hmmm... a toss up between 7 and 12. I'll say 12 though because I played that for the sake of it, just so I could say I completed yet another Final Fantasy.
I know, I know. I'm going to get murdered for saying 7.
But it never pulled me in like the others. I played 7-10 before I played 1-6.
And I must say, the old stories appeal to me more.
Although I have to agree that the story in X-2 was overly cheesy and girly, the game itself is not really a mainline FF anyway, it's a cheap sequel. Even so i think FFX-2 had the best combat system of any FF i've played (from FFVII and up). I get not all people like the ATB system, but FFX-2 did it really well, keeping it really fast paced, and tactical, also dresspheres where kinda cool.
Anyway i'd say FFXII had worst story. On its own it's not a bad rpg with a good story, but compared to other FF's the story just feels downplayed. What really gets to me is that there is not character development. Why? The reason why I like FF games is cuz they tend to focus pretty heavily on the characters, who just happen to be on an epic mission to save the world. I don't mind that there's no real discernible main character, rather the focus is on all the characters as a group. But that doesn't mean they have to cut out all character development beyonde the tiny little titbits we get. Ashe is a bit of a power hungry ***** and Vaan an annoying twat, and oh yeah the other characters have past's... which serve no purpose except to give them some dialogue. And Panello is just kinda there, waiting for a chance to jump on Vaan's bone. this is not character development... where is Cloud's internal struggle to find out who he really is? Or Squall's trust issues? Or the development of a relationship between Tidus/Juna or Zidane/Dagger? I was about ready to just hate this game, but then i finally got to the final Boss and mecha Vayne is kinda awesome... So i don't hate it... I probably would like it a lot more if it wasn't a FF, sorta like spirits within, which was good just nothing to do with FF. *end rant*
Well I haven't played any since 9, but I would say 8 was the one I enjoyed the least. The characters weren't likable at all, the battle system relatively fubar'd, and it seems like when they really jumped the shark. It was 8 that really pushed them from creating memorable games with endearing characters and just started cramming as many fancy cut scenes into it as possible. That and the amazing new 'enemies level up with you' idea. I spent quite a bit of time leveling up my characters, got them up to level 70 or something on an island, and when I went back to the mainland every enemy seemed to be able to either severely damage my party or kill them outright. Never completed the game, or FF9 for that matter, they got rather stale.
hmmm... a toss up between 7 and 12. I'll say 12 though because I played that for the sake of it, just so I could say I completed yet another Final Fantasy.
I know, I know. I'm going to get murdered for saying 7.
But it never pulled me in like the others. I played 7-10 before I played 1-6.
And I must say, the old stories appeal to me more.
i didnt like the combat of FF XII, so i throw my vote in for that one. it was the first one i played, and almost put me off them completely, then i was roped into doing the FF VII marathon, completed that and am now playing X.
Doing that FF VII marathon got me hooked on RPG's though.
edit - i just realised it asks for the worst story. my mistake. my vote is still for XII though.
I voted VIII since it is technically the worst I've played... it isn't bad, I just can't get into it... If I had to rank them from best to worst (well, ones I have):
VII
Crisis Core / X (can't really decide which I like more)
XII
Dirge of Cerberus
VIII
Borrowed X-2 from a friend, but it would lock up in the intro cut scene... so... yeah... and I have no problem with the XII battle system...
Well the battle system relatively fubar'd, and it seems like when they really jumped the shark...That and the amazing new 'enemies level up with you' idea. I spent quite a bit of time leveling up my characters, got them up to level 70 or something on an island, and when I went back to the mainland every enemy seemed to be able to either severely damage my party or kill them outright.
Personally that's why i really likes FF8, because it was the most innovative and experimental, until FFXII (i like thet they tried to change it but it didin't work). the whole point with 8 was to cut out the whole lvl up to make your char stranger formula which has been used by.. let me think.. every rpg ever. The point was to make your characters stronger through junctions, through equipping magic and GF on chars to max their stats and make them powerful. If you know how to work the system you can have over 3000 hp from the get go and just waltz through about half the game without breaking a sweat. But that was the beauty of the system, if you really took time to learn it and master the junction's, also unlocking all the GF to be able to max out all the stats, you could make your character really powerful without the hassle of having to have to grind for levels, all you have to do is spend come time to draw magic from enemies. I'm not saying its perfect, but it was nice to see something different...
Personally I would go with Final Fantasy V. The characters were decent but Ex-Death was kinda lame as a main villain and I just wasn't grabbed by the over all conflict. Still, it's a fun game overall, the story just isn't that great.
If you had put FFX-2 on there though, that would be getting my vote. Terrible, terrible main plot.
