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 Welcome to Final Fantasy Megathread IV, also known as Final Fantasy Megathreadja. Before we dive into my personal favorite media franchise, we must take a moment to ponder this immutable non-contradictory truth: quote:Each of the Final Fantasies is the best Final Fantasy. Each of the Final Fantasies is also the worst Final Fantasy. OP is mostly a refresh of the very high-quality OP from the last thread, mostly done by HappyBlue Cow. Final Fantasy is a media franchise that, for better or worse, has always stood apart from its peers but spurred such greater changes in the overall gaming industry that it stands tall among the most seminal video game franchises. From the beginning, Final Fantasy defined the nebulous genre of JRPGs. As a franchise they established a certain aesthetic that many competitors, to this day, fail to eclipse-- both technically and creatively. Many songs in these games (mostly composed by the legendary Nobuo Uematsu) inspired generations of breathtaking music for other games and franchises. The concept artwork has been done mostly by the artist Yoshitaka Amano, whose haunting, striking artwork still intrigues people even though everyone is always blonde. Mechanically, the games (especially the older ones) hold up and are still good, solid games. Even the still extant bugs and questionable gameplay choices are legendary and are basically features at this point. In short, Final Fantasy just loving rules. I loving love Final Fantasy. I'm not a particularly crazy fan, like I don't share a brain with the soul of Cloud or whatever and the only memorabilia I have related to FF is a plushy moogle on my desk, but I have played every single Final Fantasy multiple times and as a result I want to share with you my opinion on the rankings of the main games, from 1 to 15, 1 being The Best. Note that this ranking is just my opinion, but also note that my opinion is always correct, cool, and good. Fun thing to note: The PSP version of FF4 has a something awful reference because a goon worked on it. It is not good. Here's a fun write-up of the other, uh, references in that particular translation.https://legendsoflocalization.com/which-final-fantasy-iv-translation-should-you-play/#final-fantasy-iv-playstation-portable  
1987 – Nintendo Entertainment System Buy it here, on Steam!    This Fantasy is relatively simple, four randos called the "Warriors of Light" just show up one day, each carrying one of their world's four elemental crystals. Together, they try to restore light to the crystals, defeating four fiends along the way to save their world from Chaos. Chaos is embodied within the knight Garlond who has a penchant for knocking down. Garlond/Chaos is rendered immortal by a timeloop brought on by the four fiends (and the crystals), FF1 culminates in the four Warriors of Light going back in time to kill Chaos. Back in 1987, it blew people away even though much of Final Fantasy is cribbed directly from DnD, particularly a lot of the monsters. Still, FF1 is regarded as one of the most influential and successful role-playing games on the Nintendo Entertainment System, playing a major role in popularizing the (nearly non-existant) genre. It also established many of the recurring themes that are considered mainstays of FF, including the 4 crystals, many spells and enemies, Bahamut the dragon. Further, many of the jobs that are considered 'core' of the series originate here (black mage, red mage, white mage, most notably). Also included in FF1 is the first iteration of a "secret/super boss" in the form of the Warmech, an enemy with a very small chance to be encountered in a small area of the game that is arguably harder than every other boss in the game. Future games would have more explicitly optional superbosses that Only True Gamers Can Defeat. The main characters of FF1 are considered the Warriors of Light within the game. Strangely, the Amano artwork seen above of the dude with the sword and the yellow horns is the canonical Warrior of Light, who killed Chaos; however he never actually appears in the game. Still, he is the representative of FF1 in pretty much any other game like Dissidia, World of Final Fantasy, and FF14, despite never showing up in the game at all. It is heavily implied that he is one of the four warriors of light but is the only one to survive. Arguably the most canonical ending to FF1 is to have a warrior/knight in your party, and have everyone die to Chaos except for the warrior/knight. The Warrior of Light is also often considered the mascot (of sorts) of Final Fantasy (moogles and chocobos too). In later iterations, the protagonists are usually called singularly or as a group the "Warrior(s) of Light". For example, in FF14 the player is called the Warrior of Light by NPCs in-game. Behind the scenes, Final Fantasy has its own story. Before FF1's release, Square really wasn't doing so well in the gaming industry, and was literally on the edge of bankruptcy. That's when the creator, Hironobu Sakaguchi, realized that his next game was most probably going to be the company's last, so he wanted it to go out with a bang. The irony in this game's creation comes in the form of its title, Final Fantasy. It was a last attempt at something great. And his gambit paid off. Since it's the first iteration, future Final Fantasies make constant and random references to it (and all preceding games). Summons, spells, equipment, characters, villages, enemies, all make appearances. The real Final Fantasy is figuring out all of the references. I'll try to highlight some of the cooler ones. Rank: 11 out of 15 
1988 – Nintendo Entertainment System Buy it here, on Steam!    This Fantasy centers on four youths whose parents were killed during an army invasion by the empire of Palamecia. Three of the four main characters join a rebellion against the empire, embarking on missions to gain new magic and weapons, destroy enemy superweapons, and rescue leading members of the resistance. After defeating the empire and the Emperor, the trio discovers that the fourth youth, now a dark knight, shifts allegiances to take the place of the Emperor and prepares to attack the rebellion. Upon confronting him, however, the real Emperor reappears as a demon after loving conquering hell and prepares to attempt to destroy the world; the four characters agree to join forces to defeat him. Final Fantasy is not against escalating the final act. Final Fantasy II is when Square really tried to push the envelope when it came to story-telling in the video game medium. Contrary to how FF1 was created, the team on FF2 focused first on creating a compelling narrative, and then designed the core game play mechanics around it. One of the biggest changes to this game was completely abandoning the