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Post by relmy on Apr 1, 2012 16:17:37 GMT -4
My favourite out of the PS1 FFs is FFIX, but FFVII has more options for messing with the game mechanics. Also, all my FF games are at my mum's place, and I only have FFVII on emulator (ripping the game apart with the debug room).
Plot wise, I like FFVII more than VIII, but I really like the junction system in VIII because you can become badass so quickly. The main flaw in VIII for me was the ability to get multiple copies of the super cards by playing the CC Club on disk 4... you can get unlimited of most of the game breaking items, it makes it too easy to kill the Weapons. :/
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haksaw
«5» Secret Ambition
Posts: 171
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Post by haksaw on Apr 2, 2012 14:54:47 GMT -4
Hmm... Like it's hard without them =) Longer doesn't mean harder. Plus don't forget "The End" - the most epic ultimate move ever made ;D Never actually paid attention to gameplay of jRPGs - it's too repetitive and boring for almost all of them and all FFs for sure (well, 12 was different... but still not very fun). So I'm just focusing on plot and characters and uber items only a plus - less time wasted on battles which doesn't bring any challenge anyway. My favourite FF is 6 btw. It's strange, but having pretty positive feelings towards FF series it was somehow hard for me to choose candidates to fight for a place in my top of game heroines from it, so in the end only Celes made it without any competition
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Post by Sai on Apr 2, 2012 18:26:10 GMT -4
^ 6 is my all time favourite as well, and Celes is definitely my favourite character VIII is the only one of the Playstation generation that I haven't beaten :\ I've played it a few times on the computer and made it to I think near the end of the 2nd Disc, and I looooved it, I just rarely seem to finish Playstation games that I emulate either cause I feel the gameplay is too choppy or the graphics are too muddy or whatever other reason It's going to be my next purchase though, since you can get it for really cheap on eBay, and then I'll play it properly on my PS2 and finally get through it I'm nearly done FF12, speaking of which! I'm right before the final dungeon, just completing hunts and stuff - I don't think I'm gonna go for 100%, I'm probably going to leave the super-bosses and the like for a second playthrough.
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Post by relmy on Apr 3, 2012 10:59:00 GMT -4
I never use The End, because I never use Selphie lol And I agree about emulating, if I've played it before, it's not so bad, but I don't like playing PS games on a PC. I can't do the controls haha
FFIX is my all time FF fave, with FFVI coming in second. No idea how I'd rank them after that though. Maybe FFXII in third?
I...I... really really liked FFXII. I seem to be in the minority, the plot was really good, great characters, nice change in gameplay for FF. I liked the change in perspective - unlike most FF games where it's protagonist centric, FFXII was cast centric. It was nice to see the whole party be relevant out of a core few. FFVI kinda tried this, but not as well.
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haksaw
«5» Secret Ambition
Posts: 171
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Post by haksaw on Apr 3, 2012 13:18:05 GMT -4
How cruel of you, now you made her cry You don't have a PC gamepad? I actually prefer to play on PC if emulation is smooth - graphics is much better. Oh well, I don't have a TV anyway ;D I'm in majority then ;D FFXII is the only FF I dropped out of boredom... And I even completed first 3.
