What did you like most about each game?

[Kaie]

In which way did each of the Final Fantasies you have played stand out for you?

IV-The colourful characters and awesome story, especially for such an old game
V-Job system
VI-The music, also interesting characters
VII-Midgar and the darkness of this world
VIII-eh? liked the final dungeon
IX-Lovely world with great cities
X-the levelling system
XII-Massive world!
XIII-the comraderie that slowly develops between the characters. They are not just some people traveling together, but start to genuinely care for each other

Tactics-what's not to love?

[VeloZer0]

1 - Sense of accomplishment arrived at from difficulty.
3 - Excitement from finding new job classes, or even new weapons
4 - Creates a sense that the conflict is so intense that even party members aren't safe.
5 - (SPOILER)Two worlds coming together into one and changing the world map. So cool!
6 - Exploring the WoR and seeing how everything has changed.
7 - The setting that was created. Quite a bit off typical fantasy, and the pre-renders really brought it to life
8 - Squall at the beginning of the game
9 - The Terra sequence Screw all the haters.
10 - Combat system (system, not difficulty tuning)
12 - Uh... Quickenings looked cool?
13 - Lightning's in battle animations
T - Diversity of character skills. Most SRPGs tend to end up with a screen of melee in front attacking, and archers and mages behind attacking and casting spells. In FFT every character had a bunch of different skills to learn, and because of the maps and party sizes it didn't feel like two formations colliding, but two parties colliding.

[Remon]

I - The nostalgic feeling about it all.
IV - Mostly the cast and story.
VI - Everything
VII - Probably story depth and general feeling that the game gave off. The most rememberable villain ever. Also lego people.
VIII - The romance, the fact that there are two stories being told, and card minigame.
X - Controlling summons, and the ability to use all the characters in battle. Also customizing weapons/armor and minigames. (dodging lightning ftw)
X2 - The numerous ways that the story could go. Also dresspheres.
XII - The hunts. The places. The world felt so vast and ready to be explored. It was like an adventure.
T - Jobs, jobs, and more jobs!
TA - Races and jobs/classes.

[Fynn]

I - The classes levelling up. General awesomeness.
II - The learning system. And Minwu.
III - Three airships!
IV - Five-member parties.
V - Job system and multiple worlds. The humor.
VI - The story, music, setting, characters and the way summons were used.
VII - The setting, the cast and Aerith's death. Also, 3D world map.
VIII - Squall, Junction and Ulti's castle.
IX - The nostalgia and references to older titles. The little gimmicks and fairy-tale atmosphere. Also, Vivi.
X - Some ways in which the battle system could be abused, despite it's slowness. The music.
X-2 - Jobs again. Slight non-linearity. Great combat.
XI - The races, classes (system in general) and the fact that my Elvaan warrior could co-operate with my girlfriend's Mithra black mage. Seriously, I loved dragging away the enemies so that she could do her magic
XII - Everything. Seriously, I love the setting, the art style, the music, the vastness of the world, the quests and freedom, the combat system, the grinding and most of all the hidden depths of the story. And the superb voice acting and localization.

Tactics - The PSP localization, the terrific story.
Tactics Advance - The races, the surprisingly deep story.
Tactics A2 - The mini-stories in quests (the main line sucked), the stream-lined job system, varied quests, loot.

[Vermachtnis]

I - Sword-chucks, yo
II - I could make Maria a badass. Also Leila
III - That dungeon where you shrank and had a boss fight with a mouse.
IV - Rydia
V - Faris
VI - Relm
VII - Yuffie
VIII - Selphie
IX - Eiko
X - Rikku
XII - Ashe

Mystic Quest - Bitchin soundtrack, and Tristam
Tactics - Agrais and Estelle (a dancer/ninja)
Crystal Chronicle - Awesome music

[Flying Arrow]

I - General challenge and NES adventure game atmosphere. I really feel as if I'm earning my way through.

II - Can't really remember much that I liked here, though I still love the NES adventure vibe.

III - The job system and the general robustness of the quest. There are lots of towns and dungeons, and I just think the premise of the floating continent over a flooded planet is really cool even if it didn't really go anywhere past that. Easily the best of the original trilogy. Also, the overworld themes: YouTube - and YouTube -

IV - The forward-moving quest. Not a whole lot stands out about IV for me; it's just a solid game all 'round.

V - Job system, hands-down. I also like how many locations there are in the game. There must be like almost twenty towns to visit.

VI - The end of the world and everything that comes with it. The game is "merely" solid up to that point, but then...

VII - The premise and running themes throughout the plot that a lot of fans overlook and ignore - probably the best writing in the series, even if it's undermined at times by some sloppiness. Also, the backgrounds, general cohesiveness of the game world, and briskness of the adventure itself. And the Materia system. Love this game.

