Why FF9 Is The Best Final Fantasy

Gah. I have a love-hate relationship with straight-up ranking the FF games beyond just acknowledge IX as my favorite. But I'll love doing it and hate myself for it later. Also excluding XI because...completely different beast.

IX > IV > Tactics > VII*** > XII > VIII*/*** > V > X**/*** > I > II > III > VI >>>>> steaming pile of dog snot >>>>> XIII and sequels.

*only rates this high b/c of amazing soundtrack/cinematics

**would rate in the 3-4 range except I despised the ending.

***both VII and X suffer for me because the main character is in a relationship with and/or pines over the wrong female to me. I really dislike both Aeris and Yuna. A lot. Edit: forgot I should probably add VIII to this entry too. Not Rinoa's biggest fan, either.

Curious as to why VI is so far down your roster. We seem to be relatively like minded on what elements make a suitable FF title; yet VI is on the very top of my list, with IX being runner up, IV following in third. After that I become relatively indifferent.

FF8 didn't make sense to me. I get that the main characters were SEED and they were destined to kill the Sorceress but at the same time, they were nothing special. They were 17 year olds with whips and swords, why couldn't any other older soldier or warrior do it. In past FF games, the writers justified the fact that your party of 18 year olds could save the world because they either possessed crystals or were chosen by the crystals and endowed with powers.

FF1- Chosen by Crystals
FF2- Chosen by Crystals/Had Ultima
FF3- Chosen by Crystals
FF4 -Chosen by Crystals/party made up of legendary warriors i.e last Dragoon, Paladin in FF4 world are a big deal, last surviving Mysidian Summoner.
FF5- Chosen by Crystals
FF6- Party was made up of legendary warriors i.e Celes was a general, Terra was half Esper, Edgar was a King+ party possessed magicite(crystals) which were a desirable commodity in the game that the party raced to collect unlike GFs in FF8.
FF7- Party didn't save the world, Aeris did, it was clear throughout 99% of the game that you were no match for Sephiroth really, but certain characters were very powerful in the story and joined your party. Also Materia were a pretty important part of the story and your party had the Huge Materia.
FF9- Your party posessed fragments of the true crystal, you had a Black Mage and a Genome in your party as well as a Dragon Knight and 2 Summoners, your party was comprised of some of the best warriors on the planet.
FFX- Storyline-wise Auron basically pimped out your party having done the whole quest before in the past, he knew what was up through experience, Yuna was a Summoner and Summoners were OP in the story, you also had Al Bhed on your side.

FF8 is the only game where I have a hard time justifying that Squall and Co could defeat such an ethereal and dominatingly powerful being that surpasses time/space. They didn't have 'legendary weapons' (lionheart is modeled out of materials you find, it's not like its excalibur or ragnarok that was passed over through generations). The only thing I can think of is because of GF but GF were such a minor story element after the first disk, they never really talk or mention them in the game relevant to using them to defeat Ultemecia. They weren't chosen by the crystal or given any special powers, they were just trained mercenaries just like anyone else in the FF8 world, not sure what made them any better than any other SeeD, as it was mentioned that your party was not the only team of SeeD to exist and that presumably SeeD are promoted from Garden students every year.

Logging in for the first time in over a year to add to this thread.

I have the FFIX OST mixed in with my regular music on my home playlist. I get all warm and fuzzy inside when I get a hit on random.

:)

Well this thread certainly caught on! It kind of makes me feel bad that my only contribution thus far was a very underwhelming OP!

It's interesting to see the various reasons people have for liking or disliking the different Final Fantasy games, though. I would like to add to the dislike of FF8: this was far and away my least favourite of the series. I couldn't give a detailed and well thought out reason why I don't like it (although Squall's horrifically awful personality might have something to do with it), I just didn't enjoy it much. By the time I got to Disc 4 I was scratching my head wondering what orifice they plucked the end of the story out of. Parts of it felt mashed together, as if forced into a linear tale that they felt needed to be told. I didn't particularly enjoy it but I understand fully (from the parts I did like) why people enjoyed FF8 the most.

