[Blade Raider]

This year is the 30th anniversary of Final Fantasy. I became aware of this when ProJared started a Let's Play of the original NES game back in March. I was in need of a game to play at the time and realized there's a handful of numbered FF games I haven't beaten and/or played. I started with the original because I had a VC copy that I never beat. Eventually, I decided to play all me favorites as well and now I have a goal for this year: Beat every numbered FF game...and whatever other FFs I want to play

Here's the general rules I'm going with:
First rule: No MMOs. Nothing against them, it's just that they aren't really meant to be beaten. Plus, I'm not willing to do subscription gaming. By the way, is XI even playable anymore?

Second: My goal is for XV to be the finale of this. I do not own a system that it can be played on, so while I'm saving for that I'll be focusing on the other games. Priority are ones I haven't beaten or played.

The following I've beaten over the years:
IV, IV: The After Years, V, VI, VII, VII: Dirge of Cerberus, Tactics, VIII, IX, X, X-2, XIII, XIII-2 (maybe a few others I'm forgetting)

What I've beaten this year for far:
FF NES (Beat it on April 1st oddly enough)
III DS (Can't remember exactly when, but it was early May)
XII PS2 (today, actually)

Currently playing:
IV DS (beaten before, playing on the side)
II PSX


Final Fantasy NES:
I got about halfway years ago and just lost interest. After watching some of ProJared's early episodes where he goes over some basic stuff, most of which are in the manual the VC doesn't have, I felt a lot better about trying again. I did use guides and maps as well to make it easier on myself. Once you get the airship, I feel this one becomes more fun. The game has a lot of problems and cheap tactics, but I'm glad I finally beat it.


III DS:
Pretty much the same feeling I have about the first game, but with different annoyances. The main issue is the game loves all it's new toys and wants you to use them a little to much. Mini dungeons are annoying. I will give it this though, the moment you realize your starting area in the game is only one tiny point on the world map is a great one. If you have a choice, keep away from the DS version. Mognet is unable thanks to the DS Wi-Fi no longer working.


XII PS2:
Not gonna lie, I hate this game. I'm not sure if it's the worst FF I've played, but definitely low on the list. The characters are bland and unimportant to their own story and the game play is crap. XII tries so hard to be a single player MMO, but fails miserably. If I had the skill and time, I would love to make an essay on comparing XII and Xenoblade and how Xenoblade does everything XII was trying to do better. I say this because I put off playing Xenoblade for years because it looked like it played a lot like XII.

Anyways, my original save was at the final dungeon and I've tried a few times over the years from the beginning to give the game a second chance, but couldn't stand it every time. So this time, I loaded the original save and level grinded enough to beat it so I'll never have to play it again. I will end on a nice comment, XII is a pretty game.


IV DS:
Now here's something I will praise. IV was my first FF. I played it on an emulator back around 2000 or 2001 when that was still fairly a new thing. This is the game where the story and characters took center stage and the gameplay was still great.

The DS version is by far the best version of IV they've made (at least in English). It's the only one that has a very solid translation (and it only took 4 or 5 tries). Coming off I and III where you're the "Heroes of Light" and not much else, IV becomes even more meaningful. The main character Cecil is a Dark Knight ordered to kill innocent people by his king. You start the game off playing a murderer that has to redeem himself. That's impressive for a SNES game (though the old translations try to soften the tone).

This time around I'm playing the New Game Plus mode with fun stuff like the ability to rack up lots of EXP from a single battle and turn off encounters. Having a lot of fun revisiting one of my old favorites.


Lastly for today II PSX:
So I bought FF Origins to play II. I got it off Amazon for $10. I picked this one because it was the cheapest hard copy option. I started playing it on the PS3...and some of you might know where this is going. Turns out that the hard copy (the PSN version is fine) of Origins is one of the rare PSX games that does not work properly on the PS3. II can not be beaten because the game crashes at some triggers. I checked and there's at least one point you can not get pass. This is why I have the PS2 hooked up and why I skipped on over to XII to get it out of the way.

Anyways, I only got a little ways into the game. The plot seems decent enough, though I see the issues with the battle system. It's a neat idea until you realize how you're suppose to increase HP. I'm going start over on the PS2 hardware soon. Thankfully I didn't get to far into the game before the glitch happened.