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I've noticed final Fantasy fans tend to sit in two camps people who started early on in the series. Hate VIII and Usually don't like X much either. Whereas people new to the Final Fantasy series are in love with those two titles. I think it has a lot to do with those being the "mainstream titles" Those two were the most well recieved by the general public, people who didn't play final fantasy normally played those games. Which is good in that they've got universality and bad becasue they take out some of the more complicated aspects to make them more accessible.

In both cases they opted for a primary love story,though I appreciate in 10 that instead of the cliched love story it's more of a tragic love story. (It's also worth noting most of the other FF's also have love stories they just aren't quite as key to the plot, they're slowly developing love stories rather than being shoved in your face every 10 seconds).

They also both offer some of the most open characters in terms of classes. If you're an old Final Fantasy fan you expect some ridigidy in your character classes and those just don't offer that. The Junctioning system in 8 makes the game far too easy IMO, you can also obliterate any class system save for their special attacks. Same thing with X your charcter starts in a specfic class but can move all over the grid. And in both cases I think being able to do that with your characters kind of ruins the strategic aspect of the game. I think while having that aspect there is good for new fans fo the series it's disappointing to the older fans.

I think the whole we forgot our Memories becasue we have GF's thing is just too unbelievable!
I also got real tired of Rinoa's oh squall come save me... crap pretty quickly. So she lead a team of rebels before she met squall but, now that he's there she's become a helpless maiden?
On to it's good points, I give the developers credit for having an entirely new system with the junctioning and drawing of magic, the graphics are lovely for PS1 and a huge upgrade from VII And the music, as it is in all final fantasy games, it beautiful and appropriate.

Storylinewise X I thought was cliched and prediticable.
I really thought the charcters all had the potential to be very interesting but, the charcter development was secerly lacking on everyone except Tidus and Yuna. You'd get a nibble of a backstory about them but, then it would shift right back to Tidus.
Rikku's sudden oh Yuna and I are best Buds cause we're related even though I've never really talked to her before left me with an overwhelming sense of wtf?.
Gameplay wise even though it makes perfect snese and I've always thought you should be able to do it in the other FF games Charcter swaping in mid battle also kind of sucks the strategy out of important battles.

For it's good points I really do like the charcter designs Yuna and LuLu are some of the prettiest FF girls ever, the enviroments are beautiful and the music is lovely and appropriate. The storyline while I think it's cliched is easy to understand and still enjoyable enough just not anything spectacular.

The best thing I see about (VII & X) are their graphics and personally no ammount of pretty graphics are going to dissuade me from the game itself. yes really terrible graphics will bring down the overall quality of a game but, really great graphics can't hide an awful game. Which isn't to say that those games are awful becasue, they aren't awful, they're good games they just aren't as great as some of the series counterparts.

Ok, to start of, I kinda have to agree with you about the two 'camps' of FF fans, although I really fit into neither camp (early FF fan who still likes VIII and X). I really feel that although these two games espaecially, but not exclusively, lacked somewhat compared to other FFs they played an important role in introducing others to the FF franchise, thus alowing them to reincorperate the more stratigic factors later on after they've hooked more fans.

As for focusing primaraly on love stories, I do feel that was a little of a cop-out, but it was somewhat of a nice change each time (VIII becaues it was the first, and X becuase it was more of a tragic love story, although X2 ruined that XP)

In regards to the sphere grid, I found the idea to be really intreaging, but I did wish it had more limitations. I truely miss the days of set classes, ie I, III, and V. In a way I was like the idea of say making Tidus more like a palidin or black knight (ie allowing him to learn low level white or black magic respectivly) but hated the idea of making Lulu a beastmaster or warrior (ie learning any of Kimari or Auraon's skills)

With your ideas on the stroy faults in VIII..... well mostly I have to agree. The entire intertwining of the characters stories based on the concept of lost memories was so.... so.... crappy. I saw that as one of the biggest disapointments in regards to VIII's story, although Rinoa going from rebel leader to helpless maiden did bug the crap out of me too XP.

Again I'll have to agree with you on the stoyline of X. It was all pretty predictable and followed a definate trend in story lines compared to other FFs. Also I too was looking for more back story on the other characters, specifically Lulu and her other pilgrimages, but it was too focused on Tidus and Yuna. The introduction of switching charaters mid-battle I, at first, really loved, but after a while I found that it made nearly every battle a beginers battle, the only up side to this was it's total integration for the newer fans.

As for graphics, well I loved both of them for their graphics. VIII was just a huge jump compared to VII (and VII was a major jump from VI) and I truely appriciated the characters non-chibish appearance. X I feel didn't offer that big of an improvment from IX, but I will admit that the graphics were quite often quite breath taking.

Although I fell that both games had quite a few storyline flaws, I still feel the these two are probably some of the better of the series. Sure they weren't as inventive as VII, but they tied up all the loose ends and explained most of the story (sorry VII fans, but you really shouldn't need 20 sequals to finish explaining the original game), and sure they were both somewhat predictable at times, but isn't that what draws us to these games in the first place? I mean when I go pick up an FF game at the store, I know that it's gonna involve some type of love story, a battle to save the world/universe, there are gonna be amazing music and graphics, and a major villan that diserves major admieration and respect, but I still pick it up.

