It's not that bad. Granted there's no world map, but you can deviate from the path and explore and the game doesn't smack you upside the head for doing so. Its a linear path in that you do eventually have to go one way, but it's still got big maps to explore and does have things to distract you along the way. It also discounts FF13, which really WAS a corridor.
Hairless Mammoth said:
Once you hit 10 and beyond, say goodbye to the freely explorable world map and many other FF staples ( Uematsu soundtrack) .
I've just tryed playing so called HD version and my nostalga lense shatered hard it is a straight coridor for good 15+ hours. The story/characters are servicable but not good enough to slough through the game again. Combat system is nice. FF9 from what I remember was good all around and felt much more open.
On the note of "HD" PCSX2 emulator version looks way better still so I have no idea what was the point of that release.
Re FF12 is an abomination of a game unles you like single player mmo and just moving characters around the map whie watching them do basic attacks on enemies and healing themselves. Whoopy.
I know there are others, but I've played most of the others I've been wanting to play(except Skies of Arcadia, which I still haven't gotten my hands on). And I actually own those two but haven't touched them, which is the other big factor here.
Yeah, I know he did most of it. I just meant IX was his last solo run (and his personal favorite) before leaving Square AFAIK. X does have have a great soundtrack, though.
Lufia Erim said:
Final fantasy 12 would like to have a word with you.
Sure vaan sucks but as he'll tell you himself Balthier is the true hero of the story.
XII is great and does go back somewhat to a more open world that is sorely missing in X and XIII.
Balthier is also one of the best characters to grace the series, but, like Auron, Balthier is in a player party that is overall lackluster, to be as polite as possible. XII does have better supporting characters (Reddas, Larsa, Gabranthe) compared to X (Jecht and...and...), but I think IX still tops those games with overall personality.
For jrpgs the breath of fire series is pretty good, I enjoyed the Suikoden series too, though part 1 can be tough to get into it is worth it to load your complete data into part 2, and from 2 into 3. 3 is an absolutely fantastic game. Many people hate on 4 and it's not completely unfounded, but I thought 5 was a nice return to form. Sad that Konami will probably never make another, it's one of the only jrpgs to carry significant portions of the cast from game to game, and there's usually 108 characters, later games include main villains in the 108... Vandal Hearts is okay too, but i have a hard time getting into part 2 but i had a friend who was really really into it back in the day,
For jrpgs the breath of fire series is pretty good, I enjoyed the Suikoden series too, though part 1 can be tough to get into it is worth it to load your complete data into part 2, and from 2 into 3. 3 is an absolutely fantastic game. Many people hate on 4 and it's not completely unfounded, but I thought 5 was a nice return to form. Sad that Konami will probably never make another, it's one of the only jrpgs to carry significant portions of the cast from game to game, and there's usually 108 characters, later games include main villains in the 108... Vandal Hearts is okay too, but i have a hard time getting into part 2 but i had a friend who was really really into it back in the day,
Already played and beaten most of the Breath of Fire games(4 is on my shelf and I'm not sure if I'm gonna grab 5 at some point). Suikoden I've heard of but I'm not quite up for starting another series that stretches on for mutiple sequels just yet. Same with Persona(though I'll probably play Persona 3 someday).
I know there are others, but I've played most of the others I've been wanting to play(except Skies of Arcadia, which I still haven't gotten my hands on). And I actually own those two but haven't touched them, which is the other big factor here.
Well then assign them heads or tails then flip a coin.
At any rate, my top reccomendations go to everything made by Falcom. In particular, Ys: Origin and Trails in the Sky, which are both available on Steam and can run on a potato.
I actually voted for X, but after giving it some thought I changed my mind, play IX.
Need a reason? Vivi, that's all the reason you need. That and the music of course.
*Edit*
Just noticed that it has not been mentioned yet so, another key difference between IX and X is that X is actually more or less fully voice acted as a first in the series. It may or may not affect your choice depending on how you feel about this.
I voted X as its my third favourite Final Fantasy (after VIII and XIV). However, while the story, visuals and combat are all great, it is very linear and IX definitely feels more like a traditional Final Fantasy.
Oh, and if you get X get the HD remake with X-2 as there's a lot more to it then the "Girls playing dress up" most seem to focus on.
Story and gameplay are both important to me, but it's harder to find games with great stories then great gameplay, so I would have to say that story is a higher priority for me here.
Hm...story is most important then huh? Well, in that case, my vote goes to X. Both games have amazing stories, but I think X squeaks ahead a bit. IX's story gets a little...odd toward the end, more than usual for a Final Fantasy game. It kind of feels like the story shifted gears and forgot to tell the player what was happening.
X's story takes a bit to get going, as for the first few hours you are either by yourself, or you are losing companions left and right because you keep jumping everywhere, but once everyone is together, it really picks up and starts running. Also, the ending here is a bit more touching than other Final Fantasy games.
