Official TFF Poll: Favorite Final Fantasy Game

[DragonHeart]

This is a new feature that will be running monthly and cover a wide range of topics concerning the Final Fantasy series. I am posting this here in General Chat because most of the traffic on the forums passes through here. The poll will run to the end of the month, then the results will be posted on the main site.

You do not need to, but if you wish to make a brief comment about your choice, please do so. Some of your comments may be quoted in the article. If you do not want to be quoted, please do not comment.

Please note that this poll is covering only the main numbered games and non of the spin-offs. That may be the topic of a later poll. Thanks!

Note to self: vote adjustments
-1 FFXI
+1 FFIX

Gentle reminder: this thread is for commenting on your poll choice only. Please do not clutter up the thread with comments about why you don't like X game, why X should have been included, I don't like the Final Fantasy series, I don't like this poll, etc. It makes it harder for me when I go through the thread at the end of the month to try and find comments from users to put in the article. If you're not going to play nice, don't play. Thank you.

[Leon]

Final Fantasy IX, hands down. Truly a gem in the series, plus the optimism from the main character is a nice change of pace from previous titles xD

[SuperSabin]

My favorite FF has been VI and will always be FFVI. It really was my introduction to the FF along with FF1. The atmosphere in the game is really nice, very good character development, unforgettable soundtrack, and I believe FFVI introduced event type games where you were prompted to go a certain direction and take that direction. It also introduced tactical gameplay where you have to protect the main target from all the onscreen enemies moving towards it.

[SOLDIER #819]

FFVII because Cloud has a big sword and Sephiroth is the dreamiest.

[Martin]

Final Fantasy VIII, let me count the ways I love thee..

Well it's mine and my girlfriends' favourite of the series. So that's a pretty big reason. But I love the gameplay, the fact it actually rewards perseverance and intelligence over pot luck, and the character development system. Yes I like junctioning, want to fight about it??
Yes the story is utterly jarred and littered with bizarre events, and it jumps from one random section to one completely unrelated random section. The translation is a bit cheaply done and Squall has a borderline personality disorder with the length of time that he spends talking to himself. Cilla and I examined the story in depth and renamed it "SquareSoft's A Series of Oddly Convenient Events." One blatant example of that being how you get Ragnarok.. And there are many many more.

And it's exactly why I prefer it any other. It's just endearing and a great example of a modern-style JRPG.

[Joxsjua]

Went with FF4 (FF2 in the states) I know there are other games that are better and I am sure enjoyed maybe more intensely and in depth but through out my 20+ years in FF gaming I found myself coming back to this and FF1 most frequently. You all are gonna make me have to start replaying the PS and PS2 games again with this thread, curse you villains!!

[loaf]

I personally think if FFXI and XIV are on this list, Tactics should be too since they it's not technically a spin-off but I'm not mad not a big deal.

I choose FFIX because it is my favorite. Not to be confused with what Final Fantasy I think is the best.

Final Fantasy IX is every Final Fantasy before it wrapped into one.

[DragonHeart]

@loaf: The only games I am counting are the ones with Roman numerals in the title. That and there are several Tactics games now, which means you will more than likely see a related poll (or two) in the future.

[loaf]

I voted for FFXI on accident, even tho I believe it to be the greatest FF experience ever. My vote stands on FFIX.

[Halie]

I haven't played all of the FFs, in fact I've only played a small fraction of even the main titles and completed even fewer, but with that said I've got to go with X. This game got me into Final Fantasy to start with, hell even gaming as a whole. It has its flaws, but overall I love it with all me heart. The soundtrack is fantastic and fits so well with the game, I love the characters (even the ones that are commonly thought of as annoying), the story is great, the romance doesn't make me want to vomit, the battle system is my favourite out of any game I've played because it's not just full of button-mashing, it actually requires a bit of strategic thinking. The graphics were and are still brilliant in my opinion, especially the cut scenes. I'm not always a fan of the script, it can be a little cringe-worthy at times. Some of the voice acting is a little cringe-worthy as well. And Tidus runs so ****ing slow, omg.

But yeah, great game. I don't know if it's the best FF, but it's certainly my favourite.

[Xanatos]

I don't plan on writing an essay, which I did multiple times already, so I'll keep this short. I'm in the same boat as loaf, IX is my favorite, though not necessarily the best one... that title is reserved for XII, and rightfully so.

[Mystyrion]

though not necessarily the best one... that title is reserved for XII, and rightfully so.

Unless you are counting dress code. Then it takes last.

[che]

IX is the essence of what Final Fantasy should be.

[Clint]

I like Final Fantasy VIII, because it's the one that I can find the least amount of problems with. I wasn't that big a fan of the characters, however, but the story was good.

The first five games are generic fantasy games, with IV being the best of the bunch. Then there's VI, which I haven't played, because every time I tried, I got killed during the opening sequence. Stupid ****ing hard Japanese piece of shit games. I though VII had a stupid plot. I thought IX was cartoonish and silly. I thought X was good, aside from some of the horrible voice actor performances and stupid dialogue. XI was online, and I hate online games. XII was a ****ing hard Japanese piece of shit game. And XIII was just stupid.

[Unknown Entity]

My favourite is FFVII. It's the one that popped my Final Fantasy AND RPG virginity.

Mostly, I just enjoyed the story. It was the first game I'd probably played that had text based conversations, and I'd always been a big reader. In a way, I kind of prefer subtitles as it persuades you to create the characters for yourself, in a way developers can't create a character. For example, I always imagined Barret with Mr T's voice, heh.

