I was never into Japanese RPGs (and the Playstation console for that matter) but a while ago I purchased all FF titles for the PSOne, stuffed 'em into my CD-Drive and took the games for a spin with ePSXe (a free Playstation emulator).

General opinions about the PSX FF games from a person that plays PC games 95% of the time:

What I like:

The games take a long time to complete; fantastic cutscenes; a large amount of music tracks (a number of them memorable); a lot of humor and interesting locations.

What I don't like:

The games are perhaps too long; annoying random battles over and over again; repetetiveness, you can only save in limited locations (not a problem with an emulated version, however)

Final Fantasy 7
Overall, this is an excellent game and I *almost* finished it (certain monsters on the last CD seem to have a crapload of hitpoints and killed my party members in one hit, so I just quit after getting annoyed). For what it's worth, this is a very good game, if not a great one. I can only think that it would've been a lot better without all the random encounters though, and that goes for all the games in the series. The minigames are excellent.

Final Fantasy 8
This is the only game that I have not played a lot. I don't know what they were thinking by making the guardian forces so powerful and forcing the player to watch oftentimes minute-long summoning sequences hundreds upon hundreds of times. This just completely ruined the game for me.

Final Fantasy 9
Call me crazy, but in some respects I think this game even surpases Final Fantasy 7. It has some of the most interesting characters I've ever seen (Steiner and Vivi in particular, although the main character left me cold) and something about the world in which the game takes place left me in amazement (the air ships are especially great). This is yet another FF I almost but not quite completed. I grew too tired of the random battles later on.

Chrono Cross
It has one of the best game intros ever and music that is in a midi equivalent format but sounds like CD quality. Too bad of the 50 main characters you meet throughout the game almost all of them are underdeveloped.

What are some of your favorite Square games and is there anything else you'd reommend playing? How are the PS2 games?

Um, you don't need to use Guardian Forces excessively in FF8. If you know how to use the junction system you should be able to do powerful enough physical attacks for the most part.

Final Fantasy 7 and 9 > *

I recently went back and completed them both again and I was dosed with memories, oh so great memories.

I'm glad you're broadening your range of RPGs. Some people only play western RPGs, while others only play Japanese RPGs. Both of them have their pros and cons.
Be sure to get "Final Fantasy Tactics"!

Aye, and I really liked FF8.

I also loved Junctioning things like pain to Squall's attack. Much much fun (apart from hitting zombie enemies)!

FF4, FF6, FFVII and FFX. They all rock, although 6 would be my favourite.

YOU ****ING WIN

How can you discuss FF and leave out the BEST ONE?!

Yeah I was wondering why no one had mentioned it yet. :p

omglolwtfbbqasap

Yes! FF9 is my favorite! Mostly because of it's fantasy world and awesome characters. I love how nearly every character has their own history and changes throughout the game, Vivi and Dagger in particular.

It also has the best cutscenes. The Black Waltz III cutscenes were amazingly awesome. I loved the attack on Alexandria/Alexander. And the one with the silver dragons fighting the air ships... it's was just so awesome. I love that game.

After FF VII they all sucked.

I never got why everyone worshipped FF7 so much...

It is just an amazing gaming experience. Makes it feel like you are actually there.

In 7 and 9 the fantasy worlds seem to bring you in and it is just awesome, like the cutscenes and character development.

It was revolutionary in the FF series. First 3D FF, 4 years in the making. First one with cinematic cutscenes. Great story. Everything is there for a great game.

I still liked 6 better though.

Kefka > Sephiroth

I never beat 6... I got to the part where the world ends or changes or whatever and then quit...

The World of Ruin. That's where it gets good. There's so many secrets there, and even hidden caracters. My favourite part of the game, no doubt about it.

Maybe if I get bored enough I'll try it out again. I remember I liked the magic system... it was kind of a mix between FF7's materia and FF9's items (I know that's a backwards comparisson, but shwatever).

Nobody ever remembers the roots of Final Fantasy, FF1 and 2. By far my favorites after ff6.

FF6->FF1->FF2->FF4->FF7->FFT->FF8
Havn't played 9, 10, 10-2, or 11 yet, so I can't say anything about them.

No-one remembers Mystic Quest or the one for GameBoy either (forgot it's name), but they game wern't really good in my opinion.

Yeah what's great about the magic in FF6 is that your characters "remember" the magic even after you un-equip the esper. Losing magic to give it to someone else in FF7 was kind of lousy.

Something great about FFX was being able to change party members in mid-battle.

Yeah, that's why it reminds me of FF9 (or actually, FF9 takes from FF6). In FF9, each equipable item gives you a skill or two, and if you leave it on long enough you learn the skill permanantly.

