I purchased XII on Friday, and now have updated my gameplay from I to X-2 plus Tactics Advance, Mystic Quest, Legends I, II, III, and Adventures. Here are my opinions on all of the above, though I'll start with my thoughts so far on XII.
Final Fantasy XII is a great game, I'll admit. As far as RPGs go, I'm completely immersed and don't find leveling up to be too much of a chore. That being said, it's because of the battle/leveling system that makes me say that it's good as a game, just not a Final Fantasy game. By eliminating the random encounters and creating an entire new battle system, the game is more similar to PC games like Divine Divinity (my favourite PC game!) and many others. I do rather like the concept, though.
Another change is the license board which I kind of like. I really enjoyed the sphere grid in Final Fantasy X, and I think I'd enjoy the license board more in XII if it weren't for the equip parts and having espers and quickenings on the board. I like the augments, though - smart idea - but that's pretty much it. I'll probably be able to fill the stupid thing up by the end of the game, though, with the rate I'm going already at my main party of Balthier, Fran, and Ashe at level 20.
The storyline's rather weak, I think, and not as philosophical or scientific as previous games, such as X and VII respectively. But that's only about 15 hours into gameplay too - I've just entered Raithwall's Tomb. We'll see how things end up.
Now, to touch on the other games, starting with the non-numericals:
>Tactics Advance
I hated this game. Hated the battle system, hated the leveling system, hated the story progression, hated the map, hated pretty much everything. I only played about four hours, got completely stuck, and gave the game back to my friend.
>Mystic Quest
I kind of liked this one. I'd say it's a cross between IV and XII, with seeing the enemies and then the poor graphics and stuff. It's all about the crystals, which is nice since many of the old games revolved around crystals (V and IX come to mind). However only having one main party member with a guest (right? It's been awhile) got annoying, especially because the battle system was so... primitive.
>Legends series, Adventure
It is Legends that's the series, not Adventure, right? Anyway, I didn't care for these either. I couldn't figure out how to make all my characters attack, or somethign like that. Story seemed dumb as well. Whatever!
>I
Yaye for numericals! Yaye for greating things like Garland (reappearing in IX), Bahamut (reappearing EVERYWHERE!), BlkMage, WhtMage, etc. I played this first on my calculator - funfun! Hint!-- on the calculator, pressing 2nd (which selects and goes through the menu, etc) counts as movement, so if you hold down 2nd for a reallyreallyreally long time, you'll level up forever since your HP fills when you level. Just a hint. :-) Anyway, afterwards I began it on the WSC and have yet to complete it.
>II
I got to some snowy part and then I decided the whole thing was stupid and I quit. Whatever. I hate the leveling system on here so much because I manipulated it like crazy. The storyline appeared to be interesting, but I didn't get far enough into it to really care. I'll finish it someday. Wait - maybe not.
>III
Yaye for creating changeable character classes! Wheeeee! I love character classes! Anyway, I actually have yet to finish this one, since I got stuck. I played it to some part and now I have a ship and I've looted some castle and am supposed to get an airship, but I tried to play it last week after over 6 months of time and I've completely forgotton where I am. Whoops. It's on WSC now, right? Maybe I'll play that one instead of the NES one, anyway. Graphics are better!
>IV
I've finished this one twice - once in easytype, and one in a hack (Celes/Terra, story only) for hardtype. Hardtype was difficult, goshdarnit! I think in easytype I leveled to only 30 or 40 or so to finish - as was common for the old SNES games, wasn't it? I liked Rydia and her summons a lot. She made me smile. Same with the twin mages. Oh-! And I hated that Rosa equipped the bow and arrow since it did almost no damage at all. Yaye for FuSoYa and his cool name! Not yaye for going to the moon - I hated that place. And why a whale? Why on earth would you go to the moon on a whale? And infiltrate a robot and go through it's body parts (because the game is nice enough to tell you, like, "chest cavity" and whatnot). Anyway, I really enjoyed this game, though it's not my favourite. But the real gem of this game: Who are you calling a "spoony bard"?
