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[Taruranto]

Weird to see so much CoP love!

Yeah, Chain of Promathia was really an amazing experience. But i have to say, while it's true that doing it with other people really enhance the experience, the fact that it's a mmorpg also kinda makes the narration kinda shitty and hard to follow. You are often forced to rush CS and it can pass a lot of time between a mission and another.

Still, amazing scenarios and boss fights.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlpoO6G_yZA

There used to be a site called Vana'diel History that summed a lot of the hystory, a shame it disappeared.

Also, i'm not sure anyone mentioned it, but Apocalypse Nigh was freacking amazing too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBuJA8aXF98

A shame that the story is pretty much bound to be forgotten & ignored because of its mmorpg-nature.

 

[olaznoG]

And FF5 - that Shinryu fight at the end...

Not only that, Abyssea's storyline boils down to a "what if" scenario related to Chains of promathia.

Spoiler

Abyssea is an alternate world where you lost the last fight with Promathia at 8-4.
You even get to meet some of the characters from CoP.

 

[Loona]

Ah by floating contintent I didn't mean Tu'Lia (though that was freaking awesome, especially the Ark Angels fight). Not a fan of the cermet/areas as you mentioned, by then I've seen enough cermet areas in missions to last a lifetime.

I meant the other CoP areas, with the fragmented pieces of earth. I can't remember the names of them for the life of me. Oh yeah:

Riverne - Site #A01
Riverne - Site #B01

Those places looked really good.

The Rivernes looked great, but while they were level-capped they were death traps, since it was impossible to solo anything, had lots of mobs with either true sight or magic aggro, and people only went there to get the missions done or for some specific item hunt - oh, and to get a map (which wouldn't cover the portals, which in turn required drops from unsoloable mobs) you also needed help to take down some NMs in there which required a quest which, if IIRC required beating a mission that involved crossing the place.
It used to be way too stressful, so it was next to impossible to just enjoy the landscape.

And still, they bothered to put quests in that place that couldn't be soloed. I wonder how many people completed Confessions of a Bellmaker before they removed the level cap. I'm yet to see the bell, which I know is in there somewhere.

I've already travelled the place after the cap was over and enjoyed safely staring the hippogryphs in the eye, but there's certainly unfinished business for me there, which sooner or later some sightseeing should help settle.

 

[FrankNitty]

No other game comes even close to the story in Chains of Promathia.

After that I would say VI and VIII.

^^^

This all day long

I completely agree with this post entirely

 

[Loona]

I liked CoP, but the more I hear praise for its story the more I think there's some misattribution-of-arousal-like effect from the near PTSD-inducing difficulty it used to have.

 

[Rinoa]

Ronfaure and Gustaberg got such good songs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFfWB7sirrU

The Rivernes looked great, but while they were level-capped they were death traps, since it was impossible to solo anything, had lots of mobs with either true sight or magic aggro, and people only went there to get the missions done or for some specific item hunt - oh, and to get a map (which wouldn't cover the portals, which in turn required drops from unsoloable mobs) you also needed help to take down some NMs in there which required a quest which, if IIRC required beating a mission that involved crossing the place.
It used to be way too stressful, so it was next to impossible to just enjoy the landscape.

And still, they bothered to put quests in that place that couldn't be soloed. I wonder how many people completed Confessions of a Bellmaker before they removed the level cap. I'm yet to see the bell, which I know is in there somewhere.

I've already travelled the place after the cap was over and enjoyed safely staring the hippogryphs in the eye, but there's certainly unfinished business for me there, which sooner or later some sightseeing should help settle.

I spent a lot of time exploring there with small parties and the non-conventional jobs, a lot of patience is needed. Pre-scaling/cap removal my HNM LS one day decided to storm the Riverne sites for fun and we killed this NM among others (I think that Fomor NM too), which is how I got a Boroka Earring. Excuse crappy PS2 pic

 

[CorvoSol]

I prefer FFXIII's score over FFX's. That's the only thing from the former I think is better.

Not even its visuals?

One of the major sins of FFXIII was creating a beautiful and interesting world and not letting the player explore it. Oerba's crystal sand dunes were by far the worst. THERE WASN'T EVEN ANYTHING BLOCKING MY WAY.

 

[Adam Prime]

Upon further examination...

I wouldn't have an issue for anyone saying that any Final Fantasy V-XIII had the "best" story line. All of the games carry something unique in their story that's for someone.

I think with my answer, I am getting confused by "best storyline" with best characters. IX had the best most fleshed out characters. The story itself was very vanilla, and played it safe. Agreed. But comibined with the best written characters in the series, made it very good.

I like VII storyline the best mostly because of how really batshit insane it is. A great weird sci fi story. The characters all, really mostly sucked. Probably translation and bad writing, but the setting and storyline setup were excellent. I'd really love to see VII HD with re-written dialog.

 

[ULTROS!]

I prefer FFXIII's score over FFX's. That's the only thing from the former I think is better.

