Princess Twilight Sparkle stared at the front of the video game case Rainbow Dash held proudly before her like a filly's first A+ on a book report. She tilted her head as she read the title.
"Final Fantasy XV? So...what, the fourteen that came before it weren't final enough?"
Rainbow snorted. "Pssh. It's just a name," she said. "An awesome name for a bunch of really awesome games!"
"They're that awesome? Really?" Sunset asked with a small smirk.
"I've been a huge fan of Final Fantasy since I was little," Rainbow Dash replied enthusiastically. "I mean, okay, some of 'em kinda suck, but most of 'em are awesome! Especially Final Fantasy VII." She laughed. "Remember when I went as Cloud for Halloween when we were twelve?"
Fluttershy ran her fingers through her hair, a mild pout on her face. "I remember you forced me to go as Aerith," she said. "I'm still not sure how I feel about that."
Sunset snickered. "Rainbow Dash dressed up as Cloud," she said. "I can totally see that."
"Yeah, it was awesome," Rainbow said, preening.
"Well it must be pretty popular if there's fifteen of them," Princess Twilight said. "Still, that title, though. I mean, I can't wrap my head around it. If it's the fifteenth game in the series, it...it just isn't very final..."
"Actually, there's a reason they're called that," Twilight said, pushing her glasses up and taking on her lecturing tone. "Thirty years ago, Square was struggling and facing bankruptcy. They'd been in business for a few years, but none of the games they were making were selling very well. Their lead designer was thinking of quitting the video game business and going back to college, but he wanted to make one last game with the company. They could only afford to develop and publish one more game, and he wanted to do an RPG. They decided to go ahead with it since some other RPGs were really popular then, and they named it Final Fantasy because they were all pretty sure it'd be the last game they ever made."
Princess Twilight leaned forward eagerly. "And then what happened?"
"It blew up," Rainbow Dash said. "Saved the company."
Twilight nodded. "They didn't waste any time making Final Fantasy II." She shrugged. "Then Final Fantasy III, and then when the next video game console came out, Final Fantasy IV. And so on and so on." She looked at the game Rainbow Dash held. "Now they're up to Final Fantasy XV."
Princess Twilight pursed her lips. "So they're making one every two years?"
"Eh, not exactly," Rainbow said. "They were makin' one every year for a while, then they had some gaps, then they started remaking some of the older ones in between workin' on the new ones. And there's a lot of like, side games. Not numbered FFs, but they have the title and they're all their own little thing. If you added up all of those, there's really like, I dunno, thirty or forty Final Fantasy games."
"Wow," Princess Twilight said. "So the title is because it was supposed to be their last game, but then it just sort of became a brand?"
"Pretty much."
"I guess that makes sense." Princess Twilight frowned. "Still, if the first one is thirty years old, doesn't that make it kinda hard for new players to get into it? I mean, if you're just starting, you'd have to track down and play fourteen games to get to the new one...it just seems like you'd get tired of it way before you got to fifteen."
"That's not how it works," Sunset said with a laugh. "I don't play these things, but I kinda know a little about them. They're not really sequels like..." She shrugged. "Like the Star Wars movies or the Daring Do books. It's not all one story. Actually, almost none of the Final Fantasy games have anything to do with each other except for stuff like the magic system, some of the monsters, basic stuff."
"Yeah," Rainbow said, nodding. "Every game is totally its own story with its own world and its own characters and everything. That's why if you don't like one you can just skip it. A lot of the big RPGs are like that."
"I had no idea you were such an RPG fan, Rainbow Dash," Sunset said, raising an eyebrow.
Rainbow snorted. "What, you think I wanna advertise it? Besides, I really just play Final Fantasy, and really only the ones that came out like, after I was born. I haven't even played Final Fantasy VII, just the games that have the characters in 'em and stuff." She sighed. "Man, when the remake drops next year, I don't even know how I'm gonna afford that..."
Princess Twilight looked around. "What about the rest of you? Do you girls play these games?"
Applejack shook her head. "Not mah thing. Ah'm more inta racin' games an' shooters."
