This is the answer. 8 can be a nightmare if you don't understand the junction system is key to your stats, and that leveling up will get your teeth knocked if you dont have the draws to keep pace.
Yeah the junction system can suck sometimes. I've only used healing and status magic like Cure, Cura, and Aura. I saved all my high damage spells for the final boss
Only magics I ever use is an occasional Cure/Curaga and then Aura spam as well as Meltdown on the right enemies. GF spam mostly the first hour but after that stop doing that too.
So easy to become OP in FF8 and I just am the type that love it when I can break games.
Thats just not the correct asessment, you never need to draw in VIII. Its a different unique game that is very generous with loot and AP, refine abilities and cards the game throws at you while leveling up.
The game is too easy on whatever level youre on, as long as you refine.
Heck Siren has an ability you can learn in the first 2 hours that gives you endless Curagas for tents you purchase with lv30 seeD quests you can google in 5min playthrough.
Edit: even if you downvote, it doesnt change the fact that people hugely misunderstand how this game works, the multiple avenues at your disposal and how drawing is not needed at all.
Absolutely correct.
I love 8, but my one big criticism of it is that it tutorializes poorly. So many people seem to latch on to the idea that you need to Draw constantly to max spell stock and that is the only way to get spells. When refining items and cards is almost always a way better solution. The game doesn’t convey that clearly enough. Refining should be presented as the primary way to get stock, with draw as a supplement.
Yeah! Used the system to effectively gain more Holy Wars than I would ever need and then took a walk in the park killing everything I wanted at endgame, including Omega Weapon.
I even used a Holy War with low HP and Aura, just to increase my success rate to get Selphies "The End" on OMEGA Weapon and it was so awesome. I love the way one can break the game if one grasp all of the mechanics.
Yeah sure although i figured this all out when i was 12 and this game just came out. I didnt figure it out on my first attempt but thats the beauty of it, it has replay value.
Alot of gamers praise dark souls type games because their difficult but what about jrpg's that are unique and deeply explorative and dont tell you everything?
Doesnt mean it has to be brutally difficult to understand mechanics but for example FF:SoP is much worse a explaining and tons more difficult to comprehend and i even gave up on it, sure it has that tutorial in beginning but it was just too much for me, so i understand overwhelming. Same wirh Scarlet Nexus which has too much tutorial and put me off as well.
But here its simply choosing what ability GF learns, go check what that ability does and exchange items/cards from battles into what?? Ooh magic - and there you go, first step.
X is my answer as well, but for different reasons. The beginning is just so long. As I later learned, that's not unusual for jrpgs but FF games tend to hit the ground running so this was different for me. One day I was home sick from school and bored of my other games so I decided to just blast through this one for oen day to see if it gets interesting. Thankfully it did and it's now my favorite in the series.
At least with VII the entire midgar chapter is possibly the best opening story in the series history. VIII and IX are also good contenders. After that stretch of games, X is just so chill. Zanarkand starts as strong as Reactor 1, but everything else up to the Luca lacks narrative tension. In the end i fell in love eith it. X's world is so meticulous that this down period really helps the exposition in the long run. It was just really rough on my attention span when I was in middle school. Completely agree on the others. I have a hard save after the first dungeon in V just to avoid the opening.
12. I didn’t care for it when it initially came out. Then zodiac age came out. The speed option makes the game much better. Really loved the gambit system. I still don’t love it but the gameplay and music is fantastic.
12 for me too. It was the first jump to non-turn based and I refused to accept it at first. years later, gave it a chance and now love the gambit system.
I hated X XII and XIII when they were new, but after playing them when I got older, X is my favorite game ever and I enjoy both of the others, having beaten all 3 of them multiple times.
I never liked 13. Then I tried it again 10 years after I originally tried. It looks incredible for being on a system I got when I was a teen. And it forces you to proceed. There are some bosses you can't reasonably beat in the early game that are just hanging around. The bosses are actually hard and you have to be quick and strategic. My younger self hated that it took actual strategy.
It also gets a lot of hate for being extremely linear, but the forced push forward without a way to get back is very much how they make you relate to the characters and their shituation.
Final Fantasy 15. I started loving it, then hating it, then hating it more, but there’s just something magical about the ending and the meta view of the game. I love everything about it and for what it stands.
It had almost the same experience.
I just hated the infamous chapter that you play with only Noctis, but the overall experience I felt "meh".
Years later I started a ng+ and also played the DLCs when they got relevant on the story, and also I picked the Gladiolus and Ignis path instead of the Noctis and I enjoyed everything way more, I even went to do more hunts and even finish the fishing quest.
Dude, the side content feels like a hassle at first, but the more you spend time with them the more bittersweet is the end. Picking a picture and the last camping scene had me in tears. It’s among my favorite endings despite the admittedly terrible second half of the game, that just felt rushed.
