Yeah, I have to agree. This is madness to me. 6-9 are all golden, maybe a bit less for 8 (my opinion at least). But 9 was a literal farewell to the old Final Fantasy games. So many references and call backs. I mean that four member party system alone was a nostalgic trip for me when I first loaded it up. Cloud is referenced in it. Not just his sword on a shop wall but someone literally said he was there looking at it. There's an auction house in FF9 as well which personally reminded me of FF6's. Plenty more if you look for them. Like, I understand that if it was one of your first but XIIl? For me, it did everything wrong. I got it at a midnight release and my girlfriend at the time was so shocked how psyched I was to get it. It was hard to explain it to her three days later why I stopped playing it and sold it.
my sister got it for me for my birthday and i think i played it for 3 days and never played it again. can't describe to you how hype i was to be getting it, too.
I hear ya. I remember the test footage that the video mentions. It looked so fun, for so long. But damn. Final Fantasy Hallway was a letdown for me. I missed so much from the old Final Fantasys while playing it. Namely the world map, I hate that mini map that shows the veins/hallways that make up the world map in these newer Final Fantasys. But yeah. To much to list and it's in the past now. It still bewilders me that it got two sequels though... ugh
Every opinion is biased. I think that FF XIII-2 is better than XIII. And you can compare every title with each other. He just compared those two because he felt like it.
It's such a simple but addictive mechanic. There are certainly more complex battle systems in Final Fantasy, but I feel 9 strikes a pretty nice middle ground between easy to understand and complexity.
FFIX is like the Shawshank Redemption of gaming. When it came out everybody knew it was great, but nobody made a big fuss or anything, it was always under the shadow of previous more famous titles like VI and VII. It's only now, many years after that people are really analyzing it in retrospective (the highest scored one in Metacritic at the moment). The game is the 'final' of the classic Final Fantasy games, a reflection and tribute of everything that came before, you can just feel that sense of familiarity the moment you turn on this game, and the change in 'feeling' is extremely notable on every game that came after IX. Oh man, this is not only the greatest FF game ever, but one of the best games of all time. Just hearing "The Place I'll Return To Someday" makes my heart grow 5 times.
Actually I remember a lot of complaints about FFIX and how bad it was when it first came out and shortly thereafter, mostly poopooing the characters and comparing it to FFVII (I'm in Camp Overrated on that one). FFIX was taking the series back to its roots and there was a lot of criticism for that, and then FFX immediately thereafter tried to do something new and different again and that got blasted hard too. It seems to me that we had a generation who grew up with titles like FFIV-FFVII, and then saw titles like IX and X shitting on the legacy and not taking up the mantle in the ways they expected, and then we had a generation who hit titles like FFIX and FFX first before expanding into other titles, and then saw titles like XII and XIII shitting on the legacy and not...you get it. So I'm really delighted to see this appreciation for my favorites in IX and X now (and there are earlier and later games I still want to check out), because for a long time I felt pretty judged for liking them more than earlier games in the series.
I've played through FF9 so much it's not even funny. Like you, it was my first Final Fantasy game, and I haven't loved one quite like that one. I never wanted to rush through to get Excalibur 2 because I wanted to take my time and actually play through the game. This was my first video from you, and I'm definitely subscribing!
Glad you enjoyed the video and that you could relate to it! And thanks for watching and subscribing! Welcome aboard, although I typically don't cover RPGs. I may cover the FF series in full at some point, though.
FFIX is a game that literally have to come back to every couple of years. Every time I play it I always learn something new too. Such an amazing game that we really wont be getting from current Square Enix. Which is just a damned shame.
I don't know if it is really a damn shame. FF IX is really the kind of game I think can only exist once, and even trying to do it again would only end in a major flop.
FFIX is a really special case; being that it wasn't even going to be a numbered title originally, but thankfully was made into one. But I'm a little confused as to why you think another game even trying to capture its magic would be a flop? I mean, I get the general consensus of a lot of people thinking that turn-based classical RPGs aren't popular anymore; but it just keeps being proven untrue time an time again. FFIX sold and reviewed well, and is regarded as one of the best in the series. But we can't have that kind of game again, because it wouldn't sell well? A title like Bravely Default sold so well mostly by banking on that untapped nostalgic market of classical turn-based RPG fans, as well as pulling in new players with the actually good marketing the game got. Dragon Quest IX had a similar success, but easily could've failed like most of the DS DQ library, had the game not been pushed to those willing to buy it. Whenever DQ or more traditional FF titles fail, people tend to point to their gameplay style before looking at how little the games are even in the general gaming consciousness. SE can't sell a product they aren't confident enough to pitch to consumers. Now if there's one argument I can kind of agree with its that SE just doesn't have the talent to make another FF title like IX again. And when I say talent, I'm mostly referring to people accustomed to making games of that quality and scope. Sakaguchi is gone, Ito is on mobile titles, Nomura is buried under mountains of work that he is nowhere near finished with, and their current best producer (Yoshi P.) is doing his best on MMO redemption story that is FFXIV. There's not a lot to work with these days, on top of how obvious it is that SE has had trouble making FF games at all like the PS1-PS2 era, at least in terms of scope and complexity. FFXV will forever be a game that took 10 years+ to make; and still came out unfinished, the last thing I'd want to see is them trying to do a classic FF title, only for it to be mired with development issues a la FFVIIRemake. Your best bet would be to let some younger talent try and work on a new title. It sounds crazy to not have the big old guard handling a major numbered title, but a lot of developers have seen great success by letting some fresh eyes and eager hearts work on their games or even new IPs. Splatoon, anyone? Just be glad Miyamoto, Tanabe, or Kudo didn't get to that series like they got to Paper Mario! Though I do know that recent attempts at new IPs have been mixed. I am Setsuna and Lost Sphere were nothing to write home about, but I still think that their lack of a budget played a pretty big hand in making those titles lackluster overall.
Yeah, I do miss traditional FF turned based combat. Mind you, I don't mind XII, XIII, or XV's combat (minus completely gutting magic), but I wouldn't want them repeated, and would gladly prefer a return to the original style. I actually do think with the success of games like Bravely Default, Dragon Quest, and especially Persona 5, it will spark some interesting in making another main title FF with the same type of style like the original FFs. However, I simply believe FF IX is just THAT special of a case. To attempt to emulate, imo, would be a waste. Mind you, I genuinely want a return to FF's roots, but I don't think it should try to be like FF IX. I'd very much like a new FF which took inspiration from the Old. btw, that was a fantastic write up. It's was a great read, and I wish I had the time to write something as great as you did.
Oh yeah, I get that. FFIX came out just before the series really started to change for better or for worse. It kind of encapsulates a lot of what makes the new and old of Final Fantasy great, without feeling like a rehash of old ideas. and sorry about the rambling! At least it was a good read! XD
I saw the thumbnail of this video and knew I simply HAD to watch it. As a massive fan of FFIX in my childhood, and also a massive fan of FFXIII in my teenage years, it is with much annoyance I found myself a unique individual in terms of liking both the two games a lot. I can't say I ever went without the games for any huge stretch of time. I played FF9 at least a dozen times before FF13 came out. And experienced FF13 content up until and during the release of Lightning Returns. All the while examining my own feelings about the games along with the contrasting feeling of people who complain about them on the internet. I go back to them and see their flaws, but to be honest I was never really blinded by flaws in FF13 when it came out cause everyone and their mother was adamant about what they hated, while I didn't view them as such large problems. I love those games still. And in FF13's case, the improvements that they made in gameplay as the trilogy continued just made me love the universe as whole, and appreciate the work the team was putting in to find out what fans wanted and how to develop a game in their universe that people would like. Individually they had very contrasting problems, but it just made for the odd circumstance where I looked to FF13 for a story, LR for gameplay, and FFXIII-2 for a fair mix.
Square enix is simply just dealing with the same problem that all the japanese developers are dealing with: how do we cater to both japanese fans and western fans at the same time, especially with their preconceived notions about how western fans want fast action packed gameplay.
Final Fantasy XIII was a huge disappointment for me when I first played it, but now its just kind of a meh game for me; not really that bad, but kinda dull. Dat music though. 'Speautiful. FFIX on the other hand is amazing and I get all the feels just thinking about it. Might have to replay it soon... Great vid my dude!
Not always since there have been plots that flip around this idea, but you know the best way to introduce a new world is always with a plot about warring kingdoms its a story style based on the famous novel Romance of the three kingdoms, often its hard to take anything new into relateable context without a good old fashioned war, however I do agree that we need to have a new plot, I mean 13's was a original with the cast being fugitives so I guess thats a +
FF9 is and will always be my favourite game ! 😍😍 But I really, really love the FF13 trilogy, the characters are so awesome! 😍😍 Proof that you can be a fan of the older FFs and appreciate the new ones two! It might be different but the Final Fantasy series never disappointed me! 😁
Holy crap, this is really good. I know I would have a different experience with FF9, but after this, I am really considering giving it a shot. You just added another Final Fantasy game that I feel like I really need to play. You monster ;)
Knuckles Channel 3 & Knuckles. To tell you the truth I didnt find the story game better than ff7, ff6 or ff8. Well, even for me FFT is better and more entertaining in many aspects, this game is where I started to get disappointed in the ff franchise. The battle system is far from innovarite compared to the others. But to each their own of course.
I have a theory on how FF games have become more linear feeling and restrictive, even FF15 with its massive area to explore. To me it comes down to the games abandoning metaphor. Technical limitations of earlier games meant you needed to use your imagination more. The obvious one is the world map which in FF9 is far less detailed and more sparse than the content in 13 but it feels like a whole actual world because they have just set up the concept and you fill in the detail between the hubs of content. This in practice turns out to be way different to running or driving around a full scale world in real time with zero metaphor. Everything just is as it appears on screen and is more boring for it. The random battles can be a little annoying but they're a metaphor for the scraps and adventures your party get up to on their long journey. In FF6 and 7 there are fights with 3 or 4 soldiers that clearly represent much larger battlers. Now the metphor is lost and you're literally in a corridor fighting 3 dudes who were sitting there waiting for you I guess. In increasing the reality the scale has become smaller. It's like the difference between a book and a movie, the earlier games described great events that your mind worked to fill in. The new games just are whats' shown. Anyway, everyone knows FF7 is the best because that's the one I happened to play first and during my formative years. haha And if you've read this long, great channel, keep up the good work, looking back at your videos I saw you were wondering about growing and your format. UA-cam suggested this video because I looked at final fantasy stuff recently. Maybe doing some more short videos on some more popular games to draw people in would be a good idea. That's how I found you and can't wait to delve into the longer ones in future. Keep up the awesome work.
I really enjoyed XIII and as a fan of the game it's not hard to come across ppl who will try their hardest to make you feel bad about liking it. That's not to say that there's nothing wrong with XIII (there certainly is) nor are ppl who dislike it are wrong but there definitely is a bandwagon against the game. Honestly I'm on the lower level of people who enjoyed XIII more than IX but that's not because I don't like IX it just didn't gell with me personally. XIII on the other hand I had a blast with. I personally think the paradigm system is easily the best combination of Gambits and standard atb combat and with some ai tweaks it could easily be the best in the series. The game forces you learn the system and strategically come up with party layouts and paradigms to win battles rather than lvl grinding. The games linearity is a downsize for sure but it's not hard to get over. The game has a beautiful art style one that strongly encompasses themes of Si-Fi heavily. Every hallway you travel through Is gorgeous and actually relavent to the main story (unlike xv) and the music that accompanies every area beautifully composed. I'd also argue the characters are easily the highlight of the game. Every character (save from fang) has a decent character arc along with another party member. All n all I like it a lot
Like I said in the video, I do think the amount of negativity and hate FF13 gets is a bit much. I don't think it's a good game all things considered, but I also wouldn't call it an awful one. It's one with some great ideas, but the execution is all over the place and often not very good at all, in my opinion. I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more if it weren't so repetitive with areas that just go on waaaay too long for their own good. 40 to 50 hours of the same combat system that doesn't even open up until the halfway point is a lot of time to be doing the same thing over and over, regardless of the fact I did enjoy the combat for what it was. And I do agree the characters have some pretty decent development as pointed out in the video, particularly Sazh and Vanille. Those scenes where Sazh finds out about Vanille being involved with Dajh are well done. However, I think the game's dialog and other scenes often aren't where they should be. The scene where Lightning argues with Snow and goes ''worst birthday ever'', it just felt so hamfisted and weird. Or when Lightning suddenly starts talking like a poet out of nowhere when she realizes she's like a pet of the Fal'Cie. I think a lot of the character development would have been more effective if they had better direction and dialog. The scene where Hope confronts Snow and is about to kill him is an example of one of the better directed scenes, I think, and felt more effective.
Fang was literally the only character in the game I could even tolerate. XIII sucked and was way too bogged down with hackneyed writing and ridiculous cliche. The thing is that most final fantasies are like that. Character motivation is almost always meh. The problem with 13 on that point is that the characters are unrelatable, unlikable, and completely unwilling to accept responsibility for anything and instead throw tantrums and act like children who haven't gotten there way. Which just completely destroys any sense of urgency. The gameplay is hella boring though. I mean it's basically mysic quest levels of simple with attempted complexity with paradigm shifting that just makes it muddled. It was just a borrowed idea from 10-2 but even more poorly executed. It's just a concept that doesn't work regardless, but even still 10-2 executed it far better. But are you kidding me? Every hallway feels significant? They're all copy pasted and bland. Like one thing I will say about final fantasy as a series is they're great at open spaces, trees, forests, etc. The design for enclosed areas is far less enchanting. Tl;dr FFXIII doesn't really commit any sins other final fantasies haven't done before. In fact some have done worse. Lightning is a bloody tampon. Fang is the only character preventing this group of aimless morons from self imploding. But most importantly it just didn't do anything new. That's why it's hated. Because final fantasy tries something new every game. XIII just tried to play it safe and genetic. A watered down version of 10-2's heat of battle job changing, an atb system that just auto-played itself, grindy endgame with no real scale. It all just came together to make something so milquetoast and painfully average that it fails to achieve what most other final fantasies have. A unique identity. Even the final fantasies that were bad were bad in there own ways. Also get over yourself. I would have taken more of your points to heart if you didn't immediately try to play the victim card. FFXIII is a painfully average game. You're allowed to like it. Others are allowed not to. Others having opinions on it does not equal trying to make you hate yourself. It equals them practicing their free speech as you do. If you can't handle that don't talk about the game.
ZhynZokuna Your negatives for 13 while understandable your reasoning however is kinda not so sound. First off you saying that the combat system is something borrowed from 10-2 where as the only thing they took from 10-2 was the active combat system, the Paradigm system has nothing to do with the dressphere system. Secondly your argument about characters is really stupid considering FF characters have done what they did from previous games in worse fashion not to mention Lightning as dull as what people say she is she is the first true baddass girl of the series where as Terra, Yuna and Tiffa talk more about their feelings and hopes than a female romance protagonist of one of those really old really bad romance novels. So lightning was a really good change of pace. But I will agree that Hope was the most uneccisary cuck in the game and fits your description nicely. Its endgame I liked because grindy is a staple thing in Jrpgs and something I think the more modern ones need to get back to because with grind there is gonna be that one weapon you didn't try on x playthrough and you make a whole play through just to try it out so grindy I would say is good, did it have no aim? Probably but honestly grinding to fight those big ass adamatortises felt like playing monster hunter all over again so call me nostalgically bias. Finally the reason why he played the victim card about FF13 is because nobody knows how to constructively critisise anymore, if you disagree with something state why etc, people don't do that they say this is trash like some three year old just to trigger people and the general consensus about something shifts all because one idiot doesn't know how to make a good standpoint about their opinion.
What a beautiful video, I couldn't agree more with you about FF9, it's such a masterpiece but more importantly, it's such a dear experience I can never forget.
Final Fantasy IX holds a special place in my heart. My experiences with the Final Fantasy series was through my big brother who played and finished Final Fantasy VII. I was there for the ride. But IX was the one where I played on my own which I feel more attached too. Also I have to give so much credit to the music in IX. You see, I am not from a English speaking country and I was young when I played IX thus my knowledge of English was very limited back then. So most of the time, the music is what allowed me to understand a scene. This was aided by the body language that the characters are showing on screen. Also, I loved the fairy tale ending of IX. Yes, it can be seen as cliche and cheesy, but I don't care. The story itself is clearly influenced by fairy tales. The ending is the best and most satisfying ending in my gaming experience. I know I will revisit the game someday because it holds so many wonderful memories from my childhood.
I replayed the XIII trilogy this month because I've never finished Lightning Returns (I reseted the save two times because I couldn't kill the final boss, 2 years ago), so I replayed all of them and fuck XIII was amazing and I could appreciate it much more this time around, also I cried at ending, XIII-2 is very good too but LR is average at best, but the ending man, it's one of the best endings I saw in games.
XIII-2 ending song after you just get out of Valhalla. Me: This shit aint over til the black lady starts singing. *the music starts* Me: Awesome *Serah dies* Me: No, what the fuck did I do wrong? C'mon man! Wtf?! *Realized later on there was no other alternative* Me: sigh FML
The second cut scene in FF13-3 tho. Lightning talking about the bonds of love and all. Lightning is awesome but even then I was reaching critical cringe levels I never thought were possible - Lethal levels.
FF9 is my birth game. It came out around the time I was born (wow that makes us all look old). I played through it so many times but wasn’t able to beat it until earlier this year (I got up to the last save point but never beat the final bosses). When I did I felt so weird. I was happy because I beat my birth game after 17 years! But I was sad because I finally finished my childhood game... the game that showed my growth over childhood and my current teen years. The feeling was indescribable, best I got is pure raw emotion. The cast of 9 is amazing. I felt connected to the characters in a way that they stopped becoming character, but different sides of myself. Stubbornness and loyalty in Steiner, crazy and playfulness in Quina, tough-guy act and strength in Amarent, inner-strength and righteousness of Vivi, I could go on. Hell my hairstyle and attitude is straight from Zidane! These character are not simple code on a disc anymore, they are living. The only thing I feel closer to than my copy of 9 with its cracked case is my original GameCube (another story perhaps later) With the theme of finding your place and who are you I always come back to thinking. After finally beating it I felt more connected to myself then I have ever been. No other media made me think so deeply about myself and has made me rethink life itself as 9 has (no other media has even made it cross my mind). That is good, lasting story telling. Make the game personal to the player... that’s something games now a days fail to do. They get so wrapped around themselves that they fail to make it personal, deeper and more meta. The failing in 13 is simply what you brought out. The game is fight an auto-play battle (that only stops being auto after the 70% mark) run down a linear hallway to another auto-play battle then run down another linear hallway and repeat this until end game when you can actually do anything engaging. FFX was linear as well but it kept you engaged. 13 holds your hand from one pretty set piece to the next in a condensed, confusing story that get explained only in the built in history book that felt like doing work when you should be having fun. 13 fails in every way of a good game, it looks exciting but the complete randomness of everything plus the brutal difficulty spikes that force you to battle those skippable battles because that the only way to get exp and it’s finite until end game (better start grinding what you can). 13 doesn’t really have much good about it. Bad story telling (from how it was presented), demanding and random combat, false choice of skippable battles, terrible hallway design in map levels and character power progression, and way too many cutscenes. Personally the only thing that kept me going was Taz and the chocobo chick but after a certain event halfway right at the end of a chapter (if you played this you will know which one) I quit not knowing that the weight of what happened didn’t do what I thought it did. TLDR: Final Fantasy 9 is the best game ever made and 13 could be one of the worse in current years alongside Mighty No. 9, Battlefront 2, and No Man’s Sky launch.
you basically put to words the way I feel about 9. also, I was maybe close to being 9 years old when I bought it, so I guess it was fate XD I've always been kinda struggling with emotions and after going to therapy for a couple of months I decided to play it again recently and I found that I could understand it on an even deeper level than before. also, the characters are well thought of, because they look like stereotypes but they drop the mask pretty quickly. they actually teach you that getting to know someone further than looks or first impressions is definitely the way to go and that judging others solely on their facade is just preventing you from enriching experiences. I can't really say how much I liked it. I even like the battle system, I became pretty good at it.