And I suggest that you do give X-2 a chance. It is a solid game, and while at times it does feel like Charlie's Angels, it does have its moments. It's also nice to see what everyone is up to after X.
9 Has this wonderful feeling of fantasy, with the multi-racial world with so many kinds of environment and enemy. It was pretty magical to experience, and left me wanting more after playing it. My biggest complaint with 9 is that for a large chunk of the game, you're forced to use certain characters in their own stories until eventually it all ties together.
10, on the other hand, I still haven't finished. The zones are completely narrow-corridor linear (Worse than any CoD game- seriously), and the combat grows old very quickly. Basically, there are only 6 types of enemy, and you have 6 party members (7 technically, but two are the same); one of which counters one of the aforementioned enemy types. To make this a little more clear, you have one character that deals magic damage, and there's one type of enemy that only takes damage from magic. There's another enemy with heavy armour, so you have to use the character with armour-piercing. There's another enemy that can't be hit from the ground, so you use the ranged character. It's very much just inserting blocks into holes for the entire game. It grew old very quickly.
But what made me quit 10 was the trial-and-error boss fights. In 9, if you die to a boss, it's because you weren't fast enough with your heal, or you were too aggressive, or because you didn't catch on to its strategy. In 10, the bosses feign 'difficulty' by pulling some major BS. One boss puts super-poison on everyone and it eats you alive. So you die, equip poison-immunity, and then mop the floor with him. The problem is the long, long drawn-out unskippable cutscenes before each boss. Another one, after a 10 minute cutscene and a 15 minute fight, casts Insta-Death-All and literally gameovers you. I shit you not; the boss has an I.WIN button. So you go through the 25-minute fight again, but this time you equip Death-Immunity and now the fight is easy. It's a very very bad design, IMO.
EDIT: The one caveat is that 10 is a lot more straight forward. It's impossible to not know where to go because the game is basically on rails. With 9, it's quite easy to forget where you're meant to be headed, or what the current objective is. There's no shame in checking walkthroughs for direction. It's also an option to check walkthroughs to see which bosses have items that are worth using the 'Steal' skill on. Sometimes it's a waste of time, which is an annoying flaw, but an optional one.
They are both in my top 5 games of all time. I highly recommend you play both.
FFIX has sub-par graphics, especially given it's age, but it's otherwise near flawless. Wonderful storyline, great cast (Zidane is actually my favourite fictional character ever), straightforward combat where you remain in control (as opposed to later FFs) and lovely settings. The soundtrack is fantastic too. It also has this nice feature, in which you can sometimes see scenes with other party members when you're exploring a town/city (like, see what they're getting up to in their own explorations).
FFX is my favourite game ever. Again, great cast of characters, good storyline (but it gets a tad hard to follow near the end), beautiful music, good combat, a villain you'll love to hate. Lots of people seemed to hate Tidus though; personally I didn't. It also has Blitzball, a fun mini-game which can be slightly daunting to learn at first but also lots of fun once you learn the ropes. Also, if the ending doesn't make you cry, then you are a gargoyle.
Neither game should have you grinding at any point which I really liked. The only two objective things I could tell you (aside from FFX's superior graphics) which may sway you one way or the other;
1) FFIX has active combat like FFVII did, whereas FFX is completely turn-based. You could set the controller down mid-fight and go have dinner, and your party will just stare at the enemies until you come back. It does get strategic though, since you can also see what order you and the enemies will get turns in, and can plan accordingly.
2) FFX is fairly rail-roaded, whereas FFIX requires that you explore a bit more to find stuff.
Well then assign them heads or tails then flip a coin.
At any rate, my top reccomendations go to everything made by Falcom. In particular, Ys: Origin and Trails in the Sky, which are both available on Steam and can run on a potato.
I actually picked up Trails in the Sky on GoG. I actually forgot I had it until you mentioned it(My GoG backlog is almost as bad as my Steam backlog). My biggest deterrent on that one was finding it that it was part 1 of 3, and not knowing if I'll reach the end to find a massive cliffhanger.
I actually picked up Trails in the Sky on GoG. I actually forgot I had it until you mentioned it(My GoG backlog is almost as bad as my Steam backlog). My biggest deterrent on that one was finding it that it was part 1 of 3, and not knowing if I'll reach the end to find a massive cliffhanger.
IX was kind of the underrated step-child of the series, but it's an absolute gem in my opinion. I love the quirky design, I thought the characters were well-rounded and interesting, and they all get realistic character arcs as the plot progresses. And when it was new, I think lots of people appreciated the change back from VII and VIII's gritty mechanical drama.
The combat is... well, it's Final Fantasy combat, but I don't mind that so much. The Trance (limit break) mechanic is a pile of arse, but it's also not necessary to the game.
