Now here's a question for you, kids.

Are you the type of person that goes into a Final Fantasy without a clue as to the storyline of the game? Do you go into a game without knowing how anything (Espers, Materia and the like) works? Or do you usually get into the game with a little bit of understanding as to everything that goes on?

Personally, when I first bought FFVI back on the SNES, I used Nintendo Power and such to help me figure things out. When I decided recently to plow through FFVII, however, I didn't know anything. Yet, I still managed to beat the game.

How about you, huh?

I'm not the type of person that minds spoilers but I don't exactly go around asking everyone what happens.

I was sooooo lost when I first encountered materia. I equipped All materia with All materia and I wondered why nothing was happening. Geeeez... For the Junction system, I use Auto Junction for disc 1 and 2 because I just didn't get it. My policy now is to go through a game blindly once then go through again and do everything 100% with the help of anything.

I prefer not to know anything, and I havent sat through a tutorial and actually read it in forever.

I prefer doing what I did in FFX...

... that is, play through the game knowing as few of the HUGE plot points as possible (which is rather hard with my loud-mouthed friends who always recieve the game months before I do), learn the system enough to BS my way through it, find a tough boss, get stuck for weeks, have a friend tell me I need to do something I should have learned at the beginning, swear for fifteen minutes, beat the game, feel disappointed about the ending.

... actually I don't PREFER this, but it sadly ends up that this is how I play the games. I usually buy the strategy guide after I beat the game, look through and see what I missed (which is usually very little, all things considered), and start a new game to find them.

I don't know if it really makes a difference to me if I know about the game or not when I play it. I got FF9 basically blind. I KNEW NOTHING!! I was the FF9 virgin, yeeeees! :P

I didn't get any hints or walkthroughs until I got stuck somewhere on disc 2... probably trying to find Conde Petie. Anyway, I still hadn't figured out about equipping things correctly, learning abilities, and all that. I don't think I would have enjoyed it more if I had, though. *shrugs* Anyway, I got through that game, FINALLY got a strat guide, found out how much I'd missed, and went through again.

I did the same for all the other FFs, too. I didn't know much about the storylines, although maybe playing one FF does kinda carry through to others.

These days, I end up getting FFs before any of my friends usually do, so I almost always DO play them without knowing anything about them.

I...jus....play the game!
I buy it....then play it....
I don't really find out about those stuff.
I learn about it while I play the game!
See....I have a very good brain...picks up things fast...
Yup....:D

I like to play through any RPGs without reading up on their systems/story etc. beforehand, makes it all the more interesting when you play since everything is new, and also gives more incentive to replay just to try and play through better the next time round since you'll then know how the game works the next time round :p

On VII my bro who had played on it before me told me everything and by everything I mean the plot (SPOILER)Aeris' Death I did the others VIII-X on my own but I picked them up right away. I made the mistake of choosing expert sphere on X and Wakka reached Ultima before Lulu and Auron was my healer and thief.

I tend to assume it wont change from the last game......

So you probably can guess at my confusuion over the following:

Materia~ Really great once you get it.
Magic Junctioning ~ as with everything else in FF8....Sucked.
FF9's Ability system ~ was really great as with FF7 and FF Tactics.

I go over the ability system before I play the game, but I prefer to know as little about the characters as possible before I play. I like to develop my own opinions of characters as they develop, and not from what I've heard from someone else.

i avoid everything until i play it and beat it.. i hate knowing what is going to happen before it does.

I don't really read strategy guides before playing the games. I read reviews to see if the game's worth getting, and usually the reviews give away bits of the storyline at the early parts of the game (so it doesn't spoil me much) and also some of the battle system. However, the reviews will never get me to understand the battle system properly - probably because I'm too lazy to start studying the battle systems described in reviews. So I rather just go directly into the game, and there I learn the battle system without much trouble.

As with every game I play, I know nothing of the game beforehand, other than what I've read in reviews (not that they really help much). As I progress through the game, I learn eveything I can about how the systems work and what's going on at that particular time in the storyline. At the end, I try to piece everything I've learned together (I'm still working on FF7) and try to make sense of it. After they end, I play through the game again and try to get whatever else I missed, usually using the help of a stratagy guide. I see what tricks can be used that the programers have implemented into the game just to see the cool effects and how easier it made the game.

But I never cheat untill I've beaten the game. That's a rule I've had ever since I've began playing videogames.

I usually play the game without knowing anything about it beforehand. That way you preserve the new experience as a whole.

I try to play knowing nothing,
but I sometimes ended up knowing more than I should.
Not any longer though, I hate spoilers.

Who carews you play the game you beat the game you have fun, end of f**king list

I jumped into FFVII's materia system as blind as a bat. Granted that it was actually the first RPG that I played so the entire concept was new to me.

And when I chose for Barret to give me that stupid materia tutorial... Goddamn I never picked that option again. If I had known I'd learn nothing from his little speech I wouldn't have chose for him to "teach me" in the first place. Honestly, it must have lasted about 15 minutes. The materia (and turn based attack) system wasn't that hard to grasp at all (as confusing as it seemed at first due to Barret's misnomer "tutorial") so I mastered it in no time. ^_^

Iundertsood the basics of the materia system from the start, but I wasn't too sure about some of the finer points - so when I saw the official strategy guide had materia hints in there, I had to snap it up...

I will NEVER buy a strategy guide again! In fact, I lent that one to somebody who never returned it, but I'm not exactly unhappy about it! That strategy guide, in my opinion, spolied the best game I have ever played (okay, as I play more of 10 it might get the new title...)

To be fair, however, my brother got me a guide for 8 and I decided to read it only after I'd done each section - it was nice to find out that (SPOILER)you CAN defeat the robot near the beginning. I was sure you could somehow, but never would have guessed how to do it!

I tend to understand the systems easily enough.

However, plot? I swear I will kill the next person who gives me a major spoiler! (BTW - BigD, there's a major spoiler in one of the first messages in the "Sephoroth VS Auron" thread - it's not blanked out properly so I accidently read it - Yay, another plot-twist spoilt... Any chance you could properly spoil it, for everybody else's sake? Actually, thinking about it I had quessed that what the spoiler said was true, but that still wasn't confirmation!)

I am happy to run into every game without knowing anything about it. In fact, I prefer it.

i just play it. and when i get stuck (very unlikely) i goto a forum/faq and get help

Zild: i went back and edited my post. i didnt know how to do spoilers then, but i finally went and looked up how to do them