Have you replaced Final Fantasy with another series?

[Urishizu]

I've been playing since the original NES title, but I won't lie - FF15 completely lost me and just couldn't get into it. I was getting concerned the series was beginning to leave me behind, but FF7:R was fantastic and I'm right back in. Very interested to see what they do with the PS5 title as well.

 

[Karsha]

Unpopular Opinion but I think that FF 15 is a very good game that with a few tweaks on balancing and storytelling could have been the greatest FF. So no, I still have faith in Square and now that they have had time and the ideas straight to work on FF 16 I look forward to the series developing into the future games

 

[antitrop]

I have replaced most games with FFXIV, so I guess quite the opposite.

 

[Manmademan]

I've given DQ so many chances, and it's just so...boring. The attack animations are boring, the characters are boring, the core stories are boring, the settings are boring and the composer is an elementally terrible human being. I wish I could enjoy it, but I've never finished a single game in the series. Quit DQ8 during the Dhoulmagus boss fight, and bailed on XI like an hour before the main character was going to get turned into a fish because reasons.

Can we trade DQ for a resurrection of Suikoden?

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I rarely agree with you but this is one of those times.

Dragon Quest as a series has always been held back by a slavish adherence to nostalgia. The combat system is slow, ancient, and embarrassing, the character design is stuck firmly in 80s anime, and the sound design is loaded with cutesy-yet-grating sound effects that date back to the NES.

Its has little going for it other than nostalgia, which is why it sells poorly in the west with each entry while FF doesn't.

DQ is comfort food for people who hate change. It's never been anywhere in the same league or sport as FF, which has pushed technical and gameplay boundaries with each entry.

Good call on suikoden though. Even the worst one of those is infinitely more playable than DQ.

And I *have* played quite a bit of the series to give it a shot- playing and finishing 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, and 11.

Its not a series I'd recommend. I always hope it improves, but I guess NOT improving on the formula is the point of DQ.

 

[Mona]

not really, but i gave up on FF almost a decade ago

the earlier ones will always be a part of my life tho

 

[OberstKrueger]

All of my favorite games in the series are within the double digits of the series, so the series keeps improving for me. Even with some of its flawed entries, the influence the series has for me isn't likely to change for a long time.

 

[Vincent Grayson]

FF has been my thing since I was 8 and played the first one. DQ is kind of right there next to it, and between the two, I feel like there's a great balance.

Love Tales as well though, but that's more of a teen-years series for me, so it doesn't have quite the same nostalgic hold on me.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

it's no longer my favourite, but i still love the series a lot. i got back into it in a big way last year, playing vii remake, xiii-2 and lightning returns for the first time and enjoying them all quite a lot

xv will probably be the third game i play when i finally get a ps5

 

[Fxp]

Easy answer, I'm playing Dragon Quest now. Loved latest DQ, hated FFVII Remake.

 

[silva1991]

After FF7R and FFXIV: Shadowbringers, I can't imagine anything else replacing Final Fantasy for me.

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Those+ the fact is XVI looking amazing. FF is my favorite franchise right now again.

 

[RoninChaos]

Dragon Quest on the other hand. Once I understood the mindset that is best for playing the series, I became addicted. Currently playing DQ2 and loving more that any FF I played during the last two decades.

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What mind set is that?

 

[TheGhost]

I replaced it with the "Tales of...." series because it still seemed to be rooted in fantasy. Final Fantasy lost me for good with the Lightning series.

happy to see the new final fantasy though is returning to that fantasy setting though.

 

[ApeEscaper]

XV left a sour taste but nothing replaces Final Fantasy just yet

 

[CaviarMeths]

Briefly, during the PS360 gen, I suppose I was more interested in the next Tales game. Kind of grew out of them though.

