Final Fantasy

I've heard VII in particular has aged pretty badly. As someone who's never played it, but also owns a PS4, I'm holding out hope that Square are actually one day going to release the remake on there instead of playing any rereleases of the untouched original.

I can't see FFVII Remake on anything but the PS5 now

I'm going to play all of these Final Fantasies!  Well, maybe not the dungeon crawler or the weird 'World' one, and I'm not sure about XV Mobile, but all of VII IX X and XII for sure.

I'm fully expecting VII to have aged horribly, but even then that'll just allow me to rub it in the face of the people who still insist it's the best game ever.  Win-win!

World and IX are the only one's I'd truly recommend of what's coming.

VII is very much in the same place as SM64 and OoT etc, loads will say it's the best, will still be in list's of best games even if it's been bettered.

Rum Rapture wrote:

I've heard VII in particular has aged pretty badly.

Balladeer wrote:

I'm fully expecting VII to have aged horribly, but even then that'll just allow me to rub it in the face of the people who still insist it's the best game ever.  Win-win!

VII is still fun to play. I'd argue that the only department that it's aged horribly in is in its visuals. From a storytelling, gameplay and music perspective, it holds up. If the Switch version is the same as the mobile ports, it'll be even better in the gameplay department as you can toggle the battles on and off and also fully heal your party after battle as well with some additional options.

I would say the only graphical issue is the characters outside of battle as I was having fun when I played it on PS4 but I got lost in Shinra Headquarters but the big deal with game was the story and I would think you all know what happens, that emotional connection people had who still say it's the best might be lost.

Ah yes, looking forward to that bit taking too long and being too maudlin.

I think the overall journey that the characters go through is still a compelling enough tale, even if the emotional oomph of things like Darth Vader telling Dumbledore he was a ghost all along suffer thanks to the lack of voice acting or the poorer graphical fidelity.

Rejoice! Square is being punished for the recent directions! Posting a $33 million loss and firing Tabata (guy in charge of FFXV). Oh, and they've cancelled all DLC plans for FFXV after the (presumably mostly finished) Episode Ardyn.

I for one am glad to see this. Over time FFXV has reflected very poorly in my mind. The gameplay is simplistic to the point even a button-masher has vast amounts more complexity, and the story was one of THE most poorly told things I've seen in any high tier production (which sucks because the game had some fantastic lore in its world and it's so disappointing that it got so utterly squandered). Worst of all is that the game was and felt very incomplete. So incomplete that even the recent "Royal Edition" STILL feels like a game that is only 70 percent done.

Maybe we'll finally, after over a decade, have a properly done Final Fantasy that isn't a disorganised mess. Ah who am I kidding, it's Square Enix, and the only games they're published in the last decade that weren't either narratively incoherent or boiling pots of undercooked ideas were exactly that, only published by them.

Still I have to wonder if this isn't a sign something is going very wrong at the company. This year has seen screwup after screwup, to the point they farted out The Silent Man without a shred of fanfare. Definitely a point of interest to keep an eye on, big things may loom for Square Enix is all of this is a portent of something the public has yet to be made privy to.

I really like Tabata and hope his new endeavour goes well but have to agree something might be wrong at Square.

It does seem to be a thing with Japanese Publishers as Capcom a few years ago looked like they were going to be sold and now they seem at the top of there game.

Athrun888 wrote:

firing Tabata (guy in charge of FFXV).   

Tabata didn't get fired - he resigned. Supposedly he was renowned in Squeenix for being a fixer, much like Iwata during his game development years in that he could turn around projects that were ailing and actually get them out the door. I don't think we'd have ever even have seen FFXV had Tabata not taken over from Nomura after he left that game in development hell. I do wonder why he resigned, though. The DLC must have been going awfully.

Supposedly, he's launching his own studio - I wish him all the best! If he can turn out something as good as Lost Odyssey like when Sakaguchi left Squeenix, then we'll be a lucky bunch indeed.

I don't know if the retro re-releases of Final Fantasies on Switch merit a new thread? Is anyone else planning to pick up IX or VII?

Whatever, I've just started IX. Vivi's so cute! Zidane's a bit dull in comparison, frankly. Also: makes a mockery of people insisting on 60fps, although the 15 or so during battle scenes did make my eyes feel a little funny.

I don't think we need a thread for the old Fantasies, sort why we have this one.

The whole cast of IX is adorable, I've not played much of the steam versions but I would have thought framerate would have been something "fixed".

Zidane isn't, now that he has some more personality. He's probably meant to be the 'lovable rogue' archetype - I just think he's an annoying twit.

It doesn't seem to have been upgraded in any way to be honest. The loading times are criminal. Almost certainly not WORTH SEVEN(TEEN) POUNDS in this day and age.

Does it not have the upgrades, that the STEAM version (PS4 has these as well) got like better resolution, skip battles, power up'ed all the time etc?

Even if it's a straight port of the PS1 game, £17 is still a good price for THE best Final Fantasy and a utter classic and don't think peeps would say that for likes of OoT.

It's got the three cheat modes in Config?  And the resolution looks decent enough, although I would happily swap that for a decent frame rate/shorter loading scenes.  Sounds like they have upgraded it, just in a bunch of ways I don't care about...

In this day and age?  I would.  Then again, I have very little desire to splash money on pure nostalgia.

EDIT: Apparently I'm not the first person to raise an eyebrow at the port quality.

I guess I know you're not much for retro, where I do feel quality games will always be quality games.

Games is games
I've got final fantasy one and two for GBA and now that I'm actually staying in Japanese I should start practicing the language again so I guess I'll pay it finally

FFIX might have another problem: it might actually be giving me headaches. I used to get them all the time from gaming when I was a sprog, but no so much recently.  I think it's because my brain was trying to string together the frames, which required effort on its part when games usually moved at FAfps.  I got a stonking headache after a fair amount of FFIX on Friday (no alcohol involved), and while correlation doesn't imply causation it does suggest the possibility of causation.

Will still try to press on, but if I get more headaches then...

September is now JRPG month as Final Fantasy VIII Remaster is coming to PS4, Xbox One, PC and Switch on the 3rd.

Now rumours weren't true about voice acting or a physical version (triple pack maybe???), as this seems to be more along the lines of FFVII and FFIX that have come to PS4, Xbox One, PC and Switch with new things like resolution, cheats etc

but why this one has got the remastered moniker


Sure it doesn't look like a PS4 game but still, it's much better and I'm shocked that it's £16 as it's Square and they want more for IX with fewer updates.

I've never really liked VIII but I'm willing to give another go especially with these improvements.

That might be enough for it to break through the barrier that has kept me where I am on FFIX! Maybe they had to redesign it a bit because they lost the code?

Maybe, I still don't get the lost the code stuff as it's on STEAM as a straight port and PS3 as well.

That's not like it's never been released since release unlike Panzer Dragoon Saga.

That's a massive improvement. And that's not from an FMV, right?

Nope in game and funnily cutscenes still look like they did on PS1.

Good review on FFVIIIR here https://youtu.be/LuaNhduMEfg

Sounds like he's had a similar view to me on the game.