Stoic Hero
The Leading Man
Final Fantasy V. Easy to understand, kick-ass battle system...perfect for a 10 year old.
Other than that, I, III for DS, and IV are all good choices.
Other than that, I, III for DS, and IV are all good choices.
Final Fantasy game for a 10 year old?
- Thread starter Gabe
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Final Fantasy 12 or 7 definitely, FFVII was my first FF game and I was 7 at the time, and I can't understand Death Note even now, so go for it.
Ruhku
Blue Mage
10, 12 13, 7 in future versus 13
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While FFX's turn-based battle system could be a positive thing for a young gamer rather than launching him or her into a rather intimidating real-time battle system where at the same time they may be largely unfamiliar with all the menus and all that, I do think its story is perhaps too complex for a 10 year old. I hope I'm not in the minority here, but when I played through it, quite a lot of things were either left unanswered or were to me a little vaguely explained. Furthermore the overarching themes of the story such as the cycle of death, the deference and then defiance of a religion, the whole dream thing etc. just wouldn't seem an ideal place to begin for a 10 year old the way I see it.
Versus, well - I can't say much about that yet, I think the fact that it's supposedly going to be the 'darkest' game yet with quite a bit of blood means that would usually be a big red flag. For FFXII, it's a bit more mature in tone and the political aspects would baffle anyone, particularly if you're 10. I quite like the point someone made earlier about FFIX having traditional fantastical (and slightly fairytale-like) elements such as Romantic-looking castles, princesses, and heck - even a wide array of cute anthropomorphic animals. The generally different art direction FFIX took in comparison to games like FFVIII could be a big factor as well, though it depends on what kind of a 10 year old we're on about.
I would also suggest ones such as FFV where the story is pretty straightforward to follow (so far for me at least) until I realised that the difficulty level of some of the bosses is often pretty steep.
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While FFX's turn-based battle system could be a positive thing for a young gamer rather than launching him or her into a rather intimidating real-time battle system where at the same time they may be largely unfamiliar with all the menus and all that, I do think its story is perhaps too complex for a 10 year old. I hope I'm not in the minority here, but when I played through it, quite a lot of things were either left unanswered or were to me a little vaguely explained. Furthermore the overarching themes of the story such as the cycle of death, the deference and then defiance of a religion, the whole dream thing etc. just wouldn't seem an ideal place to begin for a 10 year old the way I see it.
Versus, well - I can't say much about that yet, I think the fact that it's supposedly going to be the 'darkest' game yet with quite a bit of blood means that would usually be a big red flag. For FFXII, it's a bit more mature in tone and the political aspects would baffle anyone, particularly if you're 10. I quite like the point someone made earlier about FFIX having traditional fantastical (and slightly fairytale-like) elements such as Romantic-looking castles, princesses, and heck - even a wide array of cute anthropomorphic animals. The generally different art direction FFIX took in comparison to games like FFVIII could be a big factor as well, though it depends on what kind of a 10 year old we're on about.
I would also suggest ones such as FFV where the story is pretty straightforward to follow (so far for me at least) until I realised that the difficulty level of some of the bosses is often pretty steep.
I haven't played all of them, but I think 10 or 7 would be good choices. I think 7 would be a slighter harder game because of ATB and there's no voice acting so he would have to read and understand the proper context in which to understand how and why characters are saying certain things.
I also think they're good choices because some people would say they're probably more appropriate for a slightly older audience. I'm not exactly the best person to take advice from, but I don't think there's any harm in letting someone play something they shouldn't. When I was younger, the most memorable games scared the shit out of me with the scarier themes such as betrayal, murder, things aren't always as they seem, evil, violence, being stuck in unfamiliar worlds etc.
Don't be so concerned with protecting him and let him enjoy a fuller spectrum of gaming themes is my advice. You don't want to traumatise him but...
