Concerning Final Fantasy 7, 10, and 12.

[Bara_no_Hime]

Am I the only one who thinks every one of those people are talking out their asses? I mean I actually like JRPGs but I think the games range from "yea its pretty good I guess" to "I enjoyed it quite a bit".

To quote an often used line on this forum, you're never the only one. ^^

Honestly, it isn't just the Final Fantasy games either - I hear people talking out their asses about how PERFECT or HORRIBLE pretty much all games are. The way I see it, it works like this:

Games where people gush on about how perfect = games they kinda likes
Games where people gush on about bile and hate = games the kinda didn't like

Because it is the internet, and no one can have a moderate opinion. Mild dislike gets turned into this seething cauldron of hate. It's actually really damn annoying.

FF7 is a great game, IMO. So is FF 10. I didn't much like FF 12, but I think it was mostly due to Vaan - Ashe was my favorite character, but I felt like we never really got to know her the way I'd have liked.

No FF title is my favorite game ever - that's reserved for Xenogears (another SquareSoft title from the same era as FF7) - but I certainly enjoy both 7 and 10 (and 8 and 9, and 13) and replay them fairly often with a good amount of enjoyment.

Not because they're great - but because they're merely good. ^^

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

I liked both Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XII better than Final Fantasy VII, so not all Final Fantasy fans think that Final Fantasy VII is the second coming of Jesus. Although Final Fantasy IX still wipes the floor with all of them.

 

[AbstractStream]

Also this, this is why I loved 13:


If you can follow whats going on in that the first time you watch it you're better than I

I already liked FFXIII up to this point, but that scene. Ooooh, that scene. The first time I saw it, my jaw dropped and I felt pumped! I fell in love with XIII.

Back on point. FFVII, I liked it. And like I said in another post, I have a lot of good memories with it, but it isn't my favorite. It isn't even the greatest. (I like FFVIII better. What? I did!)
One of the best things to come out of FFVII was Crisis Core. Man! That was a great game. Short, but great.

FFX. I can't believe there is so much hate for FFX. I looooooove FFX. I've replayed it countless times. From the story to Blitzball and from the characters to the music (and yes, even the laughing scene. I crack up everytime)! I'll stick up for FFX anyday.
Now as for what came out of FFX (X-2), eh. It was decent. I just wanted the happy ending dammit!

FFXII. It's alright. I hated it at first, but I've recently replayed it and it's not as horrible as what I first made it out to be. Basch and Ashe were good characters. Vaan and Penelo...sometimes pretty useless. Storywise? It's alright. So like I said. Decent.

 

[paintman]

Well XII is the only on I actually own (besides Tactics advanced but that's different). I have played XII all the way to the final part and am doing the collecta-quests (which are fun for me because i have OCD).

No the plot never really makes sense. That's why I just pretend Balthier really is the main character and that Vaan is more or less Robin to his Batman.

However the game play was fun, and the bosses and environments where nice looking. The only thing that really bothered me is I literally was able to auto level characters. Which i loved because leveling in FFXII is like watching sap run.

Over all I would say XII doesn't live up to the game that it is based on. But not because of the game play or graphics

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

X is my favorite. Everyone brings up that damn laughing scene and misses the point that he was attempting to laugh while not actually being amused by anything, because Yuna asked him to. You try it sometime.

X had the best vocals of the series, best battle system, most addictive minigame, most detailed environments and costumes, and is at least in the race for the best soundtrack even if you don't like 'Otherworld'.

After X the battle system moved into real time. Which is just fine, but they will always come up against the dilemma of controlling multiple party members. How do you give three (or more) people detailed attack orders, and move them around a field simultaneously in real-time? Without relying on AI which may or may not have a clue? The world may never see such a system, and IMO FFXIII botched that part horribly.

 

[LittleBlondeGoth]

If everyone liked the same thing, the game scene would be pretty boring.

VII was my first Final Fantasy, though I had played Secret of Mana before on the SNES. I picked it up in about 1997. In fact, this game was the sole reason I bought a PS1 - my then boyfriend was playing VII and refused to let me have a go. I stormed out, bought a PS1 with VII and never looked back.

Speaking for myself, I love it. Oh sure, there's flaws in things like the translation, and graphics have come so far in the intermediate years that it's showing it's age now. I see these things and I acknowledge them as being true. But you know what? It doesn't matter to me. I liked the characters. To this day I have an obsession with Vincent that is totally unhealthy for a woman my age. I can deal with that. Cloud wasn't emo, apart from a few hours when he'd been dunked in the Lifestream. I loved the fact that the whole backstory he presents to you is a lie, and it's only gradually revealed that all is not well in the head of Mr Strife. The story wasn't necessarily easy to follow, but it's definitely there and certainly took me along for the ride. And there's nothing I can say about Uematsu's soundtrack that hasn't been said before and I'm sure far more eloquently; suffice to say it damn well rocks.

