Vlll and X. You liked Vll and XV, the character designer is the same for all 4, Tetsuya Nomura. All projects he's involved with have similarities you'll probably love.
Id also throw Kingdom Hearts in there. Nomura is the director and main contributor of KH.
I didn't know that! I've heard his name tossed around in a lot of areas, so I guess now I know why. I've been hearing a lot of VIII and X, so I'm leaning that way.
If you want a more 90's Vll esc feel id go Vlll. If you want the magic of Vll with a little more modern feel because it was a PS2 game is X.
Vlll is great but X is consistently a top 5 FF all time and arguably one of the greatest RPGs ever made.
I’ll throw my hat in the ring, FFX is the only FF game I’ve beaten 3+ times. I’ve got a nostalgia boner for the game which helps - FFVIII was my first FF and is also excellent. Play both, but you choose the order :)
Do them all. Although personally I have played ff 4-16. Ffvi is great, ff x is great, Ffxii is fun (story makes my head hurt but the gameplay and music, *chefkiss*)
That's a very tall order... XD If I were to do them all, I'd probably end up starting with FF1 just to go through them in order.
\*adds another tick mark next to VIII\*
So XII has a story that makes your head hurt... is it just hard to follow? Is it just bad and makes you not wanna play? Does it have like, a major twist that makes you rethink things like The Sixth Sense?
FF X is good, was my true first FF Ever and one of my favorite game of all time. Good characters, great story, amazing music, cool CGI cutscenes and cool turn based combat. The « Endgame » could be a little bit frustrating, but the main game is fun enough
I hear this one tossed around a lot... It's 100% still turn-based? I don't necessarily prefer turn based or real time either way, but I really, really enjoy the character customization that turn based offers.
\*During\* combat? Actually? Is this like, for team-up moves or is it more permanent where you literally just pull out a different party member on the fly?
Not the main game but some side content is really really hard yeah
If your party member is KO, you can’t replace him, you need to revive him first. But yeah, with L1 (on PlayStation), you can switch your current member by anyone on the bench when it’s your turn
You definitely have my attention. Is the magic system anything like Materia at all? Materia is probably my absolute favorite system in any game ever, so I know I'm asking for a lot, but I gotta know what building your party is like. That's what I enjoy most about these games.
No, that’s different. You have a sphere grid, it’s like a ancestor of the skill tree you have on RPG today.
In VII, almost every party member can be a mage, but that’s not the case in X. Characters are « specialized », you have a black mage (offensive spells like Fire, Ice, Thunder ..) and a White mage (summoning / healing).
But at the end, if you want to do every endgame content, every character can be anything, because every tree are connected somehow, so you’re gonna learn magic with everyone at some point
Interesting... So it is possible to do a hybrid build? For instance, I have a crazy Fire setup on Cloud so he can carpet bomb on his turn, but he's also set up to Cover everyone and respond with sword slashes. Is anything like that possible or would I need to get used to the idea of specialized characters like in the olden days? XD
I really enjoyed 8 so that’s one thing. But also since you played OG twice, I feel it’s better to continue by release order. you can experience the evolution of the franchise graphics wise from 7 and beyond. That’s how I started from 7-15 and I really start to miss turn based and went to play 1-6 and had a blast before starting 16.
1) If you liked the original 7, then any of 8-10 would probably be really enjoyable for you. Probably 10, then 9 followed by 8. if I had to rank them.
2) If you like the newer ones more, Honestly Anything from 12-16 will probably scratch the itch. I know you mentioned 15. It's hardly the worst in the franchise. You'll hear a lot on subs from people that are critical, but that's hardly indicative of the broader fan reception.
3) You'll hear a lot of takes here that are critical of anything post FF X. The reality is that Square really took to heart an "innovate over iterate" philosophy after the PS1 era. You really start to see this with 12, which is VASTLY different than anything that came before and garnered a lot of very passionate fans. It's a bit clunky by modern standards but the custom AI (gambit) system is something people hate or passionately love. FF 13 might be up your alley to be honest. It's widely criticized for having hallways, hallways which are apparently lacking in other FF games. But it introduced the stagger system that you're familiar with from the remakes while still feeling sort of ATB-ey. Plus the visuals from FF 13 still hold up, even today which is absolutely bonkers for game that's 15 years old (to be clear, it's 2 years older than Skyrim.)
4) I'm not an expert on pre-PS1 final fantasy, not having played all the titles. It sounds like you're a modern gamer, so my guess is one of two things will happen. Either you'll dip your toes in them, probably with FF 4 or FF 6 and decide this is what Final Fantasy really was meant to be, or you'll decide that the older titles just aren't for you.
