Marks out of ten

[Bubba]

Simple. Mark all the numbered FF entries out of 10. Include FFXI & FFXIV if you've played them.

Given everyone's strong opinions on so many titles I'm genuinely curious to see the marks you'd give them.

[Fynn]

I’m using the full scale, btw. So it’s not like anything below 7 is terrible

FFI - 6
FFII - 6.5
FFIII - 6.5
FFIV - 7(original)/8(DS)
FFV - 8
FFVI - 10
FFVII - 6
FFVIII - 6.5
FFIX - 7.5
FFX - 4
FFXI - 5
FFXII - 10
FFXIII - 2
FFXIV - 4

[Shiva95]

Here are mines:

FFIV: 8
FFV: 7
FFVI: 10
FFVII: 6,5
FFVII CC: 6
FFVIII: 5
FFIX: 8
FFX: 9
FFX-2: 4
FFXII: 7
FFXIII: 7
FFXIII-2: 7
FFXIII LR: 8
FFXV: 9

[maybee]

FFI - 5/10 Okay, average, mindblowing for it's time.
FFII - 5/10 Gave an average score due it's story, music and characters.
FFIII - 5/10 Job Class makes it barely pass.
FFIV - 5/10 SNES. 8/10 DS. The DS version is one of the best Final Fantasies, the SNES original is poorly translated and dumbed down, but still playable.
FFV - 5/10 Playstation. 8/10 GBA. Love how the GBA version creates a cheerful and fun atmosphere mixed with the already neat Job Class. The PSONE version is playable....just.
FFVI - 9/10 One of the best Final Fantasies.
FFVII - 8/10 Apart from the Big Materia mission, this game is fine. It has aged poorly though graphical wise.
FFVIII - 7/10 This game is either something you love or something you admire.
FFIX - 8/10 The battle slow-down and Trance stops it from getting a 10/10 or 9/10.
FFX - 8/10 The battle system is so great and the story is beautiful.
FFXII - 7/10 Fun battle system and nice characters, story is eh. Why can't Ashe be the MC instead ?
FFXIII - 4/10 @ Square. One straight roads are usually only fun with car or motorbike games, not JRPGS.
FFXV - 4/ 10 @ Square. Give me $20 and I might increase the score. $100 for the "10/10 " DLC.

FFX-2 7/10- Hate me, but I love how fun this game is. The cheese almost ruins it though.
FF XIII-2 5/10- Slight improvement on the OG XIII.

[Loony BoB]

With 5 (not 6 or 7 like some game reviews locations) being a pass mark...

I - 6/10
II - 4/10
III - Yet to finish
IV - Yet to finish
V - 9/10
VI - 6/10
VII - 10/10
VIII - 9/10
IX - 7/10
X - 6/10
XI - Only played to roughly L40, was fun though, 7/10
XII - 7/10
XIII - 7/10
XIII-2 - 8/10
LR:XIII - 7/10
XIV 1.x - 7/10
XIV:ARR - 8/10
XIV:HW - 9/10
XIV:SB - 8/10 so far
XV - 7/10
WoFF - 9/10

[Wolf Kanno]

FF: 6/10 - Compared to a lot of other RPG options on the NES at the time, FFI offers not only some replay value, but the ability to be quick about it since you won't get bogged down too much on character creation and finding what needs to be done makes it a pretty fun ride for someone looking for a quick bit of RPG goodness.

FFII: 5/10 - While the new story focus and mechanics make this a more involving experience compared to the first title, the lazy dungeon design combined with one of the worst inventory systems in the franchise drag this game down. The leveling mechanics are a love it/ hate it affair, but even if you like it, the grind to get the most out of it can wear your patience thin.

FFIII: (SF) 7/10 (DS) 5/10 - The DS remake is a watered down experience which breaks the mechanics to empower the players while lobotomizing the overall experience. The Wi-Fi sidequest was also a scrappy mechanic that pretty much punished players who don't live in cities. The original is a much more rewarding affair with great challenge that forced you to make the most of the Job System. The classes are less balanced against each other, but are better balanced against the game overall making it more fun to play.

