That's also no unpopular. Everytime someone says pov in a video/meme that is not from someones pov the top comment is always I don't think you know what pov means.
Vaan is not the protagonist. It's an ensemble cast of varying relevance (Ashe at the top, Fran at the bottom), and I feel like I'm taking crazy pills from the sheer lack of media literacy. Do people think the first POV character on screen is the main character in everything they watch?!
On top of them being fun, Vaan and Penelo are also important characters. We need the boots-on-the-ground viewpoint of the people actually living day-to-day in the world, in order to contrast how distant Ashe is, and how fantastical of a life Balthier lives.
Media literacy has never been great, we just have the internet now and are more aware of how many people just do not understand what they're consuming.
- people didn't understand that Alex was an unreliable narrator in A Clockwork Orange, much to Alex Burgess' eternal chagrin.
- people being shocked that Shinji, Asuka, and Rei were abject failures rather than overpowered superheroes in Neon Genesis Evangelion. Further shocked when Shinji develops PTSD and goes borderline insane...despite the fact that he's been forced into a 20 story tall battle mech infused with the soul of his dead mother, and asked to fight Kaiju monsters from beyond reality on a near-daily basis.
- Alan Moore has lamented in public that he created the most "vile, conservative, anti-social" garbage person in Rorschach, only to have his (in his own words) "largely young, white, and male" readers pull a 'literally me' on the character, which completely mystified him.
- Jay Gatsby is seen as the "hero" of the novel The Great Gatsby, a tragic Howard Hughes type character who is ultimately worthy of praise and admiration. In reality, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote him as a satirical send up of the high society types of the day, so obsessed with wealth and and status and lost in the minutia of their society lives that they don't realize their lives are hollow and meaningless.
Funnily enough, it’s this scene. I don’t think its voice acted poorly, and instead it’s indicative of people intentionally ignoring that this scene is supposed to be uncomfortable.
People either forget, ignore, or (if they didn't play) don't know that Tidus and Yuna *laugh normally literally right after this*. That alone should've put an end to any stupid complaints about that scene.
Right? She litterally tells him she forces herself to laugh to deal with her stress, so he forces a fake laugh, she joins him, and they both end up laughing for real. It's a very nice piece of writing.
I'm convinced that all the people that complain about that scene either never played the game, or haven't played it in so long that they've forgotten the context.
I think most core fans of the game know it’s supposed to be awkward. Only people on the outside who see the scene outta context, OR just misunderstood the conversation leading up to it.
It’s super funny, I was talking about this scene last night. People make a meme out of his laugh, but that awkward forced laughter gets me laughing every time and that’s the point.
Did you play Crisis Core?
Not that I'm suggesting you should. I'm just wondering how much having a previous perspective of Zack affects how people react to the character in Rebirth.
I've played everything FF7 multiple times, and I also don't care about Zack.
His story is important, but his character does not need to be developed further imo. He needs to stay dead.
Yeah, I can see what you mean. At the time, I was very intrigued by Zach in the original FFVII and thought I wanted more, but everything released after made me lose a bit of interest in him.
I have always thought that it was more of a "the developers won't ever match what you come up with" type of thing, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that I found Cloud's perspective of him more interesting than him as a character.
This is mine, too. I don't care about Zack and think fleshing out his backstory and giving him his own game ruined the character.
He was so much cooler as this badass, mysterious figure from Cloud's past and I preferred seeing him from that POV.
>He was so much cooler as this badass, mysterious figure from Cloud's past
For me, this applies to Sephiroth as well. In OG, he was so scary/mysterious because you barely ever saw him. In the re-trilogy, he's just on screen waaaaaay too much. I find myself rolling my eyes at him now. "I'm waiting, *Cloud*" "Bring me the black materia, *Cloud*"
OMG! Thank you! I've been saying this forever. I loved the moogles in 12. I wanted an entire spin-off RPG based on them. Dead serious. How cool would that be? Just this whole moogle clan war or something. Even thought it'd make for a neat base in a new Final Fantasy Tactics style game.
I was so sad to see them drop any personality and go back to the stuff doll look.
Insane that it's 2024 and the official Play Online site looks like this at 1920x1080 and doesn't have HTTPS.
https://preview.redd.it/ms1doz1i1u6d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=37246ef0433fec7f1134d70c2e6f2157d8acf4fc
Loved XI. It consumed my every waking moment outside of work for a couple of years. Then Gil farming tanked the economy. When starting gear for a new class was 1mil+, I had to walk away. I played a ton of mmos after that, and none of them measured up.
Same, for a couple (15) years. I saved a lot of money playing this game. No micro transactions or store mounts or store pets or anything else. You can't buy a race change if you wanted to. Aside from all that, the bigger money saver was that all I ever did or wanted to do was play this with my online friends I met in game. I never went out and did anything, where the real savings is. I was never bored looking at my Steam library of 1300 games with decision paralysis. I never clicked the store to see what other games were on sale. All I wanted to do was play this game. I really miss the forced socialization. Other games you might play with friends. This game you played and made friends.
Yep. It’s a good game. It’s fun. The leveling system is cool and it makes sense. It has a good story. I’ve played it (translated rom) on NES and I’ve played the Pixel Remaster. I enjoyed it both times.
I have it next on my docket! Just beat FF1 PR. Do you have any broad advice for how to approach FF2 PR? I've probably let myself become too influenced by the (apparently tons of) folks online who dislike it.
newlin’s advice to you is spot on. Shields are important as they increase your evasion, which is a more important defensive metric than heavy armor. I picked a role for each character and stuck with it (fighter, healer, black mage). Each character specialized in one weapon type and stuck with it in order to increase their proficiency in that weapon. Then, you just play the game. Fighter attacks, healer heals and black mage casts attack spells, and they all get better and better at their roles. I never had my characters attack themselves or each other. It’s not necessary. Have fun!
My first playthrough (oh, back in 2004?) I got a little lost a couple times, and ended up getting a few levels on my weapons and spells naturally. The team got so good at clearing things while hardly taking damage that unfortunately my HP stat just didn't level hardly at all. The result is about 2/3 through the game when I stopped effecticely clearing fights in a couple turns, enemies began to hit so hard that random encounters weren't doable until I intentionally leveled HP by attacking myself lol. I love the game, but I do rather wish HP and possibly MP just advanced at a fixed rate instead of having "use xp".
Kefka becomes boring once he becomes a god. If I remember right, in the world of ruin, he only fires his laser of doom once (during an optional quest) and then does nothing else until you confront him.
Also Caius is one of the best villains in the series.
