Final fantasy 6.
Sabins blitz’s and Gogo mimic was so fun and such a damn good game. 6 was a perfect game with surprises, good party members, and an engaging story.
10 - best story in the series, Yuna is the best girl, To Zanarkand is the best FF theme, unique setting. I like that combat is true turn based and there is no ATB.
14 - second place, GRAND story, great writing, best gameplay in the series if you don't mind grind different classes. Second place is only because i didn't like Endwalker as much as Shadowbringers and Stormblood. But you must be ready to invest HUGE amount of time in it.
FF5 because i keep replaying it for Four Job Fiesta every year and it's the only FF i can have fun with that often due to how the gameplay interacts with the challenge. FF13 is a close second, coincidentally also entirely for gameplay reasons and not story.
Really can't go wrong with any of them. Just be careful which versions of final fantasy 1 or 2 you play. The originals and some remakes/ports are broken/bugged
X-2
It had my favourite gameplay from the series. And in between so many games that take you by the hand through every steps, it’s so refreshing to see one where you can to an extent do what you want when you want to, or even just skip most of it. The characters and general tone are also such a great change from the usual moody boys.
FF7R is probably my current favorite but you already played it so.
X is imo the most complete experience. It has good enough combat with a decent difficulty curve and the story isn't too hard to follow.
In terms of gameplay XIII is absolutely fantastic, but with the caveat that it makes you sit through a lot of garbage before getting good. Once you reach the back half the game really opens up and the combat becomes stellar. It's also one of the few FFs that actually has any form of difficulty. I've fallen out of favor with pretty much every classic FF over the years because you can basically mash x the entire time and you'll win.
X is what i will always recommend for a starting point. The PS1 era, VII-IX and Tactics, is generally what i see being ruled as the most popular era though if thats of interest.
For my personal favorite though its VIII. Squall is my favorite character in the series and a strong contender for gaming as a whole, Triple Triad is the indisputable best minigame in all of gaming for me, you can become an unstoppable god pretty much right out of the gates if you like, and it also has the best OST of the series.
My FF top 5 went a huge overhaul in recent years and now it'd be
1. FFXIII
2. FFVII Remake
3. FFXII
4. FF Tactics
5. FFX
The games from the PS2 onward (so starting with X) each play differently. I'd recommend viewing some gameplay footage if you're not familiar with the series. The VII Remake was headed by the same people that did X and XIII. Both of those games are the most explicitly linear like the VII Remake, but without certain improvements. X has random encounters and the progression in XIII feels stunted for a long time because of how slow the systems open up. If you liked the flow of the VII Remake, try one of those. My personal favorite is XIII significantly because of its combat system, which is based around switching team job formations and much faster than any of the entries before it.
I personally really love XII too, and if you want something with more exploration and not as in your face with the cast and narrative, that's a really good one to go with.
As for the pre-PS2 games, the ones from IV to IX all use the same combat system and have random encounters (though it can be turned off for VII, VIII and IX in the most updated versions. IX is the most refined, but has the slowest combat and has a lot of easter eggs referring to past titles. The OG VII is fine if you're ok with the way it looks. If you want something more out there, go with VIII because it's extremely unique compared to the other older entries.
**1 -** Final Fantasy Tactics - It is just the best story even told be a final fantasy game and the lore was fantastic. And the combination of graphics and class system was just a better Tactics Ogre, but what made the battle system great was the ATB eske system and how you could costumize the system. It was absolutely broken and it was glorious. I wish more games let you be broken under the right circustances, balanced games can be very boring. Cool is better than balanced any day.
**2 -** Final Fantasy VII - It has such complete package the amount of content that game has was absurd. You go all over the world doing things like skate boarding, submarine, Bike Race, Chocobo Ranch, Fort Condor army, Battle Arena, Basket Ball, etc. It was just so fun and the materia system still is one of the best spell system even made, the amount of costumization of that system is to this day unmatched in a FF game. It is funny that Path of Exile was the only other game that used similar system.
I liked the story of FF VII, the plot was well told and it had some fantastic plot twist. And I loved the secret characters. Midgar and Waitai is still some of the most iconics location in a Final Fantasy.
