The Final Fantasy Mega Thread - Now playing FFXV

Yeah go for a remaster, FF15 might actually be worse than 13.

Wow that bad? Stuff I'd read said most of the early game up to a certain point wasn't that bad, but that the final third the story kind of goes to shit. Wasn't expecting it to come anywhere near my top 5, but thought it would be better than that. I played a lot of XII when it originally released and liked it a lot, just never quite finished it. IX or X might be good starting point, though. Always did want to fight the Dark Aeons in X.

XIII not a high bar to clear. XIII down there with VIII as pretty much the only bad FF's since IV (imo). But I do see a lot of mixed stuff on XV, but a lot of them rank it middle of the pack.

I personally really hated the combat in 15. Magic system was dumb(lul friendly fire) and you basically could just hold Circle/X (or whatever the dodge/attack buttons were) and not have to do much else. I mean at least FF13 had a somewhat interesting combat system and was more or less a complete game(even if it was a crap story).

XV is really hard for me to play. It doesn't feel like a final fantasy game.

if you didnt play any FF until 11+ then sure, 15 is a FF game... if not, its not a ff game and 11+ have all be shadows of their former selves and we all would like to see them get back to "the classics"

so octopath is our hopes and dreams kinda.

They really need to just split off into 2 separate IP's. Like, have the final fantasy series be all futurey and high technology, while they simultaneously develop a "crystal chronicles" series or whatever that is back to the medieval/fantasy roots of the series.

Whatever the setting though, i REALLY want them to stay the fuck away from action combat. Keep that in kingdom hearts and other IP's and bring menu-based combat back to final fantasy. Other modern games have shown how it can still work very well, not everything has to be button mashing.

12 (especially zodiac) and 14 are fantastic. If you wanna use dated mechanics download an emulator.

14 being a good game in solo play shows us that sqeenix has failed in their ability to make a single player game.

I like stopped playing 12 when I ran around some desert and abandoned oil rig things then got into a fight with a wall that i was outclassed to win in and decided backtracking to level any way beyond any care or love I had for the game.

oh okay... still shows my level of fucks given for ff12 at the time...and now... it felt like an mmo i am playing by myself, so at the time- I just played a real mmo

FF XV in a vacuum is a good game (not great or awesome). The battle system is fun (outside of the dumbass magic system as stated before). The world is amazing to look at (what there is of it) and the overall gameplay systems themselves are very well put together. However it is blatant that they basically got 2 of about 10 planned zones done, and when they realized that there was no way to finish the other 8 they tried to cram EVERYTHING into those 2 zones. Then, they took the story parts they absolutely couldn't and just slapped together a back drop for them to play out in and called it a day. The story is absolute shit from beginning to end. It is absolutely not set up well, nor is anything explained, nor is there any reason to care because no one outside the bros is even covered. The biggest problem is, the bulk of the story really is about everything outside of the bros' journey which is all you are really following. So it's like when bad guy attacks water city, you could give half a fuck because who is this guy?

Also as a final fantasy game it absolutely does not feel like a final fantasy... at all. There are a few stylistic throwbacks like some of the monsters are classic FF monsters. Some of the menus have graphics with the old school 2d sprites stylized like old FF. But it feels closer to something like GTA/Saints Row with some token dragons thrown in on the side. Again in a vacuum and as its own game, that would have been fine, but it goes against it with a final fantasy in the title. I agree with the above that anything past XI hasn't really felt all that "Final Fantasy" to me. In fact, while I loved X, I'd argue since IX. X was the first real departure from the game with the sphere grid, and the removal of the over world. That was right around when Sakaguchi left, so it always made sense to me. Then XII was different in many ways as well, but still much closer than anything that's been released since then. Sadly when the Guch left, it seems so did the soul of that franchise and everyone has been trying too hard to put their own stamp on it thus stripping the game of it's core identity that tied all the games before together.

Namon said:

FF XV in a vacuum is a good game. The battle system is fun (outside of the dumbass magic system as stated before). The world is amazing to look at (what there is of it) and the overall gameplay systems themselves are very well put together. However it is blatant that they basically got 2 of about 10 planned zones done, and when they realized that there was no way to finish the other 8 they tried to cram EVERYTHING into those 2 zones. Then, they took the story parts they absolutely couldn't and just slapped together a back drop for them to play out in and called it a day. The story is absolute shit from beginning to end. It is absolutely not set up well, nor is anything explained, nor is there any reason to care because no one outside the bros is even covered. The biggest problem is, the bulk of the story really is about everything outside of the bros' journey which is all you are really following. So it's like when bad guy attacks water city, you could give half a fuck because who is this guy?

