...and man, Fang and Vanille are subtext-y as fuck. Definitely got a yuri vibe from 'em on more than one occasion.

last edited at Sep 2, 2017 10:27PM

I could have sworn the game said they were sisters when I was playing it, then I was reading online and realized they weren't sisters and I was like, "Oh wait a minute..."

TFW the "sequels" wasn't about them and instead we got lots of wtf with Goddesses and time travel .-.

TFW the "sequels" wasn't about them and instead we got lots of wtf with Goddesses and time travel .-.

They did have a fairly major role in LR... The sequels did have pretty WTF plots, though

TFW the "sequels" wasn't about them and instead we got lots of wtf with Goddesses and time travel .-.

They did have a fairly major role in LR... The sequels did have pretty WTF plots, though

Even the original suffered from a lack of realistic human drama in comparison to the fantastical nonsense and made up terminology. The characters just act weird, and it's hard to understand how they're feeling when their struggles have so little basis in reality.

TFW the "sequels" wasn't about them and instead we got lots of wtf with Goddesses and time travel .-.

They did have a fairly major role in LR... The sequels did have pretty WTF plots, though

Oh really? Couldn't get pass the first hours ... It was just so weird

...and man, Fang and Vanille are subtext-y as fuck. Definitely got a yuri vibe from 'em on more than one occasion.

Fang was originally written as a male character too. I'm not sure if she would've been seen as Vanille's lover or just an overprotective body guard in the original script as a male, but regardless, her relationship with Vanille definitely gave me the same vibes throughout the trilogy.

My favorite piece of fanart for the entire Final Fantasy series. It's just so... warm.

I could have sworn the game said they were sisters when I was playing it, then I was reading online and realized they weren't sisters and I was like, "Oh wait a minute..."

They do share part of their names, which can be easily be confused for having the same family name, but is actually a demonym, referring to their birthplace of Oerba.

Even the original suffered from a lack of realistic human drama in comparison to the fantastical nonsense and made up terminology. The characters just act weird, and it's hard to understand how they're feeling when their struggles have so little basis in reality.

Couldn't agree more. FF13 has frustrated me to insane levels because it had ALL the prerequisites for writing good drama in fantastic context (my favorite thing in fiction), yet squandered all of them so meticulously, as if the writers were doing it on purpose. To boot: Lightning is a woman who got too much responsibility too soon in life, and estranged herself from her beloved sister because she thought she knew better what was good for Serah; Sazh is a single father coping with the fact that his son was taken from him by the government for something neither of them had any control over (isn't it any parent's worst nightmare?); Snow is an idealistic, if insecure idiot with too much energy and charisma who has the understanding that reality doesn't just magically turn out the way he wants painfully beaten into him; Hope is a boy coping with the death of his irresponsible, but loving mother by bonding with a woman who has clearly proven herself to be an utterly incapable mother figure; and Vanille has a massive guilt complex for what happened to Sazh's son when she and Fang awoke, and much more for holding Fang back during their first attack on Cocoon, and thus failing their mission and ensuring the extinction of their native civilization. Fang, in fact, seems to be the only main character who has clear goals and very little drama in her life, which actually serves as a nice counterbalance to the other five.

Here's a thing someone told me years ago on another forum. The guy is an video game industry insider, so I tend to take him at his word on stuff like this.

Yeah, that's the one. To provide a bit of background, Final Fantasy XIII's development process was infamously fractured. They had several teams working on different parts of the game, and due to severe internal communication issues, each of them ended up working from a different revision of the project spec. Those same communication issues prevented anyone from noticing the problem until the time came to put everything together, whereupon they realised that they had bits and pieces of three or four completely different games on their hands. The story you're actually seeing was cobbled together at the last minute to fit the available assets (character models, cutscenes, recorded dialogue, etc.), rather than tailoring the assets to the story as you'd normally expect. It's actually sort of amazing it ended up as coherent as it is.

(Among other things, this is why a lot of critical context for the game's story is squirreled away in huge, wall-of-text codex entries and never actually comes up on-screen - those entries were cooked up after the fact to paper over the howling plot holes introduced by the disjointed cutscenes.)

Even with all the issues this franchise had, it's still my favorite Final Fantasy. Fang and Vanille's story comes to a fine end in Lightning Returns and they have memorable cameos in FFXIII-2. All worth playing imo.

Yeah, I really liked it as well. I especially liked the paradigm system. As soon as the sequels go on sale on Steam again, I'm gonna grab 'em.

My fave is still FF12, though. Really loved the setting. Very much tripped my sense of wonder. One of these days (probably as soon as they port it to Steam, which is supposedly in the works and due out in 2018) I'm gonna finish it. (I've gotten about 80% of the way through, but never to the end.)

