Typically when I replay FF8 I'll buy around 10 tents after the SeeD exam to refine into 100 curagas. 100 curaga's is more than enough to turn any of the characters' start of game health amount to suddenly low limit breakable health, and then suddenly FF8 plays more like a Mario RPG than all the other Final Fantasies. That combined with FF8's story pacing going at a breakneck speed makes it one of the most replayable FFs for me. Other Final Fantasy games I feel tend to have a slower pace and soaks in the atmosphere those worlds provide, but that often leaves me feeling a little overwhelmed at booting them back up again for any reason other than being really invested in reliving their world and stories and playing through a big RPG again. Ironically, with how easy it is for me to go restart FF8 it's given me a way to better appreciate the world, characters, and atmosphere of that game
I think the most under-rated game on this list is FFT (which is pretty much under-rated on all these lists). The extremely addicting character customization, and all the creative ways you can accomplish things. I've had a fight were I was 1 turn from losing but won because I stone throw knockback proc'd the last enemy off a cliff and he died from fall damage. This to end a very tough 45 minute fight. That's about as epic a feeling as you can get. Every playthrough I feel like I have 5-10 epic battle moments that I would never get from any other FF game. The other thing worth mentioning, is that not only does FFT have a much better job system than 5 or 3, but it puts that job system in a game with AMAZING story and music, that dials up the epicness to 11. Whereas 5 and 3, while they have some charms, kind of feel like you are playing a vanilla RPG solely to experience the job system.
I see the mid-game narrative and gameplay pivot as a positive. Now, I have only played FF6, but I don't think I am the only one that would rank FF6 much higher than you have in your rankings which are up so far. Music ranked 10th? Story at 7? Others categories you have it ranked as low as 12. This almost feels like intentional crapping on VI because so many perhaps give it too much love. Or you just enjoy having a contrarian opinion on VI. You do the same with Blue Murder.😏
@@Michael----- The general consensus on VI is that it's considered to be on the best Final Fantasy games, often ranking as #1 from critics and fans, alongside VII, IX, and X. Those are generally considered the top tier FF games. I think VI is a tad overrated, but really great. Music is a category VI isn't ranked too highly on in the community, but it's ranked high in terms of story and characters generally. I like VI, but I generally stand by those I rank above it. And while I like VI's mid-game twist in concept, the pacing and momentum makes it really kills the experience for me. I played VI at around the same time I played the first 9 games, so it has equal footing in terms of nostalgia, except for VII which was my first game in the series. I just gravitated towards the other entries more for various reasons. Again, I still really like VI, it's just I think standard quality of the series and what one should expect from a FF game and not the peak of the series.
I actually lol'd seeing XII right at the bottom again hahaha. Vaan crying in the corner rn XI's ui better than XIV? XI's ui is as fun as browsing your file explorer 💀
XI's UI has the distinct advantage of being organized in a coherent way and that when I press a button, it does what I want it to do, as opposed to XIV's chaotic mess. (I'm typing this as I'm about to go play XIV in 30 minutes)
@@gregtroyan Loved it when it came out, going through the Remaster now. The battle system just really appeals to me as it feels tactical - selecting your moves while the action is paused, setting up your gambits etc - and once your "press play" it all happens in real time. I usually do battles at normal speed and just do 2X while walking around or fighting low level enemies.
@@roqueadeleon My best friend and bassist in my band really likes RTS games and is a computer programmer by trade, so I think he'd really dig XII. I think I really like the menu game in Tactics, so I agree setting up gambits is fun, but I don't find the battles fun once they actually start. I think that's where my disconnect comes in for the game. But if we're looking at how fun the menu game is, XII is definitely one of the better ones, for sure.
@@gregtroyan Yeah as I've been replaying the game and telling some friends XII (since they have only played XVI) I realize how much XII's battle system is almost like a RTS - command your troops to take specific actions and watch how those actions play out. Obviously on a much smaller scale than an RTS. Also kinda like a MMO but you control all your party members.
@@roqueadeleon If I were to recommend a single game in the series to my bassist, it would be XII, easily, and I think he would actually really like it. I think I might link him this video just so he can see the comment thread. He might take offense at me still referring to him as my bassist since I've retired from music at this point, but then again, he does keep trying to get me back in the game. Hahaha.
I think a traditional JRPG is more fun when boss fights are challenging, not when you're essentially a god and can wreck them in no time at all--what's the fun in that? Also, traditional JRPG games that dont have ATB with Active mode on, like FFX, aren't as fun and intense as games that do. Just my opinion. Never played XIII, but I am curious if I'd have a lot of fun with the battle system
It's all about what one finds fun in a jrpg. For me, there's fun in a good challenge, but there's even more fun involved in breaking the junction system and plowing through the game. As far as XIII goes, the combat takes a little while to open up, so you have to wait until you unlock the job system to really judge the mechanics.
one of your big problems with ff14 has been partially resolved, you no longer have to wait to enter dungeons, you can go through all the story dungeons with npc party members, you do still have to wait to get in the trials though.
