Let's talk about FF4! And any other retro FFs

>>11877250 (OP)
This game is ultimate kino; was the first rpg I ever actually beat, and Cecil becoming a paladin is forever burned into my brain. I just wish we had gotten less of a censored version - also a better translation.

>>11877258
I always thought it happened later in the game, but it's like one of the first things you do. I've never finished it before, though. Always stopped around the time you take back Baron.
Now I'm at the Tower of Zot, and just fought the Magus Sisters, which had me grinning. I didn't know they were in FFs other than 10.
I also like that the characters just get their abilities from levelling up. Not that I don't like customizing my characters, but it's a nice, relaxing change of pace.

I wanna bathe inappropriately with Rydia.

>>11877250 (OP)
bump

>>11877301
but only before she got trapped in the fae realm

Everyone dies, but then they're all fine. Except Tellah, he dies for real.

I don't really get the appeal. It's by far the most on-the-rails FF game. Press A to kill boss, level up and go to the next cutscene. Not terrible, but it's the classic FF that I always feel like replaying the least. Is it just a case of "you should've been there and played it as your first RPG"?

>>11877481
People who praise it as the best are too braindead to enjoy anything more complex than "find new town, buy better armor, equip".

>>11877493
>find new town, buy better armor, equip
The best way to live.
You tried to be negative but you achieved the opposite.

FF4's dungeons, at least the latter ones, have the classic wing-based design where you delve in, fight your way down to some treasure, escape back out, go rest up, then use your new treasure to take on the next part
I like that better than the linear and "do it all in one go" dungeon designs of FF6

>>11877456
Anna too.
Tellah's family is cursed.

>>11877280

I have a core memory of playing this on the SNES and my older cousin was watching me fight them, and Cecil missed the fat one and he goes “how the fuck can you miss a bitch that fat”

Yeah this is their origin!

The game is a chill time where you get to play with lots of characters and character classes without having to stress out about jobs or customization. It’s nice like that, and really builds up to a truly epic end game. I am so glad you’re experiencing it!

PR or Namingway? Does PR change anything to the worse? I'm talking primarily game mechs here.

DS remake is trash since it lets you move around character abilities and give Cecil counter.

>>11877493
That's what makes you excited to see a new town, yes.

>>11877481
For the time it was pretty intense and crazy to have all these party members and all this drama between the characters.

Today, I'm with others in saying that it makes the game too on-rails and easy by taking away party customization.

>>11877940
No on Namingway. The guy caused a flood of FFVI script hybrid hacks due to his ineptitude, he only got away with it for FFIV because he read the LEGENDS OF LOCALIZATION for it first (in FFVI's case, he fucked up so badly by not doing that that everyone and their grandma realized he was full of shit and went 'no me' with their ROM hack until he regressed TWUE to basically just the qol-cocktail and went 'I meant to do that'). It's kinda shit if you realize it's basically a fanfic of the 3D version crammed into the 2D version, not understanding why things are the way they are take this scene: he's supposed to say 'brother' which is a big fucking deal but he just injected the name from the 3D version which the official version doesn't even do, lessening the impact so: if you're going to play the original, play either the Spooniest FFIV J2Evisceration Kain edit, or play the PS1 version which is honestly mostly uncut anyway and doesn't have the load times the other ports are known for.
I haven't tried PR but as far as I can tell they use the GBA versions as a base, stripped of the added content, so the script translation is a regression from the PSP version. Gameplay should be intact unlike FFI-III which had heavier tweaks.

>>11877250 (OP)
Game is really well paced up until the final dungeon. I always enjoyed the encounter design too, it has just enough clever stuff without becoming too gimmicky

>>11878260
I am replaying GBA right now and admittedly am just past the mist cave, so I just started, but the script has seemed unusually competent so far. It feels like it was meant to feel.

We really need a proper big budget remake for this game damnit. Keep it turned based, and address criticisms by allowing party members to select “specialties” inside their established jobs. For example, imagine that each character has three “trees” to choose from that tweak their abilities somewhat.

Want Edge to lose Ninjitsu magic and be an all out two-handed katana bruiser? You can do that. Want him to move to the back row and become even more of a tricky dick? You can do that too.

>>11877481
It has interesting moments.

