Final Fantasy 6 or 9?

A while back I decided to play through Final Fantasy 7. I had never played a Final Fantasy game before, but i figured that FF7, being as big a deal as it is, was a major gaming experience I was missing. I didn't necessarily expect to finish it, mainly because my previous JRPG experience consisted of Pokemon and watching the Persona 4 endurance run, but I ended up, as many people apparently have, falling in love with the world and characters as I played it to completion. When I was done, I asked a friend of mine who is a huge Final Fantasy fan which game in the series I should play next. After much deep thought on the matter, we narrowed it down to either FF6 or FF9, which are both available for download on PS3. So I decided to leave it up to you: the Giantbomb community. Should I play FF6, or FF9. And please keep it spoiler free.

IX is my favourite Final Fantasy. VI is my second favourite Final Fantasy. They're both amazing games.

Final Fantasy VI is the best one in the series. IX is okay, but it felt underdeveloped. I didn't feel like it had much "punch" to the story either. 

Re-narrow it down to Final Fantasy VIII.

IX is ridiculously good but while I haven't finished VI yet, it seems like the best one so far.

VI, and then IX.

VI, no question.

I love IX. It's my favourite Final Fantasy over all the others. I think it has the best music, world and one of the best storylines. It has my vote.

VI is my favorite, but on psn is the port of the ps1 port, which wasnt that great, it had terrible load times, but since it will be installed to your PS3, I dont know if that makes it faster though.

IX is the best 3D FF whereas VI is the best 2D FF.

Honestly it's up to you but IX is easier to play and less difficult.

Also consider playing VIII. While the combat system is absolutely broken and terrible, the story, world and characters are quite good.

Play VI first. IX is great, but leans pretty heavily on the nostalgia for the pre-FFVII games to achieve much of its impact.

Besides, the villain of FFVI is amazing.

@sonatar:

The popular answer is to say 6 but I prefer 9. I played through 6 well after it came out and 9 when I was a kid. So, I guess what I'm saying is that nostalgia is getting in the way for me. But I think that's true with all of the final fantasy games. 6 and 7 aren't as amazing now as they once were. I never enjoyed 8 so I can't speak to it. 9 is like a more refined 7 but with a very different tone that turned people away. But none of them really hold up today without some caveats.

So I guess what I'm saying is I would pick 9 before 6 but that the popular answer will be to pick 6. But, more importantly, you'll need to have measured expectations because none of those games really work that well anymore especially if you don't have nostalgia associated with them.

9, but I really want to play 6 myself after hearing nothing but good things about it.

IX without a doubt.  
Vivi makes everything better

One of my favorite things about FF7 was the mix of magic and technology in the world, which I understand is more similar to 6. Also, are there any major differences between the combat systems?

BOTH! I would say you try VI first, as you've already played a PS1 FF. After, play IX. And then VIII, of course. VIII is great.

@sonatar said:

One of my favorite things about FF7 was the mix of magic and technology in the world, which I understand is more similar to 6. Also, are there any major differences between the combat systems?

If what you liked was the mix of magic and technology then you'd want to play 8. 6 sort of has a steampunk feel but it is more like a traditional 16-bit JRPG with castles and the like. FF9 has literally zero mix of magic and technology. 8 is all about mixing magic and technology. 6, 7, 8, and 9 all have similar battle systems (turn-based, active battle system) but with small tweaks to each. 6 is more straight forward and is rather similar to 7. As is 9 but 9 has something similar to limit-breaks (like 7) whereas 6 doesn't. 8 has a really weird, and I think bad, battle system. It relies on drawing magic from enemies time and time again as well as using summoning magic which requires watching cutscenes every single time you use them which last 20-45 seconds each.

Final fantasy 9 is my favorite aswell. I think it's a great game and a great choice.

Be warned. 6 is one of te inbetween 1-3 and 7 and up so i haven't played that one. so i guess i can't judge. but 9 to me is the last really great final fantasy game. Fot how hood or how people loved 10. 10 was kinda the beginning of the end.

Didn't we have this in poll form? Anyway, IX is my favorite in the series.

@McGhee said:

Re-narrow it down to Final Fantasy VIII.

ok. i'm playing VIII again. and VI. and IX. (VII is an ongoing game for me)

6 is the best one

9 is kiddy and boring, 8 is better

Some will say that 9 is the best but no one will tell you that 6 isn't great. Others, including me, will tell you that 9 is meh. See the difference?

Im playing through FF8 now, and having a blast. Just got to the Ragnarok!

Gotta go with 8 then 12 for me. After that 6,7,9 are all pretty much tied. Spent so much time playing 12. I would say 10 somewhere in there but really that was just BlitzBall with sidestory for me.

VI. Then go play Chrono Trigger.

@JasonR86 said:

As is 9 but 9 has something similar to limit-breaks (like 7) whereas 6 doesn't.

6 totally does have limit break type moves, but a lot of people don't know how to do them or that they exist. For those who haven't played the game, this might have a spoiler.

