yeah i thought VIII was as good as any of them, VI is by far my favourite though, IX is really good, as is IV.
XII is decent I thought, it's totally different to the previous games and it was kind of a relief that they got rid of random battles, now all they need to do is work out some kind of alternative to level gaining so that you don't have to waste an afternoon killing random monsters just so you can defeat a certain boss or whatever.
I don't really understand why VII is the one that is the most widely acclaimed though.

all the ff from 7 down are great. ff 8 is where it started to go down hill.

XII is the single most boring, lifeless RPG I've ever played with the worst story and the worst characters ever. Though it occassionally had some brilliant moments and the battle system was fun, I really think it was amongst the most torturous games I've ever played.

Case in point, there are 2 characters on your party (ashe and penelo) that never speak to each other one time in the entire game despite being on a fucking 60 hour quest. Talk about character progression!

But yeah XII is terrible, though not as bad as II or VIII.

I never got to play ff7. It costs too much... I've never actually beaten a final fantasy game....

It costs too much? Does it? *checks amazon.com; sees $61 price tag*

Uhhhhhhh... the BIGGEST FUCKING SELLING GAME OF ALL TIME (besides Mario) is going for $61? There are seriously a couple of used copies of this game at nearly every pawn shop in my state that I've been to for like $10-15. Jesus. I feel like an asshole but I guess maybe I should pick up some and sell 'em.

Oh, and Bowels, the reason VII is the most widely acclaimed is because it popularized RPG's in America. It's also the biggest-selling of the games by a wide margin.

the impression i get is that a lot of people say that VII is the best without actually having played any of the other games.
one of the things i liked about VIII was that there was a monster that could only be found in one corner of the map that would give you enough EXP to gain a level every time you fought it, and that the monsters in the game leveled up as your characters did.

someone told me a Playstation version of this game is now worth quite alot because they stopped making them or something? I think i have it buried in my wardrobe cos rpgs tended to bore me senseless

Haha, they stopped making them like 5 years ago. Doesn't matter, there's like 1 copy for nearly everyone in the United States... and it was a greatest hits title (sold for $20), so people asking for $60-some dollars is fucking stupid.

Also, Bowels, you mention a monster that will level you up.. but if the monsters level up with you, then what's the point of even gaining a bunch of levels?

because even when they level up with you you start to outclass them more and more the higher your level becomes

Then why do they even level with you? I guess, you have to learn skills along the way so leveling is essential? Do the bosses level with you?

Also, if I remember correctly, if enemies level higher, they also get new skills at higher levels.

I never played the game long enough to figure all this stuff out.. or to bother figuring out why you had to find icons in order to buy weapons later (?!) and also why you had to answer yes or no questions to get Gil.

Final Fantasy VII was touted as the best game ever made by a few gaming mags in '97, and at the time I wholeheartedly agreed; however, upon replaying a few years ago I noticed that the game hasn't aged well in the graphics dept., the story is a mess -- due mostly to the bungled translation -- and the gameplay lacks depth.

I will never play this game again, as further exposure will destroy the last vestiges of my childhood.

Why can't square put like a deluxe edition out and back in print?
I mean they would make a shit load of money and then I would be able to play the damn game!!

I think it holds up well even today.

Viewtiful_alan, old Final Fantasy games get re-released all the time (especially in Japan). It's only a matter of time before FF7 gets a true re-release here.

yeah I think the first 5 have all been given deluxe handheld treatments. I need to pick some of them up.

I didn't think it was necessary to do another thread so I use this one:

I JUST BEAT ZELDA 3: A LINK TO THE PAST

Yayz! It took me time, but I finally got to beat it. The end of the game says to me "TOTAL GAMES PLAYED: 227" which I think is not that good, but hey I still beat it. The very end of the game (from the Turtle Rock on actually) is really ultra-hard, it got on my nerves. The last boss is disapointingly easy though :(

Yeah, i've beaten tons of zeldas. Great games, all of 'em.

Zelda games are the only game series where I've actually had enough interest to finish them.

I'm not too into games but Ocarina of Time is one of the most breathtaking things I've ever experienced.

Not to start shit, but I hated VII. It was boring as fuck. There was practically no gameplay at all. Just random semi-difficult bosses with nothing in between. IX, and even VIII, were way better IMO. VII had a better story, but not good enough to justify 25 fucking hours or whatever it took.

Zelda is incredible though.

Huh.

I don't think it's possible to beat VII in 25 hours... it'd take AT LEAST 37 or so.

Also, it had tons of story; in fact, I felt that that one had more story than almost any other Final Fantasy game.

If you want to see a FF devoid of story, again, get XII. We learn less about the 6 main characters in that game than we do all 11 or so characters in FFVI!

...in a game 3 times as long, even!

But yeah, IX is the shit, one of my favorites.

VIII is just... I don't even know.

