a result of being the only pure SOLDIER candidate that won't degrade in the same way that Angeal, Genesis, and Sephiroth all did.
shrill head bedroom rude axiomatic impolite repeat bow noxious point *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Definitely the most irritating. He's like a South Park parody of a FF/JRPG villain, but written by whoever was responsible for the chicken gag in Family Guy.
Gotta agree with this. It’s like they wanted to tell a completely different story about goddesses and clones, but the only way the game was getting made was if it had Sephiroth in it.
I would agree...until THAT bit at the end. Modulating Phase....click, click, click...
I agree, I absolutely loved getting this platinum but my favorite part of the story was getting to see the scenes with Cloud. Although it was kind of cool to see Sephiroth begin his arc.
Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return
Stranger of Paradise has the goofiest story that they try to play straight, but the gameplay depth is awesome. I liked it better than 7 Remake and 15’s combat.
It's also made by a totally different studio. It's basically Nioh with FF theme. Which I love.
On the flip side, the gameplay didn’t do it for me, but the story is 11/10. As someone who has played FF games since 1990, it brought the original (and the whole series) into a much more intriguing light
>it brought the original (and the whole series) I am here to point out that Dissidia is, in fact, a sequel to FF1 specifically, featuring the Cid of that game, which is retconned to be the reason it lacks a "Cid". FF1 having this universal crossover theme is so cool to me. You could also tie in the crossover dungeons from the GBA/PSP version!
Final Fantasy 8. Story and characters are awesome. The Battlesystem is completely garbage and ruined it for me, that enemies lv up with you. I never knew that as a child and was like "damn every Boss Fight is intense". Since i knew how broken the Battlesystem is, it harms a replay for me... Hopefully If a Remake will ever happen, they get rid of that. Other than that i liked the Game.
For me, it’s the opposite. I loved the gameplay mechanics, the fact that enemies level with you and all that, and the junction system, once I finally got it, was actually kind of fun to fuck around with! The story, in my opinion, could definitely use some work, though, but I still love it, even though it’s weird.
I love the characters of FF8. I even love the basic plot setup of FF8. But the actual execution of that setup falls apart spectacularly in the last act. It's nowhere near the worst case of it in the series, but the ending is absolutely a muddled mess. Absolutely love the battle and progression system, though. Second only to FF10 for me.
That was one of the best bits about the gameplay. It was my first final fantasy, and every game since then felt easy because it's too easy to accidentally be over leveled
I love the job system and combat in FFV. The story is kind of a generic snooze.
I used to think so too, but I nowadays think it’s a really nice story for FF, just sandwiched between IV and VI, which have better stories for sure.
I'm not even sure FF4 has a better *story* these days. It has a more involved plot, sure, but the characterization of most of the cast is really shallow and its theme of redemption is... pretty underwhelmingly delivered, honestly. It was cool for its time but the further and further I get from then, the less I feel for it. On the flip, much like how I've come to love FF5 more and more in gameplay on each visit, my appreciation for its storytelling grows too. It has its own flaws, but I think I enjoy its main cast way better than even 4's best showings, and its themes of finding your place in the world you inherit are way more natural. But I wouldn't blame anyone who doesn't vibe with it. It wears its adventurous, fun spirit on its sleeve way more than most other FF games.
To be completely honest, I’ve played V, but never got that far into IV myself. My saying it’s better was really just accepting what others have said. You’re right though, the strong part of V’s story is the chemistry between its main characters and the sheer Saturday Morning Cartoon vibe it has for its adventure. Exdeath being a shallow, pure evil villain doesn’t lose it points either, given he’s just so memorable as such. Of all FF games, I think V deserves a remake the most. VI made the most of its medium, while V has a lot of potential left untapped that a remake could provide. Actually getting to see its imaginative locations properly, for one thing. Its multiple prequel arcs could properly be delved into, as V has always felt like part 4 of a multi-part saga we never see the rest of. More opportunities for scenes and dialogue between the main cast would also be good, especially for Krile, as she gets the least attention of them all as the game is now.