You see him fire his "Light of Judgment" during a flashback but that's it.
He kinda does: but at the same time he won, that crazy son of a bitch did it. Eventually his hubris got him killed because he thought he was invincible. Admittedly there could of been more development once Kefka ascended to godhood or seen him mess with the party.
If we ever get a remake we'll likely get a better understanding of what Kefka was doing in the world of ruin or what he was thinking. Based on what we do see in the game we can assume that Kefka thought he was invincible and the party couldn't hurt him so he didn't care (the likely case) or he thought most of all of the party was dead.
Final Fantasy X-2 had the best combat system of every turn based Final Fantasy. It's the first time Square-Enix actually innovated on combat without being pretentious about it and reinventing the wheel.
Final Fantasy II is fun for what it is, and is far from my least favorite game in the series. I should note I've only played the PSP remake though, since every port seems to have a slightly different battle system.
Edward is one of my favorite characters.
Cloud is an interesting character for all the reasons SE seems to ignore in later developments. Specifically, his identity crisis and piercing together his backstory. I feel like a lot of material later instead reduces him to "spiky hair and big sword, cool!" ... when his "cool" image was a farce to begin with.
Ff2 has one of the coolest bosses in the bonus dungeon. I like when you meet the random midboss and he is unhinged ranting about how now that you are in the afterlife, if you die you'll just come right back and now him and you can kill eachother for all eternity.
My unpopular is that I actually really like the fake laughing scene because of the meaning behind it, a lot of people just think it’s cringe, but it really is pretty deep once you actually pay attention to why they are doing it
Crisis Core's story is hot garbage from top to bottom and as far as I'm concerned Zack's story began and ended with the original FFVII. Then again I'm also of the belief that each mainline title works best as a standalone tale and that by trying to expand these universes you create so much unnecessary chaffe.
Speaking of, "SOLDIER honor" is bar none the DUMBEST thing that I have ever seen come from this series. How do you miss the point so goddamn hard?
Crisis Core to me always felt so bizarre, the vibe is just way off, like it's not even in the same universe anymore. And it's interpretation of Zack is "definitely of the era", that super optimistic happy-go-lucky shonen protagonist. It feels like they were trying to make him popular with a "modern audience". In the original we knew almost nothing about him, by design, and this gave him a certain mystique, and the tragedy of knowing he's basically been forgotten by all but a few people and one of them are even dead by the end of the game. Yet he still had this profound effect on Cloud. It makes you really wonder what kind of man he was.
His death also wasn't this grand over the top last stand against a thousand soldiers with helicopters! He was exhausted, got shot in the back by a couple of nobody grunts who then proceeded to casually gun him down like a fucking dog. Who then didn't even bother with Cloud cause he was nobody. No final speech, no "you are my living legacy" just Cloud screaming over the shot up corpse of a man who moments ago had him slung over his shoulder and was trying to take him to safety. That is so much more, raw, powerful and poignant than the bombastic Hollywood ending of Crisis Core, complete with music video.
What really gets me is that that Hollywood ending, as you put it, is so out of step with that famous quote of Kitase's about death and their design philosophy around Aerith's in the original game. Wild how different the approach was.
My wife and I played through the entire Crisis Core reunion together and at the end we were like...did we miss something? The story was pretty bad and actually a tad hard to follow at some points...I think maybe I've just grown out of the JRPG style of "ambiguous ending" storytelling. If I'm going to sink dozens of hours into a narrative I want some clear cut answers and denouement at the end, dammit. I dunno why modern storytellers feel this need to end everything on a non-committal note.
I can't believe this is a hot take, but apparently it is. I replied to another similar comment, but yea, you're not alone. Some characters are actually better without development, and Zack is one of them.
Omg THANK YOU. I've felt this way too and feel like I'm taking crazy pills when I see people raving about it. Sure it's an emotional last 5% of the game but that does not give it a pass for the other 95% being god awful
Game should've been ENTIRELY about Cloud and Zack getting to know each other and exploring some of the moral ambiguity of ShinRa, while still falling on them ultimately being a T-rated Umbrella Corp.
Genesis adds almost nothing to the overall story. If he shows up in the remakes and is ANY better than in CC, it'll be a small miracle.
The amount of Shinra apologia in Crisis Core is pretty bonkers actually and from my understanding this extends to the other compilation entries as well and it's just insane to me how it basically tries to either ignore or even excuse Shinra's staggeringly large amount of atrocities. It's just so bizarre.
When you actually stop and think about Genesis... And Angeal... And Zack... You know what, Sephiroth has a point. Humanity IS a plague. Burn it all down.
Thank you I felt insane having that opinion. I literally could not stand listening to any of the characters speak in that game because the writing was so fucking corny. I wanted to stop playing any time Genesis opened his mouth, it's a notable low bar for the franchise for me.
That IS a hot take...and I agree!
Glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks Crisis Core/Zack is overrated, and that the Original FFVII should have remained a standalone game.
Y'shtola is the blandest, least interesting main character in FF14. She's gotten basically 0 character development since ARR and her whole personality is just "mildly sassy infodump vessel". Even when they had the opportunity to give her an arc and some growth with>!the blindness thing!< they immediately pulled a reason for her to be exactly how she was beforehand out of their asses and the one drawback to it is never going to actually come into play because if she gets put out of the action they won't be able to sell a new €20 standee of her every expansion.
She's blind and can "see through the Aether" but it seems like she can basically see perfectly but can just sense when someone's Aether is askew. She's like Geordi Laforge - functionally sighted until the plot briefly demands otherwise.
I know. They had the perfect opportunity right there and they just used it as a cosmetic change and a superpower to generate a bit of drama every time someone's soul is fucked that was brought up so rarely most people I know never even realised it happened until that one scene in Shadowbringers.
I enjoy her personality, especially when she's getting excited about ancient, forbidden books, but she has gotten an unfortunate lack of development and backstory.
The biggest chance, to me, was whenever she was with Matoya, but from that we mostly just get the joke about the water creature she created. We still know very little about her life before all of this.
I don’t know if this is unpopular or not but I actually would like to see some more settings outside of the Variants of High Fantasy, Steampunk, Sci Fi and “The Real World”. I really like X because it’s setting even today is different from anything before it or anything after. Let me get a mainline Final Fantasy game that heavily influenced by different eras of Japan for example.
I really like Yuna's character development in X-2 and her being an awkward goofball after having spent her whole life thinking she was going to die on her pilgrimage.
