Hey Bombers - I recently got a PSVita and am excited about the wealth of JRPG content available. I'm not an expert on the genre, limited only to the titles that broke through gaming mainstream: FF1, FF7, Persona 4, Chrono Trigger, etc. I'm trying to experience more of the main series and trying to piece together what exactly is up on PSN.

Would you FF experts correct or provide feedback on the following, which I have pieced together from wikipedia, youtube, google, etc:

• FF1 & 2 - Included in "Origins" which is the PS1 remake of the NES games (not the updated GBA version?)
• FF3 - port of the 3D remake of FF3 for the Nintendo DS - How does the remake hold up?
• FF4 - enhanced port of the DS remake for the PSP and includes additional content
• FF5 - Straight port of the PS1 version? - no GBA/iOS enhancements?
• FF6 - Straight port of the PS1 version?- no GBA/iOS enhancements?
• FF7, FF8, FF9 - PS1 ports
• FFX, FFX-2 - Recently released HD ports from PS2

Any advice on which titles are the most accessible? I've seen footage of the FF4 PSP port and it looks gorgeous. I've heard that FF8 is extremely convoluted while 9 and 10 are easier to get into.

Thanks for the help duders.

FFX and FFX-2 will most likely be the most accessible. The DS remake of FF4 holds up very well. It was the first time I played it and it didn't feel like an old game. The FF5 and FF6 don't have the GBA/iOS enhancements, which, personally with how the iOS version looks, I consider that a good thing. FF 1 & 2 are a lot more difficult to play by modern standards without the nostalgia for having played it as a child. FF3 looks great, but does have a difficult learning curve. FF7, 8 and 9 are straight ports. I would reccomend the steam version of 7 over the PSN version if you can get it, because the mods look so good.

1 can be impossible if you've never played it before and you don't have access to a map. Since you're playing on Vita I recommend downloading an image of the map if you don't want to follow a guide. It include some updates though, better sprites and some new bosses and dungeons.

@caffeinezebra has covered the rest nicely. I'll just add that 8 is not convoluted at all. It's just different from 7 which is a lot of peoples first FF game, so having a different system (junction) instead of the materia system seemed to throw people off. Personally I liked the junction system of 8.

Good choice on the Vita and FF games though. You can put the Vita to sleep when playing through some of the longer segments of 7-9 that don't have save points any where near by and you won't lose any progress.

The FF4 Complete Collection is fantastic in my opinion. It's one of the best and easiest Final Fantasies to get into so I'd highly recommend that. Though it's not based on the DS remake, that's fully 3D. The PSP one is 2D. The FFX HD remasters and FF9 are good jumping off points as well.

I don't necessarily recommend the FF6 port as I believe that the PS1 port with the horrible menu load times, but if it's your only means of playing it... FF3 and FF5 and for the more grindy crowd of jrpg fans. Lighter on the story, more character customization. Though I think 5 is an all around excellent game, however it is rather difficult if you're inexperienced with rpgs.

FF4 on psn is not a version of the ds game. It is a 2d remake and is pretty good. Everything else is about right, but I'd be careful about FF5 because the PS1 version of the game never worked on a PS2 or PS3 (I haven't tested the psn version myself).

Thank you all for the feedback.

I agree that FF1 would be hard to get into at this point. I remember getting it as a kid for the NES and thinking "This game looks awesome! but I don't know wtf is going on!"

At any rate, I'm leaning towards FF4 and then playing through FF8-10 or just 9 and 10. FF4 will give me a taste of that SNES sprite based RPG goodness, and the video reviews I have seen are glowing and make it look gorgeous. If life hadn't sidetracked me after FF7 I would have probably played at least 8 & 9 anyway while I was in college.

But with the gift of hindsight, I am seeing that 8 is very divisive - something about the 'draw' system being too grindy. Where as 9 is more of a 'classic' JRPG?

It's broken, tedious and a mana system instead would have spared you farming magic. Great music & atmosphere, weird cast and a good story make 8 one of the best FF's though.

Also, that card game was pretty dope. I quite enjoyed FF9 but I was disappointed by how much worse their card game was by comparison.

Final Fantasy IV is not the DS version.

