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Best Era for Final Fantasy

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What was the best and most enjoyable overall era for Final Fantasy?

07.26.2012 3:24pm

Colinp42
Registered Member

SNES. PS1 was pretty close for me, because I do love all 3, but nothing beats VI and IV for me (and I really like V too).

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07.26.2012 3:29pm

Catastrophe
I'm Catbug!

I like the way Kal set up his response, so I'm going to poach it lol

NES :
1 good game (FF1)
2 okay (FF2-3)

SNES :
3 excellent (FF4-6)

PSX :
2 excellent (FF9-tactics)
1 great (FF8)
1 good (FF7)

PS2 :
1 good (FFX)
1 okay (FFX2)
1 bad (FFXII)

Anyway, I voted SNES because even though IV and V aren't anywhere near being my favourites, I can still recognize the quality in them. My favourite is VI or IX depending on the mood I'm in. VII, VIII and Tactics were all great games, but I don't feel they hold up to the SNES games. As for X, as much as I can't stand it on the best of days, it's still miles better than X-2 and XII. As for the NES era, the original was the best, and then I'd say III, followed by a distant II.

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07.26.2012 4:45pm

Testament
Shamshot

Why not?

NES:
2 good (FFI, FFIII)
1 meh (FFII)

SNES:
2 excellent (FFIV, FFVI)
1 good (FFV)
1 meh (FFMQ)

PSX:
3 excellent (FFVII-FFIX)
1 great (FFT)

PS2:
2 great (FFX, FFXII)
1 good (FFX-2)

PS3:
1 good (FFXIII)

I haven't played XIII-2, yet, so I didn't include it. The meh category doesn't mean I think it's a bad game... just indifferent.

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07.26.2012 5:11pm

Crusader
Not Even My Dad Hit Me

And since everyone else is doing it.

FFI- Boring, slow
FFII- Boring, slow, frustrating, beat game only because it bugged out during the final fight
FFIII- Still boring and pretty slow. Most of its strengths can be explained as "Well, it's not as bad as the first two" This even goes for the DS remake.

NES era is mostly good for historical curiosity but little else.

FFIV- Gameplay is challenging and the battle system is fun (and FAST!). Very solid.
FFV- Fuck yeah Job System, as well as the last time FF wouldn't take itself so goddamn seriously. Still my favorite.
FFMQ- Never played it, and probably never will.
FFVI- Quintessential FF in many ways. Can cram massive story and gameplay into tiny snippets of time without feeling either rushed or long in the tooth. Almost as good as V, except the game is just fucking broken.

SNES contains my three favorites. Mostly fast and challenging and the ones I always come back to.

FFVII- Actually holds up pretty well. Then again, I get nostalgic at the oh so 90s art. Still a lot of fun and the story still has its moments (even if I have to interpret the dialogue more than read it). Slower pace, derpier strategy and boring, opaque sidequests prevent it from being better though.
FFT- Fun, hard, and the unintelligible story is hilarious. The grinding wears me the fuck out by the end, though.
FFVIII- My favorite world, cast and soundtrack. Gameplay still broken and the sidequets are even more opaque and idiotic than FFVII, but gameplay is otherwise addictive as hell. My favorite PS1 FF.
FFIX- Really the most balanced of the PS1 lot (at least until you can combine Auto-Haste and Auto-Regen for your entire party and practically make healing unnecessary) and the world's very pretty. The game tries WAY too hard to be the anti-FFVIII, though, and, in doing so, winds up not only correcting that game's flaws but also failing in many ways in which that game succeeded (anyone else find the battles slower in this one due to all that damned lag?) and the cast is mostly annoying. Still a lot of fun, despite its constant efforts to cut off its nose to spite its face.

PS1 is probably the most consistently good era of the series (granted, I also count X and X-2 as part of the series' Silver Age) with only the more annoying trends of late 90s/early 2000s game design preventing them from being better.

