Final Fantasy Tier Lists 2025

In order from better to worse left to right too:

S tier: FFIX, FFVII, FFXI, Tactics Ogre, Tactics Advanced, Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis
A tier: FFIII, FF Tactics, Tactics Advaced A2, FFXII, Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus
B tier: FFVIII, FFX-2, FFX, FFV, FFIV
C tier: FFVI
D tier: FFII, FFI (after first play through), FFXIII games

I have never played FFXIV or FFXV or FFXVI, and never played FFXIII beyond the half an hour I could stand it.

Not main line FF games:
S tier: The 4 Heroes of Light, Bravely Default
A tier: Bravely Second
B tier: Bravely Default II
C tier: Mythic Quest
D tier: Final Fantasy Legends games

Those are some hot *** takes guy

Bait, found it. *Bites the bait*.

SS tier: FF11, stranger of paradise
S tier: FF5, FF12,
A tier: FF8, FF3, FFTA, FF7 remake, FF10
B tier: FF7, FFT, FF13 trilogy, FFX-2,
C tier: FF1, FF2, FF14,
D tier: FF4, FF6, FF9, FF15
F tier: Crisis core

*Creates more bait*

Tell me you were born after 1998 without telling me you were born after 1998

Excuse me, admins, when will the downvote button be implemented?

Nope!

The thing with FF tier list is that FF series has VERY wide variety of different design philosophy so many target audience of those games just don't overlap.

FF4 has drastically different design philosophy from FF5 despite they are both old school 2D FF. FF11 also has very different design philosophy from FF14 2.0+ despite they are both MMO. so very frequently target audience just don't overlap and you'll see fans of some FF games hate the other FF games.

What I loved about FF5 is job change system, which just didn't exist in 4, 6 nor 9. So it's natural for me to rank those games lower.

On the other hand, FF11, stranger of paradise and FF12 all kinda has job system design philosophy a bit similar to what FF5 offered. Even Lighting Return has job system similar to FF5's direction via changing cloths. So it's easier to rank those games higher because they have what I looked for.

So this kind of "tier list" for FF series is inherently going to become game direction preference list imo. When you compare games "tiers" they have to have a common ground on game direction but FF series just don't have that.

It's much easier to make a tier list for something like "metroidvania Castlevania" because you can directly compare the quality of every aspect when the game directions are all the same.

S - 11, 4, 6, 16
A - 7, 8, 1, 15, 14(story)
B - Tactics, 10, Afteryears, Mysic Quest
C - 7rm/rb, 5, 3, 2, 12, 13
F - Strangers, Crisis, all spinoffs of 13, X-2, 14(endgame)

I'm in the process of playing 9 so I won't rank it... but this is the 4th time I've tried to play it and the characters and story bore me to death so far.

S tier: FF11, FF14, FF10, FF6, FF7
A tier: FF16
B tier: FF5, FF15, FF12
C tier: FF3, FF4, FF9, FF13
D tier: FF2, FF1, FF13-3
F tier: Stranger of Paradise, FF13-2, Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus, FF10-2
Bottom: FF8

FF9 is the best video game ever made.

Explain. I was born in 1987. FF7 first FF game at 11 in 1999!!

How can you not like Dirge of Cerberus? I have not played Stranger of Paradise yet. Agree with FF8 mostly.

I've always acknowledged the value of FF9, you'd have to be a dumbass not to recognize it.
At the same time though it never really grew up on me for many reasons.

Most main characters are pretty flat but more than that is the aestethics. I really can't stand the SD "kawaii" look.
I loved the gameplay, finally 4 chars in party battle again! Granted in that regard the game isn't particularly original or fresh... and I guess it didn't want to, it just wanted to merge several "old FF" things together and it did a great job in that.

Then there's the overall story, which is not too bad but at the same time, I dunno, it didn't really manage to get me emotionally involved, it all felt so... uhm flat? I mean it was nice but, boring? The antagonists pulling the strings behind Kuja were all so bland, came out too late...
Well in the end I guess it's pointless to argue, it's simply just a matter of personal tastes. Like I said before I definitely do acknowledge the value of FF9 but appearently it wasn't targeted for people like me.


Edit:
Dirge of Cerberus was... not too bad. Probably should be a bit higher in my tier list but it's been so long and a remastered version didn't came out so I didn't have a chance to play it again.
I absolutely loved Vinced even before Dirge of Cerberus so that game was a sure-to-be hit for people like me.
There were several nice ideas from a game design point of view, but all of those elements didn't really play together fine at the end of the day. Controls were clunky, a lot of parts of the game were extremely clunky despite some very nice ideas like I mentioned before.
Then there's the story, and I have mixed feelins on this.
On one side Dirge of Cerberus story is not too bad, I could say is the best of the "FF7 compilation" series of games. On the other hand though, there's that extreme retcon feeling you can feel from every pixel of DoC and every other post FF7 titles set in the same universe. So contrived, so retconned, so full of nomura-style ***.
I get this mixed feeling where on one side I was absolutely lusting for more stuff getting more in depth into the FF7 universe, on the other hand the feeling that the way they've done it, definitely was NOT the right way to do it. For my tastes, at least.
So yeah while DoC was certainly not the worst exponent of these issues, it still suffers from this general problem.
I know I know, personal views etc, I'm aware most people in here probably won't agree with me on this.