"I like RPGs, but I'm more into Dragon Quest and the sillier ones," Pinkie said. "Final Fantasy gets too..." She shuddered. "It goes weird, dark places I don't like."
Rarity snorted. "Really, these games are so ridiculous. Especially the costume designs!" She paused. "Though I must admit when Rainbow Dash showed me a EweTube video of that...Sephiroth..." She let out a dreamy sigh. "I did have a moment of weakness."
"Because Sephiroth is so cool and so badass?" Rainbow said eagerly.
"Mmm, something like that," Rarity deferred.
"Umm, I've only played the Kingdom Hearts games," Fluttershy said meekly. "Other than that, I don't really like Square's games. I'm more into Pokemon."
"Kingdom Hearts," Rainbow snorted, rolling her eyes.
"Kingdom Hearts has a beautiful story!" Fluttershy said defensively.
"Yeah? How do you figure out what the hell order to play the games in to figure out what the story even IS?" Rainbow challenged.
Fluttershy drew back. "Well," she said. "Umm..." She paused. "That's..." She trailed off with a sigh. "I like it," she mumbled behind her hair.
Princess Twilight frowned. "Wait," she said. "I thought you said these games don't have connecting stories."
"Most don't," Sunset said. "Kingdom Hearts is...different."
"Yeah, way different," Rainbow said with a snicker. "What's the next game? Kingdom Hearts 2.8 over 365 Pi to the Tenth: Dumbo Drop Dawn?"
Pinkie Pie exploded into a fit of giggles. "G-good one, Rainbow Dash!" she laughed.
Fluttershy crossed her arms and huffed. "The next game is HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue," she said with a sniff. "And just for your information, Kingdom Hearts III comes out later next year."
Princess Twilight frowned. "What are you two...fighting over?" she asked.
Sunset rolled her eyes, pulled out her phone, and ran an Internet search. Once she had what she was looking for, she handed her phone to Princess Twilight, who read the screen, her brow furrowing in confusion. "Oh," she said. She paused, then added, "...what?"
"See? She gets it!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, throwing up her hands.
"No, I...I don't get it at all," Princess Twilight said.
"Exactly! You get it that you don't get it because you can't get it!"
Fluttershy's face turned red. Eyes narrowed, she got right in Rainbow Dash's face. "At least I didn't play Lightning Returns," she hissed.
"Oooooh," Pinkie cooed as the room went quiet. "Them's fightin' words."
Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes at Fluttershy. "That's it. I'm kickin' your ass."
Princess Twilight grew alarmed. "Rainbow Dash! You can't—"
Rainbow Dash pulled her 3DS out of her pocket.
Fluttershy smirked. "Sure, I've got ten seconds to kill," she said as she pulled out her own 3DS.
Sunset facepalmed. "Oy."
Princess Twilight blinked. "I don't understand. What's going—"
"Best leave this one alone," Applejack said tiredly. "Rainbow done poked the bear."
"You know," Rarity mused, "it does sometimes seem like this little group of friends can't have a conversation without it ending up someplace silly, or in some sort of drama..."
Either they're playing Pokemon Sun/Moon or Smash 4.
I'm with Fluttershy. Kingdom Hearts' story is amazing! Until you get to DDD. And the order of games to play isn't hard. Understanding what's going past II... another story.
And I want a ps4 now.
Don't you mean, Them's Fightin' Herds?
… Wow, that went below the belt.
You think?
All of my yes. The Kingdom Hearts games' narrative order is one of the worst examples in video game history. I still remember jumping into KH2 right after KH1, only to be left confused over almost everything currently happening in the story since I didn't bother to play Chain of Memories on the freaking Game Boy Advance of all things. And things only got worse from there, to the point that I dropped the entire series out of irritation. The exact same thing happened when I played the Assassin's Creed games. Brotherhood and Revelations were AC3 and AC4 respectively in everything but name, and jumping straight to the real AC3 was a big mistake.
I'm with AJ on this one. I play TF2 a lot and I own Mario Kart Wii.
Fluttershy i challenge you to a pokemon battle.
7765370 Kingdom Hearts order as I know it: Birth By Sleep, KH 1, Chain of Memories, 358/2 Days, KH 2, Re: Coded, Dream Drop Distance, 2.8, KH 3.
