Are Final Fantasy VI & XII the best main series FFs of all time?

[Siveon]

FFII and III (NA) are the best.

Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VI*.

C'mon, man.

 

[Beastro]

FFII and III (NA) are the best.

Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VI*.

C'mon, man.

They were II and III on the cartridges I fell in love with and always will be II and III.

 

[Hyperion]

I've been looking for JRPGs that may catch my attention for a while now. Being 24 years old makes it hard for me to go back to a genre I enjoyed while I was a teenager. Western RPGs have spoiled me, and dialogue exchanges such as this one:

- "I need to talk to the King"
- "Ok, wait a second."
- "King! Your soldier doesn't trust you anymore."
- "Ok."
- "Okay soldier, enter!"
- "You are not one of my soldiers anymore."

You're oversimplifying it way too much. Cecil clearly questioned the false-King's intentions and was summarily punished for it. No bullshit. A Knight who disobeyed his liege, dragged his friend into it, then paid the price again for the same folly an hour later. What more do you need for the start of a good, honest-to-God fantasy plot? You've a protagonist and antagonist. You've a problem. You've a quest. The protagonist has a clear flaw. The protagonist has a badass bro. The Romance is established, their first interaction is an argument, not some sickeningly sweet bullshit. You're sent off with one of the most hardass "You're going on an adventure, son!" songs a kid playing a JRPG could ask for. All in about 5 - 10 minutes.



6 kills it in pretty much all facets from character ensemble, OST, plot, gameplay (shout out to the World of Ruin especially) and doesn't need much of an explanation.

As for 12, it was awesome but certainly flawed, and doesn't get enough credit for having a sweet RTwP battle system that cut out the bullshit rote pre-buffing through gambits, but at the expense of poor positioning tactics, outside of "keep your non-tanks away from a dragon's maw and Malboros breath" and "SPREAD THE FUCK OUT, HE HAS AOEs!" The OST was similarly fantastic for its original compositions as well as those from previous Final Fantasies that were rerecorded, including the Prologue I linked above. Also, keep in mind, there was romance, but it was one-sided and heavily implied. Ashe definitely fell for Balthier's ricosuave schtick by the endgame. And honestly, the Japanese voices were inferior. It's one of the very rare exceptions where the English voice cast outdid themselves, and is why they used them for the International version.



There weren't many scenes like this, but this one was pretty damn well acted, and directed, regardless of any distaste for the dialect of English spoken. Simon Templeman from The Legacy of Kain as Zargabaath NAILED his role.

 

[Hobo Elf]

the FFXII VA they hired were stage actors so that's why they were so good.

 

[Abu Antar]

VI and XII along with IX are my favorite mainline games in the series. I prefer III over I and II. So every third game seems to be the charm. I haven't played FFXV, but I might buy it as it is 80% off on PSN.

 

[Sigourn]

I just finished the Dawn of Souls remake of Final Fantasy 1 and can easily say, without a doubt, that it is the best of the Final Fantasies I've played and can recommend it with massive confidence. You could see the Wizardry and D&D influences in there. Also, it had so little dialog, but for the most part, it was written well, what was there. The story was simple and generic, but was just an excuse to go do shit in the world. Also has replayability because of different party builds that are possible. Good game all around, if a little easy by the end (though Chaos Shrine and he Final boss make up for that). Just don't play the added dungeons until later on, otherwise the levels you'd gain from completing them trivialize portions of the game. Also, very little grinding was actually present in my first playthrough of it. It simply wasn't necessary (except because of the Earthguft Shrine, see above for opinion on that).

I started playing the Dawn of Souls remake and gave up after defeating Garland in the beginning. The game feels way too easy, almost autopilot. It doesn't help that the game moved away from the Vancian-style spell system, where you can cast more spells as you get stronger, and each rank of spells limits how many you can cast at any one time. I like that grinding was toned down, but it was heavily toned down in my opinion. So far I'm finding the Final Fantasy Origins PSX version much more playable, and it looks prettier to boot.

 

[Exhuminator]

I've played FFI, FFII, FFIV, FFV, FFVI, FFVII, FFIX, FFX, and FFXII. Of those, FFVI and FFXII were absolutely the best.

Personal tastes aside, this is a series of games that no one community cumulatively agrees on. I guess it's a testament to the FF series' diversity that there are so many strong opinions.

