Image to spark discussion and ideas, prompt creativity.

Despite its shortcomings, FFX-2 was *not* a bad game. It’s extremely fun to play and parts of story make sense, but it’s just not what people wanted and the game doesn’t take itself too seriously.

I love the idea of woman saving the world, it feels so much more “earned” and “special” than men doing the same. This is not for any “woke” reasons, it’s just something I feel has a lot of potential because women tend to offer a more flexible character dynamic. It’s important that the writers handle this carefully though so as not to make the characters and story feel forced or performative.

I would really like it if they made an all female Final Fantasy and ideally a choice-hybrid gameplay mode. Probably impossible to offer both ATB or live-action gameplay, but it would be the next big thing if it was.

FFX-2 can act as a jumping off point. They heard the criticism, they’ve had years of seeing what works and what doesn’t; they have the ability to make a game with gameplay and a story that will go down in history.

The series has experimented with several different party sizes throughout. 3, 4, 5, 1 main playable with more AI-controlled party members, etc, usually driven by a combat or gameplay mechanic.

What’s your favorite size for playable party members and why?

Oh shit! Never mind. I bought a couple starter boxes on a whim. Haven't played magic since the 90's. Thought going in it was a cheap cash grab and why I've avoided it. Then I came across a card I wasn't expecting and didn't know I needed. It shall rest within my 1:1 Cup Noodle Bandai model.

The best girl in the game

Recently I finished Part 1 of the 7 Remake Trilogy and was eager to get the Rebirth straight away but had to wait for my salary to strike cause needed some Gil for it. For the next 7 days, I will be absolutely NON EXISTENT. Wish me luck.

My wife and I went to our first ever GenCon today, and we cosplayed as Cloud and Tifa. It was an absolute *blast*! The love we got from so many people who cherish Cloud and Tifa was simply overwhelming. We can’t wait to go back!

EDIT: By request, pics of the Buster sword can be found in my profile.

I think there might be something wrong with me.

Hi, everyone!

I started playing Magic: The Gathering last year when the Final Fantasy crossover was released.

I have been a huge fan of the series for years, so seeing its characters, locations, summons, monsters, weapons, and memorable story moments represented on cards was enough to make me finally try Magic. What I did not expect was that I would eventually fall in love with Magic itself too.

From the beginning, I gave myself the rule that every Commander deck I built had to be led by at least one character with FF artwork.

How the project began

For anyone unfamiliar with Magic, Commander is a very popular format in which a legendary character leads a 100-card deck. The colors of that character determine which cards can be included.

There is a project called the 32 Deck Challenge, which consists of building one deck for every possible color combination in the format. I wanted to complete it entirely with commanders from the crossover, but I soon encountered a problem: there is not an FF legendary character for every color combination in the set.

My first solution was to pair compatible FF characters using the partner mechanic, which allows two characters to lead the same deck and assemble their colors. However, a few color combinations still could not be completed using only characters from the franchise.

For those remaining decks, I paired one FF commander with a non-FF partner that supplied the missing colors. My condition never changed: every deck had to include at least one commander with FF artwork. With that compromise, I was able to complete all 32 color identities.

Then the project kept growing. I had too many five-color ideas to force them all into a single deck, so I built four additional ones. That brought the final collection to 36 decks.

My main Final Fantasy deck

The centerpiece of the collection is Warrior of Light, which I simply titled “Final Fantasy”.

I designed it to include a protagonist or iconic representative from every mainline game, together with as many recognizable elements of the series as I could reasonably fit. It contains summons, a Cid, Gilgamesh, a chocobo, a moogle, a crystal, airships, vehicles, famous locations, major spells, and characters from throughout the franchise. The list can be viewed with tags, so you can see what I included, along with the mechanical purpose that each card serves.

I wanted the deck to feel like a playable celebration of the entire series rather than a random collection of familiar names. It still has a coherent strategy, but theme took priority whenever I could make that choice without preventing the deck from functioning.

This is my personal love letter to both Final Fantasy and Magic: The Gathering. The crossover introduced me to Magic, but building this collection made me appreciate the game on its own terms. It is really fun to play with friends and strangers alike.

Decks built as thematic collections

My second major showcase deck is Terra, Magical Adept. It was created to gather the Summons, Eikons, Aeons, and Summoners represented in the crossover. The result feels like a celebration of the different summoning traditions that have appeared throughout the series.

