u/Coach_T_Schev

Jumping around, time for the next game in my journey. Admittedly, I had beaten FFXIII before, but had never played it to 100% completion, so a lot of this will be me revisiting the emotions of when this came out when I was in high school. Also will try to minimize spoilers of the plot, but not the gameplay. Any details I miss or misinterpreted, well I'm sure you guys will be quick to point them out! With all that in mind, let’s dive in, fellow l’Cie!

What It Does Well

·       The music, again. If there’s one thing Final Fantasy does well, it’s write a damn good score. You truly felt immersed in every single location and setting this world had to offer. I could run around the plains of Gran Pulse forever with that background music.

·       Actual character development and bonding. Most of the characters have some charm to them that really leads to some heavy depth as the chapters progress. You start as a group of strangers and you legitimately feel like they all care for each other by the end. Bonus for how we tied in the links each character secretly had with each other, unbeknownst to them.

·       Open world hunting/exploration was wonderful once you hit chapters 11/13. Being curious and fully diving into every corner of Gran Pulse was so incredibly rewarding.

·       Crystarium was oddly satisfying, even in the endgame. I can’t really explain, but it was a satisfying game of “number go up” especially when you had enough CP to just hold the button down and watch it speed through.

·       Brand new take on world building, which was unique. FFXIII is SUPER exposition heavy early. However, this is rewarded immensely on replay.

·       Barthandelus was a SUPER fun villain; plus his plot twist of how deep into the scheme he truly was: excellent execution.

·       Optional extra lore within the datalogs. There is SO MUCH of this world to dive deeper into if you want; simultaneously you can get plenty from the original plot points if you don’t want to read an extra novel.

·       I actually thought the game was appropriately difficult. It had a couple occasional spikes in difficulty where you couldn’t just auto battle and shift between staggering/damaging/healing paradigms. You had boss fights you could brute force, and others you needed to strategize for. Most bosses could easily be beaten within 2-3 tries. Not crazily easy, but also not a hard game by any means.

 

What Doesn’t Hold Up

·       The first third of the game is… well kinda boring. The world is wild and full of cinematic detail, but it either drags on, or is confusing. And no characters stand out as particularly interesting early besides Sazh. I appreciate that SE was trying to build multiple dimensions of the world by splitting up the party, but it can make the world feel slightly disjointed.

·       Waiting until chapter 11 before having the full party together. Final Fantasy has always thrived in the party system. Taking that away made some fights frustrating.

·       Hope was… irritating… Yes I get he had a trauma he was working through, but the sheer amount of whining was difficult to endure at times. I know, some individuals will adamantly disagree on this, and I understand he’s a child dealing with the grief and loss of his mother, but… he comes off as way too weak and whiny to believably hold his own in battle with Lightning and crew. (Yes, I know it comes full circle later, but getting there is brutal with him as a character early on.)

·       I praised Gran Pulse previously, but have to acknowledge the annoyance of taking 20-25 hours to even get there. It’s a great reward for those who stick it out, but I can see a lot of players possibly quitting before getting to the best part of the game.

·       The weapon/accessory upgrading system was so counter-intuitive at first; and wasn’t super fun. Gil being so scarce and upgrading being impossible without a guide, did not enjoy

·       Crystarium caps were annoying; I get not wanting players to overlevel; but it did feel a tad annoying having progress hindered. This is Final Fantasy after all; GIVE ME THE GRIND!!!

·       Not having control over positioning in battles, despite spacing playing a key role in wide-area attacks, definitely was frustrating.

·       The Eidolons in battle weren’t nearly as satisfying as I would hope.

·       Getting too strong for the hunts and therefore 5-star ratings getting more difficult… yeah, I only have so much Deceptisol!

