What Are You Playing? (Spring, 2015)

[Mzo]

The FF8 hate is out of line.

I didn't like the characters at all and found the story to be extremely weak. I also didn't enjoy Triple Triad.

There's nothing there for me. My hate is real and justified. Even if FF7 was weird it was at least a technical showcase at the time that I actually had fun playing through multiple times. It's light and breezy and charming. Everything about FF8 is a fucking chore.

[Finch]

FF6, whatever. It's a science that people who don't like FF9 are awful.

[Frogacuda]

I'm surprised. I pegged you as someone who would prefer 6 to 7 on the character art alone.

And none of the cast of 6 ever said "dilly-dally shilly-shally." That matters.

I kinda felt like they peaked with 5, but what do I know?

[Diff-chan]

I liked FF8. I rented it expecting to hate it but dropped a good 30 hours over a weekend on it. I never bought it after so I can't say it was my favorite thing but I could probably dig it if I plugged it in today.

I kinda felt like they peaked with 5, but what do I know?

Every Internet thread about FF has the hipster that comes in and says FF5 is the best.

[Frogacuda]

Is it really a hipster opinion anymore then? I just thought FF6 had too little in the way of central narrative. It was all flashback vignettes and excuses to go from one town to the next. Too many characters and simplified gameplay too.

[NeoZeedeater]

Friggin’ FFVIII. I spent two hours on a single fight with the last boss and lost. I downloaded the ending which took a while on 56k. I liked the game but I doubt I will play it again.

[Darmonde]

Is it really a hipster opinion anymore then? I just thought FF6 had too little in the way of central narrative. It was all flashback vignettes and excuses to go from one town to the next. Too many characters and simplified gameplay too.

Can you please explain each of these points, contrasted with FFV?

I can understand too many characters and too many flashbacks compared to 5 if you don't like those things. I don't really know what you mean by your points about central narrative, excuses to go to towns, and simplified gameplay.

[Finch]

I don't care about central narrative and give me them vignettes, I just don't like that every character is a meat wagon by the end and it's the final fantasy where "press a to win" is actually true. I've heard people make the point that breaking the game is part of it and if it wasn't the one people pushed up as The Good One while 7-14 are The Bad Ones, i wouldn't even mind.

[No One]

VI probably has the best characters in the entire series (and the best antagonist), but like VIII it's a broken mess of a game to actually play.

I'd say the series peaked with IV, which found a perfect balance between challenging gameplay and a deeper narrative, but there's not a single mainline game I can't find something redeeming in.

Edit: VI also has my favorite presentation of any Final Fantasy. The art and music were second to none.

[Frogacuda]

Can you please explain each of these points, contrasted with FFV?

I can understand too many characters and too many flashbacks compared to 5 if you don't like those things. I don't really know what you mean by your points about central narrative, excuses to go to towns, and simplified gameplay.

Well it's just that FF6 had like two plot points that took place in the present. There just wasn't much there. Not that FF5's story was genius or anything. There was more effort to have the characters interact with each other and build relationships too.

As for gameplay, I mostly mean the job/ability system which was in nixed for the lame accessory system.