Is Final Fantasy really that Awesome?

[Nemesis296]

Hey guys, I know I'm notorious for asking the community here about other game series, but I have to ask about Final Fantasy. What is it that people like about it so much? Is it really all it's hyped up to be?

I've watched videos of gameplay for FFXIII and my jaw keeps hitting the ground. It looks really fun, and they say that it's going to be a great game, but I've never played any of the other FF games in the series. Are they related? Since it's the "13th" in the series, I wasn't sure if I would have to start at 1 (on the NES ) or if I could just pick this one up and play.

I'm always a sucker for magic and special effects in video games; I loved the Kingdom Hearts games on the PS2 (both series by SquareEnix). The visuals look amazing and I'm really thinking about picking FFXIII up, I just don't want to be really disappointed.

Any gamers here have insight on the series?

[LIGHTS]

@Nemesis I don't know, really.. I'm always a big fan of fantasy games and Final Fantasy seemed like the perfect game for fantasy.. lol. It's fun to play if you're extremely bored and have absolutely nothing to do and just want to relax. I recommend Final Fantasy: Ring of Fates if you own a DS.

[lilhanhan]

Don't worry each Final Fantasy can be considered as it's own separate game, with each of the instalments having completely different worlds and characters (unless it's a spin-off or the odd occurrence of a direct sequel such as Final Fantasy X-2 and Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings). You can start enjoying the series with the latest game without feeling confused about any of the past plots.

There's only a few things related to each game but they're just references; one example of this is that there's always a character named Cid. Although they all look different, he's always involved with airships (you may have noticed that he also appears in the Kingdom Hearts series).

The appeal of the series is quite hard to explain because everyone has their different reasons, it's just one of those things which a lot of people enjoy.

I hope I've actually explained something and that I haven't just rambled on; it's just that it's really hard to explain the phenomenon which is Final Fantasy. ^.^;

[Nemesis296]

Haha, well I figured it would be tough to explain since it's been around for over 20 years now. I just never caught onto it I guess, which seems kinda sad considering how popular it has been. My roomates in college really were into it and it never grasped me like it did for them. This one looks quite different though with more dynamic combat and the visuals look to be the best out of any game on the market.

I'll be honest, I thought of Avatar when I watched GT's review of the game this afternoon. Does anyone know if there's a demo available for FFXIII?

[LIGHTS]

@Nemesis FFXIII demo will be out on the sixteenth of next month.

[Raziel'sRevenge]

You really can't judge the series based on any one game, but they can all stand alone from the rest (except for Final Fantasy X-2, but any real fan of the series doesn't count that atrocity). FFVII is usually considered the best, although Tactics is also right up there, and FFIX is vastly under-rated.

So far as order goes: that's a tad screwy. They released the first few in Japan but not the US, so we started off with FFIV as the first when in fact there were three made before, but they've just recenly been released in the US.

(I think it's the first 3 that weren't released in the US, perhaps it was only the first 2, I'm very tired and too lazy to look it up.)

[Daworm]

all I need now is a PS3 ... then I'll be a happy FF addict

[Nemesis296]

Originally Posted by LIGHTS

@Nemesis FFXIII demo will be out on the sixteenth of next month.

Haha, well good to know, but I pre-ordered FFXIII at Best Buy tonight and will be picking it up tomorrow. I found that I have a copy of FFX on PS2 in my house, so I popped it in for a bit and it seemed pretty fun. I wasn't too sure about how the turn-based combat would work since I'm so used to the fast-paced action stuff. It actually was pretty cool though, and after watching all the videos for FFXIII I figured it was worth a try

Hopefully this series will hook me more than the Fallout series did

[cemejacky]

Sometimes a white hot, hi-saw sounds great over top a prog-metal kinda track like this, and sometimes a screaming, blue lead sounds better. I think a blue lead or even a distorted square probably would've sounded better, but I don't it detracts from the mix at all.
Is the opening there the Japanese thing you were waiting to get recorded for so long? You told me about that a while back and I'm wondering if thats it.