traditional EXP system that was found in other popular RPG's such as Dragon Quest or FF1, and instead going with a "Activity-Based Progression" system. Which essentially boiled down to, The more I hit with my Axe, the better I am with Axes! Naturally, the system was one of the most easily breakable Final Fantasies as a result. One of the most frequently recommended ways to play is to have everyone dual wield shields (which increases evasion), which makes you dodge more. Dodging more increases your natural evasion/agility making it even harder to hit you. Now made entirely of goes-fast, you are functionally untouchable for most of the game with or without shields. This boo boo bonkers combat system would live on within the popular "SaGa" franchise, but if you like to straight-up break games over your knee FF2 gives you the tools to do so and frankly kind of expects you to, because it's just full of bugs. Most notably, maybe, is that all status effects always land. So if you use, for example, the Sleep Blade on the final boss that dude just takes a nap-nap. As an aside, it had as a plot point a powerful spell-- Ultima, from an ancient ruined magical empire. Ultima would go on to be a mainstay as the most powerful spell in future FFs (itself being a truncated name for "ultimate spell/magic"). Mechanically, however, Ultima was an incredibly weak spell due to a bug. Why, you may ask, was it still poo poo in the release after all that plot puffing it up? Well, dear reader, seek no further than this apocryphal interview with The Sak o' Gooch: quote:At the time, when Square tested the game out and saw the Ultima bug, it was definitely a problem, and Sakaguchi said “How did this happen? Fix it.” Also worth noting that, due to the untimely release of the SNES in conjunction with the localization time needed for FF2, this game never saw North American shores until much, much later. One of the key things to note is that FF2 is the spawning point of another large variety of recurring elements found throughout the series, such as Cid and Chocobos. Rank: 13 out of 15 
1990 – Nintendo Entertainment System Buy it here, on Steam!    This Fantasy revolves around four orphaned youths drawn to a crystal of light. The crystal grants them some of its power (in the form of jobs), and instructs them to go forth and restore balance to the world. Returning to their original roots from FF1, FF3 returned to the standard Experience System. Only this time, they introduced the phenomenal "Job System" which introduced a variety of classes which are easily recognizable to this day. Each of the four characters could change their "Jobs" at will, to a variety of staple classes such as Black Mage, White Mage, Thief, Monk, Warrior, and much more. This allowed for an enormous amount of customization and let the players craft their team however they desired, hailed by many as the quintessential Final Fantasy experience as a result. FF3's job system (and jobs and aesthetics) would influence much of the following Final Fantasy titles. Once again though, due to the untimely release of the SNES, North Americans didn't get a chance to get their hands on this game until 16 years later when it was remade for the Nintendo DS. Of note, the DS version (and its ports) are distinctly different from the FF3 from 1990 and its most recent port via the Pixel Remaster version. It includes a number of questionable gameplay design choices, and of course it's in loving 3D. They also tried to give a backstory to each character that.. kinda works, actually. That being said, in this humble poster's opinion both versions are loving fantastic. That being said, the Pixel Remake is the best way to play it. Notable references: Pretty much all the job aesthetics stem from FF3. Honestly it's still so early in the series you won't find much cool poo poo other than some items and monsters. There's some bible references like Canaan but whatever. Like its two earlier iterations, FF3 is more of a foundation. Rank: 7 out of 15 
1991 – Super Nintendo Entertainment System Buy it here, on Steam!    This Fantasy follows Cecil, a dark knight, as he tries to prevent the sorcerer Golbez from seizing powerful crystals and destroying the world. He, along with his characters who have their own distinct characterizations and motivations, go off on a journey that includes riding a whale to the moon (populated by demons and evil wizards and dragons and robots and poo poo) to stop an angry ghost. Like I said, FFs are not afraid to escalate. This game was one of Square's major landmarks on both the industry and the genre. FF4 is often heralded as one of the top in the series. This is mostly due, in part, to its very strong characterization and story-driven events, as well as the ground-breaking new role-playing designs such as the ATB-Battle system (which has been used for years afterwards). While the ATB system represented a progression of the combat system, FF4 also removed the job system instead having every character be assigned an unchangeable job. The DS version introduces an augment system which is kinda cool, but ya know. Whatever. Aesthetically we start to see FF really come into its own. For example, Kain proved to be particularly seminal as his pose in Amano's artwork became something of a hallmark of the series and has been considered the prototypical dragoon as a result. This game's release in North America also was the reason for much confusion. Due to FF2/FF3 not ever making it to NA shores, FF4 was released in NA under the name "Final Fantasy II" on the SNES. Thankfully developers have since rectified this mix-up, and all re-releases have been accurately named FF4. Notable references: A lot of this poo poo has to do with the bible, for some reason. Kain is an allusion to the story of Cain (and Abel), Cain being the betrayer who killed his brother. The tower of Babel, etc. Otherwise it's kinda random poo poo: the hummingways are based on the popular Asian children's story of rabbits living on the moon, Troia is the Greek name for the ancient city of Troy. Mysidia was from FF2, little things like that. You do see a lot more specifically final fantasy things as the series comes into its own as a real media franchise. Also the famous "lali-ho" dwarfs are cool. Rank: 5 out of 15 
