Your Overall Final Fantasy Experience

[Vyrerus]

The idea I have with this thread is just answer a set of questions about your experience with Final Fantasy. Questions like:

What was your first Final Fantasy?

Which Final Fantasy was the first one you finished?

Did you explore more of the series afterwards?

Which Final Fantasy carries the most weight in your mind(or lives there rent free)?

Care to just gush about your favorite Final Fantasy moments over the years?


My first Final Fantasy was the first Final Fantasy. It was released in Japan in 1987, but it didn't release in the USA till 1990. I played it first as a toddler, my brother would let me start the party and go kill Garland, and then he'd take over. It was kind of a family affair. I have two older brothers, and we'd all share the same file, and generally the party was made up of our favorite classes with each of us named into the party. My favorite was the Red Mage. My second oldest brother's was the Fighter, and my oldest brother's favorite was the Black Belt. The last party member was always a WHM or BLM, and if it was a WHM we'd give the WHM a girl's name to try to round out the party. We all held the opinion that the WHM was innately a woman, heh. I didn't beat the game completely by myself until about the year 2000.

The first one I beat by myself was Final Fantasy IV, II back then, on the SNES. It came out in 1991, and I beat by myself at about age 5. It was also the game I played the most when I broke my right arm at age 6, as it was about all I could play. It was easy, but it wasn't completely effortless, and the story sticks with me.

Final Fantasy VI(III back then) was my next exploration in the series, and it is my absolute favorite. I could gush about it all day. It also served as the impetus for me to really embrace learning to read. Before Final Fantasy VI, I really couldn't read very well, and I was in speech and reading remedial classes in first and second grade before the PS1 came out in the states. It was the first Final Fantasy where I actually comprehended the story, and from there on out I wanted to play more Final Fantasy and read more, and it's the reason I fell in love with RPGs. The Floating Continent is my favorite Final Fantasy moment.

After that I played the rest of the series as they came out, until FFX. At that time, my brother went off to college, and he took his consoles with him, so all I had was my SNES, and no way to make my own money. So I missed out on X and X-2, mostly, only playing a smidge of them here and there when my brother was home on break.

Next he and I together shelled out to cover an FFXI subscription, and he left me his PS2 with FFXI so we could play Final Fantasy together with him moving across the continent to be with his daughter. Maintaining that sub made me unable to buy FFXII, so I missed out there too.

I played through FFXIII with friends in college on their brand new PS3s, and of course, later on I got my own and patiently awaited the FFXIV PS3 port. It didn't come till 2.0, of course.

FFXV I bought and did one quick playthrough. I didn't really like it, outside of the aerial bosses and aerial fights. If there had been way more bosses like Aranea and the boss you fight when she temporarily joins your party... (and she should have been permanent) I would have loved it. As it stands It's a solid 6, maybe 7, out of 10 for me.

Eagerly await FFXVI! And the concept of an alien parasite that consumes planets from FFVII lives rent free in my head!

[Provoke]

My first Final Fantasy was FFXIV ARR and someone messaged me the second I logged on and asked me to top them.

[Theodric]

What was your first Final Fantasy?

Final Fantasy VII.

Which Final Fantasy was the first one you finished?

Final Fantasy VII.

Did you explore more of the series afterwards?

Yep. I made a point of playing through all of the main titles and some of the side games as well.

Which Final Fantasy carries the most weight in your mind(or lives there rent free)?

Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy XII. They're both tied as my favourite Final Fantasy games and they both take place in the same setting, so...hopefully that means I can cheat and list both?

Care to just gush about your favorite Final Fantasy moments over the years?

Seifer's appearance in the ending of Final Fantasy VIII. General Beatrix's character arc in Final Fantasy IX. Gabranth's character arc in Final Fantasy XII. Golbez's character arc in Final Fantasy IV. Rufus' character arc in Final Fantasy VII.

...as you can probably tell, I favour antagonists. Especially those with nuance and redemption arcs.

[VirusOnline]

FFX: My first Final Fantasy was FFX. I was quite young, but it was my intro to turn based RPG or RPGs for that matter and its very much shaped what I expect of RPGs in general.
FFXII: I know I got to play FFXII because I remember viera and playing viera.
FF Crystal Chronicles: I also got to enjoy the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles when the DS lite came out. Haha, it was incredibly cute and fun.
FFXIII: I tried to get into FFXIII, but the combat system was a huge turn off. I was wanting the more traditional turn based Final Fantasy.

