finalark
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Link to original post: [drupal=1436]Final Fantasy Retrospect[/drupal]
When it comes to long-running series', most of them start to suck in the later titles usually do the fact that the creators are running out of ideas. This is why I like the Final Fantasy approach, make each game it's own game. Lets face it, you could take any game in the Final Fantasy series and rename it something completely different an pass it off as something else. You could also take just about any other game made by Square, change it's title to Final Fantasy (insert roman numeral here) and still pass it off as a part of the series. I started to look back at the Final Fantasy series and choose to write this retrospect.
Final Fantasy:
Back in 80s, Square was a pretty crappy company. Most games they had made were considered to be really bad (although I only have people's word for this, as I've never played them myself). And so they decided to make their last game an RPG for the NES, calling it Final Fantasy because they thought it was going to be their last game. Surprise, surprise it turned out to be super successful and popular. I'll be honest I thought that Final Fantasy was a pretty good RPG. Yeah, it didn't have much of a storyline but it's an NES RPG, you shouldn't expect much of a storyline from it. It was fairly fun, although it wasn't really that good. It also started what I like to call the Final Fantasy Crystals trilogy, meaning a trilogy of Final Fantasy games with the same exact core story and similar class system.
Final Fantasy II:
This was my least favorite Final Fantasy. First, the difficulty was somewhere between murderous and Korean, because they but high-powered monsters in low-leveled areas and the only way not to get ***-***** by said monsters was to know EXACTLY where to step at all times. The plot was almost exactly the same as the first Star Wars movie, only put under the medievalfication ray. Plus almost all of the graphics and characters were just copy-pastes from the first game. The only thing I liked about Final Fantasy II was it's unique leveling system. If you want a mage, then buy some spells, teach it to one of your party members and then have him or her grind him/herself silly. This works the same way with all weapons, and to increase your health you just have to get hit a lot, use magic a lot to increse your MP, ect.
Final Fantasy III:
This is the second in the Crystals trilogy, it's also when Square decided to be racist and say that everyone other than the Japanese could have the smarts to play this game. But I've also heard that they didn't have the time or manpower for an English version or something like that. But whatever, the point is that we didn't get it until the DS remake came out. So I'll have to base this paragraph on that. Back to what I was saying about the trilogy thing, this game had the same core story as the first one (the four elemental crystals have gone out of wack, so some heroes have to go fix things). It also had an upgrated version of Final Fantasy's class system, only rather than being able to only choose once and at the start of the game, you can change your class any time and there's more to pick from.
Final Fantasy IV:
To be honest, I wasn't impressed with this one. Yeah, yeah I know. It was the first one to have a real story and the ATB system and stuff like that. Yes, I know. I just... don't know what it was, but I couldn't get into Final Fantasy IV. Okay, so, Final Fantasy IV was also the first to mix things up by giving their characters names and personality, while in the previous three the heroes were just stone faced mutes. That's really all I can think of about this one. Okay, moving on.
Final Fantasy V:
I really liked Final Fantasy V, it goes as number four in my top five favorite Final Fantasies. It was also the last in the crystals trilogy, and used a slightly modified version of Final Fantasy III's class system. Amusing dialog, fun battle system, interesting world, fun fun fun all around in this one. It's also wroth pointing out that it was the first in the series to use the bar in the ATB system.
Final Fantasy VI:
One of the best Final Fantasies, no, one of the best RPGs out there. Final Fantasy VI was the best of the "classic" Final Fantasies. The was the first one to have an amazing story (rather than an okay story), vastly well developed characters, one of (if no THE) best villain in Final Fantasy, I would go on, but I think Jam sums this one up here: http://www.smashboards.com/news/blogs/37055/1352/why-i-love-final-fantasy-vi
Final Fantasy VII:
*raises flame shield* Final Fantasy VII is considered to be an amazingly epic game that burns raw godliness to gamers eyeballs in a blaze of awesomeness. I would have to disagree. Now don't get me wrong (although I know that the fanboys will misinterpret this to the best degree they can in order to flame me) I don't hate Final Fantasy VII, I just didn't find it to be that good. And if you want to know why, go ahead and PM me. So, Final Fantasy VII had a fairly interesting story and was the first game to use limit breaks, an upgraded version of the desperation attacks from Final Fantasy VI. It was also the first in 3D, and had a system in which you could place this stuff called materia into your weapons and armor to give yourself abilities. Pretty good entry, not that good but it's fair.
