Board 8 > Shattered's GF plays her first Final Fantasy (Playthrough topic maybe)

(+) Yeah! (+)

So my girlfriend is not a gamer but she did play a little XIV and liked that (so I guess technically this isn't her first FF). She knows I loved Final Fantasy and it's not a stretch to say it caused me to move to the US and without it I may never have met her (which I can explain later for anyone who cares). So I have decided to introduce her to the mainline games. She also recently changed jobs and her work colleagues like FF so it gives her something to talk to them about

Ok so selection criteria time!

* I ruled out anything XII onwards because I didn't play 12 myself and I don't feel XIII or XV are fair representations of the series.

* I ruled out anything pre PS1 due to graphics. I know some had remakes but I didn't want anything that was handheld only and the PSN versions still have 8 bit graphics. So that ruled out I-VI

* Despite Tactics being my favorite of the series it's not really mainline and I don't think the battle system is very newbie friendly, especially for a non gamer.

That leaves basically VII, VIII, IX, X I think.

* VIII I ruled out because it lacks an updated version of the game (that I'm aware of. Steam maybe?).

The last 3 gave me some really thought.

* X was the one I thought might be best suited to someone entering the series fresh, especially with the PS4 remaster. However, she always complains about me showing her shows that are sad / downer endings. So I reluctantly ruled out X despite it being otherwise the best fit

* VII was the game that introduced me to the series and was the first one I thought of when I came up with this idea. But I feel like I may have to handhold her through some of the story with some critical plot points being tucked away in non mandatory content.

So I ultimately opted for IX. It's one of my favorite in the series, it has a remaster on the PS4 and the world is a little bit more cutesy and cheerful than VII. I also don't remember it being particularly hard or complicated (not that VII is). I also think IX is a little bit more true to the roots of the series.

So without further ado, Shattered's non gamer girlfriend plays Final Fantasy IX!

Ok so she hasn't got very far but quick recap of what she has done so far.

She wonders who the main character is and is surprised to hear it is Zidane when I point him out. She's also a little surprised to see that the opening is kidnapping a princess. Ultimately she decides she does not like the name Zidane and renames him Jasper (which is the name of our biggest cat). Kinda surprising she did not opt for one of our other cats names (Monkey). She actually has made zero comments on his tail.

She was a little but confused by the battle system when she controls all the party as she expected to only control one (that thought never occurred to me).I tried to prompt her to steal stuff in battle. She steals the potion and Wrist in the first fight but doesn't keep going for Mage Masher.

She absolutely loves Vivi and thinks he's adorable. This is not much of a surprise. She talks to most of the townspeople and is sad that Vivi's ticket is counterfeit. I tell her that the game has quite a few minigames and point out the ones available to her.

Skipping instantly frustrates her. Completely understandable! The card game she tries once, get a tie and instantly nopes out of it. That was slightly more surprising. She did wtf at Alleyway Jack mugging her. She jokes that she bets 'Jack' is his real name, I laugh and tell her no and I can't tell her what it is. Then I'm a little sad as if she does ever unlock his real name (unlikely) she wont get the reference anyway.

Onwards with the plot! She omg's at them stealing the ladder. She instantly recognizes the moogle (from XIV) and is excited to see it as she was unaware they show up in most games. She opts not to rename Vivi when prompted and is then very worried about falling off the roof

Queen Brahne makes an appearance and she gasps at her appearance. She asks why Garnet and Brahne don't look alike which I tell her to just keep playing.

In the play minigame she gets a 57. She replays and gets 91 and is satisfied with that as it said Brahne was impressed. I tell her there's an extra reward for getting 100 but she doesn't care and plods on.

She laughed at the stealing the guards uniform scene. She recognizes Garnet on the staircase due to Garnet being upset watching the play.

Thorn and Zorn make their first appearance plus the naked guards show up a little later. Her response is omg this game is so ridiculous (in a good way)

She does not rename Steiner. She saves as she has to do some work and I have to leave the house for a while. She hopes to play some more later

First impressions I would say are very good!

9 was like an homage to the original if I remember so good call for a launching spot
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Tag

For the record, Steam does have a version of VIII, but with the annoying junctioning system I wouldn't recommend that one for a newcomer anyway. Think you made a good choice with 9.
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I think X is about the only one that suits a non-gamer. I think all the other ones are either too archaic OR convoluted to hold the attention of someone who doesn't really like playing video games.

I guess I can understand your reasoning about downer endings but I still think it would've been the better choice.
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I think X is possibly marginally harder too. I personally didn't find it hard but I could see a non gamer struggling with some fights like Yunalesca or Seymour or maybe even something mundane like Chocoboeater

I couldn't think of anything in IX that jumped out as being difficult except maybe the final area.

I do agree the battle system is more non gamer friendly though. Not that IXs is overly hard unless I'm remembering it completely wrong.

I saw GF and Final Fantasy and thought she was playing 8.
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IX is a good starting point because it can only go up from here if she decides to continue the series!
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And we are back under way. It's pretty nice the remaster you can just hit continue, don't have to reload

Depends on the gamer.