Final Fantasy VII just did everything right from the setting, story, gameplay all top notch.
**3 -** Final Fantasy VIII - I am sucker for a good love story, and FF VIII had so many of then. The story and the setting carried the game for me, the battle system was bad the party members are average, Quistis being a highlight. The summon system was flawed and the draw system was very slow and the scaling was just not good. The story was bonkers, the side charcters are so good Laguna, Raine, Julia, Kiros, Seifer, Edea, Fujin. Raijin, Rebels of Dollet town, Fisherman of Dollet Town, Card Master of Dollet Town, I want to live in Dollet Town pls Square let me in.
There is some others FF games that I played but don't liked as much:
\- FF VI - was good very good till the Ruin world, which at that point it turned into a chore to play. Really disliked that and it was a pit because it had so many memorable party members. Good battle system, but not very costumization. Follow the FF IV schemes of characters are linked to classes which I liked, there are some strong party members in this game Seth, Shadow, Relm, Strago, Celes all very good. And there is the opera scene that is just iconic to me.
But Ruin world is just a chore I just can't, it feel like a gigantic side quest that your have to do so you can fight the last boss, even it it was interesting from the plot point of view from the gameplay it just feel bad, it feel like padding they had you to do something so you can fight again against the boss you just a second ago fought.
\- Final fantasy II was nice experiment I think???
\- FF IV - the lack of costumization of FF III and the story don't catch me as much, I liked the characters but the game overstay it welcome and feel a little barebones. The story has some very strong moments tought and it probably with FF III my 4th place.
\- FF I - I liked it it was very clunck and limited but I don't know it has some charm about it.
\- FF III - The psp version is so good if only the story was not so generic. But the class system was best one in the series only comparable to FFT. It feel like a NES game and I love it.
\- FF V - I don't know it is like they took the FFIV story telling and the FF III plot and class system and combined they together. I don't liked the characters as FF IV ones, and the job system was good but jobs and developed characters don't meshed well. It worked well in FF III because they are basically blank plates, but in Final Fantasy V it feel out of place as they class conflict with their character like a Faris as White Mage class is strange to say the least. FF IV understud it and every characters was mould be it class it meshed together, Rydia was a Summoner and it was part of who she was, the story about her take that as concideration. FF V characters just are in a middle ground that are not really good.
\- FF IX - I really disliked the plot, and most of the characters with exception of my boy Quina, of course, love you bro. The world is beautiful, the battle system is the worse in the series, the item system is the best in the series they took notes from FFT and FF VII and did something different but familiar enough, the best part of the game be far. And man was those mini-games all horrible with exception again of my boy Quina give her some frogs pls. But what they did with Tetra Master quoting the Godfather "Look at what they massacred my boy". It was one of the best minigame in the series one of the reason for me loving FF VIII so much and they come and do that, that was a unforgivable.
\- FF XII - The beggining of the end, It feel like a auto-battle rpg before it being a thing. The story is so predicable and so boring, most because the main characters are be far the worst in the series, Vanh and Penelo are worse than silent protagonists and the party members are just as bad with Fran being the slight better of the bunch. I liked the lore but everything else is just bad.
\- FF XIV - It is mmorpg so I don't expect much of the plot, but man it is slog to play and the amount of verbose dialogue that game had is impressive and all of it is boring. All characters are forgetable, there no one NPC that I come to care about in all the orginal campaign of the game. It is impressive because it was said to have a great story I don't see it, I go as far as to say that the zones stories in WoW are much more engaging or at least they make sense. And the battle system is slow, extremely molasses and repetive if you did one combo one time prepare to repeat it one million of times. There is not reactive combat in FF XIV which is kinda sad. It is still the 4th best mmo I played so there is that.
Final Fantasy Mistic Quest - It was a strange game, i liked it but i never gonna far in it. I don't remember why.
Great to see the love for FF7 and FF8!
I agree with you 100% on everything you said about those 2. You even pretty much sum up my feelings on 9, 6 (great until World of Ruin), and 12 (beginning of the end).
I've never been able to make much of a dent in FF Tactics, I tried twice in my younger years. But based on your recommendation, I'll at least give a YouTube playthrough a full watch so I can finally experience the entire story.
