(Very Generic) Final Fantasy Question

[Aura Cobalt]

So I have been thinking about starting a whole new game I've never played before and I thought maybe Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy (I like RPG's) would be fun. (I heard the characters in Final Fantasy have awesome names like Titus and Yuna, I think.) Right now I'm definately leaning toward Final Fantasy.

So I guess I'm wondering just in general what the gameplay is like, and also, I know this is really ignorant of me, but what Final Final Fantasy games are on the Wii or DS, and what's recommended?

 

[Storm Earth and Fire]

My experience in FF I'm sure is fairly limited compared to others here, but the gameplay would depend on the FF in question...

The most consistent thing would be the adventuring around with a party, fairly standard stuff. The battle system is a standard turn-based one until IV, where the active time battle system added real-time elements, and more of those are generally added as the series goes on. XI is a MMORPG, real time battles and all that.

The spin-offs, though, have varied gameplay. Tactics, for instance, is a strategy RPG not too far off from Fire Emblem.

Final Fantasy games on Wii or DS? Actually I'm not so sure about those. I can think of of III, IV, and Tactics A2 on the DS. The GBA has a I and II compilation, and Tactics Advance. The Wii has... Crystral Chronicles: My Life as King, but there's probably something I'm missing.

My favorites? VIII, X, Tactics, and Tactics Advance.

*awaiting someone more knowledgable*

 

[fresh fruit for Adol]

*Ahem*

I apologize for the massive amounts of text in advance.

Only a handful of FF games are on the Wii and DS. For the DS, you can get Final Fantasy Tactics A2, Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates, and Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (Which is also on the Wii). You can also get the DS remakes of FF III (Never released in the US before. Hard as fuck.), and FF IV (Amazing game. Even harder than III DS). There's also Chocobo Tales for the DS, and Wii, which is like the old Chocobo's Dungeon series for the PSX from like, 11 years ago.

If you still play GBA games, there's also the original FFTactics Advance. Neither of the Tactics Advance games are nearly as good as Tactics, and its PSP port, but they're still great games either way. And, if you download stuff for VC and WiiWare, you can get Crystal Defenders R1, and Crystal Defenders R2. They're tower defense games so they aren't like other FF games.

Unfortunately, you really did pick a nice time to pick up Final Fantasy. [/sarcasm] This is coming only from me, however I guarantee you will come across at least one other person like myself; Final Fantasy seemingly started going downhill after IX came out. X was okay, but I hated its cast of characters more than I did IX's (Freya was the only saving grace in terms of cast of characters), and the story got worse as the game progressed. XII's story was really good, but I absolutely hated the way it played. And I have no comment on XI, since I haven't played. So it wouldn't be fair to put my two cents on a game I've never even played (In case anyone wonders, the only FFs you can bribe me with are IV, VI, VII, VIII, and Tactics/War of the Lions. Echoes of Time also works too, depending on my mood).

That aside, what's out on the DS and Wii are all a solid bunch of titles. They're all pretty decent in their own right. Out of what's out on both systems currently, I highly recommend Echoes of Time, FFIV, and Tactics A2. IV, and Tactics are simply both very good games, and Echoes of Time is fun, especially in the company of friends. The best part about Echoes is that a DS player can play via Wireless Com, or Wi-Fi with a Wii player, and vice versa. If you're into strategy/tower defense games, I also recommend Crystal Defenders. They don't have any epic story, or even any specific story, or what have you, just a simple premise, and a nice, simple, yet difficult game.

Oh, and next month, we'll be seeing FFIV The After Years on WiiWare, which will supposedly be multiplayer friendly.

Saying Tactics is akin to Fire Emblem can be redundant though, since most SRPGs are all alike. Only difference is that Tactics has a much more in depth class change system, lots of sidequests, therefore making it much more non-linear, tends to be more difficult, and has many, many, and I mean many more characters.

It's not technically Final Fantasy, but if you want to try the predecessor to Tactics, you might try Bahamut Lagoon for the Super Famicom, the game that was originally supposed to be FF Tactics. I suppose Squaresoft got a little too ambitious back then xD It was fanslated, making it possible to play in English, and it's a very good game with a wide cast of characters.

