Which Final Fantasy do you like best?

XII was fun, but the characters and story could really have been made better. A great political story, just needed some tweaking and to be a bit more clear, as I only fully understood the plotline a second time around. And the characters seemed rather bland at times, with Vaan having little real reason to be there with the party and Penelo having pretty much no back story or much of a connection to the story at all. Plus most of them were either blond or had light colored hair except for Balthier and Vayne. The whole gambit system also took some of the fun out of the gameplay for people, though I enjoyed it myself.

I think the light haired bit made it more realistic since they lived basically in the desert and (at least as far as I'm concerned) hair can become bleached over long periods of time in the sun (I know mine does anyways, from a few summer landscaping jobs). You're right about the gambit system removing some fun. But I think to put it better, it removed some strategy. I think the idea of it is awesome, but instead of 'aiding' in battle, it just made the battles become automatic. However, in some situations, I don't see how battles could have been done without the use of the gambit system. I personally never used it on which ever character I played primarily, but of course I programmed it with obscene gambit combos for the AIs that were with me. The plot did make a good political story. I got it on a once through, but that was because I play games through 100% so after just being in it for so long, you kind of just get it lol. The thing I didn't like the most was the traveling. A lot of the quests were basically just a lot of running back and forth from screen to screen which just made it long and drawn out. I always bought a chocobo, but they were never really that convenient. I did 99% of all the hunts. The only one I didn't do was the crazy Tiamat[sp]. The fight is LITERALLY a 3hr fight when you're at lvl99 (2hr if your REALLY good at it). That's just retarded, I didn't feel like spamming the same strategy at something for that long. Other than that, I did everything else. I thought that the FP was way easy to collect. Then again, once I got that accessory that doubled all the FP you collect, that's all I ever wore around unless I was in a boss fight. That plus I gave it to all the people I didn't use so even their FP was maxed out too. I only ever used Vaan, Ashe and Basch. Basch was my 2H Swordsman and Heavy Armored dude that just mega ass pounded shit into the earth, Vaan was kind of the speedy type that I often used to heal, and Ashe was the 1H/Shield character that healed and spammed the shit out of magic. I think in the end Ashe did the most damage with all her crazy magic skills. The way I had gambits set up were just ridiculous. Oh, something else I didn't spend all my time doing was finding ingredients for making the best weapons ever. I spent some time doing that for a while but then I stopped since the only reason why I was doing it was to fight the Tiamat[sp] hunt and after I found out that it was a 2 hour fight, minimum, I just stopped farming for things. Needless to say, all my characters were lvl99 and had retarded gambits, so the final boss was way easy.

I dig the idea of the skill grid; it really lends itself to character customisation to a great degree. That the characters started from a fixed point was necessary, but limiting. The gambits were necessary, too, with it being more action oriented, but I think they were the major focus of any strategic thinking rather than making snap decisions from a static menu in battle. It also occured to me that given enough skills and gambit slots, any fool could concievably put together an automated party that only required you to steer around a playfield. Useful for grinding, but boring. Since I never got to far into it, I still wonder if that is the case; I guess I'll see.

I mean 12..I..actually hate X-2..Sea of goddamned estrogen. They're a parade of all I hate about female protagonists.

And I agree, Vaan and Penelo are obviously just there to be young and approachable. They actualy intended Basch to be the lead character and to focus more on he and gabranth, but the test audience was intimidated by his age, heavy story and facial hair, so they focused on Vaan as the foil.

I just can't understand how people can be so into a fluff game with a bloated system like X-2 when there are so many more full games.

I dig the idea of the skill grid; it really lends itself to character customisation to a great degree. That the characters started from a fixed point was necessary, but limiting.

This is true, however, like FFX, if you spent enough time on it, you could have every character be the exact same since every character has the same grid. It's just a matter of having the FP to spread your way over to it. Later in the game, the line between a class or lines between characters (if there are any) get so blurred that it literally doesn't even matter who you play with because they're all exactly the same. Getting FP is the easiest thing in the game to do. I forget what the item was that I had, it was like a golden necklace or something similar, but I know I first saw it and bought a bunch at some old fat vendor in the slums of the one major city that we had to sneak into sometime down the middle of the game. Give those to everyone like I did and you get a retarded amount of FP. Then it just becomes a matter of which characters do you like the most.

Also, I heard X-2 was just a fluff game to bring a little closure to the ending of X. I mean, I hated X's ending. I would have liked it much better if --

Spoiler for Actual ending spoiler of FF:X:

--Tidus would have stayed in that world and was able to continue being with Yuna and shit, but since it was all a dream and shit, he had to go back to being such a popular prick in BB. This led to the reality that in this game........literally NOTHING happened. It was all false reality designed by Sin.

Also, the final boss was the easiest boss I've ever fought.

Heh, I'll try that. Reminds me of my Auron in X casting heals and tossing lightning bolts, lol.

I mean 12..I..actually hate X-2..Sea of goddamned estrogen. They're a parade of all I hate about female protagonists.

