Top 14 Final Fantasy games

C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER, etc.

I can understand nostalgia making you rank the first game first, but FFII is one of the worst ones up there. Probably a step below FFXIII (this placement I agree with) in playability, but it doesn't inspire such rage, since its mistakes are mostly innocent. So I dunno.

Seems pretty safe to assume that Zipp's list isn't ranking the games in order of preference, but rather in order of release... unless I'm missing something.

Yeah, I realised that, too. Didn't stop me, though.

What about Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions and Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift​?

From what I played:

1. Final Fantasy VI--Fantastic villain, great story where even Square's typical bullshit philosophy can fly, good cast of characters and for it's time pretty damn good eye candy as well.

2. Final Fantasy VII---Yes, it's cliched but it opened up a whole new world to an entire generation, and to me it was among the best in the series. Not to say that it's the best jrpg, oh no, but I liked it enough for the high second place.

3. Final Fantasy X--I love this game. Were it not for the fairly poor dubbing, and the fact that I hated Tidus almost as much as Squall it would place higher probably, and that says a lot. Still, great music, great locations, and I rather liked the story line

4. Final Fantasy IX---The most "fantastic" of the series, really. It went to some sort of roots, and introduced a mesh of humour and seriousness, that really worked, at least for me. My favorite main character in the series, probably(depending on who you see as the main character in FFVI), and the supporting cast, in majority is pretty good. The main villain is hilarious, and not in a particularly good way.(Trivia: In Croatian, Kuja means bitch.)

5. Final Fantasy IV---The third Final Fantasy I played, after FF III and VII, and it was pretty damn dark for it's time. The graphics were average, but I loved most of the characters. If I remember this was Woosley at it's finest when it comes to translations. The story, while generic at first, grew exponentially, and I loved how the party members, similarly to FFIX changed as the story went giving a pretty big cast of characters.

6. Final Fantasy V---Again, a pretty good game, altough more from a technical standpoint then the narrative one. The job system was introduced here in it's full glory, giving you a wide range of selections. The party was so-so, with the exception of Galuf who was awesome. If I remember, Gilgamesh makes his first appearance here, and that's extra points in my book.

7. Final Fantasy I---I played this for the first time a very long time ago, and it didn't make much of an impression at me. I replayed it recently on the PsP, and the opinion didn't change much. I realise that for it's time it was pretty good, but I just couldn't get much into it. It was just too...bland for me.

8. Final Fantasy III----The first Final Fantasy I played, back then on the emulator, yeah before FF VII. I never finished it, though from what I played of it, I remember I rather liked it. The Onion knights as a concept(with a very retarded name) were fun, Cid was there yet again and overall it was playable.

9. Final Fantasy VIII---Of the FF's I played, this one was the worst. I really, really disliked it. The cast, the story which involved time travel(which is rarely well pulled off in any game, let alone in a convulated one that is FF VIII). The only characters worth a damn were Laguna and his mates, and they were there just for flavour it seems.The entire draw system was rage material as were the mini games.

Didn't play tier:
10. FF II---Didn't play. Ought to one day. I liked Firion in Dissidia.
11. Final Fantasy XI ---Didn't play. Don't think I ever will.
12. Final Fantasy XII---Didn't play. It is up there on my list though. EmP hates it, but really, EmP hates everything. From what I heard from people, it would rank somewhere between FF V and I.
13. Final Fantasy XIII---Just played the intro. I think that I would hate it. From what I seen, the only likeable characters seems to be the black fellow with the chocobo in his hair.
14. Chocobo Dungeon---Didn't play it.

FFtactics---I liked it. Loved it even, but Orlandu broke the game. Yeah, there are better custom builds out there, I know, but this guy joins you through the story, and really takes down any sort of challenge up to the end. I still like the game, and would place it rather high on the list, and Orlandu as a character was awesome. AS a party member though, he just broke the thing.

Dissidia---Pretty good, still playing. Has it's good sides and bad sides, but the idea is solid.

What the hell did I play tier:

Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest---No comment. Odd game, odd system, odd everything. I actually finished it and still wake up screaming occassionally because of that.

