The Best of Final Fantasy

[daoman89]

This topic probably already exists somewhere on this forum, but I don't care so you guys can yell at me

Since there's new Final Fantasies coming eventually (haven't watched any vids on them though ) I figured I would ask everyone which numbered game is their favorite.  I guess you can do the other games like tactics, etc too. 

Mine is FFIX because of it's awesome characters and artistic approach.  I also liked how you could gain skills and stuff like that and how it kind of had that classic feel.  I really enjoyed the story as well.

[Archem]

FFT. Otherwise, FFIV.

[fruckert]

FFVI is my personal favourite.
Played it on the GBA a while back, and...never finished it, due to losing my cartridge.
Absolutely loved the gameplay and story, though.
also, dat opera scene

I also have a soft spot in my heart for X, but dear god, Tidus is a terrible character.

[DragonBlaze]

I would probably say IX as well. I'm a fan of the medieval fantasy games over the hybrid of advanced technology/sword fighting that most of the recent FF games adopted. FFIX was really epic right off the bat too, most of the major towns got destroyed by summons, how awesome is that?

I also really like VI - VIII. The whole '4 magic crystals' that FF had I - V got old pretty quick. X I thought was alright, XII was pretty bad, and XIII was butchered. I really love the Lightning in XIII, but you're forced to play as other characters most of the game, and in XIII-2 you have to play as her whiney *** sister.. What were they thinking? We have made a character that players will actually like for once, lets NOT let them play as her! At least in Lightning Returns - Final Fantasy XIII, she will be playable, so at least they're getting one thing right there.

Oh yeah, Tactics was awesome, tactics advanced was (insert some insulting vulgar term here).

[oooog]

When inspected individually, each Final Fantasy is sort of mediocre, yet the series enjoys the reputation for THE RPG series.

I have just recently beat FF1 on my phone, and am working on FF2.
I played and beat FF3 on the DS, and it was quite enjoyable.
I played quite a bit of FF4 also on the DS, but alas I could not finish it.  I lost all interest shortly after I recruited (if I recall correctly) Edge.
I played about 3 hours of FF5 and quit.  That was a headache.
Have not played FF6, although it is on my immediate play list.
I played and beat FF7, and it does not deserve all of the hype it gets, but it certainly doesn't deserve the bashing it gets either.
I played and beat FF8, and it deserves a little more hype than it gets, but not much more.  It is better than most give it credit for, although many gripes I can see being valid.
Have not played FF9, but it is on my Vita.
I played and beat FF10, and it deserves just the amount of attention it gets.
FF11 is not a real Final Fantasy.
I played a bit of FF12, about 15 hours, but I gave up.  The gameplay wasn't that great and the story was dull.
I played and beat FF13, and while this title does not deserve best in series, it is far from the train wreck that people make of it.  I enjoyed it quite a bit.
I played and beat FF13-2, see above, but with less enthusiasm.
FF14 is not a real Final Fantasy, but less dramatic than 11.

I have no desire to play 10-2, which is why it was absent from the list.

I have played and enjoyed FFT, but if ever there were a overhyped game, this earns that title.  Put down your pitchforks.  Good game.  Great game.  Not cream my pants at the very sight of it.
I played and beat FFTA.  Meh
I played and quit FFTA2.  Even greater meh.
I played and beat Crystal Chronicles.  All of them.  Pretty much the same game.  They were okay.
I played and beat both Dissidia's, but they loosely fit in the topic I believe.

That about covers all of my Final Fantasy playing.  I feel FF7 will always be my favorite.  I enjoyed this game when it first game out, so I can look back and enjoy the nostalgia of the game while recognizing what it achieved for it's time period.  The story was interesting, the characters were well developed, albeit cliche by todays standards, and it was overall an enjoyable experience.  It is certainly not the greatest game to ever grace the world, and people practically worship the very name, but it does not deserve the hate it receives simply from being so recognized.  Potentially the first and only time I have ever enjoyed the mandatory mini-games enough to actually want to revisit them.

[fruckert]

I played and beat FF10, and it deserves just the amount of attention it gets.

Good attention or bad attention?

Also: I don't like the Final Fantasy series.
It's just a name, at this point in time.
People buy it because it has the name attached to it, and that's important for some reason, but I always find the results to not really be up to par.

Basically, I think it's the Star Wars of video games.
Used to be pretty awesome and a haven for nerds everywhere...and then it became about the money, and everything got thrown under a bus.

also: I wonder when FFL is going to pop up.

