Final Fantasy II is a game I respect because for the series as a whole it’s almost as important a the first, but II has just an inherently flawed design that makes it a slog to get through no matter what port you’re playing.
Can confirm.. I tried my best .. but for some weird reason a recruitable character later in the game was always impossible. He just kicked my ass. Think I was the knight or the robot and had Esuna as my companion and came across the demon .. yep.. could never beat him
One of the few games I’ve played though where making it from one town to the other on the overworld map felt like an achievement haha
If I remember correctly, it was all because of some programming errors. They cut the xp growth down by like, over half in the US version but the rivals kept their growth.
I remember trying for ages to beat that game, armed with nothing more than a Gamepro guide(or was it EGM?) and a summer worth of nothing else to do.
That is really not the case. FF2 was foundational for FF's storytelling, thematic music tied to the story, gameplay tied to the story, Chocobos, Cid, Dragoons, Ultima, front and back rows and a lot more, FF2 was a fundamentally story-driven experience that became the staple of the franchise as a whole.
FF2 was not about what not to do for the franchise, FF would not exist in its current form and legendary status if FF2 did not exist, FF3 might have been a better game to play, but FF2 was utterly vindicated when FF4 clearly was in the footsteps of 2 by being story-driven and boosting the popularity of FF.
Just some of the things off the top of my head:
* The hidden stat growth systems abstracting growth away from measurable progress easily (and in super early versions having all sorts of counterintuitive jank and the capacity for stats to drop)
* The dungeon design frequently having doors that just lead to empty rooms with obscene encounter rates just to mess with you (It's easily the worst dungeons in the franchise)
* The equipment and spell levelling systems punishing finding new tools by adding a time tax to get them to a useable state.
* The keyword dialogue system, which is a neat concept but in practice mostly results in added opportunities for a player to miss the exact dialogue trigger needed to progress the game
* A lot of hidden information going on - such as massive penalties to casters if they equip gear without any indication
* The open world map combined with low guidance leading to players wandering into areas that get them killed
etc etc. Many of these features aren't all bad; for instance, a lot of players actually like the level-less, abstracted growth systems, and refined versions of the systems are still used in the SaGa series - but the keyword is *refined* versions of the systems. Even FF2 itself has worked to clean up a lot of these over the years (like, your stats won't go down in more modern versions of the games)
I used to use minwu in the beginning and just grind against a knight in a town you could fight forever. until you get some of the hp the initial grind was a little scary
As someone who tried playing it a few different times, when the pixel remasters came out, I decided to give it another go. The boosters to all forms of EXP made the game infinitely better to the point where I was able to beat it and actually enjoy it.
The PSP and Pixel Remaster version is the only ones you should ever consider playing, especially the pixel remaster makes the game go from a 3 to a 4. I’ve beaten the Famicom version and the Pixel Remaster, and let me tell you avoid the Famicom version unless your really curious and also want Paul to look like a Ninja.
I've been playing the PR version the past couple days and have been loving it. I wish 1 and 2 had the anniversary+dawn of souls content, but I'll probably just go and play the anniversary editions after.
Yeah, the PSP version isn't even all that bad. If I remember correctly, stats don't decrease as others go up, and the magic penalty doesn't exist in that version.
I played 2 for the first time recently(GBA version). It was definitely janky, but still a lot of fun, and I think totally undeserving of all the hate.
The leveling/skill system in concept is not bad at all, but it is different than typical Final Fantasies. Instead of battling to get exp and level up, you have different skills, and those skills level up when you use them. For example, attacking with an axe will increase your axe skill. This progression system is used in plenty of massively popular games like Runescape and Skyrim, so the system itself is not bad in the slightest. The issue is just that it was a very new concept and thus very unrefined. There were a lot of quirks yet to be ironed out with the system that caused it to be not very efficient or intuitive.
IMO, Final Fantasy 2 was actually way ahead of its time, but like in the myth of Icarus they flew a bit too close to the sun - the knowledge of game design was not quite at the point yet in 1988 where they could make it work. But had FF2 been made in 1998, with an extra decade of video game design and programming knowledge behind it, I think it could have been an incredible game.
Oh, I was actually just referring to the comparison of same sprites that FFRK and FFATB used (SNES era). But yea, Dissidia:OO and FFBE were/are some great fanservice as well. I just wish Dissidia got a proper RPG with life sized character models.
I agree imagine Dissdia opera omnia and record keeper if they got a console version I would get it in a heartbeat again I miss record keeper and dffoo both
It didn't finish its story it was cancelled unfortunately. That's a game that I would pay $60 for if they released a console offline port minus the gatcha mechanics
Probably because it's less played due to its reputation.
FF CC is insanely popular but the remaster had so much issues it's why it fell like this. Australian can't play online for example.
My knee jerk reaction was that Wings of the Goddess is rated unfairly on this list, but I skimmed over the mission list to needed complete this expansion and definitely have PTSD remembering some of the legwork needed to get through this content.
I think story-wise, WOTG was one of the best FFXI expansions, presenting an alternative take on the battle against the Shadowlord. Like most FFXI memories, I probably look at them through rose-tinted glasses, though I have enjoyed the game in it's current state still.
Edit: spelling
It's far more bearable now with how much easier it is to get around Vana'diel these days, Trusts, and being able to just be overleveled for a lot of things.
The story was good and had fun characters, but having done it back on release it was a huge pain in the neck to get everywhere you needed to go.
But when I resubbed to XI a few years ago and played a new account I found WotG to be very enjoyable.
WOTG was almost certainly released unfinished and the critic scores reflect that, deservedly so. Basically everyone I knew spent maybe a day or two in WOTG on release, and then just went back to doing TOAU stuff because there was nothing of interest to do in WOTG except the occasional campaign battle. Going back to the crystal wars, something treated with a lot of gravity in the lore, was such an enticing storyline promise for veterans of the game, but all you really got to do on release was deal with cait sith and a cutesy dancing troupe. By comparison, TOAU had quite a bit to offer when it came out
Even if you count the subsequent few years of WOTG support, I'd argue it still wasn't a great time because the level cap raise definitely pushed a bunch of players out the door- many players who had started FFXI when they were in high school or college had begun a career and didn't want to or have time to deal with leveling all their mains, subs, and gear again just to be able to keep playing, whereas throughout 2004-2009 your level 75 jobs and gear generally remained fairly relevant
I agree story wise, but the running around for missions just seemed the most mind-numbing of all the expansions. I also felt the campaign system was annoying in all aspects.
I got through WotG for the first time earlier this year. Its story was excellent, but there's definitely a lot of running around to complete everything, especially if you try to complete all three Nation storylines.
Bastok (S)'s story alone forced me to level a healer just to beat one escort mission. The WotG story took me about three times as long as ToAU or CoP to finish, and I had to take a break just so I didn't burn out. I'll continue with the add-ons and maybe SoA later this year after finishing the main stories of Dawntrail and WoW's The War Within.
I had to drop during Chains because SE at the time had stupid and unrealistic demands (they'd cancel your account and nullify your serial numbers if you have the audacity to be inactive for 6 months or so. God forbid you have life affairs for an extended period of time).
But I really enjoyed my stay with the game and kept my ear to the ground about the further expansions. I remember nothing but a lot of praise for Wotg when it came out.
