Favorite Final Fantasy Game

[clonesniper666]

Hey fellow tempers I would like to know what the other members of Gbatemp have has a favorite Final Fantasy game. Just post which one is your favorite, if you wish you can tell why and if it has had multiple releases then you can state which version you like best, if you wish as well.

I guess I will start.

My favorite is Final Fantasy VI (III in US). I just love the characters in it plus the ability to teach every character, every spell is quite intriguing in making boss strategies to me. Also favorite is the SNES version.

 

[granville]

Final Fantasy VI. It has the best characters in the entire series, and has aged the best IMHO. In my view, it's a fabulous work of art. Beautifully told story, great 2D graphics, awesome music (some of the best game music ever, heck, even some of THE best music ever), and really refined gameplay. I'm a big fan of all the dungeons, battles, and esper system. Mastepiece.

I especially like Kefka, one of my favorite video game villains. He's like the Joker on steroids, only much more sinister. And unlike most other villains, he actually accomplishes most of what he set out to do-

Spoiler

He actually brings destruction to the world, he changes it forever and there is nothing you can do to stop him, millions of people died and the world is left in a state of post-apocalypse. He also pretty much becomes a god.

I have played all the versions of this. SNES version has the best technical presentation with the best graphics and music. PS1 version is a barebones port of the SNES version with no changes besides music glitches and some annoying slowdown and loading. The GBA version has a new script and text font. I admittedly enjoy the new script, but it's not a large amount superior to the SNES version or anything. The GBA version has some slightly washed out colors (thanks to the traditional SNES to GBA porting process), slightly more techno sounding soundtrack (which was a worthless change according to a rom hacker who analyzed the data and found the original sounds could have been used), and some minor slowdown.

I'd have to say in terms of versions:
SNES > GBA >>> PS1

No major remake has ever been made so far. An interesting prospect for the future.

 

[Blaze163]

It's difficult to pick just one but here's my view on the series as a whole. Main series only, if I start doing spin-offs we'll be here all damn night.

FF1 - An absolute classic, cannot fault it. Loved the Dawn of Souls expansion for GBA, the new dungeons were very welcome. Not so much the Labyrinth of Tome, that kinda sucked.
FF2 - Not my favourite by a long way. Level up system was open to abuse, plot was a bit lacking, just felt a little weak to me. Still a great game though.
FF3 - Only played the DS version, which was a bit of a grind fest. But still enjoyable. A bit light on plot though.
FF4 - Another amazing installment, solid plot, good characters, enough challenge to keep me occupied. Only fault is the removal of Zeromus EG from the DS version. What gives?
FF5 - Could never quite get into this one, but I'll be replaying it on GBA as soon as I finish my Castlevania marathon, so I'll postpone judgement for now.
FF6 - The best of the 'old skool' FF's by far, arguably one of the best in the series. A faultless SNES classic. I need not say more.
FF7 - My personal favourite since it was what got me into the series to begin with. I still have my original PS1 disks after what, 13 years? That's how much I love this game.
FF8 - I felt it focussed too much on the Squall x Rinoa thing and Ultimecia was badly under-used, but otherwise enjoyable.
FF9 - A return to the classic feel which was a great game, but tainted for me with the whole Necron thing at the end. Who the hell is he? Where's my tension filled final duel with Kuja?
FF10 - Another of my faves because it feels totally different on a second playthrough. You see the strain in the characters when they talk about what will eventually happen.
FF11 - I can't afford to play it any more which is a shame, but I met some cool people here, including my good (not to mention HOT) friend Faith.
FF12 - I really did not like this game. I foudn the characters unappealing, the story bland, the battle system clunky, the summons were worthless, and it just felt like a poor effort.
FF13 - Loving it so far. Only problem is my dad's being a prick and staying up late solely so I can't play it. I may have to break his nose. Where's my brick?

 

[choconado]

Hmm... Blaze puts forth a good way to respond, with overviews.

