The best Final Fantasy game (or a Thread with a poll that lacks at least 25 options!)

[kupocake]

Now, in a forum devoted to a series of games focused on adrenaline fueled combat and interactivity, people may not give me anything more than the traditional grunt of 'meh' or the ever acute 'hur hur, doesn't anyone else think it's funny that they call it FINAL Fantasy yet there's so many of them', but oh halflife2.net forums, can you please answer the age old question of 'which Final Fantasy game is the best evar', as well as solving these three bonus questions:

1) How much more likely are you to not pick 'Final Fantasy VII' with every additional Final Fantasy game you have played?
2) What the hell makes you play and like these menu selection simulators anyway?
3) Am I the only one who thinks that Kiros from Final Fantasy VIII looks like Michael Jackson?

 

[Sedako]

VI is my favorite in pretty much every way (although I do prefer V's job system over magicite-learned magic). A great cast, and a story that sticks out to me more than any other in the series. Kefka is easily one of my top villains from any game. I've at least enjoyed pretty much every final fantasy up to X, mainly because they got rid of the traditional overworld that I always liked.

 

[B_MAN]

Crisis Core isn't listed . . .
not that I think it's the best or anything

I absolutely adored FF7 when it first came out
and since then, FF12 is my fav, mainly because of the new combat system

 

[Parky]

Seven. (please dont hurt me)

 

[AiM]

Tactics...

And I'm not even European!

D:

 

[Dekstar]

I actually really liked FFVIII. Pretty much everything about it made me keep playing, from the futuristic setting (Ok VI etc. had this, but I hadn't played that all those years ago. Still haven't now), the amazing customisation of weapons and stuff. The collecting, the card games, the GF system, the Draw system I especially liked (I'm one of those people who aim to get 99 of everything).

So yeah, FFVIII. Then FFX, then FFV. I could barely bear FFVII.

 

[CyberPitz]

Oh god, this is tough. One was awesome, because it opened me up to the whole genre back in the day. Four was awesome, because it had decent graphics, a kick ass storyline, and many different classes! Seven was badass because..well, it's Seven. Story was awesome, the FMVs were fun, and the characters were developed so well. *For the love of god, what arguments did I just start...* Tactics was great due to the whole strategy you needed. Granted, you could easily 'farm' on a level you've beaten and get mass XP. But still, game was rocking.

I honestly can't put my finger on any one as being the "best", but I suppose if I have to vote, it's going to be 7. But why the hell isn't V on there. It was a great game, as well.

 

[StardogChampion]

I voted XII because of the new fighting system and gameplay style. If I had to choose one to play right now I'd probably choose that.

VII overall since it was the first one I played.

 

[kupocake]

But why the hell isn't V on there. It was a great game, as well.

With those few options, I omitted V on the basis that it was never released on its original Platform hereabouts, and therefore was more likely to be considered a retro-curiosity that people played years after it was the new kid on the block (I highly doubt that Final Fantasy V was anyone's first Final Fantasy, and people usually hold a special place for their first. I like V and I'm hoping that there's a DS remake on the way a la' III and IV).

On that note, what was everyone's first Final Fantasy? Mine was VIII, on the PC of all machines. I didn't understand the draw system at the time, and soldiered on through. Now that I understand it, the game is really too easy... so long as you have about 40 hours extra to pour into it compared to the other games. I remember seeing a review for VII, and given that VII was the first title in Europe, it was easy to come away with some misconceptions. Like, I believed that the series was one big-ass story that spanned 7 eras on the same world.

Frankly, the series would have been cooler if that was true (Actually, it kind of works, considering that the first 5 are medieval in tone, the sixth is more Steampunk and the 7th is a kind of sci-fi dystopia with most of the FF mythology ripped out or warped to seem somehow more 'modern')

 

[Bad^Hat]

Gotta go with VII. It's bound to be my favourite since it was my first foray into the FF series (and RPGs in general), but - rose-tinted glasses aside - no other FF game I've played since has managed to grab me like 7 did. Then again this could just be because of how similar they are to each other, so maybe I just played it first and then burnt myself out on the series. Maybe that's why they call them all "final", lol?

