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GAF Votes: Final Fantasy series rankings (Voting ends Mar. 2)
- Thread starter ScOULaris
- Start date
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
Booooooooo. Why is FFII so low. More people need to play that, I guess. 
Not surprised at all with FFIV slipping. The script is hilarious
! Why oh why does everyone have to di--... oh, right.
Not that it matters now, but here's part of my draft before I decided to not vote anymore (aka: I changed my list several times and just said, "screw this, why can't I rank more than one game as the same number this is stupid argh"):
1. Final Fantasy IX
Final Fantasy IX is what I would consider as the ideal Final Fantasy. It isnt perfect. Its a long way from the perfect game, but it hits all the right marks. The characters have their whimsical sides, but also their serious sides. All of them can be silly at times, but they all have their personal struggles to deal with. The character whom I felt exemplified this quality perfectly was Vivi, for spoilered reasons. I felt like the silly moments complemented the absolutely serious and dark moments of the game perfectly. I don't really like how Disc 4 goes (except for Memoria, because I thought that stuff was kind of cool), or how Disc 3 ends very much, but the rest of the game is absolutely wonderful. The score is quite excellent, and the town design is absolutely gorgeous. Dali, Lindblum, Treno, Alexandria, Daguerreo, and Black Mage Village are some of my favourite towns in gaming just because I like their designs so much.
2. Final Fantasy V
Final Fantasy V came onto the scene and set the job system in-place, taking the foundation that FFIII laid. The jobs are fun to change around and any combination works (even if certain combos are more difficult than others). The soundtrack is criminally underrated, imo. The Decisive Battle in this game is amazing and has awesome drum samples. The Advance script is my favourite; it has a ton of flavour, humour, and some nice pop-culture references. It's among the most entertaining Final Fantasy games out there, with multiple dimensions, Gilgamesh, and the general lighthearted tone. It's simply an absolute joy to play.
3. Final Fantasy VI
I didnt play Final Fantasy VI until I was fifteen, so I dont have a lot of nostalgia attached to it. In fact, when I rented it when I was younger and for some reason hated it. It wasn't until I was in high school that I bought my own copy and gave it a fair shot. I've loved it ever since because the game has so much depth to it in terms of sidequests, recruitable characters, the spritework, narrative, a villain that I liked in an FF (which are few and far between), and an amazing soundtrack. It's an amazing world that I like to revisit again and again.
4. Final Fantasy II
I guess you could say I like FFII because I like Suikoden and other political narratives like that? Aside from the great music, I thought the narrative was pretty good. I think it can be improved in some areas (in terms of pacing), but I liked it. As long as you play the game without beating up your party members in an attempt to level up quickly, it becomes less of a chore to get through. I'd like to think it's one of the darker FF narratives, but gets overshadowed because of its battle/ability system.
A lot of people I know say it sucks, but on the other hand, a lot of people haven't played it because they heard it sucks. Or they didn't play it the way it was meant to be played (ie: not hitting your party members to level up). Sure, the system is flawed and easily broken, but I enjoyed it. But it isn't fun to beat up on your party members for most of the game because it gets boring, and sometimes doing this raises your stats disproportionally.
I mostly like it for its plot, though. It introduces a few musical themes (chocobo theme), traditions, and plot elements (death, war, betrayal, mission failure, etc) to the series. I think it's the FF that benefitted the most from later ports/remakes... and that it unfairly gets a lot of hate.
5. Final Fantasy XII
Final Fantasy XII is just frickin' huge with so much stuff to do in the Bazaar, hunting marks, chaining enemies, etc. Final Fantasy XII's localization is absolutely brilliant, and the cutscenes and script reading were very well-directed. The environments are quite pleasant to look at, sometimes looking like paintings. I liked the quest structures and the characters (some of the character dynamics between Fran, Balthier, Basch and Ashe worked well to me). ADB was quite a treat because I really liked not having to go into a separate screen for a battle and chaining enemies for more XP, and I liked how well the gambits were implemented, especially in IZJS. IZJS is awesome in its own right; better than vanilla FFXII and improves upon its shortcomings in terms of the license board (also L1 to speed up the game is really helpful).
