***RATE THE GAME: WEEK 126!!! THAT'S RIGHT! IT'S BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER!!!***

[M-A-G]

Click the video.

[Big Vic]

Ahh I haven't played it

[Sepholio]

I went with a 5 but it's more a 4.5. It's a good FF and overall near the top of the series. But this score is for one reason: Triple Triad.

[Destor]

Easy 5.

I got into FF late. My first FF was 13. I loved it so much i went back and played each FF in order. 5 was the 1st one that i thought was excellent. Then i played 6 and was floored. With 7s reputation i was flying high going into it...and i felt, after how great 6 was, that 7 was just.. ok. So going into 8 i was reserved but by the end of it i came away feeling like it was vastly superior to 7 and still do. Id go as far as to say its the best of the 3 psx FF titles.

And yeah Triple Triad

[Sepholio]

Man I couldn't bring myself to do a 5 because I remember it was a bit....jank. The underlying systems in the game were so complex that even the devs lost track of what was possible with them and it led to some seriously easy game breaking cheese. You could pretty much make yourself unkillable before ever leaving Balamb Garden. And it wasn't even hard to do it.

[Sepholio]

Well I did a 5, but like I said, 4.5 lol

[Sepholio]

Also should note that I didn't have a PSX back in those days so I was playing the PC version, so there's a good chance some of the jank I remember was due to porting issues.

[Destor]

I think the average player isnt going to suss out the finer points of card refinery without a guide until mid to late game. We know now how to break the game open early 20 years later but a blind run isnt going to. Like you said its complex. Certainly didnt magically click for me that early.

But discovering how complex systems work and how to manipulate to my favor is what i play rpgs for. I see that "critique" as a boon.

[Destor]

Originally Posted by Sepholio Also should note that I didn't have a PSX back in those days so I was playing the PC version, so there's a good chance some of the jank I remember was due to porting issues.

its a psx game. Jank is par for the course

[Sepholio]

The particular game breaking thing from Balamb Garden wasn't even hard to figure out. Once you can do the whole thing where you refine items with Siren after the first mission if you try it on a tent you get Curaga that early and you can just sit around buying tents with your paycheck and junctioning Curagas until you have like 5k health in the first area. You can then go ahead with the magic lamp and take out Diabolos right from the start which gives you another huge advantage, not even counting that you can draw high level spells from him which you can go ahead and use to get 9999 hp lol

[Destor]

And im sayin thats not organic. The average person refining items seriously that early in the game let alone knowing the ones they optimally need to refine? Im calling bullshit. I think 99% of people who claim to have used those methods in their first playthrough did it with gamefaqs open.

But even still for the 1% figuring out how to manipulate these systems is its own reward. Early or late its whatever. Though since most people see a crafting system and just ignore it i dont think the numbers of people doing this organically in its day are particularly high.

Id wager the average player didnt even fully grasp how draw's count was impacting stats until after the early game.

Diablos i think most encountered early. I beat him pretty early. Ive always liked low level challenges. Having him didnt break the game or anything.

[Fignuts]

Gave it a 4. Would be a 5, but I just didn't like Squall.

Ultimecia is probably my favorite final fantasy villain, though.

[Lock Jaw]

I have played it! It is actually the last videogame that I played and beat when I replayed it a few years back.

I forgot how much I loved the game. I'd easily rank it above the beloved FF7.

That being said, though, I'm only going to give it a 4 instead of a 5.

Mainly due to the "drawing magic" system. First time I played it as a youth I stood around spending sooooo much time just drawing 100 magic. Luckily I had it on PC and halfway through the game I discovered the magic of save hacks, so what I'd do is instead of taking that time I'd just draw it once and then edit the save after to pretend I had stood around drawing 100. Wouldn't give myself 100 of something that I couldn't get from drawing from an enemy (like if it came from a draw point or whatever)

I replayed it many times as a youth, and then a few years ago as I said, and always did that with the save file to the point where I literally can't imagine how anybody could play the game without the ability to hack the save and skip all the tedious drawing.

