Which final fantasy had the best, most interesting and generally

Final Fantasy II
>Instantly in a battle
>Cut down by black knights

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>>379436192
VII isn't my favorite but nothing tops the bombing mission and the Midgar section as a whole.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8NGDsnv34M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgvXCg1e_T8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfNHui7hb9E

>FF7
Opening FMV was short and okay I guess, set the scene well enough. Straight into the action so exciting, and we get to know a bit about characters motivations and personalities (including side characters who do matter in some way). Throwing you right into battle forces you to get used to the battle system, no tutorials or anything. Overall pretty strong.

>FF8
Action oriented opening FMV, followed with by far the comfiest opening walk (music, showing off Balamb garden). We get to know a little about a couple of the key cast, but there's not really that much characterisation. Tutorial heavy, and fire cavern feels a bit generic.

>>379436192
i would say 7 followed by 10

>FF9
Opening FMV implies some sort of twist or foreshadowing that we'll find out about, but otherwise not too interesting. Jumps nearly instantly into a battle which forces you to learn the ropes. Quite a long opening and we're introduced to a fair few members of the cast and I feel like we actually get to know them pretty well by the end, even though it's just the start of the game. A good mix of action, characterisation, tutorial and plain ol' fun. Always thought this was a strong opening even if 9 isn't my favourite overall.

>FF10
Nothing's really explained and everything's left mysterious. Decent combat tutorial but only Tidus and Auron are present and there's minimal characterisation. Excellent in terms of action and visual spectacle though.

>>379436759
This.

FF12 easily. The hour or two before Vaan appears is god tier.

I will say FF6 simply because of the shot where you're walking in the Magitek armor through the snow while the theme plays in the background.

https://youtu.be/NGC_EzojK6E?t=26s

I would say FF8's opening ends after the Dollet segment. Ifrit is barely starting with the basics.

I would also consider FF8's to be the strongest, overall. The first CD was very sweet.

>>379437982
This. In fact I'm still not sure at what point exactly FF8 goes to shit. Although the prison escape was pretty boring and the reasons they couldn't bust out at any point were pretty contrived, the Garden battle was pretty good, and the missile base wasn't terrible.

>>379438373
>I'm still not sure at what point exactly FF8 goes to shit.
The minute you put in Disc 3 and Edea begins to unveil everything at the orphanage, it's one of the fastest drops in quality in a game that I can think of.

>>379436192

If you took FF2's intro sequence (Seeing your village slaughtered, losing a fight against the knights, being saved by your pet retard and healed by Minwu) and gave it a modern presentation it would probably be the greatest introduction to a game ever.

>>379436192
I'd say IX's is very interesting, since it sets up quite a few of the characters from the get go in the best possible manner.
A kidnapping under the cover of a play where Vivi is an easily impressed, innocent child, Zidane is primarily concerned with tapping that booty, Steiner is the no-nonsense devoted soldier that nevertheless doesn't quite thinks things through as he plans them, and Garnet is the not entirely-defenseless princess that jumps off a tower while everyone else just watches dumbfounded. The good visuals and music don't hurt either.

That said something has to be said about the opening of IV, where your main character is really more of a villain than a hero, leading the slaughter of a number of innocent mages to steal a crystal for the evil king.

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FFVIII had both the best opening cutscene and the best opening chapter, if you count the first SeeD mission as the opening.

It's too bad that the game falls apart later on. The first disk is probably the best part of the whole series. But then every FF game falls apart.
>>379438373

The minute you put in Disk 3. Squall goes from a free thinking guy to 'Wah Rinoa!!!!!' for literally no reason.

>>379439260
>The minute you put in Disk 3. Squall goes from a free thinking guy to 'Wah Rinoa!!!!!' for literally no reason.
I wouldn't put it that mildly. Squall goes from being the best protagonist in the franchise to the goddamn worst.

>>379437909
>hour or two before Vaan appears
>hour or two
Whoa. How long did you spend running in circles during the tutorial section? Well, and hour or two, obviously. But I can't comprehend how or why. It's a 5 minute tutorial.
You lose the money that the troopers drop during that section, right? If not you'd be a very rich man at the start of the game.

>>379437982
>I would say FF8's opening ends after the Dollet segment.
As strong as that segment is, it takes too long to get there and there's several parts of normal gameplay before you get there, it's really not fair to consider it part of the game's opening when you can do so much before even reaching it.

>>379439000
>I've only played the remake
What you just described IS the 'modern presentation' because that doesn't happen at the start of the actual game.

>>379440628

Other FF games have long intros. For example, FFIV has over an hour of just watching people talk before you see the credit roll. If you only count the very first scene, then FFIV would just be the Red Wings attacking Mysidia. And that's a really weak 'opening'.

You kind of have to pick the first natural stopping point for each game. In FFVIII, that is pretty long, but it should still count.

There's also another argument that demos for FFVIII went up until the end of the Duknum mission.

i like FF8's the most because it's really easygoing and you can take your time talking to all the NPCs in balamb garden and dick around before doing the fire cavern or going to dollet

>>379440429
the opening cutscene alone is like ten minutes long.

