General Gaming Beat it - Small rant about Final Fantasy IX.

[Bacon]

1 hour ago, Dodger said:

I do find it funny you're ranting about IX having a shallow story and the main hero's motivations being basically he wants to fuck the hot princess, but the plot of VII literally is Cloud making up his entire back story and joining the rad eco terrorist group.... because he wants to fuck his childhood crush.

Ok, but the game doesn't start out like that. We don't know the full truth until later. Cloud also doesn't go, "Don't worry Tifa, I'll always protect you and save you, my Princess" the moment we are introduced to Tifa. Cloud isn't even particularly that warm to Aerith either. Cloud starts out interesting, IMO, and it makes him even more interesting when we find out the cloud we know is based on a lie.  I don't know what will happen with Zidane in the future, but for now, he is boring. He doesn't even feel like a main character. Like I said, he feels as relevant as Yuffie at the moment.

 

And I don't get how you are lumping the whole story of IX and Zidane's personal story and then only bringing up Cloud's personal story. The whole Midgard part of the story is more interesting than IX's Disc 1 even when you ignore Cloud.

[Paperclyp]

I just think it’s a different type of story. 7 starts very heavy and 9 is very much a lighthearted adventure at first with hints of something deeper going on. One of 9’s problems is probably TOO many threads that it doesn’t really explain all that well even by the end of the game. 

[Bacon]

1 hour ago, Paperclyp said:

and 9 is very much a lighthearted adventure at first with hints of something deeper going on

I wouldn't mind that if 9 had a slow start. I love games have that a slow start before the game really begins, like in Twilight Princess for example. With FF9 tho, it is actually moving at a quick pace, but the plot is moving very slowly. Of course, I am only on Disc 2 but this is easily the slowest FF I have played so far. Slow plot-wise that is.

[DPCyric]

On 4/30/2023 at 4:51 PM, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

It's been a long time since I played it, but I usually rank IX as my second favorite, behind VI.

 

Weird VI is my favorite but IX I really tried to like but after getting all the characters I still didn't care for it and stopped. 

[CastlevaniaNut18]

Just now, DPCyric said:

 

Weird VI is my favorite but IX I really tried to like but after getting all the characters I still didn't care for it and stopped. 

VI is also my husband’s favorite but he hated IX. He played it when it was new, though, and admits to it not being what he expected at the time. I told him to give it another go. 
 

 

We both hated X. 

[DPCyric]

13 minutes ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

VI is also my husband’s favorite but he hated IX. He played it when it was new, though, and admits to it not being what he expected at the time. I told him to give it another go. 
 

 

We both hated X. 

 

So X is my second favorite but I also played through it on some heavy painkillers because I was dealing with a third degree chemical burn at the time... I haven't tried to replay it but maybe I should 

[BloodyHell]

19 hours ago, Paperclyp said:

I never said 9 wasn’t beloved. It is. But it is one of the least played ones since 7. And 8 has had a renaissance in the last 10 years or so.  It is bordering on overrated at this point. 

I mean, I don't see any renaissance, or great love for the game. IX is far more beloved than 8. 

VIII is ok as a game, bad as a FF, imo. But the idea that people haven't played IX is wrong, period. I don't even know where you get the idea that most RPG players of the time didn't play a game that sold extremely well and is incredibly popular across the JRPG community. 

[BloodyHell]

10 hours ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

VI is also my husband’s favorite but he hated IX. He played it when it was new, though, and admits to it not being what he expected at the time. I told him to give it another go. 
 

 

We both hated X. 

Yeah, I hold a great dislike for X as well. VI is definitely my fave. It's among my all time top 5, for sure. 

[Paperclyp]

6 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

I mean, I don't see any renaissance, or great love for the game. IX is far more beloved than 8. 

VIII is ok as a game, bad as a FF, imo. But the idea that people haven't played IX is wrong, period. I don't even know where you get the idea that most RPG players of the time didn't play a game that sold extremely well and is incredibly popular across the JRPG community. 