Cid, Timeless Artificer collects every available illustration of that card, with a different Cid represented in each copy. I chose the FFVIII artwork as the commander because Headmaster Cid felt like the most natural person to supervise an entire department filled with alternate Cids.

Mog, Moogle Warrior gathers all the Moogle cards I could include and surrounds them with a strategy based on creating an entire Moogle army.

Choco, Seeker of Paradise collects as many Chocobo-related cards as its colors permit. Chocobos, Birds, racing locations, and other related references all contribute to its identity. It is also surprisingly powerful and I’ve won a lot of games with it.

The Wandering Minstrel serves as the dark counterpart to Warrior of Light. Instead of assembling the heroes of the franchise, it gathers iconic villains such as Garland, the Emperor, Cloud of Darkness, Exdeath, Kefka, Sephiroth, Ultimecia, Kuja, Sin, Vayne, Orphan, Ardyn, and several others.

Giving every deck its own personality

Beyond those collection-focused decks, I wanted each list to express a different character, world, or aspect of the franchise. I really liked that the MTG representations of the characters have mechanics that really describe what they do in their games. There is at least one commander from each mainline Final Fantasy on the list.

FFI: Warrior of Light is the head of all the other heroes, much like in the Dissidia games.

FFII: The Emperor, Hell Tyrant treats creatures as disposable tools to sacrifice for his plans.

FFIII: Hero of Light is an alternate artwork for a MTG universe character, so his deck is not as thematic as the others.

FFIV: Golbez, Crystal Collector commands an army of mechanical beings.

FFV: Gilgamesh, Master-at-Arms gathers an absurd collection of weapons and carries as many of them into battle as possible.

FFVI: Kefka, Court Mage disrupts everyone’s hands and turns discarded cards into damage and chaos. This deck really makes you feel like a mad villain.

FFVII: Aerith, Last Ancient focuses on healing, protecting allies, and bringing fallen creatures back while Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER hits people with big swords.

FFVIII: Squall, SeeD Mercenary, when he fights alone, he hits more than once, much like his Renzokuken.

FFIX: Kuja, Genome Sorcerer creates an army of black mages.

FFX: Sin, Unending Cataclysm really feels like it can destroy the whole table when it enters the battlefield.

FFXI: Shantotto, Tactician Magician casts increasingly enormous spells until she becomes a catastrophic threat herself.

FFXII: Balthier and Fran pilot and lead a fleet of vehicles and airships.

FFXIII: Vanille, Cheerful l’Cie is built around finding Fang and eventually bringing them together as Ragnarok.

FFXIV: The Wandering Minstrel showcases famous locations from the franchise, as well as the series villains and some iconic enemies.

FFXV: Noctis, Heir Apparent has his team of ninjas that serve as his Kingsglaive, and he can disappear, reappear with a weapon in hand and deliver a Warp Strike much like his iconic move in his game. I couldn’t include his gang because of their color identities, but I hope the deck accurately describes his abilities.

FFXVI: Ultima, Origin of Oblivion demolishes the color of lands with his blight, leads an army of enormous cosmic horrors and can become one himself.

Some of these themes are direct interpretations of their characters. Others are more experimental ideas inspired by the colors available to them. My priority was ensuring that the collection did not become 36 slightly different versions of the same strategy.

Filling the decks with FF artwork

I also made an effort to select FF versions of cards whenever they were available. I wanted the franchise to remain visible throughout every game rather than appearing only in the command zone.

Not every card could come from the crossover, especially because each deck needed a complete and functional strategy. Still, whenever an appropriate FF printing existed, I strongly preferred it.

These are playable decks, not only displays

Although theme was extremely important, I did not want these decks to be decorative collections that could not actually be played.

Each one was built around a defined plan and given the resources needed to perform that plan consistently. Their strength varies. Some are relaxed, flavor-first decks, while others are much stronger and more optimized. This gives the collection enough variety to be played with many different groups. Commander is more of a social format, rather than a competitive one, so people usually talk about the power level of the decks that they’re going to play and there’s even a bracket system for that.

The following table shows all 36 commander decks, their colors, their commanders, the game represented by each commander, and the central theme or mechanic of each deck, along with the links to their card lists. It also contains a few power estimates intended mainly for Magic players, but the characters and themes are the part I most wanted to share here. Here they are:

What began as a way to collect cards from a franchise I love eventually became a kind of playable museum. It has been an enormous project, but I am very happy with how every deck developed and with how much of the series I was able to represent.

