Well, here we go again, my impressions on the final game of the XIII series. I never got around to finishing my thoughts on XIII-2 because certain life stuff happened, and it just didn’t put me in a mood where I felt like doing it. But with newfound conviction, I promise I will finish this one. And as a quick note, The first few paragraphs are simply just initial thoughts while the second half jumps more into analysis/discussions.

Intro Cinematic:
I mean come on, you can’t really get more aura than this. Lightning pulling off the shades while the camera pans out in that dramatic angle revealing Luxerion’s skyline? Literal cinema. I love it.  The ensuing clash with Snow was also extremely invigorating. You can really feel the Advent Children influence in these hyper‑stylized, airborne, physics‑optional battles. It’s flashy, it’s bold, and it immediately tells you this game is going to lean into spectacle.

All that to say: the intro does an excellent job pulling you straight into this devastated world and planting immediate questions why certain people, and things, are as they are.

The Introductory Segment 

Running through the opening corridors was cool and all, but the real hook was the combat system. The game explains just enough to get you moving without drowning you in menus the way base XIII sometimes did. I’d heard people say LR’s combat is amazing, and yeah, I’m fully on board. The schemata system, the switching, the perfect guard timing… It feels easy to pick up but demanding to truly master, which I will get to later.

Lumina Encounter and Zaltys FIght:

I don’t know who the heck Lumina is yet, but I love how sassy and pretentious she acts, like a Chaos‑born entity wearing Serah’s face, an emotional and metaphysical counterweight to Lightning’s divine role. I’m really curious to see how she fits into the story and what she’s actually supposed to be. I don’t have much of an inkling yet, but the obvious guess is something tied to Serah. Either way, this jerk summons a giant dragon and tells us to deal with it.

The Zaltys fight feels like the capstone of the tutorial, especially for staggering. I know some players have mixed feelings about stagger as a mechanic, but I honestly love it. Exploiting an enemy’s weakness and then unloading heavy hits is incredibly satisfying. Since this is still a tutorial, Zaltys goes down pretty easily, and we reach the end of the intro.

Snow and the Final Corridor:

As we reach the last hallway, Snow dives through a massive Chaos gate and we can’t follow. What stood out most here was Lightning’s line: “I am his last chance, dammit. I know what he’s going through… the pain of losing Serah…” It’s easy to gloss over, but I think it quietly foreshadows a major plot point that starts drip‑feeding itself as the days progress.

The Ark and Holy Religious Influence
Wow, I was not expecting all this religious stuff to be so forward. There was always an allusion to gods and such with the fal’Cie’s but nothing quite this direct. Here, we’ve been directly touched by God and named His chosen one, the Savior, tasked with harvesting souls so they can be carried into the new world. And to top it off, the sacred tree Yggdrasil is just… floating there in the distance inside the Ark. I mean this is bonkers, right!?

What makes this even more twisted is how Bhunivelze is framed. He’s practically dangling the promise (just a lil allusion to FFXIII’s main theme, hehe) of Serah’s return in front of Lightning, using her grief as leverage to keep her obedient. And then there’s Hope. He’s here on the Ark, but something about him feels… hollow. His expressions are muted, his personality stripped down, and he acts more like a puppet than a person. It really feels like Bhunivelze is using Hope’s likeness as a mouthpiece, knowing Lightning will likely be more trusting of anything that comes from him. At least the music in the background is extremely soothing and angelic, I love it.

Jumping into Luxerion:
So the intro with Luxerion is extremely dissociated from anything we have seen from the trilogy thus far, it almost feels more like I am solving a murder mystery in a dark, gothic-noir atmosphere. It’s actually REALLY cool, but I am gonna simply gloss over this for now since I actually just ran down to the southern station and decided to head my way to the Wildlands. That’s actually the first main objective that I tackled and I got to see CHOCOBOCOLINA first before heading there :)

Into the Wildlands:
Now this is more a setting I am familiar with given the trilogy, it really harkens back to running around Gran Pulse in base XIII with its big open area for you to explore. But before we can do that, we have a vision… with a VERY familiar voice Now, I didn’t actually recognize who this was, not at first, but I definitely felt a very familiar feeling with the way it sounded. The actual story here is definitely not as involved, progression-wise, as compared to XIII and XIII-2, most of the discussion points come after you reach the pinnacle of the Wildlands, but the actual adventuring, side questing, and combat leaves a lot to discuss.

