Which Square RPG has the best/worst first hour or so?

[DelightfulSpekkio442]

For me it's critical that an RPG grabs my attention within the first hour or two or else I won't be that motivated to finish it. Here's my list of the best/worst beginnings of Square RPGs.

BEST:

1. FFIX - Does a great job of combining character/storyline introduction, gameplay instruction, and action all in one. Alexandria is a great place to start a story, and the whole kidnapping operation is great fun. Doesn't slow down for a while.

2. Chrono Trigger - I love how the seemingly trite beginning (the Millenial Fair) becomes a significant keystone of the entire principle the game is built around...time travel!!!

3. FFVII - Gets right into the action. A little slow after the first bombing mission, but picks up again. Good choice to show Aeris first off (gives a sense of how important and different she is), though the rotating starfield takes WAAAY too long.

4. FFVI - Very dramatic right from the start. I know the jury is still out on whether or not Terra is the main character, but you have to admit she's the right one to start the whole thing off - you can't help but feel sympathy for her and want to know what's happened to her.

WORST:

1. FFVIII - After a stunning introductory FMV, we have a really long, boring first disc with way too much talking and character development, and not nearly enough action or plot development. I'm sorry, this game just didn't grab me. The ballroom scene was great, and the assassination plot was cool, but they needed something more riveting upfront. And the parts with Laguna are wicked boring.

2. FFIV - Any game that requires nothing more than pressing the A button repeatedly for this long at a time takes itself WAAAY too seriously. Where's the GAME, for cryin' out loud?!?! It feels like nothing but cutscenes for the first 20 minutes.

3. Kingdom Hearts - ...flippin' fish. :frust: Okay, it's not THAT bad. But it is a little annoying.

[Aphelion]

I think the better ones were Vagrant Story (for putting sort of an invasion, lots of enemies, and creepy scenarios from the start), Final Fantasy IX (like it's explained in the first post, great character introduction allied to action scenes and good gameplay) and Kingdom Hearts (I think the door sequences and the first encounter with the heartless were way outta the road, but they worked, at least for me).

The worst of all was Xenogears. Don't get me wrong: I'm a big Xeno fan, especially Xenogears. But in the beggining, I thought it was just going to be another happy-happy Grandia (again, I'm not saying Grandia is bad; it's just TOO lighthearted in the 1st disk...)... Of course, I end up finding out it was a dark game with a great storyline, good characters and everything, but...well, it was too slow paced...Except for the statue-breaking event in Citan's house.

[Sefie1999AD]

Here's some of the best Square openings for me:

Final Fantasy IX - A very beautiful opening intro, a comic scene with the Tantalus, another beautiful FMV, you getting to explore Alexandria as Vivi, the play "I want to be your canary", the mini-games and great music, chasing Garnet, funny scenes with Steiner and eventually escaping with neat FMVs of your ship getting shot and blown to bits and crashing.

Final Fantasy VII - As it was said earlier, we'll go straight into the action. Cloud and others walk down into the core, fighting enemies and the Guard Scorpion boss, and then they blow up the reactor and escape on a train. A cool introduction. Only after that, you'll get to know about the game and how it works. Everything during Midgar is well made and fun to play.

Kingdom Hearts - I actually liked the opening of KH. There's a funny opening FMV, then you choose your strengths, weaknesses and level-up speeds with nice Disney frescos on the floor and the beautiful Dive into the Heart - Destati music plays in the background. You'll fight Darkside for the first time, then you go through some lighter moments (and beating Tidus up! Yay!) and hilarious scenes in Disney Castle, and then there's some great moments when the Heartless appear for the first time, you get the Keyblade, and you fight the Darkside again at the ruins of Sora's island.

Final Fantasy - Call me weird for liking this one, but it works well with the game. You get a task to save the princess. Your characters are broke, so you'll level up to get money for spells and equipment and to get stronger. Then you'll storm into the Temple of Fiends, and you knock down the impertinent fool Garland. You've saved the princess, but this is just the beginning of your adventure. And when you cross the bridge, the beautiful Final Fantasy main theme begins to play.

Seiken Densetsu 3 - There's six opening sequences in the game, each involving your main character. The openings are quite dark and emotional, introducing you the character and his/her problems. Meridian Child is also a beautiful song. A Faerie appears and randomly chooses you as the hero to pick up the Sword of Mana. You'll soon meet your first party member, visit the useful-for-everyone-in-the-world-but-you Priest of Light, fight the first boss and gain the first Mana spirit, only to be captured by the enemies and meeting your third party member, and then breaking out of jail and escaping on a ship.


Now for some of the less interesting introductions:

Final Fantasy VIII - I admit, the opening sequence is very stunning. However, the moments after that are quite slow. The infirmary, the classroom, the boring world map. The mission to gain Ifrit isn't all that interesting, either. The game remains somewhat uninteresting until the Landing of Dollet begins. It starts to pick up after that, though.

Chrono Cross - I didn't really like the opening parts of this game. The opening invasion is pretty cool, but then things are quite slow, just like with FFVIII. You wake up in your home village, you meet up your bossy girlfriend, and you go through a boring quest to get some scales for her. You get warped to Another world, but even that didn't really get my interest. After that, it takes forever for the fun parts to begin, i.e. the realisation of the opening invasion and Lynx's castle.

[rubah]

I dunno, but the atmosphere at the beginning of ff8 of a school just enchanted me tons:O

FF2 has an awesome first bit. You're owned by soldiers and suddenly someone's missing:O

ff4's was probably the worst xD man that took forever.

