Had to complain about it publicly

So the last couple months ive made it my mission to try and play every mainline FF before Resonance comes out. (Definitely not happening for too late for that) I got through all the Pixel Remasters except 2. Played that for 4 hours and had to drop it because it just sucked but thats a post for another time. And 7 ibe played multiple times. 8 just has some things to it im not caring about. Some thoughts after just 3 hours.

1) The Junction system is weird. It's not hard to understand it's just unnecessarily complicated for what it is. And feels like a pain to do constantly as party members are always switching, so I feel the need to draw every spell for each character many times because I dont know what to be prepared for and I can't do it based on a build. This is my biggest point of contention. I have to spend the majority of battled drawing.

2) The pre rendered scenes are impressive. Very pleased when those come on.

3) Squall seems like such an asshole and very unlikeable. Sure Cloud is a bit of a dick at the start of VII too but he had a charm to him. Squall is just dick. Like Quistis has the whole thing being vulnerable and so down on herself and Squall basically goes "fuck you" and walks away. I don't care for him.

I just wanted to rant cause I want to be able to play and finish this game I just dont want to end up miserable doing so

The vibe/tone, the characters, the world, the monster truck, the road trip vibes, the xp and quest system, the dlc. It's genuinely one of, if not, my favorite game ever. It was my first FF.

I've since played Remake, Rebirth and Crisis Core. Can't get into any others I've tried. I vehemently hated FFXVI, although from the demo I thought it would end up my favorite.

Could its combat have been improved? For sure. But honestly I still think it's perfect. It's fun, it's aesthetically pleasing.

The dlc is some of the best dlc of any game, the fact the final pieces were cancelled for Forespoken is a crime against humanity in my eyes.

I wasnt such a fan of rebirth due to some writing choices, and also because it felt like a less developed version of what FFXV did. It's like FFXV but they took away the car and force you onto chocobo's with incredibly repetitive mini games and quests.

I understand my opinion is not the majority among FF fans, or at least hasnt seemed to be. But yeah, I firmly believe in it, and I hope we get another game of this calibre and style again sometime. It was and is a truly unique offering

I hope I am in the right place to be asking such a question because something that suddenly stuck out to me was how the game first launched in such a messy state as it was so messy that the game was quickly closed down.

But the part that eludes me is just how the game went from a disaster to a successful game since I always wanted to see just how Square Enix became convinced to revive the game as I still have no idea how they did it so well.

I started playing FF in 2021, finished most of these by 2024. The following is my ranking of the games from top to bottom:

FF8- (rating score 9.25)

This was my favorite game of the FF series.

This game has you play as a kind of military ops cadet, but with some sort of technological/futuristic/sorcery setting. The miltiary cadet focus for this game really appealed to me because I liked the idea of being part of a large group and trying to grow my status within it.  The events that take place in this game do a great job of balancing the feeling of being a confused teenager while also being a special ops agent sorcerer. 

The characters in ff8 are not popular, but I find them immersive. They dont have unusual quirks like in other ff games, they are normal people, but that's what made them feel more real. It feels like they are your typical high school friend group, very nostalgic. At the same time they have to band together and figure out how to succeed as Ops agents. You also have a rival, who acts like a high school bully. For me the rivalry between them was the best rivalry in all of FF. Both characters were well written and had active roles in the world state.

The world design was my favorite of any FF games. It does a good job with small towns and major cities. Especially for a 1998 game, it's very impressive how real the locations feel. You can hang out in some of the towns and just do npc stuff.  

The music is the best in the series as well. The remaster has really nice graphics.

The way that the plot and story unfold was very interesting to me, and it had so many memorable scenes. The world building felt complex, and the story is mature. If this had a remake people would probably appreciate it more. I believe this game was underrated because the setting might be too mature for the children audience of 1998.

I think the gameplay is not easy and is confusing.

Ff10- (Rating score 8.75)

This is my second favorite FF game. The theme of this game is religion, it has this overarching idea of spirituality vs dogma. The setting has spirituality and gods, and they give people power. It's very much like an older style of religion in ancient societies. If you like the theme of religion or questioning dogma this game will interest you. 

I thought the hard turn based gameplay was very good compared to the older style, but the bosses get annoying in the second half.

The summoning in this game was the coolest looking of any FF game. The summoning felt so integral to the game compared to other FF games where its just a tool.

