How long has everyone been playing final fantasy

[Rhaps]

Seems to be a lot of mad in here.

I started playing Final Fantasy through Dissidia, honestly. I wasn't looking to get into RPG's at all, but I was looking for a Soul Calibur-esque fighting game at the time, and then found the demo in the PSN store, and fell in love. Went from Dissidia to Crisis Core, VII, X, XII, I, VI, IV, II, V, VIII, IX, and started XIII and XI not too long ago. All in all, about three years of it.

I acknowledge the debate going on around me but have nothing to contribute, so
huzzah
or something

[Crescent]

OK. The first FF I ever played was VI. I watched my brother play FFVII when it first came out. From then on I play FFVII about 5+ a year cause its just that fkn good and doesn't compare to anything the Ive ever played since in the slightest. Not only is it my favourite FF, but the best game of all time and to plenty of other clever folk out there, well I like to think. I live in the era of the SNES,PS1,Nintendo 64 consoles/games but have not played any of the FF's before VI. I don't intend to unless I want credibility amongst fanboys and FFVII gives me enough pleasure as it is, 15 fkn years later still. Ive been over this before and Iam an adamant FFVII fan. It deserves every single praise it gets still to this day and unless something just as groundbreaking comes along in this day Im gonna keep runnin my mouth on how fkn awesome my FFVII (still) is. Ive played FFVIII, FFIX,FFX,FFXII and FFXIII, I regret touching that last one.

[Mystyrion]

I really wish people would stop being so afraid to speak their mind without worrying about a discussion getting closed. What instilled this fear in the first place? And if I'm too aggressive, get off the internet. If you don't really want a debate, go find a circlejerking Final Fantasy website without Che as a member. Or report my posts. I'm so sick of people saying "stay on topic". You're OFF TOPIC by saying that.

In any case, I agree with what you said regarding Final Fantasy 7.

I don't mind a good argument, but this one isn't going anywhere. Fast. Hence the derailment of a thread leading to a locked thread.
Maybe I was a little bit hasty in the assumption of it being closed, but hey. I calls it like I sees it.

[nix]

I played chrono trigger on the DS, it was a north american copy, if the DS wasn't backwards compatable i wouldnt have got to play it.

And in my opinion, its not better than 7, was way too short and predictable to even scrape it.

And i think your confused about my preferences, i dont like out-dated graphics on modern household gaming systems, only acceptable for me on a handheld.

The FF7 may have been images, very detailed images though at that, alot of time went into them you can tell by just looking at them, when you're walking/running in FF you can tell what kind of ground you're walking on as a result of the detail in the images, unlike panzer where everything looks like a polygon..

I dont think i could play through 7 again, however if put on a handheld i would..

I don't buy into reviews, not anymore anyway, back in the 90's it was cool, mostly accurate reviews, but when EVERYBODY is saying the game is amazing its kinda hard to ignore, again it seems you missed my last line which countered pretty much everything you said, ill quote

These threads are pointless and redundant from the get go, you can't measure personal opinions so we will never find an answer to the OP's question, but if we're to base it on reviews and worldwide acclaims and success.

Final Fantasy 7 Wins

I try to speak from a collective perspective as opposed to just always my own

[Joxsjua]

I suggest going back and beating final fantasy 2 and would also like to recommend final fantasy 9. It sounds like your one of us who go back as any American who lived here can go. I'm with you on the emulators. I've been using them since 1999 and now use them on my phone. My goal now is to beat 1 or 2 old school rpgs per year. Rpgs are easy to play on a touch screen compared to some other games.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

I ended up beating FF2 on the SNES version eventually. In fact, I have replayed that FF more than any of them with FF1 coming in second. Got it for DS emu last summer and shook my head how much easier the DS version is for the youngsters these days (still very fun though.) Even got the first 2 original games on my phone although the original FF2 wasn't all to my liking. I'm with you on the leap from the SNES versions to the PS "FF7". HUGE leap in FF gaming. My only issue with 7 was that I got around 70+ hours in the game and at a party someone stole my memory card. That kind of made me hang up my belt with FF for a time.. until about 6 years later when I had my accident touring and then got on the "X" boat and got those oldies that were finally released in the U.S.