But since 2013, maybe the best Final Fantasy game ever made has been getting new content every few months, so nah. I have more high quality Final Fantasy content to look forward to now than I did in the 90s, even ignoring all the Toriyama/Tabata/Nomura bullshit. Final Fantasy still scratches an JRPG itch that almost nothing else does. Probably just Fire Emblem is the only other JRPG series that makes me feel the same way. Pokemon too, but that's a different feeling.

 

[thetrin]

That's where I am, I buy them but drop from them relatively quickly.

My friends wanted me to play Final Fantasy 14, so I picked up 2 months worth of subscription time but I had a hard time enjoying it because it felt like I was wasting my subscription time by waiting around in queue for a dungeon run, or standing around in town.

Like, if I wasn't constantly doing something or making progress, I was wasting my sub.

Final Fantasy 14 was my first subscription MMORPG, and I hated that feeling so much that I stopped playing.

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LOL I'm sorry, this made me chuckle. I'm just imagining you looking at a clock, dripping with sweat as your sub runs out. "I JUST LOST 15 MINUTES WAITING FOR THIS DUNGEON ARRRRGGHHH!!!!"

Dude, those intervals of sub time are in blocks of thirty DAYS, not thirty minutes.

 

[northnorth]

Nope. I bought all the trails games on PS4 with the intention of getting lost in them like I was in my first FF, i have yet to start one though.

 

[Daeoc]

It hasn't been replaced for me personally, I did quickly beat 13 and enjoyed it, 14 is one of the best FF(and MMOs), and 15 is also good(so far, currently playing it). Other than 14, the best ones are still ~20+ years old, but they have still been good, just not the crazy 9, 10/10s they managed to do back to back with the SNES/PS1/PS2.

And I *have* played quite a bit of the series to give it a shot- playing and finishing 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, and 11.

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Which ones would you say are the best? From what I've read, the best ones are 4,5,7,8 and 11. With 11>8>5>4>7.

Just curious what your experience is, I recently started with 4 and so far it isn't bad, not great but I can see some of the charm.

 

[Tibarn]

Not really, I have always appreciated games as individual pieces more than a part of their series. I love FF VI or FF VII, but I also love other JRPGs from the same time, and I think that there are better and more consistent JRPG series.

I agree that the reputation since X has been on decline (being FF VII R from last year another example of a mediocre RPG that has the FF name), but if the next one is amazing I won't skip it because it's a FF game. I simply have not attachment to the series because it has been so long since the last FF game that felt special to me, and it's not realistic to expect a 15+ games series to be on point with every new entry.

I've given DQ so many chances, and it's just so...boring. The attack animations are boring, the characters are boring, the core stories are boring, the settings are boring and the composer is an elementally terrible human being. I wish I could enjoy it, but I've never finished a single game in the series. Quit DQ8 during the Dhoulmagus boss fight, and bailed on XI like an hour before the main character was going to get turned into a fish because reasons.

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100% agreed (which is kind of strange but who cares). I finished DQ VIII (first one here in Europe IIRC) and XI, both were basic, boring and childish (which can be applied to many JRPGs of course, but in this case the games feel REALLY tailored for kids as their main player base). Combat system is not fun anymore, characters are anime tropes from the 80s/90s (which is not really a good thing), music especially in XI is awful and the little story arcs range from barely good to uninspired carbon copies of known child books.

I know that each JRPG series has followers andI understand most of them, but in the case of DQ I really can't understand some people say that XI is one of the best recent JRPGs, what I played was a nostalgia-driven sleep-inducing game with nothing special aside from graphics.

 

[thezboson]

What mind set is that?

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For me it was the realization that the game expected me to take my time and explore everything. You are meant to explore every little bit of the world and you are rewarded for it, often with really good gear, story, lore or crafting recipes.
The battle system is deeper than I expected and you are rewarded for exploring it as well. Trying different spells on different types of enemies etc.

Approaching the game without the focus on the main story (like I would play the FF games) made it so much more enjoyable.