Also, just speaking for myself obviously, it's got maybe the highest bulk of really memorable music tracks.
And, out of all the FF series, it's the one I've replayed the most, by far.
Play 4 and 5. Or at least, play 4 if you liked the earlier Breath of Fire games, since it's the best of the bunch. I beat BoF 1 and 2 back in the day, but honestly the games were pretty rough. I played a few hours of 3 and didn't really get into it, partly because I played 4 first and 4 was just a strictly better version of 3, though I understand that the dragon transformations are better in 3 (I didn't get far enough to get them). But 4 is, overall, my pick for best in the series.
Dragon Quarter is a strange beast. Almost everything about it is worse than the previous games (the characters, plot, party size, graphics, lighting...pretty much everything is sub-par). Contrasting this, however, is the battle system, which is probably my favorite combat system in any RPG ever. Enemies appear on the map, and you can set traps before entering battle to make enemies start the battle with adverse status effects or partial HP. Then you go into combat and it's sort of like XCOM...well, only a little. It's a pretty unique system, and well worth experiencing, in my opinion.
KenAri said:
10, on the other hand, I still haven't finished. The zones are completely narrow-corridor linear (Worse than any CoD game- seriously), and the combat grows old very quickly. Basically, there are only 6 types of enemy, and you have 6 party members (7 technically, but two are the same); one of which counters one of the aforementioned enemy types. To make this a little more clear, you have one character that deals magic damage, and there's one type of enemy that only takes damage from magic. There's another enemy with heavy armour, so you have to use the character with armour-piercing. There's another enemy that can't be hit from the ground, so you use the ranged character. It's very much just inserting blocks into holes for the entire game. It grew old very quickly.
But what made me quit 10 was the trial-and-error boss fights. In 9, if you die to a boss, it's because you weren't fast enough with your heal, or you were too aggressive, or because you didn't catch on to its strategy. In 10, the bosses feign 'difficulty' by pulling some major BS. One boss puts super-poison on everyone and it eats you alive. So you die, equip poison-immunity, and then mop the floor with him. The problem is the long, long drawn-out unskippable cutscenes before each boss. Another one, after a 10 minute cutscene and a 15 minute fight, casts Insta-Death-All and literally gameovers you. I shit you not; the boss has an I.WIN button. So you go through the 25-minute fight again, but this time you equip Death-Immunity and now the fight is easy. It's a very very bad design, IMO.
I sort of agree with you, but I think you're oversimplifying the issue to the point where it's effectively wrong. Like sure, Wakka can hit flying enemies, but so can any magic user. Some enemies can only be hurt by magic, but most of the characters get at least one 'magic' ability relatively early on to take them out with if desired. If anything, the real flaw in the battle system was that you were highly incentivized to put four three fastest characters first after every battle since there was no penalty for swapping out, which took an extra half-minute or so after each battle. It got old pretty quickly.
I kind of hear you on the boss fights, too -- some of them were a bit cheap -- but I managed to beat most of them on my first try. It probably helped that I was a little over-leveled, since I basically never ran from any random encounters ever and did several optional sidequests on the way through, but the trick is just to keep your HP high, your status ailments under control, and your buffs active (especially the appropriate elemental wards and the haste spell). Most of the time, if you die to a party wipe, it was your own fault for not following the above advice.
Dalisclock said:
I actually picked up Trails in the Sky on GoG. I actually forgot I had it until you mentioned it(My GoG backlog is almost as bad as my Steam backlog). My biggest deterrent on that one was finding it that it was part 1 of 3, and not knowing if I'll reach the end to find a massive cliffhanger.
I haven't played the game, but I've heard that the ending
is, indeed, a massive cliffhanger.
The second game should be out soon, though, and my loose understanding is that it ends things nicely. It's not entirely clear to me whether it's actually a trilogy or more of a duology with a side-game thrown in.
Well then assign them heads or tails then flip a coin.
At any rate, my top reccomendations go to everything made by Falcom. In particular, Ys: Origin and Trails in the Sky, which are both available on Steam and can run on a potato.
I actually picked up Trails in the Sky on GoG. I actually forgot I had it until you mentioned it(My GoG backlog is almost as bad as my Steam backlog). My biggest deterrent on that one was finding it that it was part 1 of 3, and not knowing if I'll reach the end to find a massive cliffhanger.
XSEED insists that part 2 will be coming out this summer, and part 2 concludes the main story. Im not entirely sure what part 3 is supposed to be but i know its only tangentially related to the first 2.
I do intend to play 4, partly because of the lingering rumor that it's chronologically the first game in the series. That and I enjoyed the first 3. You're right, the first two are tough, even by JRPG standards. 3 is
5 I've heard is pretty hit and miss. Also, the fact it doesn't apparently tie into the rest of the series is another reason it's farther down the list.
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