What I don't like about FF 6-8.

[Eric the Orange]

it has to be balanced, tell me if you understand this

Honestly, not really. Sorry. I've read it over a few times and I can't really figure out what your trying to say. But don't worry about it, it's probably my fault.

 

[El Dingo]

I'm probably the only guy out there who still gets confused about which on FF2 and FF3 were. But I still think FF3 (Locke and Terra FF) was quite possibly one of the best RPG's I ever played. The story was absolutely phenomenal, and STILL replay the story in my head every now and then. I'd love to get ahold of this and play it again.

 

[Velocity Eleven]

How can I put this another way?

Let's take this down to a very small scale

say you have 4 characters in a game, and only 4 weapons

now what if each weapon could only be equipped by one character? the characters would have a significant difference in that they each have their own weapon (large variance in character roles). The thing is, this means that each weapon only has 1 role (lack of variance), which is to be equipped to the character they have to.

On the other hand, what if any character could equip any weapon they wanted? The characters would have the same options, and therefore be more similar (lack of variance). However the weapons can used to equip to 4 different characters (more variance)

 

[Hiphophippo]

I just want to add that I despise FFT on the handhelds. So awful, considering the incredible game that the original tactics was.

 

[Go Fighting In The War Room]

It's pretty well known that Final Fantasy fans are generally split between old school fans and new school fans. Old school fans generally will tell you that FF4 or 6 is the best FF. Where as new school fans will say that FF7, 8, or 10 is the best FF.

I understand that these are generalizations, some old school fans like newer FF best. And some new school fans like old FF best.

But I feel left out of the loop because I feel that FF6-8 all lack a certain RPG element that I like in my RPGs.

What it comes down to is that characters in those games lack specific battle roles. every one can attack decently(except Strago), and everyone can use magic decently. And this got more and more noticeable until FF9 were they reverted back to a system that used battle roles. At it's worst in FF8 the characters only battle individuality is there limits. In that game it is particularly noticeable because you could just swap magic and GF sets and you essentially have the same character.

Anyways, I was wondering if I was the only person who felt this way. So what do you FF players think about battle roles in RPGs.

FF7: I agree.
FF8: I agree.
FF9: I agree.
FF6: U Dnt liek FF6 Failur iz U! (In all seriousness, I mostly agree with you, aside from FF6. At least it's not as overrated as FF7 in my eyes.

 

[Forever of the Stars]

I agree with you OP except for on one point, I actually enjoyed FF8 I hated what they did to the battle/job system but for some reason I just really enjoyed it. As such I really wouldn't call myself an oldschool fan as one of my favorite FF games is FF12 despite it's battle system (No offense to anyone who enjoyed the battle system it just didn't really hold the same appeal that the old ones did to me) I would like to see more of their games with a system similar to FF12's, as I like the job system but I would prefer to be able to create my own jobs. To me that system was just perfect, everyone still had their own roles, but you had a little more freedom in creating those roles. Either way, I saw 6,7 and even 8 a step backwards in terms of battle. But the same is true of many things, I mean you have to screw with things a little bit in order to get them perfect. As far as things go I see this change as a good example of that. Eventually through this they may perfect the battle system. Or not who knows I could just be looking way too far into this

Sorry for the marathon post, good post though OP

 

[Dusquad]

Final Fantasy 8 stole my soul from me... DAMN OMEGA WEAPON!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Thaius]

Did you play Final Fantasy VI? Only a few characters in that game can even use magic at all: hardly a system that fails at "specific battle roles." Each character has different uses, from offensive magic to stealing to healing magic to technology to brutal kung-fu attacks. If you want to complain, complain about Final Fantasy XII, where you can make Penelo (the frail little girl who's incapable of protecting herself) your tank and Basch (the hardcore seasoned soldier) your support magic user.

