AltPunkMetal101: Final Fantasy Games Ranked (main Series)

CrimsonFloyd 05.29.12	1 is Final Fantasy Tactics
Thane 05.29.12	yeah my list would look something like this as well. i know a lot of people hated X...one of my favorite games ever. i need to play VII again.
gabethepiratesquid 05.29.12	who hates X?
fsharptrit0ne 05.29.12	a lot of people
fsharptrit0ne 05.29.12	i like it though, but it's def my least favorite of 3d squaresoft ones
Strider 05.29.12	"1 is Final Fantasy Tactics" second that XII is great btw
Winrar 05.29.12	VII sucks.
HitlerIsGod 05.29.12	are you going by the american numbering or the real one?
Deviant. 05.29.12	X is pretty bad in hindsight, terrible voice acting and almost as linear as the latest one. XII is underrated
AltPunkMetal101 05.29.12	I'm going by real numbering.
KSK1 05.29.12	Should all be tied for last.
MO 05.29.12	man I really enjoyed II and III and yea VII is best easily, X was ok, VI was dope, XIII was good but I wasn't a huge fan, but yea needs tactics
Masochist 05.29.12	"XII is underrated" XII was the first (and so far only) FF game I've played any good amount of, and I LOVE it. Even compared to other RPG games, I really enjoy XII and how fun it is. Supposedly, that's sacrilege...but then again, I didn't have a previous FF to love first. That being said, I'm surprised VIII is so low on this. Also, Chrono Trigger is my favorite RPG (and one of my favorite games) of all time, as well.
Themac 05.29.12	I've only played them from PS1 onwards so I can't rank 1-6. From what I've played though: X IX XIII VIII VII XII
fsharptrit0ne 05.29.12	VII is not the best because VI, VIII, and IX exist
Strider 05.29.12	IX is so boring VIII is great, but takes much more time to get into than the others
fsharptrit0ne 05.29.12	says the guy who thinks XII is great.
fsharptrit0ne 05.29.12	but 8 rules!
Nagrarok 05.29.12	VII VI IX IV V VIII X XII XIII III I II Something like that anyway, VIII and X are easily the most overrated of the series.
Evreaia 05.29.12	This list is fail. Lol 7 at 1, it's one of the worst of the series.
Evreaia 05.29.12	1-6 is best, no competition.
MasBarHigeuoris21 05.29.12	7 May not be the best but it is the only one that got a whole generation to start playing RPGs. No one really played RPGs before 7 came out
MasBarHigeuoris21 05.29.12	If anything, XIII or XII have to be the worst in the series
Strider 05.29.12	"says the guy who thinks XII is great." That's because it is
MasBarHigeuoris21 05.29.12	XII was the first (and so far only) FF game I've played any good amount of, and I LOVE it. Even compared to other RPG games, I really enjoy XII and how fun it is. Supposedly, that's sacrilege...but then again, I didn't have a previous FF to love first. You stated the obvious. You only like XII because you haven't played any of the other ones
CrimsonFloyd 05.29.12	I will throw this in again... Tactics rapes all the final fantasy games hard.
fsharptrit0ne 05.29.12	XIII and XII are maybe equally bad. fuck square enix's deliberate attempts to westernize their games. at least the voice acting in those games is better than 10's though
HitlerIsGod 05.29.12	i havent played a Tactics, which would be the best one to get?
CrimsonFloyd 05.29.12	Final Fantasy Tactics, the port War of the Lions is also very good. Advanced and A2 are for little kids. No jokes.
fsharptrit0ne 05.29.12	the original tactics rules then they ruined it with the gba ones
Strider 05.29.12	The PSX one, advance is extremely fun, but a bit too cute.
auberginedreams 05.29.12	i haven't played all of them, but out of the ones i have played my order would probably be VII X Tactics XII VI XIII VIII IV V
Deviant. 05.29.12	"You stated the obvious. You only like XII because you haven't played any of the other ones" I have and I still enjoy XII. The storyline is almost non-existent and there's virtually no character growth or camaraderie between the characters, but the world is so well-realized and the battle/gambit system is genius. Plus all the sidequest/extra stuff were awesome
auberginedreams 05.29.12	anyone who's a fan of ff tactics needs to play tactics ogre. it's pretty cheap nowadays too, i got the psp port at gamestop for 10 dollars. it's made by the same team that worked on ff tactics, it's sort of a spiritual predecessor.
