Greatest Final Fantasy Game

[Citizen V]

Nearly every fan of the genre knows about this series.Nearly everyone has a favorite installment of the game also.Most like them all,but they do have a favorite.What`s yours,pick and explain why.

[J Dog]

Here's the thing; all new fans of Final Fantasy will ALWAYS pick Final Fantasy VII just because Cloud and Sephiroth are in it. That dosen't mean it's not a great game, but FF VII is pretty much the de facto game in the series, and it's the one series ALWAYS mentioned.

Me? I gotta go with Final Fantasy IV and II. The reason is because II was a lot harder and IV had one heckuva plot AND score.

I also have to give creds to V and VI as well. Once they come out on GBA, I'll get them. V for Gilgamesh, and VI for the giant plot and numerous characters.

[Gargus]

Final fantasy 3 was the best in the series (I forgot which number it was in japan though).

But it will always be my favorite and also marks the end of the good FF games released in the united states. Also marks the end of my love for squaresoft, when the ps1 came along they put to much time and effort into graphics and went down the crapper.

[Sanagi]

Out of the main series, it's gotta be FF6. The best combination of plot, music, and gameplay.

In my eyes, though, it gets shut out of competition by FF Tactics, because I just love that game beyond rational limits, even despite its prominent flaws.

I also think a lot of people overlook what a fun experience FF8 can be because it's weird and has a kind of dumb story.

[The Fury]

Here's the thing; all new fans of Final Fantasy will ALWAYS pick Final Fantasy VII just because Cloud and Sephiroth are in it.
What do you mean by new exactly?

Final Fantasy VII was the first to even be release in Europe, as a kid I had no chance of playing any others. I have not played all but III (which has oddly no been released), only completed 6-X2 mind you but still, played the rest.

I chose FF7 not because of the characters but it is what introduced me to the series, it was the first 3D one overal I do think it is the best game of them all.

But that's not saying the others aren't great as well. 6 dies have the best plot in my view.

[Bruce Wayne Jr.]

Glad to see more fans of VI.

I don't think I've ever cared about a set of characters as much as I did Terra, Locke, and the rest. As you guys have mentioned already, the music is excellent, the battle system is perfect (2 player!), and the story is simply the best.

[thehod]

Only played VII, VIII & X, but I've got some of the other on a SNES emulator somewhere, but as J Dog says, its the first I played, so its the one that stays with me.

[Sanagi]

FF7 really hasn't aged well. The 3D graphics are inconsistent and often quite ugly, and the gameplay isn't half as interesting as its predecessor or its successor. The materia system doesn't even start living up to its potential until almost the end of the game.

I like FF7's story and characters, for the most part, but that's the main thing the game has going for it.

[Your Imaginary Pal]

I chose VII because it's the one I enjoyed playing the most.
I played FFI on the NES And I think there was a sequel on the SNES, but my brother hogged all the play time on it, what I played of it I enjoyed(maybe someone could tell me the series number for the one on SNES).

I liked the Materia System more than the magic systems for the games that followed. I enjoyed the story in VII as well it got a little muddled in places but it was still layered enough to be intriguing. I liked the side quests and in the "In-Game" video games and the chocobo raising system.

In 8 & 9 the chocobos weren't as much fun to breed. In 7 you could race them to earn some extra gil, use them to get special materia & other items. I think you could do that in IX but that game got old to me really fast I can't explain why. And don't ger me started on FFX, i just gave up after fighting Sin for the 100th time. I maxed out the hours (mainly because of blitz ball) but I couldn't finish the game, it doesn't help that my brother took it with him when he moved, but I think I lost interest before that happened anyway.

FF7 if nothing else got the most replay out of me.
therefore, it is my favorite.

[Sanagi]

I chose VII because it's the one I enjoyed playing the most.
I played FFI on the NES And I think there was a sequel on the SNES, but my brother hogged all the play time on it, what I played of it I enjoyed(maybe someone could tell me the series number for the one on SNES).
Ah, the eternal Final Fantasy numbering problem.

System/Japanese Title/American Title
NES/Final Fantasy/Final Fantasy
NES/Final Fantasy 2/Not released until "Dawn of Souls" remake
NES/Final Fantasy 3/Not released; DS remake planned
SNES/Final Fantasy 4/Final Fantasy 2
SNES/Final Fantasy 5/Not released until PSX collection
SNES/Final Fantasy 6/Final Fantasy 3

Once the series moved to the Playstation, they didn't bother changing the numbers anymore.

[Valmore]

Are we talking Final Fantasy VI as in III on the SNES in the 1990's? Because that was truly the GREATEST Final Fantasy of them all.

