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Final Fantasy Articles Which Final Fantasy is the best? - [ Author: Norco ] Warning: This probably contains some spoilers, if you haven’t played the games all the way through! It’s that age old question. It’s up there with such monumental questions like “Are dogs better than cats?”, “Is strawberry ice cream better than chocolate ice cream?”, “Are Sony Playstations better than Nintendo 64’s?” This question, this monumental question which is always asked, even to this very day, is Which Final Fantasy is the best? Since I’m a Sony player, I’m focusing on the PSX releases of the game, the three most well known, in my opinion. I’ve seen this topic raised so many times in discussion groups, at school, and in Fantasysquare’s own forum. The topic rages, which is the best? And that’s what I’ll answer. Square is quite clever. With each release of Final Fantasy, they created an entire new world, interface, as well as combat system. Not an easy challenge, when you consider the complexities and intricacies of each system. Each is a new and unexplored game, with new characters, new items, monsters, bosses, etc. Final Fantasy 7 I can remember reading a review of the PC version of FF7. The magazine was PC Format, my favourite computing magazine. They said, if you lived in Japan, you could see the story, as a dark, gritty, gripping piece of storytelling. Outside of Japan, it’s bonkers. I think that sums it up nicely. Yes, FF7 is a dark and gritty piece of storytelling. Who can argue with saving the world, while finding out you’re a clone? I sure can’t. Everything about the game was dark, and moody, from the graphics to the music. Each of the major characters was created, and sculpted, not just stuck awkwardly in the game to fill up space. These major characters had a history, a personality that was consistent throughout the entire game. Barret, with his foul temper, and years of pent up anger over the destruction of his village and the loss of his wife and closest friends. Cloud, much like his name, was incredibly obscure and clouded (ha!); sort of living in the moment due to the inability to remember his past. It showed. Others would talk incessantly about the past, Cloud would only remember what was necessary, and not dwell on it. It wasn’t just the heroes that were well written, the villains were something to be proud of as well. The primary villain, Sephiroth, was a powerful being, who inspired fear in his enemies, a prime example of a great soldier falling down the path of madness. From his mannerisms (swinging a massive sword around to make a point) to the figures of speech he used (constantly speaking in riddles), it showed that he was a powerful, and frightening madman. But good characters don’t make a great game alone, and FF7 is no exception. The highpoint of the game comes almost halfway through, when Aeris, realising that she and she alone can stop the deadly meteor that Sephiroth plans to summon, goes to the Forgotten City to pray to the planet, to unleash the white magic. As Cloud, who has fallen partially in love with her approaches, Sephiroth appears and murders Aeris in cold blood. The scene of an angry and bitter Cloud holding Aeris’s dead body, with Sephiroth spouting more mystical nonsense, is quite believable, and can almost bring a lump to the throat. And then, to top it all off, the FMV that follows, of Cloud laying Aeris to rest is, quite simply, beautiful. It’s scenes like this that make FF7 a wicked game. From Aeris’s death, to the attack of the Weapons, to the destruction of Meteor, each is well realised, atmospheric, and in short, spectacular. The game sparks the imagination, sparks thought and wonder. Square’s made a great game! But, as with any good game, it has its downsides. Many Pro-FF7 players will argue that these greatly outweigh the good points of the game (incredible storyline, etc) but, in order to truly answer the question, we must look at all points. As I stated before, a lot of people didn’t like the character animations, claiming that they were childish, deformed, and quite stupid. I’ll be the first to admit, I was quite stunned when I saw a close-up of Cloud’s face, and realised that he had no mouth or nose, in normal field play. But then, it’s argued that those animations give FF7 its charm. Another contested point, was the storyline. In telling a good story, you can’t just run straight from A to Z in the story; you’ve got to have a few twists, turns, and surprises. And FF7 is littered with these twists turns and surprises, some say too many, which made the story hard to find. I look at it this way. When you visit a cinema, and watch a movie, can you immediately understand the jokes, the story, the motivations the essence of the movie? If you can, you’re a better movie-goer than I. The same goes for games, in order to truly understand the essence of the game, it’s necessary to give the game a chance, to play it through a few times, and not dismiss it the first time you get lost. Final Fantasy 8 Boots clipping when they walked, excellent ladder climbing, and wonderful backgrounds, saw FF8 shoot to the top, above its dark and clumsy moving predecessor. Eye candy being one of FF8’s major draw points (ha!), it never stopped showing off, with lots of movies where the