What is your favorite Final Fantasy game?

[Manji187]

I've played VII, VIII, IX, X and XII (didn't finish it, but invested a good 48 hours).

Overall, I like IX best. I had to get used to the character design in the beginning though. FF VII is a very close second. As for VIII, I managed to enjoy it (I was 12), but even then the story was rather sketchy.

I did not enjoy X as much as the previous three. I found most of the characters to be annoying in some way (except for the awesome Auron), Blitzball sucked and the story did not appeal to me at all.

As for XII, I enjoyed roaming the huge world. The setting (Ivalice) and atmosphere were great and that "Shakespearean" speech was actually interesting because it was so different. Political intrigue as the theme was also a welcome change of pace. Yet, again, the characters were rather "meh", except for Balthier and, to some extent, Ashe.

I wonder if I'll ever play another FF title. I've (in hindsight wisely) skipped XIII, but I must admit Versus XIII interests me.

 

[Kyrian007]

VIII then IV, in that order. Both were the only FF games that did anything to lessen the severe amound of grind necessary to complete FF games. Both also had more compelling stories than the rest.

 

[SodaDew]

I like VII, yea I'm a part of the norm BUT, I like IV and V a lot!

 

[scrambledeggs]

Definitely X. It's just... everything I could ever want in a game. I can't really put it into words. I'm just so motivated to do everything in it every time I play it.

 

[TheRookie8]

Really liked XII's artstyle and story. For a while I liked VII, but now I just think it's just okay.

 

[Sixcess]

IX I've never finished. I just couldn't follow the overarching plot, and by the time I hit the 4th disc I realised I had no idea where I was, what I was trying to do or even who the bad guys were, so I just lost interest.

I'll admit that the plot of IX does start to get a little complicated as things go on, but I can't quite understand how you made it all the way to the final disc without knowing who the bad guy was, seeing as much of the previous two discs revolves around you specifically chasing him. It's kind of like someone completing the Nibelheim flashback in FFVII and not realising that Sephiroth is a bad, bad man.

It's been the best part of a decade since I played IX last, so my recollection may be a little hazy. I won't do what I usually do (i.e. refresh my memory with a quick trip to Wikipedia) as I'm just trying to clarify why I personally couldn't follow it, not convince anyone that the storytelling is, in itself, bad.

There's two key moments in the game that kind of sum up the problem I had with it. The first is at the end of... the first disc (I think), when the guy on the dragon shows up. Alright I could tell he was the bad guy because he just exuded 'JRPG Big Bad' and I was cursing the game for throwing me into a sudden confrontation with him after what I recall as being a gruelling series of prior battles without so much as the courtesy of a save point.

But it didn't happen. He gloated a bit about how invincible he was, smacked everyone down in a cutscene and... buggered off, not to be seen again for a very long time.

The second is another big cutscene heavy set piece, where some dude (who again hasn't been seen prior to that or even foreshadowed) appears out of nowhere in a spaceship (?) and has a rant and there's some pyrotechnics and then he buggers off as well. By that point I was just totally lost, and never managed to pick the thread of the plot up again.

(I've seen a lot of people describe IX as more remniscent of the older FF games than 7 or 8, so perhaps it would have helped to have played those as a point of reference. Whilst all of the FF games take place in different continuities they do share some common themes.)

 

[go-10]

favorite VII, characters, story, materia system, lore, world. Its just amazing for me I really love that world
honorable mentions: X-2 same as TC, and Tactics best story of all FF hands down

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

VII, VIII, IX

IX I played first and it got me into the whole series

VII I played second and while I disliked it the first time the second time something clicked and I know consider it a classic

VIII, I really identified with Squall. Plus I actually quite liked the storyline of it.

 

[Sora383]

I've always found something goodish in each ff game but I'd have to say my favorites are X XI (an MMO I know but I loved the story quests) and for the most part XIII (though it should not have taken 20hrs to get into the real meat of the story that is just wrong)

 

[srm79]

VII. It was my first JRPG and back in the day it utterly blew me away.

VIII was... alright, but felt smaller than VII and seemed to spend a lot of time on a limited number of big set pieces (perhaps as a consquence of the more detailed visual style reducing the number of places they could squeeze onto the discs.)

IX I've never finished. I just couldn't follow the overarching plot, and by the time I hit the 4th disc I realised I had no idea where I was, what I was trying to do or even who the bad guys were, so I just lost interest.

You've basically just saved me from having to write more or less exactly the same thing. I started with VII and it rocked. VIII just didn't feel the same but was still good. Never got more than halfway through IX. X was good and I never touched another one until XIII. Oh, the horror....