1) How much more likely are you to not pick 'Final Fantasy VII' with every additional Final Fantasy game you have played?
No more or less really, since they're all quite similar to me. Exception for FF8 which just ****ing sucked, and FF12 which was great except for the fact that it could feel like playing an MMO by yourself at times, which is pretty much the opposite of fun. FF's 1-6 could never hold my attention as well as well as other 2D RPGs of the era (such as Chrono Trigger or Secret of Mana), but I have a feeling I would've liked VI had I ever managed to stick with it. Honourable mention for FF10 which had great combat but hilariously bad story and characters.

2) What the hell makes you play and like these menu selection simulators anyway?
I'unno, I'd say they were more than that for their time, for me it was the cinematic quality and depth of characters (compared to other games). I find them nearly impossible to replay now though.

3) Am I the only one who thinks that Kiros from Final Fantasy VIII looks like Michael Jackson?
Um...

No, no you're not.

 

[Warbie]

VI, obviously

 

[VirusType2]

I'd have to say X, because I liked the upgrade system, I liked the characters enough, I liked the graphics, and I guess the story was good enough.

Yuna was pretty in the FMV and the beast summon was pretty cool though it got old
Rikku was very likable. What a cutie.
and the black mage was sensible and had cool spells
The punk kid main character you play is OK I guess
Wakka was wierd and goofy, but he gets cooler once you get out of that weird village
Other characters I don't remember.

Like most of these games, It wasn't really a challenge once I bought 99 of each medical supply. The exception being when you faced with enemies that were real bastards and they put your party to sleep and make them crazy. Also the last boss actually required me to dig into my inventory to pull out the ass whip.


I played most of the FF games.


FF III (USA - SNES) was my other favorite.

 

[Jintor]

VIII, because it was the first one I really completed and also at-the-time stunning FMVs and OMINOUS LATIN CHANTING all the time.

Also I liked Rinoa. And Squall was lovably moronic.

 

[VictimOfScience]

FF XII. It used to be FF: Tactics, but XII had me enthralled for scores of hours and I still love to play it to this day, esp. with the wonderful upscaling the PS3 does. :thumbs:

1) How much more likely are you to not pick 'Final Fantasy VII' with every additional Final Fantasy game you have played?
With the advent of XII, much more likely not to.

2) What the hell makes you play and like these menu selection simulators anyway?
The storylines are usually incredibly deep, the quest takes you to the far corners of the earth and/or other planets/realms, and the fighting has only gotten better.

3) Am I the only one who thinks that Kiros from Final Fantasy VIII looks like Michael Jackson?
No. :E

 

[Acepilotf14]

I didn't really like them, but Tactics was neat.

 

[Qhartb]

VI. I played XII first, then VII, then something like VI, I, IV, VIII (incomplete), and recently DoC and Crisis Core. I've not gotten very far in Tactics: War of the Lions. VII is a good game, but there have many been even better ones in the series.

 

[Letters]

I've only played Mystic Quest and VIII and finished neither of them. VIII I get pretty far into... I even went through that amazingly tedious bullshit to get the Tonberry King guy you could summon (turned out he sucked), but the game bugged out on me before I could finish it. I voted for Mystic Quest though just because it made me so mad when I was a kid. All I know is you could only play a little past the first boss (some skeleton guy I think) that was incredibly hard before you got to this icy area which was nothing but a dead end. I still swear to this day that the game is impossible.

 

[kupocake]

IX hasn't even been mentioned in this thread yet. Did everyone skip it or something? There's nothing particularly offensive about it after all, perhaps it just doesn't stand out... Last of the good FFs i'd say (Ok, I still haven't played XII. Or XI, which I assumed people would be playing right now instead of visiting here to vote).

Final Fantasy X is the least humane method of abortion known to man. The Vatican were outspoken on the subject, and the Pope apparently demanded to know why the enemies repeated in every second area, only with different colour schemes. Though apparently, he tolerated that when he gave Halo a 96% rating, so what the **** does he know?

 

[Acepilotf14]

I played 10 till I had to fight that gay dude aeon that would kill me in one hit, handled by that gay guy with the awesome abs.