>V
My faaaaavourite Final Fantasy! Yaye so much for awesome character classes! My favourites were the Samurai and the Mystic Knight. I was disappointed that Summoner class was rather weak here, and the flexibility made magic almost obsolete. Oh well. I did like the three worlds on earth thing, because that rocked. I cried at Galuf's death and Cara's taking over. That was so sad! You can't have a Final Fantasy game without someone dying at some point, can we? Nope! But I'm not complaining - it makes the game so much better! I think this was the first Final Fantasy game to mix character with gameplay, as usually the odds are about gameplay and the evens about story and characters. Yupyup! I can't go on about how much I love this one. Beat it twice - once at level 30something, once at level 50something
>VI
I like the translation online for this one, not Woolsey's. "Son of a submariner" and... and... and... well, a lot of stuff. Anyway, I love Celes so much because she makes me so warm and fuzzy and depressed inside. Poor Celes. The opera! I love the opera! Actually, all the music in this game is so cool! Dancing Mad - especially the Black Mages's version of it! Gameplay is cool with each character's specific attacks, like Tools and Blitz and Rage and SwrdTech and Mimic and Dance and Runic and Sketh and Lore and... and... okay. I like them. And I like the magic learning system, too, since it helped all the characters have some similarities through their diversity. Beat this game twice, too!
>VII
In my opinion, VII has the greatest storyline of them all! With Aerith, the last remaining Cetra and JENOVA, Sephiroth's mother and (how cool of a name is Sephiroth? So totally awesome! and) the whole deal with Cloud in SOLDIER and all that stuff. And let's not forget the music - One Winged Angel, especially Advent Children's version, rocks so amazingly hard. Materia was fun stuff, too, though it took forever to learn stuff. I hacked Aerith back into my party after she died, too, to make the game easier with her limit breaks. Aerith + Cover + Great Gospel = Invincible. Just thought I'd let you know. I'm gonna write a Tifa-only challenge, though, one of these months. After I finish XII for the second time after I finish it for the first time (and not ruin my chances of getting a Zodiac Spear this time!!!) I will. Advent Children was a great movie, too, though kind of shallow compared to the game. I was slightly disappointed by the story but very impressed by the graphics. Beat this game twice as well.
>VIII
I really loved this game, mostly because Quistis is so amazingly cool and I have the hugest of all huge crushes on her. That being said, the parts of the game without her aren't so cool. That's mostly because Squall is an anti-social idiot and Rinoa is an annoying bitch. Yup. I love the music here, though, like Liberi Fatali. And I like the Junction system so much since it makes the low-level challenge I did really simple. On a very similar note, I enjoyed Triple Triad so much I downloaded the standalone game for it on my PC. Yeah! Beat this game - ready for this? - four times. Don't ask why. It's all because of Quistis.
>IX
This game was very annoying, especially with the "!" and "?" stuff. But the storyline with Vivi's identity and Garnet's overcoming and Zidane's morality and all that was cool. And Beatrix is sexy. I mean, look at that confidence! *cough* I didn't like the summoning system here at all, but I like the game's focus on it. I really enjoyed the ability learning idea from equips, it was super cool. I didn't like the final boss and it's area. I think I beat the game around level 70 without even realizing it - that's how stupidly easy the final boss is. I might play it again with hacking Beatrix in, but we'll see.
>X
I've beaten this one twice, too, and got halfway through a Lulu-only challenge but then I got XII and got distracted. Haha! I so love the issues of sacrifice and death and religion that dominate this game. It's so completely philosophical and the script is great too, but I'm so very disappointed in the voice acting at times, especially Yuna's actress. The "Were they all in vain?" line would make me completely riveted, but the acting makes me laugh. Oh, well. I love the Sphere Grid so much! I wish there was more where that came from! Magus Sisters = ownage. I beat Omega Weapon with them in, like, two hits. It was amazing. But I didn't see "Proof of Omega" in my inventory. I wonder why.
>X-2
I beat this game once with 98% completion, and got halfway through a New Game+ with doing everything wrong, like giving the sphere to New Yevon, not stopping the Ronso insurrection, etc. But I find the game so tedious that I couldn't manage to go any further a second time. Disappointing, no? The music is horrible, the graphics are so girly, the storyline's shallow, and I wish I hadn't spent money for it.
>XII
Well... we'll see how I continue to like this one!
My fingers hurt a tad from typing this over the past hour as I'm half asleep in bed, so I shall rest up a bit to play more of XII tomorrow!
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