[oooog]

Good attention or bad attention?

Both.
Tidus is a boring character, Kimahri is legendary.  Characters are a wash.
Gameplay mechanics are fun, but easily broken when you discover the Yuna and Lulu destroy everything strategy.
Sphere grid system was enjoyable, but I understand why some disapprove.

You will find an equal amount of people love the game to death while others consider it a blight on the franchise.  I enjoyed it, one of my brother detests it, the other is neutral to it.  It is probably the most accurately rated game in the series where the popular opinion from my vantage is, it is good / worth a play / but not the best.

[Archem]

Oh yeah, Tactics was awesome, tactics advanced was (insert some insulting vulgar term here).

Hey now, FFTA was still a pretty awesome game. It was streamlined and simplified to make it more approachable, and was less involving as a result, but it was still good enough to suck up hundreds of hours of my time.

[Cerebus]

Yeah, I did enjoy FFTA. Quite a lot, even. I always enjoyed having multiple races, which is something FFT doesn't have.
I haven't played FFT a lot, though. I've heard it has a great story to it. Maybe I'll play again at some point.

But anyway. My favourite FF's would be IX and IV. Just loved them.

Fun fact: I played FFIV on my Wonderswan Color. Which is a Japanese console.
I still managed to enjoy the game despite not understanding a single thing. Magnet Cave was a pain, though...
I managed to get pretty far, though. Near the end of the game. With the use of a walkthrough when I was lost... which wasn't a rare occurrence.
Played it on the DS a bit later. Things finally made sense.

[daoman89]

FFT for me was too slow moving if that makes sense.  I enjoyed the FFTA and FFTA2. 

I really enjoyed Final Fantasy Legend III and even Final Fantasy Adventure.

I think we can all agree on that nobuo uematsu's music is the **** though.

[DragonBlaze]

Hey now, FFTA was still a pretty awesome game. It was streamlined and simplified to make it more approachable, and was less involving as a result, but it was still good enough to suck up hundreds of hours of my time.

I guess my problem was I was expecting something more along the lines of the original. FFT was epic, there were many factions and characters swept into a dark plot. The first letdown of FFTA was that it starts with a snowball fight among children, but it was an intro battle, so I let it slide. The second letdown was that battles are overseen by judges, while it added a twist to the battles, it wasn't a twist I enjoyed or thought made any sense. Plus having judges makes the battle seem so less real. The third letdown was that you place the locations where you see fit on the map.. Again, an interesting mechanic, but I felt it took so much away from the setting. Finally, I didn't find the plot or characters themselves to be all that interesting. Its a personal preference, but FFTA seemed to be made for a much younger audience than the original, which was yet another letdown.

[Archem]

I can agree on all your points, but I felt that the gameplay mechanics were strong enough to make me completely forget about the various shortcomings the game had. Most of those shortcomings were legacy-related, so it's not too difficult to overlook them if you treat the game the same way you would treat any other Final Fantasy game (in other words, acknowledge that there's really nothing the two games have in common).

[Prpl_Mage]

Okay let's do like the ooogman.

