Ahead On Our Way - The Top 21 Numbered Final Fantasies Countdown

I've always adored VIII even though it's perhaps the series’ oddest game. A really brave one too. Square took everything they established in 7 and refined it to an astonishing degree, but they also zigged at every opportunity. Never a zag in this one. It’s easy to forget how avant garde it was at the time. You wouldn’t expect the follow-up to one of the biggest games ever to be so vulnerable. I think all its peculiarities pay off, especially at the end with a trifecta of great last dungeon, great last boss, and great ending. That it also has the best OST in the series is the cherry on top.

Every single battle theme in FFVIII is absolutely incredible. The Extreme, of course. Don't forget Premonition, either. But even the regular battle theme is among the best in the genre.

It’s a weird one for sure. I bought it shortly after it came out and played straight through it pretty quickly so must have liked it. I recall getting frustrated that the last disc is pretty closed off (I was expecting to turn around just before the final boss to spend hours dicking around chocobo raising or whatever based on VII) and I know I was heavily reliant on using triple triad to get all the special cards and refining them into ridiculous items that broke the game.

I like all the experimental stuff it tried and would like to explore breaking the game in the other fun ways it lets you do that (abuse junctions, low level Squall run) but I started up the switch version and proceeded to… get too invested in triple triad again. Damn it.

Squall is my favorite FF protagonist by far --- such a terrifyingly accurate and uniquely sympathetic portrayal of a withdrawn, undersocialized nerd.

There's a lot I like about VIII, but I'm genuinely surprised it ranked nearly in the top 3. Mechanically even though it further diluted individual character identity in combat outside of their Limit Breaks, I adore the Junction system (not as much the draw system) mechanically, thematically, and honestly for the same reason I like weapon buffs in any given Souls game. It's just fun to mess around with. It's also really fun to imagine magic junctioned to stats being like an oil coating on something like a sword.

Narratively I think the first disc is just about perfect. I still love a lot about the rest of the story and plot but it felt like it lost a lot of the focus it had early in until it comes back tenfold in the final stretch thanks to love-fueled time travel. I don't want this to come off as a criticism of VIII itself, but I would also love for it to get similar treatment as VII Remake got just to spend more time with Laguna's squad and maybe flesh out the bones of all the INCREDIBLY INTERESTING world history lore scattered around.

This is very juvenile of me but if I really interrogate myself, the things I don't like quite as much about VIII's story are probably a result of Quistis being my first videogame crush and that grating against the plot as an angsty early teen. God if I could've dressed up like Squall I definitely would have.

Oh and of course, Triple Triad is the all time greatest minigame. I can't believe they managed to create a realistic set of constantly-adapting regional rulesets and that you can even manipulate it.

I can't deny that FFV's job system is more intuitive, but FFVIII's junctioning is by far my favorite character building system in any game in the series. I love to transform enemies into cards, in order to get an advantage in an entirely optional card game, in order to transform cards I win into items, in order to transform those items into typically late-game magic spells before the game has barely even progressed, while also equipping those spells to stats to get ridiculous stat boosts.

The game also has great atmosphere. Love these screens in the background:

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So like... what was the deal with Quistis anyway? She's the same age as everyone else, but also their teacher somehow? Despite having a ton of missing memories even.

It kinda feels like there were two very conflicting character concepts there and what won out was HOT TEACHER HAS WHIP SHUSH.

She was a prodigy who was accelerated to a teaching position, but later it was decided she was too young for the role and was reassigned as a standard SeeD.

