[V2] Worst Final Fantasy Game?

[Linnaete]

Now that FFXIII-2 and Final Fantasy XIV have been out since the last thread came to be, let's restart the thread and the poll so that the two can be given a sporting chance.

You know the drill - answer what you believe to be the most dismal entry in the series, providing of course, you back it up with reasons. We don't want to see simple posts such as "FFXII lulz" and "FFVIII UGH" and they will be deleted as spam.

------------

To kick you off:

I don't know actually. There's FFII, which has a terrible excuse for a leveling system - if you can even call it that - that involves you hitting your own characters like the town drunkard to boost their HP a bit. Then there's also FFXIII, which as a Final Fantasy game is just a flashy, but flat and soulless dungeon crawler romp along a straight line to a boss fight or a cutscene, or both. Its story just collapses towards the second half, and the villains lacklustre from beginning to end. I may just opt for the latter.

 

[Lirael]

For me, it would have to be Dirge of Cerberus. It's the only FF I truly dislike. I couldn't get along with the battle system at all; it was a TERRIBLE attempt at a shooter. It's a shame, too, because I'm very interested in Vincent Valentine and would have enjoyed watching his story play out.

When it comes to the main series... I don't really hate any FF I've played. I just found some to be less interesting than others. I haven't played XI or XIV...but I imagine they would have been on here if I had. MMORPGs are horrible. I'd be tempted to say I don't even consider them FFs. FFX-2 can be the new XI, XIII-2 can be the new XIV!

 

[Grimer]

I would have to say Mystic quest. The whole thing was terrible, i couldnt understand how it was even allowed to be released. no save points, no party, a main protagonist named Benjamin(real original Final Fantasy sounding name). really terrible.

 

[Sheechiibii]

FFXIII. I hate that game, it's not what a FF should be. I'm going to past some things from another point I made on this game.

I have loved every FF game since VII(bar XI since it's an MMO and I haven't played it) some more than others but I liked them all so much I continue to go back and play them again often. I'll never go back and replay XIII, it was so awful. Not as a game on it's own, but as a FF it's the worst I've played.

Some say that the world map was just as linear in FFX but that's not right, XIII is so much worse, in X at any point in the game you could make your way back to Besaid if you wanted(up until Macalania Temple and by then your airship's just around the corner) and when you got the airship you could revisit anywhere you wanted. XIII sweeps you past some beautiful open scenery, some really lovely places and then you can't do anything, you can't go anywhere, you can't see those places again. I got my hopes up when they arrived at Eden only to have them crushed straight after, the only place you can revisit is Pulse which is just a field with nothing in it and a more linear halls with pretty pictures in the background that you wish you could get to but you can't.

Some say that the Weapons in VIII were just as bad, well no they were worse, you could go the whole game without upgrading a weapon once in VIII and not miss it. But the Junctioning system by which you upgraded your characters was so good and so free it completely made up for pretty much not having weapons. In XIII you can pretty much only level one weapon up since the first time you get a new weapon the first one is already much better than it and you have no way of knowing if the new weapon would end up stronger. The levelling system is just as linear as the map, no freedom in either case which sucks.

Which brings me to my next point. The levelling system. Some people compare it to X. It's absolutely nothing like X. Yes, it has sphere things connected by lines that light up once you've been over them but that's where the similarities end. It's completely linear, you go where you're told to, it's pretty much just a staircase with a couple of things to collect on the way. So freaking boring it's unbelievable. And yes, eventually you're allowed to expand but then it just ends up that everyone is exactly the same. Plus what's the point of changing their role when the role they're in at the beginning is always the one they're most suited to? X's sphere grid was amazing, my favourite levelling system of all the FF's I've played. So good, especially since you could choose between two sphere grids, the beginer one and the expert one, which let you do whatever you wanted right from the beginning - it was a godsend, you could literally make Lulu into a powerhouse and have her little doll do more damage than Auron, same with Yuna. And at any lv sphere you could switch them onto a different route, you could have four Mages in your party if you like Mages, or three white Mages and nothing else but fighters. You could have someone who was just nothing but magic and new both white and black. I can't even go into how much XIII is nothing like this whatsoever.

And I did find the game very easy. I never put in any effort to level up or anything since the game did everything for itself anyway, it was like watching a really boring movie with battles in between. Battles where all you needed to do was mash X. The only boss that was hard was Barthandelus the third time you fight him. Nothing else was challenging at all. The last boss was such a waste of time I could hardly comprehend it. There might as well not have been a final boss. I mean, where was the hateful villain that all the FF's have? Sephiroth? Seifer? Kuja? Seymour? Vayne? Barthandelus I guess was meant to be that hateful villain but I honestly felt no hatred towards him at all...what was it he did? I mean...they spent the entire game doing nothing but giving you cut-scene after cut-scene and what was it for...

