Final Fantasy

[Seto_Sora]

So I'm playing .Hack... and although I am thinking way into the future, I know this lovely game will come to an end. So I was thinking of what will follow it. I am considering Final Fantasy (yes, I am one of the tens and tens of people who never played it). What would you all say? Yea? Nae? Which should I start with? What is the story like? Are the characters deep or flat? Would you recommend any other RPG over FF (excluding Star Ocean which was boring).

SDG

[Midori]

I recommend FF4. Though it's the only one I've completed, so it being my favorite is kind of a given.

[Ante Bellum]

(Wow, forgive me for this. It's 3:00 in the morning and I'm kind of scatterbrained at the moment.)

MMO?
I'm thinking you mean RPG. I hope.
I've only played VII, which is pretty overrated. I mean, it's really not bad, even good (depending on which games you compare it to), but it's nowhere near the ALDJBFIFPEB BEST GAME EVAR status that a lot of people make it out to be. Not even best RPG ever. I beat it in...hm, I'd say around 40 hours. I've heard of people who can beat in only 24. It can take much longer depending on how complete you want it to be. I skipped a lot of side quests and missed a lot of events. The story is decent if cliche at times, but some of the characters are rather flat. Gameplay is pretty good; I liked the battle system, though it took me a little bit to make the switch from ToS's battle system (I also had to get used to using a PS2 controller because I had pretty much never used one before, so if I'm saying the gameplay's not bad, you'll know it's pretty easy to learn.). The graphics...where do I start. It's like a whiplash. You go from Lego men to Oooh Pretty Cutscene and right back to Lego men. Sure, it was 1997, so I can forgive it a little...
My recommendation: play it if you can, don't feel bad if you can't.
As for other RPGs...maybe Tales of Symphonia? It's another kind of cliche RPG, but it's pretty fun.

[Nate]

Which should I start with?

It depends on what you're looking for, honestly. The most accessible one, despite its spotty translation and dated graphics, is 7. It's the most popular one, and the one most people first played. It has a decent story, an iconic villain, and excellent music and setting, along with a good amount of side quests and a difficulty level that can be challenging, but not frustrating (though again depending on what side quests you do).

The first few games are a bit different. The first three Final Fantasy games are old school RPGs in the vein of Dragon Quest. The first one is extremely difficult (though the difficulty is somewhat softened in the remakes and re-releases) and has almost nothing in terms of characters or plot. The second was the first one to introduce actual characters, but has a very, very strange growth system for combat (you don't have levels, rather your stats grow depending on your actions in battle...which is annoying, and broken, and can screw you over late in the game if you "level up too much" where your stats will actually DECREASE because you're too strong for the monsters). Still, it's probably not quite as difficult as the first. The third I haven't had much experience with, but it's much the same as the first two.

The fourth through sixth games are where characterization and plot started to play a prominent role, as well as the difficulty of the series overall lowering. The seventh and eighth games are where "Oooh pretty cutscenes" started to replace plot and characterization as the focus. Nine was an attempt to capitalize on the nostalgia of the people who played the original games, as well as being a solid game in its own right. Ten was really where the series began to fall from grace...it has good music, good graphics, but not much beyond that. Eleven was the MMO which is of course dying to make room for 14. Twelve is good, but has a combat system unlike the previous games...however, you like the .hack games, so you should feel right at home and comfortable with 12's combat. And 13...well...I won't get into that...thing.

What is the story like?

It depends on the number.

Are the characters deep or flat?

It depends on the number.

Would you recommend any other MMO over FF (excluding Star Ocean which was boring).

If you're looking for MMOs, World of Warcraft is and probably always will be the undisputed king. I don't play MMOs, though, so I wouldn't know much about them. However, as I said, WoW is still number one and for very good reasons. I hear 11 was okay and had neat features, but again, since 14 is going to be an MMO, 11 is probably near the end of its lifetime and WoW is still probably the better game anyway.

