Your opinions are desired - The Retro FF's

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Joejoe245

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Hey everyone. Hope you're all doing okay! I'm writing a feature on Square Soft and its early Final Fantasy Series. If any of you are happy to have your opinion quoted in my feature please respond to this thread with your opinions (favourite final fantasy - from I to VI, least favourite, what you loved about the early series and what you hated et cetera), your gaming name or your real name and your age (if you wish).

I hope this may appeal to some of you,

Take it easy y'all :funnyface:

Ciao!
 
My real name is Lisa :P And my age -points to the info box under my avatar- =D

I guess I can start off by putting the earlies in a favourite list.

1 = Best 6 = worst

1. FFVI
2. FFIV
3. FFIII
4. FFV
5. FFII
6. FFI

The main points I like in all games are sprite based graphics, though it can't be said for that in III - I only have the DS version. Some of the early games proved to be a challenge itself - FFVI early on with the battling system - HP could be regularly taken off you and you'd have to heal yourself straight after a battle.

FFI and FFII were very challenging, the PS versions anyway - never owned the original console it came out on. Cost of items were very high, and early battles proved to be a pain. Ever make that mistake of going into that area of very powerful monsters at the beginning of FFII? Yeah, that could be brutal.

On the downside the difficulty and high item/magic prices were also off putting. I started the early games only to find that it was too much for me to take, and I'd often get irritated by these factors, and stop playing them.

Once it hit 3 though, difficulty and price factors weren't much of an issue. The lack of save points and Phoenix Downs were a challenge in itself in FFIII DS, but apart from that, the game was relatively balanced in terms of difficulty.

Guess that's all I have to say really, hope its enough!
 
Thank you for your reply Lisa, it will prove very useful and not only that it made my morning and even made me chuckle a little in places.

Again, thanks for taking the time to submit a response.

Hope to chat with you sometime :neomon:

Joejoe
 
Name is Levi, Live in Washington State, 28 years old.

I started with Final Fantasy I. Great game for its time, pretty hard as well when I first got into it. But it was Final Fantasy IV and VI that just sucked me into the series. I remember the first time I played IV. Me and my little brother rented it, I must have been 13 at the time, and we sat down with this huge tub of BBQ potato chips and played the game for hours. We felt like we where really going on some big quest. The characters where great, the game was tough, but not to tough as to keep us from moving forward in it. Ever since then, BBQ chips are a staple FF Snack for me, for some reason, they always remind me of playing FF.

But then came Final Fantasy VI. Now this may be just my opinion, but I know there are a lot of players who got their start with the Playstation FFs. It is hard to go from 3D graphics, CG Cut scenes, and a Huge world full of that level of detail, to a 16 bit RPG and actually get how great the game was for its time. For starters the characters and the way they used them was fantastic throught the whole story, as where their abilities. Keep in mind, when we got FF VI it was called FF III so I never saw FF V for at least another 4 years or so. But what made this game so great, was the story, the evil insain Kefka and that laugh, and the fantastic music. Yes, I know it is a 16 bit sound and once again can't match the quality of say FFVII but at the time it was really good. But the kicker, the graphics, you can see a huge difference between FFIV and FFVI as far as graphics go. The sprites where better, the backgrounds where better, and it pushed more colors on the SNES than any game had at the time.

To this day FFVI is my favortite Final Fantasy, as much as I love IV VII and IX.
 
My real name is Dan, I'm from a region that is known as the Midlands in the Uk. I'm 19.

I'll rate them like this (though I apologise I will have to leave FF3 out of this as I haven't played either the original or the DS version due to lack of relevant consoles).
From favourite to least favourite (but still good!);
FF6
FF4
FF5
FF1
FF2


I'll start with saying that I started playing FF games on the Playstation (so FF7 was my first). I'm saying this to put it in perspective, I'm not someone who grew up with the earlier games, but someone who discovered them later through re-releases, and loved them. I seriously do consider these games as classics, and because of my origin and entry into liking the FF series, it can't be taken that I am merely nostalgic about them.