[Sanagi]

Are we talking Final Fantasy VI as in III on the SNES in the 1990's? Because that was truly the GREATEST Final Fantasy of them all.
Yes and yes.

[Hiromi]

VI all the way.

[J Dog]

Final fantasy 3 was the best in the series (I forgot which number it was in japan though).



In Japan, the third Final Fantasy in the states was Final Fantasy VI.

[random havok]

ff 6 (3)

btw who was gogo in that game

[Citizen V]

There were a number of theories as to who Gogo was.A favorite theory is that its Setzer`s love.But from the way Gogo is dressed,its impossible to tell if Gogo is a man or woman.

Final Fantasy IX is very under appreciated,mainly because of the whole "cartoon" or "kiddish" look and feel.

Final Fantasy VIII has the futureistic feel,and people did complain that it had too much menus.

Final Fantasy X was very well liked,mainly because Summons come out and fight for you,instead of just doing a single attack.

[saintjon]

Four will always be my favourite, I think.

[titanfan]

There's basically "old" and "new" generation Final Fantasy to me. 3/6 is still the best in terms of storyline--as someone else said, I never cared more about an RPG cast than I did about the cast of 3/6.

I like X as the best of the new generation of FF games, but VII is close behind. VIII is one of the worst RPG's ever made in the history of the universe.

[Nate Grey]

Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest all the way.

[TheDarkestHorse]

Just for an overall fun rpg experience, I gave it to 9. It's the only one I swept through in about a week without any long breaks or playing anything else at the same time.

I love the characters and atmosphere of 7 & 8, but 10's the only one to make me cry. The only old school one I played through was 6, and I dug it much. Not sure if it's the same one everyone else is talking about...the villain was a jester guy, and two of the characters were blonde brothers, one a charming prince and one a superstrong monk.

[saintjon]

Yeah that's VI all right, two brothers you mentioned are Sabin and Edgar.

It's a great relief to me that no one's said XI yet, that game was one of the wrost I've ever played.

[DrewTheXenocide]

My favorite is, and probably always will be, V. It was just really fun to play around with the Job Crystals, and it had a lighter tone to it. But, just the idea of a Broadsword bearing Ninja makes me salivate.

[shadowraven]

My all time favourite is FF Tactics. It's the only FF game I've played through more than twice.

Discluding XI and other spin-offs, here's how I'd rank the others in terms of personal enjoyment. I have yet to play II and III (for NES), so I'm leaving them out.

1) Final Fantasy X
- There is only one thing I disliked about Final Fantasy X, and that was the last 5 hours of it's story. Everything else was excellent. After dark and dreary Steam-punk Feel that had dominated the series since FF6, I really dug FFX's lush locals. I also thought the battle system and character progression systems were some of the best in the series. Also, blitzball is the most addictive non card-based minigame ever :)

Before FFX, Voice acting was an exception rather than a rule in console RPGs. This game made a good case why it should be included in all modern RPG games. To me, it made the experience a lot more emmersive, even if some characters were annoying (which is always the case in Anime anyhow).

2) Final Fantasy VI
- If it wasn't for Chrono Trigger, I think FF6 would be the benchmark for 16bit rpgs. Great cast, great music, and a compelling story. The gameplay and magic system were good too. This game wasn't as customizable as V or VII, but it took what FFIV was trying to do, and did it right. Terra's theme is one of the greatest pieces of VG music of all time :)

3) Final Fantasy VII
- Not much needs to be said about this one. Cloud, Sephiroth, Materia, good stuff.

4) Final Fantasy V
- I love the job system :) This game had the best battle system of any of the main Final Fantasy Titles up until FFX. While a few aspects of it were unbalanced (samurai coin-toss is WAYYYYY too powerful when you're first able to use it), you can't beat the customization of the job system.

The story in FFV is pretty cliched, but I thought the characters had a lot of personality. Especially compared to those in FFIV.

5) Final Fantasy IX
- I enjoyed the game and the story. Would probably be higher if I didn't play it in a period of my life where I was probably the least interested in gaming. It came out in my senior year of Highschool, and I was too busy with preping for college, work, and a long-distance relationship to care much about games. I bought and played it to keep up the tradition more than anything, and rushed through it. One day I'll give it a proper play-through.

6) Final Fantasy VIII
- I think I'm in a minority of gamers who enjoyed this title. If this was any other game series, it would probably rank higher. The Gameplay and character customization is solid (I love complex magic/stat systems), but VIII loses points for character blandness (with a few exceptions) and convoluted story. In terms of my enjoyment, there's a big drop from this game to the next on my list.