1. Edge parents being these crazy abominations and dying
2. Kain being the coolest character in final fantasy history
3. Rydia being lost and then the return. Going into monster town.
4. Cecil being all alone and having to do his redemption post leviathan
5. Golbe is not only your brother but also becomes good side
6. Tellah showing the power of Metro and fusoya being able to cast it and every magic
7. The fact you not only have earth but also underground AND the moon
8. The canon battle theme music and lots of solid music throughout the game

It def is "you had to be there" because ff6 onward are so much more thematically and narratively rich while also having more nuanced systems, but ff4 is the penultimate "standard" jrpg

Playing FF9 and having an absolute blast so far. Art direction is great, characters are instantly likable, world is super interesting to explore, and the ost so far is really good. About my only gripe is the fomo I feel from not being able to get the final steal on some monsters or bosses.

Its nice to wake up every morning looking forward to play more.

>>11878406
Oh man, I get chills thinking about when I was a kid and thought I had just lost to Golbez and then Rydia returns at the PERFECT time, all grown up and hot and now can cast all these cool spells. My little ten year old brain asploded.

>>11878365
>I am replaying GBA right now and admittedly am just past the mist cave, so I just started, but the script has seemed unusually competent so far. It feels like it was meant to feel.
Say what you will about them, the GBA Final Fantasy enhanced ports really had a knack for doing just that, nailing the feel of the games perfectly scriptwise. It's almost like Square saw how embarrassing it was that online pirate-adjacent kids were starting to outdo their output and then upped the budget to ensure they had the best translators in the industry. That's why it's so surprising to me that the DS version of FFIV threw practically all the work out and started from scratch. Apparently Square resisted doing that, but the translator was really insistent. I guess it fits the 3D version fine and it's technically the best translation from an objective standpoint (it benefits that way in not being a rework of a previous version) but it goes for a different wannabe-highfantasy feel. PSP has the most "fun" script probably, being based on the GBA version but keeping some TAY-forward connections and DS corrections (they're subtle but they're there, like Palom/Porom's parting words).

>that time an official translator got so pissed that some mangy kids nearly tanked the company's interest in a real retranslation that he snuck in a dig at them

the censorship of FF4(FF2) is so dumb.
i hear people complain about FF6(3) all the time but that game has a mother and child get their poisoned corpses dragged out of bed by their living father, despite the "son of a submariner" stuff.

also idk how Kefka saying something crazy or wacky is out of character...

>>11877481
The 3D remake has a really good difficulty balance ,though FF4 suffers from a lack of end game the most.

>>11877940
>DS remake is trash
Tard take

>>11878775
>The 3D remake has a really good difficulty balance
Does it? They added a difficulty selection in the post-DS 3D releases so that there's an option for it to play closer to the 2D original.

>>11878802
>They added a difficulty selection in the post-DS
They added a boring easy mode. The hard mode is the original one. And yeah, it stays engaging and the final boss is hard even with a fairly leveled party
>t. Literally just replayed it this year.

smells like chocobos

>>11878813
>They added a boring easy mode. The hard mode is the original one.
The hard mode is basically the DS difficulty because the DS version was made to be harder remix of the SFC original.

>>11878892
That's what I said, yes.

>>11878769
>the censorship of FF4(FF2) is so dumb.
Eh, it was a necessary evil at the time.
>Final Fantasy IV Easy Type (JP) / II (US) is Square's first attempt at appealing to the younger demographic
>Final Fantasy Mystic Quest / USA is the second, and fails
>Super Mario RPG is the third, and succeeds
Worth it in the end. Besides, FFIIUS is fun: http://bastardly.org/power_of_cheese/index.html

>>11877250 (OP)
Protect Rydia and do not play the after years, the last dungeon is a chore.

>>11878987

It’s crazy how FF2US (and by extension the vastly superior FFIV) was basically my favorite game for decades, and yet I have never been able to force myself through the after years.

It just feels like bad fan fiction made in rpg maker; I struggle to get into it

>>11878752
If this happened today he'd have gotten cancelled for hurting the fee-fees of the passion project.

>twins turn to stone to stop the walls from closing in
kin0

So with the Final Fantasy series, what are the must plays (including offshoots) and the best version of each? Probably gonna require an autist to put it together, but I wanna go through the rest of the series after I'm finished with 9.

