Concerning Final Fantasy 7, 10, and 12.

[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.

 

[Jandau]

First of all, I have no idea what pre-7 FF game I liked the most, generally due to the numbering disaster that came with Western releases. So when talking about FF2-6 I'm never quite sure which game is being discussed.

For the middle generation (7-10), I only liked FFIX. VIII was atrociously bad, with retarded game mechanics, bad characters, pitiful plot, etc. VII I never got into, mostly because it falls into my least favourite visual style - The time when designers discovered 3D graphics, but before they properly discovered textures. The game just hurts my eyes so much I can't stand it. FFX was ok, but not much beyond that.

FFIX was a fun game, interesting characters, decent plot, liked almost everything about it. It just sort of clicked with me. My only major complaint is the WTF final boss fight where the final boss is basically pulled out of someone's arse and makes no sense.

 

[Chibz]

Since everyone is giving their 2-cents on the series... Here's a full dollar.

FF1: Eh, gets the series going. Convoluted plot that is mostly ignorable. Like that I can name my guys. Choose what they are.
FF2: I love the level system or lack thereof. Very slick.
FF3: Able to switch class at will, and love the onion knight. 4 onion knight run. Anyone else stupid enough to try?!
FF4: Reasonably good narrative. Reasonably good gameplay.
FF5: Back to awesome gameplay at the cost of the narrative. I can live with this.
FF6: Awesome narrative, at the cost of gameplay. Why is it that Square can't do BOTH?
FF7: Things startin' to slip. Awful narrative, questionable gameplay.
FF8: The narrative makes perfect sense when viewed in a certain light. [http://squallsdead.com/]
FF9: No opinion today, sorry.
FF10: OH GOD IT BURNS. Hate the gameplay, hate the narrative. Hate Tidus more than anything. I WILL GUT HIM LIKE SHEEP.
FF10-2: I didn't buy it after how much I hated FF10. Sorry.
FF11: MMORPG, no thanks. Next.
FF12: OH GOD IT BURNS. AGAIN. Vaan almost made me wish for Tidus back. The narrative was exceedingly boring. Plus I just set up gambits and walked around. Sure I enjoyed not having to actually play the game, but at that point it's like watching a movie. A bad movie.
FF13: Sorry, but if I actually bought this I'd check myself into therapy.

What FF needs is a return to centre...

 

[Manji187]

I pray to see the day that everybody realizes that "I liked it" is not an argument.

I pray to see the day that everybody realizes that "I hated it" is not an argument.

Well duh...isn't it obvious the opposite is also true?

It's just that you are more likely to stumble upon a comment that goes "What the hell is all the fuss about with game XYZ?....I LIKED IT." As if such a statement has any argumentative value.

I wasn't implying that hating a game is any more objective than liking a game. Under the precondition that no substantive arguments are adduced, of course.

 

[Jerubbaal]

/facepalm

Shinra wants to follow Sephiroth in hopes of finding a land overflowing with mako and to get back Jenova, not because of any power Sephiroth has. Also, nothing is made clear about Jenova except that she was important in the development of Mako energy. Literally none of the logical reasons for chasing Sephiroth (i.e. he's going to destroy the planet) are given in disc 1, and they have no good reason to stop focusing on fighting Shinra.

The story is nonsensical, plain and simple. Or, to quote you, to say it makes since isn't just a matter of opinion, it's simply untrue.