The Final Fantasy Thread

[Zeke Von Genbu]

Completely unrelated to the FF7RE talk going on, though I would like to ask what the fuck is wrong with Cloud and Sephiroth's voices? They sound nothing like what I've heard from their mouths for more than a decade.

Has anyone bought FF12 Zodiac Age on PC? How is the port? I'm considering between Switch and PC, but I've learned the Switch can't hit 1080p even in docked mode and it never can hit 60 fps. So I'm thinking of just going PC so I at least can try to play it at 60 fps, 1080p, or both depending on how my PC runs it. Anything notably wrong with the PC port if you don't have a toaster?

 

[Hikikomori-Yume]

I've been playing Final Fantasy since VIII and tbh I have always found the games to be very subpar and boring.
I play them for the aesthetics/level design.
Final Fantasy XII and XIV are legit good though.

 

[Plunkie]

FFXV really turned me off of action RPGs in general, I hope they're aiming to go at least slightly different with this remake.

Also gave in and got the FFX remaster. Despite everyone looking like they had botox (and the voices) it holds up pretty decently. The scene where Wakka publicly executes 50 Al Bhed in a row was a little sketchy but it's a product of its time

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

I wonder if Steve Burton will voice Cloud again. Long as we don't get Mena Suvari as Aerith.

His voice can be heard in the 2015 reveal trailer. Maybe it's just me, but Cloud sounded somewhat different in the latest trailer. I don't know if I can really judge from the two really short lines he said, but it didn't sound much like Burton, at least not in the way he voices Cloud. If it is him, then maybe he's doing it differently to better reflect Cloud in VII? Cloud's not really mopey or anything in the game, and while I think Burton provides an excellent voice for him, he's usually in mopey Cloud mode.

Sephiroth sounded different though. I dunno, it doesn't sound like George Newburn, but at the same time Sephiroth's projecting a little more emotion and Newburn always gave an emotionless performance (not really a bad thing mind you, but at the same time I've heard enough of his performance to know when something's different).

Will we get the gay bears orgy scene tho?

I replayed that sequence recently and it's incredible that was even a thing. Given today's climate, I doubt anyone could get away with such blatant gay jokes.

 

[Medicated]

They made Cloud a faggot, I just knew they were going to make Cloud a faggot. After all this time how has glorious nippon not realized that everyone outside of their shitty island hates these soft spoken pretty boys? smdh

Huh? Cloud has always been a brooding pretty boy yaoibait. I dunno where you got this idea he was going to be Duke Nukem now.

Going in a massively different direction would just compromise the entire "remake" title. I'd prefer if they stuck to the original artistic direction and intentions. Hopefully DiGRA Japan and Sony won't pressure them to keep out the entire crossdressing gay bar part. Even though I don't really like it, I think it's important to preserve as much of the original intention of the game as possible. Plus I think the fangirls will kill the Sony execs and eat their brains if that happens, and we know now the corps are fine with pissing off the cheesecake fans, but if you cut out Fujoshi stuff, they'll blog and article your company into the ground.

 

[Night Owl]

Has anyone bought FF12 Zodiac Age on PC? How is the port? I'm considering between Switch and PC, but I've learned the Switch can't hit 1080p even in docked mode and it never can hit 60 fps. So I'm thinking of just going PC so I at least can try to play it at 60 fps, 1080p, or both depending on how my PC runs it. Anything notably wrong with the PC port if you don't have a toaster?

I've only just started playing it myself, but so far there hasn't been any issues with the port, no slowdowns or glitches and it runs great on the highest settings. The graphics settings are kind of ehhh, but that's par on course for most FF ports. In the end it will all depend on your computer since most PCs are their own beast unlike the consoles and mine is fairly new (just turned a year old).

 

[Sīn the Moon Daddy]

Tfw you like FF12
The class system is kinda dumb in zodiac age but it's not a difficult game.

Vayne wasn't super interesting to begin with and then surrounding him with more interesting characters didn't do the game any favors either. People remember The Judges more than they remember Vayne and Venat, if they remember Venat at all.