FF1: Great game, only finished it once I got it on a GBA emulator, never got around beating it on the NES. Something about the sound and overall slowness. Good game but it kinda just drops you off in the woods and expect you to find your way out.
FF2: Pretty much the first game but with set characters and a plot. Sure it was fun enough, and I beat it. The emperor is pretty much the only interesting part of that game, getting killed and then slaying the lord of hell so that he can return.
FF3: Only played the DS remake, great game, neat animations and some funky battles. Cool class changing system and I kinda love how the map grows as the game progress.
FF4: It's pretty good, first real real story. **** hits the fan and all that, but I have never finished it.
FF5: I kinda remember this being a disaster. In my memory I see a main character called Butz, a tranny pirate and a pervy elder who fights... Nothing.
FF6: Another great game with some neat graphics, Haven't beaten it though. Got stuck in some dungeon and got sick of all the battles.
FF7: Great game, but graphics are horrible. Neat without classes but materia instead, lots of extra stuff to do like sidequests and the weapons. Also mindblowing when you figured out that memory cloud was in fact zack.
FF8: Great game, great graphics, neat GF systems and cool battle commands. The story never got me hooked though and ergo, I still haven't beaten the final dungeon.
FF9: Awesome game, great setting and theme and especially music. As mentioned before me, I liked how they kinda ditched the sci-fi again for something more steampunky. The animations are great, especially loved the FMV, but in retrospect they make the game so very very slow. Especially the battles. But y'know, great system, interesting with the AP and all the side quests / minigames.
FF10: Loved this game, they skipped the ATB and went turn based, but they did it good so It felt really tactical in a way. Story was awesome and the graphics as well. Still not totally okay with the linearity though, most of the game is just roads rather than dungeons. I like dungeons.
FF10-2: Surprisingly good game, battles were not turn based and they went with some new tweaks on the ATB to make it more dynamic. Also, class change in mid-battle. Great and all, but the story is rubbish and slightly ruined FF10 for me. Also, it's pretty much Charlie's Angels.
FF12: I had high hopes, another game of "rebellious princess wants her kingdom back" and some neat character models. But the moment you had to face a "rogue tomato" it kinda set the level for the rest of the game. Battles are pretty slow, and the animations are kinda dull. I've mentioned this a million times before but I left the game on and grabbed a sandwich during the final boss battle. The game played itself. Story is not as great as people say, it kinda ended where any sensible game would have it's point of no return and lead to the climax. There was no climax.
FF13: Good game, didn't like the new battle system. Didn't like how I controlled one character and if it died it was game over. Ended up playing as a sentinel most of the time because of the insane damage and Death status towards the end. It could've been way better.
FF13-2: Good game, little else. Improved on FF13 in a lot of ways. Then they went with the "a boy and a girl and their dog is walking in the forest" approach. Where the dog is a flan or a behemoth depending on you. Leaving out additional characters only hurt this game because the two that are in it are kinda boring. Also, who the hells end a sequel with a cliffhanger? Seriously.

FFT: Never got into it, great game and all that but I just can't stand the tactics battles without a speedbutton after some hours of playing it. It wasn't good enough for me to suffer watching every single person making their slowmotion choice and movement.
FFTA: Like this more than T simply because of the speedbutton, also completed it with only the main character. That was fun. Story is rubbish though but I kinda liked the whole Ap return from FFIX.
FFTA2: It's pretty much FFTA but with additional contents. New classes and races, story is even more rubbish and there are more things to battle in the world map. Can't remember if there was judges or just bonuses for doing something special...

FF Crisis core: Pretty good, loved what they did to the story although I can't see it as a canon story. How did people not react to 5000 Genesis clones running around? Zack is great in the game though as a character and his development. All the missions you could embark on got a bit dull towards the end and the materia fusion was badly explained. Also, the battle system is kinda lame once you've played games like KH BBS and KH DDD.

FFCC: Great game, something different but still a more final fantasy feel than FFXII ever had for me. Playing with friends (although tricky) was awesome as well. Only downside is the lack of moogle to carry the chalice in multiplayer. It slowed the game down when one of the players have to carry that thing in slow motion.
FFCC RoF: Interesting development on the first game. More RPG elements that effects the game in different ways. Also puzzles to solve and jumping and stuff like that. Didn't like how materia and skills where handled though. And armor sets looked awesome.
FFCC EoT: Pretty much RoF but better. Materia is cast on MP and they added some more stuff that made it interesting. Story mode and Multiplayer is now the same thing which made things interesting.  Loved it, too bad the only person I knew who also owned it moved away so we couldn't play anymore.

FF Dissidia: Interesting and kinda original idea. A fighter with some more tactical thinking. But in the end I felt that the game had some serious balance issues, the camera could be a bit wonky and some of the voices of past characters bothered me like hell.
FF dissidia duo decima: More or less added content to the previous game, new characters, additional story thingies, new items. However, they removed some of the modes from Dissidia that I liked. Also, even more balance issues.

FFXIII LR: We'll see, I'm a sucker for these things and since the ended FFXIII2 with a cliffhanger I have to know the ending.
FFXV: Looks good, just hoping that I'm not tricked like I were by FFXIII, it looked really great and dynamic in the trailers as well.

Bottomline:
FFIX is an awesome RPG.

[daoman89]

Seems like FFIX is winning lol.  Now for the FFIX hater to comment.

[Archem]

I HATE FF9!

Ok, not seriously. I thought FFIX was awesome, and it's a close second favorite from the main series, but I just love FFIV more. Maybe it's a childhood nostalgia thing, but I can't prefer IX over IV.