 

[squid5580]

I liked or loved every final fantasy except 8 and 11 which I don't really count as a main series anyway. I like the characters to have specific roles and abilities best. I like battling through a dungeon and finding a mythril helm and giving it to the knight character or whoever can equip it. Now I like 12 too, it's nice that it has versatility. If you want Balthier to stay gunner or bowman you have the choice but I also can't see this being realistic either. Basch I can see being able to wield different types of weapons but Vaan? I have a hard enough time by he can cast magick let alone a broadax.

I had trouble believing he could take 2 steps holding a sharp object without losing an eye. I really didn't like him.

I liked 6-12 (with the exception of 11) except for 8. Drawing magic was the biggest waste of time ever. And it tied your hands by not being able to use your spells.

 

[Guy32]

FF1: Loved it.
FF2: Pretty Alright
FF3: Good. 5 is better.
FF4: Meh. People liked the story, but I cant remember what happened so...
FF5: Possibly my favorite.
FF6: Haven't played it.
FF7: Liked it. Didn't play it when it was released, so nothing too special for me.
FF8: Haven't played it.
FF9: Haven't played it.
FFX: Haven't played it.
FFX-2: Haven't played it.
FF11: psssh mmo. Generic and next to nothing in terms of story.
FF12: Haven't played it.
FF13: Can't wait.

Not really a huge FF fan, but I definitly like the series. The only two I know I finished are 1 and 5. Pretty sure I finished 4, May have finished 2. I want to play others - especially 6 - but I either don't have the time or cant find the game.
I practically knew the story of 7 before I started playing it, so I didn't bother finishing it.

On a related note, I liked Crisis Core a lot. And Crystal Chronicles. That was some quality multiplayer.

 

[Velocity Eleven]

I liked 6-12 (with the exception of 11) except for 8. Drawing magic was the biggest waste of time ever. And it tied your hands by not being able to use your spells.

if you drew magic from monsters you wern't playing the game properly, drawing from monsters is pretty much just a last-resort technique

 

[squid5580]

I liked 6-12 (with the exception of 11) except for 8. Drawing magic was the biggest waste of time ever. And it tied your hands by not being able to use your spells.

if you drew magic from monsters you wern't playing the game properly, drawing from monsters is pretty much just a last-resort technique

WTF??? How is it I am playing the game wrong. You tie your stats to spells and you need X number of spells to make a difference. The whole point of an RPG is to become stronger. That is the most efficient way to accomplish that goal.

 

[rees263]

I liked 6-12 (with the exception of 11) except for 8. Drawing magic was the biggest waste of time ever. And it tied your hands by not being able to use your spells.

if you drew magic from monsters you wern't playing the game properly, drawing from monsters is pretty much just a last-resort technique

WTF??? How is it I am playing the game wrong. You tie your stats to spells and you need X number of spells to make a difference. The whole point of an RPG is to become stronger. That is the most efficient way to accomplish that goal.

I'm not an FF8 expert by any means, but I'm pretty sure that what he's saying is that you didn't need to draw the spells from monsters - the most efficient way was to use the refine magic abilities of the GFs (I think). As I said, I'm no expert and I certainly drew from monsters, but it's not the only way.

 

[Velocity Eleven]

I liked 6-12 (with the exception of 11) except for 8. Drawing magic was the biggest waste of time ever. And it tied your hands by not being able to use your spells.

if you drew magic from monsters you wern't playing the game properly, drawing from monsters is pretty much just a last-resort technique

WTF??? How is it I am playing the game wrong. You tie your stats to spells and you need X number of spells to make a difference. The whole point of an RPG is to become stronger. That is the most efficient way to accomplish that goal.

cards and refine abilities are far more efficient

 

[squid5580]

I liked 6-12 (with the exception of 11) except for 8. Drawing magic was the biggest waste of time ever. And it tied your hands by not being able to use your spells.

if you drew magic from monsters you wern't playing the game properly, drawing from monsters is pretty much just a last-resort technique

WTF??? How is it I am playing the game wrong. You tie your stats to spells and you need X number of spells to make a difference. The whole point of an RPG is to become stronger. That is the most efficient way to accomplish that goal.

cards and refine abilities are far more efficient

You guys don't seem to realize one small thing. I was playing without the internet (so no faqs, strat guides or help). I played it the way the game made it the most obvious to play.

