What's the best Final Fantasy game(s)?

The Game Room
1

Along the lines of the Mario poll I had a while ago. Let’s limit this to the main series, excluding XI. Post your favorite, or rank them, or whatever you want. Unlike the Mario series, there’s less of a clear-cut winner for me, but I’ll list my top 3 with a few comments.

Final Fantasy VIII - Along with XII, probably the most love-it-or-hate-it game in the series (BTW I hate XII). But I love VIII. It isn’t perfect; it got a lot of criticism for the different yet incredibly easy to exploit leveling/draw system, and the somewhat convoluted plot (especially the plot twist). These criticisms are fair for the most part. I can’t really explain what I like about it, but I think it’s just an all-around great game. Two things it does really well: the best Final Fantasy mini-game, and I think it has my favorite ending of any game I’ve played. Also the R=U debates are pretty interesting to read.

Final Fantasy VII - I sometimes feel like this is one of the most overrated games of all time. But then I think about it some more and have to be honest with myself–this game is really, really damn good. The materia system was great, and the world and characters it built up are legendary (I don’t really get the Sephiroth worship though). The characters are really what make it for me.

Final Fantasy X - Most of the FF games have you saving the world in some way or the other, but this one did the best job of making actually feel like you were saving it. Also I liked how the player got to discover the world of Spira as Tidus did. My favorite battle system, and the sphere grid is great. When I first played this game, I spend several weeks doing nothing but playing it, or being in class and wishing I was playing it.

(those weren’t necessarily in order, but the top spot would go to either VII or X. I’m not sure I can definitively say one way or the other).

So yeah, my top 3 are all from the “modern” (PS1-onward) era. I’m sure there will be those whose favorites are from the classic era (putting my money on IV and VI, of course). I’m interested to see others’ opinion.

And will anyone admit to FFII being their favorite?

2

I hate to be a fanboy, but VII was just so good. An incredibly immersive world combined with utterly legendary characters and a near flawless combat system? Win!

3

The Final Fantasy series is my favorite video game series.

Final Fantasy X: This was among my first PS2 games, along with Metal Gear Solid 2 (huh, made me have quite high standards). It’s still one of my favorite games of all time, and affected me extremely deeply as I was quite young then and didn’t even imagine that video game could be so, well, epic.
Tie-ish:
Final Fantasy VII: I don’t think I can add much to this that other people won’t, although I really don’t like the non-realistic chibi-ish character models used for a large part of the game. Actually, I haven’t even finished this yet (stopped during early fourth disc), but I already know what happens later on.

Final Fantasy VIII: I haven’t finished this either, so perhaps either FFVII or FFVIII will become number 2 when I do finish both games. The graphics for this game is quite a lot better than that of FFVII’s, which I think does make a difference (compare Squall and Rinoa dancing, for example). The characters are less iconic, but I think a bit deeper than FFVII’s.

I haven’t finished FFXII. I think I have a bad habit of not finishing longish games. The odd thing is, I love long RPGs with really good plots and characters. I don’t even play the FF games for the battles.

4

I’ve got to go VI then V and then below that I can’t think of anything. The ones after that just tend to get weaker and weaker with the gameplay with X being the absolute bottom if we can’t count X-2. All of the stories are terrible so I could only rank those in degrees of awfulness; I’m judging from character system, combat, and environment design. V took the job system and made it work then VI tied the same concept to a wide variety of unique characters. They had combat systems that ran very smoothly with a minimum of fiddly nonsense. And the world while still confined in the style of jRPG’s was much more open than what followed.

XII was a nice start in reversing the trends that started in VII but I never finished it. I was getting bored out of my skull and then died to a surprise attack while crossing the desert when I had not been able to save for the previous two and a half hours. If I’m not having fun and get sent that far back because they can’t pace their game correctly then it’s time to walk away.

