Is it wrong to say that I like X over the core series, 100 times out of a 100?

PUKE. “Follow the adventures of a self-loathing emo brat while he constantly whines about not wanting to talk to people and refuse to realize what love means.” What a GREAT ADVENTURE.

FF6 is the best , no competition there

I played ff3/6 when VII was out and still agree VI is by far the best ff. Ive played through it several times and I always enjoy it so much. I want to love 9 and I know its a good game, but for some reason I never even finished disc one. I still find 9 way better than 8 and I got to disc 3 in FFVIII.

HEY.

The only people who thing FF8 is the best FF are people for whom FF8 was their FIRST FF.

Two words for you Jason.

I also think needless “Open World!” and collectibles are toxic pillars of Modern Game design. We can probably just agree to disagree.

I wouldn’t say that’s an excuse. The FF7 encounter system was pretty generic/bad/annoying, even at the time. There are older SNES games by Square which had better systems, such as Chrono Trigger, where you could actively avoid or chase encounters.

FF: Tactics was released later in 97’, so clearly enjoyable gameplay was possible back then.

So it was good back then? Or we just didn’t know any better? Also tedious menu driven battles and random encounters are kinda major design pillars for JRPGs. And have been for forever. So I don’t get your argument.

You know a genre has solid gameplay when speeding it up to get through it faster and ignoring it completely are enchantments to the game’s enjoyment.