[Xanatos]

@nix - That would be great if what I asked in the first place was based on my personal opinion. Place it next to games such as Wolfenstein 3D, or Final Fantasy IV and ask yourself again, what made VII revolutionary as far as video games in general go?

Nevertheless, those are still background images, some older adventure games had as "impressive" images on a lot inferior device. As for Nights Into Dreams, and Panzer Dragoon Zwei...





pretty slick for older games.

[nix]

It pretty much kick started the turn based rpg scene at a global level and carved out a whole new international market for Japanese role-playing games = Revolution

Without it, its possible the whole world wouldnt have got to play FF games, or breath of fire, star ocean, dragon quest and so on and so forth

And without it, this forum wouldnt exist

It was the first console game to offer as much content and story as it did, 3 discs, no other game comes close..

So yeah id say FF7 brought massive change to the gaming scene of its genre, perhaps revolution is too strong a word to use, either way it influenced story telling on games and many other followed suit

[Merlin]

This argument is as convoluted as FFVII's storyline. The game had it's flaws, but it was one of the first JRPGs to be a breakthrough hit in the West. FFVII opened the flood gates for future JRPGs to reach the US and other countries. Check out an article that explains it much more detail: Masterpiece: Final Fantasy VII | Ars Technica

I hereby confiscate all your Hateraide. >_<

[Cyanist]

I played the first FF on the original NES (that was probably 2000), gave up shortly thereafter and bought the same game for the PS1, won it, then skipped the 2nd, 3rd, 4rth, 5th and 6th (because I didn't have them) went through 7, 8, and 9 then went back, did 2, lost the DS cartridge for 3, won X, X-2, XII, and am still working, on and off, through 4 and 5 simultaneously. Haven't touched 6.

Phew.

[Dawezy]

Old friend of mine, Dale, back in New South Wales, introduced me to FFVII as he rented it from the local video shop.

He didn't think much of it! but, it hooked me - all the details on the PSX at the time were glorious, so soon after I played a little bit at my friend's place.. I got a copy for myself.

This was back in say.. 1998~99, ish.

Soon after I found myself in VII I got into the ROM business, went to IV (the US version, II, as I wasn't aware of any other versions) and it left a sort of mental scar.. the good kind. Needless to say I haven't looked back and I enjoy every one that I play.

..though I always tend to forget what quests / missions to do in VIII and IX due to the sheer size of the games lol.

[smokedkill]

This argument is as convoluted as FFVII's storyline. The game had it's flaws, but it was one of the first JRPGs to be a breakthrough hit in the West. FFVII opened the flood gates for future JRPGs to reach the US and other countries. Check out an article that explains it much more detail: Masterpiece: Final Fantasy VII | Ars Technica

I hereby confiscate all your Hateraide. >_<

Great article. It did a good job summing up the impact that 7 had. Looking back on 7, it doesn't have the greatest of graphics, but when it was released, everyone I knew's jaw dropped the first time they seen it.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

[Rocky]

I remember getting into rpgs by playing those games back when i was 7-8 years old (FF4, FF6, Earthbound, and CT exactly lol).

Good times, I could just get wrapped up into a story and/or in a sense really put elements of myself into the game (like with EB especially since Ness was a silent Protagonist and was in my age range/appearance). These games helped me immensely with reading as well and I wouldn't have the same success I would today without my childhood.

[Sasquatch]

Damn, people.

FFVII was revolutionary in its SALES. Why? Oh, a few reasons. First, it was one of the first PSX games that already had a well-established lineage. Second, it was a shiny new game on a shiny new system. Third, it was advertised widely. Commercials, magazine pages, stuff like that. I know that there were Final Fantasy commercials before that, but VII is the first one that had wide advertising, showing it to more kids and letting them beg their mommies for it (and how convenient, it comes on the PlayStation, which they got for Christmas a month before FFVII was released, just in time to get bored with all of their other presents).

Was it revolutionary in its graphics? No. That's already been established. Was it revolutionary in its gameplay? Not so much, it was pretty similar to everything that had already been done. Music? Sure, it had good music, but nothing spectacular compared to anything else at the time? Story and character development? Of course not. Hell, most of FFVI's 14 characters had better back stories than FFVII characters. You can barely even ask about VII's characters' backstory with a fan-boy without getting, "well, if you played the twenty-six other games about FFVII, watched the eight movies, or studied the fanfiction, you would KNOW who Cloud really is!"

