There's really no end to the amount of Final Fantasy top ten lists I can make, is there? This time, I'll be honoring the women of Final Fantasy and counting down the best female characters of all time. Now, before we start, I've got to make one thing clear: this is not a list based on appearances. I'm not making a ridiculous "sexiest girls in gaming" list.
Character design does factor into the placements, but the main thing I'll be looking into is their actual character. Are they well-written female personas? Are they appealing and likable in terms of personality? These are the questions I'll be asking as we run down the list. And of course, this is a list of my top 10 Final Fantasy girls, so if you have a different opinion, just share it in the comments below!
Here's a shocker: I'm a huge fan of Final Fantasy. I absolutely love the series, and I've been a fan since Clinton was in office. I've played every title in the series several times, and the one thing that always sticks with me is the music. The various themes in each game come to define that particular game. Most of it is owed to the mastery of musical genius Nobuo Uematsu, but other composers have produced some memorable themes as well.
In this top ten list, I'm going to be ranking the best battle themes in the Final Fantasy series. Battle themes are usually the most memorable and definitive songs in the games, along with the overworld themes. Therefore, I think it's only proper to do them some justice. I'll be including all of the main series titles and all related spin-offs. As usual, these are just my opinions so feel free to disagree and share your own thoughts in the comments. Now then...
I'm going to turn this into a series of posts, considering how much I like to write about Final Fantasy. As I mentioned in my previous post, I have played Final Fantasy VII dozens of times and still play through it every now and then. I'll probably be making more of these so stay in touch. Anyway...
Every popular game has its share of urban legends and myths; just look at the GTA series. You wouldn't expect a story-driven RPG to have a bunch of random mysteries, but Final Fantasy VII is actually filled with them. These mysteries have existed for years, and despite the theories and rumors being all over the place, nobody has been able to agree on a conclusive answer for any of them. Here are 5 of my favorite mysteries in FFVII. After describing them, I'll give you my 'probable explanation' as a way to try and debunk the myth in a way. Feel free to give your own theories as well!
I'm not ashamed to say that Final Fantasy VII is one of my all time favorite games. It's the only game I've played through more than 20 times, and one of the only games I've done a complete 100% run-through of. I go back and play this game pretty often, and while I thoroughly enjoy every experience, there are a few small moments I dread playing through.
This is my list of the 5 most tedious moments in FFVII. Note that these moments aren't necessarily bad for the game; some people might downright enjoy them. I'm just trying to point out some sections of the game that I grew to dread after playing through the game a hundred times.
Sigh~ I really love this blog, even if it doesn't serve much of a purpose in my life and even if its not booming with comments or content. I just wish I had more time to work on it. As soon as school starts, you can pretty much forget about posts. Though, I'd like to report that...
I've been playing Dissidia 012 Duodecim, and its damn ADDICTIVE. I got this game a loong time ago, but for some reason I just never got around to playing it. Well, I randomly decided to start it up, and suddenly I found myself glued to my PSP for entire days, just playing this damn game.
It's not just the awesome, fast-paced action or the super fan-service selection of characters. Duodecim maintains that RPG element from Final Fantasy, so there's a lot of leveling up, mastering a HUGE list of battle skills, and farming for items so you can craft the best equipment. I literally spent hours just trying to get the rare components you need to get each character's ultimate weapon.
There's so much to spend your time on, and the story mode is long as hell too. I've pretty much decked out Tifa, Yuna, Lightning, and Cloud with mastered everything at Lv.100. That's how much I've been playing. It has much more content than the first game, and the new characters are great, so just pick up and play this game. If you're a Final Fantasy fan, it would be a crime not to play it.
As most of the gaming community already knows, Final Fantasy XIV was pretty much one of the biggest flops in recent years. It was almost as if the game were only 20 percent done, but they decided to just throw it out into the public anyway. I mean, it only as a score of 49 on metacritic. For a Final Fantasy game, or any game for that matter, that's just depressingly awful. But it seems Square Enix is still trying to make it work, even after doing as much as they can do.
