Anime Which Final Fantasies do you think are actually decent?

[MRY]

I have very good recall for crap from when I was <15 and basically no memory of all for what happened yesterday. So many commercial jingles in my head.

 

[A user named cat]

Oh, please. FF6 was a pretty major hit itself. JRPGs were not 'fizzled out'. As for trying to give credit to FF7 for PST (even though there are similarities) and FO (in which there is no non artificial similarities) is bullshitz...

btw, I like FF7 fine but to say it 'revitalzied' anything is bullshit.


P.S. The only reason you played PST was because of BG1. no BG1 no PST. PERIOD.

I don't think you understood my post, princess. JRPGs were hardly doing big business at the time. FF6 was not a huge hit as it only gained a cult following many years later and it was also released in '94 on an entirely different console. There were essentially 3 years of nothing in between and no big launch title JRPGs for PS1. Derp. FF7 was a massive success and very much did put the genre back on the map, just as numerous games inspired by it came along after. How can you even deny this? Even Sony themselves tried to mimmick its success with Legend of Dragoon (terrible failure).

Do you need numbers you weird retard? How about crayons and therapy horses?

http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy

FF 6 - NA/EU 860k
FF 7 - NA/EU 10 mill

I also did not say I gave credit to FF7 for Planescape or Fallout's existence. I gave credit to FF7 on a personal level for getting me back into RPGs so I would eventually play said PC titles, that is all. Not all of us had PC's back in the 90's as they started becoming much more affordable in the early 00's just in time for the Black Isle boom.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

It has been a long time since I played it, but color me skeptical. Even as a young child, there were several things that didn't really work, though I suppose that this might have been a product of shoddy translation on Square's part or poor comprehension on mine.

The original SNES version of Final Fantasy IV did have a poor English translation. The funny thing is that every later translation was actually worse than the original, except possibly for the DS version which has horrible graphics.

In particular:

- Notwithstanding some foreshadowing with the moon in a telescope sequence in Palom and Porom's town (is that where it was?), I always thought the whole moon sequence came out of nowhere and wasn't connected in any thematic and structural way to the rest of the game. It particular, it stands in very poor comparison to how the similar plot moves were handled in the Phantasy Star series.

When you return to Mysidia from Mt. Ordeals, the Elder recites an ancient legend mentioning the moon (this legend is inscribed on the sword you received). Later, after gaining an airship, you can first visit Agart, which has an observatory from which you can observe the second, smaller moon. The astronomer there mentions that this moon has signs of life and seems to be turning red, which are good indications you'll be visiting the moon later on. Later still, after Kain comes to his senses and rejoins the party, he informs you that Golbez is gathering all the crystals in order to open the way to the moon. This is followed by the underworld sequences, more above ground sequences, more underworld sequences, and finally you venturing to the moon via the Big Whale.

- Golbez as your brother comes from nowhere and is a bizarre Star Wars ... homage?

To some extent, though the English version leaves out information at the very beginning of the game about Cecil being an orphan. Golbez hesitates to finish off Cecil after their second meeting, without any explanation at the time, but this makes sense in retrospect in the context of sensing a kinship.

- Kain double-crosses too many times. Also, Kain as a traitor's name is a little much.

Kain falls under Golbez's control twice, and the first time occurs off-screen after he's been separated from Cecil.

- The underworld sequence, though having a couple of my favorite scenes as a kid (the evil dolls and the crazy Dr. Lugai horror sequence, which is totally inconsistent with the game's tone elsewhere), doesn't feel meaningfully connected to the earlier plot. If the crystals are just a McGuffin, then they need to stay consistent as an object of attainment, without changing the rules as you go. If they're meant to have some narrative heft, I certainly didn't get it.

- There seems to be something thematic going on in the game about light and dark (Cecil's transformation, light crystals and dark crystals, light moon and dark moon), but damned if I can actually figure out what it is. Sometimes, dark is equated with evil (e.g., Cecil's transformation), but sometimes it isn't (e.g., dark crystals).

After the second confrontation with Golbez, the loss of Toroia's crystal, and Kain rejoining the party, you learn that another four crystals (the "dark crystals") are located in the underworld and that all eight crystals are needed to open the path the moon. The "dark crystals" aren't thematically different than the first four crystals (unlike the rest of the dark/light juxtapositions) and serve as an extension of the same MacGuffin. I suppose you could argue that everything involving the underworld and the dark crystals is fundamentally extraneous to the plot, which could have skipped directly from losing the final "light crystal" to the journey to the moon --- although that would have made for a too-short game...and there wouldn't have been certain memorable scenes involving Yang, Cid, Rydia, and Edge.

