Final Fantasy IV, V, VI and CT on Playstation disc: overview

[soprano1]

Just realised that since most members on here are europeans, many posters didn't experience ff4 until the PS1 days (and maybe played 6 and 7 before 4). Or are young and therefore played a lot more modern RPGs before getting around to playing FF4.

Well that explains a lot of the reactions I'm seeing here!

My first Final Fantasy was VII, and thanks to the Internet, i was able to play the rest of the series on SNES. I loved V and VI more than VII, and still do.

[Leandro]

I like IV and V better than VI. I think VI is overrated as hell. Finished all three of them, finished V multiple times already.

[WelshMegalodon]

I think VI is overrated as hell.

How did MX7 put it again?

FF6 has that wonderfully somber opening with the powered exoskeletons and Tina is such a potentially compelling protagonist, but then the game launches in to a grand pseudo-portmanteau structure and I personally found it hard to latch on to any of the large ensemble. I think it was the time that fucking octopus jumped out in the middle of the opera house that I realised I didn't care much for it. Too many tonal changes without a developed exposition to back it up. I get the appeal of the world of ruin, but the narrative for me was already fragmented to an unsatisfactory level. Again, different strokes. I found Fallout 3 unplayable for similar reasons, much to the chagrin of seemingly everyone in the world ever,

Anyway, saying FF6 has inherent value as it follows established, even culturally ascribed narrative conventions doesn't cut it when every whimsical moment is a misfire and every tonal binary is turgid and uninteresting. I completely agree with your assertion that FF6 is what it is and we shouldn't necessarily automatically take a hermeneutic approach to absolutely everything. But when the funny bits aren't funny and when the dramatic bits lack bite, it doesn't really work as a whimsical RPG. I would argue there's much better RPGs of this era that mix the sublime and the ridiculous.

I wish I could remember who it was that described FFVI as the FFVII of its time.

I should really get around to trying Phantasy Star II...

[Blinge]

Sure yeah if you wanna judge these games by the MX7 metric, then IV and V are absolute shitshows.

[Squire Grooktook]

I never understood what he was talking about by "tonal changes". Setpieces like the opera house are snuggled away within their own side plots and have a safe distance erected between them and any moments of drama that might count as a "glaring tonal shift".

TBH it's the only Final Fantasy that I really give a shit about. It's subjective but it has heart imo and it's better moments stick with me in a way that the other games don't.

[WelshMegalodon]

Sure yeah if you wanna judge these games by the MX7 metric, then IV and V are absolute shitshows.

Yes, his comments are exaggerated, as usual.

To be clear I don't think VI is a bad game at all. It's just not my thing.

[Blinge]

No, i mean every criticism he levels at VI works for both IV and V, you spoony frickin' bard.
For the record I really dig V


also the fallout 3 comment makes me laugh. (srsly new vegas much better)

[Squire Grooktook]

I actually really dig the light hearted style and characterisms of Final Fantasy 5 as well, alongside the job system, of course.

[Sinful]

No, i mean every criticism he levels at VI works for both IV and V, you spoony frickin' bard.
For the record I really dig V


also the fallout 3 comment makes me laugh. (srsly new vegas much better)

But I like the atmosphere vibe of Fallout 3 more. New Vegas barely felt like a sci-fi post apocalyptic environment from what I played.

[Blinge]

from what I played.

Key words right there.

NV doesn't start with a long, flawed, sci-fi (and cool I guess) setpiece like 3 does.
It's definitely the same universe. The sci-fi shit is more plausibly hidden, or repurposed by burgeoning nations

lol. the "every RPG" thread..

[BryanM]

Mainly I think of these games as pretty art and music to be absorbed while the numbers go up. Numbers going up are very aesthetically pleasing to OCD speglords.

It's subjective but it has heart imo and it's better moments stick with me in a way that the other games don't.

It's easier to appreciate Ted Woolsey more and more as time goes on.

What would be just as much bland edgelord melodrama in a typical "and then this happens" jRPG plot, was elevated ever so slightly.

[Squire Grooktook]

True, but even beyond the improvements he added to the script, setpieces like the opera house, the ghost train, the castle poisoning, Celes's stay with Cid, etc. etc. The game is a lot more varied, colorful and imaginative then its predecessors on the story front.

[Sinful]

from what I played.

Key words right there.

NV doesn't start with a long, flawed, sci-fi (and cool I guess) setpiece like 3 does.
It's definitely the same universe. The sci-fi shit is more plausibly hidden, or repurposed by burgeoning nations

lol. the "every RPG" thread..

I made it as far as Vegas going counterclockwise and doing things slowly along the way. And my conclusion was that I missed the Fallout 3 atmosphere. In New Vegas it felt too much like humanity recovered, while in Fallout 3 things were more bleak.

I still plan on returning to New Vegas one of these days.

[Blinge]

Yeah i don't see fallout 3's atmosphere as particularly oppressive or impressive. You sure it's not just the novelty of a post apocalyptic setting wearing off?
The urban capitol of 3 isn't grim and inhospitable because of any apocalyptic or atmospheric reason. It's just full of super mutants who attack you because lol videogames.

I liked playing NV on 'hardcore mode' so its like a baby Stalker variant.
(disclaimer i havent played stalker)

Mainly I think of these games as pretty art and music to be absorbed while the numbers go up. Numbers going up are very aesthetically pleasing to OCD speglords.

haha. nailed it.

[Bananamatic]

Numbers going up are very aesthetically pleasing to OCD sperglords.

As long as the numbers are going up meaningfully, if you're already overpowered or the game poses no threat anymore due to poor difficulty balance, the leveling is not nearly as much rewarding

[BryanM]

True. Disgaea has all these glorious numbers, but eventually it gets to a point where everything on the map is wiped out without even being able to move. Due to the turn structure. The only chance of failure is at the Item God, after 100 floors of walking to a door. What's even the point by that threshold.

