Celebrating its 25th anniversary later this year, the Final Fantasy series is one of the few gaming franchises to survive multiple console generations and gaming innovations. For the most part, the Final Fantasy series has usually embraced new technologies whilst still maintaining its high production values. At its core though, the series survives because of its fervent fan base. Most, if not all of the fans will have their most favourite and least favourite entries.
This list was made looking primarily at story and gameplay comparisons, story being especially important in the series nowadays and the driving force behind our favourite memories. The list will also look at some technical issues where appropriate. For newcomers, I’d personally recommend the top 5 to anyone, and any of the top 5 could possibly turn out to become your favourite but be careful as there will be SPOILERS in this list, so you might just want to check the numbering.
We’ll be covering a lot of entries in the series here, so let’s start off (again, fair warning to all, there will be SPOILERS):
22. Final Fantasy XIV
If there ever was a train-wreck in the Final Fantasy series, it was FFXIV. Released way too early, it was a buggy mess with plenty of technical issues. Created as an MMORPG to succeed FFXI, FFXIV failed massively to deliver.
I still remember when this game was first announced at E3 some years ago, everyone was ecstatic to see another new Final Fantasy game, until the word Online came up on the trailer and everyone realised it was going to be an MMORPG. I personally wished that Square Enix used a different moniker/title for the MMO’s, something as simple as Final Fantasy Online, and start a new numbered series from there or something. Alas, it is what it is now.
It should be noted that since that disastrous start, FFXIV has been undergoing improvements under a new team direction and will be getting a second release as version 2.0 sometime in the future. Whilst it would be unfair to condemn any future version of the game simply because of the initial release, for now, FFXIV deservedly reserves the last spot in this list.
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16 Comments
Totally agree with your choosing X over VII. I love VII but X is a masterpiece that still stands up to today’s gameplay standards. I eagerly await the HD version, as my PS2 looks so muddy on my HD TV.
In terms of a battle system I think X is the best FF has ever seen and I wish they’d return to it! Dropping characters in and out means that you connect with your whole team on a much higher level and while games such as XIII look cooler in action, FFX was far more rewarding tactically.
Plus, playing as Summons was epic and a hugely rewarding sidequest when searching for them all.
Dude, Revenant Wings above FFIV and VIII?
“And then there’s the ‘Orphanage Scene’, possibly one of the worst storytelling moments in gaming ever. I can’t even bring myself to write about it.”
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Each to their own I suppose, though I do feel VIII seems to get a very bad shake indeed these days when considering back in the day a LOT of people used to cite VIII as their favourite, even above VII. Personally I think VIII has one of the best storylines in the series and watching the evolution of Squall as a character was marvellous. The only thing that really disappointed me about VIII was the poinless Ultemicia twist. Would have been FAR more effective to keep Edea as the antagonist all the way through.
Also I think FFX is a great game, one that has actually aged well compared to many other entries in the series, particularly in regard to it the battle system. The Sphere Grid had a streak of genius in it but I think allowing all characters access to all abilities was a mistake. Personally I prefer characters having specific roles, jobs and abilities ala FFIX or the FFXII Zodiac System which – unfortunately – only Japan got.
That said, I can’t agree with you on all of the voice acting in FFX. Tidus was excruciatingly bad at times, as was Yuna. Auron, Seymour and Wakka felt far more authentic, thankfully.
Square recently said they’d only consider an FFVII remake once they’d actually surpassed that level of success within the franchise going forward. Which means it’s never, ever going to happen. Le sigh.
I feel like you’re overrating FFX-2, FF13 and FF13-2 while underrating FF4, FF8 and FF12 waaaaaayyy too much. But since you put FFX as the first one then I bet that one was your first, and that would explain why you like those other 3 garbage games so much. Because they all are so similar in presentation… But to put FFX-2 anywhere near a top 10 and above FF8 and FF12 you either have to be a FFX fanboy or have really poor taste. That game had a good battle system but it felt so out of place and not to mention the retarded Charlie’s Angels vibe that is so hard to stomach and the utterly god-awful story. FFX-2 is one game that is not worth playing by anybody, instead play Shadow Hearts series for the superior turn-based battle system.
I’m sorry but FFX-2 suck major ass and for another super garbage game like Revenant Wings to be above FF8 makes this ranking a joke.
I’m sure you’ll get over it.
Or he just has his own opinion which is different to yours.
Glad you went with FFX. That remains my favorite RPG.
Couldn’t agree more with your top 2 choices. X is better then 7. Some people just have a soft spot for 7 cos they grew up with it, but X was an absolute classic video game.