FFtactics---I liked it. Loved it even, but Orlandu broke the game. Yeah, there are better custom builds out there, I know, but this guy joins you through the story, and really takes down any sort of challenge up to the end. I still like the game, and would place it rather high on the list, and Orlandu as a character was awesome. AS a party member though, he just broke the thing.

Yeah he did break things but if you played multiplayer on the PSP you needed him to break things. You also needed Reis to help break things too.

What's hilarious is how serious this topic has been taken.

Final Fantasy Tactics is probably my favorite of the FF titles. With maybe a tie between it and Final Fantasy 7.

FFt is a turn based RPG for infants. It's rubbish, and so are you for liking it.

FFXII's still worse, though. What a god-awful abomination that was.

It really is rubbish for children. But I still like it.

What's hilarious is how serious this topic has been taken.

That's good. I was getting weirded out for a second. I didn't know if I was the only one who "got it" or if I was the only one who didn't get it.

Final Fantasy Tactics is excellent if you play the modded version that the fans made. I never tried it but supposedly it fixes all the problems with the game.

Well the game was still great, it's just that once you know what you're doing it is incredibly easy.

I've played a lot of Final Fantasy games and more than a few tactical RPGs and I've simply never played a more difficult one than Final Fantasy Tactics. It's certainly not for children, nor is it rubbish. So you were right on zero out of two of your claims, EmP. :-)

I've played a lot of Final Fantasy games and more than a few tactical RPGs and I've simply never played a more difficult one than Final Fantasy Tactics.

But didn't it also take you something like 3 years to get past the first boss in Devil May Cry? :)

Anyways the problem with FFT is it reaches its difficulty peak in chapter 2. Even without using any special characters the default classes quickly become more powerful than your enemies. It also doesn't help that battle objectives move from "defeat all enemies" (who are initially stronger than your party) to defeat a certain target that you can take out after 1 or 2 rounds.

Still a great game for at least one playthrough, though!

BREAKING NEWS:

Venter has never played a Fire Emblem.

FE games definitely have FFT beat as far as difficulty goes.

But, Sportsman, I'd say that (at least initially), FFT remains tough through three acts. My first attempt at the game, the combo of Wiegraf/Velius and the rooftop battle with the really quick chicks where you had to rescue some worthless character basically was impossible, as I brought a too-slow party into the fight and that character I had to rescue tended to wind up dead before I really could do anything.

I do agree that if you know what you're doing it doesn't get tougher than, say, Queklain and his bitcherific status-rapes in Act 2...but when I first played the game, the third act's finale destroyed me.

Nah, I've played (and loved) plenty of Fire Emblem. It's a lot easier than Final Fantasy Tactics, that's for sure! My experience with Phantom in Devil May Cry became legendary because I got to him one night, stopped playing and then just didn't pick up the game again for years. People seem to have been under the impression that along the way, I was regularly playing the game to try and defeat him again, but of course I wasn't.

FFt is, by far, the easiest and least involving SRPG I've played -- and I've played countless entries in that genre. It very, vey quiuckly becomes nothing more tha just wandering up to people and stomping then with your overpowered cast. Maybe this would be overlookable if the plot was written by an ape, but, sadly....

Mm. I've always liked Fire Emblem best as well. Thing is, I don't know why. In Fire Emblem, I think the story-telling works. I keep looking forward to the story-segments, and the narrative in the missions flows into the game.

In FFT, my impression is that the game is solid, the writing is good, and so on. But all the stops in the mission annoy me, and hold things up for some reason.. ..and I really can't tell why I have that impression. :/

I mean, it's not like Icewind Dale, Fallout or Baldur's Gate, where you have the characters on screen in the story. Fire Emblem still has that separate switch for events in the game, and the strategy game overview.. Sorry, really off topic now..

FFT CAN be the hardest RPG if you fuck up early on and let your lead character get way more leveled than the others, because the monsters level with your lead character.

There are also a couple of missions (like the already mentioned chicks on a roof top mission) that basically require specific classes in order to best.

My first time through FFT, back ten years or so, I had ridiculous trouble with the game. But the last few times I've played it, including two times on the PSP, I've murdered the game. Beat it without losing a single match.

