Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Bobby Kotick talking about creativity, March coming in like a lion for the gaming business, or the hotness of Mika Brzezinski (again), Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
With Final Fantasy XIII coming out next week and Wired’s Chris Kohler spilling the goods on the Japanese version of the game in the latest RPad.tv PadCast, I thought it would be a good time to discuss your favorite game in this legendary series. There are so many brilliant Final Fantasy games that it’s tough to choose. For the sake of this conversation, let’s stick with the mainline games (Tactics, Crystal Chronicles, etc. do not apply).
As for me, it comes down to IV, V, VI, and X. I’ve probably played IV the most, V has the outstanding job system, VI took interactive storytelling to a new level, and X was just wonderfully polished. My favorite usually changes, but it’s always one of these four games. Today I’m going to go with FFV because I absolutely love job systems (remember, FF Tactics is my all-time favorite).
So let me know what your favorite FF game is and why (please)! In addition to your pick, I want to hear the reasoning behind it. Warning: if you pick FFVII then I expect a pretty lengthy explanation or I’ll probably think you’re a VII fanboy.
FFVIII.
Don't shoot me anyone, but I have never played a Final Fantasy game.
It's the one I haven't played.
haha, na I'm just with RROD on this one, JRPG isn't my cup of tea.
yeah I agree with nightshade and RROD…I have never played a FF game, for some reason they just have never appealed to me. The music though is amazing and I would love to someday go see one of the orchestras play their music.
If I had played FF I might have just had to say VII, mostly to find out why you made a statement like you did…but perhaps if I had ever played the FF series that question would already have been answered.
I tried to play a few of them and just couldn't get in to any if them.
I felt like the whole point of each game was to unlock video clips.
@bsukenyan: I've played almost all of the FF games. I think you've got me confused with somebody else on this one.
@nightshade – I think he meant me
@bsukenyan
Don't you mean "Shockwave" and RROD?
@Shockwave
Really? Did Cage really say that? If true then that's a bummer for me. I want another one.
@nightshade
yeah I realize I didn't word that one too well, I was more meaning to imply I was with you on answering FFVII, and with RROD in the fact that I have not played the FF series.
Ok, everyone pile on. lol.
8, not 7.
@rrod
http://www.thatvideogameblog.com/2010/02/23/heavy…
@RROD
yeah this is apparently not my day for writing properly. Looks like I need to slow down on the multitasking for a minute.
@bsukenyan I'd suggest X over VII if you want to try a modern(ish) FF game.
@Shockwave562 I doubt his words. He's a creative French guy. They can be flighty.
I would say ff4. It was my first RPG, i like the game play and the story. oh also the songs were catchy. I still play this on my DS for long plane trips.
@rpad
I'm disappointed to see no mention of WWE's Batista actually improving his mic skills and sporting bling like he's a rapper.
I haven't been lucky enough to own many of the FF games and all of the primary FF I have played were barrowed from friends and returned before I could finish them. FFXIII is going to break that record.
@tokz_21 I actually have an article on the entire episode. Patience please!
Ok the girlie side of me loved FFIII's job system, but I also liked FFIV's story, X's story and it's more polished graphics, XII's gameplay and liscense system lol. Yes, despite the lulz of that system thanks to VG Cats I had fun playing that game, especially when I took the battle lines out of it lol.
FFXI probably doesn't count(dangit Ray lol) in the franchises but I spent nearly 5 yrs on that MMO. And now they're raising the lvl cap form 75 to 99 which makes me omg want to go back and lose more of my life but I don't think I could stand the 24 hour install/update. I guess they're doing that to hold on to who they have left until XIV. Surprisingly even tho FFVII was innovative for it's time I couldn't fangirl it up like the other 99% of FF population.
As for Tactics….well since it doesn't count….who cares I love it anyway. We still own the original copy that my husband's niece broke, a burned copy that you have to rig just the right way to play in a Playstation, the PSP version and now we bought it on PSN. LoL….
@rpad
i'll be patient.
BC2 looks amazing. Absolutely amazing. Throw in environment destruction on top…wow.
SO MANY DAMN POINTS TO LEVEL THOUGH!
>_> I've also been slowly but surely getting a tattoo sleeve of FF good and bad monsters on my left arm. Hence if you squint really hard, you can see the chocobos on my arm in my gavatar pic. Along with a moogle(FFXII and Revenant Wings), a bomb(Tactics version), mandragora(reworked XI version), cactuar(any), tonberry(any), and Refia from III in a white mage outfit.
@tokz: Free NHL Center Ice this week. YES!!!
@Shockwave
I hope he changes his mind.
@nightshade
sweet! I knew the NHL wouldn't let me down! They are trying to get more viewers in. I take it you'll be able to see the Blackhawks game now.
@tokz: Yeah, just this week though. I don't see myself dropping $80 so I can watch 15 games the rest of the year.
It will always and forever be the old school classic…you Americanized FF fans call it Final Fantasy III but true SquareEnix nerds call this gem of a game Final Fantasy VI. The last of the sprite based games and arguably the best. This game dealt with heavy issues like teen pregnancy in a time when that was EXTREMELY passe' to do. I love every bit of that game and if they remade it for the DS all 3Dified I would probably blow a load in my jeans.
@nightshade
be patient. i'm sure they will have another free preview towards the end of the year. They always do and it's always never announced.
Big fan of the earlier games. The graphics on the new ones are very nice, but I feel the gameplay has been lacking a lot.
FF8. Followed and eclipsed in a few ways by FF4.
FF8 had junctioning, which was awesome. Probably the best story, and it had gunblades. It was also the last FF to have a main character who was noticeably male. (let’s face it, Tidus wore overalls that were shorts with a net on one leg…very sketchy). I also liked how they introduced damage multipliers in the limit breaks.
The only reason I can’t bump FF4 in to the top spot is because I think the story cheesed out at the very end with Golbez.
Sony just bought Media Molecule, the studio that developed Little Big Planet. I wonder what other play, create, share games they can come up with next.
http://www.develop-online.net/news/34010/Sony-acquires-Media-Molecule
I would love for Sony to buy Quantic Dream so that we can have more interactive drama games that uses the PS3’s specs.
VII the only one ive played
@RROD – apparently David Cage said this is his last interactive drama. I wonder what he’ll do next?
@rrod, it’s a bummer for me too, I’ve only just been introduced to Cage’s work in the last 4 months or so but to say that he won’t do any more thriller’s is a big let down. it would be as if Bioware said ‘no more sci-fi rpgs after mass effect 3’
But he might have something up his sleeve to work on next, who knows.
Tactics is the only good one.
Ok, so I traded in Dante’s Inferno today and picked up MLB: The Show. I figured I keep hearing how awesome it is compared to the 2K series, so why the hell not, right?
Well I’m playing my first game and I’ve already come across a pretty nasty bug where twice I scored on throwing errors from 1B because the IA controlled fielder froze. I don’t mean he just stood there like an idiot, I mean his animation froze mid stride. And frankly, that’s just as game breaking as most of the bugs from last year’s 2K (with the obvious exception of the save file corruption bug…I lost my franchise 104 games in last year).