 

[Night Owl]

It is kind of silly you need a license to wear certain weapons or armor.

What is this, the UK?

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

Tfw you like FF12
The class system is kinda dumb in zodiac age but it's not a difficult game.

Vayne wasn't super interesting to begin with and then surrounding him with more interesting characters didn't do the game any favors either. People remember The Judges more than they remember Vayne and Venat, if they remember Venat at all.

I hated the old license board personally because it made everyone super samey, and if you grinded too much the idea that you'd just spec into different weapons across every character doesn't work unless you purposefully limit yourself. The old license board was the only reason I couldn't finish 12 the 4 different times I tried playing it, I just got sick of seeing everyone using the same equipment and all able to cast magic. The job system was a ton of fun to put together in my current playthrough, I spent an autistic amount of time with a spreadsheet planning out how to use all 12 jobs even if you have no reason to actually do that. It was fun and more worthwhile than the old license board.

So far I'm enjoying myself 20 hours in, I kind of cheesed the game at the moment because I decided to grind for the 3rd best gun 12 hours in so now I can just walk up and shoot through nearly everything 10 or so levels above me, so my Machinst is benched for now.

 

[Stab You in the Back]

FFXIV Update:

I cracked and subbed for a month to get the FFXV car. The car grind was surprisingly easy. Took about three weeks of doing the challenge log and getting lucky on the mini cactpot.

During my month of playtime I was able to level Machinist from 30-60 and get both Warrior and Summoner from ~50 to 60. It seems like classes really open up after level 50 to the point where they play completely differently at 60. The rotations are still pretty simple, but there is some added decision-making that makes classes much more fun to play. Summoner, in particular, was misery at 50, banging at 60.

35-45 is a bitch to level. I couldn't find a method better than just completing easy Fates while queuing for dungeons. 50-60 is remarkably easy to level, especially once I unlocked the level 50 alliance raids. A raid, main scenario dungeon and random dungeon (to spend rested XP) basically gave me two levels a day. Hopefully these are still as effective if and when I get to Stormblood content.

Overall, hitting and playing around with lvl 60 characters gave me a much better opinion on the game. The combat system still isn't as responsive as WoW's, but its not quite as dull as I originally thought.

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

FFXIV Update:

I cracked and subbed for a month to get the FFXV car. The car grind was surprisingly easy. Took about three weeks of doing the challenge log and getting lucky on the mini cactpot.

During my month of playtime I was able to level Machinist from 30-60 and get both Warrior and Summoner from ~50 to 60. It seems like classes really open up after level 50 to the point where they play completely differently at 60. The rotations are still pretty simple, but there is some added decision-making that makes classes much more fun to play. Summoner, in particular, was misery at 50, banging at 60.

35-45 is a bitch to level. I couldn't find a method better than just completing easy Fates while queuing for dungeons. 50-60 is remarkably easy to level, especially once I unlocked the level 50 alliance raids. A raid, main scenario dungeon and random dungeon (to spend rested XP) basically gave me two levels a day. Hopefully these are still as effective if and when I get to Stormblood content.

Overall, hitting and playing around with lvl 60 characters gave me a much better opinion on the game. The combat system still isn't as responsive as WoW's, but its not quite as dull as I originally thought.

Stormblood really made a lot of jobs miserable until level cap, or close to, Machinist is one of the biggest examples though yes pre 50 most jobs feel like shit and it is one of 14's biggest weaknesses for most people especially newer players. I played FF14 for 5 years since ARR came out, I took an extended break as Stormblood's changes ruined my enjoyment of some jobs (rip Heavensward Dark Knight) and the raids got even easier, and kept getting easier according to some friends that still played. Shadowbringer's info just came out and I'm interested in how they're handling things, somethings are kind of weird (mostly healers) and others are fairly good (mostly tank things which is what I've played most my FF14 days).

I could go on for hours about 14 now as i'm legitimately interested in some of Shadowbringer's adjustments and replaying myself after more than a year long break has reminded me of both good and bad times with the game, but they really need to step up the savage tier raids and extreme trial design, as good players will break the fights if they stay as they are with the current tools they've given tanks and healers more then they already do.