I also love the character development system and materia. It was simple. The sense of achievement you feel when you first max out All... And how you then sell it for that cool million Gil and treat yourself to that very useless mansion at Costa del Sol. It was fun to work for everything. Especially the challenge of Emerad and Ruby Weapon. Still need to kill them buggers. Good times.

[Alpha]

I find no fault with Final Fantasy IX. It gets the balance right in so many regards; an engaging story with some sharp twists, serious themes (including mortality itself) and comic relief generally done quite tastefully. The music is endearing, the locations are some of the best in Final Fantasy (Lindblum, Ipsen's Castle, Memoria...), there's a world map (!) with lots to do on it, sidequests spanning the length of the game (cards, chocobo, Mognet/Stiltzken, frogs, auctioneering, Stellazio), short-lived but incredibly challenging sidequests (jump rope, racing Hippaul, Festival of the Hunt), the ability-acquisition system is great, allowing for quick play-throughs and rewards for grinding at the same time. There's a variety of villains playing their respective roles at appropriate times in the game, building momentum to a finale (Brahne, Beatrix, Zorn & Thorn, The Black Waltzes, Garland, Kuja...).

Can't sing its praises enough.



memoria2.png

Memoria-noscale.jpg

[Rowan]

I honestly cannot decide between VII, VIII and IX as they are all brilliant games with equally as much charm and story as each other. I voted VII because I feel It's hated by far too many hipsters.

[Kurt Zisa]

There's never been a Final Fantasy that I've hated as they've all has something (yes even X-2) that has made them enjoyable and worth the time invested into them. My vote goes to XII as, in my mind, it has the best gameplay. I love games that give you the freedom to explore and there's so much content involved that I had to buy a walkthrough because going back and forth from the net all the time took forever. There's also the tonne of weapons, armour, accessories, spells(black, white, green, time, arcane), abilities, and when done right the Gambit system can be pretty useful too.

[Rowan]

There's never been a Final Fantasy that I've hated as they've all has something (yes even X-2) that has made them enjoyable and worth the time invested into them. My vote goes to XII as, in my mind, it has the best gameplay. I love games that give you the freedom to explore and there's so much content involved that I had to buy a walkthrough because going back and forth from the net all the time took forever. There's also the tonne of weapons, armour, accessories, spells(black, white, green, time, arcane), abilities, and when done right the Gambit system can be pretty useful too.

If the characters and story were better, it would have my vote. I especially loved pretty much everything about ff12 except for characters and story.

[Lacquer Head]

As far as gameplay goes, FF is probably my least favorite RPG series...that I like. I've played much worse games of course, but there has never really been a great battle system, apart from the tactics games. Most difficult bosses are basically "Follow this exact strategy and it's easy, don't and you're ****ed" which isn't that great. I do enjoy the stories and art though. As for my favorite, never did like FF VII, the story is just baaaaad. FF VIII was pretty good, but just too much of a romance game, though the junction system was a brain **** as far as Final Fantasy goes. FF IX is just perfect imo. The hero is...well a hero, not a whiny selfish ****. It went back to what final fantasy did best, European style...which is odd, considering they come from Japan. I did find it to be too easy though. I know FF didn't really start with intense after game dungeons til remakes and such, but some more superbosses and such would make it killer.

[RagnaToad]

Since this is General Chat, why not make polls about topics outside of the Final Fantasy games too?

[DragonHeart]

Maybe in the future but because this article is going on the main site, which is for Final Fantasy games / JRPGs, for now we are going to focus on Final Fantasy related topics.

If anyone has any comments or questions not related directly to the poll question of what is your favorite Final Fantasy game, please PM or VM me; do not clutter up the thread. Thank you.

[Heartless Angel]

Though a lot of people apparently disliked it, I went with X. The story was solid, characters for the most part interesting, the world was very well thought out and interesting, the history of the world was very in depth, which is something I like, being a major story buff, but the gameplay is what really makes X stand out for me. In terms of all those other things, I probably wouldn't be able to say it beats VII, but when it comes to gameplay, X is definitely my top pick. I liked the sphere grids syetm, and how it gives one greater contorl over how a character advances, the customization freedom you're given between the sphere grid, weapon and armor ability augmentation, is just great. I love the level of freedom you have in that game. And then just the sheer ammount of content. There's so much end game content available in X, between the arena, blitzball, getting the celestial weapons, fighting Omega, the Dark Aeons and Penance, there's just so much shit to do. And then you have the freedom to not use the sphere grid if you feel you need a challenge. X just has so much content to enjoy, that's where it really stands out.

[Joxsjua]

Thought every game was fun. I never owned a copy of 13 or 13-2 though.

found this

[Lacquer Head]

Why did that thing skip 11 and 12 >_>?

[Joxsjua]

Why did that thing skip 11 and 12 >_>?

Not quite sure, maybe because 11 was an MMORPG?

Here's a Penny Arcade comic I found for FF12,

haahaa I still like the game

[Xanatos]

Not quite sure, maybe because 11 was an MMORPG?

Here's a Penny Arcade comic I found for FF12,

haahaa I still like the game

There's a slight issue with this comic and fans in general who bitch how XII plays itself... you have to go all the way and set up your gambits for this to happen (takes quite a bit of effort), in other words if the game plays itself you're the one to blame... biggest issue though, those fans apparently don't have a will of their own to turn that shit off.

[Fluffy]

This is a hard one for me, because I like each game for a different reason. I'll think about it and come back later.

[che]

This is a hard one for me, because I like each game for a different reason. I'll think about it and come back later.

Very great input. This insight changed my life.

[Fluffy]

Very great input. This insight changed my life.

No need to thank me. Next one isn't free, though.