Games where fast-forward (native or emulator) is essential to your enjoyment

[AppleKid]

Fire Emblem IV was one of the first Japanese games I imported along with its strategy guide. I didn't understand much but remember thinking it was neat and making it at least a few chapters in on the gameplay and vibes.

Once it had a fan translation I gave it a proper play-through and damn is this game SLOW. The enemy turns take forever, battles animations are similarly glacial (turned them off but the arena forces them on), and with how large the maps are moving a bunch of characters each turn can be a pain. Thankfully emulators exist, and 5x fast-forwarding makes all of these problems disappear. My most recent playthrough took me 132 in-game hours which is probably around 100 real-time ones with my fast-forward use.

Monster Sanctuary is one that has an in-game battle speed option (I think up to 4x?) and I never miss an opportunity to plug this action replay code for Gen IV Pokémon that uncaps framerate in battle, doubling the speed of all text and animations without distorting audio.

All of these are top-tier games for me but if I couldn't speed up or fast-forward animations my opinion would likely be lower. Not so bad on first plays but extremely noticeable on replays. Curious what other examples y'all have.

 

[Scarecrow]

Anything with grinding.

 

[Sword Familiar]

Later versions of Final Fantasy XII had this, and I used it constantly.

 

[Jubilant Duck]

The Sims.

Because I'm not watching them workout in realtime.

 

[tokkun]

When I played through the original version of FFXII without the fast forward option, I would play another game on DS during some of the end-game hunts like Yiazmat and Behemoth King.

 

[mrmickfran]

Final Fantasy VII and IX (especially IX)
Final Fantasy XII
Octopath Traveler 2
Soul Hackers 2
Tokyo Mirage Sessions
Unicorn Overlord

Basically any JRPG with slooooow animations

 

[Monado]

Final Fantasy IX, that long battle transition...

 

[Homura]

Pokemon RSE and FRLG on emulator are unplayable without fast-forward.

 

[quesalupa]

I don't think I would have ever finished the original version of Crisis Core if I didn't have a fast forward button mapped to the controller. The remaster did a fantastic job of fixing the moment to moment.

 

[TCB]

Final Fantasy IX, that long battle transition...

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Yup. Played the game on PS1 and it felt like a slog. To the point where I gave up close to the ending... I just couldn't do it anymore.

Played it years later on emulator with fast forward for long loading times and loved it.

 

[Cheesetriangles]

Simcity. I gotta have that cheetah speed.

 

[I Fall]

It's funny for me that a game has this feature. Clearly it's a game design problem with a bandaid solution.

When DQXI Definitive Edition came out a lot of reviews praised the addition, but they didn't criticized pacing, farming or speed on the original Echoes of an Elusive Age.

 

[Lampa]

Any game that offers fast forward will be fast forwarded.

 

[SanTheSly]

If not for the built in fast forward I would have abandoned FF8. Mostly only saw it through to the end because of sunken cost fallacy. I've only played through 9 a single time as well - back on the PS3 PS Classics port that had no speedup. Loved it, but if/when I ever replay it I'll need that speedup.

I really liked Persona 1 on PSP but I would also probably not have made it through without extensive speed up and guide usage.

EDIT: Oh and Zodiac Age's speedup finally helped me beat that game after years of never finishing the original. I loved what I played of 12 but the glacial pace for grinding LP if you got hardstuck + the original's bad license board system meant I'd always just fall off.

 

[RPGam3r]

Other games have it but FFIX's long ass battle transition and FFXII's general boring moment to moment battle animations are the only times I've used it to make the games better.

 

[Oliver James]

Suikoden IV. The game becomes so much more enjoyable.

 

[Lemony1984]

It's probably shorter to list out the games that I wouldn't use this feature on in some capacity. Especially in the PS1/PS2 days you have unskippable cutscenes and really bad loading time and all that kind of stuff.

 

[sir_crocodile]

Breath of Fire 1/2 are much better with fast forward.