This video was too long. Halfway through it, I got hungry so I left it playing and went to the kitchen to fix my self a sandwich. But then I found out that I'm out of mayonnaise so I went to a store. There, I saw the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my whole life. But I'm really a shy person so I took up a three-year personality development course so I can introduce myself. She was very friendly and all, but unfortunately, she had a boyfriend. So I said, all good, I'm a mature person. I want the best for her and I harbor no illusion that I am the best person for her and she seems happy with her boyfriend, so I did not bother her anymore. But we kept in touch and we became friends and I got over my crush on her. Then she broke up with her boyfriend, we drank some alcohol because of it, I told her she'll be fine and I wished her well. I still think she's the most beautiful woman in the world, but like I said, I am over my crush on her. It was like five years already when I first saw her. Besides, I am quiet happy with the friendship I developed with her. It was more important than a crush. So we kept hanging out, drinking, having coffee, and all. I had a girlfriend, she started dating other guys. My girlfriend wants to live some other life without me in it, so I said, "Okay, I want the best for you and I want you to pursue your happiness." My lady friend and I drank alcohol about it, and she gave me the same advice I gave her when she was in that position and I became okay with the breakup immediately. But we were really drunk, so she spent the night in my apartment. I only have one bed, so you know what that means: She took the bed and I slept on the couch. But on the couch, I really can't sleep. Something was bothering me. So I tossed and turned for about three hours, then I finally can't take it anymore, I stood up and went straight to my room where she's sleeping. I approached the bed, gently sat on it and I reached for her shoulder to pull her closer to me. She stirred and woke up. She asked what's up. I told her, "you know, the first time I saw you, I was watching a video and left it playing to get myself a sandwich then went to the store to get some mayo then I got so distracted by life that I forgot to finish the video." She said, "You know what, I've been wondering about a weird noise in your night drawer." So we opened that drawer, and lo and behold, there's my phone and this video still has two minutes of play time on it.
You may not have played all the FF games but you just broke down the difference between Squaresoft and Square Enix Final Fantasy games. As for XIII, I understand why you have an attachment to the game. I'm pretty sure everyone have pretty bad games that they enjoyed personally when they were younger. Not saying XIII is bad though but it is average. Final Fantasy have such a high standards that if it went below that, it ends up in disappointment. It only got worse when the game not just brought the franchise down, but the whole JRPG genre as whole. You see lots of critics and detractors saying that "JRPG is dead, turn-based mechanics are so ancient, anime-looking characters are annoying, yada-yada" and most of these people point out FFXIII as the culprit. There are many factors why JRPGs declined last gen, but XIII panning out hard is one of them.
I'll admit that FF13 is by no means a great game, especially if you're comparing it to the many great JRPGS out there like Xenoblade Chronicles, NieR, Okami, etc etc but nothing can change the fact that i enjoyed the heck out of it when i first played it (it helps that i was much younger and patient with its flaws). As someone unused to bigger console games, i genuinely loved everything about the game. I had no expectations going into it as I'd never played any other FF game, i just enjoyed it for what it had to offer. It was beautiful, the music was gorgeous, I grew to like all of the characters over time, the combat was hecking tough, i wasn't super against the corridor type environments because i'd played so many games of that design but this was the first to actually make me enjoy walking around and just taking everything in. If i were to play it now for the first time, I definitely wouldn't enjoy it as much, but that applies to pretty much every game, movie or tv show from my childhood. Just acknowledge that it has flaws and dont make a big fuss about people that enjoy it!
5:57 Coaching, planning, team building, and leaving the actual performance up to your team, isn't a point of contention in Final Fantasy XIII because people hated the concept. It's because Final Fantasy XII did it infinitely better. The Gambit system, as it was called, was essentially the backbone of the game. Not only was it heavily empathized and ever expanding, but it was extremely complex and allowed you to customize behavior on a micro level. It was basically A.I. programming once you got into the late game. And, man, was it satisfying to watch your characters respond to a myriad of diverse situations, on their own, with little to no input from you, all thanks to your planning and foresight. In comparison, XIII's auto-battle system, much like everything else in the game, felt extremely simplified and underwhelming. I highly recommend you give XII a go at some point if this was an aspect of XIII you were able to appreciate. Good stuff though, my dude. It's neat to get a casual fan's insight into the series. Especially for these two extremely polarized entries. And for the record I by no means hate XIII, hell I Platinumed the damn thing. I was just disappointed by it, but was able to, ultimately, enjoy it for what it was.
Yeah, I've heard FF12's battle system is more like FF13's, but with more depth to the coaching aspect and that you can even pause the action to manually select commands. I'll be interested to play it some time in the future, for sure, although there's many Final Fantasies I still have to try. I haven't even beaten 6 yet, lol, and that seems like one of the most essential ones to have finished considering it is generally said to be the best installment. These games aren't short, either, haha. Thanks for watching, though, and I'm glad you enjoyed the video! I am happy with how it came out, and found it a refreshing change of pace compared to my usual content.
My absolute no.1 final fantasy game is ffxii The amount of stuff to do, the lore, the story, the enjoyable grinding, the misic and it is also one of the prettiest games on the ps2.
12 was ahead of it's time. The remaster clearly shows that people with how people went back to it or gave it a chance this time around. It's in my top 3. I alternate 8 and 12 at number 2 depending on my mood.
12s biggest issue is the protagonist and the game's fear of going into the deep end of the pool for it's story. Vaan is just a bad main character. There's nothing inherently bad about him, but there's no reason for him to be there. This is partly due to the game's creators choosing to change the main character of the story to appeal to the Japanese youth...aka the J-Pop idol looking Vaan. They just shoehorned him into a story that was likely already fleshed out and near completed. From what I hear the original lead was supposed to be a character similar to Basch, but after Vagrant Story's reception among the Japanese youth (awesome game btw...screw the Japanese) they decided to make Vaan. Vaan just doesn't fit. Basch would have been a great lead...in fact, so would Ashe. Hell, even Balthier would have been a great main character. Hopefully we'll never have such poor decision making again. As for the story, I agree it was enjoyable, but it would have been unbelievable if it just took it a step further and didn't stop short when things were getting good.
you pretty much nailed the reason why final fantasy is dead now. even if it wasn't on purpose. ff13 tries so hard to pull you in and make you feel with all these fancy graphics and drama, but somehow falls short. ff9 on the other hand... makes you feel, laugh, cry, and care, without even trying. 9 has a soul.
I loved FF 12, 13-2 and 14:ARR though. (FF 14 in particular is on the top 5 best selling MMOs with most active playerbases). Those are great games. Also, FF X is universally praised. How is the franchise dead?
10 is great. games past 10 are good games, but they aren't final fantasy. being a best selling mmo means fuckall unless you're calling pre-11 ff's mmo's but then we're having an entirely different conversation. final fantasies 10 and previous all had a genius to them that couldn't be replicated or cloned, so when square enix took over, they tried real hard. they even found a formula. but while they might be good games, they aren't final fantasy. it really comes down to the effortlessness of it all. look at the villains pre-11. i'm willing to bet money that you can remember most of the villains that come before, but few of the villains that come after. that's because the pre-11 villains actually had purpose. they were relatable. fuck it, they were real. now they're just cheap replications. sometimes they can be interesting, shit sometimes they even have good stories, but settling for a good story is settling for a good game. not a masterpiece. Final Fantasy is dead, and has been since X. believe me when i say that the previous statement breaks my heart. but i can't lie to myself anymore. and lets come to honest terms. post 10? come the fuck on. pre-11 we had kefka, sephiroth, kuja, garland, ultimecia, sin, fucking real. badass. awesome. villains. post 11... do you ACTUALLY remember? was it like, the fal'cie or something? please disregard my ignorance for a moment and understand the point i'm making. nobody gives a fuck. but you know who does? fucking sephiroth.
Starting with your villains argument, I'd argue that Caius, Bhunivelze and Ardyn are better villains than Cloud of Darkness, Exdeath and Ultimecia so already the argument falls apart because it's so subjective. Also, while I love the Final Fantasy series and have been a huge fan for years I can't agree that the series is wholly unique. The franchise is iconic but in Japan it's not even as big as SMT, Dragon Quest or even newer franchises. Medieval fantasy in Japan means Dragon Quest. FF is a great series that introduced the JRPG worldwide but it's not unique. If you wanna argue about uniqueness in the series, FF 10, 12 and 13 are the most unique the genre, or at least the series, has ever been, introducing elements that have never been introduced before and setting those in narratives that are not as common as the plots of the games in the series before 10. FF 6 and7 were masterpieces, indeed, but that has mostly to do with the story being phenomenal and the magicite ad materia systems which were neat and the first times the series got experimental. After 7, the experimental gameplay elements of the series fell flat (FF 8 magic drawing and cards which was just awful and nobody liked it, FF 9's random trance). It wasn't until 10 that the battle system got great again. The pre-9 series is great (except for 8) that's a fact, but it wasn't unique and it wasn't necessarily better than the newer games. While I love the classics, FF 6 and 7 will always be my top 2, I can't agree that the series got bad after 9. 13-2, 12 and 10 are my top 3, 4 ad 5 respectively. The series has always been great. Most people complain about the series getting worse after 9 because it's just too different and because SE produces more spinoffs and sequels now which many people don't support. And that's ok but many people enjoy the newer games and the series is bigger than it has ever been.
I never argued that final fantasies were unique. My villains point may be subjective but it's also popular opinion. There's a reason everyone loves these villains, and there's a reason why they're so much more recognized than the newer villains of the franchise. You're perfectly entitled to love Caius as a villain but try to argue that he's as iconic as Sephiroth, or Kefka, or Kuja, or Sin, you must know that's not realistic. That is just an example of my point anyways, which is that pre11 final fantasies told brilliant stories effortlessly while post10 final fantasies tell okay stories painstakingly. Sometimes the stories are good, and sometimes the villains are cool. but their delivery is piss-poor. to me, the essence of final fantasy is brilliant storytelling, and that's what stopped showing up after 10. Again, brilliant. storytelling. not okay or good or enjoyable storytelling.
The stories before 10 were good? Thats a load of bullshit, I mean sure they did have their moments but don't think they were by any means great, you can call 9, 6, 10, 4 and 8 great but the rest weren't so good ya know
Man, I never thought I'd see you talking about RPGs, let alone in such depth. Yes I know, compared with how hard you usually go on other games this is small potatoes, but still? Really nailed why FF9 is such a good entry in the series. Did it in a pretty to the point way too. Even if I kind of am forever disappointed at how FF9 just... forgets about every character not called Zidane, Garnet or Eiko past disc 2, I still adore the first half and still love the second for still being a fun adventure that's great to play. It does hold a privileged place in my heart as well.... so I could relate with this video quite well. But even without that, very nice analysis, with a good blend of sentimentality, which is a strange combination? But works well within the theme of the video. And should I ever get a PS3 I'd definitely give FFXIII a shake... you made it sound at least potentially fun. Great stuff, Michael.
It was really fun to talk about RPGs! Like I said, I don't really have the experience with the whole franchise to give a proper, in-depth analysis on these games yet, but just sharing what I liked and didn't like about the games was already cool. It was something different than usual, and in a shorter, more personal package. I'm happy with how it came out and I'm glad you enjoyed it! There's honestly so much more I could say about FF9 and why I hold it dear so much (as well as some things I don't like or thought were meh, I have them), but I wanted to keep it a bit more focused on a couple large points; do some expressing about it, because the game deserves it. And my last words probably haven't been said on it, but whatever that'll be is for a later day. ;) Anyway, thanks for watching and leaving your thoughts!
Retropolis Zone Oh yes, I bet should you have gone all the in depth FF9 deserves, you would have for instance mentioned how welcome the speed up feature is in the Steam version, hoho. But still, this kind of video is more than enough for a briefer, wider topic. You're welcome, and it is you who needs thanking for putting up this content. Cheers!
Yeah, the Steam/PS4 version certainly has some nice conveniences: the drastically faster loading times, the ability to toggle off random encounters on the fly, speed up features -- they definitely help make some of the more dated aspects of FF9 more palatable. There's some things I don't like about it, though, like the lack of analog support, and an area's music for some reason restarts after every battle. So that means, unless you turn off random encounters, that you'll constantly be hearing the beginning of a track and not the full piece, which is a big mess up for a game with such a wonderful soundtrack. I couldn't imagine only hearing the beginning parts of that beautiful overworld theme constantly and not the rest of it. Haha.
Retropolis Zone Oh yeah, that is pretty annoying, isn't it. If you're unlucky, or not that much, with the high encounter rate, some might never even get to hear past many song intros, huh. Guess it should go hand in hand with disabling encounters.
Thinking about it, I can agree that the game seems to forget all the rest of the characters by the halfway point. However, in my opinion, the reason was that some of the character arcs had completed by the end of Disc 2. On the other hand, Zidane, Garnet, Eiko, and Vivi still had unresolved conflicts going into the last two discs.
My only problem with FFXIII is the story was reaching too much... FF9 was actually the FF game that I would recommend newbies to play in PS RPGs I have certain bias with the past games than the newer ones but I believe that numbered FF games stopped being good after FF X till maybe XV
This is weird, FF-IX has been my favorite game of all time ever since it came out in 2000. It changed my life and partly created who I am as a person. It got me into gaming, I now study game design, it got me into Final fantasy and jrpgs in general. After IX, I played through every single other FF, I have several legal copies of basically each game, about 5 of IX. I bought a ps2 just so I could play 10, I recently bought a ps4 just so I could play 15. There has only been one final fantasy that I never finished, that I just couldn't give a crap about, where I hated the design, the characters, everything, and it's 13.
Some of your description of FFIX really hits close to home, except with FFX for me. Although, having only played FFIX for the first time earlier this year, it definitely earns it a lot more than FFX does, as much as I love that game. FFIX just has so many more ups and downs, so much more side stuff to do, and in general you have a LOT more freedom. It really is a fantastic game. I'm glad youtube recommended this video, as this sort of well put together content is always a good watch (particularly as an aspiring game developer)
XIII is a decent game that suffers over the top criticism due to it using the Final Fantasy title. Had it been called something different, we'd see a much fairer judgement. IX is an absolute masterpiece, though. Memorable characters, locations, music, plot, you name it. Quina was a bit "ehhhh", but there used to always be that oddball character in Final Fantasy games that joined your party. Also, on the slow fights. You said you never noticed it before. Are you playing on an original physical copy of the game? Those disks wore down over time and resulted in them being harder to read, cutscenes being jumpy, etc. My disk 3 goes into an endless casting animation when using the meteor spell with Vivi. The animations were slow and ran at like 15fps, but any gaps between could likely be linked to disk wear or your lens needing cleaned. :)
I was indeed playing it on an original physical copy of the game on an original PS1, but the battles were equally slow on the Steam version of the game (outside of the initial loading into the battles). I didnt have any FMV skips, either. Does FF9 actually read animations directly off the disc, though? That sounds unusual; typically stuff like that'd be stored in memory beforehand, but maybe this game is a different case. It could explain why stuff takes so long sometimes.
Retropolis Zone Yeah, I believe so. It's definitely a strange one, but the same endless animation thing was resolved upon changing to disk 4. I'd even known some friends who couldn't use certain other skills or view certain FMVs. As much as I love physical, thank god we have digital to save us from that issue nowadays. John Smith To each their own. I found it to be a fun, albeit flawed game. I went through my second playthrough when it came to PC and it was an absolute slog, though. Not a game I would recommend playing for a second time. As for it bombing, I dunno so much. I am Setsuna is quite possibly the worst JRPG that I've ever played and yet a lot of people like to compare it to Chrono Trigger. That found its audience, I'm sure Final Fantasy XIII would have, too. Especially with how the game looks gorgeous to this day.
Yep, so I just tested it: FF9 does indeed load special animations off the disc in real time, instead of storing them into memory beforehand. It's unusual to see that, but at the same time I can understand, since there are so many potential different spells and attacks a player can select. You probably couldn't load those in all at once when a battle begins on the PS1.
FF-13 is NOT a horrible game, I have quite a few hours logged on it but... the words "battle simulator" comes to mind when I think about it. FF-9 is much better at pacing and story i my humble opinion. My first real brush with FF was 7 and while I never really got into the older NES/SNES games I have fond memories of playing 7-10, with FF-10 being MY ultimate FF experience. 12 did not really grab me at all, this was the first game (I think?) that played with controlling just the main character BTW. I do play games for the story first and foremost which FF-13 does not have a lot of. What is THERE is ok but I have a feeling that they had a game concept, developed it and then slapped a story on top. FF-7 to 10 and 12 all have engrossing stories and for the most part very memorable characters. As for grinding, I don't really mind it that much in moderation. The same with random encounters, though at times I am very glad for the gear in some that can make you skip it when necessary. ;-) One of the thing I can NOT fault an of them for however is the music! Got I love the music of these games, oh man. While not all are what I would listen to outside the game it is all fits very well with the game in mind. No complaints there. :-)
i loved XIII but a refer to it in the trilogy (along with FF13-2, and FF13-3). the sequels are extremely underrated and hardly anyone talks about them other then people complaining "WAH why did XIII get a sequel that game sucks!"
Tbh, though I am not a big RPG dude, (barely even) idk what it is. But JRPGs especially have great music. I know. It's kinda dumb but there is something captivating of an epic soundtrack. And tbh, I like to try more JRPGs if I ever got around to that. (I played Paper Mario TTYD,Persona 5,Persona 4,and even tried some FF6.) In general, watching this was a good watch for me. Great work dude.
Based on your description of what you liked in FFXIII, I highly, *highly* recommend you try out XII. Final Fantasy XIII really feels like a stripped-down, barebones version of XII; I remember reading somewhere that after XII didn't live up to expectations (it wasn't poorly reviewed or a financial failure or anything, but after X was a pretty big smash hit and XI was wildly popular considering it was a console MMO on the PS2 and still managed to run active servers for well over a decade, there were some pretty high hopes for XII), they concluded that it was because the game was 'too complicated' and decided to revisit the same concepts but in a massively simplified form to try to make XIII more accessible. That is all hearsay and I don't have any sources, so I might be extremely wrong about that; take it all with a grain of salt. XII has a very similar real-time battle system with open world exploration 3 party members, 2 being AI controlled, but there's two massively important factors to differentiate it from XIII: For one, you can manually pause the action and switch commands to other party members whenever you deem it necessary (and it's a very quick, intuitive, and snappy switch as well, meaning it can be spammed without it getting tedious), and you can set up your own party members' A.I. through the Gambit system. The Gambits are a little obtuse to start out with, but they're basically sets of very simple if-then statements that you can assign to each party member, and of course the characters are fully customizable in their ability loadouts, so you can have someone with offensive and healing capabilities who will automatically switch between one and the other based on the party's health, and if they're healing the wrong person like an idiot, you can always manually jump over to force them to heal the right person whenever you like. Basically take the FFXIII battle system and just add a couple layers of depth, and you've got XII. It's definitely not the BEST battle system out there; a lot of people did complain that it felt too much like an MMO, waiting on cooldowns and macros and having fairly little direct control, but since you like the team-coaching aspect of XIII's battle system, I think you'll like XII's combat a LOT.
