![]() ![]() Its endgame can be a little repetitive, but everything from the dungeons and raids to the crafting and job system are so beautifully realized and fun that I'm not pulling my hair out waiting for the next update. In between the usual MMO grinds, there's an emotional, character-driven story of betrayal and revolution all set in a more medieval fantasy aesthetic that is a welcome departure from the spikey-haired, leather-clad look of later Final Fantasys.įortunately, Final Fantasy 14 is a damn good MMO to boot. It's a shame that you'll have to endure a painfully dull level-up process, but once you get to the later chapters of A Realm Reborn and into the exquisite Heavensward and Stormblood expansions, Final Fantasy 14's story begins to rival some of the series' best. Despite being an MMO (which understandably will turn some away), FF14 is a sincere love letter that captures all of the whimsy and drama of the earlier entries in the series. Steven Messner: There is no modern Final Fantasy more in touch with the series' roots that Final Fantasy 14. ![]() And the cities are among the series’ grandest, particularly Lindblum. There are some great moments, usually involving sad-eyed black mage Vivi. This is my least favourite of the PlayStation era, even though it’s arguably a better game than 7 and 8, at least mechanically. The battle system isn't the best in the series, but everything else more than makes up for it.Īndy Kelly: I didn’t love the return to a medieval-influenced fantasy setting in 9 as much as some people. ![]() And the PC version will run on pretty much anything. That's really Final Fantasy 9 in a nutshell: it's so dense with things to do, with hidden delights, and with creative design that goes above and beyond, it's hard not to be charmed by the sheer love that went into every area. You can take Final Fantasy 9's opening hour as a case study for what makes it special among the series: you'll control three separate characters at different points, and during that time you can freely run around a city collecting tons of hidden items and gil caches, meet characters who will have small, cute narrative moments a dozen plus hours later, kick off a sidequest that lasts the entire game, play a minigame, learn FF9's card game and collect some rare cards, and participate in a wonderfully entertaining fake sword fight that was designed for this one scene and never used again. It's peppered with in-jokes and references that manage to never be obnoxious or exclusionary if you don't get them, they just add more flavor to a world already overstuffed with personality. It's a game that feels joyously made, celebrating the Final Fantasy series up to that point and the end of Square's insane hot streak during the PS1 era. Wes: Final Fantasy 9 is that one game I'll probably wax poetic about for the rest of my life. ![]() It feels like a proper world you're exploring, at a level of fidelity no Final Fantasy game had delivered before. It's also hard to overstate how much FF12's world design-broken up into MMO-like zones, where everything is the same scale, rather than a world map or the disappointing list of locations like FF10's-adds to the believability of it as a place. But the flavor that story brings sets it so far apart from your typical teens-save-the-world JRPG. There's some great wartime politics to dig into here, though the throughline never quite explores them as much as it should. But before that: great stuff! The world and writing, like in Matsuno's Final Fantasy Tactics, are fantasy by way of Shakespearean tragedy, with a quippy rogue, a dutiful but disgraced knight, and a princess forced to step into a leadership role she never expected. It just, uh, kinda disappears and then completely falls apart in the last third of the game. Wes Fenlon: Sam and Tom are nuts: Final Fantasy 12 has probably the best, least cliche story in a Final Fantasy game this side of Tactics. Give me a good party of pals who go on a journey and kill lots of cactuars. Final Fantasy has never been good at telling stories about politics, kings and queens. Plus the story never quite gains momentum. You can’t really coast through it without engaging pretty heavily with the combat and character building, which can really drag in the first few hours. 12 has a different appeal to the rest of the series. Luckily 12 has my favourite RPG systems of any Final Fantasy and the fast-forward command added by the remaster means I can blast through zones, level up quickly, and test out new party lineups. Tom Senior: There were apparently a lot of rewrites and story-shuffling during development and it really shows. ![]()
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