The Final Fantasy series is one of the oldest yet still running video game franchises in video games. The first one released way back in 1997 on the humble Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom. According to legend, the name was chosen because series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi thought that, if the game fails, it would mean the end for SquareSoft. Although that’s been proven to be false, it did help propel the series to its currently legendary status.
So, while we are a couple of years early, I would like to look back at the Final Fantasy franchise. But I’m not going to be looking at all the releases. Rather, I’d like to look at the franchise’s heyday before SquareSoft merged with Enix to become Square Enix. That means I have to go through ten games and that’s quite a lot! So, like with my Resident Evil games ranking, I’ll be splitting up the list into two parts. One list focusing on the “bad” games of the series and, next week, the “best” ones.
My ranking system here will be a little different from my other video game ranking lists I’ve made. That’s because there were some Final Fantasy games I didn’t play when they were released. I did manage to play them much later on *ahem* less reputable means. But, when I did, I tried to put myself in the time it was released. This means I’ll be talking about the original versions and none of the myriad of re-releases Square Enix had pumped out over the years. I’ll also still be eliminating all of the other “side stories” like Final Fantasy Tactics and Crystal Chronicles. The rest of my criteria is going to be based on the combat system, overall story and how it plays. Let’s get cracking!
#10 Final Fantasy II
In Final Fantasy II, you take control of three friends, Firion, Maria and Guy. They are attacked by the Emperor’s soldiers and left for dead. They are rescued by Princess Hilda. In an attempt to get revenge for their fallen friend, Leon, the trio join Princess Hilda’s army in the hopes of destroying the Emperor.
While I am branding Final Fantasy II as the worst of the games, I can’t say it was terrible. In fact, I would say, for its time, it was pretty revolutionary. This was, after all, the game that introduced Final Fantasy staples like chocobos and Cid. The story is also pretty involved and, although you can guess the twist regarding Leon’s fate, not many gamers at the time would not expected it way back in 1988.
The biggest problem of Final Fantasy II is the leveling system. It doesn’t have a traditional level up system where you gain experience points from battles to become stronger. Instead, you get stronger by repeating that thing you want to get stronger at. For example, if you want to level up your sword attacks, you have to keep on attacking with a sword equipped. If you want stronger spells like better Cure magic, keep casting that Cure magic. That’s all fine and dandy. Where this screws up is on how to increase your hit points. To become more resilient to damage, you have to keep on taking damage, even if that means attacking yourself.
This is just very counterintuitive and, what’s worse, it takes a long time to level up anything in the original release! It makes the entire game a slog to get through because of this weird leveling system. I can appreciate the thought process behind it. But I can’t get behind it because it’s the primary reason why I disliked playing Final Fantasy II so much! The other couple of reasons are the inventory system and the dungeons. The inventory system is maddening as items don’t stack! So, finding new things can actually become a burden! The dungeons are super long and there are no save points. This means that, originally, you’re supposed to complete them without taking a break! I’m sorry. Final Fantasy II is a solid pass.
In Final Fantasy III, earthquakes have started to ravage the land. Four children fall into a cave during one of these earthquakes and are told by a giant crystal that they are the Warriors of Light. With light and darkness’ balance throw into disarray, it’s up to them to restore this balance. The group is tasked to find the four elemental crystals in the hopes of restoring balance to these forces and stop what (or who) is causing this imbalance.
I will be honest and say I totally forgot what happened in this game! I get I played it a long while ago. But I at least remembered the general plot of the other Final Fantasy games. I also could recall what I liked and disliked about each entry. But for Final Fantasy III? My mind was a total blank! I had to watch several videos so I could try to remember what it felt like playing it! Right off the bat, this is why this game takes the second to the last spot. I may not have any memories of it… but at least I don’t have any bad memories unlike with Final Fantasy II!
There’s nothing really much to say about Final Fantasy III. It did look like SquareSoft were hitting their stride. This was actually the introduction of Final Fantasy’s Job System. You’re free to switch between character classes here. Honestly, I didn’t think this was necessary as, from what I can recall now, stuck with whatever job/class I stuck them with at the beginning. This is also when the didn’t mess around with weird ideas. So, casting magic relies on Magic Points and you get stronger by the traditional way of leveling up: fighting. I guess the problem is, because Final Fantasy III’s general gameplay feels like every other JRPG for the time, it’s not as memorable. And this is why it ranks so low on my list.
In the original Final Fantasy, you take control of the Warriors of Light. The world is in turmoil as the elements of the world have been thrown into disarray. The Warriors of Light have been prophesied to bring balance to the elemental forces. But it turns out there might be someone else behind all the chaos…
When I played the original Final Fantasy, I gave it a lot of leeway. After all, this was the first in the series and JRPGs were still in its infancy. Even so, I do think this isn’t really a great Final Fantasy. You do have the beginnings of a great franchise. But we’re far away from being great here. The story is very simplistic. You name the Warriors of Light and then you go out in the world to save the world. That’s it! As such, your controlling a bunch of blank slates and have utterly no personality. It’s up to you, the player, to do that. Still, that just makes the Warriors of Light some of the blandest heroes in any Final Fantasy… before Final Fantasy III, that is.
