Final Fantasy?

[psychopete]

tsugomaru, Luso made me sad, just because he sucked as a main character. He was bad enough to make me miss Marche. That pansy little bitch.

Also, tsugomaru, Persona 3. Yeah, PS2, whatever, it's still an amazing game, if you haven't played it. For the 360, Eternal Sonata was also a fun RPG. It combined a great RPG combat system with musical fanservice. It's awesome.

Also, as for anime games, they just happen to have the anime art style. An art style shouldn't stop you from playing grade-A title.

[ryanisadouche]

I'll have to look into Star Ocean then, squeek put it on his list too. The other 2 definitly sounded japanese though lol

Oh i loved the Dragon Quest series too, maybe just cause i grew up with them though

[psychopete]

Originally Posted by ryanisadouche

I'll have to look into Star Ocean then, squeek put it on his list too. The other 2 definitly sounded japanese though lol

To be honest, like, everything on Squeek's list is Japanese.

[Squeek]

Japanese Role-Playing Games tend to be Japanese.

Western Role-Playing Games tend to suck.

They're a completely different genre. JRPGs are story-driven epic adventures. WRPGs are mindless hack-and-slash time-wasters.

Pokemon is Japanese. Final Fantasy is Japanese. Don't let the lack of English scare you away from a potentially great game. Arguably the best RPG of 2007 was Persona 3, which you may recognize. However, it's part of the Shin Megami Tensei series, which apparently you haven't heard of.

The games are translated here in the States when they come over. Sometimes the translators don't translate the titles because it sounds better in its original format. These days, more and more games are sticking as close to their Japanese origin as possible because they know fans of jRPGs want their games to be as close to what it was intended to be as possible. In Persona 3, Japanese honorifics remain in the game, on top of the untranslated romanized Japanese names of characters. You can still read it. It's in English. There's no cutesy anime ****. In fact, in Persona 3, you shoot yourself in the head. A lot.

Though I wouldn't really recommend it to someone who doesn't have any taste in Japanese culture as the game takes place in a Japanese environment in the format of a Japanese dating sim game (though it is far from being one) when not engaged in the dungeon-crawling aspects of the game.

[ELRayford]

Hey gauise im on a power run right now. Working on getting cecil to a lvl 99 darky before he goes pally. I am just before getting yang and at lvl 28 with Cecil.

[tuv]

tales of destiny and tales of eternia are the best games ever...

[NFD]

Final Fantasy IX was my favourite, it had ViVi.

[ShAiOnEi]

Try final fantasy tactics advance, really great story and gameplay. Hours of fun literally.

[marioGP87]

Originally Posted by Squeek

They're all pretty bad.

There are dozens of under-appreciated RPG franchises out there that far outclass Final Fantasy, and playing one Final Fantasy game next to any of these RPGs will prove that very quickly.

List of better franchises:

Chrono
Mother
Tales
Suikoden
Seiken Densetsu (Mana)
Lufia
Breath of Fire
Phantasy Star
Star Ocean
Shin Megami Tensei
Disgaea
Pokemon
Xeno
Wild Arms
Ogre

Hell, even Dragon Quest is better.

For once, I agree with Squeek. Except for Pokemon

Though FF 6,7, 8, and 9 are my favorites. I played FF1 & 2 but, I had a WTF feeling on those two. FF3 (for the DS) was good. Pokemon is just "random enemy appeared!!!" kind. I haven't tried Breath of Fire or Lufia but, I'll play those on my bootlegged PS2 >=3. I have BoF 5 and Lufia. Other then that, I pretty much played all the games that Squeek mentioned.

As to recommending which FF game to start, it's your choice.

[Xx{Midday}xX]

FFT is the best FF. Until FFVersusXIII comes out.

Mother isn't that fun... the game is too straightforward. No collector's fever, not too many secrets, story is too comedic... etc. I like the concept, but not the way it's represented. Played 1-3

Chrono Trigger was fun. Chrono Cross was fun too iirc, but these are games I played when I was like 10. So I don't remember them well.

Tales. Epic series. We all heard Shash's opinion on his amazing 100% completion display on Tales of Symphonia. The animation series for these have high quality pictures too. Tales of Vesperia is the first Xbox360 only game... sort of sad about that. I've played everything except Fandom (dumb party game). Phantasia Symphonia Tempest Legendia Rebirth Destiny Destiny2 Abyss i missed some. All of these stories are related to each other. Oh, I haven't played Symphonia2.

Suikoden - extremely underated...

Breath of Fire - was fun. i played 1 and 2 on an emulator... but i dont remember it well either.

Star Ocean - i only know the anime. it sucked.

Disgaea - a good tactics game with excessively large numbers... in relation to Disgaea, Phantom Brave and Phantom Kingdom are good games too.

Pokemon - good RPG for a person with collector's fever. very intricate and diverse methods of obtaining various pokemon. a surprisingly difficult feat to get 100% (excluding off-colored pokemon). played red blue yellow green gold silver crystal

Dragon Quest - LOL WHAT i played 1-8. And Swords was a rip-off. Dragon Quest 8 < Final Fantasy VII... sorry. But, I like how all the Dragon Quests are related to each other.

[Redorigami]

Yeah Final Fantasy isn't that exciting, only played a few and they were good for what they were, but they can't live up to the hype around them IMO.

Squeek had good games listed, Suikoden, Wild Arms, Chrono, Xeno, Phantasy Star, and Star Ocean. I'd definitely give those a shot.

