Worst Final Fantasy game (No online games)

[Ashton]

I'm just gonna throw down the whole order and the worst is the one on the end:

V, III, XI, VII, I, IV, II, IX, XII, X, VIII, XIII, VI

No Obviously I can't get away with just saying VI is the worst and leave it at that, so let me explain - I just couldn't get into the story, which was far simpler than I expected. I also couldn't get myself to care about any of the characters, which is weird for me. I think it has to do with how it all started off, It put me in a cynical mood. Then there's the gameplay, which I found to do too easy and unbalanced; I found myself relying on certain moves and patterns that seemed to be working for nearly every enemy I encountered. I think the biggest problem, though, was the pacing - everything just seemed to happen so fast and it would introduce one bewildering gameplay element after another, most of which would never be seen again. So yeah, that's why I think FFVI is the worst Final Fantasy IMHO.

I'm honestly more interested why you'd put II towards the middle, above a good deal of the games that are considered excellent, or at least, good. I mean, I can understand V, III, and XI (Job system), VII (groundbreaking), and I and IV (challenge and nostalgia), but II? That just boggles my mind.

[Demon_Princess_Kay]

For the time period in which it was made. I'd argue that II actually had a pretty well thought out plot. Unfortunately its game play was far from anything even close to good.

[Commander Jubby Shepard]

I actually liked II. Of course I played it back in my grind happy phase.

Personally I think the worst is VI. The gameplay never caught me and it just kept introducing useless things for about 12 minutes that would disappear for the rest of the game. The plot was okay, but it was worked up by my friends too much to really engage me. I think its biggest problem isn't that it's only average, it's that it's overhyped and overloved by people who played it when they were kids and refuse to believe that any FF could be better (usually followed with a spiel about how modern FFs (read: FFVII and onwards) lost their magic (read: I wasn't a kid anymore)).

[Demon_Princess_Kay]

FFVII was my first RPG and technically got me into the genre, but after playing stuff like FFX FFXII and Persona 4, I can't even make it past the first reactor. It just feels so dated to me.

[ZeronHitaro]

Heh, I know that feeling. Although I'm not sure 'dated' is what invokes it in me. Every once in a blue moon I'll think back to 7 (wasn't my first by any means but I still enjoyed it the first time I tried it), remember the Golden Saucer and some of the other fun little parts, and then plug it in. Farthest I've ever gotten is just after meeting Aeris. Usually my attempts die at or shortly after the reactors. Something about the whole Midgar area fails to hook my interest long enough to get to the overworld sections.

Edit: Come to think of it 7's Midgar opener and 13's overall design have a lot in common. Run from point A to point B, enjoy cutscene (I count having to hunt down specific people in a limited area to talk in order to advance to the next corridor as 7's 'cutscenes'), do it again over and over. Might be why I can't get back into it.

[RPGMetalFan]

The evil bastard child of the entire FF universe....naturally, I speak of II. However, my least favorite is VII. I will praise it endlessly for what it did for the series, as well as the genre as a whole, but it's kind of like Metallica's black album for me....I loved the hell out of it when it first came out, and for a few years after that, but it just hasn't aged nearly as well for me, and much of the initial romance has been lost for me.

[Adapheon]

Some of you guys are weird, 6 was a great game, it pushed the SNES in a number of ways and dealt with a lot of topics that most games wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole, even now. Also, 7 while looked back at a little too fondly I think was completely mind-blowing at the time for what it did and what it was.

My least favourite were 2, 5 and 12 although for 12 it was because due to me being slightly too anal retentive I had to consult an FAQ every time I wanted to sell items to make sure I wasn't getting rid of something that would eventually get me an item that was worth buying. I don't think the game was bad, although it was a little too Star Warsy to me, but I just could not enjoy it because of that. FF2 was just not good on a gameplay level as far as I'm concerned and FFV just didn't do anything to make me like it which it weird because it has a job system which immediately means I should like it regardless.

[Alisha]

im surprised at the FFV hate thats actually my fav of the 16 bit ones. ive only played V VI VII VIII IX X XII. of those i liked 6 the least but i wouldnt call it the worst that honor goes to X-2 or revenant wings

[howitis]

Best to worst of those I've played

FFVII
FFVI
FFIV
FFIX
FFV
FFX
FFXII
FFVIII
FFXIII

[Dice]

Additionally your rant only helps to affirm my theory that the average person cares only for the character either in light of or despite of the work's overall story or plot coherency.

You could argue Tales games have been saved by this a number of times.

V ranks among one of my favorites for having equipment matter more than in just strength.  And actually being hard and having more than decent bosses.  I beat so many bosses with one character left standing and with 1/10th of my HP left.

I would love to take on X for the Vita if it's got the International Dark Aeon bosses -- I wanna do a perfect run for that one, despite everything else in the game (it'd be nice to control someone other than Tidus as lead beacon... seriously, who runs like that?  Yuna gets this too, I love how Squeenix makes it's women's arms flail like there's nothing but air puffing around their brains).