 

[laclongquan]

he approach the right points but draw the wrong conclusions

As far as why 8 is such a piece of trash, well:

FF8 was one of the dumbest fucking games I've ever played. Seriously the most retarded "plot twist" I've ever encountered, even by Japanese writing standards. Level scaling? Emo characters? Spell drawing? Just terrible. Anyone arguing it was better than 7 which basically revitalized the entire genre is beyond help. There is shit taste, then there are people who praise FF8 and call masterpieces like Arcanum bad. Get out.

This pretty much says it. If I had to elaborate though, I supposed I would list off FF8s failings as follows:

1. Squall. Squall is a horrible main character, and like most of the side characters in this game, he can be largely characterized by his personality. Squall is the angst and nothing else. A lot like how Zell is the loud obnoxious one and nothing else. The characters in this game are largely forgettable, and nothing meaningful ever happens with or to any of them. Sure, we find out at some point that they all grew up together in an orphanage (minus Rinoa) but the game does absolutely fuck all with this revelation.

2. Speaking of Rinoa, and how her and Squall have such an enchanting love story, maybe you oughta go and watch Grease first. In one particular scene when the party thinks Seifer has been executed, Rinoa heavily implies that her and Seifer shared some Summer Nights magic. In other words, remember the opening scene to FF8 where Squall and Seifer are crossing swords? Yeah, I'll leave that as it is.

3. Ultimecia. Who?! Yeah, just, fuck. If I need to tell you whats wrong with Ultimecia, then you're probably just never going to get it. Ultimecia is dumb cause she's an act three shoe-horn for a final boss. Imagine another, better game, if it pulled some shit like this. Imagine FF6, if you've just beaten Kefka, but all of a sudden everyone starts talking about, "Oh, uh, we gotta go to the end of time or something and fight John. Don't ask why, just shut up, dick."

4. Nojima. They let Nojima design this abomination. It isn't unheard of to promote other writers and even developers to the level of lead designer, but Nojimas only other noteworthy work prior to this was telling Sakaguchi that killing Aeris in FF7 was a pretty good idea. *sigh* Nojima would later go on to be a lead designer and co-founder of Nova Fabula Crysta-agh, it hurts. He would later go on to make the FF13 trilogy. The guy is hot garbage as a writer is what I'm saying.

5. Everything about its combat system and design. Holy fuck, you spend more time in menus in this game than anything else. Swapping magic charges, Gfs, junctions, using abilities to create items from cards to use those to make magic, using lesser magic to turn into higher magic. And then we have the damn Draw command. Followed closely by level scaling. Gross. Not to mention, every playthrough has the same dominant strategy. Grind up gfs while keeping your chars levels low, create and junction powerful magic, get Lionheart, cast aura, win. Wow, so simple for all the dicking around getting to that point will cost you.

Those are my top 5 issues, but I could seriously write a book about how much Final Fantasy 8 sucked. Don't get me wrong, I can tolerate it. I occasionally enjoy playing it, but I don't delude myself that its in anyway a great game. Maybe it's special to you, and that's just dandy, but to say its the bestest one EVAR is just ignorant.

He's so wrong it's funny. I will go in order of least wrong to worst

1. MC: It's true Squall is failing as a main character. WHich is precisely the point: He's a fucking teenager, failing other people's expectation is his fucking default state. My god, he got a childhood girl friend served up in a silver platter and what did he do? He run the fuck away. He is a teenage hero, get it into your skull. Dont expect him as an adult the way lots of previous MC are. SERIOUSLY! Any hot blooded male know what to do in his stituation. The excuse is just he's amnesiac (along with his friends) so he get confused about lots of thing in his tender age. And as excuse goes it's not bad.

2. Main heroine(s): What is the law of main heroine(s)? They generally the first or second girl appear in the games, almost without exception. Who is the first girl appear in FF8? IT's Quistis. As an older childhood friend who would like to advance to GF, she's qualified. As a glasses girl using whips who also is a teacher/mentor, she's over-qualified.

