What is the BEST Final Fantasu?

[GabeZhul]

I know this has kinda died down a bit but I'd like to say while that is all very true I found that this is one of the things that kinda made FF VIII feel stale for me after awhile. Once you got over the initial hump and learned how it worked I found it was far too easy to make your characters broken OP along with stuff like the Aura spell and Meltdown. Did you feel Aura was a bit broken as well or what did you think of it?

Yeah, Aura was pretty much a game-breaker, but on the other hand you were pretty much required to use it against the bonus bosses. That said, I freely admit that FFVIII's system was incredibly easy to break, which was yet another reason I loved it. It just always tickled my inner munchkin to be able to savage bosses that were supposed to pose a serious threat just by understanding every nook and cranny of the system and finding out new and novel ways to abuse it.

My personal favorite exploit in that game is the card-rule spreading. In the beginning you challenge the queen of cards for a game. Every time you do so, it changes the winning rule. Repeat until you get the "all" rule. Once done with that "all" becomes your default rule along with "open".
Now wherever you go you have to challenge someone and then cancel out on their opening screen. Do that enough times and they will start playing using your rules. Then when you get to the space station, do the same with Ellone. Win the Laguna card from her, use it in CardMOD and you instantly get 100 Hero's, in item that makes your characters temporarily invincible.
Of course nowadays I probably wouldn't have the patience for something like this, but back then it was just so immensely satisfying to figure out how things worked and finding ways to exploit the mechanics. Ahhhh... Good times.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

I know this has kinda died down a bit but I'd like to say while that is all very true I found that this is one of the things that kinda made FF VIII feel stale for me after awhile. Once you got over the initial hump and learned how it worked I found it was far too easy to make your characters broken OP along with stuff like the Aura spell and Meltdown. Did you feel Aura was a bit broken as well or what did you think of it?

Yeah, Aura was pretty much a game-breaker, but on the other hand you were pretty much required to use it against the bonus bosses. That said, I freely admit that FFVIII's system was incredibly easy to break, which was yet another reason I loved it. It just always tickled my inner munchkin to be able to savage bosses that were supposed to pose a serious threat just by understanding every nook and cranny of the system and finding out new and novel ways to abuse it.

My personal favorite exploit in that game is the card-rule spreading. In the beginning you challenge the queen of cards for a game. Every time you do so, it changes the winning rule. Repeat until you get the "all" rule. Once done with that "all" becomes your default rule along with "open".
Now wherever you go you have to challenge someone and then cancel out on their opening screen. Do that enough times and they will start playing using your rules. Then when you get to the space station, do the same with Ellone. Win the Laguna card from her, use it in CardMOD and you instantly get 100 Hero's, in item that makes your characters temporarily invincible.
Of course nowadays I probably wouldn't have the patience for something like this, but back then it was just so immensely satisfying to figure out how things worked and finding ways to exploit the mechanics. Ahhhh... Good times.

Yeah it was a fun game overall with all the extra stuff. I can certainly see why you would like the min/maxing though. My favourite thing about the game was all the side stuff you can get such as the extra GFs.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

7 for me. Tifa made a huge impact on me. I just really like her character, and design. The game was pretty nice, IMO. Didn't hurt that it came about the time I had just gotten my PSX.

Tactics Advance is a close second. I love red mages, and Tactics Advance had done them great justice, imo.

The first was pretty stellar, and really kicked off my enjoyment of Red Mages.

The rebranded Gameboy Final Fantasys were nice, too. Final fantasy Legend, and III. Something like that.

 

[Ratty]

6 and 9 are my favorites, terrific stories and characters. Don't play the mobile port of Final Fantasy 6 though, for no apparent reason they completely redid the character sprites and they are terrible, lacking the perspective of the original sprites to just look flat and ugly.

Plus iirc they want like $20 for said ugly botched mobile port of an SNES game, screw that noise. Get yourself a copy of Chrono Trigger instead. It's one of the best games in the genre and it's even on sale right now https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.square_enix.android_googleplay.chrono&hl=en

 

[EdHaag]

The first FF game I ever played was Legend on the Game Boy, which I didn't find out until years later was just a rebranding of the SaGa series. As such, I hold it pretty highly, although I can certainly see some flaws in it nowadays.

