Final Fantasy, anyone?

[John E. Kelley]

Well, I've played IV,7-13 and Tactics. For me, it seems that we all like best the first one we ever played (at least, for me and my many friends that love this series). As 7 was my first....yeah, that one is my favorite. That being said, there were others that were, in fact, BETTER (better and favorite being two completely different things). Tactics would get my vote for the best FF ever (Job system was BEST SYSTEM EVER imho), but 7 still brings me back for a replay every year or so.

[Elend]

Tactics, yeah, that one was amazingly good. Awesome plot, awesome characters, tactical battle system.

[bad company]

Never played the tatics ones, though I do love playing Disgaea and it is a similar thing.

[Sakaea]

Tactics never really grabbed me for some reason. I watch my fiance play it, tho. And I enjoy watching quite a lot. The gameplay isn't my favorite at all, tho.

[Red2111]

so i got FFXIII at gamestop the other day. i'm a hater of turn based fighting systems so i'm not exactly chomping at the bit to start it. but i'm willing to attempt to over look that if the storyline and other aspects of the game are enjoyable.

 

hec, i may just find out i don't really mind them all that much ... so am i gonna be disappointed i spent $23's or will i be happy?

[SinisterDeath]

FFXIII isn't realy all that turn based comparitively, the biggest thing you'll find your self doing is changing your teams 'roles' to match the fight if that makes much sense, and you'll be happy your allowed to 'pause' during that. And I believe its possible to play it totally in 'real time' without any 'pausing'.

 

The biggest issue with FFXIII is that is far, far, far more linear than promised.

We were escentially lead to believe the first part of the game was linear, than it opens up into a grand world that you could explore..

That grand world?

It was one, large open map.

It sucked

[tif]

I really loved 13! There are alot of haters out there because it does some things differently. The battle system is way different, but IMHO one of the most brilliant battle systems designed since the initial advent of 'attack, item, defend, run.' Also, the first 1/2 of the game is liner. No joke. You really are on rails. And on the MQ it opens up some, it really doesn't 'feel' open unless you decide to take on the multitude of side quests. For me however, the first half of the game just felt like one big tutorial for a great battle system (because the battle system kinda 'morphs' all during the game until the end) and then it felt like a more normal rpg by the halfway point. But, there are lots of fanboys on many other boards that completely disagree, so YMMV.

 

tif

[Red2111]

call me a newb, but what do you mean by linear ????

[Elend]

Final Fantasy, traditionally, has a large world that can be explored. Of course, this just covered up the "linear" nature of the earlier games, but all the previous games had a time where you'd legitimately be able to go around exploring the entire world, killing extra bosses, getting new gear, etc. FFXIII somewhat does away with the latter and yeah, I thought the "opening up" portion of the game kinda sucked in terms of an actual map. Others love it, though, and it can't be denied that its one of the most gorgeous things you'll ever see.

 

The battle system, it takes a bit to really get the "real" one, but its a really fun one. If you don't pay attention you die and there's always something to do if you're about ready to get obliterated.

 

FFXIII is the most challenging of the Final Fantasy games I think, after Tactics. If you like Kingdom Hearts you might try Versus XIII, coming out in... no one knows when. But one day. It uses a similar combat system and appears graphically superior to even XIII.

[Tiinker]

I love FF13. Sole reason i bought an Xbox. It's game play was a bit different than what I was used to. A bit more like FF12 than anything else. Got completely sucked into the storyline and loved the characters!

 

@Sakea - I just parachuted into Midgar :P

 

Tidus/Yuna are probably my favourite! How can you not like Yuna..

 

 

Blitzball team was - Nimrook in goal, Doran and Judda defending, Kiyuri middle, and Tidus and Keeper (99 shot :P) up front.

[Sakaea]

Nice, Tiinker

 

I liked FFXIII. I thought the battle system was awesome, the characters mostly kicked ass (Hope irritated me to no end), and even though it was linear, I liked it. And I like all the side quests you can do, and how the armor and weapons system was. And the leveling system was amazing, I thought.

So Red, I think you will like at least some of it, if not every single aspect of it. Enjoy

[tif]

Yayyyyy, I have to say, sometimes I feel like the only person in the world (or at least that I know in RL) that like FFXIII!

 

tif

[Red2111]

after i get boered with Dragon Age (or bubba kicks me off the PS3 ) this is the game i plan on picking up next out of the ones we bought. bubbas getting the "shakes" from not being able to play Fight Night 3 so i might be getting kicked off soon lmao

[bad company]

13 was okay but there was definately elements that felt like they weren't fully thought out.

The sidequests were dissappointing for me and I did hate that while you could choose to avoid battle if you did go into a battle it was against everybody in the area.

[Tiinker]

13 was okay but there was definately elements that felt like they weren't fully thought out.

The sidequests were dissappointing for me and I did hate that while you could choose to avoid battle if you did go into a battle it was against everybody in the area.

