What Final Fantasy game(s) are you currently playing?

[Deleted member 246005]

I have FF8 but I'll play it after I beat Persona 5

 

[Hamster Lord]

After XII, I will be going through the XIII trilogy.

Follow up to this post. I finished XII - after about 20 hours of gameplay I realized the game had the 4x speed up feature. That was a blast. XII was really quite excellent and I'm almost bummed I waited this long to play it. I really enjoyed the gambit system and getting a good formula going to just let the gameplay let loose. Also really enjoyed the zodiac job system. And the story was great. Balthier and Fran are so awesome.

I made my way through XIII shortly after. XIII has a special place in my heart because it was the first FF I played all the way through as a kid, and the first FF I remember actively following from announcement all the way to release. I remember dragging my mom and brother to the midnight launch too. I really liked it back then but I recall not really understanding the full extent of the roles (particularly the sentinel, synergist, and saboteur) and how they affect the gameplay. Having played through it again now and being a little less stupid, I think I got to experience the full depth of the gameplay system and man is it fun. In regards to the story, I was totally enamored with it back in 2010 - read the datalog, read up on the FNC lore that was available at the time, all that. I enjoyed it just as much this time around. I think their attempt at making characters that are just dickwads that grow to like each other was bold and works (if you like or resonate with them anyway).

I'm about 2/3rds through XIII-2 as of this writing. I used to swear by this game. It is still really enjoyable but it's interesting coming back to it so many years later with my cynical eyes and seeing some of the cracks. The shot/reverse shot cutscenes with canned animations really stick out like a sore thumb coming right off of XIII. And the dumb trends it incorporates from the time like quick time events and dialogue options that change nothing are a little comical. Soundtrack still slaps like crazy though. And I do think Caius and Noel are great new additions.

I will be playing Lightning Returns when I finish XIII-2 and that will actually be my first time playing it. I was going through a whirlwind of taste changes when that game came out and I just avoided it entirely after playing the demo. I'll be curious to see how it goes.

After that - XV. I played XV for 2 hours at launch and turned it off after the newspaper scene. Could not stand it. I'll be playing the Royal Edition on PS5. Hopefully by time I'm all finished, XVI will be out or right around the corner.

 

[Keyblade Knight 1st Class]

Starting XIII right now. This will be my 3rd playthrough. I've never been the biggest fan of this one but we'll see if the third time is the charm.

So after almost 2 years, I finally convinced myself to finish this playthrough...and my thoughts on the game haven't improved at all. In fact they may have actually gotten worse. If it weren't for the battle system and the graphics, this game would be irredeemable in my opinion. Out of all the FF games that I've played, the only rivalry this has for worst story and cast of characters would be Tactics Advance. But I won't get into that right now. To cut a long story short, I'm not a fan of Final Fantasy XIII.

 

[Hamster Lord]

Just want to come back to this thread to say I have experienced as much of XV as I had the motivation for. Had some friends over to watch Kingsglaive and Brotherhood. I actually wound up liking them more than I expected. Which leads into my overall disappointment with XV as a whole.

There were definitely things I enjoyed about XV: the characters, their relationships, the bants, etc. But damn - the story is so chopped up, the gameplay feels so weighty but pointless, and the DLC (I've only played episode Gladio so far to be fair) is fun enough but overall I just walked away from it feeling meh.

I don't think I will ever be able to separate it from the hype and subsequent heartbreak that Versus was scrapped for what we got. Back in 2006 (17 years ago!!!!) when it was unveiled I was 8 years old and it left a stark impression on me. I am about to turn 26 and I still watch those trailers. It's comparable to the MGSV hype cycle for me. Yes, I know it's easy to say "oh well Versus never really existed" but I feel like enough has leaked out that that isn't necessarily true. The random Versus songs they throw into the soundtrack just feel like lost souls wandering a desert because they stick out like a sore thumb. "OMNIS LACRIMA" as miniboss music? Get the fug outta here. I just imagine a timeline where Versus XIII was one of those sendoff PS3 titles like The Last of Us.

Just take a look at this video:

- oddly enough the song syncs up pretty well since this scene was in the original Versus trailers

I don't think it will ever happen but I would love for Square to open the vault and let Nomura use Versus' original concept somehow - maybe a manga, an anime, or hell even a CG movie. Yoko Shimomura has said only a third of the music she composed for Versus was even used in XV.

The figure that still lies asleep in the Fantasy...

Here's hoping XVI is as good as it looks!

 

[Keyblade Knight 1st Class]

I don't think it will ever happen but I would love for Square to open the vault and let Nomura use Versus' original concept somehow

He's seemingly repurposing some of it in Kingdom Hearts with Yozora and Quadratum so that's something at least.