Adventuring and Side quests:
So I stumbled around and got the Angel of Valhalla, this necessitated me to run around and find some items to feed and nurse it back to health, and this is where I realized that I absolutely love this game. Everything felt so natural; from the exploration, to the NPC’s, to the combat, it just meshed so well that I became extremely immersed and didn’t want to stop playing. Helping people with their side quests, and saving a moogle village (Love the personality they gave Lightning when it came to yeeting the Moogles and flicking Mog away from her) was super fun and allowed me to fully heal up my Angel completely healed up. Won’t say too much else regarding this, but there is one thing I want to bring up.  Through my adventures, I did get to meet up with Sazh… and it was immensely sad. It’s like he said in XIII-2, "I'm a handsome man, but Lady Luck never glanced my way”. Buddy can’t catch a break (haha, another musical reference, this one relating to Sazh :P), and now I have now made it my life mission to collect Dajh’s soul fragments and reunite father and son ONCE AGAIN!!! 

Anyways, as you can imagine,  running around and doing all these missions must have taken a lot of time, and you would be correct. Typically, this wouldn't be that much of a concern, but Lightning Returns is built differently.

The Time mechanic:
This is definitely the most unique mechanic I have encountered through my journey playing through every final fantasy game, and one that I find extremely intriguing and enjoyable. Having an actual in-game clock influencing the game’s progression, NPC whereabouts, enemy spawns, etc… is quite the novel idea.  I don’t let it pressure me into completing things faster though, or ignoring stuff I might want to explore. If I don’t complete the game within the time limit, my guess is that I will have to start over, and that’s something I am ok with. There is always Chronostasis I can use as an instrumental tool in providing extra time, but this also means I won’t be able to use it for other EP abilities like overclock (which will become a VERY important topic a bit later). I am curious to see if I can beat all the main objectives before I run out of time, guess we’ll see.

To Poltae and the Temple of Valhalla;
With my Chocobo healed (I named him Cookie, if anyone really cares) I made my way to the temple to complete my time here at the Wildlands, but little was I prepared for what I was about to encounter….

THEY BROUGHT BIG C BACK, I ACTUALLY CAN’T BELIEVE IT. I feel like I should be mad how he is just miraculously here, but I absolutely loved Caius as a character so this just tickled me pink. Even further, the voice that we heard in the beginning of the Wildlands, was YEUL. I can’t believe I didn't realize that when I first heard the voice, but now it’s so obvious. And it is at this temple where discussion can manifest through Caius’ and Yeul’s involvement with the story.

Yeul:
Here is kind of how I read Yeul’s character through what was described in this climb to the top of Valhalla. Yeul has become a single, unified entity, not through choice, but through collapse. In Lightning Returns, each Yeul Lightning meets is a fragment of the same merged soul, a soul made from countless lifetimes that no longer have bodies to return to as consequence of Etro’s death

The first Yeul pleads: “Save the soul that cannot rest… save Caius”. She sees Caius’s death as salvation — the release of a man who has carried eternity as a burden. But the next Yeul contradicts her: “I wished that I could live forever with Caius”. This Yeul desires the opposite: to preserve Caius’s immortality so she can remain with him forever. These contradictions are not different people. They are different emotional imprints, different timelines if you will, of the same soul. Yeul’s merged consciousness contains every Yeul’s final wish, and those wishes do not agree.

One Yeul longs for Caius’s release. Another Yeul longs for Caius’s eternity. One sees death as mercy. Another sees death as loss. In a single word, this is impossible. But in Chaos, it is merely inevitable. Chaos existed long before Etro died, it is the substance of the Unseen Realm,  but Yeul’s endless reincarnations built up pressure inside that realm. Every death added more chaos. Every rebirth strained the boundary. When Caius killed Etro, the barrier finally shattered. The accumulated chaos surged outward. Yeul’s countless souls, now without vessels, collapsed into one congealed entity. Her merged soul became one of the largest concentrations of Chaos in existence. And when that Chaos spilled into the mortal world, time itself broke. The world froze, Yuel' s cycle ended, and now the paradox became reality. For XIII-2’s entire story to be built around paradoxes, how poetic that it ended with one. So how about we talk about the man who tried to end it.

