r/FinalFantasy

I have been playing this game for 29 years... Completed it countless times, and I never, never, knew this rest area existed in corel prison.

I hated this area, it would use up all my MP and health potions and thought it was to toughen you up, but no. I simply never used the floating hand dude to find this room.

Edit: Looks like I'm not the only one who didn't know of it's existence! It's nice to know we're still discovering together.

Edit#2: Playing the PS1 version on the Anbernic RG405M

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

 

Probably intentional, themes/symbolism and all that or I’m just overthinking it.

Pretty nifty either way.

I need the advent children costumes for part 3 please square, also his kingdom hearts fit!!!!

if every newgen final fantasy title follow this 100gb+ pattern omg im so cooked

What’s your favorite final fantasy game of all time?

I’m curious if there’s any major games I’m missing out on with my current ‘game plan’.

My current play order is

Completed:
- Ff7 Remake
- FF1

Actively playing:
- FF7 Rebirth
- FFIV

Up next:

- FFVI
- FF V
- FFIX
- FFX (after I find a good deal and purchase)
- FF XVI

I finally beat ff1 ! I always remembered playing it on the NES when I was a kid that was in 1998 never finishing it cause I felt I didn’t have the patience but I’m 30 now and nostalgia is definetly hitting right now! Time for FF2

My personal opinion everything he did throughout the game was justified

This comes from a place of love for both the original game and the remake trilogy so far, this isn't an 'new bad, old good' post.

In my opinion, I feel that rebirth misses the point of this scene as it instead goes out of its way to show everything that was previously left up to interpretation.

Everything about this moment is shown firsthand to the player with no room for interpretation. Most specifically that the entire party see the midgar zolom die after it exits the water which entirely removes what made this specific moment so effective. I will say that the fight itself in rebirth is still suitably pretty difficult (on hard mode at least) just like the original, so that's pretty great.

My own little revision of this would be this:

- The midgar zolom does not die after the boss fight finishes as it instead slithers away deeper into the swamp, moreso in a show of disinterest or annoyance. To give that sense of 'wow, that thing was tough and it's barely bothered by us fighting back.'

- After some more swimming with the chocobos to get to the mythril mine, a distant muffled screech is heard.

- The party see the zolom on the tree and then the 'did Sephiroth do this?' part would still be included and make sense once arriving at the scene. Sephiroth would not be shown at all.