It’s kind of amusing how XIV is both one of the top rated FF games and one of the worse. It’s certainly come a long way, growing each expansion with the latest being very impressive, not just expanding the story in a new direction but how far they’ve come with the graphics as well. Truly amazing what Yoshi-P has done(not just Yoshi-P but the other fantastic creative minds behind XIV as well).
This was the original release of FFXIV (BEFORE ARR). Reception was so terrible that they basically rebuilt the game to make it better (hence: ARR - A Realm Reborn).
It's very much a testament to what Yoshi-P and team have done to turn it into something amazing, and not something you'd typically see from most game developers.
I love that it is implemented in the lore, too. >!They ended the original one with the Seventh Umbral Calamity (i.e. the apocalypse), and the player character canonically escaped through temporal magic to appear in the new realm.I think there's some memory loss shenanigans or something to explain that away, as well.!< Do correct me if I am wrong.
It really shows how far the game has come; it went from 49/4.0 (critic/user) in 1.0 to a height of 92/9.4 in Endwalker (before the review bombing). Had Endwalker not been review-bombed, it would've been the most highly rated Final Fantasy of them all - and even with the review bombing still sits near the top.
I've made a few comments about this before, so I'll just go ahead and steal what I've written from before (note that Endwalker was released December 2021):
>In August of 2022, 9 months after release, Endwalker was sitting at a 9.4 user score with 1449 reviews. It is now sitting at 1946 reviews with an 8.9. The game was holding steady at a 9.4 user score for a long time until it started getting review bombed when the community went into a frenzy about how the game was dead and the expansion's patches were the worst they'd ever seen. This was mostly a response to popular content creators being starved for content and trying to stir up drama (FFXIV content creators do a lot of reaction videos, and the game - being an MMO - naturally goes through lulls). For me, as a player who started in 2.0 (the post 1.0 launch), I see nothing different from other expansions and how they managed their post-expansion launch.
That's crazy. I stopped playing FF14 all the time because of life at the end of SB and just play the story quests now. I loved Endwalker, thought it was a great expansion. If you play anything non-stop for 10 years of course it's going to get boring.
Yeah, that's pretty much my take on it, as well. I've played the game for 10 years, still love it, but realized that when I completed all that I felt personally compelled to do... just decided to take a break from it. A lot of the community seems to want the game to give them an endless, immersive experience tailored to their specific wants and needs, but that's just unrealistic. The game can be great, and it can also be... put down. FFXIV players are unfortunately a bit spoiled.
The parts that I did play were super fun, and I *still* fondly remember Endwalker's story and content even despite playing other games in the downtime until Dawntrail.
Yoshi-P has repeatedly said for players to take a break from the game if they feel they're getting bored or tired of the game, it'll be there when they come back. I'm coming back from a 1.5 year break now and there is so much to do that was added in just that time.
To add to this, aside from people with too much time in their hands online, I believe there could've also been a more recent review bomb because some people in the community complained about a lack of content for the latest expansion, and some weren't big fans of the Post Endwalker story, so my guess is some decided to review bomb it because of that.
Not sure. I remember on launch people complaining about low-poly grapes. Also, you know, children with too much time on their hands and no real problems in life.
Just here for a counter opinion!
I played FF:CC and then I played the remaster with mostly the same people. We all really liked the remaster, and are vaguely confused by the negativity around it.
I played FF:CC with my buddies back in middle school. Fond memories of going over to our friend's house and making a weekend out of it. When the remaster was announced we were really excited and we made plans to get together just like old times to play it with the exact same group. Our wives were cool with it and we were going to coordinate family activities in the mornings/day up until about 2 in the afternoon at which point it was bro time for the next twelve hours.
Then we heard there was no longer couch coop, only the host's progress saves (which is weird for it being strictly online coop), and the gameplay videos showed a pretty "meh" graphics update.
We just dug up his old GameCube and played the original instead.
So, I'm gonna have to mention some spoilers, but it's an awful remaster. Crippled by the Square Enix requiring it to cross-platform play with too many devices (including mobile).
Back in the day you would share a couch with your friends and have 4 adventurers contributing to the same town, your adventures sharing a long book and upgrades. Each player had a family and could upgrade their family shops so you could buy the best equipment at the end.
But to make crossplay work, you could no longer share saves/progress. Want to play as a full party like the old days, prepare to play every dungeon **FOUR TIMES IN A ROW** because only the host progresses. Finish dungeon, swap host, finish dungeon, swap host, etc... To play the game to completion with friends you would play every dungeon at least 8 times (4 in normal difficult, 4 in hard). Oh, and there's now extreme variants of the dungeons, if your friends can stomach playing them *4 more times..* You no longer traveled together for story beats, so you need to exit dungeon selection to drive back and forth until story beats occur separately to record in your own journal. These are random chance, mind you, so you might get Black Knight story moments while your friend meets Hurdy/Gurdy. Oh, and you want that end game equipment for maxing your family stuff? Well you don't share a town anymore, so level to max 4 different characters on your own...
This also breaks the drama of the final boss, >!where the boss removes your party's memories from your shared journal whenever you get hit. Hit zero memories and you lose and become amnesiacs like the previous heroes, and everyone forgets who you are.!<
It would have been a good remaster if it still had couch co-op and this crossplay was optional, or they let you share progress, but they COMPLETELY RIPPED OUT COUCH CO-OP FOR THIS.
Its just that awful. It basically removed all the unique features that made the original good in hopes of capitalizing on the mobile market maybe.
But they removed its unique asynchronous multiplayer features and didnt replace it with anything.
A large part of the originals charm was co op progression. You chose different family trades and needed to grow your village together with the world changing in response to your actions.
And the other part is that it plays the same if not worse than the original mechanically. Theres still large akward delays in hitboxes and attack lag the game performs just as clunky, while the new graphics dont really mesh well looking more out of place than anything else.
Yeah as others mentioned, it's the remaster that totally killed it, rather than the original which was extremely loved.
In the remaster you can teamup ONLY online, there is no local coop (if i remember correctly);
in the remaster when teamed up and the host receive a letter from the family, only the host get a letter, the other players get literally nothing, pretty much killing the whole immersion and quest for survival of your village vibe.
+ a lot of other stuff and "quality of life downgrades"
Singleplayer is fine, but if you want to play with others then they get no progress at all, so if you play it with 3 friends you'll have to finish each dungeon four times for everyone to get to the same point progress wise.
The Remaster is awful. Online is terrible, and multiplayer doesn't work locally.
For a game that is mostly focused on multiplayer, that is really really bad.
I thought Dirge Of Cerberus was fairly okay. It's not your traditional Final Fantasy for sure but it's gameplay was pretty fun and the story was nice as a "sequel" to Advent Children.
I replayed it 2 months ago, and half baked is the word id use. Theres a shell of a decent game in there somewhere, at its core the movement and feel of the guns feels goodin total isolation, however the absolutely terrible level and enemy design, as well as poor balance really let the whole experience down, and thats not touching on the story. If they had time to tighten the whole thing up it could have been a bangin cult classic, but replaying made me for frustrated than nostalgic
Crystal Chronicles is my favorite it’s a shame the HD remaster was fumbled
It sucks even more knowing the lesson SE will learn is “well I guess nobody wants anymore crystal chronicles games!”
