The Top 7... Best Final Fantasy games

In all seriousness, as someone pointed out, how you rank the FF (main series) depends on the order you played them; and whether you're going to rank them independently against particular criteria (objective or subjective) or comparatively against each other against a set of criteria. Most 'best lists' are far too simplistic, aimed at masturbatory satisfaction or inciting hate... The order I finished (not necessarily 'first' played) FF is: 8, 7, 9, 6, T, 5, 10, 13, 12. Putting aside feelings and emotions (at best), I think FF games should be graded against storyline (execution, depth, structure, originality), gameplay (battle mechanics), replayability (longevity + fun), playability (learning curve), music + a weighted grade for graphics or some defined standard of how you're going to grade it since you cannot seriously give FF6 a '8' and give FF8 a '7'... That's just stupid... When grading a RPG its the whole package that counts; and I think most fans focus overly on one or two aspects in a certain game that made it shine, or mixed their own nostalgia with actual grading. So rather than pick ones' own, why not try use a proper nutted out grading benchmark? Finally while I can accept FF6 can reign top spot, I cannot stomach the fact FF12 is noted positively for its story and characters. If anything, FF12's gameplay probably saved it from being the slapdash mess it felt; however even that was dogged by several quite damning aspects - bad programing making high-level magic take forever to queue and cast via gambits; plenty of useless gambits; lack of useful gambits; gambits failed in crowds; gambits almost always failed at bosses unless you had a walkthrough etc. It also has one of the poorest replayabilities of any FF I've played because it has some of the most tedious and unstimulating sidequests. But for the aesthetics, FF12 I would've ranked this last along with the bore FF13 was!

I've been playing all the FFs starting with the SNES era. So far I've complete 4,6,7,8, and 9. I started 5, and bought a PS2 and a copy of X. Can't wait to get started on that. I have found every FF to be totally unique, and I love all of them so far! It's really hard to cluster them together as a franchise because they can be pretty different from each other when it comes to the art, story, and music, which are really important to me in games. While I'm not sure I can have a favorite FF, 6 will always have a special place for me. It was the first FF I ever played and had an amazing cast. The visuals and the music on the SNES are top notch, comparable (and perhaps losing) only to Chrono Trigger. I just hope that I'll be alive to see at least a dozen more FF titles down the road. FF is like my Studio Ghibli of gaming : )

Absolutely loved Final Fantasy X. It was my first ps2 rpg, and it shocked me at how good it was. Visually, and audio wise it was at the top of it's game. It's the final fantasy I remember the most, due to it's impact. FF6, 7, 8, 1 and 2 were all amazing as well. Final Fantasy 12, in my opinion deserves more credit. I believe it was totally unique for the franchise, and it's sad to see how much hate it got. After I finish the game I'm playing right now, I'm going to play Final Fantasy 13.

I'd say that Final Fantasy 12 was the best of the series. Final Fantasy X was likely second, due to what it brought. 12 had the best story, presentation, battle system, quest list, and of course the graphics in retrospective to its platform. Though 13 has better ones, the graphics aren't entirely supreme unlike 12 which were barely even rivaled by any other game. The gambit system was perfect, especially since it wasn't too slow, too fast, or just too pointless. It was in every way perfect: no matter what you played. The way the game worked and ran its system was logical, and exclusive. The battle system it had was completely exceptional, to the point that I honestly don't expect any other game to come near it. Difficulty? Check. Play against Yaimat and the Omega Mark just to feel the long battles that actually take a lot of planning and effort to get them right. Those battles against the Espers were quite honestly some of the most suspenseful fights a Final Fantasy has had. Characters and story were considered dull to most people, but it was a story that basically was for more mature audiences and people that could understand its value. It had a lot of great involved, and was quite sophisticated. I enjoyed it. Hunts and the fact that Gil was rare created a lot of appeal in that game. It wasn't like in FFX or any Final Fantasy before that where you could dominate due mainly to raking up money and purchasing armor with relative ease...This game's currency was difficult as shit to collect and you had to basically do hunts in order to even purchase some basic armor early on in the game. The way the Espers worked pretty nice, although it'd have been better if they acted as a fourth or fifth, rather than a small summon. Honestly, this was the best game of the series, and had the most to offer in terms of playing. They even had an in game trophy list, which you could max out and keep track of completing everything in the game. FF7 was weak, fact is Crisis Core was better than that shit. 8 was horrible. 9 looked like shit and played like it... 11 sucks. 14 sucks. 13 has honestly the most faulty battle system and quite a few problems every where... The whole "listen to people's conversations" part is horrible. X was pretty good, however, it eventually became a breeze unless you started doing challenges that didn't involve the sphere grid. X-2 was a pretty good game. I honestly don't understand why people don't give that game its fair chance... It has one of the most challenging battle system around, especially when you refuse to use a cat nip. 1-4 are completely outdated. They cannot compare because they were weak as heck. 5 and 6 are what'd you call pathetic. They didn't add anything at all to the series, never had changed the worldview of Final Fantasy like 7 and 10 managed to do. 12 is the greatest game of the series; it looks the best, runs the best, and feels complete unlike the predecessors. 13 is a shame, as it wasn't ever fully completed, it's like an incomplete game...

