Thanks for joining me.
Before I Get Started/Before Anyone Has A Tantrum:
With that out of the way, it should be noted that I’ve been a fond fan of the Final Fantasy series since #MyStupidExHuman was but a wee lad, messing around with emulators on his home-made PC; this has left me to put together this list of my favourite Final Fantasy games, enjoy!
*Battle victory fanfare*
NB: All of the Yoshitaka Amano logo designs are beautiful, the rest of his work is just as jaw-dropping. I suggest checking out as much of it as possible. (see: sources and further reading at the end!)
“A Runner Up Is You!”
Now, I like my Final Fantasy games for being Final Fantasy games and I like my Legend of Zelda games for being Legend of Zelda games. I’m glad that neither try to imitate the other on the regular, but I was pleasantly surprised when Final Fantasy paddled in the waters of another world in order to provide a decent spin-off for the Nintendo GameCube.
The original title for aforesaid GameCube took hours of my life, and I would have offered it more if I’d had more (or any) people to come around for some multiplayer action. Playing the game with a Game Boy Advance as your joypad added another level of wonder, as each pad’s screen would contain valuable information that your party would find of great use; one had a map, the other a drop list, and so on. It was just a massive shame this landed way before internet gaming was a viable option.
Thankfully, the follow-ups to this were on the Nintendo DS and they at least had wireless connectivity with other devices that the game is played on. It was a little harsh with the original expecting you to have a GameCube to play the game and a Game Boy advance to enjoy multiplayer properly, but I can only begin to detail how much enjoyment it brought me.
#10: “This Is Where It All Kicked Off!”
It all began with a stone…and a perfect formula.
To me, this is the first Final Fantasy that solidified the series (and genre) going forward. Way back when the first Final Fantasy games came out, people were doing very different things for their sequels (see: Mario Bros. & The Legend of Zelda) in an attempt to avoid being repetitive/to see what worked/sold.
Final Fantasy I was obviously a groundbreaker itself, but it lacked the experience and thoroughness of future titles. Final Fantasy II tried something a little different, without deviating too far from form, but Final Fantasy III managed to align the stars and cement what would be the staple of a lot of Final Fantasy/turn-based RPGs in the near future.
A Nintendo DS re-release has been available for a while, it’s well worth a gander.
#9: “One Of The Greatest Games For The PlayStation 2!”
The final main title release for the PlayStation 2 filled me with hope for the future of the series.
Ignoring its numerical predecessor (for the moment), Final Fantasy XII turned the tables after Final Fantasy X and the standstill-paced “wait system” was KO’d and replaced with automated if-statements called Gambits. Having strayed so far from the 16-bit days of turn-based combat, some fans felt this was a step too far and the series was forever broken…ah, well, their loss!
As part of the Ivalice Alliance, Final Fantasy XII is a game-based dream for anyone who loves RPGs, old Japanese fantasy, science-fiction and/or other Final Fantasy games…though that last one isn’t a necessity. The characters are balanced and enjoyable, the plot is plentiful; the huge, open-world is beautiful and the score is amazing, despite Nobuo Uematsu’s absence and Hitoshi Sakimoto tickling my soul through my ear-holes instead.
I played Final Fantasy XII immediately before I decided to delve into Final Fantasy XI Online; a friend told me that they played very similar, with the online equivalent making you focus more on one member (obviously), instead of a full party. After a small amount of convincing, I allowed Final Fantasy XII to act as somewhat of a silver-tongued diplomat to break my stance on Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Play Games once and for all…more on this later in the article.
Initially, the game also encouraged quite a few people to backflip themselves into silly arguments about Final Fantasy stealing from Star Wars, without realising neither are being original, since they’re both influenced by the same things. Thanks to our friend, the internet, we’ve since shared so much information that we can see just how much other cultures/countries have influenced our art and media without us realising/being told.
#8: “Immersion Therapy: Dealing With Loss”
Bear with me, I know that many people were always frustrated with Final Fantasy IV.
The main cause for discomfort doesn’t aggravate me as much and I can certainly see where people are coming from, especially on that first blind playthrough. The thing is, I liked this game FOR telling a different tale than most I was being told when I was younger; not everything gets tied up in a neat little package and you rarely get a 100% happy ending in that thing we all do called life.
Without spoiling too much (see, I’m not a total shit-face), the party changes around a lot, meaning that a lot of levelling and gearing will feel wasted when party members leave the group in order to return later on in the game…or not in some cases.
I know, it seems like a bit of a morbid fascination, but it pulls through by the end. Aside from this, the rest of the game is magnificent and even the characters that…feel like a waste of exp/gearing, add to the story and to the growth of the rest of the party and plot.
Also, as expected, Nobuo Uematsu is on form in all his 16-bit glory!
#7: “The Forgotten Legend”
The Final Fantasy Tactics series is one that sadly may have evaded the attention of even the keenest Final Fantasy fan.
While the games are drenched with the expected elements of Final Fantasy, the battle system has been given an additional dimension and offers a buffet table of joy to any Dungeons & Dragons fans in the process.
