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So, Final Fantasy XIII is released tomorrow.

I might just buy it.

No it's not, you silly little troll.

Hahahaha.

Your tears sustain me.

EDIT: Oh, and FF7's popularity was certainly aided by its graphics. But to say it was only succesful due to beautiful graphics does a great injustice to the many other facets of the game. The music, the story, and one of the greatest villains in gaming history combined to make a true gaming classic.

Hmm, Skorn, since you know so much about it I guess you must have gotten around to playing FF7 since watching Advent Children a few months ago.

I'm pretty out of sync with Final Fantasy, I think the last one I played was that terrible game where you throw snowballs and fight by rules and such... Is 13 going to be really good?

Final Fantasy Tactics, Scratcher?

FFXIII has been rated extremely highly by the Japanese (topping a few "Best Game Eva!" polls) but in the West it's had a rather mixed response. The graphics/music/cut-scenes are all breathtaking, however, and I'm certain to pick it up at some point.

Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not.

I don't know why, but Final Fantasy or any other what people consider as classic RPGs have never catched me. Only game about close to these series is Wild ARMs and even in that series I absolutely love the first one, but not the others so much.

Also, I might not be the best person to say this, but Skorn is kinda right, Sabre. Try to cut out insults and all that stuff. Play nice, homieboys.

Hahahaha.

I am glad you consider me funny.

I've never played any FF... used to watch someone playing FF?? on the PS1 though, the 'scales' monster thingummies drove him insane until he worked out how to kill them

I liked the film The Spirits Within but dunno if it actually has anything to do with any of the games.

Am I the only one getting annoyed by the amount of people that despise new games?!

I don't know why, but Final Fantasy or any other what people consider as classic RPGs have never catched me

Actually, me neither. Haven't played any of 'em.

The only reason I like old games better than new ones is because they usually have better humor and storyline than new games, which is in fact, quite understandable seeing as it's hard to come up with anything original anymore.

Ever play Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest?

I dunno much about the new FF's, I did play FF3 on the DS though, which was cool.
I love RPG's, but more the 'western' ones like Baldur's Gate (woooh Baldur's Gate!) and Neverwinter Nights. Right now, I'm playing Dragon Age: Origins (thanks, Chris ) which have kept that 'old-fashioned' RPG-style I love, you should buy that!
Anyway, I love Japanese games, but I'm just not too much into random encounters... And the last FF I saw had something to do with a rock star or smething, which made me go WTF?! So, nah.

I've actually got Dragon Age.

I found it disappointing.

EDIT: I've actually only ever played FF6 and FF7, but going by those I've got confidence that the most recent game will prove to be a good one. I'll post my thoughts tomorrow if I do actually pick the game up. Final Fantasy is one of the biggest brands in gaming (it's up there with Zelda, Mario, Sonic et al) and it will be good to see whether Square-Enix's latest opus can deliver.

I'm not going to get drawn into the "old games vs new games" thing again.

Yeh, I own it too but I liked Mass Effect 2 better.

FF1 ftw.
I really enjoyed the Final Fantasy games I've played, is XIII going to be online-online like XI (I think it was XI) was?

No.

Final Fantasy XIII(13) is a normal RPG.

Final Fantasy XIV (14) will be an MMO, as was Final Fantasy XI (11).

I'm gonna buy FFXIII, regardless of this pointless agrument. Although I must say that it would be nice for a FF release using the storyline of 8-bit theater. I would buy that, and the add-ons, and the useless fan crap that goes with it. (I mean, what the FF series needs is a stabby/hadoken/logic bomb/idiot-filled/epicly hilarious game to boost sales.)

Final Fantasy V was the best one, in my opinion. Thanks to the power of the Void and Exdeath's existence, I have been able to abuse the joy of Emptiness. Zaros would be pleased, though much less so with Deathevn.

On a more serious note, all the Final Fantasy games after 6 have some excellent storyline and music, not just graphics. If only part of a game could make it grand, what would happen to Classic-lovers like us Dinkers?

Final Fantasy 7 sucks...Get a 4th one for DS(On SNES it's called Final fantasy)

ff rocks skorns panties... admit it skorn, you cant hide behind fake machoness forever!

My favourite is FFTA for the Game Boy Advance. I loathe the games in the numbered series, and I didn't like Final Fantasy Tactics either. I played Crisis Core, but it felt like an absolute chore to play. Most of Square/Enix's other games were great though. I got angry while playing Secret of Mana and never went back to it.

catched

Lol.