 

You keep putting words in my mouth dude. I said it is one of the least played ones since 7. It sold about half as well as 8 and 1/3 as well as 7. What I am saying is not controversial. 

[BloodyHell]

1 minute ago, Paperclyp said:

 

You keep putting words in my mouth dude. I said it is one of the least played ones since 7. It sold about half as well as 8 and 1/3 as well as 7. What I am saying is not controversial. 

8 sold 9m, with a huge boost because of FF7. There was a lot of anger at the time because new fans thought they were getting more Cloud.  9 sold almost 7 million worldwide from the numbers I just looked at, and all most 3m at launch in Japan, so I don't think you are correct. I think you're underestimating how popular IX is, by a large amount. What you're saying isn't controversial, it's just not reality. IX is huge and has more love from the community than VIII, and was played by millions. It's remembered far more fondly than 8, which is regularly near the bottom of favorite FF lists. 

[Paperclyp]

Just now, BloodyHell said:

8 sold 9m, with a huge boost because of FF7. There was a lot of anger at the time because new fans thought they were getting more Cloud.  9 sold almost 7 million worldwide from the numbers I just looked at, and all most 3m at launch in Japan, so I don't think you are correct. I think you're underestimating how popular IX is, by a large amount. What you're saying isn't controversial, it's just not reality. IX is huge and has more love from the community than VIII, and was played by millions. It's remembered far more fondly than 8, which is regularly near the bottom of favorite FF lists. 

 

I think you're misunderstanding me. I'm not saying people like 8 better or 9 better. 8 is more polarizing, but people are generally very aware of 8 and at least have an opinion on it one way or another. People didn't think they were getting more Could? They just didn't like 8 because it was kind of broken and was quite a departure in setting and tone and they didn't like Squall OR they fuckin loved it and say its the best in the series. It doesn't really matter cuz that's not the point I'm making. 

 

7's popularity is unassailable. 8's imprint on the culture is massive, love it or hate it. IN GENERAL, (yes, many people have played the game, obviously), but IN GENERAL it is the least played mainline series game and if there's a game in the series 7 through 10, that the chances are people won't be able to tell you much about, it's 9. Doesn't mean it's not beloved by people who have played it. Doesn't mean it's a worse game than 8. But that's what I'm saying. Remember what I am responding to, the idea that FF9 is "overrated." I just don't think it has the imprint on the industry to garner such a moniker. If you want to get specific and say "fans of FF9 overrate the game," it's hard to argue with that. But nobody talks about FF9. They talk about 7, they talk about how 8 is awesome or sucks ass. They talk about FFX. (Post X mainline games I do not have a sense of how many people played and whatnot). 

[Paperclyp]

I also wonder if you think I am somehow being critical of FF9? I fucking love FF9 dude. I had a Steiner profile pic for the majority of this message board's history. I'm also curious how old you are. Even at the time, which I alluded to before, the 7 hype was off the charts, the 8 hype was off the charts. It's not that there was no hype for 9, but it sort of came and went compared to the other two games, and the hype for the upcoming PS2 launch certainly overshadowed the game some, besides for whatever nebulous reasons that it didn't hit as hard in general. 

[Bacon]

Growing up, IX seemed to be the least popular of the ps1 era. The great debate was between 7 and 8, not 6 and 7 like it is now. However, 9 is talked about often online and generally in a positive light. I see far less negative stuff about 9 than I do 7 but 7 also has a bigger audience so there are more people to dislike it. I would say that these days Final Fantasy IX is a popular game. I cannot agree that the figurative nobody talks about FF9 in my usual haunts and I would put it over 8 in terms of online popularity in the year 2023. I could be wrong but this is the conclusion I have drawn based on my experiences online. It is why I skipped from 4 all the way to 9.