Oh and to be fair, about my whole F tier list.

Stranger of Paradise is a very good game in its own genre, once you go beyond the stupid (and funny!) memes about killing Chaos.
It's just not a type of game I like, not anymore. But if you do, it's a pretty good game honestly.

FFXIII-2 was nice in terms of content and several things, but so *** full of watered down plot, massive re-use of assets and an incredibly stupid, contrived and uberly retconned plot that felt like a badly written fanfiction that I can't really put it above F tier. Gameplay wise it was nice and the content too.

I could say similar things for FFX-2. I loved the gameplay elements and I like the initial and final parts of the plot, when they put a (sort of...) cathartic ending to the FFX original plot. But everything other than that was too light-themed, too many important elements completely pulled out of their hats last min, too many relevant stuff from FFX completely ignored, and all the Idol-gurlz-power thing that was initially nice and fresh but after a while it went way too far up to the point of becoming overly obnoxious. So, despite its many merits, I still concur on putting it on F tier.

Crisis Core was, well, I dunno, sort of same things I said for DoC. The remastered version makes it more entertaining to play I guess, in terms of QoL, controls etc and overall it feels more "FF" than DoC did maybe, with its shooter-action bizarre mix and the dark-goth setting.

I don't know how people can say FF9 characters are flat, I think they're the deepest of any game. Quina is batshit insane, Sarah is torn, Eiko is lovestruck, Vivi is trying to find himself (like a teenager), Zidane fights and does things to avoid deep insecurities and confusion, etc.

The only thing I didn't like about X-2 was that 99% was reused maps and it should have had more content. Pretty sure the story is dumb too (don't remember) but I like the job system and their individual last jobs.

I prefer both FF7 and FF8 over FF9.

Meet outside at the parking lot if you feel strongly about it.

The initial and final parts of FFX-2 (how it all comes together and how it creates a cathartic moment for the two lovers from FFX) is... beautiful. Some could say a bit too romantic and girlish, but beautiful.

The problem, in my opinion, is everything else.
Like 90% of the stuff going on in FFX-2 instead of adding more depth to the beautiful world-building of Spira, adds some new stuff (remember: new writer!) pulled out of their ***, from nowhere, and creates a bunch of plot elements which all feel extremely contrived and are insanely watered down, because the whole situation could've been over in like less than 10hrs of gameplay but then people would've whined the game was too short.

This is exactly what happens when you want to create a sequel but didn't plan for it OR you don't have enough GOOD ideas.
You need to water down those few good ideas you have with a long series of pointless and boring stalemate.

This is the problem of several not-planned sequels of course, but in particular for FFX-2 imho.

seeing FF1 ranked so low is definitely something. need to have people mention what was their first FF game prior to posting their tier list

My first FF was FF8. I would guess that explains why it is so high on my personal list. Only looking at mainline Final Fantasy titles. No ranking - haven't played it.

SS tier: FF11
S tier: FF7, FF8
A tier: FF6, FF9, FF12
B tier: FF4, FF5, FF3, FFX, FFX-2
C tier: FF13
D tier: FF14
F tier: FF15, FF16

Honestly don't remember much from FF3 FF4 and FF5, was so long ago I played them.

For me it was Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, which wasn't a Final Fantasy at all XD Google it if you're curious.

Other than that I could say FF3 (which was the initial name of FF6 in the west) but I didn't get far on it back then (I would re-discover it later with the PS1 version and fall in love with it).

If we avoid these examples I just made, then my first proper FF has been FF7 for PS1! Loved it from the demo, and bought an import US version to play it several months in advance compared to the "proper" EU release <3

Wasn't my first jRPG but yeah, my "first" FF I properly played and finished.


Can't speak for all the world but at least in my country FF8 has been the first FF and the first jRPG for A LOOOOOOOT of people.
It was also the first jRPG to be translated in our own language (italian).

This doesn't go for everyone but statistically is quite common for the majority of people for their first FF game to be very high in their list.
So don't feel guilty! A lot of people share your exact same position.

FF8 was probably the last game with a heavy presence of Hironobu Sakaguchi behind the director board (technically, credits-wise, he was heavily involved in FF9 as well but I doubt he did a lot other than give the initial ideas and supervise the project) and had a lot of very nice ideas. A more teen-adult oriented story, several original elements in the plot, an extremely unique system for the battle system, the first FF game with dynamic scaling of levels for monsters (to keep old areas somewhat relevant even later in games) and I could go on for a long time.

