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Which FF game should I play?


Chiki
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The DS one has stupid stuff like not being able to switch your party members though

What do you mean by that? Does the SNES one have that problem too?

Edited by Chiki
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What do you mean by that? Does the SNES one have that problem too?

The DS version has a fixed party always. You get more party members throughout the story that you just can't switch in to later. It's kinda dumb to me because I hated one of the characters in the party and would've liked him out. IIRC, the SNES one is like that, too. The GBA remake allows you to switch around just before the final battle.

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I dropped it on the floor and the already fragile power switch broke. I need to find somewhere to get it repaired or turn it on without the power switch. I tried opening it with a screwdriver but the screws were too tight.

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I'm not sure what you count as good gameplay, but if it's a good story you're looking for, FFs 4, 6-10, and 12 have good stories from what I've heard (I've only played FFs 1-7).

FF4's gameplay has the least customization of any FF (the DS version implements Augments which adds quite a bit of customization), but it's still a fun game to play through because you have to learn how to make use of your current team to the fullest, and unlike other FFs you can't really break and abuse the system and make the game insanely easy. The Virtual Console has a pretty bad translation, but you'll still be able to understand the story no problem. The DS version is really hard (with the boss difficulties being bumped up loads), just so you know.

Since you're looking for a good story, I probably wouldn't recommend FFs 1-3. FF2 especially (though it has the strongest story of the three), since the levelling system is really weird and tedious at times. But for a really early RPG, I'd say its story is rather decent. If you want to play through FF2 and don't want a tedious time levelling up, I'd recommend the PSP, iOS, and GBA versions over the PSX and NES versions.

FF1, you probably won't like how hard it is to find out your next location or how to move on in the game (you practically require a guide to defeat the game). It does have quite a lot of replay value, since your team's classes are permanent once you pick them out and out of the 6 possible classes (not counting their upgrades, since they're basically the same yet stronger), you can only have 4 team members.

FF3 can be quite difficult and challenging, especially since some areas practically force you to use certain classes (glares at Garuda battle and Dark Knight caves). You can change classes whenever, but you can't really mix and match abilities (eg: you can't make a monk have white magic).

FF5 is leaps and bounds ahead of everything else in terms of gameplay, imo.

Besides how slow it is to learn class abilitities, I suppose the class system was kind of fun. I wasn't really fond of FF5 because of the lack of story and how some dungeons and bosses (I'll explain this in the next sentence) are just plain cheap (like the Unknowns in the Fire Tablet Cave). I also didn't like how if you didn't properly prepare for some bosses, (like the one that guards Flare and the Purbolos boss battle to a lesser extent) you're basically stuck in an infinite loop where you have to reset (which I find to be really poor game design), and you receive no heads up whatsoever on those kind of bosses.

But if you don't mind story being heavily compromised for really in-depth customization, I'd recommend giving it a go. The game difficulty really changes depending on your job and ability combinations, I'll warn you about that in advance.

That's all I can say about the gameplay of FFs I have played that you haven't.

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Quick warning about 12 look into the licesense system before hand it will save a lot of frustration.

Edited by Randa
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Exdeath is a mistranslation of Exodus, sort of like how Ultimecia in FF8 was likely a mistranslation of Artemisia. Due to time constraints older FF games sometimes had pretty weird translations make it past QA. FF6 has the infamous Fenix Down after all.

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Exdeath kicks your ass in every appearance besides the final boss one. He's pretty awesome.

As for the story, yeah, it's not that great, but I found the characters to be interesting, and there's some legitimately surprising twists that happen, so I don't mind it that much.

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Download epsxe. Find a ROM of VIII and IX. Profit.

If you're looking for good RPGs those are definitely up there. Great characters, fun gameplay, interesting story, terrific soundtracks. VIII's system is kind of easy to break if you read up on it though so I'd recommend going into that one blind. Although I think you should go into EVERY game blind so, there's that.

Exdeath is a mistranslation of Exodus, sort of like how Ultimecia in FF8 was likely a mistranslation of Artemisia. Due to time constraints older FF games sometimes had pretty weird translations make it past QA. FF6 has the infamous Fenix Down after all.

I don't think they're necessarily mistranslations. It's rather more like the Aeris/Aerith debacle. The names are the result of transliteration from one language to another using Japanese as an intermediary. Japanese's syllabary, unlike other language's alphabets, doesn't let it act as a good intermediary when moving from one language to another. So Exdeath and Exodus are both possible interpretations. "Ekusudesu" can possibly be either, we don't really know. Same with Ultimecia's "Arutimishia".

What I wanna know is why Ultimecia used "k"s instead of "c"s. I'm thinking about playing through FF VIII in Japanese just to see if she talks somehow differently, because in all other related content she speaks with no discernible accent.

