Worst/Least Favorite Final Fantasy Game?

[Xeogred]

Which is a shame. TO >>>>>>> FFT.

[mobiusclimber]

Here's my long list (spoilers ahead):

Final Fantasy I - Confession time: I've never played this game past getting the boat and dicking around until I give up. I actually don't like having so many choices that I can go anywhere and no direction whatsoever as to where I should be going. I need to play one of the remakes, I think, but I haven't gotten around to it.

Final Fantasy II - thought it was an ok time-waster on the DS. I barely remember it, tho.

Final Fantasy III - See the entry for 2. I have a lot of vague remembrances about parts of the game (the earthquake, your friend is the enemy, there's a need to use mini to go visit some tiny people) that are either from this one or 2, or some combination. I just don't really remember enough about either.

Final Fantasy IV - Time for another confession: I don't really like this game that well. I don't mean I dislike it, tho. It isn't bad, but I just can't get into it. There's some good parts in the game (the whole beginning up to becoming a Paladin) but between the flip-flopping where your friend is your enemy is your friend is your enemy, and just the way characters keep leaving your party, it gets really silly and kinda tedious.

Final Fantasy V - I like the game up to a point, and then after that point I really don't like it. I thought the story in the beginning, especially with the pirate, was awesome. Too bad the game just doesn't keep up like that. Eventually, a character leaves your party, you're left wandering around a forest overworld and underpowered, you get a replacement character and the game just sort of meanders along. It gets frustrating and boring and then I give the game up.

Final Fantasy VI - The best in the series. My only major complaint is that, while Kefka is a great villain in that you really do hate the bastard, his reasoning is basically "I want to rule the world but I'm insane so I'll just destroy the world instead!" Which, yeah. But there are some really affecting scenes in this game. I also like that there's no technical leader (you could say Terra, but the fact that you don't have a character you have to keep in your party at all times is pretty cool).

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest - Like the music and the fact that enemies' sprites show damaged when they get below a certain amount of hp. Otherwise, I don't really care for it. Too straight-forward and easy, no real hook to keep me playing.

Final Fantasy VII - Love it, but realize it's pretty flawed. Plus, I can't really get into it anymore, tho I think that's mostly to do with having played it so many times there's just nothing new for me to do in the game. And the in-game graphics are fugly.

Final Fantasy VIII - I can't say this is the worst FF game but it's definitely the one I hate the most. Stupid main character, stupid plot, stupid just about everything. I liked the card game, and I liked a few of the characters (Quistis and... um... Quistis...) and that is pretty much it.

Final Fantasy IX - I think this one has the love story that FF8 tried so hard to have and couldn't. I like this game a lot, tho I've only played it once. Actually, starting w/ 8, I've only played the FF games once, whereas 4, 5, 6, 7 and MQ all got played multiple times.

Final Fantasy X - I really enjoyed the game in spite of all the awful stuff in it. Half the cast are lousy, Seymour is so clearly gay his whole wedding plans should have been laughed at more than anything, most of the game just seemed downright silly. I love the ending tho, I actually enjoyed Blitzball no matter how unrealistic it was, and I congratulate Square on including fan service of a teenage girl in this one.

Final Fantasy X-2 - Didn't think X needed a sequel and I still don't. The whole thing just felt unnecessary, not just from a plot perspective but gameplay and story and characters... to quote South Park "don't care - don't care - don't care - don't care."

Final Fantasy XII - People who complain that the game plays itself never got very far into the game. I actually love the battle engine in this one and feel like it added a ton of strategy to what is usually just a button-mashing fest. ("So I hit X to attack and then I... hit X to attack again... then I sit back and watch as my characters attack. And then I hit X to attack again...") I kinda wish they'd made all or most of the gambits available from the beginning tho. It makes no sense in a real-world setting (you can't yell out what to do to your teammates? WTF?) and only serves to make the early part of the game feel like autopilot. But what ruins it for me is the monster hunting, which is really just Monster Hunter in an FF game, and distracted from the story. I couldn't follow what was going on b/c I kept doing the hunts instead, for long periods of time just ignoring the plotline. It didn't help that you were never in the thick of these huge military battles, only ever hearing about them from people. I really felt like the political military storyline had little to do with you and so it felt like it was at a distance. Not to mention that you were stuck with annoying kids as the protagonists while the more interesting adults were relegated to side-kick status (occasionally muttering how they were "too old for this shit.") I never beat the game b/c I couldn't follow the plot anymore and I was sick of monster hunting. I will say that I thought the way the overworld was laid was should really be the way all games do it now. That is really next-gen, as far as I'm concerned. No overworld, each environment leads to the next. It was like playing Diablo 2 or something.