FFX- Best Sony era game. Great characters and world and the game played way more briskly than anything on the PS1. Takes a lot of what they were going through in FFVIII and completely balances and polishes it. Only the crappy sidequests (crappier than even FFVIII) keep it out of the SNES' tier.
FFX-2- Fuck off, haters! It has the best battle system in the series and is the only FF plot to realize what it is: completely fucking ridiculous. That said, my memory of this game is really fuzzy as I haven't played it in nine years, so maybe I should soon take it for another go-around.
FFXI- I've never played it and probably never will.
Dirge of Cerberus- Same.
FFXII- First main offline FF I've never completed. Also the first one I sold off. I'll dispense with the long, angry ranting and just say it's the worst one in the series.

PS2 era is half-good, half-bad. Series jumps the shark around the same time Square Enix takes control and ruins everything.

And I don't have a PS3 so I can't really comment on FFXIII or XIII-2.

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07.26.2012 5:17pm

JSG
Registered Member

SNES, easily.

I haven't played the NES games in any incarnation so I can't speak for those. With the SNES era, it's hard to pick a favorite. All three are top-tier games that I still enjoy playing now, although IV and V needed GBA remakes to make me enjoy them. Once they got those I realized how great they are.

The PSX era was cool. FFVII was great at the time but now I find it unplayable, VIII is still every bit as great as I thought it was back then, and IX is pretty cool.

FFX is the last main FF I've played, and I really hated it. The battle system was the best of the series, IMO, but the rest of the game did nothing for me.

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07.26.2012 5:32pm

Sam Biscuits
Custard Creams

PS1 era for me. Loved VII, and VII and IX to a lesser extent both all three were fantastic. I miss the days were I was excited with every FF release as I knew it would be an awesome game.

Like many have said people will vote based on nostalgia, but my first FF was VI and I even today thought it was just a good game (blasphemous on this board I know). I've since gone back and played the others, IV and V were good, I-III crap.

Post PS1 I enjoyed FF X a lot, FF X-2 had a good battle system but was just too camp and J-Pop for me and I probably would have enjoyed Ff XII more if it didn't have a numeral (less expectation).

FF XIII was pants, gorgeous but pants. Still have XIII-2 ready to play, which I do plan to. Honestly...

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07.26.2012 6:52pm

Colinp42
Registered Member

Pants?

It can't all be nostalgia though, because no one is voting for NES era. I can't be the only old person here who started with FF1, can I?

Really, for me it's not all that far apart between SNES, PS1 and PS2, because it was all just great (barring XII, which I still enjoyed, but would never call it a great game).

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07.26.2012 7:11pm

Onyx
Butts
Administrator

I reject the nostalgia argument because FFV became one of my favorites rather recently and only because of the GBA port. I couldn't stand it in the original American release on FFAnthology.

FF6 and FF4 were also my 4th and 6th games in the series played (FF5 was 7th). I really got into the series with FF7 (mainly because Dragon Warrior IV was my first RPG and that experience was so horrid that I was completely turned off to the genre until I gave Super Mario RPG a chance) and if the nostalgia argument held up with me that'd still be one of my favorites instead of something I think is just middle of the road now.

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07.26.2012 7:38pm

Sam Biscuits
Custard Creams

Colinp42 said:

Pants?
.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pants&defid=787840

Pants

Adjective. British Slang. Not good; total crap; nonsense; rubbish; bad

I agree though not alway nostalgia, but can see you're first FF being an influential game.

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07.26.2012 7:40pm

JSG
Registered Member

Is it nostalgia if you've played the games recently? I still play the SNES (well, now GBA) games somewhat regularly so their quality isn't just some hazy, rose-tinted memory for me.

Plus I started with FFVII which, if I hadn't played it again a few years back, would have been painted by nostalgia as a great game. But picking it up again made me realize that it's aged horribly and by today's standards is an unplayable mess.

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07.26.2012 7:53pm

Colinp42
Registered Member

I guess I can say that nostalgia has probably affected my view of FFI. I probably wouldn't be able to play it if I hadn't played it back in the day.