1992 – Super Nintendo Entertainment System Buy it here, on Steam!    Here we loving go. This Fantasy begins with a wanderer named Bartz. Originally he was named Butz. In either version he still hails from the village of Lix, lol. Anyways he investigates a fallen meteor with his chocobo companion, Boko. Boko (or Boco) goes on to be the "standard" or "default" named chocobo in games. While investigating the meteor (and on the adventure) he encounters several other characters and unravels the danger facing the four Crystals that control the world's elements. These Crystals act as a seal on Exdeath, an evil sorcerer. Bartz/Butz and his party must keep the Crystals from being exploited by Exdeath's influence and prevent his resurgence. This is the Final Fantasy that took the Job System which was first introduced in FF3, and kicked it into loving overdrive. This is mostly due to the addition of a new form of experience, noted as "Ability-Points" (AP). AP was used in order to individually level up and master the various jobs used by the character. Once an ability was learned, it could be equipped as a sub-skill on another class, allowing for tons of "player created" combinations. The freedom and customization allowed by the player on their party was greatly praised and to this day carries such high regard, a community has been built around playing "FFV fiesta" in which you are assigned random jobs and you see if you can still beat the game (and optional bosses), usually done annually as part of an event. Once again, due to a variety of translation issues and time constraints, this game never saw a proper North American release on the SNES. We had to wait for it to be released later on the Playstation/GBA much later. Rank: 2 out of 15 Notable references: Many of the Sealed Weapons are references to earlier FFs. Most notably, perhaps, is the Excalibur, originally billed as the most powerful sword in FF1, making a return alongside a knockoff that only ever does 1 damage called the Excalipoor. MOST IMPORTANTLY THIS IS THE CANONICAL FIRST APPEARANCE OF GILGAMESH, THE MAIN CHARACTER OF FINAL FANTASY AND THE GILGAVERSE. 
1994 – Super Nintendo Entertainment System Buy it here, on Steam!    This Fantasy is set in a fantasy world with a technology level equivalent to that of the Second Industrial Revolution, the game's story focuses on a group of rebels as they seek to overthrow an imperial dictatorship. The game features fourteen permanent playable characters, the most of any game in the main series. In this game, Square slowly stepped away from the "high-fantasy" setting, and instead focused on a more "steampunk" aesthetic, establishing the recurring mainstay of "magitek" technology in the series. The narrative structure was also very different from previous Final Fantasies at the time. Instead of focusing on a very linear experience, the story plays out instead through the use of flashbacks and optional sub-plots which could be completed in any order, the players were able to create their own non-linear design and really felt as though the story was crafted just for them. There were also ways to have certain characters be permanently killed, or who never reach a conclusion to their story if players don't intervene. The music of FF6 is widely regarded as some of the best by basically everyone, for good reason. Nobuo Uematsu himself has stated that Terra's theme (as played in the overworld) is his favorite FF song. Despite having worked on the previous 5 Final Fantasy games, Hironobu Sakaguchi had to step down from directing FF6 due to having a very large workload. The director role was passed on to Yoshinori Kitasep and Hiroyuki Ito, 2 names you might have undoubtedly heard in the Final Fantasy circa. This game is also another victim of incorrect title labeling, FF6 was originally released in North American on the SNES under the title of "Final Fantasy III"... I promise though this is the last time they mess up a Final Fantasy title when bringing it overseas. The SNES version is the quintessential version. The mobile/steam version (not the pixel remaster) has some of the worst sprites in the history of this series, but other than that it plays fine. Notable references: Mog is a moogle. Rank: 4 out of 15 
1997 – PlayStation Buy it here, on Steam!    This Fantasy follows protagonist Cloud Strife, who, at the beginning of the game, joins the rebel organization AVALANCHE in their quest to stop the world-controlling megacorporation Shinra, which is draining the life of the planet for use as an energy source. As the story progresses, Cloud and his allies become involved in a larger world-threatening conflict and face Sephiroth, the game's main antagonist (or maybe Jenova????), from using Meteor to destroy the world (itself a FF4 reference!). While Final Fantasy had been primarily found on Nintendo consoles up until this point, Square decided to make a bold move when seeing the power of the Playstation and developed FF7 for the Playstation, forever changing the direction of Final Fantasy towards graphical fidelity almost exclusively for Sony Playstations. It was a smart decision indeed, as FF7 was one of the biggest launches in the series and is one of the most recognizable video games in the world. It could even be argued that the success of FF7 is why the Nintendo 64 saw next to no RPG's. Furthermore this game established Tetsuya Nomura as one of the biggest names in Final Fantasy. Nomura, himself a lover of zippers, belts, and the color black has most of his character designs feature zippers, belts, and the color black-- sometimes to an absurd extent. He would go on to be the point person for the Kingdom Hearts series, a game series about zipper-bearers and belt-people defeating the color black or something. Anyways. The characters of FF7 are probably more pervasive in popular culture than FF7 itself, even if their prevalence is more a function of a huge game of telephone with regards to characterizations. Just ask in this thread and goons will swarm to remind you that, actually, Aeristh is a sociopath and Cloud is a huge goofball. Also a cool thing to note is that many Final Fantasies (and anime generally) has characters be, like 18 years old and behave like world-weary college professors, but the ages in FF7 are very sensible-- Cloud is 22, for example. Cloud Strife and Sephiroth are such big names in gaming they're even in Super Smash Bros-- people who have never played FF7 know the names. While the aesthetic of FF7 was an incredible shift away from the more fantastical, usually medieval, aesthetic of earlier games, it also carried such a large leap in technical capabilities over its peers that for many people, FF7 is the best Final Fantasy. They are wrong, of course, because the best final fantasy is in fact all of them even the worst ones. This game's release literally laid a landmark on history of video games, as it set a standard for RPGs and other games in the genre from then on. Another indelible mark left by Final Fantasy, a series that once featured a character named Butz from the village of Lix. Notable references: This is kinda funny. Shinra's origins are possibly from FFX's Spira, and the world of FF7 might be Spira in FFX. Also, it is literally Spira from FFX. Also there's moogles and chocobos or whatever. Cactuars. Rank: 8 out of 15 (FF7R is better). 