6. Final Fantasy X-2
Final Fantasy X-2 took Final Fantasy V's implementation of the job system and modified it to something even more special. While I liked FFV's job system very much, I absolutely loved ATB Kai and the evolutions FFX-2 made to it via the Dressphere system. The on-the-fly job switching system allowed for so much flexibility and different combinations of jobs between characters and across the party to modify the party dynamic and synergy. Sure, you can play with three dark knights, but where's the fun in that? I really liked tinkering with this system and seeing what I got out of it. Trying to beat Trema without the Cat Nip tactic by using jobs that aren't ideal for the situation was pretty fun.
Even under the bubblegum pop of the narrative, there's an underlying plot of different factions trying to take control over Spira for ideological reasons. It's a little too bad that the plot didn't really focus more on that, but it was more of a journey to save Tidus than anything else, I guess. Also, that 1000 Words cutscene is probably one of the best directed cutscenes in a modern FF I've seen. I understood the relationship between Lenne and Shuyin, and became more invested in that relationship than Tidus's and Yuna's despite the cutscene not being voiced. I like that sort of storytelling. Not a 15-minute "Feels Bad, Man; but now I evolved!" speech.
7. Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VII has some really nice setpieces, especially in Midgar (Midgar was probably my favourite environment in FFVII mostly because of its atmosphere; the series essentially went from castles to skyscrapers) and the City of the Ancients. The soundscape for each of those areas enhance them and make them more believable. I can hear "Underneath a Rotting Pizza" and see all the metal and debris strewn about in a slum. I can hear "Opressed People" and think of Wall Market. The music for the City of the Ancients in particular is one of my favourite BGMs in that game. It really is a well-put-together game. The battle system is easy to get into, and the materia system--while it felt like an extension of the Esper system--felt like it was easier to set characters in certain roles depending on their regular stats and affixing good materia to either fit into the stats, or make them better characters. FFVII is a ton of fun.
8. Final Fantasy VIII
I felt like FFVIII's town design went all-out. Esthar was breathtaking (and its BGM Silence and Motion fit it well), the Lunatic Pandora was nice to look at, Deling City was wonderfully crafted, a lot of the dungeon designs were nice to look at, but I think I like Dollet the most. The sunset landscape makes it looks even more relaxing and prettier, even though The Landing was its prominent BGM early on in the game. FFVIII's soundtrack is also quite great. Balamb Garden is also one of the coolest-looking schools ever (at least its interior is cool). Also, I felt that the Junction system was fun. Lots of ways to customize your party, and can be awesomely game-breaking when you get going with it. I also really liked that enemies levelled up with you, so if you really wanted to, a low-level playthrough might actually be a nice thing. Also, keeping everyone in critical at all times was fun.
I want to add that I like the character design in this game (except Zell's), but I really dislike the characters in general in the game. Um. I've already said how I felt about the music in general in another thread. I don't like the samples Uematsu used.
Also, Triple Triad > Every other FF minigame, even Sphere Break. Capitalize on this.
9. Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X stunned me because it was one of the first games I had every played with full-fledged voicework. When I first played it, it was unlike anything I had ever seen before, so it blew me away. I don't care much for the Sphere Grid system in FFX, but I really enjoyed CTB. It was fun, despite essentially boiling down to RPS matches sometimes. In a way, I felt it was a bit more tactical than other FFs, but in other ways, I felt it wasn't. The player has plenty of time to choose their next action, see the turn order, and decide what to do next. I also liked how Aeons were implemented; essentially becoming other party members. I did not play the international version of FFX, so I'm not sure if there were any changes to the battle system or Aeon growth system to improve either of them.
