The Best Final Fantasy Game

I know this must have come up before but it must not have been in a while since I haven't seen it in the first 5 or 6 pages.

I recently got an emulator and started playing some of the older FFs. I haven't played much after FFVII, but from what I can tell the reception's all lukewarm. IX and XI are hardly favorites and there's much contention about them.

After reading opinions elsewhere. I just wanted to post my top 4 and my thoughts on them and let people post thier own thoughts. Keep in mind I prefer games like Planescape: Torment to all of these titles, but that I've still had many a fun hour in front of FF games.

4. FF II (IV): This is the "American" II. This one had an ok story, though far from flawless. I think this is when FF started getting serious about spinning good yarns and you can see a decent save the world saga in it. It's certainly a more chohesive attempt than the nearly stoyryless original FF. The original 3 characters -- Cain, Cecil and the caller girl (Ryiel?) are decent characters for the story to revolve around.

Unfortunately it's only a decent template. Much of the story runs as a soap opera with characters constantly "dying" and coming back to life that so often that it all gets dumb and silly. There's got to be a limit set on how many times a character sacrifices themselves for the "good of a party" in a given story. By around the halfway point of the game (or earlier) this has already happened on at least 3 seperate occaisions. This is not even counting the times characters seem to have died unintentionally for later return.

Also, the heroes are ineffective to a dumb degree for a good part of the story. They set out to save the world, but end up playing the part of morons on many occaisions. Of the 8 crystals they are supposed to try to protect from the main villian after handing one over in the prologue, they arrive too late to save 3, get steamrolled during a castle seige over another, foolishly exchange another one in return for a party member who the villian predictably attempts to execute anyway, and fight an finally WIN an unexpected attack over another in the Dwarven castle except... just when you think you've finally actually protected a crystal, suddenly the villian's dimembered hand starts crawling around on the open floor and the heroes see fit to watch it go right up to the crystal, grab it, and vanish.

Hello? Beuller?

I wouldn't trust these guys to protect my sock drawer.

Regardless though, for a video game and compared to others in this series, this is still an enjoyable play and, not having played some of the later ones, sits as a tentative #4.

3. Final Fantasy VII: I know a lot of people think this is the best FF. I don't disagree that it's good... while I think many of the later FFs like XVIII or X could overtake the fourth position, I don't see them getting past 3rd spot. This story had no major holes like the previous entry and was very engaging.

The reason I relegate this to #3 is not so much flaws in the game itself but on the strengths of the next two entries.

However, it would do to say WHY this is not as good as the other two and as no doubt many will be saying it is superior.

The reason is that the story is a teenage quality. Sub-adult, I think, though just. Sephiroth is a great villian (though outdone by one other, IMHO) and the dynamic between he and cloud is great.

But there's an element to this game where it seems to insist I feel for some of the other characters. It seemed to insist that I, as a player, care about Aeris despite the fact they'd given me no particular reason to care about her. She was waiflike and innocent so supposedly that was enough. Tifa would probably have effected me more at that point.

Also, the game breaks down in direction towards the end. It shares this in common to some extent with the next entry, but I think the next entry pulls the endgame off better with a clearer direction on what has to be done next.

If I were to compare these games with say, Shakespeare plays, I think of FFVII as more akin t

 

You seek this thread: http://boards.theforce.net/games_videogames/b10005/18671259/p52/?768

IX is severely underrated, IMO.

 

This list is correct.