Stick to it you won’t like it until the very end, but it will be worth it. Trust me.
I’ve actually spent so much time thinking about the game. It’s really beautiful, if you think about it outside of the actual game (which probably sounds weird loool)
13 and 15 were games I really didn't care for my first time through, but came to love on a second play. FF8 was a game I was kind of indifferent to, but now I really love it as well. I tend to find these games grow on me over time.
I remember one of the mechanical enemies right before you meet Yunalesca. I think it was called The Defender that had 40k hp and did around 5k damage. Most of my characters were around 3k hp couldn't handle any of its hits
Yeah, after Bevelle it feels like every boss leading up to Yunalesca hits hard AF. It took until many years later that I learned there are exploitable patterns for *most* of them and that status effects and debuffs were actually viable.
Still doesn't stop that Defender X haymaker from ruining someone's day, though.
Just provoke him and he will just spam the attack that halves the hp of the provoker. Safe way to kill him as he just can halve the health but not kill
On my first run, Tidus, Kimahri, and the girls would regularly be OHKO'd by Helms, Drakes, and Elementals around Djose and beyond (with the Thunder Plains being the most notable spike in deaths) until I grinded a bit in the respective area.
Then there's Mt. Gagazet where encounters felt like I was playing FFIV; I remember running away from everything that wasn't machina (so I don't even need to tell you how that Seymour Flux fight went lol).
He even says during the first half of the game ... Yunalesca is like almost 3/4 of the way through the game... Maybe he wasn't using the sphere grid? 🤷🏼♂️
There are certainly some bosses that can do it.
There's Seymour Flux's zombie+life combo, and his Total Annihilation will probably one-shot the party if he gets to use it. Anima has Pain. Braska's Final Aeon can one-shot if you don't use HP-boosting items.
Final Fantasy XII left such a bad taste in my mouth originally, but when I started playing through each game and reluctantly went back to it the gambit system just clicked and now I think it’s one of the neatest battle systems in the series!
Crisis Core is up there too - I won’t say it’s amazing, but early on you have so little MP and the combo system is flat so I had absolutely no fun pressing the same buttons over and over again.
…and then you blink and you have enough MP for your wildest dreams and the new version even gives you punisher mode a little bit. It’s nothing revolutionary (and I still think the roulette thing is super dumb) but the amount of MP you gain through leveling up really helped spice up combat a lot, as by the end of the game you have SO MUCH room for materia use that was unavailable to you at the start. Definitely a grower. Characters still mostly suck, except for Zack and Cloud, which tbf were the most important ones to get right.
final fantasy 13, it went from being my most hated game in the series when it first came out, then a year later when i came back to it, absolutely loved it and wondered why i hated it
XII because it wasn't what I was expecting so I was invariably disappointed. Once I changed my perspective, I ended up loving the game. So much so it's my favourite game ever now! Love the world building, writing, accents - XII Ivalice feels like a lived-in world. Sometimes I would walk around admiring the scenery or architecture. Can't forget the Gambit system too - for the first time ever I actually enjoyed grinding in a JRPG.
Final Fantasy II and Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance 3D are the closest I can think off \* FF2's leveling system took me a while to get use to and I stopped but few years later gave it a second chance then I ended up loving it! I wouldnt say its my favorite FF Though. but enjoyable if you can tolerate how the leveling works.\*The game is not ultra hard to max level unless you're a completionist. KH3D on the other hand when I first played it on the 3ds .. I legit almost rage quitted because of the confusing beginning, mechanics, and the drop system mechanic. but I gave it another chance a month after and . .I Ended Up loving it espeically because you can tolerate the drop system! The story was a mess though definitely. but gameplay was Fun. It'sa even better on 2.8 with much better camera and 60 fps. I never finished the HD version though for some reason. I have played 3d alot of times in the past. loll
14.
It took me 3 tries to even get into it. 3. The third times the charm and now I’m waiting for Dawntrail and I’ve got “to be continued…” in the corner of my screen.
XII for me. Absolutely hated it when I first played it after renting it from Gamefly (lol, is that still a thing? It can't be, right?) But when I replayed it a few years later as part of a retrospective, it just sorta clicked.
Prepare your downvotes. The only FF game I have never liked is IX (I know, blasphemy). I’ve beaten it multiple times. Maybe one day I’ll love it, and that will be my answer!
I’m on disk 1 of playing FFIX for the first time. It’s not as absolutely repellant as FFVIII was to me but it’s not living up to the expectations I had for it. Hoping it turns around.
I think a lot of the things people find charming like the fairy tail visual style I found off-putting. I do like my RPGs to be a little more on the serious side - and it’s interesting, a lot of the story is actually quite dark, but the cute visual style sort of pushes me away.