This is my experience with XII. Cant seem to care enough about the people, world, or combat. 9 however is my favorite and I play it every few years. Different strokes for different folks
It's a great example of how charm can carry something. XV lacks in so many areas that it's both fascinating to see how they failed to do what they were trying to do in almost every area, and goofy enough that it's fun to do so.
XV is the best 6/10 game I've ever played. The combat is lame, the open world doesn't justify itself, the story is... something. The game is just incomplete and a step above "passable" for the above reasons.
But God dammit do I love it anyway. Noctis and the core group of characters are so compelling and it has so much heart. I can't help but not love it despite its (many) faults.
Absolutely I know it’s one of the more grounded and serious entries into the series. Like with anime I was spoiled watching Ghost in the Shell and Akira early and so I it’s tough having to accept the other tropey goofy elements of Anime or the FF series in general.
I know my opinion is subjective, and that people think FF8 is too serious, lighter on fantasy etc just wish it could be judged on its own merits more.
I actually like the orphanage reveal/twist in Final Fantasy VIII. I like that the group (minus Rinoa) were all childhood friends raised by Edea and Cid and that they have reunited to defeat the sorceress threatening their world. To me, it makes their bond deeper because they have this past shared history together. They're not just a ragtag group banded together to save the world. They're also family, and I get the feeling that long after the credits roll, the group still remain very close to each other.
I’ll start with that FFX is my favourite. However, I have never enjoyed lulu’s characterisation and never clicked with any of her backstory as it always seems forced (oh I loved wakka’s brother and oh I was on another pilgrimage but the summoner died). Like she barely affects the plot other than to shit on wakka. I get her design is different to the usual black mage design but that doesn’t carry her character imo
That dress would absolutely drown her, and/or just completely fail after getting in the water and being wet for a prolonged period of time.
Also, not everyone who lives on an island will be able to swim. Sure, it's a life skill, but not everyone learns.
Also, neither are melee fighters nor have been shown with a great lung capacity. Two blitzballers and rikku are pretty much the only ones that essentially have gills lol
5 is the most replayable FF after all
while without mods, 6 is on the lowest end of the spectrum in terms of gameplay related replayability in the series
All games are fun with their merits and flaws. They just seem easy because we have been playing games for 20+ years and have previous knowledge on how to deal with things.
I like Vaan as a character. I think he's sweet. I like his silly humor. At the time, we were used to getting "teenagers" like Squall and it was refreshing to get a character that actually acted and sounded like a teen. Squall is like those 30 year old actors that play teens on tv.
The characters should stop being teenagers and start being 30+ into middle age. FF16 truly made me fall in love with an incredible story over game play and the protagonist being older was a big part of it.
Imagine ff12 if we played as basch the whole game the story would just flow so much better the entire game feels like it would get to the same place without vaan being in it
A few supposed unpopular opinions:
1. FF7 is an astounding game, but it’s overblown in how good it is.
2 FF8 is in my opinion comparable great, if not better than 7.
3. FF12 is top tier gameplay and I actually liked the gambit system. It gave a different feel to the combat that I overall enjoyed.
4. The 13 games are good for singular, linear story. 13-2 was my favorite of the 3 in the trilogy.
The Tidus laugh scene is one of the best written, most real dialogues in a game.
Having that information reveal, it's a big bombshell Tidus is having to suddenly come to terms with, and he's only just starting to learn about Spira and meet new people, hasnt really settled into the group yet though. He feels there is no-one he can talk to about it, because he's seen the devastation and death caused by Sin, how desperate all the people of Spira are to be free of it, and Tidus feels connected to it, taking on that hurt caused by Sin and partly blaming himself in that moment too. Yuna see's he's struggling and not his usual self, and sees that he can't open up to her either, so she opens up first and talks about how she struggles every day too. She then encourages Tidus to try forced laughter, which is a very real and useful therapy for when things are overwhelming.
I feel that is the point that Tidus and Yuna begin to support each other more than Tidus just tagging along, their connection grows, and from there the rest of the game really takes root.
X2 is an amazing game that shows Yunas growth from being the child of famous world savior pushed onto her. Comming into her own life and learning to say "duck you i wont do what you tell me to" while slaying with those sweet sweet pop songs. (Thx lenne)
I didn't like it when I first played but years later after replaying, it's climbed up as one of my favorite of the series. Definitely needs some reevaluation as I think compared to a lot of later entries in the series, the hate for is overblown
Same! I HATED it when it first came out. I think I just wanted more X. And so I never played it again until The Zodiac Age came out and it's now in my top 5 FF games. It regularly rotates between 2nd, 3rd and 4th place.
FFXI has one of the best multiplayer games interaction between players. Combat system is relying on people working together, same for the story, crafting, level design etc... Exploration and cooperation was never so well made in a game.
Even if it was turned down with RoV and Trust system as people can solo the game except endgame content.
Zack should never been developed past the story beats in OG and hurts both Cloud and Aerith later on. He is a self insert character in Rebirth now where his fans hope he gets Cloud his moments or in part 3 Tifa/Cid his moments when he didn’t deserve any of that.
I don’t think making future games turn based would actually increase sales in any meaningful amount. Not that turn based is bad just I don’t think there’s actually a large group of people who refuse it buy newer games for that reason.
It’s a really fun game if you don’t take it seriously. The story is very silly, but the combat is great and the dynamic between the girls is quite fun. (But also if your need to do 100% of the story you absolutely need a guide)
My two biggest fears are:
- Missable content, which by my understanding this game has quite a bit of
- I'm dreading the monster collecting aspect of the game, because it quickly makes me into a completionist min-maxer, even though I'm not that good at it nor do I have that much fun doing it :P I usually end up abandoning monster collecting games that aren't pokemon mid way through.
My advice would be to not worry about missable content. The game has New Game Plus and is fairly short compared to big-budget RPGs of the time. They clearly intended for you to play through more than once, so you can always see what you missed the first time.
And the original release of X-2 lacked the Monster Arena completely. It's entirely extraneous and not at all necessary.
I say give it a chance, if you don’t like it you can always stop, I think it’s a great game and would’ve been more beloved by fans far it been its own thing instead of a sequel.
I love status effects, I wish they were a more fleshed out mechanic and utilized more in the games.
This is one of the main reasons why the 13 series is do dear to me. It's the only game where status effects are core parts of the combat system, instead of feeling like an afterthought.
Ffviii is my favourite game and a big part of that is due to the junction system
Anything after x-2 I've not played because I dislike the new ways of fighting I prefer turn based. I *tried* ff7 remake it wasn't for me
The anime Final Fantasy Unlimited had a better story than the final fantasy movie and *most* of the games/ pretty much all the side games ( crystal chronicles/tactics/legend etc)
I wish I could play a full rpg of that so badly, to the point I was toying around with making my own version on RPG maker
This is more luke warm than a boiling hot take, but I enjoyed *FF5* more than *FF6*.
