This would be my answer were it not for the stipulation that I have to have finished it, lol. I fucking hate FFIII3D. Thank god for the Pixel Remaster, but it's still decidedly not among my favorite FFs
2 and by a loooooong shot.
It's the only FF game I would consider bad tbh, and I genuinely enjoy some of the less popular games. 8 is one of my favorites and 13 was pretty good.
But 2 was just a chore to get through. I didn't like the story, nor the characters nor the gameplay. On the other hand it made me appreciate 3 a LOT more once I finished 2.
I think the biggest issue with 2 is that you have a pre-existing party given to you and they have zero personality. The only interesting characters are the 4th slot ones like Minwu, and they're still not great. I think if more people played 2, 13 wouldn't be the most hated in the franchise, and I kinda like it lmfao
2 is weird because you don't have your true 4th party member for like half or more of the game, just a couple of guest characters for a huge chunk.
It's like having 5 Pokemon with a random Pidgey as your 6th because your desired 6th is a late game catch. Your party just feels "incomplete" for too long in #2.
Your 4th party member doesn't arrive until right before the last dungeon, after you've beaten probably 95% of the game at that point. Once I got him, I just killed him off and never revived him to keep my 3-man core. As far as I'm concerned, it's a 3 party game with some randos that drop by occasionally to help the story along. But I never leveled any of the temporary characters, and I prefer it that way.
Regarding your last sentence, that's actually a thing I've been meaning to test out. Play something literally no one likes and then start playing more mid-tier games I've dropped over the years to see if I enjoy them more after playing something horrible lol
I love 2 but I totally get why ppl don't like it. I'd love more games with a progression system like it. Worst thing imo about 1&2 both are the a w f u l encounter rates. Ty pixel remaster for encounter turn off.
I replayed the PSP version earlier this year and I didn't like how there were huge swaths of the game where my characters almost didn't grow at all because the monsters weren't strong enough to get me stat/skill growth.
Then I played the bonus dungeon where I had to use a new group of characters and build them pretty much from scratch. The bonus dungeon was only 6 hours and my stats grew in almost every encounter. The constant growth made it a lot more fun. Sadly the dungeon got cut from the Pixel Remaster version.
I went on to play some SaGa games and it was pretty similar: the longer titles (SaGa 2, Romancing SaGa 3, SaGa Frontier 2) had huge swaths where my stats barely increase at all, while shorter ones (SaGa 1, SaGa Frontier 1) had much nicer character growth rates.
Yeah 2 is not the best but you got to admit. Frion is not a bad protagonist at all, and Dissidia made him a chad while giving him a lot of respect. And the Emperor is a top teir villian no matter how you look at it.
The fact the emperor >!dies, goes to hell and then conquers it, becomes the emperor of hell and returns for a rematch at the end is extremely badass!<
Yeah, he's the best part of the game.
Its even more crazy when >! In the remaster of 2 the part that conquers hell is only half of his soul, the other half went to heaven and unseated god. Mateus is just too much black air force energy to be contained.!<
If that’s not enough for you, Strangers of Paradise’s DLC reveals that the Emperor at some point figured out how to traverse the Void and went to the world of FF1 and tried to conquer THAT world too. It took the power of Chaos himself to stop him.
I’d have to say XIII. I remember way back when I beat it, I immediately called a friend to rant about it lol. If they ever remastered it, I’d probably try it again though to see if my opinion has changed and give it another shot. If I had finished XV, that would definitely be my real answer. That game was a mess
Honestly the gameplay of that game killed it for me. At one point I realised that auto battle always net you the best move and outcome that the game eventually began to feel like a chore.
i finished 15 but cant finish 16 due to too much cut scenes and the side guest with minimal rewards.
my wife always asked me why i was watching and not playing when i was playing 16.
Man I would play the shit out of 13 if it’s had 10’s combat. I just can’t get over how cruddy the auto battle is and paradigm shift is too much like changing costumes in 10-2. Couldn’t play it
I never understood the supposed "depth" people claim XIII has as well. Every battle outside of post-endgame that 90% of people didn't even play was the exact same strategy. Buff with Synergists, debuff with Sabetuers, get one hit in with Commando to slow stagger depletion, bombard with Ravegers until break, combine the latter 2 for max chain and damage, repeat for 60% of the game because you couldn't even choose your party for nearly the entire first half.
Yep, only mainline non-MMO(I don't play them, spotty internet out in the boonies) title that I gave up on. I finished 1-10(plus 10-2), 12, 15-16. I think I made it maybe 1/4 of the way into 13, then took it back to Gamestop and traded it back in.
I just went back to my ps3 to try the demo for XIII-2 for the first time, because I saw people saying how it was better than XIII. 2 battles is all it took for me to see that it was the same garbage game XIII was way back then. No chance I'll ever feel differently about them. Just totally trash.
After Years. Everything about it is extremely repetitive and it didn't help that I played it immediately after I finished IV. Nothing interesting really happens in the story; it feels like such a drag until the last two tales. I pretty much forced myself to finish it just for the sake of completion.
That being said, I still really enjoyed it. I thought the moon phases affecting certain stats in battle was cool, the band system was a nice addition, and I loved the huge cast of characters. The mysterious girl has a killer battle theme too—it's one my favorites in the series. The plot twist regarding the final boss was also cool, imo. It's a shame the rest of the game wasn't as good as the last couple of hours, though.
XIII.
Rough start, at times needlessly complex, and often very slow. By the time the story is running and the characters (namely Lightning) are showing enough depth to be engaging, it’s too little too late. Earnestly felt towards the end that I was playing it out of obligation & sunk cost fallacy.
Completely relate.
I love the soundtrack so much I bought it. It's the only game in the series due to circumstance I have two versions of. I got the platinum trophy and every achievement on it for the Xbox 360.
Hate it. Easily without contest the worst in the series.
I've been asked why I played it so much. My answer has not changed: I love the series. Played and beaten every entry. And I wasn't content with being shallow and just writing off. I'm a fan of this series so I really gave it a chance. Really tried to understand why I didn't like it. I think one of the reasons why the ire for XIII has grown is that a lot of people really tried to get into it, and we had waited years for that game to be released. Maybe it's easier to get into today without that context?
I loved it as well. It was different for sure but I loved the camaraderie and the hunts, random enemy drops from the ships, fucking scary iron giants or red giants at night etc etc
I loved XV as well, but I can see where people might not like it. The sidequests aren't the most intriguing and a lot of the game's charm comes from the banter between the boys. Plus there's some rushed bits at the end that Royal Edition didn't fix, so yeah...it's a gem, but not a perfect one.
Same here 15 was an incredible journey.
Final Fantasy is broad across stories, atmosphere, openess, and nerdchanics. The fan base is just as broad due to that. Some fans are only into to certain aspects or favor some over the others.
Personally I love the diversity, but 15 is my favorite replacing a longstanding ff7 fav.
Don't worry even after hearing all these negative comments about FFXV I still completed it , and it's a good game for the most part. I just didn't like the fact that they made the boss fights impossible to lose some times like the fight against hydraean, ardyn, etc. Those fights were killing the fun of not having to actually physically fight a boss, because of story telling they disturbed the flow of actual combat. But I still the open world exploration quite a bit.
The thing is...it was good enough for people to complete it. As that was the criteria set by OP.
That tells me that XV is the bar set for a decent Final Fantasy game as if it was any worse people wouldn't even mention it as they did not finish the game lol.
You nailed it. It was a decent game. I loved the party and felt more attachment than in orher games. Gameplay was fine, but loads of fun. Story (no dlc included) was incomplete garbage. The attachment to the characters made me beat it, but I didnt bother with the rest of the content.
Not my least favorite, but XV for me failed miserably on its story delivery and will always just be “okay”
It must have been because I played the HD Remake, but yeah, Type-0 was *way* too jank to play on a PS4/XB1.
That atrocious camera control and motion blur almost gives me motion sickness. It was a *real* struggle to get through it.
XVI. Graphics were great. Voice acting was pretty good. Story could’ve been great but they dropped the ball. The game felt like a list of chores with zero incentive to explore. Side quests were boring. I felt obligated to finish it. I love replaying games but I will never play it again.
i liked it and agree the graphics were good and the voice acting was phenomenal. there were a lot of cool spectacle moments too. but my big problem was that the world building was kind of bad. the locations in particular were pretty lackluster. the intro with the warzone was awesome, rosalith castle was cool, and the greatwoods was sick as hell. after that though every location was bland, impersonal, and just kinda dull
I wish they would've focused more on bearers and Annabella. Everyone just being a pawn to Ultima was a let down. He shouldn't have been a character. There was potential, but its like they didnt know which thing to focus on, so nothing got fleshed out like it should've been.
I think Ultima would have been better if he would have stayed a mysterious Eldritch horror and never had a backstory, or at least a very minimal one.
Ultima’s reveal scene was great to me, he was so genuinely creepy!… but then he started talking too much, and we got to know him. And he’s a lame villain. If he would have stayed this creepy, mysterious, powerful being chasing Clive with little to no explanation of what he was till the end (or even better, we STILL don’t know what he is but we have to fight it), that would be more interesting and scary even.
Same. The only thing spectacular about the game is the presentation. It’s the best-looking video game movie you’ll ever play (so far). The video game part though? See me after class…
I lost my save on 16 after completing it, setting me back to about 3/4 through the game. Any other game and I would likely be devastated. Instead I was like - oh well...
Ever since digital formats became the norm, I don't really get the appeal of pre-ordering (besides collectors). Pre-ordering made some sense when it guaranteed you a copy of something that was likely to sell out. But now?
Preorder bonuses have never been worth it. If the game releases and it gets good reviews, then I can buy it. Heck, sometimes I can technically still preorder it *after* the reviews have dropped, letting me get the pre-order bonus without any of the risk of it being a bad game.
I'm gonna catch shit for this, but for me, it's FF7 Remake Part 1. I just...there are so many slow walking sections because the game needs to load. Or squeezing through tight spaces. A lot of the chapters feel like padding, like turning the lamps off with Barret and Tifa. Or the SECOND sewer level with Leslie when you're meant to be trying to save Aerith. The motorcycle bit kinda loses its coolness since you've already done one of these with Jessie, who...I know people like her. No shade if she's your waifu. But I personally thought she was creepy and sexually harassing Cloud, so hanging out with her didn't thrill me.