CrimsonFloyd 05.29.12	the gba/ds tactics games are too child friendly. The story is too kiddy, and I beat the gba one when it came out, I was like 8. Tactics however has the best, most complicated final fantasy story, and the gameplay is fantorgasmicastic.
MasBarHigeuoris21 05.29.12	Well you do have a point deviant. I'll give you that the battle/gambit system from XII was great. It's the main reason why XIII and XIII-2 have the battle systems that they have. @Crimsonfloyd Never played Tactics but I've heard it is one of the best FF games
CrimsonFloyd 05.29.12	it is IMO. Probably in my top 10 games.
auberginedreams 05.29.12	"but the world is so well-realized" this is the reason why i love xii, or any of the games set in ivalice for that matter (besides tactics, but that's because it takes place much later in the timeline when ivalice has reverted to a medival civilization and most of the unique races have been wiped out.) the actual characters themselves may not be the best, but the world is so beautifully realized that you just get immersed in the lore.
auberginedreams 05.29.12	oh whoops, i forgot about the first game in my ranking. i'll put FFI last, it's good but very primitive compared to the later games.
ITsHxCTOASTER 05.29.12	I've never really played a proper Final Fantasy game although I played Crystal Chronicles on gamecube years ago and I liked it back then. I own VII, XII, and got VI for this GBA emulator. I guess I could easily get Tactics too, any advice on which I should play first?
auberginedreams 05.29.12	play vii first.
HitlerIsGod 05.29.12	@crimson does it really matter that they were "child friendly"? paper mario (including the thousand year door), mario and luigi superstar saga, and mario rpg were all really fun RPGs geared toward kids.
CrimsonFloyd 05.29.12	I guess not but take my word for it Tactics is an overall beast of a game lightyears higher than its successors.
Recspecs 05.29.12	Never really got into the series :(
auberginedreams 05.29.12	tactics has one of the best video games stories of all time. the ending scene with ovelia and delita is pure shakespearean tragedy.
chambered49 05.29.12	7, 8, and 9 are the 3 best
pizzamachine 05.29.12	I freakin love XIII, and it's the only Final Fantasy I've played.
Oathbreaker 05.29.12	VIII is good, come on. It is kinda cheesy at times but the Rinoa=Ultimacia thing saves it even without being canon.
SaneTBP 05.29.12	Ok so yea these albums rule
Trebor. 05.29.12	X is fun if you can ignore the god awful story, characters, voice acting, etc
fsharptrit0ne 05.29.12	objectively IX is the best. it has the pacing, character development, soundtrack. it's a long game but it doesn't feel dragged out at all. plus it even has all those odes to the older FF's.
auberginedreams 05.29.12	i love VIII's story, but the junction system was fucking horrendous and drawing magic from monsters was incredibly tedious.
auberginedreams 05.29.12	X has an amazing story what are you talking about trebor. yeah the voice acting was cheesy but the story itself was great. i have to go to class now but prepare for a butthurt nerdrage later on.
WashboardSuds 05.29.12	"X is fun if you can ignore the god awful story, characters, voice acting, etc" I really don't get the distaste for this. not only is the cast good but they're all useful as party members at some point in the game (sans Kimahri) whereas other games had unused characters. plus what's really the problem with the game being linear. I know its a videogame and not a movie but that's kind of what X was trying to do in some way or another
HitlerIsGod 05.29.12	@fsharporjsdrkfnwhatever i dont think so, the villains were boring, the story wasnt the greatest, and garnet was a shitty character. still, it was pretty great. not the best though.
