Decided to create a thread since I've seen so many comments about it.

Does anyone have it? What do you think of it?

I have it, great game if you like these sorts of games

Only things i dont like is the leveling up (prefer the old school style instead of this cp stuff) and its all linear except near the end (and even then its not the most free roaming world map

It's a good game, but whether it's a good final fantasy is a different question.

I'm most of the way through it, and I don't like the lack of Magic/Materia customisation that was in FF8, there's only one summon per character and they can't use it whenever they like.

I barely ever find shrouds anywhere, I think I've found about 5 throughout the game..

There's no limit breaks.

There's a cut-scene and a save point every 5 minutes, if you take too long on a boss they cast doom and it's really annoying.

I also don't like this 'stagger' thing they've added as well.

Other than that though, I like it

Oh yeah, and there's no exploration involved whatsoever, you just go from point A to point B all the time.

There's no shops to go in, no real people to talk to, no REAL side missions, the items are always really easy to find. (Those little floating ball things)

It's not gonna take me 100s of hours worth of playing to finish the game, like the old final fantasys. Which was one of the great things about it.

Basically they've just made it really simple and straight forward.

I'd recommend it to anyone who likes final fantasy, but it's not like the old ones.

Edited at 17:48 Sun 09/05/10 (BST)

I think the graphics are amazing and I like the characters.

But as far as a "final Fantasy" game, it's not one of my favorites. I'm really disappointed with the fact that battles are so quick, and timed, and everything moves at once. I hated that in FF X-2 and I really hate it now. I miss the old school battles, like in FFX, where you have time to think of how to defeat opponents (and sometimes even having the time to think about it didn't mean a success!). It drives me insane when an enemy moves quicker than you can think.

I also am not a fan of how you level up, but I do quite like the idea that you can level up different areas, i.e. Commando, Medic, etc. I think that's a great feature in both leveling up and the battle sequence that almost makes up for not being able to control every person.

As for the multiple cut-scenes, I'm not that far into the game yet (I was only at the part just after they leave Snow with Serah when she turns into Crystal), so the cut-scenes are still pretty cool... But I'm sure that will get very annoying soon.

I actually really like the Stagger point. It's cool that they make goals to get to in order to defeat an enemy... It also helps to know that you'll have that extra added help in defeating it.

Also agree with the exploration part. It's too simple, nothing to search for.

I got dozens of Shrouds in the beginning of the game. If there's a way to go back, can you do so to find more?

I agree, Katie, about the battle system.

I liked it in 7 + 8, I think 9 as well, where it was turn based, it was your go, then the enemy would attack, then when your timer was full it was your go again, and the enemy wouldn't attack until you'd done something.

It was much more tactical, rather than

"I'm going to slash this monster a thousand times before he moves and see if that works.."

Oh yeah at the beginning you get a few shrouds, so I'd say save them for a hard battle or something, I just wasted mine, assuming I'd find more as frequently, the only one I've found recently is the one that restores TP.

Double post, sorry.

Alright rogans added the things i forgot



Yup, customisation is needed, the healing magic is especially awfully done, i seem to have one character constantly casting cure - cura is pointless and curasa aint much better than cure and curaja doesn't do enough compared to the other games



Yup i didnt use any at the start and had a fair few to use, started using them and never found any others



I think its sort of been replaced by the summons last move but limit breaks are a key thing to have IMO



Yeah, and with no cure for doom its almost always a game over disguised with some false hope


Definately

Oh, and I'm not a fan of having to save TP to use your summon. Or to scan an enemy's weaknesses. Not liking that at all.

But to be fair, they were always going to make this like this, first time on xbox so they have to make it accessible to those xboxers who dont usually buy final fantasy games

I think I read somewhere that you're more likely to receive shrouds after battle, the less stars you get.

So I might just waste a load of time with a med/med/sen paradigm to get some shrouds

I prefered MP, magic points, in the old games, compared to the different 'classes' you have now.

And I also preferred it when summons were summoned, casted their big bad attack, and then left, I don't like the summon sticking around fighting with me.



That's a good point.

But c'mon Xboxers! Go buy FF7 + FF8 and see how good they are in comparison, particularly 8

with the exception of 7 onwards the odd numbers have usually been not quite so good as the even numbers (2 4 6 8 10 have been good games with a good story) so heres hoping the next one is released soon

(and now to go on FF 13 )

I haven't played anything before 5, I played 1 on an emulator but it didn't work properly.

6 was good, 7 was better, 8 was the best, 9 was okay, 10 was good but the characters really annoyed me.

Didn't play 11.
My brother played 12, I didn't fancy it.
And now 13 is good, but different.

There's a brief summary of my Final Fantasy history

I've only ever played FFX before this one. I played, like, 10 minutes of FF X-2, but it was super annoying and made me feel stupid for being a girl.



Don't trust emulators, otherwise I'd try out all the other ones.

You really should pick up 7 + 8, Katie, they're so good!

Even with the pixelated graphics and terrible dialogue

i like 7 the best, my favourite final fantasy game, could play it over again.

well tbh they're all pretty good in my opinion

1 - created your own characters and chose their class (warrior, white mage, etc) story based on the same old 4 crystals need saving blah blah blah - good bosses - nice twist on final boss and dungeons were good (good for all the early games tbh)

2 - characters in game, quite good, dodgy leveling up system (whatever seemed to be lacking was improved - eg had to take some damage for hp to improve when you leveled up good story some cool characters although all the cameo characters seemed to die

3 - not released in the west until ds version, still on crystals plot but this time bit different, quite good but annoying cant save in the dungeons which can be pretty long so you have to clear the dungeon in one or keep coming out to save

4 - this is where the great character story line came in, all characters grow and change and main character really changes

5 - only started recently but seems to be the same but different

6 - not started properly yet but looked quite good

7 - Best of the lot for me (i know it seems overrated but most of the characters are among the best in the series - and cloud sephiroth easily arguably the best main character and villian

got an emulator which has first 6 - really top notch quality, would recommend it for anyone wanting to play them

and had a 'free' copy of 7 on my old pc which was a really good quality even though my pc was old and slow (friend i gave the link to it to had it on pc and he said was great graphics though still obviously the old quality graphics)

i like the game but i hate that their is no free roam random battles so u cant lvl up as much as in the others i also dont like the way you follow the one path through the game their is no going back and once an enemy is dead you cant battle it again until you turn the game off and on again.

i still think ff VIII is the best