Whats the best final fantasy? How does FF7 compare to the rest of them?

[Maximilian]

I could go read reviews on them all, or just ask you guys I just started playing FF7, i am 8 years behind everyone else sorry Which is the best one for those who have played them? How many are there anyways?

Im amazed by FF7... if every game had this much effort put into it, i would OWN every game! What the hell was i thinking in not buying this before?! Im currently at the part when i just fell off the gold saucer and got put in jail, lovin it.

 

[Soccer55]

IMO, you really can't go wrong with any of them. FF8 and FFX-2 were kinda lame, but still pretty decent games. I haven't played FFXI since it's a pay-to-play and I refuse to pay monthly fees for a game. They've actually released all of them except FF3 for the PS1. FF Origins, FF Chronicles, and FF Anthology contain re-releases of the FF games that appeared on the NES and SNES. Then from FF7 to FFX-2, they have all been released in the US for either the PS1 or PS2. If you play any of the re-releases, you're going to be playing them strictly for the gameplay as they didn't really update any of the graphics. They did however add in some new features like a bestiary and also some cutscenes.

-Tom

 

[igowerf]

My favorite is probably FF6(j)/FF3(a), but it might be hard to get into because of the 2D old-school graphics and the MIDI sound. If you can get over the outdated presentation, you'll get to play a very cool game with an awesome storyline.

 

[shortylickens]

"Whats the best final fantasy?"

This is definately going to open the flood gates.

Well, heres my thoughts on the issue.
I loved 7 because it had the basic formula from 2 (the American, SNes 2). If you're getting beat down, you can always run around, rack up more XP's and get stronger. Then you go back to that tough area and work through it.
The game had plenty of spells AND special moves AND powers, not to mention a wide array of items to be used in and out of battle.
The best thing about FF is the side areas that have lots of goodies. Number 7 was filled with them. Including two super monsters that were optional and gave you access to two REALLY good rewards.

It also had a well designed story. Granted all the FF were pretty much the same from the 2nd one.
You start out alone or with a small group. You uncover a hidden danger. That danger leads to another and before you realize it you're on a quest to save the world.
In the first game you start off with intentions to save the world. You just dont know how and you still have to go through the chain of uncovering greater evils.


Now, concerning number 8:
Story was a lot less cohesive. Same principle as the others, the game just took a very roundabout way to get there. Too many movies. Some folks say 7 was the same but I still believe 8 was the worst offender by far. Every time I came around a corner I had to sit through some movie, which actually distracted me from what I was doing in the game. After all it is a game, an interactive experience. At least its supposed to be. The excessive movies distanced me too much. I didnt feel like I was part of the experience, like EVERY OTHER FF BEFORE IT. :|

Gameplay: Not having regular equipment was a pain in the butt. Upgrading weapons is nice in a high-tech shooter or a hack-n-slash fantasy game like Diablo 2. In FF its just irritating. Same with all the item converting you have to do. Distilling (or whatever they called it) items from cards and converting cards and converting items seems really cool for a little while, until I realized I was wasting my time instead of playing the game, which is why I bought it in the first place. Ditto for having to figure out the perfect Junction of GF's and GF abilities. It just got tedious. And the auto-junction feature couldnt be trusted to give me what I wanted.
Coming up with good Materia combos in FF7 was a lot easier and more straightforward.
I didnt care for the card game but thankfully it can be avoided. Unfortunately you need to convert cards to get most of the items in the game.
All the best items come from (you guessed it) all the best cards. Which means a ton of card fights in the hopes you get what you need. Fvck that.
I also didnt like the drawing and magic system, but that probably has more to do with my distaste for the whole junctioning idea.

Overall, not impressive. So much so that I didnt keep my Playstation afterwards and never played number 9. Or 10. Or 11. I just dont care anymore. I have too many good memories of the old stuff and I can live and die happily.
Heck the only reason I kept my NES was for Final Fantasy 1. I was gonna chuck it and get into sports and maybe even the boy scouts.
My buddy said "No, man, no. Keep it. Theres a sweet game coming out soon and its gonna totally blow Dragon Warrior away, dude."

 

[Malak]

FF5 is the best in the series. FFT the best in the universe.

 

[shortylickens]

CRAP!
I thought I was gonna be the first to respond.
Guess I took a little too long.

EDIT: Addendum:
I forgot my main issue with number 8. Enemies that leveled up with the party. I understand the idea was to keep the challenge up throughout the whole game.
But it didnt make the game challenging, just irritating. If I found a tough creature that kicked my butt, I had to keep dying and reloading until I could beat him. No amount of leveling-up would help. Or I could try getting more spells and junctioning them to see if it would make me strong enough. But that goes back to the tedious stuff I didnt like anyway.

Bahamut was the worst for me. I only tried 3 times before I said "fvck him".

 

[Maximilian]

You guys like the old stuff then eh? Afraid i hadnt even heard of final fantasy in the SNES era, only just discovered phantasy star IV for the genesis a year ago, got mauled by the profound darkness and couldnt kill it :frown: Its a lot like the FF7, except its 2D. So im thinking i might enjoy the old final fantasys too.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I've only been playing FF9 so far (got it first, bundled with a used PSOne) but it's a lot of fun and the low-low-res in-game 3D in it doesn't bother me. The pre-rendered cut scenes are gorgeous of course.

