De Plane! De Plane!

[Aztec Triogal]

It says comparison in the topic title. I know, I know... hypocrisy. Shut up. At least it's not another character comparison topic. This one's about airships, an icon of the series. It's the only thing to be consistant throughout every single game. Every game has had an airship. It's never not been the case. Some times you can control them, some times you can't. I want to know... which is your favorite and why. Here are your choices...

Final Fantasy I

The very first airship. It has no name. Can travel over mountains.

Final Fantasy II

The second airship. It too has no name. Can travel over mountains.

Final Fantasy III

The first airship with a name of sorts... it's Cid's Airship. Cannot travel over mountains.

The first game to feature more than one airship. It's the Enterprise.. how original. It cannot explore space... it cannot even go over mountains. It can only land in water.

The Nautilus. Can land on grass or water (post-upgrade) but still cannot fly over mountains.

The Invincible! To quote FF Compendium "Can land over any terrain besides water, because it never actually lands! You just take a ladder down from it. It has four vending machines, a free bed, and a Fat Chocobo inside it. Also, in any fights you encounter (on the Dalug continent), it will automatically give a cannon blast to the enemies at the start of the fight. You can leap over a small mountain path by pressing A."

Final Fantasy IV

The FFIV's version of the Enterprise. Can go over mountains.

The Falcon. Can go over mountains... can also drill from the underworld to the overworld after upgrade. I'm sure that makes more sense if I"ve played the game...

The Lunar Whale. Probably the worst named ship of the series, you use it to travel to the moon. Again, probably makes sense if I've played the game. You can rest inside and visit a chubby chocobo.

Final Fantasy V

The only airship in FFV... It has no name but it can do it all! It's not only a ship that can go over mountains... it also becomes a boat... then a submarine! It slices! It dices! It makes Julian fries! And when reinforced with Adamantite, it can go higher than ever before!

Final Fantasy VI

Setzer's Airship! Comes with everything from item shop to casino... and can fly over mountains. Huzzah!

The Falcon! Sound familiar? It should.. it was one of the airships in FFIV. Now it's reborn in FFVI!

Final Fantasy VII

The Highwind. We all know and love this beauty. Can travel over mountains, hull chocobos, and transport your crew anywhere large enough to set this big sucker down.

The Shera, named after Cid's wife. Not built but found, this beauty is reminescent of the Highwind... but a lot more powerful.

Final Fantasy VIII

She's built like a steakhouse but handles like a bistro... it's Balamb Garden! Definitely built for comfort, not speed, this baby is a floating city. Huge, powerful, slower than my cousin Fred.

The exact opposite of Balamb Garden, it's the Ragnarok. Sporting one of the coolest designs of any airship in the series, this baby is fast and sleek. It's even got autopilot.

Final Fantasy IX

The Prima Vista. Huge, impressive, a grand sight to be sure... cannot be driven, only ridden on. It crashes very well though.

The Hilda Garde 1! Yet another airship in FFIX that can only be ridden on.

Cannot be controlled, again... it's the Hilda Garde 2!

You can control it! Sweet maple syrup lolly pops! It can go anywhere but only land on grassy or brown areas.

The Invincible. Yet again, another throwback airship. This baby is impressive. It's grand, fast, and is equipped with a mega cannon on its hull. I'm not sure why. It's powerful enough to blow up Alexander though, so that's all we really need to know.

Final Fantasy X

An unnamed ship this late in the series? Unfortunately, yes. You can technically control it... but it's not freeform control. It is equipped with a large set of missles on it's side though... enough to destroy home... enough to give that badass wyrm guardian a buttwhoopin'. Not only that, it's fast enough to escape an explosion... n-i-c-e!

The Celsius. Not just a man, not just a temperature measurement, but also an airship for sphere hunting pop-singers and the ilk. Kind of looks like a red motorcycle of the sky.

Final Fantasy XI

Another unnamed airship. Cannot be controlled, can be ridden on. Tickets are 200 gil to ride. The ride is in real time, which is very cool and realistic.

Final Fantasy XII

The Strahl. An interesting looking ship. Very sleek and modern in design. Again, the manner of control is not freeform. Usage of this ship is off and on throughout the game. Can only land in specified areas...

 

[Daenerys]

I liked The Invincible the most. I think after seeing just what it was capable of - destroying Alexander - made it seem more epic than all the others in comparison. It was a nice twist that you took control of an enemies ship, instead of having your own.

 

[Davey Gaga]

I liked The Invincible the most. I think after seeing just what it was capable of - destroying Alexander - made it seem more epic than all the others in comparison. It was a nice twist that you took control of an enemies ship, instead of having your own.

Going to have to go with Mark on this one.

As well as that, I think that the Celsius looks great. I've staying away from the airships from I - VI because, let's face it, they're boxes with poles.

 

[Dirges for Damcyan]

Going to have to go with Mark on this one.

As well as that, I think that the Celsius looks great. I've staying away from the airships from I - VI because, let's face it, they're boxes with poles.