5

I’ve played every game in the series in their original format, including the 2 non-released NES games. They rank:

1. Final Fantasy VI - No contest. This game was perfect, from the characters, to the gameplay, to the music, to the story, to everything. Perfection.

2. Final Fantasy VII - I like this one too, though it might be a little over praised. However, it was revolutionary at the time and I liked it quite a bit.
**
3. Final Fantasy IV** - I never enjoyed the story as much as some, but I did like the improved gameplay.

**4. Final Fantasy IX **- Very overlooked. A charming game with great characters and a surprisingly good OST.

5. Final Fantasy X - When I first played it, I ranked it number two in my mind, but I now realize that was mainly hype and me being impressed with the graphics. It’s good, I like it, but it was frustrating at times and I didn’t like the story that much.

6. Final Fantasy VIII - Overbashed. It’s quite good, actually. I liked the way the story went for about the first 75%, but they messed it up at the end. I also actually rather liked Squall and his team, but I know I’m in the minority.

7. Final Fantasy XII - What a disappointing set of characters and a weak story. I loved the gameplay and the graphics, but the game was boring to experience. I wanted this to be number one.

8. Final Fantasy III(j) - By far the best on the NES. The first FF game with the class system we see in V and Tactics. A huge world to explore and a pretty good story for the NES games.

9. Final Fantasy V - Probably the hardest Final Fantasy to beat. Great system, some great characters, but the antagonist was so lame that the game just became boring. I mean…a tree?

10. Final Fantasy I - Cute, but only significant as being the first one. I didn’t even like the remade version on the GBA. It was OK.

**11. Final Fantasy II(j) **- Ouch. Painful to play. Easy to exploit the poor system. Boring. Never liked it or its remake.

6

Final Fantasy 4 - as if you couldn’t guess from my username. THE perfect RPG. A great story, characters you actually care about, surprises and twists, some difficulty, but not impossible or time consuming (unless you HAVE to have Asura/Leviathan NOW) and a nice variety of places to explore (with some non-linearity, although parts of the game are nearly on rails as far as options). Plus every character brings their own things to battle, with unique strengths and weaknesses (some ahem Edward weaker than others).

FF 6 comes in a very close second, but I actually got a bit turned off by just how non-linear the second half of the game is. It’s a cool concept, but it feels like the heart that the first half of the game had is missing, especially when you consider

that you only HAVE to find Celes, Edgar & Setzer in order to complete the game, and can let all your other friends rot away, never to be mentioned again

plus your characters can get WAY WAY WAY too overpowered (economizer? offering? hah) and aside from one unique skill which becomes less and less useful as the game goes on, are all exactly the same in combat once they get built up.

Final Fantasy 9 was the best of the PSX games. I LOVED the way it made references to every previous FF game, and had more of a feel of the earlier games in the series (like with 4, each character had their own job - you didn’t see Steiner casting spells or Eiko kicking ass with a sword). 7 was a great game, but it wasn’t the best, and suffered even worse than 6 from having every character fight exactly the same and getting way way too overpowered as it went on. 8…well, 8 had issues in pretty much every department, but at least it was something original. Wanna play cards?

One REALLY underrated game was Final Fantasy Legend 2. Okay, so technically it’s a SaGa game, not FF, but damn it was a solid game. Fixed all of the flaws that made the first FFL mediocre, added on a good story (and characters who weren’t totally generic) and had some really really cool worlds to play through.

7

Well it’s possible, but highly unlikely and unwise as it makes the final dungeon nearly impossible. I don’t see it as a game-breaker.

8

Maybe so, but unless you really make an effort to find everyone (and in the case of some characters, you may have already doomed them to death), you’re likely going to finish the game short handed, and then these missing characters barely get a mention aside from an epitaph in the closing credits. One thing I really loved about FF4’s ending is how EVERYBODY who joined you in the game (except Baigan, of course) either makes an appearance or at least gets mentioned.

