which FF had the best setting??

[Dreddz]

FFIX is my pick. Only game to fully realize the medievil setting from the old FF titles.

I also liked FFVII but its a little all over the place. Midgar is one of the most inspired places in all of the FF games and I really would have liked to have seen more places like that throughout the game. Instead we get Tudor style towns like Nibelheim and modern looking places like Costa Del Sol. I would have liked to have seen more consistency as the game went along.

[Breine]

Probably FFIX - it was just so damn charming and colourful, and it had a real fantasy feel to it, which I dig. FFXII was also beautiful, and FFX was very pretty too. I don't know where you get that "hindu feel" from, though? It's obviously very southeast asian inspired.

But yeah, overall FFIX or FFXII.

EDIT: Also, I agree with Dreddz that FFVII was a little too all over the place.

[Christmas]

VI. It kinda accounts for every characters. The other one being IX.

[Mr Gashtacular]

In terms of having places I'd actually enjoy living in or visiting, I think VIII for me. Most of the towns felt like complete communities to me, unlike the locations in later games that are implied to be massive, but don't really feel like a lot of people are there (looking at you XIII). The towns in IX do not have the level of comfort and tech I prefer, and VII has the tech but almost everywhere feels deprived or dirty.

However, I would agree that IX has the best setting for it's world, plot and characters. I wouldn't want to live in Madain Sari or Lindblum but they fit Eiko and Zidane perfectly.

[Tigmafuzz]

unlike the locations in later games that are implied to be massive, but don't really feel like a lot of people are there (looking at you XIII)

I think this might be one of my biggest problems with modern open-world rpgs. Think of earlier games you played that were heavily populated and compare them to what you play now, where they make the city look like it has more people, and then supply even fewer. For example, I see fewer people walking around on the street in CyberPunk than I did in GTA San Andreas, despite the city's population density being several times higher. I see fewer people in the most populated cities of Horizon Forbidden West than I saw in some of the deserts of Final Fantasy XII, even if they weren't all able to be fully interacted with. But you know what? Do games really need to make every person capable of extended interaction? Does every NPC need to be fully fleshed out with unique dialogue and their own backstory? In the very examples I just mentioned, people were either set up for only general interaction (GTA) or just as props (XII) and you never felt like you were missing out, or like you weren't getting what you were promised.

Maybe the huge promises themselves are what I have more of the problem with, when companies are more concerned with a selling point than with the inherent promise of buying a game whose setting matches with the actual execution of those selling points. Which I guess is why IX is most people's favorite in this thread, because the entire world was made with nothing out of place for its setting.

However, I would agree that IX has the best setting for it's world, plot and characters. I wouldn't want to live in Madain Sari or Lindblum but they fit Eiko and Zidane perfectly.

[Quindiana Jones]

I honestly think the obsession with graphics is massively harmful to gaming in general but also to RPGs especially. Art direction is far, far more important to focus on; Okami, Paper Mario, Dishonored, etc. will always look good and always be playable, whereas the shallow and generic AAA titles of the past decade are already forgotten with no long term replayability.

This ties into how these cities feel. Because NPCs are so graphically demanding, you can't have very many. It just feels wrong. I am glad to see the rising enthusiasm for "immersive RPGs/sims" however, and hope it spearheads a substantial change in the industry.

I'm also looking forward to the improvements to AI voice over work. It's still a little robotic, but it won't be long until you can smooth it all out. I would hope game developers would take this to better leverage VAs for greater coverage for broader and more immersive dialogue systems.