7) Final Fantasy IV
- this game's appeal is lost on me. It's probably the least customizable game in the series. You don't have any party selection options until the end of the game, and you learn predetermined skills for each character based off their level. The only thing you get to costomize is your party's equipment.

The story is typical RPG stuff. Not bad, but not great either. I'll admit that a lot of my gripes come from the fact that this game is now 15 years old, and is therefore missing now standard RPG conventions that arose from the SNES era. The first time I completed this game was during the past winter, so it doesn't get the benefit of nostalgia which may play into my opinions of FFV-FFVIII.

8) Final Fantasy I
- The original Final Fantasy really shows it's age. Needlessly hard, no real story, and faceless characters. I still think it's worth a playthrough though.

[Mike Pothier]

Gotta go with FFVI. It was my first great love in videogames.

[The Fury]

It's a great relief to me that no one's said XI yet, that game was one of the wrost I've ever played.
Bloody online only.

[metr0man]

7. For all the usual reasons, go find any one of the other millions who adore this game and read their responses.

Runner up is FF8, which is one of the most underrated games ever. Period. I actually thought the story was rather brilliant and I loved the time loop terminator-esque aspects of the ending. Not to mention a brilliantly customizeable system, (i'm always baffled when I read people hate it because they hated drawing all the time, i think 'wow thank god i didnt spend the whole game drawing magic from enemies or maybe i'd hate it too'), and my favorite videogame 'set-piece' ever in that AWESOME Battle between the Gardens. As a matter of fact, there are only two flaws in this game: not being able to skip the long summoning sequences, and the fact that the laguna/squall connection wasn't elaborated on more (the connection being a pretty big one that they hinted but never actually said).

[Cactusakic]

VII.

It was the first FF game I played and it has some special memories for me.
I remember one particular near 24 hour non-stop session on it with myself and two friends playing it. We all worked at the same place and all 3 of us called in sick so we could continue playing.

Good times.

I have to say in fairness though, that I still have not played any of the FF's before 7, only the ones that have come afterward.

[Michael P]

VI. That game just wowed me in so many ways. I recently replayed it, and it still got to me. The opera house sequence may go down in history as the greatest video game stage ever.

[Gaz]

I put down X because it's more playable than VII and IV, has a better story than I, II and IV, has pretty damn good voice acting (Tara Strong, John DiMaggio et all, although 2 was better at that), a great character progression system, the Aeons, the great cut scenes (although the budget was blown on the big first kiss) and, well, Auron!

[metr0man]

^ man i hated the japenese pop song that came on during their big first kiss. total clash with everything else, almost ruined the emotional moment for me (but not quite).

[J Dog]

ff 6 (3)

btw who was gogo in that game
Gogo was the character that nobody pretty much knew WHAT he was.

Here's the link about him. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gogo_%28Final_Fantasy%29)

[founder81]

I put down 7. I know is the "standard answer" but I love the story and the Materia system.

I close runner up is 10. 10 by far has my favorite leveling and ablility system (Sphere Grid). The story for me is just underneath 7.

3rd place is FF XI, yes the online one. Even though it takes ALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time to get to it, its story is the most massive and epic of any FF. I'm not kidding myself though, I'm sure that's because of it emense size due to the fact its online. And no matter how powerful you get, no matter how strong your weapon and armor is, no matter what mega-spell you get, there is always a bunny that will kick you butt.

[Weapon Ick]

Nobody gets it. The best was Final Fantasy Adventure for Gameboy. It was like Zelda. No menu fighting. Great Story. Cool music. And the best part is that no one has heard of it.

[Sanagi]

Nobody gets it. The best was Final Fantasy Adventure for Gameboy. It was like Zelda. No menu fighting. Great Story. Cool music. And the best part is that no one has heard of it.
It was pretty good for an early Gameboy game, but I never liked it a tenth as much as its sequel, the Secret of Mana(to which series it properly belongs, not Final Fantasy).

[Weapon Ick]

It was pretty good for an early Gameboy game, but I never liked it a tenth as much as its sequel, the Secret of Mana(to which series it properly belongs, not Final Fantasy).

Yeah after I made that post my friend told me that technically Final Fantasy Adventure is a Secret of Mana game and it's only in the americanized title that the game is in anyway connected to the Final Fantasy franchise.

[Bobster777]

It will always be FF VII for me. It's the game that got me playing RPGs in the first place. ha ha, I had many a sleepless nights playing that game just so I can find out what happens next.

[Thanos_6383]

FFVII is the best.