And I agree, Vaan and Penelo are obviously just there to be young and approachable. They actualy intended Basch to be the lead character and to focus more on he and gabranth, but the test audience was intimidated by his age, heavy story and facial hair, so they focused on Vaan as the foil.

I just can't understand how people can be so into a fluff game with a bloated system like X-2 when there are so many more full games.

You're calling FFXII a more full game? Really? It's pretty clear the game is nowhere near complete. Sure, it's pretty great if you like a horrible story told in the worst way and characters that are all style and no substance. The MMORPG-esque gameplay in battles was terrible and the grid level up thing was so incredibly dull. The zodiac job system in the international release seems kinda fun, but that's Jap only of course.

I don't think you know what bloated means. At least, I have no idea how you could call FFX-2's system bloated. It's not like it's complex or incredibly deep :x. If anything, FFXII's poorly executed battle system is bloated because it's such a damn hassle to work with.

EDIT: The reason FFX-2 was made was because a lot of FFX fans whined the ending left too much up in the air. FFX-2 did a good job closing FFX's story (provided you didn't get the bad ending). I really don't see why people have a problem with the game. It really just feels like a big celebration after the shitstorm that happened in FFX and thousands of years before it.

Yeah..cause I'mma run off an be all super magical girl hero so I can find my fake boyfriend and sing songs and stuff is much deeper than political intrigue, revenge and the whole outcast gods using humans as pawns.

edit: [in response to chewey] (joy you posted too fast for me to get in there between you two lol)

XII's BS was complicated at first, one: since no other FF does it and two: because for the first 1/4 to 1/2 of the game it's difficult to control everything by yourself. After you get decent gambits it becomes easier to handle yourself and the AI, granted, there were so many gambits that in many combinations made it too easy. I didn't like the espers in FFIX. They didn't really play a role in anything ever in the story. You kind of just got one and picked a character that could use him. I never used the espers for anything. They were way weak in XII. I'm not seeing how XII's story wasn't complete, per se. I'm not saying it's a good story, but I'm not seeing how the game is no where near complete. I don't remember enough of the game to comment on the substance of the characters. I know that Joy is right about Basch though and how he should have been the main character to begin with since the story mostly revolved around him anyways. Anyways, I kind of digged the battle system. It's still a turn based system but free roaming. It's not like you could run up to something an mash buttons like in every ABS. I liked to think of it as the same battle system as most every FF game but in free roaming mode. If you don't run around the map and do weird shit and instead just stand in front of the enemy on the map, it right away is the same as any other FF battle system. The free roaming part kind of added to the fact that you didn't need an escape option and you could run away for a second to do something and run back into the chaos. I kind of like that. The downside, to me, was just that it took some getting used to and that it's a really weak system in the beginning until you get proper gambits and AIs to help.

Six is the best! I enjoyed the game play and the great story. It one of the greatest games ever made by man.

Six is the best! I enjoyed the game play and the great story. It one of the greatest games ever made by man.

I would like to insist that you're correct. I've never actually played it though =o   
It sounds like I should though huh? lol

That was III in the US, right? Absolutely worth playing.

Yeah. It was boring.

Why do you think so? I liked it a bunch. Everyone having magic kinda threw me off, but overall I think it's one of the top five.

My top 4 is FFIX, FFX, FFXII, and FF Tactics. In that order. I don't really have any others that I like that much, nor have I even played many more than that haha.

I have played at least a few hours of the main games (I-XII) and Tactics, and they all have something that kept me interested, or at least that I thought was innovative or fun.  I will admit though, some I only played through to say that I'd played it.

I know Zeich's a big addict for FFXI, but does anyone consider it a main game or like it as the best FF game?

Isn't that the online game? I guess, technically, it's an FF game, but just differently and without end I suppose. It would kind of defeat the purpose of an MMO if it had an ending. I don't think it's possibly right to say that it can be the best FF since in its basic form it's supposed to be addicting. That's why it has no ending, so that you just keep playing. So in turn, it's supposed to be constantly fun. Which doesn't make it very fair to the other FF games that have endings and closure and a full story. But if some one says something better or comes up with a good reason why it can be considered a favorite, then I wouldn't argue with it.

FFXI has a story.

I didn't say it didn't have a story. I said it doesn't have a actual ending. If it does, then it's a very fail mmo.

According to Zeich, FFXI has different storylines with each expansion, and those have their own endings.

Does the game end. Is there an ending credits. Do you beat the game then just decide to continue and play online forever? That's what I'm saying.

Final fantasy dawn of souls. That was an awesome game. It was the fire final fantasy where I didn't just push X or A or whatever over and over. I used the buff and what not. That was an awesome FF.

Why is nobody talking about it?

Because it's not on the poll.

Does the game end. Is there an ending credits. Do you beat the game then just decide to continue and play online forever? That's what I'm saying.

Credits don't need to roll for the main story to end =/. Having the STORY end does not mean the game ends.

That's not how MMOs work.