 

[Tanner Glass]

FFXIV Update:

I cracked and subbed for a month to get the FFXV car. The car grind was surprisingly easy. Took about three weeks of doing the challenge log and getting lucky on the mini cactpot.

During my month of playtime I was able to level Machinist from 30-60 and get both Warrior and Summoner from ~50 to 60. It seems like classes really open up after level 50 to the point where they play completely differently at 60. The rotations are still pretty simple, but there is some added decision-making that makes classes much more fun to play. Summoner, in particular, was misery at 50, banging at 60.

35-45 is a bitch to level. I couldn't find a method better than just completing easy Fates while queuing for dungeons. 50-60 is remarkably easy to level, especially once I unlocked the level 50 alliance raids. A raid, main scenario dungeon and random dungeon (to spend rested XP) basically gave me two levels a day. Hopefully these are still as effective if and when I get to Stormblood content.

Overall, hitting and playing around with lvl 60 characters gave me a much better opinion on the game. The combat system still isn't as responsive as WoW's, but its not quite as dull as I originally thought.

If you're looking for a good time, stick with Warrior. The level 70 kit is one of the most fun tank kits in any game currently (they have a lot of DPS tools that feel really good) and the leaked Shadowbringers stuff suggests that it's only going to get better.

If you're looking for MGP (for more than the FFXV car) - also check out the gold saucer attractions. In particular the fashion report is typically a very easy 50k MGP/week for ~7 minutes worth of effort.

MCH is the worst job to level, but other classes hold up a lot better during leveling (LNC, ARC, THM) and it's one of the things they're focusing on for the expansion, allegedly.

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

If you're looking for a good time, stick with Warrior. The level 70 kit is one of the most fun tank kits in any game currently (they have a lot of DPS tools that feel really good) and the leaked Shadowbringers stuff suggests that it's only going to get better.

If you're looking for MGP (for more than the FFXV car) - also check out the gold saucer attractions. In particular the fashion report is typically a very easy 50k MGP/week for ~7 minutes worth of effort.

MCH is the worst job to level, but other classes hold up a lot better during leveling (LNC, ARC, THM) and it's one of the things they're focusing on for the expansion, allegedly.

I disagree with Warrior being the most fun personally, meme cleave spam is really boring and that hasn't changed at all in Shadowbringers based on what I've seen, also leaks don't matter anymore as the media tour embargos ended a couple days ago so you can see real information on youtube, subject to change obviously yada yada as that build is an entire month old from today apparently and some differences have been seen in other media tours. Warrior's problem is the rotation is so binary and boring, and when everything crits getting a crit isn't that cool anymore, SE focused way too hard on the multiple fell cleave meme.

Personally as someone who has careered tanked since 2.0, all 3 tanks are boring/annoying to play in their own way in Stormblood after how great War/Drk felt in Heavensward. Drk has been my favorite since Heavensward and I'm glad it is getting somewhat reworked next expansion as it needed a straight rework after it got gutted with Stormblood's simplification of combat. My personal tank autism aside for Shadowbringers I think Gunbreaker and Dark Knight look a lot better to play if you want a tank, Gunbreaker even starts at 60 to make it easier to get into.

As for Mch, I've seen the best Machinist's in the community math out the new Machinist for hours, and it is an absolute mess to play especially if you want to tryhard/optimize. If you just want to casually play it is super flashy and cool with all the gadgets and stuff, and leveling it looks smoother, but if you like optimizing or tryharding Machinist is super awkward to use as it currently is mathed out.

I really hope they adjust it fairly soon after the expansion as I don't think they have enough time to fix everything for launch if they even know it is a problem. None of this will matter too much if you don't care about playing super well though, so if shooting drills and summoning a robot is cool Shadowbringers Machinist is for you which is why I'll probably still try it as I'm a fairly casual dps who will accept that my damage will be underpar due to my ping.

 

[UnKillFill]

I'm currently playing Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age on Steam.

