X2 continues the story of X with an altered cast of characters featuring a revamped, more action-based combat system and multiple endings. The story crafts a wonderfully realized world - Spira is a fascinating land governed by theocratic rule, and the plot weaves together deep questions about religion, morality, dogma, ethics, and power structures in society. It’s divisively beautiful in its dedication to its tropical style, and paired with meticulously fully rendered 3D backgrounds for the first time in the series, blends together to create a wonderful experience that is noticeably influenced by Japanese heritage as a seafaring island nation.įFX also scraps the active time battle system for a swap in/swap out system and explicit turn order, and also marks the first time the series featured voice acting (which is notoriously rough in its English performance and pacing due to game engine limitations). The game is an ethereal, absurdly beautiful tropical dreamscape concocted from the mind wild mind of Nomura, replete with outfits bearing more skin than makes practical sense (for both genders), hair physics that defy gravity, and zippers haphazardly strewn across outfits like a Picasso painting. Final Fantasy X/X2įFX is the game that thoroughly cemented the modern tropes of Final Fantasy and JRPGS of the PS2 era. Sephiroth is still as good a villain as ever, and if you haven’t caught up with the zeitgeist that is this game, it’s never too late. The story also came to define the direction of the series with a finer focus on singular character arcs, wrought with teenage angst and personal introspection instead of grand fantasy. The introduction of Final Fantasy into a 3D plane did bring gorgeous CG backgrounds (although they would be improved upon in VIII and IX). Textures also don’t age well in HD - it is the ugliest PSX Final Fantasy despite its great story. The Nintendo switch version has some notable improvements: added speed toggles for easier grinding and built in optional chests, but also feature annoying text smoothing common with emulating pixelated text. Tetsuya Nomura was lead character designer, and took the industrial leaning look of FFVI to the extreme, incorporating the now-famous spiky hair along with a world firmly rooted in a semi 20th century skin, motorcycle chases, machine guns and all. Nobuo Uematsu’s score is hauntingly beautiful, and the transition to taking full advantage of the PSX sound chip shows. The most iconic and widespread Final Fantasy in the West, FFVII is a fantastic game and worth playing in 2019, even if it is does take the (unfair) spotlight over other games in the series. I mean, how can you not love Chibi Terra and Vivi, not to mention a cute pet Ifrit or Ramuh? Ultimately, it is worth experiencing only if you have prior nostalgic feelings for multiple titles in the series, such as VI, VII, or IX. World of Final Fantasy: MaximaĪnother spin off title on this list, Maxima is a turn-based RPG squarely centered at dedicated fans of the franchise featuring a new, strange multiverse original story and chibi-fied versions of characters, enemies, and summons from all the mainline games. Plus I’m a sucker for original Gameboy graphics. Is it incredible? No, but its not bad, and if you enjoy old Zelda, you’ll have a fun time. It’s an interesting game to experience for historical purposes, both for its connections to Final Fantasy as well as the root for the Mana series. Released in Japan as Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden, FFA is a spinoff Zelda-like action adventure game originally released on the original Game Boy with a loosely inspired Final Fantasy skin that simultaneously became the precursor to Seiken Densetsu 2 and was released in the West as Secret of Mana. Final Fantasy Adventure (from Collection of Mana) The most niche title on this list, it’s worth checking out only if you ever played the other Mystery Dungeon titles (such as Pokémon Mystery Dungeon for DS) or have an intimate nostalgia for chibi chocobos. Part of the Chocobo Mystery Dungeon series, a spinoff franchise within Chunsoft’s Fugishi no Dungeon style games, Every Buddy! is a remaster of Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon for the Nintendo Wii, a lightweight dungeon crawling RPG. I say if you want to experience a flawed (but ultimately good) story, stick with the complete version for consoles or PC and at least see the incredible art and character models as it was intended. If you so choose, you can now experience it on your Switch in all its questionable glory. There exists an extremely abridged alternate version of FFXV that came out last year on mobile devices. Now that the Nintendo Switch is quickly becoming the go-to Final Fantasy handheld machine for you, let’s give a ranking to EVERY Final Fantasy game available on the Nintendo Switch! From worst to best: 8.
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