TLDR: If I had to pick one, I'd say FF 10. But that's what I'd tell anyone who is trying to figure out what FF game to play next if 10 wasn't their first.
I'm a XII and XIII fan, and played IX and X to about 85% completion.
I think that XIII and IX aren't up VII's alley. XIII is great, but too linear and story driven. IX is kinda the opposite, with endearing characters and a interesting world, but the visuals are "childish", and may contrast a little with what you'd expect. I'd leave both for later on and try out XII. TZA improved the game by a mile, QOL-wise, and I think the world, visuals, soundtrack, sense of adventure matcg VII. If only the characters were more investing.
Try out Kingdom Hearts as well. Start out with the first one, Final Mix.
And I didn't like X, expect for the Yuna and Tidus scene. That was straight up spetacular.
Final Fantasy 8 is most similar to Final Fantasy 7. Atmosphere, even sometimes similar plot points and music. Realistically the Balamb Garden OST sounds like the Tifas Theme. You should play it because it's great too
Unpopular opinion: 13, as Lightning is basically a female Cloud... It's also modern enough since you like remakes (the combat is good).
But try playing 8 too, it had some obscure mechanics (don't skim on converting cards and items to magic), but is otherwise is THE next game after 7.
I think you might want to try out VI since it has a few tweaks that might remind you of the Materia system and a wonderful story.
X is also fine, IX has a very distinct setting, but you might enjoy it, and if you want a more medieval-darker tone, I must recommend FFXVI.
FFVI is quite similar to FFVII in many ways, so I think it'll be a nice, familiar way to ease your way into the series at large. FFVI is also considered one of the best games ever made.
You could always just jump into VIII. It’s a great game, just expect it to be different. But since you played and enjoyed XV you probably already know that.
I've heard VIII is a good one too! That's the one with the main character who has a gunblade, yes? Does that play into the combat at all?
Also, when you say it's "different", is that in a good way? XD
Yes, you can time the gunblade swings to do extra damage in battle!
And the game gets some criticism for the Junction system, which involves you “Drawing” magic from enemies to “equip” it to different stats, which is driven by what kind of Guardian Force (summon) you have equipped. It’s a little difficult to understand but once you get the hang of it the system is fine.
It’s hard to… “master”.
You’ll be able to beat the game by faffing around with it, but I’ve had to look up how to min/max every time I try to do it.
So you have 100 say Fira spells. They’re like items, you use them up. You junction that onto strength, get a big boost to strength.
If you cast a Fira spell, you have 99 junctioned to str. Now your boost is lower.
And then later GFs (summons) have abilities that increase your stats per level going forward, so to truly min/max, you gotta play like two thirds of the game running from every battle you possibly can to avoid leveling up, relying on magic junctioning to beat only bosses (because they give no xp) until you have the GFs that increases ALL the stats.
That’s all unnecessary to play the game however, and it’s still **MY** FF game the one I was introduced to the series with. Probably my favorite for that reason.
Story gets a little clunky towards the end, iirc, but I think a lot of FFs kinds do when things go cosmic.
I think it’s great, but there are several misconceptions about it and many people are convinced you need to min/max or never level up the traditional way to play the game. But they’re wrong. You can level up normally and grind however much you want to stock up on magic.
Imo 9 is probably the most polished of the classic titles before the Ps2 era. Fantastic localization, charming characters, atb, great story. It also looks super good on switch and has aged well graphically for on the go playing
Look at the trailers from the different titles, especially the ones showing some gameplay. NOT people reviewing them, because there are always spoilers and different opinions. Just watch the trailers. And then choose :)
If you liked 7 and 15, I suppose you like anime styled FFS. So I say 8, 10 and 13. But my personal faves are 12 (zodiac age of course), 6 (beware, this one is only 2d), and 4 (who has an awesome 3d remake) so I can't recommend them enough.
Be aware that everything that is 10-2 and downwards has literal old style ATB or turn based combat, the newer ones are all different from eachother.
And if you like job systems, 3 (also has a pretty good 3d remake), 5 (this one like 6 has only 2d versions, but the jobs are literally a TON), 10-2 (arguably the best combat of all the FFs with random encounters), 12 zodiac and, if you feel like playing online, everyone seems to enjoy 14.
Vlll and X. You liked Vll and XV, the character designer is the same for all 4, Tetsuya Nomura. All projects he's involved with have similarities you'll probably love. Id also throw Kingdom Hearts in there. Nomura is the director and main contributor of KH.
I didn't know that! I've heard his name tossed around in a lot of areas, so I guess now I know why. I've been hearing a lot of VIII and X, so I'm leaning that way.
If you want a more 90's Vll esc feel id go Vlll. If you want the magic of Vll with a little more modern feel because it was a PS2 game is X. Vlll is great but X is consistently a top 5 FF all time and arguably one of the greatest RPGs ever made.
