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Squeenix The Five Tiers of Final Fantasy Games

LeStryfe79

President Spartacus
Joined
Nov 25, 2008
Messages
7,503
Location
Codex 2012 Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Codex USB, 2014 Shadorwun: Hong Kong
1st pushed genre, great games
2nd didn't push genre, great games
3rd pushed genre, average games
4th pushed genre, bad games or didn't push genre and were average
5th didn't push genre, bad games

4, 6, and 7 have flaws too.
4 lacked character/ party customization
6 was bloated
7 was too easy except for some optional content

Still they were great and pushed the genre in many ways
 

Krivol

Magister
Joined
Apr 21, 2012
Messages
1,951
Location
Potatoland aka Prussia
1st pushed genre, great games
2nd didn't push genre, great games
3rd pushed genre, average games
4th pushed genre, bad games or didn't push genre and were average
5th didn't push genre, bad games

4, 6, and 7 have flaws too.
4 lacked character/ party customization
6 was bloated
7 was too easy except for some optional content

Still they were great and pushed the genre in many ways

What exactly 7th pushed?

Really, this game was worse and worse from the begining - you started as cool, ice cold eco-terrorist, finished as 'I am not sure who I am, what with MY pain? Cry, cry, cry!' un-cool imposter. Except for Tifa (nad Cid, cid was cool) NPC's were ... URGH! Annoying AF.
Minigames - shit.
Ruleset - medicore
Graphics - ok I guess

Gameplay didn't push anything. 7th was times worse that 6th, so I have no idea what was pushed here.
 

Twizman

Scholar
Joined
Oct 24, 2016
Messages
136
I just like 4 and 1 so far. 6 felt like I was on rails in cutscenes more, I didn't enjoy it personally. 4 has very good pacing, with the story moving fast and not wasting my time. I love the graphics in the psp complete collection. 1 has Wizardry-Dragon Warrior style combat, character created party and open world exploration, which is my favourite.

For anyone interested in replaying FFIV, this recent release has been getting very positive reviews- https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4134/
 
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LeStryfe79

President Spartacus
Joined
Nov 25, 2008
Messages
7,503
Location
Codex 2012 Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Codex USB, 2014 Shadorwun: Hong Kong
2nd half of 6 was completely off rails. 7 pushed cinematic story telling and deconstructed the hero's journey. Also, 7 placed lots of emphasis on mini games and optional content. 7 was the start of ff decline but, as the start, was still near the peak.
 

Falksi

Arcane
Joined
Feb 14, 2017
Messages
10,538
Location
Nottingham
I'm just replaying them again now, so this may change, but based on past experience IMO......

1st: 10, 7, 5
2nd: 4,
3rd: 9, 6, 8
4th: 10-2, 12
5th: 13 series, 15

FF4 - Seems dated at first, but soon won me over with it's charm, and a great play. :4/5:

FF5 - Brilliant, joint fave so far. Job system is awesome. :5/5:

FF6 - As Twizman says, too railroaded for my liking. Got annoyed at all the switching characters BS. :3/5:

FF7 - Played years ago. Absolutely thrived on it then, but need a replay. :5/5:

FF8 - Bit shit, but charming. Liked a lot about it, but the actual game itself bored & annoyed me. :3/5:

FF9 - Forgetable. Lots to like, but nothing grabbed me at all. :3/5:

FFX - Absolutely love it. Joint fave with 5. Cheesy, innocent fun & the characters are all mint. Something about the purity of the story too which really makes it special. :5/5:

FFX-2 - Mostly bollocks. Just total "wtf?" :2/5:

FF12 - Really good in parts, but the exploration areas are just too vast & empty. It's also a bit too much like Star Wars. Enjoyed it to some degree, but too MMO-like and couldn't be arsed to finish it. Recently tried a replay with the re-realese and, even with the 2x & 4x speed ups, it still drags like fuck. :2/5:

FF13 series - Christ, what did they do here? You don't do anything, the game plays itself. Awful. :0/5:

FF15 - Fucking shite. A vastness of nothingness as a bunch of boy band bummers invite you to "Hold button to win". :0/5:

By far & away the highlight of the series is the Summons for me. The games which focus on them less are less interesting.
 

LeStryfe79

President Spartacus
Joined
Nov 25, 2008
Messages
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Codex 2012 Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Codex USB, 2014 Shadorwun: Hong Kong
20200312_032651.jpg


Good news! I just beat FF4 with 4 HP remaining! Final play time was 99 hours and 59 minutes...
 

