A look back at: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles

This is it, at least for now with regards to the Final Fantasy franchise as a whole for me. I have played many games, but considering other franchises I have yet to touch as well as these games being on the more modern systems and such, I need to talk a break from reviewing Final Fantasy games this much. And I ended on, shall I say, a rather peculiar title. A spinoff if you will, one that garnered a number of sequels plus a remaster in short time, but ended up fading into obscurity anyways. The one Final Fantasy title to be on the Gamecube, this game ended up being a hack-and-slash action RPG. Which I think I established with Digimon World 4 that I am just not a real fan of that kind of genre anymore. Especially when this is another game that was meant for multiplayer.

Or, is it? I played this singleplayer like with DW4, but it's got such a complex system for those playing multiplayer that to this day I wonder how one could get up to three friends, have a full link cable and have all the buddies hook Game Boy Advances to play while the host has his Gamecube on. It's such a weird system to go by just by the peripheries necessary. With singleplayer, I really don't have to do that, though the going is tedious. Battles will be a little longer and I have to be far more managing with what I got. But it was much better to plow through in singleplayer than DW4, and more balanced, so it gets those points.

So much, that I beat it in 10 days from the start! And on the 31st anniversary of Doom no less. You can probably guess I wanted this sucker out of the way so I can focus on other stuff, but I did follow a guide that said to finish the base game by Year 5 (the guide was apparently for the remaster which had a post-game, but I didn't get to experience any of that). The main goal in this game is as follows: travel by caravan to locations, get some better equipment by either buying from shops or by pillaging from enemies, going through the motions of complex dungeons with some puzzles of varying annoyances, battle a boss at the end, and collect myrrh from a tree. Rinse and repeat three times, you get a cute little dance festival and diary entries, and somehow those are quite important as you transition from year to year. With the way AI is in this game, I found it useful to cheese against many, many enemies, though the strongest ones with multiple attacks were the toughest, and you usually get those in the last dungeon by far. There's also the miasma gimmick, and the moogle partner was an okay thing for this game although I really just had him hold the chalice unless I was solving puzzles or something.

The game's got an absolutely killer soundtrack filled with great instrumentation and the composer here deserves a lot of praise, but seems to be forgotten in time. I haven't found a soundtrack for any RPG as good as this since the two Chrono games or any Suikoden game, this is FANTASTIC MUSIC. And it's the best thing about the game arguably, the combat can get tricky but I got the hang of things, and the plot almost entirely is given out thanks to the overall setting, how miasma slowly eats away everything and you as a caravaner get myrrh to keep your home hanging by the threads. The side stuff with other characters is nothing to rave about, the bosses all vary, and the main villain is just something out of nowhere. But as far as a game like this goes, it wasn't bad!

A look back at: Final Fantasy X-2

 

I had fun. I also didn't have fun. That's the gist of it. Oh wait, did I quote some character here? I did.

Funny enough, I had a choice to check either this game out first, or Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Considering the fact it is summer break and I don't have a lot of work in the summer, this was the better option at the moment. I knew this game would take a long, long time to go through. I knew there were sidequests, minigames, and grinding. That last part, well, it's mostly the ability grinding. By the end my girls were pushing Lv75 but levels don't matter. Abilities and dresspheres do, as do all the rewards for doing all sorts of things as well. More garment grids! More dresspheres! More accessories! Half the time it felt like I was really doing a nonlinear collectathon.

That's arguably the game's biggest strength in my opinion. It's nonlinear from the start. Final Fantasy X-2 only has a measly 5 chapters, those who want to do the story will realize that the chapters don't really take as long as they really do. But since you can explore every part of Spira (except in those scenarios where places are locked), that lends way to all the sidequests, which could impact other chapters and DEFINITELY impact the percentage of completion later on. Sadly, I didn't really get 100%, this is because I decided that doing Via Infinito (among other things) was gonna take way too long, and I wanted to check out other games later. I still used a cheat code to actually put the game's completion at 100% and found out that the only thing that it really does is add new ending scenes.

I'm a little desensitized with Final Fantasy as a franchise from having played so many games in it. Tons of stuff make this a good game, the customizable garment grids and ability grinding were the gist of my gaming experience here. The return to the Active-Time battle system works out alright, being able to change your dressphere in the midst of combat is a nice touch, but in the end not entirely necessary for most battles that aren't boss battles. This is cause bar specific enemies, a good-leveled party just breezes through encounters. You only have problems whenever the encounter rate dictates you have a battle every three steps, you get ambushed quite a lot (me thinks it is an attempt to balance easy encounters), and most encounters that are troublesome have fixed-damage attacks (those annoying amorphous gel enemies in particular). Oh, and the Oversoul gimmick! Kinda cool, kinda annoying with some encounters, but really not as consequential as it looks.

Character-wise, it's nice to see new faces, who were arguably the most interesting, and the returning ones are either moving on or unfortunately got on my nerves (looking at you, Rikku and Brother). Minigames are so worth talking about. Blitzball is significantly worse but thankfully not truly necessary, but it's better playing than coaching. Gunner's Gauntlet is a kind-of fun third person shooter gimmick but I got all the prizes after figuring things out. Sphere Break is a fun math game but unfortunately requires some luck and math knowledge. The massage minigame is ENTIRELY luck, you want to hit the right spots and that is up to total chance. Shoving the band into the airship elevator was completely unnecessary. The Calm Lands minigames are also not necessary but the publicity stuff sucks. That Cactuar war minigame is beyond stupid, thankfully it's not necessary to win. Thunder Plains tower calibration was quite fun the first time, then not once you got to the last few towers. They give you directions and tutorials on most everything at least. So a varied experience, and honestly a quite worthy sequel in my book, but given how much time things took, and how I felt my usual RPG fatigue at the end, it's obvious that no NG+ playthroughs of any kind will come in soon.

A look back at: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

Happy Halloween y'all. Finally, this one is finished, I spent a ton of time on FFTA to the point of never bothering with any other game otherwise despite all my work hours and all and I think in all honesty, despite the many moments of exhaustion, it paid off.

You remember when Wiegraf says stuff about a penalty for breaking the law is a fine, then it's for the working class? You can expect something like that here. Somewhat. But a little more than that. FFTA does do well with most of the mechanics of the Playstation game, but boldly goes in a direction that was sure to cause controversy, this law system. In my playthrough, I chose to go through it without ever getting a single lawbreaking card ever, and I managed to do it, but it was super tough of course. Maybe not in the beginning, most FF games walk you through things, but soon you have three laws and you need to shuffle your units with their classes and what they do and maybe have a few antilaw cards (thank god for these) in order to even damage enemies. Or just engage in the risky Jagds where no laws are not allowed. The laws do piss me off many times. How is anyone supposed to do anything if "Fight" is outlawed? Yeah, sure units have special abilities, but sometimes using Fight is a good way to go, especially if you got Double Sword for a unit. What about Dmg2 Animal, preventing any units from damaging monsters? You can see where this is going, and it means that I have to either have the right antilaw to get around it, or shuffle on the world map until the day no longer has the idiotic law.