[tuv]

No tales game share the same story at all (exept ToS 2) that's coming out, even tales of destiny 2 doesn't share the same story as the first one (everywhere else but north america sold the game as tales of eternia) grated all tales games have similerities but they are all there own game. Just try to tell me the relationship beween lengendia and phantasia.

[Xx{Midday}xX]

I'm sorry. You don't play the game enough then.

For example:

Tales of Phantasia takes place on a separate planet before Tales of Symphonia. In a book in a certain library of Phantasia, it states that Tethealla and Sylvarant were distant moons on the verge of collision. Symphonia takes place after Kharma causes these moons to overlap, becoming parallel worlds.

Let's enjoy the game thoroughly before talking about them.

If you go to libraries and read, or talk to certain people, they will mention familiar names.

Wikipedia has some information about the relationship between Phantasia and Symphonia, but there are many more connections between various games.

Also, grammar/spelling.

There is a reason why Destiny has a Destiny 2.

EDIT: What is a wRPG? Really.

[Relambrien]

About Suikoden...

Don't play Suikoden IV. It sucked. Horribly. III and V were better.

Also, adding support for the Tales series. Symphonia was great, as was Abyss (but Abyss is only on PS2 as far as I know). Also, the newest game in the series, Tales of Vesperia, comes out later this month here in North America. In Japan, it's sold 100k copies in its first week (if I'm remembering correctly), which is pretty unheard of there for a 360 game. Not to mention Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of a New World, which is coming out later this year.

[tsugomaru]

Originally Posted by psychopete

tactics story lines sucked

It's a good thing we can ignore them because we don't play the game for the story as much as we play it for the actual game.

~Tsugomaru

[Nubzpwnzer]

My input is that 7 was excellent one of the best but due to me having 100+ hours of gameplay at certain points I was just ready to get the game over with. 6 was decent at best compared to 7. I beat 9 as well and that overall was the best one i've played the storyline kept my into the game because he combined modern final fantasy along with a medieval/pirate feeling it was really great. I don't care what anyone says the best one of the entire series is 10 the series started off great with kick ass Auron and the bond between Yuna really adds a dramatic feeling to the entire game. Along with enemies like Maestor Semor, and Sin the biggest damn thing I've ever seen in the video game is just great. The cut scenes for it's time were the best ever. Not only this Nobuo Uematsu really shined on songs like to zanarkand. Every time it played this song during something dramatic is almost brought me to tears. 10x2 was ok as far as the story line I invested a little over 30 hours in the game to get 99.67% that **** pissed me off alot so I decided to just watch the final cut scene on youtube. When tidus came back it's like I wasn't even mad anymore and my spirits were lifted. Between the final cutscene of 10x2 and the moment you kill Jenova Sephiroth were probably the two best moments in the entire series.

[Squeek]

If you don't know about Tales, there's a wealth of information on the Wikipedia page for it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_(...ng_game_series)

It is true that the only two continuities are Symphonia -> Phantasia and Destiny -> Destiny 2. RPGs typically aren't all part of a big story. We'd all lose interest too quickly.

My biggest problem with Final Fantasy is that it's so amazingly cliched. I have yet to see an original storyline or character in Final Fantasy. What they tend to do is just make mascots. Someone who has defining characteristics easy to emulate in cosplay. The problem here is that the characters are ridiculously unrealistic. Yes, it's a fantasy world, but so is every other RPG. I've never related more to a character than when I played Tales of the Abyss. The characters were my age, they had incredibly great voice acting, and most importantly, they were realistic.

I've always felt that Final Fantasy tries so hard to be the best that they end up being the worst.

[tsugomaru]

You

have

only

played

Final

Fantasy

X

And your idea of an original story line is one that isn't "here's your main character, go save the world". Almost all RPGs are like that with a few extremely rare situations, but in the end, you end up saving something else.

~Tsugomaru

[MystictheHedgehog]

I really hope your developing your opinion on more than just Final Fantasy X. If not, shut up. You can't judge the entire franchise by one game. Honestly, VI, VIII, and IX are all great Final Fantasy's, as is Tactics and (though most disagree) Tactics Advance. I didn't like X too much, nor VII. The first one was good, and I think it was IV that was extremely fun as well. Though my personal favorite is IX, because that's my favorite game ever.

As far as other games, Tales is an amazing series. Star Ocean, not so much. Found them to be pretty boring. Dragon Quest...eh. Pokemon, great.

[ShAiOnEi]

Originally Posted by Squeek

If you don't know about Tales, there's a wealth of information on the Wikipedia page for it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_(...ng_game_series)

It is true that the only two continuities are Symphonia -> Phantasia and Destiny -> Destiny 2. RPGs typically aren't all part of a big story. We'd all lose interest too quickly.

My biggest problem with Final Fantasy is that it's so amazingly cliched. I have yet to see an original storyline or character in Final Fantasy. What they tend to do is just make mascots. Someone who has defining characteristics easy to emulate in cosplay. The problem here is that the characters are ridiculously unrealistic. Yes, it's a fantasy world, but so is every other RPG. I've never related more to a character than when I played Tales of the Abyss. The characters were my age, they had incredibly great voice acting, and most importantly, they were realistic.

I've always felt that Final Fantasy tries so hard to be the best that they end up being the worst.

I honestly disagree with that post reason being that the characters seem far more down to earth in the series rather than tales series. Final Fantasy X in my opinion is the greatest final fantasy because of the story in general and the ability to level up your character in a very unique way. I don't know but the ability to get stronger with your sphere grid and then able later in the game unlock other characters sphere grids to become even MORE stronger seems quite intriguing rather than grinding through levels.