The 10th Hour 06.13.08: Top 10 Final Fantasy Installments

Posted by Mike Minotti on 06.13.2008

Which games in the main Final Fantasy series dominate the top of this week's top ten? Come inside to find out.

Hello everyone. I am not Derek Robbins. I'm Mike Minotti. I used to write the Full Circle here, and I currently do the Exploding Barrel Podcast with my brother Ajguy. Derek was good enough to ask me to fill in for him this week. Of course, what I forgot at the time was that Metal Gear Solid 4 was coming out, so now I realize the sneaky little bastard he is. "Vacation" indeed.

Looking at his archives, I saw he never did a Final Fantasy list. Since that is a series where I've played through every installment, I thought it would be fun to give my personal 10 favorites in the series. Keep in mind, this list is only covering the main installments in the series. That means only Final Fantasies I-XII are eligible. No Crystal Chronicles, no X-2, no Tactics, no anything else.

We clear on that?

Good.



Top Ten Final Fantasy installments.

10-) Final Fantasy (the first one) - The first installment in the series is on the bottom of this list. There's something interesting about, but I wouldn't call it ironic, so I won't call it anything. The original Final Fantasy since it's the only game in the main series (excluding FFXI) that has you name and choose the classes for all of your characters at the very beginning. I love being able to create my ideal balanced team, and then give them all silly names. I think last time I played I named all of my guys after Star Trek: Deep Space 9 characters. By today's standards, the game isn't very deep. It's a fairly basic RPG affair. You go through dungeons, fight monsters, earn XP, and beat the bosses. The games world isn't all that drawn out. Town inhabitants have little say, and your characters say even less (and by less, I mean nothing). The overall plot isn't as engrossing as later installments, and in the end it boils down to a bizarre time paradox that I haven't quite wrapped my head around. Still, the foundation for what the series will be for quite some time is laid down here. Four party members, airships, magic, and all of that good stuff is here. Heck, the whole "gather the crystals" thing itself would be reused several times in the series. The game may not glimmer and shine, and it may seem a bit basic when compared to later games in the series, but Final Fantasy is still a fun experience. That probably explains why they keep porting it to other systems.

Isn't he adorable?

9-) Final Fantasy II - Now we follow Final Fantasy II with its first sequel. Right away, it's important to point out how much Final Fantasy II would influence the series just by not being a direct sequel to Final Fantasy. The game takes place in a new world, with new characters and a new story. To this day, every numeric Final Fantasy entry stands on its own. Still, most people remember Final Fantasy II for its bizarre leveling system. Instead of gaining EXP, individual stats and spells level up by performing certain actions or using the spells. For example, whenever you attack someone, there's a chance your strength will increase. Keep using Fire, and it will eventually turn into Fire 2 (or Fira). Even HP and MP increased with this system. Many disliked the system, since it could easily be exploited by getting into low risk battles with low leveled monsters, and then attacking and healing yourself to increase your stats. This exploitation would probably explain why the usual EXP system would return for all future installments. Still, the important thing about Final Fantasy II is its actual attempt at a story. Sure, it's usual "rebels versus the evil empire" stuff we've seen a million times, but it was quite a leap from the original Final Fantasy. Also, for the first time the player characters had default names and dialogue. The dialogue wasn't always, you know, good (I'm looking at you, Guy), but at least it was there. The story was even a bit dark, with numerous characters biting the dust throughout the adventure. Also, this is the first game to have a character named Cid, and also the first appearance of Chocobos. This game gets a lot of hate for its unusual leveling system, but I think it holds up just as well as its predecessor, and gets some bonus points for actually having a story.

Here's the logo. For some reason, I feel obligated to put a picture after all of these.