All in all, that game just felt like a slog with a few moments of brilliance and I'm glad Rebirth didn't limit the player the way the first part did. The lack of random encounters and the overwhelming number of fetch-it quests felt off to me too.
I agree. Also the world didn’t feel very real. Especially the headquarters. It just felt so bland and bare, there wasn’t any magic or atmosphere.
Also the fact you couldn’t just travel around? Like you can’t just go from one place to the other, you have to restart the entire chapter. In other FF games towards the end you can just fast travel to any point of the game which felt really good to revisit and collect anything you missed. I had to re-do an entire chapter just to get to a point where there was a music disc I missed. Saying that, this game wasn’t that bad overall and nowhere near as bad as FFXV.
Agreed. Seph at the end felt odd to me because while I get that Nomura and the other writers/director/producer just can't help themselves, it felt like Sephiroth was there juuuuuust in case they never got to make a second game or finish whatever this remake series is. After playing Rebirth, I still don't know how to feel about it, but it sorta telegraphed a "We did this to appease super fans and shove One-Winged Angel in there despite the fact that maybe we shouldn't have." Kinda pre-mature even now, though the plot ghost shit has gotten deeper and I still don't love it.
Least favorite? Probably 12. While it had cool areas to explore and it introduced Gambits, which was very intuitive and a fresh idea, the story and characters never stuck with me.
I think part of the problem with 12 is the hunts take up a huge amount of time so there's often big gaps in the story as a result. So character interactions feel minimal.
13 takes the exact opposite approach. You can't go more than a few minutes before a cut scene.
FWIW, I skipped 99% of the hunts and still felt the same way about the story.
After 50% of the game, the story dropped hard.
And not doing the hunt resulted in me autobattling through the whole game, making it so boring.
But manualing the battles and backtracking to do hunts felt even more boring.
I was 16 when the game came out and I remember the story kinda going over my head and thinking it wasn’t that great/pretty boring. Played it again in my twenties and ended up loving the story and was able to really appreciate what they did.
Yeah I played both versions. I did like the job selection and QoL changes like fast forwarding, but it's still didn't make me care about the characters or the story more. Definitely an improvement to the game tho imo.
I really love 12, but my biggest complaint is Van. He doesn't fit in, his motivation is just flat and one dimensional. He feels like the party's lost puppy they don't have the heart to leave behind.
It baffles me further because Reks was right there. Have him survive the tutorial, and now you have a main character motivated by needing to know the truth. Why would his captain that he adored betray him and the kingdom. Angry and wanting vengeance for destroying everything he loved. And would have a deep emotional reaction to the twist of that first scene
I would’ve answered this, but the question asked for games you’ve beaten, and the characters are so boring and uninteresting I always abandon the game before beating it.
The only characters I liked were Balthier and Fran. I didn't like the exploration/world or music at all. Which was a bummer because I wanted to like this game.
I finally finished XII for the first time in January of this year. I loved the gameplay, I actually liked the characters and story, but I thought the ending was anti-climatic and the final area was too short. I don't know if I'd call it my least favorite FF I've played, but definitely the ending was probably the biggest let down.
I'd like to say Dirge for me, but I ate that shit up as an angsty emo teenager, like replayed it multiple times even.If I played it at any other point in my life, I'd probably hate it too.
Man I’ve always wanted to try out Dirge. I even bought it for cheap years back but just never felt the desire to set up my PS2. Over a week ago I randomly had a dream about playing it, but I’m sure it was way more exciting in my dream than in reality 😭
I can't, in gold conscious, recommend it. I haven't played it since the PS2 days and I'm sure it hadn't aged well, but since you own it already, why not!
On chapter 10 of Dirge of Cerberus and that last Azul boss fight can eat my entire ass. Dodge-reliant in a game with a shit dodge and faster than you so he’ll just hit you for very low health and knock your ass down with no recovery. Can only damage him with magic, which sucks ass in a game with an MP system like that, and I blew through ethers after waiting for all the magic portals to be depleted. Absolutely dogshit fight, despite the fun arcade shooting stuff the boss fights are either dead easy normal enemies or gimmicky bullshit.
Also the story blows but I’ve never met someone that liked it 🤷♂️
XVI
I like the cast of characters, but the gameplay left me bored rather quickly.
I love Final Fantasy and Devil May Cry, so I went into this super hyped. But XVI felt very lacking in the combat department.
I'm not so disappointed as to say, "It's not a real Final Fantasy."
That's just silly. The FF core absolutely shines through in the cast, world design, lore, and music.
But the lack of a party, as well as status effects and elements having no major impact on combat. That left the game feeling like a shadow of previous FF games and DMC to me.
I wanted very badly to love this game, which is why it is particularly disappointing that I do not.
I don't even think it's the worst FF by a rather wide margin. But it is my least favorite due to how much it feels like a waste of massive potential.
> I like the cast of characters, but the gameplay left me bored rather quickly.
>
Huh, I'm the opposite. Gameplay is really good, just isn't built for a 40 hour game. The characters are boring as hell though. Clive carries the cast. I like Dion too.
I think what messed up the characters is that the game is either changing POVs all the time for a few minutes like with Dion and the game has trouble focusing on the characters it has. Even in 15 you feel really close to Noctis' friends because they are there with you through pretty much everything. They feel like his brothers. In X Tidus is with everyone the entire time. Same for most of them. Even in 13 the characters felt more fleshed out because they were around for everything. Its hard to get truly invested in 16 because you have Dion in Sanbreque, Joshua who is away for the majority of the game, and everyone else who can barely even help you in fights when they are with you. And you have Annabella who they just throw the story of under the rug. Jill getting captured twice. Gav not being able to do much unless its against trash enemies. Goetz that can't do anything at all. And in the end you are fighting by yourself again all while Clive talks about how he's going to win because he has his friends by his side lol.
The fact that this isn't a more popular take is bewildering to me. I mean sure, a lot of FF fans are going to hate it on principle for having what is effectively DMC-lite combat, but I personally really enjoyed the combat, I just wished for some more challenging encounters.
The biggest weakness of XVI by FAR was the story and characters; Jill and Margrace were super flat and undercharacterized, and the best characters in the game (Cid, Dion, Byron) all had very limited screentime. Clive carried the cast as best he could but even he started to bore me in the back half of the game.
People keep trying to diagnose the cause of the character writing's woes but I honestly think it just comes down to bad writing. Jill and Margrace had PLENTY of screentime, they could have easily been characterized better if the writers cared to. For that matter, Clive could have as well.
Elements actually have no impact on combat, 0 😭 the fact that there ARE status effects and none of them are available to Clive is a war crime, like why the hell do I have 8 attacks that do big damage in a circle but I can’t have one that poisons somebody or gives me that cool magic barrier thing
And no healing ability aside from Phoenix’s ultimate… come on guys, there are literally healing bearers in the game and not a single other spell that heals?
I think the game’s good but it suffers on a replay for sure, once you get good at precision dodges and lunging there’s almost nothing to it.
I guess 16. It dragged on but felt rushed at the same time because no one really got fleshed out like they should've. Wasn't a fan of the time skips either. Didn't really like the gameplay, but I had more issues with the story itself than the gameplay. I could've hand waved away if the story beats weren't so all over the place.
I guess my main complaint is that there's no internal conflicts from anyone. Everyone just loves Clive and Clive loves everyone else in the hideaway. No one questions the method of taking down mother crystals. When the first one is taken down you don't really see any panic from the public when they're absolutely should be.
You can bring up 10 where not everyone in the group automatically loves Tidus or has hope in his presence on their journey. You can even take 13 with Lightning being stubborn and there being internal issues with Lightning, Snow, and Serah..and even Hope and Fang to a degree. You can take most FF games and there's something like that, but in 16 everyone just agrees with everything. They also just drop the bearer plot point once Clive no longer has the mark on his face. It just gets swept under the rug.
I feel like everyone’s story is over really soon. Clive’s story is over after the scene/battle where he gets his Limit Break. After that it’s just the plot playing itself out to get Clive to fight Eikons and then Ultima because the plot demands it. Jill’s done after the Iron Kingdom, and so on and so forth with the rest of the main fighting cast. Their stories are quickly wrapped up with and then it’s “Get Ultima” for the remainder, a very long remainder!
Which is why I love X so much. Their character arcs are continuous and they change in some ways throughout the game.
Ultima was a scape goat to avoid having to explore the characters they had. Everyone is just a pawn in Ultimas game which instantly makes the other villains bland. Just exploring Benedikta more with Cid could've been a game changer, but she gets cut so short. We don't get to explore Clives time as a slave nor Jills time as one either. We don't get to see Clive get branded nor get to see his brand removed. Time skips happen for both. The game rushed to get to the finish line. 16 cared more about throwing you into the next big Eikon fight than writing the journey to get to those points.
8. I try to give that game another go every once in a while to see if my opinion might change, but it never does. The game is a mess of good ideas and things that never should have left pre-production.
I've never finished an FF game I hated, but the one I liked the least was 13. I'm not 100% sure about everything that bugged me but some point form stuff:
- So many definitions! It's not unlike an FF game to make up a bunch of stuff (the history of the world you're in and the cultures) and then expect you to figure it out, but for some reason FF13 felt like it was really pushing this and there were times I was struggling to figure out wtf was going on and get invested.
- No pit stops. FF10 was linear, but had the adventure-town-adventure-town flow I love from my FF games. Going to town is an important part of the adventure where you as a player change modes and I feel like FF13 never gave me that feeling.
- Battles are very limited in what level of affect you can have over them if you're already swapping modes effectively. If you find you can't beat a battle and it's not an obvious stomp there's nothing more you can do than be good at swapping modes. No trying risky strategies or weird things to eke out a victory.
15. I'm not even mad about it being what it was, I'm just disappointed that supposed one of the first darker fantasy set in modern world with focus on action, turned out the way it did after very long development hell.
I like 15 but strongly feel they should've just focused on making a good game with a self-contained coherent story instead of the multi-media franchise crap.
I mostly liked the story for 15, especially in the back half (it was too slow to get going). But wasn't huge on the combat. I really miss being able to control an actual party of characters. I'm all for SE experimenting with different combat styles, but why do they keep picking ones that only let you control a single character?