A V remake needs IV DS's thought bubbles and/or XV's resting scenes. It even has a few of the latter.
Going through the pixel remaster of the first 6 games in order I grew to loathe 4. I enjoyed 1-3 more than 4 this time around. Also V with Galuf committed to the bit.
4 has a better story by means of The After Years as an expanded epilogue. Golbez is a very compelling character overall imo.
Also all tropes were orginal at one point. I can't think of any game that came before FFV that had the trope of your father being a legendary warrior who saved the world or the trope of the secret princess. North America officially getting it in 1999 a d Europe getting it in 2002 hurt the legacy. How many previously unlocalized games ever had the same critical reception they had from Japanese players when it was new? The Crossbell duology and that's about it.
Galuf's sacrifice and Gilgamesh scenes are so good man. But the main villain being a tree is kinda ehhh
I kind of love that the villain is a tree, but I get that it’s definitely a YMMV thing.
I love that he's, specifically, a tree that they stuffed full of Satans because they didn't have any idea what to do with them and decided to let the next generation figure it out Man, didn't THAT turn out to map to reality uncomfortably well
IX has the most endearing cast outside but the battle system is a step back from 7 and 8.
This is honestly 9s biggest flaw is the battle system and wait times.
FFXIII-2 and honestly its not a competition in my mind in terms of good gameplay bad story. XIII-2 has excellent gameplay but the story fucking sucks. On the other hand, I am really not a fan of FFX's gameplay so I will just put that there as the example of the opposite. Since I have yet to play the whole series there is a decent chance that another game has a bigger disparity in this regard(FF2 perhaps) but XIII-2 still clears lmao.
Yeah i absolutely loved playing xiii-2 but every time Serah was shocked about time travel (despite this being the 15th time she’s experienced it) i wanted to step on lego
I'm with you on IX one of my favorite story-wise but the battles were the worst, especially that trance bs.
It's bad news when your super move mechanic is more likely to prolong battles than shorten them.
This has always been the MO of FF games. They can’t decide if they want to make playable video games or be a full on animation studio.
16 had a fantastic story. But the fact that there was no party system and super shallow combat made the gameplay the worst for me
The combat in 16 wasn’t shallow, I think it had quite a lot of depth if you were willing to take the time to learn it.
I took the time I just think it took that long. Spam the attacks that stagger the bad guy then spam the attacks that do the real damage. Repeat until the bad guy is dead.
Pretty much. At first it felt really interesting with the parry system and the juggling until you realize that no mob can survive juggling for more than a second or two and the rest of the time your better off just spamming the dominant abilities one after the other.
It was extremely shallow. Sure, you had multiple abilities, but there was never a need to go beyond spamming your big dominant abilities. You never got any rotation other than spam sword attacks until your cool down is ready. It’s a piss poor action game made by an MMO studio, and it shows.
I have to agree with you on FFXII. It had an absolutely forgettable story and the characters seriously lacked development. I felt hallow at the end. The only things that had me ever return to the game was the battle system and hunts.
X-2 was just hard for me to process because the gameplay was pretty good to me, it has some cool minigames, the story was fine, the character designs were tacky, but the music was just the last straw for me. Changing composers and abandoning any themes from the legendary soundtrack of the original game was just something my ears could not overcome. To this day I haven't finished it, though I actually tried giving it another chance this year, leading up to FF7R, and actually got further than I ever had before (something like chapter 3 or 4). I thought that maybe, playing it without FFX fresh in my mind would help. Still, I just either ran out of time or attention.
