Exhuminator wrote:Around halfway through FFIX development is where Hironobu Sakaguchi left the project and you can tell right when he did.
Source? I was just hearing the other day people thinking it was Sakaguchi's ultimate swan song lol. But I like FF10 and Lost Odyssey a lot more. FF9 did not leave much of an impression on me and I've never felt compelled to replay it until more recently, over a decade later. Mainly just to see if I was wrong about it or it really is just kind of whatever in my book too. I remember loving the world and atmosphere, but the combat seemed slow, nothing about Kuja or the characters stood out, etc. Who knows...
Anyways, Lost Odyssey fits the thread. It's literally the lost PSX Final Fantasy in every conceivable way. Has some annoyingly weird difficulty spikes at times though, but then by the end of the game it falls into the FF6-FF8 trap of letting you be utterly invincible if you know what you're doing with the mechanics. Otherwise it's pure bliss though and it's pretty awesome that both the English and Japanese dubs are awesome. I think the game had like 5 language options haha, think that's why it was 4 discs.
FF8 is a weird love/hate thing for me. Personally, I love how derpy and weird the plot is, has some great standout characters, one of Uematsu's weirder experimental scores next to FF5, and everything is fantastic in my book... except the Junction/Card system. I've tried replaying this one several times over the years, but I think I'm officially done trying after so many attempts. I can never keep the steam going. But in the end I still look back on it fondly since I had a blast the first time all the way through, and did everything possible.