[M-A-G]

Can't believe I left out a huge part of this whole process. Here are the standings so far on our glorious leaderboard:

Rate the Game Results

1. Super Mario World (4.81)
2. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (4.8)
3. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (4.8)
4. Hitman: Codename 47 (4.75)
5. Mass Effect (4.75)
6. Goldeneye 007 (4.72)
7. Super Mario Bros. 3 (4.7)
8. Silent Hill 2 (4.66)
9. Super Mario Bros. 2 (4.5)
10. Portal (4.5)
11. Red Dead Redemption (4.5)
12. Chrono Trigger (4.5)
13. Final Fantasy 3 (4.5)
14. Silent Hill 3 (4.5)
15. Mega Man 2 (4.44)
16. Donkey Kong Country (4.44)
17. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (4.44)
18. Super Mario Bros. (4.41)
19. God of War (4.4)
20. Mega Man X (4.36)
21. Metal Gear Solid (4.33)
22. BioShock (4.33)
23. Perfect Dark (4.3)
24. Shadow of the Colossus (4.28)
25. The Last of Us (4.28)
26. Super Street Fighter 2 (4.15)
27. Sonic the Hedgehog (4.14)
28. Resident Evil 2 (4.14)
29. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (4.125)
30. Super Mario 64 (4.07)
31. Grand Theft Auto 3 (4.06)
32. The Legend of Zelda (4.06)
33. NBA Jam (4.05)
34. Super Mario Kart (4.0)
35. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (4.0)
36. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (4.0)
37. Super Smash Bros. (4.0)
38. Super Metroid (4.0)
39. The Simpsons (4.0)
40. Resident Evil 4 (4.0)
41. EarthBound (4.0)
42. Fallout 3 (4.0)
43. Mirror's Edge (4.0)
44. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (4.0)
45. Donkey Kong Country 2 (4.0)
46. Banjo-Kazooie (4.0)
47. Final Fantasy 7 (3.94)
48. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (3.92)
49. Mega Man (3.89)
50. Castlevania (3.86)
51. Contra (3.86)
52. Devil May Cry (3.86)
53. Half-Life 2 (3.85)
54. Half-Life (3.83)
55. Infamous (3.83)
56. SimCity 2000 (3.8)
57. Final Fight (3.8)
58. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (3.77)
59. Batman: Arkham Asylum (3.76)
60. Double Dragon (3.75)
61. Max Payne (3.75)
62. Tetris (3.69)
63. Mortal Kombat 2 (3.67)
64. Alan Wake (3.66)
65. Diablo (3.66)
66. F.E.A.R. (3.66)
67. Mortal Kombat (3.65)
68. Doom (3.625)
69. StarFox (3.61)
70. Resident Evil (3.58)
71. Kirby's Adventure (3.57)
72. Ninja Gaiden (3.5)
73. Burnout Paradise (3.5)
74. Thief: The Dark Project (3.5)
75. Dark Souls (3.5)
76. Shinobi (3.5)
77. Dead Space (3.4)
78. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (3.39)
79. Resident Evil: Nemesis (3.38)
80. Crash Bandicoot (3.33)
81. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (3.33)
82. Wolfenstein 3D (3.33)
83. Dead Island (3.33)
84. Left 4 Dead (3.33)
85. Nights Into Dreams (3.33)
86. Condemned: Criminal Origins (3.33)
87. Gauntlet Legends (3.28)
88. Gears of War (3.27)
89. Borderlands (3.22)
90. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (3.22)
91. Duke Nukem 3D (3.2)
92. Darkstalkers (3.2)
93. Quake (3.2)
94. SoulCalibur (3.16)
95. Pac-Man (3.125)
96. Killer Instinct (3.11)
97. Virtua Fighter (3.09)
98. Rock Band (3.09)
99. Earthworm Jim (3.0)
100. Metroid (3.0)
101. Time Crisis (3.0)
102. Tekken (3.0)
103. Halo 2 (3.0)
104. Destiny (3.0)
105. The Secret of Monkey Island (3.0)
106. Sonic Adventure (3.0)
107. Shenmue (3.0)
108. Guitar Hero (2.875)
109. Ecco the Dolphin (2.85)
110. Streets of Rage (2.84)
111. Altered Beast (2.8)
112. Bayonetta (2.75)
113. Assassin's Creed (2.71)
114. Gauntlet (2.71)
115. Dead Rising (2/71)
116. Saints Row (2.66)
117. The Sims (2.6)
118. Silent Hill (2.6)
119. Tomb Raider (2.55)
120. Halo: Combat Evolved (2.5)
121. Twisted Metal (2.42) 122. Crackdown (2.42)
123. Golden Axe (2.33)
124. Gran Turismo (2.3)
125. Ghosts n' Goblins (2.14)


Can anything unseat Super Mario World from the top? Will there be anything else that can crack the top ten? Things are looking promising so far for Final Fantasy 8...even though I haven't played it.