>>11878987
>the last dungeon is a chore.
Wrong.
The whole game is a fucking chore. The sheer amount of reused dungeons they use that you have to finish and then backtrack all the way through are insulting. I think you end up fighting the demon door and octopus bosses like 6 times each between the whole series.

>>11879068
>Must plays
4,5,6,7,10
But imo 3,8 and 12 are also good.

>>11879068
>Must plays
4,5,6,7,10
But imo 3,8,9 and 12 are also good.

>>11879068
>I-II: PlayStation
>III: Famicom
>IV-V: any (I know it's a copout answer but w/e)
>VI: SNES w/GBA-Text

>>11879068
Original hardware for each one

>>11879090
>>11879092
>>11879115
Sounds easy enough. I'll grab em. Didn't know if it would be better to get the Remasters or go for the old versions. Usually its always better to go for the old.

PSP version of IV and GBA version of V okay?

>>11879123
(ChaosRush for Famicom III, if there's ever a script port of the PR version that would be better but this is fine, it's basically a script port of tge DS version but fan-translating the differences.)
>PSP version of IV and GBA version of V okay?
PSP IV is fine and full-featured, but graphics are controversial for some.
GBA V is fine too. SFC V had a GBA text-port too but it's esl as hell.

>>11879070
I almost dropped the game when you had to fight the main bosses from FFI, FFII, FFIII, the archfiends, FFV and FFVI, like what the fuck were they thinking?

>>11879261
To be fair those are all optional. Though the fact that it confirms outright that the boring, shitty final boss murdered all the other FF game worlds is super funny. They retconned it in the 3D versions at least

>>11879151
Nice. Looks like a lot of these will run perfectly on my vita. SNES and GBA emulation sometimes get a little funky on there, but ps1/psp emulation is legit perfect. I appreciate the help!

>>11879261
They wanted to redo Soul of Chaos as an in-story dungeon but botched the execution like everything else.
>>11879279
>3D
It's amazing the quality jump from 3DIV to 3DTAY, the difference is night and day.

>>11879068
Must plays are whichever ones you want to play. There's no obvious "bad one" in the set of mainline games. Every single one of them is crammed full of beauty and deep flaws. Best versions are always the original ones for reasons that should be obvious to anybody who thinks it through some, with the following minor exceptions: FF4 lost some small but significant features in its original English release so should be played (if English language is needed) with a romhack (see the current FF4 thread for more details); FF6 has a major bug in its original English release and so that one should be avoided (not a problem these days since people will normally distribute only the later version that was fixed); FF12 had a substantial revision in the form of its "International" version that some people say is superior to the original. People will tell you that FF1 has major bugs but they are wrong, though playing a bugfixed romhack version is fine if you care to do that, but if you don't then don't worry about it. As for ports and remakes: Don't bother with any of them ever, except possibly the 3D FF4 for the DS which actually changes mechanics in interesting ways for once, or the recent FF7 remake thingy if you're into that. All others are irrelevant.

As for offshoots: I don't feel like going into it, some other anon can handle that

IV was the 2nd or 3rd RPG I ever played, it's okay when played today, but not great unless you get into the story.
>>11879068
There is no consensus. I first played the originals of ALL of them, I'm not a purist, and for me these are the versions I would play today:
I - Renaissance in original mode
II to VI - Pixel Remaster
VII - SYW mod on PC
VIII - Remaster
IX - Moguri mod on PC
X - Remaster with UnX mod
XII - Zodiac Age

Mystic Quest: fun, like an 8 bit FF redone in 16 bit. Would be fun to see it done up in 32 bit graphics/sound/resources.

Not really feasible to balance sanely due to system simplicy. Enemies are dumb, would be numbers go up mod.

>>11879068
Pros and cons of every version. Literally just pick which one you find the most visually appealing. I played the GBA versions of 1,2, and 4, and enjoyed them greatly.

>>11879335
>>11879354
Appreciate all the info. I'm actually pretty excited for this. Very recently I learned how to actually enjoy rpgs (see: >>11872360) and if I'm already loving 9 this much I can't wait to experience the others.

Gonna go from 9, to Last Remnant (just because that has been on the backlog since it released) then play the FF games in order.

