Well what do you know, the list was all the games that came out of PS in 1997-1999. Some how I get the feeling these were the only FF games you've played, especially with that reasonless ranking of FFVIII, and this list only shows what years you were playing a lot of games.
Still, its there is always going to be some debated with this sort of list, so I shouldn't criticizes without given my list to be ridiculed over. Very well, but let's keep this simple and stick with the main franchise minus the MMO's and the ones that never left Japan on non-portable console. Yes, Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions is the best damn game of them all, but you don't need me to rank it to know that.
These leaves me with a nice round number of 10 games to rank, so let me do a top 10, which I split into three tiers. Here's my favorite song from each game to listen to as you read:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1InYjqksUO0&list=PLD8D4C57EC59606B2
The Bottom Tier
Look, I've playing hundreds of RPG's and Final Fantasy games aren't that special or horrible. Its the consistent quality of these games that make me keep playing them, so while I am about to bash the worse Final Fantasy games, I don't think they're that far off from others in the series.
10) FFIX
The game built to be an homage to the rest of the series comes off much more like a parody. Zidane even spouts out cheesy anime life lesson lines like Bang Shishigami, but sadly this game takes itself way too seriously to work as a farce. This makes all those allusions to previous games for someone that played them, redone. Add to this one of the weakness villains of the series and the plot falls apart. Had they force more on the original elements of mortality and growing old I think the story would have work much better.
Oh but now I'm beating around the bush, why this is the worse FF game is the game play. It's way too easy. Even bosses can be killed in a couple hits, and you get a 4 man party. Healing is also too easy, and with Auto-Regen and Auto-Potion you can be fully heal by any attack hitting the party. The only credit I can give this game is that character growth is asymmetrical and encourages you to use party members the plot is currently focusing on throughout the game. Also the Chocobo side mini-game pretty fun.
Still, there no question, this is the worse Final Fantasy game. If this is you favorite, please play the older games this one copies, if you like this game you'll love FFIV and FFVI.
9) FFXII
So I think nine's combat was empty, and twelve gives use something slightly better: combat plays itself. The gambit system kind of takes the player out of the game, and the old MMO tactic of Tank/Attacker/Healer works the entire game. The license grid is also far too easy to master, which also makes all the characters identical.
Story wise, I also hate the game. There's a full world to explore sure, but most of the characters aren't really developed and end the game as they begun, there isn't even any real rising/falling action in the main quest. It's pretty damn forgettable, though I do like Balthier, he's in the much better FF Tactics remake.
8) FFVIII
So much potential this game, you can see the combat system and story was trying to combine elements of FFVI and FFVII, and boy did it completely fail. First piece of advice: give me another way to build magic other than Draw, surely there are shops selling this stuff. The random encounters are also more interesting that boss battles, and animation times for moves is sooo long.
The plot is focus on a love story, as childish as a bad manga and with all the emotion show in Star Wars Episode II. There are two love stories where both sides basic just say: looks like things are arrange for us to be together, so why not? And there no interaction with either relationship, though Rinoa was at least made very likable. The plot beyond that is a time loop and everyone has amnesia, so it literally goes no where.
Middle Tier
I'm splitting this into tiers, because I think the different between games in each tier is so small I wanted to point out major groupings. So these are the average Final Fantasy games.
7) FFXIII
Worse of the bunch is the most recent. You might have heard complaints about its oh 20 hour long tutorial. Now FFVI technically spent 20 hours of the game as a tutorial too, but by jumping between its very large cast who all had unique abilities before bringing them all together for the main story. FFXIII gives you a few hours to learn the same basic skill, and tries to tell a story backwards to make everything more confusing than it should be. Very slow to get going. But it does pick up and is actually fair deep and unique combat system when you get into it.
The main plot, is the same as FFX, only the villain's and hero's motivations are confusing. But you know what, FFXIII-2 has an amazing plot, is exciting from the start and improve depth of combat to make me rank it in the top tier. So play this game if only to get you ready for its much better sequel.