Biggest Surprise

The sheer lore dump they give you from the minute you begin the game of Fal’Cie vs l’Cie makes a huge difference on 2^(nd) playthroughs. It actually felt reminiscent of FFXII in just how much detail they throw at you. My first playthrough left me feeling confused for a few chapters. Having beaten the game before, circling back was a lot more fun now that I knew what the main purpose and message of the game was. Very rewarding on a second playthrough. Ironically, it was still a typical FF story; a group of people rebelling against an established order, but it still somehow feels incredibly unique.

Biggest Swing

Making Paradigm Shifts the central mechanic of combat; Square effectively was asking players to manage the flow of battle instead of selecting every single command; this included constant role and momentum shifts. Definitely was difficult at first, but effectively pulling off paradigm shifts into a full auto-battle… SO SATISFYING! And if auto-battling isn’t your cup of tea, you can still select individual commands? I was always a fan of the turn-based system, and this felt like such a fun new system to learn and master. Well done Square!

How Was the 100%?

Most of the 100% was legit enjoyable. Trying to 5-star every hunt was incredibly satisfying, same with the final boss. I could see myself running through most of that gambit again at some point in my life anyway. Grinding to max the Crystarium was quite fun, especially trying to find out the perfect methods for grinding CP. But the Treasure Hunter achievement was absolutely atrocious and I will never try to revisit that one again. Grinding to maximize Platinum Ingots and Trapezohedrons was… awful. So, about 90-95% was fun, the rest was incredibly cumbersome.

Final Thoughts

Fate vs free will; accepting or rejecting your Focus as l-Cie; living in fear or standing your ground. There are some deep elements that this game and story attempts to address. Whether or not it does it fully and properly, depends on the person, but these themes resonate a hell of a lot more to a grown adult than a youthful teen who still has their optimism.

Hot take: I admittedly am SHOCKED that it’s a game that has 2 sequels, as I feel that there are some others that are stronger base games with a higher demand; as I recall this game being heavily criticized at the time of its release. It was fun, but cannot understand how THIS was the game they dove deeper in on. Very curious to see how the two sequels hold up compared to this one. Don’t get me wrong, I am by no means saying it DOESN’T deserve a trilogy; just that it was a surprise. However, I’m excited to see just how deep into the lore and world this gets built upon.

Revisiting this as a man in my 30’s after first playing this game as a 16 year old hits slightly different. I appreciate any game that can give a different sort of theme to different age levels; similar to how FFX hit when I was 7 years old versus today. Teenage me saw a group of people accidentally get magic powers and learn how to use them while being wanted criminals. Adult me saw a tumultuous journey of facing mortality, conflict, remorse and insecurity along a journey of growth and intentionality. Having the context of plot already for an additional playthrough was tremendous.

I see what turns people off to it and why it was criticized and hated. Conversely, I see why people loved and revered it. It tried to be unique while still a key installment to the series. I believe it did its job. It wasn’t my favorite in the series, and likely won’t be, and that’s okay. I enjoyed my time playing it, and very little of it felt like it was time wasted. It was fun, and that’s the most important thing. If you start this game, pay absolute attention to the dialogue and surroundings early, you are rewarded with a fun and immersive story. Otherwise, you may be lost early on. Additionally, with plenty of endgame content, you get your money’s worth with this title. Definitely recommend giving it an honest go if you’re a fan of any RPG; and hopefully I can say the same about the next two!

 

Time to Beat: 35.5 hours

Time to 100%: 92.5 hours

Rating: 7 Ci’eth Stones out of 10

 

As the title suggests, I recently decided to embark on a journey to 100% every Final Fantasy mainline title. I will not be doing this in any order, but I want to play all of them as a way to truly appreciate the whole series (having only beaten a handful of them before, and never 100%ing any.) It’s been a longtime dream of mine, and I’m excited to move through this, however long it takes. For starters, I will be going through Final Fantasy I. I played the Pixel Remaster on Steam and NOT the original 1987 NES version, so certain aspects are not directly transitive between versions; still I tried to recognize the game as a whole, even when it came out in 1987. At the end of the day, I enjoy giving things a proper analysis and voice, so feel free to argue in the comments. Let’s join the Warriors of Light!