Trebor. 05.29.12	If X was a movie meg ryan would play titus
Deviant. 05.29.12	"It is kinda cheesy at times but the Rinoa=Ultimacia thing saves it even without being canon." Huh?
chambered49 05.29.12	objectively IX is the best. it has the pacing, character development, soundtrack. it's a long game but it doesn't feel dragged out at all. plus it even has all those odes to the older FF's. completely agree, perfectly paced game
Oathbreaker 05.29.12	"i love VIII's story, but the junction system was fucking horrendous and drawing magic from monsters was incredibly tedious." Junction system was ok. Refine, don't draw. " Huh?" Ultimecia is Rinoa in the future. She has forgotten about Squall (even though he is still with her as Griever) because of using the gf and is trying to achieve time compression to go back to a time of happiness that she can only partially recall. There are also many hints to such thing (one example is the scene with squall and rinoa in the garden at edea's house or simply the fact "I'll be waiting for you" at the very beggining comes up at the place where we find Ultimecia's castle floating).
Deviant. 05.29.12	How could she be Rinoa in the future? Pretty sure Ultimecia wanted to do the whole time compression thing so she wouldn't die
Oathbreaker 05.29.12	^Uhm, no, this isn't stated anywhere in the game. In fact, the characters often say something along the lines of "why would someone do something like that. Welp, doesn't matter, we have to stop her".
Oathbreaker 05.29.12	In any case, it isn't canon, it is just a much more fullfiling way of looking at the game. Even the theory that squall dies at the end of disc one is very much fun. Back on the Rinoa=Ultimecia thing: Rinoa says to squall at some point "what if I ended up as the world's enemy Squall? Would you stay with me then?" and he says "yea sure". Nice would-be foreshadowing.
Trebor. 05.29.12	I love the message of X, that religion is bullshit
PayneTiger777 05.29.12	I thought the story for XII was a little stagnant. I put 66 hours into it and was bored by most of the characters. I thought IX was fantastic (except for the random final boss), and VIII had it's moments. I beat X about 4 times and thought it was enjoyable. As for VII, I do believe it is the best in the series, but I still think that Sephiroth is the most overrated villain of all time. I fucking despise the typical badass villain that thinks he can't be touched. Sephiroth has ruined my perspective on villains. On another note, I need to get back into playing VI since I never beat it before. Kefka is definitely worthy of best FF villain.
Deviant. 05.29.12	"Even the theory that squall dies at the end of disc one is very much fun." Yeah I've heard of that one "Nice would-be foreshadowing." If that's how you interpret it then that's cool, I'm not buying it though. In the few minutes that I've known about this (as in, when you first mentioned it) a quick search on google shows that this is a pretty big thing. Never knew!
DurzoBlint 05.29.12	I got mad when I saw XI so high, then realised it was second worst. Pretty nice.
Trebor. 05.29.12	I didn't know about these crazy VIII theories
fsharptrit0ne 05.29.12	garnet was a shitty character in the beginning but that's the point but she develops into a really great character in a way that's done VERY well. the story is fantastic, idk what to tell you but i definitely got way more into the story and admired it more the 2nd tiem around. but i do agree the villains were a little boring. kuja was like sephiroth lite
PayneTiger777 05.29.12	I thought Kuja was a pretty well developed villain. First he starts off working under Queen Brahne, then he decides that he wants to gain the power of the eidolons so he can destroy Garland and rule Terra. Later in the game his final goal is to destroy the world instead of rule it because he learns that he is a mortal and doesn't want the world to one day exist without him. I would have liked to have seen more of Garland, though.
