Best strategy for re-playing all main FF games

rusty_soup · 02-20-2010, 12:36 AM

Hi, everyone. First post, and glad to join the community.

I've been a fan of FF since III came out on the SNES. Then I played VII, VIII and IX on PS1 a long time ago.

I recently decided to (re)play all main FF games and have completed I through VI using a DS Lite. Now that I'm on to VII and onward, I'm not sure what to do. I'd appreciate any input in the cheapest way to continue my saga. I don't own any of Sony's consoles so I need to decide what to buy.

Here's my reasoning as of now:

As far as I've gathered, a 60gb PS3 would be the best thing to have, since it would allow me to play all games (with some glitches on IX, X, X-2 and XII?), but this console is expensive and hard to find, it seems.

So is my only option to get both a PS2 and a slim PS3?
I'd play:
- VII and VIII PSN downloads on PS3.
- Shift to IX through XII on PS2.
- Back to PS3 for XIII.

Or should I rather get only a PS2 for now and play VII through XII all using discs? Then maybe by the time I'm done, the PS3 will have gone down in price... Even with this, I've heard PS2s have problems playing PS1 games, but I've been having a hard time finding Final Fantasy-specific info on backwards compatibility and memory-card issues. I'd be getting an easy-to-find PS2 slim, unless you advise looking harder for an older one.

Sorry for rambling, but I've been thinking about this way too long. Any alternate suggestions or comments on this?

**vicks and wedge** · 02-21-2010, 07:06 AM

hey if you like final fanntasy on hand helds 7 an 8 are downloadable on psp through playstation network they take up about 1.5 gigs on the pro duo so get a 4 gig and your set...i'm in heavan with these on psp and i would speculate 9 to be out as well soon

rusty_soup · 02-21-2010, 08:19 PM

Thanks. I did consider that option, but I figured since I still want to play everything after IX, I should get a system that lets me play the others.
Right now I don't think it would be worth for me to get a PSP over a PS2 or 3, since I think I'd only end up playing FF and the Star Ocean re-makes on it. Any other PSP RPGs you'd suggest?

**Andromeda** · 02-21-2010, 08:51 PM

I'd say if you want to also play XIII then your best bet would be just get a PS3 slim and PS2 slim. PS2s are like $100 these days if not less and the PS3 slim is $300. As you said the original PS3s with full backwards compatibility are rare and expensive. So for the cost of that you can get both. Also, the PS3's still all have PSone backwards compatibility regardless of PS3 version. I'm not sure if the PS3s have any problems playing the PSones like the PS2 did, but I think it might be easier on the PS3. Either way, you have two consoles that will both play PSone games without any trouble.

The upside on the PS3 is that you don't have to buy PSone memory cards, which may be impossible to find these days. You just emulate a PSone card on the PS3 really easy.

The only issues PS2s have with reading PSone discs is that supposedly there is a change in the way it has to read PSone discs compared to PS2 discs, which causes a slow build up or something in its ability to read discs. That ways the old PS2, I don't know if the new PS2s have any issues like that. Apart from that though, I've never had an issue with any of the FF games on the PSone playing on my PS2.

Che · 02-21-2010, 09:23 PM

Originally Posted by Andromeda

I'd say if you want to also play XIII then your best bet would be just get a PS3 slim and PS2 slim. PS2s are like $100 these days if not less and the PS3 slim is $300. As you said the original PS3s with full backwards compatibility are rare and expensive. So for the cost of that you can get both. Also, the PS3's still all have PSone backwards compatibility regardless of PS3 version. I'm not sure if the PS3s have any problems playing the PSones like the PS2 did, but I think it might be easier on the PS3. Either way, you have two consoles that will both play PSone games without any trouble.

The upside on the PS3 is that you don't have to buy PSone memory cards, which may be impossible to find these days. You just emulate a PSone card on the PS3 really easy.

The only issues PS2s have with reading PSone discs is that supposedly there is a change in the way it has to read PSone discs compared to PS2 discs, which causes a slow build up or something in its ability to read discs. That ways the old PS2, I don't know if the new PS2s have any issues like that. Apart from that though, I've never had an issue with any of the FF games on the PSone playing on my PS2.

Just to clarify a couple things that Andro said:

I've played FFVII and FFIX on my PS3 with no problems.