But again, I don't play MMOs. It's not my area of expertise. I only know about single-player RPGs so I'll let someone better versed in the area of MMOs give you a rundown of options there.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

I've only completed IV and VI, both of which I'd probably recommend, but I'd say VI ranks as a much better game.

[Davidizer13]

I might as well second the recommendation for 6. It's one of my favorite games; it's certainly not perfect (more on that later), but it's definitely worth playing. Its strongest point is that it makes you feel for the characters, these flawed people who are drawn together and form a big happy group therapy session as they roam the land, sing in an opera and fight as part of a resistance movement.

Then the second half of the game hits, and that's where FF6 loses its way. It completely changes its course, toning down the gameplay and a single narrative, in favor of these sidequests where each character gets to grow and overcome their trials. They're great moments, some of the most touching in gaming, even, but that's just it: they're only moments. Like Nate alluded to, 6 is a turning point in the series, where the gameplay started to take a backseat to story, and it shows. There's nothing like the job system of FF3 and 5 or Chrono Trigger's combo attacks: it's a very no-frills RPG, carried by its great story.

So it's not the best game of all time, not by a long shot. It's not even the best RPG that Square released for the SNES (that'd probably be Front Mission or Secret of Mana), but no other game has a story like it.

[Nate]

One of the biggest problems of Final Fantasy 6 was that in the beginning of the game, each character was unique and filled a certain role in the party due to their unique commands. Edgar had his tools, Sabin had his Blitzes, Celes had Runic, Mog had Dance, and so on.

The problem comes when the Magic system gets introduced and every character can learn every spell in the game. And at that point, each character just becomes the same with the exception of "This character can cast a better spell than that one." I mean what's the point of using Edgar's drill for around 3000 points of damage when you can just teach him Ultima and have him do 9999 every turn? Why even use Cyan at all when he has the worst magic stat in the game and everyone is doing 9999 damage with Ultima and you have to wait 45 seconds to charge up his sword techniques that will maybe do half that if you're lucky?

And that's the biggest problem with 6. If they'd made it so only certain characters could learn certain types of magic, or somehow balanced out the unique commands so they'd stay useful to the end of the game, it would be much better. As it stands, the only characters that remain useful for their unique commands at the end are Locke for stealing, and possibly Terra for her Esper form. Gau's Rage also is useful, but more for the protective bonuses it gives him rather than the skills. Other than that, Magic completely outclasses everyone else's unique commands, making it a game of "Who has the highest Magic and Speed stats so they can cast Ultima the fastest?"

[Htom Sirveaux]

I don't play a whole lot of RPGs, and I've never actually beaten any, at least not any traditional turn-based ones. But I've played a few of the Final Fantasy games. Lately, I'm sinking my teeth into FF9, having downloaded it from the Playstation Store.
Awesome. All around, great stuff. Might even beat this one, it's that good.

And if Chrono Cross and/or Legend of Legaia ever find their way to the Playstation Store, I'm totally on that.

[Nate]

Two games that NEED to come to the Playstation store are Brave Fencer Musashi and Legend of Legaia. I think I'll pretty much be satisfied after that. Chrono Cross would be okay too though I guess. Always enjoy Glenn dual-wielding Einlanzers from two worlds.

[Htom Sirveaux]

Two games that NEED to come to the Playstation store are Brave Fencer Musashi and Legend of Legaia. I think I'll pretty much be satisfied after that. Chrono Cross would be okay too though I guess. Always enjoy Glenn dual-wielding Einlanzers from two worlds.

Oh, Brave Fencer Musashi! Yeah, that one was hot! Anyone who says BFM was a Zelda clone is . . . pretty much right, but it's a good one.

[Hiryu]

Nate explained the franchise well.

