I started at 7 and looked forwards to every iteration of the series since then, 8 was more of the same with a weird story, 9 was cute and a good throwback, then I went back to 6 which was a masterpiece, 10 was emotional and beautiful, 12 wasn’t great but had cool worldbuilding, being a FFT fan.

Here is when it starts to diverge a little. I would call this the start of ‘modern’ FFs

I actually liked 13’s battle system, it worked out many of the kinks of old systems, like healing after each battle and focused on each interaction as a puzzle to be solved. The story was OK and then the sequels kinda tried to do something different. Lightning Returns had terrible reviews, possible due to the time limit, which is why I never tried it

14 had a bad start and did a reboot to become a well loved MMO, but starting in the first world is such a chore with outdated MMO mechanics as someone who started later

15 was ambitious and unfinished. the first time I was truly disappointed in a FF game.

Then, we have the FF7 remakes, which are amazing, it seems that all the effort, the team members who have passion all signed up for this and it shows, but there’s a strong nostalgia bias to it.

Now reading the reviews for 16, it seems there’s no real reason to give it a try. At this point, I’m not sure what comes after the final FF7 game, is there a way to make 17 something people would care about?

  • ErableEreinte@lemmy.caEnglish
    8·
    2 days ago

    No?

    Realistically, as you mentioned with FF XIV ARR now being a classic but also being a pain to get into is true for any other older FF, many people simply have rose tinted glasses to keep them from seeing all the flaws present in those prior entries.
    I also started with FF VII, but 25 years after its release, and let me tell you that it did not age well (at all) imo.

    Had I not picked up FF XVI, I probably wouldn’t have given the series another chance.
    I now played both FF VII remakes to date and absolutely loved them, especially Rebirth, and am going through FF VI, which I also think is a masterpiece tbh.
    FF IV didn’t work out for me, but that’s fine.

    All that to say, video game series evolve, ARPGs have been quite popular for a while and FF went that route - for now. That doesn’t make for bad games, and the series will keep evolving.