All-Purpose Final Fantasy Thread

[Shareefruck]

To each his own I guess. I've always wanted to see what happens after the games.

Ffx aside(that game sucked and had a happy ending with whiny daddy issues boy fading from existence, so why would I want follow up?)

But I enjoyed advent children and ff 4 after years.

Oh man.. to each their own indeed and forgive me for ranting, but I absolutely HATE what they did to 7's lore with all of those crappy compilation titles. They fundamentally undermine the themes and events of the original, IMO.

The original ending to VII was meant to be an artfully ambiguous, open-ended allegory that left you to ponder about humanity's impact on the world, mirroring ongoing themes in the game and everything that Bugenhagen's dialogue hints at. One of the most bold and thought-provoking moments of the entire franchise (only Tactics' ending about means vs. ends is comparable for me).

Spoiler

People have done all this damage to the planet and have to face the consequences in potentially being wiped out by Holy if it decides that humanity is ultimately bad for the planet (a question that the player has to ask themselves). We have no choice but to accept whatever consequence results from that while doing our part to redefine ourselves the best we can anyways (Lifestream coming up)-- the planet carries on with or without us. These are brilliantly the same recurring themes of loss, survival and identity that every character embodies/reconciles in one way or another. The game then leaves you with thriving life growing over a ruined Midgar, humans potentially all gone, and just a hint of hope in the sound of children's laughter being heard at the very end. It's a perfect and meaningful send-off.

But nope, forget elegance and taste-- Advent Children happens-- humanity definitely survives, gimmicky fan-service reigns supreme, characters are butchered and misconceptions perpetuated (like Cloud being emo, Aerith being pure, and Sephiroth being stoic), and now even the remake seems to be retconning this as "the bad ending" that they have to "fix" by "denying fate" (a childish and nonsensical idea that is almost the opposite point of the original-- which is something more mature like "some things are out of your control and healthy acceptance and healing is a part of growth").

Absolute trash, IMO.

The right amount of open-ended mystery and read-between-the-lines ambiguity can add a ton of beauty to a game, and all of that is lost when a game goes for the easy answer and just exhaustively ties up every loose end, "fleshes everything out", and gives the player exactly what they want. The appeal of "finding out what happens afterwards" is understandable, but something that I find very superficial and compromising. The game says everything it needs to and makes an admirable point not to answer what it shouldn't-- It's best to leave that alone, IMO.

 

[TheDoldrums]

I think I already made rankings with more details years ago here but maybe things have changed

Great games
VII
VI
IX

Good games
X
XIII
FF7R
V

Mediocre games
VIII
IV

Bad games
XII
XV

I've probably already ranted about it before, but FFXIII is criminally underrated. I did a second playthrough of it a couple years ago and found it better than I remember. Best battle system by far. It's actually challenging! For basically every other game the only real challenge was having to grind for super bosses or whatever. You actually need proper strategies and setups to do well against the tough enemies in that game. Best soundtrack in the series as well, Hamauzu is a god. Two best soundtracks are the ones he was involved in (X as well).

I predict it's thought of more fondly in the future when those kids go in without our preconceptions.

 

[Shareefruck]

Don't know if this is an unpopular opinion, but personally, I don't think the mechanics of JRPGs in general are ever strong enough to be the reason why the games as a whole should be considered good or bad, personally. You could outright remove the battle systems altogether and my opinion of the games would likely remain pretty similar, unless they outright ruin the game.

The appeal of these games for me is almost 100% story and delivery, and XIII is pretty terrible in that regard, IMO.

 

[TheDoldrums]

Don't know if this is an unpopular opinion, but personally, I don't think the mechanics of JRPGs in general are ever strong enough to be the reason why the games as a whole should be considered good or bad, personally. You could outright remove the battle systems altogether and my opinion of the games would likely remain pretty similar, unless they outright ruin the game.

The appeal of these games for me is almost 100% story and delivery, and XIII is pretty terrible in that regard, IMO.

I'd say they do ruin the game for me in two cases. VIII's draw system is so terribly conceived. If you want good stats you're forced to mindlessly draw magic from random encounters for hours. You can skip this later if you grind the card game but that's another headache for some (I actually love the card game aside from the frustrating work required to manage region rules). It's just a terrible idea that has no redeeming value. If they simply went with the more traditional battle systems of VII or IX it would be a good game to me, not mediocre.