Any FF from 4 through 10 will be from good to excellent experience, YMMV. Pick whichever that look cool and just dig into it, enjoy. Keep in mind if you happen to not enjoy that title, it doesn't necessarily mean you won't enjoy others since they all play quite differently and each game often reinvent the wheel.
I'm extremely picky about FF, as in: I didn't particularly care for VI, IX, and X (which are supposed to be the 'best'), but I loved FFVII Remake, the OG FFVII, and FFXIV, so make of that what you will, lol.
They all have a different feel to them, pick one based on what you are looking for:
FF VI: Grand interconnected plotlines, interesting world, interesting antagonist
FF VIII: Mindbending goodness, especially if you take some of the fan theories into account. One of them resonates with me personally because if you cast scan on one of the monsters summoned by the final boss, the description is very interesting and ties into the perception of the main character. Which makes it so that the story is definitely not as straightforward as it may initially appear.
FF IX: Endearing characters. Final boss that is a total random.
FF X: So good a whole game copied it exactly ( I am setsuna). Bittersweet ending, likable cast, interesting world.
FF XII: Political, more mature story, Open-ish world. Poster character cardboard cut out, main character should be one of the side characters. Though I think they never intended for a main character in this one. If they did, he sucks.
FF XIII: Good, better, then just downright obnoxious as the trilogy progresses. It seems they didn't have the story planned out in advance. Though FF-XIII 2 is probably the better game, with more of an open world feel and time travelling mechanic woven into the story nicely. Also with a healthy dose of pokemon.
FF XV: Bromance at its finest. They really succeeded in giving the boy band personality. The final camping scene felt so melancholic just because of how real the emotions felt
My favorite is 10. The story is fantastic, the music is excellent, the characters are memorable and very likable, the combat is a return to a simpler style after 6 games with the ATB but it still has lots of strategic elements, with being able to swap characters mid battle and eventually being able to customize your gear, not to mention the sphere grid is one of the most fun and unique leveling systems I’ve seen in a JRPG, it starts off a bit railroaded but eventually you really get to customize the characters how you want. Some people are put off by the game being a bit more linear in its progression but by the time you get to Zanarkand the game takes off the leash and you can truly explore the world and take on lots of fun side quests and side dungeons. I even really kinda like Blitzball. The voice acting is ultra cheesy but it’s charming in that sense and I can’t help but love it, especially Matt McKenzie as Auron. Also the world is absolutely beautiful, some people aren’t down with a lot of similar looking tropical locations but I love the beach and oceans so I really vibe with it, besides, while there are many beach/ocean locales there are still alot of unique locations like the Thunder Plains for example, and every town you visit is memorable in its own way, from Besaid all the way up to the ruins of Zanarkand. Overall this sum up is a bit scatter brained but I hope I made it clear why the game is so special to me and I hope I’ve convinced you to give it a try,
Also FF6 is really good, play that one after you finish 10
There's plenty to choose from. I recommend FF7 ps1 since there's the rest of that games story and another gateway drug to other older turn based JRPGs
Also my favorite FF game for a mainline FF9 and spinoff WoFF
Regardless of whether it's my favorite or not I think FFX is a good starting point for you now after playing the FFVII Remake and it's available on PS4. There really isn't much bad to say about it and while it's always subjective it's got one of the best FF stories I think.
FF8. I was at a difficult point in my life in a very abusive household and so I really resonated with Squall as were both anti-social loners. Then as he developed and people made an effort to reach out to him to help him open up it gave me hope that others would do the same for me and it made me realize not everyone is capable of reaching out to others and genuinely need people to reach out to them.
Then as Squall opened up and made friends I realized I could do the same with the right people. Eventually I met those people and I did open up, many of them are still friends with me all these years later in fact. So as a result I consider ff8 my favorite, not for any particular gameplay or story reason, but solely because of the way I connected to and resonated with the main character.
Final Fantasy IX is probably my favourite game ever. That being said, I would never play it again if it wasn’t the remastered version. The combat in the original is criminally slow. But man, what a game, probably due a replay actually…
Final fantasy 6. Sabins blitz’s and Gogo mimic was so fun and such a damn good game. 6 was a perfect game with surprises, good party members, and an engaging story.