Shout out to Hexyz Force on the PSP too which was the first game I ever saw offer it natively and as part of the original game (IE not a later port/remake/emulation set)

 

[WildArms]

Final Fantasy VII and IX (especially IX)
Final Fantasy XII
Octopath Traveler 2
Soul Hackers 2
Tokyo Mirage Sessions
Unicorn Overlord

Basically any JRPG with slooooow animations

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If it's not your first playthrough, would add Chrono Cross to that list as well. Helps with getting those multiple endings.

 

[AdvancedWind]

Stealth Kiseki thread

 

[Truno]

FF IX. Although the fast forward helped, the battle system is fundamentally flawed

 

[TeenageFBI]

Stealth Kiseki thread

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Yep. I use the fast forward feature in basically every Trails/Legend of Heroes game. I don't think I would have ever taken to the series without it.

 

[Blue_Toad507]

I don't know how anyone gets through Trails without the speed up option tbh.

 

[Jazzem]

Breath of Fire 1/2 are much better with fast forward.

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Amazing examples, the walk speed on SNES is brutal 😅 The GBA ports benefitted hugely from a run button.

Though these days, SNES versions w/romhack(s) and fast forward probably the best way to go

Stealth Kiseki thread

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I don't know how anyone gets through Trails without the speed up option tbh.

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Another great one, I can't believe they went with that default battle speed D:

I wouldn't have gotten through FC without Cheat Engine w/speed up hotkey. So glad they've since added fast forward officially to the games

 

[BassForever]

A lot of old rpgs are like this for me. FF through load times or when grinding to speed up finding the next random encounter.

 

[Sanctuary]

Later versions of Final Fantasy XII had this, and I used it constantly.

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Yep. That, and any turn-based strategy game, or even modern turn-based JRPGs. After 36 years of playing those kinds of games, I don't need every fight to be the same slow speed, especially when it's trash you're just wanting to blitz through.

 

[JackOfSomeTrades]

Later versions of Final Fantasy XII had this, and I used it constantly.

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The 3x speed made the game 3x better, instead of automating the fun out of the game, being able to speed up was a reward for solid planning. Genuine game changer, totally turned the game around for me after bouncing off the original

 

[Otakunofuji]

All PS1 and later turn-based JRPGs. I just can't anymore.

 

[RedShift]

This is maybe a joke answer, but Kerbal Space Program.

Fast forward is obviously built in to avoid waiting 8 hours for your lander to reach the Mün, or like, a year for a full return trip to Eeloo.

Whenever I play now I use the Kerbal Alarm Clock mod to auto stop the fast forward, lost to many Kerbals to missed manoeuvres.

 

[cowbanana]

Can't think of anything. But if I feel inclined to fast forward in a game I would probably just drop it because then it wouldn't be worth my time or attention.

 

[NZerker12]

Since trails was already mentioned then Honkai Star Rail.

At x1 speed the game feels like its in slow motion.

 

[Boopers]

miitopia because it's funny

 

[Bede-x]

I feel like this affects many PS1 era RPGs, especially the Final Fantasy games, that become tedious on original hardware with their long animations and loading times. On modern hardware you tend to forget how long you actually just sat there waiting, because the loading times are eliminated and re-releases come with speed boosters and assist options.

The fact that they need to do boosts like that, says everything.

 

[Gespenst MKIV]

Moder Super Robot Wars would take you years to play with out the ability to speed up or even outright skip attack animations, as nice as they are

 

[Matzpxl]

I cannot play Balatro at 1x speed anymore. Only 4x

 

[Kinthey]

Don't think id have finished FF12 without it

 

[two_headed_boy]

Literally any jrpg made before 2010.

 

[ParanormalFupa]

It's the only way I can play Pokemon now.

 

[Nihilism4Dummies]

It's funny for me that a game has this feature. Clearly it's a game design problem with a bandaid solution.

When DQXI Definitive Edition came out a lot of reviews praised the addition, but they didn't criticized pacing, farming or speed on the original Echoes of an Elusive Age.

