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[Twilight]

Been playing PSO2 New Genesis, and Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon.

Phantasy Star is neat, my only point of comparison with MMOs is FFXIV, the main quest itself is significantly smaller, but I like that it makes you engage with the world far more significantly than XIV; XIV has a mostly strong main story, and "main" side stories, but is kind of awful at enticing the player with doing stuff like fetch quests, FATEs and the like. The combat is really satisfying even if simple. The end mission of the Retem City storyline is absolute kino. The world also gives me some nice Xenoblade X vibes, aesthetics like the armor design, and some characters (guessing this series was some form of inspiration for X, or both take inspiration from a similar place, too lazy to do research on that), definitely pleasant since I doubt I'll get another X as it should be again.

Super Mystery Dungeon is awesome so far, I like Pokemon spin-offs and do enjoy the Mystery Dungeon games, but this might be the only one that is on the level of the best mainline games, Super has the tightest gameplay of MD, a consistent challenge, not super punishing, but keeps on your toes at all times, the need of constant management and use of items, is all cool, the Connection system replacing the need of beating the shit out of Pokemon until one decides to join you is a change I appreciate a lot. And the soundtrack, god damn is so consistently great, (There are stand out tracks in the MD series, but not on the level of Super) and whoever composed the dungeon music put their soul in it like is the last soundtrack they'll ever do.

​

 

[SammyJ9]

I ended up watching a Youtube video of all the rare blade awakenings in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and was reminded that somehow, despite doing two entire playthroughs of the game, I never got several of them. As hit and miss as the designs are, I really do appreciate how different and unique they all look in a lot of ways

 

[chocolate_supra]

I ended up watching a Youtube video of all the rare blade awakenings in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and was reminded that somehow, despite doing two entire playthroughs of the game, I never got several of them. As hit and miss as the designs are, I really do appreciate how different and unique they all look in a lot of ways

One of the things that helps me excuse the gacha mechanics is that they really took it as an excuse to go through manga artist history. It's been a while, but they even list the guest artist and VA for each blade you unlock, don't they?

 

[SammyJ9]

One of the things that helps me excuse the gacha mechanics is that they really took it as an excuse to go through manga artist history. It's been a while, but they even list the guest artist and VA for each blade you unlock, don't they?

It doesn't show that in the awakening itself, but if you go to the "blade compendium" it does, it's a nice touch

 

[Leica]

Any suggestions for a (j)RPG under 30 hours? I've likely played a lot of them already but it doesn't hurt to ask for inspiration.

 

[xghost777]

Any suggestions for a (j)RPG under 30 hours? I've likely played a lot of them already but it doesn't hurt to ask for inspiration.

I replayed a bunch of Mario RPGs these past few months and they are pretty fun and on the shorter side (Seven Stars, Paper Mario, TTYD, and Super Paper). Also did replays of Chrono Trigger and Cross this year. IIRC Cross took me more than 30, but I was extra thorough. I’m sure it could be done easily in 30 hours.

Have you played all of the Ys games? Aside from VIII and IX they are all fairly short. Ys Origin, one of my favorites, is like six hours for one run.

 

[shoptroll]

Parasite Eve 1 can be done in about 10-12 hours on the first playthrough

The upcoming Live A Live and Front Mission re-releases should be about 30 hours max

Mega Man Battle Network 1 & 2 I recall were pretty short for the story portion at least

LISA the Painful and its add on LISA the Joyful can be completed in 20-30 hours.

OFF is a freeware RPGMaker title that can be done in 10-15 hours. Highly recommend it and the LISAs if you’re at all interested in the surreal (and ok with body horror / darker themes) or Mother-likes.

Transistor is about 10 hours or so. Same with Bastion, if you haven’t played either of them.

 

[Leica]

What's the completion time on Nier Automata like? Not 100% but I'd probably do all the endings (I have a general idea of how the game is structured).

I replayed a bunch of Mario RPGs these past few months and they are pretty fun and on the shorter side (Seven Stars, Paper Mario, TTYD, and Super Paper). Also did replays of Chrono Trigger and Cross this year. IIRC Cross took me more than 30, but I was extra thorough. I’m sure it could be done easily in 30 hours.

Have you played all of the Ys games? Aside from VIII and IX they are all fairly short. Ys Origin, one of my favorites, is like six hours for one run.

