Final Fantasy Series has gotten confusing!

[Taustin Powers]

I used to play Final Fantasy games many moons ago. FF Legend 1 & 2 on the gameboy were fantastic, and Final Fantasy 4 or 5 or something on the SNES was really cool. I think I lost track of the games after FF7 on Playstation, cause my copy got broken and somehow I never replaced it. The games for PS2 and PS3 came out and the resounding echo was a slightly bewildered "wtf", so I didn't pay much attention.

Now I took a look at what's out there, and I can't even make sense of the game titles anymore. Final Fantasy 13 and 13-2? Finaly Fantasy 14 is an MMORPG? Is Final Fantasy 15 a direct sequel to 13 and 13-2 or something else? What on earth is Final Fantasy Type 0?

Sometimes I feel like getting back into that franchise, but then I see this mess, and think "meh, I think I'll just play something else"...

 

[0098386]

Ha! Even as someone who sorta follows the games even I'm confused at what some of the newer games are. I'm not sure about Type-0, if memory serves it was a PSP game, or Vita game that was never released here. I forgot which specific "world" its tied to.

There's evidence that some FF games are connected. Tactics is supposed to take place in the FF12 world.

11 and 14 are online. I've never played them so I don't know if they're connected to other games.

13, 13-2, 13-3 and 10, 10-2 are direct continuations.

I think the numbered games, like those above, are fine but things get messy when additional titles are added (like Type-0).

Dissidia was a neat diversion.

 

[Taustin Powers]

Oh yeah, I didn't even think about the "Tactics" games...

 

[ptdebate]

Hi Taustin Powers! I am something of a Final Fantasy nerd and I'd be happy to answer your questions.

Since none of the main numbered Final Fantasy games exist within the same continuity (with one small exception that I'll address later), they aren't really "sequels" in a narrative sense.

When X was released, it sold really, really well. So well that the game's producers pressured the development team into making a sequel, whether or not that made sense for the story of the game. X-2 is what resulted.

XIII was planned in advance as a self-contained franchise. It was to have sequels and two spinoffs based on the "Fabula Nova Crystallis" mythology. Please, please don't ask me what the heck THAT's all about . Things didn't pan out exactly as expected and two games that were supposed to be part of the same universe (Agito and Versus XIII) broke off and became their own things (=Type-0 and 15).

So--how do we sift through this mess and decide which Final Fantasy games you should actually play?

Final Fantasy X recently had a great re-release for PS3 and Vita. It is also slated to release for PS4 sometime this year. FFX is unanimously considered to be among the best. My review of the HD Remaster can be found here if you're interested: http://80points.wordpress.com/2014/06/18/game-review-final-fantasy-x-hd-remaster/

Aside from that, Final Fantasy IX will almost certainly hit all the right notes for you if you're mainly looking for a classic JRPG experience reminiscent of the SNES games.

VII and VIII are both solid--the latter can be a bit confusing at first due to its radical new magic system, but is still mad fun once you start to grasp its possibilities. VII has a much more interesting story and cast of characters than VIII, although the latter certainly has its charm as well.

Although I have great appreciation for XIII and XIII-2 on a technical level, and especially in the area of sound design, I can't recommend them to someone who's not super invested in the series. They're just not on the same level as IV-X.

 

[Taustin Powers]

Wow, great info. Thanks!

 

[txa1265]

Final Fantasy X recently had a great re-release for PS3 and Vita. It is also slated to release for PS4 sometime this year. FFX is unanimously considered to be among the best. My review of the HD Remaster can be found here if you're interested: http://80points.wordpress.com/2014/06/18/game-review-final-fantasy-x-hd-remaster/

Thanks for sharing the review ... I am much more of a PC gamer so much of FF is less known to me, but played many of the earlier ones on GBA, DS and PSP. My personal fave of what I have played is FF VI. Was thinking about grabbing FF X for the Vita, think you just sold it for me

 

[MRU]

I have only ever managed to get engaged in two FF games, 7 & 9.

Everything since and before - especially since - to me is just a convoluted mess of confusion.

I would love to see Square give Bioware a chance at making a FF game.

 

[Nermal]

I have only ever managed to get engaged in two FF games, 7 & 9.

Everything since and before - especially since - to me is just a convoluted mess of confusion.

I would love to see Square give Bioware a chance at making a FF game.

It seems that everyone has their own opinion. 4 was OK, 5 I never finished, 6 was good, 7 was OK, 8 was good, loved 9, hated 10, skipped 11, loved 12, 13 was "meh", 13-2 was better, and I've only played 14 for a few days.

 

[MRU]

It seems that everyone has their own opinion. 4 was OK, 5 I never finished, 6 was good, 7 was OK, 8 was good, loved 9, hated 10, skipped 11, loved 12, 13 was "meh", 13-2 was better, and I've only played 14 for a few days.

