Best Final Fantasy game and why?

[darkhawk918]

What is your favourite Final Fantasy game? A lot of people will obviously say FFVII and won't justify it because that's what people have been told to believe.

However! FF VIII is the best FF game because of the immense story and how you can more than any other FF game relate to the characters

 

[Daedalus1942]

What is your favourite Final Fantasy game? A lot of people will obviously say FFVII and won't justify it because that's what people have been told to believe.

However! FF VIII is the best FF game because of the immense story and how you can more than any other FF game relate to the characters

Most final fantasy fans disagree with that statement and I really wonder why.
For me, FFVIII was the most mature of the series, completely aimed at adults, and not at young children.
The story, concept, characters, gameplay and sidequests were all top notch.

 

[darkhawk918]

Yeah FFVIII was the most mature (Funny how Squall has dark hair when the usually protagonist has blonde hair and he doesn't speak all that often whereas usually the protagonist is a young blabber mouth who is usually pretty dumb)

 

[Space Spoons]

For me, it's a tie between VII and Tactics.

I really enjoy VII because I find it's gameplay to be so damn satisfying. I'm a bit of an old-schooler when it comes to playing RPGs, in the sense that I grind and grind and grind until each and every last character is a bastion of power. VII is the type of game that rewards such practices not only with experience points, but also with extra materia and new limit breaks. To me, there are few gameplay experiences that can match finishing off a boss in your first turn using Tifa's maxed out limit break.
That, and I really did enjoy the story. I never really understood why people complained that it was complicated... It's really not hard to follow, if you know how to read.

I enjoy Tactics for many of the same reasons. It rewards grinding with skills, and conversely, it punishes those who haven't taken the time to prepare. To put it lightly, you have to grind to keep your head above water; if you don't, you'll be wiped out.
Story-wise, Tactics will probably always be my favorite. It touches on a lot of interesting themes, and the characters are some of the most compelling that the series has ever introduced.

 

[darkhawk918]

Grinding in FFVIII was interesting. You could basically play through the game grinding free and get to the end boss not really thinking about how hard it'll be to find out that as soon as you fight the boss you get absolutely ass-kicked. That then forces you to go back and grind quite a lot because the last boss in FFVIII is certainly one of the hardest (if not the hardest) final boss fights of any game i've ever played.

Although I don't mind grinding all that much (I play a lot of MMORPG's!) I find it can get a bit tedious

 

[MercurySteam]

Crisis Core or FF VIII

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

FF VII I heard was only famous because of the fact it was on the PS2 so most people played it before any others.

 

[userwhoquitthesite]

As much as I love FFVII (both because of legitimate reasons and horrible dirty fanboy ones) I'm giving this one to FFXII.

FFVII was ludicrously good but I found FFXII to be much more compelling and relatable. All of the characters are very human and distinctive. Sure, Sephiroth's real motivation is that he wants a mommy, but still.

 

[TPiddy]

The first one.... it revolutionized so many things:

1. The first to open up a non-linear path.
2. The first to reward the player with additional abilities for exploring said non-linear path.
3. The first to have little easter eggs, like having the ninja do more damage weaponless than with a weapon.

Most of the game's trademarks were built in the first one, with a party system, healing, status spells, potions, fire, ice, bolt spells....

What they were able to pull off on a simple Nintendo cartridge was phenomenal.

 

[Erana]

FF VII I heard was only famous because of the fact it was on the PS2 so most people played it before any others.

...Go read the wikipedia article, please.

Aaaanyway, OP, I suggest putting the Vs. aspect of this thread to rest. Ask, perhaps, what makes a game one's favorite, or something of the sort...
Really, this thread has been done many times, has a grim future. Do something unique and that will incite discussion rather than argument.

Perhaps, "what is your favorite aspect of a final fantasy game that has persisted in the series?"
I dunno.

The first one.... it revolutionized so many things:

1. The first to open up a non-linear path.
2. The first to reward the player with additional abilities for exploring said non-linear path.
3. The first to have little easter eggs, like having the ninja do more damage weaponless than with a weapon.

Most of the game's trademarks were built in the first one, with a party system, healing, status spells, potions, fire, ice, bolt spells....

What they were able to pull off on a simple Nintendo cartridge was phenomenal.

I dunno, FF2, though the black sheep of the family, added the meat to the bones of the original game.
More spells, mysidia, Cid, chocobos, character development, the mood of the future games...
the list goes on and on.
Without both FF1 and 2, really, the series wouldn't have been what it is now.