And for the "emulation" of the mem card, you don't have to do anything special. The PS3 has a PS1 mem card built in. I know Andro said exactly this, I was just clarifying if there was a question about it.

**Furore** · 02-21-2010, 09:49 PM

I'd take Andro's suggested route. I'm yet to have ANY PSX FF game have any real problems on PS2 or PS3 (unless you count how terrible a PSX game looks on a large display with native 1080) and the PS3 (and PSP for that matter) are great in that they don't require a memory card.
Here's a breakdown:

PS2
FFI (PSX)
FFII (PSX)
FFIV (PSX)
FFV (PSX)
FFVI (PSX)
FFVII (PSX)
FFVIII (PSX)
FFIX (PSX)
FFT (PSX)
FFX (PS2)
FFXI (PS2)
FFXII (PS2)
Several spinoffs either with a Final Fantasy label or with Final Fantasy Elements for both PSX and PS2 are also available.

PS3
FFI (PSX)
FFII (PSX)
FFIV (PSX)
FFV (PSX)
FFVI (PSX)
FFVII (PSX)
FFVIII (PSX)
FFIX (PSX)
FFT (PSX)
FFXIII (PS3)
FFXIV (PS3)

Several spinoffs either with a Final Fantasy label (including XIII VERSUS) or with Final Fantasy Elements for PSX/PS3 are also or will also be available. With an older model PS3 with emulation support, all PS2 games bar FFXI are also compatible with the PS3, and I think, though am not sure FFXI can be run on an older model PS3 if you download some system data from the PSN store, though don't quote me on that.

If you have the money, I'd also look into getting a PSP. Several exclusive spinoffs (definetely some of the better ones) and it can play FFVII and FFVIII if you downloaded them from PSN. Note that the one digital copy you buy can be used on both your PS3 and PSP. Handy stuff. As for other decent RPGs, it has Valkyrie Profile, Tales Of, Breath of Fire and similar franchise games available for it. Not as many as the DS, granted, but it does have some of the better titles.

EDIT: You'll need an old skool PS2 for FFXI if planning on playing it on PS2. I forgot to mention it, but the Slim don't like the PS2 hdd.

rusty_soup · 02-22-2010, 09:40 AM

Thanks, guys, especially Silver for the detailed list.

I wanted to play the games in order, sort of to have a chronological sense of the evolution of the series as I go through them (weird thing not to just play games for the fun of it, huh?), but I've made my decision:
I bought a PS2 and will play X, X-2 and XII.
Whenever I'm able to get a PS3 (they're sold out everywhere I've looked right now), I'll go for VII, VIII and IX, unless I find a cheap PSOne/X memory card before that happens.
Then I'll end on XIII.
I'll do Revenant Wings sometime in the process.

By the way, I don't plan on playing FFXI. I'm sort of scared of MMORPGs because they'd probably take way more of my time than I'd like them to. I've also heard FFXI is going down soon anyway, as XIV approaches. Should I try XI while I can?

Regarding Sony-bound spin-offs, I would eventually want to play FF Tactics, which I never did when it came out, so I'll do that through PSN. Dissidia sort of interests me, but I'm not sure how much yet. Not interested in any of the VII spin-offs, unless someone really recommends one of them.
Probably will play Versus XIII when it comes out.

**Andromeda** · 02-22-2010, 12:00 PM

Actually FFXI plays perfectly fine on the original PS3, ask Loco. He's the one that tried it out and it runs without any problems at all. So if you wanted to there wouldn't be any trouble, but it is true that you'd need an original PS2 to play FFXI on since it requires a HDD in order to play the game. And FFXI is not going anyway, it will remain running even after FFXIV launches. The population will undoubtedly be smaller, but as long as there are people playing it SE is going to be keep it open.

**Furore** · 02-22-2010, 09:01 PM

Originally Posted by Myself

I think, though am not sure FFXI can be run on an older model PS3 if you download some system data from the PSN store, though don't quote me on that.

All I remember was trying to run it on my first launch PS3 back when I still played FFXI years ago. Didn't work at the time but I've heard of people running it now, asked a guy and he said he had to download some system data from PSN for it. He also said it looks total ass on the PS3 because it doesn't upscale.