3. What's the deal with Rinoa then? This is actually the biggest beef we have with storywriters and game designers of this game. The way she get slot into things smell terribly of Deus Ex Machina. Just think about it:
- As a witch descendant: Rinoa has no contact, no link. Meanwhile Quistis was gathered into an orphanage by a witch descendant. Logic dictate she should have been the third witch. Heck, during the Ultimecia-Matron transference, her original (young) self is just close by, physical distance speaking.
- Rinoa is daughter of Squall's father's old flame. Base on the timing, she could have been his unknown daughter (and Squall's sister) and the old flame just married in desperation of thinking he's dead and she's unmarried.
- The narrative-relation between Rinoa, Quistis, and Ellone just tangle helplessly, if you look at it logically.
Anyway, just saying Rinoa shouldnt have been the main heroine.
4. Basically, you can just blame the storywriters and lead, in this case Nojima, the one thinking letting our healer get killed while we helplessly can not do anything is a good idea. And from Japanese to English it just escalate.
5. On this point I can not agree with you. Either you have a fully customizable offense and defense system where you can micromanage to the last detail, or you dont. Either you like it, or you dont.
6. Munchkin low level, do you like it? I dont. And I dont have to play it that way. So I dont complain that playing low level is boring
6.a. Again you dont have to Draw unless it's rare spell. Less stress that way~ And I am sorry you like stress~ or munchkin.
6.b Basically, if you play like munchkin, dont complain if the game is boring to you.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

You people know too much about FF.

 

[Delterius]

There is only one Final Fantasy Tactics.

 

[Theldaran]

Look, Final Fantasy was pretty much unheard of in the West in the 16 bit era, I for one didn't even knew about FF6 and my friend who had a SNES had to import it. At least the SNES was not region locked (aside from the PAL/NTSC thingy).

Then FF7 was the big thing, helped by the pioneers like Chrono Trigger. The hype extended as far as FFX, but not further. It doesn't help that the general quality plummeted after that, besides, the online games, made toward a pretty different audience, distracted people from the franchise.

 

[laclongquan]

I can argue about Final Fantasy 8 all day long. Cant say the same about FF7. Which just say all you need to say about 7's quality. You cant even say reverse nostalgia because I played 7 first, and wait waaaaay later to play 8 with VG emulator.

Fact is, Squall is the most believable teenage character you can get in all games. He's like a late bloomer, run away from the older girl chasing him. FF9 and 10 MC is just not that believable in that aspect, they are too adult. 7 is a PTSD character. Although they might have want him to adopted a "try hard" stance. Once his story came out, it feel painful.

 

[Theldaran]

Maybe some people don't care about FF8 (I didn't know much about RPGs back at the time, but in truth its mechanics kinda suck). But it was a great success worldwide. Not the same kind of impact as 7 (since I don't see any talk about Final Fantasy 8 Remake), but still. FF7 made the day for many people.

Of course, the people that dug FF8 in 1999 were teenagers. The game lent itself to a lot of fanfiction, speculation and character enshrining. The characters also helped since they were more juvenile.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Haven't played any, but I'm going with the 1st one, because after someone in the company really ought to have mentioned, just maybe, changing the game's title. Like, '13th Fantasy prior to the Final One'.

 

[Tito Anic]

I only beat FF7 but wouldnt recommend any off FF games to my friends because they all are

Spoiler

 

[resilient sphere]

There's a really good game hiding in FFX, with a solid combat system, interesting status effects and a set of encounters actually designed to inconvenience the player, held back by a few counter-productive decisions:

1. In a game about enduring a pilgrimage and the hardships of the road, characters should stay knocked out rather than being revived at 1HP, and save points should absolutely categorically NOT heal the party - they sap the drama of the emergent game and invariably appear straight before mini-boss encounters. You should be burning through medicine to survive the adventure, not camping a free mana-recharging station.

2. Since the first two hours of gameplay are totally worthless, the game should start in Kilika with the sending dance cutscene, and Tidus should be a little less clueless - the idea of humanizing the game through his inclusion goes way too far and he soon becomes an irritatingly dense character.

3. The sphere grid needs to be on some level automatic because there's too much fake choice involved! Just ask the player for guidance when the track take you to a junction where you can multiclass or burn a key sphere, the rest of the manual levelling system is essentially busy work.

4. Nerf summons and NERF the Use command. Al Bhed potions trivialize a lot of encounter groups and become freely available.