Going by the main series, I've played all of them from I up through IX, and also a little bit of XII.

My ranking for those is something like VI > IX > IV > V > VII > II > III > I > > > > > > > > VIII

VI and IX are defiantly my favorites, and it's really hard to say which one I like better. VI was just epic in scope, and Kefka ranks as one of the best video game villains of all time. IX's story was a bit better, and it just oozed nostalgia for all the other games in the series up to that point out of every pore.

I thought VII was OK, but it was defiantly over-hyped. Fantastic soundtrack though.

Special mention goes to VIII. After finishing the first disc, I removed it from my PS1, reached for disc two, and suddenly thought to myself, "why the hell am I playing this piece of garbage?" before putting it back in the box and never touching it again. To be honest, I can't even remember anymore why exactly I thought it was so bad, but I do remember working through it being torture at the time.

 

[xaszatm]

I'm going to take the oddball choice and go with Final Fantasy XII.

DAMNIT, NINJA'D!

Out of curiosity, have you had a chance to try out the International Zodiac version? It does address a lot of the problems you've described. All characters now have a class based on the Zodiac symbols (a carryover from other Ivalice games), guest characters and Espers can now be directly controlled. They removed the damage limit meaning you can do over 10,000 damage per hit which helps on a lot of bosses. Mist is now it's own section and doesn't cost MP. It's actually really good intake on the FFXII game that fixes a lot of the problems.

OT: Yeah, as you can guess, FFXII is my personal favorite. As a header, I've played all Final Fantasy main series (including FFXI and FFXIV and FFXIV A Realm Reborn), their related games, all in the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, Dissidia, Theaterythym, Legends, and the Chocobo Dungeon series.

FFVI: My second favorite Final Fantasy. Love the characters, story, and the second half of the game. That Second Half does get tiring towards the end and the weak Final Boss isn't helped.

FFVII: OK, I do not hate this game at all, but I do agree that it's over-rated. It's a very good RPG and the Materia system is a lot of fun to use as well as an advancement on the Esper system FFVI had. However, after hearing people after people claim it is the greatest JRPG ever, I got sick of hearing about the game. I do pop it in every once in a while but it's definitely not the best for me. Cloud has a great arc that is ruined in the sequels in favor of making him a moody emo.

FFVIII: Another divided game among people. It's actually quite fun when you try to break the game. Like, not actually break it but attempt to overpower yourself. THEN it becomes a blast to play. Squall and the idiotic gunblade of his can go away though.

FFIX: Great Game, other people have pointed out why. Can't add to that.

FFXII: Can't really add to the person I quoted though I can say that the Zodiac version addresses a lot of complaints. Shame it wasn't international.

 

[Buffoon1980]

Oh, I know the answer to this question! The best one is the one you get the most enjoyment playing. Easy. It still baffles me how many people think that the best one is some objective designation that can be handed out unilaterally, by them.

For me the best one is FFVIII. Why? Because to my mind it had the most compelling narrative arc. The whole game can be summarised as this: one surly young man's quest to break into a smile. I am NOT KIDDING. That's what the entire story is about. So,

Spoiler

when he finally manages it right at the end of the game, I mean really at the last final possible moment in the post-credits sequence

the emotional pay off was incredible. (Is there a better way to do spoiler tags?)

But that's just me.

Other good FF games include almost all of them. Seriously. Again, that's just me. Personal favourites are VI, VII, IX, X, X-2, XII, XIII, XIV.

 

[deleted+75193]

DELETED

 

[Veylon]

I'm going to go with Final Fantasy Tactics as the best. In my opinion, games ought to be judged on their gameplay and Tactics' was phenomenal. Organizing, preparing, planning really matter in this one. Characters can be customized with a whole host of abilities and powers. Combining them together properly is key. It's a major refinement of FF5 (another overlooked title).

But I may as well comment on a couple of the other ones:

FF7 was built on it's graphics and it's sadly aged poorly. It's not terrible by any means, it just doesn't hold up terribly well in retrospect. Besides the graphics, the plot depended on shocks that have since become cliche. There's really not a whole lot to say about it any more.

