On a relentless FF bender: after VII, where to next?

Denicalis FTW for the Saga Frontier praise. I'll briefly argue that I liked 10-2 better than 10-1 (shock) for the fact that it didn't take itself so ridiculously seriously like 10 did. There were some pretty big suspensions of disbelief that 10 demanded, and 10-2 had a good time poking fun at them.

Anyway, on to the games that the author is concerned about.

FF7: Some say it's great, some say it's overrated, I tend toward overrated but you're going to find out yourself anyway. Strong points are the soundtrack, the amount of side-quests available, and the admittedly cheesy but entertaining ability to over-level your characters to such a disgusting degree the Ikaruga creators are still crying tears of blood over it as we speak. And the game is older than Ikaruga.

FF8: My personal favourite of the series. It removed the absolutely sick over-leveling present in 7 and added more challenge, but not so much that it was frustratingly unplayable (a universal deal-breaker in my book, right along with jumping puzzles). Best soundtrack of the PS1 generation with 9 following closely behind, had the most interesting visuals, and a real whopper of a final dungeon. The cast seems to be the #1 complaint about this one, and I'll agree that playing Teen Beat RPG was a bit of a turnoff. The odd plot twists near the end put some people off as well, but for whatever reason they didn't bother me all that much. Play 8 for the soundtrack, battles, and cinematics, but be prepared for said cinematics to get plentiful to the point of being excessive.

FF9: I have really mixed feelings about this one. The story is definitely its strong point. The translation is virtually error-free, and the plot stays relatively straightforward except for its major twist about 3/4 through the game. After that, though, there aren't any other weird twists. The one huge, HUGE complaint I have about FF9 is the laggy-as-a-motherfucker battle engine. Jesus christ, Squaresoft, optimize your fucking software would you please? Only Xenosaga 2 has worse lag than this game during battle (15-second load times for the lose). The whole thing overall feels sluggish, from menus to battle to minigames. High points about 9 are again the soundtrack, which is done in a more traditional classical style than 8's (which had some very interesting but very weird experimental tracks), and which is absolutely huge at ~110 tracks; some nostalgia trips for players of the older games in the series; and about the best visuals the PS1 games had in the way of character models, textures, and resolution. Aesthetics cannot be objectively judged, and so I will withhold judgment with the note that I preferred 8's style, but that you may find 9's more fitting for a fantasy game.

Garg, have to go to class. Will be back for parts 5 and 6 on SNES.

Jam it back in, in the dark.