FF8, as stated in the post, was my #1 FF. I said in an earlier post that FFX was my 1B. I'm pretty sure FFX is also the better game in an objective sense. But I just freaking adore FF8. It came at a very pivotal point in my life, where I was transitioning from a tiny, insular, incestuous country school, to a big scary high school where I knew nobody and was having a rough go of it, and its dramatic themes were all very relateable, but more importantly very positive and instructive. If we're not counting renamed SaGa games, FF7 was my entry to the franchise, and I got in on it about a year late/missed the zeitgeist. So FF8 was the first FF game where I got in on the ground floor, and it did not disappoint. Just the willingness to throw away almost everything that made FF7 popular and to go in a new direction was just inspired and inspiring to me. I really relish brand new experiences/get bummed out with sequelitis, so with FF8 it felt like I had found my home. That this franchise was for me! I might effort post more about it later, but everything FF8 does is great.

Omega said:

the game centered in Squall Lionheart, child soldier and your standard emotionally repressed teen who by virtue of being in the right place at the right time lands the job of field leader of the world’s most powerful paramilitary sorceress-killing force and a Manic Pixie Girl sorceress girlfriend.

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lol. I get the joke here, but I don't think it actually has much substance. At least the 'right place at the right time' business. Squall is probably the single most in-control-of-their-own-destiny characters in the franchise, and he receives increasing levels of responsibility specifically because he earns it through merit of his actions and success. For god's sake, the game even grades him! Squall is like the anti-Cloud. He *earns* his rank and accolades.

Oathbreaker said:

Mechanically even though it further diluted individual character identity in combat outside of their Limit Breaks

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This is something I don't really get about a lot of complaints about various FF battle systems. If your characters don't have a lot of individual identity, that's kinda on you? You can build them however you want! They don't have to all be homogenized and the same. FF8 is not a game that's so hard that you have to min-max everyone into the same exact build in order to win. You can get away with doing goofy lineups. If you want Zell to be a healer and Quistis to be a crazy mage, and for Rinoa to be a tank, you have the tools to do that. You're only limited by your imagination! I guess that's... bad to some people? I too like

Eh, I bounced off VIII pretty hard. The whole drawing spells from enemies bit felt super grindy to me. But to each their own.

You don't need Draw if you spend dozens of hours playing Triple Triad and refine the cards!

If you just draw once or twice per battle generally you'll be fine even without abusing card mod or anything like that. Generally the game gives you stronger tools towards progression than mindlessly pulling spells.

What a pleasant surprise! Gunblades are such a ridiculus idea they wrap back around to being awesome. It took time to understand but drawing spells was a neat way to treat magic.

while I enjoyed Triple Triad I did not do any of the things in it you need to get all the cool stuff.

I will say that the game arbitrarily capping the number of spells you can get from a single in-battle draw command at 9, even when the calculation can go much higher, is quite bewildering.

That said, if you know of the existence of the card mod and item refine economy, then it's really hard to  not end up being relatively overpowered without putting in any particular effort into any character building activity.

Anyhow, one particular thing that I didn't notice until my most recent playthrough was how this game gets rid of treasure chests. Draw points may be similar in function, but are quite different in their narrative and thematic logic. The most striking example is how the mayor of FH has an Ultima draw point in his room. While one could read that as the mayor himself having a secret stash of powerful magic for emergency iset, the more salient reading to me is that it's a pointed (and deliberately ironic) statement on the real-life virtues of pacifism.

I probably would have put this game up top if I had voted.

I'm not sure there's another video game that I played as wrong as FF8. I got to my first card game and then basically lost the plot and spent literally dozens of hours playing cards before even setting foot outside the school. (And I had no idea that this could be leveraged back into game progression; I'm not sure I ever refined a single thing.) Then after that I remember spending hours grinding out Aura draws on a tiny island over and over and spending most of the end/post-game spamming that spell forever and always. All of that's on me being a dumb kid, though, and honestly, I thought this game was cool as hell, even though I've never revisited it. As someone who, as I mentioned up-thread, is fond of limitations, the very open character specializations were not at all to my taste (and I agree with Oathbreaker that it came at the cost of losing some character identity in gameplay), but I ravenously consumed that demo disc (glad I knew someone who bought Brave Fencer Musashi!), and some of the set-pieces like fleeing the Guardian or running past shelling in the background really blew my mind at the time. Framing the whole thing as a school with tests and ranks and salaries was novel and delightful. And Draw turned bosses into fun treasure chests-- what exciting surprise am I going to find tied with a bow inside this terrible bird? Let's find out!

