I find it weird so many people like XII since it’s the game that turned me off of Final Fantasy for more than a decade, but opinions, assholes, etc etc.
Yes, final fantasy is good. You can put final fantasy in anything, and make it good. Kingdom Hearts? good. Your cell phone? good. Power Rangers? good. Super smash brothers? good. Lost Odyssey? good. Any gimmick alcoholic drinks with names like Potion and Elixir and Gysahl Green Bloody Mary? all good. The internet? so good.
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I bounced off it really hard when I first played it back when it came out, but I came back to it a couple years later and loved it. It helps that I’m a huge sucker for anything Ivalice, so its setting already grabs me, and I enjoyed the way its story played around with historicity (something Ivalice games like to do). And, hell, a lot of people complain that your characters aren’t there for a lot of the most interesting plot events, but that’s true of Final Fantasy Tactics, too, and people love that game (for good reason, it’s amazing). Really, it’s just another thing Ivalice games like to do: your player characters are participating in events that play out on the grand stage of history, but they’re doing so behind the scenes.
It helps that I also like its combat, which I know some people really dislike, both for its clear MMO inspirations and for the way it incentivizes heavily scripting your characters’ actions. I thought of it more like a JRPG take on real-time-with-pause combat that let me script things so I could pause less.
The International Zodiac Job System version is definitely a huge upgrade, though. Its job system is rudimentary but still a step up from the original game’s wide-open license board and it has a ton of quality-of-life features and balance changes that improve the game’s balance. I hope the PS4 version improves on that even more, but even if it doesn’t, I’m still going to enjoy it.
I’m genuinely a pretty big fan of the series. I will admit there was a certain point that killed it for me for a LONG time, and that was FFX-2. I had been really hyped for it as I loved the job system in FFV and liked the idea of a full female protag game and just…wow I hated it. Mostly because Payne is such a bad, bad, bad character that is bad and should feel bad. But, I picked up XV over Christmas and holy crap the first half of the game is absolutely brilliant. While the ending isn’t really bad per se, I don’t think I would have made it through if the first half wasn’t so great.
My favorite was 8. 8. 8. I should stress that 8 was the first one I played, and that I was a huge sucker for romance and little fuzzy bolero jackets. I kinda stopped caring about the modern throughline when I lost two FFIX game saves to bizarro bugs. FFX lost my interest entirely, and I’ve not really played a proper main series game since.
Going back, I got to experience 1, 4, 5, and 6 and I feel like 6 is kinda the ace of the series. I do really like the DS remake of 4, though.
If the positive reception to FFXV is any indication, the VII remakes are gonna be pretty good. I, for once, cannot WAIT for the HD Don Corneo scene.
My favorite FFVII rumor was that, if you can steal the Hard Edge and get to Costa Del Sol in 5 hours, you get to see Tifa’s boobs.
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FF6 is something pretty special, I think. For an SNES game with a lot of goofy parts, it has a surprisingly mature story (and by “mature,” I mean emotionally mature, not “M-rated”). It’s in a three-way tie for my favorite in the series (with 9 and 12).
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FF6 was phenomenal. I know 9 is technically the best one ever but 6 will always be the best in my heart because of how highly I rate two good female protagonists. Obligatory #operascene
I really didn’t like 7. And Rinoa is Ultimecia.
Also you forgot to put Tactics on that poll (RIGGED) and Tactics was just amazing. My favorite FF character is Delita.
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If we’re counting non-numbered FFs, then Tactics is wayyy up there at the top for me. Delita really is maybe the best-written Final Fantasy character. His development is just so thoroughly human and his relationship with Ramza is a glowing example of how to write a rival-turned-antagonist without making either character truly “good” or “evil.”
Not just the best written Final Fantasy character, a thoroughly well-written, amazing character period.
Tactics spoilers below, I know it’s like a 20 year old game but it is such a good game that I really feel it’s kind of criminal to spoil it and everyone should play it.
The way he just out plays and out plots all those rich fuckers and just wrecks them at their own game? :discourse: But he’s honorable! Delita is certifiably Lawful-Evil (please do not go off on a D&D alignments derail.) He compromises himself because he’s decent and good. He lets Orlandau live, because Orlandau is a good man and he knows it. But Orlandau has the fame and popular support to coup him once he’s king and is a legit threat. He knows this yet he still lets him go. And throughout the whole game, he may be playing Ramza and manipulating him and pointing him at all the occult supernatural shit he does not have the time to deal with but he also looks out for Ramza. Helps him as much as he can. Just… gosh! He’s just so good! One of the best characters in gaming period. The person or people behind writing him deserve some kind of award. Bioware could only dream of a character like Delita. And when Ovelia stabs him in the after credits stinger? I was torn. He deserved it… but he was good. He only became what he needed to be to achieve a truly great Ivalice. By all accounts, he was a great king who cared about the people, and a hero. To what extent he could have stopped wearing the mask and plotting and conniving? To what extent he could cleanse the poison and corruption he had to take on to be the savior and stop and just be truly good? I don’t know. He might have been too far gone, the mask may have become his face. But gosh, he’s great. I need to stop now.
I’m one of those weirdos that thinks FF8 is the best one. I’ve played every Final Fantasy except 15, because I hated all three of the FF13 games (only completed 13-2, couldn’t stomach the other two long enough), I can’t stand any of the Kingdom Hearts games, and so based on that plus the Platinum demo I just imagine 15 will be a waste of time as far as my enjoyment is concerned.
