The Top 5 List Thread

[Vegard Pompey]

@Vegard Pompey Our Final Fantasy lists are quite similar. I haven't met many other people who like Final Fantasy 12 as much as I do! Many would have 10 in there, but I find it to be kind of overrated yet still good.

I finished FF12 for the first time a few months ago (not the first time I played it though) and I recently started playing it again, it just keeps pulling me back. (I also play the international version which further adds to the replay value with its job system) It's such a relaxing game to play, I love just exploring its beautiful world and letting the gambits do the work. I love that getting in a fight means I can put down the controller for a minute, means I can easily eat while playing which is cool. On the downside the story is kinda shit and the music isn't that great (as far as non-Uematsu soundtracks go, 13 has it beat by a good margin imo)

I also replayed 10 recently (yes I may have been binging FF lately) and I liked it more than I remembered and almost considered putting it in my #5 spot. It's gorgeous (esp. the remaster), the battle system is elegant and the story is... kinda good?

Spoiler

When you replay it with the knowledge that the entire quest is a suicide mission many scenes in the game take on a more melancholic tone and you realize the whole point of the game is about putting on a brave face when confronted with tragedy (that and also sticking it to institutionalized religion) and it makes the upbeat tone of the game more palatable and even parts like the infamous laughing scene become poignant. That said it's still a bit too cheerful for me and I'd take the oppressively melancholic atmosphere of 6/7 over it any day.

 

[Phylactery]

I finished FF12 for the first time a few months ago (not the first time I played it though) and I recently started playing it again, it just keeps pulling me back. (I also play the international version which further adds to the replay value with its job system) It's such a relaxing game to play, I love just exploring its beautiful world and letting the gambits do the work. I love that getting in a fight means I can put down the controller for a minute, means I can easily eat while playing which is cool.

I agree with pretty much all of this, except I've never played the international version. What does it add? I think I read about it having a fight with the judges or something ages ago. I also think that the hunts is one of the best minigames in the series.

On the downside the story is kinda shit and the music isn't that great (as far as non-Uematsu soundtracks go, 13 has it beat by a good margin imo)

I can't remember much of the soundtrack off hand, I'll have to give it a listen later to see if I agree. I've never finished 13 despite starting it 3 times over, it's just awful. I'll listen to that soundtrack as well to see if I missed anything. As for the story, I kinda like 12's story as basic as it is. It's more Shakespearean in nature as opposed to the apocalyptic world ending stories of most of the other games in the series, which was a nice change of pace.

I'll also add that my least favourite characters in 12 (Vaan and Ashe) don't irritate me anywhere near as much as least favourites from other games. (Tidus anyone? What an annoying piece of shit.)

I also replayed 10 recently (yes I may have been binging FF lately) and I liked it more than I remembered and almost considered putting it in my #5 spot. It's gorgeous (esp. the remaster), the battle system is elegant and the story is... kinda good?

Spoiler

When you replay it with the knowledge that the entire quest is a suicide mission many scenes in the game take on a more melancholic tone and you realize the whole point of the game is about putting on a brave face when confronted with tragedy (that and also sticking it to institutionalized religion) and it makes the upbeat tone of the game more palatable and even parts like the infamous laughing scene become poignant. That said it's still a bit too cheerful for me and I'd take the oppressively melancholic atmosphere of 6/7 over it any day.

I played the shit out of 10 when it first came out, I was obsessed with the monster arena and powering up to defeat the Dark Aeons. I guess what I liked most about its story was how they all denounce religion by the end of the game. I do agree with most of what you said though, when you replay it with the knowledge of what is going to happen. However, I can't stand some of the characters like Tidus, Auron (seems like an even more brooding rip off of Vincent), and Rikku (I liked her at first, but she became annoying. "Yuni will die ya know?!"). Kimahri is inoffensive but kind of pointless. Lulu is my favourite, I just love her scathing nature and how she puts everyone down. Bitch doesn't mince her words.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

I agree with pretty much all of this, except I've never played the international version. What does it add? I think I read about it having a fight with the judges or something ages ago.

AFAIK it doesn't add any new endgame content at all. I don't know anything about a new fight with the judges being added. Mostly what it does is add a pretty basic class system. You get to assign each character one of 12 unique license boards, each representing a class. The choice is permanent so it's more like the job system in FF1 than in FF3/FF5. This prevents the characters from becoming completely indistinguishable once you've filled out everyone's license board. There's also a bunch of balance changes overall, new items added and the item distribution is tweaked. You no longer have to do anything stupid to obtain the Zodiac Spear, and it's also not the best weapon in the game anymore.