Final Fantasy 6
Now the first older Final Fantasy I was ever lucky enough to play was FF6. I had heard that it was re-released on the Playstation, and most of my friends (who, like me, were more used to FF7-FF9) were discouraging me from buying it, saying the graphics were smudgey and hard to look at. My love of anything Final Fantasy forced me to conquer this, and I picked it up. After the initial shock of the graphics I was hooked from then on. Such a fantastic game. The story, the music, the characters, and even the overall design. It had a very steampunk or industrial theme to it (with giant steam powered machines and factories) mixed with the usual fantasy setting (swords, magic, all colourful designs).
It had one of the greatest casts of characters ever seen in a Final Fantasy... I shall try really hard now to avoid listing them all as there really were so many good characters. Honestly, the playable cast alone were so diverse in; appearance, personality and battle skill. Even the two main female cast (Terra and Celes) had a distinctively different feel to them, often to make them seem like opposites of one another.
Then comes the villain. Kefka! He is the craziest Final Fantasy villain ever seen. His laugh was iconic, his one-liners brilliant... I find myself laughing still today when I read a quote of his on the internet. He was also a very scary villain (at least he would be to those in the game), in that he was unpredictable. But the player, or at least I, really got behind him. Not to support him, but they loved seeing him, finding out what he was doing or waiting for his next action. He was a brilliant villain.

Though it pains me, I'll have to leave my description of FF6 at that. I'd love to go into more detail about more characters, but I have to mention other FF games too in this post (albeit in less detail, I'm afraid).

Final Fantasy 4
Now this game holds a very special place in my heart as well. I LOVED this game. Though I found it quite hard in some parts I motiviated myself to pull through, and the storyline, characters and overall theme was fantastic. You really felt a struggle between light and dark. Now I know EVERY Final Fantasy strives to achieve this, FF4 did it best. Here the central character, Cecil, started off as a Dark Knight, being led to do evil things that he was not comfortable about. He later climbed Mt. Ordeals and fought his darkside and became a blindingly white Paladin, and carried on to do great things in the name of good. This game really did show a sense of darkness vs light, and showed that there is light for every person who wants it, and is not happy with the darkness.
What I also liked about this game is the 3 different world maps you visit. You start off on the main overworld (just the map of the world), then later you go underground, then even later you go to the moon. Even today's Final Fantasy games don't incorporate so many areas to explore (in fact the tendancy these days seems to be to give us less and less freedom). This lunar theme also complimented the light vs dark theme, and I think it fitted really well... Plus the mode of transport to the moon was a giant skeletal whale infused with magic and technology, so who is to complain?!

Ok. I am short for time now, and I've just realised that the above is rather long and still not very detailed. So for the remaining games I'll just do it quickly and in a few paragraphs.

Final Fantasy 5
I loved Final Fantasy 5, despite many people claiming it was terrible. It had a very advanced job system, with countless jobs and possibilities that I still feel I haven't explored fully yet. Most of the characters were lacking in development, but there were some really cool characters that came out of this game. Gilgamesh for example, is a classic character. He has been used in the later games in FF8 and FF12 as well, and is taken to be the same character in each of these games (due to him being last seen in the interdimensional rift, and hence it being suggested that he is lost and hopping from one universe to the next). There is huge fan support for Gilgamesh. His comments, his attitude and just everything about him. Not to mention his kick-ass theme tune. Then we have Faris, a female pirate captain, who also has a lot of love from fan communities due to her uniqueness in appearance, and in speech. I always found it interesting when Faris spoke, and I loved her pet sea monster Hydra (also known as Syldra) that dragged her ship on its back. A very interesting feel to it.
I also like the idea behind the villain of the game, Ex-Death. How he wanted powers to control a void so powerful that it didn't only threaten one world, but could potentially affect any universe existing. Plus, him being an evil tree in knights armour gives him bonus unique points.

I'm afraid I'll have to stop there. If I have more time to think later, I will add stuff for FF1 and FF2 (though don't expect much, I have yet to complete FF2).

Overall I don't think graphics was a barrier to me. I adapted to accepting them, which is something all my friends just won't do. Their loss really, as the early FF games as a collective have been one of the most memorable experiences of my life. The artwork, the music, the atmosphere, the gameplay, the characters, the overall themes... The magic... And the Final Fantasy'ness (for lack of a better word) were all there. Truly works of art, not just for their time, but still today.
 
I thank you for your responses to my thread Levi and Dan. I appreciate you both taking the time to write these very insightful entries and it will be of great help help.
Thanks again guys. I look forward to chatting with you both sometime.