Oh, and the story of XII, while nothing to necessarily write home about, is at least a lot more comprehensible in general, with fewer giant exposition dumps completely recontextualizing your entire adventure and understanding of the universe dropped on your face out of nowhere, and a lot more complex 4-d chess political maneuvers in a much more grounded story that only becomes all 'end-of-the-world-ancient-prophecy' towards the very end, which I generally prefer. The primary reason IX is by FAR my favorite FF game is specifically because it feels like the scope spirals outward in a very natural, believable progression, with neither too much or too little information being dropped on your face at once: It starts as a simple heist story involving a band of thieves and a small monarchy, moves outward into a political drama as major nations get embroiled in this conflict, steadily introduces more and more supernatural elements until you get the larger reveals about the Iifa tree and Gaia/Terra, and finally end with all of the previously built-up elements culminating in a character-driven climax that nonetheless has dire consequences for the entire world. It felt like a natural progression that never strayed too far from its characters, but never stayed so narrow that we never learned much about the world and its lore. This is something most other FF games are notorious for NOT doing; they switch from a tightly focused political/adventure narrative to 'SUDDENLY THE ANCIENT PROPHECY HAS BEEN FULFILLED AND THE WORLD IS IN JEOPARDY FROM AN ANCIENT EVIL GOD' at the drop of a hat (though games like FFVI use this exact disconnect in storytelling to great effect, it's very, very jarring in most of the others I've played). XII definitely isn't as well-paced in its story's scope and structure as IX in my opinion, but it does a better job than, say, X, XIII, and VIII by leaps and bounds. I really appreciate its more dry, mature, political focus to make it feel a tad more Game of Thrones and a tad less Dungeons & Dragons, which is unique for the series, and I think it worked really well.
okay, okay, final self-reply, I swear, but I failed to mention earlier that this is a wonderful video, and I think it was both important and well-articulated how you delineated nostalgia's role in your appreciation of both of these games. Admitting to your personal biases and not just accepting that they exist, but celebrating them, is something a lot of content creators seem to balk at for not being 'objective' enough, as though objectivity is the sole standard all reviews and analyses can and should be held to. I personally quite dislike FFXIII, though not as much as the general internet consensus, but you being able to articulate the reasons you like it in spite of its flaws and explaining your connection to it allowed me to understand and appreciate aspects of its design that I simply never would have been able to on my own, which in my eyes is far more useful than any technically 'objective' review or structured analysis could be on its own. TL;DR of all this: I think you'll like FFXII a lot based on what you like in XIII, IX is the single greatest video game ever created by mankind, and dis a good video, pls do more.
Thanks for the detailed comments! I read them all. Final Fantasy XII is definitely one I want to try at some point, as I've heard about its gambit system and it having more depth. I'll probably play all the mainline Final Fantasies at some point, maybe even make a separate review for each of them. It'd be interesting to do a full FF retrospective, I think. And you pointed about something interesting there about FF9 and how the story is paced so well. This game always makes me feel like: damn, look at how far these characters have come from stealing a princess from a castle to reaching a completely abstract place of memories and fighting some kind of being that seems to represent death itself. A lot of games have this, where ordinary people get involved in such a journey far bigger than them, but the way FF9 did it felt so natural and comprehensive. It really feels like they've come so far, and how the end of the game comes full circle with the opening is just wonderful. I'm glad you enjoyed the video, man. It was refreshing to talk some RPGs, and do it in a more personal way. The message I was trying to convey as well was indeed that we can still like games for reasons unique to us, even if the games aren't very good. FF13 was the right thing at the right time for me and it's left me with a lot of great memories. That can't be replaced, even by the best of games.
I would actually have to disagree here as I feel XIII has nothing in common with XII in the slightest. They are almost polar opposites in my book. I enjoy XIII's combat and actually prefer it to XII's. XII's story was also pretty terrible and the only FF I've played that I can even say has a boring story. I'd say if you hate XIII you'll love XII and if you love XIII you'll hate, or at least dislike XII. XII really had to grow on me. Even then it's one of my least favourite.
J Ryan 13 and 12 share a similar loot system removing gil generally from most kills. Both are real time atb battle systems. Both games control parties through more accessible means for the party to manage themselves in battle. License board and Crystalinium have similarities in abilities aquired. Magic attacks cover certain area.
I've played almost every FF game (except the first 3 ones) and my favorite is still ffix that's simply gameplay cautivates me, is something that makes you think more about your enemies, while in other ff you can even beat any boss with only 1 single attack (or almost). but i liked ffxiii and i'm with you.
to be fair, this love of FFIX is very recent, i spent years defending that game as my favorite in the series and it still never gets the love that 7 does. its only in the last few years that people have started lauding it. its funny though i couldn't stand 13 at all, i actually returned it when i realized you get a game over if lightning gets downed lol.
the88mph I know! I played this game when I was 10 and no one gave a shut about it. Now everyone sees what I see. Now they all see that it's one of the best if not the best FF
IX has been my favourite game next to VI for years upon years. I was just never particularly vocal about it. Though I'll always have a soft spot for VII for being my introduction to the franchise and for JRPGs in general, and I still think Sephiroth is cool even though I think he makes no sense as a character.
I grew up having ff9 as my favorite jrpg game and it always baffles me how almost no one knew of it. I think in my whole life i've only met one person who appreciated the game... or at least knew of it. A good chunk of the people I get to talk about final fantasy with never knew of ff9. It was maddening how overshadowed it was. I'm really glad it's slowly getting popular these days and seeing it being loved by many now really makes me happy. This game definitely deserve all the love it could get.
FFIX is my all -time Final Fantasy because it's my first FF ever. I was blown away by the graphics and mechanics at that time. Now that I'm older I begin to appreciate the story and the most important: the storytelling. It never feels forced, it just goes so naturally that I feel like watching my best friends in an adventure together. I like FFXIII for the battle system though, somehow it feels satisfying to stagger an enemy
XIII is the first game I platinumed and looking back I only did it because I felt like I wanted more out of the game. After I did I never played it again. The problem is that XIII thinks combat is everything and its combat isn't even that good. And you know what would have helped? If they just borrowed from the good WRPGs and let you pause the game while queuing commands to all characters. I genuinely think that a WRPG with a RTwP gameplay would fit XIII's stagger system and would be an interesting game for it. And I don't think IX or classic FF have good combat, oh god no. I can't even call them dated because the ATB combat that everyone loves FF for came out around the same time as Chrono Trigger and that is a much better combat system. Plus if you are well versed in JRPGs, you've played more interesting combat systems. I'm not gonna ruffle anyone's feather when I say that classic FF normal battles were all about turn 1 kills so it's not like those games were never on auto pilot. But at the very least, when you get a new ability in IX, it feels like you're more powerful. The most disappointing moment is when I got launch and I realized that you can't even select it even when you don't use auto battle. It's like they wanted to innovate but felt that people were to stupid for XII's system. Play other JRPGs and you'll see how far behind FF is. Trails of Cold Steel 3 is out try that. Hell even back on the SNES Chrono Trigger was ahead of FF and at least Romancing Saga knew that random encounters were cancer. As for the story. I don't think it's the worst. The plot is very simple. Replace fal'cie with crystal and l'cie with warriors of light. That's it and it's pretty interesting to be honest. However the reason I like FF stories are characters and really for such a small cast they still fail at establishing relationships. Sazh's only relates to Vanille. There are so many relationship pairs missing. You have the Light-Snow-Hope relationship but even they fumble. Snow doesn't really learn anything. He's still brash and impulsive. The writers are so fixated on making Lighting cool that she's devoid of humor or funny moments, even VII's Cloud, the paragon of badass protagonist, the dude born from a man who just wants to make cool characters, dressed up as a woman. Hope is certainly interesting and he does get a moment with Vanille but that's it. Chrono Trigger had 6 characters and yet it found time for each one and was much shorter and it had one of the best scenes in video games and it's just them speculating about the nature of death and it used combat to establish relationships. But ok so characters are not memorable. Many FFs have unmemorable characters. Why is XIII different? Well why don't you pull up the side quest list from the wiki. All of it's side quests are just hunts from MH except the combat sucks. Where are the minigames? Why is it that everything you do just combat? Where's gold saucer? Where are the optional dungeons or puzzles? Older FF games knew combat would suck if that's all you did so they broke it up. XIII is a linear game and I consider linear games bad when they don't have strong core mechanics but at the very least if you're a linear game you should be able to pace yourself properly. Seriously did we need an Ark chapter? You fight a boss there after a long corridor and the corridor still goes on. And then when you finally get to Pulse, where the game opens up defenders say, it's just monsters. There's no one to talk to besides Bhakti and I'm not shitting on Oerba, that's the only time its linearity felt justified but all of Pulse is devoid of people to talk to? And it doesn't even really open up. You have the Archlytte Steppe and that's it. It's still heavily full of corridors. If you want a better game play XIII-2. More customization, better balance combat, non linear approach, more interesting characters, this was the game that got me to root for Snow and Serah. And it has its fair share of distractions. It's not as elegant as VII or X or as wonderfully placed as IX but Chronobreak is the best FF card game (so suck it Triple Triad you thinking man's X and O) and as much as I hate the side quest revolving around clock puzzles it's still surprisingly fun as a means to break up walking and combat. It also has more interesting bosses than XIII and a wonderful monster collections system with that feel like full of possibilities with nonlinear builds as opposed to XIII's crystarium. If you want a different game and aren't afraid of mechanics like doomsday clocks play Lightning Returns. Certainly not for everyone but infinitely more enjoyable combat despite what it trims from previous games and such a great open ended format. There aren't that many distractions in that game but some of the side quests understand that the reward for helping people should not just be stat boosts. Think of it as two steps forward from XIII-2 but one step back. And don't get me wrong I liked XIII but it's sequels show the true potential it had. Maybe if the PS3 RAM wasn't hot garbage we could have gotten Lightning Returns' combat with a full party back then. Maybe they could have tried to make characters likable rather than marketable. Looking back only makes me hate it more because it's clearly the one with the most budget and effort put into it while it's sequels only get the table scraps yet they have so many better ideas.
Gotta say, fantastic analysis of FFXIII, specially when it comes to the battle system, which was fucking awesome in my opinion. I've been playing FF games since 1997 and I love them all truly and I truly think that FFXIII and FFXIII-2, which has the best baddie since Sephiroth and one of the best modern FF soundtracks, get a lot of undeserved hate.
Both great games! FFIX's Memoria is such a profound song! Glad you previewed that one~ I might replay XIII but now that I remember how repetitive it is, I begin to think otherwise. Though FFXIII-2 is fantastic!
I love ff xii. FF IX is my all time favorite game tho! And every time I hear 'You Are Not Alone' my feels explode. This game is a masterpiece and I have finished it 4 times. Currently on fifth playthrough. Thanks for the vid!
Well done. You neither praised nor bashed either of them too heavily. I think any longtime fan has one or two games that stick out to them, and based on the vocal majority, those games fall within what is known as "the glory days" or "the golden age" of FF, which typically include FFs VI-IX (with X being added more recently, though it was developed by a completely different team within SE). A lot of people forget the times that they played these games, at what age and stage in life they played, and also other external factors like video game development at that time and what was "trendy" in western RPGs and JRPGs when they think about the direction that SE is taking the series. The FF franchise has also been one for innovation with gameplay, story, music score, and character development, and each title has a divisive fanbase for each of those reasons. I think that the beauty of the franchise is that I can expect something completely different in each installment, and if a particular game just isn't for me, then I have hope for the next. If it takes a few cycles of games for me to enjoy another FF, well then I have others within the franchise that I can always return to while I wait for the next.
FF9 to this day remains as my favourite FF game with FF7. I was engaged with its world, the characters and story and gameplay. Gives me great nostalgia feeling. When i bought and started playing FF13 i used to love it. Then over time i started to distance myself more from the game, until i started hating it. However, i think my opinion on the game has changed and have seen something interesting and positives that i didnt see before. FFXIII has many great ideas, which never came into full fruition unfortunately. The game is flawed and painfully average game for me which could have been much better. There are worse games out there. I actually like the battle system, however i still don't like the fact that if leader character dies its game over despite other two members are still standing. Also i agree that linearity isnt the problem, but its lack of variety and repetitiveness. Story and characters sound great on paper, but execution leaves lot to be desired. There are few great standout scenes though. One of them being Sazh and Vanille for example and i find it funny that most likable and character worth rooting for is "plucky comic relief" character. Lightning's character was all over the place for me. She is amazing on paper but i felt i didn't find myself caring about her or her bond with her sister, Serah or lack there of. First flashback we have about her and sister is when she shuts her out during her birthday. Supposedly Lightning used to be kind and nice girl who turned sour after her parents died, but we never see what was she like before she became badass soldier. Also the part where she decides to be all poetic. Its great to see Lightning bond with Hope and warm to Snow in some way but i felt they could have done lot better with her character. Then there is scene where Fang randomly turns against the main party for no reason. It only served to get her Eidolon. Music however is great in FF13 in my opinion. Overall, its flawed, but not bad game overall
These two are literally my favorite Final Fantasy games (granted, there are many of them I haven't played). You're right, XIII wasn't great, but the hate it gets borders on ridiculous. The battle system is a lot more complex than people give it credit for. The characters are great (except Snow) and the story, while not told in the best way, is deep and interesting. IX on the other hand is just amazing and easily sits as number one. The only thing it really suffers from is age, being the last Final Fantasy to grace the PS1. The battles and load times are slow, but the characters, story, and music are all fantastic. Kuja remains one of my favorite villains of all time and Zidane is one of my favorite protagonists. Not Alone and Darkness of Eternity are some of my favorite songs. XIII was no slouch in the music department either with things like Dust to Dust and Nascent Requiem. They're both great games to me, and I cherish them both. But you're right, while I would gladly play IX anytime, I have to work myself into playing XIII again, and it would be for short stretches at a time. Great analysis!
That's really the thing with FF13. A lot of its ideas aren't bad, but much of it just isn't executed well, and the way they paced the game is horrendous. I do believe had the game been shorter overall, by shortening the length of areas and such, and if it stopped holding your hands much earlier, it wouldn't have been such a difficult game to sit through. I like the battle system, but I can only take so much of the same enemy groupings and same environmental setpieces before I wanna quit, you know? Thanks for commenting, though, and glad you enjoyed the video!
Both of my favourite FF games compared in a beautifully long and insightful video!? Pure gold!! Thank you for this gem 🙌🏻 Both games hold a special place in my heart, but FFIX takes pride as my favourite game of all time. I agree with you - there are no words to describe this game. It needs to be experienced - and I'm so thankful I got to experience it during my childhood.
Dude this was so good, your channel deserves so much more attention. I hope you do more conparison videos or video essays like these in the future to spice up your channel ya know? Your reviews are top notch and so was this. Looking forward to more man :D
Retropolis Zone I just found your Chanel , and I have to say , usually I make my one decisions from reviews , but man oh man you had me hanging for all of the ff13 review , I agree with ff9 begin my favorite game game ever , and I add that the starting seen that appears before the main menus can make anyone nostalgic even if he never played the game before , Now . If you want an other orchestrated amazing goodness with a good story then try dragon quest 8 , even tho I loved ff9 way before I learned English , DQ8 pulled me through a engaging story of team of heroes that bonded together for personal at the start reasons but stay together till the end , it even has a separate 2ed ending that is even great than the 1st , the characters are great and the over all story telling engaging . The battle system is decently good , each character can upgrade 2 out of the 4(or 5 I do not remember that well) skill he can have , and each character has a different list . You want a mage with whips or a sexy girl with daggers ? Or a sext girl mage ? And that is only for Jessica the party consists of 4 main characters , the places that you visit are different form each other . Some of the equipment can change how you look and you can even craft things together and make new weapons armor or reusables . I only find that crafting items is very very useful but it take time for each craft , it is not that bad as the story and the world are good but still , there is an upgrade that lets you craft instantly , but it is that late in the game that it does not matter that it exists . Plz try it and tell me you opinion o. It :) Yours Lefteris Blanas
Love for IX and XIII in a single video? Can't ask for anything else. I also have a strong nostalgic feeling for both, especially for their soundtracks and characters and stories.
serro csc Lightning Returns should have been the only game and it would have been fine. Add 13 and 13-2 as two hour arcs or something in that vein, and might have been better.
This is a brilliant analysis. All I've ever heard is the opinion of hardcore Final Fantasy fans. It's nice to hear the opinions of an "outsider looking in" for want of a better term.
the last 2-3 minutes of your video encapsule my feelings for FF IX perfectly. while there are (very few) games I technically like more, there is no other game I've played in my roughly 17-18 years of gaming that resonated with me as a whole on quite the same level.
Such a great video. Glad I watched it, it was like a trip down memory lane. I love both games and FF9 is probably my favorite game of all time. Subscribed!
This was a wonderful video! As a fellow gamer who doesn't play many RPGs it was fun to hear someone talk about the battle systems in a way that makes more sense to a layman. I grew up on the NES and it's funny how many games I played and enjoyed simply because I just didn't know any better. Sometimes I think I miss those days ;) As for Final Fantasy, I have attempted to play the original title but never got very far. I would be interested in seeing your analysis on the early titles. Cheers mate!
There's simply no way in hell you found FFXIII to be better than FF6, 7, 8, 9, 10 or 12...... mayve even throw III-V in there too... Oh, and 1... Yeah I guess XIII is better than FF2... Have you played any other RPGs in your life?
Guess we have something in common when it comes to FFIX. It’s not only my favourite, but it’s the game that made me a fan of JRPG’s and the game that I keep coming back to.
The Final Fantasy IX love makes me happy! It was SO much fun getting every last treasure chest, Support and Command skill for every character, and all the other extra content. Really enjoyed the music , story, and lore of the world as well.
My team in both games FF9:zidane,vivi,freya and garnet FF13: lightning,Hope and sazh has haste so sazh Both are great games but 13 is a love or hate it game but i like
Alexander Mccready need that sazh haste. Then go into commando/2x ravager and launch the enemy. Then go into full Rav and break the enemy mid air. It was usually a massacre
Final fantasy 13 was the first mainline game I played. It’s such a nostalgia trip to me. The story of characters misunderstood by society, forced into a destiny they did not chose resonated with my younger self.