>>11879068
>RedXIII from DogNigga to Floppa
lel

>>11877940
Neither; I play the original. I have no need of some basement suburban rando's opinions on what the script "should be".

>>11879068
OP here
My favorites are 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 12
I am enjoying 4 a lot, but I don't think it will rank that highly for me in the end.
Skip 13 and 15. 16 is OK, but it's too long for an action game.
Play 7 or 10.
The PSX era was the golden age.

>>11881070
I don't want to get too much into modern gaming discussion, but 15 is "okay", problem is the game does its absolute best to get you to play it wrong even going so far as to hide an entire mechanic in the options menu (the stamina bar).

If you play Noctis defensively and like a tactician/assassin early on, the game becomes infinitely more fun. You arent even meant to play it as an "action rpg" till later as all the early skills are based around back strikes and getting distance from combat. When played right its actually really cool. You look for openings in the enemies, rush in, strike their back, get a really cool team attack, then play defensively managing your party until you see another opening. The saddest part of the game is ultimately its wasted potential. When you finally get the ability to swap members its so painfully op that you cant even experiment with it. You melt enemies, including secret bosses, in literal seconds if you use it. Theres a lot of depth hidden there and you can't even scratch the surface of it because theres no "critical" mode. In the end, I think its a solid 7. Also, the cg movie was surprisingly kino.

>>11881160
My biggest problem with 15 is that it is exactly what happens when corporate suits try to extract all the profit possible from a game.
You have a story written? Cool. Chop it up into an anime, movie, mobile game, and whatever else you can think of and let's launch it as a multimedia franchise.
The game is not done? Rush it out anyway and sell the cut content as DLC, and I don't care how broken it is.
Oh, is it too hard? Make it so you can play the game with one button.
How many advertising deals do we have for this game, again? Make sure there's at least 100 references to cup noodles.
Does this game appeal to everyone? Get it in Conan O'brien to make sure!
The sad part is Versus XIII could have been really cool, and they took all the good will and hype people had for that and capitalized on it.
I think FF15 is a personification of soulless corporate meddling in video games, and it encapsulated everything that's wrong with Square Enix.
I really like Noctis, his story, and the world of the game before it had all the life sucked out of it.

>>11881278
Oh for sure. It's definitely all those things. Still, theres a diamond hidden in the rough. Isn't the prettiest diamond, but when I played it "right" (ie: actually leaning into the skills you unlock) I actually found myself immersed in the world and having legit fun. Still, all those things you said definitely lent to the overall 7/10 thing. The story is chopped up, even whats there had to be patched to be more complete later, and even then still conflicts with the external stories they made that you had to consume before understanding the story.

Also, the eng dub completely ruins the mood and makes the characters seem more like anime caricatures rather than your J-pop dressed bros.

>>11881307
Maybe I'll replay it at some point, because I haven't touched it since the week of release. I have heard they fixed a lot of it's issues. It had a lot of wasted potential.
I did like the fishing, though.

>>11877481
>you should've been there and played it as your first RPG
This and FF1 are first RPG imprinting recipients. If you properly consume the history of RPGs from the beginning they are not special.

Your favorite FF airship?

>>11881386
Its a good enough time now, like I said though, the game still does its absolute best to get you to play the early game wrong. Its really doesn't become an "action" game till much later. There was an old video I tried to find that gets into how to play it early and shows off how cool and stylish playing defense can look when done right, but I couldn't find it anywhere. Basically, if you ever play it again, just remember to enable to stamina bar in the options to make running a million times better and play more like a backstab character for Noctis in the beginning. Stay defensive till you can exploit an enemies weakness and its a LOT more fun. Still a bunch of wasted potential, but not nearly the trash game it was made out to be and even sort of was at the beginning. Your disappointment will instead shift to how deep and interesting the combat can be and how no boss or enemy really requires you to ever dig deeper than the surface level. That and the story/marketing aspects that you brought up.

>>11877456
Tellah's sacrifice was like the ONE pointless one. He accomplished fucking nothing.
He didn't even break Kain out of Golbez's control. That was a ruse to collect dark crystals.

