Tom's Hardware Giveaway - Final Fantasy VII!

[DragonLich]

I absolutely love Final Fantasy VI. I've played it about 6 complete times and it never bores me. It convinced me to try the other Final Fantasy games and made me into one of the biggest Final Fantasy fans. Why ? Because Final Fantasy VI is, without a doubt, the finest Final Fantasy game created in the old, sprite-based style -- before the franchise made the jump to the PlayStation. With one of the most well-developed, diverse casts of all time and a pristine battle system, Final Fantasy VI will always be fondly remembered.

 

[dbronkalla06]

Final Fantasy IX was my favorite. I really enjoyed the story of it and it was challenging enough without going over the top.

 

[squibbfire]

I remember quite fondly of how I discovered Chrono Trigger. It was in the 90's…96 to 98. Kay-Bee toys was still around in the malls. Blockbuster ruled the video game and movie rental market. The internet was just still new. You could hear dial up modem noises in the house. Back then I was just going into high school. All my friends were still watching X-Men the animated series and the first Sony PlayStation was just released and caught everyone by surprise. Yet people were still playing SEGA and Super Nintendo. And some people who had computers were dabbling into some early FPS shooters including myself. I however still played my Sega Genesis and had just beaten Phantasy Star 4 for like the 3rd time. My family didn’t travel for spring break so I was stuck at home, but this time they rented a PS1 from Blockbuster for me to try and I played Final Fantasy 7. I loved the game so much I wanted to know more about the company that made it online and tried to find out what other games they made. I jumped on our family PC and did my homework. This is when I first heard about this Chrono Trigger and its multiple endings. I had to have this game. Everyone that had played it said it was ahead of its time and there was not game quite like it. After getting a copy of the game to my surprise it felt so much like Final Fantasy 7. I spent a whole weekend with Papa John’s pizza (which was extremely popular at the time) and Chrono Trigger. Playing it for the first time was like discovering an old cult classic long after it was released or a great restaurant that has always been around but you never tried it till recently. The music was fantastic, the gameplay was fantastic everything about the game seemed new but old at the same time. The more I played, the more I looked online and the more the gameplay expanded in front of me. Once a character leveled up and learned a new combo attack your whole game plan could change! What I realized today…is that this may have been the first 4th dimensional open world game. Not only did you have a whole world to explore…you have that world in 3 or 4 different time periods to explore filled with many quests, stories and 13 endings. However the whole experience was also very bitter sweet. I couldn’t tell anyone about the game because it had just come out a year or two before and the PlayStation 3D revolution has started and no one cared about a cartoony 2D RPG…even though Dragon Ball Z came out and rocked the cartoon world a few years later all while having the same cover artist. Everyone cared about Lara Croft and her two BIG guns but not about the EPOCH. Everyone cared about cool the racing in Gran Turismo was but not about the epic battle with MAGUS and having him join you! You could play this game through 3 times and have a different experience each time! Chrono Trigger felt like the most fun, beautiful and heartwarming game ever made….yet it was never given a chance to have its wonderful and charming story told to the world. No matter how excited I get when I meet someone who has had the good fortune to play this game and know enough to talk with me about all of the little storylines and quests, it yet still saddens me when the self-proclaimed hardcore gamers my age rattle on about generic games like Crash Bandicoot, Madden or Halo still haven’t given this special little game the time of day.

 

[jakjawagon]

I liked FFVI the most. So many characters, and not one felt tacked on.
Though VIII had the best music IMO.

 

[Blazer1985]

The answer is FFX. Because the phrase "This is MY story" will make you defeat the final boss while crying like a baby. And when you think you are done.. here comes the high-five with Auron and the tears start raining again. But now they taste bittersweet.
Most emotional game ever.
(besides.. you know.. that Aeris thing..)

 

[Zanderif]

Unpopular opinion incoming!

I really liked Final Fantasy X-2. Likely because it was the first Final Fantasy game I played. Also contributing is that it was back when I could still go through an RPG. I was a big fan of the dress sphere system, though, and every so often I think about popping it in and giving it a go, for old times sake.

 

[Geef]

The Final Fantasy I liked the most, other than VII was VI (Three on SNES). My best friend was the first to get it and we both spent many hours playing through it over and over. I loved how doing things differently made the story different. I had to convince my friend to let me use one of the three save slots the game had back then so I could play my own game instead of playing through his savegame over and over. I think he made me give him two dollars to do it and we were in elementary school so that was a lot of money! Ah the memories.

 

[Ghoul]

My favorite Final Fantasy is Final Fantasy I (NES). The reason is the storyline and the ending paradox of Chaos, that's where it all started with all the job classes and the stuff that makes the game great. By the way, I wish they could make a remake of FF1 with all the current graphics AND without altering things like they did in Down of Souls.