Nope. Just sales.

(Also, it was the first FF to include guns, which is just stupid. I could never grasp the idea of a "modern" firearm doing the same amount of damage as a staff or a boxing glove.)

Sure, it introduced a lot of people to the series. That isn't because it was a "revolutionary" game, or because it was the best game in the series, or even that it was the best game out at the time. It's because it was the first of a well-established series on a new console (one that sold more than twice as many systems as the SNES), was well-advertised, and had "pretty" FMVs with a more "modern" setting.

Not to mention the hype it got well after its release, from the schmuck fan-boys that claimed it was the "best game evarrrr", attracting others not yet acquainted with the Final Fantasy series to start at VII instead of the earlier (better) games ...

ANYWAY. (Since I already typed that out before seeing the second page of this thread and the discussion seems to be over ... screw it, it's goin' in anyway.)

I started playing sometime in the mid-90's. FFIV (FF2 for SNES) was my first. I was too young to rent anything, but every other weekend when we would see my biological mother (whose stepson had a SNES), my brother would go to the video section of the grocery store and rent it, and we'd stay up all weekend, prettymuch. After that, we got FF: Mystic Quest, but didn't care for that as much -- but then came FFVI (3 for SNES), which quickly became my brother's favorite. (I still don't know if FFIV or FFVI is my favorite.) FFVI ended up becoming the first SNES game my brother ever bought -- later, when I started purchasing games, FFIV was the first I bought.

I progressed through the series in order, of course well after each game was released, since I wouldn't get them as gifts and I didn't have much money. I got a PlayStation after the PS2 was released, and started through the PSX ones from there. They were kind of hit-and-miss -- I didn't appreciate how they were getting away from their roots. Eventually, I got a PS2 and started with FFX, which was odd for me. I liked the game, graphics, story, and the few sidequests that were available ... but I absolutely hated the bullshit you had to go through to get the ultimate weapons, and that it was so linear. X-2 never seemed that interesting to me, but I forced myself to keep playing until about ten or twelve hours in, when I decided that I really didn't care for it. I played some FFXI for a little while, but didn't care for it -- it seemed interesting, but impossible to know your way around. Like, if you didn't have somebody with you that knew exactly what to do and where to go, you wouldn't progress at all. My stepmother sent me FFXII for Christmas while I was in Iraq the second time, which really confused me, considering the facts that she had never liked me playing video games and that we were in Iraq (sure Ma, lemme just pull a PS2 and TV out of my ass over here, not to mention another six hours in a day so I'll finally get time for adequate sleep, then maybe I'll worry about video games). But I played it when I got back, and enjoyed it, but didn't see what all the fuss was about. I played through FFXIII and didn't mind it, but only pushed through a few hours of XIII-2 before calling it.

So far, I've played every sequential Final Fantasy from I to XIII-2, and beaten all but III, X-2, XI, and XIII-2. Most, I've beaten more than once, and FFIV and FFVI, I've beaten more than a dozen times, each. I have both of them on cartridge, emulator, PSX disc, and GBA, with another copy of IV for my DS and VI through PlayStation Network on the PS3.

I just started playing The Legend of Dragoon, and I like it so far. We'll see where it goes.

Good times, I could just get wrapped up into a story and/or in a sense really put elements of myself into the game (like with EB especially since Ness was a silent Protagonist and was in my age range/appearance). These games helped me immensely with reading as well and I wouldn't have the same success I would today without my childhood.

I wouldn't say reading, but I learned a lot more about international mythology than I would ever have learned in school. But I did always find myself identifying with one of the characters, no matter what game -- Edgar in FFVI, Kain in FFIV, etc. And I'm also working on an Earthbound game on the emulator right now ... It's always difficult deciding what to name them. When I was young, I named them after my family or friends, and my current pet. This time, the dog is "Dog", Paula is "Chick", Jeff is "Nerd", and Poo is "Asian". The power is "Rape", and the food is "p***y". (That makes it more fun when your mom tells you "eat some _____ and scoot up to bed", or when you get homesick and, in the middle of battle, you think you smell _____ and start thinking about it, or the guy in Moonside who hates _____, even the smell of it. "Pizza" wouldn't have been as fun.)

