RockpaperShotgun FF order is retarded.

[Jacob]

Aerith should stay dead.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

It cheapens the emotional impact that the character death was attempting to have. A player has to feel like the death matters in terms of gameplay if you want them to give a shit.

I was talking about the mod. I don't know it but I assume she gets revived just so the player won't lose the dedicated healer.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I've tried replaying FFX a couple of days ago and I just can't stomach the starting couple of hours. It's just not possible.

Reverted to FFIX (which I never played back in the day) and it's reasonably fun so far, very slow to get going though. I'm playing the regular PSX version because I can't stomach badly upscaled prerendered backgrounds clashing with sharp basic models. The loading is pretty bad though, it takes around 10 seconds to load into a battle.

 

[Ash]

Alright men, next up in my FF modding adventures is this: Final Fantasy 5 custom classes mod

So you like the FF5 job system? This takes the customisation to the next level, AND just as important it appears to include intelligent design tweaks such as making battles tougher to accommodate the new level of freedom, among other things. Give the feature list a read, it looks good.

It's for the GBA version which I've not played before, and I hear it unsurprisingly has inferior music quality, but I'm going to take the risk because this looks good.

I'll report back with my findings soon.

 

[Jason Liang]

Or you could git gud at Zelda randomizer.

I'm just saying... yolo...

 

[Ash]

Alright men, next up in my FF modding adventures is this: Final Fantasy 5 custom classes mod

So you like the FF5 job system? This takes the customisation to the next level, AND just as important it appears to include intelligent design tweaks such as making battles tougher to accommodate the new level of freedom, among other things. Give the feature list a read, it looks good.

It's for the GBA version which I've not played before, and I hear it unsurprisingly has inferior music quality, but I'm going to take the risk because this looks good.

I'll report back with my findings soon.

It's not well done

I'm absolutely steamrolling through the game. FF5 was one of the harder games of the series and now it's one of the easiest. Little care or restraint was taken when implementing the new degrees of freedom. But, since greater freedom with classes is a good idea in concept I went ahead and started modding the mod. Will have to be for personal use only because it takes getting very involved with hex editing and rom hacking to be able to distribute it as a patch, rather than spending a few hours tweaking shit with fan-made editors.
Regarding music: thankfully there is a patch that restores SNES music, and it (so far) seems to be compatible with this custom classes mod.

 

[Agame]

Is it worth playing early FF games? I have not played 1 - 6, and for some reason feel like checking them out, maybe its madness...

 

[Jason Liang]

nah. If you've already played VIII, that's the series peak.

 

[aweigh]

Are you fucking delirious, the best FF is fucking FF 6. This is indisputable.

 

[Ash]

No. VII is the best. I used to think 6 was better but in hindsight after returning with a binge of them it's really not. Definitely second or third place though, contested by 9.

As for "is 1-6 worth playing?", I'd say 5 and 6 only. The rest of the early games are mediocre and always were.

 

[Deflowerer]

Yes, play them all in order.

 

[L'Montes]

"Best PC Final Fantasy" is kinda an interesting question (which would be the only real question for a PC-only site), considering how many of the ports were hot garbage.

Square seems to have knack for delivering up unsatisfying versions of both ports (FF6, Chrono Trigger) and remakes of their old properties (Secret of Mana). Even though they seemed capable enough back in the day to make relatively faithful updates like the PSP versions of FF1/FF2.

Outside of emulation, the state of affairs for the entire franchise is kinda crap.

1: Never released for PC.
2: Never released for PC.
3: Port of a mobile port of an Original DS game (released 8 years after its DS release)
4. Port of a mobile port of an Original DS game (released 7 years after its DS release)
5. Famously lousy upscale port of the OG Snes title with jarring tiling effects and out of place art.
6. Yet another lousy port of the original 16-bit title, showing they learned little after the prior release.
7. Actually released to PC *somewhat* close to launch. Not a great port, but it's interesting to see what modders did with it after the fact.
8. Their 2nd "real" PC release. Criticized at release for not measuring up well against the PS1 version.
9. ...despite the prior PC titles, this one took 16 years to release on the PC.