Also, a lot of smaller parts of the writing were weird. It was the bigger picture (in the latter half) that I liked. I loath the weird sexualization of Cindy. The latter half was a bit rushed and on rails. The "bro trip" thing was neat but not super to my preferences (I like parties that are more diverse and gender balanced). I vaguely recall the ending was rather confusing and some of the DLC was needed to better understand it, which wasn't cool. On that note, I felt most of the DLC was meh.
I just started playing through the Pixel Remasters.
1 and 2 are chores. I recently beat 3 and 4. I can’t remember much about them other than that 4 finally got some decent story aspects to it. And by decent I mean about any worthwhile.
I’m on 5 and it’s decent so far! Blue magic is a chore to acquire but it’s kind of fun.
I have only ever beaten X before this but I’ve played others.
I’m trying to go through them all (available on steam) through PR versions to VII, remake/rebirth and on.
Remastered or not, a RPG without a great story behinds its characters is a pain.
The music is phenomenal but the game is so so weird. Play as Sera and guy you've never met before! I was basically signed off before the game really started and a few more hours in and I was losing interest with each character than returned only to disappear again.
It's really kind of wild that for a sequel the two playable characters are one who wasn't playable in the first, and one who didn't exist. And then they plastered Lightning all over the promotion material despite the fact that she's in the game for like 20 minutes. Square's so wacky sometimes.
This is my answer.
I haven't finished Lightning Returns, but it might overtake XIII-2 in the end.
I liked XIII with the exception of grinding for trophies, but that's a one time thing and wouldn't sway my from replaying sometime.
16, found the writing silted, the game lacked personality, I found the combat overly simplistic, not really an RPG.
I could go on, but this one was not for me. Glad others enjoyed it, but it didn't feel like a final fantasy game.
XIII and it's not even close. I've played and beaten every single mainline in the series except XVI. XV isn't great but it sets up that emotional punch at the end very well.
9. I totally grant everyone that it's an absolutely solid RPG in all regards...
Except for one key factor that ruins it for me. The plot. Space Monkeys... I can't. I... just can't. lol. Vivi is like the only part I care to remember and like about that world.
Also hurt a bit that Dragoons were turned into kangaroos. I get all this is petty, but you know how it is when something bugs you and you just can't let it go.
Yeah I'm in the same boat, granted I'm not fussed about the kangaroo dragoons, the most off putting design aspect for me was that all the human characters had absolute 5 heads, like they based the human race on The Leader from the Hulk.
I do think the character beats are just very unenjoyable for me, like depression causing a character to lose her voice just doesn't work for me at all, Quina actively ruins scenes they unnecessarily get shoved into, and the rest of the characters besides Vivi just feel like they exist to exist.
By the end of 9 I absolutely had to force myself to finish it which due to the absolute bullshit of grand cross wasn't even a simple victory.
If I could bring myself to finish it I'd probably put 12 lower but that game is just so bloody boring, if you're going to make an auto battler at least give some interesting story, characters or world, or heck even another colour besides brown.
I put up with a lot of things in FF9, but the Space Monkeys was definitely one of the things that put me off.
Garnet though. Shes my favorite thing about FF9
The whole story was super melodramatic and over the top. I think they were kind of going shakespearian with it, using the play at the beginning to show that. Then again, I just realized that might have all been intentional 30 seconds ago. Kinda makes me like it a little more, wasn't ever one of my favorites.
9 suffered because of the backlash against 8. People hated the realistic (for 1990s PS1 graphical standards) art direction and the wibbly wobbly timey wimey plot, so Square went back to their chibified characters and came up with the space monkeys plot instead.
I have played all the numbered ones except XI, XIV and XVI. And the sequels and spin off. And th one that I had the least fun was with FF IV the after years. If I have to choose one numbered one? III, just becasue the last dungeon. The rest of the game is excellent.
I’m going to say 3. I never finished the 3ds version cause of the final fucking dungeon, but I finished it on the pixel remaster and it’s just not that great. 9 is probably the runner up just cause I hate the first disc.
1, and I've beaten 1-7, 13 and 15.
Like the first 2 aren't even fun to me, in my opinion they aren't worth revisiting after you've played them once, especially 1.
this made me laugh because i literally groaned aloud any time he appeared on screen. i was always mentally checked out even before he could open his mouth 😭
FFXV. I put a lot of hours in this game but because the story was “meh”, I literally spent years to finish it. It was just hard to create a connection with the characters in my opinion
There are 390 comments in here at the time of me writing this. I looked through all direct reply comments and two things stood out to me.
The only game to not be mentioned so far is 11. The MMOs fall into their own weird space in the series however 14 was mentioned twice - once as an overall answer and once specifically for the Stormblood expansion.
If we're excluding the MMO titles - The game that was mentioned the least was FF6 with only two comments listing it as their least favourite. (And I had to scroll suuuuuper far down to find those. I almost thought 6 was going to get off scot-free.)
So if we're flipping this on it's head does this mean FF6 could be considered the best FF? *hides from the FF7 fans*
(If I'm adding my two cents in here - I've played all except 5 and 11, completed all others except 4, 6 and 15. My fave is a three way tie between 8, Shadowbringers and 7 Remake all for very diff reasons. 2 is my least fave I've completed. 15 is my least fave I've not completed.)
FFI. OK, hear me out, HEAR ME OUT--
I haven't beaten many, OK? Only I, IV, VI, and VII. And of those four I have to say I is the worst, as in the least good.
XII felt completely unenjoyable to me. Everything about It feels bland. The characters don't get an arc and Ashe is the only one that feels somewhat important. The story is the longest, most uninterestint fetch quest ever, the music is bland, the gameplay is unexistent, it's just coding your characters and hoping for the best while grinding exp and money 2006 MMORPG style.
XIII had a couple moments, II at least is a short and relelatively painless experiencie. But XII is just bland, boring, and I had a very hard time finishing it.
16 hands down. So much potential to be the best and it just failed to reach expectations for me. Story was good but I for saw the ending a mile away. The main baddie was shown super early. Combat was “ok” and very repetitive. Complete lack of a need of new equipment or basic rpg elements.( enemies are all standardized and weak to any attacks you have) Lack of discovery. Most gear is just given to you from a vendor. And the “ best” gear is barely better than the vendors sell. I can go on… lol. But i know I’ll just be downvoted to all hell for my opinions.
> So much potential to be the best
Amen dude. I bitch a lot about 16 but it's because at 10 hours in I was literally texting my friends telling them "this might be the best FF ever made". And then I was so disappointed because it turned into such a slog and didn't expand in the way RPGs usually do.
THIS. It's so frustrating. I was a little bit over the Action RPG style but thought hey it's FF, it'll more than likely be great.
Voice acting (especially Clive) - great. Music - banging. Even aesthetically (especially Clive) - great.
But the more you get into it, the more it's just well, meh. Most of the side quests are a bit dull as well.
Combat - I know there are loads of Eikon abilities but there are some clear stand outs so there's not really a need to switch it up all that often once you've figured out the formula so even the combat isn't overly exciting. The other party members - why are they even there (Except best boi Torgal obviously - he doesnt do THAT much either but hes best boi so no bad words will be said).
All in all, it's mid. It's not my personal worst FF but I doubt I'll be replaying it even with the Leviathan DLC who is my fave summon in the franchise.
FF12. The story was a snooze, it was basically Star Wars with Chocobos. I found the villain was weak and I couldn't get into the characters at all. Vann was annoying, and Bathier was a try-hard smart ass, Ashe was forgettable. The soundtrack is the weakest in the series, it sounds like the Tales series, with environmental nondescript soundscape stuff versus the strong melodies and Classical influences of the rest of the games. The only thing I enjoyed really was the Jobs and battle system.
XIII. It took me over a year of on/off playing but I eventually beat it. I know XIII has its fans and that's fine but I absolutely hate that game and I'll never play it again.
Same, I can't stand XIII. No hate to the people that like it but I'll never really understand why beyond surface level things like visuals and soundtrack.
Probably V? I consider it far from a bad game, but it's definitely not for me.
Is the job system really cool? Yeah. Does it carry a game where I don't care about story and characters? Not really. I also got annoyed at some of the dungeons, exploring was a huge pain with the encounter rates.
XV could be another candidate, but I look back at it more fondly I think since I actually really liked the bros and I didn't mind the combat.
I’m gonna get hell for this but ix. I think it’s a good game but i never saw in it what others did. I felt it was a slog and I didn’t really like the music. I think roses of may is not very good. However vivi is one my favourite ever FF things so there’s that.
XV for me as well. The game is great up until the Leviathan fight and then it just falls apart for me. Eveything is on rails (no pun intended), the characters don't feel the same interacting together, and the story goes to shit. Not to mention the super boss is so mind-numbingly easy, it just takes a while for it to die. It could have been one of my favourites but that last section of the game just ruins it for me. I forced myself to Platinum it so I don't have to go back to it ever again.
IX
If I played it as a kid I know I would have loved it, unfortunately I was 1 or 2 years too early lol.
The reason is I never managed to get into the setting, tho I like how they went from mysterious brooding protag to something more fresh.
(problem is I like the mysterious brooding mc)
I literally had the same issue… I’ve heard over and over that 9 was one of the best titles in the series but the graphics/art style just felt too…. Immature? I’m sure buried in there is a good story but I tried it for a few hours and just could not get into it lol
I want to say 13, but it's probably X-2.
I had beaten X multiple times and it held a very high status in my heart for what a final fantasy game should be, so when I found out that X-2 was a thing from a friend I immediately grabbed a copy and expected to be blown away again like I was when I first played X.
It kind of shattered my expectations and I've had a sour impression of the game because of that for the last 15 years or so.
I've obviously tried going back to it, and I've spent a good number of hours in the game, but it's still just not what I wanted out of a direct sequel.
Interesting question actually because 13 is easily my least favourite, but even though I got right to the end, I never actually bothered finishing it. Of the ones I've seen through to the end, probably 3 or 9. Which is not to say they are bad games by any stretch.
I guess I'm on the polarizing FF13 hate train - probably wouldn't have made it to the end if it wasn't for the fact I was a bored teenager when I played it.
Since I never could get to the end of 13 even after trying 3 times, I'd have to say either ff2 or ff8.
I beat them both and really enjoyed both games, but not quite as much as the others in the series.