Nice Chapter, by the way, Mythril.
I'm on team Fluttershy here. Kingdom Hearts is absolutely amazing, and learning the story is almost as much fun as playing the games. When my PS2 broke I was upset I couldn't play my old games anymore, especially Kingdom Hearts, but I've been rebuilding my collection on the PS4 and I can't wait to download Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and 2.5 once they release on the PS4, as well as 2.8 and 3.
As for Final Fantasy, I'm on the fence with that one. I've heard amazing things about the series but I've also heard they can be very long and grueling at times. I'm considering getting the FF 7 HD remaster when it comes out, and maybe I should try looking into XV to see if it looks good to me. I like RPGs but have more experience in other game genres, but since I've considered giving an RPG series like Persona a try when Persona 5 comes out, why not give Final Fantasy a try too?
I dunno, I never much got into the KH series. The one game I played all the way through (one of the portable ones with a card-based combat system) I barely understood any of the story, I just played it for the gameplay.
Then again, I haven't played a whole lot of Final Fantasy after VIII either. I played a little of 9, and 14 when it was in public beta, but that's about it. I have played a good amount of Dragon Quest VII (the 3DS port/remake), and naturally Pokemon games.
I thought of this at the end.
img06.deviantart.net/aac3/i/2015/052/6/1/settle_it_in_smash__by_ryured-d8iwfrq.jpg
Ewetube... I love it when I discover some new MLP-esque wordplay someone makes. Great chapter!
...so am I the weird one because I like all the titles mentioned?
Honestly, same, but Rainbow's diss was hilarious. For all of Twilight's concern for Final Fantasy that you need to play 14 games to get the whole story, you need to play quite a lot of Kingdom Hearts to be able to fully understand III when it eventually comes out (7 and a bit, counting 0.2 Birth By Sleep since it's not a whole game, but still new stuff). Though Square's actually been good about player accessibility, since it keeps putting out HD compilations for modern systems so new players can get the whole series on a single console, rather than 6.
I wish. For all the news we get for KHIII, a release date has never been part of that...
Oh shit, it's about to get real. Nice play on Rainbow's catchphrase!
I actually purchase my copy of Final Fantasy XV today along with Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse and 7th Dragon III Code: VFD, that and with Pokemon Sun and Moon I'm loaded for a while.
I play a lot of RPG. The Final Fantasy series is one of the highest reference so I think all gamers that are interest in RPG have at least tried one once.
The Dragon Quest series not the one I'm the most invest in, but I do enjoy them nonetheless.
The Kingdom Hearts series is really amazing being a giant crossover. It's not difficult to find the chronology of the games, what makes it actually difficult to follow is that the franchise is disseminate on various console; one or two were originally on mobile phone.
Other RPG series I like are Shin Megami Tensei and their spin-off Persona, the Tales of, one shots like Radiant Historia and there's still more.
7765374 still waiting on an update on the game though
Things would've been fine if not for Pinkie Pie deciding to go as Sephiroth that year. Fortunately, the restraining order expired around the time Fluttershy got out of the hospital. However, this caused a deep rift in their relationship that would only continue to grow until a magical pony princess from another world fixed it for them.
7765409 Word of advice for Final Fantasy: You really REALLY want to play FF4 through FF6 first. See what it was like back when it WAS the best RPG series.
Pssshhh, silly Rainbow, everyone knows IX is the superior PS1 game
At least they're not arguing over whether or not computer games count as video games.
It wasn't hard to follow until DDD, but even then it's not that hard. It's ridiculous and crazy but not hard. I do admit however you need a very Slytherin personality and the ability to think like an over the top supervillain, but it's not horrible.
I actually think Princess Twilight would love the Kingdom Hearts series... then again she would try and make her own Keyblade and that almost ended Reality so maybe not a good idea.
7765359 Probably Smash 4, Pokemon takes a while. Smash is easy to pick up and play if you're looking for a quick little score settler.
Heck, FF11 alone has enough storyline in it to equal two or three of the other games, never mind FF14. And they're quasi-tied together.