I agree that FFVI is definitely one of the best, but it's sad that Tactics is pushed to the sidelines so often. It's definitely the best in the entire series.

my list is 1st - FFVI 2nd - FFIV 3rd - FFI 4th - FFIX 5th - FFVII 6th - FFX 7th - FFV all i can say is,a true FF Fanatic knows that FFVIII sucks and a gamer that does not consider himself an FF Fanatic loves FFVIII. An FF Fanatic raises the flag of FFVI and tears the flag of FFVIII and a FF Stranger, who just played FFVIII only , YOU ARE OFF LIMITS HERE.. FFVI!! rules!! i love Locke Cole!!

if i have to put FFXIII, then it will be at 3rd pushed downwards.. 1st - FFVI 2nd - FFIV 3rd - FFXIII 4th - FFI 5th - FFIX 6th - FFVII 7th - FFX i hate to admit it but i have a crush on Lightning.. :P she's cute..

Actually, incorrect post. According to IMDb (www.imdb.com), the public have voted the top 7 FF games you chose to be different. Final Fantasy XII: 8.4/10 (1,385 votes) Final Fantasy V: 7.9 (217 votes) Final Fantasy IX: 8.7 (1,290 votes) Final Fantasy X: 9.2 (2,423 votes) Final Fantasy VII: 9.6 (3,684 votes) Final Fantasy IV: 8.4 (332 votes) Final Fantasy VI: 9.1 (728 votes) Therefore from top to bottom it is: 1. FFVII 2. FFX 3. FFVI 4. FFIX 5. FFXII (more votes than FFIV) 6. FFIV 7. FFV

i have to say final fantasy 6 is the best and 4 the 2nd best

Hmmm, seems to me like you (Wombatic) haven't beaten, or let alone played more than an hour of any FF game other than X and XII. To say FFIV-IX were horrible and pathetic is disservice to both the series and it's fans. In your opinion XII may be the best, and I respect that; however, I recommend you play the other games in their entirety before you bash and tear them apart. I know it's tough for younger gamers to appreciate the older entries in the series due to graphics and what not, but there is beauty to be found in each game. I only became interested in the Final Fantasy series a couple weeks ago, and right now my favorite entries are FFIX and FFVI. Those are the only two I've beaten though, haha. VI, and IX have caused me to fall head over heels for the Final Fantasy series. Right now I am working my way through the original Final Fantasy and I plan to play through each game in sequential order after I beat it.

Ah it does my heart good to see this list and some of the comments here. I know that some people here are without a doubt true fans of the series. I tell people all the time that VI is the best of all time (and VIII was garbage aside from the cinematics). I'm not really a fan of most of the newer ones past IX, which I think could have been one of the best of all time if it didn't sorta just fall off after the first two discs. And yes, Tactics was one of the best. In my opinion it's storyline and soundtrack rivaled that of VI.