[Kyrel]

I've been playing the Final Fantasy series for about 13 years now.

[Taco-Calamitous]

I've been playing the Final Fantasy series for about 13 years now.

Holy shit, CONTINUOUSLY?! How do you do it, man?! I take it you don't sleep, and you use a bed pan, yes? That's some crazy shit...

I first played a FF game back in '98, it was FF3j. Good stuff. Then I played Mystic Quest, thinking it was a part of the series and that that obviously meant it would be good. ...well, I like it better than 13

Also, FF7 sucks FF6's giant donkey balls :3 Anyhoo...

Wuv, Yer Mom

[Clint]

I don't play Final Fantasy. I do Final Fantasy. I have been doing Final Fantasy since June 17th, 1951. The first game I did was Final Fantasy LXVIII: Dale's Quest for Vengeance the Duck Pirate.

Dale's Quest wasn't that great. In fact, just like all Final Fantasy games besides VIII, it sucked.

[Zargabaath]

Also, FF7 sucks FF6's giant donkey balls :3 Anyhoo...

Wuv, Yer Mom

I don't remember donkeys in VI. There is Umaro. I heard rape sloth taught Umaro about dragons. Dragon his yeti balls cross Tifa's face.


I played a bit of the original in the late 90s, wasn't much if at all of a gamer. I played sports w/ my f-r-i-e-n-d-s!. I really started playing in 2002 w/ FF X.

[Rawithsu]

Ahaha I'm a bit jealous of all of you being able to grow up along side Final Fantasy's PS1 days! When the PS1 came out, my parents bought it for me but I only ever used it for Disney games (；▽；)

Like a few of you, I was also a straight up Nintendo kid. It wasn't until I got my own GBA that I was first exposed to Final Fantasy. In fact, my first GBA game was Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced! It's funny because I thought FF:TA had the prettiest box-art on the shelf compared to its other competitors. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I'm glad it happened many years later! That game was very magical to me growing up! I loved the hours of level crunching involved, the different jobs, the characters, the sick pixel environments, and the storyline! It was my very first tactic-oriented game besides the free-style battle system found in games like The Legend of Zelda. FFTA was chess on steroids and it whooped major butt.
That was my only experience with the Final Fantasy series, until I fell in love with the Final Fantasy 12 commercial trailer. After having bought and played Kingdom Hearts, I really wanted to know more about the Final Fantasy world and decided I'd start with FF12. Also, the CGI graphics in Kingdom Hearts crippled my tiny little heart with joy. So hell yeah I was looking forward to FF12's graphics and I was not disappointed. I bought FF12 and the game was fAnTaStIc.

Then naturally, I did what all of you had done-- I sold my soul to Square Enix.

So from FF12, I worked my way down to the original Final Fantasy games!

TL; DR: FINAL FANTASY TACTICS REPRESENT
I'm more of a hand-held Final Fantasy Tactics fan more than anything though

[Tallulah]

Arguments aside, I thought Final Fantasy VII was a very good game, and was popular because of the marketing behind it; the first Final Fantasy for the newest games system out. I thought the blocky graphics (they are made fun of terribly on "Video Game Recaps"!) were better in Crash Bandicoot, but it was a great game with an involving plot. I won't view it through rose-tinted spectacles.

Anywayz, I have been playing Final Fantasy games for about 15 years now, when I saw one of my friends from sixth form (another girl, amazingly - for that time and place anyhow) with a gaming magazine with Final Fantasy VIII on the front of it. Over the summer I had bought a Playstation (I had a summer job in the same office as my mum), and I often had disposable income, as I had my child allowance handed over to me (late '90s UK, parents get child benefit as long as their child is at home and in full time education up to 19) so on my weekends I used to go up to Bromley in Kent, which was the best shopping centre that I could get to. I went to the (now defunct) DVD/video/CD shop, MVC, and saw Final Fantasy VII on special offer. Shamefacedly, I'll admit, I got stuck within 5 minutes of the thing so didn't play it for a while. In the meantime I got Final Fantasy VIII, and played the h3ll out of that! Thus started a good few years of Final Fantasy obsession, and when the older titles (IV, V and VI) came out as Final Fantasy Anthology, I was all over that!

