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Post by Ex on Feb 3, 2018 20:15:51 GMT -5
I think it's funny how many people are playing FF Mystic Quest for the RB Feb TR. I beat that game years upon years upon years ago. I don't remember much about it. I do remember it was fun, and I beat it in a weekend (pretty sure it was a rental). I'm kind of surprised at how many people hadn't finished it by now.
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Post by Xeogred on Feb 4, 2018 1:34:41 GMT -5
I honestly didn't even know of its existence until the internet. And then it never gets talked about much from what I saw and the "FF for kids" stigma seemed pretty real. I gave it a shot ages ago and remember being turned off by the bare minimum simplicity... but that's not a bad thing and I'm enjoying it for what it is now.
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Post by toei on Feb 4, 2018 11:53:54 GMT -5
I always liked Mystic Quest. It does a few interesting things gameplay-wise, and isn't actually particularly childish in content, particularly compared to a lot of more recent RPGs. If it had been released in a different context it would have gotten praise for the ingenious ways in which it streamlines the RPG experience. And the story is honestly better than FF4 and it's cringeworthy back-and-forths about Kain's loyalties and mind-control.
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Post by Xeogred on Feb 4, 2018 12:35:47 GMT -5
Ehhhhhhhhhh, FF4 is incredible. Probably like it more than FF6 frankly. The pacing is amazing from start to finish with the best final dungeon in the franchise.
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Post by Sarge on Feb 4, 2018 14:48:19 GMT -5
Honestly, I think I breezed over it because of how late I got the SNES. Chrono Trigger was about to be released, and I got the system with FFIII. I managed to piece together some other fantastic games as well like Lufia II, FFII, or getting to finally play stuff like LttP. So even though I own it, it kinda fell through the cracks.
My feelings on it so far are that it's solid. It's not Final Fantasy II/IV, which is I'm sure where the backlash came from. Everyone's expectations were set by the first two games that we got, so when we had a "dumbed down" RPG, it missed the mark for fans. Ironically, I think I may have gotten more "game overs" in FFMQ than I did in FFII. It's just that the "save anywhere" mechanic coupled with instant retrying of battles makes it seem easier. The lack of party members means that status effects can absolutely own you in a battle. I've had a few kick off where it's "Stone Gaze partner, Stone Gaze hero, you have been defeated". Not even a chance to move!
Heck, I had something happen on this run that I've never seen in all the times I've played the game: I lost to the first boss. You know, that tutorial battle at the beginning? Dude critical'ed me, and my guy whiffed a few attacks. It was ugly.
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Post by Ex on Feb 4, 2018 14:51:03 GMT -5
Time for us all to come clean on mainline FF!
Which ones I've beat, what I'd rate 'em:
FFV (5/10) FFVII (7/10 FFIX (6/10) FFXII (9.5/10) <---This FF is godly IMO.
I've played these but things happened:
FFI = Marsh caved destroyed me. As a kid I couldn't handle it. FFIV = Made it to the moon as a kid, then I had to give the game back before finishing it. FFVI = Love this one while I was playing. Never beat it. As a teenager, made it to Kefka's tower, then someone stole the cart from me. FFX = I made it about halfway through back in '07, couldn't handle the cringe, stopped playing.
I've not played these:
FFII FFIII FFVIII FFXI
And I think the rest fall under "we don't talk about games less than 10 years old" so I'll stop there.
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Post by toei on Feb 4, 2018 14:57:55 GMT -5
I like FF4, but I have a lot of issues with it. FF6 has a much more interesting story, while FF4 relies heavily on some of the dumbest tropes out there (mind control especially). I like the world it takes place in, I like many of the characters, and I like the gameplay, but the writing is just really weak in parts. FF6 is my favorite in the series, though.
EDIT - If we're gonna rate them:
FF6 - ***** FF9 - **** I loved the first disc, it had a real sense of wonder to it, something rare in often formulaic RPGs... but it does lose some steam later on. FF3 - **** Great world, great gameplay, not much story though FF4 - ***1/2-ish FF7 - *** Most FFs start great and go kind of bad at some point, but none as much as FF7. The beginning really makes it look so badass, and then it devolves into complete cliched anime/rpg garbage by the end. FF1 - ** FF2 - *
EDIT 2 - Lol, FF5 is so dumb I forgot it existed. Same comment - solid gameplay, promising story, but damn does it fall apart. It's completely obvious that a bunch of different people wrote differents parts of it and pasted them together at the end. I give it... **1/2, maybe.
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Post by Sarge on Feb 4, 2018 15:05:07 GMT -5
Beaten:
FFI - 8.0 FFII - 7.0 (GBA) FFIII - 9.0 (both NES and DS versions) FFIV - 7.0/8.0 (SNES/DS. Yes, I liked the DS version better. Fight me.) FFV - 5.0 (Just not my thing.) FFVI - 9.5 (The best of the series.) FFVII - 7.0 (It's good, not great.) FFVIII - 8.0 (My favorite of the PSX games.) FFIX - 6.0 (I struggled to finish this one after about the second disc.) FFX - 8.0 (Been a while, but I liked it.) FFXII - 6.5 (Good, but not my cup-o'-tea.)
