Final Fantasy Rankings

[Darkferret]

Im bored so here is something for all you crazy freaks to get pissed off about. Now I know I am missing a couple titles, but these are the ones that deserve to be mentioned, even though FFX really doesnt deserve it either. And yes, FFVII really is THAT bad.


1: Final Fantasy 3US/6Jap: It came down to Opera, and Opera won. (the Opera scene in FF6 is the greatest scene in any RPG ever). Plus Mog is an actual character who goes into battle with you, totaly kickass. Combine that with orginality of the Espers and you have the 3rd best RPG of all time!! (Beind Xenogears and Chrono Trigger).

2. Final Fantasy 5: For game play alone, the job system here was incredibly complex and so versitile that you can build your party anyway you want, absolutely brilliant. Add in nearly entirely non-linear game play, and the first time a character ever actualy died... and wow.

3. Final Fantasy 2US/4 Jap: Good characters, good plot, solid game. Revolutionary for its time it pushed the NES' 8 bit graphics to the max. Plus Cain was the first true Final Fantasy baddass.

4. Final Fantasy 8: The Draw system was... tedious. Still, it allowed you to create characters with 255 in every stat if you know what you are doing. Plus the space scene is beyond words, but since it lacks the all out nostalgia of the Opera scene, it takes a worthy 2nd place. And further more, Squall is a total badass motha fucka'!

5. Final Fantasy 9: Old school flare, new school graphics. It was FF6 with cooler graphics, but not quiet as epic as 6 or as orginal as 8 or 5.

6. Final Fantasy 7: Revolutionary graphics, compelling story, horible horible, horible game play. The Magic system sucked, end of story. Materia now angers me to the extreme!! Its slow, cumbersome, and isnt really worth the wait when you finaly do get new spells. This was the first game to take the Final Fantasy series to 3D, but that really didnt do anything the game play. Also, when FF8 was released two years after, this games graphics look like paterns pissed in the snow atop Mt. Everest. So I dont want to hear anyone talk about how great the graphics are, the people look like pigs! Finaly, if you didn't see Aeries dieing coming from a mile away, don't worry, its not too late. You can still do the world a favor and kill yourself.

7. Final Fantasy X: Too f**king easy, Ive had to put forth more effort taking a s**t than beating this game. I could take out the final boss with 1 character after 45 hours of game play, that is sad ladies and gents, sad indeed. Also, did anyone hear Tidus' voice? Seriously he must have recently been castrated cause no real male can hit some of those notes, it was simply put annoying. Actualy, I cant think of one thing that wasnt really annoying about this game, other than the sphere system, which was good.

[Stratadrake]

So allow us to give yours something to compare to. Let's see, if I had to rank the "primary" FF games in order of preference from best to least, it'd probably go like this:

- FF1 (FF Origins version)
- FF6 (SNES FF3)
- FF9
- FF7
- FF5
- FF2 (FF Origins version)
- FFX
- FFX-2

Exact reasons why I can talk about later. But the key things that I remember about each of the above are:

- FF1 (FF Origins version) Remixed music + graphical facelift + minor gameplay tweaks = everything's all new again. "Expert" (default) mode still has a bite to its difficulty level. Yay!

- FF2. ABSOLUTELY NO LEVELS OR EXPERIENCE POINTS! Double yay! (Ironically, this makes for an uneven difficulty curve, it varies from too easy to too hard in places)

- FF5. Favorite job class was Sorcerer because of their ability to attach elemental properties to their weapons at whim. Not only that, do a Fire3/Ice3/Bolt3 spell on the sword then strike an enemy who is vulnerable to it, instant kill! Also loved flying around the world map on the dragon simply because of the music.

- FF6 (SNES FF3). Gotta love the extras in the FF Anthology version, but the music was actually better on the SNES. The Opera House music seemed to lose its cool reverb effect... but it still has some of the best music. Also has the most main/playable characters of any FF.

- FF7. They all consider it the best, but me? Nah. I did love some of the music, and the Materia system was okay, but . . . well, I dunno. Not really that high on my favorite FF's list.