 

[Erif]

Only a handful of FF games are on the Wii and DS. For the DS, you can get Final Fantasy Tactics A2, Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates, and Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (Which is also on the Wii). You can also get the DS remakes of FF III (Never released in the US before. Hard as fuck.), and FF IV (Amazing game. Even harder than III DS). There's also Chocobo Tales for the DS, and Wii, which is like the old Chocobo's Dungeon series for the PSX from like, 11 years ago.

There's also Reavant Wings, but it looks like crap. III is horrible, and it's easy. IV is amazing though.

Unfortunately, you really did pick a nice time to pick up Final Fantasy. [/sarcasm] This is coming only from me, however I guarantee you will come across at least one other person like myself; Final Fantasy seemingly started going downhill after IX came out. X was okay, but I hated its cast of characters more than I did IX's (Freya was the only saving grace in terms of cast of characters), and the story got worse as the game progressed. XII's story was really good, but I absolutely hated the way it played. And I have no comment on XI, since I haven't played. So it wouldn't be fair to put my two cents on a game I've never even played (In case anyone wonders, the only FFs you can bribe me with are IV, VI, VII, VIII, and Tactics/War of the Lions. Echoes of Time also works too, depending on my mood).

I agree, Final Fanstasy isn't doing as good as it used to. The cast's of IX and X are just plain bad. It seems like Vivi was the only character I could relate to(which should never be the case, btw), and Auron was a badass, but one badass can't make up for a whole cast of characters. Still, I'm liking IX's gameplay a lot, and it has a nice story too. X is fun, too. I haven't played XII yet, and XI doesn't really cout as a "Final Fantasy" game.

Saying Tactics is akin to Fire Emblem can be redundant though, since most SRPGs are all alike. Only difference is that Tactics has a much more in depth class change system, lots of sidequests, therefore making it much more non-linear, tends to be more difficult, and has many, many, and I mean many more characters.

Not...really. In A2, you can have up to, what, 25 characters? And that's only if you want that many. Fire Emblem has up to 45, man, and even if you bench a lot of them, there still more. Tactics is definitely not harder. No way is Hector Hard Mode easier than A2 on hard (if there even is one). Not a chance. Fire Emblem is a linear game, it doesn't give you much freedom at all. FE8 let's you roam the map and do extra stuff, but that's the only game that let's you do that. It all depends on the persons preference, really.

Let me tell you this, if you want to Fire Emblem, go ahead and try it. It almost always has a fantastic, compelling story, good main characters (personality wise), and it's fun. Start with FE9, Path of Radiance for the GC, and then Radiant Dawn for the Wii, which is a sequel to PoR. Then I guess you could work your way down; I myself prefer to skip over Fire Emblem 8: Sacred Stones for the GBA, but you should try it. Then FE7: Blazing Sword, also for the GBA. FE1-6 are all Japanese Only(you can patch them), but they remade the first one, Shadow Dragon, for the DS.

If you want a good story: Final Fantasy VII
If you want some real good fun: Final Fantasy IX and X-2
If you want a little bit of both: Final Fantasy VIII

 

[fresh fruit for Adol]

There's also Reavant Wings, but it looks like crap. III is horrible, and it's easy. IV is amazing though.


I agree, Final Fanstasy isn't doing as good as it used to. The cast's of IX and X are just plain bad. It seems like Vivi was the only character I could relate to(which should never be the case, btw), and Auron was a badass, but one badass can't make up for a whole cast of characters. Still, I'm liking IX's gameplay a lot, and it has a nice story too. X is fun, too. I haven't played XII yet, and XI doesn't really cout as a "Final Fantasy" game.[/URL]

Revenant Wings is pretty decent, but I'm not a huge fan of RTS games. III wasn't bad, but it certainly was easy. It's good if you like literal old-school Final Fantasy gameplay, where they just throw you out into the world and tell you "Here! You figure out where to go next!"

Why wouldn't XI count though? I'd say it's perfectly relevant to the series. Yeah it's an MMO, but it has its own story, that's still going on with updates. I'm not big on MMOs, but after I get a job, I'm looking to start playing XI.

As I said, the only character IX's cast I liked was Freya, but she didn't have much relevance to the story, unfortunately, except for the events at Cleyra (Which is why I think IX should be remade. If it is, I'm sure it'd be MUCH better than it was before.). I actually didn't like Auron too much though. I'm more of a Wakka fan myself. Everyone else in X was too generic.