Speaking of world map, the fact that this game breaks the fourth wall with how they talk about Final Fantasy the game series is funny, and then you can just place locations where you want after plot missions, which is an interesting way to put things. Everything is driven by missions, the dispatch ones being the most annoying due to so many factors. Does my dispatch have the right stats or job to proceed? How many days, fights, or enemies are required before they come back? What time frame do I need to figure out before the mission reappears? Does the mission reappear at all? And most importantly, why are so many mission-item-requiring missions become available WELL BEFORE the mission items themselves are available? You gotta chain these things sometimes, and it's ridiculous.

Thankfully, the game isn't trying to make me hate it that much. Waiting for something to happen isn't an excuse unless it's really egregious, and since you can accept multiple missions, that's always great. Meanwhile, the shops are nice, getting abilities was a prime thing for me to do at all times to make the best of my characters, and there's great synergy with all the races so that none really stand out above the rest. The story itself is, essentially speaking, resetting a warped story or rather a warped world, and most everything Marche does ends up getting him in trouble. Not as much as Ramza in the first game, but he has a lot of convincing to do. Do I enjoy this? I'm glad to have experienced it, and it has a ton of replay value due to its good customization and being a FF title. It will make you hate laws though.

A look back at: Chocobo's Dungeon 2

While I didn't really pay as much attention to the first Chocobo's dungeon, that is in part due to not being translated as well as this one. Here it's more of the same thing for those who are already familiar with the Mystery Dungeon games. And well, this and its predecessor incorporate Final Fantasy elements of course, all the creatures you know and love and the items too. I'd argue it's one of the cutest looking games ever, especially in its FMV sequences which are wonderful.

So again, randomized dungeons, wandering enemies, random traps and chests, losing all equipment if you die in a dungeon, and a partner that is used to help out whenever necessary. And of course the village is the hub, where you can do things on the side as needed. Music is very nice throughout, enemy ranks can get tough, but the items I think are the showstealers of this game. Refilling bottles in springs, finding out what they do upon consumption or kicking them. The same with cards and tags, all have varying effects. Spellbooks being the ONLY source of magic leads to a little bit of grinding in and around times, but these are easy to come by with bookshelves. Recycle boxes change items around for the price of two, stoves are great for refurbishing existing equipment, and it is quite annoying to have to lose your equipment in the middle of the game or if it breaks somehow. So the fun value is a total rollercoaster and that's all I can say about that. One minute you'd cruise through after doing some grinding of your own and the next the enemies show up to surround you with all sorts of problems. Oh, and there's technically a time limit, as Doom the reaper will come in to destroy if you take too long or if you're unlucky with chests or cards.

As cute as it is, plot-wise it can get sad since it revolves around Shiroma the white mage and her mysterious time-traveling or what not. It's quite interesting how a lowly enemy very early in the game ends up being a final boss since Mog the Moogle shoved him out of the way in the beginning, and having the dungeon being sentient is both dangerous and hilarious somehow. The FMVs are the real storytelling and I liked them even without the words (sorry Bahamut, I was bored with your speeches). Isn't it strange that a sequel game got a better translation? They could have renamed this one so that people don't get curious as to why the first one wasn't as well-translated.

A look back at: Final Fantasy X

 

The Final Fantasy series never seems to disappoint, even when it is disappointing. Or something like that. But whatever. Final Fantasy X is heavily revered, for being the first on the PS2 and also for just being a really interesting game overall. While I do miss my Active-Time Battle System, the one here isn't that bad since you can definitely switch turn order, or characters, on the fly. I guess the main issue at least for bigger fights is to get all of your characters in on the action so that everyone gets experience (cause if your character sits there and doesn't take action, no EXP for you!). There's as always a lot to take in, from the different niches of the characters and fiends, the concept of death itself, the new summoning mechanic, the minigames, the family relationships and the different races, the somewhat confusing tutorials (yeah, there were lots of them), just a lot to take in! But really, you do gotta experience it just to see what it's about, let's be real here.

Overall though, FFX did great. Combat was fun, even though it's heavily niched in favor by how certain characters seem to fair better against certain enemies than others, meaning some characters get way more experience than everyone else in some areas. The Overdrives, the limit breaks of this game, have some action commands to them. The statuses are a lot more urgent to treat than usual. The way levels work means that every time you gain a sphere level, you go to the grid and spend a sphere and a level grade to get a new stat or move, and the grid can get quite complex. There's a number of ways to customize this, such as making Yuna or Rikku into hardline fighters instead of their own niches, or giving Kimahri lots of black and white magic spells to be a backup mage. Then you got the many strange plot points, the annoying minigames such as lightning dodging and butterfly catching, plus the boring ones like Blitzball but all of these tend to getting those game-breaking Celestial weapons.

But other than getting those weapons, I played the game more or less normally. Surprisingly, the overall gameplay if you plot to the letter is much shorter than I expected. Everything's much more linear, you don't get to an overworld screen at all in this game and you just do the "dot-to-destination" ordeal a few other RPGs may have done. I'd say this is one of the weaker parts of the game. But hey, having maps and decent healing/saving spots is nice.  The cutscenes really slow the pace of the game, but overall, the story remains interesting. And that's even getting to the fact that the protagonist is a kid with a big mouth and an athletic attitude. But he warms up, as does everyone else around him, and the story ends up rather tragically as we realize that this kid's gotta defeat his father, and that he wishes for the endless cycle that Spira has to deal with must end somehow.

To think this Final Fantasy game would get a direct sequel, as opposed to just creating a new Final Fantasy setup or even a spinoff in a similar location. This definitely means that that's gonna be on my bucket list someday, despite what I've heard about it.

A look back at: Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon

 Well, surprise! Guess I did play something Final Fantasy-related after all. Always gotta look out for those weird spinoffs as they might be hidden gems, and that's the case here. Now, when you think of Mystery Dungeon, you'll probably first think of the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games perhaps, or if you're a real retro nut, actual roguelikes. Chocobo no Fushigi na Dungeon is the Final Fantasy variant of such a thing, and well, it's got Final Fantasy elements incorporated into a rather fun roguelike game.

