What's your favorite Final Fantasy game? (Main series besides X-2 and XI)

Originally Posted by Andross

Because it's a damn good game.

Not in my book it's not.

What if you don't like the particular character because that character is annoying personality-wise? You shouldn't be required to use that character because he/she plays an important combat role if you don't like him or her.

That's why FFVII and FFVIII's customization system allows one to work around that; you don't need to use Selphie, for example (Except for specific portions in the game where the group is split up, but even then, those portions are few and far between; the majority of the game allows you to choose what characters you want to use when you want to use them).

Except this doesn't apply in VIII's case because the entire cast was annoying.

Seriously, though, if a character is in the story, there's not much you can do about it. Should every game just make all the characters the same? That's completely stupid. Every party member is most likely going to be in the story whether you like it or not, so what's the point of giving you the option of choosing another character that's exactly the same gameplay-wise?

Originally Posted by Tonchiki

Not in my book it's not.

That's strange.

Except this doesn't apply in VIII's case because the entire cast was annoying.

I don't see how you can hate the whole cast.

Seriously, though, if a character is in the story, there's not much you can do about it. Should every game just make all the characters the same? That's completely stupid. Every party member is most likely going to be in the story whether you like it or not, so what's the point of giving you the option of choosing another character that's exactly the same gameplay-wise?

Different people are going to like different characters more than others. Some people may hate Vincent Valentine, others may use him all the time. I would like to point out that even though all of the characters may be involved in some points in the story, it has to do with seeing the characters all of the time more than it does having the characters in the game at all.

For example, Cooke and Mack in Lost Odyssey are highly annoying characters, even though they're part of the storyline. Still, it makes the game far more enjoyable knowing that, at most times, you aren't required to have them out on the field and see their battle movements and shouts.

The reason why they aren't made similarly personality-wise is so that they can appeal to a variety of people, and at the very same time, the reason why they are made so that you can pick any combination of characters and make a "primary team" is that you are free to pick the characters that appeal to your own particular tastes. Knowing that different people are going to have radically different character choices for their primary teams in FFVII and FFVIII from person to person shows that it isn't futile to allow a person to customize characters the way they want.

Originally Posted by Andross

That's strange.
I don't see how you can hate the whole cast.

No further comment.

Different people are going to like different characters more than others. Some people may hate Vincent Valentine, others may use him all the time. I would like to point out that even though all of the characters may be involved in some points in the story, it has to do with seeing the characters all of the time more than it does having the characters in the game at all.

For example, Cooke and Mack in Lost Odyssey are highly annoying characters, even though they're part of the storyline. Still, it makes the game far more enjoyable knowing that, at most times, you aren't required to have them out on the field and see their battle movements and shouts.

The reason why they aren't made similarly personality-wise is so that they can appeal to a variety of people, and at the very same time, the reason why they are made so that you can pick any combination of characters and make a "primary team" is that you are free to pick the characters that appeal to your own particular tastes.

But what I mean is that in this manner, all of the characters perform exactly the same in battle, making them not different from each other during battle at all. Characters don't talk outside the story, right (besides minor taunts or whatever)?
It's not unreasonable to use a character you hate if they are, in fact, good characters to use in battle. In an FFVIII-like system, that individuality is non-existent.

It reminds me a lot of Fire Emblem DS. Tons and tons of units to use, take your pick. None of them ever talk, since there's barely ever story. You can class swap them, so you can make 90% of the cast the same as each other (barring their stat growths, which, unless you look it up, you wouldn't know).

But what I mean is that in this manner, all of the characters perform exactly the same in battle, making them not different from each other during battle at all.

This goes back to what I was talking about with allocating resources. Unless you're a super-hardcore power leveler who will spend hours of time on optional grinding, you're going to have a limited amount of resources to attribute; for example, you can't give all of your characters in FFVII KotR and Bahamut Zero on an average playthrough without power-grinding, nor can you give all of your characters in FFVIII the same GF abilities and same magic junction allocation. Usually, each member in your current on-field party will be functionally different from the other two.

Now, it is true that the off-field party members will act as carbon copies once you transfer all of the statistics from your on-field members to them. However, it is only the characters who are currently on-field that matter, and the characters who normally remain off-field will be the characters you don't like.

So, even though the currently off-field members will function as carbon copies of your on-field members when (And if) you decide to bring them on-field, the characters on-field will still function differently from eachother. To strengthen the "on-field characters matters only" argument, in the more class-based FF titles that had large parties extending your on-field supply, such as FFVI or FFIX, you could still get away with using the same on-field characters throughout the game without switching out for the off-field ones.

That way, there's variety among your on-field group, and you can get away with using only the characters you like.

Characters don't talk outside the story, right (besides minor taunts or whatever)?

Sometimes it's bad enough having to see certain characters (Again, Cooke and Mack; don't know if you played Lost Odyssey or not).