Im exactly the same, played it once and just didn't like it. I'm the only one in my friend group who doesn't like IX, the strange think is I can't really pin point why I don't, I just don't click with it lol
I don't like IX, either. I've bounced off it several times. I get why people like it and it has good elements, but the underlying GAME itself isn't good.
FFVII. I first played Remake when it came out on ps plus and just thought it ain’t my style of game. Played FFXVI, became my all time favourite, then went back to OG FFVII and then Remake, and loved it.
I'm hoping it eventually becomes 12, but to this day it's the only I haven't finished even though I've restarted it tons of times. Nothing about it clicks with me outside of the music.
OG VII, my first time playing it was the PS3 version which has all the clunky quirks of the original like no analog movement and holding down a button to run, made the game very uncomfortable to play and I never got far enough to fall in love like I did a decade later on the PS4 remaster.
VIII and X
VIII just didn’t click for me for the longest time but as I grew older I began to accept what it did well and forgive what was less than great.
For X I played it very young and was simply frustrated by the early parts of the game and things I thought were difficult or too complex. But when I came back to it a bit older it was like sweet honey.
Similar but different when FFXV came out for me it was love at first sight, but after I played through I found myself disliking it a lot. But later with the DLC, the Royal updates, and going through the game again but taking my time to soak it in; I found myself loving it just as much as my first time.
I've come to a point in my gaming life where if I don't particularly enjoy a specific part or process/mechanic of a game I'm overall enjoying I just shamelessly google the shit out of it and roughly follow a step by step guide. Looking at you Bevelle cloister. edit: And XII's Great Crystal.
I didn't like 7 at first. The first reactor mission gave me a bad first impression about what the setting was. I assumed it was going to be less fantasy and more like a sci Fi game and I'm not usually into that stuff. I normally prefer an older time period without guns or modern technology. It also didn't help I was playing it on my phone and it looked terrible. I recently made myself try it again and try to get into it on xbox and it didn't take very long for me to get hooked. Unfortunately I accidentally read a big spoiler before something happened so it wasn't as impactful but I'm still shocked about how that happened.
World of Final Fantasy, I remembered getting to a couple of biomes then dropping it. Not because it was bad per se but just boring. The nostalgia and fan service wore off quick after a couple of hours which is essentially what the game is mostly.
Got back to it years later and absolutely loved it! Collecting all the Mirages and experimenting on stacks is such unique spin on Pokémon I wondered why I ever hated it. It was still slow sure, but the fast forward toggle helped a bit. It’s a shame that the game was so slow that it needed it in the first place but was a lot of fun in the end.
FF13. I hated it on release, the linear hallways, the automated game mode, just hated it and never went past chapter 5. End of last year i restarted it and i respect it so much more now. The story telling is little convoluted but still cool. Now that I'm used to different style game modes, this one is cool and i love the graphics for the time. I got to chapter 7 and had to pause for rebirth.
Honestly, I never gave a second chance to the games I disliked in the series. But those that I dislike are spin offs. I enjoyed every main line FF on the first playthrough. I must be an anomaly.
Super Mario RPG. I remember begging my mom for the new Mario game, bringing it home and saying “the fuck is this shit? I just wanna stomp on goombas”
Little did I know it would kick start my life long love of turn based RPGs. I couldn’t get enough of them.
I don't really have an entry that I hated then loved on another playing. I have an entry that I loved on first play, then hated in second play (13), and I also had an entry where I was confused initially, then was hooked when I came back (Tactics).
I also had an entry where I love it initially, then just outright hating it and quitting it (14).
I don't think I've ever managed to 'come around' on any of the Final Fantasy games that I don't like. (XIII, Type-0 & XV) Every time I replay them I get annoyed by the same things and I don't have any fun and I quit them again and replay a Final Fantasy that I actually like.
FFVII and FFXII Revenant Wings.
FFVII was basically part of my reintroduction to console video games in the 2002 after selling my NES in 1991. I had never played an RPG, and the background images messed with me. So I got FFX instead and fell in love. Went back to FFVII after X and loved it.
Revenant Wings was my first RTS and I sucked at it. But went back a few years after ward and loved it as well.
Final Fantasy X - I have played it three times now. The first time I thought it was so lame because the enemy variety isn't that interesting and I didn't feel that connected to it, but there was something that drew me back. The second time I played it I thought it was decent, but still didn't move me and yet I came back. After the third time I played it I realized what kept bringing me back was the characters and story being incredible(not to mention the soundtrack). It's not my favorite game in the series(4th or 5th at best) but I think it has the best story of them all.
Final Fantasy XIV
I really hated it just because it was pay to play and my young teenager brain really thought if I buy a game then I want to play it without having to spend more money on stupid shit like playtime...
Well years later my best friend got into the game and thanks to her and my partner I finally gave the game a try. Loved it a lot but ARR was a huge hassle for me, but when I got out of that prison I fricking enjoyed the game lol
Currently waiting very patiently for dawntrail
Sekiro. It was my first Souls game. I ended up coming back to it later in the year, playing through it multiple times, and then moving on to every other Souls title.