When the history of the franchise is so shit on the platform, I can see 8 measuring up better than it would in a home-console comparison.

Home console/remake comparisons get more iffy I think. There's also matters of fidelity, mechanical differences, and difficulty changes they put in various games.

For example, original Final Fantasy 4 was a big kick-off for Square in 16-bit sprites. That said, the PSP "Complete" edition has a pretty faithful sprite update. It also includes the serially-released mini-sequel content that's a bit more inconsistent than the original title. The DS version goes 3D, but also has mechanical differences like augments that are actually pretty interesting as a mechanic. So, there's multiple "flavors" of 4 to compare that have relatively large plot/mechanic changes (characters that heroic-sacrificed being able to rejoin instead, etc.).

I don't think some of the games have aged super-well either. I'd be curious how many people that rank the games have played them recently (or perhaps the feeling/experience of the game at the time is the most relevant metric for some). I recall going back to Final Fantasy 7 last year, and I'd completely forgotten how many mini-games get thrown in your face consecutively as you hit Junon (re: tower defense on the way in, CPR, dolphin-slapping, parade marching, gun drills...?), or the odd flow the game story sometimes has with the flashbacks and the poor original script.

 

[Deflowerer]

Who the fuck cares about the fucking ports?

We live in an age where PC can emulate 40+ years worth of other platforms.

 

[L'Montes]

Who the fuck cares about the fucking ports?

We live in an age where PC can emulate 40+ years worth of other platforms.

The original article/OP was posting about was making assertions about FF from the position of a PC-only review/gaming site, which the posters here followed up by making fun of.

I was just saying, charitably, from the position of a PC-only site (one that probably can't/won't condone "piracy" and is more about released/available titles) the PC landscape is incredibly shitty for the FF franchise. In that context, you could possibly reach a more unusual conclusion to "best FF", if you're restricting the question to official releases.

Also, I feel it bears repeating just how bad many of those releases were.

The series has enough recent entries (13/Lightning Returns/15) for PC performance outside of emulation to still be relevant too. XIII-2 is well-known for crashes/stability issues on PC.

/shrug

 

[Deflowerer]

No worries.

 

[Falksi]

 

[aweigh]

Pretty sure all FF games are officially available through Steam. I know 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 definitely are.

 

[Sigourn]

I won't speak about games which I have not played. Final Fantasy IV was fairly mediocre, some games are simply "great for their time", whereas others like Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy VI are still great games nowadays.

 

[mogwaimon]

Pretty sure all FF games are officially available through Steam. I know 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 definitely are.

For the most part but avoid FF5 and FF6 official releases like the plague, they're the iOS versions which butcher the graphics and shit. Yea, alright, maybe I'm a little bit of a graphics whore but still, it's like if someone took Wizardry and, when porting to another system, replaced the wireframe graphics with budget high-def Looney Tunes/Disney style artwork mixed with tiles pulled from an RPG Maker asset seller's page. If you enjoyed the original and saw that sort of abomination you'd be pretty well pissed off.
4 is a port of the 3D remake from the NDS which plays completely differently from the original, which has a more faithful port in the PSP Complete Collection. I've heard good things about it but the Complete Collection on PSP is overall a better option if you prefer 2D and want the After Years content too.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Best one (FF1) isn't on Steam.

 

[aweigh]

FF4: After Years was also completely remade in 3D for mobile and handhelds and Steam, using the same engine from the FF4 remake.

 

[Max Stats]

Best one (FF1) isn't on Steam.

fuck steam, you can play ff1 in any nes emulator. or a psx emulator. or a gba emulator. or a psp emulator hell, there's probably a way to play it on a calculator emulator

 

[Hobo Elf]

You can play a legit copy FF1 on almost any device except the PC.

 

[PorkBarrellGuy]

There's no way that thing doesn't have a Y chromosome

 

[Max Stats]

There's no way that thing doesn't have a Y chromosome

Probably a few of them