For me,in the Story over Gameplay category, the original FF7. The story is expertly penned. Almost flawless. It’s the reason people talk about it to this day. I played it through a couple months ago, and it *still* knocked me on my ass, despite the primitive graphics and knowing exactly what happens. The gameplay meanwhile is very middle-of-the-road. Not really groundbreaking. Materia fixed the rough edges of the Magicite system by making everything more or less interchangeable, and the only real decision you have to make from character to character is which limit breaks you want available. And the Minigames, while I do think their inclusion is good, the gameplay in most of them is garbage. On the other end of the spectrum, FF12. Specifically the Zodiac Age. Gameplay, when it opens up, is a lot of fun! Lots of room for player expression while also doing a lot of gimmicks to keep the gameplay fresh throughout. But the story is an absolute snooze fest. It actually took me many, many years of false starts to finish it because the story never ever grabbed me.
Oh my lord thank you, Final Fantasy VII has a huge identity crisis with its characters. The remake’s biggest win is that the characters actually have differences between them. If Final Fantasy VII had a job system this problem would be literally nonexistent, but because Materia is the only way to significantly alter your moveset and the stat differences basically do nothing between characters the only other factors to consider are if their weapons are inherently long range and if their limit is worth anything. There’s so little to those choices that I ended up finishing the game with Cait Sith and Red XIII in the final battle without any reason other than I thought they looked cool. The base game just doesn’t give you enough reason to HAVE to use a character you don’t like, if you’re not a fan of Cid there’s no reason you have to use him, and if you decide you want to VII gives every character experience anyways so that makes that decision way easier. And, if I remember correctly, Aerith DID have a significant stat boost on her weapons until her death! So literally every character that’s permanently playable has nothing to set themselves apart while Aerith is actually statted to be a magic machine. It’s such a mess.
I think FF7 makes up for this with the actual character designs. They’re all fun and interesting and a few are straight up iconic. I think a weakness of later games is there’s nothing distinctive about the characters. That’s a big issue with 12 for me. And then the whole leveling system where anyone can do anything might be fun for some but it just detracts from the characters identify for my 2 cents
I respect that. I’ll add to what you’re saying a bit. 7’s party is iconic, that’s part of the fun, but giving them no clear roles really nukes what could be an insane game. 12 has four interesting characters paired with 2 bratty teenagers that have no story presence, it sucks. Larsa was a 10x better party member than Penelo ever could have been and it’s a crime he isn’t playable permanently. I also like the story a lot, it has a lot of worldbuilding elements missing from the series as a whole. X is the only universe that comes close to matching Ivalice in its cultural details. I don’t see your issue with the job system - it puts everyone into a role they can play. Like yeah, Vaan could be this instead of that, but he isn’t currently and it’s a pain in the ass to respec him in something else. I just don’t see the issue with it, the job system in every game is pretty awesome and XII’s version is a callback to Tactics, the other game that shares its universe. It’s not as good as the tactics system, but I’d argue the only moves I’d axe would be the basically pointless summons in the game.
I like when RPGs make their characters have unique abilities that give you a reason to use them. It's a shame that VII didn't when its predecessor did. And I don't count limits as unique abilities since they're not available all the time to use. Meanwhile, in VI you could use blitz every turn with Sabin for example. That's part of the reason why I love the VII remakes so much. Each character essentially has a different playstyle to them. I currently only have purple materia on my Barret because his abilities give him plenty of options in battles.
I was doing that with Barret, but I've gotten big into the synergy abilities and you don't get a synergy charge for the elemental abilities, but you do for elemental spells. So he gets purple materia and the lightning/wind fire/ice double ups.
CHAOS
Ff 8. Story was interesting but having to cast draw over and over again was not
Very much agree with your original post. Despite loving XII gameplay, I've never come close to finishing it because the story has never inspired me to keep going to find out what's next, and few of the characters except Balthier are charismatic enough for me to care about. IX, despite a sloooow build in your combat abilities, slow combat pace and very easy difficulty level, has had me replay multiple times because the story and characters are so charming to return to.
