Most Underrated FF

[Axem Titanium]

So how much of the hate that is directed toward FFVIII can be attributed to teenage boys disliking a so-called sappy romance? I personally find FFVIII's characters to be among the most human of any FF. The junction magic/GF system is clever and requires some careful strategy, as well as provides ample opportunity to be completely broken by a smart player. I fail to see why FFVIII gets such a bad rap, for being "not-FFVII", aka the most overrated FF.

[WildRaubtier]

Eh, I find a lot of the hate is because of "DURR MAGIC IS USELESS" by which they actually mean "I can't use any magic because I have an OCD hoarding problem."

Sometimes, they might try the "USING MAGIC LOWERS YOUR STATS!!!!!!!!!!" version but that just means they're too lazy to restock afterwards.

[Chris]

No one can genuinely say that FFVIII has the best cast of characters. It's just not true, regardless of how much you want it to be. With the exception of Squall and Rinoa, the rest had zero character development. The drawing system is flawed, as it makes using magic almost completely out of the question. Personally, I like the game, but I also think that it deserves a lot of critique for its many flaws.

The most underrated? I would have to say FFV. Smack in the middle of FFIV and FFVI, it is not as widely loved and played by people, which is a shame as it's quite possibly the most enjoyable FF title to play.

[Formalhaut]

No one can genuinely say that FFVIII has the best cast of characters. It's just not true, regardless of how much you want it to be. With the exception of Squall and Rinoa, the rest had zero character development. The drawing system is flawed, as it makes using magic almost completely out of the question. Personally, I like the game, but I also think that it deserves a lot of critique for its many flaws.

The most underrated? I would have to say FFV. Smack in the middle of FFIV and FFVI, it is not as widely loved and played by people, which is a shame as it's quite possibly the most enjoyable FF title to play.

I would have to agree with Chris. FFV is rather unfortunately placed in the FF family. It's akin to the middle sibling; unfortunately it's often ignored.

No such problem for VIII. Being just after VII, expectation was high for VIII, but for me there were too many problems:



Junctioning system took abit of getting used to
Magic was of limited usage, seeing how you have limited stock of it!
The plot was both confusing and convoluted...
Next to no character development sans Squall / Rinoa. You thought Lulu from FFX got nothing going for her?


It wasn't a bad game, but it wasn't great. It was... average?

[Wolf Kanno]

I would agree that FFV is the most underrated followed by FFIII. Largely because they are fantastic games that are debatably on par or even better than the other games they shared a console with.

Don't get me wrong, I like VIII, it had a lot of cool ideas and I really wish Squenix would take a look back at this game and maybe try to retool these ideas for future releases. Yet VIII does falter on a lot of points so it does deserve the flack it gets. I may agree that it gets a lot of unfair hate from the fandom though.

[Heath]

I'd say FFV is definitely more underrated than FFVIII, but I think people have given VIII a bit of a hard time in the past - and I'd include myself in that. I actually replayed the game a few years ago with the intention of reappraising my opinion and was pleasantly surprised by how much more I seemed to enjoy it. That said, I am still not inclined to differ from my opinion that if I were going to rank the games in the series, VIII would be in the bottom half.

I really enjoyed the first two discs of VIII and found that the quality dropped after that. I'd also say I found the character development rather disappointing. The game itself is fun, graphically, for the time, it's pretty great, and it actually has some of the best music in the series, I think. I think to a certain extent VIII is unfortunately placed too - after VII and before IX. Although the latter isn't the most universally loved entry in the series, it's one of my favourites and when I inevitably compare the three games I always find it comes off worst.

[maybee]

Final Fantasy VIII does get quite alot of hate and backlash, but Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy III basically have not much of a fanbase whatsoever same with Final Fantasy II.

Final Fantasy II basically not there at all, it's either extremely hated or not played at all. You would have a better chance of finding a fan of one of those obscure Mario games like Mario is Missing.

Final Fantasy III I've seen like one fan online, that's it. Same with Final Fantasy V.

Final Fantasy VIII does have a small fanbase but it's not like it's bare bones like some of the earlier FF titles.

Underated ? Yes. Hated by a few ? Yes. But extremely thirsty for fans. Nope.

[Shorty]

While FFVIII is my favorite, I have to be honest and say that I recognize it for it's mediocrity. I will agree, though, and say that it gets a lot of unfair hate that I just don't understand, but maybe that's because I've played so little of the rest of the series to compare it to.

[MJN SEIFER]

It's always going to seem underated to me, because I love it. Just like I find FFVII underated due to the fact it's become cool to hate it, when really how can anyone say FFVII is "underated"?
FFVIII was my second Final Fantasy, and is my second favorite (just like FFVII is my first game and first favorite, but that is where the coincidences end), and it was an awesome game for me to play for seveal reasons;

I'm not attention seeking or anything, but I was going through a less serious "Squall-like" time at that point, so the storyline kind of helped me "get back to basis" as it where.
Aside from the usual "seemingly just met" thing that most storylines have, Squall and Rinoa's romances seemed to be the most believeable for me. (I know a lot of people miss it, but you need to look at all the lines not just what they say to each other, and body language.)
The fact I played it straight after I played FFVII, made it easier for me to understand the junction storyline.
It has a romantic storyline - I have loved romantic storylines since I was really young.
The fact that I sucked at/was too lazy not to cheat when I payed videogames back then, I ended up playing more than one save in succession. Because of this, I saw the hints to the orphanage scene and how cleverly done they were. So I loved that scene for years, while all of you are still hating it.
Leveling up doesn't cause too much difficulty, so I still do it.

[Hollycat]

Final Fantasy VIII does get quite alot of hate and backlash, but Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy III basically have not much of a fanbase whatsoever same with Final Fantasy II.

Final Fantasy II basically not there at all, it's either extremely hated or not played at all. You would have a better chance of finding a fan of one of those obscure Mario games like Mario is Missing.

Final Fantasy III I've seen like one fan online, that's it. Same with Final Fantasy V.

Final Fantasy VIII does have a small fanbase but it's not like it's bare bones like some of the earlier FF titles.

Underated ? Yes. Hated by a few ? Yes. But extremely thirsty for fans. Nope.

I happen to adore ff2.

No, I don't think VIII is underated. It is a good game, but not up to par with what we expected from a FF. It had some neat ideas, but the simple fact is, the game is broken. Without any extra effort you can breeze through the game killing each boss in two or three rounds by junctioning to attack. And the simple fact that using magic can make your magic weaker is irritating. Again, I'm a fan, but it isn't worthy of the FF brand, much like XIII. Except that while XIII needs to be piled in a landfill and set on fire, VIII needs merely to be put in a drawer to save room for better games. V is definitely without question the most underated, it was gameplay perfection, but I bet it is the least played of all the games. Yes the story was weak, but it was fun, and I've finished it more times than I've finished any other ff save CC and the original.

[Sephex]

Final Fantasy VII. It's like it gets ignored on purpose or something!