Final Fantasy Top 10

(WARNING: This post might lead you the think that I am a geek. While this is true, to an extent, I assure you that my participation in video games has been marginal, and I have not been adversely affected by this hobby, socially or mentally. I am normal. . .and cool, really.)


I had so much fun doing my top 5 of current female superstars (which I think I will come back too in another post, later) that I want to do another list type blog. The motivation for this one comes with my recent accomplishment of beating the latest Final Fantasy game (XIII if you must know).

Final Fantasy XIII is the first offering from Square-Enix for the Final Fantasy franchise on the latest generation of console systems (PS3, XBOX 360, Wii). Considering that they have a track record of releasing excellent games for new systems, I had very high hopes for the newest game. (If you plan on playing the game later I shall spare you plot details. So I guess it's OK to read on. I'm not going to be that detailed anyway).

Final Fantasy XIII (hereafter FFXIII) does not disappoint when you play it. The graphics are phenomenal, which is to be expected from the PS3. The music is great. And the story is good. All these things are good. However, the best part of the game is the cast of characters. I think this is one of the most likeable casts for a FF game that I have ever seen. And the main character, Lightning, is AWESOME. She's pretty hot. What really helps here is the excellent cast of voice actors. In the past FF games some of the characters came across as annoying (Tidus from FFX anyone?) but here that isn't the case. Everyone comes across well. And Fang and Vanille have Australian accents. Awesome.

I do have some complaints. I think the game suffers most from the notable lack of side quests and exploration. There aren't really cities and towns to go visit in this game, which I find rather saddening. Shops are done through the save menu, which reminds me of shopping online: pretty pictures, but none of the actual thrill of shopping. Thus you never really get a sense of the world/people that you are trying to save. Because there isn't anything to really change the pace of the game (besides the awesome cinematic sequences), it often feels as if you are playing through one dungeon for the entire game. On the other hand, it's pretty hard to get lost or forget where you are going.

Anyway, I think that's all I wanted to cover in my description of FFXIII. Now, where does it fall in with the best FF games of all time? This is where my list comes in. It's going to be a top 10 list, just because I like FF that much.

10) Final Fantasy 1--This game, released for the original Nintendo, essentially created a new genre of game. It was pretty cool in its time.

The story was fairly lame--the characters had no story period!--but it was a start. I should add that the original (they've remade it a couple times) was incredibly hard.









9) FF 5--For the most part the Final Fantasy games 1-4 followed the same general format. But Final Fantasy 5, never released in the US until recently, changed that with the introduction of the job system (to the US market. FF3, released only in Japan until very recently actually started the Job system). This little function introduced the possibility of character customization. It was awesome. You could change character classes between things like Knight, Black Mage, White Mage, Samurai, Thief. . .things of that nature. Awesome. Especially for geeks (Really, I'm not!!!).











8) FF 8--This was the second FF game for the original Playstation. The graphics were a significant step up from 7, and the story was pretty good. However, the Junction system was too complex and time consuming for most gamers, though I enjoyed the flexibility and potential it offered.

It also suffered from a rather weak cast of characters, though I did like Rinoa and Squall. It was a love story, which I liked. The ending movie was pretty long and very satisfying.










7) FF X-2--This was part II of Final Fantasy 10. On fist glance it seemed like this game was just riding the 10 cash cow, but it proved to be much deeper, and better than that. The game plays like Charlie's Angels meets Final Fantasy--which in my book is pretty cool. It also brought back the Job system from FF 5. And it had an all female cast, though there were only three of them. Once you got through the first 1/4 of the game things really picked up. It did kind of annoy me that they changed Yuna's character into kind of a skank.












6) FF XII--This game came with very high expectations as the second standalone FF for the PS2. The graphics were superb, and the new gambit battle system was actually really good. The world was grand, large and well populated. The story was a little bit weak, though the characters were cool. I think my main gripe was there less of an emotional attachment between the characters than some of the other FF games.








5) FF XIII--I've already spieled about this earlier. It's graphics and battle system are top notch. The story is good. The characters are awesome. But the absence of cities, and side quests/games is a real let down for me. I don't think the world is as immersive as it could have been.














4) FF 4--One of best old gen FF games, Final Fantasy 4 was originally released in the US as number 2. The story is excellent with a strong cast of characters (Except for the Bard. He sucks). Its music is also some of the best that I can remember coming out of tinny super Nintendo game music.














3) FF 6--Once we reach this point it's really a toss up between all these games. Final Fantasy 6 (it was 3 when originally released in the US) was as perfect as a FF game could have been. The music, story, characters, and development system are all excellent. Throw in one of the coolest bad guys ever, the largest cast of any FF (that you can move in and out of your party at will), and an opera scene. . .nothing can get better.














2) FF 7--Oh, wait, I guess it can. Final Fantasy 7. . . take everything good about 6, and add better graphics, materia, and a freaking twisted story, plus your favorite character dying midway through, plus a darker villain, plus two secret impossible bosses, and the best collection of side games ever (snowboarding? a motorcycle game?) And you have the best Final Fantasy ever, right?














1) FF X--Maybe not. FFX was not a perfect game. It was a little too linear. The freedom of the world map was lost. But it made up for that in the sinister nature of its story. Come on, the bad guy's name is Sin. . . how's that for a complex allegory? The characters were awesome, and there was a real love story, which was heightened by the fact that one of the characters was on a quest which she knew would claim her life. There is no other Final Fantasy that evokes the same emotional response as this one did. The ending was sad, which made me love it. Plus it had a great battle system, and a pretty fun little sidegame called Blitzball. It also introduced voice acting to the FF franchise, which in retrospect was a real good idea. While this game was flawed, this is the one that I felt the most. And it had some awesome music. I could listen to the ending theme all day long.