Yeah I really loved 9 ... and I'm surprised they haven't re-visited that aesthetic and characters / world setting for any new games.

I think my biggest nag probably stems that 'random battle enounters' which are not really random - they're every 5 or 6 steps began annoying me with all JRPGS - I loved the characters in Blue Dragon - but couldn't drive myself to finish it either because of the amount or random battles.

 

[Nermal]

I think my biggest nag probably stems that 'random battle enounters' which are not really random - they're every 5 or 6 steps began annoying me with all JRPGS - I loved the characters in Blue Dragon - but couldn't drive myself to finish it either because of the amount or random battles.

I know what you mean there, and it's one of the reasons that I loved 12; being able to see the encounters and choose whether to engage them was a nice change. Blue Dragon was similar in that regard (although the sheer number of enemies was staggering), but I made it all the way to the end

 

[skottichan]

I'm excited that Type-0 is getting a US release (preordered the collector's edition).

Honestly, I felt that FF7 was amazingly overrated, I think its lasting success was a mix of it being the first Final Fantasy that used rendered 3D models and a fair bit of rose-colored nostalgia.

FF6 (FF3 in the US) is by and far my favorite, story-wise, and the characters were wonderful.

I loved FF9, it was fun, and the characters were well designed, and the story was pretty okay.

I was an early FF11 player, and played it till the end, and have moved on to FF14.

I really enjoyed Lightning's story (FF13, FF13-2, Lightning Returns), but Lightning herself was about as dull as Cloud was. The side characters helped save the games for me.

 

[Renzatic]

I've been playing Final Fantasy since my granny bought the original for me on the NES back in '90-'91. Out of all of them I'd say FF 6 (which I bought as FF 3) and 9 were my favorite of the bunch from the main series, along with Final Fantasy Legend 1 & 2, and FF Adventure on the Game Boy. And of course Final Fantasy Tactics, which was and still is 20 different types of awesome.

After FF9, I lost interest in the series. From the PS2 on, they seemed a little too cheesy and overwrought. About the only one I've had any interest in playing would be FF12, and that's because it was done by the same group of people who did FFT.

I have to admit, the preview demos they've shown off for the next game on the PS4 does look good, but I dunno. I don't think they're my cup 'o tea anymore.

 

[txa1265]

Well, I bought the PS Vita "Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD Remastered" pack, which is amazingly the first PS Vita game I own on a card rather than download!

The game is *gorgeous* on the PS Vita screen, and the gameplay is fairly fun - I am only a few hours into it (or is that a few hours of cutscenes into it ), but so far I am enjoying it! Doubt it will supplant FF 6 for me (which I actually have on the Vita as a PS One Classic) but it isn't bad.

 

[Savor]

I played and beaten FFIV-FFX + Tactics. I stopped caring about console gaming after the 6th gen. Never got into PS3 or Xbox 360. Did get a Wii during launch day only to enjoy Wii Sports and Twilight Princess on it. There really is no continuation but it does get confusing seeing Square is milking the franchise name for what its worth. The once Squaresoft (now Square Enix) doesnt have many franchises to deal with.

For me, my favs...

VII
X
Tactics
VI

VIII
IX
IV
V

7 & 10 had one of the best battle systems, story, and cast of characters. I think soundtrack topped with both 6 & 7. I think 8 and 9 had much better and satisfying endings than 7 though. Seifer is actually my fav in 8 and Vivi & Steiner in 9. Lulu was my fav in 10. Love those black mages and she was my black magic woman! But I also very much enjoyed Tactics except once you had Orlandu, everything was super easy. And VI simply was a 16-bit classic known for a much easier battle system than 8 provided. I played FFV on PS1 and it bored me to tears. I just forced myself into beating it.

FFVII is simply my fav video game ever. Not because it was my first RPG (which it was) but it was really the first game that gave me a theatrical experience. My record of playing a game straight is 13 hrs set by FFVII. I played it 5 years later and another 8 years after (1997, 2002, 2010) and enjoyed playing all the way through each time. The other game I adore is Shenmue II (owned the DC Euro import & Xbox). Beaten that at least 3x. I even just downloaded a Shenmue Cassette app on my Android to enjoy listening to those tracks again. I would play FFVII and Shenmue 1 & 2 just to relax and listen to their epic music once again.

 

[eclipse01]

Played 7 first, LOVED IT
played Three hours of 8, didn't keep me entertained like 7 did.
Played X, LOVED IT
tried 11 or 12? for like 2 hours couldn't stand it.

Played the 3 remake on IOS, was actually really enjoyable.

 

[itsOver9000]

I'm not much of a FF fan. I played X and enjoyed it. I picked up VII and VIII at a garage sale several years ago. VII was ok I guess. In the later part of the game I got tired of leveling my characters and ended up using either a glitch or a GameShark to quickly level up so I could be done with it.
Still haven't gotten to VIII yet.....