Just wanted to reply to all. Glad some people liked the list. I know people have different opinions and that’s fine really, some things just irked me more about certain games than others.
Really, outside of the top 5, I’d say the rest are kinda just a mash-up of different components where they shine in different aspects and falter in others. And different gameplay styles and stories appeal to different people. And aside from the bottom two, we’re talking about a quality series that has gameplay mechanics that are good at a basic level. These games tend to score more than 8/10 in most critic reviews, with good reason.
I also wanted to shout out about Grandia 3′s battle system. One of the best ever, although the story is kinda weak.
I still like FFVII more than FFX. Reason? Well, in FFVII, we started off with train ride, then from blowing buildings to doing cross dressing, climbing pipe, motorcycle ride, riding chocobo, sailing on the ship, jazz in the casino and theme park, betting on chicken’s racing, pimping car ride across desert after being thrown into the prison, stealing airship and submarine, playing RTS game to protect condor’s egg, digging artifact, dating one of the three chicks, or dating Barret…,snow boarding, rocket to space, fighting giant living mechanical robots (Weapon), bitch slap between Tifa and Scarlet, sky diving…oh did I mentioned about Hojo’s plan to mate Aeris with Red XIII? That’s right, all these crazy things in one game. And the best part, the game make more sense than FFXIII. Seriously Square Enix….
I agree with ur 1st 2 choices but imo the 3rd would be xiii-2…damn it is VERY entertaining and being easy was great i guess !!
Slightly pretentious list, especially when disparaging the older games, yet saying good graphics don’t mean much for the newer one, and attacking Final Fantasy XII, which has the greatest open-end world. The time it takes is not a negative to me, and it’s the deepest game with all of the different ways to power up and places to explore.
Square labored for FIVE YEARS and created the ultimate RPG, and you belittled it.
FF7 remains one of the most overrated games of all time. So why continue to rate it so high? Off the heals of FF6 it was such a step down for the PlayStation: cyberpunk? Really? FF6 had a better soundtrack and storyline.
Putting the non-RPG games on this list just confounds things.
The list is great (at least for me)… I never did like FFIV and FFVIII especially the latter. The battle system is very bad (especially the magic drawing from monster), story is uninteresting, and overall presentation is not good either.I also feel that FFX-2 is a great game and love the combat system (but i dont like the chapter based storyline where you cant redo what you have missed out in the previous chapter)
However FFXII should be rank much higher (at least top 5 for me). The story is very enjoyable and that the gameplay (gambit, license, hunting quest etc) is very unique and fun too. [but there is still some minor problem that i dislike like the over hp boss, some map is unnecessarily too big, ultimate weapon cant be obtain without guide etc)… but overall it is still a very good game and deserve a higher ranking in the list
I found FF X to be very dry through the 3rd play through. Few memorable tracks and moments in that game – certainly not worthy of first place, let alone top 5. The voice acting was not natural whatsoever, it was barely OK. The best thing to come out of that game was the battle system which was highly enjoyable. The characters were generic, Auron and Yuna were okay and another whiny, annoying hero found in Tidus.
Then FF X-2 over FF VIII. That was a ridiculous opinion, anybody could agree that though 8 was partially killed with DEM, the story still persevered at moments whereas the story was a complete train wreck in X-2.
It’s funny you criticize the older games for being simple yet you rank XIII so highly — where it is probably one of the simpler and most disappointing games from Square.
That said, I agree with the placements of IX, and Tactics. VI and VII should swap places though.
I like your list so much and agree (except one thing) with everything – even the comments on each game. Great work!
The one thing I don´t like is the placement of VIII. Really? Well, it´s not a superb game for sure, but still I found it very, very underrated – not only by you, but by most gamers. It definitely deserves few places up – in my opinion.
But I´m glad for finding out, that there are people who find X the best FF game. I loved it on first playthrough and I still like it after beating the game two more time. For me still the second best videogame I EVER played, first being Shin Megami Tensei Persona 3.
Excellent list I agree with you for the most part my top 10 perosnally would be 4,5,6,7,8,9,13-2,crisis core,FFT,1, ( no particular order)
Wow! This list is absolutely revolting. Well, I guess it’s based on your opinion only, which is clearly a minority here. All the recent Final Fantasy games (except FF12) and sequels aren’t worth anybody’s time. Square Enix used to be a legendary company, but now they’re just a joke! Not just with the Final Fantasy serie, but also with the Kingdom Hearts serie. Why the hell are they making so many useless prequels and sequels? They all suck! Their story, their characters, battle systems, everything! I’m so tired of their forgettable annoying characters! So tired! I will always stand with the older, better Final Fantasy. Square Enix has let his fans down for too long.