Joejoe
 
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I've only recently got interested in FF, and I've played FFI, FFV and FFVI with a modern perspective, and I did really enjoy them. The graphics did not bother me in the slightest. In fact, the interesting thing is that in the early FFs, the character you control is almost always in the centre of the screen, and this makes it easier to navigate the map and find the entrances and exits, compared to the "fixed-camera" viewpoints of FFs VII to X. You were also able to select any of the characters in your party to be the controllable character, a feature that VII to X lacked, and this had the effect of making every character equally important (which was obviously the case in FFI and FFIII anyway because the characters didn't have their own personalities).

The NES version of FFI is also quite interesting. I found it very difficult in the beginning because you start at level 1 with nothing except 400G with which to buy weapons, armour and items from the first town. I think most of the later FF games started you with at least some potions and phoenix downs and often start you above level 1. Another thing that makes the game hard is 'ineffective hits': if you tell two characters to attack the same enemy and the first one kills it, then the second character's hit will be 'ineffective'. And despite the initial frustration of this, I actually think it adds a lot to the strategy of the game, because in the later FF games, you can sometimes just hold down the attack button and they'll automatically select a target, which means you don't take time to think about what you're doing. In addition, the magic system of FFI allowed you to use a certain number of spells from each level of magic, which meant that you could always use a powerful spell as well as a few less powerful ones, which arguably makes it friendlier than the MP system.

FFI got a lot easier as the game went on, and it was very enjoyable. FFV and FFVI had very good stories, in my opinion, but not as good as the later games. The battle systems though, were as good as any of the later games. What I love about FFVI, apart from the great characters and the music, is the way that the summons/espers and the magic and levelling-up systems are all integrated, both with each other and with the storyline, something which I don't think any other FF has managed or at least not as effectively.

Justin.
 
Thank you for submitting an opinion. It is much appreciated and I am pleased you have discovered the World of Final Fantasy. I find it is rarely disappointing :neomon:

Joejoe
 
Joejoe245 said:
Hey everyone. Hope you're all doing okay! I'm writing a feature on Square Soft and its early Final Fantasy Series. If any of you are happy to have your opinion quoted in my feature please respond to this thread with your opinions (favourite final fantasy - from I to VI, least favourite, what you loved about the early series and what you hated et cetera), your gaming name or your real name and your age (if you wish).

I hope this may appeal to some of you,

Take it easy y'all :funnyface:

Ciao!
Click to expand...


I would also like to add that in addition to this, did you like to name the charcters after yourself, randomly or keep them as their default names. Thanks again guys :drag:
 
Joejoe245 said:
I would also like to add that in addition to this, did you like to name the charcters after yourself, randomly or keep them as their default names. Thanks again guys :drag:
Click to expand...


At first I would always change the characters names. Sabin in FFVI or I believe he is Mash or something in Japan, I use to always name him Bunny, because, well I don't know why, but me and my friend would get a kick out of calling him Bunny since he kicked the most ass.
I eventually stopped calling them my own names and kept the originals, mostly because after doing it so much it wasn't that necessary to rename the characters and second, when I would talk to people about the games I had NO IDEA which characters where which because from the start Id switch their names. I found it much easier to discuss the games and the characters if I just left the names the same.

On another note, my friend who also loved FF games, always named the main guy Aven or Avon, something, I can't remember, anyway, many many years later he would end up naming his first baby boy that same name.
 
Please remember we already have a topic about renaming FF characters in FFFun, so try not to steer this too far off topic, thankyou
 
I apologise. My intentions were not to break any rules but it was a minor thought added out of interest and my major interest is still the threads title-question.
 
Joejoe245 said:
I would also like to add that in addition to this, did you like to name the charcters after yourself, randomly or keep them as their default names. Thanks again guys :drag:
Click to expand...

I kept the names of all my characters, at least during the first time of playing each game. I wanted to become attached to the real characters, not myself and my friends. I always looked at it like, you don't rename Spider-Man when reading a comic, so why rename Final Fantasy characters?

That said, some people prefer to be themselves, or name people after themselves in these games. I just found it confusing to do this, and would rather get to know characters real names, names which often mean a lot to the characters.

In Final Fantasy 1 I renamed my characters, but that was because it wasn't an option... You HAD to. You basically made your own characters in that game. Though I think it may have had a randomly generated name function, I didn't use it. Since the characters didn't really have names in that game, then I took to renaming the characters. I did, however, avoid naming these characters after mine and my friends real names, and instead called them Argor etc...

Edit - Ah... I see now that this thread is being accused of being off topic. Well I'll keep this post here as I think you needed it answered from us.
 
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