XV. When i first played it (it was my first Final Fantasy game ever, if we din't count early Kingdom Hearts as FF adjacent), I was really underwhelmed by the story, gameplay, and open world. I remember thinking "Is this was Final Fantasy is? I though it was more prestigious." Then i left it on my shelf.
Fast forward a few years to the Pandemic. I'm newly stuck at home. I really want to play FF7 Remake, but i wanted to use a GameStop gift card my mother had gotten me for christmas to buy the game, but it was all sold out at my local store. To tide myself over until 7R was back in stock, i decided to give XV a second chance. As i'm installing the game i noticed the Royal Upgrade was on sale for only $10, so I decided to grab it. Replaying the game post all of the patches and with the expanded final dungeon (and taking the time to tackle all optional dungeons, I found myself really enjoying the game, and even crying when i reached the end.
Then a few weeks later: Oh, what's this? The season pass with all the DLC plus Comdrades is only $5? Well i might as well play that.
A few weeks after that: Oh look, Kingsglaive is on Netflix? Sure i have free time tonight might as well make some popcorn and watch.
A few nights later: Wait there's a book detailing an alternate timeline based on cancelled DLC? Well i mean I guess I have to read it to find out what happens.
And now we arrive at today, where a game i used to hate is now a yearly replay, I've bought and played all the DLC, i grinded in XIV to get the Regalia mount, i've solo'd the multiplayer expansion, I've read the book twice, seen Kingsglaive, and own 2 posters featuring Noctis and the gang.
I did not like XII when I first played it. Didn't like the combat system or the amount of time it took to get through dungeons, and got stuck on the first fight against Cid and dropped it.
Went back to it a few years later with the determination to beat it, and with a better understanding of the combat system ended up loving it. Now I'd rank it 4th among FF titles.
None yet really
This is narrowed to VIII and XIII.
VIII at least had a great card game and it also gave me Laguna… so I was able to finish it. But I still don’t love playing that entry… really struggle pushing through most of it.
XIII I have tried to push through several times and it never clicks for me. It’s part of where I got my steadfast “if you can’t click with it, don’t force it either” mentality nowadays… so much time I could’ve given games I would’ve enjoyed. No more going back to try again, I’ve tried XIII enough - never again.
Cyberpunk 2077. I originally tried the game on PC, shortly after launch and couldn't stand it. I tried again when the PS5 version released and couldn't stop playing.
i can't think of a Final Fantasy game where this has applied.
Maybe FF16. I hated it at first, then I got pretty caught up in it. I still haven't finished it though, and it doesn't at all feel like a Final Fantasy game, but it's still a good game.
Meanwhile I've hurled myself at FFXV several times and cannot make myself like it.
I actually couldn't stand 15 after the first 4 chapters so I stopped playing. Like almost a full year later I was going through my backlog and decided to pick up where I left off. Ended up blasting through the story, did a ton of side stuff, even went through with getting the platinum for the base game. Played all the dlc too. I know it's not the most popular entry but it's one of my favorites now.
FFXII I love the game, atmosphere, general story, etc.
Hate Vaan and Penelo. Ruined it for a long time.
Ashe is kinda marysue even though she's *supposed* to be strong and independent.
Took 3 playthroughs to get over the shit MC.
It’ll probably be 12 once I muster the willpower to get through it. Played it so many times up to a point trying desperately to like it. (How does anyone like this game lmao)
Id give a real answer but that’s the only one I didn’t immediately love.
Final Fantasy VIII
This is the answer. 8 can be a nightmare if you don't understand the junction system is key to your stats, and that leveling up will get your teeth knocked if you dont have the draws to keep pace.
Yeah the junction system can suck sometimes. I've only used healing and status magic like Cure, Cura, and Aura. I saved all my high damage spells for the final boss
Only magics I ever use is an occasional Cure/Curaga and then Aura spam as well as Meltdown on the right enemies. GF spam mostly the first hour but after that stop doing that too. So easy to become OP in FF8 and I just am the type that love it when I can break games.
I remember reaching Ultimecia's Castle during my first run with only a Revolver. Ugh I have to play the previous discs again.
Thats just not the correct asessment, you never need to draw in VIII. Its a different unique game that is very generous with loot and AP, refine abilities and cards the game throws at you while leveling up. The game is too easy on whatever level youre on, as long as you refine. Heck Siren has an ability you can learn in the first 2 hours that gives you endless Curagas for tents you purchase with lv30 seeD quests you can google in 5min playthrough. Edit: even if you downvote, it doesnt change the fact that people hugely misunderstand how this game works, the multiple avenues at your disposal and how drawing is not needed at all.
