Best and Worst of Final Fantasy I to X in Order

Gameplay Today analyzes each of the Final Fantasy titles released from I to X and after some with some detailed explanations, puts them in order from worst to best.

[BeaRye]

How in the F is VII not number 1?

[VG_Releaser]

Because Final Fantasy VII, while a great game and awesome in its own right, is a little overrated. Don't get me wrong - I loved FF VII, but acting like it's the best ever is silly.

[MaxXAttaxX]

Since when is FFVII the best?

[StbI990]

Since it has the best character set out there plus the best action movie in my whole opinion. Screw hatars, Vii rocks and a remake would put sht on others FF games.

Pun

[dericb11]

They like FFVII the best mainly because it was the first truly mainstream FF. For its time it did define the PSone era.

However the truth is that FFVI is a better game and should be #1. If you play FFVI you will see that most everything you love about FFVII was taken from FFVI.

LimitBreak: Check
Character Driven Story: Check
Weapon Based Magic System: Check
Non-Crystal Related Story: Check
and much more.

Go play FFVI and trust me you will find a much more engaging game. And if up to me FFVI would be the game to get the remade since it offers more and less people have played it.

[Istanbull]

1. FFVI
2. FFVIII
3. FFX

Great memories with these games!

[MaxXAttaxX]

Most popular and overexposed?
- Yeah
First 3D FF game?
- Yeah
First FF game played by many therefore becoming their favorite?
- Possibly
Best?
- No

[evrfighter1]

ff7 is like dragonball z

the hardcore in their desire to not be mainstream label it as such while deep inside they loved it to death.

that's all I see here with these comments.

[LionheartAce]

FFVI is the best. IX was actually my favorite on PS.

Yay, abbreviations!

[LightofDarkness]

That's about right, yes.

1)VI
2)IV
3)IX
4)VII
5)VIII

But that's just me.

[fatstarr]

yes VI and IX and IV are the top 3 imo

[Otheros00]

I like VIII better than VII. Everybody have different taste. Example: Some people prefer xbox live to psn. While, other people prefer psn to live.

[elbeasto86]

I definitely agree dude. FFVIII was my first FF and I loved it. I loved FFVII alot but TO ME it's 2nd to FFVIII.

[JOLLY1]

It's almost always the first one someone plays is their personal favorite. BeaRye probably played 7 first.

[RedDead]

I liked 8 aswell, my first FF. Better music than 7 but other than that I thought 7 was a good bit better, FF8 disk 1 was amazing...but it fell short later on I thought.

Mine is :
FFVI
FFVII
FFX
FFIX
FFVIII
FFIV

Was crazy is that I fu**ing love all of these games, even at that though. Suikoden 2 is better than all of them haha...seriously ya's gotta play it

Also I would like to say, go to an FF Fansite, Majority is always FF6 > the other FF's

[Dac2u]

I was totally disappointed with VIII and in love with VII when I was a teen. A few years later I replayed them and reversed my opinion. I thought the story for VIII was much better and got used to the fact that the monsters leveled with you.

My first Final Fantasy was FFI and my all time favorite is FFVI.

[sack_boi]

FF VII should be #1.

[UnbiasedGamer]

10-2 , 12 , 13 are turds.

[elbeasto86]

You see, everyone says that about 12 and 13 (I won't argue against 10-2, it just wasn't that great) and I honestly can't disagree more. I've played almost every FF and I really love 12 and 13 (12 more than 13 just for the Gambit system alone).

[UnbiasedGamer]

I have played every single Final Fantasy games even numerous spin off tiles and handheld titles ranging from various systems.

To me Final Fantasy is not what it suppose to be. Square Enix home consoles games have been not so great, however there handheld games are great..

KH Birth By Sleep
FF Crysis Core
Dissidia 1 & 2
Soon - FF TYPE 0 < Looking Great.

High hopes for consoles games as

FF Versus 13
FF 13-2

But since 10.. FF games have been a joke. Vaan is just a complete homo.

[Carnage]

Lol you don't even mention 11! (Probably cause a Final Fantasy mmo is a silly idea) ((Vaan is a homo))

[Arknight]

Because that means you must not have played VI (it was called III on SNES in North America). Not only is it the best Final Fantasy....it's just one of the greatest games ever made at all.