Pablosdog

Prophet
Joined
Aug 6, 2008
Messages
1,879
1st: Tactics, 4, 6
2nd: 5, 3, 9,
3rd: 12, 1, 2
4th: 10
5th: 13 and whatever the fuck came after it.
 

Disciple

Savant
Joined
Feb 18, 2018
Messages
269
NES era: I > III > II
SNES era: VI > V > IV
PSX era: VII > IX > VIII

FFVI is the best overall. Tactics is distinct enough not to be lumped together with the mainline titles, but it's up there with the best ones. FFIII is relatively forgotten even by many JRPG fans despite being an improvement over the second one in many aspects. FFIV is by no means a bad game, but I personally feel like the two games that followed were better and more fun to play. FFVIII is a mixed bag with its flaws outweighing its strong points.
 

Lemming42

Arcane
Joined
Nov 4, 2012
Messages
6,038
Location
The Satellite Of Love
4 > 6 > 2* > 9 > 3 > 1 > 5 > 7 > the rest

*The combat system is absurdly fucked but I really like the music, world, characters and story (what there is of it) which is more or less what these games are about anyway, since the actual "gameplay" in all of them is either grinding for hours, or grinding for hours with an insanely overpowered party because you abused the materia/magicite/jobs system.
 

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
14,980
FF never really did much in the way of pushing the genre, it's always been about stealing good ideas from other games and pairing those ideas with a high enough budget to achieve mainstream appeal. FF7's only claim to fame is being the first big budget 3D jrpg. It's not a terrible game, but it certainly wasn't groundbreaking in anything except marketing and popularity.
 

Zed Duke of Banville

Dungeon Master
Patron
Joined
Oct 3, 2015
Messages
11,756
View attachment 12590

Good news! I just beat FF4 with 4 HP remaining! Final play time was 99 hours and 59 minutes...
The graphics of the Nintendo DS remake are an abomination unto the Lord.

FF never really did much in the way of pushing the genre, it's always been about stealing good ideas from other games and pairing those ideas with a high enough budget to achieve mainstream appeal. FF7's only claim to fame is being the first big budget 3D jrpg. It's not a terrible game, but it certainly wasn't groundbreaking in anything except marketing and popularity.
Final Fantasy was one of two or three series that collectively pioneered the JRPG subgenre, distinguished by a narrative focus on pre-generated characters with simplified exploration, combat, and character customization/progression. For what that's worth.:M
 

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
14,980
Final Fantasy was one of two or three series that collectively pioneered the JRPG subgenre, distinguished by a narrative focus on pre-generated characters with simplified exploration, combat, and character customization/progression. For what that's worth
Dragon Quest did pretty much all of that shit before Final Fantasy did though. And we're not talking about 4 year dev cycles where they couldn't copy eachother. The first three Dragon Quest games came out in 3 consecutive years. And there were a LOT of jrpgs back then, they just never made it over because it's easier to translate mario bros. Hydlide 3 was out before final fantasy with 4 character classes. Dragon Quest 2 was also out first with multiple characters and pretty much all the features of Final Fantasy aside from classes.

You might as well be claiming CoD was one of 2 or 3 series that pioneered the fps genre. :roll:
 
Joined
Jun 24, 2019
Messages
694
i've only played VI,VII and XII.

I like XII alot,in my opinion the world in XII feels more realistic and believable,like a WRPG.

I still have to play tactics.
 

GhostCow

Balanced Gamer
Patron
Joined
Jan 2, 2020
Messages
3,994
Everything before 5 was boring because they were just standard RPGs with a level up system. 5 is where it started to get interesting with the job system. 6 is shit to me. I know that's not a popular opinion but I've tried to play through it multiple times and I always get bored and quit by the time the world gets destroyed. Personally 5, 7, and 10 are my favorites despite their flaws. Everything else that came before 10 is "I don't care" tier. Everything that came after 10 is bottle of the barrel shit tier although I probably would have liked X-2 if they had kept it turn based and if Paine had been a waifu instead of ugly and manly

Edit: I forgot 3 had class changing. 3 was ok I guess. It's been years since I played the DS remake and I don't remember much about it so the story must have not been anything special.
 
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Miner 2049er

Scholar
Joined
Apr 27, 2016
Messages
185
I - VII, Tactics (still #1 SRPG*), IX (my favorite)
II - VIII (flawed but charming), X (very solid), XIII-2 (unique take on combat and time traveling mechanics, underrated)
III - VI (played it too late to fully appreciate) , XII (yeah it's good)
IV - XIII and X-2 (terrible games, but I loved their combat)
V - XIII Lightning Returns (single character party and no combat XP ?), XV (sausage party)
 

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