[BloodyHell]

1 minute ago, Paperclyp said:

 

I think you're misunderstanding me. I'm not saying people like 8 better or 9 better. 8 is more polarizing, but people are generally very aware of 8 and at least have an opinion on it one way or another. People didn't think they were getting more Could? They just didn't like 8 because it was kind of broken and was quite a departure in setting and tone and they didn't like Squall OR they fuckin loved it and say its the best in the series. It doesn't really matter cuz that's not the point I'm making. 

 

7's popularity is unassailable. 8's imprint on the culture is massive, love it or hate it. IN GENERAL, (yes, many people have played the game, obviously), but IN GENERAL it is the least played mainline series game and if there's a game in the series 7 through 10, that the chances are people won't be able to tell you much about, it's 9. Doesn't mean it's not beloved by people who have played it. Doesn't mean it's a worse game than 8. But that's what I'm saying. Remember what I am responding to, the idea that FF9 is "overrated." I just don't think it has the imprint on the industry to garner such a moniker. If you want to get specific and say "fans of FF9 overrate the game," it's hard to argue with that. But nobody talks about FF9. They talk about 7, they talk about how 8 is awesome or sucks ass. They talk about FFX. (Post X mainline games I do not have a sense of how many people played and whatnot). 

I just don't agree. I see people talk about IX constantly, and rarely hear anyone talk about VIII. You're the first person I've really seen say that VIII is more talked about, or had some massive imprint on culture. 

 

Then theres things like saying it's the least played FF. By what metric? Where's the numbers. Again, I see no cultural impact for VIII, in fact I think it's one of the least talked about FF's. I see IX talked about far, far more. 

 

Yes, it sold more, but like I said, it had a huge FF7 boost, and there was a ton of disappointment around it. 

 

And I want to be clear, i not arguing about if one game is better, I just think you've greatly overestimated the imprint VIII made. Hell, I think Squalls gunblade is more recognizable than Squall himself. 

[Bacon]

I will also add that in FF14 there is a whole raid series based on FF8. Nothing in XIV is currently based on 7 or 9. The whole of Endwalker is a retelling of FF4 and there is also a FF3 alliance raid series. FF12 and FFT are also in FF14 in various ways.

[Paperclyp]

11 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

I just don't agree. I see people talk about IX constantly, and rarely hear anyone talk about VIII. You're the first person I've really seen say that VIII is more talked about, or had some massive imprint on culture. 

 

Then theres things like saying it's the least played FF. By what metric? Where's the numbers. Again, I see no cultural impact for VIII, in fact I think it's one of the least talked about FF's. I see IX talked about far, far more. 

 

Yes, it sold more, but like I said, it had a huge FF7 boost, and there was a ton of disappointment around it. 

 

And I want to be clear, i not arguing about if one game is better, I just think you've greatly overestimated the imprint VIII made. Hell, I think Squalls gunblade is more recognizable than Squall himself. 

 

Every time VIII comes up in some way, like the remaster release a few years ago, you'll get a slew of blogs and articles defending its honor. It doesn't matter if it got a FF7 boost or not, the sales numbers very clearly show has had more hands on it than IX. Disappointment or not, its polarizing nature has it in a spot where it's at least interesting to talk about, whereas 9 - you guys are right - generally just has a positive vibe around it and people enjoy it. Maybe as the years have gone on it's closer than I think it is between the two in terms of how many people have played either one. 

 

It's like with sports talk or anything nowadays. People want to have an argument about who is better, LeBron or Jordan. It's less interesting to have everyone agree that Tim Duncan was a fantastic player and don't we all appreciate what he was. 

 

But I guess this discussion has kinda run its course.  I think part of it is we just seem to have different circles that discuss things differently, and that is likely painting both our perceptions on this issue. I'm just always happy to harken back to my PS1 nostalgia days.

[Bacon]

FF8 enjoyers/defenders are hella loud about it. FF8 comes across as one of those games where you either love it or you hate it with no figurative in-between. Is like, if you enjoy FF8 that is THE masterpiece Final Fantasy.

