Has his own game coming out soon as a 3rd-person action shooter (think Devil May Cry).

Well, you havent played the PS2 ones so...
FFX- Dreadfully easy. But addictive, and fun.
FFX-2- Sucks. Stupid. Charlie's Angels. It tries to pull you in with a very interesting tagline that has roots to FFX- but it turns out to be COMPLETELY different. Storywise- stupid. Gameplay- new for FF, but not original or innovative at all. 75% of the game is literally optional. I kid you not. Almost everything is a side quest. Don't waste your time or money unless the game is under $15. With the strategy guide. You'll need it to fully complete the game.

FF7 appealed to everyone- go figure, it gets its own little franchise. FF8? Appealed to girls. Big time. Not to stereotype- but the game was a love movie, with obvious love tension between a teacher, her student, and his (temporary) boss. Cliche, half-assed characters with identical pasts/childhoods, aside from one girl. Cliche story with bad delivery. Just slightly ridiculous. So not enough of a fan base or success, in general, to make its own franchise.

I also think that FF is dying. FF12 isnt even being created by the same people who made the first few great ones. The ones on board for FF12 are from Tactics Advanced. But as a plus- FF is dying, but other, better series from Square are rising and aren't being overshadowed by Final Fantasy.

__________________

well,I started to read this thread since the beginning but I saw it had
lots of pages and I skipped,so,sorry if this has been said before:
somebody asked about the games,and named
ff1
ff2/4
ff3/6 etc,
well,the list goes like this:
(again,sorry if this has been said before)
ff1 nes,psx ("ff origins")
ff2 nes jap only,psx ("ff origins")
ff3 nes jap only
ff4 snes,called "ff2" in the us because the last one released there was 1,psx ("ff chronicles")
ff5 snes jap only,psx ("ff anthology")
ff6 snes,called "ff3" in the us because the last one released there was called "2" (but it was ff4),psx ("ff anthology")
ff7 psx,pc
ff8 psx,pc
ff9 psx
and that's it as far as I'm concerned,ff10 doesn't exists/is not a final fantasy,ff11 is not a game anyway (online games are not real games imo),ff12 doesn't exists/is not a final fantasy.

I LOVE ff6,I think it's the best one of the series,and the best rpg ever,
only xenogears is a worthy competition,(xenogears is in the second place
in the "best rpg ever" list,before xenogears,there was no second place and
only ff6 ruled),it's the first one I played,and it got me hooked,great story,
great characters,great music,while playing it I wanted the monitor to have
a malfunction and become a portal that sucked me into that world!.
BUT,I love ff8 too...not as much as ff6 because it has its flaws,in fact,
what I like is the story,I use to call it "a great movie called 'eyes on me'
trapped inside an annoying game". I love "the eyes on me movie" as I like
to call it,but the game itself was boring. the story made up for it anyway,
but I had very boring and irritating times while playing it,I was like
"aargh,come on!,I want to go further into the story already!!".
yes,it was a love story,but,that's not a bad thing,I don't think it's for
girls only,I'm male and I cryed with the ending and I got emotionally involved
with the story and the characters,I wanted squall and rinoa to be together
and happy forever and I cared about them and was sad about laguna and
julia and then raine and now every time I even think about the ending or
the song "eyes on me" I feel a kinda sad nostalgia and I want to play
it again just for the sake of what I call "the eyes on me movie",(the story).
the ending was the best ending I've ever seen in movies,games,books,whatever,(and I've read,watched and played a lot,trust me),and the characters,besides the shallow ones that were just fillers,
it had great ones,squall was a good main character/hero,he had charisma
and he looked like a hero and had the "I don't care" attitute and then
he grows and has an evolution and riona changes his life and...
well,I'm not going to tell the whole thing,most people already know it,and
I don't want to spoil it for people who doesn't.
ff1 was boring and the almost non existant plot,when it existed,was
nonsensical,ff2 was unplayable because of the level up system,
ff3 was generic/a cliché,
I didn't play ff4 yet but I've read and heard everywhere it's good,
ff5 was not very good,(or at least it dissapoints you if you play it after ff6)
I already said what I think about ff6,(the best rpg ever,the best one in the
series),and now comes...."ff"7:
I hated it,bad characters,bad and boring story,boring and annoying game...
argh...it doesn't deserve the title "final fantasy",lunar silver star story (at
least the complete version) deserves it a lot more,I wish lunar was made
by square and called "final fantasy 7",it fits. even xenogears could have
been a great final fantasy 7,(the excuse for the differences with the
traditional ff stuff could be "it's a new console blabla",like what's the
excuse for ff7 being polygonal,futuristic,etc).
I don't like cloud,he's a very weak main character,(weak as in "if it was
a movie,I'd say the actor was a bad one and did a bad and unconvincing job"),sepiroth is not worthy of being a ff bad guy after kefka raised the
standards,and then we have 2 major flaws of the game