VIII - The design of the world, even if more could have been done with it. Also, the junction system. I also have tremendous respect for the old Squaresoft who tried to pull off a game like this after making what is most likely the most overhyped game in the universe. They chickened out with their human-story premise in the end, but dammit it really had some heart at times.

IX - Again, the locations and general meatiness of the game world. The world building in this one is tremendous because of everything from the sweeping vistas to the smallest "!" details. Oh, and Vivi - the greatest JRPG character in history.

X - The music and the premise (or at least the premise from the first few hours of the game).

XII - The detail in the game world and general fullness of the quest. I didn't feel shortchanged at the end the way I did with X. Oh, and the Gambit system. I find it tremendously satisfying to concoct a perfect strategy... and then work on concocting a more indirect perfect strategy, and then... Also, that it's the only great in-house console game SE made in the decade.

XIII - The Gran Pulse part, which is when the game starts being enjoyable. Also, Oerba is smurfing beautiful. The VA is pretty good too, even if the script itself is not.

[Wolf Kanno]

FFI: Probably the fact, that despite still being a very limited and bare bones design, the game is able to craft a story of the world that is entertaining and finally dropped the whole "save the princess for the next 10 hours" spiel that was the norm of the genre.

FFII: A pretty nice story for its time with many memorable moments and a great villain who shares more than a few similarities to a villain from one of my fave movies growing up:

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I also liked the crafty battle system. Yes, it is far from perfect and is probably more tedious than just simple grinding but really taking time to notice how it works shows that there was a great deal more thought put into it than people give it credit for.

FFIII: Like FFI, I enjoy the fact the game doesn't settle for the typical "good vs. evil" schmuck and that once again, their is enough background info about the world and the characters to make it feel really alive. I also adore the Job Class system.

FFIV: I love the characters, and despite being outright silly at times the more serious elements of the story don't disappoint. Yet, I really must say its the cast, despite the later installments having more technology from moving to CD/DVD/Blur-Ray and becoming incredibly story focused, I find it amazing that FFIV's cast is still incredibly memorable and likable for me. It just shows that good, design, no matter how simple will always work, even over games that are considered "advanced" and "movie like".

FFV: JOB CLASS SYSTEM AND GILGAMESH!!!!!!

FFVI: Just about everything but mostly the world design (finally began to shed some of the overtones of medieval that the last five installments had). I enjoyed the story of magic being a terrible force that has disappeared in a world that is brimming on the edge of the Industrial Revolution, I love the large and vary cast who still utilize the great design philosophy of FFIV by being simple and to the point, I love its main villain who is one of the most radically different villains in the series in terms of personality, I love the second half and the game constantly trying to tug at the emotional strings of the player by putting them on the spot in the Opera, trying to save Cid's life and the climatic scene afterwards if you fail, exploring the WoR and seeing the absolute horror it entails at your parties failure, and how the second half of the game focuses on resolving the characters personal struggles. The soundtrack just adds to the drama of everything and makes all the scenes have more punch.

FFVII: The world design is my favorite, it builds off where VI started and adds some modern cyber punk in the form of Midgard. It builds off VI's use of an excellent soundtrack to add dramatic punch to moments in the game and it also greatly expands what its predecessors tried in adding elements to break up the monotony of battle, dungeon, battle, town, resupply, battle... and actually fully realized the mini-game concept. I like the concept of the materia system but like FFII, I feel its has too many flaws when combined with other aspects of the game. If only the plot and cast were good, I might have been able to agree with its fans.

FFVIII: Squall and Laguna mostly. VIII has some great world design concepts but unfortunately, Nojima and I differ on what would have been more compelling. I liked the idea of a child soldiers and terrible powers with dramatic consequences with a rich backstory played through another protagonist to show history repeating itself. Nojima thought it would be more interesting to fill it with a cardboard love story and time traveling witches from the future! At least Triple Triad rocks.

FFIX: A wonderful cast of characters and a rich world. It combines the best parts of old school and new school FF. Mostly, I love the amount of optional crap you can do and the fact most of it is fun (except Tetra master...) so I am never bored. Vivi is just the most adorable character in the series.

FFX: It's not as bad as XIII

FFX-2: Brought back the job class system, even if it isn't as good. The complete opposite of X in terms of gameplay linearity.

FFXI: Customization bonanza and it has a great story when you actually get some.

FFXII: Brought back freedom and a sense of exploration in the game. Excellent world design and takes some of the best elements from Tactics gameplay. Gambits get rid of the most tedious aspects of gameplay and finally let you spend more time exploring. I also liked the far more political story, just wish the ending wasn't so... "by the book" and by "book" I mean the Big Book of RPG Cliches.

FFXIII: ....Sahz... That's about it. It's also not Hydlide but besides a much bigger budget and and prettier graphics, I don't feel the quality is far from each other.

