Final Fantasy V (anthology) and 8 question?

[vintagegamecrazy]

I have anthology and wanted to know how accurate v is to the original japanese version? I don't care about small changes but is it really chopped and shortened, and is that game truly as unforgiving as it is rumored to be? I had a friend who said that Squaresoft butchered that version, I got really ticked at how poorly emulated anthology was and just how choppy it was, I'm sure someone here has played the translated rom of V and can tell me if anthology is worth playing through or if I should stick to the rom instead.

I played FF8 and quit after the first disc, that game just seems to suck, does the gameplay ever get less boring and tedious? The game just seems to move in reverse because everything takes so long to accomplish.

If anyone can help me out here it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[Cirrus]

Glad I got to this first...

First of all, FF 8 is widely considered to be bad. You either love it or hate it, but most people hate it. It's true. I guess people don't really love angsty emo heroes. I understand why.

Also, you might as well play the translated ROM of FF 5, for two reasons. First off, the anthology tranlsation makes the pirate character (forget the name) say things like "Darrrr" and "matey," which I doubt was intended. On top of that, it's really upsetting to wait for a battle to load every time, when (obviously) with the cart/rom you wouldn't have that. Same goes for all of the anthology games, really.

Edit: Also, FF 8 is pretty much Pokemon. (I choose you, Cactaur!!!) The guardian forces become the only reasonable attack towards the end. Oh, and the story sucks. Oh, and in most FF games there is a stupid extra boss that doesn't really come from anywhere, which is fine. In FF8, there is pretty much no last boss until you confront the final battle. And the boss sucks. No story + Emo + gunblade + giant roving garden trash = Bad game. If it had been called "Guardian Force Xtreme" no one would have liked it. It's riding on FF 7 coattails.

[Untamed]

I think 8 is great. You either love it, or you hate it. It's very fun though.

V... Well, I've played thru a bit and it seemed fine to me. I loved the job system. If you havn't played the real Japanese version, then was does it matter? It's a fun game, enjoy it.


EDIT: Dang, close.

[Cirrus]

I think 8 is great. You either love it, or you hate it. It's very fun though.

V... Well, I've played thru a bit and it seemed fine to me. I loved the job system. If you havn't played the real Japanese version, then was does it matter? It's a fun game, enjoy it.


EDIT: Dang, close.

Untamed, please put the object in your avatar back in my mom's bedside table. Unbelievable!

[vintagegamecrazy]

I understand 8 but if they took several parts out of V then I would want to play the rom, even if I would never know the difference playing anthology. I bought anthology and since I've owned it, it seems like one big waste of money.

[Cirrus]

Well, give 5 a chance. It has nearly the same class system as Final Fantasy Tactics, which is really fun to play in a regular RPG. It seems to be the best FF game that didn't get released...

[vintagegamecrazy]

I'll probably just download the rom of V then, everyone just seems to rip into anthology enough for me to choose the rom instead.

BTW I had a hard time getting into tactics too much, great game and all, but the battle system is just a little to slow for my taste. I love fast moving games.

[Untamed]

Waste of money? Sell it to me! I'd love to own a copy. :(

Cirrus: Your mom keeps an 8" bayonet in her bedside drawer... That is on some level very hot... but on others... disturbing.

[SoulBlazer]

There was NOTHING taken out of FF5 on the Anthology. Yes, there are VERY MINOR differences in the translation vs the fan one for the ROM, but nothing worth going ga-ga for. The extra features (such as save states) make me give the nod to the PlayStation version.

And I'm also in the camp of people who love FF8 (I consider it my third highest ranked FF game next to 4 and 6). But if you've allready finished Disc 1 and it did'nt do anything for you -- don't bother finishing it. The story is rather slow for most of Disc 2, although there are enough exciting parts to keep it going. I would say if you have'nt been hooked on ANY game by the end of the first disc move on. :)

[kainemaxwell]

FF8's too sci-fi to be Final Fantasy. I liked FF5 also, though working with the class system on everyone tends to be too reptitive after awhile.