Tbh i love ff13. The beginning is hard to understand Cause there is very little explenation on the terms they use which makes it hard to follow. But when you understand everything you realise how great this game actually is. I enjoyed it very much (german sry for broken english)
I very much have the same feeling you have in regards to these two games. I played FFXIII first, before I was fully in touch with the FF community as a whole. Unlike most, I didn't have much trouble until I reached the Ark. So many of the levels of FFXIII had steep difficulty spikes (Pandemonium, the Ark, and the Archylte Steppe come to mind immediately) that all but required me to grind to get past it. I got stuck on Cid Raines for a VERY long time, and eventually just gave up before picking it up again when it hit Steam. I don't think I ever finished it beforehand. Nautilus was DEFINITELY the best part of the game, to be sure. That part really hit home for me, especially THAT part at the very end. Having dealt with those types of issues myself and having family members struggle with that sort of thing, it struck home for me. It's such a PITY that all of it was undone five minutes later. It was such an emotional part of the game that it almost felt like a slap in the face to pull a "haha, sike" five minutes after the scene. It removed all the impact that scene would have otherwise had. If that were the plot twist, I would've much preferred that the reveal had happened far later in the game, much like they did with FF4. FFIX, however, I only played about 4 years ago, when I was on a journey to play all the FF titles during a summer break. I had it when I was a kid, but never played it, rather opting for the PS2 games we had, games that were easier for me to understand or easier to play (FF Origins, FF10, Dragon Quest VIII, etc). When I played this game, I was in a slump. This game spoke to me then in a way no game has ever been able to do before. It truly, truly helped me become a better person during that time, and changed my outlook on life. It changed me for the better, it taught me so much. I couldn't help but relate to Vivi in many of the thoughts and experiences he had. Seeing him grow, and seeing each character overcome their hardships. It was so inspiring, truly. The amount of gripes I have with this game are few and far between, to be sure. It's a game that touches the hearts of so many without trying, and is truly a masterpiece. You've worded this perfectly, and you've done a wonderful job on this video. You've gained a sub for sure, keep up the brilliant work.
When I played FFXIII, I also didn't think it was as bad as people made it out to be. That being said, I don't think I could ever go back and replay it, having already completed it once. My abiding memory is how repetitive it is... yet, I have gone back and played through VI, VII and IX recently, and all three of them captured me immediately, with IX being a very cherished one for me. The soundtrack is one I adore very much, to this day, with Distant World's (You're) Not Alone standing high above everything else.
wait wait wait wait... why is there ever IX vs. XIII anything? 13 is Utter garbage by any comparison. The world makes no sense, the story is bonkers and just drags on, the characters are non-interesting archetypes and the gameplay/battle system is overly tedious along with a levelling system directly lifted from FFX. FFXIII is just bad. Also this game doesn't "play itself" half as efficiently and satisfying as FF12... if you are looking for that sort of gameplay. That being said, FF12 and FF13 are two completely different styles of JRPG. try FF12... if anything the depth of story (up until the final boss battle... honestly) is AMAZING.
I like XIII, not cause its good but cause it was so hated I as a XII fan got to go _"Yeah, maybe you all wanna rethink your hate of XII, eh?"_ and fans DID! Now XII is far less divisive and I have XIII (and XV to a degree) to thank for that. ALL HAIL HIROYUKI ITO! But srs growing up with fans who hated IX (which I ADORE) I'd never berate any who liked XIII. Enjoyment needs no justification.
I purchased an XBOX 360 just to play FFXIII. I didn't want to believe all of what the naysayers were saying. It didn't matter, I knew SE were still capable of delivering a great experience. People didn't like FFVIII and I loved it. FFIX was great, even if it didn't quite follow the style of the previous two. Unlike most, I did purchase an play FFXI and loved it. Later on I would play FFX to completion on rented playstation 2 consoles in internet cafes (some internet cafes where i lived offered consoles to play on as well. I purchased my own pirated game discs to play FFX on these consoles as well as used my own memory card). FFX was amazing and I loved it. I probably should replay it sometime on emulator. FFXII I got to play once I finally purchased my own PS2 console and it was an amazing, if flawed game. I loved the MMO style of the combat, but I hated how the plot was ruined later in the game. It set up such a great situation but failed hard core to deliver. The plot felt half finished, as if the person who was creating the plot suddenly left half way through development. So when I finally purchased a used 360 to finally be able to play through FFXIII, I genuinely had high hopes. But I was ultimately disappointed. I didn't hate the battle system. It was fun in its own way. Some boss battles were certainly a challenge, much like previous installments. But it felt soulless, convoluted, and lacking in effort. For example, I think it was the first time where I felt the environments were really ew. Like someone just lazily placed tiles of the same exact pattern over and over. Every single environment seemed to be symmetrical. Whereas I remember how FFVII's environments were so detailed and realistic. FFXIII's environments had no nuance or depth, just repeated tiles over and over again with no variation. I know XIII had some emotionally interesting moments, but I can't remember them at all, not specifically anyways. But I can remember specific emotional moments of every installment previous. It's a pity, but Square Enix went to shit. It really did. FFXIII wasn't the last great single player FF. XII even isn't, though it is close. X is the last. It will always be the last. SE can go suck a big one for all I care. They ruined something so great and for what? Greed. Screw them.
Eh I personally don't think it's fair to compare a ps1 game to a ps3 game in a distant future. It says something that ff9 is linier cause it's an older game but it opens up later and not as far as you think. (I never had a problem with loading maybe my stuff is faster?) but ff13 had weak characters, linier areas (you don't even visit towns and tallk to npcs or buy items.) you get all that done at a save point...and there is so littler interaction with the party as a whole. Listen humans are easy to write but ff9 had animals and weird creatures and they had dept and nuance compared to stoic lightning who is so boring that it becomes a meme, it's one of the most critically acclaimed thing about the series hated among he general public. Yes you may not see it but as your vido is titled you have nostalgia goggles on. (I haven't seen people act like it's overblown where did you see people acting like it killed their family?) It's bad regardless on how you feel, it's sentimental to you so you'll not see it from the prespective of completely bad, I respect that. I like s-cry-ed and it's not the most well written shonen. The only good character I can argue is sazh and fang is sexy and that's about it.
Calling the ability to manage your party in a real time scenario in a J-RPG style impossible is a little extreme. Star Ocean The Last Hope manages to pull it off with a simple LB and RB. A lot of other games like Resonance of Fate and Valkyrie Chronicles use partial real-time (When you move and attack its in real-time, but when you stand still its turn-based style). I think its not impossible its just when a developer weighs the option based on the mechanics already in the game they decide its just simpler to have 1 character be controlled and let the A.I. handle the rest. Like from what you said FFXIII sounds very complex, and needs a lot of precision, adding character switching would just add another layer of complex to the mix.
Final Fantasy IX is my most favoured Final Fantasy. There was so many things, I adored on it. Also my most favoured character is Vivi - I love his story. Sometimes I think, even SquareEnix loved this character more than the other ones. Final Fantasy XIII for the most part, felt so much out of place - Even I sometimes caught myself rereading the logs and got confused in the process of the Mainstory. The whole game in my oppinion did not make much sense at all. And then there was the Final Boss... You fight - a FUCKING PIECE of Art... Look at FFXIII final Boss fight - It is nothing more, than modern art... Despite being the final boss and being hard as hell, its just a Piece of Art... The first form was really fine - The second was a piece of Art, and then Mr. Babyface... How extremly uninspired... Over all those final Boss fights over all those years prior to FFXIII, I think, Mr. Shine and Mr. Bright want their Money back...
I love FFIX my favorite FF game ♥️ It was also my first one.. before FFVII and VIII... I never played FFXII it's the only one but even tho I dont think I woukd like it more than this one. The characters.. the story.. the play.. 😭😭
FF9 had so much potential-I wish they'd spent 10x as much time & money developing it, and just charged 10x as much for the game...so we could've had a perfect game. I don't care if it spanned 40 disks. LMAO
I didn't particularily mind FFXIII's battle system... Mostly because I found auto-combat a bit unreliable... sure, it worked well enough for the Commando and Ravager roles, but if you were a Synergist, there were certain buffs that were better than others, and the auto-combat option did not always prioritize those correctly, likewise if you were a Saboteur, and doubly so if you switched to Medic. So I quickly learned to switch between auto-combat and manually picking the commands... That said, the first FFXIII trailers showed a battle system that I fell deeply in love with and that I still grieve that we didn't get, and so FFX still has my favorite battle system among the FF... FFX is also the reason why I deeply disliked FFXIII's leveling system: I was expecting a complex and interesting variation of the sphere-grid leveling system, and instead I got the linear and boring crystarium... Such a massive let-down... As for FFXIII's plot, yes, it was poorly paced, repetetive and, unfortunately, rather predictable. The world was designed to be as linear as possible, and as I like side content and exploration, that was a massive disappointment to me. There were a couple of plot twists, yes, but I actually anticipated most of them well ahead of time. And I really, really wasn't a fan of all the melodrama, either... If each chapter of the game had been more like Gran Pulse, then I probably wouldn't have minded the level design at least, but... As for FFXIII's characters... I loved Fang and Sazh, but I found Snow obnoxious and not even his character development changed that; Hope was a tween caught up in his own angsty melodramatic plot, which I couldn't get invested in; Vanille was too much of a "cute, spunky, plucky girl" anime stereotype for me to ever really connect with her and though I initially liked Lightning, over the years I've progressively started to dislike her, mainly because Squeenix has focused more and more on putting her in ridiculous, revealing, fanservicey clothes and shoving her down people's throats in an attempt to make everyone accept their marketing division's decision that Lightning is the best thing ever, in the process reducing her as a character and instead turning her into a brand, a piece of merchandise. Speaking of merchandise; the music... I don't _hate_ FFXIII's music, there are actually several good tracks in there, but much like many other things in FFXIII, I feel the music is generally shallow, generic and uninspired. And I think there's a perfectly understandable and logical reason for that: Naoshi Mizuta, the man who made the music for FFXIII-2, was told by the director of the game to make Caius' Theme into something that could surpass "One-Winged Angel"... That is not only putting an unreasonable demand upon a composer to produce a masterpiece, it's also putting a demand upon us, the customers, to basically worship whatever the composer churns out, simply because the director has commanded him to produce something that surpasses "One-Winged Angel"... The _haughtiness_ and _arrogance_ such a command implies boggles my mind, and reveals enough about the director for me to understand why the music in FFXIII was so sub-par: Because it was churned out as a product meant to become popular and sell well instead of being good. Finally, the designs... I generally dislike the designs in FFXIII... the playable characters are good enough, I still like Lightning's guardian corps. uniform, Sazh looks like he's wearing an actual pilot uniform, Fang and Vanille have great designs imo, leaving only Snow and Hope looking a bit unfashionably colourful and generic (Hope moreso than Snow; trenchcoats automatically add some character)... but almost all NPCs look, well, bad... Cid Raines looked good enough, as did Jihl Nabaat, but Yaag Rosch, Galenth Dysley and, well, everyone else either looked uninspired or like Squeenic were trying too hard to make them look memorable. Most of all I hated the monster designs in FFXIII. The Goblins with their donut bodies, (Seriously, how do they survive? How do they even eat?) the nonsensical robots, the Behemoths _with their goddamn fucking pants,_ the adamantoises with their shackles and saddles... that last one wouldn't have been so bad if the adamantoises had been used for transportation, but the people of Gran Pulse have all seemingly been gone for quite some time, so... yeah... All in all, I don't think FFXIII is horrible... The worst I can say about it is that it's basically just kinda "meh"... It's forgetable... You don't lose anything on playing FFXIII, aside from a few dozen+ hours of your life, but you don't exactly grow as a person from having played it, either...
As much as I love FF9, I will NEVER bother with Excalibur 2. Because I found myself having fun indulging in the story more rather than skipping dialog and opening discs to skip cutscenes. And the Eiko/Marcus glitch.
Final Fantasy IX and XIII are those games (with FF6, 7 and 8) that make me squeal whenever I see anything related to it ! FF9 will always be my favourite game, but the FF13 trilogy is also so dear to me! YES, you can love BOTH! 😉
6:30 what you need is a gambit system. lol Yeah, I also like FFXIII's battle. The main let down for me is how convoluted the storyline is. I like complicated stories but FFXIII feels complicated just for complicated's sake. It's detaching. The only game that makes me care about the l'cie, fal'cie et'cie is Type-0. But that didn't rank too high either. My fav is still VI.
I find it always funny how most people only spend half the time in RPGs compared to me. I often hit the 99 hours mark at least whenever I engage in suchkind of games. I loved FFIX back on PS1, got it digitally later on PSP but didn't play it through more than two times, I think. Still, superfun game. Still need to play FFXIII to the end. I think I played something else and somehow dropped somewhere at the halfway point. Still thought, it wasn't as terrible as some people made it sound like.
FF IX is objectively the best game of the PSX era in many ways but it never clicked with me. The problem is the high fantasy setting, I only knew about VII and VIII at the time so science fiction mixed with magic and real life was how I expect Final Fantasy to be even to this day, Is the same reason why I can pull through on FF XIII on my ps3 any day while the PS4 FF XII remaster has been sitting on my shelf untouched for over a year, with my huge backlog of games and the new releases its turn allocated to be played is around spring 2019, right after type 0.
I think i can state that FF13 battle system are perfected in the later xeno games like X and 2 respectively the paradigm system isnt too difficult like the blade arts system, and while you die in FF13 Xenoblade is more forgiving, a KO doesnt equal a Lost Round the AI is pretty good in Xeno 2 and will heal and revive characters this eliminates the problem with FF13 but the paradigm system is not as tailored as switching blade arts on party members so there is a sense of pre planning involved. FF9 and 6 share elements with octopath traveller the magic stones are certainly different to other RPGs except maybe Fallout where you can get perks from exp of context events but switching stones is certainly a mechanic i want to see repurposed like Mario + rabbids kingdom battle where points are swaped to gain a new advantage. Changing battle styles on the fly is what makes yokai watch better than digimon and pokemon but its that control that requires output making it harder. Octopath has boosting which alleviates a lot of problems with fighting high level foes but can sweep most mooks however the sheild weakness system requires strategy and timing to render the opponent broken that scaling sends Octopath above the Best Rpg at the VGA itll be interesting to see torna dlc make use of this with the already established blade arts system with some enhancements man, the RPG A game on switch, PC and ps4 this year is the most toughest yet Octopath vs Xeno 2 torna expansion vs Pokemon lets go vs disgaea 1 complete vs god wars 1 vs valkyria 4 vs dragon quest 11 vs dragon quest builders and most of them are fighting on the switch for best RPG. And this is before SMT V, FE 3H and other RPGs in 2019 and beyond.
FFIX was my first FF game overall, i still play it from time to time, just enjoy the adventure, the beauty and the drama its story has. The RNG was my mortal enemy, but i got to love it because you have to be prepared for bad situations, for an enemy that wants to outright destroy you and for situations you never had before. (looking at you Sealion, always mess up my damage calculation when i need to have Zidane drop a potion) Also FFIX is the best game because Zidane is not even the protagonist at first, he just happends to be there, just like Locke in FFVI while Garnet or Terra in FFVI are the core of the story until this shifts and the story changed focus.
8 years down the line, FF13 is still graphically superior. I loved both games, personally for me 7 will always be the best story wise but every final fantasy is high quality.
I've played through the XIII series 3 times. Great cast, music, universe and story. I felt it was the rpg made just for me. As one of my biggest gribs with jrpgs were towns and borning/useless mini games. Haters are followers...
I kinda wish 9 just pulled off being another 5. Just rolled with the lighthearted adventure motif. It was harder for me to buy into the move into existentialism in the second half with the more cartoony art style and how the first half wasn’t as serious. 10 was a better execution of the similar themes 9 tried to pull off. As for 13, it had it’s moments but the majority of it was so pungently bad it overshadowed any of the smaller, more human moments that were there that could’ve made the story and characters more relatable and impactful. I didn’t like the sequels at all. They were jumbled, random nonsense with script writing that was just extremely laughable and they undercut the character development of the first game.
FF13 is the best game on the PS3...If you've played all the FF's then you'd appreciate the streamlined aspects of FF13. Comparing it to FF9 is more than fair. It is the only other one in the series a true fan would seriously compare it to.
I love how your "not-in-depth" video gives so much information, and have such deep understanding... I think the depthness is in your soul!! About the video, interesting points, I think for me, RPGs are a good balance of character, world building, story, combat system and soundtrack... I know this is part of almost every game, but here it's different... They are long, the main thing, most important are characters, You've to like them. They are your connection to that world. The world have to be interesting or you'll not want to explore it. The story needs to be engaging needs to play with your emotions Combat system because this is a game, you've to really like the system, you'll be playing It for hours and hours... But I dare to say, soundtrack is really, really important here. Bravely default is a game that is mostly characters + soundtrack and omg, this game is amazing! Chrono Trigger I like a Lot but I'm not so much into the characters, I like the gameplay and story, but it doesn't go further But now, my most favourite is Tales of Phantasia... Omg, I love everything on this game! It has amazing story, great likeable characters, amazing villain, interesting world, fascinating Battle system, great soundtrack!
Final Fantasy is in a way quite special. A kind of drug. That nothing can ever match the first one you play, not things that came before or after. Granted, 9 is a result of many iterative steps of evolution; 13 is a new beginning of sorts in a changed market where you couldn't keep iterating on the old formula any longer and it shows in its rough edges, while 9 is polished to perfection. For me, the 8 is going to be special.
It’s insane just how old FF13 is but this video definitely made me miss the game because I loved the 13 trilogy though LR was the weaker one. Definitely gonna revisit it and a few of my other favorite FF games to see how much my tastes changed since the last time I played
Can you guys believe this blargian Snaggle Beast is comparing FF9 to FF13? I mean come on man, FF13...best game on PS3? I just...wow!
Yeah, I have to agree. This is madness to me. 6-9 are all golden, maybe a bit less for 8 (my opinion at least). But 9 was a literal farewell to the old Final Fantasy games. So many references and call backs. I mean that four member party system alone was a nostalgic trip for me when I first loaded it up. Cloud is referenced in it. Not just his sword on a shop wall but someone literally said he was there looking at it. There's an auction house in FF9 as well which personally reminded me of FF6's. Plenty more if you look for them.
Like, I understand that if it was one of your first but XIIl? For me, it did everything wrong. I got it at a midnight release and my girlfriend at the time was so shocked how psyched I was to get it. It was hard to explain it to her three days later why I stopped playing it and sold it.
my sister got it for me for my birthday and i think i played it for 3 days and never played it again. can't describe to you how hype i was to be getting it, too.
I hear ya. I remember the test footage that the video mentions. It looked so fun, for so long. But damn. Final Fantasy Hallway was a letdown for me. I missed so much from the old Final Fantasys while playing it. Namely the world map, I hate that mini map that shows the veins/hallways that make up the world map in these newer Final Fantasys. But yeah. To much to list and it's in the past now. It still bewilders me that it got two sequels though... ugh
Every opinion is biased. I think that FF XIII-2 is better than XIII. And you can compare every title with each other. He just compared those two because he felt like it.
Everyone has their own personal tastes and I feel the comparisons he makes in this video are fair and the video on the whole is very well done.
I'm impressed someone else shared my obsession with ability collecting in FF9.
It's such a simple but addictive mechanic. There are certainly more complex battle systems in Final Fantasy, but I feel 9 strikes a pretty nice middle ground between easy to understand and complexity.
you and everyone else that loved FF9
I grew out of that deep character flaw years ago. You will prevail, friend.
My favorite in any game. So easy but so fun!
i think whenever i grind, it's more for the abilities and not leveling up
Man, I can't believe 13 is almost ten years old
biggest shock of this video tbh
WAIT WHAT!!!
and in 10 years they hev made... 2 canon final fantasy... 13 and 15 ... wau...
well... 9 its... what? 20 years old?
@@associazioneotaku 14 also and is still ongoing
FFIX is like the Shawshank Redemption of gaming. When it came out everybody knew it was great, but nobody made a big fuss or anything, it was always under the shadow of previous more famous titles like VI and VII. It's only now, many years after that people are really analyzing it in retrospective (the highest scored one in Metacritic at the moment). The game is the 'final' of the classic Final Fantasy games, a reflection and tribute of everything that came before, you can just feel that sense of familiarity the moment you turn on this game, and the change in 'feeling' is extremely notable on every game that came after IX. Oh man, this is not only the greatest FF game ever, but one of the best games of all time. Just hearing "The Place I'll Return To Someday" makes my heart grow 5 times.
