Before contemplating getting a PS3, I’m waiting for the reviews on Final Fantasy XIII and FFXIII Versus.  But before that time, I thought I’d probably play Final Fantasy XII since I haven’t done that yet.  The engine sort of reminds of Summoner 1. 

After this I should probably play Summoner 2 since I haven’t done that yet either. 

And to complete this RPG hat trick, I should probably finish off with what critics have called the last, best RPG for the PS2...Rogue Galaxy.

Not sure if you’ve played it, or could even find it, but one of my favorite RPGs in general, not just for the PlayStation 2, has been Dark Cloud 2. I’ve spent well over 200 hours on the game, although I don’t think I ever finished the bonus chapter at the end.

I’m also a fan of the .hack series, but that’s more because of the ambiance than the game play.

LOL....How long is FFXII?  With sidequests, I’ve gotten in almost 80 hours and I still haven’t reached the capital.

If you do all the sidequests, hunts, and get all the max weapons you can spend an easy 200 hours on playing Final Fantasy XII (so I hear). I only have like 20 hours on Final Fantasy XII myself.

Has anyone ever fought the Hell Wyrm.  It’s like a 45 minute fight and that’s using a GameShark.  Who knows how long it would take without it.

Here my strategy:

I turn on the gil cheat and the max hp cheat.

I equip one character with the Power Amulet, this has an immunity to Stop.  Then set this character on a gambit to remove stop from any allies.

I equip one character with Fuzzy Miter, this has an immunity to Petrify.  Then set this character on a gambit to remove petrify from any allies.

I set a gambit for each character to Raise or Phoenix Down any character that get’s KO’d.

Instead of attacking, a set a gambit on each character for gill toss.  Each gil toss does 9999 points of damages.

I sit back and watch the show. You must monitor the fight, becasue it will pause if the party leader get’s KO’d.

I finally finished around 100 hours.  On to the next RPG!

I thought 12 was OK.   I enjoyed the story in 8 a lot better though.

Final Fantasy IX was my favorite. Vivi should appear in every game, whether magic is involved or not. I liked the throwback style of the chracters, and at the time the graphics were jaw dropping. The story wasn’t convoluted and overly branching like FFVII, and it was easy to get into the characters.

FFVIII had A LOT of potential, but they messed with the combat formula too much for my tastes. The Draw technique to use magic really ruined the game for me. With the correct Draws, along with a little bit of card playing, you could have all your characters casting -aga spells by the time they hit the beach outside the Academy. I just didn’t like that cheap aspect of the game and it ruined it as a whole for me.

FFVII was great because it was the first foray into 3D and it did it well. The futuristic/fantasy setting was really cool, but its overly confusing story brought it down a notch for me. By the time the thing ended, all the gamers had their minds blown and didn’t know if it was a good or a bad thing.

FFX holds a place in my heart because it got my wife interested in gaming with me. It was our routine to lay in bed at night and she’d watch me play so she could see how things developed in the story. I still think its a beautiful game and the story is very well done. Sure, Tidus can sound like a whiney fool, but no one can argue how bad*****Auron was. The Sphere Grid NEEDS to make a return in some form or another. That was the single best levelling schema in any FF if you ask me. The only disappointment was how lame Khimari was. That character had such potential, but even when he obtained all his skills and his ultimate weapon, he was still a pushover. I played and beat FFX 5 times and still would play it if I had a working PS2/3.

FFVI was one of my all-time favorites because it was the first story of the older generation RPGs to feature a truly dark overtone and a severely crazy villain. Kefka was a madman and I loved his character for it. Looking back on it now, I cant seem to get past the cheesiness of the translation to English and the graphics, but for nostaligic reasons, its one of the greats.

The original FF was the first RPG I played and I was hooked since. Not the best, but it started the path to greatness.

FFXI doesn’t count, so with FFXII, I just felt like the entire game felt like an MMO without the O. That and the story seemed so hollow. I didn’t care about any of the characters. I put 60 hours into the game and when I put it down, there was NOTHING that could bring me back to it. I tried and just couldn’t do it. I didn’t like the combat in it at all, the story was a yawnfest and the characters were generic.... to me.

Why I felt like typing out a novel? I dont know really. It’s past midnight, I’m an insomniac and I have to work tomorrow. I just felt like typing. =P

I got my Final Fantasy XII game guide in the mail the other day so I’ll be playing Final Fantasy XII once I finish Final Fantasy VIII. I’m starting to play thru some of the backlog of games that I have.