I tried to play the original game back in the day, and never got far because the game was clearly going out of its way to piss me off. (The story is complete garbage, the "main character" is gay Aladdin and has fuck all to do with said story aside from just being there, and the license system has always been fucking stupid.)

I'm maybe 4/5 through this playthrough. This version is a little bit better than the original... but for every problem they fixed, they seemingly added like 3 more. The biggest fuckup is the inability to change character classes after choosing, but lame as that is, I think I could ignore it.

What isn't so easy to ignore, is the totally random nature of the vast majority of chests in the game. As it is, you already unlock multiple magicks and techniks WAAY too late in the game to be of maximum use (and a lot of those skills and magics are rarely even fully explained, for how different they are from other FF games, even when you do get them.), and that goes double for certain seemingly essential equipment- In the rare instance where I know this monster is weak to X element, I have fuck all equips to take advantage of that weakness, and I found I rarely had armor to help me guard their attacks, which in a few fights seemed like it was essential. (Compounding this, is like 95% of chests have shit in them, even if you happen to open the right one).

Why yes, I did take to using a guide for the chests of pretty much every area, and I still got annoyed enough that I started using cheat engine to at least make these chests *spawn* without running across the map 100 times. (Another thing that made me fuck off the original was when I heard that there where certain random chests that if you opened them, you couldn't get certain ultimate weapons later... That is one of the worst bits of bad game design I've ever heard. That *was* fixed in this version.)

To be clear, I don't think this game is "too hard" (most Final Fantasy games are fairly easy.)... Just that whoever made this shit was clearly going out of their way to waste my time. Other time wasters- Rare steals are, at best 6%. (That's assuming you have a piece of equipment that the average player would not find on their own- I only found it because I used a guide.) And usually worse. Getting rare drops require typically require you to chain-kill a ton of the same monster... which is rarely practical. (even if you only *wanted* your characters to attack one type of monster, they will usually auto attack and kill any other monster they see, because of one of the major facets of the game (gambits) resets your count. Speaking of which,

-Gambits (which are also under-developed AF) are so annoying that I wish this game just had turn based combat like the other Final Fantasys. I basically had to change them every few seconds each battle anyway, as I try to steal a lot, and there is no way to tell your gambit to stop stealing and attack once they succeed.

-I like the individual classes in this game well enough, and allowing dual classes (The original job system version of this game didn't have that) was the correct move... But they should have also allowed you to change classes, I wouldn't even care if they charged you for that ability.

-They don't make it clear that certain classes (Archer and Machinist come to mind)_ are pretty much worthless in the regular game. (I mention this because I have heard that they shine in other game modes which I'm not currently playing. But of course, that is never specified in game.)

-Certain other classes (Pretty much white mage and time mage) are pretty much essential... luckily I had the foresight to make those two the same character, but that also has its drawbacks...

-Espers expanding the skills you can use, even past the capabilities of the original classes was also a great idea... But those espers should have been equip-able, (and unequipable) as they always have been in other FF games.

-I haven't gotten there yet, but I heard the super boss in this game is also tedious AF... Not so much hard, as having 50,000,000 hp in a game where +9999 damage hits are technically possible, but I'm not even doing that yet with a 68+ party.

Final Verdict: This game isn't as shit as I originally thought it was, but it is still a below average Final Fantasy game for me. I hope someone makes a mod that removes the massive bullshit at some point.

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

I'm currently playing Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age on Steam.

I tried to play the original game back in the day, and never got far because the game was clearly going out of its way to piss me off. (The story is complete garbage, the "main character" is gay Aladdin and has fuck all to do with said story aside from just being there, and the license system has always been fucking stupid.)

I'm maybe 4/5 through this playthrough. This version is a little bit better than the original... but for every problem they fixed, they seemingly added like 3 more. The biggest fuckup is the inability to change character classes after choosing, but lame as that is, I think I could ignore it.

