Best final fantasy after 8?

[TerranV]

Well I have to say IX. The story and characters are amazing. That said, there are some gameplay issues:
-Combat has a few kinks.
-Some characters are much more useful than others.
-Lots of grinding in order to master abilities.
-Too much of the extra content is mixed-up with the chocobo mini-game.
-The final boss seemingly comes out of nowhere (Not really a gameplay issue but still). There are alot of theories surrounding where he comes from but nothing is really spelled out.
-Card game is harder to learn and less useful than in VIII (although the rules don't randomly change on you).

That said, the story is solid and the characters are entertaining and well developed. Its also has a decent sense of humor too.

Edit: Oh and its the last Final Fantasy game to have an actual overworld.

 

[thejboy88]

I vote for FFIX. It's my all time favourite FF game, and for good reason. Yeah, it may be kiddy or cartoony, but with all the overly-serious and brooding characters the FF franchise has been dominated with in the past couple of decades, this one really stood out.

The battle systems might not have been as sophisticated as 10's for instance, but I liked it regardless. And as for the music, I think it could be some of Nobou Uematsu's best work, and that's saying something.

 

[TerranV]

And as for the music, I think it could be some of Nobou Uematsu's best work, and that's saying something.

This a thousand times.

 

[Lunar Templar]

9 and 10 are really the only two good single player FF games in the main series to come out.

FF14 is really good though if you need an MMO.(not played FF11, but it bares mentioning, it's still going, and still getting updates and expansions)

other then those, no, not really, most the FF games after 10 in the main line are shit.

some of the side stuff is pretty good though. The Tactics games are, despite not being my thing, pretty good, and while not 'technically' a Final Fantasy, Bravely Default. If you have a 2DS or 3DS, get it, cause it's 'not Final Fantasy' in name alone.

 

[Kinitawowi]

If you've played I-VIII, I'd seriously recommed IX; you'll be able to get all the little backreferences and shoutouts to the rest of the series (I missed most of them at the time, and it's only when playing the earlier games that I can suddenly appreciate IX all the more).

 

[The White Hunter]

Could well be the first to post this but I'm not reading page 2:

Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn.

Ruined my life. 11/10.

FF14 is really good though if you need an MMO.

You slippery ninja you.

 

[2xDouble]

Post 8, hm? Do you mean numeraled titles only? If so, then 9, no question. If you prefer, or simply enjoyed, classic Final Fantasy, you will probably like Final Fantasy IX way more than any of the others, post FF8.

Final Fantasy X is an easy second choice, assuming you aren't interested in the Tactics series. It has a positively gripping story, and a curiously satisfying skill/level system (except for Kimahri... poor giant lion dude, starting basically trapped inside four Lv.4 keyspheres for most of the game in exchange for first access to Ultima... poor guy...).

Final Fantasy III, though not technically "post-8", only released to the West recently, and in a form "updated" from its NES days, so I suppose technically that counts as "new". (In fact, the DS title just got a Steam edition.) It's a curious game, and it's obvious that Final Fantasy V learned from and improved upon 3's features and systems a great deal, but it's nice to see the progenitor of the "modern" Job system. It's not bad, by any stretch, just maybe not as good as the SNES-era titles. If you really loved 5, you should play 3. If not, maybe play 9 or X first.

Too bad there is nothing after X, but there was a weird spin-off game that may be worth your time. They called it Final Fantasy: XII. The gameplay is... weird, more akin to Monster Hunter or Fallout than Final Fantasy (and that subtitle makes absolutely no sense), but a lot of people liked it. At least the story was interesting, full of twists and turns somewhat similar to the absolute classic, FF4.

 

[CannibalCorpses]

10 without a shadow of a doubt...excellent game that got plenty of replays over the years.

9 is odd...i played it and all i remember is that shitty card game that drove me mad.

12 was pretty poor in comparison to the rest but it did have some merit...

13 is plain and simple graphics over gameplay.

 

[Angelous Wang]

7 - Great, replayed lots.
8 - Great, replayed once or twice.
9 - Great, never replayed.
10 - Great, replayed lots.
10-2 - Not good, but I managed to complete it.
11 - MMO, tried for few months but got too bored.
12 - tried but hated it, gave up about 1/2 way.
13 - OK but not good, I managed to complete it.
13 v any other - Nope, not buying squeal(s) for a game that was barely passable.
14 MMO, nope don't want to play 11 v2.

So I guess my answer is 10.

 

[Casual Shinji]

10 is a silly game with silly characters in a silly world, but out of all the FF games I've played it really was the most fun. The whole game kinda feels like being on vacation, which is very fitting since your character goes from a futuristic setting to a tropical one that's very laid back, even with the end of the world looming.

9 I never got too far into, but the picturesque visuals are fantastic and the characters are extremely likeable.

12 had the makings of something great, but boredom permeates nearly every aspect of it. From the story, to the characters, to the performances they give. And even though the voice acting is way better than in 10, it's as dry as a bucket of sand. The combat is actually pretty interesting and involving, but the EXP system makes all character abilities interchangeable.

13 is just... 13.

 

[Cybylt]

I'd either go with 9 or 13-3. And I'm sure the latter is going to get some weird looks but hear me out here. Oh, and if you don't mind pay to play, ARR is great.

Mechanically, it's straight up Valkyrie Profile. The world is ending and you're the angel of death giving salvation on a time limit and the combat is stringing together button presses and holds to break the enemy's guard then beat them down.