[Zulgbrtzchllha]

Actually, the first Final Fantasy was released in the US as Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy 2, 3, and 5 weren't released until much later. Final Fantasy 4 was released in the US as Final Fantasy 2 and Final Fantasy 6 was released as Final Fantasy 3, which is the reason why there are still "hardcore" idiots out there who refer to Final Fantasy 6 as Final Fantasy 3. Final Fantasy 7 was the first one released outside Japan with the true number.
Personally, I think the first one is OK. I never did beat it, but I have played it and enjoyed it (by the way, if you ever play it and want to be cheap, put four Fighters in your party. You will slaughter everything, and you can keep reusing equipment by passing it on to the other characters whenever you buy new stuff). I've never played Final Fantasy 2 or 3, but Final Fantasy 4 was fun and had really catchy music. I also never beat that one either for some reason. Final Fantasy 5 sucks. It's awful. Bad music, story, getting into fights every two steps... The Job System was it's only saving grace, but who cares because Final Fantasy Tactics did the Job thing far better (another one I never beat! And I was doing pretty good at it too! I should go back to that one). Final Fantasy 6 is considered by most to be the best, and I enjoyed it, though I wouldn't say it's the best. You know, I got to the final boss of the game years ago and never beat it... Final Fantasy 7 is a lot of fun with probably the most interesting story I'd say. Final Fantasy 8 is also really fun, but kind of easy. Lot's of people complained about the combat in the game, but I thought it was an interesting system, though drawing from enemies could get really annoying fast, especially if you're like me and wanted to draw the max from each enemy to keep my characters' stats up.
Personally, I'd say that Final Fantasy 9 is the best. I'm going more from gameplay here, which I just enjoyed the most. The story is a typical sappy love story most of the time unfortunetly. Final Fantasy 10 just couldn't hold my attention really. Maybe the voice acting had something to do with it...
Screw the Final Fantasy series! Play Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, and Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete! Now THOSE are some great Japanese RPGs! Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross have kick ass philosophical stories, time travel, and multiple timelines, and Lunar's charm is just through the roof. If you want a good RPG with a heavy love story, Lunar is far superior. Hell, I've never wanted to protect and fight for an NPC in a game as much as I did for Luna.

Oh yeah, and as far as I'm concerned, the combat systems in Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross are the best ever in an RPG as well, each for different reasons.

[The Hylden]

The only one I've played any of is FF7 and I didn't enjoy it, for the very same "fight every two steps" thing you just mentioned in another earlier one of the series. That's annoying, and so is turn-based combat to me, being at the mercy of the computer half of the time.

As for Fallout, the original ones didn't hold me either, for the same turn-based fighting reasons, but I did enjoy Fallout 3 a lot. Uh, just on cheat mode, so I wasn't weighed down by all of the stuff I was carrying and killed by like three shots from something. But the game was very, very cool. I'll get around to playing it again, assuming I get my PC fixed.

[Nemesis296]

Originally Posted by The Hylden

The only one I've played any of is FF7 and I didn't enjoy it, for the very same "fight every two steps" thing you just mentioned in another earlier one of the series. That's annoying, and so is turn-based combat to me, being at the mercy of the computer half of the time.

As for Fallout, the original ones didn't hold me either, for the same turn-based fighting reasons, but I did enjoy Fallout 3 a lot. Uh, just on cheat mode, so I wasn't weighed down by all of the stuff I was carrying and killed by like three shots from something. But the game was very, very cool. I'll get around to playing it again, assuming I get my PC fixed.

See, I heard that FF7 was the best in the series. (Zulg said FF6 was). Nice about the Fallout 3 cheat mode haha, too bad I have the PS3 version and can't quite do that I think it's a cool mechanic, there's just a lot to wrap your head around.