Edited by Esau of Isaac
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Well that's a Shame then. Anyways about the Final Fantasy, FF2 is nice, broken but nice.

I've heard that the battle system can get tedious, which is why I haven't touched it (yet).

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FF2 was awful in so many regards, in my opinion. The battle system (good on paper but implodes on itself in practice) and key word system are the most egregious aspects of the game. I'd say you wouldn't miss anything worthwhile if you skipped it.

Edited by Constable Reggie
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FF2 was awful in so many regards, in my opinion. The battle system (good on paper but implodes on itself in practice) and key word system are the most egregious aspects of the game. I'd say you wouldn't miss anything worthwhile if you skipped it.

You would miss on using THE BLOOD SWORD.

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Exdeath kicks your ass in every appearance besides the final boss one. He's pretty awesome.

As for the story, yeah, it's not that great, but I found the characters to be interesting, and there's some legitimately surprising twists that happen, so I don't mind it that much.

I can't speak for the PS1 version, but the GBA version has a fantastic translation. A lot of the NPC dialogue is pretty damn entertaining, which is surprising since usually that kind of stuff bores me to tears in FF games (not saying it's usually bad, just...not as witty).

Also it has great music and dungeons and BEST JOB SYSTEM and yeah...FF5 was really fun. I should beat it one of these days.

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I can't speak for the PS1 version, but the GBA version has a fantastic translation. A lot of the NPC dialogue is pretty damn entertaining, which is surprising since usually that kind of stuff bores me to tears in FF games (not saying it's usually bad, just...not as witty).

Also it has great music and dungeons and BEST JOB SYSTEM and yeah...FF5 was really fun. I should beat it one of these days.

The GBA version of FFV has slowdowns and poor sound quality compared to the PS1 or SNES. You can get a patch to restore the music to SNES quality and reduce the slowdowns. PS1 version has loading delay which is annoying. Best version to play is the SNES version unless you patch the GBA version to restore the sound quality and reduce slowdowns.

All the GBA versions of FFIV, V, and VI have poor sound quality and PS1 the load time. Play the SNES versions unless you plan on patching the GBA versions.

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I've heard that the battle system can get tedious, which is why I haven't touched it (yet).

No more tedious than others, really. It's a bit refreshing since it has no levels. Grinding isn't ultimately necessary, or is not as necessary as in many others.

FF2 was awful in so many regards, in my opinion. The battle system (good on paper but implodes on itself in practice) and key word system are the most egregious aspects of the game. I'd say you wouldn't miss anything worthwhile if you skipped it.

The battle system was more broken in its original iteration, but later ports improved on it. Unless you went in knowing how to break it, it didn't have a whole lot of problems.

The GBA version of FFV has slowdowns and poor sound quality compared to the PS1 or SNES. You can get a patch to restore the music to SNES quality and reduce the slowdowns. PS1 version has loading delay which is annoying. Best version to play is the SNES version unless you patch the GBA version to restore the sound quality and reduce slowdowns.

All the GBA versions of FFIV, V, and VI have poor sound quality and PS1 the load time. Play the SNES versions unless you plan on patching the GBA versions.

Whoa you said the same thing like seven times

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FF XIII gets a lot of flak when it comes to the battle system because people here have either forgotten how badly Odin creamed their asses or never tried Mission 7/12.

Story is meh but the gameplay is quite underrated.

That being said, go and play XI. There's a reason why it's considered one of the best games in the series (like not having a crap Blue Mage).

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FF2's system was too convoluted and tedious to be enjoyable in my opinion. It is also the absolute easiest game in the series to break if you have any idea about what you are doing, and is really confusing when you don't know what you are doing.

FF5 was extremely enjoyable and had the best implementation of the job system in the FF series to this day. The plot overall may be predictable but it's the least serious FF game and Gilgamesh is in top form here

FF12 is amazing, but it's an acquired taste if you are used to other FF titles. I hated it at first, then I couldn't stop playing it.

Edited by The Batter
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You basically have to exploit it to get satisfactory results. Having to get hit to get hp, when my back row bow user's goal is to not get hit results in me having to go into battles just so I can hit myself, so I can get enough hp to stand a chance against some boss. Tedious shit like that is not fun. It's fine for leveling weapons and spells, but it ruins the other stats that use the system.

Speaking of tedious, they somehow managed to make dialogue conversations tedious too. Having to constantly check through with your key words is stupid. I wouldn't mind the battle system by itself, but add this stupid crap in too and it results in me not wanting to finish the game.

So to describe FF2 in one word: tedious

Edited by Constable Reggie
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