Unpopular Final Fantasy Opinions

[Laddy]

Go.

[Citizen Bleys]

Setzer is the coolest character in FFVI.

[Jinx]

FVII doesn't have a very good story.

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

Sephiroth is a lame character.

[The Man]

FFVII has an often incoherent plot and Cloud and Sephiroth have been turned into terrible characters by their many appearances in sequels and AU material. The game would have been much better if it had continued along the lines suggested by the opening in Midgar (as an exploration of corporate greed, environmental depredation, and so on), and while the feeling of finally getting out of Midgar is one of the most liberating experiences given by any Final Fantasy game, it was all downhill from there.

That said, the beginning sequence of the game is one of the most flawlessly executed sequences in any video game ever made.

[Jinx]

The opening FMV of FFVII is really, really boring and quiet.

[Night Fury]

Red XIII is one of the greatest Final Fantasy characters.

[Wolf Kanno]

Final Fantasy IV is actually a good game, I would almost say it's design is flawless.

Final Fantasy II is the most underrated game in the franchise, it's a hell of a lot better than people give it credit for.

Final Fantasy III is better than FFIV

Final Fantasy X is an overrated game that is not nearly as good as the praise it gets from fans. I can't even fathom what the Japanese FF fans see in it.

The Fabula Nova Crystallis is an utter failure of a franchise idea and nothing short of Versus XIII becoming a new FFVII for the series would change that.

FFX-2 officially marked the end of FF franchise, because the moment Square/Squenix realized they could make money by just milking past successes marked the end of the company's need to be creative with its writing.

Despite the above statement, FFXII is the last great entry in the series thus far.

VI is the best written entry in the franchise, if only by accident.

Tidus' true nature is the weakest and stupidest plot twist in the main series.

I feel FFVIII needs a remake more than any other entry in the series, because it has the most unrealized ideas and potential.

I feel Kitase is a hack and partly why the series isn't as good as it used to be, because he favors the narrative and cutscenes over the game and creates unbalanced games when he's working alone or with his like minded protege Toriyama.

FFV Job Class system is the best customization/battle system in the series because it offers a lot of options while also being one of the most balanced systems in the series.

Limit Breaks have ruined game balance in the franchise and it's one of the elements of the battle system that needs to be fazed out despite its popularity.

FFV is the last legitimately difficult FF in the series.

Hiroyuki Ito should be in charge of the series/franchise as both the producer and director.

The series needs to stop saving 90% of the optional sidequests until before the final dungeon, this is a stupid game design decision and it causes problems in the rest of the flow of the game.

The series needs to stop creating spells, abilities, and gear for use against the optional super-bosses or at least make them unlock only after you beat the game.

Stop making superbosses into attrition battles, RPGs should never have attrition battles, EVER...

The series needs to grow up and explore more mature themes with a mature mindset. Ditch the 15-16 year old "coming of age" plot with the "boy meets girl" love story.

[DownDiagonalLeftA]

FF13 is the best game in the series.


Nah, I'm kidding. Excuse me as I slap myself in the face for even pretending it was.

[Flying Arrow]

I feel Kitase is a hack and partly why the series isn't as good as it used to be, because he favors the narrative and cutscenes over the game and creates unbalanced games when he's working alone or with his like minded protege Toriyama.

FFV Job Class system is the best customization/battle system in the series because it offers a lot of options while also being one of the most balanced systems in the series.

Limit Breaks have ruined game balance in the franchise and it's one of the elements of the battle system that needs to be fazed out despite its popularity.

FFV is the last legitimately difficult FF in the series.

Hiroyuki Ito should be in charge of the series/franchise as both the producer and director.



If these are unpopular opinions, then I don't want to be popular.

My own:

FFIV is bland. I realize it's old and it kind of created the genre as we know it, but I still find it eh.

FFVI's character building system is probably the most tedious in the whole series (more so even than VIII).

Cloud, Tifa and Aeris are the best characters in the whole series, both individually and as players in their game's story.

Triple Triad is a lot of fun.

Blitzball fucking sucks.

FFXII is the best game in the series because it didn't try to be a game in the series.