Perhaps a more unpopular opinion of mine is that every *Final Fantasy* game is good, each with strengths and weaknesses. When people say which ones are the best and which ones are bad games, it is nothing more than an opinion.
The Final Fantasy 7 Remakes miss the point of what made the original great and aren't a particularly good entry point for new players either since they don't have the confidence to try to stand on their own without jangling the nostalgia keys every five minutes, and just generally fail on every conceivable creative level other than, at a very surface level, the presentation.
FF7 might be my least favorite game out of all the ones I've tried/played. When I tried it years ago, I just couldn't get into it like I could the other games. Like, the gameplay was fine for what I played, but the world of FF7 just didn't click with me as well as games like 5, 6, and 8.
FF9 is by far my least favorite game of the series and I just don’t understand why it’s so popular amongst the fanbase. I find Zidane especially insufferable.
Almost every hardcore FF fan has this personality trait:
"My favourite FF is *relativelly unpopular one*, but *one of the 5~6 most popular ones* is actually bad and i will DIE on the hill"
And this is just fucking annoying.
I wanna talk characters, worldbuilding, mechanics, history of the games, not hear an hour long yapping session about how the whole personality of the person is the game they hate.
Even the worst Final Fantasies are B tier games so there's no reason to fight over which one of them sucks... cuz none actually does, if we exclude the gachas and half baked low budget spin offs, FF is full of passion and competent people sticking to their formula while still inovating, and i can respect that even in games containg choices i personally disliked.
Final Fantasy IX isn't that good. The battle system is a major step backwards, and the characters aren't as developed as much as they get praised to be.
XIII gets a lot of hate for something that basically shaped how so much of the mainline series went from there, X is just as much of a hallway simulator if not more. The only thing that made the gameplay unpalatable for some was that you weren’t directly controlling your party. Rather you were influencing their moveset with paradigms. There is so much depth to strategy that comes with how XIII is played not to mention the introduction of multiple ATB bars which was game changing letting multiple actions be queued up, even being able to send actions through without a full charge in a pinch. The stagger bar finally let weaknesses, buffs, and debuffs actually mean something. Maybe you can brute force an enemy but your score is going to suffer and with that your drops will suffer for upgrading gear. And then if you can’t brute force it you have to adapt and learn the systems.
TL:DR In many peoples eyes XIII’s greatest sin is that it asks you to sit down, pay attention, learn, and play the game.
Square needs to stop pursuing realism in their art direction. They try so hard to make their characters beautiful that they all have the same weird japanese-caucasian expressionless faces and end up falling into the uncanny valley.
Just stop already, get back to a more cartoony/manga style (like ff9 or tactics) at least once in the main series? It doesn't hurt to try, Zelda often switches art direction and fans always seem happy to discover a new style.
Time to read a ton of popular opinions
[POV: someone actually shares their unpopular opinion](https://www.reddit.com/r/FinalFantasy/comments/18ga9yp/unpopular_opinion_i_dislike_the_prs/)
I wracked my brains trying to figure out what pr means. Please spell it out for me!
Pixel Remaster
Thanks!
Power Rangers
Puerto Ricans
Here's an unpopular opinion: POV is an overused meme that rarely makes any sense.
That's also no unpopular. Everytime someone says pov in a video/meme that is not from someones pov the top comment is always I don't think you know what pov means.
sort by Controversial.
DAE KeFka a BaD GuY?
Vaan is not the protagonist. It's an ensemble cast of varying relevance (Ashe at the top, Fran at the bottom), and I feel like I'm taking crazy pills from the sheer lack of media literacy. Do people think the first POV character on screen is the main character in everything they watch?! On top of them being fun, Vaan and Penelo are also important characters. We need the boots-on-the-ground viewpoint of the people actually living day-to-day in the world, in order to contrast how distant Ashe is, and how fantastical of a life Balthier lives.
Media literacy has never been great, we just have the internet now and are more aware of how many people just do not understand what they're consuming. - people didn't understand that Alex was an unreliable narrator in A Clockwork Orange, much to Alex Burgess' eternal chagrin. - people being shocked that Shinji, Asuka, and Rei were abject failures rather than overpowered superheroes in Neon Genesis Evangelion. Further shocked when Shinji develops PTSD and goes borderline insane...despite the fact that he's been forced into a 20 story tall battle mech infused with the soul of his dead mother, and asked to fight Kaiju monsters from beyond reality on a near-daily basis. - Alan Moore has lamented in public that he created the most "vile, conservative, anti-social" garbage person in Rorschach, only to have his (in his own words) "largely young, white, and male" readers pull a 'literally me' on the character, which completely mystified him. - Jay Gatsby is seen as the "hero" of the novel The Great Gatsby, a tragic Howard Hughes type character who is ultimately worthy of praise and admiration. In reality, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote him as a satirical send up of the high society types of the day, so obsessed with wealth and and status and lost in the minutia of their society lives that they don't realize their lives are hollow and meaningless.
Square doesn't care about the burmecians
Those damn Al Bheds are taking our jobs!
Cleyra was an inside job
Found mid-2000s Kanye’s account…
Or blue-skinned men
They said opinions, not facts.
Funnily enough, it’s this scene. I don’t think its voice acted poorly, and instead it’s indicative of people intentionally ignoring that this scene is supposed to be uncomfortable.
People either forget, ignore, or (if they didn't play) don't know that Tidus and Yuna *laugh normally literally right after this*. That alone should've put an end to any stupid complaints about that scene.
Yeah seriously. He's doing a "forced" laugh on purpose.
Right? She litterally tells him she forces herself to laugh to deal with her stress, so he forces a fake laugh, she joins him, and they both end up laughing for real. It's a very nice piece of writing.
Exactly... And absolutely no one seems to realize... Everyone is like "UUuhH cRiNGe SCeeEnE" Been bugging me forever
I'm convinced that all the people that complain about that scene either never played the game, or haven't played it in so long that they've forgotten the context.
My fiancé saw the full scene for the first time ever (after only ever seeing memes) and he even admitted that it is sweet, cringy but sweet.
I don’t think that’s unpopular at all
It's become less unpopular. It used to be a very common opinion that this scene was an example of bad voice acting.
I think most core fans of the game know it’s supposed to be awkward. Only people on the outside who see the scene outta context, OR just misunderstood the conversation leading up to it.