FF8 is the most fun Final Fantasy game?! OK you are trolling lol. It's the one FF game I always try to revisit but can't get through the first few hours. The flashback sequences with Laguna are a slog, the sequence where we learn our party came up in the same orphanage and were raised by Edea is a head-scratcher, also having your ranking go down gradually throughout the game is not fun at all. FF8 has the Ragnarok theme which is great and also arguably the best Chocobo theme. And fighting the giant Cacutaur is actually pretty fun.
I don't think the orphanage thing is good writing, but this isn't a ranking of the games based on story (that's a different video). This ranking is based on how fun it is, and FFVIII is dumb fun. : D
yep ff14 ARR is the worst shit i have ever played. BUT sadly or happy to tell you that when i finished all expansions in ff14. IT is one or the best story in gaming. MMO gameplay holds the story back. took me 700 hours to finish. But i did raids and stuff along the way.
Saaaame like ARR has more padding than all other FFs combined and imo its a mortal flaw that will never let me rank XIV #1 no matter how many Shadowbringers or Endwalker tier expansions they add (that being said i respect the sheer amount of content ARR had in comparison to other expansions)
FF8 is probably the least fun FF game on first playthrough, BUT, it is maybe the funnest on the 3rd playthrough. It's one of those games where playing by the meta provides a massive difference in the power level of your party, as contrasted with FF4 where the gameplay is on rails and there's only a handful of ways to play "smarter" to do extra damage. FF8 allows you to get more powerful in disc 1 than most other FF games allow you to get at any point in the entire game. I liked that so many attacks were button press interactive or required skill to use to greater effect.
Imo VII-Remake is the most fun one by far its a shame it's so linear hopefully this will get massive improvements on Rebirth and the third installment (calling it Revenant we'll see in 4 to 5 years) but out of the mainline ones im not sure FF is so varied and most FF offer some crazy new system to tweak and play with but i really can't decide out of all those systems The Materia is definitely my favorite one but it doesn't necessarily mean that i have the most fun with OG VII The Gambits are an interesting concept for me but i do agree with you that XII isn't benefiting much from it and ultimately becomes a boring experience because the whole game plays itself later on so i just walk VIII is too easy too fast if you go deep with the draw grind XIII has a great combat system but but i usually don't enjoy it much in the non XIII-2 XIII compilation games due to linearity and me not vibing with Light and most of the cast that much XV has my favorite party exploration dynamic because the bros are incredible they are dynamic and are constantly talking joking and taking shots at each other in a very enjoyable way they also have an insane amount of dialogue lines (by far what i missed the most in XVI) X is my favorite but storywise it's systems aren't something to write home about for me (same goes for IX) X-2 had a very fun combat system tho and the older ones are definitely not as enjoyable as the post VII ones especially after the first playthrough since the systems started to get crazy after VII as for the MMOs i never played XI but XIV's rotations are the enemies of fun imo i like to play as i choose not as my rotation demands so maybe XVI is my favorite out of the mainline ones in this sense but it lacks a lot of depth that i do miss comboing is fun tho so in that sense out of the mainline ones im leaning towards XVI but VII-Remake would be my go to one non mainline are included
@@gregtroyan in the older ones it usually doesn't bother me but maybe i have become spoiled by modern games exploration is never my main reason to get a game but it is something i miss now when its not there on more modern games
@@Force-Multiplier That's fair. I think because my backlog is a mix of modern and old, it never bothered me as much, but if I focused mostly on newer stuff I could see getting annoyed.
@@gregtroyan yes! And IV-2 and X-2 and tactics and tactics a-2😅 I guess I've played a good amount but those don't exactly matter as much as mainline entries haha
@@rpgranked You should watch my video on ranking the games by Expanded Universe Content. I address IV-2, X-2, Tactics, Tactics Advance, A-2 and more. I've beaten all of those games as well. I just finished Dimensions a couple weeks ago. I liked it a lot. Fun game.
Funny how divided we all are on this franchise. 8, 12 and 9 are my absolute favorites in terms of fun. 15, 13 and 3 are some of the worst and boring RPG's I've ever played. 15 and 13 are the reason I am not even hyped about 16.. (Even though they did an amazing job on 7Remake recently).
In fairness, the team that did XV and XIII are the team that did 7 Remake, and the team that is doing XVI is the team from XIV, which has more lineage shared with XI and IX. It looks like we actually do agree on VIII and IX both being really fun games.