FF4 is my favorite one, and I think it would be the best one to start with. Even though it's the fourth game, you won't miss anything from the other games. All of them are loosely tied together by a few plot points. Most every Final Fantasy game has a character named Cid in it, Chocobos are in every game except for the first one, and the Crystals are a major point for the first 5.

The battle system is easy to learn, it's just simple turn based, although they use what's called the active time battle system, which means things will still be happening even while you're making a decision. If you're the type of person who needs to think about what to do, it would be better to set it on Wait instead of Active.

There are many different versions of FF4. There is a complete collection coming out next month that includes FF4 and it's sequel, The After Years for the PSP. Which would probably be the best one to get if you were going to buy number 4.

Since you like .Hack, 12 would probably be right up your alley. 3 party system, you control people's actions through given commands, just look up a video of a battle/gameplay on youtube and you'll see the similarities.

7 is very popular and I think the only other one to get as much exposure would be 4. The only problem is that it needs a remake or atleast an enhanced port...badly. The graphics are early PSX, and the main complaint is that the characters have blocks for hands outside cutscenes, so the graphics haven't aged well at all. If you can get past that, it's a great game.

[Nate]

Most every Final Fantasy game has a character named Cid in it,

Every Final Fantasy game except for the first has a character named Cid, who usually has something to do with airships. Notable exceptions are the Cid from 6, who is merely a researcher for the Empire, Cid from 8, who is the Headmaster of Balamb Garden, and Cid from 12 who is Arcadia's chief researcher.

The remakes of Final Fantasy 1, however, have the Lufenians mention Cid as the ancient creator of the airship, but these were again added in the remakes in honor of the tradition.

and the Crystals are a major point for the first 5.

Not actually true. The Crystals are not really present in Final Fantasy II. They are in the tower housing the Ultima tome, but only serve to raise your parties stats one time when you examine them.

although they use what's called the active time battle system, which means things will still be happening even while you're making a decision.

This is true for IV through IX, but the first three games used straight up turn-based battle like Dragon Quest. The remake of III for the DS is ATB, though.

There are many different versions of FF4. There is a complete collection coming out next month that includes FF4 and it's sequel, The After Years for the PSP. Which would probably be the best one to get if you were going to buy number 4.

Ah, the ever present battle of which version of IV is best.

This is actually a really, really hard choice. The GBA version (Final Fantasy IV Advance) has new weapons and new dungeons, along with the awesome ability to use most of the previous playable characters throughout the game in the final dungeon (with the exception of Tellah and FuSoYa). What that means is if you want to fight Zeromus with Palom, Porom, Cid, Yang, or Edgar in your party (or even four of those five, since you have to have Cecil), you can. The extra dungeon also provides some awesome moments, and the new weapons are pretty sweet.

However, Final Fantasy IV DS has full voice-acting which is quite good (with the exception of child Rydia, but children are usually pretty badly voiced in English at least) and a new script, along with new story scenes (such as a flashback to Cecil being born, and how Zemus took control of Golbez), and the Augment system that allows you to give new abilities to each character, such as giving Cecil Bardsong and Twincast if you want (and it also becomes extremely important for stat growth, too) and a couple of new bosses, too.

The PSP version of IV however seems to have the ability to swap party members for the final dungeon AND all the post-game content from the GBA version (though whether or not that includes the new weapons I don't know), and the ability to use the DS or SNES music. However, it may not have the Augment system or the new bosses from the DS version.

The one for PSP is probably the best, but the DS version has content in it that probably won't be in the PSP version, and the GBA might also have some content exclusive to it too. There really isn't a definitive "best" version is what it boils down to. They're all the best! Except maybe the original.

[Hiryu]

Yea, the GBA version is good, but the main problem is the ATB system. It has a few bugs, nothing major, but it can be agitating.

The DS is a remake so it's different from the original in the fact that the boss patterns have changed, you level up faster, there's a new cutscene or two added, character abilities that you can pass on to another character(AKA Auguments),and there are a few other things.