I've only played Oath in Felghana which I really liked, maybe I'll check out Ys Origin I've had it on the backlog for a while.

Parasite Eve 1 can be done in about 10-12 hours on the first playthrough

The upcoming Live A Live and Front Mission re-releases should be about 30 hours max

Mega Man Battle Network 1 & 2 I recall were pretty short for the story portion at least

I might do Parasite Eve too, Live a Live is on my to buy list, it looks perfect for what I'm looking for.

 

[ermitron2]

I've only played Oath in Felghana which I really liked, maybe I'll check out Ys Origin I've had it on the backlog for a while.

Do it, Ys Origin is top Ys

 

[shoptroll]

I might do Parasite Eve too, Live a Live is on my to buy list, it looks perfect for what I'm looking for.

There’s a really fun battle system design progression from LAL to Chrono Trigger to Parasite Eve, so I wholly recommend this plan.

(Bonus pit stop for Treasure Hunter G after CT but I don’t think Tokita was involved with that one)

 

[WestEgg]

Hey RPG thread! I wanted to guage interest in something. A while back on era, they did a 101 essential RPGs thread and me and some other folks were thinking of creating a new one for Famiboards. How would you all feel about that, do you think we could do a full 101 with this community size, and do you have any suggestions on what you’d like to see?

 

[Bokuringo]

Update for me XBC DE playthrough: I reached the Mechonis and the fallen arm. This is the first time (and at the exact same point like in my original playthrough) I feel a kind of fatigue and that the game feels a bit like work. I went back to all former settlements and ask the named NPCs to get updates in the affinity chart and new side-quests.
Collecting items for rebuilding colony 6 isn't the most fun imo, but I have learned from the past and trade more often with NPCs to get what I need. This also helped me filling out the collectopaedia, because I remember vividly how one damned collectable was missing from my list back then and how frustrated I was.

Anyway, moved on to the Mechonis. Using Seven (do people still use this spoilerfree name?) in battle is more fun than I remembered. They are immensely powerful against Mechon and has fun arts as well as topple and break.

 

[xghost777]

Hey RPG thread! I wanted to guage interest in something. A while back on era, they did a 101 essential RPGs thread and me and some other folks were thinking of creating a new one for Famiboards. How would you all feel about that, do you think we could do a full 101 with this community size, and do you have any suggestions on what you’d like to see?

Ooh that’s definitely interesting! I think with our community being a bit smaller we should start a little smaller. Maybe top 25? Each year or whenever we can aim higher until we get to 100. There’s definitely a lot of love for RPGs in the entire Fami community, but I do worry looking at participation results for things like our first GOTY thread and smaller ones like the Smash community character poll that we might not have enough participation at this point in time to do a full list of 100.

We do have JRPG July coming up so this would be a fun community event for July if there isn’t already a community event planned. No reason we can’t do two concurrently though!

 

[WestEgg]

Ooh that’s definitely interesting! I think with our community being a bit smaller we should start a little smaller. Maybe top 25? Each year or whenever we can aim higher until we get to 100. There’s definitely a lot of love for RPGs in the entire Fami community, but I do worry looking at participation results for things like our first GOTY thread and smaller ones like the Smash community character poll that we might not have enough participation at this point in time to do a full list of 100.

We do have JRPG July coming up so this would be a fun community event for July if there isn’t already a community event planned. No reason we can’t do two concurrently though!

Good points, we were thinking next month so the timing is good (though obviously the scope isn't limited to JRPGs alone).

 

[SammyJ9]

Update for me XBC DE playthrough: I reached the Mechonis and the fallen arm. This is the first time (and at the exact same point like in my original playthrough) I feel a kind of fatigue and that the game feels a bit like work. I went back to all former settlements and ask the named NPCs to get updates in the affinity chart and new side-quests.
Collecting items for rebuilding colony 6 isn't the most fun imo, but I have learned from the past and trade more often with NPCs to get what I need. This also helped me filling out the collectopaedia, because I remember vividly how one damned collectable was missing from my list back then and how frustrated I was.

Anyway, moved on to the Mechonis. Using Seven (do people still use this spoilerfree name?) in battle is more fun than I remembered. They are immensely powerful against Mechon and has fun arts as well as topple and break.