Before I comment I’d like to say that I think everyone has a right to their opinion and if they say X-2 is better than 6 then they technically cannot be wrong (even though they obviously are and should be bludgeoned to death) I and my best friend are fanatics, we’ve played them all...religiously and we constantly have this conversation as all hardcore fanatics should. I believe that XII shouldn't be there at all, it was horrific at best. The game play, the chests percentage, the feel, the ridiculous bosses and NEVER needing to use the summons or magic anywhere in the game to name a few out of literally hundreds of things I can think of that ruin it completely. XII wasn’t a final fantasy... "In my opinion" please don’t flame *crosses fingers* They made half a game. The other half was an ESSENTIAL guide you more or less had to buy. Clever move square... And I have completed XIII months ago I now can say it was worse. If I wanted to go in a straight line for 23 hour’s-ish only pressing X while a story told itself I would have bought Heavy Rain. Back to the actual point, VI rightly so, was magnificent but *in my opinion* not the best. This guaranteed will get flamed but I believe that X is the best. What does it not have? arguably the best story (I remember where I was when I found out that Sin was Tidus' dad), the side missions/quests (F'in Blitzball was epic and monster capturing, aeon findings... arghhhh I could do this forever) and the insane replay value not to mention one of the most anticipated kiss scenes in gaming history. The graphics were amazing, the battle system was spot on, the characters and their developments connected to me like no other as they all had a story that on its own could of been made into a game. So what you complete the game and you can’t go back and do anything else like VIII? No. You can fight dark aeons, collect celestial weapons or be the best blitzers in Spira! Honestly I could take the 5000 word limit to describe how great this game was and hand on heart I say this to my friend all the time "I cannot wait till I forget about the story of X so I can play it unknowingly all over again.... not that has stopped playing it 18-20 times) Rightly pointed out that V had some game changing points and deserves to be up there. The music throughout I can recite today on call which must prove how good it is if you haven’t played it YET! (Go play it now.), Bartz has to be one of my favourite characters of all time as well. But was it original enough and have a good replay value? Personally I replayed V the least and without actually knowing why? Opinions/suggestions on why? IX was different... but it worked spectacularly, minor flaws like boring castles, summons way to late in the game and not a vast player progression system like X or VII, but these are overlooked with the chocobo treasure hunt, side quests, and great story line which was so dark but griping. I also had the most Goosebumps out of them all when !!SPOILER!! (Actually why are you here if you haven’t played them all?) Zidane finds Garnet at the end at the play! VIII had it all, the card game, the characters, the rivalry, the free roaming and player progression was insanely good... but it then it decided to contract anal super aids. You all know what I’m talking about. The decision to stop you from freely going places with ease after you go into the future ruined more or less the entire game for me, the final disc was just boring and lacked major points that made it great in the first place and for the reason alone for me it doesn’t hold its own against the hard hitters. ***Now (for some reason) the most controversial game in the series, VII. Now which one are you? A "Final Fantasy Seven Fan Boy" or "ffsfb" for short OR someone who thinks it’s overrated by a country mile? Regardless, I don’t care. It's colossal, genius and will be an icon and benchmark for years to come, Yes it’s not perfect, but what it did right it did too perfection. It’s hard to pick out real flaws in this game without being picky to be honest. Is it a coincidence that Google knows no link to "ff7 disadvantages" or "ff7 bad review" or maybe that I can go to any online game or forum on the World Wide Web and guaranteed I will see someone with the name sephiroth29466 or similar? It did so many things right and so little wrong that they aren’t worth mentioning at all... ever. X, VII, VI, VIIII, AND VIII. My top 5 But again my opinion, my 2 cents and 4 and a half thousand words. I wrote this nearly 2 years after the last comment, but I couldn’t help myself, if anyone out there managed to read this all I apologise if I wasted 10 minutes of your life and will give them back the second I perfect time travel. PLEASE EMAIL OR REPLY AS ID LOVE TO SEE YOUR TAKE ON THIS?

I bought this game when it was first released in 1994 for $80. The most expensive game I ever bought at the time. I beet this game 100% Every side quest, every dragon, every esper mastered, every character, all were on level 99. I has millions of GP. Now 18 years later, I am still playing this game, on a emmulator (ZSNES) on my laptop, but I still have my SNES and it works perfect. I just need a few more economizors and can then to to Kefka's tower and finish the game again. I can't count how many times I played through and finished this game.... Figure 18 years now. I actually remembered thinking when playing the SNES version that when I die I wanted to be playing this game. Hopefully just finished the ending credits. This should be remade for the 360/PS3 and a CGI movie like FF7: Advent Children made...