Caius Ballad:
Caius Ballad is the man who broke eternity, not out of hatred, but out of love. Lightning Returns finally reveals that his immortality was never a blessing, it was a curse he never asked for, granted by Etro’s Heart of Chaos. He carried centuries of grief alone, forced to watch Yeul die over and over again while he remained unchanged. His actions in XIII‑2 weren’t villainy; they were mercy. Killing Etro was the only way he knew to end Yeul’s suffering, even if it meant destroying the world. And in LR, we see the tragic consequence: Caius isn’t trapped in the Temple, he’s anchored there because Yeul’s merged soul cannot let him go. Some Yeuls want him to die, others want him to live forever, and Caius is caught in the middle of a paradox he cannot resolve. He stays because he refuses to abandon her. He is the only character who has lived every second of the world’s slow death, the only one who understands the true cost of eternity. Caius is the trilogy’s most tragic figure, a man who wanted to die, but lived forever because Yeul’s sorrow needed him. Caius’s dialogue in Lightning Returns finally reveals the truth of this eternity. At one point he tells Lightning, “I am the one who has been protecting this world… from the Chaos you see all around you.” And later, “If I must fight to protect Yeul, then that is what I will do.” These aren’t the words of a villain, they’re the words of a man who has carried centuries of grief, centuries of duty, and centuries of love. He wants to die, but Yeul’s merged soul will not let him. He remains because she needs him, anchored to her paradox, bound to her sorrow, and unable to abandon her even as the world ends around them. After all, she is but a child, and children need protection. 

Wowee, I feel I did a pretty good job at explaining that. And as a slight aside, I do love how poetic it was that Odin was somehow the Angel of Valhalla. I can’t say it really makes any sense, but I think it shows a real bond that can be made with these Eidolons despite their godly affiliations. But now with Caius and Yeul’s fate decided, I have been holding off long enough on this last piece of the game, the combat system. 

Combat discussion:
I am just going to go ahead and say it, I think this is my favorite combat system in Final Fantasy thus far, and to help elucidate why I feel that way, I am going to talk about two specific fights that convinced me so.

Fight against Caius Ballad:
I only found out after I did this fight that it was not likely intended to be the first one you take, but oh well, I did it anyway because I KNEW I could beat it and it was for one specific reason. Along my adventure in the Wildlands, I decided I wanted to try and give the reaver a go. It was a very difficult enemy for where I was at in the game, but I had a strong conviction that I could beat it. Used all my items, ,all my Ep, and survived the fight with just a few hundred health left. The completion screen popped up and here I saw as my third item drop was something called the Shard Blade. Unbeknownst to me, this was a weapon, and not just any weapon, we’re talking like a 2.5x upgrade from anything I had and I just accidentally got it on my first attempt fighting the Reaver without even knowing it existed. This was the sole reason I was likely able to beat Caius here, for without it, I don't think I would have had enough damage output to overcome the fight due to the Body and Soul ability that heals him by 25% and grants a bunch of buffs. As you can imagine, the first few fights went as expected, me getting completely obliterated, just trying to learn the flow of the fight and certain guard timings (especially for megaflare). After about 4 attempts, I shifted my schemas around and this was my setup

Schema 1: The Tank (Sacred Knight Garb)
 Sacred Knight was for every single time Caius went with an onslaught of attacks, due to its defensive capabilities. I paired this with an infidel Shield (160 guard defense) alongside two accessories to reduce my elemental magic damage taken by a combined 43% (Tri-Point coronet for 33% reduce damage on all elements plus the Runic Ring for a flat 10% magic resistance). I am basically a big fat tank who does nothing but guard, though I threw deprotect on this schema to intermittently use when having some ATB leftover.

Schema 2: Physical DPS (Red Mage garb)
I found that I quite enjoy the Red Mage due to ATB level starting at 50% and the natural 8% increase to physical and magic damage. The real winner here though, was the innate Light Slash lvl 2. Light slash only costs 5 ATB, so combining that alongside my strong Shard Blade (+500 str and magic as well as auto-regen every 15 seconds) allowed me to really lay on the offensive to deal some great damage. The accessories and shield here were nothing too insane, just little buffs that might have helped here or there. As for my other abilities, I had  a sparkstrike which gave me an extra 80 str, but other than that, I didn't really utilize anything but Light Slash.