FF8 was weirdly organized and arguably overcomplicated. It makes a key mistake with the junctioning system by not balancing it against anything. The only cost to using batches of spells to overcharge the characters is not being able to use the spells in battle. Which is usually no great loss as the characters either do plenty of damage on their own or else have special abilities or else can just use items. And, of course, ultimately the availability of GFs renders spell use moot anyway. I would've had junctioning gradually consume the spell stacks and removed MP usage from the game and maybe had GF's use spells. That way, the spell stacks are a limited, dwindling resource with several options vying for their use.

The plot was...salvageable, but undermined by the sheer amount of overpowered nonsense that got thrown in for the purposes of the Rule of Cool. It's hard to take the threat of the industrial-age Galbadian army seriously when there's also a super-futuristic neon mega-city with a space program, for instance. There are also missed opportunities: one is that Trabia Garden is tragically destroyed. We're supposed to be horrified, but the place isn't shown until after it's destroyed. If any place is to be wrecked, it ought to be a place that the player has had time to get to know and care about. The game really takes a kitchen sink approach to story telling, bringing in tropes that there's no need for and come off as ridiculous once presented. All the main characters lived together for years but somehow don't know each other? Come on! The plot was badly in need of an editor.

 

[Fox12]

The weird title should say it all. I've often heard it comes down to FF6 or 3/4.

Let me know, tell me about which Final Fantasy game you think is the best.

Also, do any of the FF games on the mobile devices play well? Got a plane ride in a while...>_<

FF4 had a decent plot and fun game play. If you love classic JRPGs, or titles like bravely default, then check out the remake. Its not earth shattering, and it doesn't always hold up the best, but it's worth playing.

FF6 is... I don't know. The popular alternative to 7? It's certainly unique, and was way ahead of its time. It also has a truly unique plot twist that stands out. That said, I'll be frank, it doesn't hold up. The plot and characters were truly awful, and the villain is probably one of the worst I've ever seen in any game. He's two dimensional, and has little real motivation or personality, other than being a crazy "nihilist." The truth is that he's the product of uninspired writing. It's not a bad title, but you'd be better served with the other games. I would recommend FF4 or chrono trigger in its place. At least chrono trigger knows its silly at times.

FF7. Oh my. Is it overrated? Perhaps. I think its ironically become underated due to hype backlash. Is the plot sometimes convoluted? At times. It all makes sense if you put the pieces together, but the game doesnt just explain things to you, you have to piece it all together. It gets more hate then it deserves, in any case. It's become cool to hate this title, which is unfortunate. It's not perfect, but the cast is one of the most memorable in the series. It's my personal favorite, but it's not for everyone.

FF8. You can leave this one behind. If you think 7 is convoluted, stay far, FAR away from this. The plot is filled with holes and convoluted decisions. Some of the characters make up for the poor plot, but Leon is almost intolerable. I'd skip it, since it was just eating off of 7s table scraps.

FF10. Terrible main character, shallow stereotypical characters, awful designs (Seymour!) and mediocre game play. The premise is interesting, and I liked auron and yuna, but it's not a masterpiece. Look into the setting if you're curious, but I think it's average at best.

FF12. Not bad. Interesting cast, unique political plot. I'd recommend it for someone who wants a game with a more "western" feel. Not a masterpiece, but by no means bad.

FF13. The cancer of the industry. Don't.

 

[Rozalia1]

The plot was...salvageable, but undermined by the sheer amount of overpowered nonsense that got thrown in for the purposes of the Rule of Cool. It's hard to take the threat of the industrial-age Galbadian army seriously when there's also a super-futuristic neon mega-city with a space program, for instance.

Yeah that one makes no sense anyway you look at it. Esthar not only has a massive tech edge, but from the looks of their city they clearly have a vast numbers advantage too (though I suppose that could be explained by Galbadia having cities/towns not present on the map as they control an entire continent). They weren't being held back by politics or anything either as their leader was an absolute dictator who did what she liked.