I don't remember how long it took me; it was years ago. Total guess. 40 actually sounds right.

But yeah, I agree VII had tons of story, and a good one at that, I just think that for a video game the amount of time they spent on the story was overdone. Even for FF, which is of course built mainly on story and should be expected, they went too far and almost completely replaced the actual gameplay of it with story.

FFIX was perfect because it had a thorough story, fully developed characters and character relationships (well, for the most part), and it was still overshadowed but the incredible amount of interactive things to do. VI had a similar balance, and was great for the same reason (as well as the first Legend of Legaia--probably my favorite RPG ever).

I have XII, but I didn't get very far. I don't remember anything specific I didn't like, but it was a bit boring so I never even got halfway through. I bought it along with the huge guide right when it came out, and then started getting sick of video games. I should go back and beat it. I got Disgaea 2 at the same time and bailed on that, also. That was a lot of money blown.

Woah, sorry. I haven't talked about RPGs in a long time. Forgot how much I had to say about them.

Disgaea 2 is probably my favorite game released for the PS2... probably my favorite game released on any console in years besides Twilight Princess. Just amazing, addicting, just.. wow.

I have to agree FFIX is pretty much a perfect game. The thing about VII is, they did that entire game in like 8 months. The shortest time they ever spent making a Final Fantasy game. So, even thought it may feel a bit awkward in places, I think that's understandable. Not trying to make excuses for it -- I am not in love with it, but I do consider it quite the achievement all things considered.

FFXII sucks so much. It took me months to beat that thing; there's a game that is ALL gameplay, and it's all shit. Ugh.

Also, I'm at the point now where I'm getting kind of sick of video games. I just bought Tales of Legendia, Dark Cloud 2, Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, Brigandine, Alundra 2, Granstream Saga, Chaos Field and Guilty Gear X in the past month...

And I just can't really get up the energy to play through any of them.. I'll start one and then just kinda go meh..

I don't know if I've played any of those (I'm pretty sure I haven't) but I know I've heard most of them are good. Granstream Saga rings a bell as a game I always really wanted and never got. That and whichever Grandia was on the PS1.

Disgaea 1 was fucking great. Most fun I've ever had in a game. Phantom Brave is a close second. The thing about D2 is that it changed so little from the first one. I felt like I was just playing D1 again, and I spent probably 100 hours on that one.

Oh wait. I got Guilty Gear XX Accent Core a while ago. It's fucking awesome, but I didn't play it much. I forgot all about it.

Oh, see, I played Disgaea 2 first, so I can see what you mean. I personally prefer Disgaea 2, because it has fucking TINK in it! TINK!!! WITH A BASEBALL BAT!! Disgaea 1's the shit though.

Phantom Brave is fucking awesome. Too bad the story kinda sucks. But the gameplay is great, I love combining phantom units with rocks and trees. It was reeeeeeally easy, I beat that entire game at level 236 in about 21 hours.

I have Makai Kingdom and it's pretty cool, I have La Pucelle but the action's a bit too slow. I need to get Soul Nomad at some point.

I actually never beat Phantom Brave. I got to the very last boss, and he was about 1000x harder than the previous level. I hate leveling up, and by that point the fun was starting to wane. I usually beat games at a ridiculously low level. I think I beat FFIX at level 35.

I watched my ex gf play through Makai and Pucelle (and Atelier Iris). We alternated Nippon Ichi games while that was all coming out. I think I got the best games, for sure. She texted me randomly once, way after we broke up, asking for advice on Disgaea. I guess she went out and bought it for herself after I took it with me. Heh.

Haha I have Atelier Iris. Not my thing, too many fetch quests.

My girlfriend loves Disgaea. I have a picture of her dressed up like Plenair actually, lemme find it real fast..

Haha yeah. I got a random text saying, "Hey, how do you teach your healer star?" Way to break the silence.

EDIT: Hah awesome pic. I miss having a gf who likes video games. I fear I will never find another.

Haha I had to rep you for that. "Way to break the silence."

Don't worry, lots of chicks like games.. it's just usually DDR or Pokémon. I know tons of chicks with DSes.

Did I already rep you? I still can't. I don't rep often, I guess.

There are girls that like video games, but my ex liked video games more than I do. Like way more. She had posters of Cloud and her current MySpace picture is of her Ninendo shirt. And she was hot. I had a lot of things to consider before we finally broke up. It was not easy.

I'm sorry man. That does have to suck. My girlfriend loves games, b-movies, "weird" music, all the shit I do. She always dresses up like video game characters. I'm lucky I guess.

Many resent you...There are too few of those on the market.

I'll keep that in mind.

I guess since I've been out of the dating scene for 5 1/2 years I don't really recall but yeah.. a lot of girls suck.

i'm kind of getting back into computer games after having barely played them for the last 7 or so years (aside from new zelda games), i bought a PS2 a few months ago and i'm kind of catching up