I understand that the game was piss-poor, but those are some drastic measures. I guess its mostly a big deal because the Final Fantasy brand is so well-established and respected around the world, and each of its games has brought in critical acclaim and millions of dollars. For a flagship title to do so poorly is certainly very embarrassing and damaging to their name. But I'm gonna have to support their decision on this one. There's nothing more they can do for FFXIV in its current state; the best course of action is definitely to start an entirely new game.
Anyway, the real point I wanted to make is, I feel like this could have been less of a disaster if the online games were NOT a part of the main series! I feel like they could have easily made it into a sub-series and called it Final Fantasy Online. Even Final Fantasy XI was only half-decent and I really feel like it doesn't belong with the other flagship titles, considering it is an MMORPG. It really breaks the flow of Square's line of amazing RPG's. Now look what they did with FFXIV, it tanked and hurt the brand even more. Remember Dirge of Cerberus? That got lukewarm reviews, but it wasn't a big deal because it was just a spin-off title. All they need to do is keep these MMO's out of the main series. Quit taking up precious space that belongs to our beloved Final Fantasy games, ok?
I've been COMPLETELY obsessed with Final Fantasy Tactics lately, its the strangest thing. I've had a weird relationship with this game. I bought it way back in 2003, when they were still selling PS1 games. My first play-through was painful; I had such a hard time with this game. I didn't know much about the strategies and character skill setups, so I just kept getting owned. I remember I got to one battle filled with summoners, and I kept losing so badly that I stopped playing the game for over a year.
I randomly decided to start playing again after like a year and a half of neglecting it, and I finally managed to beat it. Its weird that after literally YEARS of not touching it (went through all of high school and half of college without re-playing it) I started my second play-through. This time around, I learned absolutely everything there is to know about the game, and I discovered how freaking easy the game gets when you raise super powerful characters. I went through all of Deep Dungeon, equipped each character with the best equipment, setup their skills properly, and leveled past 80. Now, its just rude how easy the final battles become.
But my point is, I have a new-found love for this game. It took this long for me realize how deep and fun this game can get. It doesn't get the love that the mainstream Final Fantasy titles get, but I can see why it has such a strong cult following. I encourage you to give it a try too, there's always the re-make on the PSP too.
Many fans and gaming sites have tried to rank the Final Fantasy games, so I thought I'd give it a shot as well. I consider the Final Fantasy series to be my all-time favorite game series. I've loved it for years, and I've played each and every game several times. So this begs the question: which game is the best in the series? This question is furiously debated, and opinions are often all over the place. Here is my personal list of the Final Fantasy games, ranked from worst to best. Note that these are just my own observations, so feel free to comment on your own thoughts.
I've been playing the hell out of my PS3 lately, and I've already bought several games for it. My games include Final Fantasy XIII, Metal Gear Solid 4, Bayonetta, and Super Street Fighter 4. All of these games are excellent, but I've spent the most time with FFXIII so far.
My first impression of FFXIII was borderline negative, mostly because of the noted linearity of the game. It was running from point A to point B, fighting and fighting again. But as I advanced further into the game, the intricate mechanics of the battle system were unlocked and battles were made infinitely more fun. The paradigm shift system makes combat very strategic without complicating things, and access to Eidolons makes battles incredibly flashy. Accompanied by amazing visuals and a kickass soundtrack, I came to really enjoy the constant battles. Battles in Final Fantasy really have never been better.
Great, memorable quotes are plentiful in a story-driven game series like Final Fantasy, so I thought I would dedicate a list to the five most memorable and significant lines in the franchise. Obviously, this was incredibly hard to do considering the wealth of content I had to choose from, but I ultimately narrowed it down with confidence. Now, these are just my own choices (and some of the entries are unorthodox) so there's no need to take this list to heart. Now then...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 5. Everything Balthier Says (Final Fantasy XII)
I remember back when Final Fantasy X first came out, I thought it would be amazing if they could make a fighting game where characters from the entire Final Fantasy series could be mashed together as playable characters. Then, as fate would have it, Square Enix announced Dissidia: Final Fantasy, a fighting game featuring characters from all the Final Fantasy's. I was preparing to sue the shit out of them, but, realizing I did not have a copyright on the idea anyway, I just basked in the glorious win of the concept.