fsharptrit0ne 05.29.12	garland ruledddd big time
Trebor. 05.29.12	The eerie organ tune for Garland rules hard I listen to IX's soundtrack on the regular
fsharptrit0ne 05.29.12	yea the soundtrack is unreal
Nagrarok 05.29.12	For more eerie organ: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkx3KcO7TCs
auberginedreams 05.29.12	alright i'm done with class, time to go on a fanboy rant. ffx has arguably the best villian in the entire series. no, not that gay dude with the blue antlers, i'm talking about yu yevon, the guy who has no dialogue and whose face is never shown. the reason why people think yu yevon is dumb is because you only see him in his retarded crab form, but he has more depth than just about any other villain in the series despite the fact that he's only really mentioned rather than seen. he was the leader of the city of zanarkand which was at war with bevelle, but when it became apparent he would lose the war against bevelle he decided to summon a dream zanarkand so that his perfect city could exist forever. in order to do so he had to essentially kill all of the citizens of the city he supposedly loved so much in order to convert them into the pyreflies that would become his armor, sin. his plan was that sin would protect him while he summoned this dream city. however, it took all of his conscious strength to summon the city and he became unable to control sin. this lead to sin attacking and killing people indiscriminately. he was a coward who would rather let the people of spira live in fear of sin than accept the fact that his city was no more. as time passed he began to lose his humanity and only his instinct to preserve dream zanarkand and summon sin remained. eventually he lost his physical human form too which is why he looks like a weird crab thing at the end of the game. but the point is, he's an incredibly tragic character. rather than accept defeat he decided it would be better to create a false reality that he could escape to, and he was so unable to cope with his own loss that he didn't care whether or not he was killing innocent people through his summoning of sin as long as it meant he didn't have to face reality. so yeah, he might not be a crazy sword-wielding badass like sephiroth, but he's got an incredibly deep and thought provoking backstory to make up for it.
auberginedreams 05.29.12	damn that's embarrassing to read over, even i didn't realize how nerdy i was. but still i think it's sad that ffx is just seen as a dumb love story when really it's much deeper than that if you really analyze it.
Yuli 05.29.12	XIII was great, but the combat system was pretty infuriating at times and the difficulty became insane. I'm probably just not elite enough
auberginedreams 05.29.12	i didn't think xiii was that hard if you got the hang of the battle system, although i really liked the battle system so maybe that's why. most people complain about it being too easy.
auberginedreams 05.29.12	basically you just stagger stuff and then beat the shit out of it until it dies, it's not really that complicated.
Themac 05.29.12	Both XIII and XIII-2 are incredibly easy
AngelofDeath 05.29.12	Good job. You got 1 and 2 right.
Rev 05.29.12	VI and VII were the only two I cared for
PuddlesPuddles 05.29.12	This girl I was trying to hook upa with was a big FF fan. I was like sweet, I've only played X. She looked horrified and called me a loser. Needles to say.... I palm blowed her in the neck
fsharptrit0ne 05.29.12	angel i thought you liked VIII the most
danielito19 05.29.12	4 and 6 are the best, 7 and everything after are bad.
AngelofDeath 05.29.12	VIII is probably my third favorite. IV and V are pretty rad, too, though. But VII is my favorite game of all time.
Trebor. 05.29.12	IX for life II is underrated, I'd say III is the worst (haven't played XI or XIV but those are lol anyway)
WashboardSuds 05.29.12	@aubergine, I love X a lot and I have never heard that before. where do you learn about yu yevon's past? also XIII has the best battle system in the series. the game isn't the best but the battle system takes their ATB system and nearly perfects it.
AngelofDeath 05.29.12	I used to play XI. It was pretty fun. XIV looks retarded, though.
WashboardSuds 05.29.12	I hate ranking this series but here's mine (very rough) VIII = X VII VI IX IV X-2 V XIII III II I XII XI
auberginedreams 05.29.12	"I love X a lot and I have never heard that before. where do you learn about yu yevon's past" that creepy fayth kid that follows tidus around explains a lot of it, and lady yunalesca talks about it too. it's been awhile since i've played it so i don't remember the exact scenes, but over the course of the last quarter or so of the game (from the point where tidus realizes he's not real) it's discussed. the thing is they only give you his backstory piece by piece instead of all at once, so a lot of people don't connect the dots. check out this page though if you want to read more about it. http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Yu_Yevon
Trebor. 05.29.12	XII is mad underrated too
Rev 05.29.12	I don't understand the appeal of VIII. It wasn't fun (I'm not complaining about the junction system, just the game as a whole), and the characters were awful
auberginedreams 05.29.12	i liked VIII's story and characters tbh, i just hated the gameplay.