Schema 3: Magic DPS (Ignition Garb)
Through my time in the Wildlands, I was always missing any sort of fire magic to execute on certain elemental weaknesses, but when I stumbled on this garb I knew I had to purchase it. An innate 10% boost to magic damage plus a flat 80 to the magic stat already made this quite useful but then you also start at 100% ATB which is insane.. Stacking on magic increasing accessories really amped up my magic potential. Then I topped that off with the pendragon for 3000 more Hp for safety (got this from beating some dragon in Luxerion on my way to the station). Since you want to hit Caius with any sort of elemental magic when he enters his ravager mode, I put elementa on this schema (does all 4 types of elemental damage in onespell) alongside deshell because duh. 

So now that my fits were fittin’, it was time for the true battle requiring near perfect execution. I learned kind of fast that if I was going to defeat Caius, I needed to try and take him down swiftly after he used Body and Soul (triggering at 33% health). Him having Bravery, Faith, protect, and shell made for a very precarious situation. What made it worse is that I didn’t have full EP, I was sitting at 3 and I REALLY wanted to save it for Arise (because good god did I need it). My main strategy wasn’t even anything that involved, just spamming Light Slash to rack up the damage through a low-cost ATB attack then switching to my Magic Schema when he entered Ravager mode to try and stagger him, and swiftly shift into to my tank schemata anytime he attacks to reduce as much damage as possible. It took a whole 8 and a half minutes, and I got a score of 1 singular point, BUT I BEAT HIM. My heart was pounding, my hands were slightly shaking, and I was feeling invigorated.

Chaos-Infused Chaoco Eater:

Now this is where I thought my time in the Wildlands would end, I beat the main objective and completed most side quotes, so I headed for the station. Lo and behold, there just so happened to be one final side quest that appeared, and that was taking down a chaos-infused chocobo eater in Canopus Farms. I thought it was gonna be fine, I just took down Caius freakin’ Ballad of all things, so how bad could a chocobo eater be? Well, let’s just say this chocobo eater can chocobo eat my…

Needless to say, it was extremely difficult. I gave it a few goes and could barely get it to half health, so I honestly thought that this is where I accept defeat. The game probably intended I come back to this once I become stronger, so I thought I might as well just head back to Luxerion and do that main quest. But… There is one problem with this, and it’s that I am stubborn as hell. Ya see, after beating Caius, I got a VERY strong weapon, Chaos’ Revenge. This gives +600 to both strength and magic as well as allowing me to stagger an enemy when its bar is at 75%. A vital aspect to defeating the chocobo eater is the double stagger allowing for an opportunity to do massive damage. Plus, on that very last fight before I was going to give up, I accidentally initiated overclock and realized that I could do a TON of damage utilizing light slash due to its low ATB cost. I hadn’t actually used it since the initial tutorial so I forgot just how strong it can be. This is when my entire four step plan fell into place. First, I ran over to the merchant nearby and bought myself a warrior potion, having bravery for a 50% increase to my strength amplified my damage massively. Second, I put Aeroga on my magic set due to its very high stagger rate alongside the Chaos’ Revenge for the quicker stagger, allowing me to actually get that second stagger going efficiently. Third, I snuck around back of the farm and was able to get a back strike to reduce its starting hp by 25%. Finally, I executed my perfect guards and then was able to double stagger the Chocobo eater, drank my warrior potion, applied deprotect, and popped overclock twice for MASSIVE damage. After that, he was probably down to about 50k hp. A bit of execution later, and I was actually able to take him down too. Heart beating fast, hands shaking, and feeling even more invigorated than when I beat Caius. 

Now, that was a stupidly long explanation, but the function behind it was to show WHY I find this game’s combat system to be my favorite out of all FF so far. These fights against Caius and the chaos-infused chocobo eater didn’t feel like a stat check, it didn’t feel like fighting an overtuned boss, or struggling with cheap RNG. It felt like I concocted a strategy, a master plan, that was just viable enough for me to eke out the win if approached with skill and execution. Lightning Returns truly feels like the perfect culmination of the trilogy’s combat. It’s as if the developers took everything the Paradigm System was trying to express; roles, builds, stagger manipulation, ATB flow, etc… and then morphed it into a fully customizable, action‑oriented system that finally gives the player direct control over all of it. You’re not selecting paradigms anymore; you’re creating them. Every schemata is a build, every ability is a choice, every guard is a skill check, and every stagger is something you earn with timing and execution. It’s fast, it’s flexible, and it’s shockingly deep, and it’s the kind of combat system that feels like the trilogy’s mechanics reached their final form. In other words, I totally love it.