As you might have gathered, FF9 is my favourite. Yes, Ukelele De Chocobo is a wonderous soundtrack - but I prefer FF9 for more reasons than this cheerful melody. Artemicion and Wulfie essentially summarised why I love FF9, but I'll add a couple things in. I enjoyed the rich development of every character, something a lot of other RPGs I've played have neglected to do. Each character had their own back story, had their own hang ups and issues and each character was given time in the storyline to explore themselves (even Quina, and I still don't know who or what s/he is.)

I loved the Chocograph system. Chocobo Hot and Cold is probably my favourite minigame from all the Final Fantasy series. When I was done collecting all the graphs and treasures I still played it now and then between levelling up to fight Ozma, that's how much I enjoyed it! Despite getting nothing (by this point of the game) useful out of it. Beating Ozma also finished my playthrough of FF9 in a satisfying manner and allowed me to end on a feeling of accomplishment.

Not to mention, FF9's Holy was just badass.

If I had to rank each of the 'next generation' Final Fantasy games, I would say 9 > 10 > 7 > 10-2 (BLASPHEMY) > 8. I enjoyed 10-2 more than I enjoyed 8, oddly. By the time I played 10-2 I'd just finished with Kingdom Hearts 2 and was used to the more laid back approach to these type of games that Kingdom Hearts provided; this allowed me to enjoy 10-2 more than I probably would have done - it was a very juvenile game compared to the previous ones.

It's nice to see this thread is into page 6 and hasn't yet escalated to the usual petty arguments that take place in threads of this nature. I guess that just goes to show how cheerful Ukelele de Chocobo really is!

We should open more threads with it.

Edit:

I would like to reply to this:


I thought FF9's ending was one of the most unique in any RPG of its time. The fact that Kuja and Zidane were given the chance to speak on a personal level and that Kuja showed his human side (the side he was determined to hide in Terra), as well as reminding Zidane that if not for Kuja, Zidane would have been the one tearing Gaia to pieces. It was different. By this point of almost every other RPG the main antagonist is so foregone that there's just no chance for dialogue on any personal level with the main protagonist.

It was different and it added a whole new level to the development of both characters.

A group of trained mercenaries, with the power of summoning and magic, with a sorceress (who was also big deal) and a giant dragon spaceship isn't enough?
I guess nothing really makes them special, other than that they're nosy and the current newest batch of SeeD's? who knows.

I GUESS THE REAL VICTORY IS A STORY OF FRIENDSHIP AND LOVE OVERCOMING THE FORCES OF DARKNESSSSSS!

Or something lame like that.


I don't actually like 9, but its the one I play most often. Nothing bring up those childhood joys like watching Alexander utterly ruin Bahamut.

I wish I could tell you. It was released within a year of Chrono Trigger (far superior, imo, and would be second only to IX if I listed SE games in general here). So maybe that has something to do with it. But it just never sparked anything with me.

I actually recently had this discussion with a friend, as well. I couldn't come up with any solid reasons for him, either. It just never clicked with me. There's nothing wrong with it and I respect how much everyone else seems to hold it up as the pinacle of the series...but I just never felt that way about it.

Like I know Squall is a SeeD but I still don't get why or how (canon-wise) he's so strong i.e Lionheart Limit Break or any of the other characters. If 18 year olds can run around the planet and punch you at the speed of light, where are the veteran adults who have been training far longer? Those weapons should be relatively common too since there are freakin' magazines that tell you how to make them. If some 17 year olds can go around killing Dragons and collecting fangs and ***with a whip and a rifle, I don't see why some 20 and 30 something year olds with guns and bazookas can't do that too. NPCs in FF8 mentioned that the GFs your party collects are not all the GFs in the game meaning there are some GFs your party never obtains or finds, so it goes without saying that other people in the world also junction ***too(Galbadian soldiers cast magic, you can't cast magic if you aren't junctioning something since magic doesn't exist in FF8, except as 'paramagic' i.e magic you cast only through junction and drawing).

You're really sort of criticizing the series as a whole here. For the vast majority of FF games most of the main characters are teenagers with some sort of special skill being thrust into the fray, defeating monsters that seasoned soliders cannot due to their superior training and/or boosted powers from the crystals or whatever else.

Though, semi-related: I sort of liked the junctioning system in VIII, but having to take hours upon hours to go draw all the magic to actually use it pissed me off something fierce.