 

Haha well whenever I play a Final Fantasy game it's always the story more than anything else which gets me and I guess that might be why I didn't consider those things an issue.

[bad company]

Yeah but I found the story in 13 too disjointed and not compelling. The million cutscenes one after the other was overkill

[tif]

Haha, never play Xenosaga then, bad company. You would hate it...once a cut-scene started, I used to just put down the controller and get into bed so I could watch...lonnggggg cut-scenes.

[SinisterDeath]

I Loooovveed Xenosaga, Awesome story. Alot of people just don't see the appeal to a good story these days, to interested in mashing buttons and watching pretty lights strobe. :P

[Mongoose]

I didn't mind Zenosaga. The cutscenes didn't bother me, though they were truthfully longer than they needed to be.

The story was not bad, though a lot of the characters rubbed me the wrong way. Especially Shion.

I got bored about halfway through, but I had fun playing Xenocard.

 

13 was kind of the same way. I didn't mind the story itself, though the translation made some of the more tropeical Japanese scenes (Lightning reassuring Hope in Chap 4) feel a bit awkward. But it was the characrters who failed to appeal to me. I think other than maybe Snow, none of them really stood out (though admittedly, I never got that deep in).

 

Though my biggest qualm with 13 was the combat system. It wasn't bad, perse, but it sure kicked my ass.

[tif]

I loved Xenosaga myself. I didn't mind the long cutscenes because I felt they were really well done, and I was enjoying the story. Granted, I think Delrian is right, many of them 'were' longer then they needed to be. But honestly, it almost kinda felt like that was their schtick. Nicely done too long cutscenes. Hehe, I wound up not minding though.

 

Although I do have to disagree with you about the battle system in 13. Half the reason I farmed all of the trophys was to enjoy it a little bit longer before it had to end. Nearly pitch perfect in every way, although there are multiple learning curves (because the system really changes the more you play) so I totally understand someone who has a little trouble getting it at first.

 

tif

[SinisterDeath]

Well, I enjoyed 13's combat much, much better than that crap called 12's.

The 'role' system was definately different and required a fine understanding of exactly what roles you needed to win a fight, and when YOU should tank and when YOU should heal, due to inept npcs. :P

 

As for xenosaga, I felt the CG scenes were my reward for the hard gameplay.

And Xenosaga 2, the gameplay sucked (to easy, made no sense to prior games, ect) but the storyline, excelled and was the only thing that kept me in the game.

 

Hell, IMO xenosaga 2 had the greatest scene... Ever.

[tif]

Wow, I completely agree. Hated the gameplay of Xenosaga ep 2 so much that I stopped playing it. Picked it back up with part 3 and just went to gamefaqs and read about the story for 2.

[Mongoose]

I've never played 12. When I used to play EVE, and a friend asked how I could stand it, I explained that I never fought; I just stayed in safe sectors, set my ship to mine an asteroid and play PS3 untill it was done, then move on to the next asteroid. So that really, I wasn't playing it much at all. She said in that case, I would love FFXII

 

I've heard that the battle system in 13 gets easier once you go back to a three member party, and using Snow and Vanille was easy enough, but when they switch you to Lightning and Hope the difficulty went through the roof. I was dying to random encounters, Odin took just shy of three dozen attempts to go down, and there's some Turtle boss you fight after him that I died to several times before I took the game back.

 

It just always felt that no matte how quickly or efficiently I did something, it wasn't quickly or efficiently enough. Against Odin it was really bad, because you both had a fairly short time limit and he can also really easily kill Hope in two hits, so every time I was either losing Hope or running out of time. It really took over thirty attempts beofre I could get the right combonation of arranging my macros, making sure every role switch involved a healer except one, and meting out my role switches very, very carefully to switch from piling on combo meter with spells and piling on damage with attacks but still switching as infrequently as possible to conserve time. Even then, it took three tries before I got the right timing and the right amount of luck to win.

 

So yes, I know that I suck. Anyway, as I said I heard it gets a lot easier after that, and while I do appreciate a challenge (it's why I like SMT games, afterall), 13 and Demon's Souls were two games where I kept dying over and over in the same spots and just kinda got tired of it. I'm sure I'll give 13 another go someday, but I honestly traded my copy in two weeks after I bought it and didn't regret it much at all.

[SinisterDeath]

FF games have always been a very... pro strategy guide type game, its not cheating, its almost a neccisity to not die alot. ;)

 

As for demon's souls you should have at least 'beat' it once, and offline if neccissary.

Its fun because when you beat it.

Its... well you just can't get over that feelign of actual Accomplishment. ;)

[Sakaea]

I have the strategy guides for VII through XIII. I wouldn't play without them, honestly. In XII, you can't get the Zodiak Spear without the guide, cus you can't open 4 certain treasure boxes, or it disappears. So yeah, I love the strategy guides.