Rev 05.29.12	It was my second FF after VII, and after the fun, exciting characters of VII (Cloud's a whiny bitch, but everyone else was pretty cool most of the time), the guys in VIII just were boring and unlikable. Plus VII just seemed much more like an exciting adventure than VIII
Trebor. 05.29.12	How can you hate a game that has Doomtrain and Jumbo Cactar?
auberginedreams 05.29.12	"Plus VII just seemed much more like an exciting adventure than VIII" i think part of the problems with this series is that, even though the games are standalone, self-contained stories, the fact that they're numbered like direct sequels makes people compare them too much and people get disappointed when one isn't just like another. i don't think viii was ever supposed to be like vii.
Hospital 05.29.12	X and VII are my favs for sure
Rev 05.29.12	"i think part of the problems with this series is that, even though the games are standalone, self-contained stories, the fact that they're numbered like direct sequels makes people compare them too much and people get disappointed when one isn't just like another. i don't think viii was ever supposed to be like vii." it's not that. VII just had everything I look for in an RPG (big scale adventure, fun characters, enjoyable to play), VIII had none of that
Ovrot 05.29.12	II is underrated and has the best battle theme.
AngelofDeath 05.29.12	"How can you hate a game that has Doomtrain and Jumbo Cactar?" Tonberry was the best GF lol.
auberginedreams 05.29.12	i see what you're saying, i just feel like people should enjoy each entry for what it is. i'm guilty of the same thing though, so it's all good. i actually liked viii's story and characters and world and everything (albeit not as much as i liked vii's) but that whole junction/draw thing was the worst idea for a jrpg battle system ever, and i play a ton of jrpgs. have you by any chance played any of the persona games? i love that series (at least 3 and 4 that is, i haven't played the first two.)
WashboardSuds 05.29.12	how did VIII not have a big scale adventure? I know the characters and the fun factor are subjective but you can't deny there's a lot going on in that game
WashboardSuds 05.29.12	also I played persona 2 3 and 4
auberginedreams 05.29.12	yeah they're awesome. and the world ends with you is a great game too.
WashboardSuds 05.29.12	I know 4 gets all the love but 3 is IMO the superior game
auberginedreams 05.29.12	gameplay wise persona 4 is almost objectively better. as far as story and characters go i love both. it's a tough choice. i think persona 4 might beat it by a tiny bit, but that's probably because it's fresher in my mind.
auberginedreams 05.29.12	i'm playing devil survivor 2 right now mostly because it seemed sort of persona-ish. i've never played a shin megami tensei game before that wasn't part of the persona series.
WashboardSuds 05.30.12	you should they're some of the best hardcore RPG's you'll ever play
auberginedreams 05.30.12	what would you recommend? are they anything like the persona games? i've always wondered why there was a series within a series like that.
WashboardSuds 05.30.12	they're infinitely harder (unless you already play the persona games on Expert mode), eviler, and less school-oriented. the best ones are Nocturne, Devil Summoner (the Saturn one) and SMT2
Rev 05.30.12	"how did VIII not have a big scale adventure? I know the characters and the fun factor are subjective but you can't deny there's a lot going on in that game" I played up to where you fight the giant monster in Garden's basement, but up to that I thought it was boring as shit. The Gardens were a cool idea that ended up being super lame and I just felt the locations and stuff were dumb. I liked when you first tried to battle the Sorceress and you broke into the tv station and stuff, but I didn't really care for the rest. Even the giant spider chase was a headache even though it should have been great Persona's awesome. I finally got around to playing a bit of 4 at my friend's house. I'm sure 3 is a better game, but man I love 4's characters so much.
Rev 05.30.12	< 3 Rise and Chie
WashboardSuds 05.30.12	it gets better after that point, especially the final battle. its so awesome, you fight the boss while time and space is collapsing and shit.
auberginedreams 05.30.12	"I love 4's characters so much" yeah i got super attached to those characters. that game is the closest thing there is to playing an anime if that makes sense. i love how they throw all of those scenes in there like the camping trip and the grocery shopping and stuff that aren't incredibly important to the overall story, but go a long way in making the characters more believable.
auberginedreams 05.30.12	ff4 is incredibly overrated. it's built up to be this epic emotional story of betrayal but then you find out kain's just being mind controlled by a moon alien that also happens to be your half-brother.