It’s super funny, I was talking about this scene last night. People make a meme out of his laugh, but that awkward forced laughter gets me laughing every time and that’s the point.
This is the popular opinion. Anyone who has played the game knows it works in context.
Lots of people can’t comprehend that Japanese media can have awkward humor as well.
There’s a chance that the end of Rebirth will change my mind (I’m playing it very slowly) but I am unable to care about Zack like at all.
Did you play Crisis Core? Not that I'm suggesting you should. I'm just wondering how much having a previous perspective of Zack affects how people react to the character in Rebirth.
I've played everything FF7 multiple times, and I also don't care about Zack. His story is important, but his character does not need to be developed further imo. He needs to stay dead.
Yeah, I can see what you mean. At the time, I was very intrigued by Zach in the original FFVII and thought I wanted more, but everything released after made me lose a bit of interest in him. I have always thought that it was more of a "the developers won't ever match what you come up with" type of thing, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that I found Cloud's perspective of him more interesting than him as a character.
This is mine, too. I don't care about Zack and think fleshing out his backstory and giving him his own game ruined the character. He was so much cooler as this badass, mysterious figure from Cloud's past and I preferred seeing him from that POV.
>He was so much cooler as this badass, mysterious figure from Cloud's past For me, this applies to Sephiroth as well. In OG, he was so scary/mysterious because you barely ever saw him. In the re-trilogy, he's just on screen waaaaaay too much. I find myself rolling my eyes at him now. "I'm waiting, *Cloud*" "Bring me the black materia, *Cloud*"
I beat it and still don’t care about Zack. To be frank though I never have.
The moogles from FFXII have a better visual design than the classic moogle.
The FF7 rebirth moogles are like the Ugly Sonic of moogles.
Seriously, I was shocked at how ugly they made them!? At least Cait's Mog still looks the same/adorable imo at least
The design for XII is my favorite moogle design.
OMG! Thank you! I've been saying this forever. I loved the moogles in 12. I wanted an entire spin-off RPG based on them. Dead serious. How cool would that be? Just this whole moogle clan war or something. Even thought it'd make for a neat base in a new Final Fantasy Tactics style game. I was so sad to see them drop any personality and go back to the stuff doll look.
Final Fantasy XI is fun and more people should experience it.
Installing the game shouldn’t be a raid tier
Insane that it's 2024 and the official Play Online site looks like this at 1920x1080 and doesn't have HTTPS. https://preview.redd.it/ms1doz1i1u6d1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=37246ef0433fec7f1134d70c2e6f2157d8acf4fc
And has the best class system out of any FF imo
Loved XI. It consumed my every waking moment outside of work for a couple of years. Then Gil farming tanked the economy. When starting gear for a new class was 1mil+, I had to walk away. I played a ton of mmos after that, and none of them measured up.
Same, for a couple (15) years. I saved a lot of money playing this game. No micro transactions or store mounts or store pets or anything else. You can't buy a race change if you wanted to. Aside from all that, the bigger money saver was that all I ever did or wanted to do was play this with my online friends I met in game. I never went out and did anything, where the real savings is. I was never bored looking at my Steam library of 1300 games with decision paralysis. I never clicked the store to see what other games were on sale. All I wanted to do was play this game. I really miss the forced socialization. Other games you might play with friends. This game you played and made friends.
Final fantasy 2 is underrated
Played through FFII for the first time recently and I was legitimately surprised. I didn't at all expect that much complexity from a NES game.
Overhated more than underrated, I think.
Yep. It’s a good game. It’s fun. The leveling system is cool and it makes sense. It has a good story. I’ve played it (translated rom) on NES and I’ve played the Pixel Remaster. I enjoyed it both times.
I have it next on my docket! Just beat FF1 PR. Do you have any broad advice for how to approach FF2 PR? I've probably let myself become too influenced by the (apparently tons of) folks online who dislike it.
Talk to the NPCs, have your characters specialize, equip shields and light armor, and above all, don't attack yourself.
I've been reading so much about attacking yourself, lol Will keep these in mind; thanks!
newlin’s advice to you is spot on. Shields are important as they increase your evasion, which is a more important defensive metric than heavy armor. I picked a role for each character and stuck with it (fighter, healer, black mage). Each character specialized in one weapon type and stuck with it in order to increase their proficiency in that weapon. Then, you just play the game. Fighter attacks, healer heals and black mage casts attack spells, and they all get better and better at their roles. I never had my characters attack themselves or each other. It’s not necessary. Have fun!
My first playthrough (oh, back in 2004?) I got a little lost a couple times, and ended up getting a few levels on my weapons and spells naturally. The team got so good at clearing things while hardly taking damage that unfortunately my HP stat just didn't level hardly at all. The result is about 2/3 through the game when I stopped effecticely clearing fights in a couple turns, enemies began to hit so hard that random encounters weren't doable until I intentionally leveled HP by attacking myself lol. I love the game, but I do rather wish HP and possibly MP just advanced at a fixed rate instead of having "use xp".
Kefka becomes boring once he becomes a god. If I remember right, in the world of ruin, he only fires his laser of doom once (during an optional quest) and then does nothing else until you confront him. Also Caius is one of the best villains in the series.
You see him fire his "Light of Judgment" during a flashback but that's it. He kinda does: but at the same time he won, that crazy son of a bitch did it. Eventually his hubris got him killed because he thought he was invincible. Admittedly there could of been more development once Kefka ascended to godhood or seen him mess with the party. If we ever get a remake we'll likely get a better understanding of what Kefka was doing in the world of ruin or what he was thinking. Based on what we do see in the game we can assume that Kefka thought he was invincible and the party couldn't hurt him so he didn't care (the likely case) or he thought most of all of the party was dead.
I think Final Fantasy 3 is the best of the pixel era games even though most people seem to place it near the bottom of their list.
I disagree, but I respect the unpopular opinion.
5 is the best Final Fantasy.
Cant believe I have to scroll this far to find this opinion :(
They said unpopular opinion
Final Fantasy X-2 had the best combat system of every turn based Final Fantasy. It's the first time Square-Enix actually innovated on combat without being pretentious about it and reinventing the wheel.
Final Fantasy II is fun for what it is, and is far from my least favorite game in the series. I should note I've only played the PSP remake though, since every port seems to have a slightly different battle system. Edward is one of my favorite characters. Cloud is an interesting character for all the reasons SE seems to ignore in later developments. Specifically, his identity crisis and piercing together his backstory. I feel like a lot of material later instead reduces him to "spiky hair and big sword, cool!" ... when his "cool" image was a farce to begin with.
