Final Fantasy

Schwiiing

How would I go about playing all the Final Fantasy games in order? What consoles do I need? Are the original games available to purchase new? How much time am I likely to need? How many games actually are there? Would it be worth it?

COYVB

IIRC chronology doesn't really factor in at all for the majority of the series. I don't think there is an "order" beyond the time they were released

Retr0gamer

The old games can be had to get into. Also Final Fantasy 2 is atrocious while Final Fantasy 3 isn't very good.

My advice is to get a PS Vita, PS2, a PS3 and a PC for emulation.

What to get:

PS Vita

PSP versions of FF 1 and 2. The version of FF2 for the PSP has been changed enough so it's actually playable.

FF3. Not a great game but it's part of the series.

FF4 Complete. Great remake of this game which has the pretty naff after years added on as a bonus.

FF Tactics: Superb game and probably the definitive version

FFX/X-2 HD

From the Playstation store:

FF7, 8 and 9 are available from the playastation store. I strongly advise you don't buy these off the european store since the european versions of PAL games are significantly worse than the north american releases and suffer from lower framerates, slower gameplay and bordering that screws up the aspect ratio. Buy them from the US store.

DS

FF4: This is actually a complete remake of FF4 which is well worth playing even if you have finished the complete versionon PSP

PS2

FFXII

PS3

FFXIII series

PC

FFV and FFVI

While both these games are available on the Playstation store, the PS1 versions are notoriously dreadul. You are better off emulating the original SNES versions.

Really though play the games in any order. Other than direct sequels they aren't linked.

Schwiiing

COYVB wrote: »

IIRC chronology doesn't really factor in at all for the majority of the series. I don't think there is an "order" beyond the time they were released

Ahh fair enough, I thought there was a main story running through the whole thing. Could I just pick and choose which 1s I play. Any recommendations?

Retr0gamer

Schwiiing wrote: »

Ahh fair enough, I thought there was a main story running through the whole thing. Could I just pick and choose which 1s I play. Any recommendations?

VI, VII and IX are good ones to start with, I'd recommend VI and IX. Just don't play the playstation version of VI.

YouSavedMyLife

COYVB wrote: »

IIRC chronology doesn't really factor in at all for the majority of the series. I don't think there is an "order" beyond the time they were released

Pretty much this. Also i don't think its worth it to play every game. FFIV - FFIX is the golden age for the series, maybe include FFX in that.

So you need a PS1, thats it....

johnny_ultimate

Do not waste your time on XIII, because it commits the cardinal sin of wasting twenty hours of your time.

VI, VII or IX are possibly the best places to start, or maybe the recently released revamp of X if you'd like to kick things off with a bit of modern sheen (although IMO it's merely a solid rather than a truly great game).

Retr0gamer

Or just play Persona 4 instead since its far better

Robert ninja

The amount of VIII hate in here is sickening.

Retr0gamer

Robert ninja wrote: »

The amount of VIII hate in here is sickening.

Where? My only problem with FFVIII is that the story is ****e and that it's a poor game to start with. Still a great game as long as you ignore GF's and concentrate on breaking the game with junctioning.

Myrddin

Final Fantasy II & III on the Snes, are they actually Final Fantasy IV & V chronology wise?

Retr0gamer

Myrddin wrote: »

Final Fantasy II & III on the Snes, are they actually Final Fantasy IV & V chronology wise?

They are 4 and 6 chronologically.

JohnB7

Recommend vi vii and xii. Vii doesn't stand up too well these days but vi is one of the greatest stories in any game. Only played it few years ago myself so no rose tinted look at it. Xii is enjoyable but never got the credit I feel it should've had.

Retr0gamer

Ffxii is a love it or hate it game. I wasn't a fan. I think you'd be better off playing Xenoblade which took the ideas of ffxii and made a much better game out of them.

Creamy Goodness

Retro have you played VI on iOS/Android devices. Any idea how the ports are?