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07.26.2012 8:31pm

Rinoa
Night Star
Administrator

Babbys be voting for PSX era! Not nostalgia for me either, I replay FF6 in various ways every year or so.

Rinoa.Nu

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07.26.2012 9:40pm

(Edited on 07.26.2012 at 10:52pm)

Testament
Shamshot

Rinoa said:

Babbys be voting for PSX era!

Said the gal dressed up as Ms. Heartilly. =P

Voting objectively, the SNES era probably comes out ahead... but it's more fun to go the subjective route.

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07.26.2012 10:52pm

Rhaegar
World Warrior 21007

Since everyone else is running the FFs down, I figure I will, too.

NES:

FFI - It's OK for what it was at the time, although I have no pressing desire to play it nowadays.

FFII - Utter shit. Boring, slow and still has the worst ability/leveling system in the series.

FFIII - The debut of the Job System. Much more simplistic than later games with a Job System, so not nearly as fun. It's probably OK, but again, no real desire to play it.

SNES:

FFIV - Great game with swift and challenging battles. Classic story that gets away with all its cliches and archetypes because they're all well executed. I'd stay away from the initial U.S. release (the one called FFII) though. Get the PSP collection or FFIV Advance, or download the ROM with the latest J2E translation.

FFV - JOB SYSTEM!!!! Yeah, the story is nothing special, but it's not really bad, either. And the gameplay is so damn good that it easily makes up for whatever story deficiencies there are and then some. Also, Butz/Bartz is a man's man and Gilgamesh owns all sub-bosses ever. I should also note that the first time I played it was downloading the ROM and the English translation patch, so I never dealt with the Anthology's horrible translation first-hand. (I SWEAR all the lingering FFV hate comes from the fact the Anthology version was ass.)

FFMQ - Pretty insulting and a waste of my time. At least the soundtrack was pretty good.

FFVI - In so many words, the standard by which I judge all JRPGs as far as plot, story and characters go. Also has the best soundtrack of all FFs. The gameplay can get pretty broken toward the end with Espers, but that's a minor complaint.

PS1:

FFVII - Really an inferior variation of VI in a lot of ways. Materia is far easier to abuse than Espers ever were, and the world was pretty bland outside of Midgar and maybe a couple other locales. The graphics have also aged horribly, compared to the SNES sprites that have aged gracefully. The MIDI sound hasn't aged much better. The sidequests and mini-games were the start of a bad trend (and were pretty bad themselves). And the main villain starts off extremely promising then drops the ball. On the plus side, the battles were still pretty swift, although too easy for the most part.

FFT - JOB SYSTEM!!! And one that's as robust as its ever been. The battle gameplay pretty much set the standard for strategy RPGs and is still fun. And the story is also pretty awesome and Delita is one of the FF all-time greats as a character. The graphical presentation also holds up EXTREMELY well today, easily the best of the PS1 FFs, and the soundtrack is second to none. The only real problem I have with this game were the certain broken elements toward the end (Math Skill, CT5 Holy + Chameleon Robes, Orlandu).

FFVIII - Never really liked it, and that hasn't changed. I'll get the positives out of the way: Laguna and crew are fucking badass, Triple Triad is EASILY the best mini-game in the FF series (in fact, probably the only good one) and the soundtrack is absolutely gorgeous. But a negative from that last one: It was the disturbing start of J-pop love themes in the series. And now to pile on: The Junction system was the most broken ability system since FFII's. Rinoa is among the most annoying characters in RPG history, and the fact she played so prominent of a role in the story certainly didn't help matters. In fact, she pretty much derailed the whole damn plot and everyone else's character arcs after the first disc. The battles also were much slower than FFs past, a trend that continues into ...