 

[Baby Tea]

FF VII I heard was only famous because of the fact it was on the PS2 so most people played it before any others.

Not true, since FF VII was released on the PS1, not the PS2.

 

[AnarchistAbe]

I Hate JRPGs with a passion. That being said, FFX was one of the best games of all time.

 

[darkhawk918]

The first FF did do a lot for the series, but also set a benchmark for a lot of other games.

I wonder if games like World Of Warcraft would be so sucessful if FF didn't take systems like the party systems and healing and using potions and put them into action REALLY well.

Undoubtably as a series FF has done a lot in the timeline of gaming in general.

Also, I did love Crisis Core for the psp however I found it a little too easy, even on the harder modes. I'm yet to play Dissidia (going to buy it at some point this week)

 

[PapaMetaxa]

FFVI (FFIII us). The peak of 16bit JRPGs. Even Chrono Trigger can´t compare to this masterpiece in terms of mature/dramatic storylines. I vividly remember (I must have been 14 at that time) how I was shaken...disbelieving that (half-way through the game), since there was no hope for one of the beloved characters, she considered and attempted suicide. This probably opened my eyes to the fact that I was growing up...alongside my favourite medium.

 

[darkhawk918]

I Hate JRPGs with a passion. That being said, FFX was one of the best games of all time.

FFX really set the benchmark for all other PS2 games to follow IMO

 

[Pariah87]

Has to be VII, first FF I played and even now several years later still holds a special nostalgic place in my heart lol.

This is only my opinion obviously but I enjoyed the storyline the most, cared about the characters the most, the combat system/materia and all that was fun but not overly challenging seeing as I was about 11-12 when I had it. The music, epic. I could go on and on. Sure it doesn't hold much weight in the graphics department these days, but if I had a PS1 now and a copy of the game, I'd probably spend the next couple of months playing through it again.

The others I have played are VIII and IX, neither of which I found to be all that great. In VIII's defense I never managed to finish the game due to a dodgy disk but I never bothered to get another copy.

I find the FF's to be like when you first discover a great band, the first album you get always seems to be your favourite and nothing after can attain the same "magic" aside from rare exceptions.

 

[Apache2142]

Hmm...i made this thread last week :/

But still once again... VIII or X

 

[Pendragon9]

Enjoyed 6 the most. Simply because it was deepest.

 

[Majorpancakes]

For me, it's a tie between VII and Tactics.

I really enjoy VII because I find it's gameplay to be so damn satisfying. I'm a bit of an old-schooler when it comes to playing RPGs, in the sense that I grind and grind and grind until each and every last character is a bastion of power. VII is the type of game that rewards such practices not only with experience points, but also with extra materia and new limit breaks. To me, there are few gameplay experiences that can match finishing off a boss in your first turn using Tifa's maxed out limit break.
That, and I really did enjoy the story. I never really understood why people complained that it was complicated... It's really not hard to follow, if you know how to read.

I enjoy Tactics for many of the same reasons. It rewards grinding with skills, and conversely, it punishes those who haven't taken the time to prepare. To put it lightly, you have to grind to keep your head above water; if you don't, you'll be wiped out.
Story-wise, Tactics will probably always be my favorite. It touches on a lot of interesting themes, and the characters are some of the most compelling that the series has ever introduced.

This is exactly how i feel.

but also. Most gamers who weren't playing when FFVII came out. Can never appreciate it in the way that FFVII set the standard for all future rpgs much like FFX did recently. I mean come on. Who doesn't dig cloud's classic block hands. if you said me. then your a person who can never appreciate FFVII for what it was.

That being said i thought FFIX was bad. =( except for the summoning clips. Those were pretty BA.

 

[Fightgarr]

I have never found a game I like more than Final Fantasy Tactics. The characters were great, the story arc was good and deep, the overall plot was clever. It got insanely easy for me and I find almost no challenge to the game at this point, but I really do love that game for pretty much every aspect. I'm interested to play The Lion War remake of it, since they fixed all the translation issues (theoretically) and added those oh so pretty FMVs.

If we're going on numbered Final Fantasies I'm going with IX for a solid cast, a great aesthetic and being overall light-hearted and almost self-aware, tongue-in-cheek humor. This may however be overtaken by Final Fantasy XII which I'm currently playing through, I just have to see if I like the characters and story enough have it overtake my love affair with IX once I'm done.

That said: Soundtrack-wise the winner is still Final Fantasy IX, for me.