War only lasted a year or two so it wasn't very long... but how logically could Galbadia hold off Esthar for that long? Heck SeeDs which due to their nature of being super powered soldiers would explain it didn't even exist at the time. There are the rebels from what you see in the flashbacks I suppose, but I doubt they could slow down Esthar for the length of the war.
I mean going by the ending Esthar go on to defeat a whole moon's worth of monsters so yeah...

 

[Frokane]

7 and 4 are the best to me.

6 was alright

I hated 9

8 was kind of cool

12 sucked

13 sucked worse

123 are just for nostalgia but little more

10 had annoying characters, decent gameplay

KH has the worst battle system ever.

 

[cathou]

I would say Final Fantasy VI, but i guess it's just nostalgia talking. i was 15 when it came out (as final fantasy 3 in north america)and it's definitely the greastest memory i have of that age, playing final fantasy with one of my friend. we knew the game by heart. in one year we both had 3 games with all the caracter to level 99.

 

[Veylon]

Yeah that one makes no sense anyway you look at it. Esthar not only has a massive tech edge, but from the looks of their city they clearly have a vast numbers advantage too (though I suppose that could be explained by Galbadia having cities/towns not present on the map as they control an entire continent). They weren't being held back by politics or anything either as their leader was an absolute dictator who did what she liked.

War only lasted a year or two so it wasn't very long... but how logically could Galbadia hold off Esthar for that long? Heck SeeDs which due to their nature of being super powered soldiers would explain it didn't even exist at the time. There are the rebels from what you see in the flashbacks I suppose, but I doubt they could slow down Esthar for the length of the war.
I mean going by the ending Esthar go on to defeat a whole moon's worth of monsters so yeah...

It also violates a rule of narrative drama. Heroes should have it tough.

What should have happened is for the heroes to get wind of a super-advanced yet reclusive civilization with the power to mop the floor with the Galbadians. If only they could make contact and convince it's people to aid them in their cause! Surely then they would be able to finally face down their enemy's military might, defeat the sorceress, and restore peace and freedom.

So - one jump ahead of the Galbadian military - they fight their way through the salt flats and find a ***** in the secretive realm's technological armor. Perhaps - to symbolize the cost of achieving victory - one of their comrades-in-arms who has traveled with them so far lays down his life to ensure their passage.

Pass into Esthar they do - and find it a post-apocalyptic moonscape. Once-grand cities have been reduced to charred skeletons amid arid craters. There is no ally here, no help, no hope. And yet they must press on into this wasteland. Their Galbadian pursuers are not far behind.

Several things are going on here. One is the message that things are worse than ever. That's practically screamed into the player's face by the force of events. Another is that a new plot thread of figuring out what happened has just opened up. Perhaps they can meet up with survivors and piece everything together. A third is that the technology is still there. For all the dismal music and immediate despair at the sight of ruins, it's clearly shown that there's a lot of junk laying around that anyone could pick up and potentially use. Getting it for their own use and denying it to the Galbadians becomes the central tension of the next act.

The point of all this is that any tiny victory the heroes eke out should be paid for in blood, sweat, and tears. Esthar whole hands the heroes a huge advantage - and generates a huge plothole when that advantages fails to materialize in any tangible way. Esthar in ruins piles on a huge problem - and makes the player feel good when, though their actions, they participate in flipping it the other way.

 

[Lightspeaker]

I'll just put what I put every time this comes up: Play FF9 for the story, FF10 for the gameplay.

For the "old era" (i.e. 1 to 6) I think Tanis on the first page nailed it. Although I'd wave my fan flag a little more over 4.

FF7 I never really liked. And it always irritated me whenever I saw it being cited as the best FF game ever because my mental reaction was "seriously, have you just not played 9?". Its ok, but a lot of people people have very thick rose tinted glasses with it.

FF8 I admit to having something of a love affair with. The game itself is actually pretty poor, being kinda broken all round mechanically. But I liked the setting and it was the first FF I ever played.

FF9 was, I view, the high point of storytelling and setting for the series. It didn't try to do anything new, it simply took the raw essence of classic fantasy style FF games (as opposed to the more "future" stylings of 7 and 8) and distilled it and refined it into a gem. It was also the last point to have a true "world".

