(s) Archive
2018-02-28
We are so spoiled today as RPG fans. Seriously. There’s the occasional high-profile title we either don’t get in English (or it takes a while), but by and large, most major titles make their way outside of Japan now. We’re a long way from the days when North America got two thirds of the Quintet… Read More »
2018-02-20
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest: Musical Awakening by Marcos Gaspar I was around five years old when I played my first ever Final Fantasy game (suitably, Final Fantasy). I remember spending hours each day playing as much of it as I could understand until I hit a wall I couldn’t climb: Gurgu Volcano. I stopped playing… Read More »
Final Fantasy Tactics: Learning Through Failure by Michael Sollosi The first time I played Final Fantasy Tactics, I died right away, attempting Chapter 1, battle 1. And battle 2. And battle 4 (Dorter Trade City took me a couple of tries). And many battles thereafter. It wasn’t because these fights are brutally difficult; the learning… Read More »
2018-01-31
Seriously, how did 14 games of this caliber all launch between late September and December? Some of these Best RPGs of 1998 are often still cited as some of Nintendo, Konami, Square Enix, and BioWare’s finest. Fallout 2 September 30th, 1998 Writeup by John Tucker The original Fallout is a game that truly showed me… Read More »
The ever-growing popularity of the RPG owes much to Final Fantasy VII. Before 1997, we would get some RPGs, and miss out on countless others. But we aren’t here to talk about Seiken Densetsu 3. No, we’re here to look at the year after Final Fantasy VII‘s release. Cloud’s journey marked a significant shift in RPG interest,… Read More »
2018-01-20
The Final Fantasy Legend: I Like to Picture Jesus in a Tuxedo T-Shirt by Robert Fenner Yeah, it’s actually a SaGa game, but we didn’t know that at the time. The Final Fantasy Legend was not the first turn-based RPG I’d ever played, but it was the first I’d ever owned. At age 5, I was probably… Read More »
2018-01-19
Final Fantasy is the David Bowie of JRPG franchises. OK, I know that statement sounds ridiculous, but hear me out. David Bowie was, and still is, one of popular music’s most beloved figures. Over the course of his six-decade career, Bowie reinvented himself endlessly — his 1967 debut was a competent yet somewhat plain album… Read More »
2018-01-16
Time Paradox by Nathan Lee I don’t remember the circumstances of why I picked up Final Fantasy XIII-2. I had never played a Final Fantasy game before (besides a little bit of FFIII which I did not enjoy), and did not even play XIII. I think the reason was either I was in my experimental… Read More »
2018-01-09
Final Fantasy XIV Memories: (Feel) (Think) (Hope) (Tell) by Mike Salbato I talk about Final Fantasy XIV everywhere that I can on RPGFan, but if I have to pick one moment, one thing in the game that sticks with me as a defining experience, it remains to this day the final battles in The Final… Read More »
Final Fantasy XV Memories: Super Eos Bros. by Peter Triezenberg It’s more-or-less impossible to divorce Final Fantasy XV from its inordinately long development. I was in seventh grade when this game was first announced as Versus XIII, and by the time the game was in my hands, I had graduated from college. Following all those… Read More »
2018-01-05
Final Fantasy XIII: Blinded By Lightning by Peter Triezenberg Final Fantasy XIII is a difficult game to defend. It’s got serious problems, born from its tumultuous development and a lack of oversight from the developers. Yet, it’s also the first game I played on a newly opened PlayStation 3 back in 2010, so I’d be… Read More »
2017-12-29
Final Fantasy XI: Camaraderie by Derek Heemsbergen I lost a lot of my life to Final Fantasy XI. Then again, I lost a lot of my life to every Final Fantasy that came before it, too. I spent much of my childhood and adolescence immersed in RPGs, drinking deep of their narrative draughts to escape… Read More »
Final Fantasy XII: Better Late Than Never by Robert Steinman Final Fantasy XII should have been the Final Fantasy game made for me. It had the director of Tactics, a fantastic new artstyle, and a complicated new battle system based around strategy and careful planning. I was super excited to play it, but I just… Read More »