There is also a Playstation version that was released with Chrono Trigger under the name of Final Fantasy Chronicles. It's based off of the Japanese Super Famicom version.

Don't bother playing the SNES version, known as Final Fantasy II. It's a dumbed-down version of the original japanese version.

although they use what's called the active time battle system, which means things will still be happening even while you're making a decision.

This is true for IV through IX, but the first three games used straight up turn-based battle like Dragon Quest. The remake of III for the DS is ATB, though.

Oh yeah, sorry if I wasn't making that clear, but I was referring to 4 when I typed that.

And actually, III for DS is still turn based.

[Seto_Sora]

Sweet! XD Thanks for the help guys! And from everything I've read and the recommendations from, I think I am going to start with FF 12 (mostly because the battle system is the same as .Hack) which will help me easily be introduced to the FF franchise and see if I like it!
This was really helpful! Thank you all! ^_^
Its funny, I wasn't an RPG guy (oh yeah, and that first post was typoed, I did mean RPG instead of MMO) but .Hack drew me in and I love it. Since, I've been reconsidering them and looking for good ones.

SDG

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

Maybe my nostalgia is interfering with my memory, but I don't remember the World of Ruin being the second half of VI. At most, I'd say it was the final third, though even that makes it sound longer than it felt.

I guess I'd agree about the whole magic thing, though it didn't feel like you got Ultima and thus outclassed every other ability until even farther to the end.

I dunno, VI is one of my favorite games I've ever played, so maybe this is nostalgia kicking in, but I remember the second half being better than you guys describing it. Not as fantastic as the first half, but I thought it was still pretty good.

[the_wolfs_howl]

Well, I often seem to be in the minority, but the main thing I look for in a video game is the story. As long as the gameplay doesn't make it nearly impossible to play (*cough*VagrantStory*cough*), it doesn't really matter to me whether the gameplay is like FFI or FFXIII. I just play a game to experience a good story. And I've never seen a FF game that has an amazing story; they all seem shallow/cliche/etc. to a certain extent.

I've played I, II, IV, VI, VII, X, and XII...and out of all of those, I thought X had by far the best story. Sure, it has its problems - plot holes, lame ideas, bad voice acting.... But they all do. And of course this is just personal preference, but I found I could relate to and sympathize with the characters of X far more than the characters of any of the other games; FFX is the only FF that has brought me to tears (and I cry really easily when it comes to stories, so that tells you something). The main thing I love about FFX's story is that it has surprises all the way through, right to the end.

So you probably don't care, but I thought I'd give my two cents since everyone else seems to be focusing on the gameplay. (And incidentally, I prefer FFX's battle system - the lack of levels, the Sphere Grid, the way you do Overdrives....)

[Nate]

*cough*VagrantStory*cough*

I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO DIDN'T LIKE VAGRANT STORY.

Hold me. ]And I've never seen a FF game that has an amazing story; they all seem shallow/cliche/etc. to a certain extent.[/QUOTE]
Final Fantasy Tactics actually has an amazing story, it's full of political intrigue and stuff like that. XII tried to go the same route and succeeded to an extent; the problem is that where Ramza's actions succeeded in turning the tide of the war and making a large impact on the overarching plot, the characters in XII did very little to impact the plot as a whole.

the Sphere Grid

The Sphere Grid has pluses and minuses for me. I really like it...I love it, in fact, but it has problems, like "Doh ho ho you don't have any of this type of sphere so you can't gain any stats." Happened to me at the beginning of the game where I wanted to help Wakka get some stats but had no Power Spheres I could use.

And don't even get me started on how near-impossible it was to get Luck/Fortune Spheres.

[Htom Sirveaux]

The only thing I had against FFX (I mean, besides its spawning X-2) was the whole Blitzball thing. I don't wanna play a sports game, I wanna play an RPG. I never did figure out if there was any actual point to it anyhow.

