So, after reading IGN's top 100 RPG's, I decided to play FF VI.

As a frame of reference, my all time favorite RPG is probably PST, followed by Fallout and then BG2.

Favorite JRPG... hrrmmm.. Never played much of them. Played Chrono Trigger before and remember it being pretty good. Oh.. and Super Mario RPG, I remember really enjoying that, but I was much younger.

Anyway... I started to play FF VI, but the characters and the story seem very silly and comical... and that is when it makes sense.. The prince or whatever hitting on Terra.. Just.. bad.. Some sort of pig/cat walking out and tripping to give me instructions... wtf? half of the enemies you fight seem to make mostly no sense at all. Why am I fighting a repo man in a field? I am up *spoiler from first 5 hours if you don't want to read it* to where Terra got morphed by that esper.. that was kind of cool.. It is enough to keep me going, but I must be missing something due to poor J to E translation?

Since I was a little disappointed, I picked up the PC version of FF VII.. I seriously have no fucking clue what these characters are talking about.. I mean.. I do.. but I don't.. What kind of organization calls itself SOLDIER? literally in CAPS.. lmao.. Translation again?

If it is just bad translation, then man.. it is seriously ruining my experience. Am I missing something, or are these games completely ass backwards in making sense in respect to my current crop of favorites?

I will play them through to completion to give them a fair shot, but it is becoming laughably difficult.

Well FF6 is considered one of the best games in the FF series by almost all fans.

FF7 is very.... polarizing, you either love it or hate it. But many do agree it has not aged well and yes the translation was poor.

FF6 does make sense though you do have to play at a certain pace as well as have a good memory as some plot points may take some time to play out and it is possible to get confused if you get side or character mission story mixed in with the main story. and don't worry about monsters making sense they are merely there for the XP.

Try FF 8 lol

Never heard of acronyms? DARPA ring a bell?

Far as I know they don't explain if SOLDIER is an acronym or not, but it is supposed to be Shinra's elite troops modified with Mako and it does the job of differentiating them from just soldiers.

Really, I think you're nitpicking to nitpick and aren't giving these games a chance. Yes, the translations get garbled at times (but that new FF7 PC fixes some of the glaring issues). Also, BG2 doesn't exactly make much sense in it's mob placement either. Why the hell is there an illithid enclave AND a lich's mausoleum in the sewers? Does nobody clean down there at all?

Final Fantasy VIII is my favorite of all the games in the series. I don't understand why so many hated on it. It seemed to have a good mind bending story, amazing FMV graphic sequences that seem to still stand up today. The Combat system I really liked too. The Guardian Forces were awesome as well.

VI was a fantastic game. It was much, much, MUCH better than VII.
I actually enjoyed many of the games in the series (including 7).

I'm not really sure how PST and BG2 had less "silly and comical" plots/characters either (and I'm a fan of both games). It sounds like you're making arbitrary judgments on the basis of having your opinions skewed by JRPG haters.

Also, stop hating on Edgar. That guy ruled.

I loved Final Fantasy 8 because you could break the hell out of the Junction system super-early, and I always loved making my characters supermen. But at the same time, the game was perfectly beatable even without exploiting the system.

You have to understand that the FF games were created by the Japanese. and while i love Japan and it's people, They.......well, make silly but brillant games...Quirkiness but yet fun gameplay. They're not RPG's in the traditional sense. That's why they're JRPG's. A lot different then D&D games.

Two different beasts

Play 6, skip 7.

Yes, 6 starts off a bit comical... but just wait until you meet Cyan. And the second half of the game.

I never finished 6 (10 is the only FF game I've finished. Hate me if you must, but I really liked it. I also liked X-2), but the gradual tone shift is definitely one of the coolest parts of the game.

Exactly. Comparing cRPG and jRPG is like comparing Turn Based Strategy Game and a Real Time Trategy Game. They are both strategy games but a totaly different ones.
It's either you like one of them or both.

So a prince that's also a ladies man is just bad, but a berserker ranger with a giant miniature space hamster is storytelling perfection. I'm sorry, but that's bias plain and simple.

I'll give you a slight bit of leeway if you're playing the SNES version, because that does have a few translation quirks. I would definitely recommend switching to the GBA version if possible, the localization is much cleaner.

But seriously, I don't like JRPGs as a rule and I still think FFVI has one of the best stories of all time largely thanks to the absolutely perfect second half (you'll know when you hit it). FFVII not so much, but it's in media res. You're not supposed to know everything that's going on at first, it will reveal the backstory as the game goes on.

Lol.. well.. I can't argue your first point very much... :-p Not sure why the dialoge from those games is less confusing to me. Sounds like VI picks up in the 2nd half, so maybe it will pay off for me in sticking it out. I don't have any problems with the combat, it was more the dialogue. Maybe I just have to re-translate it in my head while I am reading it to make it sound more serious.
I am good with the combat, it was more the character dialogue. From everyone here it certainly sounds like it is worth getting to the 2nd half and finishing the game. Thanks, this helps inspire me to make it through to the next half. I get your point. I am not sure why I read the dialogue as more serious, I just do. I think I am just having trouble getting past the translation of the dialogue. I am going to try to re-read it in my brain the way that I would have said it, etc. Maybe I will enjoy it more that way.

You should playt it till the end (I have to finish it too, FF VI I mean:)))

Maybe after a while you will like the japanese spiced stories and play more jRPG's.

They are all so diverse yet packaged with eerie familiarity, each is bound to get hated on, had fun with each tried but have always felt on the coat tails, never part of the target audience. 8 is the only one that really 'got' me, even though its still confusing and unnatural to understand, it fascinated instead