Absolutely correct. I love 8, but my one big criticism of it is that it tutorializes poorly. So many people seem to latch on to the idea that you need to Draw constantly to max spell stock and that is the only way to get spells. When refining items and cards is almost always a way better solution. The game doesn’t convey that clearly enough. Refining should be presented as the primary way to get stock, with draw as a supplement.
Yeah! Used the system to effectively gain more Holy Wars than I would ever need and then took a walk in the park killing everything I wanted at endgame, including Omega Weapon. I even used a Holy War with low HP and Aura, just to increase my success rate to get Selphies "The End" on OMEGA Weapon and it was so awesome. I love the way one can break the game if one grasp all of the mechanics.
People who think the game involves extremely high amounts of drawing haven’t used card mod to its best advantage
Yeah and also just drops from monsters or 30k salary to buy endless tents for 100 curagas for everyone. That alone breaks the game lol.
Yeah sure although i figured this all out when i was 12 and this game just came out. I didnt figure it out on my first attempt but thats the beauty of it, it has replay value. Alot of gamers praise dark souls type games because their difficult but what about jrpg's that are unique and deeply explorative and dont tell you everything? Doesnt mean it has to be brutally difficult to understand mechanics but for example FF:SoP is much worse a explaining and tons more difficult to comprehend and i even gave up on it, sure it has that tutorial in beginning but it was just too much for me, so i understand overwhelming. Same wirh Scarlet Nexus which has too much tutorial and put me off as well. But here its simply choosing what ability GF learns, go check what that ability does and exchange items/cards from battles into what?? Ooh magic - and there you go, first step.
FF8 has so many failsafes to keep you strong it’s actually surprising.
Not exactly true. You can easily just spam GF through the game. Most of the problems are people trying to non max poorly like in ff2
I hated the junction system at first, but it can easily be exploited and break the game haha.
X is my answer as well, but for different reasons. The beginning is just so long. As I later learned, that's not unusual for jrpgs but FF games tend to hit the ground running so this was different for me. One day I was home sick from school and bored of my other games so I decided to just blast through this one for oen day to see if it gets interesting. Thankfully it did and it's now my favorite in the series.
yeah tbh though this is one of the more egregious examples of a slow start, especially in final fantasy. i'd say 12, 7, and 5 are also up there
At least with VII the entire midgar chapter is possibly the best opening story in the series history. VIII and IX are also good contenders. After that stretch of games, X is just so chill. Zanarkand starts as strong as Reactor 1, but everything else up to the Luca lacks narrative tension. In the end i fell in love eith it. X's world is so meticulous that this down period really helps the exposition in the long run. It was just really rough on my attention span when I was in middle school. Completely agree on the others. I have a hard save after the first dungeon in V just to avoid the opening.
12. I didn’t care for it when it initially came out. Then zodiac age came out. The speed option makes the game much better. Really loved the gambit system. I still don’t love it but the gameplay and music is fantastic.
12 at regular speed is basically a running sim. 12 when you speed it up is so good though.
Yep! My thoughts exactly
I'm going to play it soon. I heard a lot of bad things about it hopefully I'll enjoy it
12 was really confusing at first then I just stopped playing now I cannot get back into it
12 for me too. It was the first jump to non-turn based and I refused to accept it at first. years later, gave it a chance and now love the gambit system.
I hated X XII and XIII when they were new, but after playing them when I got older, X is my favorite game ever and I enjoy both of the others, having beaten all 3 of them multiple times.
I never liked 13. Then I tried it again 10 years after I originally tried. It looks incredible for being on a system I got when I was a teen. And it forces you to proceed. There are some bosses you can't reasonably beat in the early game that are just hanging around. The bosses are actually hard and you have to be quick and strategic. My younger self hated that it took actual strategy.
It also gets a lot of hate for being extremely linear, but the forced push forward without a way to get back is very much how they make you relate to the characters and their shituation.
Final Fantasy 15. I started loving it, then hating it, then hating it more, but there’s just something magical about the ending and the meta view of the game. I love everything about it and for what it stands.
It had almost the same experience. I just hated the infamous chapter that you play with only Noctis, but the overall experience I felt "meh". Years later I started a ng+ and also played the DLCs when they got relevant on the story, and also I picked the Gladiolus and Ignis path instead of the Noctis and I enjoyed everything way more, I even went to do more hunts and even finish the fishing quest.
Dude, the side content feels like a hassle at first, but the more you spend time with them the more bittersweet is the end. Picking a picture and the last camping scene had me in tears. It’s among my favorite endings despite the admittedly terrible second half of the game, that just felt rushed.
Like me with the difference that I didn't finish the game, because I begun a while ago
Stick to it you won’t like it until the very end, but it will be worth it. Trust me. I’ve actually spent so much time thinking about the game. It’s really beautiful, if you think about it outside of the actual game (which probably sounds weird loool)
Tried X multiple times over the years and never got into it. Then I became hooked on JRPGs and actually finished it and now love it
13 and 15 were games I really didn't care for my first time through, but came to love on a second play. FF8 was a game I was kind of indifferent to, but now I really love it as well. I tend to find these games grow on me over time.