[Davidizer13]

The problem comes when the Magic system gets introduced and every character can learn every spell in the game. And at that point, each character just becomes the same with the exception of "This character can cast a better spell than that one."
[...]
Other than that, Magic completely outclasses everyone else's unique commands, making it a game of "Who has the highest Magic and Speed stats so they can cast Ultima the fastest?"

Oh yeah, I forgot about how all the battles eventually devolve into spamming Ultima. It's been a while since I've played it, y'see.

Don't get me wrong, even after all these bad points against 6, it's still worth playing. However, this is more due to experiencing the story rather than the quality of gameplay. Even back in the SNES days, you can see something creeping into the series: building an expansive, complicated story at the expense of making a good RPG.

[ich1990]

Maybe my nostalgia is interfering with my memory, but I don't remember the World of Ruin being the second half of VI. At most, I'd say it was the final third, though even that makes it sound longer than it felt.

I guess I'd agree about the whole magic thing, though it didn't feel like you got Ultima and thus outclassed every other ability until even farther to the end.

I dunno, VI is one of my favorite games I've ever played, so maybe this is nostalgia kicking in, but I remember the second half being better than you guys describing it. Not as fantastic as the first half, but I thought it was still pretty good.

This. Six is the best game and you should go play it.

While players did lose a lot of character towards the end of the game, I found the gameplay hardly fell into mass Ultima spam. Ultima took so long to learn that by the end of the game only one or two characters knew it and it didn't usually do the max damage unless Terra was in Esper form when she cast it or something.

[Nate]

I never did figure out if there was any actual point to it anyhow.

It gave you some good items, and you had to win the championship to get part of Wakka's ultimate weapon.

Ultima took so long to learn that by the end of the game only one or two characters knew it and it didn't usually do the max damage unless Terra was in Esper form when she cast it or something.

Cactuars gave 10 Magic Points apiece and were pretty common, and the Brachiosaur in Dinosaur Forest gave 10 Magic Points as well. Learning Ultima takes no time at all, only 10 battles.

And okay, the 9999 was exaggerated, but my point is this. Who's honestly going to use Edgar's Tools to maybe do a couple of thousand when you can do 4000 or 5000 with Celes and Terra, perhaps more? Is anyone really going to bother using Cyan's useless butt when he's not a mandatory party member? Who ever uses Sketch outside of the one time the game more or less forces you to? Why does Umaro even exist?

This becomes especially true when you try to do the Fanatic's Tower, where the game literally restricts you to ONLY using the Magic command. And it's one of the easiest dungeons in the whole game because you should only be using Magic at that point with most characters anyway, since they're the strongest ones. Don't believe me? Go to the Colosseum and enter with a character, say, Edgar, and wait to yell at the screen "NO YOU IDIOT WHY DID YOU USE AUTOCROSSBOW INSTEAD OF CASTING FLARE ARGH."

My point still stands. Magic quickly makes each character's unique commands useless by the end of the game, with the exception of Terra, Locke, and occasionally Sabin (since Bum Rush is still pretty powerful, even when you take spells into consideration, of course part of that may be due to the fact people don't realize Sabin's Blitz skills use his Magic stat and NOT his Attack stat, and if you're not making Sabin into a mage-type character and increasing his Magic, you're playing the game wrong).

And that bothers me because the beginning of the game up until about the World of Ruin, each character is unique and fills a certain niche in the party and has very useful unique skills. Then the magic system messes it all up until everyone is pretty much clones of each other, just some have better stats than others, and oh yeah there's the guy who can steal.

Six is still a great game, but very flawed. Funnily enough, nine has the exact opposite problem, with Vivi being a powerful character at the beginning of the game but near-useless by the end because physical attacks become so much more powerful than magic. You can get Zidane and Steiner to consistently do 9999 damage every turn, and Amarant can hit pretty hard physically too.