 

[MRY]

[fill in many gaps in my memory]

It's hard to know how much my complaints are simply a product of a faulty translation filtered through a child's comprehension filtered through a failing memory. Still, I dunno. Something seems fundamentally off about the plot. The game starts with a prophecy about "one to be born of a dragon" -- who or what is the dragon? Rydia is "born of a dragon" (her mom is the mist dragon, right?) but I'm pretty sure the prophecy isn't about her. And what is the business about veiling the moon with the light of eternity about?

Golbez is pretty good as villains go in that he is a consistent antagonist throughout the story. (As opposed to the villains in Chrono Trigger, FF7, Phantasy Star, etc.) But Zemus comes out of left field, and the Zemus->Zeromus thing is basically like having the Scooby Doo villain pull off another mask to reveal the Phantom wasn't Old Man Johnson but Mr. Wilson the newspaper editor.

All of the moon business felt mediocre to me even as a kid. Why do we care about the Lunarians? Why are they bothering people? Isn't FuSoYa just a reprise of Tellah, and if so, why? What is the symbolic significance of the moon?

The same is true of the crystals. What is the connection between the elemental crystals and the elemental fiends? To what elements do the Dark Crystals correspond? What exactly is the point of the crystals, anyway?

It's not that I particularly want the answer to those questions now, but I don't recall the game tying them all together into something thematically coherent. In fact, it's hard for me to come up with a theme for the game at all. I guess it's something like, "Most people's journeys lead them through being bad guys and being good guys," but that doesn't really relate to the crystals, the moon, dragons, etc.

By contrast, I think Final Fantasy 6 has a pretty clear subject matter: "What becomes of a person when he loses his family*?" (* Sometimes this means girlfriend/boyfriend or adoptive family.) This covers all of the heroes except for gimmicky ones like Mog, Gogo, and Umaru, and it is pretty tightly connected to what is going on with the Espers (since they are Terra's family) and what is going on in the World of Ruin. It establishes the fundamental opposition between Kefka (whose connections to others have not just been shorn but cauterized) and the heroes (who form a new family unit amongst themselves). I think the game answers its thematic question with, "He is lost until he finds a new family." So Kefka, being sociopathically incapable of forming any new family unit, is perpetually lost.

I'm not saying that any FF storyline is particularly deep or meaningful, just that I think FF6 has a somewhat more coherent thematic throughline than does FF4.

Incidentally, this kind of thematic/symbolic consistency is kind of a dumb bugaboo of mine -- there are aspects of TTON that irked me along the same lines but didn't irk others, so I suspect I'm just an outlier.

 

[Hassar]

I always thought FF12 would have been better if they incorporated more tactical combat into the combat system. That game had a lot of potential, which SE ruined by putting Vaan and Penelo in the cast. Ashe, Balthier, Basch, and Fran are pretty interesting - adding the two younger ones took away from the mature themes and I kept forgetting why there were there. Also, Mist Quickenings and summons were not incorporated into the game well - they were glorified QTEs.

FF1 is cool just because you can make whatever team you want.

Playing FFXIV right now - it's pretty crappy. The developers once again proved that the Eastern MMO model is boring and lazy. I joined the game to make a White Mage and/or a Black Mage. Turns out you can only become a classic FF class after dealing with a junior level version for 30+ hours and then levelling up another class you had no interest in. So a game series, which had 22 classes in FFT and 23 classes in FF5 (these are the Classic Classes you think of when you pick up a FF game), decided to throw those out in favor of a bunch of classes no one ever heard of and which you only play to unlock the Classic Job and to make matters worse did not follow the FF5 model and give each class worthwhile skills that the player was free to mix-n-match for endgame play - instead each class has a series of button rotations that you basically repeat over and over to maximize damage. That game makes me mad.

 

[laclongquan]

FF8 is interesting also in term of background and setting.

In term of setting, FF8 is about a world in apocalypse. Their most advanced nation got devastated by the witch decades earlier so have to be closed, barrier-style. The second most advance nation got controlled by a witch and in the process of invading other nations. Meanwhile, a literally tsunami of monster are going to flood in from the Moon, very soon, a symptom erase other civilizations before.

You live mostly in a hotel-like school and visit mostly towns and cities so you dont notice. Once you open the world map, look at the various unknown ruins, read about current events and your blood run cold.

APOCALYPSE NOW!