Being available first on the Sony PlayStation, then re-released as Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of The Lions on the PlayStation Portable, Final Fantasy Tactics had follow-ups released on the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS.
The story for the original Final Fantasy Tactics game is the better of the bunch by a country mile and back, but Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (GBA) and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2: Grimoires of the Rift (NDS) had worked out a lot of the kinks of the original and were much easier to pick-up-and-play; this obviously made repeated play a lot more fun and fast-paced.
In hindsight, the original feels a little clunky and slow with movement restrictions it has in place. This alleviates with the later titles, but the original game’s narrative and atmosphere are a lot darker and mature than those that followed, so it depends on what you’re into if you don’t want to try all of them.
Overall, they’re fantastic games where you can build giant clans combining numerous races from the Ivalice Alliance/Final Fantasy XII Universe with a daft number of jobs/classes from other Final Fantasy titles; additional points available if you’re into table-top RPGs and roll higher than 6!
I’m still incredibly surprised that Square Enix hasn’t made an online version of this and that they’ve left Ankama’s Dofus to reign supreme in that realm.
#6: “An Amazing Send-off For The Super Nintendo”
Final Fantasy VI is the last of the “older” bunch that I’m going to mention here, it was truly the end of an era for the Final Fantasy series and is held in high regard by many.
This 16-bit instalment offers an array of great characters, with an interesting female lead and one of fiction’s most insane villains; it was colourful, sounded beautiful and it exhibited years of experience making games on Nintendo consoles.
If I were to suggest an older style Final Fantasy to someone to dip their toe into the franchise, it’d be this one. They can investigate the older looking/playing ones at their own discretion if they enjoy this one.
I personally feel bad for any game having to follow this act, whether it’s a competing title in the release charts at the time, or even the next game in its own franchise.
#5: “A Fantastic Story That Took An Eternity To Be Told!”
Not everyone’s first choice, I know, but overall, there was something great about the Final Fantasy XIII Trilogy.
Final Fantasy XIII was frustrating to some and it appeared lazy at times. Many people refer to the game as more of a corridor simulator with cutscenes thrown in there to mix it up. I’ll agree with that, to an extent, but the gooey centre of the journey that Lightning and pals embark upon is that they’ve had their fate, their free will taken from them. There is no open world for them, they are fighting against a current that sends them down a single path with one predetermined outcome.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 balanced that out for me within the first few minutes of the opening cutscene; somehow, the ending to part one had been altered and it was evident some degree of time-fuckery was afoot! Once I’d wiped the saliva from my mouth once, I stopped trying as I realised the freedom of Final Fantasy XIII-2 offered a Chrono Trigger style time travelling hub; giving you the choice of where and when you’d like to go with a much-improved version of the previous battle system.
Final Fantasy XIII-3/Lightning Returns ties everything up nicely, set within a Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask/Donnie Darko/Purgatory style time loop, where you must find and save as many souls as possible before the world is destroyed and rebuilt. I’m confident that this is my favourite of the Final Fantasy XIII games, but some days I may lean more towards favouring Final Fantasy XIII-2 and all that time-hopping madness.
Anyway, as well as this whole story drawing to a grand conclusion, the battle-system it brings is possibly the most enjoyable…ever! As they improved the system with each game before, this time you just control Lightning and switch between three jobs mid-fucking-combat!
That’s right! Throw some ranged magic as a caster, change to a tank when the enemy strikes, then switch to a damage-dealer for the counter-attack, and so on. It flows so fluidly once you get the hang of it and despite it being challenging as hell at times, did I mention that it’s rather good fun? What’s more, is that the soundtrack is absolutely mental…in a good way!
The aforementioned frantic, yet exhilarating battle system is just that, partly thanks to the cracking, collaborative musical efforts of Masashi Hamauzu, Naoshi Mizuta and Mitsuto Suzuki. It’s not the set-up a lot of us grew up on/are used to, but they do a hell of a job impressing me enough to stack the music of this series high on the totem pole of my all-time favourite Final Fantasy score.
It’s a shame it took three whole games to tell this story, but I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy the overall journey or destination…or expect that cliffhanger at the end of the second game!
#4: “I’m Not Crying…You’re Crying!”
I’m not crying…you’re crying!
Also known as “The Emo One” to many, Final Fantasy X and the pilgrimage that drove the narrative was their first title released for the PlayStation 2.
The main protagonist may start off as somewhat of a whiny little bitch during the opening hours of the game, but by the end of his experience, you can see that he’s grown and adapted to a foreign world, as well as the people in it and their customs. He actually grows quite a lot in order to make tough decisions, that manage to protect others and to do everyone proud.
The score contains some of Nobuo Uematsu’s finest work and being a fan of the Summoner job/class, a feast was delivered with the lore and storytelling from around the world of Spira, revolving heavily on Summoners and the Aeons they evoke. As well as this, the Sphere Grid offered hours of planning ahead on how to advance each of your characters.
Ignoring Final Fantasy XI for the time being (again, I know, we’ll get to it), it was from this release onwards voice actors were employed to perform on behalf of the characters in the game. It was from this moment on that Final Fantasy games would never be the same again, the character’s voices were now being forced out of my head and my imagination and I was being told exactly WHAT THAT CHARACTER DEFINITELY SOUNDS LIKE!