It does the interesting thing by combining the already popular Active-Time Battle System with the real-time movement of roguelike battles. It's sort of reminiscent of certain action RPGs I've played, such as the Ys games, but with a little more interesting strategy with waiting for your bar to fill, in other words you don't have to to do an attack, but it's probably better if you could for best damage. Gameplay-wise, I hate how exploring seems to do the maximum drain to my stamina, yet the randomized dungeon really does emphasize this kinda playing style, cause you wanna see everything before moving into the next floor. You wanna get all the items you can, and get as much experience from monsters as you can. And those traps sure make things even harder.

It's a shame that with a randomized dungeon, there's not much you can really push for in plot, but Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon at least tries well enough. You do go through floors, get the help of a mysterious hooded figure, and fight a couple of bosses, but the whole thing is just a chocobo and a moogle adventuring together without much else in substance. What really sells this better than other games has to be the FMV cutscenes. Hey, it's Square doing this. Their FMVs for mainline Final Fantasy games are great enough!

A look back at: Final Fantasy II

 

Surprised that I would play this again? Even I am. Words cannot express how confused I was at this game initially. You'd think it'd be just another Final Fantasy game, but then it throws you for a loop as there's no regular level gaining, and it's all about stat growth. In a way, the second Final Fantasy game predated the SaGa series. Neato. In any case though, good lord, there's gonna be lots of grinding, and in some ways it's all counterintuitive. Yes that's right. Attack a lot to gain strength. Get hit a lot to gain HP and endurace. Use magic to up MP and Intelligence or Spirit. And since you can hit your own characters, this all paves way to some ludicrous stat growth for the most persevering of grinders. But never bite off more than you can chew, because the super strongest enemies won't even be scratched at low levels. There's also weapon and spell mastery so you're basically talking LOTS of usage of particular things to get things up to snuff. Impatient players will just use the PAR codes.

I'll also gladly admit, the enemy encounters are annoying. I mean the actual encounters, not the enemies themselves. Combine the high encounter rate with twisting dungeons with lots of enemies and one dungeon can take more than an hour. Plus, seeing as this is an old FF game, there's an item limit. It's still tough, even if I played on the PSX remake of the game.

At least Final Fantasy games are good enough in storyline. This isn't the best as far as story goes, but it's still engaging, you get these neat characters in your fourth slot to help often (well except Gordon who sucks all around) but also see story scenes that will drive the narrative of "stop the evil empire". Deaths of Josef, Minwu, and Ricard/Gareth are definitely sad, while getting Leon back in the party is a great way to get the game back on the feet for the endgame. The experimental nature of this game is its main downside, and the main reason I came back to it is of course, there've been much more complex stuff than this, so it's time to revisit and actually get through it now that I know what to really do.

A look back at: Final Fantasy IX

Well well, look who hasn't made a post in nearly a month. That's what happens when you play lots of stuff over the month, as well as get involved in a big Final Fantasy game with lots of sidequests and such. In many ways, IX is the underrated gem of the Final Fantasies, everyone knows it exists, but take it to the side to continue talking about VII or VI or what not. It's the kind of Final Fantasy game with loads of imperfections but lots of charming stuff to outweigh them. Trying to return to the roots of the original Final Fantasies but also keeping to the tune of modern stuff. Lots of FMVs were really well done (other than a noticable sound issue I had to deal with) and the ability system I sort of was okay with for the most part.

Those sidequests compared to others took quite a while, especially having to do Chocobo Hot and Cold. I neglected some things, like the jump rope and racing minigames, because the rewards are just little titles no one cares about. I decided not to fight Ozma because of ending fatigue, but got basically every other sidequest here. Thankfully the balance is decent enough that I managed to beat the game with under level 50 for all characters. Synthesizing weapons was a supposedly neat idea but not entirely original, the idea of hoarding your inventory instead of actually selling old equipment made it so that synthesizing was actually useful.

There were quite a few things about IX that bothered me. Zidane's steal rate, even with the Master Thief ability, isn't good at all. I can spend 4 consecutive turns of Zidane stealing while everyone else attacks, and yet he won't steal anything. There's a number of abilities for status protection, but they sadly lack it for all statuses, and particular virus and instant death protection aren't present (unless you count Auto-Life, but this applies to all KOs and not necessarily insta-kill, plus it can be set with Amarant or Quina's own abilities anyways). Necron of course I hate, just a random "here's a new bad guy without a single inch of backstory when you got used to the awesome Kuja for the entire game" not to mention him taking up to three turns which is so unfair. Sure, a challenge is a challenge though. Above all else, my biggest complaint with IX is the awful encounter rate, probably the worst in the whole series so far, you can barely get anywhere and bam, another encounter. And the pacing of battles is really slow. It made the Nero Brothers sidequest in particular (have to go back and forth between the endgame dungeon after "checkpoints" are reached) so annoying.

As I said though, IX does do the good parts good. Kuja is so much more interesting than Ultimecia, Sephiroth, Kefka, Exdeath, etc. Zidane's backstory came out of nowhere but it actually is a pretty memorable moment, plus his character as a whole is great. Cid in this game is quirky good. Steiner is definitely devoted. Zorn and Thorn are appropriately annoying comic relief. Dagger and Eiko do their parts well, and so on. The storyline of course gets apocalyptic and suspenseful in multiple parts, sadness reigns, and the heroes still prevail. It's an appropriate Final Fantasy story and it's enriched in goodness all around (well aside from Necron's stupid reveal).

A look back at: Final Fantasy Tactics

Let it be known that I am not a fan of Game of Thrones. I'm also quite burned out on the classic dreary medieval setting. But even with those personal opinions of mine even I can't say no to Final Fantasy Tactics, since it makes a Tactics game with Final Fantasy traits and it works out quite well. Having to recruit and customize characters is always of importance, I spend way too much on it, and I also spend quite a lot of money making sure that equipment is of very adequate supply. Usually, you'd never want to buy so much of equipment, but here I gotta, since enemy thiefs and knights can steal or break the stuff. The propositions are a true hit-or-miss thing, they're not my favorite thing to do because they mean progressing in-game days walking back and forth. I'm actually surprised that character aging isn't actually implemented in this game. And who says it's a Final Fantasy game with a lot of bonus content. Cloud Strife as a playable? Not really too much into him here but the thought counts I guess. The Deep Dungeon being a dark multi-floored dungeon? Cool.

This is of course offset by the cool stuff you can do with characters. Throwing stones apparently is a practical way to level up characters, as is accumulating physical attack power. Mediators can invite, Dancers can dance hurtful dances, monks have a huge array of Punch Art, and then there's the different mages, plus the chemist who's an item trolley. The special units like Mustadio, Agrias, and Beowulf all get their own special default abilities which prove to be better than any of the recruitables, while Ramza has the ability to get Ultima.

