[Final Fantasy] is focused on Fighting Games and Freemium funfests

silence1186

This is the thread for talking about Square Enix's flagship series, Final Fantasy, originally released in 1987. For a while they decided they didn't like releasing new games, and kept porting old games to new platforms, but things are looking up. But before we get to that,

A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE


MAIN SERIES

They've made FOURTEEN main series games and over fifty spin off titles. Here's what the fans says about them.

I love Final Fantasy because you have to start somewhere.

I love Final Fantasy II because I like hitting myself for stat ups.

I love Final Fantasy III because it allowed me to stop being a hippy and get a job for the first time.

I love Final Fantasy IV because I don't have enough versions of it yet.

I love Final Fantasy V because I can play it for charity.

I hate Final Fantasy VI because I'm a soulless monster without any redeeming qualities.

I love Final Fantasy VII because it's one of the main reasons the west has JRPG localization.

I love Final Fantasy VIII because I'm a Triple Triad cardshark. There was a fun minigame about saving the world included too.

I love Final Fantasy IX because it's a nostalgia trip.

I love Final Fantasy X because the HD version is out.

I love Final Fantasy XI because it keeps Square Enix in business.

I love Final Fantasy XII because I'm Captain Basch fon Ronsenburg of Dalmascaa.

I love Final Fantasy XIII because I can't get enough Lightning.

I love Final Fantasy XIV because YoshiP cares.

SPIN OFFS

Every time profits are down SE makes some more FF games. There are a lot of them, too many to list them all so I'll just continue the theme with the more popular ones.

I love Final Fantasy Tactics because I love grid based movement.

I hate Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles because I have no friends.

I hate Final Fantasy Mystic Quest because it's too easy and I don't like having fun.

I love Final Fantasy X-2 because it really is the ultimate expression of both ATB and the Job system. Also I understand math so Sphere Breaker ain't shit.

I love Dissidia because it's included in its entirety in its sequel.

I love FF XIII-2 because monsters are great in parties.

I love Crisis Core because I need to get practice for Type-0 in.

I love Theatrhythm because Square Enix has the best music.

I love Final Fantasy Tactics Advance because just one more turn.

I love Dissidia Duodecim 012 Final Fantasy because you can settle which Final Fantasy is best for all time with your fists.

I love Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2 because more of the same is exactly what you need when the same is fantastic.

I love Final Fantasy XIII Lightning Returns because it was either this or no new games at all.

WHICH VERSION IS BEST?

There's a version of almost everything for almost everything these days. However, avoid the PSX version of FF5 unless it's your only option.

THE FUTURE

Square Enix has managed to get their shit together long enough that they have at least one new Final Fantasy game coming out.

FF Type-0: Was Final Fantasy 13 Agito, changed to Final Fantasy Type-0, and came out on the PSP in Japan only. Fans clamored for this one for a long time, and finally the West is getting a localization... as an HD version for consoles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bedq4m8a_8U

Square Enix might actually release this, since they are currently accepting pre-orders for a release the week of March 17th, 2015. Also, day 1 copies of the game come with a demo for...

FF 13 Versus: Wait, no, some things happened, and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3xKbPooKAo

It's now FF XV. It still doesn't exist, but they've been releasing more info about it. That said, an honest to goodness playable trailer is coming out called Episode Duscae if you pre-order Final Fantasy Type-0. So it MAY actually come out at this point. Still taking bets, with a meal of a hat at stake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnDxg2afpCE

KINGDOM HEARTS

Is vaguely related to Final Fantasy, but has its own thread here.

BRAVELY DEFAULT

Is everything you might want in a Final Fantasy, and you can talk about it here.

FF5 FOUR JOB FIESTA

xenogears of bore wrote:

Do you have what it takes to play what is quite simply the most fun and addicting alternate game mode of any RPG ever? Do you want to help out sick children by raising money for the greatest charity in the world? Do you want to watch RK sleepily make his way through Neo-Exdeath with quite a sub standard party? If this sounds even remotely interesting well then, do I have a website for you.

The deal is you get four jobs from the normal set of 20+ and you can only use skills from those four. As you gain new job sets one job is randomly assigned to you and each assigned job must be equipped at all times on at least one party member. You get the wind job, you get four of those, you get the water job, your party must be made up at least one from your water job and one from your wind job and so on. There are variations

http://fourjobfiesta.com/

What do you need to start playing?

1. A copy of FF5. PSN version is cheapest and worst. SFC version is pretty cheap but in Japanese, GBA version is best but expensive, iOS version is a lot cheaper than that but has the issues standard with playing a game on iOS (easy screencaps though!)

2. A twitter account. Yeah I hate twitter too but I made some dummy accounts just for this.

3.Then all you do is sign up at the website (with any of the optional run ideas) and you can play from whenever RK beats the game until the end of August!

