Baldurs gate 3 vs Final fantasy 16

[Shareefruck]

I think I might argue that VIII, as flawed as it is, impresses me more than a lot of the ones considered favorites as well. For example, IX may be more cohesive, well-rounded, and less deal-breaking in its flaws in a straight-forward way, but there are fewer individual creative choices about it that feel genuinely artistically cool and interesting to me (to the point where I actually don't have that much fondness for IX in general).

But yeah, my individual assessments of which ones are best are kind of irrelevant here (I think Tactics, VII, and VI are the only ones actually worth a damn, personally). Nearly every major franchise doesn't hold up to that standard very well either (Resident Evil, for example almost never impresses me).

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Yeah, X is when I just couldn't get into the series anymore. That scene where they start laughing made me close my PlayStation from the cringe. Saying 16 is the best in 20 years means I'm not going to try it likely. Best in 30 years is another story.

Ah, I loved X. Thought the story was fantastic. World was amazing and thought they nailed the battle and upgrade system.

But yes, the Titus laugh goes down as one of the most cringy moments ever in video game history

 

[Shareefruck]

Yeah, X is when I just couldn't get into the series anymore. That scene where they start laughing made me close my PlayStation from the cringe. Saying 16 is the best in 20 years means I'm not going to try it likely. Best in 30 years is another story.

That's actually a massive pet peeve of mine when it comes to the way that people always choose to frame their hype and praise (the equivalent of people who say "I could care less" instead of "I couldn't care less"). This isn't specific to the guy's post, but articles and reviews ALL do this to make people excited, and it seems to work, but I absolutely hate it.

The thing being praised is almost ALWAYS only technically compared to everything up to but not including the last actual good thing, which ALWAYS makes it a completely meaningless statement.

When Super Mario Wonder came out, I kept hearing people insufferably say:
"Super Mario Wonder is the best 2D Mario since World"

... which is a COMPLETELY meaningless statement (assuming that they're not counting Yoshi's Island as a Mario game). No ****ing kidding it's the best since then when everything since then has been almost universally agreed as awful or completely underwhelming. The only standard that a game needs to meet to justify that statement is to be almost exactly as uninspired/bad as the New Super Mario Bros games with trivial and marginal improvements. That's not an accomplishment! It doesn't need to be anywhere remotely in the same stratosphere as World for that statement to be true, but the phrasing deceptively tries to place that thought in your head without actually being willing to make the direct comparison (even if in reality, you could make the argument).

I get that in reality, people are just not reading into it this anally when they speak like that, but what the words always communicate to me is the feeling of someone gutlessly wanting to make something sound really impressive without ACTUALLY ruffling any feathers or having to be accountable for it by committing to saying anything bold and that legitimately WOULD be impressive.

/rant

 

[TheGreenTBer]

Yeah, X is when I just couldn't get into the series anymore. That scene where they start laughing made me close my PlayStation from the cringe. Saying 16 is the best in 20 years means I'm not going to try it likely. Best in 30 years is another story.

Agreed.

I hated VIII with a passion but I liked IX, so I tried X. Hate it. Is it a bad game? No. But man oh man did it poison my desire to try any newer FF games.

 

[RandV]

Whether or not you think the games are individually good or bad is honestly irrelevant. FF is sort of like Star Wars in that it’s so imaginative and transporting, nostalgia will completely warp opinions on which of these games are good or not. I’ve seen young FF fans who started on XIII and XV say the exact same things about those games as people like you and I would say about VI and VII. I have a friend who started on VIII who swears it’s the best in the series. And even if he’s wrong, VIII has some of Uematsu’s most phenomenal work in the series. Full stop. No two FF fans have the exact same ranking list because al most all of these games have something really unique and wonderful about them, warts or not.

Ultimately, FF is the primary reason most western gamers even know about JRPGs. For that reason alone it’s deserving of its spot in gaming history and culture. To be honest, the more I read your post, the more bizarre and axe grindy it seems. FF has been a massive brand of games for decades. These games continue to sell absurdly well. That doesn’t happen just because VII was popular 25 years ago. Get a grip.

You misunderstand me a little, I'm more point out other peoples opinions on the game rather than my own, case in point just look at this thread. While I didn't think as much on the 3 PSone FF's I loved X, for the series it's my second favourite behind VI, with XII joining IV as the 4 mainline FF games I really loved. I even eventually played XIII and while deeply flawed still enjoyed it.

You're talking to someone who started on the genre as a child with the original Dragon Warrior and Phantasy Star, and have always kept a nostalgic love for the genre within a certain set of parameters. This is something that's long past caring but while rabid the FFVII love did annoy me back in the day I could at least appreciate it for helping the genre go mainstream, as plenty of games prior to it never made it to translation. But if you want to use a Star Wars analogy here FF became a sort of Anakin Skywalker as when the genre started to recede back into obscurity during the PS3 gen with so many series being lost which isn't directly Square/FF's fault but then they fart out XIII at the end of the console cycle and there was really no hope for recovery for a good while.

 

[SettlementRichie10]

You misunderstand me a little, I'm more point out other peoples opinions on the game rather than my own, case in point just look at this thread. While I didn't think as much on the 3 PSone FF's I loved X, for the series it's my second favourite behind VI, with XII joining IV as the 4 mainline FF games I really loved. I even eventually played XIII and while deeply flawed still enjoyed it.

You're talking to someone who started on the genre as a child with the original Dragon Warrior and Phantasy Star, and have always kept a nostalgic love for the genre within a certain set of parameters. This is something that's long past caring but while rabid the FFVII love did annoy me back in the day I could at least appreciate it for helping the genre go mainstream, as plenty of games prior to it never made it to translation. But if you want to use a Star Wars analogy here FF became a sort of Anakin Skywalker as when the genre started to recede back into obscurity during the PS3 gen with so many series being lost which isn't directly Square/FF's fault but then they fart out XIII at the end of the console cycle and there was really no hope for recovery for a good while.

I understand where you’re coming from. I started with JRPGs long before VII, too. And I’m with you: I sort of resent the overall culture surrounding VII, the remake project *specifically*, and to a greater extent Nomura and his entire approach to game design. I don’t think his games are particularly captivating, and appeal to a niche of JRPG/anime that I simply don’t respect. So I’m with you there for sure.

In my mind, though, Nomura and the bloated metaverse of VII is just a single facet of FF overall. And maybe I feel stronger about that than you do because I happened to get into XIV, which really reignited my love for the series overall (XIV almost functions as a museum of FF in some respects).

While I hold JRPGs like Xenogears, Xenoblade, Persona, some of the DQ, etc. in higher critical regard than most FFs, I will always love FF as a series. It’s big and bombastic and captures a certain excitement for me. Tactics, VI, IV, the original VII, XII, X, IX, VIII, these were all games I spent a lot of time on throughout my early adolescence that I will always have strong feelings for.