I actually do have question about the sphere grid though. I was playing FFX last night, and the review I saw of FFXIII said that the skill system works the same as FFX in the game. The sphere grid thing is how you gain new abilities and move to different spots in the grid. How on earth do you manage to get all of these unlocked by the end of the game? Is there like a special pattern that you have to go in to avoid backtracking and such? Or is it kinda trial and error until you figure out what works for you?

By the way in case you were wondering what I'm referring to:

[Raziel'sRevenge]

With lots of time and effort my friend. I beat FFX 100%, and it took 172 hours to do so, but by the time I was finished all of my characters were maxed out and had learned all of the abilities.

Now, for people who aren't insane OCD freaks when it comes to games, the sphere grid works like this:

Each of your characters starts at a different part of the grid, and every time you have a battle, you earn some points. Eventually you earn enough points to move from one spot (the little circles) to another, and if you have enough points of that value (magic points to learn a spell, strength points to increase stats, etc.) you can learn whatever the spot that you're on has to offer.

Example: Lulu starts off knowing the very basics of dark magic: fire, thunder, water, and blizzard. As you move forward, you can learn better versions of these spells (fira, thundara, watera, and blizzara) and new spells as well (like death).

Here's the fun part: eventually you'll reach a point in the grid where the path splits, and you have to decide what to follow. This means nearly limitless customization for characters. You can also get special spheres that transport you to other points on the grid, so you could potentially have a party that is entirely healers (or black mages, or fighters, etc.)

Was that clear or not? I can never tell once I get into nerd mode lol

[Nemesis296]

Originally Posted by Raziel'sRevenge

With lots of time and effort my friend. I beat FFX 100%, and it took 172 hours to do so, but by the time I was finished all of my characters were maxed out and had learned all of the abilities.

Now, for people who aren't insane OCD freaks when it comes to games, the sphere grid works like this:

Each of your characters starts at a different part of the grid, and every time you have a battle, you earn some points. Eventually you earn enough points to move from one spot (the little circles) to another, and if you have enough points of that value (magic points to learn a spell, strength points to increase stats, etc.) you can learn whatever the spot that you're on has to offer.

Example: Lulu starts off knowing the very basics of dark magic: fire, thunder, water, and blizzard. As you move forward, you can learn better versions of these spells (fira, thundara, watera, and blizzara) and new spells as well (like death).

Here's the fun part: eventually you'll reach a point in the grid where the path splits, and you have to decide what to follow. This means nearly limitless customization for characters. You can also get special spheres that transport you to other points on the grid, so you could potentially have a party that is entirely healers (or black mages, or fighters, etc.)

Was that clear or not? I can never tell once I get into nerd mode lol

Yea that helps somewhat, I was overwhelmed just thinking about the whole "spending spheres" to backtrack. So if I go down a path to get some ability that's 4 spaces away, I don't get any of the abilities in-between, or do I? And if I want to go another direction I have to spend spheres to backtrack and change what I want, right? The other confusing thing was that since all the characters are on the 'same grid', what happens when you overlap? Does each character inherit the skill that is on that space, or does the current character steal it from the other character that was on it? It wasn't really clear in FFX's tutorial.

I'm going to be picking FFXIII up after work today, I'm so freakin excited, the PS3 version looks like a drooling-over Blu-ray movie

[LIGHTS]

@Raziel not quite sure about the game for FFVII, but I loved Advent Children. cloud and tifa are like, my all-time faves of the entire series.

[Nemesis296]

Originally Posted by LIGHTS

@Raziel not quite sure about the game for FFVII, but I loved Advent Children. cloud and tifa are like, my all-time faves of the entire series.

Where do you find the Advent Children? I looked for it on Blu-ray yesterday and Best Buy didn't have it

[LIGHTS]

@Nemesis Try amazon (greek amazons ftw)

[Nemesis296]

Wow, FFXIII is amazing. Maybe I'm just a sucker for killer visuals, but you feel like you're watching a Blu-ray movie the whole time. Combat is fun and the paradigm shifts seem like an interesting mechanic to change up the variability in combat.