Where does the charity come in you say? Well, you can either pledge money to change whatever jobs RK is assigned for his inaugural run (1 dollar=1 extra vote for a job!) or you can pledge money for doing various deeds. If you can't donate money you'll notice that you can still earn money from other people's pledges by completing their goals (usually beating the game with a certain class, beating the two optional bosses,etc.) It's just like getting sponsors for a 10k back in school! You play, everyone wins.

Credit to @xenogears of bore for cannibalizing most of his OPs.

silence1186

Also @professor snugglesworth has a Final Fantasy podcast, I believe? And he invites people from this thread to participate. I'm sure he'll be along with details.

Professor Snugglesworth

http://shoutengine.com/SouthFigaroPodcast/

I requested it be added to the OP. It mainly deals with Final Fantasy, but we also like to discuss other games and current events during "open-discussion" recordings. I also tend to talk about any interesting news with upcoming FFs, specifically FFXV, that may get lost in the cracks, since that game still isn't getting widespread attention (the recent events have been more fan-oriented and are usually sought out by said fans).

I also like to do something unique with my podcast in that I invite people from the forums to participate, if they're interested in the topic of the episode. I've covered a few FFs already, but still have plenty more planned out, including Final Fantasy VII (which I plan in advance to split the talk in two parts).

So anyways.....yeah, we're finally going to get to play Final Fantasy XV in 2015. For a little while.

Ilpala

Triple Triad needs to return. Badly.

Professor Snugglesworth

Ilpala wrote: »

Triple Triad needs to return. Badly.

Good news.

Delphinidaes

Professor Snugglesworth wrote: »

Ilpala wrote: »

Triple Triad needs to return. Badly.

Good news.

So excited for this!

Professor Snugglesworth

It dawned on me that by the time Kingdom Hearts III arrives, we may actually get to see some FF characters rendered in Unreal Engine 4.

It's a weird thought....but also pretty exciting.

HallowedFaith

Wait...

So FFXV is... driving around in a car and doing open world Monster Hunter style combat?

Sterica

Vincent Grayson

If DQ Heroes is successful, I wonder if we'd ever see an FF game of the same nature?

Darth_Mogs

It wouldn't surprise me if they were already making it, in all honesty.

vagrant_winds

Who wouldn't play Final Fantasy Musou?

Drez

A Meal of a Hat is a good name for a band.

Houn

Oh good, the FF thread is back!

How crazy would I be to attempt to play every mainline FF game back to back?

lionheart_m

I used to back when I thought it was manageable (1 to 9). I just feel X and XII are sooooooo long if you dabble in sidequests.

Lucascraft

Houn wrote: »

Oh good, the FF thread is back!

How crazy would I be to attempt to play every mainline FF game back to back?

I tried this back around the time that FF14 came out. I got through 1 & 2 back to back, while simultaneously spending most of my time on FF14. After FF2 I tried to play FF3, but I just can't do that game.

It bores me with it's lack of real plot. The game, from what I can tell is literally just a series of mini-quests. You move from town to town, fix some small scale problem they are having and then move onto the next town.

lionheart_m

Like Dragon Quest?

Tbh, I replayed FF3 Famicom edition many times. It's so snappy and it feels like FF4 beta in a lot of ways. I think I've only played the 3DS version once. It just doesn't feel the same. Also it has my favorite world map song (even if it's only played for like a few minutes):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-iVx43eihw

Lucascraft

Truth be told, the only DQ game I have ever played is DQ9, and I was so wrapped up in the unlocking of jobs and the alchemy pot that I have no idea what the story was at all. I put probably 150 hours on that game and never finished the story.

Vincent Grayson

Why is it that the "we added vocals to the arranged version" FF tracks are so much better than the "single" pop songs that have been part of the series since VIII?

Like, damn near every track on Pray and the other old vocal album is just fantastic.

lionheart_m

Pray and Love Will Grow have got to be my favorite Arranged FF albums. Love, love, love them to death. Hell, just listening to them gets me in the mood to replay FF1 once more.

Houn

I've never played 12 before, and that would actually be a roadblock, as I don't have a PS2 anymore. Hrm. Perhaps it will receive some form of HD or PC port someday.

Lucascraft

Houn wrote: »

I've never played 12 before, and that would actually be a roadblock, as I don't have a PS2 anymore. Hrm. Perhaps it will receive some form of HD or PC port someday.

Very likely. SE doesn't make new games anymore. They just continuously port old ones.

Ilpala

It needs one bad. Favorite modern FF by far, and we never did get a western release of the zodiac job system version.

Magic Pink

I would plauy the hell out of a HD FF12. I loved that game. Hated the characters but loved the actual gameplay.

Plus, bring back multiple races, Square, god damn it. All human is all boring.

kime

12 had more races! Don't you remember the "sexy bunny girl" race?

Ilpala

We want Bangaa and Moogle party members, dammit! Take the Bioware approach. If a race exists, isn't useless, and isn't evil, you have that race on your team!