 

[Dekuman]

I still like Final Fantasy lore and its overall worlds. The last few non MMO entries have just been so bad.
Maybe XVI will change it for me.

Still play XI and XIV.

 

[deepFlaw]

Of the single player numbered games I have only really played 13 (most but not all of it), 15, and 7 (and some spinoffs - need to get back to those + play remake finally now that GOTY talks are gonna spoil it...). So I'm already mostly playing the recent ones.

And then that's turned into playing a ton of 14 these past few months, almost every day, instead of the other games I intended to have played instead. So if anything, 14 alone has made it replace other games for me to a significant degree...

 

[ConfusedOwl]

They could stop making Final Fantasy games right now and it still wouldn't replace the series as king. I think the only major misstep for me in the main series was XV and even that I managed to enjoy enough to play more than once. Xenoblade, Tales, and Dragon Quest are up there for sure

 

[Sanguine]

I mean it was never really my main series to begin with so it wasn't being replaced, but honestly most modern JRPGs make me a bit... uncomfortable to play with how characters (primarily females) are designed and act. I mean I don't mind anime tropes to a degree and it isn't like this isn't/wasn't an issue with FF or older JRPGs, but it feels a lot more... mainstream? noticeable? now.

 

[Kill3r7]

I haven't found another JRPG series that I care enough about. Frankly I have not beat a FF game since XII.

 

[HououinKyouma]

Final Fantasy is still THE JRPG series for me.

 

[DontHateTheBacon]

I haven't replaced it with something else, but I do get more excited for other JRPG launches than FF at this point.

Persona is probably the tops for me. Used to be FF.

 

[TaleSpun]

After FF7R and FFXIV: Shadowbringers, I can't imagine anything else replacing Final Fantasy for me.

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Yep. VIIR was fantastic and Shadowbringers is the best game in the series since IX. FFXVI is coming, FFXIV 6.0 is coming.

It's honestly the most exciting time for FF it's been in like 15 years.

 

[xoxoclvbs]

I "gave up on" Final Fantasy after finishing X, which I was pretty disappointed in, personally. Also, gave X-2 a shot... which I might have liked better, don't recall.

Reallllly liked VII, IX, and (most) the earlier ones (VI and earlier) though (including Tactics, not Tactics Advance).

Didn't play VIII, XI, or XIII. I tried XII and really didn't care enough to play more than a few mins.

FFXV is an insult and VIIR doesn't exist.

FFXIV is cool though.

 

[Man Called Aerodynamics]

No way. I play Record Keeper daily and 12-13-14ARR was/is one of the best runs of the series IMO. And I've been playing since the NES days. 15 was good, and I'm looking forward to 16. Waiting for FF7 Remake to hit Xbox before I dive into that as well.

 

[NewDayMarch]

Nothing that's a perfect fit. Especially when it comes to matching the insane volume and variety of FF Releases at the end of the 90s (FF7-FF10, 4 games + tactics, all released within five years).

I do love FE, and would love them to put the 3DS games on the Switch.

 

[TeHi & BuSp]

Yes with Dragon Quest and I never looked back.

Click to shrink...

This

 

[TheWildCard]

Last FF title I loved was IX so yeah other series have taken it's replaced as the preeminent series to get my JRPG fix by the likes of Dragon Quest, Trails, Persona, even more distantly related stuff like Etrian Odyssey or Souls. Though I like those games precisely because they bring different things to the table compared to FF. Nothing has really captured the grandeur of classic Final Fantasy once Sakaguchi left Square, including Bravely Default and modern FF titles (with the possible exception of XIV).

I've made peace with the fact that modern FF is pretty far removed from the sensibilities of what I originally fell in love with. The trailer for XVI didn't do much for me but maybe it will pan out and pull me back in, who knows.

 

[Luigi87]

Nope. FF remains my third favourite game series tied with Kingdom Hearts. I spend so much time playing FFXIV, and I'm really looking forward to FF7R p2 and FFXVI.