2017-12-19
Final Fantasy IX: Tonight We Dine on Whale Zombie by Alana Hagues Final Fantasy IX was one of the first games I was ever good at. I’ve got really fond memories of training up each of my eight characters, making sure everyone had learnt all of their skills. It was incredibly rewarding, especially as an… Read More »
Final Fantasy X: Comeuppance by Alana Hagues Oh, America. I remember how you wished you could play the international version of Final Fantasy X. You had to wait until 2014 to get your hands on all of the nasty challenges waiting for you. Me? Well, I had to experience them when I was nine years… Read More »
2017-12-15
Final Fantasy VIII: Air Bud VIII: Time Kompression by Mike Salbato Having not played Final Fantasy VIII since 1999, I’m hazy on many aspects of the love-it-or-meh-it game today, but one thing I’ll never forget is my battle against Ultimecia, the biggest, baddest sorceress this side of Esthar. She has a nasty move that can… Read More »
Final Fantasy VII: Step Aside, NBA Live by Rob Rogan When Final Fantasy VII came out in 1997, I’d been gaming since I was a wee lad playing Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out and Tecmo Bowl on the NES. It was a hobby I enjoyed, and I dabbled in various genres, but I hadn’t played many RPGs.… Read More »
2017-12-08
I’ve pretty much lost count of how many times I’ve said that the War of the Lions retranslation of Final Fantasy Tactics led me to my current career as a translator of video games. It wasn’t my first time with the original Ivalice game, but in a way, it felt like it. But first, let’s… Read More »
2017-12-05
Final Fantasy V: Cartography FTW by Michael Sollosi Final Fantasy V‘s world map is an exercise in foreshadowing. In the first two-thirds of the game, players traverse two separate worlds and may notice a veritable gallery of inaccessible areas: a pyramid in the center of an impenetrable desert, a temple on a tiny island enclosed… Read More »
Final Fantasy VI: Shaved Moogles by Mike Salbato I adore Final Fantasy VI, which some of you may already know from comments I’ve made over the years. But my fellow editors will likely have better-written prose to sing the praises of my favorite Final Fantasy. Instead, like I did in 2010 when I envisioned FFVI‘s potential… Read More »
2017-12-01
When Final Fantasy XIII was first unveiled at E3 2006, many fans breathed a sigh of relief. It had been a strange and tumultuous time for the storied franchise. The CGI movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children had simultaneously impressed and bewildered audiences with its cutting-edge animation and incomprehensible plotline. The most recent mainline entry,… Read More »
2017-11-28
Final Fantasy IV: To the Moon, Rosa! by Alana Hagues As a kid, I can’t think of anything else that fascinated me more than space. To think that there was something beyond the clouds completely blew my mind when I was younger. But there was no way I’d be able to get there in this… Read More »
Final Fantasy III: Get a Job by Peter Triezenberg Fun fact: Final Fantasy III was the first game in the series I played to completion (on the Nintendo DS, thankfully: I’m not planning on going anywhere near the Famicom original). That’s not to say it’s one of my favorites, per se, but I do have some… Read More »
2017-11-21
Final Fantasy II: Hostility Breeds Innovation by Robert Fenner Final Fantasy is one of those grossly monumental series with a reputation that each successive release is more divisive than the last. However, one opinion that the majority of the fanbase shares is a seething hatred of Final Fantasy II. It’s not altogether unjustified: Final Fantasy… Read More »
Final Fantasy: Transformation by Michael Sollosi I wasn’t terribly impressed with the original Final Fantasy the first time I played it. I had played through parts of Final Fantasy IV with a friend at a sleepover, but in 1994 I only had the regular NES. I was desperate to play more of these mysterious “RPGs”… Read More »
