This year marks the 30th anniversary for the Final Fantasy series. The first game debuted in Japan on December 18th, 1987 for Nintendo’s Famicom. North America wouldn’t receive it until 1990 and from there our history with releases have been sporadic. Because of the first’s late release, Square Enix, then Square, decided to instead put out Final Fantasy IV for the Super Nintendo, the new system at the time, and renamed it Final Fantasy II in 1991 for North America. They skipped Final Fantasy V and gave us Final Fantasy VI as Final Fantasy III in 1994. Fortunately, that's where the confusion stops as Final Fantasy VII launched in 1997. Since then they’ve all made it over here in one form or another and I’ve played eve🦋ry adventure.
The entire franchise has to encompass almost a hundred games by this point, including the fifteen main titles, spinoffs, sequels, remakes, collections, and more. It’d be a daunting task to order every single game, so instead I’m going to focus on ranking Final Fantasy I through Final Fantasy XV. Admittedly there’s never going to be a definitive list every fan can agree on, as nostalgia and personal preferences have a lot to say on the matter and we’re all different. Ordering my top five was easy, as I g🌞enerally think about those titles on a semi-regular basis. Numbers six through fifteen were a little harder to narrow down, but I’m ultimately happy where everything stacks u𒈔p. Let’s get to it kupo!
15 Final Fantasy XI
I was crushed when I found out the next game in the series was going to be online only and subscription based. Naming it as a numbered game has never sat right with me, so placing it at fifteen is sort of a personal vendetta. It’s not like it’s a bad game. I have friends very dedicated to it still, but it’s not exactly the most easy MMORPG to pick up and play, even though it is better then the initial launch. I first played Final Fantasy XI in 2013 after I found a cheap copy of the Xbox 360 version with a fifteen-day free trial. Graphics and clunky interface aside, I enjoyed my brief couple weeks with it. I definitely saw the appeal, but never enough to pay that monthly fee. As a Final Fantasy fan experiencing, it was only good enough.
14 Final Fantasy II
The 2003 PS1 collection of Final Fantasy I and II was the first time I played either game. Overall, Final Fantasy II is an odd duckling in the franchise. Every battle system is unique, but there’s been nothing quite like it since (well, in Final Fantasy at least). These mechanics were passed down into ꦿthe SaGa series. Anyway it’s turn-based, but your warriors do not gain experience points. Instead stats are increased depending on your actions in battle. For example, if you get hit a lot, your HP and Defense are likely to increase. The same goes for magic, weapons, and so forth. Cheesing the system is easy, like attacking your allies and then healing them or through other glitches. As broken as it is. admittedly I enjoyed becoming an all-powerful God right from the start of the game.
13 Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy III missed its heyday in the West, as it wasn’t released here until 2006 as a remake for the DS, sixteen years after its original 1990 debut. Technically Final Fantasy I introduced a class system, but you couldn’t change them after the start. Final Fantasy III initialized a job system where characters could swap in and out of classes throughout the adventure, making battles more engaging. Of course before we got this, we had Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy Tactics, and even Final Fantasy X-2, so the majesty of discovering jobs was lost on me, although I do applaud it for creating one of the b📖est mechanics in the franchise, but it’s certainly not the best game to do it. Having played through it on✃ly once, the rest of the game is a blur.
12 Final Fantasy XIII
I didn’t love Final Fantasy XIII, but I liked it enough and was not one of the loud haters out there. Linearity was one of the biggest complaints, but that never was a huge bother for me. Its launch was actually a good memory for me, as it was my first time at a midnight launch. Thankfully ,I didn’t have class the next day, so I stayed up late, playing it for hours while keeping my sugar intake up with delicious Oreos. The last time I played it was the same year it launched, 2009, so I restarted a new file along with opening an old save in order to refresh my memory. The graphics and music are as good as I remember and the combat i𝔍s pretty great too, but those long drawn out melodramatic cutscenes are horrible. Also if I were to make a top fifteen of the worst Final Fantasy members, a third of the cast would probably make it on there.