I'm currently playing through FF VIII again, and I have to say, I actually think it's a fantastic little game. I used to find it incredibly boring just because the draw system is really annoying, but that's really only a problem for the first few hours. Great story and atmosphere. It's definitely not a good entry point at all, though, since it's arguably the most different of all the FF's before X.

Also, except for maybe Zack Fair, Squall is the best FF protagonist there is if you ask me.

Don't get me started on local rules becoming national playrules and ruining my damn game...>:(

FFVIII is great its just such a different game from what FFVII was that at then time it put a LOT of people off of it.

Gotcha - so is FFIX then a sort of return to FF7 form? How does FFX series compare?

FFX is a lot closer to FF9, but with all the good lessons learned from all previous entries. I think it was the FF they always wanted to create but couldn't on PS1.

The PSN version of FF5 works flawlessly on PS3 and Vita, there are some load times when going into combat, but it's not as bad as the FF6 port.

If you hold down the PS button while playing any of the PS1 games on the Vita you can access some settings for the PS1 emulator, including an option to shorten load times, it's not on by default since some games have issues with that, but the FF games I've tried have supported it.

@trafalgarlaw: Couldn't you just pay the Queen of Cards to reset the rules? It was annoying whenever you ended up spreading Random as a rule, because man, fuck random.

You have to pay up the ass for it, 30k I believe and it doesn't fully reset all rules...it's convoluted. =P

If you could play the GBA versions of FF5 and FF6, those are probably preferable. The ps1 versions (and therefore the psn ports), all have pretty bad loading times. It's more noticeable in 6 than 5 though. They also do not include any of the added content from the gba games, but I never thought that stuff was any good anyways. 6 and 10 are the best entry points in my opinion.

@jesus_phish: God, I love and hate Triple Triad so much. It's a lot of fun with basic rules, and then quickly becomes nothing short of awful when the later rules come into play....But that's mainly because I just never in my life decided to sit down and try to learn them. Random is easy to get around, just refine all your crappy cards, but that weird Plus/combo thing ALWAYS messes me up. To this day, I still have no idea how it works. All I know is that games seem to be impossible to win when that rule is in play. I wish resetting the rules wasn't as annoying to do.

If you have a DS, FFIV is best experienced on that system. It is the most challenging version and has augments. And V and VI are better experienced elsewhere, as some posters above me have said. VII is best on PC. VIII is amazing as it introduces a really interesting new system, and I think IX is absolutely boring and does NOTHING new to the formula, I don't get the praise for it. Really weird character designs and they're just terribly bland. It was a slog to complete and was glad it was over when I finally defeated the ultra cheap final boss.

But you HAVE to pick up FFX | X-2 HD. I'm playing through X now and am almost done, I can just feel it. It will probably end up being one of my favorite Final Fantasys (along with XIII and VI - I have yet to play XII but want to soooooo bad).

Also you might want to check out Dissidia when you've played a few "Mothership titles". It's a really awesome fighting/RPG hybrid game with one of the deepest customization aspects of the entire series, with a huge list of playable characters and stuff to do.

So, I'd recommend X first then VIII. Take a look at IX and see if you think you'll like it, gameplay is pretty basic and it doesn't have anything really interesting to it like the Sphere Grid from FFX, the Junction system from VIII, and the Materia system from VII. (I have yet to play X-2 so I have no idea what that does but I hear it's called Dress Spheres... :P )

@steadyingmeat: The thing that ruined me on random though was my collectors impulse. I always wanted one of every card, even though they're not real cards.

I played through FF1 in Final Fantasy Origins and I seem to remember it having an in game map. It also had other improvements over the original like the bestiary and concept art gallery. It also isn't as hard as the original. I could be wrong though, as it was probably 8 years ago when I played it. I'm pretty sure they are the GBA versions.

The only PS1 versions you would be getting are 5-9. FF 1, 2, 3, and 4 were all remade for the PSP. I finished FF 4 a few months ago on the Vita and that's probably the best version of the game. Some people think the voices and the difficulty of the DS version make it the best, but after playing FF4 I don't think that either of those things would improve the game.

FF1, 2, 3, and 4 were re-made for the PSP. Those aren't ports.

5 and 6 were either emulated or ported up to the PS1. The load times for FF6 on the PS1 are supposed to be really long, so you may want to research that. You might have better luck playing it on the Wii's Virtual Console, if you have that option. The GBA version of 6 didn't reproduce the music very well and FF6's music is one of its most praised parts.