FF1: The very first game I bought with my own money. At all. It will always have a special place in my heart. I'm not sure if I like the original NES version, or the GBA remake better. The remake has SNES level graphics, and they added content, and also fixed some of the frustrating things that were fixed in the sequels (saving anywhere on the outside world, auto target correction in battle after a baddy dies, etc. ) Some would argue this makes the game easier, plus it doesn't have nearly as much nostalgia factor to it, but I kind of dig it.
FF2: Haven't played a lot of this one--yet. Downside: One of the initial characters isn't in the party until way into the game. Upside: The spell levels get obscenely high. (I cast "meteor9!" )
FF3: Again, not a heavy amount of exposure. From what I've seen, they were trying to hard to make the game a "harder" rpg, and I mean in more than the difficulty. I'm gonna go with the idea that they were playing way too much AD&D
FF4: The first one to have an engaging story, I like the game, but it often feels like it's "almost" the level of game that 6 ended up being.
FF5: Despite being more on the "technical" level that three is, the game is a lot more solid of an experience. It does have a sharp difficulty curve, and a surprisingly elaborate plot that actually punishes you for having characters die in the last fight. But on the plus side, I have to admire how well the job/class system works, and the sidequests are probably the most "side" the series gets. Noone mentions anything about most of the side work you can do, and they're usually harder than anything else at that point in the game. Damn...now I'm going to have to go take another crack at this as I'm geeking myself up.
FF6: Between the excellent storyline, the absolutely fantastic rendering of Amano's art, and the mind-boggling level of variety to the gameplay, there's a reason that most fanboys consider this the best of the series.
FF7: The reason I ended up buying a Playstation. There's probably a lot of people who can say the same. It really took the level of gameplay that 6 had and pushed things into the 3D realm, redefining what RPG's were to be in the future. It was pretty much a grind fest with an alright story, but at the time, it knocked all socks off.
FF8: Sigh. easily my least favorite in the series. In an effort to change things up, they made a game that just WASN'T FF to me. That and the story was so angsty it made you want to puke.
FF9: The throwback game that Square clearly didn't care as much about as the upcoming ps2 upgrade. However, 9 is a ton of simple fun. And it's story is fairly well structured despite the cute-ish graphics.
FF10: The story is better the second time around, but the fight engine is pretty damn good. There's a lot of time you can spend on sidequests (Go Blitzball! ) and it's a beautiful environment. Not sure what else to say there. I actually like FFX-2 even better.

 

[VmprHntrD]

Well since you're asking favorite I'll admit if it's not the DS version as it's pure shit then it would be Final Fantasy II(SNES)/IV. The game had the most moving story, great character interaction and relation to the gamer causing them to care. The leveling system was well setup, character jobs strongly defined, a very well laid out skill/spell set, diverse locations, lots of story intrigue and twists. The game took a good 20~hours to do so it wasn't too long or short to be over too fast or drag ass so you get bored with it.

I know most wouldn't agree on the 'N' era days saying FF3/6 but they tend to forget the last half of the game fairly well sucks in the World or Ruin as there's less direction and worse yet all the character uniqueness is ruined. In a matter of a few hours you can give everying Ultima and all the best spells, nearly all the exact same best armor and weapons in the game too. Ultimately you can have a party of clones for the most part making boss and final boss fights a lame easy joke which is sad. Outside of that though the story, game itself, and environments really were fantastic.

I've played many in the series, and while I avoided 8, 10-2, 11(mmo pay game bleh), and 12 a turd I've done the others. Perhaps since I wasn't intro'd to gaming by Sony I don't see the greatness of FF7 as it's mediocre as all get out, though FF9 was truly a fantastic throwback mix of FF4 and FF5. 10 I nearly finished but they started doing that memory-match boss fight shit late in the game so I quit on it because I don't want to use a faq to learn what to attack with by who in what order so some super-boss-rape-move doesn't hit with an insta kill as that's uncool and strategically bs. Also fair to say 10 was a little too boyband looking, bad acting, and the whole thing to me felt more Phantasy Star than Final Fantasy. Leading off that though FF13 feels more Phantasy Star too, but the story is intriguing so far, the combat is fresh for damn certain which I missed in a FF game, and overall appears to be a fine package so far getting into Chapter 6 of it.

 

[Am0s]

FF VIII I liked it graphics and game play was enjoyable but only played it on the PS1, VII didnt appeal to me

 

[prowler]

srs discussion on a Final Fantasy thread? Happy days.

My favourite is FFX.

Spoiler

Because of the awesome battle system and story.
You really can't say no to the CTB :3 Then dat levelling system.
Oh and another reason was this was the last Final Fantasy with proper summons.

 

[syko5150]

although i enjoy all of the FF games, FFIX is my favorite i just find it more enjoyable then the rest but FFVI is a close second

 

[Depravo]

I really couldn't decide on a single favourite so I would say all of them from VII to X. Not that the others are bad, just those four games represent what I consider to be the 'golden era' of Final Fantasy games.