Or shit, maybe put 'em in anyway. Would've been real interesting to see how they do Hanar combat.

Houn

"This one advises you not tease the octopus, kids."

SyphonBlue

I'm not racist, but fuck all Bangaa

Vincent Grayson

I know it'll never happen, but if SE were to revisit Ivalice, I feel like it'd be awesome to do something like XII in terms of the gameplay (go out with a group, use gambits, largely open world), but have the story focus on bigger-picture stuff that your own personal Clan would go out and deal with. Give you access to all the races (and use IZJS-esque jobs), and then just go out and be badass adventurers in the world. I maintain that Ivalice (especially in 12) is their most robustly-developed and interesting world, and I'd really like to go back there.

Hakkekage

I have never played the first Theatrhythm, but would it be worth getting Theatrythm Curtain Call for 3DS? I too have felt the emptiness of no Final Fantasies that I can play since FFXII (I skipped the PS3 and FFXIII generation, which could be considered good or bad either way).

lionheart_m

Yes! Even without buying the DLC I played a ton of Theatrythm. Can't recommend it enough.

Vincent Grayson

Hakkekage wrote: »

I have never played the first Theatrhythm, but would it be worth getting Theatrythm Curtain Call for 3DS? I too have felt the emptiness of no Final Fantasies that I can play since FFXII (I skipped the PS3 and FFXIII generation, which could be considered good or bad either way).

Yeah, much like Dissidia, the sequel has almost 100% of the original game's content, plus a bunch more, so you lose nothing by just going right to Curtain Call.

kime

It's weird how Ivalice never grabbed me like it has so many people...

Polaritie

kime wrote: »

It's weird how Ivalice never grabbed me like it has so many people...

In part, it has far more diverse races than basically anything else. Also Viera. And all three tactics games. Moogles.

I'm kind of fond of it.

I like that idea of a game based around clans. Sort of like FFTA(2) except you field three person groups in XII style combat. Then the main content is instanced quests, sometimes ending.in bosses. And then coop, where everyone fields and manages their set of three against hordes and such. Or compete for kills. And with clan member appearance being highly customizable, based on armor equipped and race and job and such.

Dammit, this will never happen and I want it now.

Magic Pink

kime wrote: »

12 had more races! Don't you remember the "sexy bunny girl" race?

:x

Lucascraft

The Vierra were awesome in the FFT games, when they were mostly just generics that you could shape into minions of great power. Same with Bangaa.

FF12 actually ruined Vierra for me with Fran, when they basically shoved her under a spotlight and said "here's a sex symbol!"

But in general, I agree that Ivalice is the best of the FF worlds, and easily the most fleshed out. Back when FF11 was but a whisper, I was always hoping that it would take place in Ivalice. Then when FF14 was first rumored, again I hoped that we'd be able to exist in a fully fleshed out world of Ivalice.

They keep disappointing me.

I mean, Vana'diel and Eorzea are both "okay" but neither are as good as Ivalice.

Joshmvii

Outside of her outfit which is definitely dumb, Fran wasn't really that bad of a character in terms of oversexed. She wasn't Balthier's plaything or whatever, she was her own person just out doing adventures in the world.

Dehumanized

Hakkekage wrote: »

I have never played the first Theatrhythm, but would it be worth getting Theatrythm Curtain Call for 3DS? I too have felt the emptiness of no Final Fantasies that I can play since FFXII (I skipped the PS3 and FFXIII generation, which could be considered good or bad either way).

Go straight to Curtain Call. It's a better game than the original, and has a vastly expanded soundtrack that happens to contain 99% of all the songs (including DLC) that were available in the original one.

It is my favorite Final Fantasy game in years. On one hand it's a pretty blatant attempt to mine a fanbases' nostalgia for money, on the other hand it's charming as hell at it and very fun to play and focusing the nostalgia on all the soundtracks works really, really well and with Curtain Call you get an incredible amount of content for the money. I'm a bit of a rhythm game junkie, though.

Delphinidaes

Joshmvii wrote: »

Outside of her outfit which is definitely dumb, Fran wasn't really that bad of a character in terms of oversexed. She wasn't Balthier's plaything or whatever, she was her own person just out doing adventures in the world.

Her and Balthier were by far my favorites characters in the game. Yeah Fran was sexualized, but she was also a bona fide badass. The two of them made an awesome pair.

Shen

Viera were just so broken in FFTA. Stonetouch and Ultima with 95% accuracy across the map, doublecast, even the basic fencer wasn't bad at all.

I really, really want another tactical RPG from Square Enix.

Professor Snugglesworth

Joshmvii wrote: »

Outside of her outfit which is definitely dumb, Fran wasn't really that bad of a character in terms of oversexed. She wasn't Balthier's plaything or whatever, she was her own person just out doing adventures in the world.

I thought it was funny that she's been the only FF character to fall victim to the cliche "I fell on her and groped something I shouldn't have" trope, as revealed by a child NPC who tried to pickpocket her.