I also just absolutely hate everything about XII's combat and just always lose interest in the game. If I'm going to spend 50+ hours on a game, it has to be something with an enjoyable gameplay loop. Conversely, I probably rate V higher than most because I love how creative and varied you can get with the job system.

Frankly outside of VI, VII and parts of IX (Vivi), I didn't feel a strong enough connection to the stories to have them carry bad gameplay. I don't think it has as strong storytelling as stuff like Kiseki, Persona or even Xeno. I spent way more time thinking about the Chrono Cross story than any FF. But I usually find Final Fantasys more enjoyable to play. When I was younger I spent an embarrassing amount of time in the Gold Saucer and Blitzball arena. I've spent far too long breeding chocobos and dodging lightning bolts. I loved Xenoblade Chronicles 2 but had no desire for any postgame stuff, whereas I did all the XIII postgame. There's something about the FF entries I've liked over the years that just keeps me wanting to play in those worlds.

 

[JaegerDice]

I agree that Final Fantasy XIII has a great battle system. Battles were really the only part of the game I liked. It basically moved the player from the role of individual player on the field, to that of the coach. From soldier to general. Instead of dealing with individual commands (often, lets be honest, repetitive, boring commands), you basically set and change the gameplan depending on the enemies, and the players on the field act accordingly. It was fast, intelligent, fun.

It's a shame I hated everything else about that game except for maybe the character designs.

I love the Gambit system in FFXII. It makes you feel almost like a computer coder, making increasingly complicated strings of if/and statements, so that your party mates can handle the minutea of battle, so you can focus on the important tasks, the big moments of any battle.

In many cases with FF, I feel like the mechanics of character building are more interesting than the battle itself. The preparation is often more important than anything you do when the battle starts. The Materia system was fun in a collection way, leveling up skills through using particular weapons made things fun and interesting in FF9, and the job board in FF12 International Edition was a perfect balance between freedom and defined roles.

Part of the reason FFX and FFVIII are my least favorite games is that I found both the battle systems and the character building systems dreadful. FFVIII in particular was just garbage. Needless complexity, all without much benefit since the world leveled up alongside you. There was little to no advantage to getting stronger, all it did was make everything around you stronger as well.

 

[Shareefruck]

I agree that the Gambit system is good. Sort of the next logical step from Materia. Agreed on character building being a bigger part of the mechanics than actual battles, too. Still, though, if a game existed with the absolute best version and combination of these JRPG mechanics, without the story elements to focus on as the meat of the game, I would probably find the experience a complete waste of time, personally. That's kind of the problem I have with most of these modern retro-JRPG-throwbacks like Octopath or Bravely, and why something like Disco Elysium doesn't need ANY non-story mechanics to be the best RPG in eons for me.

I don't think any positives coming from a JRPG's game mechanics are ever good enough to elevate awful storytelling/world-building, which I think XIII has.

I think VIII's storytelling is underrated, while its mechanics are ambitious/original but regrettable/impractical/tedious/poorly thought out. The storytelling has some very noticeable missteps too, but there are certain choices within it that are more creatively inspired and tasteful than anything in more widely appreciated games like IX or X, IMO. There's not much to actively dislike about IX's story delivery, but nothing feels remarkable to me, other than MAYBE Vivi's existential crisis. And even then..... it feels very Pixar-level heart-string-tugging to me, rather than something that I actually find striking.

I think what it comes down to for me is that I'd rather a game do one or two things brilliantly and everything else poorly than do everything moderately but unremarkably well. The way I feel about the franchise as a whole is that Tactics is masterful, 6 and 7 are great, 8 is wildly hit or miss but has a few choices I love, and the rest, while varying degrees of playable/fun/impressive/consistent, I could more or less do without altogether.

 

[RandV]

I've probably already ranted about it before, but FFXIII is criminally underrated. I did a second playthrough of it a couple years ago and found it better than I remember. Best battle system by far. It's actually challenging! For basically every other game the only real challenge was having to grind for super bosses or whatever. You actually need proper strategies and setups to do well against the tough enemies in that game.