I should clarify, it’s the mechanics for all those games that makes them unplayable for me, because I hate action/platformer rpg’s. The story is bad too but I’ve been playing JRPGs my whole life, if awful story could stop me from playing one I wouldn’t still be on game discussion forums.
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I have some crazy unpopular Final Fantasy opinions.
10 is easily my favorite, which isn’t too out there, but…I liked 13. And don’t like 9.
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No one likes 9. I remembered hating FFX but when I played the HD remake it was way better than I remember it being, thankfully.
You lie. FF9 is a beautiful game with a heart of gold!
:yeah: 9 is the best of the numbered Final Fantasies. This isn’t even debatable. It’s a love letter to Final Fantasy and just so, so good.
There are folks who don’t like 9 and we are all allowed to have our opinions but I am actually a little confused by it. I like to ask people who dislike 9 what other games they like outside the Final Fantasy series to get an idea of their taste but it’s not like these people have terrible opinions everywhere. Normally they like games that I also like. Their hang ups on FF9 are usually the art style or the slowness of combat or how stupid Necron was. I loved the art style and didn’t feel the combat was that much slower and the last thing was just a homage to earlier FFs where that was the standard that happened all the time. I was able to forgive the things in FF9 that I didn’t like because its good aspects outweighed them to me. I guess their threshold and ability to forgive FF9’s weak points are lower than mine. It’s weird because they’ll like games that have many of FF9’s same flaws but it’s okay in those cases. Different strokes for different folks I guess.
The things I didn’t like about FF9 are that Quina had virtually no character or story and barely any point and Amarant was kind of the same. Also, Eiko’s archetype is the kind of character that makes me uncomfortable and that I find insufferable. She grows, develops, and gets better but those first few hours with her are painful and I won’t deny it. Every other character was really great though and the storyline is probably the strongest out of every numbered Final Fantasy. It’s really good.
FF golden age was FF4 - FF10. Afterwards I just stopped caring and the games are just, well, OK. FF6 used to be my favorite – it’s certainly the one I’ve played the most. But Final Fantasy Tactics has a way of really sticking with you, and the depth is really crazy and awesome. Something a lot of current FF’s (reasonably) lack.
The only thing I do like in FF9 is the music.
All those little nods and winks and “nudge nudge remember this from previous Final Fantasies?” was just a giant flashing sign that read “think of all the other, better, Final Fantasies you could be playing right now!” to me.
It’s not my least favorite, but it is my least favorite of the post Final Fantasy 3 games.
Well, full disclosure, I was mostly kidding when I made the “no one likes FF9” comment because I remember very little about the game. I remember liking Garnet’s butt, which is weird because the art style was so cartoony but I would’ve been 15 at the time so I really can’t expect a lot. And I remember thinking Freya was rad as hell, but that was about it. I do remember being real salty that they took my Guardian Forces away, though. GF’s were the best part of FF8 and I really wish they would’ve kept that summon system going for more titles.
That’s fine, like I said we all have our opinions. I bet you like games I like still and don’t just hate everything good. We just disagree on this thing (and you’re wrong. 
) No but seriously, 9’s soundtrack also probably the best FF soundtrack so you’re right to like it.
Shout out to FF8’s Breezy though. Odd that it’s not on 15’s playlist anywhere. Or, at least, no streamers/LPers I’ve been watching have found it yet.
I think the Final Fantasy series really only started getting Good with FF4. I think that’s the game where they found their groove and really solidified the idea of what FF should be. The focus on character and story, the plots and subplots, the whole love triangle with Cecil, Rosa, and Kain. And Cecil’s whole Dark Knight to Paladin transition was hallmark. It really kind of set the plate for what a Final Fantasy should be and 5 built off that and then 6 just went hog wild. 7 and 8 diverged a bit and went back to lazy stereotypes and archetypes imo, but they got more or less back on track with 9, 10, and 12 (though fuck Vaan, he’s poison.) Before dropping the ball and I don’t even know with 13. Looks like they’re kind of going back to the right focus with 15 from what I’ve heard and seen though so… eh.
I haven’t really loved a FF since 9. 10 was alright and I liked 12 more than 10 (and 10-2 was art, check out Brainweasel’s LP of it.) But by 12 it was starting to show some troubling things and I just quit Final Fantasy after 12.
You’re being far too reasonable! Pistols at dawn.
I was only meh on base 12, but I am really looking forward to Zodiac Edition 12.
See, and I saw most of those as “this game has classic Final Fantasy stuff like Black Mages in it,” rather than a lot of winking callbacks to other games. It was more like a return to FF4/5 than anything else. The couple of exceptions were the reference to a dude with spiky hair if you check out a big sword in Lindblum, and the fact that one of the villains is named Garland (even though he has no similarity to FF1’s Garland).
I’m with @Jenner on the story, too–it’s one of my favorite FF stories because of how tightly it revolves around the themes of family and what it means to have a home. And it has my favorite cast of secondary characters in the whole series, I think. FF9 does a fantastic job of characterizing everyone through how they talk, how they dress, what they do–sometimes it seems like every NPC, no matter how minor, has enough attention put into them that they’re a character on their own.
I finished the vanilla version of FF12, but I have to say the game only really became great with the IZJS version, so if you haven’t played that yet, you’re in for a treat with Zodiac Age.