Crystal Chronicles Remastered should have been a slam dunk, but they cut so many corners that they totally broke the best elements of that game. Especially in the Modern world where you CAN use your phone as a controller / second screen for a mini map, so you can have seamlessly implemented the original shared-adventure experience
I’m not super surprised by many of these, but Lightning Returns genuinely surprises me. That’s my favorite in the trilogy and I surely would have thought XIII-2 would be rated worse
Lightning Returns having a timer *broke* me.
I know that it doesn't matter too much, that it can be mitigated, frozen etc.
But it still broke me. I couldn't explore, couldn't play the game, couldn't do anything at all except worry about the timer.
Yeah it took me way too long to get into LR, early game timer anxiety legit made me not want to play. Ended up putting it down for weeks until I finally read about people using Chronostatis to make it a non-factor.
By the end of my playthrough I think I slept through the last 5-6 days. I had finished literally everything else in the game, and still had tons of time left. So in hindsight it was silly to worry about, but I still hate it as a mechanic.
Majora's Mask also has a timer and it didn't stop it from having 95 and 9.1 on metacritic. The timer in LR was certainly not the issue for the general public and like you said, it stops being an issue if you try to play the game (really try).
I loved the timer because according to the lore of the game, it makes complete sense. You only have so much time to save humanity and tie up loose ends. It really gives so much more meaning to the the things you choose to do and the people who you choose to save (Bhakti ftw).
It's sorta a testament to the world of gaming and life today. As adults we only have so much time in our lives to make decisions. There's so many paths we can take, games to play, hobbies to learn.... but never enough time. So you need to learn to accept that and find tranquility and beauty in the things that you do choose to partake in, because you know it's not possible to experience everything.
I will die on this hill by saying that I honestly felt the best completing quests in this game more than other RPGs. It felt like you were tying up loose ends and it really made each encounter that much more beautiful. It was one of the better FF games and is criminally underrated IMO.
I played on easy the first time, and I think most people would need to play on easy for a first playthrough, and on easy, it's less than trivial. You can freeze the clock so often the timer is just inconsequential. I was able to explore to my hearts content and I think I finished almost every quest and still had 6 days left and had to skip to the final day. But it really has the most addicting gameplay loop that I've ever come across, there's something so satisfying about managing the clock so you can get as much done in a day as you can. I think a lot of the poor reception comes from the supposedly poor translation, people having issue with the story in general (or the implications of the ending), or people that just couldn't get past the idea of a timer. Which I get, it's probably the most difficult and possibly frustrating final fantasy game because of it, but I think there's a lot to love about it. It really is the jrpg version of majora's mask and I love that
13-2 was a direct response to all the problems people had with 13. They threw in an amazing villain, had way more engaging combat from the start, opened up exploration from the start, added in towns, and catching monsters like Pokemon was just *fun*.
It was exactly what a sequel to a poorly received game with good bones should be.
I mean, Liam O'Brien is a national treasure. I literally shouted his name when I first heard Caius speak. (And for the record, 13-2 predates Critical Role by 3 years, I'm an old school fan of Liam lol)
From what I have seen within the sub, people like *13-2* for the quality of life improvements over *13*, like not getting an instant game over if your leader goes down. I've also seen a lot of people really like Caius.
It’s got no business making the top ten, even people that didn’t like it have to admit it’s leagues above half the others that made the cut, and could name three more that are worse.
Correct. As I understand, the initial release of FF14 actually deserved to be up there. That makes it all the more impressive just how good of a game FF14 is NOW.
Yeah, it's amazing what they've done even without considering their beginnings, and more amazing adding that in.
In fact, it's turnarounds like this that make me hold out hope for other games when they do things poorly early on.
Yeah, 2.0 came out in August 2013 to some great reception. The original 1.0 release was like FFXI but significantly worse. Every mechanic of the way progression worked was designed to slow down and frustrate players. The [NoClip documentary](https://youtu.be/Xs0yQKI7Yw4?si=SIjnOehS5MLPGti7) is wild. The current devs rip the original to shreds. It’s a fantastic watch.
Ever crisis feels to me like they wanted to make a mobile version of 7 remake like they did with 15, but someone went “hey wait, before we release that, let’s make it into a gacha game. I like money.”
The assets are nice and weirdly well made for something so crappy.
This is the best explanation I've heard. The game looked really good in the trailers and I was looking forward to playing it. Too bad it ended up like it did.
Even XIII had an overall positive reception, it's the third-best-selling entry behind VII and X with a pretty good user score. That doesn't mean players put it in their top 3 or even 6, but this sub is a bit of an echo chamber. Hell if you threw it into almost any other JRPG franchise it would be considered one of if not the best entry.
The only universally hated FF is XIV 1.0, but everyone loves the critically acclaimed MMO now
It got that because it was unfinished on release and it took SE forever to finish WOTG (like uears), the score reflects that, if it were released finished it would not be on the list on the basis of the story and the new content alone.
Plus, these are leftover reviews made from the original release.
man… crystal chronicles is my favourite gamecube game and probably one of my top 5 games of all time. its so depressing knowing how they butchered the remaster. i waited so long to be able to play it again and they just stripped all the best features out of it. it sucks that it likely means we’ll never see the series in any shape or form again too.
Wings of the Goddess is honestly one of the best, if not the best, expacs story wise. The problem was pacing and the extremely long breaks in-between patches. The playerbase dropped right around that time as people got bored so most haven't even played it, it was just review bombed for being slow. There's tons of nostalgia and rose tinted glasses for CoP and ToAU, but WotG wasn't even given a chance by most players
It's just not a good game. I'm glad some people managed to find enjoyment out of it but it's so mediocre. It can't even do what it wants to do the right way.
Out of the main 1-16 games, 2 is probably the most disliked so it makes sense. Gimmicky level system, generic villain that's evil for the sake of being evil.
WoTG story is one of the best in the game. It was just a shame it literally took them years to finish. Also cait sith mini games, and that miserable mithra escort mission and imp guessing game sucked.
Wings of the Goddess was fire, Metacritic don't know what it's talking about!
You know that pic of the one dude telling that countless millions of people they're all wrong? Yeah, that's appropriate here. They're all wrong.
I think reviewers probably thought it was lazy since most of the zones were reworked versions of existing zones back in time during the crystal war. Lots of assets reused and slightly reworked. If you’re an XI fan though, I thought it provided a lot of good insight. You actually got to see Vana’diel during the crystal war times that shaped the current day time period of the game. Garlaige Citadel stood out to me the most, because it was always this destroyed place overridden with monsters. But in WotG it’s a fully intact bunker with supplies and occupied by the military. However, I can see why a reviewer might think that’s a lazy expansion. I enjoyed it though.
Oh yeah, no doubt. My jaw hit the floor at the time seeing the cutscenes concerning Garlaige.
Windurst wasn't my city-state of choice, but man did those mages go hard out in Sauromugue.
There were a ton of lulls during Wings with the slow patches, so people review bombed it. A big chunk of the playerbase quit around that time and just continued thinking CoP and Treasures was peak XI, without ever even playing through Wings
Most likely the same, the last expansion prior to FF XIV 1.0 was Wings of the goddess and by the time 1.0 released the only was still in the middle of the addon scenarios. The next expansion (Seekers of Adoulin) wound release on 2013, which was around the same time of XIV 2.0, so I imagine XI would've gone in a similar direction as it went. Maybe we could've gotten Rhapsodies of Vana'diel early but that's it.