Mechonis can drag a bit since a lot of it looks similar and has very similar enemies, so it gets repetitive. This is balanced out (IMO) by Mechonis Field having one of my favorite music tracks in the game, so it's fun to just run around and groove out. But I get where you're coming from.

 

[PixelKnight]

Hey RPG thread! I wanted to guage interest in something. A while back on era, they did a 101 essential RPGs thread and me and some other folks were thinking of creating a new one for Famiboards. How would you all feel about that, do you think we could do a full 101 with this community size, and do you have any suggestions on what you’d like to see?

I’m always up for chats about rpgs, sounds good to me!

I wonder if here it would just end up as ‘essential rpgs on switch’ though? Not that there’s anything wrong with that. In fact that’s probably another good thread to do

 

[paranoodle]

Started playing Xenoblade Chronicles X today! Went at it for 6 hours straight, I'm having a really fun time so far. I feel like I've barely dented all there is to see, and I'm constantly dying to everything on the map but I have a cool laser gun so it's worth it. My only experience with Xeno games at all so far was around 1-2 hours of Chronicles 1 on the 3ds, which I dropped because it both wasn't hooking me and I was having trouble with how the gameplay felt. So this is a really nice change so far hehe.

I'm aware the game was pretty far from finished when it released, so I'm not going to have that surprise, and honestly as long as I have fun until the game ends then that's the most important. And so far I'm having a lot of fun. The combat system is... okay? It's not my favorite, but the exploration aspects are really really fun and more than make up for it. I'm also enjoying the customization elements quite a lot.

Anyway, time to spend the next 80 hours trying to jump up cliffs : )

 

[xghost777]

Started playing Xenoblade Chronicles X today! Went at it for 6 hours straight, I'm having a really fun time so far. I feel like I've barely dented all there is to see, and I'm constantly dying to everything on the map but I have a cool laser gun so it's worth it. My only experience with Xeno games at all so far was around 1-2 hours of Chronicles 1 on the 3ds, which I dropped because it both wasn't hooking me and I was having trouble with how the gameplay felt. So this is a really nice change so far hehe.

I'm aware the game was pretty far from finished when it released, so I'm not going to have that surprise, and honestly as long as I have fun until the game ends then that's the most important. And so far I'm having a lot of fun. The combat system is... okay? It's not my favorite, but the exploration aspects are really really fun and more than make up for it. I'm also enjoying the customization elements quite a lot.

Anyway, time to spend the next 80 hours trying to jump up cliffs : )

Xenoblade X is an incredible, wondrous game. I really hope they bring it back one day. Excited to hear your thoughts as you get deeper

 

[MSnap]

I’m kinda crunched for time with Three Hopes coming out in a few days, but I’m working on the Black Eagles version of White Clouds right now. Does anyone know if the monastery dialogue in Silver Snow is all the same as it is in Verdant Wind?

 

[chocolate_supra]

I feel like I've barely dented all there is to see

This feeling is correct.

On my first playthrough I explored a ton, and finished feeling pretty satisfied. Years later I got nostalgic for it and did a fresh playthrough, and found several whole areas I completely missed the first time around. The world is massive and gorgeous and so, so vertical. It's an absolute joy. Have fun.

 

[paranoodle]

Xenoblade X is an incredible, wondrous game. I really hope they bring it back one day. Excited to hear your thoughts as you get deeper

This feeling is correct.

On my first playthrough I explored a ton, and finished feeling pretty satisfied. Years later I got nostalgic for it and did a fresh playthrough, and found several whole areas I completely missed the first time around. The world is massive and gorgeous and so, so vertical. It's an absolute joy. Have fun.

Thank you, I played another few hours and I'm still really enjoying it! Some stuff is a little arcane to figure out (like where to get certain drops - I have no idea how you're supposed to find some of these on your own) but nothing that can't be fixed with a little wikidiving here and there. The verticality is throwing me for a bit of a loop but it's soo cool when you do figure out how to get to certain places. There's just so much to explore in here.

I've got the first chunk of Noctilum mostly mapped out, but I want to try to finish what I can around Primordia before I move on to chapter 5, I like leaving things feeling neat... I'm definitely not going to be unlocking the skell until 100 hours in at this rate though haha. I'm playing the laser sword class and it's a lot of fun

 

[chocolate_supra]

Thank you, I played another few hours and I'm still really enjoying it! Some stuff is a little arcane to figure out (like where to get certain drops - I have no idea how you're supposed to find some of these on your own) but nothing that can't be fixed with a little wikidiving here and there. The verticality is throwing me for a bit of a loop but it's soo cool when you do figure out how to get to certain places. There's just so much to explore in here.

