Playing it on original hardware with 15-second+ load times for every single battle was brutal. And then there's the ATB logjam because of the in-battle loads.
Between that and how happy the game was to throw Game Overs at you early on, I think this was the first game I ever hate-played.
Every boss having valuable stealable items with low chance was brutal too. The fact that you could just keep trying forever instead of a one time calculation just begged you to keep trying. Most weren't hard, just time consuming.
I had a look at the other comments and not seem anyone calling out FF9 specifically, other than to say it was better. I hated it for every second of it I played (well into disc 4).
I hated 8 at first as well but it grew on me and now it's a favourite of mine. 9 just never clicked.
7 never clicked for me at all. Never had the patience to play through it. 8 definitely was severly underrated, but I think I'm seeing a lot more appreciation for it lately.
Can we stop by M&S as well? They do some nice cookies.
Yeah, 8 is definitely getting more love and appreciation these days. 7 did a lot of cool things, but it also did a lot of terrible things. I've played the first 20 hours of 7 many, many times but never actually completed it more than a few times. 8 always brings me back.
Had to google what that is, isn't that a clothing cchai? I doubt they have cookies.
I never completed 7,, I don't think I ever made it through the first disc. My sister played through it. 8 and 9 I simply loved to play. And even nowadays, while I don't have the old games anymore, I like to watch content for 8 and 9, but I can't stand watching 7 at all. As I said, it never clicked for me, I can't stand it.
They do have a clothing range, but they also have a slightly upmarket store and have some particularly nice biscuits. My favourites are the Dark Chocolate and Lime jaffa cakes, which I know aren't technically biscuits but all the same they're delicious.
I think it's completely fair to say that the writing got a lot better in 8 and 9 than 7 had. 7 was janky all over the place, which I guess is part of its charm but 8 definitely felt a bit more grown up. Though for me, 9 was quite forgettable in that regard, but perhaps that's because it has been a couple of decades since I last actually tried it.
What I like about 9 is that it starts of as just a whimiscal adventure. And they severly cut back on the edgy writing, that's a huge plus in my book too.
Also, I just love the character design, Vivi (the black mage) in particular.
I'd say it was my least favorite rather than the worst, but agreed. For one thing, the ATB is super slow. It also would have been nice to have a little build customization like Materia/GF. It's neat to have set jobs for more character flavor, but maybe a little choice would have been nice. Also the final boss was silly.