I actually do like the progression in a retro sort of way. Instead of entering an open world, you have to “open up” new locations by following the main story. It’s quaint and ensures you don’t walk out too far and get killed by accident. There’s also a weird twist regarding who the bad guy is. Oh, you know who the main baddie is early on. But this person’s involvement is pretty unique. The things that really holds back this game is the combat and how magic works. Combat in the original Final Fantasy is punishing! You can face up to nine enemies at a time, especially during the latter part of the game! And they hit hard. Combine that with there being no way to resurrect a party member while in combat, a simple random encounter can give you a Game Over. Thankfully, the updated version don’t have this problem.
My other big complaint with the original Final Fantasy is the lack of Magic Points. What you get here are “spell charges.” You get a finite amount for a group of magic spells. This is problematic because some of the more useful spells are in the same group. Cureja and Healaga share the same group. Cureja restores one party member to full health. Healaga restores the party’s health a certain amount. So, now you have a choice to either completely heal one party member or partially heal all party members. You have to be sure because if you overdo one or the other, you won’t have access to both! This just feels dumb but, like I said, this was SquareSoft’s first JRPG. They were allowed to make a few dumb decisions.
In Final Fantasy V, you start off controlling Bartz, an adventurer who sees a meteor crash to earth and decides to investigate. At the meteor crash site, he encounters Lenna, the princess of the kingdom of Tycoon, and Galuf, an amnesiac old man. Lenna enlists the two to travel to the Wind Shrine to find his father. During their travel, they try to steal a ship only to be caught by Faris, a pirate captain. Faris is sympathetic to Lenna and decides to join the party. The four reach the Wind Shrine only to find the Wind Crystal shattered. The shards of the Wind Crystal then imparts its power to the four heroes. It’s now the mission of our four heroes to travel to the other Crystal Shrines and protect them. Or, at the very least, stop the one who is destroying them and plunging the world into chaos.
This is around the time when I feel sad for having to put certain games in the “bad” list. Final Fantasy V is not a “bad” Final Fantasy. I found it to be very enjoyable. While this was the second game in the franchise to be released on the 16-bit Super Nintendo, the graphics are much more improved than its predecessor (which we’ll talk about shortly). Sprites are more expressive. Backgrounds are much prettier. All around, everything looks better. The Job System is also vastly improved here, mainly because of how many there are. This time around, I did feel the need to switch things up with my characters just to see if I can find a good mix between them.
My only real gripe, and it’s kind of a big one, it’s the tone. Final Fantasy has a lot of storylines and a lot of characters, some who are closely related to our heroes, dying unfortunate deaths. Yet, all I really remember is how goofy things can get! It feels weird since, while the emotional moments are strong, they really tried to make this the one with the most jokes. I guess they just didn’t balance out the tone, which is why this just lost out to our next game…
The main hero of Final Fantasy IV is Cecil. Cecil was once a Dark Knight who serves the Kingdom of Baron. Cecil is ordered to attack a helpless town in order to pillage its Water Crystal. Although he succeeds in his mission, this causes Cecil to question if what he’s doing is right. He eventually speaks out against the king and, as a result, he is stripped off his title of squad leader. He is then sent out to deliver a package to a town. It turns out the package contains powerful monsters, immediately destroying the town. The only survivor of the siege is Rydia, who Cecil nurses back to health. Cecil realizes the evil his kingdom has been doing and vows to stop the Kingdom of Baron.
Final Fantasy IV was the very first Final Fantasy to be developed for the Super Nintendo and it shows… kinda. The graphics are much better than any of its predecessors but only because of the increased number of colors. It’s like they SquareSoft was developing the game initially for the original Nintendo Entertainment System before porting it over to the Super Nintendo. And that appears to be the case.
Looks aren’t everything, however. Despite it being significantly worse graphically than Final Fantasy V, the reason why Final Fantasy IV comes off better is the story. This was the first game in the series to really focus on a single character, Cecil. This enabled Cecil to have something other Final Fantasy characters, even in Final Fantasy V, didn’t have: growth. Cecil journey feels more like the classic hero’s journey. He and the party is taken through the wringer and that makes you root for Cecil and company even more. Not only that, the story is pretty epic, with a few twists and turns.
I guess all of the hardship Cecil and the other heroes feels like kind of a downer. Maybe this is why Final Fantasy V was a little more lighthearted to balance out how dour Final Fantasy IV is? Even so, I just liked the more serious tone of this game as well as the characters. Like Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy IV isn’t a bad Final Fantasy. But it’s just not as good as the latter half of the series… which I’ll get to next week!
See you when I talk about the “best” Final Fantasy games next week!
What are the Final Fantasy games you would consider to be “bad”? Let me know in the comments section below!
3rd World Geeks 