 

Obviously, there are people who do like FF8 while not putting it on that pedestal but you rarely hear from'em. And of course, when you get people praising FF8 you are gonna see people join in to mock them and call them names.

[EternallDarkness]

1 hour ago, Bacon said:

FF8 enjoyers/defenders are hella loud about it. FF8 comes across as one of those games where you either love it or you hate it with no figurative in-between. Is like, if you enjoy FF8 that is THE masterpiece Final Fantasy.

 

Obviously, there are people who do like FF8 while not putting it on that pedestal but you rarely hear from'em. And of course, when you get people praising FF8 you are gonna see people join in to mock them and call them names.

 

 

I'm one of those none vocal...I enjoyed FF8 but didn't think it was the best ever people  

[Keyser_Soze]

28 minutes ago, EternallDarkness said:

I'm one of those none vocal...I enjoyed FF8 but didn't think it was the best ever people  

 

Are you also one of those people who like the worst final fantasy characters like Cait Sith, Quina, and Kimahri?

[BloodyHell]

9 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Are you also one of those people who like the worst final fantasy characters like Cait Sith, Quina, and Kimahri?

Kimarhi isn't awful. Cait Sith, well, I agree, but he's also Iconic, so it's a weird one. There's a thousand different Cait Sith products out there, especially in Japan. I don't get it though. Quina is just awful. Absolutely the worst character in part 9, and it would have been a better game without her. 

 

I actually recently played 7, and I still think that game holds up too. Yes, it's graphics are dated, but it's incredibly charming. It really has a lot of characters that are bigger than the game itself. It's hard not to love Aerith, Tifa, Red XIII, Barrett, Cid, etc, and even Cloud by the end. 

 

I will replay 8, I have replayed it before, but it's definitely not something Ireally  look forward to outside of the end of the first disk. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9, I'm always excited to replay. 

[Bacon]

@Paperclyp Da bois are level 25 and da gurls are lvl 23. The Level 28 Boss died quickly. I wasn't trying to steal and just wanted to show how fast bosses can die. Boss has 8106 HP and I did 8,234 damage with 6 actions. Also, this was my first encounter with this boss.

 

Of course, if I were to go for the items I can steal from the boss then the fight would take much longer if I didn't have the 100% steal cheat on, but longer doesn't mean harder. I'd eventually just have to hold on damage and spend the rest of the fight healing. IMO, boss difficulty shouldn't come from elongating the fight to the point where I'm not really playing and I'm just keeping my party healed up until I get a rare steal.

[Bacon]

It is frustrating that I can't farm AP without getting over leveled right now.

[Paperclyp]

@Bacon

 

I’m not sure! It’s possible the game is easier than I remember although I played through the switch version not too long ago. I do think the general battle speed is pretty quick compared to 7 and 8 or maybe it just feels that way with 4 party members. Overall it’s on the easier side in the series I’d say, but I just don’t remember steam rolling it. Perhaps if you’re stealing some really good items with that cheat it helps some, but that’s all I can think of. Overall I just hope you enjoy the game. 
 

You mentioned that there isn’t any FF9 content in 14, but they do have a few pieces of armor inspired by the game. You can get Zidane’s outfit for sure. You probably know that already but just in case. 

[Bacon]

1 minute ago, Paperclyp said:

Perhaps if you’re stealing some really good items with that cheat it helps some

It totally can make a difference like when I stole the ice sword for Steiner, but in this fight, none of my characters are using items that I stole. Zidane's weapon I just crafted in the Black Mage Village and Vivi's was stolen but I have since gotten an Oak staff "legit" so I would have had Bio at this point anyway.

 

13 minutes ago, Paperclyp said:

You mentioned that there isn’t any FF9 content in 14, but they do have a few pieces of armor inspired by the game. You can get Zidane’s outfit for sure. You probably know that already but just in case. 

