Hello from Exeter, England!

[LanguageSponge]

Hi everyone!

So, I'm not very good at introductions so I'll just get right down to the common ground I started playing Final Fantasy when I was just nearing the end of Primary School. My friends had been playing FFVII and told me constantly how complicated it was and how I wouldn't get my head around it. I bought FFVII anyway and loved it. It took me years to beat it. I carried on buying the games after that point and got as far with them as I could, but I stopped buying them after Final Fantasy X and have never played FFXI or FFXIV. My knowledge of Final Fantasy only extends from VII to X. I have played IV, Tactics and XII as well, but I didn't give XII enough of a chance due to the change to the Battle System. It seems that if I am to like later instalments of the series, I will just have to get used to the new way of doing battle...

So about me, I am 5ft 4, male and am generally quite serious on the surface. My interests besides Final Fantasy include languages, history, archery, horses, story-writing and archaeology. My native language is English and I am fluent in French and German. I'm also pretty competent in Italian, Russian (which was my degree language) and I understand written Latin very well. I might one day tackle Japanese also, with the sole goal of doing so being to play the Final Fantasy and Metal Gear series in the original.

Anything else you want to know, feel free to ask. I'm looking forward to delving deeper into the forum and getting to know you all!

LanguageSponge

 

[Shaissa]

Welcome to the forum, I hope you enjoy your stay, and I would recommend giving IV Tactics and XII another chance

XII did turn a lot of people away at first sight, but many people pick it back up and really enjoy it!

Anyways, again welcome to the forum!

 

[Jack's Smirking Revenge]

don't worry, 6 aside, you've played the best ones. the others aren't worth a look

 

[.Mosh]

Hello and welcome to the final fantasy forums, I hope you enjoy your stay here it is a lovely community that is continuing to grow. I will say this.....that is probably the biggest welcome thread I can honestly remember haha. Nice to know your interests etc.

FFXII I was the same at first however after about 2 years or so I forced myself to pick it up and play it. I have clocked around 240 hours and it is fantastic I say you should give it a chance you won't regret it.

Finally you mentioned metal gear so that makes you awesome from the get go! Have a great time here

 

[greenyxi]

Wilkommen absorbing one! I agree that FF12 is a bit of a turn off, with the bad battle system, dungeon designs and party members.
I'd say that giving FF6 a go would be a good idea, if you can look past the older graphics. 5 is fun too, if you don't mind a weak story

Welcome again!

 

[LanguageSponge]

Welcome to the forum, I hope you enjoy your stay, and I would recommend giving IV Tactics and XII another chance

XII did turn a lot of people away at first sight, but many people pick it back up and really enjoy it!

Anyways, again welcome to the forum!

Hi! I'm not sure whether it was the way I worded my first post or not, but I didn't dislike Tactics or Final Fantasy IV at all. I found Tactics to be a bit different and it was the first time I'd ever seen the class system before that I remember, but I thought it was great. It was nice to see a lot of different classes. One of the things that I liked about Tactics, even though it was a really small thing, was to see the Blue Mage as a class - previously I thought Blue Magic was brought into play for the ridiculous character that was Quina in FFIX. As for FFIV I really liked that as well, but I thought the whole idea of Zemus at the end had come out of the blue a little bit.

FFXII on the other hand, I really didn't enjoy it and didn't get very far into it at all. The ATB System had become too much of a hallmark, a must in the series for it to be excluded. For some reason Tactics was an exception, although after some perseverence. But I've been watching YouTube videos of FFXII and FXIII and getting used to it. Final Fantasy XIII doesn't seem to explain anything plot-related very well as far as I've seen, but I think I could get over that.

Finally you mentioned metal gear so that makes you awesome from the get go! Have a great time her

Thank you Metal Gear is another one of my favourite series. MGS3 was one of my motivations for learning Russian.

I will say this.....that is probably the biggest welcome thread I can honestly remember

Wow. That's a really nice thing to know!

I'd say that giving FF6 a go would be a good idea, if you can look past the older graphics. 5 is fun too, if you don't mind a weak story.

I don't know very much about V at all. I'll have a look into it. VI sounds like it's worth looking into simply because of Kefka. His name always makes me laugh because his name is so similar to a 20th century German author, Franz Kafka. Kafka wasn't half as nuts as Kefka seems to have been though!

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[greenyxi]

This made me smile. Danke schön, Sprout - or "diolch yn fawr" if you're a Welsh speaker. My family are Welsh and I know a little of the language. I wonder if you do?

Nah, I don't know welsh. I mean, we're made to learn a tiny amount in school (half a GCSE worth) but nothing more.

Croeso i FFF!

 

[LanguageSponge]

Diolch yn fawr! I know you have to learn Welsh in school, my cousins have to as well and most of them hate it. One of them loves to speak Welsh around me because she loves knowing a language I don't know very well! I am actually on my way to Wales tomorrow to visit my family.

I will soon be able to play my Final Fantasy games again as I need to get a new Playstation 2, 3 or even wait for 4. This may be a stupid question to people who've played them but as I haven't... Which FF, VI or XII, has the better storyline? I will play that one first. The idea of Sky Pirates is a cool one but Vaan just seems like he might be one of those annoying whiny brats like Tidus was.

 

[iSmiff]

Us brits have got to stick together against the oppressive USA overlords

Welcome

 

[Lirael]

Wow, I wish I could speak another language - nevermind several. I didn't find French, German or Latin very interesting at school though, and struggled through my GCSE in French. Now I wish I'd tried a little bit harder to compensate! Every time I visit France, I long to communicate with them in their language. I understand the general gist of what they are saying most of the time, but I can't say much more than 'Hello,' 'Thank you' and 'Goodbye.' And the odd noun!