I found the XII battle system had a common but critical flaw. From what I remember you used the 'Paradgrim' system to basically change roles-mid combat to get the optimal outcome. All together, you had about 100 different combinations you can use, but only 5 of those could be selected at the time, which wasn't enough to cover everything so you had to pick and choose. So the critical flaw - there is an optimal way to handle each encounter but having it's to cumbersome to manually setup prior to each so I would just find a single generic strategy that worked adequately for everything and never deviate from that. The Tales games are a good example of this too, a combination when a 'systems' complexity overreaches to just become a pain to setup/manage and then it's not even necessary to make it through the game.

Either way though, I'm of the opinion that when you're going to be spending hours in a game doing the same it's going to all blend together into a routine. As long as it's adequate enough for you to tolerate complexity doesn't really matter, whether it's classic Dragon Quest or something entirely modern and non RPG like Assassins Creed.

 

[Shareefruck]

I found the XII battle system had a common but critical flaw. From what I remember you used the 'Paradgrim' system to basically change roles-mid combat to get the optimal outcome. All together, you had about 100 different combinations you can use, but only 5 of those could be selected at the time, which wasn't enough to cover everything so you had to pick and choose. So the critical flaw - there is an optimal way to handle each encounter but having it's to cumbersome to manually setup prior to each so I would just find a single generic strategy that worked adequately for everything and never deviate from that. The Tales games are a good example of this too, a combination when a 'systems' complexity overreaches to just become a pain to setup/manage and then it's not even necessary to make it through the game.

Either way though, I'm of the opinion that when you're going to be spending hours in a game doing the same it's going to all blend together into a routine. As long as it's adequate enough for you to tolerate complexity doesn't really matter, whether it's classic Dragon Quest or something entirely modern and non RPG like Assassins Creed.

While it's worse in some games than others, I find that very thing to be the central flaw of the RPG genre and the nature of constant random battles in general. I think these games would be far better designed if you got rid of grinding and leveling systems altogether, and made game mechanics revolve around strategic boss battle set pieces that you had to carefully plan your setups for and that tested your item management, one legitimately difficult but memorable battle at a time. So much pointless busy-work, cheap slot-machine compulsiveness, and eyes glazing over from repetitiveness otherwise, IMO, and it hurts the pace of the storytelling.

Alot of people apparently like that whole turning off your brain and grinding while doing something else in the background aspect of RPGs, but that mindset completely bewilders me, personally. Kind of going off on a tangent, but that's also what annoys me about the "walking simulator" criticism that a lot of games get, too. Gamifying something for the sake of gamifying something seems silly to me.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

New trailer for Intergrade is out.



Not sure if trailers/specifying their contents really count as spoilers but...

Spoiler

Looks like they are really leaning into the Compilation stuff for the Yuffie chapter. First Weiss and now Nero, suppose that's not too shocking.

Speculatively, I wonder if this is somewhat of a "compromise" or something - Compilation elements and themes factored in the main game, of course, but seems like they are way more prevalent for this DLC.

 

[Shareefruck]

Spoiler

Looks like they are really leaning into the Compilation stuff for the Yuffie chapter. First Weiss and now Nero, suppose that's not too shocking.

Speculatively, I wonder if this is somewhat of a "compromise" or something - Compilation elements and themes factored in the main game, of course, but seems like they are way more prevalent for this DLC.

How do you already seem like an expert on the compilation material when you played the OG for the first time not too long ago?

Did you end up binging all that stuff afterwards or something?

 

[RandV]

Being not too well versed in FFVII lore I have no idea WTF is going on in that trailer. Is this supposed to be official part 2 of the series or more of a side story Yuffie backstory addition?

Edit: Oh I didn't see the spoiler tag, but still.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

How do you already seem like an expert on the compilation material when you played the OG for the first time not too long ago?

Did you end up binging all that stuff afterwards or something?

LOL yeah, after I played Remake I did kinda just familiarize myself with some of the compilation material by virtue of looking into a few of the fan theories out there. Haven't played anything beyond OG and Remake though, and have no desire to.

I'm definitely going to grab the upgrade and new chapter when it's available, since I figure that Yuffie's story will be somewhat important to the main plotline. The gameplay does look a lot smoother on PS5, too.