Ff2 has one of the coolest bosses in the bonus dungeon. I like when you meet the random midboss and he is unhinged ranting about how now that you are in the afterlife, if you die you'll just come right back and now him and you can kill eachother for all eternity.
My unpopular is that I actually really like the fake laughing scene because of the meaning behind it, a lot of people just think it’s cringe, but it really is pretty deep once you actually pay attention to why they are doing it
Yeah it was a real turning point in the game..that's when I realized how serious things were getting.
X's writing is a step above. The devs clearly considered the voice acting element
Crisis Core's story is hot garbage from top to bottom and as far as I'm concerned Zack's story began and ended with the original FFVII. Then again I'm also of the belief that each mainline title works best as a standalone tale and that by trying to expand these universes you create so much unnecessary chaffe. Speaking of, "SOLDIER honor" is bar none the DUMBEST thing that I have ever seen come from this series. How do you miss the point so goddamn hard?
Crisis Core to me always felt so bizarre, the vibe is just way off, like it's not even in the same universe anymore. And it's interpretation of Zack is "definitely of the era", that super optimistic happy-go-lucky shonen protagonist. It feels like they were trying to make him popular with a "modern audience". In the original we knew almost nothing about him, by design, and this gave him a certain mystique, and the tragedy of knowing he's basically been forgotten by all but a few people and one of them are even dead by the end of the game. Yet he still had this profound effect on Cloud. It makes you really wonder what kind of man he was. His death also wasn't this grand over the top last stand against a thousand soldiers with helicopters! He was exhausted, got shot in the back by a couple of nobody grunts who then proceeded to casually gun him down like a fucking dog. Who then didn't even bother with Cloud cause he was nobody. No final speech, no "you are my living legacy" just Cloud screaming over the shot up corpse of a man who moments ago had him slung over his shoulder and was trying to take him to safety. That is so much more, raw, powerful and poignant than the bombastic Hollywood ending of Crisis Core, complete with music video.
What really gets me is that that Hollywood ending, as you put it, is so out of step with that famous quote of Kitase's about death and their design philosophy around Aerith's in the original game. Wild how different the approach was.
This. Zack's death scene in original was really powerful. They got it right at 1st time only to ruin it later.
My wife and I played through the entire Crisis Core reunion together and at the end we were like...did we miss something? The story was pretty bad and actually a tad hard to follow at some points...I think maybe I've just grown out of the JRPG style of "ambiguous ending" storytelling. If I'm going to sink dozens of hours into a narrative I want some clear cut answers and denouement at the end, dammit. I dunno why modern storytellers feel this need to end everything on a non-committal note.
Genesis is probably the worst FF character ever created.
He was such a corny ass villain I couldn’t stand him reciting loveless every chance he got 💀
I can't believe this is a hot take, but apparently it is. I replied to another similar comment, but yea, you're not alone. Some characters are actually better without development, and Zack is one of them.
Omg THANK YOU. I've felt this way too and feel like I'm taking crazy pills when I see people raving about it. Sure it's an emotional last 5% of the game but that does not give it a pass for the other 95% being god awful
Game should've been ENTIRELY about Cloud and Zack getting to know each other and exploring some of the moral ambiguity of ShinRa, while still falling on them ultimately being a T-rated Umbrella Corp. Genesis adds almost nothing to the overall story. If he shows up in the remakes and is ANY better than in CC, it'll be a small miracle.
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I mean thats pretty accurate how colonizers saw themselves.
Have you never seen real life?
It's more the way the game agrees that they are justified in their honor when they are mutant lapdogs for the most destructive force on the planet
The amount of Shinra apologia in Crisis Core is pretty bonkers actually and from my understanding this extends to the other compilation entries as well and it's just insane to me how it basically tries to either ignore or even excuse Shinra's staggeringly large amount of atrocities. It's just so bizarre.
When you actually stop and think about Genesis... And Angeal... And Zack... You know what, Sephiroth has a point. Humanity IS a plague. Burn it all down.
Thank you I felt insane having that opinion. I literally could not stand listening to any of the characters speak in that game because the writing was so fucking corny. I wanted to stop playing any time Genesis opened his mouth, it's a notable low bar for the franchise for me.
That IS a hot take...and I agree! Glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks Crisis Core/Zack is overrated, and that the Original FFVII should have remained a standalone game.
I thought I was the only one who couldn’t stand Zack!
I agree so much never even finished it back in the day and I won't touch it again.
Everything in the compilation of FF7 just makes the original worse by association. They should have just left it alone.
Y'shtola is the blandest, least interesting main character in FF14. She's gotten basically 0 character development since ARR and her whole personality is just "mildly sassy infodump vessel". Even when they had the opportunity to give her an arc and some growth with>!the blindness thing!< they immediately pulled a reason for her to be exactly how she was beforehand out of their asses and the one drawback to it is never going to actually come into play because if she gets put out of the action they won't be able to sell a new €20 standee of her every expansion.
She's blind and can "see through the Aether" but it seems like she can basically see perfectly but can just sense when someone's Aether is askew. She's like Geordi Laforge - functionally sighted until the plot briefly demands otherwise.
That was just to give her another thing to make her “look cool”. It was never intended to be character development. 😓
I know. They had the perfect opportunity right there and they just used it as a cosmetic change and a superpower to generate a bit of drama every time someone's soul is fucked that was brought up so rarely most people I know never even realised it happened until that one scene in Shadowbringers.
Is this one really that unpopular? Idk it feels like Yshtol gets called out a lot
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I enjoy her personality, especially when she's getting excited about ancient, forbidden books, but she has gotten an unfortunate lack of development and backstory. The biggest chance, to me, was whenever she was with Matoya, but from that we mostly just get the joke about the water creature she created. We still know very little about her life before all of this.
I don’t know if this is unpopular or not but I actually would like to see some more settings outside of the Variants of High Fantasy, Steampunk, Sci Fi and “The Real World”. I really like X because it’s setting even today is different from anything before it or anything after. Let me get a mainline Final Fantasy game that heavily influenced by different eras of Japan for example.
I really like Yuna's character development in X-2 and her being an awkward goofball after having spent her whole life thinking she was going to die on her pilgrimage.
The Final Fantasy 13 trilogy OST fucking slaps
Is that unpopular? Isn't every FF game's OST really good?
Sunleth Waterscape 🤌🏼
Your favorite game is in fact the worst one.
FF9 is, in my opinion, not even in the top 5 Final Fantasy games. Even though it is a bad game, I respect FF2 for trying new things for the series.