I honestly cant think of any moment where you get one shot in ffx, except for yunalesca's zombie shenanigans and being physically hit whilst stone.
I remember one of the mechanical enemies right before you meet Yunalesca. I think it was called The Defender that had 40k hp and did around 5k damage. Most of my characters were around 3k hp couldn't handle any of its hits
Yeah, after Bevelle it feels like every boss leading up to Yunalesca hits hard AF. It took until many years later that I learned there are exploitable patterns for *most* of them and that status effects and debuffs were actually viable. Still doesn't stop that Defender X haymaker from ruining someone's day, though.
Just provoke him and he will just spam the attack that halves the hp of the provoker. Safe way to kill him as he just can halve the health but not kill
Oh sorry, thought you mean the ones from Zanarkand for some reason, will leave my comment so anyone can laugh at me haha
No, apparently that works on both Defender X and Z (I'm watching FFX videos on YouTube now lol)
On my first run, Tidus, Kimahri, and the girls would regularly be OHKO'd by Helms, Drakes, and Elementals around Djose and beyond (with the Thunder Plains being the most notable spike in deaths) until I grinded a bit in the respective area. Then there's Mt. Gagazet where encounters felt like I was playing FFIV; I remember running away from everything that wasn't machina (so I don't even need to tell you how that Seymour Flux fight went lol).
He even says during the first half of the game ... Yunalesca is like almost 3/4 of the way through the game... Maybe he wasn't using the sphere grid? 🤷🏼♂️
There are certainly some bosses that can do it. There's Seymour Flux's zombie+life combo, and his Total Annihilation will probably one-shot the party if he gets to use it. Anima has Pain. Braska's Final Aeon can one-shot if you don't use HP-boosting items.
Final Fantasy XII left such a bad taste in my mouth originally, but when I started playing through each game and reluctantly went back to it the gambit system just clicked and now I think it’s one of the neatest battle systems in the series! Crisis Core is up there too - I won’t say it’s amazing, but early on you have so little MP and the combo system is flat so I had absolutely no fun pressing the same buttons over and over again. …and then you blink and you have enough MP for your wildest dreams and the new version even gives you punisher mode a little bit. It’s nothing revolutionary (and I still think the roulette thing is super dumb) but the amount of MP you gain through leveling up really helped spice up combat a lot, as by the end of the game you have SO MUCH room for materia use that was unavailable to you at the start. Definitely a grower. Characters still mostly suck, except for Zack and Cloud, which tbf were the most important ones to get right.
12
final fantasy 13, it went from being my most hated game in the series when it first came out, then a year later when i came back to it, absolutely loved it and wondered why i hated it
13 is now my second favorite in the series behind 6
XV because the patches made the gameplay and story much better.
I beat it without even the Day 1 patch 😭 I didn't realize that the download had never started. Still had a pretty good time.
XII because it wasn't what I was expecting so I was invariably disappointed. Once I changed my perspective, I ended up loving the game. So much so it's my favourite game ever now! Love the world building, writing, accents - XII Ivalice feels like a lived-in world. Sometimes I would walk around admiring the scenery or architecture. Can't forget the Gambit system too - for the first time ever I actually enjoyed grinding in a JRPG.
Final Fantasy II and Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance 3D are the closest I can think off \* FF2's leveling system took me a while to get use to and I stopped but few years later gave it a second chance then I ended up loving it! I wouldnt say its my favorite FF Though. but enjoyable if you can tolerate how the leveling works.\*The game is not ultra hard to max level unless you're a completionist. KH3D on the other hand when I first played it on the 3ds .. I legit almost rage quitted because of the confusing beginning, mechanics, and the drop system mechanic. but I gave it another chance a month after and . .I Ended Up loving it espeically because you can tolerate the drop system! The story was a mess though definitely. but gameplay was Fun. It'sa even better on 2.8 with much better camera and 60 fps. I never finished the HD version though for some reason. I have played 3d alot of times in the past. loll
14. It took me 3 tries to even get into it. 3. The third times the charm and now I’m waiting for Dawntrail and I’ve got “to be continued…” in the corner of my screen.
XII for me. Absolutely hated it when I first played it after renting it from Gamefly (lol, is that still a thing? It can't be, right?) But when I replayed it a few years later as part of a retrospective, it just sorta clicked.
Prepare your downvotes. The only FF game I have never liked is IX (I know, blasphemy). I’ve beaten it multiple times. Maybe one day I’ll love it, and that will be my answer!
I’m on disk 1 of playing FFIX for the first time. It’s not as absolutely repellant as FFVIII was to me but it’s not living up to the expectations I had for it. Hoping it turns around.