As I said it basically comes down to knowing what combos are effective. Forget about Orlandu, math skill, and all the special characters. Get a ninja, summoner, monk and white mage/chemist and the game is basically won. And the rooftop battle is an example of what I was trying to state earlier. It would be difficult to defeat all three (I think 3, been a while) enemies but you were only required to weaken one of them. So rush the ninja up, attack, gg.

About the story: decent idea, but too many characters and the translation was god-awful. Also Ramza was maybe too good of a character moral-wise to take seriously. But I button mash through most of it anyways so it doesn't really matter to me.

And we all know Venter would secretly stay up all night and unsuccessfully try to beat Phantom. ;)

I never got far enough in FFT to really get rolling. I remember it as notoriously difficult, but then I never did get through chapter 2, I never did find out until later how enemy levelling works, I'd been warned *against* levelling my characters too much so I didn't dare to, yadda yadda. I definitely also haven't played it since 2004 or so, a time when I didn't have half the strategy RPG experience I do today. Quite possible that if I ever try again I'll breeze through it now.

Only the random encounters level up with you, Zipp.

I snipe at these things because I really don't get the FFt love. It's like everything with Final Fantasy stapled to the front of the name gets a free pass when it makes huge and obvious game-ruining mistakes.

Matsuno is a man of class. This is why his games (Ogre Battle and its many Queen-referencing subtitles and the Ivalice series) get a free pass.

Only the random encounters level up with you, Zipp.

When I was told to go easy on the levelling, the reasoning was: enemies in random battles level alongside you, and their equipment improves accordingly, while you are still stuck with whatever the stores sell based on what part of the story you're in, so that you quickly become outclassed.

I suspect, in hindsight, that the person giving me that advice was the type to grind to lvl 40 or 50 before the second story battle.

Honestly, EmP, if I had to peg my love of FFT a lot of it would have to do with the following things (in order):

1) art style
I absolutely love the aristic direction behind FFT. The characters are designed with a mix of anime and western rennaisance art. Sort've like a more functional Amano style. There's something inherently nostalgic about that art for me: I don't know why.

2) the animation
The sprites have a pretty extensive range of animation that's cool to watch because it reminds me of old action figures. This was one thing that frustrated me with the PSP rerelease: the lag makes the animations much less fluid

3) Ramza
I really dig Ramza's character. He is one of the most interesting FF characters, in my mind, because he actually deals with relatable problems. He's not really out to save the world for most of the game; he's simply trying to survive. We never get to play a character like that in FF. Eventually his inherent goodness leads him to save the world.

Also, he doesn't go around relying on his friends. Most of his friends betray him or get killed. And since many of the characters are expendable, they don't build that kind of relationship with him, leading him to become a fairly lonely character. But it's not emo, like cloud... it's self sufficient.

As a side note, I despise the later tactics titles, so everything I've said in favor of the game only applies to the original.

Zipp, it may please you to know that the art style of Final Fantasy Tactics (the original one) was done by a guy named Akihiko Yoshida. He was responsible for the art style of Vagrant Story, the Final Fantasy III remake on DS, Final Fantasy XII, and more recently, Final Fantasy XIV.

There are links to pictures from each game, because I'm nice like that.

On Vagrant Story and XII I suspected, but I didn't know on the others!

How is Vagrant Story?

For some reason people like it. I suffered through the main story and it was extremely boring to me. People seemed to like that you can make your own weapons or something, but being a PC gamer, I saw that thing pulled much better in different games.

The story was pretty shallow in my opinion, the art was nice, the characters bland and the overall feeling was as if it was a colossal waste of time.

Well, I was going to say that it's a game that tends to divide the opinions, but darketernal already demonstrated that. :) Loved it personally and I intend to rectify the grave sin of never having actually beaten it. Someday.

I've reviewed Vagrant Story, Zipp, so that game already has been defined for now and all eternity as what it is.

In the meantime I continue my proud tradition of sucking at FFT. I just tried out a copy of Final Fantasy Tactics A2 I borrowed off a Stateside friend, and managed to get a game over on the tutorial battle.