[Tony P]

VII is a great game, there's no doubt about it. And both modern RPGs and other games in general owe much to its presentation and style.

Unfortunately, it also has one of the worst fanbases ever which makes most people loathe to praise the game and stroke fanboy's egos.

[forevercloud3000]

I totally agree with you. FFVII does have a rather rabid fanbase but thats only because there are so many people who love the game THAT much.

And I believe that same reason is why the game has so many haters who love to try take it down a notch. I understand not being everyone's number 1 like mine, but 5th??? Plz, that is obviously a jab at the fans of the game to just create more hits. FFVIII above VII AND X is utter Blasphemy.

[Hozi89]

@BeaRye

FFVII is indeed a great game. one of my fav. you must really play the all the others to really get a feel for which one is best. I tend to look at Story, customization, and gameplay first when rating a game.

I think X's story was very touching. like a poem to my ears. The character development was good. We revisted the past with those jecht spheres plus found out about Kimahri and his story/wakka's bro etc...

the battle system was very easy to jump into (imo) although it was more turn based, you could set it to active in the config menu. The characters weapons all fitted the personalities, and the customization of weapons was def. a plus.

at first I didn't appreciate the sphere grid, but it really made leveling up more interesting rather than let the game automatically set ur chars. abilites/stats for you. you could navigate your own path. so if you wanted a mage you could take a warrior prone char. and send him in the mage direction and vice versa. the only problem is the locks/key spheres were very limited.

Not to mention, the graphics were stunning. and a lot of people could care less for good graphics but I honestly believe that the realism made the characters more believable and emotional. you could actually relate to Tidus and Yuna because they wern't just 8-bit sprites trying to act emotional. Voices really lent a hand to this title as well. if you look back none of the past titles had voice acting. this was a biggie for me. yes you still had to read a bit but never to the point where you felt the strain on your eyes.

the only disappointment X had for me was the sequel X-2. that wasn't necessary. maybe a prequel with Braska, Auron and Jecht but not a sequel as the like of X-2.

so do you guys agree? this is just my choice. I love all the others too but my love goes out to FFX.

[Too_many_games]

i actually liked FFX-2 much better then XI XII and Terdteen

[Hozi89]

@Too_Many_Games

When I think about it. X-2 was indeed much more fun than those. However, I have high hopes for Versus 13.

[elite-shot]

The fact number 9 is 9th is so dumb.

[Raichu50]

FF7 should have been #1, dear god so much reading for a lame #1

[forevercloud3000]

Why does everyone always assume someone who sees FFVII as the best hasn't played previous ones? I played FFI and VI first and hated them initially. VII was the first one to hook me from beginning to end. Later on I revisited VI and liked it but its still no where near on FFVII's level.

[vgchica]

After playing FF IV Complete on PSP, that's my #1!

[Happythedog]

FFIV Complete rocks.

[ShyGuy13]

FFX for me, though I understand why people would argue against it.

[elbeasto86]

I spent so much time on FFX it's ridiculous. I probably spent 50 hours on Blitzball alone. haha

[Simco876]

I am not going to argue against an article of opinion, but I agree with you. I loved Blitzball!

Hopefully they release a backlog of PS2 games and I get to relive FFX!

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[NovusTerminus]

VII is my favorite. Then IX... And then... VIII.

[Burning_Finger]

1) VII
2) VIII
3) X
4) IX
5) VI
6) V
7) IV
8) III
9) II
10) I

IMO

[Eamon]

A trend I noticed:

Final Fantasy VI - Most people who put this as #1 are those who began Final Fantasy from the SNES era and have a huge liking to the old traditional pixel graphics with textures on a 2D background.

Final Fantasy VII - Most people who put this as #1 are those who began Final Fantasy from the PS1 era and have a huge liking to the pre-rendered backgrounds with 3d models and 3d navigation.

The stories in FFVI and FFVII were very good in their own respect. However, I personally believe that because FFVI was created on SNES, it missed out on a LOT of potential. It's script was cut down in tremendous amounts (as well as FF4) and so there is hardly the same amount of dialogue in FF6 and FF7. I believe the story suffered from that as well as character development.

I started FF in the PS1 era with my first ever FF game to be FF7. Up till this date, I personally believe it to be the best FF game.