 

[Shareefruck]

That trailer feels like a lot of the worst things about modern Square Enix creeping its ugly head up, IMO.

 

[67 others]

Don't know if this is an unpopular opinion, but personally, I don't think the mechanics of JRPGs in general are ever strong enough to be the reason why the games as a whole should be considered good or bad, personally. You could outright remove the battle systems altogether and my opinion of the games would likely remain pretty similar, unless they outright ruin the game.

The appeal of these games for me is almost 100% story and delivery, and XIII is pretty terrible in that regard, IMO.

I sometimes enjoy story. Its was better when I read it instead of hearing whiny voices like Tidus(Worst main character in FF history).

My appeal for JRPG's was always exploration, feeling great when you grind enough gold to buy that weapons upgrade. Exploring areas you are not yet ready for praying to find a powerful weapon, sidequests etc

FF 12 was the best Final fantasy game of the voiceover era for me. The story was meh. but it had the elements i enjoy in a Final fantasy game. Eventually coming back and killing that Damn Trex at the start of the game was some satisfying. The hunts were epic and fun. The combat system took getting used to, but once i was used to it, I enjoyed it.

10 was linear and boring and had shit characters. 13 was linear and boring. I never played any since. i also switched exclusively to PC gaming

I'd say they do ruin the game for me in two cases. VIII's draw system is so terribly conceived. If you want good stats you're forced to mindlessly draw magic from random encounters for hours. You can skip this later if you grind the card game but that's another headache for some (I actually love the card game aside from the frustrating work required to manage region rules). It's just a terrible idea that has no redeeming value. If they simply went with the more traditional battle systems of VII or IX it would be a good game to me, not mediocre.

I also just absolutely hate everything about XII's combat and just always lose interest in the game. If I'm going to spend 50+ hours on a game, it has to be something with an enjoyable gameplay loop. Conversely, I probably rate V higher than most because I love how creative and varied you can get with the job system.

Frankly outside of VI, VII and parts of IX (Vivi), I didn't feel a strong enough connection to the stories to have them carry bad gameplay. I don't think it has as strong storytelling as stuff like Kiseki, Persona or even Xeno. I spent way more time thinking about the Chrono Cross story than any FF. But I usually find Final Fantasys more enjoyable to play. When I was younger I spent an embarrassing amount of time in the Gold Saucer and Blitzball arena. I've spent far too long breeding chocobos and dodging lightning bolts. I loved Xenoblade Chronicles 2 but had no desire for any postgame stuff, whereas I did all the XIII postgame. There's something about the FF entries I've liked over the years that just keeps me wanting to play in those worlds.

I also loved the card game. Some of the region rules sucked, but I figured out how to bypass most of that and always have the rules i want.
I didn't mind the draw system because I got most of my draw stuff from cards lol. To a new player its probably annoying as heck I agree. Once you know where and when to get what tho, its not bad. Its bad if you decide you MUST draw 100 of everything I guess. but that just makes the game massively underpowered. When you have 100 of certain spells, you can just breeze through the game like its nothing. I never spent the time to do that, so having 20 and 30 of some spells was usually enough to play through the game with the free spells you got from cards.

 

[Shareefruck]

I sometimes enjoy story. Its was better when I read it instead of hearing whiny voices like Tidus(Worst main character in FF history).

My appeal for JRPG's was always exploration, feeling great when you grind enough gold to buy that weapons upgrade. Exploring areas you are not yet ready for praying to find a powerful weapon, sidequests etc

FF 12 was the best Final fantasy game of the voiceover era for me. The story was meh. but it had the elements i enjoy in a Final fantasy game. Eventually coming back and killing that Damn Trex at the start of the game was some satisfying. The hunts were epic and fun. The combat system took getting used to, but once i was used to it, I enjoyed it.

10 was linear and boring and had shit characters. 13 was linear and boring. I never played any since. i also switched exclusively to PC gaming

I like exploration in a world-building sense (which I kind of lump into story), where a missable cute or clever or thoughtful moment/bit of lore or imagery placed here or there makes the context of everything feel more alive and bottomless, but the grinding/pay-off cycle that seems to be the bread and butter of most RPGs remind me too much of slot-machine dopamine hits, and I'm not sure I see too much real value in them, personally. I mean, it works, but sometimes it just makes me feel like I'm being superficially manipulated and strung along by a carrot on a stick. I like RPGs in spite of these things not because of them, and I think I would prefer them to be more streamlined to be less about the supposed good feeling of leveling up and searching for things that make your stats go up, and more about raw design, puzzle, strategy, and execution, the way that other genres are. That's just me, personally.

