Final Fantasy worth it?

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i almost forgot the grandia series.i've only played 1 and 2 so far.i have extreme and 3,but i haven't got to them yet.i loved the first 2.oh,it was phantasy star 3 that had 3 generations in it.you chose who to marry,then played as the son

 

No offense, but wasn't LB asking for help with FF games? Nah, never mind.

I quite agree with Rhythm here. I never thought I'd like this FF game... but I eventually loved it. This is where I first met Montblanc, the famous hunt master and you get to control a whole bunch of characters at once.

 

Ah, yes. Final Fantasy. The only games that I will (and have) stood in line for on release day. How I love thee, FF. How I wish that I had the time to go back and play all of them from start to finish. Twice.

FF is easily the most popular console-based, RPG series in that market. By sales and copies in circulation. While it may be hard to find a copy of Wild ARMS, you can easily find dozens of copies of most all FF games.

With that said, I want to make a few things clear about the series.

1. With only one exception (FFX and FFX-2) no two FF games are related. They are not sequels, they are not episodes, they are distinct and unique.

That means, you can play any game in any order. You will have favorites, and those favorites will be for reasons dependent on each game as it stand alone.

2. Several things, names, spells, creatures, weapons, situations, plot devices, etc. reappear game after game. You can say that Square is recycling ideas, but you can also say that Square is reinventing previous ideas.

You have been warned. Cid will be seen and hear in nearly all the series. Same for Chocobos, Ultimate Weapon, Moogles, and Phoenix Downs.

I thing that Square does this to maintain a sense of continuity between games. Because they switch stuff up so often between games, things would become confusing with out at least similar sounding names reappearing.

3. The way you build up characters is different in each game, but they stick to a few standard rules.

First, classes. Characters of one of close to 24 classes unique to FF. They will have similar powers from game to game, but the powers can be a little different from game to game.

Second, levels. Max level in nearly all FF games is 99. This does not have to be your goal. Parties can complete the games anywhere from level 45 to 65. But 99 have the most fun!

Third, leveling. Yes, you must kill hundreds of thousands of the same grunt foes to gain fill-in-the-blank to get fill-in-the-blank. Whether it be XP, JP, SP, AP, or some combination of these. You will need to grind, and the battles always get old.

What's a great game to start with? Which ever box art looks the most interesting to you. Seriously. If you never played an FF before, you can start with any of them. If you don't care for it, try another. You'll have to hate the entire series to not find a single one of these games fun.

Blog makes a great point. Start with roms of the SNES games and, if you want more, then you can move on the bigger, more complex FF of higher numbers.

Hope that helps! Enjoy!

 

Yes it is definitely worth it...

And X wasn't as bad as people are saying it was! I'm replying it right now as a matter of fact and its still great fun!

 

Story wise, I'll go for 7, 8 and x. And unless you are going for max stats and ultimate weapons, grinding is not a large part.

X for pure melodramatic-ness.

8 for the music. Absolutely melancholy and sad.

 

Oh right, how could I forget Tactics! Definitely one of my fave games as well. and I too rush to FFX's aid with Faraaz. If you want to play a real epic type (even for the Final Fantasy series) game, then FFX is the ticket. Also, the music was great and the story wasn't only grand but also very complicated and touching. The dialogue was awesome too. People complained that Tidus was too whiny and that they'd have preferred a more strong-but-silent type like Cloud or Squall, but that's what Auron was there for. Hell, I loved X. Except for all the dumb stuff you have to do to get the best weapons and stuff and you have those in all the FF games.

 

@Enagonios: But that's bread and butter for ALL the FF games. FFX however...well, this one was a real gem. I've played FF1,2,3,7,8, 10 & 10-2...and IMO FFX has THE best story of them all. Not to mention it had actual turn based combat instead of that active bar timer thingy...boss battles were WAY more fun!!

 

Thanks for all the advice and pointers! I've just started final fantasy 7 (on the pc as it happens) and just trying to get used to the combat system. Haven't had as much time to play it as I expected but will probably try and get more into it over the weekend.

 

how anyone can prefer squall is beyond me, he says one good thing in ff8 "i dreamed i was a moron" and i allways hoped on of the other characters would smack him and say, "you aint dreaming, moron!"

FF6, FF7 and FF10 was imho the greatest.
FF9 comes close, but thats mainly because i got a softspot for the anime like graphic, the story was on many points an ff7 ripoff (if you can ripoff your self).

 

How so? I can't go into details about why I disagree without putting craploads of spoilers but cloud and zidane have VERY different orgins. The only thing they share is that they both recall almost nothing. Even the setting is very different. Whereas FFVII is a technology-oriented world, FFIX is a magic-based world.

 

Gah! I wished I hadn't read this thread. Now I've gone and dusted off my old PSone to play FF Tactics on it. I've stopped playing Half-Life 2 and NWN 2 'cause this game is so darn addictive. Twenty hours into it already, even.

Never got to playing FF X, XI and XII as I didn't get a PS2.

 

Just FYI - Final Fantasy 1-6 are all available for the Nintendo DS (actually, all but the new FF3 are Game Boy Advance games, but they all play on a DS too, thankfully). I highly recommend the new DS lite, they're great if you love gaming but are often on the go.

I know you can find both FF7 and FF8 for the PC (but good luck, they've been out of print for years). The best bet is getting a PS2, as all the FF games from 7 on up can be found fairly easily, even the PS1 versions. Just look online. 7 is one of the top selling games of all time, so some people have overstocks.

As for what's good - I say play them all. The new FF3 is great, and I just picked up all the FF games for my DS (except FF4, which I'll likely order online). FF1 was the game that made me fall in love with RPG's, so that's what I'm playing right now. Even though the stories are all standalone, I think it'll be fun to play them all in order.

I also agree that FF10 was a POS, I never touched X-2, and I'm actually not a love it or a hate it when it comes to FF8, I just found it merely decent and playable, not remarkable.

EDIT - I should also add, that if you're look for a deep and involving RPG experience, like the IE games, you may be disappointed. FF games are rather simplified and rely on their novelty and charm for a lot of their appeal. They're still a ton of fun, though - just don't expect a lot of heavy thinking or strategy.

 

Except if you're playing Final Fantasy Tactics.