Too much cut-scenes and by the end of the game I wondered what all that story was even for because I still felt nothing for any of the characters. Why? Why?! I always get into the FF stories and get to like the characters. I should have cared about what happened at the end but I didn't, I really couldn't have cared less to be honest. So what were all those really long 'story' filled cut-scenes where there surely should have been character development as well as plot development? I must have missed it because to me the characters were exactly the same all the way through, they may as well have still been strangers by the end for all the connection I felt between them. These were people who shared nothing but the company of each other through the whole game, where was the connection, the friendship, the camaraderie? This sucked extremely badly, even more so because there was nothing in the game to make up for it.

I like a good story and that's why I like FF, I may not have liked some things in previous games but the story always makes up for it, and if it didn't(found XII a little boring) then the game-play, world map, levelling system, makes up for it. Not in this case. Both the story and the rest of the game were equally bad.

Yes, the graphics are beautiful but more often than not it was just frustrating that you could see all this huge world but can't go anywhere in it. The characters were pretty but did I care? No...I go back to play VII, VIII and IX all the time and their graphics suck in comparison, but it doesn't matter, because for me what makes a game good is the story first and foremost and the game-play.

So this game wins the worst FF award from me. There is nothing good in this game whatsoever, no world to travel, no characters to connect to, no villain to want to kill, a weapons system that is utterly pointless, a levelling system that is abysmal, a battle system that does everything for you, no side-quests, no npc's. This game is not a FF.

Xx..xX

 

[Dincht]

FFXIII. I hate that game, it's not what a FF should be. I'm going to past some things from another point I made on this game.

I have loved every FF game since VII(bar XI since it's an MMO and I haven't played it) some more than others but I liked them all so much I continue to go back and play them again often. I'll never go back and replay XIII, it was so awful. Not as a game on it's own, but as a FF it's the worst I've played.

Some say that the world map was just as linear in FFX but that's not right, XIII is so much worse, in X at any point in the game you could make your way back to Besaid if you wanted(up until Macalania Temple and by then your airship's just around the corner) and when you got the airship you could revisit anywhere you wanted. XIII sweeps you past some beautiful open scenery, some really lovely places and then you can't do anything, you can't go anywhere, you can't see those places again. I got my hopes up when they arrived at Eden only to have them crushed straight after, the only place you can revisit is Pulse which is just a field with nothing in it and a more linear halls with pretty pictures in the background that you wish you could get to but you can't.

Some say that the Weapons in VIII were just as bad, well no they were worse, you could go the whole game without upgrading a weapon once in VIII and not miss it. But the Junctioning system by which you upgraded your characters was so good and so free it completely made up for pretty much not having weapons. In XIII you can pretty much only level one weapon up since the first time you get a new weapon the first one is already much better than it and you have no way of knowing if the new weapon would end up stronger. The levelling system is just as linear as the map, no freedom in either case which sucks.

Which brings me to my next point. The levelling system. Some people compare it to X. It's absolutely nothing like X. Yes, it has sphere things connected by lines that light up once you've been over them but that's where the similarities end. It's completely linear, you go where you're told to, it's pretty much just a staircase with a couple of things to collect on the way. So freaking boring it's unbelievable. And yes, eventually you're allowed to expand but then it just ends up that everyone is exactly the same. Plus what's the point of changing their role when the role they're in at the beginning is always the one they're most suited to? X's sphere grid was amazing, my favourite levelling system of all the FF's I've played. So good, especially since you could choose between two sphere grids, the beginer one and the expert one, which let you do whatever you wanted right from the beginning - it was a godsend, you could literally make Lulu into a powerhouse and have her little doll do more damage than Auron, same with Yuna. And at any lv sphere you could switch them onto a different route, you could have four Mages in your party if you like Mages, or three white Mages and nothing else but fighters. You could have someone who was just nothing but magic and new both white and black. I can't even go into how much XIII is nothing like this whatsoever.

And I did find the game very easy. I never put in any effort to level up or anything since the game did everything for itself anyway, it was like watching a really boring movie with battles in between. Battles where all you needed to do was mash X. The only boss that was hard was Barthandelus the third time you fight him. Nothing else was challenging at all. The last boss was such a waste of time I could hardly comprehend it. There might as well not have been a final boss. I mean, where was the hateful villain that all the FF's have? Sephiroth? Seifer? Kuja? Seymour? Vayne? Barthandelus I guess was meant to be that hateful villain but I honestly felt no hatred towards him at all...what was it he did? I mean...they spent the entire game doing nothing but giving you cut-scene after cut-scene and what was it for...