Dissidia features 22 playable characters. A hero and a villain each represent Final Fantasy I - X. A hero from Final Fantasy XI and a villain from XII also appear as hidden characters. The story is incredibly basic, surprisingly. It is about a war between Cosmos, the Goddess of Harmony, and Chaos, the God of Discord. Each God chooses 10 champions to wage war against each other, and the war starts to tip towards Chaos' favor. Yeah, they didn't try too hard but it doesn't really matter anyway. The story mode features 10 separate stories, each focusing on a hero from a Final Fantasy and each slightly interlinking with each other through cut scenes.
To be totally honest, the story mode is quite boring. I've always hated story modes in fighting games where the main gameplay involved a freaking board game (Dragonball Z Budokai series). That is exactly what its like in Dissidia. You have a player piece, and you move your piece around regularly engaging enemy pieces, initiating battles. The goal is to engage a piece at the other end of the board. In between these board games, you'll see a cutscene or two. I don't know what they could have done to make an interesting story mode, but this certainly doesn't appeal to me at all.
Fortunately, this is a fighting game, and the fun of this game is in the action. It is not a traditional 2 dimensional fighter; instead you have a third person view and take full advantage of the large, free form arena. The players have two vital numbers: Health Points and Brave Points. HP is basically their life, but BP is like a damage and defense meter. Because of this, each character has two different sets of moves: HP moves and BP moves, each affecting HP and BP respectively. Say you have 1500 BP and the enemy has 200 BP. When you use an HP attack, it will hit for 1200 HP. Simple as that. So your goal in battle will be to lower your enemies' BP with BP moves until it breaks, then strike him down with HP moves.
They wanted to replicate the intense wuxia style battles seen in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and I think they did an incredible job with it. Physics is basically your play thing, and you can defy it anyway you like. You can walk on walls, slide on rails, do mid-air flips and mid-air dashes, and fight fast-paced melee battles in the air. The key is to be as nimble as possible, dodging or blocking enemy attacks and catching them off guard. Characters have a variety of skills they can learn, so gameplay is significantly different between character to character.
I love the soundtrack, mainly because its a nostalgia trip. The game features 2-3 battle themes from the original Final Fantasy games, arranged for Dissidia. You will get to hear old favorites like Clash on the Big Bridge from Final Fantasy V and One Winged Angel from Final Fantasy VII. The story mode also features the main themes from each Final Fantasy game. There are plenty of Dissidia originals, but the key point is definitely the remixes of original battle themes.
And finally, the graphics. Dissidia features some of the best graphics seen in a PSP game. The characters are incredibly detailed and colorful. The battle arenas are reminiscent of familiar Final Fantasy areas like Kefka's tower to the inside of Sin, and all structured in their own unique ways. While the characters do look very good, their faces are always stuck with an emotionless expression, and makes for sort of a dull experience. The voice acting doesn't really help either, so personality is left to familiar dialogue. The problem with the characters and their individual stories is that there is no development, it just seems like a repeat of the troubles they faced in their original games. So while the cut scenes are nice to look at, it usually just consists of the characters standing in one of the battle arenas, exchanging predictable dialogue, complete with their expressionless faces. Still, battles look pretty.
If the story modes got you yawning, there's always arcade mode. It has you selecting your character and playing through a series of battles, just like any fighting game arcade mode. It's great when you don't have any friends to compete against. A notable thing about Dissidia is its extensive customization options. Just like any Final Fantasy game, there is a leveling system. There is a shop where you can buy all sorts of equipment for gil. There are tons of accessories to alter your character's stats, and summons with special abilities that activate during battle. Besides character customization, there are also tons of unlockables you can obtain with points you get from battles. Unlockables include more characters, alternate costumes, music, icons, and much more.
Despite its obvious flaws, Dissidia does a terrific job of making a fun, fast paced fighting game faithfully featuring Final Fantasy characters. Music will fill you with nostalgia, and the graphics are some of the best seen on the PSP. There are tons of stuff to unlock, and hundreds of thousands of ways to customize your characters. All in all, you have to give it up for the gameplay. It takes time to get used to and involves a decent amount of skill to master. When you do, it'll give you hours of fun if you can find a buddy to compete against. Dissidia is recommended to fans and newcomers alike.