You know, FFXIII is the only FF game I ever finished which is why it's my favorite... well, I did play the free trial for 14 but that doesn't really count. I've always wanted to play the entire FF series, but I didn't feel like actually buying 'em... good thing my friend let me borrow it a few years ago. At any rate, I think I was more lenient with 13 than others were 'cause it was my first. I liked the Paradigm Shift thing, I liked the battle system, the story was interesting if horribly flawed... it was altogether a very good game. And, of course, there's Fang and Vanille.

You know, this is kind of unrelated, but I have to ask... does FF7 get any better? I won it in a giveaway a few months ago and I played a few hours of it, but it's kind of boring me at this point... I believe I stopped playing it a bit after Cloud's home was destroyed and Aerith got kidnapped. So, does the combat or the story get any better any time soon? I also won Hyperdimension Neptunia in a giveaway but I can accept that thing probably ain't for me... I mean, FF7 has an acclaimed plot but no one plays Neptunia for the plot, I don't think (maybe the "plot" or maybe the yuri but I dunno if it's blatant enough. Based on that dumbass bandage scene, I'm guessing it's just fanservice, but Noire x Neptune has to be popular for a reason...). The battle system seems pretty lame too so far, but being able to walk around midfight's a nice feature.

last edited at Sep 3, 2017 9:30AM

You know, this is kind of unrelated, but I have to ask... does FF7 get any better?

FF7 is really, really overrated. It's been a lot of time since I played it, but I'm not sure the story will get better, specially if you're bored already.

You should've started the best in the series, FF9, instead.

You know, this is kind of unrelated, but I have to ask... does FF7 get any better?

FF7 is really, really overrated. It's been a lot of time since I played it, but I'm not sure the story will get better, specially if you're bored already.

You should've started the best in the series, FF9, instead.

You misspelled FF6. But that's okay since a lot of FF9 was filled with nostalgia for it and the other early games anyway.

I bought KH 2.5 HD ReMix a few days ago (how could I resist buying a game I've wanted to play for nearly 12 years for 15 bucks!), and I've actually started to get interested in FF6, FF8, and FF9 due to all the FF characters that showed up in Twilight Town. Setzer seems cool and that thing he said before the Struggle match sounded like it was a quote from FF6 shoehorned into the game... still sounded cool though. Fujin's one to two word sentence shtick is pretty amusing, and Vivi is just all around adorable. But, by God, are they expensive on Steam... these games are like decades old, why exactly are they still 10 to 20 bucks? They don't really seem to be any cheaper on Amazon though, so I guess those are pretty much the best prices I'm gonna get...

You know, this is kind of unrelated, but I have to ask... does FF7 get any better?

FF7 is really, really overrated. It's been a lot of time since I played it, but I'm not sure the story will get better, specially if you're bored already.

You should've started the best in the series, FF9, instead.

You misspelled FF6.

I'll have to disagree. All the SNes's FFs were pretty good tho.

[...] Fujin's one to two word sentence shtick is pretty amusing [...]

Fujin's a pretty minor character in FF8 tho.

I bought KH 2.5 HD ReMix a few days ago (how could I resist buying a game I've wanted to play for nearly 12 years for 15 bucks!), and I've actually started to get interested in FF6, FF8, and FF9 due to all the FF characters that showed up in Twilight Town. Setzer seems cool and that thing he said before the Struggle match sounded like it was a quote from FF6 shoehorned into the game... still sounded cool though. Fujin's one to two word sentence shtick is pretty amusing, and Vivi is just all around adorable. But, by God, are they expensive on Steam... these games are like decades old, why exactly are they still 10 to 20 bucks? They don't really seem to be any cheaper on Amazon though, so I guess those are pretty much the best prices I'm gonna get...

If you can master your need for instant gratification, the Final Fantasy games often go on sale. Certainly during Steam's summer and winter sales. They're at least 50% off, and sometimes up to 70% off. I have been slowly acquiring all of them over the course of the past few years during those sales.

[...] Fujin's one to two word sentence shtick is pretty amusing [...]

Fujin's a pretty minor character in FF8 tho.

I hated SO MUCH of FF8, holy crap. But Fujin was one of the bright spots. Irvine and Selfie too, especially when the latter went bomb crazy. I have never wanted to punch a main character so badly.

I hated SO MUCH of FF8, holy crap. ... I have never wanted to punch a main character so badly.

Ah, FF8. The video game equivalent of Catcher in the Rye.

[...] Fujin's one to two word sentence shtick is pretty amusing [...]

Fujin's a pretty minor character in FF8 tho.

I hated SO MUCH of FF8, holy crap. But Fujin was one of the bright spots.

"HATE."

That said, I think 8 was actually decent, if you can get past Squall's angst. Gameplay was good too. The one I couldn't even start was FF10... The series went downhill after FF9 :v

[...] Fujin's one to two word sentence shtick is pretty amusing [...]

Fujin's a pretty minor character in FF8 tho.

I hated SO MUCH of FF8, holy crap. But Fujin was one of the bright spots.

"HATE."