Quite frankly I have a special connection with all the games in the series for one reason or another, but I still feel quite strongly for VIII and X in particular (to be fair I also have to include I, IV, VI, and VII). But again, this is just my opinion ^^

to be quite honest with you i haven't played all of IX yet... i barrowed it from a friend and only got through to the forest after the airshop crashes (note... not really a spoiler, it happens within like 10 mins of gameplay ^^) but i have been looking for it again so i can fairly evaluate it..... sorry if i sounded like i didn't much care for it, i'm just not lucky enough to have played through it yet sweatdrop

Ahhh. Give it a chance. A lot of people hate it because of the charater designs. Overall, it is probably top of my list followed by VII. VII just had wayyyyyyyyy too many holes in it.

^^.... VI def has a special place in my heart as well.... if you couldn't tell from my 30 min rant early in the thread XP... but i had never known that about the moster sprits... that's extreamly interesting.... i'm gonna need to do some research on that on XDD

I've noticed final Fantasy fans tend to sit in two camps people who started early on in the series (either with the NES or SNES titles) Hate VIII and Usually don't like X much either. Whereas people new to the Final Fantasy series are in love with those two titles. I think it has a lot to do with those being the "mainstream titles" Those two were the most well recieved by the general public, people who didn't play final fantasy normally played those games. Which is good in that they've got universality and bad becasue they take out some of the more complicated aspects to make them more accessible.

In both cases they opted for a primary love story,though I appreciate in 10 that instead of the cliched love story it's more of a tragic love story. (It's also worth noting most of the other FF's also have love stories they just aren't quite as key to the plot, they're slowly developing love stories rather than being shoved in your face every 10 seconds).

They both have marvelous graphics and attractive characters. (if you're all about graphics those are the final fantasy games for you!)

They both have stories easy to conenct with and easy to understand because they're very similar to stories in most drama.

They also both offer some of the most open characters in terms of classes. If you're an old Final Fantasy fan you expect some ridigidy in your character classes and those just don't offer that (conicedentilly neither does VII) The Junctioning system in 8 makes the game far too easy IMO, you can make yourself darn near invincible by level 15 possibly earlier and also kind of obliterate any class system save for their special attacks. Same thing with X your charcter starts in a specfic class but can move all over the grid, I have a friend who sent LuLu down the white magic path so she didn't learn high black magic until she was in her 30's level wise. And in both cases I think being able to do that with your characters kind of ruins the strategic aspect of the game. You can basically make anyone whatever you want. No, alright I can't live without a white mage and have my main charcter who's oh say a knight, so now do I bring in a black mage, a red amge, or a fighter, and hey maybe this guys got something good maybe I should grab my theif. I think while not having that aspect there is good for new fans fo the series it's disappointing to the older fans.

I'm with Raven in that I disliked both VIII and X.

I eventually stopped hating VIII and made peace with it but I still think the storyline is well...lacking.
I think the whole we forgot our Memories becasue we have GF's thing is just too unbelievable especially when you consider you just got control of GF's when you start the game!
I also got real tired of Rinoa's oh squall come save me... crap pretty quickly. So she lead a team of rebels before she met squall but, now that he's there she's become a helpless maiden?
Let's also not forget that Rinoa spent the entire begining of the game talking about the greatness of Seifer leaving poor squall to feel more than a little rejected I'd think!
On to it's good points, I give the developers credit for having an entirely new system with the junctioning and drawing of magic, the graphics are lovely for PS1 and a huge upgrade from VII( Personally I think Irvine is quite nice to look at heart ) And the music, as it is in all final fantasy games, it beautiful and appropriate.

My first issue with X actually has little to do with the game itself it's a personal thing and it's that I wish they'd have given me a Japanese with subtitles option, the voice acting is pretty good considering the normal quality of english voice actors but, I'd still perfer to hear it's orignal dubbing.
Storylinewise I thought the story was cliched and prediticable the only thing I really didn't see coming was Auron but even then it wasn't a matter of wow I'd have never guessed it was much more Wow that makes perfect sense how did I miss that?
I really thought the charcters all had the potential to be very interesting but, the charcter development was secerly lacking on everyone except Tidus and Yuna. You'd get a nibble of a backstory about them but, then it would shift right back to Tidus.
Rikku's sudden oh Yuna and I are best Buds cause we're related even though I've never really talked to her before left me with an overwhelming sense of wtf?.
Gameplay wise even though it makes perfect snese and I've always thought you should be able to do it in the other FF games Charcter swaping in mid battle also kind of sucks the strategy out of important battles.
I'm also not a fan of the spheregrid idea as you could in theory make super characters eventually and really whats' the point of it being so easy?

For it's good points I really do like the charcter designs Yuna and LuLu are some of the prettiest FF girls ever, the enviroments are beautiful and the music is lovely and appropriate. The storyline while I think it's cliched is easy to understand and still enjoyable enough just not anything spectacular.

To sum it up the best thing I see about (VII & X) are their graphics and personally no ammount of pretty graphics are going to dissuade me from the game itself, after all I'm old enough and nerdy enough to have play those all text rpgs no graphics whatsoever. yes really terrible graphics will bring down the overall quality of a game but, really great graphics can't hide an awful game. Which isn't to say that those games are awful becasue, they aren't awful, they're good games they just aren't as great as some of the series counterparts (In my opinion).

I'll just leave every one with that novel I wrote now... sweatdrop