[saintjon]

Nobody gets it. The best was Final Fantasy Adventure for Gameboy. It was like Zelda. No menu fighting. Great Story. Cool music. And the best part is that no one has heard of it.

I must have played through that game about 8 times when I was a kid.

[SwordChucksMaster78]

I liked the old Final Fantasies a bit better than the newer one, not to say that the newer aren't good, but the older ones seem to appeal to me more due to the characters. Cloud and Sephiroth are okay, but in my opinion, no one can top Ultros and Gilgamesh! Gilgamesh had a kickass theme song, and Ultros had a very appealing personality to me.

[Serik]

Oh my some people actually voted for FF X-2

Edit: Well it looks like they combined X and X-2. Would be interesting to see how many people just liked X-2

[SUPERECWFAN1]

FFVII for me as well. It had the best storyline I can ever remember as a game player. The materia system was fun. I enjoyed it.

FFX comes close to it. I wish they had packaged FFX/2 togethor as twin games. But both are massive long games. I liked the sphere grid and all.

Its too early for me to judge FFXII yet.

[Super Samurai]

I'm torn between FFX and Tactics. I enjoyed the X story most, but the job system in Tactics rocked and the story wasn't too shabby either.

[Xero Kaiser]

Tactics. The only FF game that even deserves to be mentioned in the same sentence is 12.

The rest are crap

[Yun Lao]

I'm caught in a three-way tie between IV, VI, and Tactics. However if I had to pick one...I'd have to go with IV since my last name is also Harvey

[Jmacq1]

I admit it may well be nostalgia, but I went with IV (and before).

Certainly I've greatly enjoyed, even loved many of the other offerings in the series (except VIII), but I've re-played FF I and FF IV far, far more times than any other games in the series (In fact I think VI is the only other one that I've replayed the whole way through).

FF hooked me with the graphics (Good for 8-bit era), and the whole bit where your characters "transformed" into cooler-looking, less kiddy forms halfway through the game.

But FF IV was the first game that really sucked me into the plot and characters. I enjoyed RPGs prior to this one, but they were pretty much still all in the "generic" phase where characters didn't have individual identities and such. Plus (and probably most tellingly) I still rate FF IV as the "best video game ending of all time." Graphics and whatnot aside, a 30-minute payoff for the work you put into the game is pretty darn satisfying (and provides much more sense of closure than many of the games since).

[Citizen V]

Final Fantasy XII has really impressed me,the whole new fighting engine is something that could really become the normal in possible future FF games.

[Gargus]

Final fantasy 3 was the best in the series (I forgot which number it was in japan though).

But it will always be my favorite and also marks the end of the good FF games released in the united states. Also marks the end of my love for squaresoft, when the ps1 came along they put to much time and effort into graphics and went down the crapper.

Oh it was released for gameboy advance this week. I got it and been playing it. Re-loving the game again.

http://www.ebgames.com/common/images/lbox/160796b.jpg

Bestbuy had it on sale for 29 this week and if you got final fantasy 3 for the DS you got 10 dollar gift card so I snagged em both.

[GodSmackingReptile]

i dont know what it is that has you all hooked on this game, im not saying that its a bad game or anything, i just dont see what all the hype is all about. but thats just me...

[yeoman]

IX. It's all about IX. New school graphics, old school style. Kuja needed a better look and the final boss does come completely out of nowhere, but other than that, I love the game.

I dearly loved VI as a teenager and Tactics has one of the best systems around, but loses points for incredibly confusing story. X get's a few points for Auron, but loses them for Tidus. And XII... I hate the early part of the game, but... Baltier. Balthier makes everything better.

If only they made a game that was just Balthier, Auron, Tifa, Vivi and Setzer.

[Grazzt]

i dont know what it is that has you all hooked on this game, im not saying that its a bad game or anything, i just dont see what all the hype is all about. but thats just me...

Uh, which one?

[founder81]

the whole new fighting engine is something that could really become the normal in possible future FF games.

It's not new. It's just a slightly modified version of XI.

So far playing through 12, it feels like "FFXI offline edition"

[GodSmackingReptile]

Uh, which one?

the entire Finale Fantasy series.

[4thHorseman]

I've always loved the series, but FF7 was my fav cause that was the first I truly couldn't stop playing. I played some of the earlier games on the SNES, but they were rentals so I never did get finished with them. I also enjoyed 9, but it's been a while since I played it so can't remember it too much, though I really need to pick it up again.

Final Fantasy 8 was ok, but FF10 and X-2 were just trash in my opinion. They just weren't worth it in my opinion, though I liked the different options/storylines you were available with to challenge FFX-2.

