Fabulous Final Fantasy Franchise Discussion Catch-all

People other than Gimpy_Butzke should give XIV a shot if you have a chance. I scoffed at the idea of playing XI back when it was announced, but then a friend made me try it. Thousands of hours later, it's one of my favorite games in the franchise.

Has the full relaunch of 14 happened? I'd like to try it, but don't want to until that's done.

It's coming 8/27, I believe, to PC and PS3. PS4 version will arrive later. I'll be playing on PS3 around launch. I never tried the original XIV.

As I play through the series, I go back and forth as to whether or not I should give XI a try, and XIV as well. Are the MMOs soloable like WoW, or do they pretty much demand grouping with people. Do they feel like essential entries to the series overall?

beanman101283 wrote:

As I play through the series, I go back and forth as to whether or not I should give XI a try, and XIV as well. Are the MMOs soloable like WoW, or do they pretty much demand grouping with people. Do they feel like essential entries to the series overall?

My experience with 11 was overall bad. The first 10 levels were fine when concerning finding a party. I was even included in a raid because I friend of mine was mixed up with a rather large group and got me in when I was the lowest level possible to attempt it. However, because I did not dedicate all of my gaming time with the game I quickly fell behind the majority of players and all of my friends.

I think I got to level 21 as a warrior with a level 7-8 white mage sub job. That class combination offered me zero ability to join parties as I did not fall into a category of damage dealer, or tank, or anything really. The game had a system that told you how strong a monster is compared to you roughly. I quit when monsters that said they were no danger started being unbelievable boss fight type enemies.

As far as story goes. I don't think that I encountered anything close to resembling a cohesive story once I got into the game.

I will get into it more later, but in short XI has a lot to offer but you get what you put into it. I wouldn't say it is an essential part of the series, though. At this point if you're cautious and curious, wait til I have something to say about XIV. XI has been up for a decade, and this is not the best starting point.

Holy skagsuck, shoptroll. You weren't kidding when you said The Sky was a beast of an art collection. Amazon even put a "Heavy - Life With Care" label on the box.

Work was intense today. Didn't get any FF minutes into any of the 4 gameplays I'm currently doing.

FF6 - Locke is still being aided by Mog and his clan of powerful Moogles to save Terra.
FF7 (steam) - Cloud escorting Aeris back to her home.
FF7 (PS1/3) - Still on our way to No. 5 Reactor with Tifa.
FF10 - Still working on stat-maxing. Tedious labor. Not doing Luck attribute. Currently thinking about going for some $$$ so I can bribe for the items I need, rather than farming them 2 at a time at the monster arena. I've wanted to quit so many times now, but I'm so close to my goal. All stats are 255, HP oscillates around 20,000, kept MP at 999, and Agility at 170 (beyond that, turn determination is no longer altered, according to internets). Beaten everything and everyone, have an awesome blitzball team, and have 6/7 fully powered Celestial Weapons. Aeons are incredibly powerful, but still want to build them up, in the hopes that they'll present a challenge when I have to fight them. We'll see. I still can't believe I'm doing all this. 125hrs in.

How's everyone's Chocobo-fueled adventures going?

Wow four final fantasy games at once? And doubles in FF7 to boot? You are crazy man. I tried to do that with simultaneous playthoughs of FF1 and FF12, but I nearly burnt myself out.

Wish I could say I was playing one at this moment, but right now I'm focused on Pokemon Yellow. I'll probably switch to FF2 once it wraps.

I only tried multiple FF games twice. Once with FF5 and FF8, and I ended up ditching 8 in favor of 5. The second time was FF1 (on the NES, so none of the advantages of the PSX version) and FF8, and once more, FF8 was ditched in favor of FF1.

I like to view that as a sign of 8's quality. Either way, however, I can't do multiple long-running JRPG's at once, unless one is on 3DS and the other console.

Still working on Theatrhythm. Have to play 10-13 in Basic Mode.

Playing VI on my phone. Completed locke's solo mission to narshe. About to pick the next one. I have tactics, VII and XII on the ps but haven't touched them in a while.

Mixolyde wrote:

Playing VI on my phone. Completed locke's solo mission to narshe. About to pick the next one. I have tactics, VII and XII on the ps but haven't touched them in a while.

6 is on phone.. ? iOS or android? Man, lttp i am!

Funny how after several dozen plays of the same game, one can still discover new stuff. In FF7, I just ran through the marshes on my Chocobo, only minutes after leaving Midgar and into the world for the first time. I make my way through the Mines, and push onto Junon Town. Traversing through a forest, who attacks me? Yuffie! I was definitely NOT aware I could recruit her so early in the game! I now have her along the Throw Materia with me, and barely 6hrs into the game.

Yeah, she's very rare in that spot but it does happen. I used to use that forest to learn new Limit Breaks.

Yeah I got Yuffie there too. I guess I should have hung around to farm limits, materia, and go back and kill that marsh boss, but I just wanted to move things along. I know the Steam version has an achievement for maxing Aeris' limit break but I'm not sure I really want to do that. Part of me says I probably won't play this again for years, if ever, so I should get the most out of it. But the other part says I better focus enough to finish the game in a reasonable amount of time to avoid burnout.