Final Fantasy VIII:
I've only played a little bit of eight, so I can't really say anything.
Final Fantasy IX:
Prepare for some mega bias here, Final Fantasy IX was my favorite in the series. I would like to say that the game had the best characters in the series (ducks to avoid rotten fruit) and one of the best storylines. The thing that I liked so much about Final Fantasy IX was the fact that it does what I like in a story: mixes drama and comedy. The dialog was fun and enjoyable to read, Steiner was a funny character, and I will never forget the line, "ooo... soft." Oh, and do I even need to mention the baddasseries that are the Black Waltz?
Final Fantasy X:
Voice acting was more or less mandatory last gen (although a few got away with not having any) and so Final Fantasy jumped about the voice acting band-wagon in Final Fantasy X. It was the first with voices, and no matter how much I don't want to admit it, an awesome story. I'll admit that I liked the characters in this one, and the battle system was interesting too. I would also like to point out that this game has a fairly nice sound track. But the thing I didn't like is that the comedy was gone. In previous Final Fantasies, there was always comedy mixed in (hell, even IV had the spoony bard) with the seriousness of the plot. But that was absent in this one.
Final Fantasy XI:
Here's another one that I just couldn't get into. I don't know why, MMORPGs just never held my attention for very long. Okay, moving on.
Final Fantasy XII:
I see this game get a lot of crap, and I don't know why. Final Fantasy XII is my second favorite in the series (with IX being the first). I really appreciated how the dialog was written in such a way that only people who can pay attention and think could comprehend it. The dialog was ALMOST, old-English like in tone. I also thought that it had an amazing story that was novel-worthy and plenty of interesting and well developed characters. Although I'll admit that they could have dropped Fran and not much would have changed. And the license board system kind of sucked. But Final Fantasy XII was still an awesome game. And besides, the ones who bash it tend to be the FFVII fanboys who can't stand any RPG in which the main character doesn't look like he had his hair cut with a lawnmower. There may be few who say the game is bad, but don't believe Ondre's lies!
Man, the Final Fantasy series has been going on for a while. I hope you all enjoyed this this retrospect, lets all hope that FFXIII is a good addition, eh?
When it comes to long-running series', most of them start to suck in the later titles usually do the fact that the creators are running out of ideas. This is why I like the Final Fantasy approach, make each game it's own game. Lets face it, you could take any game in the Final Fantasy series and rename it something completely different an pass it off as something else. You could also take just about any other game made by Square, change it's title to Final Fantasy (insert roman numeral here) and still pass it off as a part of the series. I started to look back at the Final Fantasy series and choose to write this retrospect.
Final Fantasy:
Back in 80s, Square was a pretty crappy company. Most games they had made were considered to be really bad (although I only have people's word for this, as I've never played them myself). And so they decided to make their last game an RPG for the NES, calling it Final Fantasy because they thought it was going to be their last game. Surprise, surprise it turned out to be super successful and popular. I'll be honest I thought that Final Fantasy was a pretty good RPG. Yeah, it didn't have much of a storyline but it's an NES RPG, you shouldn't expect much of a storyline from it. It was fairly fun, although it wasn't really that good. It also started what I like to call the Final Fantasy Crystals trilogy, meaning a trilogy of Final Fantasy games with the same exact core story and similar class system.
Final Fantasy II:
This was my least favorite Final Fantasy. First, the difficulty was somewhere between murderous and Korean, because they but high-powered monsters in low-leveled areas and the only way not to get ***-***** by said monsters was to know EXACTLY where to step at all times. The plot was almost exactly the same as the first Star Wars movie, only put under the medievalfication ray. Plus almost all of the graphics and characters were just copy-pastes from the first game. The only thing I liked about Final Fantasy II was it's unique leveling system. If you want a mage, then buy some spells, teach it to one of your party members and then have him or her grind him/herself silly. This works the same way with all weapons, and to increase your health you just have to get hit a lot, use magic a lot to increse your MP, ect.
Final Fantasy III:
This is the second in the Crystals trilogy, it's also when Square decided to be racist and say that everyone other than the Japanese could have the smarts to play this game. But I've also heard that they didn't have the time or manpower for an English version or something like that. But whatever, the point is that we didn't get it until the DS remake came out. So I'll have to base this paragraph on that. Back to what I was saying about the trilogy thing, this game had the same core story as the first one (the four elemental crystals have gone out of wack, so some heroes have to go fix things). It also had an upgrated version of Final Fantasy's class system, only rather than being able to only choose once and at the start of the game, you can change your class any time and there's more to pick from.