 

[Bad^Hat]

IX just completely went under the radar, outside of Japan atleast. Might have had something to do with the return to kiddy/deformed characters after 8's more realistic approach.

 

[CyberPitz]

The first FF for me was the first. So props to me

I HATED, utterly HATED 8. I can not play it for long, before I get so utterly bored, and annoyed with the game......These types of games are VERY entertaining because they can't evolve the game play much, so they rely on story to grip the player. Think Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy. GREAT stories.


Other than that, it's the booze talking, so I better leave it at that.

 

[JFry]

VI would have to be my favorite for the characters, story, setting, music, etc.

IV was my first rpg and I loved it for many of the same reasons but VI just fits together better I guess.

VII is great of course but I thought VI had a slightly better story and characters.

I loved the setting and some of the characters in VIII but I hated the convulted menus and ridiculously easy battles. I felt the story was incredible in some respects and laughably bad at other times.

To me IX was the peak of the "old style" from a technical standpoint. The story presentation was extremely polished and smooth, the interface was easy to navigate, all the subquests, challenges, hidden items, the card game, etc. felt very well balanced in terms of their importance in the game. The characters I felt were somewhat forgettable tho who could not love that cute little black mage dude.

I only played maybe 1/4th of X but I thought it was pretty good and don't see what people didn't like about it. My only real complaint was the huge amount of time you had to take out of the story at the beginning to learn how to play that water ball game.

 

[Leto]

I played 10 till I had to fight that gay dude aeon that would kill me in one hit, handled by that gay guy with the awesome abs.

You use Shiva ( the newest Aeon you got) against the Aeon, then once it's dead, you use your party against Seymour (that gay guy with the awesome abs)

I liked X very much. It was my first Final Fantasy game.

Yes, the story needs some work and Tidus ( the main character) was really annoying.

I tried FFVII and I have to say I didn't like it that much.
FFVIII was okay.

I want to try out FFIX

 

[Acepilotf14]

seymour was a bitch
I recently tried repeating it, but it froze up once I got to the cut-scene where you see Seymour's big space star thingy.

 

[Kyorisu]

Me is playing Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift.

Pretty good so far but still has that damn annoying camera issue.

 

[AiM]

FF XII. It used to be FF: Tactics, but XII had me enthralled for scores of hours and I still love to play it to this day, esp. with the wonderful upscaling the PS3 does. :thumbs:

1) How much more likely are you to not pick 'Final Fantasy VII' with every additional Final Fantasy game you have played?
With the advent of XII, much more likely not to.

2) What the hell makes you play and like these menu selection simulators anyway?
The storylines are usually incredibly deep, the quest takes you to the far corners of the earth and/or other planets/realms, and the fighting has only gotten better.

3) Am I the only one who thinks that Kiros from Final Fantasy VIII looks like Michael Jackson?
No. :E

How could you... betray FFT like that!?

D:

Although at least you chose the game that was made by the same guy + vagrant stories, so at least that's partially forgivable. But still, War of The Lions is so awesome...

 

[LackingSaint]

Oh they're all the same.

 

[Rapstah]

I only really played FF VIII seriously, and then I had to play it through in one sitting because my PS2 didn't have a PS1 memory card.

I should really get back to playing it on my PS3 sometime soon, I wonder how it scales up to 1080p. Probably horribly.

 

[Jintor]

I loved the setting and some of the characters in VIII but I hated the convulted menus and ridiculously easy battles. I felt the story was incredible in some respects and laughably bad at other times.

That is probably the best description of my experience of FFVIII

Seriously I loved the whole Timber Revolutionaries plot and the way there were like 14 revolutionary groups but then ALL THAT GOT THROWN OUT THE WINDOW BECAUSE SORCERSS WOOoooOOooOO!!!!

That was seriously retarded.

And then it got back to awesome for a while, especially with the battling Gardens high in the sky, but then WHAT THE HELL TIIIMMMMME COMPPPRESSSSION -___-

 

[Narvi]

It was TIIIIIMMMMME KOMMMPPPRESSSSION, Jints. And it was too bad really. The FFVIII universe is one of the more awesome ones, it deserves an anime or summat.