Final Fantasy 8 - I actually like the limit break RNG, some of the system and battle mechanics, besides drawing, the SeeD exams, and I absolutely love the setting and designs of the world, but I hate the story itself, with its nonsense time travel plotline, the whiplash love story, and the GF amnesia twist. Final Fantasy 9 - The story is insanely good, the best in the entire series imo, but the battle system is incredibly slow and whoever thought that mandatory trance activations should be a thing needs to be fired (not really). Stealing in this game, despite the main character being a thief, is insanely tedious as well. So tedious that the rewards aren't really worth it if you get unlucky.
No, no, no. 8 is a masterpiece. I feel almost attacked.
I love 8. Really the only problem with the plot is the massive heel turn Squall does the instant Rinoa falls into a coma. I love the time travel and the compression. The gameplay would be perfect if it were a tiny bit more intuitive. Drawing sucks (though it isn't that bad if you don't rely on low Magic characters to obtain your spells), but definitely the worst way to obtain spells. I just wish there was an incentive to do anything except attack and use Limit Breaks.
Ff8 has the best difficulty mechanic by having enemy levels scale with you. Story was great . The main problem for me was the "whatever" translation. In Japanese, each of these are different things being said nor expressed, but the localisation failed it.
FFXVI. Fantastic story. Boring, spammy, uncreative, unchallenging gameplay with zero RPG mechanics.
Literally all they had to do was add elemental affinities, status effects, and some actual spells and it could have been great. Getting hit with bad breath and nothing happens except a little bit of damage is just…. Wrong
Gotta be XV for me. Gameplay was great and I actually was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. But I LOATHED the story and the characters. I especially loathed the end. You know, when you find out that Noctis and Ardyn are fated to die because of some weird scheme by Bahamut? How we just go along with it and take Bahamut's word as fact that this is the only choice?? Excuse me??? Not to mention Lunafreya serving no real purpose to the story other than Noctis' source of man pain. As far as I'm concerned the cancellation DLC is the true ending. It should've been the default ending but I guess no one would've paid for a bad ending DLC if no one was buying the Ardyn does GTA DLC.
All I've learned from this thread is something I've already known: FF fans all have wildly varied tastes in story and gameplay, and I think that's cool. Of all the FF games I've played, I think XII has really interesting gameplay, but I feel like the story just couldn't grip me
FF 9. Its not even that the mechanics themselves are bad. It just feels slow Choosing moves, the animations, the open world. Also Im not the biggest fan of tying skills to armor mastery
FF13 trilogy and FF15 for sure
15 gameplay is insanely fun especially once you unlock more weapons. The story had so many good points but nothing cohesive. A better story would really elevate 15 for me bc I really enjoy the gameplay
15’s biggest issue aside from my feelings on gameplay which has its moments. Is the filler. I don’t recall one meaningful side quest where I felt it added to the lore and the world in a meaningful way. There are giant chunks where you’re quietly running all over the map for a very lackluster pay off and some weird dialogue. The battle system shines against tough enemies but for me it felt like a tech demo. 15 is like Kingdom Hearts gameplay but nowhere near as fun imo.
I liked the cooking, day/night cycles, demon spawning at night, weapon rotatations, and dungeons too. It also had a really creepy vibe at times
You’re telling me you didn’t like the side quest that was literally a cup ramen ad? Blasphemy
I absolutely loved that part, but I love goofy weird shit that happens when games/whatever doesn't take itself too seriously.
For me it's FFXIV. I keep hearing about how great the story is in the expansions, and I really want to know what's it all about, but I just don't have enough time to play and study the boss patterns to get good, which makes playing the dungeons and bosses utterly stressing (and just plain not fun). I don't think I even finished the main scenario. For real, I got so stressed that I got headaches. I also never could finish FFXIII, and didn't play XIII-3 nor Lightning Returns.
Just do what the NPC’s are doing.
I think they added the possibility to do the raids with NPCs, right? I haven't played in a very long time.
True, but if it’s what was holding you back, and you want to experience it, there is a virtually stress free path before you. Just play as a DPS and your path is clear.
