Which FF games have you changed your opinions on?

[Slothy]

FFXIII - I intially found it meh, but further evaluation made me realize just how awful this "thing" was and how terrible almost every element of it was. It's the only FF where I honestly am baffled by people actually thinking it's better than terrible. I honestly don't feel it has any redeeming qualities.

Now, now. The battle theme was decent and Sazh had his moments as the only character that wasn't completely stupid and insane.

I'd say I agree with you on FFX though. It's probably the game where my opinion has changed the most over time. When I first played it I thought it was decent, but it really doesn't hold up. The characters aren't very interesting, the plot is pretty stupid even for an FF title, and the battle system could have been better than it is.

[Wolf Kanno]

FFXIII - I intially found it meh, but further evaluation made me realize just how awful this "thing" was and how terrible almost every element of it was. It's the only FF where I honestly am baffled by people actually thinking it's better than terrible. I honestly don't feel it has any redeeming qualities.

Now, now. The battle theme was decent and Sazh had his moments as the only character that wasn't completely stupid and insane.

The battle gets repetitive after you hear it so many times, I usually faze it out pretty quickly which is why I've never been fond of regular battle themes in the series. Sahz is a good character, but his story and characterization isn't so good that it would convince me to slog through the rest of the shallow cast of caricatures that XIII calls a cast. So I would stand by my stance that it doesn't have any redeemable features to make me play it.

[Forsaken Lover]

Snow was a sexy, sexy man.

That's a plus for XIII.

[Wolf Kanno]

Snow's a male bimbo that talks like a parrot

[Rez09]

My opinion on most of the earlier franchise has been relatively static, but starting with FF7 my opinions have shifted around fairly heavily.

When FF7 launched, it made me want a PS1, and for the longest time it was my favorite game in the franchise. Somewhere along the way my opinion shifted, however, and I became fairly certain the game was an overrated piece of crap. A few years ago, I reassessed the game again and now find it to be one of the strongest entries in the series.

Conversely, I was pretty quick to lambast FF8 when it came out. I hated the story and virtually all of the mechanics, but, playing it recently, I found myself enjoying the customization the game presents and think well enough of the game now. The story is still bunk, though. ._.

FFX, and I'm far from alone here it seems, I adored when it came out. However, after getting ahold of International a few years back and attempting to play through it again, I felt the game was far too restrictive and simply drug me along by the ear. This was especially compounded by my inability to tolerate either Yuna OR Tidus, both of whom, to my unfortunate realization, receive a lot of camera time. Overall, my opinion of the game is a LOT lower now than it was originally, and it is (easily) one of my least favorite entries in the franchise.

FFXII. My undying hatred of MMORPG-ish games cannot be understated, and that's always how this game felt to me. I was actually given a copy not too long after it came out and threw it into my closet somewhere after playing it for about an hour. Years later, a friend of mine got me to play it again, and to give it a fair shot, and I actually think pretty highly of the game now. I still don't especially enjoy how combat is dealt with, and I utterly HAAAAATE semi-random loot treasure boxes, but I love most other elements in the game.

FFXIII was the last one I had a major shift on, and it was actually for the better. I originally couldn't stand anything about the title, from the characters to the combat, but my opinion has largely cooled since the game's release. I don't mind Lightning as much as I did initially, and I like Sazh as well, but probably the biggest change was my outlook on the combat system. I don't think it is especially good, but I find it interesting enough; it is certainly unconventional.

[Pete for President]

Not many changing opinions here.

FFX is still the best one imo. Tactics is up there too. VII is good but confusing. FFIX really good, but with a tad bit of filler. XII has it's moments but combat is easily cheesed and not very engaging. XIII... never bothered to replay it. I guess the music is still nice.

[Bolivar]

Final Fantasy XII is obviously the forerunner here, with it initially turning me off for its lack of design and feel that usually accompanies Final Fantasy games. Once I replayed it and judged the game on its own merits, it stands as one of my favorite games of all time. There's so much content and its all designed brilliantly. Even the story redeemed itself when I played it straight through on one playthrough, finding the pacing to be just right.

Final Fantasy VIII also saved face over time. I never finished my first playthrough and always considered it to be a black sheep sandwiched between two masterpieces. Years later I appreciated how unique its setting and art design is and I find myself longing to play it when I'm on other FFs.

Final Fantasy IX lowered only slightly in my estimation. When I beat it, I felt it was a stronger game than Final Fantasy VII and probably the greatest game I ever played. I still feel it's the overall most well-rounded game but it didn't take as many risks as its PlayStation brethren, so I knock it down just a tad now in my rankings.

Final Fantasy IV has slid lower to me. I mentioned this in the ranking thread, but this was one of my favorite entries due to how genre-defining it was for its time and the art and music still hold strong. But the entirety of the gameplay holds it back. You easily get enough money to stock up multiple max stacks of potions, allowing you to just hold down the A button to get through most dungeons. On the PSP version they even had an auto function to do this quickly. It still has a special place to me but as a *game* I can't put it on the same pedestal anymore.

[Wolf Kanno]

Final Fantasy IV has slid lower to me. I mentioned this in the ranking thread, but this was one of my favorite entries due to how genre-defining it was for its time and the art and music still hold strong. But the entirety of the gameplay holds it back. You easily get enough money to stock up multiple max stacks of potions, allowing you to just hold down the A button to get through most dungeons. On the PSP version they even had an auto function to do this quickly. It still has a special place to me but as a *game* I can't put it on the same pedestal anymore.

Play the real version then

[Bolivar]

I actually kind of want to. I wish the PSP version had the option.

[Wolf Kanno]

I thought you owned FF Chronicles on the PS1?

[Bolivar]

Nope - I played the GBA and PSP versions. I do have Origins - isn't that version a bit more difficult than the other ports?

[VeloZer0]

FF Origins? I thought we were talking about FF4? (and why can't I find that emoticon with a bunch of question marks above it's head?)

[Bolivar]

Thought I might as well ask about FFI since we're on the topic of difficulty differences across ports (thank you for your helpful reply )

[VeloZer0]

Well if I know what we are talking about I can be more constructive.

FFOrigins uses the same mechanics as the original. There are a couple minor tweaks that make it slightly easier, but it is by and large identical. The GBA and PSP versions are significantly easier, like making it a different game easier. (I would call it a much better balanced game, but unfortunately the challenge was one of the draws of the original and with that gone it just seems like going through the motions to beat them. It's a shame they didn't keep the mechanical changes and scale the game accordingly.)

[Wolf Kanno]

Origins isn't identical to the original FF on NES/Famicom because Origin fixes all of the game's bugs like how half of the Black Mage's spells didn't work, or how the game never incorporated the Intelligence stat meaning the Red Mage could do the same amount of damage/heal as the actual dedicated mages, and the critical hit weapon bug was fixed as well. Origins is basically how the game was meant to be. This largely results in the class finally being properly balanced whereas in the original, the Fighter, Ninja, and Red Mage gained huge advantages while the Black Mage became utterly worthless.

Chronicles is the closest thing you'll get beyond emulating to the original FFIV gameplay. Sadly the translation, though better than the SNES version, is still cruddy. IV is actually pretty brutal throughout the game unless you grind (or accidentally grind trying to get the game's various rare item drops) to high levels early. It is also the only version that keeps the "steal the Dark Matter from Zeromus to change Big Bang from near-total-party-kill to something manageable" strategy. I'm still irked that SE chose to release the PSP remake on PSN and skipped the Chronicles version.