That said, I think 8 was actually decent, if you can get past Squall's angst. Gameplay was good too. The one I couldn't even start was FF10... The series went downhill after FF9 :v

Rinoa wasn't much better than Squall tbh, just less angsty. But I swear, after the whole stranded in space scene where they're saved beyond all hope of rescue, and then they're on the Rag and Rinoa asks for a hug AND SQUALL FUCKING GOES "WHY?"

I have never wanted to beat someone with a 2x4 so badly until that moment.

FF7 is really, really overrated. It's been a lot of time since I played it, but I'm not sure the story will get better, specially if you're bored already.

Yeah, that's what I figured too... I was hoping the characters would, you know, develop more later or something, but I suppose if I'm bored already, there's no point in powering through it.

Fujin's a pretty minor character in FF8 tho.

Ah, I expected that but it's still pretty disappointing... it seems like her FF8 design differs pretty significantly from her KH2 design too which is also slightly disappointing 'cause her KH2 design is great. That said, FF8 Fujin's eyepatch is sweet, so I guess each design has its pros and cons (the con of her KH2 design is that it doesn't have an eyepatch)

If you can master your need for instant gratification, the Final Fantasy games often go on sale. Certainly during Steam's summer and winter sales. They're at least 50% off, and sometimes up to 70% off. I have been slowly acquiring all of them over the course of the past few years during those sales.

Right, I forgot all about them sales. I'm definitely gonna have to buy them the next time a sale hits... now the only thing to worry about is which one to buy first. It seems that all the FF games from 3 to 14 (minus 12 and 15's apparently coming to PC soon) are on Steam, so I definitely have a lot of games to choose from in the future...

I hated SO MUCH of FF8, holy crap. But Fujin was one of the bright spots. Irvine and Selfie too, especially when the latter went bomb crazy. I have never wanted to punch a main character so badly.
Rinoa wasn't much better than Squall tbh, just less angsty. But I swear, after the whole stranded in space scene where they're saved beyond all hope of rescue, and then they're on the Rag and Rinoa asks for a hug AND SQUALL FUCKING GOES "WHY?"

I haven't heard of Irvine before you mentioned him, but it's not like I can ever say no to dual shotguns... he's like Reaper but not Mexican or comically edgy (or maybe he is Mexican and comically edgy, I wouldn't really know). I don't really have much of an opinion on Selphie or Squall based on their appearances in KH and KH2, but it seems like Selphie was pretty much transformed into a generic schoolgirl and Squall retains that emo charm. I can understand why he'd after starring for like 50 hours (especially with that scene you mentioned in mind...), but, in small doses, Squall (excuse me, LEON) seems alright. I hear the KH series kinda butchered the characterizations of quite a few FF characters though, so I'm not quite sure if judging them based on their appearances is a good idea... I mean, I haven't met the Gullwings yet, but who the hell thought it'd be a good idea to make them into fairies or whatever? (that said, I haven't played FFX or FFX-2 so maybe it's a reasonable change?)

Edit: Wait, Irvine doesn't wield dual shotguns... dang, I misread his thing. My awful joke is ruined now! I guess I'll have to go to Halo or Overwatch if I want dual shotguns (Halo does have dual shotguns, right?)

last edited at Sep 3, 2017 1:28PM

[...] now the only thing to worry about is which one to buy first. It seems that all the FF games from 3 to 14 (minus 12 and 15's apparently coming to PC soon) are on Steam, so I definitely have a lot of games to choose from in the future...

My favorite is 9. To put in slightly different words than Nezchan's, 9 is a love letter to the series, it has pretty much everything that made the series good. You can't go wrong with 4-6 either (gameplay-wise, the most interesting is probably 5, tho).

I'm gonna put in the good word for FFX. It's depressing, never has a "fun" energy about it like the other games in the series, and the character upgrade system is esoteric. But as far as I'm at it has the best written main characters of any FF game. They react to tragedy like normal people, they're sensitive both to each other's feelings as well as their own, and they're aware of their flaws, while trying to fix them with inconsistent results. It's not for everyone, but it totally delivers on its vision, and it's a good example of what I think the FF13 writers were hoping to do but couldn't.

[...] now the only thing to worry about is which one to buy first. It seems that all the FF games from 3 to 14 (minus 12 and 15's apparently coming to PC soon) are on Steam, so I definitely have a lot of games to choose from in the future...

My favorite is 9. To put in slightly different words than Nezchan's, 9 is a love letter to the series, it has pretty much everything that made the series good. You can't go wrong with 4-6 either (gameplay-wise, the most interesting is probably 5, tho).

Oh, I love 9, for real. But then, even though I grew up on 4 and 6 I also like 7 a lot, even though a lot of people write it off as "overrated", which is annoying. It's still a good game with characters who are genuinely likeable. I also like 10, so y'all can just write me off an never speak to me again. I think the only real dud that I've played was 8 for the most part, although I haven't really done anything with 11 onward.