Call Me Jimmy

For some reason I can't get the epsxe emulator working, was going to give final fantasy 8 or 9 a go

Was thinking of trying a 2d final fantasy (6 seems to get a lot of good reviews) but I'm afraid that the graphics won't be immersive enough. I like 2d graphics, but at my age I think I need a lot of visual scope and depth to get me into something so... fantastic I suppose. Not sure if that makes sense.

Are there any other ps1 emulators worth they're salt and can play final fantasy games?

Retr0gamer

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

Retro have you played VI on iOS/Android devices. Any idea how the ports are?

I'm not a fan of the new character art but the backgrounds look good. Meant to be a solid port if you can put up with the touch controls.

Call Me Jimmy wrote: »

For some reason I can't get the epsxe emulator working, was going to give final fantasy 8 or 9 a go

Was thinking of trying a 2d final fantasy (6 seems to get a lot of good reviews) but I'm afraid that the graphics won't be immersive enough. I like 2d graphics, but at my age I think I need a lot of visual scope and depth to get me into something so... fantastic I suppose. Not sure if that makes sense.

Are there any other ps1 emulators worth they're salt and can play final fantasy games?

Epsxe like all ps1 emulators is absolute garbage. Those games will work but you need to hunt down a bios and the right plug ins and even then it won't be quite right.

Just get 8 from steam, it was released recently.

As for 2d putting you off, the ff games on snes have some gorgeous 2d art with ff6 being one of the best looking 2d games ever made. They've aged far better than the play station games. Just give ffvi a go, you won't regret it.

Skeleton XIII

VII was my introduction to the series (and JRPGs in general) so it'll always be number one to me. Still play it now and then, loved the story and characters and how it was all presented. Once I got the hang of the battle system and started making some progress I was hooked. My old school books are full of Sephiroth, Cloud and Jenova drawings. ha

VIII was an odd one. To this day I haven't fully figured out the battle system or the story. I did like it but mainly because it was nice to look at (for its time) and I was still buzzing so much off VII (which I'd only recently finished) that I thought Square could do no wrong. So take from that what you will.

IX I didn't play until very recently. I was initially turned off by the way the characters looked when the game was first released, I was used to the more serious look of the previous games and didn't really understand why the characters had such a kiddy, fairytale sort of look. So I dismissed it.
It's pretty good though and far better than VIII.

Don't bother with XIII, it's nice looking and all but it'll piss you off fairly quickly. Unless you like running in a straight line forever with not much happening. A definite low point in the series. Haven't played the sequels, not sure I ever will.

X is a cringe fest in parts but the battle system is class and the HD version looks great on the Vita.

XII I didn't like at all but that's just me, some people seem to love it.

I've yet to play enough of VI to comment but it's a nice little game, definitely worth a go.

Call Me Jimmy

I've just tried final fantasy 8 yesterday and I don't know if it's because I'm older and more impatient with games but what seems ridiculous is that the GF's are more prominent and hence will be used more. That's fine, but any time they are summoned I have to watch the whole sequence of their attack (which is quite a long time) over and over again. I'm sitting here watching the same long-drawn-out spectacle. I understand it's part of the 'fantasy' but older me is finding it a bit grating.

Also the difficulty/ strategy. There seems to be a very intricate system for configuring your character with abilities etc. but I wonder if I will ever need to do that. It seems that it will be inevitable that I will just finish the game without any real strategy.

I will probably stick with it a bit, the criticisms aren't really specific to the game, but the mechanics feel a bit dated.

Kiith

You can actually turn on quick GF summons in the menu options, which makes it much better. It won't matter for long anyway, as you won't use them much after a while.

Retr0gamer

GF summoning is useless in FFViii. Basically if you are just using summons you are playing the game wrong and by the time you get to disc 3 you'll end up at a boss that could be impossible to beat.

Stop using summons and start drawing magic and junctioning it to stats and you'll do much better with standard attacks. Also focus on making you GF's learn the stat+% skills. Once they learn the top tier you'll get get stat +1 skills that increase stats when you level up. Have fun breaking the game but honestly you are wasting your time with summons and can end up making the game unwinnable.