FFIV: (Original) 8/10 (DS (6/10) - Simple and with a bit of a ridiculous plot, FFIV still strikes a chord with me for having memorable characters and a pretty fun game set up with cool dungeons and the most balanced gameplay in the series. The DS version adds some interesting new features, but fails to convince me they are worthwhile as opposed to just "updating a relic for the spastic new fans" which is kind of what it felt like, especially since the new challenge is undermined by the augment system breaking this game apart. Adding the Onion Gear in with the game's notoriously bad drop rate is also a mark against it.

FFV: 8/10 - Easily the best version of the Job system with a simple "easy to use, difficult to master" mindset which makes it one of the more fun customization systems in the series. The overall game design is also fun with plenty to do beyond just following the next story beat and lots of extras like fighting summons and acquiring Blue Magic and Bard songs. The dungeon design is also a nice continuation from the more interesting ones in FFIV. The plot is not exactly the most compelling but makes up for it by being one of the most fun compared to the melodrama the rest of the series tends to wallow in.

FFVI: 9/10 - Best cast, story, soundtrack and dungeon design, VI is the high point of the franchise for me. Cleverly combining story and gameplay with various events like a tower defense gimmick, multi-party dungeons, and interactive abilities like Blitz and the opera sequence, VI was ahead of it's time in 1994. The cast and story hit that nice balance of compelling melodrama and not taking itself so serious with great humorous moments throughout. If only the game was challenging and the Esper/Relic system didn't fall so flat by end game.

FFVII: 6/10 - Starts off really well with most of the first disc being pretty good overall but quickly falls apart by the halfway point as the game becomes mired with contrived plot elements, underwhelming plot revelations and closure, as well as the gameplay falling apart as you begin tripping over game winning materia and limit breaks prevent this game from being slightly above average for me. The best part of the game is the music and dungeon design. Also smurf Yuffie.

FFVIII: 7/10 - The plot might be complete garbage halfway through but the strong character arcs of Squall and Laguna save it from being a total wash. The dungeon designs are still pretty creative as well with Ultimecia's castle being one of the best final dungeons in the franchise. Junction might destroy the gameplay, but at least it's more involving on the players part than Materia and the Esper Relic system, which keeps it interesting despite how game breaking it is. Also Triple Triad is like the best minigame the franchise has ever come up with.

FFIX: 8/10 - A nice nostalgic flashback, IX brings to the forefront the best and worst of the series. The story is incredibly charming but falls apart towards the end, the cast is great, but are unfortunately shoved into the background beyond a two people towards the end resulting in why the plot doesn't end as strong as I would like. Gameplay is fun with each character having their own unique role and a customization system that gives them a bit more variety than IV's cast. I actually don't mind Trance and the slow combat, and the game brings back V's myriad of things to do besides follow the plot. Probably the last entry with a fun set of mini-games. The OST is also pretty snazzy with Melodies of Life being the best vocal track in the series. As far as I'm concerned, it's the last true FF.

FFX: 5/10 - FFX is a game that offered a lot of potential that is undermined by other decisions in it's creative process. The story is an interesting take on a popular Japanese legend, but said legend doesn't work being stretched out for forty hours leaving the devs to add in a contrived and overused evil religion plot that doesn't add anything to the story to anyone familiar with the genre. The cast begin as interesting people but lack of personality, questionable voice work, and too much of the good story elements being pushed into the background leave many of them underwhelming. The CTB system sounds great on paper, and when you fight something worthwhile like Arena Monsters, it shines, but the rest of the gameplay is mired with lack of challenge and making gameplay far too formulaic to make battles interesting. Weapon customization is pointless until end game as well as Aeon customization. The Sphere Grid is also pretty narrow and boring until late in the game. Of anything so much of X's gameplay problems come from the fact none of it really starts until you reach the end of the game. It also has the worst collection of mini-games until it's sequel The musical score is also one of the weakest in the franchise. I do still love the way Aeons were handled.