I still argue that Vivi is the main character of FF9. He's easily one of the best characters that Square has created in a long time.

I love many of the games, 6/3, 7, 9, Tactics/TacticsAdvance, and X.

XI was great fun for the time I spent playing it, certainly full of interesting NPCs and Players.

The best part of FF games is how each is seperate enough from the other, but there are always the few things like Chocobos and Cid that always pop up. I love how some of the games are in ancient times and some are in a futuristic world. Square is definately one of the best RPG publishers in the market today.

I loved FF6. It got damn good towards the end of what I would say the first half (before WoR). Then it got depressing seeing the world all to crap. I still played it for many hours.

This is where I left off in the FF series. I never had the inclination to get a PS or PS2.

Yeah the WoR definitely is depressing at first, but so much cool stuff happens there.

Barrett, Cid, Vincent, Cloud, Vivi they are all so great. Who are you guys favorite characters?

"Who are you guys favorite characters?"

In order from most favorite to least. No special order for the games.
From FF6 - Gogo, Setzer, Locke, and Cyan.
From FF4 - Cecil(Paladin), Cecil(Dark Knight), Kain(or Cain, however it was spelled), Tellah, and Edge.
From FF7 - Vincent, Cloud, Cid, and Barret.
From FF1 - since the characters don't really have specific names... Red Mage, Fighter, Thief, Black Mage, White Mage, and Monk(ninja).

FF4 - Cecil, Cid, Yang, Rydia
FF6 - Gogo, Sabin, Locke, Terra
FF7 - Cloud, Cid, Barret, Red

FF4 - Rydia, Cecil (Paladin), FuSoYa (minor role but he definitely came in handy)

FF6 - Locke, Terra, Celes, Shadow, Setzer.

8 never gets the credit it deserves. The junctioning system is a system that all games need. It'd just work better if it were incorporated into some weapon crafting skill, so that you could craft weapons with different materials, then embue them with magical properties.

JediKirby

FF7: Vincent (duh...)
FF8: Irvine
FF9: Vivi, Amarant

Heh, if you notice, 3 of my favorite characters fill practically the same role (Vincent, Irvine, and Amarant).

I think that it was largely just never properly balanced. However, I also think that perhaps it would've been better suited for an MMORPG...

Also, since FF VI is my favorite, it must be the general consensus that it is the best, because I'm never wrong... No, really!

I actually have been playing FF8 lately. I borrowed it from a friend, and re-played through the whole game because when I had it a few years ago, I never defeated the final boss.

So yesterday I was fighting the final boss, got to the last (I think) form, and she did this move called "Apocalypse." and killed all my party at full health in one move after I had been fighting her for over an hour in one battle...

Will I try again? Not any time soon. I was SO pissed off...

Having said that, I LOVE Final Fantasy 8.
I listen to the music a lot more than I play the game, though. You gotta love soundtracks...

Nobuo Uematsu's music = pwnage.

Oh, and here's an interesting look at one of the more prominent elements of FF VII...

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=72

The trick is to either refine the right playing card that gives you a bunch of heros or holy wars (one player invincible or your your whole party respectively) and always keep at least one character invulnerable.

In fact, that's the only way to get past Griever's attack before that!

Or be really cheeky, and don't teach Rinoa's dog ANY tricks until the last one is available (something with moon in iirc), because that agains casts invulnerability - can't remember if it's just on rinoa or the whole party, but anyway - when she does her limit break, you'll have a 50% of becoming invulnerable. Every time.

/Was my first FF experience, and also love the junctioing system, and the 'better than FF7' cutscenes imo

ERROR = VERY YES.

:p

Oh, and I don't know how the **** you guys leveled your ff8 characters, but once i got the Ultimecia's castle, I was strong enough to own anyone with just physical attacks. and by the end boss, I had plenty of aura spells to just cast mighty guard and then use Irvine and Squall's limits to blast everyone into oblivion.

And Griever's attack did about 2000 each time. I was expecting a lot more from it =P

*sigh* FF7 is very low on my list. I really don't understand why everyone hates FF8. They complain about the GFs! I don't even summon them anymore! (Except for maybe Cactuar and Carbuncle.) If you learn to use the junction system well enough, you won't suck so frigging miserably that you need to use the GFs. I know I sound a bit cruel, but it isn't that hard of a system to figure out.


FF3j > * Though.

FF7 & 8 were fun, didn't really rate 9 as much.

never played the earlier ones, which ones are available on the SNES?

FF8 was a bore-fest. The story was so cliche. Meh.

FF6 had many dynamic characters that all combined into one to make a party. I thought that was uber-frickin sweet.

4, 5, 6

I can send you to a site if you want (I'll pm you in chat if you like)

if its a site that gives me SNES carts, i'm sold.