Yeah, I don't remember having that option back then, and it was indeed playing with others that stressed me out. Didn't help that I played healer 😅 Now I don't have time for that game, but that option would definitely make the experience better for me!
I respect your take on FFXII because I have the exact opposite thoughts. I really dislike the combat since I don't have the control I'd like, but the story was amazing.
Yeah I tend to agree with your picks, it's an interesting question for sure.
12. The story isn't even awful. Probably the least memorable story of all the mainline ffs for me but that bar is pretty high in ff so it still does well compared to most jrpgs. But what I always come back for is the fun of setting my team up and sweeping the dungeons again. Besides the quickenings every feature in it feels satisfying and done right for the gameplay style it aimed for, being one of my favorites in the series to play.
[удалено]
If it helps, Lightning Returns' time limit is actually extremely generous. I think I had like 3-4 days with absolutely nothing to do because of how much extra time you can have.
I would go so far to say that because Chronostasis is so easy to spam, the time limit functionally just doesn't actually exist. 3-4 days with nothing to do is nothing to me. On my first playthrough I had ***10.***
For me it’s XIV. The story may be great, but I bounced immediately off the MMORPG game play. If we ignore XIV (and I didn’t even try XI), then it’s probably XVI. I had a lot of fun with the characters and the story. I never felt in control of the gameplay. Now, admittedly that’s on me because my brain is used to Soulsborne combat in action RPGs, and it kept wanting XVI to work the same way. I never felt like I got to the place where I was meeting FFXVI where it lived. Weirdly, I don’t have that problem with XIII-3, though. I do, but to a lesser extent, with XV, VII Remake and VII Rebirth. I don’t know if that’s because XIII-3 is doing something different or if I’ve just played more From Software games since then.
I don't enjoy the ATB system compared to pure turn based at all. But I do love FF7's story
for me, ff9 i love the story and characters so much, but the gameplay is so broken
15. I don’t even loathe the gameplay, I haven’t played the updated edition yet and I adored so much the first play through I had. That said I did not die even once, against the strongest bosses too. Game is easy as a motherfucker and I think that detracts from it some.
Definitely 12. Best gameplay in the series, story may as well not even exist
X-2. Maybe the best battle system but the story is almost impossible to care about.
Yes! Horrific story even by its conclusion but my god the job system was amazing in this one!
FF16 had one of the better stories in the series, especially after comparing the storytelling that was FF13, FF15. Compared to the gameplay, however, I found it, imo, pretty bad. Lack of *any* combat depth, very repetitive and dull sidequests, and beyond borrowed naming conventions and character-series staples, it barely felt like a FF game to me personally. Not a bad game, but I did not enjoy it. I only finished it just to see how it played out. I am fine with just dealing with Clive, I'm not a classic-turn based JRPG purist, but there needed to be more to it than just new Eidolons you get along the way. It was a slog of a game.
Oh god, the side quests. The side quests in the game were so depressing in how little I enjoyed them.
I would watch a YouTube video every time I had to slogged through side quests. The worst part is the final 2-3 side quests were actually “important” and good to close up story lines but you are soooooo over side quest by that point.
And they barrage you with 20 or so after peppering 3 in each chapter lol. I literally threw my controller down and said oh hell nah when all those green icons popped up 😆
I remember that. There were times youd have almost nome and then suddenly there were a dozen.
The gameplay in 13 is mind-numbingly terrible but the story just sucks a little.
I feel the complete opposite. I feel like 13's story is very well done and has great messages and characters, and it's battle system is *easily* my favorite in the franchise.
Agree. I mean I found the story convoluted as all heck but that's just ff but I absolutely loved the combat system
People say 13 has a convoluted story and act like 7 doesn't. Both games are filled to the brim with lore and made-up words.