For the record, I've played all of the main games and when they were released. VI was one of the best games ever. IX was OK.

6 is may favourite, though 9 is also very well made (was just an aesthetic thing that turned me off a little)

Can't go wrong with 6 & 9!

Both are great but I would go with VI first.

@nrh79:

Yeah, I didn't remember that at all. I played through 6 about a year ago and I don't remember a ton about it. That's the problem I have with the game. I understand why people are nostalgic for that game but for me, someone who just played it for the first time, it just seemed like a really well made 16-bit JRPG but one that I only found aspects to be memorable.

6. Then 9. Then 4. Then 10. The rest at your leisure.

VI, best in series hands down. Couldn't even finish 9.

You definitely picked the best 2. IX is my favorite so I say go with that.

VI.

IX had the potential to be the best game in the series, but I think things really fall apart after the end of the second disc. The story loses a lot of momentum after that point.

Gah, I already have a small heap of games I've restarted and I have the feeling after reading this thread the main FF games are on that list now as well.

I would do it from oldest to newest, because why not (or because Kefka's laugh>Kuja's man thong). You should reconsider VIII. The game baffled me in the beginning, but once I got the hang of it it was pretty fun and straight forward. Even spell upkeep became pretty simple. Doom Train all the way, baby.

I'd say VI first than IX in just for the fact that IX's existence was becaus of IV, V, and IV. Fun fact about IX though is it has bosses that are direct callbacks to the original final fantasy which I always thought we neat.

IV and IX are my two favorites though so both games are great. I am playing the DS upgrade of IV now and I'm loving that so that is not a bad option either.

I have trouble picking between 9 and 8 as first choice but 6 is number 3.

I really liked FFIX back in the day

IX is the best! VI is good, but it's not as charming.

Without a question, 9 is what you should play. My favorite Final Fantasy game by a mile. Such fond memories of that game, it's ridiculous.

IX IX IX, a million times IX

If you grew up on 16 bit games or previous then definitely go for ff6. The game is an amazing package, bu arguably ff9 is also amazing, but I felt ff6 had better characters.

VI is easily the best.

IX is up there, but it still had that stupid card game in it.

The question is do you want a 2D one or a 3D one alike to FF7. That is really the question you should ask as anything else anyone says is just bullshit personal opinion. There is no objectively "best" title in the series so anything anyone tells you will just be them trying to tell you what to think because of their own personal opinion which is affected by masses amount of variables (from the age at which they first played them, to the last food they ate just before they started it - seriously there are way more things that simply what is in the game which affect someones opinion of it).

See my answer would be to play X (10) as it is my favourite (And favourite game of all time) so I personally find it a must to play way before any of the others. But then I am totally fine with someone hating it or saying it doesn't appeal to you. I really can't tell you which to play out of 6 or 9 other than what simply takes you fancy at the time - but since you were talking to you friend about it then my advice is just pick the one that you two will have the most to talk about otherwise, simply having someone who really likes it as well to revell in it as you play it or once you finish it will add way more to the experience than the minor mechanical and story differences between them.

Final Fantasy 69.

Just bite the bullet and play them all. Well, sort of. IV, VI, VIII, IX, X, XII. Then go back and get the outliers if you want.

If you loved VII you're going to realize at some point that there isn't a substitute for Final Fantasy. Nobody else makes these games. You've got CT and CC and a dozen awesome JRPG experiences, but FF is unique. Keep an open mind with what changes from one game to the other and you'll appreciate the way they recycle, evolve and retool their systems.

If you are going to end up playing them both anyway (and you should) I would suggest playing 9 first as it is a much more dramatic shift of tone, setting and storytelling than there is between 6 and 7 which are very similar in a lot of ways.

I've no trouble calling FFVI the greatest on the SNES, and FFIX the greatest on the PS1... but as to which of the two to call better overall, it's harder to say, since they're pretty different beasts. I should probably say VI, if only because that's the one I get a hankering to play more often.

@Canteu said:

IX is the best 3D FF whereas VI is the best 2D FF.

Honestly it's up to you but IX is easier to play and less difficult.

Really? Maybe I just played too much VI, but it seems so easy to become overpowered in that game -- whereas IX starts kicking my ass later on if I'm not careful.

Alas, poor Kefka. The greatest villain, but the easiest boss.

Glad to see someone talk about Final Fantasy 7 without bitching. You can't go wrong with 6 or 9, 6 is generally better liked and I would say go for that one first.

Out of those two play IX.

If you want to play a 16 bit one I enjoyed IV WAY more than I enjoyed VI (still a good game though). I enjoyed the characters/story/villains a lot more in IV.

@Superkenon: I agree with it being easy to become somewhat overwhelmed by VI, there are a lot of characters, items and skills to keep track of.

Maybe I've just played IX a lot but I can breeze through (even Ozma) without any trouble, so maybe my opinion is a little skewed.

Kefka ain't got shit on FFX's final boss. Auto-life anyone?