FFTactics: What is there not to love?

FFTactics Advance: Ivalice races!!! It also has a surprisingly good and controversial story.

FFTactics A2: Fixes some of the problems with the first game and has built great side missions and world.

The Compilation: Was so crappy it made me realize how good VII was.

TAY: Great seeing all the old characters again and it "borrowed" some great ideas from other games like Bands (okay technically IV created duel attacks but one character versus what CT and Suikoden did is not saying much) and the Moon Phases.

Crystal Chronicles: Great idea, and a wonderful way to lose friends.

[Flying Arrow]

david_bowie_gallery_labyrinth_2.jpg

smurfing yes.

[Kaie]

III - That dungeon where you shrank and had a boss fight with a mouse.

The what...? Hehe, makes me really want to play this game

[Flying Arrow]

I forgot to mention FFXII's monster codex, which is probably the only codex I can stomach. Unlike FFXIII's or a BioWare codex, only colour is in the codex (unless I am misremembering). Myths and legends that are largely irrelevant to the main plot, but add some nice depth to the game world. This is opposite to a codex that has key story or back-story elements in it in place of those elements actually being cleverly integrated into player exploration and NPC interaction. I find it frustrating to be playing FFXIII, Mass Effect or DAO, clicking on a point of interest, and then being informed that my codex has been updated with like four paragraphs worth of stuff. Like, really? That was all printed on this one statue?

A good game (FFIX or Chrono Cross) would have the statue give you a name and a couple of lines about significance, and then an NPC nearby who will give you a bit more context - but all from his own perspective, of course, rather than a dry insta-encyclopedia entry.

Tl;dr: A decade and half-a-decade old Final Fantasy games both have better world-building than the highest-rated RPGs today.

[Saber]

FF - I liked this one for it's originality. Even if you played other entries of the series you can still come back to this and have a smile. It introduced a lot and threw the series into recognition.

FF2 - I liked how the characters were given a more human role. Like sacrifice, manipulation, and heroism. It was a great game if they made the leveling up system better.

FF3 - Jobs! Yes I love how you could access different jobs for each character. It was very unlike the games before its time.

FF4 - Airships! I loved having so many ways of exploring the world, underworld, and moon via airship. This is my favorite part of any final fantasy and they give a lot of airships to explore with.

FF5 - ABP/AP. I liked how each class leveled up with AP other then just actions or personal EXP. It took time and reason to use each class.

FF6 - The characters. There is nothing more thrilling then to have every character at level 99. It also had a better story when they were introduced to Espers. Anyways Kefka, Edgar, Terra, EVERYONE was memorable. When I met a character as little as Leo or Cid, the game made it so that every character shined.

FF7 - Materia. You can say that the whole game involved materia and it's true. Rather your learning about it, learning to use it, or to stop the powerful black materia it stays in the game all around. It even tied into the lifestream and Mako.

FF8 - GFs. Well they are the best friends a final fantasy character could have. Not only did they take damage from enemies or power up your stats. They allowed you to refine and learn abilities as well as items. Over all the GFs were a great thing to have cause of all the stuff could be done with them. So they weren't just great damage dealers in battle, they took the hits for you and gave so much.

FF9 - Hmm, this is perhaps my least favorite in the series but I'm going to go with Chocobos. Hot N Cold was a fun mini game and the need to explore the world was overwhelming. It was a great end to all the older Final Fantasy games but when they said that FF9 was a tribute to the older games... I didn't know they were going to change the series.

FF10 - I liked nothing. You can say the sphere grid, the enemies weaknesses, summons but I just don't see it.

FF11 - I liked how this game got me off my lazy ass and get a job. I would rather spend my hours off games making money then to sit at a game trying just as hard. Overall this is where I lost faith in Final Fantasy

FF12 - Well, I liked how you could spend over 100 hours and still not have everything in the game. You can spend so much time on this but achieve so little. I have heard it even took people days to beat yizamat.

FF13 - I liked how you could upgrade weapons. Sure it was a lot of time spent but if they sped up the amount of time to get a weapon maxed it would have worked awesome. Having to buy everything a thousand times got old after two max weapons.

FF14 - Never played. I got a gameshark and am currently using it to make the old versions fun again.

[Polnareff]

I: The fantasy-style world
II: The level-up system (at least for the remakes)
III: The jobs
IV: The music
V: Everything except story. I loved the jobs and the difficulty.
VI: Everything including the story
VII: The setting, the scale, the amount of side quests. Oh, and Yuffie.
VIII: The setting
IX: Everything. This and VI are my favorites.
X: The battle system, the graphics, some of the characters like Wakka
XI: Never played it.
XII: Well....the graphics are really good.
XIII: Same as XII.