 

[Jamstruth]

VII, IX and XIII are my favourites of the series that i've played. VIII is mediocre and as for X I should probably revisit it...

VII - Great characters, simple plot of save the world, nice twists Cons: Outdated graphics but these give nostalgic feel
IX - Return to the old fantasy area, quite like the graphics, characters are funny and the story is quite good
XIII - Rapidly becoming my favourite, the battle system looks and feels amazing and the characters are amazingly well written

 

[choconado]

After some thought, I've decided that yes, I like 9 best. It's fantastic. No pun intended.

And D, you should try X-2. It's really a better game than X, and it uses the job system from 3 and 5 quite well. (though the secret/side dungeon is totally broken imho)

 

[Leo Cantus]

My favourite is 4. It was the first one I played, the story was engrossing and the characters were good. It was fairly long and I loved the music in the game - battles and boss battles.
The only other one I've played is 7, which I am in the middle of right now.

 

[Redwolfeh]

Although I thought Final Fantasy VII was a good game overall, I think it was way too hyped up and it was only used as a play safe for Square Enix to save them from Bankrupty.

My personal Favourites are...

Final Fantasy VIII
I enjoyed this because of the storyline and the gameplay. Although it seemed extremely easy at the beginning in terms of the Guardian Forces, but the game gets extremely complex later on.

Final Fantasy V
This is my overall favourite. I've always been in favor of the Class System in the Final Fantasy series. My favourite class on V is the Blue Mage.

I'm also an active member of Final Fantasy XI and am currently playing through Final Fantasy VIII

 

[Atheocracy]

Oh and another reason was this was the last Final Fantasy with proper summons.

Hard to say FFX was the last FF with proper summonings, considering it was the first to have a summoning system that worked in such a manner, so, proper isn't the right word for it.

FFX is my second favorite, granted, taking a back seat to IX.

 

[choconado]

X (part one, natch) I rank alongside VII, in that it's a decent game, but it was obviously just as much Squeenix showing off what they could do graphically on the new system. It's funny how X-2 is one of the "spin-off" sequels, but it's a far better game. Probably because of the job system, but it's so much fun (unfortunately, they broke blitzball

). There's a major crack in the game towards the end though. There's an accessory that when equipped makes it so when your hp is critically low, all your hits come in at 9999 (i.e. maxed out). However, if you're aware of how the different classes work, you'll quickly see that the gunner class can manipulate this, as one of their major skills is to throw off a barrage of shots in a row, that are usually weaker than your regular attack (think Irvine's limit break in FFVIII). With the accessory equipped, each of those shots in the barrage hits at 9999! That's like 20 or so shots, just to make sure you follow me.

On the other hand, those attacks are basically the ONLY way to beat several of the big bosses in the secret side dungeon.

 

[prowler]

Oh and another reason was this was the last Final Fantasy with proper summons.

Hard to say FFX was the last FF with proper summonings, considering it was the first to have a summoning system that worked in such a manner, so, proper isn't the right word for it.

I should of explained it more properly, I meant that it was the last to have summons before they added all the crap in.
Like, you can take Bahamut for example, Shiva, Ifrit though they do change over the numbers, anything XII+(I wouldn't know about XI since I haven't played it) is too far.

 

[NoirCX]

Final Fantasy VI for me
This one by far has had the biggest impact on me. The characters, music, story and setting are not nothing short of fantastic.

 

[Cyan]

Guess what ? FFVI !

Like Grandville said, it has the best villain ever, which is really the villain from the start to the very end. (not like all the newer Final fantasy where you learn that the last boss is not the villain, and the villain is an ally ... and in fact you have to fight someone else but you don't know why, oh crap story

I'm sure you recognized the 2 FFs with story like that).

All Characters have a good and different past story which is well told
The musics are great. So great that it's this games which gave me music taste, before that I never liked music at all, whatever genre it could be.

It has a Map and many towns (FF games will have no more towns on the planet if they continue to make them less and less crowded, 3 town on the planet that's a great story !

)
AND it has no heroes

All 14 characters are heroes of their own, you can play who you want when you want, no forced character ala Tidus or Cloud.

Game system is well done, design and graphics are beautiful.

Linearity is not felt because you can either go where you want, or event flow is well measured.