RT-55J said:

I will say that the game arbitrarily capping the number of spells you can get from a single in-battle draw command at 9, even when the calculation can go much higher, is quite bewildering.

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It's arbitrary but it's not bewildering, it has purpose. It's the game subtly telling you through gameplay that you don't need to sit and grind draws in order to succeed.

Purple said:

It kinda feels like there were two very conflicting character concepts there and what won out was HOT TEACHER HAS WHIP SHUSH.

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In a game that's largely about children forced to grow up well before their time and adopt responsibilities in no way appropriate for them, Quistis is among the characters most pointedly themed around that. The organization under whose care she grew up in are able to leverage her status as an intellectual "prodigy" to justify her appointment as an authority figure over her peer group, because that's kind of culture a child soldier program like SeeD fosters. Quistis's qualifications for her teaching position aren't in question on the raw aptitude end of it, but her social and emotional intelligence aren't developed and literally mature enough for her to cope under the involved strain or be able to healthily process it. That's what all the interactions with Squall are about, like the play-flirting and attempt to reach out and confide in someone during the sham "date"--feelings of residual affinity and affection crashing impossibly against responsibility, guilt and self-doubt. Her lashing out at Rinoa, and immediately seeking to reconcile over the same outburst heedless of the potential cost in the moment, are another great window into her interiority that's rooted in the same conflict of person and assumed, expected role. The resolution to all of that character work is maybe my favourite part, since there isn't isn't a big, dramatic payoff: Quistis just keeps sorting out her feelings in the background of things, and comes to whatever conclusion there is on her own.

Final Fantasy VIII was #3 for me, the highest of its era. I try not to give too much emphasis and credence to the rankings with these lists, but I think my top three in this case is fairly firmly set. There's a real throughline with all my very favourites in that I imprint on and appreciate their casts as far as the kind of storytelling that's done with them on a group basis; RPGs with parties of individuals are fine but when FF is hitting its stride and expressing something with its casts mechanically, narratively, or both supporting the other, that's when my engagement tends to hit its peak. VIII's sextet are inextricably bound whether they know it or not, but also more multilaterally than just through one connecting thread--it weaves and twists between far pasts, organizational grouping, the social roles within that structured ecosystem and all the little interpersonal crossings-over that necessarily aren't even directly portrayed but that inform the characters regardless. That Rinoa is decidedly part of the outgroup within the six is as major a character beat as anything else inherently about her, and I think dynamics like that hugely elevate the cast as a coexisting unit.

The opportunity to build a kind of group identity around the cast wouldn't present itself without a nexus to frame it around, and it's difficult to picture a better lens of teenage socialization, friction and heartbreak than Squall. They never allowed his kind of intimacy and consequent vulnerability in the series ever again, leading to many misreadings and bad faith assessments on the character, but which are also the root of why he is so unforgettable as a point of view because everything is left exposed for the audience along for the ride inside his head. The sheer commitment to a singular, game-long internal monologue, to contrast what is thought and what is said is a constant avenue for humorous exasperation, aching melancholy and repressed delight all at once, bouncing off the persona Squall's constructed for himself. The peer group who come to know him all understand that the division in how Squall presents socially and how he really feels absolutely exists, but he isn't about to break down those walls by his lonesome, leading to a really sweet and supportive dynamic between all of them that rings a little truer than platitudes like friendship being grand for its own sake. "I'm not having anyone speak about me in the past tense" is the character, game's, maybe even the series's signature scene to me for understanding exactly the kind of storytelling opportunity and individual perspective they had on hand to express it, going for it full bore, and only beginning to lay the groundwork for everything else a figure this emotional, opinionated and downright open in all their repression could accomplish as the protagonist of a story.

