Tribute thread

[Nosey]

FFXI Online was the stupidest thing i ever bought

[Troll King]

There are other examples of Squaresoft's liberal use of the FF license, with mixed results. Remember the Gameboy Final Fantasy games? Final Fantasy Adventure was actually the first game in the Mana series. Secret of Mana in Japan was called Seiken Densetsu 2, and Seiken Densetsu 1 became known in North America as FFA, since remade as Sword of Mana. And the Final Fantasy Legend series? Those were actually the first few games in the SaGa series which eventually became Saga Frontier and recently Unlimited Saga. And don't forget the debacle that was Final Fantasy Mystic Quest and the forgetable Crystal Chronicles.

On a related note, Final Fantasy XI shouldn't have been given the "XI" in it's title in my opinion. It's got enough in it to warrant the FF licence, but I would have preferred to think of it as a spin off like the Final Fantasy Tactics series. Giving it the "XI" label, in a way, makes it "official" and made it more of a must-play experience, especially in the Japanese market.

[Cylor]

I can see both points in my analogy. :P

But yeah, I think the Final Fantasy label on a game changed over time. Originally, when you elite RPG gamers played, it meant a traditional RPG with a medieval setting. As the technology evolved, though, so did the series. Now I think the label is more of a guarantee of an epic game that a lot of people contributed a lot of effort and time to. I don't really blame them for calling it "Final Fantasy (#)." Besides being an excellent marketing tactic (how many of you went and saw the Final Fantasy movie?), I couldn't really imagine FFVII or FFVIII being called anything else...could you? The games do have a lot in common when it boils down to it, but they change just enough to make it a different experience.

[Sarien]

fan·ta·sy n. 1. The creative imagination; unrestrained fancy.

Admittedly, I've never been a fan of Final Fantasy and most console RPG games. Mostly because for a long damn time they were made kid-safe, and kid-oriented. Most of my favorite RPG titles of all time came on the computer, and there is still no comparison in my mind. At a time when my choices were between Dragon Warrior and fighting the Dragon Lord with the dinky music and admittedly better graphics, and dealing with the Scorpitron in the post-nuclear devastation remains of Vegas, and killing it with LAW Rockets, I had to go with Wasteland.

The thing is though, when you have a long series, you simply cannot say these count as Final Fantasy, and these others do not. You can't say that because one had cars or anything it shouldn't have been Final Fantasy. One of my real beefs in the entirety that I've been an RPG gamer is that some people seem to think that only medieval fantasy is the only real type of fantasy. There has to come a point where if you don't make it different then quality will just go automatically straight to hell. By making differences and introducing new elements do you have at least a shot.

A game I just started playing: War Machine
I've played the various Warhammer games since 96, and when I saw this game with steam powered mechs and magic tossing warcasters I was immediately interested.

And Stabwound, that's one of the reasons why I view you as a dick, I think. You have a severe chip on your shoulder and an elitist attitude to match. It doesn't matter if you've played every Final Fantasy game or every game that had any combination of the words. That doesn't make you a better or more "proper" fan of a series than someone that started a few hours ago. It just makes you a longer running one. Are you better able to speak to things affecting or differences between items you've seen in your longer running fancy with the game? Sure. That doesn't mean however that you're the only one that can, and that only people who should be recognized as expert authorities get to post about how much they like something. It's not a fucking trial. Grow an inch as a person and lighten the fuck up.

[Troll King]

That wasn't quite the point I was trying to make. The fantasy/future thing was just part of it. I wasn't suggesting that just because it's not medieval that it's no longer fantasy. What I was getting at is that the rest of the games are all in the same medieval setting, and suddenly they introduce a Sci-Fi Mad Max urban wasteland. They've departed from themes like crystals and the elements as well. Even the movie made a token attempt to represent different elemental forces. Part of the FF series' charm is that every game is a departure from the others, but there comes a point where the games are so different that the actual connections that remain are superficial. If you want to see another example in a long-running franchise, look at the North American Super Mario Bros 2. That game really has no business being a part of the Mario series. I mean, how much cheesier can you get than to use the cliched "it was only a dream!" ending?

As for the "haven't played the whole series" argument, my view is that Noah evaluated the series based mainly on the merits of FFVII and FFX which are arguably the least Final Fantasy-ish of the series. To continue to adapt Cylor's Mac analogy, it's like saying that all Macs are great just because you like the iPod.

[Liquid Blue]

This would have been cleared up if he had just said the PSX and onward FF's were the best he's ever played. I agree with Stab with the fact that it's stupid to say the series is awesome if you have only played from 7 and onward, but for every person that says that, there is a person that goes back and plays the previous games to see what they were like. And that, is what I think really matters, that the game(s) were enjoyable enough that some went back and played the previous ones. Instead of bitching over this though, why don't we all just comment on which FF we liked the most and save the flames for trash talk.

