None of the 2 or 3 I've played really grabbed me for more than a few hours. Really wish a remake of 7 was around to make it playable because that is what has held me back from playing that one. Maybe I should start at the beginning and go down the FF hole?

Based on your criteria I would probably say Final Fantasy 6, but I might think pixels hold up better than some younger gamers.

Can not decide between 10 and 8 but I guess 10 wins because of the lake scene^^

I'll be the weirdo here and say V. Because intricate job systems overrule the part where the story is sort of dumb even when it isn't taking itself seriously.

(Alternate answer: VI)

If by "sort of dumb" you mean "a plot so bad I'd rather play I through III for their stories," then sure.

I answered VI, because that is easily my favorite.

I went with 10. I just remember really enjoying the combat system.

Also, its*

Awwww.... Boo for all the FFX votes. At least they were not FFVIII votes though.

I like VII and I know I'm not cool anymore.

But your criteria is kind of all over the place when you say "hold up".... that means a lot to different people. And for me, I loved the FF games I played when they came out but I don't think I'd play them now. When I rank any media I just try to go by impact at the time and how I look back on it.

ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

welp can't fix it now

It's not like the story of V is especially different from the rest of the series in structure. There are crystals, villains that were sealed away in the past, naive heroes, and hella chocobos. It just reaches a level of dumbness and "not giving a shit" in its storytelling that IV and VI don't ever reach. Though maybe not as much as X-2, which is clearly my alternate, alternate answer. I still maintain that game reaches unintentional self-parody status with how much it doesn't care.

Haha sorry to let you down :P

I can understand why people don't like FFVIII, but I think they took the mechanics in a really interesting direction. So long as you don't draw spam, the game remains a challenge thanks to the level scaling of the enemies. I also like how the story was more focused on the characters (though there were some out-of-nowhere twists in it). It's also really interesting to look at it side-by-side with VII, if only to see the huge graphical leap that was made within a console generation. My only real complaint with the game is that getting around the world takes FUCKING FOREVER! Overall though, it's the one that grabbed me the most and I really enjoy it.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, I never played VI, which I hear is pretty damn good.

@techhits: You just want us Final Fantasy fans to all fight in a bloody arena until we're all dead, don't you?

I ain't playing into your sick little game!

...

... FFIV and maybe IX.

The villain is an evil tree named Exdeath whose sole character trait/motivation is an obsession with the void. That evil ginger in the second Care Bears movie had better characterization than him.

VI, hands down. It was a masterpiece of a game.

@hailinel: I feel like you're fighting a losing battle if you criticize the plot of a Final Fantasy game on the strength of its main villain. At least it doesn't throw a bait and switch to reveal that the guy you thought was the bad guy for 90% of the game was being controlled by the real bad guy the whole time. Criticize something easier, like how the main 5 characters have the personalities of styrofoam.

XII of course.

DON'T LISTEN TO ONDORE'S LIES

It's a weird super suggestive question.

But probably X. And the FFV hate in this thread is ludicrous. It was a much better game than IV overall.

It's.... ok.

Dark heart was an awesome villain...

I'm really just criticizing the tip of a very thin iceberg. The only thing I can really give the game credit for as a positive is Faris the cross-dressing pirate; easily the most creative of any of FFV's characters.

@afabs515: I can understand that. The game tried its best to evolve the genre, but I felt that it was the most broken in the series (aside from the launch of FF XIV). The story was too sappy and nonsensical. The plot twist at the end is one of the most cliched twists in the history of storytelling. Plus, the orphanage scene is the worst. The draw system was boring, and the fact that magic was tied to my stats meant that I couldn't use spells like Ultima.

My biggest beef with the game though has to do with auto-levelling of enemies. I stand by the fact that FFVIII is a perfect example of why enemies auto-levelling is a bad design choice. Whats the point of having a levelling system in the first place if every time your strength goes up, your enemies def/HP goes up with you? Oh wait, they actually gain more STR / DEF / HP than you do, so you are actually at a disadvantage if you get into battles.

Edit: Oh, and the whole attacking your own teammates being a valid strategy in a game is kind of bonkers.

I think most people would agree that 16 bit 2D holds up a lot better than first gen polygonal games, especially the PS1 with the unpleasant look of the image (something to do with z-buffering or vertices).

The whole point of the auto-leveling the enemies was to discourage power-leveling in favor of using junctions intelligently. Go traipsing into the final battle with Ultimecia with a max level Squall, and you're going to get your ass handed to you unless you have seriously been working on your junctions.