characters were moving in the FMV, which is quite cool. As with all new Final Fantasies, there’s a whole new world, new landscapes, new people, new weapons, new techniques, and bosses, monsters, all around. Here, also, FF8 did not disappoint. Personally, I found battling to be my favourite part, especially when fighting a worthy opponent. Battle animation was more sweeping, removing the whole “stop-start” routine even further. A prime example is Squall, completing the Renzokuken (A series of half a dozen-odd sword attacks) and, just as the view turns back to him, he’s already powering up his weapon for another attack, a follow through. It’s not just special attacks that are sweeping and cinematic, each spell being a bit of a treat, particularly with the later spells, which are more powerful, or longer to cast, etc. People who saw the spells, and liked them, were gobsmacked by the Guardian Force animations. GF’s as they are known, are similar to the Summon spells of FF7. Giant creatures come forth and rain death and destruction on the opponents. Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec god of Thunder, is a prime example. The giant glowing green bird floats to earth, and creates a massive (and loud!) thunderstorm that’ll blow your speakers (if they’re up loud enough), your opponents out of the water, and your mind. It’s these GF’s that make up the backbone of the game, the entire combat system revolving around them. A little confusing at first, FF8’s Junction system is quite possibly the most detailed, complex and powerful out of the PSX releases. By unctioning (attaching) a GF to a character, it’s possible to customize and tailor statistics by attaching magic to them. By attaching magic, your character becomes more powerful. Once played though a few times, and with a proper grasp of the junction system, as well as GF’s and their powers, you can have quite powerful characters just a few hours into the game. All that’s required is to learn the abilities, and you can kick buttinsky a lot earlier than before. It’s also little touches that make FF8 a great game. Triple Triad, the hideously addictive card game, in which you battle monster cards, is quite obsessive. I can remember, going in search of rare cards, trying hard to win, and I’ll bet that many card players have been obsessed with TT, playing it instead of the story! So, it seems we have the basis of a great game; we’ve got eye candy galore, details, details, details (always a bonus!) and a massive scope. What about the storyline and the characters who make it up? Sadly, this is probably the most argued about point, and many gamers agree, the games major failing point. Final Fantasy 8 is a love story. No doubt about that. The “visible” plot (i.e., the plot that is foremost and most easy to understand) is secondary to the love developing between the main characters, Squall and Rinoa. The visible plot is quite action packed, but takes a backseat to the romance. The taciturn Squall, cold hearted and aloof, meets up with Rinoa Heartily, a free spirited (and let us not forget pretty) freedom fighter, who has no trappings of conduct and procedure, like the SeeD that Squall is. He finds her fascinating, but also is put off by her need to express feelings, share problems, and get him to do the same. This causes friction. The love is incredibly cliché; boy meets girl, boy and girl dance, boy and girl get on each other’s nerves, boy and girl get separated, boy rescues girl, declares love for girl, and then prepares for a showdown with evil, supporting the girl as he does so. And during this, many players found a intense dislike for Squall. “He’s an insensative jerk” is the primary comment; his “whatever” being a trademark of dispassion, and little interest in the matter and emotions at hand. So, what about the other characters? They’re well written in their own ways, but when you see the complexity imparted to Squall and Rinoa, you can’t help but feel that the characters are just there to take up space. They have personality, and are each believable, to an extent, but overall, are just simply not all there. The supporting cast is barely touched upon, their histories briefly discussed for the progression of the storyline, not to understand the characters and what makes them tick. It’s this love theme that, in the eyes of many players, drags FF8 down quite a bit. But, like FF7, many people argue that these flaws (or lack of perfection) are what gives a game its shine, and popularity. Evidence of this can be seen on the Fantasy square Forum, with the FF8 category being the largest out of the three PSX versions. When the creator of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry, wanted to create a second Star Trek series (The Next Generation, for those who like Star Trek, like me), many people and critics thought he could not catch lightning in a bottle twice. The result was Star Trek: The Next Generation, and like FF8, a bag of mixed results. There are those who will swear by it, and say that it is the greatest Final Fantasy. And then there are those who enjoy their originals, better. In Wayne’s World, this was pointed out perfectly: “Ah, it’s a lot like Star Trek, the Next Generation. In many ways, it’s superior, but will never be as realised as the original.” Although Wayne was