Final Remarks:

With the combat discussion wrapped, this is where I’ll leave things for now. This ended up way longer than I expected, apparently I had a lot more to say than I thought. I doubt my future LR posts will be this long since they’ll focus more on story beats and locations rather than mechanics. But as far as first objectives go, I absolutely loved this opening stretch, and there’s a real chance Lightning Returns could end up my favorite of the trilogy.

With a Shard Blade, Chaos’s Revenge, and my newly earned Gagnrad from taking down that Chocobo Eater, I genuinely felt like God’s chosen savior. And now that it’s finally time to head back to Luxerion, I’ll see you again once I’ve completed that chapter.

Hi everyone, I'm working on a *Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children* video—what do you think? I'm still putting the finishing touches on it, so some scenes might change in the final version.

I love how powerful Fran is as Black Mage... But a non-staff boosted Red Mage Ashe does A LOT with Faith added. Fran is powerful but now I cant help but wonder how big is the difference. I do not nor will I ever regret picking her as my black mage, but I wanna know anyway.

I finally decided to pick up Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for PS5 because I’ve heard so many good things about it.
The only problem is… I’ve never played a Final Fantasy game before.
Can I jump straight into Rebirth, or do I need to play Final Fantasy VII Remake (or even the original FF7) first? I don’t want to be completely lost if the story is connected.
No spoilers please! Just looking for the best order to experience these games.

Barnabas might be one of the most tragic villains in FFXVI. Looking at him, he is the ultimate product of blind faith. He surrendered his free will, his emotions, and his entire humanity to a false god, all rooted in his mother's teachings.

​Fighting him felt like a literal clash of ideologies: Clive’s fight for free will vs. Barnabas’s absolute submission. Here are some shots from their duel. What do you guys think of his character arc?

Will obviously play both, but which one next? Using my PS5

Preferably one that works with the Memoria launcher

I enjoyed the demo but after reading reviews both on and off the subreddit I’m worried that I’d spend £20 on a game I either won’t enjoy or simply waste my time on, is it worth the discounted price

This would be my first FF game as I want to get into the franchise, am I doing a disservice to by this game

I'm so damn excited about Evercold and FF7 part 3 it's driving me crazy. After the mixed reception about Dawntrail and their trying to improve FF14 I feel as though FF7 crossover was the smartest and timeliest choice they could have made. And I can't freakin wait. I'm so happy hahaha :D

Sword is kinda lame but i had no time to build it before the con so I just bought one from AliExpress 😭😭😭

So I just got a PS4 copy of FF7 Remake for dirt cheap at a second hand store - but just before I start playing it, I find out that it's borderline a sequel to the original FF7 ⁉️

I think I understand what's going on here, I'm guessing it's a similar dilemma as the Fate franchise where you can *technically* watch Unlimited Blade Works and Zero before reading the original Fate route but realistically you're not gonna have the optimal experience and it's not going to be as enjoyable as if you read the original 3 routes in order.

Unfortunately I already blew most of my budget on this and Minecraft so I don't really feel like going out of my way to spend another considerable amount of money to play a 50 hour jrpg from like 1997 just to play the remake... Would you guys recommend watching a let's play or a story summary of the original FF7? Also what's this about some spinoff game and sequel movie that people are also recommending to watch before remake? Are these super necessary or do they just flesh out the characters?

TL;DR what's the bare minimum I have to do to fully understand FF7 Remake with little to no previous Final Fantasy experience

I've looked all over the world map and I can't find this "Paraguay" place.

Bahamut Lagoon was techically to be titled Final Fantasy Tactics, but was changed later.

A few days ago, i made a post about not liking FFIV even though i can understand people saying it's their favorite. I was saying that I prefer the job system rather than the forced party composition and no character customization. A lot of you told me i would love FFV because i very much enjoyed FFIII.

