The Top 25 Squaresoft Games Ever?

darknight17 writes "The unofficial Final Fantasy Online site has just finally finished its Top 25 Squaresoft games by featuring the Top 5 titles. Here are the other picks - 25 to 21, 20 to 16, 15 to 11, and 10 to 6, as chosen by fans in the Final Fantasy and RPG community." There's also a 'hidden gems' section in each part of the countdown, highlighting overlooked titles like Einhänder and Bahamut Lagoon - neat.

Comments

Poor, misunderstood FF8

[Lendrick]

My friends and I loved it, although we're all writers and roleplayers, and we enjoy that sort of character drama. If you're the sort of person that plays these games for the gameplay and not the story, then FF8 doesn't have a whole lot to offer. It's sad, really. The story is great, and the game itself has a style and atmosphere that hasn't been matched before or since. Unfortunately, though, it's marred by an annoying, poorly-balanced battle system.

One other complaint that people like to make (but I've never really gotten myself) is that Squall is a boring character who doesn't care about anyone. Now, I can't really call Squall subtle and nuanced, but obviously he was too subtle for a lot of people, who apparently failed to pick up on the fact that he did care about people, a lot. He just didn't want to, because he had lost everyone he was ever close to.

And FF9? Well, it was an interesting little nostalgia trip, and certainly a solid game in its own right... but the story was fairly bland. It lacked the guts and ambition to break the mold like FF8 did. It followed the old FF games a bit too vigorously to really be captivating. FF8, on the other hand, is like a strong, complicated beer. You probably won't like it. :)

Re:Poor, misunderstood FF8

[Guppy06]

"If you're the sort of person that plays these games for the gameplay and not the story, then FF8 doesn't have a whole lot to offer."

No, I'm afraid you got that backwards. VII, VIII and X all practically required you to take a college course before you could understand the mechanics they used for character development (whether they called it "materia," "guardian forces/draw" or "sphere grid"). Hell, I even had to start VIII over the first time I played it because I screwed up GF development so badly. IX was good because the focus was on the game. Not the graphics, not the music, not some God-awful mechanic that sounds like something out of a certain Hsu and Chan strip, but on the game and the story, where it belonged. Rarely did you have to wander around to "level up" (or "draw spells" or whatever Square wants to call it) and buying new weapons and armor was as easy as walking into the damned store and plunking down some gil.

VIII focused so much on a/v and mechanics that the characters are sickeningly two-dimensional. I could never confuse Squall with a real person. "I have to go kill this sorceress person. Why? Oh, I dunno... just because, I guess... Leave me alone, I'm busy being angsty here!" At least the player actually wanted to kill Sephiroth, but even he isn't anywhere near the character that Kefka was.

I used to love Final Fantasy. VI was my favorite before IX. I got a PlayStation for the sole reason of playing Final Fantasy games. VII was a little bit of a let-down, but that may have been because I played Zelda: OoT first. VIII was even more of a let down. When I played IX, I shed a tear of joy over the true beauty that was the game and basked in the way things used to be. It gave me the sense of awe and woder that I hadn't had with one of these games since VI. And then I realized that IX is the way it is because it is intended to be the last, fianl "hurrah!" for the way things used to be. I look at X and all I see is VIII. And I know better than to think XI is going to be anything like the old games because you can't have an epic story in an MMORPG. I have decided that, save re-releases of older games, Final Fantasy is dead to me (and subsequently I have no reason to purchase a PlayStation 2). I've moved on.

And while I've only recently started playing it, I'm even finding myself let down by Chrono Cross. I remember a game that had a good story but made sure not to take itself too seriously, with a great deal of expression done with the simple (by today's standards) 2D sprites, and a fight system that focused more on the fighting than on either flashy backgrounds or level-up mechanics. A bread-and-butter RPG with a great story and deep characters. Instead, I'm given a game with little expression through the characters (to be expected when half the time they're about 1" tall on the screen and you can almost never make out their faces) (but hell, they could at least have shown facial expressions in the dialog boxes instead of "?" and "!", but I guess they never played Lunar...), fight sequences that are a big step back to Final Fantasy (I'd rather not have to go to a special fight scene sequence than to have "super-nifty 3D grpahics," and whatever happened to the genuinely-nifty area-effect techs?), an "element" system that looks like it was hastily grafted from FF VII, and too many characters for the player to have any sort of real relationship with.