I've got the first chunk of Noctilum mostly mapped out, but I want to try to finish what I can around Primordia before I move on to chapter 5, I like leaving things feeling neat... I'm definitely not going to be unlocking the skell until 100 hours in at this rate though haha. I'm playing the laser sword class and it's a lot of fun

Yeah! to this entire post

 

[xghost777]

Made a thread tonight that ultimately evolved into a compilation of all the news from the big Final Fantasy XVI games media interviews tonight (I thought there was just the one cool interview tonight when I first made it lol). We learned an absolute TON about the game tonight and it all sounds super exciting!

Big Final Fantasy XVI Interview From Game Informer (Eikon Wrestling Match!). Update: Multiple Media Interviews Dropped. So Much Info!

It’s been pretty quiet for FFXVI news outside of the two trailers, but Game Informer just had a big interview with FFXVI’s producer, Naoki Yoshida, that has lots of actual information here. Highlights include every Eikon fight is 1v1 with different mechanics (3D Shooter, wresting match etc.)...

famiboards.com

Speaking of interviews, I feel this great Kingdom Hearts interview from Game Informer got buried last week so I wanted to re-share it here. Lots of cool info on KH4 in there.

Nomura Reveals More On Kingdom Hearts IV And The Series' Future With Final Fantasy

In this exclusive interview with Kingdom Hearts director Tetsuya Nomura, we look back on the beloved series and forward to its future.

www.gameinformer.com

 

[39Subrosia]

 

[Bokuringo]

Additional info is that Adol is younger ( teens, maybe early 20s) and that the combat is souls-oriented. I, for one, am very exited for Ys X.

 

[xghost777]

Additional info is that Adol is younger ( teens, maybe early 20s) and that the combat is souls-oriented. I, for one, am very exited for Ys X.

Ew Souls combat. That would be incredibly disappointing for me.

 

[Bokuringo]

Ew Souls combat. That would be incredibly disappointing for me.

Give it a try. They don't want to copy it.

 

[chocolate_supra]

Ladies and gentlemen
The creator of Final Fantasy:

 

[39Subrosia]

Yeah, not sure how I feel about combat in Ys X being more like a Souls game. I guess I'm at least open to them trying something different? I still have a lot of Ys games to play anyway.

 

[Bokuringo]

Some additional info:

• Falcom wants to make older Ys titles playable on current hardware.
• Kondo emphasizes that Ys X is not a full-on Souls-like, as there is simply inspiration taken from the genre
• Kondo heavily implies a multiplatform release
• Adol will be around 17 years old, his age during Ys 1 & 2

More at noisypixel.net

 

[PixelKnight]

Some additional info:

• Falcom wants to make older Ys titles playable on current hardware.
• Kondo emphasizes that Ys X is not a full-on Souls-like, as there is simply inspiration taken from the genre
• Kondo heavily implies a multiplatform release
• Adol will be around 17 years old, his age during Ys 1 & 2

More at noisypixel.net

Oath would be awesome to play through again on Switch, that’s one of my all-time favourite games.

 

[Tailzo]

I love the art style and colours.

 

[PixelKnight]

Ys games sure loves flowing blue-hair/energy to contrast with Adol, don’t they. I like how it’s all flowing curves.

I like what I’ve read about this so far.

 

[Blue Monty]

If with Souls he means 'Souls-like' like Team Ninja action games I would be all in btw

 

[shoptroll]

Ladies and gentlemen
The creator of Final Fantasy:

Where's the sound?!

 

[chocolate_supra]

Where's the sound?!

In your heart

 

[shoptroll]

In your heart

But that's not the numa numa dance he's doing

 

[SammyJ9]

Some additional info:

• Falcom wants to make older Ys titles playable on current hardware.
• Kondo emphasizes that Ys X is not a full-on Souls-like, as there is simply inspiration taken from the genre
• Kondo heavily implies a multiplatform release
• Adol will be around 17 years old, his age during Ys 1 & 2

More at noisypixel.net

Inspiration from Souls is interesting, and I'm here for it, although it'll be a bit odd for Ys unless it's fast like more in the vein of Ys mixed with Nioh or something.

