What's your history with Final Fantasy?

[NovaUltimatum]

I love the FF series and it kinda saddens me I didn't get the chance to play FF 11.

You still can, I think it only takes a couple of weeks to grind yourself to 99 really fast and experience all the story missions. So you could effectively complete the story before the 30 day trial is up if you were up to it.

[JayCommon]

Cool thread!

I have been a console game player most of my life, so needless to say (NA) Final Fantasy 2 on SNES was the very first FF game I ever played. Maybe because it was my first RPG, maybe because I was only around 8 years old, or maybe just because the game really is that awesome, I fell in love with it. The idea of playing and controlling another person through an intricate story fascinated me. And when Cecil relinquished the dark side for the light of the Paladin, I was hooked, never to be let go.

I played almost every major iteration of the numbered final fantasy series (the original FF1 didn't interest me by the time I had a chance to play it) and a few of the Tactics games. I think X-2 killed true sequels for me so I didn't bother with XIII-2 and I most likely won't bother with XIII-3, even though I loved that Lightning brought the Gun Blade back and paradigm shifting is still one of my favorite FF ways to fight.

FF4, 7 and 8 are among my favorite stories in the franchise, with Crisis Core for PSP right up there as well. I have been a huge fan of FF games for a very long time. The fact that this was an MMO I could actually play on my console was just icing on the cake. I never had a gaming computer, and by the time FFXI came out on PS2 I already had a PS3 so I didn't get to enjoy that one. Being able to play one of my favorite franchises ever with people all over the world communicating and interacting with each other is a hell of an experience, and I have loved every step of the way.

[Laiyenu]

My first FF game was FF6 (that I owned) before that my first exposure to it was at a family friends house, in the NES age I was put in the game room while the adults watches some sport, and the other kids and I picked out NES games. One of the them was "Final Fantasy" and I wanted to play it but his kid said we couldn't play that one (that it was his dad's game, only later on I realized that it was prolly due to the save feature and he didn't want it overwritten).

After I played 6 though I continues on with the series. up till now.

[kazaran]

I played others on and off. Enjoying some earlier. FF XI Online changed that later and I began to support square Enix more. When XI was planning to go beta. I was actually invited by a friend to the Japanese beta for the PS2. THe problem was I had to buy the hard drive and have it shipped prior. The discs were mailed to you.

To be honest at first, I did not really like XI. It was early on. In the beta, there was little content. Even when we moved to launch, it was not the game it became until much later, and was pretty danrn buggy. Yet had fun factors. My partner played it religiously from the start. I simply frowned eventually giving up. Explains why one of us was the first to receive the server side matt cap, and I well, didn't until years later.

When the expansions rolled out, and I finally got sick of hearing "it's great, they added, this is ruff, wow" over and over and over again. I gave it a try.

The difference, content, story, and challenge changed my view of the game and even the series. Wow was now a hard contender, but XI pulled me away from wow. The story and content just felt so much better and immersive. Wow and other mmo's fell to second place ad XI became my favorite.

Then I spread the addition to a long time friend when the xbox beta started. She said "I hate this game, so frustrating" at first. weeks later "I gotta do this run, get this get that, get online now!". She found her bon bon's replacement.

We became xi addicts. at times taking breaks to play wow are something we viewed as simplier and a filler, then back to xi.

Then the community was better. Even when for a time on Fairy with the notorious Poof issues. The community was still better. As bad of a rep Poof got on the server, she is actually an angel compared to some emerging on XIV that are quickly building bad reps.

At the early beta of XIV 1.0. I tried so hard to like it. Yet it didn't feel like Final Fantasy. It got better with Yoshida, but we all knew, a change was to happen.

2.0 first day alpha. It started feeling right. as it progressed through alpha into beta. Better and finally like Final Fantasy again. IT a much better game. The story appeal back. It's early like XI was early on with more content even if it was a re-write.

