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Which Final Fantasy had the best storyline?

To me, 8 had the best story and best characters. I loved the rival school setting and music. I prefer the Materia battle system and 12's Gambits, but FF8 was amazing.
 
I would have to say FFX is the best. Creative. Yuna is probably the series' best character. An interesting story and world, with great plot developments, twists and turns, etc. FFVIII is probably my favorite FF story, although it's probably one of the most hated ones.
 
CLOUDsea said:
I would have to say FFX is the best. Creative. Yuna is probably the series' best character. An interesting story and world, with great plot developments, twists and turns, etc. FFVIII is probably my favorite FF story, although it's probably one of the most hated ones.
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My only problem with X was it gave you a lot of scope to say ignore or be mean to Yuna for the entire game. But try as you might it always ended up the same way.

It was my story... And I wanted to bone Rikku
 
Not just Chains of Promathia, but FFXI as a whole deserves praise for its story. I love that all protagonists in each major expansion are all female as well. I hope they follow suit with Seekers of Adoulin.
 
CorvoSol said:
How so? I don't know of many other Final Fantasies that referenced classical Italian poetry for their final battle. And it can't be standard fare that he became God, because that wasn't a big thing either in JRPGs at the time. The only other game that does that in the SNES era that I can name is Breath of Fire II, and it's final boss is outed as a demon, whereas Kefka flat out is a God.
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Eh, that was pretty common in anime at the time, which FF obviously has a lot in common with. I also think SMT counts.
 
I like many of the FF stories. In fact, story and characters are the most important part of a FF to me (which is why I felt that FF12 went into the wrong direction..).

Best of them was FF7. I liked the general theme, the mysterious touch, the complexity (even if some may complain about plotholes) and the end time feeling while maintaining a good balance between seriousness and more lighthearted scenes.


After that my ranking would be:

2. FF10 (very interesting theme)
3. FF8
4. FF9
5. FF6
6. FF13
7. FF4
8. FF12
9. FF5
10. FF2
11. FF1
 
How can anyone say 12? the translation was great and the presentation too, but the story after a certain point devolves into usual FF trash and becomes garbage, also Vaan and Penelo are just shit characters.
 
To continue the FFX love, I would say FFX is leagues better than all the rest of them combined. One of the things I loved about FFX is that the entire group is traveling together and constantly interacting. Unlike other FFs where you have to pick three characters and they never talk to each other on their journey. You get to know them much more and so care about them more. It makes them feel more like a tightly knit group compared to let's say 6 or 7.

Having bright colorful setting with a gloomy world that centers on death and despair is a neat contrast. Same goes for having a cheerful optimistic main character on a miserable quest. Without Tidus, it's easy to imagine that everyone would be depressed nonstop. With him, he keeps everyone's spirits up and keeps Yuna happy. It's an interesting balance.

Conversations come off as heartfelt here more so than other FFs. Remember when everyone in the group pokes fun at Yuna's bed hair and they share a laugh together about it?

Likewise, the infamous laughing scene between Tidus and Yuna. It's sweet. I smile every time I get to that scene. It's a nice character bonding moment.

There's very slow and subtle development with Tidus and Yuna, both in their own character growth and with each other. All of the cast sounds believable for the most part, especially Wakka. (The last time I played FFX was right after I played FF13. It was jarring to first hear Wakka talk about Chappu with Lulu and Tidus following FF13's corniness with Snow, Serah, and Hope.) Rikku hadn't yet become a caricature yet, she's easily the most likable of the token FF bubbly girls. Then there's Auron. Auron is fucking awesome.

In terms of emotional impact, Yuna's first sending scene to me is more powerful than any other FF scene I can think of. And you know, it's probably not even in FFX's top 5 impactful scenes.
 
Randolph Freelander said:
I enjoyed FFX the most for its story, but I haven't played them all. Still need to play 6, 8, and 9, ignoring the MMOs. And 3, I suppose, but as far as I know it's not available on any system I own. I think. Maybe DS? Low priority, either way.
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SE seems to have been converting the FF3 3D remake for just about any hardware that can handle it, not to mention the Ouya plans.

