Hey guys,
So I've been a long time fan of Final Fantasy. I remember I first came across the title was back in 1997 when some of my friends and my older brother got hold of Final Fantasy VII on the PS1. Back then the graphics were considered incredible and cutting edge. I never got into it myself at the time but sort of enjoyed what my friends were chatting about and when watching my brother expanding his team and finding rare summons. I remember you could each one of your characters and there was a real discuss going on in how to find the hidden characters of Yuffie and Vincent. And of course the ultimate question...can Aerith be revived! (But I always wondered if you can use phoniex down to revive characters during gameplay then why not her?...)
Anyway after that game finished came FF8, again, for some reason I still hadn't gotten into the game yet but watched my brother play occasionally. But from what I've seen I think I preferred FF7 more than FF8.
Fast forward to 2001 when FF9 came out I finally gave it a try...what pushed me to try the game was a combination of boredom, the fact that I'm more into fantasy sort of settings i.e. it had a castle, princess, solder, mage...it all fitted in more with the potions that the game used, "magical weapons", airships etc etc. I think after about 30 mins into the game I was already loving it and couldn't stop playing to build up my team, to see whats going to happen next and to look and complete secret side quests (I soon bought the strategy guide as some quests were not possible to find and do randomly IMO). I think the game was very well developed, there were a lot of interaction among the team members, the story really had depth and I thought the whole story was very logical and there were a lot of twists. I thought the ending was touching and I loved the song. And as this was my very first Final Fantasy game this of course became my best FF game.
Then having finished this FF10 soon came out and it was the first for PS2 and needless to say that the graphics took a "giant leap" and again I was really into it, the music/tunes were great, CGIs, story, the Blitzball game and so on. I even maximised the entire sphere grid (the grid you use to level up your characters) and so by the end everyone of them were equally as good. After this game I started buying a lot of FF mechandise, CDs, posters and I even had ALL the Bandai action figures from 7 to 10! But I soon sold it as at the time I was a uni student and funds were a bit low...I wish I had kept them...FF9's Freya, Eiko, Amarant and Quina alone cost £150+ along (each set). But even though this was a very good game it still did not beat FF9 for me...and as it was only the second FF game I played it naturally became the second best for me.
After FF10 came out it took quite a while for the next one to be released and FF11 was online and so I skipped that. Partly because it cost money and I was still a student. So to satisfy my FF craving I went back to play FF8, then FF7 and I even got FF6! For a brief moment I'd say FF7 was the third best in terms of my three favourite (I know a lot of people will disagree..but going from FF10 back to FF7 will naturally make it a bit unfair on FF7..i.e. graphics alone its lost). Suppose when FF7 remake does come out it might change my opinion and ranking?
So fast forwarding to FF12...I didn't enjoy and gave up after 30 mins...just didn't like it...then FF13 came out...it was good but not great IMO...I didn't bother with FF14...and FINALLY after God knows how long FF15 came out at the end of 2016. And its also the first FF game on PS4 and IMO that was a very good game. Yes it was not entirely finished as some parts didn't make sense. But the open world, the graphics, the tunes and the story was very good and for me it was just better than say FF12, 13, 8 and 7. But just not as good as FF10 and FF9. The reason is that I felt FF15 had lost that "FF theme". For example, the classic battle theme and victory tune. The battle system, although was fun...but in some ways I prefer the old style...turn based. I didn't like how you could control the main character mostly and theres no more of the naming your characters chance...but of course thats the issue when their names are mentioned in CGIs and so you can't name your characters.
Anyway, given my passion for Final Fantasy I'm going to do some more posts in the future when I think of a worth while topic.
Let me know what your favourite FF game is! It's always nice to know other FF fans and share opinions and all.