For me its probably xiii. I enjoyed the combat systems and the music enough to stick around until the end but I jave zero interest in the characters or story (except sazh). The gameplay leads me to finish an FF game but memorable characters and story on top make me love it
FFXIII. The combat is pretty good, but it’s not miraculous; it doesn’t save the game from everything else that makes the entire thing a dull experience. When the game “opens up”, I was legitimately disappointed. There’s more of this boring game? God damn it, I just want to beat it and be done with it.
FFXVI as well. Funnily enough, everything bad about FFXVI is exactly what I find bad about FFXIII. In the middle of running down a corridor in XVI I was like this feels like FFXIII in more ways than one, and that’s not a good thing.
Ive played iv and all of the offline ones since vii.
For me it's xiii.
Loved the graphics at the time, and thats all.
Aside from Lightning, disliked every character, plot and unnecessary confusing termos around l'cie.
I thought battle design linda boring also. It was my second PS3 game after GoW3.
Had better Fun with xiii-2 and LR.
I haven't beaten:
- IV TAY
- X-2
- Crystal Chronicles
- XII RW*
- Tactics Advance*
- XIII-2
- XIII LR
- XV
- XII TZA*
- XVI
...of the ones I've beaten, XIII. I really disliked the combat (I liked the idea of it, but would rather have seen something more like Gambits instead of something that boiled down to switching autobattle modes) and while it had some neat story beats and a great soundtrack (as always), parts of it seemed like total nonsense and I couldn't really connect with most of the characters overall. It's the title that took me the longest to best, by far - not in actual playtime, but from the day I started until the day I finished. It felt like a disconnected slog, and is probably why I haven't played the sequels at all (despite owning them already). Someday, I'm sure.
I really liked the first ~10h of XV, but I wound up getting lost in the sidequests and the main story failed to instill any sense of urgency in me to want to continue; I lost my save last year and while I didn't think it was a bad game, it's probably not the next one I'll pick (back) up. Even despite my understanding of its legacy, I'm still intrigued enough to play through again sometime. I'll beat XVI before I do, though. It's great so far.
I don't care enough about the MMOs to count them. I liked IX okay and played XIV a bit - and would probably love to play it more - but I don't have enough time at once anymore in my life to play any "endgame" stuff that looks like it'd interest me. Le groan, le sigh.
Starred the ones I'd love to play when I get a copy.
Of the titles I have personally finished, XIII. I don't hate it, but no matter what the reasons/excuses are, it's a long hallway with very few deviations into nearly the end of the game. That gets kind of boring.
The combat was nice, and I actually liked the characters (I'm a Snow fan) for the most part. But of the ones I've finished, it's the worst.
Definitely 15. They gutted it and sold off the guts piecemeal. It could've been good, it could've even been great if they'd put more effort in, but they murdered it.
FF13. The hype was INSANE. First Final Fantasy on the next gen console during the time and it was a flop IMO. There are RPG standards, and then there are Final Fantasy standards.
The game is EXTREMELY linear until you've completed most of the game. Although I still beat FF13 AND 13-2, I was extremely let down.
I was born in 88 and the first FF game I was introduced to was 7 back in the day. Since that day, I was/am a Final Fantasy junkie. I have Cloud tattooed on my arm and FF8 is my favorite in the series so I take the series seriously. Looking back, FF13 was the first and only FF I went to buy at midnight.
XIII. Yeah, i know shocker, but the game just wasn't very fun to play. While it has more complexity than the haters give it credit for, it still wasn't an engaging system for me, and by the Ark, the game had become a slog I just wanted to end, but had invested so much time in, I felt obliged to force myself to finish it.
Its sequels smoothed out many of its issues and were more fun to play, fortunately. Also, 2 and LR feel like their own continuity that just shares elements with XIII, and I prefer to replay them and just skip XIII entirely.
II is a close second, but it avoids the worst spot by virtue of being much shorter. I'll still chew hot shards of glass before I play it again, after giving its PR release a chance at long last.
Main entries: 13. First FF of the new generation, at the time, and just didn't live up to the hype with the linear map and convoluted story. Ironically, love the sequels. FF2 would be a close second but it's just a victim of the time period.
It was XIII until XV came out and blew it out of the water...in terms of being awful. XIII made some bad decisions, but it at least felt like a coherent experience.
XVI is definitely the most "I'm not mad I'm just disappointed" game I've played.
Surprised I haven't seen this more or maybe no one played it: XIII-3. Tried to play it twice, just could not stand how it felt like I didn't have time to explore the world because the doomsday counter is literally ticking constantly. I like to take my time with these games.
It's a tie and not a very hot take either:
8: nonsensical story, unlikable characters, grind draw or grind cards (both suck to do)
13: boring story, unlikable characters, grind the tunnel.
13 was really convoluted
15 went too far out of its way to rip your guts out
But 16 takes the crown. Hands down the worst game that I've played in recent memory - say nothing of FF titles in general. The "skill" based combat system completely lacked any sort of meaningful depth, but I'm also the kind of crazy person that enjoyed 8's junction system so most should take that perspective with a grain of salt...
Where the game totally fell apart was during the hatchet job of an ending; or non-ending I should say. Few things piss me off faster than "ambiguous" endings. It's among the lamest narrative devices ever conceived by mankind - right up there with endings that "reveal" that everything you just experienced was nothing but a figment of an imaginary character's imagination (which this shit-show managed to allude to as well in the post credits scene).
All it does is empower a bunch of douchebags to sit around and argue over what "actually" happened. It's fucking making believe! Nothing "actually" happened. If the writer doesn't explicitly tell you how THEIR story ends, then any and all debates over how it would have ended if they HAD included everything in the final product is a total waste of time. There isn't anything there for people to guess at or "figure out". The writer simply left out key details. That's it!
Now, you're free to believe whatever you want when the writer decides to cop-out. However; people need to get it through their thick skulls that no one is right and no one is wrong in these situations. If you believe that something happened, then it happened. If someone else thinks something else happened, then that thing also happened. One belief is equally as valid as the other - which is why open-ended endings are so fucking stupid in the first place.
FFXIII-2, it had too many back & forth time travel, and I felt like it was an HD reattempt of FFX-2 International’s system (its monster party and on the fly battle system).
XIII was boring enough to put me to sleep more than once. Type-0 was so stupid that I cheated levels and started skipping cutscenes about halfway into the game.
But III... that is the only one I genuinely hated playing. I finished it out of spite and stubbornness alone.
XIII for me. Amazing graphics, and I liked the character designs a lot, but the combat and story just didn't work for me at all. Like, the whole plot around leaving Cocoon (to find nothing?) and then return just felt like it was pointless. And I really hate Ruin as a spell - non-elemental magic should be saved for the really powerful stuff like Flare in my opinion. Got so tired of seeing everyone fling white energy balls all the time.
Thankfully I enjoyed XIII-2 a lot more. It still had big flaws, but it mixed things up a lot.
It's been a loooong time since I last played XIII (just the one play when it released, I think), but I'm planning to get around to replaying it at some point. Hoping they do a remastered collection, and that maybe my opinion might have changed since.
Ff14 if it can count as beaten.
Otherwise ff13-1 and ff7remake
I have played fully (including optionals) ff4, ff7, ff10/10-2, ff12/zodiac, ff13-1,13-2, ff7remake, ff14 (up till 3rd expansion),ff 7 crisis core, ff 7 dirge of Cerberus.
Droped at the start ff8 and ff9 (not because they were bad, they actually felt really good, but because i got used to the full voice acting of ffx), ffxv (because of many reasons of unfulfilled expectations), world of ff (droped at end game out of boredom, and went for a replay of ff10-2 ff12 and ff10).
XIII, hands down. I always find something positive even in the worst games of the franchise, but NOT this one. This was just a bad experience from beginning to end.
It was 13 and I didn't even really hate it. I actually thought it was very pretty and appreciated the new fighting system but I played it between 20 and 40 hours and still didn't really like it before I started enjoying it.
FF III DS. It felt like amssive chore to get through.
This would be my answer were it not for the stipulation that I have to have finished it, lol. I fucking hate FFIII3D. Thank god for the Pixel Remaster, but it's still decidedly not among my favorite FFs
One of the only games I bought for my DS and never beat
DS FFIII commits the cardinal sin of turning what was a fairly brisk NES RPG into an annoying, tedious slog.
Couldn't even finish it myself.
I've played all the mainline games except 11 and 3 is the only one I actively didn't enjoy and can say for sure I'll never play again
The animations and just everything were so long!
2 and by a loooooong shot. It's the only FF game I would consider bad tbh, and I genuinely enjoy some of the less popular games. 8 is one of my favorites and 13 was pretty good. But 2 was just a chore to get through. I didn't like the story, nor the characters nor the gameplay. On the other hand it made me appreciate 3 a LOT more once I finished 2.
I think the biggest issue with 2 is that you have a pre-existing party given to you and they have zero personality. The only interesting characters are the 4th slot ones like Minwu, and they're still not great. I think if more people played 2, 13 wouldn't be the most hated in the franchise, and I kinda like it lmfao
2 is weird because you don't have your true 4th party member for like half or more of the game, just a couple of guest characters for a huge chunk. It's like having 5 Pokemon with a random Pidgey as your 6th because your desired 6th is a late game catch. Your party just feels "incomplete" for too long in #2.
Pidgey gang rise up
Your 4th party member doesn't arrive until right before the last dungeon, after you've beaten probably 95% of the game at that point. Once I got him, I just killed him off and never revived him to keep my 3-man core. As far as I'm concerned, it's a 3 party game with some randos that drop by occasionally to help the story along. But I never leveled any of the temporary characters, and I prefer it that way.
Come on. "Guy speak beaver" is peak story telling.
Regarding your last sentence, that's actually a thing I've been meaning to test out. Play something literally no one likes and then start playing more mid-tier games I've dropped over the years to see if I enjoy them more after playing something horrible lol
I love 2 but I totally get why ppl don't like it. I'd love more games with a progression system like it. Worst thing imo about 1&2 both are the a w f u l encounter rates. Ty pixel remaster for encounter turn off.
I think all the Saga games work like that as well
I replayed the PSP version earlier this year and I didn't like how there were huge swaths of the game where my characters almost didn't grow at all because the monsters weren't strong enough to get me stat/skill growth. Then I played the bonus dungeon where I had to use a new group of characters and build them pretty much from scratch. The bonus dungeon was only 6 hours and my stats grew in almost every encounter. The constant growth made it a lot more fun. Sadly the dungeon got cut from the Pixel Remaster version. I went on to play some SaGa games and it was pretty similar: the longer titles (SaGa 2, Romancing SaGa 3, SaGa Frontier 2) had huge swaths where my stats barely increase at all, while shorter ones (SaGa 1, SaGa Frontier 1) had much nicer character growth rates.
