The Final Fantasy Thread

[Snekposter]

You can pretty much play some form of every game on PC, both officially and emulation

And non-emulated, since I have an irrational dislike? I know VII, VIII are out, plus XV, the VII Remake, and CHAOS, but any others?

 

[Berrakh]

And non-emulated, since I have an irrational dislike? I know VII, VIII are out, plus XV, the VII Remake, and CHAOS, but any others?

Pixel Remasters of the first 6. 9. X. XII. All on the switch or PC.
Now go and sin no more.

 

[MooseGump]

Pixel Remasters of the first 6. 9. X. XII. All on the switch or PC.
Now go and sin no more.

Except for X, that one has a whole load of sin

 

[Wesker]

Id recommend playing it on easy for the pacing and turning off that ridiculous blurb on the top left that never goes away.

Personally I dig how off the wall the plot gets, but they really should have egone all the way with picking turn based or hack and slash gameplay.

There's things I do like about it, how it does make attempts and deepening it's lore and taking it's time. But it's equally a slog a lot of the time. It is nice seeing classics areas modernized, that don't tarnish the original. It's not a "bad" remake, it's just painfully slow. In a lot of ways it's a love letter to the original. Although, it plays like you already played the original with spoiling later events multiple times. Like Meteor, and Aerith's death.

I'm playing on PS4, and I noticed during the climb to the Shinra building, the JPEG or whatever they have for the skybox that shows Midgar and all the trash is really pixelated. All the other skyboxes to that point look really crisp.

 

[eternal dog mongler]

Except for X, that one has a whole load of sin

FFX, the game where you go on a quest to deal with everyone's daddy issues.

 

[Snake]

I impulse bought a bunch of the games years ago and just couldn't get into them.

 

[Smug Chuckler]

Well so is FF6.

nobody remembers II's plot.

 

[The Littlest Shitlord]

nobody remembers II's plot.

Nobody remembers II. There are good reasons for that.

 

[Psyduck]

That's how we end up with Final Fantasy XV. Do you want more Final Fantasy XV?

...I wouldnt mind...

 

[Urbanmech]

And non-emulated, since I have an irrational dislike? I know VII, VIII are out, plus XV, the VII Remake, and CHAOS, but any others?

They are all on Steam 1-15. Think FF Remake is on Epic Store and will eventually make it to Steam.

 

[Michael Wade]

Finished Stranger of paradise. Very good storywise. We've got an easy to digest, compelling, time travel revenge story with complex background lore. That's dam near miraculous for Nomura's team. I definitely get the sense they are improving.

Gameplay wise? ehhhh. Im not that great on souls games personally, so I had to put it on easy to finish without tearing my controller in half. It's not super bad, I just picked one job class as my main and over specialized. If you just want to play dress up and mindlessly hack and slash, put it on medium.

It's main flaws are lack of unique enemy's towards the end and an ending that feels a little cut off to make way for DLC. (That being said im quite intrigued to see what they put out)

There's things I do like about it, how it does make attempts and deepening it's lore and taking it's time. But it's equally a slog a lot of the time. It is nice seeing classics areas modernized, that don't tarnish the original. It's not a "bad" remake, it's just painfully slow. In a lot of ways it's a love letter to the original. Although, it plays like you already played the original with spoiling later events multiple times. Like Meteor, and Aerith's death.

I'm playing on PS4, and I noticed during the climb to the Shinra building, the JPEG or whatever they have for the skybox that shows Midgar and all the trash is really pixelated. All the other skyboxes to that point look really crisp.

I enjoyed the game quite a bit, but I somewhat regret not playing it on easy to just to enjoy the story and avoid the grind.

 

[Berrakh]

Finished Stranger of paradise. Very good storywise. We've got an easy to digest, compelling, time travel revenge story with complex background lore. That's dam near miraculous for Nomura's team. I definitely get the sense they are improving.