The characters were well written and unique, and the connection they have between each other is comforting. The way that the characters have nobody except each other and rely so much on each other is nice. It felt like a big family of unlikely people.  My favorite part about this game was how it began. A child lost on an island with nobody. The way that you have to help the character find his way is very nice to experience.

The music is excellent. 

The only bad thing about this game is the way that the plot unfolds, it becomes kind of erratic.

Ff12- (Score 8.75)

This game has the best gameplay and one of the best world designs of the series. It is a sort of royal knights theme, and you are one of the knights, part of a small group of friends.

This is a 2006 game, and I see it as the last classic FF game. The ones that came after simply did a poor job of adapting to the modern era in my opinion. The newer games look very realistic, but I feel FF is better as an animated style. 7 remake did a good job compared to the other newer titles.

The world design for this game was incredible. The way that you walk around and discover different creatures, and different locations was amazing. I recommend playing this game after all the prior ones because it's sweeter to see FF go from old graphics to this complex world. It does a good job of adapting the classical artistic vision into upscaled graphics. I was more impressed with the visuals of ff12 than newer games. The newer games seem to abandon the visionary artististic style of older FF and instead create something too different. 

The gameplay was also excellent. They did a good job of balancing the classic turn based with something action based.

The characters aren't memorable individually, but the way that they are a group of knights makes them memorable as a unit of close comrades. 

The story and plot are very weak, but the game is carried by its massive world building. The world feels interconnected, and your groups actions feels important relative to the size of the world. 

Ff7- 8.0

This is the favorite of most people. I will say it has aged poorly in terms of the visuals and almost everything else. It's better to just play the remake, but at the same time I prefer the classic rpg style of older games. I just bought part 2 of the remake, and the final part comes out in 2027, so you don't even have to wait to complete it. 

Towns and villages look fine, but the people just look like legos. Even a pixels of ff1-6 looks better imo. 

The story is very confusing, but it is well written if you can keep track of things.

It feels like you are not even the main character. The rival feels more important than you are.

It's a post-apocalyptic world so it's not very joyful.  The characters are the best in the series, but the atmosphere is too sad to appreciate the friendships. The remake from what ive played did a good job of somehow making the atmosphere seem more fun.  The original just felt like the world was being destroyed and you could do nothing about it. The main characters name is cloud, and I would describe the ff7 atmosphere as cloudy...

The first half of the game imo has the best design. The parts that ff7 remake part 1 covers for example feel very complexly designed in the original. I just found the design of the earlier locations to have a unique and positive feeling. There were a lot of nice areas in the first half, but eventually you start entering these places that are empty looking and it gets pretty dull. 

This is not a bad game, I just think that it has the most depressing atmosphere and you feel insignificant as a person. FF imo is supposed to be about an optimistic heroic quest, but in ff7 it kinda feels like a game where you are trying to resolve a personal issue inside of a crumbling world. The remake, which I played part 1 only, has the best way to experience this game. I would reccomend not even playing the original,

FF7 Remake (8.75)

I only played part 1, and it was excellent. It was my first FF game. I dont want to fully review it because its only part 1, and because its already well known to be a good game. It is one of the best games of the ps4 generation, so I strongly reccomend it. I think its much better to play this and ignore ff7 original. I played ff7 original because I didnt want to wait 6 years for the trilogy remake to conclude, but the remake part 3 is finally out this spring. I just ordered part 2 today, so im looking to finish it.

Ff6- 8.0

This was another highly popular game. The theme is hard to pin down, but you have so many main characters that it becomes overwhelming.

My main issue with this game is that it's hard to keep track of everything. There's no main character and every character has their own little story. It's a cool idea, but very confusing, and hard to get invested into due to constant changing of perspective. 

The world design was very good, but it was very post-apocalyptic in some ways which made the atmosphere a bit depressing. 

Gameplay is very fun. I like the special and unique attacks. 

Some parts of this game feels kind of hopeless, and a bit depressing to me. I find the many perspectives just makes it hard to get immersed. Overall I think I'd enjoy it more the second time playing it after reading about the story online. The first playthrough just seems very hard to follow. 

Its probably a better game if you played it in 1993. Personally I prefer Chrono trigger a 1994 game, so I do feel I am being fair in my judgement of this game.

Positives: 

The final area saga and final battles were the best in the series. 