- FF9. In four words? Best. Airship. Music. Ever. Anyway, it pays homage to nearly every FF gone before it. The last stand of the four-person party, too bad the mid-battle lag (transparent loading sequences) made it difficult to do certain things like use Phoenix Downs effectively. I liked learning attack/support abilities from equipment (learning a summon off of a Phoenix Pinion still makes my day!), but it's too bad the FF9 Ribbons didn't have their classic status-protecting effects.

- FFX. What, no ribbons? Watched my sister play most of it, played it myself after awhile. Abandoning the constant ATB timers actually made combat go [i]faster[/i], but some of the high-level abilities you get can really break the difficulty level. (I.e., Haste+Quick Hit combo) Controlling the summons like normal party members was an added plus, getting hit by "10,000 Needles" the first time was a complete riot. A little too easy at the end though.

- FFX-2. Yuna as a Britney Spears/Lara Croft wannabe, Riku wearing hardly any clothes at all, and who the heck's Paine? Has a kinda campy feel to it. Mission-based gameplay reminds me of Legend of Mana (especially with the obvious "Mission Time!" and "Mission Complete!" parts). Job system reminds me of FF5, but with the added bonus of switching jobs mid-combat. ATB system is back, which kinda worried me at first, but it's a lot better than it was before. The key improvement? No more of the old-school only-one-character-moves-at-a-time, each and every character and enemy will carry out their turn as soon as they're available to do so (i.e., not receiving an enemy attack), which makes the combat feel a few steps closer to real-time.
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[crusifer]

Final Fantasy 7 is number 1, no contest!!! Followed by 3 (US) and then a tie between 8 and 9. The bottom of the list would be FFX-2... I just couldn't stand that game, and I am a Final Fantasy fanatic. Honorable mention goes to FFXI because I love and hate it at the same time. I love it cause it's fun to play, and my friends can play FF with me, but I hate it cause I already Paid 60 bucks for it, why do I have to KEEP paying more damn money??? And it's stupidly diffucult...-R

[Stratadrake]

[quote]Final Fantasy 7 is number 1, no contest!!![/quote]

Yup, that is the majority opinion on the matter....
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[Darkferret]

Can someone please, intellegently tell me why? Cause I refuse to believe it until I am given some decent explination to why FF7 is concindered even in the top 5. Please, someone explain it to me... having a decent knowledge of the other major FF titles.

[n8comics]

[quote="Darkferret (Dan)"] Can someone please, intellegently tell me why? Cause I refuse to believe it until I am given some decent explination to why FF7 is concindered even in the top 5. Please, someone explain it to me... having a decent knowledge of the other major FF titles. [/quote]
Ok.

Never before have technology, playability, and narrative combined as well as in Final Fantasy VII. The culmination of Square Soft's monumental effort is a game that will enrich just as it will entertain. Yet, for all the boundless praise it so rightfully deserves, Final Fantasy VII is not without its shortcomings and occasional design problems. These are enough to make some gamers (who are unfamiliar with RPGs, to be sure) wonder just why anyone would bother playing through it in the first place.

This is the most dazzling visual experience to date on any console of it's time. Film-quality computer-generated cinematics blend seamlessly with pre-rendered background artwork to create the strikingly realistic world of Final Fantasy VII, both beautiful in its grandeur and terrifying in its detail. The overworld and battle sequences are presented in full polygonal splendor with just a touch of texture mapping for good measure. But you haven't seen anything until you witness some of the more powerful magic spells in the game. Massive dragons heed your bidding, dwarfing your gigantic enemies tenfold; an earth titan tears the ground up from beneath your enemies' feet, flinging them aside like toy blocks. Some of these summoning spells cut to over half a dozen different camera angles as the catastrophe unfolds. Meanwhile, a masterfully orchestrated soundtrack - courtesy of veteran composer Nobuo Uematsu - is a major force behind the intense emotion of Final Fantasy VII. The synthesized musical score hearkens Final Fantasy's golden age on the Super Nintendo, consciously staying true to its roots.