FFXI: 4/10 - MMOs are simply not my cup of tea, and XI's noob unfriendly early game sucks unless you have a high level friend to help you out. The job class system does look pretty good had I managed to make it far enough to utilize it. The community is also friendlier than it gives itself credit for as I was always surprised how often a passerby would heal or revive my dead ass. The story I've read from other sources gives this game some great potential, it's just not in a format I care for as I don't care for time sinks and games where I have to socialize. I don't like giving the game such a low score because I understand that a lot of my problems with it are really more on me than any fault the game has so take the score with a grain of salt.

FFXII: (Original) 7/10 (TZA) 8/10 - This is more like it. Ivalice is a fun place to explore and do stuff, and XII still handles mark hunts better than any other game I've played in the series. Probably the last truly ambitious title, the game falls short in a few places such as a lackluster ending sequence, randomized treasure chests, and a bazaar system/ultimate weapon grind that I wish I can slap Ito in the face for. The Zodiac Age fixes several mechanical problems the original had with an awesome Job system, but undermines the experience nerfed difficulty. Still the definitive version with a good cast and setting.

FFXIII: 3/10 - Terrible, the only reason it's not a 1/10 is because of Sahz and the concept had potential. An awful story that squanders all of its potential concerning fate and mass propaganda, a cast that wallows so much in its own melodrama to sap away any sympathy you might have for them, a world that is so poorly explored and defined for the player to remove any sense of wonder it could have given you, and a combat system that is built against the player and removes any creative strategy to just following a variation of three tactical sets with questionable A.I.; ultimately makes this my least favorite of the main FF series. I honestly can't fathom how someone can like this game, that's how mind numbling bad I find this game. I never bothered with the sequels and it cemented Motomu Toriyama as my least favorite director/game designer at Squenix.

FFXV: 6/10 - A step up from the last generation of squandered resources, XV feels too much like a "catch up" game to me as the devs try to throw in whatever trendy game element they can into the title. The plot is unfocused and falls apart when it was needed and the entire villain and secondary casts are poorly utilized. Still the main quartet are well done and have great chemistry, the road trip aspect was gracefully handled outside of a hiccup here and there. Combat is kind of underwhelming and the side quests get too repetitive too quickly, but side content like taking photos, cooking and dishing are surprisingly fun and involving. May change my mind when I play the finished version of the title about the score.

FFTactics: 9/10 - A great story that unfortunately moves away from the better plotline towards the end as well as a customization system that follows the series bad trend of quantity over quality, but overall, Tactics is a fun game with a great battle system and wonderful cast and story that dwells more in politics and human failures than just stopping a madman from acquiring a doomsday power, though it has that as well.

FFTactics Advance: 7/10 - A pocket sized wonder that I adore for its meta plotline and morally ambiguous message. The addition of the races and Law mechanics add some much needed depth to this title thanks to the rest of the job system being a bit too streamlined for my taste and utilizing IX's customization system without giving it the proper pacing IX had making character growth too subservient to the game's RNG. I don't particularly care for the mission style system of the game as the missions are way too samey for my taste and the Mission Item mechanic can go to hell. till a great game if you can look past its glaring faults.

FFTactics A2: 5/10 - While the gameplay offers way more variety and the side missions are quite enjoyable, the game has a pretty abysmal main plot and cast that go nowhere, and while it offers some changes to the job and customization systems, the game largely doesn't do much to really fix a lot of the underlining problems the TA series has. It plays better than Tactics Advance, but everything else is kind of poorer for it, making this a largely forgettable experience.

