A couple days ago my sister linked to the music from one of the zones in Final Fantasy XI (the MMORPG from 9 years ago). It brought back memories of playing it before I got converted to World of Warcraft and got me wondering... Should it be part of this marathon? If so, when have I 'beaten' it to move on to FFXII? Should I even be doing things in order? I have hand held versions of several of the games. Should I be playing those on the bus to work? How about true sequels that came out at later dates? FFX-2 and FFIV-2 in particular. What about spin off games? Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest, Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. The old Gameboy Final Fantasy Legends games. Chocobo Tales. Something I've never heard of before for the DS "Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light"?
My initial thinking was to just play the true console games. I through X, XII, XIII. X-2 because wanting to play it in particular inspired playing them all again. But why shouldn't I track down other games I haven't played before? FFIV is my favourite game of all time, shouldn't I give the sequel a spin? And if I could find other people to play FFXI, shouldn't I? (Apparently the servers were shut down due to the tragedy in Japan but I imagine they'll be up and running again eventually.) I think things would get a little confusing if I was playing multiple games at once so the hand held ones will just be played once their time comes, but I think the MMO would be such a break that I shouldn't wait to 'finish' it.
I don't own any of the spin-off games except Mystic Quest and the Tactics Advance games but I may try to track them down if the mood strikes when I get close to the proper times. For my later reference in order, by initial release date. (Wow! A lot of stuff here!)
Final Fantasy- 1987
Final Fantasy II - 1988
Final Fantasy III - 1990
Final Fantasy Legend - 1989
Final Fantasy IV - 1991Final Fantasy Legend II - 1991
Final Fantasy Adventure - 1991
Final Fantasy Legend III - 1991
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest - 1992
Final Fantasy V - 1992
Final Fantasy VI - 1994
Final Fantasy VII - 1997
Final Fantasy Tactics - 1997
Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon - 1997
Ehrgeiz - 1998
Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon 2 - 1998
Final Fantasy VIII - 1999
Chocobo Racing - 1999
Chocobo Stallion - 1999
Chocobo Collection - 1999
Final Fantasy IX - 2000
Working Chocobo - 2000
Final Fantasy X - 2001
Final Fantasy XI - 2002
Kingdom Hearts - 2002
Chocobo Land - 2002
Final Fantasy X-2 - 2003
Final Fantasy Tactics: Advance - 2003
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles - 2003
Final Fantasy VII: Before Crisis - 2004
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories - 2004
Final Fantasy VII: Snowboarding - 2005
Kingdom Hearts 2 - 2005
Final Fantasy XII - 2006
Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus - 2006
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings - 2007
Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core - 2007
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions - 2007
Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift - 2007
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates - 2007
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years - 2008
Final Fantasy XIII - 2009
Dissidia: Final Fantasy - 2009
Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light - 2009
Final Fantasy XIV - 2010
Final Fantasy XIII: Agito - TBA
Final Fantasy XIII: Versus - TBA
Final Fantasy XIII-2 - TBA
You could do them all. That would be pretty interesting, and I don't think it's a thing someone has done in English yet. I've seen an every-Ultima blog, an every-PC RPG blog, but I honestly don't believe someone has sat down to play every Final Fantasy game.
ReplyDeleteIf you do want to cut things down:
The OG Game Boy games were retitled Final Fantasy outside of Japan - Final Fantasy Legend 1, 2, and 3 are actually the first three SaGa games, and Final Fantasy Adventure is the first Mana/Seiken Densetsu game, so they can be skipped especially if you think you might want to marathon those series. That said, I have Adventure if you'd like to borrow it and have a Game Boy to use (my Game Boy Color is currently in use for Dragon Warrior 3... and now I've realized I'm one Game Boy cartridge away from having all the mainline Dragon Quest games... hmm...) Similarly, the Kingdom Hearts games don't really fit that well.
Final Fantasy Tactics is well worth playing because XII is a return to the same world. War of the Lions is a PSP remake of that game, and I hear the translation is a LOT better.
I would skip the MMOs and probably the Rogue-like Chocobo games, mostly due to personal preference. The VII spin offs are supposed to be terrible, except for Crisis Core. I'm pretty sure Working Chocobo is a Japan-only life simulator for the Wonderswan Colour - that's what Wikipedia says, at least.
Dissidia is a fighting game spin-off, which might be a welcome change of pace by then. Chocobo Racing, a cart racer, might be as well.
I'm really interested in 4 Heroes of Light, it was an attempt to be old school but with a prettier art style. Some weird limitations - you only pick commands, not targets. I might be picking it up tomorrow, because it looks like the price came down - a man can only play so much Ridge Racer. But probably not, I've got a lot of Dragon Quest VI and Vagrant Story and Wild Arms 2 left.
I am also willing to loan my spare PSP if you need one. Square's shown that thing a lot of Final Fantasy love. The complete Final Fantasy IV comes out at the end of April for PSP, including the After Years and a bridge from the original game.
I'd play the final fantasy legends, if only because I love final fantasy legend 2 so much (1 and 3 were not that great).
ReplyDeleteI don't think whether a spin-off is terrible or not should be a consideration, but I think when it comes to MMOs leveling to max should count as winning and for a life simulator I'd just specify a number of hours or a specific goal if a reasonable one can be found on fan sites. Of course is a game can't be played outside of Japan then obviously you have to skip it.
If you want to play FFXI and FFXIV then I suspect I could be convinced to come along, provided a relatively light play schedule.