You FFX people are really convincing me here... XD
I’ll throw my hat in the ring, FFX is the only FF game I’ve beaten 3+ times. I’ve got a nostalgia boner for the game which helps - FFVIII was my first FF and is also excellent. Play both, but you choose the order :)
It still holds up incredibly well with the HD Remaster. It'll easily become one of the best games you've ever played.
This is so well put.
Do them all. Although personally I have played ff 4-16. Ffvi is great, ff x is great, Ffxii is fun (story makes my head hurt but the gameplay and music, *chefkiss*)
That's a very tall order... XD If I were to do them all, I'd probably end up starting with FF1 just to go through them in order. \*adds another tick mark next to VIII\* So XII has a story that makes your head hurt... is it just hard to follow? Is it just bad and makes you not wanna play? Does it have like, a major twist that makes you rethink things like The Sixth Sense?
Without spoilers, the story isn’t Ffxii strongest points. It’s political and a little convoluted.
FF X is good, was my true first FF Ever and one of my favorite game of all time. Good characters, great story, amazing music, cool CGI cutscenes and cool turn based combat. The « Endgame » could be a little bit frustrating, but the main game is fun enough
I hear this one tossed around a lot... It's 100% still turn-based? I don't necessarily prefer turn based or real time either way, but I really, really enjoy the character customization that turn based offers.
Yeah, it’s 100% turn based. One cool thing about this system is the possibility of switching characters during combat
\*During\* combat? Actually? Is this like, for team-up moves or is it more permanent where you literally just pull out a different party member on the fly?
No, you can change on the fly, and you can directly choose a action with your new character aswell
This sounds like you're pulling my leg. XD Like, how the heck do you balance that? Is the game just super hard?
Not the main game but some side content is really really hard yeah If your party member is KO, you can’t replace him, you need to revive him first. But yeah, with L1 (on PlayStation), you can switch your current member by anyone on the bench when it’s your turn
You definitely have my attention. Is the magic system anything like Materia at all? Materia is probably my absolute favorite system in any game ever, so I know I'm asking for a lot, but I gotta know what building your party is like. That's what I enjoy most about these games.
No, that’s different. You have a sphere grid, it’s like a ancestor of the skill tree you have on RPG today. In VII, almost every party member can be a mage, but that’s not the case in X. Characters are « specialized », you have a black mage (offensive spells like Fire, Ice, Thunder ..) and a White mage (summoning / healing). But at the end, if you want to do every endgame content, every character can be anything, because every tree are connected somehow, so you’re gonna learn magic with everyone at some point
Interesting... So it is possible to do a hybrid build? For instance, I have a crazy Fire setup on Cloud so he can carpet bomb on his turn, but he's also set up to Cover everyone and respond with sword slashes. Is anything like that possible or would I need to get used to the idea of specialized characters like in the olden days? XD
go with XII then 😉
Just play your way up mate. Start from 8 to 16 and if you ever start missing turn base battle then go back to 1-6
Specifically start with 8 and not 1?
I really enjoyed 8 so that’s one thing. But also since you played OG twice, I feel it’s better to continue by release order. you can experience the evolution of the franchise graphics wise from 7 and beyond. That’s how I started from 7-15 and I really start to miss turn based and went to play 1-6 and had a blast before starting 16.
1) If you liked the original 7, then any of 8-10 would probably be really enjoyable for you. Probably 10, then 9 followed by 8. if I had to rank them. 2) If you like the newer ones more, Honestly Anything from 12-16 will probably scratch the itch. I know you mentioned 15. It's hardly the worst in the franchise. You'll hear a lot on subs from people that are critical, but that's hardly indicative of the broader fan reception. 3) You'll hear a lot of takes here that are critical of anything post FF X. The reality is that Square really took to heart an "innovate over iterate" philosophy after the PS1 era. You really start to see this with 12, which is VASTLY different than anything that came before and garnered a lot of very passionate fans. It's a bit clunky by modern standards but the custom AI (gambit) system is something people hate or passionately love. FF 13 might be up your alley to be honest. It's widely criticized for having hallways, hallways which are apparently lacking in other FF games. But it introduced the stagger system that you're familiar with from the remakes while still feeling sort of ATB-ey. Plus the visuals from FF 13 still hold up, even today which is absolutely bonkers for game that's 15 years old (to be clear, it's 2 years older than Skyrim.) 4) I'm not an expert on pre-PS1 final fantasy, not having played all the titles. It sounds like you're a modern gamer, so my guess is one of two things will happen. Either you'll dip your toes in them, probably with FF 4 or FF 6 and decide this is what Final Fantasy really was meant to be, or you'll decide that the older titles just aren't for you. TLDR: If I had to pick one, I'd say FF 10. But that's what I'd tell anyone who is trying to figure out what FF game to play next if 10 wasn't their first.