Final Fantasy XIII - I had no real problem with this game leading you down hallway-style environment after hallway-style environment until it finally dumped you into a big open world where you... do a ton of Monster Hunting like in XII. I also felt like the battle engine was a step back from XII with less customization and just not as fun. I also found that the world was much more interesting than the storyline and characters you get saddled with. Reading the encyclopedia entries was more interesting. I gave up on this game eventually.

Final Fantasy Tactics - Loved it, thought the political plot was great, spent a ton of time leveling up all the classes and whatnot. Just a terrific game.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance - Fun, but I hated the story.

Final Fantasy Crisis Core - Fun for a short while but got boring.

So that's it I guess.

[Hazerd]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siuWZxDMGnk
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[D.D.D.]

Least favorite? 8
It was just not very fun for me; the story never really pulled me in, the characters weren't very interesting (that and some of them were named after towns where I grew up was kinda lame), and the button mashing to get more powerful summons sucked.
Not a bad game, just not very good. Played it once; been sitting in a box since.

[brunoafh]

I'm okay with VIII, but I can appreciate the fact that it's pretty much a mess. I chalk VII and VIII's appeal up to what someone here said, "they're greater than the sum of their parts". They just have a lot of charm in general. I remember I didn't really care for VIII when I first played it. Got it the week it came out and was very meh-ed by it. I replayed it a few years later though and wound up really enjoying it. The plot is ridiculous and the battle system kind of blows, but for some reason it's just a really charming game for me.

Speaking of VII/VIII, this is just a random thought but VII's popularity is a lot more than it being a lot of people's first JRPG in NA/EU. VII was and is extremely popular in Japan too. So what I'm saying is yes the nostalgia factor a lot of us have is a big factor in the game's popularity/reputation, but it's extremely popular in it's homeland too, so it's charm goes further than the nostalgia factor.

[Xeogred]

I think it's interesting seeing that FFVI probably wasn't as popular in Japan as it was here. In return it sounds like FFV and ExDeath are a lot more popular there though, which isn't the case here probably because it took forever for us to get it. I think I've heard people claim it was the English translation of FFVI that gave Kefka character, but in Japanese he was seen as an ExDeath knockoff and wasn't very sadistic/clown like, and his dialogue was just flat out strange. Pretty weird. No idea if all that's true though.

I have nothing bad to say about FFVIII myself. I can never replay it again (failed a few times), but I have fond memories of going through it and doing everything back when it was new. The music is really different from Uematsu's other stuff too so that's nice. Great world and all, although I like FFVII's darker atmosphere. Honestly I probably prefer VIII over IX.

[mobiusclimber]

I think 8 is just downright goofy. 7 seemed to have some funny moments but never really overdid it. The only really comedic things I remember was the bath house and body building musclemen you have to go thru to get into Don Corneo's place, and Cid and his wife and their interactions later on. But 8 just goes all out, ball-busting insane over and over again. The worst probably being when the president turns out to be a zombie. Then you have all those weird flashbacks and stuff like that... the game just felt super goofy. I think they scaled that back a bit with 9 but went overboard with it again in 10. By that point, I'd stopped looking for anything serious in an FF game, but man. Seymour and his chest hair, fake laughing, Waka... it was just a really silly game.

[Reprise]

Hmm this thread has made me realise that I haven't properly been able to get into a Final Fantasy game since FF7. I know a lot of fans criticise 7, as it's perhaps the most overrated in the series, but I have a lot of nostalgia for that game and still find it an enjoyable game.

FF8 - I couldn't get into, can barely even remember it.
FF9 - I tried, but haven't properly given it a chance. I should do that sometime.
FF10 - I can't get into at all. Horrendous characters, plain stupid and the game just irritates me.
FF10-2 - Seemed more annoying. Quit after less than 10 minutes and never returned to it. I like keeping an open mind, so I'll try it again some time.
FF12 - I actually found this slightly more enjoyable than 10 and quite underrated by a lot of fans. I enjoyed the political stuff as one member mentioned and found the world and battle system fairly good. Still, despite the positive, didn't stop me getting bored and quiting it.
FF13/FF13-2 - Haven't played yet.

My favourites are FF6 and FF7. I also remember really enjoying ones before 6, but can't remember any of them well enough to comment.

[o.pwuaioc]

Replay IV and give IX a chance.

[AznKhmerBoi]

Any after FFX, dont know why just couldnt get into them.