Originally posted by Master Kenobi:
I must disagree with all of you, I though Final Fantasy VIII was the best FF if not RPG ever. It's just my personal opinion and one shared by many of my friends....
And I also disagree with FF3 being the best ff. My agruement would be the useless character abilities, annoying characters and the constant seperation of your characters. It's kinda hard to level up characters when you're fishing for Cid on the Solitary Island, don't ya think?...
I also thought seven was a great game second only to, in my opinion FFVIII and maybe Vagrant Story....
I would have to agree that IX really looks like crap.
Well, Final Fantasy 8 was a good game. The reasons for why I think it was a disappointment are as follows:
-The storyline and character developement left a bit to be desired and gave the game an unfinished feel.
-The setting was overall too modernized. The games have always had a certain medievil feel, something lacking in 8.
-The introduction of the new battle system wasn't really needed and unnecessarily complicated the whole experience. It wasn't really fun going through half the game trying to master the new system.
-Splitting up your party for the final battle sucked. It would mean that you had to build all you characters equally, just so you wouldn't be stuck with a low-level character for the last fight. That forced you to use characters you wouldn't normally use or hated using. BOO-HISS.
As far as the FF3 part goes, it was a great RPG because:
-It introduced and modernized the way RPGs were played. While adding an extremely well developed stortyline, it was also able to integrate a very unique and easy to use battle system.
-While you think the moves were useless, they all had a major effect on certain boss battles, including the last. The moves were really secondary though. Mastering magic was the center of the battle system. And in addition, the moves helped to make each character unique in one way or another.
-If you want to judge a game, don't judge it based on character annoyance. That is based entirely on your opinion, and is a rather bias perspective. If you want to judge based on that, then I would have to say that 80% of the characters in 8 are annoying (Selphie, Zell, Siefer, even Squall.)
-Separating the characters added additional gameplay elements called subquests. FF3 marked the first time a subquest has been used in a game and they pulled off the character separation very well, making sure you would have plenty of manpower to get by with only 2 or 3 characters at a time.
-each and every little plot detail (even trying to keep Cid alive) helped to add to the depth and involvement of the storyline. Each individual scene or sequence helped to develope the characters and draw you in a little more.
-This game was the first really good RPG offered to gamers. While it had a good amount of playtime, it also had replay value. Finding all the secrets streched much further than beating the game. I'd have to say that if you wanted to find every secret, it would take in excess of 50 hours.
When I played FF8, I had all the secrets by the time I faced Ultemecia, clocking in at 29 hours.
-I can think of a dozen other things that make it great, but I think I've covered it well enough for now.
Final Fantasy 7 was a damn good RPG. I don't think it would be fair to place it in front (or behind) of anything though.
Try playing Wild Arms, Chrono Trigger, and especially Xenogears. While the first two are good, Xenogears can easily be called a "better" RPG than FFVII. Don't make your judgement based on graphics though, because that isn't where the importance is placed.
Also, Vagrant Story was a good game too, but it isn't as much an RPG as it is a Action game. Sure, it has the Magic and Hp/Mp system, but the battles are all fought in a very different way. While most RPGs are turn-based, VS has a more action-oriented battle system.
Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great game. And it does have a strong RPG element. But just because you have feathers don't mean your a chicken, catch my drift. VS is more Action/RPG hybrid, calling it an RPG alone is unfair, considering it can also be compared to games like tomb raider (lousy game, but only one I could think of.)
And on the last note:
I'm not sure what you've seen, but Graphics wise the game looks better than FF8.
If you need proof, Click here (
http://www.zdnet.com/gamespot/filters/products/media/0,11100,197338,00.html) to see, some game footage.
But just because it looks good or bad doesn't mean anything. We should reserve judgement on IX until it is released and we have some 1st hand experience with it.
That's my thoughts for now.
the13thJedi
BTW, I'll have something to say about Ehrgeiz when I have more time.
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http://www.starwars.com/episode-ii/select/2000/28/img/select_one.jpg)
[This message has been edited by the13thJedi (edited August 10, 2000).]
[This message has been edited by the13thJedi (edited August 10, 2000).]