Not...really. In A2, you can have up to, what, 25 characters? And that's only if you want that many. Fire Emblem has up to 45, man, and even if you bench a lot of them, there still more. Tactics is definitely not harder. No way is Hector Hard Mode easier than A2 on hard (if there even is one). Not a chance. Fire Emblem is a linear game, it doesn't give you much freedom at all. FE8 let's you roam the map and do extra stuff, but that's the only game that let's you do that. It all depends on the persons preference, really.

Well, I wasn't talking about Tactics Advance though, I was talking about Tactics, the original for the PS1, that got ported to the PSP under subtitle "War of the Lions". Square generally does a good job of distinguishing between the two, because, while both Tactics and Advance both take place in 'Ivalice', Tactics' world isn't as diverse, lacking the multiple races in Advance. The original Tactics as at least 50 characters, and that's not including all of the secret characters, like Cloud, and Balthier (he was added in WotL)

Let me tell you this, if you want to Fire Emblem, go ahead and try it. It almost always has a fantastic, compelling story, good main characters (personality wise), and it's fun. Start with FE9, Path of Radiance for the GC, and then Radiant Dawn for the Wii, which is a sequel to PoR. Then I guess you could work your way down; I myself prefer to skip over Fire Emblem 8: Sacred Stones for the GBA, but you should try it. Then FE7: Blazing Sword, also for the GBA. FE1-6 are all Japanese Only(you can patch them), but they remade the first one, Shadow Dragon, for the DS.

I personally think FE8 would probably be the best to start with, but that's just me... Mainly because FE8 is probably the easiest of them. And if you play FE6 and 7, if you care about continuity and the like, and the order of a timeline, then play 7 first.

If you want a good story: Final Fantasy VII
If you want some real good fun: Final Fantasy IX and X-2
If you want a little bit of both: Final Fantasy VIII

Ugh, X-2 was just... I complain to EVERYONE about this, so don't take personal, but; don't ever mention FFX-2 around me again ;_;

FFVII and VIII also had a great cast of characters. VIII's main character also becomes a bit more interesting if you pay attention to all the things he does too; He displays all of the symptoms of schizoid personality disorder more than once throughout the game. Also <3 Cloud's identity crisis in VII.

 

[surskitty]

I agree, Final Fanstasy isn't doing as good as it used to. The cast's of IX and X are just plain bad. It seems like Vivi was the only character I could relate to(which should never be the case, btw), and Auron was a badass, but one badass can't make up for a whole cast of characters. Still, I'm liking IX's gameplay a lot, and it has a nice story too. X is fun, too. I haven't played XII yet, and XI doesn't really cout as a "Final Fantasy" game.

How the fuck can you not like the FFIX cast? FFX, I can understand, since Tidus is a whiny little bitch and Yuna is dumb and I winced every time Wakka was loudly racist; I played for Seymour's fail and Rikku. But FFIX? What.

Also, FFVII has a terrible story. Really, Final Fantasy can't do coherent plot lines to save its life, but usually it manages to be fun about it. FFVII is just "Okay so we'll blow this up! These people are doing TERRIBLE THINGS FOR NO REAL REASON so we'll fight them! Oh no, it's Sephiroth! Aaaah!"


Final Fantasy III DS is not hard. Bosses have a lot of HP, but that doesn't make it actually difficult. It's just tedious. There is no strategy involved beyond "hit it". Really, FFIIIDS is terrible but. FFIVDS isn't bad, though I'd recommend playing the GBA port instead of the DS one because the script's a lot better.


I really like playing the Final Fantasy series, but it's not good.

Go for Final Fantasy if you like pretty art, explosions, and plot lines that make no sense but (with the exception of FFVII, FFX, and possibly FFVIII but I dunno because it's the only one I haven't played) don't take themselves seriously. I would not, however, recommend playing any DS/Wii Final Fantasy games except for FFTA2. Maybe FFIVDS, too, but they're big on the artificial difficulty they added to FFIIIDS there, too, and the script is really, really bad.

Fire Emblem as a series is considerably harder and really shouldn't be compared to Final Fantasy as the playing styles are completely different. Fire Emblem's a lot more like Disgaea except it takes itself seriously. If you like FE's gameplay, you'd probably like FFTA2's or Disgaea's.