I guess a complaint for this game is why exactly is the difficulty curve so dynamic? It's like if you went through one battle easy peasy due to the enemies being underprepared, and then you get a more annoying setup. Or you're in Riovanes Castle, Limberry Castle, or any multi-stage battlefield. It's seems so enticing to save once you're done with one tough battle, but having several without options to level grind have made players forfeit their entire games at Riovanes Castle for example. Thanks a lot Rafa, for suicidally attacking Elmdor when you should be running away from the enemies with the Masamune and the insta-kill/stop abilities.

On the storyline perspective, Ramza and Delita carry the game through. Delita ends up being the manipulator to a lot of nobility, while Ramza the heretic finds all the truth needed against this corrupt church and how corrupt all of the noble characters really are. The fact that this story chronicles the adventures Ramza takes makes him out to be someone who was only remembered as a heretic and not a true savior, while Delita who killed his way up to kingsmanship got all the credit. It's real sad too, you see Ramza and Alma riding Chocobos away from Ivalice since they know they can't return, while we can't be certain if Delita survives his stabbing ordeal from his queen. Still though, Final Fantasy Tactics delivered on a bittersweet story better than I expected, compounding it with numerous character deaths that the series so desperately avoids.

Final Fantasy series' inconsistences with death

I barely have anything to blog about these days. But even if that were the case, there's still some interesting things to think about. Right now, as I'm playing Final Fantasy Tactics, I'm taking note of just how many characters end up perishing in-game through cutscenes and/or otherwise. There's a lot of them in this game, and it gave me time to reflect on the series and games that had the more notable deaths. Might as well list the one's that are really notable.

II: Josef, Minwu
III: Elia
IV: Tellah, Anna
V: Galuf and the rest of the original heroes
VI: Cid (can be prevented), Gestahl, Leo, Shadow (can be prevented), Cyan's family, Rachel
VII: Aeris, President Shinra
VIII: Vinzer Deling

Those are of course the more memorable ones from the games I'm already familiar with, but there's a whole slew of characters that come near death or perhaps fake their deaths. I'm not familiar with II that much apart from what people have told me, but I know for a fact Desh in III jumps into a tower reactor, only to show up much later on. IV is incredibly blatant with its fake deaths, all of which tend to be sacrifices in some way. Yang jumping into the barrel of a powerful cannon? How could he survive that? Cid is even worse, jumping down a huge chasm with a bomb ready to deploy. And he's the FIRST character you see recovering. Somehow, despite Tellah NOT being able to cure Palom and Porom of petrification much earlier, the village elder of Mysidia could do it. Nothing makes much sense when it comes to these fake deaths.

In V's later stages, Lenna gets sucked into the vortexes during one of Exdeath's main attacks, and is eventually rescued. Although when she's back in the party, she's essentially dead, and her status also shows that when you look at it upon getting her back. But you could just revive her. You couldn't do that with Galuf, mostly due to the circumstances involving his sacrifice. There's also barely any effort to prevent Xeza's death from occurring, or Kelmar's.

Skipping over to VII, as VI had plenty of decent deaths and no real fake-outs apart from the preventable ones. Believe it or not, the two characters I mentioned above are the only two who somehow die, and both by Sephiroth's hands. Sephiroth's Masamune somehow just couldn't kill anything else. Tifa gets slashed completely across the chest in a flashback, and even falls about sixty feet down stairs, but she survives. Tseng gets stabbed in the chest at one dungeon, and is laying on the ground when you meet him there, but he's revealed to have survived despite not appearing later on. Finally, Cloud himself. He also gets pierced in the chest by Sephiroth like Tseng, but also gets lifted up. This somehow doesn't kill him, and Cloud even pulls a reversal and knocks Sephiroth below. And that's just Sephiroth's examples of not killing, there are others in this game. Palmer getting hit by a truck? Well it could be survivable and it is in his case. What about Rufus during the Diamond Weapon attack? Somehow, despite the earth-shattering beam, it's revealed he's okay. This is just not understandable.

VIII had a few of these happen, usually involving moments with Squall and Rinoa (particularly the end of Disc 1 where Squall gets outright skewered with a shard from Edea), it's hard to really follow them. The missile base mission also sees Selphie's group somehow making it out of there, using something...rather special. Laguna in one of his scenes somehow manages to push his injured comrades down a cliff, both survive (although Ward no longer can speak). Vinzer is just the unluckiest guy ever.

So yeah, get your deaths together Final Fantasy. Other JRPG series usually keep characters dead. Usually. Only a few times would they not, but this series is quite notorious for fake deaths. Not saying that death should always happen in these games, that would make things tragic and perhaps make the overall fanbase a little more secluded, but less fake-outs please.

A look back at: Final Fantasy VIII

Now that I've finally reviewed this monster of a game, let's look back at it. This will be sort of like my Suikoden IV review, where I just sort of keel over and talk about what I liked, disliked, and other ambiguities. Using + for what I liked, - for what I disliked, and * for the ambiguous stuff which has things I like and dislike. Also this game is 125th hardest for the Playstation, out of 162, forgot to mention that. It's apparently considered the easiest of the Playstation Final Fantasy titles.

+Junctioning magic and GFs really does help with stats in this game a lot, and the magic system is kind of cool. Drawing magic from enemies and draw points is a neat little gimmick.
+Triple Triad. Wow, this was a fantastic minigame, and honestly should've been the only one in there. The rules being able to be changed and all is fancy as well. Not to mention all the card values are things in-game as well.
+There's some nice side-stuff at Balamb Garden, usually you just listen to side conversations or boot up your computer or something to see them.
+I like the weapon crafting a lot, it still costs you, but it's worth it in the long run as usual. Farming for items from enemies is somewhat more of a hassle.
+While I didn't use them much, the idea of GFs as summons is interesting in itself, providing a meatshield in case your character in question could die easily. Plus they level up and gain abilities, further making the game more broken.
+Refining items of course, again really breaking the game open quite easily.
+Other GF abilities are fantastic, like the Call Shop one as well. Optional content that really pays off. Not to mention combining the shop, refining, bam, infinite money.
+Well, having to fight GFs to obtain them isn't entirely new, but then again, the fights against them tend to actually be pretty decent anyways. And in Ifrit's case, funny if you decide to use Shiva, just for some dialogue. Tonberry is an exception here.
+One thing I hate about most JRPG vehicles is their lack of reverse buttons. Every usable vehicle here has one, which is nice.
+Splitting up party members for certain quests is always fun.
+Squall's character at the beginning is alright. He's basically not in the mood for petty drama, and is nonchalant enough during the final exam while Zell and Seifer are less so. I like that. He's devoted to the job.
+Wedge and Biggs are pretty funny, as are Fujin and Raijin at times. Zone and Watts are also somewhat endearing at times.
+Quistis, upon figuring out Rinoa is the better girl for Squall, takes the loss in stride and doesn't end up in jealousy.
+At the end of Disc 3 Fujin drops her stupid speech pattern which I thought was cool.
+Heck, the disc ending cliff-hangers and the epic parts just before the disc changes are all done real well.
+Cactuar grinding is always lots of fun, especially once you get 100 Triples to junction onto Hit%.
+The Propagators on the Ragnarok were a pretty interesting puzzle boss gimmick.
+Thank god there's no worries about having to lose equipment overall in this game. The switching mechanic here doesn't always involve switching characters, it can involve just switching junctions and magic, which is a very nice anti-frustration feature.
+This one contradicts the one above, but when you finally fight Ultimecia, having to randomize your party is a neat gimmick and can screw an unprepared player. But if you aren't intending to use a character, you can kill them off in the hopes that someone else can take their place then.

