I think FF6 is average and not the "best" FF

[Damon]

Hopefully this will not result in flame war lol. I don't see what makes it better than FF5 in the concept of team building and collecting different "jobs". Or FF7, FF8, FF9, FF10 with more interesting and detailed story.

You who think this is the best FF game, I'd be interested to hear your reasons.

[SkaldedDawg]

TLDR

You should have seen the hype when the game first came out in NA. It was covered extensively with updates and the like in magazines like Die Hard Gamefan (RIP). I picked it up a few days after launch, and the first time I started to play I kept at it until the next day. I love this game.

I really like 10 as well. The art style was a little controversial.

[Damon]

Początkowo opublikowane przez SkaldedDawg:

TLDR

You should have seen the hype when the game first came out in NA. It was covered extensively with updates and the like in magazines like Die Hard Gamefan (RIP). I picked it up a few days after launch, and the first time I started to play I kept at it until the next day. I love this game.

I really like 10 as well. The art style was a little controversial.

I remember the FF7 hype. It was even in TV commercial here during break times. FF6 is a classic can't deny it for sure.

[Zogtar]

Początkowo opublikowane przez ⭕TheSodaman:

I think for a lot of players, their first non-MMO Final Fantasy tends to be the best to them or their favorite.

Side Note: FF6 is not my overall favorite.

I thought that the story and presentation was overall one of the better ones woven together until FF9. And then maybe until FF10. After FF10, didn't think too strongly of the story or presentation of the other offline FFs until FF7 Remake.

And then characterization of FF6 was overall pretty good for its time and pretty much up there with 9, but perhaps not as much as 10 or 15.

The team building and customization, I did think FF5 did better at the time. While I do see the merit of FF6 revisiting unique character abilities (similar to FF4), but with some customization via the relics and esper / magicite system without any significant JP investment.

But would be curious to know if FF6 was someone's favorite Fantasy AND it wasn't one of their first two Final Fantasy games.

I grew up with the OG FF games and it was FF4 that was my favorite before FF7 and as favorites tend to... it transitioned from game to game until landing back on FF6 in my old age.

While the first FF does hold a lot of nostalgia, and I do love replaying it... it's not my favorite. It's definitely up there, especially since it's the shortest and has the most fun challenge runs (imo).

[Lysamus]

I don't think FF6 is objectively the best game in the mainline franchise (that honor likely goes to FF14, unless you refuse to acknowledge MMOs, in which case, it would probably be FF9). It is, however, my favorite game in the franchise for the reasons below.

1.) It's the most cohesive story of any FF mainline game. It's themes around loss and finding a reason to go on are emphasized in its overall narrative, its characters, its soundtrack and the individual conflicts its cast wrestles with throughout the course of the game. Of all the Final Fantansies, its the game most in harmony with its ideas.

2.) While the ensemble cast concept didn't come through completely, those characters who do get attention are complex and engaging (Principally Celes, Locke and Terra, although Edgar, Sabin, Setzer, Shadow and Cyan have their moments).

3.) Kefka and the Empire are compelling antagonists (which also are in harmony with the themes in the game from point #1)

4.) The decision for the heroes to fail and the world to collapse into ruin was particularly bold for its era and still holds up today as a daring narrative direction.

5.) I personally dig the melancholy tone of the game (which was also an unusual tone for a 90s Japanese RPG).

[Antopippi]

FFVI was my first FF game so I do have a bias to it but even after the later ones still is my favourite. I love the fact each character aside from the late late game joinees are really well fleshed out, they also feel unique with their goals and their personalities.

The main story is really well done and even side stories like Shadow, Gau and Setzer's have emotional heft behind them and add that little bit extra layer to an already likeable cast. The abilities like Gau's leap also feel well done. Gau has such versatility if you take time to get some good monster move sets.

I have only recently got FFV so I can't speak much of before 6 but I will explore those too to see where I place them when I'm done. Post VI the only ones I didn't like a lot where 9 and 13. I couldn't get on with 9 and the cast to 13 was a very mixed bag. But the likes of 7 and 10 still hold a special place in my heart as I love them both so much. Gonna try 15 and 16 too when I get a chance

[NisseDood]

Its good up until you get the airship in world of ruin.
After that it starts to feel kinda half baked.

[Ederwolf]

Even though VI was my first FF game as a kid and I loved it a lot, I gotta agree about it not being as good as I thought it was. The story is very fragmented (what with whole "no real main character of the story" angle and with some character-specific scenes being totally optional like Figaro brothers reminiscing or Kohlingen visit in WoB as Celes and Locke), you're constantly "on the rails" leading you straight to floating continent with very little downtime to do anything, not like there's anything to do since at the time you get Setzer and airship, all you can really visit are 3 towns, where 2 of them have no new equipment for you and one, where people refuse to talk to you. It only feels like the game really opens up, when you reach WoR but at that time it's pretty much "get the gang back" and visit like 3 optional places?

