Playinf the 'originals' for the first time: My views.

[Aeris_Fan]

Hey, well I recently bought Final Fantasy Origins and Final Fantasy Anthology (PAL) and have played Final Fantasys 1, 2, 4, and 5 for the first time and thought Id give my opinion on them, and see what others think/ like different etc, and maybe this'll help others who are thinking of playing them.

Final Fantasy.

I find this game harder than most Final Fantasy games to begin with. The first mission to rescue Princess Sara is pretty easy, but its quite hard to acquire EXp in this game.

I also find the story a bit....boring and maybe a bit predicatable (perhaps cause ive played lots of RPGs/FF games). Also, theres no 'real' characters, just 'four youths' with random jobs. Bit hard to get to know the characters i think. Im not very far on in this because I kinda lost interest.

Final Fantasy II.

I played this after starting Final Fantasy I, so I was pleased to ahve more personalised characters (its amazing what a name can do). I like the feel of this game, its intriguing right from the opening movie. All of the characters seem to be useful in their own way too which is good early on in any RPG.
Again, Im not very far, but thought Id share. I like the feel and the characters. Its difficult to guage EXp and when people will level up though. But the weapon system and amstery of spells/each weapon is something different too.

Final Fantasy IV.

This is a great game. im pretty far on into this game, and I must say Im hooked (the other three have gone out of the window).
Again, right from the start, this game is interesting and seems to be as good as later FF games (6, 7, 10 especially).

I also love the variety of characters in this game. Each character (although some are annoying as hell...#cough#Edward and Palom#cough#.....each character has their use. i dont want to spoil things, but some characters leave the party for various reasons, which kinda shocked me a little. Except FF7, with Aeris death and to a lesser degree FF6 with Shadow, characters usually stick around in FF games.

I like Cecil and his battle between good/evil. His change over is a good thing story wise, but he seemed a bit mroe powerful as a Dark Knight. Im not that keen on Rosa or Rydia though for some reason. For leading ladies theyre a bit.....bleh. but maybe thats because Im used to the ladies in FF being the subject of Damsel in Distress stories. I really like Tellah, he's a bit wacky, and Cid has some funny lines in there too. Palom/Porom were ok, prefer Porom the girl, to Palom (his lines are so dumb I want to slap him at times) and serve their purpose. Kain is fairly solid character too, the other 'lead' if theres such a thing as two leads. Hes just rejoined me so my opinion of him may change.

Its kinda hard to level up in this game too (at least Im finding it that way, so if anyone has tips, please let me know :-D). Im just about to go Underground.

This is gonna be one of my favourite Final Fantasites I think, preduming it doesnt go downhill in the next part of the story. Its also good to see where some of the later final fantasy things came from. thing I found 'new' at the time (eg Quistis having a whip, the job system and The Magus Sisters) appeared early on, so its kinda cool to see that.

Final Fantasy V.

To be honest ive only just started this so I dont have that much of an opinion yet. I like the job system so its good to see that here. Characters so far seem good too.


PS. Sorry about bad typing/spelling incase I made mistakes (too lazy to readback).

[Archangel Kain]

I've played all the numbered games in the series, so I know them fairly well. They're spectacular adventures if you can sit through them enough. I liked 4 the best out of all the classics, and it ranks up there. Actually, I like 4 the best, then 7, and then 6. I'm not huge on 5 or 2, but I've played them all. Take your time and try to enjoy these fine games, because you might find them a tad more difficult and more rewarding than their 3-D counterparts.

[V_Translanka]

You've pretty much got those classics down for what they are, Aeris_Fan (also, I don't think you have to worry about spoilers since your topic is basically your review so far of the games)...Pretty much any FF w/a Job Class System of any kind isn't going to be as heavy on Character Development as it is on Gameplay (small exception going to FFTactics and possibly the new DS FFIII, but I don't know about that one yet) so FFI and FFV are just like that...*shrugs*

Personally, if you're not diggin the leveling up in Origin, you might have to try the Dawn of Souls editions for the GBA (emulate if necessary)...They look better and the leveling is more standardized...But FFII's leveling system is just...unique...to say the least...It can also be tedious and tiresome (think FFVIII's Draw System on steroids)...but it has more of a storyline than some of the earlier RPGs...but it's a pretty basic one...