-These tutorials offer a lot of information but it's really a lot more confusing than what you actually will end up doing.
-TIMED MISSIONS. Seriously these are horrific, especially due to this game's long screen transitions as well as the long spell animations.
-The RNG to change rules in Triple Triad is ridiculous to manipulate. Furthermore, the Direct trade rule SUCKS. As for actual rules, you want to avoid Random and get Open, and that's what I managed to do overall.
-The Queen of Cards sidequest is dumb, and let's not forget that she either takes her cards and goes off elsewhere and you have to regain the cards from her son, or again, manipulating the RNG so that you can get her to move to certain locations.
-Argh, can I please not have Squall always in my party? It really does suck that ever since Final Fantasy 7, the whole "not dropping the main character from the active party except in certain circumstances" is in full effect. I actually had to kill Squall myself in order to get him to stop gaining levels all the time and being so far ahead of the other two party members.
-Squall goes from being nonchalant and devoted to being more sappy and lovestruck with Rinoa by Disc 3. It just comes out of the blue.
-I know I considered Laguna to be an idiot hero, but somehow, Rinoa ended up being worse in hindsight. Her plans backfire a whole lot and she ends up being captured often. I keep Laguna on that list mostly since his actions didn't have anyone backing him up.
-Hell, I didn't even have Rinoa in my party at the end of Disc 2. I rarely even bother to use her and yet she still ends up being important in all the scenes.
-Seifer's whole motives on being "a sorceress's knight" in his dreams are pretty darn dumb.
-Hell, the fact that the three characters you see on the cover end up being the most annoying shows how bad some of the characterization is on the main cast. You don't see a whole lot of it on other playable characters here. Quistis is good. Selphie's okay apart from the stupid "booyaka" thing and just being overly cheerful, which isn't entirely that bad. Zell's annoyance in general also isn't entirely that bad since that's basically his whole character and he doesn't change for the worst. Irvine doesn't even get much development.
-Of course Laguna just dropping his comrades into the ocean is a really REALLY dumb moment.
-I'm generally a fan of gender-breaking characters, but Adel seriously looks nothing like a sorceress. She is jacked like some huge guy who came from a six-hour weightlifting workout.
-NORG is a character basically made to be hated, just because. The whole "Bujurururu" thing doesn't really help.
-The Obel lake sidequest is a waste of time and pixel-hunting
-Most magic in this game that isn't Meltdown, Triple, Aura, or some high-level spell isn't worth it, not even for attack weaknesses.
-The rest of the game's minigames aren't really that fun. The train mission seems hard, but it isn't. The whole "health bar" minigames, one with the clash of the gardens and Squall fighting the paratrooper, the second being Laguna vs. the Ruby Dragon, are real iffy on the controls and the reactions and are real frustrating to deal with.
-Chocobos don't really get a whole lot of love here. They don't need it, but I'm pretty sure no one even bothered to pick up a Pocketstation and do the Chocobo World thing because quite frankly, there's not much to go for it. I didn't even know a Pocketstation existed until I played this game.
-This game really does like to lag at a few inopportune spots. Examples include being at Esthar most of the time (including the shops!), and many boss battles (problematic if I intend to use Squall's attack or Renzokuken).
-The sidequest to get Tonberry King's GF was insanely boring, having to run circles around one screen of Centra Ruins to get into battles with Tonberries, which are high-health enemies capable of killing outright (assuming you killed lots of enemies with your characters already), and only appear one at a time. I challenged myself to do it while the clock was running and had to leave several times because of Odin. Maybe I should've got Odin beforehand, but I'd rather keep him instead of Gilgamesh later on in the game so that's why I saved him for Disc 4.
-Ultima Weapon and Omega Weapon are the bonus bosses that are uber hard, but neither are really worth it anyways. Ultima Weapon isn't really worth it due to the fact that killing him removes fixed encounters that have very good drops. Sure you get an A SeeD ranking as well as the Eden GF early, but bleh. Omega Weapon because the fight against it is even more boring due to following a completely set pattern and the reward being a measly Three Stars item plus Proof of Omega. It's all bragging rights.
-I really am not too keen on the whole Laguna being Squall's father thing. It's not really done to death, which is actually for the better, but it's pretty odd how it ended up being. Laguna just ended up being a stepdad to Ellone, because apparently Raine's tombstone at the end shows the name Loire, which implies that she decided to marry Laguna or something. Meanwhile, Squall was likely at the orphanage while Laguna took care of Ellone. But still, there's not much to go around out of it all.
-I can't help but think Odine and Ultimecia's dialogue is done by Chrono Cross's Accent System. I think Raijin's also the same way as well.