Actually I remember a lot of complaints about FFIX and how bad it was when it first came out and shortly thereafter, mostly poopooing the characters and comparing it to FFVII (I'm in Camp Overrated on that one). FFIX was taking the series back to its roots and there was a lot of criticism for that, and then FFX immediately thereafter tried to do something new and different again and that got blasted hard too.
It seems to me that we had a generation who grew up with titles like FFIV-FFVII, and then saw titles like IX and X shitting on the legacy and not taking up the mantle in the ways they expected, and then we had a generation who hit titles like FFIX and FFX first before expanding into other titles, and then saw titles like XII and XIII shitting on the legacy and not...you get it.
So I'm really delighted to see this appreciation for my favorites in IX and X now (and there are earlier and later games I still want to check out), because for a long time I felt pretty judged for liking them more than earlier games in the series.
FFIX is like the dark souls of ff guyz
I've played through FF9 so much it's not even funny. Like you, it was my first Final Fantasy game, and I haven't loved one quite like that one. I never wanted to rush through to get Excalibur 2 because I wanted to take my time and actually play through the game. This was my first video from you, and I'm definitely subscribing!
Glad you enjoyed the video and that you could relate to it! And thanks for watching and subscribing! Welcome aboard, although I typically don't cover RPGs. I may cover the FF series in full at some point, though.
Drivillian I'm the same way! I wanna get everything and do the chocobo hot and cold so I've never gotten Excalibur 2.
Retropolis Zone That's cool, I like all kinds of games, just not JRPGs.
FFIX is a game that literally have to come back to every couple of years. Every time I play it I always learn something new too.
Such an amazing game that we really wont be getting from current Square Enix. Which is just a damned shame.
I don't know if it is really a damn shame. FF IX is really the kind of game I think can only exist once, and even trying to do it again would only end in a major flop.
FFIX is a really special case; being that it wasn't even going to be a numbered title originally, but thankfully was made into one. But I'm a little confused as to why you think another game even trying to capture its magic would be a flop?
I mean, I get the general consensus of a lot of people thinking that turn-based classical RPGs aren't popular anymore; but it just keeps being proven untrue time an time again. FFIX sold and reviewed well, and is regarded as one of the best in the series. But we can't have that kind of game again, because it wouldn't sell well?
A title like Bravely Default sold so well mostly by banking on that untapped nostalgic market of classical turn-based RPG fans, as well as pulling in new players with the actually good marketing the game got.
Dragon Quest IX had a similar success, but easily could've failed like most of the DS DQ library, had the game not been pushed to those willing to buy it. Whenever DQ or more traditional FF titles fail, people tend to point to their gameplay style before looking at how little the games are even in the general gaming consciousness. SE can't sell a product they aren't confident enough to pitch to consumers.
Now if there's one argument I can kind of agree with its that SE just doesn't have the talent to make another FF title like IX again. And when I say talent, I'm mostly referring to people accustomed to making games of that quality and scope. Sakaguchi is gone, Ito is on mobile titles, Nomura is buried under mountains of work that he is nowhere near finished with, and their current best producer (Yoshi P.) is doing his best on MMO redemption story that is FFXIV. There's not a lot to work with these days, on top of how obvious it is that SE has had trouble making FF games at all like the PS1-PS2 era, at least in terms of scope and complexity. FFXV will forever be a game that took 10 years+ to make; and still came out unfinished, the last thing I'd want to see is them trying to do a classic FF title, only for it to be mired with development issues a la FFVIIRemake.
Your best bet would be to let some younger talent try and work on a new title. It sounds crazy to not have the big old guard handling a major numbered title, but a lot of developers have seen great success by letting some fresh eyes and eager hearts work on their games or even new IPs. Splatoon, anyone? Just be glad Miyamoto, Tanabe, or Kudo didn't get to that series like they got to Paper Mario!
Though I do know that recent attempts at new IPs have been mixed. I am Setsuna and Lost Sphere were nothing to write home about, but I still think that their lack of a budget played a pretty big hand in making those titles lackluster overall.
Yeah, I do miss traditional FF turned based combat. Mind you, I don't mind XII, XIII, or XV's combat (minus completely gutting magic), but I wouldn't want them repeated, and would gladly prefer a return to the original style. I actually do think with the success of games like Bravely Default, Dragon Quest, and especially Persona 5, it will spark some interesting in making another main title FF with the same type of style like the original FFs.
However, I simply believe FF IX is just THAT special of a case. To attempt to emulate, imo, would be a waste. Mind you, I genuinely want a return to FF's roots, but I don't think it should try to be like FF IX. I'd very much like a new FF which took inspiration from the Old.
btw, that was a fantastic write up. It's was a great read, and I wish I had the time to write something as great as you did.
Oh yeah, I get that. FFIX came out just before the series really started to change for better or for worse. It kind of encapsulates a lot of what makes the new and old of Final Fantasy great, without feeling like a rehash of old ideas.
and sorry about the rambling! At least it was a good read! XD
I saw the thumbnail of this video and knew I simply HAD to watch it. As a massive fan of FFIX in my childhood, and also a massive fan of FFXIII in my teenage years, it is with much annoyance I found myself a unique individual in terms of liking both the two games a lot.
I can't say I ever went without the games for any huge stretch of time. I played FF9 at least a dozen times before FF13 came out. And experienced FF13 content up until and during the release of Lightning Returns. All the while examining my own feelings about the games along with the contrasting feeling of people who complain about them on the internet.
I go back to them and see their flaws, but to be honest I was never really blinded by flaws in FF13 when it came out cause everyone and their mother was adamant about what they hated, while I didn't view them as such large problems.
I love those games still. And in FF13's case, the improvements that they made in gameplay as the trilogy continued just made me love the universe as whole, and appreciate the work the team was putting in to find out what fans wanted and how to develop a game in their universe that people would like. Individually they had very contrasting problems, but it just made for the odd circumstance where I looked to FF13 for a story, LR for gameplay, and FFXIII-2 for a fair mix.
I miss Squaresoft.
I miss _Square_
Square enix is simply just dealing with the same problem that all the japanese developers are dealing with: how do we cater to both japanese fans and western fans at the same time, especially with their preconceived notions about how western fans want fast action packed gameplay.
@@dugonman8360 bollocks.
FF9 is the best in the series
If it's the only one you've played.
Guess you haven't played XIII
6
Final Fantasy XIII was a huge disappointment for me when I first played it, but now its just kind of a meh game for me; not really that bad, but kinda dull. Dat music though. 'Speautiful.
FFIX on the other hand is amazing and I get all the feels just thinking about it. Might have to replay it soon...
Great vid my dude!
XV was the one that disappointed me. I actually thoroughly enjoyed XIII on first playthrough.
Atleast ffxiii characters looks decent and normal compared to ffix that looks like kids with big heads and eyes😨
J Ryan XV may have killed the series for me if the next game is as half assed as it as.
I think if theres a next installment then my guess is its another game about warring kingdoms again and again, bec this games plot is mostly like that
Not always since there have been plots that flip around this idea, but you know the best way to introduce a new world is always with a plot about warring kingdoms its a story style based on the famous novel Romance of the three kingdoms, often its hard to take anything new into relateable context without a good old fashioned war, however I do agree that we need to have a new plot, I mean 13's was a original with the cast being fugitives so I guess thats a +
FF9 is and will always be my favourite game ! 😍😍 But I really, really love the FF13 trilogy, the characters are so awesome! 😍😍 Proof that you can be a fan of the older FFs and appreciate the new ones two!
It might be different but the Final Fantasy series never disappointed me! 😁
Holy crap, this is really good. I know I would have a different experience with FF9, but after this, I am really considering giving it a shot. You just added another Final Fantasy game that I feel like I really need to play. You monster ;)
Knuckles Channel 3 & Knuckles
Eeek ff9 characters looks freak😂
Cloud Strife. I dont like the desgin of the ff9 characters.
David Kings
Yah ur right, they look like midgets with big heads and big eyes 1 looks like a rat 1 looks like a fat chef😂😂😂😂
Go for the steam version! The desings may look cartoonish as hell but they look good, the game IS pretty entertainment and it tells a good story!
Knuckles Channel 3 & Knuckles. To tell you the truth I didnt find the story game better than ff7, ff6 or ff8. Well, even for me FFT is better and more entertaining in many aspects, this game is where I started to get disappointed in the ff franchise. The battle system is far from innovarite compared to the others. But to each their own of course.
This video ignited all of my ff9 nostalgia, I still try to play it once a year because that game was my childhood. Thank you 👏
I have a theory on how FF games have become more linear feeling and restrictive, even FF15 with its massive area to explore. To me it comes down to the games abandoning metaphor. Technical limitations of earlier games meant you needed to use your imagination more.
The obvious one is the world map which in FF9 is far less detailed and more sparse than the content in 13 but it feels like a whole actual world because they have just set up the concept and you fill in the detail between the hubs of content. This in practice turns out to be way different to running or driving around a full scale world in real time with zero metaphor. Everything just is as it appears on screen and is more boring for it.
The random battles can be a little annoying but they're a metaphor for the scraps and adventures your party get up to on their long journey. In FF6 and 7 there are fights with 3 or 4 soldiers that clearly represent much larger battlers. Now the metphor is lost and you're literally in a corridor fighting 3 dudes who were sitting there waiting for you I guess. In increasing the reality the scale has become smaller.
It's like the difference between a book and a movie, the earlier games described great events that your mind worked to fill in. The new games just are whats' shown.
Anyway, everyone knows FF7 is the best because that's the one I happened to play first and during my formative years. haha
And if you've read this long, great channel, keep up the good work, looking back at your videos I saw you were wondering about growing and your format. UA-cam suggested this video because I looked at final fantasy stuff recently. Maybe doing some more short videos on some more popular games to draw people in would be a good idea. That's how I found you and can't wait to delve into the longer ones in future. Keep up the awesome work.
I really enjoyed XIII and as a fan of the game it's not hard to come across ppl who will try their hardest to make you feel bad about liking it.
That's not to say that there's nothing wrong with XIII (there certainly is) nor are ppl who dislike it are wrong but there definitely is a bandwagon against the game.
Honestly I'm on the lower level of people who enjoyed XIII more than IX but that's not because I don't like IX it just didn't gell with me personally.
XIII on the other hand I had a blast with. I personally think the paradigm system is easily the best combination of Gambits and standard atb combat and with some ai tweaks it could easily be the best in the series. The game forces you learn the system and strategically come up with party layouts and paradigms to win battles rather than lvl grinding.
The games linearity is a downsize for sure but it's not hard to get over. The game has a beautiful art style one that strongly encompasses themes of Si-Fi heavily. Every hallway you travel through Is gorgeous and actually relavent to the main story (unlike xv) and the music that accompanies every area beautifully composed.
I'd also argue the characters are easily the highlight of the game. Every character (save from fang) has a decent character arc along with another party member.
All n all I like it a lot
Like I said in the video, I do think the amount of negativity and hate FF13 gets is a bit much. I don't think it's a good game all things considered, but I also wouldn't call it an awful one. It's one with some great ideas, but the execution is all over the place and often not very good at all, in my opinion. I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more if it weren't so repetitive with areas that just go on waaaay too long for their own good. 40 to 50 hours of the same combat system that doesn't even open up until the halfway point is a lot of time to be doing the same thing over and over, regardless of the fact I did enjoy the combat for what it was.
And I do agree the characters have some pretty decent development as pointed out in the video, particularly Sazh and Vanille. Those scenes where Sazh finds out about Vanille being involved with Dajh are well done. However, I think the game's dialog and other scenes often aren't where they should be. The scene where Lightning argues with Snow and goes ''worst birthday ever'', it just felt so hamfisted and weird. Or when Lightning suddenly starts talking like a poet out of nowhere when she realizes she's like a pet of the Fal'Cie. I think a lot of the character development would have been more effective if they had better direction and dialog. The scene where Hope confronts Snow and is about to kill him is an example of one of the better directed scenes, I think, and felt more effective.
Fang was literally the only character in the game I could even tolerate. XIII sucked and was way too bogged down with hackneyed writing and ridiculous cliche.
The thing is that most final fantasies are like that. Character motivation is almost always meh. The problem with 13 on that point is that the characters are unrelatable, unlikable, and completely unwilling to accept responsibility for anything and instead throw tantrums and act like children who haven't gotten there way. Which just completely destroys any sense of urgency.
The gameplay is hella boring though. I mean it's basically mysic quest levels of simple with attempted complexity with paradigm shifting that just makes it muddled. It was just a borrowed idea from 10-2 but even more poorly executed. It's just a concept that doesn't work regardless, but even still 10-2 executed it far better.
But are you kidding me? Every hallway feels significant? They're all copy pasted and bland. Like one thing I will say about final fantasy as a series is they're great at open spaces, trees, forests, etc. The design for enclosed areas is far less enchanting.
Tl;dr FFXIII doesn't really commit any sins other final fantasies haven't done before. In fact some have done worse. Lightning is a bloody tampon. Fang is the only character preventing this group of aimless morons from self imploding. But most importantly it just didn't do anything new. That's why it's hated. Because final fantasy tries something new every game. XIII just tried to play it safe and genetic. A watered down version of 10-2's heat of battle job changing, an atb system that just auto-played itself, grindy endgame with no real scale. It all just came together to make something so milquetoast and painfully average that it fails to achieve what most other final fantasies have. A unique identity. Even the final fantasies that were bad were bad in there own ways.
Also get over yourself. I would have taken more of your points to heart if you didn't immediately try to play the victim card. FFXIII is a painfully average game. You're allowed to like it. Others are allowed not to. Others having opinions on it does not equal trying to make you hate yourself. It equals them practicing their free speech as you do. If you can't handle that don't talk about the game.
Sami Good one. Must have taken you a while to come up with that.
Bitch
ZhynZokuna I can agree with your points although I think you could have been a little nicer
ZhynZokuna Your negatives for 13 while understandable your reasoning however is kinda not so sound. First off you saying that the combat system is something borrowed from 10-2 where as the only thing they took from 10-2 was the active combat system, the Paradigm system has nothing to do with the dressphere system.
Secondly your argument about characters is really stupid considering FF characters have done what they did from previous games in worse fashion not to mention Lightning as dull as what people say she is she is the first true baddass girl of the series where as Terra, Yuna and Tiffa talk more about their feelings and hopes than a female romance protagonist of one of those really old really bad romance novels. So lightning was a really good change of pace. But I will agree that Hope was the most uneccisary cuck in the game and fits your description nicely.
Its endgame I liked because grindy is a staple thing in Jrpgs and something I think the more modern ones need to get back to because with grind there is gonna be that one weapon you didn't try on x playthrough and you make a whole play through just to try it out so grindy I would say is good, did it have no aim? Probably but honestly grinding to fight those big ass adamatortises felt like playing monster hunter all over again so call me nostalgically bias.
Finally the reason why he played the victim card about FF13 is because nobody knows how to constructively critisise anymore, if you disagree with something state why etc, people don't do that they say this is trash like some three year old just to trigger people and the general consensus about something shifts all because one idiot doesn't know how to make a good standpoint about their opinion.
What a beautiful video, I couldn't agree more with you about FF9, it's such a masterpiece but more importantly, it's such a dear experience I can never forget.
Final Fantasy IX holds a special place in my heart. My experiences with the Final Fantasy series was through my big brother who played and finished Final Fantasy VII. I was there for the ride. But IX was the one where I played on my own which I feel more attached too.
Also I have to give so much credit to the music in IX. You see, I am not from a English speaking country and I was young when I played IX thus my knowledge of English was very limited back then. So most of the time, the music is what allowed me to understand a scene. This was aided by the body language that the characters are showing on screen.
Also, I loved the fairy tale ending of IX. Yes, it can be seen as cliche and cheesy, but I don't care. The story itself is clearly influenced by fairy tales. The ending is the best and most satisfying ending in my gaming experience. I know I will revisit the game someday because it holds so many wonderful memories from my childhood.
I replayed the XIII trilogy this month because I've never finished Lightning Returns (I reseted the save two times because I couldn't kill the final boss, 2 years ago), so I replayed all of them and fuck XIII was amazing and I could appreciate it much
more this time around, also I cried at ending, XIII-2 is very good too but LR is average at best, but the ending man, it's one of the best endings I saw in games.
you need Fang and Vanile on sabtour mod to beat this boss
XIII-2 ending song after you just get out of Valhalla.
Me: This shit aint over til the black lady starts singing.
*the music starts*
Me: Awesome
*Serah dies*
Me: No, what the fuck did I do wrong? C'mon man! Wtf?!
*Realized later on there was no other alternative*
Me: sigh FML
The second cut scene in FF13-3 tho. Lightning talking about the bonds of love and all. Lightning is awesome but even then I was reaching critical cringe levels I never thought were possible - Lethal levels.
oh my god that part yeah the end was the wrost part it kind of ruined LR
ravyn tate 😂😂😂😂
FF9 is my birth game. It came out around the time I was born (wow that makes us all look old). I played through it so many times but wasn’t able to beat it until earlier this year (I got up to the last save point but never beat the final bosses). When I did I felt so weird. I was happy because I beat my birth game after 17 years! But I was sad because I finally finished my childhood game... the game that showed my growth over childhood and my current teen years. The feeling was indescribable, best I got is pure raw emotion.
The cast of 9 is amazing. I felt connected to the characters in a way that they stopped becoming character, but different sides of myself. Stubbornness and loyalty in Steiner, crazy and playfulness in Quina, tough-guy act and strength in Amarent, inner-strength and righteousness of Vivi, I could go on. Hell my hairstyle and attitude is straight from Zidane! These character are not simple code on a disc anymore, they are living. The only thing I feel closer to than my copy of 9 with its cracked case is my original GameCube (another story perhaps later)
With the theme of finding your place and who are you I always come back to thinking. After finally beating it I felt more connected to myself then I have ever been. No other media made me think so deeply about myself and has made me rethink life itself as 9 has (no other media has even made it cross my mind). That is good, lasting story telling. Make the game personal to the player... that’s something games now a days fail to do. They get so wrapped around themselves that they fail to make it personal, deeper and more meta.
The failing in 13 is simply what you brought out. The game is fight an auto-play battle (that only stops being auto after the 70% mark) run down a linear hallway to another auto-play battle then run down another linear hallway and repeat this until end game when you can actually do anything engaging. FFX was linear as well but it kept you engaged. 13 holds your hand from one pretty set piece to the next in a condensed, confusing story that get explained only in the built in history book that felt like doing work when you should be having fun. 13 fails in every way of a good game, it looks exciting but the complete randomness of everything plus the brutal difficulty spikes that force you to battle those skippable battles because that the only way to get exp and it’s finite until end game (better start grinding what you can).
13 doesn’t really have much good about it. Bad story telling (from how it was presented), demanding and random combat, false choice of skippable battles, terrible hallway design in map levels and character power progression, and way too many cutscenes. Personally the only thing that kept me going was Taz and the chocobo chick but after a certain event halfway right at the end of a chapter (if you played this you will know which one) I quit not knowing that the weight of what happened didn’t do what I thought it did.
