Board 8 > Anagram ranks anything Final Fantasy-related (spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

The Star Wars and Star Trek versions of this worked out well, but Stargate doesn't have enough material. Will this get to 500, or will it peter out around 30~? I'll let you decide.

Anything related in some way to Final Fantasy is allowed, but I've only played FF1-10, 12, 13, Tactics.

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Final bosses

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Spheres

Summon monsters designs between games

Lightning Dodging with input lag (FFX Remaster)

Characters with names three letters or less.

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He was brilliant... Perhaps too brilliant...
Spheres: I'm going to combine this with the sphere grid. Basically, the sphere grid is the best level up system I've ever seen in a JRPG. It's perfect, at least in a normal playthrough. I'm not thrilled with the idea of all characters eventually becoming the same, but the idea of guiding you for what the character's powers will be while allowing some freedom, and then opening up completely toward the end, is genius and well-executed. Definitely the best level-up system in Final Fantasy.

This is the way
Final Bosses: This is difficult to rank. Conceptually, final bosses are great, of course. I'd say they're basically a necessary component of video games, or at least RPGs. But let's list out FF's final bosses: Chaos, the Emperor, Cloud of Darkness, Zeromus, ExDeath, Kefka, Sephiroth, Ultimecia, Necron, Jecht, Vayne, and Robopope. Of those, I'd be generous in saying that seven are actually good. So, if we're talking about the final bosses as a whole, I think I've got to put them here. It'd be slightly higher if Kuja was the final boss, though.

Whatever
Summon Monsters: I don't think I can really rank this, it's too broad and vague. If it was a specific summon to analyze between games, sure.

Dilly dally shilly shally
Characters with names three letters or less: Uh, that's Guy, Arc, Cid (FFIV), Cid (FFVII), and Mog? Of those, the Cids are good, Guy is bad, Mog is whatever, and Arc is a complete nothing character. I think his shtick was being the nerdy guy? I'm just gonna come out and say that these characters have nothing meaningful in common, and that this is a waste of a nom.

Hundreds of voices screaming in unison
Lightning Dodging: I still have never gotten above 20~, though it's also true that I didn't try very hard. To me, FFX's celestial weapons are the perfect encapsulation of 'who cares.' One of them is easy to get, I think it's Yuna's, and the others are way too much of a hassle. This one is the worst, though, because at least doing something like winning a race conceptually makes sense as an avenue to obtain a reward.

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smfffc

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The old woman who tells you to stay away from the summoner

Jesse_Custer posted...

The old woman who tells you to stay away from the summoner

If Stamp is ever allowed into smfffc, I am nominating this woman. No way should a non-character be allowed into the contest just because he has a name, while a character who is actually physically in the game with a speaking role is left out simply because she wasn't given a specific name.

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Jesse_Custer posted...

The old woman who tells you to stay away from the summoner

Wow I came in specifically to reference her

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oh I've misunderstood the topic

Buying the condo in Costa Del Sol in Final Fantasy VII just so you can tell the smarmy salesman to get the heck out

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Spoilers. As in, y'know, the event.
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Defeating Dycedarg's older brother
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Argath Thadalfus name change in WotL

He was brilliant... Perhaps too brilliant...
Aerith dies: Basically, the best plot twist in any video game. The "I am your father" of games. The only other spoiler on par is Sheik's identity. The idea of killing the main love interest halfway through the game with no leadup, no heroic sacrifice, none of that is genius, particularly because that sort of thing simply never happens in stories. The scene is also well-handled, so I have pretty much zero complaints.
Spheres

This is the way
FFT's Original Translation: I don't know, man. Here's the thing: I've never played FFT's retranslation, but I have read parts of it, and I prefer awkward and choppy to overly verbose. Awkward silly shlock is still a form of entertainment on its own, even if that's not quite what they intended. I mean, people still reference the original translation, whereas no one ever references the newer one. "Defeat Dycedarg's older brother" isn't even the best bad line, though, that's definitely L I T T L E M O N E Y. Why was that line said so slowly? I have no idea.
Stay Away From the Summoner Lady: I do appreciate how random NPCs with one line of dialogue can become pointless memes. If FFX had come out seven years later, she would probably be the 'I took an arrow to the knee' guy of the era. As a character, I also appreciate that she tries to protect the daughter of the last previous summoner from the weird foreign guy.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Final Bosses
SMFFFC: It may be B8 heresy, but I've never been THAT into these types of topics. I drop in and vote occasionally. No strong opinions about this, but I appreciate the value of letting us know the top few most popular characters on B8.

