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I played it on my phone which nowadays is the port of the pixel remaster. I loved it and I thought it was great! I definitely felt a little overpowered due to not fleeing at all. I would recommend checking it out, I got just under 28 hours of playtime on my first run.
For the ignorant among us, is this one of the classic FFs? Can I buy it legally or do I borrow from the internet?
It's the Final Fantasy 1 Pixel Remaster. You can buy it on Steam, mobile, Switch, and PS4. As a vet, I definitely recommend it because they try to keep the gameplay and visuals similar to what it used to while making it less frustrating and more modern. 1-6 have all been remastered in this way and they're all very good.
My personal picks are V because of the multiclassing job system and VI for the incredible story. Despite its simplicity, FF I is a classic and I highly recommend it too.
Thanks for this info. I’ve always wanted to try some of the FF games, is there any benefit to playing them in order? I rarely manage to stick to a new game, so I’m wondering if I should just try one of the most recommended ones at first, then I can play the others if I liked it. (But I don’t want to spoil the story, if there’s much connecting them)
As someone who tried them in order, I would say NO. The only real benefit you'd be getting is seeing how they evolve gameplaywise, but that could honestly be summed up in some article or video essay.
The games do not follow a single story. Each game takes place on a different world with different characters but use similar assets, like chocobos and moogles. Even characters named the same like Cid change drastically through each game. The main reason they still keep them numbered is to get you excited. They can always do Chocobo Kart or Theatrhythm or whatever spinoff, but when a mainline numbered Final Fantasy comes out, it's an event, like a step in FF's evolution. That roman numeral is like a stamp in history. It's very exciting.
I'd say the best one to start with is the one that interests YOU the most. Do some minor research beforehand and pick which one you'd like to play best. Even if you want to just play the new one, go for it! There's no tied story to the old games, so there's nothing you're really missing out on if you play XVI.
Nope! There is literally nothing connecting them. Each game is a different story in a different setting. In many cases, they can be a completely different genre of videogame.
Like others have said, there's no reason to play in order, but to be more specific:
If you ask someone what their favourite FF is, 90% of people will answer something between 6 and 10, so you should probably start with one in that range.
1 is probably not worth playing at all, it hardly even has a story and is very simple.
2 is better, but I would say 3 is where it really starts to get good.
4 and 5 are also very liked and popular.
12 doesn't have the best story, but it's good and it has a lot of people's favourite combat system.
13 isn't bad, but a lot of people didn't enjoy it. I hardly hear people talk about it nowadays, but maybe that's just me.
15 is probably more liked than 13 but it also gets a lot of criticism. It's quite modern, though, so it's probably one of the easiest to get into for most people.
11 and 14 are MMOs. If you like MMOs, you should probably choose 14 because 11 is quite old and doesn't have a lot of players.
EDIT: Forgot to mention 16 because it just came out, but from what I hear a lot of people like it, so it may be a good entry point, although it's console exclusive.
2? Better than 1?
CRAZY
Haha, well, to each their own, but the way I see it:
The second has a skill system that I like more than the first one, and it starts to have more of a semblance of a story. The NPCs in the first one basically just exist to tell you to go to place A, then B, and so on. To be honest, I couldn't even finish the first one.
Don't know how drastic the game was changed in the pixel remaster (sounds like for the better), but all of the fun ideas fell flat when you played it on the Famicom. As good as the Star Wars story was, the dialogue system had waay too many key words to choose from when you talk to NPCs, so even hunting for the word you want, let alone guessing, was a nightmare. There were also tons and tons of rooms in dungeons that led to nowhere, and the progression system could easily be exploited by both the player and the CPU. Maybe the pixel remaster irons these flaws out, but it was not a fun experience at all the first time I played.
The pixel remaster attempts to do for FF2 what its GBA grandfather did for FF1: force a weird old game into later series mechanics, balance and challenge be damned. It went even worse than you'd expect due to a weaker understanding of FF2's mechanics. It is easier in more respects than not, though, and it got rid of the special monster closet encounter rate.
I like 2 better than 1 because it has a better villain, better side characters, and a wild streak. 1 and 3 are boring by comparison.
Thanks, I appreciate the recommendations and thorough explanation!
Personally, I don't recommend this one (which is FF1). It's a very old, fairly simple game. The characters and story aren't much at all. It's not like it's bad in a vacuum, but there's simply better games you can play, especially to start with.
FF10 is perhaps my favourite and a very popular fan favourite. If you want something a bit older (which can be useful for mobile support), FF6 is hands down the most popular of the 2D Final Fantasy games (and some would call it the best FF game).
Pretty much all the older main series games have been remastered in some form or another, some multiple times, and are available at a fair price. Most are available on PC and several have mobile versions (plus the older games emulate very well).
For final fanrasy, Square is pretty decent on constantly porting old games to modern devices.
All the mainline titles exist in some form on PC through legitamate channels, and consoles as well as mobile have various ports as well (not necessarily all of them)
Say I'm an idiot whose google search of "constantly porting old games to modern devices" yielded nothing...
Oh, okay, my first (admittedly early morning) google search just let me down!
Thanks for the info!