tori_angeli | In (Belated) Honor of a new Final Fantasy, part Two

Here are my reviews of VII-IX.

Final Fantasy VII

World

More of a modern setting, without the classic kingdoms but with its own, more corporate version of the Evil Empire. Definitely sci-fi as much as fantasy.

Characters

Phenomenal protagonist and villain. The other characters can fall to the wayside at times, but they’re well-written and have very specific mannerisms. As an ensemble they have a clear camaraderie and enjoyable banter is common.

Heroic Protagonist: The infamous headcase Cloud. Do I even need to describe him? Everyone knows him. He’s nucking futs. In the coolest way possible. Very likely the most interesting FF protagonist.

Dull Love Interest: Aeris/Aerith. I’m sorry, but she is! Yes, I cried when she died, but that doesn’t mean I liked her to begin with. The death scene was just that awesome. Oh yes, spoilers—if you didn’t know Aeris/Aerith dies, wait till I tell you who Superman really is. Even people who haven’t played a minute of FF7 know Aeris/Aerith dies.

Kickass Lady: Tifa. Owns a bar and doesn’t need to hire a bouncer. Is in possession of a pair of Iron Boobs. Cute childhood crush on Cloud. I like her for the Important Little Fact she carries around and the fact that she keeps it close for the entire game without ever being able to spit it out.

The Big Guy: Barrett. Very quirky, but is really only a great character when it involves his desert prison subplot or his daughter Marlene. Man, my heart breaks every time I think about him, Dyne, and Marlene. Daddy loves Marlene!

The Indescribable: What is Red XIII, exactly? Ah, well. He’s cute. Though I do get weirded out every time he calls Bugenhagen “Grandpa.”

The Useless One: Seriously, does anybody ever use Cait Sith unless they are forced?

The Cid: Unique among Cids in that he is not old. He is quite possibly the best of the mandatory player characters besides Cloud, as he isn’t merely quirky, but has genuine reasons for his quirkiness. On the other hand, his motivation for joining the group is “Why not?” which is the same as Setzer’s reason in FF6, but at least Setzer lives his whole life that way.

The Kid: I don’t care if Yuffie is sixteen—she’s still the kid. I may be one of the few players who really likes her, too! She’s not exactly a deep character, but she’s fun.

The Cool Guy: Vincent, of course. Standing on rooftops and bridges with his crimson cape rippling in the wind, striking poses, turning into horrible monsters—is there anything about this guy we don’t love? Not to mention the tragic past that estrogen-ridden H/C writers like me just love to wallow in. Let’s face it: Vincent is just one of the coolest FF characters ever.

The Villain: Sephiroth, the most popular FF villain of all time. While he’s not as quirky or even necessarily as utterly monstrously evil as Kefka, he has this inexplicable charisma. Maybe it starts with his past, where he just kinda seemed like a relatively normal guy with a lot of power, a neutral demeanor that wasn’t necessarily cold, limited knowledge of his own parents, and a tragic lack of a childhood. We connected with this guy before we were even introduced to him as a villain. We always had the impression that he could have had something better and happier than becoming a homicidal maniac seeking godhood. Throw in flowing silver locks and an amazing sword and you have yourself an awesome villain.

Plot

One of the coolest FF plots ever, all character-centric and dodging contrived devices. The Evil Corporate Empire, Shinra, is sucking the life from the planet. When our heroes seek to take down Shinra, they run smack into an even bigger problem: Shinra’s ultimate weapon, a super-soldier named Sephiroth, is even further along the road to world destruction than Shinra is, and he has an inexplicable pull on our hero Cloud.

Battle System

Really freakin’ fun. Comparable in that way to V. Similar to VI’s magicite system, except that once you unequip materia, you can no longer use the abilities on it. This corrects the flaw in VI’s gameplay that made it too easy. Also fully employs Limit Breaks.

Soundtrack

Ear candy. Second only to FF6. The main theme will get stuck in your head. Aerith’s theme will make you cry whether you like it or not. Absolutely amazing soundtrack with just a few forgettable/weak tracks (Sephiroth’s theme?). The good ones make up for the less-good ones, though.

Final Fantasy VIII

World

Fully modern, occasionally futuristic. No remaining traces of the traditional setting.

Characters

As individuals, they can be iffy, especially Squall and Rinoa, who are developed but badly so. The other PCs are fully realized and have great personalities, but tend to be pretty static—not that it’s necessary for every character to be dynamic! As an ensemble cast, however, they are wonderful, with a fun group dynamic and sense of camaraderie no FF I’ve played has matched yet. These people have a genuine loyalty to each other, even the ones who don't like each other. Love, friendship, and courage indeed.