I also hated the PS2 ones, because my friends all claimed that the graphics were mad awesome. They were referring to the pre-rendered cut-scenes...

Never played a FF game but I did enjoy other Square Enix games such as Drakengard 2 and Kingdom hearts 1 & 2.

I think it was Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. I generally like TRPGs, but I couldn't get into that one, it was awful... It seems to have gotten a pretty positive critical response though, so who knows, maybe it gets better later on.

Would be nice to have a really good new Final Fantasy game, the "FF7 is the last good Final Fantasy!" mentality seems to be everywhere, even if it's mostly coming from those that only played the old games.

@Sabre - I agree with you on all those points except for Sephiroth being one of the greatest villains in gaming history. I found him to just be a rather unremarkable angsty guy with a sword. The only FF villain I remember being fairly impressed with was Kefka... but only for his WTF-nihilism rather than anything believable.

EDIT:

I was really impressed with Mass Effect 1, having just beaten it not long ago. Seriously, it was just an amazing game.

@yeoldetoast - Huh, I loved Secret of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 2)... the sequel, Seiken Densetsu 3 is much, much better and tied with Chrono Trigger as my favorite SNES game of all time.

Well, I could well be looking at Sephiroth through rose-tinted specs, given that I last played FF7 about 10 years ago. He's pretty highly regarded though. Also, Kefka was amazing.

I recently finished Mass Effect and it is certainly an excellent game. Currently 7-8 hours into ME2 and it's quickly evident how much more polish has been applied. It's a truly awesome game, with a combat system that now rivals Gears of War. They seem to have dumbed down the traditional RPG aspects somewhat, but it still shines through as a great example of the genre.

A really shame that Mass Effect 2 isn't available on PS3.

I agree with you on all those points except for Sephiroth being one of the greatest villains in gaming history.

Of course he isn't. The best villian is none other than Dr. Nefarious!!

Here's a visual.

And a video featuring him!

I really do think Sephiroth is viewed through rose-colored glasses and the "OMG he perma-killed one of my party-members" thing. He's by no means a bad villain, just not outstanding from my recollection.

Actually, thinking about Kefka... my only real problem was with the continued existence of the world after he becomes a god... or at least a world that just sort of sucks, rather than a literal hell on earth. I mean, you have a complete sadist in charge of the world and all he does is sit around waiting for your party to attack him. Other than that, he was completely awesome in a absurdist-sinister way.

I've been trying to think of memorable villains... one that struck me was from a game I replayed recently... Ming Xiao in Vampire: Bloodlines. One of the best manipulative villains I've seen in a game. She plays herself off as a spiritually and morally superior being (while being a total bitch about it), while orchestrating inhumane experiments and betraying those that implicitly trust her for just petty financial gain. The cool thing is that if you don't take the time to do the investigative work, none of this will ever be known to you and she will likely try to get you to join her in the endgame. I also like how her war-form reflects her disgusting nature.

I'll see if I can think of any more memorable villains that aren't just famous because they're from major games.

Ha striker, I did like Secret of Mana, it had a great soundtrack, and was a blast to play, but I ended up getting angry at it, and giving up. I'll give my translated ROM of SD3 a go, as per your recommendation.

I can personally understand why some wouldn't like FFTA (story told 99% via battles), but looking back on it now (I finished it in 2007 after having it for 4 years!), it was one of my favourite GBA games, up there with the Golden Sun's, Pokémon (lol) and Fire Emblem.
Apparenty it rips off the Neverending Story.

Actually, thinking about Kefka... my only real problem was with the continued existence of the world after he becomes a god... or at least a world that just sort of sucks, rather than a literal hell on earth. I mean, you have a complete sadist in charge of the world and all he does is sit around waiting for your party to attack him. Other than that, he was completely awesome in a absurdist-sinister way.

Okay, I have to make a comment on that, but remember its opinion-based.
Kefka doesn't sit around waiting for nothing, and nor is he ruling the ruined world the way he is for no reason. He's based on destruction, true, but he's also insane. Destruction alone however is boring, so he's kind of on a set focus of destroying all the happiness and crap in the world, along with anything required to survive (hence why the world in FFVI loses color; dead grass, mkay?)