Call Me Jimmy

Cheers I'll try that. Really ye don't use them much after a while? What instead, magic? They seem to make a big deal of them at the start but maybe that's more to do with junctioning and leveling up to get abilities? Are GF's kind of like the materia in Final Fantasy 7 in that regard?

Retr0gamer

Just normal attacks mostly. You don't use magic that much because you have it junctioned to stats and it will make you weaker. All you have to do is draw a load of magic, junction it to stats and then have fun breaking the game. You can do some crazy stuff like 100 status effect spells on attack is a 100% chance of inflicting nasty status effects or putting lots of curaga on hp gives will max your hp at 9999.

You'll also speed up the game loads since you don't need to summon.

The only use for gf's really is for the abilities they learn when equipped.

Calhoun

Gun blade and limits are all you need . FF8 has really cool card game which you need to play as cards can be turned to items.

The zell card is good early on if you want to break the game.

Call Me Jimmy

Does that mean if you want a limit break you have to let your characters get low on health a lot?

Calhoun

Yeah but when you get 9999 hp and low healh is around 1-2K (enough to survive) and you hit 9999K damage per hit in the limit break it works out ok.

Retr0gamer

There's a boss fight later where you can draw a spell called aura which lets you limit break every turn. Pretty much essential for the super bosses and gloriously over powered. My advice, don't finish that fight until you bleed that boss dry!

SeantheMan

You can also get Holy Wars/ Hero's , from refining your cards.
They make your character invincible. Combined with Aura it's GG

I wanna go back to FFX soon,
I really enjoyed the Arena part and trying to get all their Ultimate Weapons.
I remember there was one in some forest...you have top open things in the right order or something....the time limit was really unforgiving if I remember correctly.
But, you could get your chars to do 99,999 damage...and Wakka had an ult that had 13 hits...so 1.3 million damage a turn.

Just looking over how to get some of the celestial weapons now...I forgot what a pain some of them were

In order to obtain the Venus Sigil, the player must go to the Thunder Plains and dodge two hundred consecutive lightning bolts without leaving the area. The player is not told how many bolts they have dodged, and if they miscount and leave the area without dodging enough bolts, their total is reset. It is advised the player thus aims for more than two hundred bolts in case they miscalculate. Saving the game will also reset the count.

ahhh, and the one I was talking about above is the Butterfly game

To obtain the Saturn Sigil, the player must successfully complete the Butterfly Hunt minigame twice (once in each area) in Macalania Woods after obtaining the airship. The challenge consists of catching all the blue butterflies in the forest within a time limit without touching the red ones. The minigame requires precise timing and maneuvering

imitation

FF 8 is a object lesson in bad game design, the obvious route that most people go is Summon spam, as there is no apparent draw back and its effective at the start.

What you should actually be doing is carefully managing what skill your guardian force is leveling (which always defaults to the most naff and useless, more GF HP anybody ?!), getting a full stack of an ability (that sinking feeling when you get a new spell and realize you'll have to spend 30 minutes drawing off one slug to get full stacks) and junctioning strength and magic.

Of course you only find this out midway through, either when you run out of steam or go demented from the GF animations and try to figure out whats going on. Naturally none of GFs will have automatically leveled none of the junctions you need automatically.

That'll learn you not to pay attention to the boring class room tutorials at the start !

More on topic - I definitely recommend playing on the Vita (or PSP), being able to pick and play a FF game from where you left off suits it perfectly, playing on the console you could be looking at up to 30 minutes before you find a save point in some of the games.

Crisis core is good as well if you have a PSP, well worth a go after finishing VII.

I liked the XIII series, but the story isn't the best, the gameplay is good enough though when the training wheels come off, but its main draw is the ultra shiny visuals.

oh and finally, pace yourself, there long games, usualy about 40 hours, which would be 1-2 months. You might get fed up fairly easily if you try playing back to back.

gimli2112

I have FFX for the Vita. I completed the challenge to dodge 200 lightning strikes on the PS2 several times, years ago. Not kidding haven't dodged one strike yet on the Vita. I've been hit maybe 30 consecutive times. Hopefully once I get the no-encounters and actually go for it I'll be able to make soem progress.