Played Tactics, hated it. And whichever one had come out with the GBA version (the one before the current one, which I also need to pick up), I enjoyed as well, considering it was the one I never beat when I was younger due to rental.

[SquirrelNinja]

In my opinion it's final fantasy 3 in the states, 6 in Japan, not because it's old school but because the characters, music and stories were all first rate, I picked it up on the GBA and it's been so long since I've played it I'm enjoying it all over again.

[Voncaster]

Being a Nintendo guy I missed out on the Playstation final fantasies IX and onward. I did however play FF I, FF VII and FF VIII (VII and VIII for PC).

Final Fantasy VIII was my favorite. Its true the characters and story were more bland than VII. But the game play was much more interesting. Junctioning Summons to boost stats and then buying skills AP points, and collecting parts to build weapons...its a RPG dream come true. It was also way harder than VII. Socerecesses Edea (sp) castle and Edea herself were 20x harder than Sephiroth. (Granted Green and Ruby weapons were probably even harder, but they are really optional side quests).

I voted VIII, but then again I haven't played 8 out of the 11 games. Hopefully VI makes it to virtual console.

[Gargus]

the entire Finale Fantasy series.


Well thats not a fair generlization considering none are alike in story or charcters. Just rpg's sharing a common title.

Me personally I liked them up till 7, once 7 came out they have just gotten exponetially worse. Infact square hasnt made a game I liked since they put out 7, it was the start of the whole "CG intros and minigames are more important than the game itself" phase for them. They worry more about graphics, mini games or making weak attempts at innovation.

Its no different than people who love madden games, friday the 13th movies, britneys spears 13th album, or stephen kings 139th book.

I will say this for FF, atleast its stayed truer to its roots than my other childhood favorite phantasy star.

Your original statement or its follow up made no argument, had no point and just a general stab in the dark at FF games. I hope all your posts arent that useless.

[Citizen V]

I hear often most say that VII is the best,but i think that is due to the fact that VII is sometimes considered the first RPG the current generation played.But im one of those who played VI for the SNES,which is considered the greatest Fantasy.Since many elements from VI went into future Fantasy games,the opening theme song from VII..was actually from VI.

[Sparda]

FF 6 is my abosute favorite that left me with awe and happyness when I completed the game. It was also my second FF game to have played besides 4 which is also an awesome game. Favorite character is definetly shadow.

2nd fav is 7 and 3rd would have to be 4 out of great characters and storyline.

Did'nt like 8, hated the emo squall (at least cloud has reason to be somewhat depressing) and also hated the easyness of the leveling up system. By disc 2 my squal was already level 100 and that was only in a full day's worth of random fights. Too easy. Also hate having to jack magic in every battle just to junction. I'd much prefer the MP system.

But 8 is disney land fun compared to the crappyness of 10 and 10-2. Not only was the games corny, bad set of uninteresting characters, crappy mini games, no world map (that basically took out the fun), and of course last but no least having to do shitty and boring mini games to achieve items to customize for having ultimate weapons. WTF??? I had to do that stupid gay chocobo boring race game to get one of Tidus items for his weapon and I just don't have the patience to play a 100 blitz game's just to get Wakka's as well.

But you know what really pisses me off about 10? MAGAZINE GAMES THAT CLAIM IT WAS A GOOD AND AWESOME GAME JUST BECAUSE IT HAD FINAL FANTASY AS THE TITLE!!!!!!!!! Christ out of fanboyism people enjoy the game no matter how crappy it really is and it's not a matter of opinion either. They know damn well it's shit but they force a grin and endore it just cause it has FINAL FANTASY. Don't get me started on 10-2. I hate playing girl power/charlie angel's type games and that's the case with 10-2. My stupid and idiotic fanboy ass wipe friend calls me a sexist for my opinion and loves the game dearly. I know one's liberal but jesus I play games with character's I relate to, not a knock off Powerpuff girl theme game. And the storyline sucked as well as it's repetiveness and uninteresting settings. At least FF7 tied up the series with a movie instead of a sequel game cause they know a sequel just won't work for these types of games. FF 10 would have been better off as a mini anime series or a movie which ties loose end's instead of having to play through 60 hours of seeing more history which is uninteresting and basically covered in 10. There finished my hate:mad:

This may not count but Kingdom hearts is a fun game though. Yet to play part 2.

I think I should get the FF anthologies and chronocles from amazon.

Guy's I got a question, does 6 advance finally reveal's Shadow's true history and connection to that little girl who can draw enemies? If so let me know please, it's the only uncovered thing there is in the game. (Shadow and that girl are the only one's that can use that item or relic out of all the characters and want to know thier connection.)