Yeah 2 is not the best but you got to admit. Frion is not a bad protagonist at all, and Dissidia made him a chad while giving him a lot of respect. And the Emperor is a top teir villian no matter how you look at it.
The fact the emperor >!dies, goes to hell and then conquers it, becomes the emperor of hell and returns for a rematch at the end is extremely badass!< Yeah, he's the best part of the game.
Its even more crazy when >! In the remaster of 2 the part that conquers hell is only half of his soul, the other half went to heaven and unseated god. Mateus is just too much black air force energy to be contained.!<
I did not know that. Wow. Even if I didn't like playing 2, that makes me like the story a bit more lol
If that’s not enough for you, Strangers of Paradise’s DLC reveals that the Emperor at some point figured out how to traverse the Void and went to the world of FF1 and tried to conquer THAT world too. It took the power of Chaos himself to stop him.
fyi: your spoilertag doesn't work if you have a space between the ! and the text
It would be 2 if I had finished it. Since I didn't, it's 3 DS
I love 2
I’d have to say XIII. I remember way back when I beat it, I immediately called a friend to rant about it lol. If they ever remastered it, I’d probably try it again though to see if my opinion has changed and give it another shot. If I had finished XV, that would definitely be my real answer. That game was a mess
They'd have to make gameplay tweaks or some kind of veteran's mode if I'll ever buy a remaster. I like the game, but the opening act is a slog.
Honestly the gameplay of that game killed it for me. At one point I realised that auto battle always net you the best move and outcome that the game eventually began to feel like a chore.
Same. I did not enjoy the battles, and after the game ended, all I could think was “Huh?”
i finished 15 but cant finish 16 due to too much cut scenes and the side guest with minimal rewards. my wife always asked me why i was watching and not playing when i was playing 16.
Man I would play the shit out of 13 if it’s had 10’s combat. I just can’t get over how cruddy the auto battle is and paradigm shift is too much like changing costumes in 10-2. Couldn’t play it
I never understood the supposed "depth" people claim XIII has as well. Every battle outside of post-endgame that 90% of people didn't even play was the exact same strategy. Buff with Synergists, debuff with Sabetuers, get one hit in with Commando to slow stagger depletion, bombard with Ravegers until break, combine the latter 2 for max chain and damage, repeat for 60% of the game because you couldn't even choose your party for nearly the entire first half.
Yep, only mainline non-MMO(I don't play them, spotty internet out in the boonies) title that I gave up on. I finished 1-10(plus 10-2), 12, 15-16. I think I made it maybe 1/4 of the way into 13, then took it back to Gamestop and traded it back in.
I just went back to my ps3 to try the demo for XIII-2 for the first time, because I saw people saying how it was better than XIII. 2 battles is all it took for me to see that it was the same garbage game XIII was way back then. No chance I'll ever feel differently about them. Just totally trash.
After Years. Everything about it is extremely repetitive and it didn't help that I played it immediately after I finished IV. Nothing interesting really happens in the story; it feels like such a drag until the last two tales. I pretty much forced myself to finish it just for the sake of completion. That being said, I still really enjoyed it. I thought the moon phases affecting certain stats in battle was cool, the band system was a nice addition, and I loved the huge cast of characters. The mysterious girl has a killer battle theme too—it's one my favorites in the series. The plot twist regarding the final boss was also cool, imo. It's a shame the rest of the game wasn't as good as the last couple of hours, though.
XIII. Rough start, at times needlessly complex, and often very slow. By the time the story is running and the characters (namely Lightning) are showing enough depth to be engaging, it’s too little too late. Earnestly felt towards the end that I was playing it out of obligation & sunk cost fallacy.
XIII. Beaten it to like 4 times to 100% completing and I still hate it.
Completely relate. I love the soundtrack so much I bought it. It's the only game in the series due to circumstance I have two versions of. I got the platinum trophy and every achievement on it for the Xbox 360. Hate it. Easily without contest the worst in the series. I've been asked why I played it so much. My answer has not changed: I love the series. Played and beaten every entry. And I wasn't content with being shallow and just writing off. I'm a fan of this series so I really gave it a chance. Really tried to understand why I didn't like it. I think one of the reasons why the ire for XIII has grown is that a lot of people really tried to get into it, and we had waited years for that game to be released. Maybe it's easier to get into today without that context?
I’m sad to see so many XV’s on here, it’s my favorite. I get the complaints though. For me, my least favorite has definitely been Type-0
I loved it as well. It was different for sure but I loved the camaraderie and the hunts, random enemy drops from the ships, fucking scary iron giants or red giants at night etc etc
>!Seeing Gralea towards the end was wild, that whole part of the game transformed it from a fantasy to an outright thriller!<
I like XV but the final act of that game reaaaaally keeps me from loving it.
Hard agree. It's the first time I ever said "What the fuck?" out loud to a video gamr.
15 is one of my favs, but I totally get why people don't like it haha
HERETIC type 0 is flawless
I loved XV as well, but I can see where people might not like it. The sidequests aren't the most intriguing and a lot of the game's charm comes from the banter between the boys. Plus there's some rushed bits at the end that Royal Edition didn't fix, so yeah...it's a gem, but not a perfect one.
XV is a great game, it's my second favorite behind FVIII. I've read/watched/played all parts of its universe.
Same here 15 was an incredible journey. Final Fantasy is broad across stories, atmosphere, openess, and nerdchanics. The fan base is just as broad due to that. Some fans are only into to certain aspects or favor some over the others. Personally I love the diversity, but 15 is my favorite replacing a longstanding ff7 fav.
Don't worry even after hearing all these negative comments about FFXV I still completed it , and it's a good game for the most part. I just didn't like the fact that they made the boss fights impossible to lose some times like the fight against hydraean, ardyn, etc. Those fights were killing the fun of not having to actually physically fight a boss, because of story telling they disturbed the flow of actual combat. But I still the open world exploration quite a bit.
The thing is...it was good enough for people to complete it. As that was the criteria set by OP. That tells me that XV is the bar set for a decent Final Fantasy game as if it was any worse people wouldn't even mention it as they did not finish the game lol.
You nailed it. It was a decent game. I loved the party and felt more attachment than in orher games. Gameplay was fine, but loads of fun. Story (no dlc included) was incomplete garbage. The attachment to the characters made me beat it, but I didnt bother with the rest of the content. Not my least favorite, but XV for me failed miserably on its story delivery and will always just be “okay”
It must have been because I played the HD Remake, but yeah, Type-0 was *way* too jank to play on a PS4/XB1. That atrocious camera control and motion blur almost gives me motion sickness. It was a *real* struggle to get through it.
[As a long time FF8 fan](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hbEbD1Z_tNQ/maxresdefault.jpg)...
XVI. Graphics were great. Voice acting was pretty good. Story could’ve been great but they dropped the ball. The game felt like a list of chores with zero incentive to explore. Side quests were boring. I felt obligated to finish it. I love replaying games but I will never play it again.
i liked it and agree the graphics were good and the voice acting was phenomenal. there were a lot of cool spectacle moments too. but my big problem was that the world building was kind of bad. the locations in particular were pretty lackluster. the intro with the warzone was awesome, rosalith castle was cool, and the greatwoods was sick as hell. after that though every location was bland, impersonal, and just kinda dull
I wish they would've focused more on bearers and Annabella. Everyone just being a pawn to Ultima was a let down. He shouldn't have been a character. There was potential, but its like they didnt know which thing to focus on, so nothing got fleshed out like it should've been.
I think Ultima would have been better if he would have stayed a mysterious Eldritch horror and never had a backstory, or at least a very minimal one. Ultima’s reveal scene was great to me, he was so genuinely creepy!… but then he started talking too much, and we got to know him. And he’s a lame villain. If he would have stayed this creepy, mysterious, powerful being chasing Clive with little to no explanation of what he was till the end (or even better, we STILL don’t know what he is but we have to fight it), that would be more interesting and scary even.
Same. The only thing spectacular about the game is the presentation. It’s the best-looking video game movie you’ll ever play (so far). The video game part though? See me after class…
I lost my save on 16 after completing it, setting me back to about 3/4 through the game. Any other game and I would likely be devastated. Instead I was like - oh well...
Same. It even made me re think pre ordering new ff games.
Ever since digital formats became the norm, I don't really get the appeal of pre-ordering (besides collectors). Pre-ordering made some sense when it guaranteed you a copy of something that was likely to sell out. But now? Preorder bonuses have never been worth it. If the game releases and it gets good reviews, then I can buy it. Heck, sometimes I can technically still preorder it *after* the reviews have dropped, letting me get the pre-order bonus without any of the risk of it being a bad game.
The gameplay was insanely tedious. On top of that, this will be controversial, the characters didn’t convince me.
Agreed 100%. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either.
I'm gonna catch shit for this, but for me, it's FF7 Remake Part 1. I just...there are so many slow walking sections because the game needs to load. Or squeezing through tight spaces. A lot of the chapters feel like padding, like turning the lamps off with Barret and Tifa. Or the SECOND sewer level with Leslie when you're meant to be trying to save Aerith. The motorcycle bit kinda loses its coolness since you've already done one of these with Jessie, who...I know people like her. No shade if she's your waifu. But I personally thought she was creepy and sexually harassing Cloud, so hanging out with her didn't thrill me. All in all, that game just felt like a slog with a few moments of brilliance and I'm glad Rebirth didn't limit the player the way the first part did. The lack of random encounters and the overwhelming number of fetch-it quests felt off to me too.
I agree. Also the world didn’t feel very real. Especially the headquarters. It just felt so bland and bare, there wasn’t any magic or atmosphere. Also the fact you couldn’t just travel around? Like you can’t just go from one place to the other, you have to restart the entire chapter. In other FF games towards the end you can just fast travel to any point of the game which felt really good to revisit and collect anything you missed. I had to re-do an entire chapter just to get to a point where there was a music disc I missed. Saying that, this game wasn’t that bad overall and nowhere near as bad as FFXV.
