What is so great about Final Fantasy?

Right off the bat, let me say I don't mean to insult any fanboys or anything like that. I was around since Final Fantasy 7 for the PSOne came out and all my friends played it but I didn't. Then came the 200 Final Fantasy games for the PS2 and I still didn't play any of them. I was really tempted to jump into one of the DS remakes and even rented Final Fantasy IV at some point but I never played it.
Anyways, Final Fantasy games sell like gangbusters and have fanboys stronger than Nintendo fanboys (*ahem*).  The only reason I ever wanted to play a Final Fantasy game was the hype, but the games do not appeal TO ME at all.

What is so great about the Final Fantasy games?
 It can't be the gameplay. They are not the best and most rewarding RPGs out there, are they? I have played by own fare share of Pokemon back in the day, and personally preffer more modern RPG games like Fallout and The Witcher, with fluid character movement and real-time controll over the combat. While the interface and combat of Final Fantasy games may have suited the SNES and the may suit the DS now, they are too limited and hands-off for modern systems.
And it can't be the story either. All I see is a bunch of boy/girl crossovers with terribly stupid names walking around a really anime-style universe. There are better anime stories out there, and there are better game stories out there.
It may be the graphics, but with the limited and hands-off gameplay, pulling it off must not be that hard.

So I want to ask the people who have played the Final Fantasy games this question: What is so great about Final Fantasy?

Your post says that you enjoy N.A. style story/gameplay.  FF has a japanese flavour, became succasful in Japan, and then has alot of fans here that appreciate that culture as well.  Simple difference of opinion, as always.

You don't want to insult fanboys? Why the hell not, they're freaking fanboys. Personally, the appeal for me comes from fun battle systems and memorable characters. And except for Final Fantasy XII, the fact that all those games aren't Final Fantasy XII.

I am declaring myself the only fan of FF12 in the world.  Thank you very much.

I can't realy put my finger on it myself, i can say though, that i played ff7 on the ps1 when i was like 12 and it dealt with a lot of mature themes and subjects. For me it was one of them experiences that changed what gaming ment to me and my understanding for it as a true medium to tell stroies effectively, Since then i have been hoked and played every single release. And each one has its own lesson and morals which you can take from it which i think is a testiment to the man himself hironobu sakaguchi

I don't wanna insult fanboys but these games suck hard, and what I play is better.

Btw, you're generalising over East vs West and Real Time vs Turn Based and all sorts of shit that don't have to be just Final Fantasy.

So, um okay? Lol. Grow up.

It's an incredibly polished game franchise with rather good stories and is pretty fast paced.
JRPGs are also awesomely awesome and FF is one of the only franchises people will actually admit to liking.

You should get IX on PS1, I thought it's far better than VIII and the style is kinda DSy with the SD characters :-)

They're fun and they usually have characters that you grow attached to and will want to see their story through.

Really? That's expensive too now? That's absurd, it's not like Final Fantasy games are rare, they were high sellers in their time....

Amazon lists it for cheap but I'm not sure of the sellers.

Oh well, maybe they'll put it on PSN, I see no reason not to now that they've started with VII.

@OP

These days, there are so many other good RPGs that I don't find Final Fantasy to be as exciting anymore.  I stopped playing FFXII after about 40 hours...I just wasn't feeling the license board and not having unique characters.  I'm not hyped for FFXIII at the moment, but that might be because it's still far away from release, and there isn't a lot of information on the game.

Every Final Fantasy after VI (with the exception of IX) hasn't been good. This is why I've moved on to Dragon Quest.

Is it just me or do all the trolls have the same avatar?

They're usually pretty good in developing characters that you care about. Aeris no!!

Well they always have great characters and stories. They have good replay time as well, usually over 50+ hours playing time at least.

Long time ago, I was into JRPGs. It was my favorite genre. This affection I had for the genre, I had because of 'Final Fantasy VI' aka 'Final Fantasy III'. Great graphics, sound, story, characters and combat system. Better than any JRPG I've played before it or since. In fact, it actually spoiled the genre for me. I've played so many of them, hoping one would top the experience, but it never happend.

I guess, everybody, who once was or still is into Final Fantasy games, has a similar attachment to one of its iterations.