10. Final Fantasy III
I ended up not writing up anything for this and I don't really want to now. I appreciate FFIII's multiple maps, the implementation of the job system, its soundscape and its towns. It's a bit of a shame that I played FFV before this because I'm sure if I'd played it prior to that, I would have been blown away by the battle system. FFIII FC also looks very nice, nicer than FFIII DS. I like to look at it more like a sequel to FFI than FFII (since FFII felt like its own beast). There were a number of secrets and sidequests which were really fun to go through, and the scenario is nice to replay every now and then.
Not surprised at all with FFIV slipping. The script is hilarious
ly bad
Not that it matters now, but here's part of my draft before I decided to not vote anymore (aka: I changed my list several times and just said, "screw this, why can't I rank more than one game as the same number this is stupid argh"):
1. Final Fantasy IX
Final Fantasy IX is what I would consider as the ideal Final Fantasy. It isnt perfect. Its a long way from the perfect game, but it hits all the right marks. The characters have their whimsical sides, but also their serious sides. All of them can be silly at times, but they all have their personal struggles to deal with. The character whom I felt exemplified this quality perfectly was Vivi, for spoilered reasons. I felt like the silly moments complemented the absolutely serious and dark moments of the game perfectly. I don't really like how Disc 4 goes (except for Memoria, because I thought that stuff was kind of cool), or how Disc 3 ends very much, but the rest of the game is absolutely wonderful. The score is quite excellent, and the town design is absolutely gorgeous. Dali, Lindblum, Treno, Alexandria, Daguerreo, and Black Mage Village are some of my favourite towns in gaming just because I like their designs so much.
2. Final Fantasy V
Final Fantasy V came onto the scene and set the job system in-place, taking the foundation that FFIII laid. The jobs are fun to change around and any combination works (even if certain combos are more difficult than others). The soundtrack is criminally underrated, imo. The Decisive Battle in this game is amazing and has awesome drum samples. The Advance script is my favourite; it has a ton of flavour, humour, and some nice pop-culture references. It's among the most entertaining Final Fantasy games out there, with multiple dimensions, Gilgamesh, and the general lighthearted tone. It's simply an absolute joy to play.
3. Final Fantasy VI
I didnt play Final Fantasy VI until I was fifteen, so I dont have a lot of nostalgia attached to it. In fact, when I rented it when I was younger and for some reason hated it. It wasn't until I was in high school that I bought my own copy and gave it a fair shot. I've loved it ever since because the game has so much depth to it in terms of sidequests, recruitable characters, the spritework, narrative, a villain that I liked in an FF (which are few and far between), and an amazing soundtrack. It's an amazing world that I like to revisit again and again.
4. Final Fantasy II
I guess you could say I like FFII because I like Suikoden and other political narratives like that? Aside from the great music, I thought the narrative was pretty good. I think it can be improved in some areas (in terms of pacing), but I liked it. As long as you play the game without beating up your party members in an attempt to level up quickly, it becomes less of a chore to get through. I'd like to think it's one of the darker FF narratives, but gets overshadowed because of its battle/ability system.
A lot of people I know say it sucks, but on the other hand, a lot of people haven't played it because they heard it sucks. Or they didn't play it the way it was meant to be played (ie: not hitting your party members to level up). Sure, the system is flawed and easily broken, but I enjoyed it. But it isn't fun to beat up on your party members for most of the game because it gets boring, and sometimes doing this raises your stats disproportionally.
I mostly like it for its plot, though. It introduces a few musical themes (chocobo theme), traditions, and plot elements (death, war, betrayal, mission failure, etc) to the series. I think it's the FF that benefitted the most from later ports/remakes... and that it unfairly gets a lot of hate.
5. Final Fantasy XII
Final Fantasy XII is just frickin' huge with so much stuff to do in the Bazaar, hunting marks, chaining enemies, etc. Final Fantasy XII's localization is absolutely brilliant, and the cutscenes and script reading were very well-directed. The environments are quite pleasant to look at, sometimes looking like paintings. I liked the quest structures and the characters (some of the character dynamics between Fran, Balthier, Basch and Ashe worked well to me). ADB was quite a treat because I really liked not having to go into a separate screen for a battle and chaining enemies for more XP, and I liked how well the gambits were implemented, especially in IZJS. IZJS is awesome in its own right; better than vanilla FFXII and improves upon its shortcomings in terms of the license board (also L1 to speed up the game is really helpful).