a)the big thing that happens that involves the only good
character the game had,(I'm not going to say spoilers,but people who
know the game should know what I'm talking about. well,I hated that,
I abandoned the game for months after that because I hated it,I even
thought seriously about breaking the cds and throwing them through the
window,I cursed a lot,I was like "AAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!,
HOW COULD THEEEEEEEEEEEY!!!!!!!!",and I'm still angry about that)

b)the ending. I'm still wondering "wtf?",that thing is not complete,
it's like they told the programmers and artists "ok,we should have this
ready by tomorror,so,deliver it now no matter the status",
and they delivered an unfinished thing,that ending can't be complete.
it made no sense,it was very open ended,as in "let the player imagine what
happened",and it was not what I expected. call me naive,but I really
expected some miracle that reverted what I was talking about in a)
btw,I hate tifa,she's an intruder,aeris should have been the only one for
cloud,and,tifa was not supposed to exists literally,she was added because
one of the designers had a dream about her,so they changed the story
to add her as some kind of aeris replacement in terms of focus and importance. I hate barret,I hate that big cat/bear thing,I hate that orange dog thing,cid was "bah",and vincent was cool,the only good character
in the whole game.

I already talked about ff8,but,I forgot something,one of the things I like
about the story,is the ambiguous concept that ultimecia is...well,if you
didn't play the game I'm not going to spoil it for you,but if you played it,
you probably heard about the "ultimecia is _____" theory,I believe it's true,
and when I think about it,it's "noooooooooooooo",mixed with amusement
like "omg,the story is more complex/deep than what it looks like,it gets
you thinking about this and that and that...",after hearing about the
theory,you want to play again,or you start to remember things that
now make sense or have another meaning than the one you though.

now ff9: everything I said about ff7,I hate it,bad characters,blabla.
I want to strangle zidane with his monkey tail,I want to kill that annoying
little girl with her own horn,dagger is stupid and ugly,I want to punch and
kick steiner till both my hands and feet bleed,I HATEEE him and his idiotic
attitute,and overall,freya is the only good character,she should have been
the main one,a story about her.
the concept of ff9 was good,returning to the root of the series,but
it was not done ok,the plot is mediocre,even the love story is not very good,
the squall-rinoa one in ff8 was thousands times better,nut one thing
is right about ff9,the ending. finally another (besides the ff8 one) ending
where the good thing happens,I know this is subjetive because of my
personal tastes,but I hate endings where "the good thing" doesn't happen,
my only complain about ff6 is that *spoiler* locke doesn't get married
with celes * end of spoiler *,and I know other people perhaps don't care
about that,but I want every thing ending in * it-can-lead-to-figure-out-
the-spoiler * the good guy marrying the girl and being happy forever *end of
what I said *. ok,the theory I believe about ff8 contradicts my point
in some way,because it means * squall and riona don't live happy forever *,but
I still love that ending anyway.

hmm,this was long. so,what I said can be condensed into:
"I love ff6,it's the best rpg ever,I love ff8,it has a great love story,I like
to think it's a movie called 'eyes on me',and I hate ff9 and ff7,the others
are just 'bah'".

I always thought that was a fanfiction, but now...thinking in depths and terms of my memory for the game...YES! It does make sense! Completely!!!!

Final Fantasy 4 is the best. Still. For me. I played it non-stop on my GBA. Still awesome.

They're almost identical. They're both the stereotypical dark past, mysterious, lost lover deep troubled characters. And I didn't even make good use of either. Same with Squall-- which, naturally, makes for a sappy romance movie for FF8. FF7 and 9 would be sappy romances if Vincent and Freya were the main characters in them, as well. And I got Vincent, just so I could say I got an optional character-- but i never used him. And I never used Freya.

Which only further proves that Final Fantasy is nothing more than a hollow title for a dead/dying series. It has no luster, no novelty, and almost no substance to it, now. And Xenogears is 10x better than any Final Fantasy, and Final Fantasy died after 7, anyway, so Final Fantasy is nothing more than a label- while Xenogears has been picked up and spawned into an entire Xeno series- with 2 or 3 more games to come, with Xenosaga 4 being a remake of Xenogears.

Square Enix has moved on. It is obvious that Square was starting to lose its own investment of interest and effort after FF7. Square hit its prime with Final Fantasy 6, and began with Final Fantasy 3 (NES). It makes me sad when some people are Final Fantasy fanboys/fangirls and think they play the best game or something-- but have tasted little of the RPG world outside of Final Fantasy-- when there are really many better ones. Luckily, though, this trend is wearing off.