 

[Haplo]

FF VII for me.

Though I didn't play VI. I did play VIII and IX which were okay-ish - but nowhere near VII. I played a bit of XIII which was simply terrible. I also played a bit of IV, but not much. Wasn't impressed (still better then XIII). I've yet to seriously play X (its sitting on my backlog... on some far-away position), but given no free roaming/overland map I probably won't rank it very high.
After reading a bit about XII MMO-like nature I'm not interested in that.

 

[Sigourn]

FF VII for me.

Though I didn't play VI. I did play VIII and IX which were okay-ish - but nowhere near VII. I played a bit of XIII which was simply terrible. I also played a bit of IV, but not much. Wasn't impressed (still better then XIII). I've yet to seriously play X (its sitting on my backlog... on some far-away position), but given no free roaming/overland map I probably won't rank it very high.
After reading a bit about XII MMO-like nature I'm not interested in that.

My first was IX, followed by VII. I gave VIII a go once, but I think I had some disc issues or something like that since I wasn't able to progress. IX still holds a very special place in my heart, and if I had to choose a videogame song to define my teenage years, it would definitely be this one. It's a shame Final Fantasy gameplay is so mindless, as there are otherwise nice stories to be told in the games. There's literally no challenge at all, and the only "challenging" (read: grindy) games have no stories to them whatsoever.

I recommend you play XII, to call it "MMO-like" is pretty absurd considering it has by far the best gameplay in the series. Turn-based doesn't make combat instantly better, especially not if it lacks the excitement of properly challenging turn-based combat. The Zodiac Age is coming in the future, I just hope it also makes it to PC soon.

Final Fantasy X, on the other hand... it's just too cringy for me now. I've played it, beaten it, but unless you are into the whole min-maxing aspect, the game doesn't really offer anything interesting. I must have spent 100 hours maximing my stats and getting the best equipment. And in good FF tradition, once you are very strong, every boss is a piece of cake, even the super bosses. No strategy is needed when you deal 99.999 damage with every hit.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

The original American release of Final Fantasy IV (as FF2 on the SNES) had a poor translation, but I'd still take that original dialogue over the overwrought, melodramatic, long-winded exposition that passes for dialogue writing in most RPGs of the last two decades. [...]

IV was melodramatic as fuck, so many heroic sacrifices. It was their first attempt at a story driven FF, so they went nuts with the drama. And I still don't understand what's up with Cecil's dark knight sprite.

It's still a fun game and if one is not interested in the 3D version available on Gaben's Shoppe, the european version of the GBA port is the best one (bugfixing and improved script), except for sound quality. It's dangerous to go alone,
use this.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

IV was melodramatic as fuck, so many heroic sacrifices. It was their first attempt at a story driven FF, so they went nuts with the drama. And I still don't understand what's up with Cecil's dark knight sprite.

What's wrong with the sprites?

I've never played the actual FF II, released on the Famicom in Japan but not anywhere else until many years later, but it apparently had preset characters with an accompanying story. And no small amount of drama.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Being the first FF on a shiny new platform, they wanted to make IV a mix of the best of the previous three games, which for II meant the bigger focus on story. I's story was coherent but simplistic and III was kind of inane. To be fair, II might be more dramatic since people actually stay dead there.

Re: Cecil - His portrait looks like this:

But on his full body sprite, he looks more like in Kazuko Shibuya's concept art.

Not that it matters now since he's Batman nowadays.

 

[Sigourn]

Being the first FF on a shiny new platform, they wanted to make IV a mix of the best of the previous three games, which for II meant the bigger focus on story. I's story was coherent but simplistic and III was kind of inane. To be fair, II might be more dramatic since people actually stay dead there.

Re: Cecil - His portrait looks like this:

But on his full body sprite, he looks more like in Kazuko Shibuya's concept art.

Not that it matters now since he's Batman nowadays.

Thank God someone brings this up. That helmet portrait bothered the fuck out of me.

 

[Vorark]

Was never much into FF, always thought DQ was better. Still, the ones I managed to play until the end were:

IV (the horrid 3DS version) - Could've been a mexican soap opera. Should've played the GBA or PSP versions instead.
V - Dat job system.
VII - Materia shenanigans were alright.
XII - Figuring out the most optimal gambit configurations was fun, I guess. Got better once you could set the main party as Ashe, Balthier and Basch. The hunts were the best thing.
XIII - Everyone piss on this game but it was okayish for a FF and the systems were tight. Overhyped "open world" segment, thought the corridor simulator parts were better. Excellent soundtrack.