I'm not sure why people were so sore about the story, I think it sounds pretty intriguing The one thing I haven't yet grasped is when it's going to become more challenging. So far, I've managed to complete each battle in less than the target time, earning a 5-star rating each time. I'm new to this type of game and to the series, you wouldn't think it would be this easy for me.

One thing I absolutely love, is the ability to chain attacks together. It's not really a 'turn-based' system anymore. (I don't know if the Action-Time Battle system was in any other FF game) Instead you have a bar filled with action charges, and each attack consumes some of those charges. From the beginning this seems like a pretty limited mechanic, since most of the attacks that you have unlocked are pretty much used over and over, but I'm sure once I get deeper into the game it will really open up the possibilities.

The only thing that I haven't really grasped yet in terms of dealing with the game, is the idea of only controlling the party leader, and the other members are AI-controlled. One thing that has changed to sorta make this easier, is that potion use is instant and doesn't cost any action charges, and the party starts each battle with full HP (no healing in-between is necessary). I'm sure that once the battle system opens up with more abilities and attacks that controlling one character will be all I need, but it was weird to just be using the same attacks over and over. The paradigm shifts change this up too, as you have unique abilities and attacks depending on which paradigm your party is currently using.

So far, 3 1/2 hrs in, this game seems like fun, engaging and will definitely keep my interest for a long time Has anyone else picked this up?

@Lights, I shoulda thought of looking on Amazon haha, thanks!

[Raziel'sRevenge]

Originally Posted by Nemesis296

Yea that helps somewhat, I was overwhelmed just thinking about the whole "spending spheres" to backtrack. So if I go down a path to get some ability that's 4 spaces away, I don't get any of the abilities in-between, or do I? And if I want to go another direction I have to spend spheres to backtrack and change what I want, right? The other confusing thing was that since all the characters are on the 'same grid', what happens when you overlap? Does each character inherit the skill that is on that space, or does the current character steal it from the other character that was on it? It wasn't really clear in FFX's tutorial.

I'm going to be picking FFXIII up after work today, I'm so freakin excited, the PS3 version looks like a drooling-over Blu-ray movie

Glad to see you're liking it, once I get a PS3 it's going to have pretty high priority on my must-buy list.

To answer a few of your questions: As you move along you can choose to stop at each node and gain whatever it has to offer, or you can skip some and get to the ones you really want. Skipping enables you to get special moves much quicker but wreaks havoc on your stats. It does cost you to move back, though if you're moving over nodes you've already activated it costs significantly less. Also, if you move onto a node that another character has already learned it in no way effects the original character (so if you're an obsessive gamer like myself you can get each character to learn everything and max out their stats).

[lilhanhan]

Originally Posted by Nemesis296

So far, 3 1/2 hrs in, this game seems like fun, engaging and will definitely keep my interest for a long time Has anyone else picked this up?

I have and I'm about 6 hours into the story.

So far I'm loving the new battle system just because you have to think fast and franticly change the paradigm to ensure that the best tactic is used. There's been quite a few moments were I've just managed to get the upper hand on an enemy, just as I thought I was about to die; you get quite a rush from moments like that and it's things like that which really help me to be more involved in a game.

[Nemesis296]

Originally Posted by lilhanhan

I have and I'm about 6 hours into the story.

So far I'm loving the new battle system just because you have to think fast and franticly change the paradigm to ensure that the best tactic is used. There's been quite a few moments were I've just managed to get the upper hand on an enemy, just as I thought I was about to die; you get quite a rush from moments like that and it's things like that which really help me to be more involved in a game.

Oh I know exactly what you mean. I almost died once, and got a lucky critical hit or something and the fight was over. It's interesting too that the number of potions I have almost seems like it's overpowering since you don't need them in-between battle. I'm very interested to see how things unfold though.

I just found out everyone in my party is a l'Cie and we are trying to escape Lake Bresh which has turned to crystal.