And I'm going to go with VIII, since it's the first one I've played, and I still like it best out of the only three I managed to play for any degree of time. (I played VII and IX as well, and X... for... like... fifteen seconds.)

 

[Warbie]

VIII can suck my balls. Has there ever been a cast of more annoying, angst ridden teenagers? Worst protagonist ever.

 

[Gargantou]

final fantasy sucks!!!11 the original final fantasy just ripped off the original ultima series!!11

 

[CyberPitz]

final fantasy sucks!!!11 the original final fantasy just ripped off the original ultima series!!11

And DRAGON WARRIOR!

 

[PimpinPenguin]

Where's Final Fantasy X-2, that game rocked

 

[Sedako]

Where's Final Fantasy X-2, that game rocked

NO NO NO NO

 

[kupocake]

X can suck my balls. Has there ever been a cast of more annoying, angst ridden teenagers? Worst protagonist ever.

Fixed.

 

[ShinRa]

The way I see it, every FF offered something to the table.

FF7- for me, was the best, better than 6, and better than 8 10 and 12 (never played 9)
FF8- second best for me. almost had me as well as FF7 but I didn't like the universe as much.
FF10 - Auron. ok? thats it. he's the ultimate bad ass good guy. More protagonists need to follow in Aurons steps.
FF12- battle system and a breath of fresh air for the series.

Is it me or was 10 and 12 rediculously short compared to the rest? I assume its because of voice acting and cutscenes taking over for the old text reading style. I feel like 7 and 8 couldve taken me 60 hours just to get through, and then 10 and 12 felt like they were both completely over in 30-35 hours.

 

[ríomhaire]

Ten is the only one I've played to completion and despite what others may think I much prefered the turned-based combat to that of the other FF games I've played. So I voted Ten.

Also, Yojimbo is quite cool. I remember I was fighting Seymour on Mount Gagzet and I got stuck (hadn't leveled up enough, I ended up just restarting the game because I had been playing quite stupidly) and I was pissed off so I just gave Yojimbo all my money and he pulled out a sword and slashed him in half. My jaw was just hanging open. He slashed the ****ing boss I had been trying to beat for ages in half. When I picked my jaw off the floor I realised I had no money and my heroes were still far too weak, so I restarted the game. It turned out to be very much worth it as I discovered Valefor's secret second overdrive when I restarted.

Has anyone here able to beat the dark aeons? I was only able to beat Dark Valefor (after quite a while of trying). Dark Ixion was the first one I encountered and it freaked the shit out of me because it killed my entire party with Thunderga straight away.

Is it me or was 10 and 12 rediculously short compared to the rest? I assume its because of voice acting and cutscenes taking over for the old text reading style. I feel like 7 and 8 couldve taken me 60 hours just to get through, and then 10 and 12 felt like they were both completely over in 30-35 hours.

I think I clocked up over 70 hours on Ten and I didn't do a lot of the side-quests liked the Cactar village and most of the creature capturing and, as I said, the Dark Aeons. I did get some of the celestial weapons though and all the secret aeons.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Me is playing Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift.

Pretty good so far but still has that damn annoying camera issue.

Freakin wapanese. *waits patiently for english release*

FF10 - Auron. ok? thats it. he's the ultimate bad ass good guy. More protagonists need to follow in Aurons steps.

Wow, the stoic badass with a scar and a heart of gold? Yeah, that's such an untapped market in japanese media. :|

 

[kupocake]

Wow, the stoic badass with a scar and a heart of gold? Yeah, that's such an untapped market in japanese media. :|

Auron defaulted to being the best Voice work in that game, because deadpan badass doesn't exactly require much range. And everything else lacerated your ear-drums.

Final Fantasy X is my shortest FF modern complete I believe (I saw red numbers in FF8, and it wasn't pretty). The thing is that though the plot doesn't last long there's A. A Buttload of FMV to sit through and B. Far more sidequests than any other game. Trouble is, they all suck. Jump 200 lightning bolts? No thanks.