Too much cut-scenes and by the end of the game I wondered what all that story was even for because I still felt nothing for any of the characters. Why? Why?! I always get into the FF stories and get to like the characters. I should have cared about what happened at the end but I didn't, I really couldn't have cared less to be honest. So what were all those really long 'story' filled cut-scenes where there surely should have been character development as well as plot development? I must have missed it because to me the characters were exactly the same all the way through, they may as well have still been strangers by the end for all the connection I felt between them. These were people who shared nothing but the company of each other through the whole game, where was the connection, the friendship, the camaraderie? This sucked extremely badly, even more so because there was nothing in the game to make up for it.

I like a good story and that's why I like FF, I may not have liked some things in previous games but the story always makes up for it, and if it didn't(found XII a little boring) then the game-play, world map, levelling system, makes up for it. Not in this case. Both the story and the rest of the game were equally bad.

Yes, the graphics are beautiful but more often than not it was just frustrating that you could see all this huge world but can't go anywhere in it. The characters were pretty but did I care? No...I go back to play VII, VIII and IX all the time and their graphics suck in comparison, but it doesn't matter, because for me what makes a game good is the story first and foremost and the game-play.

So this game wins the worst FF award from me. There is nothing good in this game whatsoever, no world to travel, no characters to connect to, no villain to want to kill, a weapons system that is utterly pointless, a levelling system that is abysmal, a battle system that does everything for you, no side-quests, no npc's. This game is not a FF.

Xx..xX

Spot on with everything, I couldn't agree more.
FFXIII really disappointed me, in pretty much every way. Yes, the visuals were impressive - but so what? When a storyline is so linear what difference does it actually make?

Unfortunately, I checked the wrong box and ended up voting for XII

 

[01lander]

I picked XII myself. I know people will nearly always pick XIII, but I found XII to be almost completely forgettable in terms of story and character... I didn't finish the game and I can't remember the plot at all. XIII was a close 2nd, but it at least instilled some interest in me through the story. I know people say it's a crap game across all areas, but I was quite interested by the fact that the characters actually interacted with each other, as opposed to it all being through a main character, if that makes sense? So yeah... Oh and I actually found Revenant Wings to be a much more interesting and joyous experience to XII!

 

[Squid]

It was so hard to pick between VIII, XI, XIII, XIII-2 and XIV.

I decided to go with XIII as I had not played enough of the others to really judge them as well as I could with XIII.

Boring story, boring characters, boring world, boring battle system, boring game.
There is nothing good about this game at all besides the graphics. I still can't believe they gave it a sequel

 

[~Griever~]

FFXIII. I hate that game, it's not what a FF should be. I'm going to past some things from another point I made on this game.

I have loved every FF game since VII(bar XI since it's an MMO and I haven't played it) some more than others but I liked them all so much I continue to go back and play them again often. I'll never go back and replay XIII, it was so awful. Not as a game on it's own, but as a FF it's the worst I've played.

Some say that the world map was just as linear in FFX but that's not right, XIII is so much worse, in X at any point in the game you could make your way back to Besaid if you wanted(up until Macalania Temple and by then your airship's just around the corner) and when you got the airship you could revisit anywhere you wanted. XIII sweeps you past some beautiful open scenery, some really lovely places and then you can't do anything, you can't go anywhere, you can't see those places again. I got my hopes up when they arrived at Eden only to have them crushed straight after, the only place you can revisit is Pulse which is just a field with nothing in it and a more linear halls with pretty pictures in the background that you wish you could get to but you can't.

Some say that the Weapons in VIII were just as bad, well no they were worse, you could go the whole game without upgrading a weapon once in VIII and not miss it. But the Junctioning system by which you upgraded your characters was so good and so free it completely made up for pretty much not having weapons. In XIII you can pretty much only level one weapon up since the first time you get a new weapon the first one is already much better than it and you have no way of knowing if the new weapon would end up stronger. The levelling system is just as linear as the map, no freedom in either case which sucks.