TLDR: Final Fantasy 9 is the best game ever made and 13 could be one of the worse in current years alongside Mighty No. 9, Battlefront 2, and No Man’s Sky launch.
you basically put to words the way I feel about 9. also, I was maybe close to being 9 years old when I bought it, so I guess it was fate XD I've always been kinda struggling with emotions and after going to therapy for a couple of months I decided to play it again recently and I found that I could understand it on an even deeper level than before. also, the characters are well thought of, because they look like stereotypes but they drop the mask pretty quickly. they actually teach you that getting to know someone further than looks or first impressions is definitely the way to go and that judging others solely on their facade is just preventing you from enriching experiences. I can't really say how much I liked it. I even like the battle system, I became pretty good at it.
tldr cringy drivel
This video was too long. Halfway through it, I got hungry so I left it playing and went to the kitchen to fix my self a sandwich. But then I found out that I'm out of mayonnaise so I went to a store. There, I saw the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my whole life. But I'm really a shy person so I took up a three-year personality development course so I can introduce myself. She was very friendly and all, but unfortunately, she had a boyfriend. So I said, all good, I'm a mature person. I want the best for her and I harbor no illusion that I am the best person for her and she seems happy with her boyfriend, so I did not bother her anymore. But we kept in touch and we became friends and I got over my crush on her. Then she broke up with her boyfriend, we drank some alcohol because of it, I told her she'll be fine and I wished her well. I still think she's the most beautiful woman in the world, but like I said, I am over my crush on her. It was like five years already when I first saw her. Besides, I am quiet happy with the friendship I developed with her. It was more important than a crush. So we kept hanging out, drinking, having coffee, and all. I had a girlfriend, she started dating other guys. My girlfriend wants to live some other life without me in it, so I said, "Okay, I want the best for you and I want you to pursue your happiness." My lady friend and I drank alcohol about it, and she gave me the same advice I gave her when she was in that position and I became okay with the breakup immediately. But we were really drunk, so she spent the night in my apartment. I only have one bed, so you know what that means: She took the bed and I slept on the couch. But on the couch, I really can't sleep. Something was bothering me. So I tossed and turned for about three hours, then I finally can't take it anymore, I stood up and went straight to my room where she's sleeping. I approached the bed, gently sat on it and I reached for her shoulder to pull her closer to me. She stirred and woke up. She asked what's up. I told her, "you know, the first time I saw you, I was watching a video and left it playing to get myself a sandwich then went to the store to get some mayo then I got so distracted by life that I forgot to finish the video." She said, "You know what, I've been wondering about a weird noise in your night drawer." So we opened that drawer, and lo and behold, there's my phone and this video still has two minutes of play time on it.
You may not have played all the FF games but you just broke down the difference between Squaresoft and Square Enix Final Fantasy games.
As for XIII, I understand why you have an attachment to the game. I'm pretty sure everyone have pretty bad games that they enjoyed personally when they were younger. Not saying XIII is bad though but it is average. Final Fantasy have such a high standards that if it went below that, it ends up in disappointment. It only got worse when the game not just brought the franchise down, but the whole JRPG genre as whole.
You see lots of critics and detractors saying that "JRPG is dead, turn-based mechanics are so ancient, anime-looking characters are annoying, yada-yada" and most of these people point out FFXIII as the culprit. There are many factors why JRPGs declined last gen, but XIII panning out hard is one of them.
I'll admit that FF13 is by no means a great game, especially if you're comparing it to the many great JRPGS out there like Xenoblade Chronicles, NieR, Okami, etc etc but nothing can change the fact that i enjoyed the heck out of it when i first played it (it helps that i was much younger and patient with its flaws). As someone unused to bigger console games, i genuinely loved everything about the game. I had no expectations going into it as I'd never played any other FF game, i just enjoyed it for what it had to offer. It was beautiful, the music was gorgeous, I grew to like all of the characters over time, the combat was hecking tough, i wasn't super against the corridor type environments because i'd played so many games of that design but this was the first to actually make me enjoy walking around and just taking everything in.
If i were to play it now for the first time, I definitely wouldn't enjoy it as much, but that applies to pretty much every game, movie or tv show from my childhood.
Just acknowledge that it has flaws and dont make a big fuss about people that enjoy it!
It's so relieving to hear that someone else really enjoyed their time with ff13
5:57
Coaching, planning, team building, and leaving the actual performance up to your team, isn't a point of contention in Final Fantasy XIII because people hated the concept. It's because Final Fantasy XII did it infinitely better. The Gambit system, as it was called, was essentially the backbone of the game. Not only was it heavily empathized and ever expanding, but it was extremely complex and allowed you to customize behavior on a micro level. It was basically A.I. programming once you got into the late game. And, man, was it satisfying to watch your characters respond to a myriad of diverse situations, on their own, with little to no input from you, all thanks to your planning and foresight. In comparison, XIII's auto-battle system, much like everything else in the game, felt extremely simplified and underwhelming.
I highly recommend you give XII a go at some point if this was an aspect of XIII you were able to appreciate.
Good stuff though, my dude. It's neat to get a casual fan's insight into the series. Especially for these two extremely polarized entries. And for the record I by no means hate XIII, hell I Platinumed the damn thing. I was just disappointed by it, but was able to, ultimately, enjoy it for what it was.
Yeah, I've heard FF12's battle system is more like FF13's, but with more depth to the coaching aspect and that you can even pause the action to manually select commands. I'll be interested to play it some time in the future, for sure, although there's many Final Fantasies I still have to try. I haven't even beaten 6 yet, lol, and that seems like one of the most essential ones to have finished considering it is generally said to be the best installment. These games aren't short, either, haha.
Thanks for watching, though, and I'm glad you enjoyed the video! I am happy with how it came out, and found it a refreshing change of pace compared to my usual content.
I mean auto battle is optional I did a playthrough without it.
My absolute no.1 final fantasy game is ffxii
The amount of stuff to do, the lore, the story, the enjoyable grinding, the misic and it is also one of the prettiest games on the ps2.
12 was ahead of it's time. The remaster clearly shows that people with how people went back to it or gave it a chance this time around. It's in my top 3. I alternate 8 and 12 at number 2 depending on my mood.
FF 12 Zodiac age is probably the best FF game (ofc after FF 9).
12 was a very good game. I'm sure people hated it because it looked like an MMORPG.
12s biggest issue is the protagonist and the game's fear of going into the deep end of the pool for it's story. Vaan is just a bad main character. There's nothing inherently bad about him, but there's no reason for him to be there. This is partly due to the game's creators choosing to change the main character of the story to appeal to the Japanese youth...aka the J-Pop idol looking Vaan. They just shoehorned him into a story that was likely already fleshed out and near completed. From what I hear the original lead was supposed to be a character similar to Basch, but after Vagrant Story's reception among the Japanese youth (awesome game btw...screw the Japanese) they decided to make Vaan. Vaan just doesn't fit. Basch would have been a great lead...in fact, so would Ashe. Hell, even Balthier would have been a great main character. Hopefully we'll never have such poor decision making again. As for the story, I agree it was enjoyable, but it would have been unbelievable if it just took it a step further and didn't stop short when things were getting good.
@@bloody4558 less hated than 9
you pretty much nailed the reason why final fantasy is dead now. even if it wasn't on purpose.
ff13 tries so hard to pull you in and make you feel with all these fancy graphics and drama, but somehow falls short.
ff9 on the other hand... makes you feel, laugh, cry, and care, without even trying.
9 has a soul.
I loved FF 12, 13-2 and 14:ARR though. (FF 14 in particular is on the top 5 best selling MMOs with most active playerbases). Those are great games. Also, FF X is universally praised. How is the franchise dead?
10 is great. games past 10 are good games, but they aren't final fantasy. being a best selling mmo means fuckall unless you're calling pre-11 ff's mmo's but then we're having an entirely different conversation.
final fantasies 10 and previous all had a genius to them that couldn't be replicated or cloned, so when square enix took over, they tried real hard. they even found a formula. but while they might be good games, they aren't final fantasy.
it really comes down to the effortlessness of it all. look at the villains pre-11. i'm willing to bet money that you can remember most of the villains that come before, but few of the villains that come after. that's because the pre-11 villains actually had purpose. they were relatable. fuck it, they were real. now they're just cheap replications. sometimes they can be interesting, shit sometimes they even have good stories, but settling for a good story is settling for a good game. not a masterpiece. Final Fantasy is dead, and has been since X.
believe me when i say that the previous statement breaks my heart. but i can't lie to myself anymore. and lets come to honest terms. post 10? come the fuck on. pre-11 we had kefka, sephiroth, kuja, garland, ultimecia, sin, fucking real. badass. awesome. villains. post 11... do you ACTUALLY remember? was it like, the fal'cie or something? please disregard my ignorance for a moment and understand the point i'm making. nobody gives a fuck. but you know who does?
fucking sephiroth.
Starting with your villains argument, I'd argue that Caius, Bhunivelze and Ardyn are better villains than Cloud of Darkness, Exdeath and Ultimecia so already the argument falls apart because it's so subjective.
Also, while I love the Final Fantasy series and have been a huge fan for years I can't agree that the series is wholly unique. The franchise is iconic but in Japan it's not even as big as SMT, Dragon Quest or even newer franchises. Medieval fantasy in Japan means Dragon Quest. FF is a great series that introduced the JRPG worldwide but it's not unique.
If you wanna argue about uniqueness in the series, FF 10, 12 and 13 are the most unique the genre, or at least the series, has ever been, introducing elements that have never been introduced before and setting those in narratives that are not as common as the plots of the games in the series before 10.
FF 6 and7 were masterpieces, indeed, but that has mostly to do with the story being phenomenal and the magicite ad materia systems which were neat and the first times the series got experimental. After 7, the experimental gameplay elements of the series fell flat (FF 8 magic drawing and cards which was just awful and nobody liked it, FF 9's random trance). It wasn't until 10 that the battle system got great again.
The pre-9 series is great (except for 8) that's a fact, but it wasn't unique and it wasn't necessarily better than the newer games.
While I love the classics, FF 6 and 7 will always be my top 2, I can't agree that the series got bad after 9. 13-2, 12 and 10 are my top 3, 4 ad 5 respectively. The series has always been great.
Most people complain about the series getting worse after 9 because it's just too different and because SE produces more spinoffs and sequels now which many people don't support. And that's ok but many people enjoy the newer games and the series is bigger than it has ever been.
I never argued that final fantasies were unique.
My villains point may be subjective but it's also popular opinion. There's a reason everyone loves these villains, and there's a reason why they're so much more recognized than the newer villains of the franchise. You're perfectly entitled to love Caius as a villain but try to argue that he's as iconic as Sephiroth, or Kefka, or Kuja, or Sin, you must know that's not realistic.
That is just an example of my point anyways, which is that pre11 final fantasies told brilliant stories effortlessly while post10 final fantasies tell okay stories painstakingly. Sometimes the stories are good, and sometimes the villains are cool. but their delivery is piss-poor.
to me, the essence of final fantasy is brilliant storytelling, and that's what stopped showing up after 10. Again, brilliant. storytelling. not okay or good or enjoyable storytelling.
The stories before 10 were good? Thats a load of bullshit, I mean sure they did have their moments but don't think they were by any means great, you can call 9, 6, 10, 4 and 8 great but the rest weren't so good ya know
Man, I never thought I'd see you talking about RPGs, let alone in such depth. Yes I know, compared with how hard you usually go on other games this is small potatoes, but still? Really nailed why FF9 is such a good entry in the series. Did it in a pretty to the point way too. Even if I kind of am forever disappointed at how FF9 just... forgets about every character not called Zidane, Garnet or Eiko past disc 2, I still adore the first half and still love the second for still being a fun adventure that's great to play. It does hold a privileged place in my heart as well.... so I could relate with this video quite well.
But even without that, very nice analysis, with a good blend of sentimentality, which is a strange combination? But works well within the theme of the video. And should I ever get a PS3 I'd definitely give FFXIII a shake... you made it sound at least potentially fun. Great stuff, Michael.
It was really fun to talk about RPGs! Like I said, I don't really have the experience with the whole franchise to give a proper, in-depth analysis on these games yet, but just sharing what I liked and didn't like about the games was already cool. It was something different than usual, and in a shorter, more personal package. I'm happy with how it came out and I'm glad you enjoyed it!
There's honestly so much more I could say about FF9 and why I hold it dear so much (as well as some things I don't like or thought were meh, I have them), but I wanted to keep it a bit more focused on a couple large points; do some expressing about it, because the game deserves it. And my last words probably haven't been said on it, but whatever that'll be is for a later day. ;)
Anyway, thanks for watching and leaving your thoughts!
Retropolis Zone Oh yes, I bet should you have gone all the in depth FF9 deserves, you would have for instance mentioned how welcome the speed up feature is in the Steam version, hoho. But still, this kind of video is more than enough for a briefer, wider topic. You're welcome, and it is you who needs thanking for putting up this content. Cheers!
Yeah, the Steam/PS4 version certainly has some nice conveniences: the drastically faster loading times, the ability to toggle off random encounters on the fly, speed up features -- they definitely help make some of the more dated aspects of FF9 more palatable. There's some things I don't like about it, though, like the lack of analog support, and an area's music for some reason restarts after every battle. So that means, unless you turn off random encounters, that you'll constantly be hearing the beginning of a track and not the full piece, which is a big mess up for a game with such a wonderful soundtrack. I couldn't imagine only hearing the beginning parts of that beautiful overworld theme constantly and not the rest of it. Haha.
Retropolis Zone Oh yeah, that is pretty annoying, isn't it. If you're unlucky, or not that much, with the high encounter rate, some might never even get to hear past many song intros, huh. Guess it should go hand in hand with disabling encounters.
Thinking about it, I can agree that the game seems to forget all the rest of the characters by the halfway point. However, in my opinion, the reason was that some of the character arcs had completed by the end of Disc 2. On the other hand, Zidane, Garnet, Eiko, and Vivi still had unresolved conflicts going into the last two discs.
My only problem with FFXIII is the story was reaching too much...
FF9 was actually the FF game that I would recommend newbies to play in PS RPGs
I have certain bias with the past games than the newer ones but I believe that numbered FF games stopped being good after FF X till maybe XV
Franco Israel Morcilla 15 was...ugh....sold that thing after I beat it. Igh
Ye I still hold PSX FF games especially FF tactics
This is weird, FF-IX has been my favorite game of all time ever since it came out in 2000. It changed my life and partly created who I am as a person. It got me into gaming, I now study game design, it got me into Final fantasy and jrpgs in general.
After IX, I played through every single other FF, I have several legal copies of basically each game, about 5 of IX.
I bought a ps2 just so I could play 10, I recently bought a ps4 just so I could play 15.
There has only been one final fantasy that I never finished, that I just couldn't give a crap about, where I hated the design, the characters, everything, and it's 13.
Great work my friend !! You didn’t need one hour video to make a fantastic analysis without it turning into a full review
Some of your description of FFIX really hits close to home, except with FFX for me. Although, having only played FFIX for the first time earlier this year, it definitely earns it a lot more than FFX does, as much as I love that game. FFIX just has so many more ups and downs, so much more side stuff to do, and in general you have a LOT more freedom. It really is a fantastic game.
I'm glad youtube recommended this video, as this sort of well put together content is always a good watch (particularly as an aspiring game developer)
Thanks! I'm happy you found and enjoyed the video. :)
XIII is a decent game that suffers over the top criticism due to it using the Final Fantasy title. Had it been called something different, we'd see a much fairer judgement.
IX is an absolute masterpiece, though. Memorable characters, locations, music, plot, you name it. Quina was a bit "ehhhh", but there used to always be that oddball character in Final Fantasy games that joined your party.
Also, on the slow fights. You said you never noticed it before. Are you playing on an original physical copy of the game? Those disks wore down over time and resulted in them being harder to read, cutscenes being jumpy, etc. My disk 3 goes into an endless casting animation when using the meteor spell with Vivi. The animations were slow and ran at like 15fps, but any gaps between could likely be linked to disk wear or your lens needing cleaned. :)
I was indeed playing it on an original physical copy of the game on an original PS1, but the battles were equally slow on the Steam version of the game (outside of the initial loading into the battles). I didnt have any FMV skips, either. Does FF9 actually read animations directly off the disc, though? That sounds unusual; typically stuff like that'd be stored in memory beforehand, but maybe this game is a different case. It could explain why stuff takes so long sometimes.
Bluenose Bear Had final fantasy 13 been called something else it would have bombed and been forgotten forever.
Retropolis Zone Yeah, I believe so. It's definitely a strange one, but the same endless animation thing was resolved upon changing to disk 4. I'd even known some friends who couldn't use certain other skills or view certain FMVs. As much as I love physical, thank god we have digital to save us from that issue nowadays.
John Smith To each their own. I found it to be a fun, albeit flawed game. I went through my second playthrough when it came to PC and it was an absolute slog, though. Not a game I would recommend playing for a second time.
As for it bombing, I dunno so much. I am Setsuna is quite possibly the worst JRPG that I've ever played and yet a lot of people like to compare it to Chrono Trigger. That found its audience, I'm sure Final Fantasy XIII would have, too. Especially with how the game looks gorgeous to this day.
Yep, so I just tested it: FF9 does indeed load special animations off the disc in real time, instead of storing them into memory beforehand. It's unusual to see that, but at the same time I can understand, since there are so many potential different spells and attacks a player can select. You probably couldn't load those in all at once when a battle begins on the PS1.
They could have loaded the basic attacks and some common spells as fire and such. Still, it's pretty neat to know this fact.
FF-13 is NOT a horrible game, I have quite a few hours logged on it but... the words "battle simulator" comes to mind when I think about it. FF-9 is much better at pacing and story i my humble opinion. My first real brush with FF was 7 and while I never really got into the older NES/SNES games I have fond memories of playing 7-10, with FF-10 being MY ultimate FF experience. 12 did not really grab me at all, this was the first game (I think?) that played with controlling just the main character BTW.
I do play games for the story first and foremost which FF-13 does not have a lot of. What is THERE is ok but I have a feeling that they had a game concept, developed it and then slapped a story on top. FF-7 to 10 and 12 all have engrossing stories and for the most part very memorable characters. As for grinding, I don't really mind it that much in moderation. The same with random encounters, though at times I am very glad for the gear in some that can make you skip it when necessary. ;-)
One of the thing I can NOT fault an of them for however is the music! Got I love the music of these games, oh man. While not all are what I would listen to outside the game it is all fits very well with the game in mind. No complaints there. :-)
i loved XIII but a refer to it in the trilogy (along with FF13-2, and FF13-3). the sequels are extremely underrated and hardly anyone talks about them other then people complaining "WAH why did XIII get a sequel that game sucks!"
Tbh, though I am not a big RPG dude, (barely even) idk what it is. But JRPGs especially have great music. I know. It's kinda dumb but there is something captivating of an epic soundtrack. And tbh, I like to try more JRPGs if I ever got around to that. (I played Paper Mario TTYD,Persona 5,Persona 4,and even tried some FF6.)
In general, watching this was a good watch for me. Great work dude.
Based on your description of what you liked in FFXIII, I highly, *highly* recommend you try out XII.
Final Fantasy XIII really feels like a stripped-down, barebones version of XII; I remember reading somewhere that after XII didn't live up to expectations (it wasn't poorly reviewed or a financial failure or anything, but after X was a pretty big smash hit and XI was wildly popular considering it was a console MMO on the PS2 and still managed to run active servers for well over a decade, there were some pretty high hopes for XII), they concluded that it was because the game was 'too complicated' and decided to revisit the same concepts but in a massively simplified form to try to make XIII more accessible.