6. Final Fantasy X-2
Final Fantasy X-2 took Final Fantasy V's implementation of the job system and modified it to something even more special. While I liked FFV's job system very much, I absolutely loved ATB Kai and the evolutions FFX-2 made to it via the Dressphere system. The on-the-fly job switching system allowed for so much flexibility and different combinations of jobs between characters and across the party to modify the party dynamic and synergy. Sure, you can play with three dark knights, but where's the fun in that? I really liked tinkering with this system and seeing what I got out of it. Trying to beat Trema without the Cat Nip tactic by using jobs that aren't ideal for the situation was pretty fun.
Even under the bubblegum pop of the narrative, there's an underlying plot of different factions trying to take control over Spira for ideological reasons. It's a little too bad that the plot didn't really focus more on that, but it was more of a journey to save Tidus than anything else, I guess. Also, that 1000 Words cutscene is probably one of the best directed cutscenes in a modern FF I've seen. I understood the relationship between Lenne and Shuyin, and became more invested in that relationship than Tidus's and Yuna's despite the cutscene not being voiced. I like that sort of storytelling. Not a 15-minute "Feels Bad, Man; but now I evolved!" speech.
7. Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VII has some really nice setpieces, especially in Midgar (Midgar was probably my favourite environment in FFVII mostly because of its atmosphere; the series essentially went from castles to skyscrapers) and the City of the Ancients. The soundscape for each of those areas enhance them and make them more believable. I can hear "Underneath a Rotting Pizza" and see all the metal and debris strewn about in a slum. I can hear "Opressed People" and think of Wall Market. The music for the City of the Ancients in particular is one of my favourite BGMs in that game. It really is a well-put-together game. The battle system is easy to get into, and the materia system--while it felt like an extension of the Esper system--felt like it was easier to set characters in certain roles depending on their regular stats and affixing good materia to either fit into the stats, or make them better characters. FFVII is a ton of fun.
8. Final Fantasy VIII
I felt like FFVIII's town design went all-out. Esthar was breathtaking (and its BGM Silence and Motion fit it well), the Lunatic Pandora was nice to look at, Deling City was wonderfully crafted, a lot of the dungeon designs were nice to look at, but I think I like Dollet the most. The sunset landscape makes it looks even more relaxing and prettier, even though The Landing was its prominent BGM early on in the game. FFVIII's soundtrack is also quite great. Balamb Garden is also one of the coolest-looking schools ever (at least its interior is cool). Also, I felt that the Junction system was fun. Lots of ways to customize your party, and can be awesomely game-breaking when you get going with it. I also really liked that enemies levelled up with you, so if you really wanted to, a low-level playthrough might actually be a nice thing. Also, keeping everyone in critical at all times was fun.
I want to add that I like the character design in this game (except Zell's), but I really dislike the characters in general in the game. Um. I've already said how I felt about the music in general in another thread. I don't like the samples Uematsu used.
Also, Triple Triad > Every other FF minigame, even Sphere Break. Capitalize on this.
9. Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X stunned me because it was one of the first games I had every played with full-fledged voicework. When I first played it, it was unlike anything I had ever seen before, so it blew me away. I don't care much for the Sphere Grid system in FFX, but I really enjoyed CTB. It was fun, despite essentially boiling down to RPS matches sometimes. In a way, I felt it was a bit more tactical than other FFs, but in other ways, I felt it wasn't. The player has plenty of time to choose their next action, see the turn order, and decide what to do next. I also liked how Aeons were implemented; essentially becoming other party members. I did not play the international version of FFX, so I'm not sure if there were any changes to the battle system or Aeon growth system to improve either of them.