Which brings me to my next point. The levelling system. Some people compare it to X. It's absolutely nothing like X. Yes, it has sphere things connected by lines that light up once you've been over them but that's where the similarities end. It's completely linear, you go where you're told to, it's pretty much just a staircase with a couple of things to collect on the way. So freaking boring it's unbelievable. And yes, eventually you're allowed to expand but then it just ends up that everyone is exactly the same. Plus what's the point of changing their role when the role they're in at the beginning is always the one they're most suited to? X's sphere grid was amazing, my favourite levelling system of all the FF's I've played. So good, especially since you could choose between two sphere grids, the beginer one and the expert one, which let you do whatever you wanted right from the beginning - it was a godsend, you could literally make Lulu into a powerhouse and have her little doll do more damage than Auron, same with Yuna. And at any lv sphere you could switch them onto a different route, you could have four Mages in your party if you like Mages, or three white Mages and nothing else but fighters. You could have someone who was just nothing but magic and new both white and black. I can't even go into how much XIII is nothing like this whatsoever.

And I did find the game very easy. I never put in any effort to level up or anything since the game did everything for itself anyway, it was like watching a really boring movie with battles in between. Battles where all you needed to do was mash X. The only boss that was hard was Barthandelus the third time you fight him. Nothing else was challenging at all. The last boss was such a waste of time I could hardly comprehend it. There might as well not have been a final boss. I mean, where was the hateful villain that all the FF's have? Sephiroth? Seifer? Kuja? Seymour? Vayne? Barthandelus I guess was meant to be that hateful villain but I honestly felt no hatred towards him at all...what was it he did? I mean...they spent the entire game doing nothing but giving you cut-scene after cut-scene and what was it for...

Too much cut-scenes and by the end of the game I wondered what all that story was even for because I still felt nothing for any of the characters. Why? Why?! I always get into the FF stories and get to like the characters. I should have cared about what happened at the end but I didn't, I really couldn't have cared less to be honest. So what were all those really long 'story' filled cut-scenes where there surely should have been character development as well as plot development? I must have missed it because to me the characters were exactly the same all the way through, they may as well have still been strangers by the end for all the connection I felt between them. These were people who shared nothing but the company of each other through the whole game, where was the connection, the friendship, the camaraderie? This sucked extremely badly, even more so because there was nothing in the game to make up for it.

I like a good story and that's why I like FF, I may not have liked some things in previous games but the story always makes up for it, and if it didn't(found XII a little boring) then the game-play, world map, levelling system, makes up for it. Not in this case. Both the story and the rest of the game were equally bad.

Yes, the graphics are beautiful but more often than not it was just frustrating that you could see all this huge world but can't go anywhere in it. The characters were pretty but did I care? No...I go back to play VII, VIII and IX all the time and their graphics suck in comparison, but it doesn't matter, because for me what makes a game good is the story first and foremost and the game-play.

So this game wins the worst FF award from me. There is nothing good in this game whatsoever, no world to travel, no characters to connect to, no villain to want to kill, a weapons system that is utterly pointless, a levelling system that is abysmal, a battle system that does everything for you, no side-quests, no npc's. This game is not a FF.

Xx..xX

I agree with pretty much everything said here. XIII wouldn't of been a bad game if it didn't have the Final Fantasy name attached to it. I think it was such a departure from what we know and love about FF that a lot of its fans are newcomers and a lot of 'old timers' hate it with a passion.

Also, I agree with someone above who said Lost Odyssey is basically Final Fantasy XII. Throughout that game I was thinking "this feels like FF...." and it's not surprising considering Sakaguchi and Uematsu were involved in it.

 

[Setzer007]

Final Fantasy XIII is easily the worst FF game for me. I didn't care for the characters or their silly little anime cliche moments filled with drama. I became easily disinterested and i think they could have done a better job of telling the story. There are just so many things wrong with this game >.>

-Setz-

 

[Lord_Jaroh]

I will agree that FFXIII my least favourite Final Fantasy. The story is atrocious, the characters abysmal, and the gameplay is boring. All in all, it adds up to pretty damned terrible.

 

[Ogopogo]

Out of the ones I've played, 8 was the biggest letdown. God awful storyline, characters, pacing, and the junction system made me want to chop my wang off.

I have not, however, played XII or XIII in all fairness

I would also like to say that I'm one of those people who never, ever understood the hatred toward X-2. I had a blast with that game, and would play through it a third time right now if I had it around.

 

[Kandy-Sugar]

Ugh, it has to be Final Fantasy XII for me.

I honestly could not stand this game. It was so bland. I didn't feel a connection with the game at all. I got very bored with it and gave up, even after many attempts at trying to get back into it.

Terrible. >.<

 

[Rapture]

XIII did it for me. I loathe it.

The characters with the exception of one (Sazh) were all so stereotypical in their own ways. You have the very butch and over-protective Fang, the cheery nothing-can-get-me-down Vanille, The blonde frat boy Snow, The pretty, young, overly cute "save me" Serah, the coming-of-age whiny Hope, and don't even get me started on Lightning. I HATED her as a character. Someone who has a heart of stone like she does and the attitude that nothing in the world can affect her just makes her a character more than a person I could imagine being half-way real in a Final Fantasy game. There has never been a character in this series that I've detested as much as her. An exact clone of Cloud, except I could tolerate Cloud. With a pink mullet.