So I look forward to it. However. The community is depressing. Don't get me wrong. There are a lot of great players who care about the community established so long ago. New gamers or other gamers may not understand because they are used to people being so selfish.

Rather then asking "Hey can you help me" or "hey I can help you" they adapt a poor self asorbed attitude due to the feeling they have to defend themselves and there is no need for it.

[NovaUltimatum]

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.

I can never understand why so many people hate FF XIII and/or Lightning so much. Usually the reasons I end up hearing would suggest that they wouldn't enjoy other FF games as well (linear content was found a lot in many FF games, Lightning is very similar to Cloud yet people love Cloud and hate Lightning). I'm thinking it might just be a western audience thing though. Since from what I've read, the XIII franchise is well received in Japan (perhaps why they keep rolling it out).

[Miiu]

I think I started with FF on the Super Nintendo forgot which one it was after that I kinda forgot about the series and returned with FF7 and since then played them all. Didn't really like FFXII though. FFXIII was okay not the FF I was hoping for but I didn't feel like I wasted my money on it
In terms of MMOs I played pretty much all of the big name MMOs with some small ones here and there but FFXI was the first one that had my subscription for around 5 years. My norm before that was maybe half-1 year. With ocassional resubs.

Basically I bought FFXIV 1.0 because I was expecting another FFXI with better graphics but sadly that wasn't the case. Played it a bit here and there (being free for people who bought it early helped) but the spark didn't really go over. Now with FFXIV ARR I still didn't get my FFXI HD but it's way more enjoyable than before and given what they did with expansion packs in FFXI I'm really looking forward to what they'll cook up for this game.

[Yamimarik]

My Final Fantasy History:
Orange for Halloween!

I started out with Final Fantasy X-2 as my first to get me into the series ::ACTIVATES HATE SHIELD:: I absolutely still love that game to this day! I can't wait for X/X-2HD Remastered.

Long story short cause of an overprotective child hood I didn't see Final Fantasy games until X-2 had been released and a friend let me borrow it.
After that I went on to play Final Fantasy X! (I had to figure out this amazing story from the beginning!) And thus Final Fantasy X/X-2 is how I got into Final Fantasy and why I've enjoyed playing Final Fantasy's I,II,III,IV,VII,VIII,IX,XI,XII,XIII,Dissidia,Crystal Chronicles,Tactics,Tactics Advance.

I did play Final Fantasy XI from Zilart Expansion start to right before Seekers was released. I enjoyed every year I had on that game, and look forward to the many years here! I had been hopping MMO's for while now, searching for one to stay at, but nothing would catch my attention like XI had... until XIV:ARR came along! It's the story that comes along with Final Fantasy that truly keeps me here, other wise I don't actually like MMO's that much.

Though my favorite Final Fantasy's will remain XI,X,IX,X-2,IV <3

[seekerofpower]

My reason for thinking FF7 is overrated is because at around the same time, SquareSoft released Xenogears. I think Xenogears blows FF7 completely out of the water in just about every category, but how many people do you see running around Eorzea named Fei instead of Cloud?

I'm a huge FF fanboy, but Xenogears was a life changing experience. Square has referred to FF7 as "the greatest story of all time" in its marketing, but it isn't even close.

You are my new best friend. Xenogears... greatest game ever made.

[seekerofpower]

On topic...

I have played all games in the series, including the side games and non-numbered titles. My top 10, in order, are Tactics, VIII, VI, IV, V, IX, XII, Tactics Advanced, Tactics A2 and XIV:ARR.

[Grogin]

I have played all the main series 1-14, X-2, XIII-2, the DS game of XII, Dirge of Cerberus, and Tactics. I was never able to play FF Legends or FF Mystic Quest, none of the other versions of tactics, and I still have not played Crisis Core. I love single player RPG games, so the mmo versions I play just for the story and not to play endgame.

My top 5, in order, are FFV, FFIV & FFVI (tied), FFVII, and FFIX. Honorable mention to FFVIII and FFX.