Like, I honestly can't say I've ever found an RPG where I like the mechanics nearly as much as my favorite Metroidvanias, Soulsborne games, isometric strategy games, or platformers, personally. But those genres tend not to do story, scripting, and world building as extensively as RPGs do, containing several characters with full and interesting arcs that weave in and out of each other.

 

[Shareefruck]

Came across this video, which really gets to the heart of what makes VII so good, despite so many wanting to call it overrated/overhyped. Can skip the first 26:11 because it's just summary/cultural impact stuff (which is boring, overstated, and has nothing to do with whether a game remains good with age), maybe even the first 57:37 because the environmental and loss themes are obvious, but that last half hour on identity and the ending is good stuff. Along with Tactics, VII is easily the most thematically focused, meaningful, and cohesive of the franchise, IMO.



The biggest highlight that doesn't get mentioned enough is how deceptively well developed Tifa is as a character-- probably the best written one in the game, IMO. It's like this self-defeating, overly hesitant, supportive to the point of disorder-enabling, helicopter mom attitude that flies under the radar in the first half because she gets absolutely steamrolled by larger personalities, but then all this stuff billows up to the top and you realize that this lack of focus was the point all along and all these tiny ignored bits of development flying under your nose adds up to a lot. There are two optional scenes of her being too paralyzed by doubt to confess (the date scene and the non-implied-sex-outcome of the highwind scene) that I found really touching. Shame that she's just known by everyone as the big boobs girl.

 

[JaegerDice]

FF7 is an excellent game. I think it got a bit overrated by people calling it the greatest game or greatest RPG of all time, but for a lot of those people, I'd wager it was the first Japanese RPG they had ever played.

For me, I always just associate with Neo Genesis Evangelion, since the storyline was so clearly influenced by that show's impact and popularity. From the major battle and demons being within, rather than external, to the subversion of the genre trope hero with a broken boy trying to repress his trauma, to the villain being a literal alien from space with whom all the key players are directly tied through events in their past. It wasn't derivative, per say, but it was very 'of the time', when it seemed almost everything coming out of Japan was being influenced by the table-flip that was NGE.

Another issue was the translation. It was really rough. I was able to follow along the broad strokes well enough, and unlocking some hidden scenes with Vincent does a lot to round out the story, but translation made a fairly straight forward story (ancient aliens vs the planets/environments will to protect itself as a backdrop to a standard 'two sides of the same coin' tale between Cloud and Sephiroth) more confusing than need be. It also undermines some major character moments. At the time, a young JaegerDice found the Aerith death heartbreaking... replaying it now, Cloud's dialogue in this scene is truly cringeworthy. And that's just one example. It's a testament to how well this game handles the small character moments throughout, that those stumbles in the big character moments don't really hurt how much you invest in them.

Finally, the materia system. I like the materia system quite a bit as a skill development mechanic. Finding new materia is always exciting, leveling them up is satisfying, finding new ways to combine them is (or was the first time, before you learned how to break the game) gratifying. The problem is that mechanically, the materia system destroys any reason to select particular characters for your party outside of a) scene-specific dialogue and b) Limit breaks. Despite some differences in base stats at the start of the game, by the 2nd disk, you can basically make any party member any role you want.... and by the end of the game, every party member can basically do everything, cause your materia is so leveled up. So basically, everybody uses Cloud, Cid and Barrett for the last 3rd of the game, cause their final Limit Breaks are clearly the best.

 

[Shareefruck]

Speaking of poor localizations, it's insane that they haven't fixed it after all these attempts to milk it with ports on just about every console ever.