What isn't so easy to ignore, is the totally random nature of the vast majority of chests in the game. As it is, you already unlock multiple magicks and techniks WAAY too late in the game to be of maximum use (and a lot of those skills and magics are rarely even fully explained, for how different they are from other FF games, even when you do get them.), and that goes double for certain seemingly essential equipment- In the rare instance where I know this monster is weak to X element, I have fuck all equips to take advantage of that weakness, and I found I rarely had armor to help me guard their attacks, which in a few fights seemed like it was essential. (Compounding this, is like 95% of chests have shit in them, even if you happen to open the right one).

Why yes, I did take to using a guide for the chests of pretty much every area, and I still got annoyed enough that I started using cheat engine to at least make these chests *spawn* without running across the map 100 times. (Another thing that made me fuck off the original was when I heard that there where certain random chests that if you opened them, you couldn't get certain ultimate weapons later... That is one of the worst bits of bad game design I've ever heard. That *was* fixed in this version.)

To be clear, I don't think this game is "too hard" (most Final Fantasy games are fairly easy.)... Just that whoever made this shit was clearly going out of their way to waste my time. Other time wasters- Rare steals are, at best 6%. (That's assuming you have a piece of equipment that the average player would not find on their own- I only found it because I used a guide.) And usually worse. Getting rare drops require typically require you to chain-kill a ton of the same monster... which is rarely practical. (even if you only *wanted* your characters to attack one type of monster, they will usually auto attack and kill any other monster they see, because of one of the major facets of the game (gambits) resets your count. Speaking of which,

-Gambits (which are also under-developed AF) are so annoying that I wish this game just had turn based combat like the other Final Fantasys. I basically had to change them every few seconds each battle anyway, as I try to steal a lot, and there is no way to tell your gambit to stop stealing and attack once they succeed.

-I like the individual classes in this game well enough, and allowing dual classes (The original job system version of this game didn't have that) was the correct move... But they should have also allowed you to change classes, I wouldn't even care if they charged you for that ability.

-They don't make it clear that certain classes (Archer and Machinist come to mind)_ are pretty much worthless in the regular game. (I mention this because I have heard that they shine in other game modes which I'm not currently playing. But of course, that is never specified in game.)

-Certain other classes (Pretty much white mage and time mage) are pretty much essential... luckily I had the foresight to make those two the same character, but that also has its drawbacks...

-Espers expanding the skills you can use, even past the capabilities of the original classes was also a great idea... But those espers should have been equip-able, (and unequipable) as they always have been in other FF games.

-I haven't gotten there yet, but I heard the super boss in this game is also tedious AF... Not so much hard, as having 50,000,000 hp in a game where +9999 damage hits are technically possible, but I'm not even doing that yet with a 68+ party.

Final Verdict: This game isn't as shit as I originally thought it was, but it is still a below average Final Fantasy game for me. I hope someone makes a mod that removes the massive bullshit at some point.

FF12 Zodiac edition, not zodiac age this is the original remake only japan got many years ago, wanted to emphasize the concept of making choices which is why you can't change shit and the director stated this in some interview from forever ago. The game is easy enough where it isn't a big deal in my opinion. I like being forced to make game changing choices personally as it makes me have to think and I think having the ability to constantly change loses value in that, but that is just my opinion. Espers though are weird because you don't fully know how they work or what they unlock until you stumble upon them, which might mess you up assuming you aren't me and an excel spreadsheet to plan all of this out. I think the classes are fine because you can get a good general idea of how they work unless you've never played a FF before, and the game is so easy overall that unless you try to screw up you likely will be able to do everything just fine.

As for the other stuff. Machinist is not bad you just need to get the better guns by going out of your way to get them. Machinist damage is entirely based on your weapon and ammo, your stats don't matter. If you get early powerful guns, which if you're using guides/wikis you can get the early stuff and just blitz through until you start entering endgame. I got the best gun pre raithwall and it was really funny and only took me about an hour or two of grinding for rare steals without thief cuffs. Also Machinist is your ticket to Hasteaga without time mage with the correct esper which is a nice plus to keep itself relevant as you enter endgame and Mch's strengths stop mattering as much, I'll explain in a second why Time Mage sucks and why I hated working around this job. Overall Mch is a pretty good job if you are willing to make it good, with shop progression it sucks mega ass.