Final Fantasy IV:
To be honest, I wasn't impressed with this one. Yeah, yeah I know. It was the first one to have a real story and the ATB system and stuff like that. Yes, I know. I just... don't know what it was, but I couldn't get into Final Fantasy IV. Okay, so, Final Fantasy IV was also the first to mix things up by giving their characters names and personality, while in the previous three the heroes were just stone faced mutes. That's really all I can think of about this one. Okay, moving on.
Final Fantasy V:
I really liked Final Fantasy V, it goes as number four in my top five favorite Final Fantasies. It was also the last in the crystals trilogy, and used a slightly modified version of Final Fantasy III's class system. Amusing dialog, fun battle system, interesting world, fun fun fun all around in this one. It's also wroth pointing out that it was the first in the series to use the bar in the ATB system.
Final Fantasy VI:
One of the best Final Fantasies, no, one of the best RPGs out there. Final Fantasy VI was the best of the "classic" Final Fantasies. The was the first one to have an amazing story (rather than an okay story), vastly well developed characters, one of (if no THE) best villain in Final Fantasy, I would go on, but I think Jam sums this one up here: http://www.smashboards.com/news/blogs/37055/1352/why-i-love-final-fantasy-vi
Final Fantasy VII:
*raises flame shield* Final Fantasy VII is considered to be an amazingly epic game that burns raw godliness to gamers eyeballs in a blaze of awesomeness. I would have to disagree. Now don't get me wrong (although I know that the fanboys will misinterpret this to the best degree they can in order to flame me) I don't hate Final Fantasy VII, I just didn't find it to be that good. And if you want to know why, go ahead and PM me. So, Final Fantasy VII had a fairly interesting story and was the first game to use limit breaks, an upgraded version of the desperation attacks from Final Fantasy VI. It was also the first in 3D, and had a system in which you could place this stuff called materia into your weapons and armor to give yourself abilities. Pretty good entry, not that good but it's fair.
Final Fantasy VIII:
I've only played a little bit of eight, so I can't really say anything.
Final Fantasy IX:
Prepare for some mega bias here, Final Fantasy IX was my favorite in the series. I would like to say that the game had the best characters in the series (ducks to avoid rotten fruit) and one of the best storylines. The thing that I liked so much about Final Fantasy IX was the fact that it does what I like in a story: mixes drama and comedy. The dialog was fun and enjoyable to read, Steiner was a funny character, and I will never forget the line, "ooo... soft." Oh, and do I even need to mention the baddasseries that are the Black Waltz?
Final Fantasy X:
Voice acting was more or less mandatory last gen (although a few got away with not having any) and so Final Fantasy jumped about the voice acting band-wagon in Final Fantasy X. It was the first with voices, and no matter how much I don't want to admit it, an awesome story. I'll admit that I liked the characters in this one, and the battle system was interesting too. I would also like to point out that this game has a fairly nice sound track. But the thing I didn't like is that the comedy was gone. In previous Final Fantasies, there was always comedy mixed in (hell, even IV had the spoony bard) with the seriousness of the plot. But that was absent in this one.
Final Fantasy XI:
Here's another one that I just couldn't get into. I don't know why, MMORPGs just never held my attention for very long. Okay, moving on.
Final Fantasy XII:
I see this game get a lot of crap, and I don't know why. Final Fantasy XII is my second favorite in the series (with IX being the first). I really appreciated how the dialog was written in such a way that only people who can pay attention and think could comprehend it. The dialog was ALMOST, old-English like in tone. I also thought that it had an amazing story that was novel-worthy and plenty of interesting and well developed characters. Although I'll admit that they could have dropped Fran and not much would have changed. And the license board system kind of sucked. But Final Fantasy XII was still an awesome game. And besides, the ones who bash it tend to be the FFVII fanboys who can't stand any RPG in which the main character doesn't look like he had his hair cut with a lawnmower. There may be few who say the game is bad, but don't believe Ondre's lies!
Man, the Final Fantasy series has been going on for a while. I hope you all enjoyed this this retrospect, lets all hope that FFXIII is a good addition, eh?