 

[Zafir]

I wouldn't say it got replaced for me but I find it hard to care too much about the series these days, probably since sometime after XIII. I didn't mind XIII, it wasn't the best thing ever but I got some enjoyment from it. However then they decided to make sequels for it which I just didn't want or care for, I disliked XIII-2 a lot, and while Lightning Returns was more enjoyable, I'd say it was no where near the quality level you'd expect from the series. XV was totally flawed in both gameplay and story. VII Remake had glimmers of being good with some nice dialogue between characters, but overall they changed the story for the worse and added/stretched out a bunch of dungeons which wasn't necessary and ultimately made the game feel like a chore to get through at certain points. XVI doesn't look massively interesting to me either.

 

[Shinobido Heart]

LOL I'm sorry, this made me chuckle. I'm just imagining you looking at a clock, dripping with sweat as your sub runs out. "I JUST LOST 15 MINUTES WAITING FOR THIS DUNGEON ARRRRGGHHH!!!!"

Dude, those intervals of sub time are in blocks of thirty DAYS, not thirty minutes.

Click to shrink...

*sweats*

My issue was me trying to get the most out of my subscription, I think.

I usually play Free to Play or Buy to Play MMORPG's. You'd be surprised at how many people actually share the same sentiment.

I think my other mistake was joining a server that didn't have a big population, I don't remember what the server was called though.

My friend helped me through the story missions and we would queue up for dungeons but we had to wait for a long time since rarely anyone was doing the dungeons we needed to do.

In my 2 months of sub, I also ran into quite a few players that I added to my friends list, but over the course of a few days I never saw them online again. It was really bizarre to me.

When I played, it was way before they made adjustments to A Realm Reborn, I completed the main story and was on my way to the Heavensward expansion but had to do a ton of these little quests that it felt like so much padding to run out my sub.

 

[Teppic]

I gave up on Final Fantasy after XII. Dragon Quest is much better.

 

[pleaseinsertdisctwo]

I rarely agree with you but this is one of those times.

Dragon Quest as a series has always been held back by a slavish adherence to nostalgia. The combat system is slow, ancient, and embarrassing, the character design is stuck firmly in 80s anime, and the sound design is loaded with cutesy-yet-grating sound effects that date back to the NES.

Its has little going for it other than nostalgia, which is why it sells poorly in the west with each entry while FF doesn't.

DQ is comfort food for people who hate change. It's never been anywhere in the same league or sport as FF, which has pushed technical and gameplay boundaries with each entry.

Good call on suikoden though. Even the worst one of those is infinitely more playable than DQ.

And I *have* played quite a bit of the series to give it a shot- playing and finishing 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, and 11.

Its not a series I'd recommend. I always hope it improves, but I guess NOT improving on the formula is the point of DQ.

Click to shrink...

I agree with this. "Embarrassing" is the correct term to use in regard to Dragon Quest's insistence on doing absolutely nothing remotely interesting

DQXI is the most offensively unambitious game I've ever played. It's fucking 2020 and I'm playing a game where the battle system feels like it's from 1985 with the depth of a game of tic-tac-toe. And that's not a good thing. There isn't anything interesting about the game at all. Environments are boring, the characters are boring, the pacing is boring, the gameplay is boring, and I got tired of the music after an hour. This series should never be the face of JRPG's. All it is, is the face of, um, idk 1985 gaming.

I've also seen numerous posters who will call the game a masterpiece and in the same breath call it a "podcast" game, or admit that they fell asleep playing it, or that they almost fell asleep.

And about your last sentence: unfortunately, it is. I'm pretty sure the series' director had an interview published a week or two ago where it was strongly implied that the next DQ will be more of the same

 

[OrangeNova]

I did not like 13 and 15, and 14 just isn't my flavour of MMO.