Shinta said:
Treasures of Aht Urghan is probably even better. Wings of the Goddess also had some damn fine cutscenes.
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I'm inclined to agree - ToAU's plot may have been mostly contained to its new continent's setting (which avoided some of the ridiculous legwork in CoP), but covered a lot of lore and seemed overall more fun to me (Naja, Trion, Shantotto Karababa, the late mission shenannigans), not to mention all the events were just collateral to the confliect of a couple of diammetrically opposed avatars (it was pretty much "immoveable object vs. unstoppable force" with nothing around expected to survive when sh*t hits the fan). Odin's "Have you sated your rage?" CS felt pretty powerful when I went through it.

Then again, my favorite CoP CS is when Prishe, Shantotto and Shikaree Y meet - FFXI dev's favorite Mary Sue characters face off, a less used character manages to keep up and there's still plenty of humor and relevant plot stuff with some impact - I liked CoP, but I tend to attribute most praise to the relief of finally getting it done, between the woes of getting a group for fights, the issues with old level capping, the huge legwork for some CSs and stuff like climbing Parradamo Tor which could get pretty frustrating without online guides.

I'm yet to complete WotG (I kept getting sidetracked, mostly doing quests and other inventory-clearing pursuits like levelling jobs to use up scrolls and low level gear), but the quality of CSs in it is pretty amazing compared to the previous expansions, especially the way they've coreographed some battle scenes - after all those years they really mastered their tools.

Jailer of Hope said:
Not just Chains of Promathia, but FFXI as a whole deserves praise for its story. I love that all protagonists in each major expansion are all female as well. I hope they follow suit with Seekers of Adoulin.
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The devs jokingly call them "mission girls" (
actually an occupational hazard since they tend to get killed, except Prishe that just stops being immortal, cementing her Canon Sue-ishness
), but there are plenty of other cool characters in the setting like Zeid (I was really rooting to see him in Duodecim, but as a dark knight, his potential EX Mode skill was already taken by Firion and the Emperor...) and Gessho, and the nation missions tend to have you fight alongside male characters (Volker, Trion and Ajido-Marujido). It feels weird that although Aldo tags along for lots of missions he never seems to actually do anything though...
 
Say what you want about FFXIV 1.0 but it had a pretty cool story with a kick ass ending.

b76d88da5da2c820146e9f77a3ad331247730787.jpg
 
All I can say is that I love FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX and FFX, but I can't choose one of them...

I feel a special affection for FFVIII, cos that was the first I played. Same with FFX, because I think it has one of the most emotional stories ever created. Not to mention how its ends...

BUT, FFIX is freaking amazing and FFVII has the best enemy ever created, Sephiroth.

I love all of them.

BTW, I'm playing FFX right now and t's amazing how I feel playing it...

EDIT: FFX-2, meh..., FFXII, good game with no fantasy..., FFXIII, linear as hell, dumb story...., FFXIII-2, no comments.
 
FFVI by far. Had a great balance of pacing, interesting plot twists, villains and characters. The atmosphere is incredible throughout as well. Along with the music. The WoR is key for me because of how unexpected it is, and how it tests the player's resolve instead of spoon feeding the next plotline. Stuff like that plays far better to the strengths of this medium and it's a shame more FF games don't do this.

XII was great until it devolved into the usual...
 
CorvoSol said:
And how does that excuse the bullshit at all? I already said that using paradoxes is bullshit, AND there are other Chocowomen all over the place, but rather than saying "Hey Chocowomen are an extratemporal species" which I could've taken, they have to make up the worst and creepiest excuse in the series:
paradoxes made the chocobo in Sazh's fro, WHICH IS PRESENT IN THAT SCENE, into Chocolina. WTF.

In a game full of bad plot points, it STILL stood out as terrible.

5. Holding onto a weapon to try and save someone's life isn't the same as killing them in any way at all. This is like claiming that holding someone's hand as they slide off a cliff and having them slip out of your fingers is the same as letting go. It's especially egregious because XIII makes a POINT of absolving Snow of the blame for Hope's mother's death because he couldn't save her in spite of his efforts. Yet somehow Noel is to blame for Caius' death under the exact same circumstances?

