==MAINLINE GAMES==Final FantasyFainaru FantajīOriginal Release: December 17, 1987
Edition Played: PSP
Time to Beat: 15 hours
Date Completed: February 11, 2014
Score: Nostalgia/10
Played this while I was waiting for Bravely Default. I got to the final dungeon, then put it on hold for BD, but I decided to go ahead and finish it before I got totally sucked into BD. This was my second RPG after Dragon Warrior, and although I loved DW, FF1 was on a whole other level. I had the strategy guide from Nintendo Power and I used to pour over it for hours, even before I got game, just checking out all the monsters and dungeons and weapons and shit. Decided to buy the new strategy guide for bonus nostalgia. /nerd
Final Fantasy IIFainaru Fantajī TsūOriginal Release: December 17, 1988
Edition Played: PSP
Time to Beat: 18 hours
Date Completed: February 22, 2014
Score: No Levels, WTF/10
This was one weird mammajamma. It was uh "interesting" to play, but it had so many little annoying quirks and jankiness, that it was not exactly fun to play. But yet I couldn't stop playing it! Well, back into the dustbin for this game.
Now comes the tough decision. I was planning on sending the PSP back to the closet after beating FF1&2 playing the rest on my Vita, but man, I don't know now. I had forgotten how slick the PSP-3000 was, it's so perfectly sized. It fits right in your hand, and had great controls as long as you didn't have to use the nub. The Vita is a behemoth compared to the 3000. *waffles*
Final Fantasy IIIFainaru Fantajī SurīOriginal Release: April 27, 1990
Edition Played: PSP (Vita)
Time to Beat: 22 hours
Date Completed: March 3, 2014
Score: 4 Airships/10
Smacked that bitch up! I was going to get to Lv. 60 and try again, but instead I was just like "screw it" and queued up some ESPN docs and spent about 2:30 hours grinding to Lv. 65 then went and put my boot up her ass. Felt good.
My final party consisted of:
Luneth - Lv. 66 (Devout Lv. 38)
Arc - Lv. 66 (Ninja Lv. 84)
Refia - Lv. 66 (Dark Knight Lv. 64)
Ingus - Lv. 66 (Dragoon Lv. 99)
Of the Famicom FF's, III feels the most complete. The story was still threadbare (even with the few additions they made to the DS version) but everything else felt like an improvement over the first two. I enjoyed it up until the frustrating ending section, but even that wasn't too bad. I'm ready to get back into the SNES era, though. Cecil's been hanging out at the Mount Ordeal while I finished up I-III.
Final Fantasy IVFainaru Fantajī FōOriginal Release: July 19, 1991
Edition Played: PSP (Vita)
Time to Beat: 27 hours
Date Completed: July 7, 2014
Score: Everyone Dies (J/K!)/10
FF4 was a lot more straightforward than FF5 (although the way I played FF5 was pretty straightforward too). No job system, only Black/White/Summon magic, automatically learn spells. People come and go from your party, but you never have more than 5 people at a time, and can't switch out characters until the very end. When characters come back, they're always properly learned, so you don't have to worry about people getting behind. The story was pretty straightforward too: bad guy is trying to get all the crystals, you have to stop him or bad stuff will happen. The beginning was cool though, with Cecil basically being a bad guy and the beginning and then having to try to atone for his sins and become a hero. Then the end when you went to moon, things got a little weird there.
It was fun. I think I liked FF5 better, though. Probably not going to play After Years right away, I'll come back to it later at some point.
Final Fantasy VFainaru Fantajī FaibuOriginal Release: December 6, 1992
Edition Played: GBA
Time to Beat: 36 hours
Date Completed: June 26, 2014
Score: Androgynous Princess/10
FFV was pretty rad. I had fun doing the Job Fiesta, even though it was my first playthrough. My party was almost pure physical, so my playthrough was just all about grindan, getting sweet loot, and bashing guys. The good things in life. I kept my party leveled above the curve so I didn't have much trouble in the game until late, mostly with high-defense enemies, but nothing too major. Exdeath was tough, it took me about 6-7 goes at him before I finally brought him down, praying to RNGsus the whole time that he wouldn't cast Almagest too many times or that Grand Cross wouldn't turn everyone into a zombie. Finally did it, and with everyone at near max health even, so I got the good ending where everyone escapes the Void. Feels good, man.
==SIDE GAMES==Final Fantasy: Mystic QuestFainaru Fantajī Yū Esu Ē Misutikku KuesutoOriginal Release: October 5, 1992
Edition Played: SNES (Wii VC)
Time to Beat: 12 hours
Date Completed: July 15, 2014
Score:
/10
The good parts were the music and the dungeon design. The bad was pretty much everything else. Combat was tedious and boring. The plot was non-existent at best, and confusing at worse. People just appear and reappear out of nowhere and tell me to do stuff and I'm like "Bitch, I don't even know who you are." Spells, items, and equipment were all dumbed down to the point of not being interesting at all. Because of how limited the items were, the rewards for actually exploring the dungeons were lame (go down some side passage and fight 5 mobs to get a chest with 3 potions
)
spoiler (click to show/hide)
Athough legit Final Fantasy games also pull that crap.
I had a ton of gold by the end of the game, even after buying 99 of the four total items that it lets you buy in the game. None of the bosses were challenging when you could just spam White/Meteor/Flare every turn, use your near infinite seed supply when you ran out of MP.
But saying all that, it's pretty much what I expected going in. I was curious though, I decided to give it a whirl while I was working my way through the SNES FF's.
spoiler (click to show/hide)
A convergence of events
- Final Fantasy sale on PSN
- Release of Lightning Returns
- Release of Final Fantasy X & X-2 HD
has got me pumped to play some Final Fantasy. I bought III, IV, and V on PSN and then in a fit of temporary infaggotry I also bought FF I & II 20th Anniversary Editions for the PSP. I got this crazy idea that I might try to play through the entire FF series this year. Or at least as much of it as I can until I get burned out, which might not be very much. Not all at once, but just here and there, pop in a FF game and see how much of it I can get knocked out in a year.
I'm starting off with
Final Fantasy IV, which looks pretty delicious on the PSP, especially as opposed to the grotesque 3D DS remake.
You got that right, buddy.