In general, any RPG that requires you to take several hours of your time to learn how to play the game isn't worth my money, because spending so much focus on the game mechanics means that less focus is spent on the actual story.

"It lacked the guts and ambition to break the mold like FF8 did."

VIII didn't break any molds, it was a continuation of the direction they were going from VII. It started with IV in a small and subtle way, but got real big real fast. IX actually broke the mold by being nostalgic and reaching all the way back to V, but they went right back to where they were with X, and I doubt they will ever leave their current line of travel again. Square is done innovating here, move along.

Re:Poor, misunderstood FF8

[Kirijini]

"IX actually broke the mold by being nostalgic and reaching all the way back to V ... Square is done innovating here, move along."

I'm not quite sure repeating methods used before is breaking a mold (it rather seems to be reusing the mold, doesn't it?), and to say that Square isn't innovating by doing new things every iteration (in your words, "line of travel") is to misunderstand what innovation is. According to dictionary.com: "a change in customs; something new, and contrary to established customs, manners, or rites."

Bottom line here is that Square _is_ innovating, by constantly creating new gameplay and character development systems, and you don't like it. You don't like Square's innovations. Admit it: what you want are recasts of FFIV and VI (such as IX), not new things, like, well, VII, VIII, and X.

"VII, VIII and X all practically required you to take a college course before you could understand the mechanics they used for character development (whether they called it "materia," "guardian forces/draw" or "sphere grid")."

This is called a learning curve, and it's necessary for new, complex systems. anytime there is an innovation, people have to go through a learning curve. I suppose all future final fantasies could have systems based around tic-tac-toe, but I would rather spend a few hours learning how to use and master a game system, every time, than play the same game over and over again.

"In general, any RPG that requires you to take several hours of your time to learn how to play the game isn't worth my money, because spending so much focus on the game mechanics means that less focus is spent on the actual story."

For stories, good stories, you should really be buy books or videos. Games are about PLAYING, not about reading or watching. Square has never had an interactive story - they're always very linear, and the few choices you get, never effect the outcome, and hardly even effect the dialogue in any meaningful way.

Re:FF8 was #4????

[psxndc]

And you definitely can't beat the Polom and Parom in FF2 (US version) when they turned themselves into stone to prevent the walls from closing in on them

Yes. Yes, yes, yes! This is exactly what FF8 didn't have. When that happened I was like "What?? What are they doing? Nooooooo!" Maybe it's because I was younger and naive. Maybe it really was better writing. But I had no attachment to any of the characters in 8. I spent half the time just wishing Leon or whatever his name was wasn't such a douche. Granted 7 was very linear and for me the first real divergence of the series into doldrum, but at least when Aeris died I felt like I had an emotional investment in a character. 8 just blew goats.

psxndc

For the record...

[Flamerule]

Their top 10 are...

• 010: Final Fantasy X
• 009: Chrono Cross
• 008: Final Fantasy Tactics
• 007: Xenogears
• 006: Final Fantasy IV
• 005: Final Fantasy IX
• 004: Final Fantasy VIII
• 003: Chrono Trigger
• 002: Final Fantasy VII
• 001: Final Fantasy VI

... and I agree, at least with what I'm familiar with. Sadly, of all the games in the top 25, I've only played SoM, FF IV, Chrono Trigger, and FF VI. However, when I feel like making a list, I always rank FF VI near the top of my heap of favorite console games, so I'm glad to see them give it first place.