>>11877250 (OP)
Ff4 was my first final fantasy and I still think it's one of the coolest story arcs when Cecil becomes a paladin. I was so confused as a kid, wondering what happened to my badass magic n shit. Then I realized how much better he was becoming both in battle and outside. A very great learning moment in my life. I was a little child but it taught me a lot about the virtues of being a good person.

Any tips for the setzer, celes, Edgar challenge besides grind alot? Playing on phone.

The DS version of FFIV is one of the few JRPGs that held my attention all the way through. I'm not sure why.

I like FF4's 80s anime vibe, complete with gundam robots in the final dungeons. Replay it every few years. Perfect length, where the game wraps up just about when you're thinking it should. Always a bit of a slow start because the encounters don't really do anything until after Cecil becomes a paladin. But once you hit that part of the game, things pick up. Always play on SNES. Tried the namingway romhack last time and everything seemed to be correct. I'll probably keep playing that version in the future.

>>11879354
I enjoyed IV PR a lot, especially for the music, and the backgrounds actually added a great deal of detail compared to the originals. I can't really say that for VI which looks exactly the same ran through a block filter. My only gripes about IV PR was that EXP bloat was too much and bosses always ended right as it seemed like they were getting started.

>>11879584
>>11872360
not retro but this is exactly why I think VII Rebirth's ""bloat" is actually a good thing, it's a positive in an RPG to have so much shit that you may not even see all of it in one go

>>11882164
I've never heard of this challenge. Is it just playing the game with those characters?

>>11882247
I'm in the underground currently, and I'm finally starting to feel like I have a well rounded team.
Tellah was good, too, but he chugged MP like a motherfucker.
This game is making me wanna replay 9. They have a similar atmosphere, honestly, and they both have twin moons.
I'm thinking after I finish 4, I'll finish my run of 8 remastered that I started, but I'll do it on my ROG Ally, since it might not look as awful. Then I'll replay 9.

>>11882538
Minimum number of characters required to beat the game

>>11882541
I guess all I can think of is grind a lot, get lucky with chainsaw/slots, and carry 99 of every healing item.

>>11877250 (OP)
> FF4 PSP
> FF4 DS
Let’s say you’re only to pick one and one only, which one?

>>11882573
PSP, because I prefer the game in 2D, even though I like the changes in the 3D version.

>>11881621
for me its the Ragnarok

>>11882506
I vastly prefer the original graphics. Take the cave graphics. There's more "detail" in PR in that the brown dirt has a more "interesting" texture. There's more actually going on in the original game with the cavern backgrounds showing distant underground rivers and a sense of scale.
Also I think the Pixel Remaster are just the GBA backgrounds in higher resolution?

>>11877250 (OP)
Quick, shill me the BEST versions of the 8 and 16 bit FFs, romhacks and such included.
Is it really the GBA versions?

>>11882602
Play Final Fantasy Renaissance

https://rengames.us/ffr.html

>>11882604
no thanks

>>11882602
Thr GBA & PR versions are both in the top three of the versions, but they're so normalfag I can't nominate them as best version.
If you play a ROMhack avoid anything that claims they needed to retranslate from scratch because the official is full of script, they're all extremely dated and usually full of shit themselves by retarded kids.

>>11882506
I agree (though Im not a huge fan of the remake).

It was wild because I loved so many aspects of JRPG's but every time I tried to play them I'd get burnt out early on. Guides basically turn them into annoying checklists with the combat just becoming time wasters to get to the story. Basically, they just become cumbersome VN's.

Now a JRPG is all about the adventure, exploration, and seeing whats around the corner. I see now why people were a bit mixed on 16's side content as the side content and how interesting it is really makes up a huge part of JRPG's. Just stumbling on some old ruins and encountering a super hard boss that if beaten gets you a summon or weapon, or finding some NPC that gives you a hint at where they are going to go next if you save them. Stuff like that. You gotta get out of that completionist "destination" focused mentality and go back to the journey... which is particularly hard for people with limited time which equals most of us I think.

Man, half way through 9 and i just can't get over how much they used to care. Like, the amount of work plus the creativity involved is just nuts and its something you really don't see anymore.

I don't think I've felt this way about a game in years and it's sad that this sort of thing is just gone now. This level of care and innovation doesn't really exist. Glad I got most of the rest of the series to play after or this would kinda be crushing.