Many good ideas, but alas very few of those were implemented in the right way, imho. Game was plagued by wonky decisions which might have seemed awesome in themselves but simply didn't play well with each other.
Then there's the plot: Absolutely fascinating in many, many aspects, but told in such a bad way... A lot of it has to do with extremely wonky english translations, but sadly not all of its problems can be rooted down to the translation itself.

I feel FF8 maybe gets bashed too much by many fans (who won't recognize several merits) but on the other hand it also gets idolized too much by others (beause it was the first FF they played)

I specified after first play through. I enjoyed it the first 2-3 times, but hate it now.

Final Fantasy 1 was my first FF game. I remember taking the instruction book to elementary school with me. I actually still have my original FF1 manual and NES cart.

I also vividly remember going to my uncles house when SNES came out and seeing FF4 (and SNES in person not at a store) for the first time. I remember the opening scene when Cecil uses LITBOLT and obliterates the entire screen. Blew my 9 year old mind.

Why would I feel guilty.

I enjoyed the game. Others not liking it doesn't change the fact I enjoyed it.

Well said! That was quite obviously a projection on my side.
Please accept my apologies for that!

No apologies necessary :fist bump: .

I would say SoP is a very, very focused experience, which is "grind jobs and loot, make your builds and beat challenging foes".

It really only offers that. If you look for anything else like story, character or pretty aesthetic you won't find it in SoP.

But I generally prefer focused experience in games these days. If I want to play a game for story then I don't want combat to weaken/distract from the story. Likewise if I want deep turn based strategy then I want as many deep strategic choice as possible but I can ignore the story.

Most of the old school FF fall in the category of doing multiple things and not focusing. It was okay in 90-2010 era when big release games weren't competing with tons of indie. But post 2015 I find myself enjoy focused experience more, when more and more indie games provide way more focused experience than big release.

That's why SoP got ranked so high on my list and FF15 was low. FF15 was the example of trying include too many elements like open world, action, story, hunt, fishing and ended up weakened all of the elements. SoP only focus on one thing and one thing well.

That's why I love SoP so much and I feel SE should really consider this more focused direction in future single player games.

If I was going to play 16 or 15, which should I play?

I kinda enjoyed it, but it has jobs but not job change system. So it feels mechanically weaker compare with 3 and 5. That's why I can't rank it higher than FF3&5.

FF16 is an awesome game but it has very little to do with FF other than the setting, characters etc.
It's an action game kinda like Devil May Cry, inserted into a jrpg-wanna-be outside.

To be fair, in many aspects it's philosophically closer to the essence of the old jRPG FFs than some of the recent titles, which is very ironic, but aside from sophisms it has very little to do with jRPG other than a thin external layer.
It's a pure action game and it's very very good at that.


FFXV is uhm... it's a title what was in truth developed from scratch in like 2 years, not the much bigger number that you can calculate since when FF Versus XIII was announced.
If you consider this, it's sort of a miracle they managed to do all that stuff in "just" 2 years.
Is it a complete game though?
No.
It certainly wasn't complete when it came out, but even after all the patches and plethora of DLCs, it still feels like it misses a *** of parts in the narrative aspect.
Gameplay wise it's a mixture. It's appearently an action game, but the logic behind has "turns" hidden underneath.
Result? It's not really good at being a turn based game (of course, they're all hidden to the player) and it's not exactly good at being a pure action game (like FF16).
Also it's not a pure open world, arguably just the first area (which is very very huge) is open world, the rest is not and it's much smaller.
Is it a good game?
Personally I liked it a lot and I really enjoyed all it offered.
I can see why some people hated it.

FFXV is maybe slightly closer to what you would expect to a "modern AAA jRPG FF" compared to FF16, which has NOTHING to do with jRPG but, in my very personal view, is very very close to the essence/philosophy of prime FF, even if it has a completely different gameplay.

Both are pretty similar. 16 has a better story and drastically better acting. 16 world is more swords and magic and 15 is more modern with cars and cell phones.

So many people bash 16 because of the fighting. It feels like a much more real time action battle system... but if you slow down and don't react to everything like it's Dark Souls, you'll find 16 is more like a real time turn based game. You can play it fast twitched react, or slow down and watch each mobs movements slowly develope and react. The worst part is the move sets... it get's really old spamming the same moves over and over to just anihilate everything.

I had a much better time on my NG+ focusing on just using normal attacks, countering, parrying, and dodging instead of spamming the AoE moves that basically oneshot everything. The fights felt very immersive, similar to Nier Automata combat.

15 on the other hand has a fantastic open end game that feels very Final Fantasy. 16 really does not, there really is no secrets. Everything you can find has a map marker. The DLC for 16 is pretty good, but it's just a long dungeon and another town/story. It's not like tons of extra content. 15 has a very fun hidden dungeon that is all platforming and very cool looking.