FFXII: Revenant Wings is okay. Only play it if you've played FFXII, though, and the gameplay is kind of funky. It's not good, but it's not like most of the FFVII compilation: it's playable and fun.

 

[spaekle]

I loved IX. :[ And I think FFXII is really good too from what I've played of it. Revenant Wings not so much.

Haven't played the original Tactics, but FFTA and FFTA2 for the GBA and DS respectively are great. Play them.

The remake of III for the DS is kind of annoying gameplay-wise (let's climb this tower for the 3843482834th time after losing to this boss again!), but I was addicted to it for a while. Other people might suggest you play the original.

IV's DS remake I haven't gotten very far in, but the voice acting is lulzy.

Play VII if you think it might be interesting / you want to see what all the fuss is about. Maybe watch Advent Children, but avoid DoC like the plague. I don't know anything about the other spin-offs.

Play IX if you want a main character that's not emo? I really like the cast of this game. :[

I haven't played X, but I hear it's good. I was bored of X-2 before I even really made it anywhere.

XII is really good, but the battle system is different from the other games and it kind of confused me at first.

I haven't played the other games.

 

[surskitty]

I really liked the battle system of FFX, but the characters are so irritating. So, so irritating.

FFXII's gameplay was confusing at first, yeah, but I liked it after I got used to it. It also has the advantages of a skip scene button and even though it has a more serious plot like VI/VII/VIII/X, it keeps the lighthearted antics of most of the series. :3 It's never good when a Final Fantasy game takes itself seriously.

 

[fresh fruit for Adol]

How the fuck can you not like the FFIX cast? FFX, I can understand, since Tidus is a whiny little bitch and Yuna is dumb and I winced every time Wakka was loudly racist; I played for Seymour's fail and Rikku. But FFIX? What.

I found many of IX's characters to be relatively annoying. Especially Zidane. Zidane was so cheery and noisy it actually makes me want to hang out with Naruto...

But that might be stretching it, since the only character more annoying than Naruto is fuggin' Black Star, but still, I can't stand this type of character.

Also, FFVII has a terrible story. Really, Final Fantasy can't do coherent plot lines to save its life, but usually it manages to be fun about it. FFVII is just "Okay so we'll blow this up! These people are doing TERRIBLE THINGS FOR NO REAL REASON so we'll fight them! Oh no, it's Sephiroth! Aaaah!"

Isn't this what almost all average RPGs do? =P Squaresoft/Squeenix set nearly all of the cliches we see in a Role Playing Game, so it really isn't that unusual to see them in an FF game. Now if you want a game with a plot that makes no sense at all, unless you have knowledge of a predestination paradox, and time travel and all that other good stuff in between, go play Chrono Cross. Its storyline and premise can make Killer 7 seem simple, but once you get a grasp of those concepts (You need to do outside research for that, obviously), it's a really beautiful story, that doesn't really have much to do with Trigger.

Go for Final Fantasy if you like pretty art, explosions, and plot lines that make no sense but (with the exception of FFVII, FFX, and possibly FFVIII but I dunno because it's the only one I haven't played) don't take themselves seriously. I would not, however, recommend playing any DS/Wii Final Fantasy games except for FFTA2.

PLAY VIII. THE JUNCTION SYSTEM IS THE SHIT. AND SO IS IRVINE.

Really though? I thought both Crystal Chronicles games were pretty good, but Echoes of Time was MUCH better. It's more or less the PSO of the FF series, just without proper online play.

Play VII if you think it might be interesting / you want to see what all the fuss is about. Maybe watch Advent Children, but avoid DoC like the plague. I don't know anything about the other spin-offs.

Play IX if you want a main character that's not emo? I really like the cast of this game. :[

I actually liked Dirge of Cerberus, if not for the lackluster story, than the simple gameplay, and ability to (minimally!) customize my weapons. Endgame was just downright bullshit though. Crisis Core is pretty good, but only play it for the story, and, if you're a graphics whore (eww), then the pretty PS2 capable graphics. Roulette systems should not be used when levelling up. If you've got shitty luck, then get ready to play at least half of the game at Level 20.

As I said before, I couldn't stand the cast of IX. VII and VIII kinda spoiled me, what with the main character of each being an every man... And I honestly don't see how Cloud's emo? Squall maybe, because of a certain story event, but Cloud?