Against additional odds, I still managed to enjoy the vocal talents used on the western release; which is a surprise in itself. History has shown that there’s a good chance that I’ll sulk if I can’t watch/play something in its native tongue, but…John Dimaggio is the voice for TWO of the main characters…that alone is worth my time.
#3: “Old School Meets New School”
I think what made Final Fantasy IX so brilliant for me, was that 1: it looked like anime for the PlayStation, and 2: they’d essentially made an old NES/SNES Final Fantasy game with the knowledge and experience of the current generation of games console…WITHOUT rushing towards making everything looking as life-like as quickly as possible.
It wasn’t a case of it looking shit either. Sure, it wasn’t running down that realistic human look that the previous title had built the foundations for, but it gave off that bright, frantic anime vibe that hooked me in…and caused anything short of a PlayStation with >95% Health Points to struggle and stutter at times.
Being a life-long Dragon Ball fan, seeing a couple of monkey tails brought a smile to my face, which all added to that old-fashioned anime feel I mentioned.
The “You Are Not Alone” scene towards the end is one of my favourite Final Fantasy scenes of all time. Simply humming that melody is enough to bring it all flooding back! Owwwwww, right in the feels!
For a game with a relatively playful mood throughout (displayed through the protagonist’s jovially optimistic view of a cruel, unfair world), there’s enough in here to tear that warmed heart asunder with some memorable deep, dark, morbid moments.
As I’m sure it obviously now, the score is well worth your attention too, good stuff!
#2: “A Time-Jumping, Head-Fucking, Masterpiece!”
Final Fantasy VIII is, in my opinion, THE best of the PlayStation 1 bunch!
I don’t care how many people have a crush on Cloud…or want to be crushed by Tifa’s tits, the winner of Sony’s initial attempt at taking over the series is this gun-blade wielding, time-glitching, head-fucking sorceress-trip!
A major reason a lot of people aren’t as fond of this title is the junction system that was introduced. The previous title had a very simple, tried and tested method of building your equipment and stats, Junctioning changed that and it was a little too much for some to handle. In a nutshell, you had to draw magic from enemies or points in the ground and equip each of those to your stat slot. Summoned entities were called Guardian Forces and you had to equip them in order to have access to said stat slot.
There was an auto-set function that educated you on the best possible arrangements (i.e. setting the “Haste” spell to your Speed stat), which also let you choose it to auto-set favourably for strength, magic or defence/hit points. Once you mucked around with it for a little, I think it was easy enough to get to grips with.
Aside from that, the story, characters, music, setting and pacing are all fantastic. The graphics may look questionable to modern standards, but they were just about untouchable back in the day, should you be fussed about that kind of thing.
Also, this game is the reason I often hit the R1/front-right shoulder trigger after a basic attack on most RPGs.
#1: “What’s a Warcraft?”
This has to be the winner for me; I’ve played this brilliant MMORPG since 2007 and I still love it! Others don’t even come close!
The player-base may have changed slightly, but so have gamers (and people) in general. For a game that has grinding and gradual progression at its core, it sadly still manages to attract people that wish it had a “finish game and pose in town forever” button, to which I politely suggest one of the many auto-RPGs that are available, or just a couple hours on Grand Theft Auto with all weapons/ammo unlocked…or you could just fuck off!
Despite this recent flaw, I’ve made many friends and enjoyed many, many, many, many, many, many, hours of gameplay, adventure, and challenging frustration.
A few years ago, Square Enix remade the game with modern (PS3 at the time) graphics, changed the names of races and jobs, and then sold us it again if something new or different.
Final Fantasy XI-2: A Realm Renamed…oh, sorry, I mean Final Fantasy XIV fell flat on its face upon launch and I feel Square Enix were very fortunate in finding success with it when they re-launched it as Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn…I’m pretty sure I just stated why admitting a lack of creativity in exchange for slightly better graphics shouldn’t have worked beforehand…and yet people still lapped it up by the bowl-full like gullible little Mithran kittens…oh!
That’s it!
I suppose I shouldn’t have underestimated the power of virtual sprites of scantily-clad cat-girls when it comes to people that either wish they were one, could fuck one or just want to stalk one in third person all day and night!
People, eh?
Digest and discuss! Feel free to do so below or via Twitter!
Sources & Further Reading
#MyStupidExHuman’s somewhat obsessive collection.
Yoshitaka Amano.com – Official homepage of the mind-blowing artist.
The Final Fantasy.com – Detailed list of all the games and a great website regarding all things Final Fantasy.
Final Fantasy XI Online – Click here to get started playing XI and adventuring in the world of Vana’diel!
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm RENAMED – If you want to focus more on dressing up a PS3 quality version of FFXI sprites, saying FFXI is old and therefore rubbish, swearing blind that the 2 games are nothing alike and then using (for attention) the #FFXI in your posts anyway, then this game sounds like it’s right for you!
Ankama’s Dofus – Fans of the Final Fantasy Tactics series should at least have a quick look at this gem; I pick it up occasionally.