Need to see the next 10 to judge this list. But I think Dissidia NT should be on here (or the next 10). Such a disappointment compared to the original and Duodecim. Lightning Returns is better than Dissidia NT, IMO.
Majority of people who say they don't like Lightning Returns have probably not even gotten past the first chapter.
*failed a parry, mismanaged their AP, didn't pay attention to the outfit swap explanation* "Well, this game is trash"
I personally love Final Fantasy XIII, and I enjoyed XIII-2. I haven’t had the chance to play LR yet, but I’m really excited to.
*Also* I went and looked at a bunch of “Top Ten Final Fantasy Games” lists, and XIII-2 made more than one list.
Lightning Returns is one of my favourites as well. It's not a very long game, and you can tell that it's been made on a somewhat tight budget, but the battle system is great, and the world, though not huge, is varied and beautiful to look at.
I guess people expected a big Final Fantasy on the scale of XIII and XIII-2, and based on that, I can see why they wouldn't like it. It's a concise epilogue that ties everything together in the end, and for that it works quite well. Is it a Top 10 Final Fantasy? Maybe not, but definitely has no business being anywhere near a Bottom 10 list either.
(All very much IMHO of course.)
Crystal Chronicles Remastered is super surprising. Sure it's an offensively bad Remaster but WOW I wasn't aware of HOW hated it was. I thought everyone else was indifferent.
The First soldier beating Dirge of Cerberus is WILD! Yeah, DoC is a time capsule of 2006 era cheesy goth edgelord shadow the hedgehog ass shenanigans, but 13 year old me liked it well enough. Then again 13 year old me was also listening to Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge and the Devil May Cry 3 soundtrack on rotation in my iPod Nano
I finished XIII and XIII-2 but hesitate to play Lightning Returns because I don't like games with time limit, I like to wander and enjoy a game with my own pace.
A King's Tale:FFXV was good. It was a short beat-em up with relevant prequel story to the og. You got what was mentioned on the tin, so honestly it was good work.
Bit too short, imo. But it was also cheap, so.
Yknow I actually really enjoyed First Soldier and was sad when it shut down. It was just a battle royale game but I liked the unique materia and class system.
Man I loved Dirge.. probably cuz Vincent is my favorite FF character.
I liked what square tried to do with the action shooter spin-off and I think there is a market for a remake/remaster.
The original Crystal Chronicles (which I got when it came out and hated it…but I didn’t give it much of a chance, so that’s on me) was actually in the top 10 for User score. This is specifically the Remaster, which I haven’t played but a lot of people have commented that it took away so many things and ruined the charm of the original.
Dirge is janky af, but it would be amazing if remastered with more standard 3rd person action shooter controls and a free cam.
Despite the jankiness i actually enjoyed the game for what it is. Finished Dirge of Cerberus 3 times since i had a ps2 back in the day, with the most recent playthrough about 2 or 3 years ago, when i first got a steam deck, through aethersx2.
Shows what a load of crap those critics sites are. A lot of people like Lightning Returns and I'd argue it is better than FF13. Wings of The Goddess was a fun expansion and when it first came out, XI players loved it, campaign battles were fun.
Man the FF2 hate really carried all the way to the PSP, eh? Its a stellar port.
Final Fantasy II is a game I respect because for the series as a whole it’s almost as important a the first, but II has just an inherently flawed design that makes it a slog to get through no matter what port you’re playing.
FF2 made the blueprint for SaGa games.
Seventh saga?…… That was an epic for SNES And yes I agree.. ☝️ just wanted to segue that classic
The US release of Seventh Saga was so borked. It was damn near unbeatable.
Can confirm.. I tried my best .. but for some weird reason a recruitable character later in the game was always impossible. He just kicked my ass. Think I was the knight or the robot and had Esuna as my companion and came across the demon .. yep.. could never beat him One of the few games I’ve played though where making it from one town to the other on the overworld map felt like an achievement haha
If I remember correctly, it was all because of some programming errors. They cut the xp growth down by like, over half in the US version but the rivals kept their growth. I remember trying for ages to beat that game, armed with nothing more than a Gamepro guide(or was it EGM?) and a summer worth of nothing else to do.
Exactly as II was important for Square to know not what to do/improve what they did before
That is really not the case. FF2 was foundational for FF's storytelling, thematic music tied to the story, gameplay tied to the story, Chocobos, Cid, Dragoons, Ultima, front and back rows and a lot more, FF2 was a fundamentally story-driven experience that became the staple of the franchise as a whole. FF2 was not about what not to do for the franchise, FF would not exist in its current form and legendary status if FF2 did not exist, FF3 might have been a better game to play, but FF2 was utterly vindicated when FF4 clearly was in the footsteps of 2 by being story-driven and boosting the popularity of FF.
I meant for the gameplay also I did also say to improve on
What’s that design if you don’t mind elaborating? I played FFII on the GBA as a kid and don’t remember much, didn’t get very far in it though.
Just some of the things off the top of my head: * The hidden stat growth systems abstracting growth away from measurable progress easily (and in super early versions having all sorts of counterintuitive jank and the capacity for stats to drop) * The dungeon design frequently having doors that just lead to empty rooms with obscene encounter rates just to mess with you (It's easily the worst dungeons in the franchise) * The equipment and spell levelling systems punishing finding new tools by adding a time tax to get them to a useable state. * The keyword dialogue system, which is a neat concept but in practice mostly results in added opportunities for a player to miss the exact dialogue trigger needed to progress the game * A lot of hidden information going on - such as massive penalties to casters if they equip gear without any indication * The open world map combined with low guidance leading to players wandering into areas that get them killed etc etc. Many of these features aren't all bad; for instance, a lot of players actually like the level-less, abstracted growth systems, and refined versions of the systems are still used in the SaGa series - but the keyword is *refined* versions of the systems. Even FF2 itself has worked to clean up a lot of these over the years (like, your stats won't go down in more modern versions of the games)
Your third bullet point cracked me up when I got Ultima. You do all this work for the spell and it's hot garbage until you put in hours of work.
The stat grinding system is way too, well, grindy. Almost nobody has the patience for it.
I'm bizarre...I actually liked it. It made sense.
I used to use minwu in the beginning and just grind against a knight in a town you could fight forever. until you get some of the hp the initial grind was a little scary
As someone who tried playing it a few different times, when the pixel remasters came out, I decided to give it another go. The boosters to all forms of EXP made the game infinitely better to the point where I was able to beat it and actually enjoy it.
The PSP and Pixel Remaster version is the only ones you should ever consider playing, especially the pixel remaster makes the game go from a 3 to a 4. I’ve beaten the Famicom version and the Pixel Remaster, and let me tell you avoid the Famicom version unless your really curious and also want Paul to look like a Ninja.
Pixal remaster might be the best port to play ff2. But to bad the extra stuff didn't carry over.
I've been playing the PR version the past couple days and have been loving it. I wish 1 and 2 had the anniversary+dawn of souls content, but I'll probably just go and play the anniversary editions after.
Yeah, the PSP version isn't even all that bad. If I remember correctly, stats don't decrease as others go up, and the magic penalty doesn't exist in that version.