 

[JasonKaotic]

I feel like going into unnecessary detail, so I'll list all FFs I've played in my order of preference and explain them;

VIII - My favourite game of all time. It was my freakin' childhood. I really can't get into specifics, I just love everything about it.
VI - It took me a while to get myself to get into it, having grown up when 3D graphics first came about, but I do really like it. And I really love the sudden change in mood after the world changes. I tried to say that as unspoilery as I could. And the final boss is absolutely brilliant. I found Terra a bit annoying though, all she ever seemed to do was whine about being controlled and that she'll never know what love is, etc.
IX - My only problem with this really is that the world is very bland. There isn't much to see, and from the names of the continents it seemed the developers were as uninterested in it as I was. But I did love it. Kuja was a very interesting villain.
XIII - I never thought I'd be able to love a Squeenix Final Fantasy this much. It is a shame that it's so linear, but I found the story really interesting. People moan about the battle system too, but I really liked it. And the game's horrifyingly long, so it's definitely a great thing to poor free time into.
VII - It's overglorified as hell, but I still enjoyed it. I can't really remember it that well though, so I can't go into much detail. The abrupt ending did kind of ruin it for me, though.
X - The voice acting. Dear god. I want to find these people and fill their mouths with gravel. Besides that though, I really enjoyed it. The story wasn't quite as good as it's predecessors, and it's sad that the world is explored through a list of choices instead of wandering around looking for sidemissions, but the bones of Final Fantasy are still there, and it is a good game. And Seymour is a badass.
XII - Now we're getting into the ones I don't like. I bought XII expecting a great Final Fantasy experience, and was given Kingdom Hearts with different packaging. As well as that the characters are uninteresting (I hate Vaan with a passion), the battle system was annoying for me (and I really hate to see the traditional battle system I'm used to taken away), what I've played of the story didn't interest me at all, it's unreasonably hard (thought that may be because I ignored all enemies and didn't level, because of the battle system), you get the idea. Definitely, definitely not a good way for Enix to introduce their take on Final Fantasy to me.
III - Now, this probably doesn't count, because it's the DS version. If you played the original and enjoyed it, ignore this. I really can't say much about it. There just didn't seem to be any play value at all. It didn't help that I was playing it on a console that annoys me anyway, but yeah. I didn't like it.

I won't include XI because I didn't play enough of it (thought I was horrified by what I had played), and X-2 for the same reason (and I was also horrified by what I had played of that). I really want to play I - V, but the PS1 versions are way too expensive, and I don't have a NES/SNES. I don't want to risk the DS versions, because of how bad the DS version of III was.

 

[emeraldrafael]

IV.

Not really sure why, but it is the one I alwas enjoy playing most.

 

[Awexsome]

For quite personal reasons involving me and my girlfriend, VIII is my favorite going by just story. Although the "Draw" system I did not like very much compared to traditional MP systems. Junctioning to your GF's was pretty fun but gathering that much quantity of magic to make a large difference in your stats was not.

VII had my favorite gameplay mechanics for in battle and the materia system.

 

[Sean Hollyman]

Final Fantasy X

Auron was cool

 

[F'Angus]

Personally I have to say Final Fantasy VI and IX.

Both are brilliant games.

 

[Zio_IV]

Imma' go with Final Fantasy Tactics on this one, with FFX and FFVIII as solid runners-up.

Although, really, I liked pretty much all of the final fantasies with FFIII being the notable exception (Keep in mind I never played the crystal chronicle ones). Played both the DS remake and the original japanese version on emulator and never really grooved with it.

Final Fantasy Tactics, on the other hand, is fan-flippin-tastic.

I'll also just say that Final Fantasy Legends 1-3 were pretty good as I recall.

But seriously, Tactics all the way.

 

[Odbarc]

Personally my favorites are Final Fantasy 9 and Final Fantasy X-2

I love 9 for its amazing characters and story, FF9 defined my childhood

as for Final Fantasy X-2, I loved the combat and the free roaming, Yuna as a rebellious Gun wielder makes sense, Rikku is always fun and Paine is just plain awesome. I love the Dress Sphere system its a brilliant change of pace

6 because it defined my childhood. In a time without the internet you could just make up anything believable. Half of the stuff I heard about the game were lies.
(In SMB3, Mario's HAT came off and lost all my coins, so that's where Mario keeps his coins! Crap like that.)

But with FF6, I heard stuff like "Three Dream Stooges" where you get MagiTek armor again for the whole party, get a powerful esper and Cyan learns all his skills regardless of his level and a weapon to go with it. Sounded like a huge stream of lies to sound cool - except that's exactly what happened.
There were also about 100 different ways to "revive Leo" which were all bullshit. Someone was like, "If you do a MILLION fights outside of Kefka's tower in a specific square, YOU GET LEO!"
So you'd have to challenge those idiots lies; "How'd you discover this? You randomly decided to get in a million fights in a very specific random square tile and you repeated this a million times for no reason and accidentally found the best possible prize that would take FOREVER to accomplish if you knew exactly what to do?

 

[jboking]

Final Fantasy 9 is my favorite main series game. Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Advanced 2 probably top my love for FF9, if they count.

Tactics was the first Final Fantasy game where I felt like the story wasn't completely designed for 14 year olds.