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Few games inspired the unexpected wonder and scale that FF7 did. 8 did a little. 9 hit the mark. So did X. Everything after was kinda of numb... I felt nothing

Few games inspired the unexpected wonder and scale that FF7 did. 8 did a little. 9 hit the mark. So did X. Everything after was kinda of numb... I felt nothing for FF12 characters, or for the absolute trainwrecks that were FF15 and FF16. FF15 was an excuse to market real-life products to the player. It was exchausting having immersion broken by nissin noodles ads, and coleman camping gear ads. FF16 is some of the worst fighting I've ever had in a game, with a focus on these garbage cinematics. The brand is dead to me. I'll only replay the classic games, and that's why square has 1-6 pixel remasters at a staggering $80 virtual, and you can't even find the physical version for less than $110 on ebay. That's how bad the new series are. Now we're awash in a cacophony of copycat indie devs who flood the market with cringeworthy half-finished games that can only copy the wonder of the FF series. We at-least have hope with stunning remasters like Star Ocean Second Story R, which has that feeling of depth, progress, story, and nuance.

rikthevik 3y ago
For me, the highlight was FFVI. Square was firing on all cylinders on the SNES. FFVII started the tilt into anime and, aside from FFIX, they've continued to lean into that. I don't care for it. Luckily the indie developers (and even teams within Square Enix) have taken up the mantle. Chained Echoes, Sea of Stars, the Star Ocean Remake, the Tactics Ogre remake, Crosscode, the Seiken Densetu 3 remake, Live A Live, SaGa Frontier 3, the Octopath Traveler games - they're quite good, and that's just in the last few years! Maybe not to everyone's taste, but they are well made games and there's no shortage of good stuff to play.
- djur 3y ago
  I'm not sure what "tilt into anime" means here. FF has always been heavily influenced by anime. If anything, the earlier games bore those influences more obviously.
  - mlyle 3y ago
    I don't think it's exactly a tilt into anime per se... FF1-6 & 9 had very distinctive characterization and art styles, with out of proportion characters. A lot of it was forced by technical limitations of the NES/SNES, but it's a style that we grew to love. 7, 8, and the rest -- not so much; it's a much more mainstream aesthetic.
internet101010 3y ago
I don't care for the occasional cinematic quick time event combat in FF16 either but once you get the abilities maxed out the normal combat is actually amazing, particularly in Final Fantasy mode. I feel like the game should have been in Final Fantasy mode from the start.
gettodachoppa 3y ago
>Few games inspired the unexpected wonder and scale that FF7 did. 8 did a little. 9 hit the mark. So did X. Everything after was kinda of numb The FF games you loved were created by the two talents at the heart of FF: series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi and legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu. They left after X. I think the soul of the franchise left when these two did. I played FF12 about 12 years ago and I couldn't name you a single character (or remember their personality/story) or hum a single music track. I played FF7 25 years ago and there's a few music tracks I still remember, and I can name most of the characters (though it helps that they're popular in gaming culture).
- drawfloat 3y ago
  I replayed 12 a couple of years ago, the new Zodiac Age version. The quality of life changes in that have made it a significantly more enjoyable game, you can see now what they were aiming for and where they were up against the limits of the PS2. Story is still a bit of a mess, pacing wise, but its voice acting has aged well (unlike X). It’s a different game to the classic run, but I would rank it up amongst my favourites in the series now.
- mlyle 3y ago
  > The FF games you loved were created by the two talents at the heart of FF: series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi and legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu. Yah... sigh. The world also moved on; while my kids did play FF6 recently, there's a lot of treadmill crap that modern gamers are not accustomed to. I played The Last Story (which was a commercial failure), and it felt a whole lot like FF9 to me.

rikthevik 3y ago

For me, the highlight was FFVI. Square was firing on all cylinders on the SNES. FFVII started the tilt into anime and, aside from FFIX, they've continued to lean into that. I don't care for it. Luckily the indie developers (and even teams within Square Enix) have taken up the mantle. Chained Echoes, Sea of Stars, the Star Ocean Remake, the Tactics Ogre remake, Crosscode, the Seiken Densetu 3 remake, Live A Live, SaGa Frontier 3, the Octopath Traveler games - they're quite good, and that's just in the last few years! Maybe not to everyone's taste, but they are well made games and there's no shortage of good stuff to play.

djur 3y ago
I'm not sure what "tilt into anime" means here. FF has always been heavily influenced by anime. If anything, the earlier games bore those influences more obviously.
- mlyle 3y ago
  I don't think it's exactly a tilt into anime per se... FF1-6 & 9 had very distinctive characterization and art styles, with out of proportion characters. A lot of it was forced by technical limitations of the NES/SNES, but it's a style that we grew to love. 7, 8, and the rest -- not so much; it's a much more mainstream aesthetic.

internet101010 3y ago

I don't care for the occasional cinematic quick time event combat in FF16 either but once you get the abilities maxed out the normal combat is actually amazing, particularly in Final Fantasy mode. I feel like the game should have been in Final Fantasy mode from the start.

gettodachoppa 3y ago

>Few games inspired the unexpected wonder and scale that FF7 did. 8 did a little. 9 hit the mark. So did X. Everything after was kinda of numb The FF games you loved were created by the two talents at the heart of FF: series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi and legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu. They left after X. I think the soul of the franchise left when these two did. I played FF12 about 12 years ago and I couldn't name you a single character (or remember their personality/story) or hum a single music track. I played FF7 25 years ago and there's a few music tracks I still remember, and I can name most of the characters (though it helps that they're popular in gaming culture).

drawfloat 3y ago
I replayed 12 a couple of years ago, the new Zodiac Age version. The quality of life changes in that have made it a significantly more enjoyable game, you can see now what they were aiming for and where they were up against the limits of the PS2. Story is still a bit of a mess, pacing wise, but its voice acting has aged well (unlike X). It’s a different game to the classic run, but I would rank it up amongst my favourites in the series now.
mlyle 3y ago
> The FF games you loved were created by the two talents at the heart of FF: series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi and legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu. Yah... sigh. The world also moved on; while my kids did play FF6 recently, there's a lot of treadmill crap that modern gamers are not accustomed to. I played The Last Story (which was a commercial failure), and it felt a whole lot like FF9 to me.