Why people are so crazy over Final Fantasy?

Forget Mass Effect. Play some older classics. Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Temple of Elemental Evil, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Gothic, etc.

Zwanzig, you can tell us if you're trolling. Really.

Hey, getting drunk doesn't mean someone is trolling.

I mean… I was drunk last night, not much though. And that doesn't mean I'm a troll.

Now when I wrote it, errr, perhaps there is a connection…

I'm not crazy over Final Fantasy games, but I have spent roughly six hours in the ninth game tracking down chocobo treasures. Thought I was wasting time but two of the rewards have been pretty awesome.

In FF9 the other day I dug some chocobo treasure that enables it walk over water which felt silly as there is a continent chocobo can't jump on and I was travelling on a ship already.
And now I just got an airship to travel anywhere.

Are you saying there are more nifty stuff to get with this chocobo apart from unnecessary skills? I thought to skip that treasure digging/searching part completely, it seemed irrelevant.

Oh and… Why this chocobo doesn't travel with me on the airship but I still have to "lure" it with food? Am I missing something or it's again one of those crap designs everyone on the planet adores except me.

There was a gay, or rather bi, character in Trails in the Sky. A playable member of the party, he'd frequently hit on people of any gender. Oh, and there was a lesbian character in Trails of Cold Steel.

There was yuri in Nights of Azure. I didn't play but read reviews, the game is about two girls in love.

There was implied yuri\yaoi in some other JRPGs.

So basically it happens, it's just rare. As rare as it is in Western RPGs. If Bioware didn't exist, there'd be no such things in Western RPGs at all.

P.S. Pretty sure that's a troll, but whatever.

Don't worry Zwanzig buddy, it takes balls to post this in JRPG forum…you're not alone on this.
Best to play Grim dawn or Witcher instead and let them ride around on their chocobos.

There are nifty things to be found, for sure. Right now I'm going through some volcano dungeon but when I get done in here I might be looking for more treasure that's just waiting to be found. I've found some mage stuff like a stick, robe and hat so far that teach pretty cool abilities.

Add about 3-4 summons that I've only found via the chocobo treasures. Spent the last hour just grinding my summoner up so she could actually use them!

You're absolutely right.
Totally different from those other three FF games I've played where sidestuff tends to get horrible - chocobo treasure hunter in FF9 is not annoying, it has a bit of grinding (for finding maps) but not too much, and while not all rewards are great, some are totally worth your time.
To think that I suspected it a worthless feature… That's thanks to bloody FF10, 10-2 and 13 sidestuff!

About summons, you don't have to rely on treasures, those come from gems and you'll get them just by game progression. But equipment you get from chests? Top notch!

I thought I won't be saying this, but FF9 is much better game than it's successors I've played. And it's just this nice sidecontent, it's the fact that equipment is not characterlocked.

I'm starting to wonder if the eighth game might be worth playing, I don't think I'd ever replay the seventh but if the eighth is anywhere near as good as the ninth one is, I just might have to do it.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
I'm starting to wonder if the eighth game might be worth playing, I don't think I'd ever replay the seventh but if the eighth is anywhere near as good as the ninth one is, I just might have to do it.

It's not, but I don't think very highly of the ninth game either…

Well, FF VIII is basically a loooooong love story.. so if you like that you'll probably like that game, if not… well, play something else.

I did enjoy FF VIII.

JDR is forgetting that FF9 was originally made for Nokia 3310, something like that.
To my surprise, it's not a huge stockpile of design fails as it's successors!

But I'll believe him that FF8 is not that good and will not buy it.
Long story, sure, bring it on. But I suspect it has even longer grind inside.

I've never played one. I don't feel like I'm missing out…..Of course, I don't care if I ever see a gay character in a game. If I was gay though, I'd want some I think. Strangely enough, I never mind lesbian girls in games

Originally Posted by Carnifex
I'm starting to wonder if the eighth game might be worth playing, I don't think I'd ever replay the seventh but if the eighth is anywhere near as good as the ninth one is, I just might have to do it.

FF8 includes the very grindy "draw" mechanic -- you have to spend combat turns draining spells out of monsters before you can cast them. You then "junction" your stolen spells to boost your characters' various stats -- so by mid-game you want to keep stacks of 99 spells in reserve for each main stat on each character, which you won't want to cast because that would lower the caster's stats, so you then have to draw additional spells if you want to actually use any magic.

And since the game uses level scaling, boosting yourself through the draw/junction system is the only way to gain advantage over enemies as you progress.

It's slow.

Ok, so game eight sounds like something I'll just avoid. BTW, right now I'm fifty three hours into the ninth game, and still loving it. Now probably 6-8 of those hours were spent chasing down certain treasure hunts/quests, but I've actually done very little grinding in this game.

I really dislike the "Draw" system in Final Fantasy 8. I didn't like it when I first played it many years ago and I still don't like it.

Final Fantasy changes their magic systems up each game, I get that. But after coming from the excellent Esper system in FF6, and the best magic system in the series in my opinion, the Materia system in FF7, FF8's system was incredibly disappointing.

Still, the game had some interesting ideas. The world was pretty and interesting to explore. There was some futuristic, weird ideas touched upon in the narrative, and they added a school/university type system to the game, where you could actually take tests and upgrade your ranks, etc. Also, the money system is fun. You get paid a weekly salary, I believe, which automatically happens and updates your money amount. Pretty unique and neat, I think.

The only think I can think of is heavy LSD use.

I wish I could take LSD. I don't trust my mind enough for that, though.

Don't do drugs, kids.