FF10 I view as having the best combat mechanics of the series. The whole controllable summons thing was really good, as was the fact that rather than having the whole bar filling up before your turn thing there was simply a specified order list for turns, making it more tactical. That being said the characters were kinda hit and miss (more hits than misses but even so...) and the story was decent but I didn't find it elicited as much emotion as 9. This was also the point, however, where the games started getting more linear.

FF11 was an MMO. Moving swiftly on.

FF12 I view as a travesty against Final Fantasy and a completely wasted opportunity. Worst combat and mechanics setup for any Final Fantasy game I've played, including 13. At least I could finish 13. I've tried to finish 12 three times to date but it was just agonisingly boring. It felt somewhat like a single player MMO. And it was massive wasted potential because the story, by all accounts, was rather good. I also sincerely feel that the main character should have been Ashe.

FF13 was...ok. Wasn't terrible. I found the characters mildly engaging and the story mildly interesting. The combat system was somewhere between bad and terrible and on the whole it was largely just going down a corridor. It looked great but...not the finest game I ever played. I finished it but its not exactly a game I go out of my way to recommend to people wanting to play FF.

FF14 is another MMO. Oh well.

 

[poundingmetal74]

4 & 6 are my favorite games ever made. I'd probably start with 6 if you haven't played a FF game before. Possibly 10 if you prefer shinier graphics

 

[lordmardok]

In my opinion, Final Fantasy 9 is the best modern Final Fantasy out there. It doesn't possess any of the pretentious leads that clutter up FF7 and FF10 nor does it have the absolute back asswards mechanics found in FF8 and FFXIII.

It's a pure, straightforward fantasy story about a magical world full of mist, a believable cast, a characterized and near-lovable villain, with a good set of mechanics and excellent pacing. Graphically it holds up quite well for a PS1 game, the OST is, once again in my opinion, one of the best. I still hear Song of Memory sometimes in my head.

This being said, if FF9 isn't your ball, I'd recommend FFXII which got a lot of undeserved hate for some reason. Despite the fact that it had the best combat system I'd seen in a while that seamlessly merges the mechanical auto-combat of FFXIII for those who to be able to puppet their minions like an evil overlord (no seriously, if that's your bag go for it, this game is excellent for it.) While still allowing the player to (harbinger voice) ASSUME DIRECT CONTROL and play the game the way the older games were done. The license system is a little funky but better than the Sphere system (or at the very least, no worse) and has some of the best environments I've seen in an FF game in forever (seriously, Ivalice is beautiful.)

Also FFXII's limit break system is one of the most cinematic and entertaining I've ever encountered. Those with fast enough reflexes and quick reaction time (and decent luck) can turn a hard boss fight into one long Dragon Ball Z-esque cinematic beatdown that is so satisfying I should probably tell my therapist about it.

anyways, that's my two cents. FF9 and FF12.

 

[RJ 17]

Lamentations of a Former Squaresoft Fan...

TL,DR: The series went to crap when they switched from 2D to 3D.

FF1: The one that started it all. The plot is a bit silly when you put even a little thought into it, but still you can't fault it for being the game that launched (to my knowledge, and I'm perfectly willing to be proven wrong) the longest running game franchise except for Mario.

FF2 and 3: Sadly I've never had a chance to play these two, I hear good things though.

FF4: It's really hard for me to choose between this, 6, and Tactics (the original on the PS) in terms of "what's my most favorite FF", but in the end I always settle on 4. The story is fantastic, the characters are all great, there's a number of parts that always end up being tear-jerker moments every time I play through the game, and the sound track is (in my opinion, of course) the best in the entire franchise. One of my favorite things about this game is the fact that you're not over-loaded with 10 interchangeable characters that - depending on how you equip them - can all function essentially the same (I'm looking at you in particular, FF8 >.>). Each character has their own unique uses and they come and go as the story progress. This keeps changing the party dynamic and requires coming up with different strategies as you progress through the story.

FF6: As mentioned before, this is one of my Top 3, though if I had to place it it'd come in 3rd. Remember how I said I didn't like how a lot of the games in this series overload you with too many characters to choose from? Well this game had a literal airship full of'em. So many characters that the final dungeon splits you into 3 parties of 4...and there's still a couple left out! That said I absolutely love each and every one of the characters in this game so it kinda balances out. Again, the story for this game is great, as is the sound track, and I will say this: Kefka = best FF villain. Ever. End of discussion.