Whatever
Summon Monsters
Buying the Costa del Sol condo to tell the salesman to leave: I'll level with you. I have never done this, at least not to my recollection, and I don't think I've ever bought this condo? I have zero memory of it, at least.

Dilly dally shilly shally
Argath's Name Change: I mean, yes, it's obviously bad. Algus is a much better name. But it's not ruinously bad. He's not the main character having his name changed to something terrible, he dies pretty early on, and he's like a stupid pampered noble brat, so him having a stupid name works, even if it's not what they're going for.
Characters with names three letters or less

Hundreds of voices screaming in unison
Lightning Dodging

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Anagram posted...

I don't think I've ever bought this condo? I have zero memory of it, at least.

then you haven't lived

Card games

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l i t t l e m o n e y is actually a coding glitch in the localization. The code made it think that each letter had a full stop after it.
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dissidia (the original one)

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The A Realm Reborn cinematic (don't have to have played to see it)

https://youtu.be/h542YbZuwkQ

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Gabranth

Chocobos

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Final Fantasy I

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Characters being named after weather.

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He was brilliant... Perhaps too brilliant...
Aerith dies
Spheres

This is the way
Chocobos: A perfect alternative to horses, so perfect that WoW even stole them for blood elf mounts. This is one of those defining Final Fantasy 'things,' even if the series struggles to integrate them when it tries to be serious. To me, the correct level of seriousness for Final Fantasy is FFVII. FFXII and XIII are almost completely intolerable for me, and it's at least partly because they're too stuck up to have dumb chocobo stuff. Sure, chocobos show up, but they never do anything, and they're not really part of the story. The only exception is Sazh's pet chocobo chick that lives in his afro, and that's the only thing about the game people speak fondly of.
Final Fantasy I: You know what this game is like? Disney's Snow White. It's not really that good, but you'd be a huge jackass to talk poorly about it. It was trying to do crazy new stuff at the time, and it's amazing by those standards. Sure, compare it to anything out today and it can't really stand up, especially if you play the original with Vancian magic, but I just can't find it in myself to criticize the game in any meaningful way. It is interesting, though, that the black mage and white mage costumes became iconic pieces of video gamedom, but none of the other costumes did.
FFT's Original Translation
Weather-themed Names: Let's see... Cloud, Squall, Tidus, Fujin, Raijin, Raine, Laguna, Lightning, Terra, Highwind, Snow, am I missing anyone? Anyway, none of these characters are total duds, and some are pretty good. They don't really have anything in common, though, so the name theming is kind of just random. Like, they're not related, and their names aren't really related to their personalities (don't give me some super stretched metaphor about how clouds block out the sun of truth until they get dark and rain and then the sun comes out or some nonsense). As a completely random, useless naming system, it's fine. And yes, I know that Terra's name in Japan is Tina. This is much better.
Stay Away From the Summoner Lady

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Card Games: I'm counting Sphere Break here, even though I shouldn't, and B&D from BDII. I'll say this right away: Leonhart should have just nominated Triple Triad, because that is by far the strongest card game in the series. Maybe not the strongest minigame, though. In any case, card games provide a nice little break from the main plot, incentive to explore, neat little bonuses, and in FFVIII's case, the ability to get the best weapon in the game during the first disc. The problem is that every time, I eventually just get bored and stop going after them because I'm just not a 100% completionist type. It's most annoying with B&D, where you HAVE to play it to complete the game. These types of things should never be required.
Final Bosses
SMFFFC

