Which Final Fantasy game has the best story? I've only played

Final Fantasy VI, IX and XII (remastered version coming soon)

>>3383507
I found FFIV (Original FFIV SNES Version or FFII localized)

and FFVI (Original FFVI SNES Version or FFIII localized)

Final Fantasy IX on PS1.

They're the three other ones other than VII that also has great directions and plots, I find~

>come to thread expecting FFVI wankery
>Find some reasonable advice

Fuck. Times are a changing. Are we not just constantly circlejerking FFVI any time Final Fantasy comes up?

Anyway, OP, if you're just looking for good story skip X-2 (decent mechanics, terrible story, pretty dresses). Compilation of FFVII has some good side games (I actually liked Crisis Core, despite it's massive flaws, for example), and IX is justifiably classic.

>>3383507
VI, best characters, best story

>>3383507
V is decent for story, and does a great job of making you care about the characters - possibly more than any other FF.

VI is interesting in its unique way of telling the story not through a main character, but through a large, ensemble cast.

X might receive its share of hate, but damn it did great job of its world building.

>>3383507
Ironically >>3383553 I'm going to say VI. I think it has the best story of them. It's not amazing, but it's not bad either. Most of the others are just bad. IX is my favorite as an actual game, but it's story is bad.

I also like VII because an unreliable narrator in a video game is interesting.

>>3384193
I'm not saying VI is bad (It's not), it's just the one everyone jerks over as if it can do no wrong.

VI

>>3383507
IV, IX and X, Tactics

>>3384216
Well, I'm not afraid to say that ff6 is bad. At least the gameplay, if you compare with 5 and 3.

>>3383507
7 and 8 are the only good ones

>>3384216
In my opinion that's because it's the one FF with a decently told story so it really sticks out compared to the others.

>>3384216

It's not a bad game, but WoR has its flaws. I like the non linearity of the second half, but the generic dialog is a deal breaker for me. (dialog with no attributed speaker)

if you had a party of Gau, Umaro and Gogo they'd have moments where they'd be talking like anyone else.

the story ends up ignoring individual characters because it can't account for possible scenarios over who was picked up over who wasn't.

I much prefer V over it nowadays.

>>3384236
With that many characters it would have been a huge undertaking to write unique dialogue with everyone.

started VI about five times now and always gave up in the WoR
the game becomes such a boring slog, the story dies and the game shits in your face by sending you on a character fetchquest
I even managed to finish and somewhat enjoy the supposedly abominable FFII (GBA) but not VI
the only other jrpg to disappoint me as much as VI was Xenogears

File: strokes.jpg (181KB, 720x480px) Image search: [Google]

181KB, 720x480px

>>3384248
>>3384260
WoR is totally what makes that game for me. You go on this big quest to save the world, only to fail and then get to explore the apocalyptic version of it and try to find your friends again. Diffren't strokes though I guess.

>>3384216
VI's story is pretty good though. The villain actually wins for once.

>>3384243
>it would have been a huge undertaking to write unique dialogue with everyone.
Not really, it's just that it probably wasn't even considered, FF has always been more story driven than character driven, even WoR being an exception to the rule still remains fundamentally focused on the story of each character instead of having meaningful interaction between the cast according to party composition.
Romancing SaGa 2 not only had dialogue variations for each classes, some classes also get other ways to complete quests that completely change the questline development.
Romancing SaGa 3 had a good amount of variations so that each main character has its own speech variation for most quests, sometimes certain characters also get extra bits of informations depending on the quests, all characters have their own quotes against the final boss too, and we're talking about a 20+ character cast with 8 main characters.
>>3384248
>the story dies
How can you say that when each character but Gogo and Umaro get their own, much needed story arcs?
Setzer is a non character before WoR, Terra finally gets some character development besides being a former Empire killing doll, Cyan has to come to terms with his family's death once more to the point he tries to escape reality by impersonating a dead youth and writing letters to the youth's fiancee to reassure her when he was the one who needed comfort more than her, Locke gets his backstory with Rachel, Shadow becomes somewhat of a character and so on.
Saying that WoR has no story is moronic when it's arguably the most dramatic part of the game, if you don't like character driven story it's alright, you just have shit taste, but don't tell me that the story dies in there because it's a bald faced lie.

XII, but god sometimes it's hard to keep up with the story, so much shit and places being dropped that you may or may not forget the name of some location or character and go what.
still a great game

If you consider that Squall dies, FFVIII actually has a pretty great narrative, and a great story too if you consider the rest of the game as a boyish fantasy answering the insecurities of a quiet young man's angst. I don't know why so many people have a problem with this explanation when FFX pulls the shit it does.