VIII does not have my favourite villain in the singular but what it does instead possess is likely the most compelling use of them thematically across the board, as an ensemble. "Witches" are loaded iconography to invoke despite popular media's normalization of the concept, since it wasn't so long ago that women had to do all they possibly could to not stand out socially lest they be labeled one--for almost any reason--and have their life be at risk. FF was always enamored with a World Masterpiece Theater-like sensibility of idealized European scenery and setting in the worlds it depicted, and VIII's picturesque modernity intermingled with the pastoral and futuristic extremes of itself creates an alluring mix that could be seen as similarly romanticized, especially coming off of VII's notably more critical and harsh views on technology and the environment.

That superficial serenity of setting I think allows the game to mask how its internal history, current events and its far future are all defined by supernaturally powerful women and society at large's response to them. We see through the firsthand assortment--Adel, Edea, Rinoa, Ultimecia--a range of realities that could encompass the life of a sorceress--a witch--in this world and what opportunities to carve an existence for themselves on their own terms there exist; even characters like Ellone who escape the label by a technicality have spent most of their life hidden and in seclusion for danger of being sought out for their witch-adjacent powers. Adel is the most straightforward tyrant among them, but what is actually known about her? The game deliberately withholds nuance and motive in her depiction which is refreshing, but also highlights how the individual circumstances of these figures don't really matter to the world they inhabit, whether they be oppressors or plain folks--only the label of a witch does, and their reactions spring from there regardless whether that formative sentiment is depicted at all. The various responses to their shared lot fascinate both for their range and how they echo the historical persecution of women that the game co-opts in terminology and imagery, but leaves just enough intact that it feels evocative and resonant in the context of its own themes. The other scene that I frequently think back on with VIII as far as what reverberates back in memory as meaningful is the approach to Ultimecia's domain, through layers of shifting time compression, where you end up fighting a succession of witches--anonymous and legion--lashing out at something, anything, from across history.

I picked FF8 up at the same time that I picked up the Dreamcast and I'm pretty sure I put far more time into FF8, at least initially. The best of the PSX games for my money.

I wish I had enjoyed FFVIII more than I did, and I suspect if I played it again now I would. (I realize there are various ways to do that but I'm afraid the chances of me actually getting to it are slim.) I played it on release and basically hadn't gotten over my SNES-era attachments, so I tried to play it like a SNES-era game, which really misses most of the points. I treated the systems that are the crux of its character building as a side curiosity, only occasionally doing refining or modding (completionist tendencies also make it hard to put your only copy of a rare game card through the grinder). I also apparently let a lot of the subtleties of the plot fly right over my head, as I feel like I've learned a lot more about it (and come to appreciate it more) by reading other people's reactions over the past twenty years than I did by actually playing it.

Anyway, the result of playing it like a game it wasn't is that I accidentally hit max character level while trying to grind out ultimate weapons, while simultaneously only taking surface-level advantage of the real meat of the game systems, thus making the endgame unnecessarily hard on myself. I did beat it, but just by the skin of my teeth with some lucky limit breaks, and it felt kind of hollow. None of this is the fault of the game, which often nudges you in the right directions; it just wasn't the right thing at the right time for me. I'd probably have appreciated it a lot more if I came to it a decade later or something.

Released on December 6, 1992 (Japan)
Producer: Shinji Hashimoto
Director: Hironobu Sakaguchi
Composer: Nobuo Uematsu

For the longest time, V was cursed. It was released in 1992, but didn’t make it to the US until 1999 (or 2002, in the case of Europe). When it came out it was skipped from localization in favor of VI, and a later localization project under the name of “Final Fantasy Extreme” was canceled mid-development. When V finally came out using X-Treme's localization, it had names like “Y-burn” amd “X-Death”. We didn’t get a decent localization until the GBA version came out in 2006.