Yeah the plot is fanfic tier, the protagonist is flat and lifeless(except this time it was on purpose) and the director is insanely creepy with his crush on her but... the combat's great, the sidequests are fun, interesting and make up about 90% of the gameplay, and I'm a bit of a sucker for costumes being indicative of class. Overall, it feels more like a Tri-Ace game than a Final Fantasy, and perhaps that's why I like it so much.

As for 9, it's a fantastic throwback to all that came before it while having a memorable core cast though if you're not named Zidane, Vivi, Garnet, or Steiner, you'll be dropped off quickly. Weird final boss thing that was also a callback so I'll forgive it and mechanically stronger than 7 or 8, with each character more or less reflecting a classic class and bringing those skills to the table, making character selection important again.

A Realm Reborn is the visual and thematic realization of FF 3 through 5. It's a bit more like a standard MMO in gameplay compared to 11, but 11 was grindy auto-attack all day bullshit so that's okay! It turns the classic summons into some of the best MMO bosses you'll see. The music is the best of its genre by far, especially in the boss battles and every FATE(think Guild Wars 2's random events), raid, or boss win gets you the classic fanfare. The clothing, armor, and building aesthetics are straight out of the SNES era (one of the end game tanking sets is the Warrior of Light's armor and you get an FF6 magitek walker mount for completing the story) but with the hi-res cg people have come to expect of the series these days. On top of all that, they add in patches what other MMOs would charge extra for.


A lot of people will vouch for 10, but it just didn't do it for me. Probably because I found the cast barring Yuna and Auron to be pretty annoying.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Final Fantasy IX hands down. It's a mix of the old looks, mechanics and themes with the newer ones. The story is a lot better that VIII's sorceress snafu that had lost plotlines and plot holes or X's Whale-Godzilla born from the evils of machines and summon magic. The hero isn't some whiny bishonen; he's a chivalrous thief that flirts with girls whenever he can and is very open on his feelings about the hot princess he's traveling with. Anyone who's put off by the cutesy character design needs to play to at least 3-4 hours in, then you find the story gets really dark: the horrors of war on normal people, corrupting and manipulating nations into fighting each other, several genocide plots, actual annihilations of two civilizations, a people trying to survive by attacking others. IX's main villian might look like a sissy, but he's damn scary in how his schemes are hatched and his magic abilities are up to the series' standards for villians. Plus his boss is basically Darth Vader, if he was a wizard with a huge beard. The only real flaw I see in this game in the combat can be limiting at the end of the game IF you don't know how to use the characters unique abilities and the final boss comes out of nowhere. Otherwise it's one of my top 3 FF games, with a good story, great cast of colorful characters, and charm that I think VIII didn't really have and the newer games never regained. Oh, and like how Cid in VIII was basically Robin Williams, a major character in IX is Sean Connery in his Ramirez outfit. You can't go wrong with an Immortal backing up the heroes.

I liked X and XII. But those 2 had flaws that showed Square was loosing its touch (loosing Hiranobu Sakaguchi after X definitly seems to have hurt) and was too willing to change many series staples and mechanics to try to slowly reinvent FF as an action RPG. Hence X and XIII being linear, XII being a single player MMO and XIII being on combat-and-level-up auto-pilot while you walked down the hallway for 25 hours. Ever FF after IX also got rid of the explorable world map (which XII somewhat remedied with its web of connected areas). What happened to being able to whenever you want during the story go race chocobos while a meteor approaches, or fight in a colesium while a mad jester turned god shoots death rays at towns, or hunt for treasure while an evil queen amasses hear black mage invasion forces? Most of the player-party characters in post-IX games were dull or annoying, too. Auron, Lulu, Basch and Balthier were the reason's why I didn't hate the party the game gave me in their respective games.

FFXI and XIV shouldn't have been main numbered sequels, in fact IX was almost considered a spin-off since it was a throwback that clashed with the more tech prevalent themes that were building up since FFVI and even before that one.

 

[Klumpfot]

Final Fantasy IX all the way!

It has a world map that is incredibly fun to explore and it has a memorable cast of (mostly) interesting characters. The art design is also excellent.

I'm going to go against the grain a bit and voice my distaste for X, though. Tidus might be least likable video game protagonist I've ever seen. Also it was the first game in the series to dispense with an explorable world map. Also, everything looks overdesigned and horrible. I'm not a fan!
That said, the combat system is rather good.

 

[Brotha Desmond]

The only ones I've played were X and X-2, so I'd have to say X. I liked the premise of X-2, but when you try to mix real time combat with turn based menu driven combat is when both become un-fun.

 

[dscross]

So it sounds like most people think either 9 or 10 and the others are average to poor. Still not sure which to choose out of 9 and 10 but I'll see what they are all about I guess to make my final (fantasy) decision.

 

[Dominic Crossman]

Between ff dimensions and ff9 for best post ff8. Simply cus ff10's cutscenes are unskippabble, ff10-2 sucks, ff11 is a mmo (I dont like mmos), ff12's leveling system is all over the place, ff13 trilogy sucks according to EVERYONE (personally, I dont think they're "too" bad), ff14 is a mmo.

bravely default is ff by a different name, so if you count it then that's the best.

 

[Risingblade]

FFX easy, no question about it.

 

[Folksoul]

XIII. It's a shiny Persona 3. Identical characters going through identical character development and near identical game play. Linear dungeon crawl broken up with cutscenes of character interaction.