Whatever
Final Fantasy Dissidia 1: Never played it. I like the concept, but I didn't have a PSP. Even then, I might have gone out of my way to play it, but the gameplay didn't look that neat. I'd have been more interested in a traditional fighting game or a Smash clone.
Gabranth: Conceptually, your twin brother who's loyal to the Empire but is torn inside by his actions is a good villain. But man, I don't remember anything this guy does besides framing Basch at the beginning of the story. Here's a question, has there ever been a story with twins where they're never mistaken for each other at some point?
Summon Monsters
Buying the Costa del Sol condo to tell the salesman to leave
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn - A New Beginning: Yes, I watched the whole thing. Strong opening with the falling debris and giant doom ship. I like the people of the city just watching instead of running away. Then you switch to a bunch of melee armies running at each other while magitech mecha and airships watch. You know, I'll forgive it when the heroes use melee weapons in a world with magic and technology, but when it's a whole army, I don't know. How is this arrow girl killing dudes in full plate mail. Oh hey it's Cid. How do I know that's Cid? I don't know, maybe it's not. The doom ship just lodged a blue sword in the ground, and now there's a dragon. Look, I like epic choirs, but this is not a good example of one. Yeah, okay, the army runs away when the doom ship starts raining magic fire on the ground, but that's only marginally more dangerous than a normal airship dropping bombs on you, and they weren't concerned with that. Everyone is saved when an elf summons a blue shield, and then there's a blue energy beam like a bad superhero movie. Wait, this is 2013? I guess that was peak blue energy beam era. Now the dragon is trapped in a cyberworld Tron sphere, but he escapes. The elf teleports the younger, prettier heroes away while letting himself die because there's no way you're going to play this game as an old man. Chocobo knights. Okay, uh, bird chirping is much less intimidating than horse neighing. Am I crazy for wondering where weirdo races are in this MMO? Are there no tauren or draenei or anything, just humans, elves, and tiny doll humans? Oh, there's a green guy, but he's still basically just a human with a beard. Humans also have beards, so I'm not very interested in him. The video tells me to register now for the beta, but in total honesty, I'm not interested, sorry.

Dilly dally shilly shally
Argath's Name Change
Characters with names three letters or less

Hundreds of voices screaming in unison
Lightning Dodging

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Bravely Default (it is FF related as a sort of spiritual successor to the turn based era)

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Shelinda

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The CPR minigame in FFVII

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Final Fantasy II

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Black Mages (each character)

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Tidus saying "Aye!" after referring to Macalania Temple as Macarena Temple and somebody corrects him.

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Naming every character 'GOKU'

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Dresspheres not having 3 straight S's

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The games' logos

This line
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4_D07Y3oNk

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Anagram posted...

The elf teleports the younger, prettier heroes away while letting himself die because there's no way you're going to play this game as an old man.

And I took that personally.

Job systems (3, 5, Tactics, X-2, XI, XIV specifically, unsure if any others are used.)
Edit: if too vague, then just 5's.

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Suplexing a Train

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FFXVI trailer

Aerith or Tifa

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He was brilliant... Perhaps too brilliant...
Aerith dies
Spheres

This is the way
Chocobos
Suplexing a Train: One of gamining's most iconic moments.
Logos: A very classy way to differentiate the games. Going through them super fast, I's is very simple and tells you this is some kind of fantasy game about stabbing monsters, II tells you it's about an evil prettyboy, three tells you it's a fantasy game about stabbing monsters, IV tells you there's a generic dark lord, V just has a dragon, there aren't any plot-important dragons in that game, are there, it should have been a tree, VI is Terra on a magitech thing, VII is a meteor, VIII is Squall and Rinoa embracing, IX is just a big ol' crystal despite crystals not being that important to the plot, X is Yuna summoning something but it's stylized to look like waves, XII is Gabranth???, XIII is a fal'cie but you wouldn't know that unless you played it, and X-2 is the three girls posing. Honestly, most of these are good.
Yuna's Character Growth: One of the better examples in the series, although I do agree that they went too far in FFX-2. Watching her go from a quiet, respectful introvert to someone who stands up for herself is a good idea. And it's a good move to have her say things like are in the video, where she's stating her beliefs but is very awkward and bad about it. Good work.
Final Fantasy I
Aerith vs Tifa: Easily the biggest girl choice in gaming, I can't really think of one that compares. I assume it'll be even more important in FFVIIR, since there's no way they'll keep Aerith's death. But the idea of giving the active personality to the demure mage in a pink skirt and the passive personality to the sexy bartender in a miniskirt was a good one, and Tifa and Aerith are each distinct enough in their own ways as to hold their own appeal. This is just another one of the things that makes FFVII the best game in the series, yeah I said it.
Bravely Default: Only counting the first game, and not the franchise as a whole, this is great. It's just FFV, but expanded, and with a more meta story. I actually really like the ending, where you summon a higher-dimensional being to assist you and the 3DS camera turns on and shows you in the sky. It's got lots subversive moments, but in a good way. Although, really, there comes a point where the heroes just have no excuse for not sitting Braev down and asking what's going on, or at least not trusting the clearly evil fairy, and they just keep doing it. I'm not a fan of the chibi art style, but I can deal with it, and if this is the only way for 'classic' FF to continue, so be it. Shame about BDII, though.
FFT's Original Translation
Weather-themed Names
Official Dressphere Spelling: Completely sensible, and I approve.
Job Systems: I've only played III, V, T, BD, BS, and BD2 lol. My problem with this system is that every time, you start off with the same six-ten boring jobs (knight, white mage, etc), and then you get all of the weird cool things. But I want to ignore that and talk about Bravely Default II. It's a bad game, of course, but this even goes into ways you wouldn't expect. Halfway through the game, you meet a chef. And this is the only non-plot-important NPC with a unique outfit, so you immediately think "AHA! I'm about to get a chef asterisk." Nope. He never comes up again. What the hell is that? Anyway, there are jobs I like more than others, but you'll have to nominate them individually to find out which.
Stay Away From the Summoner Lady

