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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   2734 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for June 20, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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So I got a Switch 2. Because I'll always be a Nintendo kid at heart.

My old Switch was dying. The fan in it was making a god awful racket. So I hadn't turned it on the last few months because I planned on just transferring everything to a Switch 2 anyways. I may replace the fan for fun and practice and sell it now that I'm not concerned about losing data.

First order of business was finally finishing the playthrough of Final Fantasy XII that had about 3 hours left to it. I fucking love this game. Favorite Final Fantasy by a country mile, and the only one I still fire up from time to time. Personally I preferred the original's license board over Zodiac Age's job system, but it is what it is. I generally always prefer things the way I first experienced them.

The game was still as obviously flawed as it was when I first played it in 2006. The first half of the game is way stronger than the back half. The entire plot seems to revolve around chasing McGuffin after McGuffin to no consequence what so ever. Every time you finally get a McGuffin, some cutscenes halfway across the world with characters you never meet happen which move the plot along independent of anything you did. That said, I still love the real time combat and gambit system, the localization is top notch and the accents they gave all the groups really heighten the expert world building that went into Ivalice. Ultimately it's a game that is a work of art despite itself.

Don't mind me, just jumping off of you since you mentioned FFs and favorites and I had a pre-prepared ranking. Ahem. The FF series:

1 - one of a very rare few games where I will use the phrase "good for its time" seriously. A bit slow, rough around the edges, probably not a good starter for non JRPG folks. Raised to middle of the pack by stinkers at the bottom.
2 - a very deeply flawed game with few redeeming factors. A stinker at the bottom.
3 - a bit fresh, a bit new, a bit flawed. Eh. Middle?
4 - mostly good, a little great, a couple sticking points. High middle.
5 - yeah, good shit! Top of the middle or bottom of the top.
6 - chef kiss emoji.
7 - chef kiss emoji.
8 - some real question mark choices push it down from where it could've been.
9 - chef kiss emoji.
10 - chef kiss emoji.
11 - N/A, go home and play a single player game.
12 - Fuck you, Vaan. Do not pass Rabanastre, do not Collect Fran and Balthier. To the bottom with you.
13 - Just really weak. (Mostly) nothing to HATE, but so little to love that it can't overcome the flaws at all. Way low.
14 - N/A, pls stop putting MMOs in the numbers kthx.
15 - terrible combat, fun road trip. Low you go!
16 - a spark of greatness, wasted on samey filler and bad overall plot pacing and shaping. Get on down to low tier.
Ranked: 11/14 <<< uncrossable apples and oranges gap <<< 2 < 12 < 13 < 15 < 16 < 8 < 1 < 3 < 4 < 5 < 9 < 10 < 7 < 6

Honestly, though, most of what bothers me about 12 comes from a huge pile of factors almost everybody else considers trivial - they're all just big problems for me and when you stack them all up the experience is incredibly grating.

9 and 10 are hyper GOAT status for me, some of the best games ever made across any genre.

7’s alright, but even back when I played it for the first time as a kid I thought it was overrated.

I enjoyed 8 quite a bit more than you did, but that was probably just due to the spectacle of how much of a fever dream it was, rather than it being a “good game” in the traditional sense.

I think FF8 is a great game. Yeah parts of it are a fever dream that make no sense, but the same is true of FF9 as well (Necron). And I think gameplay wise it is one of the most fun character building systems they turned out. It really rewards mastery of the mechanics in a way not many other FFs do, and on top of that it gives you multiple ways to become strong (e.g. while many favor low-level runs where you junction high level magic, I myself enjoy a high level run where you level up with the stat bonus abilities). And it has the greatest minigame ever, bar none.

Man, different strokes, different folks. I positively loathed Final Fantasy 10. I hated it's VO, I hated it's world, numerous boss fights sent me through the roof with frustration (Yunalesca in particular). I think what frustrated me most, especially towards the end game, was how insanely wasteful with my time the game got. You die in a boss fight, and you are committed to 5-15 minutes of unskippable cutscenes every attempt. It was excruciating. I found Tidus an infinitely more annoying character than Vaan, but that could have had more to do with the VO.

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