Oh yeah, I do know about all of that. I was mostly meaning playable content. Tho, I guess there was the whole Gigi plotline in the Heavensward Hildibrand sidequest. I had forgotten about that.

 

[Xbob42]

So this is what it feels like to walk into an Xbob thread...

[Bacon]

4 minutes ago, Xbob42 said:

So this is what it feels like to walk into an Xbob thread...

 

On 5/15/2021 at 7:53 PM, Xbob42 said:

Great post, Bob!

 

[Bacon]

[gamer.tv]

On 4/30/2023 at 11:01 PM, gamer.tv said:

This thread both makes me want to plug in my PS3 to actually play this, not bother, and also re-buy it on Switch. That’s a pretty sizeable conflict of emotion.

I’ve just remembered I have FF7 on the same PS3 (up to the same point as the remake ended) and FFX on my PS2. If only I had 200 free hours.

[BloodyHell]

6 hours ago, gamer.tv said:

I’ve just remembered I have FF7 on the same PS3 (up to the same point as the remake ended) and FFX on my PS2. If only I had 200 free hours.

It’s on PS+ as well 

[BloodyHell]

I just beat FF1 on PS5. I might go back for the plat since I finished needing only one trophy, getting all treasure chests, and I know where the ones I missed are (Earth cave area where every step is a random battle).

 

Overall, its fun but not very good. There’s never been a lot of story, you just kind of put it together from people’s statements about what is going on in the town.

 

You don’t even get the princess, because though she was in love with you, when you end the time loop, you end everything from happening, so nobody in the world remembers you or what you did.

 

but that is why it was called Final Fantasy.

 

gonna start part 2. it has an actual story. 

[Bacon]

It's actually called Final Fantasy because Fighting Fantasy was taken.

[Bacon]

After the soulcage boss, I am left wondering if the difficulty of FF9 is supposed to come from keeping the party alive so you can steal.

[Bacon]

Also didn't expect the guy who looks like a humanoid chicken to be a regular ol human

for real, how is that not a chicken

[Bacon]

How in the fuck did Zidane, Garnet, Ekio, and basically everyone else survive that attack on Alexandria? That makes no fucking sense. The whole kingdom got blown the fuck up and the main characters were right where the blast hit.

 

This is what the game says btw

Quote

Blank: Zidane.

Zidane: !?

Blank: So, how are you feelin'?

Zidane: Okay, I guess... By the way... So what happened after that? How did
I get here?

Blank: Slow down. Geez... Things were so chaotic; it took forever to find
you guys. No one really got hurt except you. I heard you pulled some
crazy stunt.

Zidane: Yea... Eiko and Dagger were in trouble, so...

Blank: Always showing off. You got hurt pretty bad because of that.
After we found you guys, we stole a ship by the port and escaped.

Zidane: Wow. I don't remember any of that.

Blank: I didn't think so. You know, you slept three days straight...

Zidane: Really!?

Blank: By the way, Cid said he wanted to talk to you in the royal
chamber."

 

LIKE FUCKING WHAT?!?!?!? How can anyone defend such bullshit? How do even let such nonsense into your game? LOOK AT THIS YOU FUCKS

 

HOW ARE YOU ALIVE!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!!?!?!?!!?!?!?!!?!?!?!

 

It fucking sucks man. That shit was really fucking rad. This game has some amazing cutscenes but everything gets ruined when it comes time to give a coherent answer.

 

This is the last thing Zidane says before the nuke goes off

And I am just supposed to accept that they made it to the docks where they made it out on an airship? Fuckin' bs man.

 

I know there was a whole Squall is dead meme that was debunked, but if anyone is Dead and the game is a lie I it fuckin' Zidane.

[BloodyHell]

Wait, are you really pretending you’re surprised they survived a bombing?

 

is this your first FF?

 

Hell, in VI your whole party survives falling thousands of feet from the sky to survive the breaking of the earth. People survive bombings all the time, unscathed. Why is it so crazy that they escaped together?