Final Fantasy VI OST on youtube.com

Listen to that. It's a fantastic musical score! This game still holds up. If you ever play a Final Fantasy, I suggest you play part 6. Square is only as popular as it is, because it dominated completely during the 16-bit era. 'Final Fantasy VI', 'Secret of Mana' and 'Chrono Trigger' caused the ripples, that made Square-Enix legend. They gave Square-Enix this gravitas on the fans and the iron grip on the JRPG market, that you perceive. Final Fantas VII was the perfect storm. A freak of nature. The fans of the SNES holy trinity of japanese style RPG gameplay hyped Final Fantasy VII into something, it's not.

If you have never played the original 'Secret of Mana' - do it! It's much closer to western RPGs. Real time combat. Upgradeable weapons and magic. Maybe then you will understand the magic of Square-Enix. There Is a time and a place for Square games in every gamers life, you just weren't there yet.

pretty much everything

Some people just really enjoy the Japanese style RPGs.  I used to play them but can't anymore because I don't enjoy the gameplay.  Western is where its at for me, but I still respect what the JRPGs do.  I played Lost Odyssey for a long time even though I hated the gameplay.

I own every title in the main series except FF III, but I've only completed VII, X, X-2 and XII.  So I tried to like the series, just not enough to play through them.  Someday I'll finish them.....someday. 

Bottomline, it offers a great gameplay experience regardless of the platform, fantastic storytelling mixed with emotional scenes.

I for one, love FF for the gameplay,story and music. It always has a (awesome) complex but easy to understand story, great gameplay and emotional scenes, the character development is also top notch.

You don't have to like them, and certainly you don't have to like the series as a whole either, you're allowed your own opinions, but posting them up here when you've already figured out why you didn't like them is just flamebaiting. They aren't your style of game, that's fine.

Personally, I absolutely loved 7 and 9, but 8, 10 and 10-2 I absolutely fucking hated with a passion. 4 I didnt finish, 5 and 6 I never played, and the rest.

Cool worlds, the total craziness and high production values. 

Fighting an identical random battle for about the 10th time when you're just trying to run somewhere is a massive pain in the ass though - just padding out the length of the game for the sake of it - just give me the option to skip that shit already.

I still prefer the oldschool SNES FF's to any of the 3D ones (though VII was good).  I don't know why they took off.  I think it's because the stories were so remarkable for there time.  The FF series always pushed the envelope in terms of technology, gameplay and story for the JRPG Genre.

Awesome presentation, and I really do like the style of gameplay. When playing a western RPG, there seems to be a bigger push in putting me in the center of the action, where I have to be more aware of my surroundings to survive an encounter. With a Japanese RPG I get to take a step away from the action and issue commands from the outside. I feel like I'm taking the game a little more at my own pace, and that's relaxing. Of course there have been pacing issues with these games, and Final Fantasy has suffered from that as well, but on the whole I've enjoyed the series since the first installment on NES (now THAT game had pacing issues!) I'm trying to finish FF12 before 13 comes out, but I guess my preferences that I gave before keep me from connecting with it as deeply as I did with FF4, 6, and 10.

It's the crazy hair.

For me it's the enjoyable stories and well designed worlds combined with the very fun battle system. Final Fantasy games provide me with a good amount of challenge and fun, while also giving me a storyline that I can get wrapped up in.

I was a fan right up until they went fully voiced in FFX. I think somehow the writing that worked in the 90s stopped working in the 21st century, although it could also be because the actual FF team left Square and started Mistwalker, whose Lost Odyssey I do actually like a lot.

I also think Squenix's attempts to "modernize" the combat system have been fucking terrible to say the least. I mean, think about FFXII. They take away control of your party and give you friendly AI which is deliberately bad and then make you earn better AI by finding "gambits". That's an awful system. I loved the story in that game, but sorry, I'm not dealing with teammates too stupid to fight bosses properly for forty hours.

I think people play the new games because of their good memories with the older ones. As I said, (I BELIEVE) they're gameplay style belongs to the past and is not really appealing compared to more modern RPGs.

The graphics are what pull most people into the game, but I stayed for the story. Eventually the battle system grows on you, at least it did for me, but much like MGS4, I felt like I was working to the next cutscene, because that's where the magic is at. I love the characters, and love how they all interact with each other. And battle systems like X-2 and XII actually made those games, when, for me, the characters and story lacked. I don't know how much I'm going to enjoy the story of XIII, because it seems iffy ATM, but the battle system looks like an intelligent upgrade from X-2, which is probably my favorite battle system of them all.

The title has alliteration in it.

What, you need more?

I also think that Final Fantasy puts a lot of effort into the plot which is always nice to see in a game.