Played:
FFXII-2 - Yeah, never put much time into the game. The whole "can't get 100% without a walkthrough or replay" kinda turned me off. FFII - NES version. Put a lot of time in, but didn't finish it. I'd probably give it a 5.0. I like a lot of the story, but the gameplay is pretty obtuse in spots. Kawazu would go on to do a better job, in my opinion, with the SaGa games.
Can't speak to any beyond that here. I've played everything in the main series except the MMOs, though.
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Post by Xeogred on Feb 4, 2018 15:21:36 GMT -5
Ex, I can't explain why but it always surprises me you're not one that champions FF4. You just strike me as the type that would like that one a lot compared to most. It has a grittier charm to it and seems so up your alley. Guess you never know though and I'll always be in the minority on that one. I have beaten the SNES, GBA, PSX (hard type), and PSP versions and love them all. Not interested in the 3D DS remake though. I think all versions outside of the PSX one have some form of an ATB bug that can make it easy at times, but when you compare it to other JRPG"s or are doing a first run, FF4 is still tricky in spots.
One of my favorite franchises. The only mainline game I have not finished (MMO's don't count) is FF12 and I liked it a lot, I just recall it being a grind and I was kind of falling out of JRPG's at that time. So I just moved onto something else or who knows. I'm excited to check out the new Zodiac Age release sometime. I can't really get into the NES originals of FF1-2 but I beat FF3 NES, which was insane and pretty fun. The GBA/PSX/PSP versions of FF1 are great though and it's only a 10 hour romp, so I could see myself revisiting that one again a few times perhaps. The only version of FF2 I finally finished was the PSP release. The music isn't as good but I dug the updated graphics and they retooled the mechanics AGAIN from the GBA version and whatnot. Glad I played it to say I've beaten most of them but I won't touch that one again haha.
Of the second half, FF9 is the only one that doesn't resonate with me much. Alongside Chrono Cross it's one of the best looking games on the PSX by far, but yeah. I don't recall the characters doing much for me, the music wasn't as good as Uematsu's other games, and the battles seemed very slow. It was at least challenging coming out of the cake walks through FF7 and FF8, but I still thought those were way more fun. I did get all the cards in FF9 though, I remember buying the awful Play Online strategy guide when I was in the 4th disc just so I could do 100%. I was crazy back then.
FF10... hated it at first back in the day, even though I got to the very end. I watched a friend beat it and considered myself done with it as well haha. But I kind of cleared my head and gave it another run with the HD release a few years ago and I honestly came around to it quite a bit. Even back in the day I never denied the combat is basically ATB perfection and the music is Godlike. And now that I'm way over the angst teen years of Cloud or Squall, I got a kick out of how goofy Tidus is a second time around. I'm glad I gave it another shot. The sphere grid is cool too.
FF8, loved it back in the day and did 100%. The Heaven and Hell islands haha. Had the perfection junction setup to where my party members absorbed 100% of every element in the game. But I have tried to replay this game about 3 times by now over the years and always duck out after awhile. The magic drawing and junction systems are utterly tedious to go back to. Not to mention when the perspective frequently changes from Squall to Laguna, you often to have to re-junction your entire setup to the party members. Too much micromanagement for my liking thesedays. I still look back on it fondly.
FF4-FF7 are my favorites each with their own strengths. FF4 is just perfectly paced and consistently interesting from start to finish, this game never lets up or sticks around too long. FF5 has the best gameplay in the series and some insanely tough boss battles at times. I hated the PSX version (the translation is really bad), but the GBA release is top notch. ExDeahth is my favorite villain in the series because of how bizarre he is, THE LAWS OF THE UNIVERSE MEAN NOTHING... one my favorite lines from him. Whereas all the other villains want or even get world domination, ExDeath wanted to destroy the entire universe taking himself out along with it. How badass is that. Sad to see all the hate here, it only gets better as it goes as you're racing ExDeath to these legendary weapons near the end and feels intense, unlike FF6's second half. FF6 is the most emotional with some great characters, amazing graphics, music, the whole shebang, but it's a bit flawed in the second half to me. FF7's characters are a mess and not very likeable, but it's gritty early PSX sci-fantasy styling is just so awesome and a real time capsule. The materia system is really fun too. I'll keep replaying these four forever.
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Post by Ex on Feb 4, 2018 21:45:31 GMT -5
Ex, I can't explain why but it always surprises me you're not one that champions FF4. Well hold on a minute now, I didn't say I didn't like it! I just said I never finished it. I made it to the moon, I remember that much. I don't remember a whole lot about the game, I played it back in 1992. My favorite gritty Square game is Vagrant Story. Now THAT'S an RPG I get excited about. I'm very happy FFXII got ported officially to PC. I will play through the PC version some day. Everybody seems to agree (me too) that the second half of FFIX sucks. I read before that Sakaguchi left the project halfway through, if that's true, it explains a lot. I think a lot of people who say they love FFIX, never actually played more than the first third of it. The first third of FFIX is pretty good. I've got the PS3 remaster of it and X-2. I will give FFX another chance someday. But man that game's plot is TERRIBLE. When I capitalize the word terrible I freakin' mean it. I really gotta play through FFVIII this year. So many games, so little time, you all know how it be. FF6 is my favorite in the series, though. I think we all agree FFVI is the best of the classic design, hence we all have good taste. FFXII is my personal favorite FF overall though. But it's very different from the standard FF design, admittedly.
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