In order:
#1 FF VII
#2 FF X
#3 FF VI
#4 FF IX
#5 FF IV

[LightofDarkness]

I can see how someone might prefer VII, but there's no way in hell that X even gets into the top 5, let alone above VI or IV.

[Eamon]

While it lacked a proper world map and was very linear but it still had very fun gameplay and a very interesting story. The voiced cutscenes added to both story progression and character development as well as the melodrama that was already present due to the fabulous soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu.

[BigMassacre]

I respect your opinion, but it's a different case for me. I too, started Final Fantasy with VII but when it comes down to what I believe is the best, I'd have to go with IX. VI would probably be my second.

VII is great and all, but it doesn't share the same level of polish and charm that IX did, IMO. In any case, I respect every FF game for what they did for the series individually.

[Eamon]

The reason why FF IX didn't have the same level of "polish" is because it came out much later.

I know exactly what you mean. Alexandria did feel more lively and immersive than Midgar City. Although one could say it was because FF VII is a much darker game than FF IX.

[silkrevolver]

I started in the PS2 era, and X is my favorite.

[DeadIIIRed]

I agree, but I hated the jump to voice acting. The moans and groans the characters make are annoying and make me want to pull out my hair. Vanille is a perfect example.

[madara0sama]

IX is 9th? It's at least in my top 3 but...sigh* to each his own I guess.

[Happythedog]

Pretty good list, VI being number one makes sense. I wish XII was on this list curious to see where it would be on the list. XII is a dam good game so many secrets in that game.

[dalehitchy]

ive never been really interested in FF games..... my first FF was X... and i was simply amazed.... its still my favourite game today...

after everyone telling me to play the other ... i did and wasnt impressed (perhaps because there a little old with outdated graphics.... some were unplayable because i was playing ps1 games on 42" tv... i couldnt figure out where i was going)

and i couldnt get into 12.... 13 was just awful

its ironic how i like none of the other games what so ever..... but X is was of my favourite games of all time

[helghast102]

Tiering FF games is just silly.
 
 
 
 
IX is the best
 
 
 
then VI

[Rybakov]

good 7 dosn't deserve number one.....ask anyone today why they like it and its always because of "clooooooudddd *in screechy girly voice*"....granted i liked 7 because of the Char development it didn't have much after that.....6&8 were my favorites followed by 9 and it goes from there

[Alos88]

With the exception of number 1 it feels like you just chucked them in a randomizer. And FFIX being below FF2? Bullshit.

[Cheeseknight28]

How is IX so low? What an insult. Of all the PS1 Final Fantasies it's the only one that still holds up today, 7 and 8 aren't easy on the eyes and the translation in 7 is sub-par at best. 2 and 3 should be the bottom, they are almost universally considered the worst of the bunch.

My order:
1. 10
2. 9
3. 8
4. 6
5. 4
6. 7
7. 5
8. 1
9. 3
10. 2

[Kon]

XII is the best one imo. I spent so much time with that game, it is ridiculous.

[SquareEnixFan]

Pretty good list. FF VI isn't my favorite Final Fantasy but it was a very good game. It was also nice to see I'm not the only person who is not that high on FF IX.

[rymanb]

Could not agree more with the author on choice of #1. Final Fantasy VII may be the most popular, but for me FFVI is definitely the best I've played.

My list personally would be this:

#1 FFVI
#2 FFVIII
#3 FFIX
#4 FFVII
#5 FFX
#6 FFIV
#7 FFII
#8 FFI
#9 FFIII

(Haven't played FFV so couldn't possibly make a judgement).

[bjh089]

i personally thought that FF VIII was my fav by far. I just loved the rivalry between squall and seifer and the most epic opening fmv for a videogame ever.

[Jihaad_cpt]

List is about right but I would have have VII in 3rd and X in 2nd its all subjective though

[DragonKnight]

This list is kinda Fail. If you read it, a lot of the reasons he placed a particular FF game in whatever spot came down to his personal problems with the game, and not the actual game itself.

A lot of people bag on FFX when it has a pretty deep story and excellent character progression. The Sphere Grid is actually deeper than most people think if they take the time to experiment.

And FFVIII is a game people hate on for the Junction system. But being able to customize exactly how you want a character to perform I believe is pretty awesome. Sure, it's kind of broken, but you can make an ultra-mage, a berserker warrior, anything.