The linear story, the overly political plot which was tripe in my opinion, and the skill less battle system pushed me into really hating this game.

Sazh was the only character that made this game half-way worthwhile for me. Naturally, when SE decides to do a sequel to this game, they give the best character a story in it as DLC

The only tolerable parts of this game were SOME of the songs like the battle theme...definitely not the jazz music that played during the junkyard part. ...and the graphics.

 

[Basch1990]

Id say the worst is VI cause i always got lost cause i couldnt get any directions at all... didnt tell me where i needed to go

 

[Grimer]

Id say the worst is VI cause i always got lost cause i couldnt get any directions at all... didnt tell me where i needed to go

so you are the one that picked VI as the worst. I was horrified when I saw that.



FF1,2 and 3 didnt really tell you where to go so why didnt you pick those?

 

[Nocturne]

Final Fantasy V for me.

I give the first three Final Fantasy games a pass for the most part since they were made on the NES such a long time ago. Though I really disliked FFIII.

But V was an utter disappointment. After the greatness of 4, comes a game with bland uninteresting characters and villains, a fairly steep difficulty curve that could be rather cheap at times, mindless grinding for hours and hours due to the job system, and truthfully, I felt the graphics to be worse than FFIV.

I just really disliked all the characters and the story in general, which is the main reason why I play FF games.

 

[Yaoi Master Gavin]

Based on what I've played, the magnitude of shitiness is thusly:

1] Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
2] Final Fantasy XII
3] Final Fantasy II

I'll elaborate only on the first.

For anyone who has played the original FFT or even WotL, FFTA should have been aborted. Yes, like 16 year old girls do to their unborn children because they don't want to take responsibility for their stupidity. Comparatively, FFTA did everything they shouldn't have done to the original. First, they split up the classes and added races. Part of the fun of the original was creating characters who embodied the best of a number of classes. For example, My Beowulf had his Temple Knight class as a base, and Draw Out as his second, blade grasp for reaction, two swords for support and Move +3 for movement. I gave him Chaos Blade, Excalibur, Grand Helmet, Robe of Lords, and Genji Gauntlet. He became an utter and total badarse who waded into battle, beating the piss out of anything stupid enough to get closeand even if they weren't blasting them from afar with Draw Out's Kikuichimoji. That sort of customizability was lost with FFTA.

On a side note since i brought up Beowulf, the special classes in the game were at best mediocre, on par with Rafa and Malak in the original who were nearly worthless; their only saving grace was Rafa made a good move-finder.

The Law/Antilaw system made fights a hassle and turned it into a game of cockblocks than strategy by letting you do whatever the hell you wanted while making your enemies unable to do a damn thing.

The decent weapons in the game required you to trudge through a mire of missions and at the end, there was only a chance that you would get what you wanted. The best weapons were nigh unobtainable.

The boss fights were horrifically simple to beat. Two of them were based on you going around and smashing stationary objects.

The characters were at best shitty, especially Mewt. I hear alot of people bitching about Squall and Cloud but they must not have played FFTA. Mewt is pretty damn close to Twilight's Bella in whininess, worthlessness, etc. and thanks to the art, he has just as many expressions.

Like I said, an abortion. Hard to believe that they made a sequel. Don't even want to look at that.

 

[seddy-0]

for me it was final fantasy 2. that game angered me.. you leveled up based on damage you too. i played all through the game and was still unable to beat the last boss even after maxing my guys out.. the story line seemed slapped together. i understand it was the second release of FF and that it was a building point, but i am glad ff2 wasn't a release in the states till much later.. had it come out here in the u.s. after the first.. i think it would have tanked the series based on its complicated game play.

 

[Basch1990]

so you are the one that picked VI as the worst. I was horrified when I saw that.



FF1,2 and 3 didnt really tell you where to go so why didnt you pick those?

never played II but III i played for the DS and it gave directions... I gave vague directions and i could find where i was going with them... i spent 5 hours in the beginning of the game in VI because i got none what-so-ever... was told a name of a place to go but not where it is

 

[Grimer]

never played II but III i played for the DS and it gave directions... I gave vague directions and i could find where i was going with them... i spent 5 hours in the beginning of the game in VI because i got none what-so-ever... was told a name of a place to go but not where it is

Fair enough, it's hard to argue with somebody's opinion. Hopefully if it gets remade you can give it another shot.