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Post by Sai on Apr 3, 2012 18:18:26 GMT -4
Yeah, I really can't get behind FFXII too much. I'll admit I've been having fun with it recently, but the plot, the pacing, and many times the execution has just all been done so poorly - at least, in comparison to other FFs. And the cast... Eh. I kind of like Ashe, and Fran is pretty cool, but that's about it. Vaan is fine, I'm completely ambivalent towards Basch and Penelo, and Balthier... is okay in small doses. I'm not a huge fan of the cocky archetype they stuffed him into. Beyond being stiff and mostly uninteresting, it stretches my suspension of disbelief a lot to imagine this lot traveling together. I mean, obviously in an RPG, outside of cutscenes, you don't see the party interacting as they traverse the world map or explore a dungeon, but in this case, my mind can't even fill in these moments with dialogue. I'm almost certain they have nothing to say to one another and each spend the entire time walking in brooding silence, except maybe Vaan and Penelo. I've never felt more emotionally distant from an RPG party that seem, themselves, emotionally distant from each other. Which is fine, if that's what they were going for, since this game isn't supposed to have a Tales of Symphonia or FFX-ish tone, so okay - I just can't say I enjoyed it. Alsooo... slight spoiler: Vayne. Correct me if I'm wrong, but outside of Ashe, has anyone even met the bastard? Vaan and Penelo saw him at the parade near the beginning and all that jazz but I cannot describe how anticlimactic the climax is going to feel when I rush into the final dungeon to beat up a guy that... barely even knows who we are. But what FFXII does do exceedingly well is the world-building. Ahjjfhgskhg I want to live in Ivalice so bad sometimes. From the races, to the slight accents, to the beastiary, to the hunts, to the architecture, the locations, the myths, everything... everything was done so well. No other FF managed this amount of realism in breathing life into its world. It just feels so massive and immersive, and the amazing graphics definitely help that along. But yeah, it's a fun game in its own right and does some things really really well but I can't honestly tell you that I've enjoyed it more than... well, really any of the other FF games, except maybe the first 3. I do like it, just not as much.
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Post by relmy on Apr 4, 2012 7:25:08 GMT -4
Absentee villain is a major flaw in a few FF games. It's why I can never understand why Sephiroth is so celebrated. Aside from Aeris, what does he actually do? FF has much better villains, Kefka is just pure evil, evil to the extent that his motive goes no further than simple hubris. It works for him, just having this evil villain who is evil for his own gratification.
Then there's Kuja, his success rate is almost BETTER than Kefka's, like Kefka he has a certain style to him and distinct mannerisms to add to him being evil, and like Kefka, he interacts with the party constantly throughout the game. Kuja, unlike Kefka, has a more personal motive too. The Kuja/Zidane parallel was better than the Cloud/Sephiroth one in every way.
In FFXII though, I thought they used absentee villain quite well: When you're fighting a whole Empire, how likely are you to always face it's leader? I liked that you dealt with the judges and got to understand how the whole of the Empire worked. Rather than just being "the enemy organisation", it had it's own problems and weaknesses.
FFXII feels much more realistic than the other games. The characters have their own complex reasons for being in that group, and I'm sure a few times it even addresses the fact that they're a rather rag-tag bunch who would never come together. In previous FFs, they always came together because of the hero being charismatic, it was their job etc... but FFXII makes the protagonists a bit less black and white. Joining Ashe is nothing but opportunistic for someone like Balthier. I liked that.
And how the game doesn't just assume that Basch or Balthier are the "good guy" because they're on your side. It was nice.
Oh and I LOVED Larsa. He was such a little brat. Easily my favourite character. Kid-characters are usually so annoying, and while Larsa was a little **** at times, it worked so well because he just meddled in EVERYTHING. Quick note: am I the only one who feels Cloud has been ripped to shred by the compilation? In FFVII he's a bit dorky, a bit cheeky (some of the things NPCs say to you... what he must have said to get that response), and this only makes his troubled side more hard hitting. And then in FF:AC he's all MYYY LIFFEEE IS OOVVERRR. And I had no sympathy, it was his only character trait. Maybe I would have been more empathetic if he rang up Barret and asked him to wear his marshmallow costume.
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Post by Sai on Apr 4, 2012 22:14:45 GMT -4
Ahh so much to agree with in that post. I agree 100% on your points on Kefka/Kuja/Cloud.
I honestly really liked Cloud as a protagonist in FF7. He seemed so much more realistic - a little cheeky, like you said, a little detached, somewhat self-interested, but still heroic and a good guy - then yeah, AC turned him into a typical emo anime character, which was very saddening.
But yeah, it's not like AC did any good for any of the characters or... well, anything, to be honest.