BTW, I was talking about FF6

I'd say the latest final fantasy games are the best ,obviously, unless you're choosing the oldest ones for the sake of nostalgia. To be objective, having played VII, X, XIII and XII ( which means finishing the game with almost all the sidequests aeons etc) XII would have to be the best not just because of the story (including fictional world and characters...) which is inarguably the most complex of the series, or the difficulty which makes it far more challenging than any other FF, but especially for the battle system that combines brilliantly rich tactical elements with more direct action. XIII is still good even with its somewhat boring (relative)uniformity (and also its ravishing graphic beauty!). FFX's gameplay is great to say the least, not very innovatve though; on the other hand the story is very captivating but somewhat naive and overdramatized especially towards the end as opposed to the brilliant simplicity of XII. FFXII IS THE BEST.

Hah, wasted my 10 minutes? nahh i enjoyed reading your opinion and i agree on a lot of things, funny enough FF VII is a big game, i mean i remember playing it years ago and that amazing feeling it gave me when i was sitting on my bed at 4 am in the morning with just the ps1 and TV on while in one of the towns, the sci-fi punk feel it had, amazing, nevertheless it isnt the best FF game, 6 was really good i agree, X? dont even ask, amazingly good. Now FF 13? hmm now that was just....i can say i enjoyed it when i locked my brain up and forgot about what FF is, it wasnt the best though, now i played FF XIII-2 for a bit now (got a early copy for testing) and i got to say that the game is very good, it has that FF feel i missed in 13, the battle system, well it has a few added features but its pretty much the same as 13, although the overall feel of it is much better. Love your comment by the way, it made me make this account just now so that i can reply haha. And damn, i nearly forgot, you might say that FF XII wasnt that good, didnt feel like an FF game, but for some reason i actually liked the way it felt, i loved how i could walk around the town and go kill a tomatoe for a mission, i enjoyed the story and the combat, i got to say the game is harder than the others, but i enjoyed it to bits, plus i got it because of that golden sticked on the ps2 cover that said 10/10 haha, i was on vacation and got it for 400ZL i think, well i enjoyed commenting back, as you can see i didnt make paragraphs nor have i watched my spelling and punctuation but its late at night so people should understand :P

OK time to add my 2 cents top to freaking bottom. In the totality of all final fantasy there is a few things we have all looked for STORY, GAME PLAY, CHARACTER, and of course SETTING. When it comes to graphics graphics are and always will be a plus, yes they help but graphics have never been the core reason to like something and only liking a game due to its prettiness is a petty thought and you should be hanged for it, just cause a game looks worse than another does not necessarily mean ones better and i saw a few of you we all know who you are go a little biased because its pretty. next topic i agree with a bit in some ways and ill start. Final Fantasy 6 Ahh the good old days this is my personal favorite of the final fantasy series amazing cast great rivals and one of the most philosophical bad guys ever. this game had a lot going for it the story was well done with a great cast each with a (Unique) trait meaning it wasn't all bread and butter they had something that made them special and different from the blank slate not to mention the game play using the good ol ATB is always a nice feature. The game had a few defining moments like the fact you got to control the mage mech at the start of the game to the waking up at the dawn of the new world there was always something interesting thrown in to spice up the game every little while. In and out of battle. and as I said about story a slightly dark gritting and metaphysical story to really get you thinking about things like the meaning of life even loyalty and to mention setting halfway through the game you get thrown into this world of ruin form the world you thought you knew was always the funnest twist. Final Fantasy 4 now i don't know why this game is at slot two if anything on the list for flagship releases id give it 7 at best. yes it set the atb but 5 set the real backbone for the atb. yes the story was dark but the next 5 games after it topped it entirely. the characters stood to get boring only a small while into the game and every time you came to love someone poof they where gone not to mention the development the characters you kept was non-existent. the world was at times infuriating along with the game play not to much else i could say about this. Ahh next Final Fantasy 7 this game probably has the most controversy over it at times yes it can be a little over rated and yes it isn't the best but yes it is a good game with characters you could both love (and hate). it did house a great story about coming to terms with oneself and truly discovering who you are. but the problem was everyone but cloud came to terms with them selves WTF cloud housed so little character development around all his companions who where flourishing by the end of the game he still didn't freaking accept himself. this is proven at advent children which by the way at the end he still was barely breaking out of his bubble not to mention the fact that there was so many people who tried to help him that he just shrugged off. so ya its apparent that i have a few character problems with this game but its made up with the setting its set in a beautiful world with plenty of surprises to be found from midguard to the plains. and now to my second problem game play... after the uniqueness of 6 i got jacked with the meteria system while nice i was hoping final fantasy would keep the each character is special thing but no you are given blank slates to build upon for each tho the limit break was a small part of uniqueness that saved this a bit. Final fantasy 10 ok here we go the most infuriating (yes even more so than cloud) MC with a amazing support cast a great game play system a sadly liner design and of course a beautifully designed world. tidus for some strange reason finds nothing wrong with being fake and is so happy go lucky without a care in the world he just got shoved into a world nothing like his own and learns hes fake but ya ok what ever. again as i said the support cast made this game tho tidus has noting whatsoever in anything they all have amazing development and are all characters with things you love and hate about them. then game play is great because it uses parts of the materia system as a obvious base without interfering with the uniqueness (yay) of your character sadly of course it does have its flaws with a turnbased system you had no worries when attacking unlike its atb predecessor. onward to the setting yes this is the first ps2! final fantasy and they made good with prettiness as i said before is a plus (not central) to this great setting with a beautiful design with great places you just cant wait to revisit. overall this game like 7 had alot to love and hate but in general had a great story minus annoying MC strides and setbacks in game play and a good setting. so I'm at text limit so you can continue to my next post!