8-) Final Fantasy IV - The first Final Fantasy on the SNES, and soon to be rereleased on the DS. Final Fantasy IV combined the story telling elements of Final Fantasy II (the plots for both games are actually pretty similar), dropped the weird leveling system, and added a fifth party member to the mix. This time, each character already had a predetermined class, simplifying things a bit from previous games, since you no longer had to stress out about keeping your party balanced. Having five part members meant you could even be crazy and have two party members if you wanted to. This is probably the first Final Fantasy to really have some memorable characters in it. Main protagonist Cecil is still popular with fans of the series, but just how many people bring up Final Fantasy II hero Firion? Cecil's story of rebellion against his king, and his turn from Dark Knight to Paladin made for interesting stuff (though I was a bit disappointed personally, since he was such a bad ass as a Dark Knight). Still, improvements to the core game were minimal, which is a bit disappointing considering the leap from NES and SNES. Even the graphics, especially outside of battles, looked a bit dated. It is worth mentioning that this is the first game to use the Active Time Battle system, which made combat a bit less turned based. The system is definitely an improvement from the old one, and would be used in the series up until Final Fantasy IX. Many consider this game a classic, and while I may think it's a bit overrated, it's hard not to see the charm that has attracted so many fans.

Bad ass.

7-)Final Fantasy VII - I'm sure this is one people were looking for on the list for various reasons. Opinions on Final Fantasy VII have been split for some time; with some feeling it's the best in the series, while others think it's the most overrated game in the series. Well, let me say first that while the game isn't higher on the list, I think Final Fantasy VII is a great game that deserves plenty of the praise it's given. The blocky characters themselves may not hold up, but the fantastic transitions and layering of pre-rendered movies with the playable action is still impressive today. Also, the material system was a great way of customizing your characters, while allowing you to move spells and abilities around with no penalty. Also, the amount of extra content in this game is ridiculous. There's all the stuff you can do at the Golden Saucer, all of the extra quests you can do for everyone's ultimate weapons, and the addictive Chocobo racing and breeding. Come on, you know you have to have that Gold Chocobo. Most complaints I have about the game concern the story. It's not so much that it's terrible, but it starts off as an intriguing story of terrorists taking on an out of control mega company whose killing then planet. Then, as soon as Sephiroth turns up, it becomes a much more generic story about battling ultimate evil. That complaint aside, Final Fantasy VII is a well crafted RPG that still holds up well today.

Particle effects still had a ways to go.

6-)Final Fantasy IX - More than anything else, I love the art style of Final Fantasy IX. Bringing the whimsical nature of the original NES games up to date looked fantastic, and can safely say that FFIX is easily one of the best looking PSX games. Even the CG cinematics, made in 2000, look better than a lot of the crap we see today. The core gameplay is very much traditional Final Fantasy, still using the Active Time Battle system introduced in Final Fantasy IV. While FFVII and FFVIII had characters who basically blank slates when it came to classes, the heroes of FFIX clearly belong to one class, so once again choosing which characters to put in your party is an important decision. Characters learn skills from weapons and equipment, learning the skills permanently is the item is equipped long enough. One of the disappointing aspects from the game is that the side stuff isn't as compelling as in previous entries. You can play a sort of Hot and Cold game with Chocobos, and Tetra Master is an interesting card game, but not nearly as good as FFVIII's Triple Triad. Again, more than anything, I love the whimsical nature of this game. It comes through in everything; the art, the story, and especially the characters. I think it says something that the writing was stronger here than in previous entries since everyone was more of a cartoon character, and thus melodrama and silliness didn't seem so blatant. Also, this game has one of my favorite soundtracks, with great tracks like A Place to Call Home, Vamo alla Flamenco , and Melodies of Life.

I know he's kind of a sissy, but I love Vivi.

5-)Final Fantasy VIII – Final Fantasy VIII is a weird beast. Its greatest fault is that it has one of the slowest, worst designed beginnings to a game I've ever seen. Tutorials come flying at you a mile a minute, and any actual gameplay is few and far between. Also, for the first part of the game, your characters all come off as a bunch of mercenary jerks. Then, somewhere around the end of Disk 1, everything starts picking up. The story finally begins to take shape, but more importantly you probably begin to finally get a grip on the games deep Junction System. Spells are drawn from monsters, and those spells can not only later be used in combat, but can also be junctioned to abilities and stats to make your character stronger. It's an interesting system, and again allows you to mold every character as you see fit. Also, Limit Breaks are now available randomly whenever your character's HP is at critical. Since those attacks are so strong, you often find yourself playing a dangerous game of trying to keep a chracter's HP low without having them die. As far as the plot goes, it isn't necessarily all that better than other installments, but there's a side story involving another character named Laguna that is absolutely fascinating. Also, the card game Triple Triad is a blast to play. I love this game because of how intricate and deep the Junction System is. A lot of people complain about having to draw magic from monsters, but I never found it any more tedious than normal EXP grinding.

