I actually gave up on Final Fantasy 8 when it first came out. I think it was (superficially) so different from like 6 or 7 that I couldn't figure it out. My brother forced me to try it again-once I figured out the most important thing is to draw out all the magic you can, and junction everything to your characters, then the game started making sense.
Of the series, my favorites in order are:
* Note, I haven't ranked FF3, since it just came out and I haven't had a chance to play it yet. I'd suspect it would be towards the end of the list.
1) Final Fantasy 9 and 10-about equally. To me these have the best, most refined gameplay in the series, and the best stories. I was really moved by both of these. Also I loved the voice acting in 10-at least for the main characters (there's an occasional terrible actor-especially that kid at first), but overall it really added to the experience. I spent a couple of years randomly shouting out "Shoopuff waitiiiiing!! ! Riiiiide the Shoopuff?
2) Final Fantasy 6, 7, and Chrono Trigger-about equally. Both were astounding in terms of presentation when they first came out, and are still really great games today, though I think 9 and 10 improve on them both. Chrono Trigger for all intents and purposes is a Final Fantasy game, and belongs here too.
3) Final Fantasy 8. I don't like the game's "system" as well, nor it's story as well as 9 and 10, but it's still a great game.
4) Final Fantasy 10-2. This was a HUGE disappointment in a lot of ways. It almost completely recycles it's areas from 10, and the plot is completely trite. The story is no worse than most Japanese RPGs, but it's just lame compared to the previous 5 Final Fantasy games, and it didn't actually bother to resolve any of the big dangling threads from 10! I was dieing to know what happened to...certain people, and nothing! The music is much worse too (not done by Nobuo Uematsu I don't think). Even despite all that, they did give it a totally new "system" (well, it's different from 10's, anyway), and it is a very fun game that I don't regret picking up.
5) Final Fantasy 1-I played through this many, many times when it first came out. I've gone through it with a "balanced" party (Fighter, Monk, White Mage, Black Mage), an all fighting party with like a fighter, thief, and two monks. An all magic party-Red Mage, White Mage, two Black Mages, and various combinations like that.
6) Final Fantasy 5-Like the original, this uses a job/class system that you get to pick yourself. Unlike the original, you can change classes basically whenever you want, and later on start to combine powers of classes in different ways. That leads to some interesting combinations, and makes you want to try out even "bad" classes, because you never know when some strange power they have will massively boost a better class's power. While that's fun, it's also really slow paced (lots of experience collecting needed), and the plot is nothing special.
7) Final Fantasy 4-When I originally played this on the Super NES (called 2 in the United States), I liked it way better than FF 1. I didn't like it all that much when replaying the Playstation rerelease though. I think the US version was the "easy" release, while the original Japanese version was a lot harder (and that's what the Playstation version was based on). Ironically, the "easy" version was a lot quicker paced, and had a lot more strategy. Like you never had to worry about ly leveling up, but did have to try various strategies to beat some bosses. The hard version there's no strategy at all-the only thing that works is just spending hours leveling up.
So depending on what version, I might actually put this above FF1. But the hard version I liked less than FF1 and 5.
8 ) Final Fantasy 2-this is the worst of the real series. It seems to be a precursor to the Final Fantasy Legend games (ie Saga) that later came out on the Gameboy. Like those, this doesn't have levels or experience. Actually it clearly does, but you don't get to see them, so you never know exactly when you're going to become more powerful. Theoretically you get more powerful based on the abilities you use. Like attack with a sword a bunch and your strength and sword skill goes up. Cast white magic, wisdom magic points go up. Get attacked by an enemy, your hit points and defense go up. Basically it ends up working like a normal RPG-you really still need to experience collect, only you don't know when you're going to get improved stats.
That, combined with the lack of classes, and the trite plot, make it my least favorite in the series, though it was still a solid game.
Also strange about it-right at the beginning if you go past this one area you can be attacked by super strong enemies that wipe you out instantly. That made it seem impossible, until I realized I could go a different direction. About a quarter of the way into the game I sort of "cheated" by going into an enemy controlled town ahead of time, and just repeatedly beating a soldier (you talk to one, they attack you, you beat them, and then they're still there afterwords to fight again). They weren't too tough, and I spent an hour fighting them again and again, getting stats really fast from them-after almost every fight I'd get a bunch of stat boosts.
Okay, so that's it for the REAL Final Fantasy series. The creator and executive producer left, and is now doing Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon. Final Fantasy 12 is the first without his help, and it shows. I like it, I think it's better than average, but it's worse than the entire rest of the Final Fantasy series IMO. It's the only one that I've sold after beating it, and I have no desire to ever play it again.
I'm expecting Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon to be the REAL continuation of the series. Like Chrono Trigger, I expect them to have the magic of the real Final Fantasy series much more than the FF series will now without it's creator.
Last edited by Wolfpup on 25 Apr 2007, 5:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
08 Apr 2007, 2:52 am
Plus that limit of Rinoa's that makes the whole team invulnerable!
I just lapsed into l33tspeek from shock at seeing RedMage actually enjoying an FF game. Glad to see you actually like it, RM. 
It's a good game, though out of the PS1 FFs, I actually prefer IX.......