Parallels 05.30.12	I've always liked XII the most, fuck the haters X and VII are my seconds
ConcubinaryCode 05.30.12	3 isn't overrated. 12 is too low. #1 spot belongs to 4,6, or 10.
Parallels 05.30.12	I can see why people hate X
Parallels 05.30.12	"#1 spot belongs to 4,6, or 10." We are in the midst of a true FF elitist
Masochist 05.30.12	"You stated the obvious. You only like XII because you haven't played any of the other ones." No...XII is only my FAVORITE because I haven't played any of the others. I LIKE it because it's ridiculously fun to play. I've never, ever actually taken pleasure at grinding for level in any RPG (not even Pokemon) like I do in XII. As Dev said, the battle system is awesome, not having to worry about my teammates. Also...I despise random battles, so it helps that there are none in that game.
ConcubinaryCode 05.30.12	10 has Anima.
ConcubinaryCode 05.30.12	although i did like 13s battle system.
Deviant. 05.30.12	"Also...I despise random battles, so it helps that there are none in that game." This. I always found grinding to be less of a hassle when you can actually see the enemies wandering around, instead of aimlessly running around in circles hoping to trigger a random encounter
Oathbreaker 05.30.12	"I played up to where you fight the giant monster in Garden's basement" welp
Themac 05.30.12	10 also has Blitzball, which is far and away the best mini-game in any FF game.
Deviant. 05.30.12	Blitzball was and forever will be fucking terrible
BlueW 05.30.12	suikoden II > all ff games
Themac 05.30.12	XIII-2 is pretty much identical to XIII in terms of battle system, so if you didn't like the auto battle thing in the last one this one won't do much to change your mind. The game is less linear than 13, but the story in it isn't as strong. Noel is a pretty cool character though, and the bad guy too, can't remember his name, he's pretty cool too.
Tyrael 05.30.12	'Has anyone played XIII-2?' Yep it fixes most of the issues that XIII had but the story is pretty meh and there are a lot of boring platforming sections Oh and Sara & Noel are pretty meh as leading characters
Tyrael 05.30.12	Oh and bad voice-acting THAT SHOPKEEPER OH MY GOD http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVKls9_SR2E
Strider 05.30.12	Watching a vid on the Gameplay of XIII, sounds cool, but a bit too linear
auberginedreams 05.30.12	"Basically the series has gone down hill for me since the merger with Enix. After they got so big they focused more on style than substance and the company has been pumping out half-assed games ever since." you seriously should play the world ends with you if you haven't already. it's the best thing square enix has put out in years.
Deviant. 05.30.12	"Oh and bad voice-acting THAT SHOPKEEPER OH MY GOD http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVKls9_SR2E" All I heard was 3 fuckwits "Never cared for xii's laughably inconsistent story and battle system." How was XII's story inconsistent? I mean it was virtually non-existent, but inconsistent?
Tyrael 05.30.12	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpufV3zbpN0 here you go complainiant
WashboardSuds 05.30.12	"Eh, it's cool, but pressing auto-battle for 40 hours felt dumb. If you wanted to think outside of the box and try something different you paid for it by dying because of the way-too-fast pace of battle. So, press A and that's how you win. Hardly perfect." I kind of see your point with the auto-battle thing but then it's no different than just hitting "attack" over and over in other RPG's. If the speed was too fast for you there was a Slow setting that really helped especially in the eidolon battles. "Basically the series has gone down hill for me since the merger with Enix." ^also this
The7thVermicide 05.30.12	Tactis is cool, I have that game for gameboy advance. VII is the coolest one
auberginedreams 05.30.12	"easily one of the coolest games I've played in the last decade." yeah it's awesome, everything from the story to the battle system to the whole shopping thing is just about perfect, especially for a 2D portable game.
auberginedreams 05.30.12	"Tactis is cool, I have that game for gameboy advance." you're thinking of the wrong game, that's tactics advance. completely different.
Trebor. 05.30.12	It's the same game pretty much but better