PixlBit

I've played 'em all, but you never forget your first. FF IV is still my favorite in the series. Favorite cast, favorite ending, favorite soundtrack. And having 5 people in a party was awesome.

They should stop numbering them and just have a sub-title. Maybe because I'm old enough to remember the first one, but what about generations after? If FFX was your first one, wouldn't you think, I wonder about the previous nine? They get to down to FFI-III and may go, WTF is this #$@?

Heck there's a generation that was just born when FFVII came out. Still, there's young gamers who popped out the womb when FFX came out in late 2001. The franchise holds a special place in my generation because the titles we played that made an impact on gaming. Getting a rat tail for class change? WTF, but awesome. "You Spoony Bard!"? Engrish at its best moments. The opera scene with a purple octopus crashing the show? Epic. Sephiroth dissaperaing in the flames? Part of the reason the original Playstation went into overdrive...

But what about gamers today? Have FFX-FXIII made the same impact on gamers under 20? I'm not being saracastic here, I genuinely want to know.

I remember seeing Final Fantasy I on the NES at my friends house back in '90. His trick was that he played with one hand on the controller and another with one of his mom's trademark italian sandwiches.

I didn't see FFIV until middle school, but my first impression was that it looked like a bright NES game with killer sound. But I still remember hearing the opening score like it was yesterday...

Cut to high school when FFVII came out in fall of '97. I was like WTF, what happened to IV, V and VI? The budding internet solved that mystery.

My two personal favorites are VI and IX (69 har har har...). A serious, but not too serious story, great supporting cast, and gameplay that balanced the traditional turn based combat while adding new elements that weren't too radical.

Ah Final Fantasy, the only series I know of that single-handedly destroyed Nintendo's console dominance for two console generations and which was entirely its own fault to begin with.

Though on the other hand, maybe not having a proper Final Fantasy game was a good thing. After VII the series went right into the gutter and never came back to the glory days of the SNES series. VII was great, but had a bad translation. Then after that, it got worse and FF XII made Yasumi Matsuo batshit crazy, causing him to leave Square (and his good ideas with him).

Honestly, Xenoblade Chronicles looks to be the best Final Fantasy I might end up playing in years. And it isn't even Final Fantasy.

Eh, I would say that happened after IX.  I mean yeah VIII is a stinker, but they ocassionally had those.  IX was a fantastic game.

I'd say it was Nintendo's poor decision to stick with cartridge that lost them the race. Sure, Final Fantasy was a severe blow, but you have to remember that FF VII was as successful as it was thanks to major marketing money from Sony. That push got people to purchase FF VII that would normally never have considered buying an RPG. I think if the game had come out on the N64, it still would have been great, but it would have remained a niche title that appealed to a small but hardcore audience like the SNES games.

I'm curious though-did you play the FF games after VII, or was that just a blanket statement? For my part, FF IX, X, and XI are in my top five Final Fantasy games. I see a lot of people hating on the post-PSX games out of some strange sense of nostalgia, with the usual explanation of "it's different, so I don't like it". Which is a silly argument for a game series that is built on change.

The original Final Fantasy literally changed my entire world when it came to video games.  It created my love for character development (as far as stats and abilities,)  story elements, and even instruction manuals.  I can't say enough about it honestly.  It's a real shame the series has fallen so far.

Word on the street is that the piece of art for the FF 25th anniversary shown above in the article is a throwback to some artwork created for Final Fantasy VI. A lot of people are reading it as a teaser for an FFVI remake. I wouldn't be opposed to such a thing.

They've wanted to remake VI for years, so it wouldn't surprise me. That's indeed some original Amano Mog art, so fingers crossed!

I wish it had been made for the DS, though, since they already did III and IV on it.

I would whip money out of my wallet for that so fast the thing might catch fire.

Anyone else enjoy Final Fantasy V? I did...

I love the battle system and leveling mechanics, but I didn't care for the story or characters much. I also felt like the soundtrack was weak, but as I understand it, the versions released stateside are inferior to the Super Famicom sound. It's the only game in the series I have not finished, but I'm currently in my fifth attempt, this time on GBA.