[Bolivar]

American gamers would not overrate FFIV and VI if II III and V were released in the west.

Despite the series philosophy of making a different game every time, the first six are essentially the same game and the three after that were essentially the same game.

Ffii and v are the best 2d games in the series.

FFII did a lot of the things you mothersmurfers give FFIV the credit for.

The junction system is not easily breakable unless you're already experienced in doing so.

FFXII feels nothing like a final fantasy. It's also arguably the best in the series.

The early ff games cannot be considered for best story because they hardly had stories at all, nor were they able to say a lot with the few words they used.

Final Fantasy vii revolutionized the video game medium with the discovery of techniques that modern developers demonstrably still struggle to emulate.

Ffix was a faithful continuation of ffvii and viii

I didn't have fun for the majority of time I spent playing final fantasy vi

The laugh scene in FFX was a successful attempt at a light-hearted reminder to laugh even in the dark times.

The playstation final fantasys handled dialogue trees more efficiently than most western rpg developers

Vaan and Penelo were solid characters who meaningfully contributed to the cohesion of the story

Kefka was an underwhelmingly one dimensional and disappointingly undeveloped villain

Tetra master is better than triple triad

FFXIII probably had the best fully realized characters in the series

Revenant wings was a fun and novel combination of jrpg and real time tactics elements

Series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi was correct when he said the previous games were puppet shows compared to final fantasy vii.

Every game in the series has been pretty solid so far.

[Faris]

Sephiroth isn't hot.

[maybee]

[x] I don't like Aeris or Aerith or whatever you call the pink-dressed lady.

Throughout the game it felt like the only thing she was interested in gett'in Cloud's pants. That's it. And because he looked like and reminded her of Zack. " Oh you're Zack 2.0 you'll do fine " !

Then how she treats Barret at the Golden Saucer is just rude. Barret expresses his painful past to everybody and is errors on the past and him loosing a dear friend. What does Aeris do ? " Come Cloud, let's have a fun date at the theme park teee-heee " ! while holding his arms. Then Barret storms away pissed off and she's like " Come on Cloud, pick me instead of Tifa " !

Sephiroth did a good job. He he picked the right character to kill off...

[x] Final Fantasy VIII isn't awful or bad and it has a fun battle system and it's a nice romantic game.

[x] My Hands is a good Final Fantasy song and is just as good as Eyes on Me and Suteki na De etc. Leona Lewis is a good singer and My Hands is a good gift to the musical history of Final Fantasy games.

[x] Final Fantasy XIII had potential to be good. If it had better VA's and a controllable with everybody party instead of just Lightning, it would of been okay.

[x] Final Fantasy V should be just as popular as Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X.

[x] Final Fantasy I isn't that great and only gets attention because it was the first one made.

[Laddy]

-Aerith is a great character, as is Cloud. Both have been retconned into cliched and unlikable, but both are legitimately strong and interesting characters in what was once a great game.

-The Compliation isn't just bad. It made FFVII terrible.

-FFVI is the best game in the series, but it needs a remake terribly.

-FFX has simaltaneously the best and worst elements in the series. There is nothing that FFX does ok. It's battle system, soundtrack, and world are top-tier. It's overarching story is great. Its characters, writing, and direction is flawed.

-FFXII is one of the Top 5 in the series

-The FF fanbase has largely become a joke, being consisted of adolescent teen girls who are far too much into shipping and other superficial elements than the actual plot or writing. This is another reason why FFVII has become some rectroactively bad.

-Crisis Core is pointless, and overshadows FFVII.

-FFXIII had potential to be one of the best in the series. The setting and characters had the potential to be good to great, and if FFXIII were to be reimagined with better plot direction, battle system, and less linearity, it could seriously be great.

-FFXII is the direction the franchise should head.

-FFIX is the best PS1 FF, partially because it stepped away from FFVII and FFVIII's style.

-Nomura is excellent, but he has far too much influence.

[ShinGundam]

- FF1, FF7 and FFXII are most innovative games in series.

- Best Job in FF is samurai.

- So far I don't like any of 2D FF except for FF1/2.

- FF4 feels like an NES FF with less freedom than FF3.