I at least like the cast of characters in VII and VIII. Their casts are more human than most casts of characters, but alas, nothing comes close to the cast of the Persona and Devil Saga series...

But hey, at least FF isn't Kingdom Hearts.

If you ask me though, there a plenty of other series out there much better than Final Fantasy. I know it's biased coming from me, but I can genuinely say, without bias, that Tales, Wild ARMs, Shadow Hearts, and Shin Megami Tensei are much better than Final Fantasy.

 

[surskitty]

I can understand disliking Naruto and characters like him but uh the FFIX cast has quite a lot of variety and no one's whiny. o_O


I've played Crystal Chronicles but I would never recommend it to people. It's fun, but you need to have friends that can play it without sucking ass (I got through it but holy fuck it's hard when everyone else sucks) and that makes it hard.

 

[fresh fruit for Adol]

I could care less as to whether or not a character is whiny though, probably much less than I care for IX or X's cast. But hey, at least I prefer IX's cast over X's (If that were the case, I'd have to go get my head checked.

The original Crystal Chronicles for the Gamecube really sucked. It was only playable with more than two people, what with that stupid fucking chalice one had to carry, and massive swarms of enemies. Echoes of Time is at least playable on your own... But the Wii versions two screens can get very annoying. Well, at least there's the new Crystal Chronicles coming out later this year...

Crystal Defenders, as I've said a million times before, is pretty good too though. It's got absolutely no solid story, just a simple as blocks premise that takes place after Tactics A2, and is a fairly difficult game. It's a tower defense game; all you do is pick a class of character, spend Gil to recruit it, put it somewhere on the battle field, spend money to level it up, lather, rinse, repeat. It really should get repetitive, and boring, but for some reason, it isn't.

You should try it out if you buy stuff on WiiWare, Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, or on an Iphone, if you have one.

 

[Erif]

I really like playing the Final Fantasy series, but it's not good.

lolwut. Just beacuse a select few games haven't been on the top recently, doesn't meant this series is bad. I don't understand why you say this.

How the fuck can you not like the FFIX cast? FFX, I can understand, since Tidus is a whiny little bitch and Yuna is dumb and I winced every time Wakka was loudly racist; I played for Seymour's fail and Rikku. But FFIX? What.

the cast in IX is boring. Quinna is funny, and Vivi is pwnsauce, but that's about it. I don't wanna go into each and every character, but I jsut don't like them that much.

Final Fantasy III DS is not hard. Bosses have a lot of HP, but that doesn't make it actually difficult. It's just tedious. There is no strategy involved beyond "hit it". Really, FFIIIDS is terrible but. FFIVDS isn't bad, though I'd recommend playing the GBA port instead of the DS one because the script's a lot better.

Right, that's what I hate about that game. III has to be my least favorite out of the series. It's boring, the story is boring/clitche, and the dialogue is so bad it makes my eyes bleed.

Go for Final Fantasy if you like pretty art, good music, fun gameplay(added lol), explosions, and plot lines that make no sense but (with the exception of FFVII, FFX, FFVI, FFIV(more adding needed), and possibly FFVIII but I dunno because it's the only one I haven't played) don't take themselves seriously. I would not, however, recommend playing any DS/Wii Final Fantasy games except for FFTA2 and FFTA. Maybe FFIVDS, too, but they're big on the artificial difficulty they added to FFIIIDS there, too, and the script is really, really bad.

Needed editing. Also, Lions War is supposed to be really good.

Fire Emblem as a series is considerably harder and really shouldn't be compared to Final Fantasy as the playing styles are completely different. Fire Emblem's a lot more like Disgaea except it takes itself seriously. If you like FE's gameplay, you'd probably like FFTA2's or Disgaea's.

Ahhhh, no. Disgaea and FE are both grid-based, but they still have major differences. FFTA2 and Disgaea yes, but I found Fire Emblem a whole ton a different than both of thos

Why wouldn't XI count though? I'd say it's perfectly relevant to the series. Yeah it's an MMO, but it has its own story, that's still going on with updates. I'm not big on MMOs, but after I get a job, I'm looking to start playing XI.