*The idea of the SeeD ranking for their final exam is pretty strange in itself. It's quite an accomplishment getting the best possible score by being fast, blunt (not talking to people and not running away a lot), and killing enough opponents. Getting a bonus from actually killing the stupid robot thing on the bridge is worthwhile too.
*And then there's the matter of SeeD salary, which is surprisingly the only way to get paid in-game. Rank increases upon doing plot stuff and killing things, and decreases with stupid actions at the garden, not killing or running from enemies and the like. While cool, ultimately I find no real use for this sort of mechanic. I've never really had any trouble with money in the Final Fantasy games anyways.
*Getting into the dream sequences is pretty odd, so Ellone's whole character is pretty strange overall in this game. I don't hate her though.
*Well, I'm not too keen on character deaths, and it seems that no one important actually died aside from President Deling, and even he was minor anyways. As well as Ultimecia at the end of course. But there's nothing extremely climactic overall.
*Why is it that every town in the game ends up having enemies at some point or another. It's quite interesting that it happens, except that it's always the foot soldiers you fight, which are the most boring enemy archetype in the game anyways.
*The whole Shumi Tribe thing was ambiguous as all hell. It's got the showmanship of respecting elders, but you can't really consider the Shumi Elder all that good for what he does to his attendant, even if he does do the job eventually.
*The idea to move Balamb Garden is interesting in itself but it's really slow. Also why are the train tracks connecting Galbadia to Esthar spanning the entire middle section of the world map?
*Limit breaks, in their return, are basically desperation attacks. Here's the main problem, they seem to be random on how to trigger them and you need to be at a crisis level (have a status effect and/or remain at low HP/have Aura status). Sure, there are some great ones like Irvine's Shot and Renzokuken, but trying to trigger them is quite the trouble.
*I almost want to consider everyone being related by orphanage as a negative, but it's not entirely so. Irvine, the guy who reveals that everyone except Rinoa and including Seifer were all kids at the same orphanage, also reveals that Edea was the matron. This fact is the reason why Irvine was hesitant about shooting Edea in Disc 1.
*Odin in general. Nice if you don't feel like fighting, but why bother when you can level up Diablos to get the Enc-None ability and use that instead? Odin's basically a random "get free experience" card. Gilgamesh functions the same way, and only really is just there so you don't have to really fight Seifer if you don't want to at the end of Disc 1.
*For that matter, Angelo as well. Some of her abilities tend to show up even when you aren't using limit breaks. I can imagine Angelo Search being potentially the most useful, but I never really bothered with it.
*There's really not much to the final disc apart from fighting Ultimecia. Then again, there's not much to the final disc in Final Fantasy 7 so okay.
*Moombas aren't bad, but they're not all that interesting.
*Fisherman's Horizon is a nice little breather area, with not a whole lot of fighting as well as some other events, like reuniting with other party members from the missile mission, the Master Fisherman, the antics of the boy fisher and the shopkeep he nearly chokes, and Galbadian idiots in general. It does have a moron as its leader, one who's so pacifist he doesn't realize how ruthless Galbadia was gonna be. Also moving around in this area is a hassle, considering it takes a very long time to get from Balamb Garden docking point to the rest of the area.

Final Fantasy VII's Minigames

Ah yes, I wanted to talk more about minigames considering how annoyed I am at a lot of them, particularly in Breath of Fire 3 where some of the worst ones were required. So, what did Final Fantasy VII have in store. Well, a few required ones, some of which thankfully aren't necessarily scored, plus an entire minigame zone which is of course optional. It's not without it's more annoying ones though, but the vast majority of the minigames are actually pretty decent.

I think the best overall minigame is the Fort Condor scenarios, which all have different timeframes for when they become available. It's a real-time tactical battle with several units of advantages and disadvantages, and putting a new unit in battle costs money. Thing is, this is Final Fantasy. I'm liable to be grinding and that gets me in a lot of moolah, so these battles are honestly piss easy. The last one of course is what gets the Phoenix materia in this game, and for some reason it's possible to get two copies of it.

A whole slew of events before the Gold Saucer and Fort Condor have a few minigames to put up. There's only one minigame during the Wall Market subquest, which is squatting and that's actually pretty easy. The biking minigame to escape from Midgard is pretty decent, although it's hard to actually hit enemies here. You're not really scored on it, and characters here have plenty of HP to survive even on a first try, although there is a boss at the end. The ones in Junon are the worst, but for some dumb reason, they made friggin' CPR into a minigame before that.

So the Junon minigames with the ratings are the worst ones out of the whole bunch, both for being mandatory and obnoxious at the same time. Great, put Cloud in the soldier outfit, and have him ready to run into the soldier march, doing the commands just right. Apparently, setting text scrolling to default seems to be the way to correctly do it, but even then, ratings are likely to be stiff. And then there's the sendoff one, which in all honestly takes forever. It amazes me that Rufus is gonna stare at your group while the guy just brings commands, except he does it very quickly and it gets insanely difficult to keep up. Also wrong turns ruin it completely.

Thankfully the Gold Saucer minigames aren't really required, with the exception of the submarine and snowboarding ones, but those are unlocked after story events and you aren't really scored on neither then. Alongside them is the bike game which is also available, this time scored. The other games aren't anything to write home about. Arm wrestling is just button mashing. The ball minigame has a nice timing aspect that's easy to figure out. The Mog minigame is a complete waste of time as is the fortune telling. The 3-D fighter? Would be interesting except you can never beat the fifth opponent ever, which is not a good thing for any minigame. Unwinnable situations are a no-no. The other squares have other things to them, like Battle Square is honestly pretty self-explanatory and is how to get Cloud's last limit break. The other's aren't minigame-esque at all except for Speed Square, which has a very fun shooter, and Chocobo Square.

Now Chocobo breeding honestly is a pain in the ass, but pretty much required for these ordeals known as Chocobo racing. Yep, gotta catch one with a lure, put it to a farm, feed it greens so it can "grow" per se. Or go ahead and catch a different color one because those will be a lot better to use. Pretty much what I do in these races is hold a button down. It seems that I always pick the auto option, and due to my chocobo stats, I win each time. Don't even race against that Joe guy to be honest. All I really do is find the guide for getting the Gold Chocobo and follow it. All I end up doing is getting the Knights of Round summon. I don't even want to bother with the rest.

So Final Fantasy VII's minigames are an obvious mixed bag, but the vast majority of them are not really required. They had to make some of their more annoying ones like the Junon ones required though. The other required ones end up in the Gold Saucer (land of optional minigames, naturally) but aren't scored when you have to do them. And at least some of them were decent enough in my book.

A look back at: Final Fantasy Mystic Quest

Eventually I had to come by this "trainwreck" of a Final Fantasy game to see what it really was all about, being bad, easy, and short.

Yeah, not really THAT bad. Bad is reserved for truly terrible games with awful controls and more grinding than it really is worth. This game isn't any of that. Of course, it's no Final Fantasy title either. No active-time random battle system. No real customization so to speak of. Heck, it has the jumping mechanic from Final Fantasy Legend III, a SaGa game for crying out loud (granted, a terrible one upon looking back at that). Also up to two members can be in the party at a time, and Benjamin only gets them on special occasions. This of course makes status effects a lot more harmful due to limited party members. And then you have all the random tools for dungeon spelunking, which are alright at best to give a Zelda-like feel. The arenas aren't really too important, but I do like how enemies in the game have different "forms" whenever they are damaged in battle. It's a neat touch.

I was saying how this game really doesn't have customization of sorts. It really doesn't. Once Benjamin finds armor, it replaces whatever old one he has. Magic isn't even bought, it's found. And the party members have pretty much static stats; while they gain more as the game decides to give them a second try at being in the party, it's not gonna say a whole lot overall. Benjamin as a hero isn't really the kind of person I'd see as a hero. He's really the kind of guy who would appear as the "shrug your shoulders" guy in TV commercials. Hell, the other party members are somewhat more interesting than him when it comes to how the interact with things. And the Dark King, well let's just say that having a huge weakness to the hero's Cure spell is beyond pathetic.

