I hate Final Fantasy 7, 10, and 13. I actually liked 10-2 at the time but haven't played in a long time. I like every other in the series but those 3 and 13's offspring just ruined the series for me. I mean I went from loving 1, 4 and 6 (not getting to play 2/3/5 till later) then 7 comes along and convinces me to get a Playstation along with my N64. I hated the game but liked other PS games to when FF8 came along and I played it I was happy to see I liked it and the series again.
Then 9 came along and I liked it too, except for the jump rope game. The card game was not good compared to FF8's awesome one mostly because they didn't really tell you how to actually play it and made it a plot requirement to progress. The final boss coming literally out of nowhere was also pretty dumb but not unprecedented. But the characters and plot were pretty cool, as with 8, so it was hardly damning.
PS2 came and FF10 looked amazing. It was amazing, visually. Musically it sucked. Nothing on the level of One Winged Angel, Dancing Mad, or Eyes on Me. I had to look on Youtube to find the OST so I could refresh my memory and apparently it has over 5 discs worth of tracks none of them do it for me. I remember Otherworld being at least different as a kid but its not that great a track.
The characters were a mixed bag. I liked Lulu, Rikku, and Auron. I only used them, and honestly I could only stand them and Yuna and I used her when I had to. I would do the same thing in FF12 with Ashe, Fran and Balthier because seriously why are Vaan Penelo even in the game? They literally bring nothing useful to the plot and have zero personality. At least Tidus was kinda central to the plot of 10. V&P also didn't do anything to take away from my enjoyment of 12, which can't be said about Tidus. I'd use Basch too if the party size were bigger but he's 4th on the list.
FF13 was just an utter disappointment. I haven't even bothered to finish it in all the years I've had it because my original PS3 died at (while I was playing something else) the second Bartolomus fight and I was not starting again from the beginning. The sad thing is I actually really liked the characters, except for Hope and Snow but I didn't hate them either. The music was okay, the plot apart from the whole L'ciel, Fal'ciel etc. being awkward and confusing made up words to keep throwing about when they sound so similar instead of just calling them Espers and thralls or something.
I didn't even necessarily mind how linear it was, because its an RPG its not a sandbox game and once you left Cocoon it opened up a bit. But you can be linear and not be barren. You can have a fast paced battle system, and not resort to just letting the player watch as the game plays itself. Oh it makes you think you have some level of input in the battles, but its more like a glorified series of QTEs. You had better have THIS paradigm set up and switch to it at THIS time and the shift to THAT one immediately or you are screwed. No grinding to get more leeway, because we decided to lock your levels HERE until you reach the next arbitrary plot point.
I just got sick of it. I just wanted to have my fighters fight, my healers heal, and my mages mage. The gambits in 12 were more of a helping hand, and allowed you to set up intricate series of conditions for various actions that you wanted to plan ahead for. The paradigm system in 13 is just glorified DDR.
FF15's combat looks better. You actually seem to be controlling a character again. If it works like Tales of Symphonia then cool. I kinda lost my hype for it over the...10 year? development hell its been in, but it really tanked when I learned it was gonna be a total sausage party.
One of the main reasons I loved the series since I was 7 was the inclusion of awesome female characters. White mage's sex is debatable, but Rydia, Rosa, Faris, Terra, Celes, Quistis, Lulu, Freya, Garnet, Agrias, Rikku, Yuna, Paine, Edea etc. are all just as important as the male characters. I'm not saying I'm against a male cast either. Some of my favorite parts of FF8 were the ones with Laguna and the boys, which must have been weird for the girls to be linked with across time or whatever.
The little adventure the dead side characters have in FF2 is also all dudes I think, and its still fun. But those are parts of a whole. An entire game, where the lack of a female party member isn't just coincidental but outright stated by the devs to be intended as they would ruin the bro dynamic with their vaginal voodoo (paraphrasing) makes it sound like its not really gonna be something I'm looking forward to spending 80 hours or more in.
I mean I'd not even care one way or the other if not for the aforementioned opinions of 13. Its basically prove to me that SquareEnix can still make a good FF game and then I'll buy a ticket to ShonenRPG 15.