This also reminded me that Ys 8 PS5 is a thing that is happening

 

[SofyTrancy]

I’m excited for Ys X even if I’m planning to play them all and I have only completed Ys 1-2 so far lmao
Luckily they are not very long jrpgs from what I heard (maybe only 8 and 9 are a bit longer?) so I’ll probably be able to play a lot of them in a short time.

Completing Ys series and Trails series is my objective of 2023. I feel confident for the former, but definitely not for the latter

 

[xghost777]

I’m excited for Ys X even if I’m planning to play them all and I have only completed Ys 1-2 so far lmao
Luckily they are not very long jrpgs from what I heard (maybe only 8 and 9 are a bit longer?) so I’ll probably be able to play a lot of them in a short time.

Completing Ys series and Trails series is my objective of 2023. I feel confident for the former, but definitely not for the latter

Yeah the Solo Ys games are on the shorter side. Like 5-10 hours tops. The party games are a bit longer like 20 hours for Seven and Celceta and much longer like 50+ hours for VIII and IX if you are thorough.

Inspiration from Souls is interesting, and I'm here for it, although it'll be a bit odd for Ys unless it's fast like more in the vein of Ys mixed with Nioh or something.

This also reminded me that Ys 8 PS5 is a thing that is happening

The Gematsu quote of it didn’t sound too bad as someone who likes Ys combat as it is.

• While it will retain the series’ smooth and exhilarating gameplay, other areas are being re-examined. And while not quite a Soulslike, the challenge is to see whether it is possible to implement steadily-paced one-on-one combat in which the player can watch the enemy’s movements. It is a lighter-feeling, Ys-style Soulslike.

Unless it is a 2D game, I’m generally not a fan of Souls combat. Give me the loosest, fastest combat all day every day. Stuff like Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, and Kingdom Hearts is ideal to me. It extends to how I love my fighting games too. I vastly prefer BlazBlue and Under Night In-Birth to something stiff like Street Fighter.

 

[AngryNopon]

I still have Ys IX in the backburner until i manage to get my hand on a PS5...which may, unfortunately, take a while :"-)

First details of X sound interesting, very curious to see what elements of the souls formula it will retain.

 

[Twilight]

"And while not quite a Soulslike, the challenge is to see whether it is possible to implement steadily-paced one-on-one combat in which the player can watch the enemy’s movements."

mmm, I don't like the party Ys games, so if X is a solo adventure with a different combat take, then I'll keep an eye on it.

 

[shoptroll]

I want to share a couple of interesting Final Fantasy/Squaresoft adjacent tweets I spotted in Chris Kohler's feed a couple days. Not sure if anyone else particularly cares and since we don't have a particular place to specifically talk about either topic this seemed like the best spot. So pardon my particular niches for a moment if you will.

First up: The closest thing we have to Final Fantasy VI US sales numbers, or at least a snapshot of them about 9 months after release


This one is particularly interesting because Sakaguchi has said in multiple interviews that the US performance of VI was disappointing:

Final Fantasy VI

Discover everything you need to know about Final Fantasy VI.

www.usgamer.net

Things Are Very Different For The Creator Of Final Fantasy

When you create one of the most treasured franchises in video game history, what do you do next? When you work on that franchise for 20 years, can you ever really move on?

kotaku.com

440,000 units is nothing to sneeze at but it definitely pales in comparison to the nearly 2.5 million it racked up in Japan prior to the US launch (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_VI#Reception). Plus contemporary titles like Donkey Kong Country did a million sales in 2 weeks (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_Kong_Country#Sales).

It certainly makes for a very interesting contrast with VII's sales performance which is the series high watermark in terms of sales (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_VII#Sales)

Second item: Some tracking of where people went from various Squaresoft projects during the SNES -> PS1 transition


This is something I've tried to do in the past using resources like MobyGames because it's deeply interesting to see how individual contributors shape the design of games, especially in the 80's/90's when teams were much smaller and a lot of things were less codified. So I thought this neat to see that other people seem to be interested in similar things.