And it’s a shame it took this long because the game is great.

Final Fantasy V is a systems game. There’s a story there about four warriors having to fight an evil tree who wants to return everything to the Void. It’s OK. And yes, I’m being glib about a story that features dragonriders, a non-gender-conforming pirate and a guy who uses meteors to travel around, but the job system is that good!

V is when the job system reached its peak. Instead of a linear progression like III or set jobs like IV, in V each character can switch to jobs at any time once unlocked. But when switching, they can equip an ability from another job - the more leveled the job, the more powerful the equipped ability. This allows you to mix and match jobs and, in a game where every job is viable, that leads to a lot of fun and even some nice almost game-breaking builds.

The game also had a reputation for being hard, or that it was “too different” from other Final Fantasies, mostly because Square gave that as a reason why it wasn’t localized after IV. But in fact the game isn’t hard, but it does give you lots of rope to hang you with as it lets you do whatever you want with your build - but worst case you just need to grind some AP to get past the next boss, and it shouldn’t even be necessary unless you’re crazy enough to, dunno, make a party with four berserkers. And it isn’t that different when you look at the series as a whole - it all was leading to here.

So, yes, this is the game that gave us Gilgamesh and Boco the Chocobo and Clash of the Big Bridge and so many other things, but this job system rules so hard it eclipses everything else.

Something Old

V takes the job system and makes it even better. Most jobs come from III, but there are a couple of new ones. Curiously, the emblematic Onion Knight is left out, with a new job, Freelancer, taking its place as the character’s first (and if you play your cards right, final) job.

By the way, while moogles weren’t introduced in V, this is the game that would make them popular. Most games after V would feature moogles in one capacity or another.

Something New

You mean besides the Job System, something so influential it still is echoing down the series?

Well, how about superbosses? V gave us our first taste of them, and we liked them so much that superbosses have been retroactively added to most re-releases of earlier games. In V’s case they were two brutally hard optional enemies who could still be defecated by playing intelligently (or giving dual wielding to a dragoon and jumping like mad, but hey). Shinryu and Omega (hey, there’s that name again!) would become so popular they would get guest appearances in future titles.

Something Blew

Just as with IV, V is so influential it’s hard for me to think of something that didn’t get reused sooner or later. Even jobs that never appear again in the series (like Beastmaster) either appear in spin-offs or are inspiration for other jobs. And while the job system as such would never be used again as is, it’s hard to deny its impact on the series (and in spin-offs - Tactics took a lot from here and dialed it up).

Heck, even the foes introduced here have been used again and again. Gilgamesh and Omega practically live from this, appearing in other Final Fantasies.

Score

22 / 22 jobs

I am really nostalgic about this game. This was when I made my debut in-game! And have been growing powerful ever since!

We are almost near the end of the list. Any last words, fleshlings?

Beastmaster was used again! In FFXI! That's not a spin-off!

Has any subsequent FF had a tree for a villain?

surprised no one had this #1. for me it was the only thing that approached ffxii, but in that it feels like the best example of "what is final fantasy for me". But all the obvious greatness of the job system and of a collection of great villains, the cast of this game is so woefully underappreciated and that's what really elevates it for me. It seems almost content in thinking it is a "systems game" but there's a tight efficiency in the emotional core; what other game has battle dialog that manages to reach the soul? (rhetorical)

RT-55J said:

Has any subsequent FF had a tree for a villain?

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If you really really reach for it, Jenova is KIND OF like a tree. The Iifa Tree in IX also plays a pretty central role in villainous plans.

I played FF5 for the first time on emulator in the late 90s and unfortunately without an English patch, so I didn't make it very far before moving on to something else. My first proper attempt would be the Anthology release on PSX and, admittedly, something felt off and I quickly switched over to FF6. Picked it up on release for the GBA and, while I had a better time with it there, my playthrough stalled somewhere around Crescent Island.