It's not unreasonable to use a character you hate if they are, in fact, good characters to use in battle. In an FFVIII-like system, that individuality is non-existent.

True, it isn't unreasonable to use a character you hate if they're good in battle, but I believe it would make it better to not be required to use that character at all.

Originally Posted by Andross

This goes back to what I was talking about with allocating resources. Unless you're a super-hardcore power leveler who will spend hours of time on optional grinding, you're going to have a limited amount of resources to attribute; for example, you can't give all of your characters in FFVII KotR and Bahamut Zero on an average playthrough without power-grinding, nor can you give all of your characters in FFVIII the same GF abilities and same magic junction allocation. Usually, each member in your current on-field party will be functionally different from the other two.

But that's the game's problem, now, isn't it? If you have to do that for every character, even ones you don't like using, then the game shouldn't be forcing you to switch your party so often, should it?

I think Super Mario RPG is a fine example here. You're not forced to use every single character once you've acquired them all. However, should you so choose to swap them out, they actually do play differently than each other-- they're not the same setup with a different-looking weapon. And, to make the transition not painful, even the characters out-of-battle level up as normal, so it's not like raising a single Pokemon and finding out that's not a good idea.

Now, it is true that the off-field party members will act as carbon copies once you transfer all of the statistics from your on-field members to them. However, it is only the characters who are currently on-field that matter, and the characters who normally remain off-field will be the characters you don't like.

So, even though the currently off-field members will function as carbon copies of your on-field members when (And if) you decide to bring them on-field, the characters on-field will still function differently from eachother. To strengthen the "on-field characters matters only" argument, in the more class-based FF titles that had large parties extending your on-field supply, such as FFVI or FFIX, you could still get away with using the same on-field characters throughout the game without switching out for the off-field ones.

But that's not my point. My point is, why bother having those other characters at all, outside of the story? They're all exactly the same. The characters only differ from one another depending on your own whim. They're all blank slates-- so much so, in fact, that you can literally swap one character's entire setup of summons and magic junctions to another with the push of a button.

Sometimes it's bad enough having to see certain characters (Again, Cooke and Mack; don't know if you played Lost Odyssey or not).

I can agree on this point, but it doesn't matter much from a gameplay standpoint.

True, it isn't unreasonable to use a character you hate if they're good in battle, but I believe it would make it better to not be required to use that character at all.

Can't argue there.

Originally Posted by Tonchiki

No, there were quite a few times where the game forced you to split your party into different groups. You had to use them all.

No, not really. My main set were all level 99 while the others lingered at like level 35-50 by the end of the game.

I've played FFIV, VI and VII.

I couldn't make it very far into FFIV at all, its just way too old for me. Not much to say about it, all I know is that it took RPGs very far.

I thought VI was a really good game and I was REALLY enjoying the battle system and the monster variety especially when I got towards the huge rock in the sky. Then when I got to World of Ruin, I didn't enjoy the fact that I just had to collect all my characters again. I felt this was anti-climatic. Reminded me of TP as well. I also didn't like how the game has something like 15 characters. It was like the developers were just trying to get some sort of record for the most playable characters in a game or something. I probably didn't enjoy this because I come from a background of games that emphasize on just the one or two characters (Looking at you Zelda). Also, I found some of the characters a bit dull... like Edgar, Locke and a few others - they weren't ultra, awesome characters, you know? Actually, now that I haven't played the game for ages maybe I'm exaggerating, I might pick the game up again and see what its like =) Importantly, I hated the fact that there was an octopus creature chasing me around all the time. That was retarded... I'm sorry. Maybe its the developers' idea of humour? I don't know. Other than that, I found the dungeons in this game to be quite long and this lengthiness was actually tedious to a degree. However, I love the atmosphere of some of the parts of this game. Like the laboratory place with all the experiments and espers in the labs and stuff. I've also seen artwork of the Magitech armours and it made me appreciate the machines in the game a whole lot more. I also have nitpicky issues with the game, like how theres "one whole airship in the entire world" and things like that. I also feel that the game has other drawbacks... to do with the story, but I can't put them out right now.

On to FFVII. I feel this game improves on VI in many ways. Firstly, just about every song in this game is either fun and catchy, or sad and meaningful, or just a good song and I can't remember VI's music being this good. The game has better environments and its 3D. I also liked how the game focuses on about 6-8 characters (2 of these being optional) instead of 15. I liked all these characters except the fact that I didn't like how they delayed the Cloud/Aeris date for a very long time. I also didn't like how the game confuses you about different things plot-wise. Like how your party chases Sephiroth for a portion of the game only to find out that hes been in the Northern Cave all this time. Um what? Then who were you chasing all this time? This is what is confusing and the game doesn't explicitly make a reference to this (unless I missed it) though with some thought you can make up some theories about it, like he could have been remotely controlling the Jenova shade things. But yeah, I think they could have played the Aeris/Cloud/Tifa thing out better. Like you don't end up knowing whether Aeris just loved that Zack guy or she just liked Cloud a bit because she saw some "Zack" in him, but the game makes it pretty clear that something happens between Tifa/Cloud.. so yeah. I also liked how the game develops on the whole machine thing VI introduced but does it better (with the technology of Midgar). Sadly, it lacks the awesome Magitek armours - but I suppose each game has to have its own something =( I was also a bit bothered by the lego character models but now I actually like them (after a 40 hour play through). Also, for some reason I enjoyed the first 9/10ths of the game a lot more than the last portion of the game. I didn't like getting the BIG MATERIA and the submarine thing and all that. I liked getting the Gold Chocobo though and I really love the Gold Saucer - its awesome.