The most interesting part that's pointed out is the FF Tactics team absorbed about 1/2 the Mario RPG team, while FF7 snagged a good percentage of the Chrono Trigger team (which may explain why both games had a penchant for minigames to break up the flow). I think the CT->FF7 migration was known based on what some of the Monolith Studio people have said since several of the key staff said they worked on 7 after CT but grew dissatisfied with the project's tone and went on to make their own project which became Xenogears. But the Mario RPG -> FFT migration I think is new? I'm not entirely sure if this when the Luv-De-Lic split happened, but it seems likely given the brief history that's outlined on their Wikipedia entry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love-de-Lic).

Last thing I want to share is a set of interviews with Sakaguchi and Uematsu that was posted recently to shumplations:

Final Fantasy IV – 1991 Developer Interviews - shmuplations.com

These Final Fantasy IV interviews from 1990-1991 chronicle the game's development and explain what happened to the planned Famicom version of FFIV.

shmuplations.com

What's neat about these is that there's a lot of talk about Final Fantasy III (NES) and what was being called at the time as "Final Fantasy V" which was renamed to "Final Fantasy IV" because the original IV was an NES title that got shelved (this is covered in the interview series). I think this is an interesting series of interviews because they talk about some of the feedback they received on III like the insane final dungeon design, and also hearing that they had an NES and SNES game in concurrent development kinda explains to me why there was so much enemy sprite reuse from III into IV plus the class designs are lifted almost verbatim. My guess is that in order to bootstrap the SNES game they started with the enemy sprites from III and probably ended up keeping them due to time constraints with the schedule change.

Also based on some of the photos of young Sakaguchi and Uematsu, I think we need to have a thread about drip at Squaresoft. Or a drip-off between Squaresoft and HAL. nudges @chocolate_supra

 

[chocolate_supra]

Also based on some of the photos of young Sakaguchi and Uematsu, I think we need to have a thread about drip at Squaresoft. Or a drip-off between Squaresoft and HAL. nudges @chocolate_supra

Uematsu's drippy AF

 

[Tailzo]

Uematsu's drippy AF

That photo is perfect, as I started playing Fantasian yesterday. Maybe I’ll make a thread about it. Those backrounds are really cool.

 

[chocolate_supra]

That photo is perfect, as I started playing Fantasian yesterday. Maybe I’ll make a thread about it. Those backrounds are really cool.

* whispers into the ether *
Fantasian on Switch when????

 

[Tailzo]

* whispers into the ether *
Fantasian on Switch when????

I gave apple arcade another try since Yu Suzukis new game was also exclusive to it. But both those games would be better on Switch, imo.

 

[Gengar]

Started going through Trails in the Sky the 3rd yesterday and while the structure is different than the first two, I'm still enjoying it. I played the cold steel games last year and this series has become one of my favorites.

Also bought Final Fantasy 6 on PC. It's one of the greats that I never played, so I'm looking forward to starting it later. FF games have been kind of hit or miss for me, though. Sometimes there are random difficulty spikes that make me stop playing. I don't think 8 and 9 are notoriously hard, but I never managed to finish those. Maybe I just need a walkthrough lol.

 

[Tailzo]

Started going through Trails in the Sky the 3rd yesterday and while the structure is different than the first two, I'm still enjoying it. I played the cold steel games last year and this series has become one of my favorites.

Also bought Final Fantasy 6 on PC. It's one of the greats that I never played, so I'm looking forward to starting it later. FF games have been kind of hit or miss for me, though. Sometimes there are random difficulty spikes that make me stop playing. I don't think 8 and 9 are notoriously hard, but I never managed to finish those. Maybe I just need a walkthrough lol.

I was close to finishing 8, despite not liking the draw system. 9 is quite easy imo, just abuse learning all skills from equipment.

 

[paranoodle]

Also bought Final Fantasy 6 on PC. It's one of the greats that I never played, so I'm looking forward to starting it later. FF games have been kind of hit or miss for me, though. Sometimes there are random difficulty spikes that make me stop playing. I don't think 8 and 9 are notoriously hard, but I never managed to finish those. Maybe I just need a walkthrough lol.

I haven't played it yet, but friends have given me a heads-up for it, FF8 is in a weird position where knowing a handful of things about how its combat system works can be the difference between breezing through it or finding it insurmountably hard.

FF9 I didn't really have any trouble with, but like Tailzo said, if you make everyone learn all the equipment skills then you can do almost anything short of the superbosses without too too much trouble. Good luck if you try Ozma though.