 

[Volourn]

"Look, Final Fantasy was pretty much unheard of in the West in the 16 bit era,"

This is bullshitz. I played FF1 from its release as a little kid and I was fukkin' no name silly 'town' in the middle of fukkin' nowhere. (Super) Nintendo was popular and FF series was amongst its most popular (behind Mario obviously).

 

[Makabb]

All are decent pre X-2, some are more some are less. It all goes downhill post X.


X-2 got WYMMYNZ, XII is a SP MMO XIII is just garbage

 

[Makabb]

There's a really good game hiding in FFX.

Also FF X has THE longest main story, 50 hours.


Maybe someday i will finish it finaly.

 

[Max Stats]

My problem was that my healing couldn't keep up with the damage the final boss was doing, and that the weaker characters simply didn't have enough HP to survive if the boss decided to do two powerful attacks in a row. I just had to level up a couple times and he went from impossible to easy, so I think I was just underleveled.

Yeah, also could have been luck. Sometimes he seems to fight harder than other times.

All are decent pre X-2, some are more some are less. It all goes downhill post X.


X-2 got WYMMYNZ, XII is a SP MMO XIII is just garbage

At least X-2 had the ATB back.

 

[Damned Registrations]

I never see anyone mention the mist knacks (limit break things) from FF12, and they were probably the dealbreaker for me. They were incredibly random, but the middle range of their damage was enough to one shot bosses. The fact that you could stock up 3 of them meant there was basically no point to building your characters up at all, since the damage dealt had nothing to do with your stats or tactics or anything, just straight up randomness.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Look, Final Fantasy was pretty much unheard of in the West in the 16 bit era, I for one didn't even knew about FF6 and my friend who had a SNES had to import it. At least the SNES was not region locked (aside from the PAL/NTSC thingy).

Nintendo itself published the original Final Fantasy (released in Japan in 1987) in the United States in 1990 as part of an effort to promote games by small Japanese developers in genres that were underrepresented on the NES. They had done the same for Dragon Warrior the previous year, but Nintendo promoted Final Fantasy by releasing a special edition of Nintendo Power magazine that was nothing more than a guidebook for FF. Due to the success of Final Fantasy in America, Squaresoft was able to self-publish the first Super Famicom Final Fantasy under the name Final Fantasy II on the SNES in 1991. Many other Squaresoft RPGs followed: Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy VI as Final Fantasy III, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Evermore, Super Mario RPG (published by Nintendo), on the Gameboy three SaGA games using the name Final Fantasy Legend and Seiken Denketsu as Final Fantasy Adventure, and Squaresoft even published the American version of Capcom's Breath of Fire. Although some of their RPGs, including Final Fantasy V, the Romancing SaGa series, and 2 or 3 others never made it out of Japan, SquareSoft did establish itself as one of the major SNES developers in North America and far-and-away the main RPG developer for the SNES. It took SquareSoft longer to reach other parts of the West, but their RPGs, and the Final Fantasy games in particular, were well-known in the United States. They even ran commercials on television for Final Fantasy III (VI) in 1994.

 

[Volourn]

FF was popular in Kanada too. Not surprising since whether my fellow Kanadians admit it we are nothing but Amerika Jr. LMAO Nintendo machines wrre popular and FF/FF like RPGs were well known. Like I said above, likely only Mario was more popular for obvious reasons.

 

[Beastro]

By contrast, I think Final Fantasy 6 has a pretty clear subject matter: "What becomes of a person when he loses his family*?"

I'd rather say it comes down to how people react to loss.

All the protags react in ways to loss that results in them growing and becoming better, more caring and thoughtful people. The only exception is Shadow, who refuses to and ends up preferring death instead due to what he's done, what he's done that makes him feel cut off from everyone else (and despite that he still seeks to do good in a typically murderous scumbag with a heart of gold fashion that fortunately is light on its touch when ti comes to that in contrast to Kefka).

Compared that to Kefka who has a psyche damaged and flings off into nihilism. That also ties into what the antagonists want with Vector and the Emperor power hungry grabbing for more only to be undone by a man who values nothing and whats everything to be reduced to nothingness.

In comparison FF2 is soap opera and part of its charm is that its a maturely built story but feels more like a kids story built around things kids would find cool and dramatic but is fundamentally niave and innocent without a sense of pretension that the kid writing it is creating something unique and magnificent. It is a very kiddy story with the constant twists that take the protags to new, very bizarre places and echos the pace a bed time story has in that it just keeps going on going without overarching ideas pulling it together.