Since that introduction, I've played every FF game I could lay my hands on. Exceptions to this would be stuff like Crystal Chronicles because I never had the system to play it on, and XIII because whilst I have it, I just haven't had the time to play it yet. But I will. So I've tried the new ones. And I've tried the old ones. I've seen how the series grew.

Highlights for me aside from VII would be VI and IX. Both were incredible. VIII took a bit of time to get used to the magic system, having gotten so accustomed to Materia, but once I did, and stopped expecting the game to be a clone of VII, I really enjoyed it.

XII again took a little getting used to, but now it's fine. And really, how is the Gambit system all that different from Tactics in Mass Effect? Really, when you think about it? It only micro-manages your team if that's what you tell it to do. Nothing stops you from swapping characters, issuing your own commands... Hell, it's fun.

So far, I've not come across a Final Fantasy I hated, or haven't been willing / able to complete. Some are better than others. Some have fantastic gameplay mechanics. Others have a better story.

They are not going to be everyone's cup of tea, and the sooner people accept this the better. I don't think much of Call of Duty, but I'm not going to call it a shit game just because I don't like it. Nothing anyone can say will convince me that VII is rubbish, because it appeals to my personal taste. But I'm not going to expect everyone else to love it like I do.

 

[valleyshrew]

A lot comes down to personal taste. Do you prefer medieval (IX) or modern (VII) or futuristic (X)? Do you like highly strategic action (XII) or repetitive turn based (x)? Do you like a lot of minigames (VII), or none at all (xii)?

But really, anyone who likes any game in the series that says VII is anything short of a great game is just acting off of perceived popularity imbalance rather than objective consideration. VII is by far the most innovative and improved game in the series. VI was a very primitive little 3mb game while VII surpasses most modern games in scope and ambition. Since then they've been rehashing everything and have not come up with many memorable settings, locations or gameplay variations. People forget how massively interactive VII was at every stage of the game. Games these days are pedestrian, you're tunneled straight to the end. In VII you could take part in a motorbike chase, then a tower defence game, then snowboarding and so on. In terms of setting and gameplay they have been chipping away at everything. Pretty much the only 2 features that have been added are voice acting and full 3d maps, both of which are debatably a negative influence as they take up too much resources. Gone are minigames, the world map, vehicles, limit breaks and all the other things have been lessened such as characters. VII-IX all had around 50 characters and locations, XIII has 19.

 

[Sunrider]

I love 7 and 10, but I couldn't stand 12. Tried playing through it once, dropped it because it bored me. Picked it up again, started over, thinking this time will be different. So many people told me how it just keeps getting better. I ended up dropping it again. It bored me to death, and I just CANNOT STAND VAAN. He is the SINGLE WORST CHARACTER in ANY Final Fantasy games, including spin-offs (at least the ones I have played).

 

[Thaius]

I've seen a lot of hate toward X lately too, and it confuses me. Namely, the voice acting wasn't that bad. The laughing scene was awful, of course, but to be fair that scene would be incredibly difficult to voice act well. But the story is incredible and the combat is one of my favorite systems of the series. I put in over 100 hours on that game. To Zakarkand is the most beautiful piano song I've ever heard. And seriously, the story... my heart just broke at the end when...

<spoiler=FFX Spoilers>...Yuna ran toward Tidus and just fell through him onto the ground in tears. Seriously, holy crap.

The main complaint I've seen is Tidus being annoying, but I feel that's a little hypocritical. There's a rather mistaken idea out there that all JRPG protagonists are whiny emo kids, and Tidus comes along as a surprisingly upbeat, optimistic character and people crucify him for it. Seriously?

VII is still my favorite, though considering how amazing VI and X are, that could just be because of nostalgia. But it was an amazing game.

XII, I can understand. It's my second least favorite of the series. The setting was good, the graphics were beautiful, the political intrigue in the war story was interesting, and I actually really liked the battle system, but it all fell flat for me because the characters were undeveloped blobs. Only like three of the characters actually got any semblance of development, and everyone else was just kind of... there. Vaan was pretty much useless, and Penelo? Why was she even there? A story without good characters means very little. Which is why I preferred XIII's story, since its metanarrative was lacking, but the characters and the drama between them was fantastic. That was good stuff.