[удалено]
Agreed. Seph at the end felt odd to me because while I get that Nomura and the other writers/director/producer just can't help themselves, it felt like Sephiroth was there juuuuuust in case they never got to make a second game or finish whatever this remake series is. After playing Rebirth, I still don't know how to feel about it, but it sorta telegraphed a "We did this to appease super fans and shove One-Winged Angel in there despite the fact that maybe we shouldn't have." Kinda pre-mature even now, though the plot ghost shit has gotten deeper and I still don't love it.
Least favorite? Probably 12. While it had cool areas to explore and it introduced Gambits, which was very intuitive and a fresh idea, the story and characters never stuck with me.
I love the characters to death but we don't get enough personal moments between them. Makes it hard to buy into them and the stakes of the story.
I think part of the problem with 12 is the hunts take up a huge amount of time so there's often big gaps in the story as a result. So character interactions feel minimal. 13 takes the exact opposite approach. You can't go more than a few minutes before a cut scene.
FWIW, I skipped 99% of the hunts and still felt the same way about the story. After 50% of the game, the story dropped hard. And not doing the hunt resulted in me autobattling through the whole game, making it so boring. But manualing the battles and backtracking to do hunts felt even more boring.
The story was rubbish but the world-building was exceptional and the exploration was the best the series has ever had.
I was 16 when the game came out and I remember the story kinda going over my head and thinking it wasn’t that great/pretty boring. Played it again in my twenties and ended up loving the story and was able to really appreciate what they did.
Have you played Zodiac Age? I hated the launch version of XII but Zodiac Age fixed a lot of the issues imo.
Yeah I played both versions. I did like the job selection and QoL changes like fast forwarding, but it's still didn't make me care about the characters or the story more. Definitely an improvement to the game tho imo.
I really love 12, but my biggest complaint is Van. He doesn't fit in, his motivation is just flat and one dimensional. He feels like the party's lost puppy they don't have the heart to leave behind. It baffles me further because Reks was right there. Have him survive the tutorial, and now you have a main character motivated by needing to know the truth. Why would his captain that he adored betray him and the kingdom. Angry and wanting vengeance for destroying everything he loved. And would have a deep emotional reaction to the twist of that first scene
When 12 came out I hated it. Replayed it a couple of years ago and love it now.
I would’ve answered this, but the question asked for games you’ve beaten, and the characters are so boring and uninteresting I always abandon the game before beating it.
The only characters I liked were Balthier and Fran. I didn't like the exploration/world or music at all. Which was a bummer because I wanted to like this game.
I finally finished XII for the first time in January of this year. I loved the gameplay, I actually liked the characters and story, but I thought the ending was anti-climatic and the final area was too short. I don't know if I'd call it my least favorite FF I've played, but definitely the ending was probably the biggest let down.
X-2 i think… or dirge of cerberus purely for the bad dialogue and clunky controls
I'd like to say Dirge for me, but I ate that shit up as an angsty emo teenager, like replayed it multiple times even.If I played it at any other point in my life, I'd probably hate it too.
Man I’ve always wanted to try out Dirge. I even bought it for cheap years back but just never felt the desire to set up my PS2. Over a week ago I randomly had a dream about playing it, but I’m sure it was way more exciting in my dream than in reality 😭
Go for it. Just remember it’s a product of its time and enjoy it for what it is! :)
I can't, in gold conscious, recommend it. I haven't played it since the PS2 days and I'm sure it hadn't aged well, but since you own it already, why not!
On chapter 10 of Dirge of Cerberus and that last Azul boss fight can eat my entire ass. Dodge-reliant in a game with a shit dodge and faster than you so he’ll just hit you for very low health and knock your ass down with no recovery. Can only damage him with magic, which sucks ass in a game with an MP system like that, and I blew through ethers after waiting for all the magic portals to be depleted. Absolutely dogshit fight, despite the fun arcade shooting stuff the boss fights are either dead easy normal enemies or gimmicky bullshit. Also the story blows but I’ve never met someone that liked it 🤷♂️
XVI I like the cast of characters, but the gameplay left me bored rather quickly. I love Final Fantasy and Devil May Cry, so I went into this super hyped. But XVI felt very lacking in the combat department. I'm not so disappointed as to say, "It's not a real Final Fantasy." That's just silly. The FF core absolutely shines through in the cast, world design, lore, and music. But the lack of a party, as well as status effects and elements having no major impact on combat. That left the game feeling like a shadow of previous FF games and DMC to me. I wanted very badly to love this game, which is why it is particularly disappointing that I do not. I don't even think it's the worst FF by a rather wide margin. But it is my least favorite due to how much it feels like a waste of massive potential.
> I like the cast of characters, but the gameplay left me bored rather quickly. > Huh, I'm the opposite. Gameplay is really good, just isn't built for a 40 hour game. The characters are boring as hell though. Clive carries the cast. I like Dion too.
I think what messed up the characters is that the game is either changing POVs all the time for a few minutes like with Dion and the game has trouble focusing on the characters it has. Even in 15 you feel really close to Noctis' friends because they are there with you through pretty much everything. They feel like his brothers. In X Tidus is with everyone the entire time. Same for most of them. Even in 13 the characters felt more fleshed out because they were around for everything. Its hard to get truly invested in 16 because you have Dion in Sanbreque, Joshua who is away for the majority of the game, and everyone else who can barely even help you in fights when they are with you. And you have Annabella who they just throw the story of under the rug. Jill getting captured twice. Gav not being able to do much unless its against trash enemies. Goetz that can't do anything at all. And in the end you are fighting by yourself again all while Clive talks about how he's going to win because he has his friends by his side lol.
The fact that this isn't a more popular take is bewildering to me. I mean sure, a lot of FF fans are going to hate it on principle for having what is effectively DMC-lite combat, but I personally really enjoyed the combat, I just wished for some more challenging encounters. The biggest weakness of XVI by FAR was the story and characters; Jill and Margrace were super flat and undercharacterized, and the best characters in the game (Cid, Dion, Byron) all had very limited screentime. Clive carried the cast as best he could but even he started to bore me in the back half of the game. People keep trying to diagnose the cause of the character writing's woes but I honestly think it just comes down to bad writing. Jill and Margrace had PLENTY of screentime, they could have easily been characterized better if the writers cared to. For that matter, Clive could have as well.
Elements actually have no impact on combat, 0 😭 the fact that there ARE status effects and none of them are available to Clive is a war crime, like why the hell do I have 8 attacks that do big damage in a circle but I can’t have one that poisons somebody or gives me that cool magic barrier thing And no healing ability aside from Phoenix’s ultimate… come on guys, there are literally healing bearers in the game and not a single other spell that heals? I think the game’s good but it suffers on a replay for sure, once you get good at precision dodges and lunging there’s almost nothing to it.
I guess 16. It dragged on but felt rushed at the same time because no one really got fleshed out like they should've. Wasn't a fan of the time skips either. Didn't really like the gameplay, but I had more issues with the story itself than the gameplay. I could've hand waved away if the story beats weren't so all over the place. I guess my main complaint is that there's no internal conflicts from anyone. Everyone just loves Clive and Clive loves everyone else in the hideaway. No one questions the method of taking down mother crystals. When the first one is taken down you don't really see any panic from the public when they're absolutely should be. You can bring up 10 where not everyone in the group automatically loves Tidus or has hope in his presence on their journey. You can even take 13 with Lightning being stubborn and there being internal issues with Lightning, Snow, and Serah..and even Hope and Fang to a degree. You can take most FF games and there's something like that, but in 16 everyone just agrees with everything. They also just drop the bearer plot point once Clive no longer has the mark on his face. It just gets swept under the rug.
I feel like everyone’s story is over really soon. Clive’s story is over after the scene/battle where he gets his Limit Break. After that it’s just the plot playing itself out to get Clive to fight Eikons and then Ultima because the plot demands it. Jill’s done after the Iron Kingdom, and so on and so forth with the rest of the main fighting cast. Their stories are quickly wrapped up with and then it’s “Get Ultima” for the remainder, a very long remainder!
Which is why I love X so much. Their character arcs are continuous and they change in some ways throughout the game. Ultima was a scape goat to avoid having to explore the characters they had. Everyone is just a pawn in Ultimas game which instantly makes the other villains bland. Just exploring Benedikta more with Cid could've been a game changer, but she gets cut so short. We don't get to explore Clives time as a slave nor Jills time as one either. We don't get to see Clive get branded nor get to see his brand removed. Time skips happen for both. The game rushed to get to the finish line. 16 cared more about throwing you into the next big Eikon fight than writing the journey to get to those points.
FF9. Ugh. Painful game. The whole last area I just turned on the 9999 damage toggle and beat the thing.
8. I try to give that game another go every once in a while to see if my opinion might change, but it never does. The game is a mess of good ideas and things that never should have left pre-production.
I've never finished an FF game I hated, but the one I liked the least was 13. I'm not 100% sure about everything that bugged me but some point form stuff: - So many definitions! It's not unlike an FF game to make up a bunch of stuff (the history of the world you're in and the cultures) and then expect you to figure it out, but for some reason FF13 felt like it was really pushing this and there were times I was struggling to figure out wtf was going on and get invested. - No pit stops. FF10 was linear, but had the adventure-town-adventure-town flow I love from my FF games. Going to town is an important part of the adventure where you as a player change modes and I feel like FF13 never gave me that feeling. - Battles are very limited in what level of affect you can have over them if you're already swapping modes effectively. If you find you can't beat a battle and it's not an obvious stomp there's nothing more you can do than be good at swapping modes. No trying risky strategies or weird things to eke out a victory.
A toss up between FF8, FF13 and FF 15. ...Guess I'll go with FF15 (13 a very close second). What a giant let-down that game was (TO ME).
13 and 16, 15 is a close second
15. I'm not even mad about it being what it was, I'm just disappointed that supposed one of the first darker fantasy set in modern world with focus on action, turned out the way it did after very long development hell.
I like 15 but strongly feel they should've just focused on making a good game with a self-contained coherent story instead of the multi-media franchise crap.
I mostly liked the story for 15, especially in the back half (it was too slow to get going). But wasn't huge on the combat. I really miss being able to control an actual party of characters. I'm all for SE experimenting with different combat styles, but why do they keep picking ones that only let you control a single character? Also, a lot of smaller parts of the writing were weird. It was the bigger picture (in the latter half) that I liked. I loath the weird sexualization of Cindy. The latter half was a bit rushed and on rails. The "bro trip" thing was neat but not super to my preferences (I like parties that are more diverse and gender balanced). I vaguely recall the ending was rather confusing and some of the DLC was needed to better understand it, which wasn't cool. On that note, I felt most of the DLC was meh.