Edit: That is it ^ FF2 is a bedtime story.

"Look, Final Fantasy was pretty much unheard of in the West in the 16 bit era,"

This is bullshitz. I played FF1 from its release as a little kid and I was fukkin' no name silly 'town' in the middle of fukkin' nowhere. (Super) Nintendo was popular and FF series was amongst its most popular (behind Mario obviously).

BS indeed. FF2 made a big impression when it arrived and that started the momentum Square built up following it on the SNES that built the company up as something prestigious that allowed FFVI to have eyes ready to see it and immediately realize how very different it was compared to what the series had been only three years before when FFIII was released in North America.

It is very much contemporaneous with Jurassic Park and how Spielberg's name was enough to let people be sucked into the feel that something previously unseen in movies was going to take place when it was.

I remember the trailer. All it was was T-Rex's foot stomping into the mud. That was all that was needed to be seen and FFVIs trailer was likewise very minimalistic and hid much about the game while conveying that it was a momentous event.

Do you need numbers you weird retard? How about crayons and therapy horses?

http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy

FF 6 - NA/EU 860k
FF 7 - NA/EU 10 mill

You're thinking about it from the perspective of an internet use in the 2010s and how the industry is today.

For kids growing up trying to rent the games known through the grapevine as very very good, refined and sophisticated Square games were rare to find and often expensive even second hand. It might be hard to think of today given what Square Enix now is, but back then the company and games in the minds of my friends was that Square games were a step up above your average SNES game and their awesome music was a symbol of that quality.

FF2 got many North American kids interested in it and expecting more of this odd series. Before FF3 most of the rest of their well known SNES games came out and showed kids that it wasn't just the series that was good, pretty much everything Square made was awesome and wide eyed when it filtered through that there was an FF3 kicking around and we should be looking for it at the corner rental store.

FF3 was an advancement upon FF2 in every way and left us eager to see what the next game would be (and wtf they'd skipped four numbers to boot). For many console kiddie at the time, the reputation of the likes of Square games came from word of mouth and was very diffused. All the more so given the fact that gaming magazines seemed to go out of their way not to talk about them and instead focused on the more mainstream kinds of console games of Western origin.

I think the turning point was when Mario RPG was released when Square became fully mainstream and took its place with articles, guides and tips being increasingly put into magazines and walkthroughs being made of actual decent quality (the early ones were absolute shit unless you were lucky enough to find a bookstore that carried the Nintendo Players Guide one.

 

[MRY]

Look, Final Fantasy was pretty much unheard of in the West in the 16 bit era, I for one didn't even knew about FF6 and my friend who had a SNES had to import it. At least the SNES was not region locked (aside from the PAL/NTSC thingy).

Then FF7 was the big thing, helped by the pioneers like Chrono Trigger. The hype extended as far as FFX, but not further. It doesn't help that the general quality plummeted after that, besides, the online games, made toward a pretty different audience, distracted people from the franchise.

It is 100% true that FF7 was an order of magnitude more significant than prior Square games, but the rest of this post reads like you've generalized your own weird experience. In the west, Chrono Trigger sold only 34% the number of copies that Final Fantasy III/6 sold, and only 37% of what Final Fantasy I sold. (Source: http://www.jp.square-enix.com/ir/e/explanatory/download/0404-200402090000-01.pdf#page=27) It's just that CT ultimately had a great cult following and its next-gen sequel was poorly received (overall selling less than CT), while FF7 was a game changed in terms of the magnitude of sales. So CT is seen as a pinnacle and FF6 as a kind of John the Baptist, but when you actually do a head-to-head comparison, the Chrono franchise actually didn't have much impact in the West until emulation and so on. Probably because CT came out late in the system's life and was so expensive.

 

[Theldaran]

Well, take this with caution, as I have never owned a SNES, but my friend who had one did import Chrono Trigger back in the sweet 90s, along with some other games like Secret of Mana, Secret of Evermore, et cetera. But I didn't see him with FF6. And these games were coming from America.

I'm not saying that what you say is wrong, only wanted to tell a tale from someone who was there at the time (or maybe several years later, make it 1998). Also I'm European.

I think that Chrono Trigger did impress particularly because it had a lot of different endings, and that was a thing much to look forward to in those times.