All Mainline Final Fantasy Games Ranked (Part 2/2)

FF Games Ranked #6-#1

Welcome to part two of the Final Fantasy games ranking, where we’ll be looking at the (in my completely factual opinion) greatest six mainline Final Fantasy games so far. We’ve already looked at the bottom seven in part one (found here), so let’s get right into rest of the list.

6: Final Fantasy XIII

I expect my ranking of the thirteenth game in the series to be even more controversial than anything found in the first half of the list. While entries such as IV and VI have widely loved and compelling stories with well-written characters, XIII might be the most jarring in the whole series when it comes to this. Each character seems to speak in riddles, there’s very odd interactions between most of them, and the game seems to expect you to have a thesaurus on hand to understand the world terminology it mercilessly throws you into. Within the first hour, you hear terms like falcie and lcie and the game really dances around explaining what these are. The characters also range from whiney to cringey, although this is improved with some pretty decent character development.  Despite all this, I really enjoyed XIII when I played it. It is weird, yes, and the story is sometimes incomprehensible, but it has a charm that I feel is paramount to a great Final Fantasy experience. I like the odd characters, I enjoy the clunky dialogue, and I don’t even mind not understanding what is going on most of the time. Another big criticism of this game is the linearity- as you essentially run through corridors for the first ~80% of the game. While this isn’t ideal, this was not as bad as it was made out to be. You are still given opportunities for exploration (although admittedly limited) and I’d take a bunch of smaller, better-looking areas than a boring open field. The combat is also great- nailing the ATB system before it was removed in the next entry, which we’ll get into soon. It felt exciting and the constant battles didn’t take away from my enthusiasm for the interesting skill trees. While widely panned and hated, I think XIII has a charm that is overlooked when looking back on it.

5: Final Fantasy V

My favourite of the classic 2D Final Fantasy adventures, V nails basically everything it sets out to do. Great story, amazing turn-based system, and a world that is by far one of the most fun to traverse thanks to the super-fast airship and boats that reward exploration bountifully. The job system is excellent in this game, and imitates what was used in III by growing your arsenal of skills and weapons as you progress. This is what made V so addictive to me: being able to completely customize your party of four and swap on the fly to try to unlock everything a job has to offer is the best part of classic Final Fantasy. Each character is more refined than previous entries too, and having a more limited cast lends itself to allowing more depth of each party member- especially at one key point later in the game which is probably the most famous part (and I won’t spoil here). Taking a simple but very effective narrative and throwing it together with what could be argued to be the best battle system the series has seen yet, V deserves its place this high, especially since it gets overlooked so often compared to its universally loved sequel in VI. The only reason its not higher up on the list is simply because I think that the 3D entries in the franchise manage to capture the ‘Final Fantasy’ feeling a little better than the earlier games in the series.

4: Final Fantasy XV

What is probably the least Final Fantasy of all the games in the franchise, XV is another divisive (but less so than XIII) entry of the series. The most recent main line entry, XV switched from a turn-based system to a more action-rpg genre that generated more interesting battles, but admittedly did lack the strength and depth seen in earlier games. The story, however, it anything but lacking in depth. In fact, this story is so ambitious, it falters quite a bit at times. This is especially true if you’re like most players and failed to delve into the real-world books and movie before playing the game. Locking most of the important pre-game lore behind was a poor decision, and prevented a lot of people (myself included) from understanding a lot of what’s going on as the story developed. Despite this, the cast of characters is one of the best. You can only play as Noctis, but the game revolves around a road trip with three of his friends. This is such a unique-feeling experience that I feel isn’t appreciated as much as it should be. The limited cast allows breathing room for development of each member of Noctis’ party- something that wasn’t the case for games with upwards of ten playable members. This is especially true with the DLC’s for each character that came beyond the game’s original release. While being far from the average Final Fantasy experience, I can’t help but love what Square-Enix were going through with this entry- putting it as my fourth favourite game in the series.

3: Final Fantasy IX

The final three entries in this list were the closest of the rest- each has their own strengths and flaws, but they are all incredible experiences. Really, these three could all be swapped around and I could see myself agreeing with. However, I believe there is an order to these games that I’ll go over- starting with IX. IX is the game that I believe has the most charm of the franchise. The music, environments and loveable characters work as a love letter to the earlier parts of the series, while excelling them by a mile in every way. The cast of characters here are some of the best, and the conversations they have amongst themselves are some of the most entertaining. This game also brought back the four-party member system, which I believe was something sorely lacking in VII and VIII. This allowed for more customisation and opportunities in battles that I really wish continued with X (but unfortunately, it was deemed that three was to be the limit by the Final Fantasy overlords). Anyway, IX reverted to a medieval traditional fantasy setting, which was certainly the right choice. The franchise thrives in a classic setting like this, which is why I’m so excited about XVI. This entry is the best love letter to the first six games in the series, and it manages to both succeed at this and also being its own standalone fantastic adventure. With this entry being so great, what else could top it?

 2: Final Fantasy VII

The most popular and famous of the franchise by far, there’s a reason why VII gets so much love and fanfare. The likes of Cloud, Tifa, Aerith and so many more have created own fandoms of their own. Just look to the coveted Smash series- which now has two FFVII characters before any more representation of the series. The story of this game has a lot of grounds for being declared the best in the series- managing to strike a perfect balance between understandable and ambitious, and probably has the greatest climax too. This entry also has the most classic shock character death in any game, and is so great I don’t want to spoil it here. The combat with the ATB system evolved so much from VI and it was incredible to see the series jump to 3D so effortlessly. With the excellent remake being confirmed to have three entries (as well as a remaster of the prequel spin-off Crisis Core), there is no better time than now to be a fan of Final Fantasy VII

1: Final Fantasy X

Winning by a sliver, the tenth entry in the series is also what I consider to be the best. A drastic shift from the original three 3D games, X had a lot riding on it to succeed as the first PS2 game in the series- something I believe it more than achieved. Tidus and Yuna share the best scenes in the series (yes, including that very cringe-worthy but classic one) and each character really stands out as having their own motivations, backstories and developments that are all gripping (which is very rare in a JRPG).  The only downside to this lies in the gameplay, with a limited three-person party after IX. However, the ATB system is more refined than ever and allows a good amount of customisation with the insanely expansive sphere grid without the classic job system. The best part of this game, however, are the locations you traverse through. This world of Spira is so diverse and the mini games it houses are the best yet. Blitzball, the infamous chocobo race, and the even more hated lightning dodge challenge are iconic even outside of the fanbase. That’s probably the best word to define X: iconic. Every aspect (while not perfect) is fantastic and, crucially, has a huge dose of Final Fantasy charm that propels it into first place. Although by a tight margin (and I’m still debating with myself about it), I still believe that X is the best entry and deserves the crown of not only the greatest Final Fantasy game of all time, but also one of the most impressive JRPGS ever.