 

[Jovavic]

Espers > Materia

 

[RandV]

Finally, the materia system. I like the materia system quite a bit as a skill development mechanic. Finding new materia is always exciting, leveling them up is satisfying, finding new ways to combine them is (or was the first time, before you learned how to break the game) gratifying. The problem is that mechanically, the materia system destroys any reason to select particular characters for your party outside of a) scene-specific dialogue and b) Limit breaks. Despite some differences in base stats at the start of the game, by the 2nd disk, you can basically make any party member any role you want.... and by the end of the game, every party member can basically do everything, cause your materia is so leveled up. So basically, everybody uses Cloud, Cid and Barrett for the last 3rd of the game, cause their final Limit Breaks are clearly the best.

That gets into one of the reasons why personally I've never held FFVII in as high regard as others. While the 'materia system' was a good innovation over FFVI's espers, this is where they really set the JRPG trend for a 3 man party of mostly equal abilities. Personally when you have to pick and choose which party members you take with you I've always had the opinion that the more the better, and I like it when they have distinctly different roles and abilities even if it means some are less useful. The minimum size should be 4, going with the original FFI setup which allowed for the template tank/utility/healer/damage setup with the flexibility to mix and match.

Anything less is an abomination and FFVII should feel bad for setting the 3-party as the new standard.

 

[Villella McMeans]

That gets into one of the reasons why personally I've never held FFVII in as high regard as others. While the 'materia system' was a good innovation over FFVI's espers, this is where they really set the JRPG trend for a 3 man party of mostly equal abilities. Personally when you have to pick and choose which party members you take with you I've always had the opinion that the more the better, and I like it when they have distinctly different roles and abilities even if it means some are less useful. The minimum size should be 4, going with the original FFI setup which allowed for the template tank/utility/healer/damage setup with the flexibility to mix and match.

Anything less is an abomination and FFVII should feel bad for setting the 3-party as the new standard.

Totally agree the minimum group size should be four or more.

 

[Villella McMeans]

Decades ago when I was very young I grew up playing all the original consoles from Atari to Commodore to of course Nintendo, played RPGs from that Atari dungeon dragon one to Dragon Warrior to Zelda to Wonder Boy to Chrysalis to Willow to Chrono Trigger Final Fantasy to most of the RGPs of the eighties and nineties - and the first few Final Fantasy onwards really got me hooked.

Then got older no time for Nintendo no more, didn't play anything none of the Final Fantasy 4-5-6-7, then saw the commercials for Final Fantasy 8 and that Wong Faye sang the theme song(anyone Chinese knows her she super popular in Hong Kong and China etc) - I didn't have a PlayStation then so I had to buy one just to play Final Fantasy 8, I also bought the walkthrough guide too and the 2 CD soundtrack later because I love all the music so much on top of Wong Faye.

After buying the PlayStation and Final Fantasy 8, I didn't even get around to finally play it till PlayStation 3 was out, but when I finally did it was the best game I ever played - I never played the other Final Fantasies before or after 8, but only watched others pay them so I know a bit about the other fighting styles and lore etc, but I could never get interested enough to start them.

So, despite knowing that others don't like 8, I still think it's the best game ever literally - it was like watching a TV series each time all the way to the end, having the cheat guide obviously helped me understand everything, but mostly it is the cinematics and music and story that makes it the best like an Oscar winning movie for cinematics.

I can overlook most of the annoying things others on this thread already mentioned, because I've played so many different battle styles that gameplay matters less to me than storyline - many other of my favorites are because of the storyline, Chrysalis Willow Chrono Trigger first Final Fantasy Zelda Metal Gear Metroid etc all my favorites because of story not gameplay.

Thank you to @Rodgerwilco for starting this thread! I still have the entire FF8 soundtrack playing on my car now.

 

[Shareefruck]

Decades ago when I was very young I grew up playing all the original consoles from Atari to Commodore to of course Nintendo, played RPGs from that Atari dungeon dragon one to Dragon Warrior to Zelda to Wonder Boy to Chrysalis to Willow to Chrono Trigger Final Fantasy to most of the RGPs of the eighties and nineties - and the first few Final Fantasy onwards really got me hooked.

Then got older no time for Nintendo no more, didn't play anything none of the Final Fantasy 4-5-6-7, then saw the commercials for Final Fantasy 8 and that Wong Faye sang the theme song(anyone Chinese knows her she super popular in Hong Kong and China etc) - I didn't have a PlayStation then so I had to buy one just to play Final Fantasy 8, I also bought the walkthrough guide too and the 2 CD soundtrack later because I love all the music so much on top of Wong Faye.