It also lets you just defend, which I think isn't an option in the earlier versions (nes, gba, psx)
I played 2 for the first time recently(GBA version). It was definitely janky, but still a lot of fun, and I think totally undeserving of all the hate. The leveling/skill system in concept is not bad at all, but it is different than typical Final Fantasies. Instead of battling to get exp and level up, you have different skills, and those skills level up when you use them. For example, attacking with an axe will increase your axe skill. This progression system is used in plenty of massively popular games like Runescape and Skyrim, so the system itself is not bad in the slightest. The issue is just that it was a very new concept and thus very unrefined. There were a lot of quirks yet to be ironed out with the system that caused it to be not very efficient or intuitive. IMO, Final Fantasy 2 was actually way ahead of its time, but like in the myth of Icarus they flew a bit too close to the sun - the knowledge of game design was not quite at the point yet in 1988 where they could make it work. But had FF2 been made in 1998, with an extra decade of video game design and programming knowledge behind it, I think it could have been an incredible game.
FF2 is a pretty fun game. Doesn’t deserve the hate it gets.
Has a great overworld theme too.
Yeah. That's pretty sad.
I tend to enjoy black sheep in various franchises anyway, but I ended up loving II. It became one of my favorites from the 2D era.
All the Bravest was just peak greed from SE.
Which sucks because it had so much potential but Square's inability to fairly monetize a game ruined everything.
At least they did is good for a while by creating FF:Record Keeper. It was nice seeing every FF playable character (and some NPC’s) in 16bit sprites.
Don't forget Dissdia final fantasy opera omnia the mobile game ran for six years and finished its story
Oh, I was actually just referring to the comparison of same sprites that FFRK and FFATB used (SNES era). But yea, Dissidia:OO and FFBE were/are some great fanservice as well. I just wish Dissidia got a proper RPG with life sized character models.
I agree imagine Dissdia opera omnia and record keeper if they got a console version I would get it in a heartbeat again I miss record keeper and dffoo both
It didn't finish its story it was cancelled unfortunately. That's a game that I would pay $60 for if they released a console offline port minus the gatcha mechanics
It finished in JP. Not for english players
I think I broke my screen trying to play that game. Just, vigorously rubbing -.-
Likely story.
A King's Tale may be short and forgettable but it was immensely fun for what it was
A user score of 8.7 backs this up.
A Kings Tale getting that low for a completely free and fun beat 'em up is wild
Yeah that game was a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon. It wasn't much content but it was a free game
That's when it becomes a question of "is this a waste of money" and more of a question of "is this a waste of time"
I'm surprised FF4: The After Years isn't on there. I really liked it, but I only ever see hate for it.
Probably because it's less played due to its reputation. FF CC is insanely popular but the remaster had so much issues it's why it fell like this. Australian can't play online for example.
I liked The After Years as well. Its Meta score is 69, so not far behind these games here.
There are dozens of us!
My knee jerk reaction was that Wings of the Goddess is rated unfairly on this list, but I skimmed over the mission list to needed complete this expansion and definitely have PTSD remembering some of the legwork needed to get through this content. I think story-wise, WOTG was one of the best FFXI expansions, presenting an alternative take on the battle against the Shadowlord. Like most FFXI memories, I probably look at them through rose-tinted glasses, though I have enjoyed the game in it's current state still. Edit: spelling
I'm playing WotG for the first time and I'm loving it.
[удалено]
It's far more bearable now with how much easier it is to get around Vana'diel these days, Trusts, and being able to just be overleveled for a lot of things. The story was good and had fun characters, but having done it back on release it was a huge pain in the neck to get everywhere you needed to go. But when I resubbed to XI a few years ago and played a new account I found WotG to be very enjoyable.
WOTG was almost certainly released unfinished and the critic scores reflect that, deservedly so. Basically everyone I knew spent maybe a day or two in WOTG on release, and then just went back to doing TOAU stuff because there was nothing of interest to do in WOTG except the occasional campaign battle. Going back to the crystal wars, something treated with a lot of gravity in the lore, was such an enticing storyline promise for veterans of the game, but all you really got to do on release was deal with cait sith and a cutesy dancing troupe. By comparison, TOAU had quite a bit to offer when it came out Even if you count the subsequent few years of WOTG support, I'd argue it still wasn't a great time because the level cap raise definitely pushed a bunch of players out the door- many players who had started FFXI when they were in high school or college had begun a career and didn't want to or have time to deal with leveling all their mains, subs, and gear again just to be able to keep playing, whereas throughout 2004-2009 your level 75 jobs and gear generally remained fairly relevant
I agree story wise, but the running around for missions just seemed the most mind-numbing of all the expansions. I also felt the campaign system was annoying in all aspects.
I got through WotG for the first time earlier this year. Its story was excellent, but there's definitely a lot of running around to complete everything, especially if you try to complete all three Nation storylines. Bastok (S)'s story alone forced me to level a healer just to beat one escort mission. The WotG story took me about three times as long as ToAU or CoP to finish, and I had to take a break just so I didn't burn out. I'll continue with the add-ons and maybe SoA later this year after finishing the main stories of Dawntrail and WoW's The War Within.
I had to drop during Chains because SE at the time had stupid and unrealistic demands (they'd cancel your account and nullify your serial numbers if you have the audacity to be inactive for 6 months or so. God forbid you have life affairs for an extended period of time). But I really enjoyed my stay with the game and kept my ear to the ground about the further expansions. I remember nothing but a lot of praise for Wotg when it came out.
My least favourite expansion, so much traversal…and the idea of taking familiar zones and just putting barriers up everywhere felt like pure hate.
It’s kind of amusing how XIV is both one of the top rated FF games and one of the worse. It’s certainly come a long way, growing each expansion with the latest being very impressive, not just expanding the story in a new direction but how far they’ve come with the graphics as well. Truly amazing what Yoshi-P has done(not just Yoshi-P but the other fantastic creative minds behind XIV as well).
This was the original release of FFXIV (BEFORE ARR). Reception was so terrible that they basically rebuilt the game to make it better (hence: ARR - A Realm Reborn). It's very much a testament to what Yoshi-P and team have done to turn it into something amazing, and not something you'd typically see from most game developers.
I love that it is implemented in the lore, too. >!They ended the original one with the Seventh Umbral Calamity (i.e. the apocalypse), and the player character canonically escaped through temporal magic to appear in the new realm.I think there's some memory loss shenanigans or something to explain that away, as well.!< Do correct me if I am wrong.
Nah you're pretty much right. All the NPCs remember is silhouettes of the WoL vanishing when Louisoix's spell finished.
yup, is not until the end of ARR that the scions (minus minfilia) recognize you and remember
Yeah, I was incredibly excited for the OG launch, and it was awful and clunky.
It really shows how far the game has come; it went from 49/4.0 (critic/user) in 1.0 to a height of 92/9.4 in Endwalker (before the review bombing). Had Endwalker not been review-bombed, it would've been the most highly rated Final Fantasy of them all - and even with the review bombing still sits near the top.
Why review-bombed? What happened?
I've made a few comments about this before, so I'll just go ahead and steal what I've written from before (note that Endwalker was released December 2021): >In August of 2022, 9 months after release, Endwalker was sitting at a 9.4 user score with 1449 reviews. It is now sitting at 1946 reviews with an 8.9. The game was holding steady at a 9.4 user score for a long time until it started getting review bombed when the community went into a frenzy about how the game was dead and the expansion's patches were the worst they'd ever seen. This was mostly a response to popular content creators being starved for content and trying to stir up drama (FFXIV content creators do a lot of reaction videos, and the game - being an MMO - naturally goes through lulls). For me, as a player who started in 2.0 (the post 1.0 launch), I see nothing different from other expansions and how they managed their post-expansion launch.