Yet for all its top-notch graphics and sound, truly the best aspect of Final Fantasy VII is the plot that these peerless aesthetics help weave. Join the enigmatic mercenary Cloud Strife in a journey that will take him to the very source of his being in an incredible quest where the fate of the world hangs by a precious thread, threatening at any instant to be torn by the charismatic, tormented villain of the story. Final Fantasy VII's moving plot is influenced by some of the greatest works of science fiction film and literature, including Frank Herbert's Dune, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and even Godzilla. If you were to strip away the story, scenery, and musical score, Final Fantasy VII would otherwise be very much like any other Japanese RPG you've ever played. You still must face countless random monster encounters while keeping a close eye on your hit points and magic points, and you will witness your characters grow stronger with every experience level they attain. Battles are fought in typical Japanese RPG fashion (with fully polygonal graphics), with your team on one side and any number of opponents on the other. You exchange blows until you or the enemy is defeated. Fights are made interesting with the introduction of Limit Breaks (devastating desperation attacks) and Materia, the curious colored crystals that let your party use magic and other special abilities. Materia can be found or purchased and mixed and matched to create all sorts of interesting effects. Best of all, there are more than enough hidden Materia, weapons, and optional plot sequences in the game to merit playing it through at least twice.

Some have gone as far as to call Final Fantasy VII the hands-down best game ever made. And if you enjoy a good Japanese-style RPG, chances are you will agree. However, Final Fantasy VII, for all its astonishing features, is not a game with the sort of mass appeal that its massive marketing blitz may lead you to believe. For one thing, you can't finish it in a sitting, as Final Fantasy VII will be a solid 40 to 50-hour commitment for the average role-playing gamer. Otherwise, you might be taken aback by the extensive, text-heavy dialogue; there is no speech at all in Final Fantasy VII, in the interest of letting your imagination do a little work. Though you will make many small-scale decisions over the course of the game, on the whole, the story follows a very linear path. This linearity is a by-product of the plot's complexity, however - certainly a respectable sacrifice.

Sony's translation of the original Japanese dialogue is direct and first-rate, much to the relief of Final Fantasy purists everywhere. Nitpickers may identify a very occasional spelling or grammar error ("Off course!" agrees Cloud at the Golden Saucer battle arena), but otherwise this text-heavy game reads just right, flawlessly conveying each character's distinct personality. Even the foul-mouthed costars of the game retain their affronting attitudes, as Sony went as far as to translate certain four-letter words in the interest of staying true to the Japanese script. Final Fantasy VII boasts several features not found in the original Japanese release in February 1997. Some changes are designed to improve gameplay: For instance, now your party members can quickly and easily exchange their Materia, where swapping the invaluable crystals between characters was a real pain in the Japanese version. Also, at the touch of a button, all exit points on a particular screen become highlighted with conspicuous red arrows - these turn out to be a real boon in those areas where the exits aren't immediately obvious. Further, random monster encounters are thankfully much less frequent in many areas of the game, particularly on the overworld map. At the same time, Final Fantasy VII is considerably more challenging than its original release. You actually must plan ahead and devise some sort of strategy to beat some of the boss monsters that were likely pushovers before. Other changes include the addition of spectacular all-new cinematics and a handful of intriguing, new plot sequences at key points toward the end of the game. These moments help clarify several important issues in the story.

Good enough?

[Darkferret]

No its not for the following reasons.
1. If you want graphics music and all that jazz, just play FF8 released a year later, its seemless integration of CG and game play is a lot smoother than FFVII, however its musical score isnt quite as good.
2. Materia.... how can you even argue that it is a decent magic system? Drawing had more versitility, and espers were simply perfect.
3. You use game play as an arguement.... its the same in every freaking FF, except FFX. Turn-based battles that happen in random encounters! Plus, the side-quest weren't nearly as numerous as in FFVI or IX (which has a suprising high amount of them).
4. Plot... You felt a whole lot more for the character in FFVI than you did for those in FFVII, particularly those like Yuffie and Cid. However, in VI you took 20-30 hours out of your life to get all your old characters back, not because you needed them, simply because you wanted to have them and to learn more of their backstory... poor Cyan.


5. not that this pertains entirely to your article, but if you are going to use someone elses materials, site your source dammit! Make [b]your own[/b] arguements to support [b]your own[/b] statements, come orginal or dont come at all.

[n8comics]

We aren't talking about FFVII or FFX, we're talking about FFVII. If I wanted to play a game with better graphics I'd play my goddamn X-Box. Don't compare FFVII to games that were released after it. When you innovate something (reffering to all FF games following VII,) it's pretty obvious that that game is going to be better than the previous one.