7-9 on Vita will be the exact same games that they were on the PS1.

And of course FFX and FFX-2 both run natively on the Vita now.

@believer258: If I remember correctly, while FF1 and 2 were remade for the PSP, they are not available as downloads on the US PSN. FF3 has been released as a download. The only way to get FF1 and 2 onto his Vita right now is the Origins download.

I could have sworn I saw them on there. Oh well.

Also, I've never played FF2 (I've heard it's not good), but FF1 is really only worth playing academically at this point. It's extremely grindy and basic and doesn't have much of a story. Just my two cents. You should probably start with 4 and go from there.

I've always been curious about Final Fantasy 9.

I loved 7 and remember not being hooked by a demo of 8. Never got around to 9. Maybe I should give that a look.

@believer258: I only know because I looked for them when they finally added FF3 PSP download to the store. Another alternative if he doesn't mind touch control is the iOS version of FF1 (if he has an iOS device).

@thiago123: Sorry, I didn't see that you also asked for recommendations. As I said, I finished IV a few months ago and I really enjoyed it, but there are a lot of random encounters and the story, while great in its day, plays out like practically every other JRPG ever. It's still enjoyable, but FFIV is best enjoyed with an awareness of the time it was released in. I feel the same way about... well, all of them really. If you only play one of them, make it VI. That's the one that is best remembered these days. VII is a good game but the backlash it seems to have picked up over the past few years isn't entirely undeserved. IX is all right, but it's a throwback to old games. X is as linear as XIII. The whole series has its caveats, really, but just play IV or VI for now.

I always cringe when people recommend the iOS ports of classic games when playing them for the first time. Maybe it's all right, but it sounds like the worst way to play games that should be remembered well. But to each his own.

@thiago123: FFX is great on the Vita. Highly recommended. It's a fantastic amount of content for the money, even if you never play FFX-2.

@rorie: Thanks Rorie and all those who provided feedback. I'm watching the X/X-2HD Quick Look right now. I'm definitely going to pick it up, it should be a good return to FF with it being a more modern game. I also need to experience the infamous HA HA HA scene for myself.

PS - if Quests were still around your reply would have surely given me some points right? I guess what I am trying to say is, bring back quests :P

With that said, I'm also going to pick up FF4, because I'm shallow and I drooled over the updated graphics, as well as FF8 & 9 to try them out. I think I'm going to skip FF2 & 5. I know FF6 is considered the best one by many, but I think I will wait on it to someday try and pick it up for one of its native platforms.

@thiago123: Well keep in mind there are spoilers for the end of FFX in that QL! Be warned!

FF2 is interesting. Instead of leveling up your characters you level up your abilities with the weapons. So using daggers a bunch will level your dagger ability, using Firaga will level the firaga spell, etc. Taking a bunch of damage will level up you HP. It's one of the more out there combat/leveling mechanics in the series. Plot wise I remember it being identical to FF1; collect the four crystals and kill the guy trying to destroy the world. Unlike the first game though, all these characters have given names and there are occasional guest party members, like a pirate captain.

I also use my Vita as a Final Fantasy machine. Unfortunately the PSP versions of FF1 & 2 aren't available in the US PSN store. But FFV just recently became playable on Vita so that could always change. Can always bug SquareEnix on twitter. The PS1 ports aren't bad though. I know people sometimes complain about the load times but they haven't bothered me. Don't forget you can adjust the video settings to get the screensize how you like for all the PS1 games.

The PSP versions of FF3 and FF4 are really good. I was turned off by the new design of 3 but it was still fun and charming by the end. The sprites in 4 are amazing looking.

I skipped up to FFX when that came out and it's great looking. It really makes me wish for more JRPGs of this style to come out on the Vita. It'd be awesome. I'll eventually get back to FFIV-After Years.

Also congrats on your new vita.

@xyzygy said:

The challenge is one of the reasons I don't recommend the ds version. I had to do way more grinding in that version than any other, and the challenge really slowed down the game's pace. Suddenly random encounters that took 30 seconds in other versions took like 2-3 minutes. Also you're locked into the final party, whereas the other remakes allow you to use whoever you want (though admittedly, you're probably better off sticking with the default one anyways).