This is the problem with XIII-2's plot: It undermines everything XIII's plot does. The ending completely invalidates the player's efforts for TWO GAMES, and XIII-2 completely changes and undermines so much of XIII that it's absurd.
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Frankly, ff13 is terrible and everyone thinks so (which is why they made ff13-2 the way they did, which is why sales of ff13-2 was poor and why lightning returns doesn't have ff13 in the name and they're going for somethig different.

So pretending that it didn't exist is aokay.

Regardless, it's time travel. What they went over wasn't much different from decent time travel stories. I guess you wouldn't know about those Mr. Milton and the Hardy Boys.

If he really was to save caius, he should have laid down his weapon. It's more like, "I tried to not kill him, but I ran into him because my car got hit from behind. Your car still killed him. Yes it's illogical, it doesn't matter.

Also it early on dismissed the classical idea of "one person can't go back in time to see themselves and if they did the universe would explode" theory so the chocolina thing makes sense.
 
IX
Definitely IX. It was the first FF I beat. VIII was the first I ever played and enjoyed well enough, up to a point. But IX's story, visuals and music was perfect.
 
brandonh83 said:
6 had my favorite story, but 12 had by far the best writing/presentation.

6's story wins me over because of the out of left field twist and atmosphere/tone that came from it.
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First post strikes again.

I came into this thread to say this, pretty much word for word
 
FFX has far and away the best story, and actually one of my all-time favourite plots in any game.

FFVII's star has dimmed a bit in recent years with all the spin-offs failing to really add anything substantial to the fiction, but looking back at the original game in isolation its got an absolutely terrific story and tons of memorable character moments. Its extremely good, one of the very best RPG plots of all time.

I really love VIII too, mainly because of the Laguna subplot and the character-work overall. The story is better than most give it credit for, and I can't say the amnesia reveal ever bothered me, I was more taken by the concept that the price paid for forging an alliance with these supernatural entities was paid in memories - poignantly poetic imho.

Thing about FFVIII is that its more ambitious in many ways than VII, its somewhat more personal and decided less bombastic in intent. Yes, its still juvenile and melodramatic, but people of the age the characters are in the game do actually act/talk in a juvenile and melodramatic in real life, so its actually a good deal better written than most give it credit for.
 
Happy to see the FFXI love in this thread, and yeah it has to be Chains of Promathia. Going through all those missions with the same group of friends is still one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had.
 
Back when I was ten, FFVII.

When I was in college, FFXII.

Now, they're all insufferable shit. Such a pathetic franchise, tries way too hard to be cool.
 
Final Fantasy VI. Fantastic execution of a large ensemble cast that very very few games have been able to match.

I also enjoyed FFXII's story for the reason that it was smaller scale. I liked the fallen knight redemption angle and for being forced to toss in Van and Penelo, they did a good job of shoving them off to the side once the group gets together.

Also loved the FFXI expansion, "Chains of Promathia" and would love to see it as a stand alone game at some point.

Jailer of Hope said:
Not just Chains of Promathia, but FFXI as a whole deserves praise for its story. I love that all protagonists in each major expansion are all female as well. I hope they follow suit with Seekers of Adoulin.
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I don't know. The initial storylines were a bit lacking. Bastok, and to a lesser extent Windurst, had very silly city storylines. Sandoria's was good. Zilart was decent but it was really, really short. Aht Urgaran just started getting really tedious, and that was only amplified in Wings of the Goddess for me.
 
Final Fantasy 8, if we're to believe the "Squall is dead" theory. If not, probably 12 because of the writing.
 
For me is 6. I always had the feeling that I would have liked 7's story a lot more if I it wasn't for the translation (spanish translation was he worst ever)

So much love for XI... I still plan on getting it someday. Is it wise to get and play this so much time after?
 
wakajawaka said:
For me is 6. I always had the feeling that I would have liked 7's story a lot more if I it wasn't for the translation (spanish translation was he worst ever)

So much love for XI... I still plan on getting it someday. Is it wise to get and play this so much time after?
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It is not a very easy game for new players to get into at this point.
 