Most memorable moment is a painful one. Again, I was young, but that beach in FFX haunts me. I was terrible at defeating basic things and didn't know where the heck to go lol.
A more serious memorable moment lies in FFXIV. I love bad guys. I love even more bad guys who are actually good guys but desparate. Sympathetic and charismatic beyond belief. Emet Selch. His writing and how SE handled his story was byotiful. In another life, lordt, he was us.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Tactics.

Tactics.

Yes

Tactics


Spent too many hours playing various ff games. I can't even with favorite moments. Getting to Ishgard the first time after seeing it sitting there for 5 years maybe.

[Jemi]

What was your first Final Fantasy?

VIII, in the year 2001. Me and my Mom went to a family friend's house for a dinner party. The host's teenage son wandered off to their basement at some point. I also wanted to get away from the adults, so I followed him.

He started playing VIII, but I don't remember much of the gameplay. When he realized that I was going to stay, he began a new save file so that I could watch from the beginning.

Needless to say, I was entranced by the opening cinematic. "Liberi Fatali" is one heck of a way to be introduced to the series!

Which Final Fantasy was the first one you finished?

Also VIII. My Mom clearly didn't want me to play video games, but I eventually got my own copy.

Did you explore more of the series afterwards?

Yep. I've also played VI, VII, IX, X, X-2, XII, and XIV (obviously). I would like to eventually play all of the numbered titles + Tactics.

Which Final Fantasy carries the most weight in your mind(or lives there rent free)?

Oh man... probably XIV and IX. Especially XIV right now since the current main story arc hasn't been resolved yet.

Care to just gush about your favorite Final Fantasy moments over the years?

IX and XIV spoilers.

I was spellbound when Terra was revealed in IX. I just... wasn't expecting it to be so beautiful. It's difficult to describe exactly how I felt, but I was blown away. A peculiar feeling of wonder washed over me.

It was the type of wide-eyed wonder that I thought could only be experienced as a child or young adolescent.

... Right up until the reveal of Amaurot in XIV, that is. I felt exactly like I did as a kid discovering Terra for the first time.

Both memories hold a special place in my heart.

[Rosenstrauch]

My first Final Fantasy was the first Final Fantasy—this was way back in 91 or 92, when the only games I had any real practice playing were Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong. I had no idea what I was doing and didn't expect reading to be important in a video game, so I made a team of four Black Mages, marched all the way to Garland, and proceeded to lose. My second and third Final Fantasy games were IV (2) and VI (3) years later, following a similar pattern: I didn't bother to read anything, got all the way to the first boss (Mist Dragon/Whelk), and lost due to being incredibly dense and not understanding the boss gimmick (don't attack when it's in its special state or you lose).

It wasn't until I played Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest that I actually finished one, and even then I had some trouble with it. This was my first real experience with a "3D" perspective in a 2D game, and the block pushing puzzle in Falls Basin left me completely stumped because of it. After playing Super Mario RPG, which uses an isometric perspective while mixing classic platforming with and RPG combat system, I became acclimated enough to the concept that the perspective no longer troubled me. But I think the real reason I stuck with Mystic Quest where I hadn't with the others was because I had picked up reading as a hobby, and found the script for Mystic Quest to be charming and enjoyable in its own right.

Actually, it may be just because I didn't own any of the games myself, and had to go to my cousins' house to play them. They broke their copies of IV and VI, and all they had left was Mystic Quest. Oh, and no matter where they lived, their house was infested with roaches, and I had (and still have) a crippling fear of insects because of it. I suppose I could've done the sensible thing and asked my parents to buy me the games, but I was not the most sensible child. It wasn't until the GBA remakes of IV and VI that I was (legally) able to play them to completion.

The Final Fantasy that stuck with me the hardest, though, would probably be Tactics Advance. It was my gateway into the Ivalice setting, told a pretty engaging story, introduced two of my favorite fantasy races (Viera and Bangaa), and was for the most part a fun game with a surprising amount of depth. Oh, and there's a bit of hilarity in how hard the game breaks if you know what you're doing. XII did wonders for my imagination by taking an amazing fantastical setting and using it to tell a mostly grounded story with an emphasis on politics. That ended up endearing me to Matsuno's work in general, and I ended up becoming a big fan of Ogre Battle/Tactics Ogre because of it.