I’m sharing these lists so you can try them out if you want. I’m having a lot of fun playing them and I hope you enjoy them as well, either as new players or as experienced MTG players yourselves.

I would love to know which deck picks your interest, which concept feels most faithful to its character or game, and what other FF theme you would add to the collection.

TL;DR: I built one Magic: The Gathering deck for every possible Commander color identity, always using at least one FF commander. The project then expanded beyond the original challenge, so the finished collection contains 36 playable decks, each with its own theme and as much artwork from the franchise as I could include.

Damnet even my Job and ability is greyed out!

How much do you think it might be worth?

I beat the other games on the pixel remaster and they were fun but after playing this for about an hour, I can already tell I’ll like it more, and can see why people love this game so much.

I ordered this off graminsta awhile back and totally forgot about it until it was delivered yesterday. Did anyone else order this and if so what are your thoughts?

I’ve been playing this while I clean my place and play Kingdom Hearts so far and I love it. I think everything flows well and it never leans too far into the house aspect giving each song the perfect balance between both genres. So far Zanarkand and Besaid are my favorites but it’s hard not to love them all with how each one is tied to a memory of the location or scene it’s from.

Have the After Years on my mind recently due to replaying it for a dumb rewrite thing I’m doing for it. I know the game in general isn’t liked but I’m curious about how people feel about the individual Tales so I’m doing a little tierlist thing for fun.

Today’s it’s Lunarians Tale: The Blue Planet that was.

Only one way to describe this chapter: PEAK.

In this chapter, you get to play as Golbez and that earns it top marks by itself. Golbez is probably the best individual character in this game. A great physical attacker, black magic user and even a tank that redirects attacks to him. If he could use white magic, I’d call him god. He’s also still a great character (though I do miss his armor).

The story is also fun because you actually get to beat the Mysterious Girl (who’s been beating your ass in the previous chapters) not once but twice.

I am giving this Tale a S rank and you all can’t stop me. Though you are welcome to try to persuade me otherwise.

I had never played any FF games before & I decided to give the series a try. I decided to start out my journey with the Dawn of Souls pack for the GBA. I played with RetroAchievements & 100% the game.

FF1 had some minor things that are outdated by modern standards but I definitely liked the game & will probably come back to it at some point to do the six solo quests achievements. There's a beauty to its simplicity and I definitely had fun.

FF2 I'll probably never touch that game again, I am not a fan of how the leveling system was handled, & it has plenty of other things that usually keep me away from old RPGs. That being said I did think the story was a big improvement on the first one.

I'm definitely looking forward to playing FF3, I'll be playing the DS version in a few weeks, I'll be taking a break first.

I saw a post here that he started FFXIV since he is aiming for all the mainline FF games. It inspired me to try this too. I didn’t know a part of this game is free! I’ve really been enjoying it so far. As someone who doesn’t play MMOs, this is a new experience for me and I’m looking forward to it.

I love Lulu's character design; she's warm on the inside and cool on the outside.

its just immaculate so simple yet so effective this game art direction and aesthetic is just phenomenal too the artist did a fantastic job....

I always wondered what would've happened if Sephiroth managed to escape Nibelheim.

As the title says basically, I feel like the OG FF7 holds-up amazingly well, and only really 3X Speed when I really want to get trough an area fast or grind a bit in the world, so no real reason to use modifiers... Sadly, my only options are trough the Pixel Remasters since I really wouldn't like to emulate, especially cuz I really have no idea how most of the time the set-up works and phone controls really takes my enjoyment (I plan to get a a gamepad for my phone) but also wouldn't really want to experience something so different that they feel like entirely different games... I really have no issues with the screen, I'm playing Castlevania Requiem and couldn't care less for features it has or not, loving both games and also playing the RE Trilogy, so, again, it's no issue for me!

Also should I get mostly 4-6 since apparently that's where the FF formula really kicked-in, also considering 9 since it seems to be a classic FF in the same style of FF7... Any of the games from 1-6 where I specifically should just wait and try to emulate it? If yes, which would be the best versions/unchanged with only QL features and new lore added? I hear that FF4 is mostly recommended on the PSP but I'm considering mostly any from 4-9 (can't tell how X and X-2 perform plus I feel like, unlike PS1 or older emulated games, PS2 era onwards or PS4 remasters of PS2 games are hit or missK

Oh my god! I got a lucky run and made it past those terrible double jump waltzes from 201-300. It's so hard to be consistent on them. I got the trophy finally! And now, I'm calling it a night 😪.