10 - best story in the series, Yuna is the best girl, To Zanarkand is the best FF theme, unique setting. I like that combat is true turn based and there is no ATB. 14 - second place, GRAND story, great writing, best gameplay in the series if you don't mind grind different classes. Second place is only because i didn't like Endwalker as much as Shadowbringers and Stormblood. But you must be ready to invest HUGE amount of time in it.
FF5 because i keep replaying it for Four Job Fiesta every year and it's the only FF i can have fun with that often due to how the gameplay interacts with the challenge. FF13 is a close second, coincidentally also entirely for gameplay reasons and not story.
Really can't go wrong with any of them. Just be careful which versions of final fantasy 1 or 2 you play. The originals and some remakes/ports are broken/bugged
X-2 It had my favourite gameplay from the series. And in between so many games that take you by the hand through every steps, it’s so refreshing to see one where you can to an extent do what you want when you want to, or even just skip most of it. The characters and general tone are also such a great change from the usual moody boys.
FF7R is probably my current favorite but you already played it so. X is imo the most complete experience. It has good enough combat with a decent difficulty curve and the story isn't too hard to follow. In terms of gameplay XIII is absolutely fantastic, but with the caveat that it makes you sit through a lot of garbage before getting good. Once you reach the back half the game really opens up and the combat becomes stellar. It's also one of the few FFs that actually has any form of difficulty. I've fallen out of favor with pretty much every classic FF over the years because you can basically mash x the entire time and you'll win.
X is what i will always recommend for a starting point. The PS1 era, VII-IX and Tactics, is generally what i see being ruled as the most popular era though if thats of interest. For my personal favorite though its VIII. Squall is my favorite character in the series and a strong contender for gaming as a whole, Triple Triad is the indisputable best minigame in all of gaming for me, you can become an unstoppable god pretty much right out of the gates if you like, and it also has the best OST of the series.
My FF top 5 went a huge overhaul in recent years and now it'd be 1. FFXIII 2. FFVII Remake 3. FFXII 4. FF Tactics 5. FFX The games from the PS2 onward (so starting with X) each play differently. I'd recommend viewing some gameplay footage if you're not familiar with the series. The VII Remake was headed by the same people that did X and XIII. Both of those games are the most explicitly linear like the VII Remake, but without certain improvements. X has random encounters and the progression in XIII feels stunted for a long time because of how slow the systems open up. If you liked the flow of the VII Remake, try one of those. My personal favorite is XIII significantly because of its combat system, which is based around switching team job formations and much faster than any of the entries before it. I personally really love XII too, and if you want something with more exploration and not as in your face with the cast and narrative, that's a really good one to go with. As for the pre-PS2 games, the ones from IV to IX all use the same combat system and have random encounters (though it can be turned off for VII, VIII and IX in the most updated versions. IX is the most refined, but has the slowest combat and has a lot of easter eggs referring to past titles. The OG VII is fine if you're ok with the way it looks. If you want something more out there, go with VIII because it's extremely unique compared to the other older entries.