 

[StevenYoo]

FF6 is being released for GBA soon.

and Square is re-making FF3(j) for the DS.

FF4 for GBA was VERY well-done. they really improved upon the US SNES version

My personal fave is FF6

 

[clickynext]

Most of them are good, and it's hard to compare them sometimes because the technology evolved so much over the years. I thought FFVI was the best if graphics don't bother you. VIII is also at the top in my mind. Next would come X and VII, and then the rest were less memorable for me.

 

[igowerf]

Originally posted by: Malak
FF5 is the best in the series. FFT the best in the universe.

FFT is definitely one of the best. I thought FF5 was pretty good, but I stopped playing for a while and now I can't remember where I left off. The SNES Final Fantasy games are definitely at the top for me though.

 

[KB]

FFIII/FFVI(j) is the best and always will be. Just play it on a small screen so the graphics don't look so dated.

 

[Arkane13131]

I have beaten every final fantasy out there...including ffxi (well everything but promathia+ expansionwise) ff7 was my personal favorite. best story...best characters...best quests...best plot....if they remade it today...people would freak out over it...but the graphics are like 8 or 9 years old now so...people dont give it a chance.

 

[TGS]

You could also play it in an emulator and use some of the graphical tweaks to smooth out the edges . I still think that FFIII(e) was one of the best RPG ever to come across a console. FFVII was spectacular, but FFIII had all the dramatic elements without CGMs. Though from what I recall, FFVII broke the ground for very detailed CGM in games.

 

[LanceM]

FF7 is my favorite. It got me back into video games when it came out (that and Twisted Metal).

I didn't care for the villain in FF6, which killed my enjoyment.

Ever play Chrono Trigger? If not, make it your next game. Seriously.

 

[Yreka]

FF7 was the best IMO.

 

[Dumac]

FFVII beat all the other I've played. X was also pretty good. I enjoyed the storyline, graphical effects, and gameplay, but I just hate Tidus in general I didn't really get into FFVI. I don't know why, but it just wasn't really my game.

And i agree with LanceM. Play chrono trigger too. It's a great game.(My favorite SNES game)

 

[StrangerGuy]

FF7 best overall, FF8 is good and the card minigame rocks. FFX/X2 were horrible.

 

[Maximilian]

FF7 so far seems very deep without being overly complicated, the music is awsome too. The welcome president rufus ceremony march is nice Cant wait till ive got more time to play it!

Never ever played or seen chrono trigger. Heard it was awsome though.

 

[trapper700]

while we're somewhat on the topic of square games... go play bahamut lagoon! it was originally released for the snes in japan, but never made its way over here to the states. luckily, a translation group has translated the rom to 100% english. it's one of my favorite games... it's like a mix of ff6, ff tactics and pokemon.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Chrono Trigger

 

[Noema]

Final Fantasy fans are usually divided into two camps.

Those who came before FFVII, and those who jumped in with FFVII.

The former will probably call FFVI (FFIII in the US) the best; the latter will do the same with FFVII.

I belong to the old folks who've been playing FF since the NES days, and as such, I will diligently defend FFVI as not only the best FF, but also as the best Console RPG to have ever existed.

In fact I loathe FFVII and FFVIII for many reasons, but mainly because they represented a mainstream jump of the franchise that led to its dumbing down. In terms of gameplay, none of the PS or PS2 FF can touch FFVI. They just feel really shallow.

But beware: FFVII has some of the most rabid, blind and zealous fanboys in the history of geekness.

In case anyone is interested, Here is a review of FFVII I wrote a few years back.

WARNING TO CLOUD FANBOYS: It's extremely biased.

 

[Fingolfin269]

I wish people would call the FF games what they were named when they actually played them. When you say FF6 which one are you referring to? If you played it on the SNES I guess that would make it FF3? I'm not Japanese so I have no idea what FF6 is...

My favorite FF would probably be FF2 but I'm serious when I say that Chrono Trigger is better than all of them. The main reason being the lack of random encounters. I try to go back and play those games again but have so much trouble thanks to the walking along, randomly get attacked, walking along, randomly get attacked, etc. gameplay.

 

[LanceM]

In my experience -- which includes being a former admin at the then-most-popular Square board on the entire Web -- most (as in 19 our of 20) people name them by their Japanese titles.

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: Fingolfin269
I wish people would call the FF games what they were named when they actually played them. When you say FF6 which one are you referring to? If you played it on the SNES I guess that would make it FF3? I'm not Japanese so I have no idea what FF6 is...

Since most FF games are now available in the US (except III), and since the Japanese nomenclature has been completely adopted here (All post nintendo era FFs use the japanese nomenclature; the GBA remake of USFFII is now FFIV; JFFII was released for the first time with FFI as FFII, etc), I think the most proper way of avoiding confusion is to use the Japanese nomenclature.

The only reason FFIV and VI where renamed II and III in the US was because Nintendo forced Square to do so to avoid confusing people, since Nintendo bought the US rights for FF1 and JFF2 but bailed out on releasing #2 because they though it was to hard for american gamers. I think they ended up making things more confusing, specially since Square went back to the japanese nomenclature after breaking up with Nintendo.