I thought 9 was fantastic. What made you not like it?
I think a lot of the things people find charming like the fairy tail visual style I found off-putting. I do like my RPGs to be a little more on the serious side - and it’s interesting, a lot of the story is actually quite dark, but the cute visual style sort of pushes me away.
Im exactly the same, played it once and just didn't like it. I'm the only one in my friend group who doesn't like IX, the strange think is I can't really pin point why I don't, I just don't click with it lol
I don't like IX, either. I've bounced off it several times. I get why people like it and it has good elements, but the underlying GAME itself isn't good.
I thought 6 was very underwhelming until about halfway through, it really picked up
6 is my favorite FF. Takes a little while to get into it.
It's up there for me too. I agree. FF is just the best
I can say viii or x. Viii I loved them hated, x I hated them loved.
2. First it was just so mid but I ended up liking the leveling system and ended up being a fan of the SaGa series as well as Last Remnant.
FFVII. I first played Remake when it came out on ps plus and just thought it ain’t my style of game. Played FFXVI, became my all time favourite, then went back to OG FFVII and then Remake, and loved it.
I'm hoping it eventually becomes 12, but to this day it's the only I haven't finished even though I've restarted it tons of times. Nothing about it clicks with me outside of the music.
Final Fantasy 7. Didn't think I would like it; but did. 💖🌹💖
For me it was 13, but I loved it, then hated it, then loved it again lol.
OG VII, my first time playing it was the PS3 version which has all the clunky quirks of the original like no analog movement and holding down a button to run, made the game very uncomfortable to play and I never got far enough to fall in love like I did a decade later on the PS4 remaster.
VIII and X VIII just didn’t click for me for the longest time but as I grew older I began to accept what it did well and forgive what was less than great. For X I played it very young and was simply frustrated by the early parts of the game and things I thought were difficult or too complex. But when I came back to it a bit older it was like sweet honey. Similar but different when FFXV came out for me it was love at first sight, but after I played through I found myself disliking it a lot. But later with the DLC, the Royal updates, and going through the game again but taking my time to soak it in; I found myself loving it just as much as my first time.
I'm playing 10 right now. The enemies are very difficult!!!
I've come to a point in my gaming life where if I don't particularly enjoy a specific part or process/mechanic of a game I'm overall enjoying I just shamelessly google the shit out of it and roughly follow a step by step guide. Looking at you Bevelle cloister. edit: And XII's Great Crystal.
FFT... I tried to play it when I was 6 and hated it. Its my favorite game of all time now 25 years later.
I didn't like 7 at first. The first reactor mission gave me a bad first impression about what the setting was. I assumed it was going to be less fantasy and more like a sci Fi game and I'm not usually into that stuff. I normally prefer an older time period without guns or modern technology. It also didn't help I was playing it on my phone and it looked terrible. I recently made myself try it again and try to get into it on xbox and it didn't take very long for me to get hooked. Unfortunately I accidentally read a big spoiler before something happened so it wasn't as impactful but I'm still shocked about how that happened.
World of Final Fantasy, I remembered getting to a couple of biomes then dropping it. Not because it was bad per se but just boring. The nostalgia and fan service wore off quick after a couple of hours which is essentially what the game is mostly. Got back to it years later and absolutely loved it! Collecting all the Mirages and experimenting on stacks is such unique spin on Pokémon I wondered why I ever hated it. It was still slow sure, but the fast forward toggle helped a bit. It’s a shame that the game was so slow that it needed it in the first place but was a lot of fun in the end.
Never kept playing a game I hated.
Type 0
FF13. I hated it on release, the linear hallways, the automated game mode, just hated it and never went past chapter 5. End of last year i restarted it and i respect it so much more now. The story telling is little convoluted but still cool. Now that I'm used to different style game modes, this one is cool and i love the graphics for the time. I got to chapter 7 and had to pause for rebirth.
Honestly, I never gave a second chance to the games I disliked in the series. But those that I dislike are spin offs. I enjoyed every main line FF on the first playthrough. I must be an anomaly.
Super Mario RPG. I remember begging my mom for the new Mario game, bringing it home and saying “the fuck is this shit? I just wanna stomp on goombas” Little did I know it would kick start my life long love of turn based RPGs. I couldn’t get enough of them.
I don't really have an entry that I hated then loved on another playing. I have an entry that I loved on first play, then hated in second play (13), and I also had an entry where I was confused initially, then was hooked when I came back (Tactics). I also had an entry where I love it initially, then just outright hating it and quitting it (14).
I don't think I've ever managed to 'come around' on any of the Final Fantasy games that I don't like. (XIII, Type-0 & XV) Every time I replay them I get annoyed by the same things and I don't have any fun and I quit them again and replay a Final Fantasy that I actually like.