Version: Pixel Remaster (PC)

What It Does Well

·       Simplicity – this game is charming in how direct it is. Here’s a task. Complete it. Here’s the next task. The flow is relatively intuitive.

·       The music is INSANE even in its 8-bit versions. I could listen to the Town Theme on repeat even today. An absolute masterclass for the auditory sensors.

·       Level ups feel rewarding in showing you exactly what stats increase.

·       The battles provide enough challenge that you can’t just spam A throughout the entire game; there is a semblance of strategy necessary throughout the entire thing. (Even moreso for boss fights)

·       Plenty of replayability with the ability to assign different/jobs roles across your four characters

 

What Doesn’t Hold Up

·       The story is SUPER bland; which is understandable for 1987. Four heroes, rescue the princess, recover the crystals, go back in time, defeat Garland. A good premise for an early generation game, not as engaging in 2026.

·       Character development is nonexistent by modern RPG standards, save for maybe Garland. Again, understandable given the original source.

·       There are a couple power spikes that randomly shoot up in certain parts of the game. Thankfully you have plenty of quicksave options, but you can easily get overwhelmed and battered down out of nowhere.

·       At times, it was tough to figure out exactly where to go. Once I knew how the mini-map worked, this was quite simple. However, sometimes it was hard to know where to go next. (Thank goodness for the dancer in Cornelia)

·       F trying to make that Warmech spawn…

 

 Biggest Surprise

 The defining traits of Final Fantasy are all present, even in this first installment. Crystals, airships, class systems, sci-fi elements, and world-spanning adventure, power grinding, it’s almost all here. And it feels appropriate from the moment you begin. Never had any idea how much of modern FF was present here.

Biggest Swing

 Can you believe this entire concept was brought to life in 1987? Like, picture that 40 years ago, this thing existed. Yes, it’s easy to see it’s limitations, but this thing was incredibly ambitious for it’s time. As much as I complained about things, the entire thing was a full swing for the fences.

How Was the 100%?

Given there are no missable achievements, and that the majority of these achievements can be done through normal playthroughs, this was fine to 100%. Revisiting dungeons and filling out the bestiary were effectively the only major tasks that required backtracking. There was also a general sense of fulfillment in the full exploration as well. No major grinding helps as well. But, as stated before, F making the Warmech spawn... Overall a fun time!

Final Thoughts

Final Fantasy I was a great dive into the history and backbone of the game. That said, it’s not necessarily a game I’d recommend to a general RPG fan. It’s a fun dive and a time capsule of the time it was created, but generally, there’s not a ton to force players to be captivated 40 years later. It’s still a great game, but definitely is overshadowed by some of it’s more refined pieces. For Final Fantasy fans however, I’d say it’s a great opportunity to explore the roots of the franchise for a brief 10-15 hours.

 

Time to Beat: ~9.5 hours

Time to 100%: ~ 12.5 hours

Rating: 6.5 Black Mages out of 10

Final Fantasy X is my favorite game of all time; having done power grinds, NSG runs, a NSGNSNCNONENNENBB run, but I've never 100% it. And it got me dreaming about doing the same with other games as well.

And then I saw the steam sales and thought "F it, I'll try to do them all!"

So yesterday, I downloaded every Mainline FF game, sequels included (except 11/14, not ready for MMO's yet) with the plan to 100% everything. Exact order TBD, but my plan is to playthrough normally the games I'm playing the first time, and then 100% after by revisiting old saves.

Super excited! I'll submit some thoughts on each one as I finish it. I've only ever played a handful so I'm super pumped.

Absolutely pumped to dive in and share with y'all.

EDIT: I WILL be doing the sequels; I stole this graphic from some random blog post. But I DO appreciate all of the individuals who seem excited about XIII-2 and Lightning Returns