I played the shit out of 10 when it first came out, I was obsessed with the monster arena and powering up to defeat the Dark Aeons. I guess what I liked most about its story was how they all denounce religion by the end of the game. I do agree with most of what you said though, when you replay it with the knowledge of what is going to happen. However, I can't stand some of the characters like Tidus, Auron (seems like an even more brooding rip off of Vincent), and Rikku (I liked her at first, but she became annoying. "Yuni will die ya know?!"). Kimahri is inoffensive but kind of pointless. Lulu is my favourite, I just love her scathing nature and how she puts everyone down. Bitch doesn't mince her words.

I agree with you on the cast. I don't understand why Auron is a fan favorite character, he's such a grump. Lulu <3

 

[Phylactery]

I guess this is what I was talking about:

"Trial Mode is a bonus mode exclusive to the Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System version of the game. Its stage 100 battle is against all Judge Magisters: Judge Gabranth, Judge Ghis, Judge Bergan, Judge Drace, and Judge Zargabaath. This is the final level of the trial and considered its ultimate challenge. This thus adds Drace and Zargabaath, who are not fought as bosses during the main storyline."

That job system sounds interesting though, and an improvement over the original imo. Do you play an emulator of it or do you own the International version on PS2?

 

[SentinelSlain]

Top five ways of passing the time during travel and other shit:

1) Playing strategy games like advance wars or C&C AoE etc
2) Reading spy thrillers like Robert Ludlum stuff
3) Looking at sexy women in a magazine
4)Daydreaming power fantasies INTP style
5) listening to metal

 

[Einherjar86]

Top 5 novels by American male novelists:

1. Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy)
2. Gravity's Rainbow (Thomas Pynchon)
3. Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison)
4. Absalom, Absalom! (William Faulkner)
5. Moby-Dick (Herman Melville)

Top 5 novels by American female novelists:

1. Nightwood (Djuna Barnes)
2. Beloved (Toni Morrison)
3. The Left Hand of Darkness (Ursula K. Le Guin)
4. The House of Mirth (Edith Wharton)
5. The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)

More literary lists to come...

 

[Vegard Pompey]

That job system sounds interesting though, and an improvement over the original imo. Do you play an emulator of it or do you own the International version on PS2?

Emulator. It doesn't have an official english release so you have to use a translation patch. Not sure if that makes it difficult to play on an actual console.

 

[Slayed Necros]

Top five Daniel Plainview quotes:

1. Stop crying, you sniveling ass! Stop your nonsense. You're just the afterbirth, Eli... that slithered out of your mother's filth. They should have put you in a glass jar on a mantlepiece.

2. Bastard from a basket!

3. Drainage!

4. I told you I would eat you!

5. I am the Third Revelation! I am who the Lord has chosen!

 

[Vilden]

Top 5 Philips K Dick novels:

1. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
2. The Three Stigmata of Eldritch Palmer
3. The Man in the High Castle
4. The Simulacra
5. A Scanner Darkly

 

[Serjeant Grumbles]

Top five Daniel Plainview quotes:

1. Stop crying, you sniveling ass! Stop your nonsense. You're just the afterbirth, Eli... that slithered out of your mother's filth. They should have put you in a glass jar on a mantlepiece.

2. Bastard from a basket!

3. Drainage!

4. I told you I would eat you!

5. I am the Third Revelation! I am who the Lord has chosen!

No milkshake?

 

[The Ozzman]

Top 5 drummers:

Neil Peart (absolute #1)
Gavin Harrison
Paul Bostaph
Thomas Pridgen
John Bonham

 

[Blind Guardian]

Top 5 douchy hockey players:

1. Patrick Kane
2. Evander Kane
3. Brad Marchand
4. Alex Ovechkin
5. PK Subban

 

[arg]

nationalities of the top 5 women ive screwed, in order of hotness

1. french
2. polish
3. czech
4. russian
5. hungarian

although my perception of the top 5 most beautiful nationalities overall is different (and hard to decide)

 

[Internally Deformed]

nationalities of the top 5 women ive screwed, in order of hotness

1. french
2. polish
3. czech
4. russian
5. hungarian

although my perception of the top 5 most beautiful nationalities overall is different (and hard to decide)

You're unbanned? Way too much eastern European in there btw; surprised the boiled cabbage aroma didn't bother you.

 

[Internally Deformed]

Top 5 pornstars:

Katsuni
Jenaveve Jolie
Skin Diamond
Nina Mercedez
Lanny Barbie

 

[Dak]

Top 5 pornstars:
Jenaveve Jolie

 

[Internally Deformed]

Main drawback to living in Britain: no latinas.

 

[arg]

You're unbanned? Way too much eastern European in there btw; surprised the boiled cabbage aroma didn't bother you.

yea theyd fart in my mouth and itd taste like goulash sometimes

 

[Internally Deformed]

yea theyd fart in my mouth and itd taste like goulash sometimes

This is the kind of quality posting this forum has been missing.

 

[Dak]

Main drawback to living in Britain: no latinas.

It is a serious drawback.