It's just unbelievable how that game transcends its 16-bit Super NES sound and sprite graphics. It's epic, in so many ways -- a fantastic plot, with fantastically deep/moving/cool characters, and ridiculously memorable music. I remember thinking Kefka's theme was so kickass, I'd pick it out on our piano. I can still hum a boatload of songs from that game. I also liked how the entire game was stuffed with stuff to do; I'm sure I spent 60 hours or more every time I played through it. And the ending! More than 20 minutes of glorious reward at the end of that amazing battle against the statues and Kefka, with screen time given to every character. Certainly the best ending to anything I played on SNES. Actually, I'd be hard-pressed to find a better ending to any game, on console or PC.

Chrono Trigger and FF IV are the shit too, of course. And from everything I've heard, FF VII really whips the llama's ass as well; I think I'll finally get off my lazy ass and play it through sometime this summer.

Re:For the record...

[Stephen Williams]

a fantastic plot

Not as convoluted as the PSX-gen FFs, but better for it. It's simple, yet interesting. Elegant, even.

with fantastically deep/moving/cool characters

Overall, the best characters of any FF. Sure, other FFs have their highlights (Cloud and Aeris in VII, Vivi in IX), but none have as many interesting, well-developed characters as VI. Celes is my favourite; I enjoyed thinking back on the story, remembering the gradual changes in her personality, from cold-hearted general to passionate freedom fighter. Her scene in the opera house is one of the most memorable scenes in any game I've played.

Of all the FF's, VI is the one that I spent the most time thinking about when I wasn't playing it, due entirely to the beautifully realised characters.

And the ending! More than 20 minutes of glorious reward at the end of that amazing battle against the statues and Kefka, with screen time given to every character.

And it's exactly the ending you want. The story is resolved in the manner that the game was leading up to. There are no weird plot twists out of left field that diminish the ending's satisfaction. (Plus, if you're playing the PSX version, you get a bonus FMV with a lovely arrangement of Celes' theme as background music).

-Stephen

Re:No Way

[alphaseven]

I remember a gamefaqs poll of the day that put them in the order of 7, 6, 10, then 8 ahead just ahead of 9, so the listing isn't that absurd.

I think 8 is interesting in how much it divides gamers, a lot of people hate it but a lot love it and think it's one of the best. I think the problem with 9 is that it came out so late in the Playstation's so it got ignored by a lot of people.

Wake up Crono...

[Reverend Raven]

I love Final Fantasy IV (the last good FF game far as I'm concerned), but it's all about Chrono Trigger.

A huge and indepth story with something like 14 different endings, tons of replayability, cool and memorable characters (epecially that chatterbox Crono), loads of subplots and sidequests..and excellent music. It's the absolute best 2D RPG, and quite possibly the greatest console RPG of all time.

I mean I was actually sad when the game was over. I mean, it was over. Done, no more. That Xmas of 1995 (released during the summer I know but I never played it until Xmas) was such a happy and fun time. And there was never to be a sequel. Ever. Never ever ever not even if you give us money and beg us.

Then they made Chrono Cross, which was a disgrace to all that made Chrono Trigger good. Atleast the pre-order clock was really cool (and fitting, if you leave the clock hands reading 10:04)

Is it just me?

[Snowspinner]

At the risk of being flamebait or troll, am I the only person who thinks that "The best Squaresoft games" (When talking about RPGs in particular) is rather like talking about "The best war crimes" or "The best Microsoft products"? With the exception of Chrono Trigger (And possibly Cross. I might play it this summer, if I have time), I find their RPGs almost across the board to feature boring combat mechanics, excessive numbers of random encounters, hackneyed plots, and generally little to reccomend them.

And I don't mean to troll the whole company. I did genuinely enjoy Chrono Trigger, what with its totally avoidable random encounters. And Final Fantasy I was nice, in that it was largely Dragon Warrior with a party. I still need to check out Tactics, and Crystal Chronicles gives me hope, but FF IV-X just totally missed me. I did not enjoy playing one of them. And I kept trying, because everyone insisted to me that Square was the most brilliant company ever.

Nope.

Just don't get it.

Why aren't there any lists of the top 25 Enix games? Now that'd be interesting.

Re:Fuck Mozilla

[Guppy06]

"FF8 has best gameplay, no random encounters after getting Enc None (very early), no levelling up needed."

One word for you: Draw.