- I can't get into FFV or FFVI, they feel very slow for a 2D JRPG when it comes to expanding story and gameplay.

- Zack is the best FF character.

- FF needs to ditch ATB.

- Square needs to make a completely new set of monsters, magic, summons and more special menus for a new FF game.

- FF needs more plot important content to make towns/dungeons/weapons/items etc... more worthwhile for the game and Kill elements that pad the games like loot and side quests.

- FF fans forgot what they like about FF games which is why they want more homage,cameos,remakes, ports and JRPG 101.

- I think FF fans are too much into hyper criticism and it doesn't add anything to fandom or games other than hate.

[Red Mage Coffman]

Why not?

- I don’t like FFII’s character development system at all.

- I don’t like FFV that much. I can’t force myself to play past the first ten minutes either. I feel if I could force myself past it, I could easily like it.

- I thought FFVI had a great character customization system. The idea of Relic’s was amazing and I would love to see it make another appearance.

- Cait Sith is quite possibly one of the worst video game characters I have ever seen. Everything about him is flat out awful. EVERYTHING. He should never have existed. Reeve’s should have just infiltrated Cloud’s group himself. I mean, if the group is dumb enough to recruit a talking-robot cat, why wouldn’t they recruit Reeves?

- Laguna should have been the main character if VIII, The plot should have revolved around him and Julie. The Drawing System/ Junctioning Magic System should be abolished and development should solely rest upon your GF’s and leveling.

- The character design of IX bugged me. Looking at the games main cast for the first time was enough to steer me away for a good while before I actually decided to play it.

- Yuna should be the main character of X. Her becoming the main character in X-2 was a complete slander on her.

- XIII, as said above, did have great potential. If not for the horrid gameplay, this game would easily become my favorite. The characters, the story, the music, the graphics, everything was fantastic. I would love some kind of a remake with the game redone. The remake would also have to include the victory fanfare.

- Noel is an amazing character and he deserves his own Final Fantasy, not XIII.

- Lightning is one of the best characters I have ever seen in the Final Fantasy series. She is easily up there in my top five.

[Karifean]

Seems to me like some people don't actually post "unpopular" opinions per se.

- Tidus is a great character.
- Yuna is a good character.
- XIII was a good game, not nearly deserving the hate it gets. XIII-2 brought the level back to awesome.
- X-2 has the best optional challenge in the series.
- VIII's Junction System was pretty cool.
- I think it's great that SE keeps experimenting with FF even if many don't like the recent outcomes.
- X is the best in the series.

And finally:
- All the games in the FF series I've played (V+) are good games.

[noshowmillk]

Kefka is overrated (gasp)

[Flaming Ice]

Red XIII is one of the greatest Final Fantasy characters.



That's unpopular? :(

[Night Fury]

Red XIII is one of the greatest Final Fantasy characters.



That's unpopular? :(

Hmm, maybe not unpopular, but I think he gets overshadowed by bigger members of that cast like Cloud and even Vincent, I loved Nanaki :heart:

[Pete for President]

- Tidus is a great character.
- Yuna is a good character.
- I think it's great that SE keeps experimenting with FF even if many don't like the recent outcomes.
- X is the best in the series.


Agreed.

Mine:
-- Rikku is a terribly childish character and the most dislike-able character in X.

-- FFVII had terrible story presentation and rarely motivates the player to do what is expected of him/her and fails to explain why we're doing what we're doing.

-- X has the most balanced, intriguing and best written story/story-presentation.

-- Kimahri is a great character both story and battle-wise.

-- Lightning takes the cake as lamest main character because of her totally irrelevant 'I'm a tough guy' act.

-- Final Fantasy Tactics has the best Dragoons in the series.

-- FFXIII has the best menu.

-- Sazh should have killed himself when he intended to.

[maybee]

-Agree about Tidus and Kimahri being awesome. Mr Kimahri Ronso with his blue teddy bear look and deep voice is cute. :love:

-After watching Spoony's review and noticing that when Sazh fell and Lightning just walked away and didn't care whether he lived or died and he just managed to catch the bomb canon that makes people jump off high buildings and live makes me think now that she's the most arrogant selfish bitch in the whole Final Fantasy universe and that she doesn't deserve the attention and praise that she gets. And from SE too.