Au Contraire my friend. I myself prefer the airship from III: The great battleship Invincible. Five reasons, as detailed below:

1. Okay, I will admit, that most of the airships do look like boxes on poles. However, III was the first to change this, with both Nautilus and Invincible having different looks and capabilities. These different capabilities also allowed for visible yet inaccessible portions of the map, thus allowing for late game exploration without having to contrive a deus ex for it (read: Underground and moon). The Enterprise was truly a formidable piece of machinery and had the look to match it.

2. The Invincible theme. For some reason, I find it to be particularly compelling: A "go forth and adventure" type of theme. Granted, I will admit that it seems like every airship theme from the game is good.

3. Use in battle. I liked that yo actually have random encounters in some portions of the world map on the airship, and that when you have the enterprise it actually confers an advantage:

Spoiler

A broadside that does 300-400 to each enemy.

I do not know why other FFs have not followed this trend

4. Inside the airship. This was the first of the FFs to show the inside of an airship. Granted it was not particularly impressive graphically, but it was welcome none-the-less and the vending machines and bed were very helpful

5. The backstory. All through the game you are seeing lists of the best airships, and the Enterprise is third, the Nautilus is second, and the Invincible first. You know that something great is coming, and the Invincible does not disappoint.

Just my two cents,

D4D

 

[strifehart]

I have to go with the ragnarok. I remember playing FFVIII and just spending time flying around. I'll bet it was the FASTEST ship in the series. 2nd best would be the shera. all the advantages of the highwind with a sleek new look.

And what's up with this new trend of not having a world map in FFX and FFXII?! I miss flying around and landing in new places. i understand that they want to make the gameplay a bit more linear and make sure you don't go to places before you're supposed to, but flying around was a key aspect to the older games.

GREAT DESCRIPTIONS! I LOL'd

 

[Sora_lion_heart]

This is my opinion

The Lunar Whale. Probably the worst named ship of the series, you use it to travel to the moon. Again, probably makes sense if I've played the game. You can rest inside and visit a chubby chocobo.

this airship stands as my favorite cause it can go anywhere. Even the moon. So yeah Ragnorak can go in space and I'm sure others can too, but in what FF can you do it on command? This little baby can and at super speed XD

 

[looneymoon]

I actually like the design of the Highwind the most. It's sleek and cool. Plus, I have memories of just aimlessly flying around in the Highwind. Too bad they redesigned it into the Shera/Sierra, which I personally think looks really ugly

Ragnorok in FF8 is definitely my favourite though. Not only does it look cool, but it has a cool name and can... go really fast, especially in comparison to the god-awful, slow-moving Gardens

 

[Davey Gaga]

Au Contraire my friend. I myself prefer the airship from III: The great battleship Invincible. Five reasons, as detailed below:

1. Okay, I will admit, that most of the airships do look like boxes on poles. However, III was the first to change this, with both Nautilus and Invincible having different looks and capabilities. These different capabilities also allowed for visible yet inaccessible portions of the map, thus allowing for late game exploration without having to contrive a deus ex for it (read: Underground and moon). The Enterprise was truly a formidable piece of machinery and had the look to match it.

I prefer it when my airships have all of their capabilities at once and I only need one airship to make use of them all. xD

4. Inside the airship. This was the first of the FFs to show the inside of an airship. Granted it was not particularly impressive graphically, but it was welcome none-the-less and the vending machines and bed were very helpful

Nearly ever airship after that had the same facilities but of a better quality.

 

[Bambi]

The Ragnorak has always been a firm favourite of mine, it just looks so cool and its red and looks like a dragon or summat. The first time I saw it I thought oooooh miiiiine, don't think Ive ever been that fussed over an airship otehr than thinking ooh I can finally fly

I also quite liked the Highwind, more for the picture on the sidoe of it than anything else xD

 

[Dirges for Damcyan]

I prefer it when my airships have all of their capabilities at once and I only need one airship to make use of them all. xD

Nearly ever airship after that had the same facilities but of a better quality.

Ok, Ok, I can respect that. However, in reply to your points:

1. The only way to do that effectively is to introduce that airship very late in the story, a la I, II, VII, VIII, etc. While this is acceptable, I find it more exciting to have a series of airships that get progressively better, that way you have the impression of having complete control, but it leaves room for the game to throw in late game phases of exploration. Deception is everything.

2. True, but this was the first to do it. I'm not saying that means that you have to like this one better than the others, but as a gamer who had just played FFII NES it sure was impressive.

D4D

 

[Ashe B'nargin]

Always liked the Invincible from Final Fantasy IX for some strange reason, maybe because it was desgined in this big light baby blue colour.
And it was big, spacy, and felt rather roomy ^-^

 

[Big Casino]

I liked the ragnarok, it had that futuristic space look about it. I really think square did a brilliant job in the designing of that ship. It also looked legitimate in my oppinion whereas ships like the invincible or the older ones which seem to be made almost entirely outta wood really dont look like they should be soaring through the air. More like being used for good kindle.