Also as a final fantasy game it absolutely does not feel like a final fantasy... at all. There are a few stylistic throwbacks like some of the monsters are classic FF monsters. Some of the menus have graphics with the old school 2d sprites stylized like old FF. But it feels closer to something like GTA/Saints Row with some token dragons thrown in on the side. Again in a vacuum and as its own game, that would have been fine, but it goes against it with a final fantasy in the title. I agree with the above that anything past XI hasn't really felt all that "Final Fantasy" to me. In fact, while I loved X, I'd argue since IX. X was the first real departure from the game with the sphere grid, and the removal of the over world. That was right around when Sakaguchi left, so it always made sense to me. Then XII was different in many ways as well, but still much closer than anything that's been released since then. Sadly when the Guch left, it seems so did the soul of that franchise and everyone has been trying too hard to put their own stamp on it thus stripping the game of it's core identity that tied all the games before together.

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I actually loved the sphere grid, was the first leveling/system that I liked after VII's materia (VIII's draw/junction bs I hated, and IX's learn skills from weapons was okay, but limiting). But much of those type of things are just hit/miss with individual people. Much like how above someone mentioned they should split the series from the high tech futuristic steampunk games from the high fantasy swords and sorcery type games. Personally I like both, but some people are going to have a preference for one or the other (it's why many who love VI also love IX). The removal of the overworld didn't bother me as much with X, as I've heard people complain about it being too linear (like XIII), but for whatever reason playing through it I never had that feel. Maybe b/c I was back tracking at times to recruit certain blitzball guys, treasures I missed, etc. Always felt like you were traveling to the ultimate destination in Zanarkand, too, so for whatever reason I didn't notice the lack of overworld as much.

XII really does seem to divide people because of the combat and such. But checking back through pages on here most seemed to really enjoy that remaster Zodiac Age.

Lenas there's dated mechanics and then there's boy band driving a car on autopilot. Come on

Merrith said:

I actually loved the sphere grid, was the first leveling/system that I liked after VII's materia (VIII's draw/junction bs I hated, and IX's learn skills from weapons was okay, but limiting). But much of those type of things are just hit/miss with individual people. Much like how above someone mentioned they should split the series from the high tech futuristic steampunk games from the high fantasy swords and sorcery type games. Personally I like both, but some people are going to have a preference for one or the other (it's why many who love VI also love IX). The removal of the overworld didn't bother me as much with X, as I've heard people complain about it being too linear (like XIII), but for whatever reason playing through it I never had that feel. Maybe b/c I was back tracking at times to recruit certain blitzball guys, treasures I missed, etc. Always felt like you were traveling to the ultimate destination in Zanarkand, too, so for whatever reason I didn't notice the lack of overworld as much.

XII really does seem to divide people because of the combat and such. But checking back through pages on here most seemed to really enjoy that remaster Zodiac Age.

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Oh I'm with you 100%. The sphere grid honestly should have been adopted as the go to leveling system of pretty much anything RPG in my opinion, especially games that have pre made characters and parties. X is actually my favorite game in the entire series. The point I was trying to make was, that it was the first final fantasy outside of VIII's smaller changes that was a real departure from the basic mechanics the entire final fantasy franchise. Up until then, they were all level based, they all had over worlds, they had been mostly been building on the jobs through equip-able items (Espers in VI, Materia in VII, ... I don't know about VIII it just sucked, and Equipment in IX). The battle system was largely the same since the introduction of ATB in what? III? And since then the game systems in the franchise have all been completely reworked at best or at worse totally gutted and something completely new was brought in instead.

I hate to comment on XII because I like the game on a superficial level, and I totally get what they are going for. I just can't really stand the class system. I feel like they missed a bunch of opportunity in making it deeper, but then I realize this is a game that was released over a decade ago. I missed it because 2006 was a bad year for gaming. I had just moved to Tennessee, got married, and was trying to get myself established in time for the arrival of my first child that September. So I think most of my gripes are aimed at a game made in 2006 with 2017 standards.

Lenas said:

12 (especially zodiac) and 14 are fantastic. If you wanna use dated mechanics download an emulator.

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Don't really need an emulator unless I wanted to play 1-3. Still have working SNES with 4 and 6 playable, anthologies for PS1 with 5 and 6, and own all the other titles after it. Sad thing is I wish I still had a working copy of 1, I have a working NES. But not like that one has a lot of replay value, anyways. Probably been 25 years since I did a full play through of 1.