And I'm really not going to defend it on that point. I pretty much love V for its gameplay, soundtrack and not much else. If we're talking about story, X-2 VI wins no contest. The way it handles its ensemble cast, the fact that Kefka succeeds at destroying the world, that part where you fight an octopus during an opera scene.... yep.

That reminds me, I should really get back to XII one of these days. I AM CAPTAIN BASCH VON ROSENBURG OF DALMASCA.

I can't disagree with you about the story twists. The first time I saw that orphanage scene (a few weeks ago), I was blown away by how out of nowhere that was. I can also see what you mean by the story being sappy, but sappy stories like that are one of my guilty pleasures TBH.

This is pretty much what I would have said, but probably better than I could say it.

I'm surprised at the love for X ... I mean it's my favourite, but i was expecting it to go VI, VII, VIII, XI, X in that order. Maybe III above VIII.

IX. Or VIIII. (the former is the correct uh, spelling)

Why can't I vote for IX?

I mean, I'd love to vote FF9, but it's not there.

Well mine is VIII , altho I have VI and XIII in the same regard (yes I said XIII , I really like it a lot)

VI is the best

VIII is the worst

Except that in order to use junctions properly you either had to spend your afternoon using the "draw," command, or play that awful Triple Triad card game. It removed one form of grinding for a version that was far, less interesting.

Also, your reason for why they nerfed power-levelling does not answer why they even had a levelling-up system in the first place. It's only function is to make the game more difficult and frustrating for people that had previous experience in RPG's. The intentions, of fixing the a perceived grinding problem, might have been pure, but the result was the game felt more limiting and directed than all the previous games.

There weren't enough decimal places in the coordinates of vertices, so they're constantly snapping to the nearest point and thus look like they're vibrating.

Came here to say VI, and wasn't disappointed that it's currently in the lead.

VI is objectively the best Final Fantasy game and will likely never be topped. This poll might be better off asking which is second best.

I'd say IV is the best; VI has the best first half of any JRPG ever and arguably any game, but the second half is not that great. IV opens strong and stays that way throughout and has the most challenging boss outside of XIII; XIII is the hardest by far and has the best combat. IX has the best battle music/best first disc out of the PS era, VIII has probably the most interesting leveling system, VII has nostalgia and Cid/Barrett, V has classes. XII has the best designed world and the most potential, doesn't quite pan out but still an excellent game. X has the best themes and the shittiest characters (apart from Hope). I has Warmech. II has a really stupid leveling system.

Tactics has a much better story than any out of the numbered series and there's a fairly decent argument to be made that Tactics is the best Final Fantasy.

I couldn't find nine but realised you used the wrong numeral. So that one :)

VI is the best but VII is my favorite.

*this space was intentionally left blank

I think IV is the prime example of a story being dumb and not giving a shit. Mind control and "oh surprise we're not actually dead" are rampant in that game.

Final Fantasy T4ct1c5

Does that count as a numbered FF?

I am really happy that X (a good video game) currently has more votes than XII (a bad video game). That being said, I voted VI. That game is all around fantastic.

I still believe that VI is the greatest JRPG ever made, with Chrono Trigger coming a veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery close second.

VII SUCK A BUTT HATERS

I voted "This space was intentionally left blank" because I remember having this argument on the internet 10 years ago and was left very embittered by the experience.

hahaha, you wanna go?

XII is a way better video game that's more open, more interesting, less dumb, and has upwards of 3 good main characters. The only character in X that's not terrible is Auron

FF8, no contest for me.

Love everything about it.

Man Giantbomb is truly great! A topic about which FF is best and no mud-slinging at 44 post! Not to mention an actual honest to god discussion. This is a magical place.

(This is like back at school on the playground again..)

Out of the PS1/PS2 era - FFVII, FFX, FFIX, FFVIII...................................FFXII, that game was just incomprehensible for me when it first came out, I think now that I'm older I'd like to go back and give it another shot but thats probably not going to happen unless they HDify it and even then it's going to be a stretch. And FFX-2 was way to girly, J-Pop for me at the time and I didn't like the mission structure of it at all, it felt so closed off.

I do hate how the internet has scared people into not like FFVII for fear it's not the 'cool' answer and 'thats when the series hit the fan' when in fact it was probably the first RPG many people played and what got them into the genre to begin with. It's so internet hipster, like what you like.

IX, though it's unfortunate how sluggish the combat feels now. Transitions into random battles take like 20 seconds and skill/spell/attack animations tend to linger, not even counting Ark.