FFVII is fairly interesting once you realize that both the protagonist and antagonist are victims of an experimental program that implanted both of them with the parasitic mind-controlling cells of an alien monster which only cares for it's own propagation and survival, like a virus that's incapable of feeling remorse or empathy for how it hijacks human cells.

FFIX's narrative is literally a play.

FFVI's narrative is figuratively an opera.

FFV is a jRPG.

I never finished FFIV.

>>3384315
FFVIII's story is only good if you think of it as a parody of most JRPG's.

>>3384317
Or as a mild satire of adolescence itself. The fact that it flies over the heads of actual adolescents really hammers it in for me.

>>3384297
character development =\= story
learn the difference before getting so upset

I'm gonna go out on a limb here but I really believe ff4 had one of the best, if most cliche stories of its time. It was a bit predictable but it was executed quite well and it left me feeling satisfied after beating the game, more so than any other FF.

Although not a main game, Tactics had a really good story that was full of twists and turns, Game of Thrones style that ended in a rather unique way

>>3384339
The reason I like IV more than most other FFs is because it's paced better, which might have something to do with its linearity and lack of customization
there aren't that many opportunities to fuck around so the game feels somewhat urgent to me
it's the one FF I can always pick up and finish in a couple of days
the only bullshit moments are getting new characters at lower levels and cecil being level 1 after becoming a paladin, but that's a minor gripe compared to all the bullshit I went through playing some other FFs and JRPGs in general

>>3384350
If you ignore Vaan, it's not a bad game.

>>3384350
inoffensive, boring and forgettable but gambits were a neat idea as far as pseudo real time jrpgs go
doesn't compare to other matsuno games like Ogre Battle, Tactics Ogre, FFT or Vagrant Story, but to be fair matsuno did leave mid development

>>3384329
>character development =\= story
So having the characters finding a reason to come together and keep on living and fighting isn't part of the story?
I bet you think that stuff like Joyce's Ulysses, Crime and Punishment or Oblomov aren't stories either, if you've ever even read them of course, judging from your misconceptions.

VI and VII have the best stories in my opinion. They both strive for very epic overall story arcs and manage to remain fairly consistent throughout the entirety of the games.

VI is perhaps more ambitious, but VII has better character development and is the most interesting FF for me.

VIII really falls apart toward the latter half in my opinion. I know its widely considered bullshit but I'm actually a fan of the 'squall dies' theory, it makes the second half more palatable.

IX is very thematically heavy and works really well in that regard, but the story again loses focus towards the end, especially because of the weak antagonists. This has the richest atmosphere of any FF imo, and its definitely worth playing for the great characters and memorable settings.

>>3384371
>>3384383
>story is forgettable
How?

>>3384387
There was barely any story to begin with, and a lot of shit just came out of nowhere with no buildup, foreshadow, or justification.

Like Balthier confessing he used to be a Judge, Cid being his father, Sky Fortress Bahamut out of fucking nowhere, and climbing a massive tower for silly reasons. It did have a lot to the setting and really fleshed out Ivalice, but the story and storytelling was trash.

In terms of raw content though, it beats most FFs cold. It would really benefit from a serious difficulty hack, it is somewhat challenging compared to other FFs but it's still not that tough.

>>3384387
This is sort of like the Phantom Menace of Final Fantasy games. Lots of really cool *scenes* but the sum of the parts is just weak, and certain characters can basically ruin the experience for you.

Also, in terms of main characters, VII and VIII both have jaded angsty protagonists, which might be annoying to some people, but it's still wayyyy better than the incessant optimism and naivete of XII's protagonist.

>>3384350
not retro

>>3384404
The problem is that both Vaan and Penelo have nothing to do once Ashe joins the party.

>>3383507
Tactics hands down

>>3384315
I read the spoiler about squall on accident

Rip ff8 I guess

FF VIII

>>3384542
It's sad considering that FF12 is great in every other department; soundtrack and graphics wise it's very impressive for a PS2 game, and Ivalice looks gorgeous, the art direction for the game obviously had a lot of care put into.
It's a flawed game, but it's great nonetheless.

6 and 7, in my imho.

They all have shit story

Weeb shit

>>3384652
I find the more pretentious than anything post III.

>>3384679
I won't exactly call it pretentious, but there seems to be more of an effort past 5.

>>3383507
VI is pretty meh, it's your vanilla fight against evil emperor, and then a clown with god powers. The game is okay, but the story is cliché. And a game has no right to be praised for its story when it has a scene where a main character goes so emo that they try to kill themselves (and fail at it, to boot).