10. Final Fantasy III
I ended up not writing up anything for this and I don't really want to now. I appreciate FFIII's multiple maps, the implementation of the job system, its soundscape and its towns. It's a bit of a shame that I played FFV before this because I'm sure if I'd played it prior to that, I would have been blown away by the battle system. FFIII FC also looks very nice, nicer than FFIII DS. I like to look at it more like a sequel to FFI than FFII (since FFII felt like its own beast). There were a number of secrets and sidequests which were really fun to go through, and the scenario is nice to replay every now and then.
JoshuaJSlone
Member
Looks like nobody even matched the top four. Six people had the one-two-three combination of VI, VII, and IX, though.abrack08 said:
I added a phantom line with one matching high point to each to make it so:
gatotsu911
Member
Will there be a compilation of user quotes, like in the MGS voting thread?
I had originally planned on making a results thread on par with the MGS one, but then I got banned for two weeks and inexplicably lost my thread starting privileges. Once that happened, I nixed my plans. Thankfully JoshuaJSlone stepped up in my absence and compiled the votes. I think he did a pretty great job, especially considering the fact that it wasn't his responsibility to begin with.
But yeah... The epic results thread that these rankings deserved will never be because someone took away my thread creation ability and none of the mods will tell me why.
The Emperor
Member
FFXIII seems to have grown in popularity since last time.
Clever Pun
Member
Very cool, thanks for doing all of this! It's really cool to see what a standout VI is in terms of #1 rankings.
And clever solution to get them all in the same range!
More people have played it since the last competition. It's probably higher up because it's received more votes. And maybe a year or two of distance also takes away from the knee-jerkiness of rankings -- which could cause people to rate a game either higher or lower than they might at a later date
This is particularly true with how low XIII-2 is ranked now, despite the fact that a large number of fans regard it as a better game than XIII.
IdreamofHIME
Member
The order was always gonna be the most interesting thing (6 over 7? wow), but the top 6 was confirmed from the start.
This poll is like that Guinness list of top 100 endings that everyone was complaining about. Why was COD and other crap in there? Coz the people they polled hadn't actually played older games.
This poll is like that Guinness list of top 100 endings that everyone was complaining about. Why was COD and other crap in there? Coz the people they polled hadn't actually played older games.
Rankings like these are only for getting a general idea of popular opinion. It's not exactly practical to limit the sample group in your example to those who have played every game in existence. It's similarly impractical to limit voting for this one to only those who have played every single Final Fantasy to completion.
And yes, FFVI is very good so it's hardly surprising that it's at the top.
Yep. And that actually shows if you divide the total number of points by the number of votes received for each game, to get an average score. (Doing this isn't totally precise, since it assumes that people who didn't vote for a game didn't play the game. Some people may not have voted for a game because they disliked it.)
If you go by points received per vote received, VI, VII, and IX still come out on top, in that order. But the rest of the rankings change a bit.
XII pushes up to fourth place, and IV takes fifth. Both of the X titles lose ground, dropping from fourth and eleventh to sixth and fourteenth place.
The biggest gaps are between first and second place and ninth and tenth place.
Points per vote received (total points rank in parens):
- VI: 2.96 (1st)
- VII: 2.60 (2nd)
- IX: 2.44 (3rd)
- XII: 2.27 (5th)
- IV: 2.12 (7th)
- X: 2.09 (4th)
- VIII: 2.07 (6th)
- V: 1.93 (8th)
- XI: 1.91 (12th)
- XIII-2: 1.54 (13th)
- XIV: 1.45 (15th)
- XIII: 1.44 (9th)
- I: 1.41 (10th)
- X-2: 1.40 (11th)
- II: 1.31 (14th)
- III: 1.28 (12th)
The revenge of Vaan2D2 and C-3PenelO.
timetokill
Banned
FateBreaker
Member
I...what? FFXIII is very disappointing, but it is still a good game. XIV is...not. Wow. Weird.