- Balthier is a horrible character. * holds flame shield *

[Gamblet]

Final Fantasy II is the most underrated game in the franchise, it's a hell of a lot better than people give it credit for.


FFII did a lot of the things you mothersmurfers give FFIV the credit for.


I agree with those two!



Tetra master is better than triple triad


Pfff no.

[Forsaken Lover]

-Final Fantasy II is a great game.

-Final Fantasy IV has the best soundtrack in the series

-Snow, Hope and Vanille were the best things about XIII's story.

-Final Fantasy X-2 was intended to be a light-hearted campfest with bewbs and it succeeded. Therefore it is a good game.

-Final Fantasy XII is one of the best games in the series. It also has a great soundtrack.

-Cloud is easily the best written main character in the series

-I don't hate Rinoa. FFVIII has an awful cast no doubt but I think Zell and Quistis and the rest are more unbearable.

-I don't like Kain. I lovd FFIV but why the hell is this guy so popular? He wanted to bang Rosa and that made him get mind-controlled. Now he's the best part of the game somehow.

-I don't think there's been a main series FF with bad voice-acting. Some bad direction certainly but the actors Square gets mostly do a commendable job.
Speaking of which, James Arnold Taylor did a fabulous job with Tidus. it's just that Tidus should sound like an annoying douchebag.

[Gamblet]

-I don't like Kain. I lovd FFIV but why the hell is this guy so popular? He wanted to bang Rosa and that made him get mind-controlled. Now he's the best part of the game somehow.

He is a lancer, that's why.

[Flying Arrow]

-Final Fantasy XII is one of the best games in the series. It also has a great soundtrack.

-Cloud is easily the best written main character in the series



I want to buy you a beer.

More "unpopular" opinions:

- FFXII and XIII did mini-games right. In other words, they avoided them altogether. All core game, all the time (for better or worse considering I hold XII and XIII on completely opposite ends of the spectrum).

[Laddy]

While Vaan is not important to the story, he's a pleasant enough fellow.

[Wolf Kanno]

Thought of a few more:

I don't like Ultimecia's Castle. From a gameplay standpoint it's an interesting dungeon but it falters with the limited teams numbers and the fact your party is largely your Junctions so its usually you just switching your skill sets back and forth as you hit the switches to keep advancing. I also just hate the atmosphere, it was a cliche haunted castle with a cliche organ music and it just didn't feel as epic as past final dungeons.

I feel the Lunar Core/Lunar Subterrane did a better job making traveling to the center of a planet visually amazing compared to FFVII's Northern Crater. I just thought it was cool that the further you got the more you began to see the actual core in the background and it was a neat visual effect.

I feel the Inside of Sin is the worst final dungeon in the numbered series. It makes absolutely no sense and it really felt tacked on.

I honestly don't care for the Materia system. It's cool in theory but I feel its execution leaves much to be desired and I feel fans make a bigger deal out of it than it deserves because for all the tactical choices you make, the simple builds trump everything and the customization is largely pointless due to the games lack of difficulty.

I don't think FFX-2's ATB system is that good, its only strength is that characters don't wait for each other to take their action but since all skills have FFIV style charge times, the game pretty much deters you from wanting to use big things in battle cause it takes too long to cast. Not to mention dressphere changing also sucks up too much time in battle. So I don't agree its the fastest system cause everything else in the game chugs it down to slowville.

I honestly don't think emo Cloud is a retcon, My last playthrough of VII made me realize that Cloud really does become that dopey version in the Compilation after his big plot tumor twist. I feel its the fans who are delusional on who Cloud really is and they missed the point of his story.

I feel Ex-Death and Emperor Mateus are the two most underrated villains in the franchise.

I feel FFV has the most underrated cast in the franchise.

I don't mind having a character in the story who serves no purpose (Mog, Umaro, Quina) as long as the game makes you know they serve no purpose other than adding another character or for comic relief.

I feel focusing on the story/characters and cinematics for the series has been the greatest blunder of the franchise and the JRPG genre in general. It needs a balanced approach.