Anywho I title goes to FF8, and if you say otherwise you are wrong Wrong WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG. ATROCIOUS story telling and UNLIKEABLE characters CLAIMING TO BE MEN, and a love story that looks as if it was written by some Disney reject... or a five year old.
Damn right, Ashe, Basche, Baltheir and even Penelo were pretty good characters. Fran wasn't terrible, but she was just there to be eye candy really.
However NoMoreSanity's statement confuses me a little, usually people complain that Final Fantasy is too cliche, what with the Always Evil Empire, and the Poorly Motivated Villains etc. and when they give us The Arcadian Empire in FFXII, one of the most realistic governments I've ever seen in a Final Fantasy game... people do nothing but ***** and complain.
Erm... has no one played FFVII? There was no "Evil Empire", there was an Evil Corporation but they werent really a problem after the first disk. Then it became a hunt for one very, very, very, very badass antagonist with a kick-ass sword... and it had Chocobo Racing!
well im going to vote ffx as it seemed to take most of the decent action and serious story parts and throw them out of the window turning it into the usual jrpg's.But am still surprised by how much hate ff8 gets as it my favourite the only things i can see that let it down was it was unlucky to come after ff7 that meant that it had alot to prove but also had to show it was something different.Also the rival (seifer) was a joke as squall knocked him about most of disk 1 and then wasnt a threat at all unlike sephiroth (ff7) who probley is one of the most greatest bad guys ever so i feel if they had sephiroth in ff8 instead of seifer then squall could of shown of how great he actually was but that my opinion.
I would largely agree. I enjoyed FFXII and its story, but I can easily see how people wouldn't like it. They tried to do a sort of FF6/3 thing with no 'true' main character, but the risk of this design is that it becomes difficult to develop all characters equally and make them worth caring about. FF6/3 largely succeeded at this, but FFXII didn't quite follow up as well. They also tried a different approach to the story, by pitting the protagonists against a much more palpable opponent - an opposing empire/monarchy, rather than a mystical and/or all-powerful being. As an avid fan of FF Tactics, I loved the whole empire and manipulation and conspiracy things, but I can see how people would feel it to be less epic. Also, not putting in a forced love interest was refreshing.
Yes, I know the whole thing about Vayne and the god-things and whatnot, but that's not a real story element until very late in the game.
I voted as FFVIII to be the worst, as I found the characters too exaggerated and the story too mangled. It feels like they set up Squall to be a second version of Cloud, but added extra doses of angst and loathing with reduced amounts of mystery and confusion. The supporting characters felt equally overdone and unrealistic. The story was on the opposite end of the spectrum, and crossed me as weak.
You start the game as [training to be] a mercenary? Yeah, real creative. You can start just about any RPG like that. FF7 got away with the mercenary thing as it wasn't overdone at the time and Cloud quickly assimilated into the group. FFT used it because after the first battle of the game, you were whisked away to the past and given the entire backstory on what had happened up to that point. FFVIII took the whole merc thing too far, for too long. It felt like a cheap ploy that existed only to make the story go in whatever direction it wanted without having to give any real motive or explanation. Also...
the whole orphanage thing was crap. All the characters lost their parents (another cliche), then grew up together on an orphanage...but simply forgot? I'm sorry, amnesia is a cheap plot device in itself* when used on a character, but FFVIII went ahead and applied it to several characters, all forgetting the same events. On top of that, why do you never hear of the GF's memory sapping ability again? The whole thing felt unnecessary and forced. To me, this scene was the epitome of poor story telling and character development.
*Exception: KOTOR
The last thing that irked me about FFVIII's story was the whole love thing. Yes yes, I know it was touted as being a love story from the start, that's not what bothered me. What bothered me was the way the relationship was developed - it was very awkward and abrupt at times, it didn't feel natural at all. On top of that, Squall and Rinoa seemed way too young and immature to really develop any kind of love. I'm not talking about their numeric age, I'm talking about their psyche; their emotional maturity. Squall and Rinoa were 17/16 years of age, respectively. Zidane and Garnet/Dagger were 16/16 years of age. I felt that Zidane and Garnet's relationship was far more genuine and believable than FFVIII's relationship, despite all 4 characters being roughly the same age.
12 was one of the most derrivative stories I have ever seen in the history of JRPGs with underdeveloped characters, weak translation, and poor scriptwriting.
My problem with 12's story is that there wasn't the same feeling of 'if we lose, the world is screwed' that you get in the other games. To me, that's integral to the series.
Also, Final Fantasy 8 was hit/miss. The first 2 discs were great, but the last 2 were...meh in my opinion.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
