What's your history with Final Fantasy?

I'm interested in seeing how many players in our community have come to FFXIV ARR because it's a Final Fantasy game, because of it's MMO gameplay, or both.

- If you started because you're a FF fan, what games have you played and enjoyed the most? How is this game fitting up against the rest of the series for you?

- If this is your first FF game, how are you feeling with all the FF references, etc?

Personally I'm playing this game because I feel it's on my 'to-do' list. I've played and enjoyed all the FF games from 1 all the way to 13 but love 10 the most. I'm really enjoying all the references ARR is making to past games in the series (brings back so many good memories/nostalgia).

Of course FF11 and FF14 are MMOs so their impact in all aspects of a game is vastly different to the offline games, but they are none the less still FF numbered titles that make up the SE flagship series so I feel it's fair to compare them to the rest of the series. :)

I've been playing Final Fantasy games for a while. The fist one I've seen was FF 8 and played FF 10 after that played FF 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, of course 10, 12, 13. I even played most of the spin of tittles. My favorite being FF 4. Soo much fun.

I love the FF series and it kinda saddens me I didn't get the chance to play FF 11. :( Oh well at least I can get to enjoy FF XIV ARR, even though I pre order it when it first came out. >>

It kinda reminds me of FF 12 a bit. Even Thanaln reminds me of Dalmasca. which is not bad. All they need to do is put in: "I'm captin Basch Fon Ronsenburg of Dalmasca" emote XD

My experiences with FF as a series are pretty weak to be honest.

I didn't play the "original" games as the hardcore consider them (1-6), my first FF was 7, which my 12 year old self found amazing though in retrospect it was kinda silly. FF8 I didn't really "get", 9 had some pretty weak storytelling in places, and 10 put me to sleep and was the last FF I played prior to 14. FF14 caught my attention as the art direction and execution looked sharp - but it's not a game I'd normally have played, but a bunchv'e of my GW2 friends were playing it and they managed to talk me into giving it a try :p

In all it certainly wasn't a game I picked up because I was a loyal FF fan

I remember my brother bought me FF7 when it first came out. He heard from some guy at EBGames (back in the day) that it was a great game and that I would probably enjoy it. At first, I didn't really understand it. I had never played RPGs and it just seemed like a lot of reading. After a few months of it sitting there, I put it back in and tried again. I was completely sucked in. I think I clocked like 90-something hours by the time I was done. It really kicked off from there...

After that, any news on future FF games had me completely enthralled. The repeating themese in FF games like crystals, good vs evil, magic, love stories, espers/summons all fascinated me. Squaresoft/Enix had created a world where references from previous games were abundant.

So, Christmas 2002, my gf at the time surprised me with FFXI. I had never been so addicted an MMO in my life. It was an incredible time. When FFXIV was announced in the future, I made a mad dash to get the 1.0 CE. I was ecstatic but, sadly, let down after a few hours of playing it. The rest is history, really. It's hands-down my all time favorite gaming series.

Final Fantasy - Devouring my spare time since the late 80s ....

Started with 1 on the NES, moved on the 2&3 (us) on the SNES, then later found out about the actual ones that were after the original and played them, as well as Tactics, FFTA 1/2 Haven't missed a beat in any console release. I skipped 11, because I wasn't fond of MMOs at the time (mmo hiatus for me).

Favorite is a toss up between 3 and 7, despite many thinking 7 was overrated, at the time of release it was amazing.
To me, 8 was four discs of emo, of which salvation came from 9.
10 I liked at first, which grew to ire as it felt more and more like a teen soap opera. 10-2, oddly enough, I found entertaining.
I'M CAPTAIN BOSCH! was the first one I rushed through, because it didn't feel like FF at all.
Then came FFXXXXXXXXX the one button warrior and its sequel was okay, but depressing as hell and a little cluster fuckish.

Played - and finished - nearly all FFs. The first FF I didn't finish (and the first FF I returned to gamestop) was FF XIII (shortly after Shiva turned into a motorcycle). The first FF I didn't buy (only borrowed) was FF XIII-2, and the first FF I'm not going to play is Lightning returns. Besides that, they've all been bought and finished (even X-2, which despite the story had a pretty fun job system).

XI wasn't my first MMO, but I loved it. I quit to explore other MMOs after clearing sky routinely, and returned periodically to see updates.


I decided to (re)try XIV because of the art-work and I simply love how much like FF it feels. ATM I'm in the section where people tell me I'm supposed to be bored and angry (grinding end-game), but everything is still fun for me.

I remember as a six year old boy watching my older brother beat the original Final Fantasy. I was hooked since. I have played all Final Fantasy's since then with the exception of FF11 as I didn't have a solid internet connection back then.

I've also played WoW, SWTOR, GW2, Neverwinter and Champions Online so 14 seemed like a perfect fit.

The only other FF game I've ever played was Tactics Advance, and that was more because my criteria at the time were "good turn-based RPG for a handheld" as opposed to "FFA specifically".

Anywho, I came here from WoW because WoW was feeling ungodly boring. And I pretty much realized that the exact same things that made WoW boring to me will make this game boring to me eventually, but it'll be several months yet as I haven't seen the whole world yet and all the superficial differences are still novel.

As for the references, I like them. Gives me a starting point for looking stuff up in the wiki. I'm a sucker for lore wikis.

I originally thought that V was my first FF game until I found an old FF1 cartridge amongst a stack of other Japanese NES games in my aunt's place. I was only 4 or 5 years old when my parents used to leave me there to play while they're at work. I played all of the numbered ones but managed to complete only a few. First FF I finished was V (used a guide since I didn't know Nihongo back then, fell in love with the job system), then VII, Tactics, VIII, IX, and VI. I played FFXI for a short while but only got to mid-level range on a few classes before I joined my friends in MMO-hopping. Tactics is my favorite and the one I played the most, especially its update - War of the Lions. I had the original on PSX, then WotL on PSP, and finally the iOS version. I played XIV 1.0 for a short while getting to level 30+ on a couple of classes before I quit and played a different MMO. 2.0 is decent and somewhat reminds me of XII's gameplay.