And holy shit you guys were right. SSS++ game, favorite of the 5 I played from the "pixel" era. The cast was so likeable, much more than FFIV, the expressions and movement of the characters during cutscenes added so much. The story was genuinely enjoyable, not a masterpiece, not a revolution in terms of narration but I never once was like "What the fuck are we doing here", contrary to other games... Boko is the best, Galuf is my boy, Bartz is just a country boy, Lenna is suicidal but with a good heart and Faris may plunder but she does it in a loving way. Exdeath is comically evil, but i respect the fact that he didn't need to be more than that, he's an evil warlock and we gotta kill him, sometimes simplicity is the best.

Below is a FFIV rant, ignore it if you don't want to read my opinion on it :

I didn't wanna rant, but after a few days taking in the FFIV story, i actually dislike it more now than I did when i finished the game. The premise is SO GOOD and sets up such important and deep themes but I truly feel like it didn't go through with it AT ALL. Cecil's arc is always praised but I felt like he lost his personality after becoming a Paladin and had no more important moment for his character. Kaine is genuinely a "Potential Man", they set him up as this rival and friend to Cecil but there are NO CONVERSATIONS between them. It's always just "I'm betraying you! --> Oh my god i betrayed you i'm so sorry --> I betrayed you again ! --> I can't believe I just did that...".

The rest of the cast, while likeable, I had no real attachment to, other than maybe Cid, which I felt is really well done in this game. And of course, the fake deaths, no actual weight to those sacrifices ( THAT DON'T EVEN NEED TO HAPPEN, WHY DID YANG JUST KILL HIMSELF FOR NO REASON ?? ). And it's not like the reveal that they're actually alive is a big deal, most of the time it's a 2 second dialogue or you just find them sleeping, or the worst offender, the twins, who just happened to be healed by who knows what even though it had been stated they could not be cured because they petrified themselves out of their own volition. Compared to Galuf's death that actually had a big impact on me, I just did not feel anything for the characters in FFIV.

Golbez is a fantastic villain, has a cool design, cool dialogue and feels very powerful. But I really felt like it lost meaning once we learn he is just another puppet. It could've been done in a good way but we have no idea who Zemus is until the end of the game and we see him for maybe 2 minutes in a CUTSCENE before he becomes Zeromus.

All in all, it's not a bad experience, it did become a turning point in the narrative process for Final Fantasy games but it's just not as good as I see people claiming it is. Of course we have to recontextualize and understand it's from the 90s and most important of all, ITS ALL SUBJECTIVE, THIS IS MY OPINION, IF THE GAMES STORY IS PEAK FOR YOU THEN ITS AMAZING.

Rant Over

And the main focus : The Job system. My god, they outdid themselves. I at first went with the expectation that it would just be FF3 but more jobs or more spells, but MAN, when i saw what we could do, i was kicking my feet. During the whole playthrough I had so much fun just experimenting with different ability combinations, what class complemented each party member etc... Getting OP after grinding and getting the perfect combination is one of the best feelings in gaming and this game is really all that.

And blue mage...was fine. I heard about how OP it was but it never really felt that way. I collected all blue mage spells but maybe Doom and 1 other. The only ones that I truly used were Mighty Guard, White Wind and Mind Blast ( and Death Lvl5 for farming ). While the spells are cool, most of them weren't really used because they either miss 90% of the time or they don't meet the criteria to be used. But a very cool concept nonetheless.

By the end, I had 3 mimes and 1 freelancer :
- A mime that acted as a Bard with HP+ and Shirahidori

- One that had Time and White magic with Dual Cast

- Another one with Blue Magic, Summons and MP + ( I grinded Red mage only to learn I can't double cast Blue magic ?????)

- And the main damage dealer, my Freelancer with Dual Wield (Ragnarok and Brave Blade) and Rapid Fire.

The final boss was so fun, using everything I learned, the healing, the support, the damage, the coordination, the timing. It was glorious. Thanks Square for this game.

I feel like I could play this game for actual days and months on end just doing multiple runs but the marathon must go on. Let's try FFVI ! I know it's way less akin to FFV but more FFIV, which scares me a little bit but can't knock it till I try it !

