As a thought exercise, I often like to compare Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and IX. Every time I come away thinking IX should be considered the best out of the three, but I always run into a problem with this: I just don't like playing FFIX. It is boring. I have always found it boring. As dated as the graphics are on VII and as contrived as the story in VIII, I have played through each multiple times, and I still have urges to play them every now and then (particularly VII within the past year). I just don't get it.