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>>379441084
>TFW getting Quistis' ultimate weapon before the Fire Cavern

>>379438563
The "everyone knew each other as kids is awful!" meme blows ass because the game is a stable time loop
Cid Kramer deliberately arranged for those kids to party up when they were older because he knew they would be the ones to kill Ultimecia
Squall establishes this to Edea in the past after you kill Ultimecia
The only thing that makes the "twist" shit is that you never see any other kids at the garden besides Squall and co, which I think is a genuine mistake by the designers

It has to be 7, right?

>>379441421
orphanage*, not garden
seriously, would it have killed them to throw some generic kids in there?

>>379441084

This. FFVIII is one of the few FF games that actually encourage and reward you for exploring. Sure going to Zell's house and talking to his mom doesn't advance the main story. But it explains a lot about his personality and develops him as a character. Most FF games wouldn't give a character any development unless it was a main story segment.

>>379436192
XIII has the best intro.
That train ride. That immediate action. That awesome CGI for the time that still looks okay. That hinting at an awesome story and deep lore with all the words we don't understand. That in media res.

It doesn't deliver on all of those promises, but, damn, it had me excited.

>>379440952
If we set FFIV's opening at Ridya's invocation, it would pretty well be second to VIIII.

>>379441421

>The only thing that makes the "twist" shit is that you never see any other kids at the garden besides Squall and co, which I think is a genuine mistake by the designers

The whole orphanage thing is a common troupe in anime. Especially shounen anime. I mean, Naruto basically did the same thing a couple years later.

This isn't excusing the orphanage stuff because it is dumb. But the issue is that western fans seem to think Final Fantasy as a series is some grand masterwork of story-telling. Or worse, that FF games are 'aimed at adults'. When people in Japan recognize its something on the level of Gundam or Naruto. It flat out copies those shows.

>>379441821
>western fans seem to think Final Fantasy as a series is some grand masterwork of story-telling.
Literally no one thinks this though.

>>379440905
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zENBscPiExo

Think again, retard.

>>379441914

I can't even count how many times I've sen idiots claim FFTactics or FFVII were "the best written work in history."

>>379442231

With a bit of a rewrite FFT could actually be a great work of fiction.

As-is it's borderline retarded though.

>>379442231
I've been playing FFT and it is actually pretty good, though. Above FF's regular writing, for sure.

And, on topic, has the best first chapter (opening? It is long.) on the series.

>>379442738

By FF standard,s it's better than a typical FF game in writing. But the writer himself admitted that most of the story is based on outside influences. Especially the 100 years war and the catholic church.

The story in FFTactics also gets worse as you go along. It starts to shoe-horn in pretty much every FF troupe possible. So what could have been a strong story about politics and war devolves into a generic monster battle. Something like Suikoden II did the same type of story FFTactics was going for, but much better.

>>379440952
>FFIV has over an hour of just watching people talk before you see the credit roll.
That can't be right. Doesn't that happen the first time you set foot outside the castle? That's maybe 10 minutes if you're a slow reader. And I am! And I actually think the opening scene with the Red Wings is a pretty strong opening, you don't actually get to fight but the automated battles show how much better looking the game is compared to the NES games.

>>379442050
>only the fight with the knights happens, everything else is flavour text
Your own video proved you wrong. How embarrassing.

>>379443803

He may be talking about the DS remake of FFIV. Which is a lot slower with the cutscenes and movement.

>>379436192
IMO 9

That incentive, shit goes awry, how it resolves, the fact you end up with a party with a load of disparity. That entire play, too. Ending really slays it.

>>379436192

of the sequences you listed, 7 is the best.

Though, FF8's SeeD exam is by far the best opening

>>379443665
I've been noticing that: I think the War being an excuse for the Church to accumulate power is a good plot point to evolve, but I can see it going south fast with the stone shit, even if in the point I'm at it's pretty good (just after the infamous "Draw your sword, Ramza")

>>379443803

You realize that I'm asking for the modern presentation BECAUSE the rest of the intro was just flavor text, right?

You don't have to get defensive just because you were wrong.

>1
what is an intro. you just appear at the first town.
if you want to call it at the bridge cutscene, it's not well directed. i guess they figured you'd read the manual.
>2
crap
>3
see 2
>4
title comes up when you leave Baron, but i'd say intro ends at Mist. nice plot setup but otherwise meh.
>5
intro ends when you get the first set of jobs. it's not very interesting, since you don't have jobs yet; it's mostly character introductions.
>6
i say this one ends when you leave Narshe. you don't get a good sense of the stakes yet but narshe's design is comfy and it introduces battles and character changes.

7, 8 and 9 all have top tier intros:
>7
world building is superb (true of 7 broadly). good introduction to mechanics.
>8
player agency out the wazoo. opening sandbox is full of interesting things.
>9
cinematics, character vignettes, QTE swordfight, white mage robes. great stuff.

>10
good job introducing mechanics. pretty obtuse on the what-is-going-on meter.
>12
not qualified to comment (haven't played since it was new).
>15
hold R2 to push the car

>>379445256
>hold R2 to push the car
>A GAME FOR LONG TIME FANS AND NEW COMERS
How did they get away with this and better yet why the fuck did I buy it?

>>379445478
Because you're a faggot.