Let's leave it at: FFVII is the greatest game ever made in 1997.

Just remember, never ever, ever, ever, ever compare a game of its series to it's future counterpart. That's like me saying you suck now and you at age 21 is a lot better.

[Darkferret]

please read the entire thread, we are talking about the best of all FF games and what makes one better than the next, it is possible to look at the past and compare it with the present, you just have to know how. Let us one again review my rankings:

FF3
FF5
FF2
FF8
FF9
FF7
FF10
(for why read above)

Note how it doesnt go chronologically? FFVII graphics simply werent that good though they were good for their time, but technology doesnt change that much in a year (note FFX and FFX-2), you dont talk about how FFVI graphics were great for their time (even though they were) you talk about the game, and FFVII simply isnt that good of a game. Now please tell me where the hell it is that you stole your previous post from.

[Darkferret]

Ohh, and it wasnt even the best game made in 1997, Xenogears dominates it and all Final Fantasys in all aspects, except muscial score, but that wasnt bad either.

[n8comics]

Xenogears, FF, whatever. All made by the same Developer so it's all good. And I didn't "steal" the post because only a moron who would expect someone to believe they typed up a five paragraph post in nine minutes. It's called gamespot.com. Use it, but I suppose no one gives a s**t about gamespot Considering I've mentioned it a number of times in this forum.

Edit:
By the way, Xenogears was released in 1998.

[crusifer]

While everyone is entitled to thier opinion, and debating is encouraged (it is a FORUM, after all), it's not necessary to become downright hostile over it all. Anyways, for me, FF7 is the best game ever made, hands down. It was the last great game made in the final fantasy lineage. Everyone on God's green earth insisted FF9 was a "Return to the Glory Days!" A job system and cute chibi characters don't make it a return to the classics. I feel anything after 7 basically removed themselves more and more from the tried and true formula. FFX just barely teeters on the edge of a good game for me. I like it, but I don't love it as I do 7 and before. Now, the excitement of a new FF has dwindled for me, because, despite how well the graphics or story is, Square is losing it's original trademarks. I'm not that eager to play FF12, and that's a bad thing.


Besides, if FF7 was sprite based, like the classics, I think I woulda liked it even more than I do now....-R

[Darkferret]

not in japan

[Stratadrake]

[quote]1. If you want graphics music and all that jazz, just play FF8 released a year later, its seemless integration of CG and game play is a lot smoother than FFVII....[/quote]

FF8's full-motion and pre-rendered scenes are better quality than FF7's, in the same way that FF9's are better quality than FF8's, and FFX's better than FF9. This is a natural progression and is worthless as an argument.

FF7 was however the [i]first[/i] Final Fantasy, if not the first console RPG period, to blend full-motion video and pre-rendered backgrounds into the visual style.

Now it's true that this is not a flawless system -- for one, having pre-rendered backgrounds basically limits you to "fixed" camera angles. But at the same time, the backgrounds themselves are much higher quality than the PSX hardware can crank out in a real-time, 60-frames-per-second 3D environment like Legend of Legaia, Alundra 2, etc.

[quote]2. Materia.... how can you even argue that it is a decent magic system? Drawing had more versitility, and espers were simply perfect.[/quote]

Obviously a heated debate. FF8's "Draw" system has the obvious disadvantage of no character having innate magic that they can cast at will, and espers had a disadvantage in that you could only summon them once per battle.

Advantages to the Materia system:
- Limits the availability of spells to the player. Back in FF6, Terra and Celes both learned spells as they levelled up. With tricks such as experience hacks, it was possible to grant Terra and Celes access to magic that a "normal" player would have to spend many, many gameplay hours trying to get. Like Merton.
- Forces the player to think strategically about which spells they really need for upcoming battles, and which ones they can leave on the shelf. Back in FF6 and earlier, when you could teach a character virtually the entire spell book, this would often result in you using only a select few spells regularly, and letting the rest of the list go to waste.
- Other, non-spell materia, further require the player to strategize. The purple-class materia in particular, become more effective with repeated use.
- Quick cash source. Have any spare Materia? They're worth their AP in gil.