[Hiryu]

Magic quickly makes each character's unique commands useless by the end of the game, with the exception of Terra, Locke, and occasionally Sabin (since Bum Rush is still pretty powerful, even when you take spells into consideration, of course part of that may be due to the fact people don't realize Sabin's Blitz skills use his Magic stat and NOT his Attack stat, and if you're not making Sabin into a mage-type character and increasing his Magic, you're playing the game wrong).

What? I would think since it's physical attack, it would work off his Atk stat.

[Nate]

Sabin's Blitzes aren't physical attacks, they're magic attacks. That's why they go off his Magic stat. However, most people think martial artist = physical attacker and boost his Strength and try to increase his physical attack stats...which is the wrong way to level Sabin.

Actually, there is ONE Blitz that works off physical attack, that's Pummel. All his others go off Magic though, so if you want a super strong Aura Blast or Bum Rush, boost Magic and equip items that strengthen magic attack. So actually Sabin is one of the best characters to give Earrings too. Crazy, eh?

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

Nate, Cyan is pretty useless before the World of Ruin as well, so I wouldn't use him as an example of how flawed it is with the magic system.

Also, maybe this is me being stingy or not grinding enough(though I'm fairly certain I spent more time than necessary doing the latter), but I remember needing to conserve MP during dungeons, which lead to me using Edgar's tools and Sabin's blitzes during dungeons even by the time of the World of Ruin.

[ShiroiHikari]

FF9 isn't getting enough love in this thread. :<

FF7 is dead to me, and I really want to play 4.

Also if you want another good RPG, definitely play Chrono Trigger. You can pick up the DS version pretty cheap now.

[the_wolfs_howl]

I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO DIDN'T LIKE VAGRANT STORY.

Hold me. ]
*pats you on the back* XD I think we've had this conversation before, actually.... That game is impossible without cheats. And even then it was kinda hard, actually....

Final Fantasy Tactics actually has an amazing story, it's full of political intrigue and stuff like that.

Yeah, it's not bad, but I would have liked/understood it a lot more if the translation was better :/ That's another problem with the older FF games - so many of them are absolutely ruined by awful translation. Even FFVII, which everyone praises to the skies, felt stupid to me because of lines like "This guy are sick" and "You jes' full of surprise."

Oh, but I definitely second Chrono Trigger! I'm playing the DS version right now, and the translation is beautiful. Really fun, too, though I wish it wasn't active-time in battle :/ I like being able to sit there and agonize over whether I can kill the boss in my next move or whether he's going to attack, so I should use a Potion instead. That's one of the highlights of RPG experience for me, other than the story, and it's totally ruined if you have to do things quickly because the boss will keep attacking.

[Nate]

That's another problem with the older FF games - so many of them are absolutely ruined by awful translation. Even FFVII, which everyone praises to the skies, felt stupid to me because of lines like "This guy are sick" and "You jes' full of surprise."

And let's not forget the gem that got me killed at the scorpion robot at the very beginning of the game: "Attack while it's tail is up!"

Tactics and 7 are really the only ones that have terrible translations. IV and VI (and Chrono Trigger, to an extent) merely had censored/Americanized translations when they were first released, courtesy of Ted Woolsey, who was Square's chief translator in the early to mid 90s. Back during those days, there was no video game rating system, and so most games were censored to be playable by all audiences (there are a few exceptions, of course, but most games were heavily edited). This oddly led to a few lines that are beloved by fans, such as Tellah's "You spoony bard!" in FFIV, when the line would have better been translated as "You b*****d!" or "You son of a b****!" since Tellah uses "kisama" which is a very rude and insulting way to say "you."

