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What's the best written Final Fantasy game?
- Thread starter cvbas
- Start date
IX For sure. It's not the most nuanced story but the actual dialogue is on point the whole time. Character development is fantastic as well.
Tactics is good in a "Medievil dirty politics" kind of way but I don't really care about any of the characters other than Delita so I can't rate it too highly.
Tactics is good in a "Medievil dirty politics" kind of way but I don't really care about any of the characters other than Delita so I can't rate it too highly.
I'm replaying XII (Zodiac Age), and now that I'm older and more patient, I'm loving the story. Also the voice acting is fantastic. Way better than some of the later installments.
Though Tactics is the best one.
Looking at the XIV answers, I need to get on that. The work from home schedule gives me a lot of time to explore it.
Though Tactics is the best one.
Looking at the XIV answers, I need to get on that. The work from home schedule gives me a lot of time to explore it.
The plot completely fell apart in the second half, thats the reason why I didnt include it.
First half or so, totally
The game completely soloable (im a sense). Everything is puggable except for the hardest content.
You'll need to run dungeons/trials with people, but you can just queue up and go along for the ride with some strangers.
Better yet, playing by yourself might let you find an FC (guild) that really jives with you
Its extremely solo friendly. Everything except dungeons is done solo. Hell in Shadowbringers they made it so you can do dungeons with story NPC's that have their own dialogue and scripted movement. But you can only do dungeons with NPC's in Shadowbringers dungeons onward.
Who'd have thought an MMO would have the best writing in a long running series like FF.
Though personally I'd only put Shadowbringers at the top, followed by Heavensward alongside the likes of Tactics, XII and VI.
Stormblood and ARR with the rest of the series.
Though personally I'd only put Shadowbringers at the top, followed by Heavensward alongside the likes of Tactics, XII and VI.
Stormblood and ARR with the rest of the series.
If you want to focus on a single game then don't go with FF XIV. It will take you hundreds and hundreds of hours till you play all of the expansions (which are the best part, since the base game has only an okay story). Go with the single player FFs first.
yup only dungeons/trails require other players. though fair warnning from start all the way through shadowbringer (just doing the main quests only) will run like 300 hours, though its totaly worth it.
To be fair, 11 also had better writing than most of the series. Its just wholly unapproachable for most even now.
FF just seems at home with the MMO formula
Tactics, VI and IX.
XII started so well but so much of it fell apart in the second half writing wise.
XII started so well but so much of it fell apart in the second half writing wise.
I'd argue FFXIV Shadowbringers and Heavensward. Both have main stories that are just as good, if not better, than mainline FF games. The endgame raid stories (coil of Bahamut, Alexander, etc.) are generally excellent as well.
ARR is kind of super rote/mediocre JRPG stuff, and Stormblood is solid but noticeably not as interesting as Shadowbringers/Heavensward.
What happened with Shadowbringers is that the dev team had a writer who was originally tasked to write one of the job questlines (dark knight), and that questline quickly became considered by the community to be the best job quest in the game. She was then tasked to write the entire Shadowbringers campaign, and it's... fucking... awesome. She knocked it right out of the park.
The questing part of the main story is mostly played solo, with fairly regular instances where the story takes you into a dungeon or boss fight (which requires a group of 4 or 8 people). Group content-wise, there are matchmaker and party joining tools that will match you with people if you don't know anyone, and Shadowbringers straight up has a bot system for its dungeons if you really don't want to deal with humans. The bots play slower than humans though, so your dungeon runs will be noticeably longer, but possibly more stable.
You can get to know people pretty easily in-game, though. Community-wise, the game is generally much more mature and welcoming than most other MMOs I've played for some reason. More diverse, too. It has its share of assholes for sure, but they seem less common somehow. A lot of the time, you could go into a party finder group for a particular boss, and if the fight works out well, then you might want to trade contact info and hit them up later if you want to run something else. The game is very friendly with social tools such as communication channels (called linkshells) and cross-server, cross-platform partying.
ARR is kind of super rote/mediocre JRPG stuff, and Stormblood is solid but noticeably not as interesting as Shadowbringers/Heavensward.
What happened with Shadowbringers is that the dev team had a writer who was originally tasked to write one of the job questlines (dark knight), and that questline quickly became considered by the community to be the best job quest in the game. She was then tasked to write the entire Shadowbringers campaign, and it's... fucking... awesome. She knocked it right out of the park.
I think the game is generally pretty social, so it can get quite boring for the first bit when played alone, especially through ARR (the first main story quest). The fact that a lot of jobs don't really get going until level 40+ and the game eases you into its mechanics extremely slowly doesn't help this fact.
The questing part of the main story is mostly played solo, with fairly regular instances where the story takes you into a dungeon or boss fight (which requires a group of 4 or 8 people). Group content-wise, there are matchmaker and party joining tools that will match you with people if you don't know anyone, and Shadowbringers straight up has a bot system for its dungeons if you really don't want to deal with humans. The bots play slower than humans though, so your dungeon runs will be noticeably longer, but possibly more stable.
You can get to know people pretty easily in-game, though. Community-wise, the game is generally much more mature and welcoming than most other MMOs I've played for some reason. More diverse, too. It has its share of assholes for sure, but they seem less common somehow. A lot of the time, you could go into a party finder group for a particular boss, and if the fight works out well, then you might want to trade contact info and hit them up later if you want to run something else. The game is very friendly with social tools such as communication channels (called linkshells) and cross-server, cross-platform partying.
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my guess is b/c mmos allow for a tale to be told over time, and not crammed in to a 40 hour game.
Oh yeah I know, but there's something appealing on just taking a huge MMO that I can play on my PC while talking to my friends or listening to music. I still plan to get a SP one pretty soon (probably XII) but maybe I'll also give XIV a shot sometime.
I think there is an inate power in long form story telling with an actual consistent character and investment and world that isn't trying to subvert itself in numbered sequels.
I would agree with Tactics, XIV, and XII. In that order. They have a stronger sense of place and culture than other FF games and the characters seem much more tightly bound to their circumstances.
Why notorious? That would indicate that it's widely known in an unfavorable light.
I never got the chance to play 11 back in the day, unfortunately, but makes sense!
FFXI's story and characters are actually really, really good, but it's also hella inaccessible to most, and most people in 2020 are not going to fuck with how it's told even if they trek into it, lol.
It's unfortunate.
It's unfortunate.
I mean, that kinda undersells the mmos, dont you think? Shadowbringers isnt good "for an mmo", its one of the better RPG stories in general.
A villain so good that they broke the top 10 best FF characters in that Japanese poll a few months back, alongside characters that had been solidly in the top 10 for decades.
The MMOs have been great, and XIV is my favorite jrpg story in a long time. I'm just pointing out the fact that their mainline, single-player games, which is what the series is known for, have been pretty awful in comparison.
ff games tend to ape anime/menga. the issue is ff games (exuding the mmos) tend to be 1 and dond adventures, where the thing its aping are manny adventures before the end, so you can build relationships between the cast.
honestly ff16 might have the same issue the other sp ff games have. yes its the hevenward team, but they were able to work with a cast set up in arr. at this point I am convinced ff games dont work well as 1 and done adventures.
It has matchmaking for all story content that requires you to group up.
