Most Underrated Final Fantasy

[Bubba]

I think it's fair to say that none of the FF series main entries have received universal love. Which one do you think has received unwarranted criticism. Which one do you think flies so far under the radar, most people don't realise how great it is!

Maybe you could convince some of is here to give it a try!

Anyway, most underrated. Go.

[maybee]

Final Fantasy V. It has a light, outgoing storyline, doesn't take itself too seriously, is a fun and silly game with a amazingly addictive gameplay setup. I really believe that the PSONE Port really damaged this game's rep. And the "newer " port doesn't help.

[Karifean]

Would have voted for X-2 but it's not on there. So I went with Final Fantasy V instead. Such a great game. My favorite of the SNES era games.

[Forsaken Lover]

FF3 is good, at least on Steam.

[Scruffington]

Happy to see so many people voting Final Fantasy XII, but no one has posted about it! Figured I would explain why I chose this game as my #1.

When people talk about Final Fantasy XII it's almost like an afterthought. You hear a lot of people saying things like "FF has stopped being good since X," or "FF has stopped being good since IX when it was less linear." They'll usually say this because they either really dislike XIII or really dislike XV and the new direction the series seems to be going in.

Most of their hate isn't directed at XII. They just straight up overlook the game's existence. I rarely ever see someone who talks about the good old days of FF even acknowledge XII, let alone explain why they dislike it.

This is why I think XII is the most underrated. It's the most forgotten about game in the entire series imo.

Also a runner up for me would be XIII for fairly obvious reasons. :P

[Darth Ganon]

Would have voted for X-2 but it's not on there.

Same.

Looking at the poll after I voted all of the ones I considered are the highest. FFV appears to have a pretty large following (especially now with the Job Fiesta) and I feel FFVIII kind of has a cult status despite the almost universally agreed upon faults.

There has been a lot of hype for FFXII: TZA leading up to release which leads me to believe the original was enjoyed well enough that fans clamored for more.

FFXIII however, is dragged through the mud constantly outside of the idolization of Lightning. It's by no means a perfect game, but come on. I thought it was a blast.

[Edge7]

So this is a hard pick for me. XII being my favorite, I wanna go with that one, but it's gotten some nice attention lately. A lot of people say IX's often overlooked, but that's been changing the past few years as well. I thought V was always kinda in that middleground of notoriety where hardcore JRPG fans love it, but most people (ie, the people who play for the story and characters) tend to overlook it, but on the other hand, it took me until last year to really sink my teeth in it, so I'll vote for it.

I also want to say maybe FFIII? I haven't played it, but its graphics and music are the peak of the Famicom, and I really want to give that version a try.

[Skyblade]

Happy to see so many people voting Final Fantasy XII, but no one has posted about it! Figured I would explain why I chose this game as my #1.

When people talk about Final Fantasy XII it's almost like an afterthought. You hear a lot of people saying things like "FF has stopped being good since X," or "FF has stopped being good since IX when it was less linear." They'll usually say this because they either really dislike XIII or really dislike XV and the new direction the series seems to be going in.

Most of their hate isn't directed at XII. They just straight up overlook the game's existence. I rarely ever see someone who talks about the good old days of FF even acknowledge XII, let alone explain why they dislike it.

This is why I think XII is the most underrated. It's the most forgotten about game in the entire series imo.

Also a runner up for me would be XIII for fairly obvious reasons. :P

It's hard to remember FFXII is even a game when the Gambit system makes the whole thing play itself. You press more buttons to loot chests than you do to interact with battles in most dungeons.

[Spuuky]

I wouldn't say it's my favorite FF game, but I think FF12 has the greatest chasm between what I think of it (it's very good) and what the large number of detractors it has think about it.

[Aulayna]

Definitely FFXII for me. I think it, like FFIX, was kind of ahead of it's time in some regards. Like, I wish the party AI in the likes of Dragon Age could be drilled down as far as it could be in FFXII.

[Psychotic]

As with others, I'd have voted X-2 but it's not there so I'm voting III.

Also wow, FFXII is so underrated here that it's, dare I say it, overrated? ;)

[Forsaken Lover]

I voted for FFVII because it became in vogue to hate on it for a while because it was "too popular."


Seriously though, me of when I joined EOFF would be raging about that overrated garbage while extolling the hallowed virtues of FFIX which is NOT A KIDDY GAME GODDAMMIT.

Nobody really gave a shit about V or IX back in the day. But they both really seem to have made a comeback in the years I've been online. Good for them.

[BustaMo]

Final Fantasy 5!!!
Played through it on my old PlayStation 1 back when it was released as FF Anthology with 6. The characters were simple but had great back stories and the job class was enough to pop a boner over! I was pumped playing it, got frustrated when I got stuck, and laughed for its humor and got pissed at the game's enemies. Great overall game which I can't wait to play again. I wish more people had played it so I could discuss it with them.

[Fynn]

Definitely XII.

[Darth Ganon]

Final Fantasy 5!!!
I wish more people had played it so I could discuss it with them.

I just got a copy of FFV Advance and replaying it now. I considered making a LP thread, but it was too troublesome taking screenshots for it. A lot of the game is fuzzy for me, though, which is why I wanted the GBA version (didn't want to replay the PSOne release).

[BustaMo]

I just got a copy of FFV Advance and replaying it now. I considered making a LP thread, but it was too troublesome taking screenshots for it. A lot of the game is fuzzy for me, though, which is why I wanted the GBA version (didn't want to replay the PSOne release).

I don't blame you there. I believe that version of FFV (PS1) turned a lot of people off and made it more underrated since the graphics were aged a bit AND the load times on the Sony system took longer than my 94 year-old Great Aunt completing a Tough Mudder event. :erm:

[Darth Ganon]

Then the game crashed while saving and I lost about an hour.:stare: At least my file didn't end up being corrupted.

But this is scary to think about if it becomes a regular thing. You can't safeguard yourself from a game freezing on you during a save.

[Wolf Kanno]

There area quite a few underdogs, but I'm giving this to FFIII because I feel its the entry people look over the most. It was screwed out of its placement in the franchise due to being released almost twenty years later in the West, and everything it brought to the genre is considered standard fare now. Games like FFV and XII do not get the recognition they deserve as well, but at least those titles have passionate fans or the general fansbase tends to have a favorable opinion of it. III is simply just forgotten.

[Edge7]

As I said in my initial post, I'd love to sing FFIII's praises had I actually played a significant portion of it. The fact that its community is so small is truly a shame, if I didn't already have a full backlog of RPGs, I'd definitely give it a go.

[SocialKonstruct]

I think that FF12 is the probably the most controversial and underrated Final Fantasy game of the series. Granted I remember playing it on PS2 and it didn't have that same feel as FF10-2 but I loved it.

Granted the fast-action play style rather than the story-driven slow combat RPG created a ruckus amongst FF fans back in the days. Like Final Fantasy Tactics I think over time folks have begun to appreciate the revolutionary nature of FF12 because of the rather quick, on-the-fly RPG style and job system which are now incorporated in various games today.

[Loony BoB]

Voted for V. The next three I'd place would be VIII, XII and XIII. And those four combined are the leading four on the poll, so I'm happy.

[Example]

I would have said IX, but it's garnered quite a fanbase in the last decade. So V I guess.