[Black Magic Shopkeeper]

FFI - 6/10. I think it's largely dependant on which version of the game you play. I've played almost all of them now (save the PSP and iOS/Android/PC versions) and each version individually has things I like and don't like. I'm still salty about how they trashed the black magic shopkeepers' design (you might have already guessed by my username and icon combo) and the difficulty and visual aesthetic varies, but overall it's a fun romp, regardless of the lack of a complex story, and continues to be a classic.
FFII - 7/10. Yknow, for all the flack it gets, this is probably one of the more innovative jrpgs made in the year that it came out. Playable characters rather than blank slates, a complex story, character death, and of course the battle/character growth system that launched the SaGa series. No, I'm not gonna let that go. It does of course have its flaws, but I'm able to look past them for the most part. ...Though that's probably because I never played the NES version, which I hear was the most broken.
FFIII - 6/10. Back to the same kind of grind as in FF1, but much larger in scale. I appreciated the jobs system, and the fact that chocobos were back, but other than that nothing really stands out for me. Still a fun romp for someone that just wants some simple rpg gameplay though.
FFIV - 5/10. I'm sorry, but I can't get through this game. The character deaths are too frequent and too soon, the story doesn't carry me effectively, and while the characters are of course memorable, this came out when I was still playing Phantasy Star II, which I hold in much, MUCH higher regard. So uh...yeah... I guess it's actually bias that brings it down to 5/10 for me. Battle system is still fun as heck though, and the humorous bits did have an impact on me.
FFV - 9/10. To me, THIS is the magnum opus of the early FF lineup. Most would default to FFVI, but there's something about FFV that charmed me. I think the first thing that drew me in was the much more refined job system forked from FFIII. And I guess with fewer characters to keep track of, I had more incentive to get attached. I do recall I was heavily in love with dragons (AND unicorns) when i played this, so that might also have affected my bias. There is also the simple fact that the dialogue was full of classic one-liners and the whole game was riddled with light-hearted moments. I never feel like I'm being pressured into feeling The Sads when playing this installment (aside from one scene that legitimately makes me upset) and ...well... this game has one of my favorite songs in the entire franchise.
FFVI - 8/10. I used to hold this in the utmost highest regard alongside my line up of "best rpgs ever" but after replaying it a couple times, I found flaws that didn't sit so well with me which knocked it down a bit. It's still a great title, though, and deserving of its popularity among rpg fans. And it also fleshed out the "moogle" characters a lot more, to a point that satisfies me. I... don't think there's much else to say there. People love this game.
FFVII - 5/10. Ow. Not that great of a score. Uh, I have said this before though: When I picked it up and played FFVII for the first time, I went in expecting it to live up to all the praise it got... and I felt let down. I would love to say that my problems with it are just nitpicks, but-- barring the pretty badass materia system, I wound up severely disliking the wildly broken game mechanics. Also my copy developed this weird glitch where you get a black screen when cgi cutscenes are triggered, and you have to open the console and switch to a different disc to get it to progress-- and when you do that, you get the wrong fricken cutscene. So instead of the characters scrambling around on the Tiny Bronco, I got to watch them clamber around on the Meteor. Anyways, the boss battles tended to be frustrating, Aerith/Aeris didn't move me much at all, the storyline wasn't engaging for me, and the only character I actually DID like, everyone else seems to hate. The worst part for me is that all the spinoffs really ruined the experience as a whole for me. (If you're going to retcon major parts of the story, at least do so in a way that doesn't render previously ok characters unlikable, or turn the main villain of the original game into a joke.) Soooo screw it. At least the music is good, though.
