I love the first 3 games. I grew up in the NES era and if you talk to everyone and explore, you really can figure out how to progress. I've been playing the pixel remasters lately and just finished 3 tonight. I think the difficulty may have been slightly nerfed, but at 52, I am still having a ton of fun with them.
NGL, As someone who was on the older end of the Gen Z generation, I first played these on the pixel remaster for 2 reasons. 1. Projared's videos on them 2. I heard that Final Fantasy 3 in particular was what inspired the gameplay loop and design philosophy of the Fire Emblem series. Me personally FF3 is my favorite of the 3 (although I like FF5 and the Bravely Default games more) but FF1 is the easiest one for me to go back to and replay.
Yeah its kinda a shame that like a lot of Gen Z people I come across tend to view the NES era of FF games to be when the series was still trying to find it's footing and they said that "there's a reason why 4 is considered the first "good" FF game" that someone I come across said
Note: Sorry for the length! Out of the first three games easily my favorite is FF1. It's the simplicity of it that makes it for me. I've played NES, PS1 and PSP versions and it's worth noting that there were a lot of changes purely mechanical in the game. In the NES version the max level was 50 so leveling up was less common and a reason way the focus was mainly on equipment to become stronger. Magic was handled completely different - you get specific amount of spell charges for each tier of magic (there is no MP). The NES version barely works sometimes especially the spells, half of them just don't work and a few of them do the complete opposite of what they need to do. Also, the NES manual for FF1 had a full guide of the game up to the first crystal. FF2 had an actual focus on a complex story which was good, but the leveling system is just garbage. With each version of the game they intentionally made it less grindy, but it's still not good (for context it was like 3 times slower). FF3 went back to FF1 (and in the NES version FF3 also has Spell Charges like FF1) and tried to expand that, but in a way made it to bloated. The amount of time you were forced to have a specific job in your party just to progress was annoying (something that later job system focused FF games keep to a minimum and only for optional stuff). The NES ver had job sickness (for few battles after changing a job you were a bit weaker), and had way higher amount of monsters you can fight at once so some random encounters were hell. Finally for FF3 - the final dungeon A.K.A. The Crystal Tower was a mistake (something that the developers themselves admitted). Also, technically (kinda/sort of) all mainline games (I-XVI) and games connected to them (sequels i.e. X-2) exist in a multiverse, but that's barely every been focus on. Just as a hint for future games pay attention to Gilgamesh, he is way more than he appears.
Thanks for the input on the nes versions. Was really wondering about how those work. I honestly didn’t see anything really wrong with the crystal tower in ff3. It was actually quiet easy for me. Prolly cuz I just fast foward a ton of the game. And yeah, for every game. I try to pay attention to details that are from previous games. Really looking foward to playing the rest of the games.
Now I know this video is about final fantasy but the OCD of playing from the beginning of a franchise is something I can relate to with that out of the way allow me to plug the Trails of franchise Unlike others JRPG's all Trails games are part of one large story divided into large story arcs Liberl Arc, Crossbell Arc, Erebonia Arc and Calvard Arc meaning that OCD of playing from the beginning actually pays of in more than just finding references and discovering connections between different entries as it's straight up on large game naturally with how large the story is the worldbuilding is amazing without a doubt the best I've come across in any gaming franchise this can be felt in how every npc's dialogue updates as events throughout the world wether minor or major shift and it has a lot of love put into it too with the chests for example every chest has it's own dev message as a cherry on top Trails has great story and character writing (better than Final Fantasy on average) To many The Legend of Heroes/Trails is daunting to get into but with the OCD of starting franchises from the beginning that's honestly a non issue to me personally With every game being available on steam now I can't recommend the franchise enough just start from Trails in the Sky FC and decide if you want to continue with the franchise after playing through Sky FC ofcourse Final Fantasy is still great in it's own right and later entries are definetly worth playing through so take your time if you want to and give trails a try when you feel like it
Honestly I'm actually glad that the mainline FF games aren't connected in terms of story because honestly seriously it would be so overwhelming to get into FF if all the 16 titles actually were literally connected as one big story jesus
@foodforstraycat FF1 the NES or PS1 versions. The rest are abysmally easy for some reason. FF2, preferably the Pixel Remaster, but PS1 also works. The other versions I guess are fine but never the famicom version. For FF3 the Famicom one is definitely the best balanced. But PR is there if the game is too hard, but never play the 3d versions. However with FF3 family it is hit the hardest with the classes being Direct upgrades to previous classes. However enemies are definitely more balanced than PR and definitely the 3d versions
Yeah I honestly should of given the nes versions a try. But honestly I would have %100 given up on them. And just gone with the emulated versions for the psp so I can fastfoward. And since I did psp for ff1 I didn’t really wanna switch around versions. Final fantasy games are legit time consumers. I was thinking of doing the pixel remasters too. But I saw so many conflicting opinions, I wrote it off as a mixed bag. As for the 3D version of ff3. I knew it wasn’t probably the best version. But I really needed a break from pixels and the games feeling samey. I beat all of them back to back in like 3-4 weeks. Plus I really loved the art style.