Drawbacks to the Materia system:
- No one character has any inherent magic of their own. If you lose the materia, you lose your ability to cast magic.
- The same thing goes for non-spell materia.

[quote]3. You use game play as an arguement.... its the same in every freaking FF, except FFX. Turn-based battles that happen in random encounters! Plus, the side-quest weren't nearly as numerous as in FFVI or IX (which has a suprising high amount of them).[/quote]

ALL of the Final Fantasies (up to FFX-2) have utilized both random encounters and turn-based combat.

Random encounters are easier for the game engine to handle internally, because it doesn't have to worry about the placement ('spawning') or movement of enemy units on the map. With a random encounter, the game simply decides that in [i]x[/i] number of steps, you'll go into combat against some monsters. Whereas on the other hand (i.e. Chrono Cross), contact-based battles allow the player to interactively determine whether or not they go into battle.

Turn-based combat is, inherently, neither better nor worse than real-time combat (even though I myself prefer the latter). There are some tricks you can do better in a turn-based environment than a real-time environment. Real-time combat allows a greater degree of player immersion because they have the tactical concerns of movement and positioning to worry about. On the other hand, by introducing the element of player skill into the battle system, it can just as easily break the designed difficulty curve.

The most prominent game element that is more easily accomplished in a turn-based environment is to have a battle that the characters must lose. Think about it. In a turn-based environment, actions like dodge and accuracy depend entirely upon inherent, calculated stats. In a real-time environment, they also depend on the player's ability to manipulate the controller. A battle like in Chrono Cross where Serge must fight his own team and lose, since it's a turn-based environment, your team's superior numbers beat you down in a matter of two turns, regardless of [i]your[/i] (you, the player) skill level in choosing the right commands at the right time. If that battle had happened real-time (think Sora vs. Squall early on in Kingdom Hearts), the battle could easily last for an hour with no clear winner, depending solely upon the player's battle tactics and timing. It also forces the game developers to either write a scenario where the player [i]wins[/i] the improbable battle, or give the opponent unlimited HP (it [i]has[/i] happened) and force the player to give up and lose the battle.


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[Darkferret]

Finaly someone who provides support, and fact that I am not willing to do enough research to look up. Good job, your arguement leaves no room for refute, other than the fact that magic in FFVII simply isnt worth the wait, and you left out one key thing about espers, and that is that certain espers boost certain stats at level up, giving you greater ability to customize your party beyond the presets, for instance a character like Celes can become your best melee character if you want to take the time to do it. To provide support for your statement of unlimited HP in combat, I point out Deus in Star Ocean II (best battle system ever cause it mixes both the menus and real time, if you have the means I highly recemend picking this up before Star Ocean III comes out later this year).

[Stratadrake]

Yeah, I know I didn't go into all the details. FF7's Materia gives inherent stat adjustments when you equip them -- namely, equip too many high-powered spell or summons materia on one character and their maximum HP will take a major hit. You can counter it with the HP+ Materia but, really, the player has to ask whether it's worth taking up so many Materia slots just for the extra summons, or if they can just use a few summons and leave room for other customization.

And I do have memories of FF6's espers. I kept the Bahamut esper (HP+50%) on Terra for a very long time, and near the end of the game her HP was in the 6,000 or 7,000 range, a good 1,000-2,000 points higher than anyone else.

Every system has its advantages and disadvantages. Take FF9's equipment/ability system for example...

Advantages:
- You can use abilities without having mastered them completely. Provided, of course, that you're equipping the right armor.
- Each character can acquire permanent immunity to various status affects by learning them from equipment.
- The characters can also learn more skill commands from equipment. For Zidane in particular, each skill learned expands his list of Trance techniques.
- Limited supply of ability crystals forces the player to strategize, to decide which support abilities they really need and which ones they can leave be. Do you equip a few, really powerful support abilities (like "Boost") or many smaller support abilities (like "Dragon Slayer", "Antibody", etc.) ? Which ones will give you the best tactical advantages in the battles to come?

Disadvantages:
- No classic Ribbon.
- Absolutely NO armor in the game provides automatic status effects (i.e. Reflect, Regen) or status immunity. You have to equip those support abilities yourself.
- Much player management of equipment required if you want to maximize their skill and support abilities.


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