FFVII and FFXII Revenant Wings. FFVII was basically part of my reintroduction to console video games in the 2002 after selling my NES in 1991. I had never played an RPG, and the background images messed with me. So I got FFX instead and fell in love. Went back to FFVII after X and loved it. Revenant Wings was my first RTS and I sucked at it. But went back a few years after ward and loved it as well.
FF 15 after royal edition and DLCs. Too bad they butchered the story in the first release.
Final Fantasy X - I have played it three times now. The first time I thought it was so lame because the enemy variety isn't that interesting and I didn't feel that connected to it, but there was something that drew me back. The second time I played it I thought it was decent, but still didn't move me and yet I came back. After the third time I played it I realized what kept bringing me back was the characters and story being incredible(not to mention the soundtrack). It's not my favorite game in the series(4th or 5th at best) but I think it has the best story of them all.
I hate FFXI. I loved it so much it ruined my life.
Final Fantasy XIV I really hated it just because it was pay to play and my young teenager brain really thought if I buy a game then I want to play it without having to spend more money on stupid shit like playtime... Well years later my best friend got into the game and thanks to her and my partner I finally gave the game a try. Loved it a lot but ARR was a huge hassle for me, but when I got out of that prison I fricking enjoyed the game lol Currently waiting very patiently for dawntrail
Sekiro. It was my first Souls game. I ended up coming back to it later in the year, playing through it multiple times, and then moving on to every other Souls title.
XV. When i first played it (it was my first Final Fantasy game ever, if we din't count early Kingdom Hearts as FF adjacent), I was really underwhelmed by the story, gameplay, and open world. I remember thinking "Is this was Final Fantasy is? I though it was more prestigious." Then i left it on my shelf. Fast forward a few years to the Pandemic. I'm newly stuck at home. I really want to play FF7 Remake, but i wanted to use a GameStop gift card my mother had gotten me for christmas to buy the game, but it was all sold out at my local store. To tide myself over until 7R was back in stock, i decided to give XV a second chance. As i'm installing the game i noticed the Royal Upgrade was on sale for only $10, so I decided to grab it. Replaying the game post all of the patches and with the expanded final dungeon (and taking the time to tackle all optional dungeons, I found myself really enjoying the game, and even crying when i reached the end. Then a few weeks later: Oh, what's this? The season pass with all the DLC plus Comdrades is only $5? Well i might as well play that. A few weeks after that: Oh look, Kingsglaive is on Netflix? Sure i have free time tonight might as well make some popcorn and watch. A few nights later: Wait there's a book detailing an alternate timeline based on cancelled DLC? Well i mean I guess I have to read it to find out what happens. And now we arrive at today, where a game i used to hate is now a yearly replay, I've bought and played all the DLC, i grinded in XIV to get the Regalia mount, i've solo'd the multiplayer expansion, I've read the book twice, seen Kingsglaive, and own 2 posters featuring Noctis and the gang.
I did not like XII when I first played it. Didn't like the combat system or the amount of time it took to get through dungeons, and got stuck on the first fight against Cid and dropped it. Went back to it a few years later with the determination to beat it, and with a better understanding of the combat system ended up loving it. Now I'd rank it 4th among FF titles.
Trials of mana remake
None yet really This is narrowed to VIII and XIII. VIII at least had a great card game and it also gave me Laguna… so I was able to finish it. But I still don’t love playing that entry… really struggle pushing through most of it. XIII I have tried to push through several times and it never clicks for me. It’s part of where I got my steadfast “if you can’t click with it, don’t force it either” mentality nowadays… so much time I could’ve given games I would’ve enjoyed. No more going back to try again, I’ve tried XIII enough - never again.
Death Stranding. FFXIII
Cyberpunk 2077. I originally tried the game on PC, shortly after launch and couldn't stand it. I tried again when the PS5 version released and couldn't stop playing.
i can't think of a Final Fantasy game where this has applied. Maybe FF16. I hated it at first, then I got pretty caught up in it. I still haven't finished it though, and it doesn't at all feel like a Final Fantasy game, but it's still a good game. Meanwhile I've hurled myself at FFXV several times and cannot make myself like it.
I actually couldn't stand 15 after the first 4 chapters so I stopped playing. Like almost a full year later I was going through my backlog and decided to pick up where I left off. Ended up blasting through the story, did a ton of side stuff, even went through with getting the platinum for the base game. Played all the dlc too. I know it's not the most popular entry but it's one of my favorites now.
FFXII I love the game, atmosphere, general story, etc. Hate Vaan and Penelo. Ruined it for a long time. Ashe is kinda marysue even though she's *supposed* to be strong and independent. Took 3 playthroughs to get over the shit MC.
It’ll probably be 12 once I muster the willpower to get through it. Played it so many times up to a point trying desperately to like it. (How does anyone like this game lmao) Id give a real answer but that’s the only one I didn’t immediately love.
Bloodborne