FFIX - A game I actually like a lot, but there's no denying that the battles played like a snail stuck on flypaper. It wasn't just the battle speed itself, either, but the fact that all the special effects in battle (magic, Trance, et al) really fucking dragged, and Zidane's steal rate was pathetically low. With those out of the way, though ... there's a lot to love. A character ensemble and story that are overall the stongest since VI, the most well written villain in the series (even if not necessarily my absolute favorite), a lot of fun easter eggs in reference to the past FFs, and the best ability system up to this point that wasn't the Job System.

PS2/GC:

FFX - A game with quite a mixed legacy. Start with the dislikes: The mini-game madness REALLY got out of hand; all the minigames were fucking terrible, and whoever came up with lightning dodging needs to be strung up by their toes. The lack of an overworld map was also the start of a bad trend, and while it wasn't missed overly much in FFX's case, it did lead to future games that really did get designed on rails. It was also the point when Nomura's design excesses really began to show. On the other hand, there were also a lot of positives: Replaing ATB with a Grandia II style turn-based system was genius. The trend of overly drawn out special effects that had plagued FFIX in particular was mercifully reversed, with said special effects still looking spectacular but also resolving extremely fast. Perfect. And the Sphere Grid was an incredible ability system, and really the first legitimate rival to the Job System. While it could eventually be broken, it took a shitton of grinding and really having no life outside of video games to get to that point. And the characters, story and soundtrack were all still quite strong, really the last time in the series you could say that. Overall, a masterpiece on its own merits through and through, but also one that started some rather disturbing trends.

FFX-2 - Sorry this was shit. Not even the Job System could save a game that pissed all over the meaning of FFX and flowed at the seams with idiocy and Shoujo sensibilities.

FFCC - Lots of interesting stuff, but completely absent gameplay. Nuff said there.

FFXII - Had a ton of potential, but meddling from the top brass and marketing (the main hero was originally supposed to be Basch, but they wanted some weeaboo-pandering idiot to sell in so we got Vaan), as well as staff turnover (inclusing Matsuno) left it a dire mess of a game. The first 20 minutes or so of the game were incredible, and then it was all downhill from there. Or more specifically, wide open fields of fucking nothing that resulted in hours between plot points. Ugh. The License Board was also pretty fucking awful, a huge step back from the Sphere Grid and Job System, although supposedly the International release fixed that, at least. The Gambit System was a failed attempt at meaningful party AI and is a concept that had been done better both before and since. And finally, Sakimoto phoned in the soundtrack.

PS3/360:

FFXIII - One of the worst video games I've played in my life, in so many words. Idiotic cast of characters, several of whom qualify as the most annoying characters ever made. Nonsense plot, and no, fools, don't bring up the datalog; if I have to read that shit to get the basic elements of the plot that should've been displayed on screen it sucks. Battle system that was only slightly less poorly executed auto-play than FFXII. The game was entirely on fucking rails, WAY worse than FFX ever was. And while the visuals were technically pretty, the art style was god fucking awful and lifeless. And the soundtrack was garbage. Juat an awful, awful game, and I feel sorry for anyone who played it and even sorrier for those who actually like it.

FFXIII-2 - Haven't played it, and have no interest in doing so. Not only is it a sequel to a game I despise, but you also have to get episodic DLC to get the whole story. So fuck that shit.

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07.27.2012 12:44am

Old Juan
filled with hate

For me it's the SNES era. The games were all solid and unlike the other eras the games all still hold up really well even to this day.

FF1=As traditional and old school as it gets. I'd agree that it has historical value and is something people should play once. Sadly due to the basic storyline and the sheer amount of grinding pretty much assures that most people will only play through this game once.

FF2=Like what was mentioned before, interesting ideas with horrible execution makes a game that few will ever have the will to finish.

FF3=Better then the first two but still isn't exception in any way.

The NES era is all about the beginings and the company learning how to make a good RPG's. So these games are very archaic and mixed in quality.

FF4=My favorite of the series, a solid story with a diverse group of memorable characters. The combat is fast and challenging and sets the standard for how to do classic turn based combat.

FF5=Where it lacks in story(mainly due to it essentially being FF4's story redux)it makes up in spades and the gameplay as it features my favorite version of the job system. Very streamlined and just a blast to play.