ATB can just be straight up harder because of the time forcing your decisions.
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Would've tagged if it were X

Fair reasoning though. She can always play X after this one.
And yeah X is probably harder overall, but it requires far less arcane games literacy (especially ATB) so a non-gamer would understand it more. X also has some of the best in-game tutorialization in any RPG ever.
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I set the ATB to the slowest so she should be ok I think

Her comments so far are Steiner's knights are worthless because they are all slacking off. She says they are so useless. She does like Steiner and his clumsiness though.

So turns out the princess wants to be kidnapped and Zidane doesn't instantly go for it. So she was like typical, he has commitment issues now she wants what he wants. Then later comments 'Already when Zidane comments about falling for her athleticism as they are fleeing'

First Steiner fight obviously easy. Second Steiner fight too but she didn't realize the princess was a mage and wants to know what summon is but does not have the MP to use it yet. She gleefully casts Fire with Vivi as every chance though. Third Steiner fight she wants to attack the Bomb (or fire demon thingy in her words) and is upset she can't. Fight again ends quickly as expected.

And we are into the woods after crashing the ship. She did comment in Thorn/Zorn/Brahne saying terminate the princess. The plot thickens!

She thinks it's cool the keypad rumbles with the cut scenes too.

Prison Cage fight 1 comments - Is this thing ever going to die

Post fight comments - Omg did it run off before I could heal the princess. Fuck my life.

Prison Cage fight 2 - This is ridiculous. I am not fond of this of this bullshit!

foolm0r0n posted...

Would've tagged if it were X

Fair reasoning though. She can always play X after this one.
And yeah X is probably harder overall, but it requires far less arcane games literacy (especially ATB) so a non-gamer would understand it more. X also has some of the best in-game tutorialization in any RPG ever.

If she likes this enough to play another then FFX is likely the next one she plays. We already briefly discussed it

She's also seen the posts in this topic (motivation for her to stick with it!)

Ohh I recently started FF IX again too (never finished it before) but haven't played in a while. You made a great choice.
Also what country did you come from?
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I came from England originally. I moved to the states in 2012. Actually it was 6 years ago to the day thinking about it, I left on xmas eve.

She got through the ice cavern unscathed. Not sure what she made of the boss as I was out of the room when she beat it.

We are now in Dali where she jokingly gasps and says but she is a girl when they have to share a room. She says Steiner is a cockblock with his whining (but she likes him still) and after hearing Dagger singing possibly she says this is like a chick flick

She also comments that Dagger seemingly does not know her mother wants to kill her and laughs at the moogle not liking the other moogle that sent the mail but says he will read it anyway

Also forgot to say we came across our first friendly monster and gave it the ore it wanted

We just got to Lindblum and not much to report.

She didn't seem surprised that they were literally manufacturing Black Mages but she did feel awful for them on the airship and d'awwed at them protecting Vivi. Pretty safe to say Vivi is her favorite so far without even asking her. She feels for him so much.

There was no reaction to Cid being an Oglop

She did comment about Zidane copping a feel up the ladder but was actually more reactive to him hitting on the Erin girl in Lindblum. She screamed at the TV you're supposed to like the Princess you shitbag! She is now pulling faces and shaking her head at her not knowing Freya's name in the bar and is saying he such a little shit.

Oh she clapped her hands and smiled saying good for you when she just found out why Cid was an Oglop

She was just ohhhhh when it told her Cid asked Baku/Zidane to kidnap the Princess

ShatteredElysium posted...

She screamed at the TV you're supposed to like the Princess you shitbag! She is now pulling faces and shaking her head at her not knowing Freya's name in the bar and is saying he such a little shit.

Your gf knows what's up heck Zidane

Looking forward to the potential future X playthrough!
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I had literally never seen this happen before but I knew it was possible. Vivi won the festival of the hunt. Freya was in the lead but died to the Zaghnol and she timed out during the battle

She did not synthesize anything OP for this stage so every fight was a slugathon

Also she is fuming at Dagger for drugging everyone. She says it's so stupid as she isn't going to be able to fight as well as the others. Then she yelled don't pet me when Dagger checks on Zidane

ShatteredElysium posted...

Also she is fuming at Dagger for drugging everyone. She says it's so stupid as she isn't going to be able to fight as well as the others. Then she yelled don't pet me when Dagger checks on Zidane

lol she has it out for Dagger.
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Recruited Quina. She loves that he/she/it eats stuff but is slightly frustrated at the health requirement as she keeps killing stuff before she can eat it

Oh yeah last night we stopped in Gizamaluke's Grotto in the moogle room. We had played a lot of Chocobo Hot and Cold prior to that.

I showed her a Grand Dragon fight but I couldn't beat it for her as she didn't have any of the tools available without getting very lucky. She didn't learn any of Quina's cheese it moves and didn't get a Coral Ring via Festival of the Hunt. She also didn't synthesize any of Zidane's better weapons. So we managed to do like 4-5k damage before it eventualy killed everyone (and honestly it was favorable with its moves)