Other then that, he does fire that Light of Judgement at a house for very little reason, as well. But you also have to consider how he might hate some of your party members enough already to want to dispose of them in person.

And yeah, on a side note, Sephiroth killed a main party member in 7. Whoop de doo? It helped the storyline along, thats all I see it as. Just another variable.

Haha, all bosses can go suck on Zed's balls! Not because Zed is a homosexual, but because he's awesome.

Haha, all bosses can go suck on Zed's balls! Not because Zed is a homosexual, but because he's awesome.

I'm still standing my ground on Dr. Nefarious.

I don't know. I think Sephiroth is as memorable as he is for a multitude of reasons...

1) He perma-killed a party member - An important party member. Had this happened before?

2) He actually had quite the intriguing backstory. He's not "EVIL INCARNATE FOR NO REASON."

3) He looked awesome. And emo. And people love that.

4) He will forever be entwined with FF7, which, for many, was the first JRPG to have a big impact in the west.

Anywho, the "best villains" topic is a pretty interesting one. I'll have to think about it

Out of those FF games that I've finished, 1, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, I liked FF6 the best. For me it's the pinnacle of the series, the only true RPG "opera" of sorts. I had very good time playing it back those days.

Also for 1), in FF5, one party member does get perma-killed halfway through the game, but he soon gets replaced by another character that retains all his skills, so it's not nearly as "shocking" as it was in FF7.

Thats because it was his grand-daughter, Synbi. Though its funny that you have an old man in your party who can survive that long, and when I was doing a low-level challenge in his last battle... MAN that took me a while to finish it. Especially with Galuf using Time Mage/Jinkuu Haste wasn't much help when you were trying to kill your oponent with something almost as bad as a Cure staff.

Yeah, speaking of low levels... FF4 was absolutely merciless if you didn't bother taking some extra time to level up. After a certain point of the game I simply couldn't help my party members to stay alive in order to survive even the most simple random battles, so I started skipping ALL of them...

Then the last boss was a total donkey, killing my guys in quantities of 2-3 per turn

im gonna have to with sabretrout on this one. sephiroths the best boss ever. Plus his theme song is awsome.

Sigh.... nobody remembers 5...

Sigh.... nobody remembers 5...

I BEG YOUR PARDON?!?
*points at my earlier post and my own nickname*

pwnt.

Well, that's not actually what I'm saying, Zeddexx.

But his theme music was awesome, that's for sure.

Heh, the world didn't really seem oppressive enough to me. Maybe that's just my much, much darker imagination. It still just seemed weird to never see him again till the very end. I would have expected him to mess with the party a lot more. I mean, he's Kefka... taunting the heroes is his MO throughout the entire first half.

I've never owned a PS in my life, but I'm currently playing through FF5. I like the FF series very much. I'm looking forward to playing through FF6. It's really cool to see how far they've stretched the graphic possibilities of the SNES machine... but I suppose you guys don't really care, what with your XBox'es and whatnot...

FF6 is brilliant. It's probably my favourite JRPG of all time.

FF5 FOR THE MOTHERF***ING WIN

As already stated in this thread since its another old one.

The first few posts here look a little strange now O.o

SabreTrout: "So, Final Fantasy XIII is released tomorrow."
SabreTrout: "No it's not, you silly little troll."
SabreTrout: "Hahahaha."

Nah, FF is all the same to me.

Wild ARMs for the win! As usually.

@Sparrowhawk

I must admit, I was a tad confused when I first looked at the thread.

I've attempted to play FF5 like 4 times and each time I get distracted with something else. It seemed like a decent game with interesting depth through the job system. It's too bad the story was kind of crap.

Quiztis: a few of the older ones are vastly different from the newer ones, though. Especially story-wise, some of the FF games are fairly strong (especially VI).

I found FF to be over-rated, although, as DaVince suggests, good storytellers are few and far between these days. I also agree that DA: Origins is a let-down... it feels like a crappy "free" jap mmorpg. I'm replaying Morrowind for the 4th time, with Tribunal and Bloodmoon... It was so well made! I also loved Fable: The Lost Chapters, replayed it fully at least 3 times.
Baldur's Gate: Throne of Bhaal was Bioware at it's finest. The hard-to-find "Soulbringer" was fun, too.

As far as Japanese RPG's are concerned, Seiken Denetsu 3 was the best, hands down.

Oh hells yeah. That RPG was good.