I can't really remember ff9's xD I don't remember liking having to steer vivi around though.

ffx2's was neat, as it sorta picked up in the middle. You go to a concert to check out an impersonator, then go back to what you were doing-- sphere hunting.

ffx's has a ton of running xD the events are really awesome, but when you have to stop every five seconds to kill off some sinspawn, it gets a bit oldX.x;

[KoShiatar]

I liked FF IV's introduction, actually - much like the rest of the game.
It made me want to play more and it was the Final Fatasy game that took me the shortest time to end ever because I was so eager to see what was going to happen next.
FF IX is very good as well. It's humorous and makes you willing to continue.
As for FF VIII, I have one only word....boring. é__è

[Dreddz]

Best :
FFVII
FFIX
Vagrant Story
FFV ( I thought It was Good )

Worst :
FFVIII
FFVI
Star Ocean 3
FInal Fantasy ( Still A great Game )

[NeoCracker]

Best
1. FF6
2. FF7
3. FF9
4. FFX

Worst
1. FF4
2. FF8

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

Best: FFVI
The narrated montage and the silent march of the Magitek armors through the snow give off an incredible sense of wonderment and intrigue; the music bolsters the effect, as well. Then we go through all that stuff with Tina; learn about the Ghastla Empire, the Phantom Beasts, and Tina's mysterious connection to both of them; and then Locke has to save her in an innovative sequence where you command three different parties to reach the boss while protecting her unconscious body.

Then the kids make off to Figaro Castle, where Edgar and Kefka, two of the game's most memorable characters, make their outstanding first appearances. Tina first encounters the difficult matter of having to decide for herself who to fight for. Eventually, Kefka sets fire to the castle, and Edgar makes that awesome "Looks like I have no choice...OR DO I?!" line (to top off a lot of previous awesome lines) and he leaps from the castle wall onto his chocobo. Kefka then gloats that King Edgar is abandoning his own people, only to witness the entire castle burrow safely INTO THE EARTH holy crap that is amazing. Tina, Locke, and Edgar make off on chocobos, Locke says, "This is great!" He is very right.

Close runner-up is FFIX, which other people have already detailed.



Worst: FFVIII
What the hell is this boring schoolroom crap.

[Yuffie514]

boring hour? all i can say is that it seemed like i had to do a miliion things in FF8 until i get to fight Edea for the first time. i always aim to fight Edea and i think it gets all better after that incident.

[Sefie1999AD]

Oh yeah, I remembered how good FFV and FFVI openings were. Kishi already explained FFVI's opening, but FFV's beginning is magnificently done. The opening scene is very beautiful, showing Lenna, the Hiryuu, King of Tycoon, Butz and Boco. Then Butz, Lenna and Galuf meet, you sneak into the pirates' hideout and get captured by Faris and others.

Faris decides to join your party for more or less bizarre reasons, and after a visit in the town of Tule, which involved pirates rushing into the pub and both Butz and Galuf drooling over Faris' girly sleeping, all four party members head to the Wind Shrine. At the top, you'll encounter a boss which has the same feature that the first boss in FFIV, FFVI and FFVII has: there's a time when you shouldn't attack it or you'll get seriously hurt by its counter attack. After beating the boss, the Wind Crystal breaks and you get your first Jobs.

Another fun opening is the one in Super Mario RPG. The Bowser kidnaps the Princess, and you storm in his castle to save the Princess. Mario and Bowser have a good "beat the living out of each others" duel there and Mario's just about to win and save the Princess when a sword falls in the castle. After that, the real game starts. Toad gives you a few instructions, and you're off to walk in a path filled with enemies and coin boxes. A Mario-style level, but in RPG form. You even run into the hammer twins and beat them up (you can equip their Hammer too!), and I think you can get the Invincible star and beat up several enemies for free EXP. After a while, you enter the Mushroom Kingdom, where the Smithy gang is messing up everything.

[-N-]

Easily Final Fantasy VII.

FFVI is a good runner up, though.

[Raven Nox]

I don't like Final Fantasy VII's opening very much, I don't know why. XD

Because Mercen is to picky, I'll change worse to FFV, because it takes to long. XD

best...? XD I don't know, I guess FFIX, it's beginning is great, as I find it to be funny.

[Mercen-X]

Uh . . . SQUARE . . . not SQUARE ENIX. Star Ocean was made by ENIX not SQUARE so it doesn't count



As for me:

BEST
FFVII
FFX-2
FFIX
FFVI
FFII

WORST
FFT
FFVIII
FFX

I don't play Square games in great diversity

[KoShiatar]

Yeah, I had forgotten completely abut FF VI!
I thinks that ranks like the best of all in my opinion. And for the times, it had amazing graphics, too.

[Endless]

Let's see...

FFVI: I liked the opening. As was said before, it made me want to know what's going on, who is Terra, etc... Plus lots of characters introduced throughout the game.

FFVII: It's okay. Nothing that great, now that the FMV isn't as spectacular as it was back then.

FFVIII: The beginning is slow paced, with all the dull schoolstuff to do at the beginning. Bleh.

FFIX: <3 I couldn't stop playing until you crash the ship in the forest, when the game finally decides to give you a break from the kidnapping rush.

FFX: Intense first minutes (FMV + running through the city with Auron), and then... well, and then not much. You meet Wakka, you walk around, and you start the temple visiting. Then lots and lots of walking.

FFX-2: First hour is quite bleh imho.

SoM: <3 You run with kids, fall off a waterfall, pick up a sword and cut your way back to the village, only to be banned from it. Sucks to be the hero.

SD3: see Seph's post.

LoM: <3 It introduces the principles of the world map, and quickly have you meet up with characters you'll be journeying with often, and already makes you choose who to go with.

Sword of Mana: I found the beginning pretty interesting.

FFT: <3

FFTA: quite lengthy beginning, with quite good amount to dialogue, then straight to the game and the explanation of the mechanics. Pretty good.

CT: <3 See previous posts

CC: too slow for me, it never really made me want to discover more.