I’m unlikely to play it so if you could maybe go into spoilers about how the story worked I’d appreciate it.

 

[Pissmaster]

They are all on Steam 1-15. Think FF Remake is on Epic Store and will eventually make it to Steam.

Steam does not have Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, and that is a shame.

 

[Mega Man II Intro - GB]

Steam does not have Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, and that is a shame.

Nor any of the Tactics games but at least there's emulation.

I'm 15 hours into XII now and thoroughly sick of this game. My "license points" are giving me the exciting promise of better gear but I can't actually afford it, nor is most of it even in shops. I thought this system was jank when I started playing and having to deal with it is even worse. I don't feel like I'm growing my characters at all, everything's weak to elemental types I don't have spells for, and my dumbass party wants to walk into every trap so I have to find the gambit that makes them not do that.

For not being turn-based it feels infinitely fiddly and I'd rather just be on a battle screen.

 

[Car Won't Crank]

Nor any of the Tactics games but at least there's emulation.

I'm 15 hours into XII now and thoroughly sick of this game. My "license points" are giving me the exciting promise of better gear but I can't actually afford it, nor is most of it even in shops. I thought this system was jank when I started playing and having to deal with it is even worse. I don't feel like I'm growing my characters at all, everything's weak to elemental types I don't have spells for, and my dumbass party wants to walk into every trap so I have to find the gambit that makes them not do that.

For not being turn-based it feels infinitely fiddly and I'd rather just be on a battle screen.

From my experience, FF12 is very grindy. Whether it's quests or story missions, lot of it requires a good grind to level up your party and get the rare equipment, espers, and stuff. I think FF12 Zodiac Age, the HD remaster reworked the battle system to make to make it easier and faster to level up and grind.

 

[Local Degenerate]

Nor any of the Tactics games but at least there's emulation.

I'm 15 hours into XII now and thoroughly sick of this game. My "license points" are giving me the exciting promise of better gear but I can't actually afford it, nor is most of it even in shops. I thought this system was jank when I started playing and having to deal with it is even worse. I don't feel like I'm growing my characters at all, everything's weak to elemental types I don't have spells for, and my dumbass party wants to walk into every trap so I have to find the gambit that makes them not do that.

For not being turn-based it feels infinitely fiddly and I'd rather just be on a battle screen.

XII is easily bottom 5. It's literally just Star Wars mixed with a shitty MMO, using a system that Dragon age would later improve. There's a reason the PS2 era is considered by most the absolute worst.
And don't even get me started on what it did to the Ivlacian races.

 

[Berrakh]

12 is not literally just star wars. It stops being star wars after the Leviathan dreadnought

 

[Coster]

I’m unlikely to play it so if you could maybe go into spoilers about how the story worked I’d appreciate it.

It's definitely worth a play. The game feels like a really fun celebration of FF1, and to a lesser extent, the rest of the series. My mind was made up about it when the intro includes an HD remake shot of the cliffside approach to Cornelia.

Spoiler

Stranger of Paradise is a prequel to Final Fantasy I like Dissidia is, but explains Garland as opposed to Warrior of Light. Lufenians have Cornelia in an infinite time loop of balancing light and dark together so as to prevent the destruction of the world. They will legit fuck the world up via darkness injection if there is an imbalance of light. Lufenians send Strangers, or Lufenians who have been fully memory wiped, to deal with the darkness when it gets out of control. Eventually, it's discovered that Jack (full name: Jack Garland) has been trying to line up circumstances to break the cycle entirely, and the game represents his success. He takes the power of Chaos, declares the Lufenians false gods, and uses his power to sever their connection to Cornelia. Jack and his four party members (revealed eventually to actually be the Four Fiends) resolve that the world won't be saved until the true Warriors of Light appear, so they're basically going to ruin everything to induce the circumstances required for them to appear. The end shot of Stranger of Paradise is Garland sitting on his throne in the Chaos Shrine, and the door opens to reveal the silhouettes of four warriors approaching him. The only recognizable silhouette of the four is, based on his armor and helm, Warrior of Light himself.