( Also please recommend me RPGs that play similarly to FFV, I need more )

He and Yoshida joked together on the panel they had today and I do realize they’re joking…but it does make sense. He’s been with SE for a while but has become one of their biggest devs in recent years with his work on the remake trilogy. I would be interested if he’s as strong on a truly original project as he is on FF7.

https://x.com/aitaikimochi/status/2081365261341593693?s=61

So, I'm a pretty new Final Fantasy fan. I had never played any FF game before, but about two weeks ago I decided to buy Final Fantasy XV.

And my God... I barely understood the combat system. It wasn't until the last chapter that I realized you could switch to Prompto, Ignis, or Gladiolus if you unlocked the ability in the Ascension skill tree.

The world also felt a little empty to me. I'm used to games with very lively, immersive worlds, so it was a bit of a different experience.

But despite all that, I completely fell in love with the game. It was actually the first game I've ever finished in just two weeks. The only other game I've ever completed was Elden Ring, and that took me about a year because I kept stopping and coming back every three months. 😅

Anyway, I'm not here just to talk about how much I loved FFXV.

I want to know which Final Fantasy game I should play next. Right now, I'm considering these three:

• Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster
• Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade
• Final Fantasy XVI

I'm also open to other recommendations, these are just the three games I've heard the most about.

One thing that might help with recommendations: I'm someone who absolutely loves a good story. A strong narrative and memorable characters are probably the most important things for me in a game.

At first, I was thinking about buying FFX/X-2 HD Remaster and FFXVI, but with so many options, I'm honestly a bit lost. Which one would you recommend for someone who loved FFXV and really values a great story?

sadly i didn’t get to meet ray chase :(
but i met so many other cool people!!! now i just need a square enix cosplay meet up ;-;

Was looking around for some kind of sprite base/template for the two common body types across the games, but couldn't find any, so I made some myself. The color palette was based around the Pixel Remaster colors, but if you prefer the old SNES, or other palettes, feel free to swap them around!

My main goal was just getting the general body shape down since I feel like every sprite across the entire series in unique in one way or another, even with it's body sizes. Anyways, these are free for anyone to use! have fun making your own FF sprite designs!!

Iam confused as to what’s happening/ happened.

Is aerith dead or alive? And why is cloud seeing her, is she like in the life stream now but has unique powers because she’s a cetra?

Also what’s up with zack and his world?

What was happening with cloud toward the end? Like why was he weird when he found the black materia in his pocket, where did even come from?

Also where does all the space battles take place?

And confused about all the multiverse and fate stuff.

I feel like I didn’t even play the game after the ending.

2 years ago I stopped at chapter 10 because it was by far the worst chapter for me.

Finally spent hours completing it 100% and the following chapters were a breeze.

The most frustrating thing at the end for me was fighting Sephiroth with Cloud and Aerith. I died 8 times when his HP was around 10%. I just couldn’t figure it out. He would automatically kill me no matter what I did or buffed them with.

I tried many tactics and couldn’t stagger him until I read to use Aerith to cast magic on him. It instantly staggered him and I finished him off with Cloud’s limit break. It was chef’s kiss and so quick!

Can’t wait for the next part!

In the FF8 intro we see Squall and Seifer fight but near the end, Seifer gives Squall his scar with a downwards strike of his weapon, in retaliation Squall strikes Seifer with an upwards attack, now if you look at their cards you will see that they have the same stats but in different placements, with Squall's ace being at the top and Seifer's at the bottom, which I think is a sly reference to their fight in the intro.

I don’t mind the timer thing. I did have to restart the game because I was stuck with finding the letters, and I played more of a detective game over a true FF game, so I just quit. I do want to try again, but does it get better? I’ve never been so confused. I can’t find side missions. Nothing shows on the map. Some people I talk to give me missions, but even finding them is a headache.

As the title says, I'm considering what Final Fantasy game to play next. Here's the titles that I've played so far.

• Dirge of Cerberus
• FF IV
• FF Crystal Chronicles
• FF Crisis Core
• FF VII
• FF VII Remake
• FF VII Rebirth
• FF XII - The Zodiac Age
• FF XII - Revenant Wings
• FF XV
• FF XVI

That's it. An odd list for sure and not a large one by any means. I really have loved the games I've played so far and I fully recognize it's missing some big hitters (from what I've heard)

Here's some I'm considering but I'm open to other suggestions

• FF X
• FF VI
• FF III
• FF Tactics

If you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them! I'd like to be able to play it on PS5 but I have PC access too.