19 June 2009

Final Fantasy Rating System Beta

I have completed Final Fantasy IX and thus I have finished every FF I own: 7,8,9,10 and 12. I beat them in this order: 10, 12, 8, 7, 9. Beating 10 and 7 were simple affairs - my characters were so appallingly powerful! 8 was manageable, but I do recall fighting Ultimecia with just Squall on critical health, dealing out Renzokukens every four seconds. 12 was a bitch as my characters were levelled well enough, only at one stage of the final battle I spent about five minutes with two characters dead and the other trying to revive them, only to succeed and then die themselves, repeating the cycle. 9 there was after an intensive speed-run, playing 13 hours a day of my 17 hours awake! Kicked Deathguise' ass, did the same to Trance Kuja too. Unfortunately, I had to fight Necron and in the end three of my four characters were Petrified and only Zidane was left - on Berserk! He counter-attacked and then normally attacked, defeating Necron and allowing me to enjoy the ending, which was heart-warming to the last.

The next game I want to play is 12. I have beaten 8 and 10 twice, the others once. After beating 7, I went back and played 8 again, then moved on to 9 very recently (after a LoZ marathon, actually).

Now, to reviewing.

I always got caught out if someone asked me what my favourite FF was, or which was the best. I readily told people '7 had the best story; 8 was short, fun and easy; 9 is consistently action-packed; 10 has Auron; 12 has a great setting and look. X-2 does not exist.' Phew! After playing through them all (the ones I own) I want to apply some sort of score to them and an in-depth review of all of them. The headings that follow will help me stay focussed while writing the review and give a general lowdown on what the game was like to me. I think I'll establish the system and then look at FF9.

It is all down to 5 categories with 2 subsections each. The total mark is out of 10.

Plot and Music
Characters and Character Development/Consistency
Combat and Enemies (monsters, villains)
Micromanagement (Materia, Junction, Abilities, Sphere Grid) and Equipment
World/Setting/People and Extra Stuff (sidequests, mini-games)

Alright. Too tired to finish this, will make an explanatory post soon.

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