Final Fantasy 9 This was a great game with great characters great dark story good game play and a wonderful setting. from the start your given little insight to each character as they learn more about them selves breaks a trend of mc's bing emodouches *cough cloud leon cough cough* and focuses on the fantasy aspect of final fantasy. with a truly compelling story with likable characters that are unique plenty of minigames and a top notch atb battle system you always find something about this game thats nice personally the love story between zindane and dagger(pirate and princess) design was great. and that the setting was set with secrets to discover and plenty of places to explore tho only annoyance was by late game most of there points had dried into a partly liner boring dungeon design but no ones perfect right. Final fantasy 5 yes this game suffered some lack of story between 4&6 but it had a great game play system and somewhat likable characters with a nice setting giving this game a 6th marker i find is a good choice the characters have a good bit of development with themselves and each other (faris and rena) and i still cry when galuf dies. the world gives some fun explorations and some not so fun along with setting the backbone for future games i look at this game as a major building block. and of course Final Fantasy 12 oh wow where to start this is a game of halves a half battle system, only half the characters are worth mentioning so many halves. this game had one thing going for it a great story it was solid they did justice on that front but the characters vann is nonexistent and unimportant penelo is there as a childhood friend and fran tho some development never gets much, and is mostly there for the wankers to have something to look at. where as the other half of characters are major plot drivers it annoys me to see this. now oh god the battle system i might have been good if they worked on it a bit more but it was so mechanical whenever a fight that would last more that 1 minute started id go somewhere else because the gambit system does it for you i literally left and cooked supper (steak) when i started the final boss fight and came back to a beaten game its ridiculous, thankfully the games setting wasn't a total flop or else this game would drive me over the top. i'm saddened that 8 wasn't mentioned here because it should have been and 1,2&3 are all about the same so its a honorable mention to them. 13 is personaly the dryest most uninventful and lazy rpg square has made to date with bland characters a horrible story a battle system that is practly 1 button and a liner desigin is all factors to crap.

Ok i read all ya commets but im hoping im not solo on this but my top 5 ff games 5-FF12 4-FF10-2 3-FF10 2-FF7 1-FF8 Yeah i said it 8 number one it was different in a way. But i know the old school final fantasys paved the way and i thank you but these ff is the derrick rose and lebron and kobe of the series to me dnt crush me lol

I am a young Final Fantasy Fanatic and i got my first Super Nintendo at the age of 9 and the very first game i got was none other than FFVI and if you think FFVII can even come close, then you do not belong on this page. I to this day play FFVI. Dont get my wrong 7 was a great game, but the things that Sephiroth does, are childs play compared to the greatest villian that the Final Fantasy series have ever know...the purely evil and madly insane Kefka! Those who do not know who he is...should never play the series again unless they play 6 first. In no way is this an opinion, FFVI IS the greatest Final Fantasy of all time...period