Final Fantasy: Every Numbered Game Ranked

After Square-Enix racked up broadband bills with their MMO swerve Final Fantasy XI, the next single-player edition of the series became arguably the most anticipated ever. Final Fantasy X was an early triumph on PS2 - how much further could the series flourish on tamed hardware six years later?

The long-awaited result was divisive, to say the least. Final Fantasy XII is effectively an offline MMO, with a programmable battle system that takes much of the fun out of the player's hands. Some of the features it introduced - visible enemies instead of random encounters, a near open-world structure, and the aforementioned AI-controller teammates - have become commonplace in modern RPGs. In that respect, XII was ahead of its time

Whether any of these things are better, though, is arguable. It's certainly more fluid, but is it more engaging?

It's a question of whether you prefer FIFA over Football Manager. Final Fantasy Tactics fans, already drawn into the shared world of Ivalice, likely lapped up becoming a war room general. Long-time series veterans, meanwhile, were left aghast at the automated action.

This backseat approach is mirrored by the plot, which makes the player characters mere spectators to more important events happening off-stage. The overall result is a game in which you never truly feel involved, a drawback which has aged kindly thanks to the modern context where that's the norm.