Personally, my order would be something like this...

5.FFVII
4.FFVI
3.FFVIII
2.FFX
1.FFIV

I think FFII is the second worst FF game ever made. Only beaten by FFXIII.

FFVI, while an amazing game with the best villain ever, still suffers from some of the problems this guy had with other games. One of those being, everyone can learn everything except for very specific job skills such as Tools, Steal, or Runic. You may have 14 characters to use, but who honestly uses all of them except when forced to?

Admittedly, it all comes down to taste. FFIV was the first FF game I ever spent so much time on trying to find everything and level up to the max. I love the characters and story and music very much. But that's just me. All of my top 5 can easily be number 1 for many reasons.

Honorable Mention: Final Fantasy Tactics is the best spinoff FF game EVER! And not the lame Advance version.

[Arknight]

I must say I have to disagree with your opinion of VI for the exact reason that you stated. I thought that VI was one of the few Final Fantasy games where each character actually HAD some sort of unique ability to make them stand out, even though everyone could learn all of the spells. Their individual abilities like Blitz, Morph, Runic, etc were extremely good.

I felt that most of the FFs after VI lost that factor to make each character unique in battle, basically bringing it down to what limit break they could use as the only differences.

[DragonKnight]

Where VI is concerned, none will ever come to a universal agreement.

I agree that there is a unique factor to each character, but where I see it failing is that there really is no pressing need to use them all to their fullest.

For example, take Strago, Relm, and Gau.

Strago uses Blue magic, enemy skills. But Relm can simply draw an enemy and use their special skill, and Gau can become the enemy. Granted, it's not as cut and dry as all that, but from a basic standpoint it's kind of redundant.

Terra and Celes are almost clones. Morph and Runic are pretty much all that separates them.

Moving beyond the characters abilities, you get into the equipment. How many characters can equip pretty much the exact same sets of equipment?

All I'm saying is that, for this list, the issues this guy had with other FF's still apply here. Meaning that there can be any number of "number 1's" in the series. Except XIII lol.

[Arknight]

In reply to the above reply to my comment:

I must say that I also found Gau, Strago, and Relm my least favorite characters because of their abilities compared to the others (it is useful to have them all together though to learn Blue Magic on the Veldt since Gau will sometimes cast one, himself, and Relm can trigger it through painting an enemy).

I think that one reason these were necessary is that FF VI is one of the few in the series that forces you to use all of the characters in the last dungeon (3 separate parties of 4 each). Of course I always brought Gogo and Umaro and left out Gau and Relm. :)

[DragonKnight]

*Facepalm* Umaro, that's the name. Lol. Thanks. I was looking like a dumbass about to say Umago.

Yeah, I suppose the number of characters was likely a result of storyline more than anything else. They should have let us use General Leo. Dude was badass.

[josephayal]

FF13 and FF14 Def the best RPG's ever made in Gaming History

[silkrevolver]

...but I still like it, so that really says something about FF. X is probably still my favorite. You know what? List time:

X
IX
VI
VII
V
IV
VIII
I
III
II

[bangoskank]

VI, IV, IX, and XII are my personal favorites. XII has a bad reputation for some reason. The only problem I have with it is that the story seemed rushed at some points.

[Arknight]

XII would have been insanely epic except that the director,Matsuno, had to leave before it was done. This is why the story just never feels finished and all of the characters seem so generic and all learn the same skills.

Many of the character development problems were later fixed with the international version, "Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System", but hardly anyone knows about that.

[bangoskank]

Yes,truly a shame that Matsuno had to bail. He is one of my favorite video game designers. Vagrant Story, and FF Tactics are two of my all-time favorites. FF XII could have been so much more but was still an exceptional game.