On the other side of the coin, the fact that they're remaking 10 as FF6 is blueballed makes me the saddest gamer ever... D:
That game is amazing and warrants a remake more than most games that *have* been remade.

I wanna do a run against Ozma in 9 too.  I was too young the first time, and I hate the amount of grinding you gotta do in that game for the weapon skills.  Disc 1 sucks balls too with the # of Beatrix battles.

FF7 is great too, but still fine without a remake.  Bitchy fans can wait a bit and wait for the gas cloud to lift from the way Nomura put his "creative touch" into it and ruin follow-up titles by infusing them with Japanese-pretentiousness and pissy-teenage-acting-20+-year-olds...

[Mickeymac92]

I'm just gonna throw down the whole order and the worst is the one on the end:

V, III, XI, VII, I, IV, II, IX, XII, X, VIII, XIII, VI

No Obviously I can't get away with just saying VI is the worst and leave it at that, so let me explain - I just couldn't get into the story, which was far simpler than I expected. I also couldn't get myself to care about any of the characters, which is weird for me. I think it has to do with how it all started off, It put me in a cynical mood. Then there's the gameplay, which I found to do too easy and unbalanced; I found myself relying on certain moves and patterns that seemed to be working for nearly every enemy I encountered. I think the biggest problem, though, was the pacing - everything just seemed to happen so fast and it would introduce one bewildering gameplay element after another, most of which would never be seen again. So yeah, that's why I think FFVI is the worst Final Fantasy IMHO.

I'm honestly more interested why you'd put II towards the middle, above a good deal of the games that are considered excellent, or at least, good. I mean, I can understand V, III, and XI (Job system), VII (groundbreaking), and I and IV (challenge and nostalgia), but II? That just boggles my mind.

I only played the PSP version, but I enjoyed it quite a lot. I loved absolutely loved the way the leveling worked, and by extention love every game that uses a similar system, like Skyrim. I also enjoyed the more open ended exploration. Sure some of that was reduced by powerful monsters being in certain locations, but with a little grinding, you could go anywhere. The story wasn't that good, though, and of course I didn't like most of the characters, since they could hardly be called that, but ultimately I found it to be a very enjoyable game.

[Hathen]

No mentions of XIV in this thread, despite a couple mentions of XI. I assume this is because nobody played it.

All is well.

[MeshGearFox]

Oh god I keep forgetting XIV even exists.

[PotRoast]

I think the diversity of opinion on the highs and the lows of the series is fascinating. It's also a sign SE will never make a Final Fantasy that doesn't get raged at.

Also, has the FF7 hate finally died down? I am sort of surprised by the lack of it in this thread (a good thing).

[Aeolus]

It might have something to do with the thread title as well.


That said VII really did age badly though. Structure wise it's basically a gimped version of FFs V & VI where the first half of the game is spent touring the world and getting characters + motivations; then shit hits the fan and the second half is spent flying around doing side quests and exploring new aspects to the characters that have been unearthed by the recent trauma while seeking to stop the real threat. The only problem is that VII's first half is literally wildly disconnected scenarios strung together by the barest of plot threads (seriously the game kinda forgets that stopping Shinra was your original goal once chasing the Sephiroth starts; you're only interactions with them during this period consists of the TURKS!?! nah false alarm, escaping across the o-hai there Sephiroth, North Coral/Golden Saucer/THIS DESERT PRISON SUUUUCKS!!!, the Turks, Palmer getting run over by a truck after another session of Sephiroth, Wutari? What the fuck's a Wutari and how do I find it? WHERE THE FUCK'S MY MATERIA!? FUUUUUCCCKKK!!!!!, Cait Sith you cock!/Hai Tsuang/Bai Tsuang/Oh shit! Sephiroth! (and now he's after something that concerns us)/Bai Cait Sith you cock/Cait Sith you cock stop dicking around and stop Cloud from being a tool/nevermind Cait Sith you useless cock, and Elena either makes a fool of herself or of you). Of course the second half consisting of stopping Shinra from stopping Sephiroth didn't help things either.

Gameplay wise the Materia system was a pretty neat concept but it was wasted by leaning in only one direction (pro magic) and by holding back the most interesting combos til near the end where some of the most powerful regular materia started showing up and Limit Breaks constantly overshadowed the whole mess from the start. It didn't help things that the characters themselves were mostly interchangeable versions of Cloud save for their limit breaks and Aerith until she wasn't there anymore.

Nevermind the Popeye people; the formerly incredibly good looking CGs that looked incredibly old ten years ago; and the fact that the game felt kinda like one huge parody to JRPG conventions of the mid 90's now that we're more familiar with JRPG conventions of now and then, here and there; among other things.