[eriq]

loving your updates! I have to go buy my copy!!

[CrimsonBlue]

Originally Posted by Once A Villain

Also, no one ever hyped FF7 to me, I just got it the day it came out because it was another FF game.

Hype was non-existant when I tried Final Fantasy VII. I remember seeing a commercial on tv, and a friend saying that i should try it out, 'cause I like trying new things. Also, my PS was all new, and I had just chipped it, and the school was drowning in people willing to sell me cheap pirated games for my new playstation.

Final Fantasy VII was supposed to be good. That's all I knew. Never played a game like that before. I've played RPGs before, but I was used to the Eye of the Beholder and Dungeon Master type rpgs, and I didn't really play those very much.

So I just chose FFVII 'cause some guy recommended it to me. I had no idea what kind of game it was supposed to be. He said it's a game that contains everything, mixes a lot of genres. Not sure if that was a very accurate description now though. But anyway, I was blown away by the game, and I completely loved ever aspect of it. I hadn't played games with random encounters back then, so I didn't mind it at all. It was all new. But I completely fell in love with everything in the game, the story and characters. The graphics were good too, but I hadn't much to compare to, until FFVIII came out.

Not sure where I'm going with this "rant", but I just wanted to say I didn't love FFVII because of hype, but because it introduced me to a genre I never played before. I think that favourites are picked from the era you're most familiar with, and grew up with. Final Fantasy VI was considered the best of its era, and people who grew up with that may have that as a favourite. Final Fantasy VII, VIII and IX all have their fans, from that era. Final Fantasy VII happens to be the most popular among the PS1-era fans, and Final Fantasy VI happens to be the most popular among the NES/SNES era fans.

Just like adventure games. There are people introduced to adventure games today that have Syberia and Still Life as their favourite adventure games, while the old fans have Monkey Island 2 and King's Quest VI. There's no definitive answer. Only different perspectives.

[Once A Villain]

Get FF12 Crimson. I'm curious to see what you think. It's very different from earlier FFs in terms of combat. I think the battles are much improved actually. So far the story is interesting too. 8:30 in.

[CrimsonBlue]

Oh, I am. Videogamesplus.ca shipped it to me yesterday, so it should be here within a week, and believe me when I say this is one of the games I've been waiting for since it was first announced. I bought an NTSC PS2 solely to play Final Fantasy X early, and I kept it solely to play FFXII early. Square-Enix aren't kind to us eurogamers.

[RLacey]

And my continued failure to understand the popularity of the Final Fantasy games continues .

I'm sure it's my fault.

[Once A Villain]

Originally Posted by RLacey

And my continued failure to understand the popularity of the Final Fantasy games continues .

I'm sure it's my fault.

Ha ha, it just depends on what you mean. Which games in the series have you played? There are two camps, as Crimson and I have made known here in this thread. There are those, like myself, who loved the earlier games (6 is my favorite). Then there are those who began with the PSX titles, 7-9, and they tend to prefer those, especially 7. Now, in my opinion, I wouldn't see much to love in the FF series judging by 7-10, so if those are the ones you've played, I think maybe you should look at the earlier games (or 12 which is surprisingly good). Of course, if you've played the earlier games and didn't like them so you never played 7+, then Crimson would say to play 7-10, skipping 8. If you played the early ones and the later ones, then yes, I would say you just plain don't like FF games, no matter what Crimson and I say.

[RLacey]

I've played brief bits of some of the earlier games, but I just can't stand the extreme linearity of the later ones. I was bored after a couple of hours of FFIX simply because I didn't feel like I'd achieved anything.

That and Final Fantasy VII decided to make me hate it by throwing so many random combats at me that I got blown up in the opening section of the game .

Of course, since I don't ever use the Playstation that a friend gave me, I'm unlikely to ever actually play these things again.

I'll take Secret of Mana instead, though .

[Kolzig]

Gunpey and Yoshi's Island 2, my only games for the rest of 2007.