It has it's own story, but I still wouldn't say it should be considered part of the series. For some reason I can't explain this though. I guess it's kind of like Tales of Versus, it has a story, but it still shouldn't be considered as "part of the series". Same thing with Dissidia.

I actually didn't like Auron too much though. I'm more of a Wakka fan myself.

B-but Wakka has a ball. Auron has a huge sword. >=D

The original Tactics as at least 50 characters, and that's not including all of the secret characters, like Cloud, and Balthier (he was added in WotL)

Ohez, I haven't got the chance to play that yet... but still, 50 and 45 aren't far apart. Not much of a difference. Wasn't Luso added in the remake?

I personally think FE8 would probably be the best to start with, but that's just me... Mainly because FE8 is probably the easiest of them. And if you play FE6 and 7, if you care about continuity and the like, and the order of a timeline, then play 7 first.

I, personally, would disagree, since I thought 8 was the worst of them all. Too easy, and it was just annoying. 7 or 9 should be started with, followed by there sequels. Definitely play 7 before 6

Ugh, X-2 was just... I complain to EVERYONE about this, so don't take personal, but; don't ever mention FFX-2 around me again ;_;

Okey dokey smokey

FFVII and VIII also had a great cast of characters. VIII's main character also becomes a bit more interesting if you pay attention to all the things he does too; He displays all of the symptoms of schizoid personality disorder more than once throughout the game. Also <3 Cloud's identity crisis in VII.

<3 VII had the best cast of characters so far, IMO. Let's just face it. Sure, VIII has a good cast, and so does VI, but they don't stand up to Cloud and co.

I found many of IX's characters to be relatively annoying. Especially Zidane. Zidane was so cheery and noisy it actually makes me want to hang out with Naruto... But that might be stretching it, since the only character more annoying than Naruto is fuggin' Black Star, but still, I can't stand this type of character.

xD lmao.

As I said before, I couldn't stand the cast of IX. VII and VIII kinda spoiled me, what with the main character of each being an every man... And I honestly don't see how Cloud's emo? Squall maybe, because of a certain story event, but Cloud?

No, Cloud's just whinny for parts of the game, like a little brat kinda. But not emo.

But hey, at least FF isn't Kingdom Hearts.

B-b-b-b-b-buuuut~

 

[fresh fruit for Adol]

Needed editing. Also, War of the Lions is supposed to be really good.

Ohez, I haven't got the chance to play that yet... but still, 50 and 45 aren't far apart. Not much of a difference. Wasn't Luso added in the port?

fix'd

I dunno if Luso was added. I only just finished the sidequest to get Balthier.

It has it's own story, but I still wouldn't say it should be considered part of the series. For some reason I can't explain this though. I guess it's kind of like Tales of Versus, it has a story, but it still shouldn't be considered as "part of the series". Same thing with Dissidia.

It's not really fair to compare this to XI though. Versus is an Escort title in the Tales series. Escort titles are games that don't have a very big budget in development. Dissidia didn't have a very big budget, making it a spin-off, like ToS2, and the other Escort titles. FFXI has one of, if not the biggest budgets (Although FFXIII's will all probably kill this.) in the entire series.

Plus, like Versus, it's a dream-match game. Dream Matches are NEVER part of a main series. Like KOF '98 and 2002. Clearly not part of the main series, as characters that are already dead make in appearance in them.

B-but Wakka has a ball. Auron has a huge sword. >=D

Swords are cliche though! I like swords, but the whole 'the blade is mightier than the gun' thing is kinda tiring. More people should make like Nobunaga from Devil Kings, and just use both in tandem.

I, personally, would disagree, since I thought 8 was the worst of them all. Too easy, and it was just annoying. 7 or 9 should be started with, followed by there sequels. Definitely play 7 before 6

That doesn't make any sense though. You would have someone play the worst of a series series after playing the best? That's the perfect way to make someone bitter, especially after expecting the epicness of 7 and 10. Why not just get the worst out of the way?

B-b-b-b-b-buuuut~

EWW xD

 

[surskitty]

lolwut. Just beacuse a select few games haven't been on the top recently, doesn't meant this series is bad. I don't understand why you say this.

A good RPG has good characters, good gameplay, an interesting plot, enough worldbuilding for it to not read like everything revolves around the main characters, a good script, replay value, and some other things I can't think of right now.