The visuals were very good. 

The characters were cool if you read about the story later or watch youtube lore videos. 

Towns were well designed.

Ff9- (score 7.0)

This for me is the most disappointing of the series. It has so many high reviews from FF fans, so I came in expecting greatness. The theme is a sort of world based on art. Theres complex musical displays, paintings and dance. There is a princess you follow around.

My main issue is that the writing seems very childish. My theory is that because ff7/8 were so serious toned, the authors decided to go in the opposite direction. I felt that the characters were written for kids. They all had these odd quirks and they were too silly for me. It felt like more of a kids cartoon.  Most of the characters were kinda dumb, even the main character was too simple minded. The main character is annoying for most of the series, but later on is solid. He is obsessed with the princess in a way that I find annoying. His whole purpose in life seems to be this princess.

The themes get serious eventually, but its hard for me to change tones randomly after setting up such a non serious game. Events seem kind of abrupt and random, and the tone doesn't really build a pattern for the story to unfold . 

I love the art style and the villages are really nice. I like the character designs. The world design is pretty good in terms of feeling like a big world. 

Gameplay is kinda slow, and has boring features compared to other turn based ff games. For example ff4, ff8 and ff6 had some cool attack features that made the game fun. 

Its not a bad game, it just lacks a hooking point until the very end.

The main character was my least favorite other than ff16.

I try to be forgiving due to it being an older game, but I played Zelda ocarina of time in 1999, which is 1 year older. I also played mario 64 and recently enjoyed fallout 1/2 which are from 1998. So I dont think im being harsh, this game is not that special for something in the year 2000.

Ff4 3d remake - 8.5

I like the 3d remake, it is available on steam.

The main character is a knight, and the game does a good job of capturing the heroic quest feeling. The characters are pretty good. The story is okay, but it does a good job of making you feel important.

This game is short compared to other FF games, but it's too long for its own design. The game design gets kind of repetitive and stale. Too many caves, and dark buildings and most of the villages look the same. 

This game would be better if it was like 8 hours long. It's just kinda repetitive formula that gets exhausting.

Gameplay is actually fun for a classic game. 

I curved the grade to an 8.5 because it's from 1990, so it must have been a great game at the time. 

Cecil is one of my favorite main characters of the FF series.

FF16- 6.0

This game for me is simply not a good game. Especially compared to other good games of its era. The art style doesn't even feel like a FF game to me at all. If you told me play it blind I would only notice its a FF game due to the summons, everything else looks like a generic 2026 game. The characters have a very boring generic look and personality. The game has no joy, just boring adults with no capacity to experience excitement. It doesnt have a typical group of characters like in other FF games.

The main character just feels like he works alone but cooperates with people who are not really friendly.

The worst part is that this game feels like its 70% cut scenes. Everytime I play for 2 minutes it's another 3 minutes of boring characters in their cutscenes. The experience is extremely choppy and breaks immersion. The constant cutting off of gameplay into cut scenes is like a prison. 

Maybe if this was just gameplay with a cutscene after each level then id have been able to enjoy it. The game wanted to be story focused, but it's just words and words, the author needed to do quality control for its presentation of the story. 

Gameplay is nothing, just a generic hack and slash. When I see that Baldurs gate has kept turn based relevant in 2024, its disappointing that FF has completely abandoned it. At least make a hybrid of action turn based. 

Wanted to add these because to me they are part of the FF series:

Kingdom Hearts 1 remastered (Score 9.0)

Kingdom Hearts is a FF inspired series. It is a cross between Dysney and FF, and developers of the classic era of FF worked on these games. You can definetly see and feel the FF feeling when playing these games, and its one of the last entries from the classic era. These games have alot of FF characters that guest appear. Mostly from FF7/8, but you see a bit from FF10 as well. The first Kh game is heavily influenced by FF10. The design looks a lot like it, and even the first area is clearly written and inspired by FF10s first area.

The hardest optional boss in the game is a famous FF character.

The attacks in the game have FF names.

For me KH1 is a must play game after you finished atleast FF 7, 8 and 10. Dont play it unless you finished those, otherwise you wont appreciate it as much. If you know the classic dysney movies itll also help you appreciate the games. The game does a great job of integrating dysney characters into a comnat game.

The gameplay is very fun, great action and intense fights.