The whole plot follows the rule of four with four settings, four big bad guardians, and this one old man who's just everywhere. It's extremely standard and not noteworthy. This game may just interest someone on the first pickup. Then that basically involves finishing the whole thing through very quickly and not really feeling like playing it again because face it, there are far more interesting RPGs to find.

A look back at: Final Fantasy V

Hooray more Final Fantasies.

For whatever reason, a lot of this game is still burned in the back of my head. Must be the job system, and the grinding I did to ensure I got the best of the job abilities. Hell, EVERY character manages to get them because I spend a lot of time getting ABP so that all the good stuff is on each and every one of my characters. Worth it though? Hell yeah, always looking to make my games a whole lot easier. Surely this plot follows the same thing that Final Fantasy III does, get four characters who are warriors of Light, get the crystals for more jobs, and stop a rather lame villain.

So if you haven't realized by now, the gameplay is good, but the plot and characters are lame. Wow Final Fantasy V, how did you manage to not make your main cast well-defined? Bartz, or Butz as he was unfortunately called back in the day, is pretty much not the kind of person I would consider a hero, especially since he actually ends up tagging along with two others, Lenna and Galuf. Lenna is a princess, sort that one out. Faris at least has ONE thing interesting in that she's a cross-dressing pirate, but that's about it afterwards. She's at least opposed to princess ideals. Krile, or Cara, is basically Galuf's granddaughter and really has no character development. Okay, so what about Galuf. Here's the sad part. Of the playable characters, he's the most interesting, despite having amnesia. This amnesia saves him from the sirens when the other ones fall at one point. Then once he's regaining his memories, he's all out and badass as hell up to his unfortunate death at Exdeath's hands. And they even made that death scene more than a hundred times better than Aeris's crappy death, by actually showing that it wasn't even possible to revive him with any method. Great job with that.

But what about other characters? Well Galuf was part of an original four-man band of heroes, one of which (Bartz' father) already died, another dies not long after meeting him, and the wolf man manages to not be important but dies anyways. On the villain's side, Gilgamesh is the only one that honestly matters, being a hammy and comical villain, and someone who's honestly more of a fighter than a villain. Exdeath on the other hand is an evil tree. One who feigns death and then decides to be as doomy as possible by sucking up world locales into the void. Hell, you don't even have to visit Bartz own hometown at all in the entire course of the game, so you'll get confused when Bartz goes ballistic over the sucking up of a place you never even saw. But really Exdeath is nothing more than a villain without barely any worth. Damn trees. I could enjoy this game for its gameplay, but not for how lame the plot and characters were.

A look back at: Final Fantasy III

Believe me or not, but this was actually the very first Final Fantasy game I played along with Final Fantasy IV. Granted, I got both games on the DS, but decided to actually finish them on their original systems, the Famicom and the SNES, respectively. Just for comparison, I outright hate the DS remakes now. They were ridiculously difficult.

Notice what I just said earlier. The DS remakes were difficult. Then again, so was the Famicom version of FF3. Whenever someone looks at grinding in Final Fantasy, I'll just point to this game, because there's certainly a ton of that to do here. In the end, it's worth it though, as many battles end up actually pretty easy with the right amount of training. And the job system by the way originated here. You know all those fancy skills you saw in the sequel games, like stealing with the Thief class, Jump with the Dragoon class, and the numerous mage classes. That all originated here. A few neat things with the plot, like having multiple airships, like one HUGE one, as well as a few broken bridges to cross. Wouldn't have imagined a stealthy game over when trying to cross the statue corridor to the final dungeon. Then again, the grinding is far, far more important.

Sure, the Warriors of Light thing is cliche, but what this game also provided were Warriors of Dark, who actually were heroes in their time and are heroes that the Light Warriors follow in the final dungeon. They actually help out against the Cloud of Darkness should the four optional bosses be fought. And there's the deal with the crystals, which provide most of the jobs for this game. They're probably what's most important overall, aside from the grinding. Good job making this one a real grindfest, Square. It's certainly a game I think of when I think of Final Fantasy as a series.

A look back at: Final Fantasy VII

Well, here's a special one. I hear way too much about this particular game, the iconic death scene, Sephiroth and Cloud in general, and the multiple spinoffs and important characters. It was only a matter of time before I laid my hands on this game.

And, well, it is a game. A very immersive example of a Final Fantasy game. You look at the bleak Midgar setting, but then release that's less than one-fifth of what you'd be dealing with when you reach the overworld. The focus of Materia being the centerpiece for learning everything makes this a lot more customizable than FF6, from spells, to summons, to enemy skills. Hell, a good focus of my playthrough of this game was learning the best enemy skills like Beta and Aqualung, and using those to break many of the games roughest enemies. The many dungeons in the game, as well as the flashbacks of things which take place in those areas can be memorable (damn you Great Glacier). And then you have the many, many minigames that would make the Breath of Fire games keel over. Yet they thankfully manage to not be too annoying, and an entire chunk of them exist in one area anyways.

So all this talk about the revolutionizing of the RPG genre and I didn't really feel all that magnanimous about this game. It's good but it isn't great. We have generally good characters like Red XIII, Cid, and Tifa, moderately good ones like Barrett and Hojo, and awful ones like Aeris. The whole Midgar thing pretty much paints Cloud and the group as terrorists, well they are at least fighting for a cause. We get to see which characters are definitely villainous, like Hojo and Sephiroth. We get to see these neat flashbacks from time to time, and even control characters during them. There's also the dating scenes as well as a few cool cutscenes, plus the censored and uncensored swearing. Most of it's quite flashy in its own sense, but today, that really doesn't mean a whole lot.

The circumstances for Sephiroth really don't make a whole lot of sense. All this because of his origins and his mother? Okay. Surprised he doesn't end up killing Hojo over all this considering he's the one responsible. And why Aeris and the President of Shinra being the only two to actually die by his katana anyways? Tifa gets slashed across the chest by it, but survives, even keeping her hat on. Tseng gets stabbed through the chest, also surviving, somehow. And Cloud himself? Skewered the same way, and also held aloft, but somehow managing to pull Sephiroth into the reactor below and as you might expect, surviving. This game sure does not know how to kill people sometimes. Then you have Cloud's manipulation of his abilities by the same guy which really just make you wonder how good of a character Cloud really is if he's prone to this a lot. The whole Lifestream concept went over my head, as did the whole deal with Black and Holy materia being the be-all-end-all materia. It's not as nonsensical a plot as Chrono Cross is, thankfully, especially at the beginning of the game and just about everything that actually involved Shinra, so to speak. Those parts were actually fun and felt like fun rivalries and all. The pursuit of Sephiroth also was good, but just made less and less sense and/or got sidetracked as the game went on. I'll recommend at least one playthrough of this, at best.