As for a moment that's stuck out as a favorite for me: I've gushed about it in the past, but Kain's trial in the Lunar Ruins from the GBA remake of FFIV is one of my absolute favorite things. The whole "the hero's issues they've tried to keep buried manifest physically" trope is up there with friendly monsters (thanks Super Mario RPG) and playable monsters (thanks Warcaft II: Tides of Darkness) as some of my favorite things to see in a story, which is probably why Dark Knight ended up being my favorite Job in this game.

Beyond that, there's also a particular moment in a Final Fantasy-adjacent RPG, Live a Live. I'd have to get into spoilers even just to mention it, but the end of the Medieval chapter is a real heartbreaker for me, and subsequently is one of my favorite moments in a Squaresoft/Square-Enix RPG.

[linayar]

What was your first Final Fantasy?

Which Final Fantasy was the first one you finished?

Did you explore more of the series afterwards?

Which Final Fantasy carries the most weight in your mind(or lives there rent free)?

Care to just gush about your favorite Final Fantasy moments over the years?

IX

IX

Afterward: completed VII, completed VIII, tried I, tried II, tried IV, tried V, (ended up completing Chrono Cross, not sure how I got that game while playing Final Fantasy), tried Tactics, tried X, tried X-2, watched The Spirits Within, watched Unlimited, watched Advent Children, tried Dirge of Cerberus, tried XII (almost finished), completed XIII, tried XIII-2, tried Lightning Returns, caught up with XIV, watched Brotherhood, watched Kingsglaive, tried Type-0, purchased XV, tried III, tried World of Final Fantasy, tried a few mobile games...

XIV (IX in second place)

Completing IX, then VII, then VIII was the highlight of my college freshman year as I had to borrow my roommate's games and I was surprised at how much I played them to the point that the in-game clock stopped/turned red or something like that. Completing those three games was the start of me purchasing games for myself. Before that, I either borrowed games or was given them.

[Xillean]

What was your first Final Fantasy?

FF3 on the Super NES. Later became FF6 on the ps1. It remains my favorite FF and I try to replay it once a year. I didn't stop until I beat it as a kid and that got me hooked.

Which Final Fantasy was the first one you finished?

FF6 was the first, I have FF 1-12 including tactics and Dirge of Cerberus and have beat them all except for FF12 which I didn't like so stopped early on, I should probably retry that one as its been forever.

Did you explore more of the series afterwards?

I bought all of them up to FF12 including at the time Tactics and Dirge of Cerberus. I really disliked 12 though it has been so long I cant remember exactly why I did so I am going to give it another shot soon. Haven't bought a FF since then though I replay FF6,7,9 and 10 quite a bit and the others every once and a while.

Which Final Fantasy carries the most weight in your mind(or lives there rent free)?

Tie between FF6 and FF9, I love FF7 as well but I think overall FF6 still is my favorite out of all of them because it was the first and I still think it has a great story.

[Vyrerus]

All Black Mages

Ouch! Lmao though. This reminds of a guy on the FFXIah forum claiming that he never understood that you had to actually equip gear, so he thought for the longest time that Final Fantasy 1 was a nearly impossible to beat game.

Love the rest of your experiences too! Eww roaches. >_< D: Blegh! I got stung a lot by wasps and bees as a kid, so I am still pretty bothered and nearly phobic of anything that buzzes.

Other responses in thread have been great too! I'm trying to recall my first experience with Final Fantasy Tactics. I remember being mostly confused by the fact that in my brother's file, Ramza had the dark blue spiky armor, and in the intro stage he has dark blue spiky armor, and in the instruction booklet illustrations he has the dark blue spiky armor... then you get through that tutorial fight and BAM! Out of order story telling, and he has a blue shirt on instead and a rat tail!

I think as far as I ever got in that game as a kid was up to the second fight with Wiegraf, after he's had his Lucavi treatment. As a kid I couldn't figure out how to win with just Ramza, and I was still pretty bad at reading and at games. I remember making Ramza a Geomancer to fight Gafgarion, and barely managing to scrape a win out of their 1v1. It's all vague recollection now, but I also remember that my oldest brother really really hated Delita, and I never understood why at the time, and I also believed, at the time, that any scene that didn't involve Ramza was a scene with bad guys in it.