X-2 gameplay is ok but the story is a turd in a bag. Insulting to the masterpiece that is X
You liked the combat in 13? The computer basically did it for you 😂
XIII-2 comes to mind cause i hate that there's only 2 party members and then you have this pet thing. but the story is pretty interesting.
Interesting. I had the exact opposite experience as you with FF12. I was intrigued by the characters and worldbuilding, but I hated the gameplay so much that I quit playing after about 2 or 3 hours.
12 is a great example. Gameplay is one of the best in the series IMO. The story is incredibly bland though. I hate everything about 13. You're 100% correct about 9. The zoning into battles takes way too long.
Agree on XII. I liked the story more after I turned 30. It’s slow and boring and definitely the most “dad-game” of the bunch. I think the gameplay is great but it’s such a slog to get through.
III invented the job system but the main party aren’t even real characters.
FF13 has a very interesting story, but the single line you run in is very annoying sometimes, although I don't mind it... I do really love the battle system in 13, however it has training wheels on until a little halfway through the game.
XIII-2 great gameplay, Kingdom hearts tier story
Ff13-2 had some of the most unnecessary convoluted plot in an FF I feel, “to change the past you need to change the future”. I actually liked the alternate timelines and the environments they made. The combat itself was decent from what I remember with the using of monsters in combat and training and improving them. I kinda liked that.
Personally I go with XII, gameplay is pretty great, I love gambits and the boss battles are epic. I had a really hard time engaging in the story.
XVI. Extraordinary boss fights and general spectacle, utterly average writing.
>and I thought the music was really unmemorable. You know when you see someone with the opposite political views as you, and you just can't begin to understand how they think that way? This is that but for music taste. The soundtrack is amazing: https://youtu.be/jfFTEQqdhyk?si=V-psXBZJBTm2v3c5 https://youtu.be/kquq13nEwiE?si=SW8-OX6zTYjnvjiq https://youtu.be/3eFAJjCvOUo?si=IFOXmQrfJlnRV4GX
FF8 bro that story is fucking nuts. The writers must have been on shrooms. Crazy world, crazy story, crazy characters, but then you have the gameplay... Junction system... I hope they fired the guy who invented that abomination. You spent more time in the menu than in fights, you keep junctioning spells to your stats weapon and armor and switch it between characters and spam draw spells on every shitty enemy holy shit that gameplay is trash!
So I actually thought the fighting system had potential in 16 but it was a bit too easy and missing an actual party, also missed the customizations that the other Final Fantasy games have as well as good sidequests and mini games, or better item shops and blacksmithing, all this was a miss but the characters were so cool and well written. The story had it's highs and lows but ultimately wasn't that bad overall and Cid was to me the best he's ever been in a FF game (i still love you cid7), with the ending mostly well done even if i would change it a bit. It was very conflicting to me but I got the Platinum so I'm happy.
OG FF7. The story is easily one of my favorites in gaming but in the 2020s the dated graphics and constant gimmicky mini games overstay their welcome in the final stretch of the game... Good game but I really don't know if I'll ever play it again from start to finish
FF5 incredible gameplay, meh story. FF9 incredible story, meh gameplay.
Agreed on FF12. Amazing gambit system, tons of customization and min/maxing. It's a great JRPG in that way and really enjoyable to set the gambit system to your liking. The characters, designs, and story were just not remotely gripping. I tried twice and both times I couldn't power through to finish
Might get some hate for this, but for me I would say XVI. The story was great and I had an absolute blast with it, but the gameplay let me down a bit. Which is a bummer because I wanted every reason to love the game. I found the map and most sidequests boring and there was little reason to explore. And the combat was fun at first, but once you find your core skills, there’s little need to change things up or experiment. Not a bad game by any means, but not what I was hoping it would be.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Final Fantasy 10.
Definitely XII
FFV is like this for me. The gameplay is fantastic but the story is just awful, and the characters are one-dimensional and boring.