A look back at: Final Fantasy VI

Final Fantasy VI is a game I was glad to play and the one game that really gets me back into the franchise. It offered the one thing that IV didn't really offer much of: customization. Combine that with an excellent plot, great villains, and characters which you cannot really distinguish fully as main characters, as well as unique enemies with different ways of defeating them, and you got yourself a fantastic SNES RPG to play.

Trying to explain everything here will take way more than it already is, but for what this game is worth, it's got good abilities for each and every character. Locke's steal works well, who knew? Surely the Blitz command may get some used to, and Cyan's SwdTech is unpopular due to it being a charge up and all. Relm's sketch is also not that well done, and Umaro's completely berserk abilities make him one unpopular character on the whole. But in between those, there are great abilites. Whether it's Terra's Esper transformation, Strago's Lore magic, or Gogo's Mimic ability, there's some fun to be had with just about every battle. Gau's Rage abilities are wildcards, but they are fun wildcards, although I probably won't say the same for Setzer's Slot ability. Even the temporary characters like Banon get some good abilities that help the party often.

The game's storyline is just as well done, from the iconic starting shots of the Magiteks in the snow, to the parts with Terra and her connection with the Espers. The evil empire thing is done really well in this game for an evil empire. Gestahl is a wonderful example of an emperor, one who stands opposed to the resistance, and tricks them by feigning a truce and locking up Kefka. Of course, as a leader you got to put your trust in the right people, and Gestahl failed that when it came to Kefka. The idea that Kefka actually does destroy the world is also quite amazing in its own right. Many other JRPGs put the world in near-destruction at the very climax, FF6 just goes and does it. And it even opens up the game completely when you go and find all your previous party members at your leisure. It sure makes the game a lot easier when you recruit everyone you used to have, instead of fighting Kefka right away with just Celes, Edgar, and Setzer*. The separation of parties is also great, having to follow Sabin, Locke, or Terra/Edgar/Banon in the beginning, as well as the Phoenix Tower subquest, and even Kefka's Tower.

The optional content surely is fantastic enough. The Coliseum may be a gimmick, but it works out for certain things like potentially recruiting Shadow. The auction thing isn't too noteworthy especially if you keep getting the items you don't want. That really long tower is worth the trip, and obviously, you'll want to train up all your Espers to get all the magic, especially Ultima. Bottom line is, anything and everything you can do before the finale of the game is well worth it. There's honestly not a whole lot of this that I can hate, everything is done well and this truly is a fantastic Final Fantasy entry.

*The only three characters that are actually required for the finale.

A look back at: Final Fantasy IV

Final Fantasy IV is the single most interesting in the entire series, but not necessarily the best. Looking back on it, it turns out that the one thing I liked most about Final Fantasy as a whole, customization, is least present here. But it does make up for it by many characters and perhaps the most interesting story in the series.

So yeah not much in the way of customization. 12 playable characters, and only one of which actually gets a class change. Boo. It really does limit your equipment and what not. Hell, Cecil as a Dark Knight can really do nothing except attack, and he can't really hurt undead enemies, which is lame. Not to mention all the grinding I had to do to ensure the next group of enemies isn't gonna kill me. It's actually way worse in the DS remake, which I actually still own the cartridge of. I still have not actually passed the first part of the game yet on that remake, only beating this whole game on the US version, the one erroneously titled Final Fantasy II. Though the remake did do something to address customization better, I'll give it that.

But enough of that, let's talk good stuff. Characters are almost entirely well fleshed out between almost all of the playable cast. The only exception is Fusoya, but he doesn't stick around long enough for him to be a burden. Even most non-playables get memorable scenes, including almost all the scenes involving the dwarf king, among others. The four fiends in this game are quite interesting characters even if they are one-dimensional. Rubicante is an exception. He's one of my favorite villains in a JRPG because he actually fights fair, healing the party up before fighting.

Quite a few battles are interesting in their own right, with certain scripts for some of the more famous ones, like the infamous Golbez battle, the Dark Elf battle, heck, almost EVERY boss battle is unique in some way. And the plot is just as strong as the characters, with several character sacrifices made (only one of which actually does die) and many different nations banding together against the worst of threats, whether overworld or underworld. Or the moon, apparently. Admittingly enough, Zemus/Zeromus is a one-dimensional final villain, but the premise of the fight was one filled with awesomeness all around. So yes, Square puts up one heck of a showing with this game by unfortunately sacrificing the one thing that I like most about Final Fantasy games. It at least offered one of the best storylines in a JRPG to this date.

A look back at: Final Fantasy I

Which came first, the Final Fantasy or the Dragon Quest? Who would ultimately care?

The irony of the first Final Fantasy is that it was Square's proposed swan song, in that it was the company's final game before they decided to declare bankruptcy. Yet it was the original Final Fantasy which saved the company from bankruptcy and skyrocketed the franchise and the company to popularity, well, after a certain game in the franchise that is. But this game kept the company alive, despite the creators original goal in making it their last effort.

Yet on the surface this game has obviously aged poorly. You look at it in 2018 and obviously just see it as the shining example of a turn-based RPG. It's got the random encounters, the four heroes you get to name and customize, the towns and dungeons, the one-dimensional villain or villains, and in this case we naturally have to have a four-man group of "fiends" which are villains as well. Does it get any more standard than that? It's all pretty basic. But basic does not correlate to easy, as this is the NES and we do the Nintendo Hard thing here. It's likely the next group of encounters will totally wipe an unprepared party. What if it is nine sorcerors in an ambush? Hey, did you forget that you killed this one guy with one party member, now your other ones are targeting empty spaces?

Though there is one thing I must address in the previous paragraph, and that is the word customize. This is key to making any Final Fantasy game worth playing, and for any other RPG to be worth playing as well. That's the beauty of this genre, but here we see most of the customization done at the very beginning, give the four Warriors of Light the names and their respective classes, but that's it as far as customization goes. The characters end up being static in role pretty much the entire way, with no real change apart from the one class change in the game where everyone upgrades, but that's not really anything too exciting. By the way, getting new equipment and spells does not really equal customization in this regard. I like to look at other ways to tweak characters in order to really describe customization.

Final Fantasy is as basic as it gets, yet still offered the one thing I want in any RPG even if it is crude. Yet years later I know I'm still not gonna enjoy this game due to its many annoyances.