I'd say the songs in FFX had more impact and memorable stuff. Though FFXIII's is pretty good since it has great music like Archylte Steppes, Blinded by Light, Serah's Theme, Sunleth Waterscape, Fighting Fate, the intro theme, etc.

If I had to mention what FF has the weakest soundtrack, it's probably XII. Though XII has a few gems like To the Place of the Gods and The Royal City of Rabanastre.

 

[CorvoSol]

You know what? I'll say it.

I love FFIV. I don't care that it's story is cheesy as hell, and I won't say it is the BEST, and I won't deny nostalgia's factor in that (although I would insist that my nostalgia is somewhat limited, as I didn't play the game until after 5 and 6).

But Cecil's story to overcome his inner evils and then help the people in his life do the same clicks with me, and the story is more or less the archetype upon which games in the series ever after would build about a young man's quest to win the girl, fight the man in black, and ultimately do battle with some crazy monster in a semi-space background. 4 is every trope set up in the first three games put together into one great strip-bar visiting, porn-reading, beer-swilling, giant-robot-battling adventure, riding on a whale into space to do battle with some guy who is allegedly the same species as you but looks like Nosferatu, at the behest of your uncle the God-Mop and Darth Vader.

And you do all of it with purple hair in yellow clothes and no one ever once questions you for that.

4 was awesome, and I don't care what anybody says. YOU FIGHT THE GAME'S DEVELOPERS.

 

[jb1234]

Not even its visuals?

One of the major sins of FFXIII was creating a beautiful and interesting world and not letting the player explore it. Oerba's crystal sand dunes were by far the worst. THERE WASN'T EVEN ANYTHING BLOCKING MY WAY.

Sure, the game was pretty but it was all in a void. FFX's locations remain more memorable to me because of my associations with the characters and the story. They might not have pushed the polygons as much but they had more character. If that makes sense.

I'd say the songs in FFX had more impact and memorable stuff. Though FFXIII's is pretty good since it has great music like Archylte Steppes, Blinded by Light, Serah's Theme, Sunleth Waterscape, Fighting Fate, the intro theme, etc.

It's just a different style, really. Hamauzu doesn't tend to go for the memorable melodies. He adds layers upon layers and the music rewards careful attention. Not that I don't enjoy Uematsu's music as well but his contributions were largely the weakest part of FFX's score.

(With a few very notable exceptions. "Silence Before the Storm" is one of my favorite FF tunes.)

 

[ProtomanNeo]

If there is one truth here at NeoGaf it's that the first post usually nails it. I see no reason that should be disputed now.

 

[Boss Man]

I'll throw in with FFXI Chains of Promathia.

I loved FFIX too; I really got into the characters. Vivi was exceptional IMO.

 

[Esura]

You know what? I'll say it.

I love FFIV. I don't care that it's story is cheesy as hell, and I won't say it is the BEST, and I won't deny nostalgia's factor in that (although I would insist that my nostalgia is somewhat limited, as I didn't play the game until after 5 and 6).

But Cecil's story to overcome his inner evils and then help the people in his life do the same clicks with me, and the story is more or less the archetype upon which games in the series ever after would build about a young man's quest to win the girl, fight the man in black, and ultimately do battle with some crazy monster in a semi-space background. 4 is every trope set up in the first three games put together into one great strip-bar visiting, porn-reading, beer-swilling, giant-robot-battling adventure, riding on a whale into space to do battle with some guy who is allegedly the same species as you but looks like Nosferatu, at the behest of your uncle the God-Mop and Darth Vader.

And you do all of it with purple hair in yellow clothes and no one ever once questions you for that.

4 was awesome, and I don't care what anybody says. YOU FIGHT THE GAME'S DEVELOPERS.

I agree with most of your post and I have no nostalgia for the game.

FFIV is one of a kind. FFIV should be renamed to FFI as it feels like the true starting point for all the future FF's stories.

 

[CorvoSol]

I agree with most of your post and I have no nostalgia for the game.

FFIV is one of a kind. FFIV should be renamed to FFI.

I liked FF1, though. It's old and dated, but it's a nice old classical romp adventure. It's the Dragon Quest of Final Fantasies, though.

 

[Esura]

I liked FF1, though. It's old and dated, but it's a nice old classical romp adventure. It's the Dragon Quest of Final Fantasies, though.

FFI is boring. I've been finding it much harder as of late to get into any RPG new or old with generic main characters. Still need to try and finish it one of these days though.

I wonder why they never FFIII/IV-ed FFI and opt to just enhance the graphics. FFI needs to get FFIII-ed with a WoL character that actually looks like Amano's WoL. Maybe let the Fighter turn into WoL later in the game. Could give the Fighter and the others some distinct personalities and names and stuff and maybe tie in some of those Dissidia plot points. Have the game play more like FFIV TAY and FFV. Boom.

 

[DrForester]

I was in the first group on our server to beat the CoP storyline. Though, this was mostly due to us managing to get 6 people in after the update before any of the other linkshells.

 

[KeeSomething]

Another vote for FFX. It's a good social commentary on religion in general--the biggest and most dangerous dividing force in the world.