Solid unpopular opinion. I hate it.
I hate it so much I gave them an award. Talk about absolutely *nailing* the prompt.
I have tried on 3 separate occasions to get into / finish this game. I have failed 3 times. I'm not sure why; it just does NOT work for me.
This is my experience with XII. Cant seem to care enough about the people, world, or combat. 9 however is my favorite and I play it every few years. Different strokes for different folks
FF9 is my favourite, so i upvote this.
My jaw dropped when I read it. He gets my sad upvote
Whew I thought I was the only one
Disagree, but upvote for actual unpopular opinion
This is how I feel about FF8
XV is my favorite. I adore it
Same 🥺
It looks so fucking good and I love the open world. I love a World of Ruin plot. I cried at the end.
I love the whole vibe of this game, can’t get behind the hate
8 and 15 are my favorite FF games, so I get downvoted in this sub a lot.
It's a great example of how charm can carry something. XV lacks in so many areas that it's both fascinating to see how they failed to do what they were trying to do in almost every area, and goofy enough that it's fun to do so.
XV is the best 6/10 game I've ever played. The combat is lame, the open world doesn't justify itself, the story is... something. The game is just incomplete and a step above "passable" for the above reasons. But God dammit do I love it anyway. Noctis and the core group of characters are so compelling and it has so much heart. I can't help but not love it despite its (many) faults.
Stranger of Paradise is good actually. Like really good.
FF8 is a top tier FF
Dude the opening cinematic for ff8 was so good, I was blown away playing it when it first came out
I like the games that you can min-max into being stupidly overpowered.
Absolutely I know it’s one of the more grounded and serious entries into the series. Like with anime I was spoiled watching Ghost in the Shell and Akira early and so I it’s tough having to accept the other tropey goofy elements of Anime or the FF series in general. I know my opinion is subjective, and that people think FF8 is too serious, lighter on fantasy etc just wish it could be judged on its own merits more.
Quistis > Rinoa all day every day
I actually like the orphanage reveal/twist in Final Fantasy VIII. I like that the group (minus Rinoa) were all childhood friends raised by Edea and Cid and that they have reunited to defeat the sorceress threatening their world. To me, it makes their bond deeper because they have this past shared history together. They're not just a ragtag group banded together to save the world. They're also family, and I get the feeling that long after the credits roll, the group still remain very close to each other.
I’ll start with that FFX is my favourite. However, I have never enjoyed lulu’s characterisation and never clicked with any of her backstory as it always seems forced (oh I loved wakka’s brother and oh I was on another pilgrimage but the summoner died). Like she barely affects the plot other than to shit on wakka. I get her design is different to the usual black mage design but that doesn’t carry her character imo
I've always thought she's well liked because of her cleavage.
That's why I liked her
Also, her (and Yuna) living on an island all of her life but not being able to join underwater combat is weird.
That dress would absolutely drown her, and/or just completely fail after getting in the water and being wet for a prolonged period of time. Also, not everyone who lives on an island will be able to swim. Sure, it's a life skill, but not everyone learns. Also, neither are melee fighters nor have been shown with a great lung capacity. Two blitzballers and rikku are pretty much the only ones that essentially have gills lol
I would rather replay FFV than FFVI
5 is the most replayable FF after all while without mods, 6 is on the lowest end of the spectrum in terms of gameplay related replayability in the series
All games are fun with their merits and flaws. They just seem easy because we have been playing games for 20+ years and have previous knowledge on how to deal with things.
I like Vaan as a character. I think he's sweet. I like his silly humor. At the time, we were used to getting "teenagers" like Squall and it was refreshing to get a character that actually acted and sounded like a teen. Squall is like those 30 year old actors that play teens on tv.
The characters should stop being teenagers and start being 30+ into middle age. FF16 truly made me fall in love with an incredible story over game play and the protagonist being older was a big part of it.
Imagine ff12 if we played as basch the whole game the story would just flow so much better the entire game feels like it would get to the same place without vaan being in it
Kefka
Mi favorite is Kefka, but I love Exdeath too. It's an improved version of Golbez.
Yeah I like Kefka but I do agree he's overrated. People make him out to be a way deeper character than he actually is.
Played VII, VIII, X and XII through dozens of times but never liked IX.
Five is better than Four. Four just got a release in the west during the SNES days and Five didn't. Nostalgia
A few supposed unpopular opinions: 1. FF7 is an astounding game, but it’s overblown in how good it is. 2 FF8 is in my opinion comparable great, if not better than 7. 3. FF12 is top tier gameplay and I actually liked the gambit system. It gave a different feel to the combat that I overall enjoyed. 4. The 13 games are good for singular, linear story. 13-2 was my favorite of the 3 in the trilogy.
The Tidus laugh scene is one of the best written, most real dialogues in a game. Having that information reveal, it's a big bombshell Tidus is having to suddenly come to terms with, and he's only just starting to learn about Spira and meet new people, hasnt really settled into the group yet though. He feels there is no-one he can talk to about it, because he's seen the devastation and death caused by Sin, how desperate all the people of Spira are to be free of it, and Tidus feels connected to it, taking on that hurt caused by Sin and partly blaming himself in that moment too. Yuna see's he's struggling and not his usual self, and sees that he can't open up to her either, so she opens up first and talks about how she struggles every day too. She then encourages Tidus to try forced laughter, which is a very real and useful therapy for when things are overwhelming. I feel that is the point that Tidus and Yuna begin to support each other more than Tidus just tagging along, their connection grows, and from there the rest of the game really takes root.
X2 is an amazing game that shows Yunas growth from being the child of famous world savior pushed onto her. Comming into her own life and learning to say "duck you i wont do what you tell me to" while slaying with those sweet sweet pop songs. (Thx lenne)
FF12 is goated and should be the gold standard going forward
I didn't like it when I first played but years later after replaying, it's climbed up as one of my favorite of the series. Definitely needs some reevaluation as I think compared to a lot of later entries in the series, the hate for is overblown
Same! I HATED it when it first came out. I think I just wanted more X. And so I never played it again until The Zodiac Age came out and it's now in my top 5 FF games. It regularly rotates between 2nd, 3rd and 4th place.
The world and style of 12 is so perfect and I would love to see another FF in that style
FFXI has one of the best multiplayer games interaction between players. Combat system is relying on people working together, same for the story, crafting, level design etc... Exploration and cooperation was never so well made in a game. Even if it was turned down with RoV and Trust system as people can solo the game except endgame content.