Can anyone tell me where I can get a ribbon? =)

But yeah, I really enjoyed FFVII and I hear people are pretty negative about this game. Does that mean VIII and IX are really worth playing? Also, how are people anticipating XIII and XIV, do you think Square's new games are going to be better than VII?

Originally Posted by Radek

No, not really. My main set were all level 99 while the others lingered at like level 35-50 by the end of the game.

Levels don't matter in FFVIII nearly as much as the rest of the series, because enemies level up with you. It's actually easier to abuse junctioning and stay at a low level then to get to that high of a level because you'll still be super strong while your enemies are still weak.

Originally Posted by Dread

Levels don't matter in FFVIII nearly as much as the rest of the series, because enemies level up with you. It's actually easier to abuse junctioning and stay at a low level then to get to that high of a level because you'll still be super strong while your enemies are still weak.

He wasn't saying how levels mattered in regards to the stat system, but how you don't really spend much time in FFVIII having to switch around characters. In FFVIII (As with all FFs), regardless of how the junction system works, the more you use your characters, the more they'll level up (And the less you use others, the less they'll level up). He was using his character levels as an example as to how the game doesn't really force you to switch them out much at all (My case is far more extreme; near the end of the game, some of my characters were only around level 15 or so).

It boggles my mind how 8 is being so praised by some of you guys.

godforbid someone has a different opinion than yours.

Originally Posted by Radek

No, not really. My main set were all level 99 while the others lingered at like level 35-50 by the end of the game.

Eh, I'm not interested enough to go and find a walkthrough to try to point all of the times out. I do remember there being quite a few, and it was aggravating.

Originally Posted by Lincoln Osiris

godforbid someone has a different opinion than yours.

I could say the same of whoever I responded to with that.

Originally Posted by Ganon the King

Can anyone tell me where I can get a ribbon? =)

You can get them for free at the Northern cave from this guy:



Use the Morph command materia.

What, really?! I absolutely hate that thing. Why does he have to appear in every game? I forgot his name... he's a Tonberry, right?

Ugh.

If there's something I could remove from all FF games, it'd be that guy.

>.<

Originally Posted by Jehanne

What, really?! I absolutely hate that thing. Why does he have to appear in every game? I forgot his name... he's a Tonberry, right?

Ugh.

If there's something I could remove from all FF games, it'd be that guy.

>.<

Yes, Tonberries can be very annoying. But my most hated monster in the entire series would have to be Malboros, specifically the Great Malboros in the Omega Dungeon of Final Fantasy X. They will always ambush you and use Bad Breath on you to make your entire party confused and poisoned. You will then always die because poison really hurts in this game and you can't move because you are confused.

Originally Posted by Goku

You can get them for free at the Northern cave from this guy:

Hey, does it matter which route you take in the Northern Cave so that you actually encounter the Tonberries? As I recall, sometimes I'd only get those poison-ray things, or the card-dealing-skeletons.

>.<

It doesn't really matter which path you take; Seeing as how you can exit back out and go around the other way.

They usually appear around this area:


When morphing, I recommend using Yuffie's final weapon as it's the strongest weapon unlike the others.

VI. Great story, cool characters, and awesome music.

I'd explain the three points I just made in detail, but I'm sure somebody else already has.

FF7, many reasons, but out of them all, I'd have to say.... Vincent Valentine. I mean, he can turn into bad ASS people, has a bad ass starting weapon, has a very intricate background. And then there's the buster sword story, which isn't absolutely COVERED in the original, but it showed Zack give it to Cloud.

Originally Posted by Tonchiki

Eh, I'm not interested enough to go and find a walkthrough to try to point all of the times out. I do remember there being quite a few, and it was aggravating.
I could say the same of whoever I responded to with that.

Yes, there were quite a few times where the game forced you to play as the other characters, like at the choosing which went to the Galbadian Missible Silo and such. But about halfway through the game, it happens way less and there's really no need to use anyone you don't like anymore.

The last boss starts you with a random party. I would just let them die until I had my main 3, then cast Aura on everyone, and just use Squall's Lion Heart till everything was dead.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70yT3alpSvA
Pretty much the only ability you need in the game, really.

My God, Final Fantasy VIII is terrible.