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Exactly this. Any game that, by design (so I'm very much NOT talking about emulators with the option), offers you a fast-forward option is poorly designed to start with. It's a recognition from the developers that "Hey, this is slow!" and, rather than doing something to address that issue, they add in this shortcut. I played Soul Hackers 2 and at the start appreciated the options it gave you to speed things up, but it didn't actually make it any better, just slightly reduced my time investment (and what a poor game it was).

I part of the problem is that companies still see >30/40/50 etc hours as being some kind of big plus for the sales pitch, so we get lots of poor pacing, huge amounts of padding and, perhaps, slow animations - all in service of extending that playtime. In the real world, I would imagine that long playtimes probably puts more people off than it brings in - those who are pleased by it would likely buy it anyway so isn't a factor in a purchasing decision, but many more just think they'd never have the time to play it and skip it. Not something we can really quantify here though (for starters, this forum is not representative of the wider market).

 

[PaulieWalnutsASMR]

Anything with grinding.

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Yep, many old RPGs. I just beat Phantasy Star with Frank Cifaldi's translation and the double walk speed / exp / money patch which was a good time.

 

[Infinite Barrels]

i'm replaying Trails of cold steel and everything is a bit too slow, couldn't do it without the turbo mode

same with the sky and the crossbell arcs

 

[PAFenix]

Replaying Suikoden 4 right now and I wouldn't be able to without Turbo. I forgot how slow that ship sailed on my PS2.

I was also going to mention Genealogy lol

 

[Pyro]

I love Dragon Quest VIII's open world but by the end of my 80 hours, I was kinda sick of it. So I turned on 2x speed in PCSX2 and thankfully even then the encounter rate wasn't bad.

 

[BasilZero]

Anything with grinding.

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This

 

[ManNR]

I recently played through FFIV & V with the extra XP enabled. Fantastic experience.

 

[Minsc]

This is the best feature of YouTube. Adds a fast forward feature to every single game you play on it, whether the game supports it or not.

 

[Izanagi89]

Final Fantasy XII TZA. Legit made one of my most hated FFs into "you know what, this is fun". I can't imagine playing it without it fast forward

 

[Randroid]

I don't think many people would have the patience for Xenogears anymore without the patch for faster dialogue speeds + speed up toggle. It helped me finally beat the thing (which I otherwise adored).

 

[Blackberry Cake]

Final Fantasy IX, that long battle transition...

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Somehow still feels slow! 😓

Simcity. I gotta have that cheetah speed.

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Max speed for all city builders! I'll go a step further and say any strategy game, if I'm not actively making a decision, I'm happy for resources to come flying in so I can make my next decision.

Stealth Kiseki thread

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I wish Falcom would be consistent with fast foward/text skip. I feel like each game I play from them has it implemented slightly differently, sometimes it'll fast forward to the next dialogue box, sometimes straight though.

Exactly this. Any game that, by design (so I'm very much NOT talking about emulators with the option), offers you a fast-forward option is poorly designed to start with. It's a recognition from the developers that "Hey, this is slow!" and, rather than doing something to address that issue, they add in this shortcut. I played Soul Hackers 2 and at the start appreciated the options it gave you to speed things up, but it didn't actually make it any better, just slightly reduced my time investment (and what a poor game it was).

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Personally, I don't agree, at least not for everything. I see it as more of a willingness to let people play how they want. I played Soul Hackers 2 with the game sped up most of the time, I've got that need for speed; but my housemate thinks is ridiculous to play games fast forwarding, and would watch it all play out at the default speed. We've all got different tolerances for what we consider slow after all, some people genuinely do want to watch animations. 😂

I do agree that Soul Hackers 2 method of handling it was a shortcut, I'm not a fan of just speeding up game speed, I prefer presentation changes, like turning off battle effects in Pokemon.

 

[Flipmenex]

I've been replaying the 3D Suikoden games and it would be rough to get through them without a speed up toggle. Even 5, which I liked a lot back then, benefits greatly from it.