TheLifeStream Podcast Final Fantasy Retrospective Series

As announced on Episode 5 of TheLifeStream Podcast, several of your fellow forum members are embarking on an epic journey to play and complete as many of the Final Fantasy, Chrono, and Kingdom Hearts games as possible. After we complete each one, we will be doing an entire episode (maybe 2 if we have enough to say) to each game where we will go in depth and discuss them at length.

Embarking on this remarkable journey are:

Carlie
Flintlock
JasonTandro
Lex
Ryushikaze
vaderSW1

We will be following the roadmap as it is laid out below. Some changes may be made as we go along. You can come back to this thread to find out what game we are currently playing and find out about our progress in them.

Note: The game in bold is the game we are currently playing. The date next to it is the projected completion date for this game.

Road Map (Completion Order):

Final Fantasy - COMPLETED - Listen to the podcast here!
See each host's game rating below:


Final Fantasy II - COMPLETED - Listen to the podcast here!
See each host's game rating below:


Final Fantasy III - COMPLETED - Listen to the podcast here!
See each host's game rating below:


Final Fantasy IV - COMPLETED - Listen to Part 1 of the podcast here and Part 2 here!
See each host's game rating below:


Final Fantasy V - COMPLETED - Listen to the podcast here!
See each host's game rating below:


Final Fantasy VI - COMPLETED - Listen to Part 1 of the podcast here and Part 2 here!
See each host's game rating below:


Final Fantasy VII - COMPLETED - Listen to Part 1 of the podcast here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here!
See each host's game rating below:


Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VIII - IN PROGRESS
Final Fantasy IX
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X-2
Final Fantasy XII
Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy XIII-2
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
Vagrant Story
Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Final Fantasy Record Keeper
Final Fantasy Type-0 HD
Bravely Default
Chrono Trigger
Chrono Cross
Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Final Mix
Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days
Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories
Kingdom Hearts II
Kingdom Hearts Re:coded
Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
Dissidia: Final Fantasy
Dissidia 012: Duodecim Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time
Final Fantasy Dimensions
Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy & Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy Curtain Call

Possible other games to play:

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest
Final Fantasy Adventure
Final Fantasy Legend I
Final Fantasy Legend II
Final Fantasy Legend III

Do you want to play along with us? Pick up a controller and play whatever version of each of these games you like. Post your progress in this thread!

A VERY special thanks to Flintlock for the banner graphic! He really outdid himself on it!

NOTE: For anybody that wants to participate but are missing some of these games, the Playstation Network Store is running a sale on Square Enix games. You can get a bunch of them for stupid cheap! The sale runs through 08/18/15! Thanks to JasonTandro for the heads up on that!

JasonTandro said:

We were way off the rails, and it was hilarious.

Also Mike:

The adventure begins. I am playing the origins version, and I am playing on Easy Mode. And I have discovered something fascinating. You can call it "Easy Mode" without actually making it all that easier. Ryu, I know mages are quadratic, but right now you are about as useful to me as an unarmed Thief who inexplicably knows Vox and that's the only thing he can cast.


In fact, I'm keeping a LiveJournal of my progress. Just a motivation to keep me going:
http://jasontandroplay.livejournal.com

Dang Mike, get the Retrospective thread up already, lol!!

Click to expand...

I had been trying to wait until the banner got completed. Flintlock is working on a banner for the series. However, I went ahead and created the thread.

Can a mod please move JasonTandro's and my posts to the newly created Retrospective thread?

We were way off the rails, and it was hilarious.

Also Mike:




The adventure begins. I am playing the origins version, and I am playing on Easy Mode. And I have discovered something fascinating. You can call it "Easy Mode" without actually making it all that easier. Ryu, I know mages are quadratic, but right now you are about as useful to me as an unarmed Thief who inexplicably knows Vox and that's the only thing he can cast.


In fact, I'm keeping a LiveJournal of my progress. Just a motivation to keep me going:
http://jasontandroplay.livejournal.com

Dang Mike, get the Retrospective thread up already, lol!!

JasonTandro said:

We were way off the rails, and it was hilarious.

Also Mike:

The adventure begins. I am playing the origins version, and I am playing on Easy Mode. And I have discovered something fascinating. You can call it "Easy Mode" without actually making it all that easier. Ryu, I know mages are quadratic, but right now you are about as useful to me as an unarmed Thief who inexplicably knows Vox and that's the only thing he can cast.


In fact, I'm keeping a LiveJournal of my progress. Just a motivation to keep me going:
http://jasontandroplay.livejournal.com

Dang Mike, get the Retrospective thread up already, lol!!

Click to expand...

JasonTandro, you inspired me to go ahead and create my own LiveJournal to keep track of my progress as well! This was a brilliant idea! Everyone can follow my progress at http://vaderSW1.livejournal.com. I just posted up my first entry showing my progress. Check it out folks! Also, please let us know if you are playing along and let us know your progress! If you have questions or need help, we'll be there for you!

So...how many years will this take to complete?

Mike and I are just about done Final Fantasy I. And I don't foresee myself replaying Final Fantasy VII after the community playthrough. The only sticking points are gonna be FF Tactics and FFXII. Those could take forever.

Tetsujin said:

So...how many years will this take to complete?

Click to expand...

LOL! Well, it's really difficult to say for certain. It is going to depend on how much time we have and how long it takes us to complete some of the longer entries in the series. I don't want us to short-change ourselves on this. I want to be able to do side quests, get all summons, defeat the mega bosses, get all treasures, etc, etc. I'm not going to put a hard time frame on it. We will just take it a game at a time.

JasonTandro said:

Mike and I are just about done Final Fantasy I. And I don't foresee myself replaying Final Fantasy VII after the community playthrough. The only sticking points are gonna be FF Tactics and FFXII. Those could take forever.

Click to expand...

I could never turn down the opportunity to replay Final Fantasy VII. I don't care how many times I've played, I will still play it again. It is one of the games I am looking forward to the most!

I do agree about Final Fantasy XII though. That's going to take a monumental effort to get through everything this game has to offer.

Final Fantasy I is under our belts and the first episode of The Lifestream Podcast Final Fantasy Retrospective Series is live! Listen and let us know what you think!

Final Fantasy II is up next for us all!

We extended out the playthrough completion date on Final Fantasy II. I seriously underestimated the amount of time it takes to grind up levels on this game.

I need a better system... the Inn costs are eating me alive.

I'm finally getting around to listening to the first episode ;P

I cba to go through all FF games but FFIV in particular kind of interests me. Maybe I'll get the PSP version and play it alongside you when you get to it.

Hey all, I just wanted to announce that we are looking for a new third host for the Final Fantasy Retrospective podcast series. We are currently in the midst of playing Final Fantasy IX. Whomever is chosen to take up the mantle will need to pick up with FFIX and move forward with Ryu and I through the rest of the series. If you're interested, please post here.