1999 – PlayStation Buy it here, on Steam!    This Fantasy focuses on a group of young mercenaries who are drawn into an international conflict, and seek to protect the world from a sorceress manipulating the war for her own purposes. Anyways, the primary protagonist is Squall Leonhart, a 17-year-old reclusive loner and student at the military academy Balamb Garden and most handsome man at any party he goes to, who is training to become a "SeeD", a mercenary paid by the academy. Not to be underselling anything here, I simply must note that the world and plot of FF8 is loving insane. Like, they locked a sorceress up on the moon where all the monsters come from to stop a war, and to this day she screams so loud that all radio waves are regularly interrupted with screams of her telepathically saying "LETMEGOFREEMEIWILLKILLYOU" or some poo poo. So they have to use magazines and wired communication almost exclusively because it's so annoying/terrifying. The timeline is also a series of time travel crazy straws. It cannot be said enough that if you are at all a fan of absurdist art, you will probably really enjoy FF8. This game is also the introduction of the gunblade, a weapon type that has since been copied and iterated upon in a bunch of different franchises, including FF itself. Fun fact, gunblades in FF8 don't shoot bullets-- they just explode in the enemy's face. With the success of FF7 under their belt, Square felt pretty comfortable in their position and could really think about pushing their limits further. One of the most notable graphical changes was in FF8. In all previous FF's, there were two separate character sprites/models: one for in the field, and one for in battle. Square decided to abolish this idea, and instead create a single high-definition model which can be used in every situation, whether it be on the field, in a cut-scene, or in battle. This parity greatly enhanced immersion in the title. Furthermore, the combat system is significantly more interactive, with animations lining up more fluidly, and turns appearing less rigid in structure-- you'll see your characters hop over to heal your ally before the enemy returns back to their side of the field, and you'll push a button to do extra damage with your gunblade, things like that. FF8 leaped pretty far ahead as far as which period of history it's emulating. It is focused on being a student in a military academy in a relatively modern setting: magazines, web blogs, etc. This gave the game a sort of "school days" vibe to it and felt really unique when compared to the rest of the series. It also showed in the sales, as this title snagged a healthy 8 million units sold, further cementing Nomura's belted, zippered hand on the franchise. FF8 also made a nod towards FF2 with a sort of off-kilter, and definitely unique leveling system, along with scaled bosses and enemies. Rather than having players focus on Experience Points and Magic Points, they used the "Junction" and "Draw" system to steer character growth. Players could "Draw" (up to 99) of a Magic Spell, and then Junction that magic spell onto one of a Character's Stat in order to increase it. This allowed players a great deal of customization, and not to mention crazy tactics to break the game, sometimes laughably so. No-encounter playthroughs of FF8 are common, where they essentially only fight bosses. It is incredibly easy. Most notable reference: Gilgamesh shows up in this on, establishing as canon the Gilgaverse because Gilgamesh specifically references (in Japanese) Bartz/Butz, and the dimensional rift from FFV. From then on, every appearance of Gilgamesh is the same Gilgamesh. Usually Final Fantasies are self-contained except for general design and concepts, but Gilgaverse broke free of those chains. Rank: 10 out of 15 
2000 – PlayStation Buy it here, on Steam!    This Fantasy centers on a war between many nations. Players follow a young thief named Zidane Tribal, who joins with others to defeat Queen Brahne of Alexandria, who is responsible for beginning the war. The plot shifts, however, when the characters realize that Brahne is working with an even more threatening person called Kuja, a very sexy man with a penchant for nihilism-- a recurring theme that begins to show itself within the series more frequently after FF9. This title took a different approach when compared to the last 3 titles in the series. Rather than going with the realistic steam-punk aesthetic, they instead followed the "roots" of the series and went with more of a cartoony and distorted high-fantasy tale. Sakaguchi himself called this his favorite Final Fantasy game as "it's closest to [his] ideal view of what Final Fantasy should be," the Final Fantasy that he envisioned all those years ago. It is widely regarded as the most Final Fantasy of Final Fantasies, even if the combat is annoyingly slow and the trance system is loving dumb. Despite a few complaints that "old fashioned" can sometimes border on cliché, it was still the best reviewed game in the series, at least in the West. It was very much a love letter to the old Final Fantasies of yore, more of a storybook adventure than a mindfuck psychological deep dive like FF7 and FF8. Despite this, it "only" managed to sell 5 million copies, a fact that could partly be attributed to the declining 32-bit generation and the release of Dragon Quest VII in Japan a few months earlier. Notable references: The playable deuteragonist, Vivi, is a black mage styled after the consistent reiteration of the Black mage motif-- blue robe, yellow hat, an apparent shadow instead of a face, with two big glowing yellow eyes. Pretty neat. Vivi rules. Rank: 9 out of 15 
