Barbelith Underground > Games & Gameplay > Final Fantasy: Then, Now, Tomorrow.

Thinking about which FFs I've played. Fewer than I own, definitely. 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, Tactics, Tactics Advance. Ten of them, at least.

How many have I completed? None.

None of them have narratives or gameplay systems that last the distance. 12 is especially bad for this, for the reasons provded in that game's dedicated thread. Tactics' storyline is a mess, I agree entirely. That's a shame, because the combat system is great - liberating and fun. Never used the Gambits/scripting system in 12, because I dislike and distrust things like that - I'm the type of person who played Baldur's Gate and KotOR (the combat systems in both of which are remarkably similar to that of FF12) with the options set to 'pause after every action'.

In no particular order:

FF Tactics suffers from terrible load times, thanks to the old PS1 hardware - I've yet to play it on the PS2 with the disc access speed increased, and having got the pre-order for the PSP conversion in, I doubt I ever will. I've also found it a difficult game to return to after the freeform strategy madness of Disgaea - playing FFT, in comparison, feels like playing basketball while wearing a straitjacket. I realise that the two games serve different purposes - FFT is all about the strategy on the battlefield, whereas Disgaea is more concerned with playing games with levelling systems and the enjoyment to be found in digging into insanely complex and obscure systems - but I still think FFT is the poorer game. Very po-faced, too.

Tactics Advance worked better, I found, but was hampered by the worst and least useful menu interfaces I've ever come across in an SRPG. Future published a beautiful, exhaustive guide to the game, which was essential for getting full enjoyment from it, if only because it allowed you to cross-reference equipment stats in exactly the way that the game itself should have, but didn't. I hdetested the game until I bought the guide, then fell in love with it afterwards. Ultimately, though, it went on for so long that I inevitably ended up with other, newer games to play before I reached the end.

FF7 was great. Really great. Atmosphere, nutso storyline that makes *no* sense at all, the weird disparity between the many different visual styles that somehow doesn't matter when you're playing the thing, the variety in the settings and the wow factor of the tech at the time. I never finished it, only because I became frustrated with the convoluted process that you needed to go through in order to gain access to the ultimate summons attack - became dragged to one side by that, then lost interest.

Got stuck on a boss in FF8, about two thirds of the way through, and decided that the hateful, selfish main character was somebody whose story probably wasn't worth the effort of telling.

The earlier games in the series, I've only played in recent years. Got the PSP remakes of the first two last month - they're lovely - and I'm now just waiting for a clear spot in my gaming calender before I can put the time in on them.

I like the basic gameplay the older games contain, it's got to be said - I like that there's little real brainwork required, that you can afford to relax yourself with them. They're like novels that you've read lots of times already - curl up into a comfy chair and simply splonk out with them. Again, though, I don't know if the gameplay can sustain them for the length of time required for completion.

It's interesting to see newer RPGs attempt to take the basic nature of the older FF games and marry it to snazzy new visuals. Dragon Quest VIII is the biggest name where this kind of thing is concerned, but it ultimately failed - imo - by sticking too closely to the lack of freedom that the contained, combined with the need to slog through endless battles in order to level up for certain bosses. the dreaded grind. In th end, that killed the game for me. Stone dead. I'd sailed through the previous sections of the game (we're talking many, many hours here - I'd made serious progress) without any major difficulty, whihc meant that when I reached this boss, I was massively underpowered. I'd broken pace with the game. It was more or less impossible to get past this boss without access to a certain skill, which - thanks to the pre-defined nature of the levelling system - I wasn't due to access for another three or four levels. Some hours of grinding, fighting random monsters. No ta.

I mention this, because DQVIII was clearly an attempt by Squenix to balance out the revolution they were intending FF12 to represent - a way of appeasing those put off by that game's new ideas.

The other early-FF-alike is microsoft's Blue Dragon on the 360. it looks wonderful - same concept artist as DQVIII (the Dragonball Z guy), but with the characters and world rendered with realistic, solid shading and texture effects, rather than DQVIII's toon/cell shading. The review in Edge didn't like it, didn't find it as appealing as the DQVIII look. i disagree entirely - I've not seen any game that looks as solidly real as Blue Dragon. It honestly looks like you could reach into the screen and manipulate the world with your hands, pick things up and plonk them down elsewhere.

So far, it's also a game that's passed by painlessly. No difficulty hikes, no moments of "where the fuck am I, again, and what th fuck am I supposed to be doing next?". But it covers three DVDs - I'm not going to finish it, am I? I'll become bored or distracted again. Still, FF devotees should pick it up.

Which leaves FF11, the real black sheep. I played the beta trial of the 360 version and became hooked. Since abandoning WoW, I've been thinking about getting the full version - the only thing putting me off is the stupid amount of space that the install eats up on the miserly 360 hard drive. I think that the fact that it's not as massively subscribed to as WoW helps - the people are friendlier, more helpful - but I also found the world more appealing (much uglier, but still) and the job system more rewarding than the WoW equivalent (you're constantly aware that you're following a strictly defined progress tree in WoW, and that deviation from it is impossible - FF11 is more successful at disguising that).