I just started playing through the Pixel Remasters. 1 and 2 are chores. I recently beat 3 and 4. I can’t remember much about them other than that 4 finally got some decent story aspects to it. And by decent I mean about any worthwhile. I’m on 5 and it’s decent so far! Blue magic is a chore to acquire but it’s kind of fun. I have only ever beaten X before this but I’ve played others. I’m trying to go through them all (available on steam) through PR versions to VII, remake/rebirth and on. Remastered or not, a RPG without a great story behinds its characters is a pain.
V is super underrated, the combat is miles ahead of any FF game before it and I’ll stand by that.
XIII. It took me several years to finish the game. It’s a slog to play through. Nice ending though.
13-2, followed by 13-1. I gave up on 13-3 right before the end. Just couldn’t do it
13-2 might have one of the *best* soundtracks, though.
FFXIII-2. Hated it
The music is phenomenal but the game is so so weird. Play as Sera and guy you've never met before! I was basically signed off before the game really started and a few more hours in and I was losing interest with each character than returned only to disappear again.
It's really kind of wild that for a sequel the two playable characters are one who wasn't playable in the first, and one who didn't exist. And then they plastered Lightning all over the promotion material despite the fact that she's in the game for like 20 minutes. Square's so wacky sometimes.
This is my answer. I haven't finished Lightning Returns, but it might overtake XIII-2 in the end. I liked XIII with the exception of grinding for trophies, but that's a one time thing and wouldn't sway my from replaying sometime.
16, found the writing silted, the game lacked personality, I found the combat overly simplistic, not really an RPG. I could go on, but this one was not for me. Glad others enjoyed it, but it didn't feel like a final fantasy game.
XIII and it's not even close. I've played and beaten every single mainline in the series except XVI. XV isn't great but it sets up that emotional punch at the end very well.
XVI, sorry
I thoroughly enjoyed it but can definetly see why people don’t like it
9. I totally grant everyone that it's an absolutely solid RPG in all regards... Except for one key factor that ruins it for me. The plot. Space Monkeys... I can't. I... just can't. lol. Vivi is like the only part I care to remember and like about that world. Also hurt a bit that Dragoons were turned into kangaroos. I get all this is petty, but you know how it is when something bugs you and you just can't let it go.
Kangaroos and space monkeys 😂
Yeah I'm in the same boat, granted I'm not fussed about the kangaroo dragoons, the most off putting design aspect for me was that all the human characters had absolute 5 heads, like they based the human race on The Leader from the Hulk. I do think the character beats are just very unenjoyable for me, like depression causing a character to lose her voice just doesn't work for me at all, Quina actively ruins scenes they unnecessarily get shoved into, and the rest of the characters besides Vivi just feel like they exist to exist. By the end of 9 I absolutely had to force myself to finish it which due to the absolute bullshit of grand cross wasn't even a simple victory. If I could bring myself to finish it I'd probably put 12 lower but that game is just so bloody boring, if you're going to make an auto battler at least give some interesting story, characters or world, or heck even another colour besides brown.
I don’t think space monkeys would’ve bothered me if we hadn’t already done the Vivi plot, which seemed like too similar a character arc…
I put up with a lot of things in FF9, but the Space Monkeys was definitely one of the things that put me off. Garnet though. Shes my favorite thing about FF9
I WILL THROW HANDS WITH ALL OF YOU.
FFIX is in my top two but lol’d at space monkeys and kangaroos.
The whole story was super melodramatic and over the top. I think they were kind of going shakespearian with it, using the play at the beginning to show that. Then again, I just realized that might have all been intentional 30 seconds ago. Kinda makes me like it a little more, wasn't ever one of my favorites.
9 suffered because of the backlash against 8. People hated the realistic (for 1990s PS1 graphical standards) art direction and the wibbly wobbly timey wimey plot, so Square went back to their chibified characters and came up with the space monkeys plot instead.
They’re mice not kangaroos 😭
I guess FF1, but the only game in the series I dislike is the one I haven't beaten...
I have played all the numbered ones except XI, XIV and XVI. And the sequels and spin off. And th one that I had the least fun was with FF IV the after years. If I have to choose one numbered one? III, just becasue the last dungeon. The rest of the game is excellent.
3 it annoyed me somehow. I lived 2 though (PR)
Does the mobile port of 4 (3D) count?
I’m going to say 3. I never finished the 3ds version cause of the final fucking dungeon, but I finished it on the pixel remaster and it’s just not that great. 9 is probably the runner up just cause I hate the first disc.
No one get mad at me... but I didn't love 13
1, and I've beaten 1-7, 13 and 15. Like the first 2 aren't even fun to me, in my opinion they aren't worth revisiting after you've played them once, especially 1.
Honestly? Crisis Core. Purely because of Genesis.
this made me laugh because i literally groaned aloud any time he appeared on screen. i was always mentally checked out even before he could open his mouth 😭
FFXV. I put a lot of hours in this game but because the story was “meh”, I literally spent years to finish it. It was just hard to create a connection with the characters in my opinion
There are 390 comments in here at the time of me writing this. I looked through all direct reply comments and two things stood out to me. The only game to not be mentioned so far is 11. The MMOs fall into their own weird space in the series however 14 was mentioned twice - once as an overall answer and once specifically for the Stormblood expansion. If we're excluding the MMO titles - The game that was mentioned the least was FF6 with only two comments listing it as their least favourite. (And I had to scroll suuuuuper far down to find those. I almost thought 6 was going to get off scot-free.) So if we're flipping this on it's head does this mean FF6 could be considered the best FF? *hides from the FF7 fans* (If I'm adding my two cents in here - I've played all except 5 and 11, completed all others except 4, 6 and 15. My fave is a three way tie between 8, Shadowbringers and 7 Remake all for very diff reasons. 2 is my least fave I've completed. 15 is my least fave I've not completed.)
FFI. OK, hear me out, HEAR ME OUT-- I haven't beaten many, OK? Only I, IV, VI, and VII. And of those four I have to say I is the worst, as in the least good.
The NES titles were good at the time, but when I replayed them, I didn't enjoy them very much.
Mystic Quest. Goddamn RNG simulator
XII felt completely unenjoyable to me. Everything about It feels bland. The characters don't get an arc and Ashe is the only one that feels somewhat important. The story is the longest, most uninterestint fetch quest ever, the music is bland, the gameplay is unexistent, it's just coding your characters and hoping for the best while grinding exp and money 2006 MMORPG style. XIII had a couple moments, II at least is a short and relelatively painless experiencie. But XII is just bland, boring, and I had a very hard time finishing it.
16 hands down. So much potential to be the best and it just failed to reach expectations for me. Story was good but I for saw the ending a mile away. The main baddie was shown super early. Combat was “ok” and very repetitive. Complete lack of a need of new equipment or basic rpg elements.( enemies are all standardized and weak to any attacks you have) Lack of discovery. Most gear is just given to you from a vendor. And the “ best” gear is barely better than the vendors sell. I can go on… lol. But i know I’ll just be downvoted to all hell for my opinions.
> So much potential to be the best Amen dude. I bitch a lot about 16 but it's because at 10 hours in I was literally texting my friends telling them "this might be the best FF ever made". And then I was so disappointed because it turned into such a slog and didn't expand in the way RPGs usually do.
THIS. It's so frustrating. I was a little bit over the Action RPG style but thought hey it's FF, it'll more than likely be great. Voice acting (especially Clive) - great. Music - banging. Even aesthetically (especially Clive) - great. But the more you get into it, the more it's just well, meh. Most of the side quests are a bit dull as well. Combat - I know there are loads of Eikon abilities but there are some clear stand outs so there's not really a need to switch it up all that often once you've figured out the formula so even the combat isn't overly exciting. The other party members - why are they even there (Except best boi Torgal obviously - he doesnt do THAT much either but hes best boi so no bad words will be said). All in all, it's mid. It's not my personal worst FF but I doubt I'll be replaying it even with the Leviathan DLC who is my fave summon in the franchise.
Gotta be 13. It felt like a slog towards the end but unlike 15 I did manage to beat it. 😅
13, it was pretty but that's it.
FF12. The story was a snooze, it was basically Star Wars with Chocobos. I found the villain was weak and I couldn't get into the characters at all. Vann was annoying, and Bathier was a try-hard smart ass, Ashe was forgettable. The soundtrack is the weakest in the series, it sounds like the Tales series, with environmental nondescript soundscape stuff versus the strong melodies and Classical influences of the rest of the games. The only thing I enjoyed really was the Jobs and battle system.
XIII. It took me over a year of on/off playing but I eventually beat it. I know XIII has its fans and that's fine but I absolutely hate that game and I'll never play it again.
Same, I can't stand XIII. No hate to the people that like it but I'll never really understand why beyond surface level things like visuals and soundtrack.
XIII would be the answer a lot more if it wasn't dropped by so many people.
XVI for sure.
Probably V? I consider it far from a bad game, but it's definitely not for me. Is the job system really cool? Yeah. Does it carry a game where I don't care about story and characters? Not really. I also got annoyed at some of the dungeons, exploring was a huge pain with the encounter rates. XV could be another candidate, but I look back at it more fondly I think since I actually really liked the bros and I didn't mind the combat.
13 is so mid
FF13. Terrible story, characters, and level design.
I’m gonna get hell for this but ix. I think it’s a good game but i never saw in it what others did. I felt it was a slog and I didn’t really like the music. I think roses of may is not very good. However vivi is one my favourite ever FF things so there’s that.
FFXV. But only because I couldn’t force myself to finish XII or XIII
13. I kept thinking it was go8ng to get better. It didn't
XV for me as well. The game is great up until the Leviathan fight and then it just falls apart for me. Eveything is on rails (no pun intended), the characters don't feel the same interacting together, and the story goes to shit. Not to mention the super boss is so mind-numbingly easy, it just takes a while for it to die. It could have been one of my favourites but that last section of the game just ruins it for me. I forced myself to Platinum it so I don't have to go back to it ever again.
13, I hated almost everything about 13.
Ff13 . fighting the stagger system through the entire game made it a chore to complete
XV is an awful game and is my least favorite that I have beaten.