Heroic Protagonist: Squall. How heroic he is is debatable. Quiet and sullen, grumpy and antisocial. You’re waiting for him to be thawed out by his friends. Unfortunately, the game foregoes that and his savior turns out to be…

Dull Love Interest: The legendary Rinoa. Almost universally accepted as the worst FF heroine ever.

Turncoat Antihero: Seifer. Quite possibly the best-executed character in the game. Has neither a crappy love interest responsible for his half-baked character arc (like Squall has) nor a thread of interesting personal story abandoned in favor of less interesting characters (like Irvine has). He’s a little boy who wants to be a hero, and sells his soul to the devil for the chance.

Kickass Lady: Quistis. Dude. She is one fetish-lover’s dream. She’s a teacher with a whip. Also, she’s an interesting combination of a tight-laced authority figure and a vulnerable girl just blooming into a woman. She indulges just a bit in a little self-pity, but that’s only a human thing to do. Very well-built character.

The Big Guy: Well, physically Zell isn’t that big, but he fills the role. He’s a monk-class type character with a personality you can’t ignore—a really endearing character. Somehow he works better as part of an ensemble than as an individual, since his reactions to people are so interesting. I do wish he and Irvine had a bit more banter on-screen, as they seem to clash the most.

Kickass Lady/The Kid: Really, Selphie is a great combination of those two. Not only can she wreak major havoc with some of her limit breaks, but the first time we meet her, she falls down. She’s cheery and pert and fangirly and seems to have issues to take up with her serious side. I enjoy seeing a character whose emotions run high both ways—little things get her down as well as up, which is completely realistic. She’s empathetic and noisy and simultaneously flawed and gifted. I don’t understand why some people aren’t willing to look past the “annoyingly cheerful” aspect and simply enjoy this character. Oh, and she likes blowing things up. Come on, people!

The Self-Proclaimed Ladies’ Man: Irvine, of course. I know he’s not a fan favorite, but I for one loved watching him get past the insecure tough-guy front that plagued his relations with the others for half the game (even though the act didn’t even make it to the end of the first disc). His weird behavior makes a great deal more sense after you’ve played through the game—always a good character trait, in my book. In addition to having a heart of gold, he’s a surprisingly deep thinker, a gentleman (he actually lets Rinoa kick him down a set of stairs rather than fight back—my opinion of Rinoa is not the least bit better for it—and genuinely adores Selphie in spite of his immature sexual pursuit of her), and the only reason I beat Ultimecia at level 23 (AP Ammo RAWKS). So yes, in spite of the fact that he was dropped like a hot tamale at the end of the second disc, he’s probably my favorite in the game.

The Villain: Ultimecia, our first female main villain (to my knowledge). It was late in the game, literally, when we were introduced to her, so we couldn’t form the connection with her that we had with Sephiroth, Kefka, Golbez, and even Exdeath. Taking everything into account, though, she’s a good villain. I loved the use of the sorceresses in this game.

Plot

For the first two discs, it’s actually really good. Then it just becomes a bunch of drama with Squall and Rinoa being romantic morons. Guh I hate Rinoa.

Battle System

A lot of people hate it. I for one really like not having to run around leveling for hours on end, but some people love it. I’d rather get on with the plot, you know. The draw system was no worse than the Steal ability, though I would have liked to see a canon explanation as to why the world works this way. Is it some sort of balancing act, like magic is just another energy that cannot be created or destroyed? Anyway, the monsters and bosses level up as you level up, so no amount of powering up will make a boss too easy, and you need to rely more on strategy than brute strength to defeat your enemies. Except in the case of the Omega Weapon, the optional boss at the end, who literally has an attack that hits for 9998 HP. Other than that, if you can’t beat a boss, chances are you need to rethink your strategy rather than run around for hours on end fighting boring enemies just to get numbers added to your character stats.

Soundtrack

More or less forgettable, unfortunately, especially considering how good the last four soundtracks were. One or two standout tracks (“Find Your Way” in particular), but for the most part, nothing grabs.

Final Fantasy IX

World

This world is a throwback to the first four FFs but retains some really nice features of the newer ones. Towns you can really stroll through, for example. The castles and traditional-style airships were definitely missed, and it’s good to see them back in this game. I also really like the use of moogles, the critters that first appeared in FF5, as save points and couriers. Slightly steampunky, but not as much so as FF6, since most tech in FF9 relies on the magical “Mist.”

Characters

Altogether, good individual characters. Decent as an ensemble as well, with most of the characters having relationships with most of the other characters.

