Got FF1 upon its initial release, pretty sure it was Christmas, and it had just come out. Was excited about it because I loved Dragon Warrior and Nintendo Power had hyped it up pretty heavily. Yay eighties! Played the absolute shit out of it, although it took me a long time to finally beat it.
Had to wait until the SNES for FF2/IV. Was so hype for it, but it was expensive, and I could only get games for birthday or Christmas at that point, so had to content myself with playing through a rental. I got as far as I could countless times, usually the fucking magus sisters. I tried to rent it every weekend, sometimes dragging parents to other rental places when it was out. I got to continue my game every once in a while, but usually found all the saved replaced with level 1-5 games with filthy names. This was the undercurrent of an entire summer if I'm remembering correctly. I like to think I would buy my child something they wanted so badly, but I'm pretty sure they knew it wouldn't be healthy for me, and were being better parents than I will be. I didn't actually own a copy until much later in life since I managed to finish it multiple times while renting.
Was a pretty big nerd at that point, and geeked out over series. Learned that FF2 was (OMG!) really part IV and that we had missed some. Fell into hype cycle for FFV, only to see it never come over. Followed VI as much as possible, but getting info was tougher before the internet.
Didn't have a problem getting FF3/VI. Cracked the hell out and loved it. Even the opera scene. Finished it multiple times, even if I didn't like the story as much as IV...
Was old enough not to be as obsessed with games by the time of the great Nintendo betrayalton. Like everyone, was shocked FFVII was going to the Playstation (How could they do that?! There was that siggraph demo!).Then the issue of Gamefan came out with all the pics and info, and got mad hype. Frothing. Like many, I bought Tobal just for the demo, and played it repeatedly. When it finally dropped, I'm pretty sure I skipped school for the day to go get it. Think I was a senior in high school, so that was pretty sad.
It was kind of goofy, and the translation was obviously poor, but there were a lot of things it did very right. Everything was great until after the first disc, and it started going off the rails. The badass with spiky hair turned out to be a crazy coward, and I kind of finished it and was done. A few of the other gamers I knew went all in on it, doing all the crazy weapon bosses and whatever, but I kind of finished it and put it away.
Was absolutely blown away by Final Fantasy Tactics, shoddy translation and all.
think I got around to playing II, III, and V at this point. Was pretty unimpressed with the first two (they were ancient at that point...although appreciated systems that were incorporated into later games...). Really liked the ideas/system in V, but story was pretty lame.
FVIII I went in apprehensive. Did not get very far. Thought draw system was stupid, and characters sucked. Returned it and got something else. Have never completed.
FFIX was supposed to be a return to form, but felt kind of half-assed. Got through it, and it had its moments, but didn't really leave much of an impression. It seemed like a missed opportunity, and I guess I just couldn't relate to the characters. Maybe I was too old at that point.
FFX I actually thought was pretty good, even if it was written for teenage girls. Had a pretty fun battle system, got through it all!
FFX-2 I own but haven't really played for more than a few hours due to it being a bit embarrassing. I've always heard the battle system is awesome, but never got back to it. Thinking about getting the vita rev (and probably not playing it).
FFXI was fuckawesome. Got it at PC/NA launch, and it was the first time in years that I got completely into a FF, or even lost myself in a game to that extent. It was like a treadmill infused with complete nostalgia. It nailed the world, music, systems...and was completely unforgiving and a chore. Due to this, the community was awesome, and very tight knit. The lows were very low (waiting around for grind parties mainly), but the highs I've never really found in a game since. Making the mad dash to Jeuno with a few other noobs, grand sense of exploration, and probably the best world/soundtrack in the series...if square had any sense, they'd have made an offline story set in this world years ago. I digress.
Got into it pretty heavily for the first six months, had to stop because it was wasting too much time and I recognized it was pretty self-destructive. Kept an account for years, and bought most of the expansions though...didn't put enough into it to get to top-tier or anything, but loved the crew and world too much to quit completely. Probably my overall fave FF along with IV.
XII I was insanely hype for, and had massive hopes for. Matsuno helmed, apparently he was addicted to XI for a while and wanted to carry over the best elements...everything leading up to it had me very hyped...until development fell apart. I bought it day one, but it didn't grab me like it should have, and I had a lot going on. I really need to get back to it at some point I guess.
XIII I actually got around 20+ hours in, it was kind of pap, but there were enough things to like about it where I probably would have completed it. Then my 60 gig Ps3 bricked and I haven't had the urge to restart.
XIII-2 I bought new for like ten bucks. It's still in plastic LOL.
XIV was a hot mess. I was pretty hype for it, but it turned out to be....a wreck. Put out way underdone, but there were a few redeeming qualities. Base graphics were pretty great in places. Music was great... world was decent. It was just boring and borked. Square owned up to it, and began fixing it while not charging for it. playing during this was pretty awesome...they improved tons, and since it was free I dicked around in it every once in a while. Don't have time to be super hardcore or anything, but almost maxed a job out. They started charging toward the end, and had an event sequence where you witnessed the destruction of the world. It was pretty awesome.
XIV RR/2.0 seems like it's going to be fantastic. Don't think it's the second coming of XI, but I really couldn't make time for something like that now anyway. I am totally fine with a really well done FF themed post-WOW MMO at this point. Will probably be playing this for a while. The producer brought in to salvage the project has done a tremendous job, and has earned a massive amount of trust/respect from the community thus far. Hopefully this goes well for them.
XV looks pretty fucking awful. It seems like the culmination of everything they've done wrong with FF since forever ago.
I don't know if this is the longest post I've ever typed out on the internet or not, and not sure how I feel about it.