FF7: I'm sure there's plenty out there who are willing to sing FF7's praises, and I generally agree with them. It was a really fun game, the story was a bit wonky, but it had decent characters. The combat and materia systems were really enjoyable too. I just don't think it's God's Gift to JRPGs that a lot of people out there seem to think it is. It's a good, solid game, and with the exception of Tactics, it was the beginning of the end for me with this franchise...as it's all downhill from here.

FFT: This one gets my silver medal. Hands down the best story in the franchise - it's the story that made me want to become a creative writer - and that's why I always have such trouble deciding between this one and FF4. Ultimately though, while I love the grid-based combat, the fact that each fight can easily take 20-30 minutes does become a bit of a slog. Still, I'm pretty sure that out of all the FF's, I've replayed this one the most. My favorite thing about the game is not using any of the special hero characters you pick up along the way. Nope, I stick with my main character and the 6 cadets you start the game with. Why? Because you get to develop those no-name cadets into true heroes of their age. And when the monk you've raised since the beginning of the game executes that epic Hamedo counter with a one-two (two weapons) punch combo to the face, winning the fight and preventing one of your other characters from turning into a crystal...well, even those no-name cadets will go on to become legends. :3

FF8: And so we start the downward slide. My problems with this game stem mostly from the fact that, due to the junctioning system, it was too easy. With the right combination of junctions, you could literally have your characters enter god mode and use limit breaks every single turn. Beyond that the story is a ridiculous time-loop story, the characters are all unapologeticly emo about one thing or another, and over-all they started turning it more and more away from the actual fantasy settings that were the roots of the series and transformed it more and more into an anime-like story/art design. For a full list of complaints, watch Spoony's playthrough/review. This was the first Spoony playthrough/review I had ever watched and it instantly made me a huge fan. Why? Because quite literally every single thing he brings up is something that I've brought up at some point or another in discussing this game.

FF9: And speaking of cartoons, here's a game that I was so unbelievably bored with that I literally stopped playing it after I completed the first disc. I've heard people say this is the best in the series, they've told me that the first disc is slow but the game gets good after that. Well I'm with Yahtzee on the notion of "Oh the game gets great later on!" ........why can't it be great right now? Why should I have to complete 1/3rd of the game in order to start enjoying it? I'm not asking for a non-stop thrill ride from start to finish, but if you can't grab my interest by the end of the first disc then I'm sorry, it just wasn't meant to be.

FF10: Ehhhhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmmmm no. No thank you. I will say I absolutely loved the combat in this game and I enjoyed Blitzball as a distraction as much as I enjoyed Chocobo Racing in FF7. Still, the main character is a horrendously unlikeable twat and...well, again, just go watch Spoony's playthrough/review of the game. I watched it long after I was done with the game and most of his criticisms are things I'd tend to agree with. Beyond that I hate how incredibly linear the game was. People give FF13 a bunch of crap by saying it's just one long hallway...well so was FF10. The difference is that there's actually, you know, stuff to do to distract you from the hallway in FF10.

P.S.: I'm pretty sure the infamous Laughing Scene gave me the mild tinnitus that I still have to this day. >.>

FF10-2: Rented this game...then took it back 3 hours later. That should tell you my thoughts on it.

And thus, with the abomination that was FF10-2, I finally washed my hands of the series and I haven't played a new FF since. From what I've heard, outside of a half-way decent MMO (along side a horrendously shitty MMO ) and Disidia (never played it but I want to just so I can be Kefka and murder/taunt everyone :3), I haven't really missed all that much.

 

[Sacred_Flame]

Of the ones I've played:

---The Main Series---
FF3 was decent because of the class system.
FF4 was great.
FF7 is overhyped, but still a great game.
FF13 was decent. Get it for $8 or less if you really want to play it.

---Others---
FF Tactics Advance was fantastic! My favorite game by far.
FF Tactics for the DS was good. Two steps down from its predecessor.

I really want to play FF6 and the original Tactics. Other than that, Bravely Default.