re: Your favorite mainline FF title and why?

Here’s the story:
Prince Noctis says bye to his dad because he’s heading to Golden Quay to catch a ferry to Altissia to wed his betrothed, Lady Luna Freya, the sister of the Empire’s lead general. They’ve known each other since they were children. This marriage is supposed to cement a peace treaty between Lucis (Noctis’s kingdom) and The Empire. However, at the signing ceremony, the Empire double crosses the King and basically nukes the capital city of Insomnia and takes over Lucis. The ferry service is shut down so Noctis and his friends can’t reach Altissia. So, Noctis and his friends seek out the royal tombs in order to collect holy weapons with which to fight the empire, liberate Lucis, and put Noctis back on the throne. Y’all make money by performing quests and getting work as hunters killing giant monsters.

In the meantime, there’s this weird chancellor guy named Ardyn who’s a high ranking Imperial. He seems to be on a mission to kill off all the gods (titans) in the world. Ardyn has helped the Empire turn itself into a militaristic society with highly advanced “magitec” weaponry. Ardyn seems to also have an agenda to find some kind of sacred crystal and other stuff you get into later on.

The other thing going on is that Lucis is plagued by demons that reside in dungeons and come out at night. It’s not safe to be out at night outside of the cities because of these demons everywhere, and it’s hinted that this is a relatively recent change. There’s all these ruins and craters everywhere hinting at some previous celestial war.

As the game goes on, the days start getting shorter and shorter and demons get bolder and bolder, even appearing in highly populated cities. There’s an interesting twist about the sources of the demons, magitec troopers, and Ardyn’s past, but overall, the story is the weakest part of ffxv. In many ways, the story is just an excuse to explore the open world and for why the latter part of the game becomes linear.

My favorite post game quests are the Forge you a Legend quests given by that weird armorer in Lestallum. The Menace Beneath Lucis quests get real repetitive and boring after a while because the dungeons are mostly the same (except for that one where you can’t use recovery items).

Zodiac age is awesome. I love 12 it has some amazing characters Ike Balthier, Gabranth, and Basch. Then some cut out anime teen boy insert like Vaan. I like the politically driven aspect of a FF game (which of course gets more or or less abandoned later for their version of gods). I would play FF tactics first so you have an introduction to Ivalice and who the tuck some of this stuff is. It’s easier than OG 12 obvs because you can pick 2 jobs instead of 1 but still has some super challenging fights

Also as an aside, anyone who hasn’t played Type 0 should. It would help to know the lore behind FF 13 trilogy as they share stuff but it’s not necessary at all. It’s the only M rated FF game ever and boy it earns it, plus they actually give you Gilgamesh origins story in such an obscure title.

I agree. I nerd out on these tunes all the time:

Gapra Whitewood OST

Sunleth Waterscape

Sidenote: how awesome is the Bahamut hymn of the faith from X:

LINK

frick it. Going for platinum starting tonight.

FF9 is my favorite but I've only played 1, 9, and 12. FF9 has the middle ages fantasy setting that I like for these type of games plus the fighting system is similar to the classic turn based rpg combat of the first one. The relationships between Zidane and Dagger and Dagger and the queen were really good. Steiner and Vivi had great stories as well.

You probably wouldn’t like 15, then. It’s set in this weird sorta 1950’s Route 66, sorta modern Tokyo, sorta Renaissance era Europe, sorta futuristic industrial thing.

13-2 is amazing you should finish it. As for the time mechanic on LR there are ways to manipulate it. I suggest following true achievements walkthrough for your first run. Basically you can add days to the total with side quest and stuff and you’ll have like 2 free days left. Then on a second run so it yourself

Caius is such an underrated villain and character.