 

[Michael Wade]

I’m unlikely to play it so if you could maybe go into spoilers about how the story worked I’d appreciate it.

Ok so the story starts out dirt simple and filled with Jack acting like a meme lord for about the first half. He's On a quest to destroy chaos, free the crystals from the four fiends and be a heroic badass, but..

Spoiler

As the game goes on Jack's behavior stop's being played for laughs and gets more.. concerning. His lack of interest in anything besides chaos is actually noticed by his level headed companions. He's so dead set on his mission, he even has a violent reaction to the idea of learning about his past.

It becomes increasingly clear that the "warriors of light" have been manipulated and mind wiped into accomplishing their mission of destroying chaos and "restoring order" to the world. For countless millennia the world of FF1 has been stuck in something resembling a groundhog day loop that resets everytime the warriors succeed and or fail in their mission.

Why? It's so an Interdimensional race called the Lufenians can lock down the world and its timeline to use as a dumping ground for their experiments and darkness. They are not interested in conquest so much as mad science, transforming the land into some of the worst hellscapes of various FF games for research and giggles. There's implications they've offloaded darkness into other FF worlds and been indirectly responsible for a lot of bad shit. (Such as the starscourge from ff15.)

The time loops or "resets" are not perfect however. Darkness can mutate into chaos and create points of divergence in the timeline, so they need "Strangers" to go down and clean up the mess before it gets out of control.


They actually explain the difference between Chaos and Darkness in this, and it has some broad implications if im reading the room right.

Darkness is artificial creation, (perhaps even a byproduct of their tech if im reading the lore right). By itself its not too difficult to deal with and potentially control, but when combined with someone who has emotional instability? you get Chaos.

Chaos is uncontrollable and breaks all the rules. It's the reason time travel is a series of dashed lines in this game as opposed to a straight arrow. It's also the reason they mind wipe most of their agents, in a bid to prevent them from being overtly controlled by their emotions.



While Jack cant remember a dam thing in between resets, his friends are able to remember bits and pieces and manage to put it all together with the help of Astos.


Asto's claims to be a dark elf king and the game points to him as being the obvious big bad, but he isn't. In reality he's been helping Jack the entire game. Asto's is a native of FF1 that was taken and artificially evolved. He was essentially forced into becoming a slave up until jack came by and made him his friend.

The first time Jack was sent down to FF1's world (He apparently considers himself Lufenian, but the background lore imply's he may not be one) he still had his memories intact and realized how horrible the Lufenians plan was, so he enlisted the aid of Astos to help break the loop. Asto's did his best, but started to gradually go insane after every reset when he had to repeatedly explain to Jack what was going on.

Eventually Jack and the gang managed to beat the truth out of Astos, but he dies in the process, and the world approaches a reset point where every native goes insane and or dies to monsters.

Jack's buddy's decide the only way to stop the Lufenians is to imbue jack with chaos by "betraying" him. Jack brutally kills them,, gets utterly shitfaced with darkness and makes his way to the Lufenian extraction point.

This is were things get a bit beautifully bonkers, but essentially Jack goes mad with power, fights a replica of chaos and cuts off FF1 from the Lufenians.

He then is pulled 2000 years backward in time and becomes Garland proper in order to train the true warriors of light. This is apparently so they can help him definitively defeat the Lufenians when they come back. Cue the wait for the DLC.

It may sound a little convoluted, but I loved the way they handled it. They took a page from Nier and used the chaos memes very constructively.


If you have questions feel free to ask, I really need to go over the lore pages again.

 

[Someone in a Tree]

Saying that FFXII is basically Star Wars is like saying Die Hard is a Christmas movie: an observation that was stale years ago that completely ignores the innovations they brought to the proceedings.