One thing Final Fantasy 8 does have going for it is that it is the ONLY video game ending that actually made me cry. A couple months ago I started playing through that game just so I could experience the ending again (and it won’t be the same without actually sitting through the entire game first)…I’m only up to the beginning of disc 2 and ever since I got my PS2 back, I haven’t touched it. But I should.

Final Fantasy 5 was great and shitty at the same time. Definitely one of the better games as far as gameplay and combat went, but the story…ugh, the story…no. I never fully decided if the spin to have the same 4 characters the entire game and actually give them individual personalities was a good or bad thing.

Final Fantasy Tactics was just plain evil. Making a game where saving the game could force you to restart due to being forced into a battle which you can not win is very poor design. But I do love how FFT made you actually WORK to win it, and it has my favorite soundtrack in the entire series.

I’ve always been playing through Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, and while I wouldn’t call it underrated, it definitely doesn’t deserve half of the slack it gets. The dungeons had more puzzles than most of the main FF series (which made it feel almost like a Zelda game at times), and there was a story there, with some interesting characters. I think that Phoebe’s mental breakdown when you first meet her made her seem the most human of all the FF characters. However, there is WAY too much time spent fighting random battles, and the most unfortunate flaw is that you can NOT finish dungeons fast by running from these encounters. Also, an AMAZING soundtrack - it’s more Ys style than FF style, but that Doom Castle/Lava Dome/Final Boss Battle medley used to be covered by my metal band in live concerts, and I don’t think ANYONE realized it was from a SNES game.

9

I’m glad someone agrees with me on this. Now THAT’s how you end a game. I really like the “home video” part during the credits, especially the last few seconds.

10

Final Fantasy IX is still my favourite role-playing game. The story, the characters, the setting…ah, I can hardly describe it(Probably too lazy to)! Vivi is such a cute little guy.

~S.P.I.~

11

I concur with Final Fantasy IX. It’s really the only one that ever enchanted me in the same way that VII seems to have cast a spell on everyone else. Very overlooked, I wish there was a way to play it other than PS1. I’m sure it’s playable on PS2 but you’d still have to use PS1 memory cards which have a nasty habit of self deleting data which can only get worse as they get older.

12

Final Fantasy VI tops the list for me. I still consider it my favorite video game of all.

Tactics would be next, but that game suffers from some poor design choices in a lot of the battles. It had the best combat system though, and the most amount of customization. It was actually fun gaining levels in this game, they mattered the most.

Final Fantasy VII comes in third, but it’s a very close third. This was a really excellent game, but I find the last disk or two almost impossible to remember. The first disk was so good I can remember it vividly, but the game just stretched on for me.

All of the others were disappointing for me in one major way or another. IV would be fourth on my list, but I played it after I played VI and it gets penalized for (fairly or not) being a major step down from VI in nearly every way. I thought X’s leveling system was the worst, VIII was the least engaging, and aside from I being memorable for it being my first experience with a video game RPG, the rest aren’t worth mentioning. For the record, I never played XII.

13

2, 3, and 7. That is all.
For what it’s worth, I’ve been alienated from the Final Fantasy series since they went to PlayStation. I look forward to them coming to other consoles again.

14

My first reaction was “Somebody actually liked 2 and 3?! Even Final Fantasy fans usually hate those!” Then I realized you meant the US 2 and 3 thanks to the number system that divides those who care about such things (and those who are around those who care such things way too much) and those who don’t…

15

It’s tough!

Final Fantasy VII - it’s the game that introduced me to the series so it holds a special place in my heart. Great characters, great storyline, great combat system. The graphics at the time were quite special. Even my mam got quite emotional at a certain point at the end of disc 1, and she’d only watched me play! Also, it featured big bad Barrett Wallace; a true hero.

Final Fantasy VI - again, the characters and storyline made this game. I liked how the different characters had their own special abilities in combat. There were plenty of fun little segments like the opera; run-ins with Ultros; Shadow’s dream sequences; Cyan’s castle. Kefka was a fantastic baddie, vwa ha ha! I agree with fusoya that the second half of the game lacked the heart of the first, it felt a bit empty/hollow… but then I guess that was the point?