just waffling on and trying to seem smart, what he said was incredibly true for both Star Trek and Final Fantasy 8. Final Fantasy 9 Square is the undisputed master of pushing everyone’s favourite little grey box to the limit. I can guarantee you that many gamers would have thought FF8’s graphical sophistication was unattainable, let alone graphics that make FF8 seem like pac-man. FF9, loads quicker, is more fluid, character movements are more realistic than ever, and the movies are just stunning. Characters look at you as you near them, and then turn back to whatever they were doing as you passed by. The whole “where’s the party” problem has been resolved, with the party being represented by Zidane or whoever the primary character is at the time, with other characters appearing only when necessary, which seems a bit more realistic than just 3 members following you around, or disappearing inside your person. It seems that Square sat down, and said, what made FF7 so popular. They realised that a gripping storyline, with wacky and unusual characters, seemed to be the way to go. They also discovered that a change from all the technical wizardry would be a refreshing change, and more honourable to the original roots of the series. So, Square sat down, and produced the final, Final Fantasy to appear on PSX. And so was born FF9. A love story, this time however, blended quite nicely with a gripping and breathtaking storyline. Many a gamer saw the pre-release screenshots, especially, the famous shot of Vivi casting fire at an opponent. Many a gamer was stunned by this; it looked like a true Fantasy. And a true fantasy it was. Knights, sorcerers, swords, magic, dragons; all the elements of a Fantasy tale. And no computers to be seen! Characters are spectacular. Without decent characters, a story will fall apart, and no longer be a story, rather a recitation of events, as observed by a remote observer. This time, there’s a more balanced cast of main and supporting characters, four of each. And, although each of the 8 playing characters seems like an important enough character, with thoughts, feelings, desires, pasts and personalities explained, they just don’t seem to have a big enough impact on the storyline. The four main characters, Zidane, Vivi, Steiner, and Garnet/Dagger are a closely knit group of people, each an important part of the story. These characters are even more real than any that Square has previously created. With FF9 being a bit of a recent release, it’s still sinking into the minds of gamers everywhere, the essence of the game is still fresh; people have not fully assimilated the impact of the game. It’s this recentness that prompts a lack of discussion, many players unwilling to venture an opinion until the game has been explored in it’s entirety. However, from conversations I’ve had with other gamers, both at school and online, I’ve found a dissatisfaction regarding the apparent easiness of the game. For me personally, I completed FF7 fully in about 90 hours, FF8, in much the same way. The storyline took about 60 hours, levelling up and killing everything and getting all extras took another 30 odd hours. However, with Final fantasy 9, I completed the storyline in about 38 hours and by 70 hours, had levelled up to around 70-ish, gotten ultimate weapons, gold chocobos, and was preparing to defeat Ozma. Anyone who’s seen me on the forums will realise that I haven’t defeated Ozma, and would like to know anyone who has done so. There are two possible explanations for this quick completion. I’ve become reasonably good with RPG’s, the mindsets being similar in the 3 games, so the game becomes slightly predictable, and I’ve become used to the fighting, and have a pretty good idea of how to train my characters, and thus beat the game that bit better. The game, even though across 4 cd’s is short and taken up mostly by FMV’s, and music. It seems that it’s a combination of both. With FF8, monsters levelled up as you did, making some monsters powerful foes, even when you’re at level 100. However, with FF9, the monsters don’t, and thus, once you get beyond their levels, even just by a few, the game becomes ridiculously easy. Coupled with a seemingly shorter storyline, FF9 is the shortest of the Final Fantasies. So, do you have a favourite Final Fantasy? Even though I immensely enjoyed all three of the Final Fantasies, FF7 would have to be my favourite, simply because it was there first. Oh, and it's the best game I've seen, heh. Also, the exploration of these games, what they tell us, in terms beyond "I shall crush thee o villain!" is also part of their charm. I'm not sure I said that right, so i'll put it another way: How many games have such a religious following, a following that produces so much from such a short game. 90 hours of gaming is nothing that goes into the works created by people with a passion. How many games have a following like this? Maybe that, since each Final Fantasy produces this effects, they're all the best. Inspiration is drawing to a close, and like my inspiration, so must this article. I hope that I’m not just waffling on, and have actually made some sense, and not made some unilateral proclamations that are utter garbage. Any comments? norco@fantasysquare.com |
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