 

[WorldCritic]

Don't know what everyone else is talking about. Personally I love 7 even though I know it's overrated, I love 12 because I'm not a Final Fantasy fan who's terrified of a series changing its gameplay, and I really like 10 but I do have a few gripes whith it.

 

[StBishop]

I really liked 7, marginally enjoyed 10 and was bored to death by 12. That's all there is to it. We're talking about personal experience here.

BUT I LOOOOOOVE XII!!! How can people say it was bad...

That's how.

I didn't know anyone had a problem with that scene until I started coming on gaming forums. I always thought it fit pretty well. He was forcing a laugh disingenuously, it sounded like a forced and fake laugh.
Where is the problem?

OT: I like all of the Final Fantasy games which I've played.
This includes all of the ones in the OP. Maybe I'm a little less picky than some people, who knows.

I think that plenty of the rift with FF7 is this "I played it when it was new, it was awesome. I love it." vs "I didn't, and when I finally got around to playing it, I was under-whelmed. It is obviously shit."

 

[dimensional]

Im not sure exactly what we are discussing now but it seems to be personal opinions on the FF`s so ill just give mine quickly:-
1.Ok wasnt expecting much (it was old when I tried it) but is functional enough.
2.Had some personality not blank slate characters like 1.It also had moogles but combat was a bit broken and occasionally stupidly hard until you got the blood sword anyway.
3.Felt like an updated version of 1 cant remember any of the characters in it all I remember now is Bahamut kicking my sorry arse and a ridiculously long final dungeon with no save points.
4.Simple combat but a great story and characters also Gabranth would be my favourite FF villain of all time if it wasnt for that ending.
5.Felt like an updated version of 3 thats all I can say it was ok.
6.Actually pretty good combat started to get a bit more interesting I also enjoyed the characters and story.
7.Very good liked the combat and story also along with X its the only ones I can remember all the characters oh and its been the only one so far I have managed to play to completion more than once.
8.Yup liked this one as well although not to keen on Squall and Seifer but it tried some things slightly different like 6 and 7 (and 4 to a lesser extent) so gets my respect.
9.Liked the story and characters but felt the combat was a major backslide for the series slow,clunky and generally less fun to mess around with.
10.Bored of saying this now but liked the story and characters (thought Tidus was ok Jecht annoyed me more) loved the turn based combat system and the sphere grid also has the best endgame of any Final Fantasy imo.
10-2.Ok nice combat i.e a better system of 5 but didnt really do it for me had fun with it though while it lasted.
11.n/a
12.Liked endgame but the 60 hours to get there I found boring and the first 10 hours were so dull I almost quit. Imo it was hampered by a weak story,weak battle system and weak characters my favourite was Balthier, I didnt like his character its just that he had a character and dont get me started on Fran she had almost no development at all also I found the gambit system to be tedious and annoying its fine to use it for grinding but there just werent enough options to account for every situation so unless I was overpowered for a section I would generally be changing gambits for every enemy anyway to get the best results, so may as well have been controlling the characters myself to begin with.
13.Liked endgame but the 40 hours to get there were boring not as boring as 12 though imo as at least it looked pretty (yay lets show the fireworks again*sigh*) and the A.I characters were pretty intelligent (I think only twice in the game I was left wondering what the hell they were doing).As much as I disliked Snow and Hope at least they were given characters with some development.
14.n/a
FFTactics. couldnt finish sunk 40 hours into this game and could not find a single likeable quality about it (It was the only game I had to play at the time due to certain circumstances) give me Disgaea any day.

Yeah so imo 4,6,7,10 are the best but its pointless me saying this because im certainly not correct in this statement (except to myself), one of my friends loves 12 and hates 10 for example but I do like that they change it up all the time they could have just kept knocking out the same copycat title once they established a base but credit to them they mix it up and thats what I like about the series even if I dont get on with every entry.

 

[Herbsk]

Am I the only one who thinks every one of those people are talking out their asses? I mean I actually like JRPGs but I think the games range from "yea its pretty good I guess" to "I enjoyed it quite a bit".

You could just say some people are more passionate about their love/hate for these games or their love/hate for rpgs/jrps/mainstream games than you are.

I am often of the same opinion as you (middle of the road). But for me personally, I really like FF9 as an overall game and I love the love story and songs from FF8.

So - I have my specific things that I like more than others as well!

 

[jumjalalabash]

I don't mind you liking 7 or 10 with their horrible stories and character designs, but defend 12? Have it you sir...