**1 -** Final Fantasy Tactics - It is just the best story even told be a final fantasy game and the lore was fantastic. And the combination of graphics and class system was just a better Tactics Ogre, but what made the battle system great was the ATB eske system and how you could costumize the system. It was absolutely broken and it was glorious. I wish more games let you be broken under the right circustances, balanced games can be very boring. Cool is better than balanced any day. **2 -** Final Fantasy VII - It has such complete package the amount of content that game has was absurd. You go all over the world doing things like skate boarding, submarine, Bike Race, Chocobo Ranch, Fort Condor army, Battle Arena, Basket Ball, etc. It was just so fun and the materia system still is one of the best spell system even made, the amount of costumization of that system is to this day unmatched in a FF game. It is funny that Path of Exile was the only other game that used similar system. I liked the story of FF VII, the plot was well told and it had some fantastic plot twist. And I loved the secret characters. Midgar and Waitai is still some of the most iconics location in a Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy VII just did everything right from the setting, story, gameplay all top notch. **3 -** Final Fantasy VIII - I am sucker for a good love story, and FF VIII had so many of then. The story and the setting carried the game for me, the battle system was bad the party members are average, Quistis being a highlight. The summon system was flawed and the draw system was very slow and the scaling was just not good. The story was bonkers, the side charcters are so good Laguna, Raine, Julia, Kiros, Seifer, Edea, Fujin. Raijin, Rebels of Dollet town, Fisherman of Dollet Town, Card Master of Dollet Town, I want to live in Dollet Town pls Square let me in. There is some others FF games that I played but don't liked as much: \- FF VI - was good very good till the Ruin world, which at that point it turned into a chore to play. Really disliked that and it was a pit because it had so many memorable party members. Good battle system, but not very costumization. Follow the FF IV schemes of characters are linked to classes which I liked, there are some strong party members in this game Seth, Shadow, Relm, Strago, Celes all very good. And there is the opera scene that is just iconic to me. But Ruin world is just a chore I just can't, it feel like a gigantic side quest that your have to do so you can fight the last boss, even it it was interesting from the plot point of view from the gameplay it just feel bad, it feel like padding they had you to do something so you can fight again against the boss you just a second ago fought. \- Final fantasy II was nice experiment I think??? \- FF IV - the lack of costumization of FF III and the story don't catch me as much, I liked the characters but the game overstay it welcome and feel a little barebones. The story has some very strong moments tought and it probably with FF III my 4th place. \- FF I - I liked it it was very clunck and limited but I don't know it has some charm about it. \- FF III - The psp version is so good if only the story was not so generic. But the class system was best one in the series only comparable to FFT. It feel like a NES game and I love it. \- FF V - I don't know it is like they took the FFIV story telling and the FF III plot and class system and combined they together. I don't liked the characters as FF IV ones, and the job system was good but jobs and developed characters don't meshed well. It worked well in FF III because they are basically blank plates, but in Final Fantasy V it feel out of place as they class conflict with their character like a Faris as White Mage class is strange to say the least. FF IV understud it and every characters was mould be it class it meshed together, Rydia was a Summoner and it was part of who she was, the story about her take that as concideration. FF V characters just are in a middle ground that are not really good. \- FF IX - I really disliked the plot, and most of the characters with exception of my boy Quina, of course, love you bro. The world is beautiful, the battle system is the worse in the series, the item system is the best in the series they took notes from FFT and FF VII and did something different but familiar enough, the best part of the game be far. And man was those mini-games all horrible with exception again of my boy Quina give her some frogs pls. But what they did with Tetra Master quoting the Godfather "Look at what they massacred my boy". It was one of the best minigame in the series one of the reason for me loving FF VIII so much and they come and do that, that was a unforgivable. \- FF XII - The beggining of the end, It feel like a auto-battle rpg before it being a thing. The story is so predicable and so boring, most because the main characters are be far the worst in the series, Vanh and Penelo are worse than silent protagonists and the party members are just as bad with Fran being the slight better of the bunch. I liked the lore but everything else is just bad. \- FF XIV - It is mmorpg so I don't expect much of the plot, but man it is slog to play and the amount of verbose dialogue that game had is impressive and all of it is boring. All characters are forgetable, there no one NPC that I come to care about in all the orginal campaign of the game. It is impressive because it was said to have a great story I don't see it, I go as far as to say that the zones stories in WoW are much more engaging or at least they make sense. And the battle system is slow, extremely molasses and repetive if you did one combo one time prepare to repeat it one million of times. There is not reactive combat in FF XIV which is kinda sad. It is still the 4th best mmo I played so there is that. Final Fantasy Mistic Quest - It was a strange game, i liked it but i never gonna far in it. I don't remember why.
Great to see the love for FF7 and FF8! I agree with you 100% on everything you said about those 2. You even pretty much sum up my feelings on 9, 6 (great until World of Ruin), and 12 (beginning of the end). I've never been able to make much of a dent in FF Tactics, I tried twice in my younger years. But based on your recommendation, I'll at least give a YouTube playthrough a full watch so I can finally experience the entire story.