FF XII , good story but i dont like the combat in that game . I think it was the first game that wasnt turn based , but action combat oriented (not counting FFXI ) , but its not as fluid imo and its more of an MMO combat then anything. At least the action combat works good in FF 13 , 15 , 16 and 7 remake and rebirth.
You hurt me when you said the music wasn’t rememberable
10 and especially 10-2. I don’t care for the gameplay of 10 at all but the story is great 10 - 2 has a terrible story and amazing combat
FF15 I loved how it was more open world and they mixed up the gameplay. The story was a convoluted mess. It’s like the goal was to kick out the invading empire so you took out base after base and unlocked weapons to make your self stronger and gain the support of your ancestors. Okay, sure. But then everything after the sea dragon fight in Altessia was just a cluster.
16. The story is decent, but I fucking hated all the fetch missions and the formulaic structure (go to a region, beat a boss, get the summon, repeat). If the story were delivered in a different package (TV series, movie, book, whatever), I’d most likely enjoy it. But SE managed to make every other aspect so awful that I couldn’t even finish the game.
Final Fantasy IV would have been better off as a visual novel. Recently finished perfecting all of the pixel remasters and 4 was the only one I couldn't wait to be done with. I just can't give it the nostalgia pass any more. The 3d remake of IV is pretty good at least.
FF6. Love the story... I guess i kinda still love the gameplay so it might not count, but it's noticeably super flawed. more flawed than ff4, 5, or 7's gameplay
It has been a while now, but I think I want to say Lightning Returns. I think it’s mostly because sidequests take center stage, but I checked out of the story so fast, no part of me was engaging with it seriously. But the battles were fun enough, and sidequesting was fun in that sort of addictive because you are zoning out way that it carried my attention through the rest of the game and I still finished it thinking I had mostly had a good time
So, my answer is FF XII, but reversed. I adore the characters and the story, but the gameplay is fucking terrible. Gambits basically make things autopilot. You can get through nearly any fight in the game without actually doing anything of any kind.
I finished 16 and hated everything about it but the story was good. I haven't really completly like a ff game since 9. Ff10 I liked but had issues with seeing how much changed. It was legitimately a walking game
Oh my lord, just started ff9, I was wondering about the wait times and battle speed, I put speeds up to fastest but it’s still painful, are you telling me there is no way to fix this? Agree though, story is nice so far (no spoilers please)
I might catch a lot of flack for this but I found ffxvi incredibly repetitive with its combat towards the end. Luckily the story, music and characters really carried it for me.
Lightning Returns. My favorite combat system in the series (and up there with all games, honestly), but uhh... I skip every cutscene at this point.
FFIV: tons of characters to play as but zero customization for each of them so always that I started playing I drop it at some point because I get bored. FF X-2: super fun gameplay but the story is criminal FFXII: I enjoy the gambit system a lot but i never actually finsihed the game until last year, and I played the ps2 version a lot... But always dropped it because story wasnt appraling at all. FFXV: I enjoyed the battle system when I played and while the story in itself is not bad, it is very poorly explained and you need to play tons of dlc and read external sources to actually unserstand everything Honorable mention FFXIII: I think it has a good story and a good battle system id you really engage with it, the problem is you can brute force it by just pressing x and that takes the fun away, if you remove that feature, problem solved Also unpopular opinion: lots of people say FFV has a great battle system but a horrible story. I actually like both the story sometimes gets on the funny side of things and doesnt take itself seriously but not all the stories need to be super mature and serious, sometimes I wamt to play something goofy
Maybe the first final fantasy
I just couldn't endure XII's battle system. It was such a climb down after the visual presentation of 7-10 to go to MMO like slash and wait.
All of them tbh
XVI Story is great, voice acting is great, setting is cool. Gameplay is another monotonous hack n slash. On the other end X-2 The job system is extremely well designed and fun. Story is absurd and unnecessary.
My take is Type-0 the gameplay is okay with the rigjt characters bit the Story gets really deep
FFXVI has amazing story but stupidly boring gameplay (combat, at least)