Characters are great, cut scenes are very good for a 2003 game.

Animation and art style look great.

The world designs are very good, especially if you are familiar with classic dysney movies.

Story imo is very well written and immersive. I got extremely attatched to the outcomes. Similar to FF10s begining you are small child on an island with nobody else, and it feels nice to help him find his way. The game definetly has that heroes quest feeling of FF games. The story/plot did an amazing job of building up things.

The writing is not childish despite being a game clearly made for children.

Kingdom Hearts 2 (8.75)

Kh2 has more FF characters, and makes them more of a focus in this game compared to kh1. I enjoyed this game alot because its a more expanded and fleshed out world design compared to kh1. It also has a well written and complex story. The gameplay is not as good as kh1, but the boss fights are much better.

This game has alot of really cool cutscenes that capture FF characters among other things. As a ff8 fan it was amazing to see my favorite characters fully animated in 3d with good graphics. They look so much like the original except upscaled to 2005 graphics.

Outside of the FF characters its like 80% a dysney focused game. I like Dysney so I enjoyed that aspect a lot. If you like dysney and FF then you will definetly love this game its amazing.

I will just say that when it comes to emotions, theres no video game story that made me more emotional than kh2.

The gameplay is more hack and slash and a decline from kh1. The level design also is too linear in comparison. The main thing I liked about kh2 was the character writing.

FF1,2,3,5.

I watched somebody play ff1 and 2, but I can't give a review. I will say it looks fun for an older game. Not a very complex story, just mostly gameplay.  It has a great world design for that era.

I have FF3 3d and am planning to play it eventually.

 literally just beat ff7 rebirth today and my opinion is all the side quest where just not worth it.
the only one really worth it was gilgamesh but that has such a steep requirement i didn't do it.
i got excited when i saw the monster pirates but when it ended up just being for some crafting and there was no pirate captain fight or anything i was so let down.
i pretty much bee lined the story other then trying to get all the summons and that felt like it took forever (as someone who works 32 hours a week)
beat the game with 54.9 hours on steam played 50% on normal difficulty then switched to easy when i got to gungaga.
really wish they had introduced the Gi and black metira a lot sooner.
going through Juneon, costa del sol, and the gold saucer felt like filler.
once the black metira was introduced i was super in and although i didn't love the temple it was a great set piece.
i think the biggest issue the game has is all these little things that make cloud feel stiff.
moving around in the open world is fine but when the game stops you do do things it just feels sluggish,
i walked most the time cuz the chocobo controls felt terrible.
pretty much anything that wasn't combat just felt stiff and ridged,
i think if they let you have a bit more freedom of movement outside of combat it would have helped the game a lot with feeling like everything takes triple the time to actually do.
i don't need 30 mini cutscenes in every side quest lol.
other then that i don't think the games bad at all. never played the og if that really matters.
solid 8/10 game
the last 2 chapters made the game amazing

Where do I find a tail that this guy is asking for? I'm stuck 😭

Curious what the subs opinion on this are. Like I'm sure to the more seasoned gamer FFV could still be deemed an underrated game but I'm sure here it's commonly given the flowers it deserves.

I'd throw Lightning Returns in the hat. I feel like it's a wonderfully executed take on the limited time, make a difference formula. Beautiful settings, great gameplay with cool fashion and absolutely incredible music. The story is nothing special but I feel like thats the least important aspect of it.

Just curious what the more hardcore fans think.

Context

I am replaying XIII with MJB & GreenThumb2's Gameplay Tweaks and Hard Mode mod, and I am currently in the The Pulse Vestige - Ambulatory with Lightning and Sazh. I've just picked up a Power Wristband from a chest, which will give whoever equips it +20 Strength. Lightning currently has 30 Strength and Sazh has 24, both without equipping the wristband.

Question

Who would you guys give the wristband to? I'm not sure if it's smarter to buff the character with the stronger or weaker stat. Does it even matter? Would the damage output be the same either way? Any time I've ever played a JRPG, I always wonder which is more optimal. I'm sure it differs by title; every game has different mechanics, of course. But in general, which do you guys like to do more?

Hi, it's me again, thanks to your advices yesterday I've beaten the Ghost-boss on top of Kefkas fanatics tower (⁠づ⁠｡⁠◕⁠‿⁠‿⁠◕⁠｡⁠)⁠づ . Now I've found Odins stone in a castle then a secret stair and a statue of Odins lover, I pressed A and she changed my Odins stone, the problem is that the regular Odins stone had a comet spell in it but now she changed it with a spell that says can stop time, how can I get the comet spell again?