That is all hearsay and I don't have any sources, so I might be extremely wrong about that; take it all with a grain of salt.
XII has a very similar real-time battle system with open world exploration 3 party members, 2 being AI controlled, but there's two massively important factors to differentiate it from XIII: For one, you can manually pause the action and switch commands to other party members whenever you deem it necessary (and it's a very quick, intuitive, and snappy switch as well, meaning it can be spammed without it getting tedious), and you can set up your own party members' A.I. through the Gambit system.
The Gambits are a little obtuse to start out with, but they're basically sets of very simple if-then statements that you can assign to each party member, and of course the characters are fully customizable in their ability loadouts, so you can have someone with offensive and healing capabilities who will automatically switch between one and the other based on the party's health, and if they're healing the wrong person like an idiot, you can always manually jump over to force them to heal the right person whenever you like.
Basically take the FFXIII battle system and just add a couple layers of depth, and you've got XII. It's definitely not the BEST battle system out there; a lot of people did complain that it felt too much like an MMO, waiting on cooldowns and macros and having fairly little direct control, but since you like the team-coaching aspect of XIII's battle system, I think you'll like XII's combat a LOT.
Oh, and the story of XII, while nothing to necessarily write home about, is at least a lot more comprehensible in general, with fewer giant exposition dumps completely recontextualizing your entire adventure and understanding of the universe dropped on your face out of nowhere, and a lot more complex 4-d chess political maneuvers in a much more grounded story that only becomes all 'end-of-the-world-ancient-prophecy' towards the very end, which I generally prefer.
The primary reason IX is by FAR my favorite FF game is specifically because it feels like the scope spirals outward in a very natural, believable progression, with neither too much or too little information being dropped on your face at once:
It starts as a simple heist story involving a band of thieves and a small monarchy, moves outward into a political drama as major nations get embroiled in this conflict, steadily introduces more and more supernatural elements until you get the larger reveals about the Iifa tree and Gaia/Terra, and finally end with all of the previously built-up elements culminating in a character-driven climax that nonetheless has dire consequences for the entire world.
It felt like a natural progression that never strayed too far from its characters, but never stayed so narrow that we never learned much about the world and its lore.
This is something most other FF games are notorious for NOT doing; they switch from a tightly focused political/adventure narrative to 'SUDDENLY THE ANCIENT PROPHECY HAS BEEN FULFILLED AND THE WORLD IS IN JEOPARDY FROM AN ANCIENT EVIL GOD' at the drop of a hat (though games like FFVI use this exact disconnect in storytelling to great effect, it's very, very jarring in most of the others I've played).
XII definitely isn't as well-paced in its story's scope and structure as IX in my opinion, but it does a better job than, say, X, XIII, and VIII by leaps and bounds.
I really appreciate its more dry, mature, political focus to make it feel a tad more Game of Thrones and a tad less Dungeons & Dragons, which is unique for the series, and I think it worked really well.
okay, okay, final self-reply, I swear, but I failed to mention earlier that this is a wonderful video, and I think it was both important and well-articulated how you delineated nostalgia's role in your appreciation of both of these games. Admitting to your personal biases and not just accepting that they exist, but celebrating them, is something a lot of content creators seem to balk at for not being 'objective' enough, as though objectivity is the sole standard all reviews and analyses can and should be held to.
I personally quite dislike FFXIII, though not as much as the general internet consensus, but you being able to articulate the reasons you like it in spite of its flaws and explaining your connection to it allowed me to understand and appreciate aspects of its design that I simply never would have been able to on my own, which in my eyes is far more useful than any technically 'objective' review or structured analysis could be on its own.
TL;DR of all this: I think you'll like FFXII a lot based on what you like in XIII, IX is the single greatest video game ever created by mankind, and dis a good video, pls do more.
Thanks for the detailed comments! I read them all. Final Fantasy XII is definitely one I want to try at some point, as I've heard about its gambit system and it having more depth. I'll probably play all the mainline Final Fantasies at some point, maybe even make a separate review for each of them. It'd be interesting to do a full FF retrospective, I think.
And you pointed about something interesting there about FF9 and how the story is paced so well. This game always makes me feel like: damn, look at how far these characters have come from stealing a princess from a castle to reaching a completely abstract place of memories and fighting some kind of being that seems to represent death itself. A lot of games have this, where ordinary people get involved in such a journey far bigger than them, but the way FF9 did it felt so natural and comprehensive. It really feels like they've come so far, and how the end of the game comes full circle with the opening is just wonderful.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video, man. It was refreshing to talk some RPGs, and do it in a more personal way. The message I was trying to convey as well was indeed that we can still like games for reasons unique to us, even if the games aren't very good. FF13 was the right thing at the right time for me and it's left me with a lot of great memories. That can't be replaced, even by the best of games.
I would actually have to disagree here as I feel XIII has nothing in common with XII in the slightest. They are almost polar opposites in my book. I enjoy XIII's combat and actually prefer it to XII's. XII's story was also pretty terrible and the only FF I've played that I can even say has a boring story. I'd say if you hate XIII you'll love XII and if you love XIII you'll hate, or at least dislike XII.
XII really had to grow on me. Even then it's one of my least favourite.
J Ryan 13 and 12 share a similar loot system removing gil generally from most kills.
Both are real time atb battle systems.
Both games control parties through more accessible means for the party to manage themselves in battle.
License board and Crystalinium have similarities in abilities aquired.
Magic attacks cover certain area.
I've played almost every FF game (except the first 3 ones) and my favorite is still ffix that's simply gameplay cautivates me, is something that makes you think more about your enemies, while in other ff you can even beat any boss with only 1 single attack (or almost). but i liked ffxiii and i'm with you.
to be fair, this love of FFIX is very recent, i spent years defending that game as my favorite in the series and it still never gets the love that 7 does. its only in the last few years that people have started lauding it. its funny though i couldn't stand 13 at all, i actually returned it when i realized you get a game over if lightning gets downed lol.
the88mph I know! I played this game when I was 10 and no one gave a shut about it. Now everyone sees what I see. Now they all see that it's one of the best if not the best FF
IX has been my favourite game next to VI for years upon years. I was just never particularly vocal about it.
Though I'll always have a soft spot for VII for being my introduction to the franchise and for JRPGs in general, and I still think Sephiroth is cool even though I think he makes no sense as a character.
I grew up having ff9 as my favorite jrpg game and it always baffles me how almost no one knew of it. I think in my whole life i've only met one person who appreciated the game... or at least knew of it. A good chunk of the people I get to talk about final fantasy with never knew of ff9. It was maddening how overshadowed it was. I'm really glad it's slowly getting popular these days and seeing it being loved by many now really makes me happy. This game definitely deserve all the love it could get.
FFIX is my all -time Final Fantasy because it's my first FF ever. I was blown away by the graphics and mechanics at that time. Now that I'm older I begin to appreciate the story and the most important: the storytelling. It never feels forced, it just goes so naturally that I feel like watching my best friends in an adventure together. I like FFXIII for the battle system though, somehow it feels satisfying to stagger an enemy
XIII is the first game I platinumed and looking back I only did it because I felt like I wanted more out of the game. After I did I never played it again. The problem is that XIII thinks combat is everything and its combat isn't even that good. And you know what would have helped? If they just borrowed from the good WRPGs and let you pause the game while queuing commands to all characters. I genuinely think that a WRPG with a RTwP gameplay would fit XIII's stagger system and would be an interesting game for it. And I don't think IX or classic FF have good combat, oh god no. I can't even call them dated because the ATB combat that everyone loves FF for came out around the same time as Chrono Trigger and that is a much better combat system. Plus if you are well versed in JRPGs, you've played more interesting combat systems. I'm not gonna ruffle anyone's feather when I say that classic FF normal battles were all about turn 1 kills so it's not like those games were never on auto pilot. But at the very least, when you get a new ability in IX, it feels like you're more powerful. The most disappointing moment is when I got launch and I realized that you can't even select it even when you don't use auto battle. It's like they wanted to innovate but felt that people were to stupid for XII's system. Play other JRPGs and you'll see how far behind FF is. Trails of Cold Steel 3 is out try that. Hell even back on the SNES Chrono Trigger was ahead of FF and at least Romancing Saga knew that random encounters were cancer.
As for the story. I don't think it's the worst. The plot is very simple. Replace fal'cie with crystal and l'cie with warriors of light. That's it and it's pretty interesting to be honest. However the reason I like FF stories are characters and really for such a small cast they still fail at establishing relationships. Sazh's only relates to Vanille. There are so many relationship pairs missing. You have the Light-Snow-Hope relationship but even they fumble. Snow doesn't really learn anything. He's still brash and impulsive. The writers are so fixated on making Lighting cool that she's devoid of humor or funny moments, even VII's Cloud, the paragon of badass protagonist, the dude born from a man who just wants to make cool characters, dressed up as a woman. Hope is certainly interesting and he does get a moment with Vanille but that's it. Chrono Trigger had 6 characters and yet it found time for each one and was much shorter and it had one of the best scenes in video games and it's just them speculating about the nature of death and it used combat to establish relationships. But ok so characters are not memorable. Many FFs have unmemorable characters. Why is XIII different? Well why don't you pull up the side quest list from the wiki. All of it's side quests are just hunts from MH except the combat sucks. Where are the minigames? Why is it that everything you do just combat? Where's gold saucer? Where are the optional dungeons or puzzles? Older FF games knew combat would suck if that's all you did so they broke it up. XIII is a linear game and I consider linear games bad when they don't have strong core mechanics but at the very least if you're a linear game you should be able to pace yourself properly. Seriously did we need an Ark chapter? You fight a boss there after a long corridor and the corridor still goes on. And then when you finally get to Pulse, where the game opens up defenders say, it's just monsters. There's no one to talk to besides Bhakti and I'm not shitting on Oerba, that's the only time its linearity felt justified but all of Pulse is devoid of people to talk to? And it doesn't even really open up. You have the Archlytte Steppe and that's it. It's still heavily full of corridors.
If you want a better game play XIII-2. More customization, better balance combat, non linear approach, more interesting characters, this was the game that got me to root for Snow and Serah. And it has its fair share of distractions. It's not as elegant as VII or X or as wonderfully placed as IX but Chronobreak is the best FF card game (so suck it Triple Triad you thinking man's X and O) and as much as I hate the side quest revolving around clock puzzles it's still surprisingly fun as a means to break up walking and combat. It also has more interesting bosses than XIII and a wonderful monster collections system with that feel like full of possibilities with nonlinear builds as opposed to XIII's crystarium. If you want a different game and aren't afraid of mechanics like doomsday clocks play Lightning Returns. Certainly not for everyone but infinitely more enjoyable combat despite what it trims from previous games and such a great open ended format. There aren't that many distractions in that game but some of the side quests understand that the reward for helping people should not just be stat boosts. Think of it as two steps forward from XIII-2 but one step back. And don't get me wrong I liked XIII but it's sequels show the true potential it had. Maybe if the PS3 RAM wasn't hot garbage we could have gotten Lightning Returns' combat with a full party back then. Maybe they could have tried to make characters likable rather than marketable. Looking back only makes me hate it more because it's clearly the one with the most budget and effort put into it while it's sequels only get the table scraps yet they have so many better ideas.
Gotta say, fantastic analysis of FFXIII, specially when it comes to the battle system, which was fucking awesome in my opinion. I've been playing FF games since 1997 and I love them all truly and I truly think that FFXIII and FFXIII-2, which has the best baddie since Sephiroth and one of the best modern FF soundtracks, get a lot of undeserved hate.
FF9>>>>>>>>>FF13
Both great games! FFIX's Memoria is such a profound song! Glad you previewed that one~ I might replay XIII but now that I remember how repetitive it is, I begin to think otherwise. Though FFXIII-2 is fantastic!
I love ff xii. FF IX is my all time favorite game tho! And every time I hear 'You Are Not Alone' my feels explode. This game is a masterpiece and I have finished it 4 times. Currently on fifth playthrough.
Thanks for the vid!
Well done. You neither praised nor bashed either of them too heavily. I think any longtime fan has one or two games that stick out to them, and based on the vocal majority, those games fall within what is known as "the glory days" or "the golden age" of FF, which typically include FFs VI-IX (with X being added more recently, though it was developed by a completely different team within SE). A lot of people forget the times that they played these games, at what age and stage in life they played, and also other external factors like video game development at that time and what was "trendy" in western RPGs and JRPGs when they think about the direction that SE is taking the series. The FF franchise has also been one for innovation with gameplay, story, music score, and character development, and each title has a divisive fanbase for each of those reasons. I think that the beauty of the franchise is that I can expect something completely different in each installment, and if a particular game just isn't for me, then I have hope for the next. If it takes a few cycles of games for me to enjoy another FF, well then I have others within the franchise that I can always return to while I wait for the next.
FF9 to this day remains as my favourite FF game with FF7. I was engaged with its world, the characters and story and gameplay. Gives me great nostalgia feeling.
When i bought and started playing FF13 i used to love it. Then over time i started to distance myself more from the game, until i started hating it. However, i think my opinion on the game has changed and have seen something interesting and positives that i didnt see before. FFXIII has many great ideas, which never came into full fruition unfortunately. The game is flawed and painfully average game for me which could have been much better. There are worse games out there. I actually like the battle system, however i still don't like the fact that if leader character dies its game over despite other two members are still standing. Also i agree that linearity isnt the problem, but its lack of variety and repetitiveness. Story and characters sound great on paper, but execution leaves lot to be desired. There are few great standout scenes though. One of them being Sazh and Vanille for example and i find it funny that most likable and character worth rooting for is "plucky comic relief" character. Lightning's character was all over the place for me. She is amazing on paper but i felt i didn't find myself caring about her or her bond with her sister, Serah or lack there of. First flashback we have about her and sister is when she shuts her out during her birthday. Supposedly Lightning used to be kind and nice girl who turned sour after her parents died, but we never see what was she like before she became badass soldier. Also the part where she decides to be all poetic. Its great to see Lightning bond with Hope and warm to Snow in some way but i felt they could have done lot better with her character. Then there is scene where Fang randomly turns against the main party for no reason. It only served to get her Eidolon. Music however is great in FF13 in my opinion. Overall, its flawed, but not bad game overall
I absolutely love the final fantasy XIII trilogy. I really hope the trilogy comes to the Nintendo switch.
These two are literally my favorite Final Fantasy games (granted, there are many of them I haven't played). You're right, XIII wasn't great, but the hate it gets borders on ridiculous. The battle system is a lot more complex than people give it credit for. The characters are great (except Snow) and the story, while not told in the best way, is deep and interesting.
IX on the other hand is just amazing and easily sits as number one. The only thing it really suffers from is age, being the last Final Fantasy to grace the PS1. The battles and load times are slow, but the characters, story, and music are all fantastic. Kuja remains one of my favorite villains of all time and Zidane is one of my favorite protagonists. Not Alone and Darkness of Eternity are some of my favorite songs. XIII was no slouch in the music department either with things like Dust to Dust and Nascent Requiem.
They're both great games to me, and I cherish them both. But you're right, while I would gladly play IX anytime, I have to work myself into playing XIII again, and it would be for short stretches at a time. Great analysis!
That's really the thing with FF13. A lot of its ideas aren't bad, but much of it just isn't executed well, and the way they paced the game is horrendous. I do believe had the game been shorter overall, by shortening the length of areas and such, and if it stopped holding your hands much earlier, it wouldn't have been such a difficult game to sit through. I like the battle system, but I can only take so much of the same enemy groupings and same environmental setpieces before I wanna quit, you know?
Thanks for commenting, though, and glad you enjoyed the video!
I wonder what you think of FFX and why it didn't grab your attention the way XIII did.
I love FFXIII. It's probably my favorite game on the franchise.
I can't believe that FF 13 is considered to be a nostalgic game now. I swear it feels like that this game came out about a year ago.
Both of my favourite FF games compared in a beautifully long and insightful video!? Pure gold!! Thank you for this gem 🙌🏻 Both games hold a special place in my heart, but FFIX takes pride as my favourite game of all time. I agree with you - there are no words to describe this game. It needs to be experienced - and I'm so thankful I got to experience it during my childhood.
Thank you, and glad you enjoyed the video! It's cool to see other people sharing the same love and passion for FF13, and FF9 in particular.
Dude this was so good, your channel deserves so much more attention. I hope you do more conparison videos or video essays like these in the future to spice up your channel ya know? Your reviews are top notch and so was this. Looking forward to more man :D
Thank you, man! I'm glad you enjoyed the video and it was refreshing for me to do something a bit different than usual. :)
My top 5 Final Fantasy games not in order.
X
VII
VI
XIII
IX
Retropolis Zone I just found your Chanel , and I have to say , usually I make my one decisions from reviews , but man oh man you had me hanging for all of the ff13 review , I agree with ff9 begin my favorite game game ever , and I add that the starting seen that appears before the main menus can make anyone nostalgic even if he never played the game before ,
Now . If you want an other orchestrated amazing goodness with a good story then try dragon quest 8 , even tho I loved ff9 way before I learned English , DQ8 pulled me through a engaging story of team of heroes that bonded together for personal at the start reasons but stay together till the end , it even has a separate 2ed ending that is even great than the 1st , the characters are great and the over all story telling engaging . The battle system is decently good , each character can upgrade 2 out of the 4(or 5 I do not remember that well) skill he can have , and each character has a different list . You want a mage with whips or a sexy girl with daggers ? Or a sext girl mage ? And that is only for Jessica the party consists of 4 main characters , the places that you visit are different form each other . Some of the equipment can change how you look and you can even craft things together and make new weapons armor or reusables . I only find that crafting items is very very useful but it take time for each craft , it is not that bad as the story and the world are good but still , there is an upgrade that lets you craft instantly , but it is that late in the game that it does not matter that it exists .
Plz try it and tell me you opinion o. It :)
Yours
Lefteris Blanas
Garnet's description: "Cute face and tight ass"
Love for IX and XIII in a single video? Can't ask for anything else. I also have a strong nostalgic feeling for both, especially for their soundtracks and characters and stories.
play ff6 and lighting returns fixed all the issues of the main game
serro csc Lightning Returns should have been the only game and it would have been fine. Add 13 and 13-2 as two hour arcs or something in that vein, and might have been better.
This is a brilliant analysis. All I've ever heard is the opinion of hardcore Final Fantasy fans. It's nice to hear the opinions of an "outsider looking in" for want of a better term.
the last 2-3 minutes of your video encapsule my feelings for FF IX perfectly. while there are (very few) games I technically like more, there is no other game I've played in my roughly 17-18 years of gaming that resonated with me as a whole on quite the same level.
Such a great video. Glad I watched it, it was like a trip down memory lane. I love both games and FF9 is probably my favorite game of all time. Subscribed!
This was a wonderful video! As a fellow gamer who doesn't play many RPGs it was fun to hear someone talk about the battle systems in a way that makes more sense to a layman. I grew up on the NES and it's funny how many games I played and enjoyed simply because I just didn't know any better. Sometimes I think I miss those days ;) As for Final Fantasy, I have attempted to play the original title but never got very far. I would be interested in seeing your analysis on the early titles. Cheers mate!
implantgames He said he doesnt play many jrpgs in the video he is a layman.
There's simply no way in hell you found FFXIII to be better than FF6, 7, 8, 9, 10 or 12...... mayve even throw III-V in there too... Oh, and 1... Yeah I guess XIII is better than FF2...
Have you played any other RPGs in your life?