Archer is also pretty good if again you know what to equip, burning bow flaming arrows is a common combo that is accessible really damn early if you know what to do and you can get their best bow with cheat engine really easily which breaks shit. Also Archer has 3 swiftnesses with no strings attached which can be useful. Archer is also good with red mage or any fire caster because burning bow functions as a flaming staff basically and you get to shoot arrows in the early game-mid game when mp can be somewhat a concern. Archer if you know how to build it is plainly in the middle of the row as a damage dealer, the issue is that knights when built correctly are broken in this double job system because white robes Excalibur is busted and a mistake, but it still has its uses and is respectable as a job.

Time Mage is mega bad overall and is hard carried by haste to make it not literally the worst job, crossbows are probably literally the worst weapon type in the game, heavy armor is spread across many many jobs that I'd rather use like Knight, and early time magic is awful except for Haste which while powerful isn't enough to consider this thing essential. Their is some tricks you can use with break or immobilize, but those are few and far between. Whm/Time is sketchy because it takes a busy role and makes it even busier especially if you try to automate a lot with gambits.

Best way to kill Yizamat fast is Shikari with black robes and Yagyu darkblade as it is weak to dark element this gives you a fast multi attacker who does like 10k+ a hit, with 4 times speed and gambits it isn't too bad these days, but yeah Yizamat is dumb especially with the old damage cap which was the only reason it took several hours. Also levels mean jackshit in 12, it is all about your equipment and set up, just grinding levels doesn't really do anything at all besides give you some hp/mp and a little bit of base stats that most the time don't really matter.

FF12 is also all about the bazaar system if you want the good equipment both early and just at all depending on which equipment we're talking about, if you go through shop progression only you're almost always behind what you could have especially with weapons. I picked some of the highlight early pick ups and smashed through things because having a 92 attack 1 handed sword when most weapons are at 50-60 attack is really funny or getting a gun pre raithwall that does 4k damage a shot was even funnier when I could get Vaan to one shot things 10 levels higher than me which is another reason why levels don't matter.

I think FF12 is not a game for everyone and you get more fun by autisticly looking through wikis for the next best progression point and grinding use 2x or 4x speed depending on what you can control and breaking the game in half as you sequence breaked stuff. Without fast forward features this game would be a lot more annoying for sure, but with it the grind is not bad at all to be honest. Also Ashe is the real main character, the entire story revolves around her, still the game is a shadow compared to the better other Ivalice game that most people care about FFTactics.

 

[Bluey]

I have not touched a FF game since maybe FF9 or X. I remember I played the hell our of Final Fantasy IV's remark on the DS. Before we had all that "After Years" nonsense on the Wii's E shop. PSP port wasn't bad, since it included After Years and the other game in it.

 

[GethN7]

I have not touched a FF game since maybe FF9 or X. I remember I played the hell our of Final Fantasy IV's remark on the DS. Before we had all that "After Years" nonsense on the Wii's E shop. PSP port wasn't bad, since it included After Years and the other game in it.

After Years had some nice ideas but it felt so much like a fanfiction followup to the original game, and that Lunar mechanic seemed to exist to add a layer of extra difficulty to it.

In fact, my big issue with the plot is two-fold

1. The new villain struggles to mesh with original game plot, which was fairly well completed on it's own, so they had to retcon a lot of original plot points so they could write more material for After Years, and the way they did this was very obvious.

2. Chunks of the game felt like an extended rehash of the FF2 Soul of Rebirth story with a weaker justification. While the FF2 plot reversed a lot of stock dungeons and basically served as a parallel to the ending parts of the main game route, it at least didn't contradict what went before it or force the writers to crowbar in a lot of retcons to make it make sense, whereas After Years also reused stock assets and tried to parallel it's original source too, but the justification for it made less sense and often came off as blatant padding, such as the final dungeon being a much longer retread of the original game's version of the same.