Do not ask me about what the plot of these games was about because I have no clue

 

[buru5]

No. Final Fantasy V is the best in series. It doesn't have a tedious melodramatic story, has great character customization with the largest job system in any FF game, has bosses around every corner, and is just an all-around classic JRPG and perhaps the only one worth playing.

 

[Abu Antar]

No. Final Fantasy V is the best in series. It doesn't have a tedious melodramatic story, has great character customization with the largest job system in any FF game, has bosses around every corner, and is just an all-around classic JRPG and perhaps the only one worth playing.

It's fun but incredibly easy. Still love the job system. That job system in FFVI would have been amazing.

 

[Gruncheon]

DID YOU KNOW FFXII FACT

The Occuria speak in iambic tetrameter while Venat, the Prometheus analogue and rebel, speaks in iambic pentameter. The localisation in XII was cool, it was a great game in spite of its flaws.

Taken from this review/retrospective: http://socksmakepeoplesexy.net/index.php?a=ff12

 

[CryptRat]

Players who like FFV (who doesn't?) need to play Four herores of light on DS, its job and combat systems are very good.

 

[Morality Games]

The mainline Final Fantasy series is really three or four metaseries blended together. You might as well compare Final Fantasy 4 to Final Fantasy Tactics as compare Final Fantasy 4 to Final Fantasy X/X2.

If you made a lineage of the Final Fantasy series, it would look more like a family tree showing relationships among cousins than a genealogy like the Tales series.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

I've played every game in the series, starting with FF1 on the NES, and FF10 is my favorite. The story really worked for me, it has fun tactical battles, and a nice, abusable leveling system.

I'd rather play FF6, FF8, FF7, FF4, and FF5 before touching FF12 again. Blech. The story is very poorly constructed, the combat is dull as dirt, the side quests are tedious and consume far too much of the game, the world isn't interesting, the themes make no sense (why is there a random Cid Two with sunglasses WTF?), the main character isn't even the main character or even important to the story, there's no meaningful difference between any of the playable characters, and the license board is literal cancer. It gave me cancer. I have cancer from that video game.

(okay one or two of those complaints was hyperbole but as a long-time FF fan I REALLY dislike FF12).

 

[karoliner]

The only FFs i played are 12 and the 13 trilogy. I enjoyed 12 a lot 10 years ago. Not interested in replaying it and potentially ruining my nostalgia. The 13 trilogy on the other hand made me want to cut my dick, the only good things that came out from that are the 10/10 soundtrack and Lightning's armpits.

 

[Exhuminator]

Lightning's armpits

I still haven't played the FFXIII trilogy. But at least now I have a real reason to.

 

[SCO]

(okay one or two of those complaints was hyperbole but as a long-time FF fan I REALLY dislike FF12).

Did you try the translated 'international' (in reality japan and korea) version. It changed the job board to 10 or so archetypes subboards (which i then used a cheat to allow class changing because i have no taste and it work surprisigly well to access skills before you should with some planning - but not too well). It also has a game inbuilt fast forward so... yeah.

 

[Sigourn]

(okay one or two of those complaints was hyperbole but as a long-time FF fan I REALLY dislike FF12).

Did you try the translated 'international' (in reality japan and korea) version. It changed the job board to 10 or so archetypes subboards (which i then used a cheat to allow class changing because i have no taste and it work surprisigly well to access skills before you should with some planning - but not too well). It also has a game inbuilt fast forward so... yeah.

The International Zodiac Job System is how the game should have shipped from the start. I mean, the overhauled treasure system alone is a game-changer for me. Not to mention the Job System, of course. I hope the Zodiac Age re-release comes to PC.

 

[Zed]

controversial opinion time: the mmorpg ffxiv heavensward (which I don't play btw) has some of the best music of all final fantasy games.

but overall best music is probably FF7.
best story probably FF7.
best characters probably FF7.

I hate the FF7 fandom more than most things but I can't deny the game had a lot of things going for it.

best combat is probably ff8 or something.