Final Fantasy rating topic

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Tidus is annoying, but his cheery persona helps balance the darker theme of FFX as well as the moods of the other characters (except Wakka, Wakka annoys me more).
Tidus is an abberation - he doesn't really -spoiler- and is a last-ditch attempt by the powers that be to save the world from a cycle of destruction (this is the general theme of FFX - cycles of death, religion, revenge, addiction, destruction, (dark) rebirth, etc). He was sent to Spira out of desperation, since all the classic/cooler main NPC's sent before him have failed (you'll have to read more spoilers about Sin to find out why).

 

The marketing suits won't allow any messing with the "formula" as it's too risky. FFXII's director left due to "poor health" as management forced through a bunch of changes including replacing the main character. "Balthier was sidelined to make way for Vaan, a composite creation made of teen girl dreams and marketing man visions,vanilla to the bone." I'm at the end of XII at the moment and it really feels as though it's almost a grown up game. It was butchered and rushed together at the end though. And Vaan is terrible. Completely bland and almost irrelevant to the story. You're left wondering how on earth he's the lead. It's curious trait of FF having weak leads though. Generally the characterisation is the strongest point of the games I think.

I'm just about to enter the last area and trying to decide whether to do the sidequests or just finish the bloody thing. I'm not sure I have the patience for all the toing and froing that involves. And sod anything that requires grinding. I actually haven't touched it in about two months or so as I make up my mind. After getting used to PC games I really miss being able to save anytime. Playing for half an hour before bed isn't much good if I don't end up being able to save for over an hour.

 

I have only played:

5: Gets a solid 9. Decent storyline with awesome gameplay (the job system was excellent). Played on ROM as it wasn't in PAL I believe.

10: Meh storyline that didn't drag me along at all. Rest of the game was decent. Never finished it after being too low level to kill the last boss (well, second to last actually). Also, the 3D exposed the Japanese's horrible animating and voiceovers. I hate how these little Japanese girls behave and look. All anorexic and acting rediculous. Why can't you ever play with adults? Oh well.

Also played 12 for one hour but sold it after it totally didn't suit me. FF4 I played on ROM for a short while. Seemed promising, but I quit very early. I'll get back to that.

 

I've played nearly all of them:

FF1: Fun though very little to it (the story is never really explained until the ending) and Fighters were overpowered compared to the other classes. 6/10

FF2: Ahead of its time game system rewarding skills that were used a lot, but required a lot of grind and/or manipulation to actually get your characters strong enough. The story was miles ahead of FF1's and the characters had a fair bit of colour to them. Why it often gets slated as the worst FF is beyond me.7/10

FF3: Had it for a while for the DS but have never got round to playing.

FF4: Melodramatic, but fun story with likeable characters. The game system was coming along nicely by this stage. As others said, this one set up the framework that all FFs followed up til FF10. 8/10

FF5: Another under-rated one. Brilliant job system and the banter between the characters makes up for a plot more on the level of FF2's than FF4's. 9/10

FF6: Great characters that all play distinctly is great. The fact that there's loads of them (14!) and your party is completely customisable makes it even better. It also boasts a brilliant story and probably the best magic system the series ever had. 10/10

FF7: Another brilliant one. Great story and characters and brilliant setting. The materia system was solid and the whole production was amazingly epic. One or two dull moments and a translation that amkes some of the banter incomprehensible are the only niggles. 10/10

FF Tactics: Never played.

FF8: My personal favourite (though it looks to be not a fave of the folk on here!) Characters were a bit less colourful, but they were more believable and Squall was brilliantly written. The Junction system is fun to tinker with despite the fact it's daunting for first timers and too easy to manipulate for veterans. As with 7 the world building was lovingly done. 10/10

FF9: A bit of a dip in quality here. Unbalanced characters, some more likeable than others (hated that arrogant turd Zidane but loved Steiner) and the plot borrows a bit too much from FF4. It also takes a bit too long to get going (though is good once it does). Gameplay was fun though wasn't overly keen on the Trance system or having to equip crap weapons to learn good abilities. 7/10

FF10: Very moving story let down slightly by a whiney main character and a slowish pace. The turn-based battle system isn't one of my favourites but is well done. Been itching to replay this one actually. 8/10

FF10-2: Better game system than 10 (a nice return to the job system), but the plot was completely uninvolving, Yuna's personality was completely different and only 3 playable characters is meh. I never got round to finishing it 6/10

FF11: MMORPG so no interest

FF12: Mixed feeling about this one. The plot was great, but badly told, encumbered by how long it took to do quests and sub-quests so by the time you got to the next stage of the plot, you'd forgotten what happened in the previous stage (which isn't very good when you're dealing with a complex political plot). I liked all 6 playable characters (yes, even Vaan), but I didn't really get why any of them but Ashe and Basch cared enough to take on the Empire; Vaan wanted to avenge his brother, but he forgets about that pretty soon; Penelo is just there to keep Vaan company; Fran is there for no reason I can see. Balthier does actually have more motive than is initially shown so I'll let him off. Gameplay was fun, but as said before sub-quests were too long for very little reward (Espers were hard to get and then useless once you did get them). I loved how customisable your characters were though. 7/10

FF13: Love the battle system, liked the characters (bar Hope). Very linear and a lack of background flavour, but the story was good if a bit too hurriedly told. 8/10

FF14: See FF11

FF13-2: Playing this now. Story is confusingly told, but gameplay still excellent and a lot less linear though it suffer from 10-2's problem of re-using the same locations over and over. Wish there were more playable characters and I'm not a huge fan of the monster training aspect. 8/10