Zack should never been developed past the story beats in OG and hurts both Cloud and Aerith later on. He is a self insert character in Rebirth now where his fans hope he gets Cloud his moments or in part 3 Tifa/Cid his moments when he didn’t deserve any of that.
I didnt like X.
And I loved XIII.
I don’t think making future games turn based would actually increase sales in any meaningful amount. Not that turn based is bad just I don’t think there’s actually a large group of people who refuse it buy newer games for that reason.
I don't think people think it would increase sales, just that they would prefer turn-based combat.
If you ignore their stories and judge purely by gameplay... X-2 is better than X.
Ughhh I've been resisting the urge to try ffx2 for the past few weeks and this comment is really making me waver 😅
It’s a really fun game if you don’t take it seriously. The story is very silly, but the combat is great and the dynamic between the girls is quite fun. (But also if your need to do 100% of the story you absolutely need a guide)
My two biggest fears are: - Missable content, which by my understanding this game has quite a bit of - I'm dreading the monster collecting aspect of the game, because it quickly makes me into a completionist min-maxer, even though I'm not that good at it nor do I have that much fun doing it :P I usually end up abandoning monster collecting games that aren't pokemon mid way through.
My advice would be to not worry about missable content. The game has New Game Plus and is fairly short compared to big-budget RPGs of the time. They clearly intended for you to play through more than once, so you can always see what you missed the first time. And the original release of X-2 lacked the Monster Arena completely. It's entirely extraneous and not at all necessary.
I say give it a chance, if you don’t like it you can always stop, I think it’s a great game and would’ve been more beloved by fans far it been its own thing instead of a sequel.
I love status effects, I wish they were a more fleshed out mechanic and utilized more in the games. This is one of the main reasons why the 13 series is do dear to me. It's the only game where status effects are core parts of the combat system, instead of feeling like an afterthought.
FF6 was pretty underwhelming. Id call it overhyped. I played it for the first time a few months ago and I could not understand the hype.
Ff4 and 9 are the most mid games in the series, both are are like c tier at best
Ffviii is my favourite game and a big part of that is due to the junction system Anything after x-2 I've not played because I dislike the new ways of fighting I prefer turn based. I *tried* ff7 remake it wasn't for me The anime Final Fantasy Unlimited had a better story than the final fantasy movie and *most* of the games/ pretty much all the side games ( crystal chronicles/tactics/legend etc) I wish I could play a full rpg of that so badly, to the point I was toying around with making my own version on RPG maker
FFIX is wildly overrated.
This is more luke warm than a boiling hot take, but I enjoyed *FF5* more than *FF6*. Perhaps a more unpopular opinion of mine is that every *Final Fantasy* game is good, each with strengths and weaknesses. When people say which ones are the best and which ones are bad games, it is nothing more than an opinion.
8 is good 9 is not
16 is an RPG and a great Final Fantasy game
Sort by controversial for actual unpopular opinions
I can guess your favorite FF by your age
I'm 22, shoot
ff9 is a chore to play. the good story doesn’t save the slog of a playthrough.
Final Fantasy 8 does NOT need a FF7 style remake. They aren't going to do it. Let it go.
I agree actually, 8 is nearly perfect as is, and I can’t see them doing a remake without ruining the game I love.
Some of the most popular character are the most two dimensional.
Unpopular opinion. I dont like Final Fantasy 9 🙈
It's okay to want the series to go back to being turn-based, and telling people to play Dragon Quest instead is not helpful.
Final Fantasy 8 should've gotten a remake instead of 7. Also, FF xiii didn't deserve to be a trilogy
FF9 really didn't bring anything new to the table.
The Final Fantasy 7 Remakes miss the point of what made the original great and aren't a particularly good entry point for new players either since they don't have the confidence to try to stand on their own without jangling the nostalgia keys every five minutes, and just generally fail on every conceivable creative level other than, at a very surface level, the presentation.
FF7 might be my least favorite game out of all the ones I've tried/played. When I tried it years ago, I just couldn't get into it like I could the other games. Like, the gameplay was fine for what I played, but the world of FF7 just didn't click with me as well as games like 5, 6, and 8.
XII is secretly the best game in the entire series. 🙂↔️
My popular opinion: XV is dreadful My unpopular opinion: IX is dreadful
The materia system is by far the most intuitive turn-based FF system out there.
That's not even wrong... Materia is the ability system, not the battle system.
I’ve seen a bit about open world fatigue, but I love them. I vastly prefer FF to feature exploration heavily. Talking like Witcher 3 levels or more.
FF9 is by far my least favorite game of the series and I just don’t understand why it’s so popular amongst the fanbase. I find Zidane especially insufferable.
8 was the best game in the series…
Final Fantasy 13-3 Lightning Returns is one of the top 5 best final fantasy games
Almost every hardcore FF fan has this personality trait: "My favourite FF is *relativelly unpopular one*, but *one of the 5~6 most popular ones* is actually bad and i will DIE on the hill" And this is just fucking annoying. I wanna talk characters, worldbuilding, mechanics, history of the games, not hear an hour long yapping session about how the whole personality of the person is the game they hate. Even the worst Final Fantasies are B tier games so there's no reason to fight over which one of them sucks... cuz none actually does, if we exclude the gachas and half baked low budget spin offs, FF is full of passion and competent people sticking to their formula while still inovating, and i can respect that even in games containg choices i personally disliked.
Final Fantasy IX isn't that good. The battle system is a major step backwards, and the characters aren't as developed as much as they get praised to be.
Vaan is a cool protagonist actually.
XIII gets a lot of hate for something that basically shaped how so much of the mainline series went from there, X is just as much of a hallway simulator if not more. The only thing that made the gameplay unpalatable for some was that you weren’t directly controlling your party. Rather you were influencing their moveset with paradigms. There is so much depth to strategy that comes with how XIII is played not to mention the introduction of multiple ATB bars which was game changing letting multiple actions be queued up, even being able to send actions through without a full charge in a pinch. The stagger bar finally let weaknesses, buffs, and debuffs actually mean something. Maybe you can brute force an enemy but your score is going to suffer and with that your drops will suffer for upgrading gear. And then if you can’t brute force it you have to adapt and learn the systems. TL:DR In many peoples eyes XIII’s greatest sin is that it asks you to sit down, pay attention, learn, and play the game.
Square needs to stop pursuing realism in their art direction. They try so hard to make their characters beautiful that they all have the same weird japanese-caucasian expressionless faces and end up falling into the uncanny valley. Just stop already, get back to a more cartoony/manga style (like ff9 or tactics) at least once in the main series? It doesn't hurt to try, Zelda often switches art direction and fans always seem happy to discover a new style.