11 Final Fantasy VIII
Slightly above Final Fantasy II we have this little gem, which is just as systematically convoluted in myriad of ways. First of all, it’s easy to game the system as characters level up at 1000 EXP. Magic can be sucked out from enemies in order to use it right back at them or it can be equipped to your party members to increase stats. However, if you use a Fire spell, it’ll not only deplete your magic supply, but the stat it’s equipped to will drop as well. I love Final Fantasy’s willingness ꦛto explore new mechanics, but it’s more complex then it needs to be and every time I jump in for a new playthrough, I get annoyed all over again. That and Squall is a pouty hero and the story is even more insane than Cloud’s past. Centering a story on rivaling military schools is a cool idea though.
10 Final Fantasy I
Not putting the original game on the top ten would be sacrilegious. I appreciate it for establishing the series, plus it’s still very easy to pick and play, as there’s very little story to invest in. I’ve actually replayed Final Fantasy I almost as many times as Final Fantasy VII. Immersing yourself in gameplay and trying new class combinations is always fun. I’ve never been so bold as to make a party of four white or black mages, but it is possible given the patience. Even from the beginning, Final Fantasy was all about experimentation. Don’t play the original NES version because that ౠwould be a cruel recommendation inducing chronic rage. Instead I suggest the PSP or GBA remakes if you’ve somehow never played it.
9 Final Fantasy XIV
Call me a hypocrite since this is also a numbered game that’s only online, but I have more of a history with it than Final Fantasy XI. When it relaunched as Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn in 2013, I jumped right in on PS3, but just for a trial period again. Even though I only played it for around thirty hours in the span of a month, I loved it. It was more streamlined than Final Fantasy XI and better because of it. Unlike that game, I constantly think about restarting Final Fantasy XIV on PS4, but that darn monthly subscription keeps me away as good as it is. I already pay enough monthly and yearly subscriptions that adding a specific game onto that 🃏seems crim♏inal, but that’s just a personal preference. I do really think it’s one of the best game.
8 Final Fantasy V
Final Fantasy III may have started the Job system, but Final Fantasy V perfected the formula, for the main series at least. Constantly swapping out classes in order to maximize your group’s potential made battles more engaging. Reverting back to a four-group party compared to the rapid switching of Final Fantasy IV was also a thoughtful move at the time, not just in terms of gameplay, but for the story as well. It’s a great game a lot of people forget about in the vast majority of the franchise seeing as it debuted on a subpar port on the PS1 in 1999, just a few weeks after Final Fantasy VIII arrived, which was a terrible time to do so as people want the new thing, not the old one as good as it may be. Thankfully Final Fantasy V got another cha🧜nce with a better port 🍃on GBA in 2006.
7 Final Fantasy IV
Here we have what some may call the best Final Fantasy, which I believe accounts for exposure. It was the second game in North America, so there’s a good chance it became one’s first RPG, plus it’s been remade and ported to nearly every system since including the SNES, PS1, GBA, PSP, DS, and mobile devices, so there’s rea♐lly no excuse for anyone to not have played it even more so than the first. Aside from exposure there’s a lot to like and or be thankful for. It progressed not only the graphics and music at the timꦿe, but the storytelling as well, including more than four party members that swap out during the course of the plot, which made the adventure feel more realistic and dangerous. That said, on a gameplay level, it was frustrating to lose teammates you’d built up or get stuck with ones that weren’t great like Edward. Minor grievances like that keep it from ranking any higher on despite my admiration for what it accomplished for the franchise, of the fact that you can go to the moon on an airship that looks like a whale.
6 Final Fantasy XV
Whether it’s because Final Fantasy XV is the most recent game I played, or because the quality is that good, this came very close to entering the top five, but I do have to dock my overwh𒊎elming love for it due to the latter third, where things start to fall apart. Who knows where my opinion may stand a year from 🅰now, once Square Enix has released DLC and more patches, but as of now, it’s a solid number six thanks to its gorgeous art design, phenomenal music, and addictive combat that evolved the traditional turn-based system in accordance with a more modern audience. I’m still going back every now and again to finish up quests and to just immerse myself in that world again.