I don't like pre-rendered backgrounds for dungeons, I feel it makes for lazy dungeon design and I feel the 3D entries tend to focus more on making the dungeons visually appealing over actually being fun.

I don't feel Mark Hunts are a bad idea for a sidequest.

I feel every mini-game in VII except for the Submarine and Snowboarding game are terrible and badly designed. Likewise Sphere Break is the only good mini-game in FFX-2 the rest are terrible.

I don't feel FF has ever done a really good love story.

I feel many of the 8-bit and 16-bit entries are more soundly designed and better overall than many of the 3D installments. Because I feel its better to be limited by technology than by bad design/writing choices.

[VeloZer0]

I don't like pre-rendered backgrounds for dungeons, I feel it makes for lazy dungeon design and I feel the 3D entries tend to focus more on making the dungeons visually appealing over actually being fun.

Am I reading this correctly that you don't think they have done a good job with dungeon design since the 2D tile days?

[ShinGundam]

I feel many of the 8-bit and 16-bit entries are more soundly designed and better overall than many of the 3D installments. Because I feel its better to be limited by technology than by bad design/writing choices.
This doesn't make any sense to me :eep:
All FFs are limited by their targeted specs, it is not like FF or JRPGs for matter do anything special with PS3 specs. JRPGs (full 3d) are stuck in a point where moving around in an empty featureless map makes the battle more strategic or engaging when they can do much more than that or how a PS2-ish glitchy visible encounters are considered as a high end feature in a JRPG. JRPGs are already artificially limiting their opportunity to use high end console specs.

[Wolf Kanno]

@VeloZer0 - There are a few good ones (Shin-Ra HQ/The Desert Palace) but I honestly don't feel the dungeons post-2D are as memorable beyond visuals because they are largely visual and have no real gameplay purpose. At least in FFIII and IV I faced dungeons that dramatically changed how I set up my party. I never did that in VII-XIII so the dungeons are less memorable to me cause it left little impact. I couldn't even name most of the dungeons in the 3D entries whereas I could name most of them in the 2D ones. Though its not like the 2D entries are all gold either, FFII is on par with FFX and XIII in terms of really bad dungeon design, and FFI's dungeons are more memorable for their unforgiving encounters than the actual design. I like gameplay in my dungeons and I feel dungeons should be places to challenge the gamer not just add color to the world, this goes back to my statement that the FF series has hurt itself by focusing on story and narrative to the detriment of everything else in the game.


This doesn't make any sense to me http://home.eyesonff.com/images/eoff_smilies/sleepsmile.gif
All FFs are limited by their targeted specs, it is not like FF or JRPGs for matter do anything special with PS3 specs. JRPGs (full 3d) are stuck in a point where moving around in an empty featureless map makes the battle more strategic or engaging when they can do much more than that or how a PS2-ish glitchy visible encounters are considered as a high end feature in a JRPG. JRPGs are already artificially limiting their opportunity to use high end console specs.

This largely has to do with narrative and story design but there are some gameplay examples as well. From a story standpoint, I feel its better to be a likable character who lacks depth due to limitations of the hardware and staff like say FFIV's cast, than to be a game that easily has the tech and a staff that should have the experience to pull through, utterly falter at making a likable cast of characters, like I'll say FFVIII to be safe. The ability to create and animate grandiose plots due to not having the hardware limitations of early games also opened up the window for plotholes, terrible characterization, and awful writing. The early games have their writing problems and some are awful but we can always blame the tech not being there. Its easy to forgive FFII on the NES for having a paper thin cast and plot, its harder to do so with FFXIII which is a multimillion dollar budget game with hundreds of staffs and two decades of RPG making experience behind it for faltering.

In gameplay design, I feel FFIV has a very sound and balanced system, it may lack the pizazz and interest of the heavy customization games that came after but it also doesn't suffer from game balance problems or terrible interface issues. Sometimes a simple design is better than an ambitious but complicated design. I honestly can't completely fault FFIV on its terms of what it was designed to do, I can only fault it by placing unrealistic comparisons to modern gaming taste. Whereas I can fault more modern entries (VI-XIV) because they tried designs that didn't work, had balance issues, or just really lousy choices, but with them I can easily cite any modern game or even past games as examples of how to do it, its comparisons are at least against its peers.