If you read my earlier post you'd see I'm not criticizing the series, just FF8. The FF8 cast wasn't special besides the lame "SeeD is destined to kill the Sorceress" not even sure how or why that was destiny, there's no outside force of a deity or crystals in FF8 to make that prophecy. So unlike other FF games where the characters were Warriors of Light/Dawn chosen by a deity/god/crystals and given powers, the FF8 cast were pretty generic mercenary soldiers not unlike anyone else at Garden who was a SeeD before them. They had no powers or abilities that were unique compared to anyone, the only unique one amongst them was Rinoa since she actually had REAL magic not paramagic which required a GF.

Technically I think when you consider the Junction system of FF8 being solely based on drawing powers/energy from forces you meet to attune them to yourself with the GF being the catalyst of those forces brings infinite possibility to how incredible they could become.

That and it was a much more complex system then 9's which was equip said weapon/gear use it a ton til you learn the ability. Most of 9 was simplistic, even the storyline until the last disc. For the PS1 they did a lot of really cool visual effects even beyond just CG cutscenes. I think the whole part with Zidane running over the crazy expanding tree thing at the end was awesome.

Those things aside I feel I connected more with the characters from Final Fantasy 8 than I did with 9. 7 still to this day seems really convoluted and like the story writer was trying really hard to make it something that hadn't been done before. 6 still feels like the best story to me. It honestly had me shocked at times that the events in it actually played out the way they did. Great ensemble cast too with how little dialoge you could put in an SNES game in comparison to the novels they could shove into PS1 discs.

FF6 story was amazing in that the villain actually succeeded in becoming a god and destroying the world. Your cast was pretty ragtag too although some members were strong according to the story(Terra is half-esper and in her Tranced form she had god powers, Celes was what Beatrix was based on, a young female general who has felled thousands of warriors single handedly etc)

That being said Celes in FF6 was also given the ability to use magic through artificial means, as oposed to needing espers to learn magic.
She was also able to learn magic through leveling up which was only exclusive to Terra and by extension strago, being a blue mage was able to learn magic from monsters.

I think Strago actually knew those spells in his youth but 'forgot them' which is why he needed to have his memory stirred by witnessing them. Remember, everyone in Thamasa was a descendent of a Magi so they had natural mage blood in them.

BTW, I'm pretty sure you just made up the idea of Paramagic. In the first FF you buy the spell and have a limited stock of uses of said spell until you rested by Inn/tent. In later games you had spells you either learned or bought that had a limited use via MP. Once that ran out you used ether and crap to refill to use again.

The junction system is just returning too original stock idea, but you can be more of a packrat, and instead of resting you can just draw it from monsters that have the ability already. It's pretty close to the way Blue Magic works. If Blue magic is called paramagic then my friend, you're just a dumbass.

People don't need prophecies or ancient weapons passed down to them to be special. They just have to be in the right place at the right time and most importantly the focus of a story. A pretty darn good one. Make all the justifications you can why FF8 isn't a good FF but you're probably wrong. Someone somewhere will find that it actually is a good game/story/adventure just like I did and think that you like to limit your Final Fantasy experiences to specific protocol. Just stfu and play the game or don't. LOL

Oh and I heard this one story in this crazy book about a little boy who killed a giant with a sling and a stone. A giant who an entire army was afraid to challenge. The boy wasn't blessed by magical powers or foretold in legends, he watched a bunch of sheep.... Oh yeah then they made him a king and crap.

What I'm getting at here, stop limiting your judgement of how special a character is or how powerful they appear. That's not what makes a good story. They don't need to have energy level OVER 9000!!!! They just need to be there when the opportunity calls.

Paramagic is an in game term in FF8. In FF8, magic doesn't exist, it can't be bought or learned, the only things that can use magic are Sorceresses who have fragments of souls of the Great Hyne in them; creatures and GFs. The only way to use Magic is to Junction a GF to your soul and "draw" magic from other things and attune it to yourself temporarily. No other human besides a Sorceress has natural magical ability without a GF. The reason why SeeD's are 'special' compared to normal soldiers is because they employ this 'paramagic' which is extremely controversial in the world of FF8 due to the memory damaging aspect of Junctioning.

I never said FF8 was a bad game, I said the storyline is a bit contrived.

Here's evidence that I didn't just 'make up' paramagic:

No, I played them chronologically (from 7 onwards) as they were released. Then I went back to play the earlier ones.

