12 Days of Albermas. Final Fantasy VII

[Deleted]

I did complete IV back in the day, (the DS remake) but I'm not sure I would nowadays. VII has a more interesting setting and story, and better characters and villains I feel. I mean Cecil had his whole Paladin thing and that was pretty much the best part of the game, the rest of it was pretty bland and the gameplay was nothing special. I'm just not a fan of the ATB system.

In my eyes the series mostly just got lucky with decent games at the right times up until the three PS1 games, in the following eras when the series truly got awful, it didn't matter as it had firmly established itself by that point. People tend to measure the JRPG genre by Square Enix and Final Fantasy in particular, seemingly oblivious to the knowledge that there are much better JRPGs out there, even from Squeenix themselves.

[Metal]

Feb 1, 2015 0:11:27 GMT @alberenza said:

I did complete IV back in the day, (the DS remake) but I'm not sure I would nowadays. VII has a more interesting setting and story, and better characters and villains I feel. I mean Cecil had his whole Paladin thing and that was pretty much the best part of the game, the rest of it was pretty bland and the gameplay was nothing special. I'm just not a fan of the ATB system.

In my eyes the series mostly just got lucky with decent games at the right times up until the three PS1 games, in the following eras when the series truly got awful, it didn't matter as it had firmly established itself by that point. People tend to measure the JRPG genre by Square Enix and Final Fantasy in particular, seemingly oblivious to the knowledge that there are much better JRPGs out there, even from Squeenix themselves.

I liked four because it kept me guessing, such as, woah! Kain was a bad guy the whole time? Oh no hes just conflicted about loving rosa which golbez exploited. Oh golbez was braiwashed too? And he is cecils brother! So many plot twists.

With ff7 its like, oh hey, sephiroth is clearly the bad guy. Wait hes good? Yea thats not true.

Granted, playing it through not knowing the first time, its like "pfff mind blown" but now that i know, im like "shame on you! Youve already done this in the past 3 games!"

Idk i just like 4

Atb doesnt bother me too much, most of the time, if youve level ground like you should, the enemies dont get a chance to attack half the time anyways.

Id recommend playing through either the gba or the psp version of 4, the lunar dungeon unlocked at the epilogue helps by adding even more character dev, plus there is the after years, which builds even more upon the characters.

[Indigo]

I like the ATB simply because it keeps things very active even though it's still turn-based in disguise. You have to be scrambling through the menus quickly to not waste time which makes it more exciting than just sitting there taking your time and watching each other take turns.

I haven't played many of the games... But I loved FF8 which I believe is fairly unique with the Junction system, and the game dynamically balances out your opposition so you can get stronger, but never out-level enemies. A big part of the game is finding PersonasGuardian Forces and facing yourselfthem to acquire them. Then you link them to any character you want, and it will affect their stats that you can boost. You draw(steal) magic from enemies, and you can equip any magic on anyone, which sort of act like items in that they have as many uses as you've drawn and can run out. You get more powerful by linking the right spells to the stats which your equipped GF lets you boost.

Even the battle menu isn't traditional. Every character gets 'Attack,' and you actually have a few slots to choose each character's battle menu. So each character has to choose stuff like Item, Magic, etc.. You can summon your PersonaGF by dedicating a slot to summoning and they'll act like the usual summons in FF games. Also, there isn't even any armor, and weapons are very rare upgrades that show up throughout the game, and are mostly aesthetic changes than anything that will make a big difference. Essentially you define any role for each character.

I tried to play FF7 at some point, but I couldn't bring myself to get very far. I ended up getting hooked on FF8 all the way though. I guess it's just one of the most un-traditional RPGs I've ever played. The story is also pretty good and very down-to-earth for a FF game.

[Stove]

Feb 1, 2015 2:42:28 GMT Indigo said:

I like the ATB simply because it keeps things very active even though it's still turn-based in disguise. You have to be scrambling through the menus quickly to not waste time which makes it more exciting than just sitting there taking your time and watching each other take turns.

I haven't played many of the games... But I loved FF8 which I believe is fairly unique with the Junction system, and the game dynamically balances out your opposition so you can get stronger, but never out-level enemies. A big part of the game is finding PersonasGuardian Forces and facing yourselfthem to acquire them. Then you link them to any character you want, and it will affect their stats that you can boost. You draw(steal) magic from enemies, and you can equip any magic on anyone, which sort of act like items in that they have as many uses as you've drawn and can run out. You get more powerful by linking the right spells to the stats which your equipped GF lets you boost.

Even the battle menu isn't traditional. Every character gets 'Attack,' and you actually have a few slots to choose each character's battle menu. So each character has to choose stuff like Item, Magic, etc.. You can summon your PersonaGF by dedicating a slot to summoning and they'll act like the usual summons in FF games. Also, there isn't even any armor, and weapons are very rare upgrades that show up throughout the game, and are mostly aesthetic changes than anything that will make a big difference. Essentially you define any role for each character.

I tried to play FF7 at some point, but I couldn't bring myself to get very far. I ended up getting hooked on FF8 all the way though. I guess it's just one of the most un-traditional RPGs I've ever played. The story is also pretty good and very down-to-earth for a FF game.

Says the Action-junkie.

ATB is actually why I don't play most FF games.
I do very much enjoy 3, however.