2001 – PlayStation 2 Buy it here, on Steam!    This Fantasy is set in the world of Spira, and is centered around a group of adventurers and their quest to defeat a rampaging monster known as Sin. The player character is Tidus, a blitzball star who finds himself in Spira after his home city of Zanarkand is destroyed by Sin. During the game, Tidus (along with several others) aids the summoner Yuna on her pilgrimage to destroy Sin. The gameplay of FFX was essentially the last of the "traditional" turn-based FFs. However, as is common with these games I guess, it went out with a bang: FFX is generally agreed to be the best iteration of FF's turn-based combat. The gameplay behind leveling up your characters via the sphere grid was an interesting system, but the internet tore it apart to reveal exactly how linear it actually is and it only gives you the illusion of choice and it's essentially just a straight line. Thanks internet. There is, however, some wack-o poo poo you can do in it. The various summons scale based off of Yuna's stats so if you make Yuna jump/move to the strength-enhancing part of the sphere grid to behave as, basically, a STR-based character, you can easily break the game with the STR-scaling aeons. Why? Because they're coded to scale as a percentage off Yuna's strength, but expected Yuna to be low strength and high magic. So certain aeons who are more physically oriented (bahamut, for example) were scaled to multiply Yuna's normally very low strength stat to stay viable. But if Yuna has very high strength, they do absurd damage. This is also the first explicit entry where you can break the damage cap (FF3 lets you do it too but it doesn't show you the damage you do). Yuna, as musclemancer, is arguably the strongest protagonist in FFX and any FF as a result, easily hitting for much higher than 9999. This was Square's largest undertaking in the series. Due to the newly launched Playstation 2, Square was given the ability to do things they could not on previous consoles like completely abolishing 2D CGI backgrounds, and instead creating fully navigable 3D Environments. The second of these things, was making the entirety of the game... voiced. While most games at the time had small snippets of voice acting, FF10 managed to cram 30-hours worth of voice-acting and pretty much set a standard for games of the genre. They also went crazy when it came to In-Game Cut-scenes, as this title had the most the series had seen to date. The aesthetic and conceit of FFX is one of the most compelling. It deals with, arguably, an incredibly sobering understanding of life and the struggle to survive, and how to live for the now because tomorrow a whale-monster might kill you and everyone you know. Sin is an ongoing natural disaster and everyone is always one bad day from being killed by a completely unassailable, merciless, unrelenting foe. By sacrificing summoners they get brief respites from the ongoing rampage, but there is simply no end in sight. Just tragedy, constantly, forever. And blitzball. Notable references: The entire game is basically a big ol' retelling of the famous Japanese story of Susano'o and the Yamata no Orochi. It's basically 1:1, then Final Fantasy'd Rank: 6 out of 15 
2002 – PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows PC Buy it here, on Steam!    Also known as Final Fantasy XI: Online, This Fantasy is set in the world of Vana'diel, where player-created avatars can both compete and cooperate in a variety of objectives to develop an assortment of jobs, skills, and in-game item rewards. Players can also undertake an array of quests and progress through the in-game hierarchy and thus though the major plot of the game. Since its debut in 2002, four expansion packs have also been released, adding numerous areas, quests, and item rewards to the Final Fantasy XI world. This was the series first undertaking in the Online MMORPG market. Despite being in the Online world, Square took great efforts in keeping their mantra of Innovation. FF11 was the first ever "Cross-Platform" MMORPG, meaning players on the PS2 could play alongside players on PC. They also took this a step further and merged North American and Japanese Servers together, and through the use of a simple Auto-Translator, ultimately forced players across the globe to communicate and play together. To this day, the game is still going strong and there is a core dedicated development team who plan on releasing new content. The game has been updated to act almost like a museum of old MMOs, with an incredibly generous system to get players going without having to deal with, essentially, a game that seemed to actively hate its players. As that was standard fare of early MMOs, it's still something you can get whiffs of. However, you get experience and gold incredibly easily and can build your own party full of powerful NPCs scaled to your level via "trusts" so if you're at all curious about what was once the most profitable Final Fantasy ever, feel free to check out the FF11 Thread. Most notable references: The jobs are all cribbed from earlier iterations, and moogles are ever-present. Rank: 14 out of 15 
2006 – PlayStation 2 Buy it here, on Steam!    This Fantasy takes place in the fictional land of Ivalice, where the empires of Archadia and Rozarria are waging an endless war. Dalmasca, a small kingdom, is caught between the warring nations. When Dalmasca is annexed by Archadia, its princess, Ashe, creates a resistance movement. During the struggle, she meets Vaan, a young adventurer who dreams of commanding an airship. They are quickly joined by a band of allies; together, they rally against the tyranny of the Archadian Empire. The plot is incredibly verbose, and features a lot of similar aspects to the politics of FFT (PS1). It is compelling if you like politicking and allegory, but most of the major plot happens to Ashe and everyone else is just kind of there. Which is fine, I guess, but the plot still rules despite that fact. Also, Vayne is the most successful villain in all of Final Fantasy (except for Marche from FFTA). One of the biggest changes to this game in the series was the complete removal of the turn-based "random battle" screen. Instead the entire world map was transformed into a living battle screen, and monster encounters could be avoided by simply circling around or running right past them. Another controversial design addition was in the form of a mechanic named "Gambits." This allowed players to "pre-program" their party to perform actions when certain conditions were met (example: When Ally HP is Below 50%, Cast Cure.) Some players loved this function, since it eliminated the monotony of repeatedly performing the same actions in battles, whereas other players hated it, since it made it feel like the game was essentially playing itself. Computer touchers liked it, obviously, because it's mostly a series of if-then statements. The current version of FF12, The Zodiac Age, has been rebalanced to be... well, better. While it definitely is over the original, it still has a lot of glaring problems, especially with how the skills/magic work, the chests, etc. I cannot recommend enough the use of the Struggle for Freedom mod, available on Nexus mods. Within it there are different choices for what kind of rebalance you want: SFF, their rebalanced version, or the original PS2 release's version. The mod's rebalanced version is, no joke, the only reason this game is as highly regarded as it is by me. It is absolutely the best way to play this game, no qualifications, and it is a blast. Notable references: Most of this game's lore flows with FFT (a spinoff) so you'll see a lot of references to FFT's Ivalice. However, since this game is set many hundreds (thousands?) of years before FFT, it's probably more accurate to say that they wrote a bunch of poo poo into FF12 that were already cryptically referenced in FFT, a game released like 10 years earlier. 3 out of 15 (unmodded it's, like, idk, 13 or something poo poo) 