[Skyblade]

Frimelda Lotice is the best character in any FF game.

FFXII is the worst game in the Playstation era of the series.

[NinjaCoachZ]

The PS1 version of FFI has one of the best soundtracks in the series. I just really enjoy listening to its music. The town, Sunken Shrine, and Matoya's Cave themes in particular are simply beautiful.

FFVII and IX don't need remakes because they're fine as is. VIII is the one that needs a remake. I think it's a great game (which in itself probably counts as an unpopular opinion), but it'd be even better if given a second chance to work out the flaws. Rewrite the story a little so that the characters get some development and certain plot developments make a bit more sense. Give Seifer a more important role on disc 3, maybe even have him be redeemed and join the heroes, if only for the final battle. The writers basically forgot about him after the second disc, which was a shame considering his importance early on.

Also, if the game does what the IV remakes did and gives the player the option to use Laguna, Kiros, Ward, Edea, and Seifer for the endgame (add those plot details I mentioned for Seifer and it'd make plot sense for all of them to be in the party), that'd be pretty sweet.

Speaking of VIII, I think Doug Erholtz was a better voice actor for Squall than David Boreanaz. Even though I like David for his work as Angel, his performance in the first KH was a little phoned-in acting wise, and Doug's voice fit Squall better in my mind.

[black orb]

>>> FFX rules. Tidus rules..:luca:

[Forsaken Lover]

^ Truth.

And on that note, more opinions of mine:

-FFIX is not a perfect game, not even close.
-Seymour was a well-written and interesting villain.
-The first half of FFXIII was the best part of the game. As soon as it "opened up", it went to Hell.
-Advent Children was okay.
-I found Dirge of Cerberus more interesting than Crisis Core simply because CC was all about unnecessarily retconning the perfect Nibelheim Flashback.
-I don't mind the Tsviets character designs. I find them much less offensive than a lot of Nomura's other works.
-Shelke was awesome.

[Bolivar]

-The first half of FFXIII was the best part of the game. As soon as it "opened up", it went to Hell.

Props isn't enough, this also needed a quote.

[Forsaken Lover]

It's always good to find a kindred spirit.

I liked being able to choose my party finally but that didn't make up for how much I hated Pulse and the general direction of the story at this point.

Hello! I'm Barthandalus! Be threatened and terrified by my complete lack of desire to actually do you harm!

FEAR MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[Skyblade]

It's always good to find a kindred spirit.

I liked being able to choose my party finally but that didn't make up for how much I hated Pulse and the general direction of the story at this point.

Hello! I'm Barthandalus! Be threatened and terrified by my complete lack of desire to actually do you harm!

FEAR MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

I agree. From a story and location standpoint, Pulse sucked.

Openness was needed, but the implementation of it was horrible.

But saying that the beginning was the best part really just illustrates how bad the game is.

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

Final Fantasy Anthology does not have unbearably slow load times between battles.

Neither does Chronicles.

[Bolivar]

Final Fantasy Anthology does not have unbearably slow load times between battles.

Neither does Chronicles.

FFV was fine. VI isn't "unbearable," but after a decent play session it builds up to be that way.

[maybee]

FF 8 is a good Final Fantasy game.

Aeris's death scene is not that sad, it's tragic but it's not the most tragic FF death ever seen in FF history.
Vivi was the saddest

Zell is a good character

Locke keeping Rachel's dead body is a little on the creepy side and isn't romantic at all. Sorry Locke.

FFIX's battle speed is not that slow. It could be faster, but it's not so slow that it's dreadful.

FFIX's ending was messy, rushed and really confusing... and did they run out of time for the release date or something ?

Freya isn't a good character- the only good thing about her is her fighting skills.

[Red Mage Coffman]

Just gota new opinion.

FFXIII has some of the best music in the series, ranking up there with VII and VIII.

[Spooniest]

Nobody cares about the gameplay anymore. It's become so story-driven that the gameplay becomes an afterthought.