In 2015 I got a wild hair and decided I would play all of the SNES-era FFs but the GBA versions, so I started up another playthrough. Maybe it's because I actually played along with the guide that time - shoutout to Caves of Narshe - but I was able to actually finish the game and it went from being one of my least liked FF games to one of my most.

While I appreciate the job system here, it has more depth than I like. I'm not really a systems person. (FF3's system is the ideal to me.) The more I have to dip into menus and sub-menus and mess about with systems, the more my patience and enthusiasm wane. For me, the appeal of the game is how seemingly light-hearted and irreverent it is but really it's more of where the game exists tonally when compared to the other games. It's just a fun romp, with interesting and funny characters. Even Exdeath is kinda perfect in how ridiculous he's presented.

I've tried to replay it at least once since that 2015 playthrough and I stalled out again at Crescent Island, so history repeated there. Maybe I should try it again with a guide. Still, when I got my Analogue SuperNT, which plays SNES and Super Fami games, FF5 was the first game I picked up for it. Sure, I can't read the text but it doesn't matter. It's just a fun a game to inhabit for a bit.

Unknown Lands sounds like a lost FF4 track. (Being reminded of the FF4 OST is always a good thing.) This track reminds me of a FF7 track but I can't put my finger on it. (Yes, it's good even without the comparison. Alas.) Moogles! I love the FF water/underwater themes. Always such a treat, no exception here. And I would be remiss if I didn't link to Battle on the Big Bridge. And then there's this, which may be one of my top 10 tracks in the entire series. So damn triumphant.

pudik said:

surprised no one had this #1. for me it was the only thing that approached ffxii, but in that it feels like the best example of "what is final fantasy for me". But all the obvious greatness of the job system and of a collection of great villains, the cast of this game is so woefully underappreciated and that's what really elevates it for me. It seems almost content in thinking it is a "systems game" but there's a tight efficiency in the emotional core; what other game has battle dialog that manages to reach the soul? (rhetorical)

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Agreed. I like the job system, but what mostly makes me love this game is the great team we get. While in IV, the characters feel partly like a group that has to work together to achieve a common goal, here we get a group of friends. They joke with each other, share their feelings, and are just plain fun and nice to hang out with.

There are also some nice storytelling moments, especially how there is all this character backstory that is left for you to discover (or miss). I think the characters are better than they are given credit for, even aside from their delightful friendship. Faris alone is really great, but I love them all.

It also has a really fun villain, as goofy as he is. He is such a saturday-morning-cartoon villain, it's delightful (and even better at it than Golbez was in the first half of IV).

There is more about this that I like - fun job system (maybe my favourite part about this is the dressup, with all the fun costumes?) and a pretty fun final part, that is a smaller-scale version of the open-world of VIs World of Ruin. But mainly, I love how you are going on a fun adventure with a bunch of really likeable people.

As mentioned before, this could have been my number one. I really enjoy spending time in this world.

And moogles, of course. I love them. If it weren't for IX, this would be their best outing, but they are pretty fun here, too.

Hehe, I bet you “defecated” those super bosses

I can’t remember if I tried this first on the ps1 collection or on an emulator with a not great patch but I remember getting to a point where I was grinding out statues to max out as many jobs as possible and what a boring waste of time that was.

I, of course, tried again eventually, probably with the GBA port and it clicked. Amazing game, I don’t do the Fiesta every year, but I’ve done it quite a few times. Always a delight.

FF5 is a systems game only to the extent that you want it to be a systems game. Otherwise, play up to the Wind Crystal, create a FF1 party, and play through the rest of the game without having to care that there's a slightly more optimal way to play.

FFV4JF turned me around on V. Instead of trying to make the perfect party and then changing my mind a bunch and grinding away at AP, I just stuck to the jobs I had and played on. I’ve now beaten the game 3 or 4 times, and it’s one of my favorites.