 

[Caligulove]

the only FF I have liked is the only one Ive been able to play for very long and thats Final Fantasy Tactics...

 

[Dr. Love]

I've loved all the final fantasies so far so can't really say I'm old or new school, they all have their positives and negatives,

Old school I did like the defined roles that characters had, and i loved maximizing each role to the maximum

Who didn't enjoy having a high level Master in FF1? or Terra Quintuple summoning Ultima's using dual cast, accessory and her trance form

But at the same time, the class system didn't give any deviation, In FF4 Rydia was never going to be capable of any decent Melee damage just as a Knight in FF1 wouldn't be terrorizing any towns with his magic anytime soon.

I like overpowering my characters, finding ways to maximize their efficiency through every means possible really makes a game fun for me as odd as that sounds.

7 I never could get into just unlikable characters and to be honest I feel embarrassed being included in the throngs of FF7 fans whenever I admit to playing and beating it 100%

FF8 though is my 2nd favorite one mainly due to the Junction system, it had its downsides such as really limiting the magic you can use without lowering your own stats, but it allowed me to again overpower my characters with clever usage of magic. You could even go as far as use the GF refining abilities with the card system to refine rare magic you wouldn't be able to get to boost stats quite a bit.

FF9 is my favorite, but doesn't need to be elaborated on as my love story for the game would be an entire thread of its own

FF10, now this is where I had a lot of fun with the characters, you started off with a very narrow point of view for each character, Yuna was going to be a white mage/summoner for 90% of the story, but endgame you could switch her to a warrior or a black mage type of character. You could mix and mesh two or more classes to create a more diversified character which I found a lot of fun playing with, Yuna for example going through the black mage section further boosting magic and learning offensive magic was always fun, or Auron going through Tidus' tree combining Aurons insane damage with Tidus' Speed.

Of course of them all FF10 had the most overpower capability as you could in a reasonable amount of time, max everyone's stats in everything blurring the lines but was still a lot of fun turning a characters weaknesses into an advantage.

 

[Eric the Orange]

FF6: U Dnt liek FF6 Failur iz U! (In all seriousness, I mostly agree with you, aside from FF6. At least it's not as overrated as FF7 in my eyes.

I know you are joking to a degree but I'd like to point out to you and every one else here that I do not hate FF 6-8. In fact I don't hate any of the FF (except maybe 11 which I haven't played). In fact I'd give them all at least a 4/5, but I'm a pretty easy going guy. I just didn't like this aspect of them.

 

[Don't taze me bro]

I have copies of FF 8 and FF 9 that I bought brand new, yet have never played. I was planning on playing through 7 first, then hit up the others.. just kinda stopped half way though.

I've played and finished 3, 4, 10, 10 part 2 and 12. Never finished 7.. and really should do something about that.

As for my feelings for the series. I have to admit that I'm a fan of the PS2 versions (besides 10 part 2) mainly because I became attached to the characters. The inclusion of voice acting with the full motion video helped to suck you in. Lets be honest.. I find the gameplay pretty boring, and the story that generally kept me going.

 

[Eric the Orange]

Did you play Final Fantasy VI? Only a few characters in that game can even use magic at all: hardly a system that fails at "specific battle roles." Each character has different uses, from offensive magic to stealing to healing magic to technology to brutal kung-fu attacks.

Well it is the weakest example. But it doesn't change the fact that all characters can learn magic. Sabin is arguably the weakest spell caster in the game, and he's still ok at casting spells.

Where as in say FF9 only specific characters can use specific skills. So Vivi is you Black mage, Steiner is your heavy warrior, Zidane is your fast warrior, ect.. and while some people can use the same abilitys (Garnet and Eiko can both use summons), every character has there role in battle.

Perhaps I should restate the crux of the argument. pretty much it comes down to that all characters can use spells. And all characters can use them at least ok. While people may have specific special abilitys, it doesn't change the fact that they can all fill the 3 basic battle roles, warrior, mage, healer.