However, when Final Fantasy XIII came out... I really tried to like it, honestly, you guys! But to no avail... I may try it again when I get access to my X Box again, though I suspect Assassin's Creed is permanently lodged in there!

[Rowan]

"how long has everyone been playing final fantasy?"


-Final fantasy VII sucks balls, FF7 is ovverated blah blah blabh

hate more. Hate more.

hate more. You love ff7, admit it. you love hating it. Youre sooooo cool.

[Michael Swayne]

The first Final Fantasy game I played was Final Fantasy IX in 10th Grade (so, 2002; or 11 years ago). My brother's friend brought it over along with Final Fantasy X when he stayed the night with us. I really liked the storyline that IX had, and the characters were cute (I just wanted to pick Vivi up and squeeze his little cheeks, if he has cheeks...idk). Down the road, that friend sold me his copy of Final Fantasy IX for $7 (I wanted the first three Spyro games). And for the longest time, I played Disc 1 over and over again, because there was a big scratch on Disc 2 and it wouldn't load.

The first Final Fantasy game that I finished was Final Fantasy I in 2005. I used my graduation money to buy a GameBoy Advance SP and Final Fantasy I and II: Dawn of Souls. I spent the summer living in our RV, playing video games and drawing Pokemon pictures (I had also bought Pokemon Sapphire).

Now, I own 16 Final Fantasy games, and have played but don't own XIII.

[noxious.sunshine]

The first Square game I ever played was Parasite Eve - I was hooked immediately. I was in um. maybe 7th grade? I can't remember. I saw it at the video rental place and thought "OOoooh pretty!" Talked my dad into renting me a PSX on the weekends.

He finally broke down and bought one for me 'cuz he was tired of shelling out cash on a rental. There was a demo of FFVIII on the demo disc and again, I thought "Ooooooh pretty!" .. It came out Summer 99 - just before my freshman yr of High School, I'd moved in with my sister and she let me take over her summer babysitting job so she could go back to teaching swimming lessons. I saved and bought my copy of FFVIII -and- the walkthrough. Wasn't that hard. The kids' dad paid me like $100/wk. I was hooked ever since!

[Unknown Entity]

Been playing since about 1998. We were in a game store, and mum said me and my brother could pick one game each with a reasonable price. I picked Shadow Man, and my brother chose Final Fantasy VII. We eventually took an interest in the other game, and so my Final Fantasy love started. Found Final Fantasy VIII shortly after, and next thing I know, I have a pre-order for Final Fantasy XII and I'm collecting the other titles across platforms.

I've loved the series most of my life, it seems.

[Incognitus]

Since approximately 1993.

The year was 1993. I was a young level 8 thief named KAZA because my given name could only hold four letters. I pilfered the first Final Fantasy game off my cousin after a random encounter near Corneria and--------no, don't listen to me. I'm kidding. Kidding!

I started playing the first Final Fantasy over the span of a few rentals ("'Rentals'? What's that?" the kids say today). Didn't beat the game at that time but it introduced me to the role-playing genre which was a far more important step in the evolution of my gamer persona. I didn't get hooked on the series until I rented, played and eventually purchased Final Fantasy VI. After enjoying that one so much, I bought and finished IV. Later, I bought pretty much all of them: the PlayStation for I&II (Origins), V (Anthology), VII, VIII and IX; then the PlayStation 2 for X and XII. I owned almost every single one of the Final Fantasy games except for the first one in cartridge form. Or so I thought.*

I never finished X and stopped caring about the newer Final Fantasy games in the series shortly before finishing XII. To put it mildly, they stopped interesting me. I still try to replay the ones I like every few years (which reminds me I'm about due for a FFVII replay.)

*FUN FACT: Apparently as a level 15 thief I pilfered the first game from a random encounter with one of my mom's boyfriends. New game smell, mint-in-box, maps, etc. included. Was a pretty sweet treasu--------actually that's not entirely true, either. "Pilfered" is the wrong word! I borrowed it and my mother broke up with him soon after because, in a completely unrelated story, he turned out to be an asshole.

And I guess he forgot about it. Hell, so did I.

I didn't find it until I went off to college.

Now I'm a ninja. The end.

[LocoColt04]

I can't believe that I never replied to this thread! I could have sworn that I did... regardless, words!