Perhaps mechanically, but I find FF2's story better than FF13.
Guess we have something in common when it comes to FFIX. It’s not only my favourite, but it’s the game that made me a fan of JRPG’s and the game that I keep coming back to.
I LOVE the FF13 Trilogy
I love love LOVE FFIX - have replayed it so many times. I hope they release it for the switch so I can replay it.
Kris johns If they did that I would lose my mind
I think that'd actually be really awesome. To get the classic FF games on the Switch.
The Switch ports are just a downgrade...If you really want to play it you don't need to wait.
I really liked 13. Though i only got to play it 7 years after the release, the PC version still holds up fairly well.
The Final Fantasy IX love makes me happy! It was SO much fun getting every last treasure chest, Support and Command skill for every character, and all the other extra content. Really enjoyed the music , story, and lore of the world as well.
My team in both games
FF9:zidane,vivi,freya and garnet
FF13: lightning,Hope and sazh has haste so sazh
Both are great games but 13 is a love or hate it game but i like
Alexander Mccready need that sazh haste. Then go into commando/2x ravager and launch the enemy. Then go into full Rav and break the enemy mid air. It was usually a massacre
7 was my first final fantasy, but 9 is where my heart is.
oh man, you should play 12, if you're a fan of 13.
Final fantasy 13 was the first mainline game I played. It’s such a nostalgia trip to me. The story of characters misunderstood by society, forced into a destiny they did not chose resonated with my younger self.
Tbh i love ff13. The beginning is hard to understand Cause there is very little explenation on the terms they use which makes it hard to follow. But when you understand everything you realise how great this game actually is. I enjoyed it very much
(german sry for broken english)
I very much have the same feeling you have in regards to these two games. I played FFXIII first, before I was fully in touch with the FF community as a whole. Unlike most, I didn't have much trouble until I reached the Ark. So many of the levels of FFXIII had steep difficulty spikes (Pandemonium, the Ark, and the Archylte Steppe come to mind immediately) that all but required me to grind to get past it. I got stuck on Cid Raines for a VERY long time, and eventually just gave up before picking it up again when it hit Steam. I don't think I ever finished it beforehand. Nautilus was DEFINITELY the best part of the game, to be sure. That part really hit home for me, especially THAT part at the very end. Having dealt with those types of issues myself and having family members struggle with that sort of thing, it struck home for me. It's such a PITY that all of it was undone five minutes later. It was such an emotional part of the game that it almost felt like a slap in the face to pull a "haha, sike" five minutes after the scene. It removed all the impact that scene would have otherwise had. If that were the plot twist, I would've much preferred that the reveal had happened far later in the game, much like they did with FF4.
FFIX, however, I only played about 4 years ago, when I was on a journey to play all the FF titles during a summer break. I had it when I was a kid, but never played it, rather opting for the PS2 games we had, games that were easier for me to understand or easier to play (FF Origins, FF10, Dragon Quest VIII, etc). When I played this game, I was in a slump. This game spoke to me then in a way no game has ever been able to do before. It truly, truly helped me become a better person during that time, and changed my outlook on life. It changed me for the better, it taught me so much. I couldn't help but relate to Vivi in many of the thoughts and experiences he had. Seeing him grow, and seeing each character overcome their hardships. It was so inspiring, truly. The amount of gripes I have with this game are few and far between, to be sure. It's a game that touches the hearts of so many without trying, and is truly a masterpiece.
You've worded this perfectly, and you've done a wonderful job on this video. You've gained a sub for sure, keep up the brilliant work.
At least somebody loves 13
The fact that my lunch break is too damn short to watch this video angers me
FF8 was my favorite.
When I played FFXIII, I also didn't think it was as bad as people made it out to be. That being said, I don't think I could ever go back and replay it, having already completed it once. My abiding memory is how repetitive it is... yet, I have gone back and played through VI, VII and IX recently, and all three of them captured me immediately, with IX being a very cherished one for me. The soundtrack is one I adore very much, to this day, with Distant World's (You're) Not Alone standing high above everything else.
Its both good game
wait wait wait wait... why is there ever IX vs. XIII anything? 13 is Utter garbage by any comparison. The world makes no sense, the story is bonkers and just drags on, the characters are non-interesting archetypes and the gameplay/battle system is overly tedious along with a levelling system directly lifted from FFX.
FFXIII is just bad.
Also this game doesn't "play itself" half as efficiently and satisfying as FF12... if you are looking for that sort of gameplay. That being said, FF12 and FF13 are two completely different styles of JRPG.
try FF12... if anything the depth of story (up until the final boss battle... honestly) is AMAZING.
I like XIII, not cause its good but cause it was so hated I as a XII fan got to go _"Yeah, maybe you all wanna rethink your hate of XII, eh?"_ and fans DID! Now XII is far less divisive and I have XIII (and XV to a degree) to thank for that. ALL HAIL HIROYUKI ITO!
But srs growing up with fans who hated IX (which I ADORE) I'd never berate any who liked XIII. Enjoyment needs no justification.
I purchased an XBOX 360 just to play FFXIII. I didn't want to believe all of what the naysayers were saying. It didn't matter, I knew SE were still capable of delivering a great experience. People didn't like FFVIII and I loved it. FFIX was great, even if it didn't quite follow the style of the previous two. Unlike most, I did purchase an play FFXI and loved it. Later on I would play FFX to completion on rented playstation 2 consoles in internet cafes (some internet cafes where i lived offered consoles to play on as well. I purchased my own pirated game discs to play FFX on these consoles as well as used my own memory card). FFX was amazing and I loved it. I probably should replay it sometime on emulator.
FFXII I got to play once I finally purchased my own PS2 console and it was an amazing, if flawed game. I loved the MMO style of the combat, but I hated how the plot was ruined later in the game. It set up such a great situation but failed hard core to deliver. The plot felt half finished, as if the person who was creating the plot suddenly left half way through development.
So when I finally purchased a used 360 to finally be able to play through FFXIII, I genuinely had high hopes. But I was ultimately disappointed. I didn't hate the battle system. It was fun in its own way. Some boss battles were certainly a challenge, much like previous installments. But it felt soulless, convoluted, and lacking in effort. For example, I think it was the first time where I felt the environments were really ew. Like someone just lazily placed tiles of the same exact pattern over and over. Every single environment seemed to be symmetrical. Whereas I remember how FFVII's environments were so detailed and realistic. FFXIII's environments had no nuance or depth, just repeated tiles over and over again with no variation.
I know XIII had some emotionally interesting moments, but I can't remember them at all, not specifically anyways. But I can remember specific emotional moments of every installment previous.
It's a pity, but Square Enix went to shit. It really did. FFXIII wasn't the last great single player FF. XII even isn't, though it is close. X is the last. It will always be the last. SE can go suck a big one for all I care. They ruined something so great and for what? Greed. Screw them.
Eh I personally don't think it's fair to compare a ps1 game to a ps3 game in a distant future.
It says something that ff9 is linier cause it's an older game but it opens up later and not as far as you think.
(I never had a problem with loading maybe my stuff is faster?) but ff13 had weak characters, linier areas (you don't even visit towns and tallk to npcs or buy items.) you get all that done at a save point...and there is so littler interaction with the party as a whole.
Listen humans are easy to write but ff9 had animals and weird creatures and they had dept and nuance compared to stoic lightning who is so boring that it becomes a meme, it's one of the most critically acclaimed thing about the series hated among he general public.
Yes you may not see it but as your vido is titled you have nostalgia goggles on. (I haven't seen people act like it's overblown where did you see people acting like it killed their family?) It's bad regardless on how you feel, it's sentimental to you so you'll not see it from the prespective of completely bad, I respect that. I like s-cry-ed and it's not the most well written shonen.
The only good character I can argue is sazh and fang is sexy and that's about it.
Calling the ability to manage your party in a real time scenario in a J-RPG style impossible is a little extreme. Star Ocean The Last Hope manages to pull it off with a simple LB and RB. A lot of other games like Resonance of Fate and Valkyrie Chronicles use partial real-time (When you move and attack its in real-time, but when you stand still its turn-based style). I think its not impossible its just when a developer weighs the option based on the mechanics already in the game they decide its just simpler to have 1 character be controlled and let the A.I. handle the rest. Like from what you said FFXIII sounds very complex, and needs a lot of precision, adding character switching would just add another layer of complex to the mix.
Final Fantasy IX is my most favoured Final Fantasy.
There was so many things, I adored on it. Also my most favoured character is Vivi - I love his story. Sometimes I think, even SquareEnix loved this character more than the other ones.
Final Fantasy XIII for the most part, felt so much out of place - Even I sometimes caught myself rereading the logs and got confused in the process of the Mainstory. The whole game in my oppinion did not make much sense at all. And then there was the Final Boss...
You fight - a FUCKING
PIECE of Art...
Look at FFXIII final Boss fight - It is nothing more, than modern art...
Despite being the final boss and being hard as hell, its just a Piece of Art... The first form was really fine - The second was a piece of Art, and then Mr. Babyface...
How extremly uninspired...
Over all those final Boss fights over all those years prior to FFXIII, I think, Mr. Shine and Mr. Bright want their Money back...
I love FFIX my favorite FF game ♥️
It was also my first one.. before FFVII and VIII... I never played FFXII it's the only one but even tho I dont think I woukd like it more than this one. The characters.. the story.. the play.. 😭😭
FF9 had so much potential-I wish they'd spent 10x as much time & money developing it, and just charged 10x as much for the game...so we could've had a perfect game. I don't care if it spanned 40 disks. LMAO
I didn't particularily mind FFXIII's battle system... Mostly because I found auto-combat a bit unreliable... sure, it worked well enough for the Commando and Ravager roles, but if you were a Synergist, there were certain buffs that were better than others, and the auto-combat option did not always prioritize those correctly, likewise if you were a Saboteur, and doubly so if you switched to Medic. So I quickly learned to switch between auto-combat and manually picking the commands... That said, the first FFXIII trailers showed a battle system that I fell deeply in love with and that I still grieve that we didn't get, and so FFX still has my favorite battle system among the FF...
FFX is also the reason why I deeply disliked FFXIII's leveling system: I was expecting a complex and interesting variation of the sphere-grid leveling system, and instead I got the linear and boring crystarium... Such a massive let-down...
As for FFXIII's plot, yes, it was poorly paced, repetetive and, unfortunately, rather predictable. The world was designed to be as linear as possible, and as I like side content and exploration, that was a massive disappointment to me. There were a couple of plot twists, yes, but I actually anticipated most of them well ahead of time. And I really, really wasn't a fan of all the melodrama, either... If each chapter of the game had been more like Gran Pulse, then I probably wouldn't have minded the level design at least, but...
As for FFXIII's characters... I loved Fang and Sazh, but I found Snow obnoxious and not even his character development changed that; Hope was a tween caught up in his own angsty melodramatic plot, which I couldn't get invested in; Vanille was too much of a "cute, spunky, plucky girl" anime stereotype for me to ever really connect with her and though I initially liked Lightning, over the years I've progressively started to dislike her, mainly because Squeenix has focused more and more on putting her in ridiculous, revealing, fanservicey clothes and shoving her down people's throats in an attempt to make everyone accept their marketing division's decision that Lightning is the best thing ever, in the process reducing her as a character and instead turning her into a brand, a piece of merchandise.
Speaking of merchandise; the music... I don't _hate_ FFXIII's music, there are actually several good tracks in there, but much like many other things in FFXIII, I feel the music is generally shallow, generic and uninspired. And I think there's a perfectly understandable and logical reason for that: Naoshi Mizuta, the man who made the music for FFXIII-2, was told by the director of the game to make Caius' Theme into something that could surpass "One-Winged Angel"... That is not only putting an unreasonable demand upon a composer to produce a masterpiece, it's also putting a demand upon us, the customers, to basically worship whatever the composer churns out, simply because the director has commanded him to produce something that surpasses "One-Winged Angel"... The _haughtiness_ and _arrogance_ such a command implies boggles my mind, and reveals enough about the director for me to understand why the music in FFXIII was so sub-par: Because it was churned out as a product meant to become popular and sell well instead of being good.
Finally, the designs... I generally dislike the designs in FFXIII... the playable characters are good enough, I still like Lightning's guardian corps. uniform, Sazh looks like he's wearing an actual pilot uniform, Fang and Vanille have great designs imo, leaving only Snow and Hope looking a bit unfashionably colourful and generic (Hope moreso than Snow; trenchcoats automatically add some character)... but almost all NPCs look, well, bad... Cid Raines looked good enough, as did Jihl Nabaat, but Yaag Rosch, Galenth Dysley and, well, everyone else either looked uninspired or like Squeenic were trying too hard to make them look memorable. Most of all I hated the monster designs in FFXIII. The Goblins with their donut bodies, (Seriously, how do they survive? How do they even eat?) the nonsensical robots, the Behemoths _with their goddamn fucking pants,_ the adamantoises with their shackles and saddles... that last one wouldn't have been so bad if the adamantoises had been used for transportation, but the people of Gran Pulse have all seemingly been gone for quite some time, so... yeah...
All in all, I don't think FFXIII is horrible... The worst I can say about it is that it's basically just kinda "meh"... It's forgetable... You don't lose anything on playing FFXIII, aside from a few dozen+ hours of your life, but you don't exactly grow as a person from having played it, either...
As much as I love FF9, I will NEVER bother with Excalibur 2. Because I found myself having fun indulging in the story more rather than skipping dialog and opening discs to skip cutscenes. And the Eiko/Marcus glitch.
Final Fantasy IX and XIII are those games (with FF6, 7 and 8) that make me squeal whenever I see anything related to it ! FF9 will always be my favourite game, but the FF13 trilogy is also so dear to me!
YES, you can love BOTH! 😉
6:30 what you need is a gambit system. lol
Yeah, I also like FFXIII's battle.
The main let down for me is how convoluted the storyline is. I like complicated stories but FFXIII feels complicated just for complicated's sake. It's detaching.
The only game that makes me care about the l'cie, fal'cie et'cie is Type-0. But that didn't rank too high either.
My fav is still VI.
I find it always funny how most people only spend half the time in RPGs compared to me. I often hit the 99 hours mark at least whenever I engage in suchkind of games. I loved FFIX back on PS1, got it digitally later on PSP but didn't play it through more than two times, I think. Still, superfun game. Still need to play FFXIII to the end. I think I played something else and somehow dropped somewhere at the halfway point. Still thought, it wasn't as terrible as some people made it sound like.
FF IX is objectively the best game of the PSX era in many ways but it never clicked with me. The problem is the high fantasy setting, I only knew about VII and VIII at the time so science fiction mixed with magic and real life was how I expect Final Fantasy to be even to this day, Is the same reason why I can pull through on FF XIII on my ps3 any day while the PS4 FF XII remaster has been sitting on my shelf untouched for over a year, with my huge backlog of games and the new releases its turn allocated to be played is around spring 2019, right after type 0.
I think i can state that FF13 battle system are perfected in the later xeno games like X and 2 respectively the paradigm system isnt too difficult like the blade arts system, and while you die in FF13 Xenoblade is more forgiving, a KO doesnt equal a Lost Round the AI is pretty good in Xeno 2 and will heal and revive characters this eliminates the problem with FF13 but the paradigm system is not as tailored as switching blade arts on party members so there is a sense of pre planning involved.
FF9 and 6 share elements with octopath traveller the magic stones are certainly different to other RPGs except maybe Fallout where you can get perks from exp of context events but switching stones is certainly a mechanic i want to see repurposed like Mario + rabbids kingdom battle where points are swaped to gain a new advantage.
Changing battle styles on the fly is what makes yokai watch better than digimon and pokemon but its that control that requires output making it harder. Octopath has boosting which alleviates a lot of problems with fighting high level foes but can sweep most mooks however the sheild weakness system requires strategy and timing to render the opponent broken that scaling sends Octopath above the Best Rpg at the VGA itll be interesting to see torna dlc make use of this with the already established blade arts system with some enhancements man, the RPG A game on switch, PC and ps4 this year is the most toughest yet Octopath vs Xeno 2 torna expansion vs Pokemon lets go vs disgaea 1 complete vs god wars 1 vs valkyria 4 vs dragon quest 11 vs dragon quest builders and most of them are fighting on the switch for best RPG.
And this is before SMT V, FE 3H and other RPGs in 2019 and beyond.
>"Random encounters would kick my ass!"
>doesn't have Vanille in the party
Found the problem!
FFIX was my first FF game overall, i still play it from time to time, just enjoy the adventure, the beauty and the drama its story has. The RNG was my mortal enemy, but i got to love it because you have to be prepared for bad situations, for an enemy that wants to outright destroy you and for situations you never had before. (looking at you Sealion, always mess up my damage calculation when i need to have Zidane drop a potion)
Also FFIX is the best game because Zidane is not even the protagonist at first, he just happends to be there, just like Locke in FFVI while Garnet or Terra in FFVI are the core of the story until this shifts and the story changed focus.
8 years down the line, FF13 is still graphically superior. I loved both games, personally for me 7 will always be the best story wise but every final fantasy is high quality.
I've played through the XIII series 3 times. Great cast, music, universe and story. I felt it was the rpg made just for me. As one of my biggest gribs with jrpgs were towns and borning/useless mini games. Haters are followers...
I kinda wish 9 just pulled off being another 5. Just rolled with the lighthearted adventure motif. It was harder for me to buy into the move into existentialism in the second half with the more cartoony art style and how the first half wasn’t as serious. 10 was a better execution of the similar themes 9 tried to pull off. As for 13, it had it’s moments but the majority of it was so pungently bad it overshadowed any of the smaller, more human moments that were there that could’ve made the story and characters more relatable and impactful. I didn’t like the sequels at all. They were jumbled, random nonsense with script writing that was just extremely laughable and they undercut the character development of the first game.
FF13 is the best game on the PS3...If you've played all the FF's then you'd appreciate the streamlined aspects of FF13. Comparing it to FF9 is more than fair.
It is the only other one in the series a true fan would seriously compare it to.
I love how your "not-in-depth" video gives so much information, and have such deep understanding... I think the depthness is in your soul!!
About the video, interesting points, I think for me, RPGs are a good balance of character, world building, story, combat system and soundtrack... I know this is part of almost every game, but here it's different...
They are long, the main thing, most important are characters, You've to like them. They are your connection to that world.
The world have to be interesting or you'll not want to explore it.
The story needs to be engaging needs to play with your emotions
Combat system because this is a game, you've to really like the system, you'll be playing It for hours and hours...
But I dare to say, soundtrack is really, really important here.
Bravely default is a game that is mostly characters + soundtrack and omg, this game is amazing!
Chrono Trigger I like a Lot but I'm not so much into the characters, I like the gameplay and story, but it doesn't go further
But now, my most favourite is Tales of Phantasia... Omg, I love everything on this game! It has amazing story, great likeable characters, amazing villain, interesting world, fascinating Battle system, great soundtrack!
Final Fantasy is in a way quite special. A kind of drug. That nothing can ever match the first one you play, not things that came before or after.
Granted, 9 is a result of many iterative steps of evolution; 13 is a new beginning of sorts in a changed market where you couldn't keep iterating on the old formula any longer and it shows in its rough edges, while 9 is polished to perfection.
For me, the 8 is going to be special.
It’s insane just how old FF13 is but this video definitely made me miss the game because I loved the 13 trilogy though LR was the weaker one. Definitely gonna revisit it and a few of my other favorite FF games to see how much my tastes changed since the last time I played