FFV has a bit of Character Development (Faris is a great character) and a good storyline (but it's more or less a rehash of the previous FFs w/a touch of Star Wars...lol)...If you have any concept of the FFs Job Class System the game should be a cake-walk for you. Just remember, the inherent traits of the Job Classes you master (and you should be mastering them!) will be transferred to your character's Bare Class. Just have certain characters as mostly Physical Job Classes and certain characters as Magical Job Classes (determine this by their stats, duh...or I could just tell you...:P)...And don't forget to quasi-fight Gogo for the Mime Class Crystal!

And you've got it, FFIV is the best of the pre-FFVI FFs easily...Again though, if you don't like the leveling, you might want to check out FFIV Advance...I think they changed it...But w/e...Great game, great cast of characters who are by far the most developed of the pre-FFVI FFs...and a great, classic storyline...It's good stuff...

[Aeris_Fan]

FFV has a bit of Character Development (Faris is a great character) and a good storyline (but it's more or less a rehash of the previous FFs w/a touch of Star Wars...lol)...If you have any concept of the FFs Job Class System the game should be a cake-walk for you. Just remember, the inherent traits of the Job Classes you master (and you should be mastering them!) will be transferred to your character's Bare Class. Just have certain characters as mostly Physical Job Classes and certain characters as Magical Job Classes (determine this by their stats, duh...or I could just tell you...:P)...And don't forget to quasi-fight Gogo for the Mime Class Crystal!

And you've got it, FFIV is the best of the pre-FFVI FFs easily...Again though, if you don't like the leveling, you might want to check out FFIV Advance...I think they changed it...But w/e...Great game, great cast of characters who are by far the most developed of the pre-FFVI FFs...and a great, classic storyline...It's good stuff...

Well Ive been playing both FFIV and FFV more the apst few days. I think FFIV has better developed characters than FFV but it doesnt bother me too much.

I also kinda wish I had gotten the GBA version of FFIV, because I hear you get to use the characters who leave your party mid-way, later at some stage. Ok they probably end up not as useful as some, but hey i like have lots of variety. Tho i must say Palom and Edward are two of the msot annoying characters ever, im glad theyre gone. Porom and Tellah were ok though in my book.

And yes, I really like Faris so far. The shock thing about Faris being a woman was actually kinda funny more than shocking.

With the job system, Im kinda doing what I did to some extent with FFX-2. having each character learn every job to some level, to at least level 2, that way everyone has access to most of the new skills/traits to put in their bare slots, and can use even the basic magic. Other than that, I kinda make Reina and Gaulf my 'mages', with Faris and Bartz my 'attackers'. Though i can see some of the jobs are already a bit bleh and kinda useless. Like geomancer, and trainer (though if you get the right creature im sure this is good, but generally tis a bit bleh). I really love this job system.

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In FFIV Im just at the start of the underworld.

In FFV Ive just gotten access to The Fire Ship and fought Ifrit.

These games are great so far.

[V_Translanka]

I also kinda wish I had gotten the GBA version of FFIV, because I hear you get to use the characters who leave your party mid-way, later at some stage.

Just put that idea completely out of your mind...The GBA version isn't that different from the one in Anthologies (I'm fairly sure the European Anthologies version isn't different from the NA Chronicles version)...

Yeah, Reina & Galuf are better w/magic and Faris & Bartz are better on the physical end...But, like I said, it will make things easier in the long run if you stick your characters w/classes and set out to master them...Especially since you'll probably want X-Attack (Archer Class, I think) for either Faris or Bartz & X-Magic (dedicated Red Mage 999 points, yikes!) for either Reina or Galuf...I think I had Bartz go Knight and Dragoon or something (he ended in Blue Mage, which has a few great magics for characters that aren't White, Black, Red or Summon Mages), Faris w/Theif and Ninja...Reina was White, Black, and then Red Mage, and I think I had Galuf do Monk (for HP, I think?) and then w/e and ended as a Summoner...

In the end I had mastered every class (not for every character, but through each of them) except Mime, which really isn't necessary to...Also, the Bare Class can equip anything, I believe...You should really consider the gameplay as a kind of "Pimp Your Bare"...But w/e...It's not terribly difficult no matter how you play it, I guess...