VII is this tangled web of stupid mess where you have like 5 layers of flashbacks retconning the backstory, and the key character to the entire story acts the stupidest fucking way possible and then gets killed in the stupidest damn way. On the upside, the side characters are all way more interesting than Cloud and Tifa.

V has a simple fairy tale of a story, people hate it for that, but personally I find it more charming than emo drama. There aren't stupid fucking loops in it either, it's completely straightforward - you learn more stuff about the world as you go forward, instead of a "everything you've believed in was wrong" story.

Haven't played the others, but I heard that 8 tries to be more mature, which really put me off from the rest of the series after VI and VII.

>>3384817
>I heard that 8 tries to be more mature
Kek?

>>3383507
Tactics by far.
I love the Final Fantasy series, though generally the stories themselves don't interest me as much as their presentation. Tactics is the only exception.

VI has a unique story thanks to the villain succeeding and having no clear protagonist but the technology holds it back from being as plot-heavy as later games
VII has an unreliable narrator which was revolutionary for the time and is executed well but has a poor translation
IX drags on and has some characters that are useless to the plot (looking at you, Amarant) but has the most whimsy and classical influence, it feels like a Shakespearean comedy
X has a good love story and the pilgrimage idea is a good one but otherwise isn't remarkable plot-wise
XII has the same problem as Tactics--good policical drama that gets squished by the generic "save the kingdom, reclaim the macguffin" that old FFs have. Vaan is a weak protag and while some characters are great (Balthier, Gabranth), others feel underdeveloped (Basch) or even pointless (Penelo)

The true answer would have been Vagrant Story before Matsuno retconned it from a FF spinoff to separate IP, so now it's more of a subjective deal.

>>3383507
7 is the only FF i've thoroughly enjoyed
i've played quite a bit of 8, because i thought the story would get better, but i always stop playing after you blow up that military base. just too boring
the others are just ok

>>3384236
The generic dialogue is what kills the WoR for me as well. I love VI and I definitely consider it one of the better games but there's just no "real" character interaction in the WoR. Maybe it was technology, a lack of time or they just didn't care but the generic dialogue just makes the WoR scenes feel empty.

At least Gau's reunion with his father was handled well but Terra not saying a word to Locke after recruiting him? I'd have at least hoped that "expected interaction" would have been accounted for.

>>3383507
Tactics

>>3383507
>I bought X/X-2
Christ.....

>>3383553
Either that or Tactics. I think 8 has the best story if you take the fan theories into consideration. 7 might have been my favorite if the translation wasn't so shitty.

File: thumbs.png (159KB, 289x289px) Image search: [Google]

159KB, 289x289px

Tactics

>>3387776
X is great and everyone should try the perfect ATB of X-2 at least once.

BTW OP, I'd recommend XIV. Blows XII out of the water with its worldbuilding and the series references are great. I guess the only problem is that the characters are hyped for no reason (looking at you, Ascilia). Definetely try it out.

>all these people saying IV
>"oh don't worry everyone but tellah is actually alive (:"
>power of friendship bullshit pulled at the very end
>cecil forgets all the terrible things he does and like less then a third in
It's from 1991 so I won't really fault it but are you guys fucking serious?

File: 1469434548322.png (81KB, 700x484px) Image search: [Google]

81KB, 700x484px

>>3383553
>come to thread expecting FFVI wankery
>It's exactly what I expected

>>3383507

1, 4, 6, 7 have probably the best stories and worlds.

Never played 11 onwards, so I can't say.

File: gordon2[1].png (3KB, 256x224px) Image search: [Google]

3KB, 256x224px

>>3383507

Im my opinion, either II or IV.

1 is out of question. 3 is the successor of 1. 5 did an interesting mix between 3 and 4, but storywise cannot be compared to 4. 6 probably started the trend to put the emphasis on the characters rather than the story (But you can see that in 5 too).

2 and 4 have both great characters and story. There is traison, sacrifice, characters that started as cowards to end up being heroes, but also events that change what's going on. I think they contain the elements that eventually made FF famous.

>>3389809
IV isn't paced like dogshit, unlike most FFs, because it doesn't waste your time with grinding or autistic minmaxing

>squall dies
shitty youtube theory and 'what are pheonix downs'.

>b-but aeris...
fuck you...

>topic
13 trilogy...inb4 unpopular opinion.
tfw caius just wants to save yule.

Tactics had the best story and IX the best overall IMO

I have only played the main games 5 through 10 and I have got to say................ all three plots are shit 7 at least had the reveal about Cloud being mad and slowly revealing the truth that was pretty decent, but overall the final fantasy plots are overly dramatic plot hole filled drivel with 8 being the worst.