[dmixwell]

how on earth r u guys saying that ff7 is not the best ff in the series? lets take it back to 1997. in order to understand why ff7 is the best in the series you have to go back , because the direction Square-Enix took the art style and tone with advent children and crisis core was way left field from what we experienced in the original game. First you start off as the hired muscle for a terrorist group. you dont really know if they are good or bad. but it hits the fan after you blow up a reactor that belongs to the government and freaking shinra kills everybody trying to get to yo ass . as a gamer in 1997 i didn't know what to say, i was at a lost for words . till this day there has not been any rpg that had a more realistic setting than ff7. by the way my favorite ff is 6 but i know better , ff7 is the best overall . ff8 was released 2 years later and improved on the short comings of ff7 but fell short with that damn draw system .hours and hours fighting the same monsters trying to get magic stock . many say that this is the best entry.although i disagree i can totally understand where they are coming from , it has the best love story i have every seen in a video game . ff9 was a step back in graphics but has a fantasy story that rivals ff6. ffx was just a good game all around , looks ,music , auron. then came ff11 .i had to miss this online experience. first ff i have ever passed on. then ff x-2 i played until i couldnt any more never cleared it . i had a hard time getting pass the beautiful intro music. if you have any old gamepro, psx or egm magazines from 1997 you will kno why ff7 is the best . im tempted to post all of the coverage i have on this game . ff12 and ff13 gets no mention because these games although good fall short of the name final fantasy.

[C0MPUT3R]

I have been playing the series since the beginning with the original on the NES. So I don't have the bias' a typical fan of the series has (where they like a certain one because it was their first JRPG/First Final Fantasy they ever played. (Usually VII because that's when the series became mainstream.) And a lot of the fans didn't play the games when they first came out like IV & VI They played them 5-10 years later and the games obviously can't have the same kind of impact.

So with that in mind here is my list you can all disagree with.

1) FINAL FANTASY VI
2) FINAL FANTASY X
3) FINAL FANTASY VII
4) FINAL FANTASY IV
5) FINAL FANTASY IX
6) FINAL FANTASY VIII
-------------------
7) FINAL FANTASY V
8) FINAL FANTASY I
9) FINAL FANTASY II
0) FINAL FANTASY III

[Relientk77]

FFIX should be much higher

[iWishTifaWasReal]

wow, no one mentioned CRISIS CORE

i played FFVIII first i really didnt get into it (mainly because i didnt understand RPGs back then)
then i played Crisis Core, amazing gaaame. its the reason why i play RPGs today

so:

1- Crisis Core FF7
2- FF8
3- FF7
4- FFXIII

imma play 4,6,9,10 soon
(not really interested playing 11,12)

[DUNCAN1092]

final fantasy 7,8, and 10 are all on a par in terms of gaming but 7 has by far the best cast of any game although 8 and 10 where good you cannot beat Sephiroth as a baddy and Cloud the moody hero we all love But instead of talking about this im away to play one and enjoy squares legacy as it should be!!!

[Coffin87]

-Insert random list of top 5 FF games-
-Insert "but that's only my opinion"-
-Add 8 disagrees and 2 agrees-

[Carnage]

Hilarious post!

[MRMagoo123]

Im not gonna state my favs they all have something special that pulls you in from the amazing music to unforgettable characters, from breathtaking fmvs to behemoth (not the actual monster i mean large) boss battles i enjoy each and everyone of them for different reasons and some of the same reasons, although i have to say even tho this isnt about any higher than 10 i found 13 far to different than the rest to really enjoy and of course 11 because it wasnt a normal ff game. Big fingers crossed they get it right with vs 13

[BlackSharinganX]

1)FF7 2)FF8 3)FF10, didnt like much 9, 11, 12 or 13, above 7 havent got the chance to play it

[kirajc]

Final Fantasy Fans will always list these top 5 for their favorites.

Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy X

This is because those Final Fantasy's are amazing, each is well deserving of the top 5 and the best. The order just comes down to each individual experience with each of those games. Final Fantasy IX you can argue about but compared to those Final Fantasy's it doesn't even stand a chance.

My order would be:

FFX...
FFVI
FFVIII
FFIV
FFVII

To Zanarkand is truly beautiful

[Chocoboh]

#1 VIII
#2 VI
#3 VII
#4 IX
#5 X

My top 5 - I loved them all but FF8 was my favourite

[Carnage]

8 is my no. 1 mainly because I like the more realistic story of it but it is still fantasy and I have more personal sentimental memories with it by watching my brothers play it.

I am currently going to play VI and see what it is about (heard a lot of good stuff about it) but overall I can only rate the ones I have play so here is my quick list. (these are all the FF's I have played)

1 VIII
2 X
3 VII
4 IX
5 XII