The motif of FF is that regular ordinary people are blessed by a deity or some supernatural force and rise above their mediocrity to save the world. It's a common theme across all cultures and religions in mythos, some kind of divine intervention. All I'm saying is the FF series revolves around Crystals(even FF7's Huge Materia are reminsicent of the original Crystals..look at the color of the huge materia and what the narration says when you examine them in game i.e fiery glow, soft cold glow etc). FF8 had no crystals and no real divine intervention that made the cast any more special than regular people whereas in every other FF game, the cast had several characters that were believably strong due to their history or storyline-acquired abilities i.e getting Ultima/Jobs.

All these arguments are pretty moot anyway. If a game needs to be ranked on story alone XI should take the crown. How many of those games can you actually feel like a part of the world yourself? How many seem for the most part three dimensional. Not in appearance but in believability. It's a world that's still ever expanding and moving and breathing. An earlier poster called it another beast entirely, but I think that's the point!!!

That being said after nearly 10 years of playing XI, its hard to go back to the originals with the same interest and wonder. I still thing 8 had some of my favorite "heartstring" tugging moments.

There were crystals in Final Fantasy IV but there was no divine intervention. The only thing close to that was Cecil confronting the evil in himself to take up the ideals of being a Paladin. Other than that the crystals were just a "lets keep these things out of the bad guys hands"

I still disagree with the idea of divine intervention being required. Or any kind of intervening from a benevolent force. That's not what Final Fantasy is about. It was simply a Fantasy game that was potentially a final project for Square who was facing possible bankruptcy. Each game is a new world, each world has new rules. Some worlds are similar to others, but they are all different stories. I think if you had to rate things on crappy deluded stories you should try playing 5. It was a shameless rehash of old ideas and hate worthy characters.

It kind of is required, that's what makes Final Fantasy a Final Fantasy game and not Dragon Quest or Phantasy Star. The game has certain plot elements and motifs, although since Hironobu Sakaguchi left, the stories have become more and more lackluster(He wrote the story for FF1-10 before leaving, FFX-2, FFXII and FFXIII were all written by someone else which is why the stories are blander)


Actually the common theme of FF is the crystals/divine intervention.

-The Crystals/Orbs in FF1
-Ultima in FF2
-Crystals again in FF3
-The Crystals had a smaller role in FF4 but in the end they are sentient, this is even more evident in After Years where the crystals are extremely important to the FF4 world.
-Crystals again important in FF5 for giving powers/memories of legendary heroes to your young/naive characters.
-Espers gave powers to your characters in FF6, imparting to them knowledge of magic and increasing their stats. Magecite were the analogue to crystals.
-Materia and by extension the Huge Materia were the 'crystals' of FF7. The contained in them knowledge of the ancients and were made from elements of the Earth and Spirit energy(mako). Holy was the divine intervention that saved the planet.
FF8- The closes thing I can find to divine intervention was Ellone's ability to send you back in time, without her, you're screwed but at the same time I still don't get how 17 year olds can defeat an abstract being that controls freaking time. They have whips and guns, they don't even wear armor in FF8 and they don't have any magical items or anything.
-FF9 the characters are pretty special, most of them have something unique about them or they're the best/last of their kind. They also possess crystal fragement from each nation and have 2 summoners with them.
-FFX the characters ahve the sphere grid and collect spheres which are basically materia in that they contain the knowledge and wisdom of warriors long since dead, Summoners are big deal in Spira and Yuna is in your party.

All I'm saying is FF8's had the least connection with the overall theme of the FF games in that the characters are 'nothing special', they're a bunch of ragtag teenagers without any special powers inherent to them and they are not given anything else story-line wise to enhance them or prepare them for fighting a TIME GOD.

Dude.

Each game also has an individual theme.

FF7 was identity
FF8 was love
FF9 was "melody of life"

I don't remember after that because I stopped reading gamepro around ps2 release. Or was it EGM/EGM2? They did interviews with the specific question being asked.

FF7 was the best FF2 american version 2nd best FF3 american release 3rd best.... FFX thru FFXiii (minus FFXI) were all complete ***thrown together by an invalid with nub hands

Welcome to JRPG/anime, main characters have to be teens.

Consider imbibing a tasty cup of Hemlock.

Don't knock FF8. It still has something that FF11 doesn't...

Phoenix Downs