[Sepholio]

People who rate 8 above 7 can't be trusted and should be institutionalized for the safety of society as a whole.

[M-A-G]

Do you want to change your score to a 4?

[Lock Jaw]

Originally Posted by M-A-G even though I haven't played it.

You need to play more video games

[M-A-G]

Gonna be honest, this collection of games is going to get A LOT of "Haven't played it" votes from me.

[weather vane]

Never played a FF game.

[OssMan]

Originally Posted by Destor Easy 5. I got into FF late. My first FF was 13. I loved it so much i went back and played each FF in order. 5 was the 1st one that i thought was excellent. Then i played 6 and was floored. With 7s reputation i was flying high going into it...and i felt, after how great 6 was, that 7 was just.. ok. So going into 8 i was reserved but by the end of it i came away feeling like it was vastly superior to 7 and still do. Id go as far as to say its the best of the 3 psx FF titles. And yeah Triple Triad

interesting... have your thoughts on 13 changed at all/did you play it again

i didn't really like 8... i played it well after i'd developed a love for the series and it just felt very confusing and strange to me... felt like they were trying to deliberately make it as unlike any previous final fantasy as they could "what if you could equip spells" "what if there was a college campus that could fly"

i remember playing the last level when i had my wisdom teeth out... was all loopy in my bed fighting a boss that took me 2 hours

[Destor]

Actually replayed it last year.

I still feel very strongly about 13. Only thing that changed might be that i can see how similar to 10 it is. Essentially the same leveling system. Very similar world progression (well 10 is a straight line until about 30 hours in you get to back track and 13 is about 30 hours in you get a massive zone to explore but its similar enough. [For the record i do not equate linearity with bad.])

That said it has one of the best OSTs ive ever heard. Some characters that i really love. What is still the best use of ATB ive ever played. And a story that i think really hits. And its still beautiful. Probably the best looking console game of that gen.

I love yo read lore in games so my first go i read all the codex entries. I will say that not having some key info given to the players in cutscenes absolutely leads to a huge part of the audience being completely lost. But for me its was a game that is really got me into the genre and now its not only all i really play it got me to explore 20+ years worth of games i never gave a chance.

And 13-2 is slept on pretty hard too.

...13-3 is an unplayable mess

[Sepholio]

13-3 has one of my favorite systems in an RPG tbh. The whole "last" enemy thing where you can literally battle enemy species until they go extinct with the last one of them being a special variant with cool drops. Loved that idea.

[Lock Jaw]

Seems bleak to be able to extinguish whole species.....

[Destor]

I think 13-3 on paper is really cool. At the conceptual level there's a lot i like. That said the game needed another 2 years in the oven. Tons of jank and half finished ideas. But at that point the west had decisively moved on from the 13 brand so it was what it was.

[M-A-G]

Like I said, I'm not a Final Fantasy guy but I thought this was pretty cool.

Final Fantasy 6 menu screen

[Sepholio]

those are sick and I need them all

[Destor]

Really impressive detail

[drave]

almost a 1. Never got into it like I did all previous FF titles. Not sure why exactly.....


A lil bit of what Seph mentioned. It wasn't hard to cheese at. all. without a guide.


Also just didn't get into the story arc at all. Never finished it, not sure even how far into it I got, as I know FF seems to "change" once you are 30+ hours in. I definitely didn't play that long.

[M-A-G]

Originally Posted by Sepholio those are sick and I need them all

Far be it for me to be a shill, but here's the person's Etsy: https://etsy.me/40mLAwD

[M-A-G]

Originally Posted by Lock Jaw You need to play more video games

This would be pretty awesome/funny it ends up with you playing more games from this package than I have.

[M-A-G]

Originally Posted by OssMan interesting... have your thoughts on 13 changed at all/did you play it again i didn't really like 8... i played it well after i'd developed a love for the series and it just felt very confusing and strange to me... felt like they were trying to deliberately make it as unlike any previous final fantasy as they could "what if you could equip spells" "what if there was a college campus that could fly" i remember playing the last level when i had my wisdom teeth out... was all loopy in my bed fighting a boss that took me 2 hours

Need a rating from you if you want it calculated with the final score.

[OssMan]