Basic arithmetic defense stats tend to do that too. FFT has the right idea. Even a level 1 Crap Goblin should be able to peel 1% off your HP.

[Sinful]

I noticed on the Shining Force forums many love to grind to obscene levels in a game were no grinding at all is ever required for any of it's difficulty levels. I personally think these people are greatly ruining a finely designed and balanced game series with focus on great gameplay, but there's no convincing these people.

[BryanM]

Sinful, you don't undersatnd.

There are levels. We must attain them.

Do you know how much better a Kiwi gets with that +30 HP? How muscular an Arthur can get with a higher bracket remort bonus?

NUMBERS!

(Says the guy who made the SF2 data editor...)

[Sinful]

Wait, your on SFC too?

[BryanM]

I don't post there more than a couple times a year now that there's nothing to do on the editor, but yes I am a fan of Shining Force.

... and yes, for more than half of my life I've been aware of that website. It's a very different energy there compared to the DQ site The Dragon's Den. Like a middle aged man still proud of making four touchdowns in a single game back in highschool.

[FinalBaton]

Love Shinning Force so much.

Lol, I barely grind in that game. Just enough to be able to get through. Or sometimes just a little bit more.

Really don't understand why someone would loose their time doing the same battles over and over in SF just to get dem levels, and in the process eradicating any and all challenge in the game. I mean wtf?

[Xyga]

Some people do it to get late-acquired spells, but there isn't much else to do indeed...

The challenge mode hack is something else.

[soprano1]

On the subject of FF6, if people prefer the extras of the GBA and can emulate, this patch is a must so you don't go blind from the brightness saturation:
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/765/

[Aisha]

On the subject of FF6, if people prefer the extras of the GBA and can emulate, this patch is a must so you don't go blind from the brightness saturation:
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/765/

Additionally, this site also has patches for IV, V, and VI, that restore the music to how it was on the SNES (barring a few minor issues). The patches for V and VI also reduce drops in framerate:

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/969/
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/563/
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/657/

[Austin]

I never understood what he was talking about by "tonal changes". Setpieces like the opera house are snuggled away within their own side plots and have a safe distance erected between them and any moments of drama that might count as a "glaring tonal shift".

TBH it's the only Final Fantasy that I really give a shit about. It's subjective but it has heart imo and it's better moments stick with me in a way that the other games don't.

This is pretty much how I feel about VI.

[soprano1]

On the subject of FF6, if people prefer the extras of the GBA and can emulate, this patch is a must so you don't go blind from the brightness saturation:
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/765/

Additionally, this site also has patches for IV, V, and VI, that restore the music to how it was on the SNES (barring a few minor issues). The patches for V and VI also reduce drops in framerate:

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/969/
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/563/
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/657/

I didn't post those patches because of some freezing issues i had when playing, but people might want to try those, so thanks.

[soprano1]

https://www.technobuffalo.com/2015/09/1 ... y-pc-port/
http://www.siliconera.com/wordpress/wp- ... arbage.png
Bumping this topic. FinalBaton, here's some of the V port.

[BryanM]

Yeah, their z-team is pretty awful.

The hip new thing in this franchise is Granblue Fantasy, where, get this: You know how people like how Final Fantasy 6 looked and sounded? They had this crazy idea of hiring the art and music directors of Final Fantasy 6 for their game. Instead of the art being a polygon floating around in space, or a smeared gradient filter applied to ancient pixel art from 20 years ago - it's hand drawn.

A combination of Final Fantasy, waifu/husbando collecting, and gambling. It's this skinner box within a skinner box.

Pretty excellent for a few hours, but the novelty soon wears off and it becomes a repetitive grind. Though the weekly events can be fun if the game is taken in moderation.

[WelshMegalodon]

Reading random people's opinions on 4chan... why I do I keep doing this?

https://yuki.la/v/338513382

Re:FFVI

Spoiler

I'm sorry that I think that a game that is buggy as fuck, that is broken as fuck on multiple levels, that has zero difficulty that leads to its combat being the most boring shit ever, that fucked up FFIV and V's ATB system, that collapsed in on itself in the WoR in a poor attempt to ape world 3 from FFV due to them not understanding what made that work so they stretched it out far longer than it should have went on, that was more interested in storytelling than gameplay, and was more interested in 'innovating' than bothering with the fundamentals that kept FFIV and V interesting, is a shit game.

It is everything that ever went wrong with FF in a single game.

Re: FFII

Spoiler

Or you can use buff or instant death spells to break the game.

Or you can use dual shields or a single shield+a dagger for 99% evasion so you're never touched by anything short of a boss and can flee from any non-boss encounter due to the stupid mechanics.

Or you can use bare hands instead of weapons for over half of the game because they overpower them massively until the second half of the game and it takes fuck all time to catch up with weapon skills.

Re: FFV

Spoiler

It's easily the most innovative FF since I, built on everything good from FFIII and IV while excising the worst parts from each, was challenging enough to actually be fun and encourage you to use the game's job system intelligently unlike literally every single FF after it but the MMOs, its story didn't dip into melodrama nonstop despite having plenty of serious moments, and it had a fucking fantastic sense of progression. It's easily the best FF ever made.

[Sumez]

5 is great though. Innovative is a strange word to use, since it's probably the most "classic" of any FF game considering it came out right before 6 changed up a lot of things, doing away with several of the DQ-style traditions of the previous games. Of course, I doubt I'd have to tell anyone here that. It's definitely among my top favourites of the series, even though it's lagging behind both 4 and 6.

How anyone could prefer FF5's comparably lackluster combined world to FF6's incredible World of Ruin (still the best world map change of any RPG ever) is simply beyond me.