Ranking Every Final Fantasy Spin-Off Game

Final Fantasy XIII is towards the bottom of almost every ranking of the main series, though that shouldn’t be taken as much of a slight against it given that each of the non-MMOs are regarded as classics in one way or another. It is clearly a property that Square Enix love and had great faith in given their decision to produce two direct sequels to it in the form of XIII-2 and Lightning Returns (which couldn’t be XIII-3 for simplicity’s sake), but the story of Lightning and company is quite hard to follow and understand even across three games given that it is more term and lore heavy than most of its counterparts.

The timed mechanic of Lightning Returns didn't really work. Forcing players to play through a series of 72-minute days, with certain quests and events only accessible at certain times, went against Final Fantasy’s longstanding appeal of being able to play at a leisurely pace, explore and pursue side quests at will. The time limit was fairly generous, the clock could be frozen and progress could be carried across multiple playthroughs, but a ticking clock is always stressful rather than conducive to entertainment.

As the only non-MMO game in the series to have just one-party member, Lightning Returns needed a versatile and reactive combat system and it certainly delivered on that front, with shortcuts and rapid role switching facilitating great fights. There’s good quest depth as well, but the game felt largely unnecessary throughout.