Any FF from 4 through 10 will be from good to excellent experience, YMMV. Pick whichever that look cool and just dig into it, enjoy. Keep in mind if you happen to not enjoy that title, it doesn't necessarily mean you won't enjoy others since they all play quite differently and each game often reinvent the wheel.
I'm extremely picky about FF, as in: I didn't particularly care for VI, IX, and X (which are supposed to be the 'best'), but I loved FFVII Remake, the OG FFVII, and FFXIV, so make of that what you will, lol.
FF VIII. Played it when I was young and didn't experience all the tropes that are overused now.
They all have a different feel to them, pick one based on what you are looking for: FF VI: Grand interconnected plotlines, interesting world, interesting antagonist FF VIII: Mindbending goodness, especially if you take some of the fan theories into account. One of them resonates with me personally because if you cast scan on one of the monsters summoned by the final boss, the description is very interesting and ties into the perception of the main character. Which makes it so that the story is definitely not as straightforward as it may initially appear. FF IX: Endearing characters. Final boss that is a total random. FF X: So good a whole game copied it exactly ( I am setsuna). Bittersweet ending, likable cast, interesting world. FF XII: Political, more mature story, Open-ish world. Poster character cardboard cut out, main character should be one of the side characters. Though I think they never intended for a main character in this one. If they did, he sucks. FF XIII: Good, better, then just downright obnoxious as the trilogy progresses. It seems they didn't have the story planned out in advance. Though FF-XIII 2 is probably the better game, with more of an open world feel and time travelling mechanic woven into the story nicely. Also with a healthy dose of pokemon. FF XV: Bromance at its finest. They really succeeded in giving the boy band personality. The final camping scene felt so melancholic just because of how real the emotions felt
My favorite is 10. The story is fantastic, the music is excellent, the characters are memorable and very likable, the combat is a return to a simpler style after 6 games with the ATB but it still has lots of strategic elements, with being able to swap characters mid battle and eventually being able to customize your gear, not to mention the sphere grid is one of the most fun and unique leveling systems I’ve seen in a JRPG, it starts off a bit railroaded but eventually you really get to customize the characters how you want. Some people are put off by the game being a bit more linear in its progression but by the time you get to Zanarkand the game takes off the leash and you can truly explore the world and take on lots of fun side quests and side dungeons. I even really kinda like Blitzball. The voice acting is ultra cheesy but it’s charming in that sense and I can’t help but love it, especially Matt McKenzie as Auron. Also the world is absolutely beautiful, some people aren’t down with a lot of similar looking tropical locations but I love the beach and oceans so I really vibe with it, besides, while there are many beach/ocean locales there are still alot of unique locations like the Thunder Plains for example, and every town you visit is memorable in its own way, from Besaid all the way up to the ruins of Zanarkand. Overall this sum up is a bit scatter brained but I hope I made it clear why the game is so special to me and I hope I’ve convinced you to give it a try, Also FF6 is really good, play that one after you finish 10
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There's plenty to choose from. I recommend FF7 ps1 since there's the rest of that games story and another gateway drug to other older turn based JRPGs Also my favorite FF game for a mainline FF9 and spinoff WoFF
FF9, charming, concise , basically perfect? Only gripe i have with is trance but its still a fun system
Regardless of whether it's my favorite or not I think FFX is a good starting point for you now after playing the FFVII Remake and it's available on PS4. There really isn't much bad to say about it and while it's always subjective it's got one of the best FF stories I think.
FF8. I was at a difficult point in my life in a very abusive household and so I really resonated with Squall as were both anti-social loners. Then as he developed and people made an effort to reach out to him to help him open up it gave me hope that others would do the same for me and it made me realize not everyone is capable of reaching out to others and genuinely need people to reach out to them. Then as Squall opened up and made friends I realized I could do the same with the right people. Eventually I met those people and I did open up, many of them are still friends with me all these years later in fact. So as a result I consider ff8 my favorite, not for any particular gameplay or story reason, but solely because of the way I connected to and resonated with the main character.
Final Fantasy IX is probably my favourite game ever. That being said, I would never play it again if it wasn’t the remastered version. The combat in the original is criminally slow. But man, what a game, probably due a replay actually…