I've been playing since the 80s. Started with FFI, though I didn't fully understand it at the time. Didn't REALLY get into the series until FFVI hit the SNES though - then I went back and grabbed IV. Never owned a PSX myself, so I missed out on that entire generation until the PS2 came around (except for FFT, played that at a friend's house multiple times, even bought my own memory card). Then I ended up getting FFVII on PC, then VIII and IX on PS2, and kept up with every single release on each console after that point. I went back and got VII for the PSX later, just so I'd have that in the format to match its friends.

[Kurt Zisa]

Huh, I thought i'd replied to this one already, maybe there was a similar one a while back.

Technically my first Final Fantasy was VII back in '98 or '99 (that's what, 14 - 15 years ago?) when we were given a PSOne from a guy at my dad's work. It had no memory card so the furthest I ever got was the first boss. It came with no manual either, how was I to know not to attack it when its tail is raised ._.

A few years later I got X with a Ps2 bundle around 2002 and as I actually understood what I was doing when I played it, I consider this to be my first Final Fantasy. That was pretty much that until XII came out and it wasn't until a few years after that when I had some money that I set out to finish my collection. Now I've got pretty much everything bar ps3 titles and a few of the spin-offs.

[Pete]

I had one of them for the old brick gameboy, back in like 94 or 95. I enjoyed it, but was a Sega kid until 97 or 98. I got FF7 for the PC for one of my birthdays, because I didn't have a Playstation, then for that Christmas, I got a PS1 and FF8. After that, I started picking them all up with the reboots for the PS1. Long story short, I've been playing FF since about the time I was 8... about 18 years. Haven't really played much lately, spare 13 this past summer.

[Recluse Writer]

Like so many people on here, Final Fantasy VII was the first FF game i ever played and is perhaps the most memorable to me because it was the game that introduced me into the world of JRPG's. Granted, like some people have pointed out, it is flawed like many other games but for a lot of us it was a new and exciting experience - one that we never would have imagined.

A lot of the older veteran fans tend to bash VII as breaking away from the traditional magic and crystal elements that have been prevalent in the earlier games, and i respect their opinion. I suppose it's just a matter of objectivity and perspective.

Of course, regardless of one's opinion on the game, i do believe there is one thing we can all agree on - the game brought the Final Fantasy series into mainstream culture with its high sales. Whether people love it or hate it, it's an undeniable fact.

[noxious.sunshine]

Okay okay, 7 was groundbreaking sales-wise and the impact it had over here in NA.

(Strange. I just remembered vaguely watching one of the kids in my 7th grade class doodling moogles all in his notebook & wondering what the hell it was.)

However, 8 was the first to have the modern day cut-scenes. And the 1st to have an official "theme song" (Sorry, One Winged Angel doesn't necessarily count).
Yes, I know, someone will probably scoot along and bring up the voice acting in X, but as far as RPGs today, I think 8 was a bit more "ground breaking" when it comes to graphics and movies and whatnot.

[Recluse Writer]

Okay okay, 7 was groundbreaking sales-wise and the impact it had over here in NA.

(Strange. I just remembered vaguely watching one of the kids in my 7th grade class doodling moogles all in his notebook & wondering what the hell it was.)

However, 8 was the first to have the modern day cut-scenes. And the 1st to have an official "theme song" (Sorry, One Winged Angel doesn't necessarily count).
Yes, I know, someone will probably scoot along and bring up the voice acting in X, but as far as RPGs today, I think 8 was a bit more "ground breaking" when it comes to graphics and movies and whatnot.

My experience with VIII is very limited, so you'll have to pardon my 'noobness'

I'd agree that VIII did have more modern day cut-scenes and its own theme song whereas VII lacked in these areas - however, we do have to remember that VII came out before VIII, and in the two year gap between releases, their technology (and experience with handling the new CD format and Playstation hardware) would have improved significantly.

But, in essence, i'd have to agree that VIII was visibly more 'ground breaking' in its portrayal of an emotional love story, although i do contest the claim its storyline was more ground breaking than VII - while they covered different issues, VII's concept of a bunch of people banding together and trying to save the planet from dying was really monumental and influential i felt. I guess it's just a matter of taste and what kind of narratives people engage with.

Long story short, i agree with you noxious.sunshine (mostly)