Topic: General Final Fantasy Thread

Thought I'd create one of these. The only alternative was an old one that no-one was using, was shared with Kingdom Hearts and in the wrong sub-forum. I guess mods can shut it down if they think sticking with an old different thread is preferable but it seems reasonable to me.

Lets kick it off with these rumours that have just come out about FF7 remake:
http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=234059

From 4chan, but they are very believable as they match other rumours that came from a different user several months back (saying that there would be a short loading transition between the world map and towns). Also, someone claiming to work for SquareEnix did post FFXV spoilers on 4chan just before it came out and those ended up being 100% accurate so I think there are some employees who post there.

They also seem incredibly rational when they suggest some of the scale of things have been changed. As I pointed out in another thread, the original scale of the world would pretty much make it the biggest game world ever made.

It reads very well, like someone with actual knowledge. Very detailed and, if true, I'll be super ecstatic.

If they manage one episode a year, I'll forgive the initially strange format that they've chosen for the remake. But any longer and it just wouldn't feel worth it. Of course, grain of salt and all that.

As for general Final Fantasy, it will always hold a special place in my heart. I'm someone that loves the 13 games in addition to the more popular ones, so it's a franchise I tend to cling to, even through the last generation.

Yep, that's what I thought. It's not very sensationalist and just fairly detailed. Doesn't look like the sort of thing someone would bother inventing.
The point about scale changes especially made me think it's reliable. As I calculated in another thread, the original world map would be insane if kept entirely to scale. Midgar itself would be about 1km across. Midgar was only a tiny fraction of the eastern continent.
So it completely makes sense that they'll try and keep Midgar fairly big but downscale the size of the continent relative to it. Midgar seeming fairly large is key to the plot whereas the size of the continent is easily changeable with no problems. Otherwise they'd have miles upon miles of wilderness to design for 1 continent alone.

I have never played a Final Fantasy game.

@Octane

Why not?

@Dezzy Good question

I thought about getting XV, but I figured that the 7 remake would be a better place to start, especially since I'm still waiting for them to finish XV. On the other hand, I don't see the 7 remake releasing anytime soon either.

I recently bought FFIII for the PS Vita (PSP) when it was on sale for the holidays. I have it on the DS and iOS (which I can't play because I don't have an iPad now), but the PSP version is definitely the best one of the bunch! The famicom music option alone makes it worth it.

I played religiously for about a week, then a green dragon decimated my overleveled team in the last floor of the crystal tower.

I guess I should give it another go sooner or later.

I also tried the Steam version while that one was also on sale. It was just... Bad. So I requested a refund.

One problem is that neither FFXV or 7 remake will be at all representative of what the rest of the series is like.
Playing 15 and then thinking you have a sense of what the older games are like will be akin to playing Breath of the Wild and thinking you now have an idea what Link to The Past is like. They have some thematic and structural similarities but only in a very very weak sense.
I'd just go back and play FF9 if I were you. The PS4 version is one of the best ports, it's aged almost perfectly, it's one of the simpler games for a newcomer to understand (in both story and it's gameplay systems) AND it's nearly always voted as being in the top 3 best in the series.

Play Final Fantasy 4 Heroes of Light for the DS. That game was fire!

@Meowpheel

I never made it all the way through FF3. Just can't be doing without a fairly heavy story in an RPG. FF4 is where the good stories started imo.

Well to be honest I probably wouldn't have made it so far into the game (for a third time) without the auto battle option.

If I needed to grind I could just do it with little to no input from me aside from starting the battles and mashing X to skip the text...

I find the story to be just about right for what was an NES game though. I'd say the first really story-focused FF was II though, it's just very overlooked by the fans. When I played it on the GBA back in the day, I actually loved everything about it.

FF2 is one I still need to beat... but dangit, I hate it's leveling system. Sounds good on paper, but bad execution.

FF3 is probably my 3rd favorite. I actually beat it again on Android about a year or so ago. Thankfully, no Crystal Tower party wipes (I run from the dragons).

I really liked it back then, I could make my characters fit certain jobs, and making magic stronger by training it was amazing to me. I would often travel north at the start of the game and grind until I could beat the soldiers in that one town to get rare magic and equipment.

My favorite "job" was "mage with two shields", basically nothing could hit them!

Of course this also comes from someone who couldn't really care less about maxing all the stats and making perfect teams of perfectly perfect characters.

@Meowpheel

I question any system that encourages one to attack their own characters.

Also, I remember one playthrough where the cost of a Cure spell outpaced the MP max of it's user. It's commonplace to heal after a battle, but no stats gain “XP“ unless you're in a battle. But the spell itself does, however...

In hindsight, that's probably the main issue; too many XP meters. Stats, weapon use, spells, etc.

Well, you could make them fight each other. Or you could just get hit by monsters while training your other stats. It's up to you.

I never really had problems with the cure spell. You should probably limit its use outside of battle though, since you won't get any exp to increase your caracter's MP that way.

I'm playing the original on the NES Classic now. I played it back in the day and hated it, so I've never played another Final Fantasy. Then I got FF3/6 o Wii VC and played some and thought it was good, so when I got the NES Classic I thought I'd give it another go. It's better than I remember, but I would hate to try to play it without save states. Also, I've made it to the final dungeon, but am apparently grossly under ranked to be able to beat it (I was at around 19 or 20, and every guide online says you should be 30 at a minimum), so I'm trying to grind to level up. So I haven't played in awhile because that is boring, but I'll get around to finally beating it one day and then re-start 3/6 on the SNES Classic.

It's not that bad without save states... You just need to accept when you're outmatched and grind more levels to continue, and keep enough healing items with you.

Carrying a tent/cottage or two around is a must, to be able to save the game outside of the dungeon you're trying.

Also, speeding up the battles (in the title screen) is a must for grinding. The battles go from lllleeeevvvveeeellll----uuuupppp to lvp.

It's a shame 1 shipped with the bugs that it did. 3-4 spells do nothing, an entire stat is nonfunctional (the one that determines healing prowess), weapons that are supposed to have bonus effects don't have them, crit rate is tied to the weapon's “list number“ as opposed to it's own value, Heal2 works like Heal3 (....OK, that one is helpful), etc.

I wish they'd make another version that wasn't as easy as every FF1 re-release from the GBA onwards. I daresay I'd be OK with spell charges coming back.

Oh yeah, all the glitches suck. I'd love being able to play the NES original without the glitches (officially; I do know there's a mod for it).

If it helps, I hear the PS1 version (available digitally for the PSP, Vita, PS3) is closer to the original in terms of difficulty, though it did come with an easy mode. When they ported that version for the GBA Dawn of Souls collection (which is what every other "modern" port is based on) they combined the two difficulty settings into a singular, mostly easy, one.

Final Fantasy's battle system and gameplay mechanics have always varied wildly between iterations. What's important is that FFXV and the 7 remake may not be representative of what the series has been like in the past, but it WILL be representative of what the future will be like in the future. It's honestly an easy place to get into the series, too.