 

[Bluey]

After Years had some nice ideas but it felt so much like a fanfiction followup to the original game, and that Lunar mechanic seemed to exist to add a layer of extra difficulty to it.

In fact, my big issue with the plot is two-fold

1. The new villain struggles to mesh with original game plot, which was fairly well completed on it's own, so they had to retcon a lot of original plot points so they could write more material for After Years, and the way they did this was very obvious.

2. Chunks of the game felt like an extended rehash of the FF2 Soul of Rebirth story with a weaker justification. While the FF2 plot reversed a lot of stock dungeons and basically served as a parallel to the ending parts of the main game route, it at least didn't contradict what went before it or force the writers to crowbar in a lot of retcons to make it make sense, whereas After Years also reused stock assets and tried to parallel it's original source too, but the justification for it made less sense and often came off as blatant padding, such as the final dungeon being a much longer retread of the original game's version of the same.

I played the PSP version that had After Years bundled in with it. The Wii Ware versions were some stupid price and I had no intention of getting them. I heard there was one that had the style of the DS game. I think with Afteryears, I can't stand the melodrama.

I do like me some pre PS1 era FF games, but I lost interest in the series long ago. I do think FF4 was one of the best FF games IMO, but it has flaws as well.

I tried FF13 and felt bored. I played FFXV and nearly fell asleep. I know someone who played FF7 front to back, but will even admit the story falls flat on its face around Disk 2.

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest has awesome music but the game is eeehhh....

 

[JM 590]

I played the PSP version that had After Years bundled in with it. The Wii Ware versions were some stupid price and I had no intention of getting them. I heard there was one that had the style of the DS game. I think with Afteryears, I can't stand the melodrama.

I do like me some pre PS1 era FF games, but I lost interest in the series long ago. I do think FF4 was one of the best FF games IMO, but it has flaws as well.

I tried FF13 and felt bored. I played FFXV and nearly fell asleep. I know someone who played FF7 front to back, but will even admit the story falls flat on its face around Disk 2.

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest has awesome music but the game is eeehhh....

The Wii version of After Years was a direct port of the original version for Japanese dumbphones, complete with the terrible pricing structure where you buy the first two chapters, then every chapter afterwards for $3 a piece, and then the last bit for another pile of money. It's a very ugly port, has some translation errors, and they didn't even get Golbez's name right. The 3D remake of it is for modern smartphones and PC, but I haven't heard much about it.

Yeah, I've played the first disc of FF7 countless times, but only ever got through disc 2 like, twice in my entire life. It's just laden with filler.

I think Final Fantasy Mystic Quest was intended for kids, to gently introduce them to the RPG genre. I grew up with it and I loved it. It was even released as a budget title, at $40, when proper big boy Squaresoft games tended to be around $80.

 

[GethN7]

Yeah, I've played the first disc of FF7 countless times, but only ever got through disc 2 like, twice in my entire life. It's just laden with filler.

FF7's second disc tends to crap out in terms of story because the writers were forced to keep upping the ante of plot drama and eventually hit the wall trying.

The first disc is paced pretty well in this regard, setting up the threat to the world and continues to build in tempo till the emotional climax.

The second disc attempts to keep doing this, but after Meteor enters the plot it starts running out of gas because the writers weren't sure how to keep increasing the tempo of the plot without keeping it plausible, hence that weird lull after the prison break where you get the airship, and while the Huge Materia quests and getting Cloud some therapy for his issues were fairly well done, the curiously apathetic followup to you pissing off the Shinra Company (whose reaction to your meddling is entirely reactive and not proactive) tend to kneecap the plot tension.

This does however let the player indulge in a lot of side quests during the plot lulls, and to be fair it makes more sense to do so then as opposed to Disc 3, which makes it pretty clear the planet is gonna be doomed in a few days if you just sit with your thumb up your ass. Disc 2 kept the date of impending Armageddon a bit hazy for this very reason, but it's hard to keep being emotionally invested in it by the same token.

It also doesn't help the final boss literally sits on his ass since achieving his goals in full by the midpoint of Disc 2, whereas their actions kept the plot moving along nicely until that point.