Persona has pretty happily moved into my Final Fantasy niche but it doesn't scratch the same itch

 

[Lobster Roll]

Gotta admit that I love the straight-forward, clear-cut, turn-based action of Dragon Quest XI and it's probably going to replace Final Fantasy for me as I've been unimpressed with the series with literally everything that followed FFIX. It's a cute, unoffensive, "you're the hero, go do hero stuff" game with characters and enemies that are straight out a Saturday morning cartoon. It doesn't try to be anything other than itself, and it does so in an almost unapologetic way. It's just a fun, turn-based JRPG. It scratches an itch that people have been trying to reinvent solutions for over the last couple of decades.

 

[lucancel]

Click to shrink...

This.
And trails franchise. And xenoblade.
I Hope ff16 will be a come back, last FF i enjoyed was 12 but i did not play 14.

 

[AgeEighty]

What does it even mean to "replace" a series?

If a Final Fantasy game looks fun to you, play it. If it doesn't, don't. And do the same for games in any other RPG series. These things aren't subscriptions you carry or don't carry. You have the freedom (and I'd even argue the obligation) to decide what to play on a game by game basis. Not every game in a series is going to grab you, no matter who you are.

 

[nitewulf]

I lost interest and have no faith in Square. Replace is a different issue because there aren't any direct alternatives. I think gaming evolved and JRPGs should evolve as well but I haven't seen that from FF games. The last one I really enjoyed was FFX, and even then I was disappointed in the linearity and the lack of real dungeons. FF12 I could not get into at all, then they went into a MMO direction which is just not my thing. FF13 was when I moved away from gaming in general but again does not seem like its my aesthetic. And FF15 is just bad. I tried, but no thanks.

I want games like Lufia2, Chrono Trigger, Illusion of Gaia with modern graphics and music. The gameplay could be straight forward turn based, I don't mind. I want interesting dungeons and a touch of non linearity. Perhaps mature storytelling.

FF also lacks diversity, its white prince and princesses doing white people things, I mean, who cares.

 

[ShaggsMagoo]

Unfortuatntly, the glory days of FF VI to FF X are over, and Square-Enix has no desire to go back to them. Instead they would rather churn out poor playing Action RPG's at a glacial pace (even if I did enjoy the story in XV quite a bit), and finger wag at their fans for actually preferring their older games.

 

[Grips]

I have real issues with JRPGs since the 1990s, dont think I ever finished one... theres something that just makes me extremely bored.
I enjoyed and completed the Nier(s)and even 13 sentinels if they count as jrpgs.
I think it was ff8 that hooked me the most out of em all.
FF15 I couldnt even last 5 hrs.
edit(I did went to the doc and he diagnosed me with SCT last year and only been getting medication recently so maybe thats why?)

 

[Derkon]

Trails and DQ have replaced FF for me.

 

[Rodney McKay]

I've pretty much dropped Final Fantasy. 10 and 10-2 were the last ones I bought day 1 and I liked them mostly fine

Own 12 on PC, but have barely played it. Game starts out a bit dense with terminology (different kingdoms and people) and I'm not sure I like the combat system so far.
Tried 13 but couldn't get into the characters, story, or the setting during the first 10 hours, so I dropped it.
I own 15, but have barely played it. It looks nice, but the first few hours didn't grab me much.

I want to play the 7 Remake, but I don't want to play "Part 1" before knowing how much longer the rest of the game will take. I'll probably just wait for a PS5 upgrade or a PC version at this point and hope the rest of the game manages to make it out this generation.

 

[Hzsn724]

I've tried for years to find stuff to replace Final Fantasy and I have been unsuccessful to this day. Or just branch out to find something similar and there's just nothing that hits like FF imo.

 

[Boots The God]

Right now...yakuza like a dragon is hitting forreal 😂. Did not expect it to be as good as it is

 

[noinspiration]

Yep. Switched to Dragon Quest around 2000, Megaten around 2007, and now I just don't play JRPGs anymore.