I personally liked FF6 the most, although I haven't beaten 4 yet. I just loved 6's characters and general plot. Kefka kicks alot of ass as a bad guy, and IMO- is one of the best FF villians I have ever seen. The only FF's I need to play are the NES ones and FF4, although I know some wouldn't count the gameboy FF's (even though I've played them). So cheers, everyone can relax, no need to freak over who likes what.

[RATTY...]

I support Stabwoud all the way :P. It's annoying when some little 12 year old kid pops up and and talk about FFX being the best one in the series ever, without trying any of the other games in the series.

FF7 is overrated, FF9 is underrated, like TK says. FF8 is the greatest one, and FFX was just dissapointing, except the graphics.

I got a kinda feeling that FF7 and FF9, FF8 and FFX are kinda connected. They got the same feel, don't know how to explain it. When Squaresoft was alone, a dude owned 50% and the company owned 50%, so I think they kinda made their FF after turn.

What more can you ask of FF8?
Squall, a moody lone wolf,
Zell, hot headed(?) and emotional, cute little Rinoa, energic and funny Selphie, Irvine the cool sniper (atleast he tries to act cool) who chases after all the girls he see. Quistis the instructor, and Seifer the problem kid, the hero's rival (whats with japanese people and rivals?).
The story is just perfect, the end is hard to understand, but its all good.
The love story between Squall and Rinoa, a bit cliche, but still very cute and romantic.
Could talk about this forever, but my english is so rusty..

Anyways, theres always some things who's in almost every Final Fantasy game, if you havent noticed them all:

Moogle (sad Moombas in FF8)
Chocobo
Summons
Wedge and Biggs
Cid
A character with blue skills, monster skills (Materia in FF7, Quistis, Quina, the beast boy in FF6, the blue animal in FFX).
And the thing who backs up my theory about FF7 and FF9, FF8 and FFX being connected, Rajin in FF8 ends his sentences with "Ya know?" like another character later in the series, Wakka, both have almost the same style in clothes too.

FF8 all the way :wub: . FF9 being 2nd. I've played all the FFs.

[NaiLed]

yes, i love FF8. but whenever I feel like playing ti again I think to myself, "f off if i can be bothered with all that drawing shit again"

i loved almost every other aspect of the game tho, shame the battle system let it down. the ending wasn't the best ever either, but still not bad.

[NaiLed]

I have no idea what Nailed is talking about, but I hate it when people go "Oh I love the Final Fantasy series it is so good" and 90% of them have never even played any of the games that came before FF7, or at the very least, played the PSX re-releases for 10 minutes.

Like Troll King said, ever since FF7 the series has been moving farther and farther away from what it was originally. FFX is a decent game, but if it didn't have chocobos and had different named skills/spells, you would have no idea that it's supposed to be a Final Fantasy game, and I'm not even going to touch on how dumbed-down it is compared to earlier games. FF8 is horrible and is probably the game in the series that least resembles an FF game. Riding in cars and shit... fucking ridiculous.

FF9 is very good, and is definately the game of the "later" FF games that is closest to the originals.

Play through, at least, FF 4-6 before you start going on about a "Final Fantasy Tribute" etc. You just look like a dumbass when you go on about how FF is so great, yet you haven't even played half of the games in the series.

Just a correction to TK; summoners/summons were originally in FF3 (NES) which by the way is probably the best FF game on the NES. It basically has a lite version of the job system from FF5. FF2 (NES) is definately the worst of the older FF games, and maybe even the worst in the series. They used a very retarded stat-building system and dropped the experience/levelling crap. You gain strength by attacking, and gain HP by defending etc, which is not only boring and stupid, but very easy to exploit and ruin the game.

i have a 1980s computer and hate all this new technology!! new computers are nothing like the old ones!!

[Noah]

I'm going to use change Cylors analogy yet again.. It's like saying Macs is your favorite type of computers. You don't need to have used all macs to actually support that point.

And TK, if you think that I evaulate the FF series based on FFVIII and FFX again you need to read over this thread again. I've played them all from FF4 to FFX, I just can't remember anything but the fact that I liked FF4-FF6, I only played them once when I were around 12-14.. And when I were in the army I decided to beat each of FF7 to FFX again, it was the only games of the FF series I had available.

And yeah Cylor I agree with you

[Sleepy Weasel]

FF died for me when 7 came out. Never got into these new versions, they're just not the same thing. I do have to kind of agree that you can't really say you're a huge fan of the series if you've never played the originals. That's like only reading/watching "Return of the King" and saying "The lord of the rings is the best fantasy series ever!".

For the record though FF II (Or IV if you want to be all nitpicky), is the best RPG ever made.

[jeem]

your analogy sucks too sleepy, because the lord of the rings movies sucked balls

[Theif of Time]

The first FF game I played was 3, which I played late at nights with no sound and just a radio playing... I now associate some song with it, forget what it is but whenever I hear it I'm like.... omg its the FF3 theme song!
But it isn't really.

EDIT:Possibly my worst post ever.