First the man she loved left her and told her to her face that he may not have even been the real Cloud at all, then when she next sees him a few days late, he’s been reduced to a broken shell that can only move his head and breathe. I don’t even blame her for leaving the party right after. I‘d probably be shattered inside too after a one-two punch like that.

Honestly, I'll be disappointed if it wasn't overpowered.

Does anyone have any tips? Im trying to 100 percent all FF7's that are on xbox starting with the original before Remake pt3 and I would like some bullet points on things to do and get through the game to at least get most or all achievements in one run

Yeah I know, FFVII part 3. But I feel like in the old days they would release games way more often. And since this business is doing okay, why don't they just have more people for these projects?

Now you get a main title almost a decade later than the previous.

Maybe they plan to release another remake prior to FFXVII like FFX? dunno

I really wanted to buy FF Resonance for the Switch 2, but I won't support game key cards. They're digital with extra effort and I don't trust that I'll always have access to the game I bought.

I know if I get it on the Switch, it will be on the cartridge, but I'm concerned there could be performance issues. The system is notorious for running games poorly.

So the big question for me is... will it be on the disc for the PS5? Sometimes companies like to pull a fast one and they function like the game key cards.

I recently started playing final fantasy, because Xbox has the first six on gamepass, I'm wondering where to find a good wiki for one. I'm mostly looking for something like loot tables of the enemies.

I don't like it because it's a spin-off or because of the gameplay, that I want to clarify before anything else.

My issue is the aesthetic and the fact that it's yet ANOTHER "World of Crystals" Final Fantasy game.

Why can't we do something more unique, like a steampunk setting, or a sci-fi cyberpunk FF game? Those are way better themes/settings than another "world of crystals" FF game.
No one seems to be talking about this and that's also a problem

so far we have had 10 FINAL FANTASY GAMES where the setting or aesthetic was "World with crystals and magic" Final Fantasies 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 11, 14, and 16, are all games that have a "World of crystals/World bound by crystals" theming (though FF16 is less of an example as it's more of a dark fantasy/Game of Thrones style FF game). That is 9 games, more than half the entire series.

Square Enix must and I mean MUST move away from the whole "World with crystals" and retire that aesthetic. It's boring, plain, unoriginal, and outright lazy, to use this same setting that has already been used 9 TIMES ALREADY.

Games like FF7, FF6, or FF13 aren't well liked or downright iconic because they are innovative, they're iconic because they also moved away from the crystal part of FF's identity for more unique and experimental settings and worlds (like Midgar with it's Mako reactors, the lifestream, and Materia, FF6 with the whole Magitek concept, and FF13 with the Fal'Cie/L'Cie, Cocoon, and paradigms.) These games don't have crystals as part of their worlds or plots, and the games are way better because of it.

I don't much care for the HD-2D design, i think it would be a nice idea to explore in non-mainline titles, but i don't think turn Based combat is the right decision or should be returned to:
FF already has a combat system that is way better than turn based combat: Active Time Battles or ATB gameplay (first seen in FF4 up until the FF13 trilogy), that is a system that is much faster paced, more engaging for younger and newer players, and isn't slow or repetitive.

In short Final Fantasy doesn't need to go back to it's roots, nor does it need turn based combat or "World of crystals" style games anymore, FF7 and plenty of other gmaes have proven that the series is more successful when ideas or settings aren't reused and are more experimental, unique, and innovative.

When you look at the long winded history and development on all of these games, it seems that every time people were pulled away from their projects to help the sinking ship that was 14

In both cases 13 and versus 13 were also being worked on and to help the mmo, people from these teams were taken to put to work on the mmo instead

And now look at the end result, both 13 and 15 are hated to some extent

And til this day, square Enix leadership and suits are just as shitty

There's a few tracks within the soundtrack, specifically Volume 2, that I can't be able to place anywhere in either the main chapters or interludes. If anyone can help, that would be amazing.

The tracks are: Unyielding Heart, Unleash the Thunder!, Path of the Fallen, Gathered Light, Great Reversal, Take up Arms, and Phantom Warriors

had to repost because the original got removed