After buying the PlayStation and Final Fantasy 8, I didn't even get around to finally play it till PlayStation 3 was out, but when I finally did it was the best game I ever played - I never played the other Final Fantasies before or after 8, but only watched others pay them so I know a bit about the other fighting styles and lore etc, but I could never get interested enough to start them.

So, despite knowing that others don't like 8, I still think it's the best game ever literally - it was like watching a TV series each time all the way to the end, having the cheat guide obviously helped me understand everything, but mostly it is the cinematics and music and story that makes it the best like an Oscar winning movie for cinematics.

I can overlook most of the annoying things others on this thread already mentioned, because I've played so many different battle styles that gameplay matters less to me than storyline - many other of my favorites are because of the storyline, Chrysalis Willow Chrono Trigger first Final Fantasy Zelda Metal Gear Metroid etc all my favorites because of story not gameplay.

Thank you to @Rodgerwilco for starting this thread! I still have the entire FF8 soundtrack playing on my car now.

I agree, it's very underrated and good (higher peaks than most final fantasies), but you gotta admit that that "Rinoa trying to tee-hee flirt with Squall about the ring while five meters away from a massacre/warzone that they just ran through" was pretty indefensibly bad, though. Arguably so ridiculous it's funny, though.

Faye Wong's great. I had this weird experience growing up where yeah, she was always super popular and a household name/celebrity, but she kept popping up and intersecting with other things that I discovered and loved. I got into Final Fantasy and all of a sudden she sang Eyes on Me, then I became obsessed with Wong Kar Wai and she has some incredible roles in his filmography (her role in Chungking Express is by far the most effective version of "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" I've seen). Then I got really into music albums and found out that Restless/Anxiety is a legitimately good and memorable Cocteau-Twins influenced one that isn't merely traditional Canto-pop.

 

[Villella McMeans]

I agree, it's very underrated and good (higher peaks than most final fantasies), but you gotta admit that that "Rinoa trying to tee-hee flirt with Squall about the ring while five meters away from a massacre/warzone that they just ran through" was pretty indefensibly bad, though. Arguably so ridiculous it's funny, though.

Faye Wong's great. I had this weird experience growing up where yeah, she was always super popular and a household name/celebrity, but she kept popping up and intersecting with other things that I discovered and loved. I got into Final Fantasy and all of a sudden she sang Eyes on Me, then I became obsessed with Wong Kar Wai and she has some incredible roles in his filmography (her role in Chungking Express is by far the most effective version of "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" I've seen). Then I got really into music albums and found out that Restless/Anxiety is a legitimately good and memorable Cocteau-Twins influenced one that isn't merely traditional Canto-pop.

Ahaha yeah, Rinoa flirting in war zone is over the top, but still the themes in Final Fantasy 8 that makes this the best Final Fantasy are the emphasis on Love Loyalty that live on timelessly even after death in memories in old life or even in later lives too.

Wong Faye really is awesome and Chunking Express is one of my favorites too, if Restless/Anxiety is her song 悶 it my favorite from her as well.

Another thing I forgot to say was that I like the more realistic character graphics better than the cartoon characters from past Final Fantasies, can identify more with them, and the FF8 logo really is the best so far.

 

[Shareefruck]

Ahaha yeah, Rinoa flirting in war zone is over the top, but still the themes in Final Fantasy 8 that makes this the best Final Fantasy are the emphasis on Love Loyalty that live on timelessly even after death in memories in old life or even in later lives too.

Wong Faye really is awesome and Chunking Express is one of my favorites too, if Restless/Anxiety is her song 悶 it my favorite from her as well.

Another thing I forgot to say was that I like the more realistic character graphics better than the cartoon characters from past Final Fantasies, can identify more with them, and the FF8 logo really is the best so far.

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It's like simultaneously the coolest and most technically impressive sequence in the game combined with the dumbest and worst. FFVIII utilized that really clever gameplay -> CG cutscene transition technique better than anything in the franchise, IMO.

I'd also definitely say that VIII is Nomura's best work, period (which, maybe isn't saying much).

悶 is a great single song-- I agree it's one of her best. Restless/Anxiety is her most consistent and creatively distinct album, IMO. I think both from around the same era though.