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PaperclipPerfector
16hr ago
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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.
4 - The best gameplay in the series. Characters were uniquely distinct from each other, with a mix of magic types and unique abilities that gave them deep flavor without being gimmicky, much in the way 1's class system and upgrades had worked. This worked with the linear story to regularly remix your party and keep things fresh from a gameplay perspective; a character dying or leaving the party meant the flavor of the fights changed significantly, and these mechanical changes underlined the story beats. Exploration was significant, because you could find hidden fights and treasures that noticeably spiked the power of your party, especially in the endgame. The characters were awesome, and the story hit hard. Coming from FF1 and from the Dragon Warrior games, it was a complete revelation.
6 - The best story in the series. Kefka had far more depth and menace as a villain, and many of the character set-pieces and story beats were delightful. Amazing mood, amazing music. In terms of gameplay, though, I felt like it was a step down. You had much more control over which characters you used through the game, and every character could learn every spell through the esper system; this was a huge upgrade in terms of player freedom, but a huge downgrade in terms of focused gameplay, because it made the characters feel much more generic and made the gameplay much more open-ended and flabby. They tried to compensate by giving every character a unique skill, but there were so many of them and they all competed with universal magic/Espers, and the end result often just felt gimmicky and pointless; combined with the much longer intended playtime, the gameplay felt much more monotonous by the end.
...The other games I played were downhill from those two. 7 and 8 felt like elaborations on the theme of 6, but each felt flabbier than the last. I never played 9. 10 felt like they were trying to pull things back in the direction of 4, but by that point the bloat seemed terminal. I gave up somewhere in the second disc, and haven't played an FF since.
The series as a whole seems like a monument to the truth of "less is more". FF was the series where I realized "100 hours of gameplay" wasn't necessarily a good thing, like a bit of butter spread over too much toast.
...I've often wondered how much of the above might just be the "nothing will ever be as good as that thing you liked when you were 14" effect, though.
9 is basically a call back to 4/5/6 (but especially 4). Four party members, fixed classes on each character, more fantasy,very final boss that just sorta comes out of nowhere . It's been remastered with some QoL additions, but there have also been rumors of a remake for a while. Someday I'll actually get around to playing it, because my first playthrough came to an unfortunate conclusion when the third disk turned out to have an unplayable scratch on it (the perils of used games).
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