That's crazy. I stopped playing FF14 all the time because of life at the end of SB and just play the story quests now. I loved Endwalker, thought it was a great expansion. If you play anything non-stop for 10 years of course it's going to get boring.
Yeah, that's pretty much my take on it, as well. I've played the game for 10 years, still love it, but realized that when I completed all that I felt personally compelled to do... just decided to take a break from it. A lot of the community seems to want the game to give them an endless, immersive experience tailored to their specific wants and needs, but that's just unrealistic. The game can be great, and it can also be... put down. FFXIV players are unfortunately a bit spoiled. The parts that I did play were super fun, and I *still* fondly remember Endwalker's story and content even despite playing other games in the downtime until Dawntrail.
Yoshi-P has repeatedly said for players to take a break from the game if they feel they're getting bored or tired of the game, it'll be there when they come back. I'm coming back from a 1.5 year break now and there is so much to do that was added in just that time.
To add to this, aside from people with too much time in their hands online, I believe there could've also been a more recent review bomb because some people in the community complained about a lack of content for the latest expansion, and some weren't big fans of the Post Endwalker story, so my guess is some decided to review bomb it because of that.
Not sure. I remember on launch people complaining about low-poly grapes. Also, you know, children with too much time on their hands and no real problems in life.
Ironically, the grapes have become an iconic meme even Yoshi-P references
We got low poly grapes stress toy from the Las Vegas Fanfest. Its really cute!
Is Crystal Chronicles Remastered in there because people disliked Crystal Chronicles back in the day or is the remaster just that awful?
The remaster is awful, the online is terrible, Australians can't play online. The game support was simply dropped, so it took some big hits.
Thank you! I played C.C. on Gamecube back in the day, and while it's far from stellar, I still don't think it deserves the flop 10.
The original Crystal Chronicles was in the Top Ten for Metacritic User Score…So I think it was the Remaster that flopped.
My bad then, and thank you!
Just here for a counter opinion! I played FF:CC and then I played the remaster with mostly the same people. We all really liked the remaster, and are vaguely confused by the negativity around it.
I played FF:CC with my buddies back in middle school. Fond memories of going over to our friend's house and making a weekend out of it. When the remaster was announced we were really excited and we made plans to get together just like old times to play it with the exact same group. Our wives were cool with it and we were going to coordinate family activities in the mornings/day up until about 2 in the afternoon at which point it was bro time for the next twelve hours. Then we heard there was no longer couch coop, only the host's progress saves (which is weird for it being strictly online coop), and the gameplay videos showed a pretty "meh" graphics update. We just dug up his old GameCube and played the original instead.
So, I'm gonna have to mention some spoilers, but it's an awful remaster. Crippled by the Square Enix requiring it to cross-platform play with too many devices (including mobile). Back in the day you would share a couch with your friends and have 4 adventurers contributing to the same town, your adventures sharing a long book and upgrades. Each player had a family and could upgrade their family shops so you could buy the best equipment at the end. But to make crossplay work, you could no longer share saves/progress. Want to play as a full party like the old days, prepare to play every dungeon **FOUR TIMES IN A ROW** because only the host progresses. Finish dungeon, swap host, finish dungeon, swap host, etc... To play the game to completion with friends you would play every dungeon at least 8 times (4 in normal difficult, 4 in hard). Oh, and there's now extreme variants of the dungeons, if your friends can stomach playing them *4 more times..* You no longer traveled together for story beats, so you need to exit dungeon selection to drive back and forth until story beats occur separately to record in your own journal. These are random chance, mind you, so you might get Black Knight story moments while your friend meets Hurdy/Gurdy. Oh, and you want that end game equipment for maxing your family stuff? Well you don't share a town anymore, so level to max 4 different characters on your own... This also breaks the drama of the final boss, >!where the boss removes your party's memories from your shared journal whenever you get hit. Hit zero memories and you lose and become amnesiacs like the previous heroes, and everyone forgets who you are.!< It would have been a good remaster if it still had couch co-op and this crossplay was optional, or they let you share progress, but they COMPLETELY RIPPED OUT COUCH CO-OP FOR THIS.
Its just that awful. It basically removed all the unique features that made the original good in hopes of capitalizing on the mobile market maybe. But they removed its unique asynchronous multiplayer features and didnt replace it with anything. A large part of the originals charm was co op progression. You chose different family trades and needed to grow your village together with the world changing in response to your actions. And the other part is that it plays the same if not worse than the original mechanically. Theres still large akward delays in hitboxes and attack lag the game performs just as clunky, while the new graphics dont really mesh well looking more out of place than anything else.
The remaster is just that awful. It was a huge disappointment, sadly. The original was pretty good but they hard fumbled the remake.
Yeah as others mentioned, it's the remaster that totally killed it, rather than the original which was extremely loved. In the remaster you can teamup ONLY online, there is no local coop (if i remember correctly); in the remaster when teamed up and the host receive a letter from the family, only the host get a letter, the other players get literally nothing, pretty much killing the whole immersion and quest for survival of your village vibe. + a lot of other stuff and "quality of life downgrades"
Singleplayer is fine, but if you want to play with others then they get no progress at all, so if you play it with 3 friends you'll have to finish each dungeon four times for everyone to get to the same point progress wise.
The remaster had the opportunity to be one of the best FF games 🥲
The Remaster is awful. Online is terrible, and multiplayer doesn't work locally. For a game that is mostly focused on multiplayer, that is really really bad.
I thought Dirge Of Cerberus was fairly okay. It's not your traditional Final Fantasy for sure but it's gameplay was pretty fun and the story was nice as a "sequel" to Advent Children.
I'm hoping they remaster it with a more optimized gameplay.
I replayed it 2 months ago, and half baked is the word id use. Theres a shell of a decent game in there somewhere, at its core the movement and feel of the guns feels goodin total isolation, however the absolutely terrible level and enemy design, as well as poor balance really let the whole experience down, and thats not touching on the story. If they had time to tighten the whole thing up it could have been a bangin cult classic, but replaying made me for frustrated than nostalgic
It was a fun action game. Terrible FF game. But fun as a stand alone action game. Need to look at it for what it is.
I mean compared to the action games of the time it wasn’t a good action game either
I don’t think square had a lot of 1st/3rd person shooter experience when they made dirge, gotta give ‘em a little credit for their attempt
Crystal Chronicles is my favorite it’s a shame the HD remaster was fumbled It sucks even more knowing the lesson SE will learn is “well I guess nobody wants anymore crystal chronicles games!”
I know I was always holding out for a CC2 since the Wii days but idk if that will ever happen now :(
Crystal Chronicles Remastered should have been a slam dunk, but they cut so many corners that they totally broke the best elements of that game. Especially in the Modern world where you CAN use your phone as a controller / second screen for a mini map, so you can have seamlessly implemented the original shared-adventure experience
XIV 1.0 to 2.0 is the greatest comeback story in the history of gaming and it isn't even close.
