Oh my god guys... I have so much catching up to do with you guys here in this thread.
Okay, first of all, I am so pleased that there are still Final Fantasiers out there such as you guys who are still playing the older ones, such as VIII, and IX. Those are two of my favorites and I think they have both been extremely underapreciated.
FFX Blitzball mini game TOTALLY SUCKS!!! I hated it, and I gave it as much chance as I could to try and get into it, but it just totally disinterested me. There have been a lot of mini games which did interest me. The Tetra Master card game in FFIX was appealing, but I didn't get into it as much as the card game in FFVIII. I became obsessed in FFVIII in collecting every single card in the deck. I almost did it too, but there were just a few high end cards which elluded me.
I would say definately check out the earlier games if you can, particularly FFIV and VI, but I would wait until the rereleases come out in the next year or two. A newer 3-D version of IV is coming in out in Japan this Christmas and should be making it's way to the English markets by 2nd/3rd quarter next year. The originals were good, but if your gonna play it, you might as well do it with some better graphics, and they are also apparantly gonna be adding some new elements to the story and game design. Information on the upcoming FFIV rerelease can be found at:
http://www.square-enix.co.jp/ff4ds/
If you guys like good music, fun story lines which aren't too serious, and an interesting array of characters to play then this will definately be a game for you.
Now, onto FFXII. I thought it was pretty good overall. Miss Lockheart and I have discussed this one a little bit. I thought it was pretty good, although it had a very serious plot, which occasionally got bogged down with a lot of politics. If I could sum up the entire game in one word it would 'WAR'. But I found the game play very innovative and new. Good music, interesting settings, and extremely smooth graphics. And I love the side quests, such as the Monster Hunting. It added hours and hours and hours to the game apart from just following the basic story.
You guys mentioned briefly FFXI a few posts ago. This has been my current FF that I have been playing. It took me a while to get into it because I was so dettered by the idea that it was online, and didn't have the means to set up my PS2 to the internet until recently. So anyways, I must say it is quite different, but I have been having a lot of fun playing it. But, hence the nature of an online game, it lacks the clear flow of a rigorous fantasy plot, opting instead for a basic history of the world and it's key players, and then the game consists of mainly short little adventures you go on with other people you meet online. The main thing that really bugs me about FFXI is that I don't think since the original FF for the NES have I ever needed to spend so much time just wandering around raising my levels. A little bit of level raising is not bad, and expected I'd say in any FF; however, I feel this one requires just too much of that. Most of the FFs have made it so that your characters naturally raise their levels with the unfolding of the story, which works well. And then when you reach later portions of the game some time is usually needed to raise levels in order to stand up to stronger bosses. Anyways, perhaps I'm just being a little too impatient :P
Oh, and if I had just one beef about FFVII, I would agree with that link that FireSnake posted which ranked the games... I wish the graphics were better. In-battle character and monster graphics looked good, I just hated the blocky physiques of the characters in towns and dungeons. But, c'est la vie. Such was the nature and limits of graphics technology at the time I suppose.
PS Poor, poor Quina. He/she just can't get a break can he/she. Long live the "Eat" command. Eat lots of yummies.
TERMINAL EST: "...but this one was just going aaaaaa eeeee or something."
Linear Mode