Unfortunately it was 1am when I got this far and I had to goto sleep

[The Hylden]

Just thought I'd share this here, but it's a bit disturbing that IGN has a flash advertisement for this game that ends with the main female character there shattering the "glass" of the screen, then all I see is her head up on the top IGN banner ... and her crotch on the side one


It's probably just my resolution on this screen, but still

[lilhanhan]

Originally Posted by Nemesis296

Oh I know exactly what you mean. I almost died once, and got a lucky critical hit or something and the fight was over. It's interesting too that the number of potions I have almost seems like it's overpowering since you don't need them in-between battle. I'm very interested to see how things unfold though.

I just found out everyone in my party is a l'Cie and we are trying to escape Lake Bresh which has turned to crystal.

Unfortunately it was 1am when I got this far and I had to goto sleep

Potions are a great way to heal if you don't want to waste your ATB bar using Cure when you really want to use the attack commands. While Cure uses the ATB bar, the potion is a "free" item so the ATB bar will still be filling up or will keep full while you're using the item; allowing you to use your attacks instantly after.

They're not effective as Cure but sometimes they can be a lifesaver.

[Nemesis296]

Originally Posted by lilhanhan

Potions are a great way to heal if you don't want to waste your ATB bar using Cure when you really want to use the attack commands. While Cure uses the ATB bar, the potion is a "free" item so the ATB bar will still be filling up or will keep full while your using the item; allowing you to use your attacks straight after.

They're not effective as Cure but sometimes they can be a lifesaver.

Yea I have noticed that potions really do help in a pinch. I really enjoy the need to shift to different paradigms throughout fights, it really adds a lot more variety to the mix. The only thing that I haven't really grasped yet is the right timing to switch from one to the other. For example, I fought this monster with like 20k HP and this was during one of the tutorial moments for shifting paradigms. It suggested that you use "Relentless Assault" until the enemy is staggered to do massive damage, switching in and out of Solidarity to heal and take less damage when needed. I found myself staying in the Solidarity paradigm more than I needed to and it took me a while to stagger the boss. Since the AI is doing the healing it was a little weird to get used to the idea of my computer party members tossing heals on me when they get the ATB points to spend. I'm wondering if there will be times when I can use the healers myself, since Lightning is not able to be a Medic at this point in the game.

I mean I understand that you get to control all the different characters at some point, but it also seemed a bit strange that they suggested I spend my Crystarium Points on an ability that the AI will be using (Hope's Shell ability) The battle system quickly gets more complicated, and if you try to just hack the crap out of everything, you'll be punished quickly for it. I really like this idea, but the fact that there isn't really a penalty other than being forced to try again makes me wonder if this will keep its hold on tougher fights.

One more thing, I have noticed so far that there is really nothing in the game in the form of experience. All you get are Crystarium Points which are used to unlock new abilities and buff up your characters. Monsters on the other hand, have a Level when you read the enemy intel about them. I fought a level 62 monster yesterday...what the heck does that mean in terms of whether or not I'm capable of fighting them? I'm sure that eventually I'll learn the ability to flee a fight, and it wouldn't make sense to allow you to flee the tutorial moments in a linear path section, but it made me wonder nonetheless.

I'm about 5 1/2 hrs into the game now, and I can't wait to get home from work to keep playing Awesome awesome game!

[lilhanhan]

During that battle I think it was best to use Solidarity just before he used his most powerful attack (if you didn't it was always a instant K.O), and then for the rest of the battle you needed to use Relentless Assault until you desperately needed to heal. I just went with that strategy and hoped for the best. ^.^;

Without trying to spoil anything I can say that each character will learn different classes which allows you to create more effective Paradigm. Also there are times were the AI's support moves are essential in battle so I would advise that you keep spending the CP on them.

Wait, the monsters have levels!?! I always use Libra (is that the correct name?) to see their info but I've never noticed the levels; I guess that's because I'm always looking at their weaknesses on the right of the screen and nothing else.