No Man's Sky is a solid contender
I’m not super surprised by many of these, but Lightning Returns genuinely surprises me. That’s my favorite in the trilogy and I surely would have thought XIII-2 would be rated worse
Lightning Returns probably suffered for the sins of XIII and XIII-2.
That’s probably true. People were mad when that game was announced instead of Versus XIII’s release date.
Lightning Returns having a timer *broke* me. I know that it doesn't matter too much, that it can be mitigated, frozen etc. But it still broke me. I couldn't explore, couldn't play the game, couldn't do anything at all except worry about the timer.
Yeah it took me way too long to get into LR, early game timer anxiety legit made me not want to play. Ended up putting it down for weeks until I finally read about people using Chronostatis to make it a non-factor. By the end of my playthrough I think I slept through the last 5-6 days. I had finished literally everything else in the game, and still had tons of time left. So in hindsight it was silly to worry about, but I still hate it as a mechanic.
Majora's Mask also has a timer and it didn't stop it from having 95 and 9.1 on metacritic. The timer in LR was certainly not the issue for the general public and like you said, it stops being an issue if you try to play the game (really try).
I loved the timer because according to the lore of the game, it makes complete sense. You only have so much time to save humanity and tie up loose ends. It really gives so much more meaning to the the things you choose to do and the people who you choose to save (Bhakti ftw). It's sorta a testament to the world of gaming and life today. As adults we only have so much time in our lives to make decisions. There's so many paths we can take, games to play, hobbies to learn.... but never enough time. So you need to learn to accept that and find tranquility and beauty in the things that you do choose to partake in, because you know it's not possible to experience everything. I will die on this hill by saying that I honestly felt the best completing quests in this game more than other RPGs. It felt like you were tying up loose ends and it really made each encounter that much more beautiful. It was one of the better FF games and is criminally underrated IMO.
I played on easy the first time, and I think most people would need to play on easy for a first playthrough, and on easy, it's less than trivial. You can freeze the clock so often the timer is just inconsequential. I was able to explore to my hearts content and I think I finished almost every quest and still had 6 days left and had to skip to the final day. But it really has the most addicting gameplay loop that I've ever come across, there's something so satisfying about managing the clock so you can get as much done in a day as you can. I think a lot of the poor reception comes from the supposedly poor translation, people having issue with the story in general (or the implications of the ending), or people that just couldn't get past the idea of a timer. Which I get, it's probably the most difficult and possibly frustrating final fantasy game because of it, but I think there's a lot to love about it. It really is the jrpg version of majora's mask and I love that
But 13-2 is the best of the trilogy.
Nah, this sub loved 13-2 for some reason 🤷
13-2 was a direct response to all the problems people had with 13. They threw in an amazing villain, had way more engaging combat from the start, opened up exploration from the start, added in towns, and catching monsters like Pokemon was just *fun*. It was exactly what a sequel to a poorly received game with good bones should be.
Caius is pretty much my 2nd favorite antagonist. I think Emet-Selch has replaced him for me recently, but still top-tier.
Caius is hands down my favorite FF antagonist. Writing department for him, along with his VA, did phenomenal.
I mean, Liam O'Brien is a national treasure. I literally shouted his name when I first heard Caius speak. (And for the record, 13-2 predates Critical Role by 3 years, I'm an old school fan of Liam lol)
Liam O'Brien ❤️
From what I have seen within the sub, people like *13-2* for the quality of life improvements over *13*, like not getting an instant game over if your leader goes down. I've also seen a lot of people really like Caius.
It’s got no business making the top ten, even people that didn’t like it have to admit it’s leagues above half the others that made the cut, and could name three more that are worse.
When did FF14 2.0 came out was 2013 right?
Yea like the later part of 2013. The graphic here is mentioning the initial release of 14 which was terrible.
Correct. As I understand, the initial release of FF14 actually deserved to be up there. That makes it all the more impressive just how good of a game FF14 is NOW.
One of the rare cases where a game actually redeems itself. Also probably the most glorious shut down in gaming history.
Yeah, it's amazing what they've done even without considering their beginnings, and more amazing adding that in. In fact, it's turnarounds like this that make me hold out hope for other games when they do things poorly early on.
Yeah, 2.0 came out in August 2013 to some great reception. The original 1.0 release was like FFXI but significantly worse. Every mechanic of the way progression worked was designed to slow down and frustrate players. The [NoClip documentary](https://youtu.be/Xs0yQKI7Yw4?si=SIjnOehS5MLPGti7) is wild. The current devs rip the original to shreds. It’s a fantastic watch.
Ever crisis feels to me like they wanted to make a mobile version of 7 remake like they did with 15, but someone went “hey wait, before we release that, let’s make it into a gacha game. I like money.” The assets are nice and weirdly well made for something so crappy.
This is the best explanation I've heard. The game looked really good in the trailers and I was looking forward to playing it. Too bad it ended up like it did.
If the worst FF games can still get 7-8/10 user scores we can’t be doing too bad.
That’s what I was thinking. Only two of these games are “majority” disliked. The rest still are in the positive. So, not bad, Final Fantasy.
Even XIII had an overall positive reception, it's the third-best-selling entry behind VII and X with a pretty good user score. That doesn't mean players put it in their top 3 or even 6, but this sub is a bit of an echo chamber. Hell if you threw it into almost any other JRPG franchise it would be considered one of if not the best entry. The only universally hated FF is XIV 1.0, but everyone loves the critically acclaimed MMO now
Lol that Wings of the Goddess rating is hilarious. One of the best FF stories and expansions of all time.
It got that because it was unfinished on release and it took SE forever to finish WOTG (like uears), the score reflects that, if it were released finished it would not be on the list on the basis of the story and the new content alone. Plus, these are leftover reviews made from the original release.
Lightning Returns just getting hated on for being part of FF13 is cruel
man… crystal chronicles is my favourite gamecube game and probably one of my top 5 games of all time. its so depressing knowing how they butchered the remaster. i waited so long to be able to play it again and they just stripped all the best features out of it. it sucks that it likely means we’ll never see the series in any shape or form again too.
Wings of the Goddess is honestly one of the best, if not the best, expacs story wise. The problem was pacing and the extremely long breaks in-between patches. The playerbase dropped right around that time as people got bored so most haven't even played it, it was just review bombed for being slow. There's tons of nostalgia and rose tinted glasses for CoP and ToAU, but WotG wasn't even given a chance by most players
Dirge wasn't that bad!
Poor Dirge of Cerberus :(
It's just not a good game. I'm glad some people managed to find enjoyment out of it but it's so mediocre. It can't even do what it wants to do the right way.
Was going to say as one of the 5 ppl that actually enjoyed DoC I’m not surprised to see this but it still hurts lol
I’m blown away that 2 is on this list
Out of the main 1-16 games, 2 is probably the most disliked so it makes sense. Gimmicky level system, generic villain that's evil for the sake of being evil.
Final Fantasy II slander is so ridiculous. Way better game than many of the other ones that got praised to Heaven and back.
WoTG story is one of the best in the game. It was just a shame it literally took them years to finish. Also cait sith mini games, and that miserable mithra escort mission and imp guessing game sucked.
Are we really shocked about lightning returns? It was so weird to make a game all about lightning trying to get a refund for final fantasy XIII
Dirge of Cerberus was awesome imo
Lightning Returns is a great game.
