Zell's Duel limit break does up to about 150,000 if you use the "Armageddon Fist" combo (repeat Punch Rush and Booya). Renzokuken does about 16,000 but it's a lot easier to get right.
Eden only does the damage you quote if you level it up to max first, which means your characters will almost certainly be levelled up as well. The enemies will have about 10 times as much HP as if you don't level up (I completed FF8 without EVER leveling up, it is possible), so in practive limit breaks are far better.
I haven't played FFX yet, so it's excluded from all my opinions.
Best story: FF7. I enjoyed this game far more than any other the others, because the story is complicated and engaging. It's still got some stupid cliched parts, but that's to be expected if you're playing a console RPG.
Best character development: FF8. This game has the best characters in any console RPG I've played. Some people don't like it, but that's because the characters are more realistic and not perfectly heroic as they would like.
Best gameplay: FF8. Most console RPGs can be won be alternating between attacking and healing until you level up enough. This won't work in FF8, the enemies level up with you and gain stat boosts faster than you. It's actually good to avoid levelling up in this game. The junction system gives you a lot of options for customizing your characters, and the battles are not too slow as long as you don't use summons (which are a waste of time anyway, limit breaks do much more damage).
Total enjoyment: If you've never played a FF game before DON'T start on one of the pre-PSX games. You'll probably never truely enjoy them unless you played them at the time they were released. I most enjoyed FF7, but it has inferior gameplay to FF8 and now I probably wouldn't have the patience. FF8 is also slightly shorter, which is good.
Graphics: FF8 by far. FF9 had better FMVs, but that's a minor part of the game and doesn't make up for the deformed and stupid looking character designs.
Worst FF: Worst of all time is the first FF game. It's the most repetitive and boring RPG I've played. Worst relative to the standards of other games at the time is FF9. This was a major disapointment after FF7 and 8, it's just a big nostaligia trip for all the fans of the old games and you won't enjoy it. The battle system regressed to even worse than FF7 quality, and the characters returned to the idealised heroic type I find so irratating. Don't play it.
I've found the PAN (Newsreader) project to be very collaborative. The main programmer asked me to contribute after reading a supportive post I made to Usenet, and although I've only had time to submit 2 patches I've got a good overview of the development process.
There are two mailing lists, a developer's list and a very active user's mailing list. Users are encouraged to submit bug reports and requests for enhancement to the list, and we'll try to fix it as soon as possible.
There's a public CVS available so you can keep up with the latest version and somebody with write access will commit any good patches you submit.
This is a great project to get involved with, it's already in a usable state and it's actively worked on with new versions regulary released. I got involved because I wanted a Free alternative to Forte Agent (which works very well under Wine). Even if you can't program please use Pan and submit bug reports, any help is good.
There's been a better RPG than all of those, Planescape: Torment. It's AD&D based but the gameplay is still good, and the plot is more interesting and complicated than any other PC RPG I've played without restricting you with excessive linearity like console RPGs. It uses the same engine as Baldur's gate. Fallout was great, but I prefer the non-turn based system.
The only Ultima game I've played is 8, which was not very good. I could never get Ultima 9 to run.
Final Fantasy 5 is not abandoned! It was released as part of the Final Fantasy Anthology, which is still available at Squaresoft's online store.
Arguably it's an inferior translation to the unofficial RPGe translation, but it shows that games that appear to be abandonned can still have value to their copyright owners. If everybody had emulated illegal copies of the game then they would most likely have not bought Final Fantasy Anthology, making Squaresoft think that people don't like older games. This just makes the problem of abandoned games worse, as Squaresoft no longer has any reason to release old games. If you like FF5 then buy FF Anthology, it's a very good game and they deserve money for it.
Mitsuda has left Square. This does not mean he will not still work for them, eg. he did the music for Chrono Cross as a freelance. I think Mitsuda is much better than Uematsu. IMO Uematsu is overated, he used to be good but his work in Final Fantasy VIII was very disapointing.
I've seen a Showscan film, and the improvement in quality over standard film was amazing. It uses 70mm film at 60 frames per second, and looks incredibly sharp and smooth. People who say humans can't see more than 24fps should watch something faster, the difference is very noticeable. The only problem with Showscan is it is too expensive, but it proves that higher frame rates are a very good thing.
I agree with GSM and metric units being better, but I do not like PAL. I live in the UK, and don't have a television, but when I do have to watch them I find the picture to be very flickery. 50Hz is just not fast enough, I much prefer frame rate to resolution. I know some people's eyes are not sensitive to this, but I still think fast vertical refresh rates are important in TV standards.
Actually the Gameboy Color can display a lot more than 224 colors at once. The Hi Colour demo byIcarus Productions can display over 2000 colors simultaneously. Unfortuantly this takes up too much time during h and v blank (when the video memory can be accessed) to make it practical for use in games, but it is still very impressive. AFAIK no emulator can run this demo properly, but it is worth downloading if you have a flash cart and a real Gameboy Color.