Then there's Dissidia...hoo boy.
I would be genuinely intimitadted if i had to battle Fluttershy in Pokemon.
Oooooook...
I'm gonna play some GTA:Online. Who's with me?
Rarity, leave the fourth wall alone. That's Pinkie's.
7765533 Ponified? Don't be silly, she didn't ponify anything there - they were obviously talking about this : http://www.philasd.org/live/saul/
... *hides my sarcasm, giggles maniacally*
And NOONE MENTIONED MARIOFART?!!
7765376 Why would Flutters have an Issue with Lightning Returns?
They should talk about Death Battle next.
Huh, I'd never have considered AJ as a racing gamer myself, but I can totally see it now that someone else suggested it.
Edit: I'm not sure why I didn't favorite this story sooner, but this chapter did tickle my fancy.
1. I'm on Fluttershy's side.....for more than just her being Fluttershy.
2. ....Rainbow's playing her in Pokemon, isn't she. ...Poor little fool.
3. ...I recall a story where Fluttershy - Pony version along with the others - played Halo Reach.....and was excellent at it. TF2? ....Sniper Master. .____.
What a coincidence; I was explaining the history of Final Fantasy to my family this Thanksgiving.
That can't be true.
... Is that true?
(Googles)
Holy crap. And I thought FF X-2 and XIII-2 were ridiculous. At least they stuck to integers.
In any case, the moral of the story is don't knock your friends' tastes unless you're willing to settle it on the field of honor. Though I find myself wondering if Sunset plays any video games.
...hm. Now I want Parasite Eve to have come up, SciTwi to mention the book, and then try to convince the princess not to read it
For reference, the book came first (the event in Japan Maeda mentions) and it's not for the weak of stomach.
Oi! Kingdom Hearts is a good franchise. The reason the plot is so confusing is because the English translation didn't pick up on some terms that are actually foreshadowing for games that came after in the series. Thus, whenever a new development takes place (like Nobodies being able to grow a heart of their own), it isn't actually an asspull, it is just something that got missed in translation.
I personally have no problem understanding it. Explaining it to someone else, however...
The crossover story I've been wanting and waiting for. Absolutely A+ gold star and all that stuff. Great job! Hope this continues to be awesome, if you get any more inspiration for it.
*Cleaning up the debris of the broken fourth wall.*
Can someone tell me why the fourth wall didn't break down with party cannons this time?
*Points to Tom-sized diamonds to the left.*
Oh. I'll go get the Snow Peas.
Odd I always saw Rainbow as a Nintendo fan and Sci-Twi as a Steam fan who got into the console v PC wars confusing the heck out of Sunset
7765564 I'm not into Final Fantasy, so I couldn't tell you the specific whys, but Lightning Returns was the very divisive second sequel to FF13—which was divisive in and of itself—and barely made back half of what its predecessor had made in sales.
7765563
mariocart is the game you play to ruin friendships
You know, I've been thinking about getting into some role-play games. I like roleplaying in general, but I've never had the time to actually settle down and check them out. As is, I'm a Minecrafter :P I noticed that nobody brought that up.
Imagine if they talked about fighting games.
Imagine if they went into Marvel Vs. Capcom.
Imagine what would happen if they talked about Phoenix Wright's inclusion.
Imagine the lawyer jokes.
LOOOL OKAY THAT WAS GOOD
Princess Twilight should create an RPG of her own, using her time at CHS as inspiration.
You play hairless, magicless apes who try to go to school and learn without getting brainwashed by the many, many monsters banished to your world from someplace else and which pop up regularly.
Call it World of Dorkness.
I don't play a lot of video games, so all of this is lost on me.
Gonna side with Shy here--I could go on and on about how beautiful of a series Kingdom Hearts is, with it's music, visuals, cast, etc. The narrative takes some time to wrap your head around with the games spread out over different consoles (Thank God for the HD compilations), but it's worth it in the end.
Though 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue remains an absurd title. Just call it Kingdom Hearts: Ground Zeroes, why don't ya?
yeah suck it dash playing that failure of a pile of fuck? really? shame on you
I stick with Fluttershy, but Dash is right.