Anywho, welcome to the forums! If you need help with anything at all, don't hesitate to PM me.

 

[Six]

Welcome to the forum! Native on my side is Dutch.

Enjoy your stay!

 

[Big Casino]

Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy. Good taste man, good taste

Welcome 8)

 

[Bambi]

i wouldn't bother with V, its an awful game.....

It took me a second play to appreciate XII it took me til almost the end of the game to get my head round the battle system, when i eventually got round to replaying it, i really enjoyed it (the story could of been better, mind)

Also, welcome

 

[Evee]

Wow! You are a very language sponge
That's really admirable for a native English speaker to want to learn other languages..and so many!
English is not my mother tongue (I'm Italian), but if I were English, I think, I wouldn't learn so many languages because English is like a passepartout!
However I love languages and actually I can speak, in addition to Italian and English, French and a very little German. Also, I'm going to study Japanese and Chinese at the University..I will start my lessons on 16th September..I'm so excited *.*

You've tasted the best of Square Enix...you wouldn't need to play other FFs to take the magic of this game, but I'd suggest you to re-play FFXII, just to know it better. For me Square died with the last of the FF made by Square Soft, however FFXII is not as bad as you can think at first sight!

PS: Benvenuto tra noi! ; )

 

[LanguageSponge]

Ciao Evee,
Grazie molte per il caloroso benvenuto! Ho intentione di giocare FFXII di nuovo, mai primo di tutto devo comprare un altro sistema PS! Penso che tu abbia ragione: Ho sempre pensato che la serie sia morta con FFX. Il sistema ATB era un elemento caratteristico della serie senza cui la serie non può esistere veramente. A giudicare da quanto ho guardato su YouTube, i programmatori non capivano cosa ci facessero quando erano sviluppandi FXIII.

I have no idea what the policy is about other languages on this forum so I'll translate my rubbish Italian.

Translation:
Hi Evee. Thanks for the warm welcome! (And that goes for everyone else, too!). I intend to play FFXII again but I need to buy another Playstation console before I can do that! I think you're right - I think Final Fantasy basically died with FFX. The ATB system was a fundamental part of the series without which the series can't really exist. Judging by what I've seen on YouTube, the programmers didn't really have a clue what they were doing when they were developing FFXIII.

Six: Bedankt! Ik begrijp zeer goed Nederlands, omdat het op Duits lijk. Thanks! I understand Dutch well because it's similar to German.

LanguageSponge

 

[iSmiff]

LanguageSponge Showoff

XII was Ok, I didn't get very far with it. It's one of those games id play again if they released it on PSN but I wont be rushing around to find my old PS2 to play it.

 

[greenyxi]

LanguageSponge Just go for 6. 12 is awful in almost every way, so there's not much point touching it. 6 is one of the best though, so it's a pretty easy decision.

...

 

[Evee]

Ciao Evee,
Grazie molte per il caloroso benvenuto! Ho intentione di giocare FFXII di nuovo, mai primo di tutto devo comprare un altro sistema PS! Penso che tu abbia ragione: Ho sempre pensato che la serie sia morta con FFX. Il sistema ATB era un elemento caratteristico della serie senza cui la serie non può esistere veramente. A giudicare da quanto ho guardato su YouTube, i programmatori non capivano cosa ci facessero quando erano sviluppandi FXIII.

I have no idea what the policy is about other languages on this forum so I'll translate my rubbish Italian.

Translation:
Hi Evee. Thanks for the warm welcome! (And that goes for everyone else, too!). I intend to play FFXII again but I need to buy another Playstation console before I can do that! I think you're right - I think Final Fantasy basically died with FFX. The ATB system was a fundamental part of the series without which the series can't really exist. Judging by what I've seen on YouTube, the programmers didn't really have a clue what they were doing when they were developing FFXIII.

Six: Bedankt! Ik begrijp zeer goed Nederlands, omdat het op Duits lijk. Thanks! I understand Dutch well because it's similar to German.

LanguageSponge

Despite you think your Italian is rubbish, you made only one mistake..in the last sentence. Very well, sir

ATB sistem was one of the typical elements of a FF game. Changes are good when they improve the quality, but this one is really useless. It has trasformed battles in a way that I really don't like: I don't have enough time to think about a good strategy when I bump into an enemy, so my plans of action are, often, the same. Consequently monsters are all the same for me because I fight them all in the same way.


OK..follow the suggestion of Sprout and play FFVI if you haven't done it yet. You can't miss characters like Terra or Kefka.
(I didn't notice you've missed such a beautiful game u.u )

 

[LanguageSponge]

Okay, so I'll read about VI and XII today, but I'd like to ask you all about your reasons for liking VI or not liking XII?

@Evee - Thanks for your encouragement with my Italian. I thought I'd make a mistake with the last sentence as it was the most complicated, but did you understand what I tried to say? I've never played VI and I hope to rectify that soon.
@iSmiff - I'm sorry if the Italian came across as showing off, it wasn't meant like that. I won't use it again but I felt like I should back up my claims a little. I'll prioritise VI. I restarted IV yesterday so that'll tide me over until I am able to play VI.

 

[iSmiff]

@iSmiff - I'm sorry if the Italian came across as showing off, it wasn't meant like that. I won't use it again but I felt like I should back up my claims a little. I'll prioritise VI. I restarted IV yesterday so that'll tide me over until I am able to play VI.

No way man. I was totally joking. Fair play to you, I struggle enough with English as it is sometimes. I've never played VI. I played XII but I do understand the criticisms. I think if you have a chance to play it then you should but you shouldn't prioritise it.