 

[LOLctopus]

FF10, was easily the only game that ever hit me right in the feels. When you find out Titus is just a dream and at the end when he fades away.... So sad

 

[duckandchicken]

Back then when I was young Final Fantasy VII was the best ....beautyfull 3D CG good story, I play many times on PS and PC and learnt English Japanese from FF game. Then FF VIII IX also good, when PS2 came out FF X was too beautyfullllllllllllll XII was good but Vaan ruined the game and SE ruined FF, FFXIII was only good is the Lake Bresha scense damm beautyfullllllllllllll

 

[Daniel Ladishew]

FFX was my favorite RPG played in it's own release time. I spent easily 400+ hours on multiple play thrus attempting to get a fully complete experience of everything the game had to offer. I also played FFXI for 3+ years, and while it was not my favorite, it was easily the most time spent on any RPG (sure it's an MMO, but still an RPG). I did go back and play FFVI, FFVII, and FFVIII well after they were re-released. I can understand why people loved them in their own time, but at least for me, they didn't hold up graphically after seeing what FFX had to offer.

 

[minh278]

Final Fantasy XIII, because i never finished it.

 

[jsgrant31]

The answer is FFX. Because the phrase "This is MY story" will make you defeat the final boss while crying like a baby. And when you think you are done.. here comes the high-five with Auron and the tears start raining again. But now they taste bittersweet.
Most emotional game ever.
(besides.. you know.. that Aeris thing..)

FF10, was easily the only game that ever hit me right in the feels. When you find out Titus is just a dream and at the end when he fades away.... So sad

FFX was my favorite RPG played in it's own release time. I spent easily 400+ hours on multiple play thrus attempting to get a fully complete experience of everything the game had to offer. I also played FFXI for 3+ years, and while it was not my favorite, it was easily the most time spent on any RPG (sure it's an MMO, but still an RPG). I did go back and play FFVI, FFVII, and FFVIII well after they were re-released. I can understand why people loved them in their own time, but at least for me, they didn't hold up graphically after seeing what FFX had to offer.

All of this. FFX is still one of the GOATs for me; I had multiple 100+ hour playthroughs. I remember picking it up on a whim, literally because the box art looked good (hey, I was 10) and I had heard that this "Final Fantasy" series was pretty good. Not to mention my first turn-based RPG (which I ended up loving turn-based combat), I had discovered a game with a deep, emotional story that provided so much immersion with the characters, settings, and music. As far as gaming stories go for me, not much rivals the experience of playing through FFX for the first time. I need to go back and play the earlier games, and I'm hoping FFXV is good too.

 

[RedJaron]

Like many, I suppose, VII and X are my favorites. If I could be perfectly objective about it, X is probably the better overall game. However VII has a big nostalgia factor for me. But unlike most things from my teens, FF VII actually lives up to expectations when I revisit it today. The first time I played it, I logged 35 hours of play in three days. You weren't some nameless cookie-cutter person just killing monsters looking for loot and power-ups. It had distinct characters that you identified with and cared about, an interesting world and setting, and a meaningful story. It was like the original Dark Forces that way. But Dark Forces was only able to deliver the cool story between long levels whereas FF VII had it suffused throughout ( though yes, there could be long sections of random monster encounters at times ). Those were some of the first games I remember that tried to be something more than just another video game. They brought a flair of the cinematic, but being longer than a movie were able to get a deeper, thicker story usually only in books. It was interactive cinematic literature. I'm not saying others didn't do it before, just that I didn't have them in my collection.

FF X was kind of like the perfect storm FF VII was. You had a new generation of console to power better graphics, awesome FMV sequences, cool characters, an exotic locale, a story you cared about, and all new voice acting. I think the battle system hit perfection here with the time-sensitive turn-based approach, hot swapping characters, and different tactics for different monsters ( just add the materia system ). Yeah, you still had some cheesy moments ( like that weird forced laugh sequence ), but you had some awesome heartfelt stuff too, like Tidus not being able to actually hug Yuna at the end, Tidus and Jecht's final high-five, and Yuna whistling on the dock at the epilogue.

Of course, if we're talking about the Final Fantasy universe, and not just FF games, then Kingdom Hearts wins ( KH II and BBS are my current favorites there ).

 

[yourhighness]

Love the FF series. FF2(USA, FF3 in Japan) was my first, and still one of my all time favorites.

Best part was when you get Tellah the Black Mage early in the game he has lost his memory and all his spells. Later you meet him again and he's remembered every spell in the game, including: Meteor, but alas, not enough MP to cast it. It's not until the 3rd act that he's able to unleash the most powerful black spell in the game.

It's so funny to see this, as I was traveling last week, and got some emulators queued up for offline entertainment while flying. So I'm really getting a kick out of these replies while I'm playing FF1 on my Android phone.

 

[sephirothmk]

FFVIII. The Tetra master card game is awesome.

 

[RedJaron]

it yet still saddens me when the self-proclaimed hardcore gamers my age rattle on about generic games like Crash Bandicoot, Madden or Halo still haven’t given this special little game the time of day.

I hope I don't derail the discussion, but I'm not sure you're giving Halo its due, at least the original. Yes, it was incredibly popular and a lot of people played it ( maybe over-played it ), but it actually brought a lot of depth to the shooter genre that was mostly lacking back in 2001.