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Zell's Duel limit break does up to about 150,000 if you use the "Armageddon Fist" combo (repeat Punch Rush and Booya). Renzokuken does about 16,000 but it's a lot easier to get right.
Eden only does the damage you quote if you level it up to max first, which means your characters will almost certainly be levelled up as well. The enemies will have about 10 times as much HP as if you don't level up (I completed FF8 without EVER leveling up, it is possible), so in practive limit breaks are far better.
I haven't played FFX yet, so it's excluded from all my opinions.
Best story: FF7. I enjoyed this game far more than any other the others, because the story is complicated and engaging. It's still got some stupid cliched parts, but that's to be expected if you're playing a console RPG.
Best character development: FF8. This game has the best characters in any console RPG I've played. Some people don't like it, but that's because the characters are more realistic and not perfectly heroic as they would like.
Best gameplay: FF8. Most console RPGs can be won be alternating between attacking and healing until you level up enough. This won't work in FF8, the enemies level up with you and gain stat boosts faster than you. It's actually good to avoid levelling up in this game. The junction system gives you a lot of options for customizing your characters, and the battles are not too slow as long as you don't use summons (which are a waste of time anyway, limit breaks do much more damage).
Total enjoyment: If you've never played a FF game before DON'T start on one of the pre-PSX games. You'll probably never truely enjoy them unless you played them at the time they were released. I most enjoyed FF7, but it has inferior gameplay to FF8 and now I probably wouldn't have the patience. FF8 is also slightly shorter, which is good.
Graphics: FF8 by far. FF9 had better FMVs, but that's a minor part of the game and doesn't make up for the deformed and stupid looking character designs.
Worst FF: Worst of all time is the first FF game. It's the most repetitive and boring RPG I've played. Worst relative to the standards of other games at the time is FF9. This was a major disapointment after FF7 and 8, it's just a big nostaligia trip for all the fans of the old games and you won't enjoy it. The battle system regressed to even worse than FF7 quality, and the characters returned to the idealised heroic type I find so irratating. Don't play it.
There are two mailing lists, a developer's list and a very active user's mailing list. Users are encouraged to submit bug reports and requests for enhancement to the list, and we'll try to fix it as soon as possible.
There's a public CVS available so you can keep up with the latest version and somebody with write access will commit any good patches you submit.
This is a great project to get involved with, it's already in a usable state and it's actively worked on with new versions regulary released. I got involved because I wanted a Free alternative to Forte Agent (which works very well under Wine). Even if you can't program please use Pan and submit bug reports, any help is good.
There's been a better RPG than all of those, Planescape: Torment. It's AD&D based but the gameplay is still good, and the plot is more interesting and complicated than any other PC RPG I've played without restricting you with excessive linearity like console RPGs. It uses the same engine as Baldur's gate. Fallout was great, but I prefer the non-turn based system.
The only Ultima game I've played is 8, which was not very good. I could never get Ultima 9 to run.
http://www.3drealms.com/images/d uke/dukesymbol.jpg
Arguably it's an inferior translation to the unofficial RPGe translation, but it shows that games that appear to be abandonned can still have value to their copyright owners. If everybody had emulated illegal copies of the game then they would most likely have not bought Final Fantasy Anthology, making Squaresoft think that people don't like older games. This just makes the problem of abandoned games worse, as Squaresoft no longer has any reason to release old games. If you like FF5 then buy FF Anthology, it's a very good game and they deserve money for it.
Alternatively, turn off cookies and try again today.
Mitsuda has left Square. This does not mean he will not still work for them, eg. he did the music for Chrono Cross as a freelance. I think Mitsuda is much better than Uematsu. IMO Uematsu is overated, he used to be good but his work in Final Fantasy VIII was very disapointing.
I've seen a Showscan film, and the improvement in quality over standard film was amazing. It uses 70mm film at 60 frames per second, and looks incredibly sharp and smooth. People who say humans can't see more than 24fps should watch something faster, the difference is very noticeable. The only problem with Showscan is it is too expensive, but it proves that higher frame rates are a very good thing.
I agree with GSM and metric units being better, but I do not like PAL. I live in the UK, and don't have a television, but when I do have to watch them I find the picture to be very flickery. 50Hz is just not fast enough, I much prefer frame rate to resolution. I know some people's eyes are not sensitive to this, but I still think fast vertical refresh rates are important in TV standards.
Actually the Gameboy Color can display a lot more than 224 colors at once. The Hi Colour demo by Icarus Productions can display over 2000 colors simultaneously. Unfortuantly this takes up too much time during h and v blank (when the video memory can be accessed) to make it practical for use in games, but it is still very impressive. AFAIK no emulator can run this demo properly, but it is worth downloading if you have a flash cart and a real Gameboy Color.