The Final Fantasy series as a whole: sometimes has passable characters (they're never actually great characters, but within one game -- ignoring I and III -- you can get a good grasp of what each major character is like and they're usually not interchangable. Once sequels and sometimes remakes get involved, though, that stops applying); has unbalanced gameplay (given the length of the ability list, it's kind of interesting how few of them are ever useful, particularly in the endgame, and some games are weighted heavily either towards or against mages); reuses the same general plotline of 'someone hurts the princess in some way so the heroes go to kill him, but as it turns out the guy is actually possessed and then they have to kill that guy too' and usually fails to give the villains sufficient motivations for trying to destroy the world as they usually do; spent most of their worldbuilding effort for FFXII but pretty much everything else has no backstory that doesn't directly relate to the main characters; often has a completely terrible translation and a corny script to start with; but at least the series usually has replay value, although there're enough sequences that no one wants to see again to hinder repeat playthroughs and they're always so proud of their CG that it's more notable when a game has a 'skip scene' option than when it doesn't.


I love playing the series. But there's a difference between a fun game and a good game and the Final Fantasy series is rarely good.

 

[FMC_x_ANS]

My experience in FF I'm sure is fairly limited compared to others here, but the gameplay would depend on the FF in question...

The most consistent thing would be the adventuring around with a party, fairly standard stuff. The battle system is a standard turn-based one until IV, where the active time battle system added real-time elements, and more of those are generally added as the series goes on. XI is a MMORPG, real time battles and all that.

The spin-offs, though, have varied gameplay. Tactics, for instance, is a strategy RPG not too far off from Fire Emblem.

Final Fantasy games on Wii or DS? Actually I'm not so sure about those. I can think of of III, IV, and Tactics A2 on the DS. The GBA has a I and II compilation, and Tactics Advance. The Wii has... Crystral Chronicles: My Life as King, but there's probably something I'm missing.

My favorites? VIII, X, Tactics, and Tactics Advance.

*awaiting someone more knowledgable*

The tactics games have a lot more customization... But Tactics for the PS1 and PSP is a LOT harder than FFTA.

FFIX and FFVI were good too

 

[Aura Cobalt]

Ok, thanks everyone.

The problem is that all I have now is a Wii and a DS. Maybe I'll try FE; I'll most likely come back and consider FF sometime in the future. (So are they not planning on making anymore non-spinoffs for Final Fantasy ever? Is it that unpopular?)

 

[surskitty]

... what? They're making plenty of main series games; they're just never on Nintendo consoles.

 

[Aura Cobalt]

Oh. :huh:

Like I said before, I am completely oblivious to this series. I just have'nt heard about some FF XIV ever, and I'm not sure how old XIII is, if X was for the PS2.

 

[surskitty]

FFXIII isn't even out yet.

 

[Aisling]

Ok, thanks everyone.

The problem is that all I have now is a Wii and a DS. Maybe I'll try FE; I'll most likely come back and consider FF sometime in the future. (So are they not planning on making anymore non-spinoffs for Final Fantasy ever? Is it that unpopular?)

If you get Fire Emblem, try to find The Sacred Stones for the Gameboy Advance first, as Blazing Hearts has said(you can play that on your DS, right? unless it is a DSi). It's the easiest of the lot due to a tower you get about a third of the way into the game where you can grind and gain levels, and it's also my favorite because it has two separate story paths you can follow. In the other games you can't stop and grind a little, which makes it a lot more difficult to play as well as play with the people you want to use. They're all pretty fun, though. I've also beaten Path of Radiance; it's good, but I found it harder to get "Support Conversations" to happen between units, which was one of my favorite things about Sacred Stones.
My friend had a ROM of the European release of the FE DS game on a DS SD card (it came out in Europe first for some reason I think) and the graphics are pretty blah compared to the GBA ones (which is saying the GBA ones are very good). I didn't play very far beyond that so I can't say how the story is, and graphics aren't everything, so you might want to consider it. But...

tl;dr version: definitely get Sacred Stones first if you can find it.

Why wouldn't XI count though? I'd say it's perfectly relevant to the series. Yeah it's an MMO, but it has its own story, that's still going on with updates. I'm not big on MMOs, but after I get a job, I'm looking to start playing XI.

If you ever get Final Fantasy XI, play on the Fairy Server. That's where I am. >:D