Admittedly I have not beat Chrono Trigger ( I never had an SNES, so I missed out on it, FF VI, and some others ). I did pick up a copy of FF Chronicles and Anthology once I got a PS2, but I've never finished them. The discs are sitting next to Legend of Dragoon, FF Tactics, and Chrono Cross, none of which I've finished either.

If there was one game that managed to shape my childhood, [...] that game is Final Fantasy VII. I remember it came on 4 CDs on PC while most games of the time didn't exceed 100MB. I also remember it was unplayable on my first PC due to the lack of 3D hardware acceleration, another unheard of thing at that time

I still have that copy ( and the PC release of FF VIII too ). I first played it on my brother's PS1 but didn't have one of my own ( he was moved out on his own and I was still a teenager ). The Eidos release made my day. My mom was mad that I had spent so much money on a game AND strategy book ( something like $70 back then for a teenager ). I could actually play the game on software rendering on my Pentium 166, but my brother took pity on me and bought me a 12MB Voodoo2 for my birthday. Playing the original on GLide at 800x600 was magical. Not to mention the Yamaha MIDI Synth software included. The music was already good, but hearing it with a more advanced MIDI bank and wavetable was great. It's one of the reasons I still hang on to my old Win98 box. That release can't be played on anything past DX7.

The answer is FFX. Because the phrase "This is MY story" will make you defeat the final boss while crying like a baby. And when you think you are done.. here comes the high-five with Auron and the tears start raining again. But now they taste bittersweet.

The high five was Jecht, which makes it even better since he finally complemented his son. But for tear-jerking, I think Yuna whistling on the dock during the epilogue is stronger.

FF10, was easily the only game that ever hit me right in the feels. When you find out Titus is just a dream and at the end when he fades away.... So sad

And he can't even touch Yuna. So sad.

FFX was my favorite RPG played in it's own release time. I spent easily 400+ hours on multiple play thrus attempting to get a fully complete experience of everything the game had to offer.

There were some things I wasn't willing to do. Dodge lightning? I don't think so. Monster arena? Never did it fully. But I did get every Celestial weapon ( or craft something better ), got every summon, and got each character at least two full sections of the sphere grid ( Wakka with all of Auron's stats added on gets pretty sick ). I think my longest save is about 140 hours.

All of this. FFX is still one of the GOATs for me; I had multiple 100+ hour playthroughs. I remember picking it up on a whim, literally because the box art looked good (hey, I was 10) and I had heard that this "Final Fantasy" series was pretty good. Not to mention my first turn-based RPG (which I ended up loving turn-based combat), I had discovered a game with a deep, emotional story that provided so much immersion with the characters, settings, and music. As far as gaming stories go for me, not much rivals the experience of playing through FFX for the first time.

I didn't get it on a whim. I specifically bought the PS2 to get FF X, like I bought an old GBA off eBay specifically to play Chain of Memories. It paid off even more when I got Kingdom Hearts ( I had no idea how the game would be when it came out ). And of course I was able to discover Ratchet & Clank.

 

[kireato]

I actually know very little about the final fantasy series so I'm hardly a good judge. I tried many games on emulators but only persevered on the more beautiful ones such as Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger and Breath of Fire II. All three are gems so I've enjoyed my time with them very much.

Not on emulators, a jrpg I've enjoyed is Golden Sun, and closer to the subject of final fantasy, I've also played final fantasy tactics advance! I'm a big fan of grid turn based tactics!

 

[Ryguy64]

FF VI (FF 3) was my favorite. I've played VII, IV, and X, but VI was the only one that kept my interest long enough to finish it. Great story, great characters.

I have to say though, that Chrono Trigger is my absolute favorite RPG. The battle system was great, in that you can see enemies to avoid. The story is awesome, because it links so many characters through several different times. The music is phenomenal. I still enjoy playing through it every now and then.

 

[mrj0730]

Can't pick one. FF4, 6, and 7 were all the best games of their time.

 

[wildcard1978]

FF 7 it had the best combat system and the materia system was the best ability and magic system they ever had . played em all cept for 14 with is online only like ff online.

 

[Vlad Rose]

My favorite Final Fantasy is the first one. I remember days of me and my friend spending many days sitting in front of his TV playing through the game. I really like the Gameboy Advance remake of it (playing it now) as it really improves the one weak point of the game; the combat system.

With that said though, my favorite RPG series is Phantasy Star. Phantasy Star 2 was the one that got me completely hooked into jrpgs and it is the only series where I have beaten all 4 (1 for Master System, 2-4 for Genesis); not including the online games.

 

[random stalker]

Final Fantasy VI. Because of Kefka, the best mad clown there is: "Life...Dreams...Hope...Where do they come from? And where do they go? None of that junk is enough to fulfill your hearts! Destruction...Destruction is what makes life worth living! Destroy! Destroy! Destroy! Let's destroy everything!"

pic: http://i.imgur.com/4mpJRc6.jpg

 

[Spatialfear]

I have beaten FF7 about 4 times. I have rented it, bought it and sold it to then repurchase later. The story line with the graphics in those times were on point. My favorite part was the cross-dressing bit... That was hilarious.

 

[danilo]

FF1 I was young and it was fantastic...