The same kind of censoring happened in VI, with Relm's language being toned down (she was fairly foul-mouthed in the Japanese version apparently), as well as other jokes being removed. The two big instances I can think of are the one where Edgar asks Relm how old she is, and she tells him that she's ten. In the American version, Edgar says some odd line about not growing up too fast, but in the Japanese, he says something along the lines of "That's criminal, don't even think about it." The GBA version has him say something like "Hope you're still around in eight years." The second is when Setzer has his flashback to Daryl right before getting the WoR airship, and her comment "Or do you like chewing my wake?" in English would have been better translated as "Or do you like staring at my butt?" Then of course there's the "Son of a submariner!" line (which was changed to "son of a sandworm" in the GBA version, you don't wanna know how many complaints there were about that on message boards). Oh, and Duane and Katarin are an unwed teen couple in the original Japanese/GBA version but an adult married couple in the SNES version. Can't give the kiddies a bad impression.

However, the biggest and most glaring translation difference is in the WoR when Celes is with Cid. In the Japanese (and GBA versions) Cid explains that the survivors who were with him on the island all lost hope and committed suicide by throwing themselves off the cliffs to the north of the shack they lived in. If Cid dies, Celes will remark that all hope is lost, and attempt to commit suicide herself in the same manner (but fail).

In the original SNES version, though, suicide was considered a HUGE no-no, and so the dialog was altered so that Cid said the people who were feeling down took a "leap of faith" which "perked them right up!" Even when I played the game for the first time on the PS1 (which was mostly just a port of the SNES version) it was fairly obvious Celes was trying to commit suicide, but the translation trying to play it off as "Oh no, they were just trying to cheer themselves up!" was pretty stupid.

Which is why I personally find the GBA version of FFVI to be the superior version in absolutely every way. The translation is truer to the original Japanese, and there were a few bugs that were fixed, which of course is bad as far as some people are concerned (Vanish + Doom no longer instantly kills everything), but I feel is truer to how the game was supposed to be played anyway (since they were, y'know, BUGS/GLITCHES).

The DS version of Chrono Trigger also has a new translation, which people complained incessantly about (them changing Frog's manner of speaking for example). I actually favor the DS translation, because even in the original it was really weird that everyone in 600 AD spoke normally, but Frog didn't (and that in the flashbacks, Glenn spoke normally too, so it's not like he always spoke that way). Oh yeah, and the "soup drinking contest" in 65 million BC was changed to convey that what they were drinking was booze, and that Lucca and Marle were drunk.

Overall the changes made in Chrono Trigger were minor compared to the changes in FFVI. There were a lot of lines changed or removed, but overall the translation just worked better than the VI translation. I mean, they even kept Crono's death (though I'm not sure they ever used the words "death" or "dying" or "dead"), and they kept in Flea's cross-dressing too.it's totally

ruined if you have to do things quickly because the boss will keep attacking.

I may be remembering incorrectly, but I feel like Chrono Trigger, much like the FF games, has a "Wait" option for the battles where time pauses when you have the Tech or Items menu open.

[LiquidOcelot]

Would you recommend any other RPG over FF (excluding Star Ocean which was boring).

SDG

If you have a DS I would recommend the Dragon Quest series. DQ V especially. But also: DQ IV, DQ VI and DQ IX.

Radiant Historia is outstanding as well.

If you have a PSP. Tactics Ogre (if you like strategy RPGs). Legend of the Heroes: Trails in the Sky is great. The Ys series on the PSP is also quite fun.

[Hiryu]

I may be remembering incorrectly, but I feel like Chrono Trigger, much like the FF games, has a "Wait" option for the battles where time pauses when you have the Tech or Items menu open.

That is correct.

[the_wolfs_howl]

I may be remembering incorrectly, but I feel like Chrono Trigger, much like the FF games, has a "Wait" option for the battles where time pauses when you have the Tech or Items menu open.

Ohhh. So it only pauses if you have the Tech or Items menu open? That would explain it. I tried it out, because I was like, "OH DUDE YES WAIT." But then when I went into battle, the enemies would keep attacking if I just sat there. So they keep attacking if you're sitting in the main battle menu? Okay. Thanks for clearing that up! Makes it a bit better.