FF6=What can be said about this game that hasn't already been mentioned and it's greatness. It also IMO has the best OST of all the SNES games.

The SNES era is really about Square taking what they learned from the NES era and pefrecting it. Which is why the games in this era are all so good and have a lot of replayablity even after all these years.

FF7=Good in it's day, but hasn't aged well. Visually this game is fucking trainwreck, the blocky characters simply look out of place amist the goergouse pre-rendered backdrops. Storyline wise, it fairs a little better but honestly the story pretty much drags and limps to the end after the party leaves Midgar. With an completely overrated villian who at the end of the day was raging mama's boy, I am honestly amazed that I once held this game up as the pinicle of RPG's. The combat is probably the one area of the game that stills holds up well.

FF8=Best Soudtrack of the PS1 era by far. This is actually a good game and because the level system is so easy to break, this game is ideal for quickie run-throughs. With the exception of a couple of storyline points(orphanage and rinoa)the games overall story and characters are really good and I find myself replaying this game the most out of the PS1 era.

FF9=The throw back title. Visually and thematically, this is a tribute to the NES&SNES days. If only the combat wasn't so goddamn slow this would probably be my favorite on the PS1 games. The issues with the slowness of comat makes it really hard to go through this game.

FFT=Good game. Deep and complex job system and probably the most mature storyline in the series. This game requires a lot of time investment, almost too much really. Navagating and unlocking all the various classes will take more time than many may want to spend. The Dark Knight job class in the PSP version is a good example of game designers false assumption that gamers have all the time in the world to piss away on a game. Well, I've got shit to do and so do most other people.

The PS1 era were revolutionary at the time with the use of pre-rendered backdrops and visual design that really set them apart from the previous eras. But these games have not aged as well and IMO don't hold up.

FF10=Another soild entry. Well rounded cast, a pretty emotional storyline, and I agree the best replacement for old school ATB system. Being able to switch out characters that participate in battle was great idea, well implimented and really should be standard issue RPG's. Plus when you have a badass such as Auron, you can't go wrong.

FF10-2=On the plus side it has a really fast and fun battle system, on the minus it takes a cleveland steamer on the bittersweet ending of the original.

FF12=This game is probably the most profoundly dissappointment in the series. It had potential to be the best but falls incredibly short due largely to company miss-management more than anything else. It had some interesting indeas with regards to both gameplay and story but due to said company shenanigans most of it feels incomplete. The one good thing to come from the game was Balthier. Now that's how you do a main protagonist(let's be honest here Van isn't despite what the advertising tries to say)for a FF game.

The PS2 era is a very highly mixed bag with arguably one one really good game, and two polarizing entries. This is where Square or Square-Enix really began it's slide into mediocrity. With complacency in both game development and overall company management. Sadly it only gets worse from here.

FF13=The game looks beautiful and that's about it. I normally don't get a big stick up my ass when it comes to linearity in games, but this game doesn't even try to pretend otherwise. You really are traversing almost a straight line. The combat is fun and fresh at first but the longer the game goes on the more tiring it becomes. Don't even get me started on the bullshit hassle it takes in aquiring the level three weapons. The cast ranged from ok(Lighning, Sazh, Fang)to annoying as fuck(Vanille, Snow, and Hope)and the fact that I'm forced to read pages of primers in order to even begin to understand the story of the game is epic fail. This isn't the first time for this nonsense given that FF12 suffers from this as well.

FF13-2=Fixes a lot of the problems the first one had in terms of the world and linearity. But the game still has it's share of issues, biggest one being that for company that really doesn't know how to tell a story anymore, the idea of tackling the issue of time travel is one that doesn't have much of a chance at making any sense, in that sense the company doesn't dissappoint with giving a story that is even more convoluted and facepalm worthy then the original FF13, oh and Mog can suck dick.

The PS3 era is all Square-Enix in their now mediocre glory.

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