Oh god, not an FF9 topic

[Maet]

I only played FF 7 - 10 and have little interest in the history, and no interest in the future.

I liked 9 the best. The characters were charming and it had a unique art design. The gameplay in 8 was garbage, but then again I think it had the strongest narrative. 7 was just decent. I have no idea how it managed to spawn everything but a religion. I'll admit that it had the best gameplay and Tifa sure was nice to look at, but everything else was pretty average.

There's nothing about 10 I like.

 

[Vincent9mm]

Have to say a little suprised to see a disscussion on Final Fantasy IX and with most things being stated and of opinion feel a little left out but here we go anyways.

I am a gigantic FF geek and have played almost every variation of a Final Fantasy game (aside XI) up til XII. So my thoughts are extremly biased.

Final Fantasy IX is on my list around the middle of all the Final Fantasy games i've played. Its story is very cliched though that seems to be the point considering it seems to take a little inspiration from A Midnight Summer's Dream. I highly enjoyed the sleeper agents of destruction idea that the game had. Basically putting no real villian in place (in my take/opinion of the story). Infact most characters seemed to be dealing with a "I've been put here for one purpose" complex and trying to overcome it with various results. The combat system was great in my opinion, easy to master though and very grind based with little work need. True that the trance mode was rather difficult to use and not really adding much to the strategy of the game, more of an occassional godly beatdown to your advantage if the battle lasted long enough. So all in all a pretty good game.

Now 8 on the other hand, though at first I positively hated the game after a massive amount of attempts (6 or 7 if I remember right) I finally got the game's idea down and it was more about manipulating your stats rather then leveling up. Its story was a bit of a throw back considering this was the first time that it was a group of orphens fighting for the fate of the universe in a long time, rather then a mismatched band of heros (4-7 all had a basic resistance against the bad guy who turns out to reveal a bigger bad guy). Its story regarding love between an war orphen and a manipulated princess (so to speak) is a bit different to take in compared to most Final Fantasy games. Also it handed you a gigantic time paradox in your lap at the end. The characters weren't to well developed. I could see the point of focusing in on only a few characters, however i've always enjoyed FF because of how expansive all the characters are compared to just having a few who are main stage. Far from the best Final Fantasy but calling it the worst is far from the truth X-2 and 2 are on the bottom of my list.

Well, I can rant forever but i'll leave with my opinions on those two for now.

 

[JackofSpades]

I also have to throw my hat in with the crowd who liked Final Fantasy IX. FFIX returned to the more classic FF setting of an ancient and magical kingdom, but at the same time it broke one of the major traditions by having the main character be the thief rather than the fighter. For some reason, I found the change appealing. Further, it had a much more lighthearted tone to FFVIII's emo script, and I found Zidane's rather smartass attitude to be a refreshing change. The graphics were superb for a PS1 game. The characters were hit and miss though. Vivi was a genuinely sympathetic character that I found compelling, but Dagger was obnoxious. I think the biggest obstacle that FFIX faced was that it was released just as the PS2 was launched, and became almost an afterthought to most gamers.

 

[Maet]

There's nothing about 10 I like.

Not even the Chocobos? How can anyone not love chocobos? They're about the ONLY thing about XI I DO like... Even if their naming system blows.

I'm not big on Chocobo's at all (although I admit I loved the Chocobo side quest in 9 which scores it another point). Really, I see Chocobo's as little more than an Emu/Chicken mascot.

 

[-Seraph-]

I guess I am the only one who liked FF2 and see it's game mechanics as great and not bad as everyone else seems to cry about it. it's stat system was great, but apparently people dont have patience or dont know how it actually works. I love its story too, wasn't too great but it was a major step up from FF1, which i do like, not saying 1 was bad at all.

 

[bubbaroark0451]

FF9 was great, though it had quite possibly one of the worst secret bosses of all time. Ozma was nearly impossible and totally irrelevant to the story. You had to complete a separate quest just for the privilege of using your melee attacks against him.

 

[AndyMacK]

I found 9 to be enjoyable, and better than 7. Not to say that I didn't like 7, but... it got a bit... a bit... nyeh. Same with 8. I got to a point where I'd moved on from the story, where it was - dare I say it - boring.

Started with 7, and my enjoyment of the series has increased as I have moved through them. Currently re-enjoying FF12. Love that game.

10... well... 10 I liked too. And I am totally unashamed about this fact.

Oh, and I wish they'd do more for the DS.

 

[Big Daddy420]

FF9 is an awsome game with many lessons incorperated
and people think hardcore gamers wouldent play it

 

[Ripshot]

I liked FF9, it was silly and colorful

also, the main character was a thief, not a fighter, unlike in almost every other FF game

and we all know thieves>fighters

 

[exocel]

well i like dit, but in the grand scheme of things it was very easy till the final 2 bosses which were ungodly bitches of boss fights, which just throws the player for a loop and theyve got to go back , leave memoria, and go grinding for hours just to complete a good 20 minutes of gameplay just to be told the inevitable "you saved the world"

 

[Wargamer]

Since I've seen it done, can we just ask people (usually the Americans) NOT TO CALL FF6 FF3!

We are well aware that, for reasons beyond our understanding, Final Fantasy 3-5 never saw light outside of Japan until the PSX ports occured, but the non-Japanese numbering system IS WRONG!

If someone says FF3, they mean FF3; the game that was re-released the other year on the DS. If your game has characters named Locke, Cyan, Shadow or Kefka, it is Final Fantasy 6.

 

[Human Bomb]

I loved the FF9 player's guide artbook! The design of this game and it's old school FF4-6 feel made me feel all warm and fuzzy. I felt like 8 was this whole, "The darker, gritty look of the immensely popular 7 needs to be amplified as much as possible!" and "Ooh ooh! Add more cliches! I don't think there are enough yet!"

 

[poleboy]

I agree with... whoever wrote it... that the hate for IX can mostly be attributed to the large new audience the series gained when it shifted to PS. VIII kept around a bit of the dark sci-fi mood of VII even though it was mostly just realistic in a boring way. I mean, what the hell kind of game starts out with a standard false/true test pulled right out of a medieval school system? If they wanted children to like this game at all that was probably kind of a bad move.

Aaanyway. I got a bit distracted there. IX was a throwback to the early FF games where it was mostly about fun, games and the occasional chocobo. The new kids felt betrayed by this shift in design and decided that IX was crap.

As for myself, I was kind of afraid that the series was on a serious descent after playing VIII, so I sorta skipped IX and picked up X years after it was released, mostly on a whim. I eventually got around to playing IX as well, and even though I think it had great characters, I eventually got bored with the waaay too long random encounters that plagued every game from VII until they finally got around to doing something about it in XII. I never managed to finish it, though someday I hopefully will.