I also think they're good choices because some people would say they're probably more appropriate for a slightly older audience. I'm not exactly the best person to take advice from, but I don't think there's any harm in letting someone play something they shouldn't. When I was younger, the most memorable games scared the shit out of me with the scarier themes such as betrayal, murder, things aren't always as they seem, evil, violence, being stuck in unfamiliar worlds etc.
Don't be so concerned with protecting him and let him enjoy a fuller spectrum of gaming themes is my advice. You don't want to traumatise him but...
IV would be my choice because the story is fairly straightforward. I played it when I was 10 or 11, and I felt like I understood it completely even then. However some of the other games, like VII or X, have certain thematic elements in them which parallel things in our own RL world in a sort of tongue-in-cheek way, and I think it would be a shame for a child to play through a game and only understand the story halfway.
Like, I played VII and X when I was 23 or 24, and understood that Shinra (evil corrupt megacorporation) was supposed to illustrate the problems with corrupt institutions in our own RL world; and then with X, understood the significance of the corrupt religious leaders as it can be applied to our own RL world history. I think when you can see those types of deeper connections between fantasy stories and reality, you can get more out of them, so it would be a shame for a small child to play through one of those games, be like "That story sucked!" based on some random superficial element of it, and never want to play it again, without ever having gotten to understand all the layers/meaning behind it. It's kind of like when you see people take a two-year-old kid on a road trip to historical monuments, they're not really going to get as much out of it as they could later on in life and it's kind of a waste.
Like, I played VII and X when I was 23 or 24, and understood that Shinra (evil corrupt megacorporation) was supposed to illustrate the problems with corrupt institutions in our own RL world; and then with X, understood the significance of the corrupt religious leaders as it can be applied to our own RL world history. I think when you can see those types of deeper connections between fantasy stories and reality, you can get more out of them, so it would be a shame for a small child to play through one of those games, be like "That story sucked!" based on some random superficial element of it, and never want to play it again, without ever having gotten to understand all the layers/meaning behind it. It's kind of like when you see people take a two-year-old kid on a road trip to historical monuments, they're not really going to get as much out of it as they could later on in life and it's kind of a waste.
SCARY WIZARD
Magic-User 7/Thief 8
My first was Tactics, at age twelve, which my sister gave to me. I enjoyed it because I liked the idea of thinking before I did things in games - before that, it was all reflexive acting on my part.
Myself, I'd say one of the games from I to V, possibly excluding II because of the grinding.
Myself, I'd say one of the games from I to V, possibly excluding II because of the grinding.
Haha I started FF at age 7, however I didn't get too much. Started off with 8, and then I got 7 but I didn't get any of 7! Probably 9, and maybe 10. All the others are pretty complicated and are for older peeps. I started at a young age and I thought nobody started that young, but apparently others did 
OzDok
iTard
Why does everyone keep saying IX is okay for a 10 year old? It's not, especially not for an intelligent one.
There's a lot more murder, death, war, sex and dark philosophy in that game than possibly any others to this date. Just because it's set in a bright and colourful fantasy world doesn't make it childish.
There's a lot more murder, death, war, sex and dark philosophy in that game than possibly any others to this date. Just because it's set in a bright and colourful fantasy world doesn't make it childish.
tilinelson2
Ex-Soldier
I'd say any game up to FFVII is adequate because, at that time, the games were made targeting 10-year-old audiences. The newer ones I don't know, because I haven't played them and the gaming industry started targeting older audiences.
Wow, I posted this back in September, but I finally came up with a solution on my own a few months ago. I decided to let him play Final Fantasy X, and he gets the story pretty well and enjoys it. He's currently at the first Seymour boss battle, and is stuck :S (unsurprisingly) I kind of let him cheat a little, by having me do all the sphere grid progression for him. I just tell him to run around in circles, get in fights until his sphere levels on all his characters is around 5-6 and then I increase their stats. Also, if there's a tough boss battle, I sit with him and tell him what to do on almost each turn.
Thanks a lot, guys! I think I might get him to play either VII or XIII next.
Thanks a lot, guys!
I think I might get him to play either VII or XIII next.