While fans of the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy series know that with each entry in the mainline series they'll find themselves in a new world, with new characters, a new story, and new twists on longstanding JRPG tropes and mechanics, there are a handful of things that can be expected in each new installment. Title logos designed by Yoshitaka Amano? Most definitely. Crystals? No doubt - even when they're called something else. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Chocobos and Moogles? Almost always. Some guy named Cid? You bet.
Another ex𝔉pectation for the series is a stellar opening sequence. In the last couple of decades, the series has been known for elaborate FMVs (full-motion videos) at the start of each game. Even before that, players knew a new Final Fantasy would start off🦂 strong. Each has its merits, but which of the 15 erroneously titled main-line Final Fantasy games is the best?
15 🍒 Final Fantasy 3 ๊
The best thing that can be said about the opening to Final Fantasy 3 is that it has the iconic Final Fantasy prelude. To clarify, Final Fantasy 3 here means the actual Final Fantasy 3—the one originally 𒁏released only in Japan on the Famicom—not the Final Fantasy 3 that wa🔥s released in North America, which is really Final Fantasy 6.
That sure is confusing, but what isn't is the opening to this game. It's rather uninspired when compared to what came both before and after.
14 🌠 Fina꧑l Fantasy 11
Final Fantasy's first foray in the MMO market was much maligned upon its release, and the opening sequence doesn't exactly do it any favors. Sure, it starts with a big floating crystal. Crystals have always been crucial to the series. The game, like many in the series, has got a solid minute of the classic Final Fantasy pr𝐆elude.
But then comes a voice-over alongside a musical shift to a generic fanfare. The openinꦜg attempts to hit the notes that make some of the Final Fantasy openings the best in the business but hardly feels original or interesting.
13 ▨ Final Fantasy 15 ♐
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 15 opens in media res with some arresting visuals—immediately, you're thrust into a fiery room with a big man sitting on a throne and some hyperbolically intense music blasting over everything—but with no context for what's going on, it's impossible to grasp what's at stake.
The sequence, as cool as it is, ends abruptly and transitions to some indeterminate time in the past before your character had a beard and when the throne was not engulfed in flamesꦫ. At least the tonal whiplash 🦂is consistent throughout the game.
12 Final Fantaꦚsy 2 🍷
Final Fantasy 2 opens up with the exact same format as both its predecessor and successor. This is hardly a bad thing but means the game's first impression is just a little less impactful than some of the other entries in the series.
N𒅌evertheless, this first impression quickly gets out of its own way as the game throws the player immediately into an unwinnable battle sequence. Fun.
11 Final Fantasy 13 🎐
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 13 often gets a bad wrap for its linearity, but at least the opening shows a world that looks beautiful to explore. The graphics are great and the soundtrack is top-notch. But the rest of the opening sequence shows off a slew of characters you don't yet know.
Sure, Lightning's hair looks like dangerously spikey cotton candy, and these characters might be seen going through a gamut of emotions, but it's hard to connect when you haven't yet been introduced to any of these folks.
10 ౠ Final Fantasy 1𒆙2
Like many Final Fantasy opening FMVs, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 12 starts with a view of the sky before descending to a city. It's not just any city, though. The world in Final Fantasy 12 looks startlingly original compared to the typical sci-fi or fantasy setting seen in RPGs.
The game's opening cinematic does a great job introducing that world while also subtly hinting at the large and mature 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:canvas of characters that are to b🐎e found in this long-underappreciated gem.
9 ✅ Final ♔Fantasy 14
Like the series' previous attempt at an MMO, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 14 also opens with a voice-over 🎀and a view of a floating crystal. The biggest difference, though, is Final Fantasy 14 turned out to eventually be a masterpiece.
Much of the game's opening sequence is rather rote, but you do get to see a battle sequence where a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:dragon pops out of the moon before said moon crashes into the battlefield. Suffice to say: it's pretty cool.
8 Final Fantasy 🌠
The very first Final Fantasy game is maybe not the best entry point for new players to the series—it is narratively and mechanically pretty barebones—but its opening sequence establishes much𓂃 of what went on to become staples of the series.
There are blue text boxes. There is a party of warriors fighting darkness with light. The text crawl ends with references to orbs and crystals. And then after you leave the starting area, the game has a smash cut to the title card and that iconic chip music composed by Nobuo Uematsu. It's got it all.
7 ♏ Final Fantasy 4
Final Fantasy 4 was the first in the series that really achieved the kind of sweeping, cinematic opening that the series would become known for. Like its predecessors, there is still plenty of blue to be found in the first few moments of the game, but here it's the blue of the seas as a squadron of airships fly over 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:oceans and continents.
It is an arresting first image and one that im⛦plies the grandeur and narrative sophistication that players often associate with the series.
6 ♍ Final Fanta💦sy 8
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 8 might not be everyone's favorite, but at least it starts with style. Throughout the opening FMV, feathers float around alongside the occasional line of enigmatic text over scenes of a lady twirling around in a field. It doesn't make much sense, but then there's an epic duel between two guys who clearly missed their calling as members of an emo band.
You might not yet know why they're fighting, but they're doing so with gunblades and that is cool enough to carry the game at least for the beginning.