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Post by noknuckles on Apr 5, 2012 21:15:41 GMT -4
I think FF7 is so well liked for more than the game itself. It represents almost a revival of jRPGs and a rewriting of what jRPGs are capable of in terms of storytelling. You may think a later game did it better, but FF7 did it before, so the wow-factor may have been lost when people played the later game.
I think with the advent of PSX, where multi-disc (and hence cinematic heavy) games were possible, games were able to move more heavily toward the story-telling side. FF7 represented a heavy story based game done right. To me, the heavy emphasis on story in FF games started in FF4. The game was much deeper from a story-telling perspective than its predecessors, and much shallower from a gameplay perspective. I think they envisioned their games to move more and more toward story telling and away from dungeon crawling, and had it been technologically possible, FF4 would have been almost exclusively cinematics
My personal fav is FF1. Games like FF7 can be an engrossing experience, but every FF that I've played past FF3 does not have the same feeling of satisfaction after you conquer a difficult cave or you figure out a difficult boss. I would never use the word "conquer" to describe a post-FF3 FF game outside of postgame/optional challenges, and challenges where you handicap yourself. Getting out of the ice cave, holding my breath for the entirety of my trip back to town hoping I don't get 1 shotted, or run out of healing... man nothing like it. I can get engaged and engrossed, but never excited with something like FF7
Not bashing or anything. I enjoy story driven games. Just not as much as many people seem to. Different people enjoy different things and I enjoy me some good ol' long and gruelin' dungeon crawling
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haksaw
«5» Secret Ambition
Posts: 171
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Post by haksaw on Apr 6, 2012 18:14:33 GMT -4
jRPGs are nice and all, but since new MMO based on BattleTech universe releasing this summer I took MW4 from the shelf. Time to warn up PPCs and oil autocannons, after so many years ground will tremble under my mech's feet once again! Really, I waited for so long for this to happen... Even though it's not even open word it's still MechWarrior! Hell, even my nick is a little changed codename of a pilot from MechCommander ;D
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Post by relmy on Apr 15, 2012 18:41:39 GMT -4
Finally playing Ico! Also sort-of replaying Alundra.
I say sort of, because I a) have played a fair amount of it, b) watched my bro play it to the end... but I was reaaally young. I replayed a bit again a few years ago, but never finished it, I didn't get very far either.
I sooort of remember the plot, but not enough to ruin it really~
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Post by Sai on May 4, 2012 20:10:48 GMT -4
Beat FF12 and FF5, and now playing FF8 and going back to Tales of the Abyss and Skies of Arcadia.
I just need to beat 2, 3, 8 and 13 and I'll have finally completed the entire FF series! ... Which is a little weird, to be honest.
Really contemplating getting Revenant Wings for the DS. I know I had a mostly lukewarm reaction to XII, but... I'm really kind of craving more of it after beating it.
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Post by fourteenw on May 20, 2012 0:51:46 GMT -4
Right now I'm playing Pokemon Soulsilver and Black on DS, Super Mario 3D Land on 3DS, Okami, Final Fantasy X2 and God Hand on PS2 and Final Fantasy XIII on XBox360
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Post by Sai on May 20, 2012 15:22:32 GMT -4
^ Welcome, fourteenw! I just beat Tales of the Abyss last night. It was like... staggeringly epic. One of those games that makes you unsure if you'll ever find another to top it. Yeah. I loved it. Now to start Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World and go back to FF8! Oh, I've also been playing FFIV DS again.
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Post by sevenpetals on May 22, 2012 21:04:05 GMT -4
OMG, Tales of the Abyss is my FAVORITE Ps2 game, its one of the Tales of Saga's best games story wise gameplay wise, and completion wise imo. Right now im replaying Tales of Xillia (in japanese i understand the story more everytime i play it haha... now hoping it gets ported, cause i think it will ) and Sai, u might not like ToS: DoTNW, its quite a boring follow up to ToS, my other fav. tales game lol + its super short
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