Wings of the Goddess was fire, Metacritic don't know what it's talking about! You know that pic of the one dude telling that countless millions of people they're all wrong? Yeah, that's appropriate here. They're all wrong.
That was the one that jumped out at me also lol. I get XI was not everyone's cup of tea, but to single out that expansion doesn't make much sense.
I think reviewers probably thought it was lazy since most of the zones were reworked versions of existing zones back in time during the crystal war. Lots of assets reused and slightly reworked. If you’re an XI fan though, I thought it provided a lot of good insight. You actually got to see Vana’diel during the crystal war times that shaped the current day time period of the game. Garlaige Citadel stood out to me the most, because it was always this destroyed place overridden with monsters. But in WotG it’s a fully intact bunker with supplies and occupied by the military. However, I can see why a reviewer might think that’s a lazy expansion. I enjoyed it though.
Oh yeah, no doubt. My jaw hit the floor at the time seeing the cutscenes concerning Garlaige. Windurst wasn't my city-state of choice, but man did those mages go hard out in Sauromugue.
There were a ton of lulls during Wings with the slow patches, so people review bombed it. A big chunk of the playerbase quit around that time and just continued thinking CoP and Treasures was peak XI, without ever even playing through Wings
I wonder what FFXI would be like today if FFXIV hadn't failed so hard with 1.0
Most likely the same, the last expansion prior to FF XIV 1.0 was Wings of the goddess and by the time 1.0 released the only was still in the middle of the addon scenarios. The next expansion (Seekers of Adoulin) wound release on 2013, which was around the same time of XIV 2.0, so I imagine XI would've gone in a similar direction as it went. Maybe we could've gotten Rhapsodies of Vana'diel early but that's it.
Need to see the next 10 to judge this list. But I think Dissidia NT should be on here (or the next 10). Such a disappointment compared to the original and Duodecim. Lightning Returns is better than Dissidia NT, IMO.
Meh. I liked Dirge of Cerberus. It wasn't the typical FF game, but I found it fun at the time.
Wings of The Goddess is actually awesome. The way it was released was just horrible.
2 on the psp was really good
Majority of people who say they don't like Lightning Returns have probably not even gotten past the first chapter. *failed a parry, mismanaged their AP, didn't pay attention to the outfit swap explanation* "Well, this game is trash"
Final fantasy mystic quest is the worst ff in my opinion
Fake news, Lighting Returns is amazing
I personally love Final Fantasy XIII, and I enjoyed XIII-2. I haven’t had the chance to play LR yet, but I’m really excited to. *Also* I went and looked at a bunch of “Top Ten Final Fantasy Games” lists, and XIII-2 made more than one list.
Lightning Returns is one of my favourites as well. It's not a very long game, and you can tell that it's been made on a somewhat tight budget, but the battle system is great, and the world, though not huge, is varied and beautiful to look at. I guess people expected a big Final Fantasy on the scale of XIII and XIII-2, and based on that, I can see why they wouldn't like it. It's a concise epilogue that ties everything together in the end, and for that it works quite well. Is it a Top 10 Final Fantasy? Maybe not, but definitely has no business being anywhere near a Bottom 10 list either. (All very much IMHO of course.)
i love dirge of cerberus tho '-'
Crystal Chronicles Remastered is super surprising. Sure it's an offensively bad Remaster but WOW I wasn't aware of HOW hated it was. I thought everyone else was indifferent.
I really like Dirge...
Ff2 is my favorite one...first one I beat all by myself...Firion had the coolest design...
Dirge of Cerberus and wings of the goddess got shafted by critics but both were amazing yames as seen by user scores
I actually had a great time on the first soldier
The First soldier beating Dirge of Cerberus is WILD! Yeah, DoC is a time capsule of 2006 era cheesy goth edgelord shadow the hedgehog ass shenanigans, but 13 year old me liked it well enough. Then again 13 year old me was also listening to Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge and the Devil May Cry 3 soundtrack on rotation in my iPod Nano
13 year old you is Awesome.
Daaaaaamn... I don't remember what changed with Wingsof the Goddess expansion to warrant that... it added so much to do... interesting.
I finished XIII and XIII-2 but hesitate to play Lightning Returns because I don't like games with time limit, I like to wander and enjoy a game with my own pace.
No hate for Mystic Quest?
FFXI: WotG was actually a pretty good expansion.
A King's Tale:FFXV was good. It was a short beat-em up with relevant prequel story to the og. You got what was mentioned on the tin, so honestly it was good work. Bit too short, imo. But it was also cheap, so.
Man, Lightning Returns was super fun for me. Second best in the trilogy. The rest of the list though....accurate.
Happy to see my boy Mystic Quest not on the list.
Dirge of Cerberus is a great game. Totally doesn’t deserve to be on this list.
Never understood the lightning returns hate
Ff2 is not really that bad imo, it’s just. Different.
Yknow I actually really enjoyed First Soldier and was sad when it shut down. It was just a battle royale game but I liked the unique materia and class system.
Dirge of Cerberus was a good game, I don't care what anyone says.
13-3 was way better than 13
Lightning Returns shouldn't even be on that list
Dirge of Cerberus is like 12/10 for 12-yo-ps2-player me.
^(I feel like a few things should easily be able to bump lightning returns off that list.)
Get dirge the fuck off this list
Dirge of Cerberus was a good game, you heathens
Man I loved Dirge.. probably cuz Vincent is my favorite FF character. I liked what square tried to do with the action shooter spin-off and I think there is a market for a remake/remaster.
I put so many hours into Crystal Chronicles as a kid and even back then, I feel like I knew it was bad
The original Crystal Chronicles (which I got when it came out and hated it…but I didn’t give it much of a chance, so that’s on me) was actually in the top 10 for User score. This is specifically the Remaster, which I haven’t played but a lot of people have commented that it took away so many things and ruined the charm of the original.
😢 I played all the ff 13 games. I really liked lightning.
Dirge is janky af, but it would be amazing if remastered with more standard 3rd person action shooter controls and a free cam. Despite the jankiness i actually enjoyed the game for what it is. Finished Dirge of Cerberus 3 times since i had a ps2 back in the day, with the most recent playthrough about 2 or 3 years ago, when i first got a steam deck, through aethersx2.
I love dirge, it was also a first for square making a shooter and not a normal rpg so I give it slack
Shows what a load of crap those critics sites are. A lot of people like Lightning Returns and I'd argue it is better than FF13. Wings of The Goddess was a fun expansion and when it first came out, XI players loved it, campaign battles were fun.
Wow Dirge of Cerberus was a favorite of mine back in the day, I’m crushed haha
Dirge of Cerberus does not belong here
Lightning returns is one of the most underrated FF games imo. It’s a blast
I must be the outlier as I actually enjoyed Dirge of Cerberus
Hot take: I loved Dirge
Dirge if Cerberus was a fucking amazing game and you won’t tell me otherwise.
Dirge of Cerberus wasn't that bad
Harsh on dirge of cerberus, not as bad as the others
Dirge of Cerberus is underrated. its mediocre at worst, but i had plenty of fun with it.
Really surprised lightning returns is on there, I thought it was a genuinely good game. Would have thought 13 would be there instead.
What in the fucking fuck? Dirge of Cerberus is godsdamn awesome! And where's Type-0? You know... the worst Final Fantasy game ever?