Heroic Protagonist/The Rogue/The Self-Proclaimed Ladies Man: Zidane. Oh, I have a love for Zidane. What a sweetie he is, always looking out for people, always trying to lift people up. Then he goes and shamelessly grabs Dagger’s bum while climbing a ladder. I think I want to marry this man when he grows up. Yes, when he grows up—while he does not by any means act this young (except for the hormones), he’s sixteen. There’s no reason for this besides the idea Squeenix got that the younger the heroes, the better. Maybe it’s a marketing thing. Anyway. Perhaps the best part about the character is that he is high-spirited, sweet, and laughing in spite of having an admittedly difficult life. After a series of gloomy, unsmiling, serious heroes like Squall, Cecil, and Cloud, Zidane is wildly refreshing and fun to watch.

Quick tangent: who else is bothered by Baku? The guy creeps me out. Zidane could probably mop the floor with him if he tried, but Baku actually has these guys trained not to resist him when he beats them for disobedience. Maybe what bothers me is the fact that this is actually one of the things that’s supposed to make him funny. Maybe I’m completely misreading something.

Dull Love Interest: Garnet/Dagger, but she’s not really dull. Of all the princess characters in the FFs I’ve played, she might be the best (only one other gives her competition, and I can’t mention her name for spoilers’ sake). She does very well for someone as painfully (even abusively) sheltered as she is, refusing to remain ignorant simply because she is somewhat overwhelmed by the size of the world. She has a bit of the same appeal as Princess Jasmine, a girl in a box who wants only to breathe. She’s also really smart and will make a good queen. She looks her own naivety in the eye and challenges it to a duel. I can respect that.

The Knight: Steiner. I’m not generally a fan of using characters as comic relief, but Steiner is pretty funny. Maybe it’s the fact that he doesn’t know how ridiculous and funny he is. Maybe it’s also the fact that nothing he does is born out of immaturity or pig-headedness—he wants only to protect the princess. He’s a good guy, even if he doesn’t like Zidane. Heck, there’s good reason for him to mistrust Zidane, even though we know Zidane means no harm.

The Kid I: Vivi. He is the very definition of a woobie. You want to snuggle him more than Gau. You want to snuggle him more than anything. You will cry for lack of a Vivi plushie doll to squeeze. He’s sweet, sad, and oh-so-cuddly and everyone loves him.

Kickass Lady: Freya the Rat Dragoon. A rare female knight/dragoon character, which is wonderfully refreshing. She’s somehow a little hard for me to connect with. I like her as a character, but I wish she’d lighten up!

The Kid II: Eiko, in a more annoying way than Vivi. She’s actually quite huggable when she’s not trying to act like a grown-up, and I do like the layers they give her. She’s more realistic than your typical The Kid, but like many real life The Kids, she’s still annoying.

The Useless One/The Indescribable: Quina, and it is probably just my personal bias against blue mages that makes me think s/he’s useless. I just don’t have the patience to power up this particular giant rag doll. S/he is also an entirely uninteresting character, so…yeah.

Turncoat Antihero: Amarant. I really like this guy just because he was thrown into a personal crisis by a brief chance encounter with a dude who doesn’t even remember him. I love how Zidane’s attitude drives him nuts not because he disagrees with him, but because Amarant could never fathom the existence of someone as wholeheartedly selfless as Zidane. It’s the thief’s virtues that drive him nuts, not his flaws. That makes me grin like a maniac.

The Villain: Kuja is clearly a prettyboy throwback to Golbez, who also made a habit of covertly taking over kingdoms from the position of the king or queen’s right hand. There’s also another resemblance that many have noted, but that’s a spoiler. He’s a highly amused chessmaster who thinks the heroes are soooo cuuute! Definitely one of my favorite FF villains, metal thong aside (seriously, I generally like Amano, but what was he thinking?).

Plot

Very good, but the main flaw is definitely that the first two discs focus so much on characters that are not the protagonist. It takes a long time for FF9 to become Zidane’s story. Altogether, though, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable story, more lighthearted than the last few FFs and for that a welcome change of pace. More in the fantasy genre than FF7 and FF8.

Battle System

This is where I have a little griping to do. Here we have something a little like the Magicite system in FF6, but instead of gemstone-type-things, it’s with equipment. Each weapon/armor item teaches multiple abilities. Therefore, if you’re at a weapons shop, you’d better get everything they have. If you miss one, Garnet/Dagger may never learn Cura. So that gets a little expensive, not to mention inconvenient when Steiner is still using his first Bronze Sword because he hasn’t learned Beast Killer yet and you’re already ten hours into the game. Granted, this player could have spent a little more time powering up her characters, but still.

Soundtrack

A big step up from FF8. Tracks like “You’re Not Alone” push it up to being a better soundtrack than 4 or 5, possibly, but not on par with 6 or 7.