__________________

I barely introduced myself to final fantasy about a month ago. I went to GameStop and picked up FFX used for about ten bucks. I havent had much time to play but I've got about 40 hours in. It's so addictive and the story is great. I'm terrible at Blitzball, though. I definately wanna try another FF game once I'm done with this. All I have is a PS2 and the only other game I've been able to find is FFX-2, which I've heard more negative than positive things about. I know alot of people like FF7 the most, but the only place I've seen any game before Final Fantasy X is on the internet, sadly.

Unless you find that game for under $15 with strategy guide- dont get it. It isnt worth it.

But luckily, having a PS2 and unable to get other Final Fantasies isnt so bad. Square-Enix has been pouring more effort into its other, better RPGs. Its good to play the older ones, to see what Final Fantasy REALLY is (Try FF6 and 4), but they may be harder to find.

__________________

Poor Squall. All of the other 3D main characters hate him for his non-blonde hair.

erm.

Seriously? I could've sworn that I've argued with you about how awesome the older games were...

Oh well.

IV was good and solid, and I'm a fan of personal redemption from the depths of darkness. So that works.
But VI blew me away. Again. I just started playing it again on my friend's x-box. You know that there is almost NO downtime in that game? It just feels like the creators had alot of fun making it. The story flows along quickly, and every new turn of events has some nifty little feature or minigame to keep things extra-interesting.

And the best part...?

NO BLONDE-HAIRED PRETTY BOY!!

Hate. Them.

Oh yeah, and Advent Children didn't live up to its hype.
Screw Square-Enix and their halfbaked stories.

[/rant]

__________________

I also said they were awesome. 4 and 6 are the best, i said. They're the best works. Me:
Oh, and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is...different. Its kinda boring sometimes, though, and slow.

__________________

WOW, I didn't know there was such a huge FF thread. Hehe, and not that I'm going to WHORE or anything, but... I'm not sure if anyone in this thread knows about THIS THREAD. ::Coughs::

Click it. If not for only a good laugh. WHORING IN PROGRESS. Check out the first post, and click that link to watch the animation. It's good stuff... and Final Fantasy gamers will definitely be able to appreciate it. (And yes, all the hyperlinks take you to the same thread, I was just a little excited and overdid it.)

End.

__________________

all the ff since 1 to 6 are easy to find for emulators,get nes and snes emulators
(zsnes recomended for snes and fceu or rocknes for nes) and search for
the roms and you'll get them pretty easily.

about xenosaga and xenogears: I never played any xenosaga game,
I played the great Xenogears,but I've read everywhere that xenosaga
is not the same series. the only Xenogears game we got is episode 5,
they were supposed to make episodes 1 to 4 and then episode 6,but
the Xenogears team left square,so,niether square or them could do
another Xenogears game. the team went to work for namco,and they
started another series,xenosaga,with similarities,to tell an story that
reminds of xenogears elements,but that's not it.
the xenosaga episode 1 plot is not what happens in xenogears episode 1,
the same goes for episode 2 etc,we already know what's supposed to
happen in Xenogears episodes 1 to 4 thanks to the perfect works book and
what happens in the game,(yep,it's official/canon),the only episode we
don't know anything about is episode 6.
so,what happens in xenosaga (as far as I know from reviews,faqs,etc),
doesn't match what happens in xenogears episodes 1 to 4.
I've heard also that the xenosaga series is not selling well,so they are
going to finish it with the next episode.
hmm...I can't imagine how is xenosaga episode 4 supposed to make sense
if they do it as a remake from xenogears episode 5. nothing that is
supposed to happen before episode 5 happened in the xenosaga universe,
there's no sofia,no lacan...hmm...anyway,that's a controversial topic
if xenosaga happens in the same universe (is the same series) than xenogears
or not. I don't believe so,but a lot of people do.

about ff: the series already died as far as I'm concerned,that's why I'm
delaying playing ff4,it's the only one I haven't played yet and...I feel
like if I play it,I'll be rushing the end of the series or something like that.
if I think about it in an objetive way,the series for me was 2 good games,
4 mediocre and boring games,and 2 interactive tortures that I hate...
so much for the "it's a good series that I like and I don't want it to end"
concept. I love ff6 and ff8,I owe to ff6 getting to know the genere,
I used to be an action-games-only gamer,I used to think "bah,those boring
games where nothing happens",until I played ff6 and everything changed,
now I love rpgs,and thanks to ff6,I got to know great games that I really
enjoyed and gave me really good and special moments,(ff8,xenogears,tales
of phantasia,lunar,chrono trigger,etc),so,I'm glad I played ff6 in the
first place.

I had a faq/analysis about the rinoa = ultimecia theory somewhere...
I got it from gamefaqs.com,so it'll be easier for you to find it there
than for me to browse in my "everything,volume nn" cds,besides,I'm lazy
I recommend to people that never heard of it,to go to gamefaqs and
check the plot analysis and the ultimecia faq,if you liked ff8,it's worth
reading.