2009 – PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 Buy it here, on Steam!    This Fantasy takes place in the fictional floating world of Cocoon, whose government, the Sanctum, is ordering a purge of civilians who have supposedly come into contact with Pulse, the much-feared and dangerous world below. The former soldier Lightning begins her fight against the government in order to save her sister who has been branded as an unwilling servant to a god-like being from Pulse, making her an enemy of Cocoon. Lightning is soon joined by a band of allies, and together the group also become marked by the same Pulse creature. They rally against the Sanctum while trying to discover their assigned task and whether they can avoid being turned into monsters or crystals at the completion. Final Fantasy XIII is the flagship title of the Fabula Nova Crystallis collection of Final Fantasy games and is the first game to use Square Enix's Crystal Tools engine. Final Fantasy XIII received mostly positive reviews from video game publications, which praised the game's graphics, presentation, and battle system. It is very linear. The game's prominent feature is the "Paradigm Shift" battle system, which allows players to rapidly shift between set roles for their 3-man team setup in combat. This allowed for some very interesting and dynamic gameplay, marred by a somewhat difficult to follow presentation of the story/lore. It faces many pacing problems, most notably that you do not get to actually select your party until a significant way through the game, and you need to do some significant grinding to use a non-standard setup with the characters you want. Plus the crafting is a weird, hosed up system. Still, it's fine. Notable references: There's a cute lil chocobo chick in Sazh's hair. It is the best and cutest thing I have ever seen. Rank: 15 out of 15 and I don't want to talk about it, it's a.. fine game 
2010 – PC Buy it here, on Steam!    Also known as Final Fantasy XIV:Online this title is an MMORPG like FFXI. This Fantasy takes place in a land called Hydaelyn, mainly in a region named Eorzea, which has a contemporaneously aesthetic blend of science fiction and classic fantasy elements. Players can choose from a variety of races to set as their avatar as they cooperate with other players to unfold the story, explore things, and slay monsters. Unlike FF11 it is very good. This game had a troubling start. It was originally released to generally negative reception. Due to an absolutely disastrous launch, Square Enix had reshuffled the development team and completely overhauled the gameplay. They leaned so heavily on FF11 design decisions and development was such a mess that it almost bankrupted Square-Enix. Watch this documentary that goes into it, featuring interviews from developers and stuff. It's really compelling and really makes you respect what they did. Watch it here, on YouTube! Long story short they decided to, quite literally, destroy the entire setting and re-release the game as FFXIV 2.0: A Realm Reborn. This version came out in 2013 (2014 on PS4) and is very beloved. Currently the most profitable FF of the entire franchise, it is likely going to dominate the MMO market for the foreseeable future due to an absolutely rabid fanbase, and truly surprising good will between the developers and the community. Plus the music and aesthetic is just top-tier (as always in these loving games), mostly composed by Masayoshi Soken seen here spitting in the face of God by way of sheer musical talent. If you want to play FFXIV from start to finish keep in mind you'll be playing 4 full-length narrative-driven JRPGs in a row within like 10 years of on-going MMO game development, which originally had a good amount of filler content like fetch quests. It gets better. Final Fantasy XIV thread Final Fantasy XIV New Players thread Final Fantasy XIV Spoiler Thread-- STRAIGHT UP DON'T CLICK THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED UP THROUGH THE MOST RECENT PATCH Notable references: gently caress, man, everything in this game is a reference to something. They have a loving Yabby Hunterz reference. The guy behind it, Michael-Christopher Koji Fox must needs be stopped. Within the series, entire raids are pulled from other FF games, and there's a FFT/Ivalice raid, a FF3 raid, even a Nier:Automata raid. Just look at this list of FF references. And that's just the FF references. Rank: 1 out of 15, undisputed, next loving question 
2016 – PlayStation 4, Xbox One Buy it here, on Steam!    After being announced a lifetime ago as Versus XIII, This Fantasy was finally released as Final Fantasy XV as part of the mainline Final Fantasy game series. XV follows Prince Noctis and his three royal retainers/buds/hunks as they take a roadtrip to meet his bride as part of a pending peace treaty with Niflheim Empire that his country has been at work with over the past 100 years. However, the Niflheim Empire betrays them and kills his dad the King during the treaty signing. Noctis is then torn between processing these events and fulfilling his mysterious fate/destiny. The game had a rough release but had been updated and fixed with a number of patches and content releases to be more coherent. It stands tall (  ) as one of the more immersive games because the world is, truly, very breathtaking graphically. Based on FF7R's reception and the notes it seems to have taken from FF15's combat system, it is very likely that the lessons learned in FFXV's development will be brought forward into future FF releases: more of an action RPG than anything else.Aesthetically, FFXV is in my opinion one of the most aesthetically pleasing productions in video games. The music, primarily composed by Yoko Shimomura who can basically do no wrong, is simply fantastic (good tracks: Somnus (instrumental), Apocolypsis Noctis, Valse di Fantastica). The setting is gorgeous. They really went all out on making it look great. As a part of a multimedia push, SE decided to release a movie, Kingsglaive alongside promotion of FFXV. The movie... uh.... is fine I guess. But it's supposed to take place after the first chapter of FFXV so if you watch it and then play the game it's kindaweird timing, so be sure to maybe only watch the movie when it's appropriate plot-wise (after Chapter 1). Basically this whole thing was kind of a mess. While the story and world of FFXV has a lot going for it (a truly great story of noblesse oblige before capricious and horrific gods writ large and fantastical), it's mired by kinda bone-headed design decisions. But then again bad decisions is what made FF14 into what it is, and also created the entire franchise, so. They also released an anime that is pretty great, but grossly inconsistent with the game. Did I mention it was a mess? Notable reference: the bad guys feature MTs, or MagiTek soldiers and if you look closely you'll recognize the gods of the setting share a passing resemblance to the summons from earlier games. Rank: 12 out of 15 ---- jokes fucked around with this message at 09:23 on Nov 26, 2021 |
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Nov 4, 2021 02:27
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 00:29 |
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In addition to the main-line series there are related games, sequels, and spinoffs. A handful worth checking out are: 
1998 - Playstation 1 2007 - PlayStation Portable 2011 - iOS 2013 - Android    Final Fantasy Tactics is strategy rpg set in the world of Ivalice, which is later the setting for mainline entry XII. In this tale you are Ramza, who is begins as a young soldier training at a academy and soon is part of a large scale war between two heirs to the throne, with a mysterious force puppeteering everyone to revive their dark god. Tactics plays like the highly regarded Tactics Ogre games, which was on a grid map instead of a traditional bifurcated battlefield. Ramza and his party members take their turns as do the enemy soldiers and monsters, and they develop their level and job levels as the story progresses. The game was originally released on the PS1 shortly after VII, and was re-released with more content and a new translation as part of the Ivalice Alliance sub-series on the PSP. This version was marred by slowdown which either a hacked PSP or the later IOS/Android release fixed. It is widely regarded as an absolutely amazing game, and the final fantasy connection only enhances what is, at its base level, a solid loving game. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2: Grimoire of the Rift are not sequels, necessarily, but are both set in some version of Ivalice and play similarly. They are available on GBA and DS respectively. 
2003 – PlayStation 2 2004 – PlayStation 2 (Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission) 2014 – Playstation 3, Playstation Vita 2015 – Playstation 4 2016 – PC 2019 – Xbox One, Nintendo Switch    This Fantasy follows the character Yuna from Final Fantasy X as she seeks to resolve political conflicts in the fictional world of Spira after the events of FFX. One of the first things worth mentioning about this title, is that it is the first ever "Direct Sequel" in the main series (the next would be FF13-2). By this I mean, the story from 10-2 directly follows after the story from 10, so chances are if you play this without knowing what happened, you might be a little lost. It was also the first game in the series to feature only three playable characters, an all-female main cast, and early access to most of the game's locations. It's also one of the few games in the series to feature multiple endings. Finally, it was the first Final Fantasy game in the series that didn't have any musical contributions in it from longtime composer Nobuo Uematsu. The developers sought to make this a very "light-hearted" title from the start. At the time, Final Fantasy was mostly recognized for its heavy melodramatic plots, and 10-2 took a step in the opposite direction and made the narrative very fluffy and fun. Many goons here (and smart people elsewhere) give lavish praise on this title for its light-heartedness and narrative design, and for Yuna who is just a great protagonist. According to some FF polls she is basically the most popular FF protagonist. However, the real treasure of FFX-2 is the job system. Holy loving poo poo is it the best implementation of the FF job system in any of the Final Fantasy games. 
2014 – PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 2015 – PC 2018 – XBox One (360 BC Version with 4K Resolution Support on Xbox One X    This Fantasy takes countless years after 13-2, with Lightning being woke up by a now child Hope in a world that has only 13 days left before it ends. She is tasked by Hope (a character from FF13) to save as many souls as she can before "the Maker" awakens. All while trying to find her lost sister and solving the problems plaguing the people. This game is "technically" a part of FF13 but with the exception of some of the proper nouns, loving none of this lines up with FF13. Gameplay is now a bit more action-y than the earlier FF13s, but Lightning is alone so paradigm shifts changes her clothes (which basically are like loadouts or jobs), with different abilities being assigned to outfits. It was released on the 360 and PS3 with a PC port a year later. There is not much more to be said, as effectively FF13 just really didn't inspire a lot of confidence in the setting or in SE at the time, but it was easily overlooked as a consequence of that. Still, it's a solid game with solid systems and fun combat. jokes fucked around with this message at 18:26 on Nov 4, 2021 |
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Nov 4, 2021 02:27
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The best Final Fantasy is Final Fantasy IX
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Nov 4, 2021 02:32
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OP kicks rear end, glad to see FF XIII was the only game to score a full 15 points.
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Nov 4, 2021 02:33
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Barudak posted:OP kicks rear end, glad to see FF XIII was the only game to score a full 15 points. Yes, that is exactly what it is. 15/15.