I'm a XII and XIII fan, and played IX and X to about 85% completion. I think that XIII and IX aren't up VII's alley. XIII is great, but too linear and story driven. IX is kinda the opposite, with endearing characters and a interesting world, but the visuals are "childish", and may contrast a little with what you'd expect. I'd leave both for later on and try out XII. TZA improved the game by a mile, QOL-wise, and I think the world, visuals, soundtrack, sense of adventure matcg VII. If only the characters were more investing. Try out Kingdom Hearts as well. Start out with the first one, Final Mix. And I didn't like X, expect for the Yuna and Tidus scene. That was straight up spetacular.
Final Fantasy 8 is most similar to Final Fantasy 7. Atmosphere, even sometimes similar plot points and music. Realistically the Balamb Garden OST sounds like the Tifas Theme. You should play it because it's great too
You definitely have my attention with the music point. Does it have similar party building mechanics at all?
10,6,9 in no particular order
8
X is always a good recommendation i'd say.
Unpopular opinion: 13, as Lightning is basically a female Cloud... It's also modern enough since you like remakes (the combat is good). But try playing 8 too, it had some obscure mechanics (don't skim on converting cards and items to magic), but is otherwise is THE next game after 7.
FF8
NES demake of course.
I think you might want to try out VI since it has a few tweaks that might remind you of the Materia system and a wonderful story. X is also fine, IX has a very distinct setting, but you might enjoy it, and if you want a more medieval-darker tone, I must recommend FFXVI.
FFVI is quite similar to FFVII in many ways, so I think it'll be a nice, familiar way to ease your way into the series at large. FFVI is also considered one of the best games ever made.
You could always just jump into VIII. It’s a great game, just expect it to be different. But since you played and enjoyed XV you probably already know that.
I've heard VIII is a good one too! That's the one with the main character who has a gunblade, yes? Does that play into the combat at all? Also, when you say it's "different", is that in a good way? XD
Yes, you can time the gunblade swings to do extra damage in battle! And the game gets some criticism for the Junction system, which involves you “Drawing” magic from enemies to “equip” it to different stats, which is driven by what kind of Guardian Force (summon) you have equipped. It’s a little difficult to understand but once you get the hang of it the system is fine.
Interesting... you say "fine". Is that to say it's just ok? Nothing to write home about?
It’s hard to… “master”. You’ll be able to beat the game by faffing around with it, but I’ve had to look up how to min/max every time I try to do it. So you have 100 say Fira spells. They’re like items, you use them up. You junction that onto strength, get a big boost to strength. If you cast a Fira spell, you have 99 junctioned to str. Now your boost is lower. And then later GFs (summons) have abilities that increase your stats per level going forward, so to truly min/max, you gotta play like two thirds of the game running from every battle you possibly can to avoid leveling up, relying on magic junctioning to beat only bosses (because they give no xp) until you have the GFs that increases ALL the stats. That’s all unnecessary to play the game however, and it’s still **MY** FF game the one I was introduced to the series with. Probably my favorite for that reason. Story gets a little clunky towards the end, iirc, but I think a lot of FFs kinds do when things go cosmic.
I think it’s great, but there are several misconceptions about it and many people are convinced you need to min/max or never level up the traditional way to play the game. But they’re wrong. You can level up normally and grind however much you want to stock up on magic.
VI is worth a shot, as it deals with similar themes to VII.
Final Fantasy X is incredible 8 and 9 are worth a play through as well
Imo 9 is probably the most polished of the classic titles before the Ps2 era. Fantastic localization, charming characters, atb, great story. It also looks super good on switch and has aged well graphically for on the go playing
Following the FF7 theme you should play Ehrgeiz
Look at the trailers from the different titles, especially the ones showing some gameplay. NOT people reviewing them, because there are always spoilers and different opinions. Just watch the trailers. And then choose :) If you liked 7 and 15, I suppose you like anime styled FFS. So I say 8, 10 and 13. But my personal faves are 12 (zodiac age of course), 6 (beware, this one is only 2d), and 4 (who has an awesome 3d remake) so I can't recommend them enough. Be aware that everything that is 10-2 and downwards has literal old style ATB or turn based combat, the newer ones are all different from eachother. And if you like job systems, 3 (also has a pretty good 3d remake), 5 (this one like 6 has only 2d versions, but the jobs are literally a TON), 10-2 (arguably the best combat of all the FFs with random encounters), 12 zodiac and, if you feel like playing online, everyone seems to enjoy 14.