FFVIII - 8/10. This was my gateway game, so my opinion is pretty biased here. All-in-all, I fell in love with the story and characters, though after replaying it as an adult I found I had major gripes with the character of Irvine. For a time it was Selphie too, but I got over it. Anyways, I can understand why people would have issues with the Draw and Junction mechanics, but that was part of what drew me in in the first place. I'm a fan of games that require inventory and resource management, and this is kind of like that, so.... yep. I think the most memorable part of this entire game for me though was the space bit. It was not only a turning point in the story, but memorable as heck because they were in SPAAAACE. (also the Propagator theme comes back to haunt me every now and then)
FFIX - 10/10. ... I don't think I need to explain myself here, since I think people mostly know how I feel about it. Yes, it does have its flaws, but EVERYTHING has flaws. And so far as I'm concerned, none of the gripes anyone has with it are enough for me to change my mind. For me, the good outweighs the bad in regards to FFIX. I don't give it a 10/10 lightly, either. Knowing that Amarant's character could have been ironed out better, and that Freya's story was dropped halfway through disc 2, and that the battles are "too slow" for most people (I like to snack while playing games so it never really bothered me) and Trance is wonky and inconvenient at times, and even that Necron's very existence continues to boggle the minds of many, I STILL give it the highest score in the series. I think my reasoning is that this game is the one that helped me through some really hard times in my life, and that's something no other game can top.
FFX - 7/10. I remember when I first saw the sneak-peeks to FFX in some magazine or other... and I was totally blown away. I was so very ready for it! But then... I discovered that there is no overworld map, the voice acting is campy and grating, and the final boss was (SPOILER)a tick ... aka kinda disappointing. Either way I still have a deep love for the battle system and the Sphere Grid, and the music is still top-notch and Yunalesca was voiced by freakin NAGI FROM TENCHI UNIVERSE. So. ..... still good in my book.
FFX-2 - 3/10. I sold it back halfway through playing it. That coin minigame was the last straw.
FFXI - 4/10. I'm with Kanno on this one-- I just can't get into MMOs. At the very least, this title has probably the cutest looking moogles in the entire franchise so that's good.
FFXII - 5/10. Uh... I never really got into the Tactics franchise... and I felt kind of insulted when I found they were trying to tie the Tactics world into the main FF lineup, so.... that really ruined my taste for it. It is aesthetically pleasing in places, but there was absolutely nothing memorable about the soundtrack, the final boss was lackluster, the battle system was unengaging and I didn't care much for any of the characters, save Balthier. ...The first time around. Now I don't even like Balthier. But that's not Balthier's fault-- that's the fault of a roleplayer I got involved with whose muse is Balthier, and they REALLY put a bitter taste in my mouth.
FFXIII (FFXIII-2, FFXIII LR) - 1/10. I'm not even gonna talk about this. Just no.
FFXIV - 0/10. Again with the MMORPGs. And this one's even worse than the first one. A couple friends of mine pressured me into buying it. I did, and I hated it. They kept telling me if I finished the main questline and bought HW, the story would get much better. I did, and I was disappointed. Never before have I wasted so much time and money on such a gargantuan pile of dog-s***, and I want all that time and money back. And I'm not getting it back. And it makes me angry. So let's not talk about this one either.
FFXV - 2/10. ... I'm not gonna talk about this either. Aside from the fact that I'm good at the fishing minigame. But I'm good at every fishing minigame, which is ridiculous since I detest fishing minigames.