I love the first 3 games. I grew up in the NES era and if you talk to everyone and explore, you really can figure out how to progress. I've been playing the pixel remasters lately and just finished 3 tonight. I think the difficulty may have been slightly nerfed, but at 52, I am still having a ton of fun with them.
NGL, As someone who was on the older end of the Gen Z generation, I first played these on the pixel remaster for 2 reasons.
1. Projared's videos on them
2. I heard that Final Fantasy 3 in particular was what inspired the gameplay loop and design philosophy of the Fire Emblem series.
Me personally FF3 is my favorite of the 3 (although I like FF5 and the Bravely Default games more) but FF1 is the easiest one for me to go back to and replay.
Yeah its kinda a shame that like a lot of Gen Z people I come across tend to view the NES era of FF games to be when the series was still trying to find it's footing and they said that "there's a reason why 4 is considered the first "good" FF game" that someone I come across said
Note: Sorry for the length!
Out of the first three games easily my favorite is FF1. It's the simplicity of it that makes it for me. I've played NES, PS1 and PSP versions and it's worth noting that there were a lot of changes purely mechanical in the game. In the NES version the max level was 50 so leveling up was less common and a reason way the focus was mainly on equipment to become stronger. Magic was handled completely different - you get specific amount of spell charges for each tier of magic (there is no MP). The NES version barely works sometimes especially the spells, half of them just don't work and a few of them do the complete opposite of what they need to do. Also, the NES manual for FF1 had a full guide of the game up to the first crystal. FF2 had an actual focus on a complex story which was good, but the leveling system is just garbage. With each version of the game they intentionally made it less grindy, but it's still not good (for context it was like 3 times slower). FF3 went back to FF1 (and in the NES version FF3 also has Spell Charges like FF1) and tried to expand that, but in a way made it to bloated. The amount of time you were forced to have a specific job in your party just to progress was annoying (something that later job system focused FF games keep to a minimum and only for optional stuff). The NES ver had job sickness (for few battles after changing a job you were a bit weaker), and had way higher amount of monsters you can fight at once so some random encounters were hell. Finally for FF3 - the final dungeon A.K.A. The Crystal Tower was a mistake (something that the developers themselves admitted). Also, technically (kinda/sort of) all mainline games (I-XVI) and games connected to them (sequels i.e. X-2) exist in a multiverse, but that's barely every been focus on. Just as a hint for future games pay attention to Gilgamesh, he is way more than he appears.
Thanks for the input on the nes versions. Was really wondering about how those work. I honestly didn’t see anything really wrong with the crystal tower in ff3. It was actually quiet easy for me. Prolly cuz I just fast foward a ton of the game. And yeah, for every game. I try to pay attention to details that are from previous games. Really looking foward to playing the rest of the games.
Now I know this video is about final fantasy but the OCD of playing from the beginning of a franchise is something I can relate to with that out of the way allow me to plug the Trails of franchise
Unlike others JRPG's all Trails games are part of one large story divided into large story arcs Liberl Arc, Crossbell Arc, Erebonia Arc and Calvard Arc
meaning that OCD of playing from the beginning actually pays of in more than just finding references and discovering connections between different entries as it's straight up on large game
naturally with how large the story is the worldbuilding is amazing without a doubt the best I've come across in any gaming franchise this can be felt in how every npc's dialogue updates as events throughout the world wether minor or major shift and it has a lot of love put into it too with the chests for example every chest has it's own dev message
as a cherry on top Trails has great story and character writing (better than Final Fantasy on average)
To many The Legend of Heroes/Trails is daunting to get into but with the OCD of starting franchises from the beginning that's honestly a non issue to me personally
With every game being available on steam now I can't recommend the franchise enough just start from Trails in the Sky FC and decide if you want to continue with the franchise after playing through Sky FC
ofcourse Final Fantasy is still great in it's own right and later entries are definetly worth playing through so take your time if you want to and give trails a try when you feel like it
Honestly I'm actually glad that the mainline FF games aren't connected in terms of story because honestly seriously it would be so overwhelming to get into FF if all the 16 titles actually were literally connected as one big story jesus
You played... THE WRONG VERSIONS
Which ones are the “correct” ones?
@foodforstraycat FF1 the NES or PS1 versions. The rest are abysmally easy for some reason. FF2, preferably the Pixel Remaster, but PS1 also works. The other versions I guess are fine but never the famicom version. For FF3 the Famicom one is definitely the best balanced. But PR is there if the game is too hard, but never play the 3d versions. However with FF3 family it is hit the hardest with the classes being Direct upgrades to previous classes. However enemies are definitely more balanced than PR and definitely the 3d versions
Yeah I honestly should of given the nes versions a try. But honestly I would have %100 given up on them. And just gone with the emulated versions for the psp so I can fastfoward. And since I did psp for ff1 I didn’t really wanna switch around versions. Final fantasy games are legit time consumers. I was thinking of doing the pixel remasters too. But I saw so many conflicting opinions, I wrote it off as a mixed bag. As for the 3D version of ff3. I knew it wasn’t probably the best version. But I really needed a break from pixels and the games feeling samey. I beat all of them back to back in like 3-4 weeks. Plus I really loved the art style.