DrForester said:
I don't know. The initial storylines were a bit lacking. Bastok, and to a lesser extent Windurst, had very silly city storylines. Sandoria's was good. Zilart was decent but it was really, really short. Aht Urgaran just started getting really tedious, and that was only amplified in Wings of the Goddess for me.
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Windurst's storyline is the only one that really stays on track from beginning to end. I don't know how could find the latter two expansion stories "tedious" and not CoP. RotZ was pretty devoid of content. You basically fill-in the blanks until CoP came around and even then its villains are really under-written and wasted (especially since the whole thing is based on the a plot twist).
 
FF Versus XIII obviously has the best story considering how long it's taking to develop. But Final Fantasy Tactics, though.
 
Honestly, I can't even remember what the stories were about anymore, but I remember being pretty moved by FFIX and FFX. The games in the series before that are a complete blur to me now though.

FFIX was something about the typical ragtag group protects the princess/kingdom, but I loved the fantastical setting and combating castles.

FFX I can remember a bit more vividly...scuba soccer star falls into another world, ends up following around magic girl on her mysterious suicidal pilgrimage, then fights his giant monster dad, then turns into a ghost. Sounds kinda silly now, but man that had me on the edge of my seat.
 
First two posts: FFX, VII and VI. good stuff.

Those are my picks with X being my fav. Spira is still imo the best and most realized world in any JRPG. It provided a great setting for the story.
 
MagiusNecros said:
Maybe it's this?
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I dunno, "coolness" is not something I tend to associate with FF! Protagonists more often than not are seriously flawed individuals trying to work their issues out, I can't think of too many "Dante"-types in any of the games.

Lightning is hardly the most personable of heroines!
 
My favorites are 6, 7, 9 and 12, not in any order. They all were very interesting.

4 was my first FF so I'd have to go back and play it again to be able to judge that one, but I imagine it wasn't the greatest.

7 is the most fleshed out FF by far. I love Zack as a character in Crisis Core. He is my absolute favorite FF character. I don't want to call it the best, but because of it's heavy exposure, 7's story and universe is the freshest and strongest in my mind.

Edit: But you know what, 6 was damn good now that I think about it. I'm torn.
 
7 by far. Cloud is still at the top of my favorite character list, all these years later. The whole cast was enjoyable, and the story somehow seemed more down-to-earth than the rest of the series.

Either 13 or 8 for the worst. Didn't make it far enough in 13 to know or care.
 
Hmm...that's tough.

So instead, here's my opinion on all of them:

FF1/3: Honestly not much in the way of story in these games. (Or rather, it's minimalistic.) Not bad, but not great either. Works though.
FF2: I thought it was pretty decent. Wild Goose of Ultima didn't help things though.
FF4: Once you've played FF4 a dozen times, it's pretty easy to see the weaknesses in the story and other crap. (Or read Dark Schala's take on it.)
FF5: Eh. Nothing special.
FF6: Pretty decent, with some surprising twists. I'd say it's higher ranked than most of the other games.
FF7: Pretty decent with some memorable moments and stuff. Then it gets crazy. If we ignore all the spinoffs, I'd say it's pretty good for the most part.
FFVIII: Hahahahahaha! (8's story is just...silly.)
FFIX: I liked 9's story up until about the end of Disc 3, where craziness starts to set in. Other than that, it's pretty good.
FFX: Apart from silly moments, I'd say it has a pretty good story with memorable characters. I'd say it ranks pretty high.
FFXII: As others mentioned, it's got great presentation, with its tone and characters, and the story could've really been something, but the pacing goes too slow (among other issues) and ends up overall just decent. (It could've been much better...)
FFT: If I can make sense of it, it might be good. Maybe. (High ranked for the most part.)

Hadn't played XI or XIII and its stuff.
 
My votes easily go to XII, IV and Tactics - mostly for presentation, because I don't think a brilliant story in FF actually exists.

XIII-2 is the worst, and not because of the lazy paradox thing but more because the main cast just felt so detached and hastily thrown together in the most sloppy fashion possible. Also generic anime characters.
 
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