[drwily008]

I absolutely HATED FF8 the first time I played it, like you I only went through part of the first disc. I am in between jobs so I figured I would give it another go, I am now on the third disc (new game) and rather enjoying it. Just like any RPG that you have to "level up" in just take time to find a good area to draw spells and level up in.

[calthaer]

FF8 is bad not because it is more sci-fi, but because a) the battle system sucks (GFs and everything), and b) because the story is so soap-opera stupid that it makes one want to gag with a spoon. "Oh...we're all orphans - we just forgot! We grew up together! Hooray for reunions; let the tears flow! Super happy joy joy!"

That was the point at which I stopped playing.

EDIT: And if, in spite of the criticisms, you do decide to play, check out the PC version. The character models are in higher-res (too bad the textures aren't!) and, on top of it, you have this ChocoboWorld game that plays on your desktop and can collect items for you. It's a very simplistic RPG-type battle. Once I got an item that gave the +60% Magic skill to a GF!

[vintagegamecrazy]

Thanks for the advice guys, I knew I could get unbiased opinions on FF8 from here. I am thinking about restarting it, maybe it will be just one of those games tha i play casually and eventually finish it. I'll have to see how much I enjoy it this time around.

Thanks. :D

[Lord Contaminous]

About FF5, the music sounds so much better on the Super Famicom version than Anthology.

[badinsults]

Yeah, I have played both the translated SFC and PSX versions for a few hours. They certainly raped the sound effects (I think it is worse in FF6, though). Also, I think that giving Faris pirate dialogue brings FF5 down to the level of parody. I talked with the person who did the fan translation of FF5 about a year back, and he said he tried to make things as accurate as possible. Apparently "Butz" is about as close to the original "Batsu" as he could get.

[Sylentwulf]

I liked FF8 much better than FFX, FFX-2, FF5, and FF1 (FF1 for it's time is obviously great, but it doesn't age THAT well...)

Final Fantasy 5 was the only Final Fantasy game I haven't beaten. Probly because I had to play it in disc for with load times, but I got near the end (Something about crossing the bridge to a castle to ex-death) and realized I would have to level up my char's classes some, and just quit right then and there.

[DynastyLawyer]

I played FF8 and quit after the first disc, that game just seems to suck, does the gameplay ever get less boring and tedious? The game just seems to move in reverse because everything takes so long to accomplish.

I would quit where you are. While FF8 is one of the better FF's, in my opinion, if you have no tolerance for slow parts and quit at the end of the first disk, you're probably not going to be able to make it through the game.


I guess people don't really love angsty emo heroes. I understand why.

Silly kids. Is "angsty emo" slang for introspective?


The guardian forces become the only reasonable attack towards the end.

I'd agree the first time I played through the game. But that was a sign I was winging it, not really knowing what the hell I was doing. Fact of the matter is, you can make magic be as powerful if not more-so than GFs. And a person correctly junctioned for Strength is going to put any summoner to shame.


In FF8, there is pretty much no last boss until you confront the final battle.

Care to rephrase this? I'm thinking that it's the STATUS QUO in videogames that the last boss fight should come at the end of the game. Likewise, if you're making the argument that Ultemicia came from no-where, she's mentioned at the start of disk three, and it's pretty obvious who she is and that she's going to be the last boss.

Less forewarning has been given. See FF 9.



No story + Emo + gunblade + giant roving garden trash = Bad game.

Good story + Good Characters + Gunblade + Bad-assed all out wars with the enemies = Good game.


There was NOTHING taken out of FF5 on the Anthology. Yes, there are VERY MINOR differences in the translation vs the fan one for the ROM, but nothing worth going ga-ga for. The extra features (such as save states) make me give the nod to the PlayStation version.

And I'm also in the camp of people who love FF8 (I consider it my third highest ranked FF game next to 4 and 6). But if you've allready finished Disc 1 and it did'nt do anything for you -- don't bother finishing it. The story is rather slow for most of Disc 2, although there are enough exciting parts to keep it going. I would say if you have'nt been hooked on ANY game by the end of the first disc move on.

Damn you, Soul Blazer!!! I agreed with almost everything you said.


b) because the story is so soap-opera stupid that it makes one want to gag with a spoon. "Oh...we're all orphans - we just forgot! We grew up together! Hooray for reunions; let the tears flow! Super happy joy joy!"

