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[Rose]

Got new motervation for my 3d visualizer by looking at this screenshot:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[SalmonGod]

Urge to embark.... rising....

[Orange Wizard]

Urge to embark.... rising....

do iiiiit

give in to your dark side

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[Bauglir]

Re: FFIX

Distant third, for me.

VI, XII, IX, VII, VIII*, V, IV, X, III, X-2, I. That'd be how I'd rank them. VIII gets an asterisk because I'm pretty sure that if I replayed it today, it'd get bumped up past VII, and I'd have trouble deciding on its place relative to IX. I don't think there's anything that could dislodge VI or XII, though (and it's a hard pick between the two of them for which is #1). I just have a real soft spot for the kinds of stories those ones were telling; maybe I have a thing for ensemble casts?

Omissions are for games I haven't played, and I've also ignored the unnumbered ones like Tactics and suchlike.

EDIT: I've probably given a different ordering in the past. I'm an inconsistent one.

[SalmonGod]

Urge to embark.... rising....

do iiiiit

give in to your dark side

we have cookies

But I don't want to start when DF2014 and multi-z-level view via Text Will Be Text are right around the corner 

[MaximumZero]

Wait, I is worse than X-2? I'm contesting that because X-2 was awful beyond awful.

[Putnam]

Urge to embark.... rising....

do iiiiit

give in to your dark side

we have cookies

But I don't want to start when DF2014 and multi-z-level view via Text Will Be Text are right around the corner 

Just do it anyway.

[KingofstarrySkies]

Kefka is best because he (mildly) SUCCEEDED. He destroyed a fuckton of the planet! HE BECAME GOD, FOR KEFKA'S SAKE!

Don't fuck with Kefka. He'll kick thine ass.

Also, Shadow was best partner.

Urge to embark.... rising....

do iiiiit

give in to your dark side

we have cookies

But I don't want to start when DF2014 and multi-z-level view via Text Will Be Text are right around the corner 

Just do it anyway.

Don't.

[MaximumZero]

Urge to embark.... rising....

do iiiiit

give in to your dark side

we have cookies

But I don't want to start when DF2014 and multi-z-level view via Text Will Be Text are right around the corner 

Just do it anyway.

Strike the Earth!

[Putnam]

Don't what?

...Oh, that was four words. When I get into a groove, it kind of gets hard to get out. Sorry.

[SalmonGod]

Kefka is best because the way he was used in the story was so unique.  Villains are usually major characters, especially in FF games.  They're the primary plot motivators in most stories, and as such it's usually necessary that they be interesting.  But FF6 didn't use their villain that way.  The story focused on the personal problems of the many protagonists, and Kefka's antics were mostly background to them finding resolution to those problems.  There was always an overarching backstory driven by him, but the many individual stories within the game mostly had little to do with him.  So instead of designing him to steal attention away from the personal backstory plots of the main cast, they decided to make him a completely one-dimensional character but so over the top that his screen time would still be fun and memorable.  I have never seen another villain like him.

[LordSlowpoke]

kefka is this sort of ham that you cherish and keep preserved in a cryogenic tube for future generations to cherish and potentially to smack them upside the head when they fail to do so

what's it with me and smacking people with meat today wow

[Flying Dice]

It's a shame that FFX's plot and characters were slapped with so much stupid, because the leveling system was actually really cool.

[Bauglir]

Wait, I is worse than X-2? I'm contesting that because X-2 was awful beyond awful.

In terms of doing new and interesting things for the time and setting standards and suchlike, I blows X-2 so far out of the water that Yuna has good empirical reasons to believe water is a myth. But, hell, I recall managing to get a few moments of fun out of X-2 over the course of the game, and at least it was pretty to look at. Had some quality music in places. It did have characters, although I don't remember any of them being particularly likable. All of that's more than I can say for FFI's original release, whose only value I can endorse is legacy. Which is huge, don't get me wrong.

I'd rather live in a world that never had X-2 than I, but I'd rather play X-2 than I.

Re: Villains

Yeah, that's the appeal in Kefka. He's a one-off in the series, in the regard SalmonGod's describing, I think. He's not a character, he's just a force of nature. He's a motivator for the plot, sure, and opposition to him is largely what unites the heroes, but he's basically just a plot device. He doesn't need development - even "He lost his mind in an early Magitek experiment", which is basically his entire backstory, is totally unnecessary to understanding his place in the game, which is why it's a throwaway line from an NPC in a building you'll never enter unless you're just exploring.

One of the reasons I like less some of the other villains in the series is that they have basically the same role in the story, but the narrative doesn't very effectively embrace it. It often felt kind of piled on. Kuja's probably the best they ever did at blending a character with a catastrophe, but many of the games have relied on the primary antagonist also being the world-ending threat personified, and it usually doesn't work out so well if you try to add in character development. I don't think they nailed the villain-as-character until XII (which is why it's so dear to me, actually), with Vayne, but they definitely did do some fairly good secondary antagonist characters before that (I've got good memories of Seifer).

[Putnam]

X-2 is fun :I