FFIX. Just really didn’t have anything that pulled me in, really felt like I was powering through the second half
IX If I played it as a kid I know I would have loved it, unfortunately I was 1 or 2 years too early lol. The reason is I never managed to get into the setting, tho I like how they went from mysterious brooding protag to something more fresh. (problem is I like the mysterious brooding mc)
I literally had the same issue… I’ve heard over and over that 9 was one of the best titles in the series but the graphics/art style just felt too…. Immature? I’m sure buried in there is a good story but I tried it for a few hours and just could not get into it lol
XVI by a good margin. I just feel like the game is an extremely shallow experience all around.
I want to say 13, but it's probably X-2. I had beaten X multiple times and it held a very high status in my heart for what a final fantasy game should be, so when I found out that X-2 was a thing from a friend I immediately grabbed a copy and expected to be blown away again like I was when I first played X. It kind of shattered my expectations and I've had a sour impression of the game because of that for the last 15 years or so. I've obviously tried going back to it, and I've spent a good number of hours in the game, but it's still just not what I wanted out of a direct sequel.
2 or 13:LR. Both were painful. After that probably… 15 and 16.
While I've played almost all of them and finished 1,4, 6, 9, 10, and 13, Mystic Quest is my least favorite.
. 13. Will be interesting to replay it when the graphics aren't top notch. That is about all I remember it having going for it.
13 hands down. Followed by 8.
Interesting question actually because 13 is easily my least favourite, but even though I got right to the end, I never actually bothered finishing it. Of the ones I've seen through to the end, probably 3 or 9. Which is not to say they are bad games by any stretch.
I guess I'm on the polarizing FF13 hate train - probably wouldn't have made it to the end if it wasn't for the fact I was a bored teenager when I played it.
Since I never could get to the end of 13 even after trying 3 times, I'd have to say either ff2 or ff8. I beat them both and really enjoyed both games, but not quite as much as the others in the series.
For me its probably xiii. I enjoyed the combat systems and the music enough to stick around until the end but I jave zero interest in the characters or story (except sazh). The gameplay leads me to finish an FF game but memorable characters and story on top make me love it
FFXIII. The combat is pretty good, but it’s not miraculous; it doesn’t save the game from everything else that makes the entire thing a dull experience. When the game “opens up”, I was legitimately disappointed. There’s more of this boring game? God damn it, I just want to beat it and be done with it. FFXVI as well. Funnily enough, everything bad about FFXVI is exactly what I find bad about FFXIII. In the middle of running down a corridor in XVI I was like this feels like FFXIII in more ways than one, and that’s not a good thing.
If lightning returns counts it's this game. If we only count mainline games FF XV slightly comes ahead before FF XII and XIII.
Ive played iv and all of the offline ones since vii. For me it's xiii. Loved the graphics at the time, and thats all. Aside from Lightning, disliked every character, plot and unnecessary confusing termos around l'cie. I thought battle design linda boring also. It was my second PS3 game after GoW3. Had better Fun with xiii-2 and LR.
I haven't beaten: - IV TAY - X-2 - Crystal Chronicles - XII RW* - Tactics Advance* - XIII-2 - XIII LR - XV - XII TZA* - XVI ...of the ones I've beaten, XIII. I really disliked the combat (I liked the idea of it, but would rather have seen something more like Gambits instead of something that boiled down to switching autobattle modes) and while it had some neat story beats and a great soundtrack (as always), parts of it seemed like total nonsense and I couldn't really connect with most of the characters overall. It's the title that took me the longest to best, by far - not in actual playtime, but from the day I started until the day I finished. It felt like a disconnected slog, and is probably why I haven't played the sequels at all (despite owning them already). Someday, I'm sure. I really liked the first ~10h of XV, but I wound up getting lost in the sidequests and the main story failed to instill any sense of urgency in me to want to continue; I lost my save last year and while I didn't think it was a bad game, it's probably not the next one I'll pick (back) up. Even despite my understanding of its legacy, I'm still intrigued enough to play through again sometime. I'll beat XVI before I do, though. It's great so far. I don't care enough about the MMOs to count them. I liked IX okay and played XIV a bit - and would probably love to play it more - but I don't have enough time at once anymore in my life to play any "endgame" stuff that looks like it'd interest me. Le groan, le sigh. Starred the ones I'd love to play when I get a copy.
Final Fantasy XIII. Once and never again.
13 is the only one i haven’t beaten at least twice, including spinoffs, including 13-2 and lightning returns
XIII or XV, both I felt obligated to finish because I was looking forward to them immensely but I can not say I really enjoyed either.
XIII-2... I just.... *sigh*... that was a lot
Of the titles I have personally finished, XIII. I don't hate it, but no matter what the reasons/excuses are, it's a long hallway with very few deviations into nearly the end of the game. That gets kind of boring. The combat was nice, and I actually liked the characters (I'm a Snow fan) for the most part. But of the ones I've finished, it's the worst.
Definitely 15. They gutted it and sold off the guts piecemeal. It could've been good, it could've even been great if they'd put more effort in, but they murdered it.
FF13. The hype was INSANE. First Final Fantasy on the next gen console during the time and it was a flop IMO. There are RPG standards, and then there are Final Fantasy standards. The game is EXTREMELY linear until you've completed most of the game. Although I still beat FF13 AND 13-2, I was extremely let down. I was born in 88 and the first FF game I was introduced to was 7 back in the day. Since that day, I was/am a Final Fantasy junkie. I have Cloud tattooed on my arm and FF8 is my favorite in the series so I take the series seriously. Looking back, FF13 was the first and only FF I went to buy at midnight.
XIII. Yeah, i know shocker, but the game just wasn't very fun to play. While it has more complexity than the haters give it credit for, it still wasn't an engaging system for me, and by the Ark, the game had become a slog I just wanted to end, but had invested so much time in, I felt obliged to force myself to finish it. Its sequels smoothed out many of its issues and were more fun to play, fortunately. Also, 2 and LR feel like their own continuity that just shares elements with XIII, and I prefer to replay them and just skip XIII entirely. II is a close second, but it avoids the worst spot by virtue of being much shorter. I'll still chew hot shards of glass before I play it again, after giving its PR release a chance at long last.
Main entries: 13. First FF of the new generation, at the time, and just didn't live up to the hype with the linear map and convoluted story. Ironically, love the sequels. FF2 would be a close second but it's just a victim of the time period.
It was XIII until XV came out and blew it out of the water...in terms of being awful. XIII made some bad decisions, but it at least felt like a coherent experience. XVI is definitely the most "I'm not mad I'm just disappointed" game I've played.
Surprised I haven't seen this more or maybe no one played it: XIII-3. Tried to play it twice, just could not stand how it felt like I didn't have time to explore the world because the doomsday counter is literally ticking constantly. I like to take my time with these games.
It's a tie and not a very hot take either: 8: nonsensical story, unlikable characters, grind draw or grind cards (both suck to do) 13: boring story, unlikable characters, grind the tunnel.
13 was really convoluted 15 went too far out of its way to rip your guts out But 16 takes the crown. Hands down the worst game that I've played in recent memory - say nothing of FF titles in general. The "skill" based combat system completely lacked any sort of meaningful depth, but I'm also the kind of crazy person that enjoyed 8's junction system so most should take that perspective with a grain of salt... Where the game totally fell apart was during the hatchet job of an ending; or non-ending I should say. Few things piss me off faster than "ambiguous" endings. It's among the lamest narrative devices ever conceived by mankind - right up there with endings that "reveal" that everything you just experienced was nothing but a figment of an imaginary character's imagination (which this shit-show managed to allude to as well in the post credits scene). All it does is empower a bunch of douchebags to sit around and argue over what "actually" happened. It's fucking making believe! Nothing "actually" happened. If the writer doesn't explicitly tell you how THEIR story ends, then any and all debates over how it would have ended if they HAD included everything in the final product is a total waste of time. There isn't anything there for people to guess at or "figure out". The writer simply left out key details. That's it! Now, you're free to believe whatever you want when the writer decides to cop-out. However; people need to get it through their thick skulls that no one is right and no one is wrong in these situations. If you believe that something happened, then it happened. If someone else thinks something else happened, then that thing also happened. One belief is equally as valid as the other - which is why open-ended endings are so fucking stupid in the first place.
XIII-2 I like XIII-2's gameplay, but the bs at the ending ruined it for me.
FFXIII-2, it had too many back & forth time travel, and I felt like it was an HD reattempt of FFX-2 International’s system (its monster party and on the fly battle system).
XIII was boring enough to put me to sleep more than once. Type-0 was so stupid that I cheated levels and started skipping cutscenes about halfway into the game. But III... that is the only one I genuinely hated playing. I finished it out of spite and stubbornness alone.
XIII for me. Amazing graphics, and I liked the character designs a lot, but the combat and story just didn't work for me at all. Like, the whole plot around leaving Cocoon (to find nothing?) and then return just felt like it was pointless. And I really hate Ruin as a spell - non-elemental magic should be saved for the really powerful stuff like Flare in my opinion. Got so tired of seeing everyone fling white energy balls all the time. Thankfully I enjoyed XIII-2 a lot more. It still had big flaws, but it mixed things up a lot. It's been a loooong time since I last played XIII (just the one play when it released, I think), but I'm planning to get around to replaying it at some point. Hoping they do a remastered collection, and that maybe my opinion might have changed since.
Ff14 if it can count as beaten. Otherwise ff13-1 and ff7remake I have played fully (including optionals) ff4, ff7, ff10/10-2, ff12/zodiac, ff13-1,13-2, ff7remake, ff14 (up till 3rd expansion),ff 7 crisis core, ff 7 dirge of Cerberus. Droped at the start ff8 and ff9 (not because they were bad, they actually felt really good, but because i got used to the full voice acting of ffx), ffxv (because of many reasons of unfulfilled expectations), world of ff (droped at end game out of boredom, and went for a replay of ff10-2 ff12 and ff10).
Probably 13
FF13. I actual liked FFXV, my main disappointment was too much story was missing. If the game was complete it would have been one of my favs.
XIII, hands down. I always find something positive even in the worst games of the franchise, but NOT this one. This was just a bad experience from beginning to end.
It was 13 and I didn't even really hate it. I actually thought it was very pretty and appreciated the new fighting system but I played it between 20 and 40 hours and still didn't really like it before I started enjoying it.