[Sefie1999AD]

FFI - 7/10. The game that started it all, the game's fantasy world is very interesting, and the game has loads of replay value with the different party combinations that you can choose. I've beat the game 7 times, and no other FF comes even close (followed by FFIV, which I've beat 5 times).
FFII - NES/WSC/PSX 1/10, GBA/PSP 4/10. A good storyline, but the battle system is just unbearably tedious. The GBA version makes the battle system much fairer.
FFIII - 2D version 5/10, 3D version 5/10. A pretty good battle system, but a very grindy game. The storyline is nothing special.
FFIV - 2D version 8/10, 3D version 7/10. The storyline and battle system are quite simple, but still elegant. I really enjoyed playing this game about 17 years ago. It's almost the most challenging FF for me. The 3D version has a nice Augment system, but it loses points for a hideous camera where it's really painful to navigate, unless you play 99% of the game like this. I also didn't like the voice acting of the 3D remake, and I thought many of the remastered songs sounded worse than the original ones.
FFV - all versions 8/10. The storyline isn't anything special, but the battle system is just fantastic, and FFV has arguably the best gameplay in the FF series. The GBA/mobile/Steam versions also have a new translation that adds plenty of color and humor to the characters.
FFVI - 9/10. One of the best storylines in an FF game, even though it stops after the first half of the game. An interesting detail is that the best parts (IMHO) of the game happen during the second half of the game, where the story takes a backseat and the game becomes a non-linear adventure.
FFVII - 9/10 as stand-alone, 7/10 with the spinoffs. A great battle system, and an enjoyable storyline too. Unfortunately, the story becomes quite hard to understand with some of the translation issues, and the spinoffs have changed or retconned the plot so many times that I stopped caring about them and decided to ignore them altogether.
FFVIII - 6.5/10. The love story is nice, even if it is somewhat forced. The Sorceress story, not so much. I still don't buy the Orphanage scene. The battle system has interesting ideas, but it's a broken mess in terms of balance.
FFIX - 8.5/10. A fantastic storyline, possibly the best in the FF series. Unfortunately, the battle system is terribly slow and clumsy, and much of the game is too RNG-based for my tastes.
FFT - PSX 8.5/10, WotL with the slowdown fix 9/10. A fantastic storyline, but the weak PSX translation makes it confusing at times. The War of the Lions retranslation fixes this problem, and the PSP port adds some other nice features too. A fantastic battle system, 2nd only to FF5's (arguably), even if the learning curve is quite unforgiving.
FFX - 1/10. The turn-based battle system is good, but otherwise, I can't really say I like this game. The game is overly linear. After you reach Luca, you pretty much know what you'll be doing for the rest of the game, and there's not many twists after that. You'll basically just watch the story unfold, as you walk through loads of linear hallways with overly frequent random encounters and overly long, unskippable cutscenes. Tidus is the most annoying main character in the series, IMHO, and Yuna is completely ruined by the atrocious English voice acting. Most of the mini-games are terrible, and the postgame is nothing but endless grinding (and these terrible mini-games).
FFX-2 - 7/10. The story is even worse than in FFX, but otherwise, fixes pretty much everything that annoyed me about FFX. A great battle system, and nice, non-linear gameplay. Supposedly, the postgame content is really great.
FFXI - I haven't played it, so I won't rate it.
FFXII - PS2 7/10, IZJS 8/10, Zodiac Age Steam 9/10. The game has a pretty good political storyline, but it didn't grow on me until the 3rd playthrough. A huge, rich fantasy world, and non-linear gameplay with lots of freedom for exploration. The Japan-only IZJS release adds a 3x speed boost, which makes grinding and retracing much smoother, and it adds 12 new classes, where you can choose up to 6 of them. The Zodiac Age release makes the game what it was meant to be, IMHO. 60 FPS, plenty of graphics options, a faithfully remastered soundtrack, easily adjustable 2x and 4x speed boosts, and letting you choose 2 classes for each character makes the game extremely fun to play. With the choice of having 2 classes for everyone, the game's replay value may even challenge FFI's immense replay value.
FFXIII - 6/10. Suffers from many of the problems FFX had, but at least there's no more random encounters, and the game opens up when you reach Gran Pulse.
FFXIII-2 - 8/10. A bit similar to FFX-2 in a way that there's not much storyline, but it fixes about everything I disliked about the first part. The gameplay is a lot of fun, and customizing your monsters is neat too.
LRFFXIII - 7/10. The storyline keeps getting even weaker, but the battle system is fun and well polished, and the non-linear gameplay is great too. Loses a point because of the time limit. While it's never really an issue, it's still a psychological hindrance, and I play games to relax, not to feel stressed.
FFXIV - I haven't played it, so I won't rate it.
FFXV - I'll rate it if/when I've beat the game.