I tried cutting my face to get a cool scar like that once, but I just bled for a while and then fainted.

4-)Final Fantasy V - Ahhh, yes. The first great Final Fantasy game. Final Fantasy V used the job system introduced in Final Fantasy III, but improved it immensely. You're no longer penalized for changing a character's a job, so you can feel free to change jobs for whatever the situation calls for. Also, upon mastering a job, you can use one of that job's abilities permanently in either the Freelancer of Mime class. This allowed for truly customizable characters, and makes battling in Final Fantasy V an absolute joy. The story, while not among the series best, is more serviceable than you would think. It's certainly deeper than Final Fantasy III's. I'm trying to think of more to say about the game, but really all I needed to talk about was how awesome the job system was in this game. Mission accomplished.

Gilgamesh!

3-)Final Fantasy X - Definitely one of the most ambitious games in the series, FFX finally changed the ATB battle system for the Conditional Turn-Based Battle system. This new system showed characters' turns to the players in advance, allowing for a deeper amount of planned strategy. Also, while technically only three party members could fight at once, you can switch out party members for another at any time in a battle, with no penalty. The Sphere Grid, in which you moved a ball representing your character around a complex grid full of skills and stat increases, was an awesome to strengthen and customize your character. This is also the first Final Fantasy game to have voice acting, and while the performances are bit hit and miss, its presence is certainly appreciated. Also, FFX is unique in that the game is surprisingly linear, meaning you'll never find yourself mindlessly roaming around a World Map for hours. And yes, Auron is a total badass.

Mmmmmm. Sphere grid.

2-)Final Fantasy XII) – I love how this game took the basic Final Fantasy gameplay and managed to turn it into a real time combat system. It really is a joy to play, and makes for a game that is faster paced, but still clearly Final Fantasy. You control one character directly, while you manage the other two characters with Gambits, which are basically simple AI prompts. For example, "Heal Ally when HP > 30%" You can even assign gambits to all three characters if you really want. On the other side, you could also stop the action and micro-manage every character individually, basically turning the combat into traditional Final Fantasy fare. You gained new abilities through a License Grid, which was similar to the Sphere Grid, but less complex. Also, you had to obtain licenses on the grid for certain equipment. The game had a refreshing different feel from past games, with the game's world feeling more medieval than steam punk or eastern fantasy. Voice acting greatly improved from Final Fantasy X. The story got a bit bizarre at the end, and character development wasn't as deep as previous installments, but the excellent combat system really makes this game for me.

No, they're not attacking it with magic missle.

1-)Final Fantasy VI - Final Fantasy VI is the complete package. The ATB battle system is more refined here than ever. Each character is different and unique, but you could also customize their magicite to give everyone magic and other abilities. This game has more characters than any previous any other game in the series, and each character brings a different flavor to the party. The story is one of the series best, and surprisingly darkest. There's a part in the middle of the game that, to put it lightly, takes things in an unexpected direction. It is fantastic. Kefka is one of the series best villains, since he isn't some retarded incarnation evil, but just a nasty guy with a great laugh. It's also worth noting that the final battle against him is my favorite boss fight in the series. The music, again, is fantastic. Every character has a distinct theme, and midi never sounds better than here. Also, the sprites look better than ever. This game is a significant graphical improvement over FFIV and FFV. Basically, I love everything about this game.

I have little to say. Beautiful.

Alright everyone, that does it for me. Thanks for putting up with me, and be sure to leave comments telling me how much you agree/disagree with me. As far as I know, Derek will back next week.

Again, thanks, and have a good week.

Oh, and check out our podcast. My doctor prescribed more page views.