Introduction
Welcome to World of Final Fantasy! It was originally released for the Playstation 4 and Playstation Vita in 2016 (and a year later for PC). An upgraded version called Maxima was released in late 2018 for all platforms (Switch and XboxOne included this time). The Maxima upgrade added in a bunch of new content to the base game, including but not limited to: New items (mostly battle items), New Game+, one of the minigames has been made easier (actually a good thing as we'll find out), new Champions from Final Fantasy titles, a fishing minigame (Yay...), EX Dungeon, super boss, new difficulty mode (Nightmare), secret ending, new monsters. There are some other additions, but I'll explain them once they actually become relevant.
This is apparently one of the select few Final Fantasy games that LP'ers on this site won't touch for some reason. Final Fantasy Legend? You can find I, II, and III. Mystic Quest? You bet your ass there's Mystic Quest. The MMORPG FFXIV? CrashScreen is doing a damn Screenshot LP of that one. World of Final Fantasy? Nada. Which isn't to say that the game is so bad that everyone is avoiding it. It's actually a pretty pleasant game. It was part of the Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary, so it contains a huge amount of characters, monsters, locales, music, and overall nostalgia for the series. It just seems to have flown mostly under the radar, possibly because it isn't so good that there is a massive fanbase for it (like the main series entries) while also not being so bad that its infamy draws attention.
So I've decided to try and fight through this Behemoth after getting my feet wet with Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars (check it out!
).- This will be a screenshot LP with some links to music and videos where appropriate. I will be playing the Steam version of the game with the Maxima upgrade.
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- I'll be having some fun with the game in terms of commentary, but unlike my last LP I won't be injecting any dialog into the characters. There's a bit of a reason behind that...
Let's get this out of the way. The Final Fantasy series has some of the most devoted and also vicious fans that I've ever seen in a game franchise. Every fan has their own personal view on the best and worst titles/characters/moments/music/era/directors/etc. in the series. A good number of the more insane fans are more than willing to
Discussion in the original thread on SomethingAwful remained thankfully incident free. I just include this part in the archive to make it known that the thread didn't get torn apart by petty arguments (although it did come close at one point).
While we're on the subject, I'll go ahead and get my personal biases out of the way in terms of the main entries: Final Fantasy VI (North American III) was my first, Final Fantasy VII is tied for my all time favourite game (in general, not just restricted to the series), I hate the entire Final Fantasy XIII trilogy, I-III and V were enjoyable, Tactics and IV and VI were good, VIII was ehhhh, don't care for IX, I liked some parts of X, X-2 was just ridiculous (in both good and bad ways), don't care for XII, XV was pretty good, and I play a Tank in Final Fantasy XIV and fuck each and every one of you that piles the weight of the entire dungeon squarely on my shoulders like I'm your goddamn babysitter.
Ahhh, refreshing. There you go. Now all of you know exactly the right amount of hate/smug you need to apply while going into this.
And yes, don't worry about it. I'm going to avoid taking swings at fans of any game during the LP. You enjoy whatever you want. However I do reserve the right to share my opinions within the thread.
One last thing we need to discuss. Spoilers. World of Final Fantasy combines characters, events, locations, and all sorts of potentially spoilerly stuff from pretty much the entire franchise. There isn't really a way to avoid them completely. So this LP will have Open Spoilers.
If you absolutely do not want spoilers for any Final Fantasy from 1 through 15, then you may want to just leave this LP for sometime in the future when you no longer care. As of writing, the most recent game in the main franchise is Final Fantasy XV, and that's been out for two years now, which I think is a pretty good length of time for anyone who wanted to play it to actually get to it. 
The exception to the Spoiler Rule above is Final Fantasy XIV. FFXIV is the MMO title that is still active. The game came out in 2013, but new expansions have been released every two years. 2019 will see the release of the next one, Shadowbringers. Due to that, I am barring spoilers for FFXIV. Characters and events are referenced/appear throughout the game, from the base to the newest expansion (Stormblood), so there won't be any major story spoilers for that entry.
Now that all of that is clear, let's get this Phantom Train rolling.
Prologue: Awake at Last
Update -I- Tutorial Town
Chapter 1: Land of the Lilikin
Update -II- What if God was one of us?
Chapter 2: Foretold by Prophecy
Update -III- All aboard the nostalgia train!
Chapter 3: Old Acquaintances
Update -IV- You've been Thunderstruck
Chapter 4: A Legendary Warrior
Update -V- Come on, baby, light my fire
Chapter 5: The Champion Who Saved Grymoire
Update -VI- On the road to Viridian Forest
Update -VII- History Lesson
Lil' Adventures I
Chapter 6: Solace from the Ice
Update -VIII- Walking in a winter wonderland
Chapter 7: The Thane and the Knave
Update -IX- Family Reunion
Lil' Adventures II
Chapter 8: Buccaneer Blues
Update -X- One Piece
Chapter 9: The Low Seas
Update -XI- Pleasure Cruise
Chapter 10: Too Warm a Welcome
Update -XII- I summon up the power of the God Hand
Lil' Adventures III
Chapter 11: Crimson and Azure
Update -XIII- Burn baby burn
Chapter 12: Ribbit Jiggle Panic
Update -XIV- Gettin' jiggy wit it
Chapter 13: Castle in the Desert
Update -XV- Tremors
Chapter 14: Lost Powers
Update -XVI- Doing Hard Time
Chapter 15: The Mako Reactor and the Black Mages
Update -XVII- PK hates The Compilation of FFVII
Update -XVIII- Mako Mages
Chapter 16: Clash on Big Bridge
Update -XIX- I would walk 500 miles
Lil' Adventures IV
Chapter 17: Naught but Nightmares
Update -XX- Castlevania
Update -XXI- Soul Train
Chapter 18: The Fell Spell and the Quacho Queen
Update -XXII- AH HAH HAH HAH HAH
Update -XXIII- Darling it's better, down where it's wetter
Chapter 19: The Other Nine Wood Hills
Update -XXIV- Stairway to Heaven
Update -XXV- Stairway to Boredom
Chapter 20: The Crimson Prophecy's End
Update -XXVI- Bahamutian Beatdown
Update -XXVII- Mistakes were made
Chapter 21: Chaos in Grymoire
Update -XXVIII- Reynn celebrates while hundreds die
Update -XXIX- Cogna No. 5
Lil' Adventures V
Lil' Adventures VI
Update -XXX- Soul Chai- wait, I already used that one
Update -XXXI- Silent World
Postscript: Turn Those Corners Up
Update -XXXII- Gotta catch 'em all
Update -XXXIII- The Magnificent Seven
Lil' Adventures VII
Lil' Adventures VIII
Update -XXXIV- Family Reunion Redux
Update -XXXV- The End... mostly
Postgame: Maxima and More
Update -XXXVI- Frustrating Fishing
Update -XXXVII- Friendship Lessons
Update -XXXVIII- Finale
Extended Universe Updates
Part I: Introduction and Final Fantasy VII
Part II: Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy X
Part III: Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy IV
Part IV: Final Fantasy XIII and the Fabula Nova Crystallis
Extras
Videos and Music (Plus some of the images I put together for fun that appear in the LP)