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Nov 4, 2021 02:36
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Leal posted:The best Final Fantasy is Final Fantasy IX
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Nov 4, 2021 02:37
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All Final Fantasies are good except for the ones that aren't.
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Nov 4, 2021 02:38
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wheres clive
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Nov 4, 2021 02:40
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKBz1KsQY1Y
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Nov 4, 2021 02:40
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Hellioning posted:All Final Fantasies are good except for the ones that aren't. Friend there are no bad Final Fantasies. Now the Terminal Tale franchise, boy that one is nothing but stinkers
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Nov 4, 2021 02:41
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op, ff7pr has existed for years https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9CUnwMT_ck
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Nov 4, 2021 02:41
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There's a typo in the OP where you accidentally added a "4" in FFXI's ranking, OP.
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Nov 4, 2021 02:42
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This thread is also known as Final Fantasy Megathread II in the US.
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Nov 4, 2021 02:44
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Final Fantasy Megathread Mystic Quest
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Nov 4, 2021 02:45
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8 may not be the best game in the series but it has the best minigame and some of the best music And also Robin Williams as the headmaster
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Nov 4, 2021 02:45
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Release FFVpr you jerkbags.
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Nov 4, 2021 02:46
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Barudak posted:Final Fantasy Megathread Mystic Quest
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Nov 4, 2021 02:48
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Great OP. I'm having a lot of fun with the steam version of FF1. I would say I swear they've tuned the difficulty down a bit although I have random wiped against normal enemies despite being over-leveled so maybe not. But getting moved back to an autosave at the last staircase is a pretty significant quality of life improvement and doesn't make those random deaths feel so bad.
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Nov 4, 2021 02:49
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The Final Fantasy Legthread
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Nov 4, 2021 02:49
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im going to kill chaos
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Nov 4, 2021 02:50
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ff6 gba (probably with the color and music patches too) is the best way to play it but i get the feeling that the PR will give the best of both worlds with both the updated tl and also redone music and stuff everyone always asks where ff7 pixel version is, but no one asks about 8 or 9... smh my head
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Nov 4, 2021 02:50
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I'd like a mod for the FF1 pixel remaster that just gives all the non-Chaos bosses more HP. It's got that problem where the bosses do have some dangerous attacks but they all die way too quickly to be a threat, like by the time you're done casting Haste on your attackers the boss is already dead. You could probably multiply boss HP by like 7 or maybe even 10 for the later ones and it'd feel good. Chaos doesn't need that, though--one of the reasons he's actually a real fight in FF1 PR is that he has enough HP that you can't just burn him down before he can hurt you.
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Nov 4, 2021 02:51
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cuntman.net posted:im going to kill chaos no, i am going to kill chaos
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Nov 4, 2021 02:51
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Finished FF4 PR Man, Lunar Subterranean sucks.
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Nov 4, 2021 02:53
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jokes posted:no, i am going to kill chaos "Bullshit," I say as I pull out my dphone and blast Limp Bizkit.
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Nov 4, 2021 02:56
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Every game is the worst game in the series. But ESPECIALLY FFD.
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Nov 4, 2021 03:03
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i thought the SA reference in the ff4 retranslation was fine, OP. not sure why anyone would get fired up about it
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Nov 4, 2021 03:04
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wow every final fantasy is good
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Nov 4, 2021 03:04
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Translations should translate not add epic memes. See also Pokemon diamond.
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Nov 4, 2021 03:05
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sometimes memes are alright, especially if it fits the tone of the game or if the og text also had silly injokes iirc the ds 4 TL (by slattery?) is considered real good too
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Nov 4, 2021 03:06
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Gaius Marius posted:Translations should translate not add epic memes. See also Pokemon diamond. sometimes it is okay to add jokes in localization. especially when, like cid's line, it doesn't even read as a joke unless you know about a dead web forum, and it still conveys exactly the same question ("hey, are you taking good care of my airships? don't let your boys gently caress em up") it's not anywhere near the egregiousness of, say, vic "let's put clinton jokes in lunar" ireland
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Nov 4, 2021 03:15
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If you don't like when translators take liberties then it looks like FF14 is going up on the cross.
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Nov 4, 2021 03:17
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Yeah, I agree. The SA reference in the GBA/DS FF4 localizations is hardly the most egregious example you could find. It reads like fairly normal speech if you don't know it's a reference, unlike the aforementioned Lunar jokes or the doge reference in Tri Force Heroes.
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Nov 4, 2021 03:23
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OhFunny posted:"Bullshit," I say as I pull out my dphone and blast Limp Bizkit. I respect your fighting power
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Nov 4, 2021 03:33
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this op has a lot of words and they're all the best.
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Nov 4, 2021 03:38
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I don't think it's fair to say the PSP version of FFIV's translation is the worst when the original SNES one is barely legible at times
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Nov 4, 2021 03:49
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Just fyi, the link to the XIV spoiler thread is broken in the OP.
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Nov 4, 2021 03:53
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I have a FFXIV spoiler: it's the best Final Fantasy.
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Nov 4, 2021 03:54
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Evil Fluffy posted:I have a FFXIV spoiler: it's the best Final Fantasy. It's certainly the best if measured by raw volume of material
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Nov 4, 2021 03:56
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 00:29 |
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Wasn’t there a jrpg where an entire sidequest just…wasn’t translated? I’d say that’s the worst translation job.
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Nov 4, 2021 03:57
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