The real kicker is learning the marsh monster's enemy skill. Something Beta? Theta? I cannot recall, but it's basically the most powerful spell in the game for a while.

And yeah, I discovered Yuffie there my first playthrough and got her each time.

Yeah I tried fighting that monster once, it did like 1100 damage, and my characters only have 500 hp or so. Thought about farming to level up and get it, but maybe I can come back later? I don't remember. Whatever. Just need to push through the story I think.

ccesarano wrote:

The real kicker is learning the marsh monster's enemy skill. Something Beta? Theta? I cannot recall, but it's basically the most powerful spell in the game for a while.

And yeah, I discovered Yuffie there my first playthrough and got her each time.

It's just Beta, IIRC. Big upside-down red tornado looking thing.

Yup, Beta. Got it recently. Once you get the buggy, you can drive it into Costa del Sol, ferry back to the Junon Area, through the Mythril Mines, and there you are. It's a bit of a backtrack, but worth it. By this time, I have a Fire Ring, which nullifies all fire attacks, and also Ifrit+Elemental which halves fire attacks. Also, Aqualung as an Enemy Skill, which is just as powerful as Beta, and works wonders against the huge serpent. It was very easy, but yeah, had to progress through the story a bit to be powerful enough.

Just finished the Cave of the Gi on Cosmo Canyon. I love Red's story. Very nicely done. Canyon's music is awesome. I love it. Decided to call it a night just outside of Nibelheim, because if memory serves me right, that's a huge chunk of story coming that I don't want to interrupt for sleep. Tomorrow. I'm loving this game so much.

I think I got it right after heading to Fort Condor. It just requires some really good use of spells like Shell, I think? I cannot recall. I had some strategy to get Beta, but then I think I ran away so I didn't push my luck. It's been a while.

Manach wrote:
Mixolyde wrote:

Playing VI on my phone. Completed locke's solo mission to narshe. About to pick the next one. I have tactics, VII and XII on the ps but haven't touched them in a while.

6 is on phone.. ? iOS or android? Man, lttp i am!

I'm using a gba emulator to play the VI advance version. I actually own 4, 5, 6 and tactics advance, but the phone is much more convenient. Some of VI's flashier graphics get messy on this emulator, but I can work through it. I'm in Kefka's soldier camp with sabin and shadow.

Yeah I've been doing the same with my VI playthrough, on phone emulator instead of carrying DS around with that GBA cart sticking out of it.

Edge: The Making of Final Fantasy VI.

Interesting bit:

Kitase’s role was to piece these disparate vignettes together like a puzzle. “I can’t say that I conceived the complete story,” he recalls. “Locke and Terra, for example, are greatly coloured by Sakaguchi’s influence. Meanwhile, the background and in-game episodes for Shadow and Setzer were mainly devised by Tetsuya Nomura [character designer for the Final Fantasy series from the seventh game onwards], while Kaori Tanaka [AKA Soraya Saga, illustrator and co-creator of Xenogears] provided suggestions for Edgar and Sabin, among others. I devoted my time and effort to creating Celes and Gau.”

If you think about those, a lot of them make way too much sense. I see a lot of Sabin in Bart from Xenogears, for example.

I'm amazed that Final Fantasy VI was created in only one year!

I seriously wish more people were interested in creating "making of" documentaries for games. Even if it was just gameplay footage mingled with footage of team members talking, I'd be so happy.

Demonicmaster wrote:

Final Fantasy in old style movie posters

I haven't engaged into the thread, but I remember FF VI, the last title for the SNES as the best game I had played in years.

I'll post the writing i've been working on evernote for about a week; 3 minutes at a time between meetings and calls. Yay for work.

Anyway; thought I'd add this oped from Wired into the mix and see how it's received.
I've skimmed a bit, but it seems the conversation is more about enjoying particular games or parts of games than talking about where Squeenix is taking the franchise...

anyway: here!

sometimesdee wrote:
Demonicmaster wrote:

Final Fantasy in old style movie posters

Would be awesome if you could get small prints of those 5x11 or so.

I'm currently playing VIII on psp during lunch break and XIII for about an hour at night, halfway thru chapter 11!

Hobbes2099 wrote:

I haven't engaged into the thread, but I remember FF VI, the last title for the SNES as the best game I had played in years.

I'll post the writing i've been working on evernote for about a week; 3 minutes at a time between meetings and calls. Yay for work.

Anyway; thought I'd add this oped from Wired into the mix and see how it's received.
I've skimmed a bit, but it seems the conversation is more about enjoying particular games or parts of games than talking about where Squeenix is taking the franchise...

anyway: here!

I just think our industry has a bad habit of wanting to hang onto franchises for too long. I understand every industry has its icons, such as Looney Tunes and Mickey Mouse (equivalents being Sonic and Mario, if the former can become relevant again with the Wii U game coming out), and it seems like Hollywood is also becoming obsessed with IP (oh look, not only a new Star Wars trilogy, but spin-offs, too!), it still seems ridiculous where games are concerned.