Ya it looked pretty, but there was no substance to the world. Really having then fan-service bunny race is a plus to the game even though do NOTHING for the game. Low standards dude. And you talk about 'abusing' the gambit system. That whole combat system is slow overstuffed menu scrolling nonsense. It takes a pause and 3 menu scrolls just to cast one spell which in combat you can only cast one spell between your whole party at a time making magic worthless for the most part. I don't care if developers want to try new things but when make a game as obnoxious as 12 they deserve no praise.

 

[Jerubbaal]

Ok.

But to respond to your question about VII, X, and XII, I'll give you my two bits.

The story for FFVII literally makes no sense, at least not for the first 20-30 hours of play, and that is a very bad thing.

False. This isn't even a matter of opinion, it's simply untrue. FF7 makes sense and has a strong plot especially during the first disc of the game.

Now whether or not you personally understood it is a completely different thing.

I elaborated on this in another post already, but answer me this: what reason is given in the game for stopping your fight against Shinra and instead chasing Sephiroth for the next 30 hours? What reason do you, the player, and also the characters in game, have for believing that Sephiroth is a legitimate threat to the planet?

And the answer is none, which really makes the entire story fall apart.

EDIT: *SPOILERS* Also, let's not forget the fact that all of the memories Cloud uses to justify chasing Sephiroth are false in the first place! Really, the whole reasoning behind what you're doing in the entire first disc is illogical.

 

[lord.jeff]

12 is one of my favorites(it's no 9 though), I think the core story is pretty good, even if they lose track of it and go on completely different mission for a large chunk of the game, it was great being able to see animals just walking around, it even had some that didn't attack you made it feel very real, combat was probably the best of the series.

I elaborated on this in another post already, but answer me this: what reason is given in the game for stopping your fight against Shinra and instead chasing Sephiroth for the next 30 hours? What reason do you, the player, and also the characters in game, have for believing that Sephiroth is a legitimate threat to the planet?

And the answer is none, which really makes the entire story fall apart.

Oh good, I'm not the only one bothered by that, also why was everyone listening to Cloud it's pretty obvious that he's self serving and never cared about Shinra in the first place. I still find it to be a pretty good game though.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

I really liked 7, marginally enjoyed 10 and was bored to death by 12. That's all there is to it. We're talking about personal experience here.

BUT I LOOOOOOVE XII!!! How can people say it was bad...

That's how.

I didn't know anyone had a problem with that scene until I started coming on gaming forums. I always thought it fit pretty well. He was forcing a laugh disingenuously, it sounded like a forced and fake laugh.
Where is the problem?

I understand why he's laughing. But the acting of fake acting was so fake that it just ended up being silly.

P.S: My post is irrelevant, I realised after posting it that Jesse was talking about 12. The exclamation marks threw me off.

 

[ManupBatman]

Currently playing through 7. It's probably the most dramatic of the bunch, with a dark and edgey protagonist with a motorcycle. Combat is meh and upgrades are even mehher. It has the problem 13 has in that for most purposes all the characters in battle are interchangeable. Characters seem to have a good bit of personality though. I am interested in fishing it.

10 is good. I don't care about the laughing thing, IT'S SUPPOSE TO BE AWKWARD! It's fake, because Tidus is fake laughing to try to make Yuna fake laugh, so they can pretend everything is alright. Literally the scene ends with laughter that is natural. But 10 really takes what makes FF combat good and does wonders with it, same with the upgrade system. Your warrior is a warrior, your white mage is a white mage, and if you want to change that it's a hard journey, as it should be. And because of this the character's in battle are more consistent with their out of battle personalities.

Only played a bit of 12. I didn't care much for the battle system, mostly because it's rather use the gambits or have a hella time to actually do combat. To it's credit it's based on the FF tactics story, so tactical gameplay is expected, but didn't work for me. I'm old school

On that note, play 4 and 6. Both of excellent stories and characters, especially 6. And 9 is very solid.

 

[ManupBatman]

[/quote]

I understand why he's laughing. But the acting of fake acting was so fake that it just ended up being silly.

P.S: My post is irrelevant, I realised after posting it that Jesse was talking about 12. The exclamation marks threw me off.[/quote]

The internet has caused us to forget, but they literally start laughing naturally seconds after that video ends. Once they realize how stupid they are.

Also, irrelevant or not, I can't imagine how a scene like that could ruin a game in the eyes of anyone.

 

[Deleted]

I enjoyed all FF games I played. I played FF6 (the one with Terra, not FF3), FF7, FF8, FF9 (my favourite), FF10, FF12.

I am just an open minded gamer so this may be the exception but if I played more FF games I'd like them too.