And Kefka is very overrated as a villain, contrary to people's belief's just a guy with shattered mind, who has no real plan, especially after he "succeeds" and then the whole world gets magically fixed once you beat him (it's all green and every destroyed location is shown again right before the credits start rolling).

Nowadays, I enjoy the story and gameplay of 5 much more, which is somewhat ironic, because I hated it back when I was still a kid :3

[nesoukefka]

VI had better graphic and audio quality (which is logical V was already an improvment over IV in these 2 areas), which goes a long away in presenting it's story, story wise compare to FFV it was darker, it also doesn't help FFV's actual themes are deeply related to the state of the Japanese's society and economical situation at the time of it's release a context that obviously most western player are completly oblivious to (I recommend watching a retrospective on youtube by a guy named Andrew Bluett who did a good job at contextualizing this and point out the aspect of the game that resonate with it).

If you do check there is a funny pattern with the 6 first FF where it's like you have 2 different series developping in parallel :

-FFI, III and V : These 3 puts gameplay above story, and these are the 3 that developped the Job system, they are also the 3 that have the recurring plot's blueprint of a world govern by the crystal that are in danger, said crystal choose 4 guy to be their Warriors of Light, to save the day. Altough V's story is a big improvment over 3, it still is second to the gameplay, altough funny enough in term of structure the Merged World is very similar to the World of Ruin of FFVI where basically after some mandatory quest everything else is completly optionnal and the player can decide to straight up ignore it and go straight to the Final Boss if they choose to.

-FFII, IV and VI : These 3 however have a bigger emphasis on story, generally more darker story compare to the other trio, all 3 also shared the evil Empire for the main antagonistic force, on the gameplay side tough is obviously the very odd one in the 6 classic FF when it comes to the progression system, but IV and VI share the design of each party members being given it's own unique abilities, altough VI allow to tune them up a bit with the Esper system offering some customization, II and IV however share the principle of having characters temporarly joining the team, and so most of your team is fix, it also share this tendancy of having the temporary character exiting your team by sacrificing themselves (altough point for FFII who was actually bold enough to kill them for real, whereas in FFIV except for Tellah they were all fake out, which honnestly was very disappointing imo). I said tough storywise II was greatly handicap by it being an NES game, with all the limitation that come with it, so in term of narrative IV and VI feel like successfull attempts of what they were trying to do with FFII.

Which ever you prefer between story and gameplay is probably the key factor of which one is your favorite between V and VI, and I personnaly prefer V thing is for how good a story is once I experienced it... well that's it I'm not gonna rediscovering it a second time, I may realise some early foreshadowing or have better understanding of some early scenes on a second replay but beyond that I have little interest anymore in replaying the story, so I personnaly prefer FFV every time I replay it I can play it in a different way using different jobs for my character, even doing some self impose challenge and I'm still discovering stuff about the game's gameplay as of today, where I found little reason to replay FFVI (beside some mods, cause there is a HUGE modding scene for FFVI on SNES and some of the mods are amazing and I'm at a point where I have more fun playing them than the base game to be honnest).
But at the end of the day it's just personnal opinion and preference.

[Dimlhugion]

My personal favorite is FF4 because it was my first RPG (albeit as FF2 on the SNES), and RPG's became my favorite genre over time. So it's always going to get that special "first flame" treatment from me. My least favorite of the mainline titles is FF13, though I haven't played the MMO's nor anything numerically after 13, so I reserve the right to shift the "worst place" accordingly once I "experience" those other ones.

Regarding the PR's, obviously I love 4 but I feel like I enjoyed 5 the most once I played them all. And I think for me it boiled down to the world space feeling genuinely believable, in the sense that it really felt like a cohesive world that people ACTUALLY lived in. As opposed to a place that existed solely to further some anime arcs.

Not that I'm necessarily meaning that entirely negatively. I love me some anime. But sometimes, you don't REALLY want an entire mini-saga about KRILLIN, you know what I mean? Sometimes you already clock the "tsundere" from 4 seconds in, but you still gotta spend 8 episodes for them to finally warm up and join the team in earnest. And that's what FF6 felt like to me, a giant ensemble cast anime.

Again, that worked for me because I like anime. But, it also FELT anime. FF6 perpetually gave off that anime vibe. FF5 by contrast felt REAL (well, fantasy-real). I could plausibly see those places existing BEYOND fulfilling the need to propel character development. As opposed to 75% of locations in 6 being SPECIFICALLY for that purpose alone. Characters in FF6 don't live in the world; their world lives for them instead.

So of the OG 6, my top spot vote goes to 5. Sure, FF4 gets points for being my first time (and it was gentle! Oh so gentle, that "FF2"). And yea, FF6 has that suplex and those characters. But five? Five is my jam.

[Graham]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Damon:

Hopefully this will not result in flame war lol. I don't see what makes it better than FF5 in the concept of team building and collecting different "jobs". Or FF7, FF8, FF9, FF10 with more interesting and detailed story.

You who think this is the best FF game, I'd be interested to hear your reasons.

Your opinion is wrong and moot, thank you though for posting in the FF6 forums though.