Final Fantasy V - simply for the combat system. Adore the job system (was gutted they didn’t release Tactics in the UK, heard it had a similar system) and in fact am playing the game through again at the moment. It’s the most difficult FF I’ve played and it took me a long time to defeat the final boss. The story and dialogue was terrible and I didn’t warm to any of the characters aside from Galuf, but the glorious job system made up for it.

After that it goes: VIII, IV, IX (haven’t played the first 3, have played about an hour of X and nothing after that so can’t comment on the rest)

16

Six and seven. I enjoyed eight, but it’s way way way too easy and has the worst plot twist of all time.

Try VII. Final attack+phoenix. Knights of the round+HP absorb. Mime. So you can attack for ~100k a turn which completely heals you. You mime this every round so it costs no MP. If you somehow die you can get resurrected 5 times. Hell, you can set it up such that you can kill one of the two hardest bosses in the game in one turn.

I think you can get like 7 ultimas off in one turn in VI, but there’s nothing like how you can overpower in VII as far as I can tell. I’ve never gotten through all the optional bosses in X and XII though.

17

Without reading the other posts:

Storywise: I still think Final Fantasy X is the all time best story. Lots of people disagree with me, but I feel like it’s the first time the male character “grew” a bit AND had a good story (more on this in a minute). I played X-2 just out of sheer desperation to get the ending of X.

Leveling system/combat system: Final Fantasy 12 blew them all out of the water for me. I can’t play the old ones anymore. I love being able to see my enemy wandering around the landscape. The story wasn’t as good as the others but DAMN! I hated training in the old ones.

I still love FF VI and will always love it. I love Kefka. I love your little thief, and the girls, and the samurai, and the backstories for everyone.

I also love FF VII a lot - it’s probably second on my list of best.

I loved FF IX, too - it’s got it’s own charm, and a pretty decent set of characters. And a genuinely happy ending, which doesn’t happen very often in FF.

About maturing characters. Someone (I think it was Lynn Bodoni) pointed out to me that Squall had matured quite a bit. Yes, he did…but I hated that story and still do. I don’t understand half of it and for the first half of the game Rinoa made me want to bitch-slap her silly. She did get better, I admit.

Hmm. Maybe I should have listed the ones I don’t like!

18

There are actually 5 characters, I believe. The older man, Galuf, dies and is replaced by his granddaughter, Krille, who absorbs all his powers.

So, four characters in one way, but technically five.

19

Final Fantasy 6, 4, 9, and 12, in that order. I quite liked 12, though I never have beaten it. It has some issues, definitely, but was an interesting experiment for the series.

I have noticed that msot people love the ones that introduced them to the series. I don’t think too much of this, partly because most of them like 7. I played FF1 way back in the days or yore, and it really did suck, and I know it. :smiley:

Frankly, 7 was… OK. It was revolutionary in its own day, and serverves praise for that, but it had a huge number of flaws. Characterization was poor at best (with some major characters having none at all) and much simplified. The plot was… uneven. The music, with a couple exceptions, was actually worse than the SNES games (a trend which has continued to this day).

20

6 had the best story, IMO.

I also really liked the story in 4.

5 by far had my favorite combat system.

12 came next for the combat system.

But the most memorable boss fight is head and shoulders owned by game 5. Early in the game you fight an undead train. Undead, like in most gaming systems, are hurt by healing. Now, at this point you should have the white mage job, so you can give everyone white mage and cast cures on the thing to kill it. Fairly effective, really.

But that’s the long way to go about it. The cheeseball way is to take a Phoenix/Fenix (I believe they used the second spelling in this one) Down item and use it on the boss.

Instant defeat of boss. I believe this is the only “boss” in a Final Fantasy game and possibly any JRPG that can be obliterated by a one shot.