6) FF
The original let's you pick a start party based on classes, which means every time you play the game things might go about differently. The story is pretty generic since all the heroes are basically blank heroes doing the quest they were destine to perform. Still, they manage to keep the villains interesting and make everything come together in the end. I still like to pretend I'm following 8-bit Theater plot though.
5) FFV
The game job classes were push as far as they could go, until the tactics games, and I guess FFX-2 if that counts. Despite how customizable the characters were, these were actual characters involved in a long plot trying to kill an evil that supposedly can't die and running into the end of multiple worlds as they jump through different dimensions, which ironically explains how the Final Fantasy series operates in relation ship to each other. While you can master all the job classes faster than other games, you are constantly forced to alter your party to contend with the foes you must face.
4) FFIV
I might have been trying to get the numbers to line up with these last two. So this is the game that created Active Time Battle, where RPG's stop waiting turns and each character acts as fast as they could. The cast was all unique characters and not just job class trees, another big change to the series and RPG's. It is a fun story, about a Dark Knight seeking redemption, which is echoed in the allies that join him in different ways. What's interesting is everyone in the story has different goals and are not necessarily all working together, but occasionally find themselves working against the main villains, who actually seem like they are winning things.
Top Tier
These games are all great, and I have a hard time ordering them. What all these games have is some of the most memorable casts in any game, atmosphere developing plots, fun mini-games, a well structure learning curve, and combat systems with surprising depth allowing you to over power enemies or beat even the strongest foes without learning magic, keeping initial equipment, and remaining at lowest possible level. I mention before that if my ranking included any game that had the name Final Fantasy, then 5th would be FFXIII-2 and 1st would be FFTactics. Here are the three in the middle as best as I can rank them. So I'm going to just gush.
3) FFX
You are trying to kill Cthulhu, and there's a big secret to the main quest Tidus and the player are ignorant of. But that's alright, because what the story is really about is the different characters interacting as they take on this quest, and I love and recall all of them. The Sphere Grid makes it possible for any character to learn every move, but is also restrictive enough that you are encouraged to trade characters often in battle like Pokemon, so there is a real sense of working together. You can also summon Aeons, which get their own leveling system. The only reason I rank this game lower then the next ones is its short, 20 hours of main game play next to 80 hours the other have. Still, that's a full fun game in time it takes to get FFXIII to get going.
2) FFVI
Kefka. Not enough? Muhaha. Castle submarine. Ghost train. Interceptor. The woman contemplating abortion. The man attempting suicide after the world goes to hell because of what his curiosity put into motion and now there is nothing anyone can to do fix it.
Terra and the other heroes are trying to understand who they are, while Kefka is trying to teach them there is no meaning to their pathetic lives. A rebel force using a new found power of magic to topple an evil empire, lead by men trying to become gods.
1) FFVII
Final Fantasy VII captures mood better than any game I can think of, much thanks to its amazing sound track. The one happy theme, played whenever things are looking up, is probably best known for being playing in the most famous death scene -you know if you don't know it already I'm not going to spoil it.
The game also hammers on a lot of real world issues, with a very liberal leaning, so conservative will probably prefer FFVI. The heroes are a team of echo terrorists, that blow up two sibling towers in the largest city on Earth, control by a world power that uses new found energy source as an all powerful weapon that is destroying the planet. What's this global warming, terrorism, fear mongering, poor being undermined by corporate corruption? A bit ahead of its time topical perhaps.
Of course the real plot revolves around trying to catch one of the most well develop villain of any Final Fantasy games, who goes at least four separate phases of evilness, ending on Lavos. But he's most remember not for what he is, but what he takes away. Cloud's character arch also defines how players feel when playing an RPG, when it makes his own revelation something that echoes back to how the player played the game.
Though I guess, based on our attire, I always saw myself as Vincent.