Poor thing. You're a real stoic. You had to endure that for all of 10 minutes.


FF8's too sci-fi to be Final Fantasy.

Star Wars is too Fantasy to be Sci-Fi.

[hezeuschrist]

I don't know why anyone really rags on the Anthology, I played through FFV entirely and had an absolute blast. I remember seeing my japanese friend back in elementry school playing against X-death at the very end of the game and thinking I wish we had got the game here. Finally got my hands on Anthology and beat it a couple summers ago, great game although "X-Death" is about the worst badguy name ever. Gilgamesh kicks ass though.

I also played through a few hours of FF6 on Anthology and found load times to be a non-issue, and I've played through the SNES version a hundred times. I think people are just looking for something to complain about, and as far as I can tell they're rather faithful translations of the originals.

As for FF8, eh, what to say. I played it through to the end and I must say I found a good portion of my playtime in menus. That was my biggest gripe, among others mentioned. Oh, and "angsty emo" means "whiney pussy." The cast was rather uninteresting with no real badass among them, but I must say you get the absolute coolest airship in FF8 over any other FF game ever.

Looking back at the game now, the best way i can judge it is by memorability, and I'm having a hard time finding any really memorable moments in the game. FF7 has loads of them, FF6, FF4, 9 and 10 do as well (you can call Tidus "angsty emo" too). The only thing i can vaguely remember from 8 was a big scene when the Ragnarok... fuck, I can't remember. I DO remember killing the end boss with 3 of Squalls main attack though. How amazing.

[Sylentwulf]

I dunno, I always thought the secondary characters in FF8 and FF9 were what the whole game was about. The lead char in FF9 was EXTREMELY more lame than FF8. Rinoa, and (whats her name, the boss lady/mother person) in FF8 and Garnet in FF9 were MUCH better chars than the "main" chars could have EVER hoped to be. thereby negating any main char whiny issues to be had. And both games had lame villains, so that's negatable as well.

As for FFA and FFC - the load times were almost bearable, but I finally couldn't stand it, I TRIED, VERY HARD to play those games. but that 2 seconds at the beginning and end of every battle just broke the fluidity completely, rendering the whole game hard to play imo and theopinions of many others.

[whoisKeel]

I used to really like Final Fantasy so I'll post :) I hate them now, they're too freaking slow for me

I only ever played 1,2/4,5,3/6,7,8,9 so I'll compare to those (never beat 1 or 2/4).

5 is my favorite in regards to technical aspects (or maybe 3/6) the job system is just really cool (then again, I'm a huge FFT fan). 5 poses a decent challenge as well. But the story...I don't even remember any of the story at all, I only remember it being bland...the only FF I've played (other than 1) that I can't even remember the story.

8...has the best ending to a video game I've ever seen hands down...or at least it is in my memory. That said, it's my least favorite FF game i've played. All the meat is in disc 1 and disc 4 (maybe a bit on the end of disc 3). If you didn't like the first disc (you didn't like the parade part?) you won't be able to sit through disc 2 and 3 to get to the good parts at the tail end of the game.

Anyways, I say pick up anthology...it's a nice package and it comes with a music cd. That's what I played 5 on and I enjoyed it. There's some load times, yeah, but you'll get used to them. I was never one for playing long games on emulators anyways.

[SoulBlazer]

Correction, only the ORIGINAL release has the music CD. The GH version does not.

[vintagegamecrazy]

Well I restarted FF8 now and I've encountered Laguna for the first time so I'll see how it goes this time around. I want to play FFV soon too we'll see how that one goes too. Is the storyline in V actually better than 4 and 6? Just curious.

-out-

[orangemage]

well IMO the storyline of V was not as good as 4 or 6, but the job system was fun and made the game one of my favorites. as for 8 well i didn't care fo it much, too SciFi for me. and the card battle minigame suck to all hell :angry:

[DynastyLawyer]

I want to play FFV soon too we'll see how that one goes too. Is the storyline in V actually better than 4 and 6? Just curious.


Uh... that'd be a "no."