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Card Games
Final Bosses
Tidus being an awkward fool: As a kid, I disliked this, but I've grown to like it over time. It makes sense that he doesn't fit into their society at all, but it never really reaches the level of 'plot important,' where like the story actually cares that he doesn't understand their ways.
SMFFFC

Whatever
Final Fantasy Dissidia 1
Gabranth
Summon Monsters
Costa del Sol condo
Final Fantasy XIV
FFVII CPR Minigame: People don't really think of FFVII as the "random crap" game, but it has so many weird asides and random things thrown in. This is probably one of the weirdest, where there's a little girl you have to do CPR on. Like, why did they add that in? I don't know. The controls are awkward, but not so bad that you can't finish it. I think this probably would have just annoyed my 9-year-old self if I'd played the game on release.

Dilly dally shilly shally
Argath's Name Change
Renaming Characters: I understand why they cut this. Honestly, I always gave every character their default name anyway, so it doesn't bother me. Naming them all GOKU would just be confusing, at least name half of them KAKAROT.
FFXVI Trailer: I'm gonna level with you. I am just totally over medieval fantasy. I don't want castles, I don't want archdukes, I don't want British accents. I'll accept it if I want to play the game for some other reason, but the classic Fantasy England is just not appealing to me anymore. I saw some guy in padded armor and then it switches to a big fiery bird and I just had zero interest. I saw this trailer and was like "classic fantasy setting with FF trappings, got it," and moved on. I might play it one day, but I doubt it.
Final Fantasy II: I see this game compared to Zelda 2 a lot, and fair. It's a classic example of a developer realizing they have something special on their hands, but not knowing what about it works and doesn't work. Where most series today would play it safe and just make a sequel basically the same way, FFII completely alters how leveling up works, and it's very bad. This is definitely the worst game in terms of pure gameplay, which is sad, because its story is very ambitious. I can't think of another NES game with as complex a plot, characters, or themes, even if it had the ability to reuse most of FFI's art assets. But this game doesn't get my sympathy the way the original does, so it's getting a bad score. Even people who like this game admit it kind of sucks.
Shelinda: This is the first nomination I had to look up. Honestly, I kind of like her clothes for a fantasy nun, you could do a lot worse. But if you're going to ask me about her personality or actions, well, this girl leaves no impression on me at all, sorry.
Characters with names three letters or less

Hundreds of voices screaming in unison
Lightning Dodging

Black Mages (each character): I don't understand what this means. Every character in the series who is a black mage? Nominate them separately.

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The FFX logo is Yuna performing the sending in Kilika where she walks on water.

Also I'm with you on FFXVI.

Next nom: 8-Bit Theater

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FF III

Also, I appreciate you respecting the plot of FF II.

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Crazy Chocobo

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Nominate 'hey guys we all grew up in the same orphanage lol'

Anagram posted...

V just has a dragon, there aren't any plot-important dragons in that game, are there, it should have been a tree

I had to look this up after beating the game as I was very confused lol. It's supposed to be a wind drake apparently. I agree a tree would be better (or a turtle!).

Anagram posted...

It's just FFV, but expanded, and with a more meta story.

Suddenly I want to play Bravely Default :O

Agreed on XVI, a bunch of people seem to be happy about it being 'pure' fantasy but sci-fi has always been a part of the series' DNA and I love how imaginative the worlds and tech can be! Part of the reason XII is my least fav is because it feels the most like a generic western medieval fantasy world.

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The series